Browns Clips
When Eli Manning refused to play for the Chargers after they drafted him first overall in 2004, it was widely believed that his father, former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, was behind the decision. Eli says that isn’t true.
Eli Manning appeared on Bussin’ With The Boys and said that while he and agent Tom Condon were on the same page that San Diego was the wrong place for him, his parents actually didn’t agree.
“My parents really weren’t supportive. My dad didn’t like the idea,” Manning said. “Now, he came to my defense and like supported me after everything was going down, but . . . he didn’t like that. And afterwards he took the brunt of a lot of the criticism because he came to my defense and people were saying, ‘Oh, you played in New Orleans all those years you didn’t win, so you’re trying to dictate like where your son’s going.’ And and he just bit his tongue and said, ‘Hey, this is what Eli wants to do and I support him’ and he did some media to try to save me from doing all the media and taking the hits.”
Manning said he respected then-Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer but could tell there was friction between Schottenheimer, the front office, and ownership, and didn’t think the Chargers were heading in the right direction.
“San Diego had the first pick, I didn’t really want to go there,” Manning said. “I just didn’t feel like they were the most committed team to winning at the time,”
When the possibility of a trade came up, Condon told Manning the Chargers were going to trade him to the Browns, and he didn’t want to go there, either. Fortunately for Manning, ultimately the Giants and Chargers made a deal, and Manning won two Super Bowl MVPs in New York.
In a revealing and wide-ranging interview with Garrett Bush’s The Barbershop, Colorado coach Deion Sanders opened up about the struggles his son, Shedeur, endured before and during the 2025 draft, when he fell all the way to the fifth round.
The outcome hurt Deion significantly because, as he explained to Bush, he couldn’t do anything about it.
“That was the first time in my life that I couldn’t fix it,” Deion said. “I’ve always been able to fix it, with all my kids. But as that bulljunk was going on and everything was — I couldn’t fix it. And he wanted me to fix it. And I didn’t have the power to fix it. And that hurt, because I felt like I wasn’t there for my son. Why we didn’t have an agent? Well, you’re projected to go what, first or second, right? . . . I’ve been through this. So why do you need that? You know, it don’t make sense to give somebody four or five percent — three percent, whatever they get now — and you know where you’re slotted.”
Not having an agent arguably contributed to the free fall, because there was no one to relentlessly push back when the “bulljunk” started to fly.
“It was some ignorant things came out about [Shedeur] pre-draft and all that, and that was a lie,” Deion said. “Like he would never go into a meeting with headphones on. He would never go into a meeting unprepared. Like, that’s just not who he is. There’s no way he could accomplish the things he accomplished without being prepared. . . . So all that stuff was a lie, man. Now that bothers me. It didn’t bother him, but that bothered me. Because I knew where it came from. But we never, you know — we took the high road. I never said where it came from. I know. I’m connected like that with a lot of people. I was that before I was a coach. So we knew what time it was. So when people were talking in the Cleveland media and saying this and saying that, we just sit back and laugh, man.”
It’s unclear whether an agent could have changed things, frankly. One problem was the perception (fueled by comments Deion had made) that Deion would be eyeing the head-coaching job of the team that drafts Shedeur. What coach in his right mind would have signed off on drafting Shedeur early in the process, if it also meant potentially signing his own eventual pink slip?
Here’s what Deion said, in January 2025: “The only way I would consider [coaching in the NFL] is to coach my sons.”
During the podcast interview, Deion said this to Bush: “I never wanted their job. I love Colorado, man. I love my kids that I have in that locker room. I love the staff. I love all of it. I ain’t trying to coach in no NFL. And I think a couple people may have thought that. And they thought if they brought him in, it would be that.”
Yes, because in January 2025, Deion opened that door, whether he meant to or not.
