Browns rolling with Watson a 'football decision'
Mary Kay Cabot joins Dan Patrick to discuss the morale in Cleveland after naming Deshaun Watson the regular season starter, the reasoning behind the decision, and what this means for Shedeur Sanders.
Video Transcript
Mary Kay Cabot, Hall of Famer, Browns beat writer for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
Oh, I thought about you, I thought about you as soon as the Cleveland Brown well, the press conference with Deshaun Watson, and then they name him as the starter.
So how's morale there in Cleveland?
Well, it's not very good right now among the fan base.
It's not.
I was outside yesterday, taping a podcast, and fans were driving by CrossCountry Mortgage Campus yelling things out the window.
There are pe- there are people that have put posters up on the Jim Brown sign.
There are radio, talk show hosts just kind of going crazy right now.
So it's really not great in terms of the morale over this decision.
But I do think it's time for cooler heads to prevail a little, a little bit, and let this thing play out and see how it's going to go.
Who made the decision to make Deshaun Watson the starter?
It was 100% Todd Monken's decision, and it was a football decision, and this is what a lot of people don't really understand.
When I say football decision, all Todd Monken cares about is going down to Jacksonville and trying to win that football game.
They're gonna have to worry about silent counts.
They're gonna have to worry about cadence.
And also, Deshaun Watson is going to be trying to hold together a brand-new offense, learning a brand-new scheme and terminology, five new starters on the offensive line, two new rookie receivers.
It's all new.
And that would be a very, very tall order in a loud stadium for a second-year quarterback who doesn't have much experience.
Were you at the Deshaun Watson press conference over the weekend?
Yes, I was.
Okay.
I was.
In the moment, you're thinking what when he starts talking?
In the moment, I honestly was thinking, "He has had this pent up for two years, and he had to let it out."
I almost thought he was going to come to tears.
It's been a very, very difficult, recovery for him to come back from these two Achilles surgeries, and I think the thing to remember with Deshaun is he's so well-liked in the building by his teammates- by his coaches, by the ownership.
I mean, Jimmy and Dee Haslam went to his wedding last summer.
And, you know, this is not someone who is not well-loved in the building.
In fact, I think he probably will be made a team captain.
So I think that he felt like all the goodwill chips that he had built up in terms of mentoring Shedeur Sanders last year, mentoring Dillon Gabriel last year, working so hard on his rehab, trying to come here and be the good soldier, since he tore this Achilles in 2024, I think he thought that was gonna spill over to the fan base, and that when he went into that stadium- that they would understand the work that he's done to get back to this point and receive him well, and that didn't happen.
But I don't know if this says so much about Deshaun Watson as it does Shedeur Sanders not ready, and I think that's that would be a big concern for me if, if you're I know we're trying to shoehorn Shedeur Sanders into that starting job because you get clicks with that.
But I, I don't know what it says about his development here that he couldn't beat out Deshaun Watson.
Your thoughts on that.
Well, the thing to remember here is the fact that Shedeur Sanders is not building on the offense that he learned last year under, under Kevin Stefanski.
He's now in the Todd Monken offense.
It's a whole new playbook.
It's a whole new terminology, and it's also an offense that requires a lot of quarterback control.
And you have to be on point at the line of scrimmage.
You've gotta be the point guard.
You've gotta be sliding the protections, managing the motions, making the checks and the calls and the IDs.
And as I mentioned, you're gonna have some rookie receivers that aren't gonna know necessarily where they need to be on every single play, and it's g- going to be coming at you fast.
What we've seen so far in preseason doesn't inform how fast it's going to be when the Jaguars are coming at him, when the Bucs are coming at him.
So I do think that Todd Monken looked at the whole thing and said, "He needs a little more time.
He needs a little bit more seasoning."
Yeah.
I mean, he needs to be able to get in and out of the huddle quicker.
So I do think it was about Shedeur Sanders not being quite ready yet.
He's coming up the learning curve very, very quickly.
He's way better than last year, but once again, it's all new.
So nationally, the media roughed up Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns.
Locally, how would you what's the temperature of talk show hosts, you know, the media there in Cleveland as, you know, Deshaun Watson, what he had to say at the press conference, and even the announcement for him being the starter?
Still lots of vitriol on, on local sports talk radio, definitely.
I've seen it more on talk radio than I have actually in anybody really writing columns about it.
Now, there are some negative columns about this decision, but once again, if you're in the weeds, if you're boots on the ground, you really understand what's going on here.
Not only do they feel like Shedeur needs a little bit more time, but Todd Monken is looking at a dual-threat quarterback in Deshaun Watson, and someone who has run the sort of quarterback control system that he likes to run.
