Forget About the Quarterbacks; Defense Will Drag Down Browns

Come opening day on September 13, Brady Quinn may very well be the Browns starting quarterback.

However, if this past Saturday was any indication, Quinn starting is not going to matter if the Browns can’t stop opposing offenses.

Packers starting running back Ryan Grant rushed six times for 28 yards and a touchdown and quarterback Aaron Rodgers was barely touched by the Browns first-string defense.

Score: Packers first string 14, Browns first string 0.

Sound familiar?

I understand Shaun Rogers didn’t play and head coach Eric Mangini didn’t want defensive coordinator Rob Ryan to show much as far as blitz packages, but it did not look promising.

In the first quarter of the Packers game, Rodgers converted on a third and 10, hooking up with Donald Driver for a 53-yard touchdown.

On their second drive, the Browns stopped backup running back Brandon Jackson on a third and five, and then committed a five-yard penalty that gave the Packers a first down.

So much for all that discipline that Mangini has been trying to instill in his defense all offseason.

Later that drive, Rodgers converted again on a third and four, completing a 19-yard strike to tight end Donald Lee.

That drive subsequently resulted in a two-yard touchdown run by Grant.

I don’t even want to think about what the final score would have been if this was a regular season game.

Football is a young man’s game that is predicated on speed and toughness.

Half of the Browns’ projected starting linebackers (Eric Barton and David Bowens) are over 30 years of age and probably won’t strike much fear in opposing offenses.

The defense has one of, if not, the best defensive lineman in the league in Shaun Rogers, but there are questions surrounding the two men that play beside him.

Corey Williams is coming off a disappointing season where he dislocated his shoulder in preseason and Robaire Smith, who tore his ACL in the second game of the season in 2008.

Linebacker D’Qwell Jackson is solid, but not spectacular and the hope is that a new coaching staff can unleash Kamerion Wimbley. With the Browns' front seven average at best, it forces the secondary to have to cover opposing receivers for five or six seconds nearly every play.

Put Champ Bailey and Nnamdi Asomugha on the Browns defense and they would struggle covering Chad Ochocinco and Hines Ward four times a year.

If you look at how the Steelers and Ravens are so successful on defense, they have the proper lineman to eat up blockers and collapse the pocket, allowing their strongest unit, the linebackers, to roam around and make plays.

These teams also have two of the best safeties in the game that make receivers hesitant about going over the middle.

Honestly, do you think Abram Elam and Brodney Pool are going to strike fear in Santonio Holmes and Derrick Mason? Probably not.

To put everything into perspective, it is preseason and the games do not count. Mangini wants to keep things simple and not reveal too many defensive looks to opposing teams, especially the Packers whom the Browns play in late October.

However, considering the Browns didn’t go out and sign or draft an upper-echalon linebacker, that core will continue to be the unit that drags down the defense. Let’s just hope facing Rey Maualuga twice a year doesn’t come back to haunt the Browns for the next decade.