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[Assistant] I want Deshaun Watson to say, let me show you about this. Listen, this is, this is the type of offense I want. I'm going to take control of the man on this is how I'm going to move. And I want to see, say Siefanski can come in and say, you guys thought I was just talking about plays and I was a one trick pony. No, let me show you. I'm actually a coach of men. So guess what? We could work with the play calling, but I'm more than just call it plays.


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[Assistant] So I like to hire because I want people being motivated coming in this year.


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[Assistant] Don't you guys, when you talked about alignment, don't, to me, like as just being around the game, I feel like having the office of coordinator that does not call plays,


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[Assistant] Is slightly backwards. I just feel like that is not the alignment that, that.


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[Assistant] Makes sense. It's almost like saying that the general manager is beholden to the head coach.


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[Assistant] I could argue it's happened a lot here. So I believe Chuck called the place, right? I don't remember. I believe Pat Sherman called the place.


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[Assistant] Until they took it away from them. Yeaah, and then they gave it, and then you see how that happened. And then, uh, Freddie Kitchens called the place. So there's like,


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[Assistant] That's where the disconnect comes from because if I'm a guy that is now trying to go into the locker room or go into the staff and I'm saying


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[Assistant] None of those guys that I fired, the least common denominator was the guy who was just hanging out, looks like.


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[Assistant] When Velton Van Pelt left, I think that opened the door that they were trying to say they want a different type of voice. I felt the same thing. They want a little bit of different. I felt the same thing. They want to definitely just switch it up and just give it a different.


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[Assistant] Sometimes you just want a different feel, right? And uhm, and I think Kevin is a... Kevin is a good enough team player, like...


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[Assistant] Like people say all the time, oh gee, you should kill Kevin Safanski. I'm saying I kill him on play calling, right? But when it comes- I've been clear when it comes to-


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[Assistant] The type of character I think he has and the type of motivation and the type of energy that he gives his team, his team plays hard for him. You haven't heard one person come out and say anything bad about Stefanski. You ain't heard nobody come out and say, you know, any, anything egregious. He's always even killed. So on that aspect of coaching, I think he does a really good job.


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[Assistant] So for me, I think he's going to show a lot of people, hey, I can do other things besides hall plays.


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[Assistant] I'm here to get the best out of everybody and to ultimately win a championship.


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[Assistant] Now, you look at those points by quarter, uh, first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter. Everybody, every athlete, every player, the first thing that they tell you during the week is they say, start fast.


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[Assistant] Guys, we want to start fast. Guys, we need to get out here. Offense is going to get the ball. They're going to go down and score seven points. Defense is going to stop, put another one on the board. Every level, they tell you that. When you look at what this, what this pattern shows me,


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[Assistant] Is their starting slow in games. 74 points, you look, they warm up, they get to a place in the second quarter, 137. Here's when you come in the third quarter. Third quarter is all about adjusting to what you saw.


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[Assistant] Okay, the defense came out, we thought they were going to give us this. This is what they're doing now. How do we adjust to go down and get some points and get this quarter started? They even dip a little lower.


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[Assistant] When Sean Watson says, look, I'm really not a big fan of scripted plays.


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[Assistant] Now I'm just playing football. Now I, now I can just read and react. And if you, if you look, I can start fast. I'm, I'm cooking in that, in that part. And so even when you go back to Aaron Rodgers, at one point in time before he left, uh, you know, left the Green Bay Packers, he was mad at Floor Flora because


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[Assistant] That's why Aaron Rodgers is with the Jets. And when he got there, he said what? I want, I want control. Everybody, no one's gonna come out and say, I should be able to do whatever I want.


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[Assistant] But when you talk about the, the, the relationships behind closed doors, there's times where, and I just give you an example, there's times where I would have to, they say, you know, G Bush, you're going to rush and you're going to rush the four I inside rather outside. I'm like, yeah, I might start inside.


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[Assistant] The thing is, everybody has to be okay with it. Like, it sucks because, and the only problem with


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[Assistant] The issue with Dishonestine is he hasn't paid the dividends yet so that people can be okay with that.


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[Assistant] Why doesn't it add to success? Yep, the success. The thing I get with Joe Flack and a lot of people as we, we, you know, talk about how, why he was loved.


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[Assistant] Because Joe Flacco, yes he threw interceptions, but he put deposits in the bank for withdrawals. He threw you touchdowns and you were like, okay. Guys was open, he was throwing the ball downfield. And so as fans, we'll take.


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[Assistant] The negative plays if you have something in a bank. As far as that goes.


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[Assistant] And the shotgun runs are much more difficult to get momentum on. Like, if you're in the center, your running back is downhill.


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[Assistant] He's getting three or four yards to see the hole move around and see cut back lanes. A lot of the stuff that you're doing in and out of shotgun is left, right, sweet, outside stuff. And you don't get the inside zone stuff like that you really need to get in terms of the running game and paying dividends.


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[Assistant] I just think it's a lost art. When you talk about being under center, the footwork is like dancing. It's coming back though.


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[Assistant] It's like being, well, you know, it takes a little bit of time to give it to them, but most of the guys that are coming out, I would say from,


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[Assistant] 2009, 2010, those guys are starting to be out of the league. Those, that's 10 years in the league. The guys that are, that are in college that are, are specifically in the shotgun,


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[Assistant] Getting under center is like dance steps. You have to really learn the fakes to the three step. And that's why I was really impressed with CJ Stroud because he, he'll do a seven step drop under center and you just don't see that anymore. Right? Uhm, so I think one of the things that I think is going to have to happen, it has to be collaboration and they have to get to a point where this, Deshaun Watson has to be able to have ownership


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[Assistant] I mean that he, he takes onus of if that play was successful or not.


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[Assistant] When Patrick Mahomes is out there, I very rarely see him talking to anybody or any other people about what happens. He is in full control of what they're running out there. And so he just looks comfortable. I just don't think, um, Jashon was comfortable with certain things.


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[Assistant] And we'll see how it works out, you know, we'll get these guys a mesh, but you know, hopefully he has on the show.


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[Assistant] And if y'all, if they wanna pass, if they wanna throw 60-40, there's one thing that has to happen.


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[Assistant] You can't come back with the same receivers. If you, you guys, if you make this move. I don't know, the chiefs are telling you you can. But here's the thing, Kelsey is Kelsey again.


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[Assistant] No, no, no, because, no, because they have, they arguably have three of the best head coach, receiver, or tight end, whatever the case, in the quarterback, ever.


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[Assistant] What do you mean you telling me I was in the wrong gap? I was in the right gap. You didn't know that? Like get out of here. Like, like no, they don't, like no, if you are a tight ends coach.


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[Assistant] And they're gutting the thing! Now, I always ask every year, and I think this gets them in trouble. Can somebody tell me what the identity of the Browns offense is?


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[Assistant] I could tell you, look, I could look around the league and I could tell you exactly what the identity of certain teams are. And I think that here's what happened. The owner said, look, I'm not just telling you like, yo, I, I, I got this, this sports car.


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[Assistant] They're champions. You put some name on the Columbus Crew. You put some respect on him. He's a world champion, Bull. He got that ring right now. Now he can make those decisions.


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[Assistant] Here's what it is. I feel like this may be right or wrong. I feel like Jim Schwartz is the linebacker's coach, the secondary coach, the D-line coach, the safety's coach. I agree with that too. Like what impact does the D-line coach have?


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[Assistant] If a defense alignment get blocked or is in the wrong gap, I don't even think his coach gonna say nothing. Jim Schwartz already gonna be like, what are you doing?


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[Assistant] McNuggets, I'm gonna start sending you my almost tickets. I'm mad at these folks. They're a lot of almost tickets.


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[Assistant] See, this is what happened when you started with me first. Alright, listen, let's go to Lamar Jackson. Let's get to Lamar Jackson. Uhm, wow, I hated their gay play.


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[Assistant] I didn't understand what they were doing. I was confused and Tony Romo for once I thought was on, he said, Lamar. Oh no, Tony Romo's hideous. Well, he's, he's saying. He is the worst analyst in the evening. Lamar, you gotta, y'all, you better use your legs. You better run. I'm like, Gus Edwards didn't have it. He wasn't getting the ball. They was pulling the ball down, throwing it everywhere. And then like you said, to your point about discipline, Zay Flowers.


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[Assistant] What are you doing? Stupid penalty. And the fumble going against us. You had the worst game ever. And people trying to, you know, talk you down, you're a rookie. You better shut up and understand you're lucky to be there. He'll learn from yesterday. My goodness. He will learn from that. That strip at the goal line hurt his heart. Remember, he was crying.


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[Assistant] Travis Kelsey, Travis Kelsey showed you, you best not talk about his girl. They do whatever they want. Kelsey came by and was like, oh, I'm still Kelsey. And it was like funny because


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[Assistant] Right? And the longer you play a team that is better than you, you have more of an opportunity to lose. I don't want to go to overtime, obviously to put the momentum of switch.


