Sports
How NFL journeyman Josh McCown is a key facet of the Vikings' QB development plan
EAGAN, Minn. — Here is Josh McCown, the upbeat, backward-hat-wearing, gum-chewing Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks coach. Another preseason practice is complete, and the 45-year-old former NFL quarterback and journeyman is sitting outside the TCO Performance Center, baking in the heat and playing some trivia.
Can you name all 14 of your former offensive coordinators?
He laughs.
“Sounds like you could potentially be missing some,” he says.
Did I count ’em wrong?
“Well, we’ll go down the list,” he says. “Let’s just see.”
“Rich Olson. Jerry Sullivan. Alex Wood. Keith Rowen. Mike Martz. Greg Knapp. Jeff … was it Davidson? Yep, Davidson. After Jeff, let’s see, that was … Mike Martz again. That’s a repeat. Mike Tice.”
That’s one I didn’t have.
“He was in Chicago, yeah. Marc Trestman and Aaron Kromer. That’s 10. Jeff Tedford and (quarterbacks coach) Marcus Arroyo is 11. John DeFilippo is 12 in Cleveland. Then Hue Jackson and Pep Hamilton. Then John Morton. Then Jeremy Bates. Then Mike Groh in Philly. And then, technically, Tim Kelly in Houston. I didn’t play any snaps, but I was technically on the roster.”
So, like, 18 maybe?
“I guess, yeah,” McCown says.
That was impressive.
“Yeah. And then in college, going backward, was Jim Ferguson 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 to the other, could you do it? Like, if I said “Mike Martz” and you rattle off a play.
“He was a digits legend. Like, Trips Right Scat Right 094 F-Seam Trail. That’s the play that (current Vikings quarterback) Sam Darnold hit in the opener of the preseason this year. It’s not the same call, but that’s our play in that verbiage.”
This is incredible.
Incredible recall, certainly, but also informative upon review. From the time the Vikings set their sights on drafting a quarterback this spring, they have acted intentionally in almost every regard. This includes McCown’s hiring, which surfaced randomly at the NFL Scouting Combine. Head coach Kevin O’Connell made the move for multiple reasons, one of which was a relationship between the two men that goes back more than a decade. Another factor, though, was exactly what McCown is doing here.
Using his memory. Translating information. Not taking himself too seriously or applying too much pressure. This is McCown the quarterbacks coach in a nutshell. Plucking away at what he’s provided for Darnold, J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings organization overall, it becomes more and more clear that the package is a carefully chosen amalgamation of attributes from the names he’s just mentioned.
It’s been a full-circle moment for Josh McCown and Sam Darnold as they reunite 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.
This is Martz’s verbiage of 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 peeled off his route toward the middle of the field. McCown is still raving about it.
“The way Sam cut that ball loose, man,” McCown says, “it was just perfect.”
Like, the anticipation?
“One hundred percent,” McCown says, “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 dang ball loose.”
Martz, for the uninitiated, was the St. Louis Rams’ head coach during the “Greatest Show on Turf” era. McCown first encountered him in 2006 when he was signed by the Detroit Lions at age 27. He’d been in the league for several seasons already and had started 20 games for the Arizona Cardinals after being a third-round pick in 2002. Yet 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, noticing the safety floated down toward the in-cut, threw over the top on a deep post pattern instead. It went for a touchdown.
“I said, ‘What the f— was that?’” Martz recalls. “He looked at me and said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘What the f— was that? You kinda just do what you want to do?’ He didn’t understand.”
You could say Martz was simply being a hardass, but McCown acknowledges this was the first time he’d played in an intentional NFL passing game. He could not just catch the snap, take his drop and scan the field, looking for the open man. Martz’s offense dictated that he look in specific spots for different reasons — and throw the ball at the proper time.
Josh McCown spent time with 12 NFL franchises — and one UFL team — over 19 pro seasons. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
Kitna, with whom McCown competed that season for the Lions’ starting job, assisted with the minutiae. The plays in Martz’s playbook were just a guide. On the field, other factors, like the speed of his receiver and the tendencies of the opposing defense, forced him to adapt. Think of learning an offensive system like an actor learning his lines: The script says one thing, but the actor’s flair is often what brings the production to life. Knowing what words to change or adaptations to make is a skill only developed through experience.
“It’s easy to just give a guy a play and say, ‘Find the open guy,’” McCown says. “And then you come in Monday morning as the coach and hold the clicker and go, ‘You probably should’ve thrown it to that dude.’ Well, yeah, right. Thank you.
