- 7 minutes ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Mr. Siciliano?
00:01First time ever.
00:01I don't know that we've had this clear signal.
00:03Yeah, no, we have the magic of the radio here.
00:07Nice.
00:08So we decided to do it this way.
00:09Dan was doing his own show, although he had not yet gotten into the,
00:14wow, why can't the Guardians actually catch the baseball,
00:16thank God they have a day off part of the show.
00:18I did think it was interesting when you guys were taking phone calls in there.
00:23We were not doing that.
00:24Phone lines are open, though.
00:26Andrew.
00:28Andrew.
00:28Andrew, if the Jags could go from 4-13 to 13-4,
00:32why can't the Browns go from 5-12 to 12-5?
00:35So, Phelps, how about this?
00:37Okay, good.
00:37This is the time for optimism.
00:39Yes.
00:40For hope, I'm going to sell you sunshine.
00:41Do it.
00:4221 of the last 24 years or 22 of the last 25, it doesn't matter.
00:46You get the idea.
00:48There has been a team that has gone worse to first.
00:51It is a tradition truly unlike any other.
00:53It can happen.
00:55This is what I say.
00:56And I'm not, listen, we could break down every Browns position group in the schedule,
01:00and yes, there are reasons for optimism and reasons for pessimism.
01:03That's the way this thing goes.
01:05But just watch last night.
01:07The season kicks off, and there are things that are going to happen that none of us can foresee.
01:12The NFL, as my buddy Rich Eisen likes to say it, is a never-ending narrative-generating machine, right?
01:19You just hit a button, and it spits out a new storyline where you go, what?
01:24What happened?
01:26Wait, excuse me?
01:27And we're going to have a dozen, if not 20 or 30 of those moments,
01:31where when you look back on February 15th and wake up the morning after Valentine's Day
01:37and realize you forgot Valentine's Day, you just watched the Super Bowl,
01:40and say, how did we get here?
01:42Is that before or after we all got kicked out of our houses for forgetting Valentine's Day?
01:46That's a valid point.
01:47I mean, that may happen.
01:48Yeah.
01:49Look, I don't know what's going to happen this year.
01:51All I do know is that there will be narratives and stories and trades and injuries,
01:56unfortunately, because it's a part of the game, and firings that nobody saw.
02:01It's a beautiful journey that we're about to go on, and you know what?
02:05I'm optimistic.
02:06All right.
02:07What are you most optimistic, then, about this team?
02:11Actually, the answer is the weapons on offense.
02:15That's the easy answer.
02:16But I am intrigued.
02:19We haven't seen what Mike Rutenberg is going to do on defense.
02:22The defense all throughout training camp has been, ah, they're going to be fine.
02:26And I think they will.
02:27I think they'll be good.
02:28I think they'll be very good.
02:30It's a really high bar from the last couple of years.
02:34What is the number four total defense in the last two years combined?
02:37Something like that.
02:38Haven't given up a 300-yard passer in 35 years.
02:41I exaggerate, but you get my point.
02:45They have pieces on this defense.
02:47Now, the depth isn't there, and that's what scares me, particularly at corner.
02:50You have your top three at corner, and you have your top three at safety.
02:55But after you get through your top three at corner, you're going to see guys on the field Sunday that
02:59just got here.
02:59And the depth at linebacker, although the youth, Easton Mascarenas-Arnold and Winston Reed, those guys were able to get
03:07in there, and I thought play well in the preseason.
03:09They're still pretty much untested when it comes to the regular season.
03:12So, can your starting defense stay on the field for 60 plays?
03:16I don't know, but the differences that we're going to see with this defense in coverage, disguising coverage, it's not
03:24always going to be a fastball.
03:25They're going to throw some change-ups, and I am fascinated to see what they do.
03:30Andrew Siciliano joining us.
03:32You'll hear him with Nathan Zagura calling all Browns games this season on the Browns Radio Network.
03:37Look at defensive end.
03:39You don't have Miles, but you do have Jared Verse, so that's good.
03:44We have Jared Verse.
03:46We were all excited to see Alex Wright and his contract extension and everything else, and he's out, and that's
03:51a dang shame because I like Alex.
03:53Alex, Derek Barnett, Sam Williams, Isaiah McGuire, you okay there?
04:00You would love another fastball, and Jared Verse is a fastball.
04:05The other guys all have pass-rush ability.
04:07Derek Barnett has certainly gotten to the quarterback in his career.
04:10He's a savvy veteran.
04:12Can you rely on him for 50 snaps a game?
04:16Unlikely.
04:16He's a rotational piece.
04:17He just got here, didn't have a training camp, but he has been, I don't want to say in this
04:21system
04:22because Rudy's system is a little bit different than every other system, but he's played in Philadelphia and in Houston.
