00:00we got a game on sunday and to talk about the outlook for the 2026 cleveland browns i think
00:05i think i'm going to have another supporter here i've said the browns are an eight win team
00:10while a bunch of a bunch of very smart people do you know lindsey's uh do you know her answer
00:15before we bring around oh i'm flying blind here okay then i'm going to say unequivocally the
00:20sumer sports side of her will not let her believe in this browns but jeremy fowler's on my side
00:24the browns could surprise i got oya fousey i got bastock i am collecting i'm amassing a bunch of
00:31people who have logged on to my way of thinking and we'll see if lindsey's right there with us
00:36on the wise heart right we make it right call kyle wright hotline of sumer sports lindsey roads joins
00:42us right now lindsey welcome to the show hi uh i think i'm having some technical difficulties i
00:47couldn't hear that question so i'm not going to answer it okay which one about the jersey i thought
00:52this was a yeah that's a setup eight eight eight is what he's saying okay i don't i don't so
01:00here's
01:00lindsey don't be nice about this he's walking around as if this is the assumption and as if
01:05everyone should have this take of eight wins because don't heard me don't be nice here don't
01:10be nice be nice okay well i'm i'm i'm gonna still try to be nice i don't here's where here's
01:16where
01:17here's where i'm hung up here is i just don't know where the confidence in making that prediction
01:23is coming from because there's so many questions about this team like there's so much that i don't
01:31know to be honest with you and i think that that honestly makes this team a fascinating team to watch
01:36in week one in particular because i just it's going to be just like an information like fire hose right
01:43we're going to learn so much about what they're going to do and what they're going to look like
01:46but like i don't even know what the schemes are going to look like with this new coaching staff i
01:50mean across the board we're looking at new right what does watson look like we haven't seen that for
01:54a while he hasn't looked good in years past will that be different now that they've added some
01:58different pieces around him we've got a new coach in place what's the protection look like up front
02:03with a heavily turned over offensive line um i mean in the early going i've got communication
02:08related questions for them what does the blitz pickup look like the communication on
02:12stunts the run block timing i don't know what do the wide receivers look like i mean this is a
02:18very
02:18different looking room than it was last year who's the third first read most frequently i mean jerry
02:23judy was the primary receiver last year in addition to like harold sannan and david and joke about
02:27what do the target shares look like now that you've added these rookies conception is one of my
02:32favorite guys to have come out of the draft how is he used um in this offense is it predominantly
02:39him or denzel boston what does sannan like how does he work into all of this and i haven't even
02:44talked about the defense which also is schwartz list and garrett list and so i just have so many
02:51questions that i have no way of framing any kind of prediction that would say they're going to be
02:57better or worse than um the markets are suggesting at this moment so you were so respectful
03:03in that that when i am proven right i will not have a victory lap on you in the same
03:08way you didn't
03:09take a victory lap when you said the brown should trade miles garrett about a year early and people
03:14were very mean to you i you were so respectful that you never took that victory i will be taking
03:19a
03:20victory lap but i won't be taking one on you here's my elevator pitch one do it uh one of
03:25the easiest
03:25strength of schedule both predictive and travel uh the offensive line's fair but we saw new england
03:31and chicago rebuild their offensive lines in one off season as soon as last year i do think they
03:36finally have playmakers that might allow you to overcome the lack of talent at quarterback at least
03:42if deshaun watson's the starter and i i honestly think people have forgotten the browns actually have
03:47plenty of really good defensive football players that aren't named miles garrett namely carson
03:52swessinger namely denzel ward and honestly i think even people are forgetting about malik collins who was
03:58on a career year pace last year before getting hurt yeah no there's no doubt there's a lot there on
04:04the
04:04defensive side of the ball in particular you bring up great points um i think in terms of making a
04:10prediction about it i just want to see how the new defensive coordinator who wasn't even a defensive
04:15guy last year um how is he going to use them is he going to use them the same way
04:20that schwartz used
04:21them i mean are we going to see more um like coverage influenced defense as opposed to like
04:28it stemming from what's happening up front i i am a big proponent of jared verse and when that trade
04:34happened i was a big proponent of this being a good trade for cleveland in a ton of different ways
04:40one in terms of rebuilding collecting the assets that you get in exchange for this guy who is going
