Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Birthday Bro Bonus episode with 92.3 The Fan's Ken Carman

Episode Date: June 27, 2021

Matthew Coller and 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland host Ken Carman share a June 27 birthday, so they get together on June 27 to talk about NFL players born on June 27 and more importantly the Vikings/Browns connections. Remember the Odell Beckham rumors? Why OBJ is a swing man for the Cleveland season. Plus Baker vs. Kirk and Kevin Stefanski vs. Mike Zimmer will be fascinating matchups with the Vikings play the Browns this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a very special bonus Purple Insider episode, the birthday bros episode. Ken Carman from Cleveland, 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland, and I are born not only on the same date on the calendar, but the exact same day. And a year ago or so, I told you we needed to do an episode to celebrate our birthday, where we get together, talk about how great we are, and football. So hello, Ken, and happy birthday to you. Well, it's good to talk to you, and happy birthday to you well it's good to talk to you and happy birthday to you even though that's probably is that like bad is that like hacky for us to say happy birthday to each other even though it's both our birthdays no way it's our same day literally the same day at the same age you're a few years you're a few hours older than me i'm at five o'clock in the morning you're nine o'clock in the morning so i'm not well half a day i should say because you're if you're 5 a.m. and I was 9 at night

oh 9 at night I was in the p.m. oh I am much older than you then and please respect me for that reason uh you got a foot in the grave compared to me here we go look when you get to be my age in several hours you'll find out and so uh I want to start the show by talking about what football players are born on our birthday. But I also want to talk to you about the Cleveland Browns. The Vikings are playing the Browns. And the last time we talked when we set up this birthday bros episode, we were asking me about OBJ being traded there. Yeah.

He's not here. You got Justin Jefferson and said you got a really good lsu wide receiver and set instead but i do want to relive that in a second but first fine go ahead let's do it best football player born on our birthday is bobby wagner happy birthday to bobby wagner he turns 30 uh dj hayden jonas gray and uh jordan hicks the linebacker bakari rambo though so we have someone i always like bakari rambo bakari rambo now i like him a little more so there's so bobby wagner though we got a hall of famer i think we're good that's all there is that's all the ones that are born on our birthday that's all that is the history of the nfl

uh this is just famousbirthdays.com i did not go through every player's birthday in nfl history so i'm just trusting this website i mean do you have a better strategy the only other people i know who have johnny benson the nascar driver and is was born on june 27. And I can't remember anybody else. I've got two more that are pretty good. Helen Keller, legend. And Jeff Conine, Mr. Marlin. Hey! Yeah, but come on. All right.

Okay, I'll take that. Helen Keller is an inspiring story. Okay. Inspired me. Yeah, it's great. A Kardashian, too. That's, we just... Which one? I think it's great um a kardashian too that's we just which one i think it's chloe is she a good one i know nothing about them yeah uh chloe is well if tristan thompson would stop running around on her chloe's chloe's great okay i don't know i i mean i blame him the first few times and then after like three times

like come on ma'am i mean he's he's just a he's no good he's no i know you want to make it work i know you got kids together but he he's just a dog i'm sorry i don't know what to tell you and she wouldn't ask me but i'm just saying if she were to ask me i'd say he's a dog man you got you're worth something better you need to go out and find somebody who's going to respect you i mean i think that being that you're a cleveland host he's a cleveland player that you have authority to tell her what she should do in terms of dating uh ross perot also born on our wow god rest his soul ross perot the man who gave bill clint the election wow ross perot that's a powerful man he influenced a huge election hey hell yeah he i mean maybe maybe in a way he guided us in our media

endeavors because he used to have those tv specials that that would run for like an hour of ross perot just sitting in a chair and talking to no one anyway. Well, like you said, some people voted for him, but let's talk about football before this goes in a weird place as if it already hasn't. Let's talk about those. Amanda, I'm sorry. I want to say Amanda Bynes played him on all that. What? Back in the day. Look it up. see if I'm right all right I know

Dana Carvey might have I know well no he played George W Bush I forget who played Ross Perot but I think it was Amanda Bynes who played him on on the Nickelodeon show all that back in the day okay uh I I there is a screenshot here so I'm just gonna assume that you are right okay good um okay that's that's some trivia for you are right okay good um okay that's some trivia for you i'm sorry go ahead no that's okay i'm holding you back that's okay i'm holding you back this is this is was meant to be off the rails it's by design so uh let's talk about those odell beckham rumors what happened why isn't he a viking why wasn't he traded here uh they want to work it with work it out with them that's why they want to make sure? Because they want to work it out with him. That's why.

