00:00They had Mary-Kate Cabot on today and talked about the honeymoon period with Todd Munkin.
00:05Certainly, we all know, and we cannot shy away from the fact that the fan base is more excited about
00:14Shador than they are about Deshaun right now.
00:17That's just how it's been because of numerous factors.
00:21But I don't know if that's the end of the honeymoon period for Todd Munkin, if he chooses Deshaun Watson
00:27as his starter.
00:28I'm sure there will be plenty of backlash.
00:30There will be plenty of social media outrage.
00:33But if Deshaun goes out there and looks anything like the quarterback that the Browns thought they were getting when
00:40they traded for him, then I think all of that dies down.
00:44So I think it's interesting.
00:46I would agree.
00:47I expect a fair amount of outrage if Deshaun is named the starter.
00:51I don't know that that blowback is going to hit Munkin necessarily.
00:55Okay, so there's a couple things here, right?
00:57Is Munkin the one even making this decision?
00:59I think most football people would tell you the coaches always make this decision.
01:02I don't know with this organization, though.
01:04And so, like, if you tell me that he's 100% getting the call and getting to make the decision,
01:09then the blowback does have to fall on him.
01:11At least it will for me.
01:12I don't know because here's where my head's at with it.
01:14It's like, okay, just for the record, I think Todd Munkin's making the decision.
01:19I don't think Todd Munkin would have just taken this job to be the next Kevin Stefanski.
01:23I think he heard all the scuttlebutt about Kevin Stefanski and his lack of power in saying things.
01:30And I think Todd knows that's –
01:32I know we disagreed on this, though, because I thought his entry point was he just didn't have enough leverage
01:36anyway, and he just had to take what he had to take.
01:37I mean –
01:38Because he wanted in his obituary to be head coach of an NFL team.
01:41But – so I think he is making the decision.
01:43And then second, like, at some point I have to go, can I blame the cook if the ingredients were
01:48what they are at the beginning, right?
01:51I can when the ingredients are a pile of steaming trash over here and then something that you can actually
01:58make a meal out of, at least in my opinion.
01:59Like, I see so far the difference between Deshaun and what Shador can do and at least what they can
02:05offer up that, yeah, like, I do blame you in that regard.
02:08Now, do I blame you?
02:08It's not – it's not about the outcome.
02:10That's not – let's not get this confused.
02:12It's not about week five or week seven or week nine.
02:15This is more about before you enter week one, if Munkin says Deshaun is the starting quarterback, that's what I've
02:21come to the conclusion of and I believe,
02:23then, yeah, I'll have to say you're living too much in what he was in Houston and not enough of
02:27what he is right now, and you're going to pay for that.
02:28I just think with everybody around the NFL saying it's the worst quarterback situation in the NFL, I can't –
02:35like, there are a lot of things I think.
02:36If this team comes out and doesn't have any fight, I can put that on Todd Munkin, right?
02:40If the team plays well and then has a December collapse, I can put that on Todd Munkin.
02:46If they've given him Deshaun Watson, Shador Sanders, Dylan Gabriel, and Talon Green,
02:53I don't know how much I can really punish the head coach for that quarterback room, right?
03:00Like, with Stefanski, it was a little different because that was year six.
03:02I just don't know that he's punishing him.
03:04I don't know that being like you're out of the honeymoon phase is saying, like, we're punishing you.
03:07Well, maybe then – maybe holding him accountable for that decision, it's like I – there is an element of
03:13this because he's a first-year coach
03:14and because I like what I've seen to this point where I would rather do just about anything than ever
03:19see Deshaun Watson
03:20play a game for the Cleveland Browns again, but if Munkin thinks that's who gives you the best chance to
03:26win,
03:28I got to let it at least play out a little bit there.
03:30I'm just going to have to question his decision-making if that's the conclusion that he comes to.
03:34Unless it's just painfully obvious and I'm just missing something with Deshaun and what we've heard
03:40and what people have told us has gone down at some of these camps.
03:44Because he's talked previously about the idea that he's looked at a lot of the Houston tape
03:48and he's looked at a lot of what he did back six years ago and it's like, look at what
03:52he did in a Browns uniform
03:53and how bad that was.
03:55The worry I have is that he's going to live too much in 2020 Deshaun and not enough of what
03:59we've seen
04:00in a Browns uniform with Deshaun.
04:01And so if that's your process and that's how you get to the conclusion of it, then, yeah,
04:05I do have to wonder how you ultimately get to your answers.
04:08Well, but that's why I think, like, if he names Deshaun the starter,
04:12he better be right about it.
04:14You know what I mean?
04:14Like, so I'm not here to say that that decision won't impact how I think,
04:18but if he thinks Deshaun gives you the best chance to win and then Deshaun looks like a guy
04:23who can't hit the broad side of the barn with his arm, which continues to be my biggest concern
04:28about him physically, then I'll be asking, well, what the hell did you actually see?
