Frye is Still Learning

 

One of the great rituals Cleveland has developed over the years is the bashing of the Browns’ quarterback.  Since Bernie Kosar was released by Bill Belichick back in 1992, no one has measured up in the hearts of the Cleveland faithful.  Backers of the brown and orange want the QB to play well, and do it right away.  No one wants to hear about growing pains.  Unfortunately for most signal callers, that’s part of the process.

 

First of all, Kosar was not the usual rookie quarterback.  He took over the helm halfway through his first year from an injured Gary Danielson and led the Browns to a playoff spot with an 8-8 record.  In his second and third years, the Browns advanced to the AFC Championship Game losing both games in awful fashion to Denver and John Elway.  Kosar was kind of a QB prodigy.  He led Miami (FL) to the National Championship in his redshirt freshman year beating a supposedly unbeatable Nebraska squad.  There aren’t a lot of quarterbacks who have had that kind of success that early in their career.

 

Charlie Frye played college football at Akron.  He didn’t play the same kind of competition that Bernie went against in college.  He now has started all of 16 games at the NFL level.  He’s still learning how to play the position in the NFL.  Since Jeff Davidson became the offensive coordinator, Frye has improved.  He has been cutting down on his mistakes, such as not forcing the ball into coverage.  He still needs more pocket awareness, because he holds the ball too long at times and his run himself into sacks at times.  But we have seen improvement in the last few weeks.

 

His offensive line still does not handle pass rushers well, so that is a problem in his development.  He needs more work in getting the ball into the end zone.  Frye has been able to put the team in the red zone more frequently since Davidson took over, but the Browns need to get more than field goals when they get there.  That will come with maturity. 

 

Bringing in another rookie quarterback next season would just mean starting the clock all over again.  As much as I respect the job Troy Smith has done at Ohio State, drafting him early doesn’t make sense.  It would only mean we would have to live with the growing pains any rookie signal caller must go through.  After eight years of mediocre football since they returned to the NFL, the ownership and front office of the Browns can’t go through this process again.

 

This is not to say Charlie Frye should get a blank check.  He must continue to show improvement.  However, he deserves to start the rest of the games this year and go into next season as the starter.  Playing musical chairs with the position will do nothing but set the franchise back a few more years.

 

MW