Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Should the Browns be favored against the Vikings?

Episode Date: May 24, 2021

Matthew Coller and Danny Cunningham from ESPN Cleveland (formerly 1500ESPN in Minneapolis) talk about the hype surrounding the Browns and whether it's justified. Should Kevin Stefanski be considered one of the best coaches in the NFL or is he getting too much love because the Browns over performed vs. expectations last year? Will Cleveland beat the Vikings at US Bank Stadium in Week 4? Would you trade the Mike Zimmer era in Minnesota to be the Browns right now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar here along with now ESPN Cleveland's Danny Cunningham, my former co-worker here in Minnesota. A man with perspective on both the Cleveland Browns who the Vikings will play at US Bank Stadium, who we are going to discuss, and the Minnesota Vikings. He once actually hosted a reaction show to Vikings games. What is up, Danny? How's it going, Matthew, man? Good to talk to you. I'm doing okay. I mean, it's May. So we were talking about our golf games and that's kind

of where I'm at. And I have remembered how to drive. I've remembered how to hit a six iron. I have not yet remembered how to chip or putt. So everything's no, I won't. No, I have faith in you. i have faith in you i have faith in you you're a hard worker you'll do it i don't think you and i ever got a chance to play and i do work hard on certain things but chipping and putting are not really either one of those so i i am i am a hundred percent the person who goes to the driving range and hits every single ball with my driver and then i'm like. So then today I played 18 holes, didn't lose a single golf ball and still only shot in the nineties. So that tells you everything

about the game around the green. It could be worse. You could have shot in the hundreds still. So you're making progress. Oh, that is a good point. That's a good point. So let's talk about the Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings in week four, because this game is, I think a big swing game for the Vikings season. It's they go on the road to start the year for a couple of games. They come back, they play Seattle. Seattle is always tough. And it was really interesting to me, Danny, that the Cleveland Browns are favored in Minnesota, which, you know, think about the sentence, Danny. I mean, like as someone yourself who has followed the Cleveland Browns

for your entire life, you are looking at now Vegas believing that your squad in the Cleveland Browns are actually good. Not like a pop-up last year. Whoa, Kevin Stefanski knows what he's doing. This is cool. Actually good. What is it like to have expectations set upon your Cleveland Browns stand? It's different for one thing. I mean,

it's something that the city's not used to. This fan base isn't used to. There are certain people that, you know, they are diehard Cleveland Browns fans. And if you ask them to give a schedule prediction, they'll say, you know, 10 and 7 or 11 and 6 because they're scared to be optimistic still. That, you know, the other shoe's going to drop at some point. That this isn't real life. That the Browns aren't a team that just won a road playoff game last year. That they're scared that something wrong is going to happen because it always has happened in this city. And to your point about the Browns being

favored in Minnesota in week four, it's not just that. I saw early lines earlier today for every game on the NFL season. I'm not sure if they're from the same place that you saw your lines, but the Browns were underdogs in Kansas City week one and in Baltimore on Sunday night football. I believe in week 12, there were also two pick'em games. And other than that, they're favored in 13 of their 17 games. And I can't say this for sure, but I'm going to say that has never happened in Cleveland Browns history. No, at least not recent Cleveland Browns history. Maybe when Bill Belichick was last the coach. And if I remember,

they went into the 95 season, the one where everything fell apart and they moved and so forth. They went into that season as a Super Bowl contender, but it all just came apart at the seams when everyone learned the team was leaving and it was a giant distraction and so forth. But the year before they had been really good and they were thought as a team on the rise that was supposed to be really good. The last time, I mean, Derek Anderson got a 10 win season, but I'm not sure that anyone went, oh yeah, well, they're just about to take over the league, especially because Pittsburgh was still very strong at that time. So I could see why Cleveland Browns fans would be skeptical. And I guess this circles to Kevin Stefanski and what he did last year. Now, I think he's probably got a bad taste in his mouth from the way the

playoff game ended with Chad Henney running for a first down against the Browns and not giving another chance to Baker Mayfield. But how are people in Cleveland viewing Kevin Stefanski? We know about him here that he did an excellent job working with Kirk Cousins and was a longtime part of the Vikings, but are people skeptical that he can continue this or do they think, wow, we've got our new Marty Schottenheimer or something? I don't think anyone here is skeptical and I understand it's only been one year. Granted, it was a great year and people here feel like they had been wandering through the desert, not just for the franchise quarterback, which is the big story,

