• Here's an astounding statistic that probably won't help Redskins fans relax regarding the team's quarterback depth chart: Since the end of the 2007 season, Rex Grossman, John Beck and Kellen Clemens have combined to start just five games and attempt 237 passes in regular season action. For all three Redskins quarterbacks, their most recent significant chunk of playing time came in 2007, four long years ago.
-- All four of Beck's NFL starts, and all five games he has played in, came in 2007 in Miami.
-- Grossman has made just four starts since 2007, with only 204 pass attempts in the three seasons of 2008-2010.
-- Clemens made eight of his nine career starts in 2007 with the Jets, and has attempted just 33 regular season passes since then.
To repeat, that was 2007, the year the Patriots fell short in a bid for 19-0, and the season a resurgent Brett Favre led the Packers into the NFC title game against the Giants. Come to think of it, that was at least four Favre retirements ago.
• I don't know if Beck really is the answer at quarterback in Washington, but I left Redskins camp last week believing that Mike and Kyle Shanahan believe he is. Grossman won't win the starting job unless Beck falls flat on his face this preseason, and Beck will get his candidacy fully underway with this week's start at Indianapolis. Make no mistake: Beck will win the starting job if it's even remotely close. That much is clear after listening to Mike Shanahan rave about the ex-BYU standout.
"I'm not even worried about the quarterback position,'' Mike Shanahan said last week, after a morning practice session in which Beck was limited by a groin strain. "I think it's funny (meaning the doubts), because I know the guy can play. I don't even question that. I know [Beck] can play. John will be fine. He'll play and he'll be a good player, because he's athlete, because he can anticipate throws, and he's extremely bright. I watched him for a year, and I had him as my top (collegiate quarterback) coming out (in 2007). He can do it all. The guy just has never really had a chance in pro football. He hasn't played.''
That's kind of the point, but Shanahan is determined to provide Beck that opportunity. You get the sense Shanahan sees Beck as a difference maker, while Grossman is viewed as a very serviceable quarterback you can win with, providing he has a quality supporting cast. If anything, the Shanahans are so confident in Beck that they're trying not to build him up too much, so his play can do all the talking.
Beck knows enough about how the NFL works to know having someone who believes in you and gives you an opportunity is about 70 percent of the equation. And four years after he got a first chance with a horrible 1-15 Dolphins team, he has his long-awaited second chance in Washington.
"I've always believed in myself, but no one knows all that stuff that really went on in Miami,'' Beck told me. "Everybody wants to have their own opinion about what they think happened, but nobody but me and the people who were there really know what happened. So I've held onto that belief, worked hard, and hoped someone else would believe the same way.
"I didn't know who it was going to be or when it was going to come, but I felt like somewhere down the road somebody would be like, 'Hey, I still think this guy can do it.' I feel like I'm in that situation right now, and this is the good opportunity I've waited for.''
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