00:00we do have james palmer back nfl insider uh at bleacher report on the wise heart right we make
00:05it right call kyle right hotline james welcome to the show guys i think you need to add to the
00:12title
00:13regional sports emmy winning i do like that i do have one of those regional ones i think it was
00:20the heart it was when i was in houston i i do i they're a bit of an odd emmy
00:25but but i think
00:26everybody does claim them don't they like the regional ones runs watching his regional emmy
00:31speech did that make your profile on uh social media of course it does it's still the same little
00:38statue well you know how this is you gotta buy it you do you know this is how it works
00:44though
00:44in any media that the guys that want it are like well i want it you know it's a process
00:49but i want
00:50it and the guys who haven't won it are like you know you gotta pay for it right
00:55well i'm the guy who won one and still is better he had to pay for it
01:00uh here's what it costs to if you want the trophy i'll be like wait a minute what okay i'll
01:05still
01:06pay for it all right james the last time you were on with us you teased something about a sleeper
01:11at
01:11quarterback it is time to pay off this tease because jake murren our producer has been waiting
01:16for i think about four weeks on this one i know well i'm glad you said four weeks because the
01:22landscape has changed because i had two of them and i honestly thought the browns should have been
01:26in on brendan sourceby but we did not predict four weeks ago that he would be the rare occurrence to
01:32not be allowed into the supplemental draft so we need to skate on that one but i did think cleveland
01:37could have been in the running as i was talking to enough people around the league that it started to
01:41get maybe a little bit lower on the type of pick you needed to give up and they could still
01:46be able to
01:46have these multiple first round picks have a chance to have brendan source in the building and see what
01:50he's like for a year essentially just watching and being you know in your quarterback room and you
01:56get to learn a lot about him and it doesn't impact what you want to do at the position as
01:59well in the
02:0027 draft but all of this is for not the other one i had and i don't know how much
02:05you'd have to give up
02:07but what is your guys thought on mac jones in all honesty so i think he's more he's a better
02:13option
02:13than anybody in that room right now yes yes but it is price dependent
02:19yeah the salary is nothing which is great and san francisco does not right now to my understanding
02:24want to give him up just for anything um i think obviously every player outside of a dozen of them
02:29have a have a price tag somewhere um but i do think it's a little higher than most teams around
02:34the
02:34league would like to but i do think that's a guy with the skill position group and we should talk
02:39about it that they're starting to put together there in cleveland that a district the distributor of
02:43the ball is i think really what's going to be valued in cleveland over the next couple of years
02:48well the other thing about mac wasn't it um wasn't it sam darnold who was talking about just like
02:54being in an environment that is quarterback friendly and the things that you can learn
02:58from the bench it's hard to actually see those things play themselves out until you actually give
03:04a guy a chance but if mac jones can do the sam darnold type thing then maybe you don't have
03:10to
03:10continue to compile all these draft picks and use them on a quarterback and you can use them
03:14on other other things that you need yeah 100 i mean there's very few coaches that are in the
03:19kyle shanahan and uh sean mcbay maybe you put kevin o'connell in that maybe as well maybe in terms
03:27of
03:27you know just somebody guys have benefited from just being around and and mac has had that now
03:32with kevin o'connell with uh kyle shanahan this past year you saw what he did when he filled in
03:37for brock purdy hell he was originally going to be kyle's pick right with the third overall pick
03:41everybody knows it um and he was going to take him but he ends up obviously going with trey lance
03:46and going with the tangibles but like the way mac processes and then i remember doing my work during
03:51that draft and i had a number of of offensive coaches tell me he was the best interview they
03:56had he was the in terms of processing information and understanding a playbook he was the best out of
04:00the group by far um there are things to like about mac the salary obviously the big one i know
04:05he's
04:05kind of kicking himself a little bit for signing the two-year deal for what like eight million bucks
04:09total for two years so he's at like four and change this year but i do think this is another
04:14one where the nfl is just really in love with reclamation projects he brought up sam darnold
04:19that we know obviously sorry baker mayfield and we know that some of these guys have bounced back
04:24daniel jones as well and if you had top of the first round pick traits and you were picked there
04:29in
04:29the first place and you get a chance to grow and get a chance to become a better player and
04:34learn from a
04:34place like with kyle shanahan that the league is really starting to find these players in vogue
04:38for sure as opposed to paying the 50 60 million dollars and we might be honestly approaching 70
04:44million for a quarterback and probably within the calendar year i think my only concern now james is
04:50very similar to when baker got delta carolina and i think it was like fourth of july weekend we are
04:56we are late enough in the off season that i wonder if you're putting whether in this case mac jones