but also a legitimate head coach because it doesn't get talked about quite as much, but there was quite a carousel there for the Cleveland Browns too. And it feels like they finally found that guy. And whether or not Kevin Stefanski goes down as someone that's going to end up in the Hall of Fame or win multiple Super Bowls or whatever, that doesn't necessarily all matter right now because he's competent. And that's something that has lacked from the head coaching spot of the Cleveland Browns forever. So as long as you have competence there, people here are going to be happy for at least the next couple of years. And then, you know, if they don't eventually get over the hump, you're going to see people that get upset and understandably so. But for right now, it's hard to find anybody

that's skeptical of Stefanski, what he did in year one and that he can't repeat it moving forward. So does it feel like you're set for a long time or does it feel like, wow, this could be our year? Because I think that fans and franchises and owners, they think the windows are much bigger than they are. And oftentimes what we see is sort of an LA Rams type of thing where you get a year or two years with your quarterback on his rookie contract. And now Baker Mayfield is coming to the end of his rookie contract. And we see what a difference that makes with Jared Goff or even Jimmy Garoppolo, who is not on a rookie contract. When those cap hits start to go up, it's harder to keep the

roster together. You witnessed that when you were here in Minnesota with the roster coming apart. So is it viewed as sort of a dire season for the Browns? Like this is, this is your shot or is it more of, okay, you know, we should be set at quarterback and coach for a long time? I think that there's a mix of those two things. I don't think anyone necessarily thinks, oh, if the Browns don't win the Super Bowl this year, it's never going to happen. You're going to find more people that view it as a two-year window starting now.

Last year was a little unexpected. People thought the Browns would be better than the 6-10 they were the year before, but no one picked them to go 11-5 and win a road playoff game. That just was not a popular pick prior to the season. Now it's, okay, this team has a legitimate chance to win the Super Bowl, and the team next year also should have a legitimate chance to win the Super Bowl. And then, as you mentioned, Baker Mayfield's no longer on a rookie contract. The roster's going to look different. You know, you're also paying Miles Garrett a bunch of money. You have roster decisions to be made on guys like Nick Chubb and

Denzel Ward and Wyatt Teller, who are all key cogs to the Browns being a successful team. So it certainly feels like if it doesn't happen in 2022, 2023 needs to be the year. So it's not, you know, this season or bust. It's one of these next two seasons. The Browns need to show that they can go out and win a Superbowl. Now, I think they took full advantage of this off season in the cap space that you are allowed when you have someone like Baker Mayfield. And I think that Vikings fans probably look at that game and say, I don't know, Cleveland, you were just kind of a good team last year, but not a Kansas city level, not a 15 and one or 14 and two type team, which very few teams are. But when they look at us bank stadium, Baker Mayfield is not considered widely to be an elite

quarterback, but I think what they've done around him, especially on the defensive side too, because last year the defense for the Browns was not that much better than it was for the Vikings, but adding John Johnson, adding Troy Hill, these are not big names, but I think that, well, Jadavia Clowney is, but I think the additions on the defense, they sort of demonstrate what the benefits are when you have this quarterback on a rookie contract, because you could say our team really has this one weakness, so here's three guys that we can sign who will all play huge roles on that side of the ball. Yeah, I think that last year, the Browns defense, they had a good front four.

You know, Miles Garrett was a good player. Olivier Vernon had a good season, especially a good second half of the season. Sheldon Richardson, old Vikings friend, had a good season. Larry Ogunjobi was good on the defensive line, but the linebacking play was atrocious and the back four was terrible. Andrew Sandejo, another old Vikings friend, played a significant role in the back end. If that's happening in 2020 superstar names that are going to light up every room, but they're at least good NFL players. And that's going to make, I think at least, the world of difference in the back end of that defense. They're not going to come out and be a historic level defense.

