Donovan McNabb Benched For Rex Grossman Late In Redskins’ Loss To Lions

“I felt with the time, with no timeouts, Rex gave us the best chance to win in that scenario,” he said.Shanahan said that he felt Grossman was more familiar with the Redskins’ terminology in two-minute scenarios, because of his time with Houston last year. In a situation where the Redskins needed to make quick calls, Shanahan said he felt McNabb would struggle because he is not as experienced with the system.

Sure, that sounds like a fair enough explanation on the surface, but McNabb has been in the Redskins’ system for months. He’s been trusted to run the team in multiple scenarios late in close games this season, and that he wasn’t in this case seems to reflect a lack of confidence in his ability to get it done today.

Shanahan was insistent, though, that this doesn’t mean McNabb isn’t the starter.

Shanahan said that McNabb understood the decision, and said that McNabb is still the team’s starter going forward. When asked whether this is a poor reflection on McNabb’s ability to pick up the offense, Shanahan said it wasn’t and that picking up a new offense takes time. In a snippy tone, Shanahan also said that he doesn’t think it means anything that McNabb was benched.It might not mean anything to Shanahan. But in the two weeks until the Redskins’ next game, a divisional showdown against Philadelphia, the last minutes of today’s game will be mined for meaning by much of the Washington chattering class.