Brady Quinn & Charlie Weis: Could the QB reunite with his Chief?

If the reports are true and the Cleveland Browns are shopping Brady Quinn to the NFL, then what better buyer than Kansas City with their new offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Quinn's former college coach and close friend?

The situation looks very similar to 2005 when Charlie Weis accepted the job at the University of Notre Dame after winning his third straight Superbowl Championship as offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. Notre Dame was a team in the tank with disappointing season one after the other. In walks Weis and his New Jersey attitude with an Xs and Os approach to football. Weis, for maybe the first time in his coaching career, met his match; a player who approached his job with the same effort, conviction, and determination, and that was Brady Quinn.

Quinn was a young quarterback with average numbers in his first two seasons with the Irish, but he was a natural leader. It took one season for Quinn to become a household name, an All-American caliber quarterback. Together they put Notre Dame in a BCS Bowl game, nearly knocked off USC, and made Jeff Samardjzia (who had never started a game for the Irish in his first two seasons) an All-American Wide Receiver. That is one hell of a combination.

The two hit it off the same way that Tom Brady and Weis hit it off in New England. In over two decades that Charlie Weis has been coaching offense either at the professional or college level, he has never had a QB who he could not develop, and when I say develop I mean make into the best in that league. He transformed Tom Brady from a sixth round pick into one of the best we have ever seen, and he turned Brady Quinn from a struggling sophomore into a first round draft choice and an All-American. He also developed Jimmy Clausen into a first round NFL draft choice with some of the best single season numbers of any Notre Dame quarterback in history. 

Since Quinn left Notre Dame to join the Browns in 2007, things have not been the same for either of them. Brady has been shuffled around in Cleveland, never knowing where he stands, and Weis was unable to get the Irish back to the BCS. So three years later, who would have thought that Weis would be a coordinator again, the job that suits him best, and his former quarterback would be on the market?

I realize that Matt Cassel is without question the highest paid player on Kansas roster. In fact, he might end his career there as one of the highest paid Chiefs in history. However, I also understand that he did not perform as expected last season. In all reality he is a seventh round backup quarterback who never played in college. Yes, he went to USC and backed up Carson Palmer and Matt Leinhart, but neither of them are making anywhere near the money he is.

With salaries aside, I also know that there is no way Weis, who was in high demand after the end of his Notre Dame fiasco, would accept a job if he was not given a significant amount of control. I say this because of all the teams in the hunt for Weis, Kansas City the worst team in the worst city for his family, so there was obviously something they offered more than the others, and my guess is control.

It is unrealistic to think that Weis would be able to shop the "franchise" quarterback for his former college star; however, it is very realistic that Quinn is to be traded to Kansas for a low price and Cassel is named starter and Quinn his backup. Franchise is in quotations because there is nothing Cassel has done to earn that title.

However, as the season progresses and Kansas learns the Cassel experiment was destined to fail from the beginning and his peak has already passed him (starting QB for a stacked Patriots team with a pro-bowl caliber offensive line and hall of fame receiver Randy Moss), Quinn could find himself back on the field executing his former coach's playbook.

Two men who were miraculous together have struggled apart. Weis is called arrogant and rude, while Quinn is called a pretty boy with no arm. Those who watched these two at Notre Dame for two seasons know better. Quinn led the Irish with talent and character, and if the stars align and the two are given another chance, he may do the same in Kansas City.

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