JR SportBrief Hour 2

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Subscribe to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast today. And I am coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody locked in all over North America, my friends out West, my friends in the Midwest, the mountains here in the South, the Northeast, the Midwest, every place.

I'm glad that you're here and I will be here with you for the next three hours. Thank you to everybody who got started with us here tonight and our number one, because the show gets started at 10 p.m. Eastern at seven Pacific. If you miss a minute, if you miss a second, if you want to hear every minute of the show and then hit pause or rewind, just download the free Odyssey app and you can listen to the JR Sportbreeze show. Thank you to everybody locked in on Sirius XM Channel 158. People tuned in on our many CBS Sports Radio affiliates and then everybody locked in on a smart speaker.

All you have to do ask that smart speaker to play CBS Sports Radio and you are all good. First hour of the show, we had a chance to look at Rudy Gobert punching his own teammate, Kyle Anderson, and now he's out suspended from the Minnesota Timberwolves in that game against the Los Angeles Lakers. We'll get more into the play in later on into the show.

The Dallas Mavericks are under even more of an investigation by the NBA for their blatant cheating over the weekend, especially on Friday. And then right before we went to break, we talked about the Masters. Yeah, you may love golf, you might hate golf, but there's so many interesting stories. Jon Rahm winning his first Masters, Rory McIlroy not making the cut and basically quitting golf for the rest of this week. Brooks Koepka joking or excuse me, choking.

He wasn't joking about his ass getting whooped. And then you have Tiger Woods, who due to his own physical injury, said, I'm out. I ain't playing.

And so we'll just have to wait for the next U.S. Open in June before we see these guys in action. And so we have more to discuss in a few minutes. I want to talk to you about Odell Beckham Jr. joining the Ravens. But this this literally just went to the top of my head. Tonight, the WNBA held its draft and I just told you, you can listen to this show right here. This show right now by asking a smart speaker to play CBS Sports Radio on my way this evening to the studio. I was getting ready to walk out my damn house and I have a smart speaker.

I asked my smart speaker not to play CBS Sports Radio, but I got its attention on the way out the door, getting ready to grab my keys and such. And I said, hey, what time does the WNBA draft start? Hey, Shep, you want to know what response I got back?

Yes, I do. The stupid machine answered me and said, sorry, I don't have that answer. I said, whoa. I said, maybe I didn't speak clearly or loudly enough. So then I said again, hey, what time does the WNBA draft start? And the stupid thing responded back to me and said, the NBA draft took place in 2022 of June. And I said, well, damn. I said, the WNBA and its players, its draft can't get any respect. Even a smart speaker, which is connected to Google and all these other stupid things. It didn't even recognize the WNBA draft shot. How about that?

I mean, it's anything but smart. You know, Jared, it's interesting you bring that up because I think the best thing that could have happened to women's basketball was something bigger than the sport. And that was obviously Angel Reese versus Kaitlin Clark. If I'm the Indiana Fever, by the way, I'm doing the Celtics thing with Larry Bird. I'm picking them before they even are eligible to come out. I would have picked Kaitlin Clark or Angel Reese, for God's sakes, and still let them play and finish their college careers. That's what I would have done because they are going to change the face and the scope of the WNBA. Yeah.

Well, unfortunately, we've got to wait an entire year minimum to see them. Let's show love to the young lady that was actually selected in the draft tonight. That happens to be Aliyah Boston coming out of South Carolina and Dawn Staley. She was picked number one overall by the Indiana Fever. This took place on ESPN.

I found it on my own. No thanks to my stupid smart speaker. Listen to this.

With the first pick in the 2023 WNBA draft, the Indiana Fever select Aliyah Boston, University of South Carolina. Yeah. Good for her. Congratulations.

Hopefully she makes some moves. This is how many players? Wow. Three rounds of this. Wow. Wow. Three rounds. See, I'm learning this stuff too. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm watching the WNBA like that. Who is?

