Like a 6 year old with a Sharpie, Eric Mangini has written his name all over the Cleveland Browns. He's "moved" murals, traded Pro Bowl talent and traded the #5 overall pick to the Jets for a group of former employees who he thought would help him preach the gospel in Cleveland. That was just in the first few months!I'm not knocking any of those moves because I think they were all smart and cleared the way for a re-building effort that will (hopefully) see this team become more competitive and fundamentally sound in the new few years. I'm ok with that. I know the Browns aren't going to the playoffs this season and I won't be disappointed when that becomes a fact.
What I am disappointed in is the idea that Eric Mangini is giving Derek Anderson snaps in pre-season and training camp with the notion that he might actually win the starting job over Brady Quinn. Look, I'm not 100% sold on either guy as a "franchise QB" but even a casual fan knows that Brady Quinn should be the starter when the Browns open the regular season on September 13 at home against the Minnesota Favrekings. So why is Coach Mangini torturing us with his homemade Quarterback Derby 2009 Edition?
Seriously, is it really necessary?
Speaking of unnecessary, how about waiting until an hour before the first pre-season game to announce the starter? Was that a strategy to try to force Green Bay into having to be prepared for both QBs? I hope not because the Packers came out and looked like the best defense in the world while Coach Mangini was rotating Quinn and Anderson like they were trying out for his Yahoo! Fantasy Football Team. Great "sneaky" tactic to start the season of games that don't even count.
We won't even get into the specifics of the game. Check Ben's recap in the previous post for that info. All I'm going to say is the fact that Quinn didn't pull ahead in this battle was a bigger disappointment than our defense all of a sudden forgetting how to tackle.
So now it's Thursday and we still don't have a confirmation on who will be starting Saturday against Detroit in the (in)famous "Great Lakes Classic" (that almost got blacked out). Why is it taking so long to name a starter this week? Is this forcing the Lions, coming off the league's first ever 0-16 season, to prepare for both guys? Detroit's first team defense is going to see both guys anyway so why not just announce that D.A. will start the second game since apparently it's too early to tell who's leading the race for the starting job and Mangini is hell bent on getting them equal reps? Doesn't that make sense?
Apparently not.
Not a lot of what Mangini is doing with these quarterbacks makes sense to me right now and I have no reason to believe that anything will be cleared up anytime soon either. In my opinion, the logical thing to do would be to name Quinn the starter as soon as possible since he's the guy we gave up a #1 pick for to be our future quarterback and give him all of the reps with the first team in the 3rd pre-season game. Derek Anderson might want to be traded because he believes he can still start in the NFL for another team or he might want to take his chances here as the backup since we're in Cleveland and with our luck there's always the possibility Quinn's arm could fall right off . If I were George Kokinis, I would test the trade market to see what we could get for D.A., but unless somebody gets hurt and a team is desperate it's probably not going to be much especially after the forgettable season he had in 2008. If we can get something of moderate value then pull the trigger and go into the season with Quinn as the starter and Brett Ratliff as the backup. That seems logical, at least to me anyway. Do I expect Mangini to do the logical thing in this case? Hell no.
Here's what I expect Mangini to do....
Keep both quarterbacks and keep this open competition going as long as he possibly can without having to commit one way or the other. Then Go through the rest of the pre-season letting DA and Quinn share reps but without naming a starter or even hinting at who the favorite is. Once the regular season starts, he'll go with Quinn because that's what he was planning on doing all along. So many of us fans will ask "why didn't he just say that from the beginning?"
Because he's Eric Mangini and that's not how he rolls! Next question, please.
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Why exactly should Brady be the starter? Is it because he proved so much last year in the 3 games he started? Is it because we drafted him in the first round? Is it because he can't beat out Derek Freaking Anderson in training camp? He has earned nothing, and as much as people think he should be handed the job, i think he should have to earn it.
ReplyDeleteAfter saying that,I do think Brady is the better QB and should be the starter, but no way do i think he should be handed the job.
The bottom line is that it would be a colossal mistake to go through another season without finding out if Brady Quinn has the ability to be our franchise quarterback.
ReplyDeleteWhat does starting Derek Anderson do for the future of this franchise? Absolutely nothing.
Its not like DA is 32 years old. If he's better than Quinn it means a lot.
ReplyDeleteTrust me, i want Brady to be the man, but he hasn't proven he can do that. He hasn't even come close to proving he can run this team.
Do you want to throw away another season testing a QB? I sure don't.
Personally i think DA is garbage and he had a fluke season in 07, but atleast he has that to show he's capable.
It's hard to say Quinn hasn't proven anything yet because he hasn't been given a 'real chance' to prove anything yet. I hear a lot people saying that DA is a great practice QB but it doesn't show up on the field and it's the exact opposite for Quinn.
ReplyDeleteIMO DA has already been rewarded for 2007 with both an inflated contract and a chance to prove he could do it again in 2008. We all know how that went.
If Quinn gets an entire season to establish himself as an NFL caliber QB and fails than I can accept that but we'll never know what he can do if we're watching DA this season.
I hope this will all be resolved after Saturday night. Can't wait for the GLC!