Donovan McNabb: Mike Shanahan's Favorite Scapegoat Sees The Bench Again

So. It’s Week 15. You’re a five win team. You’re, without a doubt, not going to make to make the playoffs and your third in your division. You’re going into Arlington to face off against your most hated rival and, aside from pride, you’re not really playing for anything. Still, it’s all about winning. Right?

You’ve got this guy at quarterback who, over the course of his career, has been pretty good; six Pro Bowl appearances, five NFC Championship appearances, a Super Bowl loss and an average passer rating of 85.8 over the course of his 11 year career. Still not convinced? The guy broke a couple of records,  posted the third highest winning percentage of active quarterbacks (the other two being guys named Brady and Manning), and that's just another day at the office.

You bench him in a very winnable game and the next week sign him to a huge contract. He’s your guy, you say. Five more years, the crowd chants in the parking lot of Fed Ex field right before being manhandled by Mike Vick and the Eagles. So now what?

Well, it’s all about winning. Right?

That’s Mike Shanahan’s mantra, as well it should be. Winning is the most important thing in the NFL. It makes sense that he put that guy I just talked about (his name is Donovan McNabb if you were curious) on the bench in favor of Rex Grossman, Rex “the Mess” Grossman as I like to call him. Grossman has had one career season in 2006 when he and the Chicago Bears made it to the Super Bowl. They lost, of course, in part because of his poor play. In fact, fans in Chi-town were calling for his head that year. It was the only season of his career in which he played all 16 games, and while he threw for 23 touchdowns, he had a staggering 21 interceptions and 8 fumbles. The next season he stared in only seven games and the one after only one. Then he was sent packing to Houston and finally to Washington.

I won’t bore you with comparative statistics between McNabb and Grossman. There is no parallel, McNabb is better. You know it, I know it, and the fans in Washington know it. The only person who doesn’t seem to know it is Mike Shanahan. This is the second time this season McNabb has been benched in favor of Grossman, the first time because of McNabb’s weak understanding of Shanahan’s offense and his cardiovascular unfitness…or whatever.

Here’s the thing: McNabb is a future hall of famer who has been embarrassed more times in this calendar year than any third string offensive lineman even deserves. To say, to even think, that Rex Grossman gives you a better shot at winning is like saying eating broken glass is good for your throat.

Yes, the Redskins have only won five games this season, but most of those wins are because of McNabb. Last week he did everything he could to try and win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and threw a late fourth quarter touchdown for the tie. That is, until that moron punter messed up the snap and blew the game.

Granted, McNabb has thrown 15 interceptions this season, a career high, but take a look around: the man has very little to work with. There’s Chris Cooley, who’s pretty good, and Santana Moss, who had a great game against the Bucs on Sunday. But then, there’s not a whole lot else on the offensive side of the ball, especially with the absence of Clinton Portis, Malcolm Kelly, Chad Simpson and Mike Furrey. While not all of these guys are big names, or even starters necessarily, it would help to have a few more targets on the field. McNabb is very limited out there.

There’s more though. It seems Shanahan has done everything in his power to undermine his quarterback this season. Does he hate McNabb? I wonder. He must. Either that or he has no respect for him. People loved the idea of a Shanahan-McNabb combo but it’s not working.

Who’s to blame? Obviously, the quarterback is going to bear most of the brunt, because Shanahan is a Super Bowl winning coach. But a closer look at Shanahan’s career suggests that maybe he’s not as good as people seem to think. We have forgotten a few things about Shanahan.

For example he coached the L.A. Raiders to a whopping 8 wins in two seasons before being fired after four games in 1989. Granted, he won those two Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998, on the back of some guy named Elway, but what happened after that? Well, from 1999 to 2010 Shanahan has headed only five winning seasons. That’s not a lot considering coaches like Andy Reid have ten winning seasons in that same time frame (in all fairness, Shanahan did not coach in the 2009-2010 season, but he did get fired for his poor performance in Denver).

Prior to this season everyone seemed to be under the impression that Elway was great because of Shanahan's superior coaching and abilities to develop players. Could it be, though, that Shanahan was considered great because Elway was amazing? Could it also be that Shanahan isn’t as good as we all thought?  

McNabb is a classy guy who would never stoop down to throwing people under the bus, even if they’re team mates who criticize him (T.O., Desean Jackson) or an entire city who spits on him, despite best player in the history that city’s football team. He won’t say it, so I will: Mike Shanahan is a joke. Dan Snyder is a joke and McNabb deserves better.

He deserves a coach who will trust him if for no other reason than the fact that his is one of the best quarterbacks of the last ten years. He deserves time to develop in a brand new and unfamiliar system. He deserves to play and be given the opportunity to develop further, even under less than ideal conditions. I would be willing to bet money that if McNabb stays in D.C. after this season, the Redskins will be a force to be reckoned with, but no one can be sure that will happen.

If Shanahan is benching him because their season is virtually over anyway, fine, I get that. But I doubt that’s the case. I don’t know that Shanahan wanted McNabb in the first place and this may be his way of making that point clear. Shanahan may be digging his own grave and showing his true colors as a detached and clueless coach.

How much support do you think he’ll garner if he continues to sit veteran leaders like McNabb? How much longer do you think he’ll have in Washington if he keeps losing, because I bet you if McNabb doesn’t stay they don’t next year either. Mike Shanahan might become the best coach to ever be fired by three different teams. And Donovan McNabb may take a page form Brett Favre’s book and make a trip to Minnesota where I’m sure Leslie Frazier, or whoever’s in charge at the time, will appreciate him just a little bit more.