It is the JR Sport Brief show on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in all over North America. I'm being joined by super producer and host Ryan Hickey. He's holding it down for us in New York City. Thank you for listening.
It started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. We've already had a full hour. Where you been? We talked about Greg Popovich, no longer the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. After a stroke to begin the season and health issues, Greg Popovich is now going to be the president of the San Antonio Spurs. Apparently LeBron James was really injured in that last game. He has a sprained MCL in his knee. Good thing his season is over.
Good luck in recovery. Also, Mike Trout's recovery is something that he's used to. Mike Trout is on the injured list. This man has a bone bruise in his knee. The same knee that he tore his meniscus in last year. And then he tried to come back and then he couldn't.
Oh, what a shame. But when your body betrays you, they gave this guy a 12-year contract. $426 million. He has played this season so far 29 games. He matched it 29 games last year. Before that 82, 119, 36, 53.
That's the COVID year, 134. This is, this sucks. I feel bad for the Angels fans, all five of them. Anyway, we talked about the Clippers and the Nuggets. Kawhi Leonard, never excited about anything. They got a game seven against the Nuggets on Sunday.
That'll be fun. Hey, we got the Rockets and the Golden State Warriors tonight. Even though Steph Curry is running around with what appears to be a busted up thumb. Looks like a ligament or something is torn in there. It's not looking good. He had 13 points, man, in game five. If he can't play, if he can't score. Man, them Rockets may run them out of the building.
They very well might. We got so much more to get into. How about this? Next hour, we're going to have a chat. CBS Sports basketball writer Colin Ward Henniger. He's going to come through and join us next hour. And we'll talk about Steve Smith.
He's in trouble. There's a bunch of Steve. Why are there like 20 Steve Smiths in sports? Got Steve Smith from here in Atlanta, the shooting guard. He played on the Spurs. You have Steve Smith, who was a wide receiver on the Giants. I guess he's the lesser known Steve Smith.
And then there's Steve Smith who played for the Panthers, that one. This guy reportedly was hanging out with some woman who was not his wife. That's not a good thing. You're not supposed to do those things.
Now he's in some hot water, maybe with his own wife, but with the man. Can't make this stuff up. Anyway, you want to be a part of the show on a Friday?
You can't knock yourself out. Here's a phone number 888-710-4ISN. 888-710-4ISN.
You can find me online at JR Sport Brief. We've had a busy show. Nicky, now that I'm thinking about it. When you take Kawhi Leonard and you look at Mike Trout, both of them. Are they not one in the same?
I get it. Mike Trout was supposed to be like him and Bryce Harper was supposed to be the guys. Mike Trout can't stay healthy. Kawhi Leonard, he wasn't supposed to be nothing.
Nobody knew who he was coming out of San Diego State. Then we saw him play and then we saw him grow and now he's, he can't play. It just stinks.
All the technology and the medicine and the training. We can't get these dudes out on the field, on the court. I don't know what gives.
Nobody ever has an answer either. You're right and it is very frustrating. Especially in the case of Mike Trout.
It's all now different things, different parts of the body that are hurting. At least with Kawhi it's kind of all centralized on the legs so it kind of makes sense. It's sad.
You feel robbed in a way. We see enough to where you know their greatness. You know their ability to step up on a big stage.
Kawhi more than Mike Trout being in only 3 playoff games which is a whole different discussion. You're right. You feel like there's way more meat on the bone despite both of them being hall of famers right now if they retire today.
You feel like there's still much more of their careers that could have been achieved and accomplished. Yeah. Well we'll see with both.
I don't know. I think they're the same exact age. Kawhi will be, I think we said, yeah Kawhi will be 34 next month.
Mike Trout is 33 years old. It's similar. It just really stinks when you enjoy in somebody's career what they can bring to the game and then it's just all of a sudden poof. It's just, it's gone. And God bless them. Both of them are still playing.
They're not done. Who knows? Maybe Kawhi Leonard goes on a stretch. Well who am I fooling? He probably won't. Like once you have that damage to your legs, there's no going out there and reversing that.
