Delhomme is l'homme

So the Browns have given up on their young former quarterback of the future and given the job to a grizzled veteran who has had some success in the NFL. Sounds kind of like getting rid of Tim Couch and bringing in Jeff Garcia a few years ago, but this time the roles are played by Brady Quinn and Jake Delhomme. (Incidentally, Delhomme is two years older than Couch, who hasn't taken an NFL snap since 2003.)

My dad said yesterday that he didn't feel Quinn got a real shot in Cleveland, and he may have a point. A lot of young quarterbacks struggle until they've had a couple of years' worth of starts under their belts, and maybe 2010 would have been the year he'd have shown why the Browns took him with their first-round pick in 2007. But obviously, Mike Holmgren and the Browns' new regime felt they couldn't spend any more time finding that out.

So now the job belongs to Delhomme, who took the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl in the 2003 season, but who is coming off his worst year as a pro. I truly don't mean to keep comparing him to Couch, but I happen to have just looked at Couch's page on nfl.com, and Delhomme's 59.4 passer rating last year was worse than any year Couch ever had. He's 35, and I don't see a whole lot of reason for optimism that he'll do any better this year. (Incidentally, presumed second-stringer Seneca Wallace posted an 81.9 rating last year for the Seahawks, albeit throwing just 120 passes as Matt Hasselbeck's backup.)

My assumption is Holmgren plans to draft a quarterback in April, and keep Delhomme around to keep the job warm until that quarterback is ready to take over. So we're starting over at the quarterback position, as we've done so many times before. It does get tiresome, doesn't it?