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Join Date: Sep 2006
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O'Sullivan to QB most of opener
LIONS EXHIBITION SEASON BEGINS VS. BENGALS: O'Sullivan to QB most of opener
Quote:
Standing outside the locker room Wednesday, J.T. O'Sullivan tried to recall his history with the Lions.
"Do you remember the day you signed?"
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"No idea," O'Sullivan said.
"Early July?"
"It was definitely July."
"Did you get the playbook that day?"
"Uh," O'Sullivan said, pausing to think, "you know, it seems like it was a long time ago, but it really wasn't."
O'Sullivan laughed. It was July 10 when he signed with the Lions, and here he is only a month later, about to quarterback Mike Martz's offense for most of tonight's exhibition opener against Cincinnati.
This is the plan: Jon Kitna will start, but the starters will play only 10 to 12 snaps or so. O'Sullivan will take over from there. Dan Orlovsky will come in late in the third quarter or early in the fourth.
Martz wants to give each of his quarterbacks the bulk of the work in one of the first three exhibitions. Kitna will play most of the third one, Aug. 25 at Indianapolis. Orlovsky will play most of the second, Aug. 18 at Cleveland. This is O'Sullivan's shot.
It's remarkable that O'Sullivan is ready to run onto the field so soon, let alone challenge Orlovsky for the backup job. At this time last year, the Lions were still trying to figure out how to line up properly, Kitna said Wednesday. And they had spent an off-season learning Martz's complicated, voluminous system. O'Sullivan has had 30 days.
"I by no means feel 100% totally comfortable with every single thing," O'Sullivan said. "It's an ongoing process, but I feel like coming into camp I gave myself as much as I could an opportunity to compete with the situation I was in."
O'Sullivan is on his seventh NFL team. He has been through the entire NFC North and then some. He has never thrown a pass in a real NFL game. There must be a reason teams keep giving up on him.
But there also must be a reason teams keep giving him a chance. And, believe it or not, there might be a benefit to all that bouncing around. He has learned how to learn, how to adapt.
"I think every single time you learn something ... learn an offense ... learn a new offense again -- if that even makes sense -- you know how you learn," O'Sullivan said. "You know how you've done it in the past and things that you'd do differently. So every time I think it maybe gets a little bit faster."
When O'Sullivan signed, he was coming off a co-MVP performance in NFL Europa, so you could say he was in midseason form and feeling confident. He came to Detroit and spent a couple of days cramming with quarterbacks coach Adam Gase. Then he went home and crammed some more. When he reported to training camp a little more than two weeks later, he impressed the coaches with how well he knew what he was doing.
Some adjustments have been relatively minor, like new terminology for basic football.
"A lot of this stuff, I just have to translate it in my head," O'Sullivan said. "I know what a seven-man protection is, where the line's going, who the two backs are blocking. But what we call it here isn't necessarily how I learned it, so I just have to translate it and say it to the huddle."
Other adjustments have been more challenging, like the unique aspects of Martz's offense. But O'Sullivan is a bit of an X's and O's geek. Maybe that's why Martz seems to have taken a shine to him.
"I like football," O'Sullivan said. "I like that stuff. Personally, it's just something I have fun with and enjoy."
Tonight presents a much tougher test.
"When you're out here at practice, the plays kind of come in a little slower," Kitna said. "The clock's not running. When you get out there, things are coming in pretty quickly. You've got to be able to piece things together sometimes. That can be difficult. But he's a smart guy. He's been in a lot of different systems, so he understands how to play fast."
Martz has given O'Sullivan a lot of reps in practice so he can catch up to Orlovsky, a 2005 fifth-round pick who has had a year and a half in this system. That way, they can have a true competition.
Meanwhile, Drew Stanton, a second-round pick from MSU this year, has been placed on injured reserve with a knee problem. That would seem to increase the chances O'Sullivan will make the roster.
But O'Sullivan said he had not been able to pay attention to all of that because things have been so hectic during training camp -- practice, film, study, practice, film, study ...
And truth is, even though he just got to Detroit, he has been around the NFL long enough to know better.
"I've been to enough camps to know that if you're good enough, there will be a spot for you," O'Sullivan said. "That's my mind-set, and I don't think you can go about it any other way."
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O'Sullivan to QB most of opener
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