BradyFTW!

The thing about Griffin is that, unlike Vick (who OP used as a comparable), he seems to have both the arm and the intellect to be a 'real' quarterback. Based on that, I think his career will last a fair bit longer than reactionary folks today would bet on. He will have to adapt his style of play. He may need a coach with a functioning brain and an ounce of integrity (Shanahan clearly has neither, at this point). But even if his game has to change as he ages, I wouldn't bet against him being able to do it.

BradyFTW!

Agreed- I dunno where people are getting it in their heads that a) RG3 doesn't have the skills to be a pocket passer, and b) there isn't historical precedent for quarterbacks making the transition that he needs to make.

Apparently these are people who didn't watch the Redskins play this season and have very little knowledge of the history of the game.

BradyFTW!

Shanahan also lied and said that he put Griffin back in in the Baltimore game because Dr. James Andrews cleared him (which Andrews later refuted). From here on out, I'm taking anything that Shanahan has to saw with a grain of salt, to put it kindly. I agree with the many other posters on this thread who think that he should have been fired today.

You don't send out an already-reinjured franchise quarterback to play on a severely destabilized knee on a painted-dirt field. And if you insist on putting your franchise QB at risk in this way, you sure as hell don't shirk accountability by lying and claiming that the doctors cleared him to go.

TheBostonStraggler

RGIII runs his passing game off the threat of his run. This is, in large part, what makes him so successful. That isn't a knock on him, this is simply the fact of his success. And when he became injured to the point of not being an acute running threat, the skills needed to run their passing game successfully changed. Carol Pete said as much in his post game comments 'we could now drop back in our normal coverage when we saw his running was hampered'. Washington never threatened the Seahawks after their initial two scores (to the best of my recollection).

RGIII may be a great pocket passer but it has never been proven because he has never really done it. He has not faced to any extent defenses that are playing him like they would play a drop back passer. And considering this is elimination football and it was obvious that RGIII was not going to be running, and the Seahawks obviously knew it, and he was obviously hurt/injured, and the Skins could barely muster a first down after the 1st quarter.... Shanny not taking him out and going with an alternative QB has to be the dumbest HC move I have seen in the playoffs in 25 years of NFL watching.

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BradyFTW!

How did you arrive at Culpepper as a comparable? Their frames and playing styles aren't even remotely similar. Culpepper had 2 inches and 40 pounds on Griffin - if anything, he was a beta version of Cam Newton - slower, less capable, and less intelligent, but some similarities in general style.

Culpepper never ran an offense like the one Griffin runs, at least in part because he was poorly suited for it both mentally and physically. He was also terrible at reading coverages, and never experienced an ounce of NFL success without an in-his-prime Randy Moss bailing him out and allowing him to face some of the easiest-to-read coverages in recent NFL history.

BradyFTW!

I think the biggest problem for Washington's offense wasn't that Griffin wasn't much of a running threat, but rather that his passing mechanics were totally screwed up by the injury. Receivers were getting open, but he was missing them. Makes sense, I can't imagine that it was easy for anyone to plant and throw on that field, let alone a QB playing on one leg.

TheBostonStraggler

Could be, hard to be certain though you are more likely right. But RGIII's successful passing this year has largely been based on the potent threat of his running the ball. Receivers being open because defenders are out of position based on their focus on his running threat. Blitzers having to ease up to cover gaps is now gone. How many games this year had RGIII faced a defense that a coach said 'we just dropped back in coverage and didn't worry about him running'?

As I mentioned before, this is no knock on him. A rookie does not come into the NFL and operate a drop back passing game at a high level. It's akin to asking a freshly graduated medical student to perform complicated surgery on a dying patient. Their experience and training just isn't likely at that level yet. IMHO once the Skins were behind and the Hawks defense was no longer playing on the threat of RGIII running, even if he could still pass the ball as he normally does, why would someone believe he was going to lead them back for the needed scores and the win? He would have had to do it based on circumstances he has largely never experienced. Again no knock on RGIII, just reality of the situation....

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mayoclinic

Report: MRI suggests at least partial tears of ACL, LCL for Griffin | ProFootballTalk
Robert Griffin III has partial tears of ACL and LCL, MRI suggests

Wouldn't be surprised if it's worse than that.

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thenepatsrule

Wow can you imagine if he ends up missing 12-14 months (as the speculation out there is ) The Giants will have no competition in the NFC East and the lucky Bas***s will win the NFC East again

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BradyFTW!

As much as I hate Deadspin, this is actually a pretty good summary of how the LCL/ACL tear, 14-18 month timeline became a talking point:

Fred Smoot Is The One Spreading All Those Rumors About Robert Griffin III's Shredded Knee

Basically, there's no credible source that's said that, and now everyone's trying to throw everyone else under the bus, because no source wants to admit that it published a story based on absolutely nothing. Great case study in how worthless 95% of the media is nowadays.