JR SportBrief Hour 1

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It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Happy Friday to you. I hope you had a good week. If you didn't have a good week, didn't have a good Friday, I hope you have a good Friday night. Friday afternoon, Friday evening. I hope you have a good Saturday and a Sunday and a good weekend.

Gotta set it off the right way. Anyway, I'm setting things up the right way. Getting you all set for the weekend. Last night, yesterday, I was in Las Vegas, Nevada. Today, I am back in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you so much to super producer and host Ryan Hickey.

He's holding it down for us on the boards in New York City. We'll be rolling with you for the next four hours. This is the start of the show. 6 p.m. Eastern Time. 3 p.m. Pacific. Thank you so much, everybody.

Locking in all across North America. Everybody who showed me so much love in Vegas. Thank you so much, Jazneel.

I really appreciate that. Shout outs to everybody listening here in the South with me. Up North, the Midwest, every place. All over North America. Even Canada.

Yeah, we love Canada. And in every place, by the way, that is freezing cold. Country is cold as all.

Get out right now. Got people in Chicago freezing. Damn it, we know about the game tomorrow night between the Dolphins and the Chiefs. They will be freezing. Could be maybe the second coldest game in NFL history. It's nuts out here right now when it comes down to the weather. So wherever you're at, whatever you're doing, I hope you're well. Hope you're safe. Hope you're keeping warm. Typically, I say I hope you're cool, but for tonight, that's probably not the correct connotation, not the correct usage I want to use of the word. I hope you are warm.

We're going to keep things warm here on the airwaves. You know how to reach me. The phone number here on CBS Sports Radio is 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. You can find me on the internet. I am everywhere. I am at JR Sport Brief.

That is at JR Sport Brief all over the place on social media. We know we got a busy weekend of football in front of us. We've already had a busy Friday when it comes down to some head coaching hires, and so we got you covered.

Okay? We're going to talk about these NFL wildcard weekend games. It's Friday. We're moving into the playoffs. We got you covered. In a few minutes, we're going to talk about the apparent, not official yet, but apparently, the new head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Kalen DeBoer.

We're going to talk about that. How about the Patriots? Early this morning, already having a succession plan in place, Gerard Mayo, former linebacker, former All-Pro, is now running the show for the New England Patriots. It appears that two of these teams, even though Belichick is gone and Nick Saban is gone, they already had some plans in place to keep things rolling.

That's what we're going to do here as well, keep things rolling. You know what? In about 15 minutes or so, we're going to have a conversation with Mike Giardi. He's going to join us. He's a writer at the Boston Sports Journal, knows everything going on with the New England Patriots.

I want to ask him about this hiring of Gerard Mayo, because apparently, there was already a clause in his assistant coach contract that pretty much said, hey, when Bill Belichick is gone, you the guy. We're going to talk about this on the other side of the break, and then to start the show off, I do want to remind you that we have a show off. I do want to get into this news that pretty much broke a few hours ago, and that has to deal with Kalen DeBoer, who I guess we can now say is going to be the former head coach at Washington, and now he is going to be leading the way at Alabama.

But before we do any of that, hey, Ryan Hickey, how you doing, man? You all ready for the weekend? I am ready, JR. Let's go. Playoff football here, which you almost forget that it's even happening with all the chaotic coaching moves in the NFL in college. I'm ready.

All right, let's get a little bit of a tease in here. What matchup are you looking forward to the most for wild card weekend? Oh, I am a sucker for a good weather snow game, so the Chiefs, Dolphins, and Bill Steelers is definitely two I'm keeping an eye on. The one, though, I'm most excited for, Lions Rams. Stafford coming back, first home playoff game in 30 years.

That building should be jumping. I cannot wait for that game. Yeah, a little bit of beef. It'd be nice if we got a pregame where we had like an octagon rolled out to the middle of the field. If we went out there and saw Stafford and Goff kind of throw hands a little bit, I would appreciate that.

