00:00The Browns are having a quarterback competition.
00:03A lot of people are starting to use quote-unquote around it.
00:05You told me Louis Riddick was tweeting about quarterback competitions
00:09and whether or not they're real, and most aren't.
00:11Most are not.
00:12I do think that this one is probably as open as you're going to find in the NFL.
00:16Mike Florio, though, he was on a pro football talk yesterday,
00:21and he had this to say, and I know a lot of people don't like Mike Florio,
00:24and even I've gone around a couple of times with Mike Florio,
00:27but here's Mike Florio on what would surprise him when it comes to Shador,
00:33and he really thinks that this is true.
00:35He thinks that Shador should win the starting job, if I'm not mistaken,
00:39what I was told.
00:39This is my first foray into Mike Florio, so here it is.
00:43It would surprise me if they did that, but the fact that Dylan Gabriel,
00:47who was a third-round pick, two rounds higher than Shador Sanders in 2025,
00:50seems to be doing well enough to get extra reps,
00:54to get positive comments from head coach Todd Munkin,
00:56could they decide Deshaun Watson and Dylan Gabriel and move on from Shador
01:00just because maybe it would be a distraction, he'd want a fresh start,
01:03he wants to play.
01:04You have Deion Sanders, who's got the bully pulpit in Boulder, Colorado,
01:07who could chime in on the situation.
01:09I'd still be surprised if Shador doesn't win the job.
01:11We saw enough from him last year to create the impression that he deserves a chance
01:15to see what his ceiling is.
01:17We kind of know what Deshaun Watson's ceiling is,
01:19and he's been fighting for six years to get back to that ceiling.
01:22And the problem is he hasn't played up to that level that we saw in 2020
01:26when he played well enough that even after sitting out for a year,
01:29there were four different teams that were scrambling to try to trade for him with the Texans.
01:33I don't know that they would move on from him,
01:35and then you'd have to find somebody who would want him,
01:37and it's not like he's going to walk in the door and be a starter.
01:39So you're going to be a backup somewhere.
01:40You may as well just be a backup with the team that you know,
01:43especially because Deshaun Watson's got an injury history.
01:45Whoever the number two quarterback is in Cleveland,
01:47if Watson's the starter, QB2 is probably going to play at some point this year.
01:51Florio is saying the same thing that we said a couple of months ago
01:54when we were arguing about this.
01:55Probably going to play while the leaves are starting to fall.
01:58Okay, but this is the point.
02:00The people who love Shidor and hate Shidor want the same thing if he's not the starter.
02:04They want him traded.
02:05And I'm going, what's the market?
02:07And if he's going to be a backup somewhere, hello,
02:09you might as well make him a backup here because if we ain't going anywhere,
02:12I mean, we all know what this season is.
02:13So if we ain't going anywhere, then what the hell's the point?
02:16He has more chance to play way more games here than anywhere else.
02:19Exactly.
02:20I mean, seriously.
02:21So the people who hate him and the people who love him,
02:23I know they want the same thing, but it doesn't behoove me to move him on
02:26where I don't think that there's a market for him.
02:29So it would turn into just cutting him.
02:31And where else is he going to go that he gets a better opportunity than here?
02:35Even if the honeymoon is over with Munkin because the fans feel,
02:39his fans predominantly feel like they were lied to this week,
02:43when it comes to Todd Munkin, even with all that,
02:46you have to recognize he's got a great opportunity to play games here.
02:51Guys, again, fifth-round picks.
02:53Go look at the history of fifth-round picks
02:55and how many games they get in the first two years of the NFL.
02:58He's already way above it.
02:59Not as many as Shador gets.
03:00He's already way above it and has a chance to play many more.
03:03You are right about that.
03:04On your actual honeymoon, when do things start getting real?
03:08Royal Caribbean cruise.
03:10Is it total bliss the entire time,
03:13or is there a moment during the honeymoon where you're like,
03:17oh, yeah, we are going to have to live together and all this?
03:20Because back in the day, people didn't really live together
03:22before they got married.
03:27Okay.
03:28Well, Liz and I, we only moved in together in May,
03:31and we got married in August.
03:33So you were comfortable using the turlet in the suite?
03:36No, I wasn't.
03:37Oh, no, no, no, no.
03:38I got to get broken and built back up again.
03:42Because I, honestly, I always thought I was a pretty fastidious man.
03:46I didn't realize that there were certain rules here.
03:50But I don't, how do I put this?
03:56Okay.
