Greetings again, Flock. What a week it’s been since we last met on the eve of the legal tampering period. We recapped all of last week’s action along the way, but as always, the NFL doesn’t stop working on weekends, not even in the offseason.
The Cleveland Browns made waves on Friday, completing a blockbuster trade with the Houston Texans to bring in DeShaun Watson. Yes, it really happened.
What is now thought to be the final compensation in today’s seismic trade:
🏈Browns get: Deshaun Watson and a 5th-round pick.
🏈Texans get: three first-round picks, a third-round pick and a fourth-round pick. https://t.co/nOtoRVIlGp
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 18, 2022
So next year, instead of Baker Mayfield tossing to Jarvis Landry, the AFC North will have to deal with Watson throwing to Amari Cooper. Speaking of Baker, the Browns also acquired Jacoby Brissett to back up Watson, so he’ll certainly be headed elsewhere too. So today he’ll be on this action:
The Browns weren’t the only AFC North team from Ohio that wears orange getting better over the weekend. Unfortunately, the Bengals continue to do smart things…I know!
Former Cowboys’ OT La’el Collins is finalizing a deal with the Cincinnati Bengals, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 20, 2022
Cincy has gotten serious about protecting Joe Burrow after they somehow got to the Super Bowl despite allowing him to get tossed around like a rag doll throughout the postseason.
Pittsburgh, an organization that can make a Pro Bowl linebacker out of a pile of mud grass clippings, got a former second-round pick at the position.
Sounds like Myles Jack is excited to be in Pittsburgh 💪@DVEMike | Full 🎥: https://t.co/4jPljcTSWQ pic.twitter.com/lZhF2JH6NN
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) March 20, 2022
Not great, Flock. Not great.
The entire AFC continues to stack itself, as a matter of fact.
Now official: the Green Bay Packers have traded WR Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders for a first round pick (No. 22 overall) and a second round pick (No. 53 overall) in the 2022 NFL Draft.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 18, 2022
The AFC West is a gauntlet. We know about the North. The Bills got Von Miller and O.J. Howard.
I know where this is going. The AFC is going to beat the hell out of each other for five months starting in September, and an NFC team is going to cruise to another Lombardi. Which team? Well, if I was a bettin’ man…
But we’ll have plenty of time to get annoyed at all of that later on. For now, let’s turn our eyes to the NFL Draft, where one prospect suffered an unfortunate injury the other day. Michigan EDGE prospect David Ojabo was projected to go early (see his evaluation on Ravens Draft Central here) but tore his Achilles and is expected to miss six months.
Tests confirmed that LB David Ojabo tore his Achilles, per a Michigan source. Doctors expect a full and complete recovery.
Rams’ RB Cam Akers tore his Achilles last summer and was back in about six months, and doctors expect Ojabo to be on the same timeline.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 19, 2022
Head on over to Ravens Draft Central at RSR for your daily fix of prospect evaluations, and to see which other EDGE players should be on the board at 14.
We end today with some sad news. Former ESPN NFL reporter John Clayton passed away over the weekend.
John Clayton, a first-class NFL insider and our beloved longtime ESPN colleague, died today.
He also starred in the greatest This Is SportsCenter commercial of all time.
RIP, Johnpic.twitter.com/5s5H0gQZcu
— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) March 19, 2022
Remember the rumor that John had a ponytail? He leaned into it hard with the above commercial, an absolute classic. Thanks for all the breaking news, Professor. We’ll miss you.