But hey, I'm a little bit of an idiot. So forget my suggestion of having an MMA fight. Yeah, they're going to be out there and they're going to be playing football. I'll settle for that. But we're going to get into all the NFL wild card action.

I'm going to tell you what teams that I want to look forward to seeing. Here's a guess. It has to go with what Ryan also said. I like a little bit of a cold atmosphere. It becomes theater. It really does.

When you start thinking about the elements and the cold weather, it's nutty. But we're going to get into all of that. Let's talk about the news that broke not too long ago. I don't want to say this shook up the world of college football, but yesterday we talked about Nick Saban stepping down, deciding enough was enough here as head coach of Alabama after his six championships there. You got seven overall.

You add an LSU. He's done it all. It was time to walk away. Well, the man replacing him just went to the national championship. Damn it. Five days ago? Four nights ago? Is that really when it's no, Ryan, the national championship wasn't on Monday night, was it? I mean, it feels like it was three months ago.

Oh my God. I don't think it was Monday night. There's no way. That feels like it was like two seasons. Wait a minute. The national championship was this week.

It was. How the hell? Whoa.

How the hell did we get? This makes no sense. This makes no sense.

Damn. How the hell? It's because all the news, right? All of the hirings.

That's why, right? News? What news? It's been a boring week this week. Wow.

Legends moving? Haven't heard about it. I'm saying the national championship was only a few days ago, and it feels like three weeks have taken place. But yes, it was only four days ago, if I can add correctly, I think.

Not five yet. It was four days ago. We had the national championship. Bill Belichick was still the head coach of the Patriots. Nick Saban was still the head coach of Alabama. Mike Grable didn't get fired yet.

And this was all this week. And so Caleb DeBoer, on Monday night, he loses to Michigan in the national championship. Washington goes down.

They get smacked. And on Friday, he ends up a winner. All of these reports coming out that he is the new head coach of Alabama. It was only a few nights ago. This is crazy. That Caleb DeBoer, after losing, pretty much said to the media post game, he told everybody, listen, I am proud of what we, the Huskies, did.

Listen. They've made a city proud. And they've made a fan base proud. They've made alumni proud. And most of all, they've showed what they're made of. And they've showed heart. And they've showed, I think, the whole country what's special about our place. And man, I'm so proud of them. Yeah, so special, it's time to go to greener pastures, right?

It's only as special as what's going on recently. It's like, hey, do I want to stick around? Do I want to, you know, go into the Big Ten? Do I want to stay? Do I want to leave? Leave and stay? He's like, nah, I will leave all of this completely.

I'm going to the SEC. Can you be mad at him? It's called money.

It's called opportunity. The man got paid a little more than $4 million this past season to help take the Huskies to the national championship, right? He's done nothing but go out there and beat Oregon. This man is coached. He had to start coaching in the lower levels of Sioux Falls.

What are we talking about here? He had a record of 67-3. Two seasons at Washington.

He's 25-3. You add in Fresno State, he was 12-6. And now he's the head coach of Alabama. Too much too soon. Biting off more than he could chew. I mean, you can't argue with the records, but hey, coaching in the SEC is a completely different animal.

The expectations and I guess how relaxed people were in Washington. He took over a team that before he got there, they were 4-8. He helped turn them around, takes them to a national championship. Is he going to have the same type of success in Alabama? If he doesn't, folks are going to let him know.

The man has not a damn thing to do here with the Southeast. Doesn't have a damn thing to do at Alabama. Is he going to recruit?

Are recruits going to care? We going to find out sooner than later. Sark. Steve Starkeesian. He told everybody. He was one of the candidates and he made it clear himself. He was on Texas social media because that's what everybody has to do.

He told everybody. He's like, I ain't going nowhere. I came here to win championships. That's the goal. We're here to chase greatness, to win championships. This is the University of Texas and people are going to want to be part of it. It sure is great to be on the 40 acres. Let's go! Oh, everybody.

