BEREA, Ohio -- Charlie Frye went from starter to starting over, and Brady Quinn moved up a notch.
In two days, the Cleveland Browns' complicated, confusing and crowded quarterback carousel took a dizzying spin.
Frye, benched before halftime in Sunday's season opener, was traded to Seattle for a sixth-round draft pick on Tuesday, a stunningly swift move that raises Quinn, the Browns' high-profile rookie QB, to No. 2 on the depth chart.
With Frye no longer in the picture, the Browns will start Derek Anderson, who lost the quarterback competition to Frye during the preseason, at home on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Quinn, the heir apparent, will be Anderson's backup.
"This move obviously clarifies our quarterback situation," general manager Phil Savage said with a straight face.
"Some people think we're doing some kind of experiment, but we're not. We're trying to win and unfortunately things got derailed Sunday before it even got started."
Cleveland's trade of Frye is unprecedented. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he's the first quarterback since the NFL/AFL merger in 1970 to start his team's season opener and be traded before Week 2.
The Browns, embarrassed 34-7 by the Pittsburgh Steelers in their home opener, will go into Week 2 with three quarterbacks; only one of them, third-stringer Ken Dorsey, has won an NFL game.
Savage said starting Quinn has been discussed, and that the former Notre Dame star could soon be under center.
"I think there is a feeling that he's certainly closer to being ready to play," Savage said. "We want to be able to give him a full gamut of plays and give him a chance to have some success. I don't know if that happens in two weeks, four weeks, six weeks.
"The important thing in the big picture is that we develop Brady Quinn in the right way. That is the most important thing that we have to do this year and that's what we're trying to do this year. And, win."
Frye was dealt less than 48 hours after playing horribly and being pulled in the second quarter by coach Romeo Crennel. A former third-round pick who grew up rooting for the Browns in Willard, Ohio, Frye beat out Anderson during a drawn-out competition that began during the offseason and carried through the preseason.
Less than two weeks ago, Savage said, "Let's see what Charlie can do with a full deck" this season.
It took less than 20 minutes on Sunday for the club to decide Frye was no longer in its future plans.
He went 4-of-10 for 34 yards with an interception - a QB rating of 10.0 - and was sacked five times before Crennel yanked him. Savage was most troubled by Frye's inability to get rid of the ball.
"Sunday, we needed to see more production," Savage said, "and probably the most revealing thing of everything that happened Sunday was that in his 10 attempts (actually 15), he took five sacks and in Derek's 28 attempts (actually 29) he took one sack."
Savage praised Frye for the way he handled two-plus turbulent seasons with the Browns, who are just 40-89 since 1999.
"He came into a very tough situation," Savage said.
Frye fills a pressing need for Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who had been looking for a backup for quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. Seneca Wallace filled that role in Sunday's opener against Tampa Bay, but Seattle would like to use him as a wide receiver and punt returner as well as a backup QB.
Frye is excited about a chance to resurrect his career.
"I am now looking forward to a fresh start and a new set of challenges," said Frye, who went 6-13 as Cleveland's starter. "I know the best of my career is still ahead of me."
Savage insisted that dealing Frye and shuffling the quarterback deck was not a knee-jerk reaction.
"We really haven't changed our plans. We've adjusted," he said. "We had two tracks. One track had Charlie and Derek over here, and one track had Brady over here. We've still got one quarterback on that track.
"We've got a guy (Anderson) who has started some games, whose got a big arm and who has shown some potential. We've got a future franchise quarterback (Quinn). We've got the veteran mentor (Dorsey) and we've got a sixth-round pick for another guy. I think we've maximized what we had on board here at that position."
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
