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Jason Campbell is still the future

By Skin Patrol

There's a discussion over at Football Outsiders over Mike Tanier's Wild Card preview that aberrated in part to a brief conversation on whether or not Jason Campbell is the future of the team. My position appears here explicitly: Jason Campbell is the future of the team. That is not said to take anything away from Todd Collins or even to suggest that a healthy JC should supplant Collins in the playoffs. I think Todd has played well enough the past few weeks and believe that Campbell requires enough recovery where we'd all be better off with The Todd closing out the season. But no matter what happens, a healthy Jason in 2008 is the one we start on week 1. That's my position and I justify it thus: As impressive as Todd has been, the sample size is small enough at the moment where I'm unwilling to claim with authority that he's better than Jason. Remember that JC is still learning this offense and there's no reason to yet believe that he won't become the familiar-with-the-system game manager that Collins has played as for the past four weeks. Once he does gain that same level of familiarity, he offers far more than Todd does, of note, his youth and physical ability. And facial hair.

But what I think doesn't matter. What Al Saunders thinks does and the Post informs:

"Coach Saunders talks to me all the time and says, 'This is your team, this is your offense, all the things going on now are the same things you would have been doing,' " Campbell said. " 'It was building up to this and now all the guys are healthy and everyone is playing at a different level.'

"He said, 'You're the biggest part of it, so don't feel like you're not part of it or not part of anything, you're a big reason why we're in the playoffs and you went through all the tough times, and things happen sometimes.' "

He would say that about his young, injured quarterback, but I happen to believe it anyways. The other quarterbacks are saying all the right things, as well:
Collins said: "This is Jason's team and then through circumstances out of his control he can't play. It must be awful, and I hope he gets healthy so he can make a contribution, too." ...

"I'm sure it's frustrating for Jason, but this is Jason's team," quarterback Mark Brunell said. "Todd's just renting. This is Jason's team and he's got a bright future and every guy in here to a man knows that if he didn't hurt his knee we'd still be going to Seattle."

And that's good, since the article also mentions that Jason Campbell is "depressed" over the entire affair, though it doesn't sound that much like mopey dwelling. The team and coaching staff appreciate what Todd Collins is doing as much as we do, but they've gone out of their way to stress that Jason is Your Washington Redskins quarterback of the future and that this is still his team.

The question to reader(s), and I've now made clear my own position, is whether that should actually be the case. What could Todd Collins do to earn that spot? What would Jason Campbell have to do, this year or the next perhaps, to lose that spot? What is the threshold -- if it hasn't already been reached -- for JC to lose control of this team?

I think we are miles away from that point and support him, but I hate to monopolize the conversation on an issue as important as who starts under center for my favorite team.

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