Rex Grossman: The Strengths and Weaknesses Behind the New Star Quarterback

Rex Grossman showed incredible leadership skills and passing ability in Sunday's game versus the Giants. While he had multiple areas of strength, there was also weak points in his game. It may be pass completion percentage or the ability to throw the ball away when under pressure. 

In this article, we will take a look at Rex Grossman's strengths and weaknesses after playing Sunday's game.

Weakness: Handing off the Ball to the RB on First Down

This is something I have seen with many teams throughout the league. Teams seem to always want to give the running back the ball when they achieve a first down. This way of playing may work for some teams with amazing running backs, the Texans with Arian Foster and the Vikings with Adrian Peterson, but Tim Hightower is not that good yet. After watching the game against the Giants, Hightower would be handed the ball and would be stopped one or two yards in front of the line of scrimmage, the line of scrimmage or behind it. They would keep giving him the ball in hopes of yard gain but would fail almost every time. It was only towards the beginning of the second half that they started relying more on receivers and tight ends to move the ball up the field.  

I am not saying that they should completely forget about rushing the ball. Quite the contrary in fact. Rushing the ball is a great way to pick up yards and should be taken advantage of. They should train Hightower to penetrate the defense better in order to gain more yards. Until then, Grossman should pass the ball to the wide receivers and tight ends. 

Strength: Using the Tight Ends as Much as the Wide Receivers

When one thinks of "receiving yards," the first position that comes to mind is wide receiver. Those are the players that usually get the most receiving yards. In some special cases, quarterbacks use tight ends just as much as wide receivers to get the receiving yards. Fortunately, Rex Grossman is one of those cases.

In Sunday's game against the Giants, it wasn't a wide receiver that had the most receiving yards, but a tight end. Fred Davis had the most yards, 105. Davis is usually the tight end that plays in the shadow of star TE Chris Cooley. He stood out as a solid player when he had to replace Cooley, who had just come off a knee injury. The reason that QBs need to use tight ends as much as wide receivers is simple. 

The way to gain yards and move up the field by passing is to always keep the defense guessing. If the quarterback always throws the ball to the same player, the defense is going to know how to cover and stop them. Even with two or three WR's, the defense can easily shut down the offense by isolating the WR. It gets really tricky for the team to cover four or five player options for the quarterback. That is what Rex Grossman does really well. 

Weakness: Not Throwing Away the Ball When Under Pressure of Defense

I observed multiple times yesterday a sacking of Grossman that could have been easily avoided. While the sacks were only during short periods of time, he was sacked in rapid succession. Two easily avoidable sacks by the defense were made in a row. It wasn't one of those sacks where the quarterback had no way of knowing the defender was there. At least three players came at him from the front. 

It isn't the quarterback's fault sometimes when he is sacked. His pass protection could be awful and practically let the defense go by them. In this case, it wasn't. Grossman needs to throw the ball away when under such an enormous amount of pressure by the defense. 

If he doesn't improve this soon, he'll be seeing many more nose tackles up in his face. 

Strength: Positive Attitude

Some may scoff at this idea for a strength, but for the Redskins, it is a necessity for one of the team leaders to have a positive attitude about the team. 

Rex Grossman said a week ago that he believes the Redskins can win the NFC East. This is important to the Redskins because they have not had a good team for almost 20 years. They usually ended up not making the playoffs or making an early playoff appearance. Fletcher, the self-appointed leader of the team, called off "Victory Monday," a day in which a team takes Monday practice off after winning Sunday's match and putting on a practice. He also felt compelled to tell the whole team that they finally have a real team. 

Just the fact that a veteran like Fletcher, to do and say such things, shows how much of an influence Grossman's positive attitude has had on the team. 

Conclusion

Rex Grossman played better than most people thought he would on Sunday. There are still things he must improve if they want any chance at winning the NFC East.

He knows what he needs to improve and hopefully will.

If you disagree or think that I missed something, please don't hesitate to post with your own comments and opinions.