Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden is apparently free to trade Robert Griffin III if he can find a suitor.
According to a report from The Washington Post, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder is not forcing his coaching staff and high-ranking team officials to hang onto Griffin. A source told the Post that a previous report suggesting Snyder won’t allow Gruden to trade or release RG3 is “100 percent wrong.”
“It’s up to the coach and everyone is on board with that,” the source said.
New Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan believes that a head coach should have the power to choose his starting quarterback, and Snyder is said to be on board with that philosophy. However, the Redskins may have made it incredibly difficult to trade Griffin by picking up his $16.1 million option for the 2016 season earlier this year.
Very few teams are interested in paying $16.1 million next season — plus the $6.7 million RG3 is owed this year — for an injury prone quarterback who has been terrible during the preseason. Not to mention, Griffin is currently nursing a concussion in the wake of the beating he took during a preseason game last week.
The Redskins could still decide to release Griffin and take a $6.7 million cap hit, but they have to be careful about doing that. They can’t cut him until he is cleared by doctors, and if RG3 suffered some sort of injury that extended into next season his $16.1 million salary for 2016 would become guaranteed.
If what we hear about Gruden’s attitude toward Griffin is accurate, it should only be a matter of time before RG3 is either traded or released.
