The Cleveland Browns have a new coach and he didn’t want to talk about Brandon Weeden at all during his first press conference at the Browns camp in Berea Ohio. If you listened close to some of the statements Jimmy Haslam III makes about his new coach, he talks about the fact that Chud has always helped to turn the young quarterback into a better player. Does Weeden fit the description of being a young quarterback? It doesn’t seem like the Browns brass has much faith in Brandon Weeden. Lets face it Chudzinski is coming to the Cleveland Browns from a team that had a Q.B. who could move out of the pocket, Cam Newton rushed for over 700 yards in both of his NFL seasons.
Weeden had 111 rushing yards in the 15 games he played this season. Not only did Newton out rush Weeden he out passed him too. Browns fans that were sold on Weeden’s arm strength are really disappointed with the season he had in 2012. Some who thought this guy was the answer are already jumping down off the band wagon. The Browns are building something in Cleveland that is going to last for years. They brought in a young head coach and they want to go with a young starting quarterback too.
With Chud’s refusal to talk about Brandon Weeden, you have to wonder if he is less than impressed with what he has seen. If Weeden stood out in the NFL crowd you would think that Chudzinski would be singing praise about coming to Cleveland to work with Brandon Weeden. That was not the case. Chud remained tight-lipped about Weeden and this makes some skeptical about Weeden’s future in Cleveland.
The Fact is Rob Chudzinski declined to comment on whether or not Brandon Weeden will be his starting quarterback. “I don’t want to get into specific players right now, any of the players on the roster,” said Chudzinski.
If Weeden was the stud player some think he was, you would think the new head coach would have offered some praise to lift the guys spirits. That wasn’t the case. Now you have two of the three guys at the top of the food chain in the Cleveland Browns front office not welling to talk Brandon Weeden. Joe Banner refused to give an evaluation on Weeden during the press conference they held to tell us they were looking for a head coach. That leaves the impression the Browns are less than impressed with Brandon Weeden…..
Filed under: Cleveland Browns
Tagged with: Branden Weeden out in Cleveland, Jimmy Haslam, Joe Banner, refused to talk about Brandon Weeden, Rob Chudzinski, traded, Will they cut Weeden
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I think the Browns may have a new starter in 2013. Alex Smith comes to mind. Perhaps McCoy may be traded since it’s his last year of his contract and they may want to get something for him. Who knows? After what has happened over the last couple of weeks, I am just about done guessing.
I agree with you Bob I would love to see the Cleveland Browns bring in Alex Smith to compete with both Brandon Weeden and Colt McCoy… But you could not trade Colt McCoy you wouldn’t even get a sixth round draft pick for that Bum…
You guys must not have heard Haslam say how Chudzinski helps the young quarterbacks to play better. Young doesn’t exactly apply to Weeden…
By saying they may trade McCoy, I never meant that McCoy was not good. I just think they may start with a new quarterback picked by the new coaches and that McCoy will get his chance to excel with another team – that is the Browns kind of luck. I also think McCoy may want to be traded even though he has not come out and said it to the public after how he’s been treated. Even look at last week when it was out in the public that Chip Kelly would basically have McCoy as his starter and then looked what happen. Maybe Haslam & Banner told him he’s in. None of us know. We’ll see. But if they said nothing to him about starting, could you blame the guy wanting a fresh start elsewhere?
I actually think with the right coaches McCoy is and will play like Brees & Wilson. Remember, McCoy is fully healed from the 2010 BCS game. There was a reason he won the most games as a college QB when he played. There was a reason he beat the Patriots & Saints in his first year with the Browns. Just look at the Texas Longhorns now without him. Problem was that the past coaches did not play to McCoy’s or Weeden’s strengths like the coaches of RG3 & Russell Wilson did. Mangini did show us McCoy’s strengths for a brief moment when McCoy beat the Saints & Patriots. Just go to youtube and take a look at McCoy’s highlights with the Browns and when he played in college. He just needs a better coach and maybe even a fresh start. Who knows.
When you say his shoulder is now healed, do you think he re-injured it against the Broncos? Maybe they just said that to avoid using him with Shumur as the head coach against the Steelers, what do you think Bob?
Don’t know. If he really injured it perhaps we would have heard more about it? Who knows.
Bob, I definitely agree. McCoy can definitely play like Brees or Wilson or Montana. He can definitely run the adaptations of the spread offense that coaches like Bellichick, Harbaugh, Carrol, and Shanahan are using effectively right now.
I first thought Chud might have been hired because he was going in the same direction with Newton, but now there’s some speculation that Derek Anderson is the new coach’s safety blanket and he even tried to modify the Carolina offense to fit his back-up and caused a train wreck and sacrificed half the season to do it.
If the new guy likes Anderson, then he’s the only coach in the league who will like Weeden.
McCoy deserves an honest QB competition. If not here, then definitely somewhere else.
There aren’t that many QBs who can run adaptations of the zone read option like Wilson, Griffin, and Kaepernick, but McCoy is definitely one of them.
You aren’t thinking that he wants McCoy do you??? He wants Mobile quarterbacks huh???well then why is there rumors of him wanting to bring Derek Anderson back?!?!?! A lil contradicting to your story… They didn’t comment on that LG because it wasn’t the time or place…The man said It in the beginning…he is not taking about specifics.. I think you are over thinking this one…
I haven’t heard any rumors of him wanting to bring back D.A….
Hey LG, been a while since I posted but thought I’d address the story and the rumor about D.A.
