NFL teams, and by extension their fans, certainly love the concept of a developmental quarterback.
It is a phenomenon seen across the league every season. A quarterback gets selected in the fifth, sixth, or seventh round of the draft, or perhaps is even an undrafted free agent, but has just enough athletic ability that everyone starts talking themselves into the possibility of what might be.
If everything goes absolutely perfectly, so the thinking goes, then perhaps the player can be a viable insurance
policy in case the starter is injured or comes due for a big-money contract. Or, perhaps even better, the developmental quarterback can be traded to a desperate team and bring back far more value than they cost.
It is a pleasant fiction, no doubt, but more often than not runs into reality. Because for every Tom Brady (a sixth-round draft choice) or Brock Purdy (Mr. Irrelevant), you have a host of players like Athan Kaliakmanis, Quinn Ewers, Chad Kelly, or Ben DiNucci.
And as everyone in Cleveland was reminded last season, once the games start for real, practice time is too limited and too valuable to give snaps to anyone other than that week’s starting quarterback. So any “development” that is going to take place in a given year is essentially done by the time the team finishes the preseason schedule.
Which brings us to the Cleveland Browns and the current state of their quarterback room.
Rookie Taylen Green is the quintessential developmental quarterback. Selected in the sixth round of this year’s NFL Draft, Green is clearly the best athlete among the quarterbacks and has the size at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds to hold up to being hit by NFL players.
But his game is still raw, even after making 53 starts in college, and he needs a lot of work to be considered a viable backup, let alone a starter.
Nothing wrong with that, of course, only in the case of the Browns, fully 75 percent of their quarterback room are developmental quarterbacks.
That may come as a shock to some, but it is true.
Despite his famous last name and legion of online fans, there is not another team that would start Shedeur Sanders at quarterback. Despite a full offseason program, OTAs, minicamps, and training camp, he has still not mastered the basics of being an NFL quarterback. Things like calling the play, being loud enough for the linemen to hear him, or getting rid of the ball.
Dillon Gabriel is in the same boat, but for different reasons. He is considered too short at 5-foot-11 to be a starting quarterback, and he can’t make up for that because his lack of arm strength comes out when he tries to throw a deep pass. He can process the operational side of the position just fine, but his physical limitations mean he is destined to be a backup quarterback for the majority of his career.
Now that is not to say that either quarterback has not improved over their rookie seasons. That would be unfair to claim. But it comes with the caveat that they had nowhere to go but up after rookie seasons that saw Gabriel at No. 57 in EPA/Play and Sanders at No. 60.
Their Total EPA was even worse, with Gabriel (-53.85) checking in at No. 78 and Sanders (-73.37) at No. 81, ahead of just Brady Cook, Geno Smith, and fellow rookie Cam Ward.
Having one developmental quarterback on the roster? That’s fine. Having three of your four quarterbacks fall into the developmental category – especially when the starter is Deshaun Watson? That’s a problem.
As Browns fans, we’ve been beaten down by bad quarterback play so much over the years that many have forgotten what the actual goal is from the position.
It’s not to simply be better, or more popular, than the guy sitting next to you in a meeting room. The goal is to actually be good at the game. Good enough to consistently take your team to the playoffs and have a realistic chance at winning a Super Bowl.
If you can’t do that as a quarterback, then literally nothing else matters. And the reality is that the Browns don’t currently have a quarterback on the roster capable of meeting that benchmark.
It is going to be another long season for the Browns, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable. And it certainly does not have to be filled with arguing over a quarterback room that will undergo a major renovation once the season is finished.
So sit back, watch the young guys on offense, take a look at what the defense is doing under a new defensive coordinator, and enjoy the weekly tilts as much as possible.
And above all, pray that the decision makers in Berea never forget the most important aspect of what they need from the quarterback position.
