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Last year, did you know that there are actually other Redskins on the roster besides Donovan McNabb and Albert Haynesworth?

I often had to check twice to make sure.

In all seriousness, the Redskins finally got the opportunity to cut the cord on two of the biggest distractions in team history, and they did so.  Better than that, they got value in return for both players, which was more than many football experts were predicting.

Head Coach Mike Shanahan said he made dealing Haynesworth a priority before camp bagan.  ”I think after being with someone for a year, you figure out where they fit in your scheme, or they don’t fit.  We would have released him if we hadn’t traded him.”

So basically the Redskins picked up draft picks for free.  And better yet, they’re finally free of the McNabb, Haynesworth saga.

Let me be very careful to not present these two players as cut from the same stone, because they are not.  Haynesworth was brought in on a historically large contract and never reached his potential.  Questionable work ethic and insubordination, followed by offseason legal troubles made Haynesworth expendable regardless of his abilities.

McNabb was a far more sympathetic character, one who just didn’t fit the system in Washington.  He was a consummate professional: good to the fans, good to the media, and never let his frustrations come out in public.  Even as his results deteriorated, he stayed steady.  That’s commendable for anyone, and it likely earned him future opportunities in this league.

There are several reasons why everyone should like these trades:

1. Cap space is priceless:

The salary cap is back under the new CBA and for the first time ever, the cap went down.  This means that there is less money to go around, and every player earning a paycheck better be contributing.  After last season, it was obvious that neither player remained in the team’s plans for 2011.  Hitting the eject button ceased to be a question of if, but when.  Even if the Redskins fail to do anything with a fifth and two sixth round picks, this is a move that frees up substantial room to add contributing pieces.

2. Lockerroom accountability:

Every time a Redskins teammate had to answer questions about Haynesworth or McNabb was a distraction from what they needed to worry about: winning football games.  Whether or not teammates are friends off the field does not matter as much having each other’s backs in the workplace.  This happens only when everyone answers for themselves.

Getting rid of this distraction will bring teammates and coaches closer together and more focused on X’s and O’s.

3. Down the road:

The value of any draft pick isn’t known until three-to-four years down the road.  How will each of these picks be used?  Will they be used as selections to the team, or will they be packaged to acquire other players?  What will they’re impact be after a couple seasons?

All of this remains to be seen.  For now, the distraction is another team’s problem.

I guess the good news for football fans is that Brett Favre won’t be returning to Minnesota for another year (sorry ESPN).

For the first time tonight, the organization confirmed and announced what many of you already knew: that Donovan McNabb is headed out of town.  It has been a hot topic to sit on, and one that we can finally provide some information about.

At tonight’s press conference with head coach Mike Shanahan, he discussed the process that it took to deal McNabb after only one season.

“I thought he did fit within our system and did the right things that he could be a top notch player for us,” he said.  ”At the end of the day, it just didn’t work out quite the way we wanted it to.  We would have had  to make a commitment of three or four years and I was not wanting to do that with the year that I spent.”

Essentially this confirms what pundits had predicted all along: McNabb didn’t fit the system and the money that he was going to be receiving made it a deal breaker.  Shanahan then went on to explain how much of a good guy he thought Donovan was.

“Doesn’t mean that Donovan can’t still play at a very high level,” he said.  ”I think the world of him. He really handled himself in a class manner. In the best interest of this organization in evaluating everything I thought it was better to go on.”

That’s pretty high praise for a guy that the organization traded for a pair of sixth round picks.  This calls for a trip down memory lane to establish where it all went wrong.

Background- Welcome to town:

Donovan McNabb’s tenure with the Washington Redskins was a brief one, but it covered the full emotional spectrum.  He was brought here to be a savior and provide the team with an opportunity to win now.  Throw in the fact that he was the former franchise quarterback of a division rival, it was a dream scenario in the district.

Nine months later, those dreams had turned to nightmares, as the team finished at 6-10 and McNabb was benched for the last three games.

On the season, McNabb had a 58.3 percent completion rating for 3,377 yards and 14 touchdowns with 15 interceptions in 13 games.

Maybe the the pieces around him weren’t up to snuff.  The running game was sputtered and struggled to stay healthy, forcing the offense to become one-dimensional.  The receiver corps also struggled with injury and and a bad combination of youth and age.  The offensive line took time to develop in the zone-blocking scheme and McNabb had no time to look downfield.

At the end of the day, for many reasons, it simply didn’t work on the field.  Complicating matters off the field, was the fact that McNabb was due a large contract as part of his extension, an albatross under the new salary cap.

