Three lines each on three things as the work week begins and we move toward the start of NFL free agency at 4 p.m. Wednesday:

*When full-fledged free agency as we know it began 32 years ago, in 1993, no one in the NFL, not even the smartest people, had any idea what they were doing. It was as if they were sent into the grocery store with money and spent it all in one aisle buying things that they ended up not liking. They had nothing left for the rest of the week, so they starved.

*Guard Joel Bitonio decided to return to the Browns for another season not because the top men sold him on any grand, misguided plan to become a winner and a contender, but rather because he didn’t want the nightmare that was the 2024 season to be his last memory of a standout career. He knows he can, and will, do better, individually, and if the rest of the team joins him, then all the better. He epitomizes the character of the players from the Browns original franchise.

*And finally, but most importantly, there’s Myles Garrett. The defensive end is more determined to sit out the season if they won’t trade him to a contender more than the Browns are determined to keep him and force him to play for them. The Browns are going to end up looking silly, broodish and inept.

Steve King