Redskins coach Mike Shanahan has resisted making an announcement about his starting quarterback for the season opener against the Eagles for a long time, but the not very well kept secret finally became public on Monday.
Shanahan confirmed at a Monday press conference that Robert Griffin III will be the starter in Week One “unless there’s some crazy setback that we don’t anticipate.” It’s what everyone expected Shanahan to say for quite a while, even though the coach said that Dr. James Andrews had some concerns about the quarterback.
There was a conference call between Shanahan, Andrews and General Manager Bruce Allen over the weekend to discuss Andrews’ concerns and Shanahan said he emerged from it comfortable about playing Griffin on Monday night. He wouldn’t elaborate on the concerns, saying that some conversation will always stay between the doctor and the player and/or team.
He did say that Andrews told him he was not concerned about the way the Redskins would use Griffin, something that was reported last week by Trey Wingo of ESPN, and expressed some doubt that any team doctor would ever delve into matters of football strategy.
As for the guys who do make up the football strategy, there are no worries. Shanahan said that the team believes Griffin “can do everything a quarterback is asked to do” and that he wouldn’t be playing if he wasn’t.