NFL Roundup: Jets Irate Over Verse Hit, Browns' QB Forecast, Giants' Carter Sits
The Jets are angry about a hit that drew no flag, and their anger is aimed at the officiating, not at the man who delivered it. Cleveland's quarterback room got a forecast nobody in it will enjoy. Everyone else had a Wednesday.
Jared Verse, a Browns defensive end, was not flagged for a hit in which he lowered the top of his helmet into the side of Jets quarterback Geno Smith's helmet. The Jets are not happy about it, which they should say out loud. The flag matters more than whatever discipline arrives later, because a fine does nothing for the Jets, who had to live with the play as it happened. No flag means no correction in the moment, when the only thing separating a quarterback from a defender's helmet is an official's throw. My read: the fine letter comes this week, and Cleveland keeps Verse on the field, which is the entire math of the play for them.
Dan Graziano's read on Cleveland is that neither Deshaun Watson nor Shedeur Sanders will be the Browns' starting quarterback in 2027, even though he expects the Browns to keep starting Watson now. Hold those two thoughts together and you have the Browns' problem in a sentence: they're starting a quarterback they've apparently already decided isn't the answer. That's a bridge with no exit ramp, and the bill gets paid by Sanders, who loses the one thing a young quarterback can't buy back. Every Watson start is a rep the Browns don't get. If the 2027 answer isn't in the building, then the only thing worth doing with this season is finding out whether Sanders can play, and I'd rather learn that than confirm what the staff already believes. I'll go further than Graziano: Cleveland will have somebody else entirely under center in 2027, and I think the building knows it.
Abdul Carter missed Wednesday's practice with a calf injury and was listed as out of practice on the Giants-Saints injury report. Giants head coach John Harbaugh said Carter is “doing very well” and did not seem concerned. Both can be true, and they still don't sit comfortably next to each other. A calf is a rotten injury for a linebacker who wins with explosion, and a Wednesday absence is exactly the signal coaches talk around. My read: Carter plays Sunday. If I'm wrong, New Orleans is the beneficiary, because the middle of the field gets considerably more inviting when the Giants are missing the guy who covers it sideline to sideline. What would change my mind is a second straight missed practice.
Klint Kubiak said Wednesday that Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty will play Sunday against the Bills. Coaches usually sandbag this on a Wednesday, so saying it out loud this early tells you the injury isn't a practice-week fight. What it doesn't tell you is workload. “Will play” and “will play his normal role” are different sentences, and that gap is what decides whether the Raiders' offense looks like itself against Buffalo. My bet: the answer is closer to a full workload than a cameo, and Buffalo now has to spend the week planning for him.
Mike Tomlin, on the New Heights podcast, on players-only meetings: “I think you're dead,” and “The fact that you hear about it is what makes it BS.” He isn't burying the meeting. He's burying the leak. A players-only meeting is supposed to be the one room in the building with no audience, and the moment it has one, it stops being a meeting and becomes a message. Messages don't fix locker rooms. Tomlin would take a players-only gathering every week if nobody outside the walls ever heard a word about it, and whoever carried it out is the actual target of that quote.
My verdict: the Browns' quarterback question is the only item on this list that changes a season. The rest is Wednesday paperwork and one very good quote. Cleveland is wasting the last audition it has.
