During Friday’s edition of PFT Live, I talked about Jon Gruden’s QB Camp on ESPN, and I expressed a keen interest in getting a look at what may have ended up on the cutting-room floor.
For any pre-taped interview, the editing process can be used to make the subject of the interview (and/or the interviewer) look a lot better, or a lot worse.
Though we’ve yet to finagle the stuff that didn’t make it to the air (and, for the record, we’re not trying to), someone who was in the room has offered some general opinions of quarterback Cam Newton. And they’re not flattering.
Former NFL defensive tackle Chris Hovan, who played for the Bucs during Gruden’s time there as head coach, was present for the filming. During the same radio segment in which Hovan body-slammed the Bucs for not taking firm action against Aqib Talib, Hovan offered his impressions of Newton, based on witnessing on a first-hand basis the interactions between Gruden and Newton.
“I mean, if you look at all the top flight quarterbacks, the Peyton Mannings and Tom Brady, they are so systematic when they play football,” Hovan told WQYK, via JoeBucsFan.com. “They know how to read coverages. The first and second audible or the third audible, where to go when the defense presents looks to them. And I don’t feel in a pressure situation that Cam can make those checks right now. If he was under Jon Gruden, if Jon Gruden was his head coach, he would definitely red shirt. If you are going to put him out there -- first of all, Carolina’s offensive line, they pretty much only have Jordan Gross right now. He’s a left tackle and was drafted in the first round. If you put him in there with a suspect offensive line you are going to get the kid killed. Yeah, he can run . . . . but you can only run for so long. They are going to hunt this kid down. I don’t feel he is ready for the NFL level yet. Does he have the intangibles? Athletically, yes he does. But this is just a complex game when you go to the NFL level, especially at the quarterback position. You have to be ready to make those checks at the line of scrimmage. I don’t feel like he is ready for that yet.”
This is more than a verbiage issue. Gruden famously rubbed Newton’s face in the fact that he has no experience with calling plays in NFL offenses, but Gruden thereafter said he thinks Newton will quickly figure out the process for calling plays in NFL offenses. This is more about the ability to change the play at the line of scrimmage based on the pre-snap reads -- and then to throw the ball to the right receiver based on the manner in which the coverage unfolds. All while having to resist the temptation to pull down the ball and run if the primary receiver isn’t open.
So until we can get a look-see at the full footage shot for Gruden’s show, we’ll give plenty of credence to the impressions of a guy who spent plenty of years in the NFL, who played for Gruden, and who was in the room for Gruden’s full grilling of Cam Newton.