Geoff Burke – USA TODAY Sports
“Talk small, play big” is Washington Redskins QB Robert Griffin III‘s new motto for the 2015 season. If he hopes to be the Redskins’ signal-caller in 2016, he better follow through on that promise. After a disappointing 4-12 regular season that saw Griffin benched for in favor of Kirk Cousins and journeyman Colt McCoy at points last season, maybe “talking small, playing big” will bring greater success. If not, he could just as easily lose playing time to both men this season.
Griffin has struggled to recreate the magic of his 2012 rookie season which saw him, not Russell Wilson or Andrew Luck, take home Rookie of the Year honors. That Redskins team won the NFC East for the first time since 1999 and hosted just the second playoff game in the history of FedEx Field. That game ended with Griffin writhing in pain near his own goal line, having played with a knee injury since a midseason collision with Baltimore Ravens DT Haloti Ngata. He would spend the offseason that followed rehabbing a second torn ACL and the legend grew. With an ESPN special about his return and amassing another million or two Twitter followers, Griffin entered the 2013 season as one of the NFL‘s young stars.
The two seasons since that fateful Saturday evening in Landover, Md. have been somewhere between an unmitigated disaster and a bitter disappointment. He has sparred with teammates and coaches. If he does not live up to the potential he showed in 2012, Griffin will go the way of Vince Young, Anthony Thomas and Cadillac Williams as former Offensive Rookies of the Year who never repeated their rookie success.
Can Griffin do it? The Redskins have given him all the tools to be successful, with a respected offensive play-caller in head coach Jay Gruden, a designated QB coach in Matt Cavanaugh, two game-breaking wide receivers in DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon and a running game on the strength of bruiser Alfred Morris. New general manager Scot McCloughan has also made it an offseason priority to rework the offensive line, a unit blamed for the entire offense’s deficiencies. He has done so by spending the No. 5 overall pick in the draft on Brandon Scherff who will anchor the right side while perennial Pro Bowler Trent Williams protects Griffin’s blindside.
The stage is set for Griffin to have a rebirth — can he play big?
Jake Miller is a Washington Redskins beat writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @JakeMillerNFL.
