Enough is enough. It’s time to stop defaming the character of 23-year-old quarterback Robert Griffin III, who has been scapegoated by Mike Shanahan and the media as the “problem” with the putrid football franchise known as the Washington Redskins.
Simply put, the mainstream media and D.C. sports media should ashamed of the way they've picked apart the character of a player who gave the franchise and the city hope that better days were coming in the nation’s capital.
This disastrous season for the Redskins, who are now a lowly 3-11, is everything fans hoped it wouldn’t be. Contrary to the story the media is pushing, Robert Griffin III is NOT the biggest issue with this franchise.
Mike Shanahan and the media have painted RGIII as a diva who was given the keys to the franchise and got carried away with the hype. He’s been labeled as uncoachable, selfish and lacking self-awareness.
If you let the media tell it, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and RGIII are close buddies whose bond forced Mike Shanahan to want out of Washington at the end of last season's playoff run.
The truth is, Mike Shanahan is more at fault than anybody, and it’s unfair to continue to pile on RGIII.
Have the media, sportswriters and others tearing down RGIII’s character and blaming him for the turmoil in Washington watched this Redskins team play this season?
Unfortunately, I've watched every Redskins game this year, and while RGIII hasn’t played too well overall, he's so far from the real issue with this team that I’ve began to wonder if people are actually watching game in and game out.
Does RGIII play special teams? Does he play defense? Does he call his own plays? No, he doesn't. These areas have hurt the team far more than RGIII’s play.
The Redskins have the worst special teams in the entire NFL. The Skins allow the most yardage on punt returns, have a tight end returning kicks (Niles Paul), a WAY over-the-hill Santana Moss returning punts, and Sav Rocca is the most inconsistent punter in the league. The special teams unit has been completely awful.
The Redskins tried to patch the gaping holes in their defense by plugging young draft picks David Amerson and Bacarri Rambo into the secondary. They also hoped the return of Pro Bowl linebacker Brian Orakpo would help improve the defense. They were wrong. The defense still allows over 265 passing yards per game, and is one of the worst tackling defenses in the league.
Lastly, If Kyle Shanahan was an offensive coordinator for anyone other than his father, there's no question that he would have been fired by now. His playcalling with RGIII at the helm was utterly embarrassing. Every play was out of the pistol formation, and defenses seemed to almost always know what was coming. He never changed up the plays when things weren’t going well, and he continued to run the read option at times when it was clearly ineffective.
Last Sunday with Kirk Cousins starting, Kyle Shanahan called a complete different game than he had for the entire season up to that point. Both the Shanahans claim otherwise, but there were clearly some major differences in way things were called. They finally called plays from under center, ran plays out of more traditional formations and threw the ball down the field.
Why the Shanahans couldn’t do this with RGIII is still a mystery.
The obvious answer would be that Kirk Cousins is a better pocket passer than RGIII, which may be true; however, that's no excuse for having RGIII run the same old crappy plays that hadn’t worked all season long.
Mike Shanahan and his entire staff have done a disservice to the entire Redskins organization and their fans by allowing this team to be so terrible in every phase of the game while letting RGIII take the bulk of the blame.
Has Robert Griffin III been perfect? Of course not. He deserves some of the blame, as do a lot of people in the Redskins organization.
RGIII often puts his foot in his mouth by saying too much, and he has made some mistakes in allowing his father to interfere with his professional life.
Has RGIII had a great year? No, but he definitely hasn't been as bad as advertised.
In 13 games this season, RGIII has thrown for 3,203 yards (three yards more than last season) 16 TDs and 12 INTs while completing 60 percent of his passes. His passer rating is 82.2.
These aren’t great numbers by any stretch, but they're far from the disaster they've been made out to be in the media.
It’s clear that RGIII is a young man who still has some maturing to do as a leader and as the franchise QB of the Washington Redskins. He’s not perfect. However, enough is enough. It’s time that the Shanahans own up to their mistakes and stop letting this young man take all the heat.
Every week, a new story comes out about how Robert Griffin III is at the heart of the Redskins dysfunction - and I for one reject that notion. There are too many other reasons far worse than Griffin's play and demeanor. Remember, this is a quarterback who the media hype-machine pumped up as the next big thing after his stellar rookie season just one year ago.
It’s time to stop with the bogus stories defaming RGIII’s character. He is not the problem with the Redskins. It’s clear that whether he’s on the field or off, the Redskins are a terrible team. It’s time for the franchise to let go of Mike Shanahan & co. and move on. RGIII deserves better, and more importantly, Redskins Nation deserves better.
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