ESPN -- Starting Beck is No Tank Job

Solid article. Am I the only one who has noticed has much better the Skins coverage is at ESPN now that Matt Mosley no longer covers the NFC East? I guess the powers that be finally wised up and realized having a Cowboys season ticket holder cover the division wasn't the best idea.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/28160/starting-beck-is-no-tank-job-for-redskins

Thanks for that!

Solid article. Am I the only one who has noticed has much better the Skins coverage is at ESPN now that Matt Mosley no longer covers the NFC East? I guess the powers that be finally wised up and realized having a Cowboys season ticket holder cover the division wasn't the best idea.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/28160/starting-beck-is-no-tank-job-for-redskins

Have noticed the same. I mean, I know we sometimes make an easy target to be the laughinstock of the division, but we're obviously on a new path than the last regime. Good, unbiased solid article. Thanks for sharing!

This guy rarely writes anything that sounds logical or intelligent, to be honest lol ...This one actually sounded like both, and not just because it was semi-praising the Redskins. It would have made for a sound, valid argument no matter which team he was talking about.

Solid article.

It was a good article - thanks for posting it.

I can see Beck being successful

Get some help on the right side of the OL

I think the WR & RB production will be there

Get a NT and possibly DE

I do think CB is a need however but perhaps we can get by with Buchanon for the time being. I also think Rod Hood might be a good option too.

He's definitely better than Mosley. The Skins deserve pretty much all the bashing they get, but Mosley never even tried to be objective.

Nonsense.

John Beck sucks!

Very nice, well written article. I'm gonna have to start reading the NFCE blogs again.

Good article, but it's sad that it needed to be written. That adults with at least some semblance of education and/or wherewithal could truly believe an NFL team to tank a season months before it has started is appalling.

I still see Grossman beating out Beck for the #1 spot and having a decent year for us. (someone may wonder why... it's because Grossman has more experience with the offense and actual game experience in the NFL plus using this offense)

I still see us taking a QB in the first next year, but I'm not upset at all with going into the season with Beck, Grossman, and a mid-low level FA QB.

I still see Grossman beating out Beck for the #1 spot and having a decent year for us. (someone may wonder why... it's because Grossman has more experience with the offense and actual game experience in the NFL plus using this offense)

I think Grossman wins the job too for the same reasons. Also, judging from the way players have gone out of their to mention Rex when asked about Beck, I don't think they think it's Beck's job to lose. But who knows? Maybe Beck really does turn out to be a Bulger-like find.

I'm not expecting Beck to amount to anything and I don't think we're trying to tank the season, but I do think we're biting the bullet and waiting things out in an attempt to build a team through the draft.

I suspect that Shanahan's praise of Beck might be to appease the fans before a season that he knows isn't likely to be a success and if Beck does succeed then all the better, but in reality we'll probably be looking at a top ten pick again next year with a very solid draft class of QBs.

I suspect that Shanahan's praise of Beck might be to appease the fans before a season that he knows isn't likely to be a success and if Beck does succeed then all the better, but in reality we'll probably be looking at a top ten pick again next year with a very solid draft class of QBs.

Mike Shanahan does not intend to have another failure at the QB position.

I suspect that Shanahan's praise of Beck might be to appease the fans before a season that he knows isn't likely to be a success and if Beck does succeed then all the better, but in reality we'll probably be looking at a top ten pick again next year with a very solid draft class of QBs.

This

It's John Beck, people. Sure he may turn out OK, but he's not the next Tom Brady that kinda snuck onto the scene behind Drew Bledsoe. Lets not kid ourselves here. I've been astounded by how much everyone has built this guy up in our minds over this locked out offseason.

That being said, I'm glad that he and Rex will be competing for the starting job and not some C+ Quarterback that we end up trading even more resources away for. Let the scouts do their jobs and bring our guy here next year. This offseason Beck talk will hopefully be a punchline by the time 2012 training camp opens.

