The Washington Redskins need a QB — is Colt McCoy the answer?
For the second season in a row, and their fifth season out of their last six seasons, the Washington Redskins are once again not making the playoffs. After hurrying back Robert Griffin III last year, due to owner Daniel Snyder’s wishes, the Redskins ultimately ended up ruining Griffin III and although he was healthy coming into the 2014 season, an ankle injury sidelined him for six weeks. However, it wasn’t the injury that was the main problem.
Instead, the main issue with Griffin III was that he suffered another serious leg injury. Dating back to his college career at Baylor, Griffin III has torn his ACL twice, his PCL, LCL, and he’s had the lingering ankle problem now for months. Knowing all of this, as well as his rift inside locker room with the players and mainly with head coach Jay Gruden, Griffin III will likely not be with the Redskins.
It’s easy to for some teams to blow everything up and start fresh, but for a team that did not have their first round pick over the past two years, the idea of drafting a quarterback in the top-five and going from there will not work for the Redskins. Fortunately, Washington has seen glimpses of what their backup quarterbacks can be. Kirk Cousins has had his moments in the NFL, but it’s Colt McCoy who needs to seriously be looked at to be the starting quarterback in 2015.
Sure McCoy has never been an NFL-level talent, but after his Week 7 start against the Dallas Cowboys, more people have been rooting for McCoy. It should also be noted that in Week 6 against the Tennessee Titans, McCoy replaced Cousins and won the football game as well. NFL fans always fall in love with the comeback kid. That archetype is perfect for McCoy. After so much success at the collegiate level with the Texas Longhorns, who at the time were one of the best teams in the nation, McCoy was drafted in the third round by the Cleveland Browns and he never lived up to the expectations fans had for him when he entered the league.
After three abysmal seasons in Cleveland, McCoy was signed by the San Francisco 49ers to be the backup quarterback. While he wouldn’t learn much from Colin Kaepernick, considering they’re two different quarterbacks, McCoy could learn a lot from Jim Harbaugh after the success he had in the NFL as a starting quarterback. In April, knowing that Griffin III was prone to injuries, the Redskins signed McCoy to be insurance in case of injuries to the guys in front of him.
While McCoy would get propelled into the starting lineup over Griffin III and Cousins, the reason why wasn’t because of injuries, instead, it was because of inefficient play. The sad reality is that after McCoy played the game of his life against the Cowboys, Snyder reportedly told Gruden to start Griffin III in the next three weeks in hopes of a consecutive late playoff run.
After Griffin III threw for just 106 yards on 19 passing attempts, the Redskins gave the starting duties back to McCoy for their next game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Redskins lost the game 49-27, but in no way shape or form was McCoy the reason why. In that game, McCoy completed 31 passes out of 47 attempts for just under 400 yards and three touchdowns. He did all of that without getting much time in the pocket.
In Week 14, the Redskins played the St. Louis Rams and McCoy threw two interceptions and he had to leave the game because of a neck injury. Griffin III would return in that game and since then, more controversy has been stirred up. Obviously, the Redskins didn’t plan on McCoy being their starter at the end of the season, but the NFL is a league of production, and with how well he has played in the games he has started, McCoy deserves the chance to finish out the season as the starter.
Knowing that this would likely be his last chance to start in the league, McCoy has played exceptional football despite playing for an organization that is simply dysfunctional. Another thing that needs to be said is McCoy has played at high level, despite his offensive line being among the worst in the league. The Redskins will have plenty of decisions to make in the offseason. One of those decisions needs to be cutting ties with Griffin III. Washington has problems everywhere. On top of their bad offensive line, the Redskins have one of the league’s worst defenses.
Over the offseason, the Redskins need to spend their high draft pick on a position of need. Considering their unclear quarterback situation, Washington would be smart to draft a quarterback in the middle-to-lower rounds. It’s unclear whether McCoy is the long-term future in Washington, but with a full training camp, McCoy should be given the opportunity to start at the beginning of the 2015 season. If he doesn’t play well to start the season, the Redskins should give their starting quarterback keys to the rookie they drafted.
Consistency is something the Redskins have lacked over the past few years. Benching a guy like McCoy who has been doing everything in his power to win in favor of a banged-up Griffin III was a poor decision by the Redskins. When owners get too involved, it leads to a ton of problems and that’s the case with Snyder. Coach Gruden is a fan of Colt. Snyder put a ton of trust into Gruden and he needs to show that by letting Gruden make his own decisions. This will be a hot topic until the draft comes around, but until then, McCoy has played well enough to be deserving of the starting quarterback job at the start of next season.