Red Right 88

In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “Colt McCoy”

12 Oct 2010

On the Browns, QBs and Pittsburgh

With it becoming more and more likely that Colt McCoy will make his NFL debut Sunday in Pittsburgh, the hysteria is starting to ramp up.

There is a growing consensus that something unspeakable is going to happen – that the Steelers are going to go through the Browns like Caesar through Gaul and McCoy will be playing the role of Vercingetorix. In other words, it will be a “disaster:”

“If McCoy is viewed as the future of the Browns, they must be very careful about the long-term impact of this decision,” ESPN’s James Walker writes. “Throwing McCoy out there at Heinz Field against Dick LeBeau’s defense is a recipe for disaster. In fact, it’s the last defense I would pick a rookie quarterback to face in his first NFL start, especially against a hungry Steelers’ defense coming off a bye week.”

Thankfully, coach Eric Mangini offered some much-needed perspective to the situation, telling The Plain Dealer:

“If you didn’t have that guy, then you drafted the wrong guy,” Mangini told the paper. “If he’s sitting at home at night curled up in a blanket hoping he doesn’t get the start, you’ve got the wrong guy. You look for that competitiveness, you want the young guys to always be pushing the guy in front of them, saying, ‘come on, move out of the way, give me my chance to do it.'”

We believe McCoy can survive playing an NFL game against Pittsburgh, other quarterbacks have done it. Just look at this partial list of Browns quarterbacks who have beaten the Steelers over the years:

  • Tim Couch (three times)
  • Gary Danielson
  • Paul McDonald
  • David Mays
  • Mike Phipps
  • Brady Quinn (we’ll get back to him in a minute)

Not exactly a roster of Hall of Famers.

Seriously, what’s the worse thing that is going to happen? The Browns lose? All the “experts” would still pick them to lose if Jake Delhomme or Seneca Wallace were starting at quarterback. It’s not as if the Steelers are going to barbecue and eat McCoy on the 50-yard-line.

Is it really going to be worse than Charlie Frye in 2005 or 2007?

The worse part are the hoople heads who think that, if McCoy starts on Sunday and does poorly his career is over, or that by starting him the Browns are breaking some kind of oath that they took not to play him this year.

The plan – and it is a sound one – called for McCoy to sit the entire year as long as nothing happened to Delhomme or Wallace. Well, guess what? Delhomme and Wallace are hurt, so McCoy needs to play. This isn’t Chris Palmer pulling Ty Detmer at halftime of the season opener and putting in Tim Couch. McCoy can play two games and, win or lose, go back to being the team’s No. 3 quarterback after the bye week.

And that’s exactly what the Browns should do – let McCoy play the next two games before the bye to give Delhomme and Wallace as much time to heal as possible. It will be the right move for all three of them.

The thing is, the Browns don’t need the second-coming of Otto Graham to beat the Steelers. They already know what they have to do. The Steelers are bullies, and like all bullies they don’t like it when you hit back.

Last December the Browns finally hit back and beat Pittsburgh with Brady Quinn at quarterback completing six passes for 90 yards. The Browns did it by running the ball for 171 yards and hitting the Steelers until they quit.

That would be easier with a healthy Peyton Hillis running the ball, but the Browns got the job done last year with Chris Jennings at running back, so anything is possible.

There’s just no reason to give up the ship just yet,

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Colt McCoy, hoople heads, no worries | Leave a comment
11 Oct 2010
2 Comments

Wrapping up Browns vs. Falcons

Some final thoughts on the Browns tough loss to Atlanta on Sunday:

