10.3.23 - JR SportBrief Hour 1

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You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. And I am coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Shout outs to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. Yeah, this is the beginning. This is the start. This is the genesis for tonight's J.R. Sport Brief show. Thank you so much to super producer and host Dave Shepherd.

He's holding it down for us in New York City on the boards. More importantly, most importantly, thank you to you. Yeah, you the listeners, people in their cars, people at work, people at home, people at school, people holding it down. People in patrol cars, people in fire trucks and firehouses, people in hospitals.

Just everybody everywhere. I'm going to be hanging out with you for the next four hours. You can always listen on the free Audacy app.

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It's simple. The show gets broadcast out to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of CBS Sports Radio affiliates. So if you're locked in on the traditional radio, thank you very much. You can always listen on Sirius XM Channel 158. And if you got a smart speaker, you can listen there, too. Just ask that machine to play CBS Sports Radio. This show isn't just about me. I could sit around and talk for four hours and talk and talk and talk and talk. But this show is about you. That's what I did.

That's what I built with the J.R. Sport Reshow. Letting people know what I think and soliciting the opinions back. So that's what we're going to do. We got a lot to talk about over the next four hours.

We're going to get into this momentarily. Maybe you haven't heard noticed. Maybe you haven't heard. The Major League Baseball playoffs are underway. Yeah, the wildcard round. And we're going to talk about it because baseball has gone through some changes over the past few years. We know that baseball trying to attract the new and younger audience, baseball speeding up the game in the playoffs are here.

And it's not a lot of noise. There have been some good performances today, but there's not a lot of noise. And so we're going to talk about that also on the heels of Monday Night Football, where we saw the New York Giants lay a massive egg. Terrible egg against the Seattle Seahawks.

We have some I don't want to call it blowback, but we do. Geno Smith not happy with a particular Giants play that he thought was dirty. And then Daniel Jones, as you can expect, he got beat up the past day. I mean, Zach Wilson still getting beat up. Aaron Rodgers still talking to the media via Pat McAfee.

I mean, what else is new? Mike Tomlin is talking as well. Mike Tomlin said that they were going to be changes after they lost to the Texans. We got a lot of Steeler fans not happy with the changes, quote unquote, that he made or did not make. Michael Jordan gets richer. James Harden reportedly is going to show up to work with the Sixers.

I can't wait to see what that looks like. Jerry Jones, the most talkative owner in the NFL, maybe NFL history. Jerry Jones says, man, the 49ers are the team to beat. No kidding, Jerry. We're going to talk about that. Just we got legendary coaches getting slapped around. Bill Belichick still getting slapped around, just like his, he might as well be Zach Wilson for all I know. And Jimmy Butler, by the way, Jimmy Butler showed up to work today and he is no longer emo Jimmy.

He's regular Jimmy Butler, if there is such a thing. So a lot to get into, a lot to talk about. I told you this is your show. If you want to holler at me, it's simple. You pick up your phone.

It could be connected to a wall. You could pull it out of your pocket, whatever you got. And you can call me. It's eight five five two one two four CBS.

That's eight five five two one two four CBS. And if you're someone who utilizes the Internet, probably for other things, you can contact me there. I am at J.R.

Sport Brief everywhere on social media before we get right into these MLB playoffs and talk about that. Hey, Shep, how are you this this beautiful Tuesday evening? You doing OK? I'm doing good. Thank you for asking, J.R. How are you, man? I'm glad you're talking some baseball.

I know a lot of people are not exactly doing that with the wild card rounds right now, so. Good. Well, hold on a second.

You said you're doing OK, but this is the saddest sounding OK I've ever heard in my life. Oh, well, I did ask you. OK. Yeah. All right. But thank you. But I appreciate you. I'm doing fine, man.

Thank you. How are you, sir? Good.

I'm OK. Don't worry about it. I'll find out whose ass needs to get whooped in the commercial break. But instead of listening to to Shep here, let's let's try to be enthusiastic about baseball. Let's try. Hold on, everybody. Hold your breath.

Think hard about it. Are you enthusiastic about baseball yet? Are you thrilled? Are you enamored with the Major League Baseball postseason and its start?

And let's be real. We sat here yesterday. We sat here last night and given. Yes, it was Monday night football. You got a full slate of Sunday football. But damn it, we had some playoff implications over the weekend.

