Mary Kay Cabot on Shedeur Sanders & the future of Kevin Stefanski & Andrew Berry w/ the Browns

Mary Kay Cabot on Shedeur Sanders & the future of Kevin Stefanski & Andrew Berry w/ the Browns

All right guys, Mary Kay today is brought to you by FanDuel. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting in real-time. And with FanDuel, you can place bets as the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum swing, and every highlight moment. Live betting is. When the game starts to shift, a receiver gets hot, a defense tightens up, or the momentum flips after a turnover. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com to place your bets, live NFL Live bets all season long. FanDuel. The game moves fast and so can you. And we welcome in now Mary Kay. And I would bet on Mary Kay winning the Browns beat reporter Royal Rumble. I’m taking Mary Kay. She’s tough. The rest of these guys are wimps. I don’t see Mary Kay in the cage, man. Yeah, she’d be kicking some ass, kick some butt. Are you ready for that, Mary Kay? Sure, I’m ready for anything. That’s the way things are going, right? You’ve, you’ve, you’ve already been put through everything with this, with this team, uh. Mary Kay, I’m curious, you know, Shador, um, was, did not like that question that, he was asked in the press conference, uh, about, um, Uh, what do you call it? It was all about being aggressive, going, going for it. Did you think he just kind of misunderstood the question or like what, what do you think happened there? Because I didn’t, I thought it was a perfectly fair question. It was a perfectly fair question, and I didn’t like the answer at all. So maybe let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and think that perhaps he did misunderstand the question and didn’t realize where Scott was going with that question because that was really uncalled for for him to answer it like that. And you know, we just don’t need that. And I think the thing that we need to guard against with Shador is we don’t want to get into a situation where he feels like he’s at war with the Cleveland media. We had That with Baker Mayfield, we don’t need that with Shador. So I think everybody needs to work together to make sure that that doesn’t start to happen. And it’s hard because, you know, Shador is such a lightning rod for criticism and those kinds of things. But I think it’s really important for us all to try to work together to make sure that he understands where we’re coming from and we understand what he needs and how we can all make this work where we can have just a functioning relationship. Yeah, I agree. And like I said this yesterday, like, clearly, especially in the national, more in the national media, there have been some people that have, I think, unfairly, have been unfair to him at times, and there are some in the media that are over the top in defending him, and I don’t think that’s good. I think you’ve got to cover everybody fairly, which you do, and I think most of the Browns beat reporters do. Now, you know Scott Petrack way better than I do. I know Scott a little bit. I’ve been there. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Scott Petrick, people are saying, well, he asked a gotcha question. I don’t think Scott Petra has ever asked a gotcha question. That’s not his style, but you know him better than me. So, uh, what do you say to that? You’re absolutely right about that. He is extremely professional, extremely smart. He knows how to do this job. He’s been doing it for a long, long time, and he is not a gotcha question guy at all. And there are some of those people that do exist in the world of sports media, but he is certainly not one of them. And it was a perfectly fair. Question, and I think if Shador went back and listened to the question again, he would realize that, you know, that just could have been answered without the beginning part, right? Mary Kay, we know Shador is going to start this week against Tennessee. What have you been told about what the Browns want to see more from Shador in his now 3rd start, 2nd home start this weekend? Well, I think he’s got to get rid of the ball quicker. That’s for sure. He really has to go through those progressions. And one of the biggest things that has to happen is he’s got to develop some kind of trust and chemistry with Jerry Judy. We saw that they had the sideline confrontation, but these two guys have to get on the same page. They’ve got to get it together with each other. And I think what they need to do is spend extra time together this week. I think they need to just let go what happened the other day. We all know that stuff happens in the name of football. That stuff happens on football sidelines all the time, not always captured on camera. But those two guys need to get together this week. They need to text each other back and forth like Amari and Joe Flacco used to be doing all day long. Maybe they should watch some film together. I think that would be helpful. Uh, I think they need to talk and communicate. Jerry needs to talk about where he likes the ball placed. Uh, Shador has such elite accuracy and good ball placement that if Jerry asks for something, Shador can deliver that. So, I think these guys just need to be very vocal about what they want and need from each other and try to make it work better going forward. Mary Kay, do you think, um, obviously they’ve played very conservatively with Shador. There’s clearly been guardrails on what they’re letting him do at the moment. And that made a lot of sense, especially in San Francisco with the weather and, but you’re playing the worst team in football now