00:00Today, the Browns announcing they are going back to Deshaun Watson as a starting quarterback.
00:04Our next guest, pretty nationally renowned here.
00:08He's going to be on the Seahawks Raiders game, Fernando Mendoza's first game,
00:12and he joins us on the Why Start Right? We Make It Right?
00:15Call Kyle Wright hotline as he does every single Wednesday at 4 o'clock
00:20of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast.
00:22Odyssey NFL insider Ross Tucker joins us now on this insider call.
00:26All is presented by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs.
00:30Nationwide is on your side.
00:31Ross, welcome to the show.
00:34What's up?
00:35Before you ask me anything, I've got two things already.
00:38Number one, who is eating peeps?
00:41That'd be Ohio State, who's a Wadsworth guy from down the road in a big bar stooler,
00:46and he has to eat...
00:48It was 10 peeps for every Oregon point.
00:51For every Oregon point, because Ohio State lost, so he has to eat 410 peeps this week.
00:56Oh, my...
00:59So, peeps are gross.
01:01And I put peeps in the Cadbury egg category of just disgusting Easter chocolate candy,
01:13whatever you want to call them.
01:14So, those are by far the two worst Easter gifts people get, peeps and Cadbury eggs,
01:23unless either one of those companies is listening and they would like to sponsor me,
01:27in which case I've reserved the right to change my mind.
01:30But, no, they're gross.
01:32That reminds me, actually, in my fraternity, we had a task night,
01:38and so everybody had to eat...
01:41When I was a pledge, everybody had to do some type of crazy eating thing.
01:45I had to eat 16 uncooked hot dogs, basically like raw hot dogs.
01:52Yeah, that's raw dogging.
01:53But my buddy, Crater, they gave him two sticks of butter
02:01and a thing of Hawaiian punch, and he had to eat it like it was Fun Dip.
02:07Oh, man, that's gross.
02:09That's actually pretty funny.
02:11He had to stick the butter in the Hawaiian punch and eat it like that.
02:15How'd they settle on 16 hot dogs?
02:19I don't know, but, you know, hot dogs are actually already cooked,
02:23so it was really just like eating bologna.
02:27It was like eating, like, horrible processed bologna,
02:30but it still wasn't, like, that terrible.
02:33My other buddy had to do 64 slices of oil-based cheese,
02:37which is, that's pretty heinous, too.
02:40I can't remember what the other guys had to do.
02:42Kyle Brandt was a pledge brother.
02:44If you ever get him on, you can ask Kyle what he had to do that night.
02:47So, what got Crater, by the way?
02:49Real quick, what got Crater, the cholesterol or the diabetes?
02:54Well, the thing is, is the texture of the butter plus, like, the grainy.
03:02Like, that was the worst one.
03:03I mean, that, like, that is horrendous.
03:08That was really bad.
03:10I actually felt like mine was okay compared to some of the others.
03:15I love, by the way, Crater is in private equity in the Bay Area.
03:18We're just, like, talking about him on Cleveland radio right now.
03:21We all knew Crater was having a lot of success in life.
03:23That was never a question.
03:24Here's the next thing.
03:27November, what is it?
03:28November 11th, 12th was the date?
03:2911.
03:31Did you just say on the radio that it's a must-win game for the Cavs, Nick?
03:36Yeah, they got us down bad.
03:38Not for me personally, but they could be firing their head coach any day now.
03:42Okay, but, like, it's November 11th.
03:47There's no must-win game in the NBA.
03:50And if you want me to keep coming on, you have to have some credibility.
03:55I don't think that's true.
03:57Otherwise, they just need to come on with Jonathan.
03:59If you're going to say, it's a must-win game for the Cavs.
04:02The NBA season didn't even start until after football season ended.
04:05Everybody knows that.
04:06Ross, you have not been in the Cavs wars that we've had for the last two weeks here.
04:10We got Fat James Harden back here.
04:12You know that from Philly.
