00:00Lance Reisland of 92.3 The Fan and Cleveland.com.
00:03Coach, welcome to the show.
00:04Hey, guys. What's going on?
00:06Oh, just a little case of the Miles Garrett trade blues here.
00:09I want to know, you were staunchly anti-trading Miles before the trade.
00:15Now that you see what they got, did it change your mind?
00:19Oh, absolutely not. It absolutely did not change my mind whatsoever.
00:22You know, I've always been a believer in players win football games
00:26and really good football players.
00:28And, you know, the idea that, oh, they didn't win with Miles here,
00:31that really does nothing for me.
00:34The idea that you're going to – now you're not as good as a defense.
00:37And that's the reality of it.
00:39So, no, I'm not on board.
00:40I'm never on board getting rid of really good players.
00:42Really good coaches are made by really good players.
00:45Obviously, you know, at some point in time,
00:47I always feel like you've got to draw a line in the sand,
00:49and winning's got to be the most important thing.
00:51Not draft capital and all the words and things I don't really understand,
00:55nor do I want to.
00:56I know that one thing means something.
00:57You've got to win games, and winning's got to be the most important thing.
01:00And when it's not, you see it.
01:03You can see it in front of you.
01:04And as a coach, it's not real enjoyable to watch, to be honest with you.
01:07Yeah, as a coach, take us into that, that idea that if you're Munkin,
01:10you are a worse team today than you were yesterday.
01:12That's not even debatable.
01:14What does that do for you in trying to win year one?
01:17Well, you know, it comes down to alignment for me, JP.
01:20So are they aligned from top to bottom?
01:22Was he on board with this?
01:23Was this something they talked about early on when they were having these discussions
01:27when he was being interviewed for the job?
01:30The idea of the rebuilding, which I never really understood rebuilding.
01:33It should always be a retool.
01:35You should never rebuild, especially at the NFL level.
01:37It's only 53-man rosters.
01:38You've got to be able to go out and get good people.
01:40So now you're telling Todd Munkin you're going to have to be really good on offense,
01:44much better on offense than you've been, which you think they will be.
01:46But these are young guys, and they've got to go out and prove themselves.
01:49You either have a quarterback that's coming back from multiple injuries
01:52or a young guy in his second year who's going to have his ups and downs.
01:55You have a tailback coming off, you know, a serious leg injury,
01:58even though he's looked great.
02:00But you've said, I'm going to take away your best player.
02:03I've never believed in trading down.
02:05I'll never believe in getting rid of good players.
02:07Those are the guys that win you games.
02:09Now, like I said, when winning is the most important thing,
02:13I think things kind of equal themselves out.
02:15But we talk about what draft picks they're going to get and stuff.
02:18You know, it's like the Cavs, right?
02:20The Cavs went all in with LeBron.
02:22They won the ring.
02:24Then they were terrible for a while.
02:26The Browns didn't do that.
02:27And I just don't understand if it's like throwing in the towel.
02:30I don't believe so.
02:31I think Jared Burst, I'm watching film on him right now.
02:32He's a really good football player.
02:34But you got rid of a really, really generational guy.
02:37And I'm not sure, you know, what it looks like going forward.
02:41And what is, you know, Todd Monken's future?
02:44You know, you just said, we're taking away your best player.
02:46Now you've got to go win games.
02:47I'm not a real big fan of that.
02:49So I know this is early because you're just watching tape on Jared Burst right now.
02:54Analytics says this kid can be elite or has played in an elite level.
02:59What does the tape say to you?
03:01Well, he's a pressure guy.
03:03So usually when a pressure guy, if you look at Miles like early in his career where it
03:06almost looks like he gets there, he has a ton of those.
03:08So for me, I like pressures more than I like sacks.
03:11And he had a ton of them last year, 70-plus pressures.
03:14And he's a guy that really gets that.
03:15He plays with a great motor.
03:16And he's a really good player.
03:18And that would be my other thing is not comparing him and Miles because there's no one that's
03:22going to be Miles.
03:23Miles is arguably the best end ever or one of them.
03:25But Jared Burst is a young kid.
03:27He has a great motor.
03:28He plays extremely hard.
03:29He plays the run very well for a young guy, especially a young guy that has kind of focused
03:34on his pass rush game.
03:35Now, I will say this.
03:36He doesn't have many tools in his box just yet.
03:39He's a guy that's one to this point with pure athleticism and bend.
03:44Obviously, he doesn't have quite the speed Miles does.
03:46That's what made Miles so special.
