The "wow" factor gone from RGIII?

The Denver Broncos 45-21 victory over the Washington Redskins should tell observers more about the state of the Redskins than it does the prowess of the Broncos.  How could a team that was making Peyton Manning look human for most of three quarters—allowing only 7 points and taking a 14-point lead off of two Manning turnovers—simply melt away like a snowflake in a bonfire? 

Clues could be discerned observing the interaction—or lack thereof—between Redskins coach Mike Shanahan and his starting quarterback Robert Griffin III. On the broadcast, Shanahan could be seen standing stone-faced as the game was quickly slipping away, while RGIII was wandering around the benches, seemingly uninterested in the proceedings that he helped along with a meager performance that included only 132 yards passing and two interceptions.  They had nothing to say to each other; according to some sources, it has been like this for some time. 

We should have seen this coming. I suspect that Shanahan actually had little say in the acquisition of RGIII, which cost the team plenty in draft picks. The move had all the earmarks of yet another “bold” roll of the dice by owner Daniel Snyder, one that unless there is a turnaround will fail in its objective. The last time something this “big” occurred was when the Minnesota Vikings gave away a draft and a half dozen players to acquire Herschel Walker, and New Orleans coach Mike Ditka traded an entire draft class and another first round pick to acquire Ricky Williams.  Both turned out to be busts for those teams of the first order.

If the Redskins’ management had done their homework before, they might have saved themselves a lot of pain later. But the “wow” factor seems to have taken hold in a big way these days. Yesterday, Oakland Raiders quarterback Terrell Pryor ran 93 yards for a touchdown early in the first quarter against a subpar Pittsburgh Steelers team. The Steelers scored only 3 points heading into the final quarter, and it turned out that two earlier missed field goals cost them a win. If the Steelers had pulled it out in the end, what would observers be talking about? Pryor’s 93-yard run—or his 10 of 19 passes for 87 yards and two interceptions, along with only 13 yards on 8 additional rushes? 

The same with RGIII. No one had heard of him until 2011, when he “wowed” Heisman Trophy voters. Before that, he missed almost an entire season with an ACL. Playing against porous defenses in the Big 12 (like Geno Smith did last season) is one thing, but this is the NFL. When healthy last season, RGIII and his athleticism and ability to run caught most teams off-guard, like Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick did. But when hurt and his athleticism was diminished, RGIII was shown to be not only “human,” but somehow lacking in what you expect to see in an NFL starting quarterback—and that “wow” factor had simply disappeared. He is at best “ordinary.”

As we may recall from last season, RGIII was unable to take advantage of a for the most part stellar defensive effort against the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs. Re-aggravating a prior injury in the first quarter, he was non-existent the rest of the way. When asked after the game why he didn’t voluntarily take himself out when it was clear that he was ineffective and hurting the team, he claimed that he gave the team its “best chance to win.” Yet in the end, he only proved to be their “best” chance to lose. 

Shanahan may have this in his mind, although not saying so publicly. But the obvious distance between himself and the quarterback thrust upon him is clearly indicates that this is not a match.