04:28He played in Houston for Jacques Césaire, so there is certainly familiarity there.
04:32Isaiah McGuire, you know, I remember speaking to Isaiah a year ago, and his big thing after coming off a
04:37great 2024,
04:39stopping the run, that he wanted to get in the backfield more in terms of rushing the passer.
04:44He gets those TFLs in the run game, but he's got to get to the passer more as well.
04:48He knows that you need another guy that the offensive line has to worry about other than Jared Verse.
04:56I don't know that they have that, but I do think they have three really good pieces on the other
05:03side,
05:03and those pieces have to team up and hopefully find some greatness together.
05:08I always have this thing, like you watch preseason and you're like, okay, okay,
05:13and then you turn on the first game of the season and it's nothing like preseason.
05:17And I guess my big thing that it was nothing like is the offensive line having to go for four
05:24quarters.
05:25Like I'm wondering what that's going to look like when you ask these five guys to play together for the
05:31first time for four quarters
05:32and be able to run block and be able to pass block at the same time.
05:37What's a realistic expectation for this offensive line, even just through the first couple weeks of the season?
05:43Todd Munkett has said competitive stamina over and over and over again.
05:46I think if you watched the game last night, both teams got a little bit gassed.
05:49And that's really the way the NFL has gone these days with teams choosing to rest their starters for the
05:55majority of the preseason.
05:56I agree with the idea that you need to rest your guys.
05:59I would rather play it safe than risk a season-ending injury in a meaningless game.
06:05That's just the way I think it should be done.
06:07But there is a price when you do that, and that is you may not get the best product or
06:12the best competitive stamina.
06:14Let's put it that way.
06:15Day number one.
06:16I thought the Browns were tired and everyone admitted it when they played that first game in Chicago.
06:19It was hot and muggy that day.
06:21The entire preseason has been hot and muggy.
06:23When Munkett says that the weather we're getting in northeast Ohio has been a blessing the last two weeks.
06:29Thank God for this heat and humidity and these storms.
06:33I think all of us roll our eyes.
06:36But we're playing in Jacksonville and Tampa the first two weeks.
06:40And I don't know, have you looked at the forecast?
06:42We talked about it.
06:43We got rain coming.
06:45We've got a real feel of like 110.
06:47Yeah.
06:48Did you watch the game in Tallahassee Monday night?
06:53Last year's game, week one in Jacksonville, had an hour weather delay.
06:58It's going to be hot and humid and sticky.
07:01It's Florida in September.
07:03It should be illegal to be in Florida in September.
07:06But we're there twice.
07:08It is.
07:08And you know what?
07:08You've got to deal with it.
07:10You've got to deal with it.
07:11So I'm with them.
07:12Like, the heat and the humidity, hopefully, practicing in this garbage the last month gets you ready for this game.
07:19Because the Jaguars are in it every day.
07:21And the last thing they can, I mean, they would love for the Browns to show up and say, we
07:26don't like this stuff.
07:26Every time I hear Todd say, oh, blessing to get this really hot, wet weather, I think, well, you don't
07:32have to mow a lawn, dude.
07:33Well, it's interesting that last week, it was, was it last week I got back on?
07:39Last week, it was hotter here than it was in Florida.
07:43It was hotter in Cleveland.
07:44So maybe he's right.
07:45I mean, maybe he got a gift for practice time.
07:48A blessing.
07:48It's a blessing.
07:50I have to pull up my Jacksonville weather right now.
07:52You guys are ready.
07:53Oh, now you're ready to go.
07:54I'm telling you, I did that yesterday and Jeff was all over me.
07:57All over me.
07:59So everyone.
08:00You know why?
08:01Because Andy wants to be a weatherman.
08:03I do not want.
08:04That's why Andy has always wanted to be a weatherman.
08:06Andrew, tell me, who would not want to be a weatherman?
08:08You can be wrong every day.
08:10And as long as you can say, we've got widely scattered darkness coming in tonight, you got a job.
08:14Have you ever seen LA Story with Woody Harrelson?
08:17Yes.
08:17As the news director?
08:19Yeah, firing Steve Martin, the weatherman who pre-tapes his weather reports, just like you.
08:23That's right.
08:23Hey, man.
08:24Hey, it's going to be this.
08:25Yeah.
08:25However, you know what I would like to do?
08:27Well, most news is pre-taped now anyway.
08:28I know.
08:28What I would like to do is, so my buddy Rhett Lewis at NFL Network,
08:33his wife, Kana Whitworth is her on-air name, she, for Good Morning America, goes all over the place.
08:40She's currently in Kauai where the destruction for those, you know, on the hurricane is not good.
08:45High surf and wiping out homes and restaurants and everything, especially on the south side of the island there.
