I
have always been fairly impressed with the skill,
poise and leadership I have seen from Josh McCown the past couple of years.
Apparently Dennis Green and the Arizona Cardinals, two entities much more
qualified to make these evaluations, don’t see it the same way.
After looking
through stories, stats and the history of decisions with the QB by Dennis Green
and the Cardinals organization, I have to respectfully say, I think they made a
mistake.
Josh McCown was the 4th QB taken in the 2002 draft. The same slot that Mark
Brunell, Eric Hipple, Jay Schroeder and Joe Montana occupied in their respective
drafts, so the slot is not completely without success.
His ability to step up
and deliver when the pressure is on was shown early in his career when he
completed a 28 yard TD pass on 4th down with no time left on the clock, to knock
the Vikings out of the playoffs, in only his 3rd start.
Dennis Green was brought in and publicly gave his support to McCown as the
starter of his club. "McCown can be like Brett Favre; he reminds me a lot of
Favre," Green said of the former Sam Houston State athlete. "He is a tremendous
athlete, 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, with 4.6 speed and a vertical leap of 39
inches."
Well, Josh "Favre" McCown was benched 9 games later. No question he
struggled early, in a brand new offense, but he went 4-2 in the final 6 games
before the benching, throwing 6 touchdowns against only 2 interceptions.
After 3 starts by the
other two quarterbacks, where the Cardinals went 0-3, Green decided the team was not
better off without McCown and inserted him back into the lineup. Josh McCown
responded by going 2-2 in the final 4 games, one of which he was responsible for
4 touchdowns.
So McCown, who finished his second straight season leading his team to a
win, in a meaningless game against a superior opponent. He was two games removed
from an all-pro performance and won 6 of his last 10 starts. McCown was also moved aside for
Kurt Warner.
In 2005 McCown was put in the starting lineup for 6 games. He
finished 3-3, averaged 280 yards a game with 63% of his passes complete and
Warner gets the big contract. And some people feel Harrington got the short end
of the stick in Detroit.
After looking at the numbers and accounting for previous mistakes by Green,
releasing Brad Johnson and Rich Gannon, I am firmly under the belief that Green
may have made another mistake just to get "his guy" in as the starting QB.
With Green being Coach and GM, I don’t think he
had any desire to win with someone else’s "guy" front and center. It kind of
takes the "shine" off of the accomplishment of getting the Cardinals back to the
playoffs if you didn’t personally select the trigger man that made it possible.
