Browns swap corners with Jaguars

    The Cleveland Browns are either selling the 2025 season early, or Andrew Berry feels very secure in his future, as the Browns and Berry made another trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars, with Cleveland sending cornerback Greg Newsome and a sixth rounder previously acquired from the Jets for cornerback Tyson Campbell and the seventh rounder of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Both players are twenty-five years old, and both were selected in the 2021 draft.

Greg Newsome was the Browns' first-rounder in 2021 from Northwestern and was playing well this season after a few rocky seasons that had seen him pass Martin Emerson on the depth chart after Emerson's arrival in 2022.

Newsome had taken advantage of Emerson's training camp injury to re-establish him as a starter, and while I could do without some of Newsome's histronics (it seemed like after every play, Newsome was dancing around like he won the Super Bowl), he's playing as well as he has since his promising rookie season.

Newsome would have been a free agent at the end of the season, and the Browns could have received a compensation draft pick had Newsome departed Cleveland.

Tyson Campbell was the first player taken in the second round in the 2021 draft from Georgia, and played well in his first two seasons, earning an extension last summer for four seasons.

Campbell's play had dipped last season and early in 2025, but with his size (6'1, 195 pounds) and physical skills, Campbell might be a candidate for immediate improvement under an elite defensive coordinator in Cleveland's Jim Schwartz.

Cleveland gains two and a half years of control of Campbell with his extension, while Newsome could leave the Browns with nothing following the season.

Plus, Jacksonville picks up the "Dead Money" of Campbell's contract for being traded, and since Newsome is a free agent at the end of the season, there will be no dead money for him, saving Cleveland valuable space.

The draft picks aren't really a wash, as the Jets' sixth-rounder should be near the top of the round and the Eagles' seventh is likely to be near the bottom of that round.

If this trade had been made last summer, the Browns would seem to be receiving the better player.

At this time, the Browns appear to be getting a player who might have the better upside if he can return to his past form, and a player who might improve from a change of scenery, plus he's under contract for longer than the player they are giving up.

However, that's not a guarantee, and it's fair to consider a potential return if the team had waited until closer to the trade deadline to move Greg Newsome.

I'm not in love with the trade, but I don't hate it either.

I see the advantages of the cap number, and Tyson Campbell could turn his career around.

Still, I'm not sure that happens.

What I am sure of is that the Cleveland Browns are punting another season, and Andrew Berry might be safer than many think- or deserve.

Browns Rock Ravens 33-31 at the gun!

    Dustin Hopkins connected on a forty-yard field goal on the game's last play to give the Cleveland Browns a stunning come-from-behind victory over the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore.

The 33-31 win saw the Browns trail from seconds after the game began until the final kick by Hopkins as the Browns constantly hustled and scrapped to make up deficits that multiple times were fourteen points.

DeShaun Watson battled through an ankle injury to complete each of his fourteen second-half passes to lead the comeback.

Jerome Ford rushed for 107 yards and Amari Cooper led the receiver with ninety-eight yards on six catches.

Cleveland improved to 6-3 with the win and moved to within a half-game of the AFC North-leading Ravens.

The Browns will host the also 6-3 Pittsburgh Steelers next Sunday in Cleveland.

Brownie Bits

1) The day started poorly when Baltimore Safety Kyle Hamilton blitzed in on DeShaun Watson, tipped Watson's pass into the air and then grabbed it to cruise into the end zone for a touchdown uncontested.

Hamilton is a terrific young safety and I have a feeling that we will see many big plays from Hamilton against the Browns before his career is over.

2) A key play in the game was another fortunate bounce in a season filled with them was the fumble recovery by Wyatt Teller on the game-winning drive on a Baltimore strip sack on DeShaun Watson.

In the past, Baltimore recovers the ball and the game ends. 

3) DeShaun Watson may not have been allowed to go down the field by the Baltimore defense (his longest completion was 28 yards) but especially in the second half, Watson took what was given and put the ball where it needed to be.

That hasn't always been the case for Watson but the short-range accuracy is exactly what the Browns hoped for when they paid a punitive price for him.

4) Dustin Hopkins has been so dependable this season since the Browns acquired him from the Chargers and I actually felt sorry for him when he missed what would have been the game-tying extra point in the fourth quarter.

Trust me, that is not a common feeling from me on Browns kickers and I felt really good for Hopkins when he drilled the game-winner and avoided the goat horns.

