REShow: Kevin Stefanski - Hour 1

This is the Rich Eisen Show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I got to imagine when a guy like Delvin Cook gets released, where are you hearing from right now around the league?

Man it's crazy man. You want to tell me who? You want to let me know where you're leaning right now Del? The Rich Eisen Show with guest host Tom Pelissero. Today's guests, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski. Chargers head coach Brandon Staley. And now sitting in for Rich, it's Tom Pelissero.

You know we're really getting to the NFL's summer break when Bill Belichick cancels the last day of mini camp. Even Bill's going it's enough. We got it. We got it. We are ready to roll. Need to get to Nantucket.

Do the off season. Tom Pelissero. Mikey needs a pet. In for Rich Eisen who based upon his Instagram stories was listening to the show it is from Israel. So that's good. Hi Rich. If you're tuning in today, we appreciate you checking in on us.

Appreciate you being here all week with me too. I had nowhere else to be so. Rich enough with the stories. We get it. You're on a camel. Cool. I mean if I were on a camel I'd probably post it.

Absolutely you would. Nothing bothers Brockman more than Rich having fun. Rich is like he's being pumped a camel. He's I didn't even think about that. We're at work. We can go home now. Oh that's Mike Del Tufo. Your job's done. Chris Brockman's here.

TJ Jefferson is here. We've successfully not talked hockey on the show over the past two days. Let's give an acknowledgement here to the Vegas Golden Knights.

No doubt. I'm just you know Stanley Cup champions scored nine goals last night in a. That was a butt whooping. Yeah there were a couple of empty netters toward the end there. I saw when it was six to one I was like sheesh. Yeah it was it was not the most competitive game. It was two to one at one point. So it was not you know.

I mean it was scoreless. Well from the start. I'm just for me I'm just happy for the long suffering Golden Knights fans. Six long years.

Half a decade of suffering. They were an expanded team in 2017. One of our one of our news desk people at NFL Network who's from Vegas was you know talking to me about you know watching the game. He goes I've never even watched hockey before six years ago. From Vegas. But now yeah there's there's a few of those.

Clayton Holloway does a great job. But how many of the how many of the Knights fans not just they weren't fans of the team six years ago. How many had never watched a second of hockey?

Probably a great deal of them. And now you got a parade going down the strip. I mean that's going to be awesome. Oh yeah by the way could you imagine what like the game was over it wasn't even nine o'clock last night. So I can't imagine what went down in Vegas. I think hockey let's do that hockey. I think Aaron Gordon was there still shirtless.

I was going to say from Vegas to Vegas from Denver. Is it possible for a hockey player to do the Aaron Gordon? If you just took off your shirt and then just on skates you put on the blade the what are they called the blade protector things. That would be uncomfortable. And then just you're kind of awkwardly waddling down the street in that cheering.

That would be incredible. If you're a Buffalo Sabres fan right now you're a Maple Leafs fan. Sorry Mike Hoskins. How are you how are you feeling?

Not good. About this like I think that on some level right unless unless you're a fan of the Florida Panthers I assume that they have some. I usually you can feel good on some level for someone involved namely the fan base. I don't know that anybody's sitting there feeling really great about Vegas winning a Stanley Cup. How long the Minnesota Wild never won one you know it's been a long time nor since the north stars were in these stars like the Stanley Cup finals against the penguin circa what was that 91 92 somewhere in there mighty ducks. You got all these you know the true hockey markets that take nothing away from them. I mean to go from an expansion team to go to the Stanley Cup twice and win it in the first six years it's impressive. Think about that what you just said though Tom six years could you imagine an NFL expansion team maybe one of ours maybe the Dale Tufo D's nuts or the yeah who won that poll by the way Brockman.

Oh yeah yesterday. We did the expansion draft yesterday yeah draft any four players great run from within the league to start your team with at their current age current salary. We did a twitter poll well how'd that come out? Yeah so just a quick recap my team was Patrick Mahomes, Larry Matunzel, AJ Brown, and Patrick Sturtan, Del Tufo, Micah Parsons, Jimmy G, Saquon Barkley who's got a contract offer apparently Tom, and Travis Kelsey, TJ with Joe Burrow, Nick Bosa, Miles Garrett, and sauce Gardner, and then Tom went Josh Allen, Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, and Anthony Richardson. Just gonna try to outscore everyone. Throw it up on twitter TJ wins best team uh 47%. Wow 47% percent yeah I do. Very well balanced no offense though I don't know is what I do is Miles Garrett playing running back also.

