Will Graves | Associated Press NFL Writer

It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We've got the NHL Stanley Cup Finals going on right now. We've got the NBA Finals underway. We're in the midst of the Major League Baseball season and the NFL still finds a way, as always, to dominate the news.

Of course, there's always going to be a story here or there. Yesterday it was Aaron Rodgers on his way officially to the Steelers on a one-year deal. Obviously, his contract has ramifications for another quarterback. We have some other young quarterbacks who are dealing with injuries.

We have players who want contracts. There's just so much going on. To talk about it all is someone who covers the NFL nationally for the Associated Press. He's based out of Pittsburgh. It's Will Graves. Will, how are you?

I'm good, man. I'm glad that this Aaron Rodgers hostage situation is finally over. Hostage situation. Knowing what we've seen over the past five years with Aaron Rodgers, knowing we just saw the last two with the New York Jets, how the heck is this going to go between Rodgers and Tomlin? Are we going to get Pat McAfee every Tuesday?

How is this going to work? Well, I think it's going to work the way that it's kind of worked for the Steelers from a performance standpoint since 2019, the year that Ben got hurt. They kind of made do with Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges. I think he's the best option available, but is he at 41 to be 42 by the end of the season? By the time, essentially, the playoffs start, is he the guy that's going to beat Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes? Does he give you any more chance than Russell Wilson did last year, Mason Rudolph did the year before that, Ben did in his final season? It's really hard to kind of make that leap. You have to give credit to the Steelers because they're sort of always going for it, at least as best they can. Candidly, it doesn't make a ton of sense for me.

I've been covering this thing for 14 years. I asked Mike in January after we lost to the Ravens, do you feel like you guys are stuck? He said, no, I don't think we're stuck because Duck considers hopeless.

I liken to hopelessness. I'm not saying the Steelers are hopeless, but they are definitely stuck. They have blundered their way into this situation. Maybe they have a plan. Maybe the plan is no matter what happens next year or this season, the draft's in Pittsburgh next year, the quarterback-rich draft, and we will do whatever we have to do regardless of where we're at in the initial draft order to get the guy that we need. Maybe that is the plan, but they haven't shared it with anybody.

It's a very curious decision that they made to keep running in place, which certainly seems what's going to happen here in 2025. Well, it'll certainly be an interesting season week after week after week. Will Graves is joining us here from the AP. Well, now that Aaron Rodgers is going to be a Steeler officially, what the heck does this mean for Kirk Cousins? Do you think he's going to get moved somewhere else? He's got to wait for a guy to get hurt in training camp the regular season.

How long do you think this is going to go on? The fact that they ate the money to keep him tells you, at least in the short term, the Falcons are sort of invested in maybe getting the right offer. For Kirk, I think guys do get hurt all the time. Somebody could turn a knee week two of the preseason, and then all of a sudden there's a knee for a guy that's ready to compete.

A knee for a guy that still can sling it a little bit. Obviously, his limitations are what they are at this point in his career. And humbling the way that it ended in Atlanta, to be very clear. Although, let's be honest, the deal in the first place, everybody except Kirk Cousins and Arthur Blank were like, what? You guys did what?

I don't feel that bad for him. The guys made a lot of money to not win in the playoffs. I would imagine the Falcons show no sense of urgency unless they have a need where one of their skill position guys gets hurt. Or one of their defensive starters gets hurt. Maybe they find a situation amenable to flipping Kirk. I just don't see that being resolved in short order at the very least. Well, when you think about another team here with us, Will, they got plenty of quarterback options.

That happens to be the Cleveland Browns. What do you think that pecking order is going to look like? I'm saying we'll see Chador at some point in, I don't know, October? What are your thoughts on how that's going to shake out? I mean, your guess is as good as mine. Obviously, there's that running joke. You see it on Twitter every time a new guy comes in under center for them.

The quarterbacks, they came back in the league in 99 and it's that jersey that's miles long at this point. And it seems like they're going into this season intent on doubling that number in 2025. I think that Pickett will get, I think everybody will get a shot. Chador, I think it's going to depend, A, on his development and B, on how the season goes.

Look, Stefanski is a bright guy, a smart guy. Is there a chance that he finds packages for Chador? I certainly think that there's a chance, but I think that they expect to be pretty competitive if their defense looks like the defense that it's been of late. So I don't think they're going to like, they wouldn't turn to Chador if he, assuming he cracks that top three at the end of the preseason, unless sort of the season gets away from them or the guys in front of him get hurt. I mean, there isn't, the other guys on that roster kind of give them some wiggle room. And then the other thing that happens too is like, we don't know how it's going to go in the preseason. Maybe Chador shows up, puts in the work, his dad's quiet and nobody, like, and it's fine. Or maybe Chador shows up, puts in the work and his dad is like, how come my kid isn't getting a shot? And maybe the Browns are like, wait a minute, is this what we signed up for? And maybe they find somebody else to take them. I mean, I certainly think that, I mean, like when it comes to the Browns and their quarterbacks, literally everything is on the table.

Yeah. Well, damn it, they got four and another one just sitting around in rehab. It's just a wild situation in Cleveland.

Will Graves is joining us, a national NFL writer for the Associated Press. You know, they actually have warm bodies who can practice. Just this week alone, Anthony Richardson is dealing with the same shoulder issue that he had busted up in 2023. We got C.J. Stroud, who has his own history of shoulder issues dating back to college. He also can't practice here at Voluntary Workouts.

Cause for concern in Houston? Anthony Richardson seems like a foregone conclusion, but any real concerns with Stroud? Well, I think, you know, look, when you, shoulders, uh, pretty important, pretty important muscle if your job is to throw something for a living, right? Whether you're a baseball player or football player.

