Brady Quinn on Browns’ LB corps: ‘Can I say it’s the best in the AFC North?’

Now that the Cleveland Browns have acquired Mychal Kendricks, their linebacking corps has gone from good to, arguably, great.

That’s what former Browns quarterback and SiriusXM Blitz co-host Brady Quinn believes.

‘Between Jamie Collins and Christian Kirksey and now you add in Mychal Kendricks?’

As he pointed out to co-host Bruce Murray, the free-agent signing of Kendricks, who helped the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl, could very well give the Browns an edge over their linebacker-rich AFC North opponents.

“Their linebacking corps might be … can I say it’s the best in the AFC North?” Quinn said. “Between Jamie Collins and Christian Kirksey and now you add in Mychal Kendricks? It is weird to say … I mean, don’t get me wrong. (Cincinnati’s) Vontaze Burfict is one of the best linebackers in the NFL. Now, that being said, then you’re saying, ‘OK, (are Bengals) Nick Vigil or Jordan Evans, whoever’s at that strong-side linebacker spot, or Preston Brown, better than what Jamie Collins has shown or Christian Kirksey or Mychal Kendricks?’ Probably not. I think those three outweigh that.

‘As much as C.J. Mosley’s a stud, you’re kind of looking at the other couple spots and saying, ‘Yeah, Cleveland’s got actually a better starting linebacking group than anyone else in the AFC North.”

“I don’t even know if you put Pittsburgh in the conversation after they lost Ryan Shazier. And then the last one you could even consider, obviously, is the Baltimore Ravens. I think as much as C.J. Mosley’s a stud, you’re kind of looking at the other couple spots and saying, ‘Yeah, Cleveland’s got actually a better starting linebacking group than anyone else in the AFC North.'”

Quinn pointed out that it has been “quite some time” since the Browns had a group of linebackers worthy of such praise.

‘I don’t know that we’ve had the same type of group like the Browns have now when you look at all three potential starters’

“I’m partial to guys like (former Browns linebackers) Andre Davis or D’Qwell Jackson, who both were great when they played,” he said. “But I don’t know that we’ve had the same type of group like the Browns have now when you look at all three potential starters and what that could look like. Now, taking all of that into account, I don’t ultimately know what that’s going to mean. Maybe it will equate to more wins. Does it equate to enough wins? We’ll have to wait and see. But it definitely does look as promising as we’ve seen probably in a decade.”