Simms: Watson had 'good start' to preseason
Chris Simms explains how Deshaun Watson had a promising start in Week 1 of NFL preseason before diving into why he liked the way Shedeur Sanders looked as both quarterbacks continue a competition for the starting spot.
Video Transcript
So let's start with one, of course, that's gonna generate more reactions than ever, and this is why we had Mary Kay Cabot on very early in the season.
That is the Cleveland Browns quarterback situation.
And before you hear it from us, let's hear it from Todd Monken.
Oh, it was awesome.
I mean, it was so cool to watch him play.
I mean, I get all of the, the frustration by fans, himself, but for him to come back and work like he did is a s- unbelievable credit to him.
And then to go out there, he was having fun today, and that is so cool.
And I thought he really functioned at a high level.
So that was Monken on Deshaun Watson.
Yes.
I wanna clarify.
Yeah.
because obviously we're gonna talk about- Yeah Shador a lot.
Both of those guys.
Who Monken said Shador Sanders has improved so much.
I think that I don't know what to do with this battle anymore, because every time I watch Deshaun Watson thinking like, "Can we get back to the Houston days?"
Yeah.
It's, we're just always let down.
I know it's really early, but what did, what did you think of just the, the body language and the, the remarks right there?
I think that, well, first off, I like the way Cleveland looked.
That, well, I'm gonna just start there with the base thing.
Like schematically?
Just, both actually.
Okay.
Yeah.
Because one, one of the things I did take away, 'cause I went back and watched the games on film too, okay?
Yep.
I, you know, it's the first taste of football, so I was like- There's no chill on this show.
Yeah, yeah.
We're gonna do it the right way.
So, so one, I would go, I'm excited for what Todd Monken can bring to these quarterbacks and this offense in Cleveland, and I think it's one of the better offensive minds they've had in Cleveland in a little, in a long time.
I like Todd Monken's offense, how he packages things together, how he does certain route combinations off of certain formations where I go, "Oh, that's creative."
It's just subtle, but it's very creative that way.
So I did like the look of that.
What they've done to flip their team, right?
I'm gonna give the, Andrew Berry some credit here.
The O line, I mean, it looks the part, right?
The, what they've done there, drastic changeover.
That, you look at that and go, "Okay, they got a fighting chance up front."
And of course, Fena- Fennell looks like he's the real deal so far.
Which is big for them.
Which is big for them.
Yeah.
They need that to happen.
Man, the two freaking rookie receivers.
I, you know, I, I will sit here and go, "Man, I was right about Denzel Boston.
He's gonna be awesome."
They've been waxing poetically about him.
I was wrong about KC Concepcion, 'cause he looked awesome and way better than I thought, and he just was more explosive and twitchy in short areas than maybe I gave him credit for, but it looked good.
So I mean, that with Harold Fant and Quinshon Judkins, you go, "Damn, there's something to be excited a little bit in Cleveland with the young players and Todd Monken coaching it," right?
That's the first thing that at least popped out to me.
Then you get into the quarterback thing, and you certainly go, "Man, Deshaun Watson looked pretty damn good."
Now- So you liked what you saw?
I did like what I seen.
Yep.
Now, it wasn't perfect.
Right.
Okay?
It wasn't perfect, and, and some of the completions were like, oh yeah, it's curl flat, and the curl's open.
Right.
Everybody's playing a pretty simple version of football.
So it's not like you're gonna go, "Oh wow, I'm seeing really great jobs of reading off defenses and going through your reads."
No, it, this is still first-week installation type stuff these offenses are doing.
But the thing that I, I, I first off went, man, his movement looks pretty good for a guy that tore his Achilles twice.
The, the, right, the double Achilles.
Right?
Double Achilles.
Yeah.
The same Achilles twice, yeah.
And moving around.
And then he had good control and accuracy of the football.
He did that.
So that's what I like.
Now, was there, you know, any one throw where I just went, "Oh, wow," right?
They were all good.
He doesn't throw great perfect spirals.
Mechanically, he's not perfect either.
If you watch him, maybe next time, like peek, peep this a little bit.
You know, he leans very forward when he throws.
Some throws he literally will throw it and be like leaned like that, and then stand back up, right?
You don't wanna ever be that.
Right.
Why do you s- You wanna be- Why do you think it's gotten that way?
Yeah.
Well I think, I think, I think he does need, he needs to lean back on that back leg a little bit more, and like we always talk about, rotate.
Don't pitch off the mound and try to do that.
Sure.
Right?
Like, and I think that's what he does sometimes when he wants just a little more, "Oh, I wanna give it the extra pump."
It's huh, and he kind of bends at the waist.
It's probably one of the reasons he threw that nosedive football later in the game where it kind of like he had the shallow cross and he threw it into the ground.
Yeah.
'Cause he's leaned too forward.
So that's gonna cause the ball to do that.
So there's some mechanical things there that, yeah, are not perfect, but damn, it was a great start for Deshaun Watson.
And I think it's cool that Todd Monken, and this is why people love him, that he can appreciate what the guy's been through.
We all know we have our opinions about what he did off the field, and we get that, but it's still, regardless of what that happened there, it's been a long, tough fight.
For him to go out and have some success and have good vibes and all that, you know, I think that was cool that Todd Monken pointed that out, and I think he's been, he had to be impressed by what he saw with Watson there in that football game.
AmodaSim1000 said, "Todd Monken sounds like every Browns fan mid-season: no voice and loss of all hope."
he, Amoda also said, "I feel like the Browns need a quarterback with a lot of grit and charisma like a Baker Mayfield type of quarterback."
