Charlie Frye

Frye will battle for the Raiders' third quarterback position.

Frye went from opening-day starter in Cleveland to third-string backup in Seattle in a matter of days last season. He'll continue in that role this season, though his value to the team would increase if he proved capable of being the No. 2 backup. That would allow second-stringer Seneca Wallace to move to receiver where his athleticism could be put to use. Alas, that's probably not going to happen.

The good news is that he’s a certain starter. The play-calling trends for Frye are good, but are they a product of the Browns ’05 struggles? Cleveland was very active in the offseason and figures to be significantly improved. The Browns finished ’05 11th in pass percentage, 12th in first down passing and fifth in red-zone pass percentage. On the down side, Frye converted just 3-of-20 red-zone attempts into TDs last year, but we’ll write that off to rookie struggles. The Browns couldn’t score on the ground in the red zone, either, converting a pitiful 3-of-48 attempts there into scores. His performance didn’t decline much under pressure, with a 70 QB rating on 37 late/close attempts. But he must generally pick up his play. The accuracy was there, but he didn’t go downfield much, with just 21 attempts between 11-and-20 yards (101 rating). Frye's not going to offer much in the rushing department, especially when you consider that he didn't contribute in that area as a rookie last season.

Frye will compete for the back up quarterback position in 2005 behind starter Trent Dilfer. Frye, whose arm strenghth has been called into question, will have a tough time beating out veterans Doug Johnson and Josh Harris for the No. 2 spot. Frye will most likely be the team's No. 3 quarterback for 2005 as he learns the pro game.