Browns news and notes: 3 storylines for the Eagles game

(Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)

The Cleveland Browns take on the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night in a preseason game. Both teams are practicing against each other in Philly this week before the Thursday Night kickoff. Let’s look at this week and some storylines starting to come out of this upcoming game and a few other Browns tidbits to note.

Joint practice 

This week the two teams are practicing together. Last year the Eagles came to Cleveland to practice and in return, the two teams are in Philly practicing this week. The news coming out of the first practices included news of three prominent Browns players, Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, and Jack Conklin all having to leave the field with minor injuries.

We’ve learned since that the injuries were very minor. We should have more information on this later this week. In the meantime, the two teams will continue to practice against one another and hopefully, no other players will get seriously hurt.

A year ago, when Philly came to Cleveland some said that the Eagles were much more talented when watching the two teams play against one other. Right now, the reports out of these practices suggest the Browns look better prepared this time. Let’s hope it’s a sign of good things to come for the season. Last season the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl so that’s very encouraging news for Cleveland.

No starters on Thursday night

With both teams going all out at practices this week I don’t expect to see many, if any, of the starters from either team playing Thursday night. This will give Browns and Eagles fans, another opportunity to watch the rookies and the backups try to win spots on their teams 53-man roster.

For the Browns players like quarterback, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and safety Ronnie Hickman it’ll give them another opportunity to really showcase their talents and win a job on the team.

Can DTR overtake Josh Dobbs for QB No.2? 

With all of this talk of Dorian Thompson-Robinson doing well in camp and in these preseason games is it a possibility that he could overtake the presumed No. 2 guy in quarterback Josh Dobbs?

It’s probably not very likely because Josh Dobbs did receive a guaranteed $2 million contract when he signed with the Browns. That’s not huge, guaranteed money and if the team could actually trade Dobbs, they would only lose out on $500,000 of that guaranteed money but I’m not sure who would want to trade with Cleveland and rather just wait for his outright release.

It has become though the story of the camp, because DTR has really been statistically brilliant, but also has looked the part of a potential superstar in the making. He went nine for 10 the other night for 102 yards and threw a touchdown. His passer rating was a whopping 142.5.

You can’t get much better than that and fans are looking to talk about something. So, while it’s a nice story, I don’t suspect that Josh Dobbs is in any particular danger of losing his backup role.

But stay tuned, you never know!

Extra extra! Read all about it!

The graduate

Congrats to Grant Delpit, the Browns safety, who recently graduated from LSU over the weekend. This is why he missed the preseason game against the Washington Commanders.

I’d say that’s a good reason to be absent for your graduation.

Browns are still underdogs!

I took a look at recent odds for the opening Week 1 game between the Browns and Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland is still considered an underdog as they are a +2 on the game. Odds makers still have the Bengals as the favorite at -130 to win the game. The game points are listed as 47.5 over or under.

Front row seating in front of Dawg Pound

I’m not a fan of the new seats that the Browns have added in front of the Dawg Pound. No longer can the Cleveland players jump into the Dawg Pound and that’s really disappointing that the team took away pretty much the importance of the Dawg Pound.

Part of the experience of sitting in that area of the stadium is that you’d be part of the most crazed and loyal fans at the game.

Now with the addition of these “luxury” field-level seats it’s taken away that opportunity. Why bother to even have a Dawg Pound? The historical importance of this section has been lost on a franchise seemingly trying to gain a bit more profit it seems and that’s a sad state of affairs.