00:00Mary Kay Cabot joins us right now on the Wise Heart Right.
00:03We Make It Right call cow, right hotline.
00:05Mary Kay, how the hell are you this morning?
00:08I'm doing great, you guys.
00:10How are you?
00:10I'm doing wonderful.
00:11I mean, I am busting right now.
00:14But I did get some rather unfortunate news from Joe,
00:17who is making his call.
00:20He claims to be cooking for some players.
00:23And he said that this is all just a bunch of rigmarole,
00:26all a bunch of silliness.
00:28It's going to be Deshaun Watson, and we need to accept such matters.
00:32Mary Kay, how open is the quarterback competition as of right now, August 6th?
00:38Well, I think it's still open,
00:40but I really felt like yesterday turned the tide back towards Deshaun a little bit.
00:46And you don't want to overreact to one practice,
00:48but I think he needed to go out there and sort of seize the moment
00:52and show what he's all about and remind people why he had the edge in the beginning.
00:57He just looks the part of an NFL starting quarterback.
01:01He can manage all of the things that you need to do with the line of scrimmage.
01:05He's got mobility.
01:06He's got the arm.
01:07He has the total package right now.
01:10And I really do think that if the season started tomorrow,
01:14I think it would be Deshaun.
01:17Now, again, I could be wrong about that.
01:19I still think it is a competition, and I don't think Todd is going to call it yet.
01:23But I think he's been dropping some breadcrumbs along the way here and there.
01:29He talks about you have to be elite at cadence if you want to be an elite offense.
01:36And which of those two guys is more elite at cadence?
01:39Deshaun showed yesterday in drawing Jared Burst off sides twice on fourth down
01:44that he's elite at cadence.
01:46He used six of them, I'm told, to do that.
01:49So there are certain things that he is ready to do right now
01:53that I think Shador is still learning.
01:57Yeah, I know what I want, but I know what I believe.
02:00And those are two different things.
02:01You should have seen Ken's entire body transform during that answer.
02:06It turned into a slump.
02:08It turned into a look of anxiety, concern.
02:13It's like when Tim Meadows used to do O.J. Simpson during the trial on SNL.
02:18Well, let me expound on this a little bit.
02:21Yesterday when I asked Todd Munkin about is there a world in which DeJuan Jones
02:26could start at left tackle while Spencer Fano comes up the learning curve,
02:31he said, yeah, that could happen for a number of guys.
02:33And maybe that's what could be the case with Shador Sanders.
02:36Maybe they don't want to throw Shador in there with a new offense
02:41and a bunch of new personnel, and everybody's still trying to learn the terminology
02:45and figure out what they're doing, five new offensive linemen,
02:48two new rookie receivers, all new scheme,
02:51and have him try to pull that all together in the early going
02:55while he's still learning some of the things.
02:57Maybe there would be some wisdom in having a veteran quarterback start the season,
03:03and then when Shador and some of the other young guys are really ready to roll,
03:08then you put them in there if necessary, right?
03:12I mean, DeJuan in that scenario would try to hold off Shador Sanders for the whole season if he could.
03:17But if not, then Shador goes in there when maybe you're looking at a little bit more of a cohesive
03:22unit
03:23where maybe they've thrown some things out of the playbook that aren't working for this offense.
03:27Maybe they've figured out who does best in this situation or that situation,
03:32and maybe it would be better for everybody to do it like that.
03:36Mary Kay Cabot joining us right now.
03:38Do you think all the discussion of DeSean Watson's rust or just flat out the interceptions,
03:45how bad he had been performing, do you think that was overstated?
03:48Do you think that was something that we read a little bit too much?
03:53Or maybe people that don't like him to begin with, don't want him to start, kind of obsessed about that
03:58a little too much?
04:00Well, Todd Monken kept on saying, this is installation, this is installation.
04:03Yes, I think that was a little bit overblown.
04:06But here's the other thing about it, and I think this is wildly important.
04:09Yesterday, they were not two-spotting, right, where you split all these guys up on two different fields.
04:14Yesterday, they were all together.
04:15And DeSean Watson really hasn't had very many reps where it looks like he's out there with KC and Denzel
04:22and Jerry Judy and Isaiah Bond and Harold Fannin.
04:25When you put all those guys out there on one field with a veteran quarterback, you can start to see
04:31the vision.
04:31You can start to see where, hey, if this offensive line can protect them, there are some weapons out there.
04:37And DeSean is going to be able to get the ball to these guys, and you can see what this
04:43could possibly be.
04:44And that's what happened yesterday.
04:46I think in the early going, when he was with the first team, he did not have KC and Denzel.
04:51And those two guys have been two of the hottest receivers in camp.
04:55It didn't always look good.