08:50She gets sent to all that stuff.
08:52Not that I want to be a storm chaser per se.
08:55I don't know that I want to be Jim Cantore, but I think covering the weather, I'm not in it
08:59for the destruction at all.
09:01But covering cool weather events, I think, would be cool.
09:06I'd stick with the brown stuff.
09:09That's fine.
09:09Yeah, it's more fun.
09:10For the record, I don't think a hurricane is cool.
09:12I just want to make that clear.
09:13But a hurricane has got a cool job.
09:15I would agree with that.
09:19Tevin Jenkins at right guard.
09:21Dinged up a little bit.
09:22Is Austin Barber the guy, and is he good to go?
09:25If it is Austin Barber, I'm really happy for him because he's from Jacksonville.
09:29Half his family are Jaguars fans.
09:31So he had circled this game on the calendar.
09:33I remember talking to him in rookie minicamp.
09:35Two games in Florida open up his NFL career.
09:38At that point, the entire thing was a blank canvas, and who knew where this journey would take him.
09:42But half the building is going to be the Barber family.
09:47Heck, they've put a tarp on half the upper deck, so it's not a big – I think they're down
09:51to like 46,000 or 50, whatever.
09:53They're down like 25,000 seats in that building because of the construction.
09:57So it's going to be a much different vibe in there.
10:00He said that he will not allow the half-Browns, half-Jaguars jersey thing that we sometimes see parents do,
10:08that it's going to be Browns jerseys and everybody.
10:10I don't know about Tevin Jenkins.
10:12That has always been the concern.
10:14It was the concern in Chicago, and it has been the concern with the Browns this year and last is
10:20can you keep him on the field?
10:23If he starts the game, can he finish the game?
10:25I'm not in any way downplaying his bad back.
10:27He has a bad back that is real, that is not imagined.
10:31But it is a legitimate question whether or not he's going to be able to get to Sunday,
10:35and if he does, get through the game.
10:37And if he doesn't, then Austin Barber, buckle up, buddy,
10:40because he had not only never played right guard in a game until week two of the preseason,
10:46he had never practiced at guard until that week.
10:52Fingers crossed.
10:53I finished this question.
10:54The Browns can win if they run the football and control the line of scrimmage.
11:00If they get Casey Concepcion involved as much as humanly possible in the return game,
11:05if he could break a return, they could win that game.
11:09They could win the game if, instead of Alex Wright doing it, as he did two years ago,
11:13somebody else throws Trevor Lawrence out of the back of the end zone for his safety.
11:16Something like that.
11:18If they go for it on fourth net and have Jerome Ford go around left end, something like that.
11:22Obviously not Jerome Ford, Dylan Sampson.
11:25If they could play a clean game, a clean game with some offensive creativity and get a pick or two.
11:33Jacksonville has the number one run defense in the NFL.
11:36I think this is the story that not a lot of Browns fans have been looking at when we scream
11:41and yell about the quarterback situation here.
11:42The Jaguars play a lot of zone.
11:45They're not going to blitz, but when they do, they bring it.
11:50They're not just blitzing one guy.
11:51They're bringing the house.
11:52They play a lot of zone, a lot of the Vic Fangio stuff, a lot of disguise.
11:59So this is a challenge for any quarterback.
12:02And again, they are the number one run defense in the NFL.
12:07They did not allow a single running back to gain 85 yards last year.
12:13That's pretty serious.
12:15So if you're Todd Munkin and you've had the number one run offense in two of the last three years
12:22and the number two in the other, what are you thinking as you head into this game?
12:27How do I run the football?
12:29Yeah.
12:29Yeah.
12:30And how do I find Deshaun some layups as well?
12:32Because the layups then eventually lead to explosives, you would have to hope.
12:36I think, you know, Kevin always wanted to run the jet sweep game, and it was a better concept
12:42than it was, you know, actually.
12:44Reality.
12:45In reality.
12:46Yeah.
12:46So I think if you go back to the Chicago game, Casey Concepcion got two of them.
12:51One was technically a pass.
12:52It was a little flip from Deshaun.
12:55I think it was Deshaun.
12:55Yeah, it was the first half.
12:56So I think you're going to see a lot of that.
12:58I really do.
12:59Now, you can't run Casey Concepcion on 10 jet sweeps, but I do think creativity in the
13:05run game is something that will be a hallmark, hopefully, for this team.
13:12You confident that a free agent line with a couple of draft choices thrown in can get it
13:19together quickly?
13:20I don't expect it for week one.
13:22If they do, congratulations.
13:23That's outstanding.
13:24Do you think they can mesh quickly enough where they can become an effective unit?
13:28I'm hopeful because I believe in the coach, and I believe in George Warhop, and it's
13:33not just me.
