00:00She covers the Browns for the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com and you can hear her on her Orange
00:04and Brown Talk podcast. She is Miss Mary Kay Cabot. Hi Mary Kay. Hello Mary Kay. Hey guys,
00:10how you doing? We're well. Congratulations on your day off because things change tomorrow
00:15and then you don't get a day off until May. Well, Tuesdays are actually one of my busiest days of
00:24the week, believe it or not. So not really a day off, but nevertheless, really getting excited
00:29about the season getting underway and looking forward to this game. Browns are playing a team
00:34that turned it around big time last year, Mary Kay. You've watched this team all during training
00:39camp. You've seen it in the preseason. You know what kind of talent's on the team and the coaching
00:43staff. Is there a possibility that this team can make that kind of a turnaround, Mary Kay?
00:49I find it hard to believe, but what do you think? Well, 100% it could make that kind of
00:55turnaround
00:56if it had the quarterback to get them there. And that's the whole entire key. And we don't know
01:01what kind of quarterback they're going to get or play they're going to get from either Deshaun or
01:06Shador this season. And if they got really good QB play, then I would say, sure, they can make some
01:13kind of a turnaround, maybe not 13 victories. That would be quite the tall order. It's a very,
01:18very, very, very young offense, especially. And then a brand new defensive coordinator,
01:23no Miles Garrett. So I wouldn't even see necessarily 13 victories with great quarterback
01:29play, but I would think that they could get into the maybe nine range if they got really good QB
01:34play.
01:35Mary Kay, what'd you think when you said Taylor Green, there's a package of plays for him that
01:39could be used or rolled out against Jacksonville? I'm interested in that because I just don't think
01:45common sense wise, it doesn't make sense to have three active quarterbacks on game day
01:49when you know that you can have one as an emergency if you actually needed one. And
01:52that takes somebody off of special teams. I just my thought, that's what I thought.
01:56What did you think when he said that? And what do you think that means?
02:00Well, I asked the question late in the press conference and, um, and I asked it sort of
02:06as a double question. The first half of the question, I said, um, might you have a package
02:10of plays for Taylor green? And if you're going to use them, is there a world in which he can
02:13be
02:13your backup for this game? And, and the first part of his answer was could be period. And then
02:21the second part of his answer was, um, we could have a package of plays in for him. So if
02:26you,
02:26you know, you could interpret that, that he was answering could be only to the package of plays,
02:31or you could interpret it that he was answering could be to the second half of my question,
02:37which was, could he possibly be the backup? Um, but when you couple it with the follow-up
02:43question where he said that three quarterbacks active would be a lot, meaning basically he's
02:49probably not going to keep three up. Then even just that alone tells you that there is at least
02:56some kind of a slim possibility that, uh, Taylor would be the second active quarterback. And so at
03:02least it's a possibility. Now he could just be giving the Jaguars something to think about and
03:08why not? They went, as I mentioned, 13 and four last year and you need, you need all the help
03:13that
03:14you can get. You need every little tiny bit of competitive advantage you can get. And if you
03:19can get them thinking about a package of plays for Taylor green, then that's at least a few minutes
03:25of game planning for, uh, Deshaun Watson that, you know, that you're not doing. Okay. That's a,
03:32that's a tall order for a kid that played a half in the preseason, Mary Kay, but I I'm curious
03:37to see,
03:38and I, your thought about giving Jacksonville, something to think about, I think is really good.
03:41What do you expect out of Deshaun Watson?
03:46Well, what needs to happen with Deshaun Watson is, uh, for Todd Munkin to get him warmed up early,
03:52to get him feeling confident because confidence is everything he hasn't played in 22 months.
03:58They have to find him some completions early on. And they also should probably run the ball a fair
04:04amount and make sure that that Deshaun feels really, really good about the running game
04:08and that he's not going to be relied upon just with his arm to get the job done. Uh, so
04:14I think
04:14confidence is going to be key for him. And if he can get that, uh, then I think he can
04:18be somewhat
04:19successful. Now, the thing is, the problem is I don't know that he has developed his go-to guys
04:25yet. I don't know that he has the kind of chemistry that he needs yet with the Harold Fannin, who's
04:30also, by the way, coming off of a pretty significant surgery and still knocking the rust off. Uh, so
04:36Deshaun needs to find some guys that he just knows are going to catch that ball and be his go
04:42-to guy.
04:43Uh, maybe those guys will be, you know, Isaiah Bond and Jerry Judy. Maybe it's Casey
04:47and Denzel, whatever the case may be, uh, Deshaun needs to know that he's going to throw it and
04:54it's going to be caught. And, um, and if he can develop some really good moxie early on,
05:02that will carry him far. What are your thoughts on just Deshaun starting? I mean, I know it's a
05:07simple question, but I, you know, is he ready? Is he healthy? Do I mean, and, and what kind of
05:15optimism do you have for this first game with him? Well, we don't know the answer to that question.
