Dan Pompei

The thing about Jon Gruden is he doesn’t have to have Johnny Unitas to win games with his offense.

He won a Super Bowl with Brad Johnson.

He made a Pro Bowl player out of Rich Gannon, who had basically been a career backup before joining forces with Gruden.

He enabled Brian Griese to have what arguably was his best year. Ditto Ty Detmer. And Bobby Hoying.

He helped Bruce Gradkowski throw 202 straight passes before his second interception — an NFL record. That was two years ago; this year, Gradkowski is out of football.

He revitalized Jeff Garcia.

And he has gone through quarterbacks the way a mother of baby triplets goes through diapers.

Some think Gruden goes through so many quarterbacks because he is fickle, but the truth is he never has had a Matt Ryan to stick with. Most of his quarterbacks have been itinerant veterans hoping for another chance.

That is not to say Gruden is patient with his passers, however.

No one knows if Gruden could develop a young QB. He tried with Chris Simms and didn’t succeed, but nobody knows if Simms could have succeeded with anyone coaching him. Gruden never has had a first- or second-round draft pick to work with.

But everyone knows he can work wonders with veterans of marginal abilities. He can bring out the best in quarterbacks who fit his system and take to his demanding style of coaching.

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Garcia and Gruden seem to have an uneasy truce. Earlier in the season, Gruden seemed bent on replacing Garcia with Griese when Garcia was slumping. But after Griese faltered, Gruden went back to Garcia, the player who took him to the playoffs a year ago.

It has been a good move, as Garcia has played smart, conservative football and helped the Bucs stay in every game. Much as he did a year ago.

Gruden can win with Garcia. How much he can win is the issue. Can he get to the Super Bowl with him? Even Gruden might wonder when he takes a good look at how smoothly the Giants are operating.

But Garcia, at this stage of his career, isn’t much different from what Johnson was when he won a Super Bowl. In fact, his statistics this year are much better than Johnson’s statistics during the 2001 season:

• Garcia — 94.5 passer rating, 7.2 yards per completion, 222.8 yards per game and a 69.8 completion percentage.
• Johnson — 77.7 passer rating, 6.1 yards per completion, 212.8 yards per game and a 60.8 completion percentage.

Lions coach Rod Marinelli captured why Gruden has had success with different quarterbacks when he was asked about him last week. "He's absolutely the best in football (in knowing) how to win a close game," Marinelli said. "If he's behind, he knows how to crawl back into a game. Strategically, he's the best in football."

But Gruden is more than a strategist. He’s a hands-on coach, especially with quarterbacks. Gruden is a former quarterback for Dayton University, though he admits to be a “ham and egger” at the position. He rides his quarterbacks hard, from the meeting room to the practice field and every step in between.

That’s why not every quarterback is a fit with Gruden. It takes a certain mentality to thrive in the heat he creates.

It would be interesting to see how Gruden would operate his offense if he did have a top-tier quarterback — or if he would operate it any differently.

But for now, Garcia isn’t such a bad option.

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