GBag Nation
Cleveland Browns beat writer for WKRK-FM Sports Radio 92.3 The Fan, Daryl Ruiter joins the Nation to preview Cowboys vs Browns
This podcast is brought to you by Men's T clinic. Men's T clinic is the team I trust with my total wellness optimization. And so should you five DFW locations with North Frisco, El Dorado Parkway at Dallas North Tolway. Now open call 972 go men's T or visit men's T clinic.com. Here we go. It's our number three of the nation and 72 hours from right now, we'll be in the middle of the first half. Cowboys and Browns live in Cleveland and joining us now, Darrell Ryder from 92 three, the fan in Cleveland to talk Browns with you here on your home of the Cowboys. Good afternoon, sir. How the heck are you? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Yes. It's great to have you. What do you expect from the from the Browns offense and to Sean Watson? Is it is it possible to have a really good idea of of what's coming at this point? No, I have no idea what to expect from the Sean. I know what to Sean. Tell us we should expect. I know what your organization is telling us we should expect. But I am of the mind that I'm past the talk. I just want to see it on Sunday. You know, the message coming from everybody is that the Sean Shoulder is fully healed. He is fully recovered from that injury a year ago, and he's ready to return to the Sean Watson that everybody saw with the Houston Texans. But I have to admit some of my skepticism. He's not played a full season of football since the 2020 campaign when he did lead the NFL in passing that year. Of course, he sat out in 2021 suspended for 11 games in 2022 and only played six games last year again because of the broken bone in his shoulder. So I don't know if it's possible for Deshawn Watson to return physically to the player we saw with the Houston Texans. I guess we're going to start to find out comes Sunday beyond the missed games last year. How much did injury cause him to play and you know, poorly. Well, he played well at times, especially early in the season and the second half come back against the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore in which he completed all of his passes in the second half. And the Browns were down double digits and they rallied to win at the gun might have been one of the more impressive wins in the expansion era for the Browns since 1999, especially on the road against that Raven team. Of course, the Browns were the only team in the NFL last year to beat the number one seeds in each conference. They beat the 49ers. They also beat the Baltimore Ravens. So we've seen flashes. We've seen glimpses from Watson. We just haven't seen it consistently because, frankly, he hasn't been on the field consistently. Darryl, I know you had posted the video of generic wills in the locker room yesterday saying he was not going to be playing. So what is the status of the Browns offensive line specifically at that tackle spot? Well, right now it is in flux. I have been under the impression that it was going to be Jack Conklin. I've said so on my podcast, I've said on the station, I've written it. And then today seeing, you know, wills not practicing today, not all that surprising because again, I don't expect to see him at all sunny, but Conklin's limited in these reps. And remember, he's coming off a very significant knee injury. He suffered last week and week one ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus repair made to that knee. So the door has been open now for James Hudson to potentially step into that spot. And that might be the best news Michael Parsons gets all week. Darryl, when you mentioned Hudson playing and I watched tape of your game in the against in the playoffs against Houston, and he was the right tackle. Where do you think they would line him up if they had to play me there in a left tackle or the right tackle? Well, he'll be the left tackle and DeWine Jones will be the right tackle. They, you know, Jones, they drafted last year. Sure. They have been really reluctant to move him from right to left at this point. You know, there's part of me that thinks that he is the left tackle and waiting because Will's is in the final year of his contract. But I'm not so sure because they don't seem like they're in a hurry to move him. And this is an organization just from a philosophical standpoint. They view the tackle positions very similarly. You know, they, they, you know, a lot of teams put a premium on the left tackle spot over the right tackle spot. And the browns, they view both of those positions equally. They don't prioritize one over the other field. One is more significant of the other. And they also feel that the skills on either side are transferable as well. So I think if Conklin is not available to play left tackle, it'll be Hudson and left tackle. And then again, as I said to Juan Jones, he's pretty much