LINK

"9. I think we need to get one thing straight about the future of the Cleveland Browns (and I know they're on their bye week, but this just has to be clarified because people keep getting it wrong), and that's the contract impact of quarterback Derek Anderson. You'll recall Anderson signed a three-year, $23.85-million contract. The report is true, but the way the contract was structured makes it much less onerous than the money figure seems -- and much less dangerous if the Browns decide to part ways with the struggling Anderson after this year.

The Browns gave Anderson a $7 million signing bonus this year, plus a salary of $950,000 in 2008. In 2009, he's due a roster bonus of $5 million if he makes the team, with a salary of $1.45 million. In 2010, he's due a roster bonus of $2 million if he makes the team, plus $7.45 million in salary. So Anderson makes $7.95 million this year, and if the Browns cut him after the season, the contract will be null and void and the team won't owe him anything. The only remnant of the deal with be a $4.67-million salary-cap charge on the Browns' 2009 cap, the amount of the pro-rated signing bonus assigned to the last two years of the contract for accounting purposes.

I understand there's great excitement about Brady Quinn in Cleveland, but he's totally unproven, and the washout factor for first-round quarterbacks is in the 50-percent range. So here's my question: If I told you that you'd have to re-sign a quarterback who threw for 3,787 yards and 29 touchdowns in 15 games last year and whose contract had expired, and I told you that you could lock up him up for three years, with only one of the years guaranteed at $7.95 million, and you could cut him after a year and owe him nothing more, wouldn't you have thought that a good deal? I would."

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Hmmm... Interesting

That puts the whole deal in perspective.

I have said this repeatedly and it is good to find a credible article backing my opinion.

This is why we won't trade Quinn until the offseason...if we trade him at all. This can only go two ways.

1) DA regains his impressive 2007 form and the FO feels he is the future of this team. We shop BQ in the offseason and get a first or second rounder for him.

2) DA keeps playing like crap and he eventually (not sure when) is replaced by Quinn. Like the Frye situation, once BQ takes over there is no going back. BQ takes the reins and we pray he is the QB we all think he can be. The NFL knows he has a hefty roster bonus due in March so we either trade him for a lower draft pick or other teams wait it out until he gets cut before the bonus is due.

There is no possible way we go into 2009 with DA and BQ on our roster.

That is interesting, thanks for sharing that info. Now, if this is true, what does this mean if DA keeps struggling?

On another thread, someone asked "What if DA has a terrible first half, then what?" My intitial thought was "The network goes to halftime, the Browns go to the locker room, most browns fans yell at the tv (or in person) some nice obscenities, and hair dog gets up to get another bottle of jack and take a leak.

However, with this bit of information, I am now more inclinded to wonder: "what the time frame is in Savage's head to give BQ a shot to see which side of t he 50% he will be on?" Cause waiting until next pre-season to find out what we have in BQ, doesn't sound logical to me either.

But that information is interesting. Not sure if that means we will see BQ again before pre-season 2009. Doubt it.

This would fit nicely in the thread already discussing the signing.


http://brownschat.clevelandbrowns.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4731011/m/121102481