Rex Grossman is "looking to bounce back" tonight against the Jets.
That implies he was ever bounced somewhere to begin with, but that is an actual headline, with actual quotes like this:
"Rex played pretty good if you take away about three plays he had in the game," Mike Shanahan said, "and that was when we had a bad call and he didn't really have a chance to make a play.
"He ended up making a bad play a horrible play. I just want him, when he doesn't have a good play, to just survive the down."
And Charles Barkley ate pretty healthy today, if you take away three meals that weren't healthy at all. Shanny's words might make sense of rookie Sam Bradford or even sophomore Matt Ryan, but the kicker's this: Rex Grossman is an eight-year NFL veteran.
He is a guy with eight years under his belt and more interceptions than touchdowns to show for it, along with a career QB rating of 69.5. If he hasn't learned how to survive a down yet, let's not expect more of him than he's able to provide.
We may, however, expect more of the Redskins. Is this it? Is this the option?
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Guess so, with a side of John Beck. Considering that McNabb is in the sunset of his career, it's strange, isn't it, that the 'Skins are content to enter a season with Grossman and John Beck behind him? Even the Dolphins have Chad Pennington in the wings with young Tyler Thigpen incubating alongside, and Chad Henne is a strapping young man.
Maybe the Redskins wrap McNabb in bubble tape and slap a FRAGILE sticker on him every day before sending him to his car.
Maybe they hired Ricky Williams' pranic healer to send positive thoughts enveloping his body in a thin layer of magical mind-protection.
Maybe they have put Rex Grossman's skin onto a robot, and we're no longer talking about the same guy who regurgitated Shanny's lesson thusly:
"If you're in the shotgun or something, you drop the ball, don't just pick it up and try to do something."
Maybe we're taking crazy worry-pills. It's just a preseason game. But there's something altogether disconcerting about Grossman starting even an exhibition: it reminds one that the Redskins are just one worsening ankle injury, or one Bradylicious knee jerk, from it happening during the season, when things count.
And that is far, far more alarming than any uneven McNabbian performance their starter could possibly produce.