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[Assistant] So obviously the momentum has switched. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give my team an opportunity to put the ball in their hands. I'm not gonna, I got Saint Brown, I got the guys who have been running the ball well, I got golf. I'm gonna give them an opportunity to earn the right to win this game and not put it in the field. I don't got no problem with that.


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[Assistant] Why would I gamble $5 when I can gamble $200 and try to get the big pot?


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[Assistant] So here's the thing, if you get, I'll just take this season for the Browns. Browns had all these guys in multiple quarter. Joe Flacco is where he is right now.


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[Assistant] I want the guys on the field, I would tell them before the game, guys, we gonna go in this game aggressive. I'm letting you, I'm letting you. Hey, hey, everyone of you. He did it all year. Everyone of you come on in here. I'm telling you, I'm looking at you in the face as a man. If it comes down to fourth and two.


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[Assistant] I don't believe that you can discount regular season wins just for the simple fact of this.


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[Assistant] They need to practice and learn the way that they're going to play games in the playoffs.


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[Assistant] We need to get our rotations down. We need to figure out what parts and pieces match together in lineups. That stuff matters. Like, I mean, you can't just roll the ball out in the playoffs and say, we're here. No, you're right. No, they did that last


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[Assistant] If you got the team and everybody's coming back, can I say, well listen, all you guys are going to start, but what I want to do is I want to keep, I want to keep, uh, Darius Garland.


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[Assistant] I mean, you gotta have, to be, to say you have a crunching tree, you have to have like,


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[Assistant] Who wants to start? I'll give that a B. I mean, he was a good acquisition. He wasn't, um, you know, he wasn't lights out, but they paid him a lot of money. He lived up to the contract. He was good, not great, and they paid him really well. So I'll say B.


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[Assistant] I'm with Jay, I got a C- here. I might have gone even lower, but he didn't get paid, to be fair. We can talk about it with Townsend. He got paid like a solid safety, not an elite safety. And I thought he was a little below that, so I'm gonna say C-.


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[Assistant] This is not good, Jay, and I agree on a second straight one. I'm an A- as well. I factor in the money again. He got paid like just like a no body. I thought it was a deal, actually. Six million a year for a guy who was a very productive number three pass rusher?


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[Assistant] Yeah, there's still room to grow, but I thought for what you paid him, he was very productive. And you guys all mentioned the toughness. That took me from a B plus to an A minus to toughness.


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[Assistant] The belly rubbers. Rotation. Yeaah. Yeaah, I'm a belly rubber. Uh, A, A+, baby! I mean, I thought those guys were both highly productive. I know hers got hurt.


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[Assistant] Are you saying that if you're religious you should get higher grades? I think that's kind of outrageous.


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[Assistant] I give that an A. Uh, yeah. Ethan Pochich was a great addition when they first signed him. He had been a bust as a pick with Seattle. He had not played well there. And thanks to the great Bill Callahan who we cannot survive without. Yeah, we can.


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[Assistant] Uh, Bill Callahan is great though. Uh, he, he helped improve his game. Ethan Pochich helped improve his game, and he was very good again this year. Not quite as good as the year before, so I'll go A, not A+, but A for me.


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[Assistant] I can't blame him for that. He had a great year in Baltimore. It would not have worked here. You had to let him go. I don't blame Barry.


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[Assistant] I mean, it's a C. He was okay. He was disappointing. In the end, you gave a fifth round picks for a sixth and a seventh to get him. That's fine. It's totally in mid.


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[Assistant] This is an F. This is a terrible trade. Because, first of all,


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[Assistant] So the trade ends up being Elijah Moore and Cedric Tillman. Now, we'll never know who the Browns would have taken if they would have stayed there.


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[Assistant] But, they could have gotten Jaylen Reed or Tank Del. Those guys had major impact as rookies. Tank Del was a stock. If Tank Del hadn't gotten hurt, he probably would have been in the Pro Bowl as a rookie. I mean, that's how good he was. So, if you had, I mean, now again, we don't know that he would have taken him, but he was available.


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[Assistant] If I told you right now, you could trade Elijah Moore and Cedric Tillman for Tank Del.


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[Assistant] Okay, can you put the first page up again one more time? Steve, go back one, please.


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[Assistant] I mean, Dewan Jones was a major hit, but, and Ronnie Hickman's a nice player. Cedric Tillman has potential, but.


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[Assistant] Outside of, outside of Draymond, uh, uh, not Draymond, uh, DeJuan Jones. Is there anybody you're sure is a starter?


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[Assistant] I mean, eco was a, uh, third round pick and he looks like nothing at this point. He hasn't played enough.


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[Assistant] They kinda wanted something on it. So it's, it's gonna be a battle over the next couple of years I think in terms of what they do at the stadium and the city's been a little bit slow to come to the table. I think they've got other priorities and other things that they're looking at and the Browns aren't really their number one concern right now because the Leafs has four years to go.


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[Assistant] But I've talked to people who build these things, who've been part of the projects, and they said, you have to go now. Like, you gotta do this now. Now is the time. We're four years out from the end of the lease. And if you go look at Minnesota,


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[Assistant] When they built the dome, they passed legislation in 2012 and the stadium opened in 2016, four years out. So, now the question becomes, and really the story that I put out today was just like, hey, they're serious about this dome. Like, Browns want a dome.


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[Assistant] And the idea of renovating on the lakefront


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[Assistant] If it, it's the, what I've been told is between two and two and a half billion dollars with a B. For the whole project. For the whole project. Okay. It's a, it's not a retractable roof, that's even more. So it would be a standard roof, doesn't open and close. There are other ways to do it. Minnesota did a beautiful job. It's a transparent roof. And the doors actually open when the weather's nice. I would assume they would do something like that. Hopefully you could do something like that.


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[Assistant] To the fan through fees and whatever else. Right, right, right.


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[Assistant] No, not technically, but the companies do. So where's that tax money currently going, do we know? Education gets a big chunk of it, gambling, addict classes, military veterans, all wonderful causes. I would never allocate rerouting that money. Add to it, take more out of it.


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[Assistant] And, and you can go that route. And also I want to make clear, like, I've heard a lot of comments this morning of,


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[Assistant] Jimmy can pay for the whole thing himself. Yes. Unfortunately, more times than not, that's not the reality. Other than Stan Krenke in LA, that really hasn't been, now that doesn't mean it's impossible, but short of like picking him upside down and shaking him by the ankles and shaking $2 billion out of his pockets, if he says no, what are you gonna do? So you gotta, you gotta come up with alternatives.


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[Assistant] Absolutely. You would have to put them up for sale.


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[Assistant] And make them available too. It's how Jimmy got the Columbus crew. Right. It's state law was changed after Modell took the Browns to Baltimore. They changed state law so that before a team can leave the area, you have to make them.


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[Assistant] Available for purchase. It was brilliant. It was brilliant legislation. So from that standpoint, yes, the state has leverage.


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[Assistant] I think there's a difference, and I think Justin Bibb is really smart in coming out and saying we're not using general fund money to, I think that was a smart strategy move.


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[Assistant] But, and I agree that it shouldn't be, you shouldn't raise taxes on Cuyahoga County residents or Cleveland or anything like that.


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[Assistant] But I don't see, if you're taxing marijuana, if you're taxing gambling, and a big part of the story I put out was what they did in Minnesota with these electronic pull tab games. Now, gambling is not legal in Minnesota, so that's a little bit of a difference.


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[Assistant] I mean, there's a state lottery, but like, there's no casinos, it's all Indian tribal. So how do they get away with the poll tabs? It's through charities. So charities more or less sponsor these electronic poll tab games. The charities pay the tax.


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[Assistant] And you just sit while you're drinking and you're out with friends or whatever, you just sit there and you gamble. And the taxes on that, the money goes to charity and then the charities are taxed and that tax revenue goes to stadiums. What's the downside on that? The downside is what if it doesn't work?


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[Assistant] Uh, it's in the article, I don't remember off the top of my head, but I know that they made enough, the state bonds were 350 million and they paid it off after 10 years. They paid it off 20 years early and it's still a booming business. It's still, and now they're arguing over what to do with the money now. Right.


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[Assistant] Well it's 30 year, I mean you would do it over 30 years. That's what Minnesota did. They just got, they had great success with it. But you'd do it over 30 years. And I spoke to the president of the company that builds the games.


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[Assistant] The date in daily news I cited and I don't have it in front of me. Through October, how much money Ohio had pulled in in taxes. 102 million just through October in taxes. 102 million off


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[Assistant] I don't want to try and play the numbers game.


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[Assistant] Yeah, really, you gotta try and double what Minnesota did. Yeah. Because Minnesota raised 350. You really need to try and raise 700 million dollars. Minimum. Minimum. Yeah, you're right. In funding. It's a pull this off.


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[Assistant] Dismiss a lot of regular season stuff. I thought it was important to win that game. Because... If you go back to last year...


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[Assistant] The game before the All-Star break, they got smashed in Philly.


