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The evolution of ”Riverboat Ron” Rivera:…

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College of the redwoods kickstarts return process of 212 items, the evolution of ”riverboat ron” rivera: friends say it wasn”t always that way.

The change three years ago surprised family and friends on the Monterey Peninsula where Rivera grew up. They recall a man with a strong military upbringing who didn”t take unnecessary risks on the field.

” ”Riverboat Ron?” I just don”t see that,” said Dave Miller, one of Rivera”s coaches at Seaside High in the 1970s. “He”s old school. It”s so rare to see him get upset.”

It seemed playing it safe would spell Rivera”s doom in 2013 after consecutive losing years in Carolina. The unemployment line was beckoning in the season”s third week after the Panthers (0-2) kicked a field goal on a fourth-and-one play that allowed the Buffalo Bills to rally for a last-second victory.

“I was thinking conservatively and I”ll never do that again,” Rivera later told brother Steven Rivera. “I go by instinct now.”

The bleak outcome of the Bills” game still was on Rivera”s mind two nights later when commuting home from the team facility. He was so consumed with the defeat that Rivera drove through a red light and narrowly avoided getting sideswiped.

A new side of Rivera”s coaching personality appeared in the Panthers” game that weekend against the New York Giants.

In the first quarter of a scoreless tie, Carolina went for it on fourth down from the Giants” 2-yard line. The Panthers scored en route to a 38-0 victory.

Rivera”s team gambled 11 more times on fourth-down plays after that. Carolina converted eight times as Rivera ended the season as Associated Press” coach of the year. His go-for-it style earned the Riverboat nickname that Rivera initially protested. But now he”s game with a Twitter handle of @RiverboatRonHC.

The Seaside Spartans of the 1970s graced their linebacker/quarterback with other nicknames: “Double R” for his initials or “Rolls Royce.”

Why the car reference?

“Because he was so good and we were like Toyota Corollas,” high school teammate Pat Price said.

Follow Elliott Alond on Twitter at twitter.com/elliottalmond .

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‘Riverboat’ Ron Rivera has a great nickname, but he’s not the gambler you think

New Washington Redskins coach Ron Rivera has embraced the “Riverboat Ron” nickname he earned for his aggressive fourth-down decision-making with the Carolina Panthers, though he prefers to be known more as a calculated risk-taker than a gambler. “Analytical Ron” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Early in his coaching career, Rivera was quite the opposite, and it led to calls for his job. In Week 2 of the 2013 season, Rivera’s third year at the helm of the Panthers, Carolina led Buffalo 20-17 with less than two minutes remaining. Facing fourth and one from the Buffalo 21-yard line, Rivera opted to kick a field goal to take a six-point lead. The decision was hardly surprising; since 2011, only one other NFL coach had gone for it fewer times on fourth down than Rivera. The Bills drove 65 yards for the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds, dropping Carolina to 0-2.

After the loss, the Charlotte Observer ran an online poll asking whether then-owner Jerry Richardson should fire Rivera immediately. Eighty-three percent of the respondents said yes.

Redskins to introduce Ron Rivera as head coach

Rivera’s transformation began the following week against the Giants. In the first quarter, on fourth and one from the New York 2-yard line, the Panthers went for it. Fullback Mike Tolbert scored a touchdown en route to a 38-0 Carolina win. Three weeks later, the Panthers converted a pair of fourth downs on an early touchdown drive in a 35-10 win at Minnesota.

ESPN’s David Newton, who helped coin the “Riverboat Ron” nickname after the win over the Vikings, asked Rivera a couple of days later whether, in hindsight, he would have gone for it on fourth down against Buffalo in Week 2.

“Which is the right call?” Rivera said with a smile . “The right call turns out to be one that you win with. If you win, it’s a great call.”

Good luck with that. pic.twitter.com/XUgR7Jdj8b — Josh (@GoldAndOrSmith) December 1, 2013

The Panthers won 11 of their last 12 games and converted 10 of their 13 fourth-down opportunities to close the season, resulting in an NFC South title.

“I needed to realize that playing conservative, playing close to the vest, playing by the book — sometimes you’ve just got to throw all that away,” Rivera told the Observer in 2014 .

But is Rivera truly a gambler on the gridiron? Not exactly.

The Panthers went for it on fourth down 123 times from 2011 to 2019, giving them just the 25th-most attempts in that span. The Redskins, by comparison, went for it 140 times in that same span. The average NFL team made nearly 137 fourth-down attempts.

The Panthers, though, were a winning team under Rivera, and so we can also look solely at fourth-down decisions in the first three quarters when the score was within eight points — eliminating obvious catch-up situations. In those situations, the Panthers went for it on fourth down 36 times from 2011 to 2019. Nine teams went for it more often in similar situations.

Brewer: Ron Rivera is traditional, hard-nosed and just what the Redskins need

Carolina was, however, one of the most successful teams when it gambled, converting 78 percent of its score-neutral fourth-down opportunities. Only the Kansas City Chiefs had more success moving the chains during that nine-year window, converting 81 percent of their score-neutral fourth-down chances. Like Rivera said, “If you win, it’s a great call.”

