Jason Campbell’s phone started buzzing early in the afternoon, thanks to comments from Clinton Portis. Then it started buzzing later in the day because of something everyone knew was going to happen, the hiring of coach Mike Shanahan.
First, the Shanahan reaction.
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Campbell long has been a fan of Shanahan’s offenses; considering their success it’s hard not to think highly of what he’s done on that side of the ball. But Campbell sees himself as a good fit.
“He has a strong running system,” Campbell said by phone. “He has a strong play-action system. Those are things that fit the qualities of guys we have here. … I grew up watching John Elway and the one thing I used to love is the way he used play-action. He did a lot of rollouts with his quarterbacks and a lot of boots. And he had some drop-back things. He would keep the defense on their heels. Watching it, it’s a quarterback friendly offense.
“Given what his record is and the things he’s done with quarterbacks and the offense, you have to be excited about the opportunity. You have to be open-minded about things. I don’t know what he thinks of me as a quarterback, but I feel I can do some things and elevate my game to another level. This year we were limited in a lot of ways from what we could do based off the injuries we had.”
According to a Denver Broncos source, Shanahan was not high on Campbell coming out of college. But it’s uncertain what he thinks of Campbell five years later.
“I’m sure I’ll sit down and talk with him and Mr. Allen and see where everything stands,” Campbell said. “I won’t second-guess myself as a quarterback. I know the things I can do. A lot of things we did were great and a lot that we didn’t. That’s part of playing the position. This year we had a lot of injuries up front. We were able to overcome that. But it’s tough when you lose a lot of starters along the line.”
There is one person Campbell knows who played for Shanahan: Portis. Of course, the two talked today, but it wasn’t much about Shanahan. Instead, it was about Portis’ comments on ESPN 980 about Campbell and his leadership. Campbell responded with shots of his own to The Washington Post.
But Campbell — whose mailbox on his cell phone was too full to take messages Tuesday night — said they talked.
“We hatched it all out,” he said. “I didn’t like the way he came at me and questioning me. I didn’t understand that. I had no beef with you and didn’t say anything about you. So I said what I said. He said a lot of his stuff was taken way out of context, it wasn’t how he was trying to come across and said he wasn’t trying to throw me under the bus or talk bad about me. He said he wanted to take things off my plate and give it to other guys because I had enough stuff to worry about.”
