Written by Thomas Moore

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We’ve expected (and feared) that this day was coming for a few weeks now, but that still didn’t make it any easier when we heard the news.

Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden will sit out Thursday’s game against Chicago, the final preseason friendly on the schedule as well as the last opportunity for Weeden and the rest of the rookie-infused offense to work together at game speed.

“He’s not going to play,” coach Pat Shurmur said on Tuesday when asked about Weeden. “For the most part, the guys that are ones will play very little if at all. There are a lot of things that we think about when we go and decide who is playing. I think about injury for the first game. I think about guys that need to show us more and guys going out there that want to compete and try to make this team. There’s a lot that goes into it.”

We understand that it is normal for NFL teams to not play their starters in the final game before the regular season starts to avoid injury. But the Browns are anything but normal and in this case the team would be better served by not following along with the rest of the league.

The Browns are entering the 2012 NFL season by taking a path that few teams before them have traveled. If running back Trent Richardson takes the field in Week 1 with Weeden, it will mark just the third time in league history that a team has fielded rookies at those positions to open a season.

Throw in rookie wide receiver Josh Gordon, rookie right tackle Mitchell Schwartz (and even second-year wide receiver Greg Little) and it seems like the Browns could find a better use of the starters’ time on Thursday night than having them standing on the sidelines in street clothes.

Weeden needs more time to get used to everything that goes into playing quarterback in the NFL – from calling the play once it is radioed in from the sidelines (especially since the terminology in the West Coast offense generally has the quarterback calling out every route by name on a passing play), to the pre-snap read of the defense, to taking the snap and actually executing the play – and he needs to learn it at game speed, not in a controlled practice environment.

He also needs to continue to develop chemistry with Gordon and Little. So far in the preseason we’ve seen plays where Weeden has just missed hitting a receiver for what could have been a big play because the timing was just a fraction of a second off.

How is that going to change if Weeden is holding a clipboard and hanging out on the sidelines with the rest of the starters?

It’s not just a rookie thing, either, as veteran quarterbacks understand the importance of working with their receivers. Take Oakland’s Carson Palmer, for example.

Palmer has struggled in the preseason because he has not had as much time as he would like to work with injured wide receivers Denarius Moore and Jacoby Ford (the fact that Palmer isn’t very good anymore also is a factor, but that’s a topic for another day).

“We need a ton of work together,” Palmer said according to NFL.com. “You can never get enough work with a guy, even if he's played every rep and you've played every rep.”

If a 10-year veteran like Palmer needs work, doesn’t it seem reasonable to think that Weeded would too? Especially since he has not thrown a touchdown pass, has had trouble holding onto the ball and hasn’t always looked comfortable in the pocket?

Not to Shurmur, apparently.

“I think he’s very prepared,” the second-year coach said. “I think he’s had an outstanding camp. I thought he had an outstanding offseason. Really he’s kind of improved every day. For a guy that’s going through this for the first time as a pro, I think he’s very ready.”

It’s not just Weeden, either, but Gordon could use the work, admitting that he is still catching up after not playing for two years.

“Really just getting an understanding of the playbook and the offense,” Gordon said when asked about how he is progressing. “I’m starting to dissect the defenses and reading coverage’s a lot better than what I used to. I didn’t really know it too well, how to adjust to it and what to do.”

Wow, can we move the opener up to now?

Over the past couple of years about 99 percent of Browns fans have taken on an extreme black-and-white view of the team. There is the camp that instantly criticizes every move the Shurmur, general manager Tom Heckert and team president Mike Holmgren make, no matter what. But there are an equal number of fans who just brush away any criticism of the team, which isn’t healthy either.

We try hard to stay somewhere in the middle. Has everything that Holmgren, Heckert and Shurmur touched turned to gold? Of course not. But we’re also not keeping a candle burning in the window for the return of Eric Mangini and his five-win seasons.

On this matter, though, we just can’t shake the feeling the Browns are making a mistake by taking the safe way out. By sitting Weeden and most of the starters on Thursday, it means that when they take the field for the opener on Sept. 9 it will have been 24 days since they have faced a defense with an intent to hurt.

If all goes according to plan, the Browns will make history in Week 1 of the season as they will be one of five teams starting a rookie quarterback in the opener, joining Indianapolis (Andrew Luck), Washington (Robert Griffin III), Miami (Ryan Tannehill) and Seattle (Russell Wilson). That has never happened in the Super Bowl era.

“They’ll all have a big learning curve,” former Colts executive Bill Polian told USA Today. “Everybody’s excited about these kids now. When defenses start game-planning, it’ll be a different story.”

Over the last 10 years, rookie quarterbacks have had just two winning seasons and have a combined record of 153-219.

The Browns are betting that Weeden will be ready for the Eagles in Week 1 with the least amount of time possible to prepare.

Are you willing to take that same gamble, Browns fans?

(Photo by The Associated Press)