00:00Veterans don't want to hear that we're three years away.
00:02This is my career. This is where I'm at right now in this spot.
00:05So it's a really difficult balancing act that teams that are looking to reshape their franchise have to go through.
00:11It's extremely difficult, and you still have the young core that you've developed.
00:16And I think, obviously, we all know how good the last draft class was.
00:18I think this was a really good one as well.
00:20And if all of that comes together, I'm hoping it's 28.
00:24That would be my thought if you hit on the quarterback, and that's the big one.
00:29I mean, this trade doesn't matter, I don't think, honestly, if you don't hit on a quarterback.
00:33James Palmer of the Bleacher Report, always a great guest and always kind of gives us something different
00:39and a different way to kind of think about things in the previous segment,
00:42and really always love hearing from him.
00:45And it's interesting, like, as he was talking about that, I think he's being realistic about it.
00:51I guess it just depends on your take of, like, whether it's competitive or when the Browns are good again.
00:59Like, what your actual parameters for those things are.
01:02Yeah, oddly enough, it aligns directly with what my thought process is, where it's like,
01:06all right, 27, if you take the quarterback then, you draft a quarterback in 27,
01:09you can't expect him to beat Jaden Daniels.
01:1228, you start winning games.
01:1428, like, year two is when you start actually getting some payoff of whoever it is you draft.
01:18And so I don't know what that looks like for you as far as a win-loss projection,
01:21but, like, Browns fans, if they've done this the right way, and that's yet to be seen,
01:25if they've done this the right way, 2028 does seem realistic.
01:28I think it depends almost entirely on what they actually do in 2026.
01:34Meaning, if they're a two-win team this year and they get the number one pick,
01:40well, it's going to probably be 2028 at the earliest,
01:43because clearly some of the players that you're counting on to take a step forward
01:47aren't good enough to make that happen.
01:49They've been pretty far away, yeah.
01:51And obviously, the Rams could have a rare bad season,
01:55and this could also help the Browns in a different way as well.
01:57But, like, if the Browns are a seven-win team,
01:59and in this case you'd have to trade up for one of the top three or top four picks,
02:04unless, again, the Rams give you that pick, which feels incredibly unlikely right now.
02:09But if you're a seven-win team, and that's because you're too talented
02:15despite what happens at the quarterback spot to be bad enough to get a top five pick,
02:20then I think 2027 is when I would expect it.
02:22I just wouldn't expect much from a rookie quarterback coming out of the gates.
02:25And so, even like Caleb Williams, we talked about him with the Madden cover.
02:29Caleb, his rookie year, awful.
02:31You know what I mean?
02:32The roster is pretty bad, too.
02:34Yeah, but it's hard, though.
02:35It's hard to be really good right away.
02:36Drake May, year two, he went to the Super Bowl.
02:39What happened in year one?
02:40He didn't start right away.
02:41He missed the first five games or whatever that is.
02:42But they won four games that year.
02:45And, again, a lot of this comes into you can blame the coach on that,
02:49and we can talk about that side of things.
02:51If Munkin is as great as some people think that he is,
02:53maybe that's a different part of this.
02:54Don't you doubt the maximizer.
02:56I mean, you are James Harden levels of in love with Todd Munkin right now.
02:59Yes, I am.
03:00And that's fine.
03:00That's a real football coach.
03:01I don't hate that from you.
03:02I'm just not there yet.
03:03I've got to see it with Munkin.
03:05I'm just not there yet with him.
03:06Are you saying we've got to see how it plays out with Munkin?
03:09I need to see him coach a game first.
03:11I feel like that's very fair.
03:13I've dreamed of it.
03:13I think it's very fair to ask the first-time head coach
03:16to have maybe coached a game first.
03:17And, like, in my dreams, he's got, like, a beautiful flowing lock of hair
03:21like Robert Plant in, like, 1973.
03:24Sure.
03:25And he's just out there, and he's just calling plays like a mother.
03:28The call sheet, he doesn't even have to look at it.
03:29The call sheet's over here.
03:30And he's just, like, off the top of his head.
03:33I thought the call sheet would be, like, floating.
03:34Because it's a dream.
03:35So he'd just be floating.
03:36Just existing in the –
03:38And he's just shouting down, like,
03:40Spider-Y2 banana.
03:40I know that's not – you know, he's got cooler calls than that.
03:43If he just knocks off Gruden, that's great, too.
03:45But –
03:45He's just a Gruden ripoff.
03:46If he wins a Super Bowl, he can knock off anybody he wants to.
03:49But, no, I think it's interesting.
03:50Like, I think –
03:53It doesn't mean they won't be exciting, by the way.
