Browns Clips
The clock is ticking, and midnight has nearly arrived for Todd Monken.
The Cleveland quarterback decision is coming soon. Perhaps as soon as Sunday.
“At some point I’m going to have to decide, right?” Monken told reporters after Saturday’s preseason game against the Bills. “I’m saying it kind of jokingly. At some point we’ve got to get that guy the reps, so I’m not going to paint myself into a corner. Optimally, you’d like to give one player all of the reps and you know who the one is, and we’ve done the best we could as a staff trying to work through this. Like at any position.”
Monken made it clear that he plans to watch the film on Sunday and then talk to the coaching staff. A review of the entire picture is necessary to understand why things didn’t go well, on the occasions when they didn’t go well.
“I was looking at things live, and everybody had a hand in it,” Monken said. “I already know, looking at it and watching, we had too many issues with us, that had nothing to do with them. We’re playing some guys who just got with us, but alignment, assignment and communication, Browns hurting Browns, really. You’re not going to have a chance when that happens.”
The final drive, handled by third-stringer Dillon Gabriel, was a particular disaster. In one three-and-out effort, the Browns had three false starts, pushing them all the way to a third-and-25.
"[A]t the end, it was like, really?” Monken said. “That was some shitty football. I don’t care who goes out there. If I could have taken a knee, I probably would have. I mean, what the shit? I don’t know what to tell you.”
The first-year hea coach told the world plenty in his praise of Sanders’s ability to control the game with a strong cadence.
“We work on cadence and operation, and we’re going to continue to do it, because you can’t be leading the offense when you’re not leading the cadence,” Monken said. “In the first half we did, we had a shot. We got them to jump offside, we wanted to take a shot and we jumped, and we had another time we could’ve tapped. We got them in the neutral zone. That’s one thing Shedeur’s going to continue to get better at. We had a chance on third-and-12 to take a shot, he has to see the flag down, we checked it down but didn’t convert on third-and-eight. We were really good at cadence in the first half, but at the end there, it’s not good enough.”
As to Watson, Monken’s comments made it even more clear that, even though signs recently were pointing to the veteran as the starter, the tide has perhaps started to turn — sharply.
“I was disappointed for us collectively that we didn’t play well offensively [under Watson], I’ll just put it that way,” Monken said. “We had to get back on track a bunch. It happened in the first game. When you’re behind the chains, it’s hard. It’s just hard. You can’t force the defense into certain looks [when you] put yourself behind the chains.
“I’ll have to wait to see the tape, but I’m proud of the way he’s worked to get to where he’s at, and that’s part of it. Right? I know you’ve asked him, ‘Hey, how it feels to get booed?’ It’s a pretty easy question, it sucks. I don’t want to get booed. It comes with the territory. You don’t want to get booed? Let’s play good football. Let’s play good at quarterback, on offense and as a team, and then you won’t have to worry about all that, because it can turn just like that. Win, play good football, and everybody will be fine.”
As to the booing Watson, it’s more complicated than playing well. The fans were already wired to boo him, for reasons unrelated to his current level of play. The entire circumstances of his arrival and ongoing presence on the roster point to Browns fans being poised to boo him.
The boos could be heard when Watson took the field in the third quarter, even though the stands seemed to be largely empty. They booed him after the first drive of the second half. The boos were consistent, and unrelated to his play.
Watson said it himself. The boos weren’t about his performance. If he’s the starter in Week 3, he’ll hear it all day long — unless the Browns somehow upset both the Jaguars and Buccaneers on the road to start the season.
There will be plenty of subjectivity and discretion when the time comes to pick a starter between Sanders and Watson. If it’s close for Monken, the fact that the customers have made their position loud and clear will make Sanders the only right answer.
Browns coach Todd Monken has spent much of his career in the college ranks. Things have changed dramatically since then, however.
He currently has a first-year player on the roster who has entered the transfer portal, after winning an injunction this week that has given him another year of college football.
“Man, isn’t this shit crazy?” Monken told reporters after Saturday’s preseason contest against the Bills, a game in which Wright didn’t play. “I don’t even know what to say. As far as I know, he’s had a medical issue that wasn’t allowing him to practice. That’s a medical issue. It has nothing to do with me. He was cleared, so we dressed him just in case we had to have him. . . .
“I don’t know what to say. I wondered why Lane Kiffin reached out to me a week ago, now I know. I didn’t call him back; I guess I should have.”
Kiffin’s LSU is indeed one of the programs that has been trying to set the stage to create room for first-year NFL players who could return to college for another season.
Because even though the system craves a return to something that seems normal, the coaches want to win now. Those who can take advantage of the current chaos can acquire a legitimate edge in the quest to do so.
