Darnold was on his 5th team in 8 seasons before he won a SB. Nobody saw it coming and four teams gave up on him. I don't think even a crystal ball could have predicted that one.
Can you name a single NFL team that would have put up with all of those terrible seasons he had before he suddenly blossomed into a SB winner?
Maybe you should pay more attention. I didn't say plenty of QB's that have been drafted since Mayfield was drafted won SB's. I said plenty of QB's have won the SB since Mayfield was drafted and that "SOME OF them were drafted since Mayfield was drafted. Five different QB's have won SB's since Mayfield was drafted. And yes, two is SOME of them.
Ohio State Buckeyes: 11 players selected (including 4 in the first round)
Texas A&M Aggies: 10 players selected
Alabama Crimson Tide: 10 players selected
Miami Hurricanes: 9 players selected
Clemson Tigers: 9 players selected
Oklahoma Sooners: 7 players selected
Iowa Hawkeyes: 7 players selected
Washington Huskies: 7 players selected
It's not as hard to figure out as you're making it sound.
Against lesser teams good teams face less QB pressures. Against lesser teams the secondary coverage isn't as good. Against lesser teams the talent on both sides of the ball is inferior to highly ranked teams.
The best players are recruited by the best schools. Unless an athlete believes he isn't good enough to win the starting job at those better schools, he will go to one of them. If playing in the NFL is their goal, winning a starting job at a top tier school gives them the national exposure they desire to make an NFL career more possible.
Who would go to an unranked school if they could be a starter at a nationally ranked school?
There's a reason athletes go to Ohio University or Kent State instead of Ohio State.
2-15 historically will get us the number one overall draft pick. Please just give me Oct 1st and Dec 13 W's, I already have tickets to those games.
Originally Posted by Floquinho
Originally Posted by bugs
I believe we are way over-depressing ourselves. As Bob Marley always sang, "Don't worry, be happy!"
More than anything else, the Cleveland Browns need players and coaches with the leadership qualities and mental toughness required to change the atmosphere within the organization.
Can Andrew Berry honestly be described as a winner—or has he become part of the losing culture?
Which players today possess the leadership qualities needed to bring the rest of the locker room with them and finally end the acceptance of poor results?
The Browns must identify coaches and players who possess a genuine will to win and who hate losing more than anything else. It will take something extraordinary to wash away decades of shattered confidence, lack of belief, and acceptance of failure.
Baker Mayfield was never the best quarterback in the league, but he possessed some of the fire, defiance, and competitive spirit that this organization so clearly lacks. Love him or hate him, the Browns need another young quarterback with a similar mentality, because arm talent and strong legs are only half the package.
Andrew Berry brought you, just over the past two offseasons: Todd Monken, who was a two time National Champion with Georgia before coming back to the NFL and has been to the playoffs 2 of his last 3 seasons, winning TWO AFC NORTH championships during that time and went to the AFC Championship game with the Ravens.
Travis Switzer, with the Ravens his first 7 years in the league before coming to the Browns, went to the playoffs 6 of those 9 seasons, winning the AFC North Division 4 times and going to the AFC Championship game in 2023.
Byron Storer, went to the playoffs 3 of his 5 seasons prior to joining the Browns
Jared Verse, went to the playoffs and NFC Championship game in his first two years in the league.
Drafted Mason Graham in 2025 who won a national championship in college Drafted Quinshon Judkins in 2025 who won a national championship in college Drafted Michael Hall Jr in 2024 who won a national championship in college Drafted Zach Zinter in 2024 who won a national championship in college Drafted others who played in the College Football Playoff Series
He can bring in people that win, but once he gets them here, he has very little influence over the actual winning part.
When it comes to the blame game, my personal opinion is that Andrew Berry is at the bottom of the list.
There is no way I am going to follow all the players in college. Every team plays cupcakes and a few better teams.
Unless you know the corners who will make it into the NFL and see them against the qb?
I watch the quarterback. I look for plays where the coverage is tight. Can he throw with anticipation, timing, and accuracy? Can he layer throws with touch? Can he throw the deep out. Back shoulder? Do I see the types of throws that he would have to make in the NFL?
