The Sports Xchange

Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III suffered a concussion in Thursday night’s preseason game and the timetable for his return was unknown.

Griffin, under constant pressure by the Detroit Lions’ defense after almost every pass play, left the game in the second quarter of the Redskins’ 21-17 victory. He suffered a stinger in his shoulder as well, but apparently that injury was not a concern.

“We’ll have to see,” head coach Jay Gruden said after the win when asked how much time Griffin would miss and whether he would be available next Saturday night for the third preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens.

“I would imagine, depending on how long he is out, he is still going to be our starter. We have to wait and go through the whole process and see how he recovers; see how fast he recovers. I have no idea as far as the third preseason game, fourth one, right now.”

A Redskins executive told ESPN’s Britt McHenry on Friday that Griffin “is fine” and the timetable for his return is “right now, next Saturday for our game, but (we) still need to make sure he is right.”

The NFL’s concussion protocol, which Griffin is in, does not specify a time frame for a player’s return. The fourth-year quarterback will be reassessed and must be approved to return by an independent neurologist.

Griffin went down in the second quarter. He started to run and lost the football on his own, and when he fell to recover it, Lions defensive end Corey Wootton fell on top of him.

Griffin stayed on the ground for three minutes, attended to by a trainer. He walked off the field slowly under his own power and went to the locker room but didn’t return to the game.

Griffin was sacked three times and fumbled twice, losing one. He completed 2 or 5 passes for eight yards. He was hit on six pass attempts, including on quick drops on which he threw quickly.

Gruden defended his decision to leave Griffin in for a fourth series.

“We weren’t doing that well on offense,” Gruden said. “I wanted to try to get something going on offense. A lot of quarterbacks play into the second quarter in a preseason game. Football is a tough sport. We felt confident in our tackle and our offensive line to try and get something going there with the fourth drive. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

“It’s frustrating, but I said to the team, it’s the second preseason game and we’re trying to get better. We want to have some momentum going into the season, obviously. If we have some drives that don’t work out, Detroit was the No. 2-ranked defense in the league last year. They’re a good team, a very good defensive football team. We have some guys not playing. We’re going to continue with our process, second preseason game, third preseason game, fourth preseason game. Get our team as ready as possible. We’re not going to be doom and gloom because we didn’t get any points with our ones in the first quarter.”

The 25-year-old Griffin has a history of injuries during his NFL career, including a torn ACL and LCL suffered in the playoffs during the 2012 season and a dislocated ankle last September.