04:56And so I think in some respects, you have to give something up when you have a quarterback competition.
05:01You just do.
05:02You're not getting your first-team offense working together from the jump.
05:07You're splitting things up.
05:08There's lack of continuity.
05:10You're first team one day, second team the next day.
05:13And it's difficult on everybody.
05:14And I think if they really kind of know right now who the starter is, they've got to start rolling.
05:20The season is just about a month away.
05:22All right, Mary Kay, when Todd Bunkin answered the question about Dylan Gabriel potentially earning more reps,
05:29there's only so many reps they can have.
05:31There's only so much time they can practice.
05:33So where would those reps come from?
05:35Is that a dangerous thing in muddying already a complicated quarterback controversy?
05:42No, it's not, because you have to get some things figured out.
05:45You have to be ready to roll once again in about a month.
05:48And you have to know how this is going to shake out.
05:50And right now, if the season started tomorrow, I believe that Dylan Gabriel would be on the roster in some
05:55capacity.
05:56But you also have to try to figure out who would be most ready to step in and function in
06:00a football game.
06:01And he might be trying to decide if Dylan Gabriel should be the backup.
06:05I mean, we don't know for sure yet, but maybe that's something that could be on the table.
06:09And once again, when I talk about clues that Todd is throwing out there, when he talked the other day
06:17about operational skills,
06:19he put Deshaun up at the top, and then he kind of put Dylan next, saying that he's run so
06:25many different kinds of schemes and offenses
06:27that he's doing a great job in that regard.
06:30And when I say this, I don't want to be misinterpreted, so I'm going to clarify it right now.
06:36You're going to be misinterpreted anyway, so it doesn't matter.
06:38I know. I know. You're right. It doesn't matter anymore.
06:41Shador Sanders has come up the learning curve phenomenally. Phenomenally.
06:46And that's the part that people are going to miss here.
06:49Back in April, it did not look like he could possibly be ready to start a football game in the
06:55NFL
06:56in this scheme in Todd's offense by September at that first minicamp.
07:01It didn't look like it. He just wasn't ready at the line of scrimmage.
07:04Well, he changed all that, and that's why he is firmly in this competition right now,
07:08because he worked so hard at it, and he got so much better at it.
07:12But there's no shame in maybe still needing a few more weeks
07:16or maybe letting somebody else run the show for a little bit of time while you are coming up the
07:23learning curve.
07:23Same thing with Spencer Fano. There's no shame in DeJuan Jones, if it happens like this,
07:29to start a couple of games and let him still get his seed legs.
07:33So I don't know how the quarterback thing is going to turn out.
07:36With everything that I'm saying right now, they could turn around
07:39and make Shador Sanders the starter for Week 1,
07:41and we could find out by Monday that he's going to be the starter for Week 1.
07:45Not that we would find out by Monday,
07:46but they're going to start getting that 11 working together pretty darn soon.
07:51You know, we're going to – oh, sorry, Mary Kay, I apologize.
07:53No, I was just going to say, it could be Shador.
07:56It could be Shador, but the way that I'm seeing it,
07:59it just looks like it's heading in a different direction.
08:02You just got me so excited to mention DeJuan Jones and Spencer Fano.
08:05Is there a possibility at all?
08:07I mean, there's so many moving parts in the offensive line,
08:09it's completely brand new, basically.
08:12Could we see a scenario – like, I know they're splitting reps,
08:15but they need their five best out there,
08:16and there have been many when Spencer Fano was drafted who were like,
08:19yeah, he should be the left tackle to start this year
08:22and possibly for 2026 and even 2027,
08:25but they could see him over on the right side,
08:29still being just a good athlete, a good offensive lineman.
08:32Could we see a scenario early in the year, maybe even Week 1,
08:36where, like, DeJuan Jones is over at left tackle
08:39and Spencer Fano is over at right or somewhere else?
08:42Just ask him.
08:43Well, I'm sure that anything can be on the table,
08:46but I think right now Spencer Fano is their left tackle of the future.
08:49It's just really a matter of is he ready to step into that role right away Week 1.
08:55And maybe he is.
08:56Maybe he will be able to do that.
08:58But in the event that they think he needs a little bit more seasoning,
09:02then you have some options.
09:04So I think that's the key here.
09:06Now, I have been saying for a while that there is a world
09:09in which you can move DeJuan Jones over to right tackle,
09:12his more comfortable position,
09:14and then you would slide Titus Howard inside.
09:17And Todd Munkin sort of confirmed that yesterday,
09:20that that is also something that's on the table.
09:23But they're going to get their best five out there,
09:25and they have options.
09:26They've got a lot of versatile guys.
09:28And here's another thing to remember.
09:30The starting five for Week 1 might not be the starting five for Week 3 or Week 4.