I just don't, they don't have that kind of guy right now.
No, they don't have that type of guy.
They're working right now.
And I don't know if Deshaun Watson can be that guy.
You know, it, do I still look, sit there and look at him and, you know, go, "Oh no, this is still this old Deshaun Watson"?
Absolutely not.
I, I- That's how I've I mean- Right like you said, though, basic stuff.
Numbers, though, and compared to the other guys, which we're gonna get to- Yeah it did feel like he was ahead.
He was, he was on his game.
Yeah.
He, he, he was on his game.
And, and again, let's remember this.
These are things that, you know, I even said this to Florio, the context.
The, the Bears were not playing all their starters on defense.
The Cleveland Browns were playing all their starters.
He got the starting receivers.
Shador Sanders didn't necessarily get that when he came in, right?
So, so those are things that we'll compare when Shador gets to start this week and see where it goes.
But Watson, yeah, that was a very good start.
It was that.
It was smart decisions.
He had the fumble Which, again, those are things that I wanna This is why we wanna see more and we wanna see more intricate offense.
Holding the ball in the pocket are things like, yeah, you haven't played football in a while, how are you gonna do there?
He was gonna throw an interception on a in-cut and the ball got tipped.
He was just gonna make a very dicey decision where you're gonna go, "Oh, my gosh," there was gonna be, like, five people there that were gonna collide in the middle of the field.
The ball got tipped and he got lucky that it didn't get to that point.
But yeah, it, it was a good start.
There's just a natural feel or a smoothness that I feel like Deshaun Watson has just never got back totally.
And, and that's what my feeling is, and maybe that comes with more and more reps here as we go on.
But yeah, good start, where I just, I guess I would say I'm not blown away by what I saw, though.
That, that, that would be my, my other takeaway.
So let's get to Shedeur, who of course the interception kind of goes viral because everything good or bad Shedeur does naturally, that's how it goes.
Yeah.
But there was a lot of other dropbacks.
Yes.
10 other dropbacks besides the interception.
Yeah.
What did you see from Shedeur?
I, I, one, so, so one, I would go, see, Shedeur is smooth to me throwing the football.
There's not this herky-jerky.
Now, you know, his motion is kind of old school and over the top, and a little bit deliberate, and I think that's why, one of my things I'd be worried about with him is he had some tip passes in the game.
'Cause I think because his motion is so deliberate, I think linemen can kind of ti- time it up.
Right.
But I would say, watching it, I think he spins the ball better than Deshaun Watson.
I think the ball pops out of his hands with p- more power than Deshaun Watson.
And I do think he has a little bit more natural feel of a throw, right?
Of a thrower, and a feel for the game.
The, we know Shedeur can hold the ball too long in the pocket, but it is because he's got great feel and movement in the pocket, so he goes, "Oh, wait, I'll make this guy miss, I'll make the throw."
He's gotta limit that for sure, but man, the throw he had down the middle, the post route, all-out blitz, great job of recognizing it.
Throws the exact pur- appropriate ball to drop in there.
So that was impressive.
I mean, he does move around the pocket well.
And yeah, I feel like throwing for him is a little less work than it is for Deshaun Watson.
Now, he threw the interception, which I, watching it back, yeah, it was an interception, but it's not like the egregious.
The guy was open.
He made the right decision.
Yeah.
He kind of had somebody in his face, and I don't think he got fully through the football, and the ball sailed on him a little bit.
That's what He said it, it slipped or he slipped- Yeah or something along the lines of that.
It, it- Just lost control lost control.
He tried to throw a, a, a just a let me drop it in banana ball for the in-cut.
And I just think it just took off onto my hair, right?
Because he, he couldn't throw it totally, so he had to kind of go and stop because he had somebody right here.
That, he was off.
He had another throw out to the right where he missed Denzel Boston, and people will go, "Oh, well that wasn't the greatest decision."
No, it was a bad route by Denzel Boston.
They got some rookie guys that are learning some things.
But, I, I did like the way he looked.
The one thing I'll say about Shedeur is I wish he would just arm angles a little bit, you know?
Especially those throws over the middle, the shallow crosses.
The, that to me is where the batted balls can be- become an issue.
But I thought, again, even for him with that interception, I thought there was a lot to be encouraged by, by what I saw with Shedeur Sanders.
Do you like the plan here, let Deshaun start week one and then give Shedeur a look as a starter week two?
I have no issue with that at all.
Right.
Yeah, I do like the pl- I think, you know, any time it's the veteran who's done what Deshaun has done and the money he's made, he earns the right, unless he's just totally been a disaster in training camp, to start week one.
And you know, we, we've heard a lot of things a- a- and it seems like this is pretty true in the fact that Watson kind of won OTAs, maybe won the first day or two of training camp, then Shedeur started to take over.
And I think with the comment you just talked about with Todd Monken, he said, "Shedeur's come a long way."
Like, he's not saying that because he was mastering the offense.
He's basically trying to tell you, "Man, when we started out at OTAs it was rough.
It was a little all over the place."
Right.
Now he knows the offense and he's starting to really understand and comprehend things, and you're starting to see that, you know, translate on the football field.
All right, week one in the books for the Browns.
This is one, unlike the Vikings, they're seemingly gonna let this one play out.
Yeah.
Like, they're gonna give all the time they need.
Any, any other thoughts from the Browns you wanna move on?
No, no.
But you know, I think, you know, with that, and I, and like I said to you last week, I, I do think the fact that the second game was at home and they can get the fan base excited with Shedeur- Right starting that game, I think that was probably part of the decision as well.