They want to make sure he's – they traded a first-round pick, and he's got talent. It's been a difficult road to hoe, and it's tough because of his injuries. But he's still at his top. Now, I don't know. He's going on, what, 28 years old now, if I'm not mistaken. So, I mean, it's just been a bit of a struggle. I think that, you know, year one, Freddie Kitchens and Todd Munkin were fighting so much they didn't know what to do with him.

Year two, there was still a lot of usage with him. But a lot of that usage, you know, people go, well, Baker focuses on him too much. Okay, yeah, in year two, but they really got a lot out of him in those first couple of years. The yardage wasn't necessarily fantastic, but that game against the Cowboys was beautiful. The game against the Bengals in week two, after they got their asses handed to them at week one in Baltimore, you know, that was fantastic. So there, I think that they see some light at the end of the tunnel. And right now,

I mean, what is right now I mean what is what is what is good value he's come back from an injury he's obviously very motivated he needs to be very motivated I mean I think people do not talk about him amongst the the great wide receivers of the league I think more people are more than willing to talk about your young LSU wide receiver than our uh veteran LSU wide receiver. And I think that, that bothers him. It would bother me. He's proud man. And it should bother him. So I think that he is, he is right now at a crossroads in his career.

And I think that they want the very best out of him and they're going to get the very best out of him because if they were to trade him this year, it's pennies on the dollar he can't request a better contract because it's right now I hate to use the term damaged goods but that's what he would be compared to the rest of the league now a lot of people look at him and say that there's talent there and they look at the Browns say well they can't find Tom Baker focuses too much on him well that bothers me and I think that bothers Kevin Stefanski I think Kevin Stefanski thinks that he can get the most out of him so this is the year this is a sink or swim year and it has crossed my mind many times over it makes me nervous but it has crossed my mind

many times over all right what do I do week four if it's not working a month into this football season and he's focusing on him if Baker's not looking great and who knows what's happening with his with his contract by that time Baker's contract am I going to be ready to face that music from listeners who there's people here who do do believe that they believe that that he is a problem on this offense and that the Browns are better off without him so it it concerns it's just something i'm nervous about that's all but he really needs to fit into the offense and i think he knows that but isn't this like a long time football trope with number one wide receivers the quarterback just throws to him too often this was a kelvin johnson thing you know who's going to be better is matt stafford after kel Johnson leaves, like, no, probably not though. And now the problem would only be if Odell Beckham can't play like Odell

Beckham used to be able to play. And then you're treating him as if he is that superstar wide receiver. I think you can get a gap there, but I also look at the group of wide receivers that Cleveland had last year and you go there outside of Landry, there's a bunch of men here. And there's not a whole lot of guys who can win a one-on-one route and get open and make a special play. And the idea that you are worse off with a potentially great player, or even a very good player, as opposed to whoever guy being thrown out there, I've just never bought into that under any circumstance. But I think that also, and I agree with you totally, but I think a lot of fans,

I think that they, I think that they, they buy into the team concept football. You know, a lot of people pay attention to high school football here. And so they think that it's, it's gotta be team concepts and it's a run first football team too. So people, people think they need Nick and they do people know they need Nick Chubb, and they do. People know they need Nick Chubb, and they know they need Kareem Hunt, and they know they need the raw offensive line. And they look at wide receivers as kind of an addition. And I think a lot of fans see wide receivers as guys who should be seen

and not heard. And Odell has a tremendous following on social media, and he's a big big star as in outside of football i think now by pundits he's being questioned but outside of football he's always been a tremendous star and for older football fans for for fans who are in the midwest that seems to rub people the wrong way. Some of those fans the wrong way for 20 somethings who are from Cleveland. They love them for kids. They love them. I love I'm a big fan of Odell Beckham Jr. I wanted it to happen. The first time I ever heard it,

