Cleveland signed Josh McCown to a three-year deal worth $14 million. The assumption at this point is that he’ll be their starting quarterback. Whether he can play well enough to keep that job or win many games, well, we’ll see.
Throughout his career, McCown has been plagued by a tendency to the ball up for grabs. Only twice in his career has he finished a season with more touchdowns than interceptions. I’ll grant that McCown was outstanding two years ago in Chicago, with 11 TDs and only one interception in the five games he started. But everything around him was perfect that year. He was working with two big, talented receivers, and the offense was rolling.
He doesn’t have that in Cleveland.
McCown was a disaster in Tampa Bay, going 1-10 as a starter and turning the ball over 18 times – 14 interceptions and 10 fumbles (4 fumbles lost). On a per-play basis, he turned the ball over a lot more often than anybody else.
Good enws for this year is that the Browns have a much better offensive line than the Bucs. That will help him. But McCown’s well-documented track record is that he tends to try to force the ball into areas where it simply doesn’t fit.
Over the last 10 years, 55 quarterbacks have started at least 30 games. Only four of those guys have averaged more interceptions per game than McCown.
QUARTERBACKS: Interceptions Per Game | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rk | Player | St | Yards | TD | Int |
1. | Jeff Garcia | 35 | 199 | 1.00 | .46 |
2. | Colin Kaepernick | 39 | 210 | 1.28 | .54 |
3. | Russell Wilson | 48 | 207 | 1.50 | .54 |
4. | Aaron Rodgers | 103 | 274 | 2.18 | .54 |
5. | Tom Brady | 145 | 271 | 2.03 | .63 |
6. | Robert Griffin III | 36 | 224 | 1.11 | .64 |
7. | David Garrard | 73 | 208 | 1.16 | .70 |
8. | Alex Smith | 105 | 195 | 1.13 | .71 |
9. | Donovan McNabb | 82 | 248 | 1.41 | .73 |
10. | Steve McNair | 36 | 203 | .94 | .75 |
11. | Jason Campbell | 79 | 207 | 1.08 | .76 |
12. | Sam Bradford | 49 | 226 | 1.20 | .78 |
13. | David Carr | 36 | 159 | .78 | .78 |
14. | Chad Pennington | 47 | 203 | 1.04 | .79 |
15. | Peyton Manning | 144 | 280 | 2.18 | .79 |
16. | Joe Flacco | 112 | 228 | 1.32 | .80 |
17. | Michael Vick | 74 | 203 | 1.26 | .81 |
18. | Trent Edwards | 33 | 175 | .79 | .82 |
19. | Kerry Collins | 50 | 205 | 1.04 | .82 |
20. | Matt Ryan | 110 | 256 | 1.65 | .83 |
21. | Ben Roethlisberger | 145 | 251 | 1.61 | .83 |
22. | Kyle Orton | 82 | 216 | 1.22 | .83 |
23. | Philip Rivers | 144 | 254 | 1.74 | .84 |
24. | Marc Bulger | 60 | 220 | 1.08 | .85 |
25. | Matt Schaub | 89 | 260 | 1.42 | .87 |
26. | Tony Romo | 123 | 268 | 1.94 | .87 |
27. | Cam Newton | 62 | 233 | 1.32 | .87 |
28. | Ryan Tannehill | 48 | 234 | 1.31 | .88 |
29. | Shaun Hill | 34 | 217 | 1.32 | .88 |
30. | Andrew Luck | 48 | 270 | 1.79 | .90 |
31. | Trent Green | 30 | 219 | .97 | .90 |
32. | Tarvaris Jackson | 34 | 177 | .94 | .91 |
33. | Matt Cassel | 71 | 208 | 1.27 | .92 |
34. | Vince Young | 50 | 173 | .88 | .94 |
35. | Christian Ponder | 36 | 172 | 1.00 | .94 |
36. | J.P. Losman | 33 | 170 | .88 | .97 |
37. | Matt Hasselbeck | 100 | 219 | 1.27 | .97 |
38. | Drew Brees | 159 | 297 | 2.14 | .98 |
39. | Jake Delhomme | 63 | 205 | 1.17 | 1.00 |
40. | Kurt Warner | 57 | 268 | 1.68 | 1.02 |
41. | Carson Palmer | 130 | 249 | 1.58 | 1.03 |
42. | Andy Dalton | 64 | 231 | 1.55 | 1.03 |
43. | Derek Anderson | 45 | 196 | 1.16 | 1.04 |
44. | Jay Cutler | 119 | 233 | 1.54 | 1.09 |
45. | Joey Harrington | 32 | 192 | .91 | 1.09 |
46. | Eli Manning | 160 | 242 | 1.58 | 1.10 |
47. | Matthew Stafford | 77 | 282 | 1.70 | 1.10 |
48. | Ryan Fitzpatrick | 89 | 208 | 1.30 | 1.11 |
49. | Mark Sanchez | 70 | 204 | 1.16 | 1.11 |
50. | Josh Freeman | 60 | 228 | 1.33 | 1.12 |
51. | Josh McCown | 33 | 211 | 1.30 | 1.12 |
52. | Chad Henne | 53 | 223 | .96 | 1.13 |
53. | Brett Favre | 93 | 238 | 1.42 | 1.18 |
54. | Rex Grossman | 41 | 214 | 1.24 | 1.29 |
55. | Jon Kitna | 45 | 249 | 1.29 | 1.31 |
—Ian Allan