Don’t Stray from the Un-Beaten Path

Over the last four weeks, The Washington Redskins have played with a renewed sense of vigor and have salvaged a season which seemed to be all but lost following both the tragedy of Sean Taylor’s murder and a possible season ending injury to starting QB Jason Campbell.

When Campbell was hurt, the Redskins were sitting at 5-7 and were on the outside looking in when it came to the postseason tournament. Most fans felt the prospect of a trip to the playoffs was gone as the team handed over the reins to journeyman signal caller Todd Collins, a 13 year veteran who had not thrown a pass in a game in almost 3 years.

After yesterday’s victory over the Cowboys at Fed Ex Field, Collins is 4-0 as a starter and more importantly the Redskins are in the playoffs. Although Collins is the biggest reason for the Redskins resurgence, it was truly a teamwide effort as both Santana Moss and Clinton Portis stepped up their games and leadership roles and the entire defense has worked very hard to overcome the loss of it’s most talented player and captain. The Redskins are playing their best football as they head into Seattle for a first round matchup and it seems that the only question this team may face is what to do once Jason Campbell is healthy enough to take the field again, a scenario they could be forced to deal with as early as this coming saturday.

Jason Campbell is obviously the future of this franchise at the QB position. Before his injury, he had made huge improvements this season to his overall game and both the fans and organization were excited about his future as the team’s offensive leader. These feelings have not changed even with the emergence of Collins during this playoff push. However, even if Campbell is healthy enough to return this season, the best move for the Redskins is to keep Collins at QB for the remainder of the season. While none of the players would doubt Campbell’s ability to help them to advance to the Super Bowl, making changes to a team that is on such an emotional run right now would be a huge mistake.

This is not the first time that NFL fans have witnessed this scenario. The 1989 New York Giants stuck with relatively unknown backup Jeff Hostetler even after longtime starter and championship winning QB Phil Simms returned from injury and Hostetler repaid their faith in him by delivering a Super Bowl victory over the Bills. The 1997 Chiefs were led by starter Elvis Grbac who was injured after 9 games. Rich Gannon took over and was 5-1 as a starter before Marty Schottenheimer decided Grbac would start the final game of the season and the team’s first playoff game against the Broncos. Grbac played horribly in those games and the Chiefs were eliminated and the decision was roundly criticized as Schottenheimer’s worst coaching decision in a long coaching career.

Joe Gibbs is a Hall of Fame coach who understands his players and the fragile emotional environment that surrounds the Redskins since the death of Taylor earlier this season. It took alot for this team to come back and to rally around Todd Collins and Gibbs has stated his appreciation for this on many occasions. The most important thing the coach must do now is convince his young QB that this is no indictment of him or his ability to lead but that the best interest of the team is to stay the path which has lead them to this position. If all recent indications of the maturity and leadership abilities of Campbell are to believed, this should not be a hard sell for Gibbs at all.