Something I just realized

This is an entirely plausible scenario for the Cleveland Browns that should have all of their fans shrieking in agony.

- Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace play the entire season, with Colt McCoy only getting token snaps at the end of blowouts (and they'll be involved in plenty of them).

- The team talks itself into Colt McCoy as the future at the position, even though he'll have shown virtually nothing on the field.

- They go into next offseason believing they already have a QB in McCoy, so they use their high draft pick on a position other than QB.

- McCoy flops as a starter in 2011 (if there's a season; a lockout sounds like a distinct possibility), leaving the Browns with yet another high draft pick, and still no QB.

The Browns are in a very tenuous position here at QB. They have shitty veterans, and a young QB drafted in a round that QBs typically don't succeed in (Brodie Croyle, Charlie Whitehurst, Trent Edwards, any success stories yet?). So the veterans suck this year...they go into 2011 with McCoy. McCoy sucks, much like almost every QB drafted in the 3rd round...they enter the 2012 offseason with still no QB.

Mike Holmgren has completely fucked this franchise, in my opinion. If they wanted a veteran, they should have traded for Jason Campbell. He only cost the Raiders a draft pick in 2012, for cripes sake. Or they could have held onto Quinn, giving him one more shot. Either way, acquiring Seneca Delhomme was the worst possible move they could have made.

What they really should have done is put together a package to get the #1 pick and draft Sam Bradford. They didn't like Clausen, so fine go get Bradford then. He'll cost you a lot of draft picks and money? Who gives a fuck, do you want a QB or not? Trying to get by on the cheap at QB will never lead you to victory. The Minnesota Vikings once went this route at QB, and they only got bailed out by Favre becoming available as a free agent. And even with Favre, they still don't have a QB of the future.

If I had one piece of advice for the Browns going forward, it would be to not fall in love with McCoy unless he actually produces on the field. They can't just hand him the starting job in 2011 without tangible proof that he can play; go out and acquire a QB to compete with him (preferably a first round pick; let's get some freaking talent, huh), and you know what? If McCoy pans out, you now have two QBs who can play and a great trading chip. This is what makes the Panthers' drafting of Clausen so good; if Matt Moore pans out, they can pay him to be the long-term starter, and just let Clausen's value increase while he seasons on the bench and teams become desperate to acquire a young veteran. Charlie Whitehurst has legitimately sucked at every level (college, pre-season in the NFL, he's never put up good numbers), and yet the Seahawks swapped 2nd round picks with San Diego this year, and traded a 4th round pick next year to acquire him. Just let Clausen simmer on the bench, and he'll start to look more and more attractive.

Knowing the Browns, though, they will just hand McCoy the starting job next year, he'll suck and they'll enter 2012 still with questions at QB. This is how far Mike Holmgren has potentially set this franchise back; when you consider it takes a rookie QB at least a year or two to develop (Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco still are not finished products), it could be 2013 or 2014 before the Browns enter a season with a good QB. Trade up for Bradford? Trade for Jason Campbell and draft Clausen? Put Josh Cribbs at QB and run the option all day? All better options than what Holmgren elected to do, and the Browns, amazingly, enter 2010 with a worse QB situation than they exited 2009 with.

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Speaking of Whitehurst, hilariously the Seahawks could have simply drafted Clausen at 40 had they never made that trade, but instead their 2nd round pick was 60th overall, at which point Clausen was no longer available. According to everything I've read, the Seahawks were legitimately interested in Clausen and would have drafted him at 60, meaning they would have drafted him at 40.

In other words, had they never swapped 2nd round picks in order to acquire a career 3rd string QB who sucked in college, they could have come away from this draft with Russell Okung, Earl Thomas and Jimmy Clausen, a haul that could potentially change a franchise. Instead they still ended up with a good haul, but Golden Tate (who they drafted at 60) won't affect their franchise like Clausen could have. Just hilarious how that worked out. I knew that Whitehurst trade was dumb at the time; now it could be franchise-altering.