00:00Mike Renner, CBS Sports Pushing the Pile podcast, joins us here on The Fan.
00:03Hello, Mike. How are you doing today?
00:04I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for having me on.
00:06I appreciate you giving us a few minutes.
00:07We're trying to dial into this Soresby situation
00:10and figure out what exactly the Browns should be doing here.
00:13I guess we'll just start big picture.
00:14Is Brendan Soresby worth the headache?
00:18I don't think he is.
00:19I mean, I think that's why he came back in the first place,
00:22was that, I mean, this guy spent four years in college football already,
00:25three years as a starter,
00:26and didn't come out in a relatively weak quarterback class.
00:30I think that tells you a lot about what the NFL thought of him.
00:33And so he needed the one more year of seasoning, so to speak,
00:39to improve his draft stock into realistic sort of territory.
00:42And then you add the fact that, you know, he's a former gambling addict,
00:45obviously, you know, in recovery right now,
00:48no telling what that will do to his future prospects.
00:51I don't know if anyone takes the risk with a day one or day two pick,
00:54especially considering what this next draft class could be like,
00:58that you're robbing a pick from,
01:00and even what this next quarterback class could be like.
01:02If you're a team like the Browns, though, Mike,
01:04and you've got all of these draft picks now
01:06because you've traded back a bunch,
01:08and then you traded Myles Garrett away,
01:10could it be worth it for somebody like Andrew Barry,
01:14who's so desperate to finally solve this ongoing quarterback crisis?
01:21I mean, he's one of the spots that makes more sense.
01:25But even now, it's like, you add him to that room,
01:28you're cutting a young guy.
01:29You know, like, there's no sort of lock that he makes the team,
01:34given how late to the game he is.
01:36If it is a day three pick, you know, that you're using on him,
01:39considering that, you know, similar capital to Dylan Gabriel used a year ago,
01:43similar capital to Shere Sanders.
01:45So, like I said, it's one of the spots that makes sense,
01:49but I just would be very surprised.
01:51I would just have my sights set a little bit higher
01:55on next year's quarterback class if I'm Andrew Barry.
01:57Is there any way you could do both, though,
01:59where you take Sorsby and then you also,
02:01I mean, if it's a fourth or fifth round pick, whatever that is,
02:03you'd still have a stab at the 27 draft class, would you not?
02:08You would, and gosh, what was it?
02:10When the Cowboys drafted Troy Aikman,
02:13the very next, you know, that summer,
02:16they used a supplemental first rounder.
02:19I can't remember who the quarterback was.
02:20It's happened before, and that was Jimmy Johnson that did that.
02:22So it's not as if bad decision makers have done that.
02:26And again, when you don't have the quarterback,
02:27it behooves you to take as many shots as humanly possible.
02:31But I just think that, you know, when you do draft,
02:35especially in the quarterback position in the supplemental draft,
02:38their offseason is a month.
02:39You know, it's the shortest offseason ever.
02:41There's no getting up to speed.
02:43So it's basically a redshirt year anyways.
02:47And you just have a lot of guys right now that you're trying to evaluate
02:50to put a fourth guy in that mix.
02:52Like I said, you have to roster him at that point.
02:57And I don't know if you'd feel comfortable doing that,
02:59given just how green he'd be.
03:02Mike Renner joining us on the hotline host of the Push in the Pile podcast.
03:07Mike, I'm not sure if you heard Todd Munkin's remarks about Brendan Soresby,
03:12but he called it a slippery slope,
03:15kind of indicating that he's somebody that the Browns shouldn't be interested in.
03:19Then Andrew Barry on our airwaves kind of felt like he maybe walked that back a little bit,
03:25saying that they evaluate every player in every situation on a case-by-case basis.
03:30Would it be a move where Barry would kind of be undermining his new head coach in Todd Munkin
03:38if the Browns decided to throw a third or a fourth round bid on somebody like Soresby?
03:43Or do you view this as, hey, that's a general manager making a general manager decision,
03:48and the head coach's job is to go coach that team?
03:51Yeah, I'd probably view it more as the latter.
03:53Obviously, this isn't, if it's a third or fourth, it's not your franchise quarterback, right?
04:01It'd be a different conversation if we're talking about a guy you're using a first-round pick on.
04:04I don't think anyone's going to do that.
04:06That would be a much different where if the head coach does that and the GM disagrees,
04:11okay, that would be a big problem.
04:13But a third or fourth is already a backup projection.
04:15It's already kind of a throwaway pick,
04:17but it's not the investment that head coaches are out of the building usually by that point in the draft
04:24in the third or fourth round.
04:26They're not making decisions.
