It is! The JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. I hope you're well. I hope you're safe. I hope you're amazing.
I hope you are all of the things. Happy Monday to you. This is when the show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta. Thank you to our producer in New York City, Nico Scarlatos, for holding things down on the board. We got a lot to get into here over the next four hours. Of course, it was a busy weekend.
It appears that it's already been a busy Monday. We got Detroit Lions retiring. We got Giannis maybe interested in hooking up with the Raptors.
Of course, we got to take a look at the weekend. The Pacers advancing to the NBA Finals, leaving the New York Knicks, well, pretty much their fans, in a state of disarray. What a shock and what a surprise there. Deion Sanders defending his son, Shador. You know, Deion not a fan of all the conversations surrounding his draft preparation. Stephon Diggs, it appears that he's prepared. He has finally arrived to Patriots OTAs. Bill Belichick, a big day for him.
If he decides to bail from North Carolina, he doesn't have to pay as much money. And then we'll talk a little bit about the NBA Finals because, wow, yeah, it's Thursday. We got to wait until Thursday for the NBA Finals to get going. Saquon is on the cover of Madden. David Ortiz says leave.
Rafael Devers alone. The Mariners are retiring Randy Johnson's number. We got a lot to do. You want to be a part of the show? It's simple. You can call up 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. You can find me all over the place. I'm on the Internet. I exist.
I am at JR Sport Brief. So if there's a human being there or a bot there, if a social media account is had on your end, you can find me at JR Sport Brief to talk about the disaster. It sounds even tough to call it a disaster of the New York Knicks. It's just an unfortunate situation that they go to the Eastern Conference Finals.
They lose. And the first thing that takes place for the New York Knicks is ultimately the blame game, which is what else is new. It's New York City.
It's a big market. I think a good portion, not all, but there's a good sector of Knicks fans who are absolutely out of their minds. And so we're going to get into that. We're going to be joined next hour by Christian Winfield, covers the New York Knicks for the New York Daily News. So we'll have that conversation with him next hour. Let's take some time to talk about the team that actually won.
Let's take some time to talk about the team that is advancing to the NBA Finals, has advanced, the Indiana Pacers knocking off those Knicks and now getting ready to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder. But before I do that, very quickly, Nico, how are you, man? Nick fans, not too crazy.
They are crazy, right? Yeah. It's been a rough past 48 hours here up in New York for us, Nick fans. But I would like to say that I'm more on the positive side than most of the fan base. Okay. I can appreciate that. I appreciate some positivity. We'll get to some positivity.
We got to talk to Nico and get some positivity out of the situation. Pacer fans feeling very positive. These Pacers won on Saturday, 125 to 108. They win the series against the Knicks overall four to two.
I am not going to forget that initial game, that overtime thriller where Tyrese Halliburton hit that three, bounced up into the air off the back iron, bounced right into the net, went into overtime. The New York Knicks blew a big one. I think that that had a major impact on the New York Knicks losing this series. And to be honest, they went out, they went out a little bit on a whimper, 125 to 108. As the game just continued to go on, it just seemed like it was definitely going to go the way of the Pacers. The Knicks could not keep up. Jalen Brunson, who was Mr. Clutch in the NBA this year.
I'm not just saying that. They gave this guy an award calling him Mr. Clutch. 19 points, eight of 18 shooting, two of seven from downtown. Karl-Anthony Towns, 22 points, eight of 19 shooting. But Halliburton, bouncing back from his poor performance in the previous game, 21 points, 13 assists. Pascal Siakam winning MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals, 31 points. And Obie Toppin, who used to play for the New York Knicks. Well, Obie Toppin helped send his old team home. 18 points off the bench to go along with six rebounds.
