Washington coach Jay Gruden has given Kirk Cousins his full support as the No. 1 quarterback. But the identity of the No. 2 quarterback has yet to be determined.
Gruden said today that it’s too soon to say whether Robert Griffin III or Colt McCoy will serve as Cousins’s backup for Sunday’s opener against the Dolphins. Gruden said Griffin hasn’t been cleared through the NFL’s concussion protocol, and until he is, there’s no point in determining the order of the quarterback depth chart.
But eventually Gruden is going to have to make a decision, and it’s going to be a tough one. If he makes McCoy the second-string quarterback, he’s effectively announcing that the team is done with Griffin. If he’s the third-string quarterback, he might not even be active on Sundays, and he might never take a snap in Washington again.
On the other hand, there’s a significant risk to putting Griffin at No. 2: That would make him more likely to see the field, and if Griffin takes the field, he’s one hit away from suffering a serious injury that would trigger his $16.2 million injury guarantee for 2016. That would cripple the team’s salary cap next year.
So it’s easy to see why Gruden wants to take his time. This will be a difficult decision, and one that may have lasting consequences.