So hey enjoy what you can. At least Kawhi has won a championship right? Mike Trout has been to the postseason once. You think he keeps in contact with Shohei? Hell no right? Shohei doesn't talk to him. I don't think so. I don't know if Shohei talks to anybody in general. But if you're also Mike Trout, he left you. And he left you to go cross town.
I think if they're not talking you should be Mike Trout saying you're cut off versus the other way around. Yeah. Wow. Hickey how about this? What a terrible year for Shohei. He sucks. Hickey he only has 10 RBIs.
What gives? What an awful season for him right? He's struggled since becoming a dad.
How about that? He's only batting 287 with seven home runs and 10 RBIs. I feel like he did all of this at the beginning of the season. Wow. What a loser Shohei is.
What happened? Hickey has a DPS below 1,000. What a bum. Only nine stolen bases after 59 last year.
Shohei sucks. Hickey somebody's going to call and get mad at me. Not realizing that I'm being sarcastic. When he goes on a heater, what is he going to hit? Like seven home runs in seven consecutive games and drive in like 50 RBIs? It feels about right. I mean I feel like it's even like he could go on and do that in three games and just completely go off and all of a sudden the numbers are back to where they are in just a short series stint.
Yeah, he's a mess. In a positive way. Wait until he starts throwing that baseball too. Oh man, the Dodgers got it.
They got it too easy. They got a star. Speaking of stars, we talked about Kawhi out in Los Angeles last night. They, the Clippers, end up forcing a game seven against the Denver Nuggets.
Man, on the other end of the spectrum, Hickey, I left the studio. I turned my head and boom, Jalen Brunson is out there lighting it up. At the end of the game, he's a one man machine.
I'm like, damn it. Carl Anthony Towns won't help him out. The Knicks eliminated the Pistons.
You probably know this by now. They beat them 116 to 113. Jalen Brunson had one of the nastiest crossovers I've ever seen in my life. He actually crossed over from behind and through his legs to the front. He shook the living hell out of which one is that?
Ahsar Thompson. And then drained a three to ultimately win the game. And then the play before that, he's going baseline. I'm looking at Jalen Brunson like this guy's like one on five.
He's not passing the ball. And he got he got a bullied Dennis Schroeder. Wait, no defensive schmuck kind of bullied him under the basket for a layup. Jalen Brunson hit probably the biggest shot of his career last night. That's the thing that you dream of the type of shot. Let me knock down a game winning three.
Jalen Brunson, a bad man. He was just named the NBA's Clutch Player of the Year. We know the league has all these brand new awards and whatnot. Clutch Player of the Year. He average led the league with almost six points in the final five minutes of games when the score is within five. That's in the regular not the regular season. That's in regulation. That's an overtime. He shot 51 percent from the field in the final minutes of a game of the game average. He's a freak. Yeah, I can start pulling up other ridiculous stats. But when the going gets tough, Jalen Brunson.
He gets to going. Jalen Brunson is what he had to say about that game winning shot, which was just a thing of beauty. Just find a way to create some separation. Shot it a little earlier than I wanted to.
But I mean, I mean, Asari is just a great defender, man. And just the fact that I got them a space. I mean, I have to shoot it right there. Happy to ball one in. Happy to ball one. Everybody on the Knicks.
Everybody's so enthusiastic. Remind me of Kawhi Leonard. He had the head coach of the New York Knicks, Tom Thibodeau. He's miserable. You know what, too? Let's see if he sounds happy. He was talking about Jalen Brunson just getting the job done all the time. Jalen shot.
What can you say? You know, timely. You know, he's at his best when his best is needed. He's done it all year.
That's what makes him special. Hickey, did they win the series or did they lose by the voices and the tenor of them? You would think they lost seasons. Also, they're ready. They're ready to lose against the Celtics. That's what that's that's what they're ready for, right? I think they know what is awaiting ahead of them. And the storm that is the Boston Celtics and as well. And we'll get into that. Yeah.
And that's not going to be good. Let's see if McHale Bridges sounds excited. McHale Bridges, by the way, had 25 points. Karl-Anthony Towns. We talked about this, too, Hickey. The man only had 10 points.
