Washington Redskins Football Team Commanders History Discussion Thread

[SkinsFTW]

Brad Johnson was a pro bowl QB but I do happen to remember a lot of fans being so exited that Doofus Dan was replacing his "noodle arm" with Jeff George.

It was comical.

 

[NickyJ]

I just want to say, I really love this thread. I hate admitting that I'm more engaged when there's controversy, but it's true. With Jayden set and the team doing fine, all I've had to argue about is Sam Hartman. It's like eating a vegan diet. All bland and healthy and stuff. But the moment I saw Heinicke's name back...

 

[JamesJohnson]

Interesting to look back on all the eras of this franchise’s history.

 

[heisenberg]

You forgot braves in the thread title.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Brad Johnson was a pro bowl QB but I do happen to remember a lot of fans being so exited that Doofus Dan was replacing his "noodle arm" with Jeff George.

It was comical.

I personally thought it was one of the dumbest things I had ever seen. Because George was coming off a huge season with the Vikings, and they couldn't wait to get rid of him.

Who was that dumbass large reporter who was basically Jeff George's agent? Said he had a better arm than Favre and if somebody would just give him a chance? I can't remember.

I was only 24 when the 2000 off-season took place, but I remember thinking that they took a pretty good team, a team that won a playoff game, and turned it upside down by bringing in George, Bruce Smith, Deion, Carrier, and a few others. I remember somebody saying "Dan Snyder went and brought a Pro bowl team, the problem is he bought the 1996 pro bowl team."

 

[SkinsFTW]

I personally thought it was one of the dumbest things I had ever seen. Because George was coming off a huge season with the Vikings, and they couldn't wait to get rid of him.

Who was that dumbass large reporter who was basically Jeff George's agent? Said he had a better arm than Favre and if somebody would just give him a chance? I can't remember.

I was only 24 when the 2000 off-season took place, but I remember thinking that they took a pretty good team, a team that won a playoff game, and turned it upside down by bringing in George, Bruce Smith, Deion, Carrier, and a few others. I remember somebody saying "Dan Snyder went and brought a Pro bowl team, the problem is he bought the 1996 pro bowl team."

Except it was also the 1990 pro bowl team.

Oh the fat ESPN guy must be Lenny Pasquarelli.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Except it was also the 1990 pro bowl team.

Oh the fat ESPN guy must be Lenny Pasquarelli.

NO, it wasn't Pasquarelli. He was a very large black man who was on Pardon the Interruption a bunch subbing in for Wilbon. I can't remember the name, but I can picture him. He wrote countless inches on how Jeff George had the capability to be the best QB in the history of the world if anybody just gave him the opportunity. My memory is that he was generally wrong about everything. Maybe his name also started with a W? I dunno. I'm not going to try and find out though, but it wasn't Len.

Len was a tool for other reasons.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Speaking of Commanders from the past, I regret to inform former Hive members (including Bram Weinstein and Callow (I'm now realizing I have no idea what Callow's first name is)) that Heinicke's NFL career might be over. He was cut by the chargers and has not been claimed as far as I can tell.

I predicted Taylor would not be signed with any other team if we released him. That was clearly wrong. He went and sucked at Atlanta before somehow getting traded to the Chargers.

I am glad he probably has enough money at this point not to have to revert to his sister's couch. Good for him for extending his career at least 2, if not 3 years longer than it should have been.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Faithful Fan I think you're playing it a bit fast and loose with the 9 year career thing. It's technically true, but the NFL gave up on Heinicke about 3 times.

2015: Vikings: He was the third string QB. NOTE: Norv was the OC, and Nepo Baby Scott Turner was the QB Coach. The story is Scott Turner was the only NFL coach who visited Heinicke's pro day.
2016: Vikings: He didn't make it to the season, he had a non-football injury between training camp and the regular season, and was placed on IR.
2017: 1) Cut by the Vikings in their initial cutdown to 53. 2) Signed by the Patriots to the PS on 9/23, then released on 10/9. 3) Signed by the Texans to their PS on 11/29, then promoted to the active roster on 12/15. He made his debut on Christmas, where he attempted 1 pass (a completion for 10 yards), got concussed, and left. He was cut on 4/18 of the following year.
2018: Ron/the Turners claimed Heinicke off of Waivers. He played in one game, got hurt, and was placed on IR.
2019: Out of the NFL. He was a backup QB for the St. Louis BattleHawks XFL team.
2020: Ron/Scott Turner signed him again as the emergency COVID QB, and then he was forced into action because Alex Smith couldn't play in the playoff game, and everybody else was hurt or released (RIP Haskins).
2021-2022: Ron and Scott stood by their guy for no particular reason, watching Heinicke through lame duck murder ball after lame duck murder ball and Terry bail his ass out over and over and over again
2023: Atlanta: Was on the roster and played horribly
2024: Traded to the Chargers. Was on the roster but didn't really have to play.
2025: Cut by Chargers and out of football.

