It is. The J.R. Sport Brief Show? On the Infinity Sports Network, Thank you for being here. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia.
Thank you to our producer. He's in New York City, Ryan Botcher. And thank you to you for listening. On the Free Odyssey app. on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, on Sirius Sac Sam, Channel 375.
On a smart speaker, you got one of those? Yeah, ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. This show gets started every weekday at six PM Eastern. three Pacific. We've talked about a lot.
Oh, we've gone through a lot. Justin Fields with his dislocated toe. We heard from Bill Belichick, not angry yet. He's a happy version, uh, I guess, of uh of Bill Belichick, North Carolina for ACC Media Day. We talked about the uh passing of of Hulk Hogan.
71 years old. Hulk Hogan is a gone. We discussed Michael Pennix Jr. He's excited about their offense. He thinks the Falcons could be the best offense in the entire NFL.
I hope he stays healthy. Thank you so much to Zach Rosenblatt for joining us from The Athletic to talk all things New York Jets. And right before we went to break, we talked We talked the Buffalo Bills. The team expected the beat up on the New York Jets. James Cook.
It's another guy in the NFL that wants a new contract. He showed up to work. James Cook looking for a new deal, only slated to make a little more than $5 million this year. He wants to get into that fifteen million dollar range. Uh good luck.
Speaking of money, I'm going to tell you about Christian Wilkins in a few minutes. In about twenty minutes, we're going to have a A whole conversation. Eric Edholm is going to join us from NFL Media. We'll talk all things NFL. Like, what the heck is going on with Christian Wilkins?
Of course, at the end of the show, we'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. Hey, that little league uh Kid that got suspended for flipping his bat. He's back They had to go to court. But they went to court and now he's back. How about that?
It's nice when the The system works. On time. Hey, Bacha, why doesn't the court system work better? For urgent things, but they were able to get this bat flip figured out in like a day. Small claims, maybe.
Family court maybe, restraining orders. It's a little bit different. Just so this was a this was a super emergency? Yes, massive.
Okay. Lil Kid Flips a Bat might miss out on Lil League World Series. Let's get him in there. That's an emergency if I ever heard one. Anyway, if you've missed a minute of the show, Go ahead and hit Rewind.
On the free Odyssey app. Thank you to everybody listening, on their local affiliate, SiriusXM375, and a smart speaker if you have one. If you want to give me a holler, you can. Here's the phone number. You ready?
Take it down. Do people still take down phone numbers? No, but try to remember it. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN.
You can find me on the internet. I exist all over the place. I am at. JR Sport Brief. Damn.
takin' down a phone number. A phone book, remember that? Remember when cell phones forget before even a Lil with little book. A phone book. Botch, are you you ever used a phone book?
I had yellow pages back in the day. Did I ever use it? Not yellow pages. I'm talking about a physical phone to put people's numbers down. Oh, definitely not.
Because when I would have been in use, I would have been. I wouldn't have had a phone. First of all.
Well, there's no you would that phones didn't exist. There's no cell phones.
Well, in the nineties they came out, late nineties, but even still it's there was no Database to hold phone numbers, but yeah, I didn't have that. No, Brett, when cell phones came out, you could store a couple of phone you could store some numbers in the phone. The emergency ones. When I was a kid, they used to sell phones that were like Your parents' phone number, 911, and then maybe one of your friends, if you're lucky. And it came in like a plastic container too.
Yeah, I'm talking before that, man. Talking about a phone book in your house, in your back pocket. Underneath the phone, in a case underneath the phone, you needed to call your grandmother in Idaho. You had uh You have the Open up the phone book. You have to write her number down.
You have to put it there. Yeah, I have no idea. Like, if someone asked me my father's phone number, I would have no idea what it is. Today? Yeah, today I have no idea what my dad's phone number is.
I know my house number, I know my mom's phone number. And that's it. And my own phone number. Damn. Yeah, nobody knows anybody's phone.
Why do you need somebody's phone number, right? Emergencies and if you have to actually use somebody else's phone. If you lost your phone, you just have to call your mother, huh? Or the house phone. Or gets the cops?
Yeah, help me, please. I don't know where I am. You're going to waste an emergency uh Trying to call your house, calling the police. A waste of government funds. Wow.
