[SPEAKER_00]: I actually have no idea where he is, but I do know.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is very tired, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what is that picture of a point back there?

[SPEAKER_00]: The print behind you looks positively like Southwestern, like it looks like you're in Phoenix.

[SPEAKER_01]: Very good, not Phoenix though.

[SPEAKER_01]: South Lester so what NFL team would be South Lester like technically I think people from here might like call it the Southwest like when I remember when there was Fox Sports the regionals are I think Fox Sports Southwest was around here I mean if you're not near Zona and it's not the like California is the West right it's not [SPEAKER_00]: Denver, Denver, you know, back in Denver?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, but Denver's like just the, I don't know, Denver's like mountain time.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, pretty easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Arizona, it's just what it's gonna be one of these teams Houston.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, we got it.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, because when I lived in Dallas, Fox Sports Southwest was in Dallas.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they were all so in Houston.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was like one of those like, [SPEAKER_01]: You know, if you, if Fox Sports Southwest would show like the Astros, if you were in Houston, but they'd show the Rangers if you were in Dallas, but yeah, it's Fox Sports Southwest.

[SPEAKER_01]: So now that's why I said like not a lot of people can consider Texas the Southwest, but I think people here do can do consider the Southwest.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you remember the South, well, I don't even, you may be too young to remember the Southwestern Conference, which is really depressing, but I'm looking at a map right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's one of those things that's from like when the country didn't when those the states in the west weren't states yet probably you know right [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's the Midwest is you can draw like a line from all the way from Minneapolis to Kansas City to Houston and they're all kind of in the same line.

[SPEAKER_00]: So to me, that's that's Midwest.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are in the middle.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's dead center of the country pretty much, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I I'm always I'm in Nebraska is the dead middle guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's just what I believe and [SPEAKER_00]: I just don't, I don't see it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the best thing that was what you consider Cleveland, Midwestern.

[SPEAKER_00]: I kind of don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Cleveland, what a half hours from Buffalo.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, yeah, Cleveland is the last part of the country, but Detroit people from Detroit consider themselves Midwestern.

[SPEAKER_01]: My dad is from Detroit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Detroit is very clear.

[SPEAKER_01]: Detroit's in the eastern time one.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Detroit is very clearly like in the eastern part of the geographic part of the country, but Detroit people from Detroit consider themselves Midwestern.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cleveland are lucky that people consider that place anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every time I hear, I hear that that place is back.

[SPEAKER_00]: I go there and I'm just like, I don't know man.

[SPEAKER_01]: I actually, when I was in Ohio, that was like the doubters like when Cleveland actually was back when they were rocked.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, the flats were hoppin.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Drew Carey was on TV.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Indian stadium was new.

[SPEAKER_01]: The college.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is Drew Carey shows.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so and so then you know what happened to the flats.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like so whenever you want to win like because fifty percent of Ohio State kids were from Northeast Ohio, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So whenever you want to clean the window where you go out on Friday night you went, you know, with your buddies back to where they were from, you go out to the flats.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was part of like the revitalization of Cleveland.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then, so the flats were like these bars that were alongside the Kaya Hoga River.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like as it dawned out in the Lake Erie.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then there were like a string of fights where a couple people fell into the Kaya Hoga River and died in a flat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what, flats went down with that whole thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the flats are not a thing anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think so.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think so.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a residential neighborhood now.

[SPEAKER_00]: So boring.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just like everything else.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: They still call it the flats.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's funny.

[SPEAKER_01]: The not funny that someone died because they became a bad neighborhood after that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe the revitalization was turning it into condos or something.

[SPEAKER_00]: a lot of people just having trouble falling into the water they're in Cleveland like that guy who was unveiling the Browns helmet the other day I don't know if you caught that but uh...

yeah just it just it hasn't really captured itself is a very serious place uh...

in my mind very rough play on though you would be surprised like really really good restaurants [SPEAKER_01]: You just have to know where to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: They've got a great little Italy because Cleveland is an old.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to go into little Italy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to defend Northeastern.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've made my friends relentlessly for being from there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like people don't know that Northeast Ohio is like a stronghold of all like old mafia.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like when the heat would be on in Chicago or in New York they would go to Northeast Ohio.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so there's like a great little Italy in Cleveland.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's also a little Italy believe they're not in Canton.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like a bunch of my fraternity brothers were from North Canton.

