It is the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much for being locked into the show on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM375, and a smart speaker if you have one. This show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia, our super producer and host, Ryan Hickey. He is in New York City, and we've had a full show already.
Thank you so much to Kevin Gray from the DLLS Podcast and show. He comes to Dallas Mavericks. We talked about the disaster that the Mavericks are. And quite frankly, now that the Mavericks, well, Luca dropped 45 on them. I'm sure we won't have a lot of Mavericks talk unless Anthony Davis gets hurt, unless Jason Kidd quits, unless the GM gets fired. And that may take a year.
And so enjoy it. We talked about Deshaun Watson. Somehow, some way Deshaun Watson thought it was a good idea to go on social media and let everybody know that he's working towards a return. He doesn't care if the guy paying him, Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Browns, he doesn't care that he said his acquisition was a mistake.
Deshaun Watson said, I'm here for the comeback. Wait and see. Wait and see. OK. Nikola Jokic said I had nothing to do with Michael Malone getting fired. They just came and told me I didn't I didn't ask for it.
They just told me. T.J. Watt is teasing, leaving the Steelers. He wants a new contract. Apparently he's not happy with what he's been offered.
And so he's putting up vague threats about potentially leaving. We just heard from Justin Fields. I don't know if he's been smoking that hookah. Maybe he is. He said he's looking forward to his time with the New York Jets.
I don't know anybody who's. Didn't Aaron Rodgers say that, Hickey? He said that, too, didn't he? He said a lot of things, to be honest. I don't recall that one. No.
He said that trophy in the front is looking real lonely. He did say that. Remember that. Remember that. That does. Yes.
Yes. And he's gone and they still have one lonely trophy. 1968, 1969.
It is 2025. Hickey, how come the New York Jets couldn't go back to the playoffs by accident? Come on. Not the playoffs, but the Super by accident.
Yes, you really got to suck. Yeah, I mean, you can even look around at some other franchises and say at least they made it. Oh, man.
Browns, Lions, Jags. I know they haven't been around as long, but. Some dark days for some for some fan bases out there, like dark. Yeah. That would be me, except for I'm kind of like I root for them to be good and Hickey, I just go if they're going to be bad, just really be bad, you know.
Make it a circus, make it like, you know, something we could talk about, make it, you know, just an absolute cluster, you know what I did see the Indianapolis Colts. They fired their kicker today. Yeah, they're big off season acquisition from two years ago. Yeah, well, what happened? Was he hurt? What happened to that guy?
A little bit of hurt, kind of a little bit of the yips. Oh, boy. Yeah, it's Chris Ballard has not spent a lot of money for agency. A lot of fans get upset about that. And the one time he spent historic money was, of course, on a kicker.
And now two years later, he is now gone. So the easy solution is just to get a field goal kick in garbage picker. Right now, what they did in Philly, was that just a movie?
I think that was just a movie. OK, it may work for the Colts. They're trying all types of stuff. And look, it can't be much worse. Remind me, who's the the competition?
Daniel Jones for Anthony Richardson, huh? That is correct. Yeah, you're right. Is a cheap. You know what?
That is correct. This guy's cheap. You know, the worst part is, too. I think Jim Mercy would spend money. It's not like the owner's cheap. So the GM has to be cheap. I think the owner is willing to spend. It's the GM who's cheap with someone else's money. Go figure. Does Jim Mercy know what's going on or is he's sleeping?
I think that's part of the reason why maybe the purse strings are untied. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Has he been out speaking publicly? Didn't they find him on the bathroom floor or something? They did.
That was about a year and a half ago, like December of 2023. He had a painkiller addiction, right? Yes, yes, he did.
Not good. And he was the last time, I'm going to put in air quotes, he spoke publicly. After the Colts last game of the year, he was in the locker room and he gave the team a pep talk that was sort of on video, not very great. What, the pep talk or his health? A little bit of both. Oh, no.
A little bit of both, yeah. We didn't even hear about him last week during the owner's meetings. I actually have to look. I'm not even sure if he was there. That's what I'm saying.
I don't know. He's not a proxy. His daughter's probably for the best. Also, the only time they want Jim Mercy talking to the media is when they want him talking about Dan Snyder because no one else was talking because no one else will say it. So now that he's gone, I don't think any of the owners like, hey Jim, get out there.
You're going to be our spokesman. Oh my God. Didn't he also have a driving incident or am I like adding things on? He's had a lot of, we'll say skeletons in his closet.
