The Redskins Blog

Rex Grossman: I'm Just Here To Help

I’m not gonna lie: I was a little surprised by the overwhelming surge of fan negativity directed at yesterday’s signing of quarterback Rex Grossman. It was visible on Twitter, on website polls, in my email inbox … and I just didn’t see it coming.

Do I think this is some kind of a terrific signing? Not really.

Do I think it’s a bad signing? Not at all.

It’s just a signing. It’s a guy who will probably compete for the backup job, and he’s got a terrific resume for that role: former first-round pick, led his team to a 13-3 regular season the only year he started all sixteen games, and familiar with the new offensive coordinator’s system.

Also, contract details for the signing were — as usual — not disclosed, but there’s no reason to believe this was a big ticket deal. If he works out, great. If not, no real harm done.

But as yesterday wore on, I started to wonder if maybe I was misjudging. Maybe this guy was being brought in to compete for the starting QB spot — which wouldn’t have made a ton of sense to me — and there was a legit reason for the fan outrage.

Then, today, ESPN980 beat reporter Al Galdi put the question directly to Grossman: “The opportunity to start, how was that presented to you? Will you be in open competition with Jason? How did Coach Shanahan kinda present that to you?”

And Grossman’s response was pretty much what I originally expected: Read more »

Artis Hicks Addresses The Media

Pro Bowl linebacker London Fletcher and new offensive lineman Artis Hicks addressed the media today, and — as Rick Maese of the Washington Post tweeted — what the two guys said can pretty much be summarized as “We’re excited.” Or, in marginally more paraphrased detail: “The atmosphere in the building is optimistic, the new coaching staff is impressive, the transition to the 3-4 defense won’t be nearly as tricky as some people think, and we’re all excited.” It was not a press conference that’s going to wind up in a loop on SportsCenter, that’s for sure.

Despite that, it was the first time I’ve had a chance to hear Artis Hicks speak at length, and I figured it was worth noting some of the things he said actually in his own words. Like these, for example, which will probably speak to what every Redskins fan wants to hear:

On what to expect from the offense:
“I think we’re definitely gonna run the ball and set things up off of that. If you look back over the course of Shanahan offenses over the years in Denver, everything was based off of the run. It helped the quarterback out a lot when you’ve got a great running game. We’ve got some great running backs here, and if we can just do our part up front to give those guys some lanes, man, it will be a great year for us I think.”

Meanwhile, the refrain we’ve been hearing about Hicks since he signed is that he’s versatile and can play just about any offensive line position, so that’s the angle a lot of questions took. For example:
Read more »