Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Brad Childress said he wants to evaluate quarterback Brandon Weedenover the course of the entire season before he forms an opinion of the rookie. That leaves seven games to make an impression. New Browns CEO Joe Banner basically said the same when he noted the organization needs to know if Weeden can be a franchise quarterback.
NFL.com and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport asked Weeden if he believed he's that guy.
"Yeah, absolutely I do. Absolutely I do," Weeden said. "If I didn't I wouldn't be here and they wouldn't have taken me in the first round to be their quarterback. Obviously, I have to play well and I have to do things to prove that I'm that guy. But, yeah, I'm confident.
"If you come into this league and you're passive and you're not a competitive guy and you don't want to take the bull by the horns, you probably don't deserve to be the starting quarterback anyway. My attitude is, I'm going to get better these last seven games. Try to continue to work on things, continue to try to help my team win games and hopefully, everything kinda works out for itself."
Weeden has been lost in the shuffle as fellow rookie quarterbacks Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III and Ryan Tannehill have dominated headlines. Neither he nor the Browns have played very well. Weeden has completed 55.1 percent of his passes for 2,088 yards with nine touchdowns and 12 interceptions. The Browns are in the hunt for the top pick in the draft with a 2-7 record.
We knew Weeden wasn't going to be an instant hit in the mold of RG3 and Luck, but much is expected from first-round quarterbacks. Weeden could help his cause by stringing together a few quality games.
Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter @kareemcopeland.
