NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Cleveland Browns are two games above .500 but find themselves in third place in the AFC North and seeking a victory to keep pace with first-place Pittsburgh and second-place Cincinnati.
New Orleans (2-5) would love to have the same record as Cleveland (5-3), but like the Browns, are just one game out of first place in their division.
“You look at the division, and everyone is right there,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said this week, referring to the NFC South. “Everything is still alive and in front of us. It’s about taking the lessons from the first half, making the necessary adjustments and realizing we’ve got a great opportunity down the stretch if we take care of our business.”
The Saints likely won't have to play against Cleveland starting quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was placed in the NFL's concussion protocol this week and has missed multiple practices. Browns backup Shedeur Sanders has been preparing to play in the Superdome.
Sanders, who went 3-4 as a starter last year as a rookie, said he has seen “a lot” of video of the Saints defense and appears confident in his chances to play well against a New Orleans defense that ranks 28th in yards allowed per game (372.7) — even if he's reluctant to say so out loud.
“When I smile, just know that means something,” Sanders said. "I’m maturing. Like, I could have given a decent answer, but now I’m just going to smile.”
Both teams have struggled to score early in games and have had to get used to playing from behind. The Saints, who've been outscored 44-6 in the first quarter of their seven games, have struggled to overcome the second-worst first-quarter point differential in the NFL.
The league's worst opening-quarter point differential belongs to the Browns, who've outscored 65-13 in opening stanzas, but have done better to overcome those slow starts.
“It’s not the optimal way to win, right? I mean, it’s obvious,” Browns coach Todd Monken said. “The good news is we’re 5-3 and we have every opportunity to flip that script. That’s what’s great about it, if you want to look at that. I don’t look at the glass half full. I’m going to look at, like, the whole thing’s full, OK? Like, we have nine games left ... and we can certainly flip that script.”
Cleveland (5-3) vs. New Orleans (2-5)
When/where to watch: Sunday, 1 p.m. EST, CBS.
Latest odds: Saints by 4 1/2.
Against the spread: Browns 5-3; Saints 3-4.
Last week: Browns lost to Pittsburgh 27-6; Saints had bye, lost 16-10 to Pittsburgh on Oct. 25 in Paris.
Last meeting: Saints beat Browns 35-14 on Nov. 17, 2024, in New Orleans.
Series record: Browns lead 13-7.
Saints wide receiver Chris Olave vs. Browns top cornerback Denzel Ward, who both are former first-round draft choices out of Ohio State. Olave, now in his fifth NFL season, leads the Saints in receiving with 49 catches for 636 yards and two TDs. Ward, in his ninth season, leads Cleveland with three interceptions and eight passes defensed.
— The Browns have not lost two straight games yet this season.
— RB Quinshon Judkins had 49 scrimmage yards (25 rushing, 24 receiving) last week and has at least 50 scrimmage yards in four of his past five games.
— Rookie WR Denzel Boston had six receptions last week, his most yet in a game. Boston leads rookies in TDs receiving with three, ranks second in yards receiving with 409 and fifth in receptions with 26.
— WR KC Concepcion ranks second among rookies in receptions with 33 and third in yards receiving with 352.
— TE Harold Fannin set career game-highs with 10 in receptions for 154 yards in Week 8. He's caught at least six passes for 90 or more yards in each of his past two games.
— LB Carson Schwesinger led the Browns with 10 tackles last week and has had at least eight tackles in each of his past five games.
— LB Quincy Williams had a tackle for loss, a forced fumble and a pass defensed last week.
— DT Mason Graham had three tackles for loss last week, giving him two games this season with at least that many.
— DT Adin Huntington had sack last week and has at least half a sack in four of his past five games.
— Ward had two passes defensed and an interception in Week 8, his second game in a row with an interception.
— The Saints are winless (0-3) in the Superdome this season and 0-4 as the designated home team, including their loss to the Steelers in Paris.
— Saints QB Tyler Shough passed for 278 yards and a TD in Week 7, giving him a TD pass in 10 of his past 11 games.
— Olave ranks fifth with 636 yards receiving this season and has at least five receptions in 11 of his past 12 home games.
— EDGE Carl Granderson had 1 1/2 sacks in Week 7, his third consecutive game with 1 1/2 sacks, the longest such active streak in NFL.
— EDGE Chase Young had 1 1/2 sacks in Week 7 for a second straight game. Young has seven sacks this season.
— Safety Jonas Sanker led the Saints with nine tackles in Week 7 and has at least six tackles in four of his past five games.
— Safety Julian Blackmon had two tackles for loss, two passes defensed and an interception the most recent time he played against Cleveland in 2023, when Blackmon was with the Indianapolis Colts.
AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson (4) gets up after being sacked by Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt (90) during the first half of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/David Dermer)
New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough (6) passes the ball during an NFL football game against Pittsburgh Steelers in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he’ll change more than 500 death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole, though the state Supreme Court will have the final say in hundreds of those cases.
“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in a public letter.
Newsom’s decision comes as he prepares to leave office after eight years and considers a run for president. The Democrat, who’s long been opposed to the death penalty, placed a moratorium on executions in California in 2019.
His latest move came after he realized “the limits of what government can justly accomplish,” he said.
Newsom moved to grant clemency to 548 people currently sentenced to death in California, of whom 529 are men and 19 are women, according to numbers provided by his office.
The state constitution requires the California Supreme Court’s approval to grant clemency to anyone convicted of a felony more than once, which means the court would have to approve 382 of those commutations, or roughly 70%, according to Newsom's office.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Newsom’s action represents the largest mass clemency in American history. If they are all approved, it would reduce the U.S. death row population by nearly 30%, the center said.
Americans have long been divided over the death penalty. Nearly half of U.S. states have banned capital punishment outright, but executions are still carried out routinely around the country. On Thursday alone, Florida, Alabama and Indiana carried out lethal injections.
Californians voted to uphold the death penalty in 2012 and 2016 ballot measures. No one has been executed in the state since 2006 and California has the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.
Among the most notorious convicted killers on California’s death row are Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993, and Randy Kraft, the so-called “Scorecard Killer” who kept a list of his 16 victims in the 1970s and ’80s. Other prominent killers, including Scott Peterson and the Manson family members, received death sentences that were later commuted to life in prison.
Jess Nichol, Klaas' sister, said she previously believed Davis deserved the death penalty, but her views evolved.
“The system tells survivors that execution matters to our healing,” Nichol said in a statement. “It doesn’t. It’s a distraction from what we actually need.”
Newsom said the decision was among the most difficult choices of his career because it will surface painful memories for crime victims’ families.
“As Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution,” Newsom wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has said the implementation of the death penalty reflects racial bias, applauded the announcement.
“These commutations reflect what justice demands: an end to a racist, error-prone, and inhumane punishment that has burdened California for far too long,” Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
The ACLU is involved in an ongoing legal challenge to California’s death penalty statute, alleging it is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Patricia Wenskunas, founder of the California advocacy nonprofit Crime Survivors, which opposed the abolition of the death penalty, criticized Newsom's decision.
“My heart hurts for every one of the victims and every one of their family members,” she said, calling the decision “offensive” and “outrageous.”
Steve Herr, whose son Sam Herr was murdered along with his friend Julie Kibuishi by Daniel Wozniak in 2010, said he was “absolutely disgusted” by the governor's decision. He said the death of his son's killer would have meant closure.
“When somebody commits such a heinous crime, they do not deserve to live,” Herr said. “To hear what Newsom just did … he’s just an outright coward.”
The California District Attorneys Association condemned the decision. Last month, the group sent a letter to Newsom expressing “grave concerns” about him considering the move and warning that such a sweeping action would inflict additional pain on victims’ relatives.
“With the stroke of a pen, Governor Newsom has disregarded the decisions of hundreds of jurors and judges, and the anguish of families who lost loved ones to the worst crimes imaginable,” CDAA President Jeannine M. Pacioni said in a statement. “The victims were never given a commutation. Their families were never given a choice. They deserve far better than this.”
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow called the move a “sickening abuse of power.”
Dow referenced Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford, two women who were kidnapped, raped and murdered by Rex Allan Krebs in 1999, and Kesha Gurke, a 19-month-old girl tortured and murdered by Michael Whisenhunt in 1995.
“San Luis Obispo County juries sentenced both men to death. A unanimous California Supreme Court affirmed both judgments. Their families have waited decades for the State of California to keep its word. Today, the Governor broke it,” Dow said.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer also condemned the decision, calling it “mercy for the wolves and while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep.”
Newsom has said in the past that it is wrong for the government to kill its citizens and that capital punishment in practice has discriminated against mentally ill people and people of color.
Other governors have granted broad clemency to all death row prisoners in their states, including Gov. Kate Brown in Oregon in 2022 and Gov. Jared Polis in Colorado in 2020. Both are Democrats. In 1986, then-New Mexico Gov. Toney Anaya, a Democrat, commuted the death sentences of all five inmates then on death row.
In 2024, President Joe Biden also granted clemency to 37 out of 40 federal prisoners sentenced to death.
Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who will take over from Newsom in January, has said he will extend the state’s moratorium on the death penalty.
Ding and Weber reported from Los Angeles.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom attends a rally with members of the state's Democratic Party, organized labor, and other advocates in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Diehl)
File - Chairs are lined up in the witness gallery outside the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., Sept. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a campaign event ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a campaign event ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
