If Browns coach Eric Mangini didn’t know whether his starting quarterback for Week One will be Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson, nothing that happened during the preseason finale will help Mangini make up his mind.
According to Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, neither of the two primary candidates for the job played in Thursday night’s loss to the Bears.
After the game, Mangini wasn’t talking about whether Quinn or Anderson will line up under center on September 13.
“In terms of the quarterbacks, I have no additional information on that,” Mangini said. “There’s nothing really to add.”
But Mangini also said that the competition is closed, which means that the starter (whoever it might be) will be the starter in practices leading up to the visit from Mangini’s last starting quarterback, Brett Favre of the Vikings.
“The information I have based on what they’ve done at this point is what the decision will be based on,” Mangini said.
With Quinn and Anderson held out of the game, Brett Ratliff and Richard Bartel did the honors. Kevin O’Connell likely would have joined that mix, if the Browns had been awarded the former Patriot on waivers.
But Mangini also wasn’t willing to talk about the claim made for O’Connell, either.
He called it “something internal, so we’ll leave it at that.”
Chatty guy.
Even if Mangini doesn’t announce to the world the name of his starter, it’s inevitable that, after the first practice in advance of next weekend’s game, someone on the team will blab about the identity of the man leading the first-string offense.