We’ve heard plenty from the folks directly involved in and affected by the decision to shut Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III down for the season. We’re now hearing from members of the organization who are on the periphery.
Receiver Santana Moss expressed concern on Thursday regarding the decision to throw Cousins into the fire.
“It’s kind of tough to put him into this situation right now and hope for him to be excellent,” Moss said, via Mike Jones of the Washington Post. “It’s almost like setting a guy up for failure. But you just want him to go out there and be at ease and just take his time, be as efficient as he can because it’s one of those situations that’s like, you know, Catch[-22]. He don’t play as well, then you’re gonna say, ‘Well, should he have been in there?’ But you can’t do that to him because he hasn’t had all this season to go out there and jell with us. But he has been ready enough to go out there and be able to run this offense. So we’re just hoping for the best.”
Helping to make it better than it otherwise would be is that the Redskins end the season against a trio of not-so-stifling defenses. The Cowboys are last in yards allowed, the Falcons are the seventh worst. When it comes to points allowed, the Falcons are fourth from the bottom, the Cowboys are seventh, and the Giants are in the bottom third as well.
So it’s possible that coach Mike Shanahan is setting Cousins up not to fail but to thrive. To thrive so well that Shanahan could try to go with Cousins as the starter if Shanahan returns next year. So well that if Shanahan doesn’t return his parting gift to the franchise will have been a quarterback controversy.