Is Coach Prime the Next Head Coach of the Browns?

 

Yeah, Coach Prime Might Be the One Guy Who Browns Fans Might Be Willing to Forgive for the Upcoming Post-Watson Era Disaster.

Coach Prime, the Superstar formerly known as Neon Deion, formerly known as Deion Sanders, is probably the front runner to be the next Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns when Kevin Stefanski, two-time NFL Coach of the Year is fired. 

The reason Stefanski will be fired is simple. Deshaun Watson has been employed as the poster boy on the play-now-pay-later plan, and the Browns have deferred the poison pill as far as they can. They must now swallow $130 million dollars remaining remaining on his contract over 2026 and 2027. 

That means the 2026 cap will be charged, in round terms, $80 million dollars and 2027 will be charged another $50 million. No team can win that that kind of dead money taken from the salary pool.  

Rather than blame himself, Jimmy Haslam III will fire Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski.  

What idiot would want to coach the Browns in such a dire predicament?  Only the father of Haslam's hand-picked quarterback, Shedeur Sanders.  

There is a strong rumor that the Browns overloaded the quarterback room so that Jimmy couldn't draft Shedeur, but he went and did it anyway when Shedeur slid.  This writer believes the rumor and moreover also believes that Dillon Gabriel was deliberately overdrafted so that there would be no roster spot for Shedeur.  Gabriel is a sixth round pick who they probably should not have drafted at all based on his lack of NFL speed and size. Still, he can competently can hand the ball off the three headed monster of Jerome Ford, Quinshon Judkins and former Tennessee Vol Dylan Sampson, and throw dink and dunk passes to the likes of former Tennessee Vol Cedric Tillman and Jerry Jeudy.

By the way, why do the Brown have two former Tennessee Vols among their draftees (Tillman was their highest pick in 2023). Then the Browns also picked up former Tennessee Vol QB Joshua Dobbs twice. Isn't Jimmy Haslam III a Tennessee Alum?  What a coincidence!  Or not? 

Perhaps Jimmy, having not learned his lesson from the Manziel affair is making draft picks for the team, making the GM and Head Coach job in Cleveland exceptionally unappealing.  

Only the father of Shedeur Sanders would want to be the Head Coach in such dire circumstances.  Who knows?  It might be a good move. Sanders is a strong enough personality he might force Haslam to stand down and let the new GM do his job. 

Shedeur Needs to Go

 

Shedeur has got to go. This writer is a big fan of his famous father, Coach Prime. However, the Browns are once again entering a realm of quarterback dysfunction.  First of all, we can't prove it, but it is suspected that owner Jimmy Haslam made the call on drafting Shedeur, not Andrew Berry. You have to admit it's weird they drafted two quarterbacks in the same draft when there is not enough roster space for both of them.  So why did the talented Shedeur slide into fifth round?  Much had to do with fear that Papa Prime would seek to influence the Front Office of any team that drafted him.  Drafting Shedeur can get the GM fired if that were to happen.  

It was also rumored that Shedeur gave very bad interviews, possibly because he wanted to discourage certain teams--such as the New York Giants--from drafting him.  That might actually be a sound strategy, given their poor record at developing quarterbacks.  

However, two speeding tickets at over 90 miles an hour is additional evidence of immaturity and a rich kid's sense of entitlement. 

Now the question is whether Haslam is going to protect his kid again, just like he protected Johnny Manziel from a Coach who wanted to start someone else. 

Flacco has a 4-1 record as a starter for Cleveland.  Why do we want to fire him in favor of an unknown rookie?  A case could be made for Kenny Pickett, who has a 15-10 lifetime record.  That's not terrible, is it?

In a sound football organization, the owners carry out ownership functions, the General Manager manages the roster and salary cap, the coaches coach and the players play.  

In a dysfunctional team, you have players that overrule decisions by the coach and GM, and report directly to the owner who makes his own football decisions, overruling the coach and GM. So, the owner's favorite players have more authority in certain matters than the coach or GM. The net result is chaos.  Dee Haslam, who is the CEO of Haslam Sports Group, and not Jimmy, tried to get the organization to run properly and for a while it seemed like it might work.  But with Jimmy's decision to overpay in salary cap and draft picks for "generational talent" Deshaun Watson, that went out the window. 

What we are learning in the Shedeur affair is that Jimmy has not changed and is repeating the same mistakes from the Manziel days.  Shedeur is obviously talented, but also has a sense of entitlement which allows him to think he should drive cars at 100 mph and still be the Face of the Franchise and leader of the team.  Mind, it's one thing if a defensive player does something a bit crazy (in fact we like that), but quite another if the Leader of the Offense does it. 

For those who think Shedeur loves Cleveland is loyal to us, let's ask this very relevant question:  If Shedeur is ultimately cut, he will presumably be signed to an NFL Practice Squad.  So, will  Cleveland be Shedeur's first choice?  If he is so happy in Cleveland he can stay here and learn under Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco and can be promoted at any time.  He's got plenty of money from NIL in college, not to mention his burgeoning merchandising sales with the Browns. So, do you think 76 Lou Groza Blvd will continue to be his home if he has a choice?  

Oh hail nah!  You wanna bet?  He grew up in Dallas, and played college ball in Boulder Colorado, which is close to Denver and  Jackson State, Mississippi, which is 186 miles from New Orleans.  That's only an hour and a half drive for him.  No, if he is cut, he will leave Berea and never look back.  He is only a Brown because he had no other choice.  

