9.1.22 - JR SportBrief Hour 4

You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

Whether you want to buy a home or refinance your current one, Rocket can. Shoutouts to super producer and host Dave Shepherd. Shoutouts to everybody at work, at home, on the roads, getting money, going on vacation, just getting ready for the holiday, enjoying the last days of summer.

I'm gonna be rolling here with you for one more hour. We've talked about a lot. Russell Wilson and his new contract. Talked about all the money flowing through professional sports right now. We talked about Donovan Mitchell going to the Cleveland Cavaliers. In a few minutes I'm going to talk about the Cavs and the Knicks. We had Chris Fedor of 92.3, the fan, join us. Also covers the Cavs for Cleveland.com giving us the the Cleveland perspective.

And then we've taken your calls as well. Russell Wilson and his future and whether or not he gets the love and respect that he deserves. And what does the next seven years of his career look like in Denver?

I just answered one of our callers before the break and I said, no I'm not expecting a Super Bowl this year. But based on what we have seen from Russell Wilson over the past 10 years, with or without the legion of boom, this man is a winner. He is still one of the best quarterbacks in the game and it will take some time. But I wouldn't be shocked if he picks up one more in his career. And it's impossible to say what the NFL will look like five years from now when Russell Wilson at that point will be 38, 39 years old.

But I believe in a man. We've seen enough from him that I think they can win a championship. And look, it's impossible to predict in the NFL. But one thing I know, you have a better chance of winning a championship in the title if you have a damn good QB. That's what Russell Wilson is. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. As we continue on here with the rest of the hour, I told you that we will hear from Jimmy Garoppolo. He has finally, finally opened up his yap to the media.

He hasn't talked to anybody since February. Since February, we expect that him to be gone, to be traded. But he is still a 49er. Even he said he's shocked.

We'll share that with you before we get out of here. We'll talk about Lamar Jackson. He's certainly looking at the quarterback landscape continue to change. And also Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert have to be licking their chops. They have to be waiting for next season when they get paid the big bucks. And someone in a city that should be licking its chops right now.

We talked about this earlier on in the show. The Cleveland Cavaliers. When is the last time you could look at the Cleveland Cavaliers and actually be excited, not just for a spurt or a short-term expectation of winning a championship, but for a long sustained period of time? The answer is probably never.

The answer is probably never. And so here we have a Cleveland Cavaliers team, which sends out Lori Markinen and Collin Sexton coming off of that meniscus tear. By the way, he got a $72 million extension. They sent out three first round picks. They will be swapping two picks and all of this will take place over the next seven years just to bring in Donovan Mitchell. The same Donovan Mitchell, who is expected to be traded to the New York Knicks. And so let's get this out the way since we talked about it already.

Let me mention it again if you missed us earlier on in the show. The Cleveland Cavaliers have one of the best young rosters capable of growth in the NBA. Darius Garland, Collin Sexton goes down. He becomes an all-star. Donovan Mitchell, multiple-time all-star. We know what he can do. You got two six-foot-one guys in the backcourt.

Okay, fine. Kevin Love, all of his experience is still on the roster, likely to come off of the bench. Jared Allen becomes an all-star, one of the best defenders in the game. And then you have Evan Mobley, who if he were to play more of last season, he might have been Rookie of the Year. You got two trees between Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. They were one of the best defensive squads in the NBA last season before both of their big men got hurt. And now you throw Donovan Mitchell into the mix? They got a lot of room to grow.

Karis Lavert coming off of the bench. They got a roster. They're going to be good. I hope that they stay healthy because they're going to be fun to watch. Does Donovan Mitchell send them into the stratosphere of NBA championship contention?

The answer is no. But as we had a conversation with Chris Fedor earlier on, Evan Mobley might end up being the best player on this team. Darius Garland still has room to improve. Donovan Mitchell, even he can improve upon his efficiency. Jared Allen can get better. Every person in this starting lineup can improve and good for you if you're a fan of the Cavs because this is going to be fun. This isn't a LeBron James come in for three years, one year, two year contracts, option year, I'm here, let's win a championship and then I'm gone. They have an opportunity for sustainability here. And even Chris and I joked about, and who knows, maybe two, three years from now, LeBron James says, oh, I'll come back and let's bookend things.

