Our very own Fantasy Football novelist Chris Fries brings you something new this week that he has decided to call called Bursting Out. He will take a long hard look at one player who has jumped into the fantasy scene and give us some more in-depth info on that player.

This week he has taken a look at the new phenom QB in Cleveland, Derek Anderson.

(1) Forum Discussion

On draft day 2007, the Cleveland Browns created a huge buzz by passing on Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn with the third overall pick. Then, they did it again later in the first round by trading with Dallas to move up and select Quinn with the 22nd pick. For many more picks than had been expected, Quinn waited.

It took a little longer than most had expected, but it still seemed like a perfect fit – Quinn is an Ohio native and a long-time Cleveland fan, and the Browns looked desperate for an elite young quarterback they could rebuild their franchise around.

As soon as Quinn was drafted, the speculation began about when the new rookie would start. When Quinn took a ten-day hold-out as part of contract negotiations at the beginning of training camp, it tempered most expectations that he would start immediately, but Quinn was still seen as the franchise Quarterback-in-waiting. It was just a question of how short that wait would have to be.

In the opening game against the Steelers, after much waffling by Head Coach Romeo Crennel, the Browns chose to start Charlie Frye at QB. It was a disaster. Frye was pulled from the game after completing only 4 passes out of 10 erratic attempts for just 34 yards. In that brief role as the 2007 starter, Frye had to endure five sacks, an interception, and disgruntled Cleveland fans chanting, "Brady, Brady, Brady!"

The day after that opening loss to Pittsburgh, many fantasy-football sources were citing that the Brady Quinn era was coming:
 
“ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports the Browns are giving serious thought to naming Brady Quinn their starter and that it could happen in the "near future."

Mortensen says the original plan within the organization was to wait until the Browns' Week 7 bye to install Quinn, but…his time could come much sooner. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Quinn in there for Week 2 versus the visiting Bengals.”

It looked like the wait for Brady was going to turn out to be a very short one.

And now, just five short weeks later, the Browns seem to indeed have a young starting quarterback who is winning games with his arm; earning praise from fans, coaches, and sports analysts alike; maturing and improving each week; and rallying the team behind him.

But no, it’s not Brady – young Master Quinn is still waiting.

After Charlie Frye’s debacle in week one, the Browns shipped him off to Seattle for a sixth-round pick, and rather than throw Quinn to the wolves too soon, they chose instead to bide their time for a while with the guy who had filled in after Frye had been pulled – Derek Anderson. In his first start in week two against the state-rival Cincinnati Bengals, Anderson did something totally unexpected: He gave the Browns a win. But even more amazing was the way he won. Leading Cleveland to a 51-45 shootout victory, he threw for a very un-Browns-like 328 yards and five TDs, with only one interception.

He’s had ups and downs since, but each week he has showed signs of continued growth, and going into the bye week, the woeful Browns are a respectable 3-3 and coming off a victory over the Miami Dolphins where Anderson completed 72% of his 25 passes for 245 yards, 3 TDs, and zero interceptions.  Previously unheralded and little-known Derek Anderson has now somehow managed to complete 55% of his passes for 1,496 yards and notched 14 TDs (and ran for 2 more) in six games, and most amazingly, kept the Brady-birds in the dog-pound noticeably silent.

Wide Receiver Braylon Edwards, who is arguably the player who has benefited most by Anderson’s play and who has grown right along with him, has noticed the improvement in his quarterback. “He’s continuing to get better every week, every quarter, every practice.” Edwards says. ''He's coming in with more confidence in himself. He's on the same page with the receivers and tight ends, and he's allowing himself to play.”

So just who is Derek Anderson?

Born Derek Matthew Anderson on June 15, 1983 in Portland, Oregon, Anderson grew up in the small town of Scappoose in northwest Oregon and as a high school QB, led his team to three consecutive Class 3A state championships.

Anderson went on to Oregon State where he set a Beavers record of 4,058 passing yards in the 2003 season. He is second player in Pac-10 history to throw for over 4,000 yards in a single season, and holds Oregon State records for 11,249 career passing yards and 79 career passing TDs. As starting QB, Anderson also led the team to a 55-14 Las Vegas Bowl win in 2003, aided by junior running back star Steven Jackson.  

