In a span of less than 24 hours, the Redskins traded away what turned out to be their 2 biggest headaches from the last 2 years. Albert Haynesworth (or as I like to call him “Dana Stubblefield the 2nd”) was mercifully sent packing to the New England Patriots, who should basically have something hanging above their personnel offices that reads, “We will take whatever malcontent players you have, and turn them into stars again.” 1st though went Donovan McNabb to the Vikings for a lowly 6th round pick next year (and a possible performance-based 6th round pick the year after). At the time the Skins acquired McNabb from Philly a little over a year ago, I thought it was a great get for the team…just as I had thought so many trades and free agent signings were great pickups for them in years past. McNabb was a 6 time Pro Bowler, and he had tortured Redskins fans as a member of the Eagles twice a year for a decade. While he was finally starting to show some signs of aging, barring a freak injury it appeared that McNabb still had at least a couple of good years left before his skills went into major decline. He didn’t seem to be ancient yet by any means, and Redskins fans (or me) dreamed of at best a long term solution at the quarterback position; at worst, he would be a better than serviceable player for 2 or 3 years. No one, including myself, would have thought that McNabb would suffer through only 1 largely forgettable season in D.C. (Although maybe that’s not true in retrospect. Maybe the Eagles, who traded McNabb to a team in their own division, knew something that nobody else did.) Now, the Redskins perpetual search for a long-term solution at QB will continue, as during week 1 of this season they will use something like their 17th starting QB in 13 seasons.
What happened in the nation’s capital with McNabb is largely a mystery to me. On paper, it seemed like a perfect marriage of player, coach, and system. McNabb is in his mid-30’s now, but he had been largely productive over the last couple of years. Mike Shanahan likes mobile veteran QB’s; McNabb is a mobile veteran QB. Shanahan ran a version of the West Coast offense all those years in Denver; McNabb had run Andy Reid’s variation of the West Coast offense for basically his entire career. And yet something just never clicked…some wondered whether McNabb had gotten himself into good physical shape prior to the year. He seemed to want to ingrain himself into the D.C. community from the start, as if he wanted to make it a long-term home of his, and McNabb, as he has done his entire career, always said the right things in the public eye…which is refreshing on the one hand, but also because of that the cynical side of you always wonders, almost like a politician, if anything that comes out of his mouth has any truth to it at all. Probably the most important factor in all of this was that McNabb, for whatever reason, simply did not perform on the field. Each game early on in the year, I waited for McNabb, who was a streaky passer his whole career, to all of a sudden catch fire in a game and carry the entire offense for a quarter or 2 at a time…but that just never seemed to happen. Maybe McNabb’s skills weren’t suited for Shanahan’s offense at all. Maybe he really wasn’t in great football shape that year as some had said. Maybe (and this is something that has unfortunately been racially “coded” into football talk over the years when discussing black QB’s) McNabb just wasn’t getting the complexities of the playcalling. For whatever reasons, the team, and more specifically the offense, was not seeing positive results. And when that happens, 2 people (rightly or wrongly) are going to get the bulk of the blame: the head coach and the QB. Now, I personally wanted to give McNabb the benefit of the doubt. 1st year with a new team, a lousy offensive line, a mediocre crop of receivers, no running game to speak of…not exactly a conducive environment for a quarterback to be productive. (Truthfully, I think the “17 QB’s in 13 seasons” comment I made earlier had some weight on my perspective as well. I felt the same way with Jason Campbell before McNabb: just let him stick around, and build pieces around him. Sure, he might not be a franchise QB at this point, but you could do worse. Plus, it would be nice to have some continuity for a change, and for the love of God can we not spend any more money or draft picks in trying to get a QB?)
But even if all that was true, it became evident about halfway through last year that McNabb was not performing at an NFL starting QB level. Furthermore, it seemed that not only had he somehow lost favor with the coaching staff somewhere along the line, but there even seemed to be an antagonistic relationship there as well. Neither party bad-mouthed the other through the media, but everyone got the feeling they weren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye and playing nicely behind closed doors. Adding insult to injury, it’s not like the Redskins got this guy off the scrap heap for a late round draft pick. The Washington coaching staff and player personnel department were convinced prior to acquiring him that McNabb was still the real deal. They not only paid him a lot of money (they did with Haynesworth as well, but as long as the Redskins manage the salary cap I don’t think that’s a big deal given that Dan Snyder has proven himself to be a walking breathing ATM), but they gave up to 2 early round draft picks in this past spring’s draft to get him as well…which means 2 things. 1st, they absolutely whiffed in their assessment of McNabb. 2nd, they continued the trend that the previous personnel regime started of wasting away draft picks to acquire high-priced veteran players. In the NFL, draft picks are the life blood of your team. They build your depth, and they are relatively inexpensive. The Redskins throw away draft picks like they don’t matter at all. (In the trade for McNabb and the trade dealing him away, the Redskins essentially traded 2nd and 4th round picks for a 6th round pick…nice going.) So, as I said before, McNabb is gone, and his brief stint as a Redskin will be barely remembered some 20 years from now. He will be lumped into that same list of revolving mostly forgettable QB’s over the last several years with Jeff George, Tony Banks, Danny Wuerffel, Patrick Ramsey, and Rex Grossman. John Beck is another name that is probably not far behind from being put on that list.
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