Eight years ago, the Washington Redskins took Robert Griffin III with the second overall pick in the NFL Draft. The future looked bright – for both sides.
By 2017, however, RG3 was out of the league.
Fortunately, he has found a second act in Baltimore, where he serves as backup quarterback to Lamar Jackson.
“I feel like I have a home there,” Griffin said on The Zach Gelb Show. “It could be a long-term home, and I know that Lamar is the guy in Baltimore. But that doesn’t extinguish my fire to want to go out and be a starter – and not just be a starter, be a franchise player, be a guy that leads a team to multiple Super Bowls. So that’s my desire. I’m not in this to play for another four or five years as a backup. That’s not what I’m about. That’s not why I step in the building every single day, and I think I’ve proven that to my teammates and the coaches and the organization. So I’m just looking to help contribute any possible way that I can and obviously be compensated to the degree that I feel like I should be.”
Griffin, who won the Heisman Trophy at Baylor, was NFL Rookie of the Year in 2012. But injuries and ineffectiveness took their toll. Still, Griffin, who spent four years with the Redskins one with the Browns, believes “without a doubt” that he can be a top-tier starter in the NFL.
“And it’s not about anybody handing it to you,” he said. “When I got drafted [with the] second pick in 2012 to the Redskins, it wasn’t because someone handed it to me. I had to earn all that. After sitting out of the league in 2017 and coming back in and having to earn everything all over again, starting from scratch – everyone saying, ‘Can he do it? Can he still do this? Can he still run? Can he still move? Can he still throw?’ – I think I’ve gone out and systematically shown over the course of the last two years that I can still do those things and do it at a high level.
“That’s my goal,” Griffin continued. “It’s not just to get back to the top of the mountain and look at the scenery; I want to get back to the top of the mountain and go win – and win a lot. That’s the focus, and that’s hand-in-hand what the Baltimore Ravens want to do in this moment. That’s where I’m at, so I’m going to maximize that.”
Griffin also reflected on his drama-filled tenure with the Redskins, which he called a “learning experience.”
“I don’t have any ill-will in my heart towards D.C., towards any coaches or any ownership or any GMs or anything like that,” Griffin said. “Do I wish things had gone differently? Obviously everybody did. But at the end of the day, that’s the decision they decided to make and you have to move on from that. Looking back on it, I’ve taken those experiences that I’ve learned in D.C. and used them to make me better as a player. I know a lot of people expect me to bitter, expect me to be over-the-top angry about it, and I’ve moved on. I’ve moved past that, and I’m excited about what I got going, and what we have going, in Baltimore.”