10 Reasons Browns backup Jacoby Brissett can win it all
2. Trent Dilfer, Ravens
How good was Trent Dilfer? Good enough to win a Super Bowl, it says here.
If Dilfer was as lousy as many fans and writers claim, and if only franchise quarterbacks can win the Super Bowl, Dilfer cannot possibly have a Super Bowl ring, can he?
But he does. Also, how did a lousy quarterback win 15 games in a row? Or should we not count the playoffs and the Super Bowl in that streak? Hello statheads out there, what are you thinking? How can the Super Bowl not count?
He definitely won for the wrong team, however, because he led the Baltimore Ravens to their first Super Bowl. Nobody in Cleveland wanted to see Art Modell win anything. Modell’s story is a complex one, and there is plenty of room for praise for what Modell did as far as establishing Monday Night Football is concerned.
But he also fired Paul Brown, cut Jim Brown (or forced him into early retirement if you want to parse words), fired Marty Schottenheimer, was the worst general manager in NFL history, and completely botched the opportunity to improve his position with Cleveland Stadium. So, no, the ledger is not completely negative, but there is quite a bit in the minus column for the former owner of the Browns.
This is the conundrum of Trent Dilfer’s career. He played with losing organizations like the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Cleveland Browns and didn’t turn them around — and it’s assumed to be his fault. He didn’t get the credit he deserved from the Ravens, but it will be up to other fan bases to correct that issue because in Cleveland we just don’t care about the Ravens, thank you.
Nevertheless, it must be possible for the backup quarterback to win the Super Bowl, because that is what he did. This fan believes that Dilfer was actually much better than the fan bases gave him credit for. Tampa Bay was a joke in the Dilfer era, and frankly so were the Browns. One player does not automatically result in wins.
The Ravens won with him, using a run-first offense with a tight end (Shannon Sharpe) as the best receiver. Jamal Lewis and Priest Holmes were both workhorse running backs and together racked up 2,469 total yards from scrimmage.
Their most productive wide receiver was Qadry “The Missile” Ismail with 655. It wasn’t exactly the wide-open passing attack that head coach Brian Billick was known for when he was the offensive coordinator in Minnesota with the Ultimate Weapon, Randall Cunningham, at quarterback, and Randy Moss and Cris Carter catching passes downfield.
But they also had the No. 1 defense in the NFL under defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, giving up only 10.3 points per game, and Dilfer was able to lead three yards and a cloud of dust to the Super Bowl and win it, 34-7, with the only Giants points coming on a kickoff return. Dilfer was 12 for 25 for 153 yards against a stout Giants defense.
Nevertheless, Billick was dissatisfied with the makeshift offense, and Dilfer was let go despite the Super Bowl win. Elvis Grbac, coming off a flashy campaign with the Kansas City Chiefs, was signed in hopes the offense would be all shook up.
But Grbac went from 4,169 yards passing with Gunther Cunningham’s Kansas City Chiefs to 3,033 yards passing for Baltimore (not an improvement over Dilfer’s performance). So if Brian Billick was such a passing guru, and Grback was a 4,000-yard passer, why didn’t he post better numbers than Dilfer?
Dilfer started 11 games for the 2005 Cleveland Browns and coach Romeo Crennel and went 4-7. The Dawg Pound holds Dilfer personally responsible for not going 11-0. Had he not led the Ravens to the Super Bowl, we might consider being more reasonable. As it is, forget it.