00:00And, uh, by the way, he agrees with me on a certain thing that I just got ridiculed and ridiculed
00:05for when your boss sticks his head in and laughs at you, throws his head back and laughs at you
00:10while Ian Rappaport tells you that that's a stupid idea.
00:14That's, uh, that's humiliating to a degree that of a word that I can't even find in my head right
00:20now.
00:20Uh, but when Albert Breer agrees with you about it, well, it made me feel a lot better.
00:24We'll get into that later on.
00:25However, this is Albert Breer on Deshaun Watson yesterday and, uh, why he was the best option.
00:32And he also thought that he gave them the best chance to grow their young football team.
00:37And I think you're seeing why he was their best option.
00:39He's been through it before he's been through ups and downs.
00:42The best thing for the team right now is for the young talent to keep developing and be in a
00:47position where they can help you win games at the end of the year, but also help to create a
00:51foundation going forward.
00:53I think that's why the guys in that coaching staff had resolved that Deshaun was the best option all along.
00:59I think they thought that gives Casey Concepcion and Denzel Boston and Harold Fannin and Spencer Fano and Quinchon Judkin
01:07the best chance to grow his football players.
01:09When you've got a team that's young like that, there are going to be bumps.
01:13I think having a veteran quarterback helps you ride those out.
01:16So Deshaun's riding them out himself.
01:17He's also helping the younger players ride it out.
01:19I think any of us that were at training camp at their training camp saw a little bit of a
01:24different vibe that Todd Munkin had brought that's really starting to show up in the way that they play.
01:29When we mentioned vibes, they are very good right now.
01:33I mean, the music's blaring during practice.
01:35Guys are excited to show up to work.
01:37Guys are excited to play for Todd Munkin.
01:39Todd Munkin's excited to coach with him.
01:41Things are going pretty good right now.
01:42This is incredible after what happened in week one where it seemed like we were destined to go to a
01:49really, really, really dark place with this football team.
01:51And still, it's early, but winning is fantastic and we appreciate winning as much as any fan base out here.
01:58But yesterday, I asked Ian Rappaport this question and it was about how close, or we asked him this question,
02:08how close Deshaun Watson was to actually being removed after the Tampa Bay game.
02:14How close did Deshaun Watson get to being pulled as the starting quarterback of the Cleveland Browns before things got
02:21going against Tampa Bay?
02:22I don't think particularly close.
02:24It really was in Deshaun's hands, right?
02:26Like before the second game, you know, one of the things I talked about on air was that the Cleveland
02:30Browns were going to, after the game, assess the situation and kind of see which way they wanted to go.
02:34See if it was time to bring in Shador.
02:36See if Deshaun was done as the starter.
02:38But that would hinge on how he played.
02:41And so he went out there.
02:43He played well.
02:44He showed signs of being the starting quarterback that he has continued to show.
02:48And so I don't really get the sense that in that game, there was any movement to pull him.
02:53And then after the game, it was like what I was told even before Sunday was he's earned the right
02:58to start and keep starting.
02:59And then they won again.
03:00I don't feel like it was very close.
03:02I feel like the Browns wanted to take a look at it and see after the results.
03:06But, you know, Watson never let it get to that point.
03:08Well, I got to tell you, I think if you're looking after one game, I think it's pretty close.
03:13Like you just don't have that with other teams.
03:16Well, you have it with more than you used to because the quarterback play isn't as good as it was.
03:20But, like, you know, there's still a lot of teams that are like, yeah, he's a starter.
03:25Yeah, he might go out there and play poorly this Sunday.
03:27We hope he doesn't, but he's still going to be the starter when we come back home from our road
03:31game.
03:32That we had to evaluate after that game, that's pretty close.
03:37Because we're not just talking about him as a starter, Anthony.
03:40We're talking about him in his NFL career.
03:42And that's it.
03:43Yeah, I mean, that could have been it for him.
03:45That's why it was so key for him and his ability to hold on to the job that he was
03:50the most accurate I've ever seen him in a Browns uniform in that Tampa Bay game.
03:54I know they didn't put up points in the first half, like they weren't going up and down the field.
03:58But overall, you know, he was actually connecting with his targets.
