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[Assistant] Who says, I think Vrabel was hired to combat the Steelers, hiring Arthur Smith as their OC.


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[Assistant] Uh, and second, second super chat comes from Vernell Jackson.


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[Assistant] Stefanski is 0-2 in playoff games. He's replaceable. He got smoked 45-14 in the last game he coached. Extend him for what? He's barely over 500. The heat is on.


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[Assistant] Here we are! Friday in springtime! Ugh. Mmm. Supposed to be 46 degrees tomorrow.


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[Assistant] It doesn't feel like spring time. Welcome to the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. Big day today, 90 minutes on our YouTube channel. And then we go over to WKYC for 30 minutes at 1230. If you're in Cleveland, you can watch us on WKYC. If you're out of market and you want to watch, download the WKYC Plus app. You can stream it there.


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[Assistant] Uh, tomorrow, that's a home game, one o'clock tip against Orlando Magic. We've got a lot to talk about there. We're going to get into the Browns. Andrew Berry made some comments recently. Uh, we'll talk about the Guardians. Man, talk about overachieving. Holy cow. It's been unbelievable.


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[Assistant] Like, didn't see that coming. The guy was, it was basically the way it was kinda portrayed to the media was, it's a feel good story, he played his best years here, he fought cancer, he was a huge fan favorite. We're gonna give him an invite, see if he can nail down that last spot in the bullpen.


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[Assistant] It felt like just doing him a favor, yeaah. That's what it felt like. I marveled yesterday watching him and we'll talk about this. He's a completely different guy. He's learned how to pitch. How to really pitch.


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[Assistant] Now he's pitching up, down, in, out, hitting edges. He had a sequence yesterday where he struck out a hitter where he went 83, low away slider.


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[Assistant] Swing and a miss and then an absolute dart 91 bottom of the zone called third strike.


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[Assistant] When you, when you're betting on dudes, not one guy, but two guys to hit home runs, I'm surprised the payout isn't bigger.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's not on their plate. Uhm, I agree with G, it's interesting that you said that because part of my approach to this answer was going to be similar to what you said. When you are leading an organization like this, you have to be, it's, that's why I say it's so difficult. You're juggling eight things at once. You absolutely have all eyes on the prize of next year.


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[Assistant] But you're also looking off in your peripheral vision on 25.


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[Assistant] I don't know that I fully agree with everything you said, but I'm way more in your camp than yours, G, and here's why. The part I'm not sure I fully agree on yet, but if pushed, maybe I'd have to make this choice. You said you think it's more likely that they will not complete the contract than it is that he'll get an extension.


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[Assistant] I think for me, that's a bridge too far because I don't see an escape clause for them. I don't see how they don't pay him. Well, they'll have to pay him. But I say, so you're, what you're saying is they may move on from him and pay him out, but he may not be the quarterback three years from now. If he's not good this year, I don't think he makes it to the end of


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[Assistant] Okay, so I'm way more in line with that thinking. And by the way, gee, I also think that it's hay in the barn.


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[Assistant] There's only two years that we can look at. That's all we can judge him on. His body of work for the first two years, and I'm being generous when I say this, it's been a mixed bag. But to be more accurate, in my view, it's been more bad than good.


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[Assistant] And I think that's fair. Now, when he was good, he was great against the Ravens. And that's the Deshaun Watson that has Browns fans salivating, that also has a section of Andrew Berry's brain occupied with, well, God, if we get that, hell yeaah, I'll give him another deal. So he's gotta be


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[Assistant] That's only three of five. What's he going to look like in year four? Because I think that's the time that you start talking about an extension. So if he has a great year next year.


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[Assistant] Is he 28? Deshaun? Deshaun Watson. Deshaun Watson, I'll give you one second. I'm pretty sure he's 28. And the only reason I bring that up is because we've seen in the past as quarterbacks turn the page and get into their 30s, they're not getting 5 year deals anymore, they're getting 2 or 3 year deals. Yeah, sure.


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[Assistant] We're going to tack on two more guaranteed and what would be a fourth year on adding forward from his last year of his deal as a team option, player option kind of thing.


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[Assistant] points because, uh, and credit because that's a hot potato.


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[Assistant] To the other side and say, oh, we're already thinking about resigning. And he's done nothing.


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[Assistant] To make them think about re-signing him. Nothing. So he's got really...


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[Assistant] A full year and perhaps a year and a half or two to turn the tide and to play like Houston Deshaun and then he can probably get an extension here.


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[Assistant] All things being equal though. Which position group do you think most needs addressed? Right now, regardless of who's available. See, I still think wide receiver too.


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[Assistant] It's beyond me why they haven't just come out and said that. To me it was obvious when they brought him in that he was going to replace Stefanski as the play caller.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and the fact that you said that Stefanski is saying he's gonna be aggressive. He was aggressive to the point in Buffalo to where the turnovers started to make us look at Josh Allen like, what's going on there?


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[Assistant] But not to the detriment of killing drive after drive with bad interception.


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[Assistant] I do too. Yeah, vertical throws, deep throws. And that's where Josh Allen fell into the most trouble. It was interesting when you compare Allen's production in the offense last year with the Bills. I don't know, Steve, if we can put that last graphic up again, but you can see that there was a big drop off in his turnover ratio.


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[Assistant] Once they had moved on from Dorsey. I mean, he was turning it over almost over 17% of his throws.


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[Assistant] You're going to have bigger wins, but your losses are going to be big as well. So it's just high risk, high reward. And I'm okay with that, but not to the point where your turnover rate is 17%.


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[Assistant] Alright, we're going to do a read and then we're going to bring in our buddy Chris Broussard. We are.


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[Assistant] Man, I'm bombed CB. This is the second time you've been on and both times you're driving so we don't get to see your pretty face.


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[Assistant] He does. He does. Tell him I said that. CB, uhm, the Cavs tanked their last game to sort of position themselves to play Orlando. First of all, your thoughts on that and then your thoughts on how this series plays out.


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[Assistant] I don't know that Boston's gonna cakewalk to the championship. I think it'll be a cakewalk for them to the NBA Finals.


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[Assistant] It seems like the perfect storm. You've got Yanis is dinged in Milwaukee. Obviously Embiid isn't the same in Philly. Cleveland, who looked like they could have been a contender from January 1st,


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[Assistant] To a team that can't play 500 ball. How do you explain? Obviously the injuries had something to do with it, but they were trying to mix and match with different combinations and they just didn't find an answer.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I agree with that. Chris, I've got a comparison for you. Can you imagine dealing with Bayless if the Cowboys ever won a Super Bowl? Oh my God.


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[Assistant] Thank goodness, thank goodness, you're absolutely right. Chris, it's always great to talk to you, my friend. Next time we'll have to make sure you're not driving your car so we can actually see you.


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[Assistant] Alright, you too, all our best. Uh, yeaah, that would be, that would be absolutely brutal, but you're right with Nick Wright. And Chris makes a good point. Like, they're so good. What can you do? In sports, there's always room for, you know, knocking down the, the, the top dog in whatever, but you're looking at the Chiefs now and you're saying,


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[Assistant] Alright, thanks to Chris Broussard. We appreciate all of his insight. I think, by the way, he's dead on with the Browns or the Cavs. The one thing that the one point he made that I think and Mike, we talked about this with you on the show when they were at their best, they're 18 and two.


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[Assistant] Everybody keeps talking about, well, they were hitting threes. You hit threes when you move the ball as much as they were moving the ball. They were rotating it around. There were five and six passes and they were finding open guys. And what happens when you're left open in the NBA, you make those shots from the time Garland came back, the offense became, became stagnant.


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[Assistant] There wasn't a lot of ball movement. Sometimes he would hold the ball in his hand for the entire possession. And I just, I think Chris nailed it.


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[Assistant] It was interesting, um, the, Brew talked about the Lakers' strategy in the West. Yeaah. And I thought the Lakers played it brilliantly.


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[Assistant] I know. So, I mean, get them early, knock them out, and now you're the top dog. Did Davis get hurt though, or is he okay?


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[Assistant] I was going to lean on you for some of my choices because I thought the first five or six were pretty easy and then after that I was like, man, mind the two calves dominant.


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[Assistant] And by the way, not to interrupt you again, uhm, not being here through the week, I just catch bits and pieces of what happens on the show. I want to commend you. Somebody sent me your apology. And I want to commend you on that because first of all,


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[Assistant] In this business, it's very difficult for any of us because we're in these chairs because we have strong opinions and we don't change them easily. You have been very pliable, I've thought, in the two years that I've worked with you.


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[Assistant] I was wrong. For whatever reason that you changed your mind on the Browns signing a couple of players that you thought were marginal to end their careers with the ground. I thought your apology was professional. It was sincere. It was a real apology. Thank you. And that's hard to do, but I thought


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[Assistant] I think he's saying that more for the sake of the Orlando Magic than anyone else. He looked a lot better the last time we saw him.


