00:00This week seems to be the week to dump on the Browns offseason.
00:03We have had, and it started, the first one I saw yesterday was where Daryl said,
00:08the Browns are no better.
00:09I might be, if I'm misparaphrasing this, let me know.
00:13But the Browns are no better today than they were a week ago,
00:17which is wild because they have an offensive line and they didn't a week ago.
00:20Well, I think that was the gist of it.
00:22I do think you can have a conversation about how much better they got
00:25or if they got better.
00:26The people that are suggesting they got drastically worse,
00:30that's an interesting one.
00:31Well, let's start with that.
00:32Robert Mays of the Athletic was talking about the Browns offseason
00:35and consider him not convinced.
00:39I think they're definitely worse.
00:41I think the offensive line, I know that they added a few names,
00:44but I think the offensive line will take some amount of step back.
00:47Losing David Njoku isn't the biggest deal because obviously we love Harold Fannin,
00:51but he is a talented player and we've seen Tom Monken use two tight ends a lot.
00:55They are a team where they have two first-round picks,
00:57so it complicates it a little bit.
00:58This is one where we could look a little bit later in the offseason and be like,
01:01oh, they solved a couple of those things in the first round,
01:03but for the most part, I don't think they upgraded anywhere,
01:06except maybe arguably Quincy Williams over Devin Bush,
01:09I think is like that could work out for the defense,
01:11but otherwise it was hard for me to get there with a lot of these.
01:14I don't really get where he's going with this one.
01:16Again, we didn't have an offensive line at the end of the season.
01:19Yeah, so I don't know how you say the offensive line got worse.
01:22I don't expect you to say that it got significantly better,
01:25and so here's where I'll meet anybody that says this team is maybe,
01:31let's say, not drastically better.
01:33I'll meet you there.
01:33I think we can have those convos.
01:35Hell, Vegas had you at, what, five wins last year,
01:37whatever it was, five and a half when it's said and done.
01:39You're six and a half now, so if you're trying to bark up the tree
01:41of this being some sort of massive improvement,
01:43I don't get on board with that.
01:45But I don't get on board with the idea that this team is worse,
01:47considering that offensive line was one of the worst offensive lines I've ever seen.
01:51Also, like five new bodies at all is going to be better than what they had last year.
01:54What if they subtracted?
01:55It's David Njoku was like the big piece to put up there.
01:58That's the case Robert Mays was trying to make there,
02:00is Njoku being gone is some sort of big deal.
02:02Which David has not really been, I mean, since 2023, David has not been David.
02:07Yeah, he's not been healthy enough.
02:09He hasn't been able to stay on the field enough,
02:10and so there's nothing dependable about Njoku at this point.
02:13So it's just, this one caught me off guard.
02:15And then I was listening to the NFL daily podcast,
02:19where they were giving out grades for every single AFC offseason to this point,
02:24and Jordan Rodrigue just went, I mean, hog wild on how bad the Browns are.
02:30I will not grade them high,
02:32even though they did the thing that they were supposed to do,
02:35because they also set up the reason that they had to do the thing
02:39that they were supposed to do and then did.
02:40Whenever a Packers lineman is not fought very hard by the Packers to keep,
02:46my eyebrows raised, because I do trust the way that they evaluate
02:49and retain their offensive linemen.
02:52So Elton Jenkins, he's a fun player.
02:54I hope it works out.
02:55I'm just not sure.
02:56I do like the Zion Johnson move.
02:58They absolutely had to have somebody at the,
03:00sort of the top of the pool here.
03:02But again, I can't grade them well with the way that they're structured right now
03:07with all that dud money, with Deshaun Watson's contract.
03:09And also, they did this to themselves.
03:11All of the linemen came due at the same, that's hard to do.
03:15So I don't think that she's wrong about the idea that they did this themselves
03:20and that they're digging themselves out of a hole.
03:22She had a valid reason for why she didn't like the signings, too.
03:25I like that at least.
03:25But they still did it.
03:27Like, oh, well, you put yourself in this position,
03:29and then you dug yourself out.
03:31No, but if she's not an Elton Jenkins fan, for instance,
03:34just because of some Packers belief that she has,
03:36at least she has a reason for why she doesn't like the signings.
03:38No, I don't know.
03:39I think that goes deeper than what Robert Mays was trying to give us,
03:42where Robert Mays just kind of bypassed the whole offensive line in general
03:45and just assumed it was worse.
03:46Also, the dead money thing feels flawed to me.
03:49I also feel like that's a different conversation than the one we're trying to have.
03:52If you're trying to do the dead money conversation,
03:54that might be reflective of why you just don't like the Browns in general,
03:57but is it really a reflection of anything we're talking about with
04:00are they better than last year?
04:01It's so funny because I think there are real valid criticisms of the Browns
04:06and how they've been built and Andrew Barry's drafting habits.
