00:00Decision Day 2026.
00:04Do we already have our decision?
00:06Ian Rappaport thinks so.
00:07There are plenty of folks out there reporting today.
00:09It's almost like when it hit 10 o'clock.
00:12It just happened.
00:12It's weird how everybody seems to got that at 10 o'clock at the same time.
00:17Almost like it was embargoed, like it was news that was allowed to be told at 10 o'clock today.
00:23I'm Andy Baskin.
00:24He's Jeff Phelps.
00:25Dan Mennegan's here.
00:26Matt Corrales here.
00:27It is Decision Day 2026 as we finally get news on who the starting quarterback will be for the regular
00:33season.
00:34It will be Deshaun Watson.
00:35At least that's what everyone was reporting.
00:37We will get the official word.
00:39Which just happened.
00:40Yeah.
00:40All just happened.
00:41Well, we'll get the official word, I would think, from the team at noon when Todd Munkin has his press
00:45conference.
00:46There has not been a press release from the team, though, correct?
00:48I'm not missing anything.
00:50Okay.
00:50We have scoured the wires, if they still existed, and there's nothing official from the team yet.
00:57But all reports are that Deshaun Watson is your starting quarterback.
01:03Jeff, I know that when we started our day today, we had different thoughts on who the starting quarterback would
01:08be.
01:09So give me your reflections now as we walked up to this moment where it sounds like Deshaun Watson will
01:16be named the starter today at noon.
01:18I don't think he – I don't think Todd Munkin had good choices.
01:23I don't know what it's – okay, which guy who probably isn't – well, let's see.
01:32What's the best way to describe it?
01:33I don't think he had good choices.
01:34How about that?
01:35And I understand the idea of playing Deshaun.
01:39The one thing I think people – I mean, the comments after the game, just that puts everything in a
01:44different light.
01:46However, the one thing I think everybody needs to remember, Deshaun played pretty well in the first half of the
01:53game against the Bears.
01:54And Deshaun didn't play very well.
01:57And then in the game just on Saturday, I thought Deshaun played pretty well in the first half against Buffalo.
02:06And Deshaun didn't play well in the third quarter.
02:09So they flipped the playing times.
02:11And you could say they flipped the performance as well.
02:14Because let's – if you're honest with yourself, Deshaun played pretty well in that first half against the Bears.
02:20Okay, so how much of that is about the other ten guys on the field?
02:25Deshaun only played two series with the starters.
02:28Again, I ask, how much of it is about the other ten?
02:32Does it matter?
02:33Yeah, it does.
02:34Because the way you lay it out, you could say, okay, well, why did one guy look good here and
02:38struggle there?
02:38And then you flip it around.
02:40Deshaun, I think, looked better after they took the starters out.
02:43That's when he had the scoring drive.
02:45Okay.
02:45He had the scoring drive with backups.
02:47Okay.
02:47So that's what I'm saying, though, is for you –
02:50I'm not even worried about who he was on the field with.
02:53And maybe I should be.
02:54Apparently, Munkin's not.
02:56No, he's not.
02:57So let me – I think over the last – and just kind of to rehash a little bit of
03:02what happened over the weekend
03:03and how we got to this point, it seemed to me, especially – and this might be the unknown part
03:09of the press conference
03:10because everyone wants to talk about what Deshaun said and – the part of it that I thought that was
03:16most meaningful
03:17knowing going into today where it sounds like we will find out officially at noon
03:21that Deshaun Watson will be the starting quarterback week one was that Todd made it sound like he was really,
03:29really proud of Shadur and the growth that he's had since he got here.
03:33But it was almost like a father telling his son, hey, we're going to watch from the sidelines
03:38and watch somebody else do this while we still prepare you to be ready to play at any point.
03:44That was the vibe I got from being in the room with Todd was just like, okay, I see it.
03:49I see what he's trying to do here.
03:50I think he's trying to tell us that he's super proud.
03:54Because I'll be honest, on Saturday when I watched Shadur hang in the pocket longer
03:59and make good decisions in the pocket, I was like, he has come a long way.
04:03And then I said to myself, what about the other ten guys?
04:05What about the guys on the other side of the field?
