00:01Bob Haney, 105.7 The Fan. Jeff Hobson, Senior Writer, Bengals.com. Chris Muller, 93.7 The Fan.
00:08I hope that... 7.22, I think you're going to hate me.
00:13Yeah, I was going to ask you... I think you are going to hate me at 7.22.
00:16I was going to ask you a gut feeling. I think you're going to be getting into that maybe in
00:1920 minutes.
00:20A gut feeling about Sunday.
00:21I'm just going to tell you guys, if you say you trust Todd Munkin and the Browns, I better not
00:25hear you say this before Sunday.
00:29What that is, I'm hoping to tell you it's 7.22. I might just let the cat out of the
00:32bag now.
00:34See what Baldy has to say about it, but we got to get Baldy first.
00:392-1-6-4-7-4-0-92.
00:41You're 5-2 right now. Things are going very well.
00:45Real quick, I know we finished the last segment about the trades.
00:49Do you think me nuts for that?
00:53Like, hey, let's...
00:54DeForest Buckner's a great player. I got good players.
00:565-2.
00:58We're not deep.
00:59And I'm going to hurt that depth by going after DeForest Buckner.
01:02And you didn't give up a lot.
01:05I know that these teams...
01:06A third and a fifth...
01:07Like, I was critical of the Colts going...
01:10You know, you can get rid of Chris Ballard.
01:12And maybe Chris Ballard was like, I'm not moving on from DeForest Buckner.
01:15I'm not moving on from Quentin Nelson, who had a contract that's expiring at the end of the year.
01:21But I'm looking at it going, maybe you shouldn't have fired him in such a drastic move after he lost
01:25to Tennessee.
01:27And the only reason I say that is because...
01:31Chris Ballard isn't the greatest general manager that ever lived.
01:34Don't you think Chris Ballard could have got more than a third and a fifth for one of the best
01:40guards of the generation?
01:41Arguably the best guard of the generation?
01:44Am I wrong to wonder that?
01:45Was he 32 years old?
01:46He's 30.
01:47He's just 30.
01:48And Seattle signed him.
01:50And I...
01:50Like, well, Kenny was...
01:51I got some pushback going, well, he's on an expiring contract.
01:54I go, Seattle has signed both guys.
01:56Two guys on an expiring contract.
01:58Leonard Williams and Rashid Shahid, who both ended up signing contracts with Seattle.
02:03Do we really think John Schneider's going to let him go?
02:06But I also have...
02:07I got Zion Johnson, who I think is doing a pretty fine job.
02:10I understand the fourth quarter kind of got rickety there at the end of the game last week.
02:14But I think Zion Johnson's done a pretty good job.
02:16And I think that Austin Barber's off to a tremendous start.
02:20That guy didn't even play right tackle before this year.
02:25And I think...
02:26I'm looking at him going, man, I know that you could probably put him in some places.
02:31But if you needed him to or just wanted him to, I think you're looking at your right guard for...
02:37I mean, how much longer?
02:38The rest of his career?
02:40You got a 10-year right guard right there.
02:42I mean, that is...
02:43That's a third-round pick that they hit out of the park in Austin Barber.
02:47Do I need to trade for Quentin Nelson?
02:49I mean, these are names.
02:50We love these names.
02:51You know, the same thing with Jonathan Taylor.
02:54Are you really apt to go crazy for Jonathan Taylor?
02:57Or are you going to wait and see...
02:59I know, it's been a rocky road early here with Quinshawn Judkins, certainly.
03:04And last year didn't help the end of the season because of injury.
03:08But I get teased with 96 yards on Sunday.
03:11It was huge that he showed that because...
03:13What, did he hit 22 miles an hour top speed?
03:15Yeah, he hadn't shown any of that so far this year.
03:17I mean, he literally had been bottled up.
03:19And it wasn't even necessarily all his fault.
03:21But then people were starting to show, oh, is he losing his vision?
03:25There are holes here that he's missing on the few times there were holes.
03:28Are you antsy for a trade?
03:29Because it's like, well, I know we're overachieving, but...
03:33I'm not right now.
03:34And probably a big part of that is, like, I'd be antsy for a trade.
03:37I know this sounds counterintuitive.
03:39If they started rolling teams, then I'd be like, oh, this team has another gear
03:45that could convince me they could make a playoff run.
03:48I'd like to shore some things up.
03:51But because they're not really doing that,
03:53and they're hanging by the seat of their pants.
03:55I mean, clearly, they've needed a lot of heroics from Deshaun Watson.
03:58And, you know, we've asked a sustainable question each and every week.
04:02But I kind of just want a young team to be young
04:04and figure this out on their own.
