Interesting QB Developments from Purdue

[Flugel]

Folks,

I'm just thinking Drew Brees is trying to lead his team to 8-0 while Kyle Orton has his team at 6-1. When you think of either QB's 1st introduction into the NFL - Orton had a streak of 8 consecutive wins but he was just managing the game at the time with some not so upbeat QB ratings. As for Drew Brees, his first 2 years went so bad the San Diego Chargers and their fanbase were on a mission to draft a REAL QB. The best part of that is they did; and he HELD OUT so Drew Brees had a chance to swing at a 3rd pitch and knocked it out of the park and into the Playoffs & Pro Bowl.

 

Why am I talking about this on the Browns' board? Well, Drew Brees never had a chance to be successful UNTIL Antonio Gates was added and Keenan McCardell was signed in free agency. That's called talent which was MIA when he was prematurely labelled a BAD 2nd round pick by too many people. As for Orton, he was a 5th rd pick throwing to recyclyed receivers and nothing special in Chicago. Now he's in Denver with some pretty freakin good receivers and the ONLY INT he had going into their last game was on 1 halftime Hail Mary pass in the end zone.

 

Here's the deal folks - NEITHER guy was a 1st round pick. They just had some of those intangibles the Indy combines doesn't summarize as "gotta have" or maybe better put "gotta have rd 1." You just can't accurately peg a guy's character in an interview room at Indy where most answers have been rehearsed w/ agent countles times and whatever. There's something special about the leadership styles of BOTH QBs that have their teammates thinking "he's our leader."

 

Relating this to us is hard because I can't get an accurate assessment of Quinn based on the clowns we've hired to fetch passes. I've also stopped ripping DA so much because the same applies to him. What used to be too many INTs became he's throwing it too hard at our receivers - at least they were OUR receivers; before he started throwing to different area codes. I CAN tell you I've seen enough of DA to know he's not our future and 31 other teams will share this thought like they already did with "no thank you."

 

MOST QBs find their best buddy early is a TE and if that guy is Antonio Gates - WONDERFUL! If that guy is Robert Royal? UH-OH! As I've said in many threads, I think I've seen some decent hints that MoMass CAN be a #2 WR if we have a legit #1 on the other side rolling coverages and attention his way. That's decent news because it means we might have 1 of the 3 fetch positions somewhat set. Maybe this new Eric Estrada TE will show us why Jax says they miss him. Heiden doesn't look ready/healthy to be back playing on Sundays just yet and maybe his time line is nearign the end. Who knows. My point of all this is we need to be careful about our asessment of Quinn the rest of the way because there isn't a go-to guy on the roster I find myself saying we have to get THIS GUY the ball in our passing game. I've said that about Cribbs but they don't have him out there enough to be consistent and feeling comfortable with that role - they just don't. If you want continuity - you better better provide the opportunity for such.

 

What I DO need to see in this freakin lineup are some actual scoring threats for a refreshing change. If that doesn't change, Steve Young could come here and give us a clinic on the difference between throwing to Tampa talent and throwing to guys named Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Terrell Owens (before he was Me-O), Brent Jones, Charlie Garner/Garrison Hearst. You name it. One place had success inevitable for a QB - the other put the QB in front of a bus without brakes.

- Tom F.