RG3 used as scout team safety this week

The Washington Redskins will take on the Miami Dolphins fearsome defensive line comprised of Ndamukong Suh, Cameron Wake, Olivier Vernon, Earl Mitchell, and C.J. Mosley with Kirk Cousins as their starting quarterback, but they still managed to find some use for third-string quarterback Robert Griffin III. See, RG3 may have been demoted in favor of Colt McCoy as the second-string quarterback, but he played a key role in their preparation for today’s game.

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The NFL Network’s Jeff Darlington reports that Griffin was used as the Redskins scout team’s safety this week, which means that he was either pretending to be star strong safety Reshad Jones or second-year cornerback-to-free-safety convert Walt Aikens, who is the “next man up” following Louis Delmas‘s second ACL tear in less than a year.

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Cousins was also the subject of a Sunday morning report, as the New York Jets, as reported by the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport on GameDay Morning (via NFL.com’s Kevin Patra), asked the Redskins about Cousins’s availability following the news of Geno Smith‘s broken jaw.

Of course, the Redskins were always going to say “no” because of RG3’s injury history, and the fact that head coach Jay Gruden doesn’t seem to like the guy very much.

The lack of interest in trading Cousins makes us all wonder if the Redskins would be willing to set RG3 free by trading him, but Darlington reports that the organization hasn’t confirmed that they are making any efforts to trade him. I’m sure they would if the right offer came across their table, but I highly doubt that would happen. Simply put, Griffin isn’t a player teams will trade for during a season, because he’s a quarterback who needs time to learn.

Why didn’t the Redskins release him in the first place? Well, because they wanted him to be a safety on their scout team, of course.

OK, that’s not the real reason. Per Darlington, the Redskins want to keep him around because of the money they’ve committed to him this season, and the fact that they believe he could potentially emerge as a “valuable asset” later on in the year. Since neither Cousins nor McCoy inspire much confidence, that part makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the financial aspect of it, since swallowing $3.269 million by releasing him and being off the hook for his $16.2 million sixth-year option seems like it would be more appealing money-wise.

The RG3 saga isn’t going to end any time soon, so at least we’ll get to enjoy weekly reports of what he’s up to with the scout team. Of course, these reports will go from being “fun” to “serious” sooner rather than later, especially if Cousins gets benched again.

$16.2 million. That’s the cloud hanging over RG3 and the Redskins right now, and it’s a number that won’t go away unless if he is released before-hand. It certainly won’t disappear if he gets injured severely, whether it’s in a practice or as a starter later on in the season.

Throughout all of this, there has been one constant: the Redskins mis-management of their one-time franchise savior at every turn, and it seems like the end result will either be his release or an injury.

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