Right Off Russell

Thanks to Steve DiMatteo the Cleveland Browns blog, Dawg Pound Daily, for giving us some insight into Ravens upcoming opponent.

Most of the national news surrounding the Browns is “Brady verses Derek”. So what’s your take on the situation?
As far as the debate between Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson goes, the decision has been made to stick with Quinn and that is the right way to go. No matter what kind of growing pains there are, and there have been plenty, Eric Mangini needs to see what Quinn is made of and the answer can’t be found in just a couple of bad games. That isn’t exactly Peyton Manning sitting on the bench behind Brady Quinn, either. Derek Anderson has plenty of deficiencies of his own, so despite what the national news is, the Browns are making the right decision in sticking with Quinn for now.

The defense seems to hold its own during the 1st half and then struggles in the 2nd half. Are teams adjusting well? or is depth an issue?
It is probably a combination of both those things. Depth is most certainly an issue with the Browns, as there just isn’t enough talent on the defense to compete with better offenses. With the exception of Shaun Rogers, D’Qwell Jackson, and maybe Kamerion Wimbley, the entire defense can be considered expendable. It also doesn’t help that not only are teams adjusting well, but the Browns do not seem to be making any adjustments in the second half of any of these games. That holds true for the offense even more, which is infinitely more frustrating.

2 games into the season, give us a grade on Coach Mangini. With the personnel around him, does he have a shot to turn this team around?
With only two games under his belt, I’m willing to give Mangini a C+. The Browns have looked every adjective that is remotely close to bad, but I think of it this way: the personnel on this team is not ideal for the team Mangini wants to run. He of course inherited the team from the previous regime, and will have a few years to begin implementing players actually meant for his system, and not just aging Jets players. He has managed to change the attitude of the team, though, even though the results on the field have not exactly made that apparent just yet. The one knock I have on Mangini so far is that despite his conservative coaching style, he needs to open up the playbook a little bit and give this offense a spark.

Give us a few players that could possibly give the Ravens some fits this weekend.
Going off that last question, the Browns have talked about expanding on the Wildcat formations that involve Joshua Cribbs. If the Browns are going to have any shot at winning this game, they are going to have to surprise the Ravens, and utilizing Josh Cribbs in the right way could give Baltimore fits. Braylon Edwards has also been pretty good historically against the Ravens and, being that he is the only receiving threat on this team, I would expect him to keep that trend going. You’d have better luck though going to Vegas and betting everything you have on one hand of blackjack than trying to predict which Braylon Edwards will show up - the Pro Bowl receiver or the guy who catches a pass like it’s a bomb ready to explode.