While We’re Waiting… Is next year’s QB on the current roster?
October 31, 2013What did Mike Brown do for you?
October 31, 2013The Browns haven’t signed a quarterback since Brian Hoyer went down injured weeks ago, and it has been a point of consternation for me with memories of Bruce Gradkowski starting a season-ending game against the Steelers. Now, according to a report at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (rotoworld) it appears the Browns were trying to sign Green Bay Packers practice squad player Scott Tolzien.
Tolzien went undrafted in 2011 out of Wisconsin and has spent time with the Chargers, 49ers and now the Green Bay Packers either as an off-season workout invitee or practice squad player. Apparently Green Bay likes him quite a bit too, as they stopped the Browns from signing him by giving him a lot more money. Tolzien was making a very nice $6000 per week before, but the Packers gave him a raise to nearly $545,000 in order to keep him from jumping ship. The amount of money is what the Browns would pay Tolzien if they signed him to their 53-man roster.
Subsequently, it doesn’t appear that the 26-year-old quarterback will be showing up in Berea anytime soon. I feel a little bit better knowing that the Browns are at least trying to find a quarterback though.
[Related: Browns’ Barkevious Mingo on CBS Sports’ all rookie team at the halfway point]
34 Comments
It’s not like we can’t afford that. What’s our current cap space? $30 mil? We could sign 55 Tolziens.
That’s great news for Scott Tolzien.
“We could buy and sell you 55 times, Scott Tolzien. Never forget that.” – Jimmy Haslem
Apparently there was some “rebate” language in Tolzien’s contract offer from the Browns which made him shy away…
The more I think about it, the more I believe this might actually be their approach.
“Gee, Tom Brady was a mediocre Big Ten quarterback. What if we fill our 53 man roster with mediocre Big Ten quarterbacks? Of those 53, we’re bound to land the next Tom Brady!”
Don’t quite get it: guaranteed money being equal, the player would rather be on the GB practice squad than on our roster with a real chance of PT should Campbell be injured or ineffective in the next 8 games. Guess he sees more possibility of cashing from a far more distant practice squad position in GB’s system, like Matt Flynn, than here with Norv Turner tweaking the playbook to his strengths. Kinda makes you want to cry.
If there’s any NFL backup we should bring in it’s Kirk Cousins, he’s wayyy better than tolzien
which is why Cousins is not a PS player we can just sign away.
But Tolzien won’t cost a first rounder.
maybe 21 is an unlucky number for him
Yeah I know he’s not a PS player, I’m not sold on any of the QB’s in the draft. I’d rather try to give washington our 2nd rounder for Cousins and have a true competition if possible. That way we can use the rest of the draft to shore up all other areas. Other than Bridgewater it looks like slim pickings this year
Hence the Brian Hoyer signing! I like where your head’s at.
I think Cousins is fool’s gold. Very limited playing time. Washington would rather risk RGIII further injury than play him last year (and he did further injure himself) and they rushed back RGIII when he obviously wasn’t 100% rather than use Cousins for the first few games.
Every time he’s been on the field in an NFL game he’s looked pretty good though. I’m in the minority I don’t want them to draft a QB first round. I want Marquise Lee opposite of Gordon, then best defensive player available
umm…you didnt see him play 2 weeks ago, did you? He was horrible.
Should have brought the duct tape and van.
Have you seen how many times those guys get hit? He gets paid the same and does not have to move, or play. Plus 545K in GB would need to be 580 in CLE for same standards of living
Apparently, I’m not the only one. There’s crazy discussion below about Kirk Cousins. I say, let’s get ’em all!
Drew Stanton is still kicking around. If we can pry away Foles, then we can get a monopoly on the Michigan State guys.
thank you for beating me to it. 2 INTs in 9 attempts.
his ONLY start happened to be against us last year and he was good in that game, so I think alot of Browns fans have an elevated opinion of him.
Let’s do it!
In all seriousness, though, whatever Sparty’s other faults may be, MSU has consistently produced the best and most NFL-ready QBs in the Big Ten over the last 10-15 years. They do something right in their recruiting and/or QB development.
(But what happened to not giving a damn about the whole state of Michigan??)
Kirk Cousins is Matt Flynn.
Another nice point in this: They forced GB to spend money to get nothing more than what they had, and they clearly wanted someone that someone else (who has a relatively good track record with QBs) also really wants to keep around.
There’s no telling that the Browns wanted to pay him that much for a look. Your logic is sound. We just don’t know if the Browns liked him better at $7500 a week to just trump the $6000 he was getting.
not quite sure what you mean, Craig, but I think your salary calculation is off. Practice squad guys get x/week during the season only, not x/week x 50 weeks. That’s not close to $545,000 salary to put him on the active roster as they must when they poach a practice squad guy.
Mine were just examples. The answer is I don’t know how much the Browns wanted to pay this kid and I’ll assume the Pack matched it or beat it, whatever it was.
Matt Flynn is Kevin Kolb.
Kolb at least had some success after Philly. he just was made of glass. Flynn was beat out for starting jobs in preseason twice after the coaching staffs signed him as a starter.
the most consistent backup QBs. none of their guys are really starting material.
and, please change that to 10 years. if you go back 15, then we need to use the other school from that state who actually had a pipeline of starters for awhile.
I do find it funny that the best Big10 QB in the NFL went to Purdue though.
Not sure why you find that funny… Purdue has a better hit rate on churning out pro quarterbacks than pretty much anywhere else. Purdue QBs have won and started more NFL games than any other school, and thrown for more TDs and yards in the NFL than any other school. And right now you’ve got a top 3-5 QB in the league in Brees, another couple backups in Orton and (gulp!) Painter. Not too many schools have more in the league even now. Only one I can think of easily is USC.
though it appears the pipeline is pretty dry at the moment 🙂
and the program is in shambles now. that was the point.
yeah, USC has 4 but no Brees (Sanchez, Palmer, Leinart, Cassell)
MichSt. has more in the NFL right now by pure numbers Hoyer, Stanton, Cousins, Foles-transfer (but no Brees).
Mich has had a solid pipeline until RichRod got his hands on the program and only Brady and Henne are left.
Kevin Kolb is John Skelton
Finkel is Einhorn.