It's just maddening. McHale Bridges said, Yeah, Jalen Brunson. I went to school with this guy. He's made for this. He built for it, man. Like I said, this is who he is.
This is how he was raised and his blood. That's that's our captain right there. OK, OK. Enthusiastic right after the game. You heard the crowd in the background.
Well, not Detroit fans, but happy Nick fans, I gather. Yeah. Jalen Brunson hit him with that little Michael Jordan without pushing him. Hickey, I still don't know how Asar Thompson flew that far away.
You saw that? He just flew the other side of the screen. Watching it live, I thought for sure is a push off. I was waiting for the whistle because of how far he like. He was off the screen. I thought for sure, Mike, there's no way he did this legally. Oh, he did.
He crossed him into the next dimension pretty well. Yeah. Unfortunately, up next for the New York Knicks, the Spurs, not the Spurs, I'm Spurs on my brain. The Celtics await Boston Celtics are there. Drew Holiday is dealing with a busted up hamstring. Even with him out, I still think the Celtics will handle the New York Knicks. But you got to show love to Jalen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns. Just can you do something like he got to now face off against Kristaps Porzingis? Is he going to ball out against Porzingis or is he's going to stand around?
I don't know. Like, as much as I love Jalen Brunson and watching him play, they are too reliant on him. And I guess they have to be. Mike, 10 points last night, I get a Jalen Brunson took 33 shots and had 40 points like this. There's no other way to have balance is say there's one or two things. It's Carl Anthony Towns that soft in regards to getting the ball, which Jalen Brunson just that damn good.
It's just they need towns to do more than 10 points. Let's just put it that way. Eighty eight, seven, ten for ISN.
That's eight, eight, eight, seven, ten for ISN. I told you I got Spurs on the brain in about 10 minutes. We're going to have a chat with Carolina Carolina Teague.
Excuse me. Carolina Teague is going to join us as she covers the Spurs for the perfect block. So we'll get into having a chat with her in about 10 minutes. But right now, we got Lee from Cincinnati. You're on the JR Sport re-show. Lee, what's up? Hey JR, thanks for taking my call. And the whole reason I'm calling is I get to tell you how you are the best sports talk show there is. Because both you and your producer, Ryan Hickey, you all remember your callers. You all make it personal and you all make everybody feel welcome whenever they call. Mike, let me ask you this. You know who my favorite team is, right?
The Florida Gators? Nobody else would ever remember that, but the fact that you do and the fact that you bring that up. But you hold everybody's feet to the fire also. You don't let anybody get away with anything. You don't play favorites. You are the best because you ask the questions that need to be asked.
You look at the things that need to be looked at. I just want to say, I'm not the only guy that really appreciates you. There are so many other people that appreciate you, you can't even begin to imagine. So I just want to say thank you so much.
Seriously. One other thing also. I know that you're not from Atlanta originally, but I am so glad the way that you have made sure to tell everybody that you are from Atlanta. Because you've made Atlanta your culture and you do a lot.
I talked about the Braves and the Falcons. And so I appreciate that because I'm from the Southeast, I have to admit. So you're the best you are, man. Keep it up, dude. You've got the best show.
You will have the best show. As long as you have Hickey, y'all are super dynamite, buddy. Well, you know, Hickey's leaving. We talked about that last hour. You didn't hear that? No, I didn't.
No, you can't go anywhere. No, that's wrong. That's like breaking up Batman and Robin. What the heck? I don't know. Well, so now the show's going to go into the toilet now.
Hickey, say something to the man. The show's going to continue to be, it's going to be even probably better, honestly, once I'm gone. And Jared takes over, you know, fully here.
So that's that option. Lee, are you going to have your own show, though? I am going to produce for Bill Ryder earlier in the mornings right here on the Infinity Sports Network.
So just changing times. Well, I'm saying right now, he's not Ryder than me any way you cut it. Because y'all two are the ones who are always right. Make no mistake about it. And show Bill some love. I like Bill. I like Bill.
