John Beck's legend began immediately following the 2011 NFL Draft when the media began questioning why the Shanahan's did not draft a Quarterback to lead their franchise. Mike Shanahan simply replied "we have John Beck", and the feeding frenzy began. Those who have been around the Redskins as even casual fans for longer than 2 years, know that the team is a favorite to be picked on by the media. This just added to their ammo and gave others a reason to laugh.
Things continued to look bleak for the Washington franchise as they finally entered training camp without picking up any veteran QBs (unless you count Kellen Clemons) to compete for a starting job. Beck looked shaky in practice with constant reports coming out about him overthrowing open receivers or putting up lame duck balls that were easily being intercepted by 2nd and 3rd string DBs. I began to question our great coach along with the rest of the world. Then, Beck suffered a groin injury and had to deal with the twitterverse announcing how "disappointing" his groin was. No man should have to endure that public mockery.
The first preseason game arrived and Beck was sidelined with his disappointment, and made way for Sexy Rexy Grossman to have a great statistical game against a strong Steelers' defense. This began fueling the fire that Beck would be the #2 QB behind Grossman and practices were watched under a microscope for the following week, with much of the same results. Then, on Tuesday it was announced that Beck would be the starter against Indianapolis for the 2nd preseason game. Fast forward to Friday...
Beck enters the game looking confident and showing signs that he's relaxed (laughing and joking with teammates on the sidelines). His first drive begins with back to back handoffs to Tim Hightower who turns the second into a 58-yard run. This will make any quarterback more comfortable. The next play though, John Beck hits Jabar Gaffney with a beautiful pass putting them on the 1 yard line and setting up an eventual Hightower score. This trend continues with good running setting up play-action, and Beck doing what is asked of him. He takes what is given to him, and even running twice for 17 yards. The speed he showed in Friday's game is a big reason that Mike and Kyle Shanahan said that he would probably end up as the starter over Rex. Beck finished with a strong 14 for 17 and 140 yards.
Yes, preseason doesn't count and he probably can't play that well for 16 whole regular season games, but Beck has shown that he is a gamer and was even complimented by Gaffney when he said "He’s a gamer. From everything we did in practice, he was a totally different guy out on the field."
I look forward to the third preseason game in which the starters will play well into the 3rd quarter. The Redskins will be up against a strong Ravens' Defense that will no doubt want to knock Beck out, considering Washington acquired him from Baltimore for what ended up being a practice squad quality DB. This will be a great test for the future of the Redskins quarterback. I for one, believe he'll pass.
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