- 23 hours ago
Nick and Jonathan debate whether additional Browns QB options make sense, why we can't talk ourselves into certain moves.
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00:00We've had the Willis Wars for Malik Willis, although that looks like he's probably going to Arizona or at the
00:06worst, the Jets.
00:07Anthony Richardson is still out there, and people continue to cling on to it for some reason.
00:12But he's really fast. He took himself out of a play because he was tired. I'm sorry.
00:17Yeah, this athletic freak got tired during an NFL game. How about that?
00:21I mean, it's not me walking from the couch to the refrigerator to get a beer and thinking, maybe I'll
00:27get a cookie too.
00:27This isn't like the hefty lefty and everyone being like, I understand why you might need a play or two
00:31off every now and again. I get that.
00:33But Mike Florio, king of conjecture, king of, you know what, no one's talking about, and usually for good reason.
00:40He was on with Baskin and Phelps today, and he brought a name of intrigue for him to the table
00:47for the Browns.
00:48I'm intrigued by Kirk Cousins. I think he played incredibly well in 2025.
00:52He had upset wins down the stretch in primetime against the Buccaneers and the Rams.
00:57He looked like the same guy that he was before he tore the Achilles, and I think 2024 can be
01:02explained very simply.
01:04Kirk Cousins is not an arm strength guy.
01:06He's not a guy who can whip the ball down the field with the flick of the wrist.
01:10He uses his full body to generate power.
01:13When your full body has been compromised by the fact that you blew out the Achilles tendon in one of
01:19your two legs,
01:19you're not going to be able to generate the same power.
01:21And when you try to do so, it's going to put stress on other parts of your body,
01:25and you're just going to have a very long and physically demanding year.
01:29Now that he's fully healthy, he looks like a different guy.
01:32And look, you know, he's still young as quarterbacks go.
01:34He's still got some time left, and he will be available.
01:37The Falcons, when they redid his contract in January, it was obvious they were going to cut him on March
01:4011 or March 12.
01:41So he's going to be an option for somebody.
01:43The question is going to be money and, you know, where he sees an opportunity.
01:47And maybe he looks at the Browns.
01:50Maybe he believes in Todd Munker.
01:51A lot of maybes there, which is usually what Florio is good for.
01:55A year ago, I would have gladly given up whatever you gave up for Kenny Pickett to bring Kirk Cousins
02:02here.
02:02A year later, your situation's different.
02:06The offensive line has fallen apart.
02:08You're in a transitional period.
02:10I don't need to watch a 36- or 37-year-old quarterback play this year as the predominant guy.
02:15And I think, quite frankly, the only reason Kirk Cousins would come here is a boatload of cash and being
02:20guaranteed a starting job.
02:21No, thank you.
02:23Not even intrigued.
02:24Lucky for you.
02:24He's 38.
02:25But I don't know what that—
02:27I thought he was younger in my head.
02:28I don't know what that boatload of cash looks like.
02:30I've seen a couple people online suggest, like, a one-year, $10 million deal.
02:34Like, I don't know that Kirk Cousins is asking anything close to even what, like, Malik Willis is going to
02:38think he's going to get on a yearly basis,
02:40which is kind of wild if you think about it.
02:42I don't know the long-term play.
02:44And so here's where, if I was the Browns, this is where I think they would consider it.
02:47I think they would consider it if it was a one-year deal, and they were doing so with the
02:50idea—
02:51There's a hang-up here.
02:51Don't worry.
02:52They would do so with the idea—
02:54I saw the concern in my eyes.
02:55There's a hang-up.
02:56It's a one-year deal, and I keep remembering something Tom Withers told us off the air.
03:00Tom was going through, and he's talking about Munkin, and he's like,
03:03Munkin just will not—that man will just not accept losing.
03:06Like, that's just not in his DNA.
03:07He's just not the type of person that will accept losing.
03:09And I was like, well, he might have to get on board with some of it,
03:11especially if you want the 2027 NFL draft to go your way.
