{"id":144665,"date":"2025-06-20T10:38:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T10:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/144665\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T10:38:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T10:38:19","slug":"qb-coach-jerrod-johnson-is-opening-eyes-but-what-does-the-nfl-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/144665\/","title":{"rendered":"QB coach Jerrod Johnson is opening eyes, but what does the NFL see?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Greg Olsen talks Tight End University and what he’s excited for in the 2025 NFL season<\/p>\n

Greg Olsen stops by to talk about another year of Tight End University and who he’s excited to watch as the NFL season inches closer.<\/p>\n

Sports Seriously<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: This story is a part of a series by USA TODAY Sports called\u00a0Project: June<\/a>. We will publish at least one NFL-themed story every day throughout the month because fans know the league truly never sleeps.<\/p>\n

ATLANTA \u2014 On paper, Jerrod Johnson certainly fits the profile of a coach that could be on the brink of getting the keys to drive an NFL offense. The young Houston Texans<\/a> quarterbacks coach, with his fourth NFL team, has steadily built his resume. His fingerprints are all over the development of C.J. Stroud,<\/a> one of the NFL\u2019s emerging stars.<\/p>\n

And shoot, after previously working on Kevin O\u2019Connell\u2019s staff with the Minnesota Vikings<\/a>, Johnson has two degrees of separation from Sean McVay.<\/p>\n

In a meeting room, Johnson\u2019s charismatic presence comes to life. That\u2019s not on paper. I saw it for myself this week at the latest iteration of the Quarterback Coaching Summit. Johnson, 36, demonstrated an impressive command of the room as he spoke for nearly an hour in a session titled “Coaching & Development of the Starting and Backup QB.”<\/p>\n

The engaging delivery was only part of the pop. Johnson scored points as he broke down evaluation metrics, approaches for training the mind, feet and trigger, as he put it, and then some. A former quarterback, he even explained why it is critical to conduct one-on-one tutoring each Tuesday morning during the season with the practice squad quarterback.<\/p>\n

Maybe Johnson is indeed a rising star in the NFL coaching universe.<\/p>\n

Yet I wonder about his prospects as a Black man when transposed against the sorry trend over the past two hiring cycles for promoting Black candidates to offensive coordinator, the role that is the most prominent steppingstone to head coaching jobs. The past two cycles, NFL teams were 29-for-29 in hiring white men as offensive coordinators.<\/a><\/p>\n

For the second year in a row, the NFL won\u2019t have a single Black offensive coordinator in the league. Before this drought, you\u2019d have to go back 30 years for that distinction.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s very disheartening,” retired NFL coach Jimmy Raye told USA TODAY Sports. “As you\u2019ve witnessed since you\u2019ve been here, there are guys with impressive knowledge, deserving of an opportunity.”<\/p>\n

Raye, one of the organizers of the NFL-supported event that is hosted by the Black College Football Hall of Fame and held in conjunction with the Ozzie Newsome GM Forum, became the NFL\u2019s first Black offensive coordinator in 1983 with the Los Angeles Rams. He served in that capacity with several teams over 13 seasons.<\/p>\n

He hardly imagined when he broke a barrier in 1983 that the league would be back in this spot when considering Black OCs.<\/p>\n

“I would have thought it would be like the quarterback position, something that you don\u2019t even think about because it was something that was done,” Raye said. “They don\u2019t talk about the Black quarterback anymore because half the league has Black quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

“I would think offensive coordinators would be the same, that it would have evolved the same way, with the technology, the ability to gain information, internships and the Bill Walsh Fellowships, all the things that have been put in place for diversity, but it just hasn\u2019t happened.”<\/p>\n

Jerome Bettis is a Hall of Famer. His son is following in Papa Bus’ footsteps<\/a><\/p>\n

Johnson, who interviewed for OC jobs with the Texans and the Las Vegas Raiders this year and in 2024 with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns, did not point to his race as an impediment in his career journey. And he is obviously just one example as part of a larger picture. Yet he acknowledges the pattern of recent hiring cycles for hiring minority candidates as coordinators.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m a man of faith,” Johnson told USA TODAY Sports. “I think God has a plan. At some point, ideally, things will line up and I\u2019ll be in the right situation, and I\u2019ll get an opportunity. The past couple of years, it hasn\u2019t really been the fit for me. I think we\u2019ve just got to keep plugging away, just being as good as we can in becoming better coaches, putting our best foot forward. At the end of the day, all we can control is getting better in our current situations and whatever happens, happens.”<\/p>\n