Okay. There's tragically been a woman who's passed away in his house. Oh my God. He's gotten pulled over. He's had drinking problems.
He's had pill addiction problems. Oh my God. It has been an interesting life of one Jim Mercy. Well, wow. Well, yeah.
How about that? And he looks like he's 80 years old, but he's like only really 64. Okay. So looks older than Jerry. He does.
And he is probably almost 20 years younger. Oh my God. Wow. That's not good. Yeah. Not good.
Don't give him a McMuffin with salt wine. Okay. Actually. Yeah. I think you're right. Don't give that to Jerry Jones.
Don't give it to, uh, don't give it to that guy. Wow. Yep. You gotta, there's dysfunction everywhere, right? Like every NFL team has some type of level of like, we've learned this on the basketball side like nuggets are mad over Westbrook and they're beefing there. When you have that many people in an organization, there's that much money and their jobs at stake. Like people are going to beef like, is there, is there such thing of a, what is the, who is the most of the Steelers?
And we just talked about this last hour. Like what is stability in a, in a sports organization? The Steelers got TJ watt putting up peace signs on social media.
Like, oh, I may leave if they don't give me a new contract. Is there a team that has stability in sports? The chiefs, I guess, right.
They're close. Close, but even them, what does the owner get crushed for? Being cheap.
Oh, for being cheap. Yeah. Right. You know, it's not like that's even the model organization.
They have some, their own problems. Oh my God. Can't get new locker room.
Can't get new chairs. Wide receivers do some wild things. Yeah. You're going to, you're going to find that on any team, but certain, some teams just seem like wild stuff happens all the time. Trouble follows you.
What is a stable organization? The Eagles? Yeah, I guess.
Right now. I mean, hi. Roseman's been not in a power struggle recently, even though next year has kind of been coaching for his job and the players quit on the coaches like two years ago. And Brandon Graham, he's gone. So he's not going to spill the beans on people's personal information. That's right. Quarterback, quarterback beefing with the wide receiver. He won't do that. Detroit, I think even this season they got gambling Dan.
I think people are always on edge with him. I don't know why Jacksonville came to mind. That is the complete opposite.
I went to the complete other end of the spectrum. The Rams? How about the Rams?
Los Angeles? I mean, can we trust their owners? Like all the other, Cronkis? Yeah.
Are we going to trust what they just did in Denver that they don't do that in LA? Like Sean McVay may just disappear one day and just be like, I'm done. No. I mean, I, yes, but I, I would guess or would have guessed it would be more because of him wanting to spend more time with his family and not be burned out all the time versus the Cronkis making his life miserable.
He's still young too. Yeah. Well, Quentin Lake was here with us last week and he said, he told us not to be surprised if the Rams went on another Super Bowl run. That's what he said. I think he's right. I think they're right there. Oh, damn it.
Wow. I think you get Devante Adams. Matthew Stafford is back.
Puka Nacuas is growing. You're going to shed some dead weight in Cooper cup. That defense is only going to get more experience and better. They're super young. I think the ceiling is right now in the average pointing up for LA. All right.
Let's see. Well, Quentin Lake is there too. Hickey, don't forget Quentin Lake. Quentin Lake and I'm glad he's optimistic. I hope he would be. So I'm glad he is.
I like the confidence from him and Quentin Lake there. Yeah. Like you said, yeah. This is a stable team. How about this? Buffalo Bills, right?
Bills, Eagles. Like not a lot of drama. You said not a lot of drama. Yeah. Yeah. Right. There's no drama coming out of Buffalo. You don't hear, I don't hear anything about a wide, well, the wide receiver that was, he was complaining. Stefan Diggs, he's just complaining about not getting the ball. Right. There are plenty of worse things you can complain about. That's right.
Yeah. The Buffalo Bills have to be the, and good for them. Now that I think about it, the Buffalo Bills have to be the most stable. Let's just show up the work. There's no controversy. There's no stories.
There's no nonsense. Let me look at these teams. Miami, plenty of nonsense. Thank you, Tyreek Hill. New York Jets.
Garbage. New England Patriots. Bunch of losers the past couple of seasons.
Baltimore. They've been kind of quiet too, right? And they did make their MVP quarterback basically beg for his contract, but otherwise. Well, he got the money. He's about to get another one soon. He is.
And seemingly they're much more willing to give him this one than they were the first time. Okay. You look at Pittsburgh. I don't know, man.
It started to look kind of weird. I would agree. Going through all these offensive coordinators and I know Arthur Smith is still there. People want to fire the head coach every year. Now you got Watt wants a job, wants to get paid. I don't know, man. It's looking kind of dicey in Pittsburgh.