written in stone right now that he'll be the right tackle until everybody's healthy. Then the starters would be Will's at left and Conklin at right and DeWine Jones on the bench ready to hop in if needed. Again, you said for Browns and Cowboys with Darryl right or right here in the G bag nation 105 through the fan. How you feeling about our old buddy, Amari Cooper, are you getting a sense that this is a revenge game for him against his former team? Well, I love Amari Cooper. He's one of my favorite Browns on this team. He just goes about his business doesn't say much. He's real quiet. He's a lot like Nick Chubb. And he's also just a very, very good football player. And it's been an interesting off season for him. He really wanted a contract extension from the Browns. The Browns really didn't want to do that. Of course, he's 30 years old now and so he's going to get into free agency. They fully guaranteed the final 20 million on the contract for this year. That's what got him to train. He can't, they also threw some performance incentives in there. So maybe he if he hits those, he can give himself a little bit of a pay bump heading into free agency. But I just love Cooper. As far as the, the revenge game and I mean, his name even popped up in the trade rumors, the brand and I youth stop, you know, Browns 49ers talking trade there in August and Cooper said today he's a very unemotional person. He doesn't take it personally that his name may or may not have popped up in trade rumors. He's not worried about his contract situation. He got, you know, he did admit though, because he was asked about the the extra emotions playing against this former team. He did admit that had this game been sooner as in, I don't know, 2022 after he was traded to Cleveland. Maybe there would have been a little extra sauce for him. But because time is now passed, right? He's been with the Browns two years. He's the first Browns wide receiver in franchise history to catch for a thousand yards and back-to-back seasons. There's just not as much mustard on this one for him. Personally, he just wants to go out and win a football game Sunday. Well, you say, Mari Cooper is one of your favorite players. You can't say he's absolutely your favorite player on the team because James Winston's on the team, right? I mean, my goodness. How awesome is covering that guy? Yeah, I mean, look, James Winston's a walking soundbite. There's no question about it. And, you know, nothing personal against James, but I hope we don't see him this year. And hopefully, we don't have to talk to him this year. That means that the Sean Watson is available each and every week and, you know, performing well and is healthy. But yeah, James is a lot of fun to talk to. He's a ball of energy. That's one of the things the Browns really love about him that, you know, he brings that level of energy, not just to the quarterback room, but it kind of reverberates a little bit throughout the entire locker room. It's Darrell Ryder from 92 three, the fan in Cleveland talk Browns with you here in the G back nation. Now, what, what do we expect with his Brown's running game with Chubout? Well, Jerome Ford's the number one back. It's going to be a three headed monster PR strong. You'll see some of him Donte Foreman. You probably see him in some short yardage situations. He's kind of like a battering ram, you know, type of guy. But I'll be honest with you. I don't again don't know what to expect from this run game because Kevin's the fancy does not run full contact practices during training camps. So there's no life tackling. There's no taking guys to the ground. And so it's really hard to gauge what is a good productive run in those practices because you really don't know where the play got stopped. So that is just like the Sean Watson. That is an unsolved mystery going into week one. Daryl when Ken Dorsey was brought in as the OC and I know Kevin calls the plays. Have you had, did you have noticed anything different with Dorsey and his, you know, in his work with Watson and stuff? Because he, he seemed to do some, some wonders when he was with with Josh Allen at Buffalo. Yeah. And I also cam Newton the year that the Panthers went to the Super Bowl and Newton won the MVP. You know, Dorsey was with him. And that's what really appealed to the Browns. They really wanted to make sure that, you know, Alex Van Pelt did a great job in the four years he was with the Browns, especially considering the volume of quarterbacks that the Browns had to go through because guys kept getting hurt. You know, he did a really good job, but they wrote, they wanted to bring someone in that really could accentuate what Watson does well. And that's the off schedule stuff. And so you can see some differences in the offense when you watch practice. It is about getting the ball out real fast. The timing route stuff that was emphasized the previous four