With Alex Smith’s return to football after a horrific injury remaining uncertain, Washington Redskins traded for Denver Broncos’ quarterback Case Keenum in order to fill the void on the position. Keenum will compete with Colt McCoy for the starting position but might face more competition following the 2019 NFL Draft.
In a statement issued after Keenum’s trade was made official, Washington’s head coach Jay Gruden said that while they have two healthy quarterbacks on the roster, the team might still address their QB need in the upcoming draft.
“We still may address it in the draft, who knows? But we have to have two quarterbacks in OTA’s and for someone to come in here and compete with Colt,” – said Gruden. “We all feel great about Colt without a doubt but he’s had his injury history as well, and we anticipate a competitive camp with those two guys. And if we add a third guy via the draft or somewhere else, we’ll roll the ball out there and let them play, but I feel good about Colt and Case’s skillset; they are very similar so it’ll be easy to draw up plays for those two guys.”
After a breakout 2017 season with Minnesota Vikings, Case Keenum signed with the Broncos who hoped he could be a franchise quarterback for them. That didn’t happen as he struggled in his first season with the team, and Denver decided to move on from him by trading for Baltimore Ravens’ Joe Flacco in early February. Keenum finished the 2018 by completing 62.3 percent of his passes for 3,890 yards and 18 touchdowns.
Colt McCoy, on the other side, took over as Redskins’ starting QB last season after Smith’s injury but managed to play only three games before going down with an injury himself. In those three games he threw for 372 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
