A team in search for a leader is still waiting on Colt McCoy: Bud Shaw's Sunday Sports Spin

[BernietheKid]

A team in search for a leader is still waiting on Colt McCoy: Bud Shaw's Sunday Sports Spin

Published: Sunday, November 06, 2011, 12:10 AM
By Bud Shaw, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- What a difference a year doesn't make...

Colt McCoy makes his 16th NFL start Sunday in Houston. Since he's had two head coaches and two offensive coordinators and has operated under polar opposite philosophies, 16 games constituting a "season" is misleading. Nevertheless, it's a benchmark and a good time to ask what we've learned about McCoy under Pat Shurmur that we didn't know from watching him play last season.

The answer: hardly anything. Nothing conclusively damning, but not much encouraging either.

We know he can take a punch. That he's mobile. That he's smart. That he can "manage a game," which is a catch phrase meaning the head coach doesn't really trust the quarterback. That maybe some day McCoy can be Alex Smith, which would be marginally promising if you believe in the small sample of success currently on display in San Francisco and if you believe that's all the Browns need from their quarterback.

They need more from McCoy. The ceiling has to be higher than that. They are committed to a pass-first offense. That requires the quarterback to win games, not just work in a custodial capacity.

After 15 starts, McCoy has thrown 15 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions and has completed less than 60 percent of his passes. In his seven games under Shurmur, his completion percentage has sagged even while spending most of his time throwing to short-range targets.

It's an exaggeration to say he could've had a dozen more passes intercepted just this season, but not by much. What recommended him last year was his accuracy, at least until the weather turned. And his poise. Too often this season he's missed open receivers and looked as if his hair was ablaze in the pocket.

The front office did him no favors weapons-wise. Remember when Mike Holmgren suggested last year he thought the wide receivers were better than they looked in Brian Daboll's system? How'd that work out?

The offensive line has let McCoy down, too. But that's no reason to prop him up with a shotgun-only offense or a hurry-up offense. It's the NFL. A quarterback needs to run the entire offense.

The Browns haven't made it easy to evaluate McCoy but they have nine more games to do exactly that. Can he operate a passing game that keeps opposing defenses from crowding the line of scrimmage? Can he make the throws the offense and game situations require when the wind kicks up and the snow begins flying?

Last year was about finding out if he could be a NFL quarterback. This year is about finding out if McCoy can be a West Coast quarterback, the centerpiece of the offense.
At mid-term, you'd have to grade on a serious curve to say he's passing the test.

A team in search for a leader is still waiting on Colt McCoy: Bud Shaw's Sunday Sports Spin | cleveland.com

[Listercat]

This is just one horrible mess

[choco]

ah everythings fine....just go get him some receivers and his accuracy and decision making will be tip top...

[hiwaygal]

Damn...not much positive in that article...

[Jax Dawg]

BTK cut out the best part of the article...Shaw always shows a seperated at birth analysis...Today one reader wrote in to the writer to ask if Brian Daboll's offense and Pat Shurmur's were seperated at birth - zing!

[hiwaygal]

Originally Posted by Jax Dawg

BTK cut out the best part of the article...Shaw always shows a seperated at birth analysis...Today one reader wrote in to the writer to ask if Brian Daboll's offense and Pat Shurmur's were seperated at birth - zing!

Well, that's silly!

Of course they aren't!

We were 2-5 last year and we're 3-4 this year.

There's no similarity at all!

[Brown Warrior]

The ideal WCO candidate is Barkley... but I think the past two weeks have moved him right up alongside Jones just below Luck. A lot of mocks have all three going top 5. CBS has Barkley #2 overall.

[Enigmatic Evil]

This is what Bud Shaw does, he writes a "controversial" article to create discussion. We all know, and agree, that Colt needs to show more. This is a tired issue and Shaw is honestly a couple of weeks overdue in bringing this up IMO. We're putting so much on Colts shoulders like he alone is supposed to lift this team out of the garbage dumpster and help get us cleaned up. Colt's not going to be able to do this by himself, not with this offense, no. You're insane to think otherwise. Reading this just frustrates me. There's nothing constructive at all in this article.

I'm not worried about Colt, do I want to see more, hell yes!

[Brown Warrior]

Shaw and Pluto were HUGE McCoy apologists. Not sure why they both got off the bus at the same time. Ironically, McCoy "hatah" Grossi is now saying he hasn't given up on McCoy.

[Crow McCoy]

At mid-term, you'd have to grade on a serious curve to say he's passing the test.

On the football field, you don't play with a pencil. You play with a ball. Balls ain't tipped in graphite, they're tipped with the blood, sweat and tears of the masses of men who throw their lives against Issac Newton's gravity and crush each other.

Football is hard. Is it a test? Well the statement you're making about me in of itself is a test. A test to see if I can rise about the critics, above the haters. In a game there is no midterm. There is simply the moment. And every moment is trying to shake you down, kill you. The defense is like a demon, trying to drag your soul down into the fires of Hell. It's then when you realize what you're made of, if God arbitrarily decided to like you or not, you know?

What makes me special? I like to think it's my ability to succeed in spite of my lack of qualifications. Genetically, mentally and physically I'm unable to be an NFL QB. But I decided to become one anyway and it's kind of worked out so far. That's what drives me - that I know I'm mediocre, but that if I work really hard, I could be something more. Above average.

It's the dream baby and it's something this two bit hack of an author, a writer who plays with himself more than I play with my balls - wait - anyway, I'm the dream. I am America. Today we are all Crow McCoy.

Freedom, truth. Enlightenment.

[Brown Warrior]

Ooh, somebody be trippin', yo!

"You are a living organism. Never forget that."

- Drug Counselor and Former President Jimmy Carter, SNL

Originally Posted by Crow McCoy

On the football field, you don't play with a pencil. You play with a ball. Balls ain't tipped in graphite, they're tipped with the blood, sweat and tears of the masses of men who throw their lives against Issac Newton's gravity and crush each other.

Football is hard. Is it a test? Well the statement you're making about me in of itself is a test. A test to see if I can rise about the critics, above the haters. In a game there is no midterm. There is simply the moment. And every moment is trying to shake you down, kill you. The defense is like a demon, trying to drag your soul down into the fires of Hell. It's then when you realize what you're made of, if God arbitrarily decided to like you or not, you know?

What makes me special? I like to think it's my ability to succeed in spite of my lack of qualifications. Genetically, mentally and physically I'm unable to be an NFL QB. But I decided to become one anyway and it's kind of worked out so far. That's what drives me - that I know I'm mediocre, but that if I work really hard, I could be something more. Above average.

It's the dream baby and it's something this two bit hack of an author, a writer who plays with himself more than I play with my balls - wait - anyway, I'm the dream. I am America. Today we are all Crow McCoy.

Freedom, truth. Enlightenment.