00:00Have we figured out who the starting quarterback is for the Cleveland Browns?
00:03I think I have.
00:04Who's it going to be, Daryl?
00:06I think it's going to be Deshaun.
00:08Oh, now why do you say that?
00:11Well, because there was really no reason for Todd Munkin to make that change on Saturday.
00:15The personnel groupings, I mean, he's run with the starters before,
00:20so why did all of a sudden he need to see Deshaun back with the starters again?
00:25Why did he make that change? Why do you think he made that change?
00:29Well, also, too, aside from the length of practice, that was obviously a little different on Saturday.
00:36It was the longest practice of camp to date.
00:40Todd Munkin said that he wanted to up the competitive stamina for the guys.
00:46Obviously, they're allowed to be out there for up to two and a half hours.
00:50I think they were on the field for about 220 plus.
00:53But it was also the first practice where the defense was wearing the pullover net jerseys to simulate opponents.
01:09So I think that might be, if that's where they're leaning, that might be the motivation behind it today, tomorrow,
01:20and then on Wednesday.
01:23It's Bears week, so now we're going to get a game preview week, if you will.
01:30So, you know, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
01:33So on the schedule, even though it's Monday, they're probably going to treat it like a Wednesday.
01:38Tomorrow will be a Thursday.
01:40And then Wednesday will be the Friday practice.
01:43And then, obviously, they'll play the Bears on Saturday.
01:46But I do think it's going to be Deshaun.
01:49It certainly seems to be leaning that way.
01:50And just really paying attention to the things that Todd Munkin and quarterbacks coach Mike Bajakin talk about when they're
02:01asked about,
02:03hey, how has Deshaun got better?
02:05What are you seeing from Shadur?
02:07Where are his areas of improvement and things like that?
02:11You can kind of read between the lines why they would favor Deshaun over Shadur.
02:17All right, Daryl, the Shadur fans are accusing Todd Munkin of lying.
02:22Did he flat-out lie?
02:24Well, it's the first time that he said something to us that did not align with what we ultimately ended
02:31up saying.
02:33Because he's been so open and honest about things, I'm going to give him a little latitude.
02:38We'll see what he says today.
02:40I'm certainly curious to hear the explanation today, hear what the plans for practice today.
02:46Look, if he goes back to Shadur and then we get to practice and Shadur is actually out with the
02:51ones,
02:51then I think the quarterback competition is still on.
02:54But if it's Deshaun again today going into Bears week, then I'd kind of just go by what Todd has
03:01said in the past.
03:02Just, you know, he's not into grand announcements and that you can, you know,
03:08if you see a guy with the ones and you see him with the ones regularly, he's a one.
03:12And so, you know, I just, I kind of feel like the trend is blowing in Deshaun's direction.
03:21And, you know, you want to talk about pre-snap operation, post-snap, not perception, but processing, if you will.
03:32Those are all things that both Munkin and Bajekin have talked about recently.
03:39Also, too, I think it was Munkin that mentioned this on Saturday when he spoke about how Shadur seems to
03:48have learned that throwing the ball away is a winning play.
03:52And you live to fight another down when it just isn't there, which is, in Munkin's words, has been very
03:59hard for Shadur because he's such a playmaker that he always wants to make a play.
04:04And sometimes the play you need to make is just throwing it away.
04:07And I found those comments to be a little telling and a little interesting, too.
04:12It just, it feels like, and this is my opinion, I just, I feel like that Munkin being his first
04:21head coaching job at the age of 60, he might be a little more comfortable giving Deshaun Watson the job
04:27first off because he's the veteran.
04:29And, yes, Shadur Sanders has shown progress since Munkin has gotten here.
04:34I think he's night and day a different quarterback than when he first, we first saw him on a practice
04:40field over a year ago.
04:42But still needs some more time to develop a little bit.
04:47And maybe this will be Munkin's way of kind of buying Shadur some extra time.
04:51You start with Deshaun, and then if it doesn't go well with Deshaun, you can pivot to Shadur midseason or
04:57wherever that ends up being.
04:58Well, the next question I was going to ask is realistically, what do they do with him?
05:02And it just said that, I mean, you just basically gave that answer because according to what I'm being told
05:06over there to my right is that if he doesn't get this job, there's several fans.
05:11And I don't think they're real Browns fans.
05:13I think they're fans of the quarterback that want Shadur cut or traded and out of Cleveland if they feel
05:21that they've been lied to by the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
05:26Okay.