Was it 9 years? Sure, I guess so. But the only coaches who really gave Heinicke a shot were the Turners and Ron by extension until the last 2 years. And up until 2020, he was only on an active roster for a full year once in 2015. Every other season he was either up and down from the PS, traded, on IR, or something.

He owes his entire career to Scott Turner, and probably Terry. For a few stretches of games, he got very lucky. He played well in 3-4 games, ironically 2 of them against Tampa, the playoff game which they lost and the regular season game they won.

But otherwise, he's always been a bad, back of the roster, up and down from the PS player. The only time he had any sustained success were 2 ~5 game lucky spurts in 2021 and 2022. Remember, he was SO bad towards the end of 2022, Ron put Wentz BACK in because he was coming off of 4 absolutely miserable performances and we were in playoff position.
Vs. Falcons completed only 14 passes, threw an INT, and we somehow won anyway.
Vs. Giants took 5 sacks and fumbled (This was a tie)
@Giants 58% completion and lost 2 fumbles
@SF 1 INT and 2 fumbles and then got pulled.

I know he gained cult status for a variety of reasons, his moxie, etc. But the simple truth is absent being signed to a COVID contract in 2020 and Alex Smith not being able to play, he probably wouldn't have even gotten his 4th chance. He made the most of it, and good on him for doing it.

But he was generally somewhere between below average and horrendous most of the games he played, and the team won in spite of him and bailed him out, or he got lucky with completions out of nowhere or defenders dropping INTs.

When the luck ran out, he lasted 2 years and went back to being just a bad afterthought.

 

[HOF44]

But we are talking about the 3rd string QB position. Not a lot of sterling resumes in that spot.

 

[Faithful Fan]

Voice_of_Reason thanks for the reply. I think the discussion was okay where it was as Heinicke is a free agent who would be an upgrade at QB3, but here is fine too.

You seem to think he never belonged in the NFL. I disagree. A lot of teams thought he was worthy of a practice squad spot, roster spot, salary, draft pick, etc., and it wasn’t just Turner, although admittedly he was the one who believed in him most. Atlanta paid $7 million for him, and San Diego gave up a draft pick.

I think his is a cool story. He was great in high school but not recruited because of his size, then he was great at little ODU, then undrafted. Over his professional career he worked his way from being on the roster bubble to a decent QB2, won 13 games, scored 42 touchdowns, and earned close to $20 million in the process. Was he ever a quality NFL starter? No. Did he have a decent career for an undrafted kid out of ODU? Certainly yes. And was he better than Josh Johnson (which is how this conversation started)? Again, certainly yes.

If you just said he was never a good QB1, then I would have agreed, but I just don’t get the insistence he never belonged in the NFL, it’s over-the-top negativity and a sign of an oddly obsessive bias against a guy who many of us enjoyed cheering for during an otherwise bleak era of Washington football.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Voice_of_Reason thanks for the reply. I think the discussion was okay where it was as Heinicke is a free agent who would be an upgrade at QB3, but here is fine too.

You seem to think he never belonged in the NFL. I disagree. A lot of teams thought he was worthy of a practice squad spot, roster spot, salary, draft pick, etc., and it wasn’t just Turner, although admittedly he was the one who believed in him most. Atlanta paid $7 million for him, and San Diego gave up a draft pick.

I think his is a cool story. He was great in high school but not recruited because of his size, then he was great at little ODU, then undrafted. Over his professional career he worked his way from being on the roster bubble to a decent QB2, won 13 games, scored 42 touchdowns, and earned close to $20 million in the process. Was he ever a quality NFL starter? No. Did he have a decent career for an undrafted kid out of ODU? Certainly yes. And was he better than Josh Johnson (which is how this conversation started)? Again, certainly yes.

If you just said he was never a good QB1, then I would have agreed, but I just don’t get the insistence he never belonged in the NFL, it’s over-the-top negativity and a sign of an oddly obsessive bias against a guy who many of us enjoyed cheering for during an otherwise bleak era of Washington football.

I think there was basically one guy who thought he deserved to be in the NFL. If Scott Turner hadn't visited his pro-day, he might never have even been signed as an UDFA by Minnesota. And he only made the team because the guy he was competing with for the third string job got hurt and placed on IR.

