Gruden on Johnson
by Dave Gardner
Buccaneers Head Coach Jon Gruden talks with Dave Gardner about rookie quarterback Josh Johnson and the other quarterbacks in Tampa.
DG: How much film did you watch on Josh Johnson before deciding that you liked him? What skill sets does he have that enticed you?
JG: We watched several films on him as a junior and a senior, and we watched all of his practices and his game film at the East-West Shrine Game, so we had a lot of exposure to him. And we knew the guys who coached him. We felt that late in the fifth round, it was a good gamble for us.
DG: He had a solid coaching staff in college with head coach Jim Harbaugh. Does getting a positive review from a respected quarterbacks coach like him really encourage you? He did claim that — fittingly enough — Johnson had “Rich Gannon’s” mind.
JG: Yeah, the positions coaches John Murtha (?) and David Shaw that did his daily coaches were actually on my staff in Oakland. Josh has been running a system that is similar to ours, so I felt that the development process would actually be quicker. You seem him having to make a lot of throws that you would have to make in our offense. Whether or not he can play at this level, we’ll have to see; but he does have promise, and we’re excited about him.
DG: What do you think is the weakest area of his game, what area will take the most work to get to a pro level?
JG: Well first of all, he has to improve as a passer tremendously. He’s got to become much more accurate, and that starts with where he needs to get better. He’s got to throw the ball consistently better all the time, and he’s got to get himself acclimated to this game. The corners that he’s going to see in the NFC South are going to be quite a bit different than what he’s seen in Division 3. He’s going to need some reps, and he’s going to take some time, but the number one thing he’s going to need to do is throw the ball more consistently — and that includes all the throws.
DG: As far as his passing ability is concerned, does he need to be rebuilt from the ground up — how is his throwing motion and his release?
JG: I think he’s got a good consistent stroke, but the ball doesn’t spin consistently. He’s erratic at times. He’s not what you would call a natural passer at this point. A lot of guys can make a rapid improvement if they can get their footwork worked out. He also needs to become more detailed. He’s just an erratic passer at this point, and if he can’t improve that, he’ll have a hard time making the team.
DG: Do the people who say that his stats are inflated have a point, that his talent level was simply above his competition? At any level, though, throwing 43 touchdowns and one interception — which was actually tipped — is a tremendous of a performance.
JG: Yeah, he has a tremendous statistical portfolio, and that’s not just in passing, he rushed for almost 2,000 yards. He dominated at the Division 3 level. That’s what you would expect a guy to do who has NFL talent. But this is another step for him, and statistics are pretty irrelevant when you ask me. We’re just going to take a look at the raw product and get the most out of him.
DG: What is the typical time frame to develop a quarterback? Does Johnson coming from a smaller school affect his rate of development?
JG: Well, we don’t have much time to develop these guys. We’ve got three quarterbacks on our roster right now who have won games for us: Garcia, Griese, and McCown. It better not take him very long. We’ll see where he is. It’s a difficult prediction, some guys will take a year or two, sometimes they burst onto the scene really quickly. But he’s got to improve his passing. He’s in the fight for his life right now.
DG: When Simms and Gradkowski were the main starters in 2005, do you think that it hurt them not having a strong veteran who had experience in your system on the sidelines? And will that be a valuable asset for Johnson, because all the quarterbacks on your roster now have played in games, and won games, for the Bucs?
JG: He’s going to have someone to watch and learn from, and I think that’s always an asset. However, in our situation, we thrust a couple of young guys into starting roles. They both took over when other guys got hurt. When Griese took over, Simms had to take over: rocky start, rocky finish. Bruce as a rookie, he was thrust into a real tough role. It’s not always an easy life — and sometimes you have to respond to adversity — but that’s part of your job when you’re a quarterback in this league.
DG: You do have four pretty young guys on the roster now with Simms, Gradkowski, McCown, and Johnson. Simms may not be attending, but how do you get all the other guys enough snaps to evaluate them properly during camps?
JG: Not really. Garcia takes a lot of reps. We’ve had Griese here for 2.5 years, so it’s not like we don’t know what we have. We’ve had Luke here for four years. Those three guys are taking a vast majority of the reps. To be honest with you, Josh hasn’t seen many of the reps, and he won’t see any more until he starts to throw the ball better. As for Bruce Gradkowski, his career is over unfortunately. We’re going to give the reps to the guys who deserve them.
DG: Because the injury bug hit the team pretty hard last season, would you be hesitant to take four quarterbacks all the way to the 53-man roster?
JG: If they are four of our best players, we will. I just want to have one good quarterback, I’m getting tired of talking about all of these quarterbacks. We’ve got a Pro Bowl guy here who wins for us. We’ve got to have great play at this position. We don’t really foresee ourselves keeping for guys at that position, but you never know. If Josh comes out… who knows what will happen based on the next three or four months?
DG: How can you tell as a coach when a quarterback’s “light has turned on” so to speak, and he’s ready to the guy?
JG: Well, you just you see it. You see it in his eyes, and you see it in his performance. You know, the preseason games will be a good gauge of that. But we’ll have to see how he performs on a daily basis, drill in and drill out. One period is passing drill, one period is a running drill. One day we’ll be working against a zone, another day, we’ll be doing a two-minute drill. So we’ll see how he does in situational football. If he can outperform the other guys, he’s going to get the ball when he does.
DG: Do you believe that Josh can be that guy?
JG: Like I said, he’s a guy that was one of the last picks in the fifth round. He’s what I would call a long shot. He’s not throwing the ball well enough right now. He’s got to throw the ball much better for us to have this conversation.