00:00She covers the Browns for the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com.
00:03Fresh off an all-expense-paid trip to Berea for Rookie Minicamp.
00:07Wow.
00:08She's Mary Kay Cabot. Hello, Mary Kay.
00:10Hey, guys. How you doing?
00:12We're well.
00:13How was Rookie Minicamp? Did you have fun?
00:16I did have fun. I really did have fun because it's all new and different.
00:22And it really is your first look at these guys that are going to form part of the basis
00:27of the new era in Cleveland Browns history.
00:30I've been saying this for a long time.
00:32They've laid the foundation last year with that great draft.
00:35This is the second layer of that.
00:37And when you put these two drafts together,
00:40this should really be kind of the future of the Cleveland Browns.
00:43So it was fun to go out there and watch these guys
00:46and see some of what's going to be happening on the field in 2026.
00:51All right. Is there a new Todd Munkin vibe, too, to this whole thing?
00:57Well, I think it's hard to say that there is a new Todd Munkin vibe at Rookie Minicamp.
01:03But they do, even in Rookie Minicamp, do a lot, a lot of 11-on-11s.
01:09And that's what we're seeing more of.
01:10And I think that's really going to come in handy this season.
01:13They're doing a lot of situational football, a lot of 11-on-11s.
01:17And they're going to rep it over and over and over again.
01:20And I think that that's really going to help them this year.
01:24So is Talon Green a storyline?
01:28Or is he a storyline because it was Rookie Minicamp
01:31and the Browns drafted him in the sixth round?
01:33Because I think he's fascinating, Mary Kay.
01:37Yeah, I think he's a storyline in large part
01:39because he actually does have a chance to contribute early on.
01:44When you think about fourth and one and goal line situations and four-minute,
01:50if he demonstrates that he's ready to go out there and play
01:53and isn't going to turn the ball over, which has been a problem for him,
01:56if he can tighten that up and make a few other improvements,
02:00then I think it is a storyline because we could see him on opening day.
02:05So absolutely it is a storyline.
02:07And, boy, does he have some incredible, incredible physical traits.
02:12That height just stands out as the first thing.
02:15You know, he's just got a very solid frame.
02:18And then the speed, a couple times he took off running with that 4.36 speed.
02:23And then he had good spin on the ball.
02:25Now he needs to harness his throwing motion and his power.
02:29But if he can do that with some really, really good coaching
02:32and maybe some work with a private tutor
02:35or more work with a private QB coach in his six-week break,
02:39he can really come back and hit the ground running for training camp.
02:42Mary Kay, do you think, and I would assume no just because of the situation,
02:47do you think he actually will be part of the competition to be the starting quarterback?
02:52You know, his sixth-round pick, you never think that guy's going to be your starter.
02:56But who is going to be the starter here?
02:58Do you think he has a chance to actually compete for the gig?
03:01You know, I don't see that as really part of the protocol for these OTAs and for training camps.
03:09I really think that the battle is going to continue to be between Deshaun Watson and Shador Sanders.
03:16And if something changes, if someone gets injured or if something else happens,
03:21then that could change.
03:23But as of right now, I still see Deshaun and Shador competing for the starting job.
03:29And then Dylan and Kaylin Green, who will sometimes be working off on a separate field.
03:35They're still going to be doing some of that two-spotting.
03:37Those guys are more so vying for the developmental quarterback job.
03:41Now, they're going to keep three, and then they'll probably put one more on the practice squad.
03:48So they're going to keep three, but the third one is more of a developmental guy.
03:52And it'll be interesting to see how this works out.
03:54Because if you really do think that you can use Taylin in those critical situations that we're talking about,
04:00then he's going to have to probably be one of the three.
04:04How do you envision the room-looking men, depth chart-wise, if these four guys stay?
04:09Or do you envision one of these four guys not being here?
04:13Or do you think they try to take Taylin Green, push him through to the practice squad?
04:17Give me your vision for these four quarterbacks moving into the season,
04:21and maybe perhaps even in the training camp.
04:25You know, I don't know exactly how it's going to work out.
04:28Because as I mentioned, Taylin is probably going to have to make the 53-man roster.
04:34I don't think you can take the chance of trying to squeeze him through waivers
04:38and get him on the practice squad, because I think by then teams will have seen
04:42what he might be capable of in some of those situations that we're talking about.
04:46And they might be willing to grab him.
04:48And also, if he has a nice camp, you know, word gets out very quickly about that.
04:53And then if he goes out and shows out well in the preseason games,
04:57the secret is out a little bit.
04:58So I feel like he's probably going to have to make the 53.
05:03And then Deshaun and Shador, I believe, will as well.
05:07So I think it might end up having to be Dylan that you'd want to try to find something else
05:13that you could possibly do with him.
05:16Maybe you try to find a trade partner for him.
05:18I think that he's better than a lot of people think he is.
05:22He did not get a fair chance last season at all.
05:25I mean, even Joe Flacco couldn't fare well in this offense last year.
05:30So let's see what kind of jump Dylan Gabriel makes in his second season.
05:35Let's see what he's able to do.
05:37And then maybe you can parlay that into a draft pick.
05:40The Browns have done a nice job of trading away quarterbacks for fifth, six, whatever,
05:45fifth round picks.
05:46And maybe you could possibly do something like that.
05:49But I don't know.
05:49I don't know how it's going to shake out.
05:51Let's see what happens through these OTA practices and the mini camp.
05:57And then after that, Todd is going to reshuffle the deck
06:01and we'll have a better idea of who stands where.
06:04Mary Kay Cabot joining us from ThePlainDealOfCleveland.com
06:07wrote a story yesterday.
06:09David Njoku will finally have the quarterback stability with the Chargers
06:13that he didn't have with the Browns.
