Although some reports said he outplayed incumbent starter Frye and rookie Brady Quinn in minicamp, Anderson was not as productive in the pre-season games and Frye was named the starter for the 2007 season. Head coach Romeo Crennel earlier said that the two were so close in effectiveness that he would use a coin toss to decide which quarterback would start the first preseason game. Anderson would take over for Frye in the 2007 opener after Frye was ineffective in the first quarter against the Browns' archrival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. The game was Frye's last in a Browns uniform, as he was traded to the Seattle Seahawks for a sixth-round draft pick two days later. Named the starting quarterback by Crennel for Week 2, Anderson threw for 328 yards and five touchdowns against the Cincinnati Bengals in his first start. His passer rating for the game was 121.0 as the Browns defeated the Bengals 51–45, solidifying Anderson's role. In the same game, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer threw for six touchdown passes. It was only the third time in NFL history that two quarterbacks had thrown at least five touchdown passes in the same game.