04:02We saw last week he went right back to a lot of the same inaccuracies in the flow of the
04:06offense.
04:07Everything, the only stuff that worked last week was him breaking contain and getting outside and improv-ing.
04:12Well, and I know we just played Breer, then we played Ian Rappaport.
04:15I did think that something Albert Breer said in the interview yesterday was pretty poignant, where it was like, hey,
04:19he just, it got more natural on instincts in the fourth quarter.
04:25Kind of by the time you're at the end of the game, you kind of know what everybody is and
04:29what we're going to do.
04:30There's not that many tricks by the end of the game.
04:32You kind of understand each other's tendencies now.
04:34And when it becomes a just game of instinct, he seems to take off.
04:41And I think right now, like, this is going to bother some people.
04:44There's definitely a groundswell still of people who don't like this guy, who don't want him to play quarterback for
04:49the Cleveland Browns.
04:50Truthers, if you will, that look at 144 passing yards and go, man, look at what he did through the
04:55first three quarters.
04:56Like, PFF, not about truthers, not about liking him.
04:59They just, their score for him was horrific.
05:01Oh, yeah.
05:02But I will say, I think even, you said a lot.
05:06Like, we heard the chants at the stadium, and, you know, we talked about how many people were willing to
05:12have to just put up with him because they're 2-1 and because the schedule, you know, you've got a
05:18winnable game here on Thursday.
05:20That place is going to be rocking.
05:21You've got a, obviously, the following week, a winnable game against the Jets, who might be better than we thought
05:26they were going to be, but still, very, very winnable game.
05:28They might even have a chance to be a favorite for the first time this year in that game.
05:32So, I think you're willing to put up with a lot of the misses, and we saw the all-22
05:37KC running wide open.
05:39The fact that there's no vertical passing game right now.
05:43Part of it is also offensive line can't really block them long enough to hit on those plays.
05:47They're willing to hit on them as long as they're winning games.
05:49And until that, exactly, until that stops, until they stop winning football games, that's where it is.
05:55And so, we're in this weird place.
05:57Well, we're not in it.
05:58I think the Browns are in a weird place where I think they knew, and I think everybody knows in
06:03that building, like, hey, we won the game.
06:06He played well in the fourth quarter.
06:07That's what matters.
06:08When you really break down the tape, you go, some of this stuff ain't going to be able to be
06:12sustainable.
06:13Right.
06:13Some of this stuff is going to cost us.
06:15Now, he can throw better, maybe anticipatory throws at the beginning of the season, but this is where Shador has
06:20to keep developing as best he can.
06:23I know that that's a four-letter word right now.
06:25We have one guy who's won two games.
06:27He's solidified as a starter right now, but this is still a touch-and-go situation.
06:33Yeah, I would say this, that people jumped all over Zach Jackson for coming out with us yesterday and, you
06:40know, trying to say, hey, this isn't a lock that Deshaun's just got this job for a long time.
06:45I think that was the least controversial thing that was said.
06:47Like, if I'm a Shador fan, I don't think it's, like, over for my guy all year.
06:53Like, if Deshaun plays like he played on Sunday, week in and week out, I don't think he has a
07:01job all year.
07:01I think Deshaun's got to get better, and the offense has to get better.
07:05And, you know, hey, that's part of football.
07:07All these teams will say, especially the playoff teams, will say, oh, we got way better than we were in
07:13the first three weeks of the year.
07:14The first three weeks was just survival.
07:16Get through the wild volatility of the NFL slate early on where you can't really count on certain things.
07:23You don't know what your identity is.
07:25Even teams that are together, it's never the exact same the following year.
07:29So I'm not counting out Deshaun Watson either.
07:32I'm not saying he has no shot and that he's definitely going to get benched.
07:35Like, he has to get better, and maybe the confidence of him being able to put together those fourth-quarter
07:41drives.
07:41Just winning.
07:42The way they did.
07:43In W's where the team and the fans are supporting you and you're hearing good vibes and everything in the
07:48locker room,
07:49maybe that'll help slow the game down for him.
07:51This goes back to me.
07:53This goes back to high school.
07:55This goes back to, hey, we got this quarterback.
07:57You got to support him.
07:58We got to be in on that.
07:59And winning is the ultimate thing.