03:47But he's a guy he's going to have to learn a couple more moves, a couple counter moves
03:51to people when the good tackles get out to him.
03:54But yeah, he's a guy that had a ton of pressures.
03:56And everything he's done has been very raw.
03:58Like, I'm just, I'm a really good athlete to go back to like Alex Wright a couple years
04:02ago.
04:03So the window that, you know, like I said, it's not really about Jared Burst for me.
04:06I think he's an outstanding player.
04:08It's the idea that you got, you know, if you say who's going to be better next year,
04:11Miles is going to be better next year.
04:12And if I'm a coach, I want the better player.
04:14And that's really what it comes down to.
04:15But this is a kid who has a lot of, you know, he's long, he plays long.
04:19He's got, like I said, he's going to have to improve his pass rush game plan as he gets
04:23older and people watch film on him.
04:25How much worse do you feel like this defense is now?
04:29You know, I will say this.
04:31When you lose a guy who's the best player in your league, best player in the league at
04:36his position and arguably on defense, obviously defense play of the year, you're substantially
04:41less.
04:41You know, you've now decreased your depth with Alex Wright and Isaiah McGuire, who's the
04:48other end now.
04:48Now, you know, you'd like to move Alex Wright down into the three technique and pass rush
04:53situations.
04:53What is going on with Lee Collins?
04:55So not only obviously you lose the best player in the league, but you also now have affected
05:00your depth and you have a new coach.
05:02So now you have a guy that even though the philosophy is the same, what he calls on third
05:06medium is going to be different.
05:07Every coach is different.
05:08So you've taken a team that I thought was very competitive.
05:11And, you know, I've, I always live on the side of optimism because that's how I feel,
05:15but now you've, you've lessened this defense by substantial amounts.
05:19Now it doesn't mean they can't get there because you don't know how good Jared versus
05:22going to be and how good Alex Wright's going to be, who I've been super impressed with so
05:26far in camp, but you've, you've, you're not as good as you were last year.
05:30And, and, and by a lot, and you have to figure out how do you, you know, close that gap
05:34quickly because your offense is still going to need help.
05:37And, you know, short fields are something you might not get as much of.
05:41And turnovers, et cetera.
05:42So it will be interesting.
05:44They're going to have to play complimentary football even more now.
05:47Lance Rislin, Cleveland.com and 92.3.
05:50The fan on the wise heart, right?
05:51We make it right.
05:52Call Kyle, right?
05:53Hotline.
05:54The Browns and Rams both now have announced the trade as reported miles Garrett to Los
06:01Angeles for Jared verse, a first runner next year, a second round of the year after
06:05and a third rounder in 2029.
06:08So we've got some comments from Andrew Barry.
06:10We can react to as well, but I, I want you to, to, to think about a year from now,
06:16coach
06:16that a year from now, we're all looking back on this.
06:19What has to happen for all of us to be saying this deal was a success from the Browns side
06:25of things?
06:27Well, you know, unfortunately from a coach's perspective, you want, you want, you know,
06:31if you look at it from an outside perspective, you want one of these top quarterbacks, right?
06:34So let's say Arch Manning, and I don't have a number on my board, but let's say Arch Manning's
06:38the guy, Arch Manning's the guy you want.
06:41He, you know, as the year goes along, he becomes the no brainer Mendoza kind of guy.
06:46Well, then you want the Browns to lose.
06:48And I just, not a big believer that you can turn that switch on and off where you're saying,
06:51you know what?
06:52We decided to throw the towel in, but now that we got Arch Manning, we're going to,
06:55we're going to turn the corner, turn the switch on, and we're going to change our culture.
06:59It just doesn't work that way.
07:00Football doesn't work that way.
07:01And I'm not saying that, you know, they can't be good, you know, down the road and all those
07:06kinds of things, but culture is what you consistently do day in and day out.
07:09And really what it starts with, it's not winning.
07:12When people say winning is the only answer, no, but trying to win is, and how you lift weights
07:17and how you prepare in the off season.
07:19And, you know, for me, it would be success because you're going to go out and get the
07:23quarterback you want.
07:23And, and for me, that's just, uh, that says you're throwing in the towel and I'm never
07:28a throw on the towel guy.
07:29All right.
07:30So you said, uh, you said all this about Arch Manning.
07:32You made a quick comment there about Arch Manning.
07:34There are a lot of people who think, well, Haslam, Tennessee relationship with the Mannings.
07:40This is all about getting Arch Manning in, uh, in Brown and orange next year.