We had some teams that closed out and finalized their playoff spots. And there should be more interest in the MLB playoffs this year because things are different. The game has been sped up. Baseball has locked off a half hour from its games. On average, baseball has increased stolen bases.

It's supposed to be fun now, right? And now even with the new playoff rules, people should be even more interested. There are teams that that you wouldn't even think to be here that are. What about the Baltimore Orioles?

Who expected them to be here? There are no New York Yankees. There are no Boston Red Sox. It's the Orioles.

You should win a prize if you can name five Baltimore Orioles. And let's think about this with these new playoff rules. It's 12 teams.

It's up from 10 last year. So you got six teams from each league, the American League, the National League. You got three division winners who obviously get in and then you got three wild card teams. So if you know how to do math, that's six teams in each league and that's 12 total.

Here's the other thing. The wild card is now permanently two out of three wins. I remember the stupid wild card. I hated it so much. They started it back in 2012, took it to 2019, paused for a minute with the covid year. I hated the single elimination wild card. Is it exciting?

Yeah, I guess so. But I mean, you bust your ass all season long. Can we at least get more baseball? And so the highest team plays at home. Three consecutive games.

There is no travel. You win two out of three. And we've already seen some games finish. And by the way, once we get done with this wild card, then we move on to the division best three out of five. Then we move on to the league series, the ALCS, the NLCS that will be best four out of seven. And then, of course, we get to the World Series, where hopefully no one is banging on a garbage can to cheat.

Hopefully no one is looking at a watch to cheat. But we get some pure baseball. And so we've already had some matchups that have concluded. And these aren't your your run of the mill every year. Let's let's be excited about them teams.

I got to be honest here. The twins are taking on the Blue Jays. When it comes to postseason baseball, when it comes to just playoff success, the twins have stunk.

Period. But today they beat the Blue Jays three to one. The twins snapped an 18 game postseason losing streak. They have lost every postseason game that they have participated in from the year 2004.

We are almost staring into the face of 2024. That is 20 years without picking up a postseason victory, just about. And they won three to one over the Jays. They win one more matchup, one more game. And then congratulations, the twins. They would they would get a matchup with the Houston Astros.

Good luck there. In all actuality, the twins being the higher seed. This was a home win. They haven't won a home game in the postseason since 2002, when these Minnesota Twins still played in that that inflatable dump, the Metrodome. My apologies to my family in Minneapolis, St. Paul, but that place was a dump.

At least there was some winning memories there. Shout outs to Royce Lewis. He led the way for the Minnesota Twins today. This man woke up and said, I got two home runs in me. And he basically did the job and got things done today for the twins as they beat the Jays three to one. I want you to listen to not one, but two home runs.

One of the first one and a third courtesy of the Twins Radio Network. Dan, the payoff pitcher swinging a drive left field and deep back. It goes gone left field bleachers home run Royce Lewis.

Why not? October time for the kid and a twin strike first. It's two nothing at Target Field and the three one pitcher swinging a fly ball. Right center field deep Springer back. He will turn back.

It goes gone. Unbelievable Royce Lewis. Welcome to October baseball to advance to home runs.

This kid is amazing. It is three nothing twins. I found somebody that was excited about baseball.

It was him. The twins out of the Blue Jays three to one. The twins won victory away from moving forward. They got Sonny Gray Cy Young candidate. Sorry, Sonny Gray. You're you're not going to win it. Representing the twins that Cy Young, by the way, is going to go to Garrett Cole and he's going to take on burrios from the Blue Jays.

So good luck to them. And then also, here's the other game. Here's the other matchup that took place already. The Rangers smack the Rays four to nothing. And for Yankee fans, and I know there's a there's a lot of Yankee names, former Yankees I've named here. Sonny Gray, no longer a Yankee. Jordan Montgomery. Yankees didn't want to pay him, thought they had pitching.

And then how about this other dude? Aroldis Chapman. The Rangers beat the Rays four to nothing.

Jordan Montgomery. Seven innings pitched five strikeouts. Yankees would have loved to have this man right now. Aroldis Chapman pitched one inning, didn't give up a run, struck out one dude. I mean, as big as he is, you would think Aroldis Chapman would still strike out everybody with one hundred and five mile per hour pitches.