They say revenge is a dish served cold and Obie Toppin went out there and helped serve up a New York Knicks vacation. Tyrese Halliburton, kind of funny when it was, they were getting ready to announce the Eastern Conference MVP and they were getting ready to say, yeah, now it's time to give out the award. Tyrese Halliburton kind of stepped up, tapped himself on the chest and he didn't win. Siakam's name was announced. Siakam more consistent, I'd say, throughout the series. Tyrese Halliburton, I'd say, went out there and hit more big shots. And Tyrese Halliburton, he's no dummy. He decided to talk about the leadership of Pascal Siakam. Keep in mind, Pascal Siakam won a title. It's crazy how long ago it was. In 2019 with the Toronto Raptors.
Listen to Tyrese Halliburton talk about Pascal Siakam helping to lead the way. Obviously, when we brought him here, you know, we had, we envisioned, you know, doing something like this, doing something special. And, you know, it's just really special that he's been here.
He's been like a big brother for me, somebody I can really trust, somebody that I can really lean on to talk to and just somebody who can always keep me steady. Yeah, you talk about keeping him steady. Let's remember this. Everybody talks about Shea Gilgus Alexander and the whole trade, Paul George moving from the Clippers over to OKC, how that changed that franchise's fortunes. Tyrese Halliburton did not win Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
At the end of the day, he may not care all that much. He's going to the finals. The Pacers are here because of him. He is the best player on the Indiana Pacers and they got him from Sacramento in exchange for the son of Arvida Sabonis, DeMontez, and they've basically brought in a point guard who a lot of people don't like, doesn't turn the ball over, can have his ups and downs scoring, but always distributes the ball and is not afraid to knock down big shots. This man, Tyrese Halliburton, he is a star in his own regard and his own right. And I want you to hear from his head coach, Rick Carlisle, because Rick Carlisle says when we got this man Halliburton into the building, of course, it helped take the Pacers to another level.
If you have the right player to build around, it can happen much faster than you think. And so getting Tyrese made it very clear what our identity as a team needed to be. We needed to be a fast-paced team with shooting.
Fast-paced? Listen, they get up and down the court. They wore the New York Knicks out, okay? We had a hit piece about how bad Carl Anthony Towns is defensively, like minutes after the series was done. You know, Jalen Brunson has been picked apart for his size and, you know, he can't go out there and guard somebody six foot seven. He's typically the smallest man out on the court.
He could light you up offensively, but don't expect him to go out there and get stops. And so having Tyrese Halliburton represent the Pacers, having Shay Gilgas Alexander represent the Oklahoma City Thunder, this is a new era in basketball. We see that.
You know, this is no big market, major market. We got two young teams that are going to go up and down the court. And New York is waiting on the sidelines watching on vacation. Los Angeles, the Lakers, they're on the sidelines watching. And over the past couple of years, you think about the champions that we've had in the NBA. It's like a new champ every year. Last season, it was the Celtics. Then it was the Nuggets, the Warriors, the Bucks, the Lakers, the Raptors with Siakam. Like since 2019, we have crowned a new champ every single season. Damn it, we can go back to 2018 after the Warriors went back to back in 17 and 18.
And we've had a new champion every single year. I want you to listen to the center. This is kind of crazy. I'm like, man, Myles Turner is now going to be in the finals.
I guess the answer is yes. He said that the era of just slapping together superstars, treating it like it's the Phoenix Suns or the Lakers, Myles Turner says them days are over. It's a new blueprint for the league, man. I just, you know, I think the years of the super teams and, you know, stacking is just not, it's not as effective as it once was. You know, I mean, this NBA, since I've been in the league, you know, this NBA is very trendy, you know, just shifts.
But the new trend now is just kind of what we're doing. OKC does the same thing, you know, young guys get out and run, defend, and, you know, use the power of friendship is how they call it. The power, Niko, have you heard of that as a basketball strategy, the power of friendship? I've heard it in baseball, but I haven't heard it in basketball. I like that, though. The power of where in baseball have you heard about the power of friendship?
Well, I've heard of like small market teams that don't have high payrolls that overachieve. They'll call it the power of friendship. Oh, my God. So am I am I not friendly? I've never heard of that in my life. Am I out of touch? Yeah, I guess that's a younger generation thing.
