00:00Mary Kay Cabot from ThePlainDealerInCleveland.com usually joins us every Tuesday at 11 o'clock.
00:07But yesterday, you know, she was hanging out at the Todd Munkin breakfast.
00:11Oh, yes.
00:11Which is, I'm assuming, a good thing.
00:14She joins us right now on Wednesday at 11 o'clock on the Make It Right Call Kyle Wright hotline.
00:19Hello, Mary Kay.
00:19Hi, Mary Kay. How was the breakfast?
00:22It was great.
00:23We had so much good access in Phoenix, not just with Todd yesterday, which was fantastic, you know, to be
00:30able to sit there with him for a half an hour and ask him every single thing that we wanted
00:35to.
00:35But we spent some time, some of us got to spend some time chit-chatting with him at the bash,
00:42the soiree, the night before.
00:46And that's a unique opportunity, a very unique opportunity.
00:50I also saw Kevin Stefanski there for a few minutes and caught up with him.
00:55But then we had the Haslams for a half an hour session and the Haslams also for a, like a
01:0245-minute, just little, kind of an off-the-record social hour kind of thing, which was really, really nice
01:09of them to do that.
01:10And then, of course, we had Andrew Barry on the first day that we got out there for about a
01:13half an hour.
01:14And when I say we, I'm talking about a small group of Browns beat writers that were out there covering
01:19the meetings.
01:19There were probably about eight of us, seven or eight of us, and that included Browns Media, you know, their
01:25own in-house media.
01:26But it was just, it was really great to be able to spend that kind of time and, you know,
01:32just get everything accomplished that we wanted to.
01:36Very nice.
01:38When I heard everything that came out of there, I'm hard-pressed to think anything other than Jimmy Haslam saying
01:48big swing and a miss might not have been the right thing to say.
01:52That might be the biggest thing to come out of it.
01:55Do you think that's the case?
01:57Because all of a sudden, Deshaun seems front and center in all this.
02:02Yeah, I don't know if him saying that that might not have been the right thing to say was the
02:07biggest thing to come out of it.
02:09But I think one of the biggest things to come out of it was just how effusive Jimmy was in
02:15his praise of Deshaun Watson.
02:17And how excited this organization is to see what he can do and to see if perhaps they can salvage
02:23something from that blockbuster trade.
02:25And you never know.
02:26I mean, give him the opportunity and see where it can take you.
02:30Having said that, however, I left there not having a great handle on whether the lean is towards Deshaun or
02:40Shadour right now.
02:41I think they're really going to take a look at it and let the best man win.
02:46And that is providing that they don't also bring in another quarterback, which they very well might do.
02:52So it's still up in the air and there's still plenty of time before the opener.
02:58I'm just, what's your feeling on then the quarterback situation based on what Jimmy said?
03:05Regardless of its open competition, I just think there were a lot of people that wrote Deshaun Watson 100%
03:10off a year ago.
03:12And now we sit here and maybe it's 50-50, maybe he's got a 40%, maybe he's got a 60
03:18% chance.
03:19Do you have a different vibe about the quarterback situation after the meetings?
03:25Well, I had been saying all along in writing for a long time that Deshaun was very much in the
03:30mix.
03:31So it doesn't surprise me.
03:33It doesn't surprise me at all to hear that he is very much in the mix to win the starting
03:39job.
03:39Now, to handicap it and to put a percentage on it, I can't really do that because after we talked
03:45to Jimmy Haslam, I think most of us in that room thought, wow, they're really high on Deshaun Watson and
03:53it seems like it could be going that way.
03:54And then we talked to Todd Munkin at the breakfast and the pendulum swung back a little bit towards Shadour.
04:01And I think, you know, maybe that was by design.
04:04Maybe that's how they want it to be heading into this open competition, which starts on Tuesday when the offseason
04:12program kicks off.
04:13Maybe they just want these guys to come in and know that they have the opportunity to win the starting
04:19job and they want to see how that brings out the best in everybody involved.
