00:00We're going to go ahead and talk to Sam Bruckhaus here, Sumer Sports, Wiseheart on the Wiseheart
00:04Right. We make it right. Call Kyle Wright Hotline and he's joining us to talk about the five and
00:10three Browns in this Saints game coming up here. Sam, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me.
00:14Well, it's great to have you here. You're a true ball knower. I don't say that often. I say it
00:19to
00:19everyone, but I do want to know, like there's been a lot of skepticism about the Browns at five and
00:25three. Some certain rankings have them as still one of the worst three or five teams in the NFL.
00:31Is that how you see this Browns team through eight games? It's a really interesting conundrum because
00:37frankly, at this point, I at least trust their talent at pretty much every single position.
00:43And for the most part, the production has also been very good, particularly at the skill positions
00:49and on defense where we need to see some growth or some consistency is the offensive line and
00:55where I think they're just frankly deficient is the quarterback position. This has been a team
00:59that has just simply not had the quarterback play to sustain their current win percentage.
01:06And that's the stickiest thing when it comes to predicting games down the line, particularly as
01:11it gets colder in the AFC North is quarterback play. The statistic that I currently have circled right
01:17now is sack rate. Nothing kills drives more than sacks. The Browns have struggled with this
01:24for the past two years. And coming up into this game, Deshaun Watson was at above a 10% sack
01:31rate
01:31worst in the league. We're now Shador Sanders starting this week due to injury. Last year,
01:36his was actually slightly lower, still solidly in the bottom of the league, 9%. I think the success
01:42of this team relies strongly on the quarterback position. And frankly, if there's one metric that
01:49they could fix, even if they can't pass the ball down the field, it's eliminating quarterback led
01:54pressure and definitely getting out of sacks. So how much of that is the offensive line though?
01:59Five new guys on that offensive line trying to make it all work. We had a couple of rookies on
02:02the offensive line and how much of that actually falls on Deshaun Watson, who has a history of sacks
02:08going all the way back to Houston when he led the league in sacks. Like you said, history of
02:12quarterbacks going back solidly sacks are a quarterback statistic. It's been proven out
02:18over the years by people moving teams, college quarterbacks coming in to the league, quarterbacks
02:25that invite pressure and invite sacks, but don't get the requisite upside from scrambling for massive
02:32yardage, which is very efficient, but hard to do. And you take hits and or finding large downfield
02:37explosive passes like Drake may does really kind of KOs your offensive effectiveness. And that's
02:44what we've seen with Deshaun Watson this year when he has played poorly. That being said, it certainly
02:50isn't a help that they have a young new offensive line. And I want to circle Spencer Fano in particular,
02:56who has been excellent in the run game. However, has been inconsistent in the passing game, particularly
03:02when he is lined up against a single person who is bringing a lot of pressure a couple of weeks
03:07ago,
03:07you look at Trey Hendrickson was able to generate four or five pressures in that game. The next week,
03:13virtually nothing locked it down last week, back up to a high number of pressures, given he's going
03:18to face chase young, who is if the saints were any better, probably would be a defensive player of the
03:23year candidate. It could be a long one for Fano and Sanders. If he doesn't change the way that he
03:28plays. All right. So assuming Shador plays on, on Sunday and assuming he starts, what do you expect from
03:35him? I think there's a couple of questions in particular, the Todd Munkin offense has made stuff look
03:41substantially better than it looked last year, but there's still those massive chaos. So first off, I want
03:47to understand how accurate he's going to be on check downs and screens. I think that's a very key element,
03:52especially for a team who's not running all that much play action about 20%. But I think that's going to
03:58be key
03:59in just getting the offense started, or at least getting two or three yards with respect to this
04:04team. The saints are going to play a lot of single high zone coverage. So that means the scenes will
04:09be open. Mind you at Colorado, that's what he did really, really well was those tight, high completion
04:16percentage over expected throws in the seams to high quality wide receivers. I do wonder if this is
04:21going to look substantially different than it looked last year, just because he has several core options at
04:28the wide receiver position. That's perhaps been the biggest flip in the national football league
04:32was last year. Did they have some guys who could go out and play? Yes. But now you have Boston,
04:37you have Concepcion, you have Fannin, you have Jerry Judy as your fourth option. There's a lot of places
04:43to go right there. Look to see if they can take advantage of the seams in the way other teams
04:48have done.
04:49Yeah. You mentioned those wide receivers and obviously even just going from Stefanski to Munkin would tell
04:53you that it's going to look different. How different though, are your expectations for
04:58Shador and, and trying to basically wipe away what was a, it was a gritty 2025 season, but it didn't,
05:04it still left a lot to be desired. Yeah. I think in particular, the first element is that you're
05:11going to probably see last, last 12 personnel. And, and just generally, I think Munkin is a little bit
05:18more capable of flexing his offense than Kevin Stefanski is. If you go watch the Falcons, for
05:25example, that's the Kevin Stefanski, uh, uh, Reese offense where they like to play. They like to get
05:31under center. They like to play action. They like to get the ball in the middle of the field. I
05:35just
05:35think when you were dealing with young quarterbacks or inexperienced quarterbacks last year, particularly
05:39guys that have operated primarily out of the shotgun, it just had so much lead time to try to get
05:45up to speed that it caused problems. So all things considered, I think there's probably going to be
05:50more adjustment. Also, I think Todd Munkin believes more in generating explosive plays, uh, in trying
05:57to live that way, rather than necessarily having consistent down to down offense. And I think when
06:04you really look at some of the run totals, the way they mix up schemes, that kind of shows that
06:09they're trying to catch the defense off guard, willing to try stuff a little bit more. We've seen
06:13this in the Harbaugh tree altogether in particular this year with the giants where, you know, they're
06:19trying all kinds of stuff. They're trying to get it rocking with second and third string quarterback.
