Browns' NFL Draft questions, Jarvis Landry's comments on Stefanski & the Cavaliers are 4Q assassins

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. In 2024, a truck crashed into Cannot Animal Rescue, where I work. 146 of our dogs needed homes fast. We asked for help on Facebook. Our story spread through WhatsApp messages and Instagram reposts. Immediately, people stepped up. And just six hours later, every dog was fostered. I'll never forget how our community showed up for us. Learn how over 3.5 billion people connect to what matters with meta at meta.com slash community. Not every sale happens at the register. Before AT&T business wireless, checking out customers on our mobile POS systems took too long. Basically a staring contest where everyone loses. It's crazy what people say during an awkward silence. Now transactions are done before the silence takes hold. That means I can focus on the task at hand and make an extra sale at two.

1:02Sometimes I do miss the bonding time. Sometimes. AT&T business wireless, connecting changes everything. And so many big names. It would take me hours to say all of their names. The ultimate Cleveland Sports Show starts now. Booyah. And a new era of the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show starts now as well. Hello, good Monday morning and welcome to the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. Things are a little different now. For one, don't adjust your clock. We didn't spring back an hour. It is 10 o'clock. We are now going from 10 until noon.

2:02The first hour, WKYC Plus. If you don't have the app, download it. That's where we're going to live from now on. Second hour, WKYC Plus and YouTube. And for the first time in YouTube in our show's history, I'd like to welcome our viewers who have been enjoying cooking tips before the program. Normally the only thing you see before UCSS is a color bar slate saying UCSS starting in five minutes. But today, and by the way, UCSS Plus programs 24 hours a day. So in those lonely hours at 3 a.m., when you've got absolutely nothing to do, they're on WKYC Plus. You never know what you're going to see. Jason Lloyd and the one and only G-Bush on the panel today. Thank you for joining us. Any thoughts on this new era, 10 o'clock start? Did you guys oversleep? Did you make it on time? Oh no, no, no. They had me together. McNuggets were sending me school closing updates. But it was just about being here at 9.45. To make sure that we're not late. Right, make sure you come rolling in at 10.48. I want to take you 8, 248. Very nice, very nice.

3:03Jay, I prefer the 10 a.m. I like to early start. I get kids out on the bus and then it's less downtime in between. Do a little show prep, do a little work from my other job and often start the day. Head into the office, very good. We of course love to hear from you. So let us know your thoughts on the 10 o'clock start. So different, what do you think? I think this is going to work well. What do you think? Yeah, we are now preempted by content on WKYC Plus. We're going to lead right into the new newscast. We're going to be introduced to a plethora of new people who haven't discovered UCSS on YouTube yet. So I think all things considered, this is upward, onward and forward. There we go. The best sports show in the city. There we go. Well done. Big sports weekend, if you're a college basketball fan, the NCAA tournament is now down to its sweet 16. Any major surprises? I know we're going to talk about that later. I mean, Florida losing last night. It's chalk, yeah, Florida's the only real chalk power that's been bounced.

4:04Everything else is just, I don't know if I like this new. I guess this is the NIL world that we live in now, but the blue bloods are going to remain the blue bloods. And you don't really get the Florida Gulf Coast. You don't get the crazy Cinderella story that we've had so often in the past. Yeah, you will see. You could be right. I still think it's too early to say it wasn't that long ago. We had Oakland make a make a price. Yeah, I'm like this. What is the lowest seat 11? It's Texas. Texas. And that's it's hard to say that text. I mean, yeah, the home of Kevin, right? I don't know that that's necessarily like, wow. But no, it was, it was a mile. I'm T.J. Ford and D.J. Augustine. Shout out to the Texas old school. The old school Texas. It's all George. So we'll talk about that. We're also going to talk about the Guardians roster appears to be set. We're finally ready for real baseball that will be coming up very, very shortly. And of course, as always, some brown stalk. But Mikey, you want to start us off with the calves. Yeah, let's start with the calves because last Monday, our last Monday and our normal 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. slot.

5:04We came on the show and talked about how the calves got boot off their own home court after disappointing loss to Dallas Mavericks fast forward to today. And the Cavaliers just can be undefeated to the game road trip with an impressive win on Saturday night, a 15 point come back in the fourth quarter over a New Orleans Pelican team that had won 10 of their last 15 games, entering that contest. Jason, I understand it's three and a small sample size. And it wasn't the gauntlet of title contenders on this road trip. But it's hard not to feel a lot better about this calves team today than we did at this exact same point one week ago. Yeah, I'm sure. We just let the kids just get the playoffs. Nothing else really matters at this point. This is a team that we've said all year. They are their own worst enemy at times. I think motivation and energy has been the biggest culprit for them. It's not talent. Injuries have certainly played a factor. But I don't know. I've covered this league too long to ride these waves of that was a bad loss.

6:07Everything is doomed. Oh, they just won three games. They're fixed. No, it's the NBA. It's a long season. You win games. You lose games. You probably shouldn't lose. And sometimes you screw around and win games. You had no business winning. This is a good team. They're a talented team. They just need to be healthy when the playoffs start. And I think we're at the point on March 23rd where I think everybody's just looking at the counter and waiting for the playoffs to begin. But do you feel better about where they're at? Yeah, sure. Donovan and James have clicked better than I thought that they would early on. I thought it would work. I thought it may take a little bit more time for it to look the way that it has. So I think the chemistry that they've developed as quickly as they have is a testament to them. And it's a testament to wanting it to work. And that's half the battle when you want it to work. When you're that town, a lot of times you're going to figure it out. So this is a good team. You just hope that they can get healthy, stay healthy, and April mid-April can't get here soon enough. Yeah, man. Look. I look at Donovan Mitchell. I look at James Harden. Those are the two guys that I'm that I'm looking at. And I think they figured out which is not this master of the obvious right here.

7:11Like, they're going to go as far as they can take them. The thing that I've looked at and I really liked was the fact that James Harden has been much more aggressive. You know, he has seven threes in a game during this little time spur. He's shooting them all much better. I think he's being more aggressive. He's getting to the free throw line a little bit more and coming off the pick and roll, he's looking to be aggressive. Like, you know, he's looking to turn the corner and get to the basket. He's not the James Harden where he, you know, haven't seen a level of a burst or explosiveness. And, you know, he's not, you're not going to ask him to get you 35, 36 points a game. But in them small moments and those moments where the game might be moving around or the game might be getting out of hand. He's keeping you in it, especially a game like this against Chicago where you don't have a guy like Donald Mitchell and, you know, you may not have guys ready to go. So the thing that happens with the calves is, it's not going to change though. Like it all depends on what is Evan Mobley and Jared Allen doing.

8:16Can they rebound the basketball and then the big thing is, can you depend on the other guys to hit shots? Those are the Dean Ways, those are, you know, the Sam Marles of the world, the Jalen Tyson's of the world. What can you get from those guys? Can they hit shots in big moments and can you count on them? So that's what it's about. You know, it was a bad, bad loss against the Mavericks and they know it was a bad loss. But like you said, it's about getting Max Struss involved, back involved and rotated in there and figuring out what the rotation is, Jay. I think in playoff time, it's critical that you know where the switch is and you know how to hit it. And I think what this team is demonstrating over the last couple of weeks is, and particularly yesterday, it's almost like they were just saying, let's dig a hole and let's see if we can get out of it. Like we'll need two in the playoffs and they dug a hole. That's the easy part. The hard part is erasing that deficit and I thought they did it with relative ease. And I've said, they're better team, they should. They're better team, but what it showed me was they had no problem finding the switch

9:19and flipping it at the right time and cruising to victory. And that was pretty impressive. I don't, you know, look, these other teams get paid too. If you dig yourself a double digit hole in the third quarter, it's not always a foregone conclusion no matter how good you are, that you're going to get out of it. Well, that's the thing that's troubling with this team hasn't done anything yet. They haven't earned the right to play that way. So that's the only thing that's frustrating, I think, from my vantage point because I, I mean, I've said it multiple times when I covered the championship teams. It felt like they would set their own house on fire just to have the challenge of trying to put it out. Yeah, you're not a hero if you put out the fire that you started. But also that was a team that had won a championship and had been there. Right. And kind of understood. Yeah. This team made a second round. I hear what you say. I hear that. At the same time, like, I don't know that I want to go hammer down for 82. Agreed. I agree with that. You know, I, so pace yourself. Yeah. Save yourself because what we've learned the last two seasons is that this means absolutely nothing. Yeah. Nothing, nothing, nothing. You can erase, you can make up for 10 fewer wins in the regular season with one road

10:24win in the playoffs. Now you have one port. Yeah. Now it's like you won 10 more games, but you expended far less energy. I think they've learned that this is a marathon. It is not a sprint. You have to be ready to play basketball in mid-April, into May and hopefully into June to get where we want to get. I'll be honest, all of that was kind of superseded to me by the report that maybe in the offseason there's a path to get not just LeBron James back to Cleveland, but Yannis. That comes from a reporter that I trust. Yeah, that was out there beforehand. But she laid out the road map and said that Milwaukee has great interest in what have great interest in Evan Mobley and why not? He's a young piece. He is a piece that you can build on moving forward. He's a defender. He's only 24. Sure. You've got some upside. Like, you know, if you can pry Yannis and lose Evan. We no longer have to sit here and pontificate, well, if Evan Mobley can just become our

11:25best player. Well, we would have a new best player, a new centerpiece to build around. And that would be a team that, quite frankly, Jay, I don't know if this is still pie in the sky stuff. Yeah. But if they're able to pull that out, I've been watching LeBron James the last month. Anybody that wants to put dirt on his casket, do it at your own peril? Sky's not done. No. He is not done. And he's not going to be the piece that he was. Correct. But he can be a piece. And the one thing we've learned about the NBA over the last couple of years is you can use all the pieces you can get. And if you can use LeBron James in a support role for a championship run, that means your primary pieces are pretty damn good. Yeah. I don't like talking about LeBron because this team has a chance to win a championship. And I don't like, I feel like it takes away from this team now. That's fair. But so I don't see this team winning a championship. But anytime I talk about LeBron, it gets clipped. And so I try and preface it with, I'm serious. So I try and preface it with, like, I don't want to be talking about this right now because this is a team that, as Presley Constructed, they can beat for a championship, so let's

12:26worry about this team. We'll worry about that this summer. Having said that, now that that's out of the way and all the papers have been signed. Yeah. I said before, I think if he plays next year, this is just personal opinion. Right. I think it's here. And the honest thing is interesting is that it's a ton of injuries. Yeah. And Evan has to, but he said it's a ton of injuries. To me, it comes down to what does Donovan want. This summer will be all about Donovan's future and getting Donovan to resign the contract. And who does Donovan want to play with? Yeah. That will determine the path. Do you have a gut as to whether Donovan would veto or say, yeah, please, to pieces like Giannis and LeBron? I believe the team Donovan wants is here. Plus LeBron. That's right. No, Giannis. I believe. So you think he'd rather play with Moby than Giannis? I believe the team he wants is here. Can we get Don some counseling if he thinks that? No, I will. That's what I will. Is there anybody in the right mind that would say Evan, Mobley or Giannis, give me, give you Evan? Well, the reason the case to be made is Giannis is getting older and he's had a lot of it. He's had what five injuries this year, I think it is.

