Baker Plays For First Win While Deshaun Plays For His Career

My game, uh, that I'm keeping an eye on, and this is no secret.

I mean, Cleveland and Tampa Bay, I think is, uh, heavily consequential, but I, I think I want to challenge everyone to think about this in a different way.

Um, the common thought.

Out there right now is Deshaun Watson gets his ass kicked on Sunday.

The fans basically prepare a, a suite of Molotov cocktails and surround the stadium, and we get Shaddo Sanders the week after.

OK, I get that why everyone Todd Monk gets in like a hostage situation coming out of this one, right?

I get why everyone thinks that.

Um, here's my way of challenging your belief that that is going to happen, OK.

You have Todd Monken, and you also have Carson Schlesinger.

You have Quinshaw Judkins, you have Denzel Boston, you have Casey Concepcion.

You have all these young players that the Browns believe to be the core of a future.

And the last thing that they want is for this to devolve into a complete and utter shit show.

Um, and so I think that.

The reason DeSean is starting in the first place is probably because they thought that the other option would have devolved it quicker into a complete and utter shit show.

And so, I think we need to think about this differently.

I'm, I'm not asking anybody because I would never even ask this of myself to open your mind up for the fact that DeSean could progress and play a little bit better in week two.

I don't know if that's gonna happen.

I think the Bucks are gonna be pissed.

I think Baker Mayfield's gonna treat this like a holy war, um, but, you know, what if DeSean plays good enough to buy himself, and, and again, not.

Phenomenally well, like he said, I'm not throwing for 400 yards and 5 touchdowns.

What if he plays good enough to buy himself to start in the opener, and then that is a story into itself.

I mean, I think this game is fascinating.

It's got a lot of layers to it.

Well, and we talked about, I mean, our, our clip from earlier in the week, um, did make the rounds in Cleveland radio.

So, uh, shout out to 923 the fan in Cleveland.

Appreciate you guys, uh, looking out for us.

Um, I, I, I think.

You know, the more I've digested this, the more I've thought about like what we talked about and how Like I think this year for the Browns, if I'm Andrew Berry, if I'm Todd Monk, and if I'm looking forward here , so much of this is about talent development, right?

So much of this year is about where's Carson's question coming out of this year?

Where's Mason Graham coming out of this year?

Where's Spencer Fo coming out of this year?

Where are Denzel Boston, Casey Concepcion, and Quinshaw Judkins and Dylan Sampson?

Where are all these guys coming out of 2026?

And can I create an environment that's gonna give them the best chance?

To really hit the ground running in 2027, of course, again, you're never gonna acknowledge that, but I think talent development, the development of the two draft classes that are sort of the post-T Travis Hunter trade draft classes, I think are that to me is like that to me is paramount.

And If you've got a young quarterback in there.

It gets that much harder because now not only are you developing the other 10 guys in the huddle, you're like holding the hand of the young quarterback too, and I think having to do less of that right with Deshaun Watson that you'd have to do, which should be not much less, but I mean, but I think you have to do less of it, right?

You do have to do less of it, and there's a nuance to this too that I think is really interesting.

You know, when I talked to those guys over the summer, the one thing that made Todd Monken's offense a fit for DeSean is it does give the quarterback a fair amount of control of the line, and that's what Bill O'Brien did with him in Houston, right?

Bill O'Brien wants the quarterback, having commanded the line, having control over protections, having control to change things as he sees fit.

And if you want that part of your playbook open.

It's harder with a with a quarterback who hasn't done it, you know, and who's young.

And so, like, I think there are a couple of reasons why DeSean makes sense from a talent but as far as developing the other 10 guys in the huddle.

Now, I'm not telling you that it can look as bad as it did on Sunday, and I'm not gonna tell you he played great.

But when I went back and watched that game, I'm like, man, a million things went wrong.

He threw an ugly pick, there was a fumble, I think it was Concepcion had a fumble early in that game.

The defense couldn't stop anything.

Like it was just, and then before you know it, you snap your fingers and it's 24 to 0.

And so, I, I'm not saying anyone's being unfair to DeShaun.

DeSean deserves all the criticism he gets.

But it's, to me, like, I don't know how clean a read we're getting on exactly where the ceiling is with Deshaun Watson after one week.

Um, now, if it looks terrible this week, and Baker Mayfield throws for 400 yards, do they have to consider what walking back into that cauldron is gonna be like?

Of course, they do.

I will say this, and I don't, you know, I, I was a Browns fan in a long ago time.

I'm not really in the social media era, but if you look at literally everything this team posts online , it is instantly ratioed with a mob of people just saying, and I felt that, you know, they did like a Cleveland is, Cleveland is, sorry to cut you off, Connor.

Cleveland is what Philly would be if they had a bad team.

Cleveland's intense.

And Cleveland, like I, I just, I'm just telling you, that state, like that state in general.

It's not just a football state, it's a football at like the exclusion of everything else plays.

Like football is so important there, and that team, there's such a spotlight, and that team is so much more important than any other team in that city, you know, all due respect to the Guardians, all due respect to the Cavaliers, who've been good over the last couple of decades, um, at times.

The Browns, uh, it, it is, it is the intensity in that in that, of that market.

Like it's hard to explain it, but it's a very, very intense place to coach, to play, to manage all of it.

Um, I, I agree with you.

I'll push back just slightly in that I felt like, like when the Browns beat the Steelers in the playoffs.

I felt like the joy and the exorcism from that was almost on par with the Eagles winning their first Super Bowl in terms of pure fan appreciation because the Browns' times have been undeniably darker, um, but what's interesting is like Philly fans are quick to jump, and I think what I, I, I think this DeSean thing to me, and this is just me looking at Browns fans, uh, uh, kind of holistically.

There's a breaking point here.

People are done.

Like, and, you know, poor Mary Kay Cabot.

I saw the legendary Browns reporter just tweeted mention of the fact that DeSean had thrown the longest touchdown pass of week one via Nexgen stat destroyed for it instantly, just like, and, and, and she's just stating a fact, right?

There's no editorializing there.

There's no, you know, I'm trying to protect Watson or I'm trying to, you know, and fans are done.

There's even a Browns post where they were like.

Like, let's celebrate Latin American Heritage Month, and there's just 31, like bench to Sean, like people are done, right?

People are done.

But that to me is like, but that to me is like that's the strength of the fan base too is that they really aren't because they've been through so much in the 27 years since the Browns came back into the league.

Like I think it is.

I think it's the best fan base in the NFL.

I really do.

I believe that because like, I think it's the most loyal fan base.

No one, no one would have, no one would have remained this engaged.

No one, no other fan base would have remained this engaged for that long a period of time after being what they've been through, and that was after losing their team, right?

I mean, which there was no reason for Cleveland, Ohio to lose this NFL team in the first place.