| Is there anything McCoy can do to earn the starting job in Cleveland? (AP) |
Colt McCoy has had better offseasons. The Browns used the 22nd pick in April's NFL Draft to take 27-year-old quarterback Brandon Weeden, effectively ending McCoy's stint as the starter, and possibly his time with the team.
In May, Browns president Tom Heckert said that "we fully expect" Weeden to win the "open competition" at quarterback (which would make it a not-so-open competition, but we already knew that), although president Mike Holmgren later said that there were no plans to ship McCoy out of town … for the time being.
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McCoy, the Browns' 2010 third-round pick out of Texas, has done and said all the right things but there's a feeling that his fate was sealed as the starter after his father's comments about the organization following a concussion McCoy suffered in a late-season game against the Steelers.
Still, all McCoy wants is a chance to compete, saying in July "I would just like a little consistency. I love the town. I love the fans. I think they truly deserve a winning football team. That's what I want to do. I want to be there for the ride of turning that thing around. We'll see what happens."
Well, there's some good news, even if in the larger picture it might not mean much: Holmgren has been impressed with McCoy early in training camp.
"I said 'boy, Colt's having a good day today,'" said Holmgren (via the Cleveland Plain Dealer), recounting a conversation he had with Browns senior advisor Gil Haskell. "He had a good practice, he's had a good camp and he's looked good. I'm proud of the way he's handling it. I told Colt that the other day."
So there's that which, along with some spare change, will get McCoy a copy of the Plain Dealer for posterity. There's more, though: coach Pat Shurmur echoed Holmgren's sentiments.
"Colt's doing great," he said after Wednesday's practice. "He's continuing to improve. I'm seeing him do things in this camp that he didn't do a year ago, and he's getting more comfortable within our system and he's coming to work every day and working hard. He's doing a good job."
And even McCoy sounded like he was enjoying himself.
I had a great day," he said. "We installed red zone. Obviously I'm still learning, still growing, still maturing. but as far as that natural progression goes, I couldn't be more pleased with where I'm at right now."
Shurmur said last week that the plan is to name a starter "well before the start of the season," which means that unless McCoy plays like Bernie Kosar and Weeden looks like Charlie Frye, the former will be standing on the sidelines next to Shurmur when the Browns host the Eagles in Week 1. Assuming he hasn't been traded.
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