They're not going to be the 49ers from a couple years ago or the Ravens from 2001. But as long as they're competent on that side of the ball, we saw how good this offense can be last year and they're losing zero players from that side of the football. There's no reason to think that they won't be an improved team just because the defense is going to be better in the worst case scenario. They're a better defense than they were last year. Let's talk about Baker for a minute here. I think Baker and kirk cousins have a lot of similarities i think baker is sort of like personality wise someone that more people would gravitate to necessarily than kirk cousins as a teammate as a leader he has more spunk to him he uh maybe doesn't do this anymore but would fight people on twitter he's like very much of a, like a, like a Gen Z quarterback, as opposed to Kirk cousins, who's a very sort of buttoned up adult quarterback.

So I wonder about with Mayfield, they have similar skillsets. They are both accurate when they could throw off a good platform. They both really rely on play action and, and a good running game. Nick Chubb is one of the best in the league so how good is baker mayfield i mean his his numbers last year were solid but they also played some really terrible weather games that i think hurt his overall statistics but he had the highest quarterback rating i believe in cleveland brown's history for a full season which is a low bar low bar but i thought i would throw that in there um but is there is he looked at as okay this is our next bernie kozar like this is the guy we've been waiting for or is it we're not really sure

if he is the one that can take us farther because he did play really well in the playoffs last year in those two games and sort of showed more moxie than maybe even people thought on the road in Kansas City. But I think that there's still reason to look at him and say he's kind of closer to the middle than he is to the top. I can see where you're coming from. And I think we're going to find out a lot about that this year, because if you look at Baker's NFL career, he's not been in the same offensive system for back-to-back years yet. And he's going into year four. Last year was his third system in his third year. If you go back to his rookie year, Hugh Jackson was in charge of calling the plays. And then the Friday Kitchens disaster in his second season.

And then last year, we saw what he looked like once he felt like he had the system down and felt like everything was under control. And I think it probably took a little longer last year because we were in a pandemic. The training camp was different. There was no preseason. It took a greater amount of time for everyone to get on the same page than I think it would have in a normal year. So I personally do think that he's better. He's closer to elite than average. I'm not calling him elite, but I think he's going to end up at least in the good to very good caliber of quarterback. I think that that's going to be seen this year. I think that him and Stefanski is going to be a good pairing that should be around for quite some time in Cleveland,

provided that contractually everything can be worked out between Baker and the Browns with him being extension eligible now. So last year, PFF had him as the 13th best quarterback. And I think in PFF's article ranking all the quarterbacks for this year, he was somewhere in that same ballpark. I believe he was 10th. 10th. Okay. Would you have him there? Like if you were picking all the quarterbacks for the next five years, not just for right now, like where would you draft Baker Mayfield if you were doing that? I think around 10 is the right place because you do have to think, you know, some of the guys that are better than him over at this time, over the next five years,

it's kind of preposterous to think that they still will be like, I know Tom Brady is still doing incredible things at 43 or 44 or whatever, but if Tom Brady is doing these incredible things at 48 and 49, I will give you a hundred dollars. Like if he is still better these incredible things at 48 and 49, I will give you a hundred dollars. Like if he is still better than Baker Mayfield in five years, I will Venmo you a hundred dollars because I just, I don't want to be the guy that doubts him, but I cannot fathom that happening. So like some of those guys, like Aaron Rodgers is another one in five years. What's he going to be doing? Is he going to be a guy that's playing this year?

Or does he want to go host jeopardy? Those are the types of questions that you have to ask. So I think that, you know, right around 10 is probably the right spot for him. And it again, it depends on a lot of unproven guys, too, that could potentially be better than him or could not be better than him. If you look at Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow is going to be a question mark coming off that gruesome knee injury last year. So those things all have to be factored in. But, you know, I think he probably belongs in the 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 range. Do you like him? I do.

