[sportscurmudgeon]

Sheriff:

I believe that Jason Campbell will be a real NFL QB. I'm not going to go nuts and say he's gonna be another Elway or that he'll be better than Manning/Brees/Palmer/McNabb next year. But I think he can become a much better than average NFL QB in the next several years and become someone the Skins can build around. Patrick Ramsey had equivalent arm strength and - given the pounding he took here - had to be as tough as Campbell. But here is why I think Campbell will be a better QB:

1. Campbell can run faster than Ramsey. When a QB has to run to save his ass, that's an important asset. When a QB needs to run to make a play, that's an important asset. Yes, I do recall that one run Ramsey made for about 40 yards in a game situation [it was against the Jets as I recall.]. It was a run that you could have timed with a sundial and it only happened once.

2. Campbell throws the "intermediate passes" much more accurately than Ramsey ever did.

3. When Campbell makes a mistake and comes off the field to talk to the coaches, he explains what he did and why; Ramsey always had a confused "deer-in-the-headlights" approach to those situations. QBs need to be leaders and "deer-in-the-headlights" is not a leadership characteristic.

4. Campbell is learning an NFL offense from the start. Ramsey had to try to learn a "gimmick offense" to start and then try to master an NFL offense. I an NOT saying that Spurrier ruined him; that's just too convenient an argument. But Spurrier's offense was a dead-end road in the NFL and Ramsey wasted time and effort trying to learn how to make it work.