I love all these, all these videos. I guess the person who does, you know, Quinn Ewer's videos, editing, also does the same thing for Sark. And then we also learned that Mike Norvell, who was another candidate, I guess as recently as last night, today we find out he agrees to an eight-year contract extension that will pay him about 10 million dollars per year. My folks down in Tallahassee, they got all of the money. And so Caleb DeBoer will be going from Washington and he's going to coach Alabama. And we have to see how this works out for him. Someone who decided to give him a little bit of advice is another coach at Alabama, except for he coaches the basketball team. That's Nate Oates. What did he have to say to Caleb DeBoer?

Listen to this. Greg's gonna make a good hire. I think if they're not from the area, just got to be genuine. I mean, I think people, whether they're North or South, understand they can see through fake and they can tell if you're genuine. And if you're genuine, I think people down here in the South welcome you in with open arms.

Shoot, sure helps if you win too. Come down and keep, keep, keep someone. I mean, they, coach, stay put together an unbelievable recruiting class.

Whoever they get, they can keep the recruiting class together and win. Everybody welcome in with open arms, I'm sure. Oh yeah. You gotta be authentic, right? You gotta be real. I remember when Brian Kelly left Notre Dame and said, I'm gonna swing on down to LSU. He was pretty much slaughtered online for not being authentic. It's like, where the hell did this man get a Southern accent from? Why does this guy sound like a completely different human being days ago from when he was, you know, up in Indiana?

Like, well, what are we doing here? I don't think Caleb DeBoer is gonna, you know, come to Alabama and all of a sudden sound like a different human being, but yeah, he's gonna have to be authentic. He's gonna actually have to go and talk or kiss the ring of Nick Saban. Nick Saban isn't going anywhere. Nick Saban is just not the boss anymore.

He's not running the show on a, on a day-to-day basis. But if Caleb DeBoer wants to be ingratiated into the SEC, more importantly, if he wants to be ingratiated into Alabama, he gonna have to be real. There ain't nobody following directly in the footsteps of a Nick Saban. I made this point last night, and I think it was difficult for, I don't know what that guy, hey, hey, Ryan, you remember what that dude's name was who just said a bunch of crazy stuff about the woods and wars and things like that? I think he called himself Alabama Brian.

Okay. So the guy Brian didn't get it. It's tough to win at the rate and have the rate of success that Nick Saban had at Alabama. It doesn't just happen.

You do not go. Do not go from Bear Bryant and then skip forward about, I don't know, 35 to 40 years with another championship before you then get to Nick Saban. I'm not saying that they got to wait on a one-year championship over the next 15 years. I don't think that'll be the case, but you're going to be hard pressed, whoever you are, to have the same success that Nick Saban just had.

So we'll find out about Kalen DeBoer. And this is so much more than what he does as a head coach. We all know the landscape in college football is changing at a ridiculous rate. I mean, maybe one of the reasons that he is moving on outside of Alabama is the cream of the crop as the landscape is changing. NIL is moving around. NIL and transfer portal got players moving all over the place like it's free agency. We got teams and conferences that are basically ceasing to exist. Still sounds crazy to say the Pac-12 is down to two.

It's nutty. Good luck to Kalen DeBoer. I'm just not sure that this is going to be all that fruitful because I think fans, I don't know if they will be realistic. What are you looking for? Are you looking for one championship over 10 years? Is that good enough? Do you need two over the next 10 years?

Do you need three champions? What makes this a success for Kalen DeBoer? If he doesn't start winning championships, they're going to start looking for blood. Pete Thamel from ESPN. He talked about this fit for Kalen DeBoer at Alabama. Well, winners fit everywhere, right?

I think that's what we have to start with. Kalen DeBoer won at NAIA. He won at FCS. He won as a coordinator at Eastern Michigan. He won as a coordinator at Indiana. He won big as a head coach at Fresno. He has three NAIA national titles. He can flat out coach football. So winning sells in Alabama, right? That's the expectation that Nick Saban reset during his remarkable tenure there. There is sort of a cultural gap that he will have to bridge.

