00:00David Njoku met with the Ravens yesterday.
00:03Immediately the question came in, because somebody, I forget who it was,
00:06and they sent us a tweet.
00:08Owen, what are the social media reactions brought to you by?
00:11Shiven Jewelers, Cleveland's premier jewelry store.
00:13And he had said, and I wish I could tell him,
00:14because it was a telling way and a leaping off point here,
00:17where it said, like, it was both of us, and he's like,
00:20man, you guys are right, like, this is nothing but a job to them.
00:23And I thought, well, I don't think it's an indictment on the fans,
00:26but I think a job is a job.
00:28You can only do this for so long.
00:31And I go, man, if he does sign with the Ravens,
00:35like I heard a couple of other shows yesterday,
00:37and they were kind of going after the Ravens for signing him
00:40or anything like that.
00:40I'm going, well, he's a quality tight end.
00:43I think that some of his, I think we were always waiting for a top end
00:49for him to emerge that never emerged, whether it be because
00:53I think quarterback plays a major issue.
00:55I think injury was a major issue with him.
00:58There were a couple of drops here and there, obviously,
01:01but I thought he got better as time went on.
01:03I remember he started here as a 20-year-old coming out of Miami,
01:06so he was just a pup when he started here.
01:08So there's a lot of things that ended in there,
01:10but I thought it was all in all a pretty successful career with the Browns,
01:14and I thought he was, and I know that he asked for a trade twice,
01:16but he was always pretty good with the fans.
01:18I got nothing against David Njoku, and I will have nothing against David Njoku
01:23if he signs with the Baltimore Ravens.
01:25I don't want to have happen, and I don't think it will.
01:27I think that the fan base is in a different place than what it was 10 years ago.
01:31I don't want to have happen what happened with Joe Hayden.
01:33They cut Joe Hayden.
01:34Joe Hayden's free to sign anywhere he wants, anywhere he wants,
01:38and I got to deal with it.
01:39So if he signs with the Steelers, I deal with it, just like Joe Hayden did.
01:43If he signs with the Ravens, I got to deal with it.
01:46Well, I think it's a good indication of how you—
01:48To me, it's the Browns' fault for the nine years that seem wasted.
01:50It's a bigger indication of how you feel about David Njoku,
01:53whether or not you're worried about whether he signs with a team
01:56you have to play twice a year.
01:58That's the end all, because when they're wearing Browns uniforms,
02:01we play these guys up.
02:02We talk them up.
02:03I mean, in year two, he had 639 yards.
02:06He had four touchdowns, and people were talking about him
02:08as if he was going to be one of the top three tight ends of the NFL.
02:12Yes.
02:12That never got close to materializing.
02:14And he was always kind of comfortably, what, like 10th, 9th?
02:18And that was it the whole career.
02:19He didn't really get better.
02:21At best.
02:22At best.
02:23Right?
02:23And then by the end, let's be honest, and, you know, people did not love when—
02:30They don't love when radio hosts talk about the physiques of world-class athletes.
02:34I don't know why not.
02:35I know.
02:36Why?
02:36What the heck?
02:37But the reality was anybody could see it.
02:39David Njoku's body did not look like David Njoku's body early in his career.
02:44Did not look like it ended his career.
02:46It looked like he gained 20 pounds.
02:47I mean, it did.
02:48You know, Jermaine Wiggins had a gut.
02:50He had a great career.
02:51Well, and I know—and Pittsburgh has a tight end that's 325 pounds that sprints down the field.
02:56Darnell Washington's fantastic.
02:57Yes, it hurdles everyone.
02:58Yes.
02:59Yeah.
02:59So, and I think we beat them at the end of the year because he probably was injured.
03:03He was like their whole offense.
03:04But all I'm saying is you could see his body kind of transformed as he got—why?
03:10Because, you know, you get banged up over time.
03:12He was a specimen when he came into the league.
03:15He was just something else.
03:17Like, you're like, holy cow, they don't build a lot of tight ends like this.
03:20And then by the end, you know, wasn't the same David Njoku.
03:23He seemed like he was stuck in mud.
03:25Like, those tight end screenplays, they did not have a chance to work like they did earlier in his career.
03:30All of a sudden, it's like, well, it seems like five guys were around him.
03:33Yeah, five guys were around him earlier in his career.
03:35He knew how to get out of it.
03:36He had explosiveness.
03:36Yeah.
03:38I'm not—so you're not—it's not like I'm not afraid.
03:41Like, my Browns issues are still like, you've got to get going as a team first.
03:45I go back to the history.
03:46Like, I just—unless he says—now, there's a couple caveats here.
03:50If he says a bunch of bleep yous on his way to Baltimore, which he won't do—
03:55His brother's running a business here in Northeast Ohio.
03:58Like, no, I don't think he's going to do that.