  • Despite their 1-4 record, the Browns defense has actually played pretty well. Take away the TAINTs that Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace have thrown and the Browns are only giving up 15 points a game. They may give up a lot of yards and have trouble getting off the field on third down – they are 24th in the league allowing the other team to convert 41 percent of the time on third down – but they don’t give up points. They have yet to give up a rushing touchdown and held Atlanta to 0-for-3 in the red zone.
  • After putting together big games against Baltimore and Cincinnati, everyone in Brownstown was wondering how the team was able to acquire Peyton Hillis from Denver for Brady Quinn. It’s likely the team just fleeced an incompetent Denver front office, but something Terry Pluto mentioned in his story Sunday in The Plain Dealer gave us pause: “It’s not widely reported, but Hillis missed four games in 2006 with ‘calcification of the bone in the right thigh’ when he was at Arkansas.” Now Hillis’ thigh is bothering him again. No way to know if this is tied to his problem at Arkansas, but that sure sounds serious. And may explain why the Broncos were willing to basically give him away.
  • Brian Robiskie: 14 career games, 10 career catches.
  • Finally, we have to talk about the quarterbacks. Apparently high ankle sprains are the new staph infections, as now Seneca Wallace has one and Jake Delhomme reinjured his against Atlanta. The Browns signed old favorite Brett Ratliff off New England’s practice squad and signs currently point to rookie Colt McCoy making his NFL debut Sunday in Pittsburgh. Now things could certainly be worse than going on the road to face the No. 2-ranked defense (No. 1 against the rush) in the league with a rookie quarterback and a third-year quarterback who has never taken a snap in a regular-season game. We just can’t really think of too many of them right now.

It’s unfortunate that injuries are hitting this team at spots where it is especially vulnerable, but we knew heading into the season that the Browns did not have a lot of depth. And while it has been frustrating and disappointing through the first five weeks of the season, it hasn’t be discouraging. With a couple of breaks, the Browns could easily be 3-2 and we’d be feeling differently.

But their record is what it is, but it’s hard to argue that the team hasn’t show some improvement over last year, especially compared to the first five games of 2009. While the Browns carry the same 1-4 record as last year, their four losses this season are by a combined 22 points; last year it was a combined 69 points. And their win against Cincinnati was a solid showing, not like last year’s ridiculous 6-3 win over Buffalo where Derek Anderson “led” the Browns with 23 passing yards.

So while it’s not all bees and honey, it’s not as bad as it seems. Keep the faith.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Colt McCoy, high ankle sprains, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace
26 Aug 2010

Is Colt Leaving the Corral?

It was more than surprising to read that rookie QB Colt McCoy, according to the Plain Dealer’s Tony Grossi, was one of the players who needed good showings in the final preseason games to make the Browns final roster.

Seriously? After trading around and eventually drafting McCoy in the third round, the team would be ready to cut him loose after one training camp and four preseason games?

Bleacher Report jumped on the news, listing 10 Reasons Why Colt McCoy May Never Play a Down for the Browns.

It certainly is possible the Browns could cut McCoy, stranger things have happened. But it just seems so unlikely that they would have reversed course so quickly. Especially since team president Mike Holmgren said after the draft that “… I don’t expect him to play this year. We did not draft him necessarily to come in and play this year.”

So if the team went into the preseason with the expectation that McCoy was going to spend this year learning, why would they cut him?

They could always place him on the practice squad if they are not comfortable letting him be the No. 3 QB or don’t want to lose a roster spot to someone they don’t plan to use this year. But that’s no guarantee that he’ll remain with the team.

Arrowhead Pride has a nice summary of the NFL’s practice squad rules, and while McCoy would be eligible, here’s the kicker:

Practice squad players are always free agents, meaning any NFL team could sign McCoy away from the Browns.

In a league where teams are always desperate for quarterback depth, I can’t imagine McCoy making it through the entire season without someone being willing to take a chance on him.

Now the PD is reporting that, according to a source (oh boy), McCoy will make the team barring an “unforseen” circumstance.

And here we thought we were going to make it through an entire Browns preseason without any nonsense.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Colt McCoy, Mike Holmgren, NFL | Leave a comment
23 Jul 2010

Bless you, Tottenham Hotspur

Earlier this week, Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League announced it was banning vuvuzelas from White Hart Lane, the team’s home stadium.

Arsenal, Birmingham, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, West Ham and Sunderland followed Spurs lead later in the week, letting people know that the popular South African horns are not welcome in England.

I, for one, say “thank you” to the teams. When the vuvuzelas were a part of the World Cup that was OK because they were part of the culture of South African football. You accept the country as a host, you accept the customs.

