00:00I want to give Andrew Barry props for having a draft that I really liked.
00:04And I want to give him props because the year prior, he had maybe the best draft the Browns have
00:10had.
00:10And that includes 2018 where you had Denzel, you had Baker, and you had Nick Chubb.
00:14And Austin Corbett, who was the fourth of your top five picks, ended up being really good,
00:20if not injury prone, which is not something you predict.
00:22At least you couldn't with him.
00:24So I want to give him all the props.
00:25But there is a narrative that started as like a kernel of an idea on Twitter,
00:31probably Friday night after you got Denzel Boston, after you got Warren, right?
00:36Or McNeil Warren.
00:37And then it has picked up steam.
00:40And much like the snowball that turns to the avalanche has now just turned into accepted fact over the weekend.
00:47The amount of people who are like, I guess Paul D. Podesta was the problem.
00:53Andrew Barry has been freed of this.
00:56We're even rewriting the narrative that happened where, again, Paul D. Podesta was ensconced in the draft,
01:03in just the whole offseason process, until the moment that he left.
01:07But now that Andrew Barry's had a second really well thought of draft,
01:11the amount of, well, I heard Paul D. Podesta really fell out with the Browns before last year's draft.
01:18I'm not saying that's wrong.
01:20I'm just saying that was not a narrative that was espoused about this until after Paul D. Podesta left.
01:29All right.
01:29So what do you think?
01:30Do you think that D. Podesta's influence was that great and that large?
01:33Or do you feel like Andrew Barry just got better at the job?
01:36No.
01:36Well, I think Andrew Barry's had top 10, top 15, top 15 picks the last two years,
01:42and he's had a bunch of top 60 picks, which he didn't have for three years
01:46because he made the dumbest trade in NFL history.
01:48So that's how I look at it as well.
01:49Like the idea that you shouldn't surprise anybody that all of a sudden you start being smarter
01:53when you have a boatload of picks that you didn't previously have,
01:56and you're not up against it the way that they were.
01:59The Deshaun Watson trade hurt this franchise in such a massive way,
02:03but the least talked about way is the idea that it just made the draft irrelevant for three years,
02:09and you couldn't do anything.
02:11And the picks that he did take, he kept trying to solve with wide receivers,
02:14but at that point in the third round, you can't be asking that much with those wide receivers.
02:17So, like, it just felt really convenient to watch this narrative grow.
02:22And listen, guys, the results speak for themselves with D. Podesta.
02:27He oversaw, like, it was a playoff win and two playoff appearances for a league built on parity
02:37and for a team that when he was here, the beginning of his regime,
02:42they had top five picks every single year.
02:46So, like, Paul D. Podesta was an unmitigated failure.
02:50Do I think getting him out of the scenario helps a little bit
02:54because it's one less cook in the kitchen?
02:56Yes.
02:57Do we think Andrew Barry's any better at his job now than he was three years ago?
03:03No.
03:03No, but I think Andrew Barry's got to be thrilled that this is the development.
03:06Oh, yeah.
03:07He loves this narrative.
03:08If I'm Andrew Barry, I'm having my family members tweet this out?
03:10For sure.
03:11Like, this is the greatest thing to happen to Andrew Barry
03:13is the idea that now he's got an identity to himself.
03:16Now he's the draft guy.
03:17This is what he, in league circles, when people talk about Andrew Barry,
03:21the next thing that comes out of their mouth is, man, he really knows how to draft.
03:24Yeah.
03:24Which is not something that existed two years ago.
03:26And so, like, congratulations.
03:27You knock it out of the park two years in a row.
03:29You seem like you've got a lot of really good players.
03:31You're constantly maneuvering through the draft board,
03:33and you're doing all sorts of really smart things.
03:35Like, this is good.
03:36It's great for Andrew Barry.
03:38That's what I kind of think is going to be really fascinating about this year
03:42is because, in the end, if, again, you have the first four guys in this draft,
03:48each contribute day one.
03:50Like, Spencer Feneau comes in and just holds his own left tackle.
03:54Either Concepcion or Boston step right in as a starting wide receiver
03:59as, like, Tech McMillan this last year, who was good but not great.
04:03Some of that had to do with Bryce Young, who's not great.
04:06And then McNeil Warren comes in, and finally you have that elite safety
04:11you're looking at, and Delpit can slide in under him.
04:13Hickman can slide under him.
04:15Do I think there are going to be a lot of people giving him his flowers?
04:18Yes.
04:18In the end, though, if it's another four-win team,
04:22I don't know how a second good class will carry you if, again,
04:27the thing that fails you is the most important position in football
04:31and none of the three guys you've drafted in the last two years
04:34or the guy that you traded all that stuff for can pull the sword from the stone
04:38and just get you to functionality on offense.
04:40No, but what it will do is give you confidence that in 2027,
04:43if they have to draft a quarterback then, that you've got the right guy
04:46in charge to do so, which is not something that I think a lot of people
04:48believed as recently as a couple years ago.
