00:00It is a big week for the Browns quarterback battle with mandatory OTAs going on.
00:06What Nick said in the previous segment, when we played coming back, about two weeks ago,
00:12that's probably where I was with the quarterback battle.
00:16And there's something about the last two weeks and how Shador's, whether it's what Munkin said,
00:21whether it's some of the reports about how Shador's looked, maybe I'm off on this,
00:26but I feel like all of a sudden we're back to having an honest quarterback battle.
00:30You're not off, and I'm just trying to figure out if it's because I want it to be an honest
00:33quarterback battle,
00:33but I don't get the impression you're off.
00:35In fact, when Nick was talking, and Nick does this every day, Nick is very plugged in,
00:38Nick also focuses on 32 teams.
00:40And so I was thinking to myself, he's got to update his webpage a little bit at the refresh button
00:45and find out where the Browns actually were last week.
00:47But then I'm thinking, am I making too much out of a practice where Coach Riz called him a practice
00:53MVP
00:54or whatever the hell it was?
00:54Are we putting too much stock into Todd Munkin's thoughts and commentary on how tough this is actually going to
01:02be?
01:02I mean, listen, if we thought there might be a little too much being put into the first three practices
01:08of OTAs
01:09a month and a half ago, then it probably stands to reason we probably swung the opposite way.
01:14And I think it's also fair to say that maybe some of that's informed by the fact you and I
01:18would rather do
01:18just about anything in 2026 than watch Deshaun Watson play quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.
01:23Yeah, and so I'm worried. I'm sitting here and I'm thinking to myself, are we just off?
01:26Does everyone else feel like the comments Todd Munkin made last week don't really matter
01:30and this is just an end result of Deshaun Watson, he'll be your quarterback week one
01:35and it was always destined to be this?
01:36Or I think what we can do is we can strike all of that from the record
01:41because it kind of cancels itself out and then go back to what I think is ultimately the best question
01:48you can ask yourself if you're the Cleveland Browns about the quarterback position
01:52because it's between what is best, what gives me the best chance to win,
01:57so that's one of the two questions, and then the second one is
02:00what actually has long-term viability if it works out?
02:05And I think one of those is definitively Shador and the other one gets decided in weeks like this week.
02:11Oh, and that's why I've been saying for months it's like Ty goes to Shador, it's not even close.
02:16If we're within, I don't know, a win or two as far as your prognostications
02:23in that building between what Deshaun and Shador can do,
02:26you have to just give it to Shador and see what he can do first.
02:28I think what's interesting about last week's reports and Munkin's comments
02:32and six weeks ago's reports is I have very little interest in one half of this quarterback battle,
02:39and yet I'm not willing to basically give up on 2026.
02:46And I think the Jared Verse inclusion of the Miles trade proves that even if they don't have
02:51all the regs in the basket of 2026, they're not either.
02:55No, but I feel like you're watching for different things then.
02:59So it's like when we ask how invested in the quarterback battle are you,
03:02it's a quarterback battle in Cleveland.
03:04We're going to be invested.
03:05Obviously, if you're listening to this right now, you're invested to a degree.
03:07But how much of this season for a lot of people is just watching the young kids
03:10versus watching Deshaun Watson or Shador Sanders actually play football?
03:14I mean, this goes back to the win-win situation for the Browns.
03:17If the young guys play well this year and you're a three-win team, cool.
03:20You just added a quarterback to that quarterback room.
03:23If the young guys play well and this is a 8-9-10 win team, even a 7-win team,
03:29and let's say it's driven by Shador, you're in a really good spot where I think
03:35people are going to start to believe in what you're doing here.
03:37And oh, by the way, you can still trade up for a quarterback if you want.
03:40Now, the downside is the Deshaun thing.
03:43I think that's where I am with this.
03:45Like if Shador wins, I'm going to go into the season with hope that he can prove
03:50people like Nick, who called him a career backup, wrong.