05:27Well, I'm sure Andrew Barry's phone will just be blowing up with teams willing to give the Browns first, second,
05:33and third round picks for Shadur.
05:35So, good luck with that.
05:35Well, that's a pretty strong thing to say there, Darrell.
05:38No, but it's also accurate.
05:39No, it is accurate.
05:40That's true.
05:41It's accurate.
05:42And I talked about this yesterday on my show.
05:46I think that Shadur Sanders fans live in a different reality than the rest of the world in some cases,
05:51and they take things to an extreme.
05:54If, you know, I can sit for nine minutes and 30 seconds, okay, and talk to you guys about how
06:02great I think Shadur Sanders has performed in training camp, right?
06:06But if I spend 30 seconds pointing out one or two things that he needs to get better at, that
06:11I'm a hater, I want to see the kid fail, I, you know, I'm against him.
06:15I just want to just, you know, punch, you know what I'm saying?
06:18Which I don't understand because it's like.
06:19I don't either.
06:20Well, that's why I don't, but, and that's why I just, I don't bother with those people because there's no
06:25reasoning with them.
06:26I totally agree, and I told a lot of, like, I just hit mute and move on with the day
06:30because I can only see what I can see, and to be frank, like, this is not, this is not
06:39a campaign.
06:40So I'm not going to get yelled at and to the point of saying things that I don't believe about
06:45Shadur Sanders or even Deshaun Watson for that matter because I don't make the decision and I don't help influence
06:51fans.
06:51I can help influence fans on how they may feel about something.
06:54I understand that there's a microphone in front of me, but there's no voting for the quarterback of the Cleveland
06:59Browns.
07:00Yeah, and it.
07:01So I understand the reality of it, and you do too.
07:03Yeah, I mean, here's my whole thing, and this sounds very harsh to say, but it is the reality we're
07:10in.
07:11Deshaun Watson's not been good in this training camp.
07:14Yes, he's had glimpses.
07:16So is Shadur.
07:17But if Shadur can't beat out Deshaun Watson, can we all just take a step back from the emotions of
07:24our fandom or whatever it is that's going on and just think, okay, well, if Deshaun hasn't been that great,
07:31well, I don't know, maybe Shadur hasn't been great enough if he can't beat out Deshaun.
07:36And I think that there's a segment of that fan base that can't bring themselves to have that conversation.
07:44It's all about you're a hater, you want to see him fail, you're racist, you're whatever.
07:51And that's just not the reality we're living in here.
07:54And that's just kind of how I feel.
07:56Like, Deshaun hasn't been great.
07:57And if Shadur can't beat out Deshaun, because this is a real opportunity, this might be the best opportunity for
08:03Shadur Sanders to win a starting job in the National Football League.
08:06And if he can't beat out Deshaun Watson, well, you know what?
08:09Maybe he just isn't ready to be an everyday starting quarterback.
08:12Or maybe he's not doing something that makes Todd Munkin and the rest of the organization comfortable enough to put
08:21him out there week one against Jacksonville.
08:23Because this is about trying to win football games, at least early in the season.
08:28That's what they're going to be about.
08:30And if Munkin doesn't feel like Shadur Sanders is the guy to help him do that early, he's not going
08:34to put him out on the football field.
08:36And he's also not going to put Shadur in a position to fail.
08:39And that's another thing some of these fans think that, well, you're just trying to make this kid fail.
08:44No.
08:44No.
08:46The Browns are not trying to make Shadur Sanders fail.
08:50Because if that was the case, they'd just throw him to the Wolves.
08:52And I don't think that that's what they're doing.
08:56They do these perfect install periods.
09:00We see this pretty much every day where you basically do the basics of a play.
09:06You get the call in the huddle.
09:07You line everybody up.
09:08You do all your pre-snap motions, your shifts, your formation, realignments, all those things.
09:15Snap the ball.
09:16They blow it dead.
09:17You move on to the next play.
09:18And I've got to tell you, and this is both Deshaun and Shadur,
09:21there have been many instances throughout camp, which, by the way, basic stuff, football 101 stuff there.
09:28There have been many instances and practices where Todd Munkin has blown those plays dead prematurely,
09:33whether Deshaun's the quarterback or Shadur's the quarterback,
09:37because things aren't the way that they're supposed to be.
09:40So keep that in mind as well.
09:42Daryl, has this been a fair quarterback competition?
