Washington Redskins: Donovan McNabb Benching No Matter of Disrespect

Donovan McNabb was supposed to be the leader and player that Jason Campbell was unable to be last year. But with the same awful offensive line and poor compliment of offensive weapons, his fate is identical to Campbell's. He has already been benched for Sunday's game against the Cowboys, and is likely to see the rest of the season from the same vantage point.

McNabb's agent cried foul on the Redskins, saying that McNabb has never been so disrespected in his career.

Fletcher Smith, McNabb's agent, apparently didn't see the midseason, halftime benching McNabb had during the 2008 season or Andy Reid's assertion that McNabb wasn't going anywhere just days before he was traded to Washington. If McNabb was getting the job done, it would be supremely disrespectful to bench him. But he has more interceptions than touchdowns and has not led the Redskins to any wins with ample opportunities.

Anywhere you go in the league, performance dictates playing time and McNabb has not performed.

Throwing for 3,377 yards doesn't mean anything with just 14 touchdowns against 15 interceptions. It will be the first season in which he will finish with more interceptions than touchdowns. He has more multi-interception games than multi-touchdown games (2:4) and has the second lowest completion of his career at 58.3.

For an inaccurate quarterback like McNabb, that says a lot about his play this season.

McNabb being benched is as much his fault as it is the team's, but anyone who expected him to beat the world with the personnel the Redskins assembled on offense was not in their right mind. The Redskins are a bad team, and McNabb is not equipped to play on a bad team at this advanced stage in his career. Is it so difficult to see that fact?

Trading for McNabb was a mistake, especially considering how far that second round pick would have gone in last year's draft.

The Redskins are out of playoff contention and switching to evaluation mode for the final three games of the season. With very little young talent, the evaluation is likely to reveal more holes than anything else. Even with his contract extension, McNabb is not expected to be with the team next season, especially following this latest benching.

Rex Grossman gets his first start of the season Sunday against Dallas, and no one is expecting much from him or the team.

Washington has a lot to fix over the next several months before next season, assuming there is no lockout. There are too many problems to fix in one offseason, and expecting instant success after this travesty of a season is unrealistic. McNabb should never have been a Redskins and after this season it will be as though he never was.