Former Redskins tight end Chris Cooley hasn't played since 2012, but he still has connections with the team and co-hosts a daily radio show in D.C. From what he's heard, pretty much everyone disliked Robert Griffin III in Washington.
“The offensive line did not like Robert Griffin. A lot of the receivers did not like Robert Griffin," he said Monday afternoon on ESPN 980. "The offensive line had a problem with Robert, because they were considered, for a year-and-a-half or two years, a terrible offensive line that couldn’t protect a quarterback. A lot of that isn’t true. A lot of that was Robert. A lot of the sacks were put on Robert. Want to believe it or not, they were, OK? Football-wise, they were: it was Robert."
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He continued.
“Receivers didn’t like playing with Robert, because they didn’t get the ball," Cooley said. “It was never consistent, other than a couple in 2012; they struggled with that. So they didn’t like Robert. … Robert did have friends, of course he had friends, but there were a lot of guys on this team that said it doesn’t benefit me — as a player, as an individual — and we don’t know if it benefits the team with him under center at this point. That was what really happened in that locker room, in talking to a lot of those guys. That’s not me saying I think they would have perceived it this way. It’s me talking to a lot of players in this locker room, as friends, and understanding why the dislike or why the problem.”
Cooley talked a lot about Griffin and the different reasons why the team didn't like him. He went into detail specifically about the now-released quarterback's relationship with Kirk Cousins. He said "there was never a friendship relationship" and there was never going to be one. Cooley even cited Rex Grossman as saying, "These guys don’t like each other."
The lack of friendship between the two is somewhat understandable. The Redskins drafted Griffin second overall and then went and selected Cousins in the fourth round of the very same draft. Having two, young and promising quarterbacks on the same roster from the same draft is sort of unprecedented. If we're to believe Cooley, the drama started there and never really repaired itself.
Now, Cousins is going to make a ton of money this season with the franchise tag and Griffin has plenty of suitors for his next destination.