Do you like his personality? I do. I was having this conversation in part because at work for me, we had Jim McMahon in studio the other day. And Baker kind of has some Jim McMahon in him personality-wise, where he's got that. He's, he's not the biggest guy in the world, but no one's going to stand up to him. No one's going to make him look smaller than he is. And if that makes sense, he just, he's not going to be

pushed around. And I think that I certainly appreciate that. And to compare and contrast them to Kirk cousins, as you mentioned earlier, there are things on the field that they do similarly, but I don't think they could be more different people off the field. And I think that that at that position definitely matters. And for Baker, I think it's a good thing. I think it's a very tough line to walk. And Jim McMahon is the all time example of someone who walked this line really well of

being extremely cocky and sort of in your face and uh jim mcmahon wore the pete roselle headband because he got fined for wearing a headband that wasn't nfl approved or whatever so like things like that that jim mcmahon did just a certified badass out there who always found a way to win and with baker it's just been this like in you know back and forth of when he plays really well early in his career it's oh yeah his cocky attitude is great and then when he sort of slips off then it's oh this guy's got all these commercials huh you know like oh this he and he was kind of a whiner sometimes it seemed like it took him a couple of years to understand that dude like

people are going to criticize you when you are a national football league starting quarterback and if you hear all of that stuff it's that it doesn't make your job easier and i thought last year and winning helps this of course but i thought last year everyone tried to bait him into it i remember after a win on i think whatever thursday night football you know the interviewers are trying to be like, oh, did you show all the haters or whatever? He's just like, I'm not even going to go there anymore. So I think showing that maturation from kind of who he was in college to early in the NFL has been a big deal for him. Yeah. And I think that that second year where the Browns were expected to be a team that they, they were the team that had the largest hype train around them

in the NFL after trading for Odell, hiring Freddie Kitchens as head coach. I think Baker was served a pretty large slice of humble pie. And I think that you could see that. And it probably sped up his maturation process. It was something that was painful to watch as a Browns fan, but I think it was necessary for the team to go through to get to where they had to be. So because of that, I think that he has learned how to walk that line certainly better than the way he did it earlier in his career. You know, you're still going to see him on TV. He's still going to have commercials in part because he is a polarizing figure. You know, if he weren't, you wouldn't have brought it up. It's that type of thing. And in fairness, the Hulu commercials

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today and i'll see you there i only pay attention to the commercials on this podcast not usually on tv so i haven't focused closely fair enough um let me ask you a funny question about Baker. Just like, is there any quarterback in Brown's history outside of Bernie Cozart who you would swap with Baker Mayfield if you were trying to win a Super Bowl this year? Like Cozart, of course. And I hope that you as a Browns guy have gone back and watched some Cozart because he had the most ridiculous throwing motion. And sometimes I feel like I'm very much dating myself,

but it's sort of super funny to watch. Now you're like, this guy's one of the best quarterbacks ever. When you, when you first watch him throw the ball, but he was a baller. He was good. It's kind of like Philip. It was kind of like watching Philip Rivers. Yes. I equate Bernie Kosar to Philip Rivers.

I think that, you know, those two have very similar career arcs. Bernie Kosar just has less children. We all have less children. kosar to philip rivers i think that you know those two have very similar career arcs bernie kosar just has less children we all have less children but other than bernie i mean i don't i don't think so like one year of brian sipe but i don't think there's anybody who you would trade for baker which is kind of like sad and good at the same time for you i think you could make the argument about tim couch that if tim couch were in Baker's situation now, it would look much different than Tim Couch's career played out to be. And it's, you know, I'm not saying it's something I would do, but it's something I would be curious just to see how it looked.

And I think that, you know, of all the Browns quarterbacks, that's the one that you can kind of play the what if game about. I've showed you before, right? My Tim couch. Oh yes. It does exist. It's a real thing. You are a diehard Browns fan. No, that's not the case, but I was, I was all in on them coming back. I was, I think 12 years old when they came back, I was so excited about it. And I remember as a kid, cause we didn't have cable and I think their first game was on, it would have been, I think Sunday night football,

but it wasn't on NBC at that time. So I listened to the game on the radio of T or of let's see Ty Detmer and the Cleveland Browns in their first game get demolished by Pittsburgh. And I think Tim couch came in the game in the second half. So yeah, that was over kind of, or that was kind of dragged out actually with Tim couch where it was sort of, this is going to be his year and then it wasn't um but it's you know what's kind of interesting about this Danny is that Vikings fans are afraid of moving on from Kirk Cousins not all of them of course but there are many I should say there are many that I hear from who say like look if we have a 10 and 7 season that's pretty good that's a lot of excitement It gives us a chance to get in the playoffs. And then there's another group that says, look, if we had to go through what the Cleveland