You really got to be into it. Three rounds. I'm surprised about this. Three rounds of the WNBA draft. 36 players selected. And then from some of the research that I did last week, a lot of these these women won't even make like a full time roster because there aren't not enough slots, spots or teams available. So we're going to see Aliyah Boston.

That much I know. I'm familiar with her. She's going to be in WNBA, hopefully busting ass.

But good luck to all of the women that were drafted tonight in New York City. And as Shep just said, I'm waiting on the next evolution of the WNBA. You know, last week on our Wednesday top six list, I gave you a list of some of the most impactful female athletes that we have ever seen. And I remember specifically one of our callers called up and we were talking about the WNBA. He was naming talked about, I think, Cynthia Cooper.

And it is so ridiculous. If you can remember it, maybe you do. If you don't, it might be hard to believe when the WNBA got started and we had a lot of the great talents from the late 80s into the 90s who were competing in the Olympics.

The Lobos, the Cynthia Coopers, Lisa Leslie's, et cetera. The WNBA was jumping. Was it sustainable to pack out these arenas? Probably not. Was it making money out the gate? No, it wasn't.

But it was in such an energized place. And moving into the future, I certainly hope that's what the future of women's basketball can be here in the United States of America. We don't need to have our basketball players having to go overseas to cash a check. Jared, can I ask you a question about that? Sure, go ahead.

So you'd be a perfect person to answer this. So you famously talked about last week Angel Reese, Kaitlyn Clark, and the viewership that came with that game which was nationally televised on ABC and ESPN. Now, that was the most watched game, as you alluded to last week, in the history of women's college basketball. Ten million people, 9.9 million specific to be exact, watched that game. Now, the highest rated game in the WNBA, which by all intents and purposes is significantly better in terms of the play, in terms of the players, obviously it's the best women's league in the world. When the Aces played the Storm last year in the WNBA Finals JR, the highest rated game, the most watched game, was 850,000.

Yet women's college basketball was 10 million. How do you explain that? People want stories. That's it. People want stories.

It doesn't matter the who, the what, the why, the when, and the where. People want stories. Kaitlyn Clark and what she was able to do, and it's also a matter of scarcity. When you move into these tournaments, and this is why the NFL as a season, and we know because of the physicality, etc., they may try to up it every now and then, moving from 14 games to 16 games to 17.

We know they want to get to 18. The NFL has done an excellent job marketing in just necessary scarcity that every single game, every single Sunday, and maybe Monday or Thursday or Friday or Saturday, that it's must watch. That if you're a football fan, if you're a sports fan, that you have to take three hours out of your day, and on Sunday, maybe the entire day, to watch the game. Because it's here today, you might miss it, it might be gone. Major League Baseball, find me the must watch event throughout the course of the year.

You can't. You follow moments and stories. Maybe it's an Otani, maybe it's a judge, maybe it's a Mark Maguire chase, regardless of how much drugs and pushed him and Sammy Sosa over it.

It's story based. And so when you have a March Madness tournament, we're all programmed to go, it's March. It's the beginning of April. We're going to see some amazing performances. We're going to see some amazing runs.

You know, people are putting money down. So whether it's a San Diego State this year or it's in Iowa, most people, myself included. If you were telling me about Kaitlyn Clark a couple of months ago before the tournament, if she walked by me in the street, I wouldn't know squat. I'd be like, who is this lady?

Is she picking up groceries at Kroger like me? I don't I don't think she's in college. And so when you have the WNBA that has struggled to make money, subsidized partially by the NBA, a big portion, and you don't necessarily have all the star power Olympians and we can identify the Sue Birds of the world, but they're older, man, now retiring on the way out to Diana Taurasis. And even they I think they weren't the stars that the WNBA started with. I want to say 20 plus years ago.

Cheryl Swoop's. These were were just and we didn't have as many distractions. So how can women's basketball just go way past the interest in the WNBA?

It's the marketing. It's it's that it's it's hitting everybody with that one punch knockout as opposed to peppering you with jabs. I'll tell you about the NBA season. I've been waiting on the NBA season to end for a long time because for a while.

