00:00Probably a good time to talk about the Jeremy Fowler, Daniel Oyafusi piece about Deshaun Watson.
00:07And I thought Lima, I know it was kind of jamming Ken up, I thought Lima brought up an interesting
00:11point about how one-sided the quarterback conversation has been.
00:15How it sure seems like if you really thought about it, there's one seed trying to push a narrative or
00:20one side trying to push a narrative.
00:21I don't know why Ken ran from what he was saying there, because it sounded like Ken laid it out
00:26in a way that I thought was actually, I was like, okay, this makes sense.
00:29Yes, Deshaun's people, does it seem like they're on the forefront?
00:33Yeah, it does.
00:34Like, think about it.
00:34We just had, what was it, Monday?
00:36We had the Jeremy Fowler report that came out and had one of the few reports we've had about Deshaun
00:41Watson having some sort of edge, some sort of inside track, all that, right?
00:45Mary Kay was last week, Jeremy then was Monday, and then you fast forward and it's on Tuesday, and all
00:50of a sudden Jeremy Fowler's got this big piece with Daniel Oyafusi,
00:53and they're talking about the source close to Deshaun Watson, guy close to Deshaun Watson.
00:59Well, okay then.
01:01Now it just really kind of makes it seem like you're just talking to Deshaun's people, and they're the ones
01:05that are saying, yeah, we think he's got a great chance to go ahead and be the starter.
01:08I also, I also, I think it's going to be really interesting to watch come out from that reason, because
01:16if Shador wanted to, Shador's got a lot of friends.
01:20He's got a lot of sources close to him.
01:22Yeah, one of the things I said to you was, should Shador go on the attack now?
01:25Yeah, and I kind of...
01:26I feel like he should.
01:27I don't know that that would be best for him, because, again, like when Deion goes out on the offensive,
01:33it turns into a monster of its own.
01:36But I do think if Deshaun's side, and I think it stands to reason that it would be Deshaun's side.
01:41They're trying to do the thing that you do when a guy's trying to rehab his career.
01:45And the first thing you do is work on the image so that by the time that he actually might
01:49take the starting job, it's met with like a, oh, he's an underdog.
01:56He's a comeback kid.
01:57I don't know very many people in Cleveland will buy it.
02:01I do think people nationally are buying it.
02:03And so I think it's only a matter of time with both sides having their connections, and certainly Shador's camp
02:11being very vocal.
02:12Guys like Louis Riddick, guys like Mel Kuyper, as extensions of Deion and the Sanders Hive, I do think it's
02:19only a matter of time before that it plays out in the public sphere.
02:23Here's the hard part about guys like Riddick and guys like Kuyper, though, is they almost become like the boy
02:27who cried wolf in this equation.
02:28What makes someone like Jeremy Fowler so effective in this is, first off, Jeremy does have a lot of connections
02:33to the Browns.
02:33It's been going back for a million years.
02:35So he could be doing that and also connecting it with Sanders, or sorry, with Watson and the people close
02:40to Deshaun.
02:40But Jeremy's not been historically somebody that is going to go ahead and stand on the table and try to
02:46make this be known.
02:47And so where Shador's people kind of get, they kind of get muzzled in this discussion in a way because
02:52they've been doing this for so many months,
02:54it hits harder for Deshaun's people that have just kind of been basically pushed to the back burner for so
02:58long.
02:59Now, I think this is where we get to call back to a conversation we had about three or four,
03:04maybe five weeks ago,
03:05when the Browns were having voluntary mini camps, and Shador talked, and Dylan Gabriel talked,
03:12and the only quarterback on the roster that didn't speak was Deshaun Watson.
03:17And mind you, Deshaun has not spoken since he tore his Achilles.
03:21Anyways, so if you're starting the soft launch of, we're going to rehab this, but even more so,
03:27more than just rehabbing his image, if you want to start to build the bridge towards Deshaun and the fans,
03:34and at least having a detente, at least fans giving him a chance to be their quarterback this year
03:40without booing the crap out of him when they see him on the field before you get the results that
03:45can change people's minds,
03:46this week is huge. And if the Browns are serious about Deshaun being in this quarterback battle,
03:54if everything that you've heard them say through reports or through whatever that Deshaun has a real chance,
04:00and Deshaun might even have the leg up, then this week is the week that Deshaun should speak.