04:07But even if – to me, that doesn't even matter.
04:09To me, that was a growth period for Shadur, something that I thought he would panic
04:14or hang out to the ball too long.
04:17Yeah, I get that sometimes.
04:18But I thought his ability to handle pressure in the pocket on Saturday
04:23was one of those growth factors that everyone keeps asking about.
04:27How are you better at this? How are you better at that?
04:28And so, you know, when Todd said and talked about the achievements that he's had in camp,
04:34I was like, okay, I think he's given him the consolation prize here.
04:38And then, you know, to be honest with you, after the rain delay and everything,
04:42and then Deshaun goes out there and it doesn't look like – it didn't look three and out.
04:49And you're like, this doesn't look good.
04:50Let's just get this game over with.
04:52That was kind of the way I felt at that point.
04:54I didn't really care what Deshaun had done on Saturday.
04:57I wasn't really – I was kind of past it.
05:00I think a lot of people watching the game were past it.
05:02You know, I caught the boos because that became the story.
05:05It was like people counting the number of boos Deshaun was getting.
05:08I was like, well, they went three and out.
05:09You're going to get booed.
05:10Like, who cares?
05:11And then Deshaun took it to a whole new level.
05:15And he's – clearly it hasn't worked here.
05:17And his popularity is nonexistent.
05:20But I also think it was interesting in the press conference.
05:22He said his popularity when it's bad is at the stadium and on social media.
05:28Well, that's easy.
05:29Well, yeah, that's easy.
05:30Turn off social media.
05:31Turn it off.
05:33And for a guy that had said over and over again, I don't care about the boos.
05:37That's not part of my thing.
05:39But that to me I think was the biggest part of the reaction on Saturday.
05:44It was like, okay, you are crushing the fans.
05:46And by the way, anybody that cheers an injury deserves to be crushed.
05:50But, again, at those games, it wasn't the entire stadium.
05:54Yeah, that's the one thing that I –
05:55That's the problem I have.
05:56I don't know if Deshaun realizes that.
05:58And if he doesn't, then shame on him.
06:00And shame on those around him for not saying, hey, look,
06:04it's such a small percentage of people who are doing this.
06:07But, Andy, the franchise mortgaged its future on him.
06:14And through some fault of his own and other non-fault of his own,
06:18he's only played 19 games.
06:22And he's not played terribly well.
06:25So I don't know.
06:27I personally would have started Shadour.
06:30And the reason I say that is because has Deshaun looked better than Shadour?
06:34Eh, maybe.
06:36Has he looked a lot better?
06:38Anybody who thinks that Deshaun really looked a lot better than Shadour,
06:42I think, is imagining things.
06:43And I also think anybody who thinks Shadour looked a lot better than Deshaun
06:47is imagining things.
06:49If you've got two, eh, choices, I'm going with the young guy every time.
06:55The other part that I thought that Deshaun was going to be named the starter
06:59today, and it does seem like all these reports that are out there now
07:02are saying that Deshaun will be the starter,
07:05and Shadour is the backup, that that will happen in that noon press conference
07:09with Todd Munkin.
07:10You know, yesterday when Todd came out and said, you know,
07:13it was just a bad moment for him at the end of the game,
07:15he was frustrated, didn't feel good about the way he played.
07:17I just, I sat there, and at one point I was like, Deshaun, just stop talking.
07:23Like, as a media member who, and a radio host that wants people to talk,
07:27I watched it, and the entire room, press conference room,
07:31was just like cringing, saying, Deshaun, just stop.
07:34Because I had thought he was ahead of the game,
07:37and the fact that Todd came back and said he was not going to play his starters
07:42yesterday on Thursday was more reason to believe that Deshaun was going to be
07:48the starter and will be named the starter coming up at noon, according to reports.
07:53Because you weren't going to subject him to getting booed again on Thursday night.
07:57And I don't know if this is a good way to live, but being on the road,
08:01having a week off, and then being on the road, and the first game of the season
08:04is not until the 27th, right?
08:05We're still more than a month.
08:0713?
08:08Oh, okay.
08:09Season opener and the home opener.
08:12Sorry, the 27th.
