Robert Griffin III took a tremendous amount of punishment on Thursday night, but could be back for more when Washington travels to face the Baltimore Ravens next Saturday. According to Mike Jones of the Washington Post, the concussion suffered by Griffin “isn’t believed to be severe” and he could be ready to go for the third week of preseason.
Robert Griffin III could return for next week’s preseason game
Griffin suffered a concussion on Thursday night, but might be ready to go for another preseason game nine days later.
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Washington head coach Jay Gruden drew heat for his decision to continue to send Griffin back into the line of fire against the Detroit Lions on Thursday night. Griffin was hit six of eight times he dropped back to pass on Thursday night and absorbed some violent hits before his night finally ended on his fourth drive of the game.
Even one Griffin’s teammates questioned Gruden’s decision to send the him back out there to take punishment, especially considering the offensive line didn’t have three-time Pro Bowl tackle Trent Williams playing while he nurses a sore big toe. That unnamed Washington player told Eric Edholm of Yahoo! Sports that Gruden should’ve taken Griffin out:
“How do you keep sending him out there?” the player said.
It’s a fair question given what we saw. But again, how do you get better without game work with the first offense?
“With Trent not out there, with the other guys struggling, you pull [RG3] there,” he said. “No question.”
After allowing Griffin to be a human tackling dummy for the Lions, sending him back out against the Ravens seems ... ill-advised. The Lions no longer have Ndamukong Suh and only had two starting defensive lineman healthy on Thursday night and still obliterated the Washington offensive line. While having Williams back would help, the Ravens finished with 49 sacks in 2014, the second-most in the NFL.
Sending Griffin, or any quarterback for that matter, out against the Ravens behind the Washington offensive line seems like a bad idea. But especially for Griffin, who is still the team’s starter and will be just nine days removed from an inordinate amount of punishment for a preseason game.
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