A Little Bit Of Marc Trestman
April 22nd, 2014If CNN was a sports network (anyone remember CNNSI? Man, Joe misses that outfit), it would have round-the-clock coverage of trying to solve the mystery of Jeff Tedford’s offense. For weeks, that’s all Bucs fans have been trying to decipher, with few clues.
Bucs coaches and players have been very coy about Tedford’s offense. Granted, today is the first day players will have a chance to run a play under the watch of Tedford (yes, Joe will be at the first voluntary minicamp, so check back often this afternoon), but folks outside of One Buc Palace are hungry for information.
Bucs starting quarterback Josh McCown has invoked the name of Chip Kelly. various Bucs players have stated the offense will be “up-tempo,” and others have offered it will be “balanced.”
Awfully vague terms.
Yesterday, McCown made an appearance on “The Blitz,” co-hosted by Bruce Murray and Rich Gannon, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, and was peppered with questions about the new offense.
As a result, McCown dropped another hint: that there will be elements of Marc Trestman’s offense. Trestman was McCown’s coach with the Bears, also a noted quarterback guru where McCown has had his greatest success as an NFL signal-caller.
Bruce Murray: Talk about your experience last year, not just playing for Marc Trestman, but playing at such a high level for the Bears.
Josh McCown: [Laughs] How long do we have? Man, I learned so much and will forever be grateful to work with Marc Trestman and [Bears quarterback coach] Matt Cavanaugh. It was all-encompassing both personally and professionally, too. I think the attention to details and not getting bored with the details. That’s the toughest thing in this business for me and in anything in life. Sometimes, the most mundane and the most simple are brushed aside but they are the most difficult to focus on because by definition they are mundane and simple. But when you can dig in to those things and not be bored and have the mental fortitude to stick with those things and to day in and day out continue to go over those things and brush up on those things, I think that’s where success lies, when you put yourself into position to be successful. I think, for me, looking back, that’s what I grabbed the most.
Rich Gannon: What will you do different now, Josh? It’s now your team. This team struggled a year ago, they just won four games. They are in transition with the new coaching staff. Now that you have been through it a little bit you mentioned, with Arizona and with Oakland, what will you do differently this time that you didn’t do the first time?
McCown: I think, be more proactive with my approach. How we are going to do things. Make sure everybody is on the same page, with receivers and O-line from the quarterback’s standpoint. Sometimes you can sit back and as a young quarterback you don’t want to step on toes or whatever the case may be. For me, I just acquiesced to other older players and things got lost in translation, and you don’t know what is going on in protection or on the route. And as you get older, you are the guy out there in the middle of people and you have to make sure you get the job done and that you are all on the same page. Bring everybody together and make sure we are speaking the same language and doing the same things.
Gannon: Josh, what is the offense going to look like under Jeff Tedford and will there be any similarities to what you did in last year in Chicago?
McCown: Every offense there is carry over and things you see on tape where, “Oh, I think we can do that.” So, I am sure, and already seeing a little bit of this in my studies, that there will be a carryover and that is a good thing. But there is also a fresh set of eyes and a fresh twist that Jeff Tedford is bring from when he was coaching at Cal. I am excited about learning. And it has been fun, just in these past two weeks starting to get dialed into these new things. So it was neat, the experiences I had with Marc coming from Canada and kind of bringing a different perspective and understanding of the game with him. So that was fun. So, it’s kind of the same feeling [with Tedford coming from college] and quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo coming from college with a different set of eyes. As you know, Rich, when you are later in your career and you are kind of set in the NFL ways, I have been guilty in the past, you go, “College?!” You get a little leery of that but you look at what Chip Kelly did to our league last year, coming from Oregon, it was very impressive to see how explosive that offense was. I learned my lesson there not to judge those people so I am really excited about working with Jeff and what he brings.
Well, the first thought Joe had was this is just smart. Why wouldn’t a coach want to incorporate parts of an offense for a quarterback in which said quarterback had his greatest success in the NFL?
Joe is also starting to smell that Tedford will try to craft his offense around McCown’s best skills. This is also another smart move.
Joe just gets his panties in a bunch when coaches try to ramrod a player into an offense (or a defense) because that’s what coach wants. A smart coach will craft and mold an offense (or a defense) to take advantage of the strengths of a player.
Joe uses Tuna Parcells as an example. He is largely thought to be a ground-and-pound coach stemming from his days with the Giants. But when he drafted Drew Bledsoe in New England, he knew Bledsoe’s arm was his offense’s strength and he had Bledsoe throwing the ball 40 times a game. And winning.
April 22nd, 2014 at 10:07 am
Love the article Joe! I can’t get enough when it comes to our new offense!
April 22nd, 2014 at 10:18 am
Nice article. I think McCown is perfect as a mentor. Hope we draft a QB for him to groom.
April 22nd, 2014 at 10:22 am
Didn’t watch much Bears football. What’s the M.O on Trestman’s offense as it would pertain here?
April 22nd, 2014 at 10:25 am
Glennon should be even better now under this OC…shut the critics up Glennon!!!
April 22nd, 2014 at 10:47 am
This is like opening a present on XMas morning!! What will be the present that is our New Offense be?
April 22nd, 2014 at 10:48 am
The thing that I’m most curious about is that if tedford molds his offense to help the QB then what happens if we switch QBs halfway through the season?
April 22nd, 2014 at 11:23 am
Early Joe Gibbs was the ultimate example of a coach adapting to players. In the early 80’s the team was almost overly reliant of the between the tackles running of John Riggins and a play-action old school (but effective) passing game led by Theismann. Then in the late 80’s he went to more balance and began spreading the ball out even more (to Sanders, Monk, Clark) as well as never having a bell cow RB again (though Tim Smith should looked like one for a game). When he won his last Super Bowl in the 1991 season, that offense set tons of league scoring records led by Mark Rypien’s aeronautical expertise running not only his Don Coryell passing concepts, but also concepts from the run and shoot as well as also having a strong running game led by Earnest Byner and Gerald Riggs.
A good coach adapts. Joe Gibbs is the ultimate example of a coach that can adapt (Super Bowl wins with 3 different QBs).
April 22nd, 2014 at 3:32 pm
so joe doesn’t bring up manziel, and yet a gumby-lover spouts nonsense. smh.
April 22nd, 2014 at 8:29 pm
Is it me or does Marc Trestman look like Christopher Lloyd in that picture? Great Scott!!!! Lmao