The Browns could soon turn to quarterback Robert Griffin III, as the embattled signal-caller is now fully cleared for contact, tweets Ed Werder of ESPN.com. Per Werder, Cleveland will let RG3, Josh McCown, and Cody Kessler compete for the starting quarterback job, but Mike Garafolo of NFL.com reports (video link) that once Griffin takes hold of the No. 1 job, he’s likely to hang onto it for the remainder of the season.
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That the Browns are eager to see what Griffin can offer as the 2016 campaign concludes comes as no surprise, especially given that the winless club is squarely focused on the future. Griffin is signed through the 2017 season, during which he’s set to earn a base salary of $7MM, and Browns exec Sashi Brown said earlier this year (notably, before RG3 suffered a shoulder injury) that Cleveland doesn’t view Griffin as simply a short-term investment.
“To be fair to Robert, he’s young in his career in terms of his development as a quarterback,” Brown said in September. “We will develop him over time. He’s under contract here two years, but we don’t look at it as certainly just a two-year venture or a week-to-week venture. This is something we’re going to have to stick by him, put the right pieces around him and help him learn how to play that position as well. So it’s not a short-term kind of look at him.”
Griffin is still only 26 years old, and though injuries have slowed his once-promising career, the Browns likely feel that enough upside remains that it makes sense to take another look at RG3 before making their decision on his 2017 fate. Still, that probably won’t stop Cleveland from investing more resources at the quarterback position next year, and the club has already been rumored to have shown interest in UNC QB Mitch Trubisky.