I do I know numbers? I used to. Nah, nah, I don't care. I wish I didn't know anybody's number. I wish nobody knew my number.
I wish I just fell off the face of the earth. That'd be nice. Live off the grid? not pay taxes. Or make make my life Hey, Botch, if I disappear, don't tell anybody what I just said, okay?
Oh no, I w I wouldn't well I wouldn't say anything. Everybody else listening might say something. Snitches. Rats. Everybody out here trying to cause problems.
Hey, you know, speaking of problems. Not necessarily hitting on the legal system. We'll get into that with this little league kid who's now reinstated. Christian Wilkins. has been given, ironically, The boot From the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Raiders just gave this guy A $110 million contract. Last year. He played a whopping five games. had two sacks and seventeen tackles for the Raiders. Before he Broke his foot.
The Raiders, well, we know they sucked. They went 4 and 13. They have brought on Geno Smith to be their future quarterback. Tom Brady is upstairs. kind of being a little puppet master when he's not broadcasting on Fox.
They bring in Pete Cowell as their new coach so he could be their babysitter for a few years. The Raiders, I I got no expectations for them. Come on. They will be okay. They'll take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
Maybe they'll beat them. If they beat them, they'll act like they won a Super Bowl. And then the rest of the world will just ignore the Raiders. That's what I can I I can expect. This is almost a A transition.
Any team that has Geno Smith. And Pete Cowell is just like, okay, when are they moving on from one or both of these dudes? The thing to pay attention to the most is just Ashton Genty. That's it, really. He's going to be the highlight machine.
for the Las Vegas Raiders, but to pay attention to them, uh no, not really. No, thank you. Congratulations to Max Crosby. He got a new contract, $35.5 million a year. But Christian Wilkins, as I said, he's gone.
And so basically. The Las Vegas Raiders have said. We are cutting you, we're releasing you, we're not paying you the rest of your guaranteed money. of thirty five million dollars. because apparently They wanted him to have another foot surgery.
He said no. He said, nah. And as a result, He's been released. and he is exercising his right to say Gimme? My Money.
Apparently Christian Wilkins filed a grievance with the NFL Players' Association. to get his money back. And I would expect the Raiders to, well, not the Raiders. I expect the Players Association to. get him some of that cash back, but I mean, damn Kind of a wild situation.
You think about a SPY tech coming in as the new GM. Basically appointed by Tom Brady coming over from Tampa Bay. And one of the first things is beefing with Christian Wilkins? I mean, it was only a couple of days ago.
Some of the wording out of Las Vegas seemed kind of odd. Because, you know, they were asked about him and his foot, and it was just like, oh. It's like asking about an ex that nobody likes.
Well, how's that girl that you used to date? Oh. It's like one of those things. Like they talked about Christian Wilkins, like he was excommunicated from the team and apparently as of today, Well, he he officially is. This is an odd story.
Like Can you force a guy? And I don't sit down and read NFL contracts. Can you force a guy to to go get another surgery? Instead of having to go out there and wait, I This is the NFL. The players are just.
They're commodities. I don't think in the long run the teams care about him outside of issues of liability. It's like nobody would ever come out and say, hey, well, I don't care about the players because if one goes down, we can probably replace them unless it's like Aaron Donald or something like that, even though he's retired. You get my drift. They don't care.
Like he's done whatever. Wilkins is going to get some money. I'm pretty sure he wanted to. Get a second opinion. I'm sure he got a second opinion.
But uh the NFL doctors They work for the NFL team. I mean, it's a natural inclination for them to do what's best for the team and not necessarily what's best for the player. Like we know the NFL, they've screwed over their players from a physicality standpoint forever, man. The only thing with this situation is, I don't know how severe this foot injury is. Would there be a reason for the Raiders to be right.
In the fact that they suggested surgery, they don't want their player who they just paid all this other money to. to step on the field one game and then And so you say break the foot again. If they can't have stability in their players staying healthy. And they know they can get it if he has this second surgery, they're still gonna pay him. Just probably not as much with incentives and all that other stuff.
I think that's where the lines cross, but you can't try to put damaged goods on the field when you put a long-term investment in this. Yeah, so what are you saying? I'm saying that maybe the Raiders weren't 100% wrong here. In the whole situation, and maybe this foot injury is more severe than we're seeing.
