Sebowski said:
Brunell4MVP said:
Personally I like Gruden. He's not a puppet. He reminds me a lot of Marty S from a personality standpoint, and I think this team badly needs a dictator as the head coach. I do think he abandons the run too early. I think he needs to make better play calls in short yardage and goal line situations. Both of those he can improve on over time. I think he manages the clock OK, has a good passing scheme, and looks in control on the sidelines. There are always minor mistakes, but overall he does decent for a first year HC. He just needs a couple of years to fine tune it, show he's in charge, drop the DC, and get better talent (assuming Allen doesn't screw it up).
This is Gruden's rep, but I don't see it. A lot of sacks this season are because no one is open. These are good WRs and TEs. If no one is open. That is scheme.
They are ranked 10th in passing yards. They are ranked 2nd in yards per pass. How's that bad, especially in year 1 of a system with questionable qbs.
You look at stats. I'll watch the games.
It's been repeatedly cited by credible NFL Analysts, critiquing Robert Griffin, that there's a big difference between 'NFL Open' and 'NCAA Open', and that Griffin has demonstrated having an issue recognizing 'NFL Open', and throwing with confidence to WR who are 'NFL Open'. In conjunction with his seeming reluctance to throw the ball away, this is a large part as to why he's taking so many sacks and failing to move the ball downfield consistently, and getting banged up. QB's who have successfully made the transition to the NFL have, among the weapons in their arsenal, the ability to recognize a receiver who is 'NFL Open', and have the confidence, arm strength and touch to fit the ball into very tight windows consistently.
Division 1 college football is so much different than the NFL. At the QB level, it's almost a completely different game. 'Atheletes', can have enormous success at the college level that just doesn't translate to the NFL, because at the NFL level, that atheletic advantage becomes largely a moot point, as
everyone at the NFL level is a pretty decent athelete, and the 'game speed' developed from learning to 'do without thinking' is a tremendous foil to pure athletic speed, when it's compromised by variations in a learning curve. As I've mentioned before, that's why practice is repetition after repetition after repetition, until things become second nature, because only when things become second nature, can an athletic player regain any speed advantage that he might have over his peers. Robert Griffin's successful prep career and college career were defined by his athleticism much more than his football intelligence. This is fact which anyone can see by watching tape and reading articles about his high school and college days. There are so many fundamentals a QB with less athletic ability
MUST learn to become successful because he doesn't have the kind of athletic ability that makes him a multidimensional threat to fall back on.
In 2012 when Griffin was shiny and new and presented something unique to NFL Defenses and Defensive Coordinators, largely due to his athleticism and triple-threat potential, he had much bigger windows to throw to. You can see that in the film of the 2012 season. You don't see receivers that open very often in the NFL unless there are blown coverages or the scheme breaks down during the course of a play, which of course, it did, because Griffin at the time was a very dangerous multidimensional athelete - but that glaring speed and tremendous athleticism hid some deficiences and hampered his development in some pretty critical things he needed to learn early on to ensure future and consistent success. Namely, reading defenses, diagnosing blitzes and coverages, and identifying 'hot reads'. Again, to succeed long-term in the NFL as a QB, you have to learn the technical skills of playing the quarterback position, no matter your athletic ability. To do this, a player has to have both the intelligence, and the willingness to do so.
In 2013, not only was Griffin coming off injury, and some, including myself would argue, brought back too soon, but Defensive Coordinators had a chance to review plenty of film, dissect his weaknesses and develop schemes to counter him in the offseason leading up to September 2013. So, not only are they more prepared to properly game plan for him and scheme to limit his effectiveness,
when it came time to play against him, they got a less effective, 'reduced' version of Griffin.
Think about it: that's
exponential change. Defenses were more prepared to face him, and the Griffin they faced was less effective, largely because of the lingering effects of his injury...
...but also, and this has now been cited by multiple credible sources, Griffin is not necessarily a student of the game in the sense of what the NFL requires of it's elite QB's like Peyton, Rodgers, Brees...or a special example like Brady, or closer to his cohort, Russell Wilson. What separated Griffin from his peers was his athleticism more that anything else. The injury reduced that factor, which meant that to maintain his advantage, he was going to have to improve in other facets of QB play where he had deficits.
Specifically: reading Defenses, recognizing blitzes, diagnosing coverages and making adjustments at the line of scrimmages - praise Griffin all you want, but these have been, and remain, deficiencies with him that started becoming obvious last season, and continue to plague him this year. Again, the only way to improve in these areas is by having football intelligence,
and the willingness to put in the work and time to develop them.
