USA Today.com: QB tutor: RG3 looks '100 percent healthy'

[rskin72]

Cousins was hurt and not available. Everyone seems to forget this. It was Griffin or Grossman.

 

True.  I recall reading or hearing that Shanny was going to play Cousins the first game had he not been injured in the Pre-Season.  Of course, heard this way into the season, so no telling it's accuracy.

[rskin72]

Count me in with those that think Robert will have a great '14 season.  And I also think if he does play as I expect he will, that we cannot contend for the NFCE title.  We have the weapons to score.....and with a bit of improvement in D especially with tackling....and improvement on ST play.....and a weak NFCE to begin with....just think we could very well turn around the '13 season and show that it was the outlier season vice '12. 

 

I heard a replay of an interview with Gruden today....on NFL Radio from this past week....with Gannon and the other host (name escapes me).  Good interview....he was asked about Robert, of course, and what he had observed during tape review.  Gruden offered these comments (as best as I can recall). He commented that he thought Robert had all the tools required to succeed as QB in the NFL.  He had seen Robert use touch and accuracy on short passes, and accuracy on deep balls.  Robert has the ability to scramble and extend plays.  He has the mental capacity to learn complex play calls and relay those to the team in the huddle.  He has the ability to make correct reads in the passing game.  Gruden mentioned consistency as a key in Robert's development this season.  Also mentioned getting more weapons on O for Robert to have available.....and to develop more outlet/dump off plays where Robert can go if the play breaks down.  He mentioned making Robert as comfortable as possible when running the offense.

 

I just see a lot of actual positives leading into this season whereas last season I think many (certainly including myself) were overly optimistic that Robert could return from ACL rapidly....and perform to levels similiar to that of AP.   While his play was not near the '12 level, he still completed 60% of his passes and had 16 TD throws.  So, not as if he turned into John Beck or Rex Grossman either. 

 

I will be at FEDEX for the thrill of victory or agony of defeat this season either way.....as I re-upped for ST's in search of the second winning season since I have had ST's. 

[PigskinRedskin]

I am definitely hoping for the best and now that he's already a year removed from the surgery and by the time the season starts, he'll be 20 months or so removed; he's got an full off-season to prepare his mechanics, work on his timing and learn the playbook.

 

There's no more excuses if he falters this season. I could understand not COMPLETELY lighting it up with a new HC and all, but definitely vastly improved from 2013. This is a big year to prove critics wrong and have another "break-out" season (poor choice of words, but you get the idea).

 

As mentioned by thesubmittedone, one thing I am looking for is his movement behind the LOS and his ability to move UP into the pocket to make a throw. I noticed several times last season he would move to far back into the pocket and be pushed out about 5+ yards or so and if sacked, setuping some bad downs. And of course, planting firmly before releasing!

 

Last year wasn't all on Griffin but being the leader and heralded as a premiere QB coming into the NFL, all eyes will be on him.

[THE HAMMER'IN HOG]

How RG3 Got His Groove Back

 

I really think he not only returns to 2012 form, but surpasses it with his passing performance.  It's not, to me, about the yards as much (though I think we will want him to be around 3800+ to be effective as an offense) but about the precision, those "clutch" plays and drives he'd lead when we most desperately needed them and his ability to make a defense lose heart.

 

I don't really see why this team can't compete for NFC east crown, and maybe more.  I think RG3 will have to do more than Russell Wilson did vs. SF or Denver to go beyond getting a playoff spot but he's shown that he's a better player at his best and can carry a team in a way few others can.

It will be interesting to see how he takes to a new system, and what he's asked to do within it.....Still a lot of questions to be answered.

[GeoffreyManboob]

Shea is a well respected coach who knows his onions. I think this is some news that we can all feel positive about.

Of course he's going to talk RG3 up, but i think we should be focusing on what this represents about griffins work ethic. He knew there were problems and he's looked to fix/improve.

He won't have the surprise factor of 2012 but he will be in a better stacked offence. With question marks still over our o-line, Roberts playing in the slot could be our key receiver.

