Browns QB Kenny Pickett dealing with hamstring issue
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has been rotating Pickett and veteran Joe Flacco with the first-team offense early in training camp.
Rookie third-round pick Dillon Gabriel is also in the picture and has been taking the majority of the second-team reps ahead of fifth-rounder Shedeur Sanders. Incumbent starter Deshaun Watson is idle while recovering from a series of Achilles surgeries over the past nine months.
Pickett, 27, was acquired from the Philadelphia Eagles in a trade during the offseason and Flacco, 40, who signed as a free agent and led the Browns to the playoffs in 2023, is back in Cleveland after playing for the Indianapolis Colts last season.
Pickett lost his starting job with the Pittsburgh Steelers late in the 2023 season. The team moved on from Pickett before the 2024 campaign, trading him to the Eagles to be a backup to Jalen Hurts.
Pickett is 15-10 as a starter and has completed 62.4 percent of his passes for 4,765 yards with 15 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 30 games.
--Field Level Media
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The Independent
14 minutes ago
- The Independent
Eddie Hearn reveals odds of Anthony Joshua vs Jake Paul happening after ‘hour meeting'
Anthony Joshua 's promoter Eddie Hearn has insisted a fight between the former heavyweight champion and YouTuber Jake Paul is a 'very real' possibility, putting the odds at '50/50'. Joshua, who is eyeing his next fight after undergoing elbow surgery in spring, has been linked to Paul in recent weeks, as the latter eyes another huge crossover bout. In November, the 28-year-old American beat heavyweight legend Mike Tyson, 58, on points, while most recently he outpointed ex-world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in June. Meanwhile, Joshua's last fight was a knockout defeat by fellow Briton Daniel Dubois in September, as 'AJ' failed to regain heavyweight gold. 'This is very real,' Hearn told The Ring on Monday (4 August), referencing a potential Joshua vs Paul fight. 'I had a good chat for about an hour with Nakisa [Bidarian, Paul's adviser] on [30 July], and now I believe they want the fight. I really do. Nakisa was very honest, and he's concerned about the fight, but Jake truly believes he can win the fight or at least be competitive in it. 'And now because of the size of the fight, it leads me to believe there's a very good chance it could happen. If I had to rate that chance, I would say it's 50/50. It was a very positive conversation, and we expect that conversation to extend over the coming weeks. If they really want it, it will happen. 'There wouldn't be such a huge difference [in size]. Jake would be a heavyweight on the night. But look, I can't even necessarily justify it to you. It's a mismatch in my opinion, it's dangerous in my opinion, but this is a guy... a cruiserweight who will be a heavyweight. 'I think Joshua is probably yet to get his head round it, until he knows that it's a possibility. After my call this week, I'd say it's definitely a possibility. AJ understands the commercial world and will look at this and see that it's huge. 'It would probably be the biggest fight that could ever happen anywhere. It would be right up there with his biggest purses ever. You can talk about the boxing world, but this would be the outer world. 'I said to Nakisa the other day that this is about the fear factor. This is dangerous. This is like tuning in to watch [magician] David Blaine but much more dangerous and much more real. You're not trying to escape from a box in three minutes, you're in there with one of the biggest punchers of all time, and it isn't a game. 'It's never [that] I've called for or told people we're targeting this, but I do also understand the colossal size of this fight commercially – and probably the appetite from a lot of people to evaporate Jake Paul from the boxing world. That is probably what this does.' Paul is 12-1 as a professional with seven knockout wins, his sole loss having come against Tommy Fury – half-brother of heavyweight Tyson Fury – in 2023. Joshua's record sits at 28-4 (25 KOs), with the former two-time world heavyweight champion, 35, still desiring another title run before he hangs up his gloves. Joshua's current trainer Ben Davison said recently that he would not like to see AJ box Paul, telling Boxing Scene: 'I don't like all that. First and foremost, how can people even talk about that? Two, where's the safety aspect in boxing? 'Do you know what I mean? There is a serious risk with something going wrong. Unfortunately, it might take something like that for people to be like, 'Hold on, we've got to reconfigure this'. But somebody would pass it, someone would allow it, somebody would sanction it.'