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[Assistant] Now, will he still feel that way after games three, four, and five? Who knows? But yeaah, I don't think there was, gee, is there any dispute? For me, it wasn't even close.


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[Assistant] We had seen a Jared Allen that we were like, wow. Uh, we had found out from our friend that came on the program that called the game in Paris. John Fanta. John Fanta who is just blowing up and is doing just such a great job. The guy's phenomenal. We found out from John that


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[Assistant] And, and so I mean, all these people trying to figure out what's the magic sauce? How do we, that's it. And I do think that the calves in the last week have gone back and looked at that stretch to find out why were we so good and they're going to be reminded that they were so good because Jared Allen was way more involved.


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[Assistant] So as you guys know, probably from listening to me over the last three months, I'm not high on Darius Garland. I've watched him very, very close in late and close situations and


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[Assistant] There are too many instances where he failed in that spotlight. Where there was one instance that comes to mind where he failed to get off a shot.


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[Assistant] In a critical late situation where they needed a bucket to take a lead.


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[Assistant] And he was working and working and working and working trying to find that open shot and he never got a shot off.


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[Assistant] Uhm, there were other instances where he had inexplicable late unforced turnovers. Yeah, he turned off his foot out of bounds.


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[Assistant] A bad pass to a player who was in one spot and vacated that area and the pass was made and it goes out of bounds, turnover.


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[Assistant] I think it's interesting, I think there's going to be a defensive-minded series and they're going to have black and blue marks when it's over. I think they're going to battle it out.


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[Assistant] I, and this was, this was hard for me, but in the end I just thought Mobly...


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[Assistant] The next guy I know, I'm going to be the only one that has him, I'll probably be the only one that has him this high, but I was glad to hear Broussard agree with me.


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[Assistant] I think Jalen Suggs is gonna be a real thorn in the calve side in this series.


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[Assistant] I stuck him there because I believe he belongs there, but I thought that I'd get a lot of pushback, but I guess not.


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[Assistant] It's gotta be Wagner. That's the one the Cavs told you you had too low.


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[Assistant] And so in full disclosure, I felt comfortable putting strews there, but after that I'm like, you can pick a name out of a hat. I don't know. I don't, I don't know.


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[Assistant] I just think Okoro's skill set is, it, it, I think he's made for...


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[Assistant] These five, six game series where you get into a rhythm of what the other team's gonna do and you know what's coming.


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[Assistant] No, but the reason I put him in there is just because I think defensively, I think he can play a role in the series.


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[Assistant] So that rounds out your guys top 10. By the way, one thing that uhm, I just called this up and what jumped out at me is I knew the magic were young.


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[Assistant] So my guess is the Cavs told you that you had Wagner too well.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it was. I don't think there was too much drama in the 10.


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[Assistant] That's one on one. So we'll see. It's this kind of a chess match that scares me with JB.


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[Assistant] Is he going to make the right decisions? Is he going to make the right combinations? Is he going to try to take it to Orlando and basically say this is what we're going to do, it's up to you to stop us or is he going to based on what Orlando is doing defensively start


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[Assistant] As much as I hate to call for anyone's job, I'm not a fan of doing that. I just felt after watching the Nick series that he was over his skis, didn't do, didn't make the right combination changes, didn't make changes really throughout the series.


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[Assistant] And I just felt like if you give him another year, you're going to get the same thing next year. How is he going to learn that suddenly in the course of regular season games where it's just different?


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[Assistant] They do. Yesterday, they scrapped out a win. I thought they were gonna goof around with Cade Smith, who I liked early on, but now he just can't seem to miss bats. I thought they were gonna blow that lead. They blew one five to one lead earlier, uhm, and had to scrap back.


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[Assistant] I thought that we were looking at the same thing. I think the biggest takeaway for me so far this season was the biggest difference maker yesterday and that's Carlos Carrasco. And guys, if you would have told me in February that I would be saying that


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[Assistant] Three weeks into the season, I would have said, you're absolutely nuts. But he has, and I don't, I'm not sure, I don't think this is sustainable for him.


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[Assistant] But he keeps giving them one quality start after another. There's always a hiccup though, that yesterday was the first.


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[Assistant] 29 pitch first inning, but then he settled in and then you could see both his experience and his veteran mentality kick in and he started pitching and


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[Assistant] I don't know how long this is, I can tell you this, they will not finish with the best record in the American League. They won't.


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[Assistant] They currently sit with the best record in the American League, but they won't finish that way. But to me, he's been the guy.


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[Assistant] Well, I can think of two. Hosey had one robbed that was over the fence and it was taken away. And the ball yesterday, I think Freeman hit the ball that was three feet from going out over the big monster, over the green monster.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's a tough pivot when you're a pitching, when you're an organization that's built on pitching and suddenly you look around and one arm after another is hurt or not performing. Now it becomes almost scramble mode. What do we do now? Well, they hadn't made any moves. They've just gotten better production out of their hitters.


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[Assistant] I don't know where the shift came in the point of horizon. You know, like how they moved there. Because clearly, and I reported this from spring training.


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[Assistant] A lot of the players were hinting at it, but Will Brennan was the one guy that came right out and told me, because I asked it very pointedly to him after hearing it from a number, a number of other players were sort of dancing around the issue. I asked him very pointedly,


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[Assistant] Is the organization speaking out loud about a philosophical change offensively? And he didn't dodge it, he said, yeah, we are.


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[Assistant] It is, we are, we are moving our point on the horizon. It's no longer, you know, don't be afraid to swing and miss. We're going to be aggressive. We're going to take our hacks. We're still going to be judicious at the plate and we're going to have good pitch discipline and plate discipline. But it's one thing to say that, Bull, as you know. Sure.


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[Assistant] It's, it's stunning to me. So I don't know, was this, maybe it was Steven Vogt. He's the only voice in the room that's different.


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[Assistant] It is so important when Jarvis Landry came in and changed the culture with the Browns.


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[Assistant] You know, we see the team making the playoffs. They're no longer expecting bad things to happen to them. They're expecting good things to happen. This Guardians team, and I mentioned on Monday's show, Steven Vogt keeps using this word over and over and over and over. Love.


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[Assistant] He keeps talking about how much they love one another, how much the, how the camaraderie is great. Watch a game that's late and close, eighth, ninth inning. The whole bench is up on the top step of the dugout.


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[Assistant] That's what Steven Vogt has done best. He said to me in spring training, he doesn't like the word platoon. He doesn't. What he said was,


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[Assistant] We need to see what we've got and these guys are all gonna get a look. And I kind of filed that away and I'm like, they all say that.


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[Assistant] But once you get into the real season, you're in it to win games. Here's the message he is sending to his 25. I believe in every one of you.


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[Assistant] Because no one's going three days without getting it at bat.


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[Assistant] That's so big because it reminds me of Belichick's Patriots.


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[Assistant] I've got, I mean, who the hell uses three catchers? Yea, that's crazy. Right. He, he, you know, and it's, it's a way to get fry at bats. You can, and he's not afraid to, you know, DH hosie for a day. Right. And let RAS get the at bats at third. I just think,


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[Assistant] He's, he's hit every note perfectly. Yeah. And, you know, I don't, I don't want to make any long ranging predictions based on this, but so far in the, did the, did the guardians get this move right? I think it's a slam dunk absolutely.


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[Assistant] And I don't know, I would like to know, and I don't think we'll ever know because teams don't give this kind of information away. I would like to know who was the choir leader on changing the


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[Assistant] Direction of the offense of the organization. Was it Antonetti?


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[Assistant] We're doing what? Was it the players saying? Okay, great. You guys, there's no trophy for striking out the fewest. I know, right, exactly. You know, so I, I don't know, maybe it was the players, maybe the players were saying, cause I know Josh Bell did not like some of the things that the organization was having him do.


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[Assistant] And there were probably other players that didn't like it either. Yeah. So maybe it was a, you know, an aggregate of all of it. But to me, the one voice that hitting coaches the same.


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[Assistant] The general manager is the same. The hierarchy in the organization is the same. Steven Vogt came in. And now it's different and I like the way


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[Assistant] You know, I know that this is a funny name. I'll just bring it up again because it was in the news yesterday or two days ago. I know Trevor Bauer seems to be a non-starter poison ivy. What are you thinking?


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[Assistant] But his other primary accuser, the other woman who...


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[Assistant] I know, I know, but listen, somebody's gonna do it. Somebody's gonna be in an August pennant race and they're gonna look at this guy who's available and they're gonna say, hey, what do we have to lose other than bad PR?


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[Assistant] We cannot confirm or deny that he's been seen in the dugout playing Monopoly Go on his phone.


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[Assistant] Like, the one thing that we hope is fair is our judicial system.


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[Assistant] Well, listen, if we get to the point where we know our judicial system is rigged,


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[Assistant] We're in big trouble, and I don't mean just politically, I just mean in general. You have to, you can't have a banana republic judicial system, politically or civilly, and here's what, the reason I say that is,


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[Assistant] There was a period with Colin Kaepernick where he was completing less than 50% of his passes. Yea, but he was still good enough. You would think, you would think.


