The Chronicles of Redskins Quarterbacks Part 3: Tony Banks

With Redskins training camp about to start I found it fitting to continue these posts that I abandoned in the winter.  These posts will continue to chronicle the 15 different QB's who have started at least one game for the Redskins in the Dan Snyder era.  You can find the first two posts here.  So without further ado here is part 3.

Tony Banks (2001) “The Guy Who Sucked the Least”

14 starts (8-6)
Completion % = 53.5% (198/370)
 2386 yrds-10TD-10INT-71.3-29 sck-1gwd


Good old Tony Banks.  The man who you thought was going to fumble the snap every time he lined up under center.  Drafted by the Rams in 1996 out of Michigan State, Banks quickly became “The Guy Who Sucked the Least”.  Beating out quarterbacking legends such as Steve Walsh, a 35 year old Mark Rypien (I know.  Sad as it is to say, Rypien was the other quarterback on the Rams roster in 1997) Steve Bono, Jamie Martin, Scott Mitchell, and Stoney Case to be the starter for the Rams and the Ravens from 1996-2000.  The 2000 season, though, saw Banks lose his title to Trent Dilfer, and at the end of the 2000 season Banks took his newly acquired Ravens Super Bowl Ring to…………….Dallas? That’s right.  Banks signed with Dallas at the end of the season, but one look at Banks and the Cowboys said “thanks but no thanks, we’ll go with Quincy Carter”.  Banks never took a snap for the Cowboys.  Banks had lost his title as “The Guy Who Sucked the Least” yet again, but lo and behold Ole’ Danny Boy came knocking and Banks found himself getting another opportunity to reclaim his title backing up Jeff George at the beginning of the 2001 season for the Washington Redskins. 

Banks’s fortunes would prove to be fruitful as George played so bad the first two games of the season that the Redskins released him and Banks was once again “The Guy Who Sucked the Least”, but who knew that he would make NFL history in the process.  The Redskins would be the first team to lose their first five games of the season and win their next five.  Banks would be responsible for the last three losses of that five game losing streak, but he was also responsible for the next five wins (with a little help from Kent Graham against Denver), and he would finish the season going 8-3 in his last 11 games.  Marty Schottenheimer should have received a medal for the feat he accomplished that season with Tony Banks, but both he and Banks were rewarded with pink slips by Dan Snyder at the end of the 2001 season.

Tony Banks will go down as one of only two quarterbacks under Dan Snyder to start more than four games and have a winning record (8-6).  The other was Brad Johnson (17-10).  Think about that for a minute.  The Redskins have not had a quarterback end his career on this team with a winning record since 2001, and that quarterback was Tony Banks.  Banks would only last one season with the Skins, and would eventually sign with the Texans where he ended his career in 2006.  The only thing Redskins fans had to hope for was that the last two teams Banks started for won the Super Bowl after he was removed as the starter (The Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV and the Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV).  Alas it was not to be here in Washington as Dan Snyder would bring who he thought would be the next Jimmy Johnson to the Redskins, and he had his own ideas about who should start at quarterback.

Coincidental Side Note:  In his one season with the Redskins, Banks played against two future Redskin quarterbacks (Todd Collins and Donovan McNabb), the two quarterbacks who replaced him on his two previous teams (Trent Green who replaced Banks in St. Louis but was the starter for the Chiefs in 2001, and Trent Dilfer who replaced Banks in Baltimore but was the BACKUP in Seattle in 2001), and he played against the guy who replaced him before the season started in Quincy Carter. Weird. Even weirder was the fact that Collins and Dilfer were backups that season, but they were able to take snaps in their games against the Redskins.