Waiting on Aaron Rodgers like they're the Jets. Oh my God. Yeah.
That's the, the, the, the takes the cake. Cincinnati dysfunctional. Sorry. Cleveland dysfunctional.
Sorry. Houston. I don't know. I don't know if the vibes are still there in Houston. I feel like that wore off after a, especially after the season, they got all the injuries.
CJ Stroud taking a step back. You can blame that on a lot of reasons, but the honeymoon is over. I don't, they're whatever. They're a good team. They're not good. They're not great. They're not awful.
They're just good. Indianapolis Colts. We talked about losers. Jacksonville losers.
Tennessee Titans, bunch of dysfunctional losers. Hey, didn't, didn't one of their players try to fight a member of the media last year? Jeffrey Simmons. Yeah. He pulled up.
He pulled up on one of the reporters. What a world. That's a fight he's not going to lose, but yeah.
Could you imagine some six foot six giant rolling up on you about something that you tweeted? No. Yeah.
I don't want that. Las Vegas. Weird. Denver. Okay. Denver has the, the, the pathway of stability.
I wouldn't put them there yet. Chargers have a weird coach. Harbaugh's weird. Come on, man.
And ever he does go, he wins, but yeah, at a price. Weirdo. Dallas Cowboys, dysfunctional.
Model of function. Yeah. New York Giants, dysfunctional. Washington. Thank God. They're out of the woods. They got a new owner. Detroit. The coach is crazy. Minnesota. We don't know what the hell is going on there. Green Bay is okay.
They're just, their president is a complainer, but Green Bay is good. I think. In terms of, there's no infighting at least.
It is no beef. It's just whatever. Oh yeah. Okay.
Okay. Chicago Bears. Tampa Bay.
There's a bunch of mediocre ass teams, Hickey. Like I'm- Saints. Some, the Saints? Panthers. Yeah.
You're right. A lot of these teams, I'm not even, it is, it is April, Hickey. Some of these teams, I already know. I may watch them once a year and then I'm going to watch for five minutes and go, why am I watching this crap? There's no point.
And the Saints right now, stick out to me, it's like one of those teams, why bother? Yeah. Unless you go see him live. And I'd only do that for the food and the atmosphere. Very true. Much different. The atmosphere wouldn't even, it'd be good, but even the fans are going, it's like, eh, let's have fun for the first quarter.
And then after that, let's just have a party because this team sucks. Derek Carr's not getting the people going, huh? No, he is not. They don't like him. He don't like them. I know he doesn't.
Speaking for that man, like I know him. I don't. Seattle, nobody cares. Arizona, nobody cares.
San Francisco, let's see how they bounce back. Yeah. Half the league, three quarters of the league is dysfunctional to some degree or another, some worse than others. What a world we live in. He's billionaires.
What we need to do, Hickey, is go through all the owners and look at all their issues and problems because these owners, some of them are weirdos, too, huh? Robert Kraft with the massage parlor, New York Jets owner. What the hell was he doing? Uh, he was the ambassador to the UK. That is correct.
And apparently was not doing some good stuff over there. Oh yeah. The Buffalo Bills owner. They have a daughter that, uh, he's a famous tennis player.
Good. Miami Dolphins owner. He owns like half of the island of Manhattan in New York City. Uh, the Rams owner also owns the Nuggets and fires everybody. The Seattle doesn't have an owner. The Tennessee's owner is Amy Adams. She makes terrible decisions.
Speaking of terrible decisions, Sean Khan is, uh, he got robbed by his own employees. Right. I can go, I can go on and on. The Minnesota, uh, what are the Vikings? Their owner doesn't even live in Minnesota.
He lives in New Jersey. There's a lot going on here, you know, just, uh, it's interesting. That's only like an eighth of the issues right now. Oh, what, for who?
For the owners. We're saying we can, we could have a whole show based on just the owners and the skeletons and the issues they have. It'd be a fun show actually.
Yeah. Let's call, uh, Daniel Snyder, see if he'll co-host that episode, right? Daniel, what do you got here?
What do you got to lose? Give us some dirt. We can get him. We can get him.
And what's the, what's the racist pervert from the, uh, Panthers. No, no, no, he's not. I was going to say, I was going to say Jerry Richardson is gone.
Any go. I think you're right. I think he's gone. I was thinking about the one from the Clippers, Donald Sterling. Yeah. Donald Sterling. Yeah. Racists pervert. We can get him. That's sad that you have a few names come to mind when you say those two words together in sports, racist, perverted sports.
