Red Right 88

Colt May Be The Real Deal

Browns quarterback Colt McCoy is starting to gain some respect from the national media.

Vic Carucci has some nice things to say about McCoy in his latest column: The Real McCoy? Browns think they have their QB of future.

Jeffri Chadiha’s latest piece at ESPN.com about how NFL teams are changing their attitudes toward developing young quarterbacks is also a good read.

And while he focused solely on first round picks, such as Matt Ryan, Mark Sanchez and Josh Freeman, a lot of what he wrote could be applied to the Browns and Colt McCoy.

And it makes us more comfortable that the Browns, even though they had to deviate from The Plan, are finally going about developing a quarterback the right way.

Chadiha points out that the biggest question about young quarterbacks used to be do you start them or sit them? He says that the current crop of young quarterbacks are succeeding because their franchises have been more focused on other issues, such as:

• Does this quarterback really fit their needs?
• What kind of supporting cast can be put around him?
• How much patience is necessary to put the player on the path to success?
• Above all else, a team wants to know how resilient the kid is.

The Browns have hit on all four of those items with McCoy:

• McCoy fits the team because he’s a smart quarterback who doesn’t make mistakes or try to play outside of his ability
• While the wide receivers are still a work in progress, the rest of the supporting cast is in place. The Browns, due to their division and geographic location, need a strong offensive line and a power running game. They currently have both.
• The fact that the team was willing to let McCoy sit an entire season before playing shows the level of patience they have. No more will we see Tim Couch inserted in the second half of the opening game.
• You could not pick a tougher three-game stretch for a rookie quarterback to open their career with than the one McCoy just went through – Pittsburgh and New Orleans on the road, New England at home. Through it all, it’s clear the game isn’t too big for McCoy and he never lost his poise and avoided the kind of mistakes that have killed this team in the past. In coach Eric Mangini’s words, “He just hasn’t been fazed.”

Carucci points out a particular play from the Pittsburgh game to illustrate McCoy’s football smarts:

Further proof came in the week leading up to the Pittsburgh game. With injuries to Delhomme and Wallace, the Browns were running out of quarterbacking options. However, by then, McCoy was showing that he had strong grasp of the offense, both in meetings and on the practice field.

In the second quarter, the Browns called a naked bootleg, anticipating that safety Troy Polamalu would blitz. McCoy stepped away from center, as if he were going to change the play. He never did, but his movement caused Polamalu, who was edging closer to the line, to recoil and take a couple of steps back. McCoy then went right back under center, took the snap, and had a positive play.

“To me, that’s innate,” Jake Delhomme said. “You can’t coach that. That’s playing the game. Something as small as that, to me, you’re seeing it. You know what’s going on.”

Chadiha also writes that veteran support is key in a young quarterback’s development. McCoy has that judging from his teammates comments:

“He’s very calm in the pocket. He’s smart, and he knows the reads,” tackle Joe Thomas has said in published reports. “One-two-three [options], nobody open, so he takes off or throws it away. There is no indecision. That means a lot up front. He’s not back there, patting the ball, the way you see so many rookies do.”

“One thing I can say about him is that everyone in that huddle respects that he’s the leader,” guard Eric Steinbach has said in published reports. “He’s in there and he’s talking to the offense, telling us what we’ve got to do, what’s expected of us. At one point yesterday, he’s like, ‘All right, this is a big drive.’ And it’s funny ’cause the kid’s only got three games under his belt in the NFL, but he knew it.”

If Thomas and Steinbach have McCoy’s back, then the kid must be doing something right.

There’s still a lot season to be played and, once Seneca Wallace and Jake Delhomme are healthy, the coaches will have a tough decision on their hands.

But for once it’s nice to see a Browns quarterback play himself into the discussion rather than playing himself off the team.