00:00While we're thinking right now, all right, when will Joel Batonio make his decision and what will that decision be,
00:06right?
00:07There is one thing that won't go away, and that is Connor Orr's assistance of the MMQB that Joel Batonio
00:15would make a Los Angeles Charger and a very neat one at that.
00:19He wrote another piece about this.
00:20Does he always give an example as to why? Is it a consistent reasoning outside of just the Chargers' neat
00:25offensive linemen?
00:26Well, it's Mike McDaniel was on staff here when they drafted Joel Batonio.
00:32So we're going to the very beginning of Joel Batonio's career to get Mike McDaniel connection.
00:36Got to go back to the beginning, origin story.
00:38And I think the fact that he doesn't address the idea that it's retirement or Cleveland.
00:43He doesn't address the retirement thing at all.
00:47So the first time we noted this was, oh gosh, it was like four weeks ago when Connor put a
00:53surprise fit for every team kind of thing.
00:56And now it is in his, you know, for ten different teams he put dream fits in free agency.
01:03And Batonio, Elijah Vera Tucker, and Charlie Collar, who's the former Iowa State tight end who also has been linked
01:09to the Browns, that is his dream team for the Chargers as well.
01:13All right, so we're trying to figure out, is it because he talked to somebody with the Chargers and this
01:16is what they're telling him, or is he just coming up with these all willy-nilly?
01:19Yes, or by the way, could he have talked to Joel's agent and maybe Joel's agent doesn't like the offer
01:24the Browns are putting in front of his player?
01:26That's another possibility for sure.
01:27I just, I have a hard time thinking Joel Batonio is going to play for somebody else if he comes
01:31back this year.
01:32I can't convince him in any sort of logical way why coming back and playing for the Browns is a
01:36great idea if he wants to win a title though.
01:38I mean, listen, if you're already thinking about playing in 2026, and the Browns are describing this as a transitional
01:46year.
01:47Yeah.
01:47Can I, I don't want to say put it past, but could I fault Joel for saying, well, LA's closer
01:55to where I'm from because I went to Nevada.
01:59Um, also they have a chance of winning this year in a, in a down AFC West, if Mahomes is
02:04going to be in all that kind of stuff.
02:05I wouldn't, I wouldn't bet on them with your money, but, uh, they have a chance, but like, and by
02:09the way, play for a legit head coach.
02:12And I don't mean Todd Munkin isn't, but Todd Munkin hasn't been proven to do diddly squad.
02:16Jim Harbaugh is not quite a bit as an NFL head coach.
02:19He's not Jim Harbaugh is the point.
02:20I know.
02:21I get the reasoning.
02:22Listen, if I was Joel, I would have been, I wouldn't have come back this last year and given Kevin
02:26Stefanski,
02:26all the, uh, respect and everything that he did there.
02:30And, and basically seeming like he, he did it as a, as a favor to the Browns.
02:33I wouldn't have done that.
02:34I would have gone ring shopping a couple of years ago, but like, he's obviously built a little bit different.
02:39And so like, if he, if he comes out of this and his end result is he wants to go
02:42play for the Chargers, who, who might it be like, that's a bad idea.
02:46Does anyone know definitively Joel wouldn't want to leave Cleveland?
02:49No.
02:50Does anyone know that he does want to leave Cleveland?
02:52It could still be Browns or, or, or retirement for Joel.
02:57I don't think this is out there by accident, whatever the reason is.
03:01I don't think it's out there that while we've been on cruise control of either Joel's going to be a
03:06Cleveland Brown in 2026 or retire.
03:08I think it's quite purposeful.
03:10That's out there.
03:11And I, I would say if the Browns see this coming, you pro this would be one of the ones
03:16that I think it would have made sense.
03:17And that you, you really could have maybe been smarter about if this ends up happening of getting out in
03:23front of like, does it hurt differently if it's a different team than as opposed to retirement?
03:27Cause for the Browns, the, the answer still remains the same.
03:30He's not playing on the team next year.