They're like three guys. Oh, what a Google search comes up. Yeah. I'll do that in the break.
I'll do that. Oh my God. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to have a chat with Nick Bumgardner. This man covers all things NFL for the athletic.
No, we're not going to talk about the miserable owners. We're going to take a look at the upcoming draft. There's so much news about guys like Abdul Carter.
There's news about guys like your door Sanders, and we'll get into all of it on the other side. It's the JR sport re-show the infinity sports network. You're listening to the JR sport brief.
It is the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. We are now two weeks away, exactly two weeks away from the start of the NFL draft. It's a good time of the year, huh? All the talk, all the rumors, and we're going to have a whole hell of a lot more between now and two weeks from today. And joining us right now is someone who covers all things NFL for the athletic, especially as it pertains to the draft.
It's Nick Bumgardner. Nick, how are you, man? Good. How are you?
I'm excellent. I appreciate you taking the time and joining us. It's certainly a busy time. Lots of rumors flying all over. Yeah, a little bit, little bit, a little bit busy with the everything draft stuff.
So it's on the way. No doubt about it. I guess what is the most, well, the biggest rumor, and this dates back to what we saw and heard at the combine. Also moved on into what we saw at Colorado's pro day.
It should do a Sanders. You typically, you get a lot of word when you got a high prospect, people start trashing him. Maybe you want him to fall to you. What do you think is the most real and not real as it results of the talks of the fall of Chidor? Yeah, that's a great question, because I think it's way more complicated than people probably think. I think a lot of people on the surface, they see Chidor as a really confident kid.
He's Deion's son, obviously. So sometimes I think people think that's a little bit of projection. I don't think that's true.
I think that's who he is. And I think sometimes people get a negative reaction to that, but I don't think that's something that teams are really concerned about. I don't think that's why you hear that maybe he won't be a top five pick. I don't think people are worried that he's going to be overconfident or his attitude is not going to work. And I think that a lot of that is overblown. But what's not overblown and why I think he's possibly going to fall here, at least out of the top ten, would be when you really look at his tape, there are holes and there are things that concern you, and there are questions about whether or not he's going to be ready to take the reins and lead what might be a bad team if you're taking him at number three or whatever it might be. And I think that's a lot of pressure to put on somebody who I'm not quite sure is ready to lead a team without a whole lot of talent in the NFL, coming from a school like Colorado where he put up really good numbers, played well, but also, like we said, he was able to sort of get away with a lot of stuff against really not a very good schedule. And they didn't win much. I mean, there was a lot of struggle days in there as well.
A lot of those yards and such were kind of hollow. So I think when you really look at the tape, there's a lot of room for him to grow still, a lot more than I think he was willing to sort of project. I'm not sure how teams take that one or the other, but when I look at Chidor and stack him in the class, I mean, he's probably a top 30 player, but that's about as far as I would go. That's hard for me to justify at number three, whereas Cam Ward, you know, is probably a top 12 player for me.
So I think it's a little easier to justify him up there in the top three. I just think Chidor needs a little more time. And then more importantly, if he could go to a team with a solid roster, kind of like what Bo Nix was able to have last year, I think it could work out really well for him. Do you think there's an ideal landing spot for Chidor that that would be the case?
Yeah. I love the possible fit with Pittsburgh, quite frankly. And I've even talked to some people there and wondered about like, you know, would they be willing even to move up if possible to try to do that? You know, I know there's a lot of talk obviously about, you know, Aaron Rodgers, but you know, even if they bring Rodgers in, I got to think that would only be kind of a one year deal, which would allow Chidor some time, take some of the pressure off, let him grow. I, you know, I think it would be a good fit with Mike Tomlin.
He's patient a lot of times with these guys like this. And I think it would be a really good thing for him to be able to go sit behind a really good player, especially a veteran, you know, and learn from him. And I think if you can get Rodgers in there to sort of accept that role, which I don't know how much of a choice he would have at this point, he's 41, I think that could benefit, you know, everybody involved.
So I've loved that fit. I just I don't know if that's going to work. I don't know if that's going to, maybe somebody else will try to jump up and get him ahead of Pittsburgh. But you know, he definitely is the second best quarterback in the class.
And I think that that's something that people probably need to remember. There's a lot of talk about him sliding. But I think people are sort of misconstruing, you know, him falling off a cliff. I don't think he's gonna fall that far.
