Jay Gruden: “This is Robert’s Team Right now Against the Eagles”
Redskins head coach Jay Gruden announced at his Monday afternoon press conference today that Robert Griffin III will be his starting quarterback against the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday.
“That’s the plan right now,” the rookie head coach said when asked. “He’s got every chance this week against the Philadelphia Eagles to take this position and run with it. It’s important for our offense to rally around him, and to play well around him, also.”
Gruden added, “I’d like to see him have some urgency about him and play well and hopefully there won’t be much of a debate if he does well. This is Robert’s team right now against the Eagles”
Griffin saw his first in-game action Sunday against the Giants since being benched following the 49ers game. Since that time Colt McCoy has been the Redskins starting quarterback. McCoy re-aggravated a neck injury on Sunday after only playing one series. Griffin was 18 for 27 with 236 yards and one touchdown, he also added 46 yards rushing on five carries.
“Robert competed in the first half – did some good things. I thought he played with good energy. I thought he took the ball down and ran it when he had to a few times, and was pretty efficient in the passing game. For whatever reason, in the second half we couldn’t get it going. We got in some third downs and weren’t able to convert again, and that was unfortunate. He’s just got to continue to go through the same progressions and see the concepts, but something to build off of from last week, hopefully.”
Gruden doesn’t believe the team will have McCoy as an option this weekend saying “I don’t think we’ll have Colt available this week”. Gruden also believes it’s way to early to access Griffin’s future, “he’s 24 years old and he’s still learning. I don’t think we can judge his future right now.”