04:50See, that's interesting because at some point, like, again, like, hey,
04:56Andrew Barry can draft wide receivers now.
04:57Well, that gets proven this year.
05:00Now, Spencer Feneau comes out and is a, again, holds his own at left tackle.
05:04Oh, he can draft offensive line.
05:07You'd mentioned these guys being good, but it was like a four-win season.
05:09And so, like, off the premise that these guys are actually good,
05:12he will have not cemented.
05:13Again, it's year one.
05:14Again, we don't know the long-term ramifications.
05:16We don't really even know last year.
05:18Like, you said last year you thought it was the best draft the Browns have ever had.
05:21In my head, I'm like, I don't believe that at all,
05:22but we've just gone back and forth on that so much there's no point right now.
05:25Now, the idea, though, is that if there's belief in Andrew Barry,
05:29at least the perceived belief in Andrew Barry as being some sort of draft guru,
05:32you're going to have a lot more confidence going into 2027
05:34that he'll get the right quarterback.
05:35That didn't exist a couple years ago.
05:36But we kind of split the baby with this, with him drafting, right?
05:41I trust him to draft defensive linemen or cornerbacks,
05:45but I don't trust him to draft wide receivers.
05:47I trust him to draft off-ball linebackers,
05:49but I don't trust him to draft offensive linemen.
05:51Then, every pick in this draft not named Talon Green
05:56and last year's draft not named the quarterbacks can hit.
05:59And we're still going to go, all right, he still hasn't done it at quarterback,
06:02and he's had three choices in the draft in the biggest trade in Browns –
06:07sorry, the biggest trade in recent Browns history in Deshaun Watson.
06:11Yeah, but it would have been a third, a fifth, and a sixth-round pick
06:14as far as quarterbacks are concerned.
06:16Like, are you telling me there would be no extra belief
06:18that Andrew Barry wouldn't have a clue?
06:22I'm not saying that, because, again, I can't control what other people believe.
06:25I would still have my reservations.
06:27Oh, well, yeah, I mean, there always is going to be reservations
06:29from what me and you think in general.
06:31But, like, the idea that I would say a large majority of the fan base,
06:35if they start to believe that Andrew Barry really knows what he's doing
06:38in the draft boarding, the draft side of this,
06:41then, like, they're going to think we got the right guy to make the pick at 27,
06:44which, again, not something people even thought –
06:46I keep saying two years ago, people didn't even think of that last week.
06:49It's one of the big concerns.
06:51216-474-0092.
06:53Dave in Berea, welcome to the show, Dave.
06:56Yeah.
06:58You guys don't believe that Dee Fidescu was interfering with the draft.
07:02Why did John Dorsey leave?
07:04Why was he forced out?
07:06He was fired because he fired Hugh Jackson
07:10and then wouldn't give Greg Williams the job
07:12and then hired Freddie Kitchens,
07:13who was arguably the worst head coach in Browns history.
07:17Now, that's not totally accurate because –
07:19That's exactly accurate.
07:21What are you talking about?
07:22John Dorsey, John Dorsey, and Dee Podesta
07:26had a power struggle, and Haslam opted for Dee Podesta.
07:31Real quick, Dave.
07:33Dave.
07:33Dave.
07:33Dorsey had – and I love John Dorsey.
07:35That also only speaks to what we're implying and what you're saying.
07:38He had power struggles with Jimmy.
07:41He had power struggles with Dee Podesta.
07:43He had power struggles.
07:44You're asking, how did he not interfere with the draft
07:46while admitting then that Dee Podesta won a power struggle?
07:48Do you hear how that sounds?
07:51Well, if Dee Podesta is butting into the GM's role,
07:56Dorsey didn't want to sit back and take that very –
07:59Right, but your initial inference was that Dee Podesta
08:02was not doing anything with the draft,
08:04but then you've now conceded that he was basically the GM.
08:06No, I never said that.
08:08I said he was interfering with the draft.
08:11Both him and Stefanski, they were the power brokers.
08:15Andrew Barry was the third wheel of this party.
08:18That's very convenient to say when Andrew Barry is the GM.
08:23Andrew Barry sets the 53-man roster.
08:25Andrew Barry's the guy who is widely accepted to be the guy
08:28that came up with the idea for Deshaun Watson
08:30and then got everybody else on board.
08:32Now, you want me to shoot that one down?
08:34I sure do.
08:37Kevin Stefanski just brought on the tight end
08:40that he brought on in his first year here.
08:43Did Andrew Barry bring that guy in?
08:45What the hell are you talking about?
08:47You mean Austin Hooper?
08:49Dave, what the hell are you talking about?
08:50That's right, Austin Hooper.
08:52How does that disprove the Deshaun Watson thing?
08:55I didn't say nothing about Watson.
08:57I know, you're doing a lot.