03:54If I say I align with James Palmer at 28,
03:56that doesn't mean they won't be exciting.
03:582027, if you take your quarterback, if you get a great high quarterback
04:01like a Caleb Williams type or whoever that is,
04:04you're going to be thrilled to watch him play football.
04:06I just look at this and go, I think if it's not Shador Deshaun –
04:11and Deshaun's not going to be the long-term guy –
04:13but if Shador doesn't play this year and show you reasons why he should be your guy,
04:19and you're looking for a quarterback next year,
04:21I think the benefit of taking the slow route to get there for the quarterback
04:24and putting your eggs in the basket of 2027 is
04:28if you have enough success from the last two drafts,
04:32this thing – whatever quarterback you're going to get
04:35walks into a pretty flush roster.
04:38Like, obviously we have a long-term question about Denzel, which is fair.
04:41But you have one half of the corner tandem there.
04:44You've got multiple young safeties that can play.
04:47Carson Swessinger up the middle of the defense.
04:49The defensive line is a lot of young pieces that are going to be here for a while.
04:52The O-line's been mostly rebuilt,
04:54and several of those guys will at least be here this year and probably beyond.
04:58And then you've got a bunch of young wide receivers and running backs.
05:01Like, I think if you're a seven-win team this year
05:05and have to trade up to get your quarterback,
05:08I think the benefit of this is you might have enough in the cupboard
05:12that that kid can walk in and he doesn't have to carry you the way
05:15Caleb Williams did have to carry you a bit for Chicago last year.
05:19And Drake may certainly have to carry you for New England.
05:21I just don't put – if everything's around the 2027 quarterback,
05:24I just don't – even if you build it this way,
05:26where you build the entire team and then you slot him in,
05:29I just don't expect you to hit the ground running.
05:31That's just – that's me.
05:32Maybe I take it easy on those quarterbacks in that regard,
05:35but I just – I give them year two.
05:38I'm not saying this has to take forever.
05:40This doesn't have to be you playing the stock market
05:42and you're waiting a million years.
05:43Like, this is – this doesn't have to take forever.
05:46But I think giving them year one to not have double-digit win expectations is fair.
05:51Oh, I just am open to maybe the Browns are better around the quarterback spot
05:56than we realize.
05:57Listen, I'm open to that as well.
05:59I'm not banking on that necessarily to the point where they're a 10-win team,
06:02despite what the quarterback is, though.
06:04I'm not banking on it either.
06:06I just think, like, I'm not going to say 2029 or 2028
06:10because I think there's a chance they're better than people think this year.
06:14And maybe that's seven wins as opposed to nine wins.
06:18And then I think if you get a young quarterback
06:20and now you've got guys in year two and year three in the NFL,
06:23all of a sudden – because I think so many of these young quarterbacks,
06:27especially top three picks, walk into crap situations.
06:30And that's why they don't win automatically.
06:33But if you've got a good head coach,
06:35and Munkin can prove that in a seven-win season or more,
06:39and if you've got a young team that has talent around the quarterback spot,
06:43I just wouldn't sleep on the Browns being able to turn this around
06:46quicker than people think.
06:48Again, they're trying to thread a needle here, which is –
06:51Well, and it is the NFL, too.
06:53This is not – Andrew Barry famously says this is supposed to take five years
06:56because it's not baseball.
06:58Well, 2028, if we start the timeline and the payoff of everything,
07:012028 would be year five of essentially when they started admitting
07:05that this was going in the wrong direction.
07:06I like Shador, but you have to play with the obvious assumption
07:09that we exist right now and that we're taking a quarterback in 27.
07:12Shador's on the side of you have to prove everyone
07:16that they don't need to take a quarterback
07:18before I live with the assumption is that we won't take a quarterback.
07:21I've been saying now for as long as this offseason has existed
07:24that it's more likely than not you're going to take a quarterback in 27.
07:27The burden of proof in this whole entire equation is on Shador now.
07:30After what happened last year, as unfair as I think some of the situation is,
07:33this is now on Shador.
07:35Shador's got to show everyone that you don't need to take a quarterback in 27.
07:38You have to operate as if you have to take a quarterback in 27.
07:41If he can't beat out Shador, isn't that your tell?
07:45Here's the other part of this.
07:46The idea that Deshaun wouldn't wait around, Deshaun's got no other options is the point.
07:52You guys act as if Deshaun could be like, I'm taking my ball and going home.
07:55Like, no, he needs, if that's going to be six or seven games,
07:58he needs to bet on the idea that Shador will all of a sudden stink and not be good
08:04and just give him a chance to get on the field.
08:07And then Deshaun could show in the six or seven games
08:09why another team next year deserves to give him an opportunity.
08:12That's what he's banking.
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