CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
Across Cleveland, we have erected various memorials with local meaning. There’s a statue of Jim Brown in front of the stadium, which I used as a backdrop to the announcement that the OBR was going independent once more. There's a script “Cleveland” at a couple of locations celebrating something about the city. The fact that we have a name and are kind of retro, I guess. There are a bunch of guitars outside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There's a free stamp near City Hall, which I have yet to figure out.
We need another one to celebrate the Browns' quarter century of searching for a quarterback. There’s already that uniform that appeared in a storefront in Cleveland recording the recurring pain of hope, but we need something celebrating the search itself. I propose a proud statue of Browns scout, complete with clipboard, stopwatch, and a confused look on his face looking outward over the Lake, representing the eternal quest to provide the Browns with a field general who will some day arrive, taking the town to the promised land of competitiveness.
Then again, that might be expensive, and we all have to save up for PSLs at the new domed stadium. But it would represent the last 25 years+ of Browns football wandering the desert looking for a quarterback to fall from the sky to save our Sunday afternoons. This pain should be remembered by future generations of Browns fans, who can give up props through the decades for putting up with it.
"A quarterback away" should be the city’s new slogan. We can build an identity around it.
You know the history, of course. The Browns have started 42 different quarterbacks since 1999, by CBS Sports' count when Shedeur Sanders became the latest one last November. For most of those years, saying the Browns were a quarterback away was a kindness. We were a quarterback, a coach, a general manager, an offensive line and most of a defense away. The quarterback was just the part that fit in a headline.
So I had mixed feelings when I saw ESPN's Ben Solak make it one of his "Seven things I think" this week: "I think... the Browns are a quarterback away from contending."
Solak is upfront that it wasn't his idea. ESPN's Mina Kimes said it in August, when ESPN NFL posted her saying "[The Browns] really are a quarterback away" and asked if you agreed. We’ve asked the same question around here for months, but it’s our lot to be ignored by the Bristol colossus. Six weeks into the season, though, Solak says, "I'm there."
His case starts with the young offensive talent: Quinshon Judkins, Harold Fannin Jr., and the rookie receivers, Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion. Then he gets to the quarterback, and he doesn't sugarcoat it. Game to game, he calls Deshaun Watson "one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the league." The numbers he uses aren't kind. Watson has the fourth-highest rate of interceptions plus sacks per dropback (11.8 percent), the third-worst explosive pass rate and the second-worst completion percentage over expected. Solak's summary: "not accurate, quick to worsen a muddy pocket and not nearly the same athlete on the move he was before two tears to his right Achilles tendon."
He also breaks down a play from Sunday that I'll bet some of you are still mad about. It's 10-10 with 3:45 left, third-and-8. The speed out to Concepcion is there, and Solak says the ball "should be out to Concepcion every single time." Watson works the backside instead, nothing is open, and he barely escapes a sack. Then Andre Szmyt's 48-yarder goes wide left.
We’re used to this sort of analysis around here. We watch the tape and even have Sam Penix provide a weekly accuracy chart. The results are not good.
The part of Solak's column I enjoyed most is the defense, because he's right and he says so with feeling. "What a group!" This is a unit that lost Jim Schwartz and Myles Garrett in the same offseason, and Jared Verse, the headliner of the Garrett trade, has "underwhelmed relative to expectations." (Our Ask the Insiders crowd is already asking whether Verse is really playing as badly as everyone says.) Solak credits Schwesinger's "All-Pro blend" of quickness and processing speed, Maliek Collins on the interior, Quincy Williams playing like his old self under Mike Rutenberg, and a safety trio of Grant Delpit, Ronnie Hickman and Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. "Rutenberg's unit simply gets it."
Solak does add an asterisk. Since Trevor Lawrence ripped them apart in Week 1, the Browns have faced Baker Mayfield, Bryce Young, Aaron Rodgers, Geno Smith and Tyler Huntley. Fair. But I notice the next three are Cam Ward, Rodgers again and Tyler Shough, and ESPN's own power rankings have Ward's Titans last in the league in passing at 153.3 yards a game. The asterisk can wait until November.
Solak's closing line is "Good defense. Good offense. Someone get these guys a quarterback!"