13:27Yeah. Now he's actively fighting with Milwaukee because he wants to play in Milwaukee, he says. No. No. We need to lose games. Well, he's an asset. They don't want to lose him long term. I think, I think Donovan may be open to a lot of things. I wouldn't put a pass anything. And I do think he likes Evan Mobley a lot. But that one's the point of time. I thought he likes Darius Garland a lot too, and it's funny when you up against it a little bit. When you got a lot of future ahead of you, you get these deals, you get contracts, when you start looking around, you start getting older. Smoke ribs can look great on their own. When you slide a plate of filet next to it, I don't know how it looks anymore. Right. You're right. And the honest is the filet. The smoked ribs, that's funny. The smoked ribs. They look great. Is it dry rub, or is it going to be, like, whatever your preference is, they look great until they have plate of prime rib or filet, or slide in and you're like, well, wait a minute,

14:29now I've got to choose. Or if you ain't eight all day, all of it look good. And Donovan ain't got no championship. So he ain't eight. It's hungry. If you're hungry, you might listen. And I can do, remember how you say, old school damans and damans, damans used to be. They had eight screens you could turn the channel. Oh boy, that was my dad. That was my dad. He remembered. They had a fancy living. They had the trivia where you could play against somebody in another country or something like that. Another damans. That was awesome. Man, we used to be in there all the time. But at damans, they used to give you the two, four. You get them ribs and in that little, that was top certain one. Yeah. That was that one of filet. That was certain. It was right. It wasn't. It was kind of chewy too. Yeah. A little bit of fat mixed in. I just say that to say this. I am focused on this year. I have hopes for this year. To me, it still seems like there's so much jockeying for positioning going on. I think with the injury or the lung issue with Cade, he's done. I think if you're in the fore right now, you are salivating.

15:31I'm not sure there's this urgent move inside the Cavs locker room to move up to the three parties so you can get Boston. Yeah. Cade will be back for the playoffs. He'll be back. But I still think that even with Cade, even with him back on the roster, I think if you're looking at the matchups that you want and you're the Cleveland Cavaliers in round two, you're going to say give me Detroit. The same way, the same way the Cavs are a bad matchup for Detroit. But the Boston Celtics is a bad matchup for the Cavs. Always have that. Right. That's true still. And the fact they take them, I don't know, man. We got to check him, bro. I don't understand how he's just coming back with Haliburton. What are you doing? Tatum's back. How is Haliburton chilling? Pace was terrible. Yeah. That's got a lot to do with that. That's a lot. They're like you. Take it easy. You and Yannis. Yeah. You and Yannis program. This draft, this draft this year is going to be phenomenal in terms of talent. So a lot of teams ain't in no hurry.

16:31But I do say, for me, I look at it like this. If the Cavs make the finals, that to me is a, now don't get it twisted. The Duke of knee jerk, if they go to the finals and do get blown out, I'm going to be mad. I'm going to jump on here and say it like I didn't even say this. But if they get to the finals, that's a success for me. Would you guys not be? Oh. I would even lower. That's a huge win. I would lower it to conference finals. I would too. I don't think you have to make the conference finals. Anything less than that is because I haven't made it there. Yeah. So if you get to the conference finals, you've taken an extra step after getting kind of stone wall the last couple of years. Hell yeah. If you get to the conference finals and game play in Celtics in a close series and you end up losing in six or seven games, it's not, there's no consolation for losing. But if they did add two new pieces next year in Yannis and LeBron, those are guys that have, their medal has proven. They're going to add those two pieces to a finals team.

17:34I mean, suddenly the Thunder Dynasty doesn't look like it's so tough. This man, Jayden, really hyped me up about, he didn't, like these two is foreglawing. You add them two pieces. That's a whole, that's the, and the Titanic. There is a path to, there is a realistic path, I think, to do everything that's been talked about. Feels like it. And that's what makes it sort of intriguing. I don't, Mike said it's been out there and it has been. When reporters that I know, and have worked with, break this kind of stuff, I know it's not just whisper in the wind, some of these guys whisper stuff in the wind and it takes hold. When she puts something like that out there, Ramona is a, you know Ramona, she is a top notch NBA reporter, if she's putting this pen to pad, then it's legit and she's talking to someone inside Milwaukee that's saying, yeah, Evan Mobley would be a nice piece if we were to give up on, on Yannis. All right, we're taking our first commercial break on the ultimate Cleveland Sports Show.

18:36Kids were getting so big, you're growing so fast. When we come back, there is a wide receiver in the NFL draft that once upon a time was a huge prospect, but there's Ben Injury. Did the Browns dare take him when they ultimate? Welcome back to the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show on a cold and brutal Monday. These are particularly tough after nice Sundays. Yeah. Beautiful day. Yesterday, wake up today. Snowflaries. Welcome to Cleveland in March. You're ready for opening day, Dan? Good, great. Yeah. No, we could have snow. Yeah, again. Never know. Or it could be 75 in sunny. Yeah. You never know. We were at a time where it was 80 degrees in Portsmouth, which is the extreme southern part of the state. Saddle to Portsmouth. And in the 30s on the lakefront. Yeah. Got a couple of buddies in Portsmouth. Portsmouth with a lot of iron. Yeah. Big rivalry down there. Yeah, it's basically north of Kentucky. Yeah. Oh, no. It's right across the river. It's like we went since the Tucky. Yeah.

19:36That's what we call it. Ports Tucky. Yeah. That's right. NFL talk, Mike. Yeah. Let's talk a little NFL draft. The Browns could go tackle. They could go receiver. They could go best player available at six. A guy who we've talked about a decent bit, both at six and 24 Jordan Tyson, the brother of calves, winged Jalen Tyson. But Dame Bruegel, the friend of the program, gave us an injury update on the Arizona star, Arizona state star receiver over the weekend in regards to his lingering hamstring issue that we have to discuss. This is Dame Bruegel talking about Tyson's hamstring injury. Jordan Tyson's a little bit more difficult because of the durability factor, all the injuries he's been working through. And even into this draft process, you know, it was a hamstring that bothered him throughout the year. And then, you know, it's kind of spiked a little bit during training. He wasn't able to work out the combine. He's not going to work out at the pro day. There's a hope he can maybe run some routes before the draft, but we'll find out about

20:37that as we get closer. And so he's a guy that has missed a lot of time over his four years in college. And that's, it's hard to understand how much to factor that in. But based just on the tape, I, to me, I see a guy like Stefan Dicks, who can create his own separation. He can win at the catch point. There's just a lot to like about him. And so these are three really good receivers at the top. Tyson, you're really a very talented prospect, but with a littered injury history, if you're the Browns, how do you kind of weigh the talent versus the injury passed as you look at him as a potential pick? And not just number six, but number 24. Now, I don't know, man, I actually caught that a little bit and me and Tyson has been taught about these receivers and doing this like review of the top receivers. And it scares me. The fact that he hasn't ran or done anything at the combine, he's probably not going to run or do anything at his pro day. He may get into some, well, you say he's not.

21:39He might run a couple routes here or there. Like, you know, for the Cleveland Browns, I just don't think at this point they are in a position where you can, at number six, take somebody who is either a history issue where you don't know if they're going to be available and ready to go. I need somebody who is a starter. I can't be, oh, well, we'll work, that's my thing with my real feeling. I like him. But if you're going to tell me, all right, we're going to take him at number six. And then we got to still figure out whether Dewan Jones can cover our bet if he's not ready to go until half. No, no, no, no. I need me to start it right now. And the scary thing about Jalen Tyson is, it's just not one injury. He's been injured going back to Colorado, injured going back to Arizona State, multiple things, PCL, ACL, like, you know, that's the triple crown. I had that one that I'm surprised he came back and played as well after, after his injury there. Are you worried about the degenerative nature? You worried about the swelling?

22:41Can he practice back-to-back days? Is he going to be able to go through camp? And then you're going to have to start talking about, well, the chemistry, figuring out whether he's missing, no, no, no, no, give, to me, I'm going to say they take him off the board. If he was still somehow the fall of the 24, and if they did take a tackle in the first pick because they're higher than the tackle, I would still take him at 24 because I think he's that talented, but I could, I'm not, I'm out on him at six. I don't think it's out of the question he falls to 24, only because I feel like guys with less injuries than that have fallen. Yeah. A lot farther than 24. The half. So, yeah, it's a real concern. We talked about it on the show a couple weeks ago that in some ways it's worse if it's one injury that's chronic, it's worse in a lot of ways. But this is such an array that it just leads you to believe that there's just, he's just brittle, and there are some guys that are just injury prone when you have a ton of soft tissue injuries and you combine them with a full knee reconstruction and a fraction

23:43clavicle, like something's going on here. It's not just a fluke. One or two things you can buy as a fluke. There's just too much here for it to just be a fluke-y thing, so no, I don't think you can touch him at six and it's a shame because I think he's incredibly talented, but there's just too much else going on. I think you, what's the number one ability and all professional abilities available, so can you show us? This doesn't happen. It's the, this is what scares me, this is the kind of play that Browns take. In a low key, that is a profile, particularly a wide receiver. I'm going to throw some names out here. I'm also going to ask you guys to help me with some other names. Was it Antonio Callaway that they signed? It's either injury or trouble. Florida. We can be Father Flanagan. We can fix him. Look at the tape. So here's what the scenario is. You got good devil. It's funny that he's an ASU sundae. You got good ASU sundae, looking at you going, hey, Steph Diggs, come to mind, wow, separation,

24:46look at the tape. Then you got bad ASU sundae, go, ah, this guy falls down, get to drink a water and gets hurt. Don't do it. The Browns in the past, with, ah, I'll put Anthony Schwartz out there, Anthony Schwartz wasn't a character or an injury guy, he just wasn't a wide receiver. He was fast. Yeah. Greg Little. Greg Little. Go back in the history of the wide, how many wide receivers have the Browns taken in the first round? Greg Coleman. Cory Coleman. Two? Who else? Braylon. Braylon. I look up, I look it up. I think it's a handful. Yeah. And it's the most, it is the most challenging position in this franchise's history. Yeah, but a lot of the guys you named were mid-round picks. Those were not. Okay. Okay, but they were still reached as Cedric Tillman, what, he was second round. Yeah, but he was, he was another one of those guys who was supposed to be, he was supposed to be a first-rounder and he got injured and they're like, wow, we're getting a deal

25:47here. Well, but you got what you paid for. Yeah, but I mean, we're talking about the sixth pick. No, I'm worried about the 24th pick. I know I am because Jay, you're exactly right. The other teams seem to know when a wide receiver is damaged goods. We don't. They've taken six in the first round in the franchise history. Okay, guys, nothing about that. Jay, I'm going to read you the list, Rook. This is maybe one of the most important positions in the sport, and we've taken six in the first round. Would you like to hear these names? Sure. In 94, they took Derek Alexander with the 29th pick. Okay. Had some moments. But overall, a fail. In 79, they took Willis Adams. In 79. In 79. 79, boys. 79. I'm the only person in this room alive. I was alive. I was three. I was, I was, I was not, I was hanging out with my dad, so many. In 73. I was. Oh, 73. 73. Steve Holden. Fail. 2016, Cory Coleman. Fail.

