00:00So the Cavs play the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, Game 1.
00:03I'm scrolling Twitter. I see 92-3, the fan.
00:06I see my guys Nick Wilson and Jonathan Peterlin.
00:08And what are they talking about?
00:10They're talking about Miles Garrett and the fact that he's not there.
00:13And their point was, this is not a story.
00:15Let's not make a story out of this.
00:17This is what he did last year until June 9th when it's mandatory.
00:20Why are we even talking about this?
00:22I think it could be a story.
00:24New head coach.
00:26New defensive coordinator.
00:28New fresh blood.
00:29Maybe it's Deshaun Watson playing at quarterback for the first time in four years.
00:35Why isn't it a story that their star player and the best player for the franchise in the last nearly
00:41two decades,
00:42maybe since Joe Thomas wasn't there at OTAs?
00:45Could he have shown up?
00:46Look, I know it's going to be nearly impossible to get us riled up and ready to go about doing
00:52Miles Garrett trade talk in May
00:54after we went through all the free agency and all of the draft.
00:57But it all goes away if Miles Garrett shows up with a happy face.
01:02That's Peter Schrager on ESPN, that audio courtesy of ESPN.
01:07Peter Schrager gave a huge shout out to Nick and JP, which I thought was absolutely awesome.
01:14I wanted to play it today.
01:15Those guys deserve that.
01:17Times a million.
01:18Sitting here five hours every day, keeping you guys entertained, talking potential Miles Garrett trades.
01:25Michael, I got to tell you, though, I come out on this entire Miles Garrett situation a lot closer to
01:32what Schrager just said
01:34versus what Nick and Jonathan were saying that there's nothing to see here, no big deal, no cause for a
01:41freakout,
01:42just because Todd Munkin's a 60-year-old head coach.
01:46It's been in the building before with Miles in 2019 with the Browns.
01:51Mike Rutenberg is a first-time defensive coordinator.
01:54He's never done this before.
01:57And they finally both get this big opportunity to coach what should be a team where the stock arrow kind
02:05of is pointing up, in my opinion.
02:07You won your last two games last year.
02:10Does momentum really care over season to season in the NFL?
02:13Well, I don't know, probably not.
02:14But you had back-to-back really nice drafts that were graded tremendously nationally.
02:22And you know you've got one of the top-rated, if not the best defense in the National Football League.
02:30I'm in the camp of throw your organization a bone.
02:36One time, throw them a bone.
02:38Does it kill you to show up for one of these voluntary OTA sessions?
02:45Look your new coach in the eye and say, Todd, I'm here for you.
02:49Dap him up.
02:50Look up, you know, Rudy, they say, is an energy guy.
02:53He's somebody that really wears his emotion and heart on his sleeve.
02:56He's one of those rah-rah defensive coordinators.
03:00Dap him up, too.
03:01And, Mike, looking forward to how you're going to use me this year with the Browns.
03:06Miles, though, has chosen to go the route.
03:09We know.
03:10We've talked about plenty.
03:12He hasn't shown up.
03:13He hasn't had that face-to-face interaction yet with this new-look coaching staff.
03:19And as we're getting through May, and the calendar is getting ready to flip here to June,
03:25I am starting to wonder why this is starting to smell a little bit fishy.
03:34Is it, though?
03:35It is.
03:36We do this every year, though, Nick.
03:37He has never come to OTAs.
03:40Never use the word never.
03:42Because I did a little bit of research, and I found some reporting from the Akron Beacon Journal
03:47back in Kevin Stefanski's first year as the head coach for the Browns
03:52where Miles showed up at voluntary OTAs to meet his new head coach in Kevin Stefanski,
03:59his new defensive coordinator, who was Joe Woods at that time.
04:04Like, he has shown up sparingly before.
04:09I think that year was a little bit different.
04:11Obviously, that was the COVID season.
04:12But also, that was like year, what, for Miles Garrett?
04:16He was drafted in 2017.
04:17And they were coming off the absolute stinker from 2019, where they were trying to get the culture back
04:24on the straight and narrow because Freddie Kitchens was an unmitigated disaster.
04:29So Miles shows to be a good sport, support Kevin.
04:34I just thought it was fascinating that, not that he's not there, because I didn't expect him to be there.
