Washington Redskins signal-caller Robert Griffin III is a strong candidate for Comeback Player of the Year, but to win that award he'll need to hit the field with the same speed and playmaking ability that set the league ablaze two autumns ago.
Quarterback-guru Terry Shea claimed in April that the third-year passer "reminded me of the old Robert Griffin that I knew coming out of Baylor" while taking the "next step as a pocket passer" this offseason.
Redskins first-year offensive coordinator Sean McVay seconded that praise, hinting that his young quarterback shows none of the effects of his rookie-year knee surgery and saying of Griffin: "I don't think there's any question: He looks explosive."
"He looks like he is exactly what he was in the 2012 season," McVay recently told ESPN Radio, via The Washington Post. "I think people underestimate when you have a brace on your knee how much that truly restricts you. ... So I think being able to take that off, he looks extremely explosive.
"And when you're a quarterback that has the ability to kind of buy time with your legs, keep your eyes downfield and then if guys are playing with their back to the quarterback, now he's got a chance to take off and run it and create yards that way. So I think that's going to be a big part of what he does."
The Griffin we saw last year was a shell of the whirlwind who guided Washington to an NFC East title one season before.
Promising reports out of our nation's capital only boost our expectations for one of the game's most exciting young passers -- and a quarterback who looms as one of the NFL's brightest bounce-back candidates in 2014.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" ranked the best (and worst) quarterbacks in the NFL today.
