Well, that didn’t take long.
Patrick Ramsey’s tenure as the Redskins free-and-clear starting quarterback lasted just three offensive series, after which Joe Gibbs named Mark Brunell as the new starter going into next Monday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. The decision was made at a news conference yesterday. Gibbs expressed some measure of regret at the announcement, telling the Post “You don’t like doing this. I don’t. Sometimes you don’t chart the circumstances or what happens. It just happens.” The frustrated Ramsey is reported to have requested a trade on the spot, having reached the end of his rope with the whole situation.
It’s hard not to feel bad for Ramsey, whose career began under then head coach Steve Spurrier, who relished his strong arm but whose grade-school blocking schemes resulted in constant brutalizing by opposing defenses who blitzed with impunity, knowing that Spurrier never built in blitz-reads into his offenses. Since then, Ramsey’s never managed to win Gibbs’ confidence. For his part, Gibbs has never seemed able to shoot straight with Ramsey. This invocation of the quick hook after making numerous assurances that Ramsey would have an opportunity as the starter certainly makes Gibbs appear disingenuous.
Ramsey’s future is uncertain at this point. Under NFL rules, the Redskins may make a trade anytime between now and October 18. The prospect of a trade is believed to be unlikely at this point, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Ramsey’s services wouldn’t be valuable elsewhere — he’s a few degrees better than any of the junk Nick Saban or Brian Billick has to work with, and Detroit is in desperate need of an experienced backup. With Mark Brunell in the game as the starter, fans will have to hope that the slightly perceptible improvement demonstrated in the preseason is not simply the product of facing scrub defenses. A return to his previous year’s inability to hit the broad side of a barn is likely to be greeted by fans loudly disclosing their preference for the shambling corpse of Jeff George to be placed under center.
