Robert Griffin III: Is Baylor Star the NFL's Next Vince Young or Cam Newton?

Robert Griffin III isn’t an athlete gifted with an arm; he’s a passer gifted with athleticism and, yes, there’s a huge difference. RGIII will enter the NFL with the same expectations as Vince Young and Cam Newton. Griffin will follow the road to success, though, because of his pass-first mindset.

Despite possessing 4.4-speed, he only rushed for over 80 yards in a single game twice in 2011.  In his final season at Texas, Young recorded 1,050 rushing yards, compared to just 699 this year by Griffin. Newton rushed for a whopping, 1,473 yards last season at Auburn.

While RGIII isn’t as big as Young and Newton, he’s just as good, if not better, as an overall athlete. Why doesn’t he choose to use his wheels to run circles around opposing defenders more often? Because he simply doesn’t need to.

National Football Post pinpoints strengths such as footwork, always keeping his eyes down field, pinpoint-deep and intermediate accuracy in its scouting report of Griffin. Those attributes aren’t usually highlighted as strengths for a quarterback with his athletic ability, but as weaknesses. An offensive coordinator wouldn’t be forced to build a run-heavy game plan around Griffin for him to have success à la Tim Tebow.

This season for the Carolina Panthers, Newton proved that he’s a phenomenal passer that just so happens to be one of the best athletes on the field. Young never reached that point. Maybe he could’ve succeeded in a Tebow-like offense, but VY’s ability to win football games failed to negate his inability to read defenses.

Griffin will follow in Newton’s footsteps, because the Baylor hero is a talented thrower of the football who just so happens to own YouTube-legend-like scrambling ability. What sets apart this Heisman winner as a prospect even more than his rocket arm, sprinter speed and ankle-breaking agility, though, is his attitude.

As NFP put it, RGIII isn’t a “five-car garage guy.” 

Newton received criticism for calling himself an “entertainer and icon” going into this past draft.  Young’s downfall, even more than his passing ability, ended up being a lack of maturity. Griffin’s leadership and work ethic are just as impressive as anything that shows up on the stat sheet or SportsCenter’s top 10 plays.

David Daniels is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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