03:14If you bring in someone like Kirk Cousins, you are saying,
03:17we cannot accept losing at any cost for the upcoming year.
03:20It might happen.
03:21We might end up getting there.
03:22But that's your real effort to try to win as many games as you can.
03:25The problem with that is that he's likely on a one-year deal, and that's it.
03:28And then it goes nowhere after this.
03:30That's the hang-up I have.
03:31That's the problem I have with a lot of these guys.
03:32It goes absolutely nowhere after this season.
03:36And so then what?
03:36You're into the draft, but then you're all of a sudden picking where, like,
03:39the Steelers are picking this year.
03:40And what does that really do for you?
03:42Yeah, so like for Kyler Murray.
03:44I'm not suggesting this is the best plan of action, but with Kyler Murray,
03:47if he came out this next year and you were an eight- or nine-win team
03:52and in the playoff periphery, you could then extend him on a short-term contract,
03:56maybe still take a swing at a 2027 quarterback if you wanted to trade up,
04:02and you could have a quarterback that bridges the gap for the next two to four seasons.
04:07You could have quarterback stability.
04:09He's still young enough.
04:10There are reasons to look at what happened in Arizona and said, okay, he can be whatever
04:16Baker Mayfield is for the Buccaneers, for you, or whatever Sam Dardo maybe should have been
04:20for Minnesota if they had re-signed him this last year.
04:23It's a long-term gain to be had there, and that's the part that is missing with Kirk Cousins,
04:27and it missed last year for me, by the way, with Kirk Cousins as well, when we were doing
04:31all the, is he in Chipotle?
04:32I don't know.
04:34Where is he at?
04:34It's like, hey, guys, you've got to think a little bit long-term about this with Kirk Cousins.
04:38Well, but that's even my problem with the Anthony Richardson thing.
04:41Exactly right.
04:41It's like, it's a bridge to 2027.
04:44A bridge to potentially having another team pay him a lot of money if it works out?
04:48Well, and even with Anthony Richardson, the probability so low of what's happening, I think
04:52you're just getting a guy in here to say, we got a guy in here, didn't see how he tried?
04:57That's not where we are.
04:59Like, I think you need, I don't think you can split the difference with this quarterback
05:02room.
05:03I think you need to do one of two things.
05:05You either need to say, we're going to put the best opportunity out there for this team
05:10to not just win this year, but to win for the next two to three years and just build winning
05:16habits and we'll figure out the quarterback spot long-term in either 2027 or 2028, right?
05:23Or you need to do just enough to say you tried and just go full-on stink.
05:28And the truth is, I think Andrew Barry might want it one way, and I think it's best for Todd
05:33Monk in another way, but Kirk Cousins really does none of those things, because here's the
05:37thing that I think he was wrong about, Kirk Cousins in a cold weather city with the lack
05:42of arm strength.
05:43I think it would look good in September and October, just good enough to push you out of
05:47the range for quarterbacks.
05:49And then I think as the season went on, he's an old ass quarterback, and I don't think you
05:52have the talent to support him back.
05:53And I think that's just, it's just, to me, it's just such a non-starter.
05:57It just satisfies nothing for me.
05:58And then if we're going to end up in a spot where you end up with five wins at the
06:01end of
06:01the season, why would I do that with Kirk Cousins when I can just try to do that with
06:04Chador and see if maybe we catch lightning in a bottle?
06:07Or Deshaun, if we're being fair.
06:09I'm not closed to Deshaun Watson coming out there and actually being able to do something.
06:14I don't think I would because of the injuries, and I just think he's too injured of a human.
06:18But if that's, at least with that opportunity, you're like, all right, there's life beyond
06:23the following season in that opportunity and that chance.
06:26Now, with Deshaun, we do have to acknowledge the idea that you'd find yourself in a spot
06:31where you have to pay him more money, which is, that's going to make a lot of people mad.
06:34But like, at least that process at least exists there.
06:37With Kirk at 38 years old going into 39, he's going to be done.
06:41He's looking for a one-year deal.
