Ron Rivera has agreed to become head coach of the Washington Redskins, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Rivera, the former coach of the Carolina Panthers, reached an agreement with Redskins owner Daniel Snyderafter the two met on Monday, the individuals said. Rivera was working Tuesday to assemble a staff of assistant coaches, while the Redskins were in the process of reconfiguring their front office in a manner that was acceptable to Rivera, according to multiple people familiar with the team’s planning.
Jack Del Rio was being considered as a candidate to be River’s defensive coordinator with the Redskins, one of those people said. The candidacy of Del Rio, the former head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders, was first reported by ESPN, for which Del Rio now serves as an NFL analyst.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because there has been no official announcement from the Redskins.
The Redskins’ plans for their front office were not clear Tuesday. There were conflicting reports about the status of key front office executive Eric Schaffer. The status of Schaffer, the team’s longtime salary cap expert and contract negotiator, was considered a key point of discussion entering Monday’s meeting between Rivera and Snyder. A person with knowledge of the deliberations said Sunday that Schaffer was slated to have a significant front office role moving forward but first Rivera would have to be comfortable working with Schaffer because the two did not know one another.
The Redskins declined to confirm Rivera’s hiring and refused to comment on a report by the league-owned NFL Network that Rivera agreed to a five-year contract with the team. Rivera was not available to comment. His agent, Frank Bauer, did not respond to requests for comment.
Bauer previously had confirmed that Rivera would meet Monday with the Redskins. The meeting came after Rivera, who was fired Dec. 3 by Panthers owner David Tepper, and his wife traveled to the Washington area.
It has been a tumultuous few days for the Redskins, who finished a 3 – (season with a) – 31 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. The next day, Snyderfired team president Bruce Allen, announcing the dismissal of the man who had run the team for years in a terse three-sentence statement that was emailed to reporters and posted to the team’s website early Monday morning .
Later Monday, Snyder fired Larry Hess, an 30 – year member of the team’s training staff who had been the head trainer for the past nine seasons. Though a Snyder favorite, Hess had drawn the ire of many players, including cornerback Quinton Dunbar who tweeted: “Larry gone. What a surprise, not. ”
Rivera will be the 10 th head coach in the two decades that Snyder has owned the Redskins, including interim coaches. He replaces Jay Gruden who was fired in October and replaced on an interim basis by Bill Callahan.
Kareem Copeland and Adam Kilgore contributed to this report.
Read more:
Read More
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings