CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
The SS Browns News has crashed upon the beach, weighed down by quarterback battles that obsess most outlets, and then running into the reef of the Browns hiatus. It's a mess out there in Brownsiverse when it comes to news.
Nonetheless, here's a bunch of flotsam and jetsam I found in the Cleveland Browns digital river this morning.
DELPIT SITUATION DAWNS ON PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS: A few days ago, I wrote about the crucial decision that the Browns have to make in the defensive backfield. If the Browns intend to keep Delpit, it might be a good idea to extend him before the season. If they want to see how Hickman and McNeil-Warren develop before spending a ton of money, they wait. Here's Jack Duffin's take on the same subject, which is a good alternative to reading mine, since it makes sense and wasn't written until the duress of spinning words at 6AM
With that in mind, today's first story comes from ESPN, where Aaron Schatz suggests one last offseason move for every NFL team and lands on the Browns extending Grant Delpit. Delpit's deal voids after 2026, he'll be 29 in 2027, and ESPN notes that Sports Info Solutions had him seventh among all safeties in total points saved last year. Keeping a productive safety who can stabilize the back end is a grown-up move for a young team. Which, naturally, makes me nervous, since this is Cleveland.
But I want to thank the Cleveland Browns, for leaving us with one unknown to write about during the hiatus. I've got five more weeks to endlessly speculate about this.
NO TOP QB FOR YOU: Then there is Pro Football Network's early 2027 mock draft, because nothing says late June like arguing about a draft that is still ten months and several pulled hamstrings away. Ian Cummings has Arch Manning going No. 1, five quarterbacks in the top 20, and the Browns — using an order based on Super Bowl odds, not a hand-carved prophecy tablet — owning three picks in the top 36. The Browns pass on quarterback at No. 4 for Miami defensive tackle Justin Scott and circle back later, which is exactly the sort of mock-draft scenario that makes half the room nod and the other half start typing in ALL CAPS. Around here, that qualifies as civic engagement. Personally, I'm in the ALL CAPS camp with this one.
TWENTY YEARS OF PARTICIPANTS IN LOSING: PFF's All-Browns team of the last 20 years is a nice little nostalgia trap, featuring Joe Thomas, Joel Bitonio, Alex Mack, Wyatt Teller, Nick Chubb, Baker Mayfield, Myles Garrett, Joe Haden, Denzel Ward, and a bunch of names that make you remember Sundays where you stared at the TV like it owed you money. The offense is predictably built around the line because the Browns have somehow spent two decades capable of producing elite blockers while treating quarterback stability like an urban legend. PFF says Baker won the QB spot by a wide margin, which is both statistically defensible and emotionally hazardous depending on which chair you're sitting in at the bar.
BLAH BLAH BRENDAN BLAH: The Brendan Sorsby supplemental draft story remains around like my rapidly retreating hairline, with NFL Trade Rumors pulling Andrew Berry's comments from 92.3 The Fan about evaluating mistakes, accountability, and whether a player is a bad person or made a bad decision. Berry's quote is worth the read because it's measured, humane, and practical — which, on the internet, means somebody will be mad at it by lunch. The football part is that Sorsby's case isn't just arm strength or draft slot; it's whether teams believe the corrective action is real, the support system is real, and the leadership traits are real. That's a lot of realness for the supplemental draft, which is usually where news cycles go to nap.
CHUBB SPEAKS (BELIEVE IT OR NOT): Nick Chubb returned to Cleveland and talked with News 5 about the 2023 knee injury, the rehab, and the support he received from Browns fans. Chubb said, 'You never know what can happen,' when asked about a Cleveland return, and also said that when he retires, he'll do so as a Cleveland Brown. I am not going to pretend to be objective here. Chubb is one of those guys this fan base will carry around forever, partly because he was great and partly because he never made us feel dumb for believing in him. The line that sticks is him saying the 2023 season 'would have been our year,' because apparently even Nick Chubb has found a way to kick us directly in our souls
YOUR QUARTERBACK BATTLE UPDATE: I have one from Pro Football Rumors recycling stuff I wrote about last week, but I'm just going to leave the link here if you want to read it and not pour my diminishing reserve of brain cells into commenting on it. Can't wait for this to be over.
STOP BEING HUMAN: There was also an NFL Trade Rumors notes piece that pairs Jared Verse's comments about being traded with more Watson optimism from Browns coaches. Verse said the hardest part of the trade was leaving teammates behind and wanting them to hear it from him instead of ESPN, which is the sort of detail fans should remember when we reduce players to cap numbers and depth charts. Meanwhile, Todd Monken called Watson's feet a potential 'huge weapon' if he stays healthy, and Mike Bajakian said Watson looks like a 'high, high level athlete' through 12 offseason practices. That is encouraging. It is also June. Both sentences can be true, and this webdork reserves the right to be emotionally inconsistent about it.
Joe Thomas
Joe Thomas speaks at the Dome Groundbreaking. (Cows not shown). (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
JOE THOMAS RAISES COWS, DISCUSSES BROWNS: The Rich Eisen Show gave us Joe Thomas saying Deshaun Watson has the leg up on Shedeur Sanders, with Joe pointing to Watson's health, arm strength, mobility, and experience as reasons he would bet on Watson starting more games. Thomas also made the useful distinction that Shedeur is good at scrambling to throw, but Watson gives the offense more as a runner if the legs really have come back. Andrew Siciliano (guest hosting for Eisen) pushed the younger-roster angle, which is fair, but also noted the Browns averaged only 16 points per game over the last two years.
The longer Joe Thomas interview is less pure Browns quarterback debate and more Joe being Joe — Hall of Fame Farms, Wagyu beef, turkey-leg science, and a story about Jared Allen getting yanked off an ATV while trying to rope calves. If you are asking whether this belongs in a serious football newswire, I would remind you that this is the same daily nonsense that routinely includes my complaints about internet plumbing and social media networks, so yes, absolutely. Joe Thomas accidentally wandering from QB analysis to farm liability risk is probably the most Midwestern content package available without a euchre tournament.
Man, did I play a lot of euchre and drink a lot of beer when I was in grad school. I probably should have spent the time studying, so just take that as a sign that work-avoidance is not a new phenomenon in these parts.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
Space.com had two starred items this morning, and I'm using the Mars one for the lift because it feels like the right kind of forward motion. A California-based private company will build and launch NASA's next Mars orbiter in 2028, a mission Space.com says will provide daily measurements of the Martian global environment.
I like that because it is practical optimism: not somebody yelling about colonizing the galaxy by Tuesday, but people building another piece of knowledge, another instrument, another path forward. Around here, after enough Browns seasons, I will take all the practical optimism I can get — even if it has to arrive from Mars.
Also linked, for your future lunar zoning-board needs: Do we need a lunar building code to build moon bases safely?
WRAPPING UP
When not wondering whether the moon will get building inspectors before Berea gets a clean quarterback depth chart, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and 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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