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
NFL preseason storylines: Cowboys chaos, the Browns‘ QB circus and Aaron Rodgers' last dance
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In a league with the franchise tag, a public trade request is one of the only levers a player can pull in negotiations. Parsons is simply playing his part in the public charade. This shouldn't be difficult. As a pass-rusher, Parsons is a one-man inferno. At times last season, he single-handedly bailed out Dallas' defense. Oh, and he is just 26 years old, slap-bang in his prime. Negotiations should have been as simple as putting the biggest non-quarterback contract in league history on the table and popping the champagne. Yet Jones has spent the offseason taking odd shots at his best player, from questioning (incorrectly) Parsons' injury history, to freezing his agent out of discussions, to debating why he would sign any player to a four or five-year contract. 'You can get hit by a car, seriously,' Jones said at one point. Seriously. By allowing talks to drag on, the Cowboys have watched Parsons' value creep up. 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Minnesota could have run it back with Darnold after a 14-win season, giving them a buffer to the McCarthy era. They didn't. They bet on their infrastructure, allowing Darnold to walk and clearing the path for McCarthy. It's a risk. Multiple playoff wins should be the expectation this year. And if McCarthy can be a solid starter in his debut season, the Vikings will have legitimate title aspirations. If you asked the computer to simulate the perfect circumstances for a first-year starter, it would probably produce something like what the Vikings offer. Head coach Kevin O'Connell has consistently produced high-wattage passing attacks, helping to generate easy chunk plays regardless of who is at quarterback. Justin Jefferson is the game's best receiver, Jordan Addison is a solid second option and tight end TJ Hockenson is a difference-maker when healthy. Minnesota also spent the bulk of the offseason upgrading both lines, notably adding Ryan Kelly and Will Fries from the Colts on the offensive side, one of the craftiest interior line tandems in the league. If there were deficiencies last year, it was the team's run game and conceding pressure up the middle. The new duo, along with rookie Donovan Jackson, should help patch over those issues. There were changes on defense, too. Brian Flores' wackadoodle scheming carried the Vikings through tough stretches last season. This year, his unit is deeper and more explosive, with veterans Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave offering extra punch up front. The Vikings can now toggle between Flores's bizarro looks and more basic set-ups, and should challenge the Eagles and Broncos to be the top defense in the league. If McCarthy does nothing but limit turnovers, the Vikings should keep pace with the rest of the NFC North. 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Storm Duck, currently slated to start, was a fun story a year ago as an undrafted free agent, but he was torched in meaningful snaps as a rookie. You know you're in trouble when Jack Jones, a fringe starter, goes from unemployed to a team's premier corner in 10 days. The hope is that the team's pass-rush will be so overwhelming that it can mitigate the impact of the secondary. But, at some point, it will be third-and-medium and someone in the secondary will need to make a play. Only Fitzpatrick is a dynamic playmaker, and he is on the downside of his career. The Dolphins haven't won a playoff game since 2000. If they miss the postseason again, McDaniel will probably be out. And the current roster has too many holes to be a serious threat to the Bills in the East. Take a look at the NFC West. It's stacked, comfortably the most competitive division in the league. The Rams came close to bouncing the Eagles in the playoffs last season with a young roster and have reloaded this year. The Niners remade their defense after last season's injury apocalypse. The Cardinals are no longer just an interesting side show; they have a bruising offense and a spicy defense. The Seahawks closed last season strong, putting together a top-five defense from Week 10 onwards, and could have one of the best units in the league this season. There are no slouches. The weakest single unit in the division may be the Seahawks' offense, and that could still crack the top half of the league. How the division shakes out will probably come down to how quickly Darnold can assimilate in Seattle. Was his career-best year in Minnesota a mirage? Will his talented but unproven offensive line hold up? Can a receiver room of Cooper Kupp, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Jaxon Smith-Njigba offset the losses of DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett? As ever, there are also the annual concerns about Matthew Stafford's injury status to throw into the NFC mix. But if Darnold's resurgence carries over and Stafford is healthy, then all four teams will have quality starting quarterbacks and spiky defenses. It's going to be a bloodbath. Buckle up, folks. You have one more season of Rodgers to deal with. Yes, Rodgers in Pittsburgh could be a farce. It probably will be a farce. The Steelers' decision to sign a 41-year-old Rodgers, who is two years removed from an achilles injury, after Pittsburgh *deep breath* traded for DK Metcalf, signed the receiver to a bumper extension, traded away George Pickens, benched Justin Fields for Russell Wilson, then told Fields that he was Their Guy, then told Wilson to take the first plane out of town, then lost Fields in free agency, then traded for Jalen Ramsey, then signed TJ Watt to a market-resetting extension is the kind of teenager-on-Madden approach to team-building usually reserved for the Jaguars, Panthers or the son of a Jets owner. It is weird to reach this point: somehow, the vaunted Steelers have become the league's most directionless franchise. But the Steelers are convinced they have the backbone of a championship contender. 