The Cleveland Browns' disappointing 2008 got even more disappointing with the news that quarterback Brady Quinn would be placed on Injured Reserve with a damaged tendon in the index finger on his throwing hand. Currently, there is no decision on whether or not Quinn will require surgery to repair the finger.
Quinn originally injured the finger in the Week 11 Monday night tilt against the Buffalo Bills. It was in that game where he fractured the tip of his right, index finger. He was cleared to play in this past Sunday's game against the Houston Texans, where he was pulled by head coach Romeo Crennel in favor of deposed starter Derek Anderson.
You have to give credit to Quinn for playing through the injury, but in hindsight, the decision turned out to be poor. It now leaves the Browns in a pickle when it comes to their quarterback situation in 2009.
Quinn only was able to muster three starts. He had a great statistical debut, but a loss, in Week 10 versus the Denver Broncos, when he benefited from a porous Broncos defense and solid game plan.
He followed that up with a below-average game against Buffalo, where he was not great statistically but was able to make plays when he needed to in leading the Browns to a victory. Sunday, against Houston, he had a very poor game before being benched in favor of Anderson.
The remainder of 2008 was mostly about developing Brady Quinn to see if he could be the man for 2009. Now that evaluation process is put on hold. The problem that presents the Browns is that they are going to have to make a decision on Quinn with very little data to analyze.
The Browns pretty much know what they have in Anderson: A tall, strong-armed quarterback who can make all the throws, but struggles mightily with consistency and decision making. When the pressure is off, Anderson is at his best. When the pressure is on, Anderson is at his worst.
The Browns have had 11 starting quarterbacks in the 10 years since their reincarnation and desperately need to stabilize the position. Losing the time to evaluate Quinn hurts in that endeavour.
Do they commit to him with only three pro starts under his belt? Do they try and have he and Anderson coexist for another season? Do they have an open competition next year in training camp?
It all leads to a giant conundrum for the Cleveland Browns.
For now, they can only hope that Quinn heals up and is 100 percent for OTAs in the spring and that Anderson can play well enough in the last five games of the season to increase his trade value if they decide to go that route.
But for now, all that Cleveland is left with is another disappointment.
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about 1 month ago
The biggest reason that Quinn and Anderson won't be coexisting next year is the large roster bonus due to DA in April. If Quinn plays, you simply cannot afford both. Even if he doesn't, with his per-year salary increasing, the math becomes dismal for adding any juicy free agents... say linebackers...
I feel better knowing Quinn was hurt. He was on target and on time against Denver, likewise agains Buffalo- except that Buffalo was blitzing and pressuring every down... and Braylon can't catch. Quinn played better agains the Bills than the numbers indicated. Agains the Texans Quinn looked like an 8 for 18 passer. The first INT was a ??? throw to no one (unless you count the OLB)... the second was actually a nice throw- looked off the safety, threw a quick timing slant to where Braylon should have been... but BE threw in an extra studder step coming off the line and wasn't in position. The worry agains Houston, despite completing a 42 yarder, was that many balls were fluttering on a not-very-windy day. Now you know why. The index finger is pretty vital in throwing spiral.
It is like Quinn to try to play through it. It must be decently tough if no one else noticed that he was playing with a season-threatening injury. It does beg the question "how did no one notice?". You have to wonder how much, if at all, attention the coaches are paying at practice... or wether they practice at all!
I hope DA plays well enough to get a 2nd for him. He'll be good on a team that doesn't need a QB to win games for them... just make a big play every now and again, and has a strong running game and pretty good defense to make up for the forced INT's. (minnesota would be perfect)
As for the year...
There isn't much else that could go wrong.
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