What Connor Shaw’s performance taught us about Johnny Manziel
December 29, 2014David Blatt not concerned about job status
December 29, 2014With the merciful ending to the Browns’ season on Sunday comes another offseason of ceaseless debate over the one question that has remained unanswered since the franchise’s return in 1999: Is there a quarterback on the roster, in the draft, or in the known universe, who can lead the Cleveland Browns to the playoffs?
There may or may not be one “answer” to that question, but since 1999 every answered proffered by the organization has been undeniably the wrong one. This year, the Browns sacrificed three different individuals as test subjects, none of whom have yet shown the ability to be proficient as an NFL quarterback. Brian Hoyer, Johnny Manziel, and Connor Shaw all offer options; none of them thrived when given the chance.
More than anything, I find the inability to find a lasting stand-in at quarterback to be indicative of the collective failure of the organization described by Bernie Kosar in mid-December. It’s been a massive failure born of poor talent evaluation, poor poise (aka desperation), poor decision-making, poor preparation, poor coaching, and poor commitment. It’s a long-term failure of culture. I want to distance myself from the fire-everyone, off-with-their-heads mentality Scott alluded to Monday morning. I’m not allocating blame on anyone in particular, and I’m not certain that none of the quarterbacks on the roster are incapable of leading the team long-term.1 But the Browns as an organization need to drastically improve in one or more of the aforementioned areas if they want to develop a winning quarterback, and a winning team.
The next nine months are sure to be filled with argumentation, speculation, and stances on who should begin next year as the Browns starting quarterback—all of which will be based on many things other than facts or certainty. The solution at quarterback, however complete or incomplete, takes an organizational correction of course. But you have all offseason to listen to takes from John calling in from Chagrin Falls or @BrownsFan1385348 on how Connor Shaw could be “the future” of the Browns. Before the offseason begins in earnest, let us take a moment and appreciate the Browns constant streak of failures at the quarterback position. I’ve created an infographic below illustrating the problem below, in honor of the Browns incredible streak of ineptitude at the most important single position in sports.2
- Sorry for the triple negative. But the alternative was, “I think the Browns have a winning quarterback,” which is definitely not the case. [↩]
- The infographic was created using Piktochart, and all data was obtained or derived from pro-football-reference.com and is current entering the weekend, so Peyton Manning has even more yards than indicated. [↩]
17 Comments
This is as good a place as any to say this, so I might as well start the conversation here.
I was of the opinion last year that it would be most beneficial for the browns to work out some package deal with Arizona that could’ve included one, or even both, of our first round picks to get Larry Fitzgerald traded to Cleveland. Sure, its probably a dream/’armchair gm’ scenario, but I still felt like it had its merits. The browns are again in a situation where they have two first round picks and I again think they should offer them both up.
I think that, with the new changing of the guard and the general distaste down there, the Browns should offer both firsts to Atlanta for Matt Ryan. We have cap space to restructure/resign him for a 2-3 year deal with guarantees, and he brings a veteran presence that has had success in the league under center while still being, arguably, a top 10-12 QB. This also gives Johnny Football the ability to sit, a la Aaron Rodgers, which I think is beneficial.
One of the biggest things the browns had difficulty with on the offense this year, in my eyes, was reading defenses. Alex Mack was that guy who could do it and make adjustments, and we see that the people behind him weren’t as good. I cant remember where I read the article, but I read somewhere an interview with Peyton Manning who said one of the most beneficial things he had coming into the league was being able to sit back in the backfield with Edgerrin James and have james point out to him who was moving in coverage, who was blitzing, who was slotting to a man, and it helped Peyton read and see the field better. The browns don’t have that in either of their running backs, and will need to get a veteran like Ben Tate again to have it, I believe. Not to mention Hoyer and Manziel both struggled with reads mightily this year and when you look, now all of a sudden there isn’t anyone who can do it on the offense. I think with a league veteran back there who knows what he’s seeing, the offense can move more fluidly, even with a critical injury like the one to Mack.
I think Atlanta would be partial to doing it with a new coaching regime (potentially, I haven’t heard yet) coming in and looking to revamp their obvious areas of needs. Three first round picks seems like a good building block for them and still gives us a top second round pick to help bolster the offensive line, and I trust Farmer and Pettine to find gems in hard places (note this year’s UDFAs) I think it’d give the browns the biggest chance to compete in the North this year.
Trading two 1st Rounders for an aging WR making a boatload of money (even though I love Fitzgerald) would be an incredibly dumb move. Look at how decently the Browns moved the ball over the first 8 weeks of the season with mostly WRs found off the scrap heap.
Trading two 1st Rounders for Matt Ryan would be an amazingly great move. Can’t see it ever happening though. Washington traded 3 1st Rounders for a completely unproven RGIII, and one of those was the 6 pick. To get the Falcons not to immediately hang-up the phone you have to offer your 2016 1st rounder as well, and still, they’re going to immediately laugh and hang-up the phone. You build *around* a franchise QB, you don’t use him to build the rest of your team.
I still feel like Larry/Gordon would’ve been an amazing one two hit, but knowing what we all know now it seems silly, but Im still not sold on Larry not being top guy any way you slice it, he still has a year or two left. Regardless that’s beside the point, lolol.
