I guess if you’re going to start anywhere, you need to start with the team’s franchise player, Robert Griffin III. From the opening week loss to the Eagles, it was obvious to everyone that RG3 was simply not ready to play. As a fan, you were hopeful, and he showed flashes of his old self throughout the season, but this was not the same guy who completed maybe the best and most explosive offensive rookie season of the history of the league just a year ago…and that included missing a game and playing several others on a wounded knee last season. No, this Griffin was a step (or 2) slower, and played very tentatively, which was in stark contrast to the decisiveness and instinctiveness he showed in year 1.
If only RG3 followed the advice of his own catchy t-shirt slogan.
By season’s end, Griffin not only looked slower and more indecisive, he actually looked skittish and shell-shocked. In 2012, most of the hits Griffin accumulated took place outside of the pocket (either on designed runs or scrambles), but in 2013 he seemed to take a weekly beating from within the pocket, a result of Griffin’s inability (for probably the 1st time in his life) to outrun defensive lineman and his offensive line’s glaring inability to block them. Already trying to regain the confidence and mechanics to step into throws again following major knee surgery, RG3 also seemed to be fighting what I believe is technically termed as the yips, as he started to rush or just plain miss on throws with no defenders near him as well, possibly anticipating getting hit before there was any real threat of contact.
At this point, it would be hard to argue against the idea that Griffin has been mismanaged throughout this injury/rehab process. Part of that is his own doing…his ego, tough-mindedness, and marketing strategy (all in for week 1) worked to his own detriment. But at the end of the day, the buck stops with the organization (more on that later). If a player wants to check himself into action before the coaches, doctors, and front office execs deem him ready, it’s their job to tell the player to slow his roll. Because of that reason (and my yips comment above), I actually didn’t mind coach Mike Shanahan’s decision to deactivate RG3 the last 3 weeks of the season on the surface. But Shanny’s real motivations and his and the team’s mismanagement of Griffin from last season’s playoff game against Seattle give you pause as well, as it seems doubtful that his intentions were pure either (more on that later too).
It also proved that the rest of the team was still s*** tier whether RG3 was manning the helm or anyone else.
Now, one can only hope that by the start of next season Griffin’s knee and his psyche are fully healed, that the new coaching staff puts him in the best positions to be successful and stay healthy, and that the end to the league-imposed $36 million cap penalty allows the organization to put more pieces around him. There's a common thought now that RG3 is damaged goods, that he is a raging egomaniac who has been catered to too much too soon, that he's only a running quarterback who can't be effective from the pocket, and that he isn't capable of being a leader. How quickly everyone forgot last season already, when he seemed to have all his s*** together both on and off the field. Losing tends to do that though. If he can play up the standard he set for himself during his rookie year next season, all that will go away. If not, it may be back to the drawing board (again) for the Redskins.
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