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Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
As the Cleveland Browns' $240 million quarterback watches from afar as his career circles the drain, the San Francisco 49ers have proven that a Day 3 quarterback can succeed and get paid in this league, signing QB Brock Purdy to a deal richer than Deshaun Watson's, with $181 million guaranteed.
Purdy and the Niners did it right - let a quarterback prove it on the field for your team and in your system, then pay him. The Browns, as is their wont, did it wrong by giving a quarterback who had taken a year off a similar bundle of cash before they knew whether he could do it for their team and their system, not to mention the off-field baggage he brought with him.
No one at the Browns lost their job, but the impact on fans and operations like the OBR was devastating. The enthusiasm is just starting to come back, and some fans are returning despite the team being predicted to have another down year in 2025.
Meanwhile, the Browns have a quarterback that people are excited about again - and Dillon Gabriel, too - as they search for a way out of the mess they created. Yesterday, ex-GM Scot McCloughlin spent the day telling anyone who would listen that the Browns' new fifth-round quarterback, Shedeur Sanders, will be the best quarterback in the draft.
The NFL, TV networks, and gamblers remain unconvinced, scheduling the Browns for zero primetime games and taking bets on whether they will remain as awful as they were in 2024.
That, and they have Adam Pac-Man Jones, who is proving that everyone will eventually have their own TV show, ripping GM Andrew Berry, while vultures circle to see which of the team's four quarterbacks will be cut.
The absurdity of the Browns' current situation has resulted in beat writers going to their pages and ersatz TV shows to declare which quarterback looked better in rookie camp as they tossed passes to people wearing shirts and shorts while facing no pass rush. Just bizarre.
As all this pointless chatter continues around the team, at least the Browns can point to some young potential studs in their current draft class. Yesterday, they signed BGSU tight end and third-round draft pick Harold Fannin to a new deal, making him the team's third draft pick to sign. You can read all about it here, here, and here.
Money
Money makes the world go. Or stop.
JIMMYWORLD IS A FAIT ACCOMPLI: As we've been saying here, the Browns' massive Brookpark complex will happen without voters getting to express their opinion. Haslam and the state's governor want it to happen, so... it will happen. Attention is now turning to what to do with the new lakefront real estate, which will be left when the team's current cookie-cutter stadium is knocked down. SPOILER: Cleveland and Cuyahoga County leadership have no idea.
Exactly as I expected, the garbage studies about economic benefit are swallowed wholesale by some, used as a cudgel against unwilling politicians, and the thing will get built. Let's not kid ourselves that this will somehow be a boon to Northeast Ohio. It will be built because Cleveland loves football and an absurdly rich guy wants it.
The people downtown who will be impacted have no more choice in the matter than I did when the team brought in a quarterback to serve as the face of the franchise, who turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. Best of luck, folks.
Still, we'll have a fun new big-ass dome in Brookpark for people willing to spend 10K on seats. Whatever. Maybe Taylor Swift will come to town, or there will be a Super Bowl here. It won't pay itself back because they never do. And so it goes.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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