Mike Shanahan is still stinging from losing his job over his handling of Robert Griffin III. Shanahan now believes RG3 may have been a different player if the Redskins had drafted Russell Wilson to backup RG3.
Shanahan was on ESPN Radio in D.C. today, and recounted how, two days after the Super Bowl in Griffin’s first season — the QB summoned the head coach to a meeting in which he told Shanahan the plays which were “unacceptable.”
It was a move Shanahan assumed Griffin only felt empowered to pull because he had Dan Snyder in his corner — which we all know is true.
“Yeah, he did ask for a meeting. He did talk about, number one, he wanted change…He actually [mentioned] what plays were acceptable and unacceptable, and when he started talking about what plays were acceptable and unacceptable, and that he wasn’t a rookie anymore and wanted to voice his opinion, the term unacceptable is used by Dan, the owner, quite often. So [I had] a little bit of a smile when I heard some of these complaints.”
Shanahan said Griffin was determined to throw more and run less, and that he didn’t want to be associated with running quarterbacks.
“He wanted to be more of a drop-back, Aaron Rodgers-type guy,” Shanahan said. “He did a few more things, and basically what I did is I went and talked to Dan, and I said, ‘Hey, Dan, for a quarterback to come to me, a veteran coach, and share these things, number one, he can’t be the sharpest guy to do something like that, or he’s got to feel very good about the owner backing him up. And since you have been telling me from Day One that he’s a drop-back quarterback and we should do more drop-back, and you guys have spent the last couple months together, I would think, or at least the last month, that this is an extension of you.’ [Snyder] said it wasn’t.”
Word on the street is Shanahan wasn’t the only one to voice those sentiments.
Observed: many "anonymous sources familiar with the workings of Redskins Park" the last few years used words very similar to Mike Shanahan's
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) February 18, 2015