In a perfect world, the Washington Redskins will know who their starting quarterback is by the end of the third preseason game.
So goes the thinking from head coach Jay Gruden, as captured by Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated:
But I can say now that coach Jay Gruden told me he wants this resolved after the team’s third preseason game, which is just 10 days away. “I think it’ll come probably sooner than later, because you’d like to get that guy ready to go,” he said. “I’d like to hopefully make that decision after the third preseason game, so we can get two weeks to get ready for Philadelphia with the starter.”
But this is easier said than done. The Redskins play their second preseason game Thursday and Colt McCoy, one of the three in the competition, still hasn’t suited up and isn’t guaranteed to do so.
In that first game, Dwayne Haskins turned the ball over twice and Case Keenum was solid under vanilla circumstances. But that third preseason game is when teams typically play starters for the longest stretches, so it should be interesting to see which quarterback goes out first.
The approach makes sense, at least — whoever shines over the next two weeks gets the gig going into the fourth preseason game so he’s ready for when the games start mattering. Before that can happen, though, all three passers ideally need to be healthy and taking part in the competition.
