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[Assistant] There must be something going on there. It's clear. He doesn't have a good long leg. Detroit never let him kick kickoffs.


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[Assistant] They had their punter doing kickoffs. Probably because he couldn't reach the goal line. He doesn't have a long leg. And, and you're not trying 50 yard field goals with this guy. Well, we're going to have to...


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[Assistant] I know Russell Wilson's not great, but he's certainly better than what they got. What if they got Justin Fields? Again, better than what they got. So Pittsburgh could be better too. I agree. Listen, I hope that a year from now we're laughing at the fact that maybe this was their best chance to win. I hope so too.


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[Assistant] When you're, when the, the best part of your team...


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[Assistant] Is your defense, that's harder to predict from year to year. It is, yeaah. Because there's more guys that have to play well. When the most important part of your team is the quarterback, there's generally, unless he gets hurt, less margin for error. You know that, like, even, this is a bad year for Kansas City. There's still the three seed. Yeaah. And it's a bad year, you know.


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[Assistant] Patrick Mahomes, bad, feels like he had a bad season. He still made the Pro Bowl. Now, you and I may agree that he doesn't belong in the Pro Bowl. Yea, he doesn't. But he's close enough. Sure. That he's not like down the tubes. Right. So that's the thing. If the, the big unknown is Deshaun Watson.


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[Assistant] But he clearly hasn't played at that level with any consistency. No. For two years. If he does, then this is not the best chance potentially. Right. If he doesn't, then yes! Because, which is so funny because the reality is.


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[Assistant] What's funny is, when Deshaun Watson got hurt, we convinced ourselves the season wasn't over. And it turned out we were right. The season's not over. But, we're only right because of Joe Flax.


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[Assistant] That's the reality. Because if they had just gone with PJ and DTR, the Browns weren't going anywhere. They may have still made the playoffs, but we weren't going to be talking about them as a legit Super Bowl contender. We all believe that.


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[Assistant] I, I can't imagine that if DTR or PJ Walker were the quarterback right now, that I'd truly believe that.


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[Assistant] So we don't know. I mean, do I think the defense is going to be really good again next year? Yeah, I think it's going to be really good, but it might not be quite as good.


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[Assistant] Party says, well, they'll be healthier next year, so they'll be better. But you just, for whatever, the chemistry right now on this team is fantastic. And maybe it's going to be fantastic again next year. It might be, but you never know. But the new year, you never


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[Assistant] I don't know that, is he, after Wink Martindale or very well respected DC is bumping heads with the coach, does he want to deal with that nonsense at this point? No. He might have the same problem.


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[Assistant] By the way, when Leroy earlier, I was looking something up on my phone because Leroy said something and I was like, I thought Bernie did this. When you said that the Texans were the first team in forever.


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[Assistant] To go to the playoffs with a rookie head coach and a rookie quarterback, I was thinking,


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[Assistant] Sorry, which is pretty impressive. Uhm, I believe that 85 Browns team won the division with an 8-8 record, right?


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[Assistant] I think it was the red division that year, if I remember correctly. But, uh, but anyway, but that was close, but you're right. I mean, what, what the, D'Amico, Ryan's and Kevin's defense gear, one A, one B for coach of the year. I don't think there's.


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[Assistant] Obviously, we're talking, you'd certainly want C.J. Stroud rather than Joe Flacco going forward. But right now for this game, if you consider as great as C.J. Stroud's been, we all argued that I'd rather have Joe Flacco right now because playoff experience versus a rookie, even though the rookie's been one of the best rookies we've ever seen.


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[Assistant] Now the Ravens can say the same thing, they can't play themselves, so they beat the Niners, and they beat the Browns also, so they could say the same thing.


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[Assistant] But Leroy, I'm curious, you know, obviously you didn't make the playoffs as a rookie, but I think it was what, your fourth, fifth year in the league when you made the playoffs? Go ahead.


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[Assistant] Well, so two questions. One, how do you...


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[Assistant] Motivate yourself in that situation, especially late in the year. And number two, when you did get to the playoffs, I think it was in your fourth or fifth year, after that you kind of went consistently to the playoffs between the, you know, with the Browns and then eventually Minnesota. But uhm,


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[Assistant] Uh, what was that first experience like? I mean, it's different, he's a rookie, you're not, you weren't a rookie, but, so, give us both those things if you can.


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[Assistant] I mean, who knows if this will matter or not, but I mean, don't you think all the pressure is on Baltimore? Lamar Jackson since taking over for Flacco.


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[Assistant] They've been a disaster in the playoffs. They have one playoff win in a lot of years where people thought they were going to make big runs the year he won the MVP.


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[Assistant] You know, Joe Flacco has no pressure on him in my mind. I don't know. Do you think that?


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[Assistant] That that's the case and that might affect the Ravens in Lamar.


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[Assistant] Wow, that, that really is eye-opening. You're right. But let me ask you another question about this game then, Chris. Yes. Dustin Hopkins is not, or likely not going to play. He's been absolutely remarkable for the Browns this year, as good as any kicker in the NFL.


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[Assistant] This kid, Riley Patterson, overall with Detroit and the Browns has been fine, but he hasn't kicked a lot of long field goals. Only four field goals over 39 yards. How concerned are you in the difference between the two guys?


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[Assistant] Well, Ford's coming off his best game probably against the Jets. I know he didn't play much against the Bengals, so hopefully they can do it and be balanced. Thanks, Chris. Chris, appreciate you. Enjoy the game, Chris.


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[Assistant] I think it's definitely Houston because the Brown defense is a lot better.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I, I mean, yes, I would argue that Houston's passing game is probably a little better than Cleveland's, but...


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[Assistant] The Browns defense is top-notch across the board.


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[Assistant] Running game and passing game. I know there was a little lull there in the middle of the season where they weren't stopping the run as well. I just think that was injuries piled up a little bit at that point. Myles Garrett was at his lowest point in terms of health-wise.


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[Assistant] And they were a little banged up and they went through a stretch. But for the most part, their defenses played very well, both the run and the pass. So if the, if the bills are the bills, if the Texans become predictable,


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[Assistant] They're in a bad way. We've seen, Texas defense isn't very good. It's okay. It's not, and plus, by the way, we talked about all the Browns injuries. Now I know a lot of these guys are going to play, but keep this in mind. The entire Texans starting defensive line did not practice yesterday. All four starters did not practice.


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[Assistant] I think all four are going to play, but all four are banged up obviously.


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[Assistant] And the Browns have not really been that balanced. Now I thought they were balanced against the Jets. But for the most part, they haven't been a very balanced offense under Joe Flacco and yet in his work. I think against Houston because their defense is not very good.


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[Assistant] They don't have to be balanced. We'd like them to be, but I think they have a better chance of winning not being balanced than the Texans do. If the Texans can't run, they got no shot at beating the Browns. If the Browns can't run, they can still beat the Texans, my opinion.


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[Assistant] I don't think, I think that will be harder to do when they play better defensive teams. No question. But I think against the Texans you could still get away with it if you had to.


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[Assistant] You can't, you can't ask him to rein it in. You have to take the risk of the interceptions to get the best out of Flacco right now. And you gotta hope that even if he's risky, that the turnovers don't happen.


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[Assistant] Because that's just not how he's playing right now. I don't think you can get, you need, you need to risk the risk to get the reward. Absolutely right. No risk.


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[Assistant] By the way, speaking of dogs, it reminded me of something that we did at my house recently, which is the most like...


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[Assistant] American privileged white guy thing. One of those American privileged white guy things. Do you, does your dog have health insurance?


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[Assistant] No, but we did do a DNA test on him to find out his makeup. Oh. Uh, was it a rescue so you didn't know what kind of dog it was? It was a rescue.


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[Assistant] Did it come back yet? It did. He's, he is a mix of 15 different types of dogs. Wow, Heinz 57. Yes. And the most is, which we thought was, uh, uh, Australian Cattle Dog. Yeaah, that's different. He's 30%. Wow. But we found the second.


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[Assistant] You know what's so bizarre? That you just saying that, I swear I'm not making this up. It's gonna sound like I'm making this up. I usually don't remember my dreams.


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[Assistant] But I had a dream about Nick Chubb last night and I forgot about it until you said it. Really? I had, he invited me over to his house and we were discussing how we would get him ready to play for the playoffs. I totally forgot about it until you said I have dreams of Nick Chubb. That's crazy. And it reminded me of it. I swear to you I'm not making this up.


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[Assistant] That's true. By the way, I actually know, uh, this will sound pause-y too. I'm not going to say where, but I actually know where Nick lives.


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[Assistant] Because, I'm not going to say how, because a friend of a friend. But, but, apparently he's the best neighbor. Yes, I do too know someone that- Friendly to all his, uh, uh, fellow building people. Yep. And you'd never know that he was a professional football player. Never! There's no parties, there's no nothing.


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[Assistant] If I could have Nick Chubb back, if you told me you could have any, you could have any four players that are injured, or Nick Chubb, I'd take Nick Chubb. I would too. I wouldn't even think about it for two seconds, and that might be crazy because...


