Rushing RG3

Robert Griffin III was knocked out of three games in 2012.
Photo credit to WKYC.com.

There isn’t a whole lot of news in the NFL today that grabbed my attention, and I don’t want to start looking at what each team needs to do this offseason until next week or the week after. So I decided to stay local and offer my two cents on a report released by Adam Schefter this morning.

The Redskins, according to Schefter, believe that Griffin’s progress up to this point has been good enough that he could definitely be ready to start in Week 1 of the 2013 season.

Honestly, this concerns me more than a little. He had pretty invasive surgery to repair is LCL and ACL. They had to operate on both knees, so it isn’t just his right knee that they have to rehab.

Everybody points to Adrian Peterson’s swift return as reason for hope that Griffin III can do the same. After all, they both had their ACL’s hurt and Dr. James Andrews performed both procedures to repair them. In addition, RG3’s injury came only about two week later in the season as Peterson’s did last year.

But Peterson did not have work done on his LCL. Andrews did not have to go into Peterson’s non-injured leg in order to repair his injured ACL.

Most importantly, Peterson, as far as we can tell, may not have been 100% at the start of the 2012 regular season. Remember that he was nowhere near his normal self in the first eight weeks of the season. It was the second half of the season where he ran circles around defenders.

If RG3 is 99% in Week 1 of the 2013 season, I would not start him. Having full strength in your legs is much more critical for a quarterback than for a running back. You have to be able to drive through your legs when fitting the ball between defenders on a line. You have to be able to shift your weight properly when delivering a high-arcing touch pass on a corner route.

You might say, “Griffin III can do all that effectively if he’s 90%, so why are you being so conservative?”

I say that because Cousins has proven himself as a capable backup and he will be working this entire offseason as if he is the starting quarterback. After all, he is until RG3 is healthy enough to take over.

Cousins can lead us to wins in the early part of the season as long as the Redskins shore up their defense and keep their offensive line healthy like they did this season.

Robert needs to not rush his recovery. Do it right. He has to understand that if Cousins has to start the season for us, no matter how Kirk does, RG3’s fate will not be the same as Alex Smith’s in San Francisco. We have reached a point where players know that they can lose their job because of injury. Robert is not in that category, though. The Redskins gave up too much to get him and he’s too remarkable an athlete for Washington to replace him.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt if Griffin III can learn to protect himself a little better. Sliding, getting out of bounds. We don’t need him to get 13 yards every time he runs, we can settle for 6 and him getting out of bounds safely.

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JaMarcus Russell Comeback

JaMarcus Russell and Jeff Garcia were teammates on the Raiders
during the 2009 preseason and is now trying to help him return
to the NFL. Photo credit to NFL.com.

So Russell is serious, after all, at least for the moment. A few weeks ago this story came out and my first thought was that it was too early for an April Fool’s Day joke.

But his comeback story was updated Saturday when Bleacher Report posted a video of Russell working out with former NFL quarterback Jeff Garcia. In the initial reports from a few weeks ago it was said he would also be training with Marshall Faulk and former Olympic sprinter Ato Boldon of Trinidad.

Currently weighing in at 308 pounds, Russell was reportedly even heaver than that just a few months ago. His reported weight from his Raider days was around 260 so he still has quite a bit of work to do.

There is no way he will be playing in the NFL in 2013. Heck, I’m not even sure he’ll still want this by the time we hit mid-March. Sure he’ll want it, but will he still be willing to work for it? Forgive me for being a doubting Thomas, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

But what if he does stick with the program? Could he spend a year or more in the CFL as he works his way back to the NFL? Would he spend a year or more in the CFL? I think the answer to that lies in his motivation for trying to return to the NFL, and I don’t think any of us know what that is right now.

Remember to check back daily during the week for my take on some of the biggest stories surrounding the NFL. ‘Like’ my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl, to stay updated on new blog posts as they are published.

By the way, forgot to include this when I first published this, but happy birthday to Robert Griffin III, who turned 23 today!

Puff’s 2012 NFL Awards

Alec Baldwin returns to host the NFL Honors.

To start, I would like to congratulate Baltimore Ravens WR Anquan Boldin on winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Even if you don’t know anything about Boldin outside of what he said to the media on Friday when it was announced, you can tell that the award is well deserved by him.

All other end-of-season awards will be given out at the 2^nd Annual NFL Honors the night before the Super Bowl. Here are my picks for the major awards.

Most Valuable Player – Minnesota Vikings RB, Adrian Peterson

This is an easy choice for me. The NFL seems to believe that a playoff appearance is required to name a player MVP. I likely would have chosen Adrian Peterson anyway, but it’s a no-brainer now.

Adrian Peterson came back from tearing two ligaments in his left knee last season and chased down Eric Dickerson’s rushing record, falling just 9 yards short when the final whistle sounded on the 2012 regular season. He carried his team through the second half of its season and was more valuable to his team than any other player on a playoff team this year.

