For the time being at least, it seems to be increasingly becoming clear that the Cleveland Browns are suffering from the too many quarterbacks, which says that whenever you think you have more than one starting quarterback, you almost always have zero.
While there are those who are behind Cody Kessler entering his second season while functioning as the primary starter a year ago due to injuries ahead of him, and there have been positive things written about rookie DeShone Kizer, recent practices have reportedly revealed to them reverting to the mean.
Meanwhile, according to ESPN’s Pat McManamon, it was the somewhat-maligned, somewhat-forgotten Brock Osweiler who demonstrated the greatest comfort and command of running scrimmage drills, which are designed to put the offense in a game-like situation that requires them to score.
Of the three, Osweiler performed the best, and he was the only one of them who was working with second-team offensive personnel, and going up against the first-team defense. The former second-round draft pick should look more poised and be more comfortable, of course, as he has far more experience in the league than the two young players.
This does Head Coach Hue Jackson no favors, who has to figure out what he has in this group and fast, because one of them is going to have to start the Browns’ first preseason game, and one of them is eventually going to have to start the opening game of the regular season.
About his quarterback situation, Jackson said that “you want somebody to be head and shoulders above everybody else, but let’s be honest, when you have four guys that are getting a bunch of reps, it’s hard to do“, which is certainly true.
“Pretty soon, like I said, we have to stop that part of it and move forward with who we think can go play quarterback for us”, he added. “And that’s the fair thing to do”. But at least for the moment it doesn’t appear that he is any closer to reaching that moment of clarity than when the Browns opened training camp.
Since the spring, it has been Kessler and Kizer sharing reps with the first-team offense, while Osweiler has been working with the second-team offensive personnel and going up against the first-team defense.
McManamon wonders if that might soon change. While he has been far from impressive over the course of his career up until this point, it is not unreasonable to imagine that he could be the best option for the Browns to enter the regular season with, even if he was an afterthought in a trade for a second-round draft pick.
