Brandon McDonald will get another chance to start at CB for the Cleveland Browns with Brodney Pool out of commission. McDonald has played in 11 games for the Browns this season and he has 43 tackles, 2 tackles for a loss, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble and he has defensed 7 passes. Michael Adams will return to strong safety to replace Pool. Adams has played in 11 games this season and he has 41 tackles, 2 tackles for a loss and 5 passes defensed. The defense will likely suffer some without Pool unless McDonald steps up.

With Shaun Rogers out of action for the rest of the season it will be up to 23-year old Ahtyba Rubin to replace him.  He is a big guy at 6′2″, 330 pounds but he hasn’t shown much to this point in his career.  Rubin has played in 11 games this season for the Browns and he has 24 tackles and 1 forced fumble.  He has now played in 22 games in his NFL career and he has 35 tackles and he has forced 1 fumble.  Rogers’ injury does not bode well for the Browns’ D.

Anyone who saw the Browns game last week has to be a little bit excited about the play of Brady Quinn.  Sure, you can say it was just against the Lions but that doesn’t change the fact that he completed 21 of 33 passes for 304 yards with 4 TD passes and 0 INTs (133.1 QB Rating).  He has now played in 6 games this season for the Browns and he has completed 80 of 141 passes (56.7%) for 812 yards with 5 TD passes and 5 INTs (70.4 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 11 times for 39 yards (3.5 ypc) so far this year.  Quinn proved last week that if given time he can be effective throwing the football.  He has now played in 10 games in his NFL career and he has completed 128 of 238 passes (53.8%) for 1,375 yards with 7 TD passes and 7 INTs (68.5 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 16 times for 60 yards (3.8 ypc) in his career.  The Browns hope that last week was the beginning of a long, productive career for Brady Quinn but only time will tell.  After all, he’s not playing the Lions this week.

32-year old WR Mike Furrey might not be a game breaking WR for the Browns but at least he catches the ball if it hits his hands.  Furrey has played in all 9 games for the Browns this season and he has caught 21 passes (leads team) for 151 yards (7.2 avg) with 0 TDs.  He has also returned 1 kickoff for 12 yards, has 4 tackles and he has defensed 1 pass.  Furrey is not a threat to stretch the defense but he has good hands and runs solid routes so Brady Quinn should be looking for him a lot the rest of the year.  Furrey has now played in 87 games in his NFL career and he has caught 219 passes for 2,279 yards (10.4 avg) with 7 TD grabs.  He has also returned 23 punts for 213 yards (9.3 avg) and 21 kickoffs for 387 yards (18.4 avg) in his career.  Furrey can also play some safety if the Browns need him to.  He has 78 tackles, 9 passes defensed and 4 INTs (1 returned for a TD) in his career.

I was not too happy when I learned of the signing of 30-year old TE Robert Royal last summer.  He has never been a good pass catcher which is what the Browns need at that position.  Still, he has been pathetic this season and he needs to start catching the football when it hits him in his hands.  He has played in 7 games for the Browns this season and he has caught a whopping 9 passes for 100 yards (11.1 avg) with a TD.  I would have no problem with the Browns ripping up his contract at the end of this season unless he has a huge second half.