The power of friendship. Well, I know Myles Turner. I don't. Legos are for everybody. You don't play with Legos, do you build them?
No, I'm I'm past those days. Oh, Myles Turner is a heat. Myles Turner might have some beef with you. He is a huge Legos fan and aficionado.
And I don't know, maybe he talks about the power of friendship while he is constructing or building his Legos. Things are looking nice for the Indiana Pacers. I did not expect them to be here. If you would have told me earlier this year with the injuries they had, they were sub 500 before we got to Christmas, before we got to the New Year, that they would be representing the East and the NBA finals.
I would not have thought about that at all. There's no Celtics here to look at. There are no New York Knicks.
They've dispatched of them. And the Knicks have certainly their own problems. Like I told you about Carl Anthony Towns. It was an entire piece written about this man, about how his teammates question whether or not he even understood some of the team's basic defensive principles.
And it's like this is the most New York thing ever. Like everybody knew in the New York Knicks acquired Carl Anthony Towns that he was not the world's strongest defender. He wasn't going to be out there blocking shots. He wasn't going to be intimidating folks. He's not, you know, Kevin Garnett. He's not hitting you with that that type of intensity.
He's not that type of timber wolf or former timber wolf. He's an offensive weapon. He goes out there and gets buckets.
And sometimes he disappears. He did exactly what I think you would expect from him if you followed his career from Minnesota now to New York. And so now it's time to beat him up, because Carl Anthony Towns is the quote unquote new kid on the block completing his first year with the New York Knicks. People are beating up on Josh Hart, who couldn't find the basket if it kind of walked up and hit him in the back of the head.
It's just time in New York to beat up on the Knicks. And people are now even questioning whether or not Carl Anthony Towns can play with Jalen Brunson given their defensive inefficiencies. And Carl Anthony Towns was just asked about playing alongside Jalen Brunson.
And this is what he said. Being able to watch Jalen from afar, you know, in the West and just see what he's done and what he's done for the city. It's even more crazier in person when you watch it in person, the way he works on the court. And you know, JB's one of those teammates that when he steps in the building, you know, he raises everyone's energy, morale, and very few people I've ever played with had that kind of intangibles that he has.
The man is all business. Jalen Brunson shows up. There's no hype. There's no trash talk. I'm still shocked and surprised that he even has a podcast out with his buddy from college, Josh Hart, his former, well, current New York Knicks teammate. If you ask some New York Knicks fans, Josh Hart will certainly be a former New York Knicks despite how hard he plays. Jalen Brunson is all business.
And after the game, after the elimination, he was asked about the group that the New York Knicks had. We know Tom Thibodeau always criticized for not utilizing everybody on the depth chart. Jalen Brunson says the guys that we play with, they're fine. We good.
Leave us alone. The most confidence. Overconfident. Seriously. I don't, there's not an ounce of any type of doubt that I'm not confident with this group.
Oh, wow. Well, I mean, in an era of, in an era right now where NBA players just throw their teammates under the bus like it's nothing. I like Jimmy Butler. I need my joy. Or you got James Harden a couple of years ago trying to exit out of Houston saying, Hey, you know, basically my teammates, these guys are not good enough.
I need to leave. Kudos to Jalen Brunson for sticking up for his teammates. Now I will say one thing that the New York Knicks don't have that they have more of last year, they did have depth. You don't have that when you trade away draft picks for McHale bridges and bring in Carl Anthony towns and move a guy like Dante DiVincenzo, the Knicks do not have depth. They have to try to find some depth in the best way possible.
I want you to keep this in mind. The guy who typically catches a lot of the heat is Tom Thibodeau. Tom Thibodeau is typically like any coach. He's on the fire line. If things don't go right, things can hit the toilet quickly for Tom Thibodeau.