Why the trade makes sense:

Just like the Jarmon-Gaffney trade earlier this week, this trade is a net-positive for the team.  You can’t undo the decisions to bring him to Washington, so you take lemons and trade them for next year’s oranges.  Something like that.

The organization wants to try other options at quarterback, and got value back for a player that didn’t fit the system.  Even if it’s not a replacement of the price that they invested in getting him (secoond and fourth round picks), McNabb brought back picks to a head coach and general manager that do very well in the late rounds of the draft.

Another factor to consider is the cap flexibility that comes from shedding a large contract.  McNabb was not a player that factored into the team’s plans, but was due to earn a large chunk of the $120 million cap.  By shedding him, it allows the team to replace him with a splashy addition or shore up multiple positions on the roster.  This is a savvy move for an organization that needs to address multiple areas.

Why this trade might stink:

While the Redskins were able to get him out the division, he is still in the conference and goes to a Vikings team that is looking for the final piece at quarterback.  The Vikings could be a contender in the NFC, depending on the targets they sign for him to feed the ball to.  They have a good running game to take the pressure off him, and even Shanahan admitted that there’s a chance that he could have a very good year.

After bringing him to town on Easter Sunday, 2010, McNabb will return to DC with the Vikings on Christmas Eve, 2011.  McNabb had a good showing against his former team in Philadelphia last season, and will be motivated when he comes back to play the Redskins.

The Fallout:

In Washington, Mike Shanahan has a reputation for building through the draft and finding diamonds in the rough in the later rounds.  Those two picks will be used to build the next great Redskins team more than McNabb would have.

In Minnesota, there’s no guarantee that McNabb will fare any better than he did in Washington.  By the time the Redskins face the Vikings in Week 16, there’s a chance that he’s backing up rookie quarterback Christian Ponder.

This trade shouldn’t make anyone very excited, but the Redskins should feel relieved.  It’s bittersweet, but it brings closure to a huge distraction here in Washington.

Also, yes, this picture is very similar to the one I used in my last John Beck post, albeit from eighteen weeks later, all of which seems to have gone into mullet growth. I apologize for the repetition, but we are getting closer and closer to the day that I run out of John Beck Redskins photos entirely.

There are currently two quarterbacks on the Redskins roster: John Beck and Donovan McNabb. By sheer coincidence, the younger — Beck — made his pro debut as a rookie with the Dolphins against the veteran McNabb, leading the Eagles. It was November 18, 2007, a cold day at Lincoln Financial Field.

One of the quarterbacks put up the dreadful line of 3-for-11 for 34 yards and 2 interceptions before leaving the game with an ankle injury. The other one was John Beck.

Beck didn’t have a great game — 9-of-22 for 109 yards — but didn’t turn the ball over. He also didn’t lead his team to a win. (A.J. Feeley came off the bench for the Eagles and rallied them to victory, prompting a whole new round of speculation that McNabb might be traded out of Philly. What a ridiculous thought! Ha ha ha!) In fact, Beck wouldn’t lead the Dolphins to a single win in that disastrous 1-15 season, meaning that he has never quarterbacked a pro team to a victory.

So it’s understandable that people hearing that Beck may be given the chance to compete for a starting position in D.C. are a little bit skeptical, given the way his tenure in Miami went.

By even further coincidence, an ex-Redskins quarterback who hadn’t seen much success until later in his career was in the booth calling that Dolphins/Eagles tilt: Rich Gannon. Who, by even FURTHER staggering coincidence, had the occasion to interview Beck on Sirius Radio, and who brought up those rough days in Miami.

“You look at your career,” Gannon says, “Think about what you’ve been through. You go to a football team that was right in the midst of so much turmoil and transition — they fire the coach. You’re there in Miami two years, you go to Baltimore, you’re there a year, you go to Washington … I mean, it’s been a crazy four years for you already. What have you learned, and what would you have done differently if you could go back to 2007 and start all over?”
Everyone who has written about this interview has mentioned how confident Beck comes across, and how much he — at least — SOUNDS like someone who could be a starting NFL quarterback. Far be it from me to disagree. But this answer, and the other ones about Miami, are what impressed me most. It can be difficult to talk about times when things went horribly wrong, but Beck handles it as well as anyone could. He takes responsibility, acknowledges both his own mistakes AND the lousy situation, and explains what’s different for him now.

Which brings us back around to the answer to Gannon’s question.

