One of the first things Bears rookie quarterback Rex Grossman stressed last week was that his first professional start Sunday against the Vikings wasn’t about him, and he had a point.
It’s as much about a city stuck in NFL quicksand for more than a decade and desperate for a rope braided with optimism. It’s about a head coach who might be four quarters away from getting a pink slip with his next Christmas card. It’s about a franchise harder on quarterbacks than Chicago winters are on mail carriers.
It’s about time.
When Grossman breaks the huddle for the first play, many Bears fans already will be looking at their watches wondering what time Grossman will get them back to the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Grossman simply will be looking for a clock of another kind if he listens to his coaches.
“He’s going to have a lot of things going through his mind, I know, but the first thing he has to remember is to come out and find the play clock,” Bears quarterbacks coach Greg Olson said. “He has to know if he’ll have to hustle up to the line and get motion going and then make sure we’re in the correct formation.”
Grossman prefers to walk toward the line of scrimmage ahead of schedule, with as many as 20 seconds left on the 40-second play clock. That leaves ample time to locate where the strong safety and free safety have lined up and whether the cornerbacks have positioned themselves inside or outside the wide receivers. It allows time to notice nuances like a defensive tackle who might be giving away a coverage by his stance, or a sack-minded linebacker disguising a blitz by pretending to cover the tight end.
Simultaneously, Grossman must remember to signal the man in motion, to call any audibles, to make any dummy calls intended to fool the defense and to get the snap count right.
“In college I just sort of made sure I was protected and slung the ball around,” Grossman said. “This is thinking so much.”
To think Grossman learned Steve Spurrier’s sophisticated, pro-oriented scheme at Florida, the Harvard of passing offenses. Sunday, he starts working toward his doctorate in NFL decision-making.
Before his first pro pass, Grossman must determine within seconds whether the Vikings are playing man coverage or a three-deep zone, a two-deep zone or a zone known as “quarter-quarter-half.” The coverage will dictate whether he needs to change the play at the line of scrimmage. It also could necessitate the receivers changing their routes 10 yards into them.
“After the man goes in motion, [Grossman] should be able to get a coverage read based on the motion adjustment,” Olson explained.
That usually means if a defender follows a receiver in motion, Grossman can expect man coverage and a blitz. If no defender follows, he will anticipate zone–which still might mean blitz. Good NFL pass defenses have more disguises than Michael Jackson.
“Sometimes we motion just to give the quarterback an idea what they’re in,” Olson added.
The Bears have a good idea the Vikings will blitz so much Sunday that they all but activated the kitchen sink to throw at Grossman. Asked how much more he blitzed rookie quarterbacks just because they were rookies back when he was a defensive coordinator at Jacksonville, Bears coach Dick Jauron didn’t have to jog his memory.
“A lot more,” he answered without hesitation. “We would have done it until he shows that he can hurt you.”
That much Grossman expects, especially given the Bears’ combination of a quarterback making his first NFL start on the same day as a left tackle, Qasim Mitchell, expects to make his. That’s an invitation to the pocket that the Vikings, no doubt, will RSVP on the first pass playby rushing as many as eight guys.
“That’s why I have to make sure I’m protected and know what I am going to do against pressure,” Grossman said. “That’s the last thing you’re going to check before the snap. Then you read, is there pressure? If there’s no pressure, you drop back into the pocket, and read it from there.”
Grossman internalizes the information and must process it quicker than an Internet search. He has rehearsed his first NFL snap thousands of times mentally, but not with any more clarity than he will need on the trip from the huddle to behind the center on the first series Sunday.
But no matter how much he has been groomed for that moment for the last 15 years, nothing can prepare him fully for those 15 seconds.
“The hidden game,” wide receiver Justin Gage called the time lapse between breaking the huddle and snapping the ball. “That’s where everything takes place.”
That’s where coaches who have tutored Grossman say the quarterback excels most, even more than when he’s throwing spirals the way they teach in football texts. Coach Myron “Mo” Moriarity grew to trust Grossman’s grasp of game plans so much that he used to let the quarterback call a portion of the plays as a senior at Bloomington South (Ind.) High School.
“Once he would get a feel for the game, he’d sort of look at me and nod, as if to say he knew what to call next, and I’d say, `Go with it,”‘ said Moriarity, now an assistant coach at Indiana University. “He was in complete control and had a sense of who to throw it to and who was going to come open.”
Olson can vouch for that. He met Moriarity while recruiting Grossman for Purdue, and the two coaches became friends. They even took a trip together to watch Florida’s spring practice the year that Grossman won the job, and Olson recalled the same attributes evident then that makes Grossman ready now.
“He always has had a reputation of being a real cool quarterback under pressure,” Olson said. “I don’t expect that to change now.”
That message will be among the reminders Olson offers to Grossman through the headset that allows the quarterback and the coach to communicate up until 15 seconds remain on the play clock. Any advice or encouragement comes in short, succinct bursts so enough time remains to call the entire play in the huddle.
“Before the play, let’s say the play is, `Walk right, 772X, Dizzy Z Post,’ I’ll say look for safety to cut,” Olson said. “Because if the safety cuts, the receiver runs a post in behind. So I’ll say little things, but I don’t want to give Rex too much to think about.”
Coaches worry about the weight of expectations that have Grossman walking out of the Bears’ huddle and into the Pro Bowl. While a franchise and a city count on Grossman, all Bears coaches want him to worry about is counting defenders.
“I know I’ve played my whole life, but at this level I have to get used to the speed and the offense,” Grossman said. “I have confidence in the long run, but it’s just starting off. It’s a process that you have to get used to like everything else.”
Breaking into the big time
How first-round quarterbacks from the 2003 draft have fared:
NO. PLAYER, SCHOOL TEAM SKINNY
1. Carson Palmer, USC Bengals Tethered to bench behind surprising
Kitna
7. Byron Leftwich, Marshall Jaguars Has started 10 games; 74.4 passer
rating
19. Kyle Boller, California Ravens Injured and sidelined after decent
start
22. Rex Grossman, Florida Bears Will take first snap Sunday against
Vikings
%%
%%