In fact, since that 2013 campaign, Rivera has gone for it on fourth down in score-neutral situations only 23 times, a below-average rate for the years 2014 to 2019 and just a few tries fewer than his new team attempted. (The Redskins went for it 20 times in those situations; the Ravens led the NFL with 53 score-neutral fourth-down attempts).

If you make one more adjustment and isolate only those score-neutral situations in which Rivera found himself in his own territory — true riverboat territory — he went for it on fourth down only four times in nine seasons. (The Ravens led the NFL with 11 attempts in those situations, and the Cowboys were next with 10.)

It was a similar story in the playoffs: Rivera went for it only seven times in seven postseason games, and just two of those were in the first three quarters with the score within eight points. None of them were with the Panthers bogged down in their own territory. Playoff teams as a whole went for it 206 times on fourth down (all situations) over 176 playoff games from 2011 to 2018, which averages to just over one attempt per game, slightly more often than Rivera.

But the nickname persisted, and Rivera occasionally did enough to justify it. In November, for example, Rivera’s Panthers had two fourth-down conversions in a 30-20 win over the Titans, including one on fourth and four from their own 36-yard line.

“I just felt we needed a little momentum,” Rivera told reporters of his decision to go for it in a situation when most NFL coaches would punt. “Sure, we had a 10-point lead, but they’d just gone down and scored on us, and that was disappointing to me. But I just felt, sometimes you just can’t measure those things with numbers. There’s a feel in the game, and it’s just one of those things I felt we had to do something.”

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Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera earns…

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Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera earns ‘Riverboat Ron’ nickname

The 1-3 Panthers were looking at a dismal season when Rivera took his gamble. In an October game against the Minnesota Vikings, twice on the same drive Rivera had the Panthers go for it on fourth-and-1 rather than kick a field goal.

Both plays succeeded — the second was a touchdown — leading to a 35-10 victory that helped turn their season around. The Panthers have won 11 of their past 12 games, and Sunday they host the 49ers in an NFC divisional game. A win, and Carolina will be a step closer to the second Super Bowl in the franchise’s 19-year history. The Panthers lost the Super Bowl to New England in the 2003 season.

As it turns out, the roots of Rivera’s gambling ways sprouted in Berkeley.

Rivera was at Cal in 1983, playing for coach Joe Kapp. The Bears had just kicked a field goal against Texas A&M in the final minute to break a 17-17 tie, but Kapp took the points off the board when the Aggies were penalized. On the next play, Cal fumbled the ball away inside the 5.

One play later, Rivera, then an All-America linebacker, tackled a Texas A&M runner in the end zone for a safety, and Cal won 19-17.

“Ron Rivera saved the day,” Kapp told this newspaper this week. “A coach’s goal is to prepare a player to succeed, and he’s really succeeded.”

Rivera, who played at Seaside High before coming to Cal, credits Kapp for much of his success. During a Wednesday conference call, Rivera said, “Joe Kapp has always been a huge influence in my life.”

“Ron was quiet,” Kapp said, “but his personality was always that of a leader. No one thought Carolina would do that much this year, but he’s got them right there.”

The Panthers are a young team, and Rivera, who interviewed nine times for NFL head-coaching jobs before landing in Carolina in 2011, has always been one to show the kids how it’s done.

Bill Cooper, who coached linebackers at Cal under Kapp, said he didn’t know Rivera would end up coaching. But Cooper did know that Rivera would work well with the younger set, no matter what he did.

“I know he had a real affinity for kids,” Cooper said. “I know because I saw how good he was baby-sitting my son. Kevin grew up idolizing everything Ron Rivera did, on the field and off. Ron was always fully aware of the whole team concept and how he was a part of it. I think he’s taken that into his role as the head coach.”

Another Rivera strength is his ability to separate what he can control from what he can’t.

A few hours after the Panthers fell to 0-2 on Sept. 15 with a one-point loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Charlotte Observer newspaper ran a poll asking fans if team owner Jerry Richardson should fire Rivera. At that point, the Panthers were 13-21 in Rivera’s two-plus seasons.

Eighty percent of the readers answering the poll supported getting rid of the former Cal star.

A month later, Riverboat Ron was born during that thrashing of the Vikings.

“We are doing the things we need to do to play winning football,” Rivera said. “We’ve been very consistent and relatively disciplined. We’ve had four fourth-quarter winning drives. That’s something we haven’t done in the past.”

They’re doing it now, getting their direction from Riverboat Ron, who’s become quite the gambler.

Follow John Hickey on Twitter at twitter.com/JHickey3 .

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Riverboat Ron 2.0: Ron Rivera gets ‘ballsy,’ gets a new nickname (maybe) and gets an important win

Early in the 2013 season, with his job in jeopardy, Panthers coach Ron Rivera went for a couple of fourth downs at Minnesota and made them both in a 35-10 victory at the old Metrodome.

