1.5.24 - JR SportBrief Hour 1

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Get six times longer lasting freshness plus odor protection with Downy Unstoppable's in wash scent beads. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I love it. Happy Friday to you. Happy Final Friday.

In the NFL regular season for the year 2023. Oh yeah, we getting ready for the playoffs folks. And I am oh so ready on this Friday. Of course, we going to get you all set up for this weekend's games. The ones tomorrow. The ones on Sunday.

And oh yeah, that's right. It's not just time for the NFL to shine. We got a college national championship game on Monday night between Washington and Michigan. Makes me want to put a helmet on and hit somebody.

Even though I ain't hitting nobody. Anyway, I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love to everybody listening all over North America.

I guess I could say this. We got one week in the books. Yes, one week of 2024 is officially in the books. I guess this is the fourth show for me so far this year in this new time slot. The JR Sport Brief Show coming to you live at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.

Me, Atlanta, Georgia. Super producer and host Ryan Hickey holding it down in New York City. Yes, we're going to talk about all the NFL games that matter. We're going to talk about the NFL games that do not matter.

We got a couple of guests that are going to come by and talk to us about the games that do matter. And then even later on in the show, we got to highlight some of the ridiculous play that we have seen in the NBA. Somebody like Nikola Jokic. How you miss five shots over four games?

If I'm correct, if I can do math, I think he's 39 of his last 44. That's stupid. Especially at the NBA level. At any level.

That makes no sense. And so, yeah, we're going to talk about that later in the show. Last night we had a topic that we didn't have time to get into. We had so many people calling and hitting us up.

I do want to get into Tua Tanga Veloa. We know the game that will end the NFL regular season for 2023 on Sunday night will take place between the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins. So that should be fun. It appears that we got a little bit of an update on Trevor Lawrence. I mean, yesterday we had on J.P. Shadrach, who happens to be the senior reporter for the Jacksonville Jaguars. And then today we learned that Trevor Lawrence is dealing with a little bit of a shoulder issue. I'm like, come on, man, you've got to be kidding me. There's no way in hell he's not going to be out there playing this upcoming Sunday. And so we got a lot to get into.

The Packers got their own game that if they win, they're in. So we got a lot to do. Listen, people have been asking me this for the past several days, especially with the show switch. I'm going to be very clear. I'm going to be very blatant, very intentional. If you want to listen to the show.

You can a find it wherever your local CBS Sports radio affiliate is. OK, you can do that. Listen to number two. That was one. This is number two. You can listen on the free Odyssey app.

A U D A C Y. OK. There's a lot of people that listen. You could be in Albuquerque, you could be in Miami, you could be in Montreal, you could be in Toronto. I don't know where you're at, but I do know if you download the free Odyssey app, boom, the J.R. sport ratio pops up. You got Sirius XM. It's on 158. I listen when I'm in my car 158. That way I can cross state lines and I have to change anything. And then if you got a smart speaker, we talked about this yesterday as well. Do you have one of those Alexa things, a Siri thing?

If you did, if the answer is yes, all you have to do is ask that computer to play CBS Sports radio. It's very simple. And then you can also go to CBS Sports radio dot com. Simple solutions for a very simple answer. How can you listen?

I just I just gave you four reasons right there. So thank you so much. And you can also participate in the show. You can call me. It's eight five five two one two four CBS.

That's eight five five two one two four CBS. Looking forward to chatting with you as well here on this Friday afternoon, Friday evening, depending on where the hell you live. But before I do anything else, I want to ask our producer, Ryan Hickey. Hey, Ryan, how are you this Friday? You doing good? I'm doing great. Doing great. You ready for this weekend's action? You got any other plans besides football? What's up?

Talk to me. Sitting down, locking in, hopefully watching my Colts go to the playoffs on Saturday night and then watching, hopefully stress free Sunday and enjoying a fun weekend of at least the last regular season weekend of football. How did we get here already? Right. Always flies by.

