Midnight Meanderings: Thoughts on Brady Quinn

I was there. I saw the Cincinnati preseason game in the flesh. I witnessed the pregame warmups and watched Josh McDaniels pace the sidelines in his classic  Broncos hoodie. I gazed upon Tim Tebow as he broke his ribs, diving for a garbage time touchdown in a meaningless contest.

What I didn't see that night, however, was where Brady Quinn showed ability to be a starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Take away the fact that he was 6 for 16 and an INT. All you need to remember was his pocket awareness. Brady was "aware" that he was in the pocket, but that's about it. 

Granted, that was the first preseason game of 2010. It was early. Brady Quinn did progress throughout the fall. Heck, he even threw a touchdown pass during week 4 of the preseason, on his way to a 103 quarterback rating. Quite an improvement. He was very "2009 Ortonesque" in that regard. Whether that's good or bad is up for debate.

The last thing I want to do with this article is to step out and say that Brady Quinn is incapable of developing into a starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Maybe this article will even inspire him to take his play to another level? Far be it from me to decide that a player can't or shouldn't do something. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Von Miller would be a bad fit for the Broncos. Guess who is a Denver Bronco, now?

I don't claim to know it all. I will say, however, that I'm very skeptical that Brady Quinn is our best option at quarterback, right now. Regardless of what side you take for the Orton/Tebow debate, I think that almost all of us would agree that we'd put either of those two quarterbacks ahead of Quinn. He's a forgotten man, at this point. We're talking about a guy that's just a year and a half removed from being benched by the Cleveland Browns. Yes, the Browns... After starting the first 3 games of the 2009 season, Brady Quinn had 3 INTs, 2 fumbles and only 1 TD pass. Derek Anderson took over the role for a few weeks, but when he lost 3 of 4 games, Brady Quinn regained the starting role.

We can debate Tebow versus Orton until we're blue and orange in the face (and many of us have, over the past few months), but I can't recall a single "Brady Quinn should be our starter" post on MHR lately. If someone did write a post on that, I apologize in advance...

But back to the subject at hand.

I'll believe it when I see it. Mort says that Fox and Elway are open to having Brady Quinn start. That's fine, but eventually we'll have to get down to brass tacks. One of these three quarterbacks will start in a few months. Handicapping the field, at this point, is all speculation because of the lockout. For what it's worth, I'm leaning towards Tim Tebow starting, at this point, but I wouldn't be shocked to see Kyle Orton under center. If Brady Quinn beats both players out during the summer, I won't be mad, but I'll certainly be surprised. 

Brady Quinn the Broncos starter? When John Elway tweets it, I'll believe it. But even then, I will question whether or not it was a result of a twitter hacking.