Browns went through for years of being bad, which you guys are excessive, but like several, let's just say several years of being really bad to get your quarterback. Who's this good as Baker Mayfield, who gives you a chance to build a roster like this. A lot of people would take that option along with the risk that it could be bad for several years. And I don't mean two whole decades, but it's a really interesting discussion because here you are now, like you wouldn't take all of it along the way to be here now, but I think you would take like the last, what, five years, 10 years to be in a position where you could

truly compete for a Super Bowl? Yeah, I think everything that happened from the night that they drafted Johnny Manziel on until now to get to this point was worth it. I think I'm confident in saying that. I didn't need to suffer through Browns fandom for my entire life to get to this point necessarily, because that's what it's been. But from the point when they drafted Johnny Manziel in 2014 until now, if all of those things had to happen for the Browns to end up with, you know, Miles Garrett and Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward and Nick Chubb and Kevin Stefanski's head coach, I would do all that over again.

And I wouldn't think twice about it. Yeah, that's an interesting discussion for for vikings fans is would you trade the mike zimmer era to be the cleveland browns right now like would you trade all of it including i guess the one season where they were close um and uh you can read my book on it it's on my twitter by the way uh but uh or amazon.com just type in making of a miracle but would you trade the whole mike zimmer era to be the Cleveland Browns right now? And I think that that it takes some thinking about because there's been a

lot of, there's been a lot of great moments for the Vikings throughout. I mean, the win against new Orleans and the playoffs was really fun. The sort of like last year with Cleveland's win over Pittsburgh, the 2017 season is irreplaceable. It was an incredible year for everyone case keenum the whole run but you you already know the results that you didn't win the super bowl and i think

if i told you that you had to be bad through that entire time like no no playoffs the whole time to have one shot where your team might be good enough and is favored in all but four games or something i think a lot of people would trade that and i think that's another way to sort of think about the way that they're viewing this kirk cousin situation um so anyway let me ask you about uh odell beckerman like what's his deal because uh last year around this time there were rumors that the vikings were interested in trading for him which turned out to be just I guess not true um but I also thought when he went down last year it was a difference I cannot stand Danny when people will say about a star player huh they're gonna be better without him just watch they never are

nope never almost never never happens nope so I think that the timing of his injury was very unfortunate for the Browns and and for that, you know, that argument that people can make is, oh, the Browns were better without Odell. You know, Baker is a better quarterback when Odell is not on the field. And I understand that the numbers in part do tell that story. But I also think that this relates back to an answer I gave you earlier where the Browns didn't have a normal training camp last year. The Browns didn't have a normal training camp last year. The Browns didn't have a preseason last year. The Browns had their third offensive system in three years being installed last year. No matter who the wide receivers for Baker Mayfield were,

he could have had Randy Moss in his prime on one side and Chris Carter in his side on the other side. They weren't going to look good to start the season. They just weren't ready to. It was going to take an adjustment period. It was going to take five, six, seven weeks before things were going to look good to start the season. They just weren't ready to. It was going to take an adjustment period. It was going to take five, six, seven weeks before things were going to click. It didn't matter who it was. And I think that the timing of Beckham's injury kind of showed that off in a sense, because I thought that heading into that game, that was a time the Browns were ready to take off. And you even saw it, you saw flashes of it in certain weeks. Like if you remember the

game against Dallas, where they scored 48 points on the Cowboys and won a shootout against Dak Prescott before he injured his ankle and Odell had three touchdowns in that game. Like he was a part of winning football prior to getting injured. It just so happened that everything started to click around the time he got hurt. And you know, it's not Odell's fault that that happened. And I don't think it's Odell's fault that they didn't click before he got hurt. I think it's just, it is a truly a victim of circumstance argument. It really is. But he's also not, he's not great anymore, right?

