A Beginner’s Guide to Kevin Hogan

It was clear after seeing Charlie Whitehurst’s feeble attempts to run the Brown’s offense that changes needed to be made in the backup quarterback position, especially seeing as this is the Browns and they go through quarterbacks faster than Bill Belichick goes through Microsoft Surface tablets. Whitehurst was cut this morning and the Stanford rookie Kevin Hogan was elevated from the practice squad.

The 6’3’’, 218 pound Hogan quarterbacked the Stanford Cardinal following the departure of Andrew Luck and equated himself rather well at the college level, achieving high levels of success against fairly notoriously weaker Pac-12 defenses. If you haven’t seen Hogan play in college, his strength is his short throw accuracy (led the Pac-12 with a 76.7 completion percentage) and is a good enough runner to pick up some tough yards when needed. He didn’t lose his head in big game situations and found ways to win close games at Stanford. Hogan lost a close 2014 Rose Bowl to Michigan St and two seasons later led the Cardinal back to the Rose Bowl in 2016, winning handedly against a talented Iowa Hawkeyes team. This was Hogan’s final collegiate performance and easily the biggest win of his career. By the end of his four-year run at Stanford, Hogan accumulated over 9,000 passing yards, 75 passing touchdowns and 15 rushing touchdowns.

That being said, there’s a reason he was on the Browns practice squad. Cut by the Chiefs before the regular season began, Hogan sat at fifth on the KC depth chart behind Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray and had little in game opportunity to prove himself in the preseason. While physically gifted, Hogan’s throwing mechanics and footwork are supposedly poor. His deep ball was also known to be a weakness in college, and with the speedy receiver duo of Pryor and Coleman the deep ball is an essential part of the Brown’s offense.

This decision says a lot about the direction of the Browns. Whitehurst was admittedly terrible, and bringing up an unrefined talent like Hogan to work with coach Hue Jackson (who’s strength seems to be coaching up quarterbacks) shows that the Browns are dedicated to building a roster with young talent. This is a far cry from the patch that was bringing in the veteran Whitehurst, and it’s a step in the right direction for the Browns, regardless of how Hogan actually turns out.

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