The Curse of Rypien and Williams

Ryp not a good QB?

Wow, he might not have been a superstar, but for a few seasons he was pretty damn solid and in 1991 he had an outstanding season. He had incredible touch on his deep ball that season... not sure where this talk of him being a dink and dunker is coming from.

Wait a minute ... the Skins did have a top 5 QB. Remember Slingin' Sammy Baugh? He may still hold some NFL records.

I really did not mean to imply that people are trying to compare Brunell with Williams or Rypien directly, only that we may have subcontious expectations based on past successes. I know that I do.

There is a transcendent appeal to the long ball, certainly for me. I don't think I am alone in feeling like a win is more or less visceral based on the success of the deep pass. As a 9-10 year old, I thought Jay Schrader was the best QB on the planet because he could lay a rope 75 yards on the fly. Williams went on to define success with Q2 in the '87 Superbowl with 4 TD passes, and they weren't dump off passes. Would our week 2 win over Dallas last year been as satisfying had it not come via those two bombs?

Will we as a fan base ever be happy with a "Trent Dilfer" at the helm, contributing and playing well enough to help us win, but without the long-ball?

Well, Williams actually had talent, but Rypien was a product of our system. Rypien was NOT a good qb.
However, what you inadvertantly stumbled on is that Rypien was a nickel and dime qb.

Whooaa.... you might need to rethink that. I remember Mark throwing quite a few bombs to Clark, Sanders, Monk. Although what I will say is that Mark had that one really, really good season (the SB year.) The season before that he was on the rise, but really...a couple of really good seasons and that was about it. The same can be said about Doug Williams. Really, J.T. and J.S. were probably our better...constant QBs..with Theismann being more of a consistant face on our offense.

Which is what really makes it outstanding when you think how many different QBs Gibbs went through, during an era where the same guys came back each and every year to the same team. Gibbs won championships with 3 different QBs...all within a decade of coaching. That really says more about Joe Gibbs and how he can make just about any QB a winner eventually.

Rypien actually had a few really good years, from 88-91. He was injured a bit, IIRC, and didn't play all of the '88 season, so his numbers don't look that great, but, given the number of games he played, he put up solid numbers.
Mark Rypien statistics - pro-football-reference.com (http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/RypiMa00.htm)

...So my hope is that he stays at 100%, or has a Theisman. Of course, I hope for the former option. But I don't want that in between stuff!

No one should ever hope for a Theismann. I saw it happen live and to this day, I still shudder when someone brings it up.