JR SportBrief Hour 1

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Shop in store or visit Ashley.com today. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the J.R. Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I hope you have had a tremendous Thursday. I hope your Thursday night is going smooth. If not, sucks for you. I'm going to be here anyway for the next four hours.

This is when I get started. 10 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 p.m. Pacific. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our super producer and host, Dave Sheppard, joining us live from New York City. Much love to everybody all over North America listening on the free Odyssey app, your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 158, and everybody tuned in on a smart speaker. It is a Thursday night.

You know what that means? It means that the NFL is serving us terrible Thursday night football. The dominant San Francisco 49ers are smacking around the Saquon-less New York Giants. The score as of right now?

Well, it's miserable. 17 to 6 in the New York Giants just in first halves so far this season. They stink. They have been outscored now into three games. 63 to 6 in the first half of their first three games.

Pathetic. The New York Giants don't have Saquon. We even learned that Saquon, as he shared with Amazon, who's broadcasting tonight's football game, Saquon is dealing with a high ankle sprain. And to the shock of nobody, Brian Deball, the head coach of the New York Giants, was shoveling the public a whole lot of you-know-what when he said that Saquon is a fast healer and that he might even be playing tonight.

Saquon threw cold water on that tonight. He's like, listen, I got a high ankle sprain. Don't expect to see me for I don't know how long.

It may be a few weeks. And unfortunately, that's the name of the game for a lot of what we're going to discuss tonight. It's injuries. There's just so many injuries. And yes, it's the NFL and the rate of injuries is ridiculous. We watched Nick Chubb snap his leg earlier in the week. We learned this evening before Thursday Night Football Saquon Barkley going to be out an extended amount of time with his ankle injury.

And then terrible news. The New York Giants play in the NFC East. We know one of their rivals happens to be the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys are even losing players.

Well, specifically their star cornerback. They lost Trevon Diggs today to a torn ACL. He tore it in practice. For the life of me, I can't remember being a kid and hearing about so many athletes just tearing their ACLs. Like it's nothing. You go outside, torn ACL.

This is like par for the course. I feel like torn ACLs in sports right now are what used to be just a sprained ankle. And so we got a lot to get into. There are even some quarterbacks, even the young guys are kind of banged up. Bryce Young, probably not going to play against Seattle. CJ Stroud already dealing with with soreness in his arm.

I mean, I guess why not? He threw for almost 400 yards the other day. And so we got a busy, busy night.

If you follow me at JR Sport Brief, you will already know a lot of the things that we're going to discuss. And then if you want to talk to me, you can do that, too. The phone number is as follows. That's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. Man, this is a crap game, man. New York Giants couldn't score with Saquon. What are they going to do without this guy and score less?

That's just what it is. Hey, Shep, how you doing this evening, man? You good? I'm doing well.

Thank you for asking, JR. How are you? And you sound surprised that the Giants would not show up against the 49ers. I'm not surprised. The only thing missing from these Thursday night games, remember when they used to go out there looking like highlighters in them stupid color rush jerseys?

Yes. That's the only thing that's missing. That's the only thing that can make these games uglier. I hate garbage football games. And I get it. Not every team is going to be good on any given Sunday or Monday or Thursday or Saturday.

You can have anybody come out on top. It just stinks when you kind of know what's going to happen and it happens that way. And it's just bad, man. I don't care about it. Do you care about this game? Well, yes. The reason I care about this game is because I want to see who's going to come out on top of the NFC.

To me, you got a three-headed monster. You got the Dallas Cowboys, obviously digs aside. 49ers and I'd say the Eagles.

So I'm curious to see if the 49ers can not just put the clamps on the Giants in the first half, but also the second half. Because we know what happened with the 21-point comeback last time against the Cardinals. But JR, there is a silver lining. It's not the Cardinals. I agree. I agree. It's not the Cardinals.

There is a silver lining, though. What is it? For who? Well, for Thursday night football.

What is it? And this is a good friend of yours. Richard Sherman is a star in the making. I'm not listening. What did he say? I'm not listening. He's just phenomenal.

He is absolutely phenomenal. And if he's going to throw out first pitches at Yankee Stadium, he's not going to have it bounce. Oh, I heard. Yeah, I saw Stephen A. Smith throw out the first pitch.

It hit the dirt. Yep. But for the game, I understand the ramifications with the standings. But you basically said you want to see how bad the 49ers can stomp out the New York Giants. Like, that's not exciting to me. If the New York Giants only mustered one touchdown or two more field goals, I go, that's normal.