But that's some extreme forward thinking. Man, the Cavs will be appointment viewing. When's the last time you've been able to say that? Even outside of LeBron? Never. Even outside of LeBron?

Never. Now this moves us to the team that lost out. The team that did not get Donovan Mitchell. It's the New York Knicks. For months, for months, we heard about New York and they have the young assets and they have the draft picks and they can easily, easily get Donovan Mitchell if they just give the Utah Jazz what they want. It's like sticking them up, give me all your picks, give me your young players. A couple of days ago, the New York Knicks give RJ Barrett an extension.

And since then, or at that point, the talks stopped, nothing happened. And so Donovan goes to Cleveland earlier today and there were a lot of conversations, a lot of tweets, a lot of memes about how the New York Knicks screwed up. They are New York Knicks fans who are upset that they don't have Donovan Mitchell, that they beside themselves, that this is another case of James Dolan stinking the joint up. And what are the Knicks doing?

And I'm saying to myself, relax, relax. Even if the New York Knicks were to bring in Donovan Mitchell, he wasn't going to be a savior. The New York Knicks would be giving up future assets, buckets of them to bring in Donovan Mitchell and the New York Knicks would still need to bring in another star.

There's no guarantee that it would work out. Is Donovan Mitchell from New York? Yes, he grew up in Elmsford. Just a quick train ride away, he lived in the suburbs 30 minutes from New York City. He grew up in New York, come on.

Dad works for the New York Mets as an executive. The Knicks would have still needed work. Donovan Mitchell is in a perfect spot, gets to share the backcourt with Darius Garlin. Some of his defensive flaws can get cleaned up with Evan Mobley and Jared Allen being the gigantic trees that they are. And he doesn't have to get his ass kicked in the media every day by the New York press or the fans who would be extremely excited when Donovan Mitchell is draining game winners or dunking over guys. But then they'd also probably be a little ticked off when he's just shooting too much or his shooting percentage is hovering around 42-43 percent.

He's in an ideal situation. And so for a New York Knicks team, all is not lost. The Knicks still have their draft picks. The Knicks were able to bring on a legitimate point guard in Jalen Brunson. The New York Knicks still have young assets and players to work with. The New York Knicks are still in a rebuilding situation. This is not the worst case scenario. Donovan Mitchell was not moving them into the stratosphere.

They would have had to give up assets and then still some way somehow bring on a legitimate superstar or grow one from within. Sometimes people just gotta pump your brakes, but I get it. When you suck for so long, any type of light feels like it's gonna save you. It's like a gnat outside. That's a good example. A lot of New York Knicks fans are like gnats, the little bugs in the summertime.

You know when you turn on the porch light and all of a sudden the bugs start flying towards it, thinking that this is gonna send them straight to heaven, thinking it's the greatest thing until you get too close and you get burned. The Knicks have been bad for so long, mismanaged for so long. Signing old, aging, broken superstars for so long. Putting themselves in a position to suck for so long, the Knicks are actually in a good spot now.

So let's take it easy please. A matter of fact, Donovan Mitchell is great. He's an all-star. Perennial all-star.

He's good. But he's not a game-changer all throughout the season. He's not going to carry you to a championship. He's not Giannis. He's not LeBron of the past. He's not Steph Curry.

And you might recall this. Shaquille O'Neal on TNT after a game early last season, spoke to Donovan Mitchell on Inside the NBA. And he basically challenged him. And Shaq told him, hey man, you're good, but you can continue to get better. Take a listen.

My name is Shaq. I said tonight that you are one of my favorite players, but you don't have what it takes to get to the next level. I said it on purpose. I wanted you to hear it. What do you have to say about that? That's it. That's it? That's it. Okay, cool.

I mean, I've been hearing that since my rookie year. You know, I'm just going to get better and do what I do at the end of the day. That's what I wanted you to say. Love your game, brother. Keep it up. Appreciate it.

Yeah. What else is he supposed to say? Well, Shaq, you suck. He's supposed to say, Shaq, who cares about your opinion? What is he going to say?