So I feel like we just started the NFL season and here we are. And by the way, if you follow me on Twitter and X, well, it sounds weird to say follow me on X sounds dirty. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, all that stuff. I'm at J.R. Sport Brief, where I have shared everything that we will discuss tonight.

Well, almost everything because X has a character limit. Now, besides that, you just heard from Ryan. Season flew by, went by rather quickly. It was only yesterday where I remember sitting around having some type of hope for the New York Jets to do something. And it took four plays for Aaron Rodgers to go down. It took four plays for the New York Jets season to completely go into the toilet. The Jets season was over the minute that Robert Salah stepped up to the podium after the Jets miraculously beat the Buffalo Bills.

And Robert Salah said this. I'll deal with the quarterback real quick. Concerned with his Achilles. MRI is probably going to confirm what we think is already going to happen.

So prayers tonight. But it's not good. Oh, it's not good. And we know exactly was not good or what wasn't good. And it was the torn Achilles of Aaron Rodgers. And then we had to go through the is he coming back?

Is he not coming back? And then we had to deal with Zach Wilson and Zach Wilson stunk and then he got hurt and then the Jets didn't have a backup. It's just a lot of nonsense for the New York Jets, which means that their season went pretty normal.

No surprises there. The season went by so damn fast that you can fast forward a long ass time towards the end of the year. We didn't see Aaron Rodgers play this year, but four plays. We saw Joe Flacco roll out of bed for five games. The Browns have gone through four starting quarterbacks.

There are 11 and five. Joe Flacco has thrown 13 touchdowns. Joe Flacco has more touchdowns for the Browns than the New York Jets entire damn offense.

Embarrassing. And now Joe Flacco doesn't even got to play in the final game of the season. He gets to sit around and watch as they go to the playoffs.

This makes no sense. This is Joe Flacco just a couple of days ago after beating the Jets. He's just soaking it in and glad his family is, too. Listen, you don't know how many of these moments you're going to get. Not too many people get the opportunity to have kids as old as mine and that understand what's going on. Get to witness this. And, you know, I think it's cool for them. But ultimately, it's really cool for me. I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life. And it just, you know, anything that you get to do with people that you love, especially your children.

They just make everything that much more special. Man, what a year. You start the year with Aaron Rodgers. He goes down. You end the year with Joe Flacco.

He's in the game. And, I mean, what a season it's been. We had so many quarterbacks go down with injuries. I mean, the reason why Joe Flacco got his chance and his opportunity is because Deshaun Watson, Mr. Guaranteed Money, he went down.

Broken shoulder. I mean, we think about Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins goes down. And Justin Herbert goes down. And Daniel Jones goes down.

And then we got to look at Tommy DeVito. Joe Burrow is gone. Anthony Richardson question marks about how he was going to perform for the Indianapolis Colts. Whether or not he was going to stay healthy, he goes down. Quarterbacks and injuries, a big theme for this entire NFL season.

And then there was a guy who didn't even get hurt. They're going to bench him anyway. They just gave him a lot of money. It's Russell Wilson. They wanted to bench this man after a victory against the Chiefs during the bye week.

Hey, you need to waive your injury guarantee or we're going to bench you. What a threat from an NFL team. Even the Players Association got involved. Russell Wilson always the politician. And at this point, I don't blame him against Sean Payton. Russell Wilson had to set the record straight because they wanted to sit him down.

Listen to this. They came up to me during the bye week and began the bye week on Monday or Tuesday, and they told me that if I didn't change my contract, my injury guarantee that I'd be you know, that I'd be bench for the rest of the year. And I think we had nine games left to show.

I was definitely disappointed about it. And it was a process throughout the whole week, the whole bye week. And, you know, it was, you know, we just came off beating the Chiefs, played a pretty good game as the Chiefs. We just came off of that.

So I was excited, obviously, for us fighting for the playoffs and get on a hot streak. And, you know, and then, you know, NFLPA and NFL got involved or whatever, I think. But at some point, man, it stinks like Russell Wilson can't catch a break, right? Maybe he deserves this.

