The Remote Report: Progress at Quarterback for the Cleveland Browns?
By Kevin Nye
I can’t confess to knowing everything there is to know about the NFL, about building a successful franchise, or about anything at all,
really.
But I do know this: the Browns have been bad for about 13 years and nothing has really changed in that time. I don’t know that Colt McCoy is anything resembling The Answer at quarterback – neither the metaphorical answer, nor Allen Iverson. But here’s the interesting thing: it’s not unanimous.
This past Sunday’s Twitter timeline, which by the way is the best sports-watching companion to ever exist, was full of mixed feelings about McCoy. Some believed that it was nice to not have a quarterback who was the biggest problem, while others ranted about how “We’ll never win with him under center.”
That’s progress, you guys!
The fact that Browns fans are not 100% in agreement about whether or not the team’s quarterback is a complete and utter waste of time is a brand new thing for us, you realize that, right? The last time that happened was early in the miraculous Derek Anderson-led season of 2007. We saw a guy completing some passes, throwing some touchdowns, and even winning some football games. We also noticed that he was missing a ton of passes, but he had enough positive attributes that we looked past some of the negative ones.
Ultimately, we basically ran him out of town because he wasn’t that good, but for a period of time there, he wasn’t that bad either. That’s where McCoy is right now. If you remember that 2007 season, it was a heck of a lot of fun. Cautious optimism was all over the place before it was customarily swept out from under us, but just to have it for a little while was a nice change of pace.
The fact that it’s even up for debate is a huge step in the right direction. This is the first time in several years that we’ve been looking at Week 13 without decisively saying “The Browns need a new quarterback next year,” or “Well, they obviously have to draft another quarterback,” or “Top priority? Definitely a quarterback.”
I’m chalking this up as a victory.
However, I’m not quite ready to chalk up Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens as a victory…