Shaq says, you good, but you can be better. And the answer is, yeah, he can. Donovan Mitchell is going to go out there and get points.

He's going to get buckets. Is he going to do it efficiently? That's the question. Is he going to play defense? That's the question. We'll see.

But he is certainly in a perfect position. And if you're a Knicks fan, take a deep breath. All is not lost.

The world still goes on. And the New York Knicks are still in a very good spot to grow and improve. Are they going to win anything with Julius Randle? No, they're not. Is RJ Barrett going to wake up and lead them to a championship?

It's unlikely. But they are in a better spot with picks, young players, than they have been in a very long time. They're not handcuffed. They're not tied. And so relax on the Donovan Mitchell didn't go to the Knicks. Oh my God, the world is over. It's fine.

Chill. 855-2124 CVS. That's 855-2124 CVS. Larry is calling from Cleveland. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, how's it going, JR?

It's going great, Larry. Oh man, I tell you what, this wasn't supposed to happen. I mean, the Cleveland Cavaliers, all I thought about was the Knicks or the Nets.

They said a few days ago we were out of the running. The person you have your credit for, I tell you what, the German man in Colvin Alton, what he's done here, he's put this roster in. What's he about this roster too, JR? These kids are only like 24 years old altogether.

That's it. Very young team. And I just can't believe it.

We were shocked. I mean, what we're here doing in Cleveland, we got the Browns once Deshaun was back here after his suspension. And we have a young team there also with the Guardians too. I mean, no championship, but I think we're on our way there to a young team, one of the youngest in the league. And what's wrong with the Cavaliers, it's just unbelievable.

Yeah, no, this is one of the times, and thank you, Larry. Yeah, if you're a Cleveland sports fan, you can actually be excited. You can actually be excited to be a Cleveland sports fan from the Guardians to the Browns eventually.

And then the Cavs, man, they got a lot of rope. The Cavs are appointment viewing right now. 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS. That's 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS. Joe is calling from Pittsburgh. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you about Russell Wilson. You know, it's interesting. There's probably only a handful of players that can maybe turn a game around, a close game.

He's probably one of them. I mean, how many games did they win last year? How many quarterbacks are there where the win total's going to improve because of his addition?

But did they give up too much? You know, it's almost like they just have a very short window, but I think they're going to get blocked this year for sure. You've got four teams in that division that could all make the playoffs, which now is possible with the extra team in the playoffs. Four teams that could all have winning records. It's almost unheard of to see a division stack like that.

Kansas City might drop a little, but I think the Chargers, I think they're coming on, and the only thing I think that can trip them is a cold weather date in Buffalo in January. I mean, that team looks like the real deal, and I think, you know, Denver's trying to win now, but they might have, like I said, they might have cost them too much. I don't think so. I don't think the approach is we need to win now. There's a couple of things.

Yes, sir. If they didn't bring on a quarterback, and I'm talking about a quarterback in the caliber of Russell Wilson, there was not going to be any, any chance of being competitive in the division for the reasons that you mentioned now or into the future. And so we would have seen the squad continue on with Drew Locke and me and you and your next door neighbor at quarterback, and they would have been wading into the seas of absolute nowhere.

And so if you wanted to compete, you needed to go get a quarterback, and that's what they did. And when you think about it, it's not just winning now. We all know that the AFC West is stacked in, in ridiculous fashion. It makes no sense. But is that necessarily going to be the case for the next two years, three years, four years, five years? We cannot predict it.

It's impossible. You know, Herbert isn't going anywhere. Mahomes isn't going anywhere. Obviously, even with Derek Carr and his contract extension, there's a lot of flexibility for Josh McDaniels to say, well, we don't want him.

I don't want him anymore. And so we don't know. And so how this plays out over the next two to seven years, we can all shrug our shoulders. But we know this for fact, you have a better chance of competing by having someone like Russell Wilson at the helm. I wouldn't be shocked if, you know, it's hard to win a championship. A lot of teams wait, you know, a lifetime for, you know, a person's lifetime for that to happen. But yeah, would Denver be a team that could win it all in the next few years?

