Ahmad Brooks (55) sacks Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III (10) during the second half at FedEx Field. The 49ers won 27-6. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Redskins 2013 season has been an incredibly disappointing one, as Robert Griffin III has looked like a shell of himself last season. No longer is there lofty praise being heaped upon RG3 and head coach Mike Shanahan, and there are instead rumors of riffs and criticism abound. As always, take this reactions with a grain of salt, because they tend to only come to the surface when a team is, you know, losing. To be honest with you, RG3’s struggles can mostly be chalked up to his debilitating knee injury and unrealistic expectations. I mean, RG3 was never going to be a very polished passer, and his knee injury has hurt his ability to run the ball and cover up some of those issues as a passer. He’ll get better, especially once he’s healthier. For now, though, the Redskins and RG3 are going to have to slog through things.
Looking at Monday night’s performance against the San Francisco 49ers and the entirety of the Redskins 2013 season, it’s clear that RG3 isn’t the only “problem”. I mean, he’s not even the biggest problem at all. The Redskins defense is absolutely pathetic, and the secondary could very well be the league’s worst. They get burned on a regular basis, and quarterbacks foam at the mouth when they get to face the Redskins pass defense; it’s almost a sure-fire bounce-back game for struggling QBs like Colin Kaepernick.
Despite Griffin’s lack of health (49ers OLB Ahmad Brooks said that RG3 shouldn’t even be playing due to his knee injury, which is a bit of an extreme statement), he’s still a dangerous runner if you give him too much space. That’s the belief that New York Giants veteran safety Antrel Rolle holds.
He said, via the New York Daily News’s Ralph Vacchiano, “Absolutely he’s dangerous. You still can line him up against 85 percent of the guys on the field and he’ll still out-run them. The guy still can run. He’s still in my eyes a phenomenal player.”
Is he a phenomenal player right now? No, but he is a phenomenal talent and will be a phenomenal player if properly developed. Part of his development is up to the team and coaching staff, but the majority of his development is up to him. At this point, the criticisms of RG3 and even of Shanahan have gotten out of hand. In my view, the only incompetent coach on the Redskins is Raheem Morris, who should be fired immediately after the season. The Redskins secondary has turned into a farce. The personnel in the defensive backfield isn’t exactly good, but they are missing an unseemly amount of tackles. That’s sign No. 1 of bad coaching in the secondary, and it’s exactly what marked the secondaries of Raheem Morris’s teams in Tampa Bay.