Cleveland Browns Fans Must Keep Things in Persepective with Colt McCoy

Cleveland Browns fans are passionate, and all the blue-collar town wants is to see improvement and consistency from their beloved football team.

Gone are the days of the mystery over which quarterback will start coming out of training camp. Instead there is incumbent Jake Delhomme, who, despite having a bad 2009 season in Carolina, is a veteran who brings a real leadership to the team for the first time since it last had a veteran quarterback in 2005.

Granted that veteran was Trent Dilfer, and that experiment went terribly wrong since he was benched for then-home town Akron quarterback Charlie Frye. Dilfer still has a bad taste in his mouth about being in Cleveland, and you can tell every time he talks about Cleveland from his cushy broadcast chair on ESPN.

But I digress. Browns fans are hungry for wins, and they are so desperate to crown their next quarterback savior that they need to keep one thing in mind as training camp starts and preseason games are played—it is only training camp and preseason.

Rookie quarterback and projected savior Colt McCoy is Browns' president Mike Holmgren's pick from the 2010 NFL Draft, and even though Holmgren said McCoy will sit all of 2010, never say never because things like injuries cannot be predicted.

McCoy will see playing time both in training camp and in preseason games as part of his development process, but no matter how good he seems in camp, it is only practice.

That goes for preseason games too. McCoy will see playing time, and he could see a lot of it too, but he will be going up against third team defenses. He will probably not see any action against starting defensive units.

So McCoy could easily light up opposing third stringers, and this will definitely make Browns' fans excited and ready to see him play in the regular season, especially if Jake Delhomme falters. But think again, because Seneca Wallace will step in as the No. 2 quarterback before McCoy gets under center against first stringers.

McCoy leading the Browns is a very promising thought to most fans, but this will happen later rather than soon.

When will this occur?

Even the Las Vegas odds-makers cannot predict that.

Just remember that McCoy's play in preseason, no matter how good it might be, is only a small glimmer of what would actually happen against starters. But also remember that it is a great step in his development that will help him become that starter that Browns fans have not had since the days of Tim Couch and Bernie Kosar.

Browns fans just need to be patient and let the development process happen naturally, even though that is easier said than done in a city that deeply desires a winning sports team.

(Also posted on Dawg Scooper: THE Cleveland Browns Blog)