04:00I think there's extenuating circumstances.
04:02You know, if he says he has problems with the fans, if he says he has problems with the way
04:07he was treated by the fans or something like that,
04:09I don't know.
04:10I don't see him doing that.
04:12If he did, then I'd change my tune about it.
04:14But, Kenny, he even had asked for a trade, and that's how beloved—
04:17Two times.
04:17That's right.
04:18Twice.
04:18Two times.
04:19That's how beloved he was that fans did not hold that against him the way they did like Miles Gale.
04:23And I had to interview him the same day he asked for a trade one day, and it was pretty
04:26awkward, but he did a professional job as best as he could.
04:29And I always appreciated that about David.
04:33I still look back when it comes to all these guys.
04:35Like, Wyatt Teller just signed with the Houston Texans, and he spent a long time here with the Cleveland Browns.
04:41He did a fine job here with the Cleveland Browns.
04:43If what the Browns replace him with is worse, I'm critical of the Browns.
04:47If what the Browns replace him with is better, then I have to look at it and go, I like
04:51Wyatt a lot.
04:52Obviously, everybody knows he's friends with us.
04:54But at the same time, maybe it was for the—I have to give Andrew Barry credit if it was for
04:59the best.
05:00If the Browns, with Harold Fannin, and they probably would need another wide receiver.
05:04I know they just got Jack Stahl, but he's more of a blocking guy.
05:06So, I mean tight end.
05:08If they need another tight end, they bring him in.
05:10All of a sudden, you've got two tight ends that look really, really nice the way that other teams have
05:13done.
05:13I could sit there and go, David Njoku did as best he could for while he was here, but the
05:18Browns had to move on.
05:19And I look back at the last nine years, and I say, that's on the Browns.
05:22That's not necessarily on David Njoku all the way.
05:24So, I have to look back and say, why did the Browns not be able to do this?
05:30Like, we've contemplated all the time, and because of that trade, this is where—and you know where I'm going with
05:39this.
05:40As of right now, this is where the Baker fans all have it, is that no matter what we say,
05:48had you have been able to calm your heads—and I'm talking—Baker, too—if you would have been able to get them
05:53back in the table and say, hey, like, hey, let's work something out here.
05:56Let's do this.
05:57Had you been able to do it, and even if it were still to work out the way it is
06:01where it's like, hey, you can get to a divisional round, but you're not getting past X, Y, Z when
06:05it comes to the quarterbacks in the AFC, it's still better than what we've argued about.
06:09Because that move has changed the course of time where you've had good football players here.
06:13I think that's one of the most frustrating things for a lot of Browns fans—excuse me, it probably is the
06:18most frustrating thing—where before, it's like, you guys have no talent.
06:22And I'm looking at the last six, seven, eight years ago, no, you had talent.
06:27In 2016 and 17, you had very little, if any—no offense, because I know a couple of guys still live
06:32here, but we all know the score—you had very little, if any.
06:35You set yourself up.
06:37You've had talented players.
06:39You've had legitimate Pro Bowl wide receivers, back when a Pro Bowl actually matters, all Pro-caliber wide receivers, Pro
06:47Bowl-caliber tight ends, one of the best offensive lines in football for a long period of time up until
06:52this last couple of years.
06:53You had talent on that team, and what makes it sad is that the most you have to show for
06:59it is one divisional round appearance with a quarterback that we bickered about for years, and he's not out of
07:07the woods down there in Tampa Bay, but it's still better than what we have to argue about right now.
07:11Like, that's the thing I go, how do I learn from this and go, David Njoku had a good time
07:16here, bye-bye to David, Wyatt had a good time here, a lot of great memories, goodbye to Wyatt, we're
07:21going to say bye to more people as time goes on.
07:23How do we not repeat that same mistake with either Shador or QBX that's going to come out of the
07:30draft going, hey man, if we're seeing the way QB play is around this league, it's not all going to
07:35be peaches and ice cream, whoever you have here over the next couple of years.
07:39Like, I guarantee you, even if you got number one overall, we're still, I'm willing to bet, we're still going
07:48to have some really serious arguments about whoever that quarterback is, even if he's good, Tone, even if he's one
07:54of the better ones.
07:55Yeah, and I would just say this, one final thing for me is that he ended up, well I didn't
07:59realize, 500 snaps last year for Njoku, so even if it wasn't the most productive 500 snaps of all time,
08:06he could be relied upon to do a lot of things.
08:08Now that was in a Stefanski offense, so keep that in mind as well, but you saw how Tom Munkin
08:14used his tight ends over time with the Ravens, so it is something they've got to replace, I don't think
08:19it's going to be the most difficult task of all time, I'm not trying to make it seem like Njoku
08:23is irreplaceable, especially what I saw last year, but it's a very interesting guy to talk about, because very few
08:30guys play for the Browns as long as he did.
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