00:00of underdog fantasy josh norris josh welcome to the show how you doing guys well i'll be honest
00:06with you josh we're we're doing all right here but i was a little incensed to find out that the
00:11browns are seven and a half point dogs to jacksonville week one i'm not into the disrespect
00:16thing because it's the browns and they have an earned respect seven and a half point dogs week
00:21one feels a little disrespectful to me uh seven and a half is a large number in week one and
00:27as
00:28we all remember we extrapolate everything that happens in week one for the next you know 17 and
00:3316 weeks and think think you know every team is the same as they're going to be in that first
00:37performance you also get some massive upsets so maybe this is exactly the position that the browns
00:41could be in and at the very least i think it's going to be you know more of an adorable
00:45watch
00:45this year for the browns uh i'm excited for what todd monken is going to bring for this team
00:50and then i i would argue that jacksonville has maybe a couple of questions that they need answered
00:55despite uh you know their i think really strong performance in the year one at william till
01:00all right so josh you you said you're you like the browns you're interested you're intrigued by
01:04the browns why is that well to be honest with you i think if todd monken was i don't know
01:0920 years
01:10younger he'd be getting a ton of not just interest but publicity as one of the more forward-thinking
01:17minds out there in terms of his play calling i mean what we saw this year and i think jacksonville
01:22is a
01:22good example of this overdrafting tight ends um you know trying to chase his 12 and 13 personnel
01:29looks to force defenses into base so you can either run or pass on them and force certain
01:34coverages and personnel groupings out there todd monken has been doing this for years you know and
01:39i i just love the let's say the identity that he brings the uh way he speaks how he already
01:46has
01:47command and knows exactly what he wants offensively and i think that really bears out with immediately
01:52selecting you know two wide receivers in round one and round two uh really in his image and how he
01:58wants that room to look so it's interesting you know i agree that they're going to be more watchable
02:03um i i feel like i'm one of the most outwardly pro monken people here at the station i i
02:10have i have
02:11some i have one big question and i think you can figure out what it is but it's interesting i
02:15hear a lot
02:15of doom and gloom nationally and we had albert breer on yesterday and he kind of painted this as like
02:20a
02:20rebuilding year for the browns our very own mary k cabot of cleveland.com today here locally said no
02:26i think they're trying to win this year if you had to choose between maybe not extremes but kind of
02:31the the different ends of the spectrums here hey it's a transition year rebuilding year retooling
02:35year whatever versus no they're trying to be competitive where would you kind of land the plane
02:40for the browns in 2026 i think that's a very fair question to ask um look i think every team
02:48that doesn't have an entrenched long-term answer at the quarterback position always has that in the
02:55front of their mind whenever they're looking towards the future right now that's not to say
02:59that andrew berry and todd munkin are building this team in order to lose like that's a very different
03:05proposition right but i think how this team can be successful this year is some way somehow getting
03:13some form of deshaun watson that is adequate and or should or sanders take some learnings that he had
03:20from last year namely you know not retreating in the pocket standing firm because whenever he did kind
03:25of climb and move north and south versus you know just retreating i thought there were some positive
03:31things there and the other part of this as you guys know is that the teams that are successful late
03:35in the season are the ones that have very good and healthy offensive lines right ones out of those
03:41five blockers that work in unison all season long and a lot of that is injury luck and i think
03:47that
03:47plays a part when you just look down the brown depth chart from left tackle to right tackle so you
03:52just
03:52hope that at the very least you get you know 15 16 games of around 75 of those guys playing
03:59together
03:59uh and if that's the case and that just to me gives you a platform that can take advantage of
04:05the positions the turnovers all that type of stuff that the defense brings the table to so it's interesting
04:11you bring up the offensive line because there's been a lot of changes on this offensive line and we still
04:14don't know what to make of it uh basically everyone had to go and they had to sign five new
04:18guys and
04:19obviously draft spencer fano and and play a little mix and match what kind of job do you think they've
04:23done
04:23in trying to piece this all together fair question uh first of all elton jenkins when healthy he's
04:32been good titus howard when healthy he's played nearly four different spots along the offensive
04:37line has been really solid tevin jenkins uh as you all know that when he's been on the field either
04:43in chicago or hopefully in cleveland that he plays that at a high level and then spencer fano who you
04:48know
04:48played early on his career utah on the left side obviously will play that in the league
04:53uh and then zion johnson like to me his biggest calling card in free agency and why he got so
04:58much money is that he was one of the youngest free agents that position i'm not going to say he
05:01has
05:01lived up to his first round draft capital but again as we see like so often we look at these
05:06guys in
05:06unison or excuse me as individuals and say okay well he has weaknesses here he has blind spots there and
05:14really it's how they work together how they work as a cohesive unit and you know the offensive line
05:21coaching on top of that so uh i think that if everyone stays healthy that at the very least
05:29a huge massive jump everyone talks about having superstars or great players at every single
05:35position and i think it's an underrated aspect in team building to go from awful to average and if
05:41you can just get average offensive line play then that gives you again a platform to take advantage of
05:46really the strengths of the rest of the roster in certain areas what they bring to the table josh
05:51uh in many ways so in you know based off what they did last year based off projections and the
05:58lack of
05:58travel the browns are seen to have one of the five easiest or five lightest schedules in the nfl so
06:05when it comes to looking at what this team can be how many how many wins difference between a top
06:10five hardest schedule versus a top five easiest schedule do you see for a team like cleveland that
06:16does have so many things kind of up in the air yeah you know i think the people that come