At the rate of the current first round picks the browns have had, and honestly their ability to find depth and quality in the later rounds, I’d be ok with talking about even including next years first in it. If this team wants to contend and do it now, I think that youd need a QB like Ryan to come in and right the ship. I don’t see any of those guys on the market (Though I do think the browns should take a flyer on the Sanchize) and I cant see a team like Detroit trading Stafford just yet, so I think Ryan is the most obvious target. The South is clearly a weakened division at the moment, Atlanta needs to fill a few holes, and a new coach is probably going to want to change the offense around and if a new QB is in that mix then nows the best time for Atlanta to do it while they still have both Roddy and Julio.
Will it happen? Doubtful, but again, Im not a GM so I can say these types of crazy ideas on a sports website and not get fired for it.
Agree with the Fitzgerald point. You can get away with maybe a 4th rounder for him at this point, maybe even a 5th. If Gordon will only probably net a 3rd round pick…
I was at the Falcons game yesterday and had overheard some older redneck fan talk about how “it’s a shame that Mike Smith is going to lose his job, because the REAL problem is the QB under center.” Although when you say that in a southern accent it sounds real stupid, it’s very much the opinion of more than half the fans that call into local radio in Atlanta. And that opinion is not relegated to any specific race, color or creed. Now, anyone who knows football and watches any Falcons games can see that the real problem with them is their atrocious offensive line, not Matt Ryan. It seemed like Ryan was either sacked, hurried or knocked down for 90% of their pass plays.
With that being said, the Falcons are committed to Matt Ryan, don’t have any real alternatives on the current roster, won’t bring in a new coach and trade away their franchise player and Dimitroff won’t draft Prescott or Hundley at Pick 8. I think 3 first rounders would be way too much for the amount of salary we’d also be taking on too. But hey, love the thought, since my exact words to that redneck yesterday was “the Browns we’ll take him!’
I just don’t think there’s any chance that you’d get the Falcons to move on from Ryan, Detroit to move on from Stafford, etc. etc. You need a guy who appears to be some sort of damaged goods… Kaepernick, Alex Smith maybe, on the real long-shot-o-meter Drew Brees. These guys who are in their prime and just signed huge extensions… just no chance.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/emb1.gif
Tom Brady restructured his contract to give Patriots $24M to spend. #12realqb
Kaep’s deal can be got out from under, so I would definitely consider him though he lost any semblence of accuracy this season. Depends on if the new coach there thinks he can fix him (possibly Kyle Shanahan) or if our OC does.
Just no to the “athletic” “dual-threat” QBs. Just no.
Don’t misconstrue my comment as saying “we should go out and get Kaepernick!” All I’m saying is if I’m going to read crazy “let’s trade picks for a QB” theories, let’s at least center them around a QB who *COULD BE* gettable.
That’s going to have to be a guy with some warts like Kaep for Smith, not a peak of his career guy like Ryan or Stafford. That’s all I’m saying.
Like Rodgers and Wilson. Hate to have one of them
I’ve got you down for wanting to give up every pick this year and next for Kaep. Got it.
Aaron Rodgers has 1831 rushing yards in 10 years which works out to an average of 10 yards per game. That’s not a dual-threat, that’s appropriate scrambling when the pocket collapses. Russell Wilson has 1877 yards in 3 seasons which is a legitimate example for your argument.
So now I’ll bounce it back to you, would you rather have Russell Wilson or Tom Brady/Peyton Manning/Andrew Luck/Aaron Rodgers?
Rodgers is a legitimate threat with his feet. That he chooses to stay in the pocket and pass does not make him a lesser runner when he goes. I believe that as he matures, Russell Wilson will get closer to where Rodgers is in terms of running (as he learns more open passing lanes).
I’d love to have any of the 5 guys (Luck is more in Rodgers category, legit running threat that passes more due to good vision). But, the odds are better with college these days of getting that dual-threat guy especially when you never have a top-3 pick (as bad as we have been, we haven’t been bad enough in the right years).
I don’t know what happened to Kaep this season (his passes are not accurate on the short to intermediate stuff where he has thrived in the past), but he is a guy that I’d love to have. He’s basically Cam and that is not a bad thing at all.
If we wait a year on drafting a QB (and we might), then Cook and Kessler (I think he’s going to shine next season) are 2 QBs that might fit your mode more and that I like. However, I like whoever the better QB is overall and don’t care if he happens to be a runner (though it makes some things a bit easier).
One of these years, we won’t be discussing QBs. Sigh.
I guess we just differ on whether or not Cam Newton and Colin Kaepernick are any good. I think they are both garbage quarterbacks. Cam captained his ship to a 7-8-1 record in a, literally, historically bad division and will get bounced out of the playoffs in the Divisional Round and only advance from the Wildcard Round because Arizona is on their like 4th string QB. Kaepernick benefitted mightily from the top defense in the league and a top three running back, now that they have fallen back to earth he will continue to regress as he has never learned to read a defense and appears unable to develop any sort of chemistry with his team.
And that is the real problem I have with dual-threat quarterbacks. They think they can do it all and therefore fail to understand a team needs a leader and relationships. They are selfish show-boaters which simply cannot work in the NFL. Manziel falls into this category as does Winston and Vick in his heyday.
I would gladly take what Cam gives a team and think he is a much better leader than you give credit. No weapons, bad o-line, and still scraping it out.
Kaep gave the 49ers more than Alex Smith and pretty much won the Gb playoff game among others. His accuracy left him this year, I don’t know why.
Winston is more a pocket guy than the rest here and will be gone long before our pick.
Anyways, yeah different minds on them. Happy new year