But if they had infiltrated England’s stadiums, it would have been intolerable. Hopefully, Aston Villa will soon join the ban or else it could set off a ripple effect that will be felt here in Cleveland.

If Randy Lerner walks into Villa Park this fall and hears the stadium buzzing with the sound of vuvuzelas, he may get the crazy idea of importing them to Cleveland Browns Stadium. Can you imagine sitting next to a group of hoople heads blowing on those for four quarters?

And with attendance dropping for the Indians, there’s little doubt the Tribe would add them to their promotional schedule. And Dan Gilbert wouldn’t want to be left out, as he just loves “enhancing the in-game experience.”

Come to think of it, handing them out the first time Miami comes to town might not be such a bad idea.

Maybe not.

***

He hasn’t even played a down of football yet for the Browns, but Colt McCoy has already shown that he’s smarter than Brady Quinn.

The third-round pick from Texas has reportedly signed a four-year deal, so he will be in camp when rookies report today. Guard Shawn Lauvao has also reportedly signed.

The Browns previously signed draft picks Larry Asante, Carlton Mitchell and Clifton Geathers.

Nice work by new GM Tom Heckert on this one.

***

Finally, news out of Baltimore is good. Safety Ed Reed, who is recovering from offseason hip surgery, has said he will start the season on the physically unable to perform list, missing the team’s first six games, including a key Week 3 tilt with the Browns.

And quarterback Joe Flacco is whining about the team signing Marc Bulger to be his backup.

Seems the Flacco is concerned that adding Bulger will upset the other backups, Troy Smith and John Beck.

We think it’s more likely the Flacco is concerned that the Ravens actually have a legitimate backup, knowing that with Smith and Beck on the bench, anything short of death and Flacco was staying in the game.

Poor baby.

Posted in banned in England, Colt McCoy, hoople heads, Randy Lerner, Tottenham Hotspur, vuvuzela | Leave a comment
24 Apr 2010

Brilliant!

Mike Holmgren and Tom Heckert hit a home run in their first draft with the Browns. From filling major holes in the secondary with the picks of Joe Haden and T.J. Ward, to playing the waiting game perfectly and landing Colt McCoy at the exact right time, this has been one of the best draft days since the team returned in 1999.

It’s heartwarming for Browns fans everywhere to finally have credible, knowledgeable, NFL-caliber people in charge of the team. With their years of combined NFL experience working in harmony to rebuild the team, the Browns are finally on the road out of the NFL’s wasteland.

The team formulated a plan and stuck to it, rejecting the urge to over trade or overrate players and take them too high. Holmgren and Heckert also made a point to select players in the first two rounds who can step on the field in September and play – not in a couple of years but now – and who will not be inexplicably placed on the inactive list on a weekly basis.

In fact, Tony Grossi of the Plain Dealer reported that “all the Browns’ draft picks so far are considered by the team to be serious contenders for starting jobs as rookies.”

What a novel approach, not redshirting your draft picks but actually allowing them to play.

Finally, Holmgren and Heckert saw the late-season win streak of last year as the smoke-and-mirror show it was, so they wisely determined that the team can’t have any long-term success with the QB play it was receiving. So they waited patiently for McCoy – accepting the possibility that they would miss out on him – again showing that not only do they have a plan, but that they understand the reality of quarterback play in the today’s NFL.

“I wasn’t going to force-feed it that much,” Holmgren said of the waiting game for McCoy. “Sometimes it just kind of falls to you. If it was going to happen, that’s kind of the way I wanted it to happen.”

And they know that if you can give a rookie QB a few years to mature the odds increase dramatically that he will succeed. So there will be ridiculous quarterback competition this summer in Berea and no chance that McCoy will be named the starting QB this fall. Jake Delhomme and/or Seneca Wallace will handle the position this year and possibly even next. McCoy will be given the time to mature and the opportunity to succeed that is vital in the NFL today.

And Brett Ratcliff can start working on his resume.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Colt McCoy, Joe Haden, NFL draft | Leave a comment

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