5) Greg Newsome's pick-six in the final quarter was the first career interception for the former first-rounder and took some horns off himself for an earlier defensive holding penalty in the end zone that negated an interception that would have ended the drive for Baltimore but instead resulted in a Ravens touchdown.

Considering Newsome was injured for most of the weekend with an uncertain game status, it was quite a game for the Northwestern product.

6) I would be surprised if Denzel Ward was able to play this week after sustaining a neck injury in the first half.

Ward was trying to tackle Ravens receiver Zay Flowers when suddenly tackle Ronnie Stanley charged into the picture and spears Ward helmet-first.

Ward was unable to return after the cheap shot and Stanley is likely to pay a hefty fine after the NFL reviews all the games this week.

7) DeShaun Watson's biggest throw came on the final drive as the Browns faced a second and nineteen on their own twenty-two with Watson firing a dart to Amari Cooper for seventeen yards to bring the Browns to a reasonable third and two situation.

Jerome Ford ran for six yards to gain the first down but a big-time throw from Watson when the team needed it most.

8) James Proche had looked good returning punts last week in his Browns debut but his muffed punt in Baltimore led to the Ravens touchdown in the fourth quarter, so the Browns haven't solved their return problems yet.

9) The Browns grit came through on two occasions in the fourth quarter, one with David Njoku carrying defenders down the field for yardage and on Kareem Hunt's carry on the final drive, the Browns lineman pushed Hunt down the field for several extra yards that brought Dustin Hopkins into field goal range for the game-winning kick.

10) Jordan Elliott blocked a Justin Tucker field goal attempt in the second quarter for the second block of his career.

The other block of his career? Also against Justin Tucker.

11) The Browns defense kept Lamar Jackson under control, sacking him three times, intercepting him twice, and allowing Jackson to throw only one touchdown.

It wasn't easy or even pretty but it was enough to allow Cleveland to crawl back into the game.

12) I thought Baltimore would win a close game and I thought Cleveland had to win both this game and the following week's game against Pittsburgh to have a shot at winning the division due to tiebreakers inside the division as a loss to either would make 3-3 the best mark that Cleveland could have with a split.

The Browns now have a chance to win both and while the 6-3 Steelers are struggling on offense and overachieving a bit, their defense is the real deal as well.

Cleveland needs this game for many reasons, take the Steelers lightly at your own peril.

Browns fail in Pittsburgh-26-14 loss

    The hype around the Cleveland Browns visit to Pittsburgh wasn't about the Browns playoff chances-those were gone when the Bengals won over the Chiefs on Sunday or even the Steelers playoff chances (rated at four percent).

It was about the likely final home game for Ben Rothlisberger, but there is also a chance that it could have been the final game of the Cleveland career for Baker Mayfield, who was simply terrible yet again in a 26-14 Browns loss.

Mayfield did throw two touchdown passes but he was intercepted twice, sacked nine times, and completed well under half his passes ( sixteen of thirty-two) in yet another dreadful defeat in a disappointing Browns season.

Donovan Peoples-Jones led the receivers with 76 yards and Nick Chubb paced the running backs with 58 yards.

The Browns clinched a losing season in the loss at 7-9 and will finish the season at home against the new AFC North champion Bengals.

Brownie Bits

1) Look, Baker Mayfield was terrible.

Completing one of his first ten throws, Mayfield was inaccurate as usual with his arm but even worse on a night that the Steelers seemed to have everyone down to the waterboy putting heat on Mayfield from the pass rush, Mayfield was almost mulish in his stubbornness to not throw the football away.

2) The irony in the above statement is that Mayfield seems to have little problem throwing the football away any other time but I guess the argument there would be that at least Mayfield is trying to hit his receivers for his usual passes into the sideline.

3) Still, it was not all Baker Mayfield's fault as he was sacked nine times and seemed to be hit on every play.

Blame Kevin Stefanski for his stubbornness in refusing to give rookie tackle James Hudson any kind of help at all with T.J. Watt, who sacked Mayfield four times alone.

Stefanski didn't keep a tight end, a fullback, a running back- anyone that could have given Hudson a hand in trying to cope with Watt.

Stefanski not only allowed Mayfield to take a relentless beating, but his decision to leave Hudson alone against Watt might also have destroyed Hudson's confidence to the point of destroying a rookie's psyche to play this game- Watt was that overwhelming!