[SPEAKER_01]: They all went to the high school North Canton Hoover and everyone had a battle at the end of their first day of their last name.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's an history for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you Google, like Cleveland, Youngstown, Canton, like Mob, there's like, there's a lot there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not Google things anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you like to say, yeah, I should take care of that now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I trash by the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's neither here nor there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I live in New Jersey.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I feel good about the Italian food that's around me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't need to compare it to something that's in Cleveland, Ohio.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just telling you, I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's like there is really good Italian food and Cleveland.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know why both of us look so tired and it's because we were watching the new Heights podcast with Taylor Swift yesterday.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm just kidding.

[SPEAKER_01]: Were you among the one point three million or whatever it was?

[SPEAKER_01]: I was watching the website on Twitter.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was fine last night, but yeah, I watched some clips on Twitter.

[SPEAKER_00]: What was your what was your takeaway?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, my takeaway from the clips is like, she, for somebody that famous, she really does seem remarkably normal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, I guess we're at the point now, we're accepting that this is a legitimate relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you could, I mean, rely that long.

[SPEAKER_01]: You couldn't carry out a lie that long and you wouldn't be working at this point.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wouldn't because they're not really getting them as much publicity from it now.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wouldn't be worth it at this point, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It wouldn't be worth it at this point and it would be weird to be doing like like the new heights podcast is such a step down for anything that Taylor Swift does in generally no fence is a new heights podcast, which is very popular podcast, but like Taylor Swift could go [SPEAKER_01]: I mean Taylor Swift can't play like Taylor Swift won't play like a basketball arena because it's too small for her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, when she eventually makes it to the point where she does a Las Vegas residency, which is in everybody's future, she's gonna sell out in perpetuity.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's gonna be like every time Billy Joel goes to Madison Square Garden, but like ten times more popular than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I will note this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so like one point three million for Taylor Swift on new heights podcast, you know what I was just looking this up while you were talking, you know, it should do our pull down for his week one preseason win.

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: Two point three.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoa.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the high rated prices.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a good message from our Northeast Ohio discussion into the most for day one of the most ridiculous, preseason stories I've ever, I've been around in my twenty years current in that fell.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's he's here and he's here today and he's gone tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, my favorite thing about the tone.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure everybody's seen the Tony Grossy video by now.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you haven't, Tony Grossy is probably one of the longest ten year beat writers in the history of the NFL, not just now, but I think I'm not sure anybody's covered.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're very many people covered a single team for as long as Tony Grossy's covered the Browns.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he covered the Browns when Marty Shottenheimer was the coach there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so Tony was in the tunnel in Bank of America Stadium, I think, right, like we were in Carolina.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so there's a video of him in the tunnel, and she do her going up to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: and she door talking about to like basically lodging a complaint with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a nice way to put it right where did you say it was something like why you got dog me like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why are you always dogging me Tony?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why will he say negative stuff about me?

[SPEAKER_01]: See I.

Yeah right whatever what so he said something on those lines and then [SPEAKER_01]: They talk it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we've all been in those situations before.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you've covered a team, you say something or write something that someone doesn't like.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I actually, I don't know if you're this way, Connor, I actually appreciate those conversations.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I think those conversations are necessary.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I can speak for you at least and probably most reporters when I say, I would much rather have a guy do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: than like hold a grudge for two years, three years, and you don't know, and it's just got weird, and you don't know why.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I would much, or have somebody come up to me and say, they had a problem with something I did or said, right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like I really liked that in the moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I clicked on it, and I found out who actually shot it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then it was like, all right, like, so was this another thing that was just staged, and it's just quote unquote content.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, because I don't have any, like, I appreciate him doing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's a healthy thing for a player to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's a healthy conversation for a report to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that was his camera crew that shot that his brother.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so somebody told me then that it was shot in the tunnel because they couldn't get credential for the locker room.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I just like, [SPEAKER_01]: So he said having that conversation in the locker room, it's just, it's to me, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like, this thing is Scott, this thing is growing legs on legs, on legs, on legs, and like, I think I don't think like in the end, all of it is really beneficial to contour and his development and allowing him to be a fifth round rookie trying to make a football team, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: is what he did good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I was with the Browns yesterday.

