With Washington Redskins training camp getting underway at their new digs in Richmond, head coach Mike Shanahan met with the media today to discuss a myriad of topics, not the least of which was the status of his second-year quarterback, Robert Griffin III.
On the plan for quarterback Robert Griffin III during camp:
“Initially, what we’re going to do is what we did today. We had thirty minutes of individual work and we had different types of individual work, as you could see today, different things Robert was doing. During the special teams period, what he was able to do was get his footwork, for us to put him through all the situations that we had in team without being involved in any type of team drills. And then we had a seven-on-seven, which he took eight of the 10 plays, and did a very good job coming into that situation for the first time in a while. But that’s our plan initially, make him feel comfortable with what we’re doing, feeling comfortable with going back to doing some football drills, some football moves, and see how he does.”
On plan for Griffin III during the preseason:
“What we plan on doing is progressing everyday like we did today. We’ll get a chance to see when he’s ready for a possible team drill, more reps, all those type of things that come with time. But we’re going to take it slow. Relative to preseason, my plan is not playing him any preseason games. The first two weeks, with a Thursday night and a Monday night game, then a relative short week the following week, with a Monday night and a Saturday game and then a Thursday game, it just doesn’t make any sense to play him in any preseason games. So we’re going to try to get him in football shape. What I’d like to be able to do when he’s ready is be able to play or be able to practice at game-type tempo. When that’ll occur, I can’t tell you. When I think he’s ready for it, it’s going to take some time. It surely won’t happen for two to three weeks. It does take some time to get back in football shape.”
On if there was a plan for Griffin III to test his knee without a brace practice:
“No, there’s no plan, and you just got him fined for not having a knee brace on, so I’m hoping you’re very happy with yourself [Laughter]. That was somewhat of a joke. No, he’s supposed to do everything with a knee brace on. I’m not sure why he didn’t have his knee brace on.”
On if he was surprised by Griffin III’s timetable for returning:
“Well, the first thing that you have to realize, you’ve got to get in football shape. Even though he’s cleared, I’ve got to see it on the football field and I’ve got to see it with drill work. It just doesn’t happen like that. If you’re dealing with trainers, you’re dealing with doctors. They’ve got him in shape. They can tell you when that knee is ready to go, but they can’t tell you when he’s ready to play. Because you’ve got to see that happen over time, and you’ve got to get him in shape. In my opinion, you can’t take a chance of going back too quick. And so, as he does get in shape, as he does improve, you can see his body movements improve, the confidence in that knee, then you give him a little bit more rope. And you don’t want to go back too quick. You want to make sure that you keep him healthy and that’s what we’re going to do.”
On quarterback behind Griffin III:
“Well, when Robert is just taking the seven-on-seven reps, our other three quarterbacks have a great chance of getting repetition. We’re working with three quarterbacks, besides Robert, in the individual drills, and what we’re doing… The first team had four reps, the second team had three and the third team had two. So all the quarterbacks got some experience out there, and we’ll continue to do that for a while to get all three ready to play in the preseason games.”
On challenge of not playing a starting quarterback in the preseason:
“I think so many times that the repetition in preseason is so over-exaggerated. I coached college for 10 years. We never had a preseason game. You go in the game ready to play. And a lot of times when you practice and you practice at game speed, you can go into a game without exhibition games. One of the reason you have exhibition games is to evaluate your talent. When a player does have some experience and you’re able to put that person through a good practice or practices or you get them ready to play, I think they’re more than ready to play. Part of it’s the evaluation, part of it’s to get the little rust off the old tires, you’d like to play them some but you have to judge if it’s worth it. In my opinion, if you’re going to put them in you have to put them in earlier than later. You don’t play your whole team in the fourth preseason game and you’re not going to put your starting quarterback in there. And from a Monday night game from a Saturday game it doesn’t make sense to me, so that’s my thought as to why we won’t play him in the preseason.”
***Quotes provided by Redskins Media staff