The end for RG3 in Washington? Robert Griffin III reportedly benched

It's amazing how fast the Robert Griffin III era soured in Washington. The 2012 NFL offensive rookie of the year reportedly has been benched before 2014 is even done.

Griffin has been benched for Colt McCoy, according to an initial report by ESPN.com's Adam Schefter and then backed by other outlets. Griffin's poor 106-yard passing effort in a close loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday was all Redskins coach Jay Gruden needed to see.

[Join FanDuel.com's $1.75M Week 13 fantasy league: $25 to enter; top 14,530 teams paid]

The Redskins are 3-8 and going nowhere. Colt McCoy, 28, is a journeyman and very unlikely to be the quarterback of the future, unless he shows something the rest of the season that we've never seen from him in the NFL. That combination leads any reasonable person to wonder if the Griffin era, unbelievably, is done in Washington.

There's another possibility, and it's that the team knows Griffin is so far behind fundamentally that it doesn't do him any good to continue flailing away like he has all season (in this extensive breakdown of Griffin last week, NFL Films' Greg Cosell suggested he needed what amounts to a Quarterbacking 101 course in the offseason to fix his flaws). Schefter reported he is still a "significant part of the Redskins' long-term plan." Perhaps the Redskins want to shut him down, get him healthy and then spend the offseason working on his game.

That's fine, but that was the same plan late last season. It didn't work.

Griffin threw only two touchdowns in five starts this season. He looked remarkably indecisive. He would miss open receivers, often because his footwork was so poor. He just didn't look like an NFL quarterback. Even worse, the running ability that was part of his meteoric rise in 2012 was hampered tremendously by knee and ankle injuries.

This is a nightmare for the Redskins. They gave up two extra first-round picks and a second-round pick to St. Louis to move up four spots and take Griffin second overall. It was one of the most expensive trades in NFL history, for the right to draft the Heisman Trophy winner from Baylor with the cannon arm and world-class speed. And after Griffin's first regular season, it looked like a smart deal. Then Mike Shanahan left Griffin in while he was obviously injured in a playoff game against the Seahawks, he tore his ACL, and nothing has been the same since.

Can the Redskins just start over, and draft another quarterback three years after investing so much into Griffin (and also Kirk Cousins, another 2012 draftee who has failed)? Is it possible they could give Griffin another try after another offseason working on his game?

It's too early to rule out anything, but here's the unfortunate situation: One of the league's brightest stars from just a couple years ago has bottomed out and a franchise that is starved for some success isn't any closer to an answer at quarterback than it was 32 months ago when it made the huge trade to get Griffin.

- - - - - - -

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab