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Originally Posted by Big C
unless campbell shows huge strides, brunell will open the year as the starter. however, campbell will get atleast a little game time throughout the year. it is unlikely brunell will stay healthy enough to start all year again
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I agree with this point. I worry about Brunell too, and the main thing I have found troubling over these past couple of weeks is the thought that Brunell might not be able to put together another season like this one next year and the Redskins might suffer as a result. I am not, however, ready to throw Mark out the door just yet. I think he made good decisions pretty much all year and the team would not have made it this far without him at the helm. As we all realize, Jason Campbell was drafted as the quarterback of the future, but the question becomes when exactly is that future? Given the fact that next year will probably be Gibbs's last I think the team really needs to stick with Brunell as long as he is physically able to perform. Clearly Campbell needs to be ready because Mark might not be able to stay healthy another year but Brunell needs to be the starter on opening day.
Someone made the analogy to Carson Palmer and Jon Kitna. Kitna did have a great year and was then benched in favor of Palmer, but Palmer did not suddenly take off that first year. He was hit and miss and the Bengals went 8-8...it was only in his second season as a starter that he really blossomed. Take a look at any of the guys that sat their first year and then came in to play (Palmer, Culpepper, McNair, Palmer, and even Byron Leftwich who took over for Brunell in Jacksonville), they did not light up the league that first year and they all made mistakes that cost their teams games. I guess you could point to Eli Manning and say he led the Giants to a 11-5 record (but of course Barber had 2,000+ yards from scrimmage) but he also played pretty terribly down the stretch and absolutely bombed in the playoffs. Moreover, all of those guys were Top 10 picks (well Culpepper was #11 - a pick the Vikings obtained from the Redskins in return for Brad Johnson by the way) and both Manning and Culpepper were the first overall selections. That is a long way from Jason Campbell who, by most accounts at least, was probably taken a bit high when the Redskins nabbed him at #25 - most people thought he was a second round pick who still needed some development. Now I am clearly not on the practice field or in the film room with the kid, so maybe he has really shown the coaches something, but I think Brunell probably gives the team the best chance to win and return to the playoffs. Put the pieces around him (as others have mentioned, O-Line depth, a second wideout - Patten is fine as a #3 but not a #2...like I said earlier, I'd love Reggie Wayne, but that might be asking too much) and let him - along with Coach Gibbs - give it one more go.