08:13Home opener on the 27th.
08:14He wouldn't have to face his own fans until the 27th.
08:17How about this?
08:17And by the way, if you come back 2-0, that boo factor goes way down
08:22if you're up 2-0, and you won both those games in Florida.
08:25How about this?
08:28Two games, road games.
08:31Doesn't go well, Shadour's starting game three.
08:35What if it does go well?
08:37Well, then you keep rolling with Deshaun.
08:39Yeah, and if they come back, we're talking about the Browns,
08:43like a team that could never win on week one.
08:46If the Browns can go out and get a week one win, week two win,
08:50and then they come back, I'm just telling you, the boos that he was hearing,
08:55and this is why it was like, Deshaun, just say you had a bad game,
08:59or things didn't work out the way you wanted them to, and move on.
09:03I mean, I understood.
09:05He's allowed to say anything he wants, and he vented.
09:08And he's going to have to live with the consequences of that.
09:11But clearly he had some things he wanted to say, and he said them.
09:15And I'll bet he feels a lot better about it.
09:17Does he?
09:18Andy, I don't know.
09:20I didn't ask him.
09:21I would think he did, or he wouldn't have said it.
09:23I don't know.
09:24That's one of those moments where you walk out of the room and go,
09:26man, I'm glad I got that off my chest, but I may regret saying what I said.
09:29Andy, he doesn't regret anything in his life.
09:33His words.
09:34His words.
09:36Those were his words.
09:37It just makes for a really interesting conversation.
09:41I talked to Dan right afterwards after I walked out of the room,
09:44and I was like, Dan, I can't believe, or after you guys got off the air,
09:47sorry, and I was like, I've never seen anything like that,
09:52sat in a room like that before, where the press conference was just like,
09:56well, what am I watching here?
09:57Am I watching a guy that just doesn't want to be here anymore,
10:00that's trying to get traded?
10:02Seemed that way.
10:02That's what it felt like.
10:03Yeah.
10:04But I also thought Deshaun had the presence of mind to know that when he said
10:09this happens to me in the stadium and this happens to me on social media,
10:13I was like, okay.
10:15Where people can be anonymous.
10:17That's exactly right.
10:18Yeah, because face-to-face, when you see somebody in the real world,
10:23no one's going to come up and say, they may look at him and go,
10:26there's Deshaun Watson, the quarterback, right?
10:27He was also mistaken when he said it's obviously not performance-based.
10:32Well, yeah, it is.
10:34You know, part of it is.
10:36In four years, you were a 9-10 quarterback and didn't look very good.
10:42So that's part performance, Andy.
10:46Well, the performance part for me, too, is there's got to be a reality to the injuries.
10:51There is a reality to the injuries.
10:53And it's true of every athlete that's ever played any sport,
10:57if you've been injured.
10:58And, you know, the leg injuries in particular is unbelievably difficult to come back from.
11:06And, like, if he couldn't play because of the injuries, it's another story there, too.
11:12I also, like, and we're not even discussing what happened for the suspension part of his career here in Cleveland.
11:18We're just talking about, you know, I don't know.
11:23I touched on that when I said, you know, reasons, not just injury, but other things that he's responsible for.
11:32And then injuries.
11:34He's only played 19 games.
11:35Yeah.
11:37I thought Shadour looked good on Saturday.
11:39I thought there was a point after the press conference.
11:41I thought Deshaun looked good against the Bears in the first half.
11:43And I did, too.
11:44I'm with you on that.
11:45But I think when we walked out, when I walked into the press conference on Saturday,
11:49I was just like, all right, Deshaun's going to be your starting quarterback week one.
11:52And he's probably going to announce that this week, right?
11:54Well, it felt that way.
11:56And then for some reason, I'm sitting here, I'm like, a press conference probably may have just cost him the
12:00job.
12:01Or he was asking to leave.
12:04Anyway, the news will come down officially, we believe, at noon when Todd Munkin has his press release,
12:09unless LeBron's put out a press release.
12:11When Todd Munkin has his presser, you'll be able to listen to it.
12:13It's going to be must-listened to at noon.
12:14I'm telling you, lock it in.
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