00:00I would imagine you got a bunch to say about Deshaun Watson and I really don't know uh throughout
00:04this entire stretch I just I I have good take memory I feel like but in thinking about you
00:10and thinking about where you stand with Deshaun Watson I I don't want to put words into your
00:14mouth tell everybody where you were initially and then I'll where you stand I felt like I was
00:19biggest let me see Deshaun actually do something different without Kevin Stefanski and that was
00:25my I'm interested by about five percent to see what Deshaun Watson has going into the season
00:30okay didn't think he would give you good play really didn't think after week one he was going
00:34to give you good play and now I've been uh pleasantly surprised by what I've watched well I mean more
00:38pleasantly surprised than I thought I would be by what I watched yeah I think that's a strong takeaway
00:42and a right takeaway right like it's fine to be pleasantly surprised that you're not all of a
00:46sudden putting the guy in the Super Bowl and you're not all of a sudden saying he's Patrick Mahomes
00:50you're saying he's a guy that through three quarters struggled in one game in the fourth
00:53quarter was awesome and for some reason in back-to-back weeks in the fourth quarter he's
00:57become one of the best quarterbacks in the sport if we could figure out why that is it might be
01:02nice
01:02but the idea that Deshaun Watson has to be anything more than that right now I just don't think is
01:07something the Browns really necessarily desperately need I think what you saw in week three what you've
01:13seen in week two you're winning games while giving the young players chances and Deshaun is doing
01:18good things in high important moments like that's not there's nothing wrong with that no
01:23and listen like that's not going to lead you to a 13 win season just playing fourth quarters of
01:27football on offense certainly not no uh but it's going to take you over teams like the Carolina
01:32Panthers every once in a while it might give you a chance on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Steelers
01:36knowing well that offense just wasn't very good for two weeks and then was obviously good last week
01:40but like might give you a shot in those games it gives you an opportunity to be somewhere near a
01:45500
01:46football team playing okay defense is good they can keep us in the game for three quarters
01:51Deshaun Watson magically turns into a different quarterback in the fourth quarter can lead a
01:55game-winning drive which I think is a massive win by the way if you become a 500 football team
01:59like
01:59we gave Nick a lot of grief throughout the time for saying eight nine but part of that grief for
02:03myself was and he thought everyone was giving him a hard time because it was like too outlandish of a
02:08win total I was like no you gotta bump it up like if you really believe in this team you
02:12should be
02:12saying nine ten eleven wins like eight nine is not an impressive mark eight nine is still below 500
02:17that's that is achievable even though I didn't think it was going to happen my prediction was six
02:22wins or two wins off from overly optimistic to somebody that's kind of like yeah I guess we'll
02:27see where this goes yeah we were we covered the spread there I was at seven wins uh to start
02:31the
02:31year so there we go like yeah but I'm not very I'm not overly high on this team again it
02:37was okay I
02:37like young pieces I like a lot of the the rookies and the second year guys you've brought in
02:41I thought you've added to it to make it a competent football team I yeah I mean I didn't think
02:46this
02:46team was rocking their way to the playoffs and I don't think that everybody who threw out predictions
02:49of anywhere from four to around eight games was like off their rocker either well so the question
02:55I want to start with you guys added 216474 to below 92 is what exactly do the Browns need Deshaun
03:00Watson to be and we're gonna get to some Ian Rappaport audio there's a thing I want to go off
03:03on
03:04for a brief brief moment because it's just gonna it's gonna be very self-serving but we have to get
03:08to
03:08it but in thinking about what he needs to be right now guys you don't need a top five quarterback
03:12if
03:13the defense is what they've been for the past two weeks now and if Ruttenberg does have them dialed
03:17in and the pressure rates which is the highest in any single NFL game over the first three weeks of
03:22the season what the Browns did on Sunday if you can have that then yeah we use the term competent
03:27quarterback play a lot and I know it gets thrown a lot around an awful awful ton but you're not
03:33really
03:33needing much more than that if you want to just build an eight nine nine and eight team and be
03:38really really in the mix all things uh at the end of the day I think looking back at this
03:43Carolina
03:43game I need him to be better than he was in that game for the most part though right I
03:47could argue
