00:00We have a game in front of us and to help us out, we head out to the wise heart,
00:04right?
00:04We make it right.
00:04Call Kyle, right?
00:06Hotline.
00:06He joins me every single Wednesday during the football season on overtime, but we have
00:11an NFL game on a Wednesday.
00:12So Dan's nice enough to join us on a Monday.
00:15Dan lobby, cleveland.com joining us now, Dan, what's going on?
00:19Hey, Jake.
00:20How are you doing?
00:21Good.
00:23We were just talking about it and having a conversation and everybody obviously has gotten,
00:27you know, I think at this point there, we're angry about Deshaun Watson out for the, the
00:32pregame aspect of it.
00:33And I haven't heard a lot of people give their realistic expectations for what Deshaun actually
00:39looks like in this game, in a new Todd Munkin offense.
00:42You're obviously there, you watch it every single day.
00:45What are your expectations for Deshaun?
00:48My expectations are not super high.
00:51I'm thinking more along the lines of just managing the game.
00:55Um, you know, can he get the ball where it needs to go on time, get it in the hands
00:59of
00:59Casey Concepcion and Dylan Sampson and, uh, Harold fan, and some of these guys that are
01:05going to be real weapons in the passing game.
01:06Can he find maybe an explosive player too, and just be opportunistic like that?
01:11I I'm not expecting spectacular things from, from Deshaun Watson.
01:15I don't think there's necessarily any reason to expect that based on what we saw throughout
01:19camp in the preseason.
01:20But if he can run the offense and kind of be, I know it's a term that people don't love,
01:25but if he, if he can be a game manager and make this offense function at a high enough
01:30level that they can score, you know, just enough points to maybe steal a win.
01:34That's my expectation.
01:36Dan, it was a crazy week of college football.
01:40How busy do you think the Browns have already been in their prep for the 2027 NFL draft?
01:47And I've got to imagine they probably liked what they saw from the crop of quarterbacks,
01:51right?
01:53Yeah.
01:53Look, I think they're going to be really busy every single week.
01:57I mean, this is that time of year that they're going to be at games.
02:00You're going to see the tweets that the Browns are at this game or they're at that game.
02:03I guarantee you when that list comes out, uh, and who's in Austin on Saturday night, the
02:09Browns are going to be one of, one of the teams that has people there.
02:12So, uh, they're going to be busy.
02:13They're going to be watching these guys and they're going to be doing their homework on all
02:16of them because the reality is, I mean, they see it too.
02:19You know, there's no clear answer in this quarterback room.
02:23Maybe Shador Sanders gets his chance and proves that he can be that answer.
02:27That's obviously your, your easiest and best path forward.
02:30But I mean, we're a long ways from, from that happening.
02:33He's obviously not even starting the season.
02:35So, you know, he hasn't shown necessarily to this point, he can be that long-term answer.
02:40So they're absolutely going to do all their homework on all of these quarterbacks.
02:44They, they, they, at least, uh, you know, for a couple of years in the future, scratch
02:47off Bryce Underwood's name over the weekend.
02:49Do we get rid of that one?
02:51I think, I think we can take that off the list.
02:54And I think going against Brent Venables and that Oklahoma defense this weekend might,
02:58might even scratch it off the list even more.
03:00That's what I like to hear.
03:02Uh, I want to go back to, uh, obviously we talk about expectations, managing it for Deshaun.
03:10Is there a way this offense actually succeeds without Deshaun playing good football?
03:15Like, do they have enough weapons around them that Deshaun can be less than mediocre and
03:20this offense still finds success?
03:23If they can run the football, yes.
03:25But that gets really difficult.
03:27Um, if, if Deshaun's not able to kind of loosen things up and, you know, we've seen it before
03:31with this offense and, you know, even last year, Quinshawn Judkins per next gen stats
03:36face more eight man boxes than, than anybody in the league or a higher percentage of eight
03:40man boxes than anybody in the league.
03:42So they have to figure out a way to loosen up, uh, you know, those 10 yards in front of
03:46the line of scrimmage.
03:47They're loosen up that box a little bit to give Quinshawn room to run.
03:51If they can run the football effectively, that's going to make this offense that much
03:55better, but, but it really is going to be about Deshaun Watson, delivering the football
03:58on time to, like I said, Casey Concepcion, Dylan Samson, Harold Fannin, and then you've
04:03got to be opportunistic.
04:05So if you can get a one-on-one matchup with Denzel Boston, you've got to hit it yet.
04:09You're not going to get a lot of those opportunities.
