00:00I don't know anything in this game has more of a swing for the outcome
00:04from the Browns' standpoint than how that offensive line plays on Sunday.
00:11I'm a little plucky about it.
00:13I understand everything about how hard it is to turn over five new offensive linemen,
00:19and two rookies I think is maybe the bigger concern.
00:22I think the two rookies is the massive part of this.
00:23But I really like the talent they've amassed here,
00:27and I didn't expect the depth to be challenged week one.
00:32Maybe I should have because Tevin Jenkins is one of the guys,
00:34and Tevin has got a long litany of injuries in his career.
00:37But I actually think the offense is going to, across four quarters, end up being fine.
00:43I think the barber part of this is really fascinating to me.
00:45Remember I told you, was it after week two or week one?
00:48After week one, I watched a lot of him in that first game,
00:52and I was just very unimpressed.
00:53Didn't like him at all.
00:54I was like, what's happening here?
00:55Well, it seems like the Browns' front office and coaching staff responded the same way.
00:59Because remember, in that first preseason game, Nick, he was playing right tackle.
01:03And then they moved him to guard.
01:05He'd never practiced even at right guard.
01:07Nonetheless, like done any way game.
01:09Didn't they slide a couple snaps in the game?
01:11He'd never practiced.
01:12They swapped spots with KT Leveston, who was the other guy trying to win the right guard job.
01:16Which is wild to think about.
01:18And we've seen some of these moves.
01:19You can do this from tackle to guard.
01:21It can happen.
01:22But to go from never even practicing at guard to then even in the third preseason game
01:26is where it graded out as the number one player on the offense according to PFF
01:30and had a really high score in that game and has just kind of taken over now.
01:35Now, would he have gotten the job if Jenkins had stayed healthy?
01:37No, but anytime you give Tevin Jenkins a job,
01:39it comes with the understanding that something's going to happen
01:42because something's always happened with Tevin Jenkins.
01:44I would love to get a little truth serum in Todd Munkin and say,
01:47all right, he's gassed up the entire team here,
01:51but two of the parts of this team he's gassed up the most are Deshaun Watson and the offensive line.
01:57Which one do you mean the most?
01:59Because I think that's where the most intrigued, to what you're saying,
02:04which is I can't believe all of the positivity to this set.
02:08That's fair.
02:08Some of this is coach speak, loving him up, all that kind of stuff.
02:12Some are easier to believe than others, right?
02:14Like when he talks about Concepcion or Boston, I'm like, all right, I believe that.
02:17That makes a lot of sense.
02:19The offensive line's easier for me to believe because, one, Spencer Fauna was a top 10 pick,
02:23and the Browns didn't blink when saying they think he's a left tackle.
02:30Jenkins, Johnson, and Howard have all been at least league average or better players.
02:37Like, the big question for me is Barber, but, I mean, if he can hold his own,
02:42again, I don't know week one you're going to look at this and go,
02:45oh, we've got, you know, the 2014 offensive line where Batonio came in and was just like,
02:52holy crap, we've got the best offensive line in football, before Alex went down with the injury.
02:57But I do think you can be probably the best offensive line you've been in three or four years.
03:02I'm just worried about it is all.
03:03But, again, it's not as if last year we didn't have a bunch of concerns on the offensive line.
03:06And it's we lived week in, week out with concerns on the offensive line.
03:10It's going to be interesting.
03:11It'll be early on.
03:12I was always expecting early on struggles with the offensive line, though.
03:14And hopefully, as the season moved on, it just kind of got better and better.
03:18It's just kind of unfortunate you take on one of your tougher teams in week one right out of the
03:21gate.
03:22216-474-0092.
03:25At Nick Wilson says, at Jay Peterlin on social media.
03:28The question here is, what would an upset mean for how you perceive this Browns team?
03:34Because we've talked a lot about the potential outcomes here.
03:36I want to get to Jim and Alliance in a moment.
03:38But, you know, I'm the guy, the first guy, that locked it in with the Browns-Jaguars game saying,
03:45I think the Browns are going to win.
03:47What would an upset mean for you, the guy who looks at this and goes,
03:51no, Jacksonville's really good and the Browns aren't there yet?
03:53I can't preach how wildly impressive it would be in week one.
03:57And I will not come in here and talk about how sloppy week ones are
04:00and how sometimes this is how it goes in the NFL.
04:04No, no, no, no, no.
04:04If you beat Jacksonville, who, as of right now, is the second largest point spread that you have on the
04:10season.
04:11Like, if you beat Jacksonville week one, that's a really good sign for what this team can be.
04:16So, I wouldn't take it as a fluke is what I'm trying to say.
04:19So, I'm glad you're saying this because I was thinking about style points
04:22coming into the show today, and I think there's so much cynicism about the Browns and Deshaun
04:29that if there is an ugly win, I think there's going to be a,
04:33yeah, that was really fun and we appreciated it, but I don't buy any of it.
