CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
I got an email from Charles, a Browns fan, pointing out a story coming out of the Bears exhibition game that most in the media overlooked: Case Keenum's solid performance shredding the Browns in the second half.
Most Browns fans remember Keenum as a Browns quarterback in 2020-2021, when he was brought in to be Baker Mayfield's backup and, to some extent, his mentor. Despite Mayfield being injured in 2021, he played through it, and Keenum got only one chance to start: a Thursday night game against the Broncos, which the Browns won 17-14.
In my mind, Mayfield's decision to play - and the assent of the coaching staff - was franchise-altering. Mayfield had a relatively unspectacular season, and the front office concluded he wasn't the quarterback to lead them to a Super Bowl in an era when they felt they were a quarterback away.
So they went out and traded for Deshaun Watson, which set the franchise back half a decade. The disaster is well documented, but I'm left to wonder if they would have been so intent on moving on from Mayfield if he had not played injured. In any event, it seems possible that this decision played into dumping the Browns back to the bottom of the league (except for the Flacco period) for five years.
Relatively small decision. Big consequences.
It's impossible to predict the ramifications of the decision coming out of this week as to who the next Browns starting quarterback will be. This is Sanders' week against the Bills and his chance to seize the job.
Neither quarterback looked like the answer to my eyes last Saturday. Watson seemed his old frazzled self despite a good stat line built around short throws. Sanders looked like the better passer to me, other than one inexplicable throw which Sanders said slipped out of his hands.
Shedeur Sanders
Shedeur Sanders (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
There would be pain associated with either direction, but I see little purpose in letting Watson finish out his failed Browns tenure as the starter.
Todd Monken said it would be unfair not to give Shedeur the next start. Scott Petrak said the chance is here and it is on Sanders to take it. Chris Easterling called this the equalizer after Watson won the first round. I called it a spin cycle yesterday. Today I am calling it a job interview with pads on Tuesday and a home crowd on Saturday.
Here is the week.
THE SCHEDULE IS THE STORY. Sanders works with the ones today in shells and again Wednesday in shorts, when they do red zone. Watson gets Tuesday, which is pads and longer, so he will sneak a few extra reps. Thursday they try to split the reps against Buffalo. Saturday, Sanders starts at Huntington Bank Field and plays the first half. Monken said they were pretty balanced, within reason, and that there was no concerted effort to load the week for anybody. Fine. The start is the start. The home crowd will notice.
PLAY CLEAN. That is the actual assignment. Monken keeps saying Sanders has improved so much climbing the pocket and working through progressions. Then he says the kid still drifts too deep, even on the 35-yarder to Luke Floriea, and created his own pressure. Then he says the operation is still a problem for both of them: get in the huddle, get lined up, get the call. Sanders fumbled a snap on a missed cadence. Watson burned a timeout and took a delay of game. Monken called the huddle the most frustrating thing about Saturday. If you want a measuring stick that is not a passer rating, use that.
WATSON STILL HAS THE LEAD. I'm dubious about this common perception, but it exists because Watson put up ten points against Bears backups. Still, he looked frazzled under pressure to me once more. Next Gen had him at 2 of 4 for 17 yards under pressure and 9 of 11 for 109 when nobody was near him. Jack's snap-count notebook is not kind about what that means in September. I do not need it to be kind. I need Sanders to make the tape argument this week so Monken has something to argue with.
THE ONUS. Petrak echoes what I've been saying for months. Sanders is Year 2, cheap, and getting better. If the battle is tight, you go with the one who might have a future. That only works if he plays clean enough for a first-year head coach to trust him with Jacksonville. He did not huddle in college. He has been playing catch-up on a grown-up offense since the day he walked in. The coaches say he works.
This is the week that line either becomes a starter's resume or another nice thing we said in August.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
I often write about Alzheimer's disease, a scourge which worked with COVID to take my mother's life. It's impacted my family multiple times, and it's a disease that I've seen up close.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky spent a while proving that the sleep loss in Alzheimer's is not just dying neurons or the plaques themselves. It is the brain's immune cells throwing an all-nighter.
They used a drug to temporarily clear most of those cells in mice and got more than two hours of sleep back without shrinking the plaques. Shannon Macauley called it paradigm-shifting. Progress. Progress. I love science.
WRAPPING UP
When not willing to let Sanders do his thing, 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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