June 19, 2013

Report: Weeden says receivers ran unpracticed routes against Dallas

November 24, 2012 by 9 Comments

The Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot uncorked a bit of a small controversy in her latest Browns notebook today. The story began as looking to see why so many passing attempts seemed far-off on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. Take it away, Brandon Weeden.

“There’s a couple of routes we ran on Sunday for the first time all week and that’s not fair to me, it’s not fair to the receivers, it’s not fair to any of us, because when you’re getting thrown in the fire and the bullets are flying . . .” Weeden said.

Weeden went on and on and on about that topic, and about how he thought his elbow was trailing low on many of his throws against the Cowboys. Here was Pat Shurmur’s response to Weeden’s practice comment, per Cabot:

“I disagree with some of that because I do think that we make an effort of the ones we’re going to call we practice,” Shurmur said. “A lot of the plays that we practice, we’ve been running all year and you run them in training camp. It’s nearly impossible with the amount of time and then the length of the season to practice every single thing multiple times. You see it going on behind me (after practice) right now. They spend extra time working on the individual routes. That’s what you’ve got to do.”

Cabot also has a quote from receiver Mohammed Massaquoi in the article, along with lots more from Weeden (did I mention he rambled about this point?) It’s a bit of a convoluted story, but in the big picture, when dealing with the future of Shurmur on the Browns, it certainly doesn’t help his case when his rookie quarterback disagrees with him vehemently about not practicing routes. Sure, this is a pretty tame topic and Shumur’s response was neutral as usual, but this is just an interesting side-storyline as the Browns return to action tomorrow against the Steelers back at home.

[Related: Steelers vs. Browns Reader Survey]

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  • @ScottyB330

    Worth noting that a certain Chip Kelly runs breakneck pace practices focused on extensive repetition of plays, then uses the film/meeting room time to correct errors.

  • Dee P

    I become more and more impressed with these players every day about how well they have performed this year without a competent leader as a coach. With the right bounces, this team could be over .500 and talking playoff berth. Imagine what can happen with another solid draft, and a homerun hire in a head coach?

  • Dee P

    I imagine any coach worth a crap in any sport practices things over and over until it’s right. So where does this put Shurmur?

  • Dee P

    and I wonder what goes through Richardson’s head…..going from Nick Saban for 3 years to this clown.

  • Mark

    You’ve got the ‘Weeden rambling’ thing right. That dude needs a verbal editor.

    I’m not sure what all of this means but it’s clear that QB & coach are not exactly seeing things eye to eye. Par for the course this season

  • zonk

    Maybe 6-10? You post quite a bit and I agree with you at least a good portion of the time. However, on this one I think you are off base. You do realize the nature of the game is to be close, that is why over 75% of the lines in Vegas are within 1 score. We already gave up our 2nd round pick in the upcoming draft (although Gordon looks like a good choice so far), and having just 1 top 5 pick will not fill all the holes in the LB core and secondary.

  • Dee P

    That’s a good point(s). I don’t know…maybe I look at things with my Browns colored glasses too often, but it just “feels” like we should have won so many more games this year that weren’t just close losses, but legitimate blown opportunities. But you are probably closer on this one than I am.

  • http://twitter.com/irregulara Scott Johnson

    “We already gave up our 2nd round pick” » No, we merely took it a year early and picked Gordon. The Browns haven’t “lost” a pick in 2013.

  • Harv 21

    Was all prepared to blast Shurmur until I read the actual article. The knee jerk criticism is unfair.

    The gist of Weeden’s complaint is that certain patterns, some of which were incomplete due his errant throws, weren’t part of the previous week’s formal practice package. Shurmur’s response (echoed by MoMass) is that there isn’t time in-season to practice every potential route every week, that it’s also up to the QB and receivers to also work on their own.

    Shurmur will be fired and should be fired. But there’s now a toxic ingrained player culture here that if things aren’t going as you like give a juicy quote to Mary Kay Cabot and let the talk shows and mouth-breathers pressure the team. Braylon and Winslow taught it to Cribbs who’s passed it on to Weeden. The Browns really need a new sheriff who will stop this. A team leader doesn’t look to spew excuses whenever Mary Kay is hovering with her recorder. Don’t play coach-killer, Brandon, shut up and just play QB.