I mean, obviously, they're going to recover from all those loft drop picks at some point. And I know, you know, you only have so much time, but to me, what it comes down to in sports is organizations. Some organizations win. Yeah, they'll have their down year or two.

And others like the Lions in, you know, the Pirates in baseball, they don't win. But every year, who are the teams that are there? Green Bay, Denver. You know the teams I'm going to mention. And then there's those handful of teams that never seem to do it, or they catch a playoff here or there. So yeah, Denver is one of those teams, strong organizations. So they'll probably overcome those, you know, the loss of those picks. It's only, you know, a brief period.

Yeah, it's a brief period. And thank you, Joe, for calling from Pittsburgh. George Payton has done an excellent job.

The salary cap is not going to do anything but continue to rise. If you want to have a chance of winning a championship, the best way to do that is by having a damn good quarterback. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio, a team that knows about having a damn good quarterback or at least having a chance. It's the 49ers. They've gone to the Super Bowl. Recently, they didn't win it.

Okay. And now the guy that helped take them there is still on the team. And he's a backup. It's Jimmy Garoppolo. We're going to hear from him on the other side of the break.

I'm going to leave the phone lines open. That's 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Reshow. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, JR. Such a fan of yours, man. Thanks for taking my call. You know, you don't always get the most sane of callers, but you always handle it with such professionalism.

And I really appreciate your content you put out, man. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. Oh, cup it. Stop it. Me professional? Please spare me.

It's the JR Sport Reshow, CBS Sports Radio. Hmm. Russell Wilson. New job. New place. Denver. Donovan Mitchell. New place. New job.

Cleveland. Jimmy Garoppolo. Thought he was going to get traded. Had surgery. The team thought he was going to be gone. Tried to trade him. Comes back.

Nobody wants him. Now he has a restructured deal. Took a pay cut. And now he's going to be backing up Trey Lance?

Come on. And so we haven't had Jimmy Garoppolo talk to the media since February. Since last season.

And he's still on the team. And basically, they are waiting. Well, they're not waiting. But Trey Lance ain't ready. There's going to be a misstep. There's going to be an injury. There's going to be an interception. There's going to be a fumble. Kyle Shanahan's going to say, screw this. Jimmy G, get your ass on that field. You can't fool the players. You can't fool his teammates. Everybody sees what's going on out there.

It's only a matter of time. And so Jimmy Garoppolo, back in front of the media in the Bay, not expecting to be there. He talked about this still being an opportunity.

Take a listen. I think things worked out for the best. You know, it was a lot of ups and downs, rocky roads here and there. But I think throughout the whole thing, you know, me, I'm happy with where I'm at. Happy to be with Niners. I think the Niners are happy to have me back.

And it's, I think things are working out pretty well. Yeah. Like break glass in case of emergency. That's what, that's what should be tattooed on Jimmy Garoppolo's head.

Break glass in case of emergency. They don't think Trey is ready. I mean, Shanahan said it over the weekend. Man, if only I could get him more reps. Well, why would he want that? Let's think about the two extremes here. You have a quarterback who you want to be the future of your organization, who you have mortgaged your whole future for, and you want to get him more reps. And then meanwhile, we still have the most successful quarterback of all time still playing in the NFL.

And he basically goes away for two whole weeks. And if you read in the papers or the news, who reads the papers anymore? I still do in digital form. There are rumors now about Tom Brady's marriage. Here we go. Must suck being Tom Brady, huh? And my Super Bowl, not Super Bowl, Super Bowl supermodel. Everything is super with Tom Brady. Let that man live his life.

But the 49ers, they, they ain't got no confidence in that man. Hey, Shep, how long do you think it takes before we see Jimmy G throwing that rock? Uh, it's going to be before Jennifer Lopez's next marriage. I'll tell you that much. No, it's going to be probably a week or two.

There's no, there's no denying that. A week or two. Yeah. I might, I say, uh, man, I'll give, I'll give Trey Lance three to four weeks. But Jay, he didn't look terrible his rookie season.

