Joe Gibbs joined Thom Loverro on ESPN980 last week to talk Robert Griffin III.
Is there any advice you've given to rookie QBs in the past that holds true today?
Joe Gibbs: Anything that I ever preached to young Quarterbacks, basically what I said to the young ones, you have to understand in the NFL, if you're the Quarterback, there's a lot of good things that are going to happen to you in a town like Washington. It's the greatest sports town and the greatest fans, but I used to sell them on the fact, that at times, you're gonna get booed. That's part of life. OK. If you don't like that or being in Quarterback controversy and fighting for your spot, you're in the wrong position and need to give the money back and go do something else. This is the big league, this is tough. You gotta to be mentally tough. You can't be worried about getting booed. You gotta make things happen. You gotta be a tough guy.
Gibbs continues on how he scouted and drafted QBs:
Oddly enough, when we went after QBs, we learned this, at least for me anyway: character is always first. Secondly, for a QB, he was tough. Mentally tough. The Quarterback does not protect himself back in the pocket. He's going to get hit in every kind of odd position you can think of. He's got to be able to bounce back from that. Get the team lined up on the next play. Put people in motion and go back and be able read his keys and hit something and that takes a different kind of toughness.And of course smarts is the third thing. And the fourth thing would be the ability with his arm. I coached Dan Fouts. And believe me, Dan Fouts arm was average at best. That guy could load the team on his back and take them down the field. You don't need to have the best arm.
Mark Brunell, Jason Campbell. Hmm. We might need to tweak that QB evaluation plan a bit.