[SPEAKER_01]: I really think like in the big picture of all of this really what he did was, okay, you passed your first test.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now we're going to put more on your plate.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to see how you handle it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it is, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's okay, you know, like from an operation standpoint, operating the offense, you're behind the other guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: which is why we couldn't put you in there with the first team.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now you've passed another test.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to put a little more on your plate and see how you handle it, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And these are natural steps you take.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, the narrative becomes cutty-start-neak-week-one.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like does that really help anyone?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it helps anyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think what it does is it creates an unreasonable expectation that he has to, and [SPEAKER_00]: It puts it in the brains of the fans that he has to play at some point, and especially when this season gets out of control, which it will pretty quickly, he is going to be the one that they turn to to say, well, at least we want something with upside.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want someone with upside.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what's weird about that is, okay, so for a moment, I'm sitting there and I'm watching that preseason game, and I'm saying, [SPEAKER_00]: Like, wow, because he's checking all the boxes except for the fact that he did drift a lot and he turned his back to the field a lot, which is not supposed to produce you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but throwing players open, not being afraid to throw the ball in certain situations, stepping up into throws.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he has that roll of decks that preseason, check off the box thing that you want him to do for everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and, you know, it's hard to describe that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Vastulation of emotion that you go through.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, wow, maybe I was wrong about that guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And literally, forty-second, forty minutes later, there's like a planned content confrontation, film, Brian brother in the tunnel, the locker room, where you're coding and Dion is, I mean, my God, it's a preseason start over the worst historical defense in like modern NFL history.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Dion is like, God is good on Twitter.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it creates like, you know, right though, like, that's the right way to couch it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It creates an unrealistic expectation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: It creates it because you know, like, the people who are making a noise to say, like, why isn't he getting first team reps?

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not saying that because they're like, like, let's get him real development.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're saying that because they want to be able to open up the argument that he could start week one, which is completely unrealistic.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just think, like, this whole thing has gotten to a point where [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not seeing the competition was rigged but [SPEAKER_01]: I think the writing's been a wall.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be Joe Flacco, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the trouble we have with this argument is like, you, and I don't, if I was a fan, I would probably look at the same way, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if I was a Cleveland Brown fan, I would probably look at, say, there's no use in starting Joe Flacco.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're wasting your time.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, that guy's not going to be recorded back in two or three years.

[SPEAKER_01]: So why are you starting?

[SPEAKER_01]: I understand that logic, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: At the same time, like if you're Kevin Stephansky, you have to keep your team on board.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you have to give the guys in your locker room a chance to win here and now and play well here and now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And do you think like your twenty eight year old guard, your twenty seven year old receiver?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think they care about the franchises quarterback situation?

[SPEAKER_01]: Twenty twenty seven.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, on top of that, you've got a six game stretch that is an absolute gauntlet like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: You look at it and it's like you can get yourself to own six really, really fast.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're Kevin Stephansky, like the players know before anyone knows, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: The players know who can play and who can't.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if Joe Flacco is clearly going to give those players the best chance to succeed individually and as a team.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Kevin Savansky does not give them Joe Flacco as a quarterback.

[SPEAKER_01]: He throws a rookie out there for the sake of, let's see what we got.

[SPEAKER_01]: What are you think is going to happen with the locker room?

[SPEAKER_00]: My only curiosity here.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, real quick.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're two and eight, that's something else, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But at the start of the year, you just can't do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, look at this, look at this freaking schedule.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cincinnati, Baltimore, Packers, Lions, Vikings, Steelers, Dolphins, Patriots, Buy, At Jets, at Baltimore, at Vegas, like San Francisco.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you close out the season with Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, like, [SPEAKER_00]: My only thought.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we're talking, it's eight twenty nine a.m.