03:48I need him to be better yeah not only the Carolina game uh for sure the first three quarters you
03:52definitely need him to be better than what that was that was not good enough football and I know when
03:56people hear that they just think I'm coming down on him and I'm being hard uh but like that that
04:00wasn't good football and like oh man I I've I have cursed coach Riz like 75 times since that
04:06interview yesterday where he made the suggestion that that was good football that he played for
04:10three quarters no it wasn't it was bad football I even got some tweets and Twitter reactions brought
04:15to you by our friends at Chabin Jewelers Cleveland's premier jewelry store ah Jonathan you're just looking
04:19at the box score no no no no there's no eye test there's no box score there's no EPA there's
04:24no DVO
04:25there's nothing you can come up with that suggests 67 yards through three quarters is good football
04:31that's just that's sorry that's not that's not existent to me we could just go back and uh I saw
04:36it on social media but you can just pull up the all 22 highlight Casey Concepcion and uh just watch
04:41those plays and it'll give you a good feeling on where Deshaun was at for the first three quarters of
04:45football the TikTok world and and this is a world that coach Riz should shine in all things considered
04:50because this is like the clip the clip world basically they are destroying Deshaun Watson's
04:56all 22 they're making a field day out of Deshaun's on 12 22 and and highlighting some of the misses
05:01that he either didn't see or then the throws to like Concepcion that he flat out just came nowhere
05:07close and so like yeah there's a lot he's got to do better nobody's arguing that this is perfect
05:12and nobody's arguing that he was anything short of fine at the end if you put it all into play
05:19what I've given him credit for and then again I don't want to come down hard on Deshaun because
05:23there's there's things I did enjoy and there's things I liked what I give him credit for is the
05:27final touchdown drive and the two touchdown passes to Harold Fannin where again nice throws very very
05:32nicely done and like he in that moment there's so many NFL quarterbacks that would crumble like the
05:39cookie I just crumble okay I just have no chance and Deshaun's not one of them I don't know what
05:44it
05:44says about a guy that needs the game on the line in order to perform that's the only time you
05:48see the
05:48best version of himself whatever you want to call that some people would call it clutch I don't
05:52think it's clutch but there's something there that exists with Deshaun that we have to at least
05:56recognize yeah and listen like it it's picking up the Browns wins right now which is all they're
06:00going to care about that's all they're going to be focused on is are we picking up the win at
06:04the
06:04end of the day and yes we have to improve the play but uh Todd Munkin's not going to come
06:07down
06:08as hard on Deshaun Watson if they're two and one as if they were one and two I know but
06:11context does
06:12have to matter though and this is something I argue with it seems like a lot more sports fans than
06:15I care to
06:16admit to everyone's got this like Al Davis just win baby mentality to it no if you're if your end
06:21result after watching a football game is did we win or did we lose congratulations you're a nine-year-old
06:25I mean like there's there's there's context attached to all this and I know a lot of what I'm discussing
06:29is for great teams across the NFL which is not us if I'm a fan of a great team across
06:35the NFL and my
06:36end result is boy we almost got taken to the woodshed by the dolphins but we won the game so
06:41that's all
06:41that matters I wouldn't listen to those people that's bad analysis that's not good now maybe
06:46it's different because we're not necessarily considered to be a good team but like if the
06:49best you got it for me of after a game is well we won so everything else gets erased that
06:55nine-year-olds
06:56do that I thought we were adults here no I mean it's not just gets a race I think a
07:00lot of it comes down
07:00when you look at Deshaun like everybody has the context of leash and how long he's going to be here
07:06and
07:06all these things that go into it anything is okay well he's playing good enough to pick up wins in
07:12each individual week scenario right that doesn't have to be good but you played Carolina you didn't
07:16have to be good in that game you were good enough to pick up the win if you just do
07:19that consistently
07:20week after week more often than you're not then we're seeing a lot more Deshaun Watson this team's
07:24going to be more successful than they are failures well it's where I give Deshaun credit on that is I
07:28don't know every quarterback I did not just saying on the Browns roster I don't know that they're
07:3290% of the league pulls off what he did in the fourth quarter in that game on Sunday and
07:37that
07:37that's where I have to I just I'm not genuflecting at the altar I'm just trying to give a man
07:41props
