When Mike Tirico left the Monday Night Football booth a big question for ESPN’s NFL broadcasts was how analyst Jon Gruden would mesh and develop chemistry with new play by play man Sean McDonough. Tirico is the only play-by-play partner Gruden has ever had and the former Bucs and Raiders coach has a certain je ne sais quoi about him that has to be adapted to.

Given it’s just Week 2 of the NFL season and Gruden is already hitting McDonough with inflatable pool noodles, everything is going swimmingly well.

Gruden really likes hitting people with that thing, as he did to Wentz on his Gruden’s QB Camp show to help Wentz become a TWO HANDED MONSTER at the quarterback position, i.e. holding the ball with two hands instead of one. Hopefully Gruden exclusively calls Wentz “TWO HANDED MONSTER” from this point out and it becomes the new “Spider 2 Y Banana.”

The bigger issue at hand might be how severely ESPN’s budget cuts are affecting Gruden’s propensity for using props in the Monday Night Football booth. In the past we’ve seen him use blenders and shovels. (It’s probably a good thing Gruden didn’t have the shovel to illustrate the tape above). Now we’re down to using $4 pool noodles to illustrate how to be a professional quarterback. What’s next, a wooden yardstick? Then again, since Gruden is ESPN’s highest paid employee, maybe he’s in charge of getting his own props.

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