Three sentences each on three things about the Browns:
*I am truly beyond giddy. What a start to the week, first and foremost, of course, with the news just 12 hours in that future Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Myles Garrett has agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in Cleveland through 2028, or ostensibly to the end of his career, and then with the well-placed speculation that maybe —just maybe — Joe Flacco, who put the Browns onto his back and carried them into the playoffs in 2023, might end up back here as the bridge quarterback next season. It doesn’t get any better than that, ladies and gentlemen, especially considering all the seemingly endless stretch of bad news in previous weeks.
*There was a headline the other day that stated the Browns are laser-focused on quarterback in both free agency and the NFL Draft. That is exactly as it should be, for since the days of the iconic Paul Brown, who ushered pro football into the modern era, quarterback has become the most important position in team sports. The best teams have the best quarterbacks — it’s just the way it is, and always will be — so if the Browns do nothing other than pick the right men for both the bridge quarterback and the young quarterback to develop, then, along with the ability to keep Garrett, it will have been a tremendous offseason, both from a talent standpoint and from
the message it sends to the locker room that the people in charge in Berea really do indeed care about getting the team back on track as soon as is humanly possible.
*And finally, let us be clear — very crystal clear, in fact — that, despite you may hear elsewhere from people who wouldn’t know Cleveland if it were on fire and they were standing in the middle of it, it wasn’t just an obscene amount of money that convinced Garrett to stay here. Rather, it was also that he had to be sold on the plan the Browns have for going forward and becoming a contender. Make no mistake about it, this guy wants to win, not just games but championships as well, and to realize that you need only look at his expression and demeanor following a loss.
Steve King
