00:00we head out of the wise heart right we make it right call kyle wright hotline and welcome on
00:04browns analyst nathan zagura nathan welcome back what's going on guys how you doing i gotta be
00:10honest with you we're getting real spoiled here that every time or almost every time we've had
00:15you on this year we've been talking about a browns win uh you can be honest though a little
00:21surprised they're three and one because i'm a little surprised they're three and one i think
00:25it's great i think it's great i think every when you looked at the schedule and you said okay can
00:29we go one and one in florida and then three and one would be in the table but i think
00:34probably
00:35realistically you'd like to be two and two at this point and the browns have done better than that
00:38and they've done it by being a team that is not playing perfect football team that still has so
00:43much room to grow offensively penalties at defense at times all the defense has been spectacular um
00:51that they've been clutch they've been a team that has been able to produce a game winning
00:55drive from quarterback to sean watson for three straight games last time that happened was 1979
00:59with brian syke they were a team that's been able to get a defensive stop after said game winning drive
01:04in three straight weeks they're a team that gets andre schmidt who has not missed a field goal in 22
01:09straight attempts to make a 56 yarder to beat the sealers they're a team that rises to the occasion
01:14it's not always pretty but you're seeing glimpses the second half for the offense in tampa the first
01:19half in that game against either specifically that second quarter three straight scoring drives
01:22and you say to yourself man if we can clean some of these things up we can clean up some
01:27of these
01:27mistakes so we can clean up these penalties this is a team that has a real chance and you want
01:32to
01:32proof about what our defense is doing anybody who watched sunday night football last night
01:35carolina scored 30 in every game they played except the game they played against cleveland browns
01:39they didn't even score 20 in that game and so our defense is very much real and our offense
01:43certainly is i think getting closer to hitting those strides and if this team can clean up the penalties
01:48and some of the self-inflicted or as todd munkin says browns hurting browns i think this team has a
01:53chance
01:53to be pretty darn good yeah and nathan because you brought up the defense obviously we'll get to the
01:58offense in a second but i thought some of the most important games from that from the thursday night
02:02win i mean denzel ward's interception to start the second quarter uh isaiah mcguire's third down
02:06sack of rogers emw with two passes defended like the the defense even if you're gonna miss mason graham
02:13for a couple weeks and we can talk about the impact of that but his defense feels very real
02:17nathan yeah and the game that mason graham went out early so that five sacks 10 quarterback hits
02:21and seven tackles for a loss the defensive tackle room produced three sacks malik collins aiden
02:26huntington and then mike hall coming back after suffering the injury because the team needed him
02:31and to get a sack on harroders that was incredible at the second level carson and quincy
02:36williams are flying around everywhere on the back end denzel ward's playing excellent football grant
02:40delta gets another interception hickman had the interception last week emmanuel mcneil warren
02:44playing that post and just was cross coming down his acceleration his closing speed on those
02:49process was incredible tyson campbell's played well when he's been asked to on the other side
02:53this team is just they're getting it done defensively and derrick barnett you know we bring him in late
02:58what's some great you got to tip your cap to andrew berry derrick barnett gets the hit that leads to
03:03the interception that seals the game against carolina and then sam williams gets the hit that leads to
03:07denzel wards interception that really got the browns going this week against the pittsburgh
03:11stealers so the guys that have been brought in are playing well and they're playing real team defense
03:16i don't think you need to look any further than the one play that was just a swing pass out
03:19to
03:19darnell washington carson tries to get him up high doesn't work just says okay i'm gonna go on the
03:24ground i'm grabbing your leg you're not getting away from me and then six browns swarm to him and take
03:29him down it's fun to watch nathan uh the offense has been functional or better uh the last three weeks
03:37here and that was like my threshold i just needed a functional offense you give that plus a great
03:43defense and who knows where this thing could go but that that does have some fans asking whether
03:49there's another gear there for a deshaun deshaun watson led uh offense what what would that next
03:55gear look like if it is there just doing it for 60 minutes i mean we had three straight scoring
04:01drives
