Jay Gruden said repeatedly during his Wednesday news conference that Robert Griffin III's status for Monday night's game versus the Dallas Cowboys hinged on the team doctors clearing the quarterback.
"It's up to the trainers and doctors right now, they gotta clear him, No. 1, like I said," Gruden added. "No. 2, he's got to feel good. But it's gonna be a process of how he feels tomorrow, how he feels the next day, and how he's throwing and how he's playing the position."
The Washington Redskins coach reiterated his stance from earlier this week that Colt McCoy will be the starter if RGIII is not cleared.
Gruden said that Griffin will either start or be inactive Monday night; he won't dress as a backup.
"It's just a matter of watching him," Gruden said of RGIII's progress. "It's not so much the watching him run -- I think he feels okay running right now, it's just a matter of how he feels tomorrow. There are certain movements -- rolling out to the right, rolling out to the left, cutting back -- we just got to see how he handles that. But the big thing is getting him back comfortable in the pocket and throwing the ball to the receivers, getting his timing down. There's a lot of that that has to take place also. You know, he's coming along at a good clip like we thought he would, but we'll see where he is tomorrow and the next day."
The coach said he wants to make a decision on Thursday who would be his starting quarterback. We get the sense that if the doctors don't see any regression in Griffin's ankle -- which he dislocated in Week 2 -- he would get the call (otherwise, there is no reason to leave the door open for a return this week).Â
On Wednesday, RGIII participated in individual drills and took reps in the team portion of practice.
NFL Media's Aditi Kinkhabwala reported from Redskins practice in Ashburn, Virginia, that in the first individual drills with quarterbacks RGIII took the first reps, followed by McCoy and then the demoted Kirk Cousins.
"He was moving on, he did some team drills today," Gruden said. "He looked good. You know, we'll find out from the trainers how he feels right now, and then tomorrow morning will be the big thing. Another day's work tomorrow, we'll see how he progresses.
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