WASHINGTON — Jim Zorn no longer gets to call the plays for the Washington Redskins’ offense. He does, however, ostensibly get to select who plays quarterback when the Redskins host the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night. But after a tortuous 24 hours — a period when he yanked starter Jason Campbell in favor of backup Todd Collins, when his team lost to previously winless Kansas City and when he was then informed he would have to give up play-calling duties — Zorn said Monday that he had not yet chosen a starter for a game that may determine Zorn’s future in Washington.

“I want to really make sure I do the right thing there,” Zorn said. “That’ll be a hard decision.”
Zorn said he will make the decision between Campbell, who has started all 22 games of Zorn’s tenure, and Collins, the career backup who threw his first regular-season pass since 2007 on Sunday, after watching the tape of Sunday’s 14-6 debacle two or three more times. Campbell, though, said, “I’m preparing to be the starter.”
Campbell, 27, tried to balance his disappointment in being benched with a positive attitude going forward when he addressed reporters Monday.
“Honestly, it’s difficult,” he said. “Any competitor (doesn’t) like being put on the sidelines. But at the same time, you got to move forward. You got to try to stay positive, not get your head down, and understand that there’s going to be fingers pointed, and know things happen for a reason. I can’t just sit down and get down on myself and think that I’m the problem.”
Through six games, Campbell’s passer rating is 84.3, which ranks 19th in the league and exactly matches his rating from last year, when he set a career high. He is completing 65.6 percent of his passes — also a career high — and has thrown six touchdowns and six interceptions.
Collins, 37, started three games when Campbell was injured at the end of the 2007 season — all victories, all part of a Washington run to the playoffs. But those are Collins’ only three starts since 1997. Though Collins entered the NFL a decade before Campbell did, Campbell actually has more career completions (782) than Collins has attempts (665). Collins went just 6 for 14 for 75 yards in Campbell’s stead Sunday, and he was unable to get the Redskins into the end zone despite twice leading them inside the Kansas City 30.
Collins is 10-10 in his career as a starter, with 13 of those starts coming in the 1997 season with Buffalo. Campbell is now 18-24 as a starter. Neither said he had an indication of Zorn’s thinking during a whirlwind Monday in which the head coach was obviously struggle to deal with management’s decision to relieve him of his play-calling duties.
“There’s so many changes coming,” Collins said. “I was just disappointed for Jason. No one likes to see someone get pulled from a game. I told him I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like going in to relieve someone for performance issues. So it’s kind of hard on both ends.”
The entire situation left the Redskins’ offense in some disarray Monday. The players have Tuesday off, and will reconvene Wednesday to begin preparing for Philadelphia. Zorn said he would name a quarterback by Thursday at the latest. Some in the locker room, though, would have left Campbell in, regardless of his 9-for-16 first-half performance that featured several missed throws against Kansas City.
“I don’t think that was the right move,” cornerback DeAngelo Hall said. “Coach made that move. Ain’t nothing I can do about it. He made that move, he had to live with it.”
Campbell, too, must live with the ignominy of being yanked from an NFL game for the first time — and having the FedEx Field crowd cheer Collins’ arrival. “Jason’s resilient,” center Casey Rabach said. Some players believe the switch — which did not result in a victory — might actually strengthen Campbell’s hold on the job and position with fans.
“It’s tough being Jason,” receiver Santana Moss said. “You look at the game: Todd got in there, and it was tough for Todd. That’s how it’s been — tough for Jason all year. It’s just one of those things. I’d hate to be him. Quarterbacks get all the blame.”