The Panthers went on to finish 12-4 and grab the first of three consecutive playoff berths. Rivera went on to win NFL coach of the year honors and earn the nickname “Riverboat Ron” for his fourth-down daring.

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Rivera’s job might not have been in jeopardy entering Sunday’s game against Tennessee , but he wasn’t exactly riding high after a 38-point loss at San Francisco that was said to have left owner David Tepper livid, according to a league source.

And there was Rivera six years later, Riverboating again with two successful fourth-down conversions — including a fake punt — in an important 30-20 victory after a month away from Bank of America Stadium.

The win got the Panthers to the season’s midpoint at 5-3, despite playing the past six games without starting quarterback Cam Newton and facing the prospect of a bunch more with him rehabbing his injured left foot.

It also might have earned Rivera an updated nickname: Ballsy Ron, inspired by Kyle Allen , Newton’s replacement and a straight-talking millennial.

Discussing the fourth-down calls, specifically the fake punt to Colin Jones, Allen said: “Not to put it any other way — it was ballsy and we got it. We pushed that pile and we got it, and I think it sparked a little more momentum in us.”

This is what Rivera was seeking when he and special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn sent in the fake early in the third quarter. The Titans fed Derrick Henry to score on their first second-half possession and cut the Panthers’ lead to 17-7.

And Carolina was about to go three-and-out on its first possession after an Allen incompletion left it with a fourth-and-4 at its 36.

Jones, the veteran special teams captain, set up as the upback on the right side of the line. Blackburn put the call on, but it was up to Jones to decide whether the Titans were in the right look to leave the fake on.

Jones felt good about the call — until he heard a Titans coach yelling at Titans defensive back Dane Cruikshank , the end man on the line of scrimmage, to watch the fake and widen out.

It was too late to change it. So Jones took the direct snap from J.J. Jansen , followed Jordan Scarlett’s lead block on Cruikshank and carried about three Titans defenders — with a shove from Efe Obada — past the first-down marker for a 5-yard gain.

Five plays later, Christian McCaffrey knifed in for a 1-yard touchdown run to up the lead to 17 and send the Panthers on their way.

“It was a good look. The only thing (was) they talked about it. Their coach was yelling to (Cruikshank). He was communicating to (him) to widen out to try to take away that fake,” said Jones, a high school running back who rushed for 1,800 yards his senior year at Bridgeport High in Texas.

“I literally looked, like, mid-holdup, and I was like, ‘Rivera’s going to kill me if I don’t get this,’” Jones added. “I could see that I was short. I was like, ‘Uh-oh, I’ve got another yard to go. C’mon, baby.’ And just kept churnin’. And luckily, me and whoever else pushed me to the promised land.”

Rivera said he intended to send a message with the fake.

“I just wanted to make sure the guys know that, ‘Hey, I believe in who we are as a football team, and I believe we can make plays. When we get the opportunity, we have to go out and do it,’” Rivera said. “I was really looking for something to give us an edge, and I thought the moment was good.”

Rivera had shown similar moxie in the first half on a fourth down, albeit with much less at stake in terms of field position.

Also, worth noting: Titans coach Mike Vrabel took a conservative approach on a fourth down on Tennessee’s first possession.

With Tennessee looking at fourth-and-1 at the Panthers’ 25, Vrabel sent in Ryan Succop for a 43-yard field goal attempt. Succop, a former South Carolina kicker who was activated off injured reserve last week, missed all three of his field goal tries.

The Panthers led just 3-0 in the second quarter when they faced a fourth-and-2 at the Tennessee 7 following Donte Jackson ’s interception. Rather than settle for a field goal, Rivera left the offense on the field.

Offensive coordinator Norv Turner called a rub play, with receiver Jarius Wright running an in-breaking route to create traffic and free McCaffrey on a quick out.

Linebacker Rashaan Evans didn’t get out quick enough on McCaffrey, who was wide open for the first of his three touchdowns.

“Those are game-changing plays,” said Allen, who improved to 6-1 all-time as a starter and 5-1 this year. “We could have just as easily kicked a field goal and chalked up three points. But that fourth-down play was huge to Christian; to get that touchdown was a great call. It schemed out perfectly.”

Allen bounced back from a three-interception, seven-sack performance at San Francisco with a fairly solid day. He underthrew a couple of open receivers deep, but he also connected on completions of 33 (to Curtis Samuel ), 32 ( DJ Moore ) and 23 yards (Greg Olsen).

And the job is going to be his a while longer, perhaps a lot longer.

Two days after Newton visited foot and ankle specialist Robert Anderson in Green Bay, he was nowhere to be found Sunday. Rivera said Anderson, a former team doctor for the Panthers, confirmed Newton is doing “exactly what he needs to be doing.”

Sources said Newton is expected to huddle with his family and advisers in Atlanta to decide the best course of action, which could include season-ending IR.

“Anything is possible,” a source said.

So the rest of the team will now head to Green Bay, likely without Newton, for next week’s game against the NFC North-leading Packers .