Like he's good, but he's not great. He's not, I don't think he's a true number one wide receiver anymore, which is something that now the Browns have, really they have two number two wide receivers. And I think that they have a couple of nice complimentary pieces in the, at that position as well. Like Jarvis Landry is a number two wide receiver. He's someone that Baker has a ton of trust in and should have a ton of trust in for what he's done in Cleveland while Baker's been here. And I think that, you know, maybe a guy like Donovan Peoples-Jones, who was a sixth round draft pick last year. And

once he got on the field, showed some really good things in spurts, he could be a guy that contributes. Rashard Hollywood Higgins, another guy that's going to contribute. You can't be called Hollywood Higgins if you haven't even contributed yet, right? He has contributed though. Come on though. I mean, not to that standard, but Hollywood was the leading receiver on the team that gave the Browns fans hope when they went seven eight and one it was him and Jarvis Landry they didn't have the other receiver on that team was Brashad Perriman like there was just not a ton of talent out there he's kind of been the guy that's stuck around and has

kind of become a fan favorite that he's not super flashy despite the nickname Hollywood like he's not a burner on the outside he's just kind of a possession receiver that has built kind of this rapport with Baker Mayfield and has been able to get the job done over and over again they're just missing you know what they thought they were getting when they traded for Odell Beckham Jr. what Julio Jones is, what true number one wide receivers are, that's what they're missing. Explain this nickname to me. I do not understand this nickname. The guy is from Texas. He went to Colorado State. He was a fifth round draft pick. Like what, what exactly, if he was from LA, I could see how someone would be like, hey,

Hollywood Higgins. But like, I see no reason. This man has a career high of 39 receptions. Like what is Hollywood about Hollywood Higgins? I don't even entirely know other than the fact that when he does score a touchdown, he rolls out the red carpet and there's a photo shoot as a celebration, which I do think is a good celebration. And it probably would have been flagged five years ago.

And if you do something consistently that would have been flagged five years ago as your celebration, I'm a fan of it. So it is a good celebration. That's certainly the most Hollywood thing about him, though. Yeah, I I'm just I'm looking over his wiki trying to find any there's not much there. No, but I mean, he was really good in college but hollywood i i think it it's just the same thing with like hollywood brown from uh like for you know he went to oklahoma state oklahoma he went to oklahoma yeah what's hollywood about oklahoma i just i don't know i are we just looking at things and calling them hollywood or what i have no idea anyway uh i will i will move on from that.

So when you went through, you took out your little golf pencil, and you got your schedule, you printed it out, and you started writing little W's and L's. What did you end up with for the Brown schedule? The time I did it optimistically, I ended up at 14-3. The time I did it a little bit pessimistically, I ended up at 11-6. I think that there's a few toss-up games in my optimistic scenario I had Aaron Rodgers retiring and going to host Jeopardy because the Browns do play the Packers this year they also played the Broncos and the Raiders who are the

two teams that are widely speculated as the teams that could trade for Aaron Rodgers. And I had the Browns beating all three of them because Drew Locke is one quarterback or Teddy Bridgewater, you know, Derek Carr's the other quarterback and Jordan loves the third quarterback. So I thought that all three of those were wins. If none of those quarterbacks are Aaron Rodgers. Now if Aaron Rodgers is playing in one of those games, that certainly might change. Right. Right. Right. I did a couple of different versions and one was very good.

And I think both of them are playoff results. What'd you write in for Vikings Browns? I had that as a win. I think that the Browns defense is going to be better. And I just, I don't think that the Vikings are young enough anymore. I think that that defense, as we just, we continue to see it get older and older, it needs to reload at some point. And I just don't think it's going to be good enough yet. I'm excited to see Dalvin Cook. I'm excited to see if the Browns can stop Dalvin Cook in any way, shape, or form. But I think that ultimately the Browns are going to be the team with the better defense

that day, and they're going to be able to score points too. I think what's weird about it is we would never preview a game saying normally comes down to the running games. But Nick Chubb versus Dalvin Cook will be a great matchup for that one. Kevin Stefanski versus Mike Zimmer. They know each other extremely well. I love this game. Like this is one of my it's easily my favorite early game.

