Robert Griffin III's Debut Gives Reason For Hope

Hope for the best, and expect the worst. In a Friday morning text, that’s what I told my friend Mac was the longtime Redskins’ fan’s deep-seeded feelings about the franchise. This applies to everything from short term to long term to everything in between. Back when Washington made the trade to move up in the draft and take RG3, I wrote that it was a move the Skins had to make, and yet it still wouldn’t have surprised me if it didn’t work out (thus setting the franchise back another 5 years or so in their seemingly never-ending search for a quarterback). As for Griffin’s 1st year, I fully expected (and still do…kind of) him to put up good numbers on an overall bad team before getting injured at some point because he would be constantly running for his life behind a makeshift offensive line.

In the very very short term, my feelings regarding Washington’s week 1 trip to New Orleans were similar. The Saints have maybe the most potent offense in the entire league and one of the most deafening home crowds to boot. So when the suspensions of 2 Saints players for their involvement in the alleged bounty scandal were lifted, I went from about an 8 to a 12 on the impending doom scale…that is, until a certain rookie QB mentioned above came under center.

I don’t really want to get into a whole local sports talk radio in-depth breakdown of yesterday’s game here, and the Redskins’ 40-32 road win wasn’t all about Griffin. There was the defense that forced a normally hyper-efficient Drew Brees into completing less than 50% of his passes and 5 Saints 3-and-outs. There were virtual unknowns like Aldrick Robinson and Alfred Morris having big games on offense too.

RG3's week 1 performance may have changed Redskins' fans' expectations.

But then again this game was all about Griffin. In my 20+ years as a Skins’ fan, I have seen every kind of quarterback in burgandy and gold. I’ve seen the 1st round bust (Heath Shuler), the flash in the pan (Brad Johnson), the career journeyman (Tony Banks and Rex Grossman), the aging superstar (Donovan McNabb), the grizzled vet (Jeff Hostetler and Todd Collins), and the young stud with some promise that was ruined by coaching, team management, and constant flux (Patrick Ramsey and Jason Campbell). It’s still extremely early, but I’ve never seen Griffin’s “type” (a superstar franchise player) come through the revolving door of Washington signal-callers.

I want to be careful here because of that whole hope for the best, expect the worst thing, but it’s possible we have never seen the blend of Griffin’s talents in a player before. As important as that, there’s his demeanor though…he seems to exude a quiet confidence, a swagger, an I got this mentality when things look like they're about to get tough. Going into the year, there were questions of whether Washington surrounded Griffin with enough talent. Well, is it possible (still trying to desperately temper my enthusiasm) that Griffin is good enough to make everyone around him that much better? So much so that he could make Morris, Robinson, and Pierre Garcon look like Pro Bowlers for much of yesterday's game?

It’s still just 1 game. It’s not exactly a great sample size. It certainly can’t erase 20 years of mediocrity. But that whole expect the worst thing? Maybe there’s some reason for hope after all.