04:41But it's just another thing that continues to surround Miles Garrett
04:47where literally just a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about this guy
04:53as if it was a foregone conclusion that he was going to be traded back in March
04:58where they modified that language in the contract so they could move him.
05:03Not just this year, though.
05:04That was for, I think it was more to potentially be able to move him next year
05:08than this year, in my opinion.
05:10So that was March 25th.
05:11They reworked the contract.
05:13And remember, they didn't get any perks for reworking that contract in the immediate.
05:19Like, they redid the deal.
05:20And a lot of times when you have these restructures, it's okay, so you could gain some cap space
05:25so you could bring in your rookie class and you could really throw some big-time money at UDFAs
05:29and that kind of thing.
05:31That's why you would rework a deal like this.
05:33That wasn't the case with this Miles Garrett restructure, though.
05:36Like, the cap relief that they get from this most recent restructuring that happened at
05:41the end of March, they don't get any cap relief from that until, like, the 2029-2030 season.
05:47So it was fishy and everybody freaked out about it.
05:50And we were talking about Miles like he was going to be traded.
05:54The Browns come out at the league meetings.
05:56They say, nope, nothing's changed.
05:58That was procedural.
05:59We're keeping Miles.
06:01He's a lifetime Brown.
06:03And yet, still, the last I've heard from Miles Garrett was before Kevin Stefanski even got
06:10fired where he said and reminded everybody that what he said last offseason didn't change
06:17and that he doesn't want to be a part of a rebuild and that he does want to contend for
06:22a Super Bowl championship.
06:23And if, in his view, hiring Munkin over Schwartz means that the Browns are rebuilding or retooling
06:30or whatever Miles believes that the Browns aren't contending for a Super Bowl, I just think
06:37things will get way louder and certainly way weirder if he doesn't show up June 9th for
06:43that mandatory veteran minicamp.
06:45Well, I think, Nick, everybody would freak out if he doesn't show up for, if he's willing
06:49to miss checks, I understand that he didn't get his whatever, his $1 million workout bonus.
06:54Again, he's passed that up like three years in a row.
06:57That's not a big deal.
06:58If he doesn't show up to mandatory minicamp, absolutely, we are slamming the red panic
07:02button right now on this situation.
07:04My thing, and I know you and I talked about this when we were doing our show prep, I just
07:08feel like if Miles Garrett truly wanted out and he was truly like saying, okay, like you
07:13guys didn't hire the coach I wanted, which it's a bit childish, Miles, like if that's
07:17really it, you need to grow up, but number two, it's wouldn't you think he'd be a little
07:21bit louder about it?
07:22I understand that there's the whole conspiracy out there that the Browns are doing what like
07:27the Eagles are doing with AJ Brown, where they engineered a backdoor deal with the Patriots
07:32that once June 1 hits and the cap hit goes down, we will trade you to the Patriots.
07:36You just need to hush and be quiet.
07:37And could that be what's going on though?
07:39Like, Miles have learned that like I tried to do the loud vocal make things ugly last year
07:45and I didn't get my way this year.
07:48He has all the leverage.
07:49There's no reason to be quiet.
07:50But I wonder if this year Miles learned, if I go about this quote unquote professionally
07:56and I play ball with Andrew Barry, who has had discussions with Miles Garrett, and I play
08:02ball with Andrew Barry, who I do like and I do respect, maybe more so than this new look
08:06coaching staff that they brought in, maybe then I'll get my way.
08:10And then maybe then, maybe the dates here, Michael, are truly June 1st through the 8th.
08:17Bring your magnifying glasses out for the Miles Garrett Brown situation because that would
08:22be right before he would have to report to Berea on June 9th.
08:27I'm just here to tell you nothing about Miles Garrett's actions following that very public
08:33trade request have led me to believe that he's going to show up on June 9th.
08:39Miles has given me no reason to believe that he's going to show up on June 9th.
08:44What gives you that, again, Nick, what gives you that type of perception?
08:47Because we haven't heard from him.
08:48I know, but we didn't hear from him last year and he showed up.
08:51Like he was demanding a trade last year and he still showed up.
08:53Yeah, but he had his new contract by then.
08:55Okay, fine, two years ago.
08:56Like, Nick, he hasn't been at OTAs for like the last three, four years.
09:00And yet, again, he goes on vacation, he does whatever, like, oh, wow, we haven't heard
09:04from Miles.