Maybe. I know Sean Payton was yelling at him. Russell Wilson, he's doing all that yapping about how he did not want to leave Seattle.

Yeah, right. Your agent was hunting for you to get out of there. And then he ultimately gets traded to Denver and he gets that contract. And now they don't want him anymore because Sean Payton's in the building. Let's keep in mind, the Wal-Mart people bought the Broncos. The Wal-Mart people, I don't think they are hurting for money.

The Wal-Mart is pretty big, if you haven't realized. It sucks for Russell Wilson. He's about to get the boot when the season is over. Let's see where he ends up playing next year.

Speaking of next year, how about this? You got somebody like Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick might be coaching in the final game of his career, at least for the New England Patriots, this upcoming Sunday against the New York Jets.

Wouldn't that be appropriate? The man that declined coaching the New York Jets because he didn't want to be H.C. of the N.Y.J., he could be done. The Patriots are 4-12. We've heard all the yapping about how Robert Kraft is sick of Belichick.

And yeah, Russell Wilson will be on another team next year. What about Bill Belichick? And Belichick himself, of course, he was asked about this.

Earlier today, he was asked about this. In the most Belichickian way ever, Belichick is just like, ugh. Well, I've always appreciated the opportunity. Just looking forward to tomorrow's game, Sunday's game against the Jets. Like I said, trying to put our best game out there this year. That's what we're working towards. I'm sure there will be another time to talk about other things, but right now we're just trying to focus on the Jets. Ryan, did I nail it?

Bill Belichick, correct me if I'm wrong, he said that. Right? Especially now when he's sick, it's even harder. He got a cold?

Is that what it is? Something. Wearing himself down.

Sounds normal to me, just grumbling around. Anyway, man, we got some interesting storylines. It's crazy to think that the NFL regular season is coming to a close. Like I said, it was only yesterday that Aaron Rodgers went down and that the New York Jets had hope. Along the way, we've seen quarterback injuries. We saw DeVito go up and then we saw DeVito go down.

I wonder if mom is still washing his underwear. We saw C.J. Stroud, God bless him, had an amazing rookie season for a quarterback. Twenty-one touchdowns to only five interceptions. Damn it, C.J. Stroud has an opportunity to pass for 4,000 yards as a quarterback. I think he'd be only the fourth or fifth guy to do that in NFL history. It is a big, big deal.

So we've seen ups, we've seen downs, and how about, they ain't no bigger up than this. We had a guy about almost exactly a year ago die on the field, be resuscitated, come back to life, and he is still playing football. It's Damar Hamlin. He's only been active for five games. He has two tackles so far this season. And damn it, he might win comeback player of the year. Listen to Damar reflect on returning to the field.

This is from back in October. That moment meant everything to me, you know. I think it was more so about proving something to myself than anything else. Just showing myself that I have the courage, I got the strength, I got the pride, you know, everything. All those words, you know, in me to be able to go through something so traumatic and, you know, be able to come back from it and still, to be able to still do what I love at the highest level in the world is, it's just, it's amazing.

Absolutely amazing. And man, when he returned to the field a couple weeks ago in Cincinnati, he's just walking around. He broke down in tears. He was standing on the field by himself after the game and he walked around and he broke down because, I mean, damn it, I can't imagine standing anywhere where I died and came back to life.

Matter of fact, I don't want to experience that. Good on Damar Hamlin. I know there's so many jokes about comeback player of the year and give it to Joe Flacco. And in a normal world, Joe Flacco would receive it. He got a Super Bowl ring.

Leave him alone. Give the comeback player to Damar Hamlin. I don't think there's going to be any doubt or debate about that.

Sorry, too many D's, double D's. Anyway, Damar Hamlin isn't the only good news for the season. It's not all about injuries and Aaron Rodgers conspiracy theories, etc. How about Lamar Jackson with a little bit of a bounce back? How about Lamar Jackson staring in the face of another MVP? Two times.

