It's speculation obviously. If quarterbacks go out anything can change. We do play the majority of teams most project to be better than the rest though, and most of the best quarterbacks. KC, Baltimore, Detroit, Bills, and Cowboys are all really good teams, and we play them all. Nobody else in our division plays KC, Baltimore, and the Cowboys.
That's 1st place scheduling for games not in designated Divisions which this season is AFC East and NFC North where we play every team in the division. Dallas NFC East, KC AFC West and Baltimore AFC North are three of five divisions with scheduling based on prior year's finish after excluding our own and the two where we play them all. This is actually where the difference is concentrated.
Barnwell pretty much went off on him: It's only Week 1, but patience already appears to be wearing thin in Cleveland. One year after making it to the playoffs with five different starting quarterbacks, Browns fans might have been excited to face the possibility of a full year with Watson under center after the quarterback missed most of 2023 with a shoulder injury. By halftime, the excitement was gone. Watson and the Cleveland offense were booed off the field after a dismal opening 30 minutes against the Cowboys after generating 54 net yards on 22 plays. Watson had gone 7-of-15 for 36 yards and an interception on a pass tipped at the line of scrimmage. His passing chart at the break looked like something out of a Pop Warner game, as the $230 million quarterback had failed to complete a single pass farther than 6 yards downfield: While Watson managed a 75-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter and a score on the final possession of the game, the Browns were finished in four plays or fewer on 10 of their 14 drives. They lost 33-17. The Cowboys have a great defense -- and Watson didn't get much help when Amari Cooper dropped his best-thrown ball of the day on what should have been a deep touchdown in the second half -- but nobody could have watched this game and suggested he was propelling the offense forward. There are excuses, but the problem is that what happened with Joe Flacco a year ago pokes holes in many of those arguments. Watson was playing without his two starting tackles in Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin, but Flacco thrived when both players were already out for the season in 2023. Nick Chubb wasn't around to propel the running game, but he wasn't around with Flacco last season. Watson lost David Njoku to an in-game ankle injury, but Flacco threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns last season in a game in which he didn't have Cooper. Oh, and Flacco did that against the Jets, who had one of the league's best defenses. Instead, the Browns seem to be perpetually waiting for a universe in which everything is right and Watson suddenly morphs back into the quarterback they paid so much to acquire. First, his struggles were excused by a season marred by suspension and were going to be solved by a full offseason to practice with his new team. Then, he was being limited by his shoulder injury, and his issues would be resolved by surgery. He had surgery and doesn't look any better than the guy we saw a year ago. His -8.8% completion percentage over expectation (CPOE) was the sixth-worst mark for any quarterback in Week 1. You can only fool the players and fans for so long. Watson has now played 13 games in a Cleveland uniform, and it's becoming more and more clear with each start that this isn't working. He looks slow and uncomfortable in Kevin Stefanski's scheme, even as the offense has been shifted more toward his preference of working out of the shotgun. At one point, the obvious solution would have been to move on from the coach and to add someone who can build the RPO-heavy offense he excelled in with the Texans, but after seeing the Browns' improve with a replacement-level quarterback coming off the street a year ago, the idea that coaching is the primary problem with this offense has come off the table. Flacco is gone, but the Browns have an experienced backup behind Watson in Jameis Winston. While the former Bucs and Saints starter has had his ups and downs, Flacco's success last November and December has to encourage fans who are ready to move on from Watson. There can't be many more games like this before the locker room and the fan base turn on Watson, especially given the Browns are returning what was a championship-caliber defense from a year ago. Winston is no sure thing, and I wouldn't advocate benching Watson after one week, but the Browns' offense looked pitiful. But what, then, do they do with Watson? After paying him a $44.8 million bonus last month, they still owe him more than $93 million in fully guaranteed money over the next three seasons. That is an astronomical sum, and it would take a massive improvement by Watson to have any sort of trade value. Could the Browns really stomach paying him all that money through the end of 2026 to serve as their backup? Would they cut him and eat more than $172 million in dead money? Those options are incredibly unpalatable, but they might pale in comparison to actually relying on him if he continues to play the way he did in Week 1. https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/st...rise-wins-losses-players-lessons-sunday-games
When you thought it couldn't get any worse for the Panthers. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/41193126/source-panthers-dt-derrick-brown-serious-knee-injury
This is a new charge, and it's a rape one. Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson sued for sexual assault and battery (sportsnaut.com) Deshaun Watson Charged with Sex Crime; Could Cleveland Browns Void His $230 Million Contract? - Athlon Sports
I was looking for a place to make fun of Deshaun and found some of y'all in here, but do we need to start a 2024 Regular Season thread? I would do it, but given my NFL curse, probably like 172 players would drop dead within minutes of me starting the thread.
The Hoodie on the Manning Cast is pretty good. Keeps saying to double Garret Wilson. Gonna love hearing what he says about the Texans nxt week. We know he’s not a Caleb Williams fanboy so it’s gonna be interesting. Edit. My bad. We Sunday night nxt week. Gonna love to hear his comments when we play the Cowgirls.
My feeling is that Hill escalated the situation. The police don't know what you are capable of if you are not following orders, so they were forced to detain him. All he had to do was roll down his window and keep it rolled down. In a situation like that, where you already got a ticket, you may not like authority pushing you around, we all understand, but you still got to abide because they are the ones who cannot ascertain the risk of the scenario when you aren't really cooperating. I'll give him credit for making it fun tho. He is spirited fellow.
I feel the same way. First you got a driving violation. Then Tyreek just had to roll his window down and comply. He's not. That's already two things he did to escalate the unknown. After that, it's about controlling the scene quickly. So for me, I can see why the situation escalated.
I actually don't mind Joe Buck for baseball, ("Altuve....has just sent the Astros to the World Series!!!" - One of my favorite calls ever) He is terrible for football, but I don't think there are any good football commentators. They all speak with this facade of manners, dumbed down "teaching" moments, and cliche after cliche after cliche. Football just has a particular way of doing commentary that I find really off-putting. Troy+Buck and Chris Collinsworth are ones I find especially egregious. Romo has a bad voice, but at least he talks like a human. The way good basketball commentators do. Ian Eagle is another one I don't mind, maybe because he does have the basketball background too. I'll always be more interested in something like the Manning Cast.
He was the GOAT, glad I was able to catch his games at the end of his career, the Thanksgiving Turducken games were simply the best
Feels like everyone here was in the wrong. He has a tinted window that he refuses to roll down - at that point, you're a realistic threat. The cop has no idea why you're not complying and can't see what you're doing and he was patient for a while. I had no problem with cops eventually opening the door there and demanding he get out of the car. But it seems like they didn't give him a chance to actually comply, and at that point, they overreacted and escalated without any indication of an actual threat.
My biggest problem is they assumed they were understood with their heavy accents. I didn't and would have been treated as non compliant when all it was is a slower ear than they spoke.
I hope they have to eat every dollar and he plays like he did on Sunday for the remainder of the contract, I am so glad he is not our problem anymore, Cleveland knew what they were getting, you lay with a dog you get the fleas
