Hey Jack, welcome to the world of T206's! It will be a long and crazy ride, so hold on tight
IMO the Griffith looks trimmed at the top, like you said. The top edge looks to go downward toward the corner, which indicates a trim job. Sometimes when cards look trimmed, but you aren't sure, you can see if the bottom has the same type of cut as the top...doesn't automatically mean it is or isn't trimmed, but you will see cards that are miscut and not trimmed, but look like they are. There are several threads about trimmed cards that you can gain knowledge from...just do a search in the archive. I'm sure others will chime in and direct you towards some good threads or articles.
As far as the tears go...I have seen 206's with "nicks" or "chips" that are in "1-3" holders. So the "nicks" do not necessarily kill the grade...just depends how severe and if they are actually paper loss or just chipping on the surface.
Edited to add: If those are tears (rough cuts) at the bottom, that could be an indication of a trim job as well.
Found a link:
http://net54baseball.com/forum/content/trimming.html