Grossman Gets the Nod

In a somewhat surprising move, the Redskins announced last night that Rex Grossman would start the opener on Sept. 11th against the New York Giants.  This comes after a preseason where it was pretty much assumed that John Beck was the guy from the start and it was his job to lose.  There are several schools of thought on why the Redskins made this move, as Dan Graziano points out on the ESPN NFC East blog.  With the way the Shanahans have run this Mickey Mouse operation since the start, we'll just never know for sure.  However, at this point, considering who was competing, I'll take their word at face value and accept that this really was a legitimate open competition for the starting job and Grossman won it. 

We have to keep in mind that Grossman vs. Beck is not exactly the thing of legend like Sonny vs. Billy back in the 70s.  We're not dealing with Hall of Fame talent.  Needless to say, neither one of these guys were drafted in MIISFFL over the weekend.  Again, assuming this was an open competition, Grossman gets the nod pretty much because he A) put up better stats in the preseason (92 rating for Grossman compared to 75 for Beck) and B) he has been in Kyle Shanahan's offense longer and knows the system well.  However, that was one of last year's excuses for putting Grossman in to run the 2-minute drill against Detroit...and we all know how THAT turned out.

Bottom line is this, Grossman "won" the "competition," but you have to assume that as soon as he starts to falter (which could very well be in the first game staring down the barrell of the Giants' defensive line), Beck should have his helmet on and ready to go.  The success of whoever is playing quaterback will depend on 2 things.  First, the offensive line must be able to pass protect (as is the case with every team).  They looked shaky at times in the preseason, especially in the first half of the Tampa game.  Second, the running game will have to be effective, which it was.  Believe it or not, Tim Hightower was drafted in the 7th round in MIISFFL. 

Giants at Redskins-Sunday at 4:15PM