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[Assistant] Watson's upside is really high, but I don't care if I can put Nick Chum on this team right now. Forget about it. Forget about it. It's such a shame that he has.


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[Assistant] I was really, and I've been, I've probably been harder on Jerome Ford on this show than anybody. And I really like the way he played against the Jets. I thought it was his best performance. I thought he really showed some growth in his game. And the offensive line is improving.


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[Assistant] So the fact that they're, they're in really good shape in that middle. The tackles have been serviceable enough and let's go.


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[Assistant] Jay has not stopped fidgeting. He has not stopped moving. Listen, the worst is Saturday when you get up because you want it to happen. And then that day is going to drag. Thankfully they're not playing at 8 o'clock.


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[Assistant] Yeah, even from a national media perspective, I don't think it's much of a story this week. It's really just a, hey, they had the Sean Watson, they traded, but now it's Joe Flacco. It's like the beginning of the story and then a quick turn the page. Maybe in Houston, it's a big story, but I doubt it. Do you guys expect him to be at the game?


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[Assistant] By the way, that game is supposed to be one of the coldest games in the history of football. 8 below?


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[Assistant] You know, it's funny, I would say the Dolphins. See, I want, first I would say the Dolphins because they're way better than the Steelers, but they're used to playing in that kind of weather.


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[Assistant] Right. You're not used to that. It's gotta be the Dolphins because, A, the Dolphins are way better than the Steelers. And right now, the Bills are a lot better.


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[Assistant] No. If the Dolphins beat, if the Dolphins beat the Chiefs, and the Bills beat the Steelers, then the Browns would play the Bills in Buffalo instead of Baltimore. And Miami would go to Baltimore. The only way the, uh,


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[Assistant] The only way they get a home game is if both of those teams win. They both need to drop. So if either one win, they go to Baltimore. They go to Buffalo. Either Buffalo or Kansas City, depending on which team would win. If there's one upset, the Browns go to Buffalo or Kansas City. If there's two upsets, the Browns host.


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[Assistant] I'm not trying to see the brown. I'm just not. I know, if you guys feel like it's a jinx to talk about this, it's fine, you don't have to, but I'll say- I don't really. I'll say this, if you think about looking forward,


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[Assistant] The Ravens on the road, the Chiefs on the road, and the Bills on the road. Right. My order of who I like to play, obviously the first choice is Steelers at all. That'd be crazy. My second choice, I think is a tough one, between the Ravens and the Chiefs, but ultimately I would take the Ravens on the road. Over the Dolphins?


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[Assistant] No, they can't play the Dolphins. There's no scenario they can play the Dolphins. I'd rather the Browns play the Ravens than the Chiefs, even though the Ravens have been the better team, because I think for the Browns, I'm more, in the end, I'm more worried in the playoffs about my homes than I am Lamar, when it matters. The last team I'd want, the Bills would be last. The Bills would be the last team I'd want to play.


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[Assistant] Uh, if you look at his touchdown of turnovers, I'll include a couple of rushing touchdowns, and he actually has a receiving touchdown. He has 20 touchdowns, 5 turnovers in the playoff.


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[Assistant] Yeaah. But of the likely matchups, I think the Browns match up better with the Ravens than they do with the Bills and Chiefs. Listen, I think the Browns can beat any of these teams, if they play their best football. But I think, looking ahead for just a minute, I think...


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[Assistant] The Ravens, Lamar's got all the pressure. And think about it. Next week, they will essentially have sat, they will have sat two weeks in a row. Lamar didn't play last week. They will have sat for two weeks in a row. You know he's thinking about how they've been a disaster with him in the playoffs. There's no way that's not on his mind. No way.


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[Assistant] I forgot. I keep forgetting because in my mind I was thinking...


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[Assistant] Yeah, I screwed that up, cause the bit, cause the Steelers are the 7, the Browns can't play the 7, you're right.


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[Assistant] Thank you Evan419, I screwed that up. So, but the Dolphins would still be, whether it's the Steelers or the Dolphins, it's still your first choice because they're the two worst teams and it would be at home. They play the Dolphins at home.


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[Assistant] Yeah, did we talk about this on the air? I missed the first part of that. No we didn't. Okay, so apparently, I don't remember, I don't remember, I guess we didn't talk about this on the air. Apparently Wyatt Teller was like pissed at a ref or something, and as was, as action was going on. Go ahead Mike, did you say something?


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[Assistant] Nice! And that's why Joel is saying, like, Joel Flacco is calm and collected, except when it comes to Wyatt. That's funny.


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[Assistant] And I would say, guys, like, at least how I feel, I'm sure you guys feel the same way.


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[Assistant] C.J. Stroud is certainly a special rookie. There's no doubt about it. And he has big time college football experience. Nobody's expecting him to fall apart in this game. He's not going to be a disaster. But even if it affects him a little bit, that's something.


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[Assistant] I don't, I can't ever remember. No, Burrow went his second year, but he didn't win. It's hard, man.


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[Assistant] Click on the year. Click on the year of his rookie year. If you click on the year, it'll bring up the standings for that year and everything.


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[Assistant] We were wrong. Okay. And he wasn't the best player anyway.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think you gotta do it for two years before you're cemented. Yeah. But he, I think we'd all be shocked if he's not one of the best quarterbacks in the league.


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[Assistant] It's not over, but the cat, the number is too big for next year. They're going to have to restructure it.


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[Assistant] I don't think he does. I mean, I think he's got to come relatively close, but


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[Assistant] I, I, the Browns, listen, I know the Browns defense hasn't been quite as good on the road, but right now they're getting healthy. Uh, well, the offense is still a mess with injuries. The defense is in pretty good shape. Myles Garrett's getting healthy. Denzel Ward's getting healthy. Yea, they're banged up at safety and some depth on the D-line, but most of their key players are ready to go.


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[Assistant] He could have a 250 passing yard game and the defense could play lights out against the Texans offensive as Armstrong right now. So yes, I don't think he has to have 300 for them to win.


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[Assistant] I think he's going to have one of his biggest game, maybe his biggest game of the year. He was totally out of the mix last week, but remember in the other games with Flacco, he was targeted a lot. Joe Flacco has chemistry with him. He's gone to other guys last week, the last couple of weeks and one of the Texans are watching the film. They're seeing him going to Najoku, going to Cooper.


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[Assistant] Uh, that's gonna leave things open for Elijah Moore in the slot where the Texans are mediocre against slot receivers. I think Elijah Moore has a big game, including a touchdown this week.


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[Assistant] Do I have any? I have none, guys, because it's late in the season. I don't think... Trap games are September, October, maybe November. Not, it's not around Christmas. The Browns have a chance to win the division. They have been behind the eight ball this whole season with the injuries and everything.


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[Assistant] There's no way the Browns are taking the Texans lightly. Case Keem has been teammates with a lot of these guys. Kevin Stefanski's coached him and coached against him. I have zero concern that the


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[Assistant] I don't buy that no one would see it coming. I think here in Cleveland, sure, but nationally, and the Browns are only a two and a half point favorite. No, I'm not really looking at it.


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[Assistant] Now we keep it classy on WKYC, so I can't actually say the words that I put for that first blank. But let's put it up there, Mike. Can we put it up there? Horse blank, lately.


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[Assistant] But it needs to be nothing special, which is grammatically incorrect, but I couldn't think of a way to make it grammatically correct. I have no expectations for the Browns running game this week. I have had no expectations for the last couple of weeks. And I don't think they need the running game to be great to win. We saw that last week. Uh, I just think


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[Assistant] You know, you wanna be able to run the ball a little bit, but I don't think it has to be anything special for the Browns to win this game. Because of the opponent.


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[Assistant] They've been so good in the passing game. That's so good on defense. I know it's on the road. I think some of those road numbers...


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[Assistant] Got blown out of proportion for those first two games that Myles Garrett came, like was back from the injury. He didn't play well in those games and they were really banged up on defense. Denzel Ward missed some of that time, so I think it's been overblown.


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[Assistant] Yeaah. Agbo is out for the game. Juan Thornhill out for the game. We expected both of those. Anthony Walker, he is out as well. We didn't necessarily expect that. Joel Botonio is questionable. Ethan Pocic is, uh, Pocic is expected to play. Hopefully Botonio will play. That could be potentially good news on the O-line.


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[Assistant] Listen, we're all prisoners at the moment to some degree. I don't even think it's close right now. I'll take CJ Stroud. If you ask, forget the contract, leave that part out. But if you ask all 32 teams, and let's say we can ignore the off the field stuff. Even if you ignored the off the field stuff and you ignored the contract, obviously the age has to factor in.


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[Assistant] I think all 32 teams would rather have CJ Stroud than Deshaun Watson. I don't think anybody would think about it for more than a second. I agree with Jason. I still think Watson could be good here, but he's done essentially nothing for three years. Deshaun Watson and CJ Stroud has had arguably the best rookie season in the history of football.


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[Assistant] By the way, he won in Cincinnati one of the few games that Joe Burrow was healthy. Oh, okay. That's the only game Joe Burrow lost when healthy was against CJ Stroud in Cincinnati. He did lose in Baltimore, but that was his first NFL game. He also won in Jacksonville this year with a healthy Trevor Lawrence.


