Last month, Deion Sanders rejected the idea of the Browns trading defensive end Myles Garrett. Now that the trade has happened, Deion is singing a different tune.
“They got a killer on defense, I’m tired of y’all talking about trading him and getting rid of him,” Sanders told Garrett Bush before the trade. “That don’t make no sense to me. That’s a once in a lifetime man. That’s a once in a lifetime man that you don’t see no more. I don’t get rid of that. Unless I could get your mama, daddy, your uncle, cousins, and everybody in a trade for that. Because that’s a grown man. That’s a winner. That’s a winner.”
Now that Garrett was traded, Deion deferred to the decision.
“I’m happy with Mr. [Andrew] Berry, the G.M., and what he’s doing, I’m not going to question his direction of what he’s bringing to the table,” Sanders recently told D.J. Saddiqi of Covers.com as part of a media tour for Deion’s Depend partnership. “I’m not there, so I don’t know all the intangibles that provoked that trade. I’m happy with what they got, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out.”
Apparently, Deion considers Jared Verse and a first-, second-, and third-round pick to equate to “your mama, daddy, your uncle, cousins, and everybody.” At least we now know how to calibrate that specific metric.
Browns Clips
How far can Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders go? In the opinion of his father, it depends on whether the rest of the team can take him there.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders, whose recent media tour for Depend included a visit with D.J. Siddiqi of Covers.com, explained the importance of having help when discussing Shedeur’s performance as a rookie in Cleveland.
“I would have wanted him to perform a little better, but that’s not just an individual thing, that’s a team thing,” Sanders said. “A quarterback needs help tremendously from the offensive line, from the receivers, from the running game, from the coordinators as well. It’s not just a singular thing, like a defensive back. I don’t care what the pass rush is, [the DB] has got to do his job. It’s a little different with a quarterback. He needs several things to go right for him to be successful.”
He’s right, but there’s a fine line between acknowledging the importance of having help around the quarterback and making excuses. Yes, others have to do their jobs. The quarterback does, too.
The reality in football, as Donovan McNabb once said, is that the quarterback gets too much credit for wins and too much blame for losses. In Cleveland, it’s hardly a coincidence that most of the bad seasons since the team returned to the NFL in 1999 featured less-than-ideal quarterback play.
Still, there’s hope for the Browns if Shedeur wins the starting job over Deshaun Watson. Last year, Shedeur started seven games, winning three and losing four. In the 10 games he didn’t start, the Browns went 2-8.
Linebacker Jared Verse has a new NFL team. But he’s still rooting for his old NFL team. Especially when his old NFL team faces one specific foe.
Via Cameron DaSilva of USA Today, Verse recently told Nathan Zegura of ClevelandBrowns.com that his final message to the Rams focused on their biggest current rival.
“I told them, ‘The most important thing, make sure’ — and I’m not going to cuss — ‘make sure you beat the Seahawks. That’s all I care about,’” Verse said.
Last year, the Seahawks and Rams were the best two teams in the NFL. The division, the top seed, and the Super Bowl berth turned in large part on a fluky two-point play that was fueled in part by Verse deflecting with his helmet a throw that turned out to be a backward pass.
Verse had asked coach Sean McVay for the opportunity to inform the other Rams players about the trade. McVay agreed.
“My mindset was, ‘I’ve got to leave my teammates, I’ve got to leave my brothers behind, because I don’t want to leave my brothers,’” Verse told Zegura. “So if I’m going to — I want to address them. I don’t want them to find out from ESPN or from this news site or that news site. I want them to hear it from me.
“Went to the team room. Coach, he released it, he told everybody that, ‘We’re trading Jared,’ and I got to tell everybody. I said, ‘It sucks I’m not going to be here. I love you guys to death. You guys are going to go out there, you guys are going to dominate, you guys are going to do everything you can do and you guys are going to play the best you can. You guys got 17 games for sure. Who knows what’s going to happen after that but just go dominate.’”
It would be something (and highly unlikely) if the Browns have a dominant season, too. Of all the potential storybook endings to 2026, the Browns against the Rams in the Super Bowl would be among the very best.
One of the two teams is far more likely to be there than the other. Especially if they heed Verse’s call to beat the Seahawks.
When asked recently about the possibility of adding quarterback Brendan Sorsby in the supplemental draft, Browns head coach Todd Monken was clear on his stance.
He told reporters earlier this month that he didn’t think the Browns should be interested in Sorsby, saying players have been “banned for life” for gambling.
But General Manager Andrew Berry was more measured in an interview last week, which now has more relevance given that Sorsby is set to apply for the supplemental draft after dropping his lawsuit against the NCAA over his collegiate eligibility.
