New York Giants’ linebacker Keenan Robinson has heard the reports. The Washington Redskins’ locker room is in turmoil. Teammates are “turning on” quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Having played with the Redskins from 2012-15, Robinson is not surprised with what he’s hearing.
“When I was there, three out of four years, it was the same thing,” Robinson said, via Jordan Raanan, ESPN. “Once they get down, they start pointing fingers. And that is true. That is what happens. And for the Redskins — I’ve only been on one team before I came here, and that was them — and all I saw was not the right way to handle it. I feel like they didn’t handle it the right way when I was there. They may be handling it different now. But when I was there, they started pointing fingers, people started talking. That’s how you get dissension in the locker room.”
This kind of turmoil and dissension is common with poorly run clubs in all sports. Well-run organizations don’t have leaks or reports of infighting during nearly every losing streak. Unfortunately for Washington, it does.
When Robinson was there, Robert Griffin III was the most common scapegoat. Now that Griffin III is gone, the Redskins have moved on to Cousins. Is there really any reason to think that a new scapegoat won’t emerge if and when Cousins departs Washington?
That’s why 2015’s NFC East Championship came as a surprise. Yes, the Redskins only went 9-7 and won more on the back of a weak division than anything they did right. Still, it felt like a surprise. The organization is just a zoo, something that starts at the top. Robinson’s claims perfectly demonstrate that. Players and coaches leave annually. The front office, though, remains intact.
Being a well-run organization doesn’t mean winning division championships every year. Every team goes through some kind of rough patch.
Being a well-run organization does mean working through it and not letting any bad run break the team apart. That’s where the Redskins are consistently failing.
An 0-2 start shouldn’t trigger a team turning on one of its key players. When that happens, it’s a sign of bigger problems. Those problems start at the top.