years. There's not much of that now. There's a lot of, you know, receiver choice routes, things where, you know, the quarterback and the receiver better be on the same page, how they're reading those corners and safeties and linebackers and coverage. If not, there's going to be a lot of turnovers because if Watson's thinking one thing and the receivers thinking something else, you know, that that's where you have problems. But it's all about giving the Sean Watson flexibility to make those off schedule plays. He's not an on schedule quarterback. So they have pretty much scrap that idea under Dorsey. And this offense, I think you'll see Sunday involves a lot of off schedule plays. How about the defensive side of the football Cowboys rocking with two rookies with Guy Knit left tackle Cooper BB at center and this Browns defense, at least from a year ago, they were a sensational unit. Jim Schwartz may or may not have noticed that the Cowboys are starting to rookies on that defensive line. Miles Garrett, the reigning defensive player of the year, I know Michael Parsons this year would like to have a word with Garrett about that particular award. I'm pretty sure Miles is aware of two rookies being on that defensive line. So, but, you know, we talked to Schwartz today and he said that those two young guys, he was really impressed with the preseason film that he saw on them. He really felt they acquitted themselves very, very well. So while they may be rookies, you know, the Browns are not expecting an open invitation to the backfield to get after Dak Prescott, but they are going to dial up the pressure because that's just what they do. It, you know, it just so happens that the Cowboys are going to start a couple of rookies up front, but the Browns are a pressure upfront defense. They are a man demand in the back defense. And so, you know, last year, they were able to play some real good complimentary football in that regard with the pressure upfront and, you know, tight coverage on the back end. We'll see. They're going to be tested obviously right out of the gate here because of the explosiveness, not just the Dak Prescott, but his favorite target, CD lamb. We were blown away at the red zone numbers for the defense, though. Yeah. How much conversation has been about that in this offseason? Such a great defense, but worst when it comes to the red zone. And not only that, red zone as well as on the road, the home versus road splits were Jekyll and Hyde. They were just dominant at home and then they would go on the road and they, they just weren't the same defense. So those are two things that Jim Schwartz has been chewing on all off season. And those are two things that Jim Schwartz has been beating into his player's heads all off season about tightening up and improving. And so I am real curious to see, because again, Dallas has a prolific offense. There's no question of that. In fact, the Browns will play every elite quarterback. There is in the National Football League. Patrick Mahomes is on the schedule. Toa is on the schedule. Lamar Jackson, the two time MVP. He's on the schedule twice. Of course, Joe Burrell down in Cincinnati is on the schedule twice divisional games there. Justin Herbert, they're out with the LA Chargers. So this is a, you know, this is just the opening act of what the Browns defensively are going to face. And so while there's been so much talk about tightening up red zone, making sure the defense travels on the road, there's also a lot of talk of the, the level of play has to be elevated or else they're going to find receivers and quarterbacks picking them apart on a weekly basis because they are facing the best of the best starting this week with Dak Prescott. No question about Daryl. We really appreciate the time, man. Cannot thank you enough for all the insights. This has been a real treat. You're looking forward to maybe we'll, oh, I'm sorry about that. Looks like my guy. Well, Chuck Scott, one more question for you. Daryl, here he is. What's your secret with the pork chops? My secret with the pork chops? I don't have a secret with pork chops. barbecue sauce. That would probably be my secret. That's a damn good answer right there to an awful question. Sorry about that. I'm going to deal with this guy in the break. Daryl, you're a beast. Appreciate the time, my friend. You bet guys, thanks for having me. Salute. There he goes. Daryl Ryder 92 three, the fan in Cleveland passing all the tests. Took it in stride, man. Look at that guy. It's a radio pro, especially if you make it on a Weber who sets it off. I think years ago, when we first hit that to brought us, he obviously thought long and hard about that. I know I think I did too. And he was like, he was like, I was talking about it. Apple sauce. Yeah. We got to go. Sean Merriman joins us to preview NFL week one. That's coming up next the G back nation here on 105 three, the