08:59Why do you answer that like you're in the Sopranos?
09:02I didn't say nothing about that.
09:03Okay.
09:04That was...
09:05Is it us?
09:06He's like in a stand or something.
09:07Well, we've not had great calls lately.
09:10It might be us.
09:12It might be us.
09:13That's two straight callers that I feel like it's...
09:16I've got a theory on our phone calls.
09:17I see it.
09:17I'm like, oh, we got a call here.
09:19No, so I have a theory.
09:21All right.
09:21So we don't take many phone calls.
09:22We just don't.
09:23It's just kind of been a thing with us.
09:25We just don't take a lot of phone calls.
09:26And in like the time we've been doing the show together, I think like the good quality phone
09:30callers have kind of gotten hip to that.
09:32And so they've just kind of weeded their way out of it and like, all right, just going
09:34to let them talk.
09:35Don't even bother calling in because they don't want to wait on hold or do anything like that.
09:38And so we're left with the people that are willing to sit on hold for like an hour and
09:42a half.
09:42Please.
09:43And those people sometimes, not always, sometimes don't have the greatest of thoughts.
09:47Please callers.
09:49Relative to the people that'll hang on for five minutes and then have something to do with
09:52their day.
09:52Good callers.
09:53Come back.
09:55We miss you.
09:56We miss you badly.
09:57Here's another thing.
09:58Because I want to make sure.
09:59I want to make it clear.
10:00None of this is an offense of Paul De Podesta.
10:03None of it will ever be a...
10:04No.
10:05Yelling only makes you sound more confident with that belief.
10:08Because it legitimately pisses me off.
10:10Like, it should piss everybody off.
10:12Well, De Podesta, no.
10:13They didn't hire a great baseball GM.
10:14They hired like a C-minus baseball GM.
10:17That's not even it, though.
10:18The part that should piss people off.
10:19No, that is the part that pisses me off.
10:20No, it's the idea that he's...
10:21You didn't hire Chris Antonetti.
10:22He's admitted that he entered football without knowing any of the players in the NFL.
10:27That's the part that should piss you off.
10:29The idea that you could be an NFL...
10:31Can it all piss me off?
10:32Yeah, but that's the part that always gets back to...
10:35The part that makes me angry about it is that these people are, yes,
10:38they're qualified for a different sport.
10:40But the idea that he didn't know...
10:41I think by his own estimation, I think he said he knew less than 10% of the NFL
10:45as far as rosters were concerned.
10:47How is it that guys running a fantasy football team know more about the guy
10:50that was in charge to run this football team?
10:52Like, that should never happen.
10:54And I get it.
10:55It was very...
10:56Listen, 2016, Nick, it was very in vogue for people to be like,
11:00hey, hire smart people and let them figure it out.
11:02Okay, man, that's fine.
11:04You want to know why we as a society started shifting away from that in a lot of areas?
11:07It's because you need to actually have experience of the things that you're supposed to be hired to do.
11:11You can't just be expected, especially with so many nuances and so many different quirks and things,
11:14you can't just plop smart people in and say, go.
11:17It doesn't work in football.
11:19I don't know why the word plop made me giggle.
11:22216-474-0092.
11:26That was a microcosm of our show, by the way.
11:28That was it right there.
11:29You give an impassioned thing that I'm just kind of like, all right, I don't know why you got so
11:32angry about it,
11:33but now I'm angry about it, so I give an impassioned thing back.
11:36And then it ends with a plop.
11:37What a funny word.
11:39That's fair.
11:40Dr. Bob.
11:41Hi, Dr. Bob.
11:42Dr. Bob.
11:43Gentlemen, you asked for good callers, so here I am.
11:47And that, beautiful.
11:50So you guys asked right before the break if Barry has changed the view of his fans, I guess.
11:59The narrative.
12:00By all accounts, he had a great draft.
12:02That's what every analyst out there is saying.
12:05I love all of his first four picks, and everybody that followed, he added depth to the offensive line.
12:13Took a couple of guys who are, you know, maybe projects, but nothing matters until we see the results on
12:19the field.
12:21So as good as some of these players are, if it doesn't lead to more wins than losses, then it's
12:28not a good draft.
12:29But we've got to wait until September.
12:31I'll let you guys go, and I'll call back the next time you need some good callers, even though this
12:35was kind of a crappy call.
12:36We should know it, but thank you, Dr. Bob.
12:39Tomorrow.
12:40Tomorrow at 2.22.
12:42He's a good man, Dr. Bob.
12:44Very good man.
12:44Very thorough.
12:45Yeah.
12:45You know, I gave him the nickname, Dr. Bob, back at the night show.
12:48Yeah?
12:48Yeah.
12:48Is that because he's a doctor?
12:50No, I once asked for, like, a hangover remedy or something like that, and he called in and had one,
12:54and then I just called him Dr. Bob, and then he's gone with it ever since.
Comments