Redskins GM Scot McCloughan is building a team that can win in the future without Robert Griffin III. Whether RGIII stays with or leaves the team next season, the RGIII era is already over. The signs are everywhere.
McCloughan hopes to build a team — bigger, stronger, tougher, run-first — less reliant on quarterback heroics for wins.
Coach Gruden runs an offense that Andy Dalton can run. That’s a hallmark of the West Coast Offense, by the way. Quarterbacks have to be quick and accurate with ball placement. They need not be very mobile. A big arm is not particularly required. It is icing on the cake if they are those things, but such talent is rare.
The play making RGIII we saw in 2012 shall never return, as much because he declines to run that offense as for anything that Gruden is doing. It’s over.
The RGIII who is trying to establish himself as a conventional NFL quarterback is playing himself to average, just incrementally better than Kirk Cousins or Colt McCoy. Sportsbooks have already said Washington’s odds to make the playoffs are virtually the same whether RG or Capt. Kirk is named the starter.
We are all spending too much time and emotion on the quarterback question. It is immaterial to the six or seven wins the Redskins see this year.
Our team is not without talent. It has been without strategic vision that leads to sustainable competitive advantage over rivals. Patriots, Ravens, Packers are good at that. McCloughan is good at that, but it remains to be seen if it makes a difference. Snyder made a yes man of Joe Gibbs. He has skills to make McCloughan McClueless.
How the ‘Skins handle this quarterback question is a case study in team building in the McCloughan era. Take notes.
Whether Griffin stays or goes, his days as a key difference maker are behind him. Thus, the RG3 era is over.
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