07:44Uh, why, why isn't Arch Manning your number one guy?
07:48Well, you know, obviously I'm a big believer in what the film says and the film says he's
07:52got, he's got all the physical tools, but he's got to go out and do it against really
07:55high level competition week in and week out.
07:57And he finished the season strong last year, but right now he's a tools guy.
08:00He, you know, and the other guy, I love, I love Lenora Sellers out of South Carolina,
08:04but he's another tools guy, but he's a guy who's performed a little bit better in my,
08:08in my opinion, in the sec.
08:09So Arch is a guy, once again, I'm not a big believer, uh, in potential only the potential
08:14has to match what you see on film.
08:16And obviously we'll see this year.
08:18I think this year, I think going back to school, which, you know, obviously coming back as a
08:21starter, going back to school, uh, being in Sarkeesian's offense is going to give him
08:25the best chance to be successful, but you got to go do it.
08:28Uh, being the last name can't be the reason, right?
08:31And so for me, I, you know, I, I think he has a chance to be really good, but there's
08:35a
08:36lot of quarterbacks in this draft and he's got to take that potential and go out and make
08:40it production.
08:41Coach, you coached for a million years.
08:43You obviously played the game in a high level as well.
08:45Tell me how dispiriting this is to have your best player just all of a sudden traded and
08:49really signaling to the fan base and everyone across the NFL that 2026 is not your season
08:54to stack up a bunch of wins and have a great season.
08:57Well, you know, for me, I look at Todd Monk and I look at Todd Monk and, you know, as
09:01being
09:01a first year coach, being a little bit older and having, and really enjoy seeing him through
09:05six practices, kind of do his thing.
09:07And it's kind of disheartening.
09:08And, you know, when people say, well, Miles didn't want to be here.
09:11Well, that's your job as a coach.
09:12Your job as a coach is to get your best players to buy into what you're doing.
09:16Now it doesn't work all the time, but I don't know if Monk had that ability to do that and
09:20whether he wanted to or not, we'll never know.
09:22But for me, you would like your coach to, you know, cause you win with players.
09:26You don't win with your scheme.
09:27You don't win with magic, you know, magic formations and personnel groups.
09:32You win because your guys are better than the other guys.
09:34So when you take away the best guy, it's kind of disheartening.
09:37Now, as a coach, I'm also not going to give in and we're going to figure out ways to win
09:42with or without Miles Garrett.
09:43And that's what Todd Monk is thinking, but you're kind of, you're constantly being, being
09:47put behind the eight ball, right?
09:48You're constantly like, we need you to win, but not win as much as we need you to.
09:52And, but we need, we want this pick and we're going to take away your best players.
09:56And it's just a bad message because winning is not the, winning is not the most important
10:00thing.
10:01The only thing that should matter.
10:02It's not the future draft fixes.
10:03Well, who is going to help me win week one in Jacksonville?
10:07Miles Garrett does that better than anybody else on that team right now.
10:10And that's disheartening to your teammates.
10:12Now it'll be a rallying cry.
10:14It'll be guy, you know, we don't know how Miles truly was with those guys all kind of,
10:18you know, but when I watch him out at practice, he's a guy who works very hard.
10:21He's a guy that's first in line.
10:23He gives maximum effort.
10:24People want him to be something.
10:26He's not, he's not a guy that was in trouble too much outside of, you know, obviously the
10:30speeding, but he's a guy that, you know, the serious issues with the law never had those
10:35kinds of issues.
10:36He just wasn't the player, the personality everybody wanted him to be, but he's the best
10:40player and football is one with best players.
10:42So it is disheartening.
10:44You're going to have to flip the switch here as a coach and say, we're going to win without
10:47him.
10:47Uh, because if you tank, once again, like I said, that everybody knows you're tanking
10:52and you're going to, you're not bringing in more guys and say, we're bringing you in and
10:55we're not tanking now.
10:56It doesn't work that way.
10:57And I will stand by that because football is a game that's about things you do each and
11:01every day, repetition, repetition, repetition.
11:04And the Browns are kind of, you know, they're up and then they're down.
11:07They're up and they're down.
11:08They got to kind of find a plateau here and worry about winning in my opinion.
11:13All right, coach.
11:13We appreciate you, buddy.
11:15Uh, take it easy and we'll catch up with you down the line.
11:18Absolutely.
11:18Guys.
11:19We'll talk soon.
11:19Lance Rislin there, 92, three, the fan.
11:22And of course, cleveland.com.
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