He's never been in that footprint of the country. Kalen DeBoer has not recruited at that high, high, high end level. Does Alabama have the resources, infrastructure, collective in place to support him? Because look, he's not Nick Saban. There was what, 44 first round picks that went to Alabama. Nick Saban in Alabama sold itself because of its success. It's a different sell now with Kalen DeBoer. So the support will really have to be there for him in order to uphold the impossible standard of the greatest coach of all time. Oh yeah, it's tough. And he could win, and he could win, and win, and win everywhere.

And that's fine. He could go to Alabama and still win. Is he going to win enough? That part we have to wait and see. I'm not so sure that the fans in Alabama will appreciate it.

We'll find out sooner than later. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio, just getting you all set and started for an NFL wild card game. An NFL wild card weekend. We got more coaching talk. We got more college talk. We got a lot to do. A matter of fact, on the other side of the break, we're going to go into the pros because there was another head coach hired today. Gerard Mayo is going to be the new coach for the New England Patriots. So talk about it. Mike Giardi is going to join us on the other side of the break, representing the Boston Sports Journal. We're just getting you warmed up here.

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Visit Carvana.com or download the app to get pre-qualified today. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Woke up early on Friday morning, got the news right out of the gate that the New England Patriots have already filled in. Their head coaching vacancy, not a shock, not a surprise. That job goes to Gerard Mayo to talk about this hiring, why it was made, what the Patriots can look forward to in the future with some good continuity here. It's time to have a conversation with Mike Giardi joining us from the Boston Sports Journal. Hey, Mike, happy Friday to you. Thank you for taking the time to hop on. Anytime, man.

Appreciate you. So we learned the news today. We also learned that he had a succession clause Gerard Mayo did in his contract. No surprises, no shocks to anybody in New England, right? Well, the succession clause, I think, caught some people by surprise just because I think people didn't necessarily know you could do that.

And come to find out, you know, there have only been a few times that it's actually been enacted. We go back to Tony Dungy. We have Eric DaCosta. We have Jim Ward Jr.

But generally, this is not something that gets done very often. But when they when they decided to keep Gerard, and they go back to last year, they did some things that we've never really seen in the offseason. They had press releases about an offensive coordinator search and hiring Bill O'Brien.

We'd never seen that before. And when they decided to chase Gerard Mayo, it was the same sort of thing like we're going to do our best to keep Gerard Mayo here. And apparently, part of doing that was to put that clause in there and have him as the successor. I just think what happened was, it was supposed to be a two year plan.

But when you go forward 13, it became a this year plan. The sentiment in the region, are fans overall happy, okay with this? Did they want to explore Mike Vrabel as well?

What is the sentiment that you're seeing from online and what you hear from folks? So I think Mayo has a good bit of support here because he was next player here, and has done a nice job as being one of the defensive gurus. He has a weird title, he's only the linebacker coach, but he really runs the defensive meetings and helps craft a game plan with Stephen Belichick. So there is that part of it, if people have been paying attention, they realize he's done a nice job.

But there is the sense that he had Bill for 24 years. And this is the first time in 24 years, you had an opportunity to go out and interview all these different people, the Ben Johnsons, the Mike Vrables of the world. Pick their brain, get ideas, and maybe somebody blows you away, like say Mike Tomlin did with Pittsburgh all those years ago when it was going to be Ken Wisenhunt's job. And Mike Tomlin got the interview. And after they met with Mike Tomlin, they're like, No, no, no, it's not Ken Wisenhunt. It's Mike Tomlin. And I'd say that's worked out pretty well for Pittsburgh. So I think there is a little bit of that trepidation here, like, wait, you finally had a chance to do this.

And are you being negligent in not talking to all the candidates and maybe seeing what's out there? And maybe, again, maybe somebody blows you away and you say, Well, we love Girard, but this guy is ready to run our program right now. Mike Giardia is joining us from the Boston Sports Journal.

