00:00So this Joel Batonio business I saw from Daniel Oyefusi, who is a friend of the station.
00:05He's come on our show a couple of times.
00:06He really comes on afternoon drive a lot, though, if he's going to go on anywhere.
00:09And I'd love to have Daniel on, by the way.
00:11So I put the bat signal out to him.
00:12He's a wonderful, wonderful young man.
00:14He's really good.
00:14He's really good.
00:15But he had had a clarification about Joel Batonio's contract where he had written that
00:21we are going to basically carry now because the contract, he had a chance to void the
00:26contract, had a chance to retire.
00:28He didn't retire, and it leaves $23.5 million in dead cap for the Browns in 2026.
00:33Batonio has been mulling retirement.
00:35Cleveland pushed the void date back to give him more time.
00:39Browns have been active in adding offensive linemen and free agency.
00:42Zion Johnson, Elton Jenkins, da-da-da-da-da-da.
00:45General Manager Andrew Berry said he would welcome Batonio back if he wanted to return for a 13th season.
00:50Well, it kind of feels like there's always room for a borderline Hall of Famer.
00:54I understand that.
00:55Yeah, but it's almost like they're working as if there's not much room left at the end.
00:59And for Joel, if what Jeff is saying this morning in the 2020s is correct, we're going to wait
01:05until next month possibly.
01:08I love Joel.
01:09Make whatever decision you want to make because I don't know if we're going anywhere.
01:13But I don't want to draw unfair conclusions.
01:17It leads me to believe that he might be thinking about kicking the tires with another team.
01:23And if you're costing $23.5 million in dead cap, I think it's a little annoying thing for some fans.
01:33That might not make any sense to you.
01:35Can I explain it to you again?
01:36Please.
01:37That I do think that there will be some fans, and I'm seeing it right now, like why would we
01:42leave to it?
01:43We're wasting money, dead cap money that we could use to players.
01:46We could use to another wide receiver.
01:49I know that John's hot over Juwan Jennings and a couple other guys.
01:54We could be using that money at better spots instead of just letting it die because we wanted to do
02:01a solid by Joel,
02:02and Joel didn't want to necessarily retire.
02:03If Joel ends up with a contender, personally, I'm not going to be bothered by it,
02:08but I think we might get a call or two based on Joel if he ends up with a contender,
02:12if he ends up waiting around until next month to make his decision, then doesn't pick us,
02:16and then there's dead cap space there.
02:18It's like, well, we could have been better.
02:20We could have added to this football team, and we weren't able to do it.
02:24You think for all the crap he's swallowed over the last 12 years, you can give him a month?
02:28Is that a fair?
02:30I don't think fans care about that.
02:32I'm sure they don't.
02:33I don't think a lot of fans care about that.
02:35You gave him a month.
02:36You had from January to March.
02:40But that's the human side of it.
02:42I understand that.
02:43So I think he's more than earned extra time if that's what he wants.
02:50Can I play devil's advocate?
02:53In a perfect world, you're correct.
02:55I mean, the league has shown they like to do nice things for people if they can
03:01who've given a long time of service, but the league does march on.
03:05And so I do think a fan would go, hey, we kind of need an answer here.
03:09I needed either an anchor on my offensive line or I need to go find a guy.
03:12I need to get my, well, hold on.
03:14I need to get my decision made.
03:15And if you're costing $23.5 million in cap space where we could use that towards a wide
03:20receiver, we could use that towards somebody that else could, that can be a weapon.
03:25I can see a fan being a little bit frustrated going, hey, you know, make a decision.
03:29If you want to go somewhere else, that's fine.
03:31But make, you should have made a decision beforehand.
03:34Well, I think.
03:36First of all, I'd be surprised if this dragged out a month.
03:38I'd be surprised.
03:40I'm not trying to put the mouth on Joel.
03:41I love Joel.
03:43Secondly, I do think, like, if I had to rank it right now, like, what's he going to do?