 

Browns' QB Room is a Kluge

 

Browns quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel, Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco and Shedeur Sanders. Would another NFL team actually trade for one of these quarterbacks? 

The Browns have four quarterbacks, with three roster spots available.  Hence the roster will be decided by competition in training camp and to a lesser extent how they perform in the preseason. Of course, pre-season is against vanilla defenses, so you really should not be able to win a job in the preseason (hello Deshone Kizer), but you can for sure lose your job if you demonstrate that you cannot perform.  

So, to recapitulate, the Browns fired everyone except the immortal Deshaun Watson, who they want to wind up on the Injured Reserve and possibly cash in some insurance money. Joe Flacco was the team hero in 2023, and he had to be traded because he was too good and might make Deshaun look bad. Since Deshaun is out of the picture for 2025, they rehired Joe. He has $3.0 million guaranteed.  Kenny Pickett has $2.6 million guaranteed money. Pickett cost them backup QB Dorian Thompson Robinson (drafted in Round 5 in 2023) and a fifth round pick.  Then they drafted Dillon Gabriel in the third round and Shedeur Sanders cost them a Round 5 and Round 6 pick . 

Okay adding it up, that's five draft picks used to obtain three quarterbacks, only two of whom will be kept after roster cutdown.  There's a chance, however, that if the Browns cut Gabriel, he could be signed to the Practice Squad because it is not certain that 31 teams will value him anywhere near where the Browns did on draft day.

On the flip side, we all know how good Flacco was in 2023, and Pickett was a Steeler first round draft pick who went 15-10 in 25 starts for the Steelers, who have been a great defensive team, but a lousy offensive team.  

In Cleveland, the QB's job will be to hand the ball off to a running back 60% of the time, throw passes to tight ends and running backs and once in a while connect with a wideout. The Mad Bomber offense of 2024, created to pacify Deshaun, is totally out.  

Flacco and Pickett can both carry out the requirements for the run-heavy Stefanski offense.  Now, if you decide you like both rookies and Flacco and want to trade Pickett, could you? Would another team want to invest in a QB with only one year remaining on his deal?  Trading him at roster cutdown month might be tough. Hence he most likely makes the team backing up Flacco. 

As for the rookies, Shedeur Sanders had a terrible offensive line but still found his secondary and tertiary targets, so we like that, but don't see him as better than Comeback Player of the Year or first round draft pick Pickett.  

Now the real head scratcher is Dillon Gabriel as early as Round 3.  He appears to have high intelligence, high motivation and can run the dink and dunk for Stefanski.  So he is not altogether a lost cause.  But of the factors that are important for a quarterback, the tangible ones, he misses on several:

1. He is older than the average rookie, age 24, so his ceiling might be lower. 21-22 is considered optimum.

2. He is shorter than most (not all) qbs at 5 foot 11. 

3.  He is smaller than most (not all) qbs at 205 pounds. 

4. His arm strength is judged to be so so. NFL Draft Buzz ranks Shedeur first and Gabriel eighth. 

5. His hand size is smaller than average 9 1/4"

6. He is slow. He did not run at the Combine, and his 40 time is variously reported to be in the 4.8s or 4.9s. 

It would have made sense had the Browns selected Shedeur in the third round and Gabriel in Round 5. As it is, they simply over-invested in quarterbacks yet again. 

Would anyone trade anything of value for Gabriel?  That is doubtful.  

We'll see if Gabriel can get us to change our minds.  

The Best Help for Your Quarterback is a Running Game

 

Do you want to know how to best help your quarterback? The average fan will not like this article, because the answer is not investing in speedy wide receivers like everyone thinks. The team spends top dollar for the likes of Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr and Amari Cooper. However, If you believe in Statmeister Elliot, you should invest more in the offensive line and running backs.  There is an amazing correlation between the running game and the performance of the passing game.  

Check out Figure 1 below.  The x-axis show rushing yards and the x-axis is the passer rating for each team for the 2024 season. Though there is significant spread in the data, the correlation is unmistakeable.  Those teams with top rushing yards tend to have quarterbacks that perform well. 

It couldn't be more clear. Teams that have lousy running games have qbs with passer ratings in the 80s.  The teams at the top of the league in rushing yards also have quarterback ratings in the range of 100 or above.  

  

Figure 1.  NFL Team Passer Rating versus Team Rushing Yards, 2025. Stats from Pro Football Reference. 

Note some of the statistical outliers from Figure 1. The Bengals and Joe Burrow posted a high passer rating despite a poor ground game.  The Browns were just terrible. They were actually rated about the same when Jameis Winston and Deshaun played, with Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Bailey Zappy dragging down the averages further with some spectacularly bad games. 

The Colts were really bad with their generational talent, Anthony Richardson, and the Ravens had the best running game AND the highest rated passer in Lamar Jackson. Nevertheless they didn't win the Super Bowl, possibly because defense wins Championships. That's why you draft your top two guys for the defense. Remember that, Browns fans. We'll see if Jacksonville wins the Super Bowl with the speedy wide receiver we wanted.  I kind of doubt whether that plan will work. Remember, the Browns own Jacksonville's number one pick next year and it could be a goodie.  

