Somehow, Robert Griffin III has to keep all the mess out of his head. Buried under the cooing overpraise and the extravagant raving from Hall-of-Famer analysts is a 22-year-old who doesn’t know yet what he doesn’t know, and who is trying to keep his mind clear so he can learn. Whose debut performance at quarterback for the Redskins was actually less spectacular than it was level-headed and well schooled.
Yes, yes, RGIII displayed glimpses of the fire-hose arm and the electric, game-breaking legs that make you want to talk about greatness for the next decade. But you know what? Someone has to talk about next week. Griffin showed that he is an excellent executor of a terrifically conceived short-term strategy, against a New Orleans Saints team in disorder. It started with six consecutive passes behind the line of scrimmage. That is not a criticism of Griffin. It’s simply to say that if you want to do the kid a sincere favor, refrain from calling him the greatest this or most that, until he’s had more than one start in the NFL. Until he plays against a defense that actually can game plan for him, now that it’s seen him.
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“How people get good at the position is repetition,” Coach Mike Shanahan says, “and the more he experiences in-game situations the better he’s going to get, and that happens over time.”
No matter how unprecedented RGIII’s athleticism and skill set, a reversal is inevitable for a young quarterback. Teams will adjust to him, perhaps as quickly as this weekend against the St. Louis Rams. What we don’t know — and this is far more important in assessing him than a single season opener — is how he will adjust to the adjustments. What happens when opposing coaches get a book on him? When the counterpunching truly begins?
The Saints had to guess at what to do to stop Griffin, and that left him wide-open spaces; the Rams will have more information to work with. Already, their coaches have no doubt probed the film and identified any telltale weaknesses.
There were some things — not many — Griffin didn’t do quite so well. He didn’t throw the deep ball great. He could have made better decisions on a couple of those option plays; he didn’t give the ball up when he should have. There were a couple of glitches on play fakes, and he was lucky to avoid an interception.
Then there are the areas where we still don’t have a lot of information, where the opposing coaches will do deeper analysis and try to test him. He didn’t throw much over the middle against the Saints — though when he did, he made the play of the game, on that big fourth quarter conversion to Logan Paulsen that ensured the win. His performance reading the defense at the line of scrimmage seemed excellent, but also strict; it was difficult to tell just how broad or narrow his audible package was.
“I would say there were a lot of things I saw [that he could do better], that most people probably wouldn’t see,” says his father, Robert Griffin Jr., his lifelong coach. “I saw some things that he can do to help himself for later on.”
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