The Great Browns QB You Forgot About

Cody Kessler is not a name you remember, but he was the lone bright spot in some dark days for the Cleveland Browns.

Sports media has this odd tendency to forget/ignore stories once they're no longer contemporary, even if they're prudent to modern discourse. Very recently, I've come across a good example of this.

The above is a video from the football YouTube channel KTO discussing Hue Jackson's coaching tenure with the Cleveland Browns that ran from 2016-8. There is no debate that the Browns were awful under Hue, but KTO presents the situation, specifically in 2016, as if Cleveland's QB play was a massive issue throughout.

This irks me, because unlike most people, I have the ability to both remember and prove that this is wrong.

Before I get into this, I want to make clear that this is not a diss towards KTO. If I meant this as a diss towards his video I wouldn't have promoted it at the top. The man is out there video editing and speaking and making money, and doing all of it very well I might add. It's not his duty to do in depth research on the 2016 Cleveland Browns. That would bother me considering the video is (partly) about the 2016 Cleveland Browns, but I'm smart enough to know that the quality of the research isn't what YouTube is about.

Fortunately, it is what I'm about, so let me fill you in on the forgotten man in all this.

Cody Kessler was a third round pick in 2016 for the Browns, coming out of USC. He was also hand picked by Hue Jackson to be his personal pet project. He loved what he saw out of the young man, despite his consistently low aDoT (average depth of target) numbers for a USC team filled to the brim with weapons. In a 2016 draft featuring Jared Goff (a top five QB in the league in 2022), Carson Wentz, Dak Prescott (both top five QBs in the league at one point), and even Jacoby Brissett (who's had some good moments, read here for detail), Hue Jackson picked Cody Kessler. Why is this?

Kessler was regarded as the most accurate QB in his class, even on contemporary draft boards. The main thing holding him back was his lack of ability to air the ball out, but Hue saw this as a fixable problem. As we've seen over the years, you can turn a low aDoT guy into a high aDoT guy. For example, when Tom Brady went from New England to Tampa, his aDoT went from a merely respectable 7.8 yard average depth to a very long 9.2 yard average depth in order to fit into Bruce Arians' offence.

So Tom Brady can do it. That's not exactly a fair comparison. What about a regular NFL QB. Can just anybody make that transition?

That's a fair question, but the answer is still yes. Andy Dalton went from a 7.9 yard aDoT in 2014 to a nine yard aDoT in 2015 (coincidentally enough, also under Hue Jackson), and was rewarded with the best season of his NFL career. If even Andy Dalton is too high of a level for you, then how about Blake Bortles? Blake went from a very short seven yard aDoT in his rookie season to a much better 9.2 yard aDoT in his second, and as a result got much better.

I think the point is proven. You can turn a short aDoT guy into a long aDoT guy. Therefore, with a third round pick in the 2016 Draft, Hue Jackson gets his passion project. This was seen as a massive reach at the time, and considering that Cleveland had the number two pick and did not draft Wentz (instead electing to trade back), reaching for a QB in the third round had Browns fans more than a little bit upset.

None of this is on Cody Kessler. Cody is just an unassuming guy from Bakersfield, California, who until being drafted had never even owned a car. He knows that, despite being the coach's pet project, he has no realistic chance to start any games in 2016. Last season's starter (and a pretty good one), Josh McCown, is still here, and even he'll have to compete for the starting position with the Browns having brought in Robert Griffin III over the offseason to be the team's prospective starter.

This leaves Cody in the awkward position of being virtually ensured a roster spot (due to being a third round pick), yet having almost no chance to actually dress in any games. Of course, not all active players on an NFL roster actually dress for the games, and Cody (penciled in as the third QB) is a prime candidate for inactive status.

I have to wonder if he looked longingly across the league towards Dallas, where Tony Romo had his injuries and Dak Prescott (recall, drafted later than Cody) got the week one start. This would have been an amazing spot for a high accuracy, low mobility QB like Cody to parachute into, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Nevertheless, Cody will not have to wait very long for his turn.

After RG3 is taken out of week one with the shoulder injury that will end his time as a NFL starter, Cody is already onto the active roster in just the second week of his pro career. He gets to stand on the sideline as Josh McCown fights tooth and nail with an always difficult Baltimore team, but in the second quarter it becomes clear something isn't right. After scoring on their first three possessions to take a 20-3 lead, Cleveland struggles to move the ball for the final three quarters of the game. The same McCown who'd completed two passes of more than 30 air yards in the first quarter now will not attempt any. Something is off.

