Editor's note: Tony Grossi covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN 850 WKNR.

Yip-ee, RG3: Is a single win with no touchdown passes in four starts enough for the Browns to bring back Robert Griffin as their uncontested starting quarterback in 2017?

Amazingly, astonishingly, it is sounding like that answer may be yes.

Griffin’s status for Sunday’s season finale in Pittsburgh is in doubt because of a concussion he suffered in the losing streak-busting victory over the San Diego Chargers.

There is a chance Griffin could be cleared from concussion protocol Thursday or Friday and play against the Steelers for a fourth game in a row. But, if not, coach Hue Jackson said he could still fully evaluate Griffin’s truncated Season of Reclamation.

“Yeah, once I am able to go back and sit down when this is over and look back through it in a different lens of just watching our guys play, I think I will be able to make that determination,” Jackson said. “But if he is [able to play], I would like to see him play a little more and continue to see if he can grow and get better.”

And Jackson indicated he sees life in Griffin to still be “the guy.”

“We have seen him get better from the first opportunity to the second to the third,” the coach said. “Hopefully, he can keep making jumps as you go because that says a lot to me. I would like to if we could, but if we can’t, I understand that, too.”

Despite only four games, one win, no touchdowns and two injuries, left tackle and offensive captain Joe Thomas gave a stunningly strong endorsement of Griffin as next season’s starter.

“I do [think he can still be a franchise quarterback],” Thomas said. “I think we have a limited amount of film on him so far, but I think the things we have seen in meeting rooms and on the practice field and some games, you have seen franchise-level talent.

“I would not write him off by any stretch of the imagination. I would not be surprised at all if he was our guy at the beginning of next season because I think he has shown enough that if they do decide to make Robert the guy, I think he could definitely be the guy and will have the support of the locker room.”

What do they see?: Griffin was understandably pedestrian in the season opener, having spent his entire last season in Washington protected from game injury as a scout-team practice player. He threw for 190 yards and one interception in a 29-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Near the end, he scrambled from pressure, ran down the right sideline and then collided with a Philadelphia defensive back while vainly trying to step out of bounds. Griffin broke a bone in his left shoulder and missed the next 11 weeks.

After that long layoff, he was rusty and woefully unspectacular. He threw for 104 yards and one interception and scored a touchdown on a sneak in a 23-10 loss to Cincinnati. His next game was better – 196 yards passing and 48 yards running with another rush touchdown – in a 33-13 loss to Buffalo.

Then he had the breakthrough victory, 20-17 over San Diego, in which he threw for 164 yards and ran for 42. Most impressive was that Griffin did not turn the ball over despite seven sacks. He was knocked out of the game on a hit to his head while running from pressure, sending him into concussion protocol.

I asked Jackson what was more relevant to Griffin’s future, the fact he produced a victory or suffered a second injury in four games. He chuckled at the question, a sure sign he didn’t like it.

“That is not fair. Wow,” he said. “Hopefully, it is the fact that he won a game, but you have to stay healthy. I will be the first to tell you that. It is hard to play in this league when you are not out there playing. He did everything to help us have a chance to win the game.

“He played better in some areas, but you have to find a way to stay out there. In respect to how it was, the guy took a lot of different hits – some that he can get better at but a lot that where we have to continue to get better at. I think it goes both ways.”

Outside the box continuity: I think the Browns are leaning toward continuing the Griffin experiment for a number of reasons.

One, there is no clear-cut, “must-have” franchise quarterback hopeful in the draft. There very well may be a future franchise-saver in the draft, but it would take a savvy organization to identify him. I just think the Browns are incredibly gun-shy about tabbing a quarterback high. They aren’t good at it and they know it.

Two, the price-tag for soon-to-be-available Jimmy Garoppolo of New England has been conveyed to ESPN’s Adam Schefter as first- and fourth-round draft picks. That is excessive for a quarterback with two NFL starts and one injury in four seasons. But somebody will pay it – the Bears or Jets or whichever team hires Josh McDaniels – and the unconfident Browns will drop out.

Three, the Browns are in the mode of “continuity for the sake of continuity.”

This falls in line with their thinking of “well, blowing it up hasn’t worked, so why not give everybody another chance?”

So despite a 1-15 or 2-14 final record, I fully expect Jimmy Haslam to make the case for status quo in his organization for the first time in his five years of ownership.

That means no change in football operations, no change in extreme dependence on analytics, no change in Jackson’s coaching staff. These will surely bring the desired kudos from the national press and save Haslam from more ridicule for impetuousness.

And the status quo will extend to Griffin, who surely will be back.