Try NFL Sport Channel Seach:
Selected searches:
NFL Football Players Draft Injuries Rookies Season Superbowl
Items by
Gunfight at Berea Corral: Anderson Is Browns’ Best Shot
Published: August 2, 2009
No Comments
There’s a breed of NFL quarterback known as the gunslinger. He can strike terror into the hearts of both an opposing defense and the hearts of his own fans at any moment.
He can complete passes lesser quarterbacks can’t, and takes chances other quarterbacks don’t dare to.
He can bust out of the league quickly, or get a bust in Canton. The best of his breed are usually inducted in their first year of eligibility.
Historically, the gunslinger does not come from a top-tier collegiate program, and takes longer to develop than other NFL quarterbacks.
He throws more interceptions than most quarterbacks, not from an inability to comprehend the game, but from his confidence in his superior playmaking ability.
Derek Anderson of the Cleveland Browns is clearly a gunslinger.
Other famous gunslingers in NFL lore include Terry Bradshaw, John Elway, Brett Favre, Dan Fouts, and Johnny Unitas.
Four of these five men are enshrined in Canton, and the other is a first-ballot lock.
Gunslingers, as stated before, often start their careers slowly.
Comparing these six quarterbacks’ first two starting seasons of play, Derek Anderson compares favorably in some areas, and has the best touchdown-to-interception ratio of any.
This is more impressive considering the quality of the teams each played for.
Often, the gunslinger begins his career as an afterthought. Unitas was cut by the Steelers in training camp, sat out of pro football for a year, and made the Baltimore Colts as a training camp walk-on.
It was once said of Bradshaw, “He’s so dumb he couldn’t spell ‘cat’ if you spotted him the ‘c’ and the ‘a’.” Bradshaw also survived quarterback controversies on his way to Canton, and over his first two seasons, his average QB rating was 51.1.*
*Note: For this comparison, I’ve taken an average of the QBs’ first two years as starters by adding each year’s rating and dividing by two.
In a personnel move not quite as glaring as the Steelers cutting Unitas, Favre barely saw the field for Atlanta before being traded to Green Bay.
Of these six men, only Elway was originally considered an elite prospect, but his first two seasons produced an average QB rating of 51.9.
None of the men went to top-tier college programs except Elway, who had a high-profile career at Stanford. Unitas was turned down by Notre Dame and Pitt before he played at Louisville.
The gunslinger is not meant for a West Coast offense, and he can scintillate one Sunday and exasperate the next.
But, the right gunslinger is like a solid left tackle. Your team can be set for a decade.
The leadership style of a gunslinger, especially one from a humble background like a Unitas, a Favre, or an Anderson, is more based on performance than public relations.
It’s not about articulate press conferences or juicy quotations, but on the scoreboard at the end of the games.
When the clock hits 0:00, the scoreboard speaks louder than any locker room pep talk.
Given that gunslingers take longer to develop but have a higher ceiling, a look at the statistics for each of these quarterbacks’ first two starting seasons is in order:
DEREK ANDERSON (2007-08)
440-of-804, 5382 YDS, COMP PCT .547, 38TD, 27INT, 74.5 RATING
TERRY BRADSHAW (1971-72)
350-of-681, 4146 YDS, COMP PCT .514, 25TD, 34INT, 51.1 RATING
JOHN ELWAY (1983-84)
337-of-639, 4261 YDS, COMP PCT .527, 25TD, 29INT, 51.9 RATING
BRETT FAVRE (1992-93)
620-of-993, 6530 YDS, COMP PCT .624, 37TD, 37INT, 78.9 RATING
DAN FOUTS (1974-75)
221-of-432, 3128 YDS, COMP PCT .512, 10TD, 23INT, 60.4 RATING
JOHNNY UNITAS (1956-57)
282-of-499, 4048 YDS, COMP PCT .565, 33TD, 27INT, 81.0 RATING
If I was a general manager, and you suggested I trade, bench, or cut a young quarterback with a cannon for an arm whose statistics compared favorably to these Hall of Famers in his first two seasons, my response might make Phil Savage’s email seem polite.
Has Derek Anderson peaked? If his college career is any indication, no.
Purely a pocket passer when he took the reins at Oregon State, by his senior year, he showed opponents he could also beat them with his legs.
Anderson has shown he’s also trainable, as he underwent a coaching change in Corvallis and learned an entirely new system on the fly, never leading the Beavers to a losing season.
Anderson also set his share of collegiate records at Oregon State, still holding Oregon State records for career passing yards, season passing yards and passing touchdowns in a single season.
Can he throw the touch pass? Not now, but a competent coaching staff can teach that. In John Elway’s first few years in the NFL, his receivers mentioned the “Elway Cross.”
The term came from the imprint made by the tip of the football, as he would fire a short pass at the same speed he threw a bomb.
Can Anderson lead? One little-mentioned fact is he was a team captain in 2008. Quarterbacks without locker room respect or huddle presence do not get made captain. Period.
Not all leadership styles are equal, and a perceived Bradshaw or Favre “Aw Shucks!” approach may not be viewed as favorably by the general public as a more polished persona.
Derek Anderson is far from a finished product, but he has attributes that can’t be taught.
You can’t teach a cannon arm, and you can’t teach 6’6″.
Even when you coach a cannon arm closer to his ceiling, you’ll still get the interceptions that will make you scratch your head. He’s still a gunslinger.
But you’ll also get something else if you have a solid team.