04:13We got guys just raw-dogging it out on the court out there.
04:17Jonathan's going on Fallon's show and not even really caring.
04:20And no one cares.
04:21Yeah, well, guess what?
04:22We got smoked by the Celtics last night, so I'm not happy either.
04:26Yeah, it's got to be real tough with LeBron and Jalen Brown
04:29and all that talent and championship potential.
04:31I really feel for you guys in Philly there, Ross.
04:35All right, let's move on with your seven-to-door question.
04:38Let's do it.
04:40Well, you write us like a book, Ross.
04:41I was actually going to start Deshaun.
04:45Start Deshaun.
04:46Yeah, just to swerve you there.
04:48Just to swerve you there.
04:49All right, so the Browns are going back to Deshaun.
04:52This was not thought to be a real topic until Jeremy Fowler reports
04:57that they're going back on Monday,
04:59and then Todd Munkin declined to name Deshaun the starter until today.
05:04Are the Browns making the right move sticking with Deshaun Watson
05:07as opposed to going to Shador?
05:09I think they are, and there's several reasons for that.
05:13One of which is they were essentially 5-2 with Deshaun as a starting quarterback.
05:20I mean, I know he played the rest of that Steelers game,
05:24but when do we think he was concussed in that game?
05:30Early.
05:31First quarter.
05:31I mean, first drive.
05:32Yeah.
05:33Exactly.
05:33So my point would be, with a non-concussed Deshaun Watson,
05:40the Browns are 5-2.
05:41And so I think while they're still in the mix, he should still be the starter.
05:49I think if he performs poorly or the Browns are out of the mix,
05:55then I would go to Shador.
05:57And I would say I felt like Shador did enough positive things
06:02that he probably shortened Deshaun Watson's leash however long it was before, right?
06:10So however long Deshaun's leash was in Munkin's mind,
06:14that is now shorter because I thought Shador did some positive things.
06:20My guess is it will work out over the next few weeks that maybe the Browns,
06:27because the AFC is just so good with those, you know, top six teams or whatever.
06:35They're just not losing, you know?
06:37So my guess is at some point it will make sense for Munkin to play Shador
06:43for the last three, four, five, however many games it is, six,
06:48and really see and define what Shador could be for this franchise moving forward.
06:55Yeah, you mentioned shorter leash, and I agree with that.
06:57I guess we had Ashley Bastock on who covers the team 40 minutes ago,
07:00and she made the suggestion that the bye week really matters for the Browns.
07:04And after this Texans game, they hit the bye week.
07:06Would that matter in your timing of whether or not you'd go to Shador or not?
07:10Or is it not really something that plays into this?
07:14Fair question.
07:19I don't think it's a big factor.
07:21I really don't.
07:22I mean, he's been there since March.
07:25You know, he has a real good feel for the system at this point.
07:30I don't think it's a scenario where it's like, hey,
07:34we need two weeks to get Shador ready to start.
07:37He just started.
07:39Now, are there things that the coaching staff could put in more of or less of for Shador as opposed
07:47to Deshaun?
07:48Maybe.
07:50But I don't know.
07:51I think his leash is a little bit shorter in terms of Deshaun Watson.
07:54But I don't think the bye really makes that much of a difference.
07:59I think it's really just all about how Watson plays at this point.
08:03Ross, the offensive line went out against a New Orleans front that I know Chase Young's been good.
08:09Granderson's having a nice season.
08:10But that wasn't a great Saints defense.
08:13And that Saints defense looked like the 85 Bears last Sunday.
08:19And I'm hopeful.
08:20I like Spencer Fano.
08:22I really like Spencer Fano.
08:23I like Austin Barber, right?
08:25But we're like nine weeks in and this offensive line just is not congealed.
08:30Is there still time for this O-line to figure it out?
08:33Or after nine games, are we just are what we are?
08:36No, I think they can improve.
08:39I'm a believer, and really in any aspect of life,
08:43but continuity and chemistry do matter.
