Did we learn anything about the Cleveland Browns on the first day of voluntary OTAs?

Did we learn anything about the Cleveland Browns on the first day of voluntary OTAs?

That’s right. Me URX, uh, I was just, in fact, Doctor Jake May is coming to, uh, Cleveland. He’s from Cleveland and lives down in New Orleans as part of this great weight loss clinic and nutrition, uh, facility down in, in the, the, uh, Louisiana area, but, uh, he’s a Cleveland guy. He loves all Cleveland teams and he’s coming for a visit the first week of June, and he and I will be getting together next week to talk about things and Doctor Jake and the rest of the team at Me URX, they work with you as an individual. Um, in fact, Jake’s gonna be doing some, some testing, some metabolic testing on me next week. And if you want to have it done for you, then go to menuRX.com, find out more about it. They do metabolic testing on you to find out what foods work, you know, no diet works a diet could work well for me and not well for Dustin and vice versa. Everybody’s body is different. People react differently to different foods and so all these other diet programs that have, you know, the same program for everybody makes no sense because nobody’s body works that way. And if you’re not looking to lose weight but you wanna get better shape or you wanna know if you’re eating right. Uh, you want, you want tighten up your body, whatever. There’s all different ways they can help one on one counseling, one on one conversation, and right now if you sign up at MenuRX.com, you’ll get a free year-long subscription to the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show to see our overtime segments. That’s a $60 value absolutely free. Go to menu-Rx.com. That’s menu-Rx.com. All right. So the quarterback depth chart, guys, is that what we’re hitting on now? Yeah, OK, that’s what I thought. So according to Mary Kay Cabot, do we have a list there? I will take a second to pull it up here, but we have it. It is. So Kenny Pickett, Gabriel Sanders, and then or Flacco and then Sanders at 4th. So do with that information what you will. — Do you
— care about the quarterback depth chart right now depth chart. What is it? It is how the reps are gonna be be divvied up right now. So there’s no depth chart right now. — OK
— that makes sense. So does Mary answer the question, is Mary, Mary Kay, I don’t know. Did she, does she know this for sure? Is this, or is she speculating? — I
— believe it’s speculation, OK, but yeah, I believe it’s speculation based on information. I mean, sure she’s well connected. OK, so what do we make of it? Is this what do you, what do we think? No, something, does it matter? — It is
— May 28th at 11:22 a.m. That’s correct. It is completely irrelevant what the perceived depth chart is, the practice. Hierarchy of right we are so far away from meaningful football in terms of actually evaluating these guys and what one player does versus one player doesn’t do that. None of this matters today, but I did have a little conspiracy theory I want to throw you guys. I personally. Do not believe Kenny Pickett is an NFL starting quarterback. I, I’ve seen enough in Pittsburgh. Maybe it’ll, maybe my mind will be changed if Kevin’s the fancy can wring something out of him that we didn’t see in Pittsburgh, but I am not under the belief that Kenny Pickett is at that level to play at the play for the Browns or for any team right now at that position. But through every preseason depth chart, whatever we’ve heard from Kevin Steansky, from Mary Kay, it’s pickett is the, the number one guy that everyone else below. Is there any chance the Browns are trying to just prop up his trade value? And put him in a position to where other people may think he’s he’s better and he’s in a position where, hey, Kenny Picketts number one on the Browns depth chart so when trade discussions come along, quarterback gets hurt, New Orleans may need a guy later because they lost Derek Carr. No, I, I, I don’t think, I don’t, sorry to cut you off. I don’t, I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s for trade value. I, I think that they’re genuinely trying to find a quarterback and Kenny Pickett has some value and some upside, I should say by more so than value. That he could still be a starting quarterback in this league. I, I’m kind of with you that I, I, I probably don’t think that he’s the answer for the Browns at quarterback, but he was a first round pick. I watched him play a lot of great college football, uh, at Pittsburgh. He’s a talented kid. He’s a very athletic kid. I think he’s got a chance. You put him, everyone hypes up Steanski is the quarterback whisperer. Well, he’s got a talented kid here, so let’s see if he can help him turn around. They got two rookies, they got a veteran. They know what Flacco can do. That’s right. Flacco, there’s nothing Flacco is gonna do in these OTAs or mini camps or even training camp that’s gonna prove to the Browns that we know he can play. We know he’s limited with what he can do. We know he probably won’t make it through the entire season, but Flacco is kind of that emergency like he can play quarterback for this team no matter what and keep the ship afloat. Pickett could be the answer. Gabriel could be the answer. Sanders those guys are