Stop peppering me with jabs. I want a home run. I want a knockout punch. And we get that in tournaments. We get that in playoffs. We get that in the NFL playoffs. We know we got one game. We have one series. It's elimination.

Let's see the best performances and let's go. And the WNBA, it has struggled to to find that. And does that answer your question, Shep? I hope so.

Yeah, it doesn't. And again, we're talking that, you know, the semifinals in the Western Conference and it was Sue Burrs. It was the finality of her career. You alluded to her.

She's one of the all-time great basketball figures in the sport that we've ever seen. And so I really believe that the WNBA and I didn't know this JR and kind of learning more about this. You know, they haven't made they don't make a profit. You know, they're losing money. And so that's the NBA. Yeah.

Oh, bro. No, they ain't got no money. Why do you think they they have down? A lot of these places have downgraded from playing in NBA style arenas.

Eighteen, twenty thousand people. And sure, they only took up maybe the lower bowl. It costs money to turn the lights on at these arenas. Right.

So they have downgraded into a couple thousand seeders. You know, it's unbelievable. It really is. And like you said, there was so much buzz coming out when the WNBA started. I mean, can you imagine what the WNBA would have been had Cheryl Miller been healthy?

Like the amount of hoopla that they would have gotten. But it does amaze me that women's tennis has only taken off and hasn't missed a beat since Serena Williams retired. Yet the WNBA with people in our own backyard, they can't get this right. It doesn't make any sense to me. I get what you're saying about the story. And that's unfortunate because they are the most talented basketball players, female in the world. And they're not making they have not made a profit in what seems like two decades.

It's a shame. Yeah, it's well, the quality of play is improving. It's one thing to sit down and every style is different. I can watch the men's game now and I'm talking about the NBA and the pace and how it moves and watching guys pull up for three point shots.

When they have nothing but air and opportunity in front of them. It's something to get used to from what you might have traditionally seen with basketball for years. And the women's game has continued to evolve as well. I would say the quality of play has improved.

It's gotten better. The women in the WNBA and just in the college side also happen to be more athletic. It just seems like human beings in general at any level of sports. People are moving bigger, they're faster, they're stronger, et cetera.

But it all comes down to the story. And I feel that the WNBA for for quite some time now, probably for the better part of their own history, they they have been afraid of of how do they market and sell their athletes? Is it because of some of their their sexuality? Is it because of their style?

Is it their independence? And I think those are awesome factors there as well from the WNBA to say, how do we present these multifaceted women to a new audience? When the WNBA got started, it was just about basketball.

A lot of the stars that people were familiar with, even we talk about Don Staley now coaching at South Carolina. We saw the the the exploits and the talent at an Olympic level. We looked at these women and went, damn, these are the best basketball players on earth. And then as you start to see more and learn more, you see that they're more than basketball players. It's no different than any professional athlete.

We look at male athletes. LeBron James is one of the most charitable athletes giving back athletes that you could ever find. And, you know, yet a few months ago, we had an idiot who called up here and said, it's insulting to me that LeBron James would would open up a school.

My my wife or mom is a teacher. And LeBron opens, you know, we have ideas like that. And you could think whatever you want, but there's always going to be a problem with someone. You're never going to agree with someone all the time. And you shouldn't. I sit here four hours a night giving my own thoughts and opinions on sports and how I also believe sports intersects with life. And so I say a lot of things.

If you sit down and agree with me all the time, I would challenge you not to. And we have a lot of people who go with one thing or the other. And let alone when you have dynamic women, people get turned off. People get offended. People become just kind of reticent to go, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't agree with that.

So I'm not going to show up or I'm not going to watch. And so the WNBA, I think, had to overcome a stigma just because of its players and their personalities. And so here we are.

And no shock, surprise, you have Angel Reese, you have Kaitlyn Clark, you have two contrasting personalities and styles. And America is caught up in it. Not because of the basketball, but because of the personalities that are there. And a lot of the friction between two and what people think about ethics.

And then there's also elements of race, whether you feel justified or not, that are intertwined as well. And then we have interest. It doesn't matter what the sport is.

