Let me start by stating the obvious: Mike Shanahan has forgotten more about quarterbacks than I’ll ever know.
That said, count me among those very skeptical that Shanahan’s Washington Redskins can win this season with either Rex Grossman or John Beck at quarterback since they couldn’t win with six-time Pro Bowl passer Donovan McNabb — who won’t be back after Shanahan and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan severely soured on him — last season.
On paper, Grossman is the obvious choice to be the starter. He has a career record of 22-15 that includes two playoff victories for the 2006 NFC champion Chicago Bears. However, just four of those starts, three of them defeats, have come since December 2007.
Oddly, the end of Grossman’s reign as a regular coincided with the conclusion of then-rookie Beck’s brief four-game stint as a starter for the 1-15 Miami Dolphins of 2007.
During the next three seasons, Beck didn’t play for Miami (2008), Baltimore (2009) or Washington (2010), leaving his career numbers at a touchdown, three interceptions, 10 sacks in 117 dropbacks, 5.2 yards per attempt and a 62.0 passer rating. He turns 30 in August, two days before Grossman turns 31.
Grossman’s stats – 40 touchdowns, 40 interceptions, 6.4 yards per attempt, 67 sacks in 1,171 dropbacks and a 70.9 rating — aren’t gaudy either, but they’re a heck of a lot better than Beck’s.
More important, Grossman played well enough – seven touchdowns, four interceptions – in the narrow defeats against the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants and the overtime victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars that closed the 2010 season for him to earn some trust from his Redskins teammates.
“Rex (has) been here before (as a little –used backup in Houston in 2009) when it comes to this offense,” leading receiver Santana Moss said after the Dallas game, Grossman’s first since replacing the demoted McNabb. “For a guy to come in this late in the year and have to go in a big (rivalry) game like this, he showed us what kind of guy he is.”
However, Shanahan went out of his way to praise Beck during draft weekend, saying he liked him more than any quarterback who came out of college in 2007.
Who knows? Maybe Beck, who spent two years on a Mormon mission after high school, really is a late bloomer like 1998 Redskins starter Trent Green, who didn’t get a shot until his sixth season but recorded a pair of 4,000-yard years in Kansas City. Beck certainly threw well during the players’ recent workouts in Northern Virginia and he displayed leadership by having a friend record the practices for use by any teammate that wanted to watch them.
But after Shanahan contemplated trading for McNabb for three months and then benched him after just three months as a starter, I’m not inclined to give the coach the benefit of the doubt on his quarterback choices.
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