I like Bill also. I'm not showing him any love, but I'm just showing you. That's why I'm telling y'all. Y'all two are the best.
Y'all the best tandem that I have heard in Lord knows how long. And I appreciate y'all. And like I said, there's so many other people who won't call in and say the same thing.
But I have the ability to do that. And I just wanted to let y'all know. So thank you so much. That's why I listen to you every day. Every day.
Well, I didn't for the last hour, but I can't until six o'clock anyhow. So. I got it. Thank you, Lee. You have a good weekend, OK? You too, JR. Thank you, man. No doubt.
Shout out to Lee for calling from Cincinnati. He gave us a compliment and then he told us separate. We're going to suck now. That's basically what he said.
Is that not this world in a nutshell? He's like, hey, as long as y'all together, this is awesome. We are not together no more. Both of y'all are going to suck. That's that's my interpretation of what Lee said from Cincinnati.
Shout outs to Lee. He was he said, I remembered him. Now I'm going to forget everything. OK. I try. I try.
I don't remember everything. But, you know, you call frequently enough. Of course, I'm going to remember the JR Sport Breeze show on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take this break. We're going to have a chat with someone who's real familiar with everything going on with the Spurs. Carolina Teague is going to join us, who covers the Spurs for the perfect blog. It's the JR Sport Breeze show, the Infinity Sports Network.
Don't move. You're listening to the JR Sport Breeze. It is the JR Sport Breeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, didn't expect news from an NBA team not currently in the postseason, but today we got it. After almost 30 seasons, Greg Popovich is no longer the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. Mitch Johnson is taking over on a full time basis and Greg Popovich now being elevated to president. I guess going back to a managerial role, something that he had in the 90s as he coached.
And before he basically made himself the head coach to talk about what this means for the Spurs, what we can expect going forward for this organization that's been a class act for the past 30 plus years. Joining us right now is Carolina Teague, who covers the team for the perfect blog. Carolina, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm excellent.
Thank you for taking the time to join us. Not the news that you expected to have to report on on a Friday, huh? Yeah, absolutely not. I'm doing good personally. But when it comes to thinking about what the San Antonio Spurs are going through and the changes that's been happening within the organization as of today, I'm definitely very, very sad and emotional when it comes to that. I actually just cried. I'm just going to be honest with you guys. I cried like for randomly. I didn't even think I was going to cry, but I did.
Hey, unfortunately, it happened. So why so what did Greg Popovich mean to you? I know you've been covering the Spurs for quite some time now. We all saw him, you know, every now and then he was he would show a warm side and stand up for some positive things in the community.
And he would always be a polite jerk to the media. What did you see and know and understand about Greg Popovich? What I saw was the greatest coach of all time. And, you know, growing up young guy was and I still am a fan of the Chicago Bulls.
You know, I'm a fan of the NBA and all teams in general, like I just like, you know, covering the NBA, watching them. So growing up, I was always under the the guys that coach Phil Jackson is the greatest coach of all time. And arguably he is.
That's the huge debate. Who's the greatest coach of all time? Is it Phil?
Is it Pop? I was always team Phil because, you know, the Scotty and Jordan thing. And then you had the the Shaq and Kobe thing that Phil Jackson had going on. But as I developed and started growing a relationship covering the Spurs over time, I started to really understand that coach Pop is actually the greatest coach of all time. And and the reason I say that is because he's had twenty nine years in the NBA.
He's had over 20 plus year streak making the playoffs and he has five championship rings under his belt. But what gives him the edge to me is not only that, he has a huge edge when it comes to the coaching tree that he's been able to develop throughout the years, whether it's Coach Becky Hammond, who's won two rings with the Aces, whether it's Coach Budd or whoever you can think of. He's developed coaches over time who are also championship winners in their own right once they branch off on their own. So that says something about the way he is as a coach and his development. And then you look at the other aspect that gives him the edge is that the San Antonio Spurs were essentially built and they didn't necessarily have, you know, with the exception of the Twin Towers, these these these players that were built and not bought. And, you know, he wasn't gifted being able to coach on a separate team with great players in his hand to coach. So I think that gives him the slight edge, even though they're both incredible coaches. But I look at him as the greatest coach of all time. And when you look at the San Antonio Spurs and covering them in media, he was tough.
