Mike Shanahan, we hardly knew ya. The genius is being exposed as a guy who was simply along for the ride at the twilight of John Elway’s NFL career, his reputation as an offensive guru now offensive in retrospect.
“I basically say, Screw the awkwardness. I’m trying to be the starting quarterback,” said John Beck, the four-year veteran who hasn’t played since his rookie season in Miami, and is yet somehow going around telling everybody who will listen that he thinks he will be the starting quarterback for the Washington Redskins next fall.
Also on that train: once-disgraced former Chicago Bears starting QB Rex Grossman, who made three starts following Opening Day starter Donovan McNabb’s dual demotions in 2010.
“I definitely feel like I’m the starter, but I’m not even signed yet, so I’m assuming a lot of things here,” said Grossman, whose effieiency rating (81.2) was only negligibly better than McNabb’s (77.1) despite his oft-stated contention that he knows Shanahan’s offense better than McNabb.
(Grossman’s career 70.9 passer rating also suggests that his numbers last year could have been skewed by the small sample size of having started only three games. Shanahan will find that out this fall.)
Shanahan, for his part, also seems to be assuming a lot of things – notably not taking a quarterback in the 2011 NFL Draft, meaning he’s likely to go with Grossman, Beck and whatever he can find off the free-agent wire scrap heap as his guys in 2011.
It’s hard to fgure that a coach could make us pine for the salad days of Steve Spurrier, but we’re there.
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