Gruden molds offense to fit personnel

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© St. Petersburg Times
published August 12, 2002

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- You have never seen such a playbook. Large, meticulous, diverse. And, best of all, there have been pages ripped out.

You see, sometimes the measure of a coach is not what he takes with him, but what he is willing to leave behind.

This is where we find Jon Gruden today. Revamping the Bucs offense by readjusting his system. Gruden knows all that he wants. But, more important, he realizes the limits to what he can get.

This means a game plan based on the same principles Gruden employed with a Pro Bowl quarterback in Oakland. But now it is tweaked to fit an altogether dissimilar Pro Bowl quarterback in Tampa Bay.

"The guy we had last year," Gruden said, "is a lot different from the guy we have this year."

The guy he had last year was Rich Gannon. Smart, experienced and quick. The guy he has this year is Brad Johnson. Smart, experienced and big.

The difference is notable. Much of what the Raiders did last season was based on Gannon's ability to run. Johnson is athletic, but he is not a sprinter.

"You have to take a look at the physical characteristics and the mental characteristics you have," Gruden said. "Where is their comfort level? What is their ability to execute within a certain system? How much can they take? Obviously, mobility, arm strength and things of those nature come into play. It impacts what you feature with your offense."

They will meet somewhere in the middle. A place where Gruden's schemes and Johnson's skills can mix comfortably. It is not so difficult to imagine.

Johnson has adjusted before. He set records in Minnesota. He made the Pro Bowl in Washington, and he carried a horrible offense in Tampa Bay.

Gruden, too, understands the beauty of flexibility. As an offensive coordinator in Philadelphia, he had a quarterback who was neither as big as Johnson nor as mobile as Gannon. And still, Ty Detmer took the Eagles to the playoffs in 1996.

So when it was time to install a new offense in Tampa Bay, Gruden began in the classroom. The quarterbacks studied the system on a board and on paper. They learned the concepts. They studied the shifts and motions.

Then Gruden showed them tape. Not just tape of Gannon in Oakland, but of Detmer in Philadelphia and Brett Favre in Green Bay. They even watched tapes of Steve Young and Joe Montana in San Francisco.

This is why Johnson is not concerned. He knows he can run this offense without being asked to run.

"Look, 95 percent of the offense is the same (as Oakland). Maybe 5 percent is different," Johnson said. "There are certain plays that I do feel more comfortable with. So I'll say, 'Jon, I feel better with this kind of set.' So he may switch the formation or the protection for a particular play. But he's going to live or die with his system.

"I've been running bootlegs out there. We're going to do some of that. Maybe just not as much. They may have run 15 bootlegs a year in Oakland, and we'll run maybe seven here."

There is, of course, another angle to Johnson's story. Actually, there is another Johnson in the story.

One of the first things Gruden did when he reached town was invite free-agent quarterback Rob Johnson to join him. Rob is a physical marvel whose potential has gone untapped. Much like Gannon before meeting Gruden.

The move was widely construed as Gruden's attempt to replicate his Oakland success with Rob Johnson as his protege.

Through the first few weeks of training camp, Brad Johnson has remained on top of the depth chart because of his consistency. He has picked up the system quickly and always has been adept at reading defenses.

Chances are, he will begin the season as the starter and remain as long as the team succeeds. "Jon's a smart football coach," said Bears defensive coordinator Greg Blache, who worked on the same Green Bay staff as Gruden during the mid 1990s. "Jon's going to run an offense that's going to fit his personnel. He's going to do things that match his people. He's not going to let the offense dictate his roster. He'll make things fit. He'll mold. He'll adjust."

Most of Gruden's plans will remain the same no matter who is at quarterback. At the most basic level, his goal is to catch defenses off-guard. He does this with multiple formations and multiple shifts. He could use the same play in succession, but in different ways.

"It doesn't matter who is behind center," No.3 quarterback Shaun King said. "In this system, you're going to have a chance to make plays. You don't have to be athletic. You just have to understand it."

Any minute now, the new offense is due to arrive.

Even if it is less than it was, it could be more than enough.

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