00:00Ryan Wilson yesterday, he made a comparison.
00:03He said the Browns, hey, he says they're better than your average team.
00:06He says if they had C.J. Stroud, he'd be picking them.
00:09Was it a playoff team, 10, 11 games?
00:11Here's Ryan Wilson with us on the show yesterday.
00:13I've been saying this since the draft, but if you took this team,
00:16you put them in Houston and gave them C.J. Stroud,
00:18they're winning 10 or 11 games.
00:19The team on paper is great outside of the most important position.
00:22So if you told me C.J. Stroud was their quarterback,
00:24I think they're in the mix to win the division.
00:26Ryan Wilson, CBS Sports.
00:28He was on with us yesterday.
00:29You can hear that interview, 923thefan.com.
00:32Louis Riddick, former NFL front office member, Louis Riddick.
00:37He was on Get Up.
00:39He talks about the Browns QB situation.
00:42Here is what Louis Riddick had to say about it.
00:45Andrew Barry has really set this football team up outside of quarterback
00:49to where they have some really good pieces,
00:51and they can really challenge to win some games this year.
00:54They just need competent quarterback play.
00:56I wouldn't care who it comes from because, quite honestly,
00:59I have the firepower in terms of draft picks to get both of them out of there
01:03next year if they aren't good enough.
01:04That way, I would look at this very, very much so down the middle and very neutral.
01:08I'm not sure if it was Rodney or Mike.
01:10You know, they went after Jimmy and said,
01:12well, this team, why aren't we prioritized winning?
01:14I got two guys who I do respect saying that we're a QB away.
01:19And I'm going to go,
01:20a QB away from what?
01:23Well, go ahead and answer your own question that you asked,
01:25because I wrote it down.
01:25I go, oh, let's do that on the air.
01:27Go right on ahead.
01:27Well, the reason I ask the question is,
01:29I kind of feel like in the NFL,
01:31every team is a quarterback away from making the playoffs.
01:35Like, is it that the case?
01:37But isn't that still an accomplishment,
01:38to be able to be a playoff team consistently?
01:41Isn't that what they mean by you're a QB away?
01:43Like, being a consistent, not like,
01:45hey, you were a really good story.
01:46Because we all respect Joe Flacco.
01:49And Joe Flacco was great with you and I and Owen and everybody.
01:51Like, there's a great deal of respect and admiration for that man.
01:55But I think going back to 2023,
01:57we all understood that this isn't going to last forever.
02:00And we need to make the most of this situation.
02:02And then let's have fun with this.
02:05Because of the circumstance, right?
02:09You were a QB away, and he proved you were a QB away.
02:12And then he had to go.
02:14And then we saw what happened.
02:16And it hadn't been good ever since.
02:18So I think that's what we mean by when we say you're a QB away.
02:22You're a QB away from actually being a contender.
02:24But you did have another point to that,
02:26even when it comes to Joe Burrow.
02:27Well, yeah, that's the one example where you rarely get above average
02:32to elite quarterback play on a team that doesn't make the playoffs
02:36or is not good.
02:37The Cincinnati Bengals are the one team that kind of bucks that trend.
02:40I don't know, maybe go back and look at the Andrew Luck years
02:42where he was getting beat up so bad.
02:44But it's very rare.
02:45Normally, if you get good quarterback play and your quarterback is healthy,
02:48you make the playoffs.
02:49The one example that I bring up every year is the Houston Texans.
02:53The Texans have been to the playoffs nine times in like 16 years.
02:59And they've done it with all sorts of quarterbacks.
03:02Like, it's not even one quarterback over the years.
03:05I think there's four different quarterbacks here that I have that have played well enough
03:10for them or they've been carried to the playoffs.
03:12But it's just kind of funny to me that I do hear that.
03:16And I agree.
03:17Yeah, Browns are quarterback away from making the playoffs.
03:19But I think there are a bunch of teams.
03:21Like, I don't think that's a marker for feeling great about everything as a whole.
03:28Because that just gets you into the playoffs.
03:30And then the next year, you don't make the playoffs.
03:32See, I do feel that way.
03:33And it does sound like it's a consolation prize for a season that we don't think is going to go
03:37very well,
03:38wins and losses-wise.
03:40Because I think that there's a lot of QBs that I'm going,
03:43yeah, you're a playoff team with that guy, with that guy, with that guy.
03:45Like, I'd be willing to go.
03:47I was just thinking while you were talking there, I was trying to pay attention.
03:49But I'm going, would we be a playoff team with Daniel Jones healthy?
03:53Would we be a playoff team with Jackson Dart?
03:55Would we be a playoff team with Tyler Shook?
03:57Guys that we passed on that I was afraid of.
03:59You want to talk about fears?
04:01I was afraid to take those guys.
04:02Fair enough.
04:03Would we be a playoff team with Bo Nix?
04:05Would we be, like, how far down the line are we willing to go?
04:08Like, Justin Herbert, you're a playoff team with Justin Herbert, this football team.