07:41here he has done in back-to-back weeks in the fourth quarter what I didn't think was possible
07:46and so that's a that's a good sign but the question then is what exactly do the Browns need Watson
07:50to be
07:50now yeah some people think he's going to all of a sudden you know be Atlas and put the world
07:55on his
07:55shoulders that's guys I don't think that's happening but I don't I don't think the Browns are upset that
08:00this is the development that we're in either where you are winning games you at least got a promise
08:04of a fourth quarter where he seems to be good and then for the first three quarters you just kind
08:08of have to tread water and make sure that it doesn't happen what happened in the Jacksonville
08:11game doesn't happen where the it's just a one-sided affair and you've got no chance to begin with
08:17isn't this in a lot of ways the exact type of quarterback play you were like begging for last
08:21year to get at least this obviously would take much better than this but you looked at it last year
08:25and you go I just need at least this the defense is going to keep you into the game play
08:30you know don't turn the ball over play clean football and then make some opportunistic plays
08:34that's what Deshaun has done it fourth quarter comes around opportunity presents itself Deshaun
08:38Watson puts them in the end zone or puts them in a position to score you would have begged for
08:42this
08:42last year we're now getting it and it's like again it feels like you only have people on either end
08:47of
08:47the spectrum right now there's not enough people living in the middle of just like oh this is fine
08:50like he's not great but this is okay we live with this it's either he's going to be incredible or
08:55that
08:55guy still stinks well welcome to sports talk radio right yeah I mean that's kind of that is a lot
09:00of
09:00it there's not a lot of time you want to live in the middle oddly enough though I do feel
09:03like up and
09:03down the station for the past 24 hours though it had more people than not have lived in that area
09:07that you're talking about right I think there's a there's a lot of unknown with Deshaun right now
09:11there is also the idea that nobody thinks he's awesome at quarterback because of a couple games
09:16and in turn we also don't think he's trash either like like the the people like myself that
09:21just thought he was mentally cooked and thought that there was going to be no chance he could go
09:25out there and actually perform and up I mean it hasn't been pretty but at least in the fourth
09:30quarter he's come out and played really really good football so like I have to give him credit where
09:34credit's due but I I do think people on the station up and down though I do think it's been
09:39more
09:41down the middle with Deshaun after three weeks and I think that's just because that's the sensible
09:45approach that you can have with him right now because he's such a mystery bag in and of himself
09:49yeah I will say to the mentality point of things like I think that's where a lot of people should
09:54be be giving Deshaun credit that they haven't necessarily is that yeah I mean especially even
09:59after week one after we got the comments and I was losing my mind that Wednesday when he was like
10:03listed all the things he thought he did well and I was like you didn't do any of those things
10:07you played bad football yeah uh but he's walked away from it again played really good fourth quarters
10:11like he said back up against the wall potentially NFL career up against the wall that's where I figured
10:17oh Deshaun's gonna crumble more than any time ever before is when all of the pressure's on him and
10:21it's actually when he's responded like of all the times I've watched him mentally crumble it feels like
10:26in the city of Cleveland when it actually was all on the line where you would never play another game
10:30of football if you get benched after two weeks is when Deshaun turned it up and then turned it up
10:35again in the fourth quarter this time I know it's odd it feels like he needs to feel like his
10:39job is
10:40almost being lost or being gone and then all of a sudden he puts on the Superman cape and can
10:44perform and I
10:45I don't know what to make of that and honestly it does scare me a little bit if he has
10:49comfort that
10:49he's gonna oh I got four weeks now or I got five weeks now does he relax like he did
10:53for the first
10:54three quarters and wait until the fourth quarter hits I I don't know there's something it's so much
10:58of him is just a mental game and I you're right you're 100% right he's like he's right when
11:02he's at
11:03the edge of being just booted to the to the backup role he just comes on and saves the day
11:08it's absolutely
11:09absurd like again he was the last thing I would have picked for Deshaun Watson if I had to go
11:13into this
11:14season go give me one thing he's gonna do it's handle pressure well and it is the one thing I
11:18can guarantee you this season he has actually done well
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