8.1.24 - JR SportBrief Hour 3

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Download Thumbtack and start a project today! Thanks to our producer holding it down for us tonight in New York, Chris Hess. And thank you to you again for listening. Hope you had a tremendous Thursday.

And if you didn't, I tried my best to help you out. Had a fun show already. Well, talked about the Olympics, that's good, right? Simone Biles won another gold. Katie Ledecky won another gold.

USA Women's Basketball, well, it's a tournament, so they didn't win gold yet. I expect them to. And that's the good news. And we've had some bad news. Mike Trout in future Hall of Famer. This man is out again. He tore his meniscus again. Mike Trout is out for the season. He only played 29 games this season.

Damn. DeAndre Hopkins has a strained knee. Probably be out for a month. Sucks for the Titans.

Justin Herbert. Plantar fasciitis. The man is going to be in a boot for two weeks. For two weeks. We don't know what the hell is going to happen in another two weeks.

We'll figure it out. And also I had big news. NFL Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony is on Saturday.

And so what does that mean? Today is Thursday. Means the NFL is holding its Hall of Fame game today. Between the Chicago Bears and the Houston Texans. Two players who you will not see. CJ Stroud and Caleb Williams.

They're both standing around wearing T-shirts. I mean, we learned a couple of days ago that Caleb Williams, none of the Bears starters would be out there. None of them. And so in turn, we got a bunch of backups. But right now, this moment, this second, this moment, this second. The legends, the Hall of Famers are stepping out onto the field where they are being showered with the love and adoration. Dwight Freeney, Devin Hester, Andre Johnson, Julius Peppers. Patrick Willis.

Absolutely man. Tom flies. I feel like I watched all of these dudes play yesterday.

And not here. Steve McMichael as well. Randy Gradishar. God bless Steve McMichael dealing with some health issues. His wife, Misty McMichael out there. We'll keep you up to date with all the cool stuff as the night continues on.

This might be the coolest thing that we see. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. Thank you to everybody for listening on the free Odyssey app. People locked in on their local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM 158, and a smart speaker if you have one. I want to thank Landry Locker, covers all things Houston Texans. Landry joined us earlier in the show to kind of give a preview to the Texans, not necessarily for this game, but for the season. Because there's been so much attention paid to the Chicago Bears and Caleb Williams and justifiably so.

He's the unknown. We saw what the dude did out at USC. We saw what he did winning in a Heisman. We haven't seen him throw an NFL pass yet. And you won't see him throw a pass in the NFL yet because he ain't playing right now.

And you wait a couple of weeks. Well, not just for the preseason, but for the regular season. And meanwhile, for the Texans, we saw what they did last year, shocking everybody with D'Amico Ryans leading the way at head coach.

And then CJ Stroud having an amazing rookie season, one of the best rookie seasons ever by a quarterback. How he bounces back, we'll see. Time will tell. I will also tell you this. In about 15 minutes, we're going to be joined by another guest. This is going to be absolutely fun as we continue on. We talked about this last night, and so I think it's appropriate for all the quarterback talk. We're going to have Nick Kosmider, who's going to join us. He covers the Broncos for the athletic. I get to ask him about Sean Payton and how much he hates Zach Wilson.

So that'll be a fun conversation. Nick Kosmider is going to come through and join us in about 15 minutes. Also, Gordon Hayward of the NBA retired. Also, Tariq Cohen, a former running back, decided to retire today. He's not doing no more training camp for the New York Jets. I guess he got sick of listening to Aaron Rodgers, but I digress. You know, as much as I told you, I'm not interested in NFL preseason games outside of getting a quick glance of a new rookie, looking at some breakout guy who might make the team.

Everything outside of that is kind of blocked. But the NFL has instituted quite a few changes here that are going to be just different. Let me remind you about this one. There's been a lot of talk and controversy over the past few years about the hip drop tackle. Hip drop tackle. You can go ahead and ask Mark Andrews about it.

He had to miss a good portion of last season, was able to come back for the postseason. And a bunch of other dudes who have their legs and ankles ripped to shreds. The hip drop tackle is now banned.