It doesn't matter what the product is. You better have a story to go along and tell with it. And just maybe, just maybe over the next year, the WNBA will be able to tell its story when they have some an additional influx of talent coming in. Congratulations tonight to Aliyah Boston being selected number one overall by the Indiana Fever. But the WNBA, like most sports leagues and teams, they got a lot to figure out. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. If you got any thoughts on this, by all means, feel free to call me up right now. What's the deal with women's basketball? Do you feel that they are on kind of an uptick?

Are they set to ride the wave? And how can we get more folks interested and involved? We'll also talk about Odell Beckham Jr. We'll get into the NBA and its play-in. And Rudy Gobert is punching his teammates.

We got a lot to do. The JR Sportbrief Show, CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. You know my daughter listens to you every night.

She's got her radio next to the bed. I don't get to listen to you often, but I tell you what, when I hear it, you're a gentleman. You never cut anyone off.

You never back down. You're an excellent sports jock, I'm going to tell you that right now. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sportbrief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm going to talk about Odell and the Ravens in a second. Before we went to break, we talked about the WNBA.

It held its draft tonight. Aliyah Boston selected number one overall by the Indiana Fever coming out of South Carolina. And I said a lot of what the WNBA has to do in the future. And a big problem that it has had is just its marketing. Well, we also talked about the Masters. And you can look at Jon Rahm walking away and then you have someone like Tiger Woods who is basically here at the end.

And there ain't no fixing his career, fixing his missteps. And I had mentioned sharing with you some comments here from Tiger Woods before he decided to just walk away and step down and no longer participate in the Masters over the weekend. And so I want you to hear from Mr. Tiger Woods.

This is after day one and he knew like, yeah, I'm about to be cooked here. Listen to Tiger. Well, I feel like I drove it good. I just didn't do the job I needed to do to get the ball close. Today was the opportune time to get the ball, get the round under par and I didn't do that today. Most of the guys are going low today.

This was the day to do it. Yeah, and he had to, he made the cut and he couldn't go through on the course anymore, could not do it. Let's see what he does. I wouldn't expect to see him too much between now and the U.S. Open. Let's see if he pops up. 855-212-4CBS.

Let's get to some of your calls before we get into Odell. Steve is calling from Knoxville. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show.

Go ahead, Steve. JR, thanks for taking my call. And before I tell you what I want to say, Knoxville, Tennessee is the home of Pat Summitt, one of the greatest coaches of women's basketball or any level or minority or sex basketball, you know. But I just want, I just heard your comments, JR.

I think you summed up the state of women's basketball better than I've heard anyone say. And I just want to congratulate you on that. Thank you. I appreciate that, Steve. All the best to you. Okay. Have a good evening. Thank you, Sheriff. No doubt about it.

Okay. All love to Pat Summitt. Lady Vol, shout-outs to Candace Parker and Shannon Bobbitt. Man, for anyone who missed my summation, I said women's basketball is all about marketing. From the WNBA side more specifically, how do you sell and present these women in a way that they are respected as athletes but then also as human with interesting personalities, diverse personalities, multifaceted personalities? I think in a lot of cases, you know, the WNBA has been afraid to market who exactly their athletes are and what is their audience. Lee is calling from San Diego.

You're on CBS Sports Radio. Go ahead, Lee. I'm not against the WNBA in any way, JR, but I think they could do themselves a favor with coming up with a nickname better than an Indiana Fever. I mean, it makes me think I'm getting sick or I'm getting COVID or something, but I think they could do themselves a favor by getting some better names in their league. I don't know if you feel me there, but... No, I don't.

I actually think that's sad. We have dumbass sports names all over the place. And so I would tell you, I don't think the WNBA having names like the Liberty or formerly going back to the Shock or Mystics, I don't think that's a problem, Lee. I don't think at all.

What about the Fever, though? Does that sound like a good nickname to you? I've heard worse. We got a team in the NFL called the, what are they called, the Commanders? We got a team called the Commanders, okay?

It sounds pretty stupid to me. We got a basketball team in Orlando called the Magic. We got another team called the Heat. Hey, Lee, what do you call someone who plays for the Heat? What do you call them?