“Well, it’s tricky,” Beck starts. “Because if I [was] gonna be in the situation I was at right now, I wouldn’t wanna change anything. Because I feel like this is where I’m supposed to be. I feel like the opportunity I have to play for Coach Shanahan, to play for the Washington Redskins right now, 2011 season, is the best opportunity I could ask for, regardless of what happened in my past.”

Sure, it sounds like Beck’s ducking the question, but he’s far from done. “Y’know, sometimes life just goes that way,” Beck continues. “Did I get my opportunity on a sinking ship? Yes, obviously. Did I make mistakes when I went out there? Yes. Did I play like a rookie? Yeah, I had my fair share of mistakes.

“But I learned a lot from it. I feel like there’s things that I learned, because of the situation I was in, that — had I not been in a tough situation, I might not have learned those things. So I feel blessed for the opportunity I had to be in a tough situation, because if you want to be great at the tough situations, you have to know how to play in ‘em and you have to be comfortable in ‘em. So I actually yearn for the next opportunity when a tough situation comes up in a game, because I feel like, Okay, I’ve been there when the crap’s hitting the fan. Did it suck back then? Yes. But I’ve spent the last three years preparing myself mentally and physically so that when it comes up again — if it does — I’m ready.”

I mean, I’m not saying that this totally sets my mind at east about the idea of an untested quarterback potentially starting for the Redskins, but it really reframes his Miami experience in the best possible light.

Beck was asked about the 2007 Dolphins a couple more times, and each time he gave a different — but equally impressive — answer.

Here’s how he handled being asked how that team would up being quite so disastrous: “You know what? I’m not even gonna answer that question because that is so far behind me, I don’t even think about it anymore. There was a time years ago where I wondered the same thing: what in the heck was that? That was a disaster. But at this time in my life I have no rearview mirrors. I do not look behind me. All I look forward to is what’s happening with the Washington Redskins. That’s all I care about.”

Adam Schein asked Beck how his time in Miami motivates him, and the answer revealed something else about the quarterback: he prepares. Even for an interview, he’s prepared. He knows who he’s talking to, what they do — and what they’ve done.

“I think the guy sitting next to you probably knows what type of motivation this feels like,” Beck says, referring to Gannon. “‘Cause I watched the guy — when I was a kid, I watched the Oakland Raiders, I watched somebody go in there, be an NFL MVP, take his team to the Super Bowl, have Pro Bowl years … and I know that that didn’t happen until he was 34 years old. So I would imagine that Rich knows the exact feeling that I’m in. And I also remember reading an article about how he went into the Raiders locker room, picked up the remote controls for the video game system and picked up the pool table balls, put ‘em in his locker, locked it up, and told everybody, ‘If we wanna win football games, this crap has to end.’”

In case you’re curious, Beck is spot on: Rich Gannon’s first 3,000+ yard season came in 1999, when he was 34 years old. The story about the pool balls? You can read that one in the SI Vault. Whatever else he is, Beck is a guy who knows his stuff.

If you’re skeptical of Beck, this probably doesn’t convince you. All the interviews in the world probably wouldn’t convince you. And Beck completely understands that as well.

“To be successful in the NFL, it doesn’t matter what you do in your interviews or what you do on the practice field,” Beck says. “It’s about what you do in games, and that’s what I’m chomping at the bit for. I can’t wait to get out on the field. I can’t wait to perform.”

And that, naturally, led him back around to another reflection on his Miami days, in the rearview mirror he claims not to have.
“Yes, it has been tough,” Beck tells Gannon and Schein.”I’ve had the weirdest road ever. When I got to the Dolphins, they sat me down and said, ‘Okay, you know what, you’re not gonna be the guy this year, this offseason’s gonna be your big time to grow, you’re gonna watch Trent Green’ and then all of a sudden, bam, I’m on the field? Nothing every went down the way it was supposed to, but I’ve great lessons in my life because of that. You have to be able to be successful in situations where, if things don’t happen the way they’re supposed to go, you just make it happen the way that you believe.

“So for me,” Beck continues, “I don’t ask any fans to believe in me right now. How could I, you know? If you try to see what I’ve done in my career, I’ve stood on the sidelines and watched people and I went out as a rookie and played like a rookie. That’s it.”

Now he’s just hoping he can get on the field, and give the fans a reason to believe from there.