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[Assistant] Their fan face was up in arms. I was angry. Because domestic violence against his wife, I believe. Well, you know what made everybody forget about that? Holding the 2016 World Series.


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[Assistant] 30 more minutes of Ultimate Cleveland Sports, you'll see there.


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[Assistant] Is this the biggest, not including the Browns? Yeaah. And not including the Guardians or Cavs in the playoffs? Right. Is this one of the biggest three day stretches starting tomorrow? It is. Or tonight? Really four day stretch? It is. In Cleveland modern history?


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[Assistant] Can you imagine if I would have said that to you five years ago? Two years ago. Yea, right. I would have laughed. Yea, there's no doubt. And here it is. There's much, there's way more interest in the women.


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[Assistant] It's supposed to Monday, I think. Yeah, yeah, the weather's supposed to be cold this weekend. Monday's supposed to be nice. It's supposed to be 62.


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[Assistant] Could be, they've declared, uh, I know in, I don't know if it's Niagara Falls, Canada. Right. They've already preemptively declared a state of emergency there because they're worried they're going to be overwhelmed by people that are coming. Oh, that would be a really cool place to watch it. Yeah, of course. Oh yeah.


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[Assistant] Just don't get swept in those two at this point. I don't want to split those next two and I'm good. And then you, and not only you at home, not only is everybody in a good mood, you play in the white socks, they stink. You have a chance to really pile up some wins early. It's exciting.


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[Assistant] Yeah, he's shake, he's stroke, but he's a hot and cold guy.


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[Assistant] Oh yeaah. I said Kate Smith, my new favorite guardian. Yeaah, give him a shot in a big spot cause he's, he's tied for second on the team in strikeout, or at least he was before yesterday.


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[Assistant] Good. We did this, Jay, for the Ultimate Guardians hitter. I saw you were gonna do that. What did you come up with?


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[Assistant] Uh, it was pretty close. Jason and I had, the only difference between Jason and I was for best swing. I had Julio Franco. Oh, wow. And he had, I can't remember who he had. Julio, you're going back. We had Manny in there. We had Tomi in there. We had Alomar. We had Roberto Alomar. Good. We had Albert Bell and Kenny Lofton.


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[Assistant] I think it's interesting, Jay, that he mentioned Dr. Eletrash, who's known as one of the big baseball surgeons. He is. I was surprised to hear him.


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[Assistant] You know, I like the confidence, I like that he believes in himself. I think whenever, whether it's Deshaun Watson or any other player, when they talk about coming back from injury, you're always going to take it with a grain of salt. Not that he's lying, but of course he wants to be confident, he wants to portray that confidence, and maybe he is going to be fine.


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[Assistant] We know that, as you said, every injury is different. You don't know what setbacks, maybe he has no setbacks along the way. We don't know what setbacks he may or may not have along the way, so who knows. The fact that he's confident this far in advance, the fact that he's already throwing the ball,


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[Assistant] Makes me believe he should be ready to go. But here's an interesting thing. I had Charles Davis, uhm, on my podcast this week. Great NFL analyst. I love Charles Davis. He's fantastic. And he made a really interesting point to me about Deshaun Watson. He goes, he said, Deshaun hasn't gotten better, obviously. That's obvious.


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[Assistant] Or rehabbing from injuries. And he said, he made the point, you know, sometimes we think about, ooh, is the guy going to be ready to play? But,


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[Assistant] You know, in the off season, you want your best, your players to not just be ready, but to have worked to improve their game. Exactly. And so if you're spending the whole off season just rehabbing, you can't really do the other part of improving your game. So it's not just about Deshaun coming back.


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[Assistant] It's about is he coming back and gonna be healthy enough in say July that he can get better in training camp.


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[Assistant] Nobody even talked about psychology. Nobody even talked about mental health. How you feeling? How you doing? When you get hit, when you get hit in the face, especially with a pitch in baseball, right? That's a mental hurdle to get over. Some guys never do. You get the yips. Remember Steve Sachs or Mackie Sasser? Couldn't throw the ball back to home plate. What's that Mike? Chuck Knobloch. Chuck Knobloch, yea.


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[Assistant] Uh, you get the yips. It's a mental hurdle to get. Even the, there's a pitcher, Daniel Bard, who was with the Red Sox, got the yips, was out of baseball for seven years. He's been with the Rockies now. Did he come back? He did. He's been with the Rockies. He's on the injured list right now.


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[Assistant] Whether it's any of those things or it's just dealing with a traditional injury or just dealing with


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[Assistant] Everything that Deshaun Watson's had to deal with in the last couple of years. Sure. It's, it's the, it's the, the biggest thing I think we all, certainly I


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[Assistant] Disregarded when the Browns traded for him is the mental hurdles he's got to get over. Obviously now he's got physical hurdles that he has to overcome. But the mental hurdles are part of this. As human beings, we all have mental hurdles and there's no doubt, I mean it seems very obvious,


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[Assistant] I wonder if, it's really pointless at this point, but I wonder if Deshaun Watson had to do it all over again the year that he sat out with Houston. Now, if he wanted to play that year, would they have let him because the whole thing was hanging over? I guess you never know.


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[Assistant] But I wonder if he had to do it over again if he would have played that year for Houston. That's a good question. Because he would have, he probably would have been better off.


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[Assistant] When you get, as you get older, not that he's old, but you, and let's say he can't throw quite as hard as he used to. Well, he's got to find a way to adjust his game physically.


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[Assistant] And mentally to say, hey, I can't do all the things I used to be able to do. I gotta find a new way to win. Or think about CeCe Sebastia, right? CeCe was a great pitcher.


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[Assistant] And then he started going downhill with the Yankees. And then at the end of his career, he adjusted the way he was pitching. And the last couple of years with the Yankees, he got back to, he wasn't the guy he was in Cleveland early with the Yankees, but he was a good pitcher again after it looked like he was done. Do you remember Frank Tanana? Yea, of course.


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[Assistant] You know who I think, you know who I think should be it? This is crazy. Jacoby Brissette maybe.


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[Assistant] I think Jacoby, what's his completion percentage with the Browns?


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[Assistant] I'm for whatever reason, I want to put Tim Couch as clutch. I want to put him as clutch.


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[Assistant] He had the Hail Mary. I just feel like he was just screwed by the talent around him. Boy, he was. And if he had played with better talent, I feel like he would have been clutching big spots.


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[Assistant] So, something to see. So, Deshaun Watson's not going to be on the list then.


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[Assistant] Honestly guys, Joe Flacco for arm strength is the only pick I felt good about. I'm in agreement with that.


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[Assistant] Let's see, who else could be in competition for the bottom?


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[Assistant] He's a popular player, obviously. They love him, Bull. There's no doubt about it. And, uh, I think, listen.


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[Assistant] And this is something we, we, they talked about in spring training and so far they're doing it. They're being very much more aggressive.


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[Assistant] Impressive. You know, which is over 6 runs a game. And, uh, what was the final yesterday? 5? 4-2. 4-2. Okay. So listen, uh, the offense is off to a great start. You're getting it.


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[Assistant] Mostly across the lineup. I mean, you know, there's nobody that's off to a terrible, obviously, Hedges is not hitting, but almost everybody else is hitting pretty well. Is there anything that worries you? Because I have one worry.


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[Assistant] About the whole team? Yea, about their start. My biggest concern is Tristan McKenzie. Mine too. I mean, it's 100%. His velocity wasn't there. Way down.


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[Assistant] We were talking about the mental stuff though, Jay, and maybe there's part of him that didn't cut loose, cause he's a little worried. That's the hope, I know it's...


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[Assistant] You know, I would assume, uh, that, uh,


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[Assistant] I, I know he had a home run yesterday. I assume he'll be up soon. Uh, but, but there are gonna need one way or another to hit for more power. So the power still, it's better. I guess their percentage wise is a little better than the last year. I like their aggressiveness on the basis. Love it. Love it.


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[Assistant] Well, I mean, outside of hedges and the


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[Assistant] And Barlow, nice job yesterday because he got off to a bad start with the Guardians and then he gave up what is doubled I think to his first batter and then strikeout, strikeout, strikeout.


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[Assistant] I think it's in between. I definitely don't think it's fool's gold, but I don't think...


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[Assistant] But, they're gonna get reinforcements. Like we said, Manzardo, hopefully if DeLotter has a good season in AA, hopefully he's here at some point this summer. Maybe, maybe, I'll hope against hope that they'll spend a little money maybe to end a bad at some point. I don't think you wanna just be like, you know because, we'll see about Freeman, I love what he's done so far, we'll see.


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[Assistant] Right now it's an exciting time. And the division looks challenging because the Tigers maybe have arrived here a little bit. We'll see. They got a lot to prove also. I'm excited for opening day or home opener. I can't wait for that.


