Seven Mistakes By The Lake

December 16th, 2012.  Think of all that has changed in your life in the past 18 months.  My job has changed, my apartment has also changed, and incredibly even my favorite television show of all-time has changed.  Think of all that has changed around you.  LeBron James left Miami for Cleveland, Notre Dame made it to a BCS National Championship game, and Jimmy Fallon hosts The Tonight Show.  It really is staggering how much can happen and how much life can look completely different in just a year and a half.  And yet, it can look the same too.  Derrick Rose is still battling injury concerns, The Big Bang Theory is still the number one television show, and the Cleveland Browns are still trying to find a QB.

That last point shouldn't really surprise anyone.  The Browns have been searching for a quarterback since they left town nearly two decades ago.  Think about that for a second.  Twenty years.  It really is astonishing.  You would think they would accidentally make a correct decision on a QB in that time-frame.

There really could have been a plethora of topics worth discussing since the last time I've published an article, and all of them would have been much more enjoyable to write, but in some way this seems fitting.  Choosing to punish myself for lack of posting with a topic that forces me to look back at the last twenty years of Cleveland Browns QB decisions.  Some call it penance, I'll go with karma.

January 1st, 1995

- Vinny Testaverde is the answer to the following question, "Who was the last Cleveland Browns quarterback to win a playoff game."  It happened on New Years Day circa 1995 as Vinny completed 20 of 30 passes for 268 yards and a touchdown, to lead the Browns to a 20-13 win over the New England Patriots.  I vividly remember that game.  It was billed as Teacher vs. Pupil (Bill Parcells coaching against his former assistant Bill Belichick).  It featured an INT by my favorite player, Eric Turner, and it was awesome.  And unbeknownst to me at the time, it - being a Cleveland Browns playoff game - would only happen one more time in the next twenty years.

November 6th, 1995

- Browns owner Art Modell decides to move the team to Baltimore.

February 9th, 1996

- NFL says the Browns will be "deactivated" for three years, and return to the league in 1999.

April 17th, 1999

- With the 1st pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns selected Tim Couch, quarterback, University of Kentucky.  Had they come back one year earlier they would have been in position to pick Peyton Manning.  But, knowing the ineptitude Cleveland has with QBs, they probably would have selected Ryan Leaf.

No mistakes have been made thus far with their QB selections.  Tim Couch was the unanimous #1 selection in 1999.  They had to take him and they did.  Say what you will about Tim Couch, but he's the best QB the Browns have had since 1995.  He's the only Browns QB to start every game in a season (2001).  He's the only one to lead them to the playoffs since they returned (2002).  2002 featured the climax of Tim Couch's career in a week 16 showdown against Baltimore.  Trailing the Ravens 13-7 with 2:18 to go, Couch successfully marched the Browns 92 yards to give them the 14-13 victory and keep their playoff hopes alive.  Sadly, it would mark the beginning of the end for Couch, who would get injured the following week and then unbelieving lose his starting job in 2003 (we'll get to that in a bit).

January 5th, 2003

- Kelly Holcomb, who came in for the injured Couch in the last week of the regular season, gets the start in the Browns first playoff game since 1995.  Holcomb plays very well, breaking the Browns playoff mark for passing yards in a game (429), but the Browns collapse as always, giving up a 17-point 2nd half lead and fall to the Pittsburgh Steelers 36-33.

And right here, right after that playoff game, is when everything went down-hill.

MISTAKE #1 - Having an open QB competition between Couch and Holcomb entering the 2003 season.

- To this day I've yet to figure this out at all.  All Tim Couch did was lead the Browns to the playoffs in 2002, miss one week of action, and all of a sudden he is fighting for his job because the back-up plays well in a loss??  No wonder Couch went off the deep end.  Wouldn't you?  You are the franchise guy, the guy taken with the 1st pick of the entire organization.  You do your job, lead the team to the playoffs in just four years and yet you go into Year Five as a sub.

Kelly Holcomb entered 2003 as the starter, played sub-par (he never came close to repeating that 2002 playoff game performance) and was injured three weeks into the season.  Couch came back, played a little better - highlighted by a 33-13 victory in Pittsburgh on Sunday night.  Watching in my basement, I thought this game would finally squash all Couch-Holcomb talk and prove once and for all Tim Couch was our guy moving forward.  Two weeks later, as I sat in attendance in my 1st live Browns game, I saw the Browns pull Couch in favor of Kelly Holcomb late in a 26-20 loss to the San Diego Chargers.

