00:00Ross, how you doing today?
00:02I am doing awesome. I'm about to board my flight in a few minutes here for Cleveland, Ohio. You ever
00:08heard of it?
00:09All right. We love that. Did you ever settle on where you're going to eat? I'm presuming it's for tonight,
00:13right?
00:15It is for tonight. I don't know where I'm going to eat yet, actually. I did not. I'm still up
00:21in the air.
00:21My play-by-play guy doesn't get in until later. I thought about even inviting Nick to dinner, but then
00:27I guess he's on vacation.
00:28Wait a minute. Are the Guardians in the playoffs, too?
00:31They are, but it doesn't start until Saturday for the Guardians.
00:35Okay. I'm just trying to understand. The Browns are 2-1 for the first time in a long time.
00:41They're hosting the Steelers in a gigantic Thursday night game, primetime national.
00:46The Guardians are in the postseason, and this is when Nick takes off?
00:49Yeah. I'll add you in on it a little bit. Nick, as long as I've known him, he does a
00:55cabin trip every summer, right?
00:57And the cabin trip is basically a week of debauchery with his best guy friends.
01:01But I was there when he invented the thing, and he invented it, and I told him, I gave him
01:07one advice.
01:08I was like, you have to pretend this is your Super Bowl, and the only thing you care about,
01:13and you can't miss it at any point.
01:16If you miss it once, people aren't going to respect the sanctity of the cabin trip.
01:19And so since that point, he has been every single year, they go on a trip,
01:23and this year they couldn't make the summer work, and it ended up being this week for one of his
01:26buddies.
01:28And so this is the week. But he's trying to protect the idea that he cares more about this than
01:32anything in life,
01:33and so I'm here for it.
01:35You know what? I love that explanation. I am totally here for it.
01:41I am so sick of guys having excuses as to why they can't go on guys' trips.
01:47Oh, my daughter has a tournament. Yeah, guess what, dude? Everybody's daughter has a tournament.
01:53Exactly. Nobody cares.
01:55Nobody cares.
01:55I mean, that's the worst excuse I've ever heard. Guess what else?
01:59We do a ski trip out west with my high school buddies from Pennsylvania,
02:03and they'll be like, yeah, I can't go because my daughter has a tournament.
02:08It's like, yeah, guess what? She did a tournament the week before and the week after.
02:14Literally every weekend, okay? I don't remember what sport she plays.
02:18They all have tournaments. It's all every weekend.
02:20Guess what? She'll never remember that you were even there or not.
02:24She doesn't even care. It's unbelievable.
02:27I think it's sometimes just an excuse.
02:30And then I would say 20% of them, they won't admit this,
02:34but their wives just do not let them go on a guy's trip
02:38because they know what the rest of us are like,
02:41which I also disagree with vehemently.
02:46I have convinced my wife that that guy's trip,
02:50that one weekend with my high school buddies telling stories from 9th grade
02:54and 11th grade and whatever,
02:55that makes me a better husband and father the rest of the year.
02:58I am 1,000% convinced having that one weekend.
03:02By the way, what was even the point in having so much fun in high school
03:06if you're not once a year for three days able to bring up all those memories,
03:13all those hilarious stories with the people that have known you
03:16since before you were anything?
03:18It's amazing.
03:20I am so with Nick on this right now.
03:22I was about to spend the whole segment.
03:26And now I am fully in support of what Nick's doing here
03:31because you know what?
03:31The Browns will play a lot more games
03:34and the Guardians playoff doesn't start until Saturday,
03:36but this is the only cabin trip of the year.
03:39This is it.
03:39This is the only one.
03:40And so I've been telling him the entire time.
03:42He's done a great job of this.
03:43He'll sprinkle it in all throughout the year.
03:45And it'll be like March.
03:46And I'll just be like, man, can't wait to get to the cabin trip this year.
03:49And he'll just like every couple weeks just bring up how important the cabin trip.
03:54So everyone in his orbit, wife included,
03:56everyone knows this week matters a great deal to him.
04:00I love everything about this.
04:03I already liked Nick.
04:04Now I love him.
04:06All right, Ross.
04:07Let's get into the game that you're calling tomorrow night for Westwood One.
