Most teams have quarterback coaches. The St. Louis Rams do; the Bears don’t.
Since Rams head coach Mike Martz serves as his own offensive coordinator, he especially appreciates the need for a separate quarterbacks coach. John Ramsdell has been the Rams’ quarterbacks coach since 1999, when Martz was offensive coordinator under head coach Dick Vermeil.
When Dick Jauron became the Bears’ coach in 1999, he named Gary Crowton offensive coordinator and John Shoop quarterbacks coach. But when Crowton left during the 2000 season and Shoop was promoted, Jauron never hired another quarterbacks coach.
“I’ve never liked it,” Jauron said. “I don’t want anyone between the offensive coordinator and the quarterback.”
Jauron said he hired Shoop in the first place solely because “I just really liked John.” Jauron’s experience in Jacksonville under Tom Coughlin was that Chris Palmer handled the quarterbacks as offensive coordinator. Now, Coughlin is his own offensive coordinator and he has a separate quarterbacks coach.
There are 26 NFL teams with quarterback coaches, including three with “offensive assistants” who were former quarterbacks themselves aiding the offensive coordinators. Five of the 26 are set up similarly to the Rams and Jaguars, with the head coach also serving as offensive coordinator. That means 21 teams have offensive coordinators plus coaches specifically assigned to the quarterbacks.
“I can’t imagine not having a quarterbacks coach,” Martz has said. “It involves more time and preparation than any position on the football team.
“I can’t even begin to think of why anybody would not have a quarterbacks coach. I can’t identify with that. There’s so much that has to be done information-wise to prepare a quarterback to play the game. You need to have somebody with him all the time.
“I have a quarterbacks coach who spends a great deal of time talking to him and working with him in practice before we start our team sessions on just the fundamentals and technique and just making sure he does not regress in those areas.”
Jauron said he is familiar with the argument that a quarterback needs a separate tutor for fundamentals but asks, “What does the coordinator do if he’s not working with the quarterback?”
If Jauron needed an endorsement for having both an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, he failed to get it in 1999, when rookie Cade McNown failed to develop.
Pittsburgh’s Kordell Stewart said his career was turned around last season when the Steelers added quarterbacks coach Tom Clements. But this year, Stewart’s career turned the wrong direction with Clements still there.
The Green Bay Packers are another team without a quarterbacks coach. They ran out of them. Steve Mariucci, Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg all served as quarterback coaches for Brett Favre and all amazingly became smart enough to be hired as head coaches. In San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Detroit, Mariucci, Reid and Mornhinweg all have offensive coordinators as well as quarterback coaches on their staffs.
Further review: NFL director of officials Mike Pereira agreed with referee Bob McElwee’s version of the hectic finish to the Bears’ loss to New England last weekend.
On Tom Brady’s first-down sneak on fourth-and-3 that was neither measured nor reviewed by replay, Pereira said:
“If the officials had spotted the ball short of the first down, Bob would have been buzzed to review the spot. It looked more like fourth-and-2 to me. By the time Bob got to the line to have a look, the Patriots are already snapping the ball to spike the ball [and stop the clock]. Replays show Bob trying to blow his whistle and stop the play [which he did, nullifying the spike and in effect giving the Patriots an extra down].
“While he was conferring with the officials, the replay officials already were reviewing the play and it was clearly a first down. It all looked sloppy, but it was called right.”
Nice timing: The Patriots, who haven’t played a game in Oakland since 1981, play there on Sunday, and memories of the “tuck rule” are likely to be rekindled.
The Raiders remain convinced Brady fumbled in their playoff loss in the snow in New England when referee Walt Coleman invoked the “tuck rule” to explain Brady hadn’t tucked the ball fully into his body after making a forward throwing motion and thus had thrown an incomplete pass. The Raiders’ recovery was nullified, and the Patriots came from behind to win.
During training camp, some Raiders players boycotted a routine training session by officials to protest the call. Receiver Tim Brown, one of the ringleaders, on the boycott’s effect: “I’ve had officials all during the season coming up to me and saying, `Look, we don’t necessarily agree with what you guys did, but we just want you guys to know . . . we’re not going to [get] you guys.’ . . . So I think from that standpoint we’re getting some positive feedback from those guys. I think this year it’s been pretty fair out there.”
New Patriots tight end Christian Fauria, a veteran of the Oakland experience from his days with Seattle, on what his teammates can expect: “One of our guys hit the wall behind the end zone after scoring a touchdown and the fans grabbed him and poured beer all down his pads. It’s amazing what they know too. You’re warming up and they know where you went to high school, who your wife’s first-grade teacher was. They really [do] their homework. It’s like going into a haunted house.”
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Raiders coach Bill Callahan, sensing owner Al Davis’ mood: “I think that Mr. Davis wants us to win this game.”
New rivalry: Without the Rams or 49ers misplaced in their division anymore, the Saints and Falcons are hooting it up in the new NFC South. After Atlanta’s Michael Vick led a comeback to win 37-35 three weeks ago, New Orleans receiver Joe Horn wasn’t that impressed.
“They ain’t good enough to be a rival,” Horn said. Elaborating last week, he said: “This isn’t like the St. Louis Rams or anything. Michael Vick is making this thing what it is. Everybody on that team and organization is riding on Michael Vick. Michael Vick can’t make them a Super Bowl contender. Maybe down the road, yeah. But not right now.”
Horn said that the Falcons’ win “doesn’t mean anything,” that “we should have scored 50 or 60 points.”
“It’s not like we’re preparing to go against the No. 1 defense in the NFL or anything like that,” Horn said.
Horn is leaving the details of stopping Vick to Saints defensive coordinator Rick Venturi, who is borrowing tactics from the Bulls’ championship era.
“If Michael Jordan scores 40 and you hold Scottie Pippen to 10 points, then you probably win the game,” Venturi said. “But if Jordan gets 40 and Pippen gets 30, you’re going to lose.”
Atlanta running back Warrick Dunn rushed for a season-high 142 yards last time.