But it did teach us as media that we need to be fearless. And I like I was told the story earlier about how Coach Pop looked me in the eye. I'd always look down because he would intimidate me.
But I started to realize that I need to look him in the eye and it felt like 20 seconds were the longest 20 seconds of my life. But when I look at Coach Pop down in the eye, he started to answer my questions as a sign of respect. So it taught me to be fearless in media. It taught the San Antonio Spurs fans to love a team and be humble and appreciate that.
The pounding the rock philosophy of working harder each and every single day just makes you a better person and it makes you stronger in the long run. So Coach Pop not only impacted the game of basketball, but he also impacted the media players and fans and people alike. So he's going to be truly missed. Carolina Teague is joining us covers the San Antonio Spurs for the perfect block. We got the news today that Greg Popovich is no longer the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, but he is now the president. Mitch Johnson is going to take over as the full time head coach. He had to take over for Greg Popovich of this season. Unfortunately, he had the issue with Victor webbing Yama where he had the aneurysm. What do we need to know about Mitch Johnson?
He's not someone who's in the public sphere, obviously, like Popovich, who's been around for 30 years. What do we need to know about Mitch? Well, it's great that you asked me that because I own a website called perfect block and I have three fantastic, amazing writers and their names are Casey.
Matt and Tyler. And what we've gathered as a team, essentially because we like to, you know, pitch out ideas and come up with the best ideas when it comes to Mitch. His career is most like if you had to give it like a career path that you can kind of mimic off of in the past, it would be Eric Spoelstra with the Miami Heat. He kind of had a similar come up as Mitch Johnson did. He was an assistant coach. And then after he was an assistant coach, then he just so happened to get into the head coaching space after the his coach pop, if you will, was wasn't able to be a coach at the time.
And that is how he was able to be developed. Now, he had received a lot of criticism this season because people would always kind of criticize his rotations that he would do or maybe his timing was a bit off and being able to call challenges at certain times. And little mistakes like that, that would possibly, you know, cause the team to lose.
He would get criticism for that. But you kind of got to look at it from like a like a realistic perspective. I mean, this is a team that's not bought A and then B, it takes time to develop when you are a young coach and you are going to make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes when they start something new in life in general. So it makes sense that he's had those mistakes. And then also, it's not like he was, you know, had the opportunity to have this great team throughout the season. The Spurs went through a lot. You had Devin Visal, who was injured right at the beginning of the season.
Then you had Jeremy Sohan, who had injured his finger right when he started getting his reaching his peak during the beginning of last year, this season. And then you also saw, you know, the changes that were made. Coach Pop had the aneurysm. He steps in and then the big trade happens. De'Aaron Fox comes into town and then that call in and Trey Jones go away. So he had to kind of readjust. Then he had to be he had to deal with the veteran presence of Chris Paul, who has a very strong personality in Harrison Barnes.
And so you have all these things, you know, all these changes. And Mitch was able to handle it. And he deserves to be head coach.
Carolina Teague here with us on the J.R. Sport Brief Show covers the San Antonio Spurs for the Spurfect block. You talk about Victor Winbenyama. We saw Damian Lillard deal with an aneurysm or excuse me, a blood clot in his leg. And we've seen Victor Winbenyama deal with that kind of in his arm. Is there any update on Winbenyama?
We all assume things will be fine, correct? So there are rumors of how he what's happening. So there's rumors out there that he's had surgery already. We have no definitive proof of that. But I did speak to some NBA medical doctors who are closely related to NBA players.
And they essentially stated to me the process. And it could be he was when he got injured. I think it was late February, early May, if I'm not mistaken. They put him on blood thinners. The blood thinner situation lasts between one to three months. And if they feel like surgery is necessary and a valid thing to do, then they will use surgery as a final alternative. The recovery processes take about six months.
