LeBron James and Kyrie Irving out for Friday night’s game at the Indiana Pacers
February 27, 2015Indiana Fever: Cavs vs. Pacers Behind the Box Score
February 27, 2015In the endless search for a quarterback, the Cleveland Browns have agreed to terms with Josh McCown. The Browns were known to be interested in the quarterback, who visited the team this week. Mark Kay Cabot of the Plain Dealer first reported the signing. The team confirmed the deal.
“Josh is your consummate professional,” Browns GM Ray Farmer said via press release. “He’s known to be a great guy in the locker room and will be great for the quarterback room. He knows how to get an entire offense on the same page and get a team to rally behind him. He has been exposed to a lot of different types of offenses and we think still has the drive and skill set to be a successful quarterback in this league.
“We are excited to get him and believe he will help continue to move us in the right direction and help us build the type of team that will bring winning football to Cleveland.”
The 35-year-old quarterback was last seen going 1-10 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, throwing 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in a resounding failure of a campaign.
“I just want to serve our team and help everybody in that locker room, do my best to help everybody in the locker room be better at their job and they’re going to help me, too. It’s a two-way street,” McCown said. “I’m just excited about coming in and being a part of a team.
“Year 1 was a solid first year for coach (Mike) Pettine, and to see the vision with what he’s got going on is exciting to me. In my room, I want to be able to help those young guys and pass along my knowledge and experiences I’ve had and help them grow.”
The Browns new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo coached McCown in 2007 when he was on the Oakland Raiders staff. DeFilippo’s preexisting relationship with McCown undoubtedly factored into the team’s decision to pursue the veteran. The signing of McCown almost certainly spells the end of the Brian Hoyer era in Cleveland, who has went 10-6 in his career as a starter for the Browns. And so Chapter 1367 of the Browns eternal search for a quarterback begins.
“Josh is a high-character, savvy, veteran quarterback that has a lot to offer to our team,” Pettine said. “When you hear from people that have been around Josh, they speak of the leadership qualities and the positive impact he has on a locker room. I really enjoyed spending time with him during his visit. He has great passion for playing the quarterback position and wants to show that he can still be successful in this league.
“Obviously, he is a quarterback that has been in a number of systems and he has worked with (Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo) so there is some good familiarity between the two. We are excited to have him become part of our team and we look forward to him playing an important role in our offense.”
44 Comments
He also has valuable experience with new uniforms. (See above.)
#fridaynightnewsdump
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/50centdriving.gif
Pick up some Kool-Aid while you’re out, ok? 😉
Manziel is their starter. McCown is the mentor who is willing to accept the role that Hoyer won’t. Shaw will be here at the start of camp fighting for a spot on the team with a later round rookie. Book it.
He’s been in a number of systems because he has been terrible to mediocre in all of then and gets cut lose.
Nothing screams “permanent solution to QB problem” like a 35 year old career backup who had a couple of good starts a few years ago and flamed out last year with the worst team in the NFL.
And sugar. Always have Kool-Aid, but no sugar.
Can’t Mack just direct-snap the ball into a juggs-machine?
“Team guy” = can’t play anymore. This is an absolute joke. Farmer continues tradition of poor FA signings.
McCown is the starter for the first several games. Manziel will be nowhere near ready until at least midway in the season.
There is no permanent solution this year unless you want to give away the farm for Winston, and even he is a character risk.
I would have preferred Hoyer, but Farmer needed someone who could accept a backup role without worrying about it.
And in the spirit of the humorous cynicism that ensues, good things about this signing:
-McCown rhymes with Brown;
-he was born on the 4th of July;
-he is 6-4 (ok, that’s actually a good thing and not very funny);
-he is not in rehab (ok, more cynical than humorous)
-he has better knees than Bill Nelson;
-he had an outstanding performance in the 2002 NFL Combine;
-he’s from Texas so he and Manziel speak the same language …
OK, enough. I wish Josh the best, particularly the best OL in the NFL.
Maybe, maybe not. Another vet added to the roster isn’t out of the question. Manziel is their long term plan and their actions going forward will reflect that.
Why are you assuming he’s a permanent solution?
I am waiting to see what this guy is going to make. Hopefully in the 3-4 M range per year
or a 28 YO rookie former MLB pitcher
MKC said $5 per
That was weeden
Once you get past the emotional letdown of the “Browns sign McCown” headline you can start to see the rationale behind it.
-They clearly are unwilling to go all-in with Winston/Mariota, which is more than defensible given what we know at this point.
-This seems to be a proxy vote of confidence in Manziel. I was in the minority that felt he showed enough positives last year (amidst a couple admittedly lousy performances) to get another shot. The message from Berea: get right in rehab Johnny; we have your back and are willing to give you one more chance.
-McCown has used his initial media statements to foreground his desire to mentor our two young QBs. This is good, and was never happening with Hoyer.
-Speaking of Hoyer, the front office appears capable of reading his performance w/ greater objectivity than our hometown fan base. I loved Hoyer’s story as much as anyone, but he was historically bad at the end of last season, and the ease with which we forget that is problematic, though understandable.
-McCown played really, really well in 2013, and no reason to think that he can’t at least match – if not exceed – Hoyer’s 2014 first half if given the Browns healthy offensive line and productive running game.
So, don’t love the move, but see it as the best possible one that could have been made.
Okay, Richard, I let this slide the other day, but now my palms are getting clammy and I’ve developed a facial tic. It’s Nelsen, with two “e”s.
–Nerd Club Mentor
As for the Destroyer, We’ll always have Cincinnati. Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.
What a horrible move. I try to stay away from histrioinc, sports-talk radio overreactions when commenting here, but this move is garbage. Total garbage. Its’s like the Browns announced they won’t even be trying for the next 12 months.