04:46to go at the highest price that you're going to get um but then also the the guy that you
04:50got in
04:50return is is so talented and so will he reach the ceiling that miles garrett did probably not but is
04:57there a massive drop off probably not so i think that i am with you in that sense i just
05:03don't know
05:04how it's all going to come together we still seeing the league's highest rate of man out of this defense
05:09like how do they use them you know we've talked a lot here well at sumer where the nerds uh
05:14talk
05:15about like you know coverage rates and and like going to like light personnel groupings and and
05:21seeing like one of the takeaways from last night was you know we saw a lot of heavy personnel from
05:26the seahawks and we saw it um we saw a lot of light personnel defensively i think that that's something
05:32to look for uh as we move forward we've talked about a ton of teams going to like you know
05:38they
05:38drafted a lot of tight ends this year and are we going to see teams throwing a lot of you
05:43know two and
05:44three tight end formations onto the field and then how do you match that as a defense um are you
05:49in
05:50they're trying to get you back to base um to threaten the run and to get you in a in
05:55a run look
05:56and then try and pass on you in that way but you know we saw last last night they got
06:01to nickel and
06:02so we're seeing a lot of nickel like and and i wouldn't like tonight with the rams i wouldn't be
06:07surprised if we see a ton of dime from the rams defense six defensive backs on the field um to
06:13try and
06:13stop the pass especially with the front that they have there so there's just so many questions that
06:18i have about how you manipulate those pieces that admittedly are good in defense like how do you use
06:24them um that's a lot of minutiae which i agree with you that the cleveland defense will keep scores
06:31down um brass tacks i think that the defense will continue to be good will it be as good as
06:36it was last
06:36year where you're keeping you know scores down to the degree because the sacks that miles garrett was
06:41racking up i don't know that that number is going to be as high this year um but i just
06:46have i have
06:46a lot of questions about the offense and whether or not they're going to take steps forward to the
06:51degree um where they can you know win enough of those games even if they're low scoring but i do
06:58agree
06:58with you about the wide receivers and frankly fanon was a find in the draft i think that they've done
07:02a
07:02pretty good job in the draft i love that they went wide receiver wide receiver i love the fact that
07:07they did that and just took two bites at an apple at a position they needed um they needed to
07:14to
07:14upgrade this offseason and like i said conception is so versatile and one of the stats that i like
07:21about him the most i don't have it right in front of me but in college the texas a&m
07:26quarterbacks
07:28completed their deep throws 15 yards or more at like a 53 percent clip um or their on target rate
07:35was like 53 percent long story short they were not good at throwing the ball accurately downfield
07:41and he still produced at like every facet of the field at every depth inside outside with the ball
07:49in his hand creating separation and so i think he's already shown us that he can produce in spite of
07:56quarterback play in some ways and i think that that makes him a really interesting piece to this
08:00brown's offense i hear a lot of agreement here the only it's why i think my counterpoint on the
08:05offense because it i i really do hear all the what ifs the only counterpoint is that was not a
08:11functional offense last year they could not they couldn't run motion because they would immediately
08:17trigger some sort of penalty i don't think it's that hard to be functional on offense and i think
08:23monk of the maximizer which is what i'm i'm a trust in todd man lindsey and i think i i
08:28think
08:29they're going to be able to be functional even if that seems to be the lowest bar to clear
08:32i just don't know i think that in this particular case that the quarterback play is such a huge part
08:39of the functionality and i think like if you look at the raiders last year and and maybe you know
08:46clear this up for me if i'm if i'm incorrect i think when you look at the raiders last year
08:50the functionality issues stemmed from everywhere i mean we you know there were stories about like the
08:56offensive line meeting by themselves because they felt like they weren't getting what they needed out of
09:01the coaching staff um that is massively problematic because it all stems from what's happening up
09:06front um and and then you have like you know pass catchers like who are the wide receivers there
09:13um there's just like there's so much environmental breakdown that then you go okay the quarterback play
09:20was terrible but the quarterback play was also a reflection of the environment like all of it kind
09:25of it worked in concert where it was all bad and so it was hard to point at one specific
09:30thing
09:30in cleveland i think a lot of the functionality did stem from the fact that they just haven't been able
09:38to find a quarterback that um is i disagree with that they need no i looked at it more like
09:44how the
