Clearly, there are things Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III needs to work on.
But according to Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, the notion that Griffin isn’t well enough to be effective doesn’t hold water.
The younger Shanahan dismissed comments by 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks that Griffin shouldn’t be playing because of his physical condition.
“We’re talking a 4.31 to maybe a 4.35 [in the 40-yard dash],” Shanahan said, via John Keim of ESPN.com. “I don’t think he all of a sudden turned into a guy who can’t run. He can still make plays and still do both. He has to pick his times. Sometimes he doesn’t have an option and sometimes the pocket breaks down. Sometimes someone’s not open and it’s nice to have a quarterback where the plays not just over when that happens. It happens a lot in games and the quarterback has to throw it away or take a sack. Robert still has an option to do something with it.”
Shanahan acknowledged Griffin “might not be quite as explosive or quite as fast,” coming off reconstuctive knee surgery, but didn’t think it was the thing holding him back.
He also thinks time will help his quarterback develop more of a feel for the pocket, something that he needs as he grows.
“A lot of people who have no mobility have been working on that feel since they were 5 years old,” Shanahan said. “It’s the way you’ve got to play. When you’re as good an athlete as Robert, you’re not forced to do that at a young age so you run around and make plays and you can always do that.
“For guys like that all of a sudden to learn to play in the pocket it’s not who you are.”
Thus, this year’s growing pains might have been predictable for reasons other than Griffin’s health, though that’s a convenient place to begin.