And how about that? I don't expect them to do more than that. Maybe the Giants get a touchdown. What's the score right now? They got six.

I don't expect the New York Giants to score more than, let's just say, 15 points tonight. I mean, Bost is doing his thing, he's the highest-paid player for a reason. And the truth be told, JR, listen, you're on WFPN, you know this as well as anybody. Darren Waller's overrated. I'm sorry to say that.

Whoa. Not overrated. He's just dealing with a busted leg.

He's always hurt. Fair enough. But the Giants have no offensive weapons. Like, Deebo Sanio and Christian McCaffrey are making this look easy.

The Giants, they're making this- The 49ers don't even have Brandon Iuke out there. That's a good point. It's tough. This is just, it's like watching a train wreck.

Like, you want to look away, but then you look and then you, this is just bad. And so we'll keep you up to date. How about this? They got, well, I thought they were doing a concert.

They're advertising two chains. Oh yeah, Ed Sheeran after the game. That's going to be more exciting than watching this crap. I couldn't tell you an Ed Sheeran song.

If I heard it, maybe I would, but I know it's going to be better than this. Is Jerry Rice aging backwards? Jerry Rice has tattoos now. He a cool guy.

He's wearing a big old chain. Whatever keeps you young. Wow. He looks, he looks, he doesn't look a day over 40. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding.

He does. That's what happens when you're bald, Shep, you know, just nothing. You're just bald. No hair, nothing on your face. You just look the same forever.

Clean living. But you know what? He looked like an old man when he, remember when he had the locks? Yeah, I do. Raiders. That's right.

Yeah. He was bald head with locks and it looked terrible. So now he's a clean shaven again or Mr. Clean and now he looks, he looks terrific. He can probably go out there and help the Niners out as well. So right now the 49ers beating up on these New York Giants, hapless New York Giants 17 to 6.

As the camera is firmly planted on the face of Nick Bosa, who will probably, you know, smack up Daniel Jones a few more times tonight as the New York Giants are getting close to the end zone. So I might be having to eat my words here, but I still got the 49ers winning this. Anyway, let's talk about this team in the same division as the New York Giants. I don't got no hope for the New York Giants this year.

They were on a magic carpet ride last year, barely eking out their wins. Brian Deball, a first year head coach. Daniel Jones, healthy.

Saquon Barkley, healthy. The two of them led the offense and a good defense. And lo and behold, they go to the playoffs. They beat a crap team that doesn't play any defense in the Minnesota Vikings and everybody's high on the Giants.

I guess. And the New York Giants scored, say, one touchdown. Okay, there we go.

Congratulations. They ain't doing nothing. But in their division, you do have a team great on defense, have weapons on offense. You have a CeeDee Lamb, a Dak. They got Tony Pollard. It's the Dallas Cowboys. The defense, especially with Dan Quinn, the defense has really done a lot of the work since he took over. Okay, it doesn't matter if Dak is going down. It was only a few seasons ago, especially during that pandemic with the Dallas Cowboys defense was pathetic. Historically, that version of the Dallas Cowboys that season, they gave up more yards than they ever have in their entire existence.

And then, you know, what do you do? You bring in guys like Michael Parsons. You bring in guys like Trevon Diggs, who they drafted in the second round out of Alabama in 2020. This man has already been to multiple Pro Bowls in 2021. He had 11 interceptions. He just got paid 100 million dollars for the next five years.

And if you're in his vicinity, you ain't catching nothing. He has only allowed three receptions for 31 yards this year. But he ain't going to do nothing else this season. Because he tours ACL, as I mentioned, so the Dallas Cowboys pretty much have led the NFL and take over turnovers and takeaways over the past two seasons. One of their big stars is gone. They just brought in Stephon Gilmore, who's getting a little bit older, still serviceable, but he's getting older, 33 years old. Daron Bland is going to have to move from being a slot corner to probably an outside on the opposite side of Gilmore. And then you have Lewis, who was dealing with a foot injury last year. And so not having Diggs out there is a major blow for defense that could most certainly help carry a team to a championship. Except for we won't see Trevon Diggs out there. He's going to be rehabbing his torn ACL.

Le'Jae Duesable, former offensive lineman for the Jets, needs to go back to help them out. He was on CBS Sports Network and he's just like, man, I feel bad for this dude. I just feel gutted for Trevon Diggs.

