CLEVELAND, Ohio (TheOBR.com) Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans! We head into a weekend free of Cleveland Browns football, meaning that finding inner peace may be possible with a well-spent Sunday afternoon. My focus for the next week is on building our off-season coverage plans and developing new subscriber features. Let’s go.
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
As we get into the bye week, there’s a tremendous amount of noise around potential Browns trades and potential imaginary acts whispered into the ears of less-discerning media members by the mischievous ghost of the Browns’ 1950s elf. Let’s dig into the weirdness found on the internet this morning.
Things are bad here in The Land’s professional football scene, but at least we’re not rummaging around the discount bin for Browns cast-offs like the New York Giants are. They claimed CB Jarrick Bernard-Converse off waivers yesterday and worked out wide receiver Diontae Johnson, who the Browns took a flier on pre-season.Despite taking two mid-round quarterbacks in the 2025 draft – one of whom folks believed was a high first-round selection until the draft actually took place – the Browns now once again find themselves #1 with a bullet on this “ranking” of QB-Needy teams. At the same time, Shedeur fans rail against Kevin Stefanski for not trotting out the fifth-rounder to “see what we have”. Maybe direct a little angst at top-ten-list happy aggregator Bleacher Report, which has dismissed Sanders even before he sees the field. At least the Browns could be interpreted as being careful with Sanders to avoid putting him in a bad situation, given the offense’s decrepit state at the moment. B/R just shrugs and says, “Try again next year.” I’d at least like to see what Sanders can do before committing to spending our prized draft asset on a QB.Don’t even bother to comment in this thread that Gabriel is the sole cause of the offensive problems. If you’re tempted, please look at these rankings of the Browns’ offensive line’s pass protection win rate during the 2025 season. The Browns stand out, and not in a good way. Gabriel is not “blameless” and doesn’t need excuse-making, but let’s face it, no team’s offense can be this horrible without a lot of contributions from all over the starting eleven and the sidelines. That’s the way I see it, and I pay myself for writing this stuff, so I must know what I’m talking about.I am pretty vocal about ignoring sports talk radio, an engagement-frenzied medium full of folks begging for attention. I never listen to it in the car, and certainly not at work where I would have to try to concentrate over the yelling, but I’m sure it’s entertaining to some. What really makes me chuckle are the click-hungry websites that run articles titled things like “Browns (Insider/Analyst) Makes Shocking Statement about Browns Quarterback,” etc., and you discover it was a radio sportsyapper trolling for listeners.Based on what I’m reading, these guys are all about throwing Shedeur Sanders into the mix “just to see what we have”. The Browns, meanwhile, can see what they have because they’re watching Sanders in practice. The media, and sports yappers in particular, most assuredly are not. Any part of practice where Sanders is throwing is closed to the press. I sometimes feel like these mass media folks are taking advantage of Browns fans’ 30 years of torment for the sake of Arbitron rating points and the right to sell bee pollen or used cars. Two things I don’t like: Bad football and being patronized. Come to me with facts, not half-conceived notions that reflect the angst you see on Twitter.If you can get past a lot of revenue-oriented annoyances, you can read Tyler Dragon’s rumor column on USA Today, suggesting that Kirk Cousins would like to be traded somewhere he can start. There’s no indication that there are active discussions or that the Browns would be involved with trying to add another aging veteran quarterback a few weeks after trading off another one. Cousins was the subject of a lot of Browns-oriented buzz a few months ago, but his most recent start against the Dolphins wasn’t encouraging. Replacing Michael Penix, Cousins went just 21-of-31 for 173 yards and lost to a team that got blown out by the Browns. Ouch. Not encouraging.Another potential deal, which time with an actual Browns connection, would be Jordan Shultz’s rumor that the Browns are “open to trading” safety Rayshawn Jenkins. Jenkins might be available because young safety Ronnie Hickman has been doing well. Still, Jenkins has acquitted himself pretty well to date, despite playing only about a fifth of the Browns’ defensive snaps. Jenkins is also active on special teams. Jenkins one-year $1.42 million contract is eminently tradeable, and I’m sure the Browns just want yet another Day 3 pick that they can hopefully bundle to move up in the draft.In yesterday’s bloviation, I challenged various NFL experts not to come up with pleas for the Browns to deal off Myles Garrett, instructing them to learn about the salary cap or take some math classes. Sure enough, within 12 hours, a well-respected news outlet and writer came out with a case for trading Myles Garrett. I immediately went to Jack Duffin to make sure that I wasn’t talking out of my posterior and, sure enough, Jack says it’s feasible to trade Garrett if the Browns wanted to badly enough, but might not be the most brilliant idea ever. So I wasn’t totally wrong, just partially wrong, which is par for the course at 7AM.By the way, Browns rookie TE Harold Fannin is up for NFL Rookie of the Week. You can vote him over the next 24 hours (until Thursday 11AM) right here. No, he won’t be traded for bee pollen.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
OBR Content
CLEVELAND BROWNS VIDEOS
Pete and Joe Week 8 – (youtube.com)
CLEVELAND BROWNS ARTICLES
Yes, The Cleveland Browns Can Trade Myles Garrett: But Should They? – Jack
Cleveland Browns: What We Learned From Week 8 Loss to New England Patriots – Sam
PFF Report Card Grades and Data from the Cleveland Browns’ Week 8 Loss to New England Patriots – Sam
Cleveland Browns Film Room: Jack Conklin Uneven in Return – Sam
Cleveland Browns News and Rumors 1028 Keep Your Head Down – Barry
CLEVELAND BROWNS MESSAGE BOARD THREADS
Mac jones on the browns in 26?
How Many games played isa good sample size?
Missed Plays, Execution, Play Calling
Missed Plays, Execution, Play Calling
GANG OF THREE: Post-Patriots Beatdown!
Is playcalling truly the issue?
Jack- Myles contract question.
PFF Report Card: Grades and Data from the Cleveland Browns Week 8 Loss to New England Patriots
2025 DRAFT MELT THREAD ( No Kool-Aid)
OT: Peterson Arrested for Weapons Violation.
The reason why you have to go to Sanders now
LiveWire Thread for 1028 – Twitter, Article, Videos
THE LIFTPositive news from the world of sports and beyond…
How accepting impermanence can end the struggle to “fix” your life – (bigthink.com)
“The idea is that we move from a place of wanting the world to conform to what we like towards not needing other people to be different from who they are.”
This article from Nautilus sounds like the teachings of mindfulness to me. Or accepting the world’s imperfect nature. You pick.
As someone who has chronicled the on-field travails of the Cleveland Browns during my adult life, I’ve found that “acceptance” is a big part of that equation. We are where we are. It is what it is. I should write a book about The McBride Method, which involves doing the stupidest possible thing at the wrongest possible time whenever given the opportunity, and then saying “Oh well” a lot. “Oh well” is a personal mantra. Instant karma.
WRAPPING UP
When not accepting another mark in the “L” column, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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