I'm gonna say you couldn't uh no I'm not gonna tell him that. That would be a scary 27% for me 21% Tom and his two quarterback system which means he has zero and then Del Tufo who who did you pay what 15 people did you pay for your five percent. By the way I won the most fun poll because my team is definitely gonna have so I dominated was the whole goal. I dominated that poll is what you're saying. Yeah well Jimmy G and Kelsey I think have the most fun but guys too full of specific reasons for drafting that team but getting back to what I was bringing up could you imagine an NFL expansion team six years in going to multiple Super Bowls and then winning like what they've done that's I mean the Panthers and the Jaguars in the mid 90s both had pretty deep playoff runs in the first couple of years but not Super Bowl winners no not rising to the top the Florida Marlins they were an expansion team in 1993 and then won the world series in 97 and then dismantled their team and won again in 2003 so they won then dismantled again they won two world series in 10 years as an expansion team no I get I'm just saying an NFL squad though like it would be hard for me to really fathom that they could someone could put together a team that could go to multiple Super Bowls and then win in such a dominating fashion I mean you would need if you're an expansion team you would need to have the number one overall pick you would need to not do what the Texans did to David Carr and let him get sacked 84 times or whatever it was in his rookie season and ruin his entire career um but you would have to you would have to hit on it you would have to have a Patrick Mahomes level draft pick and then hit on a lot of the stuff through the expansion draft and somehow build a line I mean the entire concept of that I mean it's been since the Texans I believe were 02 but they were an expansion team so it's been a long time since we even had to like think about this but from a roster building perspective even with where the salary cap is right now yeah it'd be a massive challenge I think in hockey hockey's probably number two if you're talking the big four sports and the impact of coaching the NFL is clearly number one we got a couple of really good ones coming on the show later today Brandon uh Brandon Staley and Kevin Stefanski I put hockey number two I don't know baseball there's no impact to the manager or I should say minimal impact of the manager maybe 10 games a year something like that right I mean but it's it's stuff that you and I could do hey yeah he paid he put the wrong pitcher in okay maybe take that guy out good guess lefty righty should you intentionally walk that guy calling for a steal but like we could do that hey if I became a major league manager today oh and I haven't played base I played you know high school baseball and I played you know town team ball after during and after college so but I haven't like paid attention or really like gotten into in 20 years I could like read a book on how to manage a baseball team baseball managing for them and I guarantee you I could at minimum be you know to use like the baseball term if you're evaluating players like the war right the wins above replacement I could at minimum be a plus three war major league baseball manager what do you have to do I can't wait to watch twitter responses into that you fill out you fill out the lineup card it's all the computers that tell you what to do anyway the general manager goes this is what we're gonna do you go okay there's no rah rah speeches there's virtually no strategy everything is based upon analytics like what is the what does the manager do and god love you know the buck show alters of the world who can do this for 40 years and okay you're the calming presence you handle the media I got that covered I know the media works your media's sad I'm a fun loving guy that's true people will like me great yeah like great hair hey what's what all right what should we do here well what is it what does the computer say what's the card say says put in the lefty okay I'll put in the lefty like it's hard baseball's clearly the big four sports at the bottom I think basketball is probably just above they're definitely really good coaches in the league there's you know there's the Steve Kurz and the Eric Spolsters of the world but it's a player-driven league if you've got good players it's hard to mess it up as a basketball coach hockey there is strategy I'm gonna push back on you disagree yeah how all right how much can a basketball coach an NBA coach impact if you've got not making adjustments keeping players in too long when they clearly should be sitting on the bench like but a great coach Greg Popovich lost like 60 games last year or two years ago whatever that was no players exactly that's my point if you don't have players you can't coach them into being better hockey you actually can like there's coaches who at every level like I always point to John Cooper the lightning coach who's won a couple of Stanley Cups now and I covered him back in his uh USHL days he's won literally at every level from you know like the AAA midget hockey or whatever they call it they probably don't call it that anymore NAHL USHL and NHL he won it every single level like how does that happen well it happens because you're just you're coaching above the level of everybody else you have a culture you have a system you do make the adjustments I put that number two I think NFL is by far number one I'd probably put you know NHL at number two can anyone in this room name the Vegas Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy used to be the Bruins coach butch Cassidy Bruce Cassidy where is the Sundance all right that was impressive Brockman I didn't think you had that one in you uh I had to make up for Jim Caldwell Jim Schwartz yesterday that was uh I mean I knew that because I watched the game yesterday so I knew that so again you just used to be the Bruins manager Mark Stone Hatrick last night was here what Mark Stone had to say after they clinched the Stanley Cup I can't even describe the feelings in my in my stomach right now it's everything you can imagine the grind of an 82 game season four playoff rounds you grind and you grind and you grind and at the end of the day the last team standing it's incredible I feel I love the energy there from Mark Stone I feel like that was that was missing something can we can we play that can we play that one more time just uh I can't even describe the feelings in my my stomach right now it's everything you can imagine uh the grind of an 82 game season four playoff rounds you grind and you grind and you grind and at the end of the day the last team standing it's incredible you can go home now there it is thank