And the one silver lining, and you alluded to it, is that he did get his money, right? He signed that 97 million dollar deal five years right during training camp before the season started. But this is a massive blow for this defense. Let's not forget what the Cowboys did this offseason. They saw that there was a deficiency opposite of Trevon Diggs.

So who'd they go get? Stephon Gilmore at Perennial Pro Bowl. And if you look at what the Cowboys do on defense, a lot of times they man their corners because they have that much faith in Trevon Diggs and Stephon Gilmore. So that's a massive blow to the depth at the cornerback position.

You've talked about how dominant they've been, Jaclyn. They've only given up 10 points in two games. So a lot of the things that the defensive line does up front with Micah Parsons and those guys up front, it's because of what they have on the outside of the cornerback position when you talk about Trevon Diggs and Stephon Gilmore.

Yeah, listen, man. Dallas Cowboys are going to be fine. Are they going to miss him in big moments and big spots? Yes, but I certainly believe that Stephon Gilmore is going to make some big plays. I believe Daron Bland is going to go out there and make some big plays.

And then on the offensive side of the ball, just wait until we actually see Brandon Cooks out there on a consistent basis here for the Dallas Cowboys. They will be fine. Dallas Cowboys, are they going to get in as a wildcard team? Are they going to win the division outright? It's between them and the Eagles, and I know I'm going to have people upset with me coming out of D.C., but all things considered, are you going to trust Sam Howell?

Yeah, I believe he can win, but I want to see him do it first. I'm going to go with the teams that are a little bit more reliable. That's the Dallas Cowboys and that's the Philadelphia Eagles.

And so, man, you heard Lige talk about. They beat the Giants, smoked them 40 to nothing. They smacked the other New York City team.

The New York Jets beat them up 30 to 10. The next opponent for the Dallas Cowboys, I mean, this is a nice way to start, right? They play the Arizona Cardinals. I mean, if you thought tonight's game, and it's not an ass whooping right now, San Francisco leads the Giants 17 to 12. Dallas Cowboys should have an easy time, an easy time against Arizona.

No Trayvon digs, though. Not going to help them out later on in the season with those big plays, but I think the Cowboys will be fine. I'm still expecting the Dallas Cowboys to win, I want to say, 10 to 11 games. Dallas Cowboys will be all right.

But when they get to the postseason, all bets are off, they'll probably be embarrassed, I don't know, by, let's say, the 49ers. It might be a case of deja vu. It happens. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

Just getting started here. We'll keep you updated on this Thursday night football matchup. San Francisco beating the Giants 17 to 12, a little less than nine minutes left in the game. We'll talk about that, especially as the game concludes. We're going to get into, and we talked about this last night, the Chicago Bears.

Dysfunctional as hell. The general manager spoke today. Ryan Polis had some words about Justin Fields. Are they positive? Are they negative?

We'll share them with you as we continue on. Mika Fitzpatrick says he's not a dirty player for injuring Nick Chubb. We talked about Saquon likely out for several weeks. And you know what?

We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, we just saw this man play on Monday Night Football. And now he might not play on Sunday? And he's a kid, he's a rookie, he's a baby.

He's also the smallest quarterback running around in the NFL right now. It's Bryce Young. I'm going to give you an update on him and his injury.

It's like, man, you just got into the league. You heard already? We're going to talk about it. This is the J.R. Sportbrief show right here with you on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. J.R. wants to hear from you. Call him now at 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4227. It's the J.R. Sportbrief show here on CBS Sports Radio. Opened up the show, unfortunately, telling you about Trayvon Diggs and his torn ACL for the Dallas Cowboys. I think the Dallas Cowboys will be fine.

I think they will be more than serviceable in trying to pick up some of the slack. And momentarily I want to tell you about a young quarterback in the NFL who is unfortunately also dealing with an injury. And it's just like, well, damn it.

He was an injury when we saw him a couple of nights ago. And that's Bryce Young. But as I sit here in the studio and I watch Thursday Night Football, San Francisco beating the New York Giants 17-12.

I got to take note of this. The New York Giants head coach Brian Deball, he is an angry fellow. Every time I see this dude, he looks like he wants to punch somebody in the face. He was just reading one of the referees a riot act. I think because of a missed call on the defense as the New York Giants are trying to protect their own end zone right now.

