CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
It's Shedeur Sanders Day here in Cleveland, as the fifth-round draft pick makes his debut in the starting role against the Las Vegas Raiders.
What to expect?
No one really knows, but there's plenty of conjecture anyway.
Dianna Russini says,"People inside the Browns building say there's been a calm about the rookie that sticks out." She quotes one Browns player as saying Sanders is treating this start like a "final exam he can't fail".
That sounds good. Expectations rise.
Then, there's CBS's Jonathan Jones, who quotes a source as saying "If it's gonna work this season, this is the week for it."
That also sounds good.
Joy Taylor of ESPN is comparing Sanders' start to that of Tom Brady/Drew Bledsoe, when the Hall of Fame quarterback showed he would be the GOAT (of the early 2000s).
That sounds good, too. Expectations rise again.
Sure, there are more sober analyses to be found, but who cares about those? Because Sanders is such a big topic for national yappers, there will be a race to find the most extreme positions on Sanders, so that attention will follow. See above.
Some analysts know better. After a little bit of experience, Ross Tucker said, "If you say anything positive about Shedeur, there's a weird group of people or bots or whatever, they jump down your throat right away. 'That was an easy pass. The receiver made the play. He's not good.' And then if you say anything negative about Shedeur, there's a whole other group of people or bot army or whatever. Nobody's just relaxed with him. It's the strangest thing."
Shedeur Sanders
His turn has come (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
This ties to my personal experience, and very few people pay any attention to what I say. Imagine weighing in on Sanders if someone takes you seriously. Good thing I don't have to worry about that.
Regardless, I think I'll hold off on going to either extreme. Dealing with bot armies doesn't sound like something I want to deal with at 7AM on Sunday.
Honestly, I'm unsure what we'll see today. My instinct is to suggest we'll see a moderate improvement over last Sunday's haphazard combination of missed receivers, deep sacks, interceptions and general chaos. That sets a very low bar, indicating that we'll merely see bad quarterback play rather than disastrous quarterback play. There are habits and tendencies built over years that even an entire week of practice with the first team won't fix. Sigh.
What, after all, can we realistically expect out of seven days of preparation to play behind an offensive line that can't pass-protect, angling to throw to receivers that have problems of their own?
I'm going into this affair with very low expectations for Sanders, but perhaps the problem is me? I've been burned 40 or so times before, after all. After enough decades of this, anticipation becomes low expectations to protect one's own psyche.
My advice to fans is to watch, join us in the Cooler or Insider threads, and relax. What happens, happens. Maybe it will be good, but we're Browns fans, so we've long ago learned to protect ourselves against hope. My defenses are already up. Are yours?
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
'We were genuinely astonished': This moss survived 9 months outside the International Space Station and could… - (space.com)
Good news, I imagine, for spacefaring billionaires who want to terraform Mars. It turns out that moss can survive even the most difficult conditions of space, so it could probably survive the very difficult conditions on Mars. I don't think we'll be ready to try this in my lifetime, but who knows? Maybe I'll be around for another 20-30 years, a scary prospect for all of us.
WRAPPING UP
When not ready for whatever happens, starting at 4PM, Barry McBride, the Publisher and Founder of the OBR, bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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