00:00Joint practices are going on.
00:02We do have a regular season to get underway,
00:04even though a fair amount of people just want to skip right to 2027 for the Browns.
00:08But talk about the Browns, talk about the Bills,
00:10who, of course, the Browns are practicing against today.
00:11We head out to the Wiseheart right.
00:13We make it right.
00:14Call Kyle Wright Hotline and welcome on Tyler Dunn, founder of Go Long.
00:19Tyler, welcome back to the show.
00:22What's up?
00:23What's up?
00:23I love the way you prefaced everything there.
00:26Can't you just tell all your listeners,
00:28all right, we're hitting pause, see you in 2027,
00:31and just everybody goes on vacation for a year.
00:33So I could, and I do think that is what about 97% of my fellow radio guys are doing,
00:39our media members are doing with this.
00:42I actually, again, I don't think they're going to win the Super Bowl.
00:45I certainly don't think they're going to the playoffs.
00:47I think a more competitive 2026 is in store for the Browns.
00:51I think they could be watchable this year, Tyler,
00:53which would be a huge upgrade over the last two years.
00:56Hey, they've been drafting really well.
00:58You've got some smart, smart scouts.
01:01I like a lot of people in that front office.
01:03They know what they're looking for, and they didn't kid themselves.
01:07They're looking around the division.
01:09They see Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson.
01:11The Steelers are always competitive and said, you know what,
01:13let's get as many picks as we can.
01:16Okay, Jacksonville, you take Travis Hunter.
01:18We'll take X, Y, and Z.
01:20And, you know, you look up, you forget about the Browns for a year or two,
01:23and you look up, there's a lot of young talent, 22, 23, 24-year-olds
01:28that have a chance to grow together.
01:30It's just that, you know, evergreen concern,
01:34who in the hell is going to play quarterback for the Cleveland Browns?
01:37And I just, you know, it's one thing to say, yeah, that draft,
01:40it's going to be loaded at quarterback.
01:42I feel on the outside, whether it's fans, whether it's media,
01:45we tend to say that every year.
01:46Putting that into practice and drafting the correct quarterback, though,
01:49is a much difficult, much more difficult challenge.
01:52Well, we called the competition on Monday over,
01:55and I really do in my heart of hearts believe that it is.
01:58I believe the decision's already been made up.
02:00We'll find out about that either Sunday or Monday is my guess on that one, Tyler.
02:04If it's Deshaun Watson like we believe it is,
02:06are the Browns making the right call?
02:10I guess, right?
02:11We're not happy about it.
02:12We need to let you know that.
02:13We're not happy about it, but this is the reality.
02:16I mean, you hate to say this, but football is a business.
02:20Jimmy Haslam has a lot of money invested,
02:22a lot of draft capital invested in Deshaun Watson.
02:27And even if it's a 3.2% chance that he'd go somewhere else
02:33and everything would turn on, all the light bulbs turn on,
02:36and you see 2019, 2020 Deshaun Watson in another team's uniform,
02:40you wouldn't be able to live with yourself.
02:42So you might as well exhaust every last juice of the squeeze of this orange that you can
02:50if you're the Cleveland Browns.
02:51I don't think it's in there.
02:52I don't think Deshaun Watson has it.
02:54But the alternative, I don't know, it's blasphemy to talk like this
02:58to a certain segment of the fan base.
03:00I just don't see it in Shador Sanders.
03:02I know he's younger.
03:03I know we haven't seen as much of him, but there's a reason he fell in the draft
03:07to where he did, and I don't think he's the answer either.
03:10So, you know, you might as well just go through with this investment
03:14to the very bitter end, as crazy as that is.
03:17Let's make it as bitter as possible then.
03:19Ty, I vaguely remember that you've said some very nice things about Kevin Stefanski
03:25in the past and talked about maybe the fact that Kevin was burdened by this organization.
03:30I don't think they're getting a lot of fight around the NFL or Cleveland on that one,
03:34but they go out and they hire a 60-year-old first-time head coach.
03:38What did you think of the move from Stefanski to Munkin?
03:42Yeah, Ty Munkin's a smart guy.
03:44He's got a lot of respect all over the NFL.
03:47I mean, really, the college ranks, too, with what he did in Georgia.
03:51We saw the same thing with Josh Allen living here in western New York.
03:54You know, you wonder, what did this coach have to do with his production?
03:59What did that player, that coach, this is just, at the end of the day,
04:02Lamar Jackson's Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen's Josh Allen.