The reasoning that Shedeur didn’t need an agent because he was supposedly going first or second in the draft doesn’t explain his brother’s decision to not have an agent. Shilo wasn’t considered to be a high-round prospect. He could have used a skilled agent to help boost his stock throughout the pre-draft process. (After he wasn’t drafted, Shilo quickly hired an agent — and he promptly landed an opportunity to make the 53-man roster in Tampa Bay.)
As to Shedeur, either the perception that he’d be a top pick was incorrect or he initially was regarded in the upper echelon of the draft pool and he fell. If it’s the former, a good agent would have better set the family’s expectations. If it’s the latter, a good agent would have given advice aimed at preventing a nosedive.
Deion said, “I’ve been through this.” But his talent was undeniable, and generational. He didn’t have to play the pre-draft game. He was still going to be a top-five pick. Shedeur needed to submit to the process, fully and completely. As one source told PFT after the 2025 draft ended, there was a perception that Shedeur conducted himself as if he was being “recruited,” not “interviewed.” Given the importance of the quarterback position generally and the fact that Shedeur wasn’t a no-brainer, once-in-20-years prospect, Deion’s approach from 1989 wasn’t going to fly in 2025.
Currently, none of that matters. Shedeur had a chance to compete last year. He earned the ability to start seven games. He’ll compete this year with Deshaun Watson for the QB1 position in Cleveland. If Shedeur wins the job, he’ll have the opportunity from Week 1 to blossom as an NFL quarterback.
All players, no matter where they’re drafted, will determine whatever their NFL career is going to be. Agent or no agent, the talent and the performance as demonstrated day-in and day-out will reveal the player’s NFL fate. That’s where things currently stand for Shedeur, as he prepares to show a brand-new head coach that he has the skills and abilities that should have resulted in him being taken at the top of the draft.
Put simply, from this moment on, whatever happens is entirely up to Shedeur Sanders. Not an agent. Not Deion. Not anyone but Shedeur.
In a recent podcast appearance, Colorado coach Deion Sanders covered a wide variety of topics. Including the recent incident involving his son, Shilo, and Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“We don’t talk about nobody,” Deion Sanders said on The Barbershop with Garrett Bush. “We don’t do nothing to nobody. I know Shilo had a little altercation that he spoke up for his brother. You’ve got to understand, man, that’s his brother. And God bless Mary Kay’s soul, that’s his brother. I mean, she said something, he said something, like media is different today. I know a lot of people don’t respect the old school. I do, because I grew up in that era that we didn’t have a say so. . . . But Shilo spoke up for his brother, and he was ridiculed for that.”
In fairness to the facts, Shilo was ridiculed not because he spoke up but for what he said.
After Cabot expressed her opinion that the Browns should name Deshaun Watson the starting quarterback “ASAP,” Shilo said, “Go make a sandwich Mary.”
Shilo separately suggested that Cabot should report facts and not express opinions.
“If it’s reported, it’s reported,” Shilo said. “You have facts, you have news. But when it comes to your opinion, you’ve been saying crazy things for the past — since he’s been there. So it’s like, just chill with that. Because it don’t make no sense, and it makes you look crazy like you don’t know what you’re talking about. And for all the women that actually take the time to go do their research and actually be real reporters and real journalists, then that’s gonna make them look bad, because you already know as a woman in this field of reporting football and sports, like, it’s hard. So don’t make it hard on everybody, just because you don’t feel like it.”
So, yes, Shilo has every right to defend Shedeur. But if Shilo does it in a way that merits scrutiny, he’s going to experience it.
Deion, in turn, has every right to defend Shilo. And, yes, it’s hard for any father to be objective about his children. That doesn’t mean Deion shouldn’t try to understand why, to use his term, Shilo “was ridiculed.” Shilo said something for which he deserved to be fairly criticized.
Hopefully, Deion made that point to Shilo privately. No father’s blind spot for his children should be so large that the father misses a clear opportunity to explain that there’s a line between defending a family member and attacking someone based on an irrelevant characteristic, such as gender.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders says he’d like to talk to new Browns head coach Todd Monken about quarterback Shedeur Sanders — not because Deion is Shedeur’s dad, but because Deion was Shedeur’s college coach.