26:48Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's. 1964, Paul Warfield. Yeah. And 2005, Braylon Edwards. Fail. That is the entire list of first round receivers. That's right. Think about that. Yeah. This is one of the critical positions, especially in the last three decades. It's one of the critical positions for success in the national footballing, and the only guy that's hit was a buck guy. Man, you got it. That's it. You got to go back to the 60s. If you. If you. If you do. If you do a top 10 like Browns, we tried it. Back in the day. A top 10 receiver room. You got guys that you going back to black and white max speedy. Who is what? What are you talking about? Before you got to throw Ozzy Newsom in, who wasn't even a white receiver? And then you. And then if you go back and you look at the top years for white receivers, you would have Ozzy. Ozzy Newsom would be a tight end in there. And then there's another tight end that that had over a thousand yards. I can't remember what his name.

27:49You play with, you play with Josh McCown. This is crazy. He is a tight end. Gary Barnage. Gary Barnage. Gary Barnage has a top thousand yard year. And guess what? It's like West or slaughter once. And then it's Jarvis and Odell with a thousand. And that's it. It's embarrassing guys. That's why I've always said blind spot at that position, not just here with this general manager. This franchise has for whatever reason had the biggest blind spot at white receiver of maybe any team other. We talked about this one other time. The Jets also have a woeful, pitiful history at white receiver. But you, this is, you've got to turn over a new lead. They're all family to receiver is still a tight end from the 70s. And that's, and that's probably, and you know what? If that changes, it's going to be a fan and it's going to pass him as another tight end. Yeah. That's crazy. Go get yourself a bonafide field stretching, white receiver threat. This is 2026, Cleveland.

28:49You can't go this route of let's take Calloway and see if he can be good. Let's take Schwartz and see if we can teach him how to be a white receiver. Is Cardinal Tate that guy? I believe he is. But my fear isn't at six. My fear is I do think that this, look, there's one reason you're not running it pro-day. I'm afraid to get in hurt again. Yeah. Is it for the number you're going to put up there? Well, you thought Tyson or for Tate? No. For Tyson. I'm not worried about Tate. Yeah. Tate ran a decent 40. Was it blazing? No. Neither does Jerry Rice. I'm not worried about that. If I'm Tyson, I'm saying two, three things can happen if I run the 40. I can blaze a time and turn everybody's head, okay? Or I could run a slow time and create more question, or I can pull up lane and hurt my hamstring. You do that. So if two of the three are bad, play the odds. The next is screaming in your ear. Don't run. Nope.

29:49So he's not going to run. And I don't blame him. I wouldn't either. But caveat emptor, buyer beware. If you draft this kid and you bring him in, and he tears the hammy off the bone in week two of training camp, don't look to anybody for help because it's not coming. And Cleveland just can't afford to have something like that happen. I can't afford to go to the used car like me, and use cars to go get that out of you. I'm like, that out. Are you looking crazy? Check engine lights on. 2024. We just, we just, we just put a little couple of spark plugs in and go ahead and you like, I can't, I can't do it, sir. When do buy a used car? What do you do? You look at the maintenance history. You look at it. Where the car is? What's this car been wrecked? What? And if, if, can I pass it? And I hate to say this because, oh, no, no, I had a car sitting that couldn't pass each egg. That's even worse. That's even worse. Jordan Tyson were a car. He'd be a late model Porsche with low miles, but a history that suggests he could be

30:54a lemon. And you just have to be hands off on that. The check engine light is flashing. The check engine light is flashing. It's flashing. It was just a, you know, I was an ex-pat that was in Dubai doing business. He just left it over there. He left it in the parking garage. Now, one last thing from bad devil's Porsche, okay? It was in the flood. It was in the hurricane. Flood car's even worse. Bottoms rustin. One last thing from bad devil. And this is what's going to make this calculus very difficult on draft day, if he slips to 24. Bad devil's looking straight at Cleveland going, pass on him. Pittsburgh's going to take him. Yeah. And he's going to have a 12 year hall of fame career. Take him. And you know what? I'm running up there with the pig. Now, I need him. I'm not letting him go to Baltimore at Pittsburgh and none of your mother's teeth. Because Jason likes to say, you've got to take the emotion out of it. You've got to, don't let fear drive a bad draft pick. They've done that before. Don't miss. You've got, I don't even know if he's going to be there at six. Something recent. Tyson?

31:55No, Tate. Oh. Something recently tells me that somebody's going to make a trade. Someone's going to move off. I think it'll be there. I hope you pray that he's there. If he's there, turn in the card, point four seconds after number five is called. Like immediately, here's what I want it to look like. With the fifth pick in the NFL, who has fifth pick? Who has fifth? Who's the Giants? Giants. With the fifth pick in the NFL draft, the New York Giants take blah, blah, blah from blah, blah, blah. And the sixth pick is in and the Cleveland Browns. They better look like that. Yeah, dude, dude, dude, dude. All right, that's my rant. Bad devil be gone. And we go back, Jay, we're talking guardians. Yes, guardians. They've made some roster moves. Do we agree with them? Do they have the right team to make a run at the AFC center, or at the AFC center, or the AFC center? Football. Football. We talk guardians. And the ultimate Cleveland Sports Show comes right back, stay with us. It's a bad one.

32:56Welcome back to the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. Let's go Cleveland Guardians up. We're getting ready for opening day now. It's just, what do we have? Mike, a week and a couple days away? Yeah, don't they play real baseball this week? This week? Yeah, this week. Yeah, this week and this week. Man, did this sneak up on me? Yeah, oh my God, it's the 20s. Because they open on the road. So it always. And don't they have two stops before they come home? Yeah, Seattle. Seattle and Dodgers. Texas? Oh, the Dodgers, yeah, that's going to be interesting. They got a brutal. Let's get a yardstick series out of that. There's days opening day. Oh, technically. I've heard of it. When I were talking about a couple weeks ago, they're opening schedules. Yeah, it is tough. It is tough. Playoff teams on the road. West Coast. Now, the good thing is, if you can do a West Coast trip, it's good that you're already West Coast acclimated, your body, you've been out there. So that's at least a positive. But yeah, you're right. Let's start with Seattle. Then let's go down to Dodgers. They don't have anybody good to do that. I checked payroll. I believe they're dead last 75 million. They're last or second to last. Winimovski.

33:56Yeah, very, very. It's hard to make a case like, you know, because we're not saying can they make the playoffs? Because I think at this point, we know they're going to contend in the central. And they may be in the wild card mix. It's Detroit runs away at the central. But we're actually making the case. You know, can this team make a world series run? But it's almost impossible for me to mention world series run and dead last in payroll. It's an anomaly. It certainly would not be. We did a segment last week, I think it was. If everything goes perfectly in this team win a world series, if the lottery stays healthy and reaches it, if Valera stays healthy, well, guess what? Valera's already heard. Are you on an injury? And so if by me and Williams reach expectations, yes. This team needs absolutely everything to break its way to be a world series contender. But could you find a path? Yes, on March 3rd. Because of the pitching, you can. Yeah, because of the pitch, because of the bullpen. And I do think that this is an actual Major League lineup for the first time in quite a few years. You look at it and go, OK, I see a lot of Major League hitters on this team now.

34:57Finally. Well, we've got to put one in a sky for Logan Allen. Yeah, he looks like he's Stephen Vogue. Got him up out of here. Now, he starts. And I mean, that's not like he'll be here at some point. But that just shows the strength of the team. Vogue talks about, hey, he's a guy that was going to be a big part of what we done done in the last two years. He'll still be a big part. He's just going to start in Chibwe. Message looks like he gets his rotation spot. But I mean, it's not like those guys are going to be starting for our rotation the whole season. They ought to need more pictures. These guys are going to go up, go down. So in the first month, some of them will be called up. So you know, even if it's for a spot start or whatever, it's very unlikely that you're going to get through. And everybody knows that you're starting five. Definitely isn't your last five. Look what happened last year with the Guardians. Another move, Nolan Jones, who's now out of options, was sent to AAA. Valera and Gatos are likely going to start the season on the injury list.

35:59I love what you said about. It looks like a major league roster. Last year, almost throughout the year, I kept looking at the lineup and seeing seven guys that were batting 210 or less. And I'm like, this is not, this is a AAA lineup. I don't know how all these kids are going to pan out. I don't know if Valera can stay healthy. Can delotors stay healthy? I don't know. Will Bonayler and his shorter stride on his swing continue hitting 360, which is where he's hitting, since he shortened up. Like, he's been an absolute beast in spring training. Well, he needs to be because I think David Fry could push him for that spot. I agree. This is about it. Yes, this is, it's time. Yeah. It is absolutely time. Did you see the piece over the weekend about how everybody's height has now changed? Yes. I think it's slightly less. I was laughing, because Naila was one of the guys who was listed at six foot. Who's now five nine? Now he's listed at five nine. He's from three inches. So because of the auto head. Because of the auto-maintenance. Yeah, so because of ABS. Automated ball strength. The automatic ball strength. Baseball has now officially measured all the players. So they know where the knees and the letters are. Yeah. And he just walking out first and saying,

37:00what are you waiting? How tall are you? Right, it's a memory of the old days. When you would report and you'd say, height, weight, you'd say, six, one, one, eighty, five. And you were five, 111, seven. So what's Jose Ramirez listed at now? He got five, seven. I think five eight. The article I read didn't mention Hosing, because what it did was it picked outliers. That was somebody was listed at six, one, and they're five nine. It was the guy in the A's. That was the biggest difference that I'd see. There was the guy in the A's. I saw a tweet about it. It was. Yeah, Gavin Lux was one of them. Yeah, it was Gavin Lux. That's who it was. Yeah, there were a lot of them, but Bonaylor was one of them. Boat was listed at six foot. He's actually five nine. Woo! Was it at five seven? No, judges are legit. Is he safe? Judges still. Judges every bit. He might have to be taller. Judges funny. They did it in two inches. In the world, baseball classic, judges standing on first base next to guys that I know are six two. And he said they look like children. He looks like Andy Reed at the punt pass and kick competition. One of the best. One of the official ABS.

38:00The official ABS measurement has Aaron Judge at six seven to 82 was the final. That's what that is. That is amazing. He is the same. He is bigger than Miles Garrett. Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yes. Have you seen the picture of him next to L2V? No. It's like one of the great. Oh, yeah, that is a good one. That is very good. Because what's L2V officially listed at? L2V is still on the Astros, correct? I think so, yeah. Yeah, he is. L2V is five five five six five seven. L2V is still on the Astros. They have so many players in the roster for spring training. He moved to left field. Yeah, he's not. Yeah, he's still a place some second. He's listed at five six one sixty seven. Five six five six five six to six eight. That's amazing. When I was a kid, Freddie Pottec was the shortest major leader at five four. I don't know that name. Freddie Pottec. He was a six second baseman shortstop for the Royals. I want to say he was listed at like five four. Jay, what did you make of the Guardians decision to keep Parker Messick up in that final rotation spot?

