Ron Rivera Presser: No starting QB decision right now; we want to speak to the players first

Ron Rivera spoke to the media today, but did not declare a starting QB going forward. He wants to talk to some players and said their input is important. Washington will have their first full practice of the week tomorrow, and we will know who the starter is by the reps they get during that session. Rivera will make his decision official after practice. Carson Wentz came in to relieve Taylor Heinicke after his second fumble. Rivera said Wentz looked rusty at first, but handled himself well.

Chase Young looked good in his first game in over 13 months. He felt good during the game, so he stayed in longer than his expected snap count. They will look to get him involved on earlier downs this week vs the Browns.

Kam Curl was missed vs the 49ers, and Rivera said he was close to being able to play last Saturday. He’s an air traffic controller in the backfield, and his absence was notable last week with several players being out of position on big plays.

Antonio Gibson left the game last week and was replaced by Dax Milne on kick returns, and Jonathan Williams at RB. Rivera would only say that he suffered a sprain, and that it was something the team would be monitoring closely. Gibson has been dealing with a foot injury this year, but Rivera wouldn’t provide further details on what kind of sprain it was.

No decision on starting QB:

“Well, I just wanna make sure I’ve got an opportunity to speak to everybody before I make a decision. I wanna make sure I’ve got all the thoughts and ideas and concepts and again, at the end of the day, the decision’s gonna be made based on what I believe is best for us going forward. What I think gives us the best opportunity right now. That’s what this is really about.”

Carson Wentz/Taylor Heinicke vs the 49ers:

“Well, I thought there was a lot of positives on both sides. I thought Taylor did some really good things. There were some opportunities I think that we could have taken advantage of as well. I thought Carson coming in and haven’t played in a while, was a little rusty at first and then he started to sharpen up. He showed he made quick decisions and so that was good to see. There’s still some things that he can continue to work on, improve as well.”

Carson Wentz having a better understanding of the offense:

“Well, I think what he showed was that he’s fully healthy, he’s got fresh legs right now, and got a lively arm. He made very quick decisions. He showed us that quick twitch that you look for in quarterbacks and his decision making seemed to be right on. One of the things that he handled very well was he picked up the blitz a couple times and got the ball out very quickly, which was something that early on, he wasn’t as quick with. Now it looks like he’s got a little bit better sense and better feel for that, especially within this offense.”

Offensive line:

“Well, I’m not as worried about it I think as people are making it out to be. I mean, up to a certain point, we were handling it pretty well. Once it got to a certain point, it became tough on those guys.”

Chase Young:

“Well, I thought Chase came out really well. He did some really good things on tape. We exceeded what we thought. We were shooting for 12 to 16, but we did tell him that I would check with him to see where he was. I would check with the trainers to see how they felt about him. When we got to that point, he was still anxious, ready to go. And I did tell him, ‘Hey, look, we just wanna be smart. We’ll play you a few more, but again, we don’t want you to get fatigued. Last thing we want is for you to get hurt again.’ He just kept saying, ‘Coach, I’m in great shape.

That’s one thing I kept up. He showed us he did a nice job. So next week the expectation is to see if he can go a little bit more. I think we’ll put a little bit more on him in terms of playing him earlier in the downs, playing him a few more reps in a row before we rotate him out. I’m pretty excited and anxious to continue to watch him develop.”

Kam Curl:

“Well, he’s a little bit of an air traffic controller. He can help get guys lined up and he’s one of those guys that thinks very quickly on his feet. So, if he sees somebody outta place, he can get himself in the position to help take up that spot. He’s a very headsy smart football player. He runs very, very well for his size. So, he’s like an impact linebacker at times when he is down in the box. And then when he is back in coverage with his speed and range, he can cover a lot of ground.”

Sam Cosmi:

“I think he has an opportunity to be one of our starters. He played at guard as well and played pretty well for us. So, with Cos it’s just a matter of him staying healthy too. Every time we got ready to rotate him back in or work him back in, you know, he got hurt that last game a couple weeks ago in New York. So it’s one of those things that if we can just maintain his health and keep him going, we can do something with him.”

Antonio Gibson: