It’s pretty straightforward, according to head coach Mike Pettine: It’s fair to say that as the Cleveland Browns enter their training camp, Josh McCown will be their designated starting quarterback.
Well, it’s not that difficult to be named the starter when you’re competing with Johnny Manziel, fresh out of rehab and hoping to put his life and especially his NFL career back together, and Connor Shaw, who is destined to be a career backup at best if he’s actually in the league for more than three or four years.
Pettine isn’t exactly overflowing with compliments about McCown, who’ll be entering his 14th NFL season with a 17-32 record in the games he has started.
Josh has proven in the right circumstances that he can be successful. When you build the team right, it minimizes the importance of the quarterback.
In other words, Pettine is saying that McCown is far from the ideal quarterback and maybe even worse that that, but if he builds the team the right way, his weaknesses will be more difficult to expose.
McCown was a starter for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season (until he got benched), experiencing just one win in 11 starts. He completed only 56.3% of his passes, throwing for 2206 yards, 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. His passer rating of 70.5 was almost a 40 point drop compared to his 2013 season with the Bears, although that came with a five start sample size.