going to compete their asses off to see if the Browns have to go back to the draft next year. Most likely they will and draft a quarterback in the first round. That’s why they did the Travis Hunter deal. they’ve told us that they’re not really trying to win this year. Yeah, but it is still on some level mixed signals because. If you’re not trying to win this year, then you would just go with the rookies right away. They don’t know what those rookies can do and, and, and listen, their 3rd round pick and a 5th round pick, it’s very unlikely that these guys will be ready to go early in the season, maybe at some point. And the other thing is if you if you really truly thought that Gabriel or Sanders, by the way, was the answer, you wouldn’t take two rookie quarterbacks. You’re throwing darts, you’re trying to to to have as many swings. Uh, of the acts at, at, at trying to find the answer at quarterback because if you were, you wouldn’t have the two guys splitting reps. So 11 if you wanted Gabriel, let’s say you thought this guy was gonna be the answer, you’re not splitting reps with another rookie. No, you want to get as many reps as possible to see what this kid can do. Instead you’re saying, well, let’s, let’s just let these guys kind of divvy up the reps boom boom boom and find out what they can do and that’s what they’re, that’s what they’re, they’re telling us they’re going to do. All right, so in response to first your thing, your conspiracy theory is nuts. Nobody’s giving up, yeah, nobody’s giving up anything of value for Kenny Pickett. Uh, I think most of the league looks at Kenny Pickett as like, yeah, we could start him if we need to, but he’s not, uh, you know, like again, he hasn’t played enough that we know with a 100% certainty how good he is, but I think the general consensus is probably. The best case scenario with him is he’s a serviceable starting quarterback like number 20 in the league or something and, and ultimately that’s not gonna get it done. No team wants to be in a situation where you’re, where you have between the 20th and 35th best quarterback in the league that puts you in a bad spot. Uh, so I don’t think like what he does in OTAs or even in preseason is not gonna change anybody’s mind on, on what his trade value is. They, they’re not Joe Flacco’s not getting first reps because of exactly what Dustin said. — Everybody knows what Joe Flacco can
— do. Well, and here’s the thing, why would they, why would they trade pick if he played well. Right, they need a quarterback. Yeah, so like if his value got high, the Browns would be like, Well, we, we need a quarterback. Why, why would you trade him? That’s I just said it’s conspiracy. I didn’t say I totally buy it. I just throw it out there as a. But I like playing well in the preseason and training camp doesn’t mean you’re gonna be good in the regular season. We’ve seen plenty. We see DTR play decently in the preseason 2 years in a row, and, and look how terrible he was when he gets on the field. So the, the, the order doesn’t really mean anything now. Uh, Flacco’s off to the side because you know what you got with him as long as his arm’s still good, which I’m sure it is, otherwise he wouldn’t be here. And then you look at the other three guys and you and you’re gonna give pick at the reps first because he has experience in the league and the other two don’t, and it’s, and it’s that simple. And yes, you know, I think in some ways fans are thinking about this Dilan Gabriel Shaor Sanders situation. As if, well, one of them’s gonna be the quarterback, but we don’t know if any of them, either of them are any good. We don’t know if either of them is an NFL quarterback. We have no idea. These guys are not sure things if they, you could say whatever you want about Shaddoor Sanders. We should have been drafted higher blah blah. Shaddoor Sanders did not drop out of the first round because. Of off the field stuff he dropped out of the first round because nobody that needed a quarterback in the first round thought he was worthy of a first round pick. Now once you get past the first round, he probably did drop further because of some, you know, the off the field stuff. It’s not like he’s gotten in trouble, but you know, you guys know what I mean. He’s, he’s got a lot of baggage, right? And, and that’s why he dropped further, but that would have all been ignored if teams. Thought he was a first round quarterback, so he’s not a first round quarterback, or at least that’s he’s not perceived as. There, there, you know, are a handful of quarterbacks that are not drafted in the first round that turn out to they should have been. Not many though, and we’ll see if he can be one. Same thing with Dylan Gabriel. Nobody thought he was a, you know, he was a late 3rd round pick for a reason. Most teams didn’t think he was that good. Because all the teams that needed a quarterback passed on him at least 2 times if not 3. So again, both of these guys are long shots. If you’re a quarterback drafted after the 35th pick, you’re a long shot to ever be a starter. So that’s the situation here and you know, for all, for all we think of Kenny Pickett, Dustin makes a good point. Unlike these guys, he was a first round pick. And he was not in a great situation to Pittsburgh. They didn’t, they’ve