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- Baker Mayfield’s extension could stretch into season, no substantive talks yet (cleveland.com) - The Browns and Baker Mayfield’s agents haven’t had any substantive talks about his contract extension yet and work on the deal could stretch into October. But there’s no sense of urgency on the part of either side to get it done before training camp or even the start of the season. They both know it’s going to happen.
- Top Moments: No. 25 - Browns defeat Eagles in 1950 without throwing a single pass (clevelandbrowns.com) - Paul Brown heard the message from Eagles coach Greasy Neale and fumed. Following a 35-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns in the first week of the 1950 season that featured 346 passing yards and three touchdowns from Browns quarterback Otto Graham, Neale called out Brown’s Browns for passing too much. Regardless of the intent, Brown heard Neale’s message loud and clear.
- Best Sacks From New Browns (247 Sports) - With the amount of work the Browns did in the offseason to improve the defense, it’s hard not to feel the least bit excited about what they can do in 2021. Since there’s a load of new players, I expect it will take a bit of time for everyone to gel (after all, this happened to the offense in 2019, and they never really fleshed out that year) even with the same defensive coordinator in Joe Woods.
- Mailbag: Who’ll start on defense? Who among extension-eligible is expendable? What’s Andrew Billings’ role? (Browns Zone) - A look at some questions facing the Browns in the coming months.
NFL:
- Inside Tight End University: George Kittle & Co. are out to ‘learn from the best in the country’ (ESPN) - San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle’s voice echoed across the turf on a steamy 90-degree day at Lipscomb Academy field in Nashville as a crowd of 49 tight ends began to gather at the 50-yard line. The passion was clearly on display for the start of on-field workouts for what Kittle, former NFL tight end Greg Olsen and Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce dubbed Tight End University (TEU). The three-day event offered a chance for some of the best tight ends in the NFL to come together to share trade secrets both on and off the field.
- 2021 All-Under-25 Team: Lamar Jackson leads NFL’s rising stars (NFL.com) - Who are the most promising rising stars in the NFL? Nick Shook compiled a roster of the top players under 25 years old heading into the 2021 season.
- Best value NFL draft picks for all 32 teams since 2006 (PFF) - At its heart, the NFL draft is nothing more than a high-stakes roulette wheel — the NFL’s 32 teams are the high-rollers who come to the table with a “winning system” and a willingness to risk it all on the best prospects from the college football ranks. For every Mitchell Trubisky, Josh Rosen and Johnny Manziel there’s a Tyreek Hill or a George Kittle, players who enter the league as relative unknowns but go on to far exceed their draft pedigree and cement themselves as some of the league’s best. Here is a look at every NFL team’s best value pick since PFF’s inception back in 2006.
- Carl Nassib’s Experience Coming Out Is Very Different From NFL Players Before Him (NPR) - Carl Nassib has made history as the first active NFL player to announce that he is gay. The easy-going way Nassib made the historic announcement mattered, Jim Buzinski, a co-founder of the sports news site Outsports told NPR. “There wasn’t a coordinated media campaign. He just looked like he was in his backyard recording, you know, a video for his friends. And so I thought that that really gave it really power.”