But hey, you got to take it where you can. And so Tampa Bay, one of six with runners in scoring position, they couldn't do a damn thing. And Bruce Bochy, who I'm still adjusting to the fact that this man is the manager of the Texas Rangers and not the San Francisco Giants. He talked about Jordan Montgomery. This is a damn good pitcher.

Take a listen. He's a guy that can adjust on the fly if he thinks so. He's got four pitches and occasionally he'll use one more than the other. But this is kind of what he's been doing using the fastball well, both sides. He can sink it. He can go up with it. And there's a couple of breaking balls and change up. And, you know, he's found the strike zone very well.

Congratulations to Jordan Montgomery. He's going to be a free agent at the end of the postseason. And who knows, maybe the New York Yankees will decide to throw some money back his way. No idea. None at all. And speaking to I'm still on Bruce Bochy.

It sounds so odd. Just Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. I'm still honestly getting used to, you know, thinking about Dusty Baker being the Astros manager. And he's already won a championship with them. I want to throw him back to San Francisco. I want to put him back in Atlanta Braves uniform.

But that's that's just me. And then we got some other matchups going on right now as I speak. The Diamondbacks, another team not expected to be in the postseason. They're currently beating the Brewers four to three in the bottom of the eighth. And then in Philadelphia, we have the Marlins losing to the Phillies three to one. Phillies lead three to one. They are in the seventh inning.

And so, yes, we don't have the big, gigantic names. There is no Shohei Ohtani, but there is a Bryce Harper. There is no Aaron Judge, but there is a Royce Lewis smacking home runs. And so if you've been a little bit out of the loop, this is a good time to kind of check in and see some of the young stars in baseball.

Some of the dudes who are helping to to lead the charge into a new generation. I told you about Royce Lewis. I haven't told you about someone like Corbin Carroll from the Diamondbacks.

I remember being in Arizona earlier this year for the Super Bowl and hearing about this guy. Everybody is so excited and out of the gate and is pretty much rookie season is full season first full season. This guy hits twenty five home runs. He swipes fifty four bases. He ain't he ain't no rookie in another team.

He might as well been, I don't know, MVP. But he could thank Acuna for, you know, not allowing him to go ahead and get that. And so baseball is here. The Dodgers will be in action. The Braves will be in action. You will see the Astros and damn it, we'll even see the Orioles. This is just the wildcard round. Things are just getting started. The division series, if you don't want to watch this, it gets started on Saturday over the weekend. The huge stars aren't here. Not playing.

But wait until the weekend. Wait until you see the Acunas and the Mookie Betts of the world and the Freddy Freemans and the the Verlanders. And then the guys on the Orioles. Whoever the hell they are. We'll see what they do. It's the Gerald Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio eight five five two one two four CBS.

That's eight five five two one two four. CBS. I'm going to get to your calls on the other side of the break. I did tell you we got to get this out the way. You would think that the Seahawks would be happy last night after their Monday night football spanking of the New York Giants, right?

Wrong. There's one guy on the Seattle Seahawks who used to play in New York. He's not happy. I'm going to tell you who he is. I'm going to tell you why he's not happy. And then I'm going to come back on the other side of the break.

And I would be happy myself because I'm here with you. It's the JR Sportbree show on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbree on CBS Sports Radio. J.R. wants to hear from you. Call him now at eight five five two one two four CBS.

That's eight five five two one two four two two seven. It's the JR Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio told you the Major League Baseball playoffs, they are on their way. The Rangers already beat the Rays today for nothing. The Twins beat the Blue Jays three to one. Right now, this moment, the Diamondbacks ahead of the Brewers, four to three in the top of the ninth in the Phillies, beating the Marlins three to one in the bottom of the seventh. This is the wild card round of Major League Baseball's playoffs, the opening round.

Things a little bit different this year. We have 12 teams participating in the postseason and the wild card is now two out of three wins. You win two, you move ahead to the divisional series in the divisional round. And so we'll keep you up to date on the two games that I mentioned that is still going on. The Phillies and the Marlins and the Diamondbacks at the Brewers.

I do want to mention this before I move on. You know, last night we spent a good amount of time with with good reason, I think, on Monday Night Football and we saw an ass-swipping. Unfortunately, the New York Giants were the ones who got destroyed to end week four of this NFL week. They lost at home.

The Giants did at MetLife Stadium to Seattle 24 to three. Daniel Jones annihilated. You probably heard he was sacked 10 times. His own head coach, Brian Deball, is cussing him out.