And we haven't really heard anything back. But it would be great for him to come back at the beginning of the season, especially since Darren Fox had his surgery a little bit early so they can all be on track by the time the next season comes around. There's no doubt about that. I know everybody is eagerly awaiting to see where the San Antonio Spurs will go ahead and pick in the draft. As we move forward with Darren Fox and you think about Victor Wenbanyama, what is the expectation is for them to ultimately, you know, grow into a contender? Is it bringing in additional pieces to the San Antonio Spurs?
Are there guys like Stefan Castle? He just won Rookie of the Year. What can we expect from this team next year, given that we expect Wenbanyama to hopefully be back? I mean, I just go with my gut and that's that the Spurs are probably going to build through.
That's their traditional route. There's been rumors that Kevin Durant could possibly come down, but his contract, he still has money to be paid out and for the next upcoming season. And then he would be a free agent the following year. So those rumors don't make sense to me because bringing somebody like KD in when he still has money left over on his contract doesn't make sense to me. Then you have somebody like Giannis. These are big players, major superstars and all that stuff. But more than likely, the teams that are going to be trading for them are going to want somebody like a Steph Castle and because you have to have an attractive deal and the Spurs have a lot of picks that they can give out. But at the end of the day, it would just be tough to give up two rookies of the year in a row. They're going to want one or the other.
And you kind of have your non-negotiables. So I just see them kind of building a little bit more through the draft because this final year coming up, this upcoming draft in 2025 is going to be their best opportunity to get the best, best pick possible. And then it drops off a little bit after the next year. So I say they more than likely are going to just chill for the next year. That's my prediction. OK, well, San Antonio Spurs certainly moving into a different era. Greg Popovich, no longer the head coach, moving full time into the front office as president. Mitch Johnson taking over the full time job as head coach and everybody waiting to see the full status of Victor Banyama as he is still at the onset of his career.
Carolina, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Where can people follow you? All of your work, your writings and the perfect blog. Tell us.
Yes. OK, so my website is perfect blog. You can go to my Twitter or my social media on Instagram.
Twitter is CT the Mike Slayer. I'm also on reality of wrestling. W.W. Booker T's reality of wrestling.
W.W.E. I'm lead commentator. So you can find me on their YouTube channel. We just almost hit a million subscribers, I think that'd be great. And then you can also see me on Instagram and tick tock at Carolina Teague Sports.
I post social media content and I just, you know, do the things that I love. And thank you guys for having me on. No doubt about it. Carolina, we look forward to chatting with you down the line. OK, you take it easy. You too. Thanks for having me.
No doubt that Carolina Teague covers the San Antonio Spurs for the perfect block. I like the story that you told about addressing Greg Popovich and having to build up the confidence and him kind of, hey, you know, talk to me and looking him in the eye. And it does. Everything is a learning experience in life. And communication is certainly a key. You learn how to communicate.
You can certainly go places in life. It's the J.R. sport show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 888 710 for ISN.
That's 888 710 for ISN. We're going to take a break when we come back. We'll talk about changes in an off season. I still can't believe this. I will wait until it actually comes true. Apparently, the Cincinnati Bengals. They're going to bring back Trey Hendrickson. They're on their way to a contract with him. The Cincinnati Bengals are going to hand out another big deal. This cheapskate organization will get into that on the other side of the break.
I still can't believe it. You are listening to the J.R. sport brief. It is the J.R. sport brief show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much to Carolina Teague for coming through to have a chat with us about the San Antonio Spurs.
Now that Greg Popovich is no longer head coach, he's now the president. Thank you so much to Carolina for coming through and sharing some of her personal experiences. This portion of the show is brought to you by Ethos Life. The easy way to get life insurance in 10 minutes up to two million dollars in coverage with no medical exam. Just a few health questions. You can get your free quote at check Ethos dot com.
Not available in all states. You know, I mentioned at the San Antonio Spurs for the past 30 years, they're a class act organization. I mean, just from who they bring in and how they bring people in and how they they procure talent.
