Washington Redskins quarterback and free-agent-to-be Rex Grossman said Monday morning that he doesn’t know what his future holds, but he is confident that he can cure his ever-present interception bug.

Grossman and his teammates reported to Redskins Park for a season-ending meeting Monday morning. Then the Redskins quarterback sat down with quarterbacks coach Matt Lafleur and went over some game film for a couple of hours.

Grossman completed 57.9 percent of his passes this season for 3,151 yards and 16 touchdowns. But he also threw 20 interceptions and lost five fumbles in 13 games.

Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan has said that for Grossman to succeed in the future, he needs to cut down on his turnovers. In his nine seasons, Grossman has appeared in 54 games. He has thrown 56 touchdowns and 60 interceptions.

When asked if he thought that was possible, Grossman answered confidently.

“Definitely,” he said. He said he views interceptions in two categories: those that are his fault and avoidable, and those that are not his fault and can’t be avoided.

“There’s times when interceptions are acceptable in a situation where it wasn’t your fault or something happened that you weren’t expecting, or tipped ball or things like that that happen to you that are just completely not your fault. Those are acceptable,” Grossman said. “Those are things you can’t control and as a coaching staff, as you evaluate the whole season, they’ll definitely take those into account, and you can’t prevent those as a quarterback.

“But the ones you can control,” Grossman continued, “there are definite coaching points and definite thought process as you go into the offseason of, ‘Why were you thinking? Why did you throw that? Why were you so aggressive on that?’ Other than that, you might have to be willing to know that you might miss on a big play. Not to play hesitant, but there are situations where you don’t have to be 100 percent on making those big plays that are there to be made. If you’re willing to live with a couple of those in a season, then I think you’ll cut down on your interception percentage a lot.”

Grossman said he is headed back to his home in Florida where he will throw passes to NFL draft hopefuls at a facility three times a week. He also will spend his offseason reviewing his performances in all 13 games in which he appeared.

“At this point, I try to identify some things that physically I can get better at, and your approach and decision-making,” Grossman said. “Whether I’m here or not, that’s the process and what everybody does. You try to work on some things that you know you can do better and build on the things that you do well.”

Despite the good vibes at Redskins Park after the surprising Week 15 road victory over the New York Giants, the Redskins are 5-10 with one game remaining. Washington is ensured of finishing last or tied for last for the fifth time in the past six seasons, under three head coaches.

Those are just facts. And they’re difficult to accept for players eager to believe the Redskins are finally sprinting, not crawling, toward a revival.

“We definitely took a step back,” inside linebacker and team leader London Fletcher said. “Just very disappointing to come out and play like we played in our final game in front of our home crowd.

“Just extremely disappointed in our defense and extremely disappointed in our team. With everything that happened and what we were trying to do . . . that’s just the way it is. You have to look at it honestly.”

The defense, by far the strength of the team, gave up 241 yards rushing. The Vikings averaged an eye-opening 6.3 yards per attempt. They amassed most of their total after star running back Adrian Peterson was knocked out of the game by a knee injury on the first possession of the third quarter.

Minnesota produced 23 points in the third and fourth quarters combined, after losing starting quarterback Christian Ponder, who departed two plays after Peterson because of a concussion suffered when he absorbed a jarring — but legal — hit from Fletcher.

The Redskins reverted to sloppiness, committing costly penalties that helped the Vikings on one of their touchdown drives and nullified a potential big Washington scoring play.

“I was disappointed we had as many penalties as we did,” Coach Mike Shanahan said, “in some crucial situations.”

And, as usual, with a Rex Grossman-led team, there were turnovers.

Of course, that much wasn’t a shock. I mean, committing turnovers and producing intermittent big plays is what Grossman does. It’s just how the lovable lug rolls. He gets out of bed in the morning with two turnovers.

In the Redskins’ previous game, though, Grossman’s turnovers didn’t derail the team. It went the other way against the Vikings.

The Vikings’ first points came on a field goal shortly after they recovered a Grossman fumble that came when he was stripped of the ball on a sack.

With Washington trailing by seven points midway through the fourth, a high pass by Grossman was intercepted — the Vikings’ first interception in 10 games — and Minnesota kicked a field goal.

