DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum It's Time to Start Cody Kessler

Let's not be hasty. Charlie wasn't bad today.

He's being fitted for a splint for his broken spirit. Sorry, I don't have a link.

LOL.

quote above by lamp:

"Let's not be hasty. Charlie wasn't bad today."

He wasn't horrific. But he could be if forced to start. He justifiably looked lost on a few snaps.

j/c:

I actually preferred the Clipboard Jesus to the Pillsbury Doughboy. At least his passes didn't have to be measured by a sand dial.

That first throw to Barnidge was money. A little high on a lot of other ones.

Not Gordon-high, but geometry-high.

one thing I didn't like about whitehurst was his lack of pocket awareness though. My goodness he has zero haha

I feel like this is Whitehurst when he found out he was going into the game after seeing Kessler get crushed:



Might have been me a little bit too.

lol!

'Why the Browns can't afford to lose Cody Kessler in this pivotal season for QBs'

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2016/10/why_the_browns_cant_afford_to.html

By Mary Kay Cabot, cleveland.com on October 09, 2016 at 9:06 PM, updated October 09, 2016 at 9:26 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cody Kessler believes he'll be ready to start next Sunday in Tennessee, and that's a good thing for the 0-5 Browns.

Because figuring out their quarterback situation before the draft, in which they have two first-round picks again, is one of the most important tasks of this season.

Their hopes of developing Robert Griffin III this season are all but dashed, because he might not play again this year. And they have nothing to gain by starting Josh McCown any more this season.

The season is largely about finding out if Kessler can be their quarterback of the future before DeShone Kizer and Deshaun Watson are staring them in the face in April.

Kessler, who left Sunday's 33-13 loss to the Patriots with a rib and chest injury, has made good progress in his three starts, and the Browns need to keep developing him. X-rays were negative, but he'll undergo an MRI or CT scan tomorrow to see if there's any other structural damage.

"My chest, rib area, just real painful,'' he said. "X-rays were negative, so nothing's broken. But I just have to do a couple more tests.''

Kessler, who's demonstrated he can take a big hit and keep playing, tried to come back shortly after getting knocked out of the game late in the first quarter.

"I wanted to,'' he said. "I tried. But there's a point in just being smart about it. It hurt, I hate leaving the guys like that. I hate coming out. It hurt me as a person. it was unfortunate and that's just the game.''

Kessler, who must still show he can throw deep, suffered the injury with 1:20 left in the first quarter when he was backed up to his own end zone and tried to execute a screen pass to the right to Duke Johnson.

Linebacker Dont'a Hightower read the play perfectly and blitzed up the middle untouched, between John Greco and Alvin Bailey. He planted Kessler's right shoulder into the turf, and the quarterback was in immediate pain. The ball fluttered backwards and out of the end zone for a safety that made it 16-7.

Kessler rolled over and remained face down for a few moments.

"When I landed, I heard something weird and I thought it was my shoulder at first, so I didn't want to move,'' he said. "But luckily nothing with my shoulder.''

But Kessler, who struggled to breathe during his post-game interview, isn't out of the woods just yet. He has to hope there's no muscle tear or other major issue that will keep him out of action.

"My goal is to come back as fast as possible,'' he said. "I'll know more in the next couple of days and just see how it feels. I'll stay on top of it and get treatment.''

Jackson took exception to the notion that Kessler could've done something different on the play to protect himself.

"No, the guy got on him pretty fast so no, that is not on Cody,'' he said. "That's not on the players. It's on me all the way."

What would Jackson have done differently?

"I would not have called it,'' he said. "That's it. Don't call the play. They had the right defense on at the right time. They won that battle."

The injury came a drive after Kessler answered Tom Brady's first touchdown drive with one of his own. Trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, Kessler drove the Browns 75 yards in nine plays, hitting a wide open Andrew Hawkins with an 11-yard touchdown pass on the left side of the end zone to tie it 7-7 with 6:09 left in the quarter.