you for that it means every quote it's great I don't even need to look it up I know that Mark Stone is Canadian Mark Stone is Canadian that's good the nationality of the player and the head coach's name you're the you're the now the resident hockey expert on this show who the hell is Tim Horton all right stone is Winnipeg's finest this has been our sort of hockey segment for the week another thing is even if you're not big on hockey right to me the presentation of the Stanley Cup is the greatest celebration in sports I will always try to watch that whether I've watched the game if I don't watch the the clinching game I'll go on YouTube but there's just something so amazing about these guys getting the best trophy in sport and just skating around each member of the team from the captain to the it seems like the team accountant gets to like hold that trophy up and it's just you know I like I said early in my life I got to watch the the Pittsburgh Penguins do it and that was when it really started to captivate me seeing Lemieux and Jager and those guys but like that that moment just NBA major league baseball call it nothing to me personally can compare to that Stanley Cup and getting that and those those guys just skating around hoisting that 37 pound like just the most beautiful trophy it's the biggest trophy it's and there's only one there's only you know there's 50 odd Lombardi trophies out there there's all these world series where they get the one cut the one cup you know what I always wonder because everybody gets their their day with the Stanley Cup and you know you saw last night I think it was Mark Stone had his baby one of the players on the on the nights had their baby like in the cup and you know that there's been hundreds of other babies in that cup and there have been probably thousands of people have been like we're gonna drink out of the cup yeah I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable at this point drinking out of the Stanley Cup I'm sure it gets sanitized everybody's doing different stuff to it like it would remind me of you know like back in in in you know like in my college days where you'd have like you know we have you know the kegerator in the apartment and you know those like tubes that have probably been in there for 10 years through 10 different people live that same apartment are just nasty and there's like stuff coming with the beer out of the keg it's already bad enough it's some light beer it was a 59 keg on special because it's expired here so hey who cares we're playing Beirut tonight but like that's what I imagine it's like it's got to be I understand it's it's a wonderful trophy but it's got to be slightly gross there's no way it's not you're going to think of just the thousands of miles that things traveled I know speaking of the pens I know that that thing ended up in the bottom of Mario Lemieux's pool once I mean you can imagine the amount of food and liquid that had been eaten out of that I feel like chlorine would be bad for bad for an all-metal trophy but yeah silver yeah the silver showers Phil Pritchard is the keeper of the cup so that guy's probably seen some things like he's right you want to talk about someone who needs to write now there's a job that guy should write a book but he probably can't even speak on some of the stuff that he's seen so he just how do you transfer it around like it's only Phil Pritchard's just driving it across multiple countries there's a massive case for him right maybe he drives it maybe they fly like you can't check it right like can you give it to the skycap guy outside the airport just hey this is hey don't worry I think he's putting the heavy tag on it you just make sure you slip them like a 20 or a 50 just to make sure it makes the flight I think you got it you have to have you have to be able to bring it on the plane like you might have to get like a second seat for it right flies first class for sure I'm sure there's there's got to be stories out there about this yeah I would love I've never I don't think I've ever actually seen it me neither I haven't person I would love to see that thing it's been um but I know people have eaten ice cream out of that and cereal again you know so you've got one a big bowl of you know the college dorm college apartment thing so maybe if there was one bowl that everybody or one cup that everybody ate or drank out of for an entire year that's the Stanley Cup that was kind of like I had this cup in college right I had two roommates that were from Nebraska and like had one of these 7-eleven cups that I loved and I swear that cup was used for me drinking Pepsi and my roommate Mark to spit chew spit into they have to constantly wash out but you're 21 years old you're 20 years old like your immune system is fine just so we can have this clear Tom if you had the opportunity to drink a beer out of the cup you wouldn't do it I would I would have some serious reservations about doing that I would want I'd want to talk to Phil Pritchard and find out the full sanitization process what has gone into this wow who else has been I mean I won't go up for communion I don't want to drink I'm not drinking out of that thing you know I'm much less something that's been for a hundred and however many years getting passed around and having god knows what done to it uh we gotta we gotta we gotta take a break I think it's a good time Kevin Stefanski coming up shortly Brandon Stanley's gonna join us later on in the show I'm gonna get to the biggest storylines in my mind they're gonna play out before NFL training camp we will do that later on in the show as well and we gotta talk a little bit more about Stefan Diggs too because somehow even since the show yesterday things seem to be getting getting weird slightly weirder four lines open to eight four four two oh four rich it's Tom Pellicero in for rich on the rich eyes and show men do you get distracted during the day thinking about your underarms sweating itching or emitting an odor do those thoughts keep you from showing care when it counts new and improved dove men plus care antiperspirant with 72 hours sweat and odor protection and one quarter moisturizing cream helps you forget about your underarms so you can be present for the moments that matter don't let underarm insecurities keep you at arm's distance from the ones you care about buy new and improved dove men plus care antiperspirant wherever personal care products are sold i just learned discover credit cards do something pretty awesome at the end of your first year they automatically double all the cash back you've earned that's right everything you've earned doubled all the cash back from eating at your favorite soup dumpling restaurant doubled all the cash back from