Robert Griffin III grateful for 2nd opportunity with Browns

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He hasn’t played football in 20 months, and everything has changed since the last time he stepped on the field.
 
He was a 24-year-old Redskin carrying the weight of a franchise, and now he’s a 26-year-old Brown trying to revive his once-promising career.
 
Robert Griffin III, who faced the Eagles three years ago in the first game of Chip Kelly’s coaching career, faces the Eagles again Sunday in the first game of Doug Pederson’s coaching career.
 
Griffin, whose star gradually dimmed in his four years in Washington until he didn’t even play a year ago, has been reinvented as the Browns’ 14th opening-day quarterback in 18 years since the franchise returned from exile in 1999.
 
The Eagles and Browns, two teams with new coaches and new quarterbacks, open the season at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Linc.
 
“I’m just excited to have the opportunity,” Griffin said on a conference call with Philadelphia writers. “Being in this league for four years, I’ve seen the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows and it’s just been a blessing to use all that experience to get the best out of my team and myself in this new environment.
 
“I can’t thank the Browns enough … for giving me this opportunity to go out there and lead them. It’s truly a blessing.”
 
Griffin made the Pro Bowl as a rookie, when he won nine of 15 starts, completed 66 percent of his passes, had 20 TDs to just six INTs and led the NFL in interception percentage.
 
But things gradually went downhill for him. He won only five of 20 starts the last two years and after fashioning a 20-to-5 TD-to-INT ratio as a rookie he threw 20 TDs to 18 interceptions in 2013 and 2014.
 
He got physically battered in 2013 and 2014 and then languished on the bench last year behind Kirk Cousins and never got into a game.
 
His last NFL win? Over the Eagles in December 2014.
 
“I just feel like I learned from all my mistakes in the league,” he said. “Just playing in the league and knowing how to get things done, it’s very helpful. It allows you to make smart decisions, protect yourself, be available and help your team win.”
 
RG3 has lived through two extremes just a few years apart. As a rookie, he became the first — and still only — quarterback in NFL history to fashion a passer rating over 100 and rush for over 800 yards.
 
Three years later, he never threw a pass.
 
“I got through it with my faith, the people I leaned on,” he said. “My teammates in Washington were awesome for me. I just made sure I stayed focus and didn’t give up, because the people who don’t give up in life are the people who make it.
 
“Doesn’t matter how many times somebody tells you no or you can’t or you won’t, it’s about what you say. And if you say I will, I shall, because you’ve got the right people in your corner … you can do it.”
 
Even with his ups and downs, Griffin ranks 11th in NFL history with a 64 percent completion percentage, 13th with a 90.6 passer rating and sixth with one interception every 46 attempts.
 
And in Cleveland, he’s working with a guy in new head coach Hue Jackson who has a terrific history of working with young quarterbacks.

“We feel good about the things he has done here since the day he came here,” Jackson said of Griffin. “He has demonstrated leadership, ability to play the position for us. He has showed the poise that we look for in a quarterback.”
 
Jackson worked with Joe Flacco in Baltimore and Andy Dalton in Cincinnati and even had success with quarterbacks such as Jason Campbell, A.J. McCarron and Joey Harrington.
 
“Coach is extremely clear on what he wants and what he expects, and he does a great job of utilizing the skills and talents of the guys that are on his roster,” Griffin said.
 
“So he’s not going to put you in positions where you might be compromised. He’s going to allow you to do the things that you do well and coach you to do the things you don’t do well, so those can also become your strengths.
 
“He’s extremely consistent, motivational and hard on me, and I appreciate that and I want that, because he wants me to be great, I want to be great, and we want to be great, and that’s the awesome thing about it.”

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