Well, we don't know. That's what I'm saying. Like, if it is a severe injury and Wilkins is.
Somehow coming out and saying, Yeah, I'm fine to play, but really isn't and isn't putting himself in risk. That's a big problem for the Rels. It could be, but that's not to say that he's putting himself at risk. Maybe he wants to continue to rest and rehab for his foot to improve. You know, maybe he understands that his foot isn't fine.
Maybe he's just like, well, I've already, can I recover from the surgery I just had? Y'all already want to cut me open? I mean, the the report here is he declined having a second surgery. Despite the team's request for him to go under the knife again. to address the issue.
We hear about players having to get cut open. More than once. It it doesn't happen all the time. But anybody who's had surgery knows that Hey, if you have it once, you might have to have it again. Like, there's nothing perfect about surgery.
It goes down. There's a chance that you may have to go through it again. And I think when you are a gigantic offensive lineman like Christian, or defensive lineman like Christian Wilkins. Uh there's a good chance that You be in big as how. Having an injury to your foot.
isn't necessarily uh you know gonna make things better. In an overall sense. gigantic human beings with foot issues, Those things just don't go away. I mean, I here's a here's an example, and I use it because uh It was a popular one that I used a long time ago. Was anybody shocked that that Yao Ming had foot issues?
Like, come on now. The guy was seven foot six. This is an extreme example. He was seven foot six. Bacha, how much you think he weighs today, this very minute?
Three fifty. Bruh. I go higher than that. Yao Ming? Three fifty?
You think he you think he weighs three yeah, well I'm putting him at four bills. And too is that too high? It's reasonable. When you're that tall, you can carry that much weight. It's just.
He is 7'6. Who is seven foot six? Nobody. If you are 7'6, call me now. I need to talk to you, and I need you to send me visual evidence.
888-710-457. For ISN. If you are seven foot six, Call us. We'll get no calls because nobody walking around is seven foot six. Nobody.
Nobody. Why would why would anybody well, it's not like Yao Ming asked to be that tall. I joke quite frequently that they uh matched his parents up and put him in a lab and said he'd make a basketball player. But I mean damn. Yao Ming was seven foot six and he wore like a size thirteen shoe.
Yeah. There was no way that man's foot was going to last. Look, and that he had a small foot for a guy who was 7'6. Was it Chet with Chet Holgram? He broke his foot.
Didn't he break his foot before he even played? It was like a symbol jumped in Drew League or whatever it was, Summer League. Yeah. He got one of them, and I'm sure, I don't know the size of his foot. I don't go around uh googling NBA feet.
But Chet Holgram, his foot has to look like one of them dudes who steps out of the clown car. I would just think for a guy seven feet, seven foot one, He probably got them big old feet. Man, you got you got some feet, you gonna have some problems, man. Christian Wilkins, he he ain't seven foot six he's not Yao Ming. But a guy on the defensive line with a now broken foot, how all of a sudden is that guy's foot Gunna be better.
I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one. He's going to get some of that guaranteed money back. The NFL Players Association cannot have a. Where an NFL team says Hey, screw you because you didn't want to have another surgery. We're just going to take away all your money.
I mean, if I was Christian Wilkins, I'd be pissed to high hell. If I'm not able to get more of my money back. Christian Wilkins listed at six foot four. Three hundred and ten pounds. Yeah.
That that guy's foot ain't gonna just heal. I don't know if he needs another surgery, but it ain't just. Gonna heal. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You know what?
We'll take a break. When we come back, let's have a chat with Eric at home. He covers all things NFL for the NFL, for NFL media. I'm gonna ask him about Christian Wilkins. We'll talk about some of these other stories: James Cook and the foot of Justin Fields, the Raiders.
There's a lot. It's the JR Sport Brief Show, the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport Brief show here on the Infiniti Sports Network. What a busy day in the NFL But a busy couple of days.
It's always busy in the league, especially now that training camps. Underway. We got players looking for money, got players who haven't showed up to work, players who are at work looking for money. We got guys who are getting cut and released, looking for their money back. There's a lot going on.
in the NFL. To talk about some of the biggest stories and what we can expect moving forward. Joining us right now is someone who covers the league for the NFL. for NFL media. It's Eric at home.
