Who will the Browns face in Lions QB Tim Boyle?

Tim Boyle is making his first NFL start for the Lions at quarterback this week against Cleveland, and here’s what the Browns will be facing.

Who is Tim Boyle, the quarterback the Cleveland Browns will face in a Week 11 matchup? Is it nuts to be worried about a guy no one has ever heard of? No one, it seems, except perhaps for former Browns General Manager John Dorsey, who is now a senior personnel executive for the Detroit Lions advising their general manager, Brad Holmes.

Dorsey almost never misses on quarterbacks.

Tim Boyle was the quarterback at Eastern Kentucky, where he did almost nothing throwing for 11 touchdowns and 13 INTs in 2017. Earlier he played three years at Connecticut, where he did less than nothing, with only one touchdown versus 13 touchdowns from 2013 to 2015.

Somehow, this earned him a tryout with the Green Bay Packers and he actually lit it up in summer camp. Watching his college film as well as his Packers highlights, you can see that at times he has a Mayfield-like arm. He is absolutely amazing with both accuracy and touch, at least in preseason games.

Tim Boyle will be a relative unknown for the Browns in Week 11

It is impossible to explain how a college quarterback with such lousy stats could perform at the Pro level, even in preseason games that do not count.

He actually made the 53-player roster with the Packers and served as Aaron Rodgers’ backup until the birth of the Jordan Love era made him expendable.

He has played in 11 NFL games with the Packers, mainly at the end of games handing the ball off during garbage time, and has accumulated all of 43 snaps without ever throwing a pass.

It is flat out impossible to believe he could have a good game versus the Browns, but then there is the John Dorsey factor. Dorsey is amazingly good at pulling quarterbacks out of nowhere. His resume includes Aaron Rodgers, Nick Foles, Alex Smith, Patrick Mahomes, Baker Mayfield, and also David Blough, who used to be the Browns practice squad quarterback and generally got good reviews. Blough is also on the Lions, and Boyle is ahead of him on the depth chart.

Knowing the personality of Dan Campbell, the Lions will not go down without a fight. Look for mostly running plays, but if it is not working, Boyle is going to be allowed to take some shots downfield. They will also run some trick plays, wildcat formation plays, anything rather than going down quietly. That is not their modus operandi.