04:10What are your expectations for Deshaun Watson
04:12after going back and watching what happened on Sunday
04:15in the fourth quarter that he put together as well?
04:19Well, so the thing that's so fascinating to me about it
04:22with given his injury history is this is just the best.
04:27It feels like he's moved in a long time.
04:30I don't know what rehab he did.
04:33I don't know what he did, but just watching him move around,
04:37he looks a lot more like the guy that I think the Browns thought they were getting
04:42or the guy that I remember from the Houston Texans.
04:44He really is at his best like on the second fan and touchdown where he's moving.
04:51Actually, both fan and touchdowns, like where he's moving.
04:54And so he moves the picture and the defense has to be aware of him as a running threat.
05:00But he just sees the game really, really well in those situations.
05:05So I thought that was highly encouraging.
05:08And it's interesting because I've seen some of these stats about Casey Concepcion
05:13and whatever, slow start.
05:15I felt like those were the only bad throws Deshaun made.
05:18It's like Deshaun just does not want to throw a nice ball to Casey Concepcion.
05:22I mean, it's your one on an out route.
05:24But there were other times where Concepcion's wide open
05:27and Deshaun just missed him badly twice.
05:30So I feel good about Concepcion, getting separation, getting open.
05:34I feel good about Boston, obviously.
05:36I've always felt good about Fannin.
05:41This Raheem Sanders has more juice than I realized.
05:46And obviously their defense has looked a lot better these last two games.
05:49I am very, very fired up with this one tomorrow night.
05:53It's kind of awesome that one of these teams is going to be three and one
05:56and it could be the Browns.
05:57We are definitely hoping, Ross, that it is the Browns that come out of this one,
06:01three and one.
06:02With Deshaun, though, how do we get him to have a little bit more of a complete game?
06:07Because it felt like those first three quarters against Carolina were a little bit clunky
06:12and then it kind of really came together for him on that last drive.
06:16Similar in Tampa where it was an up and down first half,
06:19but he really turned it on in the second half
06:22and then certainly in the fourth quarter when he was able to mount the comeback.
06:25How did the Browns help him put together more of a complete game
06:28so he's not always trying to do the improbable in the last quarter?
06:33Well, first of all, you'd rather have it be this way than the other way,
06:37meaning you'd rather have him play his best when it matters the most,
06:42play his best at the end of games when they need it.
06:45So those are positives.
06:46What you're suggesting, though, is a real thing.
06:49And I've seen this happen with other quarterbacks as well.
06:53It does seem like, for whatever reason, they are –
07:00I don't think more schoolyard is the right way to describe it,
07:03but when they get to late-in-game situations
07:06and they use their legs more and they move around more,
07:10it just seems like they're more comfortable.
07:12And sometimes you could say, well, it's what the defense is doing.
07:16I don't really think that's the case.
07:18I also think on some level, you know, Munkin calls the game a little bit differently
07:25when it's a two-minute drill or when it's late in games like that.
07:29I'm sure those guys spent all day Monday and some Tuesday
07:35trying to figure out how they can accomplish exactly what you just said.
07:39I'm not sure you can.
07:41I'm not sure – because even, like, Josh Allen is awesome.
07:45We all know that.
07:46And he's good all game.
07:47He's still different at the end of games than he is earlier in the game.
07:52There's, like, a greater sense of movement urgency, if that makes sense.
07:57If you ever watch Josh Allen, you know, he'll run at times during the game,
08:01but when it's that last drive and they have to win, like, I sit here
08:05and I predict he's going to run three times on this drive
08:08because it's like certain guys are just able to lock in more
08:13when it's a quote-unquote got-to-have-it situation.
08:18Ross Tucker brought to you by Nationwide.
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08:27All right.
08:28We can't stop talking about Mason Graham.
08:30And really the pressures that the defense was able to get on Carolina this last week.
08:33Ross, it was truly incredible.
08:35What do you see with Mason's game that has made him take another step forward here?
08:40Well, a couple things.
08:42One is, you know, this is who he was at Michigan.
08:45This is why he was drafted so highly.
08:48He just has tremendous initial quickness and natural leverage.