A shot at the Lombardi Trophy every year.
Michael Vick Reinstated, But Untouchable
Published: July 28, 2009
No Comments
I’m a dog lover. My rescue dog, a mix of black Lab and Rottweiler, is the most loving gentle giant I’ve ever had the honor of calling my best friend.
Nonetheless, Roger Goodell did the right thing in giving Michael Vick a limited reinstatement.
As much as I would love to see my 110-pound dog clamp his jaws on Vick’s testicles for his reprehensible actions, Vick has done the crime and done the time, and thus, paid his debt to society according to our court system.
Goodell did the right thing in terms of it being the smart thing. Sometimes, the toll on the high road is too expensive, and any gain in public relations from an iron fist could have brought a lawsuit for restraint of trade.
Goodell, wisely, has allowed him to play after sitting out a suspension.
Now, let’s get into the free market and the real world.
What NFL team would touch him?
We Americans love our dogs, make movies and TV shows about them, name sports teams and cheering sections after them, and consider them as parts of our families.
They are.
If even the slightest Internet rumor showed any NFL team’s interest in Michael Vick, their would be picketers in front of that team’s offices. That team’s switchboard would be flooded, and their website would likely crash.
What would happen if a team actually signed Vick?
Season ticketholders would threaten to cancel, and some would actually do that. No small consideration in this economy.
Peyton Manning doesn’t greet you after a long day at work. Fido does.
In many states, convicted sex offenders cannot live within so many feet of a school, church or playground after their release.
Thus, their sentence continues long after prison. Right or wrong, those laws are on the books, and no one wants a sex offender near their child’s school.
A bad night on the road, resulting in a DUI conviction, can exclude people from many professions.
Michael Vick wrote his own perpetual sentence.
The memory of his “Bad Newz Kennels” operation remains an indelible stain of malicious, premeditated animal cruelty the vast majority of Americans cannot abide.
I doubt even Al Davis would have anything to do with Michael Vick.
Sorry, Michael, but that’s the Bad Newz.
Of Lincoln, Kafka, and the Latest Cleveland QB Controversy
Published: June 14, 2009
No Comments
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” – Abraham Lincoln
President Lincoln said that regarding the slavery issue, which was far more important than any quarterback controversy, but it’s difficult to convince a beered-up tailgate partier in the Muny Lot of its greater importance.
As of this writing, Browns fans are that divided house, and under its barely-standing roof reside the Hatfields and the McCoys, or in contemporary Internet terms, the Quinnbots and the Anderoids.
Support Anderson? You’re a moronic Notre Dame hater who is jealous of Brady Quinn’s looks and you must have something against the “local boy” (note: Columbus is NOT a suburb of Cleveland) whose destiny lies in bringing the Browns to the Super Bowl.
Support Quinn? You are anointing a “golden boy” who padded his college stats against the service academies and has proven nothing on this level. Did we mention Quinn’s inability to throw the long ball? Have we questioned your sexual orientation yet?
No matter which camp a reader may reside in, let’s look at a few facts here.
First, if the fundamental flaws of the 2008 Browns are not fixed (clock management, execution, lack of talent, lack of intelligence), it will make scant difference whether Joe Montana or Elmer Fudd take the snaps.
Second, the coaches know more than we do. Really, they do.
We can sit in Cleveland Browns Stadium or watch the games in our warm living rooms on our HDTVs and see something we want to blame entirely on the quarterback.
Someone may have blown a route, or the staff may have called the wrong play.
We think we see “huddle presence” on the CBS or FOX feed while we’re eating what we’ve just grilled or opening another beverage of our choice, but we don’t.
We simply see a camera zooming in, and hear some commentator saying something we could have easily spoken ourselves if we did not have a mouth full of whatever we grilled.
This leads us to Franz Kafka.
I read Kafka and his fellow Russian writer Anton Chekhov in high school, and their stories were bleak. Very bleak.
I have often recommended the HBO series The Wire to others, citing both Kafka and Chekhov reincarnate. The Wire‘s characters, while flawed, could ultimately only be as good as the system they were stuck in.
As were the characters of Kafka and Chekhov.
This, in turn, leads us back to the coaching staff, and in turn, to how little we in the cheap seats actually know.
Derek Anderson, since his first start in 2006 relieving an injured Charlie Frye (another Ohio native who grew up as a Browns fan) has been consistently inconsistent.
Yes, to a Browns fan, the consistent inconsistency has been exasperating.
To be fair, we need to ask how much of this consistent inconsistency was Anderson, how much was the play calling, how much was blown assignments, and how much of it can be attributed to dropsies from Anderson’s primary targets?
You and I think we know, but we don’t. We tend to have other obligations that prevent us from seeing every practice in Berea.
Many Browns fans love to label Anderson as cognitively challenged, but they do not know all of the details.
They are not privy to the information, and even if they watched every single OTA and training camp performance, they would probably still not comprehend a fraction of what the coaching staff intended.
Could it be that both Anderson and Quinn were stuck in a situation where they could only be as good as the (inept) previous regime allowed them to be?
Thus, this coaching staff may just want to come in with no pre-conceptions and evaluate both quarterbacks with no prejudice.
And that, fellow Browns fans, is the way it should be done.
In September, we can complain to our limits and swear like Tony Soprano about how much whoever gets the nod at starting QB sucks.
But, our livelihoods don’t depend on it. The livelihoods of Eric Mangini and his staff do.
Let Mangini do his job. He knows where the buck stops. Do we?
