NFL Notes: Robert Griffin III, Las Vegas, & Panthers

Robert Griffin III

Former Redskins HC Mike Shanahan said that he had reservations about the huge package of draft picks they gave up to get Robert Griffin III years ago.

“Dan [Snyder] knew I wasn’t very happy about what we did, but he wanted everybody to celebrate how smart we were, so we jumped on his plane and met the other owners on his yacht,” Mike Shanahan told Jason Reid of the Undefeated. “Everyone was celebrating. I just didn’t think it was very smart to give up that much for a guy who we didn’t even know if he could drop back and throw.

“When I finally sat down with Dan, I said, ‘Hey, you own the team. We can work with him and do some things. But we haven’t seen anything on tape that warrants giving [up] this type of compensation.’ To me, it was absolutely crazy. But I told Dan that if that’s what he wanted to do, I’d make it work.”

Shanahan also explained that RGIII‘s decision to address the team and request that he be more drop-back opportunities clearly came after he got the backing of Snyder.

“When Robert is standing there going through all of that, I know it’s coming from Dan,” Shanahan said. “When Robert talked about ‘unacceptable,’ that was a word Dan used all the time. He was using phrases Dan used all the time. There’s only one way a guy who’s going into his second year would do something like this: If he sat down with the owner and the owner believed that this is the way he should be used.

“He had to have the full support of the owner and, in my opinion, the general manager to even have a conversation like that. He just had the best year for a rookie QB in the history of the game. You got selected to the Pro Bowl. We went to the playoffs. We tried to get him to slide. We tried to get him to throw the ball away. If he had told me he was hurt, I would have taken him out of the [playoff] game. To hear him … it was really incredible.”

Las Vegas

Jason Cole of B/R mentions that Las Vegas previously approached the Chargers about possibly relocating to Nevada back in 2007.

Now Carolyn Goodman, the current mayor of Las Vegas, is talking about the idea of possibly courting the Chargers once again to move to Vegas, depending on what happens with the Raiders and a potential stadium deal in San Diego.

According to Cole, no matter what happens with the Raiders, Las Vegas is still in play for the Chargers. Although, Cole does admit that a lot has to happen for Las Vegas to be a serious option for the Chargers.

The first of which would be for stadium deals with Oakland and San Diego to not get done. From there, the Chargers would have to turn down the Los Angeles option.

A source tells Cole that the Chargers would be interested in Vegas if a deal does not get done with the Raiders first.

Cole stresses that the NFL’s view of a team in Las Vegas has “significantly changed”

Panthers

• Panthers signed WR Avius Capers to a contract on Tuesday.