04:11And one of the things Jordan did say is,
04:13you know, how did you know that this was coming due this year
04:16and not draft a single offensive lineman last year?
04:19Well, yeah, but it's not about last year.
04:22It's about this offseason grade.
04:24And if the number one missive was build an offensive line,
04:28I think there were a fair amount of people in Cleveland
04:30that didn't think the Browns were going to be able to find four starters
04:33through free agency and trade in the first week.
04:36And they did.
04:37Well, I think they had to.
04:38They didn't have much of a choice.
04:39And so I think that's kind of what you...
04:40You could have gone much cheaper.
04:41You could have waited for the secondary market to hit.
04:44I guess you always can go cheaper
04:45if you want to look at it from that perspective.
04:48But I'm not going to throw them a bunch of flowers
04:50for going out there and getting Titus Howard either.
04:52It's not as if they didn't break the bank.
04:54And there were guys out there.
04:55We talked about all sorts of different players,
04:56Walker being one of them,
04:57that were better linemen they could have gotten.
04:59I mean, but I guess my point is,
05:01if the Browns were really in the,
05:04we're just going to kind of let this one play out,
05:06or if the Browns were in a position
05:08where they didn't want to spend money,
05:10I'd be more critical of them for that.
05:11If the Browns had gone out and signed
05:13four Brady Christiansons,
05:15a player who I'd still like them to add
05:16as a rotational lineman,
05:18and that was going to be their starting offensive line,
05:20who's that kid from Chicago?
05:22Braxton Jones.
05:23If they had made four moves like that,
05:26I would have gone, what the hell are you doing?
05:28Like, they at least have put together,
05:30and I think the best,
05:31I can't remember who said it,
05:32but the idea of they've raised the floor
05:34with the offensive line,
05:36and the problem was that
05:37it was a bottomless pit last year.
05:39So it's weird.
05:40Like, I understand what Jordan is saying,
05:42but it feels a little deeper
05:43than just really anything about this offseason,
05:46and more maybe about her feelings
05:48about Andrew Barry minus Kevin Stefanski
05:51six years into this thing.
05:53Yeah, and that's fine.
05:53I think when they do these,
05:54and they go through team by team,
05:56I just think there's a reflective,
05:57they just want to vomit
05:58when thinking about this Browns team,
05:59and maybe that exposes itself.
06:01Like, I do believe the Browns got,
06:04and I'm not going to call it significantly better,
06:06I'm not even going to say
06:07it's better by a lot,
06:09or anything in between there.
06:10I don't think they got worse,
06:11because I don't think it's possible
06:13to get worse in the offensive line
06:14you had last year, though.
06:15Yeah, I just, I think,
06:16listen, I think if you look at the Miami roster,
06:19that team should be
06:20one of the three worst teams next year,
06:22definitively, no questions asked.
06:24If you look at the Jets,
06:25like, even with the addition of Geno Smith,
06:27who I would have welcomed here
06:28in a quarterback competition with Shador,
06:30that is a team that absolutely should be
06:32one of the three worst teams next year.
06:34The only way you can say that
06:35with the Browns definitively
06:37is the quarterback spot.
06:39And that's the only spot
06:40you don't have a clear upgrade for,
06:42whereas the rest of your needs on offense,
06:45you can conceivably go find in the draft.
06:47And I think there's a lot of reliance
06:49on the draft that the Browns
06:50are going to do here,
06:51but that's also going to the idea
06:52that they're building on this thing.
06:53The defense is obviously good,
06:54and no one can debate that.
06:56We're a much better defense
06:57than some of the slappies across the NFL,
06:59but yeah, it's okay to question,
07:01all right, who is our second tight end?
07:02Is our second running back good enough?
07:04And then our wide receiver room
07:05is one of the worst in the NFL.
07:07That part hasn't changed,
07:08and so there's a lot they have to do in the draft.
07:10Yeah, no, I think my point is
07:12there's a difference between,
07:14hey, you still have a ways to go,
07:16and I think they graded the Browns offseason
07:18at a 64 out of 100,
07:19which was clearly the worst offseason
07:22of any AFC North team,
07:24which I don't think is fair
07:26considering Cincinnati has done largely nothing,
07:28which is honestly even Baltimore.
07:30Baltimore has lost a lot,
07:31and they've only added Trey Hendrickson,
07:33and even Pittsburgh,
07:35I think you can pick apart their offseason.
07:37My point is not that the Browns
07:38had the best offseason.
07:40It is nobody had a great offseason
07:42so far in the AFC North,
07:43and I don't think the Browns got worse,
07:45and it feels like a lot of people
07:47just kind of want to pile on the Browns now,
07:49and I just don't think this is where
07:51that roster is yet.
07:522-1-6-4-7-4-0-9-2.
07:54Why do people think the Browns
07:55are worse than last year?
07:56More on that,
07:57and the move the Browns could have made
07:59but didn't make
08:00and probably shouldn't have.
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