You can set your watch to Grossman throwing interceptions, and he’s not a viable option at the game’s most important position, at least not for a team that aspires to win Super Bowls. The Redskins haven’t won one in a long, long time, but that’s what owner Daniel Snyder wants.

The first play the Washington Redskins will run Sunday in Miami will be called by Kyle Shanahan, the team’s offensive coordinator. He will find it on a list, under the heading “1st 16,” in the upper left-hand corner of the white, rectangular sheet he holds on the sideline each week. Against Arizona in Week 2, for instance, it was “19 Wanda Y Sift,” a staple running play. Sunday, it could be that — or one of hundreds of others.

Whatever the play, its route to Shanahan’s sheet is both circuitous and orderly. Modern play-calling isn’t an off-the-cuff choice from a grab bag of 300 plays. It is a week-long process rooted not only in the base principles of an offense — in the Redskins’ case, the West Coast, zone-blocking scheme developed by Coach Mike Shanahan, Kyle’s father. It also is rooted in the perceived weaknesses of an opposing defense and the players available on a given day — with a dash of gut instinct sprinkled in.

Kyle Shanahan’s first play? His next play? His last play? They’re not there by accident, and he didn’t select them by himself.

“Getting a feel for play-calling, it doesn’t happen overnight,” Mike Shanahan said. “It does take some time. But you got to feel very comfortable, because when you do call plays, you have be able to adjust very quickly.”

“You can’t fool coaches,” he added. “Players know. Coaches know. They know if you know what you’re doing, and they know if you don’t know what you’re doing. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t last very long.”

No NFL play-caller is on his own. That first play to be used against the Dolphins was included on a list selected not only by Kyle Shanahan, but by Mike Shanahan and five offensive assistants. The list was developed Monday and Tuesday, two days of intense planning in dark rooms at Redskins Park, the only light provided by flickering monitors showing hours of game tape. Coaches introduced the play to the offense Wednesday, the first day of practice in an NFL week. By Saturday morning, the players learned which play would open the game and walked through it.

That one play sits atop the first of a slew of boxes on Kyle Shanahan’s play sheet. It is a grid of football jargon — numbers and letters and made-up words — that is completely orderly to him, lists of specific plays against specific coverages in specific situations, a lifetime of football knowledge on one thin piece of cardboard.

“It’s not complicated,” Kyle Shanahan said earlier this month. “It seems complicated when things don’t work.”

When things don’t work — as they aren’t currently for the Redskins, who are averaging 11 points per game during a four-game losing streak — every aspect of the offense is subject to discussion. Thus, the way plays are called — a run instead of a pass, a check-down to a back rather than a look deep downfield — has come under scrutiny.

“Pretty comfortable with the play-calling,” Mike Shanahan said a couple of weeks ago. The head coach could say that because the calls aren’t pulled from thin air, nor are they coming simply from the mind of Kyle Shanahan on game day.

The first play the Washington Redskins will run Sunday in Miami will be called by Kyle Shanahan, the team’s offensive coordinator. He will find it on a list, under the heading “1st 16,” in the upper left-hand corner of the white, rectangular sheet he holds on the sideline each week. Against Arizona in Week 2, for instance, it was “19 Wanda Y Sift,” a staple running play. Sunday, it could be that — or one of hundreds of others.

Whatever the play, its route to Shanahan’s sheet is both circuitous and orderly. Modern play-calling isn’t an off-the-cuff choice from a grab bag of 300 plays. It is a week-long process rooted not only in the base principles of an offense — in the Redskins’ case, the West Coast, zone-blocking scheme developed by Coach Mike Shanahan, Kyle’s father. It also is rooted in the perceived weaknesses of an opposing defense and the players available on a given day — with a dash of gut instinct sprinkled in.

Kyle Shanahan’s first play? His next play? His last play? They’re not there by accident, and he didn’t select them by himself.

“Getting a feel for play-calling, it doesn’t happen overnight,” Mike Shanahan said. “It does take some time. But you got to feel very comfortable, because when you do call plays, you have be able to adjust very quickly.”

“You can’t fool coaches,” he added. “Players know. Coaches know. They know if you know what you’re doing, and they know if you don’t know what you’re doing. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t last very long.”