I was so blown away by it, but I wanted to speak it into existence. So I got what I wanted. I really want this thing to work out. You're right in the terms of the other wide receivers, but for fans, it's weird because Rashard Higgins, they love Rashard Higgins. Chris Collinsworth summed it up in one sentence in the playoff game against Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh when he just was like, Chris Collinsworth, I know people go up and down in their opinions of him. I like Chris Collinsworth enough. I respect Chris Collinsworth to know that he knows what he's talking about. Like sometimes I'm like, but I respect what he's saying at all times. And when he's going, you know, here's a guy who in that

fast doesn't run a great ride. I mean, he's just kind of, but he's like, finds a way to get open. And that's what Rashard Higgins does. And Donovan Peoples-Jones is a six-round pick who really lost his way at Michigan. And I think that he is point blank the problem with Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. But that's a totally different conversation. Donovan Peoples-Jones has speed, has talent. Six-round pick, makes plays now for the Browns. A couple of big plays here and there for the Browns.

He made a nice play against Tampa Bay. He made a nice play against Tennessee, made a real nice play against Tennessee. And then, you know, he had that game-winning catch down in Cincinnati where he turned around and made a great play on the ball. So there's young guys there that because they flash and they may play as a Jarvis is a dog that goes for every single, every single ball fans. Well, we can, we can go without them and we can get help on defense with, without OBJ. We can trade OBJ. We can help on defense. We can trade OBJ.

We can help on our offensive line. That's, that's 13 and a half million dollars or whatever it is, 15, 17. I forget what the actual number is that we can get rid of with OBJ, even though it's still a huge cap hit for this year. We get rid of that for OBJ. We can, we can bring in younger, like people think that way. And maybe next year it might be true, but this year the money's already basically spent. There's not a whole lot you can do. You might as well see if it's going to work out this year. If he has a good year this year, maybe that's it. We only get one premium year of OBJ, but I'll take one.

I would like to have three, but I'll take one other than zero. But also in a year that there are actually expectations on the Cleveland Browns. Imagine, I mean, not just expectations of, hey, you know, these Cleveland Browns. Imagine, right? I mean, not just expectations of, Hey, you know, these Cleveland Browns, they might be plucky this year, but legitimate Vegas thinks you're a Superbowl contender, Cleveland Browns. I've got to imagine the last time Vegas said that the Cleveland Browns were a contender was going into like the 95 season or something, right? I mean, it's been such a long time. And that adds to how interesting the Odell Beckham conversation is because he plays an integral role in that.

When you're trying to do the formula we all do, which is add up, okay, how good can they be? How many teams can they beat? Let me fill out the little W's and L's next to their name on the schedule, right? I mean, I think it's maybe a little bit of a different formula if he's great or he's just okay, or he's awful. Right. I think that he's like a swing man to this team, not the determining factor, whether they could be good,

but to be able to take their offense to even another level in terms of passing efficiency. Yeah. I, I, I've asked a bunch of times you know what's a good season for odell statistically especially with a 17th game it was 1200 yards okay for odell in in new york no he didn't have i mean who did he have? He had the kid from Oklahoma. I can't think of his name now. You had, what, one year of – There was Sterling Shepard maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Sterling Shepard for a season. You had – did he have one year of –

God, the guy who went to – didn't he go to Hofstra? Victor Cruz still hanging around. Victor Cruz, Judas Priest. He had a couple years of that, but then he got hurt. Victor Cruz still hanging around? Victor Cruz, Judas Priest. He had a couple years of that, but then he got hurt. Victor Cruz did. He's always been the number one, and Eli had to throw to him. And those were not really good teams. They made the playoffs once, and then that folded.

And that was a good regular season for them. If you have 80 snaps, and D.D. Kink of Wallace said this to us, and I thought that this really was succinct. If you have 80 snaps, you have Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. How many snaps are those guys going to get? So you're going to have, with those two players, you're probably looking at 35 to 40 snaps that you're going to them, targets. So that's half the offense.

Then you have Austin Hooper. Well, that's 7 to 10 right there. Then you have Jarvis Landry. Because of the routes he runs and because he can be an escape mechanism, that's going to be seven to 10 as it is right there. So all of a sudden you're chewing up a whole lot of that offense. And if OBJ is covered as the number one wide receiver, there's going to be, there's going to be opportunities, but you're gonna have to make the most of those opportunities. And I think that was the problem a little bit with Freddie and Todd Munkin. And I think that might've been a little, a little bit here and there,

but I thought it was better. A little bit of a problem with what happened even last year, leading up where you got to find ways to get him involved in an offense that is really predicated on lining up and running the football. And I think that that's what they're going to be again this year too. With Kevin Stefanski, I went on your station. I don't know if it was your show. It was definitely your station.

