Grossman + Hightower = Lots of Yards, Lots of Turnovers?

It was announced today by former Redskins Insider Jason La Confora that Rex Grossman will open the season as the Skins' starting QB. Grossman has shown both this preseason and at the end of last season that he can run Kyle's offense well and put up a lot of yardage.

At starting RB, the Skins have Tim Hightower, who also has shown both this preseason and last season that he can put up a lot of yardage. So the bright side is obvious: we might routinely see a 400+ yard offense featuring 300+ passing yards from Grossman and 100+ rushing yards from Hightower.

But there's also a scary downside. With Grossman and Hightower starting, the Skins have one of the worst fumbling QBs handing off to one of the worst fumbling RBs.

Grossman had four fumbles in four games last year, and only three of those games were full games. In his career, Grossman has 15 fumbles in 67 sacks, and another 8 fumbles in 61 rushes -- meaning that Grossman fumbles once every five times he is tackled. Plus, Grossman averages one interception per game for his career (and true to form had 4 interceptions in 4 games last year for the Skins).

As for Hightower, last year he had 4 rushing fumbles (plus a 5th after a pass reception) even though he was a half-time player. In comparison, the top 10 featured running backs last year handled the ball twice as often as Hightower and fumbled an average of 2 times. As a featured running back Hightower would be forecast to fumble 10 times.

Here's the scary scenario: If Grossman and Hightower are true to form, the two could combine to contribute an average of 2 turnovers each and every game. Grossman may have given us a preview last year of the kind of high-yardage, high-turnover games we might see. Twice last year Grossman threw for over 300 yards in a game, and in both games he also contributed 3 turnovers (2 INTs and a fumble). The Skins lost both of those games.

Given their starting QB and RB, the 2011 Skins' three keys to the season might very well be turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.

As always, comments welcomed and encouraged...