[SPEAKER_00]: seven twenty nine a.m.

[SPEAKER_00]: Albert's time.

[SPEAKER_00]: My all-too-hundred and seventy-two game predictions have just dropped at SI.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: Great cover, great job by the SI photo team and the graphics team.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have Cleveland getting the number one pick.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have them finishing the season two and fifteen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And having learned my lesson from Jason Light in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I understand that this is something that people will read and people will look at and people will take offense to.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to get ahead of that by saying that [SPEAKER_00]: When the Browns have been bad in the past, they've been strategically bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have been bad on purpose in order to get good players on the back end.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how they ended up with Baker May field.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how they ended up with Miles Garrett.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how a lot of this has taken place.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we galaxy-brain the Shidorah Sanders thing into something that's incredibly out of control, [SPEAKER_00]: doesn't he make perfect sense to just keep putting out there?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's like, okay, well, this is what she want.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, [SPEAKER_00]: Joe Thomas didn't want to be a part of this tear down.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't want to spend the rest of his Hall of Fame career in the most depressing football, you know, roster and modern NFL history, but Cleveland did it, and they did it to try to get better.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so do you think that like Paul Deepadesta is going to be like, yeah, let's just go six and eleven.

[SPEAKER_00]: F no, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: Am I wrong here?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, [SPEAKER_01]: I kind of like the idea, but again, like, if your the coaches can you do that, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, and it's just what Jackson didn't get a choice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he Jackson got, he Jackson got some cat for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guess I understand that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I just, but I do think like, I think that'll take care of itself naturally given the schedule, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think it's more important.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think, and I think one thing in Hughes defense and like what happened there is, like the culture became so bright broken, you know, as a result of doing it that way, there was no reeling it back in.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just think that's the position you're going to find out putting yourself in here.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, is that you risk [SPEAKER_01]: You risk like breaking the locker room beyond recognition, you know, and, and so then do you have to start over completely after this year, or it's like, okay, like we gotta get everybody out of the locker room now, because everybody who went through that, we're gonna have a hard time [SPEAKER_01]: to having the mile scare it's the Denzel Wars and the Joel Batonios we have a hard time getting those guys back and working with us with a straight face after what they did to that after what we did that year you know so I think at least in the front end you have to give the players the best chance [SPEAKER_01]: possible to go in when games and it doesn't mean again that you get to week fourteen or fifteen and it doesn't and it can't become like let's see what we got that's fine like I think you know most cases players understand they know you know I mean like they'll understand like you know at this point we've got to assess the roster we've got to get a claim look at player x y and not just a quarterback but everywhere [SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you know, to do that at the start of the year.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'd be in this experimental phase of the start of the year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, look what happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: You do that with Brian Flores in Miami.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at what that turned into.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, what did you win?

[SPEAKER_00]: Five games that year?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they were like too competitive for management.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I can't remember, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I just wonder in the United States and manage this defensive like wound up being a difference between two attack of a low and Joe Burrow.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know what I mean like so there is it's not there's not an argument for for for doing it to get that way, but Joe Burrow doesn't come to the league every year either.

[SPEAKER_00]: I, um, I'm just wondering like if you're Joel Bittonio for example or you know Nick Chubs not there anymore, but like those guys like the stall work guys like [SPEAKER_00]: in the nicest possible way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm sure it's a great place to work and there's lots of great people there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like how seriously are you taking any of this anyway?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, I mean, with the dish I want something that just happened, like all this stuff, it's like, I'm sure you're proud of your body of work.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if they all of a sudden are like, all right, well, shitter is going to play.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're probably just rolling your eyes and you're like, all right, here we go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another day at the crazy factory.

[SPEAKER_01]: I see where you're saying, like, let me say this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, just let me just from like, [SPEAKER_01]: Just as devils have a kit here, let's say you're so bad that you're playing from behind constantly, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like in, you get in the second half of games and like late in the third quarter of these games, the other team just starts running the ball relentlessly, you, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Say your mile is guaranteed.