that trip where you sort of learn to snowboard also doubled and the best part you don't have to do anything ridiculous to get it nope discover does it automatically seriously though see terms and check it out for yourself at discover.com match have you colin hanks ever drank from the cup i have oh my gosh and it was it was what did you may i ask what you drank from the cup uh i'm pretty sure it was like a molson ice or something you know some canadian brew i'm sure it had to be canadian uh yeah um no it was it was absolutely incredible i mean when your team finally wins the stanley cup and and you've spent your entire life rooting for that team yes and then it happens a you you cry like you the little kid you were when you went to your first game right my wife took photos of course yes um luckily they have been deleted they have been deleted yes absolutely never made it um but then when you actually get a moment you know to be able to just see the stanley cup in person and and and then you know one of the players goes hey you want to drink out of it i mean it's it's just it's you're it's kitty it's just childhood you're not allowed to have it you didn't you're not allowed to tip it yourself though right that's the player tips it who tipped it for you uh anjay kopa uh no well anjay did i drank from it a few times if i'm being on a few different occasions are you water skiing behind no it was dustin penner uh it was the first time dustin dustin penner was and then kopi did the second time yeah yeah i mean when you're around the cup there are rules oh very serious there are rules very serious rules in fact and the only one you can't hoist it either right unless you've won it or correct as as i understand it you know it people say you can't hoist it over your head and shoulders unless you're a player but that's obviously not true because uh you know the equipment managers the head coaches sure a lot of them do that so i think it's it's an organizational type uh role you you have to have some role within that organization to be able to do it but they're they're probably not going to let jim from accounting do that welcome back to the rich eisen show radio network i'm sitting at the rich eisen show desk furnished by granger with supplies and solutions for every industry granger has the right product for you call clickgranger.com or just stop by uh savon digs stopped by buffalo he is still as far as we're aware in buffalo but did not practice yesterday amidst uh i would fairly say some confusion over exactly why he is not according to sean mcdermott currently participating in the mandatory mini camp uh digs did get on instagram and had some thoughts uh i think we have that uh that post and just be letting people cap them lies help you sleep better tell them big dog and my phone been on silent for like six years i don't play all them sounds and bleep we need a new drop from him for that i think the first one is a digs original i'm not sure that the second one is uh people josh allen also spoke uh toward the end of the show yesterday we didn't get a chance to play let's play a little bit of josh allen speaking about the current situation with stefan digs you know steph he's my guy i i excuse my love him he's a brother of mine um you know this does not work what we're doing here without him um you know we we wish he was in here today and um was out there on the field with us and that's that's not the case but i've got his back no matter what um and again i i i've got no doubts that that we will figure out what's going on and um i freaking love him i i can't stress that enough you know there's uh things that i i could i could do better and um you know to help out with this process and uh try to get him back here and you know be the buffalo abilities that he's meant to be so stevon digs barring some very bizarre twist is going to be a bill assuming that he plays in 2023 there's no reason to think he won't we talked about this yesterday based upon the contract restructure back in march 22 plus million dollar signing bonus at that time and the reality that with a mountain of dead cap that would hit there's really no way the bills would trade him even if they wanted to or even if digs wants him to the solution is he's going to be back in buffalo we still don't have clarity on exactly what is going on the bills are back on the practice field today we shall see whether stevon digs might join his teammates presumably if he's away from minicamp he would be getting fine but it's only i mean only 99 000 if you miss all three days of the mandatory minicamp and i did speak uh yesterday with his agent adisah makari who said doesn't know why sean mcdermott said what he said which was that he's very concerned about digs not being there uh adisah also said you know reiterated that yes he was there he's been there since sunday he was in the building yesterday morning but was not by the time mcdermott spoke and so we continue to look at this i mean i i always look at these things this way too if you're going to rattle somebody's cages about whatever is going on okay if you're going to try to make some type of a point or if you want to address issues now is the time this is me season in the nfl and really is from the end of the regular season through the last week of july when teams report players report to training camp in that span the only mandatory thing is the minicamp the fines are not that high if you miss that and once you get into training camp everything changes because the fines are much greater there's signing bonus that the teams can go after you're going to if you want to make the point if you want to put public pressure on it again i'm not saying that's what stefan digs is doing here because we don't at this point know all the details this would be the time to do it i mean league-wide if i'm not missing somebody there are only three players who did not show up to the mandatory minicamp and that's county digs who did show up apparently before he didn't right yeah digs you got connor williams with the dolphins and you got the neil hunter with hunter we'll see exactly how that that plays out the vikings have been trying to get some type of a deal done with him it hasn't happened they've gotten trade calls to my knowledge nothing is imminent on that front though certainly there would be a market for a daniel hunter but he's making a point here which is he's on the books for 5.5 million that's because the vikings moved up money they're gonna have to do a new contract both sides know that they don't agree on the number so what do you do you could show up you can try to maneuver things through the trade process that way i'm sure that's what the vikings would have liked him to do or you stay away and you know