Category: Browns

4-Down Territory: Most, least serious wild-card teams, Secret Superstars, new coaches

In this week’s “4-Down Territory,” the guys get into most and least serious wild-card teams, Secret Superstars, and new head coaches they’d like to see.

Now that the 2023 NFL regular season is over, and it’s Super Wild-Card Weekend, it’s time once again for Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, and Kyle Madson of Niners Wire, to come to the table with their own unique brand of analysis in “4-Down Territory.”

This week, the guys have some serious questions to answer:

  1. Which wild-card team should be taken most seriously for a Super Bowl run?
  2. Which wild-card team should be taken least seriously?
  3. Who’s your Secret Superstar for the wild-card round?
  4. Which assistant coach would you most like to get a vacant head coaching job?

You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “4-Down Territory” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

2024 NFL playoff power rankings: Ravens rule the roost, but who else is near the top?

Now that we know who the 14 playoff teams will be in the playoffs, here is how they stack up against one another

The NFL field of teams has been cut from 32 to 14, and we now know who all 14 playoff teams are. How do they stack up against one another? Here are the NFL playoff power rankings ahead of wild-card weekend.

2024 NFL Mock Draft: End-of-season quarterback decisions lead to surprising picks

How many NFL teams will stick with their current quarterbacks? A high number could make for an interesting first round of the 2024 draft.

Now that the 2023 NFL regular season is over, every team turns its attention to the draft — even those teams that are part of the postseason. Area scouts will start to move to the home facility to interact with scouting directors and general managers, and with the scouting combine less than two months away, it’s time to start putting your big boards together.

This applies especially to those teams with crucial quarterback decisions to make. For the purposes of this mock draft, we’ll assume that the Chicago Bears are sticking with Justin Fields, the Arizona Cardinals are committed to Kyler Murray, the Tennessee Titans think they have a future franchise quarterback in Will Levis, and the New York Jets think that eventually, Aaron Rodgers will stop shooting his mouth off long enough to play quarterback in 2024.

Conversely, the Washington Commanders, New England Patriots, New York Giants, and Atlanta Falcons will avail themselves of the best draftable quarterbacks possible in the interest of turning things around.

So, four quarterbacks go in the first round here, with more teams looking to build around the guys they’ve already got. That makes for one notable omission (Oregon’s Bo Nix), and a whole bunch of talented prospects at other positions pushing themselves up the boards.

Browns join ’87 Patriots to start 5 different QBs in a season

When Jeff Driskel starts in Week 18 for the Browns, he will be their fifth different starting QB this season

Jeff Driskel gets the call to start at quarterback on Sunday when the Cleveland Browns play the Cincinnati Bengals.

With the Browns safely locked into the fifth playoff spot, Kevin Stefanski is not going to risk injury to 38-year-old Joe Flacco.

Driskel becomes the fifth different player to start at quarterback for the Browns in the 2023 regular season.

The others are Flacco, PJ Walker, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Deshaun Watson.

Another team that started 5 quarterbacks was the 1987 New England Patriots, possibly the only one.

Those starters were: Steve Grogan, Tom Ramsey, Tony Eason, Bob Bleier, and Doug Flutie.

For those of you who don’t remember Bleier, who split two starts in the strike-disrupted season:

Bob Bleier was one of the most prolific passers in Richmond football history, finishing his career first on the Spiders’ career lists with 1,169 career attempts, 672 completions, 8,057 passing yards and 54 passing touchdowns from 1983-86. Bleier owned three of the top five passing seasons in school history. He was Second Team All-Yankee Conference in 1986 and played in the Blue-Gray Game following that season. Bleier played for the New England Patriots of the National Football League in 1987.

Browns join ’87 Patriots to start 5 different QBs in a season

When Jeff Driskel starts in Week 18 for the Browns, he will be their fifth different starting QB this season

Jeff Driskel gets the call to start at quarterback on Sunday when the Cleveland Browns play the Cincinnati Bengals.

With the Browns safely locked into the fifth playoff spot, Kevin Stefanski is not going to risk injury to 38-year-old Joe Flacco.

Driskel becomes the fifth different player to start at quarterback for the Browns in the 2023 regular season.

The others are Flacco, PJ Walker, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Deshaun Watson.

Another team that started 5 quarterbacks was the 1987 New England Patriots, possibly the only one.

Those starters were: Steve Grogan, Tom Ramsey, Tony Eason, Bob Bleier, and Doug Flutie.

For those of you who don’t remember Bleier, who split two starts in the strike-disrupted season:

Bob Bleier was one of the most prolific passers in Richmond football history, finishing his career first on the Spiders’ career lists with 1,169 career attempts, 672 completions, 8,057 passing yards and 54 passing touchdowns from 1983-86. Bleier owned three of the top five passing seasons in school history. He was Second Team All-Yankee Conference in 1986 and played in the Blue-Gray Game following that season. Bleier played for the New England Patriots of the National Football League in 1987.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Week 18’s biggest NFL matchups

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys preview the final week of the regular season with tape and metrics.