That's the, that's the funny thing. Well, it's not like he ever got a full chance to go out there and play. Right. I mean, I want to say what, five, I mean, five touchdowns, two interceptions.

I think he went one-on-one. Yeah, but there's a, there's a, it's a, it's a different situation where you are now tasked with being the guy on a team that people want to go out there and win now for. And so you can start a couple of games and as opposed to coming on in relief, that ain't, that ain't cutting it, man. That's a, there's a, there's a big chasm there.

There's a big difference. So I'm going to say he maybe gets a month. I'm expecting Jimmy G to take over, I would say by, by November. And let's just, let's see if it's spot duty or not. A matter of fact, Kyle Shanahan, he talked about Trey's performance and the pre-season and what we can expect going forward. Take a listen.

I wish it was cleaner just from a hole. Um, but I'm not going to make too much of it. You know, we wanted him to get just two drives. I ended up giving him three because I wanted to give him a little bit more there, but, um, there weren't too many opportunities and we got in some long down and distances, which made it tough. Yeah, it's pre-season football.

Still counts for something, right? Still thinking a month, JR? You want to reduce that to two weeks? No. Sometime around by Halloween. Let's give it to him.

Okay. Let's give him a month. That is the head coach with so much trepidation. He is shaking in his boots.

He knows it's like putting a deer in headlights. Trey Lance out there as the starting quarterback to begin this season. You heard it in 15 seconds. A month, no more than a month. We'll see.

I'm not disputing what you're saying, but we'll see. Chad is calling from Rochester. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, Jay. Hi, man. Thanks for having me on.

Second time caller, long time listener, long time 49ers fan. Out in Rochester? Rochester where? New York?

Rochester, New York, man. I was born and raised. I've been a Niners fan. I was born in 81, man.

I'm 40. I've been a Niners fan my whole life, man. Well, good for you.

You had the good life growing up, rooting for that. Absolutely. Absolutely. But first thing is, I'm happy to have Russell Wilson out of my division. Yeah.

Absolutely. Second thing is, truly, I'm looking forward to seeing what Trey Lance can do with the roster that we have around him. I know we can agree to disagree when it comes to sports. The blessing is to have Jimmy just in case he gets hurt. And I don't think that Kyle Shanahan is going to be so quick to turn to him because they were so ready to let him go if they didn't have to cut him. If he didn't have the surgery, if they didn't have to trade him and somebody would trade them, they would trade him with no problem. Even if it was for fifth or sixth round pick, whatever.

Just to have him off the roster and not give them to a division rival. And it's a good problem to have. I mean, I got a young guy who's got plenty of potential. I've seen a few throws that he's made that I know Jimmy can't make.

We all do. And Jimmy always has those games where he gets us a W and there are also those games like the Tennessee game last year. And even the Cincinnati game we won, but he had a few plays where you just wonder what was he looking at?

You don't know if somebody had something on Jimmy that they were blackmailing him for to make him make a bonehead play at the wrong time in the game. But I'm just looking forward to seeing what Trey can do because I know he's a heck of an athlete with a lot of tools. And knowing Kyle Shanahan, I don't think he's going to have to throw the ball 45 to 50 times a game or 40 times a game to win the game. We got enough talent around them. You know, they're going to run the football. The defense is going to get them a lot of possessions. So those are the reps he's going to have to get in work with in order for him to get better live reps. And also even coming from lastly coming from the reports and training camp. He's playing gets one of the top 10 because his top six defense is in the league. So of course, he's going to struggle. It's going to look more than you know.

Let me ask you this chat and you got to hit it for me quick. Okay. Do you think there's going to come a point in time in the season where he gets pulled? Not for his play.

No, I don't think so. I think the front office was committed to going with Trey Lance and going with his going pains because they were willing to let Jimmy go for under right circumstances. Okay, and it just turns out that we were able to keep. Let's see how it rolls Chad.

Certainly one of the bigger stories heading into the season. I appreciate you for calling from Rochester, New York. I think I might be making my way up to Rochester in a couple of weeks. I think I might. Elaine is calling from OKC. Go ahead, Elaine. Hey, G.R.