04:01in the second quarter where it looked like we were the greatest show on turf do it for 60 minutes
04:06and the good news is he's shown that when he needs to do it at the end of a game
04:10he can't
04:10deshaun watson is doing with his arm he's doing with his legs you go watch that final drive
04:14that throw to jerry judy on the first play of that drive for 17 yards i mean there was a
04:19window the
04:20size of a football and if he did not throw it in that window it was probably going to be
04:23picked
04:24that's an incredible rip under those circumstances and a great catch from jerry judy who had been
04:28a forgotten man making that play in that moment deshaun had told him look i'm going to need you
04:33at some point and that was the point and jerry judy makes two catches on that final drive it's
04:38awesome but that's the next gear getting more consistency in the running game and then just
04:43sustaining these things not having like a one quarter lull not having the penalties to back
04:47you up from second and one or third and one and take it back to third and six avoiding those
04:52things
04:52and all of a sudden this is a team that i think has a chance to be pretty darn good
04:56on offense
04:57we're going to talk about if we start scoring in the 30s we're going to blow people out because
05:01our defense is that good and so that's that's the next step 60 minutes of offense football we've seen
05:06some great halves we've seen some great quarters we have not seen four quarters of offense yeah the
05:11opening drive even though there was a lot of good ball placement by deshaun it didn't go very well but
05:15it was a lot of good ball placement and i what i thought was interesting though nathan was them
05:18trying to stretch the field and at least showcase to the steelers that they were going to do that and
05:22then you you fast forward and deshaun had three completions of 20 plus yards in the game and was
05:27really going vertical in a way that we hadn't seen him do that in the first three weeks do you
05:30feel
05:31like that's now something that munkin is going to continue to rely on or is it just going to be
05:35matchup dependent or what do you think that is yeah i think we wanted to go vertical in some of
05:40the
05:40other games it just wasn't locked up well and ironically enough the interception comes on a vertical
05:45that they're going for denzel boston who's open in the right tackle titus howard unfortunately gets beat to
05:50the inside that turns what should have been a touchdown because denzel boston was on top of
05:54the db and a good throw and deshaun was throwing the ball great would have been a touchdown at a
05:58minimum it was going to be a pass interference and instead it ends up as an interception so
06:01you need the offensive line to give you time to get the ball down the field i will be i'll
06:06be honest
06:07though i thought the offensive line on the whole played really well against the sealer spencer fano
06:11doesn't give up a pressure they pretty much lock out high smith tj watt of course makes a great play
06:16on
06:16the read option that's one where you if you wish he had it back so let's just not run that
06:19on tj watt's
06:20side where he's the unblocked defender let's run that the other side but i thought all in all good
06:24job dion johnson i thought had his best game as a brown whippler filled in very nicely at center
06:28george warhopper really had that group going and and they neutralized what had been a very fearsome
06:33front of the sealers and that allowed the browns to be as effective as they were on offense
06:38nathan dylan gabriel's uh 21 day window can open up uh with uh from the four week uh ir stint
06:45here
06:46what do you think is the the kind of short-term play here at the quarterback position is i think
06:51a lot of people do not expect the browns to carry four quarterbacks on the active roster
06:55yeah i do i have no idea about that i think that will be a very fascinating thing to see
07:00unfold and
07:00i'm not even sure this is not because i just don't know the answer to that i don't know if
07:04dylan's ready
07:04to come off you know you're eligible to come off after four games i don't know if he's ready to
07:08come
07:08off with that back injury so the rounds certainly have some time there to figure that out but
07:12it will be interesting i you know you could also say the pittsburgh sealers who we just played
07:16they had four quarterbacks on their 53 they kept all four of them they had aaron rogers mason rudolph
07:21will howard and drew allard so it's possible that you could do it it certainly is not ideal to do
07:27so
07:27and we'll see how the browns address that when they have to make that kind of a decision
07:30nathan you've strengthened anything on a football field i get that but i really do feel like you're
07:35really good in talking wide receivers in particular when it comes to denzel boston uh what what do you feel
07:41like has separated him in the first four weeks here well he's got everything you want he's got
07:46speed and it's deceptive you know people are oh i don't know if he's gonna have enough speed in the