Mike Shanahan is not going to start a QB he doesn't believe in.

Mike Shanahan does not intend to have another failure at the QB position.

Unless he:

A) Plans another risky trade for a QB

or

Gets lucky and has success with either Beck or Grossman

I don't think he has a choice at this point.

This

It's John Beck, people. Sure he may turn out OK, but he's not the next Tom Brady that kinda snuck onto the scene behind Drew Bledsoe. Lets not kid ourselves here. I've been astounded by how much everyone has built this guy up in our minds over this locked out offseason.

+1000

Beck hasn't played since 2007. He's played in all of 5 games in his pro career. Chances are extremely high that he's gonna fail, and fail badly, if he is actually the starter.

Personally, my opinion is that if he is the starter it actually is a quasi-tanking in that no effort was made to improve the position to a respectable level, but instead, the decision was made to wait for much better upgrades in next year's draft.

And I'd be fine with that.

This

It's John Beck, people. Sure he may turn out OK, but he's not the next Tom Brady that kinda snuck onto the scene behind Drew Bledsoe. Lets not kid ourselves here. I've been astounded by how much everyone has built this guy up in our minds over this locked out offseason.

That being said, I'm glad that he and Rex will be competing for the starting job and not some C+ Quarterback that we end up trading even more resources away for. Let the scouts do their jobs and bring our guy here next year. This offseason Beck talk will hopefully be a punchline by the time 2012 training camp opens.

Shanny is not praising Beck to appease fans. At most, you can say that Shanny is praising Beck for Beck or for the rest of the team and even then I doubt it. I'd agree with DG, Shanny is not planning for failure. Failure could very well occur but we'd be in a no brainer situation should that happen and even a solid but not spectacular year wouldn't be hard to figure out what we'd need to do. We would have the resources to do what needs to be done. A spectacular year would be the only thing that could occur that would cause a major course alteration anyway and we'd have to put much more effort into figuring out what we'd need to do going forward.

Shanny is not praising Beck to appease fans. At most, you can say that Shanny is praising Beck for Beck or for the rest of the team and even then I doubt it. I'd agree with DG, Shanny is not planning for failure. Failure could very well occur but we'd be in a no brainer situation should that happen and even a solid but not spectacular year wouldn't be hard to figure out what we'd need to do. We would have the resources to do what needs to be done. A spectacular year would be the only thing that could occur that would cause a major course alteration anyway and we'd have to put much more effort into figuring out what we'd need to do going forward.

I'm not suggesting that the tank job is on. I agree with the article's view on that. But McNabb's situation, combined with the consequences of no free agency and thus minimal time to prepare for a season, has resulted in John Beck being thought of as a starting caliber quarterback all of the sudden. Shanny's lack of better options and feeling the need to shed this situation in a more appeasing light, no matter who he's talking to, is a very plausible possibility IMO.

The teams not going to tank the season. That just doesn't happen in the NFL.

Beck's interesting to me because if memory serves me last offseason that trade pretty much came out of no where. We traded for him giving up CB Doug Dutch. At the time of the trade I was thinking that was weird because we had McNabb and we had Grossman on the roster. Getting rid of Colt Brennan made me happy but I didn't expect Beck to make the final roster when I I first heard the news and it did shock me that we traded for him and signed him immediately to a 2 year deal. Not many teams carry 3 QB's and McNabb wasn't supposed to be a failure. Why would we carry 3 QB's on the active roster, why would we seemingly out of no where sign Beck to a multi year deal when no other team would have been that interested in him since we got him for Doug Dutch? The conspiracy lover in me didn't get it until this offseason. The coaches see something in Beck that I don't yet because he wasn't even used once last season. The news that Beck would be compete-ting for the starters position at first seemed to me to be posturing for leverage with Grossman's contract demands and I still think it is, nothing more or less. This is the team posturing for Grossman.