Still love you. You do hurt my feelings. So I wanted to say that when you have your top six, I have not heard you have a top six for women athletes. I don't know if you want to do like a women's baseball or basketball, but I haven't heard you mention anything like that. Well, we have mentioned women as a part of the top six a couple of weeks ago. We talked about a Serena in the top six. Yes, we mentioned women all the time in sports. But in the reality here, how many opportunities are there to do so? I pretty much talk about what people consume the most. And unfortunately, as we know, it's not a lot of women's sports.

It's spotty. Exactly. And that's a learning curve, I think, for American society over time. But my second thing is, you know, I think it would be hard for a woman to play, let's say, pro football or pro basketball.

I don't think that might be possible for a long time. But I do think that there are some young women now that are stronger, faster, more athletic, and they might possibly be able to be a pitcher or a batter on a baseball team. Well, yes. Well, I think one thing I don't think I'm going to say a controversial statement. I'm going to state a fact.

In many cases, in most cases, just genetically, men are built differently than women and vice versa. I understand that. But I think things are changing.

We see more women lifting weights, playing more sports, running. So I think that maybe it's like the Yankees or something, if they could find a, put out a finder's fee. If somebody can find a woman that can pitch, like the guys better, better than the men, put her on the team. And there probably is one out there. But where?

I don't know. I would agree. Well, I'm sure I could find a male or female in the forest who can throw a baseball 200 miles per hour, but we won't know unless we get them out the forest. And it's unlikely to do so. And I also think if that were to be the case, we'd have it by now.

No, I disagree. And the reason is, is it's only been recent that women have been going to the gym lifting weights and been more involved in, you know, playing basketball. And I think that women are more involved in sports than prior. So as this continues, like, did you see, did you see the women? Well, Elaine, I think I agree with you. But and who knows, we got a lot of people tinkering with, you know, genetics and body composition, etc.

But unless we're going to move where we are just, I don't know, male, female, and something in the middle where there is where we're all genderless. I don't, I don't know if that is necessarily going to be the case, Elaine, but we'll see. Let's have this conversation later on.

Okay. Yeah, I was, I normally do not watch that much women's sports. Like you said, there's not that much. But did you see the the softball, the women's softball players? No, they got some women, they have some good arms out there. Oh, you yes, they had a great and same with Alabama. I know. Yeah.

There's a there's a lot of women and men with some great arms. Elaine, thank you for calling from OKC. It's the JR sport we show here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

I'm going to take more of your calls before I am forced to roll out. You're listening to the JR sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, JR? Man, I want to first by saying I love the show and thank you for keeping so real on so many different topics. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS.

It's the JR sport brief show, CBS Sports Radio. Man, I'm getting ready to roll into the holiday weekend just like a lot of you all. I'll be back with you after tonight on Tuesday night. And so I want to get as many callers in here before I roll out as possible. Let's go ahead and get things started.

855-212-4CBS. Let's go to Omar calling from St. Louis. Well, what's up, JR? How are you? Good, man. I just want to kudos to you, man. Like from that last caller, like now I realize why I would never make it on national radio like you. You're the professionalism that you showed, man.

That was impressive. I don't even... To be honest, I don't know what call you're referring to. It was the previous call about the women pictures and all that stuff. Oh, okay. Sure.

I was kind of in radio for a little bit as an intern at a local station. And it was funny because I don't know if you keep up with UFC. I do. When Khabib won his last fight before he retired, we just had a little segment like would he have remained unbeaten.

And there were people calling in and saying that Amanda Nunez would have a chance against him. Wow. I realized, yeah, this thing is not for me. Sure. What's on your mind though, Omar? Go ahead. By my side, I wanted to ask you, in each sport there's this throne that one athlete sits on and he is considered like the face of that sport or he is considered like the man or the woman of that sport.

I get it. Do you see or do you think or do you believe that Luka Doncic will be that ever? Will he ever be that for basketball?

Thank you for taking my time, man. Well, thank you, Omar. Yes, I think Luka Doncic is a basketball freak. If Luka Doncic takes his conditioning seriously, Luka Doncic is already legitimately a 30-10-10 player and he's doing it without being a supreme athlete. There are guys that we have, and when I say supreme athlete, I mean LeBron, Giannis, flying, jumping, you know, all over the damn place.

