Quarterback carousel gets back to Delhomme

With Colt McCoy the third Browns quarterback to sustain a high ankle sprain this season, coach Eric Mangini has no choice but to give the starting job back to the guy who had it coming out of training camp. Jake Delhomme was pretty unimpressive in what little action he's seen so far this year, and I don't have high hopes for him now. I'd rather see Seneca Wallace, frankly. But Mangini knows his players better than I do, so I've just got to hope he knows what he's doing. The game is against Delhomme's former team, the Panthers, so maybe his inside knowledge of their system will be of some benefit.

Mangini says he doesn't think McCoy will miss as much time as Delhomme and Wallace did. My above statement about how he knows his players better than I do doesn't apply to this situation. I'm not saying I know much about high ankle sprains, but my point is that Mangini is a football coach, not a doctor. With just six games left in the season, I wouldn't be surprised if the next time we see McCoy in uniform is in 2011. That would be a bit of a shame, because I'd like to see him get some more experience under his belt this year; but it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world. It's a whole lot more important that McCoy is healthy in '11, '12 and beyond than it is that he's healthy the rest of this year. The Browns aren't going anywhere in 2010 anyway.

Will we see Colt McCoy?

After yesterday's disappointing 20-10 loss to Atlanta, the Browns are down to one healthy quarterback -- Colt McCoy, who of course has yet to take a snap in a regular-season NFL game. Seneca Wallace was having a pretty nice first half yesterday when he sprained his ankle, going 11-for-15 for 139 yards and a touchdown. Jake Delhomme came in, clearly still hobbled by an ankle injury of his own, and was just plain awful -- 97 yards on 13-for-23 passing, no TDs, two interceptions. Both of those pickoffs were pretty fluky, but they both resulted from Delhomme not getting the ball over the hands and heads of the linemen.

I frankly don't know why we didn't see McCoy in that game. What did we have to lose? If Wallace couldn't play and Delhomme clearly wasn't able to do much, why not just toss the kid in there and see what he's got? It's not like it's going to cost us a playoff spot. We were 1-3 coming in, and there was obviously no chance we were going to get to 2-3 with Delhomme in there.

The Browns are talking about trying to pick up a veteran quarterback for next week's game against the Steelers. If the health of Wallace and Delhomme is in question, obviously we'll have to get somebody, but I want the person they pick up to be McCoy's backup for the Pittsburgh game. I really don't see the point of renting a veteran QB to hold down the spot for a 1-4 team. If Wallace or Delhomme can play, that's fine; otherwise, just toss McCoy in there and let him go to work.

Derek Anderson insults you on the way out the door

Ex-Browns quarterback Derek Anderson couldn't resist taking some shots at Cleveland fans upon his release yesterday. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter much what an ex-Brown thinks about Cleveland, but it did cause a bit of a stir in the local media. You may recall that Anderson, a Pro Bowler in 2007, stank his way through the next two seasons and lost his starting job to the also-subpar Brady Quinn. After being shown the door yesterday, he said in an e-mail to the News-Herald that Browns fans "don't deserve a winner" and that he never forgot being cheered when he injured himself against the Colts in 2008.

Look, I understand his feelings being hurt that people cheered when he got hurt. That's happened in Cleveland before — see Couch, Tim — and the fans weren't actually cheering his injury, they were cheering because he'd been playing abysmally and his injury meant the backup would get a shot. That's not very nice, but I guarantee it happens in other NFL cities too. Anderson is an adult, and should not have taken it to heart.

The release came a day after the Browns traded a late-round 2011 draft pick for Seahawks backup Seneca Wallace, whom new team President Mike Holmgren knows from his days in Seattle. I'd be a bit surprised if Wallace becomes the starter, but he'll probably get a shot to compete for the job unless they get Donovan McNabb or somebody like that. I don't think Holmgren has much confidence in Brady Quinn.