3.7.24 - JR SportBrief Hour 2

Dana Carvey and David Spade here. You might know our podcast, Fly on the Wall. We decided a spinoff called Superfly, and it's fun. It's just two of us riffing on current events, pop culture.

Maestro is an Oscar-nominated movie Bradley Cooper's in, and I'm sure it's a perfect quality, well-done movie, but it looks a little boring. Honestly, I fell asleep during the billboard. Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get here. Podcast. It is the JR Sport Bring Show here on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Super producer and host Ryan Hickey's holding down for us on the boards in New York City, and you're locked in too.

Thank you so much. I really do. I appreciate you listening. If you don't listen, there's no show. I'm gonna find some way to be outside doing something, but without you, there's no show, and it'd be boring. It's boring as hell. Thank you for listening.

On the free Odyssey app, your local affiliate, Sirius XM158, a smart speaker, cbssportsradio.com. You can listen any way you want. I'm gonna be hanging out with you for the next three hours. Before our show, I get started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Thank you. You've been hanging out for an hour already.

See, that's math, okay? We've had a hell of a show. Thank you so much to Matt Perino for joining us. Beat reporter for the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo Bills are like handing out pink slips like it's the end of the year. Well, I guess for them, in football terms, it is the end of the year, right? Free agency starts next week, so yeah, end of the year.

Anyway, talked about Josh Allen. Is he gonna get a new paycheck? He's making 43 mil, Joe Burr's making 55.

Like, this man wants money. Von Miller's contract has been readjusted. Defensive backs' contracts have been adjusted. Damn it, some of them just been cut.

Dredavious White, Jordan Poirier. And so thank you to Matt Perino for coming through and breaking it down. And despite all of this, I'm still confident amongst Bills fans in the Western New York community that the Bills are gonna be successful. Because they're playing the AFC East.

With the traumatic New York Jets, the restarting New England Patriots, and the cold and frozen Miami Dolphins. Yeah, they froze their asses off up in Kansas City. Tua looked defeated when they got off the bus. Tua got off that bus wearing a bubble coat and a hat and a scarf. It's like, man, we know you're from Hawaii, man, but perception is reality, bro. You were cold as hell, don't let them know.

They were done from there. Anyway, Buffalo Bills aren't the only team that are just giving players the boot. We know that the Denver Broncos have certainly told Russell Wilson to take a hike. We talked about Russell Wilson last hour.

The fact that there appears to be mutual interest between Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers. I said it's a match made in heaven because prior experience from both sides, they've been through hell. And maybe that's how things work out. I haven't reached that point in life yet, but have I, or maybe I have. I don't know, maybe you come out of a bad, Hickey, if two people come out of a bad relationship, when they meet, are the odds better that they work out? Ooh, um. No, hmm.

I would say probably no. Oh, damn, why? Because they're damaged people, damaged goods? Damaged, scarred, maybe one person's ready to move on, the other person's not, or there's some sort of flashback. It's 50-50, it's either they're gonna fall in love and be perfect together or more unraveling, still kind of holding over from the last relationship. Oh, so Russell Wilson and the Steelers is a bad idea.

Well, if you're the Steelers, I mean, it's Russell Wilson or Kenny Pickett, and in that sense, it's easy. No, well, let's see what happens. A matter of fact, in about 20 minutes, we're gonna have a conversation to figure it all out. Brandon Cristal is gonna come through and join us, covers the Denver Broncos. We'll ask him about Russell Wilson, his release, what their options are at quarterback moving forward, you know, what's going on.

For instance, today, the Denver Broncos also released one of their best players in Justin Simmons, and so there are a lot of question marks in Denver right now as they are looking to restart, and damn it, they thought bringing in Russell Wilson was a restart, and here the hell they are, not in a position that anybody wants to be in. If you wanna communicate and be a part of the show, it's 855-212-4CBS, it's 855-212-4CBS. You can find me online on the internet, I am at JR Sport Brief. This portion of the show is sponsored by the new Hyundai Tucson, available with complimentary class-leading Blue Link Plus.

Now it's easy to use your phone to control your Tucson. Johnny's here from Florida, you're on the JR Sport Brief Show, what's up, Johnny? Hey, JR, good to talk to ya. You know, the NFL Draft is coming up shortly, and you know about the NFL Draft, they like drama, they like bombastic moves, well I've got one for ya. Caleb Williams to the Raiders. Yes, that's right, Caleb Williams to the Raiders, and I've got the formula, JR, that can make it happen.

Okay. The Chicago Bears get $100 million and the next four first round picks. What, what, excuse me?

Wait, wait, say again, what, say again, what? Yes, Caleb Williams to the Raiders, and the Chicago Bears in turn get the next four first round picks. Imagine that, imagine that bombastic move that everybody's waiting for. Even Roger Goodell's licking his chops at this one. Is that even legal?

I think it is. Well, you know, Mark Davis is still trying to erase the stigma of the Jamarcus Russell that his late father, you know, unfortunately it just didn't go well for Jamarcus Russell or the Raiders. That still sticks in Mark Davis' craw. He wants to erase that, and Caleb Williams is the answer.

Okay, well thank you Johnny for calling from Florida, I appreciate that. All right, okay, well, four first round picks. I don't even know if that's allowed because I've never heard of it, because I think that team would be stupid to do it.

Why would the Chicago Bears agree to do that? I think when you play video games, the video game will tell you like, nah, you can't do that, bro. I think the video game, Hank, you ever played a video game and you tried to make a trade in like a season and the computer was just like, no, it rejected the trade?

Yes, oh yeah. Computer's like, no, you can't trade Michael Jordan for Chris Dudley, like, no, what the hell do you think this is? What if I said please? Computer says, no. Computer doesn't care.