If you decide to utilize it, grab a guy by the waist and drag him down, fall on his legs. 15 yard penalty. Let's see how long it takes for NFL players to get acclimated to this new rule.

That's one thing. And the next rule. It's a big one, and I got to be honest, I actually appreciate the fact that the NFL is utilizing a new kickoff rule. Because for several years, as they seemingly eliminated the kickoff, I thought that they were going to get away with it completely, that they were automatically just going to spot the ball. Because I've seen enough touch backs over the past several years.

I'm like, why do they even bother to kick it? Well, the NFL, as you know, approved a new kickoff rule this offseason, where kickers will now kick from the 35 yard line. There will not be any other defenders with them lined up. The other 10 players will be at the receiving teams 40 yard line. The return team is going to be between the 35 and 30 yard line. And so yeah, there's going to be about a 10, 15 yard difference between the kicking team and the receiving team. The receiving team is going to be able to have two returners between the goal line and the 20. And so the kick is basically kicking off all by himself to two returners, while the kicking team and the returning team are much closer together. And so what does this eliminate? This eliminates high speed collisions. This eliminates people just saying, hey, I'm just going to take a knee or kicker, you know, kicking it through the end zone where there's no return.

That's boring as hell. I missed the days of a kickoff and a return and it just, it got boring. And so I actually give credit to the NFL for continuing this on. No one besides the kicker and the returner can move until the ball hits the ground or it hits one of the returners. If there's a touch back, it goes to the 30 yard line. There are no fair catches. And if you want to decide to go for an onside kick, there's no surprises.

Maybe this is a little bit of a change that everybody's going to have to get used to. You've got to tell a referee before. There's no more surprise onside kicks.

That's long gone. You have to, you can use the traditional format for an onside kick, but there's no more surprises, which I think partially is some of the fun of an onside kick. You typically don't know if it's coming. You can only guess.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing who can screw this up. You know, one of the reasons that Tariq Cohen, who just today retired from the New York Jets, retired from the NFL. One of the reasons that he was brought in, despite his injuries from about three and four years ago, was to see what he could do as a returner. I mean, we've all heard the, I don't want to call them jokes, but we've heard the comments coming out of the Steelers organization a couple of months ago about how Justin Fields might be utilized as one of these returners. And he's just like, man, I'm a quarterback.

Okay. That's all jokes like, yeah, I'm here to throw the ball and run with it. Not off of no damn kick.

And so everybody's excited. Ironically, Mike Tomlin, the head coach of the Steelers, is eager to see this new rule implemented as well. Mike Tomlin actually sat down and spoke with Madden. No, not John Madden, the video game creators. If he spoke to John Madden, that'd be a, it'd be kind of creepy.

God rest his soul. Mike Tomlin is utilizing the video game to see what and how he can use this new maneuver, this new kickoff in real life. And the folks at Madden actually acquiesced and are helping. I want you to listen to this as Mike Tomlin explains and talks about the new kickoff rules and how he is utilizing Madden to see how he can get a leg up on a competition. Listen to this.

You know, we're, we're going into uncharted territory with this kickoff concept. There are actually no real visuals of the concept. My sons play all the EA Sports games, man. I got a lot of respect for the realism of their product. We reached out to those guys and wanted to just kind of get a visual maybe of some of the, the schematics, how the alignment might affect the timing of blocks and so forth. That game is more than entertainment from my perspective. It is a real simulator. We as a staff are moving very intentionally regarding the implementation of the new kickoff rule.

We don't want to teach bad habits. It's some new skills being displayed in a lot of ways, particularly from a kicker's perspective, having to drop the ball in the landing zone and so forth. You know, we're really excited about the unforeseen in this concept.

Damn. Mike Tomlin is like, I'm a call the folks at Madden. Hey, put this, put this together. Can you send me some visuals so I can figure out what I'm going to do with, I don't know, Justin Fields?

Can, can you do that for me? And a matter of fact, the hall of fame game is getting ready to kick off this very minute as this kickoff rule is probably being over explained on the television set in front of me here. In the studio.

