Cody Kessler will start against the Dallas Cowboys Sunday in a decision made easier by Josh McCown's poor second half Sunday against the Jets.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cody Kessler should start for the Browns now for no other reason than he's part of the future and Josh McCown isn't.
The most encouraging aspect of the decision to start Kessler is the meaning Hue Jackson attached to it.
"I don't want to just say if he does great that doesn't mean that we're not going to draft a quarterback, because I think you've got to always have quarterbacks," the Browns head coach told reporters.
"You've got to keep taking shots until you have the guy that you feel is going to do what you need done."
If you're looking for another reason why Kessler makes sense, McCown provided it with his terrible second half against the Jets.
The Browns need to win a game. Jackson said as much after the Jets collapse. But the Best Chance to Win debate that not long ago favored McCown is pretty much a coin flip.
* New linebacker Jamie Collins says despite reports to the contrary he wasn't asking the Patriots for Von Miller-sized contract.
And New England linebacker coach Brian Flores refuted former Bill Belichick assistant (and former Browns GM) Mike Lombardi's take that Collins was freelancing too much.
Flores told reporters Collins was a "great player for us."
He added, "You've got to put your feelings aside, obviously. We all have our own personal feelings about the situation, but at the end of the day, Bill felt like that was the best thing for the team."
So if he wasn't asking for Von Miller money and he wasn't falling down on the job, it was that future third-round or fourth-round draft pick that made trading Collins "the best thing for the team?"
That's difficult to believe.
It's not nearly as hard to figure out how the Browns feel about Collins. They've already let it be known they wouldn't have made the deal if they weren't interested in retaining his services beyond this year.
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No need to play that hand until they actually see him practice and play.
* There's an old story quoting Collins saying he prefers playing video games to watching football in his free time.
It's going to get out sooner than later but for now don't spoil things by telling Collins the Browns are 0-8.
* The last time the Browns were winless after eight games was 1975 under head coach Forrest Gregg. That team went 0-9 before beating the Cincinnati Bengals at home.
The Browns have the Cowboys Sunday, then a short turnaround before facing the Ravens in Baltimore on Nov. 10.
Even Chris Palmer's runaway train never blew through the "0-8" station.
* Former major leaguer Mike Krukow, who pitched for the Cubs, Phillies and Giants, told KNBR 680 in San Francisco that Joe Maddon's "arrogance" got in the way during Game 7.
Krukow chastised the manager for "trying to put his stamp on the game" with unnecessary moves. He meant Maddon taking starter Kyle Hendricks out early, then forcing a tired Aroldis Chapman into the game.
"You're gonna be smarter than the game?" the Giants color commentator said. "I was so outraged at what I was watching. ... Look, he's done a great job, granted. I mean come on. He's done a great job.
"He was the guy that kept them going down three games to one. ... But at some point in time, you cannot be arrogant enough to think that you have to put your signature on the game."
So, in summary, what Krukow is saying is Maddon did a great and arrogantly awful job when it mattered most.
Hope that clears things up.
* I will say this: Terry Francona had a better World Series, guiding his team to Game 7 where he had a fresh bullpen to account for the possibility of a tired Corey Kluber.
The Cubs faced Kluber, Andrew Miller, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen in the same game and found a way to win. Kluber, Miller and Allen were 3-0 in the World Series with a 0.72 ERA before Game 7. The Cubs were hitting .191 against Francona's four best pitchers.
Maddon might not deserve credit for overcoming that, but overcoming it is the definition of the Cubs winning the series, not the Indians losing it.
* Playoff baseball continues to amaze in ways the NFL can't.
I know what you are thinking, Joe Buck, but I mean amazing in more ways than just Kyle Schwarber's virgin birth and Lazarus-like return to the Cubs' lineup.
* Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman has a theory about sagging NFL TV ratings.
"Because the league isn't fun anymore," Sherman told reporters. "Every other league, you see the players have a good time. It's a game. This isn't politics. This isn't justice. This is entertainment.
"And they're no longer allowing the players to entertain. They're no longer allowing the players to show any kind of personality, any kind of uniqueness, any individuality. Because they want to control the product. They want to control the messaging, etc., etc."
Because if every tackle, pass defended, touchdown and sack doesn't come with at least as much choreography as Fiddler on the Roof, the NFL runs the risk of losing fans to Broadway.
* ESPN.com's story on former Ravens lineman Eugene Monroe says he uses marijuana to deal with the pain from his addiction to playing football.
That's a twist. Ricky Williams no doubt wishes he'd thought of it first.
* C.J. Spiller, recently cut by Seattle and signed by the Jets, says he is still a "great player."
Hopefully for his sake, that's closer to being true than when Trent Richardson tried to revive his career in Baltimore by saying he was still going to end up in the Hall of Fame.
* If the temptation this week is to say you wish the Browns had drafted Cowboys running back Zeke Elliott, fight it.
Given the longevity of running backs, that pick made a lot more sense for the Cowboys than for a Browns team that is not exactly poised to win anytime soon.
* Thunder center Steven Adams says he dropped his phone in a cold tub and was out of touch during contract negotiations.
"It didn't work for like three days, as stuff was going on," Adams told reporters. "My agent was trying to contact me and stuff, and I was like, 'I can't, I'm sorry, I just don't have a phone.' So that was my purchase (Monday)."
Because until you sign a $100 million extension as Adams did in Oklahoma City, who can afford a phone?
* A spokesman for Steve Bartman said the infamous Cubs fan is "overjoyed" about the team's World Series win but he didn't attend the Friday parade because he didn't want to be a distraction.
Finally. It's over. The most implausible streak in history.
Not the 108 years without a title.
The 13 years that Steve Bartman needed a "spokesman."
* The Jets contend they haven't lost faith in cornerback Darrelle Revis. After watching how much room he gave Terrelle Pryor on pass routes last Sunday, keeping the faith hardly seems possible.
"If asked to do it," Jets head coach Todd Bowles said Thursday, "we're confident he can cover anybody."
And for $17 million, what a deal.
* Tampa Bay head coach Dirk Koetter declined a holding penalty with Atlanta at the Bucs' 23 Thursday night. So instead of accepting the penalty and making it 3rd-and-22 for the Falcons at the 38, he declined the penalty and basically gave Atlanta three points.
"We thought it could end up the same way and possibly worse," Koetter was quoted in the Tampa Bay Times. "We just took our chances right there."
And with that decision, Koetter told his defense, "I trust you guys ... about as far as I could throw a 350-pound nose tackle."
* Charlie Sheen apparently wasn't happy he didn't get to throw out a first pitch at Progressive Field after all he's meant to the cause of winning a fictional World Series.
* Why ask real Indians heroes like Dennis Martinez and Jim Thome when you could get an actor with a scroll of questionable behavior and legal woes longer than the credits to "Major League?"
