Frazier on Griffin: `He's not the Cedric we saw before the second ACL injury'

Coach says the team has no choice but to keep playing the struggling cornerback

December 5, 2011 at 9:49PM

We'll get more into this for our Tuesday story, but just wanted to pass along coach Leslie Frazier's response when asked if cornerback Cedric Griffin was "missing something" after coming back from his second ACL injury in two season.

Here's what he said, and it wasn't pretty, especially if you're Cedric Griffin:

"Yeah, I think so. He's not the Cedric we saw before the second ACL injury and he's tried to battle through some things but his confidence level has not been where it needs to be to play at a high level in our League and I'm sure it has a lot to do with coming off of a second ACL. And we're just so depleted depth-wise that we have to have him out there. I know he'd like to play better. I know he's trying to play better but it's been a tough year for him."

Griffin declined comment when approached in the locker room. He hasn't spoken to reporters in two months.

about the writer

about the writer

Mark Craig

Sports reporter

Mark Craig has covered the NFL nearly every year since Brett Favre was a rookie back in 1991. A sports writer since 1987, he is covering his 30th NFL season out of 37 years with the Canton (Ohio) Repository (1987-99) and the Star Tribune (1999-present).

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