Commanders' Ron Rivera: Trading Chase Young, Montez Sweat 'an opportunity to see what else we have'

Washington's decision to trade not one, but both of their young edge rushers might have been interpreted by some as a signal the team was giving up on the 2023 season.

If you asked Commanders head coach Ron Rivera, such a sentiment couldn't be further from the truth.

"No, what I would say is, based on some of the things that we've seen and some of the growth and development we have, it's an opportunity to see what else we have," Rivera explained Wednesday when asked about the team trading Montez Sweat to Chicago and Chase Young to San Francisco. "It's an opportunity to go out and win football games using different guys. And we feel that we have an opportunity to go out and play and play well. We look forward to seeing what some of these young guys can do.

"We do think that there's every opportunity in front of us and I've gone through this before in 2014, I went through the same thing. We were late in the season, and we put a bunch of young guys that we felt had the opportunity or deserved the opportunity and put 'em out on the field and ended up in the playoffs. We won some games that gave us a chance.

"Do we have that opportunity? I think this is what this is. I think it's the same kind of an opportunity. We do feel strongly about the quarterback. It's something that I talked about in the off season, I've talked about through training camp. I've talked through the beginning of the season about the growth and development and, and we're seeing it. And so we want to see what we have and see if we can win football games and put ourselves in that same position."

Rivera isn't off the mark concerning Sam Howell. The young quarterback has shown signs of potentially becoming a centerpiece in Washington, especially in his