03:31Yes.
03:32Yeah.
03:32I think, I think Joel saying, not only am I not going to retire, but I'm going to go finish
03:38my career elsewhere.
03:40I think there are going to be a lot of people really upset with the Cleveland Browns.
03:44And I think, and I, and I think rightfully so, because if you knew this was a possibility, you could
03:49have, you could have addressed this earlier.
03:51And what I mean by that is you're not going to come out and say, well, Joel's got options and
03:55all that, but you could have put out a report saying the Browns aren't sure, even if Joel doesn't retire.
04:00And I just think, I think that's like a little thing.
04:02That's a little fan service thing that you can do through the media, through all the national guys that they
04:08constantly feed things through, or even locally here, if they ever wanted to treat the beat with respect here in
04:13town, that this would be something that I think you could do that would minimize the blow for Browns fans.
04:20Sure.
04:20And, and just make sense.
04:23Whilst you're in the sea of disappointment of the last two years and the Deshaun and all this other kind
04:28of crap.
04:28Yeah.
04:29I mean, again, obviously we'll wait and see what happens too.
04:30Cause if he comes out and is like, I'm coming back to the Browns and that's, or I'm retired, then
04:35all of this just was for not.
04:36And it just is what it is.
04:37But like, if he ends up with the chargers, then we would have some, Hey, what, what happened here, guys?
04:42Did you, how long did you guys know this was a possibility?
04:44And is that, is that why you went out and got Titus Howard?
04:46Cause of the flexibility, everything else that is, that at least comes with that conversation.
04:50Yeah.
04:50And like, I don't know that inevitably I would be furious with the Browns.
04:55I probably wouldn't be.
04:56Well, cause my thing would be, well, you're still gonna have to replace Joel at some point in the future.
05:00Sure.
05:01I think maybe it would speak to the idea of you could have done it a different way, which is
05:08just like the, the, the through line of my Browns existence over the last six years is you could have
05:12done it a better way.
05:13Yeah.
05:13They just always fumble these moments.
05:14And so I think more for myself, I think the reality would just be that, uh, they're obviously not signaling
05:19anything to Joel that gives him the belief that they're going to try to win anything of consequence this year
05:24and like, or even make a run.
05:25Cause I think Joel, I, it's not as if the charters promise you a deep playoff run here.
05:30Okay.
05:31Like, like, like I think Joel would be looking at this if he thought they were even an eight or
05:34nine win team, I bet he'd be signing up to come back in here and make sure that he had
05:38a real threat with it.
05:39But there's just, there's obviously no guarantees there.
05:41Now the criticism I might level at the Browns again, getting to the idea of how you do it is
05:47you've seen this, the, the dead cap hit coming from Batonio and Teller for multiple years now.
05:54And at any point you could have mitigated that.
05:56And I know that they're probably going to release Joe, uh, Wyatt, which is post June one and all that
06:00kind of stuff.
06:03But you know, Joel, Joel leaving in free agency and signing somewhere else, when you could have done different cap
06:08shenanigans at any point in the last six months to a year with either one of those guys, it does
06:13feel like, uh, okay, well, how could this not have been avoided and opening up even more cap room going
06:18into 2026?
06:19I mean, clearly at that point, they just didn't, they didn't think that this was a possibility.
06:22And then obviously at some point it became a possibility.
06:24And the idea that Connor war has in his articles, it is a legitimate possibility.
06:28I just, I wouldn't be upset.
06:29I'm not upset at the Browns.
06:30If this happens this way, I'm just kind of looking at it as that's an unfortunate break.
06:35Yeah.
06:35I don't said that.
06:36It's kind of like the Jim Schwartz thing.
06:38Like if it can be avoided in a way, I'm not talking about Joel leaving, being avoided, but, but kind
06:44of the frustration that might come with it.
06:46If, if fans can be prepared for that, you have a whole department of people that should be doing that.
06:51Right.