39:00They sent Logan Allen down the triple A. Nolan Jones also was option to triple A. He had the option. I want to reuse that word, but he had the option to say thank you, but no, thank you. He couldn't decline. But he would have forfeited it too many times. Yeah, he's not going to decline. He kept it. He wants to have money. But Messick over Logan Allen, is that the right choice? Saw it coming. I mean, I'm Messick. I think I mentioned last week on the show. I talked about some of the things that I saw from him and when I was out in Arizona. He's just, he's ready. He's not, he's not phased by the moment. This is one of the kids that I just demand to see more of. Because what I saw from him last year was so good and so impressive because remember, he was doing this during the month of September when, you know, you didn't want to be the odd guy out in the rotation. That was like the old Braveslok rotation when they had Glavin and Smolz and it was just the greatest, maybe the greatest starting rotation ever. You didn't want to be the guy that threw the L because everybody else was capable of winning every day. So Messick was the guy that was put in these pressure spots

40:03and he just came in a bit. I didn't think they would do this. I was excited when they did. Logan Allen was horrendous in the last spring training start. I don't know how much of that swayed it or not. But I think it had a lot to do with it. He got tormented. Didn't it give up 12 runs? How do you give up? That was like eight, I thought. I don't remember the final line. He got hit. You know who else got hit? I turned on the game and it was like 10 to 2 and the third inning. Yeah. Yeah. Tanner Bible got smoked in his last start. Yeah, he did. Saturday was it? Yeah. He got smoked. I thought they would start Gavin Williams for opening day. They're going with Bible. Yeah. I think a lot of it is because Bible was supposed to be the opening day starter last year and he had the food poisoning. So it was scratch from the start. Oh, yeah. And because Williams hasn't really separated himself yet, I don't think he has. I think they're still pretty neck and neck. Williams and Bivy, well, Williams has had the better spring. Sure. Yeah, but in track record of career track record, I don't think Gavin has really separated himself all that much from Tanner. Second half of last year, he was better. No question. But I think because Tanner missed out on the opportunity

41:05last year, give it to him now and it may be his only chance. Because hopefully Gavin does establish himself this year as a head of the rotation in front of him. That was a preemptive pizza party. Yeah. You're moving. You're going to be a pants of moving. We need to the pizza party. I thought, who do you want to do? I do want to see more of Messick. You know what Logan Allen is. You know what he's a fifth starter. He's a guy who can eat some innings for you if you need him. But he's not a guy who's going to carry a rotation. You're not going to start him in a playoff game. No. So see what you got with Messick. I think I was excited by it. I didn't think they would do it. Bull and I talked a lot about the Nolan Jones thing. A few weeks ago, I thought they would keep Nolan up only because he's the veteran. He was out of options. He can play all three outfield spots. And you want to let the young guys get every day at bats. But Nolan was so bad in spring training that I think last week we both agreed he can't make this team. I think what it signals to me, Jay, and I'm curious to see if you agree with this. The kids have been coming. The kids have been coming. The kids have been coming. They've got all these kids in the pipeline, but there was like a brick wall for them

42:07to get into the big league. It was a gap. And I feel like this move in particular, if you're going to look at this move in the micro, I think you can sort of extrapolate the philosophy of the organization. It's time for the kids. It's time for the kids. Nolan, you had a shot. Yeah. You've had multiple shots. Yeah. They stayed patient with them last year. They did. Oh, I thought they were overly patient because you kept saying, and I think voter kept saying too, the analytics show that he's hitting the ball hard. He is the anomaly the wrong way of all of the metrics are saying this should be happening and it never translates. That's right. And at some point, you have to go by what you're saying. But I think this is a clear delineation by the organization to say it is officially time for the Valeras and the De Lauders of the world. Jason and Bull said, they think it's been going to play this year. I would hope so. Yeah. Yeah. I thought he was going to be, I'm going to give it up for a while. It's off after so many years. As a reliever. Yeah. But that's fine. I think his starting days are over. Yeah.

43:07That's fine. As a reliever, he could be a phenomenal weapon for them to come out of the loop. Absolutely. When they ran Valera and De Lauder out for the Tiger's Playoff series, I wrote that day the Guardians have waited all year for this lineup. Yeah. That's the lineup. To your point about it's time to play the kids. Yeah. They have patiently waited. And with injuries, who knows how many times you're going to be able to see that lineup? Because it's just, these guys have had injuries throughout their career. I have a hard time believing they're suddenly going to be healthy and play in 150, 155 games. But if you could have Valera in one corner outfield spot, De Lauder in right and Stephen Kwan in center field, that is an actual major league. It should be. Yeah. It should be. Yeah. It should be. If they actually legitimate, major league outfield. And you know, the key is De Lauder's never played more than 60 games. Yeah. So you just hold your breath. And also, I don't think you're going to see him out there six days a week. They're going to play him three or four, give him a day off. Yeah. Three or four, D.H. I don't think because of his history, how can you run him out there six, seven days in a row? I just don't think it's realistic. I feel like to that point, Jay, that you could change the guardian's nickname to the platooners.

44:13Yeah. And it would fit. The more we are around this team with this carnation here, this roster and this, you know, front office and manager, it's funny because you get the sense that they speak around the word platoon as if it is a bad word because it is. And baseball circles, you don't want a team of platooners. You want everyday guys to get into the rhythm, see the 95 and 97 Indians. They didn't platoon. That's what Hargrove said. Hargrove said starters are starters for your reason. He was saying that. He was saying that. And what we have here and now is what's the matchup? What do the numbers tell us? Okay. Well, if that's what it tells us, then, no, there's no sense in putting Kwan in center today. Let's put Kwan in left. Let's hit this. You know, and it's like, it's becoming a Mitch and Mitch and match game. We would call it flexibility, Jay. We let them look at it on the court. You can put that positive spin on it.

45:13And that's what they're trying to do. You know, when I talk to these guys, Antonetti and Chirney about that, it's almost like they're trying to explain why they're doing it instead of leaning into it with their chest. There is a direct correlation between the rise and platoon and the death of switch hitting in baseball. I don't know if the death of switch hitters led to platoon or platoon led to the death of switch hitting. I think platoon is leading the box. One is rising and the other is going, I wrote about, we talked about a couple years ago. American kids don't switch hit anymore. Not anymore. Very, very few. The Latin kids do. But American kids hardly anywhere switch hits anymore. Why? I think they've seen the trend of the game. So I talked to the old Mariners manager, I forget now who it was. He was terrific. And he said, parents are paying thousands and tens of thousands of dollars to send these kids to these academies and put them in these showcases. Why would you put them in position to fail? And if you switch it, you are going to fail because it takes time to figure out how to do it. So the way that baseball has evolved, you're playing your strength and you're trying to get

46:18on a PBR and you're trying to get on these video sites and you're trying to get on these recruiting sites, you're not going to do something where you're intentionally going to struggle. And if you try and learn how to switch it, you are going to struggle. So American kids are just learning from one side of the plate. While Latin kids, their dads are putting bats in their hands at three and four years old and making them swing from both sides. Lindor was telling me that. That you, Frankie learned how to switch it when he was like four or five years old. His dad made him do it. Cal Raleigh's dad was a coach who was the exception who said, you're going to switch it. I'm going to make you switch it. Now Cal Raleigh is a triple word score. He's a power hitting catcher who can switch it. That's great. That's a shame, too. Because I like the flexibility of having, I mean, one sure way to stay in the lineup every day is to be like close, be able to hit lefties and righties, you're not going to sit on the bench. Or you can do what Naylor did a couple of years ago and just make it your business to be able to hit left handed pitching. You know, if you work on something and that's what the off season is for and he went in the off season and he took nothing but left handed batting practice and he nailed it.

47:21Adam and I argued for months about Naylor's inability to hit left handed pitching and now he is to really get it. All right. We're going to swing to a break. When we come back, the NCAA tournament is down to sweet 16 and how sweet it is. Chalk rules the day. Welcome back to the Ultimate Club. It's board show. This is our final segment on 10 o'clock hour. If you're just joining us, we now start at 10 o'clock every day exclusively on WKYC Plus. If you don't have the app, get it. It's easy. You guys know what to do. It's free. We go YouTube and WKYC Plus. So for our regular YouTube viewers, you can still enjoy us in the 11 to 12 o'clock hour. This is new. This is fun. This is great. Jump on board. Join us every single day. Mike, the sweet 16 this year for me looks more chalk than any year I can ever remember it. The lowest seed left is an 11 and I wouldn't even call that a monumental upset for Texas to get there.

48:21Is this a good thing for college basketball? Is it bad for me? Chalk is boring. Give me the 13 seed that makes the run to the sweet 16 every time. I love that. I like chalk when you get down to the elite eight in the final four because at that point, the best team should be the teams playing for the channel. And we usually get that anyhow. Yeah. In this tournament, high point was the only mid major upset in the first round. Yeah. The only non-mid major upset in the first round. You had Texas who obviously wasn't 11 seed. He was in the play in one and they upset me while you upset Gonzaga. But outside of high point, that was the only non-power for conference school to win a game in the first round. And I think a big reason of that is just the NIL distribution. These little schools that used to have these gems no longer hang on to those gems. Those gems get poached by the bigger schools and look at high point. You know, they're going to have three of their better players that are going to lose one to graduation. The other two are going to be at that point next year. Yeah. They'll be playing at power five programs like a Florida, like a Duke, like a UNC.

49:24Follow the money. There were some really good games. So I don't want to take away from the fact that it's a blue blood, even though they weren't higher seeded. But their first round game was incredible. They needed a 45 foot three pointer at the buzzer to go in off the window to get their game to overtime. And where they finally pulled away from Santa Clara. Yesterday, St. John's Kansas came down to literally the final shot, great game. Iowa upset one seeded Florida in a game that came down to literally the final play. There were some really good basketball games. It just weren't the March Madness Cinderella feel like we've been accustomed to. And I have a sense. This is kind of the trend. Do you have a bracket there? I do. I have a question for you. At what point could we have, and I would love this. My first job was in Kentucky. I've always followed Kentucky basketball. But at what point could we have a St. John's Arkansas Patino Calipari match? That's it. That's it. Well, put that down as my wish list then for a championship game because, you know,

50:24there are some feuds in sports that you think, oh, that's fake beef. Real beef. That's true. I mean, some of the words they used to describe the other was, it was crazy pants. I saw a stat the other or this morning. And I think it was on Yahoo, I forget where I was looking at it and said, out of the top players who make, you know, over player basketball players that make over $100,000 for NIL. Only 10% of them are outside of power five schools. So that just goes to show you the amount of money that they're now making. And if you are one of the major schools and the smaller schools, you're not, you don't have the purse strings to do that. And like, you know, we talk about it. Some of those teams are even actually going talking about the turnover they have on their squads. And then whenever crew guys are saying, they're selling their programs as a feeder program and opportunity to go to a bigger school, actually advertising where the minor league, we

51:31are. You come here. And think about it, gee, in the old days when these mid majors would make runs, the roster construction was very predictable. They had four guys on their team that were four year guys. Yeah. And so it was a team that had played together for four years and what it taught everybody was, you know, fundamentals and basketball still carry. And they can win the day to an extent. But now those mid majors are getting those kids poached. If they're really good after year one, if they're a late bloomer and really developing after year two, very few of them are getting into year four in these mid majors where they're already established stars. Right. They're poached by that. Yeah. And I don't think that's a good thing for the sport. And they're talking about expanding the tournament. Why? What's the point? I mean, they're probably going to add more power five schools. They're not going to open up more spots for these schools that we're talking about, the directional schools. So the Auburns, the big power fives that were on the cutting board. Auburn was 18 and 16. They have no business being in the town. No, but they were still they were listed as first out, which is absurd to me.

