Not Necessarily DA's Turn

As the Browns prepare for their second preseason game this week, it's interesting to note that it isn’t necessarily going to be Derek Anderson starting at QB against the Lions.

Brady Quinn got the super-secret nod just prior to the Green Bay "game," and rotated the first four series with Anderson. Mangini had implied earlier last week that whomever didn’t get the start against Green Bay would indeed start against the Lions.

Now, he’s seemed to have changed his tune. As he said yesterday:

I'm going to go through the complete process and let it play out.

I was encouraged by a lot of things we did offensively, but until we take care of the other problems, I temper when I say encouraged. There were some positive things, but we need to score points and protect the ball first and foremost.

I'm looking at it as a body of work and not a horse race, where you're listing it at each point in the race.

This change in attitude certainly makes those fans in the Quinn camp a little happy, but I wouldn’t get too over-confident. Mangini is a bit of a master at speaking to the media without really saying anything at all.

All along, he’s said this was going to be an open and fair competition. Nothing has changed. Mangini is trying his best to let both Brady and Derek compete for the job (at least, in the eyes of the “all-knowing” media). If he favors Brady — or even Derek — he certainly isn’t going to let on.

To those fans in the Quinn camp, Brady clearly pulled ahead of Derek in the Green Bay “game.” But really, I don’t know that you can declare a winner after those performances. Sure, Brady led the team down the field twice in drives that should have resulted in points — but no points were scored. Yes, Derek was 0-2 with an INT, but his playing time vs. Brady’s in one preseason game is hardly enough to declare a winner.

It’s no secret that I’m definitely pro-Brady Quinn. I know — know — he’s the better quarterback and the one who should be leading this team. I’ve seen enough of Derek Anderson over the past two seasons to know he isn’t the answer. But, I’m trying to be objective here and let Mangini make his own judgments.

For all I know, Mangini has settled on Quinn and is only playing out this QB competition in hopes that some other team will want to give us something for him (I can hope that's the case, can't I?). Because, really, what value does Derek have if he’s simply the No. 2 QB, as opposed to a QB who might be the No. 1?

Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to see how it plays out. One thing is for sure, the team as a whole needs to improve — A LOT. Especially that defense.

Go Browns!

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