I'm sort of exhausted of Seattle. Like every year they play Seattle. I know it's at home and not away this time. It's always Seattle. So Cleveland is different. year they play seattle i know it's at home and not away this time it's always seattle so cleveland is different that's a team that i have never as a vikings reporter covered a vikings cleveland browns game so i'm stunned you didn't get to go overseas last time they played that's right that's right i was thinking like they must be they must have played everyone by now over the last five

years but that's right and that game was miserable oh terrible yeah awful awful it was raining deshaun kaiser kaiser yes i remember he scored a russian touchdown and ran down the sideline like waving his arm as a celebration i couldn't figure out what he was doing i couldn't yeah i even though i wrote the book which you can get on amazon uh on that 2017 season i think that's probably the shortest i spent on anyone the games like yeah they went to europe i don't know something happened uh they left with a win i it was ugly the vikings i think were losing at half to sean kaiser so that was a weird one they might have been but everyone was winning at the end of the game against the browns that year that's all that is very true so i've got a game for you

before we wrap up okay i wrote down a bunch of facts and you have to tell me whether it's the browns or the vikings whether this will be fun browns or the vikings okay so uh both of the uh vikings and browns have had the same passing leader over the last three years kirk cousins and bakerfield, which one of these teams did not have the same passing leader for three years in a row since 2002. Ooh, a lot of turnover for both of them. I know Minnesota doesn't get, you know, the,

the attention in terms of just the quarterback rollover that they have compared to Cleveland, but it hasn't exactly been, it hasn't been the prettiest of journeys there either. I know the Browns history and it's been bad. I'm trying to think of when they would have had three consecutive years, even going back to the couch years. I think Kelly Holcomb led in one of those years after Tim couch broke his leg. So I'm going to have to say the Vikings, but I feel like this is a trick question. It's a little bit of a trick question, but not really because it's very close. The answer is the Browns, but only by two years.

So the Browns last had three in a row with Tim Couch, 2002 being the final year. The Vikings last had three in a row of the same quarterback leading and passing in 2004 with Dante Culpepper. So it was very close, which is why I liked it. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics.

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can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company uh which team most recently won two playoff games in the same year so not just like a not just like a wild card win and then you lose, but two playoff games. Well, I know, I know in 2017, the Vikings only won one because they, they had a first round buy way back when we had two first round buys per conference. The Browns have won one in my entire lifetime. But I feel like it's the Browns because even back in 98, when the Vikings didn't make it to the Superbowl, they were the one seed. And that means they only had to win one game to get to the NFC championship game. I'm going to say it's, it's the Browns back in shoot.

87, was it or 88? So you're barking up the right tree but you're not right uh so yes the browns went to two championship games but it was the same deal where they only had to win one playoff game it was the vikings in 1987 which was where an intersection of the vikings and browns um travesties of sport in 1987 because the ernest Biner, I think the Ernest Biner fumble was in 87 against the Broncos. And then the Vikings also had a chance to go to the Superbowl, lost to Washington on a pass that was dropped. So these things happen to these franchises, which team has more 4,000 yard passers in. Now, does this question count? Like if the same guy has thrown for more than 4,000 yards,

more than once, like it does that come as one or does that count as multiple? Like, are we talking seasons or quarterbacks? Just, just quarterbacks. Okay. I'm still going to say the Vikings because the Browns quarterbacks have been

terrible. The Browns have one quarterback one time to ever throw for 4 000 yards so yes kirk cousins uh has done it three times since he's been here dante call pepper did it uh i think did yeah randall cunningham must have cleared i have to imagine i don't have that right in front of me but he must have so yeah yeah easily that one was to make fun of you which team had more interceptions on defense last year Vikings or Browns I think this was the Browns the for all the warts the Browns defense had they actually created a solid number of turnovers which is the only thing that kind of kept that side of the football afloat because they couldn't force anyone to punt but they did have a solid number of

interceptions and especially if you include the five that they forced Ben Roethlisberger into in the playoffs. Okay. I was not counting that. This is actually the Vikings. Um, let me, let me get the number here. The Vikings had 15 interceptions last year, which sort of tells you just how bad the defense was like to still finish 29th and scoring when you were 11th

in interceptions that's that's not great so the browns had 11 the vikings had 15 okay so if you do add the uh if you do add the five more in technically i can escape with you know a partially correct answer there uh no no you can't oh come on which one of these teams once had its coach say that they were not going to use the colored pants, so they were only going to go with the white pants because they, quote, weren't well-received. And think of the color of these two teams' pants. We have brown and purple. Okay, they said weren't well-received and that this head coach thought one day the team could wear fruit on their heads.

