By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
It's hard to not find someone who has some advice for the new franchise QB in D.C.
Heath Shuler knew what he had to say. It was the fall of 1994, and Washington Redskins coach Norv Turner was giving the touted rookie quarterback the chance to make his NFL debut against the defending Super Bowl-champion Dallas Cowboys.
The hardest piece of the puzzle to find in pro football is a championship-caliber quarterback. The Redskins have been looking for one for far too long – nearly 20 years, almost a generation (if not an eternity). Measured another way, it's eight head coaches (counting the short-lived Terry Robiskie), three general managers and an increasing number of conspicuously empty seats.
The Cincinnati Bengals traded Carson Palmer to the Oakland Raiders on Tuesday other day for what could turn out to be two first-round draft picks.
Two pieces of advice for the Washington Redskins as they dive headlong into the wildest couple of weeks in NFL history:
Joe Gibbs' stomach was rumbling when he emerged from the Washington Redskins coaches' meeting Saturday night, Oct. 3, 1987. He was, by his own admission, "kind of snarly anyway" because it was the night before a game against the division rival St. Louis Cardinals. On that occasion, however, Gibbs was even more anxious than usual.
It's a day football players imagine and dream of from youth leagues to high school to college, and many never achieve. For Virginia cornerback Ras-I Dowling, it's a "blessed opportunity."
"You've got coach on the phone with them," said Charley Casserly, former Redskins and Houston Texans general manager. "The scout who knows them, he's on the phone. Somebody else is doing the contract. It's a legitimate recruiting job. At the end of the day, they're like another draft pick."
For borderline NFL draft prospects, sometimes not hearing name called is best →
