Flying without a Pilot: Washington Quarterback-less plans

It's 2011. The ESPN proclaimed "Year of the Quarterback". Arron Rodgers brought the current champions of football to the Lombardi Trophy despite a core of older veteran receivers and a slew of injuries. Tom Brady is such a great quarterback that he takes 5'9" Deion Branch and Wes Welker and makes them dangerous threats in the backfield. Drew Brees makes his receivers top fantasy prospects who, without him, would be 8th round picks at best. It would seem during this "pass-first" era in the NFL, the Quarterback would naturally be the main gun in any teams arsenal. Even in any era this would seem to be common sense.

So, for yet another season, Washington strives to work against common sense.



Yes. For those of you that don't know, I am a Washington fan. Don't worry about why. That's a topic for another post. The point is that you actually have to ask why.

It's true. I'm too young to have been able to appreciate the Skin's run in the early 90's. It also true that not much since then has been a passable season. So I want them to succeed, as, I hope, so do they. But they just don't seem like they do.

Let me first state that I know the R*dsk*ns have a lot of problems. The biggest one being the terrible and offensive nickname. Their horrendous Offensive Line to their lack of receivers in the backfield, they have a great many needs. But I don't know how you can enter your season with the quarterback situation they have. Argue with me if you want: there is no team in the league with less direction and success potential in the Quarterback position (if you say Miami, I can see that argument but I still stand by my claim).

The past couple seasons have been tumultuous in Washington's pocket. From Jason Campbell to Donovan McNabb to Rex Grossman. Part of this can be blamed on the Offensive Line. The other part is passers who just can't come up clutch. I thought we had something good with Donovan. He was training harder in this off season and he's overdue for a big season. Keep your eye on Minnesota. They will excel beyond anyone's expectations this season.

But instead of drafting players  and scouting available free agents to develop their O-Line and help protect a veteran QB reaching his prime (oh yes...I said PRIME!), the organization chose not to see that value and traded him for some sixth round picks. Fine. We all saw it coming and some of us are right on board with that. Now let's draft us a QB with our eighth pick and pick up a veteran free agent to mentor him until he's ready! Let's get back in contention!

What's that? ... Oh. Were not doing that? Hm. We should have known. That would have been common sense. And Washington doesn't do common sense.

Once again, Dan Snyder and his Bruce Allen puppet have decided that they're smarter then everyone else in the football world. "To heck with the year of the Quarterback! We're gunna pick up players that are good elsewhere and way past their prime and rejuvenate them in the warm DC sun!" Well there must be something in the water here, because whenever someone successful comes here, their value severely dips (this would also explain our congress...BABOOM!)

So back to the QB sitch. We are stuck with quite a conundrum on our hands. The way I see it, we have two groups of QBs currently on our roster. The young QBs who we haven't seen anything from on the pro level and the veteran QBs who we've really seen enough of. The leader of the latter group is of course Rex Grossman. I cannot begin to share with you my disdain for Rex. The fact that we have a competition for QB and Rex Grossman is a front runner really just makes me want to raise up a big white flag outside of Fed Ex and try our luck in the CFL for a while. Backing up Sexy Rexy in the washed up category is former Jets QB Kellen Clemens. Like Grossman, Clemens actually had his chance to shine for two (nonconsecutive) seasons. Again, we have seen enough. His completion rate only strayed significantly past 50% in between those 2 seasons in 2008, in which he attempted 5 passes.

Okay, so we're definitely not going with that squad. The problem is, the other new guys aren't any more impressive. Led by notorious (so notorious no one's ever heard of him) bench warmer John Beck, this motley crew is composed mainly of rookies fresh out of college. Mark Verica out of Virginia and Ben Chappell out of Indiana both excelled at the collegiate level. They will probably drop down to the practice squad, however, leaving Beck to fend for himself.

So it's Beck v. Grossman in the year of the Quarterback. That scares me for so many reasons. I definitely don't see Rex finishing out the season if he is named starter. I'd like to think that Beck could excel but with Kyle Shanahan's super complicated offence, I just can't say I have much faith in him. So were going to be flip flopping. Which is exactly what a struggling franchise needs to get back on top.

I have only two real hopes for this season:

1. I hope I'm wrong. I hope everything I have stated here (and has been stated both openly and in private by Washington haters and fans alike) is false. It's possible. Let us not forget that the great Rex Grossman has already declared us the winners of the NFC East. Is he crazy? Stupid? Does he know something we don't? Though he hasn't shown us his true colors, we must remember we have Mike Shanahan at the helm of this ship. He's kinda known what to do in the past. Maybe he's got a plan for all of this. Maybe he sees something in his QBs that the rest of us can't. Maybe he's already worked out this whole scenario and he knows exactly what to do.
2. I hope ESPN is wrong. Maybe it's not actually the year of the Quarterback! How do they know what's gunna be important this year? Maybe it'll be the year of the Running Back! Or maybe even the year of the Tight End! Yeah! That'd be awesome!

In either case, as a fan of Washington, I wish them the absolute best. I enter into the season with the same hope for unexpected success that I do every year. We just always seem to have the same old knife while the rest of the NFL gets cooler and cooler guns. But maybe this is the year we upgrade! Going straight to a gun maybe a little big of a step. But maybe a sling shot? Or a can of mace? That might change that gun fight up just a little bit.

But of course, that would be common sense.