Category: Washington Redskins

Mike Florio at expresses an intriguing theory on what’s behind Donovan McNabb‘s problems with the Washington Redskins.  McNabb finds himself as the number three quarterback on the roster today.

The team has until the day after the regular season opener to make a decision on an option bonus on McNabb.  That would be too late for McNabb to find a good starting job if the team decided not to pick it up:

“As one league source explained it, McNabb realizes that the team has the power to trade him whenever the Redskins see fit.  And so the thinking is that he’s trying to force the issue by persuading the team either to trade him or to dump him sooner rather than later.

“The source suggested that McNabb is ‘pulling a Haynesworth,’ but that McNabb has been more subtle in his approach that the suspended defensive tackle.”

Its an interesting theory but I really don’t think this sounds like McNabb.  He’s not that subtle and I’d be willing to bet that the story is more about football and much more straight forward.

Rumor has it McNabb isn’t accepting coaching from offensive coordinator, Kyle Shanahan and head coach Mike Shanahan. That rings true.  Its easy to believe that, as a veteran, McNabb is used to a certain amount of latitude in how he handles his business, latitude which doesn’t fit with the very controlling Shanahan way of doing things.  Eagle’s head coach Andy Reid probably allowed this though I doubt he liked it much, which is possibly one reason why McNabb ended up in Washington in the first place.

So its really a power struggle.  McNabb is playing it NBA-style, saying, “I’m the talent.  I’ll do what I think is right or you can try to do it without me,” and the Shanahans are saying, “Coaching is more important.  We make good quarterbacks.”.  In other words, they want to prove that they can make a better quarterback out of today’s starter, Rex Grossman, a mediocre player who does what he’s told, than McNabb is now.

Talent Vs. coaching.  Its an age-old classic debate.  Of course, its also a waste of energy.  Both are necessary and the best can only be brought out of all parties involved are cooperating with each other while working together toward the same goal.  But that’s not likely to happen here where egos have gotten in the way of what’s best for the team.  In that respect I could care less about which individuals “win” this struggle.  Neither deserves it.  But on a broader scale, it should be of interest to see how it plays out.

Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, GM Bruce Allen and head coach Mike Shannahan all refused to say whether they would seek to get a part of suspended defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth‘s bonus money back.  But defensive coordinator Jim Haslett had much more to say and if half of it turns out to be true, it sounds like they might have a shot (from the Washington Post via benmaller.com):

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a player just tell me he didn’t want to play ‘Okie’ defense [the team’s base 3-4 alignment] and then later say he didn’t want to play nickel versus the run, ‘Just play me on third downs,’ ” Haslett said. “No, I’ve never had that before.

“And we tried to accommodate him. It’s a shame because he’s athletic enough. He can do almost anything he wants. Obviously, he didn’t want to do it. Good athletes can do a lot of different things. Basketball players – guards can play forwards, they can play different positions. I watch throughout the league; I see wide receivers do the ‘Wildcat.’ I think to myself, ‘If you’re a good enough athlete, you can do almost anything you want. You’ve just got to want to do it.'”

I’ve never been a big fan of taking a player’s signing bonus money back unless they clearly signed it wit the idea of breaking the terms going in.  But to flat out refuse to do your job seems like a pretty good justification to me.

One thing is clear.  The Redskins made a huge mistake in dealing with Hanesworth.  They say that there’s always a team out there willing to take a chance but Hayensworth is going to have to practically play for free if any team is going to do it again.  Even then I wonder if the damage done by having this kind of cancer on the team wouldn’t offset the advantage.