A lousy running game means your quarterback is going to post lousy numbers, unless you have Joe Burrow on your team (please note: the Browns do not have Joe Burrow on their team). 

So what does Coach Kevin Stefanski want to do?  Well, he likes cold weather, run-first football, run-pass-option (we used to call it play action), screen passes and multiple tight end sets.  He likes cross training offensive linemen to play fullback.  It's a ball control offense that wears down the defense. As a result the running game usually got stronger in the second half and the Browns beat people up at the end of the game. 

Did Jerome Ford Receive a Pay Raise, or a Pay Cut?

It's been widely reported that Jerome Ford has accepted a pay cut to remain with the Cleveland Browns. Reports claim that Ford was due to receive $3.486 million in 2025 but instead accepted $1.75 million.  Overthecap.com lists a signing bonus of $80,537, which according to my pocket calculator makes his 2025 cap number $1.83 million.  Get it right, folks. 

Ford was a fifth round draft pick in the fourth year of a four year, $3,982,148 deal. Overthecap says that he has been paid $322,148 in bonus money, plus three years of salary amounting to $2,560,000, leaving a total of $1,100,000 remaining for year four of his rookie contract. 

  

That was his 2025 salary, not $3.486 million. Thus the new number is $730,000 HIGHER than what he was scheduled to get, not lower. Probably the pay raise was meant to reassure him that he is not being cast aside in favor of glamor rookies Quinshon Judkins from Ohio State, and SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson from Tennessee, and to reward him for playing way beyond expectations for a fifth round pick.  

The most stupid narrative of this off-season is that Jerome was sitting on $3.486 million dollars somehow, and he decides to take a voluntary pay cut because he was afraid of becoming a free agent, and so he he steals Nick Chubb's spot on the roster. Oh puh-lease!

If Jerome is cut from the Cleveland Browns he will be richly rewarded. HE WILL NOT BE UNEMPLOYED BY 32 NFL TEAMS.  Why would Jerome want to take a pay cut to be the second or third string running back in Cleveland? If he gets cut by Cleveland, he will be immediately picked up by another team   "Go ahead, release me. Make me rich!"

So what is the source of the $3.486 million that Ford supposedly was going to get in 2025?  Just as a guess, it might be his agent's fantasy.  Ford might well be worth that much as a free agent, but the Browns are so not going to cut him. A trade is not out of the question on the grounds that the Browns actually have depth; however the Ravens are always four and five deep at the position and it has not hurt them a bit. 

No, something probably got garbled here, as is often the case in Cleveland. All the signs point to Jerome Ford being a valued member of the team, and if Nick Chubb is not re-signed it is because they do not trust his knee, not because of Ford or his contract.  

Why Shedeur Sanders Could Not Be Drafted

 

Shedeur Sanders has his own quarterback coach and assistant general manager with the power to create a disruption large enough to get a Coach and GM fired.  So no wonder no one wanted to draft him. 

So how could Shedeur Sanders possibly slide to the fifth round?  And why is it a good move to draft him in Round 5 if the Browns had already drafted Dillon Gabriel in Round 3?  

Once you realize that the GM who would draft Shedeur in Round 1 would surely be fired, the answer is obvious.  Deion Sanders has too much political power and the team cannot afford to blow a Round 1 draft pick. Deion had said explicitly in the weeks and months leading up to the draft that there were a few teams that he would not allow his son to play for. That is,  USAToday on January 10, 2025 reported as follows: "Colorado coach Deion Sanders issued another reminder that he will intervene if his quarterback son Shedeur is drafted by an NFL team he doesn’t like and said there are a 'couple of teams that I won’t allow him to play for.'"

 

So.....Okay.....Suppose you are an NFL GM. How does this impact your choice in the first round?  Well, if you draft Shedeur and find out that Prime does not like your team, he demands a trade, and you have very little leverage.  Prime is a multimillionaire and his family does not really need the money.  Shedeur can stay out of the game or play in the UFL or something, generate fan gear money or other notoriety-based income and force you to trade him. You, the GM, are humiliated and run the great risk of being fired for wasting a first round draft pick.   

Or what if he plays and hits a rough patch, throws several interceptions? If you bench the kid, Good Lord!  All Hell breaks loose!  Here again, if you started out on the Sanders "Good List," you just got demoted to the "Bad List."  

It's obvious that this is much more negative risk than any other prospect in football.  This guy could get you FIRED.  Browns fans know this only too well, having suffered through the Johnny Manziel debacle as well as the Deshaun Watson Mega-mess-up.  We believe that meddling ownership was behind both of these deals. 

Now, the dynamic changes completely if Shedeur is a fifth-round pick in a competition with three other credible candidates.  Deion can say, "Start my kid or he is going to quit the team!" and Andrew Berry is going to say, "Good! That helps us figure out which three guys we are going to keep! Bur you're still under contract and we are not trading your rights for nothing!"

Losing a fifth round pick is a tolerable ar

Loa

Browns Trade for Kirk Cousins Could be a Win-Win

 

Yes, the Browns like Kirk Cousins better than Atlanta does.  So why not trade him?  The reason is that the Falcons would have to pay some $37.5 million in stupidity tax (cap charges that they would incur and cannot get out of) in 2025, and there is no way you would do this for a late round draft pick. It's a bit like the Browns' Deshaun Watson contract, which is guaranteed to keep them down for three more years.  Nobody will trade for Watson and his bloated salary.  