How does he handle pressure? Is he mobile? Can he escape and keep his eyes downfield?
I am looking for skills that transfer to the NFL game.
The percentage of college players who will make an NFL roster is under 2%. Higher for the big time schools but not much.
He will not face very many NFL type guys. So you try to see what you can.
As a student years ago, I dove deep into the history of the Red-hunting McCarthy era and became familiar with the actor who emerged second only to Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy as the villain of that insidious time: his shameless, conniving young lawyer, Roy Cohn. Never would I have imagined that a future president would count Cohn as a mentor and role model.
Then came Donald Trump.
Now, in Cohn-inflected McCarthyesque style, President Trump is channeling his tutor yet again, baselessly labeling his political enemies — all Democrats — as communists as he looks ahead to the fall’s midterm elections. Once more Trump shows that his catchphrase “Make America great again” means regressing, this time to Trump’s formative 1950s and the McCarthy era that sadly helped define it.
In recent speeches, including on the Fourth of July, Trump’s utterances of “communist” or “communism” reached double digits each time. (As that implies, the president didn’t set aside his divisive rhetoric even for the nation’s 250th birthday.)
“Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America,” Trump said late on the Fourth on the National Mall.
Trump couples his commie-baiting with a dash of his trademark xenophobia. “There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including by newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success,” he said at Mount Rushmore a day earlier. (He’s got it backward, of course: Immigrants come here for the American way of life and promise of success.)
Here’s the irony: Trump’s actions in his second term make him look more like the commie. He’s projecting again.
Now that Trump is exploiting a few victories lately by left-wing democratic socialists in Democratic primaries to paint the entire party as communists, it’s time to review the record — his record.
A hallmark of communism is government ownership of companies and control of the economy, at the expense of private property and free markets. In just over a year, Trump has used billions of taxpayers’ dollars to buy shares for the government in a growing list of private companies — U.S. Steel, Intel, Westinghouse and more — citing national security. The companies don’t always welcome their new stakeholder; at a minimum, they rightly fear it for the demands the government could make about prices and production.
“It’s what Putin did,” the estranged Republicans at the Lincoln Project posted online Monday. “Trump is the closest we’ve ever come to communism.”
“What began as a populist revolt against so-called elites has become a program of state ownership, price fixing and top-down industrial control,” free-market economist Veronique de Rugy wrote in The Times last October of Trump’s actions. “The power to ‘partner’ with business is the power to control it.”
Comrade Trump’s first big government grab, and a model for those to come, was in June last year, when he wrested a permanent “golden share” in U.S. Steel in return for approving its sale to Japan’s Nippon Steel. The company’s charter was revised to give the U.S. president extraordinary veto power over nearly a dozen corporate activities, including closing or relocating plants, supply-chain decisions, even pricing.
“We have a golden share, which I control,” Trump told reporters at the time, in words I never thought I’d hear from a president of the party once associated with free markets.
Just last week, Trump boasted to CNBC how he’d extracted a 10% stake in beleaguered chip giant Intel last August, after first demanding that its chief executive resign. “Intel came in. They had a problem. I said, ‘I can solve your problem, but I want 10% of the company.’ … Somebody said that’s not very American. I said, ‘No, I think it is very American, actually.’ And I’ve done that with other deals.”
And so he has.
The Pentagon is now the largest stockholder in struggling MP Materials, a large rare-earth mine in California, and guarantees a 10-year price floor for its output that stunned competitors. The administration has since taken shares in other rare-earth companies. The Commerce Department took an option for an 8% stake in Westinghouse, to spur construction of nuclear reactors, and has the right to 20% if the government decides the company should go public. The government takes a 15% cut of Nvidia’s and Advanced Micro Devices’ AI chip sales to China.
As much as anything he does, Trump’s direct intervention in private enterprise invites the question “What if Biden/Harris/Obama did that?” The answer, of course: Trump and Republicans would cry “Communist!”