It’s time for Week 18 of the 2023 NFL campaign — the final week of the regular season — and Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, are here to get you ready for the most important games, playoff scenarios, and interesting matchups:

Kansas City Chiefs-Los Angeles Chargers — Why the Chiefs wouldn’t even be a playoff team without Steve Spagnuolo, and how Kansas City’s defense got four sacks in five plays against the Bengals on Cincinnati’s final drive.

Philadelphia Eagles-New York Giants — The Eagles had best fix their leaky run defense before the playoffs, and the Giants could be a stern test in that regard.

Houston Texans- Indianapolis Colts — C.J. Stroud is back for the Texans, and he’ll face a Colts defense with a lot of underrated players. The winner takes the AFC South.

Los Angeles Rams-San Francisco 49ers — The 49ers have wrapped up the NFC’s one-seed, so they won’t play many of their starters, but it’s time to recognize a Rams defense defined by two rookies, and more underrated players.

Buffalo Bills-Miami Dolphins — Two up-and-down teams are fighting for control of the AFC East, and it could come down to which unit figures itself out: Buffalo’s offense, or Miami’s defense.

Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers — The Bears won’t make the playoffs, but they have a fascinating decision to make about Justin Fields’ future. Meanwhile, Packers quarterback Jordan Love has been as good as anyone at his position in the second half of the season.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar” right here:

You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Browns join ’87 Patriots to start 5 different QBs in a season

When Jeff Driskel starts in Week 18 for the Browns, he will be their fifth different starting QB this season

Jeff Driskel gets the call to start at quarterback on Sunday when the Cleveland Browns play the Cincinnati Bengals.

With the Browns safely locked into the fifth playoff spot, Kevin Stefanski is not going to risk injury to 38-year-old Joe Flacco.

Driskel becomes the fifth different player to start at quarterback for the Browns in the 2023 regular season.

The others are Flacco, PJ Walker, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Deshaun Watson.

Another team that started 5 quarterbacks was the 1987 New England Patriots, possibly the only one.

Those starters were: Steve Grogan, Tom Ramsey, Tony Eason, Bob Bleier, and Doug Flutie.

For those of you who don’t remember Bleier, who split two starts in the strike-disrupted season:

Bob Bleier was one of the most prolific passers in Richmond football history, finishing his career first on the Spiders’ career lists with 1,169 career attempts, 672 completions, 8,057 passing yards and 54 passing touchdowns from 1983-86. Bleier owned three of the top five passing seasons in school history. He was Second Team All-Yankee Conference in 1986 and played in the Blue-Gray Game following that season. Bleier played for the New England Patriots of the National Football League in 1987.

QB Frank Ryan, who led Browns to last championship, dies at 87

Cleveland Browns star QB from the ’60s Frank Ryan has died at 87

Frank Ryan, who quarterbacked the Cleveland Browns to the NFL championship in 1964, died Monday at a Connecticut nursing home.

Ryan was 87 and had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Ryan threw three touchdown passes to Gary Collins as the Browns upset the Baltimore Colts 27-0 on Dec. 27, 1964.

Ryan played college football at Rice. He was a fifth-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 1958.

He spent four years as a Ram before being traded to Cleveland in 1962.

Ryan was 52-22-2 in seven seasons with the Browns.

His career ended with sparse duty in Washington from 1969-70.

The Cleveland Browns could win the AFC’s one-seed in the playoffs

After their Thursday night win over the Jets, the Browns actually have a chance to become the AFC’s one-seed through the playoffs.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

After their 37-20 win over the New York Jets on Thursday night, the 11-5 Cleveland Browns not only clinched their second playoff berth since 2020 (the team had not made the playoffs before that since 2002), but they have an actual shot at the AFC’s one-seed.

Which means that the AFC playoffs might go through Cleveland.

Here’s how it needs to go.

So. If the Browns beat the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, January 7, and the Baltimore Ravens lose to the Miami Dolphins and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Dolphins lose to the Buffalo Bills? Yeah. The Dawg Pound will be home base.

As Chase Daniel said, this is wild. The Browns currently have a league-high 26% of their salary cap on injured reserve, they’ve turned Joe Flacco into Kurt Warner, and the guys they were without due to injury against the Jets was… well, remarkable.

If Kevin Stefanski doesn’t win Coach of the Year, there should be an immediate recount.

Browns, Jets trade pick-sixes in the first half

A pair of pick-sixes in the first half of the Jets-Browns game

There were points aplenty on the scoreboard as the New York Jets played the Cleveland Browns in the final Thursday Night Football game of 2023.

And, each team had a defensive TD, courtesy of a pick-six.

Ronnie Hickman returned a Trevor Siemian pass 30 yards for a score in the first quarter to give Cleveland a 20-7 lead.

The PAT failed.

Jermaine Johnson answered for the Jets, plucking a Joe Flacco pass and taking it 37 yards in the second quarter.

The score cut the Jets’ deficit to 27-14 after the PAT.