00:00There was about an hour-long controversy about whether or not Deshaun Watson would, in fact, start on Sunday.
00:06And then Todd Munkin went to the podium and said, no, no, no.
00:08It is still Shador Sanders.
00:09He is going to start on Sunday.
00:11Deshaun did practice with the team today.
00:13He has not yet cleared the concussion protocol.
00:16As of right now, he's questionable for Sunday.
00:18So he still might end up playing somewhat.
00:20But the starter, at least, is going to be Shador Sanders.
00:23What a wild week.
00:24Can we start here?
00:26It's Friday.
00:26It's like a TGI Friday today for the Browns.
00:32Just because what a week.
00:33Wednesday was just a zoo where you have the Shador press conference that was bizarre.
00:38And then the Jared Verse press conference yesterday that found a way to be more bizarre than the Shador press
00:43conference the day before.
00:45And then today, you finally get back to at bay with the Cleveland Browns.
00:50And OK, Deshaun Watson's on the practice field.
00:52And now he might be the quarterback.
00:54Munkin puts an end to all of it.
00:56It's going to be Shador.
00:57He's going to be your starter.
00:59It's been a wild week.
01:01I ultimately feel like we landed on what was the obvious thing when we found out that Deshaun was going
01:05in concussion protocol.
01:07But, man, for a moment there, when I was listening to Baskin and Phelps on the way in, it definitely
01:11felt like, yeah, Watson still kind of had a chance until Munkin put the kibosh on it there at 1
01:16.30.
01:16Well, I do wonder if Deshaun was starting to hear some of the conversations and some of the conversations that
01:21we'll even get into today about the idea that if Shador looks awesome in this game.
01:24Now, listen, I don't think it's going to happen because of Munkin.
01:27It's not what I would do if I had an open, whatever happens, happens mentality to this.
01:33If I was in charge of this whole entire thing, if Shador goes out there and absolutely balls out, he
01:38gets the job moving forward.
01:39Deshaun, in my opinion, has not been good enough to keep the job, but that's clearly not how Munkin sees
01:44it.
01:44And so we're back to doing that thing where it's like, I believe one thing, but I think the Browns
01:47believe something different.
01:49But if Watson started to hear that and understanding how football works in general, because he's been around it his
01:54whole entire life, how sports works in general, you can get Wally pipped.
01:57And so it felt like in seeing him out there today practicing, it felt like there was like a push
02:03by Deshaun to be like, I need to be out there.
02:06I need to do this.
02:07Especially as a guy whose biggest red flag since arriving in Cleveland in 2022 has been his unavailability.
02:15Correct, yeah.
02:15You know, so if there was one thing, maybe in the back of Munkin's mind, obviously Munkin, in my opinion,
02:21wanted this to be Deshaun's football team.
02:23They gave him every single last opportunity throughout OTAs and training camp and the preseason.
02:29And Watson, you know, wins the job and everybody thinks that's the wrong decision to make immediately off the heels
02:35of him torching the fans.
02:36But then kind of wins people back with the five game winning drives and definitely makes it feel like Munkin
02:41made the right idea.
02:42Yet here we go this week in the middle of the week, he goes into concussion protocol in the back
02:47of my mind.
02:47I'm like, man, it's the same way all the rest of the Deshaun Watson injuries feel like they go or
02:53they pop up out of nowhere.
02:54And there he is.
02:55He's gone for the rest of the way.
02:57And I definitely had that thought when I saw the, you know, Grady cell phone footage on X of him
03:02on the practice field indoors in Berea today.
03:05I'm like, here's a guy that's been nothing but unavailable for this organization trying to prove some semblance of availability
03:12while they're auditioning the other guy this week in a regular season ball game.
03:16Was the cell phone footage that grainy?
03:17I thought people had like good iPhones these days.
03:19I mean, just like, dude, like it doesn't have to be that zoomed in.
03:23Is that the problem?
03:24We could see that it's Deshaun.
03:26The reporters are zooming in too far here.
03:27The pores on his skin.
03:30Like, goodness gracious.
03:32So you said before the show, when we thought it could potentially be Deshaun, you were going to be a
03:37little upset by that development.