Count them. I love it. Lamar Jackson, even at this point last year, nobody was wondering what was going on with him and what's his contract. Is he going to get a contract?

Does Lamar screw over the day of the NFL draft? It's announced that he's making $52 million a year. And what does he do?

He goes out and he earns his money. You got to love it. You got to appreciate it. And after beating the Miami Dolphins 56 to 19 this past Sunday, after throwing for five touchdowns, after being told that he is not quarterback enough, Lamar Jackson started to hear the MVP. And Lamar Jackson, he's just like, yeah, MVP chants are nice, but I'm worried about winning this game and some more games after this.

This is another good story. Listen to Lamar. We need to finish this game. I'm not really paying attention to the chants. Last year, the score was looking like that, halftime and stuff like that in the third quarter. And those guys started making plays and we didn't do anything, you know, but the only thing was on my mind was to finish the game.

And today we did. Yeah, well, now Lamar Jackson, he ain't going to play the next game. They're going to sit him out.

His team is ready to go. They got a record of 13 and three. They do not have to play the Steelers. The Steelers have to play them in order to get into the postseason.

And you want to talk about a rod or a story, man? It was only a few weeks ago that people were looking at Mike Tomlin and the Steelers and they were going, man, we got to get Mike Tomlin the hell up on out of here. It's been a wild NFL regular season and the regular season is now coming to a close. The Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills are going to wrap it up for us on Sunday night. We got two games tomorrow night. We got Houston, Indy. We got Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Yeah, you won't see Lamar.

And that's it, folks. By the time Sunday night rolls around, you got to get ready for the playoffs. The NFL gave us a Black Friday game, right?

Thank you for that crap. The New York Jets sucked in that one, too, against the Dolphins. NFL gave us Monday night double headers. NFL gave us more garbage games on Thursday. The NFL college finished.

The NFL said, here's more games on Saturday. And we ate it all up. Hopefully you made some money along the way. Hey, Hickey, do you play fantasy? Did you win any money?

I did not, no. Lost in the playoffs a few times. Hate to say it, finished last in one league. It was a rough year. I'm sorry. There's always next year, Hickey, okay?

Yeah. I hope to make it next year. Oh, you will. You'll be okay. In a couple months, you'll be fine.

Anyway, time flies when you're having fun. It's time to get ready for the NFL playoffs. It's time to take a look at who's going to go in.

And by the time we're back on Monday, we will know the answer exactly. And we can go from there. Sayonara to the 2023 NFL regular season. Let's get going with the playoffs. It's the JR Sportbree Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We are just getting started for tonight's show.

When we come back from break, matter of fact, I just mentioned them. We're going to talk about the Steelers. We're going to get into the Ravens a little bit because Lamar ain't playing. But the Steelers, they are still trying to get into the postseason. Even after so many people tried to take a massive crap on Mike Tomlin. We'll talk about the Steelers, get into Tomlin. I'm going to give you an update on Trevor Lawrence. We're going to talk about Tua and Josh Allen. We're going to figure out what the hell is going on with Houston. Yes, those, I can't believe this, the Texans might make the playoffs? Jordan Love might make the playoffs? Michigan, Washington, we're going to get into that for Monday night. Trevor Bauer is on an apology tour.

When Benyama is blocking every shot on earth, we got a lot to do. 855-212-4CBS is the number. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. And the worst part? Hidden fees.

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There's a better way. Shop Blinds.com for up to 45% off. Blinds.com. Rules and restrictions may apply. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Getting you all set and ready for one of the biggest football weekends of the entire year. NFL regular season coming to a close, we got action on Saturday. We got action on Sunday. By the time we pull up the Monday night, we got the national championship on the college side between Washington and Michigan. Hey, matter of fact, we're going to talk about that game later on in the show. But right before we went to break, to open up the show, I wanted to reflect on the 2023 NFL season. Full of injuries, full of bounce backs, the Flacos, the Hamlins of the world. Full of question marks for this weekend. We still don't have finality when it comes to the playoff field.