If Beck turns out to be a productive player after having stops on two other teams that would be pretty amazing. He failed miserably in Miami and in Baltimore. He was fighting for the 3rd QB position on the Ravens last season. This would turn out to be a hell of a trade if Beck turns into anything at this point. It would be pretty crazy to see this guy bounce around after being drafted in the high second round of that draft and turn into a NFL starting QB. At this point I think the chance of this happening at about 10% and still lean hard towards this just being a negotiating tactic for Grossman. I'm waiting to hear what they sign him too to think how they think this is going down. But money's not always a tell for this guys considering we do have the McNabb situation too.

My guess is that we see a 3 way QB competition this preseason. We will likely bring in someone like Travarious Jackson or some other QB to compete with Grossman and Beck and our starting QB next year will be Grossman. It's nice to think that Beck is someone that Shanahan unearths and turns into a 4000 yard passer but I just can't wrap my mind around the fact he's been on two NFL teams in 4 seasons and no one wants to start the guy not even the man saying he's playing for the starting role this year. I think we are just waiting it out until next years draft ultimately but I do wish Beck the best of luck

http://outsidethehashes.com/?p=134

Pretty interesting read on at what point QB stats become usable, and which stats QBs have the most control over.

I only mention this because Beck has 107 career attempts. Probably far too soon to make any definative conclusions about his long term ceiling or floor.

The most telling stat regarding Beck is how many starts he has. The fact that Miami gave up on him after just drafting him in the second round on a terrible team and then out right cut him the next year to me is awful. Neither Baltimore or us thought he gave them the best chance to win because he never started a game for either team.

Speaks volumes to me.

Grossman has them over a barrel right now with McNabb being impossible to keep next season at the worst possible time. So the coaches drum up this Beck talk to keep Grossmans price reasonable. If Beck starts again and does well this would be a big big big feel good story

I see you are using the front office that put together one of the worst teams of the past decade as a barometer for personnel management.

That's akin to someone saying, well if Vinny Cerrato cut X, then they can't possibly be good.

I'm not suggesting that the tank job is on. I agree with the article's view on that. But McNabb's situation, combined with the consequences of no free agency and thus minimal time to prepare for a season, has resulted in John Beck being thought of as a starting caliber quarterback all of the sudden. Shanny's lack of better options and feeling the need to shed this situation in a more appeasing light, no matter who he's talking to, is a very plausible possibility IMO.

The point you seemed to be agreeing to was that Shanny's talk was for us fans. It is not and it is likely not pure BS on his part anyway.

He failed miserably in Miami and in Baltimore.

The most telling stat regarding Beck is how many starts he has. The fact that Miami gave up on him after just drafting him in the second round on a terrible team and then out right cut him the next year to me is awful. Neither Baltimore or us thought he gave them the best chance to win because he never started a game for either team.

"Miami gave up on him" is a spurious statement because the people that drafted didn't give up on him they weren't around anymore.

It happens all the time: QB/player is drafted old regime is out new regime comes in and brings their guys. I guess by your logic everyone that isn't a fit for the new regime can't play?

Baltimore had Troy Smith (penciled in as the starter until he hospitalized) and drafted Joe Flacco as the QB of the future.

Would it make sense to you bring someone in mid-training camp and make them the starter over the guys you drafted?

Here's a novel concept: you judge a players ability based on their actual skillset not on their circumstances. Especially when a player doesn't have a meaningful sample of 'stats' for you stat junkies to look at.

Is there anything about Beck skillset as an NFL QB makes you certain he can't play and if so what?

Grossman has them over a barrel right now with McNabb being impossible to keep next season at the worst possible time. So the coaches drum up this Beck talk to keep Grossmans price reasonable.

I thought most teams kept 3 QBs. I think teams like NE, Indy, SD keep only 2.

Hate to say it but this season determines the success of this administration. we win 6-8 games we are ****ed with shanny. otherwise, get him Luck or Barkley, we can in contention by year 4 of his tenure