It's the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. You know, I think most of the country has seen Girard standing in the middle of the field, knocking the living hell out of people, something he was very, very good at. What, what has he done? I mean, he's been an assistant since 2019. What has he done to enamor the staff? Like, how the hell did he get here? Yeah, it's really an interesting question, because he was in the business world and Bill Belichick, the man he replaces, was the one who begged him to come back, that you're born to be a coach, you got to come back here. So he left his corporate job after a few years of retirement and came back to coach the Patriots. And one of the things that anybody who's come in contact with Girard will tell you, he's a leader of people, a leader of men, and that that draws so many different types to him, he's able to connect with, you know, not just the defensive guys, but the offensive guys.

And we were talking to Girard a couple weeks ago, Girard a couple weeks ago. And, you know, he said, like, I feel like I can relate to anybody, you know, black, white, old, young men, women doesn't matter to me, I feel like I can make connections with all those people. And I think, in talking to people today, even just as I wrote my story today about him, and why the people that know him best think he's, you know, as well equipped to succeed Bill Belichick as anybody could be. That's one of the things they point to, that he's just a different kind of dude that he's able to command a room. And as one of the coaches, defensive coaches, DeMarcus Covington told me a few weeks back, he said, like, he speaks things into truth. He can tell a player, this is what you're doing, and this is what you need to do.

And, or he can criticize them. And but yet, say, if you do it this way, it's going to work. And guys just buy into it, and attack that.

And by more often than not, it works out. Yeah, well, thank you for the insight. Certainly, it's like one of the questions, it's like he poof came out of nowhere. And you have certainly respected him as a player that doesn't have the laundry list of coaching that we typically see from a lot of individuals. 15 coach in Patriots history, first black head coach in their history, now that he is in charge, what the hell happens from above him, when it comes down to, you know, player personnel? We know Bill Belichick had a huge role in that, that needs to be filled as well, correct?

Yeah, so I think that that's already, I don't want to say it's done, but I kind of think it's done. I think Elliot Wolfe, who's been in the front office for several years now, of course, his dad, famous GM for for a million years. I think he is the the odds on favorite to ascend to the throne. Matt grow has sort of been in that position. I don't even know what his title is exactly. You know, we just call him the facto GM here.

I don't think Matt Matt survives. I think it's Elliot Wolfe's job. I think Elliot's been a nice bridge to the to ownership. And, you know, he knows Gerard, I think there's a connection there.

So it feels like this to like the Gerard Mayo thing is an is an inside job, if you will. Mike Giardi here with us the JR sport re show on CBS Sports Radio. When we think about the actual personnel on the field, what's going on with quarterback? What are they going to do with the draft? How do they improve this team? Yeah, so I think that ownership might still have a thing for Mac Jones, which should be concerning if you're a Patriots fan, because I think we've seen the sort of the feeling of what that player could be. But I think that the coach who will be announced on Wednesday, I think he knows that that's not a quarterback that you can win with going forward. So maybe Mac Jones ends up, which I wouldn't have guessed, maybe a couple weeks ago, maybe he still ends up on the roster next year is maybe your bridge, or someone that can sort of the gap between, you know, if they go quarterback at three, or if they trade up, if they decide to do so, and get a Drake made Caleb Williams type or if they stay Jayden Daniels, that maybe he's the bridge for a little bit, if that's the case, if that guy can't beat him out earlier, if they want that, that player to sit for a little bit, because I think, you know, it's not just the quarterback, you look at their offensive line, there are a lot of issues and concerns there.

And at receiver, they're not very good there as well. So there's, there's certainly other parts of the roster that need attention. But I think they understand that, that at least I think the coach understands that the quarterback is not the long term fix here.

It doesn't doesn't seem like that at all. When you talk about length of time, a long term fix, you know, what is going to be the grace period for Jerrod Mayo? I don't think fans are going to expect him to turn things around. Oh, we're going to the Super Bowl in years.