04:05When you and I spoke about this, the prevailing narrative from a few people, including Daniel Oyafusi,
04:14I don't think he'll mind me putting his name on that because he tweeted it at us.
04:17It was public, yeah.
04:18The prevailing notion was it's not a big deal. All quarterbacks don't talk at the same time.
04:23Fair is fair. Then his ass better be speaking tomorrow.
04:26Because here's the thing. I don't want pretend quarterback in the room.
04:30If you're going to do this, if I've got to indulge something that I think is asinine five years into
04:35the Deshaun thing,
04:36then he has to, you can't just, he can't act like the starting quarterback in reports
04:41and then not show up in front of the media.
04:44Fair is fair. Shador and Dylan spoke last time. It's Deshaun's time now.
04:48And if you don't speak, then you're telling me that this whole thing is Fugazi
04:52and that this is basically a trumped up thing.
04:55I don't know why you'd be doing it, but a trumped up thing.
04:58And he's not actually a factor in this quarterback conversation.
05:01He's got to speak tomorrow. I don't see any other way around it.
05:05And I've got questions for him if I was there.
05:07And so I hope some of the reporters have some of these questions.
05:09But like off of Daniel's reporting when he talks about the sources close and all this stuff to Watson
05:15are saying he understands why the fans are frustrated.
05:18Okay, well, what has he actually done to change that?
05:20I would ask him point blank. Does he understand why the fans are frustrated?
05:23If he truly understands the frustration, why hasn't he ever really addressed it directly?
05:27There's a lot of questions I have for Deshaun.
05:29If you want to make the argument that last month we didn't have these questions, okay.
05:32But Jeremy, Daniel, you guys started it up.
05:34I got a lot of questions here I want Deshaun to be able to answer.
05:37Well, and this is, you know, I'm staunchly anti-Deshaun at this point.
05:42And it has nothing to do with not wanting to trade for him five years ago.
05:47This is all about what has transpired in the four-plus years since being the Browns quarterback,
05:51where he has said the right things.
05:54No, no, no. He's said things that sound like the right things.
05:57But in the end, he's never really taken accountability, whether it's for his failures on the field,
06:03whether it's anything that happened before here.
06:05And so, like, I'm staunchly anti-Deshaun.
06:09But I'm also a human.
06:11So if Deshaun, when he does meet with the media, if Deshaun can just be the guy,
06:17and there was one moment, he gave us a glimpse into who I think Deshaun wants us to see who
06:23he is.
06:23And it was his second training camp, and it was after the struggles.
06:27It's where he admitted he didn't take full accountability for what happened in Houston.
06:32But he got close to it, and he talked about that process and what he had learned from it.
06:37But that was from the human side of what I've seen from Deshaun.
06:41It's the closest I've ever been to, oh, there's a human in there, and I'd like to see more of
06:45that.
06:46And then he shut that well down, and we never saw it again.
06:49That would be the kind of thing, as a Browns fan, if I have to indulge, again,
06:53what is effectively the worst trade in NFL history.
06:56We got a lot of jamokes in this town thinking five good games from Deshaun is going to turn things
07:00around.
07:01Guys, it's more than a Diet Coke fix, to quote the late, great Ralphie Metc.
07:05And I'll also just keep waiting for him to go ahead and get injured.
07:07Yes.
07:08He could have nine good games, and I'll just be waiting for him to get injured.
07:10There's a lot of things that have to happen for this, but it starts with Deshaun speaking,
07:16and Deshaun speaking like an actual human being.
07:21I don't want to hear I understand their frustration.
07:24I want to hear your role in your failure and where you are four years now going about five years.
07:31We can't just be sources close to Deshaun and say he understands their frustration.
07:34I want to hear, does he understand exactly what that is?
07:37Does he understand everything associated with that, and what's his responsibility in that?
07:41And we've just never gotten anywhere close to that with Deshaun.
07:44And the other thing on this, too, the source close to Watson said the quarterback is focused solely on the
07:49upcoming season
07:50but believes that he isn't against staying in Cleveland beyond 2026 if things go well.
07:54How generous of him.
07:56If they offer me more money, I will take it.
07:59But also, I kind of want to know, what does if things go well mean for Deshaun Watson?
08:03I kind of want that answered.
08:04So if the source close to you says if things go well, all right, I'll give you the benefit of
08:08the doubt.