I just think that I just don't think it's gonna be top three. Nick Baumgarner is joining us courtesy of the Athletic Covers All Things NFL Draft. So is it a foregone conclusion that the Tennessee Titans are going to go quarterback and select Cam Ward? Yeah, it seems like it, you know, and that's another one where I have a little bit of concern there. Because Cam is in a similar boat with Chidoor and that, you know, not a lot of top end competition that he had in terms of defenses played against. And while he did get so much better, almost every time he played, there are still some concerns with, you know, his processing work, all that stuff needs to be way more consistent. And, you know, with him, I'm less worried, I suppose, about, you know, how he would handle going into a team that's not playing well, that's struggling, and things are kind of collapsing around him.
He is very, very calm, almost to a point of too calm in some ways. And I think he could probably handle that a little bit better. You know, this is a guy who was a, you know, wing key quarterback in high school, who's improved every year. And like we said, I mean, last year, he almost improved every time he took a snap. So I love the upward trajectory that he's on.
He's also a little bit bigger, a little stronger than Chidoor. You love the arm talent for both guys. I think Cam's a little bit better.
So that seems like what they're gonna do. But Tennessee could also, you know, justify maybe trying to trade that thing and get extra assets if they can pull it off. Well, Nick, we talk about the quarterbacks. It's been said that this isn't the strongest draft class when it comes to QBs. But a safe pick would be someone, unfortunately, who's been recovering from his own injuries.
That's Abdul Carter with the foot and then also dealing with the shoulder. I know he's meeting with the New York Giants. Where do we expect him to get slaughtered?
Anybody who takes him, people will just go, OK, there's not going to be too much complaining. Am I wrong on that? Yeah, I think that that's right.
I think that that's right. It depends on the foot. Obviously, he's got to I think he's going through medical testing again today. Obviously, his camp has continued to maintain the same thing they talked about at the combine, that they don't think it's going to be a big deal, not going to need surgery. The crack there in the foot was healing. But I feel like any time you hear that a big guy, you know, 250, 60 pounder has a foot injury, you know, those things can attract other foot injuries.
Sometimes they nag and never really go away. So that's that is a concern. But if you take that off and say, OK, we'd like where he's at health wise, then he is no worse than the second best player for my money in the draft behind Travis Hunter. I mean, Abdul Carter last year was it was his first year playing edge. He was in the Micah Parsons path there at Penn State where they played him at back linebackers for a couple of years.
Then he moves to edge and he got better every game. He was dominant in the playoffs, you know, terrific athletes, a lot of explosion and really does remind a lot of people of Micah Parsons. I think that you could get similar usage out of him in time as he kind of grows and learns more about the position. But I don't think he's even scratched the surface of the things he can do. And even if he does have to, you know, rehab a little bit this year.
And, you know, it's not as explosive a start as you might like. I think in the long term, a healthy Abdul Carter is going to be a really, really good football player because he's young, super talented. And, you know, like we said, I mean, he's he takes to it very quickly.
He's a quick learner on Nick. You also mentioned Travis Hunter. When you look at the Titans, the Browns and the Giants, where do you think how do you you mock out that that open of the draft? Yeah, I like I like Travis to the to the Browns right now. Honestly, I think that there was a lot of talk early that Cleveland was going to look at a quarterback and they have looked at them. And I still think that Cleveland and the Giants could certainly get involved with the quarterbacks, maybe in the second round or even at the bottom of the first.
Wow. If you're Cleveland, you are sitting there with a situation of you need another quarterback. You know, the Sean Watson thing's not going to work out. I mean, Jimmy Haslam's already called it. You know, he threw the flag in on that one.
And that's their conversation for the other day. But Cleveland needs so much. I mean, they need almost as much or more in Tennessee, I feel like in turning down the chance to draft the best player in the draft, which would be Hunter, in my opinion, who is the best corner in this draft, he would be the best receiver in this draft, if you were to, you know, just focus on that. I think in time, you could use Travis Hunter as a two way player during the season, like one week, he's going to be a corner a couple weeks down the road, if we like to match up with him that receiver better, I think he could pull that off. He is that special of a player, not just athletically, but his football instinct and his IQ on the field are just off the charts. Everything with Travis Hunter is, you know, he reminds me of when he's playing defense of Charles Woodson, like, and that's about as high a compliment as I can give anybody.
I mean, he's just as savvy as it is. And if I'm Cleveland, that would be awfully, awfully hard to say no to. Yeah, hopefully he's pulling in those interceptions like Charles used to do.