And I want you to hear his response to whether or not the New York Knicks can move forward. I think decompress, you do a deep dive on the team and then you analyze what you think you need to improve upon. And then, you know, you have, we have the draft and then we have free agency and there's trades and then there's the internal development. And then it's the study and preparation for next season. And so it's a big it's a big off season for us. It is a major off season for the New York Knicks. Unfortunately for them, their off season is underway and the Pacers, their off season, well, they're going to try to go into it with a championship.
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 got some news that came down the pipe today. Well, it looks like Giannis.
He might be looking for a new home and it might be north of the border. We're going to have a chat with Christian Winfield next hour from the New York Daily News to talk about the Knicks. We got some other news that we got a big, big, big retiree now in the NFL from the Detroit Lions who's deciding to hang it up. We got a lot to get into. We'll talk more about the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Pacers as they get ready for their matchup.
We're just getting started. It's the JR sport re-show coast to coast on the infinity sports network. It is the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. We just talked about these Indiana Pacers on their way to the NBA finals, knocking off the New York Knicks on Saturday night. Well, there's another team that the Pacers knocked off to get here in the first round. They were able to dispatch the Milwaukee Bucks and we know about the injury to Damian Lillard and that certainly doesn't help the depth and the age of the Milwaukee Bucks, not to their advantage. But the Bucks were in the news today and it's not because obviously they were playing basketball. We got a report that Giannis Atetokounmpo who we know is finally now open to moving on from the Milwaukee Bucks, that according to Doug Smith of the Toronto Star, he says that there is mutual interest between Giannis and the Toronto Raptors to join forces like Voltron and try to move things along in competing for an NBA championship.
Now before we even get to anything basketball related, I saw that and the first thing that I said was it makes all the sense in the world. You think about Giannis Atetokounmpo who is of Nigerian descent via Greece. He is a very international and worldly man and Toronto is one of the most international cities on planet earth. Like he would eat it up and they would eat it up having Giannis in the building.
So it's not a shock, you know, for a guy of Giannis' stature and MVP, a finals MVP, a champ, all star, all of this, Hall of Famer, top 75. It's not a shock that instead of just saying, hey, I want to go to LA or I just want to go to New York, we're both international cities, that he would be someone who says, I want to go to Toronto, Canada, because we've heard it year after year after year. NBA players don't want to necessarily go play in Canada. They don't necessarily want to go to Toronto. Toronto is an amazing city.
It's beautiful. I remember when Steve Francis used to play for the Vancouver Grizzlies before he got drafted and Stevie franchise is coming out of Maryland. I get it. You're coming from Maryland and now all of a sudden you have to go out to Vancouver. That's quite a trek, but he pitched the fit about going to Vancouver and ultimately he was like, I don't, I don't want to, I want to be here. And we saw where he ended up ultimately with the Houston Rockets. So not a shock that Giannis would look at a city like Toronto and go, Hey, I want to be here. And then in relation to Milwaukee, not that far away from a basketball standpoint, I think it also would make some sense for Giannis Atetokounmpo.
This man is going to make $54 million last year. And if there's one thing the Raptors do have, if they want to go ahead and Masai Ujiri, the general manager wants to switch things around, you do have some pieces that you've added in over the past several years that you could package up and move out. RJ Barrett, I mean, is he long for Toronto?
Eh, I don't think so. He's not necessarily taking you to an NBA championship. Scottie Barnes is likely to go nowhere. I could see Jakob Pertl moving on.
This is a team. Emmanuel quickly, you can move him to Milwaukee and he can get all the buckets in the world that he wants in a situation. I think that this would actually be a good move. And if I'm the Milwaukee Bucks, eh, you want some draft picks, you want the Raptors, well, you want Milwaukee's first round pick.
You want that in exchange. I just think this is a move that would make sense for Giannis, but let's be real. What else is he winning in Milwaukee? The answer is nothing. They have no picks.