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[Assistant] Warm Texas air leads to hot game for Flacco. Joe throws for 3-0-3 and two TDs as the Browns top the Texans 20-13. Love the cowboy hat. Wishing you wear it during the game.


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[Assistant] Welcome to the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. I'm having such a hard time. Somebody fire me up about Sunday. It's hard. I just can't get up for this. Well, here's the thing, okay? Why do I care, Bull?


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[Assistant] And this has to do with something I'm going to rant about in an email in just a minute, but before we do that, uh,


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[Assistant] You still want your team to win. No doubt. Right? Inertia into the playoffs. The good, the good news about this game is, if you lose, it's not, it's a no deal. Yeah. But if you win, it's a nice little bonus because you won with a bunch of backup players. Now I'm not going to lie, at this point,


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[Assistant] I actually prefer the Bengals lose the game because. Helps them with the draft pick. Might as well get a higher draft pick, right? They can't do anything with a win. But, uh, for the Browns, like.


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[Assistant] You know, it's just kinda, it's a nice little bonus if you win. Bonus game. It is hard to get.


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[Assistant] So there are definitely individual things that I'll be looking for, but like in the grand scheme of things, I'm trying to get excited. I just want the playoff game to get here. Now that I am super excited.


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[Assistant] I'll say this, it's worth the time to, I looked at his highlight reel around the time of the state championship games. Somebody sent it to me.


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[Assistant] We talked about this either yesterday or the day before. I mean, Ohio is one of the top five or six states in terms of high school talent. So to be the best player in the state. That says something. Go back and look at the players that have won that award. A lot of them are drawing paychecks.


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[Assistant] Joe, or Mark, or Gee Bush, or whatever. Whatever their name is that they sign up under. Okay, so the name from this guy was Get A Clue, you can see it here, Get A Clue, I don't know if you can see it, it's pretty small, Get A Clue UCSS.


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[Assistant] Don't feed the cats. But here's the best part. This guy, this guy sent me an email. I'm not gonna read the whole thing. I'll just read a little bit of it. It is one, two, three, four, five, six paragraphs. Okay. Okay.


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[Assistant] Let me give you a little bit of what he said. Everyone on UCSS, including you, as well as all other Cleveland sports personalities, continue to say that week 18 win against Cincinnati is meaningless.


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[Assistant] So, when I read that first paragraph, I said, okay, he's gonna say,


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[Assistant] We like you. The only, he went on to say, he went on to say, if they have, if they lose and have 11 wins and the Dolphins win, then they wouldn't have home field advantage against the Dolphins. Oh, this poor soul. Whoever you are, you were too gutless to give your name.


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[Assistant] Uh, the Browns, if the Dolphins win the East, which they will if they beat the Bills, they will have home field advantage against the Browns no matter what their record is. The Browns will not have home field advantage unless they play the six and seven seeds in whatever round in the playoffs.


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[Assistant] It's almost incalculable to figure the odds of that. All the wild cards have to beat all the top seeds. Exactly. But whether they win or lose Sunday against the Bengals is a non-factor in that. It won't change that. You know what? This is, you know what? You're right, Bull. I would have deleted this immediately because I'm like,


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[Assistant] Used to come on, on the Saturday Night Live update desk, and she would rant about something. For two minutes, she would say, I can't believe, blah, blah, blah. And then, in her thesis statement, she would be factually incorrect. And then Chevy Chase would shake her and say, Roseanne.


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[Assistant] Ted Smith living in your mom's basement, and you're the one that fired off that email. And you're watching Bull right now set the record straight and tell you basically, bro, you're wrong. What is his, what is his physical demeanor right now?


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[Assistant] That's it. So right now, the Browns are the five, the Bills are the six, the Cults are the seven. Let's say that's how it ends. It probably won't, but let's say that. The only way the Browns would have a home game in the second round is if they win, the Bills as the sixth seed win.


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[Assistant] I said there's only one team in the NFL that has more wins than the Browns.


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[Assistant] The team that has more wins than the Browns is the one seed in the AFC.


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[Assistant] Another team that has as many wins as the Browns, the number one seed in the NFC, the Browns have beaten both of those teams.


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[Assistant] You get excited by watching the Jaguars, the Colts, the Jaguars. That's it. Well, the Colts are playing the Texans. Yes. And then the Jaguars play. And that's a winner get in, right? Whoever wins. The winner of that game is in. It's a playoff game. That game is a playoff. The winner of that game is in. And if the Jags lose, the winner of that game is the division champ. All right.


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[Assistant] Not only did Betonio make it, but he's a starter. He's one of only three starters. Uh, Betonio is a starter, Miles Garrett's a starter, and... Amari Cooper. No, Amari Cooper is the third starter.


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[Assistant] Uh, the biggest surprise on that list is Betonio. I think Betonio got the, I've been there before.


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[Assistant] I agree. I don't think either of them played at a Pro Bowl level in my opinion this year. I think they were both good, but not Pro Bowl level. I think because both were asked to do so much in terms of babysitting tackles on their side that they weren't used to.


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[Assistant] I think maybe their play, and who knows, maybe the executives and the coaches that put votes in looked at that and said, you know, they were asked to do more than they should have been.


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[Assistant] And that line is still a pretty damn good line, but I just think the other four are definite slam dunks. And again, I have to preface all this by saying it's, it's offensive line play. Yeah. I mean, it's hard. It's hard. It's hard to say.


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[Assistant] I think Dustin Hopkins should have been the starting kicker. He's had a better season than Justin Tucker. That was a legacy vote as well. Yeah, but I'm surprised, like, how did Dicker not get it?


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[Assistant] I think that matters for kids. Yeaah, these are both playoff teams. Both of these guys. You know what though? I know that...


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[Assistant] It seems like all of Hopkins' misses we remember, oddly enough. Yeah, right. Uh, but Justin Tucker's miss against the Colts cost them the game. Cost them the game. And if I'm not mistaken, he might have missed two in that game. I think he did.


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[Assistant] Right. That was the biggest concern, and he's been lights out in that situation. And a lot of those 50-yard kicks have been...


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[Assistant] More touchdowns the Ravens scored than the Browns. Yeaah, that's a problem. That is, the Browns probably went for two a little more. However, I bet if you look at the December numbers, we've probably scored more touchdowns than they have. Oh yeaah. Since Flacco. Certainly, certainly.


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[Assistant] I, I, yeah, I think Emerson not being an alternate. I think Greg Newsom, I thought Mike had a chance to be an alternate too. He really fell into, I mean, that role as the slot corner has become a big time role for him. The JOK thing is interesting. What none of us really thought about yesterday is that


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[Assistant] For the Pro Bowl, there should have been a separate category. There should have been, they had two, they had three, you know, kind of four-three linebackers like T.J. Watt.


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[Assistant] When you're going four alternates, I mean, hell, there's only 16 teams in the conflict.


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[Assistant] Also, I think in years past, they get burned because usually the two teams with among the most


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[Assistant] Uh, nods for the Pro Bowl end up not being able to play. So you do need, and then we've seen in past years where a lot of guys pass. Now I'm good. So now you have to go down to that four or fifth. So I think that's probably why they name four alternates.


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[Assistant] Just so they can automatically have a next man up. They used to just pick them later, but now they just, now they do this with the alternates. They did. Yeaah. But, uh,


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[Assistant] I thought it was interesting. Patrick Mahomes made the Pro Bowl. Which I disagreed. He made it over Josh Allen. He made it over, uhm, who else? Oh, over C.J. Stroud.


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[Assistant] I just didn't like it. He hasn't had a Pro Bowl season. And Matthew Stafford got the third quarterback spot over Jared Goff, which was a little surprising, but Stafford's had an amazing season.


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[Assistant] I think he got screwed the most. I do too. Yeaah. I think J.O.K. got screwed the most in terms of not being a Pro Bowler and being an alternate. Right. But that was just because the way they do the Pro Bowl. But you know what? By and large, uh, I'm super excited about the showing. That, you know, sure. The rest of the league and fans are stepping up saying, you guys had a hell of a year. It is.


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[Assistant] A little weird to me that everybody around the league agrees the Browns have the best defense or maybe 1A, 1B with the Ravens.


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[Assistant] And yet, including alternates, only four players on their defense made it.


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[Assistant] We're going to talk about that in just a little bit, because come back, Clare, that your vote is going to be really interesting. Really interesting. You talk about the Citizenship Award. Oh, listen. I think we might see that handed out this year. I don't want to disparage Damar Hamlin. What he's done has been incredible, but.


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[Assistant] Previous, right? And Nijoku. And Nijoku too. And Nijoku, okay. So Ambitonio.


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[Assistant] Was a move that he made. Yeaah. Was Wyatt Tellerberry? Or was that the lat- was that- I think that was Dorsey. No, I think it was Dorsey. I think it was.


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[Assistant] Some of those guys are pre-Dorsey. Myles Garrett's pre-Dorsey. Myles Garrett wasn't dressed like this.


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[Assistant] Yes, you're right. Yeah, okay. Interesting. He got chubbed too. But I think Nijoku was, Nijoku was part of when they took the three guys in the first round with Peppers and. Yeah. He also, Peppers is also on his watch too.


