Robert Griffin III was both one of the most impressive rookie quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL, and a cautionary tale about the impact of returning too early from injuries, both during a season and after surgery. Days after ACL injuries prematurely ended the seasons of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Packers defensive end Micah Parsons—two of the NFL’s brightest stars—Griffin preached patience for them both.
Griffin suffered an LCL sprain on Dec. 9 of his rookie year, missing Washington’s Week 15 game the following weekend but returning for the end of the regular season. He re-injured his knee in Washington’s wild-card loss to the Seahawks, and ultimately underwent surgery to repair his ACL and LCL—the same set of injuries suffered by Mahomes around the same time in the calendar. Griffin skipped the preseason in 2013 but returned to play 13 games of his second year, failing to recreate the magic of his Rookie of the Year campaign. He would never start more than seven games in a season after that, and was out of the league by 2020, becoming one of the NFL’s great recent “what-ifs.”
