@fy56 said:

Me too.

Seems  players from either OSU or Ohio help the Stealers more often than not.

Ohio won them their last Super Bowl. Didn’t need no help from the Refs.

That insane TD catch from Ben (Findlay, Oh.) to Antonio Holmes (OSU), and that long pick 6 run for a TD by Harrison before halftime. (Kent State)

? That's got an Eddie Haskell vibe to it.  "Yeah, I've always hated that team I continue to root against while rooting my ass off for 90% of their starters every week. I've done it for years.  Man, I despise that team and their 6 SB rings!"    

Eddie, did you just throw a rock through our back window?  Or, do you really think my mom looks really pretty in her church dress? - Beaver Cleaver

Aside from Joe Greene, the All Time Badass in Pitt's Defense was Kent State's Jack Lambert.  Just HOW the Cleveland Browns didn't even know that guy existed is beyond me.  James Harrison wasn't an instant success at all. I read at 1 point early on - he got cut 3 times (combining Pitt & Miami) before he perfected the steroid cocktails. You seem to have a certain fondness for TJ Watt more so than the edge rusher in Cleveland that has 4 consecutive years with at least 14 sacks (that remains unmatched).  Tough to hide your heart; but purposely misspelling Santonio above was an adorable touch...

@nickers said:

I still think the kid has a shot at being good though... But in this instance... I hope I'm wrong...

Me too.

Seems  players from either OSU or Ohio help the Stealers more often than not.

Ohio won them their last Super Bowl. Didn’t need no help from the Refs.

That insane TD catch from Ben (Findlay, Oh.) to Antonio Holmes (OSU), and that long pick 6 run for a TD by Harrison before halftime. (Kent State)

But is it really done?  

Kenny Pickett is the reason that we traded for Watson.  We did not want to draft him in the upcoming draft.  So we traded for Watson, much like the Rams did in trading for Stafford.  And we still have Watson.

@syd said:

good thing we didnt draft him then

I still think the kid has a shot at being good though... But in this instance... I hope I'm wrong...

@nickers said:

He's got an injury of some sort...

good thing we didnt draft him then

@syd said:

what happened to the other Buckeye qb they drafted ?

He's got an injury of some sort...

@nickers said:

Yikes!... I Thought the kid was pretty good...... I could see the Stools picking him up possibly..

what happened to the other Buckeye qb they drafted ?

@nickers said:

Yikes!... I Thought the kid was pretty good...... I could see the Stools picking him up possibly..

Yeah, I thought he was much improved at Syracuse last year.  When we get right down to it, a lot of guys coming out of college couldn't make Philly's roster right now.  They're the defending Super Bowl Champions.  That said, there's the other extreme in New Orleans that just announced 6' tall QB Spencer Rattler has won the starting job for the Saints.  I'm guessing somewhere between the 2 extremes he can land a job as a 2nd or 3rd string QB in this league.

@flugel said:

Ouch!

Yikes!... I Thought the kid was pretty good...... I could see the Stools picking him up possibly..

@dutch-oven said:

The Eagles released Kyle McCord

Ouch!

@dutch-oven said:

The Eagles released Kyle McCord

The guy with a throwing motion so flat it's like the Salt Lakes? 

SHOCKED.

RE: Pickett vs Flacco.   Joe might be a better distributor through the air, but he is historically a turnover machine. 

 With Kenny, the Browns had a QB who they could sort of bin-down in the passing game, who doesn't turn the ball over, but the trade off was that he had athletic ability you can use in the QB-centric running game. 

 Think like a slightly higher level Jacoby Brissett.  Stefanski in the early games would design some runs that unblocked certain defenders, bluff QB read and help offset facing 8 and 9 man fronts. 

 Turnovers are killer. So if the trade is having to involve a young, 1 year rental QB in the running game more, the front office was willing to make that trade. 

 .... until Kenny got hurt.  Then the rest played out as we're seeing. 

