00:00Talking a little bit about Deshaun Watson and what his future with the Browns could potentially look like.
00:06There was a bit of a large report that came out in The Athletic yesterday, Anthony, about Deshaun Watson's future
00:14in Cleveland,
00:15where Jonathan Jones, who does a really good job, one of the NFL insiders over there for The Athletic,
00:20asked Jimmy Haslam at the owner meetings this week in the hotel lobby about a potential contract extension for Deshaun
00:28Watson.
00:29Jimmy Haslam says that that's way too early to get into, and they're focused on beating the Tennessee Titans.
00:36It does sound like that all options remain on the table.
00:40You know, Jones goes in to tell him that there is a source that's telling him that, you know, Watson
00:45does have a chance at returning to the Browns,
00:48but it's still tremendously early, and they've got to see how this thing comes along before they make any decisions
00:54into next year.
00:55I think that's the right attitude to have at this juncture.
00:58It's been a tremendously fun start.
01:01I know there are a lot of people that want to get excited about Deshaun Watson because we've suffered through
01:06a lot of really bad quarterback play with him,
01:09but also since the team acquired him from others, since he's been unavailable and injured and not able to play
01:16for the Browns.
01:17I just think that right now, Meglin, like the conversation to me, I've been using the word silly.
01:23It's honestly kind of a laughable conversation to me because everybody is using like the numbers.
01:29You know, I think it's easy to lie with numbers a lot of times, and they're using, you know, well,
01:33on game winning drives,
01:34the Browns, you know, put this out themselves, and on the last drive of games, there was no quarterback in
01:40the league with a higher QBR than Deshaun Watson.
01:43And it's like, well, if we want to lie with numbers, I've got some honest numbers for you.
01:47In the first three quarters of games, there's only one quarterback with the worst QBR than Deshaun Watson won.
01:55Deshaun, it's Malik Willis of the Miami Dolphins.
01:58Deshaun is a bottom two NFL quarterback in the first three quarters of games.
02:03Now, what matters is that he's put on his cape, and he's got these four game winning drives,
02:08and he's got us four and two right now, and he's helping you with the development of Denzel Boston
02:13and Casey Concepcion and Harold Fannin Jr., and I want to see them get those guys the football earlier in
02:19today's game.
02:20Let's not wait until the last quarter of the game to get our best playmakers the football.
02:26I think he deserves a little bit of credit because he's putting the team in winning position to get the
02:29job done.
02:30It's just I'm going to continue to call the conversation about bringing him back next year laughable until he plays
02:37better.
02:37Yeah, it's right.
02:38This is having the kid to save the marriage, right, because it's five years of bad, four years of bad,
02:44and in the fifth year, right, it's a fun start.
02:48It's been two months of a lot of fun.
02:49Don't get it twisted, though.
02:50I mean, we were definitely talking about it early on in the 7 o'clock hour.
02:54You know, this isn't good quarterback play.
02:56It is good quarterback play for the fourth quarter, and he deserves a lot of credit for that, right?
02:59Like, we have to – you have to acknowledge the fact that in the fourth quarter, he is playing great
03:04football,
03:05and last week against Baltimore, unbelievable hit to Jerry Judy over the middle perfectly.
03:10And the other part, too, is some of these big plays that are happening, I think about the Denzel Boston
03:16one back in Tampa Bay,
03:18and even the one last week.
03:19Yeah.
03:20Like, this is not – this is him getting into the right calls, right?
03:23He's at the line of scrimmage making checks.
03:24He's calling audibles.
03:26It came out on both of those big plays that, hey, he checked into those types of plays.
03:30So, I love that from him.
03:31And, frankly, like, that's something you should get excited for for a rookie.
03:35Like, hey, heck yeah.
03:36I mean, we've got to remember, this is a 10-year vet, right?
03:39And he should be doing those things.
03:40And he is, to his credit, in the fourth quarter.
03:42The rest of the quarters, not all that much.
03:44But the conversation about bringing him back, I think it gets interesting.
03:49This isn't an Anthony original thought.
03:51This came from the weekend here.
03:53My cousin had this thought.
03:54But he was saying that, hey, what do we think about – what do we think about Deshaun Watson at
03:59the current price tag?
04:00Or if he does come back, he gets it on – the Browns come to him and they say, hey,
04:04here's how you've played according to the market.
04:06What if we paid you maybe more than a vet minimum?
04:09But what if we paid you according to the market?
04:11And then it goes back to Andrew Barry.
04:12Because if you go back, Nick, to the offseason, Andrew said the 2027 offseason is when they're going to put
04:17the gas on the fire and they're going to put the pedal down.