04:27It's really just scouting staff and GM at that point.
04:29So I don't think that would be undermining a head coach.
04:33Mike, I do know you grind a lot of tape, and you watch a lot of these quarterbacks.
04:36Just from a football perspective alone, what do you see out of Soresby?
04:41I keep getting all these different comps of bigger Baker Mayfield is one that keeps popping up.
04:46We've had a couple others that just continue to pop up in the same way.
04:49What do you see when you watch Soresby?
04:51I think he's incredibly physically gifted.
04:54I see a guy with really natural arm talent.
04:56He's a very rotational thrower, and so he can really put some zip on it with his lower half.
05:03And I thought he improved a lot last year, but there's still some glaring weaknesses, I'd say.
05:08I mean, there's some games that really stick out as worrisome.
05:11Arizona game, the Nebraska game week one, where the ball's just all over the place, a lot of bad decisions.
05:18I mean, I think those two games in particular are why he did have to come back to school.
05:22And, you know, in the Big 12, playing quarterback, it ain't like playing quarterback in the SEC or Big 10.
05:28Those defenses aren't the same caliber of talent.
05:31You know, it's really the only Texas Tech that had a real defense in that conference last year.
05:34So I do think that he was, to me, if he would have come out last year, he was a
05:39J-3 pick.
05:40He was like a fifth, sixth rounder.
05:42That's where his projection was, despite, you know, again, being very physically gifted, having a really gifted arm, being a
05:49good athlete with good size.
05:52But we'll see.
05:53I do just worry about those very rotational guys.
05:56I think, you know, Caleb Williams is one of them.
05:58It's hard to fix accuracy issues with those guys because it's such a violent motion when you really have to
06:04use that much lower half to get zip that a lot of times those guys just tend to spray.
06:09And I worry about that accuracy issues ever really getting fixed.
06:13So that was my kind of take on Soresby before, you know, he ultimately returned to Texas Tech.
06:18Soresby aside, Mike, what do you make of the current Browns quarterback competition?
06:23We learned last week it is going to bleed into the summer and into training camp later in July.
06:29Deshaun Watson and Shador Sanders, it's not going anywhere.
06:32What do you make of it?
06:34I think they have a much better situation than they did last year, is I think the biggest thing.
06:39That, in terms of the quarterback, has a better situation.
06:43Like, there's much more talent around him now.
06:44I love the way they rebuilt the offensive line.
06:46I love the receivers they added in the draft.
06:48They can actually potentially win this season with whoever it is that quarterback.
06:55Now, do I think any of these guys are franchise guys going forward?
06:57Absolutely not.
06:58I just unfortunately don't.
07:00That was my take on the two quarterbacks they drafted last year.
07:03And that was obviously what Deshaun Watson put on tape every single time he's been Browns quarterback.
07:09So, I don't think they have that, but you can, at least with a good offensive mind, a talent along
07:16the offensive line now, much better offensive line, much better receiving core, you can still create offense even if these
07:21guys are limited.
07:23You have to kind of scheme around them.
07:25I think there's a world in where their offense looks so much better than it did a year ago, even
07:30if these guys are still probably, you know, not top 32 quarterbacks in the league.
07:35Mike Renner joining us on the Wise Heart Right, We Make It Right, Call Kyle Right Hotline.
07:40He mentioned some of those offensive pieces.
07:41What do you make of the revamped wide receiver room?
07:45I love Casey Concepcion.
07:47He actually came in my final board as my wide receiver one in the draft class.
07:51I think he is the best separator.
07:53I think he's exactly what the Browns were hoping for at pick 24.
07:57Like, we truly could not have done better there in the first round.
08:01Denzel Boston I wasn't quite as high on, but for where they got him, that was about where I had
08:07him on my board.
08:08I think just much more of a solid, kind of a better version of Cedric Tillman, who's in that room,
08:13just much more reliable route runner already.
08:16So I thought they got two good complementary pieces in that they're not redundant roles.
08:22They're going to play two different positions in that offense and can really be early impact guys, I think, both
08:28of them and what they do.
08:29Obviously, a big piece of this offensive retool this offseason, Mike, was the offensive line as well, where the Browns
08:36were tasked with replacing all five starters from left to right.
08:40And it feels like they've got at least four of the five positions solved throughout the offseason program.
08:45How do you think Andrew Barry did in his conquest to replicate what Ryan Poles did for the Chicago Bears
08:52last year and building a better fence around Caleb Williams?
08:56I was floored by how well he addressed this offensive line.
09:00Now, the bar was very low.
09:02It's very easy to clear what they did last year, but I thought they'd got some good value pieces.
