Of course the Washington Redskins should try to get Mark Brunell. Only a handful of teams are lucky enough to find one young quarterback, put him on the field to take every snap, and have it work out.
The Patriots have Tom Brady, the Colts have Peyton Manning and the Packers still have Brett Favre. But way more often than not, a team needs two quarterbacks, both of whom can be starters, both of whom a team can depend on in the playoffs. The Rams have needed three: Trent Green, Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger. Look at the Eagles of 2002, who needed not only Donovan McNabb but also Koy Detmer and A.J. Feeley, and made it to the playoffs. Jeff Garcia was a Pro Bowl quarterback but the 49ers still needed Tim Rattay. Michael Vick and Chad Pennington couldn't play the whole season, and as a result their teams missed the playoffs.
Since 1995, only two NFL quarterbacks have won more games than Brunell, who barely played last season, and that would be Favre and Steve McNair. Yes, Brunell is past his prime; he'll turn 34 in September and he missed 14 starts in his eight-year run with Jacksonville from '95 to 2002. In fact, you don't even get Brunell with the idea that he's going to start all 16 games because he's done that only twice in his career.
You get Brunell because he's well-rested (only three starts in 2003, after Byron Leftwich arrived), because he probably has a couple of really good seasons in him, because he's played in and won big playoff games, including one when he got the best of John Elway in Denver. He led the Jaguars to the AFC championship game following the 1996 and 1999 seasons. You get Brunell because, while Patrick Ramsey looks promising, he's only 24, he's started just 16 NFL games, and he has yet to demonstrate (even if it's not his fault) that he can take a team into the playoffs. You also get Brunell because Joe Gibbs likes veteran quarterbacks.
Just look it up. Joe Theismann was 33, then 34, when the Redskins went to back-to-back Super Bowls following the 1982 and 1983 seasons. Jay Schroeder was in his mid-20s when he started for the Redskins, but Gibbs had (and used) the security blanket of Doug Williams, who was 32 when the Redskins won the Super Bowl after the 1987 season. Even Mark Rypien was 29 years old when he led the Redskins to the Super Bowl following the 1991 season. Clearly, Gibbs is most comfortable when he has a veteran quarterback and when his young quarterbacks (remember Rypien and Stan Humphries) have had long apprenticeships. And you don't bring Gibbs back to coach and have him uncomfortable with his triggerman.
Is this going to retard the growth of Ramsey? Probably not. What quarterback who played for Gibbs had his growth retarded? Not Rypien. Not Humphries, who led the Chargers to a Super Bowl. First of all, if Ramsey's as good as many of us think, maybe he beats out Brunell for the starting job. And if not, he sits and learns for another year or two. Brunell wouldn't come for the long haul. With his mileage, the future is this minute. If Brunell comes to Washington and starts for two full seasons, Ramsey would still have a chance to reclaim the starting job by the time he turns 27. And if he does come, he doesn't come in as a locker room-dividing lightning rod. He's not Jeff George.
My reservation about getting Brunell is this: The price seems fairly steep. You don't just throw away second-round draft picks in the NFL, which reportedly is what it's going to take to complete this trade with Jacksonville to get him. A second-round choice ought to become a starter in the NFL, and fairly quickly at that. The Redskins need a defensive tackle, a pass rusher, a safety and, one would think, a running back. Some of the shopping can be done through free agency, but not all of it. A second-round pick ought to be a five-year starter at the very least. Brunell isn't going to be a five-year starter, so there is the issue of value.
But there's also the issue of competition. Is it worth a second-round pick to the Redskins to get Brunell and keep him away from the Dallas Cowboys? Does the deal become sweeter when you strengthen your own team while hurting your primary rival?
This isn't just about whether the Redskins want Brunell; there's also the matter of how badly Brunell wants to be a starter. There's every chance he could come here and be beaten out by Ramsey. There's a much better chance, should he go to Dallas, that Brunell will be the starter, maybe go unchallenged for a spell. I like Quincy Carter and it appears he made major strides last year under Bill Parcells. But only a fool would think the Cowboys aren't going to upgrade at the quarterback position and Brunell is an upgrade.
What's missing from Brunell's résumé is a trip to the Super Bowl. He's been to the Pro Bowl three times. He's proven he could evolve from an ath-a-lete to a passer, reducing his rushing attempts from 80 (for 396 yards and three touchdowns in '96) to 39 (for 224 yards) in 2001. Maybe he looks at Gibbs and sees a devout man, as he is, and a coach whose philosophy begins with protecting the quarterback, and figures he wants to play for this particular team and for this particular coach. From what I know of Brunell and Gibbs, they seem like quite the match.
It would be an interesting first recruit for Gibbs. He didn't do much of this kind of thing, if any at all, in his first go-round as an NFL coach. My bet is his recruiting skills are as sharp as anybody's. Sit with Gibbs for an hour and you have zero chance of telling him no. Now, whether he has a good GM's eye for talent only time will tell. But these sets of circumstances are what test the men who try to both acquire the talent and coach it. Can Brunell still bring it like he did in '99? If not, is he willing to accept demotion and be an able backup and tutor to Ramsey? And is a second-round draft pick too much to give up, even if it hurts Dallas, too?
What's not in question is whether Brunell somehow clutters the backfield. You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many quarterbacks who can play.