cause a few shock waves here maybe get a few more phone calls headed to minnesota the digs one though i know everybody wants to make the comparison i spoke to several people yesterday within the league who are asking me what's going on and comparing it to 2020 when he tweeted his way out of minnesota difference here is again there's no action item there's no way never say never but there's no realistic way that stefan digs is not with the bill so but this does also plant that seed because there have been little signs there have been cryptic tweets and that's a normal digs thing there was you know the things through the playoffs last year there was obvious frustration but when you got really competitive people those things happen what this does now set the scene for is all the focus being on stefan digs as we get into training camp as we get into the regular season those interactions on the sideline are going to hit different now because you know that there's something bubbling below the surface whatever it is and now he's brought that scrutiny so when sean mcdermott said he's very when sean mcdermott said he's very concerned yeah did that kind of kick start all of this i sean mcdermott saying he was very concerned i think because that could mean anything right you know is he digs okay right is it can they find him what is the deal the more pressing concern for sean mcdermott is now stefan digs becomes the driving storyline of your season and the bills think of everything the bills overcame last year they had i believe two games relocated they had the damar hamlin uh frightening incident where he literally died on the field and was brought back to life nobody even remembers i was at the game so i remember the monday night football game in week two they had two different players leave the field in an ambulance uh they had you know obviously injuries josh allen playing through an elbow injury for a good chunk of the season they had the you know von miller who was a big free agent signing tears his acl they had the they had the obviously everything that happened at the end of the year with the game is it going to be rescheduled what's going to happen i mean that's that's a lot just think of the emotional wear that that puts on a team this is supposed to it's a big year for the bills this is a team that we all look at as a contender and now rather than the focus being on the team and the good stories of damar hamlin being back on the field which by the way i know we we've talked about it plenty but you can't talk about that enough damar hamlin is going to try to play football again that's an unbelievable story but now the focus for however long they don't get this resolved during minicamp there's going to be talk every time you turn on sports center every time you turn on nfl network you're going to see something about stefan digs and every word that he says every tweet is going to be hyper analyzed the focus is now on one guy and knowing how the bills think about their roster that cannot sit well with sean mcdermott and the way they've tried to build that thing the afc is stacked we know that the afc north in particular is stacked one guy who knows that very well is going to join us right after this brown's coach kevin stefanski going to call into the show what's this offense going to look like now with a full season of the sean watson how do they look at everything else that's going on in that division including lamar jackson's extension the additions that baltimore has made obviously the bengals being in a position to be looked at as a contender we'll get into all that with kevin stefanski right after this it is tom pelissero in for rich on the rich eisen show larry david you are now the new commissioner of the national really yes congratulations are you kidding there you go congratulations this is a dream okay i quit curvy enthusiasm in a second if this is true okay okay what do you do first is the commissioner of the national football league larry david number one and i really don't care if people like it or not i'm losing the goalpost what why why are there goalposts okay why why are kickers okay who have they don't have football skills they're not football players i'm sure they're wonderful people but they're not football players why why why are they kicking a ball through goalpost to decide games it doesn't make any sense at all it's a first of all goalposts are a relic from the old english rugby i think okay you know when they used to actually run and kick a ball through a goalpost but they don't do that in the nfl there's no need for goalposts what wouldn't the game be better without them think about it why not just have leaping frogs to decide games have a see if a frog can leap through a a little goalpost that you set up okay on the floor and if the god if the frog can leap through the goalpost then do that what why kick it through a goalpost well it's not called leaping frog ball it's football so you're saying take the feet out of football is that what you're saying is that what you're saying yes why feet are deciding games and they shouldn't why should one player one player with this skill like the guy on the ravens justin tucker yeah why should this one player who does nothing but kick a ball be deciding games when you have 52 other players who are actually playing and this one person this 53rd person is deciding games if it makes no sense whatsoever tom pelissero in for rich on the rich eisen show pleased to be joined right now by guys entering his fourth season as the head coach of the cleveland browns one of my favorite people within the league kevin stefanski is with us kevin how are things in brea man things in brea are great tom we're uh we broke camp last week so all the players and coaches kind of scattered to all corners of the globe and charge up the battery and then get ready to roll uh in july you know we play in that hall of fame game so we get to come in a week early the week ended our off-season program a week early as well see so everybody scatters around when i when i texted you a few days ago about coming on i i thought there was at least a 50 50 chance you're in turks and kekos you're somewhere drinking out of a coconut are you gonna get away or is this is well there are a lot of stuff you gotta wrap up this week yeah there's a thing called uh kids i got i got three of them and as i'm sure a lot of people know this june is the month of every camp you can imagine right so i'm i'm all for if there's uber kids i'm signing up because i got the show for head on this month on this month after that i'll get away i'll maybe not turks and kekos but i'll be i'll be near the ocean uh for a couple weeks do you get to be sports dad i mean are you shuttling people to