Brady Quinn
Brady Quinn is an American football quarterback who plays for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. Quinn was drafted by the Browns with the twenty-second overall pick of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football at Notre Dame, where he set many school records and won the 2006 Maxwell Award as the best college football player in the nation.
Quinn attended Dublin Coffman High School in Dublin, Ohio and ranked sixth on the Detroit Free Press
"Best of the Midwest" team and was listed at number 20 on ESPN's list of the nation's top 100 players as a preparatory student.
Quinn attended the University of Notre Dame, where he "shattered" 36 Fighting Irish records during his four seasons with the team. There were ten career records, twelve single-season records, four single-game records and ten miscellaneous records broken by Brady throughout those four years, including the record for career pass attempts with 1,602, completions with 929, yards-per-game with 239.6, touchdown passes with 95, and the Irish's lowest interception percentage with 2.43. Quinn also won 29 games as a starter at Notre Dame, which is tied for the most in school history. He also ranks in the top ten in NCAA Division I history in career pass attempts (ranked seventh), passing yards (ranked tenth) and touchdown passes (ranked ninth).
For his college career, Quinn also had 32 interceptions in three years. Comparing Quinn to other Notre Dame top-10 quarterbacks, that is in line with Steve Beurelein (44 in four years), Terry Hanratty (34 in three years) and Joe Theismann (35 in three years). It contrasts with other top Notre Dame quarterbacks, such as Ron Powlus (27 in four years), Rick Mirer (23 in four years), Jarious Jackson (21 in four years) and Joe Montana (25 in three years).
In 2005, under the supervision of Notre Dame's new head coach Charlie Weis, formerly of the New England Patriots, Brady blossomed as a starting quarterback. He averaged 110 more passing yards per game than he had as a sophomore while nearly doubling his number of touchdown passes, throwing 32 in 2005 compared to 17 in 2004. Quinn placed fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Reggie Bush, Vince Young and Matt Leinart. Quinn was named to the 2005 AP All-America Team as a third-team quarterback and the 2006 SI.com All-American Team as a second-team quarterback. Quinn also received the Sammy Baugh Trophy as the nation's top passer of the 2005 season.
Coming into the NFL draft Quinn was considered to be one of the top players in the country and was invited to attend the draft in person. Before the draft started, Quinn was labeled as a "franchise quarterback in the mold of Carson Palmer." He was projected to be picked in the top ten and even could have been the number one overall pick.
While many suspected the Browns would select Quinn with the third pick, Quinn fell to the 22nd pick in the draft.
After an initial holdout, Quinn signed a five-year deal with the Browns worth a reported $20.2 million, with $7.5 million guaranteed. He could make up to $30 million with incentives. Quinn's 10-day absence from training camp had all but ensured he will not win the Browns' starting job. Quinn's first NFL action came in the 4th quarter of the second game of the 2007 preseason. He was 13/20 (65%) for 155 yards and 2 touchdowns.
On September 11, 2007 starting quarterback Charlie Frye was traded to the Seattle Seahawks for a sixth round draft pick, moving Quinn to second on the Brown's depth chart behind Derek Anderson. On December 30, 2007, when Anderson hurt his pinky and wrist, Quinn made his debut in the Browns' final game of the season against the San Francisco 49ers. Although there was speculation that the Browns would trade Anderson to get back into the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft, Browns' general manager, Phil Savage, later stated that he hoped to sign Anderson, and keep both quarterbacks for the 2008 season.
Brady's sister, Laura, is married to A. J. Hawk, a linebacker for the Green Bay Packers and a former All-American at Ohio State. He is a second cousin to Zachary Ty Bryan, who starred as Brad on the television show Home Improvement. Quinn graduated from Notre Dame with dual degrees in political science and finance, and currently resides in Dublin, Ohio, but during the Browns season resides in Avon Lake, Ohio.