kind of been a stagnant offense for a number of years, not a great passing game. Again, for me personally, I’ve seen nothing of Kenny Pickett in the NFL that makes me think he’s gonna be good, but You know, no one thought that Geno Smith was gonna be. Nobody thought Geno was gonna be good. I’m not convinced he could win in the big time way with Geno, but he’s proven himself to be a a pretty decent quarterback, certainly better than what I think Kenny Pickett is, uh, you know, and, and obviously the late development of Sam Darnold plays a role. By the way, I don’t want to hear about Baker in this. Baker doesn’t belong in that conversation. He was solid here now. He’s obviously been a lot better in Tampa, but he wasn’t a zero here like those guys were. So I’m excited to see. So today is the first day that OTAs are open to the media, and Jason Lloyd, who’s on tomorrow, is out there or will be out there. Zach Jackson’s coming on tomorrow. We had Zach Jackson on after the first rookie OTAs or rookie camp, whatever you wanna call it. If you remember, Zach was the only person last. Who was accurate in his reporting of what he saw from the quarterback at camp, so we’ll get you guys like the eyewitness reports from OTA’s tomorrow. But I always had to see these guys go into battle. Like this is the first time we see both rookies plus both veterans in some sort of legitimate competition, and after rookie camp, Stefany said we have 4 arms that we need to. I don’t believe when he says 4 evaluate because they already know what they have in Flacco, but we’re gonna add some competitive passing to our practice structure to make sure each of these guys is getting enough reps so we can get a read on them. And who knows what the media will see versus not see how much they’ll show versus not show in the one day that it’s open to the media, but I’m excited to see these guys actually go to battle because Dustin, you can speak on this better than anyone. Competition either brings the best out of people. Brings the worst out of people when you see some of these throws guys throwing on air in shorts, they’re all supposed to look incredible in these situations. The Browns wouldn’t post a bad throw in this situation when no one else is there. And 2, there’s no pass rush. There’s no offensive line. There’s no defense. All these throws should look perfect, and they were yesterday. Now we’ll see when it’s one guy, then the next guy, then the next guy. What they’re ready to do. — Are they
— really competing though at this point like because it is all on air? I mean, — like how much real competition is there
— at this point? I mean, the players are competing, the quarterbacks are competing and remember it’s not just like, oh, that pass was good just because he’s wide open. It’s like, OK, did he throw to the right guy? Did you take what we just taught you in the classroom to the practice field and you executed it? So you’re, you’re more frankly, you learn a lot about how quickly these guys, especially the quarterbacks, how quickly they can take something, the coaches will install it. They’ll tell you what we’re gonna do. They’ll take a look at the script. They go out there to the practice field and they execute it. That tells them that they may have something in the player, especially ups. Stairs like the mental approach to this game for rookies and young players is at that position so much more difficult. The the learning curve is so steep. So Kevin Saansky did an interview. I forget if it was with ESPN Cleveland or 923 last Friday. During one of those two interviews he was asked, you know, what are you looking for with these rookie quarterbacks? And he said the most important thing in OTA is when there’s no pass rush is if a guy makes a mistake on Tuesday. We’re gonna put him back in that exact same situation on Wednesday. How does he respond? Does he learn? How quickly can he process and say this was wrong now or wrong yesterday? How do I make it right? And that’s the stuff I do think you can pick up in these circumstances where there’s no pass rush. Well, you’re right, it’s all gonna change when the live bullets are flowing are flying. But that’s the kind of stuff you can pick up from these rookies, from these younger guys, from a Kenny picket. I don’t know if Joe Flacco’s necessarily falls into that camp with 20 years of experience in the NFL, but can pick it, make a mistake on Tuesday, figure out what was wrong, diagnose it and fix it for Wednesday. I do think there are some tangible improvements you can see from these guys. I agree. Do you, when you talk about the quarterback’s learning. Uh, and, and, and how much work that is at this time of the year. Are, are these guys overwhelmed, do you think? I mean, can it be overwhelming? Absolutely. I mean, I, I, I remember my rookie mini camp, which was, was like pretty fast. They threw a lot at you in, in a couple of days. And then when the the veterans showed up for the the mandatory stuff, oh my God, it was the fastest football I’d ever seen and, and remember I mean there’s no pads, it’s there’s no pass rush, but I mean it was like dude, it was like stepping into traffic on I-10. Did you like think you’re just like, you’re like, oh my God, I mean it was unbelievable. I mean, I, they put me out there with the ones the first day they put me at free safety. I’m out there with Darren Sharper on one side and I, and I, I’m like I look across and it’s like Dante Culpepper is the quarterback and I’m looking outside and I’m seeing these receivers who I. Watch play in college and in the pros when I was a kid and I’m like holy shit yeah right and and I felt like I’d cement shoes on — because it was moving so fast