Um, you know, I tend to find that stuff this time of year is, um, overblown. But then, you know, sometimes things sort of, uh, you know, there's real, you know, there's, as Mike Tomlinson said, there's real meat on that bone, right? So, uh, this, the Texans should be very, very, very, very cautious with Stroud.

There's no reason in June to kind of see what he got, what he's got. He's your guy, uh, presuming he's healthy. Um, I'm sure that, and I'm sure that that's what they're thinking.

Um, you know, let's just be safe here. But, you know, look, I mean, look, I was in 2019, Ben Roethlisberger's elbow just kind of blew up in the middle of the second game against the Seahawks, right? And that was a way, I mean, I've been obviously much older than different place in his career than when CJ is at now. But sometimes with these shoulders, you know, you have to wonder like how many throws, you know, how much stress can this arm take? So, um, over time, like the injury rate is a hundred percent if you're in the NFL at some point.

So I certainly think there's no need for the Texans to rush CJ. Um, but like, if we get back, like, you know, my thing would be like, if we get to like week two of the preseason and for some reason, he's not out there for precautionary reasons or whatever. That's the point where you get kind of like, you kind of go, Oh, but in June, you know, I think to your point, the NFL always finds a way to kind of sneak into the storylines.

And I think this is just sort of one of them at this point. Oh man, that's, that's all due to injury as we head into real training camp next month, Trey Hendrickson still looking for a contract. Michael Parsons, we have the Dallas Cowboys like to kind of bleed everything out until the last minute with both their players and their coaches. Do you think Trey is going to stick around with the Bengals and how long is it going to take for Micah to get his deal? Micah will get paid. I have no doubt about that. Trey, I mean, it's, you know, the Bengals seem to be committed and I actually, I commend them for this, uh, to sort of, you know what, we are who we are and we're going to try to win every game 52-45. Right. I mean, that just seems to be, you know, like, you know, they've got the guys on offense to do it. Right. I mean, the, but the problem is when you got three guys eating up so much of the cap, that doesn't leave a lot of, leaves a little less for everybody else.

And Henderson certainly, I mean, obviously a career year last year, but it was sort of, and he's been a good player since he's been in the league, but this isn't like a TJ Watt, Miles Garrett situation where you, when the contract time comes up, you have this lengthy track record of being SAC leaders, defensive player of the year, all pro. Right. So that's sort of the calculus that the Bengals are going to do. And let's be honest. I mean, the Bengals, you know, not known for splurging defensively in general. Right.

I mean, that's just not something that they they've ever done. So I think that Trey is, you know, I think he'll find his way onto the field, but I think, you know, it will be a situation where, you know, he's going to have to decide, you know, is it, is it worth the, like, is it worth the risk for him? Right.

Like it is playing on it. If he ends up playing on, on, on a one year, on a one year, you know, the final year of his contract with no guarantees for the future, is it worth the risk? I mean, Le'Veon Bell, the Steelers franchise tagged him a second time and he, and Lev never showed up that year. Right.

Like never showed up. Now this isn't quite, this isn't apples to apples, but Lev never got that money back. Right. I mean, he got paid by the Jets, but that 15 million he didn't get cause he never showed up in 18.

Like he never got that money back. Right. So it's a, it's a tight spot, but I think the Bengals have sort of made their choice and, you know, they said, we're going to pay T Higgins and we're going to pay Jamar Chase.

And, you know, we'll just kind of hope that, uh, you know, we can make do, you know, we can get three stops a game and have a chance to win that way. So, I mean, Trey's a great player, but I, it seems to me that like the calculus the Bengals are making is like, they're willing to risk not having him in order to make sure that their guys on offense get paid. Yeah. That's a massive gamble for a cheapskate organization.

Will, last question for you. Speaking of gambling, we've seen quite a few adjustments and losses from the lines, not just at the hands of Washington last year. Glenn is gone. Ben Johnson is gone.

I'm on Rob had a cleanup things. Things are different with the lines. Do you see them taking a step back? Are they still going to be at the top of the top of the NFC alongside teams like obviously the Super Bowl champion Eagles? Um, not, I still think they, you know, have the most talent in the division. Um, but I think we'll see how, I mean, look, Ben Johnson's got new toys in Chicago, right? So we will see if, you know, Caleb Williams can kind of, and, you know, Roma Dunsia can kind of sort of get, you know, if he can create, create the magic that he created with Jared Goff and, and I'm in Iran, the other game, the guys in Detroit. I mean, I think Detroit has, I don't think what Dan Campbell and the organization have done in the last few years is a mirage. I think that there is real staying power there.

I think it's not reliant. I mean, look, you know, Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson, two really, really, really good coordinators. But I think they're, and this is, it's sort of funny to say this about the lines, right?

Because like, you know, look, I'm 50 years old, right? Like they're still sort of the line. Like you think of them as sort of the line, but I mean, it seems that they have turned a corner organizationally. So I expect them to be good, but I think, you know, you're not, no, you don't know what you're going to go with the Vikings, uh, with McCarthy. You know, JJ McCarthy back there now, I don't think they're going to be, you know, they're not going to go 14 and three, but I would expect the Packers to be better. I would expect the Bears to be better.

I think the Lions are certainly a playoff team and at the moment, still the class of the division, but I do think the gap has, uh, and as, as is the nature of the NFL, I think the gap, you know, has narrowed a little bit. Yeah, we're all here for a little bit of, a little bit of parody. Well, Will, thank you so much for the time. Please tell everybody where they can keep up with you, your writings, your work with the AP and more.

Uh, please, uh, go to apnews.com. That's our great, uh, digital website. We also have an app and you know, Google, uh, you find me on Twitter at Will Graves AP. I think it's the same on Blue Sky and I really appreciate the time JR. No doubt. Will, we'll catch you on down the line. All right. All right. Take care.