For the coordinator jobs this year that Johnson interviewed for, the Raiders hired long-established Chip Kelly to join Pete Carroll\u2019s staff, while the Texans brought in Nick Caley, who spent the past three years on McVay\u2019s staff with the Los Angeles Rams, including last season as passing game coordinator, to run their offense.<\/p>\n

Yet other hires for coordinator jobs that Johnson wasn\u2019t in the mix for fueled questions. The Jacksonville Jaguars hired Grant Udinski to coordinate the offense under first-year coach Liam Coen. Udinski has never been a position coach in the NFL, having served as assistant quarterbacks coach and assistant coordinator on O\u2019Connell\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, meanwhile, replaced Coen with first-time coordinator Josh Grizzard, promoted after one year as passing game coordinator.<\/p>\n

Who gets such opportunities and at what stages of their careers is what raises suspicions, especially with some of the so-called “OG\u2019s,” such as Doug Williams, another of the organizers of the events held this week, which included more than a dozen presentations by minority coaches and front office personnel.<\/p>\n

The pipeline, Williams stressed, is not the problem.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that you have people that can do the job \u2013 in personnel, as head coaches, offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches,” Williams, a personnel executive with the Washington Commanders, told USA TODAY Sports. “It\u2019s about giving them the opportunity.”<\/p>\n

Exclusive: Aaron Glenn followed legend’s advice, is ready to be Jets coach<\/a><\/p>\n

One presentation that really moved me: Jackie Davidson\u2019s session on the ABC\u2019s of the NFL salary cap. Davidson, vice president of football research for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is a rising front office star who might be on the short list of candidates to become the first female GM in the NFL in decades. Williams agrees.<\/p>\n

“Jackie blew ’em away. That\u2019s what people don\u2019t know,” said Williams, whose footprint on history was cast in 1988 when he became the first Black quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl.<\/a> “When you sit there and hear her, it\u2019s like, ‘Damn\u2026give her an opportunity.’ This is a perfect platform to realize that.”<\/p>\n

Williams and James “Shack\u201d Harris, former Grambling quarterbacks who founded the Black College Football Hall of Fame, have conducted the coaching\/GM symposiums for eight years. The first one was a roundtable at Morehouse College attended by a handful of coaches. Maybe the next one will include an expanded list of attendees that goes beyond the few dozen coaches and front office types from the pro and college ranks that were on hand.<\/p>\n

“This is where the NFL owners should be,” Williams said.<\/p>\n

The NFL paused its accelerator program<\/a> this year, which brought together coaching and front office personnel to engage with team owners while participating in sessions designed to promote upward mobility.<\/p>\n

“They meet guys at the accelerator program and an hour later they don\u2019t remember who they met,” Williams maintained. “They don\u2019t get to see people make presentations. Here, you can listen to a guy and say, ‘You know what? That guy is really sharp.'”<\/p>\n

You\u2019d get no argument from Johnson. After all, more exposure surely won\u2019t hurt someone positioned for career advancement.<\/p>\n

“That being said, I\u2019m in a great situation in Houston,” Johnson said. “I\u2019ve learned so much from DeMeco (Ryans), and we have a great staff. At the end of the day, I have aspirations, but I\u2019ve got to wake up every day and be the best quarterback coach I can be.”<\/p>\n

Which just might open the door for more.<\/p>\n

Follow Jarrett Bell on social media: @JarrettBell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greg Olsen talks Tight End University and what he’s excited for in the 2025 NFL season Greg Olsen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[247,265,5570,321,7,221,253,2368,3687,233,259,248,267,88,6,320,333,245,537,530,3686,3307,9,5573,266,222,5571,776,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-144665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-coaching","11":"tag-content","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-houston","14":"tag-houston-texans","15":"tag-houstontexans","16":"tag-mcvay","17":"tag-minnesota","18":"tag-minnesota-vikings","19":"tag-national","20":"tag-national-sports","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-opinion","24":"tag-opinion-content","25":"tag-overall","26":"tag-overall-positive","27":"tag-positive","28":"tag-sean","29":"tag-sean-mcvay","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-sports-coaching-u0026-training","32":"tag-sports-news","33":"tag-texans","34":"tag-training","35":"tag-u0026","36":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114715263395806883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}