“It’s harder work for the coach to go: ‘This is who we think is going to be open. This is where you’re going to start your eyes. And then react to that play, off of that, being as detailed as you can.’”
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 quiet when you’re in the pocket and the crowd is yelling, the pass rushers are barreling in on you and the defense is swarming across the field.
If Martz, Kitna and Warner explained the need for specificity, Trestman focused on eliminating the gray area. Trestman simplified the amount and extent of McCown’s post-snap decision-making. More than at any other point in his career, McCown, who was 34 with the Chicago Bears in 2013, felt he knew where he was supposed to go with the football. And as long as he operated correctly, Trestman gave him affirmation on the back end — kind of like a catcher who shrugs when the pitcher throws the perfect pitch in the suggested spot and the hitter crushes it anyway. Right process, unfortunate result.
In O’Connell, McCown found someone who could relate to 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 worked with Johnny Manziel through that brutal 3-13 season. But McCown appreciated O’Connell’s approach and humility. The first-time NFL coach, six years younger than McCown, would seek advice from him.
They maintained contact after that season as O’Connell began to create a system of his own and McCown played for another five years before becoming the Carolina Panthers’ quarterbacks coach last year. McCown played in 102 NFL games and posted a 98:82 touchdown-to-interception ratio, but his experience with Bryce Young cemented something he says frequently about playing quarterback: This is freaking hard, man.
“In any span of three to five years, there’s maybe five to seven transcendent players at the position,” McCown says. “The rest of them need people around them.”
People, he says, referring mostly to talent on the field.
But the quarterbacks coach is important, too.
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 quarterback’s feet and eyes together.” In a general sense, this is the throughline between being detailed and not clouding the quarterback’s mind.
After naming all of his former offensive coordinators, McCown explains.
“When you watch a quarterback drop and you watch his helmet and it turns to the left, he’s looking left,” McCown says. “If you pause it, you’ll hopefully see the quarterback’s lower half and his feet start to move in that direction to then throw the ball. You’d be shocked, but so many guys — especially younger ones — they’re not connected. Their feet and eyes are all jacked up.”
So, you’re trying to get them synchronized?
“Exactly,” McCown says.
How do you teach that?
“Reps,” he replies, describing one of the drills the Vikings quarterbacks do daily. They receive the snap, glance over at a receiver on the right sideline, 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 sideline to the left, as if they’re mimicking four progressions.
“You build that out until you get 22 people out there,” McCown says.
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Do you mean, like, adding the pass rush, which probably makes it harder to be as calm and disciplined with the feet and eyes?
“Now you’re getting it,” he says, “which takes us all the way back to Martz and to knowing exactly what you’re doing. If you aren’t confident on your end, then your own offense presses on your brain before you even start. Then it’s, ‘Uhhh, what do I? … 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’s a ball. Boom. There’s another. Boom, boom, boom.’ You’re playing fast, processing. Stress hits, and they know the answer to the test.”
Experience is not required to learn all of this, but it does give him a distinctly empathetic viewpoint as a coach.
McCown encourages. He pats his quarterbacks on the helmet after good throws and offers criticism with a fist bump after bad ones. If he spots something wrong, he doesn’t allow much time to pass before mentioning what he saw. But he does not holler, scream or yell because it’s not authentic to him.
The position is hard enough, he says.
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(Top photo: G. Newman Lowrance / Associated Press)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Billions of dollars can buy a lot of things. It can help revive a football program and get your alma mater into a bigger conference. It can buy a private jet. But it can’t clear more space at a tiny regional airport.
SMU donor Bill Armstrong’s last name is on the team’s indoor practice facility. His plane, which included two-time U.S. Open champion golfer Bryson DeChambeau and former Mustangs star running back Craig James, left Dallas around 6:30 a.m. CT for State College, Pa. But upon arrival, it was diverted to Williamsport, as were some other SMU private planes. The airport was full.
If you believe in harbingers, this was an ominous one, the limits of SMU’s money on display. From a party bus on the drive to the stadium, several SMU donors and former players watched on their phones as quarterback Kevin Jennings threw two pick sixes. By the time they arrived at Beaver Stadium, the score was 21-0, the game all but over.
“Still a great season,” Armstrong said after the game, pulling gloves out of his pocket and refusing to get too down. To him, there was no doubt that the 11-win Mustangs belonged here.
The final score was 38-10. As the last at-large team in the field, the discourse over College Football Playoff blowouts and selection committee decisions turned to SMU, one day after Indiana was manhandled by Notre Dame.
On display at Penn State was the difference between being a CFP darling, a fun story, and a CFP contender. It’s a gap so often exposed at this stage of the season.
