Sports
How NFL journeyman Josh McCown is a key part of the Vikings’ quarterback development plan
EAGAN, Minn. – Enter Josh McCown, the fun-loving, backwards hat-wearing, gum-chewing quarterbacks coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Another preseason workout is complete and the 45-year-old former NFL quarterback and journeyman sits outside the TCO Performance Center, baking in the heat and playing some trivia.
Can you name all 14 former offensive coordinators?
He laughs.
“It looks like you might be missing a few,” he says.
Did I count them wrong?
“Well, let’s go down the list,” he says. “Let’s see.”
“Rich Olson. Jerry Sullivan. Alex Wood. Kees Rowen. Mike Martz. Greg Knap. Jeff… was it Davidson? Yes, Davidson. After Jeff, let’s see, it was Mike Martz again. That’s a repeat. Mike Tice.”
That’s one I didn’t have.
“He was in Chicago, yes. Marc Trestman and Aaron Kromer. That’s 10. Jeff Tedford and (quarterbacks coach) Marcus Arroyo are 11. John DeFilippo is 12 in Cleveland. Then Hue Jackson and Pep Hamilton. Then John Morton. Then Jeremy Bates. Then Mike Groh in Philadelphia. And then, technically, Tim Kelly in Houston. I didn’t play any snaps, but technically I was on the roster.”
So 18 maybe?
“I think so,” McCown says.
That was impressive.
“Yeah. And then in college, going backwards, Jim Ferguson was at Sam Houston, Larry Kueck at SMU, a guy named Greg Briner at SMU. High school was Wayne Coleman and Matt Turner. So….”
You’re just showing off. But how about this: If I asked you to translate offensive verbiage from one person to another, could you do it? For example, if I said “Mike Martz” and you rattled off a play.
“He was a numbers legend. Such as Trips Right Scat Right 094 F-Seam Trail. That’s the play that (current Vikings quarterback) Sam Darnold hit in the preseason opener this year. It’s not the same call, but that’s our play in that verbiage.
This is incredible.
Incredible memory, certainly, but also informative in review. From the moment the Vikings set their sights on drafting a quarterback this spring, they have been intentional in almost every respect. This includes the recruitment of McCown, who randomly showed up at the NFL Scouting Combine. Head coach Kevin O’Connell made the move for several reasons, including a relationship between the two men that dates back more than a decade. Another factor, however, was exactly what McCown does here.
Using his memory. Translate information. Don’t take yourself too seriously and don’t put too much pressure. This is McCown, the quarterbacks coach in a nutshell. Looking at what he has envisioned for Darnold, JJ McCarthy and the Vikings organization in general, it becomes increasingly clear that the package is a carefully chosen amalgamation of attributes from the names he just mentioned.
It was a full-circle moment for Josh McCown and Sam Darnold as they reunited in Minnesota.
📺: https://t.co/iCm3Bs93L9 pic.twitter.com/q0WSvsqvwY
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) June 12, 2024
Back to Trips Right Scat Right 094 F-Seam Trail.
Here’s Martz’s verbiage on the impressive throw Darnold made to wide receiver Jalen Nailor in the Vikings’ first preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders. Darnold released the ball before Nailor completed his route to the center of the field. McCown is still excited about it.
“The way Sam hit that ball, man,” McCown says, “it was just perfect.”
As expected?
“One hundred percent,” says McCown, “and he’s learned that over time. We played together his rookie year. I probably talked about it then. I learned that from being coached by Martz and watching Jon Kitna and Kurt Warner do it. Cut the dangball loose.”
For the uninitiated, Martz was the head coach of the St. Louis Rams during the “Greatest Show on Turf” era. McCown first met him in 2006 when he was signed by the Detroit Lions at age 27. He had been in the league for several seasons and had started 20 games for the Arizona Cardinals after being selected in the third round in 2002. When he showed up in Detroit, Martz described him as a “wild horse rider.”
Martz tells a story about a particular throw in McCown’s first practice with the Lions. Martz asked the quarterbacks to throw a deep in-cut over the middle of the field. McCown, sensing the safety floating toward the cut, instead threw over the top on a deep post pattern. It was a touchdown.
“I said, ‘What the hell was that?’” Martz recalls. “He looked at me and said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘What the hell was that? You just do what you want to do?’ He didn’t understand.”
You could say Martz was just a tough guy, but McCown acknowledges this was the first time he played in an intentional NFL passing game. He couldn’t just catch the snap, make his drop and scan the field looking for the open man. Martz’s offense dictated that he had to look in specific spots for various reasons – and throw the ball at the right time.