They have nobody to bring on. This is a wild situation. A matter of fact, I guess Rich Paul is LeBron's friend and a great agent for good reason, because back on May 13th, he was on Pat McAfee show. And Rich Paul said that the Raptors, they have all the pieces to make a move and get Giannis. If you look at Toronto, who has young assets, a big market, he would be huge there, obviously. And you have to believe in guys like Masai and Bobby Webster.
Yeah, without a doubt. Giannis is going to get moved. Shams just said last week that we should go ahead and prepare ourselves for one of the wildest off seasons that we've ever seen in the NBA. And that's really tough to think about when we've seen LeBron's decision, when we've seen Kevin Durant join a team that just beat him in the postseason to think that this is going to be the biggest off season. Giannis moving, potentially likely. Kevin Durant almost definitely moving on from the Phoenix Suns.
That would kind of shift things. And we've heard rumors about, oh man, what if Giannis goes to San Antonio and plays with Victor Wambenyama? That those guys with outstretched arms would go from one end of the court to the other one.
That'd be great to see. People have talked about Giannis going out to Brooklyn. Well, if I'm the Milwaukee Bucks, why do I just want all of Brooklyn's draft capital back?
I might as well take my whole team and really think about the future. Golden State? How would Giannis end up in Golden State? They just gave Jimmy Butler 121 million dollars. What are they going to do, flip Jimmy Butler out there?
I don't think they can. They just gave him a contract extension. And let's be real, Jimmy Butler's going to play nice in Milwaukee.
I think the guy would start a mutiny, maybe even quit. And so I don't know where else Giannis could go besides maybe Houston, Texas. Houston is another team that has great assets where I think Giannis could actually make an immediate impact in helping them win a title. Toronto a little further away.
But hey, Masai Ujuri is someone else who happens to be of African descent. Giannis may find that to be the best place for him to continue his career. I think one thing we all know for certain, it's not Milwaukee.
That's it. Niko, where do you where do you think is the best place for Giannis to end up? I like Houston a lot. And there was another one that I don't know if many people are talking about this, but what about the Detroit Pistons?
Oh my goodness. In exchange for? I think they have a few good pieces there with Tim Hardaway Jr. and a couple of other guys. If they throw in some picks, why not? Niko, did you start by saying Tim Hardaway Jr.? I thought he was very good in that series, in that playoff series against the Knicks this year. To trade Giannis Atenecumpo and then have Tim Hardaway Jr. be the lead on that?
Well, the main pieces would be the picks, but then if they wanted some players in return, I think Tim Hardaway Jr. would be the first name that jumps out when looking at the roster. Oh my goodness. No, I'd be like, I'd hang the phone up. Isn't that what they do in sports? Sometimes they just hang the phone up, they say. You call somebody for a trade and you just go, oh no, I don't want this guy.
I think it's tough. The Detroit Pistons, we know their best player is Cade Cunningham. This guy was just an all-star. He's going to be an all-star for future years, future seasons. Ahsar Thompson, certainly young as well. I think his brother, his twin brother down in Houston is much better than him.
You have Durin and I don't know if he's going to grow into being much, especially from an offensive perspective. I think it starts and stops at Cade Cunningham and we know Detroit is not giving him up. He has to be probably, Giannis is 30 years old. Cade Cunningham has to be about six, seven years younger than Giannis.
Yeah, he's 23 years old. Detroit sounds great, but I just don't know if the Bucks are willing to tank things that much. And if I'm getting picks back, I don't even want, I want Tim Hardaway to be a veteran on the team. But if I'm the Bucks, what do I need a veteran for?
I'm just blowing up a team that just had a crap ton of them and these guys were all old. Like Brook Lopez is now a free agent. Damian Lillard is recovering from his Achilles.
I saw a video of this guy walking on one of these fancy treadmills as he begins his recovery. Things are, things are not looking good for the Milwaukee Bucks and Tim Hardaway Jr. Yeah, he could be a vet. I don't know what he'd be doing. I'm still kind of surprised to be honest. He's still in the league.