03:54And that whatever playmaking, which is the thing that I just haven't seen a lot of that
04:00from late round picks or underdog quarterbacks, fourth man in the room,
04:05that have played late in the season for the Browns over the last 26 years.
04:10Shador showed me more of that than I've ever seen of any other quarterback in that spot.
04:14That's the thing that I'm holding on hope to.
04:17So I'm hoping that Todd Munkin has plugged into that and just gotten more consistency out of him.
04:23Whereas with Deshaun, I'm going to be plugged in saying, all right, prove me wrong, dude.
04:28Okay, but you see, so okay, you have a different approach to it than I do.
04:32You're taking the prove me wrong approach to it with Deshaun.
04:34I'm at two different extremes here.
04:36If Shador is the starter, and the problem with this is that we're probably not going to find out
04:39until, I don't know, a week before, two weeks before, whatever that ends up being.
04:42And so we're taking this right up to the limit here.
04:45If Shador is the starter, I'm going to be locked in and excited about what 2026 can be.
04:50If Deshaun's the starter, I'll be excited to watch the young kids and a lot of these young players.
04:54But I mean, the season will be shot, in my opinion.
04:58We'll talk about it.
04:59We'll discuss it.
04:59There's a lot of cool things to discuss, but I have zero belief in Deshaun Watson being a good quarterback.
05:04I don't have a lot of belief in it.
05:06And even then, I think it opens up a lot of questions that I don't think any of us really
05:10want to answer.
05:11But I'm still giving enough room that I'm wrong on this, about Deshaun specifically.
05:16And maybe I need to budge off that.
05:18I haven't seen anything that tells me I need to, though, yet.
05:21And maybe it'll be us in training camp seeing it firsthand.
05:23I just have a hard time thinking, until games are played, there's anything he can do that would change my
05:28assessment.
05:29I think you and I are on that last part.
05:31But we're going to be, I have to see it in regular season games, and I have to see it
05:35in successive games to go ahead and start to, being able to put the hand.
05:41If he has one good game the first week and they beat Jacksonville, that's not enough for me to say
05:45I was wrong.
05:46It needs to be like the entire month of September before we get to that conversation.
05:51And even then, I'd still be sitting there and saying, I'm waiting for him to get injured.
05:53Yes.
05:54So, it's going to be week 12 or something?
05:56Like, if he gets past a spot he never has gotten past in a Browns uniform?
05:59Trade deadline?
06:00Trade deadline?
06:01Packed.
06:01Honesty packed.
06:02No, because even then I'll be like, so he's inching towards the spot where he'll play more games than he's
06:07ever played in a season for the Browns.
06:09Like, I can't buy it.
06:11I can't buy it.
06:12I'll just be counting down until Shador gets to play.
06:14But I'm just not, I understand that eventually we're going to get to 2027, and the goal is, if you
06:21get it,
06:22that you land one of the preeminent quarterbacks next year.
06:25And so, I understand that that's the goal.
06:27But right now, guys, I'm in 2026, and I just, I'm, I, the whole, I want to do mock drafts
06:34in October.
06:35Now, I lived that for like, you know, what, the first 10 years of my career here?
06:39I don't really love that.
06:40That gets old very quickly.
06:41It got old last year as well.
06:44And by the way, I was the guy that was team win.
06:47Like, that's, like, I think this is why I really enjoy Todd Munkin.
06:52It's because I think that guy, in all cases, if the choice is, well, we got to think about the
06:57record,
06:57we got to think about the quarterback in 2027, or win, I think he's going to err on the side
07:02of winning.
07:02I know, but that conversation is going to be a bloodbath for us.
07:05Why?
07:05Because I'll be rooting for losses if there really is an Arch Manning there.
07:09Not for me.
07:10I'm sorry.
07:10And I understand, I understand the long-term thinking that goes into that.
07:15If it's not Shador, if it's Deshaun is what I'm saying.
07:18If it's Shador, it's different.
07:18If it's Shador, it's a, that's a different convo.
07:20If you have a real chance to have somebody that could be your long-term quarterback, I want to see
07:24him win.
