00:00we head out to the wise heart right we make it right call kyle wright hotline he is nfl writer
00:05at yahoo sports the venerable eric at home joins us now eric welcome to the show venerable just
00:11means i'm old i think that's uh that's that's where i'm at in my career good to talk to you
00:16guys what's going on this is why i got to look at that the thesaurus before i go ahead and
00:20say it
00:20on air but no it's great to have you here obviously we're in the we're mired in this
00:24deshaun watson story that will just never go away uh nfl on prime last night really wanted to pitch
00:31the deshaun watson comeback story deshaun himself took a flamethrower to browns fans on saturday i
00:37ask you where are you on the deshaun watson comeback story well look i mean i think he's got a
00:44couple
00:44games on the road to to prove himself and if the results aren't pretty encouraging i you know i
00:51almost wonder if there isn't a possibility of a hook in week three for the for the home opener and
00:56maybe maybe people have made too much of this maybe i'm wrong about that i don't know if it's a
01:00factor
01:00or not i mean look i don't think it's a long leash even if it felt like todd monk had
01:06always kind of
01:07wanted watson to win the the job um i mean first of all what does that say about shader it's
01:13not like i
01:13think his his story is completely over in cleveland but if we're peering off into the distance in 2027
01:21for a minute as i think you said you wanted to do i mean how do you not think that
01:26the browns have
01:27basically said that their quarterback for next year is not on the roster or look you know giving
01:33some credit to what dylan did last night and obviously tailing green's kind of an unknown um
01:39their their hopeful starting quarterback is not on the roster because look i mean i've i've been
01:44encouraged the last two draft classes you know that's what i do i focus on that i mean how do
01:48you not
01:48like what the browns have done right i mean just in a vacuum it's been terrific last year's class
01:54panned out in a big way um even if the two quarterback picks were you know remain remain
02:00question marks um you know what they did this year i thought was very strong and sound and
02:05you know it all seems to kind of parlay towards the next draft class but you know there's a there's
02:11a here and now and i think browns fans say look we we want to support the team we we
02:16do recognize
02:17that there is some excitement going on uh the other you know 50 spots on the roster but my goodness
02:22how do we how do we support this team if it's deshaun watson the guy we've already kind of mentally
02:28given up on so i think that's what what maybe fascinates me the most three major injuries worst
02:33trade in nfl history four out of five lost seasons the end of competitiveness for a team that was
02:39looked like it was getting ready to start peaking in 2021 uh i don't know if i mentioned salary cap
02:45hell
02:46and that's before any of the stuff he was accused of uh off the field before he got here can
02:51you
02:51think of another because i was trying to do this can you think of another team that has been in
02:55this
02:56position that has started a quarterback for the fifth straight year or attempted to with all the
03:02baggage that we have because i couldn't yeah no i mean i've covered this league a while right it's
03:07it's been about a quarter century and i can't think of another example that that quite compares to this
03:13now we've never had a contract like that before and and you know i know obviously there was years
03:18ago obviously there was a lot of talk when the union was negotiating a new cba hey why don't they
03:23get fully guaranteed contracts well you know i think the pushback comes from here which is that
03:28this this crippled the franchise for you know half a decade here so look i mean i'm not saying that's
03:35an argument against it but i can i can definitely say that's the the frustration obviously is that it's
03:40it's just been such a an anchor and yet here they are you know 2026 in the year of our
03:46lord still
03:46starting the guy it's it's pretty remarkable and um obviously mismanaging other quarterback picks
03:53and watson you know having some bad luck on top of everything else i mean the two injuries look you
03:59can't you can't predict those things and you can't forecast uh that that happening so it's just
04:06such an unfortunate deal and i mean i i hope shader gets another chance at some point i suspect that
04:13he'll be more likely than not playing elsewhere next year unless he does you know runs with whatever
04:18opportunity he does get but um yeah it's it's it's uh it's kind of a dead end right now all
04:25right run
04:25us through that timeline what do you think ultimately happens to shader this season and the next year and
04:29and play it out yeah i mean obviously you know we have to find out how far watson can take
04:36it right
04:37i mean he's he's got i don't know how long the leash is i don't know how much rope he's
04:41gonna get but
04:42you know he's he's got a new coach that wants him to succeed you know and i'm sure he's personally
04:49motivated to to quiet his doubters um what's the reaction like though if he plays fairly well the first
04:55two games and and he rolls into week three as a starter is he going to get booed as mercilessly
05:01as
05:01before will there be some modest support will it be 50 50 and how long can they last that you
05:07know can
05:07they stretch that out for that's that's a big question because the first sign of trouble it feels
05:12like there's going to be a a call for for a change so you know obviously the the division is
05:19going to
05:19be tough this year you know they have some some spots on the schedule where you say all right there's
05:24there's some challenging games there so i mean obviously the the i think the bye week is sort of
05:29on slightly on the back end and you know maybe that's it happens well before that so if he gets
05:3810 12 games and can make something of it i think it's almost like you treat it like an audition
05:43for
05:44for his next team you know to see if there's there's something to work with here are we looking at
05:48him as a
05:48reclamation project or is he coming in as a hungry backup who has less of an opportunity to win the
05:55starting job you know and every team's going to have a different view on it but you know he already
05:59entered the league as a fifth round pick there was already suspicion and and some of the things that
06:04we're worried about at the time you know holding on to the ball too long you know pre-snap post
06:10-snap
06:11stuff you know those are still questions for us i think all right eric i know uh you referenced it
06:16you're a big nfl draft guy covering all these prospects as you mentioned uh browns could very
06:22well just be looking at 2027 for a first round pick for that quarterback i'm curious your take on
06:28arch manning because i i've seen people re-anoint him as qb1 going into this offseason and i think
06:35there's a lot of projection there still for me yeah no doubt i mean the back half of last year
06:41if we didn't have that if we didn't have the last six seven games whatever it is off the top
06:47of my
06:47head um where he played much much better you know early in the season the loss to ohio state the
06:53loss
06:53to florida uh you know barely beating what i'm trying to remember what the game was but there was a
06:58you
06:59know 16 13 type of win where the offense didn't play well that changed in the second half of the
07:04year
07:04and he played much better and you know his athleticism his size those are textbook for what you're
07:10looking for in a franchise quarterback obviously the pedigree has to be factored in you can't
07:15separate the name from the kid um and he's just a better athlete than any other manning quarterback
07:20who's ever played in the league so there he's got a lot going for him um but his mechanics are
07:25loose
07:25at times he can get a little floppy you know he'll take some sacks and hits i think he'll fail
07:31to to see
07:32open guys at times so there's still another year of development that i think needs to happen to ensure
07:37he's the number one pick but you know you look it's a it's a potentially very good quarterback
07:43class but i think there's a reason why he's being put at the front he's the one with the most
07:49avenues to go first and not that dante moore at oregon or you know drew mestemaker at oklahoma
07:55state or any of these other guys who could all be fine quarterbacks but you know handicapping the
08:00odds of who goes first if manning and he's got some great receivers great linemen i mean they have a
08:06a juggernaut there offensively if if he does as well as he did the second half of last year
08:13through a full season i'd be stunned if he wasn't the first pick eric i guess i'm trying to figure
08:18out who's gonna back up or maybe even do the the patriots thing where you start as you wait four
08:22or
08:22five six weeks to then get the 2027 quarterback going uh is that going to be dylan gabriel for the
08:28browns then is that going to be we talked about chador's prospects already how does this shape out
08:32for the browns if you're thinking 2027 quarterback class what do you do to get make sure that you
08:37at least have somebody there as another option if you need somebody that doesn't start right away
08:41kind of like what the the raiders are doing but maybe with a younger guy yeah no it's a fantastic
08:47question i guess it's it's tough to kind of forecast down the road i mean obviously the strange thing to
08:52me was how quickly it felt like it was pared down to a watson versus sanders battle and that gabriel
08:58and
08:58green were off on some side field somewhere and you know i just never felt like they were realistic
09:03options did last night change anything you know did did did it remind people that perhaps this guy
09:09should have had a little more opportunity to you know to to try to win this job but if they
09:15view him
09:15strictly as a you know the high-end backup type you know i guess like the chase daniel or whoever's
09:21you
09:21know makes it around the league and and has a job for 10 or 12 years if that's his future
09:27um then it
09:28would make sense obviously to keep him around some continuity you know somebody to to kind of uh
09:34bridge that gap if you will um but yeah i mean that's that seems to be kind of where a
09:39lot of
09:40people you know i again also leads into the idea that him being a third round pick was a little
09:44bit
09:45of a surprise you know if you'd have flipped those two around sanders going third gabriel fifth
09:50probably that's a closer to the league consensus when those two guys came out so
09:54you know pedigree matters too i mean i just don't think people were viewing gabriel as a high-end
09:59starter coming out but he definitely had a lot of support in that you know he could be your your
10:04backup for a long time and be a a pretty decent option in that role all right so i do
10:09want to know
10:10here i'm not a big decreer i don't decree much but i did decree that i am self-imposing a
10:17ban on tanking
10:19talk in mock drafts until november 1st of 2026 do you think i'll be able to pull it off no
10:26no you
10:26know how it is right i mean look i i first of all i you know i always celebrate happy
10:32mocktober right
10:33that's my october mock so i that one's going to be a part of the the rotation there and usually
10:38comes
10:39out around halloween pretty pretty scary stuff so i mean when you're in a situation like this even
10:44again as as intriguing as some elements of the roster are it's going to be natural for most people
10:50to have one eye on college football and one eye on the browns and how's this going to work out
10:55i'm
10:55sure jets fans even if there is a little excitement there i mean you know you got to be realistic
11:01just
11:01the ammo they have you know there's still going to be that that possibility of of the jets trying to
11:06get up to the number one pick and other teams as well so yeah i mean we're a ways off
11:11but it's it's
11:13it's coming and i think it's going to be off in the distance close enough where people can see it
11:17and
11:17and and have it be a season-long talking point probably do the browns get a top five pick or
11:24is
11:24it where are they going to surprise people a little bit here i i don't know what to make a
11:30monkey yet i
11:30mean i i want to like the guy i just don't know you know it's really hard to say i
11:35think if you said
11:36roster talent alone you know and didn't treat the quarterback position as a special one for some
11:43reason i would i would say maybe they they're above that but given the importance of that spot and not
11:48knowing what to make of of what what the browns are going to have at that position this year hard
11:53to get
11:54you know tremendously excited past a certain point i think eric uh really strong stuff man appreciate
12:01your time today hope you have a great weekend appreciate you you guys too thank you eric at home
12:06there yahoo sports nfl writer on the wise heart right we make it right call kyle wright hotline