in Tennessee. I know it’s not going to be great weather, but it’s not supposed to snow or be crazy windy as of now for this Sunday. Do you think they’ll kind of loosen up a little bit and give him more of an opportunity to kind of see what he’s got in this game? Well, as the weeks go by, I think they need to do that. Um, each week, I think they’ll probably open things up a little bit more. Uh, Again, as you mentioned, in this past game, it was not the time to, like, really let it rip in the passing game because of the conditions. But if the weather is decent, then I think they will want him to push the ball downfield. I think that’s important. And he does have to try to get his primary receivers a little bit more involved. I’m talking about not just Jerry Judy, but Sid Tiillman, David Njoku. I mean, you’ve got to have your big time receivers, pass catchers out there contributing if you actually want to make this offense go. So I think that’s going to be important and I think that they will have a chance to, to give Shador a little bit more opportunity to show what he can do. Mary Kay, with Malik Collins, uh, down right now for the rest of the season, who do you think steps up in his place? How do they respond to this? Well, they, they signed Sam Kamara to the active roster, and so that’s one thing. And then Mike Hall will probably get some more snaps, and they do have a, a pretty deep tackle rotation, but Malik Collins was playing at a Pro Bowl level, and it really is hard to replace him. It’s going to take Make a committee to do that. So Sam will step in there. There will be more of Mike Hall, which, which is good. Coming off of that surgery, he needs to get out there a little bit more and play some more snaps. So I think that’s a place where, um, you know, you’ll see that happen. And then, as I mentioned, you know, Sam will be out there a little bit, and they’ll just keep rolling those guys through there. And Shelby Harris has a really nice season. So, you know, — Shelby will benefit and get a few more snaps
— himself. Mary Kay, we’ve asked this question probably 50 times throughout the course of the season, but it seems like every week there’s a new swinging momentum of whether it feels like Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Barry are going to be safe this offseason, if they’re gonna get fired, if one’s safe, if one’s fired, if they’re tied, if they’re not. It’s now week 14. What sense do you get on their future? Is it imperative for them to keep their jobs that they need to win a few of these last games, or do they feel like they’re operating under the mantra that regardless of the outcome of these last 4 or 5 games, they’ll be safe heading into 2026? I don’t think anybody really knows the answer to that question, uh, but when I look at this rookie class and see that it’s the best rookie class that Andrew Berry has ever had, uh, I really don’t see him going anywhere by any stretch of the imagination. Jimmy Haslam asked him to nail this draft. He nailed this draft, and it’s not even over yet because they still have a first round pick from that Jaguars trade. So Andrew is going nowhere. I mean, I pretty much think you can take that to the bank. As far as Kevin is concerned, I do think that Kevin deserves a chance to see this thing through and see what he can do when he has. The quarterback. They didn’t have the quarterback this year. It’s tough to win with a rookie quarterback and to have the upheaval that they have had this season. Look what happened in New York with Jackson Dart and Brian Dabel. He got fired. Look what happened in Tennessee with Cam Ward, a rookie quarterback. They got, he got fired down there. Uh, Brian Callahan did. So, um, This is very, very tough for a head coach to have to deal with this, and I think that he does deserve a shot to see this thing through. They’ve got the first layer of their 2nd Super Bowl window in place right now. They’re going to add to the pile to it next year, and they should be in good shape next season to contend for the playoffs if they can get good quarterback play. And Kevin, after everything he’s been through with this team, with the Deshaun Watson thing. I think he should be able to reap the benefits of that, but you never know what an owner is thinking. They might want a new vibe, a new face, a new voice. I have no idea what Jimmy is thinking right now, but I certainly don’t think Kevin should take the fall for this season. Mary Kay, uh, what’s the bigger issue, coaching or talent with special teams right now? Perhaps it is just a lot of young guys on the unit. It is so bizarre because we all know the reputation that Bubba Ventron has with, uh, you know, with special teams and what he came in here with and what he’s accomplished in his career. So, I certainly don’t think he’s forgotten how to coach. I think it’s when you You look at it, uh, a lot of times it’s a young guy making, making a mistake here or there, and that was certainly the case on Sunday with Gage Larvadan and Malachi Corley. But I also think they seem to be missing that enforcer guy on their special teams unit. They had Mike Ford, you know, they’ve had guys like that in the past, uh, that just were the leader of the unit and got everybody together the way that Carson Schlesinger does with the defense right now. And it seems to me that they’re just missing that special teams ace, and I, I believe that that would help a lot. Mary Kay, why, what was going on? Why did they decide to alternate drives with Wyatt Teller and Kevin Jenkins this past week? Is it because he was hurt? No, it was because Kevin Stefansky has been watching the tape of Wyatt Teller and felt that he needed to take a little bit of a step back and alternate a little bit and see if he couldn’t maybe improve his play. He was not grading out well. Right now, he’s about the sixty-seventh offensive guard in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus, and I think they just wanted to roll somebody else in there and see if they couldn’t upgrade that position a little bit. So. Wyatt is going to have to do what they need him to do once he comes off this calf injury and show a little bit more in the final games because his contract is up after this year. So if he wants to, uh, get an extension or come back here, — he’s probably going to have to play