Eric, thank you for the time. I appreciate you. Place is mine, what's going on?
Well, I mean, there's a lot going on. We just talked about Christian Wilkins, the fact that the Raiders have given him the boot. And not paying him any more of his guarantees. He's trying to get the money back through the NFL Players Association. What's the latest?
Is his foot really that damaged? Do we know anything? What's up? And I like the pun too. Boot, foot.
That was a good little tie in there. I like that. You laced it in nicely. How about that? Oh, hey, AD, you're going to lace it up.
Lace it up. Yeah. Yeah. Uh very interesting situation, obviously. I mean this was a Prime free agent for them a year ago.
You know, they brought him in four years, $110 million, more than half of it guaranteed. You know, paid him $20 plus million dollars for. Five games, two sacks, whatever it was that he had before suffering that Jones fracture in his foot. The disagreement or the reason why they're terminating this deal early. And you could kind of see there were some signs that there were some complications.
You know, Pete Carroll kept deflecting and saying he's got a long rehab. You know, we don't know when we'll see him, that sort of thing. And all summer just didn't know what the deal was. And you could sort of feel there was something brewing there. You know, he was in a walking boot recently, and I think showed up to camp one day.
I think they just felt like he didn't attack the rehab the way the plan was scheduled, the way the team thought he was.
Now, again, we don't who you know. Who's to say, and this grievance that he's filed? I'm sure that information will. uh sort of be made public but Yeah, this is a big blow for a Raiders team that I think had generated a lot of buzz this offseason. You know, I mean, with Carol and Ash and Gentie and.
you know, Tom Brady's increased, you know, sort of activity with the club. And, you know, maybe some thought maybe they were a team that could, with a healthy Max Crosby and Wilkins, maybe compete.
Now that's that plans change a little bit. When you take a look at the the Raiders, even with the plans changing, knowing that Geno Smith is is probably not around for the long haul, same thing for an older Pete Carroll. What are the Raiders doing? Are they just trying to steady the ship right now for the future or whoever comes after? Yeah, I mean, I think there's something to that, right?
In terms of let's let's make sure we can we're not going to skip a step here in the process. We have to regain some credibility a little bit. And obviously, Pete's won a lot of games. Gino, I think, has been in some ways one of the more underrated quarterbacks since. You know, his rise in Seattle, he took over a real tough situation after Russell Wilson and we had to win the job with Drew Locke and has made the most of it.
You know, I mean, he, I thought he played really well last year, even when. Um, you know, the wind was in his face a little bit. Offensive line struggled in Seattle, and you just sort of felt like. You know, even though that reunion was poo-pooed a little bit at first, but I think they both sides warmed up to the idea. You know, Pete said, I know what Geno can do.
You don't know what knows what Pete expects of him. You know, we'll see. I mean, this doesn't obviously derail the entire process. I think the draft was a very good process for them. I think they have.
At least rounded out the roster a little bit. And we'll see if they can still compete in a pretty thorny AFC West, I would say. Eric Ed Holmes is here with us on behalf of NFL Media. You talk about that AFC West. We saw what happened to the team always at the top of it, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Went to the Super Bowl, lost, redid that offensive line. Travis Kelsey lost some weight, had the worst season of his career since he was a rookie, really. Second year, I should say. And then Rashid Rice missing time. He'll probably be suspended.
Are we expecting the Chiefs to take a step back or should we just expect them to be the same damn Chiefs? Yeah, that's a fair question, right? I mean... Given the way they won games last year by the skin of their teeth in some cases, you know, the block field goal at the end against Denver. I mean, how many close wins were there?
Every week it seemed like, you know, that Panthers game, they barely got out of Charlotte alive. And You know, so many instances of that. Everybody thought, okay, their luck, their time is coming, right? The Super Bowl certainly proved that they were in a lower weight class than the Eagles, at least on that day. But Even if they win fewer games this year, I'm still not giving up on this team.
The left tackle thing is really interesting because they tried to play Kingsley Sumataya last year at left tackle.
Now moving him inside to guard, it looks like. You know, everybody thought Jalen Moore, the kid they signed to a pretty hefty deal, $15 million a year from San Francisco, Trent Williams backup.
