Robert Griffin III: I proved a lot of people wrong; wants to stay with Browns

RG3 only had five starts, but his best game came in the season finale against the Steelers

Robert Griffin III arrived in Cleveland in March on a two-year deal in the hopes of revitalizing a once-promising career that stalled in Washington. And while Griffin won the Browns' starting job heading into the 2016 season, he was injured in Week 1 and spent the next three months getting healthy.

When he finally returned to the lineup in Week 14, the Browns were still looking for their first win -- and, as luck would have it, a franchise quarterback. However, Griffin, like the rest of the team, struggled. And heading into the regular-season finale Sunday in Pittsburgh, RG3 was still looking for his first touchdown pass against three interceptions and 18 sacks. Against the Steelers, Griffin had his best outing in years, completing 29 of 40 passes for two touchdowns, though he did throw a red-zone pick, lost a fumble and was sacked four times.

But did RG3 do enough to prove himself? He thinks so.

"I'm not an idiot, I know a lot of people writing me off as a player, as a quarterback, saying I couldn't do it," Griffin said Monday, via Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot. "And to go out and show that I can, I think that proves a lot of people wrong. But ultimately, like I said, at the end of the day, I want to win games. Right now, I'm here with the Cleveland Browns and I love these guys in this locker room. And I want to help them win here. And I don't get that opportunity, then that's out of my control. I've done everything I can to this point with the cards that I was dealt. ... Let the chips fall where they may."

Griffin missed 11 games, the Browns went 1-15 (and were 1-4 in games he started) and he ended the year with two touchdowns, three interceptions and a 59.2 completion percentage. Statistically, it was the worst season of his five-year career.

Put another way: It's not clear that Griffin proved a lot of people wrong. We think he showed glimpses of promise under some trying conditions, but there's no guarantee RG3 is back in Cleveland in 2017. In fact, he acknowledged as much Sunday evening.

"I just told everybody, one on one, man to man that it was a pleasure to fight with them every week,'' he said, via Cleveland.com. "I don't know what's going to happen. All I know is that I feel like I can help this team win games. We didn't get it done today. But every week I was able to get better, from my personal performance and just feel like with coach Jackson and Pep Hamilton I've seen the game better than I ever had. I think that shows in the play.''

Griffin is set to make $6 million next season and is due a $750,000 roster bonus in March.

"It'd be awesome,'' he said of returning to Cleveland. "This is the youngest team in the league, a lot of young guys. I was really proud of the way they fought throughout the rest of the season. Because no one in that locker room is a loser. All these guys were the man at some point in their life. It's our job to help them be the man here in the NFL.

"So I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of that growth. It's experiences together like this and have the team stay together and fight all the way to the end and never give up. That's rare. That's really rare in this league. I want to be a part of the growth process here in Cleveland.''

Meanwhile, owner Jimmy Haslam said Sunday that the organization has "the right people in place," and that "I could not be more pleased with the job that Hue [Jackson] and his staff are doing."