The Cleveland Browns are home this afternoon for a tilt with the similarly woeful Tennessee Titans.
The matchup represents a second chance for quarterback Shedeur Sanders to make a good impression in front of the home fans. It is also, at least according to some, a grand opportunity for Sanders to show the NFL it “made a mistake” in letting him drop to the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, while Tennessee quarterback Cam Ward went No. 1 overall.
If Sanders can “outplay” Ward, so the thinking goes,
general managers and owners across the land will be filled with remorse. Of course, that little narrative completely ignores that, for the third week in a row, Sanders will be facing one of the league’s lower-ranked defenses as the Titans are No. 24 overall and tied for No. 19 against the pass.
Meanwhile, Ward will have to contend with a Cleveland defense that is No. 2 overall and No. 3 against the pass, while also keeping an eye on defensive end Myles Garrett’s pursuit of the NFL’s record for sacks in a single season.
No matter what happens this afternoon at Huntington Bank Field in downtown Cleveland, the hot takes and definitive declarations about the quarterback situation with the Browns will flow as freely as a keg of Christmas Ale. (As an aside, drop your recommendations for a tasty holiday ale in the comments!)
It should be an interesting afternoon on the lakefront and across the league, so let’s get the day rolling with the latest news about the Browns and the NFL with the Sunday Dawg Chow.
Dawgs By Nature:
- Browns roster: Practice squad elevation news surprising given injuries (Jared Mueller) – The Cleveland Browns roster has a lot of players out, questionable with injuries, but only elevated 1 player for Week 14.
- One Browns NFL Draft target to watch in every P4 conference championship game (Matthew Wilson) – Saturday’s college football slate was filled with lots of high-level 2026 NFL Draft prospects for Cleveland fans to watch.
- NFL free agency: Veteran QBs the Browns could pursue (Abby Mueller) – Should the Cleveland Browns not draft a quarterback, there could be some veteran free agents to consider.
- NFL salary cap: Browns paying one of the highest dead cap hits this season, for a retired player (Jared Mueller) – The Cleveland Browns salary cap has a ton of dead cap used up by retired WR Amari Cooper and 12 other players.
- For Browns QB Shedeur Sanders, it is only 2 starts, but they still count in the evaluation (Curtiss Brown) – Shedeur Sanders has not had a lot of time starting for the Cleveland Browns at quarterback, but it still counts toward the evaluation.
- Honestly, evaluating the 2025 Cleveland Browns is tough for many (Curtiss Brown) – The Cleveland Browns record is what it is, but a full, honest evaluation is tough for many.
Cleveland Browns:
- Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward and their NFL journeys to QB1 (ESPN) – Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders were widely regarded as the top quarterback prospects in the 2025 NFL draft, according to Scouts Inc. The two connected during their decorated college careers through their personal QB coach, Darrell Colbert Jr., and they trained alongside each other throughout the predraft process, often in long sessions mixed with fierce competition and respectful banter.
- Browns-Titans Preview: 3 things to watch, 3 key numbers, the prediction (Browns Zone) – Myles Garrett has made the rare a reality, the impossible attainable. So the idea of him getting four sacks of Titans rookie Cam Ward to break the NFL season record seems completely doable despite only three players in the NFL having that many sacks in a game this year, including Garrett twice.
- Joel Bitonio ‘feeling as good as you can’ as Browns reach Week 14 (Beacon Journal) – The Browns will be without the entire right side of their usual starting offensive line against the Tennessee Titans. And their left tackle for the game started the season with the Houston Texans. Yet, at left guard remains one of the few constants for the Browns offensive line — 12-year pro Joel Bitonio.
- Browns vs. Titans offers more drama than the records suggest (cleveland.com) – Browns safety Grant Delpit said it best this week. He knows the reality as the 3-9 Browns host the 1-11 Tennessee Titans on Sunday at 1 p.m.
NFL:
- Baker Mayfield is America’s Quarterback (Go Long $$$)– Nobody in the NFL is like him. “Bake” represents the sport at its purest, from talking shit to holding grudges to going full Favre in the fourth quarter. And, oh, what happened in Cleveland anyway?
- NFL coaching carousel is cranking up. Will it finally catch Mike Tomlin? (Washington Post) – The Pittsburgh Steelers don’t fire coaches often, but the calls are growing louder for a change in Pittsburgh.
- Multiple Raiders make troubling admissions about the direction Las Vegas is going in (The Sporting News) – Things were supposed to be different for the Las Vegas Raiders in 2025. The Raiders signed Geno Smith in a move that was expected to upgrade the offense, and the hiring of Pete Carroll was supposed to add stability and improve the culture. Instead, Smith has been a total zero for Las Vega,s and Carroll has been more of a negative than a positive, especially with his reluctance to play young players the Raiders need to evaluate for the future.