Okay, that's the guy you plug in, but.
Sounds like they're possibly open to the idea of Josh Simmons from Ohio State stepping in there, the rookie. You know, they benched the rookie after two games last year, pretty much admitting it wasn't the right call. And I wonder if they'd do that again, but the receivers are still strong. Brett McDuffie is going to move outside and I think be a better impact on that defense. They still can play well on that side of the ball.
So I don't think they're going away anytime soon. Yeah, it doesn't seem like it, especially with Mahomes back there. One of the teams that we always expect to knock him off, if any. Happens to be the Buffalo Bills. Before you joined us, we talked about the comments from James Cook.
As he is at work, doesn't want to be fine, but is still looking for a new contract. And Saquon set the market at the top with 20. We know he's not getting that. We got a bunch of other guys that are sitting around in that 15 range. Is it realistic that he gets a new deal or the Buffalo Bills going to go, hey man, screw you, you're a running back?
Well, as you pointed out, I mean, last year was sort of a resurgent year for the running back in general. I mean, even with Christian McCaffrey missing a big chunk of the season, you had Barkley, you had Derrick Henry, you had Josh Jacobs and other backs having really successful seasons and really, in some ways, being, you know, kind of the anchor man in a lot of ways for those respective offenses. And, you know, James Cook had his best season in Buffalo and was scoring touchdowns last year and a big part of what they did.
So, you know, I did feel like he leveled up. Did he level up to the level he wants financially? We'll see. As you pointed out, I mean That $20 million ceiling is pretty big, especially for a team that has Josh Allen, right? I mean, You know, Saquon and Hertz, they've made it work, especially with those two receivers.
They found a way, but they've had to cut salary elsewhere. Caffrey certainly looked doable when Purdy didn't have his extension. You know, now it's tougher. They had to get rid of Debo this offseason. They had to let other free agents walk.
You know, the Ravens are kind of riding that tight wire a little bit too, even though they extended Henry. But. Yeah, I mean, that's the problem. It's a lot easier for a team like Indianapolis to pay Jonathan Taylor, given their quarterback situation, than it is for a team like Buffalo with Josh Allen making top of the market money. But yeah, I mean, in Cook's quote, he said, look, a deal's getting done, whether it's here or elsewhere.
So. You know, his agents have primed him for the possibility that You know, if you want to stick to your guns and and get every dollar that you're asking for, it may not happen in Buffalo. I still think he's going to end up signing there for maybe less than he asks, but it's something they're still dealing with. Yeah, he said he loves the fans, he loves the city, but I guess he loves that money. A little bit more.
Ed Ed Holmes is here with us from NFL Media. Ed, I want to throw you a question that was asked of me earlier in the show by one of our listeners. It was about the NFC North. We know Detroit is. I don't know if they're losing a little bit of juice.
We certainly know they lost Ben Johnson, who's now with Chicago, trying to help out. Their new quarterback or second-year quarterback, Caleb Williams. We know J.J. McCarthy is going to get a start. Be surprising if Minnesota has another 14 wins.
And then you have. You got Green Bay, who seems that they're just trying to get things together by adding new wide receivers. What are your thoughts on this competitive NFC North? Fascinating. I think if you're measuring one through four, it's the best division.
I mean, like, you could make a case for others, but AFC North, strong, obviously, AFC West, but. You know, I think the Bears were better than their record indicated, but there was just so much chaos, right, with the Matt Eber flu stuff and What Ben Johnson was hired was to do two things: to get Caleb Williams right, maximize, squeeze the most talent you possibly can out of him, build an offense around him, and then also. To be a stickler for details and be a hard ass, somebody who's going to hold these guys accountable. I think there was just too little of that last year. And, you know, it became a situation where nobody was really taking account for anything.
And that's how you lose the game. Like, you know, the meltdown in DC and the Thanksgiving game against the Lions. It was awful.
So. Again, there were signs that they have some talent there and Green Bay is probably better than their record indicated last year, too. But which one of those teams, if any of them, And maybe take advantage of the fact that the Viking or the Vikings aren't going to win. 14 again, or if they're gonna it's gonna take a lot to do that. Maybe it's the Bears.
