“It definitely was a shock,” Campbell said, “when I started hearing Sanchez talk.” Once was bad enough.
Twice was too much. Had the Redskins drafted Sanchez, Campbell would have asked for a trade, said a person familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject. Asked if it were so, Campbell dodged the question with a huge smile. “No comment, you know,” he said. Just three weeks earlier, the Redskins tried to trade for Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler. When the deal fell through, there was a clear-the-air meeting between Campbell, owner Dan Snyder, front office chief Vinny Cerrato and coach Jim Zorn. Afterward, Cerrato announced: “We are all on the same page and we are moving forward.” But Sanchez wasn’t on that particular page, at least not in Campbell’s mind. In hindsight, Campbell was asked, does that big meeting earlier this month now seem rather pointless “It’s an awkward situation,” Campbell answered, “just because after the Cutler deal, we did sit down and talk — and then the Sanchez talk came up.”
The unspoken point is that the Redskins think they can do better. Campbell, a first-round draft pick in 2005, has been nowhere close to Pro Bowl form in his 36 NFL starts, but he has also had to learn three offensive systems in his short pro career because of instability among Washington’s coaching staff.