CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans! There is one day remaining between us and the final pre-season game, which kicks off at 1PM tomorrow against the Cleveland/Los Angeles/St. Louis/Los Angeles again Rams, a team with a proud history of packing up and moving whenever things get rough.
I hate them.
Honestly, I've never really given them much thought beyond their 1999 season, but I've decided that I hate them now and want to see Shedeur Sanders stomp all over their third-string defense. Grab a cup of coffee and join me in the bloviation dome...
DAILY BLOVIATION BITS
Here are some random stupid things rattling through my brain on this Friday morning:
-- Shedeur Sanders gets 100 times more media attention than a third-string, fifth-round quarterback merits, but he largely handles it well. I wasn't all that crazy about how he handled the Dillon remarks, where the key quote was that he didn't let it impact him. The correct answer was "it wasn't about me" full-stop.
-- The NFL gets partial control of ESPN, and suddenly a Colin Kaepernick film by Spike Lee gets shelved. Not saying these things are related, but...
-- Speaking of the Bristol giant, they are dumping on the Browns again, saying that they are the least watchable team in the league. The view is incredibly simple-minded, as the Browns may very well have one of the most exciting defenses in the league. But only offense matters to the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, and the Browns were an offensive dumpster fire last year, so there you go.
-- Since the Browns are so unwatchable and boring, I expect ESPN.com will cease mentioning Shedeur Sanders 23,938 times per day now.
coffee
This is required for my life to continue (Photo: Unsplash.com)
-- So, the Browns drafted two running backs relatively high, but according to Diana Russini, they are back in the running back market. Only in Cleveland, as they say.
-- The NFL seems to be holding the Browns and Quinshon Judkins sort of hostage as they look like they're slow-walking the Judkins investigation, which holds up contract talks. They may not punish Judkins with a suspension, but they're punishing him without one right now.
-- Alien: Earth is better than I even could have imagined. It's not as good as Alien or Aliens, but either is a very high bar to clear. The horror of the first Alien film was brilliant. Aliens gets a lot of love, but I think Cameron ruined things a bit by making them a little easier to kill and coming up with the Alien Queen concept, which makes them just like nasty termites. Anyone who has seen the deleted egg chamber clip from Alien knows they're much scarier than that. I have spoken. I will not be taking questions.
-- Audric Estime may be available. The Broncos also have a surplus of cornerbacks. It seems to me like Andrew Berry should have Denver on speed dial.
-- To me, Jamari Thrash plays an underrated role in how effective the Browns offense is going to be in 2025. In the modern NFL, teams need three or four dangerous receivers, and the Browns are counting on Jamari Thrash to become one of those on the NFL level. I think he can do it, but I will be watching his progress closely.
-- Tomorrow afternoon's game should be fun, with three quarterbacks competing. I'm with those who feel that Pickett would have had a shot at displacing Flacco if he hadn't been hurt. I suspect, however, that Flacco would have slightly outperformed Pickett and that he would be the starter regardless. If nothing else, those first six games require a sacrificial lamb of sorts, and you do that with your 40-year-old, not a comparative youngster.
-- Man, it's so much easier throwing out one-paragraph random thoughts than it is developing a concept over 800 words. I should do this more often.
-- That's it for now. I have a lot of projects going on: building the ticker, marketing initiatives, and organizing all our digital assets into a database rather than 1,000 musty folders. Hack, hack, fiddle, fiddle, hover over a computer... So much to do!
-- I love every minute of it.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
Newswire Bloviation Archive
OBR STUFF
VIDEOS
Two-Minute Check-In: Camp 8/21/25 - (youtube.com)
ARTICLES
Browns Kevin Stefanski Lays Out Plans for Preseason Finale - Fred
Browns Lose LB Bookie Watson to IR with a Torn Biceps Sign Two Linebackers Wide Receiver, Cut Running Back - Fred
Cleveland Browns News and Rumors 8/21: The Ramifications of Accelerator Mashing - Barry
Cleveland Browns Quarterback Accuracy Charting Preseason: Week 2 Update - Sam
Cleveland Browns Daily News Ticker 8/21 - Barry
FORUM POSTS
Pre-Draft Commentary on Shedeur's Processing Speed (VIP)
Diabate ?? (VIP)
Don't get the Briggs trade ? (VIP)
Where in the world is Amari Cooper? (VIP)
What is the problem with the RB? (VIP)
Judkins and pocket suspensions (VIP)
Browns Seeking RB - Texans Have 1? (VIP)
Russini says browns calling on RBs (VIP)
Judkins and pocket suspensions (VIP)
Preseason Week 3 PitCar
Rashard Higgins
Another Briggs Question
Some new artwork to kick off the season...
Its ESPNs turn to dump on the Browns
So what do you out of town guys have for viewing Browns games ?
Won Browns Tix at Work
LiveWire Thread for 821 - Twitter, Video, Articles
Bullhockeys Pick Em - Need a new organizer
THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
Exceptional storytelling and the myth of superhuman AI - (bigthink.com)
I like this column. It's like the OBR Daily Newswire as if it were written by a deep thinker with time to read mind-expanding columns rather than by an overweight doofus who is obsessed with the game of football.
As anyone who has worked with AI knows, there's a huge gap between configuring the perfect prompt and collaborating with human beings with creativity and imagination. AI has its uses, but it doesn't replace the spark of the human mind and never will.
WRAPPING UP
*When not randomly spewing thoughts into the universe, 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. *
CONTACT Barry to sponsor the OBR. We have plans for nearly any budget!
OBR Across the Internet
OBR on BlueSky
OBR on Twitter
OBR on Threads
OBR on LinkedIN
OBR on Youtube
OBR on Twitch
Handy Links:
Sign up for our newsletter
Sign up for breaking news text alerts
OBR Unpublished RSS Feed
If you have made it this far, you must subscribe to the OBR. Them's the rules.