04:37And it's funny, like, I think if you beat a team, there's a 13-win team last year
04:42that I think is more of a 500-win team this year,
04:45but again, that's a good team in the NFL.
04:48If you beat them as eight-and-a-half-point underdogs with Deshaun Watson as your quarterback,
04:53I'm just going to be jubilant on Monday.
04:55Like, I don't, style points don't matter.
04:57Now, if you get style points, well, hell, that'll make it ten times better.
05:01That's always fun, too.
05:02But I'll take, you know, I'll take any kind of, because I think the Browns path to win,
05:08to get to eight wins, you are going to have to ug it up.
05:13You're not, they're not going to be eight pretty victories there.
05:15You might have a couple pretty victories.
05:17Well, if you can, as you just said, ug it up,
05:19if you can ug it up against Jacksonville and walk away with a win,
05:21that tells me you can do it against, all of a sudden,
05:23every single game that looks like it should be a toss-up,
05:27it goes in favor of the Browns, and it's not even a question to me.
05:29Let's go with Jim in Alliance.
05:32Jim, what would a Browns upset of the Jags on Sunday
05:36do for how you're thinking about this team heading into the season?
05:41It would give me, it would be surprising, first of all,
05:45because I hear all the things that Zach and Daryl say all throughout training camp,
05:51that it looks terrible.
05:54My question was, was when, I mean, what does Barry do?
05:58Does he set these guys down, like when he hires them,
06:00and just tell them how to be as lame as possible?
06:03Because all I heard all spring was how transparent Todd Munkin is,
06:08and now we're getting the same coach speak.
06:10If Daryl asks him a question that makes sense on Monday after the game,
06:14and he answers the question with, I understand the question,
06:18I'm going to suffer the same fate as Thelma Luis.
06:22I mean, this was supposed to be completely different.
06:25We might as well go get Kevin Stefanski from Atlanta.
06:28Wow, I don't know about that.
06:29I think Kevin's really enjoying a warmer climate,
06:32and Cooper Rush is a starting quarterback.
06:34Jim, I appreciate you.
06:36Somehow a worse quarterback situation than here,
06:38which I thought was the worst quarterback situation in sports.
06:40It's funny, I'm not rooting against Kevin,
06:41but I do find that just hilarious.
06:43His answer today was really funny.
06:45Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:45But unintentionally funny, and that's the kind of funny
06:48that I think I like the most.
06:50I don't know.
06:53We've gotten to the stretch of the season
06:54where there's not anything explosive for Todd to actually talk about.
06:58You know what I mean?
07:00And, like, I think we've forgotten.
07:02It's been a long time since the end of the third preseason game,
07:06and right now.
07:07It's been forever, it feels like.
07:08Let's not forget, the Monday when Todd Munkin announced
07:12that Deshaun was a starting quarterback,
07:14he said some things.
07:16He gave you some fuel if you're somebody that likes
07:19whatever version of truth NFL coaches can give you.
07:23I thought when he was on with Ken and Anthony,
07:26I thought he went farther than maybe some of the answers
07:30or questions he was being asked.
07:31Like, I think maybe we're getting a little frustrated
07:35with press conferences when nothing's really changed
07:38in three weeks since they last played.
07:40You're going to play the hits at some point
07:42until there's actual football to talk.
07:44There's a part of me that feels bad that Munkin is having
07:46to come out here and do all these press conferences,
07:48and you can tell he's frustrated with having to answer
07:52the same questions.
07:52It feels like there are a lot of the same questions,
07:54but that is part of the job.
07:55And I understand his side of it, too.
07:57He's trying to gas these guys up.
07:59He's trying to make it seem as if everything is awesome,
08:01but this extended period of time that he's had to act
08:05as if this team is the 85 Bears,
08:07it's just it then becomes a constant theme,
08:09and you feel like you get hit over the head with it.
08:11So maybe this is, for some reason,
08:12while you were talking there, and I'm listening to you,
08:15there's a word prepared, right?
08:17That's, like, there have been times
08:19where I've seen Kevin Stefanski's teams week one,
08:22and I'm thinking a lot about the Dallas game,
08:24so that's carrying a lot of water here,
08:26where I came out and said,
08:27were you prepared?
08:29Because you just got dog walked.
08:30You're getting Stefanski's very first game
08:31as the Browns head coach.
08:33That was an absolute blowout.
08:34So that, to me, matters.
08:38And so as somebody who thinks they're going to win,
08:41if you win, and if you win as eight-and-a-half-point dogs
08:44on the road,
08:46there's a big part of me that's going to say,
08:48oh, we got a coach that got them ready for week one.
08:51You know what I mean?
08:52Like, I'm not trying to, like, lower the standards here
08:55because it's more than that,
08:56but yeah, it'd be nice to see this team come out,
08:59play with their hair on fire,
09:00and get a win that nobody in the NFL thinks they can.
09:02And by the way, I'm saying nobody.
