The staff breaks down film of every single player in every single play in every single game. They give each player two grades on every play - an effort grade and a technique grade. Johnson said every guy doesn't have the same ability, but everyone can control how hard they play. For example, BeBe Thomas couldn't control if Johnson called a pass play, but he could give full effort, and he did. He never sulked about not getting the ball because he was focused on helping the team win. He basically said BeBe is going to get his chances. He talked about how hard Daryl Richard worked all game long. Michael Johnson worked hard but got gassed from being on too many special teams plays, so they're going to cut him back and focus on his D-Line work.
For "effort" grades, if a player doesn't hustle the entire play, he gets an "effort", which means he basically gave up on the play before it was over. Most of these seem to boil down to players deciding that they are too far away from the play to make a difference, so they stop working before the whistle. For example, if a QB completes a pass and doesn't immediately start chasing after the ball, that's an "effort". Johnson tells his players that they are going to have to go downfield to the ball for the next play anyhow, so why get down there and hustle during the play? If there's a fumble or a guy cuts back across the field for some reason and you could have been there had you kept running, it could mean the difference between winning and losing. Johnson highlighted the Greg Smith fumble (the play was later ruled down by contact), where Jax St had 8 guys around the lose ball, and we only had four. "Where were our guys?", he asked.