03:57Any man who has what they consider a successful marriage,
04:00any of you guys getting married, let me tell you this.
04:03It's 6.40 in the morning.
04:04The kids aren't going to school just yet, not until next week.
04:07Oh, okay.
04:11If you are 10 years past in your marriage,
04:15if you're still doing some of the things you did on your honeymoon,
04:19awesome.
04:20Don't just expect that, though.
04:23Things change.
04:24Life changes.
04:25Bodies changes.
04:27There are things that happen on your honeymoon that you don't think people are just going
04:31to burst in the room for, where they do burst in the room for, and then you have to explain
04:35yourself later on.
04:37Don't expect those things.
04:38And that's as real as I can be.
04:40We've had lots of fun in our early moments with Todd Munkin.
04:44The honeymoon has been great.
04:45The things that you do on the balcony together have been wonderful.
04:48And now things got to get real.
04:52It's not a bad thing.
04:53Guys, it's just life.
04:55A marriage is not, a 30-year marriage or a 50-year marriage is not a honeymoon every day.
05:00You got to work at it.
05:02And it's the same thing with Todd Munkin.
05:04Bring it around.
05:04Here we go.
05:05Let me have some perspective here.
05:07The honeymoon is over.
05:09And that's fine.
05:10Because I had to look at this and go, one of the things that bothered me was that, oh,
05:14man, he's not working this right.
05:17He's not handling this wonderfully.
05:20He's not handling this well.
05:24Guys, how many of these things actually work out?
05:27How many of these are just the best laid plans and the quarterbacks just aren't good?
05:31And I'm not just talking about this year's Browns team.
05:33I'm talking about Browns teams in the past.
05:35And look around the league.
05:37Like, yeah, I'm going to watch the Vikings like a hawk.
05:40I think Kevin O'Connell's a very good football coach and a very good quarterback coach, right?
05:46But they've made their bed.
05:47And they're going to lay in it.
05:48And Kyler Murray was one of the guys that we argued about during this week.
05:51He was never coming here.
05:52Not a chance.
05:53But he was one of the guys that we argued about, right?
05:56Fine.
05:56Because I could say, it's like, well, make an offer.
05:59He wasn't coming here.
06:00And if he does well, fine.
06:01But if Kyler Murray sucks and J.J. McCarthy ends up playing and he sucks too, is anybody surprised?
06:08Like, we did.
06:09Like, Romeo Cornell.
06:10I should have thought about this yesterday too.
06:12Romeo Cornell, when he quote-unquote flipped the coin.
06:15Maybe just the quarterback.
06:17You had a nice run there.
06:18And you got lucky with Derek Anderson.
06:20And then the league had an off-season of tape on him and learned how to deal with him.
06:25And he's more of a one-trick pony than he is a great quarterback.
06:29Not that he couldn't have a career.
06:33I mean, he draws a pension in the NFL.
06:35But I mean, as a franchise quarterback.
06:37Maybe they're just not that good.
06:39Because usually quarterback competitions, it just means that you're going into your next quarterback.
06:43Very rarely.
06:44Like, I can name it off the top.
06:45Like, okay, Joe Montana and Steve Young.
06:48That's about where it ends.
06:50Is it not?
06:52Because everything else in the modern era.
06:54Because that's a long time ago.
06:55Joe Montana and Steve Young.
06:56Everything else in the modern era.
06:58It's like, yeah, one guy ended up being good and maybe the coach just wasn't ready.
07:02Okay, fine.
07:03But we did that with a rookie already.
07:05Or they're just bad.
07:06And we're just biding our time until you go and get another quarterback.
07:10Because I'd much rather be in the situation where we have our quarterback set up.
07:13And we had him set up back in April or back in January because he's coming off the season.
07:18Then what we're dealing with now.
07:22So, yes, I can blame Todd Munkin because he's the head coach.
07:26His name's on the door.
07:27He deals with it.
07:28But damn, man.
07:30Like, sometimes you can do whatever you want.
07:32You can rearrange your chairs as much as you can.
07:35And you can beg and plead.
07:36And sometimes it just ain't good enough.
07:37And we got to deal with that.
07:39You're right, Joe.
07:40What do you think is more likely to happen?
07:41Is it Todd Munkin doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground?
07:44Or these quarterbacks just aren't that great?
07:46Well, the only thing I will say, and I agree with everything you just said, is there is always the
07:50hope that if a player is considered developmental,
07:55and we cannot lose sight of the fact, despite what even maybe Mel Kiper might have said about Shador,
08:00he was always a developmental quarterback.
