Red Right 88

Looking to see where the Browns rank

While it becomes clearer each week that the Browns are getting better, we thought we’d take a look at a few key positions to see how the players stack up against the rest of the league.

Running back Peyton Hillis is 12th in the NFL in rushing yards (726) and yards per carry (4.8). He’s third in the league with eight rushing touchdowns. If he keeps up his current pace, he’ll finish with 1,290 yards (9th best in team history) and 14 rushing touchdowns (tied for 5th best in team history).

Add in his pass catching, Hillis is on pace for 60 catches for 455 yards, and he could finish the season with 1,745 yards from scrimmage.

Not bad for a guy the Browns got for Brady Quinn.

Turning to the receivers, tight end Ben Watson is 10th in the league among tight ends with 36 receptions and eighth in yards with 434. At his current pace he will end up with 64 receptions which would be tied for 14th best in team history.

As for Mohamed Massaquoi and Brian Robiskie … well … we knew they were bad but when you go into the numbers it’s much uglier.

Massaquoi is 85th among wide receivers in receptions (15) and 89th in receiving yards (181). Robiskie is 106th in receptions (9) and 115th in yards (81). It’s worse when you compare them to other second-year receivers, as Massaquoi is 18th in receptions and yards, while Robiskie is 20th in receptions and 22nd in yards. That’s out of 28 players.

Let’s just move on.

The news is better in the secondary, as safety T.J. Ward is 12th in the league in tackles and No. 1 among rookie defenders. Corner back Joe Haden is third among rookies with his two interceptions.

That brings us to quarterback Colt McCoy. While he doesn’t have enough game action yet to be included with the league leaders, if you project his four-game performance over nine games, the numbers look pretty decent.

McCoy’s projected total of 1,651 yards would put him 21st in the league. His 64.5 completion percentage would put him in a tie for sixth place with Tom Brady.

And while his 85.2 quarterback rating would only put him 21st in the league, he would be ahead of Carson Palmer, Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford, Donovan McNabb, Brett Favre, Jimmy Clausen and, of course, Derek Anderson.

Not bad for someone who was expected to even get into a regular-season game this year.

So what does this all mean? Probably not much, but it helps fill the time until Sunday rolls around again.

And, boy, is it ever a nice change to look forward to a Browns game again.

With their first pick in the NFL draft …

the Browns select … Colt McCoy?

According to Pro-Football-Reference’s new player metric rating, quarterback is the primary position the Browns should fill Thursday night.

Their analysis, summarized in a series of articles at ESPN, finds that “almost all of the talent in certain positions has typically been stored in the first round, whereas the depth in other positions is more equally dispersed. Two positions that teams would be wise to position themselves early are quarterbacks and linebackers, while two positions where the talent pool is typically deep enough that it rewards patience are defensive end and running back.”

Pro-Football-Reference found that the talent level of quarterbacks drops severely after the first round and, while Drew Brees and Tom Brady are often cited as QBs who succeeded despite being picked after the first round, the website found that, of the past 10 NFL drafts, David Garrard is the third-best QB selected outside the first round.

The lesson? If you want a quarterback, get one on the first day of the draft.

With Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace not being long-term answers at the position, it would seem that the Browns would be targeting a quarterback of the future.

The top three QB prospects are Sam Bradford, Jimmy Clausen and Colt McCoy. I’m assuming the Browns won’t go crazy and trade up for Bradford, so let’s take him off the board. So how to pick between Clausen and McCoy?

ESPN went deeper into what helps make a quarterback successful. They found that, the longer a quarterback sits before making his first start, the better the odds are that they will succeed. In fact, completion percentage, TD/INT ratio and yards per attempt all rise over the course of his career the longer a QB sits to begin it.

Drafted QBs who didn’t get to start until their third or even fourth years have TD/INT rates nearly 50 percent better, and complete passes at a rate a full five percent better than rookie starters. But that’s not just in the first season; that’s for their careers.

Examples of successful quarterbacks who sat include Aaron Rodgers, who didn’t start until his fourth year; Philip Rivers, Chad Pennington and Marc Bulger didn’t start until their third year; and Chris Palmer and Brees sat until their second year.

ESPN cited the mixed results of recent draft picks who started early, saying “Matt Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco seem to be ready to help the reputations of top picks who start as rookies – a realm dotted with failures like Tim Couch and Joey Harrington, or recent cases like David Carr and Alex Smith. Unfortunately, Stafford and Sanchez combined for 25 TDs and 40 INTs as rookies. And based on the data, only confidence in their talent should assure fans they figure to get much better. (Sanchez, for one, built those numbers behind one of the game’s best offensive lines.)

With Delhomme set to start at least this year, the Browns can draft a quarterback and let him incubate the appropriate amount of time. So Clausen and McCoy are still equal.

Then, for what it’s worth, there’s Bill Parcells four rules for drafting a quarterback:

1. Be a three-year starter

2. Post at least 23 wins

3. Be a senior

4. Be a college graudate

This is where McCoy stands out. He was a four-year starter who finished with 45 wins; don’t know if he graduated or not, but he hits on at least three of the four criteria.

McCoy was on 790 The Zone, an Atlanta radio station, this morning and had this to say about Cleveland: “I just left the Browns and Coach Holmgren kind of compared me to Steve Young and Joe Montana and just said that I have the intangibles that they had at this point in their career when they were coming out of college. (Holmgren) expects me to be just like they were. I think that is a good comparison and obviously people would compare me to Drew Brees a little bit. I think because of our height.

“I know how hard I prepare and nobody is going to work harder than me or be more prepared going into a game than I am, and I expect to do exactly what I did in college, and that is come in there and win games. I know that it is going to be different. I know that it is going to be a transition, but I am going to work my tail off and earn the respect of my teammates and coaches and go to work.”

McCoy was asked if he could hand-pick the team he’ll be playing for next year, who it would be. McCoy didn’t directly answer the question, but he did praise Cleveland quite a bit.

“I absolutely enjoyed Coach Holmgren. He is a class act, and I could definitely see myself playing in their organization. I think that it would be a tremendous opportunity and they have a lot of good things going for them and Coach (Eric) Mangini and their staff have been awesome. So, you never know.”

Add it all up and one can see a scenario where the Browns trade down and take McCoy. And while they have other holes to fill – it would be hard to see them pass on Eric Berry if he’s available at No. 7 – it may be unwise for them to ignore history.

Colt’s right, you never know.