Dawgs By Nature
Cleveland has had horrible luck with ‘veteran bridge QBs,’ and bringing Rodgers to town would only continue the nonsense.
Follow an NFL team long enough and you will see history continually repeat itself.
It was more than a decade ago that I first wrote about how the Cleveland Browns pursuit of a “veteran bridge QB” has been, with one exception, a bridge to nowhere.
Starting with Ty Detmer in 1999 and continuing through Jeff Garcia, Trent Dilfer, Jake Delhomme, Jason Campbell, Brian Hoyer, Robert Griffin III, and Josh McCown, the Browns have continually tried to bring in a veteran quarterback to hold it together while the latest rookie gets their act together.
And time and time again it has been a failure. (The fact that the rookie QBs have not been much better is a topic for another day.)
Fast forward to today and the Browns find themselves back in the market for yet another veteran quarterback to pair short-term with a rookie in the latest attempt to solve the quarterback conundrum that has plagued the franchise since the early 1990s.
It is such a familiar situation that no one would be surprised if general manager Andrew Berry started paraphrasing President Lyndon B. Johnson circa 1968 the next time he holds a press conference:
“Good afternoon, my fellow Browns fans. Today I want to speak to you about our quarterback situation.
“No other question so preoccupies our staff. No other dream so absorbs Browns fans across the world. No other goal motivates our policy in building the roster.
“For years, representatives of our team and others have traveled the country to find a suitable quarterback. On many occasions, I have pointed out that, without a viable starting quarterback, next year’s team will once again come up short. I have emphasized the need to set strict priorities in our drafting. I have stressed that failure to act and to act promptly and decisively would raise very strong doubts throughout Browns Nation about our willingness to keep our house in order.
“With our future under challenge … with our hopes and fans’ hopes for a winning team in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any causes or duties other than the awesome duties of this office and find the team a quarterback.”
It is not just the Browns who struggle with this, even if it feels that way. Outside of Peyton Manning being carried to a Super Bowl by Denver’s defense, chasing that veteran is almost always a bad idea. Either it is a complete failure - think Russell Wilson with the Denver Broncos - or the team does not achieve its ultimate goal of winning and finds itself right back where it started after a season or two - see Brett Favre with the Minnesota Vikings and Philip Rivers with the Indianapolis Colts.
Which brings us to Aaron Rodgers,...