08:08Maybe you really think this is going to go well.
08:10What does that look like for you?
08:11What is that for you?
08:12Is that a postseason appearance?
08:14Is that looking like the old Deshaun in Houston?
08:17Or is things going well just not being injured for 17 games?
08:20I want to know what that looks like for you.
08:22Well, in specific to so many of the things that were in it, and again, I want to be very
08:27clear.
08:27I thought Jeremy Fowler and Daniel Oyefusi painted a comprehensive picture.
08:32And I think it's admirable that they spoke to people close to Deshaun.
08:36I think there's a lot in there that I can respect.
08:38But even within this, we can't even get actual Deshaun Watson quotes.
08:41Well, but there were a lot of tropes.
08:43We get sourced close to.
08:44There were a lot of tropes, the PR tropes within that thing.
08:49Deshaun now realizes his injury was the 19 months off was the best thing to ever happen to him.
08:54Okay, that's literally what everyone coming off a historically bad injury says
09:00when they're trying to rehabilitate themselves and to tell their story as a comeback.
09:05Like, so many of the notes that were played in that story, and again,
09:08it's the story being put out there by his camp or his guys.
09:11So it's going to sound that way, but it felt like PR refresh, rehash 101 as opposed to anything
09:20that tied humanity to Deshaun Watson.
09:24I cannot root for a robot.
09:26I can't root for somebody who can't.
09:29This kind of goes to the Kevin Stefanski thing.
09:30I can't root for a guy who's got no soul in the game.
09:34I'd rather misplaced emotion than fake detachment, which is what I feel like we got from Kevin
09:40a lot of the time, and I feel like we've gotten way too often from Deshaun.
09:43I mean, it would just help if he was just honest with everybody and just kind of laid it all
09:45out there.
09:46I don't know that he's going to speak tomorrow.
09:48I hope that he does.
09:49But if he does, you just don't give us a bunch of platitudes.
09:53It's just going to make us angrier.
09:54And let me just clear the deck for the Browns PR here.
09:58If Deshaun doesn't speak tomorrow, I'm going to have a real criticism.
10:02You're going to get lit up.
10:03It's the reality of it.
10:04I can't believe everyone, me and you were the only ones getting after him for a month
10:08ago.
10:08Everyone else just kind of acted like it was okay.
10:10Yeah.
10:11Yeah.
10:11I still don't understand why people thought that was okay.
10:15I really don't.
10:16I'm not going to take the obvious shots that I could think of.
10:19I'm just going to say, it also blows my mind that nobody else saw a problem with Deshaun
10:24Watson ducking the media five weeks ago.
10:27I mean, because if you let him go.
10:28By the way, we'll be right if he doesn't speak tomorrow.
10:30And if he doesn't go tomorrow, then I'm just going to ask, how long are they just going
10:34to let this go?
10:34Is he just going to be protected the entire time?
10:36Because you're telling me that he would be.
10:38Well, and I don't think, if he doesn't speak tomorrow, with the way this goes, he's not
10:42speaking until the earliest of June 4th or 5th?
10:45No, they get once a week now for the next three weeks.
10:48Okay.
10:49It's every Wednesday for the next three weeks.
10:50All right.
10:51So he has to, and by the way, it should be tomorrow.
10:54Shador and Dylan have already spoken.
10:57Dylan, Deshaun's camp or the Browns on his behalf, they're speaking a lot out there for
11:03Deshaun.
11:04Cool.
11:04Now I want to hear the guy.
11:05I want to hear, I want to hear somebody who acts like he understands what a face of a franchise
11:11should be.
11:11Now.
11:12I don't want to hear the guy who just kind of clams up when it comes to, Hey, what have
11:17you learned?
11:17Or, Hey, what's the difference?
11:19You understand fan frustration, huh?
11:21Tell me about that.
11:22You know, like I want to hear, I want to hear a damn human tomorrow.
11:25That'd be, that would go a long way for me as a guy who's really trying his hardest to
11:30entertain this idea of Deshaun versus Shador.
11:33And, and I'd rather get all of my teeth pulled out by a hillbilly doctor than do that.
11:37It's also just, it's the responsibility of the quarterback.
11:40It's a franchise quarterback.
11:41That's what you have to do.
11:42The bare minimum is getting up to the media and speaking.
11:45He has not, he's not done a good enough job here.
Comments