04:24If the name Dylan Gabriel came up, did Andrew Berry or Todd Munkin or Jimmy Haslam say anything other than
04:31who?
04:33No, they all said basically the same thing, that Dylan's on the roster and if you're on the roster, you
04:39also have a chance to compete for the starting job of your position.
04:45So at least in terms of rhetoric, they are saying that Dylan has an opportunity to come in and also
04:53compete for the starting job.
04:54And I think they kind of probably don't love the fact that maybe, you know, we have kind of written
05:00Dylan off basically.
05:02So they're trying to say, no, that's premature.
05:05He's still on the roster and he's got a chance to go out there and prove what he can do
05:09as well.
05:10And I think the important part about that is if you look to last year, Shador came in as the
05:16number four quarterback and ended up starting the last seven games of the season.
05:20So you can never say never about anything.
05:22You don't know how things are going to go with health and roster moves and other things.
05:26So he has to have his head in the game and I'm sure he will just like the others.
05:31Mary Kay, what was your take on the Dylan Gabriel's not here quote?
05:35And that, you know, Shador is here and I don't know, I'm concerned that maybe that gets lost in translation.
05:43So you were there.
05:44What do you think?
05:46Well, I think it's a note.
05:47I don't think it's a headline.
05:49I don't think it's a big, huge thing.
05:51I did write a story basically outlining the contact that Todd Munkin has had with each of these guys so
05:58far,
05:58because I do think it informs something about where their minds are at and what the players are thinking.
06:03I think that it's not customary for a player to be coming in in the offseason unless you are coming
06:10off of an injury
06:11and you need to be here for treatment and rehab and those kinds of things.
06:16It's really not something that they do as a matter of course until the offseason program gets underway on Tuesday.
06:23So there's nothing wrong with Dylan not being here.
06:26But I do think that there was a bit of contrast between, you know, Munkin not meeting Dylan Gabriel yet
06:33and Shador spending a bunch of time this offseason in Cleveland getting to know Todd, buying him a horse's head
06:40for his birthday.
06:43And Jimmy pointed out, and I thought this was significant, Jimmy pointed out that Shador got an education
06:53in what it takes to be an NFL quarterback last year, and that's part of the reason why he's sticking
06:56around this offseason.
06:58I think he's studying.
06:59I think he's putting in the time.
07:01And he said, you know, he's working out.
07:03His body looks better.
07:04And so I do think, as Todd mentioned also at the breakfast, that it's good to know where you're at
07:11and where you need to go and what you need to do about that.
07:14Mary Kay Cabot joining us, and you can read her work covering the Browns at the Plain Dealer and Cleveland
07:18.com.
07:19Let me go to our favorite topic, Mary Kay.
07:22At this point, it would seem that any real top-notch free agent-wide receiver is already spoken for.
07:29Or does it feel to you that this is going to be somebody they draft and maybe somebody who falls
07:37through the cracks?
07:37Or are they satisfied enough with what they have that they'll add somebody in the draft and call it a
07:42day?
07:45Well, things can always change after the draft, too.
07:49If teams, draft receivers, sometimes veteran guys shake free.
07:53But right now, I think the focus is on the draft.
07:56And I think that they will come out of this draft with two new, really good pass catchers of some
08:01sort,
08:02whether that is a tight end and a wide receiver, two wide receivers, something like that.
08:07I think that they're going to come out with at least two new weapons out of the nine picks.
08:14And then they'll probably add even a few more when they start signing the undrafted guys.
08:20But I think that they're probably going to skew young on adding to the receiver room right now.
08:25I don't really see them going after a big-name receiver or trying to make any kind of a trade
08:31at this point.
08:33Now, of course, that could all change because sometimes these things do change on a dime,
08:38depending on, again, what happens in the draft and whatnot.
08:41But right now, I'm guessing it will be one or two really good weapons coming in the draft.
08:46All right, your feelings on Miles Garrett right now, because obviously there were people like, you know,
08:51thinking, wow, look at this trade proposal and look at the contract, how they changed that.
08:57Where do you stand on Miles Garrett and his future?
