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If Jeff Goldblum were here, I'd pin him down and make him recreate the machine from 'The Fly'. That way I could lure Brady into one chamber using a hand held mirror, and bait the other with whatever Derek likes (hushpuppies?). Then *BLAM*- out walks ONE guy with the grit to DEMAND leadership in the huddle and the ability to either throw a bomb into the endzone, or a floater in the flat. But Goldblum is out working on Law & Order, and I'm nowhere near smart enough to design one myself, so lets just debate...

Brady or Anderson?

Is the QB controversy just a formality? Can you really see Mangini NOT going with Quinn? Brady seems very QB smart, and can hit the short passes, make adjustments at the line, get in guys faces, was a 1st rd pick, and... is kind of the face of the franchise.

But what about the 2007 Pro Bowler? DA got rid of the ball lightning-quick, shot MISSLES all over the field, stood tall in the pocket, and... throws the ball ten yards over the RB's head on screen plays.

Part of me thinks Braylon's obscene drops led to DA's demise, and that if he worked really, really hard on the short throws, he could prove to us that he belongs a starter in the NFL. But I realize that once you go with Quinn, there's no turning back. The guys get behind him and his strong mentality, and you push forward.


So, I'm split...Your thoughts?

I think Sunday's scrimmage shows more why DA isn't the man than it did Quinn doing anything great. Anderson just misses too much and stares down his throws too readily. That INT at the 5 was completely irresponsible and all on him, and that kind of stuff happens to him too much.

I like Quinn but he's got to make quicker decisions and fire the ball with more oomph. That comes with more PT and more comfort in the offense and with the receivers.

Here are some thoughts I just wrote up. Obviously, all the cool formatting is at the site JoseMesaIsDead, for CLE sports fans who want to get over the "woe is me" attitude.

http://www.josemesaisdead.com/post/176088297/bqe-vs-da

In my mind, the Browns have an interesting decision to make at the quarterback position. And when I say “the Browns” I really mean Eric Mangini because let’s be honest, we all know who’s calling the shots.

On one hand, you have Brady Quinn, who had a very high completion percentage in the pre-season (67.7% through 31 attempts) with 1 TD and 1 INT but little regular season game experience and an arm that may not be capable of consistently throwing the deep out. Also, he apparently does not use MySpace.

On the other hand, you have the man Clevelanders love to hate, Derek Anderson and his below average completion percentage (54.6% for his career and 56.5% in his 2007 Pro Bowl season). In the pre-season so far, DA has hit 57.7% of his passes on 26 attempts with zero TD passes and 2 INT. There’s no question about Anderson’s ability to make the big play, but he’ll also make mistakes with inaccurate tosses and struggles to connect on passes shorter than 10 yards (54.2% last year and 57.9% in 2007 - league average is 67%). Anderson also helped the team win 9 games in 2007 before the implosion that was 2008.

If I haven’t written about it here before, I’ve thought about it and commented on cleveland.com - I’m wary of using completion percentage as a gauge of a quarterback’s performance. Not only can connecting on longer passes offset incompletions on short passes (the simple math: 1-3 for 40 yards vs. 2-3 for 15 yards), the difference between what Anderson actually completed in 2007 and what he would have completed had he thrown at 65% is pretty small - 2.8 completions per game (he averaged 32.9 attempts per game that year). The difference between Anderson’s percentage and the average - 60% - is even smaller: 1.1 completions per game.

Additionally, that same 2007 season Anderson led the NFL in yards per completion with 12.7 and was very good at yards per attempt with 7.2 (Tom Brady led the league at 8.3).

Yards per attempt is the key Anderson statistic, really - he’s beating BQE in the pre-season on this number as well. It’s the only number he’s ahead on.

