Gruden: 'No matter what I say about Robert (Griffin), it's going to get twisted'

Washington Redskins head coach Jay Gruden - who has been highly critical of quarterback Robert Griffin III this season - isn't satisfied with the way their relationship is being portrayed in the media.

"No matter what I say about Robert, it's going to get twisted one way or the other. If I say he is doing great, it's going to be I am too easy on him," Gruden told ESPN's John Keim. "If I say he needs to work harder, it means I said he's lazy. If I said he needs to work on his fundamentals, it means I don't like him."

Gruden has been relatively direct with his criticisms of RG3's development, often claiming the former second-overall pick was coddled by previous coaching regimes.

The coach/quarterback saga continued earlier this week when Gruden hurled a few not-so-veiled shots at the young quarterback.

Although Gruden seems more than willing to air out his issues in a public forum, he still believes the third-year pivot has a bright future in the NFL.

"I've got a ton of respect for Robert, man, and for what he goes through at the quarterback position, what he has already accomplished as a young quarterback and what he is going to accomplish in the future," Gruden said. "How we coach them in here is how we coach him, but we can't let the outside world affect what we do in here. And the whole idea of coach/player relationship is to get better every day and work on our game, work on what I do, work on what I can do to make him better and that's the bottom line. That's all we can do, that's all we want to do."