“We love Kyle Allen. We love Cam Newton. Whoever’s there for us, we know we’re gonna get the job done,” said safety Tre Boston, who had his first INT of the season Sunday. “It’s amazing to have two great quarterbacks. When we go out there, play Tennessee and not worry about our quarterback situation. When next week we can go to the Packers and not care who’s at quarterback.”

The Panthers did care about stopping the San Francisco bleeding immediately and not letting the embarrassing loss turn into two or three — or seven, like last season’s Pittsburgh debacle.

“It took us eight weeks last year to bounce back after our big loss. That’s just reality. We all are being honest with ourselves to realize that we needed to come home and regroup,” tight end Greg Olsen said. “We’ve got a tough stretch this back half of the season. We understand that; none bigger than this next one.”

A lot will happen over the next two months that will determine the fates of the team and Rivera, a two-time coach of the year who’s signed through 2020.

Newton could be back in a few weeks … or done for the season.

McCaffrey could continue making a strong case for MVP.

The Panthers could go on a run during a heavily backloaded schedule … or fade in the tough NFC.

But for one day at least, Rivera showed he’s not ready to put away those Riverboat T-shirts just yet.

That mentality carried onto the field. Jones could have tried to call off the fake when he heard the Titans coach yelling it out, but he sensed what was at stake.

He also was reminded of Olsen’s comments last week about not just talking about avoiding a skid but doing something about it.

“If you get in a funk like that, you’ve got a target on your back because there’s blood in the water. A sinking ship sinks faster,” Jones said. “So it was really important for us to finish the first half of the season with a winning record.”

(Photo of Colin Jones: Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)

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Joe Person is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Carolina Panthers. He has covered the team since 2010, previously for the Charlotte Observer. A native of Williamsport, Pa., Joe is a graduate of William & Mary, known for producing presidents and NFL head coaches. Follow Joseph on Twitter @ josephperson

Why is Ron Rivera called Riverboat Ron? Explaining the origin of Commanders coach’s nickname

After spending more than 25 years on an NFL sideline, Ron Rivera has made a name for himself in the coaching ranks. Over the course of his 13 years as a head coach, Rivera’s earned a nickname for himself, too.

Rivera, a two-time AP NFL Coach of the Year who recently surpassed the 100-win plateau, has become a household name in coaching thanks to his time as the lead man in Carolina and Washington. As evidenced by his resume, Rivera has done his fair share of winning during his career, but the manner in which he’s done his winning is what became the stuff of legends.

Since the 2013 NFL season, Rivera has been known as “Riverboat Ron,” a nickname that he once decried before eventually embracing it. The nickname and the philosophy that inspired it have turned around seasons, resulted in hilarious memes and very well may have saved RIvera’s coaching career.

The Sporting News looks back at the origins of Rivera’s “Riverboat Ron” nickname. 

Why is Ron Rivera called Riverboat Ron?

Rivera’s nickname is related to riverboat gambling. The gambles, or risks, Rivera has taken in fourth-down situations as a head coach are similar to that of a gambler, earning him the moniker of “Riverboat Ron.”

The nickname is situational as it is almost exclusively employed when Rivera has his team go for it on fourth down or take another calculated in-game risk. It can also work against his favor when he elects not to take a risk, like Washington’s decision to opt for overtime and not go for a two-point conversion to defeat defending NFC champion Philadelphia in Week 4 of the 2023 season.

MORE:  Ron Rivera explains why Commanders played for OT in loss vs. Eagles

How Ron Rivera got his Riverboat Ron nickname

Rivera earned the nickname during his third season as head coach of the Panthers. The nickname itself actually stems from the way Rivera responded to something he didn’t do.

After two losing seasons, Rivera was on the hot seat early in the 2013 campaign. In the second game of the season, one sequence seemingly changed everything about Rivera’s approach.

The Panthers, who had already lost their season opener, had the ball and a 20-17 lead over the Bills late in the fourth quarter of Week 2. As Carolina faced a fourth-and-1 from Buffalo’s 21-yard line, Rivera elected to play it safe by kicking a field goal to give his team a 23-17 lead with 1:38 remaining. The Bills responded with an 80-yard drive, scoring the game-winning touchdown with two seconds remaining to knock Carolina to 0-2 on the season.

Playing conservatively led to the loss and an epiphany in traffic let Rivera know that something had to change.

Fast forward to Week 6, when the Panthers visited the Vikings. Carolina was 1-3 and Rivera’s seat was hotter than it had ever been. In the first quarter, Rivera’s team went for — and converted — two fourth downs on its first scoring drive of the game. Carolina would earn a 35-10 win over Minnesota.

And thus, “Riverboat Ron” was born.

Rivera was reluctant to accept the nickname at first but as the risks continued to pay off and the wins continued to stack, he warmed up to the moniker, which took a life of its own when Rivera was hilariously photoshopped  as a riverboat gambler.

Carolina’s Week 6 win over Minnesota was the first of eight consecutive wins in a season where the team finished 12-4 and earned its first NFC South championship in five years. The team finished the season going 10 of 13 on fourth downs, including a near-perfect 8 of 9 mark on fourth-and-1.