What are you doing? The offensive line was in shambles, had multiple injuries. And speaking of injuries, late in the second half of the game, Isaiah Simmons, a new acquisition by the New York Giants, went to go tackle a former New York giant and a former New York jet in Geno Smith.

And this this I would say this was a horse collar type tackle, but it was a hip tackle. Instead of grabbing him from behind on the jersey and the neck, he kind of grabbed him by the waist and dragged him down while he was falling into his knees. And Geno Smith was kind of falling out of bounds. And so Geno Smith missed a few series. We saw Drew Locke.

Come on. Nobody necessarily want to see that guy play no damn football. But Geno Smith came on.

He was able to return after getting checked out in the back. And let's just say he might have been the only dude from Seattle who wasn't happy after the game. And Geno Smith, he took time to let everybody know that, yeah, you saw that hit. Did you see him try to drag me out of bounds? That was dirty. Listen to this from ESPN. A dirty play, dirty play. You guys can see it.

You were pretty fired up for the entire rest of the game. Just what was what were you upset about? You know what?

I just don't I don't respect that type of stuff. You know what I mean? You said get healthy is the knee. How is the knee now? I'm fine. I'm fine. God is good.

OK. All right. All the time he is, I guess. Look, this man, Geno Smith, has plenty of time to rest up. This is good timing. This is odd to even think about this this early in the season. Seattle Seahawks got a bye.

Like they have they have played it. They played four games. And I guess in a 17 game season, somebody has to get a vacation early. They may regret the fact that they don't have one later on in the year or closer to the midway point. But they got time off. And so they're not going to be in action again until the 15th against the Cincinnati Bengals. And so good luck to Geno Smith following that dirty play. He certainly, when he made it back onto the field, had a little bit of a beef, a little bit of taunting going on with the New York Giants, you know, after he was dragged down to the ground. And so we move on from there. And speaking of knee injuries, you know, we're going to get into this, too.

Probably in the next break. Kenny Pickett. Kenny Pickett went down Steelers. And if you weren't familiar, the Steelers lost 30 to six over the weekend against the Texans on Sunday. And on a fourth down play in the third, Kenny Pickett got annihilated, got a knee injury. People were worried that he might have tore his ACL while they were going for it.

Nobody cared for the play. And Mike Tomlin has been getting annihilated over the past couple of days. And so I want to I want to get into that in the next segment, because Mike Tomlin, I don't know, is Mike Tomlin on the hot seat? I mean, I was in Pittsburgh last year and I got into Uber. The first thing I heard from the driver was, oh, man, I'm sick of Mike Tomlin.

I'm like, sometimes you don't know what you got until it's gone. So just let's slow down. But we'll talk about that. 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. It's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. Let's go ahead and talk to Russell. Russell is calling from Boise, Idaho.

You're on CBS Sports Radio, the J.R. sport re-show. What's up, Russell? Hey, Russell, you're live on the radio.

And he got abducted by those aliens in Boise. 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. David is calling from Buffalo. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, David? Hey, J.R., appreciate you taking my calls tonight, man. How's it going?

I'm very well. What's on your mind? Yeah, man, I want to jump in and talk a little bit about the Bills. You know, at three and one right now, I feel really good, especially after that opening night where we really struggled against the Jets defense. I love the way the Bills are playing. They're playing a lot smarter.

Josh Allen, his completion percentage is way up there. And I think the defense, the way they've been able to really generate a good pass rush every week, that's going to be the key to this game on Sunday in London against Trevor Lawrence. But I just feel like right now they're doing all the right things. They're winning the game up front. And then the big thing is, is Allen is being smart with the football. He's not trying to be Superman and they're running the ball, man. What do you see? I love it right now.

What do I see? I see a team that everybody was complaining about hitting the skids that's actually winning games. Man, I ain't worried about no damn Buffalo Bills. The Buffalo Bills got a strong offense. They got a strong defense.

It's just a matter of to what you say. And I've been saying, as I feel like for two years, whether Josh Allen feels like he has to run around and be Superman, that's that's nothing that's going to really show or prove itself until we get to the postseason. So for me, the Buffalo Bills in the category of let me know when you have some success in the postseason. Them losing to the New York Jets didn't do a damn thing to me.