Trump’s actions are the sort Americans generally have only seen during economic emergencies or major wars, and then rarely. I covered the frenzied and ultimately successful response to the near-collapse of the global financial system and the U.S. auto, insurance and housing industries. Behind the scenes in the Obama White House (and George W. Bush’s at the outset) was constant, angst-filled debate about any actions smacking of government takeovers and a determination that interventions be temporary, unlike Trump’s schemes. (For all the still-lingering unpopularity of the banking bailout, the Treasury — the taxpayers — got all the money back and then some, and exited the business.)
Trump’s economic big-footing isn’t the only way in which he resembles the commies Americans know best, and whom he so admires: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jung Un. There are also the images of himself everywhere, monuments planned, drearily long and self-adulating speeches and interference in the nation’s cultural, educational and legal spheres and — worst of all — in elections.
At Rushmore, Trump closed with a demand that Congress pass his so-called SAVE America Act to restrict voting. “We do that and we’re not going to lose an election for 100 years,” he said, speaking of course about Republicans.
One-party rule through central government election finagling? Now that’s a communist.
I have to go with Irish by agreeing that neither of those two has faced a serious opponent. Two of the top ranked QB's have.
Sayin and Arch.
That second half by Manning gave a glimpse at what you need in an NFL QB. The ability to rally the troops and fight your way back to victory from the jaws of defeat.
As a big OSU homer if there was any way I could spin it to make Sayin look better than Arch in that game I certainly would. But that comeback was a thing of beauty.
As you stated there's a long way to go in this season. But for me the most critical part of this process is when they play against strong opponents. It's as close as we get to see to them playing at the next level. Against OSU, when the chips were down, Arch passed the test.
Supreme Court rejects Trump mail ballot restrictions ahead of midterms
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting already underway.
The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years and have accounted for nearly a third of votes cast.
It represented a stark defeat for Trump on an issue he consistently has emphasized as vital to ensuring election integrity even though there is virtually no evidence of fraud with mail ballots.
The Supreme Court majority wrote that the administration’s push to implement the restrictions this year is likely to lose in court, though the brief emergency order didn’t detail its reasoning. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented.
The Trump administration had asked the justices, once again at the center of a roiling political controversy, to clear the way for restrictions before the pivotal November contests for control of Congress.
Alito wrote in his dissent that the Postal Service “has broad authority to regulate the mail” and likely does have the power to enforce Trump’s restrictions.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, meanwhile, agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect for the midterms but indicated he might rule in favor of the Trump administration if the issue comes back before the court at a later time.
Mail ballots are already being sent to voters
Election officials have said there was simply no way to carry out a complete overhaul in the weeks before the midterms. Indeed, Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin began sending mail ballots to voters over the past week while the new system was still not active.
The Trump administration plan would require states to adopt a uniform envelope style and submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal. The Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots to states that didn’t comply.
The administration’s efforts had the potential to be especially disruptive in states that send out ballots entirely by mail. Washington’s Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said the decision means work “to carry out a safe, secure, and accurate election” can continue ”without having to upend our election processes to meet unrealistic ballot mail requirements.”
In Arizona, another largely vote-by-mail state, Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said “it is crucial for us to continue rejecting the notion that access and security are mutually exclusive when it comes to running strong elections.”
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican serving as the state’s chief election officer, said on social media that the Supreme Court’s decision means “Utahns can have confidence that the 2026 election will proceed as normal.”
The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but have in the past framed the restrictions as commonsense changes aimed at keeping elections secure.
State officials and voting rights groups pushed back
Democratic state officials and voting rights groups challenged the restrictions in court, arguing that the president has no constitutional authority to set election rules that would “virtually eliminate mail voting on the eve of a major election.”
A whistleblower report, meanwhile, said the postal system’s requirements could lead to millions of mail ballots never being sent, because problems with the not-yet-operational portal meant a single bar code error could result in an entire batch of ballots being tossed out.
Some states don’t have the infrastructure to quickly pivot back to in-person voting, according to court documents.
The League of Women Voters, a plaintiff in the case, called the proposed restrictions “an extraordinary attempt to interfere with voting” and said it would have thrown elections into chaos. “Voters should never be caught in the middle of a political power warfare,” said CEO Celina Stewart.
Lower courts agreed to block Trump’s plan, including a preliminary injunction issued by a judge nominated by the president.
