For the Redskins, Manning Watch ended late Friday evening when the team traded a bucketful of future picks to the St. Louis Rams for the No. 2 bid in this year’s NFL Draft. The swap all but guarantees that the Redskins, who had been seen as one of free agent Peyton Manning’s less likely suitors, will instead rebuild their offense around Baylor University quarterback Robert Griffin III.

Griffin, who won the Heisman Trophy last December, is seen as the second-most coveted draft pick behind only another quarterback, Stanford’s Andrew Luck, who is expected to be taken with the first draft pick by Manning’s former team, the Indianapolis Colts.

For the Redskins, the opportunity to secure one of this year’s most vaunted rookie prospects came at a steep price—besides swapping first-round picks with the Rams on April 26, Washington is also sending first-round picks in 2013 and 2014, as well as this year’s second-round pick, to St. Louis. Shortly after Fox Sports broke news of the trade, the immediate reaction was that this deal is perhaps the Redskins’ biggest gamble since Dan Snyder purchased the team. It’s also the team’s most solid attempt ending the moveable feast at the quarterback position since Mark Rypien’s final season in 1993, the Post’s Mike Wise wrote:

The move is as risky as it is aggressive. By trading away four high draft picks in return for one, the Redskins are heavily mortgaging the team’s future to acquire Griffin, a rare but unproven talent, to lead the team in a league that increasingly belongs to a handful of elite quarterbacks.

Plagued by inconsistent quarterback play for the better part of 20 seasons, and with Coach Mike Shanahan needing to reverse his fortunes as he entered his third season in charge, the Redskins were not expected to move cautiously this offseason.

Last year, they passed on the chance to draft a quarterback, instead trading down from 10th overall to meet multiple roster needs by eventually acquiring 12 draft picks. But a year later, after a second consecutive season of double-digit losses, the team cast caution aside and went after Griffin, considered by coaches to be an electrifying quarterback capable of carrying the franchise for years to come.

That “rare but unproven” talent, though, was one of the flashiest college football had seen in a while. In 2011, Griffin completed 72 percent of his passes for nearly 4,300 yards and 37 touchdowns while throwing only six interceptions. He also ran in another 10 touchdowns. But at Baylor Griffin led a spread offense; he’ll need to adapt to the West Coast offense employed by Mike Shanahan that favors short passes over the deep routes Griffin targeted in college. It’s a high-risk, high-reward deal the Redskins made, writes Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell:

Griffin’s career deserves to be measured on its merits, rather than the Redskins’ prayers or the price they paid. But the backdrop is unmistakable. The Redskins just doubled down on the very same high-profile, high-cost, high-risk (or all-of-the-above) method that has introduced Washington to Deion Sanders, Jeff George, Marty Schottenheimer, Dan Wilkinson, Bruce Smith, Steve Spurrier, Mark Brunell, Adam Archuleta, Sean Gilbert, Jim Zorn, Gregg Williams, Albert Haynesworth, Donovan McNabb and Shanahan. That the list is so long and familiar doesn’t make it any less staggering. RGIII will either demolish an amazing losing streak or confirm a curse.

But no matter the risk factor, already Redskins fans are thrilled about potentially ending the revolving door at quarterback and locking down a long-term player. On 106.7 The Fan Friday night, Redskins reporter Grant Paulsen and his co-host Pete Medhurst went on the air about 11:30 p.m. to start taking listeners’ calls about the draft swap. They stayed on until 5 a.m. without a commercial break.

The Post’s Sally Jenkins has another idea why Griffin seems poised to make a big impact in the D.C. area: He’s an military brat who grew up around the world as his parents, both Army sergeants, were transfered between bases in Japan, South Korea and across the U.S. At 13, his father, Robert Griffin Jr., was deployed to the Middle East for the first year of the Iraq war. Robert Griffin’s III childhood was imbued with military discipline that paid off in pursuits beyond football, Jenkins writes:

The rules in the Griffin house were simple and strict: Homework was the first duty. There was no hanging around without a purpose. Nobody got a car — kids didn’t need wheels. But along with rules came incentives: Top grades earned extra allowance. “The only thing Robert did was homework and play ball,” Copperas Cove High School football coach Jack Welch said. “He was very grounded, very rooted.”

…

By his senior year in high school, RGIII was class president and not only had earned his diploma early, he graduated seventh among his peers. “He was a scholar,” Welch said. He had also qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials as 400-meter hurdler, and was being recruited by most of the major football powers. He was a stunningly diverse talent, according to Welch.

So, Manning Watch was brief and, as it turned out, the Redskins never really had much of a shot to begin with. But the soon-to-be-36-year-old seems to have been forgotten just as quickly as he was salivated over. It’s Griffin’s town now—Some fans are already buying Redskins jerseys customized with his No. 10.