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[Assistant] What do you think makes the most sense for the Browns when they pick, assuming they stay there at 54?


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[Assistant] Matt, you know, usually in the history of the NFL, tight ends take time to develop offensively.


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[Assistant] Last year we saw Sam Laporte, probably the best rookie season I can ever remember.


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[Assistant] At least statistically for a tight end, you know, from a, I guess from a fantasy perspective, I'm not looking at the blocking and stuff like that. And even Dalton Kincaid had a really good year as a rookie, not quite as good as Laporta, but really good. Does that affect where Brock Bowers, like, you think he moves up because teams now will be a little more aggressive at that position?


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[Assistant] Matt, let's talk about the current Brown receivers. We know, and Mario Cooper, we don't need to talk about him. We know how good he is.


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[Assistant] But obviously the acquisition of Jerry Judy. The guy had a ton of potential. First round pick. He hasn't lifted up to that potential. He hasn't been terrible, but he's just been kind of a guy. What are your expectations for him? What did you think of him coming out? And how good, how high is his upside still in year five, his first year with the Browns?


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[Assistant] I mean, this is a great move for both sides. I mean, it's irrelevant how much they're paying him because it's only one year. That's exactly right. The Texans, I think, had the fourth to fifth most cap space before this move. So they had plenty of cap space and they could do it because they're quarterbacks on this rookie contract.


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[Assistant] I mean, he's not old. He's 30. He's getting to the age where a wide receiver and the production starts to fall off. Right. And at the end of this four year contract, well, we're going to have to start paying the, not the Sean Watson, uh, CJ Stroud.


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[Assistant] So like, let's take that out of the equation. We got tons of cap space now. Let's pay him a boatload of money now. If he's great, maybe we can work something out next year. If he's not,


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[Assistant] Okay, we wasted money one year. Who cares? That's just the owner. That just doesn't affect the team.


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[Assistant] Yesterday we did a really fun assignment. We spent a long time on this. We ranked the top 10 teams in the AFC in terms of running back, wide receiver, tight end combined. Okay. Uh, the Browns finished what, fourth we had them?


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[Assistant] For the Brownsforth, the number one team was the Houston Texans.


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[Assistant] And that's not even including the quarterback who I think we all love. You gotta prove it. You gotta do it two years.


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[Assistant] Stefan Diggs had the, the, the, I was reading yesterday that the Bills had said, hey, you could kind of talk with all these teams, and he said you can't talk to the Chiefs apparently. That was the only team he couldn't talk to.


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[Assistant] Shout out to them for that. So like, he knew, he knows what he's getting into. He knows the Texans have all these good players. But I think they're going to be a team that throws the ball a ton because they got a great quarterback.


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[Assistant] Right. And what's funny, Jay, in the end, and I agree with all you said about the Texas organization, they've done a great job the last few years, but the most important thing that happened to them was luck. The luck that Carolina took Bryce Young.


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[Assistant] I think 29 out of 32 teams, maybe 31 out of 32. We should have asked Matt that. That actually would have been a good question. He maybe had the best rookie season we've ever seen from McQuarrie.


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[Assistant] Back to back to back. That's true. It's a three-peat for me. Yeaah. Yeaah. Maybe a day off. You tired? You're worn out?


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[Assistant] I'm, I'm, I'm mad that I'm not on tomorrow when Jay Crawford is here. I wanna play true or false with Jay Crawford.


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[Assistant] That's possible. Tyvis, you excited or no? I'm always excited for opening day. Listen, I told you I played baseball a lot when I was a kid, so I'm always mindful of opening day and I love the excitement. I can't wait till they start down here.


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[Assistant] Where the streets is packed and everybody's just talking about it and running around. It's a great atmosphere, but I'm happy baseball is bad.


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[Assistant] And that's a solid, that's a solid season to me, I'll take that.


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[Assistant] I think that that's exactly what they need. I think you, once you see the old way kind of ran its course, how do you get these guys energized? How do you get these guys excited about playing again? Well, you get some new younger guys in there that brings energy. You know, like for me,


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[Assistant] So I think that same thing could go with baseball. You know, get these guys excited. Have some young guys that speak the same language that understands exactly what they're going through that can relate to them. And I think that you'll get results from that. And I think that's what we'll see this season.


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[Assistant] You know why? You know why he decided to not want to do anything anymore? Cause he was mad that somebody stole his scooter last year. And that was the last straw. That was it.


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[Assistant] What's the team that you said throws the pitch? Tampa. That's messing up their elbow.


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[Assistant] So I looked up the difference. I said, where was the Guardians last year? Obviously they finished last. Who was 15? Your Chicago Cubs. They had...


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[Assistant] Young blood in there, Steven. Vote is salist. If you ain't hitting, you ain't playing. So I think it's a huge emphasis on hitting this year.


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[Assistant] I think which means that these guys are gonna, they spent this whole off season hearing about how they can't hit home runs, how I gotta hit more home runs. So I think that that focal point is gonna get put to use and I think they're gonna hit a stride. It's gonna be at some point in this season where they just gonna hit a stride, where they just knocking them out the park.


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[Assistant] And I think that that's going to help propel them. A lot of guys on this team has the ability to hit more home runs. I think we'll see that this year. I think it was a down year for a lot of hitters last year. I think they find that this year, get that back installed in there. And I think that they can, they can get top 15.


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[Assistant] Oh, by the end of April. That's okay. That would be good. I'd be excited.


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[Assistant] Same skipper, same old tricks. Oh, so that's a typical year.


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[Assistant] One and a half home runs for him this year. Over under. Over, over one and a half.


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[Assistant] April 8th, every time. To me, opening days, for me, as a fan, I always, it's when it's home. Like when you can go right down to it, right up the road right here and see it. Because there's literally so much buzz around it. People are downtown.


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[Assistant] And it's just a whole bunch of chaos that's going on. That to me is the opening day feeling. Anytime it's on the road, I don't necessarily get that same feeling, if that makes sense. Jason?


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[Assistant] Beaver on the mound to start. He gonna come out on fire. Uh, I'mma say...


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[Assistant] Yea, the C-minus is kinda, it's a little absurd. Because the thing is, everybody's mad at, they didn't make a ton of moves. They re-signed some guys that they wanted to re-sign.


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[Assistant] Yeah, as long as everybody's healthy. Well, you said about every team.


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[Assistant] I agree. Yeaah, I mean. But they need, they address


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[Assistant] It depends on Judy. They're better at wide receiver. Yes.


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[Assistant] You know what the biggest thing that we don't talk about? What? That could be the biggest impact? The offensive staff.


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[Assistant] It could be, that's what I'm saying. To me that, the new offensive staff, cause defensively we seen last year, they switched the staff, or defensive coordinator I should say, and boom, it was the biggest difference of the season last year.


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[Assistant] Offensively, they switch the staff. If they come in here and they win more games, then the offense actually looks high powered.


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[Assistant] They are unwatchable. They are unwatchable. I would say oh, listen, first of all. They're terrible. I would say oh, yesterday was bad.


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[Assistant] Like, defensively they look horrible. And it's sad because that, it's like all JB like focus on defense, defense, defense, and they just look terrible. And the stars, now you talk about this core four thing, you had, what you had, three of them that played in this game?


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[Assistant] Mobley. Everyone but Mitchell. Darius was terrible. Darius was terrible, Mobley was.


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[Assistant] They coulda had Tyrese Maxey! Got drafted 21st!


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[Assistant] This is the setup. McNuggets, you know what you're doing right now? What am I doing? You're hashtagging fire JB. Everything you just said here is to start the hashtag fire JB.


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[Assistant] Real men cry. No they don't. No they don't. Your priorities are all screwed up.


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[Assistant] Listen, the last time I cried, I was 10 years old. Okay. My father was supposed to go pick me up and he didn't show up. I was outside waiting and he didn't come. And I cried and I told myself that day that I would never cry again and I have not.


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[Assistant] For this to be the Browns all season, he should have put in there something about the Browns offensive staff changing. That'll let me know that you actually pay attention to everything that's going on. It's not just roster, it's not just roster moves. Because last year, the biggest thing that happened to this team was not a roster move, it was a coaching staff change.


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[Assistant] Well that's the best way to do it because Locke is probably the oldest out of all of them. Right. You'll probably get the best trade value from Christian Kirk because he can show you he's more than just the two, he could be a one and his whole, the whole office goes around him and Judy just hasn't proved it.


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[Assistant] I think I'm cutting Darius. I think I'm trading. I think you get the most trade value for a trade.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I like Trey more because Trey is a, Trey actually gets assists as well. Max he's a school. Trey's a shithead. He is. And he's a defensive liability. But I think he's, I, I, I, I get sucked in to Trey. But he also had, that, that postseason run he had, like he, he showed me some. He showed me some.


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[Assistant] Nobody ever said that Kareem was the gr- was the greatest. He said Magic was. But again, we- I'm talking about through the history of the team. That's not true.


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[Assistant] The best Laker. Ever. Some people call him that.


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[Assistant] No he wasn't. Johnny Elway was. Coming out of college? Everybody, Johnny Elway was.


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[Assistant] I'm cutting director Steve. I'm keeping Steve Harvey. I'm cutting director Steve flat out. It ain't even, that's not even an option. He's gone. Now the other two, that's- I like for Steve Beck to


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[Assistant] I've been doing a lot of laundry the last couple of weeks. Oh my goodness.


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[Assistant] I'm keeping wings, the other two, it don't matter, but I'm keeping the wings. I love a good burger.


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[Assistant] So, this upcoming year for the Guardians, next year for the Browns, and then next year for the Cavs?


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[Assistant] When you lose your taste, like if you got COVID or get sicker and you can't taste, it is the worst thing in the world. Now you do, you can't eat healthy. Worse than not being able to see or hear? You're right.


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[Assistant] I'm the Chicken Nugget, I'm Trey McNugget right here because he gets the most trade value.


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[Assistant] Well, I, I did that for a while when I was working in New York. I would work a lot of overnights for a time, and then I'd sleep during the day, and you could never, when you, when you have that schedule, maybe other people that do it for years get used to it. Yeaah. For me, I would sleep like three, four hours. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] I know, I heard it from somebody that actually worked with Greg Gumbel. Because Greg, when the fan in New York first started, Greg Gumbel briefly worked on the fan.


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[Assistant] And one of the other guys that worked there that just recently retired in the last couple of years, I became friendly with when I was working there and he said,


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[Assistant] It's only been once since I went on vacation. Which is a month ago now at this point.


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[Assistant] And then, I thought it was going to end perfectly. That was a great game. It went to extra innings, so I was going back and forth in the first inning of the Guardians game, and then I watched the Guardians game. But the Guardians game, even though there were eight runs, flew by. Yeaah, it did.


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[Assistant] They said no. Stephen Vogt told Hammy, cause I was listening to Hammy last night, I was watching the game, I synced it up, and he said, Stephen Vogt specifically said there's no personal catcher, that he just wanted hedges to play two of the first four games. Alright, I'd still like Naylor in the lineup. Now, I would have put him in for Fry, but...


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[Assistant] Well, I didn't like Laureano hitting third. Right. I want Jimenez higher up in the lineup. But in the end, great game by the Guardians. Sure. They did everything right. They played, they played very well on defense. Uh, they had that one inning when they scored a bunch of runs. They got helped by that Austin Hedges ground ball, which they scored a hit, but I thought that was an obvious error.


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[Assistant] The good, the best thing about the game last night, and again, I know the A's lineup is a minor league lineup. There's no debating that.


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[Assistant] But, it was just how Shane Bieber looked, right? I mean, he looked like Shane Bieber again.


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[Assistant] Regardless, yes, he's going to be even more dominant against a bad lineup, but he looked phenomenal. I mean, he was on point, he had great pace, he had great movement, everything was right for him and that was great to see because if the Guardians


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[Assistant] Who look to me like, you know, on paper as a middling team because their lineup is as question marks. If they're going to win this division, which is possible because nobody in this division is that good. It's going to be on the shoulders of the pitching led by Shane Bieber. They've got to be great because the guardians have the best rotation in this division.


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[Assistant] And if they're gonna make the playoffs, the rotations gotta be great. It's gotta live up to its potential. Right. And it starts with Bieber and it started great last night cause he was absolutely lights out. They could have thrown him another inning. I think he vote made the right call. I was screaming one more. I know. I always want to see those. Cause his pitch count was so low. I know. I get why he did. They had a big enough lead that he was like, all right, let's get some.


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[Assistant] Part of the reason, especially nowadays, why it's rare, even though there's aces going, is because guys don't pitch that many innings. True. You know, back when you were a kid, when I was a kid,


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[Assistant] What's funny is, the Guardians, let's say, just say since 2020, this decade, right?


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[Assistant] This morning I was sitting here talking with him and we were talking about


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[Assistant] How much pitching has changed and how Hall of Fame voters are going to have to look at pitchers differently. Because you're never going to have a pitcher win 300 games. You're very rarely going to have a guy get 3000 strikeouts. Guys just don't pitch enough. Yea, the new bars are lower. And you're going to have to like look at it because we were talking about is Chris Sale a Hall of Famer? Is Zach Renke a Hall of Famer? We were talking about some of those guys.


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[Assistant] You're gonna have to look at pictures differently to get into the Hall of Fame.


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[Assistant] And the one good hit, by the way, was the A's could have had something going and Butler slid off the base and it was a great play by Jose to stay with it. Waiting for him to come off.


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[Assistant] We'll see how it plays out. Right. I, yesterday my bold prediction, you guys are going to give them a little bit, was that, and you know, bold predictions are things you're not expecting to happen. Sure. It's a small percentage. But I said that Brian Roquio would be an all-star. Okay? I like Brian Roquio, I'm really excited to give him an opportunity. I do too. If he plays well and he's batting ninth, well then you, you know, after the first time. I know what you're saying.


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[Assistant] Think about, as the two hitter, how many more at-bats over the course of the season that might give Jose?


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[Assistant] What I would do though, Jay, is if you're gonna hit Jose 2, I would hit Naylor 3. Josh Naylor.


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[Assistant] Let's face it guys, if the Guardians are going to have success offensively, they've got to play like that. They're not going to hit a ton of home runs. Hopefully it'll be up from last year, but we know they're not going to live and die by the home run. They've got to be aggressive on the bases.


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[Assistant] That was, it was, I said in the text where I was like, it was almost like he was so pissed that he got hit, maybe he was scared that he was going to be hurt, that he was hurt, that he's like, I don't know.


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[Assistant] And you, you look at the, you know, the offseason gave you nothing to be excited about, right? There was no buzz for the team. Yeah. People like you and me that love baseball.


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[Assistant] There's a lot of agreement. This happened to be on Weather Channel because WKYC, I use WKYC's forecast, but they don't go as many days ahead as Weather Channel does, which I get. And that's why.


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[Assistant] That's not a bowl of predictions. Hold on. Now, you said all of baseball. All of baseball. Now, there was, uh, I think MLB.com put their rotation rankings out there. Oh, I didn't see them. And I think the Guardians were ninth.


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[Assistant] Sid Fernandez. Yeah, they were really good. I don't know if they, I don't think they all won 20 games, but they were good. That is bold. I think it's a long, I mean, I, I can see Bieber and Bybee. I think.


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[Assistant] I just worry that he's not gonna pit. No, I think he'll be good, but he's not a guy who I expect to go deep into games enough to get those wins.


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[Assistant] And if it's going to be a little more, Jay, then let Naylor DH a dozen games also. You know what I'm saying? Like if you want to let him catch 120, fine. Have him DH 12 games. Cause he's, he should be one of their, their third or fourth best. Is he Bieber? Like I thought maybe he was Bieber's.


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[Assistant] That he's been around that ball. There's no doubt. As a backup catcher, he, he is great, but.


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[Assistant] But I don't think they're as good and I don't think anybody's better than they were last year.


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[Assistant] The guardians are the same, I'll say. I think Detroit.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so I think it's going to be like between 85 and 87. But here, I'll tell you this, here's a bold prediction for you. I say that the twins, the guardians,


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[Assistant] The Tigers and the Royals will all finish within eight games of each other.


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[Assistant] I think it's gonna be all close. I think they'll all finish between 85 and 78. You know what's funny? White Sox terrible.


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[Assistant] Absolutely. Listen, the great thing about baseball is if you make the playoffs, you can win the World Series. You never go to the baseball playoffs and say, oh, this team can't win. I mean, that doesn't happen. Like we said, the Rangers were the five seed last year, and the Diamondbacks were the six. So, they barely made the playoffs, those two teams.


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[Assistant] And think about it, the two teams in the American League that most people are picking to go to the World Series this year, the Astros and the Orioles, like those teams


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[Assistant] The Orioles got Corbin Burns for the Brewers. It was a great trade. He was great on opening day.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and listen, their lineup's fantastic. They got amazing young players. But their rotation outside of Burns is nothing special.


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[Assistant] Deep rotation. If the Rangers can get the Grom and Scherzer healthy, deep rotation. But the Guardians have a rotation to play with anybody if they're healthy. And if they make the playoffs, I'm going to assume it's going to be healthy.


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[Assistant] Yeah, going with the kids last thing, I mean, just like, you know, you see Nolan Jones and some of these guys, but it's all news. We're, we're onto this year.


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[Assistant] Because it's baseball and it's games all the time, the time of our show may change from week to week. Right. We're trying to do it live. Is it a weekly? Yeah, we're doing it once a week, Mondays at three, but like on opening day we may do it on Tuesday so we can recap opening day. Yeah. And plus the Guardians and I can't remember.


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[Assistant] I wanted to wait on Judy because I'm worried about that. With Amari Cooper, I'm not worried about him being comfortable because he got-


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[Assistant] But I would only want to extend him for one year because...


