Redskins at Giants: In Todd We Trust?

Washington Redskins (6-7) vs. New York Giants (9-4)
8:15 p.m. Giants Stadium
Todd Collins or bust. Heck, why not. This season continues down the staircase from serene to strange to bizarre. As if the Redskins didn’t have enough problems to deal with. Now they have to put in a backup quarterback whose last NFL start came ten years and two days ago. The Todd Collins to Todd Yoder combination lives! Meet the Toddskins!

To those who are frightened of seeing another old quarterback under center, I have to ask this: does it really make a difference? Can Collins really do worse than Jason Campbell has done? I really don’t think so.

Now before the vast majority of Redskins fans try to run me out of town with torches, let me at least try and explain. Is Campbell really the quarterback of the future? Campbell, as of this very moment, knee injury not withstanding, is an average quarterback. He has some potential, but he’s not improving fast enough or dramatically enough for every fan to anoint him as the Redskins “savior”. He has played well at times this season. But he is slow getting rid of the ball. He doesn’t hold on to the ball very well. And he chokes in pressure situations. He has yet to lead this team to a last minute victory, the kind of drive that make average quarterbacks great. He’s certainly had his chances over his 19 starts. He had chances in back to back weeks against Tampa and Dallas. He even had two chances in the Tampa game. All three times he threw drive killing interceptions. All three were forced. All three were terrible passes.

Those in the media who agree with me try and compare him to Tony Romo. In terms of on the field experience, I guess that’s a logical comparison. They both roughly have the same amount of starts. But it’s a bad comparison because Romo has been in the league more than five years while Jason has been in the league only three. Plus, those that compare the two just to slam Campbell would be wise to look at the amount of playoff victories Romo has. In case you are wondering, it’s the same amount that I have. So comparing Campbell to Romo just to make this point is a bad idea, especially since Romo has won nothing of importance yet.

I like to compare Campbell to the other first round draft picks from the year he was drafted, the year before he was drafted and the year after (2004-06). Those quarterbacks are: Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, J.P. Losman, Alex Smith, Aaron Rodgers, Vince Young, Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler. Including Campbell, that’s ten quarterbacks.

Ben Roethlisberger has already won a Super Bowl, and after a shaky 2006, appears to be just fine and will lead Pittsburgh to its third playoff appearance in his four season. Eli Manning (more on him in a minute) is criticized more than any quarterback in the NFL. Most of that has to do with the idiotic New York media and the dumbest fan base north of Philadelphia. Slam him all you want, but Manning is about to lead the Giants to the playoffs for the third straight season. And it’s not as if the Giants have a decent running game to help him out.

Losman, Smith and Rodgers all appear to be busts. Losman is all but done in Buffalo. Smith can’t stay healthy and even when he is; he’s probably the least talented of all the quarterbacks on this list. Rodgers looked decent against Dallas a couple of weeks ago, but there’s a reason that Green Bay keeps begging Brett Favre to come back every season and putting up with his crap when he doesn’t make his mind up until training camp.

Then you have the other five quarterback just hovering in the middle. Rivers, in my opinion, is just plain awful. He still throws the ball sidearm, which is something he did at N.C. State and something that is killing him now in San Diego. In spite of Rivers, and in spite of Norv Turner, the Chargers are decent because they have a killer defense and one of the best running games in the league. Without LaDainian Tomlinson, the Chargers would be a four to five win team. However, Rivers has managed to go 22-8 in the last two seasons, so he must be doing something right. Most days, he’s able to get out of the way and let LT carry the team. So he can’t be all bad. Young, Leinart and Cutler all appear to be very promising. If you’ve watched the Broncos this season, you can see the dramatic improvement of Jay Cutler from October to the present. It is like watching a completely different quarterback. He is going to be something special. Young is doing his best to carry a team with no running game, no receivers and a mediocre defense to a playoff spot. While it’s unlikely the Titans will get one, they should finish right around 8-8 and finally have cap room to go get Young some help in the offseason. Leinart has proved to be brittle in the NFL, and he is up and down from game to game.

Right now, I’d have to put Roethlisberger, Manning, Young and Cutler well above Jason Campbell in terms of development. Leinart, Smith, Rodgers and Losman are all below him. Rivers is probably right on the same level. If you don’t believe me, go look at the career numbers. So I ask you again, is Campbell really the quarterback of the future? He’s not any better or any worse than Rivers is right now, and Rivers isn’t in the top 12-15 quarterbacks in the league. I for one would not want Philip Rivers on my team. And I’m beginning to reach the point of saying that I don’t want Campbell either.

I asked earlier if Collins could really do worse than Campbell? The answer is probably no, but it’s not as if he’s going to do any better. I equate a backup quarterback to a relief pitcher. If he’s asked to come in midway through a game and lead the team, that’s fine. But if all of a sudden, the number one guy goes down, and now the relief pitcher has five days to think about his start (or in Collins’ case, 10 days), it becomes a much different ballgame. It’s basically like asking a relief pitcher to start in the rotation for the next three weeks and give the team six to seven solid innings every time he takes the mound. It’s not going to happen because he’s not used to doing it. Asking Collins to come off the bench and lead the Redskins to three wins against teams with a combined 28-11 record with two of those games being on the road is not only unfair to him, it’s illogical. Campbell wasn’t going to do it, so you certainly can’t expect Collins to do it either.

So I guess that leads to the evening tilt at the Meadowlands. The Redskins have lost by a combined 55-3 score the last two trips to the pig farms of Northern New Jersey. They’ve been dominated from start to finish in both of those games. I would have said that without Tiki Barber, the Giants probably wouldn’t do that again. But, the Giants already own a win this season over the Redskins, so there’s no real argument to be made in favor of the Redskins winning this game.

The Skins have to hope that Eli Manning has one of his “Bad Rex” days and hands the Redskins the ball. Then, you have to hope that Al Saunders allows Todd Collins to run the entire offense, something he has yet to let Campbell attempt. Then you have to hope for the swirling winds and supposed snow to level the competition enough that this becomes a running back contest. In that case, I would take the Portis/Betts combination over whatever back the Giants decide throw out there this week. Then you have to hope Portis actually shows up. That’s a lot of hope, but at this point, with all the injuries and all the difficulties the team has had the past two weeks, hope is all the Redskins have left.