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From NFL quarterback to UFL coach, all part of the journey for Battlehawks' Bruce Gradkowski
Back in 2006, Anthony Becht caught only one touchdown pass as the tight end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The lone touchdown pass was thrown to him by rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski in a 20-17 home win over Washington on Nov. 19, 2006.
18 years later, Becht is in his second year as the head coach of the St. Louis Battlehawks, and Gradkowski is now his offensive coordinator.
Gradkowski chalked it up as part of the journey, one that took him from Toledo to Tampa as a sixth-round draft pick, and through a decade-long career in the NFL.
"If I was a first-round draft pick, I don't think I'd be the person that I am today," Gradkowski said. "Toldeo was my only Divison I offer. If I was a highly recruited quarterback, who knows?"
As both the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, Gradkowski has had the luxury of working with veteran quarterback AJ McCarron, who has spent a decade in the NFL before leading the Battlehawks in the XFL last year and UFL this year. Through five games, McCarron leads the league in pass completions (111) and touchdowns (10).
"It's awesome having a veteran quarterback like AJ," Gradkowski said. "You know he's on top of things. You know he helps drive the details of the offense and the execution and continues to communicate it because, without other assistant coaches, there's a lot to cover."
Having worked together for a successful season and a half there is a trust factor between the coordinator and quarterback that leads to further improvement. McCarron has the freedom to call audibles to avoid being caught in a blitz. He has also shown the ability to be mobile and scramble in or out of the pocket to either salvage plays or turn them into touchdowns.
Through it all, McCarron has credited Gradkowski's trust in him.
“Bruce trusts me to be able to use me in the running game and trust what I see and allows me to have input,” McCarron said on April 20. “That’s very rare for a quarterback to have that from an offensive coordinator.”
Gradkowski has learned to trust and communicate with his quarterback from his rookie season under Jon Gruden and the Buccaneers. As he started 11 games in 2006, Gradkowski was supported by his offensive-minded head coach and now works to do the same in a coaching career spanning from high school through college and now the pros.
"(Gruden) gives quarterbacks tools in your tool belt," Gradkowski said. "Any quarterback I coach is gonna have tools to help them be the best they can be on Sundays, Saturdays, whenever that may be."
In the UFL, Gradkowski is learning to do the tasks of both a coordinator and his assistants would be doing if he had them. The Battlehawks have nine coaches on their staff, including Becht, who is also the tight ends coach on top of his head coaching duties. By comparison, an NFL coaching staff goes 30 deep.
Heck, Jackson High School head coach Ryan Nesbitt has 13 assistant coaches on his staff.
However, Gradkowski thrives in the extra work that he does because it's all development for the next level.
"It's cool because over the last two years, it's helped me dramatically get better as a coach," Gradkowski said.
He was prepared for the extra work early in his career. While he was coaching high school in Ohio, he was also grading pass plays for Pro Football Focus, a sports analytics company whose grades are shown during NFL broadcasts and all over media.
"When I had an opportunity to team up with Becht here, it was cool because I was able to look at my journey at PFF and coaching high school football and how much those two things helped me prepare for this moment," Gradkowski said, "because when I got this moment, I had all the clips I needed to show the offense of what I wanted to run."
The Battlehawks return home on Saturday, May 4, to take on the Houston Roughnecks at 2 p.m. on FOX. While St. Louis features an NFL veteran on offense, Houston counters that with a vet of their own on defense in linebacker Ruben Foster.
"That guy was a top pick," Gradkowski said. "He's a tough player. He's a good player. He's one of the best in this league."
Instead of signaling out a plan to negate his impact, Gradkowski pointed to how close many of the games have been in the UFL, and why no team can be judged by their record.
"When you look at a team that's 1-4, I feel for them," Gradkowski said. "They're not that far away from being 4-1. That's how close some of these games are. So you can never even approach it in the sense of taking a team lightly."