Mike Shanahan says RG3 can’t become pocket passer overnight
By Josh Sanchez
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III is often discussed among the players who take too many unnecessary hits, which has led to many people saying that Griffin needs to stay in the pocket more to avoid those hits.
While there are those that would like to see Griffin become more of a pocket passer, his head coach, Mike Shanahan, recently said that we shouldn’t expect the versatile quarterback to turn into a pocket passer overnight.
“If you’re talking about Robert or if you’re talking about a guy like Kaepernick, everybody comes from different [college] systems and when you go to the National Football League and you’re working with a drop-back passing game and you haven’t done a lot of that, it takes some repetition,” Shanahan said. “Whoever has been in those shoes realizes that it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes practice, it takes repetition, going against different coverages, understanding the strength and weaknesses and just becoming more comfortable in passing situations.
“That’s part of the process of the NFL quarterback that it is hard, the amount of hours that you have to spend studying film, going through your progressions, studying defenses. It’s 24 hours a day, not only during the season but the offseason, to get to that elite level. Everybody is going to have a year or two that is better than the other, but for that consistency, you need a guy that loves football, loves studying because there’s so many different parts. That’s one of the reasons I think it’s the hardest position in sports to play.”
Seeing guys like Griffin and Colin Kaepernick get more comfortable in the pocket will help them improve their game.
It is nice to see guys able to extend plays and move the chains with their feet, but when push comes to shove you want to see your quarterback taking better care of his body so he can be their for the entire season.