Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in…
Here I was approaching this Ides of March prepared to jump full-tilt into the draft, ready to continue debating the most important question facing Browns Nation in some time…when everytime I turn around – some QB is doing something in Cleveland.
First, Seneca Wallace is brought to town.
Next, DA is released – and contrary to popular opinion, one move did not cause the other.
Of course, the inneundo that drives the sports media follows….
…Which means that this is rehashed…including the following:
The Browns – or any team – would need to give up at least a first-round pick for either Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb or Kevin Kolb, ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio reported this morning.
And don’t look now, but wasn’t it yours truly who predicted something similar about Kolb some weeks ago?
And by the way – thanks, but no thanks.
Which leaves us here…
…meaning that articles such as the following will continue to follow…
Lombardi – Who Believes in Brady Quinn?
And naturally, I – along with the rest of Browns Nation – will continue to chase this most scandalous of affairs….the coming and goings of a Cleveland QB.
To further cloud the waters, here’s a most confusing piece by the National Football Post’s Mike Lombardi, who is decidedly anti-Quinn, and seemingly “in flux” regarding the QB’s tenous NFL career.
I’ve been writing online at the Post and talking on NFL Network about why I feel Brady Quinn is not a quality NFL starter and why the Browns ultimately will find another quarterback. But there’s one diehard Quinn fan (not my son) who sends me absurd emails about how he thinks Quinn is the next Dan Marino and how I’m an idiot for not recognizing his talents. There’s no way to change this man’s mind — or at least make him think he might be wrong.
I’m all for loyalty to a player, but this person is over the top (trust me, he’s called me a lot worse than an idiot). He doesn’t lack confidence in Quinn, even though he has never coached or scouted the position professionally. He believes in his heart of hearts that Quinn will start in Cleveland next season. At first, I thought this fan had to be a Quinn relative, but that’s not the case. I understand being loyal, but I don’t understand blind loyalty. Why is it so difficult to see that Quinn is not an NFL starter? The other question is how did Quinn cultivate this blind, obsessive loyalty?
The year Quinn was drafted, there was concern around the NFL about his overall accuracy on every level — short, medium and long. In fact, his workout was not very impressive, and the reason he slipped in the first round was because of his lack of accuracy. Quinn finished his college career with a 58-percent completion rate, which improved the last two seasons under Charlie Weis’ tutelage. In college, the completion percentage for quarterbacks should high because of the famed bubble screens that are prevalent since linemen can be downfield on forward passes. So no quality college quarterback should ever be below 65 percent. Once he entered the NFL, the Browns thought they had their guy for the future, but in the short term, Derek Anderson played well and led the Browns to a 10-win non-playoff season. As his career unfolded and the hopes built for Quinn to be the savior, his lack of accuracy, rhythm and decision-making doomed his performances. When given the chance to start, Quinn failed to deliver, and now the Browns are moving on — probably without him.
Many people say a lot of things about Mike Lombardi, and certainly his recently elevated profile has made him the target of continued criticism. While I greatly enjoy Lombardi, I also realize that he is as much a part of the new synergistic P.R. style of access journalism as any other prominent NFL reporter. After all, Lombardi is the guy who repeatedly trumpeted every Bob LaMonte client alive over the past few months.
And now, Lombardi’s continued quest to devalue Brady Quinn (more so than Quinn has already done to himself) meets nicely with the arrival of Seneca Wallace in Mike Holmgren-run Berea. After all, in terms of “moving on”, you couldn’t have reached a more appropriate point to make a move. Perhaps the reference to the mystery emailer merely served as another avenue for Lombardi to proselytize.
However, the disappointing part of Lombardi’s piece is his failure to answer his own question. And it’s a good one – why have NFL personnel and fans developed such a “blind, obsessive loyalty” towards Quinn?
The answer is simple – Quinn is a good guy. People want him to do well, mainly because he fits the part. How simple is this?
