What Can The Redskins Do Specifically To "Protect" RG3?

[UK_HOG]

Your statement is true but irrelevant because going forward the idea is to intelligently reduce his exposure to injury. Dumping the read-option is the smart way to do that.

So you suggest we run more of the plays that got him hurt.

The intelligent way of protecting him is for him to slide or get out of bounds

[Oldfan]

Duh! He becomes a pocket passer - behind a quality OL.

In 2008, Mike Shanahan's team allowed only an NFL leading 11 sacks for the season with an O-line that wasn't any better than this one. He did it by moving Jay Cutler around so that the defense could not zero in on the pocket.

[Badgerrocks]

Honestly, I would work on building the muscles around his knee for better stablization. He needs to be stronger in his legs to withstand the NFL.

I'm no doctor, but I would say in addition to this he would need to work on his whole body alignment. In another thread it was highlighted that the way he bends his knees puts a lot of strain on them. (Sorry, there have been so many - might have been the How Is RG3 thread).

I'd have thought that with the amount of rehab he will need to do, he could at least attempt correcting this.

[Oldfan]

So you suggest we run more of the plays that got him hurt.

I suggest we use some common sense based on all our football experience, not just on the evidence of three plays.

The intelligent way of protecting him is for him to slide or get out of bounds

That's one way, sure. But, there's no rule that says we are limited to only one way.

[Skinsfan In NM]

Defaintaly need to rework the OL. To many times he took big hits due to a break down at the line. I know the guys up front played better this year than in the past, however how much of that was due to how well Robert could avoid the rush. I haven't looked at the stats, but I do know that there were alot of times that even after avoiding the sack Robert was taking big hits in the backfield. So we have got to up that pass blocking.

[Henry]

The kid needs to learn to slide and when to let go of a play.

None of Griffins injuries this year happened due to our scheme. Russell Wilson runs the same scheme Griffin does, and he's not nearly as good at it. He took more than twice as many sacks as Griffin on Sunday, but he knows how to protect himself better. He knows when to slide and when to throw the ball away. And at the end of the day a phenomenal player on one leg isn't going to beat a good player at full strength. Griffin needs to understand this and stop trying to win the game by himself. He's got a ton of heart but he's too reckless. Hopefully this lesson has now been learned.

[Oldfan]

...None of Griffins injuries this year happened due to our scheme...

Do you think that fact justifies keeping the read-option in our scheme?

[FrFan]

[Skinsinparadise]

You can conclude whatever you like. But, Griffin's injuries this season were not caused because of read-option. They were caused from scrambles.

And I am not suggesting he stop scrambling nor the team stop the read-option. I am saying that Griffin needs protect himself better when he runs.

Agree. Love RG III but he has to learn not to play reckless. Russell Wilson runs the option some and he doesn't give the vibe that he's an injury waiting to happen because he knows when to get down. Ditto Kaepernick. To me its not even hindsight, you watch RG III play and IMO he plays with more abandon than any QB in the league. He can run but needs to stop playing with reckless abandon. The play where he got hurt against Baltimore, any other QB would run out of bounds, RG III ran straight into the middle of the field straight into contact -- that's unusual -- and he needs to stop doing it.

[Henry]

Do you think that fact justifies keeping the read-option in our scheme?

I think scoring a lot of points justifies the read-option in our scheme, but that's probably for another thread.

All I'm saying here is that the scheme isn't what's getting him hurt. He needs to protect himself better. If there's a better scheme out there that can maximize his talents I'm fine with that too, but no scheme will protect a kid that can't learn to slide or go out of bounds. Hopefully Griffin figures it out, because he's insanely talented.

[rdskn4eva]

OMG. The read option isnt the issue. When he runs that, he is usually free to run in space.

RG3 just needs to learn how to slide when defenders are near or run out of bounds. He also needs to learn to throw the ball away. Too many times this year he waited until the last possible moment to throw the ball away only to get popped on his out of bounds.

[Jumbo]

Nice to see a thread like this. Good work, OP. I hope there are more of similar nature to follow.