That'd be pretty cool. Nick Bumgarner is here with us courtesy of The Athletic. You know, you mentioned the New York Giants. We know that both their head coach and their GM, I don't want to say they're hanging on by a string. Are there any other teams that may have GMs or coaches that are on the hot seat if they don't get the draft right?
Well, I think at the top there with Cleveland would be one right there that we just talked about there. I mean, like, that's been a very interesting, you know, run here and not all their fault in the front office. I mean, some of that stuff was Jimmy Haslam created, as we'll say.
But at the same time, that's one of those things where you just kind of have to make it make do the best you can. But if you look around the wrestling league, I think that, you know, New England started over. Jacksonville started over. The Raiders just started over again. Same thing with the Jets.
The Panthers might be one of those teams and the Saints maybe. And, you know, I think the Saints are also in a really weird spot right now with everybody asking, you know, are they going to take a quarterback? Are they ever going to address the quarterback? I mean, they still got David Carr on the roster.
They took Spencer Rattler late last year. It's hard to say what direction they're going in. You know, and I think that, yeah, another team maybe that would be a sneaky one to watch, you know, could be Miami and then maybe the Colts as well. I know that Chris Ballard's been up and down with people there in Indianapolis.
If he's not able to really get a dunk here and get that thing turned around, I could see that maybe being something where things don't go his way. But then also, like I said, the Dolphins a couple of years ago, they're in the playoffs. It has gone, you know, in the reverse direction to his health hasn't helped, but they really need a good draft as well. I'd say the Colts, the Dolphins and the Saints are probably teams that really need to really need to have a good draft here. Well, outside of Chidora Sanders and Cam Moore, there isn't a lot of talk about what's behind them.
The Jalen Mirros, the Jackson Darts of the world. Is there a strong possibility that we'll see, I don't know, three, four quarterbacks taken in this first round? Or is that too many?
I don't think that would be impossible. The main thing that people tell you when you ask around about this draft is nothing would surprise them. And I think that that's part of the conversation in that, you know, I think when you look at Jackson Dart, Milro, and even Tyler Shuck, the kid there from Louisville, I think all those guys are probably, you know, top 40 to top 60 prospects.
But you know, when we stacked this thing last year, Bo Nix was like in the 30s and so was Michael Pennix and they both went really high in the first round. Teams pay that quarterback tax and they often will reach if they think a guy hasn't even kind of a chance. So I could see, you know, the Giants if they pass out a quarterback early saying, hey, we're going to go back up into the first round at the bottom and make sure that we get, you know, if they like Jackson Dart, make sure that they get Jackson Dart.
If they like, if Chidora has fallen to a spot where they feel comfortable even doing that, maybe they do that, you know. Same thing with Cleveland. Same thing with maybe the Jets as well. Another team that could use a quarterback for the future anyway. A team that has some room right now and some time to give a guy a year off too.
So I'm curious on that. This is not a bad quarterback class. There are some players here and it goes beyond that. Quinn Ewers from Texas. Kyle McCord I think is a nice player. Some people like Will Howard from Ohio State. Like I think there's some solid players in this class but there's guys that you're just going to have to give some time to sort of see what you've got and then you don't really want to spend too high on either because it might not work out.
So there is talent here but it's kind of rough around the edges and you're going to have to really kind of be careful with it, I think. Nick, as we start to wrap up, is there one player in particular that you feel strongly about that you don't think gets the attention that they deserve? Someone in the draft here that we may not be as familiar with? Yeah, I think one guy that comes to mind for me is Colson Loveland, the tight end there from Michigan. A lot of people have obviously, rightly so, focused on Tyler Warren, the big guy from Penn State who I think most added as their top tight end.
But Loveland is really close for a lot of teams right there. I think a lot of teams are going to have Loveland in the top 15 on their board and it wouldn't surprise me if he goes close to that top 10 mark as well. He's barely 21. One of the younger players in the draft. Was an outstanding receiver at Michigan for a team, especially last year, that had really kind of poor quarterback play. Really good blocker, you know, willing blocker anyway, not as good as Warren maybe, but a better receiver.
A guy that you could spread out, put in the X, he can play in the slot and moves around is kind of one of those H-back types too at times. So I really, really liked Colson Loveland's potential, you know, long term, not just, he's got some injuries he's also overcoming. He had a shoulder at the combine, didn't work out and I think that was something that maybe slowed some people on him. But he's got terrific potential in the whole class, really, of tight ends that goes beyond Warren and Loveland. You've got Mason Taylor, Jason Taylor's son, who's also the nephew of Zach Thomas.