08:47And the more you work with certain people, the better off you're going to be.
08:52Now, I would think it would be incremental.
08:55It's not like all of a sudden the light bulb goes on.
08:59But the rapport between Barber and Howard and, you know, Jenkins inside,
09:07all those guys, it should be getting better.
09:10I will say we talked about it right from the start of the year.
09:13I was surprised that they were performing as decently as they were earlier in the year
09:20because it's a very unique experiment to basically just throw five guys together at once
09:26and hope it works.
09:28They've certainly won more games than maybe we anticipated with that being the case.
09:34But also, like, the guys they have, okay, forget the rookies.
09:41You know, there's a reason why those other guys were available.
09:47You know, they were not guys that those other teams felt like we've got to have this guy.
09:53We cannot, you know, the Packers cannot let Elton Jenkins go.
09:57The Texans cannot let Titus Howard go.
09:59So, I think they're fine players, but if the other teams no longer thought they were core players
10:09or building blocks of a successful franchise,
10:13I don't know that you can expect them to go to Cleveland and all of a sudden be that.
10:17So, kind of related to that, I'm trying to figure out why Quinshawn Judkins,
10:21again, another week where we line up before the week and we're like,
10:23all right, so the Saints can't stop anything, and then Quinshawn still does nothing from a production standpoint.
10:30Is that just the offensive line?
10:32Or, like, at what point should we say a good running back still has to try to overcome that
10:36or should at least be able to at some point overcome that?
10:40Yeah, I don't think that really happens very often, to be honest with you.
10:43I don't think it's really the case that if the run blocking is subpar,
10:49that a really good running back can overcome it.
10:52I think it's much more the case that if a running back is just okay,
10:58an elite offensive line can overcome it, and they can still get yards.
11:03But there's not a lot of examples where you see a running back who's so good
11:10that he's able to overcome poor blocking in front of him.
11:14It is interesting, though, because, you know,
11:18I did the Denver, the Broncos-Panthers game on Sunday,
11:22and the Broncos, everybody said last year they had the best offensive line in the NFL,
11:27and all those guys are healthy.
11:30They played 99.8% of the snaps this year.
11:33They can't really run it.
11:35You know, the Eagles have always had this big, bad offensive line.
11:39They can't run it a lick either.
11:42Nick referenced, I'm doing Raiders-Seahawks.
11:46Seahawks have been very disappointed in their run game to the point where
11:52there have been talk about them trying to trade for Jonathan Taylor,
11:56and the Raiders are by far the worst rushing team in the NFL.
12:00I guess my point is there's a lot of teams that can't want to run the ball very well.
12:03It's not unique to Cleveland at all.
12:05Ross Tucker, Odyssey NFL Insider, with us here.
12:09And Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company.
12:13They're one of America's largest financial services companies as well.
12:17Nationwide is on your side.
12:19I wanted to talk about Fernando's NFL debut,
12:23but because you were on the Broncos-Panthers game,
12:26can you confirm or deny that the NFL allowed a play to get run,
12:31and then Sean Payton challenged the play afterwards?
12:35Or have you seen any sort of concrete evidence that suggests Sean Payton
12:40actually threw the challenge flag before that second play happened?
12:45Yes, he has absolutely – I've seen multiple videos.
12:48It's crazy, by the way, because, you know, like any week where I'm doing a game,
12:54I will follow three or four of the beat writers or the accounts that follow the team,
13:02that cover the team.
13:03So I'll follow them on Twitter X for the week so that helps for my preparation, whatever.
13:08So last week I'm following the Broncos people and the Panthers people.
13:12Well, then on my Twitter X, the 4U, not the following one, but the 4U,
13:16it starts to show you all kinds of Broncos-Panthers content.
13:23And the last couple days after the game, it was like the Zapruder film.
13:29I mean, people had all kinds of cell phone angles.
13:34And what's crazy is he clearly threw it before the ball was snapped,
13:40but because they were on the one-yard line, the officials didn't see it.
