Category: Browns

Richardson and Weeden complete rare feat

Cleveland Browns 1st-round picks Trent Richardson and Brandon Weedenpulled off a rare feat for a pair of rookies on Sunday afternoon against the Bengals.

Hopefully Weeden isn’t the next Tony Banks

They became the first pair of rookie teammates to throw for 300 yards and rush for 100 yards in the same game since 1996.

The down side to this accomplishment? The previous duo doesn’t exactly bring back memories of NFL greats.

On December 15, 1996, St. Louis Rams rookies Tony Banks and Lawrence Phillips lit up the scoreboard against the Atlanta Falcons. Unfortunately, Philips would go on to have just two more 100 yards games while Banks would throw for 300 just three more times.

Weeden struggles with deep ball

Cleveland Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden was in over his head on Sunday, and the more the stats are analyzed the worse it looks.

It was a long afternoon for Weeden.

It was apparent during the game that Weeden was struggling with the deep and intermediate passes, overthrowing multiple open receivers. According to Pro Football Focus, Weeden was 0-7 with two interceptions on balls thrown at least 10 yards downfield.

While everyone expected Weeden to struggle, no one expected this. In fact, his ability to get the ball downfield was supposed to be the area in which he provided the most significant upgrade over Colt McCoy. In 2011, McCoy completed just 44.1 percent of his passes beyond 10 yards – a disappointing number, but far better than Weeden’s opening game performance.

Looking beyond the stats, the concern with Weeden is the fact that he wasn’t just off target with his throws. He missed multiple open receivers, include two in the end zone, by a wide margin which killed multiple Browns drives.

To make matters worse, the Eagles front seven wasn’t applying much pressure to Weeden. He was pressured on 13 of his 38 dropbacks (34.2%) – that’s not an unreasonable performance by the offensive line. On plays when he wasn’t pressured, he completed just 10 of 24 passes (41.7%) including two interceptions. That’s a stat line that must improve dramatically if the Browns are going to generate any type of offense this year.

Brandon Weeden flops in debut

You couldn’t have scripted a worse debut for Cleveland Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden.

It was a long day for Weeden against the Eagles

They day started with Weeden getting caught under the American flag during pregame ceremonies. He then proceeded to throw four interceptions en route a 5.1 quarterback rating – the lowest in the NFL since Jeff Garcia posted a 0.0 in 2004.

Weeden also managed to complete more passes to Eagles defensive backs Kurt Coleman and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie than Mohamed Massaquoi, Josh Cribbs and Greg Little combined.

The issue for Weeden was his accuracy. He missed open receivers on a number of occasions, including twice overthrowing wide-open targets in the end zone. It’s clear he has a long way to go before he’s ready to compete at this level.

Colt McCoy to start for Browns on Thursday

Cleveland Browns head coach Pat Shurmur has announced that rookie Brandon Weeden will sit on Thursday, giving the nod for the final preseason game to Colt McCoy.

The Browns announced weeks ago that Weeden was the starter, and typically starting quarterbacks sit out the final preseason game. But Weeden isn’t your typical starter. He’s struggled the past two preseason games and many fans were hoping to see Weeden get a few more reps under his belt before the season opener.

Nick Foles outplays Brandon Weeden

Philadelphia Eagles rookie quarterback Nick Foles outplayed Cleveland Browns rookie Brandon Weeden on Friday night, and it wasn’t all that close.

Source: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images North America

Weeden struggled against the Eagles

Weeden fumbled twice while completing just 9 of his 20 pass attempts. Weeden also did not appear to be on the same page as his No. 1 receiver, completing just one of fourpasses aimed at Greg Little. Both Weeden and Little were visibly frustrated on the field due to their miscommunications on two of the incompletions.

The issue with Weeden was handling Philadelphia’s pass rush, which brought consistent pressure and forced Weeden into multiple mistakes.

Foles, on the other hand, exceeded expectations and likely made Andy Reid feel very comfortable about his quarterback situation. Foles was expected to be Philly’s third string quarterback behind Mike Vick and Mike Kafka, but could now push Kafka for the backup job.

Against the Browns Foles looked poised under pressure, especially for a rookie, and completed 12 of 19 passes for 146 yards.