I'm Not Sticking By Gibbs

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

I'm not sticking by Gibbs for one simple reason - Mark Brunell.

As the Washington Post's Michael Wilbon pointed out in today's paper, Brunell has the lowest completion percentage of any full-time starter in the NFL and he has had the lowest third-down conversion rate in the league.

Moreover Wilbon has gone to opponents locker rooms after each game to ask a veteran defensive player with credentials to tell him about Brunell. And each week he's been told that Brunell is most of the problem, that their defensive game plan is to gang up on Portis until Brunell completes some passes downfield, that defensive coordinators are convinced Brunell can't do that any more with any consistency.

Yesterday he asked Packers safety Darren Sharper the same questions. Asked what the defensive game plan was against Brunell, Sharper said: "Knock him down. He doesn't want to get hit. The plan -- and you can see other teams doing the same thing on film -- is to not let him set his feet. Make him roll out. Hit him enough, and sooner or later it'll mess up his accuracy. He's not the same quarterback he used to be. Look, I played against him in Jacksonville, and he was a very, very accurate passer. But in the pocket now, his passes sail. He has to roll out now; maybe he sees his receivers better. I don't know if he's as comfortable in this offense or what. But he's not the same quarterback."

I'm sorry, but keeping Brunell in the game is killing us. I saw it by week 2, the fans were screaming it yesterday, Wilbon can see it, every analyst in the league sees it, and most everyone on this site can see it. Why can't Joe Gibbs?

I have so much love for Gibbs; he brought our city 3 Lombardi trophies and he's just a really likeable guy. I will always admire Joe Gibbs for what he has done and who he is, but that doesn't mean I'm going to always defer to him.

Gibbs is sticking by Brunell because Joe was the key man in sending away a 2nd rounder for him (we traded a second rounder to get Cooley who we would've been able to draft with our 3rd round pick that we gave to Jacksonville for Brunell), we paid an amazing $40 million for him, and he's a veteran. Does anyone think for a SECOND that if Ramsey had the lowest completion percentage in the league, the lowest 3rd down conversion rate in the league, failed to score 21 points in ANY game, and led us to a 2-5 record EVEN THOUGH we have the best defensive unit in the game that Gibbs wouldn't have benched him? I think not.

For that, I personally blame Gibbs for keeping Brunell in and sinking our season.