Two signs summer is flying by: The sun is setting earlier nightly, and the start of another Browns training camp is just around the corner.
Rookies are scheduled to report to the training complex in Berea on July 18. Veterans are due in camp by July 23. The first practice open to the public is set for 2 p.m. July 25.
This will be the 27th training camp since the Browns were reborn as an expansion franchise in 1999. Chris Palmer was the head coach of that expansion team. Ty Detmer was the quarterback, followed after one game by Tim Couch. Dwight Clark was general manager and Al Lerner was the team owner. This will be the 14th year of Jimmy and Dee Haslam owning the Browns.
More excitement and optimism surrounded the 1999 expansion Browns than surrounds the team Kevin Stefanski will lead into 2025 in his sixth year as head coach.
Twenty-seven years ago, after three seasons without NFL football in Cleveland, fans greedily bought the snake oil former team president Carmen Policy sold them about how the Browns would skip to the front of the line as an expansion team and be competitive from the first snap. In the real world, the Steelers, coached by Bill Cowher, pummeled the Browns, 43-0, in the 1999 opener at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
The Browns have experienced only four winning seasons since their return to the NFL in 1999 — 2002, 2007, 2020 and 2023. The reason there is so little excitement for season No. 27 is most observers expect it to fall in line with 22 of the previous 26 on the heels of finishing 3-14 last season.
The Browns have not been on the practice field since mandatory minicamp ended June 12. Since then, countless stories have appeared on the Internet written by people who never saw one second of practice chronicling how great rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders looked. Expect countless more as training camp and the preseason progresses.
Dharya Sharma of The Sporting News on July 11 floated the idea of the Browns trading Sanders to the Colts — possibly before training camp begins to break the logjam of Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Sanders competing to be the Browns’ starting quarterback.
Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones are in a battle to be the starter in Indianapolis unless the Colts add another quarterback to the competition.
“If the Colts want to add more youth to the quarterback room, trading for Sanders would be a logical move,” Sharma wrote. “The 23-year-old would put some pressure on Richardson and Jones, and likely create a three-way competition for the starting job.
“It’s incredibly unlikely that the Browns move on from Sanders before they take the field for training camp on July 23. However, General Manager Andrew (Berry) could look to trade the 2025 fifth-round pick over cutting him if he hasn’t done enough to make the roster by the end of the preseason.”
Not to be outdone, Sports Illustrated picked up a thread from Mark Sipos of Dawg Pound Daily suggesting the Browns might trade Sanders to the Bills.
“Josh Allen is locked in as the starter, and Mitchell Trubisky is back as the veteran backup, but behind them, there’s room for a developmental quarterback,” Sipos wrote. “Sanders would be a low-risk, high-upside addition who could sit behind Allen, learn in a structured offense, and grow without pressure. Buffalo’s staff could work on refining his timing and decision-making while giving him a stable environment to develop in the background.”
The Browns selected Sanders in the fifth round of the 2025 draft with the 144th overall pick after acquiring Pickett in a trade with the Eagles, signing Flacco in free agency and drafting Gabriel in the third round.
Berry did not wake up the morning after the draft, pause as he was brushing his teeth and say to himself, “Man, I just realized. We really do have a lot of quarterbacks. What am I going to do with all of them?”
Pickett and Flacco are on one-year contracts. The Browns ranked Gabriel higher than Sanders on their draft board — obviously since they took Gabriel in the third round. They did not have a first-round grade on Sanders as many analysts did leading up to the draft, but they did expect him to be snapped up before the fifth round.
The Browns traded up to get Sanders, sending picks 166 and 192 in 2025 to Seattle for pick 144. They went the entire draft without taking wide receiver, safety or left tackle — all positions of need. They see potential in Sanders if he gets time and proper coaching so he can develop. They did not do all that so they could trade him.
Training camp is almost here. That means the Shedeur Sanders silly season is just beginning.
I didn’t know that
… until I read my Snapple bottle cap:
The first human object to break the sound barrier was the Bell X-1 aircraft piloted by Chuck Yeager in 1947. … A Galapagos tortoise takes up to three weeks to digest a meal. … The official state sport of North Dakota is curling. … The World Toe Wrestling Federation holds its annual championship competition in Derbyshire, England. It’s like arm wrestling with competitors interlocking their big toe with their opponent’s big toe of a designated foot. … Ancient Romans thought strawberries could cure bad breath, chronic fainting and kidney problems. … Dogs can make about 10 different sounds. Cats can make about 100 sounds.
Originally Published: July 12, 2025 at 2:34 PM EDT