00:00Wessinger was speaking yesterday, and I just thought this was fascinating,
00:03because if you're looking for a lot of these players to talk about how great Miles is,
00:07to talk about how they're going to miss him so much, it just didn't come from Carson.
00:10Here we go.
00:11We were at the golf outing, I think, when everyone found out.
00:14So, I mean, obviously it's news at break, but I was excited to golf,
00:17so I was kind of trying to figure out how to fix my slice the whole time.
00:21That was at the forefront of my mind, because the slice was bad.
00:25I mean.
00:26I laughed.
00:26I had to, so when he said that, I had to turn around,
00:30because I did not want to be disrespectful during a press conference and audibly be heard laughing at something.
00:38I mean, he's smiling when he's delivering this, though.
00:39I see the clip, he's smiling.
00:40I know, but as he's saying it, I had to turn around, and I started to giggle a little bit,
00:45because it was pretty funny, him talking about slicing.
00:47Well, there goes another one into the tree.
00:49Oh, Miles got a tree.
00:50Well, listen, I'm trying to keep it out of the leaves and the weeds and everything else,
00:53and, like, that's, look, I, and again, I think part of that is he was trying to deflect a little
01:00bit
01:01and not focus too much on what happened, what transpired, losing the best player on the football team.
01:08I think also part of it was, like, maybe he knew it was coming, and so he wasn't surprised by,
01:12like,
01:12oh, they did a thing.
01:14They did what they said they were going to do or whatever.
01:16I mean, there's only two ways you can realistically read this, right?
01:21Either A, he doesn't care about football and the results of it attached to it,
01:25and that's why he can be so dismissive of it, and I don't believe that at all with him,
01:29because he's never been the type to appear that way, seem that way, anything in between.
01:34Or he really just is not going to miss Miles Garrett.
01:38And the other thing, too, is they got a really good player in return.
01:41Like, it's not like this was a punt for the future to give us a bunch of draft picks.
01:46They got some picks, but you got his replacement.
01:52You replaced the player.
01:54I like verse, but you did become a worse team.
01:55Yes, it's a downgrade.
01:56Listen, there's only one Miles Garrett.
01:58Like, it is a downgrade for now.
02:01Why is that such a hard thing for some people to admit or some people to say?
02:03Like, I feel like the past 24 hours, I'm not saying for you, I'm just saying in general.
02:07Like, the past 24 hours, I feel like more and more people have been,
02:10it's been really hard for them to just be like, we lost a great player.
02:14Like, Miles is a one-of-one.
02:16He is that great.
02:17I'm not going to sit here and act like that the Browns traded for the practice squad guy of the
02:21Rams.
02:22Like, they got a really good young ascending player, okay,
02:26that has a pretty nice resume two years into the league.
02:29Now, got big shoes to fill coming in here, and I know he said yesterday he's not here to fill
02:34any shoes,
02:35and he's his own player, and he plays violent, this, that, and the other,
02:38and he looked good during the individual drills he was doing, quick, you know, quick off the ball or whatever.
02:44But, like, at the same time, you got traded for Miles Garrett, so there's pressure on you.
02:50This is just, I just work here vibes, though.
02:52That's all this is.
02:53What this screams to me is, I just work here vibes.
02:55And that's, I've never gotten that impression, excuse me, from Schwestinger at all.
03:00And I just, it just, I get it.
03:02Maybe he's just trying to deflect.
03:03He doesn't want any more questions about it, so it's easy to talk about his golf game and get him
03:06to move on.
03:07But this gives off.
03:08Like, for instance, if we had someone that is a host here at the station for a really long time,
03:13and then they decide to leave, and it'd be like me just being like,
03:17all right, well, you know, boy, how about that weather outside?
03:21Like, okay, do I not care?
03:23Is that what I'm trying to convey to people?
03:25What am I trying to tell people?
03:26Are you trying to say that there's someone here that if they would leave, that would be your reaction?
03:30Is that what you're saying right now?
03:32Yes.
03:34Yes.
03:36Based off of text messages I got today, sure.
03:39No, I'm just kidding.
03:40I'd be crushed if anybody left here.
03:41You know that about me.
03:43Obviously.
03:45Sure.
03:46No, but the difference in that is that, like, there's people that could leave at this station
03:51that it's like, I don't see a lot of people that are in here in different time slots anyway as
03:56is.
03:56It just is.
03:57Like, it doesn't really change my objective, my goal, what the day is, right?
04:00It really doesn't.
04:01And maybe that's what Schwestinger's trying to get at.
04:04Like, if I left, you'd be crushed.
04:05I would be crushed.
04:06Naturally, I'd be crushed.
04:07You come up.
04:08I'm not.
04:08You're on the station every single week with us here on Afternoon Drive.
04:12You would directly impact the show.
04:14And so I'd have to feel some sort of way about that.
04:17And the problem here is that Schwestinger's acting like he's on the offensive side of the ball.
04:21Or kind of like I would be if somebody in a different time slot left that I don't interact with
04:25very much,
04:25where it's like, well, that doesn't really affect my job.
04:27My job is to show up and do this show.
04:29I get paid off of this show.