And I kind of laid it all out there when you hired Kevin Stefanski. I think you got stolen from us. I thought we were going to have you, and you got stolen from us by Baskin and Phelps. That's right. That's right. Sorry about that. But I remember talking about,

this is a guy that the Vikings ownership wanted to hire. And if they hadn't won playoff game in New Orleans, Kevin Stefanski would have been the head coach of the Vikings. And my perception of him here was that he is one of the most highly regarded assistant coaches for his path and for even how he handled a little bit of a tricky situation. In fact, a very tricky situation in 2019. You had very angry Stefan Diggs. You had Mike Zimmer demanding that they run the football, not suggesting, but demanding that they run the football. You have Kirk Cousins, who has his own set of issues at times. And the way that he managed that to be a top offense and win a playoff game, I think impressed everyone even further.

And then he goes to Cleveland and wins coach of the year. Are they building a Kevin Stefanski statue? Yeah. I mean, this, this, he does know something about expectations though, having been in Minnesota before where there were a lot of years where they were expected to be very good I think uh he's been a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways because I like Freddie as a guy Freddie's great but I I basically said Freddie is if they would name me the head coach of the football team like Freddie tried really hard and they won games because they had more talent than anybody but I don't know if I could point to a game and said that was because Freddie's coaching. I think

you can still point to a lot of games where this team came in where you knew they had talent, but they had very little confidence in themselves. There was nobody who had confidence in them. Nobody had, when, when people outside of you don't have confidence in your quarterback, it's going to be very hard for him to lead. I think he organically became a leader this year, naturally, however we want to put it. Maybe I'm trying to sound too smart there. And I think Kevin Stefanski really calmed that down.

And I thought it was interesting to look at, you know, where Kevin Stefanski is with Baker Mayfield and Kirk Cousins. Because you go back to Kirk Cousins' years, this last year, if I'm not mistaken, his numbers are better. His his throwing yards are his yards better. So it's been a couple of months since I've looked. So I want to make sure I look at a lot of different crap because I thought his numbers were were. And I heard what Jay Gruden said is a sour grapes. I'm not sure. I have no idea.

But, you know, I heard what he said that doesn't bode well for Kirk Cousins but when I see you know some suppressed passing stats for Kirk Cousins and I look at Baker Mayfield and I see suppressed passing stats for him and I see an offense get to an off to a playoff game and I see another offense get to a playoff game I see Case Keenum get to a playoff game. And I see another offense get to a playoff game. I see case Keenum get to a playoff game. And I know he wasn't the offensive coordinator at that time, but I saw case Keenum get to a playoff game. Like there's something that, that sticks with you where it's okay to take care of a quarterback.

It's okay to do that type of thing. So I do draw and have to draw a lot of parallels between Kirk cousins and, and Baker Mayfield here with Kevin Stavansky. The only thing I would say is a criticism or a fear would be his, it was between him and Robert Sala in 2019. They went out to San Francisco, got beat pretty good, didn't they? Vikings did, yeah. Okay, I want to make sure I got my years right and everything. And I thought about that even today during the show, because I thought, you know,

we brought them up and I said, you know, there's, there's one thing that you're going to have to worry about. That playoff game made a lot of people nervous about Kevin Stefanski. And then when he, when he got hired, people were like, you know, we got the guy who got his ass kicked by San Francisco and that he, the season was great. He was wonderful. And then in Kansas city, it still seemed to be a bit tight. And so many people will say, well, you have to be tight. You have to be tight. You have to,

you have to keep away from, from Patrick Mahomes. Cause Patrick Mahomes is that offense is great. That makes sense. But a lot of people want to come out and gun with it. That was the pregame stuff that people were saying. The second thing is, is that when you, when you end the seat, end the game with Jarvis having seven catches for 20 yards, were you being too tight? Were you, or should I say, were you being too conservative to the point you played

