00:00It is a vibe, Spencer, in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, over this past week.
00:05The Cleveland Browns, man, moved to 3-1, and I think right now they are shocking a lot of people.
00:11And I guess my very first question to you is, you know, what's more impressive,
00:15the Cleveland Browns being 3-1 or how they got to 3-1?
00:20And I ask that question because, to me, when I look online and on social media,
00:24I see a lot of people kind of critiquing and dissecting the three wins by the Cleveland Browns.
00:31I thought that the excitement would be a little bit more higher than what it is,
00:35but it seems like that people are trying to pick apart the wins.
00:40And I look at that like, man, the Browns have won three games despite being a flawed football team.
00:46And I think Adam DeBoer said it best yesterday.
00:48What football team in the NFL is not flawed, right?
00:52And when you think about it, the issues that have played the Browns over the first four weeks of the
00:56season
00:57for a young football team with a first-time NFL head coach, the penalties, you know,
01:03not being able to run the ball consistently.
01:05Yet somehow, some way, they find themselves sitting at 3-1 atop of the AFC North,
01:10knowing that they have things that they need to clean up.
01:13And for me personally, to be able to win these games, pull out these close games,
01:20with late-game situations going in your favor, it says a lot about who you are
01:25as a football team, knowing that you're still growing, knowing that you're still
01:29installing the offense, knowing that chemistry is still something that's getting figured out.
01:35And despite the penalties, despite the lack of a run game, despite some inconsistencies
01:41throughout the game from Deshaun Watson, et cetera, the Browns have found a way to persevere
01:45and pull out these football games.
01:47And for me, I think it's more impressive in how they got to 3-1, not the fact that they
01:54are 3-1,
01:54because I was one of the few people in this city who believed that the Browns could win up to
01:58nine games this year.
01:59I've said numerous times on these airwaves that I believe in Todd Munkin's ability to develop football players
02:05and also create a system to where the offense can play fast and free.
02:10I thought that Todd Munkin could get more out of the talent that was already on this roster
02:15than the previous head coach could, and then you see what he's done with the new crop of talent
02:20that he got in this year's draft.
02:22So for me, I'm more impressed by the fact of how they got here, not the fact that they're actually
02:28here.
02:29Yeah, I mean, I get what you're saying, and I do think that how they've gotten here has been impressive,
02:36obviously, like the three straight games with a game-winning drive to sort of win it,
02:41the way the defense has obviously played, all of that.
02:45To me, it's just the simple fact that they're 3-1.
02:48Because to your point, like you mentioned Bulls' comments like what team isn't flawed, right?
02:52Like every team every week has flaws, and every team every week is trying to overcome those flaws in a
02:59game
02:59to then win a football game.
03:01And that's just the NFL, right?
03:03Like that's life in the NFL is you win these games in the margins,
03:07you win these games in one or two little moments that if something goes wrong,
03:14you maybe waver or something goes wrong, and you find a way through it.
03:18And that's what's maybe most impressive about this team as a whole,
03:20is that the average age of this roster, Earl, is 25-and-a-half.
03:26And in those moments, something goes wrong, they're down in a game, they need a comeback,
03:31they just don't waver.
03:33Like that's crazy to me.
03:35And it's an impressive trait for Tom Munkin to already have instilled in his football team.
03:42But to me, it's just the simple fact that they're 3-1.
03:45Like we know what was said about this team.
03:47And you and I had our own opinions on like what this year could be.
03:50I don't think either of us necessarily thought they'd be 3-1 at the stretch of the season.
03:54But, you know, maybe you were a little more optimistic than I was.
03:57I don't know.
03:57I didn't call this season like a tank.
03:59But I did call this season like, yeah, you're trying to find out who Shador Sanders is.
04:03You're trying to set yourself up to know like what your quarterback answer is in 2027.
04:10And I don't know that I expected 3-1.
04:12I didn't know that I expected like legit conversations about, hey, this team has a chance based on how the
04:18schedule lays out
04:19to really be in the playoff picture when we get to November.
04:21I don't know that I expected those things.
04:25So what was said about this team, what people thought about this team, the Vegas odds had it at like
04:295.5 as their win total.
04:31Like they're already more than halfway there.
04:33You know what I mean?
04:34Like so they deserve a lot of credit for that.
04:36And I'm just impressed by the fact that this team, that everybody thought they had figured out,
04:41that everybody thought they had pegged, like that team has gone out and they have proved everybody wrong.
04:46That's impressive to me.
04:47It's overly impressive.
04:48Because if you think about it, you know, week one, when they stepped into that huddle,
04:52the only people that were familiar faces from last year inside of that huddle was Quinshawn Junkins and Harold Fanning.
04:58Every single offensive lineman was new.
05:01Deshaun Watson was, you know, back in the fold.
05:03He hadn't played in a while.
05:04He hadn't played with either of those guys.
05:05Hadn't played with either of them.
05:07Jerry Judy, but yeah.
05:08Yeah, but like you got the rookie wide receivers out there, et cetera.
05:11And you just think about that.
05:12And you think about, okay, yeah, they've been together doing, you know,
05:16off-season activity and through training cap, et cetera.