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[Assistant] I actually think- No, but you know what? Their speedcore has-


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[Assistant] That's it. That's it. So there's no player vote, and surprisingly, there's no media vote.


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[Assistant] I just think their process is wrong. The player is noble. I gotta tell you, I know sometimes players will vote for friends and former teammates, but by and large, there's enough players.


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[Assistant] I still think they want that recognition. Yeah, here's the thing. When, down the road, when we judge all these players as to whether or not they get a gold jacket, there's a billion stats that we'll look at. None of them will be Madden ratings.


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[Assistant] I don't know that we should look at Pro Bowls though. But we do!


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[Assistant] When we list the resume of a Hall of Famer, we say this. He won two MVPs, two Super Bowls, a nine-time Pro Bowler, seven times All-Pro.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it means something to the players, whether or not it means more than a Pro Bowl or not, I don't know, but it's something they look at. I think fan, the reason I thought the fans, and obviously the fans did a bad job with these two things we mentioned, I feel like in baseball, the fans in recent years have done a better job of voting.


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[Assistant] Well, I do think baseball fans by and large get it pretty close, but there are also a lot of years where a player at the end of his career, Cal Ripken, is voted the starter at shortstop and you're like, wait a minute, there are three better shortstops right now than Cal Ripken. I agree, but I think in recent years, fan voting has been better than it used to be. I agree that it has gotten better. Yeaah. Yeaah, for sure.


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[Assistant] Still a protocol. Yea, yea, yea, but. Practicing, usually the next day, they're clear. The fact that he was practicing, I'd be shocked if he can't play by the playoffs. Was that true at this point? Was that a rumor?


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[Assistant] Nope. See ya. Pochich? Pochich? I would not play pochich.


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[Assistant] Why don't they do 16 and 17 for the combo championship?


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[Assistant] Yeaah. So it's not just about drafting because typically I draft my team and I don't make moves. I make a lot. I do on demand. I'll be up in the middle of the night. Oh, Wool makes eight moves a day. Gee Bush does too. He and I make the most. I do not. I typically draft my team and the only time I'll make a change is for a buy or an injury.


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[Assistant] Why Jay? Because he's going to go to Kevin Stefanski and say, damn it, I'm playing.


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[Assistant] He should not put Kevin Stefanski in that position. Dang, boy. I agree, because if I'm Kevin Stefanski, I have a two word response. Not even a two word response. I just list a player's name. Bradley Chubb. That's it.


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[Assistant] That's it. No thanks. I am not playing. But, but I'm telling you guys, I have a sneaky suspicion that 95 is going to suit up because what do we know about Miles Garrett? This is an award he has talked about.


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[Assistant] This is something that he said is a career goal of his. He is closer to getting his fingers on that DPOY trophy than he's ever been before. He's not going to want to risk it. He's going to want to play. He's also going to know that he's got a chance to get two or three sacks. I think Kevin Stefanski, if I'm telling, I'm saying like,


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[Assistant] And I think this is true. I would say nothing you do in this game is going to change that vote.


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[Assistant] If you look at stats beyond just sacks, he's been the best across the board. And as Ben Baby told us this week, not just the best, there's a big difference between he and number two in a lot of categories. And T.J. Watt or Miles Garrett gets double teamed twice as much as T.J. Watt. Think about that for a minute.


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[Assistant] ESPN has sort of created a new stat category for measuring these edge rushers and Ben Baby said it's miles-garret and then a huge drop in everybody else.


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[Assistant] All that matters is the playoffs. That's it. You can't affect that negative. You can't take a chance. And you know what? I hope I'm completely wrong. I hope if Miles Garrett talks to the media this week, I hope more than anything else that he stands in front of the camera and says,


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[Assistant] nothing. It doesn't mean anything. So I'm going to get healthy. My coach has asked me not to play and I'm going to honor that. That's how I hope this thing is handed. I thought this past week he looked the closest to pre-injury that he had for the last month. I agree. You rest him for two weeks. He should be great to go. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] I'd be okay with that. I'm not, you know, I don't have a strong opinion on that, but just because he has been healthy, I say let him roll.


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[Assistant] Yeah, they got a lot. His defensive back record is very, very good.


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[Assistant] I'm glad you framed it that way because I don't think there's any question who will win the award, sadly.


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[Assistant] You know, Vegas has Hamilton as the big favorite because it's a story. He hasn't played all year, but you know, Vegas played in five games, ultimately one tackler to tackle. We know they, we always trust Vegas cause they know these, right, but they don't know what voters are going to, are going to vote. No, but when you agree that the public sentiment.


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[Assistant] Is going to be so overwhelming to see Damar Hamlin


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[Assistant] Get that award. Yeaah. Sometimes it just happens. I honestly... And it shouldn't happen. As a voter, I'd be embarrassed to vote for Damar Hamlin. That's embarrassing. I would too, but I'll tell you what this reminds me of. Yeaah. And I don't want to get political here, uh, but what this reminds me of...


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[Assistant] Was when ESPN gave their Female Athlete of the Year award to Leah Thomas.


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[Assistant] I thought that was a smack in the face of every great female athlete. I just did, but to me that felt like


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[Assistant] That's fine. No, no, no, no. I'm all bull. No, that's for identity. And I am 100% for that because I happen to know for a fact that happens.


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[Assistant] I hear ya. She was better. Yeah, I hear ya. I-I-I-


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[Assistant] And we can leave it there. But this is kind of what it reminds me of. It's like you feel like you have to vote for this person. Right. Because it's the virtuous thing to do. And I think it's stupid. I don't even think Damar Hamlin should be a candidate.


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[Assistant] How could you not give it to a player that died? What bigger comeback is it coming back from the dead? However.


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[Assistant] What I would do is I would create a new award beginning this year and it would be the Damar Hamlin Courage Award. Right. Because think about it, to come back and play a game


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[Assistant] I agree with that. He's only active for one game. Well I thought he played in five games. I looked this up last night. I thought I played five games and he had two tackles mostly, if not all, special teams play.


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[Assistant] Of the guys that either were terrible last year, were hurt last year, or didn't play last year. Yes, I agree with that. And who had the best season of those guys. Right. Not just, you know, obviously what happened to him, but okay, so who would you guys vote for?


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[Assistant] Well, I'll start because I know I'll get grief for this, but my guy's Baker Mayfield.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and, and I think if you look at the numbers, it's a pretty slam dunk case. Now, who do I want to win it? I want Joe Flacco to win it. So to me, it's Hamlin, Flacco and Baker. Those are the three favorites according to Vegas.


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[Assistant] And after that, there's a big drop off. So it really is a three horse race. Although Bull has someone that's not in those three. By the way, you can make a strong case for him. However,


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[Assistant] So because of that, to me I look at it not as...


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[Assistant] I look at it as a literal award, not that you just came back.


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[Assistant] I look at it that your career was, they were throwing dirt on your career and here you are. So for me that leaves two guys, Baker Mayfield and Joe Flacco.


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[Assistant] It's going to be really difficult to make the case for him to win it because he didn't play in September, he didn't play in October, and he didn't play in November.


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[Assistant] So because of that, it's gonna be really, really difficult. Maybe he played one game in November, I'm not sure. One game in November. Okay. It's gonna be really hard to convince me that a guy that played, if I'm gonna ding Demar Hamlin for only suiting up for five games,


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[Assistant] I have to use that same standard against Joe Flacco, who only suited up for five games. Now, his impact on his team was far greater. But when I, when I started looking at the Baker Mayfield thing,


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[Assistant] I thought, does he deserve it? And I'll read you some numbers, and I think you guys are going to be really surprised at these numbers. I was. And he's on one of my fantasy teams, so I follow him fairly closely, but I was surprised at some of these numbers.


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[Assistant] Baker Mayfield is fourth in the NFL and touchdown passes.


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[Assistant] Baker Mayfield has more touchdowns and fewer interceptions than he did when he set the rookie record for the most touchdowns ever by a rookie.


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[Assistant] Baker Mayfield has more touchdowns and fewer picks than Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Tua, Matthew Stafford, Trevor Lawrence.


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[Assistant] He has more passing touchdowns than Allen Mahomes, Tula, Stafford, and Trevor Lawrence. He has fewer picks than all five of those guys. Only one quarterback in the NFL, and this is the stat that I think most impressed me, has more touchdown passes and fewer picks than Baker Mayfield. And that's Dak Prescott, who I think some people would tell you is going to get MVP votes.


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[Assistant] So when you look at it from that, he has fewer picks than Brock Hurley for crying out loud.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and by the way, he's done that. He's got more touchdowns and fewer interceptions on fewer attempts.


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[Assistant] Then Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. His team.


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[Assistant] Has a game at Carolina Sunday. Likely they're the big favorite.


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[Assistant] Who knows? If he loses this game and looks bad, he doesn't get my Comeback Player of the Year award. It's in his hands. If he wins that game,


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[Assistant] He's taken his team to a nine and seven record and an NFC title. He's going to the playoffs. And by the way, I know that a lot of people will say it's the worst division in football. It is. It was last year too. And Tom Brady threw for fewer touchdowns and more interceptions than Baker and took his team to the playoffs with an eight and nine record.


