CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans! The Browns are in Philadelphia this morning to practice with the Eagles. Live coverage on the OBR begins a little after 9AM on the Insider Discussion thread. See you there, I hope. Meanwhile, check in on the Daily News Ticker throughout the day to see the latest Browns stories from around the web.
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
The Browns practice against the Philadelphia Eagles today in what will likely be a preview of this year's Super Bowl. Yeah. (Clears throat). Anyhow, the Browns will be tested, and eyes will be on Kenny Pickett to see how much he can participate. This is a crucial week for the quarterback rodeo and other critical camp battles as the Browns get their best sense of what these quarterbacks can deliver a few weeks ahead of the team's season opener against the Bengals.
Joe Flacco is, of course, the odds-on favorite to start. Whether Pickett will make a push to displace him will depend on what he's able to show this week, although his mobility will likely be hampered, which will take away one of his key strengths.
Meanwhile, the Browns' defensive line will be tested against the Eagles' tough offensive line, although that first team has been hampered a bit by injuries. Either way, it's a sterner test than the team faced against the Panthers.
So, that's the Cleveland Browns of the present. What about the team's prospects for the future? What lies in that dim unknown of time yet unraveled? Will the Browns find their quarterback? Will their draft picks succeed? Will there still be Raisin Bran? These unknowns, fortunately, have already been resolved and spelled out for us, thanks to ESPN's Future Rankings. (The cereal question is, unfortunately, left unanswered.)
These rankings are designed to allow fans to measure the short-term future of each franchise from 2025 through 2027. That's a challenge when teams rise quickly based on "hits" in the draft or free agency, especially at the quarterback position, as seen with the Washington Commanders in 2024 or the Houston Texans in 2023.
Overall, it turns out that the future looks almost exactly like the present, which is surprising for a league built on parity and the ability for teams to recover from despair quickly.
The Eagles (Super Bowl champs) are first, Ratbirds second, Chiefs third, Bills fourth, Lions fifth, and so on. In other words, it looks like most people's 2025 power rankings. The Browns, of course, are found far down the chart at 26th. The reason for this is primarily the uncertainty at the quarterback position.
ESPN says, "The focus still remains on the quarterbacks room, with four players in contention for the starting job -- and the very real possibility that none of them will be the long-term answer. Not an ideal situation to be in as an organization, to say the least."
The rest of the roster is ranked 24th in the league, a curious position for a team that has the league's best edge rusher, one of the best cornerbacks, and so on. The ESPN brain trust is extrapolating last year's offensive performance into the future and arguing that the team's offense is horrible. The front office is rated 25th. It's tough to argue that much based on last year's campaign.
Future Past
I'm going right. (Photo: Unsplash.com)
But this isn't supposed to be about 2024. It's about 2025-2027. I'd argue that ESPN overlooks a critical aspect: the team's acquisition of future draft picks, which gives them the ability to make aggressive strides with the roster in 2026, when they have two first-round picks. It also ignores their expertise with managing the salary cap, which has been historically strong if one overlooks the massive error the team made with Deshaun Watson in 2022. Perhaps ESPN's recent deal, which binds them closer to the NFL, will provide them with more resources to generate salient takes in the future.
While this team will tell you that it intends to be competitive this year, the trendline towards playoff competition is supposed to reach new heights in 2026 and 2027. Between Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders, or next year's draft pick, the Browns believe they're well-suited to improve play at that critical position in the near term. Look at their draft arsenal in 2026 and the patience they're showing with Sanders. They're focused on the near future.
The ESPN prediction for the next three years is similar to those of many other media outlets. They're generally last year's results slightly modified if a team made "big" or obvious off-season moves. Rarely do you see a prognosticator leap to say that a team will fly high if they struggled in the most recent campaign. But it happens all the time in the NFL. It's rare to see anyone say that it will happen in Cleveland, of all places, because the evidence displayed over the past 25 years suggests that the team's poor-to-mediocre results will continue. In 2023, no one saw the Flacco burst coming, not even the world leader in incestuous deals.
So, do not fixate or worry about what ESPN says here. This team, like many, is a quarterback away from being competitive, and it is very focused on resolving its problems here. The past does not guarantee the future.
To ESPN's credit, they recognize that the team will have to build on the offensive line in 2026, a challenge, I guess the network feels they're unlikely to ace. Still, I would argue that the team is preparing to fix their quarterback issue, whether now or in next year's draft, and success there could portend a quick rise in 2026 or 2027. None of the talented writers ESPN employs here is with the team daily, and excellent local writer Daniel Oyefusi did not appear to participate. Ask a national person whether the Browns' failures will continue, and they're most likely to say "yes" based on history. But I think those of us closer to the team can make the case for hope.
I'm not giving up. Not because ESPN tells me to, or anyone else. Let me at least have that.
By the way, I'm projected to have some Raisin Bran in a matter of minutes.
Full Story: 2025 NFL Future Power Rankings: Projections for all 32 teams - (espn.com)
Have a good one! GO BROWNS! Newswire Bloviation Archive
OBR STUFF
ARTICLES
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Preseason Top 10 Quarterback Rankings in the 2026 NFL Draft - WRITER
Cleveland Browns News Ticker 8/12/25 - WRITER
Cleveland Browns News and Rumors 8/12: Various Levels of Absurdity - WRITER
VIDEOS
Browns To Be Tested In Eagles Joint Practices, QB Positioning, Roster Timeline and more - The React - (youtube.com)
Browns 3D- Shedeur Sanders and the Browns head to Philadelphia - (youtube.com)
FORUM POSTS
Interior DL (VIP)
Has Floriea been claimed? (VIP)
Corner Depth (VIP)
A plethora of edges (VIP)
Cedric Tillman (VIP)
Pickett as early season starter (VIP)
OT: Alien: Earth
A Third of Ratfans Favor their Fantasy Team
LiveWire Thread for 812 - Twitter, Video, Articles
Offers for Gabriel?
Podcast: Fred Talks Browns Practice with Dennis Manoloff
THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
Boy With Rare Bone Disorder Becomes Quarterback for a Day and Scores a Touchdown for the NFL Carolina Panthers (Good News Network)
Scoring a touchdown is always a triumph, but it pales compared to what Jase Garland accomplished. Diagnosed at ten years old with Myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone disease, the young man would need a bone marrow transplant and time to recover.
Jase's dream? To be a quarterback for the Carolina Panthers. The Make-a-Wish Foundation and the Panthers made his dream happen during the Panthers' Fan Fest and intrasquad scrimmage. Sometimes, NFL teams do great things.
WRAPPING UP
When not geeking out over Alien: Earth, 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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