After the game, it comes to light that Josh McCown has broken his left (non-throwing) collarbone, and he will be joining RG3 on the injured reserve.

Cleveland has gone through two QBs in two weeks, and the same Cody Kessler who'd talked so openly about the impossibility of himself competing for the starting job has now won it by default. In fact, Cleveland is going to go into Miami for week three with no backup option. It's Kessler or nothing.

The 2016 Miami Dolphins are going to go 10-6 on the season, but they're not that good of a football team. The 8.34 expected wins that they'll finish the season with are a much better barometer of where this team actually is. It's a reflection of the lack of belief in the football world in the talents of Cody Kessler that the Browns come into this game as ten point road underdogs. It's almost never that you see such a wide spread in favour of a team so okay like the 2016 Miami Dolphins, but here we are.

People holding the majority belief may have considered themselves vindicated when Kessler's first drive as a pro sees a delay of game penalty before his very first play, one fumble recovered by Cleveland, and then a second fumble which they lose. It's perhaps the worst series to open a QB career in NFL history, and it couldn't have happened at a more tenuous time.

You see, when I told you Cleveland wouldn't be bringing a backup, I wasn't being entirely truthful with you. They do have a backup QB option, and they immediately go to him.

Terrelle Pryor happens to play for the 2016 Browns. Like Cody, Terrelle was also drafted in the third round to play QB. Like Cody, Terrelle also could've been called on to save the sinking ship that is the 2016 Browns' QB situation. The problem with all of this is that Terrelle also happens to be the best WR on the Browns.

That's right. Cody's backup option is a former QB that's converted to a receiver, and just so happens to be the best receiver on this squad, and Cody's first drive was so bad that Hue Jackson, the same coach who loved him so much coming out of USC, immediately pulls the plug.

The Browns go to a wildcat Kolb-Vick style setup with two real QBs on the field. On the second series, Pryor accounts for 50 yards. Kessler accounts for five as the Browns miss a field goal. The third goes better for Cody. It sees him playing QB for all but three snaps as this time the Browns make their field goal try, and from here the wildcat experiment is over. Cody will play the rest of this game.

By the time Cody sees the field again (a pick six keeps the Cleveland offence off the field for six full minutes) we're at the two minute mark, and the score is tied at ten. Cody changes this by completing two passes for a total of 35 yards to Pryor, before the drive is scuttled and held to just a field goal by an offensive holding penalty.

Coming out of the half, Cody has another solid drive. He overcomes a false start penalty and a sack (taken by Pryor) to get the Browns in position for another field goal try (which will also be missed).

By the time we get to the fourth quarter, the score is 24-13 for Miami. Cleveland is staring down a six percent estimated Win Probability (WP). This is bad for the Browns, but Cody is finally able to get his Browns going with a 25 yard completion to Pryor and a 28 yard completion to Ricardo Louis. Unfortunately, this is where it all goes bad for him.

On a third and seven deep in Miami territory, Cameron Wake goes offside in order to deliver a brutal hit. This is before the unblocked to the QB whistles, and so this is a horrendous hit that Cody did not feel coming. The Browns do finish the touchdown drive without him to make the score 24-21, but Cody has to go into concussion protocol.

Somehow, he clears and is able to come back into the game, but the drive is three incomplete passes and a punt. On the next touch, Cody is again struggling, but he is able to complete a 40 yard catch and run with Pryor that sets the Browns up to kick the game tying field goal to even the score 24-24.

From here, both offences trade failures back and forth in order to end up with a Ryan Tannehill strip sack on his own 27 at the 20 second mark. Cleveland now has the ball in prime position to win with a field goal, but Cody Parkey misses his third attempt of the day to send this game into overtime. In the overtime, Cleveland's drive is scuttles again by a holding penalty, and that's the only touch they get as Miami scores a touchdown to win this game 30-24.

This was not a great game out of Cody Kessler. In all, he generated zero EPA/Play, but when you take into account that this was his first career start, and that two weeks ago he thought it impossible that he was going to start, and that Cleveland were ten point underdogs, and that his top receiver had some of his headspace preoccupied by also having to play quarterback, then this game doesn't seem so bad.