Maybe it's the Packers, though. Jordan Love's still got another level, I think. Be you're right, with the Lions. And and Vikings at least on paper facing some real challenges. With Detroit's injuries, the coordinators leaving, a brutal schedule, all the things you mentioned with Minnesota, as good as they might be.
I mean, you could see a really tightly packed division in the NFC North. Oh, that's going to come down to the final weekend. Is there a team across the NFL that you see potentially making a big jump, Eric? You know, define big jump because I can see obviously Tampa is one of those teams that is kind of, you know, obviously they've won recent Super Bowls, but different era now with Baker, right? A little different situation.
I think they're a team capable of making a Super Bowl run. If Tristan Worf's injury is not. This this Major concern if he doesn't miss a big chunk of time. I think he's the best or one of the top three left tackles in the league. That offense can really, really go.
Defensively, I think they're going to have more depth in the secondary with the draft picks.
Some guys coming back from injury. Maybe they have some juice in that pass rush. I just sort of feel like they're one of those teams that. You know, might slip below the radar a little. You still have the Eagles.
You still have the Commanders and Jaden Daniels, and the 49ers might bounce back. There are plenty of candidates. We mentioned all the North teams, but. AMP is one that I think might just gear up a little extra this year and And win a couple playoff games or something. But improvement-wise, like from the bottom to possibly the edge of the playoffs, maybe New England.
I mean, yeah. Drake May, Mike Rabelt. Traybion Henderson. Kyle Williams, they've added some help on the defensive line. It's been a pretty good offseason, I think, for them, and putting last year to bed, even with all the May excitement.
They might have something decent there this year, especially if the Jets and Dolphins are still trying to figure out who they are.
Well final question for you, Eric. Those are all teams that are trying to get to the mountaintop. We saw the Eagles go back. They're going to be favored again. And people are still talking about Jalen Hurts.
Cam Newton is in the news every other day, and people are arguing over: is he a great quarterback? Is he a good quarterback? Does he have too much talent around him? Can he catch a break? Like, why does he?
Is it just because of the talent people don't respect what he does? Yeah, he's a little unorthodox, right? His style is a little different than other guys, but he plays with such. Such coolness and such equanimity. And he's sort of the perfect leader for that offense.
And, you know, all the drama that happened with Nick Siriani and how are these guys going to work together? Nobody talks about that anymore. And I think he deserves a lot of credit for that. Siriani, too. Both guys figured out a way to.
Whatever differences there might have been, or whatever disconnects football-wise, or personality-wise. They just said, let's make this work. And they did. And so that. to me kind of adds to his superpowers and and He's already a you know top five running quarterback.
I would argue he's on the edge of being a top five. Passing quarterback somewhere in that. Five to eight range, you know.
So we're still talking about all an all-around top 10 talent at the position. I don't think he's one, I don't think he's two, but. I wouldn't go too many more names before getting to him. And I don't know. That's just my personal thought.
And he's obviously capable of leading him to the game. He's done it twice and played well enough to win both times. Yeah. And listen, all things considered, his football talent, his skill set, and then his manner, his mannerism, how he carries himself. Absolutely.
He's a winner. And I think that that counts for a whole hell of a lot more than people want to give him credit for. Eric, thank you so much for the time. Please tell everybody how they can follow you and keep up with your work. Yeah, NFL.com.
I'll be cranking out. I've got a lot of stuff setting up the preseason or setting up a training camp, I should say. And got a few more pieces I'm still working on. And yeah, this weekend, we've got some camp action on Saturday. I'm looking forward to it.
Hey, Eric, thank you so much. Great conversation. Look forward to having another one down the line. You be well. All right, you too, man.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Shoutouts to Eric at home, covers all things NFL for NFL Media, NFL.com. Yeah, this Jalen Hurts can't catch a break. You know what?
When we come back on the other side of our break, Let's hear some of these comments. Cam Newton is just, I'm not going to say he's chopping him down, but. And Cam Newton is like, damn it, he's he's not a top ten QB. Let's hear what Cam Newton has to say on the other side. Right now, it's time for a news flash on the Infinity Sports Network with Rich Ackerman.
You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It's the JR Sport Brief Show. On the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much to Eric at home for joining us. Writes for NFL.com Part of NFL Media.
