Redskins Warpath – August 2019

McCoy believed him, as many others did. But it

turned out there was a competition going on behind

the scenes over who would select the starting quarter-

back. Gruden was adamant about not living with Grif-

fin as the starter for another season, and then-general

manager Scot McCloughan begged Snyder to let the

football people select Cousins as the starter. Griffin

made it easier with a series of poor preseason perform-

ances, but it still came as a surprise to some when Gru-

den named Cousins as the starter at the end of the

preseason. It certainly came as a surprise to McCoy,

who told me he wasn’t aware there was a quarterback

competition and was taking Gruden at his word when

he named Griffin the starter going into training camp.

That wasn’t much fun – a secret quarterback battle.

Then came three summers of stability, with Cousins

entrenched as the starter. That wasn’t much fun, either,

since it became a debate about Cousins every week.

Last summer did have the joy of the new package

that arrived at the door in Richmond – quarterback

Alex Smith. He was a long-time winning quarterback

in Kansas City, coming off a career year before being

traded to Washington, and there was the anticipation

of seeing him take the field for the Redskins. Alas, that

anticipation diminished to anxiety, when, even with

Washington posting a winning 6-3 record, it was clear

that Smith was at best a game manager at the end of

his career.

This training camp, though, is different – a long

time coming, perhaps going back to the days the last

time the Redskins drafted a quarterback with such

promise, Heath Shuler, in 1994. As we all know, that

didn’t end well.

Haskins has what is left of the damaged Redskins

fan base pumped up heading for Richmond, and the

watch over him, Keenum and McCoy will be the at-

traction at training camp. It was the attraction at

rookie mini-camp, OTAs and mandatory mini-camp.

All questions start and end about the quarterback, and

Gruden will be asked every time he is in front of the

microphone in Richmond who is winning. He was

peppered with such questions at Redskins Park.

“We’re not even thinking about that right now,”

Gruden told reporters after mini-camp ended. “We’ll

let these guys continue to play and see which one con-

tinues to improve, which one is most consistent

throughout the training camp and preseason and we’ll

Richmond should be fun. At the very least, it
shouldn’t be boring.
We are being led to believe there is a real quarter-
back competition going on, and that always adds a
layer of excitement and intrigue to training camp.
So the battle between rookie quarterback and Dan
Snyder’s hand-picked quarterback, Dwayne Haskins,
newcomer Case Keenum, and, if he is healthy, long-
time Redskins backup quarterback Colt McCoy (now
entering his fifth season with Washington) should be
worth watching, for every snap, for every completed
pass, for every scramble.
“Yeah, for sure. We have to have that,” Gruden
told reporters last month, confirming that Haskins
will have the chance to win the job. “I mean Case
coming off of the most experience is great. Colt has
the most experience with this terminology in this sys-
tem, and Dwayne was the 15th pick in the draft. We’ll
see what happens.”
Heck, Rex Grossman and John Beck was fun in
2011 – the last time we officially had a competition
for the coveted position. If Grossman and Beck could
fire people up, then this should be a hot August in
Richmond.
We’ve had quarterback intrigue since that leg-

endary Grossman-Beck battle. After all, the 2013
camp gave us Robert Griffin III’s ill-fated “All in for
Week One” rehab campaign, with his daily passive-
aggressive comments letting Mike Shanahan know
that he, not the coach, will decide when he can take
the field.
The 2014 camp will be remembered for the reve-
lations that Griffin may not indeed be an NFL quar-
terback. A full year had come and gone since his
recovery from torn knee ligaments, and in Richmond,
where the Patriots spent a few days in joint practices
with the Redskins, New England coaches were pri-
vately telling the media that Griffin was unimpres-
sive, and that Kirk Cousins was a better quarterback.
The following training camp we had the secret
quarterback battle between Griffin, Cousins and
McCoy. In January, coach Jay Gruden declared there
would be competition for the starting quarterback po-
sition for the 2015 season. But somebody got to him,
and Gruden followed that up with his infamous
hostage video at the NFL combine the next month,
telling everyone that Griffin was the starter.

20 Warpath AUGUST 6, 2019

go from there.”

The other competition that will take place away

from the field is who will pick the starting quarter-

back. Will Gruden, who is believed to be fighting for

his job this season, want the safer choice in Keenum?

Or will Snyder, who overruled his front office and de-

manded they select Haskins with the 15th pick in the

first round, order them to start Haskins?

There are other players worth watching, of course.

The team’s other first-round selection, linebacker

Martez Sweat, will catch his share of looks with ath-

leticism and his addition to a promising young defen-

sive front seven. And since there are so many

questions about an unproven receiving corps, the

youngsters like Cam Sims and rookie Terry McLaurin

will be under the microscope.

But the main act of training camp will be the start-

ing quarterback. There will be plenty of drama, both

on and off the field.

MAIN ATTRACTION

The competition between first-rounder Dwayne Hask-

ins, journeyman Case Keenum and long-time backup

Colt McCoy will add a layer of needed excitement to

Redskins’ camp this summer.

“Haskins has what is left of the damaged Redskins

fan base pumped up heading for Richmond,

and the watch over him, Keenum and McCoy

will be the attraction at training camp.”

Thom Loverro

It’s a quarterback contest, right?

NO PRESSURE, NO DIAMOND