ASHBURN, Va. – All the medical terms associated with Robert Griffin III’s knee injury can be boiled down to one simple message: It’s not too bad.
Beyond that, there still are some very important unknowns.
The NFL’s top-rated quarterback might or might not play Sunday when the Washington Redskins visit the Cleveland Browns. Coach Mike Shanahan, knowing full well that it makes the other team work extra to prepare for two quarterbacks, no doubt will wait as long as possible to publicly commit one way or the other to Griffin or fellow rookie Kirk Cousins.
“Both of them will have a game plan,” Shanahan said Monday.
The interior of Griffin’s right knee was the subject of intense scrutiny during Shanahan’s weekly news conference, when it was shown that an injury to a franchise player like RG3 can flummox even a seasoned coach. Shanahan initially said Griffin had a “strain of the ACL” before later correcting the diagnosis to a sprained LCL, with the coach stepping away from the podium to demonstrate the location of the ligament involved.
The upshot: Griffin has a mild, or Grade 1, sprain of the lateral collateral ligament located on the outside of the knee, caused when he was hit by defensive tackle Haloti Ngata at the end of a 13-yard scramble late in regulation of the 31-28 overtime win over the Baltimore Ravens.
“When I looked at it on film,” Shanahan said, “I thought it would be worse than it was.”
The LCL is one of four ligaments in the knee. A Grade 1 sprain typically means the ligament is stretched or has some minor tears and usually doesn’t require surgery. Griffin will get multiple treatments daily and will probably have to wear a brace for several weeks.
The next major benchmark is whether Griffin will able to take part when practice resumes on Wednesday.
“You’re hoping with rehab it gets better very quickly,” Shanahan said. “But we don’t know for sure. ... He’s definitely not ruled out for the Cleveland game.”
Griffin’s father, Robert Griffin Jr., said in a text message that his son was “feeling good” and that “we will know by Thursday” whether Griffin III will be able to suit up against the Browns.
The most severe knee injury usually associated with sports is a season-ending torn ACL, the anterior cruciate ligament. Griffin tore the ACL in his right knee while playing for Baylor in 2009, but Shanahan said Griffin’s reconstructed ACL “looks great” and that there’s “no problem there.”
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