CLEVELAND: Robert Griffin III posted a 0.00 quarterback rating at halftime and finished at 38.4. He threw a flea-flicker pass into triple coverage. He targeted rookie receiver Corey Coleman 11 times, and Coleman only caught three.
And yet Browns coach Hue Jackson said after the Browns’ 23-10 loss to the Bengals on Sunday in FirstEnergy Stadium that the quarterback “showed that he belongs.”
Pardon me while I pause to pound my palm into my forehead.
I pray that my mouth wasn’t agape after those words escaped Jackson’s.
I know Griffin hadn’t played in three months after breaking a bone in his nonthrowing shoulder and sat on the Redskins’ bench for all of 2015. I realize Jackson lobbied to take on Griffin as a reclamation project and why he would continue to support his guy.
But going that far after Griffin posted the second-lowest rating by a Browns starter this season makes me start to lose faith in Jackson as a quarterback whisperer.
At this point, I’m of the mind that the Browns must blow up the position and bring in three new quarterbacks for training camp.
Rookie Cody Kessler surely will be back, but showed in eight games he’s an NFL backup.
Josh McCown, 37, should move on to coaching, if he’s so inclined.
Kevin Hogan, cut by a true quarterback whisperer (Chiefs coach Andy Reid), would have started against the Giants when Griffin and Kessler (concussion) were sidelined had he shown something in practice.
Griffin, though, seems like a waste of time. Giving him a $750,000 roster bonus in early March seems like throwing money at the ghost of 2012.
Going into Sunday’s game, I didn’t feel that way. I was fine with Griffin returning next year, allowing the Browns to address other needs with their two first-round picks in a quarterback-weak draft.
They might still do that. But with the Browns falling to 0-13, I’ve moved into “Off with their heads!” mode when it comes to this lot of quarterbacks.
I can’t buy into the fact that rust was Griffin’s only problem Sunday. I watched him wing a deep ball in Coleman’s direction that Coleman might have had a chance on if Griffin had put the ball on the other side of the receiver. I watched him throw one at tight end Gary Barnidge’s feet. I saw him fail to see open receivers.
I heard Griffin say “there were some streetball elements to some of the things we did today,” which doesn’t speak well of Jackson’s game plan.
Yet when Jackson was asked why Griffin showed he belonged, Jackson said: “I thought the poise and the ability to run around with the ball and to protect himself. That is what we are all concerned about — if he did get hit, if he did go down, would he get up? He did, and for the most part, he was pretty team-protecting. He was not trying to put himself in situations where he was just going to get hit and maybe not get up. I thought that he showed that he has made that jump, and that is important.”
And here I thought completing passes and scoring points and winning games were signs of belonging.
But Jackson’s comments on Griffin protecting himself from injury — albeit his fatal flaw — lead me to believe that Jackson still thinks Griffin can be the long-term answer. Apparently he saw enough from Griffin in training camp — even as the quarterback was slinging balls into neighbors’ backyards — to convince him Griffin can be a pocket passer.
I’m losing faith in that possibility with every Griffin throw.
Not surprisingly, Griffin’s teammates sounded supportive afterward.
“It was great having him back out there. You saw that he gives us a different dynamic back there at quarterback, the way he can run the ball,” left tackle Joe Thomas said.
“You haven’t played in three months and he just gets out there one week and think he’s going to pick up where he left off and it don’t happen like that,” cornerback Tramon Williams said.
“It takes time. Hopefully he gets better every week.”
Hopefully, especially for Jackson’s sake.
I fear that Jackson is hitching his wagon to the wrong quarterback. In this league that can be deadly to a coach’s future, although perhaps not as deadly as 0-16. Oh, wait, we all have faith in Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam staying the course, right?
With three games remaining, there is much at stake, and not just canceling a fan’s planned 0-16 parade if the Browns dubiously join the 2008 Detroit Lions, the only other team to post that record.
Jackson has said on multiple occasions he feels his job is safe. But the key to the franchise’s return from oblivion is finding the right quarterback and nurturing him.
Misplaced faith in the wrong one could create doubt that Jackson is the right coach to entrust with that responsibility.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.