Washington Redskins proclaimed rulers of quarterback purgatory

Can anybody name the last truly great quarterback the Washington Redskins had? The fact that most have to think about it says plenty.

To be fair the Redskins have gotten great seasons out of quarterbacks before like Mark Rypien, Doug Williams, and Joe Theismann. However, since the end of the Joe Gibbs era in the mid-1990s, this franchise has mastered the art of bringing in either quarterbacks who are average or good quarterbacks who are past their prime to essentially limp along and maybe make the playoffs once in a while but never do anything of note.

Just run through the list: Gus Frerotte, Brad Johnson, Mark Brunell, Jason Campbell, Donovan McNabb, Robert Griffin III, Kirk Cousins, and Alex Smith. The one time they had a good one in their midst who was in his prime was Trent Green in 1998 and they let him walk the next year. Now they’ve continued to showcase their art of living in QB purgatory by executing a trade for veteran Case Keenum from the Denver Broncos.

Sources: The #Redskins and #Broncos are working a trade for QB Case Keenum to land in Washington. Issues to work out, but both sides are motivated to make this happen.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 7, 2019

Case Keenum will not solve any of the prevailing issues in Washington

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It’s amazing how one decent season can somehow inflate the actual value of a quarterback. To be fair Keenum is far from the worst option out there but do the Redskins honestly believe for one second that they can compete for a Super Bowl with him? If they do, then the people running their front office should be reassigned. His lone standout year in 2017 was heavily driven by a playing with the best defense in football and being surrounded by Pro Bowl targets everything.

The Redskins have none of those things. Adrian Peterson and Jordan Reed are long past their primes and most of the other notable targets are not of a Pro Bowl quality. The defense? Not even close. This team sorely needs to retool their roster. It feels like they’re acquiring Keenum in an attempt to keep a window open that was never really open to begin with.

They had the right idea when they built everything around RGIII but they had their sights set on the wrong guy. Russell Wilson proved that when he beat them in the playoffs that same year. It feels like Washington has been surrounded by bad luck and bad decisions at the position ever since. As good of a coach as Jay Gruden is, don’t expect him to pull off any miracles with Keenum.

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