00:00We're going to see a lot of guys this weekend when it comes to backup quarterbacks playing in the NFL.
00:06How important is that position?
00:08Has it become more important?
00:10Now, look at all these guys, Coach, that are going to take seven guys are going to take snaps this
00:14week.
00:15Last night, we saw a guy.
00:16How important is that backup position?
00:20And how much preparation do you prepare with those guys on a weekly basis?
00:26Well, you know, aside from the field work, because we never gave him any real field work other than the
00:31preseason, we give just everything to number one.
00:34So we're playing at our very best.
00:36And then we just bring number two along.
00:37But the biggest thing is the mental part of it.
00:40You know, so he is, you know, we coach him just as hard as we coach number one with the
00:45mental part of it, the testing and the footwork.
00:48He goes through all the drills.
00:49He doesn't take the snaps with team and all that.
00:51But, you know, the mental part of it, if they're ready mentally, they've got good skills, they'll have success.
00:57You know, Mark Bolger was that way.
00:59You know, obviously, Trent Green.
01:01Then, you know, those three of them, all three of those guys were backups, supposedly.
01:05But they prepared differently.
01:07And I think preparation is everything for that position.
01:10I really do.
01:12Coach, I've asked you this question before, but I want you to restate this.
01:16So when Trent Green went down and you guys had that talented team, when did you know that your backup
01:23quarterback was going to be the guy and that you just don't lose your patience and go, now we need
01:29somebody else in here?
01:30That's a game-changing, roster-changing, season-changing decision.
01:35When you're sitting in that room there with Coach Vermeule and all your assistant coaches, and you've got to make
01:40that call, how do you not lose your patience?
01:43And how do you have to sit there and go, well, you know, we're going to hang in there another
01:47couple weeks there and see what we have?
01:49How does that process work?
01:52Well, the process was done in the spring.
01:54You know, for us with him and the book or the movie is not accurate.
01:59You know, you know, Kurt's situation, we had a meeting in the spring and, you know, Dick asked me, because
02:06we were concerned about that, you know, obviously.
02:09You know, was he good enough?
02:11Is Kurt good enough if he has to become our starter?
02:13I said, I think he's good enough.
02:14I don't know how good he's going to be, but certainly he's good enough and we'll get him ready and
02:19that situation comes up, he'll be ready.
02:21But, you know, he prepared like a starter from the very get-go, which made him a little bit different,
02:27too.
02:27So, you know, we made that decision coming out of spring and then going into camp, we made sure in
02:32the preseason that we got him a lot of game time.
02:35And you have to do that with whoever you think your number two is.
02:38He played way more than anybody else.
02:40He probably played more three-quarters of the snaps in the preseason.
02:43You have to do that.
02:44Then you come out of preseason with a thought, something happens, you're fairly comfortable with that answer.
02:50So, Coach, these decisions have already been made, then, you would think, with these guys that are going to be
02:55playing this weekend.
02:57So, like the movie, like you said in the book and all that, where it was like a weak decision
03:01and all of a sudden you guys flip a coin and Kurt Warner's Kurt Warner.
03:05You guys had already made that decision when you were going through the exhibition season.
03:09Has that decision already been made?
03:11And was that decision, in your opinion, been made with some of these other coaches that are going to be
03:15playing these guys this weekend?
03:17Definitely not.
03:18I think that that's something that I look at the NFL and I'm just amazed at.
03:25To me, that's the number one thing when you go to camp.
03:28You've got to make sure the number one question on any team going into who's number two, is he good
03:33enough?
03:33And if you don't have a satisfying answer, then shame on you.
03:37You've got to figure that out ahead of time because it's going to happen.
03:40What is it, 70% of the starters go down at some point in the season usually?
03:44And it's going to happen and you have to be prepared.
03:47And if you're not, you're just foolish.
03:49And, you know, I was at the Bears.
03:51I kept saying, Mark Bolger's there.
03:52He's a good, you know, he's a starter in this league.
03:55Let's get him.
03:56We can get him for next to nothing.
03:57He's going to go to Baltimore for a ton of money, but he'll come here for a fourth.
04:02They wouldn't do it because they didn't want to upset Jay with a guy of his magnitude in there.
04:07Well, it cost us a run to the Super Bowl.
04:10And those are the things that amaze me about the NFL.
04:13How can you go into a season and not have a number two that you're comfortable with?
04:18You know, hey, a guy at San Francisco is a backup, right?
04:21I mean, when he went in there, you know, so he's for a year he's sitting there.
04:26And, you know, last guy picked in the draft, nobody thinks he's got labeled as a backup.
04:30No, he prepared like a starter, and that's what you've got to do.
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