05:02behind the eight ball by having him learn all this and his teammates in the system with roughly
05:07what is it three weeks of training camp before you have to go ahead and get ready for the regular
05:11season completely completely get it and that's why i said like sleeper outside of the box do i think
05:16this is likely to happen no i really don't i think their core two quarterbacks are chador sanders and
05:21deshaun watson to compete this thing and i bet you they both play in all honesty in 2026 but as
05:26we
05:26were trying to look outside the box at other options i mean mac has been kind of appealing
05:31to some people around the league because of what they saw in that sample size and because of
05:36the people that he's been sitting in the room with over the last year who do you think the
05:40browns are going to go with deshaun watson or chador i think if it's close my opinion is you should
05:47go
05:48with chador i think deshaun needs to win this outright from everything that i've gathered i think he's
05:53looks good i think he's i'm curious about the confidence side i covered him a lot in houston
05:57and that was a big part of his success was he felt like he was the baddest man on the
06:01planet when he
06:02played and you know what in those last couple years in houston why cleveland was not the only one that
06:06was willing to give up so much for him he was he was unbelievable on the field and the confidence
06:10was a big part of that and i'm curious if you can get back to that after playing just what
06:15like 19
06:15games over the last several seasons so that part is what i'm waiting for and in that competitive
06:20environment to see if that comes back he's always had a really good deep ball he's always had you
06:24know obviously a good arm and let's see athleticism like with the achilles but if it's close why
06:29wouldn't you go with chador who's gained ground to my understanding and that was one of the things
06:35that everybody just knew with chador sanders was like hey man it's not like he's he's i went to his
06:41pro day it's like it's not like he's a bad quarterback he just he just hasn't played in a real
06:44like
06:45style of offense and he needs some time and he needs to grow and he's been in the building a
06:49bunch and
06:49he's grown and he's he's shown some of this this improvement here if that's there and you have
06:54him under contract over the next couple of years i'm i'm trying to take a look at him before you
06:59know
07:00you get into the decisions on how aggressive you are i think there will be obviously for the
07:04quarterback in the 27 draft but if it's close and deshaun doesn't win it clearly i i think should or
07:09should be the one you go with but i do understand the thought process of we've already committed so much
07:14to deshaun i just mentioned earlier if you've been picked at the top of the draft once and you've
07:18played like one of the best quarterbacks in football in your past the last thing you want
07:22is for you know him to go and do that elsewhere so you really want to take one final look
07:26i get it
07:27but if it's close i would i would go with chador i'm curious james if it is deshaun instead of
07:32chador
07:33what do you think that says about chador
07:37uh i mean i don't think it says a ton in all honesty i think what we should be focusing
07:41on is that
07:42this is a really it is i know it's a unique fifth round pick but it's still a fifth round
07:46pick
07:46and he's giving a former first round pick a guy who's led the nfl in passing a guy who
07:51has put up unbelievable numbers in in this league and for a stretch has played as a top five quarterback
07:57in this in in the nfl he's given him a run for his money right now and he's still a
08:01young player
08:02that like i mentioned nobody really questioned him in terms of accuracy they questioned what was
08:08his experience coming into the league and in pat shirmer's offense and the way things were designed
08:13for him and the way that they played football at cu like he had some growth to go through and
08:18he had
08:18some some things that he needed to develop and if he continues to grow and develop he lost out to
08:24a
08:24guy who at one point was considered one of the best players in this league i don't think it says
08:28a lot in the negative space if we keep hearing out of the building and i have heard this that
08:33like
08:33he just continues to get better and i think that's the number one thing you're looking for
08:38from developmental prospects which i truly believe shador was despite all the hype that was
08:44around him he was a developmental prospect and and that continues to develop and i think it's
08:48actually developing quicker than maybe the browns thought it would james what does success look like
08:53in year one for todd munkin i mean i think the offense is still i mean i think the defense
09:00is still
09:00gonna be good i i maybe you know you lose my old my scare i mean it's it's tough to
09:04be on the same
09:06level they've been over the last couple of years but did you did you make this a competitive offense
09:10did did you make this an offense that isn't so drastically different than the other side of the
09:15ball i think that's a really important part i do think he's winning people over i do think he's
09:19he's winning people over in the building and i think all of that is a good start to all of
09:23this
09:23um i think you need to see the class from 25 take another step which is one of the best
09:29classes
09:30we've seen over the last couple of years and then you see the class that you had here
09:33become instant contributors if you have a guy like denzel boston which you can go back and
