00:00Some really good injury news here. Not only is Mason Graham looking good to go on Sunday,
00:05Denzel Ward, despite having this finger injury, which Todd Monken says he doesn't know how it
00:10happened, he's hopeful he'll play, hopeful Grant Delpit will clear the concussion protocol.
00:17And something I think is kind of sneaky important is Dylan Sampson. Dylan obviously has been
00:23banged up since I think the season opener. Yeah, early in that game. With no quench on Judkins,
00:30I think Dylan Sampson could be a really, really critical part of this game plan because his speed,
00:37any time he gets the ball, his speed can change the game. Yeah, I mean, definitely. It's funny,
00:42we've ripped the running game, and rightfully so, it has not been good enough, but they really haven't
00:48had their Batman-Robin setup that they've been trying to have the entire season. That doesn't
00:51excuse it, obviously, but it is just a little note that if you're expecting it to get better,
00:56if it starts with having the actual running back tandem you thought was going to be the
01:00running back tandem, then that would make some sense. Well, and you know, I thought they did a
01:04great job when Quenchon was healthy of doing the kind of the little passes, screen game kind of stuff
01:12that would help Quenchon get going in the pass game. So he's still having an impact. I think when
01:17it comes to Dylan Sampson, there's some guys, and I don't know that he's quite got KC Concepcion's
01:25speed, but there are just some guys whose speed can change the game. I think you're seeing it even
01:30with Jaleel McLaughlin. Like, he's such a, that one step and burst kind of guy. I think he's put
01:37some pressure on the defense. You really only need, we talked a lot about like the offense taking a
01:42step forward. Well, if, if you're able to have a cogent running game, that is a, such a huge part
01:48of it. And then you add to it, that lightning speed of Dylan Sampson, you could really see like
01:53that is a path for some significant improvement this weekend. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see
01:57what they do. I also, by the way, I hope this doesn't mean we just now have Jaleel just go
02:00and
02:00fade to the background. Cause I've really been impressed with what I've seen from him. Yeah. I,
02:04you know, it's interesting estimate. I thought, uh, looked a little slower and, uh, but,
02:09but I liked the power aspect, but Glockden really blew me away. He's a nice player.
02:13He's impressive to me. I mean, think about, and yeah, he, you know, he played it in Notre
02:16Dame college here in Ohio, then did not defunct school. Uh, and then he went to Youngstown and
02:20like, but like, look at his NFL stats, Nick, look at, look at what he did in Denver. Like
02:25all he's ever done is be productive. I, I, it just kind of blows me away that you can have
02:29these guys cause he's tinier. Let's just be honest about it. He's tinier, but it can have
02:32just be wildly productive everywhere. And not just like a, Oh, it's nice production. He's averaging
02:37five yards a carry in his NFL career. That's insane. And he just gets just tossed aside.
02:42I just, it's, it's, it's always going to amaze me. So some good injury news there. Uh, I do
02:47want to play though. Uh, Nathan's girl was on with the morning boys today and there was a
02:51fair amount that he, that he got into on the show, but, uh, you know, he's talking about
02:57the message to the fans about where the Browns are right now. And I, I, I think I'm
03:03some potico with Nathan on this. Enjoy this. The Browns are four and two. They're in first
03:07place in the AFC North. They've beaten the Steelers and the Ravens so far this year. And
03:11one of the things is, you know, you look at the teams that the Browns have beaten Baltimore's
03:16four and two dealers are four and two Carolina's got a winning record. I mean, they've beaten
03:21teams that have been pretty good and no, it's not been pretty, but what's beautiful about
03:26this team is that they have found a way to come through in the moments that matter the
03:31most. And there should be optimism and hope because we've seen glimpses of it, not certainly
03:3560 minutes, but that this offense can become more consistent. And if this offense can become
03:39more consistent and Deshaun can be more consistent and we can get something out of the running
03:43game, then this is a team. If it plays even 30 minutes, 45 minutes of offensive football,
03:48let alone 15 as a chance, I think to be competitive and they believe in each other. They like each
03:54other. They like being around each other on the field and off the field. And there's something
03:57a little bit special about what's going on here. So there's one thing that's been missing from your
04:01and my conversation where I start to get my eye twitches. And when we talk about the, the idea of
04:07a validating win, you need a perfect win or four quarters, a great offensive football is, and I
04:14understand the need to, is this real? Is it sustainable? All the many conversations we've had on
04:19this, but I do feel like people stop enjoying just winning football games. And I think I echo what
04:26Nathan says in terms of enjoy this. And I also just think like, enjoy this because, you know,
04:34without one game, like Ravens Lamar Sunday, like Mahomes, the Chiefs, Bills, Josh Allen,
04:41without that kind of game in the next five weeks, the truth is the way the Browns can earn my
04:47trust
04:48is continuing to do what they've done the first six weeks of the season. If you keep winning at the
04:53clip that you're winning, which is you're winning 66% of your games, at some point, I'm just going
04:58to have a baked in trust that what's real is winning, no matter what the analytics or what
05:04any of the other stuff says. Well, so what is, I mean, something I've given Munkin credit for the
05:09entire time is I, the, and the enjoyable part for me out of this whole stretch is that there's been
05:14so many games that I just know we would have lost in the last couple of years. And I call
05:18it whatever
05:18you want. And I don't know what Munkin's imprint on this actually is, but there is, there is a,
05:22there's an ability to know how to close games and how to win games. And it seems like Munkin has
05:27that.