And it is a, exactly pretty much what I said. You got two returners in the back. I'm, I'm watching here while I'm on the radio. I don't know who the hell got the ball. It ends up being returned to the 25 yard line. We'll see.

We'll see how that goes. Hey, Chris, how, how you feel about this new, uh, this new rule? It, it, after you see it one time, I think you pretty much understand what it is, right? Yeah, I understand what it is. And I saw the video display when I was pulling the audio from Mike Tomlin. It's definitely something I'm going to get, I got to get used to.

It definitely looks strange too, but I don't hate it, honestly. Well, did you just see the real life version between the Texans and the bears? I did. Yes.

Yeah. So it, it's, uh, all things considered it's, it should add more action, which is what I, I actually appreciate was I've had enough of the, uh, let's just kick the ball into the end zone and just, you know, start off by spotting the ball at that, that got boring. And so I'm, like I said, I'm pleasantly surprised that the NFL took the approach to alter, uh, the kickoff and actually, I don't want to say stole an idea, but they did. They took this right out of the XFL's playbook.

And I don't know if it's the XFL, AF, whatever the hell they call it. I'm glad the NFL actually found something to do. And you think about some of the best return men that we have in the NFL. I mean, damn it, we got a guy who's going into the hall of fame because he was one of the greatest returners of all time. That's Devin Hester.

Pretty amazing. You know, he's a great guy. When you think about the most kickoff returns in NFL history, Cordell Patterson leads the way with nine all time. That's nine kickoff returns all time by Cordell Patterson. More recently, he was right here in Atlanta, Georgia. He's now a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I think I have a good idea of how they're going to utilize him.

Uh, Josh Cribbs, everybody in Cleveland, they know about Josh and then also, uh, Leon Washington who made and got his bones, made his bones early on in his career as a member of the New York Jets. So really looking forward to seeing this, this kickoff rule as it's implemented. We've seen it one time so far in this game to open things up. And if there's some good scores here, I'm pretty sure we'll see it quite a few times as the game continues on. If you have missed NFL football. Yeah. Hall of fame game is here.

Bunch of backups. Have fun with me. I'll wait until September.

It's the JR sport reshow here on the infinity sports network. We are going to take a break. We come back on the other side. You know, we, we talked about this yesterday. We got in depth by taking a look at the Broncos.

Nobody's expecting a damn thing out of them. Sean Payton's trying to figure out his quarterback. Zach Wilson is already the third stringer to talk about what's going on with Denver. It's time to have a chat. Nick Cosminder is going to join us on the other side of the break to talk about the Broncos.

He covers them for the athletic. You're locked into the JR sport reshow here with you on the infinity sports network, trying to figure out what to eat for dinner. Yet again, with North sides and bullion is your not so secret ingredient. You can skip the drive-through and do dinner at home. Nor taste combos provide a menu of delicious, affordable, and well-balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less visit nor.com to get quick and easy recipe ideas for your home cooked weeknight dinners.

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Visit fidelity.com slash wealth investment, minimum supply fidelity brokerage services, LLC member, N Y S E S I P C. You're listening to the JR sport brief, the JR sport brief show here with you on the infinity sports network. I guess the NFL season is here. Pre-season counts too, right? Got the Texans and the bears, the backups are playing and Canton, Ohio is the hall of fame game. And I'm, I'm ready for the I'm ready for some, some real action.

I know I got to wait about a month, but I'm ready for some real action. You know, we spent a lot of time talking about the Texans and the bears and the chiefs and the contracts that the dolphins have handed out and in some of the injuries. But this is one team in particular we talked about yesterday, as we took a look at their, their quarterback situation and the quarterbacks that are in a big name quarterback who's out and what the team might look like moving forward, which is going to be a very competitive.

We see, uh, AFC West talking about the Denver Broncos right now. It's time to have a conversation with Nick Cosmiter who covers the Broncos for the athletic Nick. Thank you for taking the time to join us. Absolutely JR.