09:01Well, once again, and I tried to write this the very day that the contract revisions came out,
09:07that they were not going to be trading Miles Garrett, just like they were not going to be trading him
09:11last year.
09:12And I think Jimmy spelled it out very clearly.
09:15Andrew did as well.
09:16But Jimmy was point blank saying, we do think we're going to be a contender within the next five years,
09:22and we want the best player in the NFL.
09:25He believes he's that.
09:27At least he's the best defender in the NFL to be part of this and to lead that defense.
09:31And why would we give up on the best, arguably the best defender in the NFL,
09:37when we think we're on the cusp of contending again?
09:41And that actually makes sense to me, because even if you could get two first-round picks for him,
09:47are those two first-round picks, unless you were able to parlay them into your absolute franchise quarterback of the
09:55future,
09:57chances are those two picks are not going to add up to Miles Garrett, who is a generational talent.
10:02It is hard to find a guy like that.
10:04And when you have one, you try to keep him.
10:08Mary Kay, I want to go back to what you said about spending time with Todd Munkin,
10:12your chance to get to know him a little bit more and get a feel for what he's thinking.
10:16What is he thinking about this opportunity here in Cleveland?
10:21I think that he believes that this is a team that's ready to take off.
10:25He was here before in 2019, and he felt that the team had the roster and the players back then
10:33to do some really good things.
10:36And obviously, for a number of reasons, you know, Freddie Kitchens was the head coach,
10:40and they were just dysfunctional, basically.
10:44But they had the players.
10:46They had the horses to do it.
10:47And I think he sort of feels that way again.
10:49One of the main reasons he took this job was because of the championship-caliber defense.
10:53He knows what that means to have something like that.
10:56And now they just have to get the offense up to speed.
11:00But he feels capable of helping out with that and doing that.
11:05Like everyone else, I think he recognizes that they have to answer the quarterback problem.
11:10And until they do that, you're really not going to completely take off.
11:15But I think his feeling on it is, let's get as many pieces as we can.
11:19If we can get the quarterback and figure out who the quarterback is this year, great.
11:22If not, you know, keep adding to the pile, keep adding to this roster,
11:27and then we will have a quarterback at some point.
11:30Who is making the – is it Todd ultimately making the decision on the quarterback?
11:35Is this group think – like who makes the decision?
11:40Well, until you get to who is going to actually play and start,
11:45it's more of a, you know, personnel with coaching input decision in terms of,
11:50hmm, should we draft Ty Simpson?
11:52Should we not?
11:53Should we draft Drew Aller?
11:55You know, those things would be the personnel department with Andrew having final say on that
11:59with input from Todd Munkin and whoever else that they wanted to, you know, talk to about that.
12:06But then when it comes to who is actually going to start, that's all Todd.
12:13They are not going to put him in a position to dictate who's going to start at quarterback.
12:18So I think that's important to note.
12:20Last question.
12:21Do you think Drew Aller is on the map for them?
12:23I've heard that a couple times the last couple days from different people.
12:27I think a number of those guys are on the map, on the radar in the mid-rounds.
12:33And Andrew keeps talking about that it's wholly realistic for them to add a young quarterback.
12:38So I think a lot of those guys are on the radar.
12:41Now, if you're talking about somebody like that as opposed to a Ty Simpson who would be more so,
12:45I would think, replacing a Shador Sanders if you went that route.
12:49If you're going with a Drew Aller or one of those guys, then I think you'd be looking at a
12:54developmental quarterback
12:56who would probably more so make Dylan Gabriel expendable in that situation.
13:02So it still has to play out.
13:04A lot can happen over these next three weeks.
13:07But I really wouldn't be surprised if another young quarterback lands here.
13:11Mary Kay, thank you very much.
13:13Great coverage.
13:14We enjoyed following along with everything you were doing out in Arizona.
13:17So well done.
13:18Thank you, Mary Kay.
13:20Thanks a lot.
13:20Thanks, guys.
13:21Mary Kay Cabot, Plain Dealer, Cleveland.com.
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