But the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that federal control of the Postal Service allows them to set rules for mail ballot handling and that compliance was possible.
The federal government won an early procedural decision at the Supreme Court, but the justices pointedly did not decide the legality of the plan.
Trump has long opposed mail voting and falsely blamed it for his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even though he often uses that method to cast his own ballot, including as recently as this year.
A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
Prosecutor brought in to lead investigation of Trump foes tells AP that he has resigned his position
WASHINGTON (AP) — An ally of President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has resigned from his post leading a Justice Department investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president.
The departure of Joe diGenova injects instant tumult into an investigation targeting former government officials who have scrutinized Trump over the last decade, including in connection with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and his retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I did in fact resign,” diGenova told The Associated Press, calling it an “honor and a privilege” to serve Trump and the Justice Department.
Though diGenova declined to comment to the AP on the circumstances of his resignation, a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss a personnel decision said the departure came amid mounting frustration from the Justice Department and White House over the pace and management of the probe.
In an interview later with The New York Post, diGenova responded to criticism of his management of the investigation by saying, “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem.”
When reached again by the AP, diGenova said the comments were taken out of context, adding: “There’s plenty of evidence in all of these cases to prove the theories of prosecution. It just takes time to get there, and some people want to get there a little faster than others — and you can’t do that.”
The investigation has always been something of a tall order, aiming to present separate and unrelated inquiries of the president as part an anti-Trump conspiracy by law enforcement and intelligence professionals. Though promoted by the White House, and seized on by Trump supporters looking for accountability against what they see as “deep state” intelligence community actors, the conspiracy investigation has proceeded in fits and starts since its inception a year ago.
The 81-year-old diGenova served as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia during the Reagan administration and for years has been a prominent Trump ally, including backing his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and publicly and repeatedly claiming that the president was the victim of an intelligence community conspiracy.
He was brought back to the Justice Department in April and given the reins of the loosely defined investigation.
Five months later, no charges have been brought and it remains unclear whether any will be, or what information has been gathered to support any basis for the idea of a plot against Trump by the government officials who investigated him.
Investigators have sought interviews related to the 2022 FBI search that recovered classified documents from Mar-a-Lago and have also focused intensely on one of Trump’s chief grievances: a U.S. intelligence community assessment that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election. The assessment has long infuriated the president, along with a Justice Department special counsel investigation into Russian election interference that shadowed him during his first term.
That special counsel investigation identified widespread Russian interference in the election but did not find evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Multiple other government inquiries, including by the Justice Department inspector general, have identified significant errors and omissions in the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia probe but did not find evidence of criminal conduct by senior law enforcement officials.
The yearlong conspiracy investigation has hit stumbles before. Last April, a lead national security prosecutor in the investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan was replaced on the team after raising questions about the strength of the case. Days later, diGenova was sworn in.
Brennan has been investigated on allegations that he lied to Congress about the creation of the intelligence community assessment, which he and his lawyers have vigorously denied. In July, he sued the Justice Department for a court order requiring the preservation of all records from the investigation, forecasting plans to challenge any potential indictment of him on vindictive prosecution grounds.
I like both Mensah and Carr, however, neither has played a viable opponent yet. Carr played Wisconsin, but they looked second rate for a B1G school.
This week Miami gets Wake Forest on Friday, while not a powerhouse, they have played good football so far in 2026. Notre Dame gets Michigan State Saturday night. Again, Sparty won't be in line for a conference championship, but they are a good test. While most conferences are playing MAC schools and FCS level schools to warmup their season, Notre Dame is warming up with B1G schools...
I wouldn't put it past this current group of dems. Just like all communists, either conform or disappear. They are sick people. Rule by fear.
You mean while we all witness trump doing that very thing by going after every democrat who ever stood up to him? Doing the same thing to the media? Dear Lord man wake up and pay attention.
Trying to prove who controlled the autopen when was challenging, and no one wanted to be the one to prosecute a sleepy grandpa that didn't know where he was and may not have been able to pass a competency test anyways. Plus, he has metastatic cancer.
If you believe trump gives a damn about any of that you are fooling nobody but yourself. Trump posted on Truth Social that he was glad former FBI Director and Special Counsel Robert Mueller died, writing: "Robert Mueller just died. Good, I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!"
