2014 QB Situation

So the 2013 NFL regular season has come to an end for the Washington Redskins, with them finishing in last place in the NFC East with a record of 3-13.  That is a huge disappointment, specially considering that this same team won the division in 2012.  What happened to the team is more than just a simple QB issue with the injury to Robert Griffin III from last year, but the Washington area fans being who they are, people were blaming him for how the season turned out and clamoring for the backup QB.  This is a trend that has been going on in this area for years, and I do know it happens in other fan bases as well, but it seems to be more prevalent here, simply because the Redskins had been bad for many years.  The fans always fall in love with the backup QB, no matter who is starting and who is the backup, and they believe he will be the savior of the team and the season.  The list is pretty interesting when you look at it, going all the way back to 1994 :

Starting QB	Backup QB
Robert Griffin III	Kirk Cousins
Rex Grossman	John Beck
Donovan McNabb	Rex Grossman
Jason Campbell	Todd Collins
Patrick Ramsey	Mark Brunell
Brad Johnson	Jeff George
Gus Frerotte	Jeff Hostetler
Heath Shuler	John Friesz

In most, if not all, of those cases, the backup QB did not turn out to be the savior the fans thought they were.  There is usually a reason a QB is backup and not the starting player, and that is because they aren't as good as the starter.  Are the exceptions to this?  Of course there are, there are exceptions to every rule, but in most cases, the backup QB is not as good as the starting QB, or else they would have started from the beginning.  The only difference this year was that the backup QB can actually play and can be a starter on some of the teams out there.

Robert spent all of the off-season rehabbing from the knee injury, and not spending time with his receivers, and it showed.  He was not good.  A lot of his passes were off target, and he made some bad choices.  He was slow in delivering the ball at times, and other times he telegraphed where he was going to throw the ball.  But was all of that on him, or was part of it on the coaching staff and the play calling?  If it was on him, then starting Kirk would have alleviated those problems.  However, if it wasn't all on him and the play calling and coaching was also at fault, then you would end up with the same results with Kirk behind the center.  So let us take a quick look at the two QB's and how they performed this year. Robert played in 13 games, and Kirk played in 5.  Following are the stats for their performances :

QB	Comp	Att	Percent	Yards	TD	INT	Fum	Sacked
Griffin	247	456	60.1%	3203	16	12	4	38
Cousins	81	155	52.3%	854	4	7	3	5

So just by looking at the numbers, it does appear that it wasn't all on Robert.  Kirk was less accurate than Robert, his TD/INT ratio was worse, and he had more fumbles lost per game.  Granted, some of that does fall on the receivers not catching the passes, but Robert had the same receivers and the same issues.  So simply putting in a QB that had experience in a pro-style offense, and was not a "gimmick" QB did not solve the problems.  On top of those stats, the scoring was a sign as well.  In the 13 games Robert started, the Redskins scored an average of 21.5 points, but in the 3 that Kirk started they only managed 18.3, and those 3 games were against the worst defenses in the league.  So the problem is most obviously elsewhere, and I believe that was the play calling.

I am well aware that Mike and Kyle Shanahan claimed that they were calling the same plays for Kirk that they did for Robert.  Now I am not an expert, nor do I have the luxury of looking at game tape and figuring out if they were in fact the same or not, but looking at the games, it sure did look to me like they were different plays being called.  For starters, Kirk seemed to do a lot more bootleg and rolling out than Robert did, which does not make sense to me, since Robert is the more athletic QB out of the two.  Also, with Robert in the game, the majority of the plays had one or two RB's as well as a WR or TE in the backfield with him.  This meant that if the play was a passing play, Robert would only have at most 2 receivers running routes, which made it a whole lot easier for defenses to cover.  Yes he would have the option to run the ball more in that formation, but with his knee and the brace on it, everyone knew he wasn't as big a threat running the ball as he was last year.  I also don't recall too many, if any, 5 WR formations when Robert was the QB.  Kirk had more targets to throw to, which forced the defenses to keep more players back to cover those receivers, which in turn meant that Kirk had more time to stand in the pocket and throw the ball.  Which was another major difference that I noticed.  The Offensive line was not able to stop a pass-rush whatsoever.  This was true for both Kirk and Robert, but Robert barely had time to step back and look downfield before a defensive player was in his face.  This was most likely due to the fact that the defensive players only had to worry about a couple of receivers running routes, and could blitz more to get to Robert.

So the lack of time in the pocket was mainly because of the poor Offensive line.  But here is where the blame falls on the coaching staff.  If you know your O-Line can't protect your QB, and believe me, EVERYONE knew that, then you get creative.  You run more bootleg plays.  You move the pocket.  You spread the defense.  Those things did not happen when Robert was in the game.  They only showed up mainly when Kirk became the starting QB.  Which again doesn't make sense to me, because if you do any of those things with Robert, not only will you give him more time to stand and look off safeties (Which was a knock on Robert, that he wouldn't do that.  But how can you when you only have one or two receivers?), but you would also give him more opportunities to run and make plays with his legs, which he was able to do, even with the brace hindering him.

Now they can say that Robert wasn't able to grasp the offense at the level that Kirk did, which is why they called different plays.  I don't believe it personally, but fine, I have no problem with that reasoning, since I'm not in the meetings and I don't know exactly what Robert can grasp and what he can't.  But then again the blame would fall on the coaching staff for not changing their style and play calling to fit their QB.  This had been an issue with this team for many years, the coaching staff would try and fit the players they have into their system, instead of working their system around the players they had.  This was true for the Shanahan regime as well, until last year.  Last year they showed that they can change their system to suit the weapons they have, and what was the result?  The Redskins went on a 7 game winning streak and won the division.  But they stopped doing that this year, and the result is another basement occupation by the Washington Redskins.

We as fans are looking forward to the 2014 season, and are hoping for a better result, since we will have a new coaching staff in town.  Hopefully with their departure, the lack of change in play calling is gone as well.  Regardless of who is coaching this team next year, and what system they will run, the chances that the team will start Kirk Cousins over Robert Griffin III are slim to none.  You do not use 3 first round picks for a QB only to not play him when he is healthy and has an offseason of workouts under his belt.  That does not mean that the Redskins should trade Coursins this offseason, because he is a good QB, and is very good at coming in as a backup for Robert.  What is so wrong with having two good QB's on your team?  So even if the team does not trade Kirk Cousins this offseason, there is not going to be a QB controversy next year, at least as far as the team itself is concerned.  The fans, on the other hand, will always be looking at the backup QB and salivating, even the the backup QB happens to be an undranfted rookie coming out of college with having played only 1 game during his college career.  It is a good thing the fans don't make the calls on who starts, well, at least those of us who don't happen to own the team.