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[Assistant] Uh, or let me rephrase that. I would extend beyond that, but nothing guaranteed beyond next year.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, when I say next year, I'm, I'm, I'm, in my mind, we're in the 24th. Yeaah, I know what you're saying. Yeaah, so I would guarantee him money for 25, and then I, you know, extend him another year beyond that, but you can get out of that money for 26.


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[Assistant] Because I expect him to be, play at a really high level for at least another year. And if the second year he declines and he's now a number two receiver, okay, I can live with overpaying him for one year. So that's what I would do. I wouldn't wait because...


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[Assistant] Yeah, so. Who was the tight end? Right, and so, I would, you know, I'd show him some love, especially when you just paid Jerry Judy, who's never proven anything in the league.


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[Assistant] The only reason not to extend some guys is because you want them to have a proven year, but Amari Cooper's not one of those guys.


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[Assistant] This is, as much as I don't, I find Jimmy distasteful. The Browns right now have a big advantage. He is willing to spend and other teams are not willing to spend like he is and that's a big advantage.


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[Assistant] Jerry Judy, he didn't really get paid like a number one receiver. He got paid like a high end too. He got overpaid for what he's done. Right, he's been a mid-tier


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[Assistant] Again, let me just throw this out. We all know, I think we'd all agree the owner should pay for these things all by itself. I agree they should. The reality is in most cases they don't. They do not. It's a frustrating whatever, but that, you know, that...


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[Assistant] He wants to, here's what I want to know from you, Jay, because I feel like you're the best qualified to answer this question. Because we were talking about this on third, uh, whatever it was, maybe Tuesday.


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[Assistant] Uhm, my, when I was thinking about like, because yes, the idea of a dome stadium, that's the, the Browns gotta have a dome stadium. Absolutely. And the idea of putting in Brook Park, my concern was how does this negatively affect the city?


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[Assistant] Now I know business owners from that perspective, but beyond the business owners, is there another negative impact for the city of Cleveland? Sure. The team just being in Brook Park. Lost revenue.


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[Assistant] No, I know that. I'm just saying there's, there's, I think for some people there's, you know, if you don't live in Cleveland proper, yes, maybe you don't care.


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[Assistant] I feel sad about the fact. I feel sad about it. I'm torn because I love the idea of the Browns having this Browns world. I think it's cool, but I'm also sad because I think it's bad for the


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[Assistant] You know, I guess it seems unlikely with, uh, a brand new stadium downtown.


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[Assistant] You know, where are you putting it? Where are you putting it exactly? In the same spot? It's a good question. I don't know.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and that is the one big advantage. Can you think of anywhere else they could play? No, not that's, you know. Real quick. Fans would be happy about it. Go ahead.


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[Assistant] First things first, I was on I-90, jumped right off the freeway, turned around, and got back first things first. Mike Vrabel, man, welcome home, right? I think this is a great hire, very unexpected, very...


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[Assistant] This is a dude who understands the situation at hand, right? And when you get somebody that's from here to be a part of this organization in any capacity, I think it brings an infusion of energy, um, from a standpoint that you can relate to wanting to see the Cleveland Browns be successful. Now on the flip side of that,


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[Assistant] I'm not gonna lie, I did have the same toxic thought. I said, man, this dude might take Kevin's job.


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[Assistant] And that's just, that's just the reality because most fans are going to think that when they see this hire that Kevin Stefanski won still has not been awarded a contract extension. And so now you look at a guy like Mike Vrabel with his persona coming into this organization.


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[Assistant] Of course your natural thought is if all hell breaks loose, this is the successor to Kevin Stefanski. And that's not a damn good, that's a damn good plan B to have. You hope it don't get to that point?


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[Assistant] It depends on style, right? Because this is a Clevelander. This is a dude who's tough. This is a dude who embodies hard work. He just comes with a different persona than what Kevin Stefanski does. And so I guess it's, you know, pick your poison of who you would want.


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[Assistant] Not even trying to get down that road because I don't want to go there. The fact that that dude is inside of this organization helps Kevin Stefanski. It helps Jim Schwartz. It helps the players. It helps everybody that's involved with this. There's, it's always a good thing when you can


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[Assistant] Add to your franchise, right? Whether it be on the coaching staff and a front office or on a football.


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[Assistant] To your organization in any capacity. It's a dub, right? That's an easy layup. You want to do that. You know, this is a dude I can remember back to the hard knocks days, right? Uhm, I was watching the Houston Texans on hard knocks years ago and this was when Cecil was there.


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[Assistant] And I believe at the time he was a linebackers coach under defensive coordinator, uh, Romeo Cronel. And he would be highlighted a lot. And you could just see the leadership. You talk about being a leader of men. You could see the coaching. You could see him putting like the...


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[Assistant] He's a culture builder. Right. You see all of that on display just as a linebacker's coach. And I remember when he, you know, finally became a head coach, it was just like, good for him. You know, we talked last season when we played Tennessee that we knew we outmatched the Titans on the football field.


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[Assistant] I remember we said, well, if there's one X factor, who is it? It's Ravel. It's Mike Ravel, right? So knowing that, and now he's here a part of this organization, like I said, man, it makes everybody better.


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[Assistant] And 2018 is when Jim Schwartz was the, was the defensive coordinator, won the Super Bowl. So you got, you got a Super Bowl ring in there.


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[Assistant] Since 2018, yeaah. Since 2018, you got somebody that's won the Super Bowl, you got, uh, coaches that's won Coaching of the Year, and guys that's leader of men, and guys that actually know how to teach football. Mike Tomlin talk about that all the time. A lot of coaches don't want to coach. Well, you got guys now that actually love coaching, they love teaching. And so, just like I said, I don't think any of us


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[Assistant] If I was to put a positive spin on it, you know, just to look at it from a different perspective.


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[Assistant] I don't think no one has an opportunity to be a distraction. I don't think it's going to be a distraction at all.


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[Assistant] If you look at the Cleveland Browse organization, let's start with the front office.


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[Assistant] If you look at how Andrew Berry over the course of his tenure here has kind of built out his staff and then you've seen these dudes grow in roles, get promotions, eventually move on and get top jobs in other franchises.


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[Assistant] Right, we don't know what you have with this coach. But you see the constant revamping of the coaching staff now, right? And then you add Mike Vrabel here. We don't know.


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[Assistant] And we don't know what the circumstances may be. We don't know if he even wanted to coach on that level. Uhm, we do know that he's from Northeast Ohio. We do know he grew up a Cleveland Browns fan. And so this might be an opportunity for him to do something that's sentimental to him.


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[Assistant] You know what I mean? And so if that's the case, he's only going to pour into Kevin Stefanski. Me and you and Anthony talk all the time about iron sharpening and iron is one person better than another. And we do that here in this studio. We try to make each other better. So instead of looking at this as a, as a potential distraction,


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[Assistant] I'm gonna make the choice right now to look at this. Mike Vrabel is here to only help Kevin Stefanski be better at his job. He's here to help Ken Dorsey be better at his. He's here to help Jim Schwartz be better at his. He's a very well respected man throughout the NFL and I think when you get that dude in here he like


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[Assistant] You know, he garners his attention and I think he's only going to help the situation at hand.


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[Assistant] Let's say hypothetically it wasn't, I still don't think it's a problem.


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[Assistant] Because I feel the same way about this that I would have if Joe Flacco would have came back. A lot of people didn't want Joe Flacco back because they thought it would serve as a distraction to Deshaun Watson. But I've been of the mindset you do what's best for the Cleveland Browns, not what's best for Deshaun Watson. And to me,


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[Assistant] Hypothetically, if Kevin Stefanski didn't have the say in this, let's say this was an Andrew Berry thing, right? And he made that call. Okay, well you're doing what's best for the Browns. Regardless of what Kevin might do.


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[Assistant] No, no, it's not, it's not going to be that. Unfortunately, let's be real, it's going to be Brethren in the Freedom Media that's going to look at this situation if Kevin Stefanski gets off to a slow start and there's a story there to be created that's going to, you know, garnish our attention.


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[Assistant] He here to help. I don't think he's here to take nobody's job. I don't think he's here to like be toxic. You know, we've seen that before. I can remember when Todd Haley was hired as Hugh Jackson's offensive coordinator. How'd that go? The dude had an agenda.


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[Assistant] For me to work for an organization that I grew up cheering for, to be close to their home, to learn some things like you said that I might not have known, to put another feather in my cap, and whatever happens next year, the year from that, and I take from this and I move forward, you know what, let's see if it works or not.


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[Assistant] But this is great all the way around the board. A solid football mind, somebody that knows the history of the Cleveland Browns, somebody that wants to see this city and this team win the Super Bowl and that's willing to contribute to doing so. Like that's a win-win across the board for everybody that's involved.


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[Assistant] No, I don't think that's crazy at all. And I think like, you know, if you just look at the combined style.


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[Assistant] You know, up until last year, nobody had an issue with Ken Dorsey. Ken Dorsey was actually doing very well in Buffalo.


