[sportscurmudgeon]

The question is about Ramsey's future - presumably here in Washington.

First, I continue to believe that Joe Gibbs is uncomfortable with Patrick Ramsey as the QB of this team. Remember back to the time when Gibbs was hired. He had been here about two weeks and said that he and the coaching staff had looked at the films from the year before (Spurrier II) and they were amazed to see who the previous regime had in the starting positions. Then, the FIRST thing that Gibbs did was to go out and woo Mark Brunell to agree to come here in a trade. Bad sign...

Then Gibbs played Brunell forever and a week last year until it became embarrassing - and then he went to Ramsey. But even with Ramsey showing improvement - note I did not say he was great nor did I say he projected to be a Pro Bowl contender this year - the Skins spent a lot of capital to move to a position to draft Jason Campbell to play QB. They did not use that pick with the intention that Jason Campbell will be a clipboard holder for three or four years. They took a QB because they think they need an upgrade at that position.

[Aside: Scouts and reporters are oohing and ahhing about how wonderfully Jason Campbell throws the ball in camp. Swell. I do recall that when Ramsey was drafted, the scouts and the reporters AND Sonny Jurgensen who knows something about throwing a ball were going into orgasmic raptures about how great Ramsey's arm was. Moral: Wait till you see offensive players in a game against defenses that are NFL caliber before entering a rapturous state.]

Here's what Ramsey needs to do to be a success on this team in this season:

Option #1: Skins win the NFC East Division Title. Doesn't matter what the record is, if the Skins are the Division Champs, Ramsey as the QB for the team is a success. The bottom lime is winning; it trumps ALL the other stats. The corrolary to this is that once in the playoffs, Ramsey cannot play so badly that he embarrasses the team; no bed-wetting is allowed in the playoffs

Option #2: Skins do not win the Division so we have to look at stats to measure Ramsey's progress and justify his continued existence in DC:

QB Rating: Minimum acceptable is 80. Good season is 85-87.

TD/ INT Ratio: Minimum acceptable is 2. Good season is 2.2

Red Zone effeiciency: Average points per Red Zone posession would be 4 to be minimally acceptable. Good season would be 4.5.

3rd down efficiency: Minimum acceptable is 40%. Good season is 44-46%.

Fumbles - whether lost or recovered - must be less than 10 for the year.

Yards gained per pass attempt: [note: that is not per completion!] Minimum acceptable is 7. Good season is 8.5-9.0.