04:06I see him the exact same way.
04:07Without having to manufacture something and changing the chemistry,
04:12changing the alchemy of what they might have there.
04:13I respect a person's opinion if they go,
04:16Ken, this is professional sports.
04:17We don't have time to wait.
04:18You're sitting here waiting.
04:19What if the bottom falls out next year?
04:21There's plenty of teams that think that they have a great future ahead of
04:24themselves, and they fall apart the next year.
04:27And the 49ers, how many years have you picked the 49ers?
04:30Not you.
04:30I mean everybody.
04:32Have the 49ers been picked to be the odds-on favorite?
04:35And they end up having injuries.
04:37They end up having problems.
04:38You know, the Rams were the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl.
04:41There's injuries.
04:42There's problems.
04:43I know that next year isn't guaranteed.
04:46But I look at this team and go, man,
04:47you're the second youngest team in the NFL.
04:50You're the second youngest.
04:51You're 5-2.
04:54Do I need to move on from that?
04:56We're going to effort Brian Bollinger.
04:57Should I just say it?
04:58You want me to say it?
04:59Yeah.
04:59Well, we're trying.
05:02Okay, I'm just going to come out and say it.
05:03Probably not happening here.
05:04We'll probably do it if we get it.
05:06Well, we'll see.
05:07But, you know, because I think some people are going to yell at me.
05:12I'm just going to come out and say it now.
05:14If you trust, if you say you trust Todd Munkin,
05:18if you say you trust the Cleveland Browns now at 5-2,
05:22which I don't know how many people do,
05:23if you say you trust them,
05:26I don't want to hear you say that Sunday's the Super Bowl for the Browns.
05:31I know it's Pittsburgh.
05:33I know it's our most heated rival.
05:35It's on the road.
05:38But if I trust the Browns and I trust Todd Munkin,
05:44I'm not trying to set anybody up and cushion any blow for losing for anybody.
05:49That's not what I'm putting out.
05:50All right?
05:51Don't say I said that.
05:54But I've won two of my last three.
05:56I won three in a row at one point.
05:58Can I not?
05:58Do I have to say that it's my Super Bowl?
06:02No.
06:02I know it's a –
06:03No, that's silly.
06:04The reason I said it, Russell Wilson –
06:06That's not the way the NFL works.
06:06The reason I bring it up is because Russell Wilson had said that Sunday is the Super Bowl
06:11for the Browns and Steelers.
06:13And I go, I don't understand how it's the Super Bowl for the Browns and Steelers.
06:16If you lose the game, either team's 5-3.
06:19Now, the Steelers, they have themselves an issue because you would have lost both games
06:23to the Browns, and so that breaks your tiebreaker right then and there.
06:26Like, we would have that advantage.
06:28But if you're 5-3, it's like, well, I still trust you to go back on the road.
06:31And if you want two out of three on the road and it was against Tennessee and New Orleans,
06:37man, I thought they were going to be a five-win team.
06:39Why am I mad at them?
06:41I'm not mad at them.
06:42I want them to beat the Steelers.
06:43I don't like the Steelers.
06:45They're a rival, but I'm not mad at the Browns for losing to the Steelers if, God forbid,
06:50that happens.
06:50No, they've already got a win against them.
06:52They don't lose my trust if that happens.
06:53No, that would be silly.
06:55It's a place that Browns teams over the years, regardless of whether they got good quarterback
06:59play on the few years that they did or most of those years where they were, what, 2-25
07:05against them, you know, not counting the playoff game.
07:08So they're supposed to lose.
07:09I know the spread's, like, within the realm of home versus away is at three, three-and-a-half
07:14points, but you've won, the Browns won five of six games right now.
07:19Like, you're kind of due for a clunker.
07:21You're due, and the Jets game was a clunker, but, you know, there were reasons.
07:25There was rain.
07:26The receivers, if they just catch the ball, they win.
07:28If they just don't snap the ball over the putter, they probably win.
07:31It's not even a clunker.
07:32Like, I do have to think about this.
07:34I do.
07:35I go, what?
07:36The 49ers just had a clunker against Atlanta.
07:38It happens.
07:39I do often think this.
07:40It's not just fly by the seat of my pants, guys.
07:42I go, what is a reasonable reaction?
07:44I do, while I'm crazy, I do try to figure out what's my reasonable reaction.
07:48Because, like, am I coming in here after the time that Baker, when Baker shaved his face
07:53after I guaranteed a victory, shaved his face twice, and then went out there and embarrassed
07:56themselves, and looked like they didn't watch any tape, and they had no game plan for Denver?