What you’ve probably come to think at this point is that I’m trying to defend Anderson. Yes, I sort of am, but only because I think we tend to remember the interception he threw in the 2007 Cincinnati game - one play - above everything else he accomplished that season. 2008 I’m willing to write off the face of the earth due to the debacle that was the Romeo Crennel coaching program, which was only aided and abetted by the calamity of Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards - when sh*t started to go bad last season, there was no turning back. There was no one capable of pulling the whole thing back together.

I also don’t believe it’s fair for us to look at the pre-season and say, “well, if Edwards hadn’t dropped that pass in the Lions game, Quinn would’ve had another TD instead of another INT” and not acknowledge that Braylon dropped more passes than anyone else in the NFL last year, the majority of which were thrown by DA.

But really, the previous paragraphs only make one thing clear - we know a lot more about Anderson at this point than we do about Quinn.

Well, we do know he likes Bret Michaels. And…

We also know he voted for John McCain.

Aside from that, we don’t have much of a platform from which we can empirically discuss Quinn’s attributes. And simple stats are not great indicators in football because of the complexity of the game. They’re especially noisy in the pre-season, where they encapsulate a very small sample size and are jumbled by the level of competition, e.g. the Titans played their starters through the first half, the Browns into the fourth quarter, and broken situations and rhythms (Quinn and Anderson being shuffled in and out).

So let’s forget the stats. Let’s talk about the different offensive dynamics each quarterback provides.

I am not Eric Mangini. He also knows a lot more about football than I do, but as an outside observer, I can see the quarterback decision potentially coming down to what type of offense Mangini wants to play: does he want to concentrate on the big play or do he want long drives that burn clock?

The first scenario, obviously, means Anderson - the second means Quinn.

I have to wonder…if Braylon Edwards is the Browns’ best weapon on offense, and Anderson can utilize him better than Quinn, do you effectively limit your offense by making Quinn the quarterback?

It’s an interesting conversation, and one that’s also directly tied to the quality of the Browns defense as well as how Mangini sees the future of the team. I’ll write a little more about these issues later in the week - we’ve got time, after all, it’s not like Mangini is ever anxious to make information known.

So, Mesaisdead, not to sound like a jerk, but instead of pasting your blog here (which I think is a no-no), how about a simple post on how you really feel? I realize your point on 'which one fits the system', fair enough, but how about making a case for the one guy who can take us to the playoffs this year. Dont laugh, I know we wont make the playoffs, but if this is your team, and not Jose Mesa's, who is alive and well and stalking Omar, who QB's this team?

Icness- your bio says you may have some scouting knowlege, may I ask you this: Your previous points about DA are right on the money, but do you think he can still progress into a viable starting NFL quarterback? The layman, such as myself, might hear the saying "You cant teach arm strength", and think maybe you can teach Anderson to put more touch on the ball. When he is rushed and panics are usually when he throws the 'head scratchers'. Being a young quarterback, can he still learn to relax? Or is only what he appears to be? I know his college career was inconsistent, and he does not seem to command a huddle, what is your opinion?

I've completely comitted to Quinn, by the way.

Furrski wrote:Icness- your bio says you may have some scouting knowlege, may I ask you this: Your previous points about DA are right on the money, but do you think he can still progress into a viable starting NFL quarterback? The layman, such as myself, might hear the saying "You cant teach arm strength", and think maybe you can teach Anderson to put more touch on the ball. When he is rushed and panics are usually when he throws the 'head scratchers'. Being a young quarterback, can he still learn to relax? Or is only what he appears to be? I know his college career was inconsistent, and he does not seem to command a huddle, what is your opinion?

I've completely comitted to Quinn, by the way.

I think DA is what he is, a capable backup QB who could tide you over for a week or two while the starter is out. Accuracy almost never improves from college to the NFL and it rarely gets better after about game 10 of a QB's career. More time might help a little, but he's pretty much at his ceiling.

Quinn was brutal in the opener. I hate to think what will happen if/when Mangini yanks him for DA...that kills Quinn in Cleveland, and I still believe Brady Quinn can be a very good NFL QB.

i have checked it’s really great