San Francisco 49ers getting ready to, oh no, they're going to have to kick a field goal here. Shep, did you see how miserable? Well, he's not miserable. Did you see how angry he looked?

Yeah, I did. To your point, JR, I think there was another, because there was a penalty before that on third down. So I think he's frustrated that his team can't get off the field.

I think that has something to do with it. But the guy was not making that much contact down the field on the Giants. The problem was he didn't see the football. That's why he was penalized. So I understand why Brian Deball is livid. He really needs to be livid at his own team right now, though. If he's going to do all of that, why don't you just punch the referee?

Like, why are you going to faint it? Just go hit him instead, you know? Yeah, and if you're going to lose your mind in any professional sport, the most leeway that you get as a head coach is certainly the NFL. He's still screaming. He's yelling at everybody. He would have been ejected if this were baseball.

Say again? He would have been ejected like five minutes ago if this were baseball. Oh, hell yeah, he would have. The umpire would have been like, hey man, you spat on me while you were screaming, so you got us to go. Right, or you yelled at us from the dugout. Right, I mean, yeah, you're too loud.

I told you to pipe it down. Now, I remember last year when he was still in his, well, that was his first year, you know, he was critical of his own players. I forgot what offensive lineman it is. He stood next to some gigantic offensive lineman, and he tore into him during the game. And I'm trying to recall whether or not he apologized afterwards. I don't think he did.

I think he kind of just said, yeah, maybe I shouldn't have did it, but I don't know. He, I'll take it though. I'm here for the entertainment value. There is nothing more entertaining in the world of sports than a manager, a coach, absolutely losing their minds on the sideline.

Okay, I mean, we have seen some great pieces from Lou Piniella, Larry Boa, and even if we got to think about the minor leagues. Have you ever seen that dude in the minors who took like a bag of rosin and he acted like he was in war and he tossed the bag like it was a grenade? You ever seen that?

I have. You ever seen the Wally Backman ejection? Which one? He was the manager of a minor league team. What did he do? He threw a bunch of bats.

He went crazy. I think I did see, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's for the Mets, right? Yeah, he won a World Series with them, yes. Right.

Well, was he, he was minor league with the Mets. Yeah, I believe so, yes. Right, right. He came out and dumped the, yeah, yeah.

It's always fun. Well, JR, you know the best ejections of all time, and we can't play this audio, is Earl Weaver. Well, from the Tigers? All the way back to the Orioles. We cannot play that audio, but there is a clip of him going back and forth with this umpire. And the umpire goes, and you know, the Orioles got to World Series a lot back in the day, but they lost, they blew a lot of World Series. So, he goes to the umpire, he goes, man, you just blow calls left and right.

He goes, not as much as you blow World Series. And it was the best. Oh, well, I'd sign up for, how many bleeps do we need? I mean, it would take time to get. I mean, if you really want to play it to its entirety, it is worth the listen.

It would probably take me two segments to get all the bleeps in there, though. Oh, my God. This guy, Brian Dabole, is, he has the attention of three refs. He has his head set off, and he's still giving him the business. San Francisco leads 20 to 12 here. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Tommy is calling from Florida. You're on the Gerald Sport Reshow. What's up, Tommy? Hello, JR.

I'm on my way back from Bilox, Mississippi, after a big night of winnin'. Oh, OK. You were at all at the Beaux-Rivage? I asked you to go to Nuggets. Oh, OK. Well, OK. Good for you. All right. Sorry about that. That's OK.

I mean, I go to the Beaux-Rivage. It's been a few years. Well, I still like the boat. It's still great.

It's beautiful, but a little too expensive for my blood. Oh, hey, listen, they have some amazing bread puttin' in there. Well, go ahead. I want to talk about the Florida State closing game coming up this weekend.

OK. I mean, I know Florida State's undefeated still, but, hey, I know they had a little down window against, you know, Boston College. And you know how they say you play to the level of your competition. Right. But FSU always rises to the level when they play top opponents. I think they're going to bounce back.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I think they're going to be done. But how do you look at assessing Florida State so far this year? Now I'll hang up and listen to you. It's a great time. I mean, I'd be I'd be feeding you garbage. The only game I watched was the LSU game at the beginning of the season.

That's it. And I've kept up with the scores. You know, I said this last night and this really applies to any level of football. I don't want to watch ass whoopings. OK. Like, I want to see good games. I'm not going to dive real deep into a lot of these games unless I feel that they're going to be competitive. And now that we're actually entering into conference play, like consistent conference play, now I'm going to watch.