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[Assistant] And then, at home, and then if you come back and you lose to Chicago at home, and you go to the break on a two game losing streak, both games that you probably should have won,


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[Assistant] It just, I just, when they were down in the first half, I thought, you don't want to make too big of a deal about it because they've had such a great first half, and it's like, you don't want this to be like last year. So, I actually thought it was really,


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[Assistant] Not to take a two game losing streak into the break where you got a week to sit around and think about it. So, you know, I'm not big on regular season wins.


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[Assistant] I'm big on building good habits in the regular season though, and it all goes back to what I said, what I didn't like about last year was they kept waiting for Donovan to bail him out. And I didn't know, I was at the game last night, but I was already downstairs, so I was in the tunnel.


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[Assistant] For Donovan, like that's the play. Donovan did the clap. Donovan on a mismatch. That's where you want it to go. And for Darius to say, I got this. I love that because that's exactly what I didn't like about last year. You got other guys on this team who can close out games.


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[Assistant] So give them those opportunities now so that they have that confidence when it matters in the postseason. I thought it was huge. I thought it was great.


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[Assistant] Good on Darius too, and good thing he made it because Mike said he's right. That's the conversation in the locker room. If he misses that shot, if he missed a shot the other night, and he misses that shot.


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[Assistant] I'm sure there's a conversation between Donovan and Darius there in the locker room about, yo, look what I've got, like, give me the ball. I thought it was great that he hit that shot.


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[Assistant] Like go back to the championship team, JR.


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[Assistant] He wasn't playing in the playoffs. He didn't play much in the playoffs. But in terms of like, you're talking confident shooters, that was a veteran team. It's different. It's different when you got a veteran team. Let me make it very clear. I'm not trying to say it any...


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[Assistant] Great defense, great defense. This is a really important postseason for Isaac coming up. It is worth millions to him, literally, truly. If he has a good postseason,


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[Assistant] He will be writing, he'll be cashing really big checks next year. But it all comes, we talked about on the show, I've already talked to...


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[Assistant] Other head coaches who said, you have to pick something in a playoff series against the Cavs. You gotta pick something.


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[Assistant] And they're gonna pick Isaac. Like, teams are still going to leave him open. They want him to prove that this is real and he can hit pressure shots. It's different making it in the playoffs than it is making it in February. And if he makes him, and I'm not saying he's not going to, if he makes him,


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[Assistant] He's, he's, he's built himself into a viable, legitimate 3-in-D wing. If he can make those shots in the postseason, oh my goodness. It's a massive difference.


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[Assistant] He's shooting 40% right now on Catch and Shoot for Evenshear. Yeaah. That's a fantastic number. Right. It's 42% since January. Like that's money.


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[Assistant] He has got the confidence now in that shot and I hope for his sake that it translates into April, May and June because if it does, it is a game changer for this team and for him and free agency this summer.


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[Assistant] I think, realistically, the conference finals is probably- You don't think they could beat Boston?


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[Assistant] I don't think it's crazy at all. No, I think they get there this year. And again, there's progressions to this. There's steps. Last year was about getting there and getting your teeth kicked in and figuring it out. Now you know what it's like. You know what to expect.


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[Assistant] So, I mean, the real progression is to win a series. Sure. But I think this team's capable of winning too. I mean, Donovan, Donovan is top ten in player efficiency ratings, sort of the all-encompassing NBA stat. First time in his career. He's had his two best years of his career in Cleveland. And I wrote something for tomorrow on like,


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[Assistant] He needs to think about that when he's talking about his future and what he wants to do this summer. He's played the best basketball of his career right here in Cleveland.


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[Assistant] This all falls on Donovan. Fair or not.


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[Assistant] He has not played well in the postseason the last couple years.


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[Assistant] And if they go far, he's going to get all the credit. Yep. If they flame out, he's going to take all the blame. This isn't about, it's not about Evan. It's not about Isaac. You could say this is unfair and I don't know that I would necessarily disagree.


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[Assistant] I'm just telling you, no one's going to blame Jarrett and Evan in Darius if this team doesn't succeed in the playoffs. It's on him. No, they will blame JB.


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[Assistant] Well, and here's what I would say about JB. This is the point I made last year in the playoffs. What did you expect them to do? What did you want them to do? They had no shooting last year. None.


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[Assistant] And now he's got the shooting, and the most impressive part, I think about what Jamie's done this year, they are shooting it at an elite level.


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[Assistant] And they haven't lost anything defensively. They are still defending at the high level that he expects and that he wants.


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[Assistant] And they've added the shooting component to that. I think he's done a fantastic job. Do you know where they rank defensively?


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[Assistant] I'm not even sure Kyrie's number two, like we've had this, it's not Donovan, I don't know, like we could talk about Brad Doherty, we could talk about Austin Carr, like there's, basketball did exist before 2010 in Cleveland, like I just think that it's a wider conversation.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, he, he really needs to do something. The hair is really... You don't like the hair?


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[Assistant] He's not dead. So, I, I, I think Jared is probably- Jared's perfect. Jared's perfect, yes. Evan, I think there's some, and, and, so I'm looking at this, I've got the, the rankings in front of me, or the levels in front of me, the groupings.


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[Assistant] He's got, sorry he's worth more to us than them in group H.


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[Assistant] And, like, three or four levels away is budding franchise guy. I would have Evan, maybe I'm too high on him, but here's the other players in the budding franchise guy. I don't know if this is where you're going with it, Mike. Lowry Markkinen, Tyrese Maxey, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, those are his budding franchise guys. I mean, those guys, who's the last two? Holmgren and Jalen Williams.


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[Assistant] I think he belongs in that group, especially, and we don't have enough of a sample size, but this three point thing,


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[Assistant] If this is real and it looks like it's real. Yeaah. Like this is going on now on a couple of weeks and it's gotta go last longer than a couple of weeks. But this isn't like one or two shots that he's made. He's starting to do this at a consistent level.


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[Assistant] If this is real, he's absolutely in that group. And JB tried to make this point last night after the game, and he's right.


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[Assistant] And I've probably fallen into the trap of talking too much now about the three point shooting because it's become a hot button issue. And I just think it's really important in the style of the way that they play. But he can do so much more than just threes. Like he is a complete basketball player. The way that he can defend, the way that he can move in the post.


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[Assistant] Some of the passes that he can make, he is legit. And I just think this is the last bag, or the last club in his bag. And I think he should be a lot higher on that.


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[Assistant] Two of those guys have massive issues. Zion...


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[Assistant] Can't stay healthy and can't lose weight. And Ja is a lunatic. So why would you put Darius? He doesn't fit with those guys. That's not a good pairing for Darius. Now Darius has a lot of injury.


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[Assistant] I don't like the guys he's in with and I'm looking at his categories now to see where else he would fit if it's not there. He's certainly not in the too young, too cheap, too good. No. Let me save you some time. F no. He's not in that.


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[Assistant] Three? I think it's two. I don't think it's three. Quarterbacks. Only, I mean most quarterbacks don't even get three. Right. Deshaun was three. That was extenuating circumstances. Right. Browns were desperate.


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[Assistant] Yeah, beyond the first, I don't know, you know.


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[Assistant] I think he would get two first plus


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[Assistant] If you were, if, if, if, if, if Deshawn played exactly as he's played since he got here, and he played for the Saints, would you think?


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[Assistant] I, now, this, this is the contract. He's been a bust, but look at what the 49ers gave up to get Trey Lance, and then what they got for him when they moved on. What'd they get from Dallas? Like a fifth? A fourth. Yeah, a fourth. Right. So, I mean, that's what I think. Different contract, obviously. Not nearly as much money owed to Trey. Right. Obviously, Watson has had success.


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[Assistant] The price is right, like, you know, maybe at 2-2's they say no, but like New Orleans again, Tampa, needs a quarterback. Atlanta.


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[Assistant] As a straight up, I tend to agree with Tyvis. I think he, he to me is more of a player for player type trade.


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[Assistant] Bundle him with the pick to move up to go into the first round. Something like that. But if you're just trading him, I don't think the value is there. Going back to the Bill Simmons rankings, he's more valuable to us than you. I don't know that the value is there. If you're just trading him strictly for a pick,


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[Assistant] He played defensive back in the NFL. If he says he's worth a third, then I'm not going to disagree with that. I agree it's a third.


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[Assistant] Six. Yeah, on his current contract. Six. Yeah, you know.


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[Assistant] It's gonna be, that's gonna be... They're gonna have to figure it out. But don't you think...


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[Assistant] It's, it's, it's 16. I thought that was just his cap hitting on his salary.


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[Assistant] I don't know that the Browns were going to pick up that option when he was healthy.


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[Assistant] I would give him the, I would do right by him and give him the opportunity to make it back in incentives. Yes. Every dime. But it's gotta be incentive based.


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[Assistant] You know how negotiations go. If they, if they do come and say, you know, four or five million and he can get six or seven, why would he go back and give them the opportunity to match? He's going to say, screw you. So that's why this is hard.


