(AP)
The chants for Colt McCoy inside FedEx Field were real. Washington Redskins fans were asking for the guy who started the season as the backup to the backup in favor of the second pick of the 2012 NFL Draft.
It’s a ridiculous request. Let’s get that out of the way. Benching Griffin now, after just his second game back from injury would be a clear message to the Washington faithful that the team mortgaged its future for … well … nothing.
The Redskins gave away its 2013 and 2014 drafts for Griffin. The team took a shot on a Heisman winner who appeared capable of becoming the franchise quarterback Washington has longed for. Nearly 20 years of misery was supposed to be erased by Griffin. Not even three years since RG3’s debut, fans are begging for his third-string replacement.
The Redskins should give the people what they want.
(USA TODAY Sports)
Put Colt McCoy in and let it ride. Set Griffin down in front of a mirror in December and let him take a monthlong look. Starting McCoy is as close to a win-win as a 3-7 team will ever get.
If he performs, the Redskins might have the ability to trade away for a late-round pick in the draft. You know, the one it lost when Kirk Cousins threw it – and the football – away nine times this year. If McCoy loses, well …
Washington isn’t going to the playoffs.
Crazy as it sounds, this 3-7 Redskins team doesn’t have postseason aspirations. So what are they playing for? If D.C. is being honest with themselves, the Redskins are eyeing the 2015 draft. It’ll be the first time since 2012 that Washington will have a first-round pick. Wouldn’t it be swell if that pick was high enough to build upon?
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RG3 belittled his teammates.
When Griffin threw his teammates under the bus, he highlighted two truths. One, he’s immature and incapable of taking responsibility for an abysmal performance. Two, when he said, “Great quarterbacks, the Peytons, the Aaron Rodgers, those guys don’t play well if their guys don’t play well. They don’t,” he wasn’t wrong.
Great quarterbacks need good players around them. Washington has some good pieces. DeSean Jackson has been a revelation. Alfred Morris has shown that his production goes up with Griffin on the field. But after you get past Jackson and Morris, you’re left with a vast landscape of mediocrity.
The great quarterbacks in the league are capable of elevating the play of their teammates. Griffin is far from great, but he is good. A good quarterback surrounded by above-average talent is capable of doing great things (see: Flacco, Joe).
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However …
This is a very, very bad team.
If there is a positive to be taken from any aspect of this season, it’s that Redskins coach Jay Gruden is fully aware of just how terrible his team is. When asked about Griffin’s starting job, Gruden was delightfully blunt.
“After today’s performance? Nobody has proved that they deserve to start anywhere after today’s performance.”
The Redskins are rotten, and Gruden knows it. The only way to make this team whole is to scrape out the decay. The quickest way to rebuild is through the draft, and that starts in 2015.
Letting Griffin play accomplishes little in terms of rebuilding. It gives him the opportunity to hold more self-indulgent press conferences and opens him up to even greater scrutiny and animosity. It also wouldn’t hurt to let Griffin, a guy coming off two major injuries in three years, spend a month recovering. Despite an overall inability to live up to expectations, he’s still Washington’s franchise quarterback. So why not save him as you try to build a franchise for him to quarterback?
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