Written by Brian McPeek

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Brian McPeek is truly trying to give Browns head coach Romeo Crennel every benefit of the doubt in a season sinking faster than a fat man in a dunk tank. But he's making it harder and harder for him to do so.  Peeker isn't a big fan of Romeo's decision to keep Derek Anderson as the starting QB, and he's even less of a fan of the manner in which he announced it, referring to Quinn as "the other guy".  A great read. Obtuse-

1. Not quick or alert in perception, feeling, or intellect; not sensitive or observant; dull.

2. Not sharp, acute, or pointed; blunt in form.

 

I'm truly trying to give Browns head coach Romeo Crennel every benefit of the doubt in a season sinking faster than a fat man in a dunk tank. But he's making it harder and harder for me to do so.

Crennel's comments earlier in the week referring to Browns backup QB Brady Quinn as ‘the other guy' reek of fear and insecurity.

To quote, Crennel had the following to say when addressing the possibility of a change at the QB position for this Sunday's game at Cincinnati: "We will definitely try to get the other guy [Quinn] ready and ready to go," Crennel said. "We'll see how it progresses from there. [It means] probably a few more reps in practice right now."

What the hell was the point in referring to Quinn as ‘the other guy'? Was this a coach that hasn't won anything in 4 years channeling his inner Bill Parcells? Was there some kind of clock ticking down in the press conference that had RAC mesmerized and frozen with fear and anticipation?

I think it's a lot simpler than that. I think Romeo is feeling the heat of the flames that he's currently dancing in. This was false bravado and whistling past the graveyard all wrapped into one more dumb comment made by a man ill-equipped to handle the crucible of being a head coach in the NFL.

While opportunity is slipping through his fingers and his players are an undisciplined, unhealthy lot of underachievers Romeo is going to get glib with reporters and get his back up in press conferences?

Weak and ridiculous. Uneasy lies the crown.

Look, I know it's innocuous. Unless Quinn is as fragile as Derek Anderson he probably doesn't give a rat's ass what Romeo calls him. Quinn will outlive Romeo's tenure in Cleveland and in the NFL by a long way, but the point is when Romeo had the opportunity to show control or leadership he failed to grasp that opportunity like he's failed to get his team ready for a season of high expectations.

He doesn't have a cache of 11 win seasons, playoff appearances or Super Bowl victories to have earned the Parcells approach to dealing with players. More so than that, what message did that send the already skittish Anderson? This guy gets startled when a secretary darts in front of him at the Browns facility. Now he's hearing his lame-duck coach promise more practice snaps to ‘the other guy' when Anderson is convinced he needs more reps with his receivers and backs to feel more comfortable?

Uneasy lies Anderson's crown indeed.

Sounds like the perfect recipe for success: demean your backup QB while in the same sentence telling your shell of a starter that his leash is getting shorter.

I will praise Romeo for one thing. He's obviously learned the unwritten rule in coaching that says you can be as condescending and as demeaning to those around you as you care to be. He fell out of that Parcells-Belichick tree and damned if talking the part of head coach isn't the only characteristic of those two that Romeo appears to have picked up.

Somebody please tell me what these machinations have to do with making a difference this season. How in the hell does a win over Cincinnati make anything better than it is today? If there's one team in the NFL not based in Missouri that's in greater disarray than the Browns then that team plays in Cincinnati. Regardless of whether the Browns go in there on Sunday and beat the snot out of that smoldering wreckage of a football team nothing changes. This is still a team lacking talent and leadership.

I'm not interested in respectability. To be perfectly honest I'd rather see a 2-14 season than a 7-9 season if only due to the fact a better draft pick will result from the former. And because this is now what I consider to be a formal rebuilding year I'm fine with throwing Quinn to the wolves.

Stop vacillating with the choice and make the damn decision please.

Let Quinn make his mistakes. But let him do it in real time and under the pressure that an NFL defense will apply. We know exactly what Derek Anderson is. And whatever that may be, it's not the steadying hand and the man who can take charge of an offense, command a huddle and pick his way through all the nuances of an NFL defense. Nothing in his past 8 games indicates he's anything more than what we believed him to be before he stepped in against Cincy in week 2 last season and lit up the scoreboard.

The last thing we need to see is Anderson limp his way to that 7-9 season and to have found out nothing about Quinn in the meantime. At the end of the season we'll still see Anderson as the guy with the fragile psyche who couldn't command a huddle, a clock or a check-down throw and we'll head into next year with Quinn then taking his first meaningful snaps.

That's too damn late.

Especially in a season that continues to dissolve into a Marx Brothers movie. Suck up the beat downs and get something impactful out of it. Give Quinn his time under center and let him learn the pace and pressure of meaningful NFL games. Let 2008 be his learning year so that he goes into next season having digested all of that and having learned from it. Like Denver did with Jay Cutler last season. Like Washington did with Jason Campbell last season. Those teams bit the bullet and absorbed some pain in order to get their QB of the future those reps and that experience. Those quarterbacks are achieving success because of the failures they experienced last season. They're playing football now instead of trying to decipher every single coverage and every single defense they look at it. They already went through it.

Trying to rebuild DA's trade value after blowing the opportunity to get high picks for him this past April? Forget it. That's as gone as yesterday's lunch. The book is out on DA. You can see it in how every single team attacks him on any given Sunday. That chance has come and gone. It's not coming back. And timid and fragile 25yr-old QBs typically don't become swashbuckling, hell-bent-for-leather leaders as they age. More often they go back to Portland, Oregon, open a passing academy and live happily ever after.

This isn't coming from a Quinn fan. I couldn't care less about the Kosar jerseys hanging in his Columbus-area bedroom or his Notre Dame pedigree. This is about what's best for the Browns. And it's coming from a guy with season tickets who will have to sit through the brutality either way. If Quinn turns out to not be the guy then lather, rinse and repeat at the end of the season with Quinn as well.

Hell, the way Quinn and Anderson have been ‘nurtured' in this organization you can probably get  something from some other organization convinced they can be salvaged.

I see no way in hell Romeo survives this season either way. So let's get all of the pain out of the way right here and right now. If Quinn is the guy we need to need to know by the end of December. If he's not the guy then we need to know by the end of December.

Romeo and his staff have already screwed the pooch on 2008. Seeing them also negatively affect 2009 despite the fact they're no longer here will be a bigger sin than seeing them torch this year's campaign.

Give me ‘the other guy' now at QB. And give me ‘the other guy' on the sidelines while you're at it. Whoever that may be. The guy in that position now just doesn't get it. Not any single part of it.

Obtuse.