Washington Redskins’ quarterback Colt McCoy took to the podium before practice on Wednesday and looked about as relaxed as he has since climbing onto the quarterback roller coaster out in Ashburn. He began the presser with a bit of a joke, calling a question about the challenges of all of the third-and-longs the team is dealing with a “good first question.” This started the presser off on a good note and with the fifth year player looking and sounding confident. That’s how a starting NFL quarterback should sound.
(It was a good question because the issue has plagued this team since the beginning of the season. The Redskins currently have converted 49 of 150 third downs. Just for comparison, the New Orleans Saints, currently leading the league, have converted 75 of their 150 third downs. McCoy answered the question with some detail and ended his answer with:
“It’s certainly something we’ll want to be aware of at practice this week and continue to work on that.”)
Colt McCoy is not the same quarterback that he was from 2010 to 2012 when he was with the Cleveland Browns. Drafted in the third round of the 2010 draft, he was supposed to sit his first year in the league. But, because of injuries to starting quarterback Jake Delhomme as well as their back back-up (Seneca Wallace), McCoy ended up having to start in Week Six against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In that game, McCoy completed 23 of 33 passes for 281 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions. The Browns lost but he also scrambled four times for 22 yards.
That rookie year he started three more games, one of which was against the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints and he led the team to a surprising win against them, 30-17 in New Orleans. McCoy also led the team to another upset win against the New England Patriots later in the season. That score was an impressive 34-14. In a November game against the New York Jets, the Browns lost in overtime with McCoy throwing for 205 yards and a touchdown.
McCoy injured his ankle in week 11 against the Jacksonville Jaguars and missed some time but did play in a few other games with mixed results. He finished his rookie season with six touchdowns and nine interceptions.
The 2011 season started with McCoy at the helm as well as with a new head coach. Eric Mangini was fired for Pat Shurmur (also the new offensive coordinator) who brought in a new West Coast offensive system. The team had a pretty terrible year, going 4-12. With basically just two offensive weapons in running back Peyton Hillis and a pretty good number one receiver named Josh Cribbs, McCoy ended the 2011 season with 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He was benched for Brandon Weeden the following season.
It is because of his years at Cleveland that people have the opinion that McCoy is “just a backup” (there isn’t much film to go on from his time in San Francisco). But in his first press conference with the Redskins back in October after he was called off the bench to finish the game against the Tennessee Titans, he admitted that he had grown over the years, especially because of the trials he had endured. This growth has played out on the practice and game fields for his new head coach and team. In the overtime win against the Dallas Cowboys and even in the loss to the San Francisco 49ers, McCoy did the things he needed to do to run Gruden’s offense the way it should be run. McCoy distributed the ball, he read the defense and he got the ball out of his hands in a timely manner. He even demonstrated some play-making-on-the-fly abilities with that pass to tight end Logan Paulsen while under duress. His boss believes he has become a better quarterback as well.
“With more reps comes more confidence,” Gruden said yesterday with regard to McCoy growing into his roll of starting quarterback, “He’s obviously gaining a head of steam right now and that’s important for the quarterback position. We’d like to have stability there obviously and he has had limited reps all through camp. He had the majority of reps just before the Dallas game which was really the only time he got the full load of reps. Now last week and now this week of course. So you can see he’s taking full ownership of the position and that’s what he’s got to do to be successful. He’s doing a good job.”
Even with the losing in Cleveland and here, he has been learning.
“Yeah, it’s not a fun place to be sometimes, unfortunately.” McCoy said today about what he has learned from being around losing teams early in his career. “But [those are] the cards I was dealt, stepping into this position playing quarterback. But you know my dreams and goals don’t change. I want to be a starter in this league and I have that opportunity right now. So I think the biggest thing for us is to come together as a unit and make these last four games the best games we can possibly play… …I think everyone knows what’s at stake and we just have to continue to find a way to get a win. That’s our only goal right now.”
Barring injury or an awful performance, Redskins fans should get used to the idea of Colt McCoy as their starting quarterback… for now and possibly into next season. Gruden likes what the 28-year-old can do and, unless Robert Griffin, III or Kirk Cousins develop more and win a QB competition over this next off-season (unless one or both is traded), McCoy is the QB currently on this roster who seems to run the offense most efficiently and effectively.
It’s possible that the Redskins could draft a quarterback in 2015 but, with the amount of needs they have in other places on the team, it would be unwise — at least with their first-round pick. Gruden may think that McCoy is serviceable enough to carry the team for another year. He believes that this quarterback has done what he needs to earn the starting spot right now. He is certainly young enough (28) and has a decent amount of experience.
“He went to San Francisco last year and battled for a backup spot and then this year he came here and just accepted the fact that he was a number three,” Gruden said at his presser yesterday. “But [he] worked himself into a spot where, if given an opportunity, he was ready to go. And that’s what we try to preach to all our guys is, once you get the opportunity, you have to make something of it. So that’s what he has done, he is a resilient guy that works hard and now it’s his opportunity to take this job and what he does with it is up to him.”
Considering what Colt McCoy has shown in the few games he played, he seems to be the right man for that job. During those three contests, he completed 67 of 89 pass attempts for 819 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. That is a respectable 75 percent completion rate. Of the three signal-callers on the roster, McCoy has most earned the right to be under center by virtue of his play to this point. Whether or not he stays there depends on the rest of this season and the off-season yet to come.
Hail.