It should be more like a franchise tag to determine Griffin III’s future, but we’ll let the Redskins label it whatever they want.
Washington GM Scot McCloughan, just announced that the team will exercise RG3’s fifth-year option.
Big news here at Redskins Park. The Redskins will exercise RG3's 5th year option
— Dianna Marie Russini (@NBCdianna) April 27, 2015
The decision was made by The Redskins awhile back but decided to announce today. #Redskins
— Dianna Marie Russini (@NBCdianna) April 27, 2015
Once the Redskins exercise their option on Griffin — they’ll approach the move as applying the franchise tag — exercising the option would cost the Redskins about $3 million less than the 2016 franchise tag for quarterbacks.
If he doesn’t play well enough to justify the $16.155 million salary for the 2016 season that exercising the option would trigger, the Redskins still could cut RG3 without being obligated to pay that money.
The money is guaranteed if Griffin III gets injured, which should make the process even that more interesting.