Both teams would like to make such a trade for Cousins, but the immense cap hit on the Atlanta side makes a straight-up deal very unlikely.   A trade that could work, however, is if you upped the ante by offering to trade back from number two overall to fifteenth overall.  In return the Falcons would have to provide additional draft picks.  

If I were Andrew Berry I would insist on 15th overall in 2025 plus a number one draft pick for 2026 and some additional picks in 2025 in addition to Cousins.

Atlanta gets rid of a qb they don't want, and draft generational talent Travis Hunter. They improve themselves in 2025 and beyond despite an unpleasant cap hit this year.  

The Browns get a QB that Coach Kevin Stefanski believes in, and re-institutes the Stefanski offense with two tight ends, a fullback and dink-and-dunk passing game.  Perfect.

What will make this deal work is if there is a player at 15 that is worth drafting.  This observer believes the draft is deep, just not at the quarterback position. I don't have either Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders at the top of the draft, but probably both top-ranked quarterbacks will be gone.  So, are there 13 position players who would be appropriate? I think there are, and here's my Browns-o-centric list:

1. Travis Hunter, CB, Colo 

2. Mason Graham DT, TSUN

3. Armand Membu OT, Missouri

4. Shemar Stewart, Edge, TAMU

5. Will Campbell, OT, LSU

6.     Ashton Jeanty, RB, Boise State

7. Tyler Warren, TE, Penn State

8. Kevin Banks OT, Texas

9. Abdul Carter Edge, Penn State 

10.   Will Johnson, CB, Michigan

11. Jalon Walker, Edge, Georgia

12. James Pearce Jr., Edge, Tennessee

13.   Omarion Hampton, RB, North Carolina

If we get any of these players with 15th overall, I'll be happy. 

I might be interested in a quarterback in the second round, like Jalen Milroe (Bama), Jaxson Dart or Quinn Ewers if one of them survives that long. I actually like Shedeur Sanders (Colorado) over Cam Ward (Miami) on the grounds that he is the best at making decisions under pressure. I think he will go top 10, but if the Browns have Cousins, they have to curb their appetite for quarterbacks, even if he survives to number 15 overall.   

I like Shemar Stewart a bit better than Abdul Carter because Stewart was out of position at DT, and yet posted Myles Garrett numbers at the Combine.  I don't understand the foot injury to Carter, nor do I understand why other analysts think it's fine to ignore it. I do think you have to devalue him slightly despite his immense talent.  I don't want to hear just "he will not have surgery."  I want to hear, "it will be like it was before the injury." There is a difference.  

Ashton Jeanty is at the list among running backs.  I disagree vehemently with the notion that you can't draft running backs high in the first round, because they rarely last ten years.  So what?  Your commitment is four years plus a club option for a fifth, then you can tag him for the sixth year.  You only need to concern yourself with six years to recover your investment. I don't see why there is a such a concern about longevity.  If the time comes when he cannot play, move on and use the money for a cornerback or something.  So I've got a few running backs ranked really high this year.  

Browns are Paying $89 million in 2025 to Players Who Won't Play

 

"Salary cap means nothing!"  So says many a sports journalist. 

However, it does mean something, and the Browns are going to find that out in 2025, since they will be paying $89 million (compared to the allowance of $279 million) to players who are not playing for the team.

Although there was glee and merriment in fan circles that Deshaun Watson's contract was restructured yet again, he still costs $37 million dollars this year, and he probably won't play this season.  Fans, in fact, are grateful he won't play. But the Browns will still owe Deshaun $135 million in 2026 and beyond. This is not survivable. 

The prevailing philosophy of rock-brained sports analysts is the NFL salary cap allowance grows every year, so you can simply defer salaries into the future and have a good team. That's kind of like thinking that because you have a credit card, you're rich.  Well, you're not, and you will have to pay on that credit card. 

In addition to Watson's disastrous contract, the Browns will be charge $52 million on players they have cut or traded away.  That includes $22.6 million for Amari Cooper, $14.2 million for Zadarius Smith and $11.8 million for Jedrick Wills. 

To be fair, the team rolls over $42 million from 2024 (money that they could have spend last year but didn't), so the net disaster is $47 million. Still, it's not wise to totally spend out the salary cap. Most teams carry $10 million or more in carryover.  

The net is that the Browns will be spending probably $55 million less than the average NFL team.  

Think about what you could do with that money (and no, you're not allowed to spend it on more quarterbacks.  Jeez, haven't we had enough on that position?). That's five starting players. 

It's hard to envision the Browns having a winning record next season.   

Who is Calling the Shots on Browns Quarterbacks?

 

Since the Baker Mayfield era came to a close in Cleveland (that's the quarterback who rang up 48 points on Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh in the playoffs, and came close to knocking off Kansas City, but most Browns fans seem to disbelieve it ever happened), the Browns quarterback moves are so stupid that it is hard to believe a football expert actually made the call.  

Strong organization make decisions based on tough competition.  A organization trades the backup quarterback for fear that he might outshine their favored qb and create the dreaded "quarterback controversy." 

What do you see in Cleveland?  When Baker got hurt, many fans wanted Case Keenum to replace him. After all, Case led the Vikings to the playoffs and won a playoff game with Kevin Stefanski as his qb coach. So they traded Keenum away.  In the Watson era, Jacoby Brissett clearly outplayed generational talent Deshaun Watson.  So Brissett was one and done.  The next year Joe Flacco led the Browns to the playoffs and was the NFL Comeback Player of the Year.  Out with you, Joe Flacco!  

