Weeden on Tipped Passes: "You Can't Really Work on It"

Cleveland Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden appeared on "NFL AM" Wednesday morning to discuss a few topics, including new offensive coordinator Norv Turner, how comfortable Weeden is with the new offense, and how much of a weapon running back Trent Richardson and tight end Jordan Cameron will be in 2013. You can watch the entire 7-minute interview here on NFL.com.

Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal transcribed Weeden's quotes from the interview. One of the interviewers asked Weeden about the staggering number of passes he had batted down as a rookie (he led the league in that category). Here is how Weeden responded:

"You really can't work on it. It's something that if you think about it all the time, it will probably create more problems. I think there are a lot of reasons they happen. One being me patting the football, which I've talked about is one thing I've worked on this offseason to get rid of the habit of patting the football before you release it. That just gives those guys an extra half a second to jump up and bat it down.

It's just a part of taking three-step drops from under center, as well. When you are under center you are not very far from the line of scrimmage and you are trying to throw over guys that are 6-4, 6-5, with long arms. You've got to throw it through the windows. Unfortunately, it happened last year. I don't know why, but I'm going to do my part, whatever I got to do to throw around those guys to make it happen."

Batted passes certainly hurt Weeden and the Browns' offense in 2013. He is a pretty tall guy, so his height can't be used as an excuse for having his passes knocked away. Weeden is right that you really can't practice avoiding tipped passes, since they usually happen in the spur of the moment. Norv Turner will surely be offering suggestions to Weeden on the general areas of his game that can be improved, which, when combined together, could reduce the number of tipped passes in the process.