[SPEAKER_01]: So now all of a sudden, like how much of your season is being played in a context where you can't rush the pastor, and you have like tackles and guards just running right at you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's like a told that that I just think you that I think there's like a lot of reasons why you just have to the players have to know you're giving it an honest effort for them in the here in the now and that's why I think like [SPEAKER_01]: There's a natural way of tanking in the NFL, which is like doing what Washington did a couple of years ago when they traded away Montez sweat and chase young, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like in, and they kind of got to the roster and they fell the number two and take took change in Daniels.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like that to me is the natural, and then there's an unnatural way of tanking, which is like I think a little bit more what you're talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: and not putting the best players out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's definitely a difference between the two.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I, I wanted to talk to you today.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't believe like the, the shooter thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a, it's like a rip time.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just get in there and you're, wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you get right away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's like a table or a cap or neck or any of those, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like where it's just like, it doesn't matter.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like almost almost like what the, what happens on the field is a sidebar to the bigger piece of the whole thing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to talk to you about freaking camward and here's why.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think camward it's it's kind of funny is probably the least discussed least hyped first round pick that I can remember since [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, give me a good kind of thing about this Alex Smith maybe.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because Jamaica's Russell at least had the weight problems.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you see, by the way, quick time out?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you see that the sign that Gino Smith flipped off in Seattle, where some guy held up a sign that says Gino Smith is a bust.

[SPEAKER_00]: Gino Smith equals Jabarkis Russell.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was the one.

[SPEAKER_00]: What?

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like, Jamark is Russell was overweight, played like six games.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, also, or overall, tag.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Chino Smith was taken to the second round, and this is like his fourth team.

[SPEAKER_01]: Chino Smith, Chino Smith actually, like Seattleism, Chino Smith allowed them to detach from Russell Wilson.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, genosmith got them like a historical comp for that trade and then yeah got the future Russell Wilson contract off the books.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, you're welcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, but let's need to hear their camward.

[SPEAKER_00]: So his preseason start was interesting to me and that I thought [SPEAKER_00]: There were some okay moments.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought and I'm not trying to be like hyperbolic here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought out of all the young rookie quarterbacks who have a chance to play and I would say it go like Shidur on down, back down to the first round there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought he probably made like the singular worst throw out of anybody in terms of like, oh, why did why did that mall with your hands?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so this entire thing [SPEAKER_00]: Like in some way, shape or form is almost deserving of a lack of hype.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you mentioned in your notes like there's stuff like the past rush that in your takeaways that everyone should read like the past rush is still an issue.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like there's still these big kind of glaring holes on the roster.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, you just changed over GMs.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to take time.

[SPEAKER_00]: What was happening there before was not good.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was not healthy.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what do we end for here?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like is this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think it's hard because the roster isn't there.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're not talking about [SPEAKER_01]: You know, my home is in Kansas City or Josh Allen and Buffalo joining a playoff team, Walmart and Baltimore.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like so I think one thing that actually helps a lot is that they have Brian Callahan who was with Joe Burrow in two thousand in Cincinnati.

[SPEAKER_01]: And like Cincinnati wasn't fully formed yet when Joe got there.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they didn't have Jamar Chase yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: The offensive line was still on this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, they were still like really, it's still a year or two of Zach Taylor.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think, you know, Brian Kelly and having that experience where Zach Taylor was a second year head coach when Burrow got the same way he is in Tennessee now.

[SPEAKER_01]: really helps.

[SPEAKER_01]: And those two, you know, that was one thing that was sort of interesting talking to Cali about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those two have watched more tape of burrow than anyone else.

[SPEAKER_01]: And and really concentrated on watching burrow's rookie year, believe it or not, because they wanted to, like he wanted to show cam.

