Browns Clips
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.
A year after the Browns used a fifth-round pick on quarterback Shedeur Sanders, they took a sixth-round flier on quarterback Taylen Green.
Green is undeniably a high-level physical talent. The first order of business in Cleveland is to get to work on his fundamentals as a passer.
“Well, first thing was . . . footwork,” coach Todd Monken told reporters on Saturday. “Cadence — getting used to our cadence early on, and he was better today, but [Saturday] morning and [Friday], choppy with his cadence. So just getting our guys into a rhythm at the line of scrimmage, I think that was the second thing he needed to work on.
“He did a nice job today of working through his progressions. I did like that part of it. We’re gonna have to be really diligent in trying to tighten down his release. When you’re talking about check downs taken from as long of his release or long release he has, to really just being able to dart it to get it quickly out of his hands into the hands of whether it’s a running back or a tight end. But I’ve been super impressed with his ability to really learn, process and take it to the field and then getting through his progressions, really impressive.”
The length of the release is no small issue. It’s very hard to change years of muscle memory. And a long release at the NFL level creates two problems. One, it telegraphs the throw. That makes it easier for defensive backs to get to the ball. Two, it gives pass rushers more of a chance to attack the ball as the quarterback works through his throwing motion.
Still, Green has unlimited potential. If Monken and the Browns can polish up those various fundamental skills, Green could become a dangerous weapon for the Browns.
It’s awkward, to say the least, when the owner of an NFL team in one market owns a sports team in another market. Especially since there’s a general rule of etiquette that the pro teams in a given market will support each other — even though they’re essentially in competition for the hearts, minds, and wallets of the same consumers.
In Cleveland, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam owns a significant piece of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. And Haslam is now taking on a bigger role in the basketball team.
Haslam appeared at and participated in a press conference introducing new Bucks coach Taylor Jenkins. And Haslam made it clear he’ll be more involved with the team.
“Do I think we’ll be here more?” Haslam said, via Jonathan X. Simmons of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I do.”
It was the first time Haslam spoke publicly as a member of the Bucks’ ownership team. His comments also addressed the future of star player Giannis Antetokounmpo, acknowledging that he may — or may not — be traded soon.
“We don’t know whether Giannis will stay with us or not, but we’ll work through that with Giannis in the coming weeks,” Haslam said, via the Associated Press.
Every person has only so much bandwidth. The more time Haslam spends on the Bucks, the less time he’ll have for the Browns. Which, frankly, could be good for the Browns.
Although Haslam consistently has denied meddling with football operations in Cleveland, it’s hard not to sense the presence of his fingerprints on the biggest blunders the Browns have made in his 14 years of owning the team. From the wasting of a first-round pick on quarterback Johnny Manziel to the failed effort to adopt baseball-style analytics through the tenure of Paul DiPodesta, to institutionalized tanking in the late 2010s via the offering of financial incentives based on the stockpiling of future draft picks and the carrying over of cap space to the single worst transaction in NFL history — the 2022 trade for and contract given to quarterback Deshaun Watson — none of those things happen if Haslam doesn’t want them to happen.
So, yes, maybe the Browns will benefit if Haslam is distracted by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Maybe the Cavaliers will, too.
Twelve years to the month after Johnny Manziel became a first-round pick in the NFL draft, he’ll step into a boxing ring for the first time.
Via Andreas Hale of ESPN, Manziel will fight social-media influencer Bob Menery on May 23, at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
It’s the latest twist in Manziel’s post-football career, at a time when he could still be playing. But he washed out of the NFL after only two seasons with the Browns.
After two seasons out of football, Manziel spent time with a pair of CFL franchises before joining the short-lived AAF in 2019. From 2021 to 2022, he played in the Fan Controlled Football League for the Zappers. Manziel launched the Glory Daze podcast in 2024.
Next, the 33-year-old Manziel will face the 38-year-old Menery in a new venture aimed at grabbing a little attention and cash.
