Mary Kay, thank you for taking the time to join us. Sure.
Thanks for having me. Absolutely. When you take a look at everything that has gone on over the past three days involving the Browns, what surprises you the most, if anything? Well, there was so many questions, even Andrew Berry had the answer about his lack of enthusiasm when they made the suggestion and the mild claps, his press conference saying Chidor would have to come in and earn everything.
Why Dylan Gabriel? But then why select Chidor? Like he said it didn't come from the top. Why make the selection? Well, because at that point for Chidor Sanders and the value that he carried on their board, they always say that they stay true to their board. And he had the absolute highest grade of anybody left on their board.
And they really did stay true to it. They they went after him and they got him and they figured, why not take a chance? Take a flyer on a player who many thought would be the number two quarterback off the board in this draft.
And they went ahead and they did it. They were going to need a fourth quarterback for camp anyways. And I also think that perhaps there was some thought given to throwing Chidor a lifeline after getting to know him throughout the pre draft process, and maybe spare him from going on drafted because it looks like that could have happened.
We have a great writer Mary Kay Cabot is here with us on the chair our sport re show Coast to Coast. When you think about the current quarterback room. We know Deshaun Watson recovering from the blown Achilles we know Joe Flacco 40 years old. Kenny Pickett a backup at best you now have Chidor and Dylan Gabriel into that mix. How do you think this is going to progress through the summertime and then into the regular season as it relates to the starter? Well, I think they will give these guys an opportunity to compete.
It's the first open competition in the Kevin Stefanski era. So these guys will have a chance to come in here and let the best man when I actually do think that if there were a game tomorrow that Kenny Pickett would be the starter. That's what I think would happen. I think he would get the nod over Joe Flacco and I think that because they went out at the start of free agency and made sure to grab Kenny Pickett right off the bat. And it's not that Joe was an afterthought but they took their good old time before they actually signed Joe Flacco so they weren't exactly clamoring for him per se. They did sign him. They're happy to have him. Fans are thrilled to have him back but I don't necessarily think that they viewed him as their potential starting quarterback for this season right at the start of free agency.
That was more the Kenny Pickett role. So if the season started today I would say Kenny and then I think Dylan will give him a nice run for his money and then they'll go from there. Mary Kay Cabot is here with us. Covers the Browns for Cleveland.com. You mentioned Kevin Stefanski and having an open competition for the quarterback one spot. We know that this is someone who is one coach of the year and then towards the end of last season we heard calls about how he may leave or they may let him go. What do you think this upcoming season is going to be for Stefanski?
Is he going to have room to do what he wants? What can we expect? Kevin Stefanski and of course Andrew Berry will have room to do what they need to do because this is not necessarily the year that they will have found their franchise quarterback.
They now have two first round picks for next year and next year they might have the chance to find that quarterback if they don't get him this year. So I think this is a year of patience, of regrouping, of going back to the Kevin Stefanski way of doing things after they try to completely rewrite the offense and revamp the offense last year in the mold of Ken Dorsey. It did not go well. It wasn't a fit for anybody and it was kind of a disaster. It was a disaster.
Let's just call it what it was. So they're going to go back to the Kevin Stefanski way of doing things and the quarterbacks that they have in the room generally fit what he does well. Now they have two running backs. They will bolster the running game with the two new backs and they should get themselves back on track to a degree.
Picking up Quinshaun Judkins as well. Do you think this is over for Chubb in Cleveland or is there a possibility he returns as well? I think there's a possibility that he returns. I think to a certain extent, and I wrote about this today, I think to a certain extent it will depend on kind of what happens with Jerome Ford. If someone makes them an offer that they can't refuse for Jerome Ford, then maybe they pick up an extra draft pick for him and that opens the door for Nick Chubb to return. But in the event that things work out between the Browns and Jerome and he sticks around, then I think it makes it a little bit more difficult for Nick to come back because do you really want Nick Chubb being your fourth running back on your football team? That would be a tough pill I think for him to swallow, for Browns fans to swallow.
So I don't see that necessarily happening and I think the situation is a little fluid. And Browns beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot here with us on the JR Sport Reshow. Somebody who did return to the Browns is someone who initially asked for a trade and said he didn't want to leave and now he's coming back. They paid him. He gave all these reasons why he came back. These quarterbacks and the decisions they made over the weekend didn't have nothing to do with Miles Gatt returning. It's just about the cash. That's why he came back, right?
A little disingenuous or is it me? Well, I think that they showed Miles that they had 10 draft picks in this draft and that they were going to overhaul the running game, which was one of the things that he actually said he wanted to happen. So they showed that they were going to do that. Then I think they showed him that they were going to try really hard to get much better quarterback play this year and then also look with an eye towards next season when they could possibly draft maybe a franchise quarterback in the first round. So I don't think they sold him on, hey, Kenny Pickett's our franchise quarterback and everything's going to be great. I think it was a combination of add some key pieces in free agency, add a lot of pieces in the draft and then also look towards next year when they can really hit the ground running. Well, when you think about some of the help he got on the defense, obviously picking up Mason Graham from Michigan, Schwesinger from UCLA at linebacker, do you think at any point they'll regret not picking up Travis in that number two spot and trading down?
You know, I'm going to say no. I'm going to say I don't think they're going to regret that. If you look what they already did with two of those picks from that trade, they completely overhauled their running game with Quinn Sean Judkins and Dylan Sampson. And I think they're going to have a dynamite running game. They got Mason Graham who everybody thought was going to be a top five pick. And they also have a first round pick next year to use on possibly a quarterback or maybe something else. But with everything that they got, I just have a feeling that they're probably not going to regret that as much as some people think they will. We know Mary Kay, this is going to be a full on rebuilding year. The fans is unfortunately in Cleveland. This is something that they're used to.
What is the full expectation? Let's tank. Maybe we have a franchise quarterback here somewhere. And if not, we just head into the draft is pretty much those are two paths. I, you know what, I don't really think that they're looking at this as a full on rebuild year.
I don't know if you can look at it like that. When you've got a Pro Bowl receiver in Jerry Judy, a Pro Bowl tight end in David Nijoku, Pro Bowl offensive lineman in Jack Conklin. Joel Bitonio, Wyatt Teller, 2023 NFL defensive player of the year Miles Garrett, four time Pro Bowler in Denzel Ward. Now you've got a completely revamped running game like we talked about. You've got the best defensive tackle in the class coming into Cleveland. I just don't know that you can call that a full rebuild.
I don't think so. I think the only x factor is the quarterback. There are other there are other pieces that they need, of course, but I think that they have significantly upgraded this football team. Okay, well, you got to compete with the Ravens, the Steelers and the Bengals.
It'll be another a rock fight in the AFC North. What do you think is best case scenario for the Browns this upcoming season? It all depends on the quarterback. I don't know what kind of quarterback play they're going to get because I don't know what Kenny Pickett really is necessarily going to be able to do or Joe Flacco or anybody else that might come in here and start for them.
That is the whole key to the whole thing. If they can get good quarterback play, then I think they can win eight games, maybe even push it, push it to nine games. Not really sure about that, but I think they can get somewhere around there because last year they turned the ball over 34 times. If you just cut that in half, you're winning three more games or four more games.
So if they get decent, clean ball from their quarterback and then run the ball a ton, then I think that they could be onto a little something. All right. Well, Mary Kay, thank you so much for the time. Please tell everybody where they can follow you and your work with Cleveland dot com. Yeah, in addition to Cleveland dot com, you can find me on Twitter at Mary Kay Cabot. Well, thank you, Mary Kay. I know you're going to be busy this whole offseason into the season, so thank you so much. Sure. Thanks for having me.
