The writing was on the wall of sorts for Washington Commanders defensive end Chase Young in the offseason when the organization declined to pick up his fifth-year option. Now, after seven games this season, in which Young looked back to his best as he grabbed five sacks, nine quarterback hits, and six tackles for loss, he was shipped off to San Francisco in a move that raised the collective eyebrow. Now, head coach Ron Rivera has detailed what went into the decision to move Young on.

“Well, I think that more so than anything else, as we put this plan together, I think it’s really what we felt was in the best interest of our football team going forward,” Rivera said. “We had a plan going into this; the front office put together what those offers were, and we sat down and talked about the best way to go with it, the best direction, and then sat down with ownership, and everybody was aligned when we were done talking about it.”

The decision to move on Young and fellow defensive end Montez Sweat (Chicago Bears, 6.5 sacks), who were No. 1 and No. 2 for sacks, is certainly an odd decision for some. But with perhaps two of the team’s best defensive players now on other teams, the feeling of a rebuild has certainly set in for the Commanders’ fan base.

Sitting at 3-5, the season isn’t exactly lost yet, and now getting to a win total is good enough to make the postseason look increasingly unlikely. The argument could be made that even with Young and Sweat, the Commanders’ defense still gave up a monstrous 28.5 points a game (ranks 31st), so they aren’t exactly losing that much. But now, with new ownership and a different way of doing things, the Commanders are definitely entering a new era under Josh Harris and Co., which made their first order of business to part ways with the team’s top two pass rushers midway through the season.