Robert Griffin III is a pretty tough guy. Michael Wilbon says Griffin the Great is already the best athlete in the NFL. I’d place a bet with SportsBetting.ag that the young man wins some sort of post-season award, if not MVP, then Rookie of the Year and the Pro Bowl.
So I call bull droppings on words like these –
“It may not be a good idea to put the already-fragile future of your franchise in compromising situations against a defense known to be head hunters.” Already fragile?
That is the opening line from a story on nesn.com via Yardbarker, Robert Griffin III Takes Helmet-to-Helmet Hit From Ryan Clark While Playing Wide Receiver.
Ah yes, Robert Griffin III, the delicate flower of the Washington Redskins. I shake my head.
Griffin is anything but fragile. He carries the same weight as your typical running back, who takes a lot of hits.
Adrian Peterson, 217 Lbs.
Marshawn Lynch, 215 Lbs.
Alfred Morris, 215 Lbs.
Stevan Ridley, 220 Lbs
Arian Foster, 228 Lbs,
Frank Gore, 217 Lbs.
Chris Johnson, 191 Lbs.
Robert Griffin III, 217 Lbs.
You could run the same weight comparison to wide receivers.
Reggie Wayne, 198 Lbs.
Wes Welker, 185 Lbs.
Percy Harvin, 184 Lbs.
Victor Cruz, 204 Lbs.
Griffin is a football player. Since he’s an NFL player, he’s played the game all his life. He knows how to take a hit. What the video replay shows is that he could use some tips for receivers coach Ike Hilliard for attacking the ball when he’s covered that much. Griffin let the ball come to him and it was well defensed.
RGIII is the best player on the Redskins, but some people are taking this protection thing too far. It’s football. Hits happen. Injuries occur. The Redskins are hurt as much by the loss of OLB Brian Orakpo as they would be by the loss of Griffin. Nobody spoke of protecting Orakpo by not letting him play pass coverage.
In more over-reaction, fans are amped up over Mike Shanahan’s statement that he felt like a dumb shirt for using Griffin as wide receiver. But Coach Shanny didn’t say he should not have run the play, or would not try it again. He felt “dumb” because he needed to coach up Josh Morgan to read the coverage better.
BOLD playcalling from Redskins w RG3 as a WR… Man! Protect that QB Shanahan! #crazyfootballmomma
— Holly Robinson Peete (@hollyrpeete) October 28, 2012
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Shanahan’s full statement via Mike Jones at The Post:
“I’ve run that play probably 10, 15 times with [John] Elway, probably 20 times or more with Steve Young, and with Robert, what you usually do is against the right defense – which is man coverage – no one usually accounts for the quarterback and he’s by himself out there.
“With Josh Morgan, he takes off and he’s got such confidence in his arm, and he lets it go and probably could’ve thrown it another 10 yards,” Shanahan said. “Robert’s so competitive that he goes for that ball, and that one safety that comes over just killed him. Yeah, I felt like to do it over again, we’d tell Josh don’t throw it unless he’s wide open, I mean wide open. Of course from his perspective, he was. But that’s part of the growing process for me and having the guys throw a pass from the backfield.”
Shanahan went for it in the Giants game on fourth-and-ten while deep in Redskins’ territory. I mean, WHO DOES THAT? Anyone with RGIII at quarterback, that’s who. Griffin completed a 19-yard pass to TE Logan Paulson to keep the drive alive. Washington scored on the same drive to take (briefly) the lead late.
What’s the good to have a talent like RGIII if you don’t use him in all possible ways out of fear? That just ain’t football.
Image: October 27, 2012, Joe Sargent/Getty Images North America via zimbio.com.
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