As Kyle Shanahan enters his first year as the San Francisco 49ers head coach, one of his former quarterbacks remains without an NFL team. Former No. 2 overall pick Robert Griffin III worked out for the Los Angeles Chargers earlier this summer, but the team decided to go in another direction.
With time running out on Griffin III’s career, his former offensive coordinator seemingly defended the quarterback while shading the Washington Redskins in the process.
“We felt like we did as good as we could to give him a chance to be successful. And the hard thing about that, that I really don’t blame Robert for, is that the way we felt gave him a chance to be successful, the organization didn’t back,” Shanahan said, via CSN Mid Atlantic. “And they allowed Robert to choose what he wanted to do. Do you blame a 23-year-old for that, or do you blame the people that allowed him?”
To be clear here, there’s definitely a rift between Shanahan and his former boss, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. It’s potentially even at the point that Snyder would rather risk losing Kirk Cousins as a free agent rather than send him to the 49ers in a trade (more on that here).
Shanahan acted as the Redskins’ offensive coordinator for Griffin III’s first four seasons in the NFL. He worked under his father, then Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan during that span.
By now, we already know that injuries caused Griffin III to fall out of favor in D.C. But it’s his perceived lack of maturity and issues with other teammates that really was the final straw between the quarterback and organization.
Shanahan surely isn’t placing all the blame on Snyder and Co. He made sure to be at least somewhat diplomatic here. But we can be pretty darn sure that the brass in the nation’s capital definitely won’t read it that way.