Expect Growing Pains from the Washington Football Team

After two games to start the NFL season, the Washington Football Team has looked like a young team trying to navigate its’ way on which direction they want to partake.

Coach Ron Rivera has made it a point to develop the young talent on the roster with the big picture not cemented in the moment but the franchise’s long-term wealth.

The team does have young, talented players on the roster. Washington has the foundation for a dominant defense. A good portion of the younger players on the roster is on offense, however.

The young players on offense need time to adapt to the rigors of playing in the NFL. Most noticeably, players such as quarterback Dwayne Haskins, are playing in their second system in just two seasons in the league. Haskins is playing for his third coach in just a year and a half of being a pro but being chastised for all of Washington’s offensive ills.

Some of you pilling on Haskins, need to understand that the #WashingtonFootball offense doesn’t have a whole lot of game breakers on it at this point. The whole offense needs to improve collectively. They lost to a better team yesterday so give the Cards credit.

— Lake Lewis Jr (@LakeLewisJr) September 21, 2020

The thought of Washington signing Cam Newton in the offseason seemed like a possibility considering his time in the NFL with Rivera. A pairing of Newton and Adrian Peterson would have given the offense two veteran talents to go along with the young players. Newton could have bought Haskins some time to learn the position at the highest of levels.

All of that was wishful thinking because Rivera chose to go the developmental route, however, which is not a bad idea.

For years, Washington has been plagued by over signing on free agents and drafting the wrong players. While in Carolina, Rivera won games with not the most talented rosters. He preaches teamwork and accountability, which has been lacking as a whole for the Washington Franchise.

Patience by the fanbase will need to come into reality as well. Things won’t turn around overnight for a group that won just three games a year ago. There is a reason why the team was able to draft Chase Young with the No. 2 overall pick. That was because they were lacking in talent and coaching.

Washington Football Team Makes Roster Moves

The Week 1 victory over Philadelphia was an excellent measuring stick on how far and quickly the team has come under Rivera from a coaching and competitive standpoint. The roster youth started the season with a big win, but last weekend’s loss on the road was against a legitimate playoff-caliber team in Arizona.

Things take time, and Rivera thinks his group is a good football team. He also knows that it’s hard being patient with a young team.

“It’ll be hard because you want to progress as a coaching staff,” Rivera said. “You want to say: ‘Oh we can do this. We have the ability to do this.’ We need to do this to help win instead of saying, ‘Let’s stick to what we’ve done, what we went through training camp. Let’s not get so far ahead of ourselves.’ Now we can start saying: ‘Hey, these things we talked about doing later on. Let’s do it now.’ You want to have success and you want to go out there and put them in a position to win, but you don’t want to get ahead of yourself. That’s really what my concern was.”

Washington has to learn how to win, and part of that is bouncing back from bad losses.

With Cleveland coming up on the schedule and on the road, Washington will have another chance to show how far they have come or how far they are from actually turning the corner.

The signs are there that Washington is closer to being a good team that can sustain success for the long haul more so than they have ever been under the ownership of Dan Snyder. That’s because they have a new organizational vision, and that starts with Rivera. He’s not here to win for just one season and be mediocre for five more. That pattern has to stop for Washington.

The franchise has made wholesale changes within its management’s fabric to the young players who genuinely seem to like playing with each other. That alone is different from any time over the past 20 years and should signal things should be getting better sooner than later.

A real vision should bring forth patience and understanding from a loyal fanbase that wants nothing more than something positive to cheer.