04:11So he's got to be able to take advantage of that.
04:14Dan, is it fair to expect a little bit of natural regression with this defense?
04:20I know we're all excited about Rudy and Jared verse, but Jim Schwartz and Miles Garrett had
04:26a pretty good thing going.
04:27And I am a little bit concerned about that side of the ball too.
04:31Yeah, look, I think it's fair to look at this and say, yeah, the defense can be good, but
04:36also to acknowledge that Jim Schwartz and Miles Garrett are pretty good at their jobs.
04:40And those are big losses.
04:42We've never seen Mike Grudenberg call a defense.
04:44So we don't know what that's going to look like.
04:46We've never seen, it's been a long time since we've seen this defense and this defensive
04:50line without a gravitational force like Miles Garrett on one side.
04:54Now, I'm really confident in Jared verse.
04:57I think he can make a jump this year.
04:59I think he can be a 10 to 12 sack guy, but he's not Miles Garrett.
05:04And that's not an insult to Jared verse.
05:06There aren't many Miles Garrets out there and they're going to need a lot of interior
05:09pressure.
05:10They're going to need Mason Graham to step up.
05:12You know, we'll see how healthy Malik Collins is going into this week one.
05:16They're going to need those interior guys to be really good.
05:18But I think it's fair to be confident about the defense, but also acknowledge that without
05:24Miles Garrett, without Jim Schwartz, we don't know exactly what this is going to look like.
05:28Dan Lobby with this here on the hotline.
05:31Dan expectations week one.
05:33I'm sitting here staring at Jacksonville CBS ran their 10,000 simulations of each game.
05:39Jaguars minus seven and a half was the best line that they came out of.
05:42They covered like 60% of the time.
05:45Should Browns fans feel any sort of confidence or even hope heading into week one?
05:50Or does this kind of feel like a buried result already?
05:54You know, look, I don't think Jacksonville is some kind of juggernaut.
05:56I think they're a good football team.
05:58I think Trevor Lawrence showed some signs last year that maybe he was turning the corner.
06:02I think Liam Collins, a good coach.
06:04But that said, I do think this could be a game where the Browns can hang around.
06:08Now you're playing in Florida in the heat.
06:10That's usually not a good thing early in the season when you have to play in those conditions.
06:14And, of course, they have to do it again in week two when they go to Tampa.
06:18And then week one is weird.
06:19That's one thing about the NFL is week one usually gives you some kind of result.
06:23You know, some game somewhere where it's like it looks weird when we get to week 10 and you look
06:29back and you say, I can't believe that happened.
06:30The Raiders beat the Patriots last year in week one.
06:33So weird things can happen.
06:35Now that's kind of what the Browns have to bank on.
06:37I think the thing that really hurts them is, look, they were going through this prolonged quarterback competition that didn't
06:43resolve until after the second preseason game.
06:46Jacksonville spent all offseason kind of just doing what they do.
06:50They have a quarterback.
06:51They have a play caller and a head coach, you know, in place that's not new.
06:55They have a lot of offensive weapons that are back.
06:58So, you know, there are question marks.
07:00I know at running back, obviously, Travis, Travis, a chain is gone.
07:04It's going to be tootin, I believe, carrying, carrying the ball for them.
07:08So we'll see what he looks like, but they have a lot more answers that they know than the Browns
07:12do.
07:13So I think that's advantage of Jacksonville in that area too.
07:16Dan, if you had to make a prediction on when a quarterback change could happen,
07:22I know a lot of people are looking at potentially week three, you know,
07:26the home opener against the Panthers, depending on how that Florida stint goes for the Browns.
07:32Is that realistic?
07:34Like, would they make a change that early in the season?
07:38Understanding that, you know, okay, if you go to Shador now, could you go back to Deshaun?
07:43Like, I do wonder, just based on how the schedule is laid out,
07:47what time they might, you know, be forced into making any of their changes or the decisions there.
07:53I know week three, like you said, has been kind of where people have circled.
07:56But I think Todd Munkin has made it very clear, like, he's not going to let fan sentiment decide what
08:01he does.
08:02So he's not going to be worried if he thinks Deshaun Watson is walking into a hornet's nest when he
08:07comes back home in week three.
08:09I think he'll have to be really, really bad in those first two weeks.
08:12And look, it could happen.
08:13I think he'll have to be really bad where the offense isn't even functioning to where they make a change
08:18that quickly.
08:19But that said, I wouldn't look too far past that because you have a short week going into Pittsburgh.
08:24And that's kind of where I have it circled.
08:27They might sit down, you get that mini bye week after the Thursday night game.