06:22up with
06:22those models are a lot smarter than me uh they have better spreadsheets than i do uh to be honest
06:27it is difficult for me to even uh suggest who is going to be have an easier to more difficult
06:34schedule
06:35when so many of these teams look wildly different when they do in september to november and december
06:41and i'm sure a lot of it's like you know the patriots last year obviously had an easy schedule
06:45but so did the san francisco 49ers and while you know they had some very high moments uh we saw
06:52that
06:53injuries crippled their season and just destroyed any momentum both the quarterback position then you had
06:59all the skill position talent that got injured as well and so while i think that there's some merit
07:05in these difficult easy so on and so forth uh i also know that man when we get to the
07:10season it's a
07:11very very long one and uh those things can change quite quickly i know you do a lot with obviously
07:16the
07:16fantasy world working at underdog the way you do uh how do you guys even begin to prognosticate what a
07:22deshaun watson season could look like um i think that's impossible uh i really do and if if i have
07:31to start from a certain point i'm just going to say it's not good um because that's the latest and
07:37the
07:37most recent that he's shown us uh i don't think that he and i always love talking with uh local
07:43guys
07:43like you because maybe you have a different perspective than i do on this uh but my thought
07:48was always that deshaun watson comes to fancy just kind of weren't on the same page that
07:52the kind of offense that kevin fancy wanted to run and albeit i like stefanski again as an
07:57individual play caller um it was all timing rhythm you know leverage based and while deshaun did do
08:04some of that stuff with bill o'brien back in houston and obviously maybe stefanski thought that there
08:09was some overlap there uh just was never going to work now can you get back again to average play
08:15that you can win with him play because i don't think you're ever going to get back to you win
08:19because
08:19of deshaun watson anymore but what i really like is that again todd monken with these personal
08:25groupings he can dictate things out there and while he doesn't have as many tight ends at his
08:30disposal as he did uh with the baltimore ravens and fullbacks and everything involved there uh
08:35again i i do want to just bring up casey conception and denzel boston because those are two of my
08:40favorite
08:40wide receivers in this entire class all right so i do want to get to the draft side of this
08:45but uh i when you look at the the browns have got a lot of credit for the draft that
08:50they have
08:50who are the who are the players you think can just step in day one and be day one impact
08:55players the
08:56way swessinger was last year where harold fanon was where mason graham was last year yeah and i would
09:02argue quentron judkins was that too like we know that he he didn't immediately play out there on the
09:07field but as soon as he touched it he just looked like to me one of the best rookie backs
09:11uh in in the
09:12nfl and hopefully he can come back from his injury and everything because uh he did look like a
09:17difference maker i mean he created yards on his own uh that's the biggest thing like so many of
09:22these backs take up yards that are blocked for them but then the different ones that the really
09:25good ones create on their own and he sort of ran into a whole bunch of brick walls whenever he
09:29was
09:29given a chance uh he made some explosive plays on top of it i'm immediately going to point to casey
09:33conception uh look whenever i brought brought up his name and i'm sure you guys did during the
09:37pre-draft process uh the number one thing that people said was he can't catch that he has a lot
09:42of drops um i would just strongly suggest to those people to go and watch him a little bit more
09:49because
09:49the first things that come to my mind when i watch him is that he lined up in every single
09:54alignment
09:55versus press coverage versus off coverage inside and out and he ran nearly every single route touched
10:01every single blade of grass and you have to like really really worry about his speed on every single snap
10:08his releases i thought were the best in this class for press coverage and there are while yes he needs
10:15to improve with his drops and with his hands and the concentration on that and some of his technique
10:19there are other instances where he caught many passes off frame some difficult twisting uh you know
10:25off off frame catches and then after the catch man he just plays to a size and i think you
10:32know
10:32people are going to equate zay flower's time with todd monken and say he's just going to fulfill that
10:36role todd monken and andrew berry brought up that actually casey conception is two inches taller 15 pounds
10:41heavier uh and it shows up in their games i mean the 40 carries that casey conception had during his
10:47freshman season at nc state it shows you that he will put someone on his back at the four yard
10:52line
10:52and carry them into the end zone just to uh complete a play and he finishes out all of those
10:56so
10:57again casey conception i am mildly obsessed with him and despite his obvious flaws i i really do think
11:03that he is an immediate contributor out there all right another guy you said you loved was denzel boston
11:07i also love denzel boston i'm curious why you do as well i mean he just plays to a size
11:12six four plus
11:14and just these defenders will bounce off of him and i think a lot of people because of that size
11:19will say
11:20well you can just line him with x and he can be a sacrificial player at times and you know
11:24alter coverage and take the best outside corner and all that he gets a couple high point catches here
11:30there and all that when in reality at washington they built the passing attack around him they were
11:36moving inside they were moving outside so i actually think he and conception despite being somewhat
11:40different you know builds um they can be you know utilized in tandem uh in stacks in motion
11:48you can line up off on the inside and work in that coverage uh and and in that department and
11:54while it might not be the most aesthetically pleasing mover out there like conception is
11:59i just think denzel boston knows the areas where he wins and he will dunk on you once you get
12:04to the
12:05red zone and uh he works these intermediate routes he works inside breakers too and i really do think
12:11that those are the areas where todd monkin is going to be at his best is sucking people in play
12:16action
12:16work over the middle to both teaching conception who can win out the catch and also
12:21denzel boston into those tight window targets josh great stuff buddy appreciate you thank you so much
12:28absolutely guys
12:29see ya
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