06:42Kirk makes a lot of sense for Minnesota.
06:45Kirk makes a lot of sense for Pittsburgh.
06:47I don't think Kirk makes any sense in New York, but they, listening to Boomer and Gio,
06:52listening to some of the guys on that station, they desperately want him there.
06:56The report today, so the Jets are not considering Kirk Cousins.
06:58Oh, really?
06:58Yeah, they're not even, they're not considering it.
07:01That's something, now again, it's just a report, take it for whatever that's worth,
07:03but that was the report today with Kirk Cousins and the Jets.
07:05Because that has been much, much similar to the John Harbaugh, he's going to Miami,
07:09oh wait, no, now he's coming here thing on WFAN.
07:12That was one of the ones that Boomer and Gio put up there as the guy today,
07:17of like, this guy can get you where you want to go.
07:19And again, like, you just need to be able to fulfill a couple buckets.
07:25And I, Kirk Cousins is a great name.
07:28And I do think, by the way, I do think Kirk can play good football.
07:32But I think the same problem you're going to have with Kirk Cousins is the same reason
07:35why people don't want Ty Simpson here.
07:37Which is, all right, do you have a great offensive line?
07:40No.
07:41Well, that's, he played behind a really strong offensive line in Atlanta last year.
07:45They had a lot of really good players, too.
07:46That's the other part of this.
07:47Like, you got, it wasn't like he was awful.
07:49He was fine.
07:50But think about the weaponry that he has there.
07:52That's a really, from an offensive perspective, that's not depleted of talent at all.
07:57And so I think, like, and I think.
07:58B-John and Drake London, all these guys, Kyle Pitts.
08:00There's, like, a bigger conversation to be had here, which we can get into.
08:03And I understand it seems a little bit, you know, this one's to this.
08:08This one's to this.
08:09When it comes to these quarterbacks, that is ultimately where I think Andrew Barry
08:14needs to kick back on one of two buckets.
08:16Either we're going to build a quarterback room where, much like last year, like last
08:21year, you had Kenny Pickett, Joe Flacco, and two rookie quarterbacks.
08:25You had a quarterback room that you did just enough to say, we tried without really trying.
08:30So you either need to do that again, at which point be very careful on the assets you give
08:35up to build it, or you need to go seriously about winning, not just this year, because it
08:40can't just be about this year.
08:42It's got to be in 2027, it's got to be 2028, with a commitment then to give up future assets
08:49to get into that future quarterback market as well.
08:51I don't think Kirk Cousins satisfies either bucket, because I think he would be a one-year
08:55deal.
08:56And that, to me, ultimately, at 38, is just where it's an absolute, like, the best case
09:01scenario with Kirk Cousins, in my mind, is he's just so bad you get the number one pick.
09:04We're lockstep on this one.
09:05The problem is that I feel like the anti-Shedora crowd is not going to be as lockstep as we
09:10are.
09:10I feel like the people that want anyone but Shedora, the old ABS system out there, I think
09:15those people, they're going to go ahead and they're going to see Kirk Cousins, and they're
09:18going to say to themselves, well, we've got to start winning games.
09:20We've got to find a way to win games, Kirk Cousins can do that for one season, and then
09:24we're off to the races.
09:25But I would just tell you, long-term, it makes absolutely zero sense, and I really don't
09:29even know, outside of unless Shedora turns into being a guy that you can rely on for years
09:33to come, winning seven, eight games this upcoming year doesn't make a lot of sense.
09:362-1-6-4-7-4-0-0-9-2, Mike Florio says he's intrigued by Kirk Cousins, probably because
09:42he wouldn't have to watch him in 2026.
09:44I will tell you that there was an argument on with the Morning Boys today.
09:47One, it was a very fun argument.
09:49I thought Lima stepped up to the plate with some very valid points this morning about us
09:55being too picky with the quarterback room.
09:57What I will say is, what you're about to hear, I think I agree with everyone.
10:02You guys are looking for some perfect prospect, that only the Browns are going to be smart
10:06enough to pounce time.