52:33I know it is, but when you play in a conference like the southeastern conference and you're an also ran in that conference in all likelihood. And you know what? For all the heat Bruce Pearl took, if Miami played in the SEC, they're not 30 in one. No. Big fat. All right. We're going to YouTube and WKYC plus top of the hour, 11 o'clock. We'll see you there. Welcome back to the ultimate Cleveland Sports Show, top of the hour, 11 o'clock here in Cleveland, Ohio on this Monday morning. We've already done an hour, WKYC plus. So if you're just now tuning in on the YouTube channel and saying, wait a minute, welcome back. What's going on? What did I miss? We now start the show at 10 o'clock Eastern time. That hour is not available on YouTube. It is only available on WKYC plus. So if you don't have the app, get it.

53:34You can watch us from 10 to 11 exclusively every day on the WKYC plus app. Then at 11 o'clock, you can catch us as you normally do on YouTube. But we sign off at noon. Our show now goes from 10 until noon, the 11 o'clock hour, simulcast on YouTube and WKYC plus. Change is good. I'm told, Mikey McNuggets, isn't that true? This is all upward and onward for UCSS and it's going to help us continue to grow the show to a global audience like it was always intended. We got a lot to talk about in this second hour, including some things Jarvis Landry said over the weekend. But we start with a different browns topic. In free agency, the Browns invested a lot of money into their offensive line. Zion Johnson, Elgin Jenkins, Tevin Jenkins, they may draft an offensive lineman outside of the quarterback because that's the obvious and easy answer, gee. What player on the Browns offense will benefit the most in 2026, once again, not including the quarterback, to an improved offensive line? Is it a running back? Is it one of the receiving threats?

54:35Who do you see being the biggest beneficiary of a much improved offensive line unit this upcoming? I was going to say, I would have said the running backs prior to that anyway. The quarterback is the cliche answer to talk about it. Obviously, we hyper-focus on the quarterback, but when you watch in all these films and you watch the blocking assignments that we've been talking about, the Browns run game last year was, I mean, there were times where I would watch film and be like, they are busting so many assignments, I don't know what their assignment should have been. I don't understand why this guy is in the backfield. There were times where you got defensive lineman that are just back there. It's just like, it will be on my whole realm of possibility that I just couldn't understand what the blocking assignments were and why we could not run the ball. There are times where Kunso on Juckins is getting hit in the backfield and before he makes

55:37his first cut. I'm okay. Who you got back there? Barry Sanders. Maybe Barry Sanders. He could have get that off, but it's Barry. But other than that, the running game is a major part of what is going to help your quarterbacks. You need to have a run game where you can convert third and twos. You don't need to bring in tight ends and run jet reverse motion. Can we not line up in the eye formation and get downhill and run the football? When the Browns have been good with Nick Chubb and other things like that, that's what they were doing. I think the push up front and getting those guys up front, and they may even go with another tackle, another guard or whatever the taste may be, a couple more linemen. I think it by far helps the running backs the most. I don't think there's another answer. I don't know how you can make a case for anything, but the running. Oh, I will. Just wait. Because I will. Please do. What was the stat? Yeah, because we're a clean, sweet peer guy. I say the same thing. What was the stat? Kunso on was getting hit. How far behind the line of scrimmage?

56:38Behind the line of scrimmage. On average. Initial contact. Was coming behind the line of scrimmage. The receivers and the tight ends, of course you're going to benefit from it, but you also regardless of the protection, protections, I'm not trying to dismiss protection, protection is important. But Dishon and or Shador are both hold the ball among, hold the ball the longest among any quarterback in the NFL. Even if they have good protection, their two guys are going to hold the ball. Right. That's where it doesn't really correspond with me or translate with me when you're talking at a topic like this. It absolutely matters to the running backs. So yeah, to me, it's Kunso on all day is obviously going to benefit the most from better protection up front. Yeah, I agree. It's clean, sweep out here, Mike, because for the two things, number one, there were times last year where Shador Sanders' time to throw was leading the NFL. He had the most time to throw out of all the, no, he held the ball the longest. That's why he wasn't getting rid of it quickly. But the fact of the matter is he was still standing there holding the ball for over three

57:40and a half seconds. So I don't think past protection was this major issue last year. I just, I don't. It could always be better. And I agree with you. I don't want to downplay protection. But when I watched the running game, I saw the same thing, G-Boish saw. I, there were times that I thought, I think the offensive line thought we were in past block. I don't know what they were doing. His time to throw was, the numbers are the numbers for sure. Yeah, they don't change. I can't just block over it. I can't just block over it. I didn't see the one for his life in China. I had that. There was some of that. There were times in protection was horrendous. Yes. And there were times where he did not have the ball. But when was the, when was the run blocking great? Oh, never. I mean, I didn't see it last year. I, and I was so, at one point I thought, well, Jutkin's being out of the lineup, okay, that's going to be, that's going to hurt us and it did. But at the same time, I just thought, most of Jutkin's stuff was. Jutkin's doing the work. He was getting a hit behind the line of scrimmage on the reg. I think his average was getting it behind the line of scrimmage.

58:40You can't have that. I think this, this offensive line is going to be much stronger in the past block. And I wouldn't be support run block. I wouldn't be surprised if you see, and, and again, in this trend in the NFL where running games didn't win super balls. We saw it two years ago. The Eagles win it when Sequan was all world. And we saw last year a team win it with a running back. It's changed, guys. It's, it's not the drop back and sling at 35 times and throw for 400 yards anymore. That, that part, that might come back because it's all cyclical. But right now, the NFL is about if you can run the ball effectively. And even if your passing game is mid, you can convert on third downs and keep the chains moving. If you can run the ball in today's NFL, you are going to be successful. And it wasn't like that five years ago. So I think the Browns on this one have recognized that trend. And they've sort of gotten, I don't want to say in front of it because in front of it was the Eagles. Yeah.

59:40They were the ones that saw if we get Sequan we're a Super Bowl champion. So I think now the Browns are sort of on board with that thinking. And I think that's a good thing. I'd rather be on the front end of that wave than the end of it when it would likely be cycling out anyhow. There's obviously a great case we made for Quinchon. I hear you guys. Let me tell you why it's Jerry Judy. So when you look at how Shadore Sanders, it could be the Shaw and Wasabi Dylan Gabriel. The line wasn't good enough last year in totality. And specifically with Shadore, he and Harold Fanon had this innate connection from the get-go. Those two were locked in on the same page from start to finish. When things broke down, Shadore was looking for 44 first, second, third, foremost. G, when Jerry Judy and Shadore got into some of their little back and forths on the sideline. What was the one thing they always came back to, right? They weren't on the same page, correct? Communication. Part of the communication breakdowns where Shadore was looking at the hot read in one way. And Jerry was operating the hot read in the other way. They weren't on the same page in that.

1:00:40That obviously comes with reps. And they talked about last year. They just need more reps. And we killed the whole topic of practice reps for Shadore. And I want to dive back into that. They'll have an off season there. If the offensive line can give Shadore more time to operate, read, get from first to second to third read. I think there'll be less opportunities for miscommunications and misreads between Shadore and Jerry on specific hot routes. And he won't go back to defaulting to Harold Fanon as his first option on every single pass play. Which by the way, was not a bad idea last year. It was work or their best offensive weapon. I don't even say that as a criticism. But I think the single biggest beneficiary of the improved protection is Shadore's ability to now get through his progression. When he gets through his progressions, Jerry Jr. becomes a much bigger factor in the past game. And I go back to the Tennessee game in particular, Jay. When they did have the best protection they had in any game from like the third game on after Green Bay to the end of the season. That was the game Jerry went off, right?

1:01:41And two of his big plays were when Shadore hit him on a little post route where he threw it over the linebacker between the safety. There was no read. That was Shadore. There was no hot read. That was Shadore with protection with time. Being able to throw the ball downfield, which was his best trait as a rookie. I hear the Quinchon-Jugkins argument. I just think from where he was last year to where he can be in 2026, the improved offensive line is going to do wonders for the Shadore Jerry Jr. Here's what I would say to shoot that down. And look, I'm not going to argue with you. The answer to this is everybody benefits. Exactly. That's why the offensive line is the linchpin to a team. If you have a good offensive line, you can do both. You can pass the ball and run the ball. It's vital to success. That's why when they rolled this offensive line out there last year, you looked at the schedule and said where the win's going to come from. I don't think there's any question that all of these guys will be benefactors and chief among them, the quarterbacks. But I think the reason it's going to be Jugkins is because he's the primary ball carrier. He's going to carry the ball 75% of the Browns carries.

1:02:45Whereas it's not just Judy that will benefit from better pass protection. Yeah. All of the pass catchers will benefit from better pass protection. So you've got to split that pie maybe three or four ways. So his production might go up 25%. While everybody else's goes up 25%. And they could draft a card and they'll take and they could get a take in there. And that would also be here. So I think you're splitting the benefit of a better offensive line between all the pass catchers where Quinshaw and Jugkins is the primary ball carrier. So you're not buying the Dylan Samson hype that Earl was selling? I am not buying that. I think it could be a fine complimentary piece. He's a third. I think he's got a place in this offense. He's a third down. But your locomotive is Quinshaw and Jugkins. And he's going to get the bulk of the carries. And I think he's going to, if he's healthy, he's going to have a big year. No, I think too, you know, a lot of it will improve. I think when you talk about the look of the time you have to have to throw, both Quinshaw, both, excuse me, should all Sanders and Dishonn Watson like to explain plays.

1:03:47They like to run around and make plays. So that adds to the level of time that they have back there. Now, I do think that they like that playmaking ability. But there is also something to be said for. Hey, I just want you to get to hit to the first read and hit it and let's go. Like, let's, let's move the offense. Let's be quick. Let's be decisive about certain things. So I think that and plus the fact that I think Todd Monker is going to cook up an offer that is going to be very multiple. And I think that a nice running game play action and different things like that helps everybody out. But if I look at this thing, I got to say Quinshaw and Judges, because I just watched too many times. He's just getting hit in the backfield and he has nothing, he has nowhere to go. So I think the run game is that. All right. We're going to stay with the Browns after the break. Did you guys hear Jarvis Landry's comments? Crazy Jarvis Landry going on. It was spicy. Unplugged Jarvis Landry. I like that version of Jarvis Landry. Spicy. I always love it when players, and they can do this when they're out of the game,

1:04:48when players start spilling tea about their days in the NFL, coaches, players, other things. We had some of that with Jarvis Landry. If you missed those comments, we're going to play them on the other side of the break. Don't go anywhere. The Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show on UCSS, on WKYC Plus and YouTube is back, right? Welcome back, Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. It's not on the agenda for today. We're just talking in the break about the flag football highlights over the weekend. In Tom Brady, at 48, still threw him lasers. He could crawl. He could still play the game. He could still play the game. And Team USA beat the NFL stars. And it didn't surprise me because that's their game. There's so many nuances to the flag game. That's going to be an interesting developing story over the next couple of years to see whether or not it's a roster filled with NFL players like we initially thought or if it's going to be guys that have already been living in that universe that have mastered it. Because they beat the NFL in the championship game.