The 2016 Dolphins' defence won't set the world alight but they will finish up with the league's 11th ranked pass defence. This wasn't an easy spot to throw a third round rookie into, and although he did not shine he didn't embarrass himself either. Next week, the Browns get to go to Washington to contend with their much more accommodating 27th ranked pass defence.

This time, there will be no Terrelle Pryor playing QB. Only Cody Kessler will attempt passes, but there's a new difficulty on the other side. For the first time in his young career, Cody will have to look across the field at an elite QB on the other side, because Washington comes equipped with 2016 Kirk Cousins.

Kirk is well on his way to having the best season he'll ever have (as of yet) in 2016, and he makes quick work of the porous Cleveland defence. Washington sees just two third downs in the whole of the first quarter en route to entering the break with a 14-0 lead.

Unlike last week, Cody is up to this challenge. He begins the second quarter with an eleven play touchdown drive that sees just one third down, and after a Cousins interception he gets the ball in the end zone again to even the score at 14. After Washington uses most of the second quarter driving down the field to take a 17-14 lead back, Cody spends the final two minutes evening the score back at 17 as both teams go into the locker room for the half time break.

How about Cody Kessler? I understand this is the Washington Redskins, and their defence is nearly as bad as Cleveland's, but it takes real guts to look on the field and see one of the league's best QBs out there destroying your guys and to go out there and respond in kind. It's not an easy thing to do to come back from a 14-0 deficit against anybody, especially so against this Washington offence that's going to rank fifth in 2016. Lesser men (and most QBs Cleveland has ever had) would've immediately folded to this pressure, but not Cody Kessler.

In fact, Cody finds a lead with another field goal drive to begin the second half. He even finds himself with the ball and the 20-17 lead, with a chance to go up two possessions (absolutely imperative against an offence as good as Washington's). He's seizing on this chance too. The ball is all the way down to the Washington nine yard line when the bottom falls out.

In an event that can only happen to the Browns, Cody Kessler's coming out party is ruined when Malcom Johnson takes what will turn out to be the only rushing attempt of his NFL career and fumbles it on the nine yard line. Washington responds with a touchdown, and instead of taking a two score lead and putting his team in a strong position to win, Kessler is put in position to again have to come back, this time in the fourth quarter.

He never even gets a chance as each of Cleveland's two plays in their response are rushing attempts, one of which is fumbled by Duke Johnson. The defence finally comes up with a stop, and so Kessler gets one more chance, at 6:37 of the fourth quarter down by four points. These situations where NFL QBs are forged, and as Cody drops back into the pistol he proves that he is an NFL QB.

Because all QBs make rookie mistakes.

Cody tries to force a slant pass to a blanketed Terrelle Pryor, and it doesn't work out. It's an interception into the arms of Josh Norman. Two minutes later and it's 31-20 for Washington, and this game is over.

People are quick to blame Cody Kessler for this loss, but just remember where he had this Cleveland team. He had them in position inside the ten yard line to be able to take a 27-17 lead before Malcom Johnson made his rookie mistake. He had them in a position to be sporting a 70 percent estimated WP in the second half of a game they came into as eight point underdogs.

He generated 0.14 EPA/Play (which is tough to do around an interception) and cemented himself as a competent starter to be able to hold down the fort until McCown gets back, at the very least. It's possible that their jobs will be gone before they can get back if he continues playing this well.

Through all of this I haven't mentioned that he went up against one of the league's best QBs and essentially fought him to a draw. I know people now like to meme on Kirk Cousins and act as if he was never that great, but this is Washington Kirk Cousins. Even if you buy into that 'primetime Kirk' stuff, this is an afternoon game in September against Cleveland, so we're good on that front. He is that great, and on this day Cody Kessler was able to match him at every step. This is an exceptional thing for a third round rookie QB to do. In modern terms, this would be like Will Levis coming into a game this season and matching throw for throw with Trevor Lawrence. To picture that in your mind is almost inconceivable, but Cody did it today.

Unfortunately for Cody, week five will not be a repeat. The Browns finally get a home game, but they're hosting the New England Patriots, and their fifth ranked pass defence. The Patriots have Tom Brady back (fresh from four game deflategate suspension), and his prey is our poor Cody Kessler and his Cleveland Browns.

