00:00We get to talk 53-man rosters, waiver claims, football's back, baby.
00:05That's what we got.
00:06It's back in nine days.
00:08I mean, it's semi-back.
00:10It's kind of back.
00:11I need it to be back.
00:12Is this where we get to talk about how stupid and fugazi the NFL schedule is?
00:16Is this an appropriate spot for that?
00:19Yeah, it's just way too long.
00:20I mean, let's be honest.
00:22I'd even be fine.
00:23If the season started this Wednesday, I'd even be like,
00:25can we get this thing going a little bit here?
00:27The idea that we don't have to wait nine days until kickoff,
00:3013 days until the Browns actually kickoff and going is about, I don't know,
00:36six days too many.
00:37Well, here's a good sign of where we are in the schedule
00:42and all that kind of stuff.
00:43I thought I was sending out a nice thing about Casey Concepcion,
00:46who won a preseason award from the Browns media.
00:49I saw that.
00:50And I was like, I still have doubts about the drops,
00:52but this kid appears to be a five-star human being rooting for him.
00:55You've turned the corner on Casey Concepcion.
00:56He's still Casey Concepcion, no reception to you.
00:59That part's not going to leave anytime soon.
01:01He still might not reception.
01:02He might not reception.
01:03But I hope he does reception.
01:04That's the idea there.
01:06It's me.
01:07The narrative is Nick Wilson, the author of Casey Concepcion,
01:11no reception, is saying, I want him to reception.
01:15You would have thought that I made a Dolly Parton joke again.
01:20You would have thought that I have said the most unhinged thing.
01:22What was the Dolly Parton joke?
01:24I don't recall.
01:25I do not recall.
01:26Did you make a Dolly Parton joke?
01:27You don't remember last week?
01:29Did you get in trouble for a Dolly Parton joke,
01:31and I'm not aware of it?
01:31I did get in trouble, but people didn't like it.
01:33No, I didn't see this at all.
01:35Yeah, it was too early, too soon.
01:36Were you telling me in between the break?
01:38Oh, hell yeah.
01:38All right, cool.
01:39He's not going to enter it into this thing again.
01:41All right.
01:41But, like, three straight times, like, three,
01:45I tweeted this, like, five minutes ago.
01:47Three people already arguing with me on Twitter.
01:49It's like, you're missing the point of, like, I don't care about the drops.
01:53I'm agreeing with you.
01:55Simmer the hell down.
01:56That's a sign that people are itching to talk real football when we're arguing about a benign tweet that it
02:02was basically support of one of the Browns rookies.
02:05Are people trying to say that you shouldn't have support over him, or are they just throwing in the idea
02:08that at one point you were a detractor?
02:11No, I think it's just, I think it's the idea of, why doesn't anybody talk about the drops?
02:15Everyone always talks about the drops with him.
02:17Yes.
02:18We exclusively talk about the drops with him.
02:19That is where the discourse.
02:21That's like his calling card.
02:22That is where the discourse in sports talk, specifically on Twitter, has shoved conversations up their own cookie, as it
02:30were.
02:30Yeah.
02:31Because, quite frankly, the drops are a real conversation.
02:34It really comes down to, do you think that they matter?
02:37Okay, that's a yes or no.
02:38And, do you think they can be coached out of a player?
02:41Yes or no.
02:42Well, that's the second one, is the big one.
02:43Because there are enough people that believe that their concentration drops.
02:46That was the big theme with Concepcion.
02:48Concentration drops.
02:48How much of that can actually be taught out of him?
02:51And how much of it is something that we'll see just kind of exist throughout his NFL career?
02:55So, we are aching for football.
02:58Desperately aching for football.
03:00I need it.
03:00I want it.
03:01Oh, baby, give me real football.
03:03We got a little this weekend in college football, but it's week zero.
03:06That doesn't really count.
03:07It actually does count.
03:08However, the 53-man roster was set.
03:11The Browns are keeping four quarterbacks, kind of.
03:14Dylan Gabriel goes on the IL.
03:16And I thought it was interesting.
03:18There were five teams that kept four quarterbacks through cutdown.
03:23The Browns were one of those five.
03:25The Browns were also the only one of those five that got ruthlessly mocked and used the
03:31cliche of, what's the old expression?
03:33If you got four quarterbacks, you don't have one?
03:38Yeah.
03:39Nobody said that about the Eagles, Vikings, Falcons, or Steelers, which you probably should
03:44have, at the very least, said it about the Falcons.
03:46At least about the Falcons.
03:47The Steelers thing is interesting because they genuinely seem like they like all four quarterbacks.
03:52I don't know.
03:52I don't know why we would have gotten...
03:54I think people just think our quarterback room stinks.
03:56That's all that is.
03:56It's not that hard.
03:57Yeah.
03:58But they have to realize this is how Andrew Berry operates.
04:00The Eagles are one of those teams, too.
04:02You want to know where this thinking came from?
04:04It came from Big Philly, where they think the quarterbacks are currency.
04:08It's not a surprise that Andrew Berry thinks that same way.
04:10It's just really silly to me that we all agree that you have to do anything you can do to
04:16get the quarterback right on your roster, and then people act like four quarterbacks
04:21is a crime against God.
04:23I don't understand.
04:25And by the way, again...
04:26And the way they maneuver this, it's not even really keeping four quarterbacks.
04:29Well, but it's not even about the Browns.
04:30It is about the big picture thinking of, if the NFL has a quarterback developmental problem,
04:35I think part of that is the fact that quarterbacks get jettisoned off rosters all too quickly.
04:42I think this should be 1997, where you carry four quarterbacks in one way or another,
04:47even if your fourth guy's on the practice squad.
04:49I think that just makes sense, unless you have a Josh Allen or somebody of that ilk,
04:54which, of course, the Browns don't have, nor do the Falcons, nor even the Vikings, Steelers,
04:59or the Eagles.
05:00And even if you have a Josh Allen or someone like that, typically those teams end up paying
05:04a little bit more for a good backup quarterback, just in case you need a couple weeks.
05:07But ultimately, I won't begrudge it, and I won't get mad at a team that wants to try to
05:12develop a quarterback spot when you don't have one.
05:14If you are just joining us right now, I probably should have mentioned roughly seven minutes
05:17ago, right around the Jeff Phelps cookie part of the show, that Todd Munkin's press conference
05:22will be coming up momentarily in Berea.
05:25So we're going to be waiting for that to happen.
05:28That could happen at 2.15.
05:29It could happen at 2.20.
05:31Guys, it could happen really any time.
05:33It could happen in no time.
05:34But the point is, it is coming up.
05:36Whenever it comes up, we'll be playing it live.
05:38But that does bring us to the Dylan Gabriel thing, where I'm going to go ahead and shock
05:45people.
05:45I don't know that Dylan Gabriel is really injured.
05:49That maybe the Browns just thought, here's a way we can keep all four quarterbacks we like
05:53without having to get rid of somebody we like and losing them to another team.
05:57I don't think that requires some sort of national treasure, book of secrets, book of conspiracies
06:02kind of take.
06:03No, it seems pretty obvious.
06:04We just watched the man throw three touchdowns in a preseason game, and no part of it looked
06:08like he was struggling to, I don't know, function.
06:11And so it's almost so obvious that it makes you wonder why the NFL isn't saying what's
06:16going on here.
06:17That's the only qualms I have with it.
06:18I appreciate the Browns' effort.
06:20I like the fact that they're trying to sneak this through.
06:23We'll find out what happens after the first four weeks of the season, what they continue
06:25to do.
06:26But I just don't know how someone from the league offices aren't like, hey guys, this
06:29is too obvious.
06:30You maybe need to do this a little bit better.
06:32I think the only way that happens is basically if somebody raises concerns with this.
06:37And with love and respect to Dylan Gabriel, had a very nice preseason game number three.
06:43I do think he's going to play some games this year, whether you want him to or not.
06:48I don't think anyone's raising concern with the league office over Dylan Gabriel.
06:51Well, I doubt it, but here's the other side of this.
06:55I would imagine if you did a CAT scan of any of these players, you can find something that
07:00isn't right.
07:01And so I'm sure they have an MRI that proves that Dylan Gabriel's back isn't 100% relative
07:07to what a normal back looks like.
07:09And so you just get to color outside the lines a little bit.
07:11That's all.
07:12I do like the fact that since the Browns have said, hey, part of the reason why we're going
07:17to Sean is the fact that the first two weeks are on the road and we think his veteran experience
07:23will help us.
07:24And that has guided people like me to think, all right, if he plays like dog, but those
07:28first two games, they can't possibly start them week three at home.
07:31Can they?
07:32Like if this thing is trending in the turlet, there's no way you can be like, hey, let's
07:37send them out there in front of the home crowd.
07:38But I do like that in the same way that I'm using a little bit of logic on that, I
07:44do
07:44like the fact that now that Dylan Gabriel has basically has got to miss the first four
07:48weeks that people have shifted to, all right, so Deshaun's going to stink it up for four
07:54weeks.
07:54And then when Dylan comes back, you can just swap Deshaun out there.
07:59And it's like, guys, Deshaun can get benched before the first four weeks.
08:03Trust me.
08:04Like they're, they're going to base Dylan's return off when they're legally allowed to
08:08bring Dylan back.
08:09They're not, if Deshaun Watson plays like dog, but the first two weeks of the season, they're
08:13not going to be like two more weeks to go.
08:15And then we can get Dylan back here as the backup.
08:17No, but it does kind of put a weird timeline on this.
08:20Like if Deshaun stinks, then after four weeks, if you have to make room for the roster, it
08:24makes it pretty obvious what you need to do.
08:26Oh yes.
08:26Yes.
08:27Which, which now it's like a hard cap on the four, unless Deshaun actually shows anything of
08:32substance in the slightest bit.
08:33Now, uh, I will tell you, I, the wrinkle that I came up with that I think one of the
08:38most likely ways this quarterback goes is Deshaun, uh, stinks it up the first two weeks.
08:44Shador takes over week three.
08:45Deshaun's the backup for week three and four.
08:48And then conveniently Deshaun has like a sore Achilles or conscience something.
08:55And he ends up on the IR.
08:57We can find Dylan Gabriel slides into the quarterback.
09:00These doctors just showed you we can find anything.
09:01Okay.
09:01This was the preseason game for them.
09:03Lawyers can also find things.
09:04Was finding a way for them to make Dylan Gabriel hurt and be cool with it.
09:07That was their warmup.
09:08But I do think like, if you said, how do I think the quarterback room is going to go
09:12at least within the confines of the first four or five weeks of the season, that's the one
09:17that makes sense to me right now, which does put you on track to play at least two quarterbacks
09:23incredibly early.
09:24And if you play two quarterbacks that early in the season, you're probably staring down
09:28the barrel of a five or six quarterback season, right?
09:32Well, if you're just going to rotate them through at any given whim, like the moment they disappoint
09:35you, you're just gone with them.
09:37Then yeah, you're going to be looking at a lot of them.
09:39I don't believe the Browns are looking at it that way.
09:41I've maintained this for a while.
09:42I think the Browns are going to take Deshaun way longer than people expect.
09:45And then I think Shador is going to come in and I think he'll have a longer leash as well.
09:48And I think that's what, that's the goal of all of this.
09:51And maybe like week 16, 17, 18, somewhere around there, Talon Green gets a game or two
09:55games, but I really don't think we're doing five or six quarterbacks.
09:59How many of these quarterbacks will actually be here next year?
10:02Because that's the part of next year, right?
10:03Is like the idea that if you, if you burn through five quarterbacks, good luck getting
10:07one of them to start next year for you.
10:08There is, there is that mystery box attached to whether that's Talon Green or whether that's
10:12like a revitalized Dylan Gabriel, that if you throw Dylan Gabriel out there for five
10:16weeks and he sucks, he can't be on the team next year.
10:18So I'm, I'm not telling you you're wrong and people thinking that way that they're
10:22wrong or that the Browns themselves don't think that way.
10:26It does feel a little bit like reverse engineering the problem, right?
10:30Like you should just kind of figure out how you're going to deploy quarterbacks in
10:332026 based off how the team is playing, how the quarterbacks are playing quarterback
10:38health.
10:39If you want to throw an offensive line health and quality, that's fine as well.
10:42But like that, the idea of like, oh man, are we going to waste that bullet?
10:47So they're not here next year.
10:49You'll make do if that's what has to happen.
10:52That's what has to happen.
10:53But I think, I think fans are betting over backwards to kind of reverse engineer it because
10:57it feels like that's what the Browns do.
10:59They try and reverse engineer logic to justify whatever the hell they want to do.
11:02But they get so deep into it.
11:03And then by the time it actually comes, it just seems like their plan just completely
11:06goes sideways.
11:07I would bet dollars to donuts right now.
11:09Their plan is max Deshaun Watson, Shador Sanders, and maybe one or two games with somebody else
11:14in the back end.
11:15And that's it.
11:15But again, we see their plans go sideways all the time.