I don't have a problem with the Heat. No, I didn't ask you that. I said, what do you call someone who plays for the Heat? I don't understand your question, J.R.I. Well, I think that's part of the issue. What do you call someone who plays... Hey, if I told you someone plays for the New York Yankees, what do you call that player?

I would call him a well-paid player that is in a... Yeah, I think you are missing it. Just keep listening, Lee, okay? All right, bro. Go Padres is all I can say. Okay, yeah, I'm sure. Thank you, Lee. Hey, Shep, let's make this simple, very simple.

No jokes here. If someone plays for the New York Yankees, they are a what? A Yankee. Oh, my God.

Let's keep on going. So I want him to have proper examples here. If someone plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, they are a what? A Laker. And if someone is a Celtic? They're a Celtic. They're NBA royalty.

If you play for the Yankee, you're a member of the Pinstripes. Yeah, he's bothered by the Indiana Fever nickname. I know.

I heard that. Come on. Come on, Lee. I mean, they're still thinking about having the parade, for God's sakes.

I don't know what's going on in San Diego these days. Come on, Lee. You're better than that.

Let's leave that to him. I'm bothered by the Indiana Fever name. Are you bothered by the New York Knicks, the Knickerbockers? Every time I reference the New York Knicks, do I have to call them the Knickerbockers? Do you even know what a Knickerbocker is? Like, you're worried about the Indiana Fever.

That's a poor-ass excuse. We got ridiculous names all over sports. My point is, we got a team called the Miami Heat. I don't know what you call somebody who plays for the Heat. I've heard people talk about members of the Utah Jazz. And what are you? You a jazz man.

Like, well, come on now. You got dumbass names all over the place. That used to be New Orleans. You obviously know that. Well, I know the roots, similar to why the Lakers are called the Lakers.

It doesn't have anything to do with the thousands of lakes in Los Angeles. It has to do with Minneapolis. But the point is the nicknames. To say, you play for the Magic.

Are you a Magic man? You a Heat man? We got stupid names everywhere. Mike is calling from Chicago. You're on CBS Sports Radio.

What's up, Mike? J.R., as we say in the hood, it's on. It's on already. Remember when Magic and Bird came into the league? Can you imagine, guys, next year when Kaitlyn Clark is drafted and the girl from LSU is drafted, can you imagine the game number? The first game? You talk about 10 million for that college game. You talk about the WNBA is going to be off the track.

Can you imagine that first game when they play in the WNBA? It's on, baby. It's on, baby. It's on.

It's on. Are you done, Mike? Mike is done.

This is what Mike doesn't understand. You can look at a regular season game and I can look at a playoff game, a national championship taking place on a Sunday. You can hope, I highly doubt that that matchup, and maybe I'm wrong, I hope I am, garners 10 million viewers.

That is very difficult to do. And if I have to think about one particular matchup, one regular season game that God knows, maybe they'll have a chance and an opportunity to put it in a prime viewing spot. It's going to take a whole lot more than one game to pique folks' interests. And here's the deal.

Sometimes the sequel doesn't garner as much attention as the first time. And it doesn't matter if it's in the college side or if you go into the pros. So you can be optimistic. It'll be beautiful if Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese can be two personalities in the future to help drive the WNBA.

It's not going to be too much of a damn thing if there's no sustainability to it. None. 855-212 for CBS. That's 855-212 for CBS. I'm going to get some questions in and talk about Odell Beckham Jr. We're going to talk about the play-in game for the NBA.

The play-in games, I should say, we got a lot to do. You're listening to the JR Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. Mike is calling from Harrisburg and PA. Mike, you're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up? Hey, Mike. Thanks for having me. No, you're Mike, man. I'm JR. Man, that's a bad start to call.

Let me see if I can fix this. Call in now at 855-212 for CBS. Big news came down the pipe approximately 24 hours ago. And this is on the NFL side. That is the fact that Odell Beckham Jr. is going to be joining the Baltimore Ravens.

