Cleveland Browns

The Browns wrapped up their draft class signings, getting first-round wide receiver KC Concepcion under contract, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.

Concepcion, the 24th overall pick in April’s draft, signed a fully guaranteed four-year, $20 million deal.

In 13 games at Texas A&M last season, Concepcion made 61 receptions for 919 yards and nine touchdowns. He also ran for 75 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries and scored two touchdowns on punt returns, averaging 18.2 yards on 25 returns.

He transferred to A&M after two seasons at North Carolina State.

Concepcion joins a wide receivers room that includes Jerry Jeudy, Denzel Boston and Cedric Tillman.

Long-time Browns offensive lineman Joel Bitonio announced his retirement on Tuesday, after 12 NFL seasons — all in Cleveland. And, as Bitonio recounted some of the things he learned from various veterans over the years, he mentioned one specific teammate who got to town when Bitonio did.

“I was drafted the same year as Johnny Manziel,” Bitonio said. “And we actually roomed together. I learned some things not to do from him.”

It’s funny now. It wasn’t at the time. The Browns ultimately wasted a first-round pick on a player who never took his job seriously. He was released after only two seasons, with eight starts and a 2-6 record.

Bitonio, a second-round pick in 2014, made it a decade longer. He appeared in and started 178 regular-season games, with seven Pro Bowls, three years as a second-team All-Pro, and two as a first-earn All-Pro.

Browns head coach Todd Monken has said that he would prefer to have a starting quarterback named by the end of the offseason program.

It turns out that’s not going to be the case.

Monken told reporters in his Tuesday press conference that he’s not planning on naming a QB1 by the end of the club’s minicamp this week.

“I really don’t know. I’m not going to name a No. 1 ... chances are, I will not,” Monken said. “Now, once we get to the fall, we’ll have to dissect the reps how we see fit. I just don’t see it after the way Shedeur’s played and Deshaun’s played, they’ve both played well enough to earn the right to compete to start.”

That means the competition will continue into training camp, where each player will have the opportunity to separate himself.

Tuesday’s session was a good one for both, Monken said.

"[Sanders] did a nice job today. He’s been getting better and better with each practice day,” Monken said. no"And I thought Deshaun did some good things today. So, I thought they both functioned at a high level. We had a couple of pre-snap issues. But I thought they both functioned at a high level today.”

Generally, Monken said he’s been pleased with what he’s seen from Sanders and Watson during the offseason program.

“First of all, it’s been great to watch them progress,” Monken said. “The sad part is in two days, they go away for five or six weeks — that’s what sucks, because you just start to get a little bit of momentum, you’re stacking plays. You’re seeing some things you really like. We’ve got to do a great job as a staff for, when they get back, picking up where they left off.

“But, it’s been fun to watch those guys compete. The whole room, they’re really smart guys, highly competitive. And they’ve come a long way. I’m excited about the room.”

While Dillon Gabriel — who will now wear No. 6 after Jared Verse came in for No. 8 — and rookie Taylen Green on the roster, the competition in actuality is between Sanders and Watson. We’ll see how things change once pads come on during training camp.

There are no longer two players wearing No. 8 at Browns practices.

Snapshots of quarterback Dillon Gabriel at Tuesday’s practice shows that he’s wearing No. 6. Both Gabriel and newly acquired edge rusher Jared Verse were wearing No. 8 last week, but word was that Gabriel would change numbers and leave his former one for Verse.

There were no unassigned numbers from 0-19 on the Browns’ roster, but linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah will not play this season as he continues to deal with a neck injury and that left No. 6 as the obvious spot for Gabriel now that No. 8 is not an option for him.

With the number issue settled, Gabriel can resume his bid to secure a spot on the 53-man roster. Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders and sixth-round pick Taylen Green are the other players in the position group.

Joel Bitonio, a 2014 second-round pick of the Browns who spent his entire 12-year NFL career in Cleveland, has announced his retirement.

Bitonio, a two-time first-team All-Pro guard, announced his retirement with an article on the Browns’ website in which he said he always saw Cleveland as his permanent football home.

“Truthfully, as time passed and my career kept going, there was never a point where I could envision myself in a different uniform,” Bitonio wrote. “Wearing that orange helmet and being part of this franchise – from getting drafted to signing three contracts – I felt a loyalty to the Browns, and it gave me a sense of pride to represent a fan base who is consistently loyal to us. I started the job here, and once I got to a certain point, I knew I wanted to finish the job in Cleveland.”

Bitonio was a consistent and reliable presence on the Browns’ offensive line, and he credited older offensive linemen in Cleveland who set the standard he lived up to.

“I remember during my rookie season we were in the meeting room, and someone mentioned Joe Thomas had never missed a snap in eight seasons. That notion blew me away. Then Alex Mack, who was in his sixth season, said he had also not missed a snap. Mitchell Schwartz piped up and added he hadn’t missed a snap in his first two seasons,” Bitonio wrote. “And that set the standard for me. You’re an NFL offensive lineman; you come in, you play when you can play, you don’t miss any snaps. So I made that my mindset. . . . I played 6,481 consecutive offensive plays beginning from the 2017 season and lasting through the 2023 season.”

Bitonio also played every snap last season, which was the last year on his contract. He is technically a free agent, but there’s no doubt in his mind that he’s a Brown for life.

The best way for the circus to make money is when the circus isn’t in town. In American sports, no league has mastered that reality like the NFL.

From the Super Bowl to Week 1, the league has developed many ways to attract attention and drive interest when it’s not football season. Prior to 2006, June 1 was the occasion for a fresh wave of free agency. In 2026, June 1 made a major comeback.

