Can a closer look at Robert Griffin III's background help explain his actions during a trying second season in the NFL?
Breer: Youth movement in St. Louis
NFL Media's Albert Breer wrote in his weekly "Inside The NFL" notebook that Washington Redskins coaches picked up on an "insecurity" with Griffin this season, with some members of the organization concluding that Griffin rushed back from his knee injury out of fear Kirk Cousins could take his starting job.
Cousins worked with the Redskins' first-team offense throughout the offseason and preseason while Griffin rehabbed a knee injury suffered in Washington's playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks in January.
The thought of his job being in danger was foreign to Griffin during his brilliant collegiate run at Baylor. He committed to the University of Houston, was courted by Stanford and received a scholarship offer from the University of Texas, but only Baylor offered him the chance to start immediately at quarterback.
Baylor never wavered on Griffin, even after he suffered his first ACL tear during his sophomore year. The NFL is a far more cutthroat arena, of course, and Breer postulates that Griffin was smart enough to recognize that as he went through his recovery process.
The Redskins won't give up on Griffin any time soon. They mortgaged their future to acquire him in the 2012 NFL Draft, and his outstanding rookie season remains a warm memory for both the organization and fan base.
And that's the biggest shame of Griffin's most recent knee injury. He looked like a sure thing -- the perfect candidate to be the league's face of the future. Now none of that seems so sure.
We previewed every Week 13 game in the latest "Around The League Podcast."
