There weren't many days off for Robert Griffin III this summer. The Browns quarterback spent the past two months fine-tuning his game in California and enters training camp looking to make good on that hard work as Cleveland opens training camp.
"I think you have to find time to relax but there's no such thing as a day off, your mind never stops working on football," he said Friday, adding, "(We) really just got down to the nitty gritty and worked hard, continued to work hard on the things coach wanted me to improve on, that I wanted to improve on so that when I came back I was ready to go and I feel ready to go."
Griffin, who joined the Browns this spring after four seasons of ups and downs with the Redskins, finds himself in the thick of a quarterback competition alongside Josh McCown, Austin Davis and the rookie Cody Kessler.
Browns coach Hue Jackson on Thursday laid out something of a timetable for naming a starter prior to the first preseason game of the year at Green Bay.
"Whoever earns that job is going to earn it out here on this field, but we're going to go through a process out here pretty soon. It's going to show itself really quickly, and it will definitely be before we play our first preseason game," he said.
"I know everybody is looking for me to say, 'Here's the guy,' but I still want to get out here with our players because all of them have to earn a starting spot as we move forward. We're going to hit the ground running tomorrow at the start of practice and we'll start evaluating that position, as well as all of the positions as we move forward."
That, of course, includes Griffin, who was named the league's 2012 Offensive Rookie of the Year and a three-year starter at Washington before Kirk Cousins beat him out for the Redskins starting job last season.
And while Griffin said he's not dwelling about the past, he said he comes to Berea having grown as a quarterback and a person.
"All those obstacles helped me to become a better player and strengthen my character to be able to withstand anything and stay poised in any situation so it's hard to pick one thing," he said. "But I prefer now to focus on what I have to do with the Browns and not even worry about that anymore."
Instead, Griffin spoke of the need to be consistent and the kind of trickle-down effect it has on the rest of the offense.
"It's all about consistency in this league and having consistent fundamentals, consistent drops on all those things and I really harped on that and focused on that to make sure every time I take a three-step drop, it looks the same; every time I take a five, it looks the same," he said.
"It helps in a lot of areas, it helps the receivers stay in rhythm, helps you stay in rhythm and it helps you give less keys to the defense. I think all those things are things I worked on (this summer).
And once that's in order, Griffin said there's one thing left to do.
"I think you just gotta have fun," he said. "This is a kid's game and we get to play for a king's ransom. At the end of the day, you know what you're doing. You've done your studying, you continue to do your studying, you've worked hard, you've run, you've lifted, all those things, and now you just gotta come out here and have fun.
"I think that's the beauty of the game. The more fun you have, the easier it is to play freely and go out and make plays."