There was a theory that quarterback Deshaun Watson got his preseason start last week because the game was not being played in Cleveland. If that was a reason for the decision, it was a good one.
Watson was booed in his first home appearance for the Browns since tearing an Achilles tendon during the 2024 season.
After the game, quarterback Shedeur Sanders expressed disagreement with the verbal disapproval of Deshaun.
“Yeah, I mean, in general, I don’t appreciate that at all,” Sanders said, via the transcript distributed by the team. “Regardless of competition, we’re all human beings. I think we all need to understand that. In this room too, we’re all humans. I don’t do things to humans that I wouldn’t want done to me. I don’t like making people feel uncomfortable in different spaces, and that’s why, even in daily things I do, I try to make sure everybody’s comfortable. Because I know sometimes just being who I am can make people uncomfortable. I’m aware of that.
“For all the fans, we appreciate you showing up, and however you feel about the situation with Deshaun and everything, I think it’s more about a bigger purpose and it’s respect. It’s a respect thing that I feel should be there, because we’re all out there trying to do our best and serve the franchise the best way possible. We’re going out there to win games, doing everything we can. So I don’t really appreciate that.”
It’s a reasonable position, but it may not be very realistic when it comes to professional sports. The anonymity of a crowd makes it easier to boo, and those who pay for tickets feel entitled (and they arguably are) to voice their displeasure.
Watson arrived a year after twenty-plus lawsuits were filed against him for alleged misconduct during massage-therapy sessions. The Browns gave up a treasure trove of draft picks to get him, before giving him a five-year, $230 million, fully-guaranteed contract. He served an eleven-game suspension right out of the gates.
If he’d performed well, and if the team had won games, it would have been fine. Injuries and unimpressive performances magnified the negatives created by the overall situation.
While Deshaun was on the wrong end of the boos, he wasn’t the only target. Browns fans are, and should be, upset with everything about the acquisition and compensation of a player who has never delivered on the promise of what arguably has become the single worst transaction of the salary-cap era, if not of all time.
Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson said this week that he didn’t care about how fans reacted to him during Saturday’s home preseason game, but he appeared to be a bit rankled when asked at a postgame press conference about the boos that greeted his entry to the game in the third quarter.
Watson was making his first appearance in a home game since he tore his Achilles in 2024 and he heard those boos before he took his first snap. They continued while he went 5-of-12 for 36 yards and an interception in a 31-7 loss to the Bills.
“I didn’t have no reaction,” Watson said. “I think the whole world knows it has nothing to do about the performance. It’s a little bit [more] personal than that. I think that’s a disrespectful thing. I’m gonna keep whatever I feel with me and my family internally with how I feel about that and move on.”
Browns head coach Todd Monken said in his own press conference that “everybody will be fine” if Watson plays good football while helping the Browns win games, but Watson reiterated his disagreement with the idea that the booing is tied to performance when asked if he agreed with that sentiment.
“Last time I played on this field I tore my Achilles. That same fan base cheered when I got hurt,” Watson said. “What does that have to do with anything about performance? When a person gets hurt, especially for your own city and they cheer?”
Watson signed a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract after being traded to the Browns ahead of the 2022 season and he’s played poorly in 19 starts since joining the club. It remains to be seen if he will get to No. 20 in Week 1 — Monken declined to name a starter after Saturday’s game — but it seems like a safe bet that the reaction won’t be a terribly warm one if he takes the field for the Browns’ home opener in Week 3.
Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson said this week that he doesn’t care what kind of reception he gets from the fans in Cleveland. The reception he got in today’s preseason game was decidedly negative.
The fans in Cleveland loudly booed as Watson took the field and continued booing throughout the third quarter as Watson struggled. Although Huntington Bank Field is mostly empty, the fans who are there are making it known that they don’t like Watson quarterbacking their team.
Watson played poorly while the fans booed. The Browns’ offense went three-and-out on Watson’s first two drives, then Watson threw an interception on his third drive and threw a fourth-down incompletion to end his fourth drive.
Trading for Watson was a disaster for the Browns, who gave up three first-round picks, a second-round pick, a third-round pick and a fourth-round pick to get Watson, then gave him a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract. For that, Watson has played a total of 19 games in four seasons, and has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL in those 19 games. And the Browns made the move for Watson despite knowing he had been accused of sexually assaulting some two dozen massage therapists, accusations that resulted in Watson being suspended for the first 11 games of his time in Cleveland.
Given all that, Watson should expect to be booed in Cleveland if he’s the starter in Week Three, when the Browns play their first home game of the regular season. Whether Watson cares or not.