Two out of three, I'll buy. "Good offense" is generous. By Solak's own numbers, the Browns have the worst run game in football by success rate, and Watson faces the fourth-highest pressure rate of any quarterback. In those same ESPN power rankings, Daniel Oyefusi picks run blocking as the Browns' biggest offensive problem: 24th in run block win rate and dead last in yards before contact. Todd Monken said Monday the fix starts with him, "and then our offensive staff, and then the guys that we put on the field." My amendment: the Browns are a quarterback and an offensive line away. That's still a shorter list than I'm used to writing.
ESPN's power panel, by the way, has the first-place Browns 19th. The 2-4 Rams are 14th. ESPN contains multitudes.
So when does the quarterback show up? Not by the trade deadline, I'd bet. For 2026, it's Watson, and he's 4-2 with four fourth-quarter game-winning drives. He's also good at being a teammate. After Monken gave him a game ball Sunday, somebody yelled "party at your house," and Watson answered, as cleveland.com cleaned it up, "(H---) yeah, party at 4's house." He followed through Monday night, food trucks and all. "It's been a long 22 months, and this is what I did it for."
The real answer comes in the spring. Watson's contract runs out, and we've been skeptical here that he gets another one. The Browns would currently pick 26th, plus No. 11 from the Rams, per Cabot. Over in the Watercooler, Brrexkl's Week 7 preview says it best: "LVR for the love of our LAR Draft Pick!" Solak doesn't mention the other quarterback on the roster, and today, neither will I.
For the first time in a long time, the sentence ends at "quarterback." I'll take it.
This and that, otherwise...
JORDAN ELLIOTT: The Titans released former Browns defensive tackle Jordan Elliott on Tuesday after an "incident" at their facility. PFT rounds up the reports KPRC's Aaron Wilson and others: after an Oct. 15 argument with tackle JC Latham, Elliott was told to leave the practice field and went to the players' garage to get his gun from his car. Defensive tackle John Franklin-Myers de-escalated it. Nashville police said no reports had been filed. Elliott was a Browns third-round pick in 2020 and spent four years here. Thank goodness for John Franklin-Myers.
The Titans' best defensive lineman is still there, and you'll hear a lot about him. Solak's pick for Defensive Player of the Year through six weeks is Jeffery Simmons, who leads all defensive tackles with 26 pressures. Our run blocking gets the test Sunday.
FLEX DENIED: The NFL thought about moving Browns-Steelers to Sunday night in Week 8 and kept Eagles-Commanders instead, per the Inquirer's Rob Tornoe. That's a 2-4 team and a 1-4-1 team. The first-place Browns stay at 1 p.m. on CBS on Nov. 1. Respect remains a work in progress.
FOREVER IS A LONG TIME: Jeremy Fowler reports the owners approved G5 financing for the Brook Park stadium, the league's loan program that goes up to $300 million. Meanwhile, Front Office Sports reports the Jaguars are selling space in a memorial outside their new stadium where fans can store memorabilia, and their ashes, for up to $5,904. It's called the 904Ever Club, after the area code. I give it until Thanksgiving before someone pitches the Haslams a 216Ever Club. I've spent enough of my life on cold concrete watching this team. I'll pass. Put me under a tree somewhere. I like the shade.
QUICKLY: The Browns made six practice-squad moves, including releasing DT Chris Williams, who filled in the last two games. Monken says he's "hopeful" to get multiple guys back this week. Fred Greetham has the path to the playoffs, and John Kosko's Browns Rewind asks whether Andrew Berry should call the Colts about a fire sale (VIP). And Pew says 40 percent of American adults regularly get news on Facebook. We're on Facebook. I'm just saying.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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FROM THE FORUMS
THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
Man Proposes to His Girlfriend After They Were Struck by Lightning, and She Restarted His Heart Twice - Nick and Eva Broderick were two miles from their car in Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine State Forest in August 2025 when a storm rolled in. At one point Eva asked, "What if we get struck by lightning?" Then a bolt hit the tree next to them and the ground current shocked them both. Nick wasn't breathing. With bad cell service and no way to tell 911 exactly where they were, Eva started CPR. It took search and rescue 50 minutes to find them, and in that time she restarted his heart twice. He spent three days in the hospital, proposed when he got out, and they were married a little less than a year later. Eva's line: "I've made the joke quite a few times that he can't leave me. I brought him back from death, so he's kind of stuck." Now that's a fourth-quarter comeback.
WRAPPING UP
When not counting starting quarterbacks on his fingers and toes and running out of both, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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