But for me, it's just it's a lot of background noise. I look at the scores. I look at the players that are supposed to be highly touted. I look at the upsets. But there's there's no real motivation for me amongst the 50 million games that are going on on Saturday to say, oh, man, I want to dedicate, you know, three hours of my life to see one team smack another 60 to 10. I understand your point.

That's a very valid point. I can't I can't I mean, I love I love the Bulldogs. I mean, I watched them in the background and I go, OK, well, are they close?

Are they smacking who they supposed to smack or are they destroying a team? And that's that's more so the overall man. It's it's a lot. I won't really dive deep until about now, man. You think Notre Dame will give a good battle against Ohio State?

I think they will. Somebody called and asked me about that last night. I think so. OK, well, I appreciate you letting me on. Thank you very much. God bless you and have a good night. Thank you, Tommy. Appreciate you for calling from Florida. Hey, shop, you ever been down to Biloxi, Mississippi?

I have not. You want to go? Sure. It's just this beach and gambling. That's it. Hey, is Lincoln nearby in Biloxi? Yeah. No, it's that's deep. That's that's in the Gulf.

Gotcha. That's adjacent to New Orleans. You go to New Orleans and the next thing next big thing you hit is Biloxi. J.R., that's the college game I'm looking forward to the most. Ole Miss, Alabama, assistant versus former head coach. You you want to see Nick Saban on the side losing? You know, it's funny you mentioned Brian Davel. Something about that Belichick coaching tree, man, because Nick Saban, I don't think there's a guy that loses his mind in football more than Nick Saban, either on the NFL or college football level.

So he needs to take it easy, man. He ain't no spring chicken out 70. He's a year older than Belichick. So that would put him at 72, J.R.

He has to be in what year? Year one or two of that 10 year deal he signed? I mean, three, two, three.

But yeah, but that but that was just pride. He's not last in 10 more years. You don't think so, bro?

No, I mean, I mean, how many? I mean, listen, we can talk about Joe Paterno for a lot of reasons. Joe Paterno, by the time he was in his late 70s, was was just a glorified CEO.

He wasn't doing any coaching. Right. So same thing with Saban.

And God bless Bobby Vowden. They put him upstairs. Exactly. I mean, he couldn't get out of the way on the sidelines fast enough. He had to like be in a wheelchair on crutches for half the season. So you can't be coaching college football until you're 80s.

I mean, Bill Snyder, there's exceptions, but Nick Saban's not one of them. He's going to quit because of the transfer portal. It's coming. Yeah. Well, that'll be his reason. He's going to say, I can't deal with this crap. This is not the college football. And then he's going to throw jabs at like Texas again.

Right. Well, listen, I mean, you played you played the cliff last night and I know he gave praise to Dion, but you could tell he did that begrudgingly. Well, he's just this is my it's mind games, you know, it's like say this publicly and and hate the guy in private.

I'm not necessarily hate the guy, but yeah, he's he's shoveling you know what to the people, you know, it's just correct what it is. And by the way, I saw them. It's this lets me know how much television I really don't watch. I just really watch sports. I don't watch anything else.

I just glanced at my up. There's Dion and Saban in a Geico commercial. I don't know the concept of the commercial.

I don't I didn't hear anything that was said. I just said, oh, they're in a Geico commercial together. So Dion Sanders continue to make money and Nick Saban making money, too, and just being, I guess, old crotchety and angry. And he's using it to send out medical bills.

Good hands. Hospital bill for Prime. Did you just get he's talking about expenses, health insurance doesn't cover.

Good thing Coach Prime knows about Sam one time because I'd like to get you money to help close that gap. That's funny, man. That's funny. No, not not not the commercial. I just I still don't get the concept of it. All I know is they're trying to sell insurance.

Well, that's nice. At least Dion is making more money and so is Saban. It's the JR Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. We're going to take a break when we come back on the other side. We're going to talk about some of these young quarterbacks who have only played two games.

And are already feeling some pain. It's Bryce Young and CJ Stroud, one of them probably isn't going to play this Sunday. It's the JR Sportbrief show on 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.

Hey, what's going on, big brother? Truck driver, man. I've been listening to you for a few months now. I respect what you do. I like it, man. Call in now at 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS.

I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing. When I hear truck driver and I automatically go to the repo man. Shep, we haven't heard from the repo man in what, like a month now? Maybe two weeks. Two weeks? I think it's longer than that.