1:05:49They think they won maybe 24 to 14 or it might have been even more than that. But it was fun to watch. It was fun to look at. Thought I'd bring that up. All right Jarvis Landry goes off. Doesn't he? He sat down with Leonard Fernet on the fourth and long podcast. A fourth and south podcast. Excuse me. And there was two clips from that that caught our attention. So we're going to do the first one. Then we'll do the second one. The first one is in regards to play calling. And in case you missed it. This is what Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fernet had to say. In regards to Kevin Stofansky possibly giving up play calling for a third time in his 60 years as the brownside coach. Let's take a listen. I know when I was there for a hundred percent fact when we were struggling as an offense I know Kevin Stofansky himself gave up play calling to AVP. The same thing that he's done that we have guys that have told us that he's done throughout the years of not being able to get it done as a play caller and then putting it off on somebody else. Then the team gets success.

1:06:49And then he takes over play calling again. I don't know how much history he's going to have as a head coach. But again with this record, the only thing he really got going for him is those two-time coach of the year. I love that. The only thing he's got going for him is the two-time coach of the year. That's not nothing. Other than that Mrs. Lincoln did you enjoy the play? So that is kind of burying the lead a little bit. But what was interesting to me and Mike it wouldn't have been giving up play calling for a third time. It would have been giving up play calling for a first time. We never heard that. I mean third time in his ten years of practice. Yeah, but it would have been his first time. And then when he gave it up for the second time. That was the first that we knew of it. I don't know. And I'm not going to say that Jarvis isn't telling the complete truth here. But I don't think he really said that with his chest. And how in the world could that have possibly happened and no one in the media ever found out?

1:07:50That's crazy because Jarvis Landry. I've never known Jarvis Landry would be to be a hot take artist. He's not. He looks like he was doing hard docs that was coming around telling people, hey listen we can even be playing hard. I Earl called me. He called me. He said, jee bus, did you see this? I said, I didn't see it bro. He called me on the way home. I was going away from dinner. He said, I said, yeah, I thought he gave it up to Alex Van Pell. You know, he gave it. He said, no, no, no. Jarvis said before that. He said during his tenure before he gave it up to first time. So that would make three times. Now for me, I don't know. Now I did think it was kind of, I don't want to say strange, but Kevin right now, he's not going to be to play call in Atlanta, right? No. I think Alex Van Pell is going to be to play call in the air right now. No, no, Tommy. So Tommy's the offensive coordinator Atlanta. Tommy's calling the police. Oh yeah. Okay. So this was first I heard. I knew he gave it up twice, but I thought it was interesting that he said,

1:08:51now that would make me they would be the playoff run, right? Yeah. No. Yes it was. That was when that the playoff season. Jarvis is gone by then. That's that's where I like, I'm a little confused. And I am too because he was saying like he'd heard this second hand from guys that were still on the team. Again, he said when he was there. Jarvis Jarvis was here during the first playoff run. First playoff. Jarvis was there in 2020 and 2021. So this is why I wish he would have been just a little bit more specific. Yeah. And he was asking that too. Because in 2020, everything was great. As of the COVID year, nobody was in the building. There's a reason that they had the most success that they've had because nobody else was in the building. It was just football. So I don't think he was insinuating then. Jarvis is only other year in Cleveland was 2021. That's when Baker heard his shoulder and everything. And he made it like play the clip again. He said Kevin gave it up and pulled it back. Well, where did the schedule go? Do you guys want to hear it again? We could play it again. At least the beginning of it. Yeah, 35 seconds. So we'll play the whole thing. This is the clip again. OK. I know when I was there for 100% fact, when we were struggling as an offense, I know Kevin's defense

1:09:54gave himself gave up play calling to AVP. The same thing that he's done that we have guys that have told us that he's done throughout the years of not being able to get it done as a play caller and putting it off on somebody else, then the team gets success. And then he takes over play calling again. I don't know how much history he's going to have as a head coach. But again, with this record, only thing he really got going for him is those two-time coach of the year. Now, that, that, that, that of me, 2021. OK, so here is 2021. Lost, win, win, win, loss, loss, win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, win. Now, you tell me where in there, he was going to give it play calling and then take it back. I'm not saying there were three losses in a row and weeks 12 through 15. So then they lost three in a row and then he took it back for the final game of the season? No, he may have given it up. He said he said he took it back. Well, does that mean 20 or 21? Well, that's why I'm saying. Yeah, there's too much vagueness to it.

1:10:54And there were some edit points in there. I always, I'm always hesitant. I went back and watch the pod. I was the whole thing. Because there were edit points in that sound bite. I'm always leery of that. I was listening to that. I was listening to that. Yeah, I know, but when there were edit points, they just get twisted. This was right at the start. So I listened to the first. And that edit is clean. Okay. Nothing was taken out of context with that. So I just would like to know when? Like if he was the one, what year? What weeks did this happen? Because do you ever recall Kevin not having the Denys menu? He always had. He always had. Until he gave up a play calling and then he didn't have it. The only thing that was my understanding at one point, Alex would script the first handful of plays coming out of it. Half when the Browns got the ball first. That's the only. And I had kind of heard that a couple years ago, that when you're going to the half, you're coming out of the half. There's just a lot going on. And when you're getting the ball, it's helpful to have the first few play scripted. So to my knowledge, and again, like Jar was there,

1:11:55I'm not saying he's lying. I'm just saying the only thing that I've been told, or that it was my understanding was, AVP would script the first handful of plays during, I don't remember when it was, what year it was. Coming out of the timeout. Yeah. Or I'm coming out of the half time. Half time. That does work. We're going to start with at least first three or four plays. Right. That's the only thing that I had ever heard. Right. I don't know. I don't know what to make of everything that he said. It seems to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, guys. It seems to me that Jarvis is, that there's mud slinging going on at Kevin. I mean, I don't know. The reason I say that is because, and it seemed to be the tenor of Fornet too, that this guy can't coach. Oh, that's exactly what they were saying. Yeah. Okay. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't the only one that's seeing that. They're basically saying, I mean, outside of his two coach of the years, what else does he have? Well, you know, that's like saying that, you know, outside of a guy that wants one Super Bowl, what else does he have? Well, there's a big difference in two coach of the hour.

1:12:55There's a huge difference because it's a vote. But you can't diminish the coach of the years as if to say, what else does he have? But it seemed to me that the bent of that podcast was for whatever reason. I don't know. Maybe he didn't like Kevin. It seems to me that the whole thrust of that was, Kevin Stevens, he's not a good coach. Well, Kevin was the last coach you had in Cleveland. Yes. And it didn't go well at the end. And it ended his time in Cleveland. Yes, it did. And so that would be the end. I don't know. I looked at it like this. I read, I listened to the podcast. Leonard Fornet came out earlier. He said he wasn't a big fan of Kevin. Well, that came through very clearly. He's not a big fan. So then Jarvis Landry, in the first part, he was like Jarvis did give him credit. He did say in that first part of the interview that when Kevin got here and they had that playoff run, that, you know what I'm saying? 2020. 2020. Everything was cool. That's what that can sound like. We're going to write them. We're going to write them. However, it kind of fell off a little bit at the end. And then he gets into this commentary. Now, I will say, listen.

1:13:55He says, he said with 100%. Now, I've got to take your word. If you're going to say, I think that's standard with your chest. 100% accurate. He said, I'm 100% sure that he gave up play calling when I was there. Yeah. Now, I would have liked to specifically know like the context around it. But we have known Kevin Savansky to give up play calling two other times. So, I mean, there are times where he has given up that play call. I think it's the stunning thing to me again. I can't call him a liar. He was in the locker room. He knows and he's got the respect. I respected Jarvis as a player. I don't know how they did it. I don't know how that doesn't get out. That's my point, Jason. My point to you is with all of the beat reporters and all of the moles that organizations have that want to spin things their own way, that nobody would have picked up the phone and said, hey, you might want to push Kevin on who's calling the plays because it's not him. That would have gotten out in my experience. There were points where it was sort of a weekly occurrence of who's going to call plays. Yeah. And he was answering those questions weekly.

1:14:56And had that happened, I'm surprised. If that's the way I went, I'm surprised I didn't get out. But we're at the point all this where I've been telling you guys for years, the league views Kevin differently than Cleveland does. No question. And that has been proven out. Look how many teams lined up to interview. Yep. The league is telling you they believe it was a Cleveland problem. It was not a Kevin problem. We're going to find out in about six months. You know what? It was right. Because Jason Brown's fans want to put it all on Kevin. And I get it. Yeah. It's easy to put it all on Kevin because now he's gone. So now things are going to be fixed, right? Yes. So that gives you hope. So I totally understand why they feel that way. I'm not necessarily buying it that it was true. We're going to find out in about six months. The beauty of all of this drama. And really, the Jarvis situation goes back to the fracturing of the locker room, if you guys remember, was centered around Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham. Yes. That's where this all way came off the rails. And so what I think 2026 is for Brown's fans and for even NFL observers

1:15:58that aren't in the Petri dish of Cleveland or Atlanta. And we always say the beauty is we're going to find out. Like you can't always be fraudulent. If he's fraudulent, he's going to be proven out. Yeah. You can't always get glow when you deserve some blame. It always comes out in the wash. That's the beauty of the NFL. It's a meritocracy. And I think 2026 is going to be a referendum on a lot of people. It's going to be a referendum on Kevin Stofanski. What is he? What is he in an environment that has better culture? What will he be? Yeah. So we're going to answer that question. Also, it's not just a Shadour Sanders referendum. It's also a Dishon Watson referendum. If either one of these two rise from the ashes and go 12 and 5, that affects 12 and 5. Hey, man. I'm blearing for the stars. He's playing for eight. Listen. You got him in 12. I'm not predicting. I'm saying if this were to happen, it would be so overwhelming that you then would turn your eyes to Atlanta and say,

1:17:05Kevin, you were the problem. Yeah. We're going to find out because I always say it's like the beauty of an experiment is that when you have a control in that experiment and you remove that control and then run the same thing back, what results do you get? And they ran it back. We're going to figure out what Cleveland is. Is Cleveland really 4 and 13, 5 and 12, or are they on 11 and 6, 12 and 5 without Kevin? The thing I thought was interesting was Jarvis said in 2020, everything was cool, right? Well, 2020 was when they were the most high functioning version because there was nobody in the building, because it was COVID, because they had talent, because they were healthy. Yeah. Starting in 2021 is when everything started to spiral because Baker got hurt and then the Dishon trade and then everything else. But the one year when they actually function like an NFL team where they had no distractions, where there was nobody else in the building, you saw the results. Well, that's life. Maybe the only good thing ever to come from COVID. Listen. The Browns were a winner.

