RG3’s days with the Browns are clearly numbered
By Thomas Moore
The Cleveland Browns have a sense of urgency about finding a starting quarterback, meaning that Robert Griffin III may not be long for the roster.
It can be a risky venture to take too much at face value when it comes to the NFL Scouting Combine.
Participating players are doing very little in terms of actual football activities, and have trained for months on the skills needed for the specific drills, so drawing conclusions from their performances is a bit silly.
Agents are in town dropping “inside news” into the ears of reporters looking to fill the daily content machine, making it difficult to truly track whose “stock is rising” among players and interested teams.
But even with all the noise and clutter surrounding the Combine, one message came through load and clear:
The Cleveland Browns have no intention of keeping quarterback Robert Griffin III any longer than is absolutely necessary.
Executive vice president of football operations got the ball rolling on Wednesday when asked about Griffin’s future with the club, according to cleveland.com:
"“Anytime you don’t have your starting quarterback, there should always be an urgency, it’s our belief. And there is. Robert’s on our roster today. All the guys on our roster we expect to be back in April when the guys show back up. I’ll leave it at that.”"
Brown also made a point to say that Griffin’s roster bonus of $750,000 due on March 11 will have no impact – positively or negatively – on any decision regarding his future with the team.
Head coach Hue Jackson took it a step further on Thursday when he described the traits he wants from his quarterback, according to clevelandbrowns.com:
"“I think if I had to build a perfect quarterback, first it would be accuracy. He’s gotta be able to throw the ball straight, he’s gotta be able to throw the ball to the person he intended to throw it to. You have to have arm talent. I think that’s really important. And I don’t know if you mentioned this, but this is really important to me, he has to be able to process football at a high level."
"“I think football IQ is really important. And then I think leadership is paramount. A guy has to be able to lead and uplift a football team to get them to follow him to get them the best they can be because sometimes as the quarterback you’ve got to go challenge people to do a little bit more than what they’re used to. And I think it’s important that a guy has that trait.”"
Read through those traits again and try to see which ones can be linked to Griffin. He has arm strength, certainly, but as for the rest:
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- He only completed 59 percent of his passes in 2016, which would have put him 27th in the league – hanging out with the likes of Blake Bortles, Brock Osweiler and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
- Football IQ? That may be a bit debatable, but Griffin certainly did show pocket presence as he was sacked 22 times in just five games, most of which were the result of him simply not understanding when it was time to get rid of the ball.
- Finally, it is hard to be a leader when you spend most of the season on the sidelines injured.
So does that mean Griffin is in immediate danger of being released? Not necessarily.
The Browns have more cap space than they no what to do with, so paying Griffin his roster bonus is basically loose change when it comes to the amount of the bonus. And with no games to play until September, the Browns are in no hurry or obligation to make a move until they work their way through free agency and the draft.
If the Browns end up liking what they see via trade (Jimmy Garoppolo) or in the upcoming 2017 NFL Draft, then Griffin will be gone as soon as the new quarterback hits the roster. If not, then there is still the real possibility that he will be on the roster when the season opens this fall.
But with a current quarterback depth chart that has Griffin, Cody Kessler and Kevin Hogan as its primary players, there is no doubt the Browns are going to do everything they can to fix the problem.
Next: Browns should not draft a QB at No. 1
Because as Sashi Brown said, when you don’t have your quarterback there needs to be a sense of urgency.