The former Montana quarterback was having a great season in NFL Europe last year when a right-shoulder separation late in the second half of the regular-season finale against Berlin kept him from playing for the eventual-champion Frankfurt Galaxy in the World Bowl a week later.
At the time Ochs was the property of the NFL Buffalo Bills who sent him off to Birmingham, Ala., for surgery and rehabilitation on the shoulder. Now that the rehab is over the Bills have decided to release Ochs, but both he and his agent, Ken Staninger, think that’s a good thing.
Staninger said releasing players, especially those with injuries, really is a business decision because a team is responsible for compensating a player if he gets hurt while in training camp or during the regular season.
“When they (the Bills) released him they said it wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t a good player,” Staninger said. “They were kind of excited about him as a player but the medical staff … encouraged them to release him.”
In fact Staninger - who has worked with Jauron in the past - actually encouraged the Bills coach to release Ochs sooner rather than later to give him a chance to find another team.
The rehab took about seven months, and Ochs was cleared by his doctor to begin full workouts in mid-January, even though he had started throwing on a limited basis about a month earlier.
“It really feels good,” Ochs said Monday. “I’m throwing without any pain and it feels pretty strong.”
Ochs had hoped to be traveling to Buffalo this spring to show the Bills what he could do, but they were nervous about his injury history which includes some concussions and a severe ankle injury he had while playing for Montana.
Staninger had received interest from other NFL teams before Ochs’ latest injury and has put together a list of about a dozen NFL squads he thinks - based on their quarterback situations - should be interested in his client. Neither expects much to happen immediately because teams are getting ready for the draft.
Ochs said he has no interest in playing another season in Europe or in either the Canadian or Arena leagues if things don’t work out in the NFL.
“For me it’s always been the NFL,” Ochs explained. “If it comes to an end I’m okay with it. I gave it my best chance and unfortunately sometimes you can’t help injuries, you can’t help just where life takes you.”
There’s also that other new life situation that is influencing Ochs’ thought process. He and his wife, Jessie, are expecting their first child - a girl - in about a month.
That thought process has led to a decision that coaching is what Ochs really wants to do once his playing days are over.
“I love the game of football,” Ochs said. “I think it’s just a great game. I think my experiences playing - both the good and the bad - have given me a good foundation to move on and coach, especially at the college level.”
Ochs said he gets excited just thinking about coaching college football. And while he wouldn’t totally discount the idea of coaching at the high school level, he made it clear that one of his “concrete goals” is to coach at the college level.
Ochs and his wife have relocated back to Colorado in a Denver-Boulder suburb called Superior. It’s close to members of both of their families which was especially good for Jessie, since Craig had been going back and forth to Birmingham about once a month for up to two weeks at a time.
“It’s been a very exciting time for the two of us just to go through all the excitement of a pregnancy,” Ochs said. “We’ve been real blessed … and (have) been able to have a lot of time together, especially coming on the heels of Europe where she wasn’t able to come.”
Ochs said he and Jessie have talked at times about having a large family but right now they’re just overwhelmed with the prospects of having their first child.
“We just gonna really enjoy it,” Ochs said, “and we’ll see from here … where life takes us. If the Lord blesses us with more we’d love to have more.”
Staninger has little doubt that Ochs will succeed as a coach when the time comes.
“Craig brings such great integrity to the sport,” Staninger said. “He has worked very hard. He has had a very difficult time. We’re gonna move on to the next part of his career.
“Hopefully it’s to play (more football),” Staninger added. “But whoever would get this young man to coach would get somebody with a great offensive football mind and a person with tremendous integrity.”
Another former Grizzly - Dylan McFarland - was released by the Bills about five weeks into the NFL season after sustaining a knee injury that required surgery. Ochs said he hasn’t kept in touch with McFarland as well as he would have liked since the two crossed paths in Europe.
But Ochs has done a good job of keeping track of the Montana Grizzlies, talking with coach Bobby Hauck regularly and going online as much as possible. He saw the Iowa and Massachusetts games on television.
He and Jessie also drove up to Greeley to watch the Griz play at Northern Colorado during the regular season.
“It was a great year,” Ochs said. “They had a great team. It’s too bad the UMass game went the way it did because to win 12 games in a row like they did is quite a feat.”
So would Ochs like to help coach the Grizzlies some day?
“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation. “I think it’s a special place. If the coaching route takes me that direction it’s a great place to be. It’s a great place to raise a family and we have a lot of ties in that community.
“So if life takes us back there we’d be real excited about it.”
Click here to listen to Bill Schwanke's complete interview with Craig Ochs.
EXTRA POINTS: Staninger said Buffalo’s release of Dylan McFarland in mid-season when he wasn’t completely rehabilitated from his knee surgery is now in what he called “injury arbitration.” … Based on what he saw even in the Super Bowl Sunday Staninger thinks there are a number of teams that should be interested in someone like Craig Ochs. “Nothing against Rex Grossman,” Staninger said, “(but) if there’s not a better player than that throughout the year that does show you a little bit of a lack of talent.” … Staninger said McFarland does have teams interested in him even though his rehab isn’t complete, which caused him to turn down an offer to return to NFL Europe this season. He expects to be 100 percent sometime in March. … The Missoula agent is still working on picking up new clients with former Grizzlies Tuff Harris and Mike Murphy among those on his prospect list.
Click here to listen to Bill Schwanke's complete interview with Ken Staninger.
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