Colt McCoy Deserves One More Year as Cleveland Browns QB

The Cleveland Browns were hard to watch on offense last year. There's really no disputing it. They couldn't run the ball. Their passing game looked like it never got out of the first week of training camp pretty much all year long. Painful.

This has lead to a push by the likes of Mike Mayock, Todd McShay and Bill Polian to opine that the Browns should seriously be looking at Texas A&M's Ryan Tannehill with the fourth overall pick in this month's draft.  

I respectfully disagree. 

I try not to wade into the dangerous waters of draft prognostication too often. I leave that to Matt Miller and Sigmund Bloom over on the Huge Upside blog. But I know enough about Tannehill to know that, while he does posses some intriguing tools and probably has a higher ceiling than Colt McCoy, getting to that ceiling would mean starting over at the quarterback position yet again in Cleveland. 

I think it's one year too early to be doing so. 

The No. 1 problem in the NFL today, from a player development standpoint, is the lack of patience teams have when it comes to developing young quarterbacks. The pressure to "win now" is greater every year, prompting otherwise sane owners and general managers to dump the quarterback they have invested considerable time in for whatever exciting possibilities might come along. 

Yes, the Browns could draft Tannehill—and then have a new extremely raw quarterback prospect with many of the same "weapons" surrounding him on offense that made McCoy's life so difficult last year. 

I tend to side with Clark Judge of CBSSports.com on this one:

"

Maybe Colt McCoy isn't the answer, but the Browns never made an effort to find out. They surrounded him with ordinary players at wide receiver and running back and hoped he somehow could make them better. It didn't happen, and now fans want another quarterback.

I have another idea: Find better running backs and receivers first. And maybe you find a better quarterback while you're at it.

McCoy has as many interceptions in his career (20) as touchdowns, a 6-15 record and lukewarm support within the Browns' organization. All that could change, of course, if the Browns started to surround him with playmakers, and that's why they invented the draft, folks.

Look, I don't know what McCoy can't do, but I know what he can. I saw it when I watched him in successive games in 2010 vs. New England and the New York Jets. He and the Browns destroyed the Patriots one week -- one of only two New England losses that season -- then rallied to take the Jets into overtime, with McCoy driving the Browns 59 yards at the end of regulation to tie things up with a touchdown pass.

That Colt McCoy energized Cleveland. Last year's Colt McCoy sedated it. So now we're writing him off? C'mon. Before banishing the guy to the bench, how about giving him a chance to succeed? How about surrounding him with something more than average talent? At least then you have an accurate barometer.

"

I could not agree more. 

McCoy had a tough time adjusting to Pat Shurmur's offense. But there were brief glimpses of McCoy having promise in Shurmur's West Coast system. Put on the Browns' Week 11 game against Jacksonville and you can see some very promising signs from McCoy against a quality defense. 

The Browns have invested two years in developing McCoy. It's time to get him a Trent Richardson to get defenses to bring a safety down in the box, or a Michael Floyd to take the top off the two-deep safety looks the Browns saw with regularity last year. 

The Browns need to give their quarterback a fighting chance to prove he's a quarterback before starting all over at the position.