Originally Posted by Zorn on the 4th of July
Actually, I'm going to go ahead and say that he's not a leader.
I said it during the MNF thread, but I see a lot of parallels between his attitude and Chris Leak's attitude at UF before Urban Meyer showed up. Chris Leak was a quiet guy who chose to lead by example. He never complained, never got in anybody's face, and was content to play as hard as he could and do everything he could to help the team win.
For Urban Meyer (and the Gators' winning percentage), this wasn't enough.
Meyer immediately came in and challenged Leak's passion and willingness to be a vocal leader. As a leader, it's not enough to go out, play your hardest, and hope for the best. You have to go out, play your hardest, and make sure everybody around you plays their best, too. It took about a season for Chris Leak to come around, but when he did, we won a National Championship.
I don't expect Jason Campbell to get fired up for the two remaining games (no sense in confronting your teammates when the season is over and the main priority is, in all honesty, keeping everybody healthy).
So I say keep Jason Campbell. There's absolutely no reason why he can't become the complete-package leader this team desperately needs. We have a lot of "skill" issues that need to be addressed in the offseason, but keep in mind this team exposed and almost beat the Saints. It's the NFL, and everybody on this roster is in the top 1% of football players in this country.
So who is the leader? On offense, on defense, on special teams. Nobody.
There is NO player leadership on this team, and I don't see much coming from the coaching staff. This team, no matter if they are acquiring free agents or drafting players, has historically ignored the leadership/psychological aspect of this game. They insert players that are intended to address specific issues instead of inserting players who make the other 10 guys on the field play better. So as the other 10 players fail, we scream at Vinny Cerrato and Daniel Snyder, or we yell at a wide receiver spinning the ball during a 2-minute drill. This is bad veteran leadership and bad coaching.
The coaching will be addressed, but what about the players? Sometimes somebody needs to grab these guys by the facemask, and it can't always be a coach. Again, I just want everybody to make it to the end of the season unhurt. It would be a shame for somebody to get seriously hurt in a complete waste and a debacle of a season.
And Jason Campbell doesn't have to jump around and yell and grab people by the facemask. He DOES have to immediately be talking to them after they fail to chip a blitzer, or they run a go pattern when they should have run a crossing pattern. Campbell is a capable quarterback and a great human being, but he is not (yet) a leader. Not even close.
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