Short answer: yes. I mean no.
So quarterback Jason Campbell went and took charge of minicamp. Yes the same Jason Campbell that wanted a trade if the team brought in another starter has now found his spark, something teammate Chris Cooley said this evening in an interview on NFL Network Jason needed to find, maybe all the quarterback controversy helped him to find it.
Jason Campbell will be the Redskins 2009 starting quarterback and barring injury will play the entire season. I am a Jason Campbell guy so I think this is good, minicamp reports that head coach Jim Zorn continues to work on Jason's fundamentals, technique and ball release are even better news, it is my contention that the whole of Jason Campbell's improvement as a professional quarterback last season was due to the tutelage of Jim Zorn, a man known for developing quarterbacks. If coach Zorn can make Jason more comfortable with his body on the field then the reads and passing will take care of themselves.
So if Jason will be the Redskins starter in 2009, what about after that? Jason's rookie contract is up after this season and the team has not offered him a new one, perhaps because they are not sold on him as evidenced by sweaty palmed pursuit of football nympho Jay Cutler or barely legal Mark Sanchez, I sort of envision Dan Snyder in a dirty trench coat on a hot southern California day watching from the bushes for a glimpse of Mark coming out of class, and perhaps because the collective bargaining agreement is set to expire and the team is hedging that Jason will become a restricted free agent absent a new deal.
I would expect there to be a market for Jason's services after this season though obviously with every free agent a restricted free agent if no CBA is renegotiated the market for Jason will be lower, perhaps no one would be willing to shell out a contract the Redskins can just match.
Cindy Boren at Washington Post Redskins Insider distills the issue down to a simple question: is this Jason's last year with the team. What I want to happen and what I think will happen are two entirely different things.
What I want to happen is this: give Jason Campbell starter money, a five or six year contract. Give him stability and take away the uncertainty as to whether the team wants him. If it does not work out then cut him in year two or three, happens all the time in the NFL. Of course this scenario requires the team actually to want Jason, a precondition I am not certain is fulfilled.
What I think will happen is this: regardless of their finish this season, barring a Super Bowl run, team leadership will start telegraphing that they are looking at quarterbacks in the 2010 draft, perhaps Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, perhaps Texas' Colt McCoy, maybe even a disastrous pick like Florida's Tim Tebow.
Washington is taking a quarterback in the first round next year. If they cannot get their guy at their selection they will trade up to get him, package up lower picks, 2011 second or lower round and or players to move up if they have to. Then Jason Campbell can go fuck himself, the team will have their new quarterback and Jason will be a restricted free agent. They will toy with him before ultimately letting him go after declining to match his next offer.
And even in the more optimistic scenario where the CBA is back in effect for 2010 Jason would be unrestricted and if he has a halfway decent season with no change in heart by the team on his long term status as starting quarterback he will pack his things and say later pricks.
I predict Jason Campbell will be a good quarterback in 2009 and not a Redskin in 2010.
Jason Campbell at Redskins May 2009 minicamp: AP photo from here.
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