(Sorry, this post ended up WAY longer than I originally intended!)
Oh he's certainly better than Sexy Rexy.
But Rex proves a point on how you can win in this league if the team is right and the QB is competent.
Don't get me wrong I'd LOVE to have a superstar QB. I'm not sure we've ever really had an Elite QB in Washington, the only names that come close to that conversation are Sammy and Joe. But we have won superbowls with competent QB's. Two of them.
Here's where I disagree with Micks, I'm tired of the QB merry-go-round. I want to get off it.
We can keep trying to roll the dice and win the lottery but where has that really got us since 1993,,,, no where. 20+ years of general futility in the wilderness of irrelevance.
Sure you can sometimes hit the jackpot and find that special someone, but it's a very low chance of success.
You look around sports and success comes in 2 forms. Transcendant Superstar joins team giving brief championship pedigree. Or team is just consistently run well and has continuity.
The former is WAY more likely in something like Basketball where their are only 5 players on the court at any one time. You plug in someone like Lebron James and suddenly you go from bottom feeder to contender. It's much much more difficult in Football where there are way more moving parts and the schemes are complex to learn.
People look at Green Bay and New England and often cite their QB's as being the reason they win alot. But I think most people miss the point when looking at those teams. They have long term continuity.
Belli proved earlier this year that the Pats can function without Brady. Green Bay moved from Favre to Rodgers without missing a beat. Look over in Basketball for examples. The Spurs lost Time Duncan and never missed a beat. These are organisations that are well built from top to bottom, understand their players and their strengths and aren't looking for the magic bullet to fix everything.
The Magic Bullet was Washingtons philosophy for WAY too long.
Kirks not Elite. Not yet, maybe not ever. But he can make this Offense hum.
Yup, there are some red zone issues... they'll sort them.
Scotty is putting together a professional team from top to bottom and that takes time. I've said ad nauseum that I think 2018 is the year. There was just too much to do to fix things, this was always a 3 or 4 year plan.
And in that time I see Kirk growing and learning and becoming more comfortable in this team, this offense and these players. They'll have a long period of continuity and it'll do all of them the world of good.
Look at the top QB's in the league in general.
Brady - 16 year starting for Pats
Ryan - 9 years starting for the Falcons
Bree's - 11 years starting for the Saints
Stafford - 8 years starting for the Lions
Rivers - 11 years atarting for the Chargers
etc
Did you know our two longest tenured QB's of recent times?
Mark Rypien 5 years starting
Joe Theismann 8 years starting.
We have NO ONE who has been in the starting job longer than that.
Is it that our QB's have been that awful? Or is it also that our management over that period of time (possibly due to fan pressure!) just been impatient in letting a QB play. (ok... admittedly for us it's probably mostly the lack of talent!). But I think Kirk HAS the talent to play, look at the numbers he's putting up even if they are inflated due to the offense we run.
QB's start putting BIG seasonal numbers up when they're comfortable in a system and with a team.
Here's another one for you.
11 year starter with the Eagles, posted a 92.9 rating in his last year of that stint... jumped teams to the Redskins.
Donovan McNabb everyone.
We traded for a QB who was 33 and coming off a pretty good 11-5 season. We took him away from a team he was familiar with and gave him a new home and he went 6-10 with a passer rating of 77.1, his lowest rating since his rookie year.
Good QB's are good for a reason. Yes they have talent, but that pure talent only carries you so far and it only shines best when they're in a system that fits and they're comfortable in it, and often that takes years of exposure. Ask Andrew Luck how things are going this year
You have to go back to Mark Rypien to find a Redskin starter who has had more than 3 full years as a starter. Lets give that time to Kirk. I'm convinced that given time and support he'd good enough to settle into this system and take us regularly to the playoffs and with a bit of defensive help to a Superbowl.
He's a fundamentally sound good QB who could maybe one day be very very good. And he's in an offensive system that should only get stronger and better as Reed and Crowder continue to develop and grow with him.
The key to this offence is the line. If we can keep that strong and keep youth on it, keep developing players that fit and play well, and then pair Cousins up with a decent RB, then watch this Offense produce for years to come.
Honestly if Flacco could win a Superbowl, and if last years version of Peyton Manning could win a Superbowl.... Kirk can.
Just gotta give him time.
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but Grossman was never more than a backup-quality QB. A guy that knew a system well enough to make it go for a game or two, but over an entire season was a disaster.