Rex Grossman: I'm Just Here To Help
Posted by Matt Terl on March 18, 2010 – 1:25 pm
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:
“Y’know, nobody presented any scenario to me,” he said. “They just said they’re glad to have me part of the team, and that’s how I’m taking it. I’m here to just help the Redskins win the Super Bowl whatever way I can and I just wanna be thrown in the mix.”
That wasn’t the end of it, of course. There was a follow-up question about if Grossman — the object of fan disgust in Chicago as a former first-round pick, despite some moderate success — saw any parallels between himself and Jason Campbell.
Grossman immediately threw Campbell under the bus by — gasp! — praising his abilities and reaffirming him as a QB on the rise. (NOTE: Yes, I know that’s not actually a bus-throw.)
“I perceive the Redskins Nation similar to the Chicago Bears’,” Grossman said. “You know, very passionate fans and … every situation’s different, I know, but anytime you’re drafted in the first round there’s a lot expected of you. I think Jason had a good year last year, so I’m sure he wants to build on that and continue to get better. It’s too early for me to comment on anything Redskins, what happened in the past or anything, but just from afar it looks like he had a good season and he’s on the right track.”
The final are-you-a-starter question was asked by Rich Campbell of the Free Lance-Star, and it provides something of an object lesson in the power of selective quoting. If you wanted to do the rabble-rousing thing, you could pull this line, which Grossman did actually say:
“Yeah, that’s my goal. I wanna start in this league,” Grossman said.
Pretty much reaffirms everything that everyone seemed so worried about yesterday and appears to stoke the fires of a QB controversy in D.C.
OR, and I realize this is crazy-talk, you could read it in context with the rest of the quote, at which point it turns into this:
“Yeah, that’s my goal,” Grossman said. “I wanna start in this league at some point and get back there and play. Every quarterback that plays in the NFL wants to start, so that’s kind of an odd question, I guess. But I definitely think I can and I’ve got a lot of confidence in myself, and hopefully this is a stepping-stone to the second half of my career.”
In summary, then: hearing Grossman talk today just reaffirmed my initial reaction. It’s competition for the currently-vacant backup spot — and if Colt Brennan is as good as his fans like to believe, he should win it without a problem — and another guy who’s familiar with Kyle Shanahan’s offense. Not much more, and not much less.
UPDATE: Guess who went for “the rabble-rousing thing” with the out-of-context quote.
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