08:54I think one thing that they've done a lot is a lot of stunts and games,
09:00which suits his style very well.
09:03So, for those of you that aren't familiar, a stunt can be like a tackle, a TT,
09:07which the one tackle pinches, the other one loops around.
09:10Or a TE, where the tackle just goes upfield and the end loops around.
09:15And interestingly, a lot of times the guy just going upfield
09:17ends up being the one that gets free as opposed to the one looping.
09:21I think that suits Mason a lot.
09:24I will say also, though, like Malik Collins is a heck of a running mate.
09:28You know, you see some snaps where those two guys are flying,
09:33flying off the football.
09:35They got a pretty good tandem there.
09:37Maybe one of the better, more underrated or under-the-radar
09:42de-tackle tandems in the NFL with what those guys are doing.
09:45And then I kind of like the compliment of Verse being just such a power guy.
09:51So, they have the stunts going on in the middle versus pushing the edge,
09:55pushing the one edge.
09:56And then even, you know, I think Andrew Barry deserves some credit
10:01for sort of bargain shopping for guys like Derek Barnett, you know,
10:08Sam Williams, you know, these guys that, I mean,
10:11they tried to get Zardaria Smith, who, by the way,
10:13is off to a really good start in Atlanta.
10:16They have a pretty good feel for these guys that just,
10:18even if other people aren't willing to give them that much money
10:21or aren't as high on them, can be really productive for them.
10:24Ross, what do you make out of Aaron Rodgers at 42 years old?
10:28He had a really bad game against the Patriots,
10:30and then he bounced back in a major way against Cincinnati,
10:33where the Steelers score 30 points, put up 400 yards, a total offense.
10:38And Ross was on the call for that game.
10:39Great call, by the way, Ross.
10:40What version of Aaron Rodgers do we get, though,
10:43with Thursday Night Football in Cleveland?
10:46Yeah, well, thank you, Jonathan.
10:47I appreciate that.
10:48And, you know, if you go back and look at the Patriots game,
10:52which obviously I did because of calling the Steelers game on Sunday for CBS,
10:58I didn't think Aaron Rodgers was, like, in the top five issues for the Steelers.
11:03And I actually went into the game thinking that that would be the case
11:06based on, you know, what social media had said after that game.
11:10I watched them against the Patriots.
11:12First of all, they couldn't run the ball a lick.
11:14Secondly, they had major issues in protection.
11:19And then the biggest thing is their receivers are just not very good.
11:25Their receivers struggle against man-to-man coverage.
11:28So kudos to them for identifying it.
11:32And so what they do against the Bengals,
11:34you saw them get the ball to the tight ends more
11:36and get the ball to Jalen Warren, their running back more.
11:40And then when they did throw the receivers,
11:43they had those guys in more bunch sets, more rub routes, more crossing patterns,
11:49more things that help against man coverage.
11:51It was like against the Patriots, they just asked the guys to just win,
11:56and they're just not good enough to just win consistently against man coverage.
12:01But they were absolutely good enough if you help them move around a little bit.
12:07Now, the Bengals bungled two special teams plays,
12:11which ended up being the difference in the game.
12:13But I'll put Rodgers in the Deshaun Watson category
12:16in terms of moving way better than I thought he would.
12:21He's not as athletic as Deshaun,
12:23but Rodgers bought time a bunch of times on Sunday, extended plays.
12:28He almost hit two other ones that would have been really big plays.
12:32He is still – I know he said that this is his last year,
12:35but he's playing well enough that he could keep playing if he wanted to.
12:40Ross, fantastic insight as always.
12:41Enjoy our city.
12:42We'll catch up with you next week.
12:44Sounds great.
12:45See you guys.
12:46All right.
12:46Good stuff right there with Ross Tucker on, obviously,
12:48NFL Insider Call is presented by Nationwide
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12:52Nationwide is on your side.
12:53Did he just do a see you guys instead of his –
12:55he didn't do his patented thing.
12:57Was that like tipping of the cap to Nick to be like,
12:59I'll do the later dudes when Nick is here?
13:02That might be what that is.
13:03I was waiting for the later dudes.
13:05I kind of like that.
13:06I like the two of them being buddies.
13:09That's kind of fun.
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