Cleveland Browns Midweek Thoughts: Playing for Real

The quarterback competition is over.

League sources are reporting Brady Quinn will be the starting quarterback on Sunday. Personally, I could care less if Head Coach Eric Mangini confirms it or not, I’m just glad the team knows.

Too much has been written about this competition, and I’m as guilty as every other writer to chime in on the subject. That being said, I think Quinn is the right decision.

So let’s move on, this team has a lot of challenges coming this Sunday.

This Sunday will be “for real.” There’s no competing for roster spots, and no “seeing how things will work.”

This weekend will show what kind of offense Brian Daboll will be unleashing upon the league. I’ll dissect this more during my game preview this weekend.

The running game is something fans should be paying more attention to than who’s behind center. Mangini favors a ball control offense emphasizing the run. Last year with Brett Favre, Mangini got away from that philosophy, so look for him to go back to what got him into the playoffs his first year with the Jets.

While Jamal Lewis still is with the team despite his slowness during the preseason, if properly utilized, there still is a lot of fight left in those legs. Giving the brunt of the carries to James Davis or Jerome Harrison and allowing Lewis to be more of a role player seems like the way to go for me.

Davis was very impressive during the preseason, racking up 186 yards on 24 carries, averaging out to 7.8 yards per carry. Those numbers are just good, no matter if it’s preseason or not. Some of those carries came against first team opposing defenses, meaning the guy has talent.

Those numbers also were good for seventh overall in the league during preseason, according to NFL.com. The top five rushers also had at least 40 attempts, so Davis made it into the top 10 with about 25 percent fewer carries.

Not bad.

Our wide receiver situation on paper looks very thin, but I’m excited to see how Joshua Cribbs will impact the offense, as well as free agent Mike Furrey. Also, don’t be surprised if rookies Brian Robiskie and Mohamed Massaquoi burst onto the scene as the season progresses.

With Braylon Edwards being the only real veteran receiver on the team, there is ample opportunity for the rest of the receivers to make their mark this year.

Our defense presents a lot of questions now that we’ll get to see them in regular season action. I’m fairly sure we saw very little of what will be used regularly these past few weeks.

I’m not saying this defense is going to miraculously improve to a top-ranked defense, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Browns put a little more pressure on the quarterback while closing holes on the running plays.

The maturation of David Veikune will go a long way toward determining just how effective our defense is going to be.

The secondary is what it is, and it’s not very good as I sit here looking at it on paper. That’s one of the few areas of the defense you can get a handle on during preseason.

The secondary either stops the passing game, or the opposing receivers go streaking down the field, leaving Abram Elam in the dust. Certainly there is room for new cover schemes to be put in, but I’m just not that confident we’ll shut down passing games this year.

Cribbs still is making veiled threats about holding out, but if he’s not in uniform on Sunday, I’ll be as surprised as anybody. He’s not very good at this “holding out” thing, and I believe Mangini has made it clear a holdout will do nothing to improve his contract situation.

The Steelers and Titans kick things off Thursday night, so I’ll be rooting for Tennessee while we all wait for Sunday.