After all, how can you dislike a good Catholic boy who grew up in NE Ohio idolizing Bernie Kosar? Or, one that led a resurgent Notre Dame team back to respectability, or someone as clean cut, wholesome and well-spoken as Quinn?
Or, to put it another way – the same qualities that make it easy to support Quinn are ones similar to the current narrative being constructed on Tim Tebow. It’s not so much that Quinn or Tebow will succeed, as it is that people want them to succeed. After all, if you ask the general public whether they want to see a fresh-faced Quinn or recently paroled Michael Vick succeed, the answer is clear.
Which is why Quinn’s backers are unyielding in their support.
Contrary to the evidence cited by Quinn over the past two seasons….
Like Lombardi states, Quinn’s accuracy has proven to be his downfalling so far in the NFL. Regardless of any Quinn supporter’s arguments to the contrary, such as pointing out the team’s shortcomings at wide receiver – it is glaringly obvious that Quinn is perhaps the most inaccurate passer in the league. After all, a Browns receiver could have the best hands in the league, but still would struggle to catch a ball thrown two yards behind them.
Or, put it this way – what exactly is Quinn’s strength right now? Besides his name?
His legacy?
As Lombardi points out, Quinn’s college career – like many of the 2010 draft prospects – was built on the heels of some safe, efficient offense – coming against opponents who are barely anything more than a mid-tier Big East team. Not exactly the stuff of real legends. However, because Quinn’s accomplishments came at Notre Dame, his stock soared heading into the 2007 draft.
Does any of this sound familiar? Have you seen a mock draft lately?
Anyway, what all of this does sound like is a pre-emptive type of player obituary. Certainly, Quinn is still in Cleveland….(Hold on, let me double check…), and for all we know, Holmgren may be the latest in a line of football men to fall – albeit “blindly” – for the allure of Quinn.
However, given the ferocity of change occurring in Cleveland lately, perhaps the best strategy here is a pre-emptive one – which means this…
We’ll miss you, Brady.
Or, wait. No. No, we won’t.
Are you still here?
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Not so fast, Cowboy. NO way Quinn gets moved until and unless the Browns obtain another QB via FA or trade. Mike Holmgren knows what he’s doing with QBs, so how about we sit tight and wait to see what the next couple of weeks bring. Quinn’s contract is so team friendly that he’s not going anywhere until The Show is convinced that he’s not in the long term plans. That remains to be seen.
I’ve no idea why we talked to Jake Delhomme. I am hoping all of this is some sort of smokescreen to increase the value of Brady Quinn.
Best case scenario: we trade Quinn to the Buffalo Bills for Donte Whitner, and sign Troy Smith from Baltimore for a 5th round pick.
We might as well take a chance on a guy with some youth and physical tools, because any mediocre veteran we could get would be a one year solution at most. Starting Wallace or Delhomme means we look in the draft next year anyway.
Might as well take a shot on a guy this year: the experiment could succeed and we have found our guy or it could fail and our draft pick would be higher anyway, putting us in position for an early first round QB.
Whether we take a shot on Quinn, Troy Smith, or a mid round QB this year is up to Holmgren.
I would take a flyer on Jake Delhomme, no problem.
And I can understand his wanting to start if he came to a 5-11 team at his age. Why would he want to be a back-up here if he can do that for a playoff team?
But the main reason is that he had Tommy John surgery – something NFL QB’s seldom have. With baseball pitchers it take 18 months to fully heal, and all players that had it say their arms are stronger then before the operation. Many, like Tommy John, pitch well into their 40’s. Delhomme’s arm will be fine next year, and keep in mind that this is a guy that lead an offense to the Super Bowl – so we know he can compete in the NFL at a high level. If he washes out….fine, the Browns lost some money. If he hits – think Kurt Warner who looked just as bad as Delhomme did last year the year before the Cardinals signed him.
I’d sure be talking to some doctors and seeing if his arm is still strengthening.
