Donovan McNabb signs 5-year extension
On Monday 15 November, the Washington Redskins reportedly signed their starting quarterback Donovan McNabb to a five-year extension worth $78 million ($40 million guaranteed).
McNabb's agent, Fletcher Smith, confirmed the signing with The Washington Post, saying on behalf of his client, "We're very happy about the situation. We've been working on this for a while now, and we're obviously glad to get it done. Donovan's
very happy about the situation, because this is where he wanted to be all along."
The signing comes just two weeks after the uproar caused by Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan's benching of McNabb late in the game of their 37-25 loss to the Detroit Lions.
After McNabb was benched, controversy swirled around Washington that McNabb didn't have the level of fitness needed to run the two-minute offence, and that there was a rift growing between he and the head coach.
The announcement came only moments before the Redskins were set to kick off against McNabb's former team, the Philadelphia Eagles. The new contract didn't have any immediate positive impact, as the Redskins were handed their worst loss of the season, falling
by a score of 59-28.
McNabb is about to turn 34 years old and the contract is slated to keep him with the team until 2015. McNabb has had trouble adjusting to his new offence and is in the midst of putting up the worst set of numbers of his career since his rookie season.
Despite McNabb's struggles this season, Redskins general manager Bruce Allen has said that this is something they were looking toward since the season began. "Once the regular season started, we really were aiming toward the bye week, and it came together.
"I think coach and myself said that Donovan's going to be here from the beginning and Donovan has been real clear in his intent of being a Redskin. So I think it just puts an exclamation point on it."
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