You know what's kind of crazy that you mentioned that, Nico? I remember one particular game years ago when Tim Hardaway was on the Knicks. Do you remember Giannis dunking over him, like literally flying over him? Now that you bring it up, I do remember that and that's a total coincidence because that was not why I mentioned Tim Hardaway Jr.'s name. Yeah, you say Tim Hardaway Jr. and then you mentioned Giannis and the first thing I could see is a baseline view of Giannis. Like I think it might have been a putback and maybe it wasn't.
It was an alley-oop or something. I don't know, but Giannis flew over that man and Tim Hardaway Jr., he didn't get knighted. Who was that? Brevin, Devin, Devin, not Devin.
Brevin Knight I think when DeAndre Jordan jumped jumped over him. But yeah, good luck to the Pistons though. They're a young team. I would do my best to keep that core together and if I'm the Pistons, I'd be looking to add in some veterans over the next several years. They just did a great job bringing in Dennis Schroeder. You got some scoring and leadership off the bench. Schroeder's a good backup. I mean if you have one, he's not the worst.
He's actually pretty good. So yeah, shout outs to the Pistons and let's see if the Toronto Raptors get this done with Giannis Atetokounmpo in the Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee Bucks have to look forward to her future and Giannis, yeah man, the time has come. There's no more championships coming in the near future.
Not not not in Milwaukee. Giannis is going to have to go ahead and find that elsewhere. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. I feel like everything is connected to the Pacers somehow, right? Pacers knock off the New York Knicks. Knicks are now playing the blame game. At least the media is. Pacers knock off the Milwaukee Bucks. The Milwaukee Bucks, they're not playing the blame game. They're thinking about their future, what they do.
And you know what? Speaking of Detroit, this is kind of nuts. I saw this earlier today and I'm like, he's really retiring. He's not, there's nothing fancy about him. He's not catching passes.
He's not media. Nobody talks or cares about the offensive line. But the Lions have a key piece who is moving on and who has decided to retire. We're going to take a break.
When we come back, I'm going to dive into whether or not the Lions are now missing too many key pieces now that one Pro Bowler is like, I'm not doing this anymore. If you want to give me a holler, you can. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We'll talk some Lions. Speaking of Lions at the top of the hour, this is this part in the terrible pun. Deion Sanders thinks that there's some folks who have been lying on his son's name. I'm going to tell you what Deion had to say. A matter of fact, we will hear what Deion had to say about Shadore and his draft ball. We'll do that at the top of the hour. We'll get into the Lions in a few minutes.
We've got a lot to do. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You want to give me a holler, you can. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. I need you to think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.
Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. You want to talk about a professional. I'm going to tell you about a center in the NFL. Well now he's a former center in the NFL because he decided to hang him up earlier today. I'm talking about Frank Ragnow. He is no longer the center for the Detroit Lions.
He is moving on. He is retiring at the tender football age of 29 years old. He was drafted in 2018 out of Arkansas. He's been a four-time pro bowler, all pro this. He's been one of the best centers in the league in the game and he's, I want to say he's easily recognizable.
Well on the line of scrimmage because he's a giant. This man is 6'5, more than 300 pounds and I don't know too many people in the NFL, maybe never, who've had the last name Ragnow. And so when his name popped up earlier today and we found out that he is calling it a career, calling it quits, I had to be refreshed about his toe injuries and his foot injuries. And I'm saying to myself it's that bad for this man that he's retiring out of the league? He put a statement up on social media and he said, quote, these past couple of months have been very trying as I've come to the realization that my football journey is ending and I am officially retiring from the NFL. I've tried to convince myself that I'm feeling good but I'm not and it's time to prioritize my health and my family's future. I've given this team everything I have and I thought I had more to give but the reality is I simply do not.