[Gigantor]

I would be shocked if Griffin doesn't improve this year. Just being able to play without a knee brace will help a lot.

[Prototype]

If anyone saw the OTA workout video on Redskins.com, you can see Robert dusting everyone on suicides.

 

I think he's gonna be just fine... 

[TheFranchisePlayer]

I would be shocked if Griffin doesn't improve this year. Just being able to play without a knee brace will help a lot.

And everyone says you're always so negative. Another ES overreaction? Lol.

[fearlessNelms]

Agreed that this is a good sign that Griffin is fully healed and ready to have a big rebound season. But the very big obvious if in all of this is that regardless of how good he looks and feels, if the OL isn't any good, he'll be running for his life and the Skins will be in for a very long season.

[MustangSteve]

I think it's great that our offense will come into the season healthy, but my biggest concern is what kind of offense are we going to run. We can have the best players in the league, but none of that will matter if we don't have that good engineer to plan and orchestrate it. This offense is a golden opportunity for a coach, there are weapons across the board on this team. If this offense doesn't average at least 24+ points a game, then we definitely have the wrong man leading it.

[darrelgreenie]

Some of us trashed Jaws when he said after watching RG3 warm up in the preseason that his footwork looks very off, and he didn't look right to him -- later he said his mechanics were almost perfect during his rookie year but no so this year. 

 

I recall early last season on twitter, Joe Thiesmann being asked whether RG3 will be the same this season as 2012, his answer "No".  He more or less said that having surgery on your plant leg is the worse because it doesn't feel right until a year later and the plant leg has the biggest impact on accuracy.    

 

I heard Terry Shea on the radio talk about how he can see the injury effecting RG3 in that he never had the flaw of balls sailing on him in the past but saw it happen a lot during the season -- he explained that if you don't fully plant on the leg that's what happens.

Looking back its funny how the same people that rejected Jaws opinion later ended up blaming those same footwork/mechanics as the major reason the season went sideways.

[Tress Is The Way]

Agree. RG3 is a much better QB, but he has to do more to win games. How many games did Seattle win because of Russel Wilson last year. Seahawks rode to Super Bowl mostly with their defense and running games. RG3 need to carry the team, he got a much tougher job. The team's running game probably is OK, but the defense is questionable.

 

The team's running game is just probably OK? Are you kidding me? We had a top 5 running attack last year, I think that's better then OK.

[Zazzaro703]

The team's running game is just probably OK? Are you kidding me? We had a top 5 running attack last year, I think that's better then OK.

The running attack is def the strength of the offense. It was fantastic in 2012 and above average last year WITH defenses stacking the box and blitzing the backfield.

[Voice_of_Reason]

I'm cautiously optimistic.  I am one of those guys that couldn't give a rat's backside about a logo, commercials, a shoe brand, etc.  None whatsoever.  I don't think that any of those types of things takes any real thought or time for the athlete.  I guarantee you that there were a group of designers and focus groups that came up with the logo that Adidas paid, and then Robert was presented with some options, and he said yay/nay. 

 

I also saw a guy on the field last year who was technically un-sound.  And because of that inaccurate.  We can blame coaching all you want.  But there were plays almost every game where the scheme got somebody open down-field, there was time to throw the ball, and the ball was inaccurate.  That didn't happen in 12.  The reason was mechanics.  And it was pretty obvious.

 

The problem is that we heard these type of stories last year, and they all turned out to be false.  So, I'm taking a wait and see approach. But, I'm optimistic and hopeful, because what we've been hearing is positive. It's also positive that Robert met with Jackson to help recruit him, and that he has already had a passing camp with his receivers, which he couldn't do last year due to injury. 

 

 

Why can't we hire this guy to be our QB Coach?

Probably because he gets paid more to work with all of the prospects, has less responsibility, and gets to live wherever he wants and have a stress free life.  

 

It's the life of a really good consultant.

[Voice_of_Reason]

for RGIII to be successful this year 4 things must happen.

