That did not take long.
 |
| Odds are, this did not turn out well. |
One day into Brandon Weeden's pro career
and half the Cleveland
fanbase is ready to high-side him for a quarterback known for his toughness and
numbing mediocrity.
There's no question Weeden's performance yesterday was brutally bad.
Either the coaching staff did not prepare him properly or the game was moving a
million miles per hour faster than what Weeden was used to, because he simply did
not seem like he belonged on the field.
The rookie's first pass was his
best, a short slant to Mohamed Massaquoi that turned into a 24-yard gain.
Weeden would only complete 10 passes after that, continually overthrowing
receivers (including a wide-open Massaquoi later in the game) and looking
completely lost under pressure, which had been a knock on the young QB coming
out of Oklahoma State
Weeden's dubious debut was particularly agonizing due to how close the game ended up being. Even one or
two accurate throws would have finished off a far more talented Eagles squad
that nevertheless seemed intent on giving the contest to the Browns. Instead,
it was another typically soul-crushing season-opening Sunday for the boys in
the home whites, and the fickle finger of blame is being pointed squarely at Cleveland 's first-year
signal caller.
Point all you want, Browns fans,
Weeden is not going anywhere in the near future. The franchise cast their lot
with the 28-year-old by selecting him in the first round of this year's NFL
draft. Reach or not, 2012 is a year to
find out what, if anything, the team has in Weeden before the new ownership
rolls in and most likely swabs the decks of Coach Pat Shurmur and his staff.
For now, there's no quarterback
controversy in Cleveland ,
at least according to Shurmur. When a reporter asked the lame-duck, er, current
Browns coach about what he would say to the legions of fans already "clamoring"
for Colt McCoy to reclaim his starting role, Shurmur responded with his charmingly
deadpan brand of snark:
“Clamoring for Colt?" the Browns' sideline honcho said rhetorically. "Brandon Weeden is our starter and he’s going to get better. That’s what I’m going to tell them.”
That response may not comfort those
crying for the tough-minded, hard-working yet noodle-armed McCoy to make a
comeback, but unless Weeden tosses another half dozen sub-10.0 QB-rating performances, he's going
to be the team's main man under center for the rest of the year.
And so it should be. Yesterday was
not only Weeden's first real game, but also the very first time running back
Trent Richardson has ever touched a football in a competitive pro setting.
Weeden is working with a stable of raw receivers and an offensive line that is
still trying to find its footing. Fans can argue that McCoy suffered from the
same lack of surrounding talent, but he had 21 games to prove that he's better
than the sum of the Browns' parts, and was unable to do so.
Yesterday's horrific showing was
either an aberration or a sign of things to come. We're going to need an entire
season to determine which side of that line Weeden falls upon.