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[Assistant] What would you have gone? I would have probably put, I doubt. Just because of the amount of terrific quarterback play in the NFL. Like, you don't have to think very hard to think of eight really good quarterbacks.


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[Assistant] Yeah, he could beat Jordan Love. He could beat Jordan Love. That still gets him denied. He could! But I doubt!


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[Assistant] Of NFL Defensive Player of the Year, only three guys have ever repeated.


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[Assistant] Lawrence Taylor, Aaron Donald, and JJ Watt. Now obviously Donald and Watt, it's a little bit more recent.


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[Assistant] But there just isn't a very long track record of guys winning it in back to back years. It doesn't happen very often. And, you know, a lot of people call it a sort of a lifetime achievement award for miles this year. Well, guess what?


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[Assistant] Uh, uh, uh, I just, name fell out of my head. Dallas.


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[Assistant] Oh, Micah Parsons. Micah Parsons hasn't won one yet. So maybe he's up next year. It's so dumb that we think of it this way. I know, but that's the way that they do. It's wrong, but yeah, I think it's true. So, I mean, he could, if he has another monster year, like.


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[Assistant] But he's gotta have a better year than he had this year. Like that's the thing. So now he's gotta have better numbers across the board than what he had this year to even be.


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[Assistant] You know, I think a serious candidate to win it next year, which is possible, but I just, sorry guys, I don't.


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[Assistant] Oh no, you guys go, I- No, what do you guys- I agree. You agree with I think?


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[Assistant] Carolina was number one, the Browns were number two, the Jets were number three.


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[Assistant] But the reason why I chose I doubt for this, the Browns didn't really play a ton of elite quarterbacks.


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[Assistant] Uh, who were healthy and productive. Here's the list of quarterbacks they gotta play next year. Lamar twice, of course. Burrow twice. Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Dak, Tua, Jalen Hurts, and Trevor Lawrence.


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[Assistant] Now if all those guys are healthy, that's 10 of their 17 games against some pretty doggone good quarterback play. So for that reason, I mean, top 3.


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[Assistant] Again, you could be really good and not fall in the top three. This is like the top eight conversation. You could be the top ten and not top eight. So for, for the, just the fact of the, the schedule that they have to play next year is gonna be,


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[Assistant] A pretty tough schedule and the quarterbacks that they face are all really, really good. A number of them, a high number of them are really good.


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[Assistant] I mean, if you, that's what you want to rank them. Uh, I just went in order of the, of how they appeared on the schedule. Lamar, Burrow, Mahomes, Herbert, Dak, Tua, Jalen, Trevor Lawrence.


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[Assistant] Three's a really high bar. You give me eight?


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[Assistant] Six years in the league, three times he's been over 1,100. You would think that's like automatic for him. Alright, let's think about it this way, guys.


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[Assistant] So 15 games times 15 carries times 5 yards of carry is exactly 1125.


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[Assistant] And when you talk about kids and sending the kids out, every single morning, I got a 13 year old son and a 12 year old daughter. Every single morning, I give them a hug and a kiss and I tell them I love them. And I'm telling you, there's this thought in the back of my head. I watch them walk out the door and I pray to God that they come home to me.


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[Assistant] How insane is that? That this is the world that we live in, but every single morning I watch them walk out the same door and I pray that they come home and it's, I just, it's just numbing at this point.


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[Assistant] I mean you think about, I thought it was the thing about the chaos game last night. Now you have metal detectors that you have to walk through.


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[Assistant] So hopefully that would sniff anything out. But there's 20,000 people in there. You never know. When I was in the Super Bowl, I think I've mentioned this before, I covered the Super Bowl.


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[Assistant] In 2019, the Patriots and Rams and the amount of people shoulder to shoulder on the streets in Atlanta.


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[Assistant] There was a heavy police presence, but you look around and think it just takes one guy, and there's 50 people dead like that. Never know.


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[Assistant] Well, I think the insane thing here is, you're ruining a piece of meat by putting cheese on it, so you're probably the same person that ruins a piece of perfectly good steak by cooking it to within an inch of its depth. Which couldn't be less accurate.


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[Assistant] Uh, let me ask one final question before we put this, uh, ridiculous topic to bed. Earl, how do you have your steak cooked? Oh, uh, medium. Okay.


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[Assistant] Can I, can I, one thing on that, can I tell you why people, why you're not supposed to do that with a good steak? Why? As the air hits all the surface area.


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[Assistant] Hold on before you go any further. Do you guys agree with that part? I don't. No. He's maintained his innocence. What the hell is he going to apologize for?


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[Assistant] He has not been charged. He has not been convicted. Why in the world would an innocent man, for what we have to say, he's innocent. He's never been proven guilty. Why the hell would an innocent man fall on his knee and apologize?


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[Assistant] If you want to outrage America, kill dogs.


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[Assistant] Has done an incredible job of not rehabilitating his image. He had it right the way he went about it. And I know a few people that were not on his team, but they were consulting him. Tony Dungy was one of his big mentors and he went to Tony and said, what do I need to do? Not because I want the public to like me. How do I become the best Michael Vick? And he listened.


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[Assistant] Michael Vick had it right. He didn't put the cart before the horse. Michael Vick decided, I don't really care about my public image. That will follow. He rehabilitated himself and if you, cause you're right, that's a great example. That might be the best example that we can think of. Michael Vick's rehabilitation of his image might be one of the most


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[Assistant] Transformation that I've ever seen. He went from being public enemy number one. People hated this man. Hated because he killed dogs.


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[Assistant] Now, when you see him or hear him, I'm sure there are some people that say I can't look at him, he killed dogs.


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[Assistant] I think Michael Vick has done an incredible job. Not a, I'm gonna fix my image. That's the wrong way to do it. I'm gonna fix myself. The image will take care of itself. And it has. And with Deshaun, his image is very complex. He's got a lot of the same stuff going on.


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[Assistant] You can choose to not like Deshaun Watson because of the things he was accused of if you wish. That's your prerogative. Remember, in this country,


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[Assistant] Until you are proven guilty at the highest level and you've exhausted all appeals.


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[Assistant] We owe it to him to assume that he's innocent.


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[Assistant] But if you want to use that as a reason to hate him, that's fine. For me, my answer was very simple. They hit it really well, I thought, in the responses. Win. Live up to expectations. Done. Period. What about you, Tyvis?


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[Assistant] He supersedes everybody. He becomes, you build a statue for him if he wants to.


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[Assistant] When there's no proof that he's done anything wrong. To me, that element of it is the most egregious part of all of this.


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[Assistant] That is, well the big difference though, we gotta be careful, because Deshaun's still facing that. They're civil. Okay. And that's what that conviction was. And that bar, by the way, is far less than criminal. But there was a jury of his peers.


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[Assistant] No, that was actually, on one of them it was a judge trial. But I don't want to go down that road because, G. Bush, as far as I know, correct me, I may be wrong.


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[Assistant] Well we tried. We tried. With hiring practices. Right, but now they're being.


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[Assistant] When the verdict was announced, and the video is several minutes long and many different locations, and it shows that whether it was middle America, coastal, west, east, north, south, the verdict reaction was the same.


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[Assistant] I had a conversation once with many of my black friends about, did you cheer the verdict? Hell yea, I cheered the verdict. Do you think he did it? Well yea, he did it.


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[Assistant] So that's kind of, and there were probably some white people that weren't convinced if he...


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[Assistant] They bring it up specifically for him, but let's say not Lamar Jackson.


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[Assistant] Well, to that point, I went back and read the mentions when I knew we were gonna do this. I wanted to see like, okay, so what is the elixir here? What forces a fanbase to hate a player? What forces a fanbase to love a player?


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[Assistant] Deshaun Watson could have run for mayor and would have won 95 to 5. The comments were unbelievable. Everybody was


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[Assistant] Now you can go to, you know, a radio station.


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[Assistant] I listened, obviously our show, I listened to other media on the Monday after. The questions were over.


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[Assistant] What happened was, cause it's a fair question, like, God, the guy hasn't taken a snap, and his reputation has been sullied since it was at its peak. The answer to me is very simple.


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[Assistant] And with this 11 guys, you were doing okay, and you had a half where you looked like, okay, that's what the Super Bowl offense looks like. Then you took one player out.


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[Assistant] You put another player in and that offense and their production went up.


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[Assistant] I don't know a fan that says he's played up to his expectations, up to his contract, up to what, we didn't trade for him to be a 500 quarterback and to throw for 200 yards a game. That's not the Deshaun Watson we traded for. So that's fair for you to say that. I don't know anybody and if there's out there, feel free to reach out to Mikey however in the chat or whatever and let me know.


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[Assistant] Anybody think that Deshaun Watson has met or exceeded what his expectations were when we traded for him? Show of hands.


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[Assistant] It's more likely than not that he does return to the old Deshaun Watson. Cause I do, and I don't know what that percentage is, but after, I saw it in Baltimore.