soccer practices and things like that oh one yeah i mean absolutely that's me i'm i got the carload of kids i'm going to baseball camp and basketball camp and this camp and then catching a baseball game tonight uh with the uh 11 year old so it's awesome i mean as you know there's nothing like it you get to to put that dad hat on and i stand very very far away i'm just taking it in i'm just um i'm trying to just be the normal dad like like you know how it is when you're at those sporting events and just letting the kids compete right so so give me the you had mini camp last week you've had i would fairly say for a lot of different reasons a more normal off season i think than a year ago there's a lot less uncertainty give me give me the state of the browns entering the 2023 season here yeah i think we're right where we need to be i was really really pleased with the guys and how they handled this off season and the off season program uh really the guys took it head on we have a new defensive system new special team system so there's a lot to learn and then offensively as you know you're constantly evolving so i was really glad the guys took advantage of the meeting time the time on the field and then like anything else and you know this time every year is different every year stands on its own merit so the getting to know your teammates part of that the building of your 2023 culture part of that i think is as important as anything you do in the spring and summer so we've worked really hard at that i mean we have a bunch of new faces in that locker room and just letting those guys kind of know what we're about what we've built and kind of where we envision this thing going i think that's as important as any x's and o's you do in the spring i found it fascinating when you when you hired jim schwartz to run that defense you know because you go back three years and i think that jim was at a place i know he had some other things going on but you know there were questions about whether he was going to retire you know he kind of left philadelphia but then decided to come back and go to go to tennessee as a senior assistant was there did you have to do any arm twisting here was he running at this opportunities tell me how that that match came together yeah you know coach schwartz is somebody that i have a ton of respect for having competed against them over the years uh we have a lot of mutual friends we didn't know each other well but a ton of guys that i've worked with that he's worked with uh andrew berry was worth uh coach schwartz previously so just getting to know him through that process we are very very similar uh he came up through quality control just like i did uh he's he's he's a really just a he's a hard worker he's a no nonsense type of guy uh so i just i the guy fit a lot of what we do and then you just talk schematically and what he's been able to accomplish from a four down front in terms of rushing the passer uh affecting the quarterback uh playing really sound uh in the back end i think he'd check a lot of boxes for us you coming up from you know the quality control spot like you said is always one of my favorite parts of like your journey here i talked to brad childress about it years ago and like how you even ended up in minnesota at all i mean i know that's a long time ago but do you remember those those conversations and how you even got into the nfl for the first time oh without a doubt and i'll tell you it's a lot of it is luck i've been so lucky and blessed uh to work with some amazing people but you know you mentioned coach children's i did an internship in the summer of 2005 with the eagles and as a lot of people remember that was the teo summer the uh sit-ups in the driveway summer uh so i was there for that i was just a fly on the wall you know stocking coolers a gatorade that type of thing uh and i got to know coach shoulders a little bit and then that uh i guess january of 06 he got the vikings job and my name came across his desk type of thing and and he hired me to work with him for a few years and then he he and leslie fraser and mike zimmer uh were guys that i got to work under and and you know i'm just so fortunate i was able to develop uh as a coach with them that's a as you know in our profession you don't get to stick stick in one place for very long but i did and and i was able to move to quarterbacks and running backs and tight ends so but it was just being fortunate to be around some amazing people it's been quite a reunion of the uh the guys from that vikings coaching staff in arizona i mean you do young jonathan gannon obviously you had drew petzing the offensive coordinator on your staff there in cleveland nick rawless was like an entry level guy five years ago he's the d coordinator i gotta imagine you've got you've got a few stories about those guys as young assistants uh without a doubt and you know i i know this when you grind when you any job any industry when you get in at that low low low end of that totem pole uh you better be ready to work and there's not a lot of glory in what you do you know people hear that term quality control you know what does it mean it means everything and anything it means stuffing playbooks back when they used to have paper playbooks now everything's on the ipad but it's all those those menial tasks that you're required to do and you put in in your time uh so the guys you mentioned i was with chad o'shea back in 2006 at the vikings chad's our wide receiver coach he won a bunch of super bowls with the patriots as a wide receiver coach so it's fun to see young coaches that grind and and i think you get paid off for that at the end um but man if you're in this profession um i don't know if there's a better way to start than really at the bottom was gannon always is as hyper confident as he comes across now and how did that how did that work how did that personality work in that that type of a role oh man jg is uh he's one of my favorites i mean personality uh charisma energy uh the guy just eats and breathes and lives football it was really fun for me to have him in philly the last few years i'm in his hometown working he was in my hometown working so it's just a very unique thing but i'm real i'm happy for him out there in ozona i think he's going to do great things but you can't fake that energy you can't fake it uh every day he brings it every single day brown's coach kevin stefanski is our guest tell me about the sean watson i i would yeah i don't even want to say year two because year one was very kind of choppy in terms of all the uncertainty and not playing for 11 games just tell me about where he's at you know relative to a year ago and also just in terms of his development as a still pretty young quarterback