First, it is a myth that Chud prefers a mobile QB. What Chud has shown in his career is that he prefers a QB with an arm and good decision making for a vertical passing game. He then adapts his scheme and play calling to what he considers the “secondary” characteristics of the QB – traditional pocket passer, balanced, or scrambler. He has shown to be extremely effective at adapting to the offensive talent he has on the team to bring out the best of his QB and the offense as a whole.
At this point I would suggest that Weeden’s arm intrigues Chud but his decision making is a concern. Chud will take time to determine if there is anything that can be done to develop Weeden’s decision making. He doesn’t make snap decisions but rather is much like Haslam and Banner in that he has a clear idea of what he needs to see and keeps a very closed mouth about things until he makes a decision. Again like them once he makes his decision he acts quickly and decisively to put the pieces together. This similarity helps us understand why he became their choice for Head Coach.
If, and I stress if, Chud believes Weeden can develop he will start him and design a vertical passing game based around Weeden as a pocket passer with a big arm. He will also want to have a similar type of veteran to help him develop and put pressure on him. He will want a back-up who can also step into the same scheme and have success if Weeden goes down or doesn’t develop as desired. He isn’t Shurmur who was the definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result). This season he will replace Weeden if necessary and determine what direction to head next season based on available talent.
This is where the Anderson rumors have been coming in. McCoy, and at this point it would appear Lewis, are solid balanced QBs, combining arm with mobility but excelling in neither over the other. This isn’t a criticism of either because there are some very successful balanced QB’s. It is simply an acknowledgement that they are a different type of QB then Weeden. As a result McCoy and Lewis are viable back-ups to Weeden, but not ideal. Therefore they don’t put the pressure on him that a QB of the same type would, and McCoy isn’t the best mentor either.
Derek Anderson is a big armed pocket passer like Weeden and can serve as a mentor to that style of play. Additionally, he puts more pressure on Weeden to excel because on any given Sunday he could step into the game and has the potential to have the same or more success with the exact same players, coaches, and play calls in the exact same scheme. If Anderson stepped in and had more success then nobody could argue about what the problem was. Same players except QB, same coaching staff calling the plays, same scheme, more success = Weeden loses starting job, probably for good. That is pressure to develop as it leaves Weeden no excuses.
So with Chud’s familiarity with Anderson in Cleveland and Carolina, knowing his skills, and having proven he knows how to get the most out of him, it makes sense to bring him in if Weeden is the starter. The probability of this becomes more plausible because Chud just left Carolina on good terms and we play in different leagues. Carolina isn’t exactly going to concerned with him going to Cleveland as a free agent this year. It could also be a move leading to a potential trade for McCoy or Lewis.
Anderson really isn’t a viable back-up to Newton so I doubt they resign him. We all saw how Carolina’s offense stuttered at the start of this season when Chud tried to build a scheme for Newton that Anderson could step into more easily if necessary. When that didn’t work Chud went back to a scheme that was designed more specifically for Newton that didn’t suit Anderson’s skills at all and prayed Newton didn’t go down. Clausen isn’t the answer either so this puts Carolina in the position of needing to get a QB that is a better back-up for Newton. Either McCoy or Lewis could potentially fill this need. If it occurs I would expect that the Browns would get the infamous undisclosed conditional 2014 draft pick resulting in a 4th to 6th rounder for McCoy or 5th to 7th rounder for Lewis. Not saying it would happen but I can see this type of quid pro quo behind the scenes between buddies deal occurring.
Leon, you may be right about this. Your explanation makes sense.
But if you’re right, it raises serious questions about Chud.
We hear a lot about coaches molding their offense to match the talents of their starter, and that’s a good thing. But this would be the first time any coach EVER modified an offense to match the skill set of his back-up.
That sounds pretty stupid. And it caused a real train wreck in Carolina and wasted half the season before Chud figured out it wasn’t working to force Newton into a DA offense.
Now it sounds like he may want to bring his security blanket with him back to Cleveland.
Apparently, he wasn’t looking for a back-up similar to Newton when he brought in Anderson as a back-up and “mentor” in 2011. Now there’s a suggestion that Chud wants a back-up that just like Weeden. . .hmmm. . .
It all sounds like Chud just wants to have Anderson with him and like he’s not any more interested in a real quarterback competition than Shurmur was.
I think that would be bad news for the Browns and maybe one good season followed by a collapse.
Obviously you research is limited and as for the “young players” comment, that does necessarily mean in age as It does apply to years in the NFL as well….
The Cleveland Browns under the ownership of Jimmy Haslam III wants to put a team of young players together that are going to last a number of years in the NFL. Haslam use the Steelers mold to build this team. This means he don’t want a Q.B. who is going to be 30 years old a month after the 2013 season starts.
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/sports/football/browns/sources-browns-looking-into-bringing-back-derek-anderson#
Here is the link LG on DA command back to Cleveland
LG, Chud’s silence should mean that Weeden is not the established starter and that he will take an honest look at all the QBs and probably have a genuine quarterback competition.
It could even mean that he agrees with H and B that Weeden should not be the starter and will look at other options, like someone who could run the kind of offense he was building in Carolina.
But it could also mean that he just wants to bring Anderson back here to start and he wants to break that to us gently so it will be too late to back out of his contract.
I just hope we don’t wind up paying DA the same kind of money Holmgren handed out to Wallace. . .
That is how I interpreted it…