The drama that has unfolded around the Washington Redskins for the better part of the past two years came to a head on Monday when head coach Jay Gruden announced that Kirk Cousins would be starting under center over the much maligned Robert Griffin III.
It’s Kirk’s team,” Gruden said, via The Washington Post. “I just think it’s not so much what somebody didn’t do. It’s just what Kirk has done and I think what he’s done in practice and OTAs has really opened our eyes, and he’s proven to be the best quarterback on our roster at this time, really."
Now that Gruden has named Cousins the starting quarterback for the season, it's time that the team do right by RGIII and release him so that he can catch on with another team. The entire experiment, which started out swimmingly after the former Heisman Winner led Washington to the playoffs as a rookie back in 2012, has now descended so far out of control that the Redskins are seen as one of the most inept franchises in the NFL.
What started with Washington playing an injured RGIII during the latter part of his rookie season has culminated in a relationship between the team and the player that doesn't seem salvageable at this point.
Upon announcing that Cousins would start over his veteran counterpart, anonymous members of the team spoke out in support of the decision, and seemingly against RGIII himself:
The team is excited with the change," a defensive player told TMZ. "We are all looking forward to Kirk leading us this season.”
Meanwhile, another player had some pretty interesting comments about the team's trajectory with Cousins under center instead of RGIII:
We have a better chance of winning with (Cousins) than Robert Griffin. Sometimes teams need a change and we obviously did."
Another player went on to indicate that the Redskins "can now start winning" after the team's decision on Monday.
This tells us a story of a locker room that wasn't fully supportive of RGIII being the team's starting quarterback. And in reality, this divide goes back some time now.
While players later came out to refute the report,
This came immediately prior to Gruden calling his quarterback out publicly:
Robert had some fundamental flaws,” Gruden said last December. “His footwork was below average. He took three-step drops when he should have taken five. He took a one-step drop when he should have taken three on a couple occasions and that can’t happen."
Gruden continued by publicly declaring that RGIII's performance "was not even close to being good enough" for what they expected from the quarterback position. That's not exactly what we would call a coach supporting his quarterback.
In addition to all this, there seems to be a real rift between Gruden and the Redskins front office regarding RGIII's value to the team. Owner Daniel Snyder has reportedly remained firmly in support of the much-maligned quarterback, while Gruden himself hasn't. Remember, this is the same issue that many speculate led to the end of Mike Shanahan's tenure as the team's head coach prior to last season.
None of this should really be that much of a surprise. I have spoken with multiple former Redskins players about Snyder, none of whom provided glowing reviews of the owner.
In on instance, former Redskins quarterback Sage Rosenfels indicated to me that Snyder is an owner with a "fantasy football" mindset.
We have seen it over and over again throughout the years. An owner attempting to stick his nose in personnel decisions with football people taking exception to that.
Short of Snyder firing Gruden and getting his own "yes man" in there, the football people in Washington will continue to fight him at every turn as it relates to RGIII.
The other important thing to look at here is the quarterback's contract situation. Washington picked up his $16.2 million option for 2016 back in the spring. That amount is guaranteed for injury only, meaning that it will become guaranteed should RGIII go down with an injury. Considering his injury history, it's hard to imagine another team trading for the embattled signal caller with the potential of having to pay out $16.2 million to an injured player.
All this leads me to the conclusion that Washington simply owes it to the embattled quarterback to release him once he's fully recovered from the concussion he suffered against the Detroit Lions earlier this summer. The situation in D.C. just doesn't seem sustainable right now. And having RGIII ride the pine with Cousins starting, could set up even more drama between the now backup quarterback and his franchise.
It's not yet known whether RGIII would be successful in another city. His performance when on the field over the past two seasons has bordered on disastrous. Though, as we saw against Detroit, the Redskins have not done a whole lot to support any type of progression from his part on the football field.
It's been an organization-wide failure at every turn here, and it's clearly time for the Redskins to cut their losses. RGIII may never succeed in D.C., but he deserves a new start on another team. That much is clear. Now, it's time to see whether the Redskins show enough class to provide him with that opportunity.