07:50nfl he's got a catch of at least 45 yards in three of the four games this year so he's
07:54got speed he is
07:55an excellent route runner he has got great hands he tracks the ball incredibly well he's got a huge
07:59catch radius and he's not afraid to go up high pointed and he uses his hands to catch it he
08:04does
08:04everything that you want out of an x receiver he's got the big body he's got the savvy you think
08:09about
08:09the third down completion to him on that little stop he's in a great rhythm with deshaun watson and
08:13that was basically the first completion that they had back in chicago in the very first preseason game
08:18you go three by one he's on the back side he sells the vertical which they have to respect
08:21puts the brakes on deshaun puts it on the back shoulder and he makes the catch but he's got all
08:25the things you want route running ability the ability to separate the ability to go vertically past
08:31somebody the ability in contested catch situations strong hands great catch radius and he's also
08:35really good after the catch which is something we'll find out and certainly the tampa bay buccaneers
08:39know listen this is going to be a loaded comment here because the guy just had a ridiculous night
08:44last night i i feel like after watching four regular season games from denzel if you put him
08:51and tet mcmillan on the screen at the same time if you just if you just scrub their uniform and
08:56just put
08:56them in in just generic uniforms i might have trouble telling them apart because i just feel like they're
09:02similar similar build similar style and uh i don't know if that's too far though uh just four games
09:08into his career though nathan well listen i like it listen i was as big a tet mcmillan guy as
09:13there
09:13was i'd love to have both of those guys on the team and he had casey run around the slot
09:16that'd be
09:16a lot of fun but that mcmillan denzel boston both big receivers both better route runners than
09:21you think better separators than you think but they have the ability to get vertical they're good in
09:24contested catch situations how about this we held tet mcmillan i think what two catches for 17 yards he had
09:2914 for 192 and two touchdowns last night our defense is for real our corners are for real mike
09:35rootberg is scheming up very well but listen if denzel boston can be the offensive rookie of the
09:39year have over a thousand yards and go start his career off the way tet mcmillan has that is going
09:43to be looked at as one of the great picks in the 2026 draft by andrew barry can you tell
09:47us what you
09:47saw on the jaleel mclaughlin play the 28 yarder yeah i did a play breakdown of it on cleanbrowns.com
09:53and
09:53and on the browns mobile app so check it out there browns youtube channel as well uh i saw jaleel
09:58mclaughlin have great contact balance great vision and the ability kind of he did a good
10:02stop start but that play was made because of the wide receivers blocking down the field casey
10:07concepcion blocks patrick queen not once not twice but three times malachi corley takes jalen
10:12ramsey completely out of the play and then denzel boston he has a block on asante samuel about the
10:17five yard line doesn't let him go and then walks him into the end zone so he can celebrate with
10:21the
10:21cleveland browns that play i guarantee you when the team reconvenes tomorrow that will be one of the
10:26first plays shown to the entire team because when you have your wide receivers doing that
10:30it tells you that they are bought in reminds me of a kyle shanahan team no block no rock that's
10:35what
10:35he would tell the wide receivers and those guys to be bought in like that as rookies was awesome to
10:40see
10:40all right i know it's early here we still have a full week to unpack this jets team but early
10:45thoughts
10:46in this jets game and the opportunity ahead for the browns to start the season four and one
10:50yeah i think you got to go take care of business i mean the jets last week
10:53the chicago bears had more first downs with tyson dagen at quarterback more first downs
10:58than the jets ran offensive plays in that game that's a real stat it's insane they possessed the
11:03ball for i think 43 minutes in the game did the jets over 42 and change i mean the browns
11:09have an
11:09opportunity right here if you're going to be a team that it looks like we have the potential to be
11:13you
11:13go to new york you take care of business you don't overlook them you go and you prepare and you
11:18take some notes away from what the bears were able to do you apply those and you go out there
11:22and you
11:22take care of business against this jets team and you get the four and one nathan you took care of
11:26business hopefully next week at this very same time we're talking about a four and one browns team
11:31have a great week buddy appreciate you all right you too thank you nathan segura there browns analyst
11:36on the wise heart right we make it right call kyle right hotline
11:39thankyou so lange
11:39go in you
11:39oh
11:39miss you