in this league yeah i'm really pleased with where deshawn is uh as you can imagine and you mentioned there was a lot going on and it was at six games last season and you know as a team we were not perfect we were up and down i think we went three and three in the games with deshawn plate as a player there was some up and down but there were really glimpses of some impressive alcohol elite quarterback play that we've all seen from him over the course of his career so i think where he is right now hard to compare you know to a year ago but i see certainly see a comfort level in what we're doing offensively i see a guy who's always going to be that that guy leading from out in front that's kind of who he is and and i don't see that wavering one bit um so i'm really i'm excited about deshawn i think he's really taken the bit in terms of the leadership and he's going to get the guys together this over this break and throw uh down there in points unknown um but the guy's really taken everything that we've thrown at him uh and and he's worked uh that's something that when we we're talking about adding him i talked to a lot of his former coaches and just the work ethic that he has and he is the quintessential gym rat he loves to get in early he loves to spend time at his craft so it's been fun to work with him through this off season deshawn made a comment last week that everything's new with the offense uh i'm not going to ask you to give away all your scheme on june 14th here kevin but uh is this going to be a substantially different offense than you guys have been running in the past i think it's it should be in that every year you have to change and adapt and evolve uh i think there's certain things that we've done just in our time here in cleveland uh that are good and sound and we'll continue to do them i think there's other things that we've explored throughout last year certainly throughout this off season spent a lot of time in the off season in the practices working at at things that maybe we haven't majored in if you will uh but at the end of the day and i've said this many times there there's no limit to the amount of football plays there's no limit to the amount of plays you can draw up on the board it's really getting a firm grasp of the things that our quarterback likes that our players uh know how to operate that feature our running back that feature our wide receivers our tight ends it's really how do you fit this to our guys because again could i draw up a thousand plays you could but what are the 50 plays that you're going to run on sunday that you're going to feel good about that the team that the players are going to feel really good about you mentioned you're playing in the hall of fame game this year so that's obviously a change just to the natural rhythm of training camp in the preseason you're also going to the green brier which i don't believe you've gone off site for training camp probably back since your uh your days with the vikings to mancada what what was the thought process of you know whether it's from a bonding perspective a team perspective of you know taking everybody off site to uh west virginia yeah i think we're fortunate that we get to play in that hall of fame game and we get to honor joe thomas uh throughout that week and what that that extra week gave us was a longer runway into the season and i just felt that since we don't go away for camps since we're at in baria once we get there for training camp and throughout the season i thought it was good could be a good opportunity just to get away and you know gonna be away i think for eight nights and the cream briar is a place that has hosted teams before i just thought with this longer time let's get away let's get out of town let's go somewhere where self-service is really really bad and let's go practice and and you know just putting people under the same roof that kind of achieves a bunch of team bonding period that in the old days as you know camp would go from about 6 30 a.m to about 10 p.m right you can't do that anymore within the time frame so guys are leaving the building at call it seven or so and they're going back to their families well now's an opportunity for just eight nights it's not like it's two months worth of it but can we get away together under one roof figuratively and come together as a team while you're working while you're really putting in that work what do you think is the darius smith so far ball of energy man holy cow that dude first he walks into the building i'm at my desk i'm working on something and and he's stealth too because i'm working and all of a sudden before i know it he's sneaks up behind me puts me in a huge bear hug and i haven't met i haven't talked to him at home i haven't met uh so he is a big strong dude uh so you you i would say you hear him before you see him but in this case i didn't uh but when you're out there at practice his energy is infectious uh he works hard at it he's a pro he's he's been there uh in big games he's performed so i'm thrilled to have him i know he elevates our defensive play but i also think he elevates our locker room in getting a vet that loves this game maybe he's been pretty aggressive trade wise over the last couple years it's a lot of value type trades i mean zadarius that that wasn't a whole lot you know elijah moore you bring that guy in obviously last year was the the amari cooper trade do you feel like you know just relative to those first few years are you closer to this thing looking the way you want it looking to look in terms of your roster i think you know credit to ab and his crew for constantly looking for those opportunities to add good players and as you know there's sometimes good players are available for reason x y or z uh and maybe the compensation isn't what you thought it would have to be in a normal uh circumstance and adding like you mentioned the darius and elijah moore these are guys that that i think fit what we do from a schematics and i know they fit what we do from the schematics i also know they fit who we are as people as the culture i mean adding amari cooper a couple years ago and to watch that guy work and watch him perform my god watching that dude and one-on-ones uh work work in his craft versus defensive backs and see it in the games but amari also fits who we are he's a he doesn't say much he's really about that work but he's a pro's pro so i think ab is going to constantly be looking to add players that fit who we are but i think i go back tom to this is it's in the every year proposition it's it's 2023 it's it's really that's what matters most to us uh not so much what has happened in the past or what's going to happen in the future well and the other teams in the division are