Jason Campbell: As Good As Gone from the Washington Redskins

(Photo by: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

According to media reports, Jason Campbell is mighty confident.

He is working hard, going into his second year in Jim Zorn's system (the first time in his NFL career and only the second time since leaving high school that he will have had the same coordinator and system for two years in a row, as the Redskins have gone through as many coordinators and offenses while Campbell has been there as did Campbell's college program Auburn), and will almost certainly get more out of second-year targets Devin Thomas, Malcolm Kelly, and Fred Davis than last year..

Also, the addition of Albert Haynesworth will get Campbell's offense better field position and more opportunities, and the thin mediocre offensive line has already been addressed in free agency and will be again in the draft.

Add that to a settled secondary situation due to the departure of Shawn Springs and the certainty that the Redskins will also draft a DE high in the draft, and Campbell has every reason to believe that he will not only improve on his 2008 season (3200 yards, 62 percent completions, 13 TDs, 84 rating) but that said improvement will lead to a playoff berth and a new contract.

But there is one slight problem with that: Campbell is almost certainly not going to get the chance. The issue is not that the Redskins tried to trade Jason Campbell for Jay Cutler.

Not even Campbell can blame the Redskins for trying to exchange him for a younger, better player.

The issue is not that Denver chose Kyle Orton over Jason Campbell, because Orton, a spread—horizontal game QB going back to his days as a spread QB at Purdue, is much more similar to Tom Brady and Matt Cassel than is Campbell, who is much more of a traditional play action—vertical game QB.

It is not even that the Redskins were unable to get a second round pick for Campbell, although that is a real cause for concern. 

It is that Daniel Snyder and Vinny Cerrato obviously could care less about what effect their attempt to trade Campbell had on him. Snyder and Cerrato didn't even contact Campbell.

They simply spent an undetermined amount of time trying to trade Campbell to an unknown number of teams, and upon failing simply went home. Campbell was never notified before, during or after the process. Instead, everything that Campbell learned came through the media.

There is more context still here. 1) The Redskins have spent months refusing to give Campbell the contract extension that he badly wants.

Now I admit that Snyder's view that Campbell does not merit a contract extension based on what he shown so far is correct, but Campbell's counterpoint is a good one: Had the Redskins made the playoffs he most certainly would have gotten one, and that Campbell played well enough to win in four of the Redskins' eight losses. 

Also, by changing coaches and coordinators practically every season and fielding a team with a bad offensive line and only one good WR, Snyder has not given Campbell what he needs to succeed.

So while not giving Campbell a new contract is proper and justified based on Campbell's pedestrian performance, Snyder should be sensitive to Campbell's thinking that he is getting a bad deal; that his lack of a new contract is as much Snyder's fault (for putting together a bad team) as it is Campbell's inability to overcome it.

Instead, Snyder is conspicuously and transparently disinterested in Campbell's perspective.

2) If the entire mess with Jay Cutler was—allegedly—started by the Broncos' attempt to trade Cutler, what of the fact that the Redskins did the same to Campbell?

Snyder and the Redskins would have apparently had an interest in showing deference to the precedents that Cutler appeared to set and the media generally seemed to respect in blaming Josh McDaniels and Pat Bowlen rather than Cutler. 

Instead, Snyder and the Redskins had no problem with making it known to Campbell, the media, the fans etc. that they have little regard or respect for Campbell, and that they don't care who knows about this lack of regard or what effect it might have on Campbell's performance or on how the rest of the organization (e.g. the coaches and teammates) will respond to their lack of regard for Campbell. 

For example, much has been made of Campbell's inability or unwillingness to assert himself as a leader, well now Snyder has so undermined Campbell that it is now impossible for Campbell do do so even were Campbell now so inclined to try to act as a leader.

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