Kirk Cousins era begins in Washington

One couldn't help but notice the presence of a slight smirk on Jay Gruden's face when he made public the decision he and his cohorts have been apparently trying to make for some time. 

He had the look of a man who cleared his conscience.

"Yes, we do have news," the Redskins head coach said on Monday morning. "Kirk Cousins will be the starter for 2015 moving forward."

Taking whatever wind out of Robert Griffin's sails the Detroit Lions didn't already take last Thursday when they most likely made Gruden's decision for him. Sacked three times, hit thrice more, and fumbled twice, Griffin lingered off the gridiron for what may have been his last time as the Redskins' starting quarterback.

All those vague hopes, all those pleasant declarations, the reasoned pleas to improvement all seemed to go up in smoke after what appeared to be the culmination of an illusion. No, he hadn't improved his timing. No, he hadn't stepped up in the pocket. No, he hadn't been making his reads properly. And no, he hadn't "made better decisions."

The same couldn't be said for the other two men Gruden said were still in the midst of an open competition. That competition, seemingly, is over, and Cousins won it.

"When it's all said and done, after all the film we've gone through, after all the offseason activity, all the training camp footage, we feel like at this time, Kirk Cousins gives us the best chance to win and that's where we're going," Gruden said.

"It's Kirk's team."

Which, in the past, had only come true after the man previously whose team it's been was injured and couldn't physically take the field. The presumption had always been that whenever Griffin, the former darling of Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, was able to carry himself onto the field and take snaps, he would do so and Cousins would dutifully go back to his clipboard and ball cap.

But Gruden's announcement on Monday raised the curtain on what looks to be a new era in Washington, one that does not presently include Robert Griffin III as its leader. Though Griffin is still in the midst of the NFL's concussion protocol, Gruden made it clear that the position belonged to Cousins, and that it would "remain" so.

Though the coach was also prudent enough to make plan that Griffin was himself still a Redskin, and that no plans existed for his trade or release. This, Gruden said, was entirely down to what he saw in front of him these last three weeks.

Griffin was slated to start Washington's third exhibition game in Baltimore on Saturday, but an independent, second neurologist reversed the decision made by a first, paving the way for Cousins to lead the first team.

Some early mistakes ensued, including an interception, but so did a touchdown drive, and an overall calmer-looking offensive unit. It was enough for the coach to move all three of his pieces around into an order that didn't exist prior to kickoff.

Gruden doesn't think having three options under center is all that bad.

"It's a good problem to have to have three quarterbacks that are competing and working their butts off and I feel like all three of them are capable quarterbacks," he said. "Some people say when you have three, you don't have one and I disagree with that. We have three good quarterbacks that I feel good about. I just feel like Kirk right now gives us the best chance."