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Kizer Named Week One Browns’ Starter

Photo courtesy of the Cleveland Browns

Just when you thought the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills were taking the tanking trophy this season, the Cleveland Browns totally redeemed themselves. It’s official, for at least one week at the beginning of the NFL season DeShone Kizer will start at quarterback.

“He (Kizer) has earned the right to play through his preparation,” Browns head coach Hue Jackson said. “He’s established a work ethic that I think has earned the respect of his teammates. I think it will afford him the ability to lead the offense as we move forward, which hopefully will lead to success. It’s been good to watch his development throughout the offseason. Obviously he’s a young quarterback, and he still has a lot to learn. He’s going to learn a lot and gain a lot of experience and the only way you get that is by playing. We’re all excited about that.”

The last Cleveland rookie to start his first season was Brandon Weedon. So, yeah. Good job, I guess.

Kizer “won” the job with a 6-of-18 passing performance for 93 yards and an interception in Saturday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Formerly presumed starter Brock Osweiler did not play a snap.

So what does this mean for Osweiler? He’s obviously on the trade block and there was even a rumor out there that the Browns were willing to pay half his $16 million guaranteed this year to trade him off. There are plenty of teams that would want to take a good lock at Osweiler, but not for $8 million. The most likely scenario is Osweiler getting cut if Jackson is comfortable with Cody Kessler and Kevin Hogan as his back up quarterbacks.

Kizer, of course, was a second round pick out of Notre Dame back in April. He started two seasons for the Irish and last year completed 58.7 percent of his passes for 2,925 yards, 26 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

Osweiler started 21 games over the last two seasons with the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans. Last year he went 8-6 as a starter, completed 59 percent of his passes for 15 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. There’s a chance, a slight one, that Jackson may hedge his bets and keep Osweiler on the roster. I don’t see that happening. This is a five or six win team that just became a one or two win team and, apparently, that’s exactly the way Jackson wants it to go in 2017.

Cameron Meredith probably tore his ACL

Cameron Meredith was the most consistent receiver for the Chicago Bears last season. After going down with a knee injury in the team’s preseason game against the Tennessee Titans, he’ll have to come back and be their most consistent receiver in the 2018 season.

According to Fox Sports, the Bears believe that Meredith tore his ACL.

Meredith was signed as a an undrafted free agent in 2015 out of Illinois State. Last year he started 10 games, played in 14 and caught 66 passes for 888 yards and four touchdowns.

Bryce Petty suffers MCL injury

The NFL Network is calling New York Jets quarterback Bryce Petty’s MCL injury “considerable” after an MRI Sunday morning.

With Petty likely missing all of 2017, that means the tanking Jets, already with the worst quarterback situation in the NFL, will be down to Josh McNown and Christian Hackenberg. And before anyone starts yelling for Colin Kaepernick, understand that this team doesn’t want to win. Kaepernick could screw that up by winning two or three games. They want to win one, tops.

According to head coach Todd Bowles, the Jets were actually having a quarterback “competition” and if that was true, Petty was likely winning it. The job belongs to McCown for sure, now and don’t be surprised to see them signed some cast off like Sean Renfree or Zach Mettenberger as a third QB. Again, forget Kaepernick. Ironically, he’s too talented for what the Jets want to do.

It’s the worst for Ware

After hoping he had just suffered a sprained knee, the Kansas City Chiefs got bad news Sunday when it was revealed that running back Spencer Ware had torn his PCL against the Seattle Seahawks Saturday night and would miss the entire 2017 season.

According to the NFL Network, Ware also damaged his LCL, but the team wants to place him on the injured reserve/designated for return list.

Last season Ware carried the ball 214 times for 921 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 4.3 yards per carry., He caught 33 passes for 447 yards and two touchdowns. He was a sixth round draft choice out of LSU back in 2013.

See? This is why you don’t hold your fantasy football draft until at least after week three of the preseason.

With Ware out, the starting job will fall to Charcandrick West. West was the primary back with an injured Jamaal Charles two seasons ago and averaged 4.0 yards per carry on 160 carries, 634 yards and four touchdowns in 2015. He caught 20 passes for 214 yards and one score.

C.J. Spiller and rookie Kareem Hunt should see their share of carries go up as well, especially Hunt. Hunt was a four year starter for Toledo and rushed for 1,475 yards and 10 touchdowns last season while catching 41 passes for 403 yards and one score. He averaged 5.6 yards per carry and at 6-0 and 225, should have plenty of size to survive an NFL beating.

Eagles and Jets trade defensive backs

It’s a move that doesn’t seem to make a big difference for either team, but it happened nonetheless. The Philadelphia Eagles shipped cornerback Dexter McDougle to the New York Jets in exchange for safety Terrence Brooks.

It has the looks of one of those salary dump trades you do on Madden.

McDougle was a former third round pick out of Maryland in 2015. He has never started a game in the NFL, but played in 20. Last year in six games he did not record a defensive stat.

Brooks was also a third rounder back in 2014 with the Baltimore Ravens. He too has never started a game, but played in 34. Last year he had two forced fumbles, one pass defense and one interception with the Eagles.

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Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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