The Browns get the ball to start, but after three plays (just one touch for Cody) the ball is going back to the Patriots. Of course, they easily score against this awful Cleveland defence, so now the onus is on Cody to match wits with an elite QB for the second week in a row.

Amazingly, he does. He does not (and cannot against this Patriot defence) make it look as easy as Tom made it look, but with an 11 yard pass here and a 14 yard pass there the Browns eventually find themselves in the end zone. The Patriots of course score easily again, and this time their kickoff team even manages to pin the Browns on their own 12. This should be the drive where it all falls off for Cody, and it is.

Another rookie mistake, as an incomplete screen pass rolls all the way out of the side of the end zone for a safety, meanwhile Cody gets hit very hard. In this exchange, Cody comes up holding his shoulder, and all Browns fans sigh in disappointment as their man that'd just gone blow for blow with Kirk Cousins is now jogging into the locker room. He will not be back as the Browns go on to lose this game 33-13.

The Browns try both Charlie Whitehurst and Terrelle Pryor, but neither can come close to what Cody was doing as the Browns score just six points in the rest of this game. In his nine touches, Kessler managed to generate 2.8 total EPA. In 35 other touches for Browns' QBs, that figure is -3.7. It's never been clearer that Cody is the guy. In fact, Whitehurst will be released after this game, and Pryor won't play any more QB this year.

Me and all the other Kessler appreciators mourn another career day that could've been but wasn't due to his circumstances, and the Browns have to move onto week six.

Week six sees the Browns going to Nashville to take on the Tennessee Titans. After a period of breath holding while they figured whether or not Cody would be able to play, it's determined that he is able to go, and this is great news, because the Titans are another defence that Cody can exploit. They'll finish the year ranked 24th in pass defence.

Although their fourth ranked rush defence may put some pressure on Cody to perform, nothing will give him more fits than Cleveland's own defence. If you haven't figured it out by now, the Browns' defence is a ragtag bunch consisting of almost all new acquisitions for this season, and it's not coming together well at all. They're last in total defence, last in pass defence, and better than just one team at rush defence. In short, whatever a team wants to accomplish, they can get it done on Cleveland, and it's up to their offence to match.

Needless to say, this is not optimal, considering the best available QB option has three starts under his belt, one of which he couldn't even finish. This is hardly fair to Kessler. The man who just four weeks ago was expected to spend his time watching and learning from Josh McCown is now expected to go out on the field and win shootouts with the top guys in the league? Unfair may be an understatement, but nobody ever said the NFL is a fair place. Those who rise to the top are those who can take their unfair situation and spin it to their advantage.

For the past few weeks, we've been waiting for a game to really show out and prove to the NFL world that he had arrived. In week six, we're finally going to get that. We're finally going to get the performance where Cody Kessler shows the world that he is for real. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to week six.

True to form, this game begins with the Titans scoring a touchdown on their first possession, overcoming third and 15 and third and 11 to do it. Cody responds with a 43 yard pass and not much else, but this one throw is enough to generate a field goal for the Browns. A 39 yard DPI penalty serves the same purpose on the next possession as Cleveland gets another field goal to narrow the score to 7-6.

From here, everything goes quiet, as Cody takes nearly a whole quarter to complete his next pass. This is not ideal against one of the worse pass defences in the NFL, but give him a break. It's only his fourth career start after all. Meanwhile, the Browns fall behind 14-6.

Near the end of the second quarter, the Cleveland offence finally comes to life. The same Cody Kessler who couldn't complete a throw just minutes before now cannot miss as Cleveland walks straight down the field, seeing just one third down en route to a touchdown and a 14-13 score as we go into half time.

I'll be frank with you. Cody really looked like a rookie in the first half, much more than he did against Washington a couple weeks ago. This does not mean that he didn't show flashes of brilliance. It is a one point game after all, but this kind of inconsistency will not work with the NFL's worst defence on the sideline behind you. Again, this is not fair. Other rookie starters would have far more leeway than this to make mistakes, but it is the truth.

Coming out of the half, Cleveland's drive is ruined by an offensive facemask penalty on the very first play. This is not on Cody, but the next touch that consists of an incompletion, a sack, and a meaningless completion is very much on him. Next comes another drive soured by penalties. After that comes another drive soured by Cody's ineptitude. We're now into the fourth quarter and Cleveland's offence hasn't seen a single first down in this half yet. Didn't I say this was going to be Cody's career game?

