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Raiders QB
Rich Gannon
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Raiders QB Rich Gannon is nobody’s prototype quarterback.
His arm isn’t all that strong. When he came into the NFL, some people said he
should be a wide receiver, safety or running back. He insisted on playing quarterback and
embarked on a journeyman’s career where he was not the answer in several cities.
Then he went to Oakland, where head coach Jon Gruden ignored the warts on Gannon’s
game. Gruden ignored what Gannon cannot do. He embraced what Gannon can do. Finally, after
so many years of bouncing around a league that showed him little love, Gannon found a
coach with an ideal system for him who appreciates him for what he is — a savvy
veteran with fleet feet, a keen mind and a warrior’s heart.
So what if Gannon does not have Jeff George’s arm strength? George may have a
rocket for an arm, but he is usually part of the problem instead of the solution.
So what if Gannon is an ancient 35 years old in a young man’s sport? The Pro Bowl
has no age restrictions.
Gannon’s success with the Raiders reminds me of a story Hall of Fame DE Deacon
Jones once told me. Throughout his entire pro career, Jones was always his team’s
backup placekicker. He did it for fun in practice, and since backup placekickers
didn’t exist, he got the job. Every week he would get penciled in as the backup. Of
course, he never actually got to kick in a game.
In his final season as a pro, Jones was playing for Washington. In the final
regular-season game, the Redskins were putting a beating on the Bears, so Jones went to
head coach George Allen and said, "Look, man, I’m retiring this year, and
I’ve got to kick one live."
Allen responded, "If we score again, you’ve got it."
The Redskins did score again, and into the game went Jones, a 6-5, 272-pound
placekicker. The holder saw Jones come in and balked, fearing that Jones would kick his
hand. Jones threatened, "I’m going to kick your head if you don’t hold this
ball."
The ball was snapped. Jones stepped forward and kicked the ball.
"It hit the goalpost on the right, bounced, hit the goalpost on the left and went
through," Jones said. "It was ugly, but I made it."
I wouldn’t go so far as to call Gannon’s game ugly, but it’s far from
drop-dead gorgeous. Last I saw, though, being an NFL quarterback is not a beauty contest.
Maybe Gannon does not pass the eyeball test with how far he can throw or how glamorous his
résumé is, but he is the perfect fit for his current team.
Gannon is never going to be compared to Dan Marino, John Elway or Joe Namath, but the
guy gets the job done. He wins. He leads. He does what you want a quarterback to do. He
does all the intangible things that you can’t test for at the Scouting Combine.
He provides toughness. That toughness was on display in the Raiders’ big Week
Eight win over the Broncos this season.
"He got hit on their sideline early in the game, and it did not look like he was
going to come back," Gruden said. "He is one tough, tough, competitive guy. He
just had the spirit to never say die. That’s what makes him special."
A quarterback should have some John Wayne in him. Fancy boy prima donnas don’t
inspire the troops.
"I think he got hit in the head, and I think he got mad," Gruden said of the
play on which Gannon got hurt. "Some guys are like that. It shakes them into another
zone."
Raiders CB Charles Woodson said, "You look at the quarterback, and you see him as
being a tough guy. The guy shows a lot. He got hurt, went down, stayed down for a little
while, got back up and finished the game off. That’s the type of effort we need out
of one of the leaders of our team."
Leadership. It’s a quality a quarterback has to have to succeed. It’s a
quality people don’t talk about enough when analyzing quarterbacks coming out of
college. Leadership is needed in every game, on every series, in every huddle. The ability
to throw the ball 70 yards is needed far less often.
"He’s a great leader," Raiders C Adam Treu said. "Guys look up to
him in the huddle. He’s such a competitor, and I think the guys feed off of him.
He’s like that during the week in practice. He expects a lot out of everybody. And
himself included. If we keep that up and keep looking to him to lead us, it’s going
to be great."
Of course, it takes more than leadership and toughness. Otherwise, the NFL would turn
to the Marines for its quarterbacks.
Vital qualities in a quarterback are instincts, grasping the nuances of the position
and finding a way to win. You don’t need to be able to throw the ball 70 yards to do
this. You need an experienced, steady craftsman like Gannon who makes good decisions and
avoids mistakes. He isn’t running with the ball as much as he did last year. He can
still do it, but now he picks his spots. He can hurt the opposition with his feet, but
he’s even more dangerous with his razor-sharp mind and an arm that has become much
more accurate the past two seasons.
"I was very impressed with Gannon, the way he scrambled and made plays and showed
a lot of discipline," Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan said after losing to the
Raiders in Week Eight.
"When something wasn’t there, he didn’t throw the pick. He scrambled
when nothing was there. … He’s been playing real consistent all year."
With a virtually mistake-free 15-2 TD-interception ratio, Gannon is providing what is
absolutely, unequivocally the most important quality in a quarterback. He is putting his
team in position to win.
"He’s a winning quarterback," Gruden said. "We did our research on
him, and we felt he had a passion and vibe this team needed. We felt he could make all
throws. He’s one of the top five or six athletes at this position."
It took a long time, but the aging Gannon finally has a secure place in the NFL.
"I keep saying he’s not getting older, he’s getting better," Gruden
said. "He started the Pro Bowl last year, and many people thought he should have been
the league MVP. Is he getting better? Yeah, he is."
Gannon is getting results. Spectacular results. Maybe that should be the prototype for
what teams want in a quarterback. |