And this is normal. This happens every single year, every single season we go down to the wire. And for instance, on Sunday night, we'll figure out who wins the AFC East between the Buffalo Bills and the Dolphins. And apparently, well not apparently, these are two teams going in different directions. So let's see if the Dolphins can pull things out.

We'll get into that at the top of the hour. But I did tell you that there is a team that happens to be on the bubble right now. And they're going to be one of the first teams in action over the weekend. And that happens to be the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Pittsburgh Steelers led by head coach Mike Tomlin. They're going to take on the Baltimore Ravens who have already wrapped things up in the number one seed by destroying the Dolphins. And so tomorrow, as you turn on the game, don't expect to see Lamar Jackson. He will not be in action. Don't expect to see Odell Beckham Jr. I know this is not the same Odell that came into the league. But don't expect to see him out there either.

At least not playing. And so the Steelers have a chance to clinch a postseason berth with a win. And they also need a little bit of help. They need Buffalo to lose, Jacksonville to lose.

And then there's some other permutations where they can lose and potentially still get in with a whole lot of other losses. But bottom line is, Steelers aren't guaranteed to go into the postseason. And it was only a few weeks ago while this team was on a three-game losing streak that, yes, all my wonderful friends in Pittsburgh. And by the way, I absolutely love Pittsburgh. I like Primanti's. I like, what's that place? Well, there's a whiskey place that I really love in Pittsburgh.

I'd get on a plane and go there right now if I could. But anyway, when they were on that three-game losing streak, people were hitting me up via Tomlin. I feel like once a year, whenever the Steelers hit a rough patch, people just want to give Mike Tomlin the boot. Like he's not one of the most appreciated coaches in the league. Like he's not one of the coaches in the league that the players actually respect and want to play for.

It's mind-boggling. And anyway, here they are, and I know Steeler fans don't want to hear this, guaranteed another winning season under Mike Tomlin. Here they are with a chance once again to go to the postseason. Have you seen the roster?

I'm sorry. I know Joey Porter's kid is finally starting to emerge at the cornerback position. I know T.J. Watt has a chance again. I think he'd be the first dude to do it to lead the NFL in sacks for the third time, which is nuts to even think about.

I know about all of that. But the rest of the roster, they don't got no quarterback. I'm going to be throwing out Mason Rudolph. We got conversations about Kenny Pickett, and Kenny Pickett didn't want to go into the game. And Kenny Pickett's like, no, I didn't want to. And Kenny Pickett got hurt.

And then we had to see Mitch Trubisky. I think if we had one of these other bum coaches in the NFL running the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Steelers, man, they wouldn't have no nine wins. I'm not going to call it a minor miracle that they have this many. But they shouldn't be this good staring at the postseason.

They shouldn't. They got to rely on Mason Rudolph to do what? Not turn the ball over.

God bless him. In the past two games that he's played, he has not turned the ball over. But we got to give Mike Tomlin some credit. I don't know why Steeler fans are so ready to get him the hell up on out of here. Even Ben Roethlisberger being critical of him when it comes down to clock management. It's just like, man, Ben Roethlisberger, you ain't playing no more. I don't see Jerome Bettis walking out onto that field.

My main man, Franco Harris, is not out there. Hines Ward ain't coming back. Like, what are we doing? The Steelers need to be lucky they're nine and seven. And if they go into the postseason, what are they going to do?

Nothing. This is a team that's actually winning because of the head coach. This is no different, and I know that people want to give Bill Belichick the boot. I think Tom has run out there just in a general sense.

It's like that COVID year where they went, what, seven and nine? And it's just like the New England Patriots. Their offense stunk with Cam Newton. And if they had any other coach besides Bill Belichick, they would have won two games. Sometimes you got to give the coach credit where credit is due. Mike Tomlin, one of my favorite people to listen to. He talks so aggressive, like he's going to punch you in the face. He actually talked about this upcoming game tomorrow against the Ravens. And he says, listen, I hope that my team, that we can continue to ride the wave.