06:22I'd expect some of the same this week. All right, Sam, uh, what do we need to know about this
06:27Saints team? So in particular, what you need to know is that this defense has really, really been
06:34struggling. So if there's any game to get off the schneid, particularly in the running game, which
06:38hasn't been the most successful this year, either. This is the game in particular, they struggle
06:42against outside zone. A lot of teams have been able to take advantage of that. And I think in
06:48particular, that's because those defensive ends typically will have their ears pinned back and
06:52are able to get up the field. If you look at a guy like chase young, for example, who's had
06:56an
06:56excellent year in the past game, oftentimes he's not doing as well in the run game. A lot of injuries
07:01on the flip side. I think this is a perfect setup for the Cleveland Browns defense. They're going to
07:06play a lot of man against wide receivers who, you know, they've struggled with injury, but Chris
07:11Alave, particularly over the middle could be a difference maker. We'll see if this offensive
07:15line can stand up to pressure against the Cleveland Browns. But I do think this is kind of a perfect
07:20matchup for the Browns to take advantage of. Sam, we just haven't talked to you in a while.
07:24Obviously love talking to you, but I, your big picture thoughts on what will happen with the
07:28Browns at the quarterback spot. I'd love to hear. And obviously there's a lot that could change
07:31this, but if you had to make a decision today, what are you doing? I mean, if you're just
07:36looking at the assets and you're looking at where they stand right now, and again,
07:42when we talked about the power ratings, you're looking at the predictive metrics that move forward,
07:46got to do something to try to get the passing game off the schneid, if you will. And I think
07:53if Shador Sanders shows any glimmer of hope there, in particular by avoiding turnovers too,
07:59which I think Todd Monk can probably slightly over indexes on, but in the context of this offense
08:05is obviously very key, then you gotta give Shador the ball moving forward. I do think they're in
08:13an interesting position where no matter what, it seems as if they're not going to extend or bring
08:19back to Sean Watson when the time is right. And so I think they're sitting in a position where all
08:23cards are on the table and we've seen the Browns be able to navigate and be able to put all
08:29the cards
08:30on the table, given that they typically will have three or four on the roster and will, or they're
08:35not afraid to go get a guy via trade, et cetera, et cetera. So all that being said, when it
08:41really
08:41comes down to it, I think everything's on the table, whether that's the draft upcoming, whether
08:46that's Shador Sanders getting a real chance or, or whether that's Deshaun Watson in terms of if
08:51Deshaun Watson would be brought back, what does the number look like? I'd be shocked,
08:55really floored. If the guarantee number is anywhere near Baker Mayfield's I'd expect it to be more in
09:00the Daniel Jones range of his initial contract when it, with the Indianapolis Colts. I think it's
09:07a real hard sell given the efficiency that we've seen, which has frankly been close to the bottom
09:13of the league to really say that he's a certified top 15 quarterback guy that you can put out and
09:19not
09:19really feel pain in your offense, every single game for 17 games. I think he would come in as
09:26probably the lowest paid starting quarterback. That's the number that if I were negotiating it
09:30on the, on the agent side, I'd probably feel comfortable with that on the team side, probably
09:35feel comfortable as well. All that being said, I think the ceiling is capped. I'd expect more views
09:41that should door and a strong hefty dose of draft scouting coming up for Cleveland Browns fans here
09:47shortly. Sam, the Browns have been outscored by 54 points in the first quarter of games,
09:55uh, 67 to 13, six, seven, uh, so much so that if you just took first quarters out of it,
10:01they would be a, don't laugh at that. We're trying to get rid of the six, seven. We are not.
10:05He is
10:05trying to break it off guard, man. Yeah. I know it catches everyone. That's how we get it. Cause it
10:10hasn't been a thing for two years. Many, many people are still doing it, but you take that out. And
10:15I mean,
10:15the Browns would be a overwhelmingly positive plus minus differential. Well, how the hell can you be
10:21this bad in the first quarter? Like, wait, is there a through line? Is this just the culmination of
10:26suck? I'm trying to figure this out. Well, look in those first 15 plays there, they're the scripted
10:32plays, correct? So everyone typically will know what they're doing coming out and what messes up
10:38scripted plays more than anything sacks. That's what messes it up. And so it's really a pretty
10:43simple breakdown is that allowance of pressure. Again, we're talking on like 20%, uh, 45% pressure
10:52rate. Uh, one of the worst in the league for the Browns in, in terms of what they're seeing when
10:57you're seeing pressure, every single, every other play, basically, uh, it's going to mess up your
11:02scripted plays teams that are very good at this include, you know, the, uh, bills where Josh Allen,
11:07even in, even in his off years, really negates pressure, the Los Angeles Rams. And even the,
11:13the, the Falcons who in particular Penix has done this, it's more of a Penix thing than the
11:17Stavansky thing. Penix has eliminated pressure pre-snap going all the way back to his Washington
11:22days. That's what can put you back on schedule and back on the script. But when you're standing
11:28there on a second down and 15, because you know, you got a little bit of pressure, maybe
11:33a scramble, maybe a throwaway penalty or something like that. That's what causes big problems.
11:39Sam, great stuff as always, buddy. Appreciate you. And, uh, we'll catch up with you down
11:43the line. Thank you all so much. Sam Bruckhouse there. Sumer sports and the wise heart, right?
11:48We make it right. Call Kyle Wright hotline.
