of DeShaun Watson and at one point yesterday, Jay Glazer
suggested that
Watson could be making his decision
by the end of the day. Now, I got a call from someone around
dinner time last night, explaining to me that Watson is
very very torn that he was impressed
significantly with the for presentations that were made to
him by.
Personally in the room right there to talk to him ownership
GM and coach
of the Saints Panthers Browns, Falcons.
Three of them happened in Houston.
He met with the Falcons in Atlanta because he's from
Atlanta. He went back home and met with Arthur Blank and Terry
Fontenot, the GM and Arthur Smith the head coach,
but he was happy
satisfied impressed
with all four of them
and he's having a hell of a time making a decision. Now.
Now he could roll out of bed this morning
with his mind made up.
It could still take some more time.
We don't know what he's going to do. He doesn't know what
he's going to do. And one of the things that I think is
causing him dismay is, he has to tell three of the team's
know.
He doesn't want to have to tell any of them know he'd like to
play for all of them if he could. So it's gone. Well,
for the four teams that made their pitches. The problem is
gone too. Well because he doesn't have a team.
That he wants to go play for, and that all presupposes. And
it is indeed true that these teams have been pre-qualified
to trade, right? For Deshaun Watson. That
that the deals are there. Yes, the trades will happen wherever
it is trade one trade, but the various trade opportunities are
there. All Watson has to do is make his decision
waive, his no-trade Clause.
That's the team. He's going to go to
and it can happen while we're on the air
or it could happen this weekend.
It's going to happen. In the next few days, he knows he has
to make a decision. He's just having a hard time doing it
Chris because he was very impressed by all four of
the presentation. Yeah, I guess it's a big decision. Certainly.
I mean that that's the
first thing I think we got the four teams. I don't think
there's gonna be anybody else, you know injected into this
conversation because of like what you said, you know, we're
going to know about it. If that is that time comes because you
got to you got to
meet the threshold of whatever the trade demand is.
So I understand that,
you know again look at it at
A base level just from a football standpoint to me
and the team that still pops out to me is the Cleveland
Browns. That's the one I look at and go. I have less if sore
loser. I'm not sure about this or that with the Cleveland
Browns and any of the other organizations and I don't mean
that to be
like disrespectful New Orleans. It's just a new coaching staff.
We know it's you know, a team a little bit in flux Atlanta,
the salary cap situation,
you know, Calvin Ridley is not there. There's, you know,
is it's Second-year coach again, a team that's in flux as
well. Rebuilding a defense Carolina, the mat rule
situation when we talked about. So, there's issues with all of
them. The one I still find intriguing Mike is,
you know, I think Cleveland makes a sense.
Since from the football standpoint.
I've been led to believe people close to the situation. One of
the problems here is this hard as in Atlanta.
The other three teams, I was told pursued, DeShaun Watson.
I was told by somebody close to the situation that That DeShaun
Watson pursued Atlanta,
that's where it kind of came out of nowhere
and it made of course, the other two, NFC South teams,
like what? Oh my gosh, Atlanta's in this. How what? So
that's where I think there could be some, you know,
indecisiveness here too. And it's going to be interesting to
see how it plays
out over the next day or two here.
And the Falcons interest is still confusing to me.
I mean, that helps put it in context. I've got Matt Ryan.
You've got a huge cap, hit if you trade Mac Ryan, then you've
got to work. DeShaun Watson is contract and if you don't get
to Sean Watson,
what do you do with Matt Ryan? We're going to talk more about
Baker, Mayfield and the obvious conclusions. The Browns are
reaching about him as manifested by the interest in
DeShaun, Watson. What happens with Matt Ryan, if they don't
get
DeShaun Watson and it very well could be. That
Ryan becomes the next Domino
to have to go somewhere else, maybe to go to Indianapolis.
Yeah, maybe
maybe to go to Cleveland. If Baker, Mayfield, when Baker,
Mayfield goes elsewhere, but for Deshaun Watson,
he's in that, that mode of figuring out what he's going to
do
and he could pick
any of the four teams.
And I that, that's the problem
with having
options with having choices.