Don't get me wrong. It is his career game. He finishes it with two touchdown drives late in the fourth in a desperate attempt at a comeback. This is not something just any QB could've done, but a failed two point conversion sinks the Browns' chances. The lull in the second half lasted just one series too long as the Browns lose 28-26 to fall to 0-6 on the season.

Perhaps this game isn't the greatest showcase of Cody Kessler's talents, but it does showcase what he could've become at the NFL level. In this game, he generated 0.25 EPA/Play, which is a very good total, especially when there's a 9.9 yard aDoT to go with it.

In this game, Cody proved that he could be a long throws kind of guy if needed. He put up 26 points on an NFL defence. There was plenty of rookie inconsistency here, but if he was starting for a team that wasn't Cleveland, do you think he would've lost despite putting up 0.25 EPA/Play against Marcus Mariota?

I don't, but unfortunately he is starting for Cleveland, which means that even his great games are still losses. It's good that Cody was able to get this one great game in, because what happens next week is going to change everything.

Week seven in Cincinnati seemed just like a regular game for Cody. The Bengals had scored easy on their first possession, and he was beginning to lead the comeback. In fact, the Browns were down 7-3, but Cody had generated 4.4 EPA already. They were on the Bengal five looking to take the lead when the worst possible outcome happens.

Cody Kessler goes down, and doesn't get back up.

It's a concussion. He'll miss the rest of this week, and he'll miss next week.

He will play more later in the season, but it's clear that he isn't back. He'll generate 0.03 EPA/Play against the Cowboys' below average pass defence in week nine, and -0.05 EPA/Play against the Ravens' above average pass defence in week ten. In week 11, Cody finds another average pass defence against Pittsburgh, and he's doing his best to hold Cleveland in the game into the fourth quarter against a game Ben Roethlisberger when it happens again.

Cody goes down again. Another concussion. This one really sucks the life out of the season for the Cleveland Browns. We've seen what the first concussion did to him. Cody has had eight career starts, and he's already looking like a shell of what he once was. Imagine what a second one could do. The Browns don't want to chance it, and so Cody plays just three plays for the rest of the season as Cleveland finishes 1-15 around him.

I am not inside Cody Kessler's mind, so I'm hesitant to speak on what effects the concussion could've had on him, but it's evident he was not the same player after the first concussion. Just as he was beginning to look himself again, he found another one thrust at him. Just like everything else in his young career, this was just not fair.

If you're not convinced, take a look at these numbers. Before the first concussion (his first five career starts), Cody generated 0.161 EPA/Play (ninth among players with at least 150 plays in this span) on a 5.9 CPOE (1st), albeit against generally not great defensive opposition.

Before I finish this bit and tell you the numbers he posted after his first concussion I'd like to take this intermission to put as much emphasis as I possibly can on the fact that Cody Kessler was leading the NFL in CPOE. Not top ten. Not top five. Number one. Think back to yourself whether you even remembered Cody Kessler's name before reading this. Think back on how inept the Browns were to have a QB who was leading the NFL in CPOE, and they still couldn't win a game. Then come back as I tell you the havoc concussions wreaked on his career.

After his first concussion, Cody generated 0.04 EPA/Play (21st) on a 2.1 CPOE (15th) against defences not all that dissimilar. That is quite the difference, and it demonstrates what head injuries do to people.

It saddens me greatly to see a player that his coach loved, his teammates were getting to love, and one who was already getting accustomed to carrying the Browns cut off at the knees so quickly and easily. It seems so unfair.

What makes this even more unfair is the NFL media, who do not mention Cody Kessler. Even when he was still in the league as a backup, nobody was crying for Cody Kessler to be their starter. In all, Cody's 2016 stats came out to 0.108 EPA/Play (15th) on a 4.7 CPOE (4th) in 237 plays.

These numbers are eerily similar to 2018 Nick Foles, who generated 0.119 EPA/Play (16th) on a 5.7 CPOE (3rd) in 223 plays of action. Nick Foles did not do this on a team where his best receiver was a QB convert like Kessler did. Foles did not do this with the worst offensive line in the NFL like Kessler did, and he did not do this around a career changing concussion like Kessler did.