A subplot is Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who the Browns seem determined to coddle.  Let's not get down on the kid, but the way he continually got promoted before he was deserving. At the beginning of 2023, he became the number two quarterback as a raw rookie.  Out goes Rocket Man Josh Dobbs, who showed he could play with Arizona and Minnesota.  Then he got promoted again last year over Jameis Winston, and it backfired when Deshaun got hurt and DTR made a mess of things. DTR got injured and Winston came in and looked great.  

The Browns also had Tyler Huntley, a competent backup qb, under contract, and cut Huntley to keep DTR. This analyst believes they could have kept both players.  DTR could have been kept on the Practice Squad, with very little chance that another organization would sign him.  Getting rid of Huntley was stupid.  Huntley started five games for Miami--with very little preparation--and won two of them.  That's 67% of the win total of the Browns last year. 

Jameis Winston is clearly better than Deshaun and DTR, and is well liked by fellow players and the Cleveland fan base.  So he too must leave!  The Browns plan on overspending on yet on another quarterback in 2025 and they have no stomach to face criticism for not playing Winston.  

Winston did not have an easy job, given that he had no running game, a porous offensive line, and a defense that gave up a ton of points, meaning that the QB was obliged to take chances to get back in the game. Anybody who throws for 500 yards with this team must have talent.  

In his career, Winston has always played on bad teams, with the exception of New Orleans under Sean Payton, where he went 5-2 with a 14 to 3 TD/INT ratio.  

If he could do that for Sean Payton, why couldn't he do that when Browns OC Ken Dorsey was calling the shots?  Well, maybe Ken Dorsey was not as good as Sean Payton.  

Firing Winston sounds like something a disgruntled owner might do, rather than a football guy.  

The pattern is that the Browns scouting has performed well, signing the likes of Case Keenum, Jacoby Brissett, Joshua Dobbs, Joe Flacco, Tyler Huntley and Jameis Winston.  However, when these guys looked like a threat to Deshaun's legacy, they had to go.  These moves are so peculiar we have to suspect that the orders are coming from the Owner's Box. 

Quarterbacks get better with experience, not worse, as long as they are healthy.  If a QB has a chance to stay with a team for two years, ideally with the same coaching staff, the chances of success are vastly improved. Rookies need that stability most of all, but even veterans execute better if they know the players around them and get thousands of reps with the playbook.   The Browns should have an internal rule against one-and-done.  It's just stupid. 

Browns co-owner Jimmy Haslam III allegedly made the call to trade up for Johnny Manziel.  He also tried to engineer a trade for A.J. McCarron in 2017 (including the draft pick ultimately used on Nick Chubb), but Sashi Brown "accidentally" forgot to sign the paperwork properly and the deal fell through. So there is evidence that he is capable of interfering with the operation of his team. 

We thought that Dee Haslam, definitely the better half of the Power Couple, had talked Jimmy out of direct participation in the team. Maybe not.  

No hard evidence, just the observation that the Browns' quarterback moves--one after another after another--are so stupid that it is hard to believe Andrew Berry is ultimately behind them. 

World's Dumbest Quarterback Narrative

 

The world's dumbest narrative in sports--and it drives me crazy--is that the final score of a football game allows sportswriter/gurus  to distinguish precise differences in the calibre of the opposing quarterbacks.  So,  Bills 27, Ravens 25 proves Josh Allen is a better quarterback than Lamar Jackson, right?  And neither of them are as good as Patrick Mahomes, as proven by the Chiefs 32 to 29 victory. Nope, Josh will never go to the Super Bowl, and the Ravens can never beat the Bills.  

Until they do, of course. All this talk about legacy, stats and all falls apart, especially when KC gets their asses handed to them after being blown out 40 to 22 by the Eagles and Jaylen Hurts. 

So cut me a break.  Football is a team sport, and the other guys on the roster do matter. It is incomprehensible that a game with 22 men on the field depends only on the quarterback. For those idiots who think that playoff games determine who is the better quarterback, are you going to now say that Hurts is 22 points "better" than Patrick Mahomes?  All the accolades for Mahomes (first ballot Hall of Famer, the best in history, blah, blah, blah) now falls to Hurts?  We hear such garbage even from the most prestigious sports journalists, like ESPN and Fox Sports (I'd shut them off, but I'm a sports addict and condemned to listen on my car radio).    

The obvious conclusion is that the team with the best quarterback does not always win.  Sometimes Brady gets beat by Nick Foles. Sometimes Trent Dilfer and Kerry Collins make it to the Super Bowl, while Peyton Manning and Brett Favre stay home. This is proof positive that the rest of the team matters. 

How about a hypothetical trade as a true gauge of value? Let's consider  possible trades: Mahomes for Allen, Mahomes for Jackson, Allen for Jackson.  I doubt whether any of their teams would want to make such a deal.  It's not Fantasy Football where you just install your new guy in the lineup and he performs the same. Each team would have to totally revamp their offense, and it would take at least a year and maybe two to get familiar with the other players and coaches. Mahomes is the best man for the Chiefs, Lamar is the best for the Ravens, and Josh is the best for Buffalo.  So, based on this reasoning, their value is greatest for the team they are on. 