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[Assistant] I'd be the first one to say, I can't give it to him. All he had to do is go to Carolina, a team that cut him last year. And I think another part of this equation isn't just the year you're having. Go back and look at the year he had last year.


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[Assistant] Traded by the Browns. Released by the Panthers.


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[Assistant] Signed on with the Rams, and by and large,


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[Assistant] The NFL hierarchy had decided his career was pretty much sputtering.


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[Assistant] It was over for Baker Mayfield. He signed a very, very team friendly one year contract with Tampa Bay. He essentially did what Joe Flacco did. I'm gonna bet on myself he signed for one year. He's gonna get paid next year. He's gonna get paid.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, and it's often times with this award. It is more about the story. Yes. Not for MVP. MVP it's more about


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[Assistant] The numbers and your impact on your team, but, but it does feel like oftentimes the comeback player of the year award, when you see who wins it, you're like, really?


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[Assistant] Alright, to me this is easy. It's a no-brainer. It's Matthew Stafford, and it's frankly not even close. Matthew Stafford, uh, is four and five against teams that are over 500. You know what Baker Mayfield's record is? Wait, wait, wait, four and five? Let's not use that as a beautiful stat.


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[Assistant] That's solid to be around 500. So losing record. You know what Baker Mayfield's record is against teams over 500? So I know you're, I knew you when I went, I knew you were going to start digging up to find the negative stats. What is he? He's one in six. Okay. One in six. Neither one are any good against winning teams.


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[Assistant] A hundred times longer. That's irrelevant. You're at- Okay, well- The question is who do I think should win, not one of the odds. Okay, make your case. The odds are- that's irrelevant. Uh, if you- if you-


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[Assistant] Baker's drawn, I think, one more touchdown than Matthew Stafford, but he's played one more game. Stafford missed a game due to injury. In that game, the Rams got crushed in the game he missed. The Rams are nine and six overall in the games, uh, yes, nine and six overall in games he's played. The Buccaneers are eight and eight. The Rams have played a much tougher schedule. What? Buccaneers are eight and eight.


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[Assistant] Oh, they're 9 and 6 in the games he's played. They're 9 and 7 overall, 9 and 6 in the games he's played. Okay, I got it, I got it. So he's won 60% of his games this year, Baker's won half. In, in games against teams that are really good, playoff teams, Matthew, Baker Mayfield's, uh,


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[Assistant] Uh, Stafford's team's been better. Baker has one more passing touchdown, and he has, I think, two less interceptions, but Baker's got more... Baker's fumbled eight times, and he's lost four of them.


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[Assistant] Matthew Stafford hasn't fumbled once this year. You pick and sh- you picked and sh- choose your stats. You ignored the Russians. I'm laughing at you because the stats you're going for, you know this, cause you're smart. I'm doing the same thing you did, Jay. No, I went for the money numbers. Jay, you made your point. Let me, let me make my point. You made your point. Okay, if you look at the QBR, Matthew Stafford way better. If you look at PFF grade, Matthew Stafford way better. The Rams are in a much tougher division.


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[Assistant] Right? You're not trying to argue the AFC South is as good as the AFC West, are you? The NFC West. The NFC South.


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[Assistant] In my opinion, the 49ers are obviously a lot better than anybody in the NFC South. The Rams, in my opinion, and the Seahawks are better than any of the NFC South teams. Does anybody disagree with that?


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[Assistant] Okay, so they're playing a tougher division, they've played more teams over 500, they've won more games over 500, he has less turnovers, he has the same amount of touchdowns, or maybe one less.


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[Assistant] passing touchdown, but he's played one less game. He has more passing yards, even though he's played one less game. He has way more passing yards per game. He has a better QBR and he has a better


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[Assistant] Uh, PFF grade. So I don't even see the argument for Baker. And Matthew Stafford was hurt last year so he didn't do anything


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[Assistant] I had not given him a pass last year because of injuries. Baker sure is holding you a pass because of that. Because who's giving him a pass? I'm saying he sucked last year. No, but you said he was injured.


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[Assistant] Matthews, they both were lousy last year. Yeah. Okay. And Matthew Stafford's been better by most.


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[Assistant] They're not basing those odds on who should win. They're basing those odds on... No, they're basing them on who's going to win. Yea, but how would they even know that?


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[Assistant] That's why they change every week. We don't know what their track record is on awards. I'm just using their track record on setting odds.


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[Assistant] And I think, quite frankly, I don't think he should be a 75 to 1. And I didn't think that. When I looked at him yesterday, I'm like,


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[Assistant] Why is there such, why is it a three horse race and then everybody else? I didn't think that that was, I don't think they have it properly wagered right now.


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[Assistant] When I look at where both were in their career, and I know that there was a lot of talk because Stafford's injury was serious. Yeaah. And there was a lot of talk that this could be it for him.


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[Assistant] But the team that had the most information on everything was the Rams. They owned Stafford. They had Baker.


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[Assistant] When Sean McVeigh made the decision that I'm not going to move forward with Baker. I'm going to move forward with Stafford. He had some pretty good information that this guy's going to be fine. They also owed Stafford a lot more money. That's true. That had something to do with the decision.


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[Assistant] But by and large, I don't know that Stafford's reputation has ever been where Baker's was at the end of last year.


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[Assistant] Baker's reputation at the end of last year was, he was used up. He was, he was done.


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[Assistant] You've sat here and said he's not any good. A lot of the NFL hierarchy said this guy is done. I have said consistently that Baker Mayfield is mediocre. He was terrible last year, but so was Matthew Stafford. Yes. They actually both had 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions. I know, but if you look at it, if you look at everything in totality,


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[Assistant] Was Matthew Stafford's outside of the injury, was Matthew Stafford ever looked at by the NFL hierarchy as, oh, this guy's trash, he's gonna be lucky if he finds a team. No, and I thought Matthew Stafford would be better than Baker this year.


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[Assistant] But Matthew Stafford made the Pro Bowl deserve, you know, honestly made it. He deserved it. Yeah, I believe he did. Baker Mayfield did not make the Pro Bowl. No, he did not. Listen, Baker had a good solid year, but the reality is he's in a terrible division and they got smoked quite often when they played good teams. That's it.


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[Assistant] I just think you're going to cock your head at that award a little bit because if the top two choices played in five games this year.


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[Assistant] Not, you know, did you die on the field? I don't think that's a prerequisite. I think the, the award, by virtue of its name, comeback player.


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[Assistant] You're where you were last year and where you are now.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I would, I would vote Baker would be my second choice, actually. But, uh, to me, I think I would go Stafford one Baker too. I wouldn't vote Joe only because it's five games. That's it. As great a story as it is, it's only five games.


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[Assistant] Listen, if anyone would have told you, coming into this season, that he's gonna have more touchdowns and fewer picks, then Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and all the other quarterbacks that I listed, to uh, That's a little disingenuous though, because he has more turnovers than some of those guys. They count. But just the fact that he's close,


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[Assistant] I think what the viewers might be interested in is having the email address


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[Assistant] So they can reach out to said emailer and let him know how idiotic he was. Is that what the, is that what the?


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[Assistant] Bull, do you think that's what he might be asking for here? Maybe. It might be. I mean, it's not doxing because we're not giving anybody's home address. No, no. We're giving someone's email address out and if our viewers want to fill this guy's inbox. Nah, I don't want to do that. That's big of you, Bull, because I would do it.


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[Assistant] I don't play, I mean I play once in a while with my son, but I don't pay attention to the grades. I think PFF has credibility, but it's like anything else and like any other stat, it's flawed. There are things that make me scratch my head.


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[Assistant] But, I'm going to trust them when it comes to things like offensive linemen more than anything else because I'm not watching other offensive linemen. Yea, that's true.


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[Assistant] Uh, I don't know if he's in the legit conversation, but Trey Hendrickson's lit, tied for the league lead in the sack, so he, and he's gonna play.


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[Assistant] And she had, she didn't hear it probably because she wasn't on. So let's not tell her what any of us said. Who would you vote for? Tell us who will win it and who should win it.


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[Assistant] Oh gosh. Should we give you some of the top candidates? Yes, yes, please. So obviously you have Damar Hamlin. We all think he shouldn't, he should get his own category. I mean, he hasn't played really this year, but of the legitimate candidates, you have Joe Flacco,


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[Assistant] Baker Mayfield and Matthew Stafford. And those are the one, two, three, and four choices. Yeaah. And I will say of those three guys that each one of the three of us picked one of those three guys, picked different guys, but we won't tell you who picked who. So go ahead.


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[Assistant] Matthew Stafford, uh, has won more games than Baker despite playing one less. He plays in a significantly better division. They got the 49ers and the Seahawks in that division. Baker's playing against nobody.


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[Assistant] Matthew Stafford is 4 and 5 in games against teams over 500. Not great, but not terrible. Baker is 1 and 6 against teams over 500.


