The talk at the NFL owners meetings on Tuesday in Boca Raton, Fla. – at least as far as the Browns are concerned – was, once again, about quarterbacks.
Robert Griffin III.
Jared Goff.
Carson Wentz.
Even Josh McCown.
And yes, also the one and only Johnny Football, though the Browns had to prodded into that subject.
But that’s OK, for as long as the conversation is about quarterbacks, it’s not just a good thing. Rather, it’s a great thing. It’s a fantastic thing. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s an outstanding thing.
Moreover, it’s the right thing.
Indeed, the more quarterback dialogue, the better. You just can’t get enough of it. Less is not more in this regard. More is more – a lot more, in fact.
New Browns head coach Hue Jackson is a smart guy. He knows the deal, And he knows quarterbacks.
As such, he knows that, when you get right down to it, it’s the only thing that matters.
Nothing else happens, really – nothing else, absolutely nothing else, means anything – until a team secures its quarterback.
A team can have great players at all the other key positions. It can, at those positions, look like a Super Bowl contender.
But that’s just a facade. It’s just window dressing. It’s just the opening act. It’s just the preliminary. It’s just the warm-up act.
It’s a trick. It’s false advertising, selling the customers short.
The star of the show – the one everybody wants to see, the one everybody needs to see – is the quarterback. When he walks out onto the stage and he’s the leading guy a team has been looking for – the face of the franchise – then the hunt for a championship begins in earnest.
And for this team to finally have a head coach, and top offensive assistants like Pep Hamilton and Al Saunders, who get that, is without question the best thing the Browns have going for them right now.
That it comes after years and years of having coaches who not only wouldn’t know a good quarterback if they saw one, but, more importantly, didn’t think it was significant to look hard for one, makes this time right now even better, and more refreshing and encouraging.
When I see this happening – every time I see it happening — I’m going to keep harping on it because it means the Browns are, at long last, on the right track.
Certainly, without question, they have a long, long, long way to go. The journey will be miles and in length. But at least they’re finally on the right road.
And when’s the last time you could say that about the Browns?
Uh, don’t answer that question.