So he's got football in the blood there. Elijah Arroyo from Miami, Terrence Ferguson from Oregon. I think all those guys right there, maybe even Harold Fannin from Bowling Green, the big long guy. All those guys could be gone in like the second or third round.
It wouldn't surprise me at all. This is a really, really good tight end class. Hey Nick, this is a general question. I mean, you talk about Colston Loveland and I remember what Brock Bowers did last year in his first year, had more than 100 receptions. That's almost unheard of when you think of a rookie making his way into the league. We know it's a new league, the quarterbacks get thrown into the fire. The same thing, it's a passing league. What is this evolution that we've seen in the league and what's this adjustment that now we get guys that come in, there's no slow integration.
In a lot of cases, it doesn't matter what position. It's almost baptism by fire. Oh, absolutely. And I think that speaks to the fact the NFL remains not a developmental league. And I think that that's what you hear all the time around this time of year from teams. It's like we don't have time often beyond maybe a year to just let a guy sit and take us. And even then, sometimes it's really hard to pull that off because you can only keep 53 guys on your roster at the end of camp. Which means if you're a good team, you don't really have a lot of slots anyway. You don't have room sometimes to just have a really talented guy just sit there on a practice water.
He'll get poached, those types of things too. So I just, teams do not like, they will defer, I guess, or tie break on a guy that's done a lot in college that they feel is more ready to go. Even if he's not the better athlete a lot of times.
We see that quite a bit with receiver quite often. We'll see really good athletes that will slide because they're just not ready. And we'll see guys that maybe aren't as good of an athlete that will go higher than them and contribute immediately. Like at positions like that, like those receivers tight end anymore is becoming one of those things where they need you to get in there right now and make something happen. And really only quarterback and maybe very rarely anymore offensive tackle are kind of the only positions where people will even consider letting a guy take some time.
But you're right, it's not a developmental league. And I think that we see that with the parity and the ability for teams to just get off the mat as quickly as they can. It's really hard to take pause and say, hey, we're going to take our time with this or that. I mean, it's just, oh, it's almost impossible to do. So, you know, you really have to be sure that you're getting a guy that can help you relatively quickly, if not right away. Yeah, we've seen that work in Houston. We've seen it work almost to a Super Bowl this year in Washington.
Hey, Nick, thank you so much for the time, your expertise. Where can people follow you and all of your work with The Athletic? Yeah, just go to theathletic.com. We've got all kinds of stuff up there right now. The Beast, Dan Rubler's awesome draft guide is out, which is just gigantic.
I think it's got near 700 players, something like that, that we've evaluated in there, which is crazy, but also got mock drafts and everything else going on there. And then I'm at at McBomgarner on Twitter or Blue Sky or any of those places. Just shout me out and say hey there. Hey, thank you, Nick. That was a great conversation. We'll catch you on down the line, OK?
Absolutely, any time. No doubt about it that Nick Bumgarner covers all things NFL Draft for The Athletic. It's the J.R. Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back. I want to give you an update on Abdul Carter and his health.
He certainly looks like a sure thing in his draft for whoever selects him. And then yesterday, you know, following Luca's ejection in that last game against Oklahoma City, the NBA admitted that they made a mistake. They rescinded Luca's technical that got him thrown out of the game. He was yelling at a fan, not an official.
Well, apparently the NFL has admitted to a mistake as well. You're locked into the J.R. Sportbree show. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbree.
It is the J.R. Sportbree show on the Infinity Sports Network. Oh, my goodness. I'm glad he's singing it. I love Teddy Penny, love Teddy Penny.
Philadelphia's own. Yeah, yeah. Hickey, let it, let it, let it play a little.
I want to get to the love TKO part. Oh, my goodness. This is great. Anyway, a big shout out to Nick Bumgarner for joining us. The last break from the athletic. Here we go.
That's a love TKO. OK, Hickey, that's enough. They got to somebody may make a baby soon.
Hickey, we want to I can see why this is smooth. Yeah, we don't want no child. So people are going to request us to send money if they have kids. We don't want that. No, we do not.
Like it's their fault. Not my fault. Shout outs to Teddy P, legend. And we talked about Teddy Pendergrass earlier in the show. Why?
I don't know, because we just talk about whatever here. But yeah, thank you to Nick Bumgarner for coming through courtesy of the athletic. He covers all things related to the NFL draft. And one of the things that he stood out is just like, hey, don't be surprised if Chidor does fall. He has some holes in his game. And they also mentioned Abdul Carter, who's meeting with the New York Giants.