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[Assistant] If Baker played in any other division, he would not be going to the playoffs. The Rams were supposed to be just as bad, if not worse than the Bucks this year. Uh, both of them were equally terrible. They both were horrible last year. People thought Stafford was finished because of his injury. Stafford made the Pro Bowl. That's by the executives and coaches. Baker did not.


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[Assistant] He's had more touchdowns and fewer picks than Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Tua, Matthew Stafford, Trevor Lawrence, and CJ Stroud.


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[Assistant] Those are pretty good quarterbacks. He's had more touchdowns than all of them and fewer picks than all of them. Only one quarterback in the league this year has more touchdowns and fewer picks than Baker and that's Dak Prescott.


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[Assistant] I'm sorry, go ahead. I was just throwing the odds out there. Baker's 7 to 1, Stafford's 75 to 1. That's it. Okay. So how are you Aditi? Why are you wearing purple?


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[Assistant] Good for you. Good for you. You know that it's crazy, but you know that if Flacco does well in the playoffs, there are going to be fans that say he should stay as the starter, which is crazy.


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[Assistant] I agree. There's going to be a lot of teams that are lining up. I don't know about a lot. There will be multiple teams lining up to pay Joe Flacco if he makes a deep playoff run with the Cleveland Browns.


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[Assistant] I think to me, it diminishes the argument that the system is broken and it can't be successful. Someone's made it work. Now, I'd like to see it long term.


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[Assistant] Especially Aditi, when you're relying on your defense, because...


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[Assistant] We know that from year to year, it's not like just relying on your quarterback where


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[Assistant] The guy's good, he's usually going to be good most years. Whereas I, I've heard, I, I, I was listening to my old radio show yesterday for a little while and there was a couple of calls in a row and said, oh, this is the start of great things for the Browns. Their defense is going to be great for years. Maybe, but you can't predict that from year to year. Hey Adam, until this year,


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[Assistant] And the victory lap thing is dicey because if the Steelers win this weekend, uh, which is possible and the Browns lose, which is possible.


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[Assistant] You're done, you're out of that business. I'm finally done saying the Steelers are going to finish under 500. I will say that they've been mediocre for a long time. That's fair. And I think it's a great, not only should they stick with Kenny Pickett next year, if I were the Steelers, I'd sign them to a long-term extension.


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[Assistant] It's not, no, it's not on their brand. Aditi, thank you very much. Happy New Year to you. Uhm, one last question in 30 seconds. Is Jim Harbaugh, I know you're doing the Chargers game this weekend, is Jim Harbaugh the coach of the Chargers the second the national championship game ends?


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[Assistant] Yeah, but that's part of the story. What did you do as a player? Because the word is comeback player of the year. So you have to have played.


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[Assistant] Listen, I love that story too. I love it more than the Baker story, but if you had a vote, who would get her?


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[Assistant] If he had played like this for four or five more games, it'd be a no-brainer. Well, I'll tell you what I did. I extrapolated his numbers. If you take his numbers for five games and spread them out over a season,


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[Assistant] He would have throw, he would throw for over 40 touchdowns. However, he'd have over 20, how many? He has 25 picks, I think. He'd throw for 5,000.


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[Assistant] played a game in the regular season in which they had already clinched a playoff spot, you were the quarterback. How did you guys manage that game?


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[Assistant] We talked before about like, Miles Garren, one of the Defensive Player of the Year.


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[Assistant] Is it, I know that he had a good start to the season with all these other more vats, but it seems that Joe Flacco has unlocked another level to Ninjoku. Would you agree with that?


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[Assistant] I'm with you. I love him. I'm totally with you. I think that, you know, he's proven that he's gonna be a safety net. There are others that say it might be a problem for Deshaun. Let me ask the question this way. Let's just say Flacco does go away.


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[Assistant] The one thing to me that we've learned from this experiment.


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[Assistant] With Baker in the playoff year and with Flacco right now.


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[Assistant] We know that he has always deferred to what the quarterback wants to do. Stefanski has said that many times. I gotta get with Deshaun and give him things that he's comfortable with. That's great. I understand that. But what we've seen from Stefanski's sort of morphing offense is that this is the best version of it.


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[Assistant] I think the best thing that could come from this is Deshawn watching this and saying, oh, I get it now.


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[Assistant] You can have success under center. Play action. Maybe they just take Deshaun and plug him in to this version of the offense, which is clearly different than the one he ran. And Deshaun can have the same success that Baker had in it and that Flacco is having in it. Let's stick with this offense. Is that a possibility?


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[Assistant] Because obviously, you'd like to have Joe Flacco back at the quarterback next year. You've been in a locker room. You tell me. I have heard...


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[Assistant] Starts outperforming you. It's human nature to say, wow, is this dude here to take my job? And in a lot of scenarios, Bull, I think you're exactly right.


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[Assistant] To quote you, he's got his bag. He's gonna be a millionaire the rest of his life. No matter what happens, he has secured his financial future. I would want the personality that says, bring the competition. Bring it.


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[Assistant] That is true. That is true. But I also like, like this is the team out of the three that we could have played. Jacksonville, Indy, Houston. That uhm,


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[Assistant] Yeah, he's playing some unbelievable football and the other two guys, they'll throw it to you. This guy does not. They are, they have the fewest turnovers in the league. You know,


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[Assistant] It's coming. It's coming. It's coming on stores. With the weather we have out here today, you need your vitamin D and resveratrol. That's it. Bernie, we haven't seen sun in a week.


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[Assistant] Well, I spent my first podcast, uh, with Adam the Bull here and had a blast with it, but I'm actually kind of festive and laughing because, um, it's almost like this is the, that's the type of question we used to do this whole century when the Browns weren't in the play.


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[Assistant] So uhm, I, I found it fascinating to, to think about Baker and Matthew Stafford, but man, I am still, still so in on my Joe Flacco. Oh, so you agree with Matthew? You vote for Joe. So I'm not saying I'm vote for him, I just, that's all I think.


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[Assistant] And a shout out to kind of the old school offense that's going out there. Tom Moore is an analyst slash coordinator down in Tampa. Peyton Manning's guru, uh, OC guy. So he's done great stuff with, with Bake. And I concur with the, the, the vision and the competition and stuff.


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[Assistant] Again, I've, again, almost laser focused with health, family and the holidays and the football part of it. I'm staring at that orange helmet right now and all I could think about is how awesome Coach Stefanski and Joe Flacco have been this last six weeks. You didn't give us an answer. No. He just said Flacco.


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[Assistant] Well, like I said, I like all those quarterbacks, but I'm so fixated on what we're doing with Cleveland and Joe Flacco. I'm Flacco. I love him. And the only reason why I'm hedging on the fence


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[Assistant] It's because Joe said, Hey, I wasn't, I'm not a comeback player. I was hanging out resting. So I don't want to insult him by saying it because he's 16 years of top tier playing.


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[Assistant] And for him to come in here and just keep dominating like this.


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[Assistant] Again, I'm still fixated on, I'm still loving who we're gonna play in the playoffs, and we are for sure a playoff team right now, so.


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[Assistant] How you even said this statement, if you would, god, if Joe would have played four or five more games and you extrapolated out, man, you have this awesome...


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[Assistant] Well, if they don't think he needs to play, I concur cause nothing those two have done has been wrong right now. So his arm, like his arm after 16 years in the league.


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[Assistant] At this time of year, we all would be saying it's great. It's the best it's been. It's not. So for him to have not taken all that wear and tear and for him to genuinely probably be telling the truth is awesome for us Browns fans.


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[Assistant] So this is old school days when the life was a lot different how you looked at things. So every day was a war, every game was. I don't even want to say those type words here now.


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[Assistant] Um, figure out what's perfectly right. Because we have now, again, we said it the last couple weeks, nobody wants to play to Cleveland Browns right now.


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[Assistant] So I actually think the team is kind of overridden all this right now. I'd be hard pressed to believe that a individual who's a great team guy like that is going to have an individual meeting with the head coach and say, Hey bro, I could use a few more sacks or I could use a few more scores. I mean,


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[Assistant] Is he gonna get it? Okay. And, and what is, is he really going to come ask for it? I don't think he would. So I, I love the fact that he wants to play.


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[Assistant] He is massively essential to what happens in January right now. So, shoulders, all those little things. That's one guy I would absolutely err on the side of caution with.


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[Assistant] But it's a mindset of it. And so if, depending on what Joe's mindset is and his ability to handle it and coach Stefanski, uhm, I was the guy that erred on the side of playing. I unfortunately erred on the side of wanting the guys around me to play. And then I erred on the side of getting them guys and me hurt. So, so I'm not always right.


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[Assistant] So, and, and things, and Coach DeFancy said, you can't rest everybody, so I absolutely get that. So, I wanted to play, but then also, when the games weren't meaningful, and you were just playing to play to stay in tune, uhm,


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[Assistant] Because you're not as intense. So like in preseason games and in games where I knew didn't matter, like the game that I played when the playoffs were on the line.


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[Assistant] You're just not as into it. So if Joe Flacco could have another level of intensity and say as into it, but then you still are risking it. So I believe he's got the maturity and the gifts to be able to.


