Going to Jason Campbell Makes Sense, but Not This Week
By Peter Smith
After being unwilling to make a statement as to who would start for the
Browns
at
quarterback
on Monday,
head coach
Rob Chudzinski
announced today that
Jason Campbell
would get the nod this week.
Brandon Weeden
has been nothing short of a disaster this year, but Campbell comes into an extremely difficult situation. The Browns running game is inconsistent to put it kindly, but the larger issue is the opponent the Browns play this week; the
Kansas City Chiefs
.
The Chiefs have far and away the best defense in the NFL right now with star power at every level of the defense that has allowed them to hold opponents to just 11.6 points per game. With Dontari Poe turning himself into a bonafide star, Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali and Justin Houston able to make plays at the linebacker spots and a talented secondary including Brandon Flowers and Eric Berry, the Chiefs have shown to be a team that can clamp down on the run and put an enormous amount of pressure on opposing passers. In addition, they also have a knack to be able to cause turnovers.
The Chiefs have yielded a season high of 17 points. There are people who going to be critical of the schedule the Chiefs have played, but they only surrendered 16 points against the Dallas Cowboys. They are 3rd in pass defense, giving up 194.7 yards per game. The Chiefs are tied with the Seattle Seahawks for the league lead with 19 takeaways with 10 fumble recoveries and 9 interceptions. They are leading the league with 35 sacks as a team, which is 10 more than the team in second place.
Nevertheless, the Browns opt to go to their third different starting quarterback this year and while there is likely no successful combination available, they are trying to find some sort of spark. The idea of switching to Campbell makes a ton of sense, but if the goal is to have him in a position to look better than Weeden, this is probably not the best week to do it.