09:38shameless plug steve smith and i on our show did like a 20-minute breakdown on him he was one
09:42of
09:42steve's favorite players in this draft and he had had an awesome spring from everybody i've talked to
09:46there in cleveland you get a chance to get some of these guys that are that are going to play
09:50well
09:51i think at the skill positions on the offensive side of the ball to me that's a successful aspect of
09:56the 26 season because you're really looking hard maybe at shador sanders and the better your
10:01skill guys play around them the better you're going to get a look at them and then also if that
10:05group takes a big step you might play a young quarterback in 27 that you pick at the top of
10:09the draft the growth that those skill guys make in 26 under todd munkin i think is extremely important
10:15to the success that you can have with a young quarterback in 27. how difficult do you think
10:19it'll be to evaluate um todd and and this team given the quarterback situation that they're in that
10:26we've already talked about yeah i think it's tough i do i i do think you're going to have to
10:31really
10:32dig deep in in how you evaluate it i mean this is obviously a quarterback driven league and then
10:36once again you're going into camp with with a quarterback competition and no answer at the
10:41quarterback competition does he sell the entire locker room which is this is going to be one of the
10:45youngest if not the youngest team in football right like does this group buy into him does this group
10:50buy into what he's building it is you know there's only what like six guys on the team that are
10:55older
10:56so like does he take this young nucleus and they understand where they're headed i think that's
11:03a big part of the evaluation it is you don't want to say wins and losses matter less a little
11:07bit
11:08when you have this young the team and you're really looking you know ever since the move they made
11:11with moving out of the spot and making the trade where they didn't go after travis hunter
11:16really was a sign to me and i think a lot of people that they knew where they were in
11:20terms of
11:20this rebuild um is he taking this young nucleus along with him and are they bought in because
11:25that that's really everything what's happened in these last couple of drafts james obviously you
11:30mentioned brennan soarsby the nfl did uh deny the supplemental draft opportunity uh there has been
11:37some speculation though that he could sue the league that there could be uh maybe the nfl did maybe takes
11:42a different stance if there is a lawsuit i'm just curious what percent chance would you give brennan
11:47soarsby's legal team to actually create a pathway with the nfl to be in the nfl in 2026
11:55yeah i mean his legal team with jeffy kessler has obviously a track record of challenging the nfl and
12:01being successful in challenging the nfl i think what we're really waiting to see and i think this is
12:05as i make some calls around the league last couple days has been like is he going to continue
12:11these legal battles which this has cost him a lot of money personally um in terms of these legal fees
12:17and the money you know compound that was money he's lost um during his college career not from
12:22gambling guys the money that he didn't win bets no the other stuff he's lost as well in terms of
12:27his
12:27nil and everything else that's going on but does he want to continue to go down that path and fight
12:33this because there is a way that he could possibly win it there certainly is and they could hold a
12:37supplemental draft later they could find a way to get him into the league in 26 there is an avenue
12:41i'm not sure how likely it is but there is an avenue for that to happen there are plenty of
12:46people around the league that are really saying hey man like maybe you take a look at the letter
12:50that was written to you that was released to the media the same time it was released to you
12:53and in there quite a bit is maybe you should just kind of take some accountability and take some time
12:59and we'll see at the 27 draft that seems to be a little bit more likely of the stance of
13:04the way
13:05some people around the league think he should approach this but again with everything that
13:08he's lost so far maybe he's trying to get in the league as quickly as possible the representation
13:12did come out and jeffrey gusser said pretty quickly that they were going to try to fight this
13:16we'll see if the fight continues i think that's the one we're not really sure about but there is an
13:21avenue
13:22where they could win this and he could get into the league in some capacity in 26 and then we
13:26go and
13:26see uh what team's interest level is it's there it's there on what level i'm not entirely sure
13:32because nobody really wants to show their hand just yet about it all right james any tees for
13:36the next time we have you on that that again jake can remember for the next four to six weeks
13:42yeah oh my goodness what should we talk look can we can next time i come back and we talk
13:46some
13:46ohio state buckeye can we talk a little yep yeah that's more fun than browns for sure yeah i think
13:51we can do that come on i mean how about jeremiah smith and this this this rating here let's go
13:56i mean we
13:57just had uh brian hartline uh on our show the other day talking to ohio state guys they don't want
14:01to
14:01talk about you know south florida i want to talk about ohio state let's talk let's talk buckeyes
14:06next time we we do this i would love that you got it buddy thank you so much
14:12regional emmy winner james palmer of the bleacher report on the wise heart right we make it right
14:18call kyle wright hotline
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