And we've seen that all things considered. The schedule is relatively easy. And so hopefully the Buffalo Bills don't coast on easy street. But look at the schedule and look to build off of what they've done by beating Miami. I mean, Jacksonville in London. I mean, maybe Jacksonville has an edge because they're already in London.

And they don't have to travel. The Buffalo Bills then take on the New York Giants should win that game. They take on New England, should win that game. They take on Tampa, should win that game. They got Cincinnati.

God knows if Joe Burrow will ever be healthy again, they should be favored in that game. They have Denver, the Jets, and then they hit a spot towards the end of the year where things get better or maybe worse for them. They have the Eagles. They have Kansas City. They have Dallas. But look, man, the Bills are a good team.

I wouldn't sweat or worry about them. Let's see what they do come postseason, OK? And let's see how healthy they are on the way there. And I see that Von Miller sooner than later should be active. So let's cross our fingers, OK? Yeah, man, I totally agree with that. And I'm fired up to see if Von Miller gets in and plays this Sunday.

You know, he's definitely, you know, a guy that's a slow down. I don't I don't think that soon. He I got a better question for you, though. Go to hell. You ain't over in London watching them play. Too expensive, man, to go over there.

I've never been to anywhere outside the U.S. but Canada. But yeah, I'd love to go over there someday. And if they're playing, definitely. But yeah, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of the Bills mafia over there. And yeah, I mean, I just like this team where we're at right now. I think the one thing that nobody's talked about, you know, McDermott calling the plays for the defense and Frazier being forced out. I think that's really been a beneficial move. And a lot of people weren't sure about that so far. It looks like a brilliant move.

Well, I mean, they didn't necessarily have too much of a choice while he's out on sabbatical. So, you know, it's it's just early. What's the word here? You know, jump into conclusions. We got a long season ahead of us.

We've always had a long season and they'll be fine. Thank you so much, David, for calling from Buffalo. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS.

Let's go to Dave. He's calling from Indiana. You're on CBS Sports Radio, the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, JR. Hey, my first time caller. I was going back to back when Richardson with Indiana, you know, the rookie. They were talking about the Indiana was going to start him, you know, and playing from the first and all that. And the guy called in about it.

And boy, you wore him out on it after it got off the phone. But I'm suffering, you know, coach fans and I don't have any opinion one way or the other. I'm kind of not thinking whether things are going to be good or not anyway. I was just kind of wondering after his start what you really thought about now. I'm going to hang up, listen to you.

Sure. And thank you, Dave, for calling from Indiana. My thought process hasn't changed. I'm actually pleasantly surprised that he's been able to have the success that he's had. I'm also not shocked or surprised that he's been injured and that he's been hurt. I mean, in one game of the season towards the end of the game, he's going down with a busted up leg early on in another another game.

The man has two touchdowns and then has to exit via concussion. He's going to have to learn how to play and how to stay healthy. This entire season is going to be a learning experience for him.

That doesn't change my mind about him starting. It's nice that he's had success. I'll put it to you this way. Tua Tagovailoa is a much smaller man than Anthony Richardson. Anthony Richardson has the athleticism and the speed of Lamar Jackson, and he is built like Cam Newton. This dude is a truck. This dude is a freak. Let me tell you something. We went through an entire off season where Tua Tagovailoa talked about taking Brazilian jiu jitsu so he would learn how to fall properly.

Like this is WWE. I got to learn how to fall. Anthony Richardson ain't learning how to fall.

This dude is looking for contact. He's avoiding defenders where he can, and he's going to have to quote unquote learn how to fall as well if he want to last in this league. Cam Newton was certainly an anomaly, and we see how everything caught up with him as his career went on. Where is he?

Not in the league. He's standing at Auburn games in his funny pajamas, you know, encouraging everybody to make some noise. Yeah, war damn eagle.

It's the JR sport re show here with you on CBS Sports Radio 855-212-4CBS. I told you about noise. We got a lot of noise in Pittsburgh.

Shout out to my main man Paul Zeiss. We got a lot of noise. People calling for Mike Tomlin to make a change because the Steelers offense is pathetic. We're going to talk about it on the other side. We're going to hear from Mike Tomlin. People are surprised at what he's saying.

He's not making the changes that people want. We'll talk about it. It's the JR sport re show here on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. My man, JR, this is kind of like a dream, man. I've listened to you every night for two years.

