What the Browns really need here is a 33 year old center. JAY CUTLER IS AVAILABLE! The Browns shouldn't draft a quarterback until they replace 15 or so more starters. The Browns urgently need wide receivers.
Wow what a situation. Drafting first overall with the worst quarterback crop in twenty years (according to some). Well, this is Cleveland, isn't it?
And it won't matter to most fans if Sashi and company can't make a silk purse out of this sow's ear, because he traded down from Carson Wentz last season. Even if Wentz turns out to be just a guy. Even if Kessler is better.
But there is hope. Cody Kessler might indeed be better.
PFF's Sam Monson wrote a piece on Kessler heading into week 3 of his rookie season. At that point, Sam felt the kid was in for a bruising.
Per Sam, Kessler in 2014 outperformed Jared Goff, and was looking good. But then in 2015, he regressed, which was a huge red flag.
But changes in the roster, plus yet another offensive system, were factors which this writer overlooked, and Hue Jackson did not.
Kessler's preseason had been underwhelming. Sam writes that there was a lot to like about Kessler, but with his weaker arm (which I think is overstated), he would have had a much brighter outlook if Hue had been able to keep him on the bench until season two.
Stronger-armed quarterbacks have a better chance of playing early, because they can hit tighter windows and threaten the whole field. They can sometimes get away with mistakes, and defenses can't safely squeeze the short middle and force them to go to the perimeter and deep.
Sam brought up Chad Pennington and a couple other guys with weaker arms who succeeded in the NFL (left out Joe Montana), and liked Kessler's long-term prospects. He expected Cody to fail, however, in his rookie season.
What happened after Sam wrote this understandably gloomy article was surprising. Cody Kessler completed 65.6% of his passes with 6 TDs and 2 interceptions with 7.2 yards per attempt, and finished with a 92-plus QBR.
He was sacked on about every 9.7 passing attempts, which was pretty high.
Sam Monson did have a pretty good bead on Kessler, as he caught him holding the ball and throwing late at times. This happened later in his rookie NFL season, as I was screaming about in defense of his offensive line here.
As Sam says, in the NFL, if you wait to see your receiver get open, it's already too late, because the defenders recover too quickly. This is magnified when the quarterback can't fire a low-trajectory missile to get it there quickly.
However, Kessler can and did throw with anticipation throughout his college carreer and as an NFL rookie...just not all the time. And at least when he failed to pull the trigger on time in the NFL, he had the brains not to compound this by throwing an interception.
"Throwing receivers open" is a matter of trust. It takes a lot of guts. Kessler has to trust his receiver to make the right move at the right time.
Brady Quinn explained some more of this to me on NFL Radio:
People talk about precise patterns, but the reality is that with defenders deliberately jostling, jamming, and impeding receivers, a designed ten-yard cut is as often eight or eleven yards, and it's nobody's fault. The critical part is the "clock". The receiver has to make that cut at that time, because the ball WILL BE on the way.
A special quarterback, like Kessler, can adjust his target as he anticipates that cut being a little shallower or deeper, based on what he sees.
This is why Terrelle Pryor is so important. He can be deep or shallow and still grab the ball. He's also much bigger and stronger than any cornerback, so he'll be at the right depth more consistently.
But I digress: Sam mentions Aaron Rodgers, but could also have mentioned Tom Brady, as examples of guys who dramaticly increased their arm strength after they became pros, and Kessler can do that too.
Hue Jackson gave RG3 an extended look late last season after Cody Kessler was cleared from the concussion protocol, and most pundits totally misinterpreted what this signified.
Hue wanted to give Griffin more chances, and get more tape on him. Believe it or not, the rookie had already passed his tests, and was already secure.
Hue was protecting him. Kessler was never intended to play at all as a rookie. It's good that he did get that real game experience, and made all those mistakes. He knows he can do this now, and what he did wrong. He's a veteran now, and will return much better than he would have been, had he not been forced to play before he was ready.
The concussions were the bad news, but the good news is that he surprised everybody, including maybe even Hue Jackson and himself.
So here we are, with Jimmy G(?), Tyrod Taylor, and a historicly bad quarterback draft crop (and no other real options).
They don't have a franchise quarterback yet, but they DO have a quarterback they can win with. If it weren't for the concussions, I wouldn't even have mentioned Tyrod Taylor, because Kessler will be better than he is.
He just needs to GET RID OF THE DAMN BALL.
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