Derek Anderson To Start Sunday For Cleveland Browns

Derek Anderson replaced Brady Quinn in the second half of last weekend’s game against Baltimore, and he has replaced him moving forward as well.

Eric Mangini, as promised, announced his decision on the Browns’ starting quarterback position today. His decision: Derek Anderson will start in hopes of sparking a moribund offense that has scored one touchdown in the last…year?

Decade?

Century?

How long and how bad has it been?

Anyway, it’s possible that this is the most inconsequential QB announcement ever.

The Browns’ offensive woes run far deeper than just the QB. But at least the Browns did move the ball a little bit with D.A. in there last Sunday.

If nothing else, having Anderson in there makes Braylon Edwards a deep threat again and forces defenses to respect the Browns’ ability to stretch the field. That, if nothing else, should open up a few more holes for the running backs and make defenses play the Browns a little more honestly.

The downside, of course, is that there is now an exponential increase in the possibility of Anderson throwing the ball to the team wearing the wrong jersey.

But at least Mangini didn’t drag this out until Sunday. Now we know, Derek is starting.

The question is: will it make a difference?

We’ll see.

The only source of optimism I can find right now is this box score from 2007, which harkens us all back to a time when the Browns seemed like a team on the rise, rather than on the verge of utter collapse. Yes, there was a time when the Browns’ QB threw for five TDs in a single game.

At the rate they’re at right now, the Browns be lucky to see five TD passes all season.