[Oldfan]

Agree. Love RG III but he has to learn not to play reckless...

I think we have unanimous approval that RG3 should take better care of himself. I go further and say we need to dump the read-option to lower his exposure to injury. The fact that he wasn't hurt on a read-option play isn't relevant in my opinion, but those who disagree want to keep it in our scheme.

Where do you stand on this point?

[akorn22]

Even if RG3 is fully healthy?

---------- Post added January-9th-2013 at 11:37 AM ----------

OL is the real answer... especially on the right side. Less pressure means less impromptu scrambles.

It was a joke...i just meant that the only way to protect rg3 would be to sit him. otherwise hes gonna take hits

[Oldfan]

I think scoring a lot of points justifies the read-option in our scheme, but that's probably for another thread.

All I'm saying here is that the scheme isn't what's getting him hurt. He needs to protect himself better. If there's a better scheme out there that can maximize his talents I'm fine with that too, but no scheme will protect a kid that can't learn to slide or go out of bounds. Hopefully Griffin figures it out, because he's insanely talented.

There isn't a debate on the notion that he should learn to protect himself better. I agree with that also.

So, you would suggest to Robert that he learn to protect himself better. But, is that all you are going to do?

Is the fact that his injury didn't occur on the read-option in 2012 sufficient evidence for you to conclude that the read-option isn't a greater risk to NFL QBs than any other kind of strategy?

[terpfan]

Fix the ****ing grass!!!!

Yeah this would be a good start. This organization embarasses me.

[Skinz4Life12]

The only thing they can do is either stop the read option or teach him to slide at the correct time.

The read option didn't get him hurt either time this year. Robert needs to play smarter when scrambling

[Skinsinparadise]

I think we have unanimous approval that RG3 should take better care of himself. I go further and say we need to dump the read-option to lower his exposure to injury. The fact that he wasn't hurt on a read-option play isn't relevant in my opinion, but those who disagree want to keep it in our scheme.

Where do you stand on this point?

I'd keep the read options but just have him run less via it (which was what they seemed to be doing as the season went on) for 2 reasons:

1. If its run correctly where RG IIII isn't sacrificing his body with reckless abandon and he elects to runs on the edge or simply takes advantage of clear open space and goes out of bounds to avoid contact -- it actually should protect RG III some from getting hurt considering this current O line. This O line is bad at pure drop back protection. But when you run the read option well it freezes pass rushing DEs like it did to Ware and Pierre Paul. The Giants players have gone on record saying they hate playing against the zone read and more or less admitted that its confusing. They actually said they look forward to playing the Saints more traditional offense as opposed to the Redskins.

2. RG III's with his brilliant play fakes -- is a master of this offense and its hard offense to stop. Some say that defenses will figure this out but I don't see how -- a big part of the charm of it is the uncertainty of where the ball is going to go all you can do is guess. When was the last time the Redskins had a top 5 offense?

[TD_washingtonredskins]

We make logical deductions based on the evidence provided by all of our experience. Why would you limit your evidence only to RG3's experience in the second half of the season when you have been watching the NFL game played for years?

I just don't believe you have to scrap the offense. Maybe you rely on it less and let him run sparingly.

[Leonard Washington]

The read option didn't get him hurt either time this year. Robert needs to play smarter when scrambling

I agree. The scramble drill needs to be a little smarter. He knows how to slide and how to get out of bounds.

In his defense, both injuries were in big games where we needed a boost. Typical Redskins bad luck.

[DogofWar1]

I think Kleese hit on a bunch of good points in the OP.

1. I have no doubt he will be participating in camp at some level. No matter what, no matter how fast he is progressing, I would not play him in a preseason game until the last preseason game on the schedule. And then, I'd only put him out there for a few series to let him experience game speed and gain some confidence.

This is a good plan. RGIII probably won't need a ton of pre-season time to get set for the season, so putting him at harms way, even in situations where it's 2nd or 3rd stringers out there is a bad idea. A couple series should be plenty for him.