Thanks for having me, man. Without a shadow of a doubt. This is a Denver Broncos team. I mean, for all of the ups and downs and the Russell Wilson and of it all, they went eight and nine last year. They draft Bo Nix. They bring in Zach Wilson. They have Stidham. I guess from the quarterback perspective, what can we look for? Is it like bone Nix is likely to start this year or Stidham going to take a few games?

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to watch. I think overall the plan is to get Bo Nix ready to play this season. And at the start of this season, you know that they took him 12th overall. He was the sixth quarterback taken, but he was a guy that I talked to Greg Penner, the owner. He said that Sean Payton and George Payton, the general manager. They fell in love with Bo Nix about two months out from the draft. He was the guy that they had targeted, you know, understanding that they weren't going to be in position to take a highlight cable Williams, of course, but really targeted him.

And I think they've pushed that that forward. Well, let me get this guy's name out of here. What is Zach Wilson going to be doing in another, I don't know, two months?

It's a great question. I mean, he's clearly third in the pecking order now. They've taken him out of the first string reps. He had just one of those during camp.

It seems like he's third. You know, I think Zach Wilson was something of a of an insurance policy, right? If the Broncos weren't able to get a quarterback that they wanted to draft, you know, then maybe they would have gone to the offseason with Jared Stidham and Zach Wilson left to battle it out and perhaps search for another free agent from there, whatever the case might have been.

Now that that didn't play out. Look, Bo Nix is Sean Payton's guy. That's the guy he targeted. That's the guy they drafted in the first round. The first first round quarterback drafted by the Broncos since Paxton Lynch in 2016, who lost it all four games here.

That's their guy. And so Wilson, they might they might, you know, work him behind the scenes as possible. They keep him at the third quarterback. But, you know, again, one year left on his deal, something of a reclamation project. And, you know, I think he'll be a behind the scenes type of developmental player for the Broncos this year.

Nick Kosmider is joining us covers the Broncos for the athletic. You know, Sean Payton came on last year. We heard all the back and forth between he and Russell Wilson in this camp about his contract, his status.

We know he's now in Pittsburgh. Is this year the first year for Sean Payton? Is he getting a little bit of a mulligan or is people looking at him going, man, you better make this one work?

Yeah, you know, it's it's something of a mulligan. I think he came in for that interview process last year. He understood what Russell Russell Wilson's contract situation was. And I think the idea was, hey, I'm going to I'm going to see if this can work. We have a lot of veteran players. You know, he's here. He's the big money quarterback guy had a really bad 2022 season. But let's see what we can do.

Let's see if this can mesh. And it just never did stylistically. You know, they're kind of worlds apart in terms of the way that they play. Sean Payton is very much predicated. His offense is very much predicated on getting the ball out quickly, taking very few sacks, you know, being able to throw over the middle, all those kind of things that Russell Wilson at this point in his career struggles with.

And then just just personality wise, they're just different, different guys. And so I think this is his chance to kind of have his own quarterback to develop it. And it's something of a restart. But but he will be kind of on the clock. This is a this is a group that isn't really expected to make the playoffs or anything like that.

But they need to be showing that by the end of this season, it's a group that going into 2025 and they've got all their draft capital, free agency money to spend that they can be ready to go ahead and win. Well, Nick, you know, Russell Wilson isn't the only guy from the offense who's gone. Jerry Judy, although overall, I would say he was a disappointment. He did rack up more than 700 yards receiving last season. We know Courtland Sutton will probably be target number one. Who else do you expect to eat up some of those yards that were lost with Judy now gone?

Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, you're going to have a lot of guys that are that are sort of in new roles for this team. A guy to watch that's been really good in training camp is Josh Reynolds. They got him on a on a pretty team friendly deal.

I think it was two years, nine million guaranteed up to 14 million dollars, you know, can be earned in that contract. But when you look at his numbers across the board, they didn't compare that disfavorably to what Jerry Judy did here last year. He's a little bit taller. They really like the way that he blocks in the run game and in camp. He's been a down downfield threat.

I got a step for a JR last year. There was a hundred and two receivers in the NFL caught at least 40 passes. Josh Reynolds was 13 out of those 102 in terms of average yards per catch at fifteen point two.

