Browns coach Kevin Stefanski addressed the struggles of Shedeur Sanders and Cleveland's offensive line on Monday, the day after a 31-3 loss to the Chicago Bears.
One thing he wasn't going to discuss was what might happen when the season ends in three weeks.
“I’m not going to get in those type of things. Not my focus,” Stefanski said when asked if he has been given any assurances by ownership about his job security.
Stefanski is the first Browns coach since Sam Rutigliano to be at the helm for six seasons. He is a two-time NFL Coach of the Year but is 6-25 since Cleveland made the playoffs in 2023.
Stefanski gave offensive play-calling duties to coordinator Tommy Rees after the Nov. 2 bye week. While it has allowed Stefanski to focus on other matters, the offense continues to struggle.
Cleveland was backed up on its 1 on its first series, only to get flagged for a false start before the first play and too many men on the field before the next play.
Those are missteps that would be expected in the first couple of games, but not in Week 15.
“Yeah, obviously we know what our record is. We understand that. We don’t hide from that. You own it. But we also know how important this game is to us and the work that has to go into it each week and what we pour into it each week,” Stefanski said.
Sanders, the Browns' seventh starting quarterback since the start of last season, struggled in his fourth start and in his first of three straight games facing playoff-caliber defenses. The rookie completed 18 of 35 passes for 177 yards with three interceptions. He had a passer rating of 30.3 after being above 85 in each of his first three starts.
While Sanders had success when the Bears blitzed — going 5 of 6 for 118 yards — he struggled against zone coverage and when defensive coordinator Dennis Allen took away the deep game. Sanders was 1 of 8 for 9 yards and an interception when the Bears played a cover-4 scheme to prevent deep routes.
Stefanski is hoping Sanders can use the game a learning opportunity. The schedule doesn't get any easier, with Buffalo and Pittsburgh up next.
“Sky’s not falling. I think with young players, there’s growing and there’s learning that happens,” Stefanski said. “I don’t care what the position is, but look at history in terms of young players, and sometimes there’s moments that aren’t going to go your way, and you learn from those. So that’s no different for any position, no different for Shedeur versus any other player.”
The sideline heaters. The Browns got out of Chicago, where the kickoff temperature was 8 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill of minus-2, without any cases of frostbite.
Defending play-action passes. The Browns have allowed 10 touchdowns off play-action, second-most in the league. Chicago's Caleb Williams was 10 of 13 for 141 yards and two touchdowns on play-action. According to Next Gen Stats, his 151.0 passer rating on such throws was his highest this season.
Kicker Andre Szmyt accounted for all of Cleveland's points for the second game this season. He has four field goals of at least 50 yards this season, including a 50-yarder in windy conditions.
WR Jerry Jeudy. Sanders delivered a perfect pass to Jeudy near the goal line in the third quarter, only to have the ball go through his hands, off his chest and into the arms of Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson for an interception and a touchback. It was Jeudy's 11th dropped pass of the season and his league-leading 24th since being acquired by the Browns last year.
OG Teven Jenkins (shoulder) was injured on Sunday. OG Wyatt Teller (calf), OT Jack Conklin (concussion), DL Aidan Huntington (quad), TE David Njoku (knee), RB Dylan Sampson (calf, hand) and CB Denzel Ward (calf) were inactive.
21 1/2: Sacks for Myles Garrett on the season. He had 1 1/2 on Sunday.
1: Sacks needed by Garrett to tie Michael Strahan and TJ Watt for the NFL single-season record.
The Browns host the Buffalo Bills (10-4), who kept alive their hopes of overtaking New England for the AFC East title after beating the Patriots on Sunday. Buffalo has won three of its past four meetings with Cleveland.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) walks off the field after an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) is tackled by Chicago Bears defensive end Austin Booker (94) in the second half of an NFL football game in Chicago, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski is pictured on the sidelines in the first half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
PARIS (AP) — French farmers are driving opposition to a massive transatlantic trade deal between five South American nations of the Mercosur bloc and the 27-nation European Union that officials say will likely lead to its delay.
Farmers turned out across France with heavy tractors this week to build makeshift barricades and block roads, tried and tested methods of pressuring the French government that have previously proved successful in winning concessions.
They are incensed by the planned free-trade deal between the EU and the five active Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia — that would progressively remove duties on almost all goods traded between the two blocs over the next 15 years.