1:18:05But I will say, I don't necessarily think it's the Cleveland, it's CB Cleveland versus them. I think that Kevin's defense key, he has a players problem. Baker has it is. What will find out? Baker, Odell, Jarvis, Miles Garrett. We're going to find out in Atlanta for sure. So are you going to see? No. And I always said this. I want to get to a point where I don't, Kevin ain't here no more. I'm trying to talk about the Browns. Oh, let me just, let me grease the skids for you. Atlanta will be a story here in Cleveland all year long. Whether they start 5 and 0 or 0 and 5, it's going to be talked about to get you to it. Oh, no. Like, I mean, we can't wish that away. No, no, no. And I already don't say it. Under no circumstances, we can lose to the Falcons. That's right. That's your Super Bowl. No, to me. Like, I'm like, no. Under no circumstances, can Kevin's defense come here cooking? I don't want B. John Robinson scoring. I don't want to it looking like he's good. I don't want none of that. You know why? Because then we are here looking crazy. I don't, I, no. He's not going, we had 13 points when Kevin was here.

1:19:08He better not be getting 55 points miles. We need that to stop. I just, hey, that's the game. Really? I mean, in the macro, the whole 26 season is a referendum. But if you're looking for one game, you can only watch three hours of football this year. That's got to be it. Yeah, but I still don't think that rises to the level of the Browns against Baker and Carolina opening week. That's a big tip. Yeah, that was big too. That was higher. That was huge. That was higher than anything. Oh, no, man. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, man. I don't know. You think this is bigger? I don't think it's bigger. Because it's Dishonn. I think it's seen Baker week one. It's, it was pretty. It's Dishonn watching. It wasn't tense. Not only is Dishonn, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, your door sanders is prime. And you still got Andrew Barry. Go back. Yeah, y'all shaking hands. Go back. Yeah. Go back and watch Jimmy's side. Go back and watch Jimmy celebrate the Cade York field goal at Carolina. That man looked like he just won the Super Bowl. That was not it. And it was a week one win. It was. And it was rap. All right. We're taking a break.

1:20:08When we come back, part two of the Jarvis Landry comments as G. Bush alluded to, he did have things going with the players until he didn't. We'll talk. Welcome back. Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show on WKYC Plus. If you don't have the app, download it. This 11 to 12 hour is, as it always has been, on YouTube. But we start at 10 o'clock now. So if you're just watching and thinking we're going to go to 1 o'clock, I hate to ruin your Monday, but we're done at noon, 10 to noon now, or the magic hours for the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. All right. Part two of the Jarvis discussion. It's fascinating. It is. Fascinating. So we talked about the play calling. Now let's get into the other comments that Jarvis made in his podcast with Leonard Fernet. And the big picture from this is, what does it say about Kevin's fans to get so many players feel comfortable kind of bashing him now? This is the comments from Jarvis Landry on a podcast with Leonard Fernet. Being in Cleveland and playing there, he was cool to be around.

1:21:13And it's like you say, it just almost felt like, as much as he knew what he was doing, he really maybe didn't, and I think that sometimes, some of these coaches, most of these coaches get put in a position too soon. They have success as a position coach, and then they get thrown into this head coach and role where you expect most of these coaches as younger to be more personable, more relatable with their players, and in most cases, it just doesn't work out that way. And I know my time in Cleveland, especially in the beginning, man, it was great. He didn't know when to coach the year, when they're going to the playoffs. And then, for some reason, then after, bro, it just kind of felt like the spark between the connection between the players and the coaches just kind of started to them out, right? I don't know if he'd be a great coach in the league, but I do think he knows a lot of

1:22:18our offense, right? I think, you know, he, I don't know how much he is involved into the analytical side of things, but I know in Cleveland, that was a huge part. So, you know, I think that played a part in some of the decisions that he might have been forced to make, even with the Sheduras standards staying, right? Either forced to make or persuaded to make, you know what I mean? Not last part was interesting to me. Yeah, what are you guys making that? You've always talked about the marriage between the front office and the head coaching staff and the product on the field as it pertains to analytics. Now, all of that would be second hand information. He obviously hasn't been inside the organization. Sounds to me like he might be talking to someone who's still here, who's saying to him, yeah, Kevin's being forced to do things by the analytic department that I don't think he's completely behind. Is that the way you read it? Oh, yeah. Well, if he said that, he flat out said it. And, you know, I agree with a lot of what Jarba said there.

1:23:20Especially the end. Well, in just terms of like guys get thrust in positions before they're ready for them, and we've talked about that just because you're a good coordinator, it doesn't mean you're going to be a good coach. And relating to players, again, I just think that there was a lot like, there's NFL drama and then there's Cleveland drama. And Cleveland drama always seemed, you don't see this go on another. No, we always lead the league in the drama. I mean, in other markets, some of the nonsense that goes on here, and I think the nonsense just got away from him, which again is why I'm curious to see how it goes in Atlanta. Because Atlanta, outside of the Michael Vick stuff, obviously, it's a whole other level, but outside of that, I don't know if they've had a ton of stuff nonsense and stuff like this. So we'll see. Like, I do, I do agree. Kevin is best in a situation where there's strong leadership within the locker room. And they didn't have that in Cleveland. There wasn't a ton of great leaders here, player leaders. And that's the type of team where I think he would have the best success, where if he needs to come in and be sort of the monk, and he's not Todd Monkin, so we'll see how it

1:24:24goes in Atlanta. I'm really curious to see how this all plays out, but I don't think Jarvis was off on anything that he said there. I think when you look at Kevin's dependency, my main reason is, I think, when you look at Kevin's dependency, my main issue with Kevin's dependency was just the communication. Quinshaw and Juckins talked about it, and he said, he was on the podcast, and he said, how is Todd Monkin? Not to say that Todd Monkin, because he has a different communication style, is going to be more successful than Kevin's dependency. Football is more difficult than that. Just because you're a good communicator does not mean you're going to have access to those, it's going to break the right way. Not so I'm saying what I'm saying is, Quinshaw and Juckin said, with Todd Monkin, it was more personable. I felt like I had a clear road map as to what they expected from me, what they wanted for me, what they wanted to see, and I've always thought that, me as a former player, I always saw eye to eye with coaches that were more personable and were able to communicate whether

1:25:26good, bad, or different, whether you are upset with me. I always knew where I was with you. If you didn't agree with something I was doing, you let me know. If you told me this was my role, you stuck to what that role was. If I was doing something, the communication part just seems like there's a lot of people who had an issue with the way Kevin Stafansky went about, and I even said, hey, I think he should have used the media more. He a lot of the stuff that he got in the media was because he was super vague with a lot of stuff. He didn't even give himself an opportunity to kind of defend and deflect some of this stuff. But what ended up happening is if you don't have good communication with the media, you know what's going to happen. They're going to be on you. And then if you don't have good communication with the players, then maybe some of those players aren't going to go to bat for you and say, hold on, hold on. I heard a lot about Kevin Stafansky, but let me tell you what Kevin Stafansky has done for me just that and third. And I thought one of the biggest examples of that was when he talked about his relationship with David and Jokou. And he talked about after it was over and he kind of knew the right ones on the wall.

1:26:30He talked about him talking with David and Jokou and telling him some tough things and David and Jokou turned around, grew up, and ended up becoming one of his biggest advocates. So for me, I'm not going to ever say, I may not agree with Kevin Stafansky's office. I may not agree with Kevin Stafansky as a particular coach, that's my temperament. But I will always say that a person has an opportunity to grow and figure out what they need to do better in a different position. So I think he should probably take what he did here and as a young coach and the first time coach and use it to an example and say, I'm going to fix this in another place because now people are coming out saying, yeah, I kind of had a problem with that, kind of had a problem with this. And we'll see how he takes advantage of it or uses it to his advantage. To that point, I just thought of this. What you said triggered when Mike Brown was here with the calves the first time, he struggled to relate and connect with players. When he was here the second time, he struggled to relate and connect with players.

1:27:30He went to Golden State and learned under Steve Kerr and became a completely different coach. After that, I sat down with him for an hour and a half, two hours in Detroit. Sacramento was playing in Detroit and I drove up to do a piece on him. He was a completely different dude. And he said, I learned under Steve that all the things that I had to get done in practice were for me. It wasn't for them, it was so that I could check this box off and say, okay, we accomplished this today. No matter how long it took, we were going to get this done and it turned off a lot of players. I'm just making the connection. Good. Kenny Atkinson said the same thing from his first day with Brooklyn to now, after stopping in Golden State and working with Steve Kerr, how he's much more relatable to the players. The reason he got kicked out of Brooklyn or fired was, he didn't relate with Kevin and Kyrie and they wanted Steve Nash to go ahead. And I struggle sometimes with like, how important, because I'm not saying this sarcastically, I'm truly asking, how important is a bedside manner when you're a coach? Because sometimes I think it's not that important and sometimes I think it's very important.

1:28:32Yeah. To some people it is. Well, there's anomalies. Yeah. I think if you're Bill Belichick, media relations and bedside manner matter this much. Okay, I guess you win Super Bulls. Because his football acumen and his genius was so superior that players did something with him that they're not willing to do with other coaches. You get cachet, you get good grace because we win and we like to win. That's why things were going so well with Kevin and the players. They were winning. When things started to go south, then all of the cracks in the armor started to show themselves because you don't show your character when you're winning. Character is exposed when you lose. You learn more about yourself and defeat than you ever will in victory. And I think what this drives home to me more than anything else is the art of hiring a head coach. Those that are in consideration for the job all have one thing in common, football acumen.

1:29:36Their IQ with the game of football is off the charts. But oftentimes they fail because they lack the bedside manner because when you come in that football acumen is ground zero for players. That's expected. How are you going to treat us interpersonally and as a group? And that's where Kevin failed. And I agree with you is that he's fine on a team with strong leadership because that stuff is handled by the leaders. Does anybody look at Brian Billick as a leader of men and a great head coach? No. He had the luxury of coaching when he had the great time, great leader on the football field on his roster. His best player was his best leader. So Brian Billick's shortcomings as a leader of men were overcome because at 1255 it wasn't Brian Billick huddling the players up. It was Ray Lewis. And the last thing they heard was fire and brimstone from their leader, 52. Let's go do it.

1:30:36And Kevin is never going to be that guy. And so I think that the coaches that have succinct, we've talked about this. You get two cracks at this. And if you don't master it in one of the two. And by the way, Kevin didn't master it here. The two coaches of the year are great cherries on top, but there's nothing underneath it. His career record is under 500 by 10 games. So he didn't master it here. So he's going to get it landed to figure it out. And if he does, if he wants to, he'll stay there a decade or he'll get a third opportunity. If he doesn't, he'll sit out a year and become a coordinator somewhere or go back to college and do that route, which is kind of the new way of revitalizing your career. But he's going to need strong leadership in that locker room. And he didn't have it in Cleveland. And that's when things fractured. You have to be the loudest voice in the room. It can't be one of your players. I think it's good if you have players that are leaders. But when the ship is taking water, it's not up to the head engineer to rally the troops to save the day.