tight which one was and I think that they went into that situation I'm kind of glad that they're starting the season in Kansas City because that's going to be 70 plus thousand fans it's going to be loud it's going to be boisterous I thought the moment was very big I thought that they rose to the occasion over the course of the game certainly but I thought that that moment was very big. I thought that they rose to the occasion over the course of the game, certainly. But I thought that that moment was very big and almost got away from them at the very beginning. Like we're playing Kansas City and it's defending Super Bowl champions. We're on the road and it's not Kansas City as we know Kansas City, but there's still a big ass deal. And I think that they're going to be able to go there week one, might not go our way,

but at least they're going to get that experience. And then they can try to go down the line because there's just still a team that has to do a lot of learning here. Very young. Still there also is the point of if Kansas city gets called for the right penalty, maybe you win the game, but you know, those types of situations would never happen in Cleveland where there's like a thing that goes wrong and you just don't win because it's so much much worse that the guy's nickname is dirty dan like if you had if it was clean dan all american dan that's fine but they're going oh dirty dan sorensen i'm going what is this would never do that wcw what are we doing here yeah yeah so there was that and then now where stefanski i thought

made the mistake and this could be lack of playoff experience a little bit or whatever is there was that. And then now where Stefanski, I thought made the mistake. And this could be lack of playoff experience a little bit or whatever is there was a fourth down that he needed to go for and decided not to do it. And that would be where you'd sort of say, man, that conservative nature that you're talking about, you kind of got to take that risk there. But then again, maybe you didn't expect Chad Henney to run for a first down. I don't know. That's one of those that you could debate. He had another player that, that I felt he should,

a lot of people felt he should have challenged before he didn't challenge. And then it seemed like right after it was later on, he threw a challenge and I thought that that was because of the last challenge that he missed. I thought he made an emotional challenge. He got that from Zimmerman. Yeah. He's not a very emotional guy. Maybe he thought he'd roll the dice and get an advantage. I don't know, but it didn't seem like a very good

time to throw that challenge. And I think it's because he knew he should have thrown that challenge flag about a quarter earlier, didn't do it, and then ran into trouble there. You know, the difference though, between Baker Mayfield and Kirk Cousins and, uh, you know, that San Francisco game, the, the issue with Kirk Cousins is if you take away Delvin cook, if your defensive line is good enough to take away from Delvin cook and you force Kirk Cousins into a drop back game, it's just kind of over. We've seen this a bunch of times. Every time they play Chicago, it's like Khalil Mack and Akeem Hicks, just they slow down Delvin cook. And then they can't really run play action off of it. That was the difference to me from what I saw from Baker in that playoff game versus what I've seen from Kirk cousins. And when you're trying to even evaluate, do you pay Baker Mayfield going forward? I would factor in what I saw in that

playoff game because it was kind of on Mayfield's shoulders to play the drop back game and come from behind. And he made throw after throw in that game. That was something that it just didn't and hasn't happened with cousins. And when you talk about the numbers, the numbers are just a little bit, I don't want to say fraudulent, but they don't tell the right story when you lead the league in interceptions through like week six and you go one in five and then you end with 104 quarterback rating like but you know you kind of dug this giant hole and then you you know got some numbers against

Carolina that kind of thing so anyway well let me let me ask you this because I've enjoyed the discussion um but it's your birthday so I don't want to keep you too long here. My son was yelling in the background. So I'm going, yeah, I'm doing a podcast right now. I'm sitting there looking over going. I saw you looking at something, but I couldn't, I couldn't hear it. So you're good with audio. Yeah, I'm downstairs. Now I can hear you.

Door open. All right, go ahead. You're good. You're good. All I was going to ask you is this. The Browns come to Minnesota at a very key time early in the season. The Vikings schedule gets harder as they go on. I guess, how do you feel about that matchup?