You know, people gonna, you know, start barking when things don't go right, it's bound to happen. Well, I think because there are a fair amount of people here that still want Bill Belichick to be the head coach, that I can see that faction being pretty loud pretty early. You know, I would remind them that they were four and 13 this year. They were eight, nine last year. And they haven't won a playoff game since they won the Super Bowl back in 2018 19 over the Rams, three losing seasons in the last four years. So the roster has shown that it is not where it needs to be team speed is atrocious, especially on offense. If you're looking at it objectively, this is a couple years to get this into a position where you feel comfortable and then you can start thinking about, well, you know, can we actually contend? Can we actually do something here?

Because we've seen the Texans just proved here, you can, you can turn it around pretty quickly with a good young quarterback and a good draft. But there's there's a lot of work to be done here. So I think that's going to be something off the monitor.

I think a lot of people will, because I think there will be the faction that just says he's not Bill. And you know, he loses two or three in a row, I could see people getting a little agitated. But I think the crafts are taking the long view and understand that there's work to be done here to get the roster back where it needs to be. At 37 years old, the Gerard Mayo is going to be the youngest head coach in the NFL. Mike Giardi is joining us here from the Boston Sports Journal.

It's the JR sport reshore on CBS Sports Radio. Just to kind of to wrap things up here. When we move towards next season, what are some of the values we've heard that that Gerard Mayo was a disciple of Bill Belichick? Okay, I understand it's defense, his bread and butter was defense as a linebacker.

What's going to be his team philosophy? How the Patriots going to change moving forward? So I understand when you're because he played under Bill, and he's only coached under Bill, he's been nowhere else in terms of his football life, professional football life, but here, but I think Gerard is smart enough to have his own ideas. And while there will be, you know, they call them, they call him Gerard Belichick when he played because he was such a coach on the field and sort of could see how the coach wanted things done, and helped the defense sort of adapt to that. But I also think he understands the way the league has morphed. I mean, the Patriots have been operating sort of in the dark ages offensively, even going back to Tom Brady's last couple years. So I think he understands the league is sort of taking a different trend. And I'm curious to see how they operate the offense.

To me, that's a big part of this equation. Like who's he going to turn the offense over to? Is it Bill O'Brien is going to stay? Is Josh McDaniels who's been around quite a bit lately? Is Josh going to come back for like the third or fourth time for the Patriots?

Or is he going to go outside with a hire there? I think that's, that's fascinating to me, because I think that'll tell you a little something about how Gerard views the game, and especially from that side of the ball, which again, it's the most important thing going like, the league has been built to make it really difficult to play defense and to pile up offensive numbers. And the Patriots have sort of been stuck in this era where, oh, we'll win 17 to 14. Well, only works so often, especially in this league with some of the quarterbacks that they have to go through. Mahomes, Josh Allen, Aaron Rogers will be healthy next year too. Is that a really good year?

Like on and on it goes. It's a bunch of first round picks in the playoffs, playing quarterback in the AFC. The Patriots got to figure out a way to be on their level. Yeah, I think ultimately a few more years of pain won't hurt, given all the success that has taken place over the better part of the last two decades. I think, I think the fans will be okay, Mike. I hope they will be. I hope they show a little bit of patience, but hey, people get a little antsy around here.

They're awfully spoiled. Yeah, they will listen. They're antsy already. So we'll see what happens. I appreciate you taking the time to hop on, Mike. Where can people follow you and all your great work with the Boston Sports Journal?

Yeah, bostonsportsjournal.com and I'm on Twitter at Mike Giardi. Easy peasy. Easy, easy, easy. Enjoy the weekend. Sit down and you got a game that you're going to enjoy watching over the weekend, Mike. I'm just, I'm just excited about the weather. I just, you know, like having covered a million games in crappy weather, it's terrible when you're, when you're a reporter and you're standing on the sidelines freezing and the snow's blowing in your face, but when you can get in it, watch it from your house, perfect. I'm with it.

I'm in the same boat. Thank you so much to Mike Giardi for joining us from the Boston Sports Journal. It is the JR Sport Reshow here on CBS Sports Radio.

You know, talking of speaking of the weather, we're going to get into it at the top of the hour. That's the game I'm really looking forward to. I want to see the Dolphins. I want to see the Chiefs.