Nevertheless, Foles was rewarded for his 2018 with a four year contract including $45M guaranteed. Kessler was rewarded with one start in the following season. You may ask 'How could two seasons with such similar results cause such radically different outcomes?' I also asked myself that question, but for the life of me I can't find anything to separate the two. Nothing in the traditional or advanced stats can tell these two seasons apart, and yet one gets $45M, and the other gets to ride the bench in Cleveland.

The NFL is unfair. Players with very similar production will end up in radically different places. If that makes you as angry as it makes me I sympathise with you. If you can see this and not allow it to rile you up, I envy you, but if there's any way you can view this situation and not have your heart ache for poor Cody Kessler, I just don't understand you.

So that's it right? Cody Kessler has had his run and will serve for several more years as a backup, starting a few more games before being replaced on the Jacksonville Jaguars' roster by the very same incoming Nick Foles I discussed above, in some kind of sick poetic justice that nobody even realised, and that's the end of the story right?

As a matter of fact my friend, it actually isn't. Recall at the very beginning how I implied that Cody Kessler was prudent to modern football discourse?

Fast forward a few months, and we're at the 2017 NFL draft. The Cleveland Browns, having gone 1-15 despite such good QB play, are picking first. With no QBs worthy of going first overall (or so we thought at the time), all eyes are trained on Cleveland's 12th overall pick. Expected to be available at that spot is one DeShaun Watson, a very high profile QB having just won the college football national championship.

Cleveland fans (and media) are torn. Everybody wants Watson, but we've all just watched how well Kessler played. Kessler did not win a single game, but he did just enough to get the fanbase and the front office to waver. Recall just one season ago that Cody was Hue Jackson's personal pick, so we know his coach isn't going to waver, but DeShaun is just such a sure thing it's hard not to pull the trigger. After what I'm sure was days and weeks of agonizing thinking for both the office and the fans, the Browns make their decision on draft night.

They trade back, and allow DeShaun to go to the Texans. Why?

Because they have Cody Kessler.

That's the cherry on top of the Cody Kessler story. The Cleveland Browns were presented with the choice of Kessler or DeShaun Watson, and they made their choice. Knowing then what we know now, they obviously would've pulled the trigger on DeShaun, but even that line of thinking isn't so simple.

For 2017, the Browns threw rookie Deshone Kizer to the wolves, and planted Kessler in the third spot on the bench. Why did they do this? Well, it's been widely alleged that the Browns were looking to tank really hard in 2017. It's been rumoured that coaches had incentives placed into their contracts for doing things not necessarily conducive to winning.

This doesn't explicitly include benching the NFL's fourth placed man in CPOE from the year before, but the Browns were much improved in 2017 (for real), and still found a way to go 0-16. Do you honestly believe that they could've played Cody Kessler for the whole season with an improved defence, improved offensive line, and only slightly worse receiving weapons and gone 0-16?

You've read this far. You know what my opinion is.

It's so Cleveland that they could choose Cody Kessler over DeShaun Watson, only to end up not choosing Cody Kessler because he would have won too much for their tastes, so instead they stick him on the bench, and ruin the career of the best QB prospect they'd had since Derek Anderson.

That is so indicative of what the Cleveland organisation was (and might still be) for so long. Instead of just selecting Watson in the draft, they elected to ruin two careers (Kessler's and Kizer's), and in the end a third (Hue Jackson). I feel bad for everybody involved in this, and I feel sympathy for them ever being drafted to this awful organisation.

That brings us back to KTO, who's just made a 34 minute long YouTube video about this era of the Browns, and in said video he mentions the name Cody Kessler just five times.

This is what media does folks. Cody Kessler's name is not a sexy one, and therefore it doesn't get used very much anymore, even when talking about the team he was the leader of.

I implore you to take two things from this article. The first is that Cody Kessler (along with many other people) had his promising career ruined by Cleveland's ineptitude, and I believe he could've been a great talent if not for the concussions and the emphasis on tanking. The second is that when dealing with the media (even another internet football nerd like KTO), there is no guarantee that they will tell you the story correctly. I bet if you watched his video before reading this article, his complete lack of attention to Kessler did not strike you as being at all odd, but now that you know the whole story, I dare you to watch the 2016 portion of the video again and not beg for a mention of how well Cody was playing.

This is how things go, even in the mostly unimportant pro sports bubble that we all live in. I beg you to keep yourself informed, and to ensure that you know the real story, because even if it's screaming out, there's no guarantee anybody will tell it to you.

Just ask Cody Kessler.