08:30If it's not going the way they want it to go, that could be your opportunity to say, we're going
08:35to make a change.
08:36They'll have a little more time to work with.
08:38You've got 10 days between games.
08:40That's the one, that's kind of the mile marker, the checkpoint that I have circled is,
08:45where are they after that Thursday night game?
08:47If they're still okay with Deshaun, then they keep moving forward.
08:50But that's kind of the first spot where I'm like, they could make a change if it's not going well.
08:56Dan, do you think there's a chance we see Taylor Green suited up and active for week one?
09:02Personally, I want it to happen because I love the intrigue of it.
09:06But I kind of don't feel like they're going to do it.
09:09I don't know if they're going to want three quarterbacks active on game day right away.
09:12And Todd Munkin kind of threw cold water on it last week.
09:15Now, that might not mean anything.
09:16We know how NFL head coaches are.
09:18And Todd has certainly said things.
09:20And then we've seen that that hasn't been the case later, you know, that Saturday when he said
09:25Shador was going to take the first team reps and then Deshaun took him.
09:27So we know that he's not always super forthcoming when he says stuff at the podium.
09:32But I do think they aren't going to want to overcomplicate it.
09:35And so I think early on they might err on the side of keeping him inactive, making him the emergency
09:41quarterback.
09:43But there's going to come a point where he'll get that opportunity.
09:45But I don't know if they want to throw that much on his plate right now.
09:48A lot of people around Cleveland, a lot of people probably around the country, Dan, finishing fantasy football drafts.
09:53If you could leave your fantasy football draft with one Cleveland Browns player, who do you have to leave with?
10:00I'm going to go Casey Concepcion.
10:03Am I in a PPR league?
10:06Sure, sure.
10:06We'll go PPR league.
10:08Yeah.
10:08Why not?
10:09Because I think there's a chance that he might.
10:12It's going to be him or Harold Fannin.
10:14I think there's a chance that Concepcion might leave the Browns in targets.
10:17So, you know, Quinchan's a good answer.
10:20Fannin's a good answer.
10:21But I think Casey Concepcion is the guy I want.
10:24Outside of the receivers, what guy are you kind of staring at right now, offensive or defensive, that you're just
10:30half circled for the Browns?
10:32It's a guy you want to pay attention to and you think ends up being maybe a little bit of
10:36an X factor for the Browns on Sunday.
10:39I think Tyson Campbell.
10:40You know, look, we know about Denzel Ward.
10:42We obviously know about Carson Schlesinger in that defense.
10:45You know, I think Quincy Williams is going to fit really nicely next to Schlesinger.
10:49Tyson Campbell going back to Jacksonville.
10:51He's kind of downplayed it.
10:52He's been asked about it a few times over the offseason.
10:55But, look, they didn't want him.
10:56They traded him on a Wednesday night, just like the Browns did with Greg Newsome.
11:00You traded him on a Wednesday night in the middle of the season.
11:02That doesn't happen very often.
11:04So there's a little bit of a revenge factor there.
11:07And I think Tyson Campbell's just a good player.
11:09So I want to see what he can do this season, a full year in this system that is a
11:13little more man-heavy.
11:14Now, it's not quite as man-heavy as it was going to be under Jim Schwartz, but I still think
11:18he's a good fit there.
11:19I think if this defense is going to be good, it's going to be because that secondary is really good
11:25along with the pass rush.
11:26So I think Tyson Campbell going back to Jacksonville could certainly be an X factor in this game.
11:31All right, Dan, we've got about 30 seconds.
11:33Your prediction week one, do the Browns escape Jacksonville with a win?
11:37I don't think they do.
11:38I think they can keep it close for a while just because of that week one weirdness.
11:43But I think Jacksonville is a team that wants to show people that last year wasn't a fluke.
11:49So I'm going to take the Jags.
11:50I'm going to say they won't cover.
11:52Maybe the Browns get a little backdoor cover or something like that.
11:55So I'll say the Browns keep it within that seven, seven and a half line, whatever it is right now.
12:00I'll go Jaguars 23, Browns 18.
12:04All right, I like it.
12:05You can check Dan out over at cleveland.com.
12:08We appreciate you setting us aside the time.
12:10Always good to talk to you and enjoy listening to Todd and his prep today.
12:14All right.
12:15Thanks a lot, guys.
12:16Yep.
12:16Thanks, Dan.
12:17Dan lobby, cleveland.com with us there on the wise heart, right?
12:19We make it right.
12:20Call Kyle, right?
12:21Hotline.