Ten years later, it’s clear that the nickname has stuck.

Ron Rivera’s fourth down success

Since taking over as Washington’s head coach in 2020, Rivera has had his team go for it on fourth down a total of 80 times (through Week 5 of the 2023 season.) In the time span, Washington has converted on 42 fourth downs, a 52.5 percent rate.

This season , the Commanders are 3 of 4 (75.0 percent) on fourth down.

Ron Rivera’s other nicknames

Long before he was known as “Riverboat Ron,” Rivera was affectionately referred to as “Chico” while playing with the Bears.

As the story goes, Rivera, a serviceable linebacker, earned the nickname from defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, who likened Rivera to actor Freddie Prinze’s character in “Chico and the Man.”

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“Riverboat Ron” is Sailing Towards the Waterfall

On January 1, 2020, Ron Rivera was hired as the head coach of the then Washington Football Team, now the Washington Commanders . Nicknamed Riverboat Ron for his aggressive and bold coaching decisions, it seemed as though a new era of football was just over the horizon for Washington. Rivera inherited a team that went just 3-13 the prior season and was a complete mess from top to bottom. The Jay Gruden era in Washington went down in flames, and Rivera had the job of building Washington back up from the ashes.

There was plenty of reason to be excited for the “Rivera era.” After all, Rivera had a 76-63 record in Carolina, where the Panthers made the playoffs four times in a five-year span, including three straight NFC South crowns. Washington was a team in desperate need of a cultural revival, and Ron Rivera presented the ability to build from the ground up and start again from scratch.

Fans were desperate for something positive to latch onto after almost a half-decade of pure disappointment.

In the years prior to Rivera’s hiring, Washington fans had watched the rise of Kirk Cousins, giving them a playoff birth in 2015, the first since Robert Griffin III’s career was ruined by his knee injuries. Fans watched as Cousins then walked away in free agency a few seasons later. When Cousins’ replacement, Alex Smith went down with a gruesome leg injury that almost ended his life, Washington started six different quarterbacks over the course of a mere two seasons. Fans watched as Jay Gruden started 0-5 in 2019 and was then fired after the abysmal start, and after two measly playoff births since 2008, fans were desperate for something good to watch.

Enter Ron Rivera. Washington also fired longtime GM Bruce Allen, a move that many fans felt was long overdo. The team changed its name, leaving the Washington Redskins behind and instead deciding to start a new era of Washington football with a brand new name. It couldn’t really get much worse for Washington, and fans were thankful that a fresh start had finally happened. A new coach, and new GM, and a new name was exactly what this franchised needed to get back on track.

Rivera’s first season in Washington did nothing but add more hype and excitement for the future.

In 2020, Riverboat Ron lead the Washington Football Team to a 7-9 record, a definite improvement from 3-13, and while it was still a losing season, fans were happy to see improvement. However, the real reason that the 2020 season was such a point of excitement was that since the NFC East was so bad that year, the Football Team somehow managed to win the division with a losing record, becoming only the third team in the 16-game era to make the playoffs with more losses than wins. There was plenty of reason to be excited for the future in Washington.

There were many, many small but wonderful victories for Washington over the course of the 2020 season.

For starters, Washington had the 4 th best team defense, according to Pro Football Reference. The defense singlehandedly kept them in games, not allowing a single team to score more than 20 points after week 11. The Football Team started 2-7 but won five of their last seven games. Washington fans know just how many bright spots there truly were that season. They destroyed the Cowboys 41-16 on Thanksgiving in Dallas, a fantastic win and truly a great feeling to humiliate their arch-rivals. In week 14, a few weeks later, they handed the Steelers their first loss of the season, stunning Pittsburgh 23-17 and starting the downfall of the Steelers that season. Despite losing by a combined 64 points in the first five losses of the season, the Football Team rallied down the stretch and gave fans something to cheer for.

The list of positives don’t end there, however. In a season full of COVID-19 and empty stadiums, Washington was still able to rise above the  difficulties that the pandemic presented and give football-desperate fans something good to watch. Let’s not forget also that Ron Rivera overcame cancer as well. Washington was able to persevere through its head coach battling with cancer, a global pandemic and empty stadiums, and name-change controversy, all to make the playoffs despite a losing record. Washington lost to the eventual Super Bowl champs in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild card round, but that really didn’t matter. What mattered is that there was hope, and Washington fans were excited to see how Rivera and Washington would build off of this first, successful season.

But this is where things start to come off the rails.

Going into the 2021 season, the Football Team made a plethora of moves to try to improve the team. Alex Smith won Comeback Player of the year in 2020 and deservingly so, and retired shortly after the season ended. Washington had released Dwayne Haskins after it was abundantly clear that Haskins was a bust . Washington needed a quarterback, and while it liked Taylor Heinicke after a solid performance against the Bucs in the wildcard round of the playoffs, they viewed him as a good backup. As a result, Washington turned to QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Coming off an overall successful stint with the Miami Dolphins, Ryan Fitzpatrick seemed to be a great answer for Washington. A gunslinger quarterback that would give Washington the big play potential it needed after Washington ranked as the 30 th total offense in 2020 according to StatMuse . They also signed WR Curtis Samuel from the Carolina Panthers, WR DeAndre Carter from the Chicago Bears, and WR Adam Humphries from the Tennessee Titans, giving Washington some much-needed receiving help. Along with the additions of rookie LB Jamin Davis and the highest paid free agent acquisition of the offseason for Washington in CB William Jackson, Washington looked ready to take that next step forward.