It also helps that we'll let Kirk run the offense and show off.

2. Limit designed runs. They were already doing this as the year progressed. I don't think you can scrap designed runs completely... It makes him dangerous and helps other areas of the offense. And especially around the goal line, a well timed sneak, etc is often a good call. But I would certainly scale back the read option plays and only allow him to run it enough to where defenses have to plan for it.

Like you said, designed runs are already being limited, so I don't think this needs too much tweaking, but it is certainly worth mentioning. The Baltimore injury was on a scramble, not a designed run, but no point in putting him in danger more often than is necessary.

3. By far the most important... Don't play him after he shows signs of injury. I doubt this will be an issue considering the events of this year. Coaches can't listen to RG anymore...if he doesn't look right, keep him out. There is a danger here of course of over-correcting. Do you take him out for the day every time he is slow to get up or takes a hard shot? That is going to happen weekly. They will need to be tuned in to what is a real potential issues and what's just a typical football bump or bruise.

This, this, this, this, this. I think we've realized that if RGIII is having problems, he needs to come out, no questions. Freak injuries from hits will happen, but keeping him in when he clearly can't plant his foot effectively or run is out of the question.

4. Take him out of non-critical situations. Err on the side of caution in blowouts, etc. again that rarely happens, but if a game is out of hand, they can remove him.

This is definitely something we should do. I doubt we will find ourselves up by 21+ points very often next season, but if we do, pull him, and let Kirk get some playing time. If we somehow find ourselves in blowout scenarios, it certainly would be good to let Kirk go out there and lead the team for a bit, as I think the long term plan with him is still to trade him.

The last thing worth mentioning though is that we should do our best to replace our right tackle with a better pass protector than Polumbus, and either get our TEs and RBs to pass protect better or add people in the offseason who pass protect better. LT, LG, C, and RG generally do well, if someone comes free, it's because of RT, TE, or RB blocking.

While adding a new RT is going to be tough (FA and draft discussions are ongoing on that), blocking TEs and RBs are pretty cheap. Someone should be available for us for relatively low cost, and the benefit would be massive.

[Oldfan]

I'd keep the read options but just have him run less via it (which was what they seemed to be doing as the season went on) for 2 reasons:.... If its run correctly where RG IIII isn't sacrificing his body with reckless abandon and he elects to runs on the edge or simply takes advantage of clear open space and goes out of bounds to avoid contact

If you don't run the option as designed, it will be ineffective.

The defense can counter your plan by allowing Robert to keep for the inside option and then smacking the crap out of him whenever the opportunity presents itself. Even if RG3 makes a couple of nice gains running inside, Kyle isn't going to risk putting his own reputation in the toilet by risking another knee injury on a running play.

---------- Post added January-9th-2013 at 01:08 PM ----------

I just don't believe you have to scrap the offense. Maybe you rely on it less and let him run sparingly.

The read-option isn't "our offense." It just happens to be the part that RG3 runs well. But, it's also the part that involves the highest risk for RG3.

[redskin01fan]

FIELDTURF is a start!!

---------- Post added January-9th-2013 at 06:12 PM ----------

and teach Robert to slide... Hook him up with Bryce Harper

[RWJ]

The OL was bad when DFs blitzed us, I mean bad! They are good at run blocking as it showed through the season. I think we need to look at a new RT and possibly an ugrade at OC. I know Montgomery gets the job done at run blocking but pass protecting is another story. We need to roll RG3 out more as well so he has more time and takes less hits. The option was a beautiful thing this year. We need to keep it as well. LeRibus did a great job filling in for Lich. I think he's your starting left OG this upcoming season. He's ready, IMO.

[VABlitz]

Fix the field. If that entails fake grass, then bring it. We definetly know Snyder will not cut out the extracurricular events that destroy the field. Also, new Center and RT or figure out why the C can't snap the ball to the QB. Unfortunately, we also have to fix the DB mess in the off season. The Redskins have limited funds and limited draft picks. I'd really hate to push back the upgrades on DBs, but you need to protect the QB first and foremost.