Robert Griffin III addresses Bill Belichick, college football playoff format, Jayden Daniels and more

Former quarterback Robert Griffin III is a lot of things: A Heisman Trophy winner, former No. 2 overall pick, NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowler. RG3 is also an analyst, and will be a part of Netflix’s special NFL Christmas lineup. One thing you may not know about Griffin is that he’s a military brat, as both of his parents served as sergeants in the U.S. Army.

With the Army-Navy Game taking place in D.C. this weekend, RG3 partnered up with USAA, Official Salute to Service Partner, to host a few community events. On Wednesday, he held a Heroes Huddle Family Football Camp at Prince George Sports Complex, and on Friday, he and fellow Washington legend Joe Theismann gifted two vehicles to local military families. 

In between all of the events, Griffin found some time to speak with CBS Sports. We covered multiple topics, including Bill Belichick returning to coaching, the college football playoff format and of course Washington Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels.

Were you surprised by Bill Belichick’s decision to become UNC’s new head football coach?

RG3: “I was not surprised. Bill Belichick, arguably the greatest NFL coach of all time, he’s earned the right to do what he wants to do, and if he feels like going to North Carolina and being ‘Chapel Bill’ is what he wants to do, then I think we all have to respect that. I know the ‘Patriot Way’ and how he wants to run his organization or his team means there’s not going to be a lot of fun happening at North Carolina! But they will do a lot of winning. Bill’s a winner, he knows how to do that, and that’s the kind of fun that I think they’re looking forward to. It will be interesting to see how he recruits and how they utilize NIL money, but Bill Belichick in college football is not anything I ever thought I would say.”

If you were in charge of college football how would you change the playoff format?

“It just needs to be expanded even more. You got an 11-1 Army team who has a quarterback in Bryson Daily who I thought should have been a Heisman finalist, and they’ve earned the right to play for a chance to play for a national championship. You’ve already heard the committee talk about expanding to 14 teams, I think it expands to 16 so that you can get all the necessary conference champions in the tournament. I think winning matters. And if you win your conference championship, you have earned the right to be in the tournament and right now that’s just not what it is. And I know people are upset about who gets the first-round bye and how they seeded the tournament. That stuff, to be quite frank with you, winning matters. If you’re a conference champion, you should be getting the first-round bye, and however the seeding plays out is how the seeding plays out. I don’t think there needs to be any reseeding after the first round so that the No. 1 seed gets the worst seed. I think we’re making things a little bit too complicated. You put the football on the field, you line the teams up, you let them go play. And all the politicking, leave that for a different time, but I do want to see it expand, I think it should expand and needs to expand, and in 2026 I believe it will.”

I saw that you’re set to do some work with Netflix for the NFL games on Christmas, can you tell me a little about that

“Amazing opportunity. Netflix has assembled probably the most diverse crew of all time when you look at all the people who will be involved from the different networks, different backgrounds. Our set in particular with Kay Adams as the host — phenomenal host. You got Mina Kimes bringing the analytics to the table and Manti Te’o and myself as the football aficionados. People from all different backgrounds for a global audience. This is truly a special opportunity with Drew Brees as well, being their Hall of Fame quarterback. I think we hit every single demographic, every single age group and it’s going to be a lot of fun to be in front of 195 countries — who knows how many people are going to watch this worldwide? It’s going to be a fun ride to talk about some of the best quarterbacks this game has to offer with Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson and C.J. Stroud.

“This is like quarterback heaven and broadcasting heaven for us to have this opportunity. I’m just blessed to be a part of a great team, and honored to be selected by Netflix to take on this endeavor. This is a huge moment.”

I want to talk a little bit about Jayden Daniels. You know quarterbacks well, why was he able to come in and find immediate success when so many other young quarterbacks struggle out of the gates? 

“I’ll give you three things: One, structure. Structure matters for a quarterback. The fact that Washington has a new GM, a new owner, new head coach and new offensive coordinator allows Jayden Daniels to come in and learn collectively with his teammates, but also be in a stable environment where expectations were low for the team. So they’ve already exceeded those expectations, and I think that structure matters.

“Coaching matters. He comes in with Kliff Kingsbury his offensive coordinator, a guy who is used to working with mobile quarterbacks, knows how to deploy their full skill sets without asking them to run 20 times a game. I think at the end of the day what Jayden has been able to accomplish is because he’s come in and he’s just been himself. You go to a team and you have all these comparisons whether it’s him to me or him to Doug Williams or him to whoever came before him. He doesn’t have to worry about that and that’s always been my advice to him. I’m blessed and honored to be a mentor for Jayden. 

“He understands he doesn’t have to be Superman, and I think he took that on Day 1. He doesn’t go out there and try to do too much. We all saw the Hail Mary, which is a fun, amazing play. Will go down in Washington Commanders history as one of the greatest plays ever. But he hasn’t gone out there and had to throw for 350 yards and five touchdowns. He’s been efficient getting the ball out of his hands, high completion percentage. I think he’s won over half of the NFL Rookie of the Week awards because he’s just going out there and playing football to his ability and leading his team. 

“He’s reinvigorated the city like never before. I know a lot of people compare it to 2012, but we want it to be better than that year, and they’re definitely on track to make that happen. I just think those three things: Structure, the coaching and him knowing who he is and being himself has really led to their success.”

People like to compare and contrast you guys, do you see a lot of similarities with you and Jayden?

“Listen, I had my time. My time has passed when it comes to playing so I don’t ever try to throw what I was able to do onto anybody else. I’m just here to celebrate Jayden and celebrate how amazing of a player he is. I know everyone has been throwing around the stats — first five game comparisons, first 10 game comparisons. You know, my situation there in D.C. was completely different than Jayden’s, and I’m happy for Jayden that his is different in the right way. 

“So other than the fact that we’re both Black quarterbacks who won the Heisman Trophy and were the second pick in the draft, I think the structure that he has around him and the situation that he’s in is leading to the success that they’re having — and it will help that success be long-term success. We had success for a year in D.C., but it was because the structure was not right and the atmosphere was not right. You kind of see that in Chicago with Caleb Williams and what’s happened with the Bears. They wanted to break the cycle, I wanted them to break the cycle, their fans wanted to break the cycle, but they repeated the cycle with Matt Eberflus and not committing to him long-term and now he’s gone midway through the year. So now Caleb Williams is going to have his second head coach and third offensive coordinator in his second year in the NFL. That’s not the kind of structure that you want for a young quarterback to be able to grow and develop. … 

“Josh Harris and that ownership group created that ‘growth’ environment to where Jayden could be the leader he is under Dan Quinn, and that is something that I had to learn throughout my NFL career. I got that in Baltimore with Steve Bisciotti, Ozzie Newsome, Eric DeCosta and John Harbaugh. They created a ‘growth’ environment for Lamar Jackson, so it was great to see and I have noticed that with Josh Harris and this Washington Commanders front office. They are doing an amazing job of allowing the players to go out and play and be their best selves. 

Griffin on his partnership with USAA

“Being a partner with USAA is something that I don’t take lightly. I’ve been working with them since 2012, and as a military brat it’s a partnership that means a lot to me because my mom and dad both served 34 years in the military. Being able to partner with them to do the Heroes Huddle was special. Giving back to the military families, military kids, I certainly see myself in a lot of those kids that were out there.”