Tarvaris Jackson's appearance on NFL Sirius Radio on Tuesday included the quarterback talking about what it was like to play behind Brett Favre. The future Hall of Famer has never been known as the mentoring type but Jackson said the two had a "pretty good relationship."
"I can say it was fine," Jackson said. "When he first came in he pulled me to the side. We were walking to practice one day and he was like, 'I don't know what you've heard, but if I can help you with anything just let me know.' I honestly told him, 'Well, if I can learn anything it will be more by watching than asking questions. I'd [learn] by me seeing you do certain things and how you do it. If I can see it, I can do it.' [There was] little stuff with the offense that he helped me with as far as the offense goes but I pretty much know the offense. It's just about going on the field and making it happen. "As I said earlier, he's going to be himself regardless of who doesn't like it. That was big for me because I tried to be the guy that everybody wanted me to be, the quarterback everybody wanted me to be instead of taking coaching and applying it to my game. Being me, being what got me here. There's a reason for why they drafted me. I feel like you can take coaching but you still can be yourself at the same time. That's what I have to take that next step to do." Speaking of taking coaching, Jackson had a very interesting comment regarding how Favre played the position. Jackson talked about how much work Favre puts in watching film and the little things the veteran picks up by studying. But here's the most interesting part of Jackson's comment: "Even the things that we really didn't have in the offense, things that he kind of got guys to feed into and kind of keep the chains moving a lot," Jackson said, referencing Favre's ability to operate on the fly. "Just little things that he did that kept our offense going. As much as I've learned from him, a lot of stuff he did because he's Brett Favre. I'm Tarvaris Jackson. A lot of stuff that he did I'm not going to be able to do because a lot of stuff he did is through 19 years of experience. I only have four years. A lot of stuff that he did he did just because he played the game a long time and he's seen pretty much everything that you can see."
