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After a week of turmoil and ill-timed news, the Washington Redskins are apparently getting ready to finally settle down and try to just have a football season. Whether or not they succeed remains to be seen but they’re going to give it a shot. Early in March Robert Griffin, III was named the starting quarterback,. But having not been cleared to play on Saturday night in the team’s third preseason game — generally a dress rehearsal for the season due to a concussion, and having to be re-tested again in one to two weeks —the door was left open for a change at the position. And change there was. Amid early reports that it would happen anyway, the team announced today that the starting QB position would in fact be filled by Kirk Cousins. It feels kind of like a do-over for the team.
This morning the team was told that Kirk Cousins would be the starter for 2015. This afternoon, head coach Jay Gruden told the media at his post-practice press conference.
“We have announced that Kirk Cousins will be the starter for 2015 moving forward,” he said. “And I think all three quarterbacks should be commended for their efforts, their willingness to get better. But, when it’s all said and done, after all the film that we’ve gone through, after all the offseason activity, all of training camp footage, we feel like at this time Kirk Cousins gives us the best chance to win. That’s where we’re going.”
Even more interesting than the news that “It’s Kirk’s team” as Gruden said, is the news that Griffin will not be going anywhere. There has been much speculation that the Baylor product would be traded or released immediately but the head coach could not have been any more clear that this is not the case. At least not in his mind.
“Yeah, I do,” Gruden said when asked if RGIII will be on the roster next week. “Shoot, like I said, I have nothing against Robert. I like Robert as a quarterback. There’s no doubt about it and his future with the Washington Redskins is what it is. So, there’s been discussions about letting him go or doing any of that stuff. We are going to plan on playing with these three quarterbacks. Last year we used all three. We didn’t want to but we had to. I anticipate Kirk taking this job and running with it. But [Griffin’s] job as the backup quarterback or the third string quarterback, whatever it is, is to get himself ready to play and the door is not shut on Robert Griffin. He’s a Washington Redskins player and he’s got to come in and compete just like everybody else.”
The amount of vitriol that has been spewed over the last few weeks regarding this team is almost hard to listen to and read. People have said awful things about Griffin, awful things about Gruden and awful things about owner Dan Snyder. It has been thought all along that Snyder and President Bruce Allen have been pressuring Gruden to start Griffin against his will but the coach denied that today.
“Mr. Snyder has been nothing but supportive of this football team and everything we’re doing moving forward,” the coach said. “We kind of tell him what we’re thinking, how we’re feeling and he’s all for it. All Mr. Snyder wants to do is win. That’s the bottom line and there’s a lot of things being said… that he’s pulling for this guy or this guy or that guy. That’s never been the case here. He wants us to win football games.
“Scot McCloughan, myself, Bruce… we’re all in the same boat,” he continued. “Our job is to put the best 53 men out there. Our starting group, our back up group and that’s what we went with. Ultimately, as a football coach, it’s my call who starts and who doesn’t. Basically, it’s my decision. I get the feedback from Bruce and Scot and we’re all together on it.”
It was an interesting press conference today. Gruden seemed as confident, as enthusiastic and as eager to talk as he’s been in a while. No surprise there… obviously a huge weight has been lifted off of his shoulders in being able to name a starter with no issues and just coach a football team. Regardless, he was very complimentary of Griffin. He said that the reason they named him starter so early was to just stem the tide of speculation and that makes sense to a degree even though many think he should have called for an open competition.
But Cousins is the starter now — he was given the news this morning too — and it’s time for the team to start over and just play football. He says he’s ready and it must be a relief for him too.
“There’s something powerful about feeling believed in,” the new starting QB said today, “and there’s something powerful in knowing where you stand. I feel like Jay has done that today. We’ll go from there.”
Cousins runs Gruden system efficiently so this is good all-around for the offense to be sure. But the rest of the team will benefit as well, just because it reduces the circus noise.
“I think it’s just good that the decision’s been made,” safety Duke Ihenacho said, “whether it’s Kirk, Colt [McCoy] or Robert. I just think the decision is made and now we can just go from there. I mean, I don’t care who plays it’s just the decision needed to be made and now we know who we’re going into battle with and we’ll just rally behind one guy whoever that may be.”