Update: The Washington Post is reporting that Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan said Wednesday that he would welcome quarterback Donovan McNabb back next year if McNabb is willing to return as a backup. “But I’m not sure he would, which I would understand,” Shanahan said. “But I think that’s why we’re talking about hypothetical situations. I don’t think that would happen. But if he was interested in that, obviously, that would be a possibility.”

Fantasy Impact: There is no way that a player of McNabb’s stature, regardless of how rough a season this has been, would be willing to go into the 2011 season expecting to be a backup. When the trade with the Eagles that brought McNabb to the nation’s capital was made last April, it was believed that Shanahan would be more flexible than Eagles head coach Andy Reid had been with the parameters of his offense to fit his quarterback’s strengths. While Reid was often criticized for trying to put a square peg in a round hole; i.e. trying too hard to make McNabb a typical West Coast pocket passer when the offense should have accentuated Supa 5′s athleticism, arm strength, and relied less on his accuracy, which has long been less than ideal; Shanahan seemed to pigeon-hole the six-time Pro Bowler even further, and to make matters worse has been the poor offensive line play, lack of playmakers at the skill positions, and underachieving defense. I see this predicament being similar to what Brett Favre went through in the late 2000′s; Favre had a very good year in his last season with the Packers, had one subpar year with the Jets in a system that didn’t suit him well, and then became a Viking, where he had probably the best season of his career. I’m not saying that McNabb will have a career season next year, but there are plenty of potential destinations where offensive-minded head coaches could use a steady signal-caller and that could give McNabb more to work with than he had in Washington this year. This includes the Vikings, depending on who their head coach is next year; the Cardinals, who are desperate for an upgrade at the quarterback position and would give McNabb an elite playmaker to throw to in Larry Fitzgerald, not to mention the house McNabb owns in Arizona; or the Raiders if they don’t feel that Jason Campbell or Bruce Gradkowski is the answer at the end of the season, to name a few.