ChiefsPlanet - Football Browns, Bucs & Lions. Is this shit real?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcaj22 (Post 10328665)

as in? Chud didn't like him but the Patriots Frauds high up in the office are in love with him (I know Lombardi is, dude had a lovefest for Hoyer when Lombardi was on the NFL Network). Was there a push-pull conflict over that?

If that's the case, that FO is a joke.

Here's the longest take on it that I've seen.

Quote:

The QB in the middle: Hoyer, in my opinion, is a major figure in this tangled web.

Everyone knows that Lombardi was a famously enthusiastic advocate of Hoyer while biding his NFL purgatory with the NFL Network.

When Lombardi successfully acquired Hoyer in May, Rob Chudzinski and Norv Turner already had pretty much committed the entire offseason to readying Brandon Weeden as the starter for the season and Jason Campbell as the fallback option.

In training camp, Hoyer was cast aside by the coaches as the third quarterback. On occasion, Hoyer was banished to a faraway field to throw to the rookie free agents. In my opinion, that cavalier attitude toward Hoyer – not taking him seriously as a viable starting option, ostensibly because he was Lombardi’s “boy” -- was a crucial error in judgment by Chudzinski and Turner.

From that point on, the only thing that would save them was a good year, meaning a good enough record to avoid any sane reasoning for dismissal.

As it happened, circumstances put Hoyer in the lineup in Game 3 – first game after the locker room-deflating trade of Trent Richardson. When Hoyer sparked the team and beat the Vikings, and then followed with a victory over Cincinnati the next week, the stakes rose immensely for the coaches.

Hoyer’s resurgence – as brief as it was – affected many things.

First, it saved face for Banner and Lombardi on the Richardson trade. The spark lit by Hoyer focused attention away from the trade and on winning. Had the team not won immediately, players would have fallen victim to the obvious feeling outside the locker room that the front office had tanked the season to set up 2014. Hoyer played a monumental role in keeping together the room.

Second, Hoyer’s stellar play legitimized Lombardi’s “genius” with Banner, and more importantly, with Haslam, who had his doubts.

Third, Hoyer’s spark hurt the credibility of Chudzinski and Turner with their bosses. A couple weeks after Hoyer’s season ended with an ACL tear, Turner reflected, “Brian’s production really surprised us.”

What I would give to be a fly in the owner’s box when Lombardi discussed that comment with Banner and Haslam as the coaches kept trotting Weeden and then Campbell out there, game after miserable game.

One question always baffled me: Why did it take so long for the Browns to bring in another quarterback after Hoyer went down? My conclusion: Banner and Lombardi must have looked at the coaches and shrugged: “You guys had Hoyer No. 3. Now go ahead and win with your No. 1 and No. 2.”

When I asked about the coaches’ handling of the quarterbacks, Haslam chuckled and turned to Banner. Banner’s response strained credibility. “I don’t have any second guessing of their utilization and teaching of the quarterbacks and the order that they played them in,” he said.

Now, does anybody believe that Haslam and Banner would trust the coaches further on franchise-changing quarterback decisions after whiffing on Hoyer? Not with Lombardi reminding them of it.

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