Cleveland Browns Shouldn’t Start Cody Kessler in 2016

The Cleveland Browns should have no reason to start soon-to-be rookie quarterback Cody Kessler in 2016.

You may think that the Cleveland Browns reached by selecting USC quarterback Cody Kessler in the third round of the 2016 National Football League Draft. Perhaps you love that the Browns drafted Kessler.

None of that matters. What is important is that Cleveland head coach Hue Jackson and club head of football operations Sashi Brown were sold on Kessler to the point that the Browns drafted him maybe one entire round before a different team would have taken Kessler off of the board. It is now Kessler and not Connor Cook, Christian Hackenberg or any other to-be rookie who will be sharing the Cleveland QB room with Robert Griffin III and Josh McCown later this year.

Any good feelings one may have had about the Browns drafting Kessler could have been affected by the comments Brown offered to reporters about his team’s newest QB. Per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com:

"Browns head of football operations Sashi Brown disagreed with the notion that third-round quarterback Cody Kessler doesn’t pose much of a threat to Robert Griffin III.“I beg to differ with that,” Brown said at his draft wrap-up press conference Saturday night.. “I do think Cody is a guy that I would not want to sleep on at all if I wanted to be the starting quarterback of the Browns.“He’s going to come in serious ready to work. Robert has four years of NFL experience, is tremendously athletic and serious about becoming a starting quarterback in this league. There’s no reason he can’t, but this is going to be a competition.”"

At the risk of lacking professionalism, we offer the following reaction to Brown’s statements.

The Browns cannot possibly do this again. There can be no scenario where the Browns, a team with a deep history of forcing young QBs onto the field before they are ready to lead any NFL offense (Johnny Manziel being the latest example), putting Kessler on the field in 2016 is beneficial to anybody involved.

To begin with, the Browns signed Griffin. Griffin may never again be the physical phenomenon of his RG3 days of old, but Griffin was nevertheless paid millions upon millions of dollars to start for the Browns this coming NFL regular season in an attempt to resurrect his professional career. The last thing that Griffin needs at any point during the summer is a “competition” versus the new flavor of the month who will soon become the favorite QB among pockets of Cleveland fans who are desperate to see the team have a franchise player at the position.

What if Griffin is a flop and/or is unable to stay healthy? No worries. The Browns still have McCown, who has repeatedly said that he will do whatever is asked of him and who is not receiving an opportunity to start for any other NFL team, on the roster. McCown could easily step and in play a handful of games for the Browns if Griffin is not available for whatever reason(s).

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Those who will clamor for Kessler to be named the starter and the future of the Browns and who will reference Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater and Derek Carr as examples of QBs who benefited from playing early in their careers should remember Manziel, Zach Mettenberger and the many other QBs who should have learned the pro game from the sidelines for as long as possible.

Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is often referenced by a fan or analyst making a case for a different QB serving as a backup for a significant amount of time. Rodgers, of course, sat behind Brett Favre until the Packers all-but shoved Favre into retirement and then to the New York Jets, and Rodgers is now arguably the best overall QB in the league.

It is interesting, 12 years after the fact, to recall the first year of Eli Manning‘s NFL career. The New York Giants were 5-4 with Kurt Warner starting for the club in the fall of 2004 when the Giants forced Manning into the lineup. Manning was shaky and won only once in seven starts, and it would not be a stretch to suggest that Manning, a two-time Super Bowl champion and two-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, could have been even better had he spent his entire rookie year behind Warner on the depth chart.

The harsh truth about the 2016 Browns is that they are probably not going to be good. As Jon Breech of CBSSports.com explained, the Browns are Las Vegas underdogs to lose literally every game during the upcoming season. Those hoping that the Browns will be the NFL’s version of Leicester City and shock the world en route to winning a title need to reel-in those dreams.

Kessler cannot and will not, on his own, save the Browns, and he certainly isn’t turning the current Cleveland roster into a team capable of hanging with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North standings. Yes, there is something to be said for a young QB learning lessons that can only be learned on the field, but Kessler doesn’t have to learn those lessons this fall.

Hue Jackson is advertised to be a quarterback guru and whisperer that’s been credited with helping Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton have a break-out season last year. Jackson can work his magic with Kessler six days a week.

Sundays should be days of rest for Kessler for the foreseeable future.