But it never happened.

In the very first game of the 2021 season, Ryan Fitzpatrick suffered a hip injury that ended up being his career-ending injury. I wrote about the struggles of the 2021 team here , but long story short the defense, and pretty much everything else for that matter, left so much to be desired. Washington’s 2021 defense was horrible, ranking 29 th in the league against the pass, 25 th in the league in scoring defense, and 32 nd in the league in third down conversion percentage, allowing opponents to convert 111 third downs.

The defense was bad, really bad. The offense jumped up from 30 th to 21 st in the league, but it was not good enough to win games on its own. The defense deserves a chunk of the blame for Washington’s recent failure, but Ron Rivera has had his own long list of reasons to blame for Washington’s failures.

Let’s go over some of Rivera’s miscues

First off, Rivera’s decision-making has been extremely poor. River was called Riverboat Ron for his aggressive decisions such as going for it on 4th and short, however the decisions that Riverboat Ron made proved to be just downright stupid. Bad two point conversion decisions , poor game management and so many more issues have plagued this team. Rivera’s decision to stick with OC Scott Turner and DC Jack Del Rio have proved to be ill-advised decisions. Specifically, the decision of sticking with Del Rio after the defense was atrocious last year and off to a horrible start this year has not been the best, at leas that is the way it looks so far.

The decision to draft Jamin Davis instead of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah looks bad. The decisions to constantly sign former Carolina Panthers rather than going out and getting a veteran player to fill a whole looks bad. The decision to keep Del Rio after last season looks bad. And finally, the bad decisions in the actual football games themselves is the cherry on top.

In summary, bad coaching decisions, mediocre draft decisions, and subpar free-agency decisions have all contributed to Rivera’s falling out with the fans.

Rivera is 15-21 so far in Washington, and fans are at their breaking point. Washington is only 1-2 so far this season, but some fans have already given up on Riverboat Ron. Riverboat Ron is sailing towards the waterfall, and if Washington can not turn it around soon, we’ll be looking at a brand new head coach for the Washington Commanders in 2023.

This article first appeared on Gridiron Heroics and was syndicated with permission.

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'So why did I choose the Redskins?' Real talks with Dan Snyder reveal why Ron Rivera made this big gamble

Ron Rivera made it clear he didn’t need the money, nor did he need just any job.

After 34 years coaching, and four torturous weeks of unemployment, the veteran coach knew exactly what he wanted. Or better yet, who.

The Washington Redskins — an organization that has become synonymous with dysfunction and disarray — are now his personal reclamation project.

“There are only 32 of us at any given time, and these jobs are scarce,” Rivera said Thursday, at his introductory news conference. “The Washington Redskins, this one’s special.”

“Riverboat Ron” just made his biggest gamble. And for the sake of his reputation, one hopes he’s right.

The franchise ushered in a new day, unveiling Rivera as its new head coach in front of a jam-packed room featuring his newly hired defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio, current and past Redskins players as well as team executives. Team owner Dan Snyder proudly stepped behind the lectern to announce this new era in Ashburn will be run much differently. It will begin with only one voice: Rivera’s.

The longtime coach chose to bet on himself, as any self-assured and self-respecting person would. Where others have failed — gifted minds like Joe Gibbs, Marty Schottenheimer and Mike Shanahan — Rivera is confident he will succeed.

“I believe in me,” said the coach, who turns 58 next week.

Though he repeatedly used the word “collaborative” during his introduction,

Rivera will be the focal point of authority. Praised as the ultimate locker room leader, he’ll bring a player-centric approach, one that entails a commitment to teaching players how to be better performers on the field and better men off of it. Accountability will be key. Having high standards is non-negotiable.

With this new position comes plenty of responsibility: Finding the right men to groom Dwayne Haskins Jr . into the franchise quarterback he was drafted to be, retooling a roster comprised of “raw talent” and “solid veteran leadership,” and facilitating a reunion with disgruntled offensive tackle Trent Williams .

This role also comes with a heavy burden of bringing respectability back to the Redskins. And that entails keeping Snyder out of his way.

Rivera is enamored with the history of the organization, which was established in 1932. He respects its past greatness as well as the players and coaches who have worn burgundy and gold before him. But these are not the ’Skins of old.

Despite Snyder’s deep affection for his beloved team, his poor leadership over the past 20 years has paved the way for Washington’s sad descent toward irrelevancy. He enabled the decision-making of former team president Bruce Allen for a decade and stood silently by as Allen declared three months ago that the organization had a “damn good” culture.

