Jon Gruden Football Quotations

We've added some guys who are not only good players but good leaders. They lead by example. Ike Hilliard's helped us. He's come in here and given us great leadership. Brian Griese's asserting himself with the football team. Chris Hovan's done some great things. Anthony Becht is a leader on the team.

We're pleased with the progress we're making. We're not saying we're ready for Canton (the Pro Football Hall of Fame) yet or Super Bowl XL or whatever it is. (But) there is an attitude there that is very good. It's what we want, the toughness, effort, the technique, the fundamentals are getting better. We are very physical.

We've got a young football team, particularly on offense. I worry a little bit about some of these guys getting a little bit freaked out with the length of the season, the mental grind, the physical grind that they go through,

For us to sign Chris Simms for our future is something that is extremely exciting. (He is) A young man that has continued to improve, help our team make the playoffs and win an NFC Southern Championship, and a guy that we will continue to build our football team around.

He has incredible acceleration, stop-and-start quickness. You do not forget that sometimes that he can stop and throw that ball. There is not a guy like him that I have seen. I used to think Steve Young revolutionized the system of football that I always study with his unique scrambling ability. I hate to tell Steve Young this, but this guy is a hell of a lot faster.

What do you want me to do? Criminy, we've got to do something, ... We've got to get practice done. We need to get certain phases of our football team looked at, but when you only have six or seven healthy linemen, you can't go in pads for 21/2 hours.

The only thing that is going to be said here is we feel we did something we had to do as a football team, and we're going to put this behind us and move forward. We don't like to do disciplinary actions. But sometimes that's what the world is all about. If you are going to have rules ... you have to be forceful in terms of how you apply them.

It is good to know, as a football player, if we get the ball back to our quarterback he can do something with it. He made a great statement today in front of a lot of people.

I think we have beaten some pretty darn good football teams and have been fairly consistent throughout the year. We've got a talented defense. We have a good running game and we are looking forward to seeing what we can do. Every year there are dark horses that jump onto the scene.

That was a real gut check. Things did not look good for a little while. We made plenty of mistakes, but we were able to hang in there, and that is what I am most proud of this football team.

I would just like to say it is a great feeling, a great accomplishment by our team. I am very proud of them. A credit to the New Orleans Saints, they came in here under adverse circumstances, obviously, missing some key players and they competed greatly today. We hung in there and we earned our 11th victory. We look forward to continuing the season at home next week. I am really proud of our football team.

We just want to put an emphasis on getting better, period. Obviously, teams that win in this league usually have a better record at home than they do on the road. So, yeah, it's been a point of emphasis. But at the same time, before you can win games at home, you've got to improve your football team. We have made some strides.

We had lot of peaks and valleys. We've been fairly consistent. It's a credit to our coaches and the football team to step it up. We're in a prime position that a lot of people didn't think we would be in.

We're not going to let one defeat or two defeats or a negative road trip set us back from our goals. We realize this is a work in progress, this football team. We have a long way to get where we want to be,

We have got to win this game. It's a big game for us. The Saints have given us trouble, at least since I've been here (0-3 at Raymond James Stadium). This is a big football game for us.

You can't come in as a seventh-round draft choice, or any kind of draft choice, never practice and expect to make this football team. It's too bad, but he's got to get himself back out here in a hurry.

What can you say about Jerry Rice? ... It's a great feeling to be on his team in the playoffs. I can't believe his performance tonight. Those 49ers acquisitions were big today. Jerry may be 39, but George Foreman won the heavyweight championship when he was 44, so he's got a lot of football left in him.

Even though you're back playing, you don't miss a year and a half of football and show up in Week 9 and say, 'Hey, I'm back, man,' ... I don't care what anybody tells you. You've got to work through that.

The schedule doesn't get any easier, ... Our job is to do everything we can to help him. His job is obviously to make plays and move this football team and help us score and win games, and eliminate turnovers, negative plays, sacks. Those are areas that must be cleaned up in a hurry. And he'll be the quarterback this week again. Hopefully he can do that.

As a football player, Woodson is such a unique guy. He can stand in there and play man-to-man, old-school bump-and-run coverage with the best of them, and he will knock you out.

You've got to score points to win football games and we regret what happened here, having to send one of our key players home, but looking at it in the rearview mirror, we would do the same thing again. Hopefully Simeon comes back ready to roll and he learns from this.

There's change circulating throughout the league and for us to sign Chris Simms for our future is something that is extremely exciting. He's a young man that's continued to improve and helped take our team to the playoffs and win an NFC South championship and is a guy we will continue to build our football team around.

It's a great start. We expected to win the game. We think we've got the makings of a good football team. ... It guarantees you nothing. But it does give your team, I think, a sense of confidence.

It's good to have him back. He's a guy who has played a lot of football and he's a good player, so it's good to have him back out there.

They've made their kicks. They've made clutch kicks. They've kicked the ball from just about every venue on the football field.

I'm not going to say anything more publicly other than this is going to be evaluated very carefully. There's a lot of logistics nowadays in modern football that you have to abide by. We'll do that.

I'm more concerned with Shelton's injury than I am concerned with Nate. Nate's a fine football player. He played a lot snaps for us last year -- not a lot of people know that,

I'm pleased with where we are running the football and that's a start, ... There are some good signs, some physical signs that we could be a good running team.

I'll say this. He's as tough as they get. He was limited on the practice field (during the week), but the look in his eye is going to give our offensive football team a chance every Sunday. I believe that.

I look at every mistake differently. I'm not going to say anything more publicly other than this is going to be evaluated very carefully and there's a lot of logistics nowadays in modern football that you have to abide by. But I'm very disappointed and concerned and that's about all I'll say publicly.

I look at Charles as a football player. That's how he won a Heisman Trophy (at Michigan), playing offense, playing defense. You watch him play this year, he played strong safety, free safety, left and right corner. He's a football player.

I hope both of those guys continue to do what they did this season. I thought they were great complements of one another. They made as good a contribution to our football team as I've seen.

In my lifetime in the NFL, he is the best back I've coached. I'll say this about him; he is as tough as they get. The look in his eye is going to give our football team a chance every Sunday.

But in some ways, this is a real positive for our football team, for us to be tested in this way. We physically got beaten by a quality football team (Carolina). You can dwell on the negatives or you can do something about it and roll your fist up and play a hell of a lot better.

He's everything we're looking for in an offensive linemen, in a future leader for our football team.

He's made plays. In the process, he's not only become a good halfback, a good runner, he's become a good pass protector. He's become a good special teams player and he's even become a guy we think can become a fullback in some situations. So he's come a long way as a football player.

He really hasn't exceeded our expectations; our expectations were very high for him. He's just got it all in front of him; he's going to be a great football player.

He should voicemail get open!

Right now Von Miller is the best pass rusher in the world. He looks exactly like Derrick Thomas did in his heyday. He can absolutely destroy a football game.

I'm going to scare a lot of kids Thursday night.

I just wanna see some football.

Ultra high speed slow mo

I bet you like sitting at red lights.

The Seahawks defense has to go balls deep to win this game.

Mike, did you ever see the movie 'Cast Away?' In that movie, Tom Hanks' only friend was a ball named Wilson. In this game, Russell Wilson's only friend is a football.

Mike, the best band to ever come out of Seattle was, of course, Pearl Jam. And that's what I expect the Seahawks to do - just jam it up the middle.

The elimination of penalties on early downs and getting us in an operative down-and-distance situation will (also) help, ... We've got to drive the point home that turnovers are not part of this football team.