13:45Now, some have slow-moed it and are saying that it didn't hit the ground
13:53before the ball was snapped and that it has to hit the ground.
13:56Like, I don't know.
13:57He threw it.
13:59My understanding is the NFL replay office is able to assist in that and say,
14:05yes, he threw it before the play was snapped.
14:09Because honestly, when the ball's on the one-yard line,
14:12there is no ref looking at Sean Payton.
14:16You know, nobody is looking at the head coach who's only allowed to go to the
14:2030 or 35-yard line to see if he's going to drop a challenge flag.
14:24So he did.
14:26It's unfortunate that they ran the play and people didn't see it
14:30and they thought, you know, they were okay.
14:32But ultimately, the guy picked it off.
14:35I mean, it was an unbelievable play.
14:37He didn't even realize he picked it off.
14:39And ultimately, they got it right.
14:41This is a great company man response from Ross there.
14:44It's just dangerous living on that for you, Ted.
14:46I mean, I knew you lived recklessly, Ross.
14:49What's the company man response?
14:51There's literally videos, Nick.
14:52Carrying water for the NFL.
14:54I get it.
14:55You don't get to work with Ian Eagle on accident, buddy.
14:59Listen, go Google.
15:03Don't Google Cleveland Cavaliers must-win game.
15:06Instead, Google Sean Payton challenge flag throw.
15:10You'll see there's like still shots.
15:13He clearly threw it before the ball was snapped.
15:17It's not even debatable, Nick.
15:18I believe the internet is saying it's debatable, Ross.
15:21I got photos of peeps in the toilet right now.
15:23I can't even.
15:24I can't get through.
15:25I'd love to have a Bronco slow-mo right now.
15:27I'd love that.
15:27It's a different P word that you're seeing in the toilet there.
15:30Hey, Ross, are you surprised not that we got to Mendoza,
15:33but that we got to Mendoza before the Browns get to take on the Raiders
15:37and the Browns will not have a chance to take on?
15:39I thought Kirk Cousins was having a great year, by the way.
15:41I don't think he got nearly enough credit for how good of a season he was having.
15:46Unbelievable.
15:47I mean, they have the worst defense in the NFL.
15:49They can't run the ball.
15:50They're 32nd rushing and 32nd defense.
15:54Yet, Cousins has thrown 20 touchdown passes,
15:58second in the NFL behind Burrow,
16:00and by the way, their receivers aren't very good either.
16:03So it's basically Cousins throwing the ball to Gentee out of the backfield,
16:07and they have two really good tight ends in Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer,
16:13and that's how they were moving it.
16:15That's how they were doing it.
16:16Cousins was incredible,
16:19but they were always going to turn it to Mendoza at some point.
16:23Honestly, this could not have possibly worked out better for the Raiders.
16:28You know, Cousins won them four games, which is more than they won last year,
16:32established a culture under a new coach of,
16:35we're not the same old Raiders, we're going to win,
16:37kind of like Monken, by the way, in Cleveland,
16:40and was a great mentor for Mendoza.
16:44And now they get a third-round pick for him.
16:46He wasn't going to be there next year anyway,
16:48and you don't get a comp pick for him because of his contract.
16:51So to get off the hook for the $10 million roster bonus,
16:54to get a third-round pick,
16:56and to move on to Mendoza,
16:57which you're going to do anyway at some point in the next couple weeks,
17:00makes perfect sense.
17:01Ross, great stuff as always, buddy.
17:03Can't wait to see you on Seahawks Raiders this weekend.
17:07Enjoy it.
17:08Kill it as you always do, bud.
17:10Later, dudes.
17:11Later, dudes.
17:12Ross Tucker there.
17:13Odyssey NFL Insider,
17:14the Ross Tucker Football Podcast,
17:16and the Wise Heart Right.
17:16We make it right.
17:18Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
17:20And, of course, this NFL Insider call presented by Nationwide.
17:24For your insurance and financial needs,
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