Colt vs. Chase: Really?

Are we really even having this conversation?

The lede: Undrafted rookie quarterback Chase Daniel finally sees his first NFL action, outduels rival Colt Brennan and leads the Redskins on two touchdown drives in a comeback win over the defending Super Bowl champions!

What a story! Colt you better watch your ass!

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I have just summarized the last 72 hours of Redskins coverage. See also:

Jason Reid, Washington Post
Dan Steinberg, Washington Post
John Keim, Washington Examiner
Joseph White, Associated Press
Both the Washington Post and Washington Times have polls on the subject, Chase is leading the WashTimes poll by nearly 100 votes and 25 percentage points.

Take a breath folks, it was preseason. Chase got his turn and made the best of it, exactly like Colt did last season when he was raw like a burlap speedo. It does not mean anything in the grand scheme and I am going to go ahead and prognosticate, now that Todd Collins has been named the number two quarterback and we can turn out attention to the competition for number three: Colt Brennan will be the Redskins number three quarterback, and Chase Daniel will be on the practice squad, at best.

So Colt, don't start thinking pineapples, shave ice and North Shore yet.

Last season in Colt we saw a gunslinger, an undersized improvisor with good field vision and a feel for the rhythm of the game. In the offseason, a player's coach though he may be, head coach Jim Zorn told Colt he was going to have to improve his mechanics and get to where his progress could be measured and his outcomes more predictable.

How could the coaches ever put the game in his hands if they were not positive he could execute the gameplan, as the coaches intended and at the level the NFL demands?

Footwork, release, progressions, staying in the pocket and not jackrabbiting, internalizing gameplan components, memorization, reaction, reading defenses, adjusting blocking schemes, keeping the confidence of teammates. These are all the things that can be measured, and measured against standards established by the coach. I am sure Jim Zorn is a cast iron bitch when it comes to his quarterbacks.

What we are seeing this year is Colt Brennan playing through his adjustment to becoming a professional quarterback. The Colt we know and love is still in there, and it may ultimately be his undoing, the sidearm delivery, the Brett Favre devil may care force it in there or try and throw it away down the center of the field. That Colt is trying damn hard to become a quarterback that an NFL team would want to keep and realistically one day give a shot at running the team.

The Colt we saw last year would never make it in the NFL, after a few games grace the other teams would have film and then proceed to eat him alive. The Colt we see this year is an NFL quarterback emerging, still an unfinished product.

Chase, well he is this year's gunslinger. Similar type of college system, dude cranked it, just like Colt. And like Colt last year, the coaches just told Chase to get out there and show us what you got, although the fans were measuring completions and touchdowns, the coaches were measuring potential, blind to Chase's appearance of success. They have to decide if he is worth investing the system and knowledge in. Although Chase is no doubt learning a great deal from coach Zorn every day, I have no doubt quarterback school does not really start until you make the roster.

To put it another way, if Chase were to make the team, I would bet you a dollar after a year in the program that he looks more like Colt does now.

And let us look at the production Saturday night, Chase had three possessions, one of which was a one play drive after a special teams turnover so in terms of game flow Hunter the Punter Smith's punt was more like a long pass to Fred Davis. Yes it resulted in a touchdown, that was a good outcome.

Colt's one serious drive in the fourth quarter looked a lot like Chase's first drive in the third quarter. On that drive Chase took the Redskins from the Washington 40 to a touchdown, 60 yards over 7:29 of game time, fourteen plays, nine running plays, four completions, one incompletion, 33 yards rushing and 27 yards passing. The outcome was a touchdown pass from three yards out.

Colt took the Redskins from the Washington 20 to the Pittsburgh 11, 69 yards over 7:34 of game time, thirteen plays, eight running plays, three completions, one incompletion and one interception, 32 yards rushing and 42 yards passing. The outcome was an interception from 11 yards out.

Those look like pretty much the same drive to me, the only difference was the outcome. In preseason coaches look at the process as much as the outcome, Colt gets a ding for forcing a pass and Chase gets a gold star for finding the end zone, in the main I will bet you when charted Sunday these drives were rated almost the same.

To put it another way, there is no way to say Chase Daniel is far superior to Colt Brennan as an NFL caliber quarterback based on the second half of the Steelers game. Despite what you may infer from the piece in the Examiner linked above, John Keim agrees.

Yes Colt had a rough night in Baltimore, six drives, no points, five punts and an interception. The whole team had a rough night. Whether in preseason game three this Friday or in the preseason finale next week, Chase will get another long stretch and we will see if he can keep it up.

I am not dogging Chase, it is great to have him on the team, Redskins fans really revel in the minutiae and the competition between two undersized guys that will not play anyway is more exciting that talking about the kicking competition and keeps fans from obsessing on whether the starting offense is really that bad. Chase versus Colt is a shovel ready story for the media.

Unfortunately Chase came a year too late, that position is already filled, Colt is similar and with a whole year's extra experience. The Redskins will not keep Chase on the regular roster. To be dazzled by the young gun to the point of letting go a guy with a year in the system, that is Dan Snyder, not Jim Zorn.

If Chase has the coach's eye he will be signed to the practice squad, assuming he clears waivers which I have no doubt he will. From there he can sit a year, learn the system, wait for the call and be ready to come back with a year of Zornification and see what might happen in 2010.



Composite image by me. Chase Daniel: detail of AP photo from here. Colt Brennan: Mark Duncan / AP photo from here.