He controls the game. He reminds me in so many ways of Jason Kidd, and the difference is Jason Kidd was about 6'3", 6'4". Luka Doncic is what, 6'8", 6'9"? This is... Luka can be the best player in the NBA, and I think he's stepping into that space.

I think there might be a couple of MVPs looking him in the face as well. Avar is calling from Detroit. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, how you doing?

Very well, what's up? Yeah, I'm calling from Detroit. I want to talk about Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions. Please. Do I think Jared Goff is going to win this season?

Yes. How many games that he's going to win? Potentially 10 to 11 games. I know you're thinking that's kind of crazy because the Lions had a terrible season last year when Dan Campbell started with a record 3-13 with a tie, but these guys are ready. I looked at the preseason game.

Like I said, they started off 1-2 the first game. Jared Goff started, and he was throwing that ball like he's ready. So, like I said, I really think Jared Goff can win these games, win these games, get these guys to the postseason, and possibly win their first playoff in, I don't know, how many years? Maybe 35 years?

40 years? Well, listen, Avar. If it happens, call me back, okay? I will.

Okay. Thank you, Avar, for calling from Detroit. What am I going to, I'm not going to beat a Lions fan down. The Lions have beaten them down enough.

If you have success, then God bless them. I'd love to see it. April, calling from San Diego. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, April? Hey, how are you doing tonight? I am excellent.

What's going on? Sorry, I know I'm going to get really emotional talking about this, but I wanted to thank you for something. Okay. I didn't do it, did I? No, I hope not.

No. Okay, okay. But I have two sons. I have one who's 13, one is two.

Okay. And about nine months ago, my older son's father jumped off a building, sorry, downtown, and took his life. And, you know, he texted me like two minutes before he jumped, and he said, tell our son to find something he loves and hold on to it. And then he loved him. And for the past nine months, it has just been, sorry, I'm so sorry.

It's okay, April. It's just been, you know, being 13, it's such a tough age, and to have something like that happen, you know, it's taken so long for my son to have life again. And one day, I'm listening to you guys, and for the first time, I heard my son laugh, and I look at him, and that was it. And every day, he listens to you guys all day as soon as he gets in the car after school.

Mom, can you put on 97.3? And, you know, he's looking at baseball players and getting into cars. And it's like, I see him being okay again. And it's because of you guys. And, you know, it's just, I want to thank you.

I really do. Well, listen, April, I'm sorry to hear about what took place earlier this year. I wish you and your family nothing but the best of success. And I'll just put it to you this way. If me being a jackass here on the radio is going to help your son out, then by all means, I will continue to be the best jackass that I can be, okay? Thank you. Thank you.

And next time you tell your son, feel free to call up here on CBS Sports Radio, okay? I will. I will. Thank you. Okay. And feel free to reach out anytime, April.

I'm at JR Sport Brief everywhere, okay? All right. Thank you so much.

No doubt about it. All the best to you and your family. Have a great weekend. Thank you. You as well.

Thank you. No doubt. No doubt. No doubt. And shout outs to all my friends out in San Diego, beautiful San Diego, and everybody listening on our local affiliate 97.3 The Fan.

Shep, thank you again for an amazing week. And thank you, JR. That was powerful, by the way. And no doubt, man. This is part of the gig, man. You connect with people in so many different ways.

And anytime that you could help people and not just talk crap, it's always great. You're going to be holding it down. Sir. While I'm gone. Tomorrow, right? Yeah.

Tomorrow is Sunday and Monday, JR. I'm going to do you proud, my man. Always.

Beautiful. Where can people follow you, Shep? At The Good Shepherd Underscore.

Absolutely. You can find me at JR Sport Brief. I'm going to be gone.

I'll be back with you Tuesday night. I am at JR Sport Brief. You are listening to CBS Sports Radio, but don't move anywhere. Don't go nowhere. Why? Because I said so. That's important.

But also, Rich Herrera coming up next in for Amy Lawrence. More important. Don't move. Love y'all. Much love.