As bad as the Browns have been at drafting QB’s, their FA track record at this position has arguably been even worse. And this moves takes the post-99 cake. Dilfer, Garcia, and Delhomme were all washed up when we signed them, but at least they had successful track records at some point in their NFL careers. McCown is in his mid-30’s and has had no success at all in the league (please, oh, please don’t argue that half of a Bears season he had; Hoyer and Colt McCoy did the same here with much less talent. Plus, the Tampa debacle last year totally negates anything positive he did in the Windy City).
He’s a career backup at best.
He led a team with weapons like Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans to the No. 1 pick in the draft.
I see absolutely no reason whatsoever that he won’t replicate that feat in 2015 in the North Coast.
They were embarrassed when Johnny lost to hoyer last year
They made sure to sign somebone who couldn’t possibly beat him this year
Their #1 pick couldn’t beat out a career journeyman. That won’t happen this year
All in sink (#1 pick) or swim (playoffs) with manziel
LOL, LOL … Well done, well put, and so it is, two e’s. And now the floodgates are opened. What else did you let slide?
Only my personal hygiene, but hey, it’s Saturday.
You’ve been letter-perfect otherwise! I enjoy your stuff.
The Bridge to Cardale: The Josh McCown Story…..starring…Josh McCown.
okay, let’s walk through the offseason if they had decided to go all-in with Manziel
(1) Manziel checks into rehab right after a 3 day retreat with Haslam, FO, and coaching staff. Coincidence?
(2) OC a guy known for mentoring young QBs
(3) QB coach a guy who works with pre-draft QBs including had worked with Manziel
(4) Sign veteran QB who said he is willing to be a pure mentor to young QBs if necessary
all signs point to them pushing their Johnny chips to the middle of the table and seeing what happens when the last card is flipped.
“all signs point to them pushing their Johnny chips to the middle of the table and seeing what happens when the last card is flipped.”
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3906/15094743946_fe16566b22_z.jpg
Kyle Welch…learn the English language “he has went” is so ignorant that all credibility is lost among the informed. You can probably find an online grammar class for free, since most “writers” presumably would not have to pay for something which was already a forte of their presentation.
The most convoluted, garbled post on this article and it’s a criticism of the author for grammatical structure. Oh, the irony.
So writing classes are all free online because writers are so good inherently that they don’t have to pay? Dizzying logic indeed but beyond that, why aren’t we all taking advantage of these freebies? Thank you kind sir for bringing this to our attention. I can see you are a smart man, so I appreciate the inside trade secrets into your expert writing world. Ps. You should suggest Rosetta Stone so that these “writers” can learn the English language as you say . That’ll teach them!
I’m sorry, but your image is clearly of a draw or straight poker hand in reference to what can only be a Texas Hold ‘Em or Omaha metaphor, and is thus inapplicable. Please resubmit.
King high means LeBron is fulfilling the State Farm commercial, right?
@humboldt and @ mgbode have it nailed – the Browns are trying to develop Manziel for at least 1 more season. Whether any of us agree that is the right move, it is silly to blast the McCown signing without acknowledging that context.
For me, it is incredibly depressing to go into a season with McCown and Johnny Rehab as our 1-2 QBs. But any anger I have I attribute to the potential misfire on Manziel in last year’s draft, not the decision to let Hoyer walk in favor of McCown. Hoyer wasn’t the long-run answer, so it makes sense to bring in a guy like McCown who wants to embrace a mentorship role.
Everything now rides on whether Manziel can mature enough to be mentored and make a leap forward. I sure hope Jimmy and Sugar Ray have seen enough to justify their apparent faith in him.
We’ll see…..
We’re talking Browns, here.
The rest of the teams play football. The Browns play something else entirely.
maybe, maybe not can be said about anything. I don’t see another vet being added; possibly a middle to late draft choice. Of course McCown is not a long term solution at 36. I agree Manziel is the long term plan at the moment.
The fool?
There are 31 other teams in the NFL, and only one of them drafted Andrew Luck. Every other team in the NFL found their quarterback by taking a risk, many of them with guys they found in the second half of the first round of the draft, or the second round, or the third round. Only the Browns think it logical to say, “well, there’s no sure thing that’s going to fall in our laps this year, Manziel and McCown are kinds of risks (i.e. terrible ones, with negligible upsides and tremendous chances at failing), we might as well go with them.” This is because, protestations aside, Jimmy Haslam and his cronies have absolutely no interest in winning. What they want is to appear to be interested in winning, which leads to the current approach of “let’s try something new so people will think we’re trying”, rather than, say, committing to a player with some — any! — upside for long enough for the risk to pan out.
“learn the English language ‘he has went’ is so ignorant that all credibility is lost among the informed.”
Run-on sentence. No capitalization. No internal punctuation. Who has lost credibility? The writer or the informed? Of what are the “informed” informed?
Worst comment ever.
F
Looks about like everything I had in Vegas this weekend. At least I’m going to win a couple Gs when the Indians win the Series.
Worst comment ever? I’m surprised that people are so quick to defend mediocrity and so emotional in their pretense….er, I mean “defense” of it. It’s okay to be ignorant, just try not to be on a life mission to share it with everyone else….sorry if I hurt your feelings…
“He has went” is not only bad use of the language, it kind of “spreads the infection.” I don’t care to be infected, thank you.
The only thing that offends me is your really bad grammar and sentence structure in a comment criticizing bad word usage. I get offended when sharpshooters can’t hit their targets.
And yet you post a comment on it. Spreading your own brand of trollish infection. If only there was a vaccine for that!