— it creates a level of — anxiety for a younger player
— absolutely no matter no player, no player has seen the speed like this. Right, no matter what, no matter where you play you play Big 10 SEC, it doesn’t matter. Nothing like this, yeah, because there may be a handful of guys that you played with and against that had that speed, but in the NFL, everybody does, yeah, and, and there’s 10 more things to think about, right? It did you going into it before you had that moment when you’re on the field and you’re like, oh my God, and all the stress that you, did you, were you, was there a lot of anxiety leading up to that? Did you think it was gonna be that stressful like. I mean, honestly, I, I was more concerned about like my physicality and like would I be big enough and and all those things and I was fast I was fast enough quick enough. I mean that was fine. uh I just thought that when I had to start thinking about what we’re we’re installing and then I have like 19 checks before the ball’s even snapped and then I have to remember who I’m. Looking at who’s #1 and what if he disappears and he becomes #1 and I gotta is he, is he looking like there’s a million things it’s slow it when you’re thinking it’s it it makes you, you like everything moves so much faster too so it’s, it’s challenging and, and these guys, it’s good, it’s a good thing and if the players are swimming right now, yeah they all are. Yeah, it’s gonna be interesting to see. I’ll be, I’ll really look forward to talking to Zach Jackson because he, — I feel like he just talked to
— him on the way in today. I mean, he’s, he’s, — what do you have to say
— so far? I mean, he’s excited about, about the team. He says Shador, it looks like he throws the ball like an NFL quarterback, but you know, these guys all have a long way to go. Gabriel’s very small, um, that’s obviously why he wasn’t drafted that high. Uh, yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s not, we’re all excited about what’s gonna happen at the quarterback position because that’s the battle. Uh, it hasn’t been that for a while now with the Browns because they’ve had DeSean and they had Baker, but prior to that, I mean this, this is like, man, this is like the Super Bowl season for the Browns because it’s all about the draft, it’s about the offseason. It’s about the hope of the, the upcoming year. Absolutely it’s been how many years? 8 years we’ve had a real quarterback competition. I, I, Zach is not like someone who gets overly excited. About things as you know better than anybody. — So like
— the team’s gonna be good this year, right? No, but the fact that he’s like kind of excited and, and he’s got his eye, he thought it was noticeable that that your door was better that’s caught my attention because as Mike said, like he, everybody else was talking about Deshaun Watson playing well last year and Zach kept saying he looks like grass. Honestly, I mean, Zach’s a friend of mine and has been for a long time, but no one, no one speaks the truth like him about the team. Yeah, — he just knows football
— and he knows the game. The guy, the guy watches a zillion college football games, yeah, yeah, high school games, college games, like every, the guy just knows ball, right, period. Yeah, no doubt about it. — So that’s my stand him on
— before we move on real quick. I have crapped on the Brown social media team a lot. I thought they put out maybe the best piece of content, — and this is actually being serious as opposed
— to their schedule — release
— which is first and we pull up the Judkins video, the judge, well, let’s talk about Judkins. That’s our next topic. No, well, it was all we did we did with this, but if you guys didn’t see it, they, uh, just this is the best piece of content they have ever put out, and it’s a very low bar. But when you come to training camp videos, the movement with the player like that as opposed to just the stagnant. We must take a wide shot on the phone and let it go, yeah, the, the, the gimbo it’s called. They don’t. I like that. I just wanted to, I didn’t know if we’re moving on. I just wanted to give a shout out for actually doing — something other than the absolute bare as you’re
— starting running back. I he looks like he started running back. He’s gonna be. Yeah, I, I, you know. It’s a great shot. We’re all gonna miss Nick Chubb, but it is exciting when there’s a new running back in the mix, you know, young guy, — legs and new
— weapons doesn’t have to be running back. Well, but the, the thing is with the running back like. Your quarterback can if your quarterback stinks, it’s hard for a wide receiver to make a huge impact as a rookie. I mean, we’ve seen it and like a guy like Josh Gordon or whatever, Malik Neighbors, sure, but a running back, like your quarterback can cannot be good and you could still make a huge impact as a rookie and running backs more than any other position. Hit the ground running. Like the best, the how often, like, Almost every great running back in in the in at least modern NFL as long as they had the opportunity their first year were great right away. — You don’t see a lot of running backs who are like
