00:00I want to play Nick Wright's thoughts first because it could be Nick Wright, it could be
00:04Jonathan Peterlin, third-person use, how about that? But like basically we feel the same way
00:09in regards to Deshaun Watson and so I could do it myself but I feel like I've done that a
00:13lot.
00:14I want you guys to hear somebody that is as credible as it gets speaking as confidently
00:20as he is when it comes to the state of Deshaun Watson and the Browns. Here we go.
00:23Deshaun Watson in the last five years, here are his ranks among NFL quarterbacks who have
00:30started as many games as him. 47 quarterbacks who started 19 games. He's basically the second or
00:36third worst in everything except for touchdown and turnover where he's only the eighth worst.
00:41He's somewhere from 39th to 46th. I don't think he has a great chance to be the starter. I don't
00:48think he's a good player anymore. I don't think all of a sudden he is going to be the
00:53answer and I think that the Cleveland Browns not recognizing what the sunk cost fallacy
01:00is has cost them multiple seasons. If they ask Todd Munkin to flirt with this, in my
01:06opinion, insane idea that maybe Deshaun will be good, it'll cost them this season as well.
01:12That audio courtesy of FS1 and I can't agree with it more. If you start Deshaun Watson,
01:21this season's gone. Now you might make the case in the argument if you're an anti-Shadour
01:25guy that if you start Shadour, the season's gone. I would rally against that and say,
01:28no, we don't know that with certainty. There is at least a chance that exists out there
01:32that yeah, Shadour didn't have the right pieces around him last season, wasn't given a fair
01:36chance, and is able to grow into being a really good quarterback as early as this season.
01:41Is it the most likely thing to happen? Probably not, all things considered. But does that world
01:46exist? Yes, it does. Is there a world that exists for myself where Deshaun Watson does
01:51anything but waste everyone's time in 2026? I can't find that world. To me, that world
01:57does not exist. And so I agree with what Nick had to say. But I want to open up to
02:01you guys
02:01at 216-474-0092. But I want to issue, Jake, because you seem to think that not only is there
02:06a world out there that exists for Deshaun Watson to play, but we should be considering it maybe
02:11more than some people are. Yeah. And I mean, like, listen, first thing on the board, I'll
02:16kill it before it starts. Like I'd much rather see Shadour play. That is number one. But there
02:21is a part of me that I sit here and I go, I am still interested to see what Deshaun
02:25Watson
02:26has. Like, this is why I think the competition is still a good idea. This is why I think Deshaun
02:30is still a good quarterback to push Shadour for the starting job. It's because we sat there
02:35and watched him play and he was awful. Like there's no argument against how bad he was.
02:38For three years. What quarterback has Kevin ever made look good in a Browns uniform?
02:43And this is, I think, it's going to be the prevailing argument when we get towards the
02:48camp and everyone else and we really dive deep into this Deshaun versus Shadour discussion.
02:53I think a lot of this, the shrapnel in this discussion is going to fall back on Kevin Stefanski.
02:58I think that's where everyone's going to go. And I'll tell you right now, that is the very
03:01best argument that if you're a Deshaun Watson supporter, that you can use. It's the one I
03:07would go to consistently. The idea, well, we didn't see him with anybody but Stefanski
03:10and there's a reason why Stefanski is fired and I don't know that Stefanski knows what
03:14he was doing. I can't for years be an anti-Stefanski guy and then tell you that that is not
03:20a legitimate
03:20argument in the discussion. Now, I would argue back and say, even football reasons aside,
03:26I don't think the man can stay healthy. And so, like, just from a pure physical standpoint,
03:30I don't think that he can do it anymore at a high level because I think he's made a glass
03:35and that would be a concerning thing. But if you want to tell me that Stefanski is the reason why,
03:39that is the very best argument that I can come up if I was trying to argue in favor of
03:43Deshaun,
03:44which I'm not trying to do.
03:45But I mean, it's in somewhat legitimate. Like, he looked bad. It's hard for me to believe. I struggle
03:52to think of quarterbacks in the past that have had the type of peak that Deshaun had to then
03:56just turn into a pumpkin and it not because they're 35 years old. Like, just immediately
04:01just turn into a pumpkin, not be able to do anything. And I mean, we all knew we also don't
04:05have. We also don't have quarterbacks to take 700 days off in between. I mean, the second time
04:09he'll be doing that, by the way. But like that's there's a lot about Deshaun's that is his story
04:14that is unprecedented. Like there's that's part of that that is baked in. It's like, how would you
04:19ever see somebody go from having a season that has only been done four times in NFL history,
04:23which is throw for forty eight hundred plus yards, thirty plus touchdowns, fewer than
04:27ten interceptions and lead the league in yards per attempt? Only four times in NFL history
04:31that season's been done. Deshaun Watson is one of those guys. How do you go from that
04:35into what it was? I think people act like we're talking about that. It just happening overnight
04:39though like that. This has been six years in the making of that happening. And I don't
04:44care what you're doing. If you spend more time than not not doing your craft over six
04:50seasons, you're going to end up looking worse in the process. Yeah, but I think that like
04:54the top end still exists. And like, I don't know that you ever get back to what you were.
