New Look Redskins Will Be Dangerous

At some point during the offseason, Andy Reid and the Philadelphia Eagles came to the conclusion that they could win without Donovan McNabb at quarterback this season. And they might be right.

Winning without him, though, will be easy compared to actually beating him this season. Their task would sure be simpler if they had sent him someplace else.

Because by sending McNabb to the Washington Redskins in April for a second- and a third- or a fourth-round draft pick, the Eagles didn’t just turn a page for their franchise and dump a quarterback they thought was injury prone and aging. They might also have upset the balance of power in the NFC East.

Laugh if you want, and then go ahead and jump on the Dallas Cowboys’ bandwagon or ride the New York Giants if they’re healthy. But it would be a mistake to write off the previously hapless Redskins just because they’re coming off a record of 4-12. These aren’t the usual Dan Snyder Skins with money tossed about everywhere with no semblance of a plan.

This is a Mike Shanahan team and a McNabb team — easily the two biggest and smartest acquisitions the Redskins have made in the Snyder era. And despite appearances, it’s not as if either of them was added to a completely empty cupboard.

The Redskins, as bad as they were, lost nine games by 10 points or fewer last year.

Think about that. With the erratic Jason Campbell at quarterback, with the sometimes lost Jim Zorn as the head coach, and with Sherm Lewis stepping out of the bingo hall and into the play-calling job in mid-October, the Redskins still found a way to hang around in nine games they went on to lose. They’re like a baseball team that finishes last because of 20 blown saves and then goes out and signs an All-Star closer.

Think of Shanahan and McNabb like that. Think they wouldn’t have been worth an extra six points against the Lions last year? How about four against the Panthers or nine against the Chiefs? Or two against the Cowboys and four against the Eagles in what usually are down-to-the-wire division games?

Even if you discount the field goals by which they lost to the Saints and Chargers, there are easily five games they should have — would have — won if they had a quarterback with Pro Bowl talent and a coach with a minimum of a clue. This isn’t your average 4-12 roster. It was at least a mediocre body with nothing up top.

Now it has all it needs.

Shanahan alone would have been enough to finally turn Snyder’s ship in the right direction, but with the talented but flawed Campbell at the helm it was never going to happen. He was protected well over the years, which is why he left Washington for Oakland with a .612 completion percentage. But he had far too many interceptions (38) considering how few touchdown passes (55) he threw in three-plus seasons as the starter. And anyone who watched him knew he couldn’t throw the big pass in the big spot.

McNabb not only can, he has. Five trips to the NFC Championship Game and one Super Bowl didn’t happen by accident. And with the exception of his brief time with the mouthy and toxic Terrell Owens, McNabb almost always had underwhelming receivers. Not impressed by the Redskins’ duo of Santana Moss and the aging Joey Galloway? McNabb won with much less during his Philadelphia years.

Now consider he’s only 33 — still young for an NFL quarterback — and coming off a season in which he completed over 60 percent of his passes for 3,553 yards and 22 touchdown passes to only 10 interceptions. Sure, he’s an injury risk, having played 16 games in a season only once in the last six years. But if Shanahan can figure out how to keep him in one piece, that trade will be a steal.

And it will be, because Shanahan rebuilt the offensive line with two new tackles (rookie Trent Williams, veteran Jammal Brown) and put an already-talented defense in the hands of respected coordinator Jim Haslett. He also wasn’t afraid to bring in the aging Larry Johnson and rebuilt Willie Parker to add depth and competition to a running back corps that too often relied on the brittle and erratic Clinton Portis.

What he’s built with all that is a team.

That’s something the Redskins have never seemed to have in the Snyder era — pieces that fit and added up to something. That’s something that McNabb and Shanahan can work with. They can make a difference on a team that probably should have won eight or nine games last year.

So while the Cowboys ride the hype, the Eagles try to figure out if Kevin Kolb is the next Aaron Rodgers and the Giants try to see if last year’s injury woes were a fluke, don’t overlook the program being assembled in the nation’s capital. It might end up being ready for a run at the division title a lot sooner than anyone was willing to think.