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[Assistant] It was a half of football. I know, but it was against one of the best defenses in the NFL at their place. So the bar was high. It wasn't against Arizona. It wasn't against any of these middling teams. I hear you, but I have to see it more.


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[Assistant] One last thing is I know Mike has to get a read. Uhm, I'm just putting a bunch of tea leaves together and here's the narrative that I've put together.


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[Assistant] I wanna say that it's mostly opinion, but there is some factual reporting from things that I'm hearing.


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[Assistant] I think that there is immense pressure on Jimmy and Dee. They understand that their legacy is in the balance. If this doesn't work...


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[Assistant] The first paragraph of their obituary will ultimately be, they were the owners that traded for Deshaun Watson and margaged the franchise and it didn't work.


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[Assistant] So, and I, and it should be by the way, if it doesn't work. So I think they're feeling immense pressure.


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[Assistant] Bull was told by a reporter and I was told by a different reporter the same thing after the Arizona 27-0 win.


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[Assistant] Our owner, Jimmy Haslam, allegedly, according to at least two different sources, said about the game, we didn't throw it enough. Now you just won 27-0. That tells me he's


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[Assistant] He's hearing the critics and saying, Sean Watson, he hasn't thrown for many yards. He wants Watson four touchdowns, 350 yards a game. That's what he wants. So it's so operation


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[Assistant] Overkill, or whatever you call it, Operation Stockpile. He wants the pendulum where it's indisputable that Deshaun Watson is that guy.


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[Assistant] But, but my showpiece, it was like I had a Ferrari and I won with a Mustang. He wants...


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[Assistant] Big passing numbers. So we've got that piece of evidence. The other piece of evidence we have is after a season that we all say was remarkable and in some cases unbelievable, what the offense was able to do, the OC gets fired because he can't fire the head coach and he's the play caller.


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[Assistant] But what he's doing is he brings in an offensive coordinator in Ken Dorsey who has been at an elite


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[Assistant] Uh, with an elite franchise calling plays for a year and a half.


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[Assistant] The writing on the wall to me is, and I'm also hearing from folks that are, have their ear to the ground that Ken Dorsey will call plays here. It hasn't been reported officially by anybody. I am not reporting that here.


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[Assistant] I am saying I'm hearing whispers from people that cover the league that are telling me Ken Dorsey was brought here to call plays. And if you put all of these pieces together,


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[Assistant] Jimmy's not happy with how much we're throwing the ball. And Deshawn on a podcast says, oh, we gonna throw it.


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[Assistant] We're gonna throw it and we're gonna throw it a lot. To me, it seems like Jimmy has said, my reputation is on Deshaun Watson. So I'm gonna give him everything he wants and we're gonna throw the hell out of the football. And I think I would just be prepared as a fan base.


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[Assistant] And I'm not reporting this. Again, I'm just as some whispers I'm hearing that Ken Dorsey is going to be our play caller this year and we are going to throw the ball a lot and it better work.


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[Assistant] We want to go around the horn with takeaways. Like what, what was your biggest takeaway?


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[Assistant] Chris Rose, sitting down with Albert Bell. Uhm, what, what's your big takeaway from the interview? What did you make of it?


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[Assistant] He seems happier. He does. I've never, I've never seen him smile before. So you got, you got, you got a smile out of him in that clip. I think it's the first time I've ever seen Albert Bell smile.


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[Assistant] Chris, I'll play devil's advocate for a second.


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[Assistant] Some really good years out of them and there were still more good years in them. But I'm wondering if John Hart, I don't, it wasn't their style to pay that kind of money for a player. Right. So I don't think, you know, he, he called bullshit, but


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[Assistant] I think what he was saying was, okay fine, if you have it, we can't match that anyhow. And I don't think they ever would have matched it, even if they did take that offer seriously.


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[Assistant] You own the fact that, you know, you were walking on eggshells. This was a guy, I was 26 years old.


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[Assistant] I was working in Hartford and I wanted to do a story on Charles Nagy who was from Connecticut and he was pitching with the Indians. So I went up there and I interviewed Nagy and I was doing a stand up behind the batter's cage. And I wasn't right up against the batter's cage. It was during batting practice. I was just doing my stand up.


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[Assistant] And Albert hadn't even taken his swings and he stops. He gets out of the batter's cage and comes right up to me and says, I'm working.


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[Assistant] And I'm like, I was, I was more intimate. I'm 26, you know, I was like, what the hell's going on here? He literally said, no talking when I'm working.


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[Assistant] And I was standing right next to Hannah Storm in the dugout when the famous incident happened where he just basically threw her out of his office. He used a lot of the same buzzwords. You know, this is where I work. This is my office. And I just remember thinking,


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[Assistant] And, and it was a real fear, and I think you're lying if you don't admit that the, if...


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[Assistant] Where they, I think it was Jason Grimsley climbed up over.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and then we confiscated the bat that officials, that umpire said it was court. Did you talk about that?


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[Assistant] He, all of his teams for the most part, when you look at the back of his baseball card, they all went to the playoffs. And it's the same thing with Ricky Henderson. Ricky, although most of us remember him as an Oakland A, he played for a lot of teams. They were both leadoff guys. Obviously Ricky had more power.


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[Assistant] And Chris, as we go, cause I know Mike's rapping us, I think, didn't he also have 50 home runs and 50 doubles? Yup. In a season? He's the only guy to do it.


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[Assistant] A double is a hard hit ball, often times to the wall or it's well struck. Like he was, I agree with you, for the 90s, if he wasn't the best hitter in the American league in the 90s, he is certainly in the top two or three.


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[Assistant] Quickly, I know we gotta go. I had a voter, Chris, tell me, and I didn't, I hadn't talked to a lot of voters about this, but a voter that you and I know and we both respect.


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[Assistant] Told me that with Albert came a hint or at least a crooked eye on PEDs. Particularly because he later had the hip injury. This particular voter told me that a lot of times hip injuries and PED users are correlated.


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[Assistant] And they also said he had that kind of roid rage on the field. I don't, I don't know how much of that is true, but this voter at least told me.


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[Assistant] He felt like Albert could have been a product of PED use.


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[Assistant] Yeah, no, I agree. I made the same arguments you made and he said, look, I also kept it. The reason I kept him off was he didn't do it long enough.


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[Assistant] But if I needed another reason, he was one of the guys that I looked at and I always said I'm just not sure.


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[Assistant] And they, their idea of Albert Bell is the video where he's going like this, and he's, you know, plowing Fernando Vina, but I do think- Which was an awesome-


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[Assistant] Joey, he took the baseball and threw it and hit him square in the chest, in the stand.


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[Assistant] Outfielders will just have a toss right there in front of the dugouts.


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[Assistant] And I saw Albert having a long toss with a player, I can't remember who it was. I was on the backside of the player he was throwing to.


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[Assistant] And I saw a baseball sail about five feet over the head of the guy he was playing catch with.


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[Assistant] And the guy he was playing catch with that wasn't, I can't remember who it was, but they kind of looked at each other and had a chuckle. And I said to my report, uh, my photographer, I don't think that was a mistake.


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[Assistant] I've seen very little NBA this year outside of the Cavs.


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[Assistant] Well, I'm not qualified to say. I, I, I can't say this. He's, to me, my eye test, he looks like an all-star.


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[Assistant] Before I can definitively put him on the team, I'd have to measure all the other guys that are in front of him or is equal. And I'm just, I can't go in depth on that knowledge. So he looks like an all-star. I think he should be an all-star, but I can't say he


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[Assistant] Whether or not he's having a typical Steph Curry year or not, one of the most entertaining players to watch in the league, love him or hate him, is Steph Curry. Particularly in the All-Star game, because that dude will post up


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[Assistant] And to your point that you always love to make, it's the regular season. I don't anoint any champions in the regular season. No. I think Minnesota's there. It's kind of a shock to a lot of people. And he playing in Sacramento. At the end of the year, let's see if Minnesota's in the NBA Finals.


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[Assistant] Uhm, it was good, really good. But you used the same four viewer notes. Where's Darryl?


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[Assistant] Yeah, well the thing is you can't because of the two, I think Donovan is viewed more as the short-term player. I agree. And so, you gotta be careful that if you put him in that role and he doesn't want to do it, next thing you could be seeing is him coming up for it and saying, I want to trade.


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[Assistant] Being a shooter is in your DNA. I think it is. Now, it doesn't mean that you can't learn to be a shooter, but the shooter's mentality is in your DNA or it's not.


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[Assistant] Well, how's money? Because that's not, that's not attainable long-term. You're saying, shoot it. We don't care if you miss. Shoot it. If he was 0 for 5 from 3 in 5 straight games.


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[Assistant] Someone, uh, hit us up during the show during that argument and said- Oh, we got one more, sorry, one more came in. He didn't pay his accusers. Does that change anything for you? No, we already knew that. Wait, we got one that just came in-


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[Assistant] You had a day off in between. There's no travel. They've stayed there.