This is not the New York Jets. It was said that he was to have another meeting with the Jets and potentially team up with Aaron Rodgers. But Odell is going to Baltimore.

We didn't see him play for an entire season after he blew out his knee again in the Super Bowl, of which he already had a touchdown in 52 yards before the Rams still held on to win. And there were a lot of rumors, you might recall, at the end of the year that he was going to latch on to a team. And that Odell basically said, I don't need no regular season. I just I want to go out and win Super Bowls.

Well, nobody picked them up. There was a massive flirtation with the Dallas Cowboys and Odell sat out the entire year, still rehabbed. And now he's joining the Ravens.

It is a 15 million dollar deal, one year that can get him up to 18 million dollars. And so what does this mean for the Baltimore Ravens? What does this mean for Lamar Jackson? Well, Lamar Jackson and Odell were basically sharing photos and images on social media yesterday that indicated that they talked about this. OK, there was a FaceTime photo between Lamar and Odell. There was another photo of Lamar and Odell in a club down in Miami, Florida. And so no shock or surprise here. We also got a report today that Lamar Jackson was helping to lead the way and bringing in, or should I say, recruiting Odell to the Ravens.

And so, yeah, this sounds like a lot of mixed messages at this point. It was only a couple of weeks ago that Lamar basically said, yeah, I asked for a trade from the Ravens, that it was ready to move on. We know he's been hit with the franchise tag. They haven't come to any type of an agreement on what a long term contract would or should be. And at the same time, find me the NFL team that's been kicking, screaming, trying to knock down the door to bring in Lamar Jackson.

There isn't one. I still believe that Lamar Jackson will be returning to the Ravens, and I don't know why you'd have Odell join the squad unless he felt he was going to be on the receiving end. Do the New York Jets have options now? They already have Garrett Wilson. They've just signed Allen Lazard. You're throwing in Odell into the mix. Can he maximize his value in one season with the New York Jets and Aaron Rodgers?

Probably, but probably not as much. When you think about the Ravens, the Ravens have been begging, begging for another wide receiver to step up for years now, even when they've added dudes, younger guys. Rashad Bateman busted foot, only played seven games. You have Deven DuVernay also missing time with a busted foot. The season before that, it's like every single running back was hurt. They just picked up Nelson Aguilar.

It's very simple here. Odell Beckham Jr. with this Ravens squad, if he is healthy, and Odell even outside of his ACL tears, he's dealt with a variety of leg injuries throughout his career. I mean, even starting with the New York Giants, Odell had a hamstring issue. It's just always a little something, small here or there, and we're supposed to believe that he's going to get better as he gets older?

At 30 years old, he's supposed to get better? I think all things considered, if Odell Beckham Jr. plays for the Ravens and he can haul in, I don't know, 1,000 yards, 7 to 10 touchdowns, I would consider that a success. The fact is, he is going to garner just enough attention that he's going to help out Lamar Jackson, and he's also going to help out the other younger wide receivers who basically can't stay healthy their damn selves.

And so, this is a good move. I don't think the Baltimore Ravens have a damn thing to lose by bringing in Odell. Like, how many 1,000-yard wide receivers have they had in recent years? Mark Andrews?

The security blanket number one? Marquise Brown, who's not even there anymore? Lamar will be back. Odell, I don't know how many games he's going to play, but if you're the Baltimore Ravens, what would you have to lose? Nothing.

I'll do the deal. 855-2124 CBS, that's 855-2124 CBS. In the long term, don't get too excited. It's a one-year deal for Odell.

I will assume Lamar will be around for one more year at minimum, and the Ravens are going to still have to try to figure this all out. 855-2124 CBS, Ray is calling up from San Diego. You on CBS Sports Radio? What's up, Ray? Hey, what's going on, JR? How you doing, man? I'm good. What's on your mind? Appreciate it.

Well, you know what? I like this pair with Lamar Jackson and Odell going on. It really makes it interesting, and hopefully it can keep Lamar happy for a little bit, but I think that they would make a good combination.

