Here's a Change: QB Is the Same

People have to learn to manage their expectations of Campbell like Campbell has to learn how to manage a football game. His only worry should be about marshaling his team forward. He's often going to have to rein in his talent to ensure his development.

Efficiency rather than electricity, that whole move-the-chains game that Gibbs loves and has won with in the past.

Johnson told Campbell that, too, when they sat down this summer at a quarterback challenge in the Caribbean.

"He was very helpful," he said. "He's like: 'Even though it's your third year and you haven't had a whole lot of experience, don't try to take the pressure that everybody is trying to put on you, that you're the reason why everybody is going to win games. Don't do that. You're still a young quarterback, but you can be a winner.' "

Johnson also told him: "I know it was tough last year, but that happens at this level. But just turn it around and help the team turn it around."

Said Campbell: "He's like, 'Just build the guys.' He said the year they went to the playoffs they went through ups and downs but they won as a whole team."

Campbell's obsession with learning Al Saunders's playbook and putting in the hours during the offseason has been well-documented. He said he went home to Mississippi for a mere five days, where he slept, ate good barbeque and knocked on Brett Favre's door to see if the legend of Hattiesburg was home.

After he was drafted, Campbell bought a home for his mother and father about a mile from Favre's house. Campbell's father, now retired, sometimes works as a teacher's assistant and had Favre's daughter in class one day.

When he was a junior in high school, Campbell worked out with Favre and an athletic trainer during the summer. This summer he wanted to catch up with Favre, whom he had not had an opportunity to speak to in person for a while.

"I went to his house but you can't get to it," Campbell said. "You have this gate about 300 yards long surrounding his house. I called from the call box. I tried to get in but no one was home to answer."

Presumably, he wanted to ask Favre about what to expect going into the season as a starter. Or maybe how to conquer America's most popular sport when you come from a backwoods nook and cranny that has 7,000 people and five stores.

The good thing for Campbell is, he doesn't have to be Brett Favre tomorrow. The hope that he is going to be good or even great this season is misplaced. He needs to be stable and they'll have a shot. If he was so fortunate to complete 61 percent of his passes and have a 2-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, that might be good enough for 10-6 and the playoffs.

After 10 changes in eight seasons at quarterback, Jason Campbell should know: being Brad Johnson today is okay.