03:38I was going to be just because like the natural intrigue for me has built throughout the week.
03:43You know, I've become more and more curious as the week has unfolded.
03:47And I was glad to hear Munkin kind of put it the same way when he talked at 130 and
03:51he said, you know, I'm excited to see Shador play.
03:54Who wouldn't be?
03:54And that's kind of where I'm at right now is like, we know what Deshaun is capable of.
03:59We know Deshaun looks like a veteran quarterback, looks way better than I thought he would have throughout training camp,
04:04the preseason and all of that stuff.
04:05Like he surprised me a ton, but I do wonder what it looks like.
04:09I think it came at the perfect time, Nick.
04:11I mean, absolute perfect time for the Browns because you're not benching Deshaun Watson.
04:15You're not making some big scene about it.
04:16You have the ability to go right back to Deshaun Watson the following week if it doesn't work out.
04:21The problem with if you wanted to really see what Shador Sanders could do is if you, again, absence of
04:26any sort of injury or concussion or anything like that,
04:29you would have had to have benched Deshaun a move that would have been really hard to then a week
04:33later be like, all right, our bad guys.
04:35My bad.
04:35We misjudged this one.
04:36We didn't mean to.
04:37Now you almost get a little bit of a free roll with Shador.
04:40Now, yeah, the season is obviously needing a win very badly.
04:43But you get an opportunity to see, can you upgrade off of an offense right now that is legitimately not
04:49good?
04:50Listen, there's so many things I like about this team.
04:52There's so many things I love about this team.
04:55You're one of the worst offenses in the sport, and the quarterback is part of the reason why.
04:59As good as he's been in game-winning drives and end-of-possessions and all that stuff,
05:04in the totality, Deshaun Watson has not been good enough.
05:07And now the Browns get to find out if they get to maybe make a replacement there or at least
05:10for one week,
05:11see if it could look better with somebody else.
05:13I know a lot of people like here, it feels like have kind of rolled their eyes at the idea
05:17that Deshaun Watson couldn't be back
05:20or wouldn't even finish this season because there's just been like this shield of like, he's winning football games for
05:25you.
05:25What do you mean?
05:26What do you mean?
05:27If you think that's the convo, I'm your Romeo then because you know I go completely against all of that.
05:32I might be the only person on the station that just does not, did he win the football game or
05:37did he not win the football game?
05:38I like nuance to the conversation.
05:40There has been so much of that over the last eight weeks.
05:43He's winning football.
05:44Any other conversations are silly.
05:46You can win football games while having a bad offense.
05:48That's part of the point, though.
05:49And it's also like, dude, the Browns are a data-driven organization, right?
05:53Like an analytically sound organization.
05:57Deshaun Watson's advanced analytics are complete garbage.
06:00They're not good.
06:01The numbers that Andrew Barry and probably Todd Munkin and his staff care about, those numbers are horrible.
06:08His average air yards per attempt, what are the worst quarterbacks in the league?
06:12That means he's not throwing it.
06:13And like when we have guys like yesterday, we had Sam Brookhasson who does like some of the advanced data
06:17stuff.
06:18Yeah, some of the advanced data stuff.
06:19And when he comes on and is like, it's so unequivocally, your offense looks good in some areas,
06:23but the quarterback is the one dragging everyone down.
06:26His sacks are too much.
06:27He's fumbling the ball at an incredibly high rate relative to other people in the NFL.
06:31And his overall play, when he is actually just trying to make passes, not good enough.
06:37And I don't know that Shador is necessarily going to be the answer to that.
06:41We haven't seen Shador play in 10 months.
06:43Zero idea.
06:44In a new system with Munkin, with new wide receivers, no idea how it's going to look.
06:49But I'm intrigued.
06:49But I want to see.
06:50Yeah, I just want to see.
06:51Give me one week.
06:52Yeah, I agree with the sentiment.
06:55Getting rid of Deshaun right now and moving off for Shador would have been a little bit too much.
06:59You're winning games.
07:00You have some things going in the right direction.
07:02Deshaun earned to be the quarterback.