04:04All that being said, though, I mean, this coach did help Lamar Jackson win an MVP.
04:09They really should have been in that Super Bowl in 2023.
04:13They might have won that Super Bowl with an MVP quarterback.
04:15So he knows a thing or two about the quarterback position.
04:18And I get it, he's older.
04:19And it's always the young 30-year-old Grant Udinski type that fans gravitate toward.
04:26But, hey, for where this team is, nobody expects a damn thing.
04:30It helps to have an adult in the room who has seen some bleep.
04:34I mean, Todd Munkin has been around for a while.
04:37He has lived through turbulence at the college level, at the pro level, you know, on the field,
04:42off the field.
04:43I mean, hell, I'm doing a story at Golong on Tate Ratledge for the Detroit Lions who lost his best
04:48friend
04:48in that tragic Athens-Georgia car accident.
04:51I remember Jalen Carter was in that race with a staffer.
04:55And anyways, I mean, he's been involved in all that.
04:58So I just think for an organization that's only known turbulence, it's only known dysfunction,
05:03and has been through it, it helps to have a coach who is familiar with the ups and the downs.
05:08And I don't know if it leads to wins and losses.
05:10Nobody expects him to win this year, but you have to somehow stem the tide and start somewhere.
05:16I like the Cleveland Browns hiring an experienced head coach versus somebody who's never seen
05:21and never done it.
05:22How hard is it, though, do you feel like to go from Lamar Jackson to then either Deshaun Watson
05:26or Shador Sanders?
05:27Because I would imagine Munkin asks a lot of things of these players that they just can't do
05:33because they're not Lamar, and he's got to dial it back in and say, oh, okay, this won't work here
05:37the same way.
05:38It's got to be unbelievably difficult to go from Lamar Jackson to anybody, let alone a quarterback
05:45whose confidence appears to be shot.
05:49It's been a half decade since we've seen Deshaun Watson just dancing through defenses,
05:54and obviously he went through everything off the field.
05:57He doesn't really have many diehard fans at this point, and it's actually the exact opposite.
06:02So to somehow rebuild this quarterback on the field and off the field, I don't even know
06:09where you start.
06:10So it's not easy.
06:13And then you've got the Shador Sanders factor.
06:15I don't know.
06:17It's not an ideal quarterback competition, and sometimes you guys, I'm sure you're doing
06:21it on your show.
06:21You read between the lines and you try to interpret what Todd Munkin's saying.
06:25He's been very nice, hasn't he?
06:27He's gone out of his way to say things like, he is functioning the offense at a high level
06:33where you can't just say, people don't believe what you see on the field.
06:39Everybody there on the practice field sees it.
06:41You see in the exhibition games, it's not ideal.
06:44But you know what?
06:45I do like the fact, though, that they're thinking long-term.
06:48I think I said this with you guys, or maybe it was the morning show last year.
06:52Give me the Cleveland Browns still, even now, give me the Cleveland Browns quarterback
06:56plan over the Pittsburgh Steelers where they'll win seven or eight games in Pittsburgh, and
07:03McCarthy and Rodgers will turn back the clock.
07:06It'll be fun on primetime TV when he leads the late-minute drive.
07:11What's the plan, though?
07:12Like, what's the five-year plan?
07:14It's the scene in Big Daddy, right?
07:17What's your five?
07:17Is it the work at Hooters?
07:19I don't know.
07:20So if they're not winning the Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy, at least
07:24in Cleveland, you can, you know, play the mystery box game and imagine a quarterback
07:30in 2027, 2028 joining all of this young talent, and then maybe someday you're in position to
07:36compete with Lamar and Burroughs.
07:38I think fortunately for Deshaun, he won't have to work at Hooters in five years.
07:42I do want to know, though, Ty, or Tyler, I keep calling you Ty.
07:46I know we can call you both, but I like to be more formal here.
07:49Whatever you want.
07:50I'm going to lose the Marconi on this one, bud, because I want to ask you a dreadful two-parter
07:55here.
07:56They do have Joe Brady in for Sean McDermott, but, you know, two AFC title appearances,
08:02a game title appearances in six seasons, but yet every year it ends in a loss.
08:07Instead of winning that Super Bowl, why will this season end differently for the Bills,
08:11and why will it, you know, end the same way?
08:17They had to make a change.