loading up too i mean is there there's some small part of you that was sitting there hoping maybe lamar would would miss this season some small part of you hoping maybe joe burrow doesn't show up without a contract do you do you have some type of almost a fan level rooting interest just hoping that maybe there's a little bit of chaos elsewhere given the uh the chaos that you've had to go through over the past few years i can't go i can't go there i know this it's an awesome division bunch of great teams bunch of great coaches uh we love competing against this division because if you come out of this division you're battle tested it's that good top to bottom so we're excited about the opportunity i think we have all our entire division in the first four weeks of the season uh which is a huge opportunity for us so uh we'll see everybody early but just having competed against these teams last four years you know every game is going to matter uh with the last two minutes of the game kevin you're the best man thanks a lot for coming on appreciate your time talk to you buddy all right man enjoy the summer that is brown's coat kevin stefanski joining us they have i mean you look at their roster you look at some of the trades that they've made the roster seems to be the best it's been in terms of just the talent i mean you now have zadarius smith opposite miles garrett obviously they had jadevy and cloudy in the past but zadarius when he's on when he's been healthy which he wasn't the second half of last year he's been a pretty good player elijah boar is a pretty big pickup in terms of the slot and i am fascinated to see what the offense looks like as you go into 2023 and i thought it was interesting there when i asked kevin about dashawn's comment it wasn't oh no we're just kind of doing the same thing it was no yeah it is gonna it is gonna look different when you think of dashawn watson at his best he's not running the stuff they were running with baker mayfield it's gonna be a lot more stuff utilizing his mobility getting him outside the pocket maybe there's more zone read and things like that to get him there it's probably gonna be more in the shotgun and really when the guy and again for very valid reasons is off the field for the first 11 games the last season it's hard to gather that rhythm sean watson had to play the game in two years he hadn't played a game and then he comes out in november and december and you know kevin reiterated something they told me back in march which was when they went back through the tape and watched the sean once he got back on the field last year there were more glimpses maybe than those of us who weren't watching a lot of browns games in november and december that they saw on tape that they saw the flashes of this is what the guy can be so now get him a full off season he is bringing the receivers to what can i say parts unknown to uh to throw in the off season and you know that's the those are the reps i mean he's still making up for reps not just that he lost last year but over the last three years since the end of the 2020 season he didn't play in 2021 right barely played in 2022 you know what can that team be what can that offense be i mean brockman i'll ask you this if you're stacking up quarterbacks right now at their best in the nfl is it sean watson in your top 10 where are you putting them top 10 yeah i like that i like that in the top 10 you look the last year he played 2020 led the nfl in passing yards he had a 33 and 7 ratio touchdown interception that's really good this guy's been a pro bowl player three straight years 18 1920 this guy can do it remember they had a what was the lead on the chiefs like 24 nothing in the playoff game this is a guy who can win games we know dating back to college and when he's at his best he has a top 10 quarterback in the nfl i do believe that so and you gave up everything to get him i mean that was the biggest trade just literally the biggest trade in nfl history right in terms of all the picks and then the contract the fully guaranteed contract on top of it here i mean that's a that's a big bet that andrew barry made along with kevin stefanski to bring the player in especially under the circumstances that it was in and this was the reason which was once he's back once you're past the suspension we think this guy can be right not even a top 10 the top five type of quarterback this could be one of the best players in the nfl it's going to be 28 years old entering that prime quarterback so it's now or never 2017 draft mr biskey 2 mahomes 10 watson 12 which you rewind it it was the consensus mr biskey was the safest pick but obviously things have worked out pretty well for the chiefs after their trade up to get them and for deshawn watson drafted by the texans now in cleveland we will see the full deshawn watson on the field during the 2023 season and that division is tough kevin's right on that it is not easy to get out of the afc north when you look at his his three prime years 18 through 20 you're looking at 12 840 yards passing 85 touchdowns and only 28 picks this guy you know when you take away the legal troubles and all that nonsense i'm sure a lot of people can't you know remove that from the equation but like chris said this man played the game at the highest level so i'm that's why i really wouldn't ask you is it inconceivable that that north could have four playoff teams i know it would be hard but that division is going to be tough man no it is and i think that there's an unknown with the ravens too they're also switching offenses you know you bring in todd monk and he's going to do things differently i'll still believe it when i see it that lamar is going to run a lot less and throw a lot more because you take away that element of his game that's the difference making element that sets up everything else the run threat gives you the looks that you need on the back end where you're going to have favorable passing matchups so i don't think they're taking that completely away from his game but what does odell look like speaking of people who haven't played in a really long time how does he come back they made a 15 million dollar guaranteed bet that he's going to look pretty good um you know you look at the steelers i think it's about kenny pickett's health and ability to stay on the field everyone you talk to we had alan robinson on a monday says really positive things about him you know that mike tomlin is going to have a good plan for that team and then of course the bangles are the bangles i don't really believe stavanski though he doesn't kind of root against uh you know kind of hoping maybe there's some joe burrow drama brandon staley is going to join us now or to stick around the rich eisen show you