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00:00you know her from nfl network cynthia freeland joins us right now cynthia welcome back to the
00:05show how's it going over there well we got an offensive line now so that's nice i don't i
00:11don't know we had one a week ago how do you uh parts of it at least we still need
00:14a left tackle
00:15well dewan jones is still here don't forget dewan jones i said maybe for a reason easy
00:19so i'll ask you what do you think about how much better are the browns after free agency than they
00:24were maybe at the end of the season we're gonna run the football we know that so uh when when
00:29i'm
00:29looking at the opportunity look at you you talk to a person here who spent their entire master's
00:33thesis writing about offensive linemen so um spending a lot on the good guys and trading for
00:39the good guys is always going to be something i'm in favor of especially when you have uncertainty
00:44at the quarterback position so what about these guys though uh like i mean in particular i mean
00:50everyone's saying we basically overpaid for a lot of these players and i don't know that the browns
00:55had much of a position to do anything but overpay uh but it seems like it's better than last year
01:00at
01:00least cynthia for sure um i really liked titus howard if if you look to see you know it's funny
01:05because it's like arguably the best piece of the texans o-line which this time last year i would
01:10have said is horrible but they played a lot better they were like close to average which sounds very
01:15silly to say like i was that wrong but it but it's true i was that wrong right thinking they
01:20were
01:20maybe 31 32 they end up somewhere 18 let's call it big a big reason why and probably the best
01:27piece
01:27of that offensive line is now a brown so i really like that one as well i mean elton jenkins
01:32okay can
01:33you stay healthy i really like zion johnson you could argue it's an overpay but look at the market
01:38who's out there where are you getting proven pieces that you know at least they can execute some
01:45of the things that you want to do and then obviously you're in ohio and you're right there
01:50and some of the best football in college in all of the country find me a pulling guard all right
01:56right so things that you don't necessarily kind of this is where i think like you know when you're
02:01watching what's the transfer portal doing this is what i think it is it's the o-line it's a lot
02:06of
02:06uncertainty around an o-line and that like filters through everything else because as these guys transfer
02:11all around your wide receiver your quarterback etc they both get thinner so now i'm going maybe it
02:16feels like an overpay but if they can do the things that the browns want them to do then it's
02:20not an
02:20overpay at all cynthia i am uh i i've kind of been on this rant recently that seems like a
02:26lot of people
02:27have just become accustomed the idea of dashawn versus shador this year on a way that is normalized
02:32past my comfort level i would like them to continue to scour the quarterback market for uh what i would
02:38say is some shador insurance here because i don't want to see dashawn play again but if this is just
02:43if this is between dashawn and shador for the quarterback uh job this summer how would you
02:49forecast the browns based off that quarterback room well first thing i would say that if if you're
02:55kind of i like to look to external forces to see like where market force is like you know i'm
03:00a banker
03:01right and if you're looking at prediction markets which they can be wrong but prediction markets
03:05sometimes are that sometimes they've been right often they've been right and they seem to think
03:09that the browns will be drafting a quarterback very high that will start this year so if you
03:15want a piece of hope perhaps prediction markets is a source of hope for that but i think when you're
03:21looking at the opportunity to like as the rest of the afc north resets it would be a great time
03:27to
03:27bring a new quarterback in and i would be pretty sure that i'm pretty sure everyone that works for the
03:33browns front office is looking for that person you know i i don't know if they have it in mind
03:37yet
03:37or not but i don't know i think you're going to get your wish if i had to just based
03:41on some things
03:42that i saw at the combine and and conversations that i had how are we talking what uh what level
03:47of quarterback are we talking about here yeah the interesting part is like i mean i don't know
03:52some people like that guy from miami i mean there's some interesting pieces and and look like what
03:57about some upside for a guy who isn't drafted high i mean brock purdy wasn't thought very highly of and
04:01you know now now you can't say the same thing so i think there's a lot more hope there but
04:06i
04:07midwesterners we get it i'm one too you know we're kind of like oh no doom and gloom but i
04:11think it
04:11could be better and i think they have some ideas that maybe they're just not sharing out loud because
04:15there are a whole bunch of teams that need quarterbacks still even though we saw a lot of
04:18them move around this past week and maybe they just don't want anyone to know what they're thinking
04:23cynthia when it comes to the browns defense there was jim schwartz and i but a big part of my
