Even Romeo Crennel admits trading Trent Dilfer to
San Francisco Thursday means Charlie Frye is the starting quarterback for
the Browns. Crennel usually says all jobs are wide open.
Charlie might have a leg up, just to let you know," Crennel
said.
General Manager Phil Savage agreed.
I think this certainly thrusts Charlie a step up the ladder,"
Savage said before the first practice of minicamp began Friday afternoon.
"Romeo and I talked about that in terms of if we make this move, Charlie is
our guy unless Dorsey comes in here and just wows us.
Charlie deserves it. He's worked extremely hard this spring.
He's been here sun up to sun down. I think the players have gravitated to
him being the leader of the team on offense. We don't play for another four
months. At this point it's deserving to say, going forward, he's the No. 1
quarterback."
Dilfer was traded to the 49ers for backup quarterback Ken Dorsey
and a seventh-round pick in the 2007 draft. It means the quarterbacks for
2006 are Frye, Dorsey and Derek Anderson. At this point Savage has no plans
to go after another quarterback.
Jeff Blake, Shane Matthews, Tony Banks, Jay Fiedler and Kerry Collins are some of the quarterbacks available.
They're unemployed for a reason," Savage said.
Savage said he knew before the draft Dilfer would probably be
traded but that it did not affect the draft plans. He also said the Browns
would have done nothing differently in free agency.
Nine quarterbacks have changed teams since free agency began
March 1. Most of them are backups. The best of the bunch is Drew Brees, who
went from San Diego to New Orleans and Jon Kitna who went from Cincinnati to
Detroit.
Dorsey was a seventh-round draft choice by the
49ers in 2003. He played in 12 games with 10 starts over the last two
seasons. He completed 171 of 316 passes for 1,712 yards, eight touchdowns
and 11 interceptions.
"When (Dorsey) has some time, he can make some
throws," Crennel said. "When he didn't have protection, he got killed. He
made some bad throws. When they gave him time, he was able to stick the ball
in and make some plays."