Redskins Bench RG3, What’s Next For Former Star?

2012 sure does feel like a long time ago. For RG3 and the Washington Redskins — an eternity. Less than three years ago, the Redskins and Mike Shanahan were starting a complete overhaul, and they made one of the boldest moves anyone could make. They sold their souls to move into the #2 overall draft slot with the St. Louis Rams in order to get RG3 after it was decided when the regular season ended that the Indianapolis Colts were getting Andrew Luck.

With the Colts presumed to be taking Luck, the Redskins were prepared to draft RG3 after trading their first round picks for three years as well as some other high, valuable picks.

Early on, it looked like it was going to pay off in a big way. The Redskins immediately went to the playoffs behind their new leader in Robert Griffin III, who showed NFL defenses what it was like to have to defend a guy who could truly dominate you with both his arm and his feet. He threw 20 touchdown passes compared to just five interceptions in his rookie season, but suffered an injury in the regular season that caused him to miss a start.

He looked on his way to helping the Redskins to a big playoff win, but a 14-0 lead evaporated when RG3 tore up his knee, leaving the Redskins’ season and future in serious jeopardy.

He rushed back from the injury to start on opening day in 2013, and the Redskins experienced an absolute terrible season, giving the St. Louis Rams the 2nd overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. RG3 was a shell of his former self, unable to do really anything close to what he showed as a rookie.

This year has been even worse. The Redskins have sifted through every quarterback on their roster, and have now benched RG3 in favor of Colt McCoy. You read that right. The former Texas Longhorns star and Cleveland Browns cast-off, whose career appeared to be in jeopardy, is now starting in favor of the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback that this franchise gave up its future for.

The Redskins finally have a first round pick again this year after two years without one, something that has pretty significantly affected their ability to build a championship caliber team around RG3. However, with his inability to stay healthy and unrest with the new coaching staff in Washington, there is no question that RG3 has probably started his last game with the Redskins, and will be playing elsewhere in 2015.

It will be really interesting to see where RG3 winds up getting traded, or if he is released, where he would sign. First and foremost, whatever team takes a chance on him needs to make sure the coach will buy in to his style of play. Of high importance also is the fact that the team needs to let RG3 get completely healthy. He needs to get himself back into his 2012 form when he flat out dominated other players physically.

RG3 has a long history of injuries and now inconsistencies and differences with his coaches, but he’s a talented player. The stars will have to align for us to see the former RG3 again, but it’s certainly possible so we’ll see where he goes from here. He needs to learn to be deadly from the pocket like other great running quarterbacks in this league have done (Luck, Rodgers, etc.).

If he can do that, which at this point seems like a long-shot, he could be a really interesting player. Perhaps the most intriguing option for RG3 is to go play for Chip Kelly and the Eagles, who could get the best out of his skill set. There are plenty of teams that would like to take a shot on this guy but we have plenty of time before we see any of that come to fruition.

For now, RG3’s career in Washington appears to be over, and that is shocking even to write after having covered him when he was in college and subsequently drafted by Washington. 2012 seems like a long, long time ago.