@orion said:

Flacco was available before, during and after they traded for Pickett very early in '25.  They didn't sign Flacco until well after getting Pickett.  I firmly believe that their plan was to start Pickett and hope that he turned out to be pretty good.  They were going to draft somebody like Gabriel as a developmental backup QB to next year's draft pick.  But two things happened.  Pickett pulled his hammy and was unavailable all preseason.  And Gabriel played well in his preseason opportunities such that they now felt comfortable having him as the backup.

Makes sense for sure. A small part of me wanted Pickett to win the job so he could be the QB that helped sweep the dreaded Steelers.

I'm a little concerned about having rookies at #2 & #3, but maybe that's better than some retread veteran like Carson Wentz. 

Go Browns.

@sdbacker80 said:

Wasn’t a fan and shocked we got a 5th round pick for him.  Great deal. 

Not so fast my friend. We got him for a 5th rounder to Philly in 2025 draft and QB DT-R (since been waived 2 days ago). 

So all we really did was get back a 5th rounder the year after we gave up a 5th rounder + 1.

@dutch-oven said:

There were a lot of people who followed the Browns who really thought Pickett was going to win that battle.

I'm cool they ended up with Joe. 

IMO the QB who leads the Browns into Brookpark is playing college ball this fall. 

You might be right.  I also think the Browns will be responsible for keeping Arch Manning in college football for the 2026 season. There's no way on earth a smart football family like the Mannings wants Jimmy Haslam drafting Arch no matter how good he was to Peyton at UT.

@ballpeen said:

Who is "they" ?

The Raiders.  

edit: 

@dutch-oven said:

Playing behind a horrible OLine at Colorado probably hardwired those bad habits. 

And there's a big difference between how complicated and in-depth a NFL coach is in college vs the pros. I would bet Matt Patricia's defense this year at Ohio State will be a somewhat simpler version of what he ran in New England. 

All true. Not to change the subject but when you do your questions for us this year - can you break out some of that epic smartass I saw from you back when you first started encountering Ghoolie in here?  I can't tell you how many times I hit the deck LMAO!  Come to think of it - it was still pretty freakin funny the last few times you encountered him.  Let's borrow some of that when you kick us off into our predictions.  

@flugel said:

They just signed Amari Cooper too

Who is "they" ?

@flugel said:

Believe it or not, he had an OC at Colorado that had success in the NFL as an OC (not to be confused his HC gig in Cleveland) - Pat Shurmur.  They also had a guy on their offensive staff that Dick Vermeil once said had one of the highest football IQs he ever coached (Marshall Faulk).  What I'm getting at here is he was learning from NFL guys.  However, what is unfolding is the big question - is he capable of breaking bad habits like the pocket panic retreats backwards?  

In the back of my head, I was thinking the Browns were getting tempted to trade Shedeur to Dallas until I saw how good Joe Milton looked in his last outing.

Playing behind a horrible OLine at Colorado probably hardwired those bad habits. 

And there's a big difference between how complicated and in-depth a NFL coach is in college vs the pros. I would bet Matt Patricia's defense this year at Ohio State will be a somewhat simpler version of what he ran in New England. 

@dutch-oven said:

The best thing for Sanders is for him to be the #3 guy and slowly acclimate himself to the NFL. 

There's positive things with him, but he's definitely a work in progress. Let him work on his game without people trying to rush him before he's ready. 

Believe it or not, he had an OC at Colorado that had success in the NFL as an OC (not to be confused his HC gig in Cleveland) - Pat Shurmur.  They also had a guy on their offensive staff that Dick Vermeil once said had one of the highest football IQs he ever coached (Marshall Faulk).  What I'm getting at here is he was learning from NFL guys.  However, what is unfolding is the big question - is he capable of breaking bad habits like the pocket panic retreats backwards?  

In the back of my head, I was thinking the Browns were getting tempted to trade Shedeur to Dallas until I saw how good Joe Milton looked in his last outing.