There is believed to be a rift between Washington Redskins head coach Jay Gruden and embattled quarterback Robert Griffin III, but the coach insists that his words about his third-year signal caller have been "twisted."
Just a day after Griffin explained that he backed off of social media due to his words being misconstrued, Gruden went on the defensive by saying that his comments on RG3 have been shaped into something bigger by the media.
"No matter what I say about Robert, it's going to get twisted one way or the other," Gruden, in his first year at the helm for the Redskins, said per ESPN. "If I say he is doing great, it's going to be I am too easy on him. If I say he needs to work harder, it means I said he's lazy. If I said he needs to work on his fundamentals, it means I don't like him."
There have been perceptions that Griffin and Gruden aren't on the same page, similar to the way the quarterback and Gruden's predecessor Mike Shanahan used to clash.
Regardless of an alleged tumultuous relationship between the two sides, Griffin will take the ball Sunday when the last place Redskins (3-11) host their division rival Philadelphia Eagles (9-5) at the FedEx Forum.
It will be Griffin's first start since a Nov. 23 loss to the San Francisco 49ers by a 17-13 margin.
While Gruden can point fingers at the media, his criticism of Griffin was pretty apparent following Washington's 27-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Nov. 16.
"Robert had some fundamental flaws," Gruden said then. "His footwork was below average. He took three-step drops when he should have taken five. He took a one-step drop when he should have taken three on a couple occasions, and that can't happen. He stepped up when he didn't have to step up and stepped into pressure. He read the wrong side of the field a couple times. So from his basic performance, just critiquing Robert, it was not even close to being good enough to what we expect from the quarterback position."
Gruden also made comments about being unimpressed with the quarterback by saying he had been "coddled" and that he is "raw." The coach also intimated that RG3 "auditioned long enough" while hinting that the clock was ticking for him to start impressing before losing his job.
Griffin was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft and had an impressive rookie season before a leg injury hampered him. The 24-year-old wasn't quite the same in 13 games last season and has struggled mightily this year.
Griffin has appeared in seven games this season and is 104-for-150 (69.3 percent) for 1,138 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. He has also rushed for 146 yards on 27 carries while failing to reach the end zone.
Gruden is hoping to lock out the perceptions of their strained relationship and help Griffin and the team improve.
"I've got a ton of respect for Robert, man, and for what he goes through at the quarterback position, what he has already accomplished as a young quarterback and what he is going to accomplish in the future," Gruden said. "How we coach them in here is how we coach him, but we can't let the outside world affect what we do in here. And the whole idea of coach/player relationship is to get better every day and work on our game, work on what I do, work on what I can do to make him better, and that's the bottom line. That's all we can do. That's all we want to do."
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