05:27And I don't know if he learned that in Baltimore where they were winning a bunch of games. I don't
05:30know if he learned that in Georgia when he was winning national championships. I'm not sure when
05:34it was, it wasn't 2019 when he was here, but he's got this ability to know how to win games
05:39and close
05:39out games. And I just Stefanski just didn't have that the last couple of seasons. And so like that part
05:43to me,
05:44yeah, a million times more enjoyable to have at least a comfort that, you know, that the team's
05:49going to have a fighting chance at the end and then actually be able to deliver.
05:52Well, we got Quincy coming up at four 20 and when we had Quincy on in camp, and this kind
05:57of ties in
05:58with all of the stuff we've heard this week about the Deshaun party about, you know, individual
06:03teammates or individual position groups going out to dinner together. Like all of that does tie in
06:09because at the end of the game, what matters most is trusting each other. And the Browns have had
06:14a lot of individuals in the locker room. And I'm not trying to put this solely on Miles, but he
06:20is
06:20the biggest individual. And Miles put everything he could in his individual performance to give the
06:27Browns a chance to win. There is something to be said about 11 guys on each side of the ball,
06:33giving everything to trust each other to win together.
06:36Well, and also not just having 11 independent contractors on each side too. And that to me is one of
06:41the stark
06:41differences. Like we talked earlier about the defense and how like it really, it's odd. We have some really
06:45impactful players that are being injured and either there's playing through injury and stepping up or if
06:51they're not playing, it feels like the next man up thing is a real thing we get to discuss. And
06:55I, I mean, that's
06:56just, that's the team element of all this, but I mean, really it's, it's playing as a team instead of
07:00just
07:00playing for yourself in lieu of a beautiful loss or the perfect win or however you want to say the
07:05games that
07:05outside of Cleveland validate this team or the big glitzy, sexy stats in lieu of all of that
07:13consistency. And they've been consistent the first six weeks. All right. Actually again, the first
07:18week doesn't count. I don't even know what happened to the Jacksonville game. Did we even play in
07:21Jacksonville? I don't recall, but the last five weeks there, the way of doing this has been
07:27consistent, right? In terms of the way Todd Munkin approaches the game in terms of his aggressiveness
07:32that has been consistent, uh, coming alive in the fourth quarter that has been consistent, even in
07:38the loss to the jets, Deshaun had a couple moments that Jerry Judy throw, like there were moments to
07:44win that game. I think if you do that consistently over the next four weeks, to me, 10 weeks of
07:50that
07:50kind of football, that consistency that replaces a big, sexy win where everybody goes, ah, they're a
07:57championship contender. Cause at some point you're gonna have a chance to, if you keep consistently
08:01winning in spite of whatever the stats say, or in spite of what your record or your record
08:05against good teams, bad teams, whatever says, you can't control your schedule. At some point
08:10you win enough games consistently. You play consistently. You, you know who you are consistently
08:16you'll have a chance in the playoffs to, you know, you know, consistency. If Fred was just
08:22consistent in that effort, every time, no one's going to be talking about the clock game,
08:26right? Clock management, schmock management. They'll say who cares. Is that Fred calling
08:32back? Ah, you know what? Fred, how you doing friend? Oh, Fred, I'm doing good. How you guys
08:38doing? All right. What you got for us? A couple, just a quick couple of things. Like I'm, I'm,
08:42I'm enjoying the ride, but I wanted to know, like, is it this whole contender thing? Like,
08:47is it, are we really that good? Do we got a chance to be good this year? Or is it
08:52that the
08:52league is just starting off slow and we caught some fruity wins in the beginning? Um, and then
08:58I wanted to know, like, do we have a good problem or a bad problem? Right? Because I've been thinking
09:02this the whole time before the season even started. I had a feeling Watson would go out there and
09:08start playing decent. And wouldn't it just be Brown's luck that he moves us out of a spot to
09:13get a QB? And I'm not saying we need one because I think we, we got QBs on the team.
09:17Um, but he moves
09:18us out of position to get one. And now it's whether or not, do we keep him? Do he abandon
09:23us? And now we're stuck with what we have, you know, and that may be good or bad, but
09:27it's like a conundrum. You know what I'm saying? I'm just trying to figure out like, what do
09:31you guys think is when, and what, how many more games or what do you need to see in order
09:36for us to be a legitimate contender going forward, minus what the national media may say. And
09:42I'll listen off air. All right, Fred. We appreciate you. Uh, again, great performance. Nice efficiency. Yeah.
09:47Really second time. I mean, speeding through it a little bit, you can slow down, you know,
09:52Fred's got to get to the point. I mean, I hear you, but there's a balance there. Fred's got
09:57things he's got to do. It's a journey. It's a journey we can take together. Um, yeah, I
10:02mean, I, I, I don't mean this in the way it might come off. I don't care if, cause cause
10:07I just, I don't think people are going to buy into the Browns. I think the Browns five weeks
10:12from now can end up being a seven win team. And I still think they'll say, well, the stats
10:18say they're not a real team. These are flukish wins and all that kind of stuff. So I'm not
10:22expecting some sort of praise for them. And I think sometimes far too often in Cleveland,
10:27we've taken that lack of praise outside of here to impact our enjoyment or I'm just not
10:33going to do that. I'm really enjoying four and two. I think we're going to get to five
10:36and two. And I, the ultimate thing on how real it is will be if they make the playoffs,
10:41are they competitive in that first playoff? I mean, what's helping me, even though I know
10:44the numbers aren't great, what's helping me is the idea that, uh, I mean, the amount
10:49of people that thought this season was going to be awful. Yeah. And so I just like thinking
10:52about where we could be and now thinking that every single week is now competitive. Every
10:57single week is now fun. We get to talk about in earnest, like, all right, what do we have
11:00to do against the Titans to get a win? What do we have to do against the Steelers to get
11:04a win? That part has made my life a million times more enjoyable.
