Joe Webb Talks Simplified Verbiage

Newsflash: Bill Musgrave is not Darrell Bevell. That’s the message Joe Webb apparently wanted to get across when he talked about Musgrave’s offense in a phone interview.

“The verbiage is a lot shorter,” Webb said of the new system. “With Coach Musgrave’s, it allows you to play fast. You just call at the most three, four words and you have a whole play. It just allows you to not worry about calling the play but worry about executing the play. Last year I was more worried about getting the play called right in the huddle so everyone knew what to do. It also affected my game on the field.”

The over-complicated nature of Bevell and Brad Childress‘ version of the West Coast became something of a story last season, especially after Childress was fired and Brett Favre started offering his suggestions for how to improve things (hint: make it simpler).

It looks like Webb agreed with Favre’s assessment. And is very relieved that Musgrave believes in making things easy for the players, unlike Chilly and Bevs who seemed primarily concerned with making themselves look like geniuses, even if it caused mass confusion among the men being paid to actually carry out their plan.

Of course a simplified offense is not necessarily a better offense. There’s still the little matter of execution. Webb and fellow Viking quarterback Christian Ponder are both doing all they can to guarantee they’ll be ready to run the plays when/if the season starts. This week the new teammates have been working out together in Florida with Chris Weinke, and are already getting along smashingly, if you believe Webb.

“A real cool guy,” Webb said of his initial Ponder impressions. “We’re just trying to get to know each other on a personal level. It was fun meeting him for the first time.”

It’s all fun-and-games now, but what about when training camp rolls around and these two guys are embroiled in a quarterback competition that may or may not include a veteran with way more experience than them?

One thing we do know: When camp starts, Ponder won’t have a huge advantage in knowing the offense. It was previously reported that Ponder was the only Viking player in possession of the new Musgrave playbook, but now we’ve learned that Webb has a copy too and is studying it with Ponder. All this team unity is making me giddy as a schoolgirl.

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