Redskins’ Mike Shanahan shuts down Robert Griffin III for the season

It’s official: Kirk Cousins is the starting quarterback for the Washington Redskins, and star Robert Griffin III — though he feels healthy enough to play — is on the shelf for the rest of the season.

“Every player wants to play,” a subdued Griffin said at a news conference Wednesday. “Any quarterback wants to finish out the season with his team when you’re healthy enough to do so. But it’s Coach’s decision, and you have to respect that authority, just like I always have.”

Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan said earlier this week that he was considering benching Griffin so he could head into the off-season healthy, as opposed to last season, when he stayed in a playoff game against Seattle despite his hobbling and wound up suffering a devastating knee injury. He suffered torn anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments in his knee.

Shanahan noted that Griffin has been sacked 24 times in the last six games, including six times against Kansas City on Sunday. The Redskins are 3-10 and out of the playoff picture.

In a separate news conference Wednesday, Shanahan said he made the decision to sit Griffin jointly with Redskins owner Dan Snyder and General Manager Bruce Allen.

“The first thing I did was talked to Dan Snyder about a week ago, talking to him about the amount of hits Robert has had. Any time you’re hit as many times as he’s been hit, I thought it was in his best interest for the organization to talk about whether we should continue playing Robert if he’s hit as many times as he’s been hit.

“Dan thought about it, talked to Bruce about it, and at the end of the day we felt that the best thing to do for Robert was to not play him, give Kirk an opportunity to play, so he could go into an off-season healthy.”

There are strong indications that the relationship between Shanahan and Snyder is deeply damaged, and that the coach wants out. If Washington fires him, the coach is owed $7 million for the year remaining on his contract. If he resigns, he forfeits that money.

Shanahan was roundly criticized for keeping Griffin in the playoff game instead of pulling him. Preemptively taking him out of action this season might be a way of sticking it to Snyder, as if to say, “You wanted him out earlier? See how you like this.”

“I said, ‘Hey, Dan, we’re not going to go this direction unless you fully support it.’ Same thing with Bruce: ‘You’ve got to tell me that you’re behind this, and you’re in favor of it.’ But I don’t want anybody coming back in a game or two and saying, ‘Hey, you know we should have talked about this. Robert’s been getting a lot of hits.’ ”

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