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The Washington Redskins plan to start Rex Grossman on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, benching a six-time Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb, according to team sources.

Players are very upset by the move, as I reported all week they would be if the benching occurred.

Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan is using McNabb as a scapegoat, according to multiple players. The coordinator's credibility has been questioned by players and members of the staff, according to team and league sources.

"The guys are extremely pissed," one Redskins player told me.

Grossman played for Kyle Shanahan last year in Houston. Mike Shanahan's son had been seen as a fast-tracked head coaching prospect in many circles, but failures by the Redskins' offense this season have set that back.

The 34-year-old McNabb is struggling through his worst season since he was a rookie in 1999. He's thrown a career-high 15 interceptions and ranks 25th in the NFL with a 77.1 rating for the Redskins (5-8), who have been eliminated from the playoff race.

"Disrespectful is probably not strong enough of a word," Fletcher N. Smith, McNabb's representative, told The Washington Post on Friday. "Donovan has handled himself with nothing but class, not just in Washington but as an ambassador for the league. To treat him this way ... it's beyond disrespectful."

He was infamously benched for Grossman in the final two minutes with the game on the line against Detroit in October, a stunning decision made even more bizarre by Shanahan's mangled explanations that followed.

The coach first said he felt Grossman had a better grasp of the team's two-minute offense, then said McNabb lacked the "cardiovascular endurance" to run a fast-paced drill because of nagging hamstring injuries.

Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said McNabb had been tipped in advance that the team might go with Grossman; McNabb said he hadn't.

Before the next game, the Redskins gave a McNabb a five-year contract extension nominally worth $78 million -- but the only thing it guaranteed was that McNabb would receive an extra $3.5 million this season. The deal contains a clause that allows the Redskins to cut McNabb before next season with no further financial obligation.

This week, the situation began again to take more strange turns. McNabb said his communication the coaching staff had improved since the benching; neither of the Shanahans would agree with that. McNabb said he would expect to know by Wednesday if he weren't starting, calling it a matter of "professionalism."

"I almost don't even know where to begin, but it really started with Detroit and it was just wrong the way Donovan was treated," Smith told The Post. "Just the way Mike handled the whole situation in Detroit, and in almost every instance since that time, and this is, I guess, the culmination of that. I think it's ... again, it's beyond disrespectful."

On Thursday, Kyle Shanahan seemed to go out of his way to avoid praising McNabb while meeting with reporters, but he implied McNabb was still starter when he said the preparation for this week was "no different" from last week as far as the quarterbacks were concerned.

This certainly wasn't the vision the Redskins presented when they traded two draft picks -- a second-round choice this year and a third- or fourth-rounder next year -- to Philadelphia for McNabb.

NFL.com news: Redskins' McNabb benched, Grossman to start vs. Cowboys