04:19Yeah, they said hyper-aggressive was what Andrew Barry used to discuss free agency this coming March.
04:26Do the expectations change when he's not the highest-paid quarterback in the league and he's not getting paid at
04:31Josh Allen's rate and Patrick Mahomes' rate?
04:34And he's getting paid at a reasonable rate and you fill in the rest of the gaps behind him.
04:39Does the conversation change in your opinion?
04:42Yeah, maybe.
04:42Because right now – and Deshaun doesn't get this.
04:46He's never gotten this.
04:47He says that it's personal, you know, all of this stuff, that that's the reason why he gets booed, this,
04:51that, and the third.
04:52Look, when you're getting paid $230 million fully guaranteed, the expectation is for you to be a guy that could
04:59go on a week-in, week-out basis,
05:01toe-to-toe with Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Jackson in this AFC.
05:05That's why the Browns went out on the conquest to upgrade from Baker Mayfield and get Deshaun in the first
05:10place.
05:11I spin it on its head, though, and I look at it like this.
05:13If you're going to be hyper-aggressive in free agency, isn't that the perfect time to drop a rookie quarterback
05:19in this thing
05:20and kind of support that guy with some high-priced tag veterans that could get the most out of a
05:25young player
05:26and try to really put a young QB for the first time really in post-1999 Browns history in the
05:32right situation?
05:33Right, and so the question then I pose to you is, is Cleveland's quarterback, A, on their roster right now,
05:41B, not on their roster but in the NFL, or C, playing college football and watching tape this morning on
05:46yesterday's performance?
05:47Yeah, in the long term, you're asking?
05:49I'm not asking for next year. What do you think?
05:51It's tough. That's where it gets tough, and that's where I feel like they probably don't even know this right
05:56now
05:56because, really, you could see a world, couldn't you, where Deshaun's the bridge on exactly what you just talked about.
06:02A team-friendly deal.
06:03Lamar Sellers.
06:04We're going to talk to our Browns beat writer, Daryl Reiter, our Browns beat reporter, Daryl Reiter, at 9 a
06:11.m.,
06:11and he's been beating this drum, Meglin, of you've got nothing out of the $230 million that you gave them
06:18the first time.
06:19So if you're going to do another deal with them, okay, it's going to be a discounted rate
06:23because we got nothing out of the first deal that we gave you.
06:26Then maybe you mentioned Lenora Sellers.
06:28Drew Messamaker's 20 years old.
06:30Messamaker, oh my gosh.
06:32And then you're not feeling rushed to try to put that guy on the field in one of those situations
06:36if it is a young player, and we know Andrew Barry tends to lean a little bit younger
06:40when it comes to his NFL draft picks, even though he's backed off of that in the last couple of
06:44years.
06:44I just think right now to have a conversation about even bringing Watson back as a bridge quarterback,
06:50I need to see way more, because there's still a world where a couple of weeks from now
06:56when we get around the bye, if this team isn't consistently winning,
07:01there's a world where maybe they want to get a look at Shador Sanders before this thing is over,
07:05and then the conversation of extending Deshaun feels even sillier
07:09if he's not even the quarterback that finishes the season.
07:11And becomes a mute point at that point.
07:15It's all really good, and it all truly hinges.
07:17Bringing it back to today, it all hinges on the start of today,
07:21because if you look at the Browns' schedule, this is a very tough three-week stretch
07:25where they're on the road, they're on the road in Tennessee,
07:27you're on the road in Pittsburgh, you're on the road in New Orleans.
07:29You need to, in my opinion, if you want to be taken seriously,
07:32and for Deshaun, if you want to continue to be the quarterback of this team,
07:35you have to go 2-1 in that stretch.
07:37It simply has to.
07:38I don't care if the win's in New Orleans and Tennessee and you lose in Pittsburgh, fine.
07:42If you go to Pittsburgh and win, you lose in New Orleans,
07:45whatever it is, you have to go 2-1 in this stretch,
07:47because that sets up the bye week, and then that sets up a come-off-the-bye week
07:50where you have the Texans on the other side, you've got the Bengals on the other side,
07:54you've got some really tough teams.
07:55You go 2-1 in this stretch, now you're sitting at a 6-3,
07:58now you're talking about, okay, hey, Deshaun, you have a chance now,
08:02not only to take the Browns to the playoffs, but to prove that you should stay here.
08:05And I know for him that's important.
08:06I don't think in the streets of Cleveland, as we get outside there,
08:09we may be getting tomatoes thrown at us when we walk out of here,
08:11but that's really how this very short-term right now, including today,
08:17it's so important for him to go out there and put on a good performance,
08:20because they need this win and then a couple others here before the bye.