That was the quote. And no one would notice wear fruit on their heads. That was the quote. And no one would notice because they were so good. That was the hope. I think this is the Vikings because I don't know that the Browns pants have really ever been an issue. People here love the orange pants and even the Browns, the Brown pants are like, I know they went through a stretch where they wore white pants pretty exclusively. But I also know that the Vikings haven't worn purple pants a ton either.

They have. Recently, on the road, they wear the purple pants. But was it prior to this year? Oh, yes, recently. But going back historically, they wore white pants a lot on the road. Yeah, I'm going to say the Vikings because the orange pants bring back good memories for the Browns fans, as difficult as those can be defined at times. That's incorrect. It was the Browns. It was Eric Mangini said that they weren't well received for the brown pants, which I mean, look, brown pants.

I don't know. But I just thought that was great because like these are two colors that you wouldn't necessarily wear as pants generally no never honestly um i don't own purple pants i don't own brown pants unless you count like khaki as brown or whatever if you want to put it at that point in the color spectrum but yeah that's khaki that's yeah i don't own brown i don't own those shade of pants i do have a pair of pants that would really edge on a brown but i you know they're they're nice pants so screw you i i think they would be well received if you wore them they would uh you've probably seen me wear them like in wintertime they have lining under them so you know on the inside to keep me warm it does cold in minnesota two more i've heard that. Which team had its coach come out of retirement in 1984

because his replacement was so terrible? Like there was a coach and then he retired and then another coach came in and was so terrible that the other coach came out of retirement. 84 would have been the Schottenheimer years if I'm or no, no. Was it? I'm going to say the Vikings here because I feel like I should know this if the if it's the Browns and I don't.

So I might just be wrong and way off base here, but I don't know this one. So I feel like it has to be the Vikings. OK, it is the Vikings. That was Bud Grant. Les Steckle went three and 13. Bud Grant had to come out of retirement, but it was it was a thing the Vikings. Okay. It is the Vikings. That was Bud Grant, less tackle when three and 13, Bud Grant had to come out of retirement, but it was, it was a thing that could definitely happen.

Well, I couldn't see it happening, but it's also a thing. Like if that happened, I would have heard about it several times. It would be on the Mount Rushmore of embarrassing things with the franchise. Okay.

Maybe not that high up because there've been a lot of embarrassing things, but it could be up there. Okay. Last one for you. Now I, I'm a little vague on my description here cause I needed to make it work. So this isn't all time leading score, but this is team's best kicker ever. So there could be some debate here, but which team's best kicker ever has more field goals in their career vikings or browns or i guess i

could put it as like a kicker that played for the vikings kicker that played for the browns which one has more career field goal makes i'm going to say the vikings because the browns best kicker ever although ever ever is probably lou Groza I'm thinking Phil Dawson as recently um who was a fantastic kicker but because of the vagueness of your question I feel like it's Minnesota okay it is Minnesota I know that that was I just needed to work a kicker into this of course yes uh and and Matt Stover has a case for best kicker ever but phil dawson is seventh all-time for field goal makes gary anderson is third so i wanted to work that in so there's your vikings versus browns history and i guess i guess this is a

game that i could probably bring back with uh vikings opponents for this year when i talk i think you're posing me i should i should so this is great, Danny. I know that you are doing well there in Cleveland, now with ESPN Cleveland, and I love to see it. So I hope you will have continued success. And we will do this again, man, before the Vikings play Cleveland, for sure, if not before that. And, you know, we need to bring back,

if you're down sometimes, little hot routes. Oh, hot routes are the best. Oh my goodness. I can't believe that hot routes. Aren't the part of everything you do. They, they are mostly in the off season, mostly.

So, and I even got Manny to cut a new big voice guy thing. So there's no better big voice guy than Manny Hill. Definitely not. So I appreciate your time and people should follow you on Twitter. I think it's just Danny Cunningham. They won't give me Danny Cunningham. It's real D Cunningham. Whoever has at Danny Cunningham got their account suspended and Twitter still won't give it to me.

Okay. The real D Cunningham then to, to track your comings and goings. So thanks for your time. Great to catch up with you and we'll talk again soon, man. Be good, Matthew.