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[Assistant] Alright, he's the man. I love it. Okay, I love it so much. And I could get a little lengthy here in my, uh, answer for that. And first let me say with number 19, Cedric Tillman and stuff, I love how that rookie's using his hands and the way he goes after it and has strong hands for a rookie and


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[Assistant] I'm not sure I was all in on the Donald and people's trade earlier in the year, but I see why now because they want to tell me to get on the field and stuff and start making some plays. So that being said, before I crucify him, you could see Drew, uh, Joe was really PO'd off.


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[Assistant] And that gives Coach Stafanski a lot of credit. Calling a play to a rook on 4th down like that and Joe believing in him shows that that probably was a cool draft picker and that kid's been really aspiring. So for the future, having a younger receiver like that that they believed could throw on 4th down like that.


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[Assistant] There are hard and fast rules. Moses came down with the ten commandments and gave us ten laws.


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[Assistant] As quarterbacks have about a dozen of them. And when it is, when you're throwing in the middle of the field on fourth down, in my day you can never throw from the chest up because you would get decapitated and killed. But now you're not allowed to kill the defenseless receiver.


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[Assistant] Either it's gonna be the high throw, which is I believe what Joe was trying to get to him, or thou must cross the face of the


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[Assistant] Inside slot defender. So it's either gotta be up high and go get it, or he did not cross the face of the defender.


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[Assistant] For him to do that and know it, okay, and then feel comfortable, you know, being the leader. He's the leader right now. He's the leader. It's awesome.


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[Assistant] Isn't it gorgeous that we're talking about 11 guys on our Cleveland Browns, 5 starters, 6 alternates, and let me, you know, continue the David Najoku Chief Bandwagon because the


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[Assistant] The play on the field is unbelievable. The play off the field. His yak yards after the catch is glaringly awesome. But again, I'll go to the little things that he's doing on top of those big things.


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[Assistant] Boy, we're struggling again with the injuries at the tackle position and the way he's blocking a two-way player. He's dominating the line of scrimmage. I mean, the Jets have a top-tier defense.


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[Assistant] And it was, it was, uh, neutralized by Joe Flacco and guys like David Najoku. And David, the way he's blocking and running right now, I mean, that's, he's special.


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[Assistant] One of the things that I'm super biased towards is


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[Assistant] I really love Coach Stefanski's offense.


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[Assistant] And one of the big things that, again, I'm not trying to take all this credit for it, but me and Chief spent a lot of time together over the last four or five years, especially during COVID and stuff.


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[Assistant] Really talking to you young tight ends out there to develop that rapport with your quarterbacks and to talk with them. And a lot of times, half the time, tight ends don't go out in six, seven, eight man protection schemes and understanding your check downs and understanding guys right in front of you and developing that rapport so


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[Assistant] In adverse situations, you know who your security blanket is. David Najok who did that with


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[Assistant] Backwood Baker and stuff, he's tried to do it, he's really evolved and he's hit the, the nirvana sweet spot of it with Joe Flacco and because Joe is a


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[Assistant] A play action, deep throwing guy. We love our check downs in front of us. I don't want to look dumb on TV here, but so I'm going to look above the camera, but the check downs are in front of us. Why we were talking about Joe could throw a pick.


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[Assistant] And then come right back at it, who cares? And look down the field, cause he's looking down the field, cause he can weight that extra two tenths, three tenths of a second. And if, if Amari Cooper isn't there, uh, Elijah Moore,


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[Assistant] So I absolutely am all in on Deshaun and all in on Joe. And that's not trying to play the fence on it. I absolutely think, and it's not a Deshaun indictment. This is a league indictment, a system indictment.


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[Assistant] Almost nobody played this type of system that liked you six weeks ago to three years ago. And so the fans, you had to justify, you sat in all kinds of meetings, shows, cocktail parties, having to justify why this is a damn good system. So really,


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[Assistant] It's not Deshaun's fault, the league and the world doesn't like, uh, this system up until about the last month or so. So to your astute point,


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[Assistant] Uhm, I so believe that we're all always trying to learn, and we also try to keep adding to our game, and I believe Dashawn is gonna see how that adds to his game with that, and I actually think that, uhm,


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[Assistant] Look at this, a long year, uh, football season. To have all of us together, I mean, that is, that is heaven for the Cleveland Browns in 2024.


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[Assistant] There's guys that aren't gonna like us if we suck anyways. Okay, so if we aren't playing up to tier, okay, this will be an issue, whether Joe's on the team or not.


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[Assistant] If, if it does not play good, actually, I think it could be more of an issue with it. So I, I, I believe there'd be, to your, your point, Gee Bush, look, we, we don't like the, we love harmonious success.


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[Assistant] And to see that if, if Joe could help me, and I'm Deshawn, I'm all in on it. And I say this bad joke, and it's terrible around the holidays, but when it comes to football and stuff, if somebody could help you and stuff,


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[Assistant] And I concur with you and I actually think too that would help actually the situation is again, I'ma show my age and stuff, but almost like my biggest brother, my best friend in the whole world who helped me was Gary Danielson.


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[Assistant] And there's a separation of maybe 10 years in our life.


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[Assistant] Okay, there's a separation of age between Joe Flacco and Deshaun Watson that I really think will help alleviate this issue. Uhm, Joe will be 17 years next year. One of the things why I lust and love after him this year, and what we started talking about here,


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[Assistant] Is that he hasn't broken down because he's played about a half dozen games. You know, that's a long season. Look, we're gonna have our fifth starting quarterback win a game to win a 12th game for only the second time in Brown's history. So you need these guys. So I really believe


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[Assistant] The, the stars are going to be aligned, and hopefully maturity plays in, that, that we could all get-


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[Assistant] It's everything for it. And even my, my, my life afterwards, that, that influence when you have somebody like that to wear at the tightest, toughest parts of your life. Lookit, we're all trying to pretend we're cool. We're sitting here on TV trying to look into the camera, being smart and articulate and, and productive and stuff. It's the same as young quarterbacks.


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[Assistant] And when you're not, and we have to act like that, and then you have a guy who actually teaches you how to do it, and it's selflessness.


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[Assistant] And he imparts his wisdom on you. You can't thank him enough. And I believe that Joe Flacco has that kind of spirituality and gift in him because he could have held our Browns hostage. I mean, look at that crap contract he signed. He got nothing!


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[Assistant] Well, you could see money's not relevant as, as big a factor with him or he had to held us up, you know, for that. And, and one thing I'm, I'm not putting myself in Joe Flacco's shoes, but I want to because it's so much fun and you're so awesome brother and stuff.


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[Assistant] That question because I'm trying to answer it from a Joe's perspective and I'm not trying to hedge on it.


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[Assistant] There's, I guarantee you, he's not thinking one second about it. His love and lust for the moment, and that's contagious to the locker room, that's contagious to the organization, and that's so friggin' dangerous to any team, any city we're gonna fly into, brothers. You don't wanna see us.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and the more I've thought about it this week, the more I come up with the idea that this is the absolute perfect scenario.


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[Assistant] Like if you're going to draw up a scenario for how you're going to go into the playoffs, obviously you'd like it to be meaningless because you're the number one. But outside of that, it can't really get much better than this.


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[Assistant] And there's a lot of things that the Browns can accomplish this weekend. That's why I say, I know it's meaningless in terms of, you know, positioning and seating and all of that, but there are things that the Browns will take from what they see on Sunday and they'll use that moving forward into the playoff game. Uh, Tim Couch is here.


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[Assistant] Jim Schwartz saying yesterday that uh, he's not done being a head coach. He wants to do that again. Oddly enough, uh, he was not voted as one of the top five defensive coordinators


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[Assistant] And I'm kind of surprised. I thought they love him. It seems like they do. I thought that he would have got the most flowers from his own guys, but


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[Assistant] It didn't work out that way. We'll talk about that. Maybe try to figure out why it didn't happen that way. And also, who are we most excited to watch Sunday in these backup roles for guys that could be big contributors moving forward in the playoffs? All of that straight ahead. Again, 90 minutes here, 30 minutes at WKYC.


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[Assistant] I know. So what happened was Mikey's going over the topics. He sends them out the night before we all digest them and then just make sure there's no changes. He goes over the call sheet in the morning call.


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[Assistant] Oddly enough, this is the third different quarterback that we've asked that question about this year.


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[Assistant] Who the hell knows? I mean, look, maybe this is the year where G's unrealistic expectations. Remember before the season started? How many yards? His Deshaun


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[Assistant] It's like in the old days before they were giving half points for everything, and the game was tied, it was just a push. You know, you got money back. I got a question for you, Mikey, before we dive in, rate your five piece of stats, the McNuggets five piece of stats. Is it good this week? Is it great?


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[Assistant] I've been telling everybody, uhm, Mcnuggets has been researching this. He says he's gone back to the point that they started keeping records that no NFL team has ever won five games with, or games with five different quarterbacks in the same season. And this morning on the call, he tells us, oh, my bad. It did happen once. It has happened before.


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[Assistant] That's okay. No, I wanted to clear that up because we've been saying on the air this week, uh, a number of times that he's trying to do something that hasn't been done before. And we're going to talk about, we're still going to rate that accomplishment, even though it has been done. We'll rate that accomplishment, the pantheon of all these great sports records that we, um, so often like to talk about.