Granted, the Browns would've had a hard time keeping pace with the red-hot Brady (406 yards, 3 TDs, 127.7 rating), but Kessler likely would've fared better than the rusty Whitehurst.

On that touchdown drive, he completed 5-of-7 attempts for 62 yards with the TD. One of his incompletions was a throwaway with Jabaal Sheard bearing down on him, and the other was a drop over the middle by a wide open Isaiah Crowell, who turned to run before looking it in.

Kessler opened the drive with a bootleg right and found Hawkins for 16. He followed with a 7-yarder to Barnidge and then shook off Sheard pressure and hit Crowell with a short pass on third and 6 that he turned into an 18-yard gain. Kessler then completed a 10-yarder to Pryor on a sideline route to convert another third down. That pass set up the Hawkins' TD.

"I felt really comfortable,'' said Kessler. "We felt comfortable as an offense, we were moving the ball well and the playcalling was great and we were getting really in a good rhythm. That drive was great for us to answer back.''

Hue Jackson, who asked folks to trust him on draft day that Kessler has what it takes, saw flashes of what he was talking about on that campaign.

"That was a heck of a drive by our football team,'' he said. "We had some mixed runs, even though they were not very successful. We had some things that I thought were starting to happen mixed with the pass. He made some good plays, and obviously, it ended in a touchdown drive. It was a good play by Hawk ), a good throw by Cody and we were able to execute that play. There were some things that were starting to happen to get executed.''

Kessler, who had two solid starts before Sunday's abbreviated outing, is winning over his teammates.

"The first drive (three-and-out) wasn't great, but the second drive he looked good,'' said left guard Joel Bitonio. "They weren't rushing too many guys to start and he was doing a good job picking them apart on that one drive, threw a nice touchdown to Hawk out there. The moment's not too big for him. He played at USC, he's played in front of crowds. You can tell he's dedicated to being the best quarterback he can be.''

Hawkins, who caught four passes for 56 yards, has become a big Kessler fan.

"Yeah, I've been singing Cody's praises since he's been in there,'' said Hawkins. "We've consistently moved the football since Cody's taken over and that's tough to do for a rookie third-round quarterback who was third on the depth chart three weeks ago. If he wouldn't have gotten hurt, our expectations don't change because we're playing a great football team, which the Patriots were, but once he gets hurt, that's who's been practicing all week and it's tough.

"Hats off to Charlie. Charlie came in there and, after a little bit, he got in a rhythm, we were able to move the ball again. That's what we have to do. We have to keep fighting. We have to be able to continue to move the ball, whoever's in there. We've played with four, five quarterbacks already, including Terrelle, and I think guys aren't giving up.''

The Browns became the first team since the Broncos in 1968 to have five different players complete at least five passes in the first five games of the season, according to ESPN stats and info.

They're hoping they don't have to start No. 27 since 1999 in Tennessee.


(end)

_____________________________________

P.S. Article kinda long. Regardless, I hope he can play Sunday.

Mary Kay needed an editor to cut about 200 words from that story.
Blah blah blah blah.

deleted...

Mac, i have a question for you, or anybody wanting to talk about it.

So, i want to take a top QB with our <as of now> 1st pick in the NFL draft.

However, is there any QB's as of right now that are coming out, or COULD come out, that you are going "man, we really need to get this guy"?

So far, none of the top tier QB's that are suppose to come out look impressive. that could change at the end of the year of course, but right now....eh.

as i said before, i like Lamar Jackson, but he might not even come out after this season. he might stay another year.

So are the browns just suppose to take the top ranked QB just for the sake of taking him?

Cody is expected to start against the Titans. He avoided a major injury.

Report: Browns' Kessler avoids major injury, expected to start vs. Titans http://www.thescore.com/news/1123879

replying to bonefish

Cody Kessler is not Bryan Hoyer.

Hoyer threw the ball to the enemy over and over and over. He was very lucky in that they dropped most of them but it is why I wasnt a big fan.

