BEREA: The Browns made it clear Thursday they haven’t declared Robert Griffin III their main man despite passing on one of the two top-rated quarterbacks in next week’s draft.
Head of football operations Sashi Brown and coach Hue Jackson said trading down from No. 2 overall to No. 8 on Wednesday as part of a blockbuster deal with the Philadelphia Eagles instead of staying put to take California’s Jared Goff or North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz wasn’t influenced by having Griffin on the roster.
“Robert isn’t even our starting quarterback yet,” Brown said before Griffin took the bulk of first-team reps in the final practice of voluntary minicamp. “He has to earn that spot. ... We are excited about the potential for him to earn that.
“We haven’t solved that [position] in any stretch by acquiring Griffin. But [addressing the position] is certainly one of the things we were able to accomplish this offseason.”
The Browns signed Griffin, 26, last month to a two-year, $15 million contract, which is commensurate with bridge starters throughout the NFL. But the team’s bigwigs have repeatedly insisted Griffin’s presence wouldn’t affect strategy for the April 28-30 draft.
“It never did [impact the trade],” Jackson said. “I know everybody feels that because he’s here. I don’t think that Robert’s being here really influenced the thinking.”
Griffin, the 2012 offensive rookie of the year with Washington whose downfall led to no playing time last season, accepted the challenge.
“It doesn’t bother me at all because everything you obtain in this world is earned. It’s not given,” he said. “So throughout my career, I’ve earned everything that I’ve gotten, and when things didn’t work out, it was my fault.”
Jackson and Brown mentioned there are three other quarterbacks competing with Griffin: Josh McCown, Austin Davis and Connor Shaw. And with 12 picks, it would be stunning if the team didn’t add to the mix. After all, Jackson told Griffin to prepare to compete with a rookie.
“It’s like every player on our football team — they’ve got to earn the right to be the starter here for the Browns,” Jackson said. “Right now, outside of [nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle] Joe Thomas, there’s not a lot of guys that have a lot of skins on the wall for me.”
But the bottom line is Griffin’s chances of starting increased when the Browns traded down.
So Griffin will likely benefit from another trade for the No. 2 pick. Washington sent three first-round picks and a second-round choice to the Rams for the right to draft him at No. 2.
“Crazy, yeah,” said Griffin, who confirmed he’s been working with throwing guru Tom House this offseason. “Lot of ironic things happen in the league nowadays, but can’t really focus on it.”
Does Griffin have advice for Goff and Wentz?
“What I said with the mic drop [during my introductory news conference here]: ‘No pressure, no diamonds,’ ” he said. “It’s no biggie. Just go play ball, have fun and you can’t control what they gave up to get you. All you can control is what you do when you get there.”