Three Words Spelled Doom for Brady Quinn: West Coast Offense

Say what you want about Brady Quinn and his exit from Cleveland. He was doomed, right alongside Derek Anderson, the moment Mike Holmgren came to Cleveland.

Holmgren is one of the major disciples of the West Coast offense. This offensive system relies on a quarterback making quick reads and accurate throws to receivers and allowing the receivers and playmakers a chance to make plays in the open field.

In the West Coast offense, teams tend to throw the ball close to 60 percent of the offensive downs or more. The ideology behind this strategy is that passing yields more yardage per attempt than rushing. Running the football tends to average between 3.5 to four yards per attempt. A decent passing attack yields over seven yards per attempt.

Quinn simply does not fit the bill for a West Coast quarterback. For his career, Quinn's completion percentage is 52 percent. If you watch the games, he does not hit his receivers in stride to allow them to gain additional yards after the catch. This lack of accuracy is reflected by his 5.23 YPA in 2009, tied with JaMarcus Russel for worst in the league.

Jake Delhomme, by comparison, had 6.28 YPA in 2009, but in 2008 he posted 7.94 YPA. If he can find a medium between the two in 2010 and post a number around seven YPA he would be a significant upgrade for the Browns offense.

To break it down, think about what the offense would do if they ran 50 plays a game with 60-40 pass to run:

With Delhomme

30 passes at seven YPA=210 yards

20 rushes at four YPA=80 yards

290 yards total

With Quinn

30 passes at 5.25 YPA=156 yards

20 rushes at 4 YPA=80 yards

236 yards total

It just does not make sense to keep Quinn with the offense the Browns are planning to run in 2010. If Delhomme can bounce back and post very average numbers, the Browns offense should improve significantly.

While not a popular move, if you break down the numbers, this series of moves makes sense for the Browns moving forward.