RG3 has learned from his past mistakes as a Redskin

The Washington Redskins gave the St. Louis Rams the kitchen sink, the farm, their kid’s college fund, and everything else to move up to the second-overall pick and draft quarterback Robert Griffin III in 2012, and Browns President Mike Holmgren was upset the Rams didn’t let him beat their price. The Redskins were believed to have their franchise quarterback for the forseeable future. Of course, fortune does not always favor the bold as RG3 tore his ACL (again as he had torn it in college), and the quarterback demonstrated a sense of entitlement and immaturity as the years went by. Now that the Cleveland Browns have signed him to compete to be yet another starting quarterback, Griffin wanted to ensure all knew he has been humbled by his past experiences.

While speaking to the media on Wednesday, Griffin admitted that he has learned from his mistakes in Washington.

“If you say you’re humble, then you’re not humble, so I can’t say that. I just think I’m more experienced. I’m still a kid. I’m 26. We’re all kids. We get to play a kids’ game. One of my teammates in Washington, Kedrick Golston, said we play a kids game for a king’s ransom and it’s the truth. But I do think I’m more experienced and I kind of know how to navigate the waters. That’ll help me as a player here. It’ll help me as a player to lead this team as well.”

After winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year award and leading his team to a 9-7 record during his rookie season, which included a playoff berth, the former Baylor Bear struggled immensely in his two following seasons. He not only led his team to just a 5-15 record on the field, but he also showed plenty of flaws with his decisions off the field. In fact, some in Washington believed that Redskins players thought RG3 committed the sport cardinal sin of blaming others for his mistakes. This could be one of the many reasons why he was demoted to the team’s third-string quarterback in 2015, behind both Kirk Cousins and former Browns quarterback Colt McCoy.

“I’ve grown a lot since 2012 and just throughout the whole process of all those years in Washington, so I’m not oblivious to that fact. I know there’s things that I could’ve done differently, but today, I can’t focus on that. I have to focus on what I’m doing here with the Cleveland Browns.”

The mature version of Griffin that has been seen is one of the few rays of hope for the Browns 2016 season. Whether that maturity is due to head coach Hue Jackson or not, Griffin will need to be a leader on a team that will be filled with plenty of younger players that can hopefully learn from his past mistakes.

“It is not about ‘I’ or ‘me,’ it is about ‘we.’ It is about ‘us.’ It is us versus everybody outside of our locker room who may not believe in us, who don’t think that we can do ‘this’ or do ‘that.’”

If RG3 can both produce on the field and as a leader, then the future might have a few rays of sunshine peek through what promises to be a stormy 2016 season. It is possible that Griffin is a “diamond in the rough” and he has the potential to be the most talented quarterback since 1999. But, realizing potential in a Browns uniform has been a difficult task for most.