March 9th, 2004

- Browns management was done with Tim Couch and Kelly Holcomb and went to free agency to try and solve this QB conundrum by signing Jeff Garcia.  Garcia was coming off a porous season with the 49ers and promptly re-energized the Browns fan-base.  He led the Browns to a season-opening victory against the Ravens (still the ONLY season-opening victory the new Browns have had), but suffered from injuries and old age the rest of the year.  He was let go at the end of the season.

Not assigning this "mistake status" because I applaud the Browns for at least trying something.  Tim Couch was a mental disaster and Kelly Holcomb was the mobility equivalent of Stephen Hawking.  Granted, they caused all of this on their own by opening up the QB position the year prior, but they tried to fix it.  However, it just didn't work.

MISTAKE #2 - Signing free agent Trent Dilfer and subsequently drafting Charlie Frye.

- This is a package deal because one doesn't happen without the other.  Dilfer was coming off four uneventful seasons with the Seattle Seahawks in which he started a combined 12 games.  Christ, Dilfer made Kelly Holcomb look like Michael Vick.  But the thought process was, he'll buy Cleveland some time, and allow the Browns to take a QB later in the draft.  Dilfer would start and mentor the young QB (who was Frye, drafted in the 3rd round of the 2005 draft).  Unfortunately for the Browns, two wrongs do not make a right.

Dilfer lasted - you guessed it - one whole year, while Frye, who was the highest drafted QB by the Browns since Tim Couch stayed a bit longer.  Charlie was the incumbent going into 2006 where he started 13 games, throwing only 10 touchdowns (as compared to 17 INTs) en route to a 4-12 record (their 4th straight losing record).

April 28th, 2007

- After taking LT Joe Thomas with the 3rd pick in the NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns made big news by trading back up into the 1st round and selecting QB Brady Quinn.  Most fans, myself included, thought we finally had found our answer with Brady.  We were wrong, although thanks to one of the most mis-managed QB projects in the history of the NFL, we wouldn't know for sure until nearly two years later.

MISTAKE #3 - The entire Charlie Frye/Derek Anderson/Brady Quinn saga.  All of it.

I don't know a lot, I can admit that.  I don't know how to properly evaluate QBs and determine their future success.  But, I do know that Head Coach Romeo Crennel along with offensive coordinator Rod Chudzinski had zero idea what the hell they were doing.  For starters, they flipped a coin to determine who would start the 1st preseason game ... this actually happened.  They waged a QB competition that dominated headlines for the entirety of training camp.  Charlie Frye ended up victorious and started the season opener at home against Pittsburgh.  Frye lasted - and I'm not kidding, I even double checked - one-and-a-half quarters.  Frye was pulled for Derek Anderson mid-way through the 2nd quarter.  He was then traded the following day for a 6th round draft pick.

So let me get this straight.  You have a QB battle that lasts all of training camp and you think so badly of the eventual winner you trade him the day after the season opener for a 6th round pick??  Yeah, that makes sense.  If Frye won that battle you had to stick with him for at least the majority of the 1st half of the year or until he got hurt.  By trading him you are simply saying one of two things: A) you have no idea how to properly evaluate QB talent, or B) there was no open competition and it was all a show.

MISTAKE #4 - The 2007 off-season.  All of it.

Derek Anderson had the year of his life in 2007.  He made the Pro Bowl, led the Browns to 10 wins, and nearly got Cleveland into the playoffs.  And yet, it was a complete setback for the organization, mainly for how they handled the off-season that followed.  Derek Anderson was a restricted free agent, and instead of tagging him as a franchise player, the Browns signed him to a three-year deal.  Not a huge blunder, but now Cleveland had to get rid of Brady Quinn.  Instead, they kept him which allowed for another QB competition to manifest itself once DA started to struggle.

And here's the thing, you got the sense the Browns knew DA was going to struggle.  That's why they kept Brady.  That's why they brought Brady in half-way through the 2008 season when DA wasn't actually playing that bad.  Quinn started three games before getting injured, showing some signs of promise but didn't overwhelm anyone.

MISTAKE #5 - Eric Mangini.

Romeo Crennel was fired after the 2008 season and in came Eric Mangini who despite his football knowledge, had no idea what he was doing with his QBs.  Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn had another open competition during the 2009 training camp.  Mangini gave us no indication of who he was going to make the starter until half-an-hour before kick-off of the season opener.  Quinn won the seat but not the job, as he was pulled after two and a half games.  Mangini went back and forth between Quinn and DA all year long, never letting either one develop any consistency or rhythm.  Granted, neither Quinn nor DA were world-beaters, but it was obvious they had zero backing from their head coaches or anyone in the Browns organization.

