ASHBURN, Va. -- The Washington Redskins, once again, have turned to Robert Griffin III. But it's not as much because of his performance against the New York Giants as it is because Colt McCoy won't be available.
With McCoy nursing an aggravated nerve in his neck, Griffin is expected to start against the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday.
"This is Robert's team right now," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Monday. "From there, we'll take it one game at a time and make our judgments and conclusions after that."
Griffin relieved McCoy in the first quarter of Sunday's 24-13 loss to the Giants, the Redskins' sixth consecutive defeat. There's a chance that McCoy will end up on injured reserve because of the neck injury, which first occurred in a loss to St. Louis in Week 14.
This marks the fifth time Washington has endured a quarterback change this season. Griffin opened as the starter but dislocated his left ankle in Week 2. Kirk Cousins started the next five games, but he struggled with turnovers and was replaced by McCoy. One game later, Griffin returned from his ankle injury, but he lasted only three games until being benched.
"It's not what you want," Gruden said. "You want somebody to take the position and play and have success, obviously. I have nothing against all three. I think all three quarterbacks have a good future. I just want somebody to take the position and run with it, and hopefully we'll see something like that this week with Robert."
Griffin completed 18-of-27 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown against the Giants on Sunday.
"Robert competed in the first half -- did some good things," Gruden said. "I thought he played with good energy. I thought he took the ball down and ran it when he had to a few times, and was pretty efficient in the passing game. For whatever reason, in the second half, we couldn't get it going.
"It's not what you want. You want somebody to take the position and play and have success, obviously. I have nothing against all three. I think all three quarterbacks have a good future. I just want somebody to take the position and run with it."Jay Gruden, Redskins coach, on having five QB changes this season
"We got in some third downs and weren't able to convert again, and that was unfortunate. He's just got to continue to go through the same progressions and see the concepts, but something to build off of from last week, hopefully."
The subplot here remains Griffin's future and whether the Redskins would want the Gruden-Griffin pairing to continue. But the Redskins invested heavily in trading for Griffin in 2012, and he has one more year left on his contract -- not to mention diminished trade value. Gruden has four fully guaranteed years left on his contract.
But Gruden said he's not writing off Griffin.
"He's 24 years old, and he's still learning," Gruden said. "I don't think we can really judge his future right now based on what he's done. I think it will be a continuing process. ... It's important for our offense to rally around him and play well around him also.
"I'd like to see him have some urgency about him and play well, and hopefully there won't be much of a debate if he does well."