You got to pick one at some point. And sometimes it's
better to have fewer to choose from
and this is Exactly where Aaron Rodgers was, we just
didn't have it spelled out as plainly,
right. Aaron. Rodgers was picking from the teams that
that knew they could get him from the Packers, even though
they never directly engage the Packers. It was all done
through.
Dave done the agent for Aaron Rodgers, but it was the same
thing. The only difference is Rogers had the Packers, his
current team is one of the choices
DeShaun Watson clearly does not. But
we're just at the point where he's sitting at the table just
like, Roger sitting at the table. The menu he's got four
options
and he's got to pick one at some point. He knows it. He
knows it. Yeah, I don't know what he's gonna do. I don't
know how you're doing. I don't know how you. Yeah. I don't
know what you want. That makes sense to you, you know, just
from football, we talk about ball and you know,
we know the coaching situations, the owners,
you know, it, you know, like I said, I said, Cleveland is
the one football wives that make sense to me. What about you
than anything else or you agree, or anybody else? Jump
out
my niece, the Browns fan who does not follow.
The sport as closely as we do, right? Who is not zealous
over-the-top under. Like I'll get questions from her all
the time and it gives me a greater understanding of how much
the the middle of the road,
you know, loves the team goes to some game launches. The
doesn't live it right, does it? There's still a lot of things
she doesn't understand because there's only so much time. You
can give a crap about something like this before. It takes over
your life. Okay.
She's not real thrilled about the idea of DeShaun Watson to
the Browns. Mmm. She's not real thrilled about it. Yeah,
because of the other standard that, and here's this, this
Is
this is part of the reality? Yeah. How welcome? Are you
going to feel in this new city Carolina?
The and I'm not making judgments here. I'm just trying
to understand where
it's going to be an easier transition for him.
Especially with these 22 civil actions.
Still looming. If you win,
if you win, I think it all gets forgotten or minimized or right
time passes.
I think back to how badly Steelers fan. I wanted to run
Ben Roethlisberger out of town 12 years ago.
And once they made it to the Super Bowl that year it was all
forgotten and you know Ten Years Later was like it never
happened. Yeah, the things that got him
suspended for six games reduced to four.
I think that Carolina would be the one place where it would be
the hardest for him to get past
these off-field issues Cleveland. It may not be easy.
Although they're so desperate for one of their I think for
the most part they would forgive and
forget quickly and not even look at it.
I think new New Orleans would be the place where
I just think all the
of the four choices,
all the planets lineup
for New Orleans. You got continuity in the coaching
staff. Yeah, you've got a great team that still was a high-end
Contender without Drew Brees last year and Jameis Winston
got injured halfway through the season of the quarterback.
Situation was kind of a mess.
The only difference is Sean. Payton isn't there,
but if Sean Payton was there,
Chris, they would not be pursuing DeShaun Watson. Yeah,
you said so
yeah, so I mean It would be more attractive to Watson if
Peyton was there. But if Peyton was there
they wouldn't be attracted to Watson,
but you still got Pete. Carmichael, who's been there
forever. You've got Dennis Allen, who does a great job
with the defense. You've got Alvin Kamara. You got Michael
Thomas, presumably being healthy this year.
I just that, that Peyton offense
to twist it to morph it into
something that would
absorb a guy, like, DeShaun Watson, who's got a very
different skill set than Drew Brees did. That's the challenge
for the coaching staff. Laughs, but
all things considered
stability of coaching staff.
Yeah, quality of Team around him
reception in the city.
I think the Saints, make the most sense. You think that's
the most stable coaching staff at that was I was going to ask
you that next. I want to ask you two things. I want to ask
you one what, you know, do you yeah, because I
mean the continuities real. It's a noose, you know, new as
far as new head coach. It's unproven
but you're right. I mean, they're definitely unstable
ground here. For a while. It seems like Cleveland's unstable
ground. Right, Atlanta.
I don't want their on stable ground.
I mean, Carolina is the one where it's shaky coach. And
now, and we think it might be, you know, on the hot seat
a little bit.