06:15And Mary Kay, I look at David.
06:18I always liked David.
06:20I always thought he had ability just coming out of his pores.
06:23And I don't think it was ever really reached in his nine seasons here in Cleveland.
06:28Is the quarterback situation the reason why?
06:31Because if you think of guys who were here who had real ability,
06:36I think he had it.
06:37And I don't think he ever reached his full potential here.
06:41No, I don't think so either.
06:42And I think the quarterback situation had a lot to do with it.
06:44I counted it up.
06:45In the time that Justin Herbert, his new quarterback,
06:47has been starting the past six seasons for the Chargers.
06:51David Njoku, just in that span, has had 14 quarterbacks that he has caught passes from.
06:58So one for the Chargers, 14 for the Cleveland Browns.
07:02Now there was an overlap there in two of those seasons.
07:05Deshaun was on the roster.
07:06But 14 quarterbacks, I think 13 different quarterbacks.
07:11And then in his tenure here overall, of course, he started out with Baker Mayfield
07:16and had a little bit of continuity there for a few years.
07:18So overall, he's had 16 quarterbacks since he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2017.
07:26Obviously, that tells a big part of the story.
07:28But he also had some injury problems.
07:31He had some personality clashes with some coaches.
07:35He had trade requests.
07:36He had, you know, a serious facial and hand-burning incident.
07:42He's had a very tumultuous up-and-down career here.
07:46But I do think that he was capable of eight touchdowns a season.
07:51I've always felt that about him.
07:53And in the year that he was with Joe Flacco, those two guys together connected for four
07:59touchdown passes in five games.
08:00So you project that over a 17-game season, it comes out to about 14 touchdown catches.
08:06So if he had had something like that when he was still in his prime, I do think he was
08:12capable of so much more.
08:13Yeah, me too.
08:14Yeah, Jeff and I were talking about this yesterday, the one-year deal for him.
08:17Is that more for him or is that more for the team?
08:20Well, I think it's both.
08:21It's a fact-binding mission.
08:22He's at that point in his career now where he's someone that you kind of add a little
08:27bit later once you see how everything goes and how the market falls.
08:31So one year, $8 million, really not where he wanted to go in his career at this point.
08:36But still, I think it's an opportunity for him to play with a good quarterback, go to the
08:41playoffs, and just show people that he's not done yet.
08:44Mary Kay, do the Browns need to do what the Chargers did at tight end at running back with
08:50all the young guys and Quinchon Judkins injuries that he's coming back from?
08:54In other words, go find a veteran running back.
08:59Well, we'll have to see.
09:00You can usually find another running back that shakes out in the final cuts or on the street
09:08or something like that.
09:09You can usually find someone in the event that you need that extra running back.
09:15So let's see how Quinchon comes along over the next couple of months and what he's capable
09:19of doing in training camp.
09:21He's going to be limited in training camp, I would think, and they'll ramp him up and
09:25kind of take it a little bit easy with him.
09:28But the way that he looks so far, it seems to me that he's going to be ready to go
09:32by
09:32the beginning of the season.
09:35And they might not have to try too hard to add too many bodies there.
09:38Mary Kay, what did you think of Concepcion in Boston?
09:42Very good.
09:43Very, very good.
09:44And once again, they were being thrown passes by a quarterback that had never thrown to
09:50them before.
09:51And for that, I thought it looked really, really good.
09:54There were very few balls on the ground and they caught mostly everything that came their
09:59way.
09:59Again, they're in shorts, no pads, no contact, all that kind of thing.
10:04But for the most part, they looked the part.
10:07We saw Casey's shiftiness, his agility, his good hands.
10:13We saw Denzel Boston's great size, his, you can see the vision for the contested catch
10:20ability, and he's very, very sure-handed.
10:23So I think the future is bright there.
10:26How'd Spencer Fano look to you?
10:29Well, it's really hard to tell how good a left tackle looks in Rufi Minicamp.
10:35I'm very much looking forward to seeing how he looks when he gets an opportunity to go
10:40against the veterans in the OTAs.
10:43So that will be the litmus test for him.
10:46Right now, he physically looks the part.
10:49And he obviously held his own in these practices.
10:52But we need to see what's going to happen when you've got Miles Garrett sort of screaming
10:56off the edge and Alex Wright and some of these guys and having to figure all of that
11:01out.
11:01So that will happen.
11:03And the next time that we see the veterans practice will be on May 20th.
11:07That will be OTA number two next week.
11:09And very much looking forward to that.
11:12Well, let me go back to Najoku and tight end for one second, Mary Kay.
11:16The Browns appear to be really comfortable with Harold Fannin and a bunch of other really
11:20young guys at tight end.
11:22You think that's accurate?
11:24Yeah, I think that's accurate.
11:26They obviously drafted to Joe Royer of Cincinnati being one of them.
11:30And he caught a lot, a lot of passes in rookie minicamp.
11:34So looking forward to seeing what he can do once the veterans get on the field.
11:39But that is an area where if they feel that they need to supplement or add, then they'll
11:44be on the lookout for other maybe more blocking oriented tight ends.
11:49And they also signed Jack Stoll as a free agent.
11:54He's more of a blocker.
11:56So they have some pieces there that they can work with.
11:59And they'll just have to figure out if it's enough.
12:01Thanks for joining us.
12:03As always, glad you enjoyed rookie minicamp.
12:06It's fun.
12:07They had a lot of interesting young guys.
12:09And we see them all on the field again May 20th.
12:11Thanks, Mary Kay.
12:13Thank you, Mary Kay.
12:14Thank you, guys.
12:15Mary Kay Cab at PlainDealerCleveland.com.
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