We Tigers said:
I don't know whose posts you're reading, or why you're ascribing to me arguments I haven't made. As stated, I am firmly in the "draft Jordan Cameron!" camp, but I don't think that makes him a "lock" for TE5.
Weeden was a rookie last year, anyone who has already written him off based off his rookie season where he set a club record for passing yardage and highest QB passer rating for a single game has an issue just as people who would automatically write off a player due to them being from a certain team who they don't follow and really don't know about.
I don't really care about anomalous metrics like "best rookie QB rating in a single game for this franchise" when evaluating a player. I think he may improve in his second year, especiallynwitj better coaches, but I also think he's closer to a finished product than other 2nd year players due to his age, and I haven't been impressed with him.(As a sidenote, I don't know what passer rating stat you're looking at where Weeden has the best of anything. Just looking at recent history, Colt McCoy had a better overall passer rating his rookie year, and a better single game, too. I don't think he was a very good pro QB either.)
You brought up the history of the team as if it had bearing on the player TE Jordan Cameron. It doesn't.
Then you shift to QB Brandon Weeden and bring up a stat on average per pass play as if its written in stone, its not.
In Weeden's first game he had the lowest QB passer rating in club history and many wrote him off after that first game. The next week? He had the highest rookie QB passer rating in club history so those who lept off the ledge looked foolish for their knee-jerk, premature, over reaction.
If you think Weeden's low average per pass is significant then you are discounting the following which lead directly to that statistic that you feel is not anomous.
Last year's HC Pat Shurmer was hand-picked by former team president Mike Holmgren because he was a West Coast deciple. Shurmer's WCO is built on short-horizontal dink-and-dunk passing plays. Weeden is a big strong armed QB. His skill set did not it fit. The Browns O-Line has the best OLTs, C, ORT, and two solid guards, it is one of the best pass protecting offensive lines in the league so their strongest attribute of pass protecting was wasted in a WCO with quick drops and short passes. Not only did the WCO fail to take advantage of Weeden's and the O-Line's strongest skill it failed their big-tall-athletic WRs like Greg Little (6'2 215 lb) and Josh Gordon (6'3 225) who fit the vert-stretch routes better where their height and speed and athleticism are tailor made for that system.
Add that Weeden was a rookie, RB Trent Richardson was a rookie (first time in the NFL that both the QB AND the RB started their carreers in the same game) add RT Mitchell Schwartz was also a rookie starting his very first game. Then factor in that WR Josh Gordon started after the first three games and that WR Greg Little was in his second year as a starter which meant the entire skill positions of the Browns were manned by rookies or second year guys.
The position hampered the most by rookie skill position mistakes would be the QB adding to the difficulty of his own rookie learning curve. The cherry on top is the team was transferrring ownership which meant the coaches and the front office were all lame ducks and that pressure and uncertainty trickled down to the players especially after Team President Mike Holmgren left the team in the middle of the season after the ownership was approved by the rest of the NFL.
New owner Jimmy Haslam brought in Joe Banner who fired the entire staff and top personnell people the minute the season ended and they hired new coaches, GM, OC, DC, etc. The guy they hired to revamp the offense is Norv Turner whose philosophy is the polar opposite of Holmgren/Shumur's WCO..
Norv Turner is one of the best OCs in recent NFL history and he runs a vertical-stretch offense which fit the personnel of the Cleveland Browns to a T.
TE Jordan Cameron came in three years ago as a very raw rookie TE making the transition from a college basketball who only had 12 college receptions. He had low production his rookie season and many thought he was learning and that he could make a leap last year but last year he was overshadowed by veteran TE Ben Watson. Jordan did improve on is production but faded into the background and never really stepped up. Some saw his low production as a sign he was not being aggressive enough but I observed he would make a great play and the trend was soon thereafter he'd come up limping or strain something and be limited for a few weeks until the cycle would start over.
Already in mini-camp he pulled up lame with a hammy. Not a good sign IMHO.
My take is Jordan Cameron has to prove he is durable. He might step-up since he's got the skill and now he has a golden opporunity but from my perspectie as someone who closely follows the team and knows the player and his stiuation the major obstical that I've seen holding him back from him having solid production is durabilty.