09:07Elton Jenkins being part and parcel of that.
09:09I think when that guy's been healthy, he's been a borderline pro bowler.
09:12And to get him for what they got him, I thought was a great deal.
09:15Spencer Fano was number five player on my draft board.
09:18I thought that was just a slam dunk to get him even after a trade back.
09:23That guy's going to be a high-end left tackle someday.
09:25And then, you know, Titus Howard, Zion Johnson, they're not world beaters.
09:29But again, the bar was so low that I think you're clearing at both of those positions from what you
09:35got last year.
09:36So I think there's a world where, like you said, four new starters, all four are big upgrades from what
09:41we saw a year ago.
09:42What do you make of the defense?
09:44No Jim Schwartz, obviously Myles Garrett gone, Jared Verse in.
09:48I was expecting a step back before we got the Myles Garrett trade.
09:51What do you see the defense for this year?
09:54I think the interior of that defensive line is what they are hoping for to be a difference maker this
10:01year.
10:01Now, that's what they've invested in the past two years highly in the draft with Mason Graham a year ago,
10:08Mike Hall two years ago.
10:09You know, I think there's a world where they can really bring it from the interior.
10:14And Jared Verse is the kind of guy who is going to create havoc at minimum.
10:19You know, he's not Myles Garrett.
10:21No one is from a pure pass rushing perspective or sack perspective.
10:25But he is going to collapse a lot of pockets.
10:27He's a guy that if he gets a feral matchup, he could take over games himself.
10:31So, yeah, it's a downgrade, but I think your defensive line as a whole might be as good, if not
10:38better, if you see big steps from those interior guys you've drafted highly.
10:41And I was really high in Graham.
10:43I was really high in Hall.
10:44I think both of those guys as pass rushers have a lot of potential in that you could see this
10:49defensive line still being one of the best in the NFL.
10:52Like on the defensive side, a lot of attention has gone in the direction of Denzel Ward in the weeks
10:58that have followed the Myles Garrett trade.
11:01He was kind of a little bit of a hold in situation throughout the mandatory mini camp that they had.
11:07He has no guaranteed money left on that deal.
11:10You think the Browns keep Denzel Ward as a veteran at a really difficult position to find a quarterback?
11:16Or do you think that he could potentially be for sale by the time the trade deadline rolls around, too?
11:22I think Andrew Baer is no dummy and knows the age curve for cornerbacks, and that would be very surprised
11:29if he's not for sale.
11:30Now, it doesn't mean they're for sure going to trade him.
11:32They could be overachieving by that point and want to make a run.
11:37But he's 29 years old.
11:39By the time they're ready to be competing, he'll be in his early 30s.
11:42And that's just not a lot of cornerbacks keep it going in their early 30s, especially, you know, Ward's been
11:47banged up,
11:48just kind of always having a little something here and there.
11:51So I think when you have a guy with that kind of name recognition, that kind of pedigree,
11:57you're probably going to look to get whatever you can from him, especially, again,
12:00if someone's willing to give you a pick in next year's draft.
12:02Mike, I do want to ask you about Joe Burrow.
12:04He made some comments yesterday about that Bengals team being the same feeling he had with the 2019 LSU team.
12:10It's been three years since they made the playoffs, though.
12:13I don't have him in my Super Bowl bubble.
12:15What do you see about the Bengals?
12:16Is Joe just trying to hype this team up or am I missing something?
12:21I think this is the best Bengals offensive line he's had.
12:27Now, you saw it down the stretch.
12:29I thought the way they played, the way they came together,
12:32that there's a world where he's not getting killed every game the way he kind of has over the course
12:39of his career.
12:39So maybe that's what's making him feel like it's 2019 LSU.
12:43Now, that's, I think, where any sort of comparisons stop.
12:49I mean, like, this defense does not have all the NFL talent that that LSU defense did.
12:53It's still probably a bottom half of the NFL defense.
12:57But that offense can probably carry a lot of bad defenses.
13:03So they just need to be somewhat average.
13:05And I think they are.
13:07I picked them to win the AFC North, actually.
13:09I think that they'll have, if Joe Burrow's healthy, they'll just put a lot of points up this season.
13:13So it's going to be a very difficult offense to stop.
13:16And all they need to do is just not be the worst defense in the NFL to make the playoffs,
13:21in my opinion.
13:21Mike, we'll check you out over there at CBS Sports, obviously, and Pushing the Pile podcast.
13:25We appreciate you, as always.
13:27For sure, fellas.
13:28Thanks for having me.
13:28Take it easy.
13:29All right, good stuff right there.
13:30Mike Renner.
