A lot of people probably haven’t noticed this but I have.
Don’t you remember the 2007 Cleveland Browns? Well, let’s start from the beginning. The Browns drafted a hot shot quarterback in Brady Quinn. The Browns expected him to be a huge star towards the squad, now that their other two quarterbacks didn’t meet their goals with the franchise (Charlie Frye and Tim Couch).
After a successful career in college, Quinn was drafted 22nd overall by the Browns and they looked to have a future with him. It didn’t look a quarterback battle would be decided but Romeo Crennel insisted on it because he thought Derek Anderson had something in him.
He was coming off an okay year but they decided to use Anderson and Quinn in a battle for the starting job.
Derek Anderson won of course and the city of Cleveland also knew that Quinn was the second-stringer due to the fact that he may learn something from D.A. With Anderson at starter, fans were questionable about the 2007 Cleveland Browns’ season.
But the fans were impressed with Anderson’s abilities as he built a team around superstars like Jamal Lewis, Lawrence Vickers, Braylon Edwards, Kellen Winslow, and Joe Jurevicius.
The Browns went on towards a 10-6 record and the city of Cleveland smelled a playoff berth for the first time since 2002 when they went 9-7.
The Browns didn’t make the playoffs, because of the Tennessee Titans 17-14 win over the Indianapolis Colts to guarantee Tennessee a playoff berth. If the Colts had won that game, the Browns would have their first playoff berth since 2002.
The Browns didn’t get it. But now here we are looking at the same exact thing with the New York Jets. I can literally see this happen. Let’s check out the comparisons with this.
Well, Kellen Clemens was coming off a pretty bad season as he had zero touchdowns and one interception for 26 yards including a 34.2 quarterback rating. He did play some games in the 2007 season, however, and did pretty good filling in for Chad Pennington in some games.
Let’s compare that with Derek Anderson before he started the 2007 season. Anderson was coming off a pretty bad season and did start some games. He had five touchdowns and eight interceptions for 793 yards with a 63.1 quarterback rating.
The comparison is a pretty similar, don’t you think? And people are still questioning Kellen Clemens this year by saying he could start or not. That is exactly what happened with Derek Anderson in 2007.
See that?
Now let’s check out the first round draft pick. Well for the Jets, they picked up Mark Sanchez as their fifth overall pick and they expect Sanchez to be the starting quarterback this year and be the future of the franchise.
Now let’s compare that to the 2007 Cleveland Browns.
Well, the Cleveland Browns drafted Brady Quinn 22nd overall in the 2007 NFL Draft, looking to have a future franchise quarterback for the years to come. They looked at him as the next best quarterback since Trent Dilfer to lead their franchise to some wins.
So you see where I am getting here.
Now let’s check out their weapons, starting with the running backs. Let’s see what the Jets have this year, for running backs.
The Jets already have two decent backs to use: Thomas Jones and Leon Washington. The Jets also picked up a star from Iowa, Shonn Greene, to be a helpful back with Thomas Jones to make a one-two punch while Washington is looking for a new contract and probably might just be a return specialist for the team.
They also have a respectable running back in Danny Woodhead who is considered as a “speedy” back and looks to become a punt returner towards the squad.
Now let’s compare that to the Cleveland Browns.
Well, after struggling to find backs after looking at Lee Suggs and many other players, they have finally found a running back in Jamal Lewis, picked up from the Ravens and was a player part of the 2,000 rushing yards club.
Then there was Jerome Harrison and Jason Wright to help out Lewis (now that he was aging) and they did a solid job at it.
It’s very similar, yes, I know.
Let’s get to the other weapons of the offense, like wide receivers.
The New York Jets have five guys to throw to help them out on offense. One you can name right off the bat: Jerricho Cotchery. He has been great last year
and looks to become the leader of the receivers.
Then you got Brad Smith and Chansi Stuckey who are improving and look to become stars on the offense in the future. And then the two tight ends that’ll help out greatly: Bubba Franks and Dustin Keller.
Now let’s compare that to the 2007 Cleveland Browns.
The Browns also have five good guys to throw to. Two you can name right off the bat: Braylon Edwards and Joe Jurevicius. Then you got Tim Carter who looks to help the offense greatly and here comes Josh Cribbs, who was a standout at quarterback in college but wanted to be a receiver in the NFL. He is also a dangerous returner.
Then you got the son of the Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow: Kellen Winslow II. He is a great tight end but has been experiencing injuries.
Look how close these comparables are!
Now let’s see the quarterback battle.
The Jets have a battle between Mark Sanchez and Kellen Clemens. Sanchez got a pretty big deal, biggest in NY’s franchise history, so he looks to become a starter anyways. Not really. Sure, he performed well in the OTA’s but my blog reported that the coaches say that if they were to start a quarterback right now, it would be Kellen Clemens.
And why wouldn’t they?
They have to because Clemens has learned from the best: Brett Favre and Chad Pennington. They have improved his game greatly and I don’t think he’ll give it up. Give Sanchez a year off so he can learn from a kid that has some
experience.
Now let’s compare it to Cleveland.
The Browns had, obviously, a battle between Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn (and with Ken Dorsey, no, just kidding). Many fans believed in Quinn but Anderson was named the starter. And why wouldn’t he?
He spent his first two years doing nothing but learn from Dilfer and Frye and he probably got a little better at least. He was named the starter and didn’t let anyone down.
Comparable, right? I think so.
So now you get what I am seeing. I don’t want to go any further because both of these defenses are pretty similar (they also both have a 3-4 defense as well).
I expect the Jets to go 11-5 this season with a new coach in Rex Ryan who’ll improve the defense greatly with a new additions like Bart Scott (duh). I think Kellen Clemens will be named the starter and he will not let people down.
Hopefully, he might not end up like Derek Anderson, who is still in competition with Quinn again this year and now has lost his faith with the team.
Kellen Clemens might have about 2,000 to 3,000 passing yards and about 15-25 touchdowns and about ten-to-20 interceptions this year.
It’s going to be an exciting year for the Jets this year, and hey, they may end up like the 2007 Browns with so many close comparisons.
Hopefully, they’ll make the playoffs.
And with what I wrote, I may actually be right.
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