Based on the stellar NFL debut of Philadelphia Eagles rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, it looks as if the Browns may be haunted by their decision to pass on him in April’s draft by trading the No. 2 overall pick.
He completed 22-of-37 passes for 278 yards and two touchdowns with a passer rating of 101 as the Eagles thrashed the Browns 29-10 on Sunday in the regular-season opener.
Yet coach Hue Jackson insisted the Browns haven’t second-guessed their choice to forgo Wentz.
“No, we haven’t. That is one thing I can tell you for sure has not happened,” Jackson said Monday. “He had a good game, a great game if you guys want to term it that, and I respect that. He is a fine young man, and they have good coaches and a good organization, and he is going to do well for them.
“But that was one game. He played well. We will look back and see where he is over a period of time, but the Browns have to get better. That is what we have to do. We have to play better, and I think we all understand that.”
Head of football operations Sashi Brown echoed Jackson’s sentiments Tuesday during the team’s radiothon on ESPN Cleveland WKNR (850-AM).
“We’re not going to rush to judgment on any guys, much less kind of our draft picks,” Brown said. “So we’ll wait to see how all that pans out. But, you know, we made the best decision for our organization at the time. So it’s easy to look at, I think, one performance. We’ll look at [Wentz] over time and judge.”
Meanwhile, virtually everyone else is already second-guessing the decision — especially because the Browns opted to move forward at quarterback with free-agent acquisition Robert Griffin III, who’ll miss at least eight games and perhaps the rest of the season after suffering a fractured coracoid bone in his left shoulder Sunday.
“The problem with it for me is Hue comes in and they have a new franchise, a new regime, they’re going to change the whole makeup and they’re going to move forward and we’re going to build something here — well, you’re building it without a franchise quarterback,” NFL Network analyst David Carr said on the air. “If you thought Robert was the guy, then you probably need to do some more homework because he hasn’t made it through a 16-game season. He hasn’t been able to be on the field consistently.
“I’m a huge fan of Hue Jackson. I love what he does creatively on the offensive side of the ball, but I think he might have gotten caught up in the RG3 hype a little too much, and he thought he could be a guy that could be consistently there. It doesn’t look like he’s going to be that guy and now you’re trying to build a franchise without that cornerstone who played you [Wentz], a guy you had a chance to pick up was on the field.”
With Griffin on injured reserve, quarterback Josh McCown will start for the Browns when they face the Baltimore Ravens (1-0) on Sunday in the home opener.
So the Browns will become the first team in NFL history to use multiple starting quarterbacks in 15 consecutive seasons, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“How do you keep on making these mistakes as the Browns organization?” NFL Network analyst LaDainian Tomlinson said. “You have a chance to draft Carson Wentz, who we think is going to be a really good player. Go back to 1999 when the Browns got back in Cleveland, you drafted Tim Couch instead of Donovan McNabb. Thus, you’ve had 25 starting quarterbacks over that time period.
“[Eagles head of football operations] Howie Roseman was on Good Morning Football last week talking about how they love Carson. They thought he was a franchise guy and they loved everything about him. But on the other hand, the Browns are saying we don’t think he’s going to be a top-20 quarterback. That’s my point. How does this keep happening? You obviously have a problem evaluating quarterbacks in that organization.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.