It's the first time I've called. I love your show, man. You keep it so real, and I love listening to you. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS.

Oh, no, man. The fact that you're listening, that's a dream for me. I love you guys. I love everybody. Love everybody all the way a damn round. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We talked about Major League Baseball, the playoffs being underway. I told you, Geno Smith, he wasn't happy with the play that took him out of the game, but he's happy that he's healthy. And now I have to really tell you about an entire city that's not happy. It's the Steel City, one of my favorite cities in the United States of America. I love Pittsburgh. I love Pittsburgh. It has one of my favorite whiskey bars. I love walking around downtown.

They got food that'll clog my arteries and kill me and make me have to run out. I love Pittsburgh. I love it. And I love the fact that you can walk from one stadium to the other.

Maybe I like to walk. I love the rivers. I love the yellow. I love Pittsburgh. I love it.

I also love the passion for football that people have in Pittsburgh. It's a conversation at breakfast. It's a conversation at lunch. It's a conversation at dinner.

It's a conversation with the stranger walking down the street. People love the Steelers. It brings the entire city together, but I could tell you this right now. I think a lot of the city of Pittsburgh is together right now and unified against the offense. The offense that is going absolutely nowhere. The offense that is led by Matt Canada, who's been the offensive coordinator for more than two years now, two seasons I should say. And the offense ain't going anywhere. Danny Pickett in his 16 starts has 12 interceptions to 11 touchdowns. The Steelers offense right now, the one that just lost to the Texans, 30 to 6. The offense of the Steelers, that is 25th in scoring and passing, 29th in rushing, 22nd in third down efficiency, and 28th in the red zone. You didn't need to remember every offensive stat that I just named.

Just know that all of those stats indicate that this Steelers offense sucks, and they're not going anywhere. And so following the game, we heard from one of my favorite quotes. Yes, I call this human being a quote.

One of my favorite quotes of all time. It's Mike Tomlin. Because when Mike Tomlin speaks, he shouts with conviction. When Mike Tomlin speaks, he's like, you know exactly what the hell he means.

There's not a word wasted. Gets right to the point. And so after they lost to the Texans, he made it clear. He said, yeah, we scored six points. We ain't do nothing.

Listen to Mike Tomlin talk. We didn't do a lot of the things that we desired to do. We didn't stop a lot of the things that we thought that they desired to do, and thus the outcome.

I'll be specific. You know, they ran the ball with consistency on us throughout. We deferred in an effort to get ourselves off to a fast start potentially. And, you know, I thought they did a nice job of establishing tempo, and they ran the ball on us, man.

We got to be better versus the run. Oh, okay. Well, that was Sunday. And what else did Mr. Mike Tomlin have to say?

He continued on, and Mike Tomlin said, and this is what got people excited, I guess a little bit in Pittsburgh. He said, we got to switch some things up. Hell yeah, we got to make some changes, man.

That was an ugly product we put out there today. And so we're not going to do the same things and hope for a different outcome. What those changes are, man, we'll put together a plan in preparation this week.

Okay. So people were upset today because Mike Tomlin addressed the media, and people were waiting to see what the changes were. Was Matt Canada going to have his abilities to call plays stripped from him?

You know, what was going to happen? And Mike Tomlin didn't offer a whole hell of a lot. He was asked about changes and the play calling today, and he got right to the point, short and sweet. This is what Mike Tomlin said. When you talk about a division of labor, especially with players, does any of that extend to coaches, whether that's changing who's calling the plays, anything like that on the offense?

Not at this juncture, no. Fans were upset with that. Mike Tomlin basically said, yeah, we're going to swap out a few dudes on the offense and defense, guys you've never heard of. And then he said that we're going to practice in pads. We haven't been aggressive enough in practice. That was Mike Tomlin's big change. And so we got a lot of fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers who are not happy with Mike Tomlin. We're going down the road once again of, oh man, is it time to get rid of this dude?

Let's keep in mind. I know he's been there. He's like furniture. Mike Tomlin has been coaching the Steelers since 2007 when he took over for Bill Cowher.

And so is he old hat? Is he still motivating the team? Do they still want to move forward and play for him?

I think the answer is yes all the way through. And I think the Steelers have talent to put up some points. And even Ben Roethlisberger has been critical of the play calling. He was critical of the play call in the third quarter going forward on fourth down where Kenny Pickett got injured, where Kenny Pickett got hurt. And so, yeah, some things need to change.

