00:00She is Mary Kay Cabot. Make sure you are listening to the Orange and Brown Talk on Cleveland.com all
00:04the time, their podcast, which is killing it. Right now, she is on the Wise Heart Right. We
00:08make it right. Call Kyle Wright Hotline. Hi, Mary Kay. How are you? Hello, Mary Kay.
00:14I'm doing great, guys. How are you doing? We are doing good. We're excited for Joel today
00:18in this press conference. I just, right out of the gate, I wonder why it took him so long to
00:23announce this, or did June 1st have something to do with it? And I think we were all kind of
00:28hoping that maybe he could come back this season, but I think everyone respects him
00:31for his decision. Well, just so you know, I'm arriving in Berea to a bunch of large construction
00:40machinery. Sorry about the background noise. As long as your hard hat has a stripe on it,
00:46you're good. Exactly. That's how you know you're official. That's right. Right. So I think
00:53that there may have been some thought on the part of people around Joel, you know, wondering
01:03if perhaps he might not want to just play it out until the end and see if there was maybe
01:09another team that came calling. So I think that had something to do with it. I think there
01:14were people, not necessarily him, but I think there may have been some people in his camp that
01:18just wanted to make sure that he was sure he was ready to retire and, and didn't want
01:24to perhaps maybe squeeze one more year out of that, uh, as amazing beaten up body.
01:31What is the legacy of Joel Batonio with this team, Mary Kay?
01:36Well, you know, Joe Thomas is a hard act to follow, but Joel absolutely was able to live
01:44up to those almost impossible Joe Thomas standards, both on the field and off the field. Uh, he was
01:51an amazing human being is an amazing human being, and he was an amazing football player. And I do
01:57believe that he should be in the hall of fame. And I hope someday I, I get to deliberate on
02:03his name
02:04in those rooms. I really hope that that happens. And of course I'll do everything in my power to make
02:09sure that it does, uh, because he deserves that. And I think that should ultimately be his legacy,
02:18but it's very, very hard to get into the hall of fame as a guard. We'll have, we'll have our
02:22work
02:22cut out for us, but, uh, certainly something to aspire to and to try for Joel. Um, but just in
02:29every
02:29way, shape or form, he was a dream to cover. And, uh, if the Browns ever had 53 Joel Batonios,
02:36they would be in phenomenal shape. Uh, Mary Kay, you know, we were talking about it earlier,
02:41especially because he is a guard and like, I was telling, you know, Dan here, I was like,
02:45I can't believe how long it took Gene Hickerson to get in as a guard. When you think about the
02:50great running backs that he blocked for, and I'll never forget the, the day we were all sitting in
02:55the, in the room in Berea with Jim Brown talking and, and Joel in the room, or I'm sorry, uh,
03:00Hickerson
03:01in the room. And, you know, I, I just kept looking, I was going, man, I wish this would have
03:04happened earlier for him because, uh, of what he was going through at the end of his life.
03:08And then, you know, it's just like, and to get a guard into the hall of fame, just, I know
03:13you
03:13touched on that. How hard is it? And how do you make that argument to get him in?
03:21Well, once again, it is difficult, but you guys have cited some amazing statistics and numbers
03:26on the show today. And certainly those things will be a huge factor as will just everything
03:33that he's accomplished on, uh, some really challenging football teams. He's blocked for
03:3820 different starting quarterbacks. Wow. Uh, has had four. That's insane. Yeah. That's crazy.
03:45Um, and you know, he's had four full-time head coaches. Uh, but I think there are certainly ways
03:53that you can, um, you know, make the strong, strong case for Joel Petonio, uh, so that he has that
04:01opportunity to get in the hall of fame. And I, I will do everything I can to make sure that
04:06happens.
04:08Mary Kay Cabot joining us, cleveland.com and Napoleon dealer where you can read her. You can
04:11always listen to her on orange and Brown talk as well with Ashley Bastock and Dan lobby, uh,
04:18minicamp starting up today. Oh, by the way, give us something that Browns fans should keep an eye on
04:23besides the quarterbacks. Well, Jared verse, uh, you know, this is the first opportunity for Jared
04:31verse to step into miles Garrett position and show everyone what you can really do. He only did
04:38individual drills when we watched him, uh, during his first practice during OTA last week. So this is,
04:46you know, in addition to it being Joel Petonio day on the field, it's going to be Jared verse day,
04:51in my opinion, after the quarterbacks, because, uh, all eyes will be on him. He's got enormous,
04:56enormous shoes to fill. I know he's excited to do it. I loved his press conference. I thought he
05:01won his presser hands down, and this is his opportunity to help bring this defense together
05:08and let everybody get a chip on their shoulder and show that they have something to prove.
