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Transcript
So that's, that leaves me in an interesting spot here with the Giants at #5, OK.
Um, because we have Mauinoah on the board, um, you didn't take Sonny Stiles from Ohio State, and, uh, we have, you know, and, and, and, and we also have Caleb Downs, OK, who I think factors in here, and I think that you can make three connections to John Harbaugh and, and some, and, and I feel like we, we, we sometimes we eat our own tails with this kind of analysis, and, and, and it ends up just being, hey, this guy was clearly the best player and we took him.
But Harbaugh has always had an elite blue green dot, you know, inside linebacker, has always had it, um, since he's been in Baltimore, um, but I think his best defensive evolution has come with multi-safety sets and, and, and guys who can destroy, um.
Guys who can really break up the game and, and really do it, Connor, do it.
But at owners meetings, um, As my buddy Jordan Renan, I was watching him from ESPN, he made the move to actually get the full plate of breakfast and eat it while Harbaugh was talking.
So he's slamming a little bit of bacon.
My guy.
Oh wait, Jordan was having breakfast with Harbaugh.
Jordan was actually having breakfast at the coach's breakfast.
That, that is a power move, power move, yeah, power move.
Um, it's like when, uh, I did this story when the Giants hired John Harbaugh.
Um, I interviewed all the wait staff that waited on him, and, uh, I was talking to the waiter who served them, and Harbaugh orders off menu, uh, because there's an off- menu special.
It's a fish, right, that they flew in from Alaska or whatever.
So then Chris Mara gets the same thing.
He's like, I'm having whatever you're having.
It's like the I'll have a Sam Adams thing.
Joe Shane's over there in the corner.
Possibly about to get boxed out of his job and he orders a rib eye, ultimate power move.
It's just like, I don't give a shit what you guys are doing.
I'm getting a rib eye.
I'm hungry.
I'm having breakfast.
Good for Jordan.
But, uh, what Harbaugh said at this thing is that the offensive line is what he called a work in progress.
This team has taken so many swings at that position, Albert, and has just never been able to eat.
I mean, even the years.
That I covered that team, even the post-Super Bowl years.
I, I, I'm, I, I.
You know, here's what I'd be concerned with there.
All right.
What I would be concerned with there is, so you have Andrew Thomas as your left tackle.
That's pretty much set, right, for now, OK, so Jermaine Iluinor, you just signed him to a 3 year $39 million dollar deal.
I don't think he sees himself as anything but a tackle.
So are you moving him to guard then?
And how do those pieces fit together, or are you moving Maui Noah if you take him to guard, because I think he can play guard also.
Could you do a situation like that where you play on the guard and eventually move Mau?
Yeah, um, I mean, I, you know, Spencer Fanno is another one where, I mean, he can literally play.
All 5 positions, you know, I, yes, so here's what I would.
I I don't have any information on this yet.
I tend to think that Caleb Downs is such a perfect fit for John Harbaugh that he's gonna be tempted to do it.
5 is high for a safety, right?
Like I think Eric Berry was the last one to go that high.
Is that right?
Am I wrong about that?
It's been, I like, I, I like, I think if you look at the history of it, it's really crazy like, and then Eric Berry was the highest since Eric Turner in like '91 or '92.
Um, you can look that up while I'm talking if you want.
I'm sure it's not that hard to find, but it's rare that a safety goes that high.
OK.
Here's the thing is they Completely, like John Harbaugh was part of completely overhauling the Ravens defense in 2018, I think it was, when, um when they promoted Wink Martindale, they, they, Dean Pease had walked away.
He eventually went to go join, you know, Mike Vrabel, who played for him in Tennessee, and, uh, and so when, when, when they promoted Wink, they were like, we're gonna rework what we do defensively, and The whole idea was we wanna play offense.
We wanna play defense like everybody plays offense where we dictate the terms, and the key to that was having the safety with an off the charts football IQ, and that was Eric Weddle for them .
So it was Eric Weddle, then it became Kyle Hamilton, and, you know, I think both those guys allowed them to become so flexible defensively and do so many things defensively.
It unlocked schematically what John Harbaugh and Wink Martindale wanted to create.
That, of course, evolves, becomes Mike McDonald's defense, you know, where you have, um, you have, you know, Nicky Minorri playing that role now as a young player in Seattle.
We saw the difference he made.
And Jesse Minter is, is there for that.
And Jesse Minter, of course , had Derwin James in, in LA.
He's that guy.
Now he's back with Kyle Hamilton in Baltimore.
And I just wonder what Dennard Wilson there is the defensive coordinator who's from that tree.
Like, do they look at it and say, Caleb Downs, that's high, but his football IQ is off the charts.
This guy is gonna be playing 6 or 7 Pro Bowls in the course of his career, and like, let's just swallow hard, even though it's a little high to be taking a safety.
Let's swallow hard and understand that this is a guy who can unlock what we want to be defensively.
And that's just theoretical at this point.
I don't know.
I don't, I, I don't know that they'll take him or anything like that, but I, I, I like, I, man, like I, I would be surprised if John Harbaugh did not like, really, really like Cale Downs.
You're making this hard, but I'm, I'm gonna stick to my guns here.
Now I know.
Now we know.
I, I, I, I, it's a problem that is, Albert, a quarter century in the making.
They have to fix it.
So now I'm the Browns.
I'm, I'm now the Browns.
It's the Browns at 6.
OK, um, I'm gonna go Spencer Fano, OK, um, you know, run an offensive lineman, yeah, and I, I think like the idea here is, again, he's a guy like you said a minute ago, a lot of positional flexibility.
They just need good linemen, you know, and like they are bringing in Zion Johnson and they paid, um.
They paid, uh, Kevin Jenkins, so they've gotten younger.
I don't know if they've gotten better in replacing Joel Batonio and Wyatt Teller.
Um, but obviously, there's gonna be a lot of moving parts with that, that, that, that, that group is Dewan Jones, the answer left tackle.
Um, you know, Fano, I think the interesting thing about him is that, He gives you some flexibility to do it with whatever you need, you know, upfront.
So like, if you need him to play guard, he can play guard.
If you need him to play tackle, you can play tackle, you know, I know some people feel like he, he does project athletically or if you wanted to play him at left tackle, that wouldn't be a huge problem for him.
So like I just think Fano is a, I think he's just a logical pick for the Browns, you know, yeah.
And then that makes my job at 7 a lot easier, right?
Sonny Stiles, Ohio State, um, you have Adam Peters, you know, who has seen the, the blessings that Fred Warner has given that, uh, 49ers franchise.
Dan Quinn needs guys.
He needs dudes on that defense, right?
And they've spent the offseason trying to remake it.