[SPEAKER_01]: like what Joe did well and what Joe looked back at and said I wish I had done this differently.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the big thing is just, you know, like creating easy throws for him, getting him to take the routine play.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the same thing as like with a lot of these guys is that they're so capable of doing spectacular things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they were able to get away with doing a lot of it in college in the pros you have to pick your spots more.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, it's how can we make the, how can we make sure [SPEAKER_01]: Cam, the year making the routine play, and you balance that and you figure out, you know, in time, and there's a feel thing, when you have to put the cape on and be a Superman.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think the other thing that helps is the offensive line should be way better than it was a year ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a complete dumpster fire last year, and so getting Dan Moore, getting JC Latham, who lost like, thirty or forty pounds, lost an enormous amount of weight, allowing him to bet back over to right tackle, [SPEAKER_01]: bringing in Kevin sightler who isn't all pro anymore, but is, you know, as a guy who's played, I think it's fourteen years in the league now, fifteen years in the league.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to be one of the best offensive lines in football, but it's a professional offensive line, which I think is probably, you could have said last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, like now it's just about, like, how can they make it easier on him and make sure that it's, like, hey, we just want you to go out there and play quarterback, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, don't, [SPEAKER_01]: like the the the the the the speciacio highlights stuff we know you've got it and it'll come but we want to make sure we're coaching into you to to make the routine play and I think there's that tendons he was some of these guys you know again because they're so capable of it because they could get away with so much um and college to constantly want to make the highlight play and they're trying to to teach him like you don't have to do that all the time right I mean [SPEAKER_00]: I want the damn more thing and I thought that that got a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: They know they know they don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they know they don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: They know they ever paid it, but also when you put a guy like that, who's got a foundation into a situation with Bill Kellyanne, he's going to be, he's going to be good.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think damn more probably end up as like a top ten or top fifteen left tackle at the end of this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so [SPEAKER_00]: If you stay healthy and to me, okay, then you paid for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's really no big of a deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you have a top ten, top fifteen left tackle, that makes everything else [SPEAKER_00]: with the quarterback, go a lot easier.

[SPEAKER_00]: What did you see from Cam and what are your kind of early expectations this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think that it's one of those things where it's like, God, I'm two weeks before the three weeks before the start of the NFL season.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I haven't really thought about this guy, which is insane to think about.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got to spend some time with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He, I will say, he comes off a very calm, very level.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't feel like, I mean, it's just, he's almost quiet, you know, and like, you don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: you don't get the feeling like okay like this is the guy who's going to come out coming and take over a room yet like he has sort of taken the bull by the horns with the young players in that roster I've told the story before but he has these five thirty a.m.

[SPEAKER_01]: meetings with the other rookie skill players you know the two rookie receivers they drafted with counter helm the tight-in from Texas they drafted [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, they they watch film and they and they and they go over the practice script for the day and it's interesting because I think like Cam knew he there's going to be like a learning curve there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like there is for any quarterback.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think part of the logic is like if I am forced to teach you to my teammates every day, then I'm going to learn it on deeper level.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think he's actually like because he has like the same sort of experience that a lot of these guys do like now where he was a three different colleges.

[SPEAKER_01]: He played five years.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think you can expect him to come in and like be confident.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and I think if I were a Titans fan, my hope would be like that you get this rookie class up and running and then in December, you got, and I think six or seven rookies are gonna play, but you get, you know, handful of rookies where you say, like, yeah, like, that looks like a guy that can be a starter for us next year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know, Cam's playing well at the end of the year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think like just based on his amount of experience, again, like I don't know that he has the horses around him to be spectacular as a rookie, but I think because of the amount of experience he has, like I think he's going to get quarterback play, they're quarterback play to a competent level.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got them at four and thirteen.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think about that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and that's fair.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think that's fair and like I and look like I, you know, I don't think anybody's theirs under the illusion that this is not a multi-off season rebuild.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like this was not going to be fixed in one-off season.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that the Titans now, I'm like worried about this, I'm just kind of workshopping my all two set hundred seventy two game prediction thing now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm a little bit worried that I have the Titans finishing ahead of the Browns.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think the Browns could possibly have a worse season than the Titans?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I guess anything's possible, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The, uh, sad again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Brown's titans and saints.

[SPEAKER_00]: Brown's titans and saints.