Deion Sanders said on Garrett Bush’s podcast that the date of their meeting hasn’t been set, but he plans to travel to Cleveland, sit down with Monken and talk to him about how to get the most out of Shedeur as a player. Deion Sanders said it’s no different than he feels about other players he’s coached, such as Jaguars cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter, whom he thinks he can provide some insight on.
“I was supposed to go, actually next week but I’ve got to shoot a commercial, to Cleveland to meet [Monken],” Sanders said. “Because I want to meet him. Because I think it’s vital that as a coach, not the dad, I can tell him a few things about [Shedeur], how to get him going. That wasn’t asked of me a year ago. I don’t understand it. Even a guy like Travis Hunter being drafted to Jacksonville and I’ve had him for the last three [seasons], don’t you think you would want to talk to me to ask me what gets him going and what backs him off? You would want to know that. So, I anticipate, and I can’t wait to have that conversation with Coach Monken.”
Sanders said he’s been bothered by negative talk about Shedeur coming out of NFL circles since before last year’s draft. But Sanders believes Monken is the kind of coach who will deal honestly and forthrightly with Shedeur.
“I love it, man, because he’s a straight shooter,” Deion said of Monken. “All these little side conversations that was had before him, he ain’t with that.”
We don’t know if Fernando Mendoza will be starting at quarterback for the Raiders in Week 1 of the regular season, but we do know who the Raiders will be playing in the first overall pick’s potential debut.
The NFL’s schedule reveal on Thursday night shows that the Raiders will host the Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13. The game will be on Fox.
Mendoza will have to get the nod over Kirk Cousins in order to start for the Raiders. Offseason addition Malik Willis is expected to make his first appearance for the Dolphins. Both teams will definitely have head coaches making their offseason debut as Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak in February and Miami hired Jeff Hafley in January.
Sunday will also feature a pair of divisional games in the late afternoon window. The Packers will visit the Vikings while the Commanders will be in Philadelphia to renew their acquaintance with the Eagles. The NFC North matchup will be on CBS while the NFC East clash will be broadcast by Fox.
The other late game on Sunday afternoon will see the Cardinals visiting the Chargers on CBS. Arizona could have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew or rookie Carson Beck at quarterback for that contest.
The 1 p.m. ET games will send the Bills to Houston for a date with the Texans while the Browns go on the road against the Jaguars. The Colts will host the Ravens, the Saints will visit the Lions, the Buccaneers will travel to Cincinnati for Dexter Lawrence’s first game as a Bengal, and the Steelers will kick off the Mike McCarthy era — with or without Aaron Rodgers — at home against the Falcons.
Previous reports revealed that the Jets will be in Tennessee and that the Bears will head to Charlotte to face the Panthers. The Jets-Titans game will be on CBS along with the Bills-Texans, Ravens-Colts and Browns-Jaguars games. All the other 1 p.m. games will be on Fox.
The entire Week 1 slate will kick off on Wednesday, September 9 with a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in Seattle on NBC. Thursday will bring a Netflix game between the 49ers and Rams in the NFL’s first game in Melbourne and Sunday night will find the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium to meet the Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Those games were all announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal, which was also the case for the ESPN Monday night game between the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City.
The Browns have signed second-round safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren to his four-year rookie deal, the team announced.
Cleveland has now signed nine of its 10 draft picks, with only first-round wide receiver KC Concepcion remaining unsigned.
The Browns drafted McNeil-Warren with the 58th overall pick out of Toledo.
He appeared in 53 career games with 14 starts at Toledo in his four collegiate seasons. McNeil-Warren played in all 13 games in 2025, recording 77 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, half a sack and two interceptions, while earning third-team AP All-America honors.