Kitna, with whom McCown competed for the Lions’ starting job that season, assisted with the details. The plays in Martz’s playbook were just a guide. On the field, other factors, such as his receiver’s speed and the tendencies of opposing defenses, forced him to adapt. Think of learning an offensive system the way an actor learns his lines: the script says one thing, but the actor’s flair is often what brings the production to life. Knowing which words to change or what adjustments to make is a skill that can only be developed through experience.
“It’s easy to just play someone and say, ‘Find the open man,’” McCown says. “And then you come in Monday morning as a coach and you’re holding the clicker and you say, ‘You probably should have thrown it to that guy.’ Well, that’s right. Thank you.
“It’s harder for the coach to say, ‘This is who we are.’ think will be open. This is where you are going to start your eyes. And then respond to that piece, being as detailed as possible. ”
The challenge, of course, is balancing the details: the need to be purposeful with every aspect of your drop and eyes and decision-making, and the need to keep your mind still when you’re in the pocket and the crowd is screaming: the pass rushers are rushing towards you and the defense swarms across the field.
While Martz, Kitna and Warner explained the need for specificity, Trestman focused on eliminating the gray area. Trestman simplified the amount and scope of McCown’s decision-making after the snap. More than at any other point in his career, McCown, who was 34 with the Chicago Bears in 2013, felt like he knew where to go with the football. And as long as he operated correctly, Trestman gave him confirmation on the back end – kind of like a catcher who shrugs when the pitcher throws the perfect pitch at the suggested spot and the batter crushes it anyway. Correct process, unfortunate outcome.
In O’Connell, McCown found someone who could identify with his experiences with other coaches. They met in 2015 in Cleveland. O’Connell was the Browns’ quarterbacks coach and together they talked about their favorite concepts, verbiage and teaching philosophies. They teamed up with Johnny Manziel during that brutal 3-13 season. But McCown appreciated O’Connell’s approach and humility. The first NFL coach, six years younger than McCown, would ask him for advice.
They kept in touch after that season as O’Connell began creating his own system and McCown played another five years before becoming the Carolina Panthers’ quarterbacks coach last year. McCown played in 102 NFL games and recorded a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 98:82, but his experience with Bryce Young reinforced something he often says about playing quarterback: This is super hard, man.
“Over a three- to five-year period, there might be five to seven transcendent players at the position,” McCown says. “The rest needs people around them.”
Peoplehe says, referring mainly to talent on the field.
But the quarterbacks coach is also important.
Josh McCown was the Carolina Panthers’ quarterbacks coach last season, working with No. 1 pick Bryce Young. (Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
O’Connell describes his teaching philosophy with quarterbacks by saying, “We want to tie the feet and eyes of the quarterback together.” In a general sense, this is the common thread between being detailed and not clouding the quarterback’s mind.
After mentioning all of his former offensive coordinators, McCown explains.
“When you see a quarterback drop and you look at his helmet turning to the left, he’s looking to the left,” McCown said. “If you pause it, hopefully you’ll see the bottom half of the quarterback and his feet start moving in that direction and then throw the ball. You’d be shocked, but so many guys – especially the younger guys – are disconnected. Their feet and eyes are all pulled up.”
So you’re trying to get them in sync?
“Exactly,” says McCown.
How do you learn that?
“Reps,” he answers, describing one of the drills the Vikings quarterbacks do every day. They receive the snap, look at a receiver on the right side, line up their body and throw. Then they catch another snap, shift their eyes to the left, line up their feet and throw again. Some days they move from the right side to the left, as if mimicking four progressions.
“You build that out until you have 22 people,” McCown says.
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For example, do you mean adding the pass rush, which probably makes it harder to be so calm and disciplined with the feet and eyes?
“Now you get it,” he says, “and that takes us all the way back to Martz, where we know exactly what you’re doing. If you’re unsure of your side, your own transgression will weigh on your brain before you even start. Then it’s: ‘Uhhh, what should I do? … Oh, no …’ If you know what you’re doing, if you can get guys to play in a system for years, it’s like, ‘Boom. There is a ball. Tree. There’s one more. Boom, boom, boom.” You’re playing fast, processing. Stress sets in, and they know the answer to the test.
Experience isn’t required to learn all this, but it is do as a coach, give him a distinctly empathetic view.
McCown encourages. He pats his quarterbacks on the helmet after good throws and gives criticism with a fist bump after bad throws. When he notices something is wrong, he doesn’t let much time pass before reporting what he saw. But he doesn’t yell, scream, or shout because it’s not authentic to him.
The situation is difficult enough, he says.
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(Top photo: G. Newman Lowrance / Associated Press)
