"Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan acknowledged Friday he began watching game film of college quarterbacks at midseason.

It's no secret that the Redskins need improved quarterback play — Rex Grossman is tied for the NFL lead with 24 turnovers in only 12 starts — so Shanahan's admission is not necessarily major. And Shanahan also implied this is not an unusual practice.

But Shanahan long ago turned some of his attention toward possible replacements for Grossman and John Beck.

"I've probably already looked at 10 or 15 of them," Shanahan said. "I'll take a half hour a day early in the morning — the tapes are made up. I'll take a look at maybe 75, 80 plays of just a guy throwing the football in game situations, and so that's most of the passes — or at least the good passes — during the season just so I get a feel for the guy.

"You've got names; sometimes you can't relate to how a guy is playing because you hear a lot about it on TV, but a lot of it's hype and not evaluation. So you like to go back and kind of put the play with the name."

Washington already has secured a last-place finish in the NFC East prior to Sunday's season finale at Philadelphia, so interview topics with the head coach this week drifted forward to the Redskins' offseason plan.

There's only 118 days until the Redskins go on the clock, and in little more than 48 hours from now, their spot in the draft order will be finalized."