Gruden tutorials not new for Carr
In 2014, before he’d taken a snap in the NFL, Derek Carr sat across a table from Jon Gruden, who posed the quarterback a question: Would Carr draft himself over his older brother, David, the 2002 No. 1 pick? “You’re in a totally different offense, you’re in a totally different era and your position playing style is totally different,” Gruden told Carr. “Now, I want you. What do you say about that?” “I appreciate that,” Carr responded. “Let’s go win some championships now.” The exchange, which came on Gruden’s “QB Camp” show on ESPN, was dug up and circulated widely last week amid the news that Gruden was returning to coach the Raiders, whose starting quarterback will be Carr, now 26. It’s a made-for-TV arc. But the interest Gruden showed in Carr that day in 2014? That was genuine, said the man who produced “QB Camp” the past four years, ESPN’s Josh Hoffman. “Jon expressed it to us beforehand,” Hoffman recalled by phone last week, “and he expressed it while he was taping with Derek: ‘I’m looking at everything. I don’t understand why you’re not being talked about at the top of this draft. Is there something I don’t know?’ Of course, there wasn’t. It was just the (outside) impressions.” As the 2014 draft neared, Hoffman remembers,
there were a few reasons Carr might not have been at the top of many teams’ draft boards.
Despite gaudy college numbers, Carr was coming from a smaller program in Fresno State. In his last game, the Bulldogs had fallen 45-20 to USC in the Las Vegas Bowl. Other names in that year’s quarterbacks class included Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater and Johnny Manziel. And, fair or not, there was David Carr’s career, which did not fully flourish in five difficult seasons as a starter in Houston and five more in which he was primarily a backup with three other NFL teams.
“Jon was not swayed by any of that,” Hoffman said. “What Jon saw was really elite arm talent, the fact that this quarterback ran his own offense, called most of the plays at the line, called the protections, could handle all of that. The mental aspect of the game was far ahead of others.”
In the eight years “QB Camp” aired, Gruden welcomed more than 50 quarterbacks into his office — first his actual office in Tampa, Fla., and later at an ESPN set in Orlando — to break down video and discuss making the jump to the NFL.
It gave Gruden a chance to test and teach. And the preparation he put in, Hoffman said, was impressive.
At his Tampa office, Gruden would pore over video of each quarterback, going back to his high school days, distilling it to a selection he’d cue up for the player during shooting of the show. Though episodes of “QB Camp” ran a half-hour, Hoffman said, Gruden typically would spend four hours watching video with each quarterback and another hour outside running drills.
“He wanted the guy to get something out of it,” Hoffman said.
It could be a lot to absorb. Hoffman said some players went long stretches of the video sessions saying nothing but: “Uh-huh.” Some even yawned. Carr was not a yawner.
“He was very engaged,” Hoffman said, “but he didn’t seem nervous or concerned, or worried about any of it. He seemed ready. It was something that he’d been preparing for his whole life.”
Indeed, looking back at the episode, Carr projects confidence throughout his interaction with Gruden. He recalls diagnosing NFL coverages as a 12-year-old while watching his brother play for the Texans. At another point, Gruden asks where Derek Carr ranks among “the great ones.”
“You can line anybody up against me and I’m going to throw against them,” Carr says. “And I like my chances — in the most humble way. There’s not a throw I can’t make. And if I have to make it, I will make it. I’m very confident.”
Later, during the outside drills portion, Hoffman remembers Gruden issuing Carr a challenge: teach a group of assembled players the hand signals you use to communicate routes.
“I don’t remember everybody in the group,” Hoffman said, “but (former NFL receiver) Santonio Holmes was in that group. That’s a Super Bowl MVP. And Derek Carr was perfectly comfortable, as a college kid, taking the lead and taking them through that.”
Carr would be the fourth quarterback drafted in 2014, going 36th overall to the Raiders. He would make the Pro Bowl in two of his first three seasons before struggling in 2017 for a team that finished 6-10. It is now Gruden’s task to get Carr back on track.
“I think there is a huge ceiling in Derek Carr,” Gruden said Tuesday, as he was introduced for his second stint coaching the Raiders. “I think he has proven that. It’s up to us as a coaching staff to improve around him, get more consistent, and come up with an offense that really allows him to soar into another level.”
As for ESPN? With its “QB Camp” star back down on the sidelines, Hoffman said the network will explore other predraft program options.
“We’re working on a bunch of ideas,” he said. “We’re not sure yet what form it’s going to take.”
It might be tough to replace Gruden, whose presence and knowledge helped make the show a popular part of ESPN’s draft coverage for eight years.
“It showed that there is an appetite among viewers for longer-form, in-depth, Xs and Os talk like this,” Hoffman said. “Really spending some time getting to know a player, and hearing how they interact with a coach, and what it’s like when an expert works with them.
“I don’t know that there’s another show like that — exactly like this one — on TV. There’s certainly nobody else that has ever put in the type of time that Jon put into this series.”