09:45raiders were the offensive line was incredibly injured and also just incredibly bad uh and then as far
09:50as receivers are concerned jerry judy was the only notable wide receiver on the team and he was dropping
09:54passes like you wouldn't believe so like i mean it's not to say that the offense was completely
09:59a waste judkins was good uh and he could only do so much with the offensive line and fanon was
10:04good
10:04but i think they were much more a product of the environment while also having bad quarterback play
10:08obviously but i think they were closer to what you're describing with the raiders than maybe just
10:12saying the quarterback then had everything be off the rails okay that's fair i wonder i think i think
10:20maybe what i'm getting at here and this isn't an interesting conversation to try and kind of nail
10:24down um is that i just am not convinced based on what i've seen from the quarterbacks there in
10:30cleveland that even if the environment was better that their play would be appreciably better and so
10:36that is that's a pretty big outstanding question for me so even if the environment is as we have sort
10:43of
10:43laid out here in a bunch of different ways it looks like they've made really smart changes in the off
10:50season to try and make the environment better this year and i just have question marks about the
10:56the talent um frankly in in throughout the room i i don't know that i don't know that they have
11:04their
11:04quarterback of the future on staff and i don't know that they have a quarterback that is good enough
11:09enough that they will be able to like we saw with sam darnel and the seahawks last year right like
11:15you
11:15just have to be good enough right if the environment is good and you can be good enough and you're
11:19not
11:19going to be the problem then that is good enough in in a lot of way in a lot of
11:24cases and i don't know
11:25that the quarterback is there who can get out of the way and not be the problem all right give
11:30us a
11:31a quick breakdown of of jacksonville i think they're a very confusing team i tend to think a little bit
11:36higher on them than i think most people do where do you stand with jacksonville right now yeah i think
11:41that they are an interesting team and the thing that i'm most i mean they're wide receiving their
11:46group of pass catchers is fascinating because i mean they've got three guys and we see this in
11:51fantasy drafts this off season where like none of them are going really high because no one knows who
11:56the one is but we do think and then but then as soon as they started coming off the board
12:01it's
12:01parker washington followed by jacoby myers followed by brian thomas jr like they all go
12:06and that's i think a really strong indicator of the fact that we think that the talent is there
12:11we just don't know if it's going to be spread around and and in what way like what we saw
12:18from
12:18parker washington at the end of the year last year was that he was pretty interesting as a weapon
12:24but will he continue to be is he the first read who does the offense run through like who do
12:31they in a
12:31in a perfect situation who are they trying to get open and get the ball to i just don't know
12:35the
12:35answer and then does travis hunter rotate in at all do they literally have four do they not even need
12:41him this guy that they just drafted so high in the draft two years ago because he could go both
12:45ways
12:45did they not even need him to go both ways and then you know we talked about all this heavy
12:50personnel
12:50stuff um they're like one team that i would go no don't don't do that like i think you're in
12:55your
12:55best personnel grouping if you're in 11 because i want those three wide receivers on the field
12:59with a pretty high degree of frequency because i think that they're all really good
13:03at different things um and so i think that they're really interesting in the sense that they have so
13:11many fascinating pieces and i think that trevor lawrence is a guy who while he has been a roller
13:17coaster um and really hard to nail down and say like i think he's good and he's going to continue
13:22to
13:22be good like i don't know that i feel comfortable about that but it did seem to start clicking for
13:27him at
13:27the end of the year last year and i'm i'm curious to see if they can kind of pick up
13:31where they left
13:32off and continue to ride that momentum and then i think that the defense is you know to a degree
13:37a
13:37little bit underrated um and so i think that i think that they're an interesting team they're not
13:42a team that i would necessarily predict is like you know in the super bowl contention necessarily
13:48this season but i think they're a really interesting you know potential playoff team and a team that could
13:54be a a really tough out on a week to week basis lindsey you always bring it we might disagree
13:59on
13:59the browns win total this year but you bring it every single time you come on we appreciate you
14:03keep doing great work at sumer sports and we're going to keep bugging to come back thank you so
14:08much love coming back and so uh please ask again all right lindsey rhodes there sumer sports and the
14:12wise heart right we make it right call kyle wright hotline
14:16you
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