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[Assistant] It makes sense. It makes sense from Dave's perspective because


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[Assistant] He's been on doc staff before in Philly, as Mike was saying. And, uh, you know, he came here in a consultant role. It was a little strange. And now he's back on a bench. So JB's not getting fired.


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[Assistant] I think he's done, you know, we haven't spent a ton of time on the Cavs, obviously, but for all the flowers to use the cool kids term that Kevin Stefanski got for what he did with the injuries that the Browns had this year, J.B.'s done the exact same thing.


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[Assistant] But when you lose, when you lose Darius and Evan for over a month, you thinking, hoo hoo. The wheels could come off. Yeaah. And he's kept the boat going. And they're actually playing better. Yeaah. In a lot of respects. Now the schedule's played into it and, you know, we all know how the rest of that goes.


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[Assistant] I'm not extending them. I let it ride. I play them on this contract. They've already restructured them. Yeah, I know, but they've already restructured them once. When they traded for them, they restructured them.


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[Assistant] In 25 when he's not even supposed to be on the roster as of now. So the more that you restructure this...


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[Assistant] The more you keep kicking that can down the road, the bigger that snowball is going to get.


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[Assistant] And they have, and it's like, you know, the Conklin deal we've talked about, that's going to be miserable. Uh, they've, they've already, they've already restructured both guards. Both Teller and Betonio got restructured. They're going to have to figure something out with Chubb.


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[Assistant] Uh, so I, with this one, with where it is, I know it's a big number and I know I'm the one that keeps yelling about the cat probably more than anybody, but I don't think you can risk, kinda to your point, I don't know that you want to go multiple years with him, he's coming off a phenomenal year, but you know, I talk to people at the Browns who felt like he was already on the backside when they acquired him. Now obviously he had a monster year this year, but I don't know that you want to keep


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[Assistant] rolling the dice and taking that chance. Bring them back for one year. I'd spend my top draft pick on a receiver or try and trade. Although that didn't work out so well with Elijah Moore last year, but they've got to try and find other playmaking receiver to add to that room. And then hopefully, theoretically,


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[Assistant] Let that, you already gotta take that eight million dollar cap, it's seven and a half million I think in 2025. So just bite the bullet this year, pay him his money, keep him, obviously you don't want to cut him, and then roll the dice from there.


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[Assistant] Sure. In the short term, but he's already got an $8 million dead cap hit at the end. $8 million is gone from the 25 cap, even if he's not on the team.


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[Assistant] This year. Just pay it. Because you're probably going to have to restructure Deshaun. You're probably going to do that again.


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[Assistant] Like I said, Betonio, uh, Teller. And those all come with a price later.


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[Assistant] I think Tua is a product of his receivers. I agree with that.


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[Assistant] Give me Deshaun. I'd take Watson. Long term, I'd take Richardson. Oh, really? Oh, I see. For right now, like if we're talking today, I'll take Deshaun, but boy, I think that one's gonna be...


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[Assistant] A lot closer than you think. Will Webbers. Watson. Watson. Watson.


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[Assistant] I think I would take Russ, if we're not counting contracts, I'd take Russ. No, I'd take Russ. Even with his age.


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[Assistant] So two things. One, one, the cap is jumping significantly next year. It's going, I think, 240.


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[Assistant] Is the number, and it was around 220 this year. So it's a pretty big leap.


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[Assistant] So you can look at that and say, well, you can handle a big contract like Amari. Now the flip side of those names you just mentioned, if the Browns get in on one of those guys and you have to restructure Amari in order to do it,


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[Assistant] Then I guess you, in that instance, you do it and you hold your breath and hope for the best and if it blows up on you in 2025, well you've got one of these other guys to fall back on.


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[Assistant] I don't think he's got a ton of value right now.


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[Assistant] This is really hard. This is like one of the hardest ones for me.


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[Assistant] It's sort of like where they were with Clowny the year before. Unless you believe Alex Wright is ready.


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[Assistant] I, I do see, I do sense a little bit of the clowning situation in clowning. It was a disaster in year two. Yeah, I grew with that.


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[Assistant] Mike variable told him to go away twice. Yeah, I did. Like that tells me what I need now. Mike's tough. Mike's tough. Yeah, but I mean if Baltimore, if Genevieve goes back to Baltimore next year.


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[Assistant] He plays on a different team every year for a reason. He's a hired gun. Yeaah, he's a mercenary.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I don't have a strong feeling either way. I could easily see him walking.


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[Assistant] You're saying it's the teammates, right? It's the whole locker room. It's not even the courtroom. That's part of it.


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[Assistant] I, I, I absolutely believe part of it. Cause you know, I've been on record and I still believe you can't bring them back because.


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[Assistant] I still think the biggest reason you can't bring them back is because of the locker room. Because there are guys in that locker room, if Deshaun has two or three bad games in a row, it's gonna- Tyvis has told you that. I've talked to other players who say that. So are you underselling the guys in the locker room now? No, uh-uh. It's a reality.


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[Assistant] Earlier, there's a big gap between Flacco and you're gonna have a terrible backup quarterback. Maybe they bring Jacoby back. Jacoby's gonna be at a lower number next year because he didn't play this year. Listen, if they can go get Jacoby,


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[Assistant] I don't want to spend much more time on it, but if you do want to spurn three roster spots, three spots on the 53 on a quarterback, you do want to go get another veteran. There's plenty of others out there. Again, there's Jacoby. There's other options. I think they're a mindset without being flagged.


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[Assistant] So do you think Joe Flacco at 40 years old is the best backup quarterback in the NFL? He was the best one I saw this year.


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[Assistant] It was lightning in a bottle with Joe. It was great. I don't know how sustainable it is.


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[Assistant] He's a great number two tight end. He's got, he's got a use in this. Yeah, definitely. I think he's going to bring him back.


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[Assistant] I mean if he doesn't have the strongest leg in the NFL, it's top 5. He booms the bike.


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[Assistant] Bauer's also a lot older than this punt guy we're talking about who's a rookie, essentially.


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[Assistant] I love his special teams card. Yeah, I think that's what, that's his calling card.


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[Assistant] That's how they got it. And they've done a great job of finding safeties and defensive groups. I agree.


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[Assistant] You're a dad. I would love to work with my son. Work for him. I think that would be great. I would, I'd even move to Arkansas first.


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[Assistant] This is hard for me cause for sentimental reasons. I work with his wife.


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[Assistant] Oh wow. She works at the athletic? She's a producer. She's on maternity now. No kidding. But I think it's a great story.


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[Assistant] She was, they were dating and living in Strongsville and she texted Zach and I during the Steelers playoff game and said, I have to tell you guys something. We're like, what could you possibly have to tell us? She said, I'm dating, I'm engaged to Michael Dunn. We're like, what? And she was living 20 minutes away from us the whole time.


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[Assistant] But, so, but I, so I would love to see Michael back. The fact that they practice squatted him this year tells me now that he's got whippler in the system.


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[Assistant] That's true, he is. I think he's back.


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[Assistant] And they're trying with like the school yard pick now and they're trying to mix it up.


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[Assistant] No, they're, but, I mean, how many teams play defense on the regular? I know, but it's so exciting. Teams are coming down.


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[Assistant] LeBron, Michael, Kareem status. You're in the all-star game as long as you want.


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[Assistant] Alright. He'll make it as a replacement because half these guys are gonna drop out. Half these guys will drop out and maybe they'll put him on and then he would be a two time All-Star. Yeaah. That kinda drives me. Wow.


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[Assistant] No, probably February, late February. I'm going early this year. I'm going early. Yeah.


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[Assistant] You can find someone of equal or better for the money. Yeah, okay, move on from them. The only point I've ever made with Jed is it's hard to find these left-hacks.


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[Assistant] With you on the 49ers. This isn't why I'm taking Baltimore, but Mark Andrews is coming back. They activated him today. That's a big boost for their offense. Yep. I'll take the Ravens at home. I'm sure he's not going to be mid season for now, but just being on the field.


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[Assistant] Just being on the field is a threat. Sure.


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[Assistant] Uh, and it's hard to go against my homes. It's hard to go against my homes, but I'll take Baltimore playing at home. Baltimore in the Niners.


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[Assistant] Plus, ba-da-da-da-da, you're lovin' him. Mikey McNuggets. And so many big names, it would take me hours to say all of their names.


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[Assistant] Well, I don't know perhaps, but the chat was the best it's ever been in the history of our show.


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[Assistant] Before we start, Aditi, Bernie, True or False, but guys, uh, John Fanta also from France. Shout out to Fanta. Calling the Cavs game later today. I cannot remember a time where on one day,


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[Assistant] Three coaches with the profile of the coaches that made moves yesterday. I can't remember another seismic 24 hour period like that. I think yesterday was historic.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it was boom boom. Well, I mean, actually, I think, uh, the Belichick News


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[Assistant] Early, early this morning. So it wasn't one day, but you have a span of hours. But, I mean, I don't know that all three are Mount Rushmore, but two of the three are. And Pete Carroll's one of only, I think, two coaches ever to win a national championship in college and to Super Bowl. So it puts him in rare company.