04:32Well, and so the hard part about this for Munkin is I think if the expectation is that both quarterbacks,
04:36if they do end up playing, it's going to be a struggle anyway.
04:39It's like the one thing we're supposed to put at Munkin's feet is he's supposed to know
04:43what to do with these quarterbacks, so we're supposed to expect him to do something with
04:46these quarterbacks, while also if we have a season where he doesn't do anything with
04:49these quarterbacks, what's the response going to be?
04:52Well, he didn't have the ingredients as you put it, so is he in a can't-lose situation?
04:56Is that what we're describing?
04:57For this year, yeah.
04:58When no one has any expectations for you, and when everybody thinks that's the worst quarterback
05:04room in the NFL, I don't want to say we...
05:07To me, it's not a can't-lose.
05:08Well, I don't want to say maybe can't-lose, but certainly I don't think the stakes should
05:11be as high for him, given the perception of things are and what people's expectations
05:16for this team are.
05:17I think how you decide this order is a massive decision, and I will judge him off of that.
05:21Now, if he chooses Shador, and Shador gets a first crack at it, and then seven, eight weeks
05:26down the line, Shador just stinks up the joint and can't play at all?
05:29Well, then I'll have to walk back some of those comments about like, oh, I'd be happy
05:33with that decision, so it wouldn't necessarily be anything.
05:35I guess I've got to reverse this.
05:36If he chooses Deshaun first, and Deshaun seven or eight weeks in is awesome, then I'll have
05:40to walk back those comments and say, I was wrong about that.
05:43Your analysis and what you thought Deshaun Watson could be, it was much different than mine,
05:47and that's why you get paid the big bucks.
05:48So what if Deshaun and Shador play this year for whatever, however that happens, and both
05:54stink?
05:55I'm not going to look at that and go, man, Todd Munkin failed this year.
05:58I'm going to look and say, hey, you could have seen this one coming from a mile away,
06:01no?
06:02Well, I think that's going to be the resounding thought, yeah.
06:04But if we're living in the, by the time he makes that announcement, is the honeymoon phase
06:08over?
06:09And at that point, will people be mad because he went Deshaun first?
06:13I will be, what happened here?
06:15How did you get to that?
06:16I just really struggle with, and listen, it is impossible to keep the honeymoon period,
06:22the new coach glow, whatever you want to call it.
06:23It's impossible to keep that across 18 weeks if you're losing.
06:28But there is an element of this because it is Todd Munkin's one crack at this thing, and
06:34I, you know, if he fails here, it'll be the only chance he really ever gets.
06:38I do want to try to be more fair to him, and I think some of that is because I
06:43detect a sense
06:44of honesty from him.
06:45Like, again, like, I feel, I don't want to just, if they go 3-14 this year, I don't
06:52want to just crap on this guy because they went 3-14.
06:54I know the devil's in the details, but it's like, at some point, if I'm just wrong and
06:59this team isn't a 7- or 8-win team, well, then I was wrong.
07:02It doesn't mean everybody else who thinks they're a 3-win team was wrong.
07:06I just got to be as honest as I can about it, where I, it never crossed my mind that
07:11I
07:11would be mad at Munkin for choosing Deshaun Watson over Shador Sanders, because if that's
07:15how it ends up going down, I just won't live with the idea that I don't think Munkin made
07:18that call.
07:18And we can disagree on that, obviously.
07:20I just, I think it would have came from either ownership or GM or somebody trying to make
07:25it seem as if that Deshaun Watson contract wasn't the worst in professional sports ever
07:29given out, and they're trying to make the one last crack at it.
07:32And for that, I mean, if anything, Munkin should be happy that people like myself will say,
07:36all right, this doesn't fall on you.
07:37This falls on people that are higher than you.
07:39I mean, I just hope it doesn't fall back on him in the locker room.
07:42And I think that's, you know, I, there is a part of this where like, in the end, the
07:47locker room speaks the truth.
07:48And I think a good coach can wade through a 3-in-14 season.
07:53And I think even a first-time head coach can wade through that.
07:57But I just, you know, like, I think, I think for certain fans, the second he announces Deshaun,
08:02there are going to be people say, all right, bleep you, go out there and win some games.
08:07I'm going to try to avoid that.
08:09But I also wonder the kind of the locker room implications.
08:12I just wonder what kind of strays he'll take is it does feel like it'd be a lot of just
08:15bleep the Browns and a general bleep the Browns instead of, Hey, hey, Todd Munkin, you're
08:19the one specifically, because we've just seen a lot of coaches, at least Stefanski not have
08:23too much power.
08:24And so I just don't, I don't know that I live under that assumption.
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