10:07It's the Cleveland Browns.
10:08You just want anybody who breathes.
10:10It's the Cleveland Browns.
10:11You guys want nobody.
10:12How can you not see?
10:13You're telling me that the rookies are going to fail here, but also the retreads are going
10:17to fail, and the reclamation projects are going to fail.
10:19That's not a plan.
10:19Yes.
10:20I need to hear a plan from everybody in this town.
10:22Yes, they're going to fail.
10:23And yet, when I bring up even Mac Jones, most of the Browns fans are like, no, I'm out on
10:27Mac
10:27Jones.
10:27Okay, I'm out on Anthony Richardson.
10:29I'm out on anybody, unless they're Sam Darnold and just won a Super Bowl.
10:33Well, you can't get that guy because you weren't in on him early enough.
10:36So, to start, Lyman is right.
10:39We are saying, with every quarterback, okay, maybe, but no.
10:44That is 100%.
10:45He is accurate.
10:46Not Kyler Murray.
10:48Even Kyler Murray.
10:49I won't trade for Kyler Murray, but if you want to give him to me for free, I'll take Kyler
10:52Murray.
10:54I'm still in the trade business for Kyler Murray, even.
10:56I prefer him for free.
10:57I said that, I prefer him for free, but if you've got to give up a fifth-round pick, I'm
11:00not going to let that stop me.
11:01Now, while I think Lyman is right, that we're all being, I don't think it's being pessimistic.
11:07I think we're all being very realistic about this quarterback room.
11:10I also think that Ken and Owen are right, that we need to understand the probability
11:15of almost any of these quarterbacks doing anything other than what the quarterbacks did
11:20last year, even in a better situation, is also not very high.
11:24So, are we supposed to just make up things to make these quarterbacks sound better?
11:28That's the problem I have within the discussion.
11:30Like, are we supposed to talk about how one quarterback was magnificent against the Bears
11:33when he had nine completions in that game?
11:35Is that the idea?
11:36Like, if the exercise is we have to talk ourselves into trying to find a quarterback that we
11:40think can go into the playoffs, then we're just going to end up lying to people, and we're
11:44going to end up basically convincing ourselves we're seeing something that isn't real.
11:47So, I don't want to do that.
11:48That's not the game I want to play here.
11:50So, I think this is actually, and I think your drive, again, I hate this because everyone's
11:55a little bit right on this.
11:56You're also right on this, but I think it's all a response of last year.
12:00Everyone in town bought a quarterback room, not me, I don't believe you did, but a lot
12:07of people bought in on Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and two rookie quarterbacks that were
12:12a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick being an answer.
12:14And this is where, if you're the Browns, people are too smart.
12:19They are.
12:20This is a really smart football town, and that there are a lot of people who post winning.
12:26We finally have seen, for the first time in a generation, we've seen what winning looks
12:31like, and it looks like quarterback stability or, you know, high-powered offenses, and we
12:37got that for four years.
12:39And now you're going from, all right, we're going from the waters of Baker Mayfield to
12:43Deshaun Watson to, all right, well, now we're going from Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco to
12:49Kirk Cousins.
12:50Like, I think there's an element of people who are like, no, no, no, this smells like
12:53BS because we got fooled last year and we're not going to do that again.
12:56I think that's, I think it's just people being really reasonable, even if Anthony's
13:00right.
13:00At some point, you do just have to add a third quarterback and move the hell forward.
13:03It's also not our job to clean up their mistakes and their mess.
13:06Like, they got him in this mess.
13:07I'm sorry, I don't have a great answer for getting him out of it.
13:09It's not the mess that I created, though.
13:10And if you ask for a plan or you wanted to hear some reasoning behind it, I think most
13:15people, like myself, have come to the idea 2027 in that draft is where we have to go
13:19ahead and really figure this whole entire thing out.
13:21Well, we can't do that right now.
13:22It's 2026.
13:23So I'm sorry that the quarterback class sucks for 2026 and free agency with quarterbacks
13:28always suck.