The accord has been under negotiation for 25 years, and once ratified would cover a market of 780 million people and a quarter of the globe’s gross domestic product.
EU lawmakers voted Tuesday to advance the deal by adding new safeguards to it in addition to approving concessions to farmers made by the European Commission. It is still likely to be delayed because three key demands from the French have not yet been met.
In France, an agricultural powerhouse, farmers’ concerns about the Mercosur trade deal are combining with anger about government sanitary measures against the spread of a bovine disease, creating a volatile cocktail of rural discontent and growing protest.
Speaking to The Associated Press on Tuesday from a tractor blockade on a highway leading into Paris, aspiring farmer Loic Rivière said he was fighting for his ambition of setting up his own cereal or vegetable farm.
“We want to protect our future,” he said. “What we face isn’t the same as our parents. There’s more competition, more globalization, more diseases” affecting crops and animals.
Scattered cases in France of lumpy skin disease, a viral cattle disease previously confined to sub-Saharan Africa and mainly transmitted by insect bites, are inflaming emotions in farming communities, after government officials ordered the culling of infected herds.
About 30 tractors blocked the RN12 highway heading toward Paris at the protest Tuesday that Riviere was part of, he said. French media reporting from other demonstrations around the country this week showed farmers piling up potatoes, tires, straw bales and other things they had at hand to make barricades. Some were set on fire, creating dramatic television images of flames and smoke that gave an impression of bubbling rural fury, even though some of the protests were relatively small and scattered.
Motorists showed their support for the protesting farmers by tooting their horns, Rivière said.
Farmers “are fed up of not being listened to,” he said. “What we do is the foundation of life but obstacles are being thrown in our way.”
Some of those farmers will continue on to join a march on Brussels as leaders gather for a much-anticipated summit of EU leaders grappling with the Mercosur deal and funding Ukraine.
Worried by a surging far right that rallies support by criticizing the deal, the French have demanded safeguards to monitor and stop large economic disruption in the EU, increased regulations in the South American partner nations like pesticide restrictions, and more inspections of imports at EU ports.
“Today we don’t see them (the safeguards), that’s why we’ve asked for a delay,” said Benjamin Haddad, France’s Minister of European Affairs ahead of a meeting in Brussels. He called on the bloc to “stop being naive” and to protect European agriculture from “unfair competition" by adopting assertive trade policies styled after Washington and Beijing.
“This is what the Americans do, this is what the Chinese do, and so, we need to be open, but we also need to protect ourselves and protect our interests and basically ensure a level playing field,” Haddad said.
France is joined by other EU nations with large agricultural sectors critical of the deal — including Poland and Ireland.
The “Irish government has some concerns,” said Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence. “The indications that I have at the moment is that it will be delayed until January.”
Yet there was clear support for the Mercosur deal among EU lawmakers. They voted 431-161, with 70 abstentions, to advance the deal.
“The Mercosur trade agreement will strengthen Europe’s geopolitical position. It will make us less dependent on China, on Russia and the moods of Donald Trump. It is the clear signal to the world the EU is a reliable partner,” said Svenja Hahn, a German MEP with the center-right Renew Europe coalition.
Philipp Lausberg, an analyst at the European Policy Centre, argued that delays now could risk the deal itself as more right-wing governments come into power in the EU. The deal would help the EU secure markets for its exports and key imports like rare earths, but “if they don’t do it now, then the chances of it going through are waning,” he said.
Bernd Lange, a German lawmaker, said that not signing would be "geopolitically irresponsible and economical nonsense.”
“Some other powers that like to portray us as irrelevant would then rub their hands with glee,” he said. "The finish line for is now in sight and we should cross it.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is determined to sign the agreement, but needs the backing of at least two-thirds of member countries. It remains unclear whether France could find enough allies to veto her signature.
Despite the likelihood of a delay, von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa are still scheduled to sign the deal in Brazil on Saturday.
FILE - French farmers protest against the Mercosur trade alliance with South America countries, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025 near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
FILE - French Deputy minister in charge of European Affairs Benjamin Haddad leaves the weekly cabinet meeting, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
FILE - French farmers protest with a poster reading "Mercosur betrays our cultures" against the Mercosur trade alliance with South America countries Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025 near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
FILE - French farmers gather around a fire as they block the highway near Urt, southwestern France, to protest against a mass cull of cows ordered to contain the spread of a skin disease, Monday Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Nicolas Mollo, File)