07:24I want to see him do the best he can.
07:26If it's Deshaun and it's week 10 and they're three and seven and they're not even giving a chance to
07:30Shador, bring on the losses.
07:32No, I want Deshaun to.
07:33Bring on, give me Arch Manning at that point.
07:34Sorry, I want to be very clear about that.
07:37I'll still want Deshaun to succeed.
07:39Because it's just losing is so miserable.
07:41It ends up, like, some of the tailgates, and Browns fans are so great to have the right attitude with
07:47this kind of stuff.
07:48But, like, when you're out there and it's five degrees and it's, like, December 14th and you've got these diehards
07:55who are going to the game because they put money that they don't have into that team.
07:59And to then be like, so, they should lose on purpose today, right?
08:03And, by the way, that's the extreme version of it.
08:05Texting my friends being like, man, I kind of hope.
08:07No, I hate that crap.
08:09I do.
08:10Even though, because here's the thing.
08:12They've also engineered these situations in my life where I've watched this happen and then they still haven't pulled it
08:19off.
08:19There's just no guarantee that it's going to be paid off.
08:22Not pulled it off.
08:23But even, like, you still got Miles Garrett out of having the number one overall pick.
08:25You know what I mean?
08:26Like, there's still been generational players that we've gotten because they did what they were.
08:30Well, there was just no quarterback that year.
08:32Well, there was quarterbacks that year.
08:33They didn't know Patrick Mahomes was Patrick Mahomes.
08:35That was the problem in that.
08:37Or Deshaun, in fairness.
08:38They actually set it up for Mahomes, Deshaun, and Trubisky, who they would have ended up taking oddly enough, and
08:42that would have been a disaster.
08:43Well, but even Deshaun, they gave Houston the pick that became Deshaun Watson.
08:47Right.
08:48No, they could have done it.
08:48Yeah, but I guess if you wanted it or didn't want it, depending on when you've talked to you.
08:53I think, oddly enough, kind of like how they were, if they would have entered last year, where they just
08:57kind of thought they were two seasons away instead of one season away, that was kind of their mentality at
09:01the time.
09:02Maybe they should stop deciding how many years they were away.
09:05I know.
09:05I know.
09:06Oh, and by the way, the Baker thing would have worked out if they just never traded Baker.
09:10216-474-0092.
09:11How invested are you in the quarterback battle?
09:14I think the other factor here is, I think if anyone can do anything, any one of the four quarterbacks,
09:21I honestly don't even care who it is.
09:23If any of them could do anything, they've got the situation.
09:27They've got the situation around them that they didn't last year, and that they really haven't since this organization's been
09:33unable to replace Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, or Nick Chubb.
09:38And I'm not even talking about just the offense, I think defensively, I think you've got enough players that if
09:44you just get a C-plus effort from the quarterback spot in totality, I think you're going to be fun
09:51to watch this year.
09:52I think there'll be a lot of, well, there'll be interesting regardless for us, I would imagine, because if it's
09:55Shador or Deshaun Watson, I'll have strong opinions either way.
09:58I'm going to either be rooting really hard for Shador, and I'm not rooting against Deshaun, I just, there's no
10:03part of me that thinks it's going to work, and so we're at least stuck in an interesting spot.
10:08216-474-0092.
10:10It'll be incredibly boring to everybody else across the NFL, but it'll be interesting to us.
10:13I don't know, like, again, if the Browns are a seven-win team with Shador this year, I think you're
10:18going to get people starting to pay attention to him, because he's going to have to play reasonably well.
10:22And I do think there are more people ready to line up, to be like, I told you this is
10:27what they thought they could be with Deshaun, if Deshaun is even tangibly okay.
10:33It'll be, we'll have to wait and see, because, Nick, I just, there's no world that exists where Deshaun Watson's
10:38going to quarterback to me.
10:40How many times can I say that?
10:42Are you telling me, we got to see this play out?
10:44I'm saying everybody else has to see this play out, because I don't need to see this play out.
10:48I think I know where this is going.
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