— year 7, like where did he come from? He’s been in for 7 years. The only time it ever takes a running back some time is if they didn’t get the opportunity right away. Like Derrick Henry, I remember his first year or two, he didn’t carry the ball very much of you. It’s a while now. Nick Chubb even in the first half or 6 games didn’t carry the ball. Once he got the opportunity, sensational. Once Henry got the opportunity, — sensational and
— rookie you see that with every guy can come in right away and basically be the best running back in football almost immediately like Saquan — Barkley did it as a rookie we’ve
— seen that time — time
— again carrying the ball because yeah you know these guys, you know, there is, there, we’re not like. minimize that they don’t have. It’s like these guys can be a box of rocks. Eventually you have to learn how to absolutely and and make checks and do all these things, but right away it’s like just hand the ball off. This guy knows where to go on power. Yeah, I mean, no doubt I and go. You look at Quin Shaw Jenkins, you look at Traveon Henderson, you look at, um, Ashton Genty. I’m expecting all those guys to have big seasons. Oh yeah. You know, but especially Genty and Judkins because they’re gonna get Bellal opportunities if you will, like I’m expecting Judkins to touch the ball 15 times a game, which in, in this, in the modern NFL is, is pretty good amount. There’s no excuse, I don’t think, for him not to. I mean, Stefansky said he wants to go back to a more his style of offense, which is establishing the run. I don’t love Jerome Ford. I like Dylan Sampson, but Judkins was the 2nd round pick, one of the 1st 5 picks in the 2nd round for a reason. Some argued he was the 2nd most talented back in the entire draft behind Ash and Gentia. There’s no reason, and, and it’s like they have a ton of pass receivers or pass catchers that are gonna be demanding 7 to 10 targets a game. Like, why wouldn’t Junkins get 10? And if the Browns have a good running game that’s gonna take off pressure on, you know, assuming they’re playing one of the young quarterbacks and if it’s not Joe Flacco because even, uh, pickets, a young quarterbacks, I mean he hasn’t played a lot, so, uh. A good running game is gonna help a young quarter it’s gonna help any quarterback, but especially a young quarterback to take the pressure off him. Jutkins has all the talent in the world. To me, if you’re a running back and you get drafted high in the 2nd round, you’re essentially a first round pick because running backs, except for a few guys, get pushed down the board. So I, and I, and I had, I actually, I don’t know if I should say this. I guess I could say this, nobody’s gonna whatever. I won’t even say the person’s name, but I know somebody that was in the Cowboys draft room. I, I actually don’t know the guy personally. I’m just in a fantasy league with him. He shared this information. Yeah, and he said that the the Cowboys, what it’s worth, it’s only one team. It’s not as bad as much as you pick on the Cowboys, the Cowboys have actually been decent at drafting. — They’ve actually drafted pretty well
— everything else poorly in the roster. Yeah, yeah, pretty much, but they’ve drafted pretty well, and they, and, and this guy said that they had, uh, Jenkins as a top 15 player in the draft. And you know, but just running backs generally don’t go in the first round unless it’s, you know, a genie or, you know, we saw it with Bijon a couple of guys, but that goes back to the whole draft talk when we were getting into it. There was like that class of 5-6 guys at the top and then everyone had 7 through 40 in whatever order they wanted. There’s no real consensus. So it doesn’t surprise me. Yeah, I bet you there’s a lot of teams that had, and maybe even including the Browns that had Quinshaw Judkins as a, as a first-round player. So I’m expecting first round production from Quinhaw Judkins. If he gets the opportunity, I don’t, I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to expect him to have 1200 yards. You know, assuming he gets the opportunity we think he’s gonna get and stays healthy. I, I, you know, I, I see him having a, a big rookie season and, and obviously the Browns have not had a, a, uh, very good running game since the last Nick Chubb healthy season, which was 2022. And that would be huge.

The Cleveland Browns are just beginning OTAs and already it’s pretty clear: This team looks quite a bit different from a year ago.

That’s to be expected after a 3-14 finish in 2024

The team had its first on-field session on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, it will be the first practice session open to reporters. It will provide the first chance to see several overhauled position groups, as well as a chance to see rookies with veterans. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2025/05/cleveland-browns-roster-breakdown-new-faces-in-key-positions-for-2025-as-otas-begin.html

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