RG3 would take rookie quarterback “under his wing”, excited about future of team
March 25, 2016The Indians’ 2016 [Fake] Promotional Schedule
March 25, 2016WFNY’s Craig Lyndall laid out his case for why he is excited about the Browns signing former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, and in a post titled No downside to landing RG3. There are, however, few things in life without some type of downside, and acquiring a quarterback who was excoriated out of the only franchise in the NFL who can compete with the Cleveland Browns in terms of dysfunction does not fall into the “no downside” category.
Craig originally wanted the Holmgren hegemony Browns to make the move to acquire RG3 in the 2012 NFL Draft. The St. Louis Rams auctioned him off and Holmgren let it be known he was not pleased that the Browns came up short. After a surprisingly effective rookie season that took the NFL by storm with college offensive sets integrated into NFL designs, the trade looked brilliant for the Redskins. Twenty touchdowns, just five interceptions, and a 102.4 QB rating that resulted in a playoff berth—the move looked brilliant.
Alas, the RG3 from the 2012 regular season has not been seen since. The NFL caught onto some of his deficiencies as a quarterback, sure, but it might have been the Shanahans who ruined his career. To that point, Griffin was able to utilize his elite athleticism to extend plays and make the impossible, simple collegiate sets work. Griffin would then sprain the same ACL he had tore in college while finishing runs as if he were a running back—too proud or dumb to slide. Worse, despite being hobbled, Griffin was allowed (forced?) to keep playing in that 2012 season, ultimately leading to his ACL being torn. We can add in concussions suffered in the 2012 and 2015 seasons along with a severely dislocated ankle in the 2014 season to fully demonstrate the extent of the injuries he has suffered.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
The current narrative appears to be while RG3 was beaten out for the starting job by Kirk Cousins, while RG3 was beaten out for the backup quarterback job by Colt McCoy… Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson is the cure-all.
The signing even makes sense as the other veteran with upside is Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers and he would have required a third-round pick alongside a similar contract to what the Browns convinced RG3 to sign (Kaep is due for more, but renegotiating the contract was part of the trade discussions). Rather than acquiring a well-compensated Kaepernick and losing a draft pick in the meantime, the Browns will pay Griffin what amounts to the 29th-higest guaranteed amount for a quarterback in 2016. So, RG3 was the quarterback with the most upside on the market that required the least assets to acquire. Kudos to the Browns for pulling it off.
There are even multiple reports stating belief in RG3 being humbled by the 2015 season and being a “changed man” in terms of his entitlement given to him by the ownership in Washington. I suppose losing out on the opportunity to be the backup quarterback to a guy who admitted he wasn’t ready for the NFL when drafted will do that to a guy.
Even a “smart” signing is not without downside. The Browns were reportedly hot-and-heavy about Kaepernick despite the requirement of giving the 49ers a draft pick in addition to money. It indicates they preferred him to RG3, and acquiring RG3 means they settled even if it works out to be the correct move. Additionally, the Browns are allocating $6.5 million to $11 million towards RG3 on their salary cap ledger (depending on which incentives he reaches). Now, while I don’t care about spending Haslam’s money any more than Craig does, I do recognize that the Browns have continually not spent anywhere near the cap since Haslam purchased the team.2 Every contract signed means a different player who could/would have signed is not.
Finally, the 2016 NFL Draft is fast approaching. Signing Griffin doesn’t mean the Browns cannot or will not draft a quarterback with the second overall selection. It does, however, cast doubt onto the selection. If RG3 continues on his current career path, and the Browns pass up a true franchise quarterback, it could be the most costly decision of all—well beyond the $6.5 million they would have cut from their checkbook.
- Aside: if players love Hue Jackson as much as the MSM is shoving down our throats, then please explain to me why we no longer employ Travis Benjamin, Mitchell Schwartz, Alex Mack, Tashaun Gipson, and Craig Robertson. OK, I’ll hang up and listen. [↩]
- The CBA requirements are along the actual cash spent in a given year, not the cap. So, the Browns extra allocations of dead money due to the constant shuffling of new front offices have led them to spend enough actual monies, while having plenty more room under the cap to acquire players, which they didn’t utilize. [↩]
74 Comments
To further the point, it gives them options on draft day, leverage. They are no longer the team the HAS to draft one of these guys. Not saying they won’t, but they can listen to offers credibly an stand their ground negotiating.
Great point.
Your footnotes in this piece were great. I didn’t want Robert the Third 4 years ago because the price tag was not worth the risk. Not that the price tag doesn’t really matter, I’m fine with the pick up.
I agree however that the Third was the Browns’ second choice, which should say something.
I also don’t believe this “humble” narrative. In many ways, the Third is like Manziel. They say the right things but don’t act in accordance with what they say. (Obviously, Manziel is much much worse.)
I don’t think that this will work because if you are beaten out by Colt and Kirk, you are a very bad quarterback. But it’ll be interesting to watch at the very least.
Ditto.
I agree that the price tag then was too high. Washington had to give up their 2012 1st and 2nd round pick, 2013 1st round pick, and 2014 1st round pick.
The equivalent picks for the Browns:
2012 1st Round (Trent Richardson / Brandon Weeden)
2nd Round (Mitchell Schwartz)
2013 1st Round (Barkevious Mingo)
2014 1st Round (Justin Gilbert / Johnny Manziel)
I do not like having RG3 here because I think he is too fragile to stay on the field and will result in whatever rookie we draft (fingers crossed!) seeing the field before they are ready. But since we are also lacking three 1st rounders and a 2nd rounder from the 2012-2014 drafts, it seems only fair that we should roster him for a bit.
Good post Bode.