He's a guy that they think, you know, still is has a ceiling to reach. He's a guy to watch. The other one is Marvin Mims. He was a rookie last year. Second round pick out of Oklahoma had some really big games early in the season and then sort of struggled for them to find snaps for him behind Jerry Judy. He's going to take some of that spot now and be a guide to look for in terms of getting him out in space and letting his speed work. Those are a couple of guys to watch, but it's a pretty deep room in terms of competition and it's going to be interesting to see who kind of steps up into one of those roles. Nick Cosmiter is here, covers the Broncos for the athletic. This is the JR sport re-show.

You know, Jerry Judy, I don't think many folks are going to miss him. On a defense though, Justin Simmons got the boot. He's still a free agent. What was the full deal there? Is it financial?

What's the deal? Yeah, that was another interesting one, right? He was the longest tenured player on this team. He's the only, he was the only homegrown player that had experienced a winning season in Denver. That was during his rookie year in 2016 when the Broncos went nine and seven but still missed the playoffs. That was the first of now eight straight years in which they haven't made the postseason.

But he was, you know, in the sort of lean years, he was, he was a bright spot. He's 30 interceptions since he entered the league more than anybody else in the NFL. But I think part of it was, it was, it was the crunch in part of the Russell Wilson decision to let him go. And the Broncos ate $85 million in dead money over the next two seasons. And they took the bigger chunk of that this year, $53 million in dead money to have Russell Wilson go play for Pittsburgh. And so that had a lot of like cascading financial ramifications where, you know, they don't, they don't try to re-sign a veteran linebacker like Josie Jewell.

They don't try to re-sign, you know, a center who had had a great year last year and Lloyd Cushinberry, they let those guys walk in for agency and replace them with kind of lower cost veterans. And it was the same deal at safety where Sean Payton partly read the safety market. There was a lot of guys in that, in that they were in sort of that same position as Justin Simmons where the bottom just kind of fell out last year or this off season rather. And he just kind of got caught up in that confluence of factors.

And it is interesting. He's still a talented player has been durable. Like I said, the ball production production for Justin Simmons is there but still not in a camp here on August 1st.

So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. I wouldn't be surprised if he maybe ends up back in Philadelphia with Vic Fangio, who obviously coached him for a few years here in Denver. Well, we certainly know the Eagles have done a whole lot of drafting, a whole lot of signing to fix their own defensive back issues. Speaking of defensive backs, Pat Sertan is probably the biggest name on the Broncos defense now that Justin Simmons is elsewhere, elsewhere looking for a job. Not a lot of household names. Who and what should we look out for or expect from this Broncos defense?

Yeah, it's a great, I mean, that's a great thing. That's part of the reason that people are not on the outside very high on the Broncos because you just look at the roster. You said it, JR. Everybody knows Pat Sertan. He's arguably the best cornerback or one of the best three cornerbacks in the NFL. Young player, already a two-time Pro Bowler, first team All-Pro.

He's that dude. But behind him, who do you even say is the most recognizable player on the Broncos behind him? It already might be Bo Nix, the quarterback. Quinn Miners, the guard is probably their next best player, but obviously that's not a name that's gonna really resonate league-wide. Alex Singleton's here.

Yeah, Alex Singleton. I mean, that's what we're talking about here. But the thing that the defense is really honing its kind of hopes on is this ability to have the continuity of scheme pay off. This is the first time in years that the Broncos have had the same head coach, the same two coordinators come back and have the same schemes working. And I think you've seen that in camp.

They seem a little bit more connected. They understand what they're doing, but it is going to very much have to be a team thing. They've got pass rushers. Jonathan Cooper, Baron Browning are guys that are going into their fourth year, took some leaps last year. So they're looking for guys like that, sort of somewhat under the radar, but now have some experience to hopefully take a leap this year.

That's really what it's gonna kind of take from a group like that. And then lastly, they did add in the front seven. Obviously, John Franklin Myers from the Jets there, they pulled that trade off right as the draft was going on to really solidify, they hope, a run defense that was really poor last year.