It’s been kind of a weird week in Donovan McNabb. Technically, McNabb is one of two quarterbacks on the Redskins roster at the moment, but every 2011 preview seems to include a phrase like “but no one expects him to be back.” Half the Redskins fans on Twitter are engaged in some kind of weird, repetitive debate cycle about Vince Young, while the other half — which includes me — are writing about the possibilities offered by John Beck – a guy who has started no football games for three teams in the last three years. Yesterday, boxer Bernard Hopkins ripped into McNabb with a racially charged rant, seemingly without any real provocation. As recently as this morning, the Junkies on 106.7 The Fan were going over rumors of behind-the-scenes frustration with McNabb from last season.

And what was McNabb doing yesterday?

Just hanging out in South Bend, Indiana, speaking at the College Football Hall of Fame. Not nearly as dramatic as all that stuff in the first paragraph, but enough to generate a bullet-pointed list worth of headlines and notes.

• He’s not sure what his deal is for next year either. “There’s a lot of speculation right now,” McNabb told South Bend’s NBC affiliate WNDU. “The only I can do is work on my craft and training myself. Wherever I may play, I’ll be ready and look forward to a great season.”
• Lou Holtz declined to bring him to Notre Dame. The South Bend Tribune talked at length to McNabb’s college offensive coordinator, Kevin Rogers, who went on to be an assistant with the Irish.
• McNabb believes that Notre Dame QB Everett Golson should play both football and basketball. “Basketball footwork really helps in the football arena,” McNabb told WNDU. “Just the quickness, the anticipation, and the speed is something you will use in the pocket as well as getting out of the pocket.”
• He also visited kids at the pediatric unit at an area hospital. “These kids had a smile on their face when we were able to walk in and that’s joy to my heart,” McNabb said.
• The Sporting News interpreted McNabb’s comments to mean that he’s “not ruling out a return to the Redskins.”

Yep. Just another quiet week in the life of Donovan McNabb.

He also fielded a ton of Redskins questions, where by “fielded” I mean “gave polite non-answers to.” Thankfully, Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Bog has already done the thankless work of transcribing those answers. Here’s one example:

“Only thing I can do at this particular point is just continue to stay focused on what my goal is, and my goal is to help a team win a Super Bowl. I said that was gonna work on my craft and continue to go back to the fundamentals of trying to be a better quarterback, and that’s something that I plan on doing. At this particular point, I’m working with my trainer, who I’ve worked with over the years, who I’ve had great seasons with, and just enjoying my time in this lockout of just trying to be better at what I do.”

If you’d like to read a few more answers like that, you can check ‘em out here.

And here are a few other Redskins-related links that are worth checking out.

• At The Swinging Gate DC, Jack Anderson counsels the Redskins to exercise some patience in the draft. Tough to argue with.
• Hogs Haven writes a follow-up to their excellent 26-27-60 post, makes fun of Jake Locker.
• Steve Wyche of NFL.com lists the Redskins as one of three teams that “needs a running back” (italics his). Somewhere, Ryan Torain weeps softly.
• And Rich Tandler looks at one of the proposed rule changes, this one involving instant replay. On the one hand, I love when things are made right. On the other hand, I absolutely HATE waiting through replay delays. So I’m a little torn on this one.

Then there’s Donovan McNabb, who’s providing analysis of the NCAA tournament for Comcast SportsNet. McNabb isn’t just a basketball tourist; he was a walk-on on the Syracuse basketball team for a couple years in college, he played basketball on Pros Vs. Joes, and he even did a pretty solid NBA preview on his radio show last season.

In advance of this new gig, McNabb broke down this year’s bracket with CSNWashington’s Ryan O’Halloran. “It’s a wide open field,” McNabb told O’Halloran. “A lot of people are giving Ohio State and Kansas the edge. Kansas, I can see. But Ohio State, the Big Ten hasn’t been very successful since Michigan State had its run with Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson. And the brackets this year aren’t as equal. Duke has an easier bracket. Ohio State has a tougher bracket.”

Plenty more from McNabb in the link. Some other pieces worth reading….

• Also at CSNWashington, Rich Tandler looks at the many, many ways the Redskins have tried (and mostly failed) to address the wide receiver position since 1993.
• Greg Trippiedi of Redskins Hog Heaven puts together the comprehensive look at the pros and cons of taking QBs at various spots in the draft.
• Speaking of draft strategy, Brian Billick explains why it might be better for teams to have free agency begin after the draft.
• And ProFootballTalk conducts an interesting interview about the current labor situation with former Redskins safety (and current Packers president and CEO) Mark Murphy — a guy who’s seen labor trouble before, on both sides of the debate.