“We didn’t play well enough to say anything that isn’t going to be written,” head coach Rhett Lashlee said. “It’ll be written, should we be in or did we belong? That’s fine. You’re welcome to write it. We didn’t play good today. But this is a quality team. We had a good team. We deserve to be here. We earned the right to be here. I’m disappointed we didn’t play to the level that validates that.”
What’s too bad is SMU didn’t even give itself a chance. Before kickoff, Lashlee told the broadcast his team had to avoid a bad start like it’d had in the ACC Championship Game against Clemson, when Jennings had two bad turnovers.
What happened this time? First, Jennings missed a wide-open Matthew Hibner in the end zone on what should’ve been a fourth-down touchdown to cap SMU’s opening drive. On the second drive, Jennings threw a pick six, missing a short throw out of the backfield. On the fourth drive, Jennings threw another pick six, a desperate attempt to make a play on third down instead of throwing the ball away.
SMU was down 14-0 despite playing pretty well otherwise and holding up in the trenches. The defense to that point had been stout.
“That kind of shell-shocked us a little bit,” Lashlee said of the turnover scores.
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Jennings has been turnover-prone. He had five against Duke, but the Mustangs rallied to win that one. SMU also rallied from his two turnovers against Clemson to tie things up late. But Penn State is another level up in competition.
“We don’t have an Abdul Carter,” Lashlee said, referring to Penn State’s All-America edge rusher who was in the backfield constantly and did more than his two tackles for loss indicate, constantly sending Jennings out of the pocket. Penn State’s defense finished with 11 tackles for loss.
For his part, Jennings said his early miss in the end zone didn’t linger in his head and lead to the interceptions. Lashlee blamed the second quarter tipped red zone interception on himself, saying he should’ve just called a running play. Jennings blamed himself.
“I made mistakes three times and gave them the ball with careless mistakes,” the typically quiet Jennings said. “I didn’t take care of the ball.”
Asked if he considered replacing Jennings with backup Preston Stone, Lashlee didn’t indicate it ever came up until the fourth quarter. Stone, who was the Mustangs’ starting quarterback last year and at the beginning of this year, entered the transfer portal earlier this month but had stayed with the SMU team. When Lashlee pulled Jennings late, everyone decided they didn’t want Stone to get hurt on his way out at that point in the game, the coach said. After the final horn sounded, multiple reports emerged that Stone was heading to Northwestern.
A 38-10 game is not close, nor is it competitive. Penn State was clearly the better team, one that will be favored to win the Fiesta Bowl against No. 3 seed Boise State. But SMU finished with more first downs and held PSU to 5.0 yards per play, though the amount of garbage time certainly factored into those respectable stats.
SMU scored just three points on four red zone trips and gave away 14 points on the interception return touchdowns. It’s why Lashlee was so frustrated. He knows how it looks. He can’t argue otherwise.
“People are going to see 38-10 or (28-0 at) halftime and say they don’t belong, but the two pick sixes and we had our opportunities,” he said. “We don’t have anybody to blame but ourselves. It should’ve been a good defensive struggle in the 20s. We didn’t do that.”
SMU long felt that if it just got a power conference invitation, it would show it belonged. The Mustangs showed they belonged in the ACC, going 8-0 in conference play. But they didn’t show they’re ready for this stage yet. Nittany Lions coach James Franklin takes a lot of heat from fans and detractors for not winning the big games, but he almost always wins the games in which Penn State has more talent.
Underdog stories typically end with a thud in the CFP, and SMU and Indiana join a list that includes Cincinnati, TCU and others. Top-level talent wins in the end, and SMU doesn’t have that yet.
Lashlee and SMU will spend the ensuing months hearing those that say SMU shouldn’t have been in the CFP, that Alabama deserved the spot (even though Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe’s three-interception performance in a 21-point loss to 6-6 Oklahoma in mid-November was nearly exactly the same as Jennings’ at Penn State). That’s what comes with this stage.
SMU found itself here for the first time and didn’t deliver. As the party bus headed back to Williamsport and the private planes flew back to Dallas, SMU’s coaches, players and billionaires left with a clear vision of just how far they still have to go.
(Photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
The Baltimore Ravens punched their ticket to the postseason and kept their hopes for a division title alive Saturday.
With a 34-17 win over the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore could reclaim first place in the final two weeks.
Pittsburgh (10-5) would have clinched the division with a victory, but now the teams are deadlocked after the Ravens (10-5) won for just the second time in the last 10 games of the series. Baltimore clinched a playoff berth with the win.