I have to listen to my body and this has been one of the hardest decisions of my life. And then he continued on thanking the Lions, the organization, their fans and having an NFL career is typically something that only lasts for three or four years. Like that's the average length of an NFL career and so you rarely see someone at the top of their game who's 29 years old decide to walk away. I mean it was only recently a couple of years ago that the Detroit Lions gave him a 54 million dollar contract a four-year extension but over the past couple of well years I can't even say weeks I'm thinking football terms over the past couple of years it's just been toe injury after toe injury after toe injury.
He's even said he's had the most extreme example of turf toe possible not something that I want to find out or figure out what it feels like and he's said this is something I'm going to have to navigate through my entire career. Like there's not a surgery that'll help and let's be honest who wants surgery? Nobody okay and when you're playing football and you need surgery you get it done but if you're going to have a surgery that does nothing who the hell wants surgery? I'll go ahead and ask again the answer is nobody and so the Detroit Lions are now missing a key piece that has been a part of this team following their resurgence and if you think about it it's not just on the football field that the Detroit Lions are now missing or losing players okay they released Zadarius Smith and you know he was basically a stop gap to help while Hutchinson went down we hope that he's full gear by the time we get back to later this season. Their past protection or excuse me their past defense was pretty crap last season season as well they were putting up a ton of points but now we know Ben Johnson gone he's with the Chicago Bears he's looking to lead their offense he's looking to help Caleb Williams tell everybody again I love Chicago you think about their defense they were seventh defensively despite having such a you know a crappy pass defense Aaron Glenn the defensive coordinator for the Lions he is now gone he's trying to help Justin Fields out as he's trying to fix things with the team he used to play for the New York Jets and so the Detroit Lions it was already difficult for what they went through last season a 15-2 record high expectations to maybe finally get over the hump and I'd say get past old gambling Dan Campbell and make the Super Bowl that didn't happen they went 15-2 you know people were complaining about the Lions and their standing and or not the Lions the Minnesota Vikings and then they got it to the postseason and the commanders smoked them 45 to 31 the Washington commanders had their number and this season ended in disappointing fashion for the Detroit Lions Nico I remember very clearly even even going back to at the end of last season I had people calling up and they were saying that that Ben Johnson was a traitor like Ben Johnson wasn't focused on the playoffs he was thinking about his next job with the Chicago Bears and it's just like that's that's a terrible thing to kind of throw in that man it's been common practice for years for coaches who are eligible to kind of interview and try to get into a hiring cycle sooner rather than later but the fans were ticked off at him you know well I think the issue should be more towards the NFL trying to change that like it's not the coaches fault that these teams are trying to hire their their next head coach sooner rather than later so you can't blame someone like Ben Johnson for going through that interview process because if the Lions go all the way to the Super Bowl then after the season if all the other head coaching vacancies are filled then he's screwed and has to stay as the offensive coordinator of the Lions and he obviously wants to move up and become a head coach I think if fans have an issue with this maybe the NFL could come out and say hey nobody's allowed to hire a head coach until after the Super Bowl oh well even the entire interview process yeah I I get that I mean come on there's so many different deadlines and in the world of sports that people talk about being moved I mean shoot let's think about the the transfer portal like we literally had college basketball games going on actively going on and we had players who were switching teams and it was kind of maddening to think about and we had coaches who were moving around as well I remember the NBA a couple of years ago Demarcus Cousins got traded like during the All-Star game and then immediately afterwards this was supposed to be a celebration of the game even though we know the All-Star game sucks but Demarcus Cousins had to answer questions about being traded and so yeah Ben Johnson caught heat but one thing we always know about a fan base any fan base they're gonna find somebody to blame I mean man we talked about Tom Thibodeau with the New York Knicks somebody always has to get blamed and so Ben Johnson hey after team gets smoked 45 to 31 even though they put up 31 points in the loss I don't know if you want to blame you know Ben Johnson on that one he did catch some heat but hey