Sunday’s OT loss to the Cowboys was a different animal all together. The Redskins were an almost unheard of 7.5 point home dog to a divisional opponent (and hated rival). Washington made enough bumbling plays to assure everyone that they were in fact the same old Redskins: a Fred Davis fumble, an ill-advised Rex Grossman interception, letting an All-Pro yet not exactly “fleet of foot” tight end score on like a 60 yard pass play, allowing the Cowboys to pick up a 3rd and 15 in overtime, etc. And yet at the same time they actually displayed some fight and enough play-making ability at other times that they probably should’ve won the game. A win would have done some good for this franchise. It would have ended a 5 game losing streak, avenged another last second loss to said hated divisional rival from earlier this year, and put the Skins at 4-6, which as bad as they had been for 5 weeks would have only put them at 2 games out of 1st place in the mediocre NFC East with 3 divisional games still left to play against the Eagles and Giants…still, while that would have put them mathematically still in the playoff hunt, I think only the most widely delusional Redskins fans would mistake that for an actual shot at making the postseason, but as fans all we ask for is the illusion of hope sometimes. When Graham Gano’s 52 yard overtime field goal attempt sailed just a smidge wide, and then the Cowboys kicker narrowly made his attempt only a few minutes later even that glimpse of hope was extinguished yesterday as well.
Ahhh...the illusion of hope.
What kind of drives me crazy about this season is how people have generally lost sight of the fact that this was supposed to be a rebuilding year in the 1st place…such is the curse of having a surprising 3-1 start I guess. And the Shanahan regime has been far from perfect, but I think it’s fair to say that most of this team’s problems stem from poor decisions made by previous eras of Redskins decision-makers. I guess it is less fun to talk about the sins of the last 10-15 years than to bash the current head-honchos though. For years, Washington was constantly in win-now mode as they signed every high-priced free agent they could find and gave away early round draft picks like they were free samples at the supermarket. This personnel acquiring style generally doesn’t work in any sport, but especially not in pro football. What it did was allow the Redskins to at the very least be mediocre every year, usually hovering in the 6-10, 7-9, or 8-8 record range. Every once in a while they would actually have a year where they were good enough to be 9-7 or 10-6 and make the playoffs, but this was more fool’s gold than anything else, further convincing the Redskins brass that they were only a player or 2 away from being a true Super Bowl contender, and thus continuing the personnel cycle described above.
What’s happening this year is what knowledgeable Redskins fans have feared for quite some time. Eventually, someone at Redskins Park would come to their senses and realize that the real-life fantasy football league strategy they had been employing wasn’t working, and they would finally decide to burn the whole thing down and start from scratch. The side effects of that previous strategy include a lack of young talent, a lack of depth, and an abundance of overpriced and rapidly aging players. Cleaning house is absolutely what needed to be done to fix the franchise for the long term, but having a truly ugly season or 2 is kind of the cost of doing business. Shanahan’s biggest mistake thus far was the 1st big decision he made since signing on with Washington, and looking back it might be one the franchise doesn’t recover from before Shanahan’s time in DC is up: Donovan McNabb.
I don’t think many people thought McNabb coming to DC was a bad idea at the time. Hindsight tells us differently, but even though some wondered why Philly would trade McNabb within the division I think most people thought McNabb was a good fit with the Shanahan offense, and at the very least he would be a serviceable stopgap QB for a couple seasons. I don’t remember anyone saying he would be a huge bust that wouldn’t even make it through a full season in Washington before being relegated to wearing a headset and a baseball cap. McNabb was only 1 player, but it may have set the franchise back several seasons. 1st, it meant Washington had wasted another year without finding their franchise quarterback. Outside of Sam Bradford, the crop of QB draftees was pretty weak that particular year, but perhaps Shanahan could have signed a less expensive stopgap that season (or just rolled with Rex Grossman as a stopgap a year earlier). Also, the draft picks they gave up to get McNabb (a 2nd round pick and either a 3rd or 4th round pick) could have helped further along the rebuilding process as well. 2nd round picks should be immediate contributors and NFL starters in my book. I would consider a 3rd/4th round pick as a guy that might need a little more seasoning, but who could be a starter after a year or 2 as well. That’s 2 potential starters right there. Like I said before, hindsight is always 20/20, but knowing what we know now wouldn’t you have rather suffered through Grossman as your starter last year, used that 2nd round pick on another offensive lineman, a corner, or maybe a rush-linebacker (like they got with Kerrigan this year)? Then, depending on what you got the year before you could have either used your 1st round pick this year on Kerrigan (who looks like he is a stud…so if you think I want a do-over on him, think again) and taken Andy Dalton in the 2nd round, or used your 1st rounder on someone from this year’s talented crop of rookie QBs like Blaine Gabbert or Christian Ponder. I don’t remember the exact order of the draft, but it’s not like they couldn’t have gotten 1 of them by moving up or down in the draft or something. Either way, the team would have been a season or 2 ahead of where they are now in the rebuilding process.
This guy would sure look good in burgandy and gold.
Unfortunately, Shanahan tried to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. He tried to start the rebuilding process while at the same time still trying to stay good enough to “win now” by rolling the dice with McNabb…unfortunately, sometimes the dice come up snake eyes, and you walk away with nothing. McNabb proved this year that it was more than just him and the Shanahans not seeing eye-to-eye last year, as he was every bit of a bust in Vikings purple as he was in burgundy and gold the year before. That’s little solace for fans of a team that have seen this script play out far too many times over the last 2 decades though, and it may end up serving as the legacy of the Mike Shanahan Redskins era in the end. All we (as fans) ask for is the illusion of hope at this point…something we probably won’t feel again until next year.
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