“I’m excited about the opportunity to join the Dawg Pound and help build something here in Cleveland,” Griffin said in a written statement released by the Browns. “Coach Hue [Jackson] and Pep [Hamilton, Cleveland’s quarterbacks coach], I had a great meeting with them. I really believe in what they preach and how they can help not only me as a player but this team win games and that’s what we’re all about.

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“I’m just excited to come in and compete. Nothing’s ever been given to me in my life, so I just want to go out and compete with the guys and grow with this team. I feel like that’s all I’m really focused on.”

The two-year deal signed by Griffin, 26, is worth $15 million and includes $6.75 million in guaranteed money, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

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The Browns have had 24 different starters at quarterback since 1999, including three last season: Josh McCown, Johnny Manziel and Austin Davis. The team’s long search for a franchise quarterback most recently led the Browns to use a first-round draft choice on Manziel in 2014. But the former Heisman Trophy winner at Texas A&M lasted only two seasons in Cleveland amid disappointing on-field results and off-field controversies, and was released. Manziel remains unsigned and has an uncertain NFL future.

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Griffin joins fellow quarterbacks McCown, Davis and Connor Shaw on the Cleveland roster. The Browns have the second overall selection in next month’s NFL draft and seem likely to use it on a quarterback. The top candidates are thought to be Cal’s Jared Goff and North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz. So the window of opportunity for Griffin to play before a prized rookie might take over could be narrow.

But Jackson, a former head coach of the Oakland Raiders and the offensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals before being hired by the Browns this offseason, is well regarded around the league as an offensive coach. His presence might give Griffin a chance to recapture some of his former on-field magic.

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“We are excited about Robert joining the Cleveland Browns,” Jackson said in a written statement. “He brings starting experience to our team and organization. He’s a young, athletic, talented passer and he’s really just starting out in this league. Just like every player on our team, Robert will have to earn every opportunity he gets. He will compete with the rest of the quarterbacks on our roster and he helps improve our QB room, which was one of my goals upon taking the job. It’s a special room and we want to put special people and players in that room.”

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Griffin made visits to the Browns and New York Jets following his release by the Redskins, who cut their ties to the former No. 2 overall selection in the NFL draft to avoid paying Griffin a salary of more than $16 million for the 2016 season. He also appeared to be a candidate for the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams, and might have emerged as a possibility in San Francisco if he’d remained on the market and the 49ers had traded Colin Kaepernick.

But no team moved quickly to sign Griffin, and the quarterback market stalled in general while Kaepernick’s status with the 49ers remained unclear and the Jets negotiated with their incumbent starter, Ryan Fitzpatrick. The Browns emerged in recent days as Griffin’s top possibility.

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Not everyone seems convinced the signing was prudent. Agent Blake Baratz wrote of the Browns on Twitter: “You won’t pay your own quality players that walked out the door but you’ll overpay for RG3? I would love [to] see the analytics behind that one[.]”

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The Redskins sent a king’s ransom of draft picks to the Rams, then based in St. Louis, to move up in the 2012 draft to get Griffin, a former Heisman Trophy winner at Baylor. He appeared to be a star in the making during a brilliant rookie season in which he threw for 3,200 yards and ran for 815 more while operating in an offensive system with college-style elements in it designed for him by former Redskins coach Mike Shanahan and his son Kyle, then the team’s offensive coordinator.

But there were questions about whether Griffin could have lasting NFL success playing that style, and his Redskins career unraveled from there. His rookie season ended with a knee injury suffered in a playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks, and the remainder of Griffin’s tenure in Washington was marked by injuries and turbulence. His relationship with the Shanahans was described by many observers as strained. The arrival of Shanahan’s successor, Jay Gruden, failed to help Griffin retain the starting job, as Kirk Cousins emerged as the team’s quarterback and was rewarded this offseason with the franchise-player tag.

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Griffin faded into the background last season as a reserve, earning some praise for handling his demotion without creating issues. Now he and the Browns will attempt to help each other.

“We are excited to add Robert to our team,” Sashi Brown, Cleveland’s executive vice president of football operations, said in a written statement. “Robert possesses a unique skill set at the quarterback position. He has played at a high level in this league and is intent on doing everything in his power to return to that level on a consistent basis. After meeting with him, having him work out for us and doing our diligent research, we felt it was right to grant him an opportunity with our organization.

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“We were able to see and feel his passion and commitment to re-establishing himself as a starting quarterback in this league and his embrace of the hard work that will be essential to his development. We’ve been clear on the importance of improving and stabilizing the quarterback position for our franchise. We have said that the draft is and will be our primary focus, but we will always look to complement the draft through free agency, and this is one of those examples. We look forward to working with Robert and getting him in the building with his teammates at the start of the offseason program on April 4.”