Chances RGIII's days in Wasnington are over? Pretty good I think.
RG3 would be long gone if he was in any other situation, but the Redskins gave up an awfully lot to take him #2 overall and the fans fell in love with him after a solid rookie season. They still might go back to him. How Cousins plays is obviously going to play a huge part in this as well.
Do what? Lead his team to a division title and was ROY in 2012. Came off ACL surgery and was mediocore in 2013. Now after 1 game in 2014, people think he's done with the Redskins? What have I missed?
Like I said, Redskin fans are in love with him. So if he was in any other situation his chances to regain the job would be slim. What has RG3 done since injuring his ACL in December 2012 to give you hope?
Complete 78% of his passes against Houston. Post better numbers last season than Cousins. Griffin's 2013 Comp% was .1 behind Luck's and better than Stafford's. Griffin for sure has the higher ceiling and it isn't close.
It is close. Here's why.
Griffin has been little better than a dink and dunk passer since the knee blowout. He didn't really change his profile in terms of what kinds of passes he
attempted, but his results on everything even remotely downfield went from -- not just league-best -- but
legendarily good his rookie year, to absolutely horrific year two. That "legendarily" stuff isn't hyperbole. His efficiency completing deep passes as a raw rookie was among the best the league has ever seen. Then suddenly, he was terrible.
Sophomore jinx?
Hardly. Griffin was the most electrifying running threat at QB in the league the instant he stepped on the field. He wasn't just dangerous, he was so dangerous teams had to break down their entire defensive schemes just to account for the ability of his legs to turn any play into a huge gain. And when they did that, it was broken coverage and mismatch after broken coverage and mismatch, all day long. And Griffin, to his credit, did a great job finding and exploiting them. We rookie RG3 owners were loving life.
Last year? No DC in the league regarded him as nearly as big a threat. He still ran some, but the days of scheming to keep him contained were gone, and DC's let their vanilla schemes do their best to contain him, while he collapsed in terms of his passing success downfield. He just doesn't have the type of accuracy and mastery of the throws he needs to thread those needles like elite passers do. He was back up to 78% against HOU precisely because Gruden completely gave up on downfield passing game one.
Now? After the second absolutely catastrophic injury to his wheels in a couple years' time, there's got to be real concern if he'll even be mobile again, much less the kind of threat that demands the commitment from the defense that RG3 absolutely
requires in order to be successful as a passer in this league.
Cousins, as has already been alluded to, can easily be considered a poor man's Andy Dalton in terms of what he brings to the field. And how was Andy in the Gruden system? Cousins has good targets all over the field, a solid running game behind him, and a system that is custom tailored for a QB like him.
I wouldn't say Cousins has all that captivating a ceiling anyway, though if he got the reins for a season, I suspect he'd be startable as an FF QB. I simply don't think Griffin moving forward has nearly enough tools left in the toolbox to become a good NFL QB again. He was a young Vick with good decision making thrown in for good measure...if he could just have stayed healthy. But life isn't kind to scatback QB's. The instant they lose half a step, they'd better be able to transition to Brady/Manning/Marino type pocket effectiveness, or their time of relevance is done.
And I think Griffin's is done.