05:20But nothing can, I think, emulate real game speed, real game situations, et cetera.
05:27And you're still learning each other on the fly while you're still learning Todd Munkin,
05:32still learning his system, et cetera.
05:34And like you said, all the talk that surrounded this football team, you know,
05:38how many articles have we read and how many people had the opinion that Todd Munkin was inheriting the absolute
05:44worst quarterback room in the NFL?
05:46They talked about five brand-new offensive linemen.
05:49They talked about a rookie defensive coordinator, a rookie special teams coordinator, a rookie offensive coordinator.
05:55And nobody, in my opinion, I'm not going to say nobody, but there were not many people, in my opinion,
06:02who had blind faith that this could work because all they see is what is right in front of you
06:09and the optics of it.
06:11And they look at that and say, you know what, this team isn't there yet.
06:15And then you trade away Miles Garrett and to a lot of the fan base, that is not something that
06:20signals I'm still trying to win.
06:22And this season has gone, I think, the total opposite of what a lot of people anticipated it to be.
06:31But Todd Munkin said from the very beginning, I didn't show up here in the city of Cleveland to lose
06:36football games.
06:37I'm here to win.
06:38How many times did the Haslam's tell us, you know, from January to now,
06:42they felt like they were more than a five-win football team last year.
06:47And they're trying to win right away this year.
06:50And I get it.
06:51For the Cleveland Browns fan base, it's really hard to trust this ownership because of how things have played out.
06:56But I'm wondering now, have at least Todd Munkin, maybe Andrew Berry, and the Haslam family,
07:04have they earned a little bit more trust from this fan base when you see how the first four games
07:10of this season have played itself out?
07:12Yeah, man.
07:13Like, I think, listen, you're spot on.
07:17Like, what was said about this team, what we thought it was going to be.
07:20And I'll be honest, Earl.
07:21Like, they're still young.
07:22There's going to be things that come up.
07:24Like, what they've done these first three weeks has been impressive.
07:27But every team that has poise, every team that has a quarterback that's putting together a game-winning drives,
07:32they all lose some games just based on, like, those same moments don't go their way.
07:37You know what I mean?
07:37Yeah, absolutely.
07:38So there's going to be moments where things don't go their way and they lose.
07:42But what impresses me is, like, they're going to be ready for that.
07:45They're going to be ready to just, like, move past it.
07:47I mean, they got blown out week one.
07:49I mean, even Todd said after the game, right,
07:51if you had told me that week one would go the way that it went based on the work we
07:55had put in,
07:56I would have said you were lying.
07:58If you told me that we would have won three straight after how week one would have went,
08:02I also would have thought you were lying because, like, he didn't – like, he's human, right?
08:06So, like, listen, he's got this team believing.
08:09He's got this team in a place where, yes, it's not perfect,
08:13but they're going on and they're finding ways to win these football games.
08:16Like, and I get to, it's the Browns.
08:21They're young.
08:22People had their preconceived notions about this team.
08:26You win two games against the NFC South, and the NFC South is like, you know,
08:31they're like one of the laughing stock divisions in the NFL.
08:33Everyone's always like, ah, this division's no good.
08:35The Panthers made the playoffs last year.
08:37One game – or no, yeah, one game under .500.
08:40They were 8-9 last year.
08:41They made the playoffs.
08:41The whole division was basically 8-9, and it came down to tiebreakers.
08:45Like, you have that team – you have those teams on your schedule.
08:49You beat both of them, and then it's like, okay, how much of this is real?
08:54Well, what I saw on Thursday, that's a real football team.
08:58Yeah, that's a real team.
08:58Because, like, dude, you got the Steelers in your house, biggest rival,
09:04division opponent in your house, Thursday night football, only show in town,
09:08everybody's watching.
09:10And in that moment, you did the same stuff you did those previous games.
09:14You give up a 21-7 lead, and they come back, and you still find a way to get over
09:21the hump of wind.
09:21Like, that was an impressive win that told me, like, no, this isn't some fluke because of who they're playing.
09:26This is like, no, they're going to be competitive.
09:29They're going to be competitive with just about every team they play.
09:31I'm not saying there won't be games that maybe they have a bad day and they get blown out.
09:36You know, the next barometer I think people are looking at is that Ravens game in two weeks because that's
09:41another division opponent.
09:42Ravens are supposed to be pretty good.
09:43Not that you should overlook the Jets.
09:45You shouldn't, by the way, because they're playing some pretty damn good football.
09:48Yeah, they're playing pretty good.
09:48But I'm saying, like, that's the next game that people I think are going to use as, like, a really
09:51big measuring stick for this team.
09:53But, yeah, like, this team has it.
09:57They've given themselves a chance here.
09:59And if you don't believe now that they're going to be competitive and give themselves a chance to win any
10:02football game, then I'm sorry.
10:05Like, I got, you got to get on the, oh, you got to get on board this train.
10:08Like, that's just the reality of it.
10:10Todd Munkin has this team believing.
10:11He has them poised as ever in some of those clutch moments.
10:15That's a scary thing for any team that's left on this team's schedule.
10:18I'm sorry.