I want to make sure that the TV I have in my house, that I'm getting my money's worth. I want to see frozen noses and blue faces. I want to see icicles. I, I want to get my money's worth.

I absolutely do. It's the JR Sport Reshow here on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, I want to talk about another playoff matchup tomorrow. One that a lot of people, including me, are shocked is actually happening. We're going to talk about the Browns and the Texans.

We're going to get into the Dolphins and the Chiefs. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're very welcome. And I hope you understand that the hard times don't last forever.

They don't. Good times are right around the corner. Thank you so much, Mike Giardi, for joining us in the last break from the Boston Sports Journal. Thank you so much, Mike, giving us some insight when it comes down to Jerrod Mayo. I know him as a player very well. And then 2019, he's coaching as an assistant with the Patriots.

And here we are in 2024. He's going to be their new head coach. And Mike gave some great perspective that ultimately he's just a leader.

He can connect with anybody. And that's one of the reasons that Robert Kraft decided to put in a succession clause in his contract, where he is now taking over for Bill Belichick. And one of the things that they need moving forward is a quarterback. I don't think Mac Jones is it.

I think most people know Mac Jones is not it. And so the Patriots, they're going to have to take their time to turn things around. To turn things around.

Now, having said that, it can happen quickly. And Mike Giardi brought up a team that was able to kind of just turn the franchise's fortunes around rather quickly. And that's the Houston Texans. We know that last year, a little more than a year ago, a little less than at this point, what are we, not even a full year yet, C.J. Stroud was selected in the NFL draft at number two overall. And in one season, he has helped take the Texans back to the postseason. I mean, damn it, they got a home playoff game.

This is their first playoff appearance since 2019. C.J. Stroud having one of the best quarterback seasons that you will have ever seen from a rookie. 4,100 yards passing to go along with twenty three touchdowns. He didn't turn the ball over.

Ridiculously efficient. People in Carolina are jealous. They're looking at Bryce Young with a side eye going, man, when the hell are you going to go out there and figure it out? In between Will Anderson, C.J. Stroud, D'Amico Ryans, offense, defense coaching.

Things have changed. And so the Browns, yes, the Browns are going to be in Houston. That's going to be our first playoff game tomorrow. The Browns win eleven and six. And this is quite the opposite of C.J.

Stroud. Here you have a veteran, someone who won a Super Bowl, someone who is one of the hottest or was one of the hottest players on a postseason run ever, and Joe Flacco, who's going to be thirty nine in a few days. He rolled out of bed and helped the Browns go four and one. Four and one as a starter, Joe Flacco went. And here he is taking on a twenty two or opposing a twenty two year old quarterback. These are two teams and then the Browns, yeah, you could thank their defense.

Browns weren't Browns weren't necessarily supposed to be here either, especially when you think about some of the injuries that they've had to deal with throughout the course of the season. Damn, I remember looking at Chubb, his leg. Hey, Ryan Hickey, you remember which direction his leg bent in earlier on in the season? I think it was every direction.

Frontwards, backwards, left, right. Yeah, well, that that knee looked cooked. Terrible. Now you got Deshaun Watson. He's over here breaking his shoulder.

He's done. And I'm like, OK, yeah, the Browns defense will keep them alive. And then they grab Joe Flacco off the scrap heap.

And here they are having success. Cleveland is going into Houston with a rookie QB and everybody is just like, whoa, this is a battle of the unlikelies. And head coach of the Browns, Kevin Stefanski, is like, listen, folks, we just go act like this is a regular. Let's not add any additional herbs and spices to this game. Let's keep it even. You understand that it's a it's a one game season, but you also have to go back to your process and go back to what got you there and go back to your preparation. So so much of this week has felt very normal.

Oh, stop it. Every week is different. There's nothing normal about this game. Joe, you haven't worked with Joe Flacco for. It's not like you went through training camp with the dude.

What's normal about this? Nothing. And from the Browns perspective, I know they've gone to the postseason. You know, this is now what, two out of four years that Stefanski has been around.