05:20Is he healthy? Is he ready? Because even aside from the Achilles, uh, he still is coming off of
05:28a shoulder surgery from 2023 that we haven't seen him play really well in a live NFL game yet coming
05:36off of the shoulder. So that's another thing that I want to see. I want to see is the ball
05:40going where
05:41he wants it to go. And is he avoiding some of those dirt balls that, you know, that we have
05:46seen
05:46in practice, they are a concern in my mind. And I don't know if they have figured out a way
05:51to
05:52completely avoid them or if he's going to occasionally have one of those, and then they
05:56have to figure out how to overcome it. Uh, so we don't know what to expect from him, but hopefully,
06:01you know, Todd Munkin has done this long enough and knows how to devise various different kinds of
06:07game plans that I think he should be able to come up with some things that allow Deshaun to be
06:11successful, not just with his arm, but also using his legs and see how that goes. See if he still
06:17has the agility, the mobility, uh, that, you know, that can get the job done in that regard. So you
06:22can run some RPOs and some designed runs and, and so that Deshaun can also take off running whenever
06:28he needs to. We have to see how all that is going to go. Uh, but you know, from a
06:33YSC starting
06:34standpoint, I get it. I get where he's going with this. They're on the road, silent count,
06:40uh, game management, multiple cadences. Uh, these are all things that, that they feel that Deshaun
06:47was considerably ahead of Shador in. And once Shador gets up to speed, then I know Todd will
06:54be more comfortable throwing him out there right now. He didn't have that comfort level.
06:58Mary Kay Cabot joining us from the plane dealer, Cleveland.com, her podcast,
07:02the orange and Brown talk podcast. I think we're all working under the assumption, Mary Kay,
07:07that the defense is going to be solid at the very least. Is that a fair assumption or is that
07:14a
07:14dangerous assumption? No, I think that's a fair assumption. There's so much talent on this defense
07:20that it's going to be at least solid that that's gotta be, uh, where the low bar is set that,
07:26you know, solid, it needs to be even better than solid. And the thing that it's going to have to
07:32do in order to help out a brand new offense is it's going to have to get takeaways. That's one
07:38thing that it's going to have to do. It might not get sacks in spades the way last year's did,
07:43but it's going to have to get takeaways. And I see guys that are going to be able to do
07:47that.
07:48I see that from, uh, Emmanuel McNeil Warren. Uh, there are guys that have, uh, just a nose for
07:55the ball and that's what they're going to have to do. So we'll see how that goes. But I think
07:59the
07:59defensive front, uh, looks like that's going to be very good. Uh, so I do think that the defense
08:05is going to be able to, um, I don't know if it's going to be a top five defense. Don't
08:09know if it's
08:10going to be a top 10 defense, but I think it's going to be opportunistic. And I think it's going
08:13to have to maybe carry the team a little in the early going. Mary Kay, is there anything that made
08:17you change your mind? Something that maybe you thought going into camp that isn't true or is true
08:23going into the regular season? No, the, the only thing that, that I would say has me the slightest
08:31bit concerned about maybe predicting more than seven victories or so is the fact that I just
08:38really don't know, uh, how Deshaun is going to perform in this offense. Just again, from a legs
08:44standpoint and from an arm standpoint, is the accuracy going to be what it needs to be? Is he going
08:49to be
08:50able to stay away from the interceptions that kind of reared their ugly heads in, um, you know,
08:56in training camp? So I think it's that it's just the concern over, is he going to be able to
09:01have
09:01the timing and the chemistry that he needs to have in this new offense right away? Mary Kay,
09:06when Todd Munkin announced Deshaun, we all recall, you know, he mentioned gives us the best chance to
09:13move the ball, score points and said it was not week to week. Since then, he's talked a lot about
09:19best chance against Jacksonville on the road in the opener. Well, what do you think it would take
09:24for Deshaun to lose this gig and, and how quickly could it happen? Or do you think he's, he's got
09:31a
09:31great chance to wrap it up for the entire season if he plays okay? Well, if he plays okay, they're
09:36just going to keep going with him. So that's the whole key. He's got to perform well. And let's
09:40remember, it's not just him. Everybody has to perform well. We're talking about five new guys on the
09:46offensive line. That doesn't happen very often where you have to deal with that. And then you've
09:51got two rookie receivers where they did very, very well in training camp, but it's a different ball
09:56game when you get out there and you're on the road and you're dealing with silent counts and you're
10:00trying to remember exactly where you're supposed to be on any given play and what you're supposed
10:03to do on a scramble drill and a site adjustment and it speeds up. And so he's going to have
10:09a lot to
10:09deal with in terms of pulling it all together and holding it all together, which I think is a major
10:14reason why Todd went with the experienced veteran who's got so much more game management skill than
10:21Shador has at this point. But I really do think that, you know, that that's going to be the key
10:27is just making sure that you're sliding those protections and managing those motions and all
10:33of those things. But if he can do that, then he earns the next start and the next start and
10:39the next
10:39start. If he can't do that, Todd is charged with winning football games. That is the mandate for
10:46this season. So if Deshaun isn't getting the job done, then he'll pull them and he'll start Shador
10:51when he feels it's time to do that. And I don't think he would hesitate to do that. I don't
10:56think
10:56the leash is necessarily long or short, but the bar is set at perform well and score points and do
11:05the
11:05best you can to win games. We enjoyed all your coverage leading up to this and now we get going
11:10for real this week. Mary Kay, thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Sure. Thank you guys. Thank
11:15you, Mary Kay. Mary Kay Cabot, plain dealer, cleveland.com, the orange and brown talk podcast.
