[SmootSmack]

In many ways, this is reminiscent of Al Saunders lobbying vigorously for Todd Collins to start, to show his offense works. Can't help but think Kyle Shanahan is doing the same here. I don't doubt that his offense works (I was pretty vocal in wanting him here and I stand by it), but reality is McNabb has had to work with Portis and Torain out for an extended period of time, a RT who isn't healthy, a revolving door at RG, and journeyman Anthony Armstrong and fossil Joey Galloway as the #2 and #3 WRs for much of the season. Has McNabb been good? Far from it. But I think he deserves better than this. Seems like the Redskins wanted McNabb to publicly admit that he's hurt (which he is) so the team could then say "Well, McNabb's hurt so we need to start Grossman"

So what happens now with McNabb. Well I suppose there's the possibility that this will all be blown over and forgotten. I'm guessing that's not the case. But you never know in the fickle NFL. I'm not as down on Grossman as others here, but you don't bench McNabb for Grossman. You're not talking about benching him for the future of the franchise. You know what you're getting with Grossman. They could cut him. Neither Allen nor Mike Shanahan has any qualms about admitting a mistake, dropping the player, and moving on. If you're going to fail, don't dwell on it and futiley try to make it work. They did a good job, perhaps not with the trade, but in setting up his contract extension in such a way that dropping him won't hurt us too bad. I'm sure there's a market for McNabb but it must be limited at this point. In less than a year both Reid and Shahanan have at least implied they can without him. And it's not like McNabb is a spring chicken. I suppose this would intensify the Jake Locker rumors I hear off and on. I'd still prefer we keep McNabb another year and take Christian Ponder in the 2nd round. But that's a conversation for another day.

So I guess I was wrong about McNabb not starting this weekend (if this report is true, which it appears to be). Props to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports for being the first to hint of this last week. Others including Grant Paulsen and Chris Mortenson reported that McNabb would likely be benched. I hadn't heard that, but then again I've had my mind on other things. But unlike certain "insiders" on other boards, I won't deny when I'm wrong or backtrack.