Donovan McNabb's days of running the Washington Redskins offense are over this year, and maybe forever. Head coach Mike Shanahan has benched him for the rest of the season in order to look at the other quarterbacks on the roster. McNabb will not even be the backup either. He will be placed 3rd on the depth chart behind Rex Grossman, the new starter, and John Beck. McNabb has struggled mightily this year and the Redskins cannot make the playoffs, and so Shanahan has decided to use the final three games to evaluate Grossman and Beck.
McNabb has had a miserable season this year. His numbers look like those of his rookie season as a Philadelphia Eagle a decade ago, except with more interceptions. This year he has a career-high 15 picks compared to only 14 touchdowns. If it is true that he will not play again this year, it will be the first time in his career that he finished with more picks than scores. His passer rating is also a career-low 77.1. The only stat that looks right for McNabb this year is his passing yards. He totaled 3,377 this year, which is good for 4th best over his 12 year career. It is unclear whether his poor year is because of a downgrade in players around him or if he has started his decline.
McNabb has not reached the age of no return as three of the elite quarterbacks are over 30 years old with 2 of them being the same age as McNabb, 34. The three QB's I'm referring to are Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees. Manning and Brees are each having fine years at ages 34 and 31. Brady is having a phenomenal year posting numbers similar to his career year in 2007 and he is also age 34. The common factor that Brady, Manning, and Brees have that McNabb doesn't is that they have plenty of weapons to go to. In New England, everybody knows about Welker and Branch, but besides them Brady also has two good rookie tight ends and a receiver-back that has also proved to be quite useful. In Indianapolis, Manning has Wayne and Garcon, and usually more if injuries didn't take down Dallas Clark and Austin Collie. But backups Jacob Tamme and Blair White have proved to be viable options in place of those two. In New Orleans, Brees has Colston, Meachem, Henderson, Moore, and Thomas along with two viable tight ends. But in D.C., McNabb only has veterans Santana Moss and Chris Cooley. He also has young receiver Anthony Armstrong, but he really is only a deep threat. Donovan McNabb simply does not have the firepower to put up good numbers, not to mention a shaky line that has allowed him to be sacked 37 times.
Last month McNabb signed a 5-year, 78 mil extension with the Redskins and said he could see himself playing for the Redskins for the rest of his career. But that can be easily disregarded because the only guarantees of the extension was that McNabb got a 3.5 million dollar raise this year. There is a clause in the contract that allows the Skins to cut McNabb at any point before next season and all financial obligations will be dropped. With Shanahan telling McNabb that he may not be on the team next year, you can rest assure he will not be on the roster for the 2011 Skins. This immediately brings up the question, where is McNabb's next destination?
There are plenty of teams that need a QB, like: Seattle, Carolina, Buffalo, San Fran, and Minnesota. Tennessee, Oakland, and the New York Jets could also be possible suitors. If teams look at this as a fluke year because of little talent on Washington's offense, then McNabb may be in for quite the payday. But if teams look at this year as the start of his decline, then he will probably only get a 1 or 2 year contract paying him modest money. Regardless of how much he gets paid, if he becomes a free agent, the media will be all over it. The sports world could very well see three straight seasons of dominated by one free agent. First it was the Summer of LeBron, then the Winter of Lee followed, and it looks like the next stop on this wild ride is the Spring of McNabb.
References
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5929516
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=1753
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=2330
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=1428
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=2580
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