Also got Malcolm Roach, a run stuffer from New Orleans who had played for Sean Payton before, Angelo Blackson, another veteran. They expect that group to be a lot better. It's looked better in camp. So those are some of the ways that they're trying to, you know, kind of paint a picture of a defense that's going to be better this year.

But there's a lot of unknowns based on just what you're saying, a lot of new faces that are going to have to step up. And Nick Cosmona joins us courtesy of The Athletic. Sean Payton is obviously, he's the star of the team, right now at least.

There was so much beef, whether he was talking about Nathaniel Hackett or whether he was getting into it with Russell Wilson. Does he smile? Does he seem like a happy guy? Does anybody like him in the building or does the fan base like him? Who likes him? You know, it's funny, like he did, the way that he said it last year, he came in trying to, you know, pee on all the trees, right?

Like stake his territory with sort of his words. And he definitely came in hot last year. And I think he was, you know, he did it so differently than Nathaniel Hackett. And I think more than he needed to want it to just to make that known. And and and so that that kind of created this this energy early on.

It was kind of out in front, a little bit aggressive. This offseason has been different. He's been a lot more, a lot more laid back.

You know, he's been really, you know, kind of these long interviews with the media, very, you know, gracious in terms of the time that he's given to answer questions and things like that. And, you know, I think part of that is part of that is ownership. They've connected in a way where it's just like, hey, we can be honest with each other about some of the things that we think we need to improve on. And I think having a quiet offseason and really trying to read that you mentioned the word drama. There was a lot of drama around the Broncos last year, whether it was all the Russell Wilson stuff, the Sean Payton stuff that you mentioned that happened right at the start of training camp and kind of sizzled through, sizzled in the background all last year. Like that's the kind of stuff that they're trying to avoid and just keep it about ball. And I think so far this offseason, that's what you're seeing, you know, as a writer that, you know, enjoys kind of being able to write about some of these things that have national attention. I'm saying, hey, like, where's the juicy stuff? But honestly, that's kind of what this franchise needs.

It's sort of this reset workbook, you know, work behind the scenes under the radar, whatever it might be, and let the play do the talking. Well, Nick, you take a look at the AFC West. We know who's at the top. It's the defending champs, the Chiefs. The Raiders are looking for their quarterback, at least maybe between two guys. And the Chargers, unfortunately, today we learn that their quarterback is going to be in a boot for a few weeks and they have a new head coach and a new system. Where do the Broncos slot in in all of this? Are they bottom two or are they fighting with the Chargers? What's the best case scenario or likeliest scenario for the Broncos this season?

Yeah, best case scenario is second place. I think that's what everybody's playing for, that you're second in the division, that you're good enough to put yourself into the mix for a wildcard spot. That's the thing about the AFC West. Now, you're not so much measuring yourself against the Chiefs. You're measuring yourself against, you know, the Texans, the Colts, the Jaguars, these teams that are kind of on the periphery, perhaps of the playoff race. Like, that's kind of where your focus has to be, because, look, when a team has a stranglehold over division, we saw it with New England for years, like that's not your path to the postseason. And I think if you make it that, you know, you're kind of setting yourself up to fail. But that being said, I think this is a group that this AFC West group that you look around and exactly what you said, the quarterback uncertainty exists in with the Raiders, with their first year coach and Antonio Pierce.

So there's a lot for them to figure out. That's a group that I think is going to take some time. And the Chargers obviously have a guy and Jim Harbaugh, who's won a lot of games at every level he's been at. But we'll have to see, obviously, with the with the Justin Herbert injury, whether that lingers into the season and all those, those sort of things. The Broncos just have to get off to a better start. They played some good football at times last year. You mentioned that they were eight and nine, but they were one in five to start the season, lost a couple of close games.

They're probably soon enough. That's really the only chance that they have to kind of exceed the low expectations is, you know, go to Seattle week one, find a way to get a win there, come home, beat Russell Wilson at home before you go on a two game road trip to Tampa Bay in New York. You know, they've got to get themselves off to a better start. And then you can kind of say, all right, well, now we can, we can look at the schedule and say, we can steal a couple here and maybe give our, give ourselves a chance.

