Last season, RGIIII reached cult status fairly quickly. It wasn’t just in D.C. though. I heard Cowboy fans seriously extolling the virtues of RGIII as the best player in the NFL. You can only imagine the hyperbolic hero worship that was going on within Chocolate City.
Two weeks into the season there are half-brained conspiracies floating within the tin foil hat community that Shanahan is always looking for a reason to start Kirk Cousins over Griffin even though Dan Snyder would personally fire and then escort out the building whatever head coach benches a healthy RGIII. Tony Dungy may be a Super Bowl-winning head coach, but he’s assured himself that he’ll never get an interview by the ‘Skins—not that he’s sweating it or anything. During a lightning delay during Sunday's showRGI, Dungy and Rodney Harrison were ready to sound the alarm over a possible 0-3 start.
Last year he was ready to take RGIII over Andrew Luck before the 2012 Draft. Two weeks into his second season, Dungy is driving the Kirk Cousins bandwagon and picking up passengers along the way.
H/T to Washington Post:
Harrison, on RGIII’s struggles: ”[Defenses] don’t fear the read-option. They’re playing a lot more man-to-man coverage, they’re blitzing him, because they’re not afraid that he’s going to take the ball and run. Even when the wide receivers are open, he’s overthrowing the guys….He’s not playing with a lot of confidence….I had an injury similar to that, and it takes two years. Everyone is looking at [Adrian Peterson] and the success he had coming back from that ACL, but RGIII is a different player right now. He’s not playing with that same confidence, and it seems like being a pocket passer’s not working – they need that read-option.”
Dungy: ”They have actually changed the offense, not doing what they did last year. If I were Mike Shanahan sitting there at 0-2, I would go into Daniel Snyder right now and say, ‘Our quarterback is not healthy. In the long run, we may be better off going with Kirk Cousins.’ ”
Harrison: “And if I’m in that locker room, I want to support my leader and I believe in him. But if we lose to Detroit next week and we start 0-3, you start looking over at the quarterbacks saying, ‘Kirk Cousins is healthy, maybe he can lead this team.’ ”
Let’s be real though. RGIII’s rookie season was fantastic, but the read-option was never going to be a permanent solution. I viewed it as a diaper of an offense for young, athletic quarterbacks.
Griffin will have some growing pains throwing from the pocket more often, but in the long run, no pun intended, it will be worth it. In the first two halves of this season, Griffin has pissed the bed offensively while the Redskins offense has been outscored 50-0.
It’s clear he has some jitters when he’s throwing with bodies around his legs. He’s not stepping into his throws and has been inaccurate on deep passes. However, benching him would only exasperate whatever mental block is affecting his throwing motion. Physically, his knee will continue regaining strength as the season progresses and Griffin will acclimate. He missed the entire preseason. Sitting him more games won't be beneficial. The 'Skins just need to stick with him and figure out how to seal that B.P. Spill they call a secondary.