08:18However you look at it, you know, if you're a head coach and you've been with a team for
08:23nine years and you're not Bill Cowher, you're not Tom Landry, everybody else has been fired.
08:28They just don't get it done.
08:29So, it was time.
08:31The relationship between the head coach and the quarterback wasn't great before.
08:35It's great now.
08:36That gives you a chance to win a championship.
08:39It's not going to be easy.
08:40I mean, you look at their schedule, it's brutal, especially the first month, month and a half.
08:44But if they can survive that as they implement a new defense, yeah, the Bills are going to be
08:49right there again.
08:50And, you know, we can get into the relationship between Brady and Allen.
08:54And, you know, it's developed organically.
08:56They didn't want to hit reset, bring in somebody completely different who started from scratch
09:01with the quarterback.
09:01That's why Josh Allen is sitting in all nine head coach interviews.
09:05And they get a DJ Moore, a legit wide receiver one from everything we've seen in training camp.
09:11He's different.
09:12I think those numbers were down in Chicago for other reasons.
09:15And then defensively, Jim Leonard is going to attack.
09:18I mean, they're not going to just sit back and let Bo Nix complete third and 11s with a
09:23couple minutes to go.
09:24They want to take it to the offense.
09:27They want to bring some disguise, bring some deception.
09:29I know through their discovery process, the Buffalo Bills brass are looking for a new head
09:34coach and they learned a lot about themselves.
09:36They heard some pretty damning things about Sean McDermott's defense in the playoffs and
09:40just how stale, how predictable it was for other offenses to face.
09:44So, Joe Brady, that's been an emphasis.
09:46Bring in a coordinator who's going to mix it up and take it to you and force that quarterback
09:51to really think post-snap about where in the hell he's going to go with the football.
09:56Everybody's feeling good about themselves this time of year and the Bills are no different.
10:01It is a different vibe, though.
10:03I think a new voice, a fresh voice, a 36-year-old head coach who already knew a lot of
10:10these players
10:10is exactly what they needed.
10:12I've referenced your piece on the McCarthy-Rogers breakup maybe a hundred times on the station
10:17and how that ended and some of the commentary that Rodgers had to say about McCarthy when
10:22it ended.
10:23And so, knowing all that, how surprised are you that this is how this is now going, where
10:28the two of them have linked back up and they're trying to give it one run?
10:31Yeah, I appreciate that, too, man.
10:34Thanks for doing that.
10:35Initially, I was shocked.
10:37You know, it ended terribly.
10:40There's no way around it.
10:41I think Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers would say the exact same thing.
10:45I mean, it was ugly.
10:46They were together a long time.
10:47It was time for everybody to move on.
10:49I mean, the analogy that I just keep thinking of is, I mean, they're the old high school flames
10:55who are now middle-aged and nobody really wants them and they're just surfing around
10:59on Facebook and they're like, ah, you're single, I'm single, let's get married.
11:02What the hell?
11:03You know, I don't know who else really wanted Mike McCarthy as head coach.
11:07I don't know who else really wanted Aaron Rodgers as quarterback.
11:10But together again, for an owner who refuses to rebuild, it just is perfect.
11:15The Steelers, they, to Art Rooney's credit, he doesn't want to start over.
11:20He doesn't want to think about the future.
11:22Like, they're fighting for a playoff berth with Devlin the Duck Hodges one season, the final week.
11:28So that's just who they are.
11:30It's admirable.
11:31I do like the fact that they're just allergic to tanking and all of that.
11:36But I think the fans would want that, right?
11:39I don't know if Steelers fans are listening within range here.
11:42I feel like a lot of them want to take one step back to take five steps forward.
11:46They're not going to do it.
11:47So I guess we get Rodgers, we get McCarthy, things will start good, and then they'll go south.
11:53There's a player, I probably characterize this ex-packer as pro-Rogers in that Bleach Report story that you referenced.
12:00And we're texted about this when McCarthy was hired, and it was clear that Rodgers was on his way.
12:07He's like, yeah, everything will be great, and then they'll be at each other's throats in due time.
12:11He just does not see this ending well.
12:14I mean, when you lose football games, that chaos ensues.
12:18There's just no way around it.
12:20Tyler, no way around it.
12:21Great spot, as always, with you, Bud.
12:24Appreciate you.
12:24We'll catch up down the line.
12:26Hey, thank you so much, guys.
12:28Anytime.
12:29Tyler Dunn there, founder of Go Long on the Weishart, right?
12:32We make it right.
12:33Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
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