09:03Well, and it would have also validated the camps
09:05that we saw, too,
09:06where it did look like these guys were,
09:08it was just way better looking than Stefanski camps.
09:11It was just, it was different.
09:12You could tell that everything was organized,
09:14everything seemed like the players were playing hard.
09:16Like, it was much different than Camp Cupcake.
09:18So, you know, like, there's a part of me
09:19that just wants to have that rewarded for him, right?
09:21Where I'm like, just give you the payoff.
09:23You've done all the work.
09:24You put all the hours in.
09:25You've done this in a proper way.
09:27But ultimately, that can only go so far.
09:30Like, there's limitations of that.
09:31And I just think higher of the Jacksonville Jaguars
09:33than I do right now the Cleveland Browns.
09:35But I think that's why, yes,
09:36a win is the obvious thing.
09:39An ugly win, an ugged-up win, as it were,
09:41is the easiest way to do this.
09:44If the Browns play wire-to-wire
09:47with the Jacksonville Jaguars,
09:50I do think, like, that's a way that we can,
09:53like, this should be a game that, honestly,
09:56I know I'm going in looking for a win.
09:58But if the Browns keep this close,
10:01and again, we're starting Deshaun Watson,
10:04all this new,
10:05I do think there's an element of
10:07we should be looking for silver linings on Monday
10:10if this isn't a Browns win.
10:12I think this might be one of the games
10:14that we should all go into this weekend
10:16going outside of a really disastrous performance
10:20by Deshaun, which is on the table.
10:22Outside of that,
10:25you know, if a lot of things go right on Sunday,
10:27that's something that should actually,
10:29this should be a game that maybe you come away
10:31feeling like, if it is an L,
10:32hey, I actually feel more confident about this team.
10:35Now that we've been talking about this long enough,
10:37I'm like, wait a second, if they look good,
10:39does it mean that they were just way more prepared
10:40and just did practices harder than everybody else?
10:43So they're at a different part right now,
10:45or four or five weeks from now,
10:47they'll come back down to earth
10:48when the rest of the NFL catches up?
10:50I will poke you in the eye
10:51if you run with that take on Monday.
10:53I'm just now thinking about it.
10:54I will three stooges, yoink!
10:56This is going to be the built-in Munkin advantage
10:58is he just works everyone so hard
11:00in these training camps,
11:01and so then he's just a step or 12 steps
11:03ahead of everybody else.
11:04Listen, honestly, for the Browns to surprise people,
11:07that needs to be the case.
11:09You know, I think I heard Zach say on the morning show,
11:12he said it wouldn't surprise him
11:13if the Browns got some early wins,
11:15and I think the inference that I took from that,
11:17and Zach can text me I'm an idiot,
11:19well, he can text me I'm an idiot
11:21anytime he wants, really.
11:22I accept all idiot texts
11:24because they're usually right,
11:26but my inference was there
11:28that I think people think
11:29the second half of the season's going to be brutal
11:31or that the Browns are going to fall apart
11:34as the season goes on.
11:35But it's funny because I had him start in 0-4
11:36when we did this exercise yesterday.
11:38That's purely Deshaun-based.
11:39Maybe not purely,
11:40but that's heavily Deshaun-based.
11:41Yeah, heavily Deshaun-based.
11:42It's a lot Deshaun-based.
11:43Like, I think part of your ability to surprise
11:45is to come out in one of the next two weeks,
11:48splitting the next two weeks,
11:50so that by the time we're talking Carolina week three,
11:53we look and go,
11:54all right, it's not perfect,
11:56and it might not be pretty,
11:57but you have a chance here
11:59to start the season two and one in September.
12:01Again, we talk about massively impressive teams
12:04for our things,
12:06for a team that nobody expects,
12:07that would qualify.
12:09I know, but we still also,
12:10to counter that a little bit now,
12:11we still also have four rookies on the offense.
12:14It's a lot of rookies
12:15just on the offensive side of the ball.
12:17And so you're expecting some rookie-like mistakes
12:19to happen out of some of these young, young players.
12:21And so there's a tug and a pull that's happening here.
12:24Yeah, I could frame that
12:25as the Browns have seven veterans on offense.
12:27That's not enough veterans.
12:28That's a glass-half-full, half-empty kind of deal right there.
12:31I don't know that that's enough veterans.
12:32Yeah, the Browns have seven veterans.
12:34Wow!
12:35Seven whole veterans?
12:37I saw Gruden.
12:38Gruden was quoting and talking about it.
12:40I think it was your guy, Chuck Knoll.
12:41And saying something to the effect of how
12:43he used to tell them that if you have three rookies on a team,
12:46that team's garbage.
12:48Just by the basis of the idea
12:50that that's just too many rookies.
12:51That's when they had 20 teams.
12:53We're going to have four.
12:53Yeah, we're going to have four on offense, though.
12:55I mean, that's a lot of rookies on offense.