The Steelers had already clinched a playoff spot.
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson throws from the pocket during the second half against the Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan/Imagn Images)
Russell Wilson threw two touchdown passes, the second of which tied the game at 17 with 5:14 left in the third quarter. Jackson answered with a 7-yard scoring strike to Mark Andrews.
After Pittsburgh turned the ball over on downs, a 44-yard run by Derrick Henry put the Ravens in the red zone.
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Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson (3) during the first half at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan/Imagn Images)
That drive ended when Jackson was intercepted for just the fourth time this season, but Marlon Humphrey picked off Wilson and ran 37 yards to the end zone to give Baltimore a cushion in a series that’s been tight of late. The previous nine games between the Steelers and Ravens were decided by seven points or fewer.
Jackson improved to 2-4 against Pittsburgh as a starter. Saturday’s game marked his first time facing the Steelers at home since 2020.
Henry rushed for 162 yards.
Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) is defended by Pittsburgh Steelers safety Damontae Kazee (23) in the first quarter at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan/Imagn Images)
Pittsburgh entered the game with a plus-18 turnover margin, but the Ravens had the edge in that department Saturday. Baltimore recovered three of its own fumbles and had two big takeaways.
Now the Steelers will have to deal with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day before finishing the season at home against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Ravens will travel to Houston to play the Texans on Christmas Day before finishing the season at home against the Cleveland Browns.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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HARTFORD, Conn. — In a marquee matchup Saturday night, No. 7 USC defeated perennial powerhouse No. 4 Connecticut 72-70, avenging its Elite Eight loss to the Huskies in April and strengthening its status as one of the nation’s elite teams.
“This is a really significant win, and it’s a significant win because of the stature of the UConn program and what [Connecticut coach] Geno Auriemma has done for our sport,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I told [the team] in [the locker room] — for me, for my entire high school and on, this is what basketball excellence was, this is what we saw. And it’s challenged all of us to want to be better, to find players who want to be better and be that elite.”
Undeterred playing in front of a sold-out crowd on the road, USC opened the game with a 9-0 run, capitalizing on cold shooting and defensive lapses from the Huskies. Buoyed by 15 points from JuJu Watkins, the Trojans shot 48.6% from the floor in the first half, including seven for 11 from three-point range, to take a 42-29 lead at halftime.
“A lot of the things [JuJu] does [are] super hard, but she makes it look so easy,” USC forward Kiki Iriafen said. “So I think she really got us going on the offensive end … we all know she’s a superstar, so playing with her definitely relieved the pressure on everybody else.”
Connecticut came out of the locker room with increased intensity, forcing seven Trojan turnovers and limiting Watkins to four points in the third quarter. Propelled by nine points from guard Paige Bueckers, the Huskies outscored USC (11-1) 20-13 in the third quarter, cutting their deficit to six points entering the fourth.
Connecticut (10-2) continued to chip away and took its first and only lead when freshman Sarah Strong scored on a layup with 4:34 left. USC regained the lead moments later on a Watkins jumper, but the Huskies wouldn’t let the Trojans pull away.
“I don’t think we were ever really rattled,” Watkins said. “We knew what [Connecticut] is capable of, they were going to go on runs, so it was just a matter of handling that and coming down on top.”
With USC leading by three with five seconds left, Strong drew a foul off Watkins while attempting a three-point shot. Strong made her first free throw, but missed her second attempt. After Strong missed her final attempt, Bueckers grabbed the rebound and fed the ball back to Strong, who missed a logo three at the buzzer.
Watkins finished with 25 points, six rebounds, five assists and three blocks. Iriafen had 16 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
Bueckers and Strong each had 22 points.
Auriemma praised Watkins’ exceptional talent.
“Every scouting report that you put together, or every film that you watch, it’s very evident that one player can’t guard her,” Auriemma said. “You have to hope she helps, you have to hope she misses. And when she gets a little bit of a rhythm like she got in that first half, it’s really, really difficult … there’s qualities that she has that are just unique.”
Watkins showed why she’s one of the nation’s brightest stars, helping the Trojans earn a signature win. The victory was a showcase of the elite talent that has accelerated women’s college basketball’s growth in popularity.
“It’s just a testament to when you give women a platform, we’re going to perform,” Watkins said. “And I think that tonight was an excellent game. … It was just beautiful to be a part of. And I couldn’t imagine watching it — so, super exciting. And I think, as we continue to get games like this, we’ll always show up.”
The Trojans next play No. 20 Michigan at Galen Center on Dec. 29.
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