The trades of defensive end Myles Garrett, defensive end Jared Verse, and receiver A.J. Brown made it a big week for the NFL. And it raises the question of whether the league and its teams will further embrace the possibility of making deals on June 1 in the future.

It’s a point raised at the tail end of an article from ESPN reviewing the trades that happened last Monday.

“I think the league will [lean into] the June 1 thing,” an unnamed AFC executive told ESPN. “It’s the summer, it’s slow, and these deals are good engagement for the league.”

They also need to be good for the teams involved, and the primary benefit for the seller comes from trading bloated contracts in the hopes of reducing the cap consequences in the current year. That’s why June 1 used to be a major date for free agency; before teams could release up to two veterans with a post-June 1 designation in March, they had to hold the contracts until June in order to spread the dead money over two years.

But if teams are willing to move highly-paid veterans — and if other teams are willing to give up significant compensation to get them — June 1 can become yet another date to circle, every year. And, yes, at some level, the NFL wants to have more tentpole events at a time when the three-ring circus is in mothballs.

After the Browns proposed expanding the universe of future picks that could be traded from three years to five (and the Rams coincidentally agreed), Rams president Kevin Demoff said, “Nothing creates more interest in the NFL than trades. This is why Cleveland’s proposal to allow teams to trade picks up to 5 years out as opposed to 3 years out makes so much sense. More picks to trade = more trades = more interest & team building options.”

The option of building a team and generating interest with June 1 trades has been hiding in plain sight, for years. In 2026, the NFL got a taste of what that day could become, if the trend continues.

In the days following his trade from the Browns to the Rams, defensive end Myles Garrett received a new contract. As recently explained, the deal carries no new dollars over the five years that were left on his deal with the Browns.

This means that Garrett will be, as a practical matter, taking a pay cut.

The Browns owed Garrett $179 million from 2026 through 2030. The Rams owe Garrett $179 million from 2026 through 2030. Given the significant differences in state income tax rates between Ohio and California — 3.125 percent versus 13.3 percent — Garrett will lose 10 percent of his gross pay that, in Cleveland, he would have kept.

No, it’s not a straight and complete 10 percent. Game checks are taxed in the states where the games are played. Still, 10 of 20 games each year are played at home — and bonus money typically is taxed in the state where the player’s team plays.

The Rams got a gift on this one, because Garrett could have made a very fair and reasonable request to have his pay increased to offset the elevated tax burden. And it’s no small issue; the difference is in the millions.

He received a bump from $30.5 million to $37 million in 2026, which helps. But the total dollars over the next five years (and the first three) are unchanged.

Will Garrett make up the difference in marketing opportunities, now that he’ll be based in L.A.? Possibly. Regardless, it would have been more than reasonable for Garrett to ask for a pay increase in connection with his trade, especially since he has a no-trade clause.

Even though he didn’t renew his request for a trade after the 2025 season, the fact that he accepted the trade despite the dramatically higher state income tax rate says it all. He wanted a fresh start with a contender, and he was willing to give up a significant chunk of cash to make that happen.

As Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis learned last month, throwing out the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game is usually a no-win proposition. Do it well, and no one notices. Do it not-so-well, and you never hear the end of it.

That basic truth didn’t stop new Rams defensive end Myles Garrett from giving it a whirl on Saturday. And it went very well.

Here’s the video. It was a strike from the top of the mound — and it had some heat on it.

Garrett wore a T-shirt with an image of L.A. icon Kobe Bryant in a Dodgers hat. If Garrett plays for the Rams like he played for the Browns, Garrett will be the guy on the T-shirts worn by L.A. fans.

For now, Garrett checked the box regarding his perfunctory first pitch at Chavez Ravine. Even if it would have gotten far more notice if the throw had gotten away from Garrett.

With the Browns trading defensive end Myles Garrett, the next question was whether cornerback Denzel Ward could be traded, too.

The team has made its position clear. (Then again, the team also consistently said it wouldn’t trade Garrett.) And G.M. Andrew Berry has said that it would be appropriate for Ward to speak for himself.

Ward has.

“I definitely still want to be here,” Ward told reporters at his charity softball game on Saturday. “Myles is a good friend of mine, a great teammate. Things aren’t lost, you know? It’s Ohio against the world. People can doubt us, but we’re going out there still trying to play our best ball and, you know, bring wins to the city.”

A year ago, Ward said that the mere fact that Garrett had asked to be traded had a “huge impact” on Ward.

The simple reality is that, even with Garrett setting a single-season sack record at 23.0, the Browns went 5-12. It was time to maximize value and continue to build for the future.

Ward’s future is secured through 2027. And, yes, the right offer would get the Browns to consider making a move. The Garrett trade proves it.

Every player on every NFL team eventually will be replaced. And very few players would be traded under no circumstances.

For now, Ward is still part of the team that made him the fourth overall pick in 2018. He will be until the Browns trade him, until he retires, or until he becomes a free agent and goes elsewhere.

Jared Verse and Dillon Gabriel were both wearing No. 8 at Browns practice this week, but that won’t be the case for long.

Verse wore No. 8 with the Rams, so it was no surprise to see the edge rusher take the field in the same number after this week’s trade. Gabriel wore the number last season, but Verse is higher in the team’s pecking order than a backup quarterback so it is also no surprise to learn that Gabriel will be the one changing his look.

Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that Gabriel and the Browns are waiting for the league to sign off on a change.

It’s not clear what needs to happen for that approval, but quarterbacks are limited to 0-19 and the Browns currently don’t have another number available in that range. The only one currently not assigned is No. 14, but that’s been retired for Otto Graham.

That’s not likely to be put back into circulation, so someone else will likely be switching their number as the Browns adjust to Verse’s arrival.