Snyder’s fingerprints are all over the mess the Redskins have become . But his hope is that Rivera can salvage the wreckage and eventually build a championship-caliber team.

In nine seasons with the Panthers , Rivera compiled a 76-63-1 record and twice was named NFL Coach of the Year. Most impressive of all: He has reached the Super Bowl.

With all of those accolades and with all of his experience, Rivera knew he had one pressing question to answer first.

“So why did I choose the Redskins?” he asked with a smile. “I can tell you right now it's not the money. If I wanted the money, I’d still be out there right now trying to pit a couple teams against each other.”

He said he took the job for “one simple reason.” Over “30-35 hours” of honest, self-reflective dialogue with Snyder, the owner expressed a desire to do things differently and he expressed an understanding of what sustains winning franchises like the Patriots , the Seahawks and the Chiefs. “Not an owner-centered approach or a team president or a GM, but a coach-centered approach,” Rivera explained.

In turn, the coach requested one condition from his soon-to-be boss.

“It would have to be a player-centered culture, something I truly do believe in,” Rivera said. “My response is to get the most out of the players, to work with them, to teach them, mentor them. If I have to do it one-by-one, I will most certainly will do it. … I was fortunate to have that in Carolina and I’ll work to have it here in Washington.”

He’s an old-school guy who preaches hard work and accountability, and also demands the most out of those around him. But during his time with the Panthers, he showed that he will defend his players like kin. Case in point: Quarterback Cam Newton .

That bodes well for Haskins, the inexperienced but raw-talented quarterback the Redskins drafted in the first round despite the wishes of Gruden. “I think he can become a franchise-style quarterback,” Rivera said. “… He’s going to have to step up and become a leader. All the great ones have become leaders and they’ve become leaders whether they’re rookies or they’re 10-, 12-year vets.”

Rivera believes there are foundational pieces already here. That’s why, instead of taking a year-long sabbatical or waiting to see how how the Giants’ and Browns’ coaching situations played out, he instead became intrigued by the prospect of coaching in Washington. His interest was piqued when Snyder reached out to his agent shortly after his dismissal from Carolina and over the course of their “in depth” conversations, the veteran coach knew for certain that this is where he belongs.

Now, all he has to do is cleanse the culture Snyder helped taint.

“This is the beginning of a great new year for the Redskins’ organization and its fans,” the owner said, after curiously wishing his audience, “Happy Thanksgiving.”

“… What the Redskins have needed is a culture change. Someone that can bring a winning culture to our organization. And it starts and ends with our head coach. When looking for that man, I look for a class act. And that’s how you describe Coach Rivera.”

In many ways, Rivera is everything Snyder isn’t. And that fact may very well save this franchise.

Hopefully, for Rivera’s sake, this gamble will be worth it in the end.

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'Riverboat Ron' name catching on

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Carolina Panthers ' second-ranked defense can't get a nickname to stick, but coach Ron Rivera has one that won't go away no matter how much he'd like it to: Riverboat Ron.

Rivera was given the nickname after showing the instincts of a riverboat gambler when he successfully went for it on fourth-and-1 twice on the first series of a 35-10 victory at Minnesota on Oct. 13.

The nickname took on a new life Monday when Jim Kennedy, a graphic artist from Raleigh, N.C., posted online a picture of Rivera as a riverboat gambler.

Rivera is portrayed wearing dark sunglasses, a black Panthers cowboy hat and a Panthers blue jacket with a black vest and a tie. In one hand he is holding a cigar and the other poker cards. In the background is a picture of Bank of America Stadium and the words Riverboat Ron.

Kennedy initially posted the picture to a Panthers' fan page. It exploded Monday night when Rivera's daughter, Courtney, posted it on Instagram and it later turned into a Twitter post.

Kennedy said he designed the picture after hearing friends refer to Rivera as "Riverboat" during Sunday's 10-9 victory at San Francisco that extended Carolina's winning streak to five.

"It's really nice, exciting how something like this I did for fun real quick got spread all over the Internet," Kennedy said. "It's cool Rivera's daughter saw it. That means he may see it."

Rivera had no idea his daughter posted the picture until told during his Wednesday news conference.

"Oh, that's not fair now," Rivera said as he looked at his cellphone to reread a text message from his daughter that made more sense. "I'm going to talk to her."

Rivera wasn't a gambler before this season. Only one NFL coach had gambled less on fourth down than him since 2011, and that was former Carolina coach John Fox.

Rivera changed his philosophy after being criticized for not gambling in a 24-23 loss to Buffalo in Week 2. With a three-point lead and just under two minutes left, Rivera elected to go for a short field goal to give the Panthers a six-point lead.

That put the Bills in position of having to score a touchdown to win, which they did with two seconds left.

Rivera said he decided on the bus ride to the airport afterward that he needed to be more aggressive and show more faith in his offense in those situations.

Since then, the Panthers (6-3) have converted 5 of 7 fourth-and-1 plays.

"The thing I really like is the guys have said to me they appreciate me showing faith in who we are as a football team," Rivera said.

