The Cleveland Browns aren't expected to be overly competitive in the 2025 NFL season, but they are absolutely competitive when it comes to offseason headlines.
The Browns have one of the most uninspiring yet oddly interesting quarterback situations in the entire league. They brought back veteran Joe Flacco this offseason at the age of 40. They acquired former first-round pick Kenny Pickett in a trade with the Eagles. They spent a 3rd-round pick on Dillon Gabriel and a 5th-round pick on Shedeur Sanders.
The media outlets in charge of covering the Browns understand that this might be the most interesting the team ends up being all year. The closer we get to the actual games, the more Browns fans might be just fixating on the college game to do some armchair scouting of the incoming quarterback class.
But there is providing coverage, and then there's going too far. ESPN Cleveland posted a graphic after one of the team's OTA practices with quarterback passing stats.
No, seriously.
ESPN Cleveland posts embarrassing OTA statistics graphic for QBs
Browns practice is in the books. Here’s how all 4 QBs stacked up with their throwing reps in team drills 👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/NsIZmjQSy3
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) May 28, 2025
Believe it or not, this post is actually pinned at the top of this account's page. It has nearly 3 million impressions at the time of this article being written, and it will continue to circulate.
The only thing that could possibly make this funnier is if they'd attached arbitrary yards to the graphic, but there's no tackling at OTAs so every play is up for interpretation.
This is honestly hilarious, and it doesn't do any favors to the guys competing for the job. It's one thing to give observations about a practice and another thing entirely to post stats from a practice session. This gives virtually no context other than to say it was "team" drills, so are we meant to believe the Cleveland defense was just getting absolutely lit up by this group of quarterbacks?
There are a lot of coaches around the NFL who would ban media members like this from future practices. Sometimes you'll get completion stats during training camp when the pads are actually on, or maybe during joint practices when there's a higher level of competition, but at OTAs?
This is an embarrassing move by the folks at ESPN Cleveland in an attempt to draw more interest to the Browns' QB competition, but in an unhealthy way.