04:29hope for
04:29the browns in 2026 was can you bring jim back he decided he didn't want to come back so they
04:35hire
04:35mike rutenberg now they're telling us that the scheme is not going to change that much but how
04:40much should our expectations change for our defense knowing there's a new play caller atop the defense
04:46this year well good news is a lot of the most important pieces miles garrett are still there right
04:52so part of that will remain the same when you have that elite of talent then you are very fortunate
04:57no
04:57matter like there's a there's a degree to which i could be the defensive coordinator and miles garrett's
05:02talent would still help me out quite a bit right and i'm not at all qualified to do that but
05:06ultimately
05:07you know jim schwartz the thing that people kind of overlooked with maybe nationally at least for
05:12the browns was just how good that defense was and perhaps because you know national narratives were
05:18about the offense and other things but i think no matter what i think you should expect some drop
05:23off at least in the beginning not because i think that there's not great pieces there or that it's
05:28great personnel but i just i can't there's a reason why jim schwartz is so good and highly coveted and
05:34everyone wanted him back and part of that is not stuff us as outsiders are privy to but i have
05:40to
05:40believe that a guy of his caliber like next year you'll be talking about head coaching opportunities
05:45etc for him i i just don't um i don't think you easily replace him no matter what how serious
05:50do you
05:50think the browns are about this year or is it fair if people called it a transition year and just
05:55getting us to 2027 it it doesn't appear on the outside as if they're thinking this is the year
06:02to really make the the big take the big swings or the big moves i mean not to say that
06:07you know
06:08addressing your o-line isn't something i think is a really smart strategy but i i'd be curious to see
06:13you know we talk about wide receivers we talk about you know the tight ends even because now it's very
06:19vogue to have the pass catching tight ends there's just a lot of unanswered questions i know that we
06:23there's a really good one that also played his college ball in the state of ohio but other than
06:27him and he lost david and joku as well so i'm just curious to see what the strategy will be
06:32because a lot
06:33of times the style of quarterback will dictate that strategy and i don't think deshaun even let's
06:38pretend deshaun's healthy his style is quite different from shador so they're not similar pieces right
06:44like you go and you see michael panics and you see you know what happened with atlanta bringing
06:48two in and yes i know they're both lefties but they also get rid of the ball very very quickly
06:52they play similar styles of ball it doesn't seem like they have the congruent pieces in the quarterback
06:57room to say this is the year we're trying to push our chips in to win the division again maybe
07:02they
07:02are but it doesn't seem like it cynthia freeland on the make it right call kyle wright hotline here
07:08and uh breaking down the browns chances here now i know on the nfl iq show your show on youtube
07:14that you guys talked about the raiders and and whether or not they should entertain trading the
07:19number one overall pick it seems fait accompli that they're keeping that pick and take uh taking
07:24fernando mendoza yeah so what would be the price that the raiders shouldn't be able to ignore if
07:30some team wanted to move up for the right to draft fernando i mean well it has to be significantly
07:36more than what they thought they were getting for max right so what they thought what they put in the
07:40marketplace is that they'll do some deals if the for the price of two ones well if that's for a
07:4530
07:46year old defensive end then what do you get for a you know potential fernando mendoza potential let's
07:53just say i hate calling someone i don't like giving them the like you could be a franchise quarterback
07:57yet like let's let the poor kid get to the left next level yet but the opportunity to at least
08:03select
08:03for your you know you know franchise resetting quarterback at i don't i they definitely won't
08:10do it given the moves that they made in free agency it would have had to be a much different
08:13strategy
08:13but you know i i think they you know i feel like four ones something crazy like that uh if
08:19justin
08:19fields all of a sudden goes to kansas city and then looks awesome because mahomes isn't able to be
08:23there right away or whatever whatever the reason is cynthia uh what does that prove to us does that
08:27just showcase that andy reed is great at this or is it something more to the uh quarterback
08:32development is more about coaching than talent narrative that is very popular these days
08:37well i mean like first we'll give andy reed his flowers because you know first bout hall of fame
08:41coaches don't come around every single day so there's there is that but i also think i mean
08:46you now have kenneth walker there who allows them to play a gap scheme that they haven't been playing
08:50for a long time so one of the advantages that the chiefs offense has just in general even even with
08:56patrick mahomes or even with potentially justin field is now you're able to run a different
