In 2012, Robert Griffin III looked like the NFL’s brightest star. After a Heisman Trophy-winning season at Baylor, Griffin became the franchise quarterback in Washington and beat out Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson for the rookie of the year award.
A whole lot has changed since then.
Now Griffin is coming off back-to-back disappointing seasons and a benching in 2014, and he has gone from bright star to whipping boy. And the critics are coming out to kick him while he’s down.
In a lengthy ESPN article ranking the league’s 32 starting quarterbacks, Griffin comes in 28th, and some anonymous coaches and personnel men made quotes suggesting he’ll never be a good player. One coach said Griffin is “done and there’s no coming back.” Quotes suggest that Griffin has too much “ego” to do the necessary work to build himself back up from the knee injury at the end of his rookie year, and that Griffin lacks the “humility” to recognize his flaws and improve upon them.
In a separate quarterback ranking, ESPN’s Ron Jaworski called Griffin the 25th best starting quarterback in the NFL.
“Griffin has much to learn about playing the position from the pocket. He lacks a natural sense of timing in anticipation. Can he get there? I just don’t know,” Jaworski said. “A few years ago I never thought Griffin would be 25 on my quarterback big board.”
Griffin is coming off a season in which he threw only four touchdown passes, so it’s hard to disagree with the criticism. But it’s also hard not to get the feeling that criticizing Griffin has become the fashionable thing to do in NFL circles, so now everyone wants a turn at criticizing him.
It’s true that Griffin is probably never again going to be as good a player as he was in his rookie season, when he threw 20 touchdown passes and only five interceptions, while also rushing for 815 yards and seven touchdowns. But it’s premature to call him “done” at the age of 25. Washington coach Jay Gruden has said he’s firmly behind Griffin as the starter this year, meaning Griffin will be given an opportunity to prove all those critics wrong.