And he is a safe pick. You know what? If I'm the New York Giants and I'm I'm thinking about the legacy of my franchise, the New York Giants have always been known as a team when they're successful. That just sends the rush at you. Defensive line, defensive ends. I don't care if it's Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson or we're going down to Michael Strahan, OCU Menorra, like the New York Giants, when they have success. They're getting after it.
They're getting after the quarterback. You think about what they have now, Dexter Lawrence on the interior. You have Kayvon Thibodeau to add Abdul Carter to the mix would remind Giants fans of something that they've seen in the past. Just please go out there and get the quarterback. And he is a safe pick.
And so you know what? If I'm the New York Giants, you already brought in Russell Wilson, you got Jameis Winston. If you're starting to build that defense for them, when I say them, Joe Shane, their GM and Brian Dable, their head coach, Abdul Carter is a safe pick. You know, I know in Drew Rosenhouse's agent pretty much said that his foot is OK, his foot is all good to go. And what else is Drew Rosenhouse going to do? He's going to tell us that is his foot sucks.
Of course not. But if you're the New York Giants, Abdul Carter would certainly be a safe pick as opposed to bringing in Chador Sanders. And speaking of Chador earlier today, he was on up in Adams and he talked about his meeting with the Steelers. Nick just told us he met with the Steelers.
And don't be surprised if the Steelers end up drafting him or trying to move up to get him. This is what Chador had to say about his meeting with Mike Tomlin. OK, if you were to give yourself like a grade on how it went, because it's kind of like a job interview, right? You want to make sure you like it.
They like you. What grade would you give yourself? I mean, I've seen what you can do with the one in 11 team. Is it even fair? Should you be allowed to go to a 10 win team like the Steelers? That's that's that's on the people.
That's another franchise that make that mistake and let me go there. Did Aaron Rodgers come up? Who brought him up? You or you or them?
No, no, we didn't talk about nothing about this. How would you feel about sitting behind a vet to start your career? Would you be OK with that? That's the way that things play out. And that's how I feel.
I want to question what God has planned for me. That sounds like a good idea. Hickey, what's up with this? He needs new Wi-Fi. What's going on with Chador? I thought he'd have all the best Wi-Fi. I thought he'd have like 6G Wi-Fi. He was his defense in the airport. Oh, he was going on. I was about to say.
Oh, good. Oh, he was he was leaving Pittsburgh, huh? Leaving Pittsburgh in the airport, talking to Kay Adams, because why not? Pittsburgh has crappy Wi-Fi? I don't know.
I guess maybe it could be a reason not to go there. Don't say what for him or in general? For him, for him. OK. All right. OK. Because, you know, he's got the camera crews around him.
I feel like he's always miked up. You don't have good Wi-Fi. I don't have a good signal. Can't get some good videos.
What's the point? I like Pittsburgh. I don't remember the airport much, but I like Pittsburgh.
I like it. Everything else out in Pittsburgh, but not the airport, which I guess is good, because if the airport sucks, you're going to have you're going to remember the bad experience that you had there. Hickey, let me tell you. But you want to hear about a bad airport?
Sure. Portland, Oregon, an airport right off the rip. Hey, Hickey, there the rug, the rug in the airport is famous for being ugly. Oh, it's famous. Like they put it on a trailblazer's jersey, I think, or some shoes.
Like the design is some crap from the 70s, it's ugly. OK. And now they like is that a rallying cry? Kind of, sort of, yeah. Interesting. This is a well-known design, this stupid carpet on the floor at the airport.
Yes. Denver's airport is supposed to be haunted, supposed to take you to another dimension. The airport in Orlando sucks because of all the children at Disney. Yeah, here in Atlanta, our airport sucks. Didn't you experience that?
Oh, yeah. Not as bad as others, but when it comes to big games, that was a disaster. It was like a billion people trying to get out of Atlanta, Hartsfield, Jackson.
You should have saw it on Monday. The airport was a disaster. Yeah, plenty of turbo airports all over the country and a good old American infrastructure. Get a get a flying car. OK, get one of those. It's the J.R. will get a self-driving car.
Well, you can't do that yet either. It's the J.R. sport re-show on the Infinity Sports Network. When we come back, of course, we're going to talk about more sports. Hey, we're going to even talk some golf. Alexis Benson, professional golfer, is going to come through and join us to talk about the Masters. It's the J.R. sport re-show, the Infinity Sports Network.