At that point, whether it was on the Coaching Staff, or him, or both, it was up to someone(s) to turn him into a multidimensional
quarterback, rather than a multidimensional
athelete. You can't say Griffin isn't partly, and quite possibly majorly to blame for this, because, again, credible sources agree that he doesn't appear willing to put in the time or work to develop those skills. I don't think anyone has ever questioned his football intelligence or capacity to learn, but plenty have questioned his willingness to work 'Tom Brady hard'.
Here's what I consider to be facts:
Coming out of college, Robert Griffin was recognized as a tremendous athelete. He was a better athelete that he was a quarterback, and came from systems in high school and college that emphasized his athletic ability over his QB IQ. That played to his advantage in his rookie season as DC's were trying to figure him out, and scheming to minimize the damage rather than neutralize him with anything other than brute force. It wasn't about confusing him at the line of scrimmage with different looks, blitzes and coverages,
because Griffin wasn't even paying attention to that kind of stuff - that was the hidden brilliance of Kyle's scheme with him - it didn't rely on Griffin to be a cerebral QB, but rather to break down defenses by forcing them to account for him as a runner with lightning quick speed, and coverages breaking down as they worried more about him as a runner than as a passer, leaving receivers wide open.
Athleticism can only get you so far, and when it's reduced or taken away, a Player has to find something else to rely on to succeed - the mental part of the game. Even had he not suffered the injury in the 2012 Playoff game, NFL Defensive coordinators were going to have an offseason to dissect miles of tape and force Griffin into situations where he was going to have to use his head as much, or more, than his feet, to find success.
Post-injury, Griffin's athleticism has been obviously reduced.
He was never considered to be a 'cerebral' QB like Manning, Rodgers, Brees, Luck or Brady or Wilson. With the athleticism reduced/taken away, for Griffin to have continued success at the NFL level, he was going to have to work like Tom Brady to improve his skills as a QB. Tom Brady didn't fall to the 6th Round of the NFL Draft because so many Teams missed something and whiffed on him by not taking him earlier. Tom Brady worked his ### off to get where he is today where a QB drafted in the 6th Round is mentioned in the same breath as some of the modern day all-time greats who were already destined for success in the NFL largely because their QB skills had been developed for years because they didn't have the kind of athletic edge that a QB like Griffin or Wilson did. Brady is a great NFL QB, on a level with his peers Manning, Rodgers, Brees, but his path to greatness was different - at the NFL level he had to work harder than they did to achieve that level of greatness.
Another thing that I've only recently heard as a criticism of Griffin, but has merit, questions his ability to take command of the huddle/be a field general. When a Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Brady or Brees type QB takes the field, not only does he know how to play the QB position,
he has command of the entire offense. That's not just the routes, the trees, the blocking schemes - he knows not only his own responsibilities, but the responsibilities of every player, on every play, as well or better than every player knows their responsibilites themselves. That means he can correct things he sees that are wrong, and rather than dispute it or second guess it, the other players just do what he says. That includes not only how deep a back lines up in the backfield or how a WR sets up at the line of scrimmage, but even how much space there is between two offensive linemen. In every situation. On every. single. play. Again, this requires a tremendous amount of time, energy and effort. Hard work having nothing to do with athletic ability, but rather intelligence and willingness.
Again, I can't remember anyone questioning Griffin's intelligence, and he seems like a smart enough guy to me...but part of the Griffin story is how much time, energy and effort is dedicated, by both him and his 'people' into developing him as a marketable commodity. His 'brand'. His media savvy and presence across all mediums. That's a big problem for an athelete with aspirations to be an NFL QB whose playing background is marked by an exploitation of his athletic ability at the expense of developing the other aspects of his game.
There may be valid criticisms about the coaching Griffin has received at the NFL level under the Shanahan and Gruden regimes, but at the end of the day, it's a two-way street and Griffen, especially due to his background must be willing to work 'Tom Brady hard' on his NFL IQ to one day be considered very good, much less elite. There's sufficient documentation from credible sources that, thus far, he doesn't appear to be that laser-focused or have that burning desire and drive, that Spartan-like dedication to put everything else in life on hold while developing his craft. That's a much bigger issue than a lot of what we're discussing, and it should be out there front and center in any discussion about the Redskins QB position.