07:04Yep.
07:04But now I get to try and see what this looks like for one week.
07:07And in that instance, it does kind of open up to basically anything's a possibility,
07:11which is why it was no surprise to myself or yourself today that you saw Deshaun Watson trying to get
07:16back on the field,
07:17trying to make a push for it.
07:18I am a little surprised that Munkin already squashed any rumors or anything connected to that, though.
07:22I did not see that coming out of Munkin.
07:24And I think that took some fortitude.
07:25But I think he's also a little intrigued.
07:27I think so, too.
07:28I think the organization at whole is intrigued.
07:31I think Andrew Barry's been intrigued since last year, truthfully.
07:34I mean, and we heard some of those reports that it was Barry and the organization more so than the
07:39coaching staff.
07:39Barry's always been the really big Shador supporter in that building.
07:42Which I have to imagine when Todd is talking to Andrew about this job, he's got to be a little
07:48bit interested in Shador, too.
07:50And even throughout the preseason, we heard Todd say plenty of glowing things about how Shador was progressing and developing.
07:55And obviously, Todd stands to benefit from it the same way he stands to benefit from Deshaun playing well.
08:00Where if you have a guy in Shador that was sacked almost two dozen times in seven starts last year
08:05and threw more interceptions than he did touchdowns, you have that guy play well?
08:10After there were conversations about Deshaun Watson being a potential comeback player of the year candidate?
08:15Yeah, that's going to only strengthen Todd Munkin's coach of the year candidacy.
08:18Of course, he's going to have a little bit of injury.
08:20And there's also another little wrinkle to this.
08:23And we'll play this audio from Todd Munkin here about what Watson's role is going to be in this.
08:28But depending on what Watson's role is really dictates whether or not you're going to have a long leash with
08:33Shador in this game.
08:34So here was Todd Munkin earlier today speaking about whether or not Watson will be backup or how this all
08:39looks.
08:40I haven't decided that yet.
08:41We're still, you know, working through that, working through his ability to clear it.
08:44You get to this part in the week, he's still not able to do any team reps.
08:47He can do individual, he can do some routes.
08:50Been in meetings, but you're not able to do any of the team reps, which makes it difficult.
08:53Again, a lot of this conversation is just kind of is what it is.
08:56If Shador is, in fact, the only starter and Deshaun Watson is not able to clear concussion protocol and it's
09:02Shador into Dylan Gabriel.
09:04But if it's Shador into a backup situation where Deshaun's there, he's got the helmet, he's active on game day.
09:09If that's part of the conversation, Nick, then I think it's a really interesting approach that the Browns are taking
09:14here.
09:15And I also am interested to see how long they take it in this game.
09:18Well, it's just, it's, it's honestly just what we needed for this game.
09:22Another active quarterback.
09:24But this is going to be like during the game.
09:26This is going to be like at halftime.
09:28He legitimately has to go into the locker room.
09:31If Shador is struggling at all, he's got to go in the locker room and make a decision.
09:34Am I coming out with Deshaun Watson instead?
09:35Or am I keeping Shador in there and the whole entire game is his?
09:39Like this little cat and mouse game with Deshaun Watson's eligibility is really fascinating.
09:43And I don't think it's just gamemanship for the Saints, by the way.
09:46I don't, I'd tell you if I thought he was just playing games and trying to make the Saints make
09:50sure that their game plan for two different quarterbacks.
09:53I think there's a genuine interest in what Shador can do.
09:55And I also think he knows how important this game is.
09:58And so like, yeah, Deshaun, is he a hundred percent?
10:00No.
10:01But if at halftime, Shador looks bad.
10:03Is 85% Deshaun Watson going to be better than whatever Shador is doing?
10:07I think these are things that he's got to weigh out.
10:09Especially because they talked to us all week that they haven't changed the game plan at all.
10:14Been the same exact game plan.
10:15They're not really weighing Watson's ability versus Sanders' ability.
10:19They obviously built the game plan understanding that Shador was likely to get the start.
10:24But kind of makes it feel like some of the stuff is still going to be fit for either guy.
10:29No question.
