Santana Moss Named Quarterback Club Redskins Player Of The Year

For 45 years now the Quarterback Club has been naming a Redskins Player Of The Year. The first one was Sam Huff; as of today the most recent is Santana Moss.

The winner of the award is determined by a vote from the media covering the team, and TBD.com writer Sam Chamberlain -- in keeping with his publication's much-talked-about love of transparency -- wrote about filling out his ballot. He also, it so happens, gave his first-place vote to Moss. Here's his reasoning (keeping in mind that the votes were due before Moss's season was complete):

Santana Moss has averaged more receiving yards per reception (12.4 to 11.1) and per game (69.4 to 53.1) than his counterpart Cooley, scored twice as many touchdowns (six to three), and broken the 1,000-receiving yard mark for the fourth time in his career and third time as a Redskin. He's done all this, by the way, in an offense whose performance has generally fluctuated between "barely competent" and "utterly poor." Such toil should be rewarded, and that's why I cast my vote for Santana Moss as the Redskins Player of the Year.

I don't quite agree with Chamberlain's brutal assessment of the offense, but his analysis of Moss's performance is dead on. In addition to tallying his fourth 1,000-yard season, Moss also set his career high for catches with 93 -- which is also the second-most ever for a Redskins receiver, behind Art Monk's 106 in 1984.

Moss talked about his award -- and his successful season -- to Larry Michael for an interview that will air on tonight's Redskins Nation. "When I heard that this offense was coming to us from Houston, I was talking [to] Andre Johnson and he said, 'I guarantee you get ninety catches this year,'" Moss said. "And you hear that and I'm always the guy that, you know, I hear things but I don't try to dwell on 'em." Turns out that Johnson was absolutely correct.

As far as the award, Moss was characteristically humble and grateful. "Means a lot," he said. "It means somebody's seen the hard work and the dedication that I took on the field each week, and pretty much respected what I did and said 'You deserve' what I was honored with today."

And Michael also asked Moss about his future as he becomes a free agent. About that, Moss was completely clear: "I just really wish that I'm gonna be a Redskin," he said. "I don't really have nothing else in mind of me going anywhere or being anywhere but here. So hopefully everything works itself out."

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(redskins.com)