09:04And I understand it's different because he demanded a trade last year and he didn't get it.
09:08So obviously we know that things are, I think, on rocky soil with Miles.
09:12But the way I look at it with Miles Garrett here now is you won five games last year.
09:17And I think probably we're optimistic that that's the worst the Browns are going to be
09:22for probably a little while.
09:24I understand they're going to have some dead money coming up and they're going to have
09:26to navigate through that.
09:27But they just added a whole draft's worth of offensive talent.
09:30Like, if you're not on this train right now, if we, I'll put it this way, if the Browns
09:39did not show you this offseason that they're not trying to improve, that they're not trying
09:43to win, that they're not trying to get better than they were last year, what are you watching?
09:48What are you paying attention to?
09:49There's an elephant in the room here, though, and it's, it's, I'm watching.
09:52And remember, Miles said, in this league, you're nothing without a blue chip quarterback.
09:59Who are they getting ready to start week one in Jacksonville?
10:02It looks like it's going to be Deshaun Watson.
10:04And, and maybe Miles has had enough of that whole thing.
10:07Maybe that's, okay, another year where I got to sit there and waste my prime as a future
10:13Hall of Famer so they could get to the end of their Deshaun Watson experiment.
10:18Why am I going to sign up for that?
10:20I'm, I think, and I'm fearful that there's another shoe that's getting ready to drop with
10:28this Miles Garrett chapter.
10:29I just can't shake it because I never got a finite answer as to why they restructured
10:35that contract when they did.
10:37Nobody ever answered that question.
10:39I don't know if we necessarily need one.
10:41I also know, I also still don't understand why Todd Munkin, and I was there, boots on ground,
10:46feet on grass, in Berea on Wednesday.
10:50Munkin is over the moon excited to coach this football team.
10:53I genuinely believe that.
10:55His press conference after OTAs on Wednesday was more like a podcast than it was a press
11:02conference.
11:02He was not letting reporters finish their questions or finish their thoughts before he
11:08was jumping in to answer these questions.
11:10He was that excited talking about different topics spanning from Deshaun Watson to Denzel
11:16Boston.
11:18Here's how he was asked about Miles Garrett and Todd Munkin's answer.
11:23Just for the record, have you had any face-to-face with Garrett yet?
11:28Miles?
11:28Yeah.
11:29No.
11:30So you had a head coach that was tripping over himself to answer questions about the
11:35rest of the 80 guys that they have when you factor in the undrafted free agents and the
11:41tryout players.
11:42He's tripping over himself to talk about every single last guy on the roster, and your best
11:47player, your face of your organization, you still haven't met face-to-face with yet.
11:54That's just, that's fishy to me, especially coming off the heels of that reworked contract
11:58that, again, nobody has still answered for.
12:02Again, to be fair, I don't know if we need an explanation on a small thing.
12:06I know Andrew Barry has addressed it, and he's kind of explained it in some way, shape,
12:09or form.
12:10Yeah, but not really.
12:11Like, he's explained it the way that Andrew Barry explains everything, which is...
12:14It's a clerical move.
12:16Like, obviously, he's not going to come out and blatantly say, hey, guys, I make this
12:19move just so I can trade Miles Garrett next year.
12:20Here's the secret.
12:22Why would he come out and say that?
12:23It's not a clerical move.
12:25No, it's not.
12:26But what are you going to say?
12:27If you're restructuring a $100 million contract, I've worked in, like, not in sports.
12:32It's not a restructure, though.
12:33It's a reworking of a $100 million contract.
12:36You've got lawyers on the phone.
12:37You've got agents on the phone.
12:39In order to pull something off of that magnitude, to rework, restructure, whatever you want to
12:44call it, it's not clerical.
12:46It's not procedural.
12:47And I'm candidly sitting here somewhat confused as to why we never got a genuine answer as
12:53to what's going on with Miles Garrett and the Cleveland Browns.
12:572-1-6, 4-7-4, double-0-92.
13:00At what point does this situation become fishy with Miles Garrett and the Cleveland Browns?
13:07I'm starting to say that we're already getting a little fishy.
13:11Wait till June.
13:12He's got a new head coach.
13:13He's got a new defensive coordinator.
13:16You want to be the face of the organization, you should probably maybe meet those guys before
13:20you have to show up.
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