The Cleveland Browns have decided to start Brady Quinn at quarterback in Mondays’ game against Baltimore. He was benched earlier this year by Coach Eric Mangini just 2½ games into the season.
Mangini may as well give Quinn another look to see if he can get things going. Quinn can’t do any worse than Anderson. Anderson had the NFL’s lowest passer rating (36.2) and was not able to lead the Browns out of their offensive woes.
Mangini said he’d like to stick with Quinn for the remainder of the season. Quinn’s benching is very likely to have been a costly one. If Quinn had played in 70 percent of Cleveland’s offensive snaps, clauses in his contract would have earned him nearly $11 million more this season. Now, that is a virtual impossibility.
So it is not a surprise to me that Quinn has been put back in charge of the NFL’s worst offensive team. Mangini, trying to save his job, played the role of the good soldier and saved ownership $11 million. So what if the locker room is divided on who should be the quarterback? After all, it’s not if you win or lose…it’s how you play the game.