Grabbing guys from all over the world, whether you happen to be from the Virgin Islands or maybe you're from Argentina, maybe you're from Paris, the San Antonio Spurs just seemingly always found a way to do things the right way. On the opposite end of the spectrum in the NFL. The Cincinnati Bengals typically find a way to screw things up, right? I mean, even even in going to a Super Bowl with Joe Burrow hitting the jackpot there, they're pretty much known as the bungles. How are they going to mess up? We've all heard the stories coming from their own superstars about how cheap the organization is.
And now is really this is a this is really pushing the boundaries as to the accuracy of that. We know this Cincinnati Bengals team just over the past year, two years, they've had to shell out some massive deals. Let's think about the contract that they had to give the Joe Burrow. You got to pay the quarterback.
Most important dude in the league or on a team is the quarterback. He's getting paid fifty five million dollars a year. You got to pay him. They've paid the guys that he has to throw the ball to. I'm like, they definitely going to pay Jamar Chase. Are they also going to pay T. Higgins?
The answer is yes. Jamar Chase is getting 40 plus a year, 40 mil plus a year. T. Higgins is getting almost 30 mil a year. And then you got Trey Hendrickson on the defense. And that's where the Cincinnati Bengals need all the help in the world. You got Trey Hendrickson could have won defensive player of the year. A 17 and a half sacks, not just this past season, but the year before then as well.
But people are looking at his age. He's like 30 years old and they're like, man, we want to pay a crap ton of money for an aging defensive end. And if you're the Cincinnati Bengals, you've already given money to everybody on the offense.
How the hell are you going to afford to do so on the defense? And so Trey Hendrickson has sat around and he's done his interviews and he's talked about how, you know, he wants to be compensated and he's being patient and what have you. And I'm like, there's no way in hell this team is just going to go ahead and pay him to think about some of these contracts that have just been doled out. For other guys who are paid to go get the quarterback. Myles Garrett is getting paid 40 mil a year. Max Crosby is getting paid 35 and a half a year. If you're Trey Hendrickson, wouldn't you want to sit in the same space of Myles Garrett? I'm like, man, I just got 17 and a half sacks the past two years.
Pay me. Is he going to fall between 35 and 40? I have no idea. If you think about the Cincinnati Bengals, they're an interesting organization and interesting team. They went ahead and got Shamar Stewart in the draft.
Yeah. The one of the biggest projects, the guy who can get to the backfield but can't necessarily bring down the QB. We're going to trust that the Cincinnati Bengals that they develop him. I have no idea. What are they developing? Nothing. They should have brought in a finished product, but that's the Bengals way.
But apparently. This optimism coming out of Cincinnati that they're going to get a deal done with Trey Hendrickson. I will believe it when I see it.
Listen to Diana Rossini. She was on Scoop City and she said people feel good that they actually might get a deal done with Trey Hendrickson. Okay. So most people I think we're looking at them drafting Shamar Stewart as this is the end of the Trey Hendrickson error in Cincinnati. So I do a little digging on it and I'm still getting really good vibes coming out of Cincy that they're going to try to get a deal done with Trey.
How? There's the money growing trees over there? They seem to be trying to move money and get creative with finding ways to get Trey the money. Is he going to take a hometown disco? How can you look at this and think he's not going to?
Yeah, he has. There's no way in hell he's going to make thirty five to forty. And that they have to. There has to be a discount. I don't know what they're waiting like. Where's he getting traded? Like the NFL draft is coming on. It's almost the same situation with Kirk Cousins. I guess you got to wait for the Aaron Rodgers shoe to drop. Somebody has to get hurt and somebody has to get desperate.
Oh my God, who's out there? Let's just go get Kirk Cousins. Maybe that's what the Atlanta Falcons are pretty much waiting on. But at this stage of the game, we're post draft.
It's now the beginning of May. He had he has to stick around with the team now, right? Like they got to give him a contract extension. And where else is he getting paid?
I guess if you want to find a silver lining, it is the draft is done. Where the hell else could he possibly go? He has to take a a hometown discount. I mean, all the way he's staying with the Bengals and cheap skates. I mean, I guess it comes down to how badly do you want to stay there? You know, he's talked about before. He wants to stay.
