Quinn May Not Be Answer for Browns

After a surprising 10-win season in 2007, followed by the more familiar four-win effort a year ago, the Browns enter the offseason as one of the most enigmatic teams in the league. They have a new head coach, a revamped roster, and, depending on who you ask, the potential to win anywhere from 2 to 11 games in 2009.

The team's biggest concern: the starting quarterback. After selecting left tackle Joe Thomas third overall in the '07 draft, Cleveland traded back up into the first round to grab Brady Quinn. And he promptly got comfortable on the bench as Derek Anderson played his way to the Pro Bowl. His success was fleeting, though, and by the middle of last season, Quinn had won the job.

Unfortunately, that lasted just three weeks; he broke a finger on his throwing hand and would eventually land on injured reserve. Eric Mangini has previously stated that he's in no hurry to name a starter, presumably because he's not all that impressed with his choices.

Anderson has proved capable of playing at a relatively high level, although he has struggled with accuracy on short and intermediate throws. Quinn, on the other hand, has attempted just 48 passes in his two-year career, and managed a 49.5 percent completion rate. Which is why the Browns might be dark-horse candidates to draft a quarterback. At least according to the National Football Post's Michael Lombardi:

In the first round, you have a good feeling who the competition will be for drafting a QB. The 49ers are major players, as are the Jets and Bucs. You will always have a few surprises for the quarterback derby because a team you might not suspect will sometimes jump in and make a move. My surprise team this year is the Browns. On paper, they have Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn, but neither is very accurate and neither is an Eric Mangini player. When a new coach comes in, as we've seen in Denver, changes happen.

I know all of Cleveland has great hopes for Quinn, but the general feeling in the NFL is that he's too inaccurate and too inconsistent to be a full time starter. Quinn slipped in the draft two years ago for a reason, and that reason was his inability to be accurate on all three levels. As Cleveland makes changes to its roster, don't count out making a move at quarterback.

Could the Browns draft their second franchise quarterback in three years? Sure. It seems unlikely, but so did the thought of the Broncos trying to trade Jay Cutler for a guy who went nine years between starts. I suspect there's a market for both Anderson and Quinn (like, say, Denver should they get around to making Cutler's dreams come true), but that means the Cleveland fans should expect at least one more year of hard-to-watch football. Good luck selling that to the masses, Mangenius.

Sure, there's the possibility that, with a talented rookie quarterback, next season's Browns could resemble the 2008 Ravens, but that team had a suffocating defense and a punishing rushing attack -- two things Cleveland lacks. On the upside, the organization already has its big-play wide receiver in place.