Mike Brown’s “Bell Cow Quarterback”

[Fan_in_Kettering]

“If you have the bell cow quarterback, it works. You have to have the key guy. If you don't have the key guy, it doesn't matter.”

- Mike Brown, 2000

"If you don't have a productive quarterback, you won't go anywhere. I know it doesn't seem that simple, but it is. He's the hub of the wheel like a queen on a chessboard. These other guys are like rooks or bishops or other pieces that are not quite as valuable. Some are more valuable than others. That's just a fact."

- Mike Brown, 1999

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Well there you go! All of you jonesing for a new quarterback in 2020 are about to get your wish because you’re in line with Mike Brown’s core beliefs. Yeah, he spouted that twaddle 20 years ago but you know he still believes it because he never changes anything.

The Bengals will take Tua Tagovailoa or Joe Burrow and Mikey Boy will think everything is coming up roses — but they aren’t.

This kind of narrow thinking created the 1999s with “bell cow quarterbacks” who never amounted to anything: Jeff Blake, Akili Smith, David Klingler and even Jon Kitna. Tua or Joe will get flattened, just like Andy Dalton and like Carson Palmer before him.

This carousel of “quarterback only” crap has to stop before Cincinnati starts to look like Cleveland.

Mike didn’t learn anything from his football genius father. Paul Brown knew a great team builds from the trenches outward. He proved it in Cleveland sixty years ago and this is the reason Cincinnati hasn’t won a playoff game since his death in 1991.