03:48I still think retirement would be number one.
03:50I think shopping around would probably be number two.
03:53And I think coming back here would be number three.
03:55Because he's waited a month, I think shopping around is going higher and higher.
03:58Because if you're thinking about it like him, you know, what Jason Peters, he played
04:03until he was 40.
04:04Now, Joel's not going to play until he's 40, obviously.
04:06But if a team that's a contender makes a call, you're still in good shape.
04:12Yeah.
04:12People still respect you around the league.
04:15It's not like you're going to be playing for free for crying out loud.
04:18Maybe you can ring chase.
04:20People here still love him.
04:21Of all the gripes that could happen in 2026, without a doubt, it's on the very, very, very, very, very
04:27low end of all the gripes.
04:29Okay?
04:29That's true.
04:31But if you're Joel, then maybe you do kick around going and ring chasing for somebody else.
04:36Maybe you do go somewhere.
04:37If he feels good enough to play, I think he should.
04:39And the Browns are certainly operating as if he's not coming back.
04:42They're not holding a spot for him.
04:43With offensive line, see, that's where I think a lot of this goes.
04:47And so I think some people are wondering, even on the other side, like looking at Andrew Barry,
04:51why did you operate this way if you're operating as if he's not coming back?
04:55You know, why didn't you leave that date up?
04:59Could they have left that date up and then spread that out over two years instead of just one with
05:03the dummy years,
05:03kicking the money down the can, or kicking the money down the road anyway?
05:07Could they have done that?
05:08Yeah.
05:09Okay.
05:09So there's either going to be a criticism of Joel, which is going to be very hard to do because
05:13Joel's a sterling player, sterling person.
05:15And while Andrew Barry's a nice guy, not necessarily good at his job for a lot of people out there,
05:20I think they're going to be very critical of Andrew for that matter.
05:22I think because you play nice with certain guys, but you ain't playing nice with a lot of guys.
05:27I mean, Joel's given you his entire body for 12 years.
05:31I don't see an issue.
05:33He's also been paid well.
05:33Of course he has.
05:34But I don't see an issue in letting him take his time on this.
05:38I don't think that's, I think the Browns are doing right by him.
05:40I think that's the way they should do it.
05:42They are.
05:43And they are, but there's people who they're here.
05:45I mean, there's 20 year olds who listen to this.
05:47They don't care about how you and I feel towards Joel.
05:49So what?
05:50Who cares what they think?
05:51So what?
05:51No, there's a conversation.
05:52If you're the Browns, why would you care about that?
05:54Why did they sign Miles Garrett?
05:56They care about their fans.
05:58Why did they sign?
05:59They signed Miles Garrett because they're trying to win football games.
06:01They are?
06:03Got a funny way of showing it.
06:04Well, okay.
06:05So you think they, you think the only reason they signed Miles Garrett, that extension was
06:08to please the fans.
06:09I think it had a lot to do with it.
06:10You don't think it had anything to do with the fact that the general manager who came up
06:14with the idea of giving $230 million contract to a quarterback that's been an absolute disaster.
06:18Yeah, and I think that's part of the calculus of signing Miles Garrett to a basically untradable
06:22contract so they can make sure that fans aren't going to be outside the gates with pitchforks
06:27after him and that fans that go to the stadium and watch the football team.
06:30I don't think Andrew Barry's sitting there making his decisions on Joel Batonio based on
06:34if a 20 year old is going to be upset with them or not over dead cap space.
06:37But when you make a signing of one guy that's an untradable piece that you really can't
06:42move, well you can in about a year, but that's going to be very hard to do still.
06:46You make a signing of one guy that you cannot move and then you don't with another guy that
06:50you could have saved money on, people are going to criticize you for that.
06:53Again, it's on the low end of things.
06:54I mean, fine.
06:55I don't criticize.
06:55There's a lot of things to criticize the Browns over before you get to how they handle
07:00Joel Batonio.
07:01Oh, I asked and I got my answer.
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