Robert Griffin III and Kendall Wright were an explosive combination during their time together at Baylor University.
Both players are in their second seasons in the NFL. Griffin with the Washington Redskins and Wright with the Tennessee Titans.
While Wright is taking a step forward after a strong rookie season, Griffin is struggling.
Griffin is completing just 60-percent of his passes after completing over 65-percent a season ago. He’s thrown just 14 touchdowns to 10 interceptions and his pass rating has dipped from a 102.4 last season to just a 83.6 through 12 games this season.
Griffin has been criticized heavily for his performance this year. He’s taking numerous hits in games, made questionable decisions with the football and still looks to be hampered at times by the knee injury that ended his rookie season in the playoffs.
Wright feels like his former teammate is putting too much pressure on himself. Wright joined Alex Marvez and Bill Polian on Sirius XM NFL Radio Tuesday night and gave his thoughts on Griffin’s struggles.
“I just think he’s putting a lot of pressure on himself. He’s just got to go out there and have fun and play football like he knows how to play,” Wright said. “Don’t worry about the outside world or what people think about you. He’s just got to go play football like he knows how to play.”
Wright isn’t used to seeing the type of plays Griffin is making now while they played together at Baylor. Griffin was electric during his final season in Waco and everything he touched seemed to come up golden on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy.
Wright said it’s difficult to deal with that much pressure. He feels the same problem is actually afflicting a teammate of his now in Tennessee as well.
“I have a teammate going through it right now in Kenny Britt,” Wright said. “He’s going through it and you can see how hard it. When it’s that hard, players go out there and put too much pressure on themselves, like, they just have to make a play. To me, you just got to go out there and stay focused, attention to detail and make the plays when it’s your time to make the plays.”
Griffin isn’t the only reason the Redskins have struggled this season, but he’s certainly not having the sophomore season everyone expected.