The gambling houses set the 1-7 Miami Dolphins as 4-point favorites over the Washington Redskins. I had a gut feeling that the Redskins would lose today, but the homer in me refused to accept the thought. Denial is the cruelest deception.
If Washington cannot beat the Dolphins with Matt Moore at quarterback, then there are no “beatable” teams on their schedule. There would be no point in checking the schedule anyway. Watching the Redskins output on the field is enough to see that our team is not competitive. With that, I have to admit an error in judgment.
When the Redskins became a nationwide laughing-stock at the idea of John Beck or Rex Grossman at quarterback, I and other Redskins blogger felt compelled to support the team. So, we supported Grossman and Beck in the worldwide blogosphere.
Todd Collins was briefly successful here because of familiarity with Al Saunders offense. Why wouldn’t Grossman be as successful in Shanahan’s offense for the same reason? As for Beck, we should give him a chance to see what he could do, at least, before the rofls and the lmaos. Those guys would be competitive, if no more than that.
Meh! Collins was successful for about seven games, the same as Grossman. We have seen what Beck can do. Every time I’ve watched it, I’ve wondered what Colt Brennan was doing those days?
Mike Shanahan has made five significant quarterback decisions in his tenure with Washington—every one of them a blunder. None of them bigger than benching Donovan McNabb in the 2010 Detroit Lions game with two minutes to go. The Redskins were 4-3 going into that game. They are 5-15 since.
The quarterback of the future is not on the team. Nor will he be one of the likely free agents this offseason. The best of that lot is likely to be (ahem) Jason Campbell who will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, unless the Raiders re-sign him.
Washington has not played poorly enough to win the top pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. Andrew Luck is out of reach. I will not be impressed if Bruce Allen engineers a trade for the first pick if it involves giving up other picks to get it. Washington needs more draft picks to acquire more young talent to restock the roster. The 2011 Draft strategy was perfect. Give us more of that.
The 2012 Draft class is stocked with franchise quarterback prospects as the 2011 class was. Matt Barkley (So Cal), Landry Jones (Oklahoma) and Ryan Tannehill (Texas A&M) may be just the ticket. For more about that, see Greg Trippiedi’s write up on Live Ball Sports.
Grossman or Beck will be the question of the week in Washington. Shanahan would be smart to name Beck or Grossman early and get it done with. Picking your poison is not a true argument. The end result is the same whatever choice you make.
As for the Redskins players who will hear all week, sometimes from RHH, that they are not talented enough, I close with the same message I tweeted last week after the 49ers loss (that sent me into a blue funk for a week).
@SkinsHogHeaven Anthony Brown
I want to thank the Redskins for their effort. Must be tough on you. Keep your head up. Every game is a new day.
Dolphins 20, Redskins 9
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