CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cleveland Browns haven't yet decided which of their backup quarterbacks will start the season finale at Baltimore.
It probably doesn't matter to the Ravens.
Coach Kevin Stefanski said he will “work through” the QB situation this week and it's possible both Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Bailey Zappe could play Saturday against the Ravens (11-5), who will clinch the AFC North title with a win.
“Bailey has been a guy that got here, haven’t seen him in a game just yet,” Stefanski said Tuesday on a Zoom call. “Dorian is a young player who's using all these reps to get better. So there’s a scenario where we do that (play both).”
If Zappe starts, he will be the 40th quarterback to start for the Browns since 1999.
Thompson-Robinson has struggled in two starts — the Browns have scored nine points — since replacing Jameis Winston, who was benched after throwing eight interceptions over a three-game span.
Winston continues to deal with a right shoulder injury and Stefanski said the veteran will likely be the emergency QB for the season finale.
The Browns (3-13) are 17 1/2-point underdogs against the first-place Ravens, who lost in Cleveland on Oct. 27 in Winston's first start this season after Deshaun Watson ruptured his Achilles tendon a week earlier.
Zappe was signed off Kansas City's practice squad in October after Watson was placed on injured reserve. The 25-year-old Zappe was picked in the fourth round by New England in 2022.
He made eight starts in two seasons with the Patriots and had his best game against the Browns, passing for 309 yards and two touchdowns in a win two years ago.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Cleveland Browns quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson (17) hands the football to running back Jerome Ford (34) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Cleveland Browns quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson (17) looks to pass as Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Calais Campbell (93) defends during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Browns quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson (17) pitches the ball during the second half of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
A judge barred the Trump administration on Thursday from immediately moving to shut down a small federal agency that supports investment in African countries on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington issued the order hours after the filing of a lawsuit by the president and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation.
Ward Brehm said in a complaint that he directed his staff on Wednesday to deny building entry to staffers from billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and Pete Marocco, the deputy administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
DOGE and Trump do not have the authority to shut down the agency, which was created by Congress, Brehm said in the complaint.
The order from Leon, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, bars Brehm from being removed or DOGE from adding members to the board over the next few days.
Brehm also said that days after President Donald Trump targeted the agency in a Feb. 19 executive order that aims to shrink the size of the federal government, staffers from DOGE tried to access the organization's computer systems.
“When USADF learned that DOGE was there to kill the agency, USADF staff refused DOGE access to cancel all grants and contracts,” said the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement, “Entitled, rogue bureaucrats have no authority to defy executive orders by the President of the United States or physically bar his representatives from entering the agencies they run.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration mandated DOGE and Musk, the world’s richest man whose businesses have federal contracts, to root out waste, fraud and abuse and to help reduce the nation’s debt load.
Brehm said in his complaint that DOGE and Marocco, a Trump political appointee helping shutter USAID, also recently targeted the Inter-American Foundation, a federal agency that invests in Latin American and the Caribbean.
On Tuesday, DOGE said on X that all but one employee at IAF had been let go and its grants cancelled, including funding for alpaca farming in Peru, for vegetable gardens in El Salvador and for beekeeping in Brazil.
Trump is also targeting the U.S. Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think tank, and the Presidio Trust, which oversees a national park site next to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Both entities, which were created by Congress, continue to operate and say they are compiling information requests from the White House.
The National Endowment for Democracy, a private nonprofit that helps combat authoritarianism around the world, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying in a complaint that it had been denied access to its funding, “something that has never occurred before in the Endowment’s forty-two-year existence.”
In 2023, it reported issuing $238 million in grants, including through the International Republican Institute, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio formerly served as a board member.
Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story.
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Elon Musk departs the Capitol following a meeting with Senate Republicans, in Washington, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
