Lets examine the qb development of a playoff-bound team - the Cleveland Browns.

Their opening day starting qb had a couple chances - after not being successful he was gone because he hadn't shown any success in the past so he received no more "benefit of the doubt" from the coaches.


On the bench was a highly touted first round draft pick out of Notre Dame who was mediocre in college at best but.....was a first round pick.

So what does Crennell do? Does he go right to the first round pick? No, he goes to the nest guy in the "rotation" - Derek Anderson.

Crennell didn't play favorites - he gave everyone an honest shot. Now the Browns are in a very enviable position.

Actually not everyone has recieved their shot yet (Brady Quinn)- Anderson is productive and valuable and now by avoiding the hype of immediately going with the 1st round pick from Notre Dame they found a gem right under their noses for a much cheaper price.

The lesson learned? You can't negate qb's abilities based purely on where they were drafted and how highly touted they were on draft day. You have to give everyone an equal shot in training camp (jut the opposite of Brian Billick in 2003) and base the starters on their actual production in camp and gametime.

Maybe Smith really sucked in practice and in camp, but in 2 minutes against scrubs in a real game, he looked much better than the high draft pick who had 40 games under his belt against the same scrubs.