He did that in Houston under Bill O'Brien.
So it really has a lot of football nuance to it, but people don't wanna see that right now, number one, because Deshaun is the villain.
He's been the villain here for a long time.
And number two, Shedeur is the golden boy.
Wrist up.
Everybody loves him.
And so it's, it's sort of a, a double whammy for Deshaun.
Not only is, is he going out there and trying to win back a fan base that doesn't like him, but he's also got this other guy, Shedeur Sanders, that is a phenomenon and that everybody loves.
So it's a very, very difficult situation and a difficult dynamic right now, and it's gonna be very interesting to see how this plays out.
Mary Kay Cabot, Hall of Famer, Browns beat writer for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
What if Watson plays well?
Well, if Watson plays well, and that's what he needs to do, then I think he does build up some goodwill chips.
And then he gets to come back here on September 27th, when they face the Panthers, and maybe dissipate some of those boos.
There still will be some.
But he, if he goes down to Jacksonville, and goes down to Tampa, and can play well, maybe not win both games, but show some things, show that he has some merit, and can complete some deep balls and throw some touchdown passes, then I think the fans will embrace that.
When you look back, to the 2024 season, he went out The 2023 season, I'm sorry.
He went out and he came out of the locker room in Baltimore, completed 14 of 14 passes, and beat the Ravens on the road coming from behind from down 14 points in the fourth quarter.
People loved the fact that he did that.
This town wants winning football and a winning quarterback.
And I might add, too, that Dylan Gabriel was booed when he went in for a play last year- because, b- right?
Because the fans love Shedeur so much.
So he went through all of this, too.
It's, it's not just against Deshaun necessarily.
A lot of it is, but some of it is the Shedeur mystique.
I know we love to grade something, a draft pick or a trade right away.
The Myles Garrett trade felt like a win-win.
How is it playing out now after the fact?
Well, so far I think the reviews have been very good, because Jared Verse has been so good for this team.
He's a great leader.
He's sort of a, a force multiplier in bringing guys together and being one of the guys, and he's helped Spencer Fano, the new left tackle, get up to speed and ready to play.
And you always hear Jared Verse out there.
He's very, very vocal.
I think he's brought a new dynamic to this defense.
I think they're gonna be a little bit nastier, play with a little bit more of an edge.
But they gave up a lot in sacks, and not only, did they lose Myles Garrett, but they just lost their number two edge rusher in Alex Wright to a ruptured Achilles.
So they're gonna have to get some sacks from somewhere.
This is a tall order for a brand-new defensive coordinator in Mike Rutenberg, to try to replace what they lost in Myles Garrett, and, and he's gonna have to find those sacks somewhere else.
Handicap the division.
Well, you know, it's ripe for the taking.
It really is.
I mean, if the Browns can get good quarterback play, and we have no idea if they can.
We don't, because I think Deshaun Watson is still very rusty and needs to get up to speed with these, these receivers and with this tight end and with this offensive line.
But if it all comes together somehow and Todd Monken can find a way to get some points on the board out of this offense, maybe 23, maybe 24 point, 23 could do it with this defense, and they can win some games.
This division is ripe for the taking with new coaches, a lot of turnover, and, you know, if it doesn't happen for the Browns this year, over the next couple of years they should be able to make some noise in the AFC North.
Look at you.
Look at you offering up optimism there, Mary Kay.
That's great.
Although the over-under is five and a half wins.
I'm, I'm assuming you would say you're gonna take the over.
Yeah, I would take the over right now.
Hey, even Jimmy Haslam said he would take the over, so that's good.
So yeah, I would take the over.
Wait.
Now, if he said he would take the under, then you got a headline.
Well Well, right.
Yeah.
But, so the, the bar is set here at at least six victories.
And again, it's all gonna come down to that quarterback play, and we don't know how Deshaun is going to perform.
And I also think that Shedeur Sanders is going to get on the field this season.
Yeah.
The Browns never get through a whole season with one quarterback.
So Shedeur is gonna play, and this is an opportunity for him to prove that he's ready, to get ready, and to make sure that when he goes out there, there aren't any issues with calling, you know, sliding protections and getting in and out of the huddle.
Be ready.
I mean, you don't want him to go down there to Jacksonville and Tampa and fail, and then they have to put in Deshaun Watson.
It's probably better for him to make sure he's good and ready, and then to play when he can really show what he can do.
Great stuff, Mary Kay.
Thank you for joining us.
Sure.
Thanks for having me.
That's Mary Kay Cabot, Hall of Famer, Browns beat writer.
How about that optimism?