You gotta go into the settings and go, hey, let's override the computer. That's just, and that's a sucker way to do things. Yeah, any team that's given away four first round picks, they're a complete crap show. They're garbage. There's no better way for me to go out there and describe them.

Anyway, 855-212-4CBS, I gotta get this out the way. We know there's so much going on in the NFL. Everybody's awaiting the start of free agency. The NBA is still going on before they hit the stretch run. They're approaching the stretch run.

We know that March Madness is pretty much upon us on both the men and women's side in college. But unfortunately, we have some injuries in the NBA that we have to report. They're two individuals that have gone down. We found out they went down earlier today and it ain't good. One team was absolutely going nowhere from the get-go. That happens to be the Brooklyn Nets. They're in the 11th spot, okay? I don't give a damn if the Brooklyn Nets go to a play-in. They just fired Jacques Vaughn. Kevin Ollie has been elevated to their new head coach for the time being. They have a record of 25 and 37.

McHale Bridges is their best player. I can just go yuck, yuck, yuck all over the place and not in the yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck laughing way. Yuck isn't disgusting. This is bad and ugly.

And so unfortunately today, what a shock, what a surprise. Ben Simmons is out for the season. You heard me correctly. Ben Simmons is done for the year for the Brooklyn Nets. Ben Simmons did all this chirping, all this talking about being in the best shape and this is his bounce back year and he's gonna turn things around. Ben Simmons has played a whopping 15 games. 15 games for the Brooklyn Nets this year. 15 games. Oh, you don't remember what he said at the beginning of the year? Ben Simmons told everybody on media day that for this upcoming season, this is what he expects for himself. Listen.

One of the older players now, so a leader, of course, and just setting the example, leading by example, doing what I can on the court to help my teammates win and just trying to get better every day and building that chemistry. The Brooklyn Nets have played 62 games. Let me say this again. He has played in 15 of these games. He has a nerve issue in his back that was surgically repaired, I guess, last year. He had a procedure and then he came back and it's just, it's terrible. Now they're trying to figure out what's going on in his leg and his soreness in his leg and the feeling in his back and this is terrible. It's just, I don't think people have sympathy for the dude because of how things ended in Philadelphia. He was afraid to play basketball, afraid to take a shot. His confidence was shot and so he will have no sympathy about his back injury based on how he decided to leave.

He showed no, for lack of a better term, he showed no balls, okay? And so nobody's gonna feel sorry for Ben Simmons, especially the fact that he has a contract that takes him to next year. He's making $40 million a year to be a professional rehab artist. Jacques Vaughan has been fired as of a couple of weeks ago from the Brooklyn Nets. And back in October, before the season started, Jacques Vaughan talked about the progress he saw from Ben Simmons.

Listen to this. I think what we've seen is his ability to push the basketball through it over and over again, play with extreme amount of pace, get to the rim, play with force, all the things that we were asking and I was searching for last year that got revealed why those things weren't happening. The good thing is those things are happening.

So it just, now it continues. You know, first week of camp, you get through that and continue to build and then you start to get to some preseason games. But the expectations across the boards, always based on performance and so far he's had some little good days. Man, backs are tough, man. They are.

They're tough. Not that Larry Bird wants to even talk to this guy because Ben Simmons is soft. Larry Bird is probably like, man, I don't even want to be in the room with you.

But come on. Are we expecting Ben Simmons to turn his career around? It doesn't look like it. Looks like Ben Simmons is done. He's getting $40 million this year. He's getting $40 million next year to have a busted up back. And so what are we getting later on this year?

Come September, October? Oh, Ben Simmons is going to be able to finish up his contract year with the Brooklyn Nets? Is Ben Simmons miraculously going to be healthy?

Let's see. Hickey, is he playing more than 60 games next year for the Nets? No way. Not even in the contract. He's going to take his money and leave, huh?

I saw a few people say that today. Oh, contract year, he'll be back. No chance. No way. He doesn't even like playing basketball. I mean, he might have the worst back for, what is he, 27?

Worst 27-year-old back I've ever seen in my life? No chance. Are you taking the over? Nah, no, I think he's going to try to play. I don't know if he'll be able to. And I think by the time we get to, I don't know, the 25 season, like next year, October, Ben Simmons is going to be looking for a deal.

And he's going to get a minimum, if that. You know what, to be honest? It wouldn't shock me if he's not in the NBA. You know, like, but him, is he going to Europe?

I don't know. I feel like he feels, he comes across as full of himself. And I only draw that conclusion because of his public appearances.

And I get it. You can love fashion and you could love this, but the guy's been hurt. He hasn't been seen. His reputation is mud. He hasn't shown that he has guts. He's been afraid, but he'll sit on the sidelines dressed like a now and later. He'll be on the sidelines dressed like a Teletubby. Like his outfits scream New York, Paris, and fashion, London Fashion Week. His outfits scream, look at me. And it's just like, bro, you don't even play.

Everybody saw you quit. Doc Rivers said, I don't know if this guy can win a championship with him and his feelings were hurt. He quit on the team and he just, it's like, go play basketball, man.

And to your point, it doesn't look like he wants to. You know, speaking of injuries, this is way off topic. I'm sitting here in the studio, looking at CBS Sports News. They got a robot that operates like a, what do you call this thing? What's the thing, you put the cat in to take a crap? A litter box? They have a litter box that looks like a dryer.

The cat jumps in the top part of the dryer, does its business, and then it sifts it into a container, a smell-less container at the bottom. And this popped up right when I talked about Ben Simmons' injury. Timing's everything, huh? Yeah, I don't know, I'm just like, wow. That's more, looking at the, listen, I like animals. