00:00The Athletic put out their top 26 most, get it, 2026, 26 most intriguing storylines and narratives of the 2026
00:10season.
00:11And I was honestly blown away that Deshaun Watson, not only was he on it, he was top 10, baby.
00:18Yeah, you know, and so I went through the list and I was thinking to myself, because it's all by
00:22individual people.
00:23And I'm like, is the NFL just, do they just not have that many individual people that are interesting storylines
00:27right now?
00:28Are we starved for individual storylines when you look at the list?
00:31And obviously Mahomes at the top, that's fine.
00:34But like Mendoza's one spot ahead of Deshaun Watson at seven.
00:37Yeah, and behind him is Bijan Robinson, who I don't know really what's intriguing about Bijan.
00:44Todd Bowles is number five on this list?
00:46Yeah, yeah. Baker's number three.
00:48Todd Bowles? Yeah.
00:49Yeah, I just think it's a bad list.
00:51And Vrabel's three.
00:52It's either a bad list or we're just starved for individual people that make this league actually run.
00:57Is that more of the idea? I'm not sure.
01:00Like Josh Allen doesn't hit the top parts of this list.
01:02And it's like, why?
01:05Because you already know he's going to be good and the bills aren't make or break off of Josh Allen.
01:09So maybe there's a sliver of this that also has to, we have to account for as well.
01:12So what's funny is they do a good job of selling a lot of these.
01:15Like Miles Garrett is 12th, by the way.
01:18Yeah.
01:18And one of the lines here is, on paper, the move makes the Rams an absolute juggernaut.
01:25And that's strong wording.
01:27Like that's, even with Mahomes, it really, they really sell the, you know, he's coming off the injury.
01:32Look at all the accolades.
01:34But last year was this, with the Browns, it really looks like they just put it into a chat GPT
01:41and said,
01:41can you please make this so that no one will get mad at it?
01:45Then they might've, I don't know.
01:46We have three different coordinators in the top 18 of this list.
01:49So like I, the idea that Deshaun, at first, when you first brought it up and you said Deshaun's eighth
01:54on this list,
01:55I was trying to find a way that we can get Deshaun being the eighth most interesting storyline in the
01:58NFL.
01:59And I could not do it, but evaluating it through these lens and the amount of people that we have
02:03attached to this,
02:04then Deshaun should probably be better than eighth.
02:06I don't, I actually disagree.
02:07Cause I think miles should be better than this.
02:09I think CJ Stroud, AJ Brown.
02:12These are some of the other ones here.
02:13I think Sam Darnold is more interesting.
02:15When Todd Bowles is fifth on this list, I'm saying the list has a lot of bad characters that are
02:19ahead of this.
02:20We should just kick Todd Bowles off the list.
02:21If we made our 26 and 26 intriguing.
02:23Fernando Mendoza's number seven.
02:25Well, maybe that's what we need to do is make our own, make our own list.
02:27Cause if you're putting these guys ahead of Deshaun, it's not that Deshaun is wildly fascinating.
02:32He might, and his story might be done by the time we get to week three.
02:35Okay.
02:36So like, but the idea that he hits eighth is it's, it's wild to me.
02:40I just like that when it comes down to it, like Kyler Murray makes sense.
02:44Christian Parker, who is the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys.
02:48Right.
02:48He's 14th.
02:49If he was a defensive coordinator of the Miami dolphins, would we be saying he's intriguing?
02:53We have Sean Mannion, the Eagles offensive coordinator at 18.
02:55Uh, yeah, I mean, there's like, there's, there's coordinators there.
02:58And that was, I get it respected for the Cowboys and respected for the Eagles.
03:02I understand why they're on this list.
03:04Deshaun Watson is going to be wildly more entertaining and wildly more interesting.
03:09At least in a good or a bad sense to a lot of football fans in the outcome though.
03:13So I don't get the sense.
03:15And obviously on Friday, I had some of the say about at least one Cleveland media members
03:20handling of the Deshaun Watson storyline in the arc.
03:23Uh, but so like in Cleveland, I don't think we, the Cleveland media have handled this, uh,
03:31the most genuine way.
03:32I think there are people trying to appear, uh, unbiased and it's very apparent.
03:40It's impossible to be unbiased about the idea of Deshaun Watson playing this year after this
03:45going to on his fifth year, uh, and what he represents in Cleveland and around the NFL.
03:50Right.
03:50So if I feel that way about the, the, the town that covers him, I think maybe the one
03:56residual thing I am looking forward to of the Deshaun experience is just how is him, how
04:03is he perceived this year, depending on how well or poorly that he plays?
04:08Cause I don't think as a, at large, I don't think that the national media is going to know
04:13how to handle this guy, no matter whether he's the best quarterback in the league or the
04:16worst quarterback in the league.
04:16Well, I think this is where the Browns have done Deshaun a good, a good deal of service
04:20is that it will be based off of what you said.
04:22It's going to be based off of how he plays.
04:24If Deshaun's really, really good.
04:26Okay.
04:26And I don't foresee this happening.
04:27You don't foresee this happening.
04:29We'll put all the disclaimers out there that we need to, but if Deshaun's really good,
04:33Munkin's going to get a lot of credits.
04:34Stefanski is going to get a lot of blame and then all the people that said, see, we
04:39knew it was in there the entire time.
04:41We knew that it existed because we saw it in a Texans uniform.
04:45They're just going to be doing one big dunk fest.
04:47Oh, see what I think is interesting is in the same way that Cleveland has had this six
04:52month come to Jesus moment with Deshaun Watson and there are people still falling back on.
04:57I don't like him for what he was accused of in Houston and sued for 20 plus times.
05:02I think there are going to be people in Cleveland who say, yeah, he's too injury prone or he's
05:07just not good or he hasn't really bothered to relate to any Clevelander since being here
05:12and he's been kind of a dark cloud hanging over the franchise, right?
05:17Any one of those four or five things, I think there, and by the way, we can all feel multiple
05:23of those things or none of those things, but I think those are complications that Clevelanders
05:28feel and Cleveland media members feel, I'm going to imagine that that is going to be
05:32echoed throughout the national media as well.
05:35Again, I'll go with, I think Deshaun Watson is intriguing.
05:38It's just not the good intriguing.
05:40I think the thing that frustrates me is...
05:43We're not intrigued by it because we think we already know where it's going.
05:46I think that's why me and you and that's why I think people in the same spot and I think
05:50people across town, because we're so close to the situation and we put it at a less than
05:551% chance of actually working out in any sort of actual way.
05:58We know it.
05:59You're bored of the movie that you know the outcome to before you already hit play, right?
06:03That's what Deshaun is to us.
06:05We know what the outcome is going to be.
06:06We don't even have to see it in order to know it.
06:08But I think when preparing my...
06:10Because I do, I try and think a lot of, well, what if I am wrong?
06:14What does it look like?
06:15Even the positive scenarios come with intriguing things that aren't necessarily great.
06:23Namely, paying Deshaun again.
06:26Namely, hey, if he plays well and let's say you're decent, can you trust the health?
06:32Like, even the good, quote-unquote, side of Deshaun playing and playing well comes with
06:38things that it's like, well, I don't even think those are good things to be intrigued
06:41about.
06:41I know, but I think most national people...
06:43Because I don't think the Browns are going to take up a lot of convos in week 10 or week
06:4611 or 12, even if Deshaun plays good.
06:48But if Deshaun plays good, I do think it's going to fall back to what I said.
06:51I think it's going to be, oh boy, Munkin really got something out of him in a way that
06:55Stefanski couldn't.
06:56See how this offense was just catered to him in a way that Stefanski never did it?
07:00And then the other thing is, yeah, guys, of course it existed.
07:04We saw it in Houston.
07:05This is the Houston version of Deshaun.
07:06It just took six years to wake up.
07:08We both think that's hogwash, but that's what people are going to tell us.
07:12216-474-0092.
07:14The Athletic ranks Deshaun Watson as the eighth most intriguing storyline of 2026.
07:19Miles Skerdas, 12th.
07:22How intrigued and interested are you?
07:24I think people are intrigued, by the way.
07:26I just think we're not intrigued because we already know the outcome.
07:29Okay, when you say we.
07:30I really do believe.
07:30Me and you.
07:31Okay.
07:31Me and you.
07:32And probably a lot of Cleveland.
07:34Okay.
07:34The ones that have watched him play for three years prior and already know how this thing
07:38is going to go.
07:39But then who are the people that are intrigued?
07:41Because I think a fair amount of the national media, if they come out.
07:44I think it's people like Albert Breer.
07:45I think it's people like that.
07:46Those type of national media that go back to the idea that there was something there.
07:51How much of those people actually exist?
07:54That are curious to find out if he could do what he did six years ago?
07:5720%, 25%?
07:59I'll go with 20%.
08:00I'll give you 20%.
08:0125 feels sizable.
08:03It's, again, you've got to remember how away from the Browns those people actually are.
08:10Not Albert.
08:11Albert's very close.
08:12But the ones that just do the talk shows nationally and just talk about it, they don't live this
08:16the way me and you do.
