Glutton for Punishment

ESPN just reported that for our game this weekend, the Redskins are going to bench McNabb in favor of Rex Grossman. I'm usually fairly stalwart in my support for the Redskins, but this is just beyond ridiculous. This whole situation makes makes me irate. Yes, we're losing games. But to lay that at McNabb's feet?

We're out of the playoffs. The only reason to bench McNabb at this point is if you think Grossman is possibly our future quarterback. We have a contract we can get out of with McNabb - let him finish out the season and see if this offense can gel! I know it hasn't yet, but give it the whole season. We don't lose anything by doing that.

Look what McNabb's got to work with. We have a subpar o-line, a subpar running game, a subpar receiving corps, and a subpar defense. Of course he's not performing well.

I think at the end of the year, we're going to cut ties with McNabb and draft a QB high in the draft. Unfortunate, in my opinion. I like the idea of drafting a new QB, but put him behind McNabb for a year and see what he can learn - take a couple drafts to strengthen our o-line so we don't end up killing the QB like we did with Campbell. Take a couple seasons and actually rebuild the team correctly!

Gah... I'm very mad right now. At least my second team is doing well - go Pats!

Never Too Early For Football

With the 2010 schedule coming out on Tuesday and the draft starting tonight, it's getting a bit more exciting waiting for football to start up again (though with all the movement in the off-season this year, it's hard not to consider the possibilities for Washington).

I took a quick gander at the schedule for the Redskins this year.

Wk 1 - Dallas
Wk 2 - Houston
Wk 3 - at St. Louis
Wk 4 - at Philadelphia
Wk 5 - Green Bay
Wk 6 - Indianapolis
Wk 7 - at Chicago
Wk 8 - at Detroit
Wk 9 - BYE
Wk 10 - Philadelphia (MNF)
Wk 11 - at Tennessee
Wk 12 - Minnesota
Wk 13 - at NY Giants
Wk 14 - Tampa Bay
Wk 15 - at Dallas
Wk 16 - at Jacksonville
Wk 17 - NY Giants

Looking over the schedule, we have seven games against playoff teams from last season (Eagles twice, Cowboys twice, Vikings, Packers and Colts). I'd expect we can beat the Eagles and Cowboys once each, but that's already five losses wracked up against us. We did pull the Rams, Lions, Bucs and Bears, so I'll count those as wins giving us 6-5 with the Texans, Titans, Jags and Giants twice. I'd expect we can take the Jags and either the Texans or the Titans. The Giants always seem to have our number, so I'd mark both of them up as losses and come up with an 8-8 season. Compared with a 4-12 last season, that's a nice improvement.

Of course, the draft could change all this, so take it with a grain of salt.

McNabb Comes to Town

I am more optimistic about the Redskins than I have been in years, and that's probably not a good thing. They have a tendency to let me down. They were getting ready to do it this year with the draft - all the calls were for them to use their 1st round pick (4th overall) to grab a new quarterback. It was insanity! Grabbing a new QB was just going to leave us with the massive hole in the offensive line we've dealt with for years.

But now, McNabb is coming to Washington. Which, I have to admit, I still don't understand. I'm happy about it, but I don't understand what Philly was thinking. Sending him to a rival team in the same division? That just doesn't make sense to me. Unless the offers from other teams were significantly lower, how did McNabb end up traded to Washington?

Doesn't matter. Now that we've got a QB lined up (and for a fair price too, I think), that frees our first round draft pick back up. And since we got ourselves a solid QB, we'll want to protect him, and that means draft a frickin' o-lineman! Finally!

Quick question if anyone knows - I know McNabb has only one year left on his contract and there's been some concern that we may only have him a year. Can we franchise tag him next year to keep him around? If so, what does that mean for us?