The message wasn’t long, but it was direct. Redskins coach Mike Shanahan delivered it to John Beck Tuesday:
“We’re going to give you an opportunity to play this week.”
With that, the Redskins once more made a change at quarterback – as has been customary in the last 20 years. This time, Beck is the starter and Rex Grossman the jilted backup.
“I’m definitely excited,” Beck said. “There’s been a lot of hard work that’s gone into this. And you never know when your opportunity will come. You have to stay ready. I’ve tried to do that. I just want to go out and perform my best.”
“I was frustrated,” Grossman said of hearing the news. “Not completely surprised, but disappointed that I wasn’t able to come back off that game.… I thought I played well the first four games but you can’t have games like that against the Eagles.”
Coach Mike Shanahan won’t be available to discuss the decision until after practice Wednesday. But it’s clear that Grossman’s turnovers had to be a factor in the switch. Grossman has turned the ball over 11 times in five games and 18 times in his eight starts with Washington. He’s thrown 49 interceptions in 46 career games.
Also, Shanahan pointed out he would look at other decisions Grossman made and he had two potential interceptions dropped in each of the past two games — off of bad decisions and throws. Those weighed as heavily as the picks that were made, some of which could be blamed on others.
Beck is more mobile and athletic than Grossman, which was evident on several plays vs. the Eagles. But that wouldn’t matter if Grossman didn’t frequently turn it over. Even he admitted he turned it over too much.
“Yeah, whatever you want to say about turnovers there’s always a reason,” he said, “but ultimately I’m responsible for the ball.”
Beck has not started since his rookie season in 2007 with Miami. He started four games that season, taking over when the Dolphins were 0-9. This time he assumes control of a team that’s 3-2 that fancies itself a contender in the NFC East.
And he knows about the instability of the quarterbacks in Washington. He’s the 21st player to start at quarterback for the Redskins since they won the Super Bowl after the 1991 season.
“I don’t ever want to try and convince someone from a microphone,” Beck said. “I just want to go on the field and play the way I can play. The quarterback position is tough. Windows are small, you have to take calculated risks and sometimes those risks don’t work. You have to continually battle.”
He also knows that ball security is an issue and a primary factor in Grossman’s benching.
“That’s the tricky part of quarterback,” Beck said. “There’s a lot of plays where quarterbacks take chances… Ball security’s a point every week because it’s very hard to win in the NFL. Now it’s on my shoulders to take care of the ball and give my team the best chance to win.”
Several sources said this summer that Shanahan’s belief was that Beck had a higher ceiling than Grossman. However, Beck could not beat him out. But Beck said missing all the offseason practices because of the lockout, then missing another week in camp because of an injury, hurt his development. The past five weeks gave him a chance to further learn the offense.
What he doesn’t want to do is look past Sunday. Nor does he want to view this as his one chance to prove he can start.
“I can’t think about that,” he said. “If I try to think of it as I have to do it right now, that could be putting too much pressure on yourself. You just have to play. If you try to overthink things you take away from your preparation and from the way you can naturally play.”
Beck also said he and Grossman have talked about the situation and he expects the former starter will support him the same way he did when he was the backup.
But it’s quite a turn from little more than a month ago when Beck received the disappointing news.
“Things change in the blink of an eye and you always have to be ready,” he said. “I’m trying to move forward with this opportunity. I was hoping the day would come when I would get the opportunity but I just never knew.”
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