04:59I mean, you're going to be thirty. I don't know that it does. So maybe that's where our
05:02disagreement starts. If you think the top end still exists, I just flatly disagree with
05:07that. I don't think that's a part that exists in Deshaun Watson's body anymore. Like
05:11I again, I don't know that he gets back to the Texans, but I don't know that return to
05:15like NFL starter quality, like even middle of the road NFL starter quality is like entirely
05:19ruled out. And we knew that Kevin and Deshaun was far from a match made in heaven to begin
05:25with. Don't think Kevin wanted him in the first place. Never fit what Kevin wanted to
05:29do, nor did they ever truthfully design an offense that was built around. Let's see what
05:34Deshaun has. It was the mix of the Ken Dorsey offense of the Kevin offense that still had
05:38him doing a million different things. He was uncomfortable with and the offense just
05:42stunk period around him as well on top of it. So it was like, do I think that he's
05:46going to be an answer for you? Do I think he's going to answer your quarterback
05:48question? No, not at all. Really? I mean, there's a very small part of me, but is there
05:52something that goes, is he really as bad as we just saw for the last four years or
05:57you know, whatever with the time off an injury plus four years over, is he that bad
06:01or was Kevin making him look significantly worse? I mean, we know what Bill O'Brien did
06:06in Houston was basically call up Dabo and the guys at Clemson and be like, Hey, what
06:11made Deshaun good? How did you know? So maybe that's part of where I'm not buying
06:15a hundred percent into it. Is that like, it's not like Bill O'Brien, some awesome
06:18quarterback whisperer. It's not like he's got some great resume attached to
06:21himself. And so I don't, I don't think you need it. If, if the top end Deshaun
06:25still existed, I don't think you needed some Kyle Shanahan type coach in order to
06:29get that out of him. Well, if that existed Stefanski with all his flaws, I think
06:34still would have been able to get something out of him. I don't think he was able to
06:37get anything out of him because I don't think it exists. I think that part of
06:40Deshaun was buried at some point throughout the previous six seasons,
06:43it's dead and gone. I still think there's a world where there's a
06:48percentage of chance that it's still somewhere in there, right? Maybe not
06:52what he was, but a much better version of Deshaun Watson than we have seen.
06:56I think it makes it legitimate. Like the fact that you take away and change the
06:59coach, the fact that we're listening to Jimmy Haslam, Andrew Barry, I mean, Todd
07:03Monkett himself has said that Deshaun's going to have a chance to compete for the
07:06job and they want to see what he has. Oh no, this is a real thing. This is not, this
07:09is not
07:09something. I'm not one of the hosts that is going to sit up here and tell you, I
07:12don't, I think this is farcical. I don't think this is real. I think this is all
07:15fugazi. That's not me. The Browns are taking this very, very seriously. I'm not
07:19taking it seriously, but the Browns are taking it very seriously. I do believe in
07:24what Nick Wright is saying. If Deshaun Watson starts this season, you're
07:28punting on 2026. If Deshaun Watson starts this season, that's a waste of a
07:32season. There's no redeemable aspect to Deshaun Watson playing in any of these
07:38games. But I also do understand the Browns think differently. And I don't
07:43know, Jake, I don't know how you feel about it from the perspective of, are the
07:46Browns doing this because they feel like they, you know, we talk about the
07:49sunken cost fallacy all the time. They're trying to get blood from a stone. Are
07:52they just trying to get something out of this? And it's like, maybe that is part
07:56of it. Maybe that's baked into it. But I go back to what I've been telling you all
07:59day about 2026. If you're not serious about the 2026 season, then you don't have to be
08:04serious about your quarterback spot here either. And you don't have to be
08:06serious about what you get out of Deshaun Watson. You're just, you're just
08:09wasting time. You're just, you're just passing the days is all you're doing.
