{"id":418481,"date":"2026-10-04T13:46:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T13:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418481\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T13:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T13:46:37","slug":"cleveland-browns-news-and-rumors-10-4-26-go-root-for-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418481\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Browns News and Rumors 10\/4\/26: Go Root for Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND, Ohio (TheOBR.com<\/a>) – Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans! There\u2019s no game today, and I\u2019m not sure what to do with myself.<\/p>\n

Wait a minute, I know exactly what I\u2019ll do. I\u2019m going to sit at this computer and build some stuff. Because that\u2019s what webdorks do, and I am a webdork. <\/p>\n

Still, that\u2019s the thing about a Thursday night win. You get the mini-bye whether you want it or not. The team takes four days off, and the fans take ten. This particular Sunday, the Browns are 3-1 and alone in first place in the AFC North, so instead of spending the afternoon yelling at our own team, we get to spend it yelling at everybody else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

October scoreboard-watching is a lot different from the one I\u2019ve learned. You see, I know how to do this in December. Most of us learned scoreboard watching the hard way, with a calculator and a draft order chart, rooting for the Jets to win so we could pick third instead of fifth. Our own Jack Duffin has been running a weekly rooting guide since the start of the season, and if you go back and read the early ones, that\u2019s what it was built for. The Browns were favored to land a top-three pick before the season started. His column still tracks the first overall pick odds<\/a> every week, out of habit or superstition; I\u2019m not sure which.<\/p>\n

This week the guide has a new name. Path to the Playoffs<\/a>. And the first game on the list tells me to root for the Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/p>\n

The Jaguars.<\/p>\n

Look, they did us a favor once already. That trade down in 2025 is the reason Mason Graham, KC Concepcion, and Quinshon Judkins are in Berea. So fine. Go Jags. I\u2019ll be on the couch, wearing orange, cheering for teal, and wondering what happened to my life.<\/p>\n

FROM +900 TO +300: The numbers, per Jack: the Browns\u2019 playoff odds went from +600 before Week 1, to +900 after the opener, to +725, to +300 heading into today. \u201cI said if the Browns went 3-1, then we would take making the playoffs as a serious consideration,\u201d he writes. Consider it considered. The rooting list is Jaguars over the Bengals, Titans over the Ravens (Jack admits that one is \u201chighly unlikely\u201d), the Bills over the Patriots, the Chiefs over the Raiders, the Cowboys over the Texans, and the Commanders over the Colts in London, where, as Jack puts it, \u201cweird results can happen overseas.\u201d He should know. <\/p>\n

My favorite line in the piece is about the draft order, which currently has the Browns picking 27th and the Rams, whose first-rounder we own from the Myles Garrett trade, picking 15th. \u201cThe Browns picking higher than the Rams would be a shock outcome for the NFL season when one was expected to have a top three pick and the other being Super Bowl favorites.\u201d Shock outcome. That\u2019s the right way to put it. Our Watercooler preview of the other games<\/a> calls Jacksonville at Cincinnati the game of the day. I agree. Let the Jaguars go back to their beautiful city with a win and have a couple of days to enjoy the strip malls, pythons, and ginormous bugs that infest their hometown, as only huge, man-eating cockroaches can.<\/p>\n

GRAHAM, MAYBE BY BALTIMORE: Yesterday we were counting blessings. Today we\u2019re counting days. Mary Kay Cabot reports that a source wouldn\u2019t be surprised<\/a> if Mason Graham is back for the Ravens on Oct. 18, which would mean he misses only the Jets game next Sunday. She credits his \u201cold-school toughness\u201d and the three extra days of healing that come with a Thursday injury. In Ask the Insiders, a member asked the obvious follow-up, Graham to IR or no?<\/a>, and the answer that came back is that the team saying \u201cweek to week\u201d points to fewer than four games, so he likely just sits on the inactive list. Another subscriber is already doing IR math<\/a> on Dillon Gabriel and Kalia Davis. That\u2019s a lot of people reading the injury rules on a Saturday. Welcome to contending.<\/p>\n

MF-ING THE SACK: The best thing anybody said this weekend came from Todd Monken, describing his reaction to Deshaun Watson taking a sack on the game-winning drive, the one that pushed Andre Szmyt back to a 56-yarder. \u201cI was (–ing) him taking the sack. What are you doing, for God\u2019s sakes?\u201d he told Cabot. Then he watched the tape, saw Patrick Queen sitting in the slant lane, and changed his mind. \u201cYou look back and you go, \u2018you know what? He might have thrown a pick there.\u2019\u201d And then, my favorite part: \u201cHe thinks he\u2019s right 100% of the time. He\u2019s not right 100% of the time, but he\u2019s right a lot.\u201d That is the most honest thing a head coach has said about a quarterback in this town in a while. Monken also took the blame for one of Watson\u2019s two turnovers, the zone read that T.J. Watt baited into a strip. \u201cMy fault, for God\u2019s sakes, you ought to know better,\u201d he said, calling Watt \u201cthat crafty son of a gun.\u201d A coach who falls on the sword for his quarterback and swears at him in the same press conference. Again, he\u2019s winning and he\u2019s my age, so I\u2019m biased, but I like this guy.<\/p>\n