Browns first-round offensive tackle Spencer Fano, second-round wide receiver Denzel Boston, third-round tackle Austin Barber, fifth-round center Parker Brailsford, fifth-round linebacker Justin Jefferson, fifth-round tight end Joe Royer, sixth-round quarterback Taylen Green and seventh-round tight end Carsen Ryan previously signed.
Browns head coach Todd Monken spent the last three years overseeing the Ravens’ offense and part of that role involved the development of wide receiver Zay Flowers.
The process went pretty well. The 2023 first-round pick made two Pro Bowls while amassing 237 catches for 3,128 yards and 14 touchdowns during his three years playing for Monken.
Cleveland used one of its first-round picks on a wide receiver this year and Monken sees some connective tissue between what Flowers brought to his offense and what rookie KC Concepcion could be able to do.
“There are some traits that are similar to [Flowers],” Monken said, via Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN.com. “But I love when people spoke about KC, it reminded me of Zay in that, in terms of how he practiced, what he brings in every day. And if you’re looking for that comparison, that I can compare, I believe he’s going to bring that like Zay did.”
Flowers has had the benefit of playing with Lamar Jackson and the Browns don’t have that kind of certainty at quarterback, but a quick transition to NFL life will help whoever winds up slinging the ball for Monken this fall.
The Raiders signed linebacker Cameron McGrone, the team announced Monday.
Las Vegas cut wide receiver Brenden Rice in a corresponding move.
McGrone, who turns 26 next month, played four games for the Colts and one for the Browns last season. In the five combined games, he played 43 defensive snaps and 68 on special teams and totaled two tackles.
The Patriots made him a fifth-round pick in 2021, but he never appeared in a regular-season game before he joined the Colts in December 2022. He played one game that season and has played in 27 games in his career.
Rice, the son of Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, signed a futures deal with the Raiders in January after spending time on their practice squad late last season.
The Chargers selected Rice in the seventh round of the 2024 draft, and he has also spent time with the Patriots and Seahawks.
Rice, 24, has appeared in three games, all with the Chargers and all in his rookie season.
Veteran tight end David Njoku finally has a new home.
Via NFL Network, Njoku has agreed to terms with the Chargers on a one-year deal. It’s reportedly worth “up to” $8 million.
Which means it has a base value below that, with an opportunity to earn the rest through incentives. Without knowing the incentives, it’s impossible to know how easy or hard it will be to get there.
Njoku was the 29th overall pick in the 2017 draft. He had played nine years in Cleveland. He made the Pro Bowl in 2023, with a career-high 81 catches for 882 yards and six touchdowns.
With the 2025 season, Njoku completed a four-year, $54.75 million deal with the Browns.
In L.A., Njoku becomes another weapon in the new-look offense being implemented under coordinator Mike McDaniel. The Chargers currently have four other tight ends on the roster, headlined by Oronde Gadsen, who generated 664 receiving yards as a rookie in 2025.
His protracted stay on the free-agency market makes his signing not count for compensatory draft-pick purposes, for either the Chargers or the Browns.
Browns rookie quarterback Taylen Green believes he’s one of a kind.
Green is taller than most other quarterbacks and his performance at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis shows that he also stands out in terms of his physical ability. He ran a 4.36 40-yard dash and set positional records for his vertical leap and broad jump, which makes him feel like there’s no easy comparison for him among the league’s other signal callers.
“To be honest, no,” Green said, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “I would say of course Lamar [Jackson], but he ain’t 6′6″. Josh Allen is close, but I’m 230. He’s like 260. My dad says Randall Cunningham-ish. I really don’t think there’s anybody like me. Not in a like cocky [way] or anything, just some confidence. There’s nobody that moves like me, that’s as tall as me.”
It’s hard to argue with Green being an outlier when it comes to size and athleticism, but the flip side of that is that he lasted until the sixth round of the draft because those traits did not translate to consistent success throwing the ball while at Arkansas. The Browns are trying to address the fundamental causes that contributed to 35 college interceptions and the results of that effort will decide if Green ever progresses beyond intriguing prospect in the NFL.