13:34You talk to guys like John Greco or Joe Thomas, and they will go to the wall for the guys.
13:39So I think that and those endorsements truly do mean a lot.
13:42But you've got to see it on the field.
13:44They didn't have those reps together in the regular season.
13:46You can only simulate real action in a joint practice so much.
13:52So I don't know.
13:53You've got to go out there, and you've got to go do it.
13:55But I am certainly, certainly hopeful that they can do it.
14:00Because if they can, then this thing goes a lot more smoothly.
14:04And the Browns haven't tried to do this in a while.
14:07It's been since 1990 that they trotted out a brand-new offensive line in all five spots,
14:15week one to week one.
14:161990.
14:17So we're talking like Bernie Arrow with Paul Farron, Tony Jones, and Mike Babb on the line.
14:23It's been that long.
14:26Can they get it together?
14:27We'll see.
14:28Carson Schlesinger.
14:29Should we be concerned?
14:31No.
14:32Why?
14:33Just, you know, dinged up a little bit.
14:36He was a full participant yesterday, if memory serves, right?
14:39Well, which is great.
14:40I just, you know, would have liked to have seen more of him in the preseason.
14:43You just reassured me.
14:45So thank you.
14:46Yeah, no, I think he's fine.
14:47And the word that I had gotten, and I think if it had been a real game,
14:57Carson Schlesinger would have been able to go during the preseason.
15:00They were being extremely cautious.
15:02There was no need to get him out there early.
15:06And I think he should be fine.
15:09And the fact that he was not limited in Wednesday's practice is reassuring.
15:14Good.
15:16The only other thing is I was thinking to you on Saturday when I was watching Michigan,
15:20Western Michigan.
15:20You're thinking of me?
15:22Michigan, Western Michigan.
15:23Yeah, because of the Peacock games and because you called a lot of those games.
15:27I was like, man, I wonder what it would have been like if Andrew was in the seat on this
15:30one when the clock hit double zero.
15:32I don't know.
15:32A lot of Michigan fans didn't like some of my sarcastic.
15:37I had one sarcastic post.
15:39You?
15:39Because I was out with some friends watching that game and everyone's screaming and arguing
15:43about, no, the clock hit zero before it hit the crossbar or it hit his hand or he wasn't
15:49out of bounds or it hit zero when it was at the goal line.
15:52That was the wrong angle.
15:53And I posted something like, and it was all tongue in cheek because I'm surrounded by people
15:58arguing over when the clock hit zero.
16:01As we all were, I said, that clock hit zero when the ball was on the 20.
16:06It was sarcasm.
16:07But the Michigan people think I'm serious.
16:10Oh, man.
16:11You don't understand ball.
16:12I'm like, you don't get sarcasm.
16:14So it's, it's, I think most of us agree.
16:19Heck, just go listen to Terry McCauley during the game.
16:23I thought Noah and Todd Blackledge and Terry McCauley did a great job.
16:27They all kind of said, huh?
16:30Yeah.
16:30Terry said, what?
16:31Terry said, game over.
16:32Right.
16:34I also understand, I think, I think the Big Ten does deserve some credit.
16:43Don't, don't come at me, Buckeye fans, for the fact that they released the audio and video.
16:48Now it took a couple hours, but they did do that.
16:51And that's all we've been asking for, for years as football fans, right?
16:56The NFL, people would love to hear the conversations between New Yorkers,
17:00New York, and the Booth.
17:02They would love to hear those conversations.
17:03New York and the referee down on the field looking at a surface tablet.
17:06They would love to hear them.
17:08The NFL doesn't want to do that.
17:09They have their reasons and that's fine.
17:10I think it's great that we heard that conversation from the Big Ten.
17:14Again, most people don't agree with the process and don't know why that extra second was there
17:20and why the clocks weren't synced.
17:21Those are fair questions.
17:23But at least you heard the conversation.
17:25What you do with it and what anyone does with it is up to them.
17:29I don't think there should have been a second on the clock.
17:32I think Western Michigan won the game.
17:34But, you know, I was just a guy watching with a bunch of friends.
17:37Wear your dry fit golf shirt for Sunday's game.
17:40We look forward to hearing you and Nathan and Gerard on the Browns Radio Network.
17:44Thanks, buddy.
17:44I may wear a dry fit dress shirt.
17:47You know, they make those now.
17:48Oh, nice.
17:49Yeah.
17:49Well, you'd look good.
17:50Yeah.
17:51Congratulations.
17:52We'll see you, listen to you coming up on Sunday.
17:55Talk to you, Sunday.
17:55Talk to you soon.
17:56Andrew Siciliano, Browns Radio Network.
17:58You'll hear him Sunday.
17:59Browns, Jags, Browns Radio Network.
Comments