Jake Plummer: Mike Shanahan is Still Searching for John Elway

It appears there’s at least one guy out there who feels Donovan McNabb’s pain.  Much has been made over Mike Shanahan’s decision to bench McNabb in favor of Rex Grossman with the game on the line last weekend.  While Shanahan has denied it, several reports indicate the Redskins coach is unhappy with McNabb’s conditioning and his lack of effort during practice.

According to former Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer, that’s just Mike being Mike.  Plummer said he thinks Shanahan’s expectations tend to be too high, especially for his quarterbacks.  Out of Bounds passed along Plummer’s thoughts on the McNabb situation:

It just seemed like every game I could have completed these four more passes or these five more shots here and it would have been perfect. And that just wasn’t my personality… But Shanahan wanted perfection and he wore a lot of us down there.”

“I think Shanahan is still searching for John Elway,” Plummer said. “Somehow, someway, he thinks there’s going to be another guy like John Elway.”

“He coached a team to almost perfection (with Elway) so he wanted that again, he wanted that every time we went out there. It’s just not realistic.”

Maybe it’s just me, but it sounds like Shanahan’s mentality is consistent with that of all the great coaches in sports.  Does Bill Belichick ever truly seem satisfied?  How about Bill Parcells?  Mike Ditka doesn’t seem like the positive reinforcement type, does he?  You get the point.  Some guys need a pat on the back to keep them going and some coaches aren’t going to give it to them.  If that’s what McNabb is looking for, his stay in D.C. will likely be a short one.