A person familiar with the situation tells Mark Maske of the Washington Post that he expects the Redskins to exercise QB Robert Griffin III’s fifth-year option following the draft.
Washington has yet to say what their plans are for RGIII’s option, but Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes that the feeling around the league has been that they would likely pass on picking up his fifth year.
In an interview with Jeff Darlington of NFL Media, RGIII said that he “wouldn’t be bummed” if the team elected to not pick up his fifth-year option.
“I wouldn’t be bummed,” Griffin said. “Either way, we’re going out there to prove it this upcoming year — not next year. I just want to win. I want to win games and have fun doing it. The rest will take care of itself. They can pick up the option — or they can decide not to pick up the option. It’ll work out either way. I’m focused on this year.”
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, which is the average of the top-10 quarterback salaries.
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.
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.
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