09:01offensive scheme so a lot of the film that they've been putting on a on the field the past
09:05few years that kind of gets thrown out and you have to go back into the andy reed archives with
09:11a guy where you can run a lot more gap scheme and that will give them a little bit of
09:15an advantage
09:15early on even though i'm i'm very concerned about the chiefs defense just in general they lost a lot
09:20of pieces and they're going to reload that but but ultimately i think you know justin field could be in
09:26a spot where he gets a little rehab a la sam darnold a la you know some of these other
09:31guys
09:31we've seen so he can kind of learn the concepts a little bit slower he plays a different style than
09:36than patrick mahomes good luck emulating that but you know but i but i do think that the offensive
09:42kind of game plan being different is an advantage for him if he should he have to start cynthia while
09:48we're talking about uh former uh you know first round quarterbacks in new places kyler murray
09:53uh as expected choosing the minnesota vikings what do you think about the fit for kyler
09:58in minnesota and his chances of beating out jj mccarthy so i think his chances are strong in large
10:05part because i mean kyler has shown us that he has both kind of the the speed the explosiveness the
10:11ability to read defenses that it's it's it's for sure starting starting caliber right whereas i don't
10:18know if we can necessarily say that about jj who's been heard and coming back we don't know right i
10:23think
10:23it's still we don't know now the thing that's interesting is if you look at the amount of
10:25shotgun versus under center that kyler murray's played versus what kevin o'connell typically
10:30coaches we're going to see some sort of like there'll be like a learning curve based on based
10:36on ultimately you know merging their styles because they don't play exactly the same style
10:40but that could also be advantageous considering gets to throw the ball to oh i don't know justin
10:45jefferson life is easier when you get to throw the ball to the good to the good players just
10:49just just overall how do you think it plays out in pittsburgh obviously it's tough getting
10:53inside aaron rogers mind but like i i don't see a backup plan here cynthia again no there's no
10:58backup plan like i feel like what day does um whatever day that the steelers decide like you
11:04have to come back it's gonna be like the day before it's like guess what aaron rogers is back
11:08like he loves this drama it's this time of year right this is the will he won't see aaron's retiring
11:14he's not retiring exactly mccarthy they like each other now they hate each other like it's just a lot
11:18of drama and listen i mean he is the first out hall of famer as well so we have to
11:22let them do
11:22this but it's it's a little it's kind of annoying i would say it's more than kind of annoying yeah
11:28it's a lot annoying yeah it was it was kind of annoying like three or four years ago all right
11:32cynthia let's look at the afc north at large here today after free agency after week one of free agency
11:41how do you think the the four teams stack up in the afc north it's just hard to to say
11:47you know
11:48look like lamar jackson's already proven that he can be the league mvp multiple times so it's hard
11:53with him and trey i know it was like last week it seemed weird with the whole go take backsies
11:59on
11:59max crosby and failing the physical etc but i mean trey hendrickson was a big add to a defense that
12:05was
12:05very lackluster up front and it's just hard to imagine um lamar jackson not returning to a form
12:12we're more used to especially since the you know jesse minter being a guy who has very familiar a lot
12:18of familiarity with the raven system just feels like that's setting up for a nice opportunity for
12:24the ravens so i think that was huge and a lot of people love what the sealers did in free
12:29agency i'm
12:29still a little like wait and see i'm a little i'm a i find it to be a little confusing
12:35like
12:36i don't know pitman great but like are we gonna get dk to play like what's going on here to
12:42throw
12:42the if they're gonna throw the ball in 0.5 seconds to get her hit 2.5 seconds or less
12:46again more than
12:47any other team did they reload in the right places or should they have tried to be more in the
12:51o-line
12:51market that's kind of where i'm looking at it and then the bangles i like some of their moves on
12:56defense but dear god they won't spend money they have they have joe freaking burrow they have jamar
13:01chase and they have to hegan's and they won't spend anybody so i don't know it feels like here
13:07we are again same thing yet again today i actually like that they won't spend money i prefer that mike
13:12brown and that and that family is very cheap the more they do that i mean cincinnati's basically
13:17northern kentucky i think we've all been saying it uh cynthia great stuff as always we appreciate you
13:22and we'll talk to you closer to the draft yeah and by the way i always listen for mary k
13:26i think she's the best so on thursdays you know i like that good moment with her well she loves
13:31to hear that thank you very much cynthia freeland there on the nfl network on the make it right
13:35call kyle wright hotline
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