It’s been a lot of fun breaking down every player on the Browns’ roster for you as camp gets under way and the season approaches.  While many of us Die Hards are pretty acquainted with guys on the roster that have been here, it at least gives us all a chance to learn about some of the guys who are fighting for their chance to get onto the team over the next month so we don’t sit there and say “WHO?” when the Browns start playing 3rd stringers in the pre-season.  Quarterback is our last stop in our positional tour, so our next Browns’ coverage will be discussing what’s going on with camp and what’s to be expected during the season.  We hope you enjoyed the preview.

Overview

With a 10-6 record, there aren’t expected to be too many big roster changes at many of the positions when the 53 man roster is set for this season.  At Quarterback, it’s almost assured, barring injury, that the team will return the same three men who locked down the depth at the position last season.  After all, there are only 3 QBs on the roster going into camp.  Therefore, a position of strength will only get stronger with the same three men returning.

Derek Anderson - The surprise of the 2007 season was Derek.  During the 2007 pre-season it didn’t even look like he could command a drive without some kind of catastrophic mistakes being made.  Then, Anderson looked like he did at Oregon State when he played during the regular season after Charlie Frye was sent packing.  It really was like night and day…a modern day Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde if you will, when you compared pre-season Derek with regular season Derek.  Anderson made the Pro Bowl despite some fans getting uptight over his late season dropoff in performance.  Nevertheless, Anderson brings big play ability and a cannon arm to the team as a starter and has earned to start the year as the guy.  With another season as starter, I think we’ll all get an idea whether his inconsistencies will be more of a long-term characteristic or something that he can shake with more playing experience.

Brady Quinn - Quinn doesn’t have the arm that Derek has, nor do Browns’ fans really have any idea how Brady would handle a whole season under Center.  We can speculate all we want about him.  We do know that Quinn has a mind for the game and he works harder than most players.  We also know he handled the spotlight at Notre Dame very well despite the criticisms that surrounded him in big games.  We also know he handled one drive pretty well at the end of the 2007 season against San Francisco: a drive that Quinn shook a season’s worth of rust on to help the team put up 3 points.  At this point, it doesn’t make any sense to vault Quinn up ahead of Anderson though.  Right now, Quinn can sit and learn some more and if Anderson gets hurt, he’ll be our man and then if he plays well, we can talk about a controversy.  Until then, he’s beyond valuable at backup.  Even with that in mind, fans are going to be calling his name at some point.  The Browns invested heavily in him by sacrificing a draft pick and paying him 1st round money so there will always be that stigma and his big name hanging over Derek.  It’s up to both men to drown that out and focus on playing football.

Ken Dorsey - While there will be a lot of controversy in the air between Quinn and Anderson, whether it is warranted or not, Dorsey will sit back, relax, and be an extended QB coach getting paid nicely and avoiding injury.  At this point in Dorsey’s career, we can all agree that he isn’t starter material, but that doesn’t mean that Dorsey should hang them up right away and become a coach.  Dorsey is a smart player who can manage a game when called upon.  Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that since that would mean both Quinn and Anderson were injured, but Dorsey is not a bad option at #3.