'We're building this team to win a Super Bowl this year,' GM Omar Khan said recently. It's easy to chuckle at the Steelers assembling a 2022 All-Pro squad (hand up). But there's a path to at least division contention here. If Ramsey is even 70% of the player he was in his prime, he will be a linchpin on an already outstanding defense. Whether the offense can match the defense will come down to Rodgers' connection with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, two stubborn offensive designers with divergent styles. Rodgers probably won't guide the Steelers to a Super Bowl. He looked a shadow of himself last season: hesitant to stand in the pocket, worried about getting hit, unable to avoid the rush as his accuracy dwindled to key parts of the field. But if Rodgers can stay healthy, he could perhaps Peyton Manning his way through a final season, keeping the Steelers competitive as they try to bridge one team to the next. If the on-field stuff turns out to be a disaster, his lasting legacy in Pittsburgh may be convincing Mike Tomlin that more substantive changes are needed.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Fans are all saying the same thing about Tom Brady's not-so-hot take on 'young phenom' that the US national team needs... as he gets star player's name wrong
has been criticised by football fans for stating the obvious with a not-so-hot take on the type of superstar that the US national team need to breed. The seven-time Super Bowl champion entered the footballing world back in 2023 when he purchased a stake in Birmingham City, becoming chairman of the club's new advisory board. In his first season at the club, the Blues were relegated to League One, but last season they bounced straight back into the Championship, romping to third-tier glory by 19 points over Wrexham. Brady's remarkable achievements during a 22-year career in the NFL, which was littered with gold, certainly warrant him to voice his respected opinion in American football. However, his voice is now becoming much more prominent in the game they call soccer across the pond, with a recent opinion relayed on the Men In Blazers podcast catching a lot of traction on social media, but not for the right reasons. The NFL legend stated that the US needs 'a young phenom like a Lamine Yamal ', which is not an opinion many would disagree with, as he is a Ballon d'Or contender at just 18 years old. Brady told the Men in Blazers Podcast: 'I think the reality for most athletes in America is these other sports just become very dominant because of culturally what's on television all the time. 'And what's being talked about in the schoolyard often ends up being talked about American football, basketball, baseball, hockey. 'And it's an amazing sport. It's a global sport. It's the biggest sport in the world. We all love it. And the reality is, you think about boxing, when there's an American heavyweight, everyone in America is all in on it. 'And we need the youth in America in soccer. We need a young phenom like a Lamine Yamal, a young Lionel Messi, to take over. And I believe that there will be the most amazing kind of cultural revolution for soccer here in America. 'We love rooting for winners. We love rooting for the best of the best. The World Cup is coming to America in 2026. You can't imagine the fanfare when that happens. Every stadium will be sold out. The American audience loves it.' This is not exactly what many would call a unique perspective, given Messi is regarded as the best player of this generation, while Barcelona's Yamal has drawn comparisons to the great Argentinian already at such a young age. Fans were quick to poke fun at Brady for the comment on social media, with one user sarcastically claiming, 'my boy Tom knows ball'. Not all supporters took the humourous route in their responses, though, with many being much more direct. One wrote: 'Every national team needs a young Lionel Messi.' Meanwhile, another said similarly, 'Every team in the world needs a player like Yamal, what's new?' It was also clocked that Brady got Yamal's name wrong, instead getting the starting letters of both his first name and surname the wrong way around, accidentally calling him 'Yamine Lamal'. This is not the first time that Brady has hit the footballing headlines recently after his criticism of former Birmingham head coach Wayne Rooney came to light in a five-part Amazon Prime series 'Built in Birmingham: Brady and the Blues'. In it, Brady admits to being worried about the dedication of the Manchester United legend during his disastrous spell at St Andrews. Rooney was sacked in January last year, lasting just 15 matches in the Blues' dugout. The fly-on-the-wall documentary shows Brady visiting the Birmingham training ground to observe Rooney's team meeting and training session. While driving away, he tells his business manager Ben Rawitz: 'I'm a little worried about our head coach's work ethic.'
