Irish Nation celebrated the huge recruiting win over Midwest powers Ohio State and Michigan when Brady Quinn announced his commitment to Notre Dame. His career in Blue and Gold was a record setting one, 36 of them, during his four years with the Irish. Quinn would win the Unitas Golden Arm Award and the Maxwell in his senior year, setting up what should have been a fantastic professional career.
Quinn would then be drafted 22nd overall by Cleveland, the second QB taken in a weak class (all-time bust JaMarcus Russell from LSU went 1st overall), would return to his home state and be the Browns savior. Quinn never really got an opportunity to start for the Browns, playing a total of 14 games over 3 seasons, went to Denver and didn’t get his shot there either. Finally, an opportunity in Kansas City in 2012, but a missed one which saw Quinn start 10 games but have a 2 to 8 TD to INT ratio. A few years later, Quinn was out of the league.
ESPN this morning reminisced about collegiate players whose stars shone bright but never made it at the highest level. Two of their writers, Ivan Maisel and Adam Rittenberg, chose Quinn as their player who didn’t translate their collegiate success to the NFL. Maisel didn’t just pick Quinn, but more the 2007 QB draft class with the aforementioned Russell along with the Heisman winner Troy Smith, Kevin Kolb of Houston and others. The “nine quarterbacks, none of whom threw for more than 6.033 yards or 28 touchdowns in their NFL careers,” Maisel explained. Quinn wasn’t the only prospect to underachieve that year.
Rittenberg was more focused on Quinn as opposed to the entire QB class like Maisel. “Quinn looked like the perfect NFL prospect, playing in the perfect system to prepare him for the next level and with the perfect coach in Weis,” Rittenberg remembers. The kicker here is that Rittenberg opines that Quinn’s career might have been completely different had he not been drafted by the miserable Browns. In Quinn’s time in the NFL the Browns combined to start 12 different quarterbacks, who compiled a 37-75 record and became a grave for QB’s. Rittenberg might have a point here, but even when Quinn exited Cleveland, his struggles continued.
Brady Quinn will go down as one of the all-time great quarterbacks in Notre Dame history. It would have been fantastic for him to continue his success in the NFL but that wasn’t in the cards. Regardless, fond memories of Quinn’s time in South Bend will always trump his time in the League.