Listen. It's just been a good trend for us. Our desire is to keep that trend rolling.

We're going into a hostile environment versus a really good opponent, one that's extremely hot, obviously. And so we better utilize all the mojo at our disposal in an effort to secure victory. The mojo?

OK. I haven't heard that in a long time. Hickey, when's the last time you heard somebody say something about a mojo? I watched Friday Night Lights, the movie, sort of recently.

They throw mojo in there. Frequently? Frequently, no. No.

Oh, OK. So anyway, Mike Tomlin talking about a good team that he's going for. You ain't facing Lamar Jackson. You got Huntley out there. And I know it feels like every time that the Pittsburgh Steelers get ready to take on the Baltimore Ravens that there is no Lamar Jackson out there. They're used to facing Huntley at this point in time. Some of their offensive line is going to be resting.

This is not going to be Baltimore at its peak. That's not to say that they can't go out there and beat them. Baltimore's goal is to go into the postseason healthy, not to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers need to win this game. And then they need a little bit of help by either Buffalo or Jacksonville to secure a playoff spot.

Win or lose or potentially draw. Can we give Mike Tomlin some type of credit instead of trying to show him the door? I'm sorry, when you're used to having success and I know it's not the Super Bowl, sometimes you don't know what you got until it's gone.

Give Mike Tomlin a break, please. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. We are going to take a break. I'm going to get to your calls on the other side of the break. And then I just mentioned to you one of the teams that has to lose in order for Pittsburgh to get in outside of winning against the Ravens. That happens to be the Jacksonville Jaguars because we got an update on their quarterback today that just makes me go, you got to be kidding me.

Trevor Lawrence might not play? I will explain. We'll go in depth. I'll get it to your calls. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the J.R. Sportbrief show here on CBS Sports Radio. And just having a good time Friday night getting ready for people hitting each other on a football field.

It's America, right? That's what we do. Put on a helmet, you hit somebody, you start by pulling a flag when you're a kid.

And then maybe you level somebody as you get older. Anyway, somebody who's been leveled so much that he might not even play this upcoming Sunday is Trevor Lawrence. I mentioned it briefly before we got to the break and, you know, even after the fact, I then went into just what's terrible. We talked about all these injuries. It appeared that Trevor Lawrence went down about a month ago with that high ankle sprain and then he was able to play on through that. And now we got to look at a Trevor Lawrence who might not play this Sunday in the most important game of the season. The Jacksonville Jaguars are going to take on Tennessee.

They beat him about a month ago, 34 to 11. Jacksonville Jaguars go to the playoffs with a win. If the Jaguars lose, Houston or Indiana wins the AFC South.

And so this is big. This is the same Jacksonville Jaguars team that that came back and ended up beating the Chargers after being down like 27 to nothing last year. And now if they don't have Trevor Lawrence out there, let's just let's just cook the entire season. And so earlier today, Doug Peterson let everybody know that Trevor Lawrence with his busted up shoulder, that he's not able to get enough oomph on his passes, that he's not able to deliver the ball down the field the way that they would want him to. We don't know if Christian Kirk is going to be back.

He's been gone for the better part of a month now as well. And the Jacksonville Jaguars, there's a lot on the line. They can go to the playoffs for the first time in consecutive years in about 20 years.

That's a long ass time for a franchise that is still pretty much a baby. I would think that Trevor Lawrence is going to play no matter what. But what do I know? They want to see what happens tomorrow. They want to see what happens before the game. I would be shocked if he's not out there on the field. A matter of fact, yesterday we spoke to the senior reporter for the Jacksonville Jaguars, J.P. Shadrach. He joined us and then he gave an update on Trevor Lawrence and his health.

And just listen to this from yesterday. He hasn't been really full strength, I don't think, a lot of the back half of the season. Fourth time he's been on the injury report this year. This was different, those throwing shoulders. So it's an AC joint spring and if you can't throw the ball, I mean, there's no, you know, what else can you do?