-He needs to do a much better job reading the defenses. If he grows in this area I think he will have the opportunity to hit some huge plays with the kind of weapons he has at his disposal.

-He needs to find that 2012 touch on his deep ball again. If he does D Jackson will have over 1500 yards this year, book it.

-He needs to understand pocket presents better. Say what you will about our OL, but more often than not he run into the sack.

-Last but not least I don't want him running for more than 400 yards. He needs to understand how to slide, avoid open field hits and get out before the D lays the wood on him.

If he improves in all these areas, with the weapons he has on D and the spread offense Gruden has, I see him passing 4,000 yards easily and us having a top 5 offense.

I agree with #1,2 and 3.  

 

#4, I don't think I agree with.  I think that the number of yards  and attempts Robert runs should be dependent on what the defense is giving them.  I definitely think that the team needs to use Robert's running ability as a weapon to keep defenses honest.  But options 1 and 2 should be traditional running game and traditional passing game.  But I could see him rushing for more than 500 or 600 yards, with a much higher yards per carry average IF they are able to execute in the running and passing games. 

 

 

 

I'd add a few things the rest of the team needs to do to help RG3.

 

- Give him more time in the pocket with a better O-line that can cover the gaps, and pick up blitzes

 

- Morris developing better hands and learning to get open so RG can 'dump' it off to him quickly when pressured

 

- Reed learning to pass block better

 

That's just on the offense!

I agree with the OL comment, but the corollary to that is that Griffin needs to get the ball out quicker and more decisively, and accurately, to help out the OL.  Bad QB play last year made the line look worse than it was.  Good QB play the year before made it look better than it was.  

 

Morris is probably not going to develop better hands, or not significantly so.  But that's ok.  I think you're going to see more personnel groupings with a "change of pace" back, that will be better at that type of thig.

 

Reed blocked pretty well, all things considered, but yes, he has to continue to develop. 

 

I'll add onto this by saying the following,

-Oline needs to give him more time to go deep. Gotta hold your blocks.

-Receivers have to continue working after they complete their assigned route. Too many times when RGIII took off I saw guys just standing there. With a guy like Griffin who can scramble you have to help him out by continuing to try and get open. That's how big plays happen.

-Better pplaycalling. Little Shanny was rather bipolar when calling plays last year. Hopefully Gruden makes calls that will put RGIII and company in position to make plays.

There are a miriad of things that will help the team go down field more.  Not the least of which is personnel groupings.  If you put Garcon, Jackson, Roberts, Reed and Morris on the field at the same time, with Robert's running ability, you almost force teams not to blitz too much.  Because if you do, you're giving up 1-1 match-ups across the board, and you can get burned.  And now the 'Skins have the ability to burn you.  Kinda like they did in 2012.  

 

I was one of the few people who didn't really see that much wrong with the play calling last year.  There were some "huh?" moments, sure, but on the whole, if your QB is playing poorly, is not accurate, you lack a plethora of weapons, and your OL is not good at traditional pass-blocking, your options get limited.  I think that if the execution was a little better, then the play calling would have looked a lot better.  

 

You all can take the wait and see approach if you want.

 

2012 proved that he had the ability, when put in the right situation, to be extremely successful.  We have to wait and see if he can duplicate that.  

 

I'm cautiously optimistic.  But I want to see him do it for real in September before I will be certain. 

[evmiii]

Encouraging word that I hope and expect to prove accurate. A couple questions, doesn't Robert deserve some blame for letting his footwork deteriorate? He is clearly a smart guy, should he really need the coaches to coach him up on the basics? Was the change in footwork related to the injury?

Year three is his time to step up. Looks like we increased the skill players around him, if we can block, play a little better D, and tackle anybody on special teams I see good things in the future. HTTR.

[TSO]

Some of us trashed Jaws when he said after watching RG3 warm up in the preseason that his footwork looks very off, and he didn't look right to him -- later he said his mechanics were almost perfect during his rookie year but no so this year. 