06:52Like I, like this to me wouldn't be like, Oh, Andrew Barry, like he gets this like Machiavellian thing.
06:57Like, Oh, he's so good.
06:58He never lets anybody know what he's going to do.
07:01And I was like, yeah, I know he's going to win eight games in two years.
07:03So I'm, I'm a little, I'm a little leery at giving him credit for all the, he's a shape shifter.
07:09Yeah.
07:09Look at the way he crafts narratives.
07:11It's like he crafts crappy football teams.
07:13That's, that's the beat on him right now.
07:15But specific to this, there, there's a certain, listen, they didn't feel this way about Wyatt.
07:20They didn't.
07:21I felt Wyatt had done enough to deserve a level of respect that I don't think he got at the
07:27end.
07:27Now, in the end, I don't think every fan was in line with me about how that departure was handled.
07:34The Joel thing and not being prepared for it.
07:38I, again, like it's not Joe Thomas.
07:40It's not miles.
07:41It's not maybe even Nick Chubb, but I think it's, is in that conversation of just do things a little
07:47bit, just have a little bit of kid gloves with this one.
07:52Cause there is going to be an element of whoever you replace Joe Batonio with.
07:56If Joel's in the NFL next year, we'll be directly compared to Joe Batonio, which is probably not fair to
08:02that guy, given what Joel's done in this town.
08:04And I, I just, I wonder if they just look at it the same way as if he retires and
08:07we have the same result of needing to replace him as if he goes to the chargers and we have
08:11the same result of just needing to replace him.
08:12Now I would want to know, is this about money?
08:15Cause if it's about, you know, playing, I mean, this can't be about playing time.
08:19Joel was one of your two best offensive linemen last year.
08:21Yeah, he was good.
08:22So not wanting to pay Joel, I think would be another, cause I, I, I imagine Joel on the open
08:28market could actually still get decent money.
08:30I wouldn't think this would be about money because first off, they're not shy about paying money ever.
08:35And it just doesn't scream like this would be about money.
08:37216-474-0092.
08:40Is Joel leaving the Browns on the table in how would you react to Joe Batonio signing elsewhere and instead
08:46of retiring as opposed to Cleveland or retirement?
08:51As we had previously thought, there is another element.
08:54And I've, I, I've had this thought when we first saw it of maybe Joel needs like a prove it
09:00move, right?
09:01Yeah.
09:01What do you mean?
09:02Meaning like maybe Joel is on the fence about coming back to Cleveland specifically to this Browns team.
09:07So we need to see some sense of a, you're going to do seven, eight, nine wins.
09:10And so if you, if you sign a Tyler Linderbaum, maybe that's a package deal.
09:15Is that maybe all he's been waiting on too?
09:17Is this why he needed the extra month?
09:18He needed them to go ahead and actually show them that it was going to be more than Titus Howard
09:22when it came to free agency and everything else that's associated with it.
09:25I think it's a fair thing to ask.
09:27Cause I do, I do as well.
09:29I would imagine that kind of like the miles Garrett thing a year ago, but you're not going to throw
09:3540 million at it.
09:36I would imagine that there's a fair amount of Browns free agents that think I'll come back, but what's it
09:42going to look like?
09:42And I don't think you can really answer that to Joel or anyone until you have a veteran quarterback in
09:48that room that they might want to play with until you have at least one offensive lineman additionally signed.
09:54And maybe until you have an understanding of what might or might not happen in the wide receiver market.
09:58I mean, it just seems fair.
09:59I, but again, I'm the same person that would have told him last year to go ahead and go on
10:02a different team and then try to make a run for a Superbowl somewhere else.
10:06I've always thought differently on this.
10:07So Joe Thomas always tells that story about the Broncos and how they wanted him for that season that they
10:12ended up actually winning the Superbowl.
10:13And so he'd be a Superbowl champion if he just went and gone to Denver, but it was more important
10:17to him to stay in the Browns uniform.
10:19And I get that and understand it.
10:20But for myself, I'd be like, all right, I'm gone.
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