Robert Griffin III Says He Is ‘Ready’ for Return to NFL

The former No. 2 pick last played a snap in the league with the Ravens in 2020.

Robert Griffin III hasn’t played a snap in the NFL in over 19 months, but that’s not preventing him from staying in shape and waiting for an opportunity. 

Griffin, now a football commentator for ESPN, told Christopher Williams of KWTX in Waco, Texas this weekend that he’s “ready” to return to the NFL at any time if a team were to come calling. 

“I am ready to go right now,” he said. “I train every day. I throw and work out. I know what it takes to get my body ready and I am doing those things. Yes, it is a little bit tougher when you are flying around everywhere doing stuff for TV, but when you really want something, you make it work.

“So, if I get that call this year, next year, or five years from now I will be ready to play.”

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Griffin last saw game action in 2020, when he started for the Ravens in place of former MVP Lamar Jackson. He made four appearances for Baltimore that season, throwing for 42 yards and two interceptions, while rushing for an additional 69 yards. 

Once the No. 2 pick in the 2012 draft, Griffin bounced around the league after coming into the NFL as a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback out of Baylor. He began his professional career in Washington where he won the league’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award. 

Griffin played for three years in the nation’s capital, but injuries and shaky play led to him slipping down the depth chart before the start of the 2015 season. He was released by Washington the following spring and ended up in Cleveland where he started five games in 2016. The Browns went 1–15 that year. 

Griffin spent the 2018, ’19 and ’20 seasons in Baltimore backing up Jackson, but was eventually replaced in that role by Tyler Huntley. At that point, he made his way for the broadcast booth and began appearing in a number of capacities for ESPN as a college football and NFL analyst.

The quarterback has maintained that he wants to get back under center if he gets the chance, but in the meantime made clear that he’s perfectly content to call games.

“I still love to play,” Griffin said, “but right now I am just focused on doing the best as I can as a storyteller and giving back to football as much as I can.”

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