Before I get started with this post, I have one relevant piece of house-keeping that needs to be addressed.
As those of you who know me well already know, I have had a rule for years that stems from a certain golfer and his branding. Stated simply, unless it’s the name on his birth certificate, I refuse to call another grown man by the name of an animal (like, say, “Tiger”) without batting an eyelash. Hence, you will only ever hear me use the name “Eldrick Woods” in the rare instance that I’m talking about golf or the less rare instance that I’m talking about hookers, party girls, phone sex, or why marriage is a bad idea.
Why am I bringing this up now? Because as of now (well, technically as of this post a couple of weeks ago), I am extending the same rule to this week’s unofficially-official Browns starting QB: Daniel McCoy. Because the only thing that sounds more absurd than calling another grown man “Tiger” is calling another grown man “Colt.”
With that out of the way, let’s discuss what Daniel McCoy is up against this Sunday.
According to our friends at Advanced NFL Stats, the Steelers are currently ranked 7th in the league in Defensive Efficiency. As I pointed out Sunday, through their first four games the Steelers are also forcing an average of 4 turnovers per game. They are 3-1, playing at home, energized by the return of noted John Kruk impersonator Ben Roethlisberger, and collectively out for revenge to make up for their pathetic loss to the Browns in Cleveland during the home stretch of the 2009 season.
All of this is bad news for Daniel. I know it, he knows it, fans know it, other writers know it.
I’ve started hearing grumbling from “the fans” about what a terrible idea it is to start McCoy Sunday against the ferocious Steeler defense. However, their reasoning is not because it makes the Browns an even more tremendous long shot in the game than they would have been with Jake DelHomme under center. And it’s not because they’re afraid that McCoy will end up getting injured as a byproduct of his lack of experience in this particularly hostile environment.
No, the main reason I’m hearing people complain about this is because of the effect it may have on McCoy’s psyche for the rest of his career.
The argument goes like this: Daniel McCoy is a promising young quarterback with an impressive NCAA resume. Instead of rushing him into the game to try to save the Browns’ offense, he should be brought along slowly, carefully, until he’s ready to be inserted into the starting line-up with a full understanding of the offense, a full sense of how the NFL is different from the NCAA, and the best possible chance at success. He should be mentored, nurtured, encouraged, and above all else, protected both physically and psychologically.
If McCoy is thrown into the fire too soon, the argument goes, it could shatter him mentally. He could be so traumatized by his own poor performance that his confidence erodes permanently. He starts to wonder if he has the talent to succeed at the next level, and this psychological injury starts to leak into his performance. It’s a vicious cycle, and by the end of it, Daniel McCoy never reaches his full potential, which is undoubtedly as a top-shelf NFL quarterback.
After deliberating about this long and hard, I have determined that it may in fact be the biggest crock of shit I have ever heard about either football or psychology.
Look, I agree with the sentiment that this is one of the three worst teams on the 2010 schedule for McCoy to begin his NFL career against (Steelers, Ravens, Jets). I also agree with the sentiment that no one should expect him to play well. But I absolutely disagree with the notion that this game will in some broad sense make or break him psychologically for the rest of his career.
One of the main reasons I disagree with it is because of the example on which these people are basing their theory: the one, the only, Body by Quinn.
In the revisionist history of Quinn apologists, BBQ’s career was derailed by mismanagement from the coaching staff, not by his by now almost universally accepted lack of talent at playing quarterback. Gassed by McCoy’s similarly impressive win-loss record in college, these Quinn apologists fear that McCoy will be unfairly “ruined” in the same fashion, beginning with his debut at Heinz Field this Sunday.
Here’s my perspective: as far as I can tell, being a quarterback is as much mental as it is physical. To a certain extent, you either have it or you don’t.
If you’re the type of person who’s built to play QB in the NFL, you are not going to be scarred for life because you had to make an emergency start against a good defense before the team planned on ever having to play you. Conversely, if you are the type of person whose lifelong confidence can be shattered by throwing a bunch of interceptions in a game that basically qualifies as a free pass because you weren’t intended to play until at least 2011, you shouldn’t be an NFL quarterback.
Furthermore, if you’re this second type of person, then I think it’s the responsibility of the team that drafted you to figure this out as soon as humanly possible so that they can move on if necessary and find a real long-term solution at the position.
In that sense, having to start McCoy this Sunday—and in all likelihood, at least the next two Sundays after—could be one of the most valuable things the coaching staff / management could ask for. It will give them an opportunity to evaluate McCoy based not so much on how he’s progressed in his understanding of the offense since training camp, but on how he handles the adversity that will almost undoubtedly come from being brutalized for the next 2-3 games.
However, I remain steadfast in my belief that the anxious fans who fear for Daniel McCoy’s mental well-being have the causality backwards. More often than not, I would theorize, young players don’t fail ultimately because premature exposure to tough games weakens them; they fail ultimately because they were weak to begin with and tough games exposed that quality.
So when McCoy takes the field against the Steelers this Sunday, relax. It’s not going to affect Daniel McCoy’s career trajectory. Because on some level, the outcome was determined long ago.
-T