Trying to claim that a man who has zero empathy has empathy is a non starter. None of that makes sense.
Don't need, want or care to defend "Russia, Russia, Russia!!" version 329.
Are you referring to where it was proven that Russia interfered in the election in favor of trump?
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If you're actually dumb enough to believe multibillionaires need a "Russian close to Putin" to finance a freaking wedding, you're truly beyond help.
I think you called that influence peddling above.
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News Flash: absolutely no human with a brain cares. Just more fodder for the TDS circle jerk.
Yes the TDS circle jerk.
TDS - Trump Devotion Syndrome.
Convicted on 34 felony counts and you're still devoted.
A jury found that he sexually assaulted a woman and you're still devoted.
He repeatedly fired independent inspectors general who reported on executive branch misconduct and used government levers to target political opponents and you're still devoted.
His budget and legislative packages have targeted and slashed funding for programs like Medicaid and local mental health/addiction grants ans you're still devoted.
Empowering groups like the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led to the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), abruptly halting global health programs, HIV/AIDS prevention, and critical disaster relief. Purposefully starving people including children around the globe and you're still devoted.
His rhetoric and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, combined with the subsequent pardoning of January 6th participants, are viewed by critics as a direct assault on constitutional governance and the peaceful transfer of power and you're still devoted.
The list is much, much longer. And you got it backwards on another count. Only humans without a brain don't care.
It most certainly does if you bothered to read the context of how that single quote was used. It was most certainly used in regards to the federal government. In case you forgot, Republicans used to be all about states rights and keeping the federal government out of things. But with the huge shifting of the tides I can understand how that concept has gotten buried.
LMAO - Jon Stewart is dumb? Because he's been pointing out the hypocrisy and stupidity Trump and MAGA fanboys for years? . . . Or is he dumb because that's such an easy target and not challenging?
Nope. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The numbers just get bigger and people just become oblivious to the game.
There is one major difference.
You were very upset over the alleged Biden crime family raking in millions. You don't seem concerned at all at the Trump's abusing office to generate billions or this latest russian oligarch money bank rolling their wedding.
If that were true Joe Biden would have been in prison by now and you know it.
Trying to prove who controlled the autopen when was challenging, and no one wanted to be the one to prosecute a sleepy grandpa that didn't know where he was and may not have been able to pass a competency test anyways. Plus, he has metastatic cancer.
Then there's the fact that we never have or never will put a former president in prison. But as long as the response is mindless drivel it will fit right in.
I wouldn't put it past this current group of dems. Just like all communists, either conform or disappear. They are sick people. Rule by fear.
If that were true Joe Biden would have been in prison by now and you know it.
Trying to prove who controlled the autopen when was challenging, and no one wanted to be the one to prosecute a sleepy grandpa that didn't know where he was and may not have been able to pass a competency test anyways. Plus, he has metastatic cancer.
Then there's the fact that we never have or never will put a former president in prison. But as long as the response is mindless drivel it will fit right in.
If that were true Joe Biden would have been in prison by now and you know it.
Trying to prove who controlled the autopen when was challenging, and no one wanted to be the one to prosecute a sleepy grandpa that didn't know where he was and may not have been able to pass a competency test anyways. Plus, he has metastatic cancer.
there have been plenty of QB's that have won SB's since Baker was drafted. Some of those were on the board for the Browns to draft and they chose not to. None of that has anything to do with Baker. Dear Lord.
Is 2 plenty? Only Jalen Hurts 2nd round 2020 and Sam Darnold 2nd pick in 2018 are QBs drafted after Mayfield that have won a Superbowl. Yes, the Browns had a chance to draft both. Darnold though was the top prospect in the same draft as Mayfield. Darnold was the easy choice. The top prospect fresh off a 400+ yard Rose Bowl performance. Josh Allen was seen as the 2nd best prospect with the highest ceiling and lowest floor. Instead, the Browns outsmarted themselves yet again reaching for the 4th best prospect a smallish QB that plays with more heart than talent. That bad decision set in motion the chain of events that the Browns currently find themselves in.
