SBXVII
12-17-2013, 01:24 PM
Just some more light reading. LOL.
Griffin’s stubbornness was crystallized by a moment in a recent game. After he threw an errant pass and the offensive series ended, he came to the sideline and talked with quarterback coach Matt LaFleur, who was in the coaches' box (not on the sideline as originally reported here).
LaFleur, a former quarterback who never played in the NFL but has coached in the league for six years, began explaining to Griffin that part of the problem with the throw was his poor footwork, an issue that many observers around the league have noted about Griffin as he has struggled this season. As LaFleur continued to talk, Griffin grew impatient and brushed off the instruction.
“I just have to make that throw,” Griffin said, according to two team sources who were aware of the conversation. The reaction was not considered mean-spirited, but it was dismissive and spoke to the larger issue of how difficult Griffin has become to coach this season as he has struggled with physical limitations from his knee injury at the end of the 2012 playoffs.
LaFleur, a former quarterback who never played in the NFL but has coached in the league for six years, began explaining to Griffin that part of the problem with the throw was his poor footwork, an issue that many observers around the league have noted about Griffin as he has struggled this season. As LaFleur continued to talk, Griffin grew impatient and brushed off the instruction.
“I just have to make that throw,” Griffin said, according to two team sources who were aware of the conversation. The reaction was not considered mean-spirited, but it was dismissive and spoke to the larger issue of how difficult Griffin has become to coach this season as he has struggled with physical limitations from his knee injury at the end of the 2012 playoffs.]
In addition, Griffin’s father has increasingly become the kind of nuisance that some people warned NFL executives about before the 2012 draft. In recent weeks, according to two sources close to the situation, the elder Griffin has politicked Snyder to hire Baylor coach Art Briles, who coached the younger Griffin to a Heisman Trophy, to replace Shanahan.
In Griffin’s rookie season in 2012, precision accuracy wasn’t as critical because his speed forced defenses to play him differently and opposing teams hadn’t scouted him thoroughly. Defenses had to play man-to-man coverage in the secondary and bring extra defenders up front to deal with Griffin’s running ability. His reads were much easier.
But as Griffin has struggled to regain his world-class speed and teams have come up with ways to defend him, there has been a significant decline in his performance across the board. His accuracy (from 65.6 to 60.1 percent), TD-to-interception ratio (20-5 to 16-12) and quarterback rating (102.4 to 82.2) have all declined sharply.
“You could see this coming in the offseason with the way he was working,” a team source said this week. “It’s not that he wasn’t working hard. He was. He was working to come back as quickly as he could. But he wasn’t working on the things to become a better (pocket) quarterback. ... Now, we’ve gotten this deep in the season, and he’s still doing things wrong, like his footwork.”
Cousins got off to a strong start toward that end by completing 29 of 45 passes for 381 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in Sunday's 27-26 loss to Atlanta. That game matches up with just about any performance by Griffin this season.
Furthermore, the logic of whether to have Griffin play comes down to whether he’ll listen, two team sources said.
“I hear people say that he should just continue to play. But if you just keep doing the wrong things, you’re not getting better,” one of the team sources said. “You just get more accustomed to doing the wrong things.”
But as Shanahan pointed out last week, he only sat Griffin after consulting with Snyder.
“I could have done this without discussing it with Dan, but I wanted him to be a part of a decision this important and understand where I was coming from,” Shanahan said.
Thus, the question now is whether Snyder agrees with some in the organization that he needs to deconstruct some of Griffin’s confidence/arrogance before building it back up. And if so, Snyder needs to decide if Shanahan, who only has one year left on his contract, will be the coach to do the project.
RGIII's Stubbornness and His Father's Interference Bedevil Shanahan, Redskins | Bleacher Report (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1891163-rgiiis-stubbornness-and-his-fathers-interference-bedevil-shanahan-redskins)
Griffin’s stubbornness was crystallized by a moment in a recent game. After he threw an errant pass and the offensive series ended, he came to the sideline and talked with quarterback coach Matt LaFleur, who was in the coaches' box (not on the sideline as originally reported here).
LaFleur, a former quarterback who never played in the NFL but has coached in the league for six years, began explaining to Griffin that part of the problem with the throw was his poor footwork, an issue that many observers around the league have noted about Griffin as he has struggled this season. As LaFleur continued to talk, Griffin grew impatient and brushed off the instruction.
“I just have to make that throw,” Griffin said, according to two team sources who were aware of the conversation. The reaction was not considered mean-spirited, but it was dismissive and spoke to the larger issue of how difficult Griffin has become to coach this season as he has struggled with physical limitations from his knee injury at the end of the 2012 playoffs.
LaFleur, a former quarterback who never played in the NFL but has coached in the league for six years, began explaining to Griffin that part of the problem with the throw was his poor footwork, an issue that many observers around the league have noted about Griffin as he has struggled this season. As LaFleur continued to talk, Griffin grew impatient and brushed off the instruction.
“I just have to make that throw,” Griffin said, according to two team sources who were aware of the conversation. The reaction was not considered mean-spirited, but it was dismissive and spoke to the larger issue of how difficult Griffin has become to coach this season as he has struggled with physical limitations from his knee injury at the end of the 2012 playoffs.]
In addition, Griffin’s father has increasingly become the kind of nuisance that some people warned NFL executives about before the 2012 draft. In recent weeks, according to two sources close to the situation, the elder Griffin has politicked Snyder to hire Baylor coach Art Briles, who coached the younger Griffin to a Heisman Trophy, to replace Shanahan.
In Griffin’s rookie season in 2012, precision accuracy wasn’t as critical because his speed forced defenses to play him differently and opposing teams hadn’t scouted him thoroughly. Defenses had to play man-to-man coverage in the secondary and bring extra defenders up front to deal with Griffin’s running ability. His reads were much easier.
But as Griffin has struggled to regain his world-class speed and teams have come up with ways to defend him, there has been a significant decline in his performance across the board. His accuracy (from 65.6 to 60.1 percent), TD-to-interception ratio (20-5 to 16-12) and quarterback rating (102.4 to 82.2) have all declined sharply.
“You could see this coming in the offseason with the way he was working,” a team source said this week. “It’s not that he wasn’t working hard. He was. He was working to come back as quickly as he could. But he wasn’t working on the things to become a better (pocket) quarterback. ... Now, we’ve gotten this deep in the season, and he’s still doing things wrong, like his footwork.”
Cousins got off to a strong start toward that end by completing 29 of 45 passes for 381 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in Sunday's 27-26 loss to Atlanta. That game matches up with just about any performance by Griffin this season.
Furthermore, the logic of whether to have Griffin play comes down to whether he’ll listen, two team sources said.
“I hear people say that he should just continue to play. But if you just keep doing the wrong things, you’re not getting better,” one of the team sources said. “You just get more accustomed to doing the wrong things.”
But as Shanahan pointed out last week, he only sat Griffin after consulting with Snyder.
“I could have done this without discussing it with Dan, but I wanted him to be a part of a decision this important and understand where I was coming from,” Shanahan said.
Thus, the question now is whether Snyder agrees with some in the organization that he needs to deconstruct some of Griffin’s confidence/arrogance before building it back up. And if so, Snyder needs to decide if Shanahan, who only has one year left on his contract, will be the coach to do the project.
RGIII's Stubbornness and His Father's Interference Bedevil Shanahan, Redskins | Bleacher Report (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1891163-rgiiis-stubbornness-and-his-fathers-interference-bedevil-shanahan-redskins)