04:12Mahomes, Allen, like, the usual suspects above are Herbert.
04:16Those guys, you definitely are.
04:17Burrow, you definitely are.
04:18But how far down are you willing to go where it's like, hey, you're maybe not the greatest.
04:24I think that's a great example.
04:26There's definitely a jury out on him.
04:29It would be like, well, if we had Shanahan and Brock Purdy.
04:32Speaking about athletes, dads who aren't fans of the show.
04:35I think you'd be a, well, at least fans of one, not fans of one.
04:39You would have the show.
04:39Yeah, yeah, true.
04:40Certain people.
04:42I think that Brock Purdy, I think we're a playoff team with Brock Purdy.
04:45I think that these guys are right.
04:46Now, it makes it that much more frustrating because you'll remember those words when we go and we don't play
04:51well.
04:52We don't win games.
04:54But I'm also a person that looks at it, and I can't speak out of both sides of my mouth.
04:58Who was I fighting you over this last offseason?
05:01Now, I can try to make an out of this and say, Kyler Murray was never coming here.
05:06Tua, it was never in the cards.
05:08I could try to do that all I want.
05:10But when you were giving me Malik Willis and I'm saying no, because my whole thing was, I don't want
05:16it just fixed for the year or a chance to, I want it fixed altogether.
05:20I want to be a team.
05:23I want to go back to the old days.
05:25I hate to say it.
05:26I want to go back to when you know who was here.
05:28Because I'd much rather have arguments of, is he the type of guy that can get you over the top?
05:33Or are you just a playoff?
05:35Like when Ryan mentioned C.J. Stroud, there was a lot of pushback.
05:40And I'm not just talking about Chidor fans.
05:42Yeah, there was.
05:43There was a lot of pushback on that.
05:45Because it's, is he good enough to get you to where you really want to go?
05:50Or is he just good enough to get you to a place that you're eventually going to get frustrated by?
05:54Yeah, Stroud is a great barometer.
05:57Because we obviously saw him very early on when he lit up our defense in a playoff game.
06:03And what did we all think?
06:04Oh my goodness.
06:06The Houston Texans are going to be good for the next however many years.
06:08They've got all these picks.
06:09And they got C.J. Stroud.
06:12And last year, C.J. Stroud regressed, lost all confidence, and looked like he should have been benched in the
06:17playoffs.
06:18Honestly, you can make a case that he should have been benched in the playoffs.
06:22I certainly won't go that far on that.
06:242-1-6-4-7-4-0-0-9-2.
06:26Man, no shot with him.
06:26Well, because I think it brings up a great question.
06:29What are you concerned about other than QB?
06:31Because I get excited about this, and I go, man, if we had a lot of these other guys, could
06:36we be that guy?
06:37And I think we could.
06:38But could we be that team, I should say?
06:41I have not seen this offensive line play against live talent yet this year.
06:46Well, I'll get a little bit of that on Saturday.
06:49I mean, I'd love to say, but I don't know.
06:52Spencer Fano, he looks like he's going to be a dude, or at least a guy that's going to fight
06:56for every single moment of his career.
06:59And I'm a big fan of Spencer Fano.
07:02The rest of these guys, you know, there's a lot of questions here.
07:04You know, where's Ted?
07:05I mean, they're talking about Tevin Jenkins possibly at right tackle.
07:08I think Munkin mentioned it even yesterday.
07:11You have, it seems that Elton Jenkins is going to play center.
07:14You know, where's Zion Johnson going to go?
07:16Where's Titus Howard going to go?
07:18Could he bump into guard?
07:19Like, there's so many different moving pieces here that that can get your quarterback in a lot of trouble.
07:27And C.J. Stroud dealt with offensive line problems last year, and you saw what people felt about C.J.
07:31Stroud.
07:32So, while I get excited about it, I go, yeah, to get to where we really need to go, where
07:37we want to go, where it's a consistent, where there's expectations,
07:41I still think there's a couple of more that you've got to go through.
07:44I mean, you've brought in free agents.
07:46And I understand that Chicago was able to do it with free agents.
07:48You also had a number one overall pick and a very talented quarterback who ran for his life a lot
07:53of last year to make a bunch of plays last year.
07:56He's a very good QB.
07:57But I think there's a lot of things that need to play out here over the next couple of years,
08:01not just at that position,
08:03to put us in a position where we really want to be.
08:06And that's a consistent AFC North contending team that can win the division for the first time since 89,
08:13to be a consistent team that's talked about in the final four teams in the AFC,
08:17to be a team that could possibly punch its team to a Super Bowl.
08:20There's still several steps that need to be taken.
08:22But I won't deny that there's talent on this team.
08:25But there was talent on the 2013 rounds that I think finished 4-12.
08:29You know, they had six Pro Bowlers there.
08:32So this thing can go away very quickly.
08:34So while I don't know how much this year is going to give us, it's still very important.
08:38well, they do like the team and make the team.
08:38And we can take them such as well for the team,
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