John Matthews
WMAL.com
ASHBURN, VA — Take a seat, RGIII.
As first reported late Tuesday night by ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Washington Redskins are planning to start Colt McCoy at quarterback Sunday when they travel to Indianapolis to face the Colts, benching Robert Griffin III, and perhaps ending his career in Washington two years after leading the team to a division title and being named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Griffin has struggled behind center after suffering a dislocated ankle in week 2 against Jacksonville and missing six games earlier this season. His inconsistent play sparked a public dressing-down by coach Jay Gruden last week, which failed to inspire any better play from Griffin in Sunday's 17-13 loss to San Francisco.
On Monday, Gruden kept his options open when asked if he was going to continue to play Griffin.
"Right now, we have every intent for Robert," Gruden said. "But we'll look at the tape and make our evaluations here shortly."
Gruden wasn't as hard on Griffin as a week earlier, but the facts speak for themselves. The Redskins (3-8) are 0-3 since Griffin returned from the ankle injury and have scored only one touchdown in each of the last two games. He is 4-14 as a starter since the start of the 2013 season.
Following a conservative game plan after a terrible outing the week before, Griffin completed 11 of 19 passes for 106 yards and was sacked five times in Sunday's 17-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. He has been sacked 16 times in his last three games, more than Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy were sacked in their six starts combined. Third downs continue to be a problem: The Redskins are 1 for 41 when it's third-and-10-or-more this season.
"We can't attribute it all to Robert," Gruden said. "He is the quarterback, though, so we'll have to look at every avenue and figure out where we can improve."
McCoy, who had won two straight games before Griffin returned, might give the Redskins their best chance to beat the Colts, but there's the argument that Griffin needs to keep playing to prove whether he can operate something akin to a conventional NFL passing game.
According to ESPN's Schefter, the Redskins claim they are still committed to Griffin as their starter in the long-term, and with a full load of draft picks and salary cap space available for next season, they hope to build a better roster to support RGIII for next season.
For now though, prepare for Colt versus the Colts.
The Associated Press contributed content for this report,
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