Lions fans got to blame somebody I guess they're kind of going through the pecking order before they get to old gambling Dan Campbell who has never seen a fourth down that he didn't want to take I want you to hear Dan Campbell this is two days ago Dan Campbell talked about Ben Johnson being gone and Aaron Glenn being gone and the fact that the Lions have a ton of brand new coaches this is a team that is still trying to win a Super Bowl with this high-powered offense and you got a lot of younger guys on the team who are in their prime this is what Dan Campbell had to say offensively and defensively staff-wise either new coaches or are in new positions or first time having the room that's that's 14 guys so that's a lot man 14 guys that is that is a lot let me let me tell you something now my biggest concern with the Detroit Lions it's not even so much Dan Campbell because it appears that the players absolutely want to run through a wall for the guy I mean I remember watching the hard knocks with the Lions and he's talking about grit and he's crying he's Dan Campbell is one step away from either being the most heartfelt human being on the planet or he's just an absolute nut absolute nutcase and as a head football coach I think you want a little bit of that both I think you want a little bit of both and so Dan Campbell it's not so much about going for it on fourth down he is a little too aggressive if you ask me I'm more concerned with the quarterback I'm more concerned with what takes place next with Jared Goff okay Jared Goff is good I mean I think we saw he was good with the Rams but when Jared Goff moves into games that really matter we don't see the best version of Jared Goff in the regular season last year for the Lions 37 touchdowns 12 interceptions this team had a record of 15 in two ain't nobody gonna complain about what took place with the Lions in the regular season but by the time we got into the big game like the first game the only game that the Lions played Jared Goff turned into a pumpkin 313 yards one touchdown and three interceptions and this is why if you think about it dating back to his time with the Los Angeles Rams it's just like hey we went to a Super Bowl but can we get over the hump and win a Super Bowl with Jared Goff and when they traded him from Los Angeles to Detroit I basically thought that they were sending him out to NFL Siberia and he ends up having a career resurgence they the Rams end up winning a Super Bowl after he's gone with Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff he has a career resurgence there's a reason why the Rams didn't want him you can do all you can in the big games and you took us to a Super Bowl we need to do more and now with Ben Johnson working with Caleb Williams and Jared Goff just having to figure things out from the start again I will believe Jared Goff is a championship quarterback when he actually wins the championship Jared Goff is one of those guys that I look at and I say let me know when he wins the big one we know he's not in the category and nobody will confuse him with Patrick Mahomes nobody will look at him like Josh Allen god bless him just got married over the weekend nobody's putting him in the Lamar Jackson conversation without me having to sit down and go through an entire list of quarterbacks I would say Jared Goff I don't know is he is he 10-ish yeah he's not in that latter category of guys that you you want to replace he's getting paid more than 50 million dollars a year as well Nico where do you think he falls in the quarterback pecking order he's around 10-ish right I was gonna say he's borderline top 10 I don't know if I would put him towards like the six seven eight range he's definitely if he's in the top 10 he's either nine or ten yeah he's he's there because I look at quarterbacks in three categories I go to first 10 they have their jobs like they're cool with them they can take you on and you can go ahead and win that next 10 in the middle are guys that you can kind of sort of replace and teams want to move on from that dude if they ever had a chance to do so and then the bottom third this is just the we're now in the doldrums of quarterbacks like these are your Will Levises of the world the Anthony Richardsons people like is this guy ever going to work out these are the quarterbacks that are just doomed or these are the franchise Joe Flacco guys of the world where you go man this guy has a starting job now ain't no guarantee he's going to have a starting job you know towards the end of the season so Jared Goff the Lions I know they're dealing with a lot of changes Ben Johnson gone Aaron Glenn gone Frank Ragnow retiring he's gone he got bad feet he wants to make sure he can walk around and play with his kids I don't blame him but the biggest thing the biggest issue is still on the team that's Jared Goff it's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network we come back we're going to talk about someone else who has an issue he's not retiring though we're going to have a chat and talk about Deion Sanders not happy about some of the things said about your door it's the JR sport re-show infinities
