First place. The Browns are in first place. I don’t believe it either.
OK, it’s a four-way tie for first place, since all four AFC North teams are being annoying and winning games. They’re all sitting at 2-1, which is a little like leading your fantasy league in week three. After what we all watched in Jacksonville, I will take it, print it out, and tape it to the wall.
Running a small website for going on three decades has taught me exactly one thing about money. There’s stuff you buy and there’s stuff you rent. You buy what you are sure you’ll still want five years from now. Much of the rest you rent month to month, and you keep the receipts.
Here’s my investment advice:
BUY THE KID: There are plenty of people crawling out of the woodwork to tell you that they were always along for the ride with the Graham selection. Some of them are even telling the truth. I’m one of them, because I watched Graham’s dominance of the Ohio State offensive line in 2024 and had a bad Thanksgiving weekend because of it. The trade-down from the second pick was a franchise-altering move by Andrew Berry, one of the reasons I’m still behind the Browns GM despite his overall record.
Yesterday, Mason Graham had two sacks, seven tackles, and three tackles for loss, per Scott Petrak’s defensive wrap in the Chronicle-Telegram. That’s four sacks in three games from a guy who finished his rookie year with half of one. He is the first Brown with a sack in each of the first three games since Myles Garrett in 2019 and the first defensive tackle in the NFL to pull it off since Akiem Hicks in 2020. The one that mattered came right after the go-ahead touchdown: Graham got Bryce Young on third down, the pressure forced a short throw on fourth, and Carolina’s drive was over in four plays.
Graham credited the approach to a motto from defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg. “Something we preached all week was we’re going to (give) 60 minutes of hell.” They did.
But there’s more to it than that. Graham has clearly taken a major step forward in 2026.
Now, the sack pace. Jack Duffin notes in his snap counts piece that Graham is on track for 22.5, which would pass Aaron Donald for the most ever by a defensive tackle. All of this is true, but sack totals in September are like the first warm day in March. Enjoy them, but don’t put the snow shovel away.
I’m buying anyway, and the reason is everything around the sacks. Pete Smith made the point in our game recap: “Mason Graham is getting the stats and the headlines. He deserves them.” Then Pete went right on to Jared Verse, Mike Hall Jr., Isaiah McGuire, and Derek Barnett, who tipped Young’s last throw into Ronnie Hickman’s hands for the game-sealing interception. Rutenberg even lined Graham up at end just to scramble Carolina’s reads. When your coordinator starts moving the No. 5 overall pick around like a chess piece, he knows what he has.
This defense traded away the best player in the league and somehow didn’t get much worse at bothering quarterbacks. Young came in second in the league in passing and left with a 70.7 rating after eight hits and three sacks.
The question in our Ask the Insiders “Graham” thread is whether he can be a perennial Pro Bowler. Three games in, I’m not answering that. I’m just signing the mortgage.
RENT THE QUARTERBACK: And then there’s Deshaun Watson, another hero from yesterday.
The line, via the Chronicle-Telegram game story: 16-for-30, 144 yards, two touchdowns to Harold Fannin Jr, and an 88.8 rating. The Athletic counted three first-half throws that should have been intercepted, and a late pick in the end zone only went away because Bobby Okereke got flagged for roughing. Watson had 67 passing yards going into the fourth quarter. The offense managed three total yards in the third. The boos showed up on schedule and weren’t entirely unjustified.
But somehow Watson avoided the “big mistake,” and the Browns hung around until the fourth quarter happened again. A 21-yard scramble on third-and-3. A 14-yard strike across his body to Fannin with 1:48 left. A 2-point throw to Denzel Boston. On the season, Watson is 20-for-25 for 253 yards and three touchdowns in fourth quarters, and he’s joined Baker Mayfield, Derek Anderson, and Vinny Testaverde as the only Browns quarterbacks in 35 seasons with multiple touchdown passes and no picks in back-to-back wins.
Back in the Anderson era, I was not a believer. I remember saying on our little radio show at the time that it felt like the team should deal him as soon as the season was over, because his value would never be higher. I was right. Now I’m saying that despite Watson’s recent heroics, I’m not a believer, and even more skeptical than I was of Anderson.
But I’ll take 2-1 and clutch performances for now.
“Fourth quarters have always been special,” Watson said. “That’s when the special players make special plays, and I want to be one of those chosen ones.”
He also said he got “a little teary-eyed” and that he didn’t hear any negativity from the crowd, which is a heck of a selective hearing trick for a guy who was scolding that same crowd for booing him in August.
So I’m renting. Month to month. Ian Rapoport says Watson has earned the right to keep starting after an “excellent, excellent” week of practice, and two straight comebacks buy you another month on the lease. Pete isn’t wrong, though, when he writes that it’s fair to wonder how long Watson can hold the job. The pressure problems and the trouble seeing the field didn’t go anywhere. The defense bailed him out for three quarters and he paid them back in the fourth. That’s a fine arrangement right up until the week it isn’t.
The Athletic’s column this morning on Todd Monken building an identity around the franchise’s most painful chapter says the other part plainly, and I agree with it. A good fourth quarter doesn’t settle the account on everything that came before, and the fans who still boo “aren’t confused. They’re remembering.” Football can only answer the football question. For two weeks running, the football answer has been “yes, late.” I’ll keep paying rent as long as that holds.
FOURTH-AND-FRICK: Up three, 1:01 left, fourth-and-1 at the Carolina 15. Monken went for it with the same slow-developing power run that got stuffed on fourth-and-short in Tampa. Judkins lost two. Andre Szmyt, who had just hit his 20th straight field goal from 45, stood on the sideline. Pete called it “terrible management” in the recap, and I’m with him. Kick the short one, go up six, make them go 85 yards. The defense saved him again, and Monken then went and high-fived the Dawg Pound and told the press, “We’re playing for first place. Holy s***, isn’t that cool or what?” I’m going to allow it this week. Twelve penalties for 84 yards (three false starts on Tytus Howard alone) I will not allow. As Monken put it, “We’re going to be a damn good football team once Browns stop hurting Browns.”
THE MUNI LOT, OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Channel 19 went out to the packed Muni Lot for the home opener, a day the team also spent honoring its new Legends inductees and Nick Chubb. Sunshine and a comeback win on the same afternoon. Somebody check the calendar, because this does not sound like Cleveland.
STEELERS, ON A SHORT WEEK: Pittsburgh comes to town Thursday night (8:15, Prime Video) with first place on the line. The Watercooler has already declared Squeelers Week. No time to fix anything, per Pete. Just recover, game plan, and let the kid go get the quarterback again.
Buy the kid, rent the quarterback. Hating the Steelers remains free with your subscription.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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When not deciding which of his Browns to buy and which to rent month to month, 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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