Congratulations……This is perhaps the best piece I have ever seen written from a Cleveland supporter highlighting the QB situation in Cleveland. You have stated what so many refuse see….the emporor has no clothes on. He does not have the tools to be an NFL Qb. It can not be more obvious than it is right now. Cleveland fans more than anybody chased off a guy who possibly could have been nurtured into a big time QB. That ship sailed so no point in looking back. But perhaps since I am a die hard Browns fan who has not lived in NE Ohio in over 20 years it is easier for me to see. Since the 07 season in every blog and to every person who would listen, I begged people to step back and take an honest look at what the browns had in this guy. They had a guy who never won a big game in college, who ran up stats against poor competition and played poorly against top competition. A guy that every team in the league took a long hard look at and passed on him. No matter what the evidence suggested, the fan base would not be swayed. Do you realize that the majority of the fans wanted DA traded after his pro Bowl season? They actually convinced themselves, after the guy won 10 games and threw 29 td’s, that a better Qb was carrying the clipboard. Most Browns fans are still willing to be patient with Quinn and want him given another year. I am amazed at how patient the fan base has been with Quinn and Frye, yet they couldnt wait for DA to leave? makes no sense. It would seem to me that they would have been patient with the guy who actually produced for them? But here we go again, same old story looking for a QB….bye bye Brady, thanks for nothing.
This Quinn stuff is driving me crazy. DK, how can you pretend like a quarterback’s accuracy doesn’t depend on his having open receivers to throw to?
Toward the end of the season at my website I offered $100 to anyone who could make a good argument that the 2010 Browns post-Braylon did not have the worst set of pass-catchers of any team in modern NFL history. Nobody could do it, and nobody argued with the results of the competition.
The posts are linked here at the words “conclusively proven” if you want to see for yourself: http://tinyurl.com/yfggu32
How anyone can ignore this in honestly evaluating Quinn is beyond me.
I wrote the following at Frowns at the above linked post this morning, and I’m not sure there’s an answer to the last question:
“If anything [all the talk about Quinn like Lombardi's] suggests that the Browns won’t be able to receive value in return for him, or anything better than what it’s worth to give Quinn a year at the helm of a Cleveland Browns franchise with some semblance of stability.
“Yes Quinn has had some very bad games at quarterback for the Browns, but why not chalk it up; first, to inexperience, just like anyone judging any other first-round quarterback in NFL history has been willing to do with respect to any other first-round quarterback’s first twelve games as a starter, and; second to the historic instability of the Browns in Quinn’s tenure here and the corresponding historic lack of surrounding talent. He might still end up no good, but at least he’ll have had a real chance. Let’s hope for the best, and let’s not forget how good Quinn looked in his first career start, back when he had a few guys to throw to.”
Sean:
Stop drinking the OSU koolaide. Troy Smith? Donte Whitner? Both scenarios are not happening. I doubt the Bills want Quinn. And by some miracle they take Quinn, they’re not giving us Whitner for Quinn.
As for Smith…it’s not happening now that we have Seneca Wallace.
I do not know if Brady Quinn is an NFL quarterback or not.I believe a lot of us certainly want him to succeed. Mike Holmgren himself said a QB needs 3 years before you can truly tell. Fran Tarkenton said it takes 5 years. Brady’s has less than 1 year of starts.I attended my first my first Browns game in the fall of 1957 which was Jim Brown’s rookie season and have been following the Browns ever since. I have seen us trade or give up on a lot of players we should not have only to see them blossom somewhere else.Let’s name him our starter for this year and see what happens.After all we are not going to the Super Bowl this year! Let’s give him a chance!!
I really want to be done talking about Lombardi. But I wanted to point out one absurd arguement that he made in his post yesterday:
“Quinn finished his college career with a 58-percent completion rate…In college, the completion percentage for quarterbacks should be high…So no quality college quarterback should ever be below 65 percent.”
(Let’s leave Quinn out of it for a second).