Sort of seeing from afar what the Vikings have done on defense, knowing that it's two coaches who know each other extremely well. It's kind of the game that I circled early on in the season. Like, I can't wait for this one. I wonder if you guys feel the same way or if you're, you're looking at Minnesota as just kind of another team. I think a lot of fans will look at Minnesota as kind of another team, but then when you look at the history, I think you're right. I think it's,

I think there's more on the line for Minnesota than there might be for Cleveland at that time, because Mike Zimmer's been in battle now uh depending on how the season starts you know I think that becomes a narrative that the Browns come in and win I think that this is looked at differently now by Vikings fans like if I'm looking at this from the outside looking in and I may be wrong uh I like Mike Zimmer I'm sure that there's some Vikings fans who don't but i do i i like the whole gary kubiak thing i know what is it his son who's now the offensive coordinator clint kubiak okay i think it's easy to build narratives if cleveland goes in there and beats him

i think it's easy to build narratives going we had we kept the wrong guy i think that's the visceral fan reaction it turns into we kept the wrong guy we're that's the visceral fan reaction it turns into we kept the wrong guy we're paying the wrong guy this is a problem if if the browns go in there and lose oh you're on the road that's that sucks that's that's the way she goes it could be a conversation depending on what leads before that of are you because they got they got week one we got kansas city then we're at home then we're home again then minnesota then la so you can look ahead to i think you look at the chargers then i think you're home against arizona if i'm not mistaken or someone in there so you can look ahead against the chargers because a lot of people are picking them as a uh as a dark horse and a lot of people love justin herbert

and i there's nothing there's no reason to not like justin herbert honestly uh i think that there if the season goes off on a wrong foot where you have two straight games at home right after kansas city where you can win then you go on the road. You're 2-2 after that. Then there's questions of, you know, have you been figured out? Minnesota, he got beat by his old coach. I think it gives Minnesota fans a little bit of confidence if you win that game, certainly. And then you talked about how tough the rest of the schedule is for the Vikings.

You know, I haven't seen it right off the top of my head. I'm not sure. But that gave me something where it makes you feel a little bit better. It would make you feel a little bit better about Kirk would make you feel a little bit better about Kirk, make you feel a little bit better about your offense, because it is a good potent offense, I think it can be, that now you can set sail. For us, I think it would – boy, if you win two at home like that,

you're one and two, you go up to Minnesota and you lose, then you're two and two and go up to Minnesota and you lose then you're two and two and we're kind of all right we made it through the first month but we're not really I think you get a couple of people going what's the problem in Cleveland you started off two and two you were so good so there there might be some narratives in both directions but I would still say that you know Kevin's fancy he's coming off coach of the year you're just a few weeks into the season. I think there's more at stake for Minnesota.

I think there's more at stake for Mike Zimmer. I think that he's been under the gun for a lot of fans there. And maybe ownership, I'm not sure. You would know better than I. Yeah. But I think there would be more on the table for him. Yep, you're correct in thinking that. The other thing is, too, it's the new Vikings defense that's been totally revamped to free agency

versus a great offense and a great offensive line in Cleveland. So can you handle them? And that sort of tells you how well you can. It's like a barometer there of how well you can. I was going to ask you about that. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that because you got Sheldon back. We got Sheldon up there, and I love Sheldon Richardson. He's the best.

He's a quote. He's a great quote. He's a thoughtful person. I tell you, for some of the problems he had at the beginning of his career, boy, he's turned into a grand old man now. He's been fantastic. And I didn't even see – what are you guys going to do with this whole Daniel Hunter situation you got there?

They reworked his contract. See, I didn't even pay attention. I'm sorry no okay well there we go good you know better than i do thank god when did this happen uh just the other day so okay just like my original dm here you probably didn't see it okay thank you very much i'm sorry no he sent me for your audience he sent me a damn d i'm terrible at the dms i'm terrible at the dms i'm sorry i didn't know that i did not know that about awful i'm awful at that i'm off facebook message i i friended i let a bunch of listeners friend me which is fine but i i realized quickly a lot of them are susceptible to facebook hacks so i have nothing but thousands of messages is this you and it's like no i can't so i don't

even look at them and people go you know i facebook message you six months ago and i go i'm sorry i i don't check them i apologize i just facebook just frightens me so i just try i love facebook oh really it's oh bring on Bring on the drama. Bring on the stupidity. You know, people go on Twitter is much better. Twitter's Twitter's crazy. Yeah. Twitter's even crazier than Facebook. It's all it's all. It's all crazy. Yeah, it's all. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's not good anyway. So I'm glad that you eventually spotted it. And then we got together and we celebrated our birthdays with some football talk. And I hope we can do it again before vikings and cleveland browns i'll be better off when i find i feel bad

i didn't know the daniel hunter situation you said that was the other day right yeah just the other day yeah i'll clean that up by the time we get together for our all right all right yeah by then yeah right you'll i need you to know you know the the left guard battle and everything else like so i was just i swear to god i was gonna ask you about ezra cleveland and how that whole thing's working out for you guys and i like the derisaw pick and i like the whole deal there yeah very much we'll see on all the offensive linemen i'm looking at your deal right i'm looking at your guys's depth chart right here i like you i kind of like some of this offensive line here. It's only whether it can be good right away. Is it probably going to start Wyatt Davis?