Shedeur Sanders’s opportunity to make a closing argument for the starting job in Cleveland has been delayed.
Four snaps into the Bills-Browns preseason contest, with the Buffalo offense on the field, lightning in the area stopped the action.
As of this posting, the game has not yet resumed.
Deshaun Watson started the Week 1 preseason game, with the benefit of the rest of the starters. Sanders will have only left tackle Spencer Fano and receiver Denzel Boston.
Watson is expected to play in the third quarter. If that plan suddenly changes, it will be the clearest sign yet that Watson has won the Week 1 starting job.
Nick Chubb, who announced his retirement on Friday, ends his career as part of an elite group of running backs: He’s one of only four in NFL history who had more than 1,000 carries, and averaged more than five yards per carry.
Chubb retired with 7,349 yards on 1,462 carries, an average of 5.03 yards per carry.
Only three other running backs in the history of the league have reached the same 1,000-carry and 5-yards-per-carry milestones:
Jamaal Charles, who played for the Chiefs from 2008 to 2016 and then briefly played for the Broncos and Jaguars before retiring after the 2018 season, retired with 7,563 yards on 1,407 carries. His average of 5.38 yards per carry is the best of any running back who had at least 1,000 carries in NFL history.
Jim Brown, who played for the Browns from 1957 to 1965, retired with 12,312 yards on 2,359 carries. His average of 5.22 yards per carry stood as the all-time NFL record for decades.
Joe Perry, who began his career with the 49ers when they were part of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 (they joined the NFL in 1950) and played 14 seasons in San Francisco plus another two seasons with the Baltimore Colts, retired with 9,723 yards on 1,929 carries. His average of 5.04 yards per carry ranks just ahead of Chubb’s.
Chubb burst onto the scene as a rookie with the Browns in 2018, averaging 5.2 yards per carry, and he averaged more than five yards per carry in each of his first six seasons, until a devastating knee injury in 2023 changed the trajectory of his career — and dragged down his career average when he returned in 2024 and was not the same player.
Although Chubb’s career ultimately was too short to put up the kinds of numbers that would earn him entrance into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he had a spectacular career that puts him in some truly special company.
Running back Nick Chubb, a four-time Pro Bowler, has announced his retirement.
Chubb posted his farewell to football on Friday night.
A second-round pick of the Browns in the 2018 draft, Chubb spent seven years with the Browns and one with the Texans. He rushed for 7,349 yards and 54 touchdowns.
His best season was 2022, with 1,525 yards and 12 touchdowns. He averaged 5.0 yards per carry.
The following season, he suffered a serious knee injury at Pittsburgh in a Week 2 Monday night game. He missed the rest of the season and returned to start eight games in 2024.
Last year with the Texans, Chubb rushed for 506 yards in 15 games. He finished his career against the Patriots in the divisional round of the playoffs.
Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins and Browns right defensive end Jared Verse had some heated battles during joint practice this week, and afterward Dawkins said they brought out the best in each other.
“I’m gonna run my mouth, Verse is gonna run his too,” Dawkins said. “You meet people that match your energy, and I’m one of those that I’m gonna bring it, and Verse is one of those that he’s gonna bring it.”
Dawkins said it was great working against Verse and knowing that even if Verse got past him, Josh Allen wasn’t going to get hit.
“He brings it,” Dawkins said. “Being able to come out here and practice, and practice against him, I know I can try some things because he’s really not going to hit Josh. It feels good. I love the kid. He has a bright future as he keeps going. His bull rush is insane. So talk about that: His bull rush is definitely good, he’s going to rack up sacks all season long. I’m a Verse fan. I’m a Verse fan, and he’s been playing well.”
At a time when joint practice fights have led to some controversy in the NFL, Dawkins and Verse found out how to make a touch competition beneficial to both of them.
Nothing encapsulates the current chaos in college football like this — Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright has entered the college transfer portal, via Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports.
Wright currently is a member of the Cleveland roster. He previously was under contract with the Eagles. After Wednesday’s temporary restraining order from a case in which Wright was one of the named plaintiffs, he separately has a path to a new college football team.
Many will blame the player. They shouldn’t. This is a direct byproduct of the collapse of the NCAA’s prior system of refusing to let players get paid anything, by anyone. As the NCAA scrambles to modernize its rules, the NCAA has created new donut holes.
The latest is the new rule giving players five seasons of eligibility in five years. Those who would have been able to stay in college for 2026 have argued that the rule should apply to them retroactively. On Wednesday, a judge agreed.
And the end result is that, as Wright prepares to potentially play in a preseason game on Saturday (he didn’t play in the preseason opener), he could soon have an opening to play for a college team in just a couple of weeks.