I'm actually excited. I feel this could be something more or less where T.O. and Donovan McNabb kind of had their two good years together until their differences started showing up.

Go ahead. Yeah, but at the end of it, I don't see why this team shouldn't be a lead-in up there competing with the Bills, with the Chiefs, and the Bengals. They look like they're doing good. How you said, the running back situation might need to be worked on, but that's part of the big reason why they wanted to keep Lamar happy and get him some weapons down at the end. It's all injuries, man. It's like the Baltimore Ravens have their backs up against the wall for a strictly hit-or-miss scenario. You look at Odell when he has been healthy.

He is. He's one of the most dynamic wide receivers that we've seen in recent memory, but he's always been nicked up or banged up. Over the past three years, it's pretty much the same thing with Lamar Jackson. It's nicked up, banged up, not being able to complete a season. If we have 17 games on a slate, if you told me Lamar and Odell together only played in, I don't know, 12 games, I'd go, okay, yeah, sure. Somebody's going to miss some time here or there.

I can see the playmaking now. Lamar Jackson scrambling on a run, safeties having to account for Odell or maybe playing too close to the line, and you see a miraculous straight-line throw to Odell who has nothing but air and opportunity to go on a dash. And that's something the Ravens haven't had. I would just be concerned with everybody's in their one-year deal, is this going to work, and you're pairing up two dudes who unfortunately have dealt with a lot of injuries.

But if you're the Ravens, you don't have too much of another choice, Ray. I appreciate you, man. Awesome. Thank you very much, man.

And to top it off, I go for the girls, man. I hope the girls in the WNBA do well too, man. I'm rooting for them. Most definitely.

I hope so. Thank you, Ray, for calling from San Diego. Hey, Shep, what do you think about this, I guess we still have to call it a potential pairing, knowing that there's no full resolution with Lamar on his tag? JR, to me, there was no consternation, there was no dismay, there was no surprise. This is a move that is going to seem to be the difference in now keeping Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. And you talk about gaining respect.

I mean, you mentioned it. Marquise Hollywood-Brown, he's not there anymore. Andrews is the only semblance of a great receiver that they have. He's not a wide receiver, for God's sakes. So this is finally the big threat that Lamar has been thirsting for in his five-year stint in Baltimore that he's never had. And the last time, I understand that he's not Odell in New York with the way he exploded onto the scene back in the mid-2010s, but we do remember the last time we saw him with the Los Angeles Rams, and when he was healthy, even at 29 years old, he was one of the two or three best receivers on the field.

And that's saying something, considering Cooper Cupp was also in that game. So this is a win-win, JR, to me, and I'm very happy that they are taking care of Lamar to some degree finally. And JR, you know this, he's never had one negative thing to say. And I'm talking about Lamar. When it comes to John Harbaugh and Eric DaCosta, and they are looking to do right by Lamar in acquiring Odell Beckham Jr., this is the ultimate win-win. It was reported that Lamar Jackson helped lead the charge in bringing him onto the team. So I will assume that throughout all the trade demands, or requests, let me not say demand, but a request, that this is it.

There's nothing else. Unless there's some major draft day shocker, which I do not presume or believe, Lamar will be back in Baltimore. They're going to run this back.

And I think the most that anybody can hope or ask for is that they're healthy. Because if the two of these guys are healthy between Odell and Lamar, they're going to make some defensive sweat. And this is not Odell's final go-round. He's going to try to turn this one-year contract into a larger multi-year deal. And then we know Lamar Jackson. He still wants his long-term deal. And I assume, at this point up until now, that he's going to be playing on the franchise tag. And so all of the Lamar holdout, Lamar be traded. I think when it's time, Lamar Jackson will show up for work, unless he still thinks that he can get a better deal.

If I'm a Ravens fan, I'm thrilled with this. I'll take it, take the news, move on, and hope for the best. It's keeping everybody on pins and needles, trying to look at what the future holds. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. That's the offseason. That'll be the regular season. When we come back, we're going to take a look at the NBA, their playoffs, and more specifically, the play-ins here on CBS Sports Radio.

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