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RG3 will be 'ordinary' because he said Redskins want him that way

You want ordinary? Robert Griffin III can give you ordinary.

That's what Griffin told The MMQB (h/t PFT) this week, speaking with Peter King about what role Griffin will be playing in the Washington Redskins' offense.

“They are not asking me to be Superman,” Griffin said.

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Griffin was a swashbuckling, hair-raising playmaker in college, able to make something out of nothing with his arm, his legs and his imagination. And that's the same player Griffin became with the Redskins in 2012 (pre-knee injury) in the offense run by Mike and Kyle Shanahan.

Since then Griffin struggled to return to health under the Shanahans, and upon Jay Gruden took over head coaching duties prior to the 2014 season, he and Griffin have appeared to be at loggerheads over how Griffin should play in this new offense.

Gruden's system is dependent on rhythm, timing and quick decision-making; there isn't a great match there, it would appear, with Griffin's freewheeling and script-burning penchant. But RG3 says he's resigned to play this season the way Gruden wants him to: as a more boring, more robotic version of himself.

“They are asking me to be basic and take the plays that are there," Griffin said. "If that’s what Jay wants me to do, that’s what I am going to do. It doesn’t mean you take everything out of your game. When those opportunities come up to make plays out of the pocket I will do it and not think twice about it. But if they are asking me to do the ordinary, that’s what I am going to have to do.”

There are several things at work here. One is that Griffin, despite his intelligence and seemingly easygoing public persona, always seems to say just the wrong thing. We know what he meant: that there is a certain restraint needed to run this Redskins 2.0 offense. But RG3 has an uncanny knack of not being able to hold back what he's really thinking while explaining that, yes indeed, he's a good soldier with the team's interests first in mind.

Second: Is Gruden handling this right? We are in an era of "system coaches" bringing their playbooks to a new NFL city and shoehorning it into a team whose players may or may not have commensurate skills. Nowhere is this more critical than at quarterback, where it might not be the wisest idea to ask a turtle to sprint or a hare to pace himself, you know?

That said, Gruden has his beliefs, and he might not be willing to ride a highwire act with a big-play, turnover-prone system — not with missing parts elsewhere on the roster. He has to run an offense that maximizes effectiveness, use the power run game and hit the occasional big play to DeSean Jackson and friends to be most effective.

The weird Griffin-Gruden tension rolls along, and it might be here to stay with the team committing to him (for now) as the starting quarterback and with picking up his fifth-year option. At this point, it's anything but ordinary.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!