With the Browns at 0-1 after an ugly opening loss, and with starting quarterback Robert Griffin III on injured reserve, and with all the future draft picks the team has stockpiled, should they just tank this season?
Josh McCown, now the starting quarterback with Griffin out, knows people are suggesting that. But he’s offended by it and he says every single player on the team is focused on beating the Ravens on Sunday and winning beyond that.
“For us to just sit back and say, ‘Yeah, this is the year that we’re gonna tank’ and all that, for a player that’s not our mindset at all and that’s not our expectation, and it fires me up when people say that,” McCown said today on PFT Live. “It fires me up and makes this task even greater. We embrace the opportunity to go out there and maybe do something that people don’t think we can do.”
McCown said the older players on the team are showing the younger players the right way to compete, and that’s about preparing to win now, not preparing to win in 2017 and beyond.
“For me and the other veterans on this team, a Hall of Famer like Joe Thomas, that can’t and won’t be the mindset,” McCown said. “Our mindset is to compete and play to win football games. The rest of that is down the road, but our mindset is to compete.”
The Browns don’t look like a team that will be very competitive, but McCown is looking to surprise people this year, not confirm that they’re playing for next year.