COLUMBUS: Browns coach Hue Jackson will formally name Robert Griffin III his starting quarterback in the next few days, and it’ll feel like great timing because Griffin is on a hot streak.
Griffin had been inconsistent throughout the spring, throwing a quality pass here, a poor one there. But in the early stages of training camp, he’s clearly ascended. He’s been particularly impressive in the past two practices.
On Saturday, Griffin led the first-team offense on two touchdown drives and didn’t commit a turnover in front of an announced crowd of 42,310 during the Orange and Brown Scrimmage at Ohio Stadium.
The players didn’t practice in pads like they did Friday night, when Griffin completed 6-of-7 passes for about 150 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions during a live scrimmage at team headquarters in Berea.
“Everyone is seeing him get better and better every day. I’m not surprised,” Jackson said. “We try to create the right environment for him to be all he can be, and he’s working extremely hard because this is something he really wants to do. Obviously, we still have work to do, but I think he’s done a great job thus far. There are still some ladders to climb, and we’re going to keep climbing them.”
Jackson has noticed a difference in Griffin since his roller-coaster ride of a spring. The touchdown passes of 5 and 9 yards he threw to wide receiver Terrelle Pryor and running back Duke Johnson in the Horseshoe are the results of an overarching theme.
“The biggest area he has grown is just his confidence in playing the position,” Jackson said. “You have to know how to play quarterback in the National Football League, and with [associate head coach — offense] Pep [Hamilton] and myself, we pride ourselves on getting guys ready to play. He has accepted every challenge we’ve given him.”
Griffin’s career hit rock bottom last season, when he was benched behind Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy in Washington and didn’t appear in a regular-season game. He was cut in March, then signed a two-year, $15 million contract with the Browns. It’s been four years since his lone good NFL season, one in which he led Washington to the playoffs, made the Pro Bowl and became the league’s offensive rookie of the year.
“I think anybody’s confidence needs to be restored when things haven’t happened the way you want them to,” Jackson said. “I think he’s playing with tremendous poise, confidence, understanding. You guys know I keep talking about mastering the quarterback position, and that’s what he’s trying to do.”
Griffin, 26, believes the knowledge he’s absorbed about Jackson’s system, philosophies and goals is the key to his progress.
“It’s never easy to come into a new situation and learn a new offense and play confidently within that,” Griffin said. “So over the course of the offseason working with the people that I did, getting together with teammates, all those things helped to build that confidence about what we’re doing.
“When you know what you’re doing, you can play confident. You know what to expect, and you know where to go with the ball and how [Jackson] wants to play the game and how we want to play the game. It’s easy to go out and execute. So I think that’s just getting a better understanding of what coach is expecting, what he wants.”
Griffin also points to polishing his mechanics this summer with throwing guru Tom House as an important ingredient to his recent success.
“It was an honor to work with a legend like Tom and be around some of the QBs he works with,” Griffin said. “You learn a lot through what they put you through, learn a lot through watching and listening. It was a pleasure, and I do feel more efficient. It’s all about consistency and keeping everything on time, taking the same drops.”
Jackson set up the training because Griffin is his soon-to-be named starter and House is the coach’s trusted ally.
Jackson has said he’ll officially name a starting quarterback before Friday’s preseason opener on the road against the Green Bay Packers. He said Saturday he’s “very close” to making a final decision.
Griffin is ready to lead.
“Everyone’s hungry to turn this thing around,” he said. “It starts with the quarterback, and you have to make sure that you’re on point every single day, so that guys can follow their leader.
“You don’t try to lead. Those words just don’t go together. You just lead. It’s something that comes natural. Guys are going to look to you. At the quarterback position, you have to have those qualities.”
And Jackson is convinced Griffin has them.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.