But I'll tell you this, man. I don't think it's giving Mike Tomlin the boot. I don't think it's stripping Matt Canada of offensive play calling abilities after four games. I mean, one of the things that the Steelers are so respected for is that they're not making harebrained decisions. That the Pittsburgh Steelers aren't waking up and deciding that they want to paint the stadium red and that they don't want to wake up and all of a sudden just make a wild decision.

That's what makes the Steelers a stable team, a stable organization. That they're not shouting with fans like Mark Davis did over the weekend. Shep, did you see Mark Davis yelling back and forth with one of the fans?

I did not know. Yeah, Mark Davis is sitting in his suite and a fan walked by on the adjacent, you know, walkway. Why he wants to sit so close, I have no idea. I think he opens himself up for scrutiny and the fan is yelling about firing McDaniel's. Now, you can certainly make a justification for that, but why the owner of an NFL franchise even wants to entertain a back and forth with a fan is beyond me. That's what separates the Steelers from the Raiders.

Just being able to have just peace and quiet. No nonsense, no garbage, just football. And so the Steeler fan is so passionate and I'll tell you this folks, I know things have been bad here with Matt Canada. In an ideal world, I don't know, Bruce Arians would wake up and decide to be an offensive coordinator again. We know it's not happening due to his health, but come on. You want to just switch things up four games into the year regardless of how bad things have been. To borrow a phrase from Aaron Rodgers, relax.

I don't think it's so much on Mike Tomlin. I mean, you want him to just throw Matt Canada under the bus. He can't do that. Then he'll lose the locker room. Then he'll lose his coaches.

It's going to take time. Be easy here. And if it doesn't work, then you boot him. That's how it goes. But you don't just boot him four games after the season because you look like a clown show.

And let's be real. Where did anybody have an expectation for the Steelers to go this year? Given their talent on the field, I expect them to finish around five hundred. And that's in the division they play in, man. AFC North is tough. They don't got no Super Bowl roster.

So right now they're five hundred and that's exactly where I think they would be. And I don't think swiping Matt Canada or telling him to take a seat is going to change anything. Sorry. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Ethan is here from Pennsylvania. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's going on, Ethan? Oh, nothing much. How are you doing?

Amazing. What's up? Oh, nothing. I mean, you were talking about the coordinator situation. And I really do.

I think it starts from the top down. And I mean, obviously you can talk about the play on the field and it's been less than ideal from guys like Kenny Pickett. The guys up front on the offensive line obviously haven't been ideal.

But teams with talent get beat often by good coaching. And it's, you know, you talked about not jumping ship after four games with Canada. But under the Canada era, this Steelers offense, I saw a statistic the other day. They haven't had a four hundred yard plus game. Every other team in the league is at four. Correct. They've only scored twenty plus points under Matt Canada ten times. They haven't had more than four hundred yards.

Yes, that is correct. So, I mean, it's just been a failed experiment from the jump. And I agree. I don't think that you can make the rapid change four games into the season. I think it'll throw off a young quarterback who already looks scared and just unsteady in the pocket.

I think you do have to stick it out this year. But I think some of this outrage coming out of Pittsburgh is the fact that that Mike Tomlin, who is probably the best facilitating head coach in the league. I mean, I think that that on a basis of the player level, those guys want to play for him. But but he has stood by a guy who just hasn't produced on the change needed to be made in the offseason. And now you're going to see another year where they finish with a mediocre record, probably get a pick and through 20. Not good enough to go get one at one at one of those guys, one of the studs in the draft. You finish mediocre and then you set up next year looking kind of at a very similar roster.

I think if that change is made this year, you make a jump with the second year quarterback in Kenny Pickett, who's already 25. So we got to hit the we got to hit the break here, Ethan. Final question. You want them to take the rest of this year?

No, I think they have a defense for you. I got to I got to run, Ethan. I appreciate you calling from P.A.

Very informed call. I want to respond to what he's saying on the other side of the break. And then I want to talk about someone who is hoping his team doesn't tank. He's a quarterback for the New York Jets.

He's in crutches. We'll talk about it. You're on CBS Sports. Is that the new iPhone 15 Pro? Oh, yeah, it's made with titanium and the pro camera is epic. Just got it at T-Mobile. Nice.

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