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[Assistant] We know what Jim Schwartz track record is. We know what Bubba Ventron's special teams unit looked like in Indianapolis before he got here. Right? We've seen Kevin Stefanski grow and develop as a head coach. Don't really know that much about Deuce Staley, the running backs coach, but you know, you just add him to the mix of the guys that we just talked about.


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[Assistant] And now you're starting to see this thing on all three levels. The front office, the coaching staff,


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[Assistant] The roster. The culture has changed. The way that these, this, this franchise go about business has changed and they're doing everything. G talk about operations, stockpile, your stockpiling, front office, coaching staff and roster. And this is good for everybody that's involved.


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[Assistant] So, I'll say this, because I like that angle. You know, he can be here and he can learn from everybody that's here. But the reality is, he's here to be a teacher.


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[Assistant] See, Mike Vrabel is a, what, three top Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots.


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[Assistant] And somebody that had a significant impact on all three of those Super Bowls, not just on the defensive side of the ball, but on the offensive side of the ball as well. This is a dude that played for a championship organization his entire career. He comes in here with championship pedigree.


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[Assistant] As a player, right? And we talk all the time about these former players turning into coaches. There's none better than a dude who's won Super Bowls for a championship organization.


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[Assistant] And being able to bring all that knowledge and give it back to the coaching staff that's present and give it back to the players on the field that's going to be here. You got a champion in the building. Somebody that's done it more than once and has had a significant impact, right? And so when you think about it from that level, we can talk all day long what he is here to learn before.


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[Assistant] He moves on, but to me, it's about what he's here to teach.


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[Assistant] It's just, when you think about it from that aspect, man, he's won Super Bowls. He know what it's like to play at the highest level. He know what it takes to grind out through a season to go win a Super Bowl. And no, he hasn't reached that pinnacle as a coach.


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[Assistant] But when you're a player and you've played that long and you had that much of an impact and you want to come home and give your team that free game, give your hometown team, look, here go this free game. Boom, boom, boom. This is how we finna do this. Let's go win a damn Superbowl. I love it.


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[Assistant] Yeah, they got the same type of mentality and attitude. Like, you know, Bill sat right here and told us, man, shorts don't take no shit from nobody.


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[Assistant] He holds people accountable, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's how you, that's how you command your respect, not demand it. He commands his respect, right? And you gotta respect an OG like that, being in your


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[Assistant] I think it's great on the field and off the field. Like, you know, I've said this before, Jim Brown is famous for saying, in order to achieve the ultimate goal, you need all 11 parts moving in the same direction.


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[Assistant] And I think it goes a little bit deeper than the players on the football field. In order to obtain the ultimate goal, you need the entire organization moving in the same direction. So I don't see any potential distractions if I'm being totally honest with you. I think everybody inside that building has a common goal.


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[Assistant] Get the Cleveland Browns to the Super Bowl and win it. You know.


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[Assistant] Damn everything else, right? We not finna be doing no-


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[Assistant] That conversation is gonna come up. And so I'm not finna psych myself into believe that that won't be potential talk this far. I'm just not finna, I'm not going down that road. I'm not. Like, it could be, it can't be. I respect anybody's opinion and they perspective on it. If it is,


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[Assistant] It's like break glass emergency situation. That's a damn good break glass emergency situation and I'm not mad at it, so.


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[Assistant] We've been, we've been saying for a couple years, either 2023 or 2024, it's kind of like a make or break season. And the more that I think about it, I don't know if I agree with that anymore.


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[Assistant] I listen, I try to listen and read between the lines when some of these head people talk. You know, Andrew Berry has always said his goal is to build the Cleveland Browns to be a consistent winner, a team that can consistently compete for the playoffs, AFC championships, and Super Bowls. He talked about a month and a half ago about


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[Assistant] The whole plan around Deshaun Watson being a 7, 8, 19 year plan.


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[Assistant] And we look at businesses, that smart businesses, teams, that smart teams, even when you have a good business, a good roster, a good show, you always go back and evaluate and see how you can make it better, even if the product is already good. And so instead of looking at it like,


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[Assistant] The Browns are going all in on 2024. The Browns could be looking at it like we just had.


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[Assistant] Uh, surprisingly damn good 2023. Now let's assess 2023 and see what we can add in every facet of this organization to make it better going forward, to help it be sustained for the upcoming years. And so like, I think it has immediate and long-term impact.


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[Assistant] But you know what though, that's why you set yourself up to retool, because if you think about, yea, those guys are getting older, but most of the dudes who's considered the


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[Assistant] That was my choice. That was my choice, not because he...


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[Assistant] He can still play like Denzel Ward is still, you know, in his prime. You got young guys coming up like Martin Emerson Jr. You just drafted the dude Cam Mitchell out of Northwestern who seems to be a baller.


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[Assistant] He's not hit on every draft pick, every sign that has not turned out to be great. But if you just look at the overall roster, right, a lot of this team is not that old in average age. And I think that even with the expiring contracts,


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[Assistant] You can still retool and still be good year in and year out. The bottom line is, gotta make sure our quarterback is great.


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[Assistant] Like too much on when a player turns 28, 29, 30, 31. Instead of looking at is this player still productive. We worry too much about age, like 28, 29, 30, 31 is old. And I get it, your body get beat up when you play in an NFL.


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[Assistant] But you're not an old man, like you can't, it's not like you're a statue and you can't move. Instead of looking at somebody's age, look and see if they're productive. Khalil Mack is well over 30-something years old.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but I just, again, I just think that we get caught up too much on how old a guy is versus how productive a guy is. Fair. You know what I mean?


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[Assistant] I think that's why these GMs, the good ones they do, they do diligence. That's why they have a plan A through Z. I think that you, you are right. You know, age at some point can become an issue.


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[Assistant] But productivity versus chronological age should always, uh, be


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[Assistant] Then you'll be good to go. You know, overall.


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[Assistant] The Browns are a very, very damn good football organization, and we've seen the turn of the tide, like literally over the last five or six years.


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[Assistant] Not just their roster, it's just, like man, and I know a lot of the fans in the chat is watching this, like.


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[Assistant] I've been watching the Browns for a long time. 35 years? The culture was always toxic.


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[Assistant] Like, you never seen the Browns being proactive. The Browns used to always be an organization that was reactive. You were always the organization that was at the top of the draft looking for the home run to change the franchise or coming to free agency looking for that one or two big name signing that just come in and change the franchise.


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[Assistant] It's been a slow process, but the process is paying off. And so I'm comfortable saying like, even with the issues that we have, this is a damn good franchise right now.


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[Assistant] Real quick though, when I talk about like the culture changing, I think it happened before that. Like, Andrew Barry gets a lot of credit, but he's also-


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[Assistant] You know, he was able to identify Wyatt Teller. Wyatt Teller was in Buffalo as a backup.


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[Assistant] You just look at what he inherited and what he was able to learn on his own before he got here and it was almost like everything aligned perfectly.


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[Assistant] Now we, we, we, we sit, we, we co-work and we are friends with a guy that played in the NFL just not too long ago all the time. And Tyvis has spoken to, you know, being in the league and being around guys to where


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[Assistant] You know, Cleveland was not somewhere that you went as a free agent destination. And even when you was traded there, you damn sure didn't feel good about your career going forward.


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[Assistant] They're able to look even past that and see that, okay, this entire organization as a whole, man, I can work with that. This might be one of my best chances to go get a ring. You got players choosing us over teams like Kansas City. Like that says something.


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[Assistant] I'm not signifying like Hicks situation because they're loaded at linebacker over there. I'm just saying. In general. In general, like when people speak that highly of the Cleveland Browns in 2024 and I know for a fact just 10 years ago that was not the case, that's a damn good turnaround.


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[Assistant] Man, like for me, final thoughts, Mike Vrabel, welcome home, man. Like, bring that championship pedigree, bring that championship experience to Cleveland.


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[Assistant] Help the players, help the coaching staff, help the front office man, and help contribute to this city and this franchise accomplishing the longer way to go that we all want. A Super Bowl. So thanks for, thanks for choosing the Brown.


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[Assistant] Yes, go ahead. So last week on Friday, I got the flat driving in here.


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[Assistant] And we told that story and it was, I got two flat tires on my car. Right.


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[Assistant] I couldn't, like during the show I was trying to get AAA to come out and I kept saying like, you gotta call. I'm like, why do I gotta call? So after the show I called. Apparently my AAA membership lapsed and I was not aware of this. So I paid like the fee or whatever to, you know, but it was, it had lapsed by a couple of months. So I needed like a whole new account.


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[Assistant] And they said, okay, well, we're also going to charge you an extra hundred dollars for the tow now.


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[Assistant] And they said, if you, if you try and actually use the membership within a week of signing up, which I get, they whack you with a hundred dollar toffee.