So that's why I didn't go last week. Today in the open media period, which is about 20 minutes at the start of practice, he actually threw a football a few times. How much velocity was on that? I don't know. I mean, I didn't feel like he was really kind of letting it fly.

But then they shoo us out of there. So he didn't throw it all on Wednesday in the portion we were out there. So maybe throw it a little bit today, build it up some. It's my opinion that he needs to practice, though, to play his best on Sunday. We've seen it where he hasn't practiced and then he plays and he doesn't play well. So is that the best opportunity for the Jags? I don't know. Let's see how healthy it is.

If he's healthy and cleared, he's playing. That's the bottom line. He's the franchise quarterback. And they have no idea.

And thank you again, J.P. Shadrach, for joining us yesterday. It is just, it's wild to me. He's going to try to play up until the very last second moment unless he has no juice on his throws. And if he doesn't have juice on his throws, they ain't putting him out there because they don't want him throwing sitting ducks. What a terrible way for the Jaguars to end their season if Trevor Lawrence is a behind center.

But I would be shocked if he doesn't go out there. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. We got Kyle. Kyle is calling us from Oklahoma. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Kyle? Hi, good sir. Man, it's a pleasure to hear your voice and it's good to be on the show. I just want to say three points and I'm out. First point is, man, I'm going to miss listening to you at night, man.

Comforting and relaxing and heading home, you know, for my girls or whatnot. But it's good that you're in your new time slot because I'm not going to catch you more often. So I'm very glad. It's too bad you're not two people, man. I can listen to you from now all the way through the night. What do you want me to do? Do you want me to work from, you want me to work an eight hour shift? You might have to, man. You got demand.

You got high demand. I'd have no voice. I'd be done. I need a break. But go ahead. Thank you. I'm a Bears fan, man. It's been rough, I'll tell you.

But I just want to touch quickly. I prefer Justin Fields to stay in. We'll move from that, though. And I hope they don't get killed, Williams, and they keep Justin. But the main thing I wanted to ask you with that second pick, if it's not, you know, if we get Marmon Harris to junior with the first, do you think that they'll go with an offensive lineman or a defensive lineman or just a defensive player?

What do you think is more important? And I'm out. All right.

Well, thank you so much, Kyle, for calling from from Omaha. I've made this clear for four months now. Let me not say months since it became apparent that, you know, this was supposed to be the show us year show me year for Justin Fields.

Unfortunately, he went down with that hand injury, could not grip the ball, missed a couple of games. And so I don't want to say that we've gotten an incomplete. And I've heard the same. I don't want to call them rumblings because they've they've been outward from his receivers and from some of the defenders about how Justin Fields is the guy. Well, I mean, that's one thing for your teammates to back you up and support it and to see your talent.

That doesn't mean that the organization is going to do so. And especially when the guy who drafted you is no longer there. OK, there's a big difference between Ryan Pace and Ryan Polls. There's a similarity.

Their names start with Ryan, but they are not the same dude. And so I think if I'm Ryan Polls, I'm taking the opportunity to move on. I'm getting my own quarterback. And based on what we have already seen and the Bears being able to go out there and bring in sweat, I'm going to look for somebody to now help protect my new investment. That said, it depends on who and what and where they want to go ahead and get their quarterback. You know, is it going to be Caleb Williams?

I think that would probably be the safest bet. And I try to find somebody to help keep him upright. I'm not going to say defenders come a dime, a dozen, but we saw the writing on the wall for it for quite some time. For years, just historically, the Bears are known for their defense. They're still looking for that quarterback. They've been looking for that quarterback forever. Who can deliver the ball down the field? Who can punch the ball into the end zone? Who can pass for more than 4,000 yards on a consistent basis?

Or how about let alone once? The Bears are looking for that. And now that the defense is done and guys are gone, they got to start over.

I get it. But you ain't winning nothing in 2024 and on unless you got a QB. I would look for a quarterback.