But, but yeah, behind the chief, it's kind of wide open. They got to start with beating the Raiders. They haven't beaten the Raiders since 2019, which is, which is crazy when you consider that the Raiders have kind of been a dumpster fire themselves over the course of that time. So that's where it's got to start first and foremost for Denver. Hey Nick, there's no, no 70, no 70 point ass whoopings this year, right? Not this year, right?

Oh man. You know, it's funny, I was, I was saying to somebody today, how open do you think that the Broncos players would be if I wanted to conduct an oral history of that, that event one year later, you know, rehashing that. I don't think, I don't think they're quite ready to, to visit that. You know, they talked about it in hush tones. I was there that day in Miami, man. That was something I'll never, I'll never forget. Well, at least you were there in Miami. That's the positive part of it, right?

The consolation prize. Yeah, absolutely. My man. Hey Nick, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Where can people find you online and follow all of your great work with The Athletic? Yeah, go to theathletic.com slash Broncos would be the first thing I'd say, you know, camp, camp updates every day, feature stories.

And just, you know, we, we got a great setup there to kind of keep track of the team all year long. Hey, listen, for your sake, I hope we get some drama from mine too. We'll, we'll talk to you soon, Nick. Okay. All right. Yeah. Thanks a lot, man.

I appreciate it. Absolutely. That Nick Cosmiter joining us from The Athletic covers all things Denver Broncos. Yeah. I mean, unless the charges are really bad, uh, I think them, them Denver Broncos might finish the last in the AFC West is, uh, Bo Nix is going to be tasked with going out there likely, likely, likely starter and, uh, taking some growing pains. And Sean Payton is gonna try not to yell at him at every step. I could see it now.

He probably is a poor guy. It's the JR sport reshow here on the infinity sports network. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.

That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. The Broncos. I told you about some of the guys that they got rid of, uh, Justin Simmons, Jerry Judy, this, they got a new team that a lot of people don't even know who the hell is on the squad. When we come back from break, I'm going to tell you about a New York Nick in the news today.

Not for no bad reason reportedly, he's not going anywhere. I'll explain. And then in Los Angeles, there's something that's going to be unveiled on Friday and that is going to be there forever. I'll tell you what it is. Have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug, ignored a leaky faucet, pretended your half painted living room is supposed to look that way. Well, you're not alone. We've all got unfinished home projects, whether it's a door that sticks or a disorganized closet or an AC unit that only works half the time.

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Removes 100% of odor in just one wash. Guaranteed. You are listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport show here with you on the infinity sports network. Thank you to Nick Haasmeider covers the Broncos for the athletic joined us last break. Talk about what we can expect from Sean Payton's Broncos. Who the hell Bo Nix is going to throw the ball to who's going to emerge on the defense besides Pat Sertan.

They got a lot of questions. I don't think they're going to look good. I think most of us understand that. Justin Simmons gone. Jerry Judy gone. They got some people to pick up the slack even though Jerry Judy was a disappointment.

Now having said that, I got to get this news in here first. For my New York Nick fans out there, you should be I guess happy maybe? Fred Katz of the athletics says the New York Knicks are not planning to trade Julius Randle. He's heading into the final year of his contract. He has a player option for the next season and he is eligible for a contract extension starting on Saturday. And the Knicks as of right now do not plan on moving this man and we'll see what they discuss when it comes to a contract extension.

We have no idea what's going to happen. So the New York Knicks considered now to be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Bringing in the McHale-Bridges, signing him to it. Well they got two more years left on his deal. Jalen Brunson signed a cheap deal.

Yeah they got some players man. All them dudes from Villanova. Now they want to keep Julius Randle.

We'll see what happens there. And speaking of one of Julius Randle's teammates, former teammates, the late Kobe Bryant. Tomorrow in Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant is going to be honored again. And it's not just Kobe, it's Kobe and his daughter.

