INDIANAPOLIS -- Add another name to the ever-growing list of Robert Griffin III admirers -- and this guy is an NFL coach who actually interviewed Griffin at the Scouting Combine.
Romeo Crennel, new Chiefs coach and former Browns coach, has joined the list of folks impressed with Griffin after talking with him Friday night.
"You only have 15 minutes to talk to guys and that goes very quickly when you're talking to an entertaining young man like he is," Crennel said Saturday. "He's very sharp. He's well thought out. He gives great answers. We could have talked to him for an hour, but in the 15 minutes we had we came away very impressed with him."
Asked if he was the type of player a team should go get, Crennel said Griffin is the type of "person that you go get."
"Because not only was he sharp in football he was sharp about life," Crennel said. "And because he is an Army brat like I was an Army brat, there is a special connection there. I'm going to give him a little bit more headway than I'm going to give some other guys."
Crennel's father was in the Army. Griffin grew up with military parents and credited military discipline with helping him become the player and person he is.
"My mom did 12 years; Dad did 21 -- served in two wars." Griffin said. "Discipline was something
that was obviously huge. If you say you're going to do something, you do it. If you start it, you finish it."
The Chiefs draft 11th, so they would seem to be an odd team to be talking with Griffin because he is not expected to last after the second pick. That might indicate that general manager Scott Pioli is pondering a trade up, as well.
Matt Cassel has gone 18-21 the past three years as a starter in Kansas City. The Chiefs made a commitment to Cassel after acquiring him from New England before the 2009 season, but he has not completed 60 percent of his passes in any season as a Chiefs starter. If Pioli feels like Griffin is as special as everyone seems to think he is, the Chiefs might be pondering joining the trade brigade -- with Washington, Miami and Cleveland.
Saying he's just being prepared, Pioli and the Chiefs also interviewed Andrew Luck and Ryan Tannehill as well as Griffin.
"Right now, there are 10 teams ahead of us throwing out all kinds of smoke signals about what they're going to do," Pioli said. "You never know."
"If some guys decide they might try to get out of that pick, everybody doesn't put the same value on a player that we put on a player," Crennel said. "For instance, I don't know if you remember in Cleveland, there was a quarterback who went all the way down to 22 (Brady Quinn). You never know what is going to happen, so you have to be prepared."
Crennel said he hadn't yet studied RG3 in depth, but he has seen enough to make some judgments.
"I know he has a tremendously strong arm, he has tremendously fast feet and good speed, and he looks like he makes good decisions," Crennel said. "And he can put the ball where the receivers have a chance to make the play.
"He's not always looking to run. He's kind of looking to throw, but he'll run when he has to. And he's a winner. He was won. When you win, that says something about your ability (and) your decision-making, especially at that position."
Will Crennel lobby Pioli about Griffin?
"I don't have to talk to him," Crennel said. "Because Scott was equally impressed with the young man."
