Last season, Washington coach Mike Shanahan was criticized for not showing enough caution with Robert Griffin III’s knee. This year, Shanahan is showing an excess of caution.
Even after Dr. James Andrews cleared Griffin to play in the Monday night opener against the Eagles, Shanahan hedged, saying that he still isn’t ready to announce that Griffin is, in fact, the Week One starter.
Shanahan said Andrews had “a couple of concerns,” and Shanahan told reporters he would “let you know on Monday where we’re at.” Shanahan declined to address was those concerns were, but whatever they were, they weren’t serious enough for Andrews to recommend that Griffin remain sidelined.
“I did talk to Dr. Andrews. He did talk to Robert and after talking to him he did clear Robert to play,” Shanahan said.
If Andrews has cleared Griffin, and Griffin says he’s ready to go, there’s no way Shanahan is going to keep his franchise quarterback on the sideline. Shanahan may not be ready to publicly announce it, but there’s no doubt that Griffin is playing Week One.