I want you to take a listen to this news clip. It's courtesy of Fox 11 in LA. ESPN is reporting within the last hour that a new Kobe statue will be unveiled Friday at crypto.com arena. The statue will reportedly depict Kobe and his daughter Gianna. It'll be unveiled in a private ceremony and the date is fitting. Friday is 8-24, which represents both of Kobe's jerseys and Gigi's number two. The first statue was just Kobe and was revealed to the public back on February 8th. The statue is located near the King's Monument celebrating the team's 50th anniversary.

It'll be available for the public to start visiting on Saturday morning. The third statue is expected to be unveiled sometime next season. Man, man, it is still unbelievable to me that Kobe Bryant is is not here. Like I'm still I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that. He passed four years ago.

This is August right now. We're going to blink. It's going to be the top of the year in 2025.

It's going to be five years. And, you know, even watching some of his contemporaries play, you know, or listening to him. The Olympics are going on and there he is, is Dwayne Wade running his mouth and, you know, LeBron James is still out there running around. And, you know, you'll see Carmelo Anthony pop up here or there. By the way, his son is the top prospect in all of New York State, which is pretty awesome. Not too shabby when you got the the genetics of your dad.

And you're actually good. Well, it didn't happen for Bronny, James, but I digress. This is a private ceremony tomorrow, by the way, the unveiling of Kobe's statue with his daughter. And it makes sense. They had a big old public, you know, unveiling last time for for his solo statue outside of the Staples Center.

And for something a little bit more intimate about he and his daughter, I can understand the privacy. And as you just heard there via Fox 11, all the fans in Los Angeles, I'm sure that they will be mobbing and swarming crypto dot com arena. Stupid ass name. I'm sure they'll be swarming to see the new Kobe statue. And we have another one that's going to be coming at a date to be determined. And so if you're out in Los Angeles, you're looking for something to do on Saturday besides sitting around and watching the Olympics. Go ahead and check out that statue of Kobe and his daughter. Still unbelievable that he passed away in 2020. And it was only a couple of weeks ago recently that his father had just passed away as well.

So go ahead and check that out if you are in Los Angeles. The legend of Kobe lives on. I mean, even you're reminded about Kobe while watching the Olympics. We heard Kevin Durant basically pitch an entire fit about how he wasn't included in that Nike commercial narrated by William Defoe about being a bad guy. Kobe Bryant was featured a whole hell of a lot in that commercial. Kobe Bryant. His shoes, his Nike's are still widely worn by a lot of people in the NBA. You know, I would say that for the most part, people are wearing KD's and people are wearing wearing Kobe's.

And so the legacy still exists. There's still a lot of players and athletes, if you ask now, basketball players look at Kobe. He is one of the greatest scorers.

He is one of the greatest shooting guards that the NBA has ever seen. You got a lot of players who just go, Hey, who was your guy? It was Kobe.

Just flat period. And simple as that. It was, it was Kobe. And a lot of them didn't see Michael Jordan play and understand that he modeled his game right off of, of, of Michael Jordan.

And it's completely understandable. So listen, people, you got to appreciate greatness when it's in front of you, you got to soak it in. Kobe was certainly criticized when he played, he was revered after the fact, and he walked away with five NBA championships. You know, look, enjoy LeBron while he's here. And if you don't like LeBron James on the Los Angeles Lakers, or you didn't like him on the Cavs, at minimum, maybe like him while he's representing the United States of America.

Yeah, go ahead and try that. Kobe Bryant walked away with two gold medals, one gold in 2008 in Beijing, another one in 2012 in London. And I got to tell you, one of the highlights of me just covering sports was talking to Kobe out in London at the Olympics at a couple of their practices. And then another great experience talking to Kobe, interviewing him at one of Richard Sherman's celebrity games out in Seattle.

So rest in peace to Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gigi, as the Lakers unveil a statue showing them a lot of love tomorrow. It goes on or open to the public starting on Saturday. It's the JR sport reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.

Kobe Bryant had himself two gold medals. We come back on the other side of the break. You know what?

Let's take a look at the Olympics. You know what? Let's go around the world on all the news that took place today. And then we have another guest joining us, Greg McCauley from Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Management. Yeah, we're going to talk money and sports.

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