08:03And that's nothing personal.
08:05There are always guys at different stages of development, depending on where they were, what kind of systems they were
08:12in.
08:12And let's be honest, I mean, even the biggest Shador disciples, like, they can look back at the situation he
08:20was in in Colorado,
08:22and what they had to do to try to, against better competition, try to find points.
08:28Like, some of the gimmicky stuff that was working early on in that first season just weren't going to work
08:34on.
08:34Defensive coordinators were kind of up on a lot of that stuff.
08:37And there was tumult there with offensive coordinators, and, you know, what, Lewis was out, and then Pat Shermer was
08:44in,
08:44and then what kind of offense were they going to run, and the offensive line was decimated.
08:49And so that wasn't even Shador's fault.
08:51But that's why, and they didn't like it when Albert Breer said this, but the plan was really not for
08:56Shador to play.
08:58It was just hard to ever have that plan in the NFL in the year 2025, last year, and even
09:03going forward.
09:04So maybe, the only pushback I would give you, Ken, is maybe Shador is not ready right now,
09:11and even maybe last year's seven games almost helped develop some bad patterns, right?
09:19Maybe some bad habits, and maybe Todd Munkin has to break those habits.
09:24And let's find, let's put it on Stefanski, let's put it on the coaching staff last year.
09:28And I'm saying, for best case scenario, maybe let's let him watch the first month of the season.
09:34I understand.
09:34We all know what's going to happen with Deshaun Watson, and then Shador walks in, the offensive line gels,
09:40and now those rookie targets are starting to get more comfortable.
09:44I'm with you.
09:45We've been saying this together.
09:46Is that a bad situation?
09:48But I just see it, and it's like, well, like, the explanation on Saturday, it was a wild thing, okay?
09:55I think he's trying to make it as equitable as he possibly can.
09:59But just be honest here.
10:01Would it surprise anybody if neither, excuse me, the whole quarterback room wasn't very good at the end of the
10:07year?
10:07Is that not the most likely outcome?
10:09So I might be busting Todd Munkin's balls up and down all day long.
10:13But, I mean, and he's the head coach.
10:15He gets the paycheck.
10:16I guess he takes that type of heat.
10:18But how many of these quarterbacks have we had competitions in the past, and head coaches have paid the fiddler
10:23for that,
10:24and we're going, yeah, looking back on it, none of them were good.
10:26None of them were really great.
10:28Like, some of them were able to draw a paycheck, but none of them were franchise, quote-unquote, quarterbacks.
10:32I don't know, all of them?
10:33Every single one?
10:36Of a competition?
10:38Because, remember, Baker, yeah, Baker's arguably a franchise quarterback.
10:40I don't know if you asked Jason Light that down in Tampa, but either way, a lot of people think
10:45that Baker Mayfield's a franchise quarterback.
10:46That was no competition.
10:48No offense to Terod Taylor.
10:49He was just holding the fort down until Hugh Jackson felt that Baker was ready to play.
10:53But that wasn't a competition.
10:56So of all the competitions that we've had, how many of it turned out were, oh, yeah, that quarterback's great.
11:02Not really many at all in the modern era for the Browns.
11:06And then you look around the league.
11:08Nah.
11:08There's a lot of guys who take heat for it, and it's like, well, these guys, they weren't really good
11:12anyway.
11:142-1-6-4-7-4-0-0-92.
11:16So, yeah, when I say, hey, the honeymoon's over for Todd Munkin, it's not where he all of a sudden
11:22doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to football.
11:25It's not where all of a sudden, we'll find that out coming up in September.
11:28I'll criticize the games, and then that's where it goes.
11:32But you could look around the room.
11:33If nobody else thinks that it's such a great quarterback room, he's not a magician.
11:38He can only get them to point A to point B.
11:40And if they can't get to point B, he's got to figure out a new way to get them to
11:43a point B that we can all live with, that he can live with, and try to figure out a
11:47way to win football games.
11:48That's his test.
11:50It's not trying to find some magic potion of something that ain't there.
11:53They're only capable of doing what they're capable of doing.
11:55And going back to what Florio said, it's like, yeah, you've got one guy who has been in a whirlwind
11:59for the last two years when people thought he was going to be a top-10 pick to now being
12:03a fifth-rounder.
12:04And you've got one guy who's searching for something that clearly just ain't there anymore six years later.
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