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[Assistant] I think, I would like to get your thoughts on that. For me, Belichick's the greatest coach in the NFL and Saban is the greatest coach ever in college.


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[Assistant] Bear Bryant for Bryan's had such an inherent advantage. You know, back in the day, there was 105 scholarships. They didn't get just the best running back from Alabama. They got the best three.


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[Assistant] And that kept them from going to other programs, which kept other programs from rising up. But I don't know, for me anyhow, and you can tell us in the chat, Belichick is the greatest to ever do it in the NFL, Saban the greatest to ever do it in college football. And if you measure these things on championships, it's undisputed.


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[Assistant] Pete Carroll made some comments yesterday that makes it sound to me like he's floating, uh,


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[Assistant] Flyers out there to teams that might be looking for a coach. Saban's retiring, I assume. Saban, I think of all of them, I think Saban is done. I think the most likely to coach again is Belichick and I think Carroll's in the middle. If he gets the right opportunity, I think Pete would coach again. He did not want to stop coaching. He said, I'm not tired. I'm not worn out. I can still do this. I'm going to tell you why.


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[Assistant] I mean they're all 72 or 71. They're very close in age.


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[Assistant] Netflix comes forward and offers each of them three million dollars a year. And here's the deal. They have to move into a house together.


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[Assistant] And it's just called Coaches. That's it. Coaches. And it's a reality show.


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[Assistant] I mean, the knowledge that they have. Okay, a lot to get to. Mikey, we've got some business to take care of before that.


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[Assistant] Mike, uh, if, if there are fans and viewers out there that watch that don't quite feel confident enough in their takes.


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[Assistant] And it's basically bet with us, UCSS, us. We're each gonna give a leg of a parlay and if you like it, dive in on it and we'll track our results and we'll see how much money we can make over the course of placing these weekly bets on Fandl.


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[Assistant] Yeah, one what they feel, had to feel like was a playoff game. Yep. Because it was, essentially. It's interesting that you say that, G, because as you were talking, I started thinking about why that might be. And oftentimes, when there's a game where one team is a big underdog, particularly in the big games where all the focus is,


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[Assistant] The game plan for the underdog is what? Slow it down, keep it close. Why? Because if that game goes into the second quarter and it's a one score game,


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[Assistant] And it's a one score game. Stay close, and I think internally inside that game, you start to build on that confidence. And that can be a very scary thing for the opposition. Uh, my answer to this is the Texans have the advantage. And I really didn't think I, I didn't think that it was close.


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[Assistant] Uh, yes, the Browns have the knowledge that they won easily.


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[Assistant] But the Browns are closer to who they were on Christmas Eve than the Texans are to who they were. You didn't just take two players out of the Texans' rotation.


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[Assistant] You took the two players. You took their playmaking.


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[Assistant] Superstar on offense and he wasn't in the game.


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[Assistant] Clearly the Houston Texans without CJ Stroud are a different animal and the Texans know that. So I think they will have an advantage. Now the Browns do have some advantages. I think they have the advantage of knowing that Amari Cooper could have gone for 400 yards in that game if they wanted.


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[Assistant] And they were incapable of making the in-game adjustments. Trust me.


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[Assistant] Thirteen minutes of the fifteen minutes at halftime were spent trying to figure out what the hell to do with number two.


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[Assistant] How do we slow this guy down? What are we doing? And whatever in-game adjustments they were making, and they did make adjustments, we saw that, they didn't work.


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[Assistant] Now they've had three weeks to make adjustments and they've had time to sit in the lab with the pen and the pad as you like to say. And they honed in on how they can slow number two. That may be their mission statement. And this wouldn't be a bad game plan. If I'm the Houston Texans.


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[Assistant] I am bracketing Amari Cooper. I'm doubling him and I'm demanding that someone other than


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[Assistant] No, I'm talking about Stroud too. We showed his numbers yesterday with a clean pocket and with pressure.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but Bull, coupling with what you said, how he hasn't done well against pressure, he's also done very poorly. If you're looking, you know, when Belichick looks at an opponent, what's their weakness? Where's the Achilles? And I'm going to chop at it.


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[Assistant] Uhm, his weakness is man coverage. We gave a state stat yesterday. Mike, if I'm not mistaken, is he 27th in the league against man coverage?


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[Assistant] Is a really interesting, because I don't know how much man the Jets played against him. I would, I would imagine a lot.


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[Assistant] Well, they got probably the second best secondary in the league. Well, they've got certainly two really good corners and maybe one of the best corners. I think that coupled with that pass rush and the fact that he has not done well in man coverage


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[Assistant] That is a recipe for a very long day for CJ Stroud.


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[Assistant] Which is really what NFL offensive coordinators and head coaches want you to do. That's right. They've been trying to wash the run gene out of Justin Fields in Chicago and it's slowly happening, but his inclination a lot of times is no one's open, I'm going.


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[Assistant] And that drives offensive coordinators nuts. That's how you get quarterbacks hurt.


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[Assistant] I think they are, and I think it's, you know, I don't want to call it karma, but you know, if you play 20 hands of blackjack,


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[Assistant] And you're just getting ravaged the first ten hands. You don't walk away from the table. You know, the idea is my luck is going to change. And typically, if you flip a penny a hundred times.


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[Assistant] There's a 50-50 proposition. The bigger the sample size, the more likely you're going to regress to the mean, which is 50-50. I think it's the same thing with the Browns. I mean, nobody's keeping track and getting guys hurt, but it does seem like injuries come in bunches, and there's always a narrative for the team that wins the Super Bowl. Always. They were healthy through the playoffs. And the Browns are healthy now.


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[Assistant] That's true. He's not listed on the injury report because he's not. He's not on the roster. He's not active, but Brown's fans are hoping against hope, perhaps, but we're hoping like crazy.


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[Assistant] What's funny is Flacco is leading the NFL. Now it's only been five games. He's leading the NFL in yards per game. But if you use qualified quarterbacks that have started at least eight games, it's TJ Stroud.


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[Assistant] 40 more touches per game. That's crazy. We, John, we looked at each other when you said that and we thought that can't be right.


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[Assistant] I mean that's in, that almost tells you that he, we knew he wasn't involved enough, but it almost tells you that he was barely involved at all and that's a problem with a talent like that.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I'm not worried about it. I don't think it's anything we should be worried about.


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[Assistant] coming off of that 265 yards. And I'm with you. That's like someone hits a four, uh, home run game, which would be a team record. And then, you know, you as a reporter asks them, you think you can do that again today? No, it's not going to happen. It's not going to go for 265. Trust me right now in a meeting room somewhere in Houston.


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[Assistant] There's a defensive coordinator yelling and screaming over film and X-ing and O-ing on a blackboard.


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[Assistant] Making sure that their mission coming into this game is that Amari Cooper does a tap dance all over that defense again. I still think he'll have a big game. I think it's possible he could have 100 receiving yards and at least one touchdown perhaps too. But just because he had 265 last time around, please don't make the mistake of expecting that again.


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[Assistant] When John was making the point in the Cavaliers game about how


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[Assistant] They've, this is an accident that they've figured out what Jaren Allen, you know, it was because of the two players that were injured. Right. Ball dominant guys won a place similarly to him.


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[Assistant] So they've kind of stumbled upon that and it might help JB going forward because now he knows we have got to get Jared more involved in the offense. I think the Browns...


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[Assistant] And I don't want to say stumbled into this success.


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[Assistant] It happened accidentally, but this is what Kevin Stefanski's been trying to do with this offense since the day he arrived in town. Why are they doing that?


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[Assistant] The play fake, and again, the art of the play fake, which has been kinda washed out of the NFL, particularly those that carry it out so well.


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[Assistant] It's working because when Joe takes that turn and hides the ball on his hip,


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[Assistant] It freezes the safety for a split second, you know. Sometimes, if the team is ready for a run heavy offense, he'll even take a step towards the line to start cheating in.


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[Assistant] That one step is enough for a guy like Amari Cooper? That's right. Oh, you just gave me a free meal. That's right. He's gonna run by him and Flacco is going to get him. So just like the Cavs kind of stumbled upon this Allen thing and unlocked his real potential, I think what, what the message of this season, whether it ends Saturday in Houston or it goes to the Super Bowl,


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[Assistant] The one thing that I hope they carry into next season and that Sean Watson has realized by watching this. Damn, that's a weapon. By the way. That is a


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[Assistant] He spent a ton of time at the crouching just right. Someone once told me that Boomer used to look at tape of his handoffs.


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[Assistant] So he could muscle memory what he does when he hands the ball off because the safety can see the shoulders and if the shoulders are coming down.


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[Assistant] You've gotta go that far in carrying out the play fake. Same motion.