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[Assistant] I'm okay with it. I was the one saying, I don't think you can bring Joe back for a variety of reasons. I was not comfortable with bringing, aside from the locker room component, which is real, like you and I have talked about that. It's a real thing.


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[Assistant] But even beyond that and the fact that like the city, and this was lower on the list, but the city loved Joe Flacco and they don't like Deshaun and that's a really bad spot to put your starting quarterback in. But aside from that, the fact that they, we believe,


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[Assistant] They're gonna overhaul this offense. How does Joe Flacco fit the offense that we think that they're gonna try and install here? He doesn't. That guy does. Jameis does. Jameis fits the offense so much better.


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[Assistant] He throws a ton of interceptions. Uhm, you know, I certainly wouldn't want Jameis as my starting quarterback, but as a backup, I'm okay with that. I'm surprised the money on this is what's a little. That's a lot of money.


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[Assistant] Well, Jacobi signs for 8, up to 10 in New England.


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[Assistant] That's a lot of money. And then, uh, uh, who just went, the other backup, Tyrod Taylor. Yeah. Yeah. Two years, eight million to the Jets. To the Jets. And Sam Dardle from Minnesota, although he's going to start, maybe start, 10 million. And Tyrod I think was right around the same money. So this is like,


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[Assistant] I try and be very clear in what I know and what I think, right? And how many times did I come into the studio and say, there's just something weird.


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[Assistant] Between Flacco and Deshawn. Like how many times did I come in on Mondays? And I don't want to make a big deal about it during the season because then you just look like a shit stirrer and you're trying to create something that isn't there.


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[Assistant] So I'm not saying there was a rift between them, because I don't think that there was. But I'm sure it was uncomfortable for everybody involved. Because to your point, Flacco thinks he can still play this league. He's trying to compete for his starting job. And I'm sure it was uncomfortable for Deshaun, no matter what he says.


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[Assistant] To see the city embrace Joe the way that they did, to see him have the success that he did, I'm sure it was a little bit uncomfortable. You want your team to do well, but at the same time, you're looking out for yourself.


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[Assistant] So for a ton of reasons, I think this is absolutely the best way to go. I was never in favor of bringing Joe back, and that doesn't mean I didn't like the job he did. I thought Flacco was terrific. Of course, in a vacuum, in a fantasy football roster, of course you would love to have Joe Flacco as your backup quarterback.


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[Assistant] But this is real life with real human emotions and things that play into this that go well beyond what your roster looks like. I think this is the right move. I'm just surprised at the money.


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[Assistant] If you just, if you just observe the order that this went. Yeaah. It seems clear to me, Jacobi was their primary, and Jacobi, the money, if you're gonna pay Jamus 8-7, you're probably willing to pay Jacobi 8 with escalators to 10.


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[Assistant] Okay. Well that makes a little bit of a difference. Yeaah. But, but we're in the same neighborhood. Maybe Jacoby wasn't the Browns' first choice. I don't think he was.


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[Assistant] I mean, AVP going to New England, he probably will have an opportunity to start. Maybe, I'm sure they're going to draft a guy, but you know.


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[Assistant] He'll be in that same role and everything else he's comfortable with. He's around an offensive coordinator.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so it's a good situation for him, so clearly he chose New England, the Browns were waiting on that. When, when, and when the Browns, when Jacobi chose New England, the Browns pivoted to Jameis, and Flacco very clearly was their third option in all of this, which I don't think is a bad thing.


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[Assistant] Yeah. I don't think you're signing Jamus based on Upside. He is what he is and you know what he is, but he's...


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[Assistant] He's a capable NFL quarterback. I'm frankly, I'm a little surprised that they got him. I would think that again, he would try and go to a Denver or a New England or something. And maybe those options weren't out there for him. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I can't believe the Vikings.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, I have to agree with that. And I, I was, I'm a little surprised Taki left. I too. I, right? I kinda thought he was coming back.


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[Assistant] If you, it, it is an upgrade. It feels weird saying that. You think this guy's coming back. Yeah. So you should be happy. And if, like it, love it, hate it, I would put it in the like it category. Good run stopping middle linebacker.


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[Assistant] Uh, Super Bowl champ, you know, it's another guy in there who can take you, knows how, knows the path of where you want to go. Right. Played for Jim Schwartz. Yeaah. So there's experience there, there's a history there.


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[Assistant] I mean, I'm a little surprised that this is the way it went but I'm fine with it.


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[Assistant] You know, it's interesting, totally off topic, one second. I wonder what JOK is going to get next year. JOK is up next year, right? Well, it's fascinating.


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[Assistant] Now it didn't work in San Francisco. He didn't have the impact in San Francisco. I think a lot of us thought that he would, but maybe here with Jim Schwartz, I would have rather seen them go that route, but I know, you know, the money, what Chase is probably going to wind up getting is probably significantly more on a one year deal than what they paid Zidarius. Maybe that played into it. Maybe they really do like Zidarius that much. I don't love this deal at all.


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[Assistant] I'm sort of mediocre on it because I just, I get a little bit concerned that it's, you should have just cut ties with them after a year.


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[Assistant] Because everybody's getting more money. Running backs are getting paid more than I thought that they were.


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[Assistant] And, and so. We haven't seen this in years. No, so I mean by waiting, Nick probably earned himself a little bit more money. Oh yeah. But I don't know, I mean I don't think they're gonna get nuts. No, no, no, but. No more than eight guaranteed I don't think for Nick.


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[Assistant] You guys, their careers are so short, I hope he gets every penny. Oh yeaah.


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[Assistant] None of those guys are starters except for Henry. What if it's Henry?


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[Assistant] Under this regime of finding guys on the margins. Yep. And this is like it's funny.


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[Assistant] This, we may sound foolish six months from now, but I like the hearse sight more than the Zedaria Smith.


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[Assistant] You gonna sound foolish for that. Per dollar. Per dollar. Per dollar. Per dollar. I think it's, I really liked Hearst last year. I thought he fit well in the system. I'm glad that he's back. He was one of the guys when we talked last week that I thought for sure I had him and Taki Taki as the two that were coming back.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and the thing with Hicks is more, is better against the run. But Taki's best spot was in the middle. Yeah. In his time here. Yes. And two years ago, when Walker went down, was the first time I felt like Taki really sort of flashed. And then, and then he built on that and had a pretty solid season, really solid season this year.


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[Assistant] He couldn't stay healthy. So that was the least surprising of all the guys that left.


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[Assistant] Uh, they haven't made, well I guess Judy's a splash. Yes. In free agency they haven't really made a splash, which I don't know that I'm really surprised by. Right.


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[Assistant] Well, he should get better. Elijah Moore or David Bell? Elijah Moore.


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[Assistant] This isn't like baseball where the top guys can stay out four months and sign a massive deal. Like when the money's gone, the money's gone. And it feels like, let's wait and see how the rest of the day plays out, but it feels like we're getting down to those margin guys now in the one year contract guys. If you could get him on a one year deal,


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[Assistant] I would do that in a second. And I just said, you know, I love Mohurst and the Mohurst signing.


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[Assistant] But if you compare Reeder with Tomlinson in the middle. Oh my God. He is a premier run stopper. Absolutely. One of the best in the game. Put him in the Schwartz system. That would be the guy. That's the guy I'd have a highlight and a circle around. And who knows, I don't know their priorities and where their money line is. And with all of these deals,


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[Assistant] We have to see just what the initial report is and what the actual money is is very different a lot of times. Sure. And I do think that they're going to want to have some rollover in the cap into next year as well. It's the way that they do this.


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[Assistant] So I don't know how much they have left really to spend or how much they really want to spend.


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[Assistant] But man, you talk about being able to injure an opponent by taking one of the best guys.


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[Assistant] I used to love it. I used to watch it all the time. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with WWE. My boys watch it.


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[Assistant] Steelers address their biggest need. We'll see what the Raven, if Derek Henry lands in Baltimore, that's a massive change for them.


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[Assistant] He has been injured. I just think he's got more talent around him now than he's ever had. Is Washington ever going to be?


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[Assistant] Now work is effective. He won't get goal line but...


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[Assistant] Right now today, to win one game, I'd rather have Kirk Cousins than Brock Curtin. Really? I guess it depends on what team.


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[Assistant] No he doesn't, not in the past. Yea, he's been pretty aggressive in the past.


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[Assistant] They, I mean go back, Austin Hooper was an immediate signing, Conklin was an immediate signing. Yes.


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[Assistant] A head wound last year. And what'd you do? Dalvin Tomlinson on day one. Late on day one, but it was a day one signing of big, big money.


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[Assistant] In the past, they had glaring, glaring needs. Jack Conklin, I know before your time, but Jack Conklin, uh, was the other one I just mentioned that was... Austin Hooper. Austin Hooper. Which I loved at the time, turned out to be an awful move. And they were like, there was a ton of holes on that team back then. Now...


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[Assistant] So there's no need for it. And also, and let's wait and see what the final numbers are.


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[Assistant] On, on how they've got the, uh, the Jamis contract structured.