Feels like a minute. It's like I have PTSD, man. I hear driver and I think about the guy who takes people's cars at night. Shout out to, what's his name? Do you remember his name? David, maybe?

Dave or Ron. I know he's from Detroit. He's out there snatching up people's cars. Truck driver, man. I've been listening to you for a few months now. I respect what you do.

I like it, man. Shout outs to the truck drivers. No shout outs to the repo men. Taking people's cars back, man. Let them people not pay their bills.

Let somebody else do it, man. Anyway, right now the 49ers still beating up on the Giants 20-12. Let's see if the New York Giants have another comeback in them.

I don't think so. We'll see. Keep you up to date on that game as it continues on. Before we went to break, I did mention to you, we got a couple of quarterbacks. Actually, quarterbacks who were taken 1 and 2 in the NFL Draft. You got Bryce Young playing for Carolina.

You have C.J. Stroud representing the Houston Texans. And both of them, both of them are dealing with some type of injury. Bryce Young, who we just saw play on Monday Night Football, he mispracticed yesterday and today with an ankle injury. We saw him end on a positive note here for the Carolina Panthers, helping to put some points on the board late in the game with Adam Thielen also converted a two-point conversion. And now we find out a couple of days later, we're probably going to have to see, well not me because I ain't going to watch, but we are probably going to have to see Andy Dalton suit up for the Carolina Panthers up in Seattle. And I talked about this on Monday when the Panthers lost to the Saints. I said it's going to be a hell of an experience for Bryce Young to go up to Seattle, where it happens to be one of the loudest stadiums in the entire NFL and those fans there will be absolutely losing their minds. So that would have been another baptism by fire into the NFL for Bryce Young, but it doesn't appear that we are going to see him.

And Andy Dalton, who signed with this squad and expected to be the starter, Andy Dalton was asked about starting and listen to what he had to say. Do you expect to start on Sunday? You know, for me I'm just preparing the same way I prepare every week. You know, we'll see how it goes as the week goes on.

But yeah, with Bryce down right now, I'm getting the reps and preparing like I do every week. Man, Andy Dalton is like, too through with this. He's like, man, I've been around long enough. He's about to turn 36 years old, been slinging this rock around back in Cincinnati forever.

He's like, man, I'm here to cash checks. If they let me play, I'm going to play. And you know, he wants to have some type of good showing so he can maybe, you know, firmly get his hands on the starting job. That ain't going to happen unless Bryce Young is just hurt more than we would expect.

Andy Dalton, man, just be a veteran, take your checks, cash them, and then cash out, man. Been in the league for a long time now. So Bryce Young, good luck with that ankle. Somebody else dealing with another injury. The guy selected number two in this year's draft, CJ Stroud. He's dealing with shoulder soreness.

It's game two. He's only played, let me say that again, he has only played in two games. And I know the man threw for almost 400 yards this past Sunday. Now his arm hurts.

Jaguars are up next. And as of right now, the Houston Texans have him on like a pitch count. And this is something that he dealt with when he was back at school.

And they're just limiting the amount of passes that he throws in the week. And I'm like, damn it, bro, you just got into the league and just ice it up, I guess. Give him a cortisone shot. What do I know? Matter of fact, listen to him. He says he feels okay. He's fine.

And he says he's been through this before, like when he was in school. Take a listen. I feel good.

Like sitting here in front of y'all, man, I'm blessed, man. Football is a physical sport and that's what I signed up for. But my body's fine, I'm all right. Like after week one you kind of get used to just getting hit. And like the rehab that goes into that Monday, Tuesday, getting your body back for Wednesday and so forth so you can practice well. So that's really what I've been doing.

But, yeah, I feel good. You had something similar kind of pop up early in the season at Ohio State. How much did that help you handle what you dealt with last week? Yeah, it helped a lot. I remember my injury from week one when we played Minnesota my freshman year, rest of freshman year at Ohio State. Had an AC joint sprain and then played week two with that and just I did a lot of the same things I kind of did for this injury that I had now. Just to get back feeling right and just mind your – when you're playing your adrenaline usually takes away the pain. So that helped a lot. But after the game I felt it a little bit.

But as I've gotten back with Roland and my guy Kukul, they've helped me a lot get back ready. So I feel almost 100 percent. Man, it's week two. Why are we talking about this?