Coach of the Year – Indianapolis Colts Interim HC, Bruce Arians

Many people think Leslie Frazier should win this awards, and I don’t dispute that. Frazier did a terrific job in Minnesota. But it is hard for me to give a Coach of the Year award to a coach who has the MVP on his team.

Bruce Arians wasn’t even supposed to be the head coach this season, but Chuck Pagano was unable to work for most of the season due to leukemia treatment. Arians did an amazing job in Pagano’s absence, leading a team in a rebuilding phase to a postseason birth.

Offensive Player of the Year – Green Bay Packers QB, Aaron Rodgers

Everything in me said to give this to my runner-up MVP, which was Peyton Manning. But this is about the offensive player with the best stats, the player who performed the best. I don’t like to give multiple awards to the same player, so I couldn’t give it to Adrian Peterson. Instead, I will give it to Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers led the NFL in passer rating for the second consecutive season. His TD-INT ratio was not much worse than it was last season. In addition, it was his fourth consecutive season with a completion percentage over 64% and a passer rating over 100.0.

Ever since I was old enough to really know what was happening around the NFL, it was always Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the best two quarterbacks in the league and the guys putting their names among the all-time greats. But Aaron Rodgers is really starting to put his name in that conversation for best quarterback in the league right now. It won’t be long before he is in the ‘all-time’ conversation.

Defensive Player of the Year – Houston Texans DE, J.J. Watt

Aldon Smith was Watt’s closest competition in this race, but Watt did much more than chase Michael Strahan’s sack record – in fifteen starts this season, Watt had 20.5 sacks and 2 fumble recoveries.

Watt also had 16 passes defended, tied for 10^th in the NFL. For reference, the highest total for a linebacker belonged to London Fletcher, who tied for 38^th in the league. For a fellow defensive lineman, you have to go all the way down to 60^th, Corey Liuget of the San Diego Chargers. ‘J.J. Swat,’ as people are calling him, was outstanding this season and is my clear front-runner for this award.

Offensive Rookie of the Year – Washington Redskins QB, Robert Griffin III

Before you accuse me of being a homer, let me explain. This was my initial choice. Then I changed to Russell Wilson because RG3 has an unfair advantage in Alfred Morris. But how disrespectful would it be to Marshawn Lynch for me to say that? Both running backs were near the top of the league in rushing.

So I’m back to Griffin III. But now that I’ve explained why RG3, why not Wilson? It isn’t so much that I think RG3 has performed better than Wilson; I feel like he does more than Wilson and at a slightly higher level. Wilson leads receivers into open space very well, but so does RG3. Wilson is very fast and can rip off big runs when he has to; so can RG3. But Griffin III has shown that he can run the read-option at a slightly higher level, reading the defense slightly faster than Wilson can. RG3 has also has also proven to be a little more accurate throwing into tight coverage than Wilson has.

It’s a close race, and I won’t be disappointed either way because both rookies deserve this award. But RG3 is a slight front-runner in my opinion.

Defensive Rookie of the Year – Carolina Panthers LB, Luke Kuechly

Lost in the shadow of the offensive rookies are the defensive rookies, and there were plenty of good ones. But the rookie linebacker from Carolina was ahead of the rest. Kuechly led the NFL with 164 tackles in his rookie season, 103 of them solo. He also had a sack, 3 fumble recoveries, 3 interceptions, 8 passes defended (just three fewer than the leading linebacker), and 11 stuffs – stuffs are a tackle at or behind the line of scrimmage. His 11 stuffs resulted in a total loss of 30 yards.

These don’t look like rookie numbers, but they belong to one. In a season dominated by rookie quarterbacks and a pair of rookie running backs, Kuechly could be the Pepsi Max Rookie of the Year if the voters weren’t so offense-oriented.

Comeback Player of the Year – Denver Broncos QB, Peyton Manning

Adrian Peterson tore two ligaments in his left knee last December. There were questions of whether he would be back for Week 1 of the 2012 season, or if he would be back for the 2012 season at all. Would he ever run at the same level? All he did was chase Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record.

Peyton Manning had four neck surgeries in a 19-month span. Some doctors didn’t think he would play again ever. When he was cleared, would he be able to put any velocity on the ball? We knew he would still be brilliant, but would his body be anywhere near his mind? All he did was have one of the best years of his career with a brand new team, new weapons, new coaches, in altitude for half his games, and outdoors, where he had been criticized for much of his career in Indianapolis.

I think they are on fairly equal footing. Some will point to Peterson nearly breaking a record and Manning not nearly breaking a record as a reason to give it to Peterson, which is a perfectly legitimate point. But I give a little more weight to the fact that Peterson only missed one game in 2011 while Manning missed the entire season.

It’s a tough decision, but I think Manning is a little more deserving of this award.

Again, congratulations to Anquan Boldin on the Man of the Year Award, and congrats to those who wind up winning each of the awards I gave my two cents on above. Thanks for reading and be sure to tune in to The All-Sports Crew tomorrow at 7 p.m. on WMUC Sports! My previews for the Divisional Round will be published over the next two days.