[SPEAKER_00]: First three picks, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that's nuts, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it's crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, I don't think it's crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I hate putting things in one only, but yeah, I have this crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's, that's why you have to do because [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I could say now, I don't think this is, you know, I don't think it's an actual program anymore, but like it's, you know, it's not like good morning football where you can be like, hey, every team's going to be awesome because because of not every team is going to be awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it doesn't work that way because then some teams have to be not awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the guy, I'm the guy that has to point that out every year.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's why I put myself in this tireless exercise.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that exercise man, like that's when you find out, the league can't be like, the league can't collectively be seventy games over five hundred.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love that stuff like when you're when you're beat writer I understand it because the move is always like the team is going to read that and it does read that stuff when you do your schedule predictions as a beat writer the team does read that and you get feedback one way or the other and so you know early on in your career you're like like six and ten middle finger and then [SPEAKER_00]: you get the response of a guy who just said that this team's gonna go six and ten middle finger.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then you learn to be like, oh yeah, like I can see them going, you know, nine and seven.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can see them going, you know, ten and six when in reality, like this is probably like a five hundred team.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't cover a lot of good football teams, but you realize that there's a, to quote, Will Ferrell has strategicity to it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that that's, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's not what I do anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: This has to be, this has to be realistic Albert has to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I appreciate that for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not going to take it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to pick another morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shoulder take a, I swipe that, but I don't know if it is the only one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I like mankind, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have no problem with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a big fan of the game here at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: Old friend of mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: So no shade on the game here at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So a couple of quick questions before we get out of here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to wrap up some of your thoughts from the rest of your training camp tour, Michael Panics, what this offense blind looks really good, which I know, I think we all know in Atlanta, what do you feel like is [SPEAKER_01]: is going to happen with this amalgamation of skilled players like what what like what's going to happen for years now we've thought okay this is an all star team and it just hasn't paned out that way what what did what did you see in campus here yeah i think panics is like i mean he's right where they had to help you would be you hear the staff are comparison a lot there because there are so many rams people there um and i think that they're like what they see there like with that is the arm strength [SPEAKER_01]: the arm talent, it doesn't have all the arm angles that Stafford has.

[SPEAKER_01]: But just as far as the way the ball comes off as hands, his vision, his ability to process, they see a lot of those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, I think that combined with a veteran offensive line, they're quietly very optimistic.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, now we'll see what happens with a defense, like the offense hasn't really been the problem there of late, but, you know, if you feel like, you know, Drake London has, you know, another thousand yard year, B.

John Robbins is one of the best backs in football.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've got a really good offensive line, like you should have the infrastructure to support him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I put him in Drake May as the two quarterbacks kind of in the category of those second year guys who might really be ready to make a leave.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think they're, I mean, if not the story of the year one of the most.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Finally watch, like everything is kind of coming to a head here and it's wild that there's so much expectation on Michael Panics after three starts last year.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's essentially a three or four, whatever it was.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's essentially a rookie, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's still he's got to come in here and absolutely pull this place up and turn around.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it says something though, they're not tempering expectations there that much, like they're fine with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: With that being put on him, which I think says something about what they think of him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: You also have from your Eagles takeaways.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, I'm looking at your Twitter.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so you have this like, you have the spread of emojis.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, like, I can't people see it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, those are camps like it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like tent emoji tent emoji five from Falcon's tent emoji.

[SPEAKER_00]: So tent, it means camp.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all right, I like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know if there was something when I was on your page, it was like, okay, here's like tents and the eagles and I just don't know if you'd been visiting any national parks out there or if there's something.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I know you like to have fun like you could out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things you had noted about Jalen Hertz was, you know, the next steps here for him are going to be a little bit more granular.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought that people who are watching closely and it took a while for me to be that guy, but I thought people who are watching closely during the Super Bowl run would have been blown away at how many times he checked the Eagles into advantageous run place for Sake One Barclay.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that made him an absolute mystrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: in a valuable part of that team going down the stretch.

[SPEAKER_00]: What was your take away from from Jalen this year in training camp?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've like, what they're talking about with him is like the details.