At this time I was squarely in Brady Quinn's corner as he was my favorite Notre Dame QB.  Looking back I can admit to being more than biased towards Quinn, and I can also say he did not live up to his potential as a 1st round pick.  But I will also say, he only started 12 games with the Cleveland Browns, a team who gave up a future 1st round pick to draft him.  Without doing any research on the subject, I'm willing to guess it was the shortest leash ever given to a 1st round pick.

MISTAKE #6 - Jake Delhomme.

Enter Mike Holmgren, the so-called QB guru.  He was the mastermind who developed Brett Favre into a future hall-of-famer.  He entered 2010 as the new President of Football Operations for the Browns and would be calling the shots on all personnel matters.  His big splash was trading Brady Quinn (which happened a year too late after all his value plummeted) and signing free agent QB Jake Delhomme (done about a decade too late).  Delhomme was immediately handed the job and played exactly as advertised.  He was slow, old, and not surrounded by any talent on the offensive side of the ball.  He lasted one year (four games to be precise) which seems to be the going rate for free agent QBs who come to Cleveland (see Garcia and Dilfer previously).  After two more losing seasons the Browns entered the 2012 draft in desperate need of offensive playmakers.  What we got instead was an old, old wooden ship used during the Civil War named Brandon Weeden.

MISTAKE #7 - The 2012 NFL Draft.

Colt McCoy, who the Browns took in the 3rd round of the 2010 NFL Draft, picked up where Delhomme left off and started for a year and a half.  The Browns were serviceable on offense with McCoy, who didn't have a rocket arm, but he battled and could make a couple plays on his own.  Cleveland needed to draft guys that could be difference-makers on offense which is why they coveted Robert Griffin III (the Heisman winning QB from Baylor).  They put together a package to trade up for RG3 but they fell short as Washington ultimately made a better offer.  Backtracking, they selected RB Trent Richardson and QB Brandon Weeden with their two 1st round draft picks.  Weeden was clearly a reach as the Browns felt they HAD to draft a QB (which again, was a completely false misconception on the part of Browns management).  Even though they had the most picks in the draft (12) that year, two years later their top two picks would both be off the team, and they selected ZERO play-makers.

Well done Mr. Holmgren.

Annnnnnnnd you guessed correctly, Holmgren would be fired at the end of the 2012 season.

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

It's been a completely revolving door at the QB position for the Browns ever since they opened up the possibility for Kelly Holcomb to unseat Tim Couch, which is by far the worst personnel mistake Cleveland has made since they returned 15 years ago.  It set the franchise back multiple years.  The second worst decision was taking Richardson and Weeden in the 2012 draft and not packaging the two 1st round picks they had for RG3.  That also set the franchise back a couple years.

In 2014 the Browns selected their 4th QB in the 1st round of the NFL Draft when they traded up to take QB Johnny Manziel, the Heisman winner from Texas A&M.  Of course they tried their best to mess it up by declaring an "open competition" between Manziel and incumbent Brian Hoyer.  Luckily for the Browns, Manziel wasn't overly impressive which allowed them to tab Hoyer as the starter entering the 2014 season.

Three things can happen at this point.

Scenario #1) - Hoyer doesn't play well and they insert Manziel as the starter mid-way through the season.  Manziel plays well and they finally have some stability at the most important position in all of sports.

Scenario #2) - Hoyer plays pretty well and Manziel doesn't see the field.  At this point a key decision would have to be made (much like the one the San Diego Chargers made after the 2005 season when they traded Drew Brees to make way for Philip Rivers).  Do they trade Hoyer to allow room for Manziel (which is what the Chargers did, albeit Rivers sat for two years as compared to one)? Or do they trade Manziel when his value would be high enough to net a substantial return (unlike when the Browns traded Quinn a year too late in 2010)?

Scenario #3 - Hoyer doesn't play well and they insert Manziel as the starter mid-way through the season.  Manziel doesn't play well, which results in the Browns being back at square one.

Of all three scenarios, the last seems to be the most likely, but it's too soon too tell at this point.  Hoyer has only played two full games in his time with Cleveland, and Manziel is too raw to know one way or the other.

Yes, the Browns have gone through a multitude of head coaches, general managers and offensive/defensive schemes the last 15 years which makes it very difficult to create any organizational stability.  However, the most stabilizing force in all of professional sports is a really good QB, something the Browns haven't had since they returned.  Tim Couch is the closest thing they have had that resembled a competent QB, and no one else they've trotted out there comes close.

The quickest way to turn an NFL team around is to draft, develop and retain quality quarterbacks.  When the Cleveland Browns are able to crack that riddle they will begin to resemble an actual NFL organization.  Until then, we'll just have to waddle through more four win seasons and more top-five draft selections.

"Read it, roll it, hole it."