Shocker!!! Cleveland Browns name Brandon Weeden the starting quarterback.

It may come as a shock to those in comas over the past several months but after Monday’s practice Head Coach Pat Shurmur named Brandon Weeden the starting quarterback for Friday’s game against the Detroit Lions. But he went further than that saying “He’s (Weeden) our guy.” Implying Weeden will not only be the starter of the first preseason game but he will be the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback period.

This puts to bed which has to have been the most ridiculous charades of a “QB competition” in Browns history. For those of use that remember the old Browns it would be like calling Bernie Kosar vs. Mike Pagel a QB competition.

I don’t mean to take anything away from Colt. The young man is a class act. I think he will eventually land somewhere in this league and receive some level of success. But when the franchise drafts a 28-year-old quarterback in the first round, chances are the team will expect him to start “now” and not sit. But Colt spent every day at minicamps, OTA’s, and this first week of training camp still competing hard knowing the odds against him being named the starter over Weeden. This says something about the young man’s character, and you have to admire that even though you may not like him as a QB.

So now Browns fans can focus on other things. Sports Analyst’s (such as myself) can finally stop writing about the “quarterback competition”, and barring an injury or disastrous first half of a season we will not hear about Colt being a starter again in Cleveland.

Instead we can focus on position battles that matter, or at least are REAL competition. For example, who will be the Browns #1 receiver? Who will fill in for Gocong, Fujita, and Taylor on defense while they are off the field? Who will take reps behind Trent Richardson? Will it be Brandon Jackson, Montario Hardesty, or Chris Ogbonnaya?

These are things we need to know as fans and hopefully we will see some things that help answer some of those questions. Hopefully, we will see that our roster is deeper than we were a year ago or ever.

At any rate the McCoy/Weeden issue is finally done and over with officially. We can finally put the issue to rest and move on.

Michael W. Youngman--Lead Analyst AFC North
Michael is the Lead Analyst for the AFC North Report and the Cleveland Browns Report. He has written many articles that have been featured by playerpress.com, cantonrep.com, FoxSports.com, and of course this site. Michael has also written a book titled “The Dayton Project” published in 2008 by PublishAmerica. He makes his home in the Hall of Fame City of Canton Ohio with his wife Lisa and his two children Joseph and Jennifer. To learn more, visit his Website