08:12But see, this is where I'm sure or first, because if I'm just going to waste the
08:15days, I'd rather just waste the days with Shadour to figure out if I have
08:18something. I would too. I would too. But like, I don't even think in the Browns
08:22mind, it can be the sunk, you know, the, the, the sunken cost side of it. Like
08:26you can't be like, let's tap into the very last thing we have. Your goal is to
08:29find a quarterback. You have a guy who might be there. The idea is you think
08:32that whatever Kevin was getting out of Deshaun was a direct correlation. And
08:37you think there's a chance that he still is, maybe not the quarterback, you
08:40paid $230 million, but a quarterback that you can move forward with. I think
08:43they have to be under that line of thinking. If you're legitimately going to
08:46play him above Shadour, I think that maybe Jimmy and Andrew are a little bit
08:50clouded in their vision, but I think they have that thought process. I just
08:53love the revenge side of this towards Stefanski. If that's their thinking, if
08:56that's like, is Stefanski screwed him up and this is how we get it back. I
09:00don't think that's ultimately what cost Stefanski. The idea that it's like, we'll
09:03fire him. So hopefully we get something redeemable with Deshaun Watson. I don't
09:07think that's how that went down. I just don't. I, but like that idea that
09:13Stefanski is the reason and the problem, again, I'm not buying into it, but it's
09:17the best argument that anybody can come up with in regards to Stefanski and
09:21Deshaun Watson and trying to save Deshaun Watson. I mean, I think he exists as part
09:24of the problem. I mean, what we had heard when that trade go down was Kevin say, I can
09:28make him work into my offense. Like I can find a role for him, even though he's
09:33not my prototypical quarterback and he came nowhere close. Even when Deshaun
09:36was healthy, came nowhere close to making that look like a reality. Kevin
09:39Stefanski wasn't the one throwing those warm burners in Houston when he came
09:41back. You know what I mean? Like, like there is a, there's a difference between
09:44having the wrong scheme and the wrong fit and then watching with our own two
09:47eyes as he's throwing the ball 10 feet into the dirt in front of wide
09:50receivers. You know, there was enough that wasn't there from a skill
09:54perspective with Deshaun. That was just painfully obvious when we were
09:57watching him play these games. I mean, that to me doesn't, that to me
10:01doesn't fall on Stefanski. That, that to me falls on Deshaun. Again, I think
10:05there's like a 95% chance Deshaun is just a pumpkin at this point, but there's a
10:105% chance that he really did have a lot to do with Kevin. I mean, even if you do
10:14what you're good at, like if we sat here and did radio, if they moved you
10:17across the country, put you somebody with, you're not comfortable with the
10:19first few days. And I think football taking a little bit longer are going to be
10:23uncomfortable. You're not going to be at your a hundred percent best working with
10:26somebody you've never worked with doing, if they're asking you to do
10:29additional things that you're not comfortable doing, you're going to feel
10:31a little off your game. And I don't know that Deshaun ever got the amount of
10:34time. Don't know that he'll ever get the amount of time with the way his body is
10:36right now to truthfully get into a comfortable feel or be set up in a
10:40position.
10:41I think the Odyssey is asking you to do things you're not comfortable with
10:44today. And I think you're knocking it out of the park.
10:46Well, thank you very much.
10:46I mean, you're better. I think you might be better than Deshaun Watson in that
10:49respect. You're out of your comfort zone. Not only are you doing a show you don't
10:52normally do. You're on a remote and you're outside of the studio. And look at you
10:56thriving out here. Take that Deshaun Watson.
10:59If you were to give me that compliment in 2019, I would have felt great.
11:02It means nothing now.
11:04I can hardly crawl over that bar.
11:06Is that all that is?
11:08216-47-400192.
11:10I don't know. I don't know if that means my compliments have gone downhill or if
11:14that means you're just immune to them all now. I don't know.
11:16Listen, you hand me a compliment. I'm going to take it and I'm going to run with it.
11:20I don't hand them out like they're candy bars at Halloween. You've got to earn these compliments.
11:25You've got to really... Who was that? I think Meredith one day was like, I can't remember
11:29what compliment. I complimented so many positions.
11:30You can't hand them out left and right. Nobody's taking that serious.
11:32On his play-by-play job. I was like, you know what's fantastic? You sounded like you're
11:36supposed to. And at that age, that's the whole goal. At 22 years old for Mac Raleigh, you
11:41sound like you're supposed to and you'll keep getting jobs. And then you can morph into
11:44whoever you need to morph into. But in the beginning, you'll keep getting jobs based off
11:48of that. And it's like really his elaborate deal. And Mary's like, wow, you get a Jonathan
11:53compliment. That's a real deal because he does not do those often. And in turn, I don't
11:57know, I like to think that we hand him out occasionally. You can't hand him out left and
12:01right. Nobody will take him seriously. You can't. If you compliment and turn it into a compliment
12:05off, then no one's going to take your compliment seriously. They just think you're just a,
12:09I don't know, just a goober with compliments. That's all that is. 216-474-0092. I'll compliment you.
12:14I'll compliment Nick Wright. And I'll compliment the idea that Deshaun Watson is only going to
12:20hurt you in 2026. I can't find the avenue that exists where Deshaun Watson makes this team better
12:26and in turn is something worthwhile in 2026.
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