He wants to be a Bengal. Unfortunately for him, if that's the case, I think you're right. You're right. Dan, you're seeing he's right.
You're going you're not getting probably what you're like. This guy led the league in sacks the last two years combined. He should be up there in terms of the top paid guys.
But if he wants to stay in since it's not going to happen. Yeah. Well, I don't think he doesn't come across to me as like someone who.
I don't know. He doesn't come across as a jerk. He's not manipulating people outside of sitting around and doing one podcast.
I just he's not rocking the boat in that regard. And you think about his durability. He played all 17 games last year, 17 and a half sacks. The year before that, he played all 17 games, 17 and a half sacks. The year before that, he played 15 games, only had eight sacks. And then the year before that, he had 14 sacks, 13 and a half sacks. Like he's been on a heater since he had that final year in New Orleans. And at that point, the Bengals gave him a four year, 60 million dollar deal.
And so it's tough to look at his age and go, oh, he's 30. We don't want to give him a long term deal. And we know a lot of these contracts in the NFL, a lot of these things are sham deals anyway. It didn't stop a team like the Buffalo Bills from bringing in man.
What was the name, Mickey Von Miller? Like it is stop them. And so if you actually have a guy who's been durable, why would you be opposed to giving him a four year contract outside of they already throwing a crap ton of money at the offense? I'm even if they bring back Trey Hendrickson, which I believe they will. I, I still think it's going to be the same, same old, same old like you're going to have Joe Burrow out there having to throw the ball around. And the defense is absolutely going to stink. Because they unless they find in diamonds in the rough, it's going to be all offense and no defense. And they're going to barely get in or fall out of the postseason. That's that's even if they bring back Trey Hendrickson. And this is my worry ultimately for the Cincinnati Bengals. They're going to run Joe Burrow into the ground, Hickey. I am worried about that as well. Because outside of the defense as well, the other positional group that's getting no love and no monetary value, I guess, or no money thrown into it. The offensive line, which you could argue outside of quarterback is the most important to keep your quarterback upright.
And they've completely ignored it. I'm I'm I'm with you. I don't like the direction this team. I'm nervous about the depth big time. It's they are going all in and basically praying for perfect injury luck, which never happens. And that their top four guys produce a career high levels that basically carry the other 52 guys on the roster. Yeah, we got a we got Dan Marino part two coming up, huh? Damn, this when you put it that way, I mean, come on.
Parallels are pretty similar. It's like, hey, I'm good. I'm great. I got here.
Am I going back? And of course, it's early in his career. So it's tough to make such a statement.
Nobody be surprised if he did go back one day. But you think about the team, how they're currently constructed. It's not like they're on a Buffalo Bills trajectory.
It does. They don't have a strong roster, you know, like like what you have with the Baltimore Ravens is it's not youthful. And you kind of starting to piece things together like in Washington, like everything is pretty clear with the Bengals. I don't think there's anything that's, you know, out of the ordinary. They're not known as a franchise. That's just, yeah, we're going for it or things are going to change.
And the reason why is you you look at the top. Nothing has changed about the Bengals. They still got Mike Brown calling the shots like he's the boss. He's old. Hickey, how old is he? We figured out how old he is. He 90, right?
Something like that. I was going to guess 83. I think you're right. He's closer to 90, right?
He's going to be 90 in August. Wow. Yeah. That's the boss, folks. That's the boss. And so I don't care what what Zach Taylor is doing down there, man.
He got a everybody got to answer to somebody. Hey, good luck to Trey Hendrickson. I hope he gets paid. It's the J.R. sport re-show on the Infinity Sports Network. We'll take a break when we come back. We'll talk some more NBA. We'll talk some more basketball. And how the heck is Caitlin Clark back in the news? Oh, the WNBA season's about to start. Hey, we got the Rockets and the Warriors. They're about to start in an hour. Told you about Steve Smith getting ready to get sued. It's a lot. It's the J.R. support re-show the Infinity Sports Network.