Definitely going to start. Well, I think definitely going to start Christian Derrissaw, but we'll see. You know about his daddy, right? Derrissaw, who's an actor? Yeah. No, Davis's dad was an actor. Oh, Davis's. Yeah, sorry.

Davis's, yeah. He was Alvin Mack in the program. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't that cool i don't know i thought it was cool yeah he talked i'm not even a big ohio state i'm not even i don't even really like ohio state but i thought that was really cool yeah he talked about that interview yeah i like your offensive line that's good stuff yeah it'll be a good battle and uh with sheldon richardson totally agree with your observation he is a unique cat i sat down with him for like

a half hour for a story two years ago it's's such an interesting guy. The first guy ever to say this to me, we were talking about, you know, you build up your career. We were talking about his early career stuff and he's like, well, you know, you just, it's just like you reporters, you have to kind of work hard to get where you want to go. And, uh, you know, you, you kind of got to keep building on your career. And I was like, wait, you're the first athlete ever who said reporters have to work hard for where they get to go to like acknowledge that they didn't just like pick us out of a crowd. I think you're, I think you're getting a good one there. He came here.

There was, there was a lot of people who put the mouth on him. They said, you know, I got a quote from a reporter here who talked to somebody and he just was like, man man this is not and i was like really he goes yeah you're getting a whatever it was an eight-year vet nine-year vet whatever it is at that time he goes we get a nine-year vet and he's gonna play like a nine-year vet it's whatever and he was really good he was good he was really good for us so i was sad to see him i was sad to see him get cut i I wish they could have worked something out. I understand the business of it. He can too. But I thought he was with such terrible defensive line play at times and I underlined terrible. He was a he was a very nice spot for them. So I wish him well. I really do. I thought he was he was great to us. And I hope that you guys are getting a really, really good one there. And I think that now motivated because he didn't – basically the whole report was the Browns offered him more money.

He took less. Well, good. He should have a burr on his ass, and I hope that he plays well for the Vikings. Yeah, yeah. And you know Sheldon. Like, he'll have those couple games a year where you can't stop him. That's probably against Cleveland would be my guess. Probably.

Yeah, probably. You know, Wyatt Teller's going to have his hands full, and Jack Conklin's going to have to make his money, and we'll see where that one goes. Yeah, that should be good. So, Ken Carman, 92.3 The Fan, happy birthday, man. Same to you, Matthew. I do appreciate it.

Now, what do you do for your birthday? You know, I don't know. Probably we bought kayaks, so I think we're gonna go kayaking there's 10 000 lakes here at least could be more there's plenty of lakes in ohio i just like i i get on a bass boat like a couple times a year i'm not gonna kayak man look at me yeah well i think i fit the kayak i think i think they build you know i think they build ones that hold larger gentlemen. No. Kayaking.

Just float around out there. It's safe for me. The water generally scares me, so I just float around on top on a very calm lake. How many lakes have the water moccasins in them? Here? I don't know if there's water moccasins in Minnesota. Do you have water snakes in Minnesota? I don't think so i never heard there well that we've got some crazy ass fish that are humongous but i don't know if i don't know if snakes like the frozen water i'm gonna prefer to think that they don't yeah you guys have sturgeon don't you yeah

and uh musky are also here and sort of can be a little bit aggressive i think yeah you have um what is it you're gonna get in territory i don't know because i always want to say guar like the band but it's gar like the gator gar yeah i don't know i know more about fish in minnesota than i do to neil hunter that's ridiculous unforgforgivable. We're going to end this and go, how did you not pay attention to that? You need to get your head out of your ass. Like I really am. I'm going to be upset about this.

Spend your birthday studying NFL depth charts, Ken. There's no other way. There's worse ways to spend a birthday, friend. I hope you have a wonderful one yourself. You too. We'll get together again soon. Thanks for your time, buddy. Thank you.