08:01Like, I was mad.
08:02I thought that was a reasonable response.
08:04To have a screaming session where blood vessels burst in my face, I thought that that was reasonable.
08:11Probably wasn't, but still, I can't see, if they lose 23-17 or something like that, am
08:17I really going to come in here on Monday morning and fire down from heavens and say how much
08:23this is fake and how terrible they are and how we bought into a hill of beans and this?
08:28No, I can't see myself doing it.
08:30I've said I trust Todd Munkin.
08:32If you say you trust Todd Munkin, then how on earth can I come in here on Monday after
08:37a loss and say that, oh, they're frauds, they're terrible, we've all been hoodwinked,
08:42we've all been bamboozled?
08:43No, so that's also not, again, how the NFL works.
08:46Exactly.
08:46So if I feel that, if I don't feel that way, how on earth can I say on Wednesday before
08:50the game, well, it's our Super Bowl, we have to get this game.
08:52But you have to win every game in the NFL.
08:54You know why that is.
08:55This one specifically, like, there are fans that wouldn't care if you dropped the game
08:59to New Orleans and Houston as long as you beat this Pittsburgh team.
09:02But I already beat Pittsburgh.
09:02Because they live among them.
09:04They've got their neighbors who are going to be trash-talking.
09:06It'll be the most recent outcome.
09:09And so because of that, it won't even matter that we beat them earlier because they have
09:12to hear their neighbors say they're fraud.
09:14Like, that's just how it works.
09:15We're one-on-one.
09:16No, I agree.
09:16I agree with you.
09:17But I just, I know the fans that have Steelers people in their family and in their lives,
09:23these ones mean so much more to them, regardless of whether or not we beat them already.
09:28Like, when I heard Russell Wilson say it, like, I don't want to take nasty shots at Russell
09:34Wilson, but when I hear Russell Wilson say it, I go, what does that even mean?
09:37Are you just, are you thinking of something to say because they're rivals?
09:41Is that all it is?
09:42Well, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, I know they're rivals, so Sundays are Super Bowl.
09:45I don't think Sundays are Super Bowl.
09:46If you lose the game, you're 5-3.
09:48I don't think it's the beginning of some end for your football team.
09:51If they still have a chance to go 2-3 in this three-road game stretch would be very taxing
09:56to almost every Browns team I've ever been a part of or covered.
10:00If they take two out of three and just lose this game but beat, yeah, you'd love to beat
10:04them because then it means the tiebreaker stuff and they're in the division, and that all counts
10:09towards your record in the division.
10:10So, obviously, this one does mean a little more, but I'll still be okay if they go 2-1
10:16on the three-game stretch.
10:18It means you've got to beat New Orleans.
10:21I'm not even being, I'm not trying to be a jerk.
10:23I'm not trying to be contrarian.
10:24What it is, I'm telling you to be honest with yourselves.
10:27If you're driving into work this morning and you're thinking it's a Super Bowl, why do you
10:31think it's a Super Bowl?
10:32Okay, because you want to beat Pittsburgh.
10:34We all want to beat Pittsburgh.
10:35Everybody wants to beat Pittsburgh.
10:37Beside the point, what is it?
10:39Is it because you're afraid that things could start to roll downhill and one loss turns into
10:43two and the two loss turns into three?
10:45Then I think we've got to be honest with ourselves and go, you can't get out of your
10:48car when you get to work today and say that you trust Todd Munkin if that's what you're
10:51afraid of.
10:52You can't get to work today and say that you trust the Browns if that's what you're afraid
10:56of.
10:56Because I'm not afraid of that if they lose to Pittsburgh on Sunday.
10:59I'm not afraid of them going right back out there unless there's a slew of injuries that
11:03we have to discuss.
11:04Then that might be a discussion.
11:05But if they just go out there and play a tight game and it doesn't go our way, which it
11:10hasn't in the regular season since I was a junior in high school, hello, then no way
11:17to let them in the fall of three.
11:18So I was a senior in high school.
11:19Okay, that makes it a little bit better now, isn't it?
11:21I was a senior in high school.
11:23It hasn't gone our way since then.
11:24If it doesn't go our way, the season's over.
11:28It's our Super Bowl at five.
11:30We'd be five and three.
11:31So now I got no reason.
11:33I think that's pretty silly.
11:362-1-6-4-7-4-0-92.
11:38I'm going to get to some of you guys.
11:39I'm going to try to.
11:40Also, we do have confirmation about Ryan.
11:44Excellent.
11:45Baldy.
11:45He's one of the best.
11:46Glad we're able to get him.
11:47We'll get him at 7-20 on the fan.
