Redskins Exercise Robert Griffin III’s Fifth-Year Option

Update:

The Redskins announced Monday that they are, in fact, picking up QB Robert Griffin III’s fifth-year option.

Washington GM Scot McCloughan said that they made the decision to pick up his option a while back, but elected to announce the move today.

McCloughan told reporters on Monday: “If we get to the 5th pick and the best player is a quarterback, we’re taking a quarterback.”

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Albert Breer of NFL Media reports that the Redskins are expected to pick up QB Robert Griffin III’s fifth-year option before the May 3 deadline.

According to Breer, Washington sees this as a franchise tag, of sorts, that would come $3 million cheaper than the actual franchise tag.

This is probably the toughest call of all the first-round picks from the 2012 NFL Draft, seeing as the fifth-year option for RGIII would cost them $16.155 million.

However, fifth-year options are guaranteed for injury only, which means they could still move on from him next year, as long as they do so before the first day of the 2016 league year.

Breer adds that while there is an injury risk with Griffin, the team would bench him if he fails to meet their expectations, which would mitigate some of the risk.

Griffin, 25, has one year remaining on his four-year, $21,119,098 rookie contract, which includes a base salary of $3,269,877 for the 2015 season.

In 2014, RGIII appeared in just nine games for the Redskins and threw for 1,694 yards while completing 68.7 percent of his passes to go along with four touchdowns and six interceptions. He added another 176 yards rushing and a touchdown.

Pro Football Focus has him rated as the N0. 33 quarterback out of 39 qualifying players.