I had a chance to hear a bit more of the interview Larry Michael conducted with Mike Shanahan at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis; it’s long and wide-ranging, and there’s a lot of good stuff there. You’ll be able to see more of it on Redskins.com on Friday — here’s part 1 — and Redskins Nation on Comcast SportsNet next week, and I’ll have a a few more excerpts as well, but here’s one thing that jumped out at me right away: Shanahan confirmed that he had finally had that long-awaited meeting with Donovan McNabb’s agent Fletcher Smith.

Shanahan didn’t reveal much beyond that. “I did talk to Fletcher Smith yesterday,” he said, after Michael asked him about the latest developments in the McNabb situation. “Had a great conversation with him. And, you know, I can’t go through the details, but it’s been talked about, and we’ll let the process take care of itself.”

This marks another bit of progress in the Continuing Saga Of Donovan McNabb — the last time we heard from McNabb himself, he said, “I think for Fletcher Smith as well as Bruce [Allen] and Mike, they’ll get a chance to sit down and iron some things out and after the evaluation — they’ve been evaluating the last couple of weeks — we’ll hear what their answer is of what we’re doing next and then we’ll go from there.”

Now we know that the sit-down has taken place. We know that it was “a great conversation”. Hopefully soon we’ll get to the parts where hear what the answer is, what we’re doing next, and where we’re going from there. But it’s good to know that these early steps have taken place.

For more of Larry Michael’s interview with Mike Shanahan, see Redskins.com on Friday (here’s part 1), Redskins Nation on Comcast SportsNet next week, and here as well, for more exciting transcription.

In other McNabb news, OK! Magazine named the QB one of the “hot quarterbacks of the NFL” — and, yes, I’m pretty sure they mean that as in “attractive,” not “experiencing a remarkable streak of statistical success”. The big tip-off is the blurb before the slideshow, which asks:

“What better way to celebrate football than to ogle some of its hottest quarterbacks? Even if your team isn’t in the big game, that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate!”

Which … well, whatever. But congrats to McNabb for both of these remarkable honors, I suppose.

(Declaration Of Independence video via DC Sports Bog who got it via SBNation DC.)

Donovan McNabb is serving as part of ESPN’s Super Bowl coverage in Dallas this week, so it’s safe to assume that he’ll be talking a lot. (He’d be a pretty lousy TV personality if he didn’t.) And if Donovan McNabb is talking, there’s a decent chance that it’ll be something of interest to Redskins fans. Frankly, I expect to be transcribing a fair bit of Donovan McNabb for the next few days, especially if the alternative is hearing EVEN MORE about Maurkice Pouncey’s ankle.

But today was especially notable, as McNabb sat down with Mike Tirico to get the slightly awkward prelimnaries out of the way.
McNabb was excellent on TV as always. He handled the tougher questions with class, saying that his agent Fletcher Smith would be talking about the behind-the-scenes stuff with general manager Bruce Allen and head coach Mike Shanahan, while McNabb focused on getting physically ready in the offseason.

And that statement led Tirico to ask a question that a lot of fans also put forth after McNabb was replaced by Rex Grossman this year: “You’ve done this for a dozen years now,” Tirico said. “Where are the places that you can still be a better quarterback at this point in your career?”

McNabb didn’t duck the question. “You know what, there are a lot of places,” he said. “I think that any time you kinda get settled or satisfied with what you’ve been doing, then you’re missing out on a lot of good things that you can accomplish. And I think for myself, I think you have to go back and go back to the basics. If it’s your drop, if it’s eliminating the false step, if it’s getting the ball out quicker, seeing something a lot faster, whatever it may be, that’s something that I will prepare myself [on] going into the 2011 season, to have a wonderful season.”

So that’s McNabb’s point of view. Which means that what’s next is for all that behind-the-scenes stuff to play out. “I think for Fletcher Smith as well as Bruce and Mike,” McNabb explained, “they’ll get a chance to sit down and iron some things out and after the evaluation — they’ve been evaluating the last couple of weeks — we’ll hear what their answer is of what we’re doing next and then we’ll go from there.”

If it’s Tuesday — and it is! — then it must be time to see what the various Redskins with paid radio gigs have to say about the team and their situations. It’s rare that the main attraction on Tuesday is the appearance on ESPN 980 of Donovan McNabb, who is notoriously cagey and inclined to give the political answer whenever he can; usually Clinton Portis and Chris Cooley are more closely followed.