4) Kevin Stefanski suggested that that the underuse of Nick Chubb was due to injured ribs to explain why Chubb carried the ball only twelve times on the evening with only four in the first half.

I still wonder if that was truly the case as Chubb was on the field for a bit on each of the Browns final two drives, having a Baker Mayfield pass to him wind up in the dirt and Chubb was in the backfield from the one-yard line as a decoy with Mayfield flipping a one-yard pass to Harrison Bryant for the final Cleveland score.

5) Pittsburgh entered the game at the bottom of the league against the run so even if Chubb was dealing with injuries, why not lean on D'Ernest Johnson rather than leaning on Mayfield so often?

6) For the third week in a row, the Browns anemic offense wasted a pretty good defensive performance.

Take away the late game garbage touchdown run by Najee Harris as the Browns had to sell out to stop the final drive and once Harris broke through the line there was no one there to stop him and the Browns defense allowed only one touchdown in the game, a first-quarter drive.

7) The Browns' offensive line was supposed to be the strength of their offense but even if you don't consider the nine sacks allowed, the line still was pushed around physically and committed multiple holding penalties and false starts.

A second-half holding penalty on Wyatt Teller seemed to be the football version of a basketball flop trying to draw a charging foul but otherwise, there seemed to be little to complain about.

8) One criticism of the Browns handling of Baker Mayfield has been the complaint that he has few offensive standouts to throw to.

Most of that is true but the Browns are paying Austin Hooper a lot of money to be the center of a tight end oriented passing game and yet Hooper's yard after catch numbers are next to zero and he drops far too many passes for a what is supposed to be a dependable possession receiver.

I'd rate Hooper as a disappointment thus far and I'd wonder about his future if he wasn't scheduled to receive 13.2 million in each of the next two seasons,w which means if Hooper would be released the Browns would have to eat almost twenty million of dead cap space.

9) The Browns lost both Denzel Ward and Greedy Williams to injury in this game just as they returned Greg Newsome to the lineup.

Newsome had a strong game as did Grant Delpit and one thing to be pleased about this season is the development of a secondary that was loaded with questions entering the season and turned out to have a pretty good season.

10) Dustin Colquitt's twenty-one-yard punt in the fourth quarter handed the Steelers a short field that would result in a Chris Boswell field goal which returned the Steelers' lead to two scores.

Colquitt had punted well since joining the team but his evening against the Steelers should at least make the Browns think about punting challengers in the 2022 training camp.

11) Baker Mayfield said that he will undergo surgery on his left shoulder for a torn labrum and I'd say he's unlikely to play against the Bengals with nothing to play for.

I'd bet that Case Keenum gets the start but I'd like to see the younger Nick Mullens get the nod.

Mullens did well in the loss to the Raiders and I'd like to see another start to see what the Browns think of his chances to stick around for the 2022 season.

12) I have had an article in progress for a few weeks on the Browns situation with Baker Mayfield and I keep having to update it.

I hope to finish it and have a critical post on how a season with high expectations has disappointed Cleveland fans for the second time in three seasons. 

Browns select Greg Newsome

  Sometimes in the NFL Draft, the best things do come to those who wait and the Cleveland Browns stayed at their spot at 26 in round one and selected a terrific player at their glaring position of need in Northwestern cornerback Greg Newsome.

The 6'1 Newsome wasn't thrown at very often in 2020 by opponents of the Wildcats, but when quarterbacks tried him, Newsome was excellent in breaking up passes as he led the Big Ten in passes defended (nine break-up attempts and one interception) and allowed only one touchdown in his final two seasons in Evanston.

Newsome is a man-to-man cover corner that is known as a good tackler and has good ball skills other than the lack of interceptions (his one in 2020 was his only career interception), there isn't a knock on his game on the field.

This leads us to the one legitimate knock that is fair against Newsome.

Newsome missed three games in each of his three seasons in the Big Ten and there is the only concern with Newsome- Can he stay on the field consistently?

Denzel Ward hasn't played a full season yet and Greedy Williams missed an entire season, so the Browns already have talented young cornerbacks that have durability concerns and Newsome will now be bringing his own injury background.

Newsome will be challenging Williams for a starting position and at worst, Newsome will see plenty of playing time.

Cleveland currently holds three picks on tonight's day two of the draft- their own second (59th overall) and third-rounders (89th overall) and the New Orleans Saints third-rounder (91) obtained during last year's draft.