04:30If they leave, I want the station to be as great as it is.
04:32But if they leave, guess what?
04:34Two o'clock is still coming anyway.
04:35I have to do this job.
04:37Whereas, like, if you left, for instance, you directly impact what this show is.
04:41Now, is it in a magnificent way?
04:43I tend to think so with the once a week you're on.
04:45But that's, you know, debatable for other people to decide.
04:48But, like, yeah.
04:49Like, yes.
04:50Like, this is directly impacting Schwestinger and how he does his job.
04:55Miles Garrett not being a part of the defense directly impacts what people not only think of this defense,
05:00but what this defense ultimately is.
05:02It's too direct for him to just kind of have a, well, I'm worried about my slice comments.
05:07Yeah.
05:10I'm going to defend him a little bit here.
05:12I think it's a combination of everything.
05:14I think it's a combination of him accepting the reality of the situation.
05:18I think it's a combination of him using a little, trying to use a little humor to diffuse us in
05:24the media,
05:25wanting to ask him about it, right?
05:28And I think part of it, too, is that, yeah, he has his job to do, and he's, you know,
05:35focusing on that while also recognizing,
05:37hey, I got a new teammate, pretty good young player like myself.
05:41Yeah, he's got some shoes to fill here.
05:43But that ain't my problem.
05:44That's his problem.
05:46And we're going to make the most of the situation going forward.
05:48Like, I had no issue with how anybody out there reacted yesterday to it.
05:54I mean, I guess.
05:55Because it's such a seismic, I mean, it was a bombshell.
05:58It's not that they reacted any sort of wrong way, okay?
06:01No, no, I'm not saying you're saying that.
06:02I'm not putting words in your mouth.
06:03I do think there's an obvious underlying idea here that if an all-time great leaves a team,
06:10someone like Schlesinger in year two after a defensive rookie of the year performance would probably instead say,
06:16yeah, Miles is part of the reason why I got that.
06:18Miles has taught me so much.
06:20Miles has been instrumental in why I'm able to be as successful as I am.
06:24Yeah, it's going to sting.
06:25I learned a lot from him on how to be a leader, a developing leader, and how to do all
06:29these things.
06:30He didn't say that.
06:31The absence of those compliments do stand out.
06:35Well, because Miles was never a leader.
06:38Yes.
06:39And that's why the absence of these comments are there.
06:41And that's why when people make the suggestion that maybe you're taking a couple steps backwards
06:45to move maybe three steps forward in the future, that's why that has some legs to it.
06:49Yeah, and I just want the record to reflect.
06:51I've said this for years.
06:53This isn't me kicking a guy out the door.
06:56I said this, I've said it on your show.
06:58I've said it on with the morning boys, the midday guys, the night guys.
07:01Like, I have been very consistent in recent years.
07:05Miles Garrett is not a leader as a football player.
07:07He is an all-time great future Hall of Famer.
07:10Doesn't mean you're a leader.
07:12No, and I think the heart of these comments and the absence of what he's supposed to be saying in
07:16this moment
07:17speaks volumes to that thought, that idea that he's not a leader.
07:20Because if he was and had been instrumental in Carson Swessinger's life, he'd be speaking on it.
07:26He'd be saying exactly the things that he chose not to say.
07:29I would argue that they might have upgraded in that respect.
07:34We're going to get to that in 420.
07:36Listen in to Jared first yesterday.
07:37Some people are making that claim.
07:39You're one of them now, obviously, are making that claim.
07:41Well, I'm not making the claim.
07:42I'm just offering that as a possibility.
07:45Yeah, again, we don't know.
07:47We'll have to see what happens, obviously.
07:49But in losing one of the best, if not the best defensive player in the sport, and I would argue...
07:54I don't think that Miles Garrett has left a leadership vacuum on the defense.
07:57How about that?
07:58I think that's a fair...
07:59He's left a performance, right?
08:04A game plan, attention-grabbing, world revolves around him when opponents are preparing for the Browns.
08:12Vacuum.
08:13Yes, that's true.
08:14But do I feel like he has left a leadership vacuum in that locker room?
08:18No.
08:19And I think that's, again, the idea that he's not saying any of these things.
08:23When you leave a situation, it is not necessarily how good of a job you did.
08:27It is the impact you left on the people, whether or not the people then are going to publicly speak
08:31in favor of you.
08:32Especially when it comes to these situations in the NFL.
08:35It is not how many defensive player of the years you won.
08:37That's not what they're going to speak on.
08:39They're going to speak on, how much did you prepare me to be the pro that I am today?
08:43How great...
08:44Joe Thomas got spoke on like he walked on water for a reason.
08:49Why?
08:49Because Joe was instrumental in everyone that was there on that offensive line and getting better on a day-to
08:55-day basis.
08:55And being a pro and knowing how to carry yourself as a pro.
08:59What Carson Schlesinger is going to miss is the attention Miles Garrett got.
09:02Because that made his life a little easier.
09:05Losing Miles, you can argue, makes everybody's job harder on that defense.
09:11But losing Miles does not leave a leadership vacuum with this team.
09:17Not by any chance.
Comments