In an interview with Anthony Lima and Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan, Berry was asked how gambling would factor into a player’s evaluation.
“I think there are two things,” Berry said. “There are two questions I ask, because we’re all human and I’d imagine everybody that’s on this call and listening to this show, I’m sure everyone has made mistakes. I really ask two questions: I ask, No. 1, is this a bad person, or did they make a bad decision? And then the second piece is, what are they doing after the fact … to correct the behavior. Is this a pattern of decision-making? And if so, have they done something to stop the pattern? Or is this an isolated incident? Because the reality of it is, we’re all going to screw up. And some, certainly, mistakes are greater in magnitude than others.
“But I think the most important thing in Brendan’s case is what he does from here. Obviously, it’s a great first step to get the help that he needs. But then it’s like, OK, what is around him? What is he doing to make sure that he can maintain healthy habits moving forward? So, it seems like it’s a very good start there. Obviously, I don’t know all the details at this point. But I think, probably, within society, so to speak, we could all use a little bit more grace.”
As a follow-up, Berry was asked how he feels about such character concerns, specifically when thinking about how a quarterback leads and is the proverbial face of the franchise.
“I also think that probably the more important things are the internal leadership — so how does this player prepare? How do they relate to their teammates? Are they coachable to the coaching staff? Are they an anchor when there’s tough moments in the game? Because that’s the stuff that actually makes the biggest impact,” Berry said. “And those are the people, that’s the biggest constituency that the individual has to lead and serve. So, that’s really more the priority than what I would say as maybe the more marketability, [piece of it].
“But you like to have everything. You’d like to have everything, ideally. But very few players fit that, though.”
Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reported on Monday night that the Browns are “unlikely” to bid on Sorsby in the supplemental draft, should he be deemed eligible for it. But with the way the Browns have operated at the QB in recent years, it’s hard to put anything past them at that position.
The Browns hope to sweeten their sweetheart deal to build a new stadium.
According to Rich Exner of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Browns want Brook Park to create a stadium authority that would own the team’s new facility and lease it back to the team.
What’s in it for the Browns? Apparently, a savings of roughly $100 million in sales tax on the materials for the stadium.
Brook Park City Council will discuss the proposal on Tuesday night. A public hearing is set for July 15.
The current funding plan for the $2.6 billion stadium includes $1.755 billion from the team, $600 million from the state, and $245 million from Brook Park. The Browns will be responsible for cost overruns.
The chosen device for the state’s contribution — borrowing from the state’s massive pool of unclaimed funds — has been delayed by litigation. The state apparently will come up with the money elsewhere if the courts prevent the state from using unclaimed funds.
Actually, as sweetheart deals go, this one is a little sour. The Browns will be footing 67.5 percent of the bill. While some would say that the Browns should be paying for all of it, the team is carrying a fairly high percentage of the total expenditure.
Especially when the inevitable overruns happen.
The Browns’ quarterback competition will extend into training camp, as head coach Todd Monken told reporters last week that he’s not yet ready to name a starter.
But second-year QB Shedeur Sanders has taken steps in his development over the course of the offseason program, according to Cleveland’s brass. Late last week, General Manager Andrew Berry said in an interview with 92.3 The Fan that Sanders had “an excellent spring.”
“The past eight-to-10 weeks — and really, probably beyond that, probably the past six months, with as a rookie player in particular a quarterback, you learn a lot your first year,” Berry said. “And especially if you don’t start a full season … and you go through the year, adjustment going into the NFL, and then you get a chance to catch your breath and say, here are the things that we need to work on, here are the things I need to learn. And I think he did a phenomenal job this offseason.
“That really started in January and February. And certainly as we got into having real practices in may, his growth has been tremendous. So, we’re all very excited to see Shedeur’s fall camp, preseason, things of that nature when we get into padded situations, live situations, less scripted. But his growth has truly been phenomenal.”
If that growth can translate to on-field performance, that would be good news for a Browns team that has constantly been in search for a franchise quarterback. Between Sanders and Deshaun Watson, one will have to emerge as QB1 as the club enters its first season under Monken.
Former NFL quarterback and receiver Terrelle Pryor’s name recently has been mentioned in connection with the Brendan Sorsby’s case. He’ll now be mentioned for a different reason.
Pryor, via WPXI, was arrested last month near Pittsburgh for drug possession.
After police in Monroeville pulled over a Mercedes that was speeding on May 24, they noticed Pryor lying in the back seat in an “odd” way and breathing heavily. A rifle was on the floor of the back seat.
When Pryor removed his wallet to show authorities his concealed carry permit, police noticed a baggie of a powdery substance that was suspected to be MDMA.