[SPEAKER_01]: I talked about this a little bit with Jordan Love, which though to the same age, obviously, jail and it's played more.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I think it's kind of down to the details with him where he, you know, I guess, you know, is, you know, quickening his footwork so he can get through his progressions faster and marrying that up with his eyes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so you're talking about like some some detail work for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: The offense should be really good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the offense, [SPEAKER_01]: Tyler Steen's obviously a big piece for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: It looks like they may be dodgeable, it would land in Dickerson.

[SPEAKER_01]: So a couple moving parts in the offensive line, but that offense, I mean, should be really good Dallas gotters had a good camp.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's really to me the question comes down to what's going to happen on defense with them with, you know, I think they lose five or six significant pieces from Vick's first defensive Philly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but you know, I think jail and set up to have a really good year and again, like kind of getting yourself down to the details where you're, where you're working through that stuff that the little granular stuff, I think.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it tells you where he is because the big picture stuff, like no one talks about him being so Ron anymore, you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you, uh, [SPEAKER_00]: Do you think this team has the capability to repeat?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I say that, like training camp is always, the team has to go through something, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And we've seen Philadelphia kind of have with Seriani, some of the lower lows, but also some of the higher highs.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some of that I think is conditional on the roster, but it was just like the general vibe when you were like, I think it's just a very professional operation.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had one person there tell me, [SPEAKER_01]: He actually thought it was a good thing that they had their ring ceremony push back.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the rings came in late, which is why they had their ring ceremony.

[SPEAKER_01]: Normally the teams had those in the spring.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had their right at the beginning of training camp.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they actually like, one of the guys there said to me, I think that was a good thing because it kind of put a capstone on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody's talked about it after since then, you know.

[SPEAKER_01]: And my understanding is [SPEAKER_01]: With the team next year, Yani has an address, twenty twenty four once during training camp.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did address it in the spring, you know, in handling success and all of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mixed talk to a lot of people who've had sustained success.

[SPEAKER_01]: His college coach Larry Keras at Mount Union.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know where I am?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, so he's talked to a lot of like people who, you know, Jimmy Johnson came through there who have been part of programs that have repeated or sustained success.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but he really hasn't had to pull that stuff out in a summer, you know, because the team is really locked in on on twenty twenty five.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's a result of having the leadership they have, like guys like Jalen Hurts and Sake Lumparkling Jordan a lot and I can go on Wayne Johnson, Devonta Smith, Zach Bon, um, you know, read blank and ship, like there's just a lot of good, good leaders there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, um, you know, so I think the idea of [SPEAKER_01]: You know, the hangover that comes from entitlement or believing that you deserve a bigger piece of the pie after winning a championship individually, none of that stuff really exists there right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Man, when you bring Gino, the G-dog in, how scared is everybody else, man, the ultimate coat in terms of dominance.

[SPEAKER_00]: That would be, ooh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: That would be the coolest thing to do is after you win a Super Bowl, you start like really peacocking like that, and you start bringing in guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why is he bringing them in and he talked to them, but he talked to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: He talked to a bunch of those guys to try to give advice to you, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It was another one who's obviously right there in Philly.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, talk to a bunch of those guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what, you know what Gino's advice probably was is get the five best players in the country every year for twenty five straight years and just beat the piss out of every other program.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the, maybe the Eagles will try that.

[SPEAKER_00]: How he kind of does that track.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, all right, that brings us to the end of today's episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you to Albert as always for popping in on the road.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you to Tyler from Go Long, who tried to Wally Pit-Babbard this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got to talk to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, this is another space operation.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to let the numbers tell us [SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna let the numbers tell us what they tell us, but we will be back with two fresh episodes next week.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna start getting off the road.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're getting our, you know, I know Albert's hunkered in with the, uh, with all of our NFL content for the season.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have a lot of exciting stuff coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: Football preview issue stuff starts posting next week.

[SPEAKER_00]: The magazine comes out soon.

[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, it's here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get excited.

[SPEAKER_00]: See you soon.

[UNKNOWN]: you