05:13Mary Kay, it is interesting. If you kind of look at the defense as a whole, I think you have
05:17now
05:18you have nine of 11 starters coming back next year. And, um, you know, I think the question
05:25about the defense then just becomes a, in some ways, obviously losing miles, but the transition
05:30to another coach on defense and just, I mean, one, how important are these camps to make sure that
05:35everybody's on the same page? And two, I mean, what, how will this defense look next year without miles
05:40and how much of the drop-off will there be? Like, I was concerned when they were talking about
05:45trading miles, I'd be like, oh man, how do you replace him? But by the same token,
05:50I think if you were going to go out and get anybody that has the potential to be close to
05:54him,
05:55they, maybe they did that.
05:59Well, they certainly did a phenomenal job of getting something great in return.
06:03There was no way this was happening unless they were able to try to replace some of that amazing
06:09production of miles. And we don't expect Jared Verse to have 23 sacks this year, but he,
06:15brings great pressure production. He's great at the run stopping. He will get his sacks.
06:21And I think that they're going to just have to play really, really good team defense. I think
06:27that's going to be the key to spread the wealth around a little bit. The Seattle Seahawks won the
06:31Superbowl and they didn't have a double digit sacker. So you don't need a double digit sacker
06:36to win a Superbowl. You need really, really good defense. You need to get that pressure,
06:40but you don't need to get it all from one person. So hopefully for them, they'll find ways to spread
06:46things around a little bit. And, you know, that might even foster some more team building and some
06:51camaraderie to know that everybody will have a chance to shine. And it's not all about making
06:57sure that miles gets that back record or that miles gets NFL defensive player of the year.
07:01I think that this could have some benefits for these guys.
07:05Mary Kate, we're not expecting any holdouts or anything, correct?
07:10No, I don't think so. I think that, you know, there may be a couple of guys that
07:14could be in line for an extension here or there, but no, I don't anticipate anything like that
07:20happening. Okay, cool. Just one of those. I hadn't heard anything. And so I assumed that was the case,
07:25but I wanted to just confirm it with somebody who knows more than I do. So far to this point,
07:29what is the biggest difference you've seen through OTAs, rookie minicamp, that kind of stuff
07:34between what Kevin Stefanski was doing here and what Todd Munkin has been doing with the Browns?
07:39You know, it's not massively different, really. There aren't, you know, football practice for the
07:46most part is football practice. I think I've seen, you know, maybe some more 11 on 11s and things like
07:51that. And they, they do go hard from beginning to end. The practice is he takes the full allotment of
07:57time. Uh, there aren't, it doesn't seem to be as many guys resting, getting those veteran days of
08:03rest. Uh, but who knows, this is the first time that we will see everybody here today with, uh,
08:08Denzel Ward and, and Grant Delpit and some of the veterans. So we'll see how that goes. But, um, I,
08:14I think for the most part, uh, you're seeing pretty much what we saw for the previous six years with
08:21some minor nuances here and there. All right, let's, uh, play the game. Everyone's wants to,
08:26wants to play size up the quarterback competition as we head into this thing and what's on the line.
08:34Well, I'll tell you what the messaging changed last week from Todd Munkin, instead of being adamant
08:40that he wanted to have his QB depth chart set by the end of this minicamp, uh, he hedged and
08:46backed
08:46off of that a little bit and was saying, Hey, you know, we haven't seen these guys in pads. We
08:50haven't seen them against real, you know, other teams, other competition. And so now I think that
08:56he might just kind of hold off a while on giving us any indication whatsoever who he has as his
09:04QB
09:04one right now. I think he wants to let the door Sanders come up the learning curve even a little
09:08bit more, because as I wrote in my preview yesterday, the door is a player who learns by getting out
09:13there and putting it on the grass. And the more he's done that, the better he's gotten. And I
09:17think they want to see where that goes, if he continues at his current trajectory. Uh, so I
09:23just don't think we're going to have anything definitive by tomorrow or by Wednesday.
09:27Mary Kay, I know you're getting set for the press conference. We do appreciate you. Thank you for
09:31all your hard work. It was really cool to see you work, um, some of those construction machines on
09:35your way in and still be able to do the interview. Thank you. We appreciate you. Thank you, Mary Kay.
09:39Thank you guys. Take care.
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