The Redskins are insane

As we reported earlier this week, Donovan McNabb was traded to the Redskins. One would think that this was a sign that Washington would either put McNabb in a Kurt Warner like position of taking over the team's helm and training his hopeless young lackey to fail once he retires, much like the position the Cardinals have found themselves in. However, the Skins have decided to avoid this league cliche of thinking that a possible future Hall of Famer could turn the cruddy backup into gold. For more details hit the jump.

Instead of letting McNabb try to turn Jason Cambell into a decent NFL QB, new Head Coach Mike Shanahan has deceived to simply draft a new QB and ruin the career of yet another young QB. The most credit that Shanahan gets is for winning two super-bowls as a head coach with the Broncos back to back (XXXII and XXXIII). However, what you must understand is that this was during the John Elway era of the franchise. When Shanahan became the head coach of the Broncos in 1995, Elway had been on the team for 13 years and had lead Denver to 3 super-bowls (though they had lost them all). Clearly there was nothing for Shanahan to develop as he had inherited one of the greatest QB's of all time as the leader of his team.

 It still just doesn't feel right...

 
When Elway retired after the 1998 season, it was time for Shanahan to prove that he could develop a QB to replace the shoes that Elway had left. In the 10 years since Elway's departure, the Broncos had gone through 3 starting QB's, Brian Griese, Jake Plummer and Jay Cutler, 2 of which had been high profile draft picks by Denver. Of course none of these players lived up to their expectations and 2 of them retired recently after failed careers as starting QB's and spending years as backups. As for Cutler the Bears are still attempting to get the potential that he has out of him essentially by deprogramming him of the bizarre Brett Favre like style he had exhibited before. All of these cases indicate that Shanahan cannot develop QB's, and that doing so yet again in Washington would be no different.

This is your creation Shanahan

Despite the criticism that he often receives, Jason Campbell was far from the worst quarterback in the league last season. The Skins placed 16th overall in terms of Passing Offense in 2009, while Campbell was 10th overall in terms of pass completions and 14th overall in passing yards. Despite these non-awful statistics, the Redskins still did not feel obligated to tell their QB about the McNabb trade, classy. That being said the desire to obtain Donovan McNabb is a wise move as it gives the Redskins a solid veteran leader, and takes away one of their division rival's most prolific player. However, the desire to obtain yet ANOTHER QB, especially so high in the draft. Though Sam Bradford has great potential, if the Redskins think that Shanahan will be able to bring it out of him they are digging themselves in yet another hole.

Another issue with taking Bradford in the draft, aside from ruining his career before it starts, would be that Washington would be avoiding it's real needs. Instead of looking for yet another Quarterback the Skins should focus on fixing their running game which was 27th overall in the league last year.

Then again the Skins could be attempting to form a new type of offense, much like the Dolphins and their Wildcat offense, Washington could have a Swinging gate offensive system.

This never gets old.