For Robert Griffin III, this was supposed to be redemption.
The quarterback hadn’t merely wanted to make his mark in the NFL as a pocket passer. He was sure he could do it, convinced that this season, under new coach Jay Gruden, he had the support and encouragement necessary to complete such a transition.
Whatever Griffin’s plans and desires were, they will now have to wait. Though examinations Monday showed no broken bones, Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Griffin will miss an indefinite amount of time with what the team is still calling a dislocated left ankle.
“You’re sick about it because you spend a lot of time with Robert getting him ready, and you watch how much passion he has for the football game and how seriously he takes his job and what kind of will he has to succeed,” Gruden said. “He’s such a great kid on and off the field that you hate for something like this to happen to somebody, because it’s really a sad deal.”
Griffin will not require surgery, but it will be some time before the swelling and inflammation in the ankle goes down. At that point, it will be up to Griffin to rehabilitate the ankle enough to return to practice — a process that could, in itself, take several weeks.
And while Gruden said that there was no significant damage “that we’re aware of” to the ligaments in Griffin’s ankle, a dislocation typically involves some type of weakness in the connective tissue. Griffin was fitted for a hard cast and was spotted at Redskins Park on Monday on crutches and with the ankle immobilized.
Kirk Cousins will take over as the Redskins’ starting quarterback, with third-stringer Colt McCoy serving as Cousins’ backup. Cousins, who has now played in nine games since he and Griffin were drafted by the team in 2012, completed 22 of 33 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns in the Redskins’ 41-10 victory over Jacksonville on Sunday.
Griffin’s injury comes at what is clearly shaping up as a crossroads in his career. The No. 2 overall selection in the NFL draft in 2012 — a player the Redskins surrendered three additional draft picks to obtain — Griffin has yet to remain healthy throughout the course of a full season.
“The more injuries mount on him, it just becomes an issue, I guess, for people to think his durability’s in question, but this is an unfortunate injury,” Gruden said. “He’s had an unfortunate knee injury, and this was a fluke deal where he’s rolling out and he got his ankle caught in the ground in an awkward way. I don’t think it speaks to his durability. I think they’re just fluke injuries. They happen from time to time to certain players, and hopefully, when he recovers from this, it will be the last one he ever has.”
The hiring of Gruden by the Redskins in January to replace the deposed Mike Shanahan was supposed to mark a new phase in Griffin’s development. Shanahan, and his son, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, tinkered with their distinctive West Coast-style offense to fit Griffin’s talents, working the zone-read option and other designed quarterback runs into the playbook to take advantage of the quarterback’s athleticism.
Gruden incorporated similar hallmarks into his offensive strategy, but has never committed to doing so to a similar extent. On Sunday, the Redskins ran the zone read on their first play from scrimmage, then later ran it again on their second drive before Griffin was injured.
With 9:47 left in the first quarter, Griffin rolled out to the right after faking the handoff to running back Roy Helu. He shed an attempted tackle from Jaguars middle linebacker Paul Posluszny, then, spotting wide receiver DeSean Jackson open downfield, muscled a throw in his direction, at which point his left cleat got stuck in the grass.
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“It’s an excruciating pain, but I think any time you look at your ankle and it’s in a different direction, you’re probably not going to try to get up,” Griffin said after the game. “I was just trying to make sure I wasn’t doing any more damage to it, so I just stayed there and waited for the trainers to come and help me get up and on the cart to get the X-rays.”
For Griffin, the lack of time on the field could be counterproductive. The things he needs to work on — reading defenses, adapting to the blitz, throwing the ball away and knowing situational football — are things he cannot do while watching film.
“I know how much he wants to be great, but this is just a bump in the road for him,” Gruden said. “This is just a little bit of adversity he’s going to have to overcome, and part of being a quarterback, like I said, is your mental toughness and your ability to overcome adversity. He’s done it in the past. He’ll do it again. We have total faith that he’ll bounce back and be as good as ever soon.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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