The Opening Drive 8/3: The Real Practices Start This Week in Berea

We can't ignore what happened in the first week but as the pads come on, the real evaluation begins.

Aug 03, 2026

∙ Paid

First, before we get started, I wanted to update all of you on some chaos in my life. Over the weekend we lost my grandfather. He was 85, a life well-lived, but he passed unexpectedly in his home and it has sent some shockwaves through the family. My mother lost her husband just two years ago, and now in trying to find her way through the world again, has lost her father. None of this is easy and it might pull me away at times being there for her in a very troubling time.

My grandpa was a classic man of his era. Could fix anything, was always willing to help and do whatever the family needed, and was the glue that kept everything together at times. He was a huge football fan. He was dialed into the Browns and Buckeyes constantly in my younger years. I have many memories of spending time in his garage watching games on the weekends as he did his projects. He’d be tinkering with his car or some other small project all while listening to the Browns or Buckeyes. It brought him comfort. Although the Browns faded for him in old age, he would always have an opinion on them. I will miss hearing it.

He, and my father, shaped my love for football and these Ohio teams. I will be forever grateful for that. He never missed a game of mine from middle school through my college career. He always prioritized it. It always felt like he was living a dream of his own through me. Those were special times.

I should be able to make it to Berea throughout this week and then the funeral will come in the following weekends. I saw Friday’s session, which I felt let me learn enough about what has been transpiring to have a meaningful opinion. I will be more informed next week. Thanks for understanding, everyone.

The quarterback “competition” remains the focus. Through the first week I can say without a doubt that Shedeur Sanders has been the better quarterback. Now, this isn’t to say he’s won the competition or done enough against the first team to truly have a meaningful “leg up” but he played better. Deshaun Watson had six interceptions and it’s less the interception totals I am worried about and more about the decision-making coming with them. He appears to be the same guy before the multiple achilles ruptures. Inconsistent accuracy, slow processing, and a poor fundamental understanding of being ahead of the defense unfolding. But there’s a chance that stat line that will mean almost nothing by Friday. Everything changes once the pads come on. It goes from being a form of football with baked-in advantages to the real thing quickly.

That’s the piece getting lost in a week of shells-only practice, and it’s why the pads coming on today matters more than another day of split reps. Interceptions in unpadded camp are a passing-window problem — arm strength, anticipation, a corner reading a route better than the quarterback threw it. They’re real data, but they’re data about who processes fastest in a controlled environment where nobody’s rushing the pocket in a way that has the actual feel. When the pads come on it feels more real and both sides compete in a way that ramps up the intensity and environment.

Watson’s has been the more talked-about problem, understandably. Six picks in four days is the kind of number that becomes the headline regardless of context. Watson needs to clean up the process to actually prove worthy of getting the start come Week 1. Sanders will have more opportunity to keep building on what he has done, but even Sanders has been far from perfect to this point. The Browns offense will need to run the ball quite well to have any shot at climbing the rankings this year. Everything hinges on it.

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