1:31:37It's the captain. Everyone's looking at the captain in times of crisis. And he is woefully deficient in that role. And handling the media, I give him a D minus. I'll be curious to see if that changes. Because some guys do. Some guys are introspective and they look back at it or they talk to other coaches and they say, where did I go wrong? Look at yourself. And I talk on the show about how, when TIBS was fired after his first go round and then he took a job at ESPN and one of the things I asked him not on the air off it, I said, what have you been doing to reinvent yourself? And he said, I went back to school. I called all the coaches that I have relationships with and I said, hey, can I come down and spend three months with you and watch your process and see how another head coach does it? Well, Jay, you know, you worked in newsrooms, you worked in newspapers, big organizations with media outlets, you need allies, you need allies that are your co-workers, you need

1:32:39allies that are on the top level. And then you might need a couple of them up there that you just touch in with every once in a while. You need somebody to say, behind the door, close meetings, you need one person to at least go to bat for you. Yeah. You got to have Bill Bella check to call your owner and say, be patient, you got the right guy. He's all right. He's going to grow a little bit. And here's the thing. I always say, by the way, Todd Munkin will go through growing pains, he's the first time head coach. Of course he will. Look, people think I hate Kevin Saphansky. I don't hate Kevin Saphansky. We get out of the football conversation. But the thing that Jarvis did eloquently say is, man, listen, when you are first year coach and you don't know what you know, there are certain things when I was the first time hosted, I didn't know what I didn't know. But I had the opportunity to grace to get to a point where I can be seasoned. Some people don't get that chance in opportunity. I think he's smart enough, he will realize, okay, I made some missteps. And just the same way we talk about Andrew Berry.

1:33:40Andrew Berry in terms of drafting, Andrew Berry made some missteps. Hopefully he can figure it out. He hit with some of these other guys. Yeah. Can you figure out offensive line and receiver? Yeah. That's how we're judging footballers. Yeah, you made a mistake. What the heck are you going to do to clean it up? But as long as he don't clean it up on our watch and get some browns, we find. So you can't have a 16-to-1. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Browns beat him. I don't know about 16-to-1. Eight-to-1 or something like that. We can't do all that. All right. We're taking a break. Turning our focus to the Cleveland Cavaliers. James Harden has made quite a difference since coming over to the team. Our Harden and Mitchell, the NBA's new clutch duo, when we come back. Welcome back, Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. Let's talk Cavs, Mike. Yeah, the win over New Orleans on Saturday was a bit of a rollercoaster down 15 in the fourth quarter. Then Harden and Mitchell became legitimate assassins. They scored 25 of the team's 35 points in the fourth quarter.

1:34:41They assisted on four of the five other baskets that players scored. Meaning for the 35 points, the Cavaliers scored in the fourth quarter. 33 were directly attributed to James Harden and Donovan Mitchell. Since the James Harden trade, guys, the Cavaliers fourth quarter numbers have been incredible. A 120.7 fourth quarter offensive, right? That's the second best mark in the NBA. Their clutch offense since the Harden deal, which goes back to early February, is now the sixth best in the NBA. Prior to that Harden deal, it was 22nd, about an improvement. Jason, what's the biggest thing you've seen from this Harden, Mitchell, late game combination that has you excited about their potential in the playoffs? Two guys who close, two guys who you feel comfortable with the ball on their hands? I mean, listen, Darius, wasn't he like the lead-leagueer in the playoffs? He was incredible in the clutch last year. Why, I don't want to take anything away from him. Yeah, so I think it's important to recognize that they've had this type of play prior to,

1:35:44and everybody knows James stains in the playoffs, but for now, right now, you feel comfortable with the ball on his hands in late game situations. I mean, I was just trying to think off top of my head in the East. What pairings would you take over these guys? I would still take Boston. You got to take Jay-T and Jaylen Brown. That's fair. Over these guys. That's the only one I'd take. That's the list. Yeah, because you can make a case for the Knicks, but I would take these guys. Yeah, I would do right now. Yeah, I got them. Here's what we're back to. The two best guys got the ball in their hands, and now you've got a guy. I still, man, these passes that Harden be throwing. Back job out of me, this just goes to show you that when you were a fan in a specific city, and I like to pride myself on trying to watch as much stuff as I can, but it just goes to show you that it's just not possible, because even as much as I've seen James Harden in his whole career, I did not have a level appreciation for the fact that how he is passing the ball to Biggs.

1:36:48Like, I thought in the way he can control pace, to me, LeBron is the greatest of all time I do, and it's not close. But James Harden is phenomenal at pace, controlling the pace down to a halt, or getting guys involved, and he just has the ball. When he said he is the offense, he wasn't lying. He was not. That these passes, he's making off the picking role is crazy, and the reason he's making, and now when you pair that skill set with the ability to shot make, and to be clutch, and get to the basket with Donovan Mitchell, by the way, who's hitting his free throws in it. I don't, I just feel like he's hitting more of his free throws when he's going to the line at the end of the game. I just don't know, the numbers might not bear it out, but I just feel like when those two guys got the basketball, you feel like you got a chance. It's kind of like when Kyrie and LeBron was doing, you feel pretty good, even if it's miss or make, you feel good with the rock in the head.

1:37:48Yeah, I'll tie this back to my comment in the first hour about the calves. I think that I talked about the switch, knowing where it is, and knowing when to throw it. Well, in the playoffs, you need your two best players to be your two best players. Yeah. It's great. You're going to need big performances from guys like Max Trues and Sam Merrill, and obviously, Moby and Alan are going to be needed. But the one thing that you can't question when you ask, what are you going to have in a series? You can't question, are we going to have our two best players be our two best players? You can't, and there were times in the last couple of years where I didn't know that we were going to get our two best players best performances in the playoffs, and we didn't, and we left early. And it's fair to say you weren't sure who the two best players were. Right, that's another thing. There's no question to me now. And you're right. You're point about James Harden and his distribution of the basketball. You knew it when they acquired them. One of the things that you said you most liked the bottom was his passing skills up. But I see what you're saying.

1:38:49When you watch it on a night in a night out basis, it does hit differently. It's not just a highlight that you see once in a while. It's James Harden constantly doing that. His ability to penetrate, get the defense to collapse, and then find someone at the rim. It's, he is the offense. I mean, he's, in his prime, he really was. He was that good. But he adds a layer to this club that they desperately needed. And again, I don't think they can win the NBA championship. I just think they're better teams. I think Boston's better. I think San Antonio's better. I think that Oklahoma City's better. But let's try to push this thing and see how far we can get this year. Add the pieces in the off season and then make a real push next season. I said earlier, it's beneficial. They stay in the four spot. I have to think that New York is looking at this saying, you know what? It wouldn't suck for us if we fell behind Cleveland. So you know, you always hear the tank for the top of the draft.

1:39:51There could be a tank for four. It's going to be interesting to see how that plays out. I don't think Boston and New York care one rip. You don't. They should. Do you think I'm wrong? They should. New York especially. Not Boston. I don't think Boston. If I'm Boston, I'm like, I'm taking whoever comes my way. But if I'm New York, knowing Mike the way that I do, I don't think they care. It's going to be interesting. They might not care, but they might be bounced in round two. At this point real quick, and I know we've got to get to Super Jazz after a break. But in terms of the Mitchell Harden and the Game Combo, Chris Feeder did a really good job highlighting in his article after the win on Saturday, how what actually came to fruition on that game winning Mitchell layup where they blitzed hard and dumped it off. With something they worked on in practice earlier in the week and practices this late in the season. Very rarely happened, but Kenny Atkinson called to practice. The entire focus of the practice was late game off. Wow. When teams blitz, either Harden or Mitchell, how to find the space to get the ball out of their hands into the others, and then they're playing four on three advantage.

1:40:52That's smart. That's smart. It worked to perfection. Is it going to work that well every time? No. You're going to miss shots. But it was cool to see something they practiced that doesn't often happen, come to fruition in a moment like that between two stars. I thought that was really, really well done by Chris to make sure you check it out. Very cool. It is, Brad, that that happens. You're working on something in practice this late in the year. Right. And we talked about it before, but blitzing ball handlers to get the ball out of the hands of the first thing you do in the playoffs. Sure. What else do you have in your bag after that? Yeah. You're right. And you're going to need more than one play to do it. We're taking a break. Super chats on the other side, and then we say good bye. All right, Mike. How'd we do? We got super chats to wrap up today's show. So let's read them. Any lover G says, how much do you think running out of shotgun versus under center affected the running game? Also our tight ends. Having to constantly help the tackles, Leviston certainly did not help with the offensive line last year. Demand Johnson says, I guess Alan Burrow and Jackson don't hold the ball either right.

1:41:56We saw Alan run backwards losing 20 yards, too, by the way. Kevin Browner is not a fan of the WKYC app. He says he got an error message live and not being able to rewind if you join late is an issue. We'll look into that. I'm not sure on the answer to that one. Yeah. There's no slide bar to go back. Hmm. We'll look into that. I don't know that there will be either. I'll always ask. I promise you guys I won't ask about that. Mr. In my zone says just say Stephanski couldn't scheme up a productive offense and had her to the decent team and didn't evolve. Munkin is a proven OC and Chador's ceiling is very high. If Kevin was trash, what up G Busch? What up? Kimi Angi says can't hype Coach of the Year award then downplay the Pro Bowl? Has any of us ever hyped up the Coach of the Year? It's an accomplishment for sure, but to compare the Coach of the Year carries much more cashier than a Pro Bowl in my view. When seven quarterbacks in front of you all say no thanks. No thanks.

1:42:56I mean you're there's only you got 16 in the league. If 14 coaches would have said I don't want the award and then you handed it to the 15th guy. Fat. If y'all want to put G Busch in the Pro Bowl, go ahead. Let me see. I'm a pro bowl of watches right now. You know what I'm saying? Put me in the Pro Bowl. I can go. I can hang out. I can rest some red option. That's not even what it used to be. It used to go to Hawaii. Yeah. Oh no. Now if I was a player, I'd be like not good. No. I'm good too. Brad Shadrick says the first hour on KYC was not great because I couldn't pause every wind. Watch it work and need to pause for meetings. So I have to watch a second hour first then I'll watch the first hour on the men. Demand Johnson says now you don't believe the player that was there and playing. It's crazy work. Who said they don't believe them? No we at one person said I don't believe what we actually said was you have to believe and we respect and we both like Jarvis Landry what I said was it's stunning to me that it didn't get out. All we said was I would like the specifics of at least a season. What season are you referring to?

1:43:57Yeah. When did this take place? Mr. MJ says maybe Jarvis was talking about the fansky giving a play calling in the playoffs. We mentioned that. Yeah. Then took it back first. The KC loss. Mr. In my zone says someone in building from his basement. Yeah. When someone in the building says something against the local media narrative, you all get so confused and lost for words. And G. Guavo says Jarvis was a player that was good in his time here a big piece. Now all of a sudden doesn't he know what he's talking about Jason thinks he knows more than Jarvis. LOL. When did I say that? Please remind me when I said I know more than Jarvis. I mean, I never said that. Of course not. I think the most the most part about it is is that the standing part was a Jarvis Landry said it and his reputation is sterling to is that he said it and it didn't get out if it is true. Like that. That to me is that. There were mules on that team. We know there were mules on that team. They were going to get fired for being someone.

1:44:57One of his coaches got fired for being a mole. Somebody that had an axe to grind would have called Mary K or would have called Jason or would have called someone and said, Hey, FYI, Kevin's not calling the place anymore. This isn't a minor detail. This is a major, major detail. Back to my old piece. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued, wake up to Zeppbound to Zepatide. The first and only FDA approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and adults with obesity. Zeppbound is an injectable prescription medicine that may help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zeppbound should be used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity. Zeppbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. Zeppbound contains tersepatide and should not be used with other tersepatide-containing

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