What's he going to do as he gets older? I'm a little shocked. Shepa, am I the only person surprised about this? No. And obviously the one who we know is not playing or he's dealt with concussions at least. Anthony Richardson? Yeah.

Yeah, but I get it. He's getting his head knocked around, right? C.J.

Stroud. They got him on a – they're limiting it to throws and practice already? What is he doing? Throwing 500 times a day since he was in high school?

What is this? It's a sign of the times and the days we live in, J.R. I don't know who the pitcher is offhand, but there was a pitcher that was complaining about going as many as seven innings, and that was the other day. Players today, what's the incentive in the NBA? 65 games and that's considered a success when – 10, 15 years ago, right. Isn't that the new benchmark for the awards? Yeah, correct. And 10, 15 years ago, if you didn't play all 82 games, there was a damn good reason as to why.

So this is across the board. Clearly it's getting worse as opposed to better. And it's more the teams, J.R., than it is the actual individuals.

So do you think he is legit – I mean, is he dealing with soreness and like why have him throw or do you think this is – I don't know. It just – it sucks. I mean, what do I care? And what do any of the fans care because it's not practice, right?

It's only practice. It's not regular game days. As long as C.J. Stroud shows up and he's throwing the ball, like if he goes and throws the ball, they got the Jaguars up next. I'm going to assume that the Texans are going to be playing from behind. I'm going to assume the Jags are going to bounce back. I think they only scored nine points against Kansas City. I'm going to think the Texans are going to have to throw the ball if they want to be competitive.

And if C.J. Stroud goes out there and throws 50 passes or 40 passes, maybe not that much, but what does that lead you to believe? That they were saving him for Sunday or that there was nothing wrong with him in the beginning?

So obviously there's something there. They wouldn't be talking about shoulder soreness if it wasn't the case. And quite frankly, in most cases, the athletes don't want to talk about their injuries, especially in the NFL. NBA players, more often than not, they want to come through with their made-up excuse. But NFL players, they don't run around touting what hurts, and they all hurt. I don't want to know what any of these guys feel like after the game. That's why they make the big bucks.

I'm not getting hit for a living. 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS. That's 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS.

Right now the San Francisco 49ers lead the New York Giants 23-12. Joe is calling from one of my favorite cities, the Steel City. Joe is here from Pittsburgh. You're on the JR Sportbrief show. What's up, Joe?

Hey, Jay Lauren. How you doing? I'm good, man. What's up?

I was just curious. How do you think the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to do later this season? Well, man, they didn't make the playoffs last season. What's going to be the difference this go-around? The rookies and hopefully they'll sign some good offensive linemen and defensive linemen. Okay.

I hope so. Well, I hope that works for both Pittsburgh. You a Penguins fan?

And what do you think about the Steelers on Monday night? Oh, well, I don't like Kenny Pickett. Oh, I don't like Kenny Pickett. That was Monday, but I don't like Kenny Pickett. You like Kenny Pickett? I know you're from Pittsburgh. You like Kenny Pickett? Yes, I do. Yeah. I don't have too much confidence in him.

I think what we see, I don't see too much more of an upside or growth for Kenny. Well, I mean, we'll see what happens to you. You got to keep believing. Well, that's, that's, well, you're a fan.

You can believe, I believe he stinks. Sorry, Joe. Alright, I'll talk to you soon, okay? Alright, later. Peace out.

Good night. Sorry, man. I don't, I don't got no confidence in Kenny Pickett. Looks the same. Not that he, I mean, I guess he does. He just doesn't, there's no presence about Kenny Pickett.

There isn't. And I think Mike Tomlin knows this as well, but Mike Tomlin can't come out and say it. He won't say it. And I think deep down, everybody knows it.

Like, what are we sugarcoating here? Kenny Pickett looks like a backup. He looks like a change of pace. There is no presence. There is no certainty there.

There is no charisma. He just looks like a dude who is getting his shot at being a starting quarterback and he has to count down the opportunities that he's going to get because they may end at the end of the season. We had a caller who pointed out, I don't, I don't know, maybe last night and or two nights ago, if you got to think about it, we might see Mitch Trubisky before the season is up. And I would not be shocked because Kenny Pickett, just to me, looks like a backup.

Sorry. It's the chair of sport brief show here on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to take a break when we come back. This quarterback, he might be a backup before, you know, we talked about him last night. His name is Justin Fields. Well, his general manager has spoken.

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