http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/06/08/robert-griffin-rg3-cleveland-browns-starter-nfl-notes
The Ongoing Growth of Griffin
Robert Griffin III begins with a clean slate in Cleveland, but his new head coach, Hue Jackson, explains why RG3 still will need to earn the starting job this summer. Plus items on the Von Miller-Broncos contract situation, the Cardinals’ small secret and Art Briles’ potential NFL job opportunities
By Albert Breer
Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images
To the outside world, it seemed that Robert Griffin arrived in Cleveland weighed down with four years of baggage from a most unusual run as franchise savior-turned-bust in D.C.
Good thing for the star-crossed quarterback, his new head coach never looked at it like that.
“I said this to all the players:
Everybody’s slate is clean,” rookie Browns coach Hue Jackson said from his office earlier this week. “You always want to give guys the benefit of the doubt coming in, and I have not seen, heard or felt any negativity out of him. That’s the only Robert Griffin I know. He’s been an ideal teammate, a hard worker, he wants to please his coaches and he’s followed directions. That’s all I know.”
What Jackson doesn’t know yet (or if he does, he isn’t saying) is whether or not Griffin will be his starter for the team’s opener Sept. 11 in Philly. Veteran Josh McCown is the other option.
But as minicamp wraps today, 11 weeks to the day that Griffin signed, it remains the likelihood that Griffin will be the guy. And while that doesn’t guarantee anything, and the 26-year-old doesn’t need to be reminded of that—he held the Washington starting job through the spring and most of summer last year before being unseated by Kirk Cousins—just holding serve signifies a step forward after a season in which he didn’t take a single snap.
In this first installment of my Inside the NFL notebook for The MMQB, we’ll look at the Von Miller-Broncos contract situation, Cardinals’ next small-school prodigy, the Jets’ never-ending QB saga, players to watch from this week’s minicamps, and the embattled Art Briles’ connection to pro football.
We’ll start in Cleveland, where Briles’ most high-profile prodigy is trying to recapture the magic he carried from Waco to Washington in 2012.
Two years ago, Washington coach Jay Gruden told me that, despite a spectacular debut season, Griffin was still painfully raw as a pro quarterback, emphasizing that it would take patience to see him through to the point at which his game would have NFL staying power. To be sure, Jackson has seen growth, but it’s also easy to see that he knows what Gruden was trying to say.
“I’m not gonna say he’s raw, but he is still developing. And most young quarterbacks are still developing,” Jackson said. “I’d give coach (Mike) Shanahan and his son a lot of credit—he came into the league and they fashioned an offense for him that worked for him. And I’d give him credit too, coming out of the Baylor system, without the traditional footwork you play with, he produced right away.
“Those guys were able to mesh together a great season, but all that is in his past. It’s about mastering the quarterback position now. Mastery of how to play the position is the key to his success.”
Photo: Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images
And that means learning the things Griffin wasn’t asked to do as a rookie, and the things he struggled with over the three years to follow.
That started nearly three months ago with Jackson directing Griffin to work with quarterbacking guru Tom House, someone Jackson called “one of the greater teachers in dealing with quarterbacks around.”
“If he’s not around me, I want him to be around the best,” Jackson said. When Griffin has been around Jackson, there’s been an emphasis on footwork, progression reading, and protecting himself and being smart on off-schedule plays. There, the coach says the improvement has been “twofold.” In fact, one most encouraging moment of the last couple weeks of work was Griffin hitting the deck on a lost play.
“There’s a time to say uncle,” Jackson said. “He’s taught himself to slide.”
Now, to be sure, the concept of a first-round reclamation project at QB isn’t a new one. There’s always hope in these situations. The reality is Jim Plunkett and Steve Young stories are few and far between.
Teams have cut ties with 15 first-round quarterbacks over the past 10 draft classes. Only two of those 15 have lasted more than two seasons with their second teams. One is Jay Cutler, whose ouster from Denver was driven by personality, rather than production. The other is Blaine Gabbert, who is entering his third season as a Niner.
So if Griffin makes this work, he will be an outlier.
But when I ran down the list to Hue, he responded, “I’m not sure any of those guys did it on that level that Robert did (in 2012). He did it. We know he can.” And taking that into account, I then asked if he believes Griffin can be the kind of franchise quarterback that a coach would feel comfortable tying his job security to.
“That’s yet to be determined,” Jackson responded. “Quarterbacks are made by wins. That’s how a guy has to do it consistently, then he becomes a franchise quarterback. We’re back in the first stages, trying to find a quarterback, then naming a quarterback, then letting him play, and over time we’ll see.”
That, of course, punctuates the underlying theme here, too. For all the improvement Griffin has made in shorts over the last couple months, he still has to win the job, and as was always the plan, Jackson will make him earn it.
“When it’s time to make [a decision], I’ll make it,” Jackson said. “I’m being honest. It’s still way soon. I know that’s what everyone’s worried about, but I’m not. There are no games yet. I think it’s a competition, so we can just let things play themselves out.
“We don’t feel any need to rush. When we name one we’ll feel good about, it’ll be because we put the guy through every test, and he passed.”
So maybe Griffin becomes a great story of perseverance in 2016. Maybe we see the magic of ’12 again.
For now? It’s June.