09:35They have to get these guys out on the grass
09:37and see how it all comes together.
09:40All right, Mary Kay, we've seen the – getting back to the quarterbacks –
09:45we've seen the talk about first preseason game, second preseason game,
09:48and then there was a little pushback from Munkin.
09:51How do you see this realistically playing out?
09:54Because like you said, they've got to kind of get to it pretty soon.
09:58They really do.
09:59And even though he tried to push back on that yesterday
10:02or dial it back a little bit,
10:03I don't think he really dialed it back very much at all.
10:05I think he still sort of said the same thing.
10:07That somebody's going to start –
10:09we didn't know if somebody was going to start in Chicago,
10:12but now I think it's pretty evident that one of them will start in Chicago,
10:16one of them will start at home,
10:18and then the presumptive starter will start the third game
10:20against the Patriots on August 27th.
10:23So I think we'll probably have a better idea of that very soon.
10:27And it probably will go Deshaun first and then Shador at home
10:34and then maybe back to Deshaun if it's going the way I actually think it might go.
10:39Again, I don't know for sure yet.
10:40It could be completely the opposite,
10:42but I'm just trying to read the tea leaves here,
10:45and I sort of feel like that's what we're getting.
10:48Mary Kay Cabot joining us on the show.
10:50Okay, I got a work in theory that I thought I was going to get drilled for earlier today,
10:54and actually the responses weren't too terribly bad at all.
10:57A lot of people agreed.
10:58How many games do you think this team's going to win this year?
11:01Right now?
11:01Top of your head.
11:02Boom.
11:02Go.
11:04Right now, I would say seven.
11:06But it's really hard for me to predict that
11:09when I don't know who the quarterback is going to be.
11:12That's fine.
11:13I mean, I can only ask you now, and maybe it'll change.
11:15If they still had Miles Garrett,
11:16how many games do you think that they would win right now this year?
11:21Probably the same.
11:22Okay.
11:23Now we're working with something.
11:25He's leading the witness here, Mary Kay.
11:26Hey, shut up.
11:27This isn't a court of law.
11:29You took your LSAT, and you still ended up a failure.
11:31Mary Kay, let me – sorry.
11:34Let me ask you this.
11:39Is it possible that Jared Verse and his leadership qualities –
11:44he's not going to have as many sacks as Miles Garrett.
11:45I understand that.
11:47Jared Verse and his leadership qualities,
11:48are they more important to this year's Browns
11:51than what Miles Garrett's sacks would have been?
11:54Oh, I love that question.
11:56That's a really good question.
11:57And I'm going to answer a resounding yes,
12:00because what I see out there from Jared Verse
12:03is exactly what Todd Munkin needs on his football team.
12:07And he loves Jared Verse.
12:09Todd Munkin is a football gym rat, and that's what Jared Verse is.
12:13He loves guys that love ball,
12:16that would be out there if they weren't even getting paid for it.
12:19And that's the kind of guy that Jared Verse is.
12:21He's a unifier, a force multiplier.
12:23He brings guys together.
12:25And, yes, I think his brand of leadership is what this team needs right now.
12:30Now, having said that,
12:31I still think they need another veteran presence at Edge Rusher.
12:35I actually think Clowney would have been good for him.
12:38But what Jared brings, I think, is exactly what this football team needs.
12:43Denzel Boston.
12:46He's amazing.
12:47He's really, really good.
12:48But I love the fact that Todd Munkin loves to pump the brakes on things
12:54when people are going a little bit over their skis.
12:57And in comparing him, like, to Mike Evans
13:00and putting him in the Hall of Fame right now, it's not time for that.
13:03He's a great young receiver, and he's going to be really, really good.
13:07He's going to be very, very productive.
13:09But, as Todd tried to point out the other day, you know,
13:12let's let these guys go out there and play some football
13:15before we're comparing them to first-ballot Hall of Famers.
13:20But, yes, if you have a fantasy football team,
13:24you might want to go ahead and choose Denzel Boston.
13:28Mary Kay Cavett, we absolutely love it.
13:32Hey, real quick, what's your definition of a dime for a quarterback?
13:35Ooh, I love it.
13:36Good question.
13:36You're not a failure, I apologize.
13:38The bar is pretty high.
13:40It's a little overused right now.
13:41I don't want to see dimes in 7-on-7s.
13:45I mean, no, we're not doing dimes in 7-on-7s.
13:47Let's save that.
13:48Let's just tamp that down a little bit.
13:51Mary Kay, this is why I love you so much.
13:55I concur.
13:55Thank you so much.
13:56See, that was great.
13:57You're the best.
13:59We just love you so much, and you take care now.
14:02All right.
14:03Thanks, guys.
14:04Thanks for having us.
14:05Mary Kay Cavett.
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