No NFL play-caller is on his own. That first play to be used against the Dolphins was included on a list selected not only by Kyle Shanahan, but by Mike Shanahan and five offensive assistants. The list was developed Monday and Tuesday, two days of intense planning in dark rooms at Redskins Park, the only light provided by flickering monitors showing hours of game tape. Coaches introduced the play to the offense Wednesday, the first day of practice in an NFL week. By Saturday morning, the players learned which play would open the game and walked through it.

That one play sits atop the first of a slew of boxes on Kyle Shanahan’s play sheet. It is a grid of football jargon — numbers and letters and made-up words — that is completely orderly to him, lists of specific plays against specific coverages in specific situations, a lifetime of football knowledge on one thin piece of cardboard.

“It’s not complicated,” Kyle Shanahan said earlier this month. “It seems complicated when things don’t work.”

When things don’t work — as they aren’t currently for the Redskins, who are averaging 11 points per game during a four-game losing streak — every aspect of the offense is subject to discussion. Thus, the way plays are called — a run instead of a pass, a check-down to a back rather than a look deep downfield — has come under scrutiny.

“Pretty comfortable with the play-calling,” Mike Shanahan said a couple of weeks ago. The head coach could say that because the calls aren’t pulled from thin air, nor are they coming simply from the mind of Kyle Shanahan on game day.

While the Washington Redskins were on their bye week last weekend, scattered across the country enjoying mother’s home cooking, playing rounds of golf and spending time with friends and family, they were aware of how the NFC East division landscape shifted further in their favor.

The New York Giants, a double-digit favorite at home against Seattle, lost. The Philadelphia Eagles, a three-point favorite with their star-studded roster, lost to Buffalo. Without so much as making one tackle or running for 1 yard, the Redskins (3-1) took sole possession of first place.

Now, Washington leads New York by a half game entering this afternoon’s matchup against the Eagles at FedEx Field. The Redskins certainly can’t win the division this early, but how they respond to today’s opportunity to bury the preseason favorite will teach us about what they truly are capable of.

“(The Eagles game) was going to be important anyway, but now I think it has really opened our eyes to the fact that this is real,” left guard Kory Lichtensteiger said. “It’s a real possibility for us to make some noise this year. It starts with the Eagles this week.”

First place and division titles were a common subject of interviews at Redskins Park this week. It’s preposterous, really. Washington has three quarters of its season remaining.

“I don’t even think about first place,” coach Mike Shanahan said. “That’s the furthest thing from my mind.”

Then again, the Redskins’ organization and fan base are so starved for success after three consecutive last-place finishes and a division-title drought that dates to 1999. The optimism and forward thinking are symptoms, perhaps just human nature.

“When you’re picked to finish last and at this point you’re sitting in first, it’s kind of cool,” first-year Redskin Barry Cofield said. “It gives you something to continue to build on.”

With his next breath, though, Cofield provided a reality check. Behind his words was the experience of a Super Bowl championship with the Giants in 2007. New York started 0-2 that year.

“Obviously, it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish,” he said. “I’ll be preaching that to these guys. The one year I did finish strong, I got a ring to show for it. That’s the key. Being focused week to week is incredibly important.”

Fourteen players on the Redskins’ 53-man roster learned that lesson from the other perspective in 2008. They were around for the team’s 6-2 start under first-year coach Jim Zorn. Coincidentally, the Redskins improved to 4-1 that season by beating Philadelphia. They hip-hip-hoorayed themselves into the national spotlight. Zorn was the toast of the town.

But a lot happens in the course of a 16-game season. Opponents have more game film to analyze. Injuries mount. And in 2008, the Redskins fizzled the final two months. The end result: last place at 8-8.

Tight end Chris Cooley experienced the tantalizing buzz created by that hot start, but, now in his eighth season in Washington, never has realized the ecstasy experienced by those who played during the franchise’s glory years in the 1980s.

“The sense for me of what a division title would be and the sense for me of what a great playoff team would be comes from guys around here that have done it,” he said. “It comes from talking to Joe Theismann and guys like Gary Clark. Joe Gibbs was a part of it.”

Beating Philadelphia today won’t guarantee Cooley will experience it for himself. Not even close. That the Redskins lost their only divisional road game so far is only Exhibit A that talk of playoffs and a division title is premature.