The following year the Beavers defeated Brady Quinn and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 38-21 in the 2004 Insight Bowl, with Anderson throwing for 359 yards, 4 TD passes, and no interceptions. The Cleveland Browns sidelines is not the first place that Quinn has had the opportunity to watch first-hand as Anderson won a game with an amazing performance.

Drafted by the Baltimore Ravens as a compensory pick at 6.39 in 2005, Anderson was the last QB to hear his name called other than Ryan Fitzpatrick (7.36). Anderson went well after other QB’s Alex Smith (1.01), Aaron Rogers (1.24), Jason Campbell (1.25), Charlie Frye (3.03), Andrew Walter (3.05), David Greene (3.21), Kyle Orton (4.05), Stefan LeFors (4.20), Dan Orlovsky (5.09), and Adrian McPherson (5.16).

His time with the Ravens was very short --he found himself waived 1n September 2005, but he was signed by the Browns the very next day.  With the Browns, Anderson had to do his own waiting. He initially served as an un-used backup, and never saw the field in the regular season until his second year. His first game finally came against the Broncos on October 22nd, 2006 after starter Charlie Frye was briefly shaken up -- Anderson took all of one snap.

Again it took a Frye injury for Anderson to get any snaps, and it came during the December 3rd 2005 game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Given that opportunity, Anderson played the second half, threw two TDs, and helped lead the Browns to an overtime win.

All told, Anderson played in 5 games in 2006, starting three of them while Frye was injured. He completed 66 of 117 passes (56.4%) for 793 yards, and threw 5 TDs and 8 INTs. Not a great first year of NFL stats, but many observers thought that Anderson at least provided a spark that offered the Browns more of a chance to win than Charlie Frye.

But again, Anderson had to wait. This time it was much shorter.

Although Frye again got the start in 2007, it FINALLY became painfully apparent to Coach Crennel shortly into the first game that Frye was not the solution. Don’t you think he could have figured this out during OTAs, training camp and preseason? Now five games further into the season, Anderson is looking more and more like that answer. In last week’s game against the Dolphins, Anderson achieved a season high in passer rating (142.5) thanks to three TD passes, all to Braylon Edwards, with no interceptions.

Anderson is also learning to wait a bit in the pocket – He seems less and less likely to force throws, and is improving in both maturity and awareness. Says Crennel of the Dolphins game, “A couple times, he threw the ball away. That’s a sign of good decision-making, that’s a sign of maturity, and we need to keep that going.”

Watching his progress, some star-struck observers are even starting to mention that other sixth-round-pick-to-NFL-icon, Tom Brady.

Crennel backs off from those kinds of comparisons. “You go week to week. It’s too early to say he’s Tom Brady, or Tom Brady-like, or anything like that. He’s gotten an opportunity and he’s running with it.” But then he adds, unconvincingly, “I knew he was capable. It’s not really surprising.”

Not surprising???

Of course it is. It’s unusual, unexpected, and totally surprising to most fans, players, and coaches alike, and there’s no point in denying it. Plus, it’s damn fun to watch, too.

Ability, opportunity, and continued improvement – it’s a winning combination in the NFL, but one where all the pieces are not totally in the control of the players. That “opportunity” is the killer. Sometimes players wait, and then suddenly the stars align and everything converges at once. Anderson spent 2005 in waiting mode, and now in 2007, seems to finally have all three pieces coming together. He also appears determined to make the most of the chance.

Meanwhile, first-round pick Brady Quinn finds he is the one in waiting mode. He goes from being a dog-pound chant and the topic of all the “when…?” questions Crennel was bombarded with in early press conferences to being the guy quietly watching on the side-lines holding the clipboard, unexpectedly given a little more leisurely development path.

How does Brady feel about waiting and watching? “It’s a lot easier when (Anderson’s) playing like that,” Quinn says. “I’m a team player.”

So, for now, Brady’s doing the waiting, Derek’s carrying the weight, and just like in that 2004 Insight Bowl, Quinn is again watching from the sidelines while Anderson has great games.