Cleveland Browns: Maybe Josh McCown is a bad idea

Jun 16, 2015; Berea, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Josh McCown (13) and Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo during minicamp at the Cleveland Browns practice facility. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Ever since the Cleveland Browns signed Josh McCown to be the team’s starting quarterback, we’ve done what every true and loyal Browns fan has done since Nov. 8, 1993*.

We’ve justified that this time the team finally got it right at one of the most-important positions on the field.

Starting with Vinny Testaverde, and rolling along through Mark Rypien, Eric Zeier, Spergon Wynn, Jake Delhomme, Charlie Frye and Brady Quinn, just to name a few, we’ve turned talking ourselves into just about anyone the Browns have lined up behind center into an art form.

But now, after reading Bill Barnwell’s annual All-Bad Contract Team at Grantland, doubts are staring to creep in after seeing the team’s starting quarterback: Josh McCown.

Here’s what Barnwell has to say about Cleveland’s current QB1:

"McCown, the subject of a bidding war between the Bills and Browns this offseason, was a replacement-level backup for years before producing a stunning 224-pass sample with the Bears in 2013. That run was driven by a totally unsustainable interception rate of 0.4 percent, 10 times below his previous career average of 4.0 percent. The Buccaneers bit on the premise that McCown’s 2013 was more meaningful than his first 1,113 attempts and found that he was still Josh McCown; despite possessing Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans at wide receiver, McCown threw interceptions on 4.3 percent of his throws and saw his QBR fall from a league-high 85.1 in 2013 to 32.8 last year, a figure that only topped that of Jags rookie Blake Bortles."

"OK, so lesson learned, he’s still the same Josh McCown. But then why are the Browns convinced that last year was really the fluke? After McCown was paid about the veteran’s minimum for years and then struggled mightily last year, Cleveland outbid Buffalo for the right to give McCown another chance. The Browns guaranteed $6.25 million to McCown over the next two seasons to serve as their veteran stopgap ahead of Johnny Manziel, which doesn’t seem to fit any logical plan."

"The Browns aren’t one competent quarterback away from competing, and even if they were, McCown is 36 and has delivered one competent half-season of play during a 13-year career. If you think Manziel has a prayer, don’t pay meaningful guaranteed money to put somebody in his way. And if you don’t, at least try to find somebody with even a modicum of upside. Brian Hoyer wasn’t the answer, but there was at least some logic in using Hoyer, who had some tools and hadn’t been given much of a chance to prove anything about his professional future. We know what Josh McCown is by now."

It’s not so much the guaranteed money that is suddenly giving us second thoughts – the Browns have the cap space and didn’t have to cut anyone to bring McCown on board – as much as it is the reminder that for the majority of his career McCown has just been another guy in a uniform.

Even admitting that, our rationalization powers are strong, so here is where we start talking ourselves back into McCown being, if not the answer, at least a semi-competent player until the answer arrives in town.

Following the recent passing of Kenny Stabler, we re-read Peter Richmond’s 2010 book, Badasses, about the Oakland Raiders of the 1970s.

Under then-head coach John Madden, the Raiders basically had two simple rules: outwork the opposition during the week and outhit them on Sunday. If they did those two things, more often than not good things would follow.

Now, those Raiders teams were obviously far more talented than the current Browns, especially at the positions of wide receiver, tight end and quarterback.

But that doesn’t mean there is not a lesson to be learned here.

In the book is a brief section on linebacker Gerald Irons, who was traded to the Browns following the 1975. Irons brought with him a toughness that was sorely lacking along the shores of Lake Erie.

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“When I got there, I noticed that after (head coach) Forrest Gregg called practice over, everyone ran into the locker room,” Irons said in the book. “I’m used to six years of finding me an area on the field to work out with other guys after practice. It bothered me. I didn’t say anything for the first two days. Finally, on the third day, I couldn’t take it.

“I went to Gregg and said, ‘I would like to address the team.” He says OK. Everybody got quiet. I said, ‘I’m not accustomed to coming to practice every day and not working hard to get into the playoffs. On the Raiders, we’d always talk about the championship. I’m not used to going into the locker room right after practice. We have to stay out there, because we are not working. We are not working hard enough.’ ”

The year before Irons arrived the Browns finished at 3-11. That first season with Irons? An improvement to 9-5.

There is no reason that the Browns can’t outwork everyone else during the week and outhit them on Sundays – that is up to the coaches and the players to make the commitment.

“We don’t think that there is that big of a difference between first and fourth place in the division,” head coach Mike Pettine told the team’s website. “Teams are built similarly. Everybody has a pretty good defense, so it is going to be the team that really wants the division that goes out there and takes it.

“I think so much of the NFL is every team is capable but who can do it consistently and who can do it the longest. And I think that is where we have to take that next step this year.”

If the Browns can start to do the right things consistently and do them the longest, McCown’s shortcomings may not be such a deterrent and we all may end up pleasantly surprised at the results.

See what we mean about being able to rationalize the new quarterback in town?

*If you have to ask about the significance of that date, you probably shouldn’t be visiting this site.

Next: Browns players who must step up in 2015 (Part 2)

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When you put it that way, maybe this Josh McCown thing is a bad idea

By Thomas Moore | Jul 30, 2015

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