13:29And there's nobody that you can trade for that is going to move the needle in any way.
13:32But sometimes that's just your reality.
13:33And the reality right now for the Browns is they have to live in this for one year.
13:36They're based off of everything they already did to themselves.
13:39Well, and maybe that's another point we have to make.
13:42If this was a better quarterback market, I don't think fans would be being this picky.
13:47Like, I think if there was another quarterback in this class that you could hypothetically
13:54get to, or if there was, I'm trying to think of a name that's been available.
13:57If there was a CJ Stroud, if there was a CJ Stroud available, I think fans would be all
14:03behind one guy.
14:05Most fans were, by the way.
14:07I don't look at this vast wasteland of quarterbacks and think we should all be in agreement.
14:11Like, I think, one, the Browns have done nothing to show you that they can make this work out.
14:19They haven't.
14:19Whether it was Kevin Stefanski, Todd Munkin, like, yeah, he did really good stuff with Lamar
14:23Jackson, as one would expect.
14:25So, like, there is a, you have to prove it from the Browns side of things, and every
14:31one of these quarterbacks.
14:32Like, I think there are guys you can have more success with than others.
14:35I think there are other guys that are so low probability, like Anthony Richardson, that's
14:39not even, like, worth bothering with for this year.
14:44But, like, I don't necessarily look at this and being, oh, the Browns fans are being negative.
14:48No, I think people are being really, really realistic about where they are, and that makes
14:53sense.
14:54I'd rather that, because Lima's also the same guy, and this is where I will go back
14:57at Lima a little bit.
14:58Lima's also the guy that busts everybody's balls for having brown and orange colored glasses.
15:02So, when everyone's like, I don't think Ty Simpson will work here.
15:05Do you want them to be homers so they can call them homers?
15:08I kind of don't understand that part of it.
15:10That's the problem.
15:10It's like, and this is the hard part about all these quarterbacks and trying to figure
15:13it all out.
15:14We've just, for the ones we do know a lot of and have a lot of tape on, well, there's
15:19a
15:19lot, there's a reason why they're available, and there's a reason why we don't like
15:21them, right?
15:21And then, like, for the other ones, am I supposed to just project out Malik Willis to be awesome
15:25based off of no evidence of that at this point?
15:28Like, I just, I don't understand.
15:29I don't get the ask, because the ask is we're just supposed to lie and say these guys are
15:32great?
15:35I don't know.
15:35I don't know what Lima's ask is.
15:37I don't understand it.
15:38And again, I want to point out-
15:39All we can do is just be truthful about how we see these guys.
15:41This is as critical as I've seen everyone, including fans, including Ken, like, everyone
15:47is picking this apart, so Lima's right, but I think those people are right for being hypercritical
15:53about what's actually out there and how it changes the quarterback math, because quite
15:57frankly, unless you've got a quarterback that can get you into the playoff picture next
16:02year, I think Kyler can.
16:03I think a Mac Jones potentially could, right?
16:06Depending on what you give up for him.
16:07Like, there's a couple guys out there that I think the probability actually exists you could
16:12be a nice team next year for it.
16:14Unless it's that, it is going to be a year of wasting your time unless Shador or Deshaun
16:19Watson can pull the sword from the stump.
16:20And I think that's why it's an all right thing if, like, part of your plan is, hey, everything's
16:24not going to materialize this offseason.
16:26You go into next year.
16:27You see what Shador and Deshaun can do.
16:28Whichever one of them wins out, you see if they can, you know, be off to the races and
16:32go.
16:32Hopefully, that's Shador.
16:33And then, if not, you're in the 2027 draft, and that's where you really get your franchise
16:37quarterback and you get this thing moving.
16:39Like, it just makes sense to me.
16:40Jeremy Fowler, by the way, saying the Browns are releasing Cornelius.
16:42Oh, not corny.
16:44They're going to save around $2 million in cap space.
16:47Oh, the old corny.
16:48We got $2 million.
16:48That's what I was hoping for.
16:50Yeah, Cornelius Lucas.
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