The Browns Can’t Escape Off-Field Drama, Even in the NFL Preseason

In the least shocking turn of events, the Cleveland Browns took over NFL headlines — and it was all bad news.

Owner Jimmy Haslam loves to employ the Jerry Jones method of “all press is good press,” which couldn’t be further from the truth.

After trading away their future (and their morals) for Deshaun Watson, there’s nothing the Browns can do that would further embarrass their fans. They used to always just be bad, which was embarrassing enough, but now they’ve decided to become the 2025 remake of The Longest Yard on top of their everyday issues with being a laughingstock.

I’m not blaming them for drafting Quinshon Judkins. He was never in any issues at Ohio State or Ole Miss, but he’s just another player adding to the culture of off-field problems in Cleveland.

The Isaiah Bond signing… that one is much harder to justify. It’s just a continued pattern of bringing more distractions to this team. Both Judkins and Bond have a lot of talent, but they’re simply amplifying the horrible play that goes on at Huntington Bank Field.

And even when the drama revolves around the incompetence of the organization to build a balanced roster, the quarterbacks battling for playing time manage to put their feet in their mouths.

After his breakout Week 1 preseason performance, Shedeur Sanders was caught on camera poking at Cleveland beat reporter Tony Grossi for only speaking negatively about him.

If you follow Cleveland sports radio, you’ll know Sanders isn’t wrong for calling out Grossi. He’s one of the harder-to-like media personalities out there. However, when Sanders inevitably has a bad game, these moments in the media will be rehashed to bring him down and frame him as not entirely focused on football.

Then on Saturday, the other rookie vying for playing time, Dillon Gabriel, had this to say about the quarterback competition:

Many are trying to defend what Gabriel said in this in-game interview, but adding in the context of “keeping out the noise from those watching this competition” doesn’t make this much better.

Gabriel has to know better than to say there are entertainers and there are competitors.

He knows Sanders can be a polarizing media presence because of his antics and his father’s actions on his behalf. When you say there are entertainers, you know that line is going to be taken out of context to degrade Shedeur.

Maybe the Browns can make it through this week without stealing headlines for an arrest or an out-of-context comment.