Great conversation. Talked about Christian Wilkins and The raiders were Releasing him, waving him. He's like, I want my money. They're like, well. You didn't rehab your foot the way you were supposed to.
You didn't get the second surgery that we wanted, so we ain't paying you. He's like, I'm going to the Players Association. They're going to fight for my rights. We talked about James Cook. Looking for a new contract with the Buffalo Bills.
He's like, hey, I'm getting paid somewhere. It better be with the Bills. And if not, I'll get my money somewhere else. He feels good about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Damn.
Got Godwin coming back from that injury and See how he looks whenever he's ready to go. Mike Evans is getting older. Could you imagine? Baker Mayfield would be insufferable. If you ever won a Super Bowl.
And so we had a great chat about everything going on in the league. If you missed that conversation with Eric at home, go ahead and hit rewind. On the free Odyssey app. And then we talked about. Jalen Hurts.
There's all these teams trying to get to the mountaintop. He's been there. He's been there twice. He came out on top once. We saw that earlier this year when his team went out and beat the.
Our Kansas City Chiefs. And he's been in the news. Because Cam Newton, who has his own podcast now, fourth and one, every now and then Cam Newton is say known to say something quite Well, Quite controversial.
Sometimes it's about relationships, most times it's about football.
Well, he had some thoughts about Jalen Hurts. and he thinks that he has so much talent around him. that he's hard to judge and he doesn't consider him to be a Like a top 10 quarterback? What? Listen to what he had to say about Jalen.
Now, I know everybody's going to get mad at this. Cam Hayden on Jalen Hurts. It's hard for me to grade Jalen Hurts with the talent that he has around him. Jalen Hurts is a great quarterback, but if we're talking about what they bring to the table holistically, it's hard to judge what Jalen Hurts can do when you're throwing to a guy like A.J. Brown, Devontae Smith.
We have tight end skill set. You have a dominant defense, the best running back in the game. Download Madden and see how many stars is on the offensive side of Philly. Jalen Hurts does not have to play elite for the Philadelphia Eagles to win. He has to play good, but he doesn't have to play elite.
We're not asking you to win the game. We're just asking you not to lose it. When you ask that question, are we winning because of you, solely, because of you? Or is it the resources around you?
So, game changer, game manager, those are the things that you have to ask yourself. And those are the metrics that I'm going off of. It's like, bro, even when the touch push, you got five people pushing you, bro. You got a solid group around you, dog. Man, the man who Jalen Hurts is, bro, I respect him.
I take my hat off to him. But just because he's a great guy, that doesn't mean I can't critique his game? Yeah, you can critique his game, but I think a lot of what he does gets lost because he does have talent around him. He's not out there just slinging the rock. He's handed it off, but I respect a quarterback who can also just.
How about this? What a novel idea. When? Like he's a winner. He has a a winner's temperament.
He's never too high. He's never too low. He's never out of place. He's always playing within himself. He's one of the best rushing quarterbacks.
He's turned into one of the best passing quarterbacks. He just gets. The job done. And so of course there are plenty of people online who've pulled up the numbers and the stats. And when you take a look at the numbers between Cam Newton's first five seasons and Jalen Hurts' first five seasons.
We know Cam Newton was the entire offensive engine. For the Carolina Panthers, even when they went to the Super Bowl and he decided not to jump on a fumble.
Sorry, Cam Newton. Cam Newton had three Pro Bowls in his first five seasons. One-time all-pro. He won that MVP. That we know about.
That's when they went to the Super Bowl went 15 and 1.
Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts in his first five seasons, a two-time Pro Bowler, a Super Bowl champ. In a Super Bowl MVP. Oh yeah, he's been to two of 'em, by the way. Ow. You can't take anything away from this guy's career, all things considered.
If you value winning, Jalen Hurts has been a a better quarterback. Has had a better career, I should say. Let me say that. He's had a better career. Then Cam Newton at his start.
We've already heard from Cam Newton. months ago. He's like, hey, yeah, if I had a choice to give back my MVP or win the Super Bowl, I'm keeping my MVP because it means that I did what I had to do. And and maybe that's why you didn't ultimately win. Because you were thinking about yourself and not thinking about the team when you could have dove onto a fumble.