08:01The bare bones, did you win?
08:03All right?
08:04Did you win the game?
08:05To me, it's P6, G6 College, not P4.
08:10P4 is Power 4.
08:11It's like the G6.
08:12Hey, you know what?
08:13The guy, you look at his numbers, all these other things.
08:16Did we win?
08:17Yeah.
08:18Did we beat Western Kentucky?
08:20Uh-huh.
08:21All right.
08:21We won.
08:22We played winning football here.
08:23There were some things that we didn't do well.
08:25There were some things that we did do well.
08:26I mean, 14 penalties altogether, 12 that were accepted throughout because you had two flags on two separate plays.
08:31I mean, that's a lot of shooting yourself in your own foot.
08:34And you could say, that's team.
08:35Like, there was a couple of pre-snap.
08:37I understand that.
08:38But you go, that's team.
08:39Holding blocks in the back, things like that, that's team.
08:42We got to clean that up as a team.
08:44If we're not doing that, does that help Deshaun Watson?
08:47Yes, it does.
08:47Like, there's a lot of different things that have to be said that aren't just into the 144 yards passing
08:54and two touchdowns and all the other stuff.
08:56It is a team atmosphere to it.
08:59And they really have to keep doing that.
09:00Because it's going to be results-based.
09:02If you get the 3-1 coming up on Thursday night, if he throws for 101 yards and one touchdown
09:09and that's it,
09:10how do you have a conversation about what his future is?
09:14Because it's all results-based.
09:16It's all winning.
09:17As long as you win, you can't say boo to a goose.
09:20Because you know what happens?
09:21We turn into the 2014 Browns all over again.
09:24Where it was like, hey, you're winning games, but we're not satisfied with this.
09:28Well, this is going to cost us in the future.
09:30Okay, let us get to the future before it costs us.
09:35Do you get what I'm saying?
09:36Like, you remember, 2014, that's the year Brian took off.
09:40They were 7-4.
09:41I think it was 2014.
09:42I'm pretty positive.
09:43They were 7-4 at one point.
09:45They had that wild game against Atlanta.
09:47Ended to be in the last game that they won.
09:49And it got 7-5, 7-6.
09:52And I think when they were 7-6, that's when they replaced him and went with Johnny.
09:57And then things went crazy against the Cincinnati Bengals and the walls caved in.
10:01Part of that was Alex Mack being hurt.
10:03Like, that's how thin of a house of cards that team really was.
10:09Well, he went down to the Pittsburgh game.
10:11I remember that they beat the brakes off of Pittsburgh, but he broke his leg.
10:14And then they had, like, Pat McQuiston in there who was running around with his head down.
10:18It was bad times.
10:20It was bad times across that offensive line.
10:21But that's what I'm trying to avoid here.
10:23Like, yeah, I think in so many ways, like, it feels like we're robbing a bank.
10:27Like, we're trying to get in and get out without anybody noticing us going, oh, my gosh, we're winning these
10:31games.
10:31Look at what we're doing here.
10:33And I do think eventually, like, teams will make their adjustments.
10:37But I'm not going to replace him if they fail to make those adjustments and we still win these games.
10:42Like, it ain't happening.
10:43So, I understand, like, yeah, the yards ain't that great.
10:46The numbers aren't that great.
10:47There are truthers out there about him.
10:49I don't give a damn.
10:50If he throws for 86 yards and they somehow run their way to a victory or they somehow turn over
10:54their way to a victory or something like that, I don't care.
10:563-1 is 3-1.
10:574-1 would be 4-1.
10:58It don't make a damn bit of difference to me.
11:00He's starting.
11:01He's playing in these games.
11:022-1-6-4-7-4-0-92.
11:04Like, I don't, I'm not going to sit here and make the same mistake.
11:07Me, personally, I'm not going to make the same mistake that I advocated for back in 2014 just because I
11:13want to be excited.
11:15Just because I might be mad if we lose one of these games, but we still have an over 500
11:19record.
11:19Coming up at 8 o'clock, we'll go around the AFC North in five minutes.
11:22We're getting awfully defensive of a guy you made plans to boo just a few weeks ago.
11:28Ken Carman, Anthony Lima, live on the face.
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