Come again?! 65%?! Where did he get that number from? Did he just pluck it out of the air? Is this based on anything? Why 65%? Why not 63% or 68%?
Let’s get this straight, 65% for a career is a phenomenal achievement. If Lombardi’s threshold is 65% then he would not have drafted, for example, Matt Ryan, Mark Sanchez, Matt Stafford, or Joe Flacco, to name a few. And next year he won’t consider Jake Locker, because he is not even close to 60%.
My point is, to say that the player is worth nothing as a college QB if he is under that mark is just not true. I know everyone is in love with completion percentage, and it is very important. But there is so much more that goes into evaluating a college QB.
Lombardi has to know this right? He probably does, which goes back to the bias that the author begins to discuss in this article. He does not like Quinn, so he makes up an arbitrary premise (QBs must be above 65%) to prove his point. (Again, this should not be interpretted as a pro-BQ comment).
Lastly, is it too much to demand a little thoughtful analysis from some of these experts? Other than, “such and such QB is just not accurate, and me and other people that are smarter than you [the reader] agree with me.”
I will take it a step further. NE Ohioans have a severely bruised ego.We are the red headed step child of the country. Everytime you hear someone ask, ‘where’s the worst place to live” It is inevitabely answered, Cleveland.” How many tireless Cleveland jokes have we heard over the years? Why it is always Cleveland that seems to get the raw end of the deal, when there are far more undesireble places to live..ever been to Salina Kansas or Altus Oklahoma? My point is we are insecure from the constant city bashes as afterall we were born and raised here..SO when someone of “star” quality talks highly of our treasure of a city we fold our arms and say, “take that America, see it ain’t as bad as you think!” Brady is from Ohio and idolized Bernie, wanting to be a Brown-thus the blind loyalty-please also reference Omar, Drew Carey, Z and even Mike Fratello!
Oh God, not another ‘Sign Troy Smith’ booster. As bad as we have been at QB over the last several years the last thing the Browns need is another unproven QB just because he’s from Cleveland and went to OSU.
TROY SMITH IS THE ANSWER! WAS THE FRONT RUNNER FOR THE STARTING QB SPOT IN BALTIMORE TWO YEARS AGO BUT GOT SICK AND WAS HOSPITALIZED FOR OVER TWO MONTHS! HE WAS ONE OF THE ALL TIME GREATEST QB’S AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY-ENOUGH SAID! WE SHOULD HAVE DRAFTED TROY IN THE MIDDLE ROUNDS THREE YEARS AGO INSTEAD OF WASTING HIGH PICKS ON QUINN WHO WILL BE GONE EITHER THIS YEAR OR NEXT AS HE IS CLEARLY NOT THE ANSWER.
quinn didnt grow up in NE ohio he grew up in the columbus area…
TROY SMITH IS THE MAN….MARK MY WORDS! WE’D BE LUCKY TO GET HIM EVEN FOR A THIRD ROUND PICK!
TROY SMITH SUCKS. I wish local’s would quit mucking up the browns with OSU crap. Get a bigger perspective for crying outloud. You cant see the forest for the gay buckeys.
Hey Dick, first of all, ND does not play football in the Big East. Get real. ND nearly beat #1 USC when they were a #1 powerhouse under Quinn’s leadership, except for a last second miracle TD from Leinart. Second, we spent a 1st round pick on this kid, and got a steal in the late round, and he has not yet had one year to show what he can do. Not because he got pulled, but he got injured 2 years in a row, when he was winning. Injuries worry me more than his talent.
Donk….you convieniently omit one big reason Quinn has so few starts. He was yanked for poor performance. As far as what happened at ND, this town has lots of “nearly’s” he did not win any big games in college. How can you call Quinn a steal in the first round? Right now the Browns would be lucky to get a third rounder for him and Kevin Kolb who was drafter after Quinn coomands a first rounder? Face it, the Browns were fleeced when it comes to Quinn. It is time to move on.
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