This is a Washington Post article that backs up some of your points. This is not simply a matter of giving RG3 some confidence and letting him shine. He has some serious work to do.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2016/03/25/five-ways-the-cleveland-browns-can-fix-robert-griffin-iii/?tid=sm_tw_ps
Nice find. Love how they break down many of the things we have discussed about him.
Thank you sir.
Amen. I’m surprised that I need to keep referencing the fact that Hue Jackson took a Raiders roster that is absolutely worse than the Browns’ current roster to an 8-8 record. There is no guarantee that we get Jim Kelly’s nephew or any other projected elite QB in the next draft. Or the one after that. Or the one after that. As Browns fans we should know that. We missed out on Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Matt Stafford, etc. (I could also add a number of top-of-the-draft QBs who busted… David Carr, Jamarcus Russell, Sam Bradford, etc).
The first time I saw that it made me shudder… we essentially did make the trade with the Rams to get RG3.
Exactly. I love the idea of building a solid team, then inserting a QB in theory.
In practice, you end up being the Jets, Texans, Bengals who are just good enough to compete in the regular season with no shot in the playoffs. If you can find that QB, then you gotta get that QB.
Exactly who do you think their sources are? And they all lift each other’s “scoops” anyway. If one or two prominent writers tweet something everyone else repeats it as though they developed the information themselves.
The Browns stated that they never discussed restructuring his contract. This is an agent trying to gin up business for his client.
One of the greatest movies ever created.
“You stupid bonehead, I’m gonna activate your dental plan! Get outta the car!!”
Team Snark with a strong showing.
No, it’s too nebulous… this feels wrong. UNTO EVERY POSITION BE A POSITION COACH AMEN.
Pep shall be espoused to the overall offensive game plan. Al shall be espoused to the passing game coordination. Kirby shall be espoused to the running game coordination. Hue shall be espoused to the scripted plays and in-game play-calling. So it is written, so it shall be done.
What if we do draft Wentz or Goff, only to find out Coach Hue was right about RGIII? He’s only 26, and could be around for a decade or more if that’s the case. He at least had (and might still have) the potential to become Elite, but I don’t really see that from Goff or Wentz. Will we be kicking ourselves for passing up Joey Bosa, Josh Docton, Myles Jack or Ezekiel Elliott at #2 if we grab the best QB in a lackluster QB class instead of one of these game-changers? To me the real downside of signing RGIII is that we might end up wasting the #2 pick on what turns out to be a backup QB.
I am willing to risk having a Montana /Young scenario. I mean, after what we have been through?
Worst case scenario, we trade Goff/Wentz for a good draft pick if RG3 pans out. I wouldn’t worry too much about missing out on Bosa/Jack/Elliott etc. One dominant player who isn’t a QB doesn’t make a huge difference as far as wins and losses go. Look no further than JJ Watt, Khalil Mack, Adrian Peterson, Mo Wilkerson, Joe Thomas, and so on. Would be nice to have one of those guys, but it’s so much more important to make sure you have a franchise QB. I think it’s worth the risk especially knowing that RG3 has a long way to go to be effective from the pocket.
Granted if you don’t think either Goff or Wentz could ever be franchise QBs, not much I can do about that opinion. I just happen to have the opposite opinion.
When I looked at the draft of 6568 dollars, I have faith that brother of my friend was like really generating cash in his free time with his PC..ip His aunt’s neighbor has done this for only 11 months and by now repaid the loan on their home and bought a new Car.
For Details Click Here
pa…
Frankly, I don’t see either as potentially Elite QBs. We aren’t exactly talking about choosing between Marcus & Jameis, or Andrew & RG here. These guys would have been 2nd or 3rd rounders last year. We had the typically Browns luck of getting the #2 pick on a year of mediocrity. So say RGIII proves out to be worth a Flacco-esque contract extension. What would we get for our former #2 pick next year or the year after, a 4th rounder or a 5th? They’ll be plenty of new toys for teams to get hyped about by that time. Why would anybody trade a “good” draft pick for a bench warmer from Cleveland?
The most overlooked aspect of this regime’s offseason plan is the salary cap carryover… IMO this was the motivating factor in letting the “big four” walk. Why spend a combined $60 million over the next two years on those players when we’re not going to be competitive anyway? The money ball plan is to carry that cap room over to when we’re competitive.
That said, this is another $15 million that we cannot carry over to future years, so that’s the main downside. Fans always throw out the “well they’re not gonna spend that money anyway” point when in actuality, we will use that money, one day. The Brownies appear to be following the Jax strategy of being terrible for a while, drafting a franchise QB high in the draft, then spend all of that rollover cap room how they see fit.
I think you’re operating with opinions from draft experts from back in January. Since then just about every draft expert I follow (Kiper, McShay, Brugler, Sobleski, Mayock, Prisco, etc) have come around to realizing that both guys deserve to be drafted in the first round and I think all of them also have those guys in the top 10 of their big boards. Their initial mock drafts weren’t really based on film study at that point. I know Sobleski, Brugler, and McShay have all said that they rate both guys higher than Mariota now. It’s just so important to make sure you have a franchise QB… if you don’t have one, you’re sunk. I’m not willing to place the future of the franchise on RG3’s slender shoulders, nor am I willing to take that chance that the Browns will be in position to get the best QB in the draft next year, or the year after, or the year after, etc. Look at our history since 1999. That first draft for the expansion Browns is the only time the Browns have been in position to take the best QB in the draft and it was simply because they were an expansion team. It’s also worth noting that a couple of those top QB prospects busted, so that could easily happen if the Browns are looking to next year to shore up QB. There’s a franchise QB in this draft… I’d bet my life on it. There always is, even in drafts that were projected as being QB deficient. I think it’s both Goff and Wentz, but if it’s not then the Browns need to figure out who it is and draft him before anyone else can get him.