Robert Griffin III could return to the field before the regular season

We’ve long assumed that Robert Griffin III wouldn’t see any game action until at least the first week of the regular season, but it appears that we have been putting the proverbial wagon in front of the horse.

“Coach has been saying if things go great these next couple days and next week, then maybe [he’ll be able to play in the Redskins’ third preseason game],” Griffin said via NFL.com. “But it's a hard no right now. It's my job to make it a soft no and possibly a yes.”

Even with Griffin’s hope of playing in the preseason, it seems highly unlikely that Mike Shanahan would allow his young star to take the field before he absolutely has to. It’s something that Griffin has struggled with, but at the end of the day, Griffin knows it’s not his call to make.

“It's predetermined, and that's the one thing I don't understand. But like coach said, and he's 100 percent right, I don't have to understand, I don't have to like it, but at the end of the day if he plays me Week 1 and I'm ready to go then I'll give him a salute and I'll go play my butt off for him.”

Right now, Griffin and Shanahan are coming from two very different perspectives. Griffin is a player, and he wants to be on the field with his teammates. Shanahan, by contrast, is held accountable for Griffin’s health, especially if Griffin gets injured doing something risky (such as playing in a preseason game).

To this point, Griffin has been nothing but a team player for the Washington Redskins. There won’t be any long-standing feuds developing between Mike Shanahan and Griffin. Griffin has one opinion, and Shanahan has a different opinion. At the end of the day, both guys want the same thing, and that’s for the Redskins to be successful.

About Shane Clemons

Shane Clemons came from humble beginnings creating his own Jaguars blog before moving on to SBNation as a featured writer for the Jaguars. He then moved to Bloguin where he briefly covered the AFC South before taking over Bloguin's Jaguars blog. Since the inception of This Given Sunday, Shane has served as an editor for the site, doing his best not to mess up a good thing.

Quantcast