 

I recall early last season on twitter, Joe Thiesmann being asked whether RG3 will be the same this season as 2012, his answer "No".  He more or less said that having surgery on your plant leg is the worse because it doesn't feel right until a year later and the plant leg has the biggest impact on accuracy.    

 

I heard Terry Shea on the radio talk about how he can see the injury effecting RG3 in that he never had the flaw of balls sailing on him in the past but saw it happen a lot during the season -- he explained that if you don't fully plant on the leg that's what happens.

 

Yeah, I do remember though that Jaws was getting trashed more because of his prediction that we wouldn't make the playoffs than about Robert's footwork, lol. I don't think I had an opinion on it really back then and I would just read the posts, but I do remember posters saying things more like "yeah, his footwork was a little off but nothing he can't improve before the season starts" or "how could he make that assessment from just watching him pre-game?"

 

I think most were just annoyed at how he seemed to constantly put the Skins down every chance he got in July and August last year. It did come off as sensationalist and just one more way for ESPN to drive ratings and create stories. Of course, it all panned out as he said it would, so now it looks like he knows what he's talking about, lol. I know I'm glad I didn't go off on him when those stories came out.  

[darrelgreenie]

................Better pplaycalling. Little Shanny was rather bipolar when calling plays last year. Hopefully Gruden makes calls that will put RGIII and company in position to make plays.

Amen.

 

The playcalling was a major hindrance last year. Especially to Griffin. Kyle and Griffin didn't appear to be sync well, even stemming back to the end of Rob's rookie season where there was probably a lack of trust. 

 

Aside from the personal trust aspect, I thought Kyle didn't do a good job of calling plays that (a) Griffin liked ( Griffin and the offense could execute at a high level.

Specifically looking back I can recall how often the opening series failed to produce easy offense. It relied too often on predicatable series of run/read-optoin followed by a 2-man route read-option playaction pass. And defenses were all over it and Griffin was left holding the bag. Meanwhile Griffin excelled in spread formation quick rhythm passing that was seldom and quickly abandoned despite the fact that it was working. I think Kyle too often got wrapped up into getting/forcing the defense into playing certain coverages so he could use particular plays in his script but didn't have a good feel for what was working nor what Griffin liked/how Griffin was playing.

[darrelgreenie]

Yeah, I do remember though that Jaws was getting trashed more because of his prediction that we wouldn't make the playoffs than about Robert's footwork, lol............

No, I have a pretty good memory for this stuff and people were bashing Jaws specifically because of his comments about Griff's footwork/mechanics not specifically because of whatever prediction he made.

[TSO]

No, I have a pretty good memory for this stuff and people were bashing Jaws specifically because of his comments about Griff's footwork/mechanics not specifically because of whatever prediction he made.

 

Maybe I missed that thread? I remember a thread about Jaws playoff predictions and his footwork comments were a big part of it as well... but, yeah, I could've easily missed what you're talking about, especially how little regard I have for sports media in general, lol. 

[bedlamVR]

I think there is an argument that Griffin should have ensured his mechanics did not regress but I still say the coaches should at least should have picked up and corrected him ...

 

I really think the Shanahans did put the entire team in a position to fail last season ... I even remember the Broncos game where the announcers were talking about how well the system was put together to give high percentage QB friendly plays in the play book that were not there with the Skins, everything was a struggle with us ... our running game was excellent but then the Shanahans would not only go away from the run but pulled Morris for several series so he would get out of his grove - so while Morris produced every inch was hard fought . 

 

Yes the player has a responsibility to get better but the coaches need to steo in and after all the years of experience the Shanahans had if they felt they could not do that - given all the control they had then I am really REALLY glad they are gone

[TSO]

I also saw a guy on the field last year who was technically un-sound.  And because of that inaccurate.  We can blame coaching all you want.  But there were plays almost every game where the scheme got somebody open down-field, there was time to throw the ball, and the ball was inaccurate.  That didn't happen in 12.  The reason was mechanics.  And it was pretty obvious.

 

Spot on!

