Seneca Wallace Feels He Deserved a Shot to Start Sooner

We were oh-so-close to making it through the year 2011 without an "in-house" quarterback controversy (i.e. not related to draft prospects). Seneca Wallace put an end to that.

When backups take over for starters due to an injury, usually the quarterback responds positively with comments such as "it's unfortunate what happened [to the starter]...I have confidence in myself to lead this team though." That's not the case with Wallace though, who basically seemed to give an "it's about damn time" reaction in an interview with the Plain Dealer.

"At the end of the day, I can control what I can control," said Wallace. "Yeah, I get frustrated that, hey, I feel like I deserve a shot or I want a shot." ... Asked if he should he have a chance to compete for the starting job next season, Wallace said: "Maybe so. I don't know. I'll let you guys evaluate that."

Usually in a quarterback controversy, the fanbase is split 50/50. If we're evaluating between McCoy and Wallace, in terms of the long-term growth of the offense, I think the split would be in favor of McCoy by a significant margin (almost 90/10). I don't think fans should be surprised by Wallace's comments though; he basically said the same thing in training camp, and he has admitted in the past that he is not the "mentoring" type. If you read the entire article, you'll see where Wallace comments that mentoring McCoy was "[Jake] Delhomme's deal" and that it "wasn't his thing." Wallace's "thing" involves audibling to a run play with no timeouts and the clock running out at the end of a half.

To show just how much of a teammate he is too, the Plain Dealer published this snippet regarding an interview Wallace had on 92.3 The Fan on Thursday:

Also during his radio interview Thursday, Wallace changed his tune a little about the botched ending of the first half in Baltimore. Instead of assuming full blame for not spiking the ball as he did after the game, he put some of it on Shurmur. He said the players looked over to the sideline after tight end Evan Moore wasn't ruled out of bounds and the clock was ticking down.

"I don't know if Pat was ready to have his next call, or whatever the case may be," Wallace said. "It was just a miscommunication between us, at that point."

I still support Wallace as a backup, and I don't think teammates are going to start rallying around him as the new starter of the Browns. I do think he could warrant a starting opportunity somewhere, but it's probably not going to come in Cleveland. He signed a 3-year, $9 million contract before this season.