Mike Holmgren says everyone needs to get off Jason Campbell's back.
The Walrus was in town to lend support to a charity that his good buddy Jim Zorn endorses. Zorn's smooching wife and his daughter are headed to Uganda to help refugees from Congo as part of Medical Teams International.
Yesterday's banquet gave Holmgren a chance to sound off a bit. He suggested that everybody needs to have patience with Campbell, as relayed by Redskins Insider.
"'Here you have a young quarterback and a really good young quarterback and coach, it seems like a marriage made in heaven,' said Holmgren who watched Zorn develop his star quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck, years ago in Seattle. 'The thing is you have to have some patience. He's a young guy. And he may come in soon and shock everybody. Look at the young quarterback in Baltimore [Joe] Flacco, he's not being asked to do the same things as Campbell. He's not throwing the ball as much as Jason. If you're in the West Coast offense, you're going to be asked to do a lot more.'"
Flacco, he might've added, had a halfway competent, non-Jurassic offensive line in front of him, too.
Holmgren also said that he expects him to succeed because of Campbell's relationship with Zorn, "I know Jason trusts him. This is important. Your starting quarterback has to trust you as a coach. Trust means a lot of things. Not just trusting that he will call the right plays. It means you are connected to him in these types of situations."
On one hand, this is pretty high praise from someone who had a hand in the development of some pretty good QBs over the years.
But on the other hand, given Holmsy's relationship with Zorn, it's entirely possible that he's helping the Zorn Star mend some fences and soothe some egos?
Zorn might not have prepared the note cards for Holmgren's speech, but given their relationship, and that Holmgren has been around for more than a week, Zorn might as well have.
Still, after an off-season of getting beaten up, JC's sure to take whatever he can get.
Chris Needham used to write Capitol Punishment. The first football game he went to was against the Seahawks.
