No Quarterbacks in DC

Today, media sources reported that the Redskins will bench Robert Griffin III for Sunday’s game against the Colts, in favor of Colt McCoy.

This has started quite the buzz around DC, most especially surrounding what this will mean going forward for the team.  Under the terms of Griffin’s contract, he will be a free agent after the 2015 season if the Redskins decide not to pick up an option for the 2016 season.

I was once a big Griffin supporter, advocating for him over inserting Kirk Cousins.  Griffin has come in this year and been truly awful.  I could further elaborate on all his football sins, but many of you are already aware of them.  His yards-per-completion has fallen each year, and he has thrown two touchdowns in five starts.  His 173.8 yards-per-game is befitting a game manager (and a pedestrian one at that), not a guy who was picked second overall after exchanging three years of first round picks.

Which brings us to Colt McCoy.  The most spoken phrase this week has been “he won two games!  You gotta give him a shot.”

Granted, I suppose you do.  But let’s not kid ourselves, Colt McCoy is not the long-term answer.  His next few starts will tell us something about his ability, and maybe he will flourish, but the numbers on McCoy are not promising.  He’s a career 7-15 as a starter, and has thrown only one more touchdown than interceptions.  During his two years as a Cleveland starter, he averaged a QBR of around 42.  He was replaced by Brandon Weeden, who has since been replaced.

Of course, Cleveland has not exactly been the model of organizational consistency, and plenty of guys would have likely failed in McCoy’s situation.  That is a fair point, and one that should not be lost in this discussion.  But, the temptation to think he will be a more consistent winner than Griffin is nothing more than overwrought expectations.

We have seen Griffin win a division.  He’s done it, albeit under a different system, but it’s happened.  McCoy has no such pedigree, and while backups every once in a while turn into Tom Brady, Trent Dilfer, or Kurt Warner, very few guys become viable starters after being with three teams in as many years.  Griffin certainly deserved a benching, and his status as a bust will be cemented shortly.  But Colt McCoy, given his past performance, is not likely to be anything special.  The belief in Colt should be short-term, not only due to his numbers, but also because the Redskins have proven beyond doubt that they find most ways to muck up even the most promising situations.

To account for all this, it appears Washington has a number two overall pick that can’t make the necessary adjustments to the pro level and a quarterback who had better numbers only than Tarvaris Jackson and Curtis Painter (to name two) in the two years he started full-time.  This is all on top of Cousins, who has been inactive.

In short, the Redskins have no quarterbacks.