FanHouse Colt Brennan

To veteran NFL players, the preseason is a necessary evil, a four-game stretch in which they get paid peanuts (relatively speaking) and just hope they don't get hurt. But to young players trying to prove themselves, the preseason can represent a major opportunity. And Redskins backup quarterback Colt Brennan says he's going to make the most of that opportunity.

ASHBURN, Va. -- He is the man, the myth, the legend around these parts, the quarterback who will finally lead a hungry franchise back to the promised land. He is a fan favorite, a cult hero, a promise of a bright future.

And he has never taken a regular-season snap.

Colt Brennan finds himself in an intriguing situation as he enters his second season with the Washington Redskins. On the one hand, he'll once again be his team's third-string quarterback -- stuck behind oft-criticized Jason Campbell and 15-year veteran Todd Collins. On the other hand, a growing number of Redskins fans think he is the missing piece to their championship puzzle.

They want him in the lineup. Right now.

As the Redskins go through mini-camps this spring, the most important development will be how things progress with their starting quarterback, Jason Campbell. It's no secret the Redskins pursued other options during the offseason, only to come up short and end up "stuck" with the 27-year-old Auburn product.

After three seasons, and finally one full one, under his belt, it's time for Campbell to take the next step and become a franchise quarterback. Finally getting a second season in the same offensive system -- 2009 will be the first time -- is a great start for the 6-foot-5 signal-caller. He's also getting more comfortable in his leadership role.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

When I anointed Brian Orakpo as the ideal pick for the Washington Redskins in the first round of the draft, I sort of assumed they'd do something about the offensive line later in the draft. You see, heading into the offseason, the Redskins really had one glaring issue: The sack ratio. They allowed 38 -- in a division full of pass-rushing fiends -- and only accrued 24 themselves. I'm aware that Greg Blache's defensive scheme doesn't chase the passer, but pressuring him with a front four means that's less time the coverage has to do their job. Orakpo helps take care of that with his outside push.

Despite weeks of pre-draft speculation and misdirection, the Redskins stayed put at No. 13 and addressed one of their biggest offseason needs -- landing a pass-rush specialist -- instead of chasing after their next franchise quarterback.

Brian Orakpo and common sense won out over Mark Sanchez and man crushes. Sort of. As it turns out, the Redskins did try to trade up for Sanchez but were outbid by the Jets.

"We made a couple of calls, but it was too expensive," Redskins Executive Vice President of Football Operations Vinny Cerrato said Saturday night. Which confirms what most of us already knew: the 'Skins don't think Jason Campbell is the long-term answer. Their run at Jay Cutler last month, and Sanchez last week, confirms as much,

Everybody has a tipping point, and for Jason Campbell it came yesterday: he'll reportedly demand a trade if the Redskins draft Mark Sanchez. The most shocking thing to come of this: that it took him this long to publicly state what was obvious the moment owner Dan Snyder decided he wanted Jay Cutler.

Even though Snyder, actor/radio personality/GM (in that order) Vinny Cerrato and head coach Jim Zorn had a post-Cutler-infatuation meet-and-greet with Campbell to reassure him of his importance to the organization, the Sanchez speculation began just a few weeks later. But this is the season for smokescreening and all that goes with it.

On Wednesday, word leaked that the Redskins were actively pursuing Jay Cutler. The Bears (the Bears!?) would eventually land him, which meant that a) Washington, perhaps for the first time in the Dan Snyder era, didn't outbid another team for a player's services, and b) the organization had some fence-mending to do with the guy caught in the middle of all this: incumbent quarterback Jason Campbell.

Yesterday I called Campbell the new Cutler because in publicly lusting after the Cutler, the Redskins would have to move Campbell to avoid the situation the Broncos found themselves after word leaked that they were interested in Matt Cassel.

Unless you're Vinny Cerrato, who appears to have the best job in sports (radio host, teevee personality, part-time executive vice president for an NFL team!), working for Redskins owner Dan Snyder must be an agonizing experience. He's forever overspending for big-name talent, is incapable of letting scouts and coaches do their jobs, and, ultimately, micromanages the team right into the ground. Every year.

So it should come as no surprise that Snyder is very interested in Jay Cutler, even though he currently has Jason Campbell -- the guy the 'Skins traded into the first round to draft in 2005 -- still under contract. I'll admit: Cutler is an upgrade over Campbell, but when considering all the factors -- the cost (two first-rounders, it sounds like), learning a new offense, playing in a new conference, etc. -- it hardly seems worth it.

Filling in for an injured Jason Campbell, Todd Collins started the final three games of the 2007 regular season, winning all of them, and helped lead the Redskins to the playoffs. Even though he was in his mid-30s and a career backup, there were suddenly questions as to who the team's starter should be heading into '08.

The Redskins aren't giving Jason Campbell a contract extension this offseason, and that's been the plan all along. The team's 2005 first-round pick will play the 2009 season on the last year of his rookie deal, and depending on how things go, he'll either be in line for a nice raise or playing elsewhere 12 months from now.

This isn't to say that the organization is down on Campbell, just that the circumstances -- primarily the current salary-cap constraints -- dictate that he won't be getting a new contract anytime soon. Some fans are fine with that, and, in fact, are ready to pronounce 2009 the Year of Colt.