Kirk Cousins will start, RG3 will be inactive, Mike Shanahan will most likely be gone
Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan stands on the sidelines against the New York Giants in the second quarter at FedEx Field. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Redskins have been in turmoil all season long, and the report last week from ESPN’s Dan Graziano shed some light on just how broken the Redskins organization is right now. Dan Snyder has quite the reputation for being a stubborn and, if I’m being quite honest, bad owner, and his star treatment of Robert Griffin III irked Shanahan. Per Graziano’s report, Shanahan was upset that Snyder would not only place RG3 on a pedestal (for the record, Shanny does not blame RG3 for anything), but he would also treat other players- like Kirk Cousins- worse.
According to ESPN NFL Nation’s John Keim , the rumors that the Redskins will start Kirk Cousins this week are true, as a high-ranking team official told Keim that the team will start Cousins against the Atlanta Falcons. He came in for RG3 last week when the Redskins were already being thoroughly blown out by the Kansas City Chiefs.
The NFL Network’s Jeff Darlington also reported that the Redskins will name RG3 as an inactive this week and use veteran QB Rex Grossman as Cousins’s backup. Cousins is a great, promising backup, but he isn’t a better option than RG3 and struggled tremendously last week against the Chiefs. Not all of that is on him, but I don’t think Cousins gives the Redskins a better chance to win than RG3.
No, this move is all about Mike Shanahan making a statement, and that statement is that he wants to be fired by Snyder and leave D.C. He was prepared to leave after making the playoffs last year, his relationship with Snyder has clearly deteriorated, the situation got worse with the release of Graziano’s report on Sunday (especially since it is rumored that the Redskins believe Shanahan leaked that information), the Redskins have reportedly been looking for ways to fire Shanahan, and now he is directly confronting Snyder by benching the player Snyder exalts.
If Shanahan stays as the head coach, then I would be beyond shocked. I think there’s a better chance that he’s fired before the season ends than anything else. It’s clear that neither Shanahan nor Snyder want him to be coaching the Redskins, and it looks like Snyder might have to fire him in order to get his way (that would cost him a significant amount of money, which is something he is trying to avoid being on the hook for).