 

I think there is an argument that Griffin should have ensured his mechanics did not regress but I still say the coaches should at least should have picked up and corrected him ...

 

I really think the Shanahans did put the entire team in a position to fail last season ... I even remember the Broncos game where the announcers were talking about how well the system was put together to give high percentage QB friendly plays in the play book that were not there with the Skins, everything was a struggle with us ... our running game was excellent but then the Shanahans would not only go away from the run but pulled Morris for several series so he would get out of his grove - so while Morris produced every inch was hard fought . 

 

Yes the player has a responsibility to get better but the coaches need to steo in and after all the years of experience the Shanahans had if they felt they could not do that - given all the control they had then I am really REALLY glad they are gone

 

Totally agree, but I will take it one step further and say that Robert had a large role to play in this. Shanahan is totally at fault for not making this his entire focus and doing whatever he could to make sure everything was smoothed out between all parties, but hearing things like how he tried to call Robert's father to talk about it and then his father just brushing him off really makes me feel like he was pretty much forced in a corner.

 

Robert was unhappy at the end of the season last year when he played well against Philly with a hurt knee in an almost exclusively pocket passing offense, and he wanted more of that... but you saw how devastating the read option still was and we beat Dallas for the division and we were killing the Seahawks with it to start the game. Why Robert was angry at Kyle for that, I refuse to understand. I don't care what was talked about within the week. People constantly get on coaches for not adjusting, and if Kyle adjusted right away with what the Seahawks were doing, or something that was going to be a small part of the gameplan was working so well he stuck with it... who is Robert to have an issue with that? Furthermore, Robert should've understood that the read option in 2012 was keeping defense's from attacking him. We all saw that. We had entire Dlines playing soft and hesitating.

 

I think all of that just lead to huge issues, and both parties were clearly at fault to me. It is what most likely caused a lack of coaching Robert up during the offseason and working on his mechanics, and not just from one side. I think Kyle wanted to show Robert how wrong he was to start the 2013 season and we hardly did any read option. Robert got killed as teams blitzed right up the middle over and over again to great success. It was the classic case of egos clashing to the detriment of the entire team.

 

Hopefully, Gruden and Robert mesh better. But I'm not going to make it like it's all on the coaching. I think Robert is smart enough to realize where he went wrong as well, and won't do those type of things again. Gruden will benefit from that.

[Hail4Life]

Please, please be true!  I really do believe it though and I think he comes out strong.  The guy is too talented and too smart to let last year ruin his career.  I think these past two years will make him stronger, he has been on the top and he has seen what the bottom looks like.  This is our time Redskins!

[TheFranchisePlayer]

I also saw a guy on the field last year who was technically un-sound. And because of that inaccurate. We can blame coaching all you want. But there were plays almost every game where the scheme got somebody open down-field, there was time to throw the ball, and the ball was inaccurate. That didn't happen in 12. The reason was mechanics. And it was pretty obvious.

And developing/maintaining mechanics falls on the coaches, As Shea said. They Should've noticed these things and drilled him more on them in practice. Was RGIII off last year? Yes. But the coaching staff did him zero favors at all. Say what you want about the scheme but it falls in the coaches to make sure your QB is mechanically sound and comfortable running the plays you call and the coaches did not do that at all last year. Period.

[Voice_of_Reason]

Yeah, I do remember though that Jaws was getting trashed more because of his prediction that we wouldn't make the playoffs than about Robert's footwork, lol. I don't think I had an opinion on it really back then and I would just read the posts, but I do remember posters saying things more like "yeah, his footwork was a little off but nothing he can't improve before the season starts" or "how could he make that assessment from just watching him pre-game?"

I think most were just annoyed at how he seemed to constantly put the Skins down every chance he got in July and August last year. It did come off as sensationalist and just one more way for ESPN to drive ratings and create stories. Of course, it all panned out as he said it would, so now it looks like he knows what he's talking about, lol. I know I'm glad I didn't go off on him when those stories came out.

He generally knows what he's talking about.

But he's an eagles homer and a blowhard.