— better. Mary, I saw you asked Harold Fanning, uh, on Zoom the other day about the 4th and 1 botched fumble snap, and he kind of alluded to maybe we should have called a timeout, maybe I should have called a timeout. In those situations. And I, I don’t know if you’re the one that has the exact answer here, but is that on the player to notice that all hell’s kind of breaking loose, or does that have to be from the sideline, from the head coach noticing something’s not right? It’s such a crucial play in the game. We got to get this all situated. Well, I think that’s a tough situation to put your rookie tight end in who has never, uh, executed a QB sneak on 4th and 1 before. Uh, so, I think that would have been a tough thing, uh, to put on him to make sure that he’s the guy that calls the timeout in that situation. Uh, so somebody needed to bail him out of that. But I think the, the major The problem with that play were the substitution issues because Jack Conklin was out. KT Leviston is usually in there as an extra blocker, and he was already in there as the right tackle. And so it was just a situation where they didn’t know who was supposed to be on the field, why it’s going in and out, and time was a wasting. Harold put it on himself, but I, I think that he, he could have used some help there. Mary Kay, I wanted to wrap it up going back in time because we had Brian Hoyer on yesterday and Brian admitted something I think we all kind of knew and maybe you’ve written about it in the past, so many years ago, who can remember. But he, he said that, you know, Mike Petton had his hand forced and obviously benching him for, for Johnny Manziel at the time by front of either Ray Farmer or ownership, whatever it was. What did you think of Mike Petton at the time? Because he, to me, he was the one coach before Stefansky. Like every other coach the Browns had, I was like, this guy sucks, he sucks. I thought Petton had a chance to be a decent coach, and that whole thing screwed him up. I don’t know. What, what, what do you think about that? Yeah, I thought that he did have a chance to be a decent coach. And if you do go back into the annals of that time period, I was the actual person who broke the story, uh, that Kyle Shanahan wanted out because of Ray Farmer, uh, making phone calls down to the sidelines and dictating things. And that, that was just basically a mess. And the Browns got fined for it. Uh. It was a big, big, huge thing. And Kyle, uh, ended up securing his way out of here. And, uh, it, you know, that was a mess. The whole Johnny situation, Brian thing was a total dysfunctional mess. And, uh, I hope that as the Browns move forward, I hope they learn that quarterback drama needs to be kept as a, at a minimum. If, if possible, you really want that situation to be calm and professional and, and have things running smoothly, and they certainly weren’t doing that back in that era. Certainly not. Mary Kay, one last one real quick. We’re looking forward to Tennessee. It’s a battle of two teams that aren’t very good right now, but the Browns have 2 more wins than the Titans. You think they get #4 this weekend against the lowly Tennessee Titans? I do think so, yes, I, I do think so. Uh, we know that, obviously they’re 1 and 11, and the Browns’ defense is so good. So, when you put the Browns’ defense up against a team like this, I really don’t see any way that, uh, that the Titans are going to win this game. I think they’re going to take the rookie to school and, and show him. What the NFL is all about. I think Miles Garrett is going to want to use this opportunity to get closer and closer to that single season sack record. And, uh, so I think they might just end up having their way with the Titans on Sunday. I think there’s a chance Miles could break the record this week. He can. It’s an outside shot. Oh yeah, he does have an outside shot. So that’s something, that’s something to watch for. Mary Kay, great stuff as always. Thank you for joining us. Talk to you soon. Thanks, Mary Kay. Sure, thanks guys.

Shedeur Sanders added a few more data points on Sunday to show the Browns “I’m who they’re looking for” and that they don’t need to draft a quarterback with one or both of their first-round picks in the NFL draft.

He’ll get another chance to state his case on Sunday against the 1-11 Titans, where he’ll go head-to-head with No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward.

Ward is the only quarterback the Browns would’ve drafted with their No. 2 overall pick, and they passed on Sanders six times before trading up to take him in the fifth round, so he’ll undoubtedly want to show once again that everyone got it wrong on draft weekend. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2025/12/why-it-will-be-tough-for-shedeur-sanders-to-prove-the-browns-dont-need-to-draft-a-qb-even-if-he-finishes-the-season-mary-kay-cabot.html

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