THE CONTRACT QUESTION, ALREADY: Four games in and our members want to talk about 2027. One subscriber projected Watson\u2019s numbers<\/a> over a full season at roughly 3,600 yards and 26 touchdowns and asked whether that earns an extension. Jack Duffin would give him a one-year deal as a bridge, \u201cpotentially playing the whole year (Smith\/Mahomes style).\u201d Pete Smith is less impressed: \u201cNothing I\u2019ve seen from Watson looks reliable or sustainable. He\u2019s functional.\u201d Pete also points out that without a roughing call in Jacksonville and Szmyt\u2019s brilliance Thursday, \u201cWatson likely faces far more scrutiny.\u201d Over in the Watercooler, GhostofTedCox called Watson<\/a> \u201csorta like a poor mans Josh Allen. (OK, very poor).\u201d Brrexkl is holding his verdict until Week 9, which is the right instinct for a 31-year-old with two Achilles surgeries. For the record, per the early stats thread<\/a>, Watson is completing 69.6 percent with six touchdowns, two picks and a 101.2 rating. And 11 sacks. Somebody tell the offensive line it\u2019s October.<\/p>\n

CHAPTER AND VERSE, PART THREE: The Jared Verse discourse has entered its backlash phase, now that he remains sackless, yet loud. Chas Dawg, in Revisiting Verse<\/a>, calls Thursday \u201cone of the worst performances I can recall by a starting defender\u201d and tallies it as \u201cThree penalties, two tackles, one punch, zero reason to yap.\u201d Brrexkl counters with an AP note that Verse leads the team in hurries. VT1983 had the shortest and best take: \u201cNeed his plays to exceed his mouth.\u201d Monken, for his part, told Cabot talk without production \u201cis just a vapor,\u201d and says Verse backs it up with how he practices and plays. The rematch in Pittsburgh is Nov. 1. <\/p>\n

THE FLAGS, STILL FLYING: Twelve penalties against Carolina. Fourteen against Pittsburgh. Monken: \u201cThat many penalties are not a recipe for success. We all know that.\u201d He promised to \u201cfight like hell to clean it up\u201d when the players return Tuesday. The Browns\u2019 self-torment about yellow flags continues. <\/p>\n

WEBDORK CORNER: A short programming note, since some of you have asked. Actually, you haven\u2019t, but saying that is an excuse to talk about what I did on Friday and Saturday. As of yesterday, profile signatures are live<\/a> for subscribers: three lines, one link, no images. I\u2019m starting small deliberately; thirty years of running message boards has taught me that signatures expand to fill all available space if you let them. There\u2019s also now an X in the corner of the reply box so you can throw away a quote you started and regret, which RockyAtTheGym had been asking about. Full credit to FakeJerrySherk, who reminded me the old boards had it. And yes, you can ignore users<\/a>, on desktop or your phone, though not administrators or moderators, whom you\u2019ll just have to keep enduring. NorCalBrownsFan, testing his new signature, asked, \u201cWho do I have to offend around here to get warning points? It sounds prestigious.\u201d Keep going, sir. You\u2019re on your way.<\/p>\n

MEANWHILE, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN: It\u2019s October, and the Guardians are playing baseball that matters. The Guardians then lost 3-0 to the White Sox. Our LiveWire thread<\/a> opened its doors to Buckeyes and Guardians talk for the day. And Michigan had the kind of Saturday that produces a thread called \u201cThe Demise of <\/a>Michigan,\u201d which has a lot of joy in it from the Buckeyes faithful. I\u2019ll admit I posted in it. Man, that Michigan offense. Oof. My apologies to any Michigan fans who read this column or site, but you know you would do the same if the tables were turned, with an extra box of salt swiped from the opposing team\u2019s cupboard to rub into the wound.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s your Sunday. <\/p>\n

Go Jags, I guess.<\/p>\n

Have a good one! GO BROWNS!<\/p>\n

Newswire Bloviation Archive<\/a><\/p>\n

OBR GOODIES<\/p>\n

OBR ARTICLES<\/p>\n

LIVEWIRE<\/a><\/p>\n

LiveWire Thread for 10\/3 – Twitter, Videos, Articles<\/a><\/p>\n

FROM THE FORUMS<\/p>\n

ASK THE INSIDERS<\/a> (VIP<\/a>)<\/p>\n

RUMOR CENTRAL<\/a> (VIP<\/a>)<\/p>\n

INSIDER BROWNS TALK<\/a> (VIP<\/a>)<\/p>\n

THE WATERCOOLER<\/a><\/p>\n

THE LIFT<\/p>\n

Positive news from the world of sports and beyond…<\/p>\n

Underwater Umbrellas Could Protect Coral Reefs From Heat Damage<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t underestimate how crucial coral reefs are in our ecosystem. Or the threat they\u2019re under due to the changing climate. After the 2023 heat wave \u201cessentially wiped out branching corals\u201d in the Florida Keys, Dr. Karen Neely and a team from Nova Southeastern University tried something gloriously low-tech. They built parasol-like shades out of PVC pipe and nylon fabric, floated them a foot above 20 brain corals at Newfound Harbor, and cut the light hitting them by 60 percent. That summer brought the second-highest heat stress on record at the site. The shaded corals lost less color than expected, and some even got their color back after the shades went up. Shade can\u2019t cool the water, Neely explains, but it blocks the UV that makes heat damage worse. The catch is scale; you\u2019re not putting an umbrella over the whole Caribbean. Still. Northeast Ohio is spending $2.6 billion to put a roof over 67,500 football fans. Florida saved a reef with pipe from the hardware store. There\u2019s a lesson in there somewhere, and I\u2019m not going to be the one to bring it up at the next council meeting.<\/p>\n

WRAPPING UP<\/p>\n

When not cheering for the Jacksonville Jaguars against every instinct he has, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride<\/a> or write him at barry@theobr.com<\/a> if you are so compelled.<\/p>\n

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