Andre Woodson Is Our New BFF

We loved him from afar all along. No really.

Let the games begin, in a sign the Redskins intend to be as annoying to the Giants as the Giants are to them, the Redskins picked up castoff Giants third string quarterback Andre Woodson and signed him to the practice squad. With Colt Brennan on injured reserve and Chase Daniel gone, this move gives the Redskins three quarterbacks, at least as far as the roster goes.

Wonder if Andre did like dickhead LaVar Arrington did when he went to the Giants and kept his Redskins playbook. Oh I see here Andre did the right thing and turned his in.

After much hoopla in the preseason, the Redskins opted not to keep Chase, even after Colt went on injured reserved with a hip, hamstring, something or other I am still not entirely sure what happened there, Chase was let go in the round of 53 cuts.

At the time I was certain Chase would be signed back to the practice squad, once Colt went on injured reserve he would not be available again for the entire season, and despite being five foot ten inches tall and only knowing the offense for two months, Chase Daniel is now the third most knowledgeable quarterback in head coach Jim Zorn's offensive system. On the planet.

But no, Chase evaluated his options and signed with the New Orleans Saints onto their practice squad, once again I underestimated Chase Daniel, where I thought he was toiling in obscurity for the right to be our Rudy, in fact other teams were keeping an eye on him.

Drew Brees is the starter there and still in his prime, he is not going anywhere, but after releasing Joey Harrington in the round of 53 cuts, the Saints were heading into the season with just two quarterbacks, and the second QB in town is almost 39 year old former Redskin Mark Brunell. So for Chase the situation in New Orleans is better than in Washington, in addition to a spry starter and a Methuselah backup, Washington also had a Colt in Chase's way.

So good luck to Chase, thanks for the excitement of 2009 training camp.

And now the Redskins needed a third quarterback. Setting aside the notion of simply having two regular quarterbacks available to play in games, teams simply need a third player at that position to get through practices and drills. Between the starters, depth players, receiving drills and mimicking the other team's quarterback in practice there is no way two is enough.

So the Redskins went out and signed Andre Woodson, the former 2008 6th round draft pick just released by the Giants. Yes the Giants, the same team the Redskins play in game one of the 2009 season in what we hope will not be a repeat of last year's dreadful opener at New York.

For his part, head coach Jim Zorn refuted the notion that Andre would be a mole and actually thinks Andre might be good for the team. Giants coach Tom Coughlin on the other hand is not happy about the signing (op. cit.) by the way he can suck it. He is already all whining about the team just signed Andre to pump him for information on the Giants, their offensive particulars and their week one gameplan for Washington.

Well Tom would be irresponsible not to complain on behalf of his team, this is an aspect of the game that is off the field and therefore the players cannot influence.

But it happens all the time, there is no rule against it. And while Tom alternately complains then dismisses Andre's value to the Redskins and the New York media and Giants fans have one more made up reason to pile on the Redskins, I do not recall anyone outside the Patriots organization complaining when Lawyer Milloy signed with the Bills after being cut at the end of 2003 training camp.

Who was the Bills week one opponent? The Patriots, Lawyer's former team. And what happened? The Bills kicked the shit out of the Patriots, 31-0.

Now before you space bar down to comment, yes I know Andre is no Lawyer Milloy, at that time already a four time Pro Bowler. Just sayin is all.

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In the public relations department the Redskins did it again on this one. Instead of simply agreeing on the facts, that Chase Daniel was no longer an option and Andre Woodson represents the type of player Washington was looking for and that the signing had nothing to do with the Giants, instead mister motormouth Jim Zorn had to step in it.

When pressed on the issue he first agreed Andre could help the Redskins specifically with the Giants and their snap count. Then argued that they liked Andre in last year's draft and were looking at him before ending up with Colt Brennan in the sixth round.

Let us look back at last year's draft, Colt was selected by the Redskins 186th overall, Andre 198th overall. I understand all quarterbacks are given a rating and that it might be true, or at least plausibly true, that the team was looking at Andre, but they passed on him. Then passed on the next guy they took, Chase Daniel.

I think in general it is best in the face of the other team accusing you of signing their guy just to get a jump on the first game to avoid the idea that you really liked the guy you had a shot at and then passed on.



Andre Woodson: Uncredited Washington Times image from here.