But Rivera doesn't particularly like the nickname, saying the calls are well thought out and calculated risks. Asked how many of his players call him "Riverboat," Rivera smiled and said, "Unfortunately, too many of them."

Left tackle Jordan Gross is as guilty as anybody. He used the nickname on his coach in the weight room Wednesday, making him blush.

Not all players are so daring.

"I don't think you want to tease our head coach," quarterback Cam Newton said. "That's not a good method of flattery."

Newton paused to admit he wasn't familiar with the nickname. When it was explained to him, he said, "Oh. I heard a couple of people call him Chico. That has been something that has followed him since Chicago."

Rivera, a former linebacker for the Chicago Bears , was given that nickname when he became the first American of Puerto Rican descent to play in the NFL.

"I don't think any player would say, 'Hey, Coach Riverboat,'" Newton said. "No, I don't think even you. You would be getting a letter, a memo, by Mr. [general manager] Dave Gettleman with that."

Defensive end Greg Hardy agreed.

"You call your boss a name," he said. "I want to keep my job, so no. Ron. Riveting Ron."

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Does Washington's 'Riverboat Ron' Understand Analytics?

• Author: Mike Fisher

Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera received the nickname “Riverboat Ron” during his time with the Carolina Panthers . Whether he was/is truly a "gambler'' by nature is subject to debate ... but all it takes is one "go-for-it'' moment, a nickname in a headline ... and then the subject himself (Rivera) embracing it ...

And "Riverboat Ron'' it is.

The smartest coaches, of course, don't just "gamble.'' It's about "calculated gambles,'' decisions arrived at by both taking the temperature of a given situation and consulting the advanced-analytics probabilities in that situation.

Rivera's first big "Riverboat'' decision in Washington during his first season here arrived in October against the New York Giants . The WFT scored a TD with less than a minute left, cutting the New York lead to one.

Kick it to go to OT?

Or go for the win?

Washington opted for the latter. Washington was unsuccessful. Washington lost the game.

Is there a "perfect right answer''? No, because that "probability chart'' cannot possibly take into account factors like momentum, injuries, weather, confidence ... or maybe a coach and his players believing they have an ideal play for an ideal circumstance against an ideal defense.

The subject popped up again recently when Rivera guested on the “Rich Eisen Show” as the subject of analytics was broached.

And "Riverboat Ron'' seemed to not grasp the numbers.

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“I have had situations where when we’ve gone for it with the analytics, and it didn’t (work) out,” Rivera said. “And I’ve been told, ‘Hey, that’s OK, you did what the analytics said.’ And, to me, I struggle with that, because if I do what analytics said and it says, 'Nine times out of 10, you are gonna complete it,' there’s that one time out of 10 you don’t.”

Wait. What?

Ron tried again ...

"How do you know if you’re going to be that one time out of 10 that isn’t successful? There is no guarantee; you can tell me all you want, 'That’s 99 percent.' Hey, that’s good, yeah, but (what) if you’re that 1 percent? What’s that one time it doesn’t work?''

Here's hoping that Rivera - who we find to be a bright person, risk-taker or not - has a better mastery of numbers than he demonstrates here. Because, yes, factors like momentum, injuries, weather and confidence should all be considered, tossed into the same gumbo pot as analytics.

But if the analytics tell you to do something "99 percent'' of the time? That's no "gamble.'' Aboard the ol' riverboat, that's pretty much called "a sure thing.''

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In Memoriam: Riverboat Ron Rivera

In the understatement of the century, we here at The Loop are a bit partial to gambling. The office throws around bets, parlays and (eventually-losing) guarantees with the same consistency that Mitch Trubisky throws ducks. Thus, we fly the flag at half-mast today for a loss that hits close to home. Ron Rivera, after a shaky season that was chockfull of broken expectations, has been officially fired as head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

At his peak, Riverboat Ron Rivera was the patron saint of gamblers, changing his coaching style and money-balling his way back into the NFL playoffs. Back in 2014, staring a 1-4 record in the face, Rivera elected to go for it on fourth-and-1 twice instead of kicking a field goal. The second attempt led to a touchdown, which snowballed into a 35-10 victory for the Panthers and degenerates everywhere.

After this proto-Minneapolis Miracle, Rivera and the Panthers became risk-takers, wheeling and dealing their way to 11 wins in their final 12 games of the season. Rivera went on to win 2013 AP NFL Coach of the Year. Should've bet on him on then...

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A 15-1 record the subsequent season stuffed with fourth-down conversions and perilous decision-making culminated in a Super Bowl appearance, proving Riverboat Ron's worth. It also cemented the nickname, which sticks to this very day.

Rivera has since backed away from the moniker, stating that he's "a calculated risk-taker," not a gambler. But that's just what a gambler would say. And we salute him for that.

So while Rivera may be gone, his contribution to the world of gambling will not die with his coaching career. During Rivera's tenure as head coach of the Panthers, sports gambling has legitimized slowly but surely across the United States. Thirteen states now have legal, regulated sports betting industries, with six more closing in.

Coincidence? I think not.

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