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[Assistant] Uh, we're starting with backups because that's the story for this week.


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[Assistant] They're the top three in my book. But for me, because it's the vital position, I'm with Jason. It's gotta be Jeff Driscoll. We don't know.


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[Assistant] I mean, he could go out there. It's interesting, when you look at his numbers, I don't know how he only won one of his ten starts.


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[Assistant] Those are numbers that you would think would win games.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I just think that for the, the, a sample size that's 10 games. Right. And you, you can tell me he's only going to turn it over eight times in those 10 games, but he's going to throw for 14 touchdowns. You think, okay, he'll get lucky in two or three, maybe four of those games to win. I think he's, I,


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[Assistant] I don't know, what my expectation is, he's going to surprise us. He's not going to wow us, he's not going to come up to Joe Flacco level, but I think he's going to look like all the quarterbacks in this system at times have looked.


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[Assistant] There were moments where I looked at PJ Walker, not many, but there were times where I said, wow, didn't expect that from him. DTR at times looked like he was on the path to be the definitive backup quarterback in this system.


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[Assistant] Certainly Deshaun Watson had moments. So I think this system makes it easy for quarterbacks to have moments like that. The key is he needs to have more moments where he looks good than scratch your head moments like PJ Walker gave us. And if he takes care of the football, there's no reason why the Browns can't win this game.


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[Assistant] The backups are going to be out there, at least for the Browns and there's nothing at stake.


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[Assistant] Because you're not gonna, you're not gonna sacrifice the strength of your line, unless you, and they probably said, you know what, all things being equal, Harris can do the job, Jaycee's


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[Assistant] For calling this guy in, undrafted out of Ohio State, and he has been a contributor. So yeaah, on the defensive side, I think he's the guy I'm most interested to see. Can he keep that play up, Mike?


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[Assistant] And that might be a couple of guys that will allow them to save money with some of the veterans instead of paying them to stick around.


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[Assistant] We're going to talk about, you know, Schwartz's impact on the defense. I think we'll be able to measure it this weekend.


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[Assistant] Because you're gonna take the Jimmy's and the Joe's out, and then it will be all about the X's and the O's, and it'll give us a chance to sort of see just what Jim Schwartz's impact can be with just guys. Not superstars, but just guys.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think it'd be lower third. And I just want to be realistic on it. I will say though, I think, and it's been proven this year,


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[Assistant] The Browns have had a number of backups that have gotten quality time that have really flashed and so it does make you wonder


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[Assistant] Is that, how much of that is the X's and the O's? But when you take


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[Assistant] A pass rusher like Miles Garrett out of that group.


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[Assistant] In terms of covering, because they only have to cover for a short period of time. 1.3 seconds to get pressured? Yeah, I mean, you can guard a guy for 1.3 seconds. When you ask a guy to guard these top elite receivers for 3 and 4 seconds, you're gonna get beat.


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[Assistant] So Miles is the straw that makes everything great. He makes all the other pass rushers great. He makes the corners look a little better than they are. For whatever reason, Denzel Ward last year, we theorized maybe he had something going on off the field. He didn't look like Denzel Ward. Uhm, maybe it was the system.


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[Assistant] But I do think that I don't want to, you know, this is kind of like the Brady Belichick question to me. You know, is it the system, is it the quarterback?


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[Assistant] I think we've kind of learned that it had a hell of a lot more to do with the quarterback than it did with the coach. And in this case, I think because of that lesson that we've learned, I would say that they would be okay. They would be bottom third. Uhm, and that's as high as I could put them. And think about this for a minute.


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[Assistant] Now motivation will play a part in this game because I would like to say that this is at least sort of the control and the experiment.


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[Assistant] Because you've got a lot of the starters going for the Bengals and you've got a lot of the backups going for that Browns defense. So let's see what happens, but you can't measure the motivation. The Bengals may have already packed their golf clubs and shipped them to Florida.


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[Assistant] So we just can't use this game as say, like if they pitch a shout out, we can't come back here Monday and say, hey, I guess the


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[Assistant] Talk about Bradley Chubb and what happened in Miami. They were down 30. It's the last two minutes of the game and this dude is out probably for, clearly for this year, he probably won't be back until mid to late season next year.


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[Assistant] Does that come up, do you think, with the coaches? Are they, are they talking about these cautionary tales? Or boy says you can't live in your fears, you gotta put guys out there to play.


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[Assistant] I mean, the thing of it is, if you take 22, let's just say you took all 22 and the kicker's not starting either. So that's 23 of your 24 starters. I think, well, Jorgez is going to play, but if you rest the 23,


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[Assistant] Yeah, Bo brought that up earlier this week. What do you think about that? I thought it was a great idea. Baseball expands its roster in September. I think it's a great idea for football to do that.


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[Assistant] One thing I wanted to bring up really quickly before, I know Mike's got to do a read. Uh, sometimes, I, good ideas come from people that are furthest away from the fire. And, uhm,


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[Assistant] We were taught, I was watching the game with a group of people, and when...


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[Assistant] When Hopkins got hurt on the kickoff, someone who is not a football fan that I was watching with said,


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[Assistant] What the hell's he doing trying to tackle him anyhow? He's small and slow. He shouldn't even be out there.


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[Assistant] And I said, well, what is he going to do, kick and then run off the field? He's the last line of defense. And he goes, no, why don't they do like hockey?


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[Assistant] As soon as he kicks the ball, he sprints to the sideline.


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[Assistant] And an alternative defender comes on at the exact same spot. He can't come on down at the goal line. He comes on at the 30 yard line and now he's the extra defender. You know what? At first it sounded absurd to me and the more I thought about it, the more I'm like, that's a great idea! I don't want my kicker making tackles!


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[Assistant] By their own players and only their own players. So to me it becomes which coach is most liked by his players.


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[Assistant] The best coaches are not always well-liked. No, that's true. In fact, when you heard at the Cowboys ceremony on Saturday night when they put Jimmy Johnson into the Ring of Honor in Dallas.


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[Assistant] He flat said, or one of the players may have said, I was the biggest asshole in the room.


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[Assistant] And, and, and typically, look at Belichick. Like guys, there's no picnic playing for that guy.


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[Assistant] But if you like to win and you like to be pushed and you like to be the best version of yourself, then, but I think in this case, maybe the best coaches aren't necessarily the most well received by their own


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[Assistant] your pulse, your finger of the locker room, you're that are in there on a regu can speak to the camarad we talked about the team they have, you know, we t being the most important team that we had a convers


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[Assistant] What is the camaraderie just among the defense, including Schwartz? Like, how does that group look at one another?


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[Assistant] Each team has the two factions, the offense and the defense. Can you compare the camaraderie of those groups? I mean, obviously the offense and their leader has changed multiple times. How does the camaraderie and the cohesiveness of the defense compare to that of the offense?


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[Assistant] Hey Tim, yesterday we talked about chemistry and how that's like, you know, it's an unmeasurable ingredient. You can't buy it, you can't force it, it happens organically. You've played on teams that were good, you've played on teams that were bad.


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[Assistant] It feels like a magic carpet ride. It really does. And, and I, I, on one hand, I don't like, G Bush keeps saying, hey man, just relax and enjoy it. But on the other hand, I'm a Browns fan and I'm waiting for that shoe to fall and hit me in the head. Can, how long can Flacco


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[Assistant] sustain this incredible play? Is this something that he can take all the way through the playoffs? Because once you get there, as you know, the games get tougher as they go along.


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[Assistant] Very good. Tim, thanks for joining us. Happy New Year, man. We'll see you next week. Hopefully we're, uh, by then we'll obviously know our opponent. We'll dive into the first round playoff game for the Browns. Thanks, Tim.


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[Assistant] No, but that was in 99. Maybe they take Donovan McNabb. Who knows? Jay, we talked about something yesterday I'd like to get your opinion on. We talked about how this offense, and I think it was two days ago because Bernie was in.


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[Assistant] We talked about how the offense clearly looks different with Joe Flacco. Uhm, because now it's been successful,


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[Assistant] With Joe Flacco, do you think there will be more of a push next year to get to Sean to conform more to Kevin's offense? Because it is clear that Kevin's offense has looked its best with Baker in 2020 and with Flacco right now.


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[Assistant] Are we gonna push Deshaun into fitting the system? Because we heard a lot from Stefanski saying, hey, I'm gonna talk with him and I'm gonna put him in situations that he feels comfortable in. That didn't work so well.


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[Assistant] Probably. And, and I think you're right. I think, I don't think for one second that Deshaun is stubborn and it's my way or the highway. No, not at all. Every player has a favorite way of doing things. It's what they're used to. He's just got to adjust. It's an adjustment. And I love the way you framed it. If, if he wasn't already in the camp that this can work,


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[Assistant] He's seen it now with a 38 year old guy that isn't mobile. So I would think that Deshaun, who is a smart guy and he's football smart, I would think he's watching this and saying, wow.


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[Assistant] I'm kind of excited to try this stuff out. And on the ball fake thing it was, it's interesting to me that he asked him and Kevin immediately went to that.