09:46Yes.
09:48You know, it's not like...
09:51It wasn't rigged.
09:52It wasn't rigged or anything like that.
09:54I don't think so.
09:54Or Munkin didn't come in with a preconceived notion that it had to be Deshaun Watson,
09:58because that's what he's being accused of right now.
09:59Well, up until Saturday, Shadur had...
10:01And this might be...
10:02Like, if they go back to Shadur today...
10:04I don't think they'll be in pads today.
10:06But if they go back to Shadur today, you know, Todd could conceivably say to us that,
10:12hey, he had more padded practices than Deshaun did.
10:15And so that's why I made the change on Saturday,
10:18because I wanted to get Deshaun another padded practice with the ones.
10:22I think that would make more sense than the whole personnel grouping explanation that came out Saturday,
10:29because Deshaun's worked with the ones.
10:31The personnel groupings were not different on Saturday.
10:35That would make sense now.
10:36But yes, I do think it's been a fair quarterback competition.
10:39I think it's been a balanced quarterback competition.
10:42And I think that both quarterbacks have received the same amount of coaching up
10:49than the other one has, too.
10:51I have not seen any favoritism in this thing, Anthony.
10:55Again, I know that's another narrative that's out there.
10:58I just don't see it.
10:59I think Shadur Sanders has gotten just as good of an opportunity as Deshaun.
11:06I think Shadur Sanders shows the most upside between these two guys.
11:10I think Shadur Sanders has made more plays in training camp than Deshaun Watson.
11:14But just like Deshaun, Shadur has also been consistently inconsistent throughout.
11:19Darrell Ryder joining us here on the show.
11:22Your thoughts on Spencer Fano and Jared Verse getting into it?
11:25Love it.
11:26Absolutely love it.
11:27And those two guys have been working together behind the scenes.
11:32Verse has been working with Fano to get him up to speed.
11:35And I honestly think that was the most positive thing that could happen.
11:39Because right after practice, they were hugging, laughing.
11:43They were teammates again.
11:44I think that Jared Verse really intentionally poked the bear, if you will, during that practice.
11:53Yes.
11:53Fano reacted.
11:55And then after that, it got really super competitive between those two.
12:01Every time Fano got over on Verse and stopped him on a pass rush, he celebrated like he just won
12:08the Super Bowl.
12:09And I posted the video on Saturday of the final rep between them because they became so much fun to
12:17watch the competition in practice between them.
12:20Verse jumped off sides.
12:22And Fano had nothing to do with it.
12:24He's just in his stance.
12:25And he celebrated like he had just, you know, pulled off the heist of the century.
12:30So I think that that ultimately was a very good thing.
12:33Really brought out the competitive juices in Fano.
12:37And I think that that was very, very positive.
12:39It's one of those instances where a training camp fight actually ends up being a good thing.
12:43Are we, on our defense, is Miles Harden our nickel or are we kind of looking for somebody else right
12:52now?
12:53Yeah, I think that right now they are working through like that secondary depth for the Browns.
13:00You know, and look, outside of Tyson Campbell and Denzel Ward, there are questions there.
13:07There's no question about it when you look at that secondary.
13:11Now, they've been playing really well.
13:14I mean, obviously, they have 17 interceptions throughout practice here.
13:18But I think, you know, right now I have Miles Harden penciled in as the nickel.
13:25But I kind of feel like your nickel package in some respects could be that three safety look as well
13:32with Delpit, Hickman, and Emmanuel McNeil-Warren when those three guys are out there.
13:40But, yeah, the depth of the secondary, setting aside the whole quarterback thing, which I know dominates camp and understandably
13:50so, the depth of the secondary behind Tyson Campbell and Denzel Ward is something I've been keeping my eyes on.
13:59But I will say this, that I like what I have seen.
14:06Trey Avery was in the other day in place of Tyson Campbell.
14:09There was a practice where, like, Denzel Ward, it felt like he was out there going against the threes.
14:14And now he's gotten a breather in camp and whatnot.
14:19So it really looks like Mike Rutenberg is trying some guys out, trying some combinations, and trying to figure out
14:27what that depth chart looks like behind the top two guys.
14:32But right now, for me, Ken, I do have Harden penciled in as your traditional nickel.
14:39But we'll see if that changes.
14:41Daryl, thank you very much for the good times.
14:42We'll talk to you at the end of the week.
14:44You bet, guys.
14:45Have a good week.
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