Now, in 2021, The trade of Matt Stafford for Jared Goff plus draft picks proved that the Rams did like Stafford much better than Goff. Not all starting QBs are equal. It does not prove, however, that the Rams had zero chance to ever win the Super Bowl with Goff (who, by the way, has significantly upped his game).  It just means that they thought they were a better team with Stafford at the controls.  They were right, and they have rings to prove it.

Similarly, the Browns passed up the opportunity to retain Baker Mayfield at about $30 million per year, in order to obtain the services of Deshaun Watson at $46 mil, plus giving up six draft picks including three first rounders.  Just look at the value:  one quarterback threw 41 TDs and had a rating of 106.8; the other guy had 5 TDs and a rating of 79.0  Unfortunately, the Browns cut the good QB and signed the mediocre one, suggesting that quarterback evaluation is not always accurate. 

Wacky Browns Still Obsessed with Quarterbacks

 

Deshaun Watson, P.J. Walker and Dorian Thompson Robinson.  None of them were good enough to turn a weak offense around. 

The Browns still don't get it.  They think that 

     a) the more money you pay a quarterback, the better they play.  So, if you pay a quarterback more than Patrick Mahomes, that quarterback must be even better than Mahomes.  So come on down, Deshaun Watson!

   b) The way you solve a quarterback controversy is to trade away the backup quarterback lest he make the front office look silly.  So, they got rid of Joe Flacco, because he proved the Watson deal was preposterous. Prior to that, they axed Case Keenum, Jacoby Brissett, and Josh Dobbs. We're getting ready to cut Jameis Winston, despite the fact that he proved himself to be vastly superior to Watson. All of these players are miles ahead of Dorian Thompson-Robinson, the Crown Prince and favorite of the Realm.  For that matter, they are also better than the current number one, Deshaun "Generational Talent" Watson.  

   c) Quarterbacks reach their prime in their rookie season.  How else can you justify drafting Dorian Thompson Robinson in Round 5, and promoting him to second string on Opening Day?  Good grief!  Once in a while there is a Russell Wilson who has success immediately after being drafted in a middle round, but this is very rare.  This writer does not hate DTR, but he probably needs 3 or 4 years to become an acceptable backup, just like Josh Dobbs rode the bench behind Big Ben Roethlisberger and Mason Rudolph.

   It's like this:  if you believe that the salary cap is real, than the object is to get the players who will contribute the most and cost the least. It's not that different from Fantasy Football. So, if you pay someone more than Mahomes, he must contribute more than Mahomes. If you are paying more than your opponents and fielding players who contribute less than their peers around the league, you are unlikely to have a winning team. You cannot pay $70 million dollars a  year for a lousy quarterback on a lousy offense for a lousy team, and then run out and outplay the Chiefs.  This is common sense.  

    A good team makes the QB look good.  Get five tough fat kids for the offensive line, two stud tight ends and two good running backs, and and average QB with average wide receivers can score points in the Stefanski offense.

  Joe Flacco was good enough to get into the playoffs, and once you're in you have at least some chance for a Ring.  Brissett, Keenum, Winston and Dobbs had a legit shot also, especially if the Browns had had six draft picks and $230 million dollars to build with. 

Look at the Steelers. With Russell Wilson at a quarterback and when T.J. was healthy, they were a playoff team.  They collapsed down the stretch because their defense was old and injured, but the point is they proved they could win with a low-cost quarterback. 

The Browns can't wait to throw money at ineffective big name quarterbacks, live in fear of their own backups. That's why they will pass on generational talents on defense in order to draft Shedeur Sanders, who Pro Football Focus ranks as the 43rd best prospect in the Draft.  But he plays Quarterback, so that's our guy!

Agatha All Along: Barely Watchable Witch

 

"Somewhere, there's got to be a plot on this road!?"  

"Umm...nope." 

What a crushing disappointment! Agatha All Along is the sequel to WandaVision, which was a work of genius. Wandavision involved the Scarlet Witch and the Vision participating in 1960s style sitcoms, and not really noticing anything was unusual about it. Gradually, however, they start to become aware that they may have ties to superheroes from the 21st century. Agatha keeps appearing in different situations and becomes a woman of mystery. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it yet, but Wandavision was one of the most compelling Marvel works I've ever seen.  The Scarlet Witch was a relatively minor character in the Avengers movies early on, but in Wandavision she became a superstar. So I had to watch the sequel, Agatha All Along.

So my expectations were high for Agatha, who we met in WandaVision. In Agatha, for some reason she has a different personality than she had when we last saw her. Well, okay... So she meets a she meets a mysterious young man who dabbles in witchcraft (who then becomes much less mysterious, kind of a friendly boy next door, for some reason, although he does realize he has some unusual abilities) and together they and some friends decide to make a special pilgrimage on the Witches' Road, based on a rumor that something good might await them at the end.  Nobody knows what the Road is or why it's there or what the reward is.  You know how baseball has these unwritten rules of baseball? Well, there are unwritten rules of witchcraft, and the book is very thick, but all the witches no about them, but they won't tell us about them. They have these stupid do's and don'ts and rules of etiquette about how to behave or you get zapped from some other realm, and nobody much questions it. 