A third-round pick in the 2011 supplemental draft, Pryor spent three years with the Raiders at quarterback. Out of football in 2014 after being released in late August by the Seahawks, Pryor returned in 2015 as a receiver with the Browns. He spent two years in Cleveland and one in Washington. In the 2018 season, he played for the Jets and the Bills.
In 2016, Pryor had 1,007 receiving yards with the Browns on 77 catches.
Pryor left Ohio State for the supplemental draft after being suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season for selling memorabilia and trading autographs for tattoos. The NFL duplicated the five-game suspension, under the reasoning that he manipulated NFL eligibility rules.
In upholding the suspension, Commissioner Roger Goodell found that Pryor left OSU “in order to avoid the consequences of his conduct while in college -- conduct to which he had admitted and for which he had accepted a suspension -- and to hasten the day when he could pursue a potentially lucrative professional career in the NFL.”
That outcome has raised questions as to whether the NFL would embrace Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, if he had failed to secure a court order restoring his eligibility for 2026 and had entered the 2026 supplemental draft. That’s currently a moot point, unless Sorsby decides (given the storm of criticism and scrutiny that has emerged in the wake of his win) to withdraw his challenge to the NCAA’s ruling and enter the supplemental draft.
The deadline is June 22.
The Browns’ offseason program has ended. It came and went without a key member of the offense taking part in practice.
Via Zac Jackson of The Athletic, tight end Harold Fannin Jr. didn’t participate in the offseason sessions.
In 16 games with 13 starts, Fannin caught 72 passes for 731 yards and six touchdowns as a rookie. He also scored a rushing touchdown.
There’s no obligation in the offseason to disclose injury information. The requirement doesn’t apply until the first week of the regular season.
For now, Fannin’s absence from offseason workouts will remain a mystery. It can’t be a contract thing; he’s not eligible for a new contract until after the 2027 season.
Beyond the question of when he’ll be healthy, his absence has prevented him from getting reps in the new offense being installed by coach Todd Monken.
Browns head coach Todd Monken told reporters this week that between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson, Cleveland has two quarterbacks capable of playing winning football.
Particularly for Watson, this represents an organizational reversal after team owner Jimmy Haslam said last spring that the trade for the quarterback was “a big swing and a miss.”
But General Manager Andrew Berry said on Friday that those comments didn’t have much to do with the way the Browns have operated to set up this year’s QB competition.
“I think you deal with what you have,” Berry said in an interview with Anthony Lima and Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan. “You deal with how players progress or don’t progress. But honestly, the public discourse doesn’t really have a factor in terms of how we think about putting together the team, with Todd, in terms of putting together the best lineup. That really doesn’t play a factor into it.”
Berry also said that he’s not ruling anything out when it comes to Watson — including a potential new deal for the QB, who is entering the last year of his contract with Cleveland.
“I think everything is on the table,” Berry said. “I think it would be silly to go into a season saying, ‘Something absolutely can or cannot happen.’ And I think particularly at the quarterback position, we’ve seen it with guys whether it’s Sam Darnold, or Daniel Jones, or Geno Smith, even Baker after he left us and Carolina.
“So I think you have to be open-minded and flexible. But I wouldn’t rule out anything. We’re looking for guys who can perform and who can lead.”
Watson has not played a full season since 2020 when he was still with Houston. He’s started 19 games for Cleveland since 2022, completing 61 percent of his passes for 3,365 yards with 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
We’ll see in August if he can beat out Sanders to reclaim his spot as Cleveland’s QB1.
With head coach Todd Monken saying the Browns’ quarterback competition will continue into training camp, second-year signal-caller Shedeur Sanders will have the chance to show what he can do with pads on.
As Browns minicamp comes to a close this week, Monken told reporters that he’s seen improvement in a key area for the young QB.
“I just think he’s doing a better job — I think he’s being more decisive,” Monken said, via Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan. “Now, it’s easy to say [right now], we’re not in pads. It just feels like he’s making quicker decisions. The ball’s coming out of his hands, which he’s going to have to do. Not that he doesn’t have playmaking ability, because he does. But his ability to process quicker and get the ball out of his hands and eliminate lost yards, plays is going to be huge.
“He has to be able to stack plays and score, which is ultimately the No. 1 thing to do.”
Sanders did have some issues with holding the ball for too long as a rookie, finishing the season having taken 23 sacks in his eight games with seven starts. That works out to a sack rate of 9.79 percent.
Sanders completed 56.6 percent of his throws for 1,400 yards with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2025.
We’ll see what the competition between Sanders and Deshaun Watson brings once the Browns get to training camp. But Monken has said multiple times this week that he feels like both quarterbacks are capable of playing winning football in 2026.
