How would you like to earn more than $100,000 for sitting on the bench?
That’s the position Cleveland Browns’ rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden found himself in for the team’s final preseason game.
Coach Pat Shurmur decided that the rookie starting quarterback was too valuable to risk him getting injured before the regular season starts.
Huh?
I had to rewind the show I was watching to make sure I had heard that correctly. Even after watching it again, I still didn’t believe it.
While it’s not unheard of for NFL players to sit out the final preseason game, especially quarterbacks, sitting a rookie quarterback who has yet to throw a single touchdown pass in his career is beyond ridiculous.
Tom Brady and Peyton Manning did not play in their teams’ final exhibition games either, but they are both future Hall of Famers with years of NFL experience and Super Bowl rings.
Weeden hasn’t even attempted 50 passes in the NFL preseason.
So a rookie with no touchdown passes, a completion percentage below 50 percent, and less than two full preseason games under his belt is too valuable to risk getting injured?
Are you kidding me?
It’s not as if Weeden will have a long career to learn how to be an NFL quarterback. Being drafted at age 28, he will have six fewer years than the average signal caller to master his craft.
He’s already missed one-third of a career. He simply doesn’t have the time to waste sitting on the bench.
So if Weeden is already starting behind the curve, why pass up an opportunity to help him catch up?
Weeden doesn’t have a huge contract to worry about. He wasn’t the team’s top pick in the draft. He wasn’t even the first quarterback taken, or the second, or even the third. He was the fourth quarterback taken in the 2012 NFL draft.
He is also the only quarterback taken in the first round who hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass in the preseason.
Sitting a rookie quarterback who hasn’t proven himself yet isn’t protecting an asset, it’s robbing him of an opportunity to gain valuable experience before the games actually count.
Weeden has a four-year contract worth $8.1 million. Spread over 80 regular and preseason games that is an average of $101,250 per game.
That’s an expensive benchwarmer.
