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October 23, 2013Rick and Craig talk Jason Campbell, Brandon Weeden and other Browns stuff – WFNY Podcast – 2013-10-23
October 23, 2013Johnson Bademosi sat in the corner of the room by his locker singing along to a mobile device.
“Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.”
For the record, I’m pretty sure Bademosi wasn’t lamenting Brian Hoyer or Brandon Weeden.
Meanwhile Jason Campbell was getting mic’d up for the usual starting quarterback interview with the media. Campbell of course is the third quarterback in four weeks to be standing in front of the lockers answering questions about being the starting quarterback.
“The NFL season is like a roller coaster,” said Campbell. That’s an understatement.
“It’s an opportunity to go out there and get back to the game. Just have fun,” Campbell said when asked about the chance to start again. “It’s not about one person, everyone wants to say it’s about Brandon, but it really wasn’t about one person. We all need to do a better job, play in and play out of doing our own job. You try to be a leader, but at the same time I try to do my job to the best of my abilities.”
The roller coaster this week leads to Kansas City to play the undefeated Chiefs. The Chiefs aren’t a flashy team, but they are solid. They have a stout defense that averages five sacks a game. The Browns are seventh in the league with 20 sacks, and the Chiefs have 15 more.
Certainly part of the reason for the move to Campbell has to do with Weeden’s propensity to get sacked. Brandon has been sacked an average of 4.2 times this season. Hoyer was sacked 2.5 times a game in his starts. Whether it is quicker decisions, better mobility or a quicker release, the Browns believe Campbell gives them a better shot to beat the Chiefs. And they are probably right.
In the locker room, players went about the business of Wednesday. Another week, another round of questions about if they have confidence in the new starter and what will be different with him under center.
Joe Thomas is one of the few veterans that is usually in the locker room on Wednesdays to answer questions. Joe is a true pro. He gives answers without throwing his teammates under the bus. He is a media relations’ department dream. Thomas usually comes in after the quarterback is done with his interview, has a quick chat with Doug Dieken and stands at his locker for the scrum to ask him questions about this week’s opponent and whether the offense believes in fill in quarterback name here.
Joe didn’t come to the locker room while reporters were allowed in Wednesday. He may have had some other commitment at the time, but if he didn’t would anyone blame him for not wanting to answer the same questions again about a change at the quarterback position again?
“Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, And this house just ain’t no home, anytime she goes away.”
In case you’re wondering yes, Bademosi can carry a tune.
28 Comments
A lot has been made of of the 35 quarterbacks who have started since 2009 or whatever. But as they say in the NBA, it’s not who starts, it’s who finishes. And on that count, we have had zero quarterbacks since Kosar.
Shouldn’t they announce a new backup QB signing? What happens after Campbell looses the next 4?
Roller coasters go down AND up.
This is more like the old Demon Drop.
I thought for sure we were going to announce brady quinn this afternoon but the rams beat us to it.
Welcome to the party, Jason. Enjoy the next 96 hours where just being anyone other than Brandon Weeden is enough. But once the fans actually see you play, get ready for it.
The coaches went through all of the OTAs, all of training camp, the entire preseason and the first seven weeks of the season believing that Campbell was not starting quarterback material, but somehow he now is?
This isn’t to say they should have stuck with Weeden, but the issues with this offense go far deeper than just who plays quarterback.
The flipside of this discussion is that for all of OTAs, all of training camp, the entire preseason and the first seven weeks of the season this coaching staff believed Brandon Weeden was a viable starting quarterback in the NFL. Based on that track record alone I have no faith in their ability to tell talent from a hole in the ground.
So perhaps Jason Campbell will come out and be as amazing as he thinks he is.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3524/3277050236_b5e547d048_z.jpg?zz=1
Vince Young, Matt Leinart, David Carr, John Skelton, Tim Tebow…
sky is the limit
I’m going to commit heresy here…. Bernie wasn’t all that. Yes, he was good. Yes, he knew some success. Yes, he was the best we’ve had in a long time. But he was middle of the pack amongst QBs of the 80’s.
The fact that he remains the gold standard for Cleveland Brown QBs is sort of sad.
Or just a merry-go round that just goes round and round. And round and round and….
Not saying he’s an all time great, just that he’s the last quarterback we had who could “finish” which I define as, well, whatever I want, in this context.
or tilt-a-whirl as we’re always being spun in multiple directions at once
Vinnie Testaverde
I wonder if Brandon Weeden has put in an application with a resume to Walmart yet? He can be the anti-Kurt Warner: from NFL QB to grocery store stockboy.
Or just a chair on the ground. Where you sit, and nothing changes.
that can be relaxing though. perhaps it is a chair with nails sticking up through the seat. and, we keep sitting down hoping someone fixed the nails.
stockboys have to make quicker decisions than Weeden though. it would take him all night to unload one pallet of cereal and they would end up in the candy aisle.
“The NFL season is like a roller coaster.” said Campbell. That’s an understatement.
How?
I was on the Demon Drop when it got stuck at the top once when I was about 12…my grandmother was at the bottom, waving and terrified.
If only the Browns would get stuck at the top…
Vinnie was awful, don’t ever put him on the same level as Bernie.
You could tell which bag he’s going to put your groceries in by watching his eyes.
“NOT WITH THE BREAD! NOT WITH THE BREAD!”
He made the playoffs and was not Tim Couch.
That was my only point.
Well … now that just makes me even more depressed.
They might have to have him as a greeter. Wonder if he fits the minimum age requirement? He might need the disability exception though, citing concussions. That’s what Bernie uses right?
I know this is silly…but I still think Couch got a bad wrap. Just awful awful players around him. And have you seen his wife? He’s a winner in my book.
“the NFL season is like a roller coaster” — Said only crappy teams with years of rotating QBs.
we’ll never know if he was a decent QB on a horrible team or not. but, we do know that he was smart enough to walk away and he thwarted Cade McNown.
Did you see any of training camp or any preseason games? Weeden looked great and much improved. Certainly can’t blame them for starting the quarterback who performed the best in the offseason. Weeden crashed and burned, but it wasn’t during the summer.