Rex Grossman over John Beck Makes Sense for the Washington Redskins

Now that Rex Grossman has been named the starter for the Washington Redskins in their Week 1 contest with New York, tongues are wagging over the choice. Many fans feel John Beck has the bigger upside and should have drawn the start, but Mike Shanahan made the correct choice. Here are five reasons why.

John Beck Has One Year of Experience, Four Times

John Beck is essentially a second year quarterback with a few extra years sitting on the bench. Beck knows the offense, sure, but he's still growing into an NFL quarterback. His struggles in the final preseason game highlighted his inexperience, as he threw a street-ball jumper in the end zone, and a few rushed sidearm throws that an experienced leader would have not.

He does have a great upside if he continues to progress at the rate we've seen, but for now watching and learning from the sideline can only help him.

Who Do You Trust?

Kyle Shanahan never planned on starting anyone else. Does anyone remember the circus surrounding the McNabb benching last year? The only thing we knew for sure was that Kyle never wanted him in the first place.

The offensive coordinator for Washington has envisioned Rex Grossman as his starter since the day he was hired. Why does this matter? Simply because if you trust a coach enough to let him run the offense, you have to let him run it with his choice of personnel. Sooner or later, Kyle needs to separate himself from his father professionally, and Kyle sees something in Rex that he trusts and likes. The Head Coach should have and did defer to his Offensive Coordinator in this instance.

Experience in This Offense Counts

Rex has already been the starter. He's been a starter in this league before, and he finished the season starting last year. He not only knows the system better than Beck, he's run it at the full speed of regular season.

That doesn't mean Beck can't do it. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to see John Beck step in and take over halfway through the season if Grossman turns out to be the QB everyone but the Shanahans seem to think he is. But this is actually another reason to keep Beck in reserve, since putting him in will require the rest of the Redskins opponents to revamp their game plan against Washington's offense.

The Time to Win Is Now

The Week 1 game is against a division rival. Building John Beck into a starter is all well and good, but if you want to compete in your division this season, you have to beat your division rivals.

The Redskins have no time to let a young QB adjust to the speed of regular season. Washington faces a team that's dominated them the last five years. By any measure, Rex Grossman has the best chance of walking out of the tunnel on opening day and winning this game.

Rex Has Been There and Done That

Rex Grossman played in a Superbowl. Seriously. Would you rather have an untested Beck start over a guy who has played in the big show? I can already hear you shouting, "But the Bears went on the strength of their defense!" So what? Do you really think a defense can go all the way without any help from the offense whatsoever?

I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous. Rex Grossman has to be at worst a competent, capable signal caller with experience at the highest levels of the game. The biggest knock against Grossman has always been his tendency to not protect the ball.  That is indeed a serious issue, but it doesn't mean he's not good at everything else.  This man belongs under center September 11th.