As Mike Holmgren enters his first offseason with the Browns, one of his biggest question marks is what to do at quarterback. With the way head coach Eric Mangini couldn’t make a decision regarding the position last year, Holmgren will have to decide whether or not to get rid of Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson, if not both and completely start over under center next year.

Holmgren recently spoke about the topic on WKNR earlier this week:

“Right now, I don’t know the situation quite well enough. I’ve been busy doing other things. Everyone knows that position is the most important position on a team. Is the quarterback of the Browns here already? Maybe. If not, then we’ll have to go free agency or draft. We’ll see.”

That doesn’t sound like a man that’s settled on any decision, making the quarterback position an interesting dilemma this offseason for Holmgren and the Browns.

Quinn was an utter disaster earlier in the year before Mangini replaced him with Anderson. But the unthinkable happened and Anderson was actually worse than Quinn was, forcing Mangini to once again start the first round pick.

Much like the entire team, Quinn played better down the stretch and actually looked like he started to gain confidence. But for the second time in two years, Quinn finished the season on IR after he suffered a season-ending foot injury in a win over the Chiefs late in the year.

Holmgren is making a wise decision by not committing to either quarterback, seeing as how neither of them have stepped up and grabbed the reins of the position. Chances are that Holmgren doesn’t view either of them as the long-term answer at quarterback and therefore, he might look to draft or acquire a signal caller this offseason. If he drafts a QB, he could part with either Quinn or Anderson and have the other one start until the rookie is ready to play.

We’ll see how Holmgren approaches this topic over the next couple months.

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One game doesn’t define a player’s potential or future, and neither do three games.

That said, I’m intrigued by the play of Brady Quinn these past three weeks, especially considering how brutal he looked on Monday Night Football against the Ravens four weeks ago.

In his putrid effort that fateful Monday night, Quinn couldn’t even keep the ball in-bounds on desperation heaves down the field. He struggled with accuracy, turnovers, decision-making and everything else that comes with being a quarterback. He was awful, brutal, terrible – atrocious. He was so bad that I even wrote this in my recap of the game:

Brady Quinn is bad, so bad that it’s safe to say that he has zero chance of becoming anything resembling a decent starting quarterback in the NFL.

Ouch.

Since that point, however, Brady has thrown seven touchdowns and zero interceptions over a three-game span. Thanks to Jerome Harrison taking over the starting running back duties and Cleveland’s use of the no-huddle offense, Quinn has been solid. In fact, he’s looked like a completely different quarterback than he did earlier in the season.

But alas, here comes another prime time opportunity for Quinn, and against another division rival no less. The Browns take on the Steelers tonight – a team that has a habit of making quarterbacks look silly. Granted, this isn’t the same Pittsburgh defense we’re accustomed to seeing and its loss last week to Oakland proves that. But this is a team in desperate need of a win after losing four straight, and is trying to keep their fading playoff hopes alive.

It would be nice to see Quinn continue to develop his craft. If he is turning the corner, then he’ll need to prove that he can have success against a tough opponent in prime time. Again, one game doesn’t decide anything. But confidence and consistency mean so much to a young quarterback, so his performance tonight is bigger than one would think.

I’m neither a Browns nor a Steelers fan, but here’s hoping the kid puts on a good show tonight.

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