That's nice. I think as an overall, yeah, I know this for a fact. This is only their third time making it to the postseason since the Browns were resurrected in 1999.

To be here in this position, there's not a damn thing normal. There's not a normal thing about a 39 almost 39 euro quarterback rolling out of bed, opposing a dude who's 22 years old. But luckily for C.J. Stroud, he's not out there in a, you know, a physical battle with Joe Flacco. He's going to have to worry about Myles Garrett. He's going to have to worry about that defense. He's going to have to hope that in his first playoff game, God bless him, you'll have an opportunity to do it at home at NRG, the same place that hosted the National Championship game on Monday.

He'll have the benefit of being at home. But C.J. Stroud spoke to the media. He didn't say anything about this game was normal. He said, yeah, that Brown's defense, they whoop ass. Excited for this matchup again. I think, yeah, they're the number one defense for a reason. You know, they do a lot of special things.

Starts up front. Of course, Myles Garrett is one of the best players to ever play his game. Yeah. That's a dude who you do not want to be in the same zip code with. OK, you do not want to be near that man, especially if you happen to be a quarterback. And this is a I don't want this is true.

These are two Cinderella's. Cleveland Browns not supposed to be here. Houston Texans, man, you were supposed to give them a few years right for a bounce back. And the fans deserve every minute and every second of the success.

But I'll tell you this. I'm going to go with Cleveland. I'm going to go with Cleveland to go into energy. I'm going to take experience to go into Texas, to go into Houston and walk away with the W. I think the Houston Texans and their fans, it's not a matter of of being, you know, just satisfied with what is taking place.

But sometimes you just got to be honest. The Houston Texans have exceeded expectations this year. And the Cleveland Browns, they have two, but they have more experience. I know D'Amico Ryans, who happens to be the head coach of the Texans. He's almost just as old as Joe Flacco. Both of these dudes are basically thirty nine years old. I'm sure if I looked it up in the archives, I am almost positive at some point. D'Amico Ryans probably knocked the living hell out of Joe Flacco when he was on the Ravens.

I can look it up now. D'Amico Ryans is standing on the sidelines and he's going to watch Joe Flacco try to go out there and air the ball out. This is an interesting stat for you to know. Joe Flacco, in his career, has seven playoff road wins. That's tied with some guy named Tom Brady for the most in NFL history. And Joe Flacco ain't going past Tom Brady when it comes down to, you know, touchdowns or career wins. He ain't passing Tom Brady and much of nothing. But he has an opportunity to pass Tom Brady and playoff road wins if he wins tomorrow.

If he wins tomorrow in Houston, Texas. And I think the Browns will utilize that experience to go ahead and do so. Matter of fact, the first time Joe Flacco started a playoff game, C.J. Stroud was eight years old. Different time, different era. Sure. Yeah.

Different levels of experience. Yeah. I think it's going to count for something. I got the Browns winning this one in Houston, Texas. Ryan, what do you think about this game, man? I'm with you in the Browns. I like how ferocious their defense is. Even though they don't play great on the road compared to home, I still think that will travel. And Joe Flacco, man, in the playoffs, at this point, can't bet against them. I'll take the experienced Super Bowl champion veteran on the road in this game. I like the Browns over the Texans.

Yes. Sign me up for it. I'm here. And I think the next case, OK, if if the Browns walk away with a W, I can't wait for this game. If it is going to happen, we're going to have Joe Flacco taking on his former team, the Baltimore Ravens. We got another grudge match that we'll talk about later on in the show between the Rams and the Lions. Two quarterbacks traded for each other. And Joe Flacco would have a chance to take on the team that just said, hey, no, thank you, goodbye.

We got Lamar Jackson. That should definitely be an interesting watch. Let's see if the Browns can handle business down in Houston tomorrow. That's the first game of NFL Wild Card Weekend. When we get to the nighttime. Things are going to get even crazier. We're going to have the Dolphins taking on the Chiefs. We'll talk about that on the other side. The J.R. sport re show CBS Sports Radio.