I know that he had a lot of fans that enjoyed watching him. After about 3 weeks, I cringed every time he took the field because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt the field had shrunk. The defense didn't have to defend any type of sideline throw, intermediate throws had to be wide open, and anything deep was going to be a contested ball. Yeah, he chucked a bunch to Terry, and he caught a few.

But it was, overall, bad football. It was painful to watch. It was limiting for the team, and while there were some who enjoyed watching him, there were a lot who desperately wanted to see literally anybody who's physical talent wasn't so limiting that you HAD to play run-run-pray football and hope to win 17-13 every week.

I know the folks in the Hive had fun rooting, and they made "^*%! it Terry is down there somewhere" shirts, and all that stuff. However, I never bought into it because it never was remotely sustainable.

He was a great story for the Tampa playoff game. He should not have gotten a 2 year, $10m backup contract because he was so limited. They should have signed him to a 1 year minimum contract and let him compete for a roster spot. And they should have signed at least one other legitimate veteran to compete for the backup job, assuming they still signed Fitzpatrick to be the starter.

I think the most amazing thing that happened is he got traded to Atlanta and we got something for him. That was highway robbery. And he proved it when he played. He played so badly they had to go back to Ridder, who they were trying to bench. But couldn't. It's really bad when you're trying to bench a bad player and the guy who replaces him is so bad you have to go back to him.

 

[SkinsFTW]

It's really bad when you're trying to bench a bad player and the guy who replaces him is so bad you have to go back to him.

Isn't that about 20-25 years of Washington football? Hell, Brad Johnson didn't even deserve to be benched but the doofus owner did it anyway. Jason Candle needed to be benched after every start for 4-5 years but somehow almost never was but when he was we go to the playoffs only for him to come right back the next season.

McNugget, Grossman/Beck, Matthews/Weurffel, Banks, Noodle Arm Brunell and Patrick Ramsey, Haskins. Heineke, check down Alex Smith, and finally Wince with the appropriate name.

 

[Busch1724]

NO, it wasn't Pasquarelli. He was a very large black man who was on Pardon the Interruption a bunch subbing in for Wilbon. I can't remember the name, but I can picture him. He wrote countless inches on how Jeff George had the capability to be the best QB in the history of the world if anybody just gave him the opportunity. My memory is that he was generally wrong about everything. Maybe his name also started with a W? I dunno. I'm not going to try and find out though, but it wasn't Len.

That would be the one and only Jason Whitlock.

 

[Riggotoni]

The fat guy who championed Jeff George was Peter King. The two of them were supposedly good friends. Brad Johnson was terrible in 2000 - if we had signed Randall Cunningham as backup instead of George, we might have made the playoffs. Actually, if Snyderatto had spent some of that wasted money on a good kicker, we definitely would have made the playoffs.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

That would be the one and only Jason Whitlock.

I missed this post from ages ago, but that's exactly right. It was Whitlock.

He must have been on the take or something because he was like Jeff George's agent.

 

[Spearfeather]

Been following the team a long time. This is my first time seeing this:

That idea didnt last long as they ultimately went with this, instead:

 

[China]

Except it was also the 1990 pro bowl team.

Oh the fat ESPN guy must be Lenny Pasquarelli.

NO, it wasn't Pasquarelli. He was a very large black man who was on Pardon the Interruption a bunch subbing in for Wilbon. I can't remember the name, but I can picture him. He wrote countless inches on how Jeff George had the capability to be the best QB in the history of the world if anybody just gave him the opportunity. My memory is that he was generally wrong about everything. Maybe his name also started with a W? I dunno. I'm not going to try and find out though, but it wasn't Len.

Len was a tool for other reasons.

It was Len Pasquarelli:

Pasquarelli was known for his annual columns that highlighted Jeff George as a potentially available, yet enigmatic, quarterback.

Len Pasquarelli, formerly of ESPN, used to write an article every year that basically said "Hey, if you need a quarterback, Jeff George is still available." He's always sort of struck me as the Uncle Rico of quarterbacks. . .hell, he probably still thinks that he can throw a football over those mountains. In 2008, he said that his arm "felt like it was 25," and he also said he'd be "willing" to quarterback the Vikings had Brett Favre not come back for the 2010 season.

Link

 

[Faithful Fan]

Sorry, wrong thread.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

It was Len Pasquarelli:

Pasquarelli was known for his annual columns that highlighted Jeff George as a potentially available, yet enigmatic, quarterback.



Link

I guarantee you the guy I was thinking of was Whitlock. I remember watching him on PTI with Wilbon and Tony talking about how great Jeff George was over and over and over. And I can tell the difference between Len and Whitlock, as one is a white guy with a bad bowl cut, and one is a large black guy.

Not saying Len might not have been doing the same, but Whitlock was the one I was thinking of.