The major problem with the show is that people change their personalities for no reason, week to week. Perhaps the writers thought this would be an interesting plot device, but it just makes the show hard to follow. Maybe they had multiple writers and they argued about how to portray the characters and so they compromised, and each got their chance for different episodes.  Who's in charge here, where are we going and who knows what is going on?  

A basic problem with magic tales is that there are no rules. So, hypothetically, if you have the Wicked Witch of the West fight Agatha, they can zap each other with lightning bolts. "All zapped out, Agatha?" "Ha ha ha, you didn't know I had a magic scroll!" "Oh yeah?  Well, I have a magic amulet!" "So what? I have an enchanted sword!  Ta da!"  ....and so on. 

So you go on with the stupid battle till someone gets splashed with a bucket of water and melts.  But this is not a plot twist.  This is just making it up as you go along who has the last enchantment. We are just waiting on the whim of the screenwriters.  This is not creativity.  It is just formulaic and one dimensional. 

And you can always say, hey, everything is an illusion, and have a character wake up and the world vanishes. You can do that over and over. Oh, this isn't the real world, either!  Poof!  It was Joe's dream!  Nope, Joe's world isn't real, either!  Poof! I was Tiki's dream.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  It is not clever. It's formulaic. Cop out!

This is why Agatha is boring, despite lavish sets, beautiful scenery, great camerawork and inspired acting performances. They couldn't quite overcome the mishmash of a script.  

Are you bored O, Goddess of Death?  How did she get that job, anyway, and why can't somebody else do the same thing? Being vague is not the same as mysterious. 

Is Jimmy Haslam Calling the Shots at Browns QB Position Again?

 

The Coaching Staff couldn't possibly have been so stupid as to promote  DTR to QB2 in Game 7 for no reason.  It cost the Browns a victory over the Bengals. Only an impatient owner could sit down an experienced veteran for a chance to see a young 6th round quarterback play.

Then, suddenly Coach Kevin Stefanski discovers Jesus and decides to let Offensive Coordinator Ken Dorsey call plays in Game 8. 

You could possibly build a case that Stefanski wasn't doing Deshaun Watson any good, and you have to be willing to resort to desperate measures to save Watson.  So maybe you play that card for Watson's sake at some point. But with Watson out of the picture, there is no reason to so it unless the owner is threatening to fire the coach.  

Taking away the coach's authority to run the offense makes no sense. We went through this when supposedly Dee Haslam was made the CEO of Haslam Sports Group and reorganized the roles of staff positions, which had become a total mess under her husband  You can't give the OC more power than the Head Coach to make decisions, or if you do, you might as well make him the Head Coach. Just like in the Military, you don't have enlisted guys tell officers what to do. Sorry, it just doesn't work.  

The idea that DTR is somehow better than Winston at this point is stupid.  Winston threw for 5000 yards in 2019, when he broke the thumb on his throwing hand and couldn't grip the ball.  He played most of his career for lousy teams and accepted the blame for them, much like Jacoby Brissett or Joe Flacco with the Jets. Winston only played for a good team once, the New Orleans Saints, and went 5-2 in 2021. At age 30, he is experienced enough to actually know how to play quarterback. He is not too old to play quarterback.  Aaron Rodgers will be 41 in six weeks. That is too old to play quarterback.  

So why would you demote him?  Well, he is not a "franchise quarterback.  Perhaps someone up the chain of command was having fantasies of discovering the "next Brock Purdy" and finding an easy way out of the Deshaun Debacle. If they were to find someone with All-Pro ability and under contract for less than 1% of Deshaun's money, perhaps a Wild Card might happen.

Now, I do like DTR as a backup quarterback, a guy similar to  Joshua Dobbs and who could maybe start by his late 20's.  But why start DTR now over Jameis Winston?  Trying a quarterback for a game, losing patience and demoting him, well, that sounds like an owner who has no idea what he is doing. 

It's hard to believe it was a football decision to demote Winston. More likely it is JH3 back to his old tricks. How long before Ben Zappe starts?  

Ex-Browns Quarterbacks Far Outperform Deshaun Watson

 

Never fear Browns fans, just remember  the old maxim, "Quarterback Greed wins Championships," and rest assured that the Browns are in good hands with the greediest ownership and front office in football. Oh wait, that's not how the old saying goes. It's actually DEFENSE wins championships.  The rest of the NFL, with the possible exception of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings, and a few others, have forgotten that. 

I about want to barf when I read stories, often by bloggers like myself, about how the Browns ought to blow another first round draft pick--after not having one for three years due to the disastrous Watson trade--on a bright, shining quarterback next year so we can ruin another one. 

Look, the problem is the BROWNS ARE OVERINVESTING IN QUARTERBACKS AND NEED TO STOP.  They are gorging themselves on quarterbacks they cannot afford and throwing away quarterbacks who are good enough to win, falsely believing that the quarterback is some kind of magical Messiah. Well, he is not. 

The Browns got rid of Baker Mayfield because he was not a franchise quarterback  Well, franchise or not, he is currently fourth in the NFL in yards with 984, ahead of guys like Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, and he is second in the NFL with 8 TD passes (behind Sam Darnold with 11).  You thought Sam Darnold sucked because he could not succeed for the New York Jets or Carolina Panthers.  MAYBE THE TEAM HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT?  Anyway, do we still think Deshaun Watson is a franchise quarterback that made so much of a positive difference for Cleveland? How? 

