Jeff Fisher wants to make sure people hear him loud and clear when he talks about his record with quarterbacks.
The current Michigan Panthers head coach told The Number One Ranked Show last month that he is aware of some of the criticism about him and his work with quarterbacks. However, he is confident about and comfortable with what he accomplished in that regard, particularly during his time in charge of the Tennessee Titans.
“I got caught up in some of the social media stuff,” Fisher conceded. “They were calling me – facetiously – ‘quarterback whisperer,’ like I just ruin quarterbacks. Well, go fact check your world … before you start saying things.
“We had success [with the Titans]. We had a lot of success.”
Fisher pointed to the fact that Tennessee won its first 10 games in 2008, finished that season with a league-best 13-3 mark behind Kerry Collins, who made the second – and final – Pro Bowl appearance of his 17-year career. Two years earlier, Vince Young was the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year with the Titans.
Then there was Steve McNair, the third overall pick of the 1995 draft who became the franchise’s starting quarterback in 1997. McNair ultimately played in three Pro Bowls, led the franchise to its only Super Bowl appearance (1999) and was named the NFL’s co-Most Valuable Player along with Peyton Manning in 2003.
“We were patient with him,” Fisher said. “He was a just a fierce competitor, and it took us some time. At that time, we laid it out and said, ‘Look, this is going to be our guy. We’re going to take him. We can’t tell you when he’s going to be ready. But we’ll know.’
“He got all the experience he needed to get over a couple of years, and then we took off and we ran with him. And we did very well with him.”
McNair was 16-6 in his first two seasons as a starter. After that, he was 49-22 in games he played for Tennessee.
With Michigan, which begins the season Sunday against the Houston Gamblers (11 a.m., CDT, NBC), Fisher has former University of Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson, the first overall pick in this year’s USFL Draft, and NFL veteran Paxton Lynch, who was 1-3 in four starts with the Denver Broncos in 2016-17.
"Paxton is just looking for the right opportunity," Fisher said. "His skill set is certainly a little bit different than Shea's. We may use them both — who knows? It’s fun. This is what this league’s about.”
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