RGIII Will Start Against Vikings; Decision Coming Soon on Leonard Hankerson
Redskins head coach Jay Gruden said today that, “all system’s look like a go” for Robert Griffin III to start Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
Sunday will mark seven weeks since Griffin dislocated his ankle against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Griffin’s diagnosis was 6-8 weeks, which means he’s right on time.
Gruden said there were no “cons” to playing Griffin, “If he’s up to speed, and making the right decisions, he’s going to start”. Gruden went further saying that Griffin will have to go through the week “set-back” free before he officially names him the starter.
“We’ve moved Robert along at a pretty good clip. We started him out in individual drills, monitored him. Last week he got some team drills, obviously. He did very well and the progress that he has made has had us put him in with the ones and prepare to be the starter. He’s coming along great. We wouldn’t put him in with the ones if we didn’t feel like he was 100 percent physically. Now it’s a question of ‘let’s get him some reps with the ones to see where he is mentally, see how he’s throwing the ball with the group, see if his timing is there, if his reads are there, see how comfortable he is back there,’ and he looks fine. So, every intent right now is moving forward we have to prepare him to be the starting quarterback. If there a fallback, if there’s a drawback whatsoever as far as the injury, if he’s sore at all, then we’ll go back to Colt. But right now, he looks pretty good moving forward but we still have another day tomorrow.”
The Redskins are riding the coat-tails of a two game winning streak heading into week 9’s match-up against the Minnesota Vikings. Another victory with the team heading into the bye week would work wonders on the locker-room morale and overall team focus moving forward.
Gruden also said a decision on receiver Leonard Hankerson was coming soon. It’s likely the Redskins will have to release someone to open up a spot for Hankerson on the 53-man roster. The Redskins are running out of time to activate Hankerson. The league only gives a 21-day period to teams for players coming off the PUP list to activate or place the player on IR.
In other news, defensive tackle Barry Cofield is working hard and is close to getting back on the field although he suffered a minor foot injury today.
“Barry had a little drawback today”, said Gruden. “He hurt his foot or something somewhere in individual. So he came back up a little sore but he is close to coming back. He feels good, everything other than his foot, which happened today.
Hankerson is doing good and we will have to make that decision soon. We don’t have much time on that one. So, the time is ticking on that one. Problem is if you bring him up, someone has got to go and we’re trying to talk through that right now.”
