Ramsey named 05' Starter

[joecrisp]

In addition to affirming his faith in Ramsey as the starter through 2004 and beyond, Gibbs also said (perhaps half-jokingly) he plans to have him throw downfield more in an attempt to at least try to get more PI's called on the opposing defense, to balance out what he suggested are phantom PI calls that are being called against the Skins defense on a regular basis.

Gibbs said he figures if they're going to call the PI's against the Skins defense so often, he needs to find out if they'll call them against the other guys, too.

Maybe Gibbs is finally figuring out that this is how so many other teams are racking up huge passing stats this year. Create the one-on-one matchups deep, and one of four things will happen: the receiver will catch the ball for a big gain/TD, the defender will pick it off, the ball will fall incomplete, or the ref will throw a flag-- most likely on the defender. It's basically a 50% shot at something good happening (catch or defensive penalty), 25% bad (interception), and 25% relatively inconsequential (incomplete pass-- though even an incomplete deep throw will at least make the defense think about keeping a safety deep).

At this point, maybe Gibbs feels like those are odds he should play, especially with the dividends it's paid to other offenses throughout the league.

Now that Ramsey's proving he can be a smart, efficient passer, maybe Gibbs is feeling more comfortable with the idea of taking the next step: developing his deep game.