The Browns news started this week on Monday with the signing of QB Cam Newton by New England. Bill Belichick’s dog Nike may not like drafting QB’s, but he likes signing them. What makes this Browns news? Adam Schefter reported only two teams talked to Newton, The Patriots and the Browns. Immediately Browns twitter went in hyper drive that the Browns had no faith in QB Baker Mayfield. No, Browns GM Andrew Berry was doing due diligence. He’s said many times, he’ll always be looking to acquire talent and upgrade the roster. Sounds like a good NFL GM doing his job. The humorous side story to this news was that Newton and OBJ have been working out this off season so the Beckham to the Patriots crap soon followed. Beckham quickly shot down these rumors by saying he was happy in Cleveland, but why would you believe him right? As I’ve said before, OBJ is all in on the Browns.
Next, Browns center J.C. Tretter, who is the president of the players union, posted a statement on the NFLPA website concerning players reporting to camp on July 28. “Professional athletes in every sport have to regularly fend off criticism that our profession should be considered less of a job and that we shouldn’t fight for protections and benefits,‘’ he wrote. “As we begin our fight for necessary COVID-19 protections, these recycled misconceptions will be used to undermine the strength of our union and the legitimacy of your career.‘’ “We’re not invincible, and as recent reports have shown, we certainly aren’t immune to this virus,‘’ Tretter wrote. “Underlying conditions like high BMI [body mass index], asthma, and sleep apnea are all associated with a higher risk of developing severe symptoms and complications when infected with COVID-19. Those conditions are widespread across the league. NFL players are humans — some with immuno-compromised family members or live-in elderly parents. Trust me: we want to play football. But as a union, our most important job is to keep our players safe and alive. The NFLPA will fight for our most at-risk players and their families.‘’ While the NFL moves forward, the players are preceding with caution, as they should.
The NFL has hit a few speed bumps in their schedule this week. First they cancelled the Hall Of Fame Game and the Induction ceremony in Canton. Then they announced the cancellation of the supplemental draft and finally they trimmed the pre season games from four to two. So now teams will play games two and three of the pre season. This means the Browns will play at Green Bay on Aug. 22 and host the Vikings on Aug. 30. This allows teams to have a 25 day acclimation period for players. By these moves the NFL is acknowledging the seriousness of the pandemic.
Finally, the week ended with noted Mayfield hater Colin Cowherd’s top ten list of AFC quarterbacks. Surprisingly Baker Mayfield made the top ten at number seven. This set off a day long analysis of Mayfield on ESPN and NFL Network on Thursday. Freaking Drew Lock of Denver was at number ten. Lock played in 5 games for the Broncos attempting 156 passes, completing 100 and all the networks can talk about is how to fix Baker Mayfield. Really?
As I write this, Adam Schefter is reporting that Browns TE David Njoku is asking for trade. I guess he thought the Browns signing of TE Austin Hopper and the drafting of TE Harrison Bryant would take away his targets. If he could catch the ball that might really be a concern. I’ll be writing an article about this on http://www.CLEsportsTalk.com this weekend. Browns drama in July, well 2020 is starting feel normal, until the aliens invade or the asteroid hits.
So as we hopefully inch closer to watching pro football, everyone stay safe, please for god’s sake wear a mask and Go Browns.