Shoutouts to Cam Newton. He has a nice cigar place, by the way. I'm expecting him one day to ban me, but that'll. Anyway, that's another conversation. Ryan Clark.
Of course Ryan Clark responds to everybody.
Well, RG3 deserves to get gone at. RG3 says some dumb stuff. I. Ryan Clark, he got at Cam Noon for the comments. Let's take Cam Newton, right?
What made Cam Newton great? He could be powerful in short yardage and goal line. He could extend plays with his legs. He was this big physical presence.
So is Jalen Hurts, right? Cam Newton went to the playoffs four times. Jalen Hurts been to the playoffs four times already. Cam Newton went to three Pro Bowls. Jalen Hurts already been to two.
Cam Newton was an MVP. He got to the Super Bowl and he forgot to bring his cape. When Jalen Hurts is going to the Super Bowl, he's brought his cape and he's also brought the Avengers with him who are not even in DC. They in Marvel. Oh, well, Dan.
And how we got the back and forth. Cam Newton heard what Ryan Clark said. And Cam Newton said, You know what? Why are y'all not being honest about Jalen Hurts? Why everybody wants to kiss his backside?
Listen to what Cam Newton said. When I face the water When people always say, hey, Cam, you're hating on Jalen Hurts. No, I don't need to hate on Jalen Hurts. And the common thing that we always hear, or I've heard in this past week is, Cam, you're just mad that Jalen has what you don't. And Petty Cam keeps creeping back up to the microphone and he can say, should I go down a list of things that I have that Jalen doesn't?
Not only just Jalen, a lot of other people are. But hear this out, and I hate that. We're making a discussion point about something that he can't even speak to. Yeah, but it's so many people coming to his defense, and I respect that. But talk about the point.
Don't talk about the pointer. Uh oh. Oh, now he started pointing fingers at Ryan Clark. Listen to Kim Newton.
So, since that we want to attack the messenger, Ryan Clark, okay, let's pull up your stats. Second team, all SEC. We cannot relate. Undrafted in 2002, we cannot relate. One Pro Bowl in 2011.
We cannot relate. People keep attacking Cam, the person, or why he didn't jump on the fumble, comparing and contrasting.
So, when I compare and contrast you guys' statistics and Dan Olosky. Never mind. But the message here is: Chalen Hurts, this has nothing to do with me hating. Eagles fan, this has nothing to do with me being bitter. This is just my thought process in evaluating quarterbacks.
Let's make people debate about sports again. There's too many homeboys in the industry, there's too many insiders that are moved by relationships.
Well, you're not talking about the person, you're more or less talking about their performance. And that's what I will talk about. You know the problem is and I got no problem with Cam Newton. You can't say nothing about me. Ah, nice cigar place he has again, by the way.
How much do you value winning? How much do you value? Isn't that the name of the game to win? Like nobody's winning with crap around them. And Cam Newton brought up some excellent points.
You do have some guys and quarterbacks in the league who are just transcendent. They basically are. their football team. Lamar Jackson, the Ravens built the entire team around him.
Okay, come on. Josh Allen is the Buffalo Bills. We got Patrick Mahomes. If Patrick Mahomes. Let's just say was replaced with Geno Smith?
Sorry, Geno, sorry. Like, they ain't going to no playoffs. They just be a miserable, sad, sack team. Just because Jalen Hurts doesn't have to do that. Just because he isn't that doesn't mean that he's not one of the best quarterbacks in the game.
I would put him in the top ten. I think to not say that is is not fair because of the talent around him. I still think all things considered, He does a great job. I think he's a winner. And if he continues on the track that he's on, and I know it's a tough thing to say.
But man, if he can get to another Super Bowl and and just accumulate stats and numbers, He could be a Hall of Famer. I think he can be. I know it's too early. I'm not putting him in there. Uh but hi his trajectory right now is winner.
And at the end of the day, that's why you play the game. Not to just win MVPs.
Sorry, Cam. Just being honest. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 888-710-4ISN is the number. We're going to come back from break.
I'll get to your phone calls. You know what? Let's go around the world and take a look at everything that happened today in sports. Christian Wilkins, Justin Fields, Bill Belichick, the passing of Hulk Hogan. It's been a wild one.
It's the JR Sport Re Show, the Infinity Sports Network.