I look for somebody to keep him upright and not worry about the defense. I do that later. 855-212-4CBS. It's 855-212-4CBS. Greg is calling from Michigan. It's Mr. Positive on CBS Sports Radio. JR, thanks for taking my call. Great picture with Clinton.

My God, where do I begin? Nicole Jokic has only missed five shots in 44 attempts. Lamar Jackson, you're spot on, is the MVP. Michigan will probably lose against Washington.

But I've got to ask you, my friend, two things. Can the Bills win? And three, what's your thought process on playing when A, it's not really important positioning the players in football, but should they play or should they be left out so they don't get injured?

Is there a scenario that you would make them play 100% and maybe the opposite? Sorry to be a little bit over the pressure. There's so much sports going on.

No, there is. How about this? At the top of the hour, Greg, we're going to talk specifically about that primetime Sunday matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins. So we'll get to that at the top of the hour.

Is that okay with you? You betcha, my friend. Love ya.

Agents of inclusion. Go for your dreams. Thank you, Greg, for calling from Michigan. I'm going to answer his other question about rest momentarily. Hey, Ryan, man, you were right. That photo with Bill Clinton, that's going to follow me forever now, isn't it?

It might. People are never going to forget you now, that's for sure. What, me standing next to Bill Clinton? Just at a basketball game.

I didn't hang out with him. Oh, that's where it was. I couldn't tell the background. Hoops game, huh? That is at Madison Square Garden before they ripped it up. Oh, old school garden. Yeah, remember the tunnel right at half court?

Yeah, that's where you guys posted up, huh? It was behind the tunnel where they used to have all of the photos and such. And they carved Madison Square Garden up like a turkey. And so it misses some of the old soul, but I met an old soul in the hallway at Madison Square Garden. That old soul was Bill Clinton.

That was it. That was he nice? Oh, he was nice. I mean, we didn't have too much of a conversation. What do you think we spoke about? Nothing? I was going to say, yeah, what did he talk to Bill about? Nothing. He said, hey, take a picture.

That's it. He looked happy, at least in the picture. You know, some athletes look miserable. Well, have you ever, well, I was going to say, have you ever seen a miserable looking president?

I think the majority of them, the answer is yes, almost all of them. Yeah, but we didn't have no small talk. Hey, hey, Bill, what you think about Colby out there? Because that night, I think I'm almost certain the Lakers were, yeah, the Lakers were playing the Knicks. I think Colby put up 63 that night. Wow. This is the type of thing that that due to the Internet, I'm going to fact check in the break because I'm almost certain.

I sat behind the basket and Colby put up a quiet 60, 63, ridiculously quiet. And at halftime, I was kind of, you know, in the bowels of the building and I ran into Bill Clinton. What a shock. Anyway, that is, Mr. What's his name? Mr.

Positive mentioned. Yes, it's going to follow me forever. And when it comes down to his question about rest. I mean, what's what's the what's the problem, right? I mean, I don't I don't like it from a fan perspective. That's why you wouldn't catch me buying a ticket to a game at the end of the year, because I have no idea who's playing. It could be a complete waste of time or it could be a deciding game that gets you into the postseason. It's just buyer beware with tickets.

It don't matter who, what, when it's buyer beware. And from an NFL team's perspective, I get it. They now play 17 games.

You get one by week. They got to travel. Most of the teams now they got to play overseas. I mean, if you can tack on a game at the end of the season, just arrest dudes and try to go on a Super Bowl run. You do it. I don't think it's that difficult of a decision. And I think most fans understand that. I don't think it's a matter of load management. I think when you buy the tickets, you buy the plan, you buy your season pass, whatever the hell you get, your personal seat license, you probably are aware of this.

I don't think you've got room to complain too much on the back end. And if somebody doesn't go. Somebody else gets the tickets.

Not a bad deal. It's the J.R. sport ratio here on CBS Sports Radio. I was just asked about that Sunday night game between the Bills, the Dolphins. Who do I think is going to come out on top? Who's going to close out the NFL regular season? I'll tell you on the other side of the break.

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