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[Assistant] Whether he's handing the ball off or not, defensive backfields carry out your assignment. Once you're absolutely certain it's a run, then cheat up and let the front take care of staff in the wrong.


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[Assistant] But you're right, you've complained about the offense for two years. How it just has never resembled


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[Assistant] Uh, uh, a really good well-oiled passing offense and Joe Flacco comes in and in five games, all of a sudden guys are open. He has multiple options on some plays for admit, you know, different receivers where in the past it looks like there's nobody open and, and able to catch a football.


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[Assistant] And that comes with experience and he certainly has it.


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[Assistant] I saw, uhm, last week when Aaron Rodgers was, I think it was his last appearance because ESPN has said no more. Although I guess his contract, I found out yesterday, only ran through the regular season. But they asked him about Joe Flacco and I gotta tell you, his praise for Joe Flacco was effusive. He said,


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[Assistant] I think the question was, are you surprised by it? He says, I'm surprised he's still able to do it. Coming...


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[Assistant] Just completely out of the game for a year and coming back and still have it, but he said, I have always thought that Joe Flacco throws the prettiest football of anyone that's played during my era. Think about that.


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[Assistant] Some good ones played in the Aaron Rodgers era. And when you watch the Joe Flacco flight path and the spiral, he does, he throws a textbook, beautiful pass.


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[Assistant] Hey Aditi, empty your notebook on CJ Stroud. Have you, have you called any of his games this year? What kind of interactions have you had with him? Uh, we know he's a tremendous young man. The Houston media voted him the Texans good guy, um, for the season. What, what can you tell us about him and also about his game?


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[Assistant] I agree with that 100%, but I want to tell a quick story that involves the Ravens and a castaway quarterback. When I was in Tampa, the Buccaneers cut bait on Trent Dilfer, and there was some thought that he might be done. There really was, because Trent did not have a lot of success in Tampa.


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[Assistant] He goes to Baltimore, and although he, uh, didn't beat the Buccaneers in the Super Bowl, he won the Super Bowl in Raymond James Stadium.


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[Assistant] And I was one of the first to chat with Trent immediately after the game. And in typical Trent Dilfer fashion, and I imagine Joe Flacco would be the same way.


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[Assistant] Deep inside, would Joe Flacco love to eliminate Baltimore from the playoffs? Probably, but I bet if he does, he won't stand in front of cameras and gloat about it. It's just, it is what it is.


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[Assistant] Although he wasn't. Yeah, but he wasn't there. Oh yeah. He was in his basement.


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[Assistant] You came back from two down, I think, and one. Steve, let's hit the music.


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[Assistant] I got a, I got a default, uh, defective, uh, marker. I'm sending out the marker, guy. Hold on. I'm on it.


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[Assistant] So I'm gonna write down my answer and then I'll tell you what I said after you tell me the answer. I don't know what's wrong with it here.


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[Assistant] So that Clay Matthews, uh, the big Clay Matthews win against the Oilers, that was home. For some reason I thought that was on the road.


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[Assistant] But then you throw in the late 80s and early 90s. Even in 79 they want a playoff game. Wow.


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[Assistant] Uh-oh. Well, it's never good when you change your answer. I went against my- I have a better judgement on this one. Hold on, he said- Because my instincts, the first two were wrong, so I'm trying to-


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[Assistant] Well, okay, so I'm going counterintuitive here. You would say he wouldn't be asking this unless it was true.


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[Assistant] Ooh, Webster, Webster was a big, he was a big money guy.


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[Assistant] I'm doing good guys. Where are you right now? Are you at home or are you on the road?


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[Assistant] I love it. What's your take on this playoff game, Bernie? The big question we've been asking this week is a rookie who is not your ordinary rookie. In fact, he's done something that only Tom Brady and Joe Montana have ever done before and that's lead the NFL


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[Assistant] Among qualified quarterbacks with at least eight starts in passing yards per game.


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[Assistant] And touchdown to interception ratio. It's only been done three times he's done it as a rookie. So what are you valuing here? This spectacular rookie or the playoff experience of Joe Flacco?


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[Assistant] You know, it might just be a case where D'Amico felt it was best to just give them the extra day. You know, they're coming off a high intensity game and the Browns are not. Whenever you're coming off a high intensity game, there's a little more bruising. There's a little more fatigue and perhaps being a player himself, he just realized, you know what?


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[Assistant] I know what those games can take out of you. I'm gonna sit them a couple extra days. I believe that at this point in the season, we've drilled into their heads what we're doing and what it's all about. The rest is more important than the repetition.


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[Assistant] Uhm, it's not going to be a huge number. Nationally, I mean the Flackless story brings a lot of interest, but uhm, just the two markets, Houston and Cleveland.


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[Assistant] Houston's obviously a bigger market than Cleveland, but it's, uh, it's in the window it's in because executives already know what, what games are gonna do based on the matchups and the history and the storylines. Uh, I don't really care about that.


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[Assistant] No, but they have exclusive window games, so they're always big numbers. What matters is


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[Assistant] It's the reason that they love it when the Giants and the Jets make the playoffs. If all Browns fans watch a game, now Browns are actually not a great example because although we're not a big media market, we have a good following nationally. So they're not a good example. I would use instead, uhm,


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[Assistant] Arizona fans, for the most part, Cardinals fans, are all hybrids from another area. Arizona is comprised of people that come from the Midwest. Florida is too. Yeaah, exactly.


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[Assistant] When they look at a matchup, and the reason that we got this window,


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[Assistant] They have a pretty good idea based on market size and storylines how a game is going to do nationally. The reason the cowboys, eagles, giants always show up in the primetime exclusive windows is because the network executives know that's a safe bet.


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[Assistant] When they put Philly on, when they put New England, uh, uh, New England to a certain extent, but usually the New York teams and Dallas, that's easy money. Right.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's a totally different story. And uhm, they don't.


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[Assistant] It might not, it might be a situation where we don't even see numbers.


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[Assistant] They won't put it out. They're counted differently. It's like Amazon Prime. They can tell you internally exactly just like our show. They can tell you exactly how many people are streaming it at any second.


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[Assistant] But the Nielsen numbers are made public because they're publicly available.


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[Assistant] Well, I expected Tillman. Delp it we didn't know, but I thought Delp it all along from what I was told is an extreme long shot for this week and probably unlikely for next week as well. Maybe a long term play if they keep winning and make it to the conference championship game. But to me, the big concern there would be Denzel Ward because


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[Assistant] C.J. Stroud's Achilles has been man coverage and he's our best man cover guy. That would be, we cannot afford to be without. We're going to talk about Nico Collins tomorrow.


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[Assistant] Is this defense sort of in knock if you buck mode?


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[Assistant] Says the white guy behind the glass. I know who it was by. You're far younger than I am, you better. I will, uh, yeaah. See Mike, as life happens and you have other things of importance. I was talking about this with someone yesterday who just turned 40.


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[Assistant] And Carrasco. And Carrasco, he's a free agent.


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[Assistant] If it was in Cleveland, I'd be a nine and a half, nine and three quarters. But, but the fact that it's down there, I'm probably around a seven. So not much lower than you, but the thing that concerns me is Flacco has been prone to turn it over.


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[Assistant] And that's the one thing that concerns me. Now he has more of an eraser to get it back on the other side. But if they start giving them short fields, uh,


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[Assistant] I just think that it could lead to problems on the road. So really, it's really, it's the, it's the uncertainty of the kicking game and it's the propensity to turn the ball over that has me most concerned. I do think the Browns are going to win this game.


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[Assistant] I'm not overly concerned about it, but I agree with you. I'd rather have Flacco than Stroud long-term. Obviously you take Stroud one game, one playoff game. Joe's history on the road versus CJ Stroud making his first playoff start. Even if it isn't home, D'Amico Ryan's coaching in his first playoff game. Even if it isn't home, I like the Brown's chances.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I'll take that risk. I'm bringing pressure. I'm down on pressure on the defensive side. I trust the corners to go man coverage on the outside. They've done it all year. Is that going to be your rule or you're going to do it here and there?


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[Assistant] Quite a bit, I would say quite a bit. The Texans to me, they don't have dynamic, I mean, Neuquen Collins is a fine receiver, but we're not talking elite style playmakers on the outside. Tankdale we talked about the first time, Tankdale is a huge loss for them.


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[Assistant] So I, I think that they're, the Browns are fine playing the way that they've played much of the year. Denzel, you've got this side of the field. Martin, you've got that side of the field. Let's go.


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[Assistant] I think they're going to turn miles loose here and say go be you, big dog. Just go, go eat and go do what you want to do. Dribble between your legs. Yeah, whatever you want to do. Have fun. Shoot some threes, dunk on them, whatever you want to do, big guy.


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[Assistant] You know, we talked about earlier in the year before Flacco was like jumbo style, heavy set, screen passes, deep shots on third down. You can loosen that up a little bit more now because of what Joe, the propensity of what Joe showed. Remember the first play of the game against Houston the first time was a deep shot on the field to Amari. I was, I think all week long,