Cody protects the football. He consistently is leading receivers away from defenders and he has shown superb accuracy. The way he responded to Brady's long drive was a thing of beauty.

I dont know if he is the answer at QB but I want to find out what this kid has to offer before we make a major investment in the QB position. I really like what I am seeing from Cody.

this is really good news. i really think he can put up some numbers on that team.

i feel you on the size issue.

but does Watson possess the skill sets needed to be a franchise QB in this league?

I don't think the two are anything alike. Hoyer was terribly inaccurate or at a minimum his accuracy was inconsistent.

A question I'll float out to board...is Cody doing other things besides just completing passes that are not necessarily visible to the naked eye? I mean the offense really moves when he's in the game.

I don't think Kizer is ready...he's actually nowhere near ready. Watson has been quite unimpressive this year. I don't think Jackson is eligible to come out in March.

I can't see the Browns reaching for Kizer or Watson after passing on Wentz. If they thought Wentz wasn't special enough to take that early, there is no way they can say Kizer/Watson are special enough to take that early.

Kaaya is getting some good pub and there are a few "next tier" guys who very well may be better than those "top 2". And none of those guys would be even sniffed in the top 5.

I'm intrigued by the thought of us going after the backups in Denver, New England and Minnesota.


I'd rather take the highest rated defensive player with our first pick.

Myles Garrett from Texas A&M

That's pretty good news..

Oh it's terrific news. We need a wave of good news to come to sorta balance out all the negative news that's transpired. Especially when it comes to who is going to be available to play the most important position on the field, Qb.

Plus, Cody I think has played better than we all had him pegged to do. Get him reps so he can improve so yes, good news indeed he'll be a green against Titans. He'll have an opportunity to be successful as that's not a very good team.

Maybe this is the first drop of that wave of good news.

So far Cody seems to have a pretty good handle on the offense. I said last week that I think Hue does a good job of getting a lot out of his players while not asking them to do more than they are capable of. Having said that, I'd really like to see Hue start challenging Cody to get the ball downfield. I think he can do it, he's just got to get that confidence up.

From what I have seen of the college QBs Kaaya would be the only one I would look at, and not with the top pick. Go defense with our first and look at Jackson and Speight in 2018.

my $0.02

Wow.

I wonder how you could tell what Kessler's body looked like under his pads, especially with him wearing what sure looks like a flak jacket. You can easily see the outline of it under his uniform in this image from the Patriots game. Why do you feel the need to say stuff like this, with the ridiculous names, about our players? I have no idea if Kessler will be able to become a starting caliber QB or not. I outlined my concerns before the Pats game. However, his TD drive in the Pats game was a very nice drive,

Anyway, here is the image from the Pats game, showing what sure looks like a flak jacket, or, at least, rib protection.I sure don't see a "doughboy".

Unless someone other than Pryor can get open downfield, this isn't quite likely.

And he needs to challenge the Wr's too... lol

He would rather see Whitehurst than Kessler...that tells us a lot. It's classic Vers 'football talk'.

Cody Kessler takes some snaps during the Browns rookie camp. Photo via www.clevelandbrowns.com

yes, i'm on board

On board? You mean like you're on the wash board stomach Vers doesn't seem to think Cody has?

Agreed. Hoyer is better than Kessler.

Kessler reminds me more of Austin Davis.

If no QB in next years draft is standing out I think we should take the best player available. If it is that LB Garret from Texas A&M so be it. We need good D players too.

Just clicking.

What if we offered Philly's 1st round pick to NE for Jimmy G? We were likely hoping to use one of the 1st round picks on a QB. Jimmy G should have fewer question marks than someone coming out of college as he has done some time in the NFL.

I have not watched much of him in the NFL, but what do people think of him? Minny seems to be doing well with Bradford, not sure if that makes Teddy available, plus who knows how long it will be before his recovery prospects can be determined.