Meanwhile, last year's backup, Joe Flacco, came off the bench and led the Indianapolis Colts to a big win, beating the Steelers with two TD passes.  Well, fancy that. 

Jacoby Brissett, the 2022 Browns' best quarterback on the roster, is starting for the Patriots who have a bad roster. You can say he stinks, based on his stats, but he can play on a good team.  

Tyler Huntley had a tryout with the Browns this spring but got cut. He will be the emergency starter over in Miami due to injuries to their two top guys (that's why you need three qbs in this league, Coach McDaniel, particularly when your top guy has a concussion history. I may be an amateur, but I am so right about that).  

The problem with the Browns is that they gave away six draft picks including three number ones--three years worth of picks, basically--for one quarterback who didn't want to play football.  Forget about his, uh, romantic adventures. He took a year off from football because his team did not let him be the Assistant General Manager, basically.  You can't have a guy like that in the locker room. And they paid him an entire team's worth of salary. $230 million guaranteed is equivalent to an entire season's payroll.  They are trying to defer it and spread it out, but they cannot recover from it.  

Their only hope is to try to void the contract, if Deshaun is found in breach of the clauses that require him to have no further blemishes on his record.  He is currently being sued by yet another woman.  If he loses, perhaps the Browns can pull the plug on this hideous quarterback. However, the rest of the team is still depleted of talent.

In any case, it is time to give it a rest.  No more overinvesting in quarterbacks.  There is no need to fire Jameis Winston, who is a capable quarterback.  Plus the Browns need to find out what they have in Dorian Thompson-Robinson who has looked fine in small sample sizes.  They should not just give up on the kid and cut him before developing him.  No, no, no! That's part of the disease, cutting the quarterback for no reason.  There are other positions besides quarterback, and if they don't develop the rest of the team, they will be like the Jets or Panthers and never know if they have a quarterback who can play.  It's like a drug, throwing away quarterback after quarterback after quarterback, and signing free agent after free agent and drafting first round pick after first round pick, looking for the quick fix while neglecting the rest of the team. Stop it. It's a waste of resources. Even if you have the perfect quarterback, you will never know it if you put him on a team with a punk roster.  

I would make it an internal rule that there should be three quarterbacks on the roster every year, and the team never replaces more than one per year.  Stability at the position is a good thing.  

Cincinnati Reds have no choice but to deal Nick Castellanos

Every Reds fan loves Nick Castellanos, but he is only under contract for this season, and the Reds will be left with nothing if they elect to not trade him this season.  Castellanos is a hard-nosed, old-school ballplayer and he is playing out of his mind this year, currently hitting .340 with 16 home runs and 53 runs batted in. Plus he hustles and gets the rest of the team fired up. Dare I say he has a bit of Pete Rose in him?  What's there to not like? 

Well, the thing to not like is the fact that the Reds cannot afford to sign players like Trevor Bauer and Nick Castellanos, and it does not make sense to simply gift wrap them for the Dodgers and the Yankees.  Get something for them! 

There is this sick fan logic that says that the Reds are two games over .500, so there is a 1% chance that the Reds will win it all this season.  Plus, Nick seems to be happy in Cincinnati, so perhaps he will re-sign at a price the Reds can afford, at about 10 cents on the dollar...

No, no, no.  This is not Fantasy Island, this is reality.  Castellanos is not leading a charge to the World Series and is not re-signing with the Reds. Instead, he will sign a huge contract with the Boston Red Sox or someone next off-season, and the Reds will have nothing, and the fans will be totally shocked and outraged.  Well, let's break the cycle.

The Reds do not have to give Castellanos away.  They can do what the Cleveland Indians do in this familiar situation. They do not just trade their players for minor leaguers, but instead deal for a combination of Major League players who can help now, plus prospects who can help in a year or too. So yes, they take a hit, but not a fatal one, and they can stay in the race.  Get VALUE.  Last season, they traded Francisco Lindor and they got back two shortstops. Amed Rosario is probably playing better than Lindor, and he can play outfield when  Andrés Giménez is ready.  They also got some deep prospects in the minor leagues.  

The Reds have a fundamental problem that somehow they signed two very high priced third basemen in Mike Moustakas and Eugenio Suarez.  They have to face the awful fact that Moustakas cannot play second base and Suarez cannot play shortstop. Nor can they move one guy to first base because Joey Votto has a no-trade clause.  They also signed Shogo Akiyama, hoping he would learn to hit at age 33.  

They need to unload some of these contracts.  So here is what I propose. 

Reds trade:  Nick Castellanos,  Mike Moustakas or Eugenio Suarez, and Shogo Akiyama. This package provides some major offense to a pennant contender and offloads some major payroll. Akiyama is in no way better than Aristides Aquino.  It is preposterous to play a 33 year old ahead of a player who has 25 home runs in 286 big league at-bats.  The front office is just playing Akiyama to justify a stupid contract, and they need to rectify their mistake and move on.

Reds get:  A major league outfielder or perhaps a shortstop with one year remaining on his contract, two significant prospects, and a bullpen pitcher.  This does not knock them out of the race. They can only play one third baseman at a time.  They have other outfielders, though not like Castellanos, obviously.  But bullpen pitchers are always needed.  This offseason, the Reds will have reduced their payroll by like $30 million dollars and can sign a real ballplayer to replace Castellanos.