But today marked McNabb’s first comment since his agent, Fletcher Smith, sent out a statement criticizing head coach Mike Shanahan and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, and since each Shanahan responded to that statement. So today, for once, McNabb gets top billing (even though what he said really didn’t amount to much, and didn’t really change the narrative on that particular plotline of the ongoing 2010 Redskins soap opera).

McNabb took a somewhat peculiar position with regard to Smith’s statement. It would seem to be fairly clear-cut: either the agent speaks for McNabb, or the agent is out of line. McNabb says that things aren’t that simple. “Let’s put it this way,” McNabb said. “I support my agent. I support my agent in all calls…. I discuss with my agent if he asks a question about what’s going on, or things of that nature. That’s something that we talk about. And, I guess, as you read in the article, he put his thoughts into the whole deal. Not Donovan’s thoughts.”

In fact, McNabb said, what upset him most about the entire incident was “the reaction to the whole deal,” to which he later added, “when I read the whole thing, I didn’t see nothing wrong with it.”

McNabb said that he wasn’t aware that the statement was being released before it came out, but reiterated his support for his agent after the fact.

In the end, this whole line of questioning just continues the he-said-he-said thing that this situation is becoming, now with the addition of the agent as another, apparently autonomous, he-said.

But there were a few other tidbits of note in McNabb’s appearance.

• McNabb confirmed Kyle Shanahan’s account of a meeting between the two following the release of Smith’s statement. “We sat down and we discussed a lot of different things,” McNabb said. “Those are ones I’ll keep between Kyle and I. And I thought we got things out there on the table and we were able to move on.”
• McNabb denied an ESPN report that he would ask for his release at the end of the season — “No, that’s false,” he said. He also specified that he hadn’t discussed the situation with owner Daniel Snyder or general manager Bruce Allen.
• And he reiterated that he didn’t regret the trade that brought him here, didn’t regret teh contract extension, and again said that he’d like to be the QB in D.C. in 2011 — but this time he made clearer some of the things that would need to happen to make that possible. “Things would obviously have to change,” McNabb said. “You know, relationships have to better, conversations have to be better. But that’s something that you do over time. And it progresses over time. When we first started the season, we talked about it. It’s a progression, you know, how you’re building a relationship with each other. You bring in new guys and you’re building a relationship with the guys, and good things happen out on the field.”

So … yeah. Make of that what you will, I suppose.

Meanwhile, the news was a little brighter over in Clinton Portis Land.Speaking on his weeky appearance on 106.7 The Fan, Portis gave some good news about his health. “I think I’m pretty healthy,” Portis told hosts Holden Kushner and Brian Mitchell. “I think already did all the requirements that the doc asked me to do. I’m runnin’, I’m doing the ladders, I’m jumpin’, my leg feels great. I could run routes today, if given the opportunity. So I think I’d be perfectly healthy. I think I’d be perfectly fine.”

Kushner was stunned by this, and asked Portis if he could play right now.

“I actually feel like I could,” Portis said. “You know, I think the surgery went great and Doctor [Something] did a great job. I mean, I know I’m ahead of schedule. And I was runnin’ the first week and everybody in therapy was, like, ‘You gotta be kidding.’ But it is what it is, you know? I think I’ll be healthy and looking forward to next season.”

That doesn’t effect Portis this year — he’s on season-ending injured reserve — but it does mean that he’ll have the entire offseason (and more) to get ready to make his case that he belongs on this team next year.

Elsewhere on 106.7 The Fan, I actually missed Chris Cooley talking last night — I was busy hosting a show on Ustream with a ridiculous sombrero on — but Rick Maese of the Washington Post was paying attention, and he reports that Cooley says that he “about lost his mind” because of the dropped passes in the first half.

Here’s some more of Cooley’s comments, all via Maese’s transcription (in that post and this one):

• “I was really disappointed with my performance in the first half. Obviously, I’m embarrassed by the first drop that I had in the end zone. That’s just a shame that I did that. I guess, it happens. I don’t have much to say about it. I don’t know really why it happened. I watched it again. But I’m embarrassed.”
• On Rex Grossman’s future with the Redskins: “It’s going to come down to what our organization decides to do with No. 5. If he’s by the phone and they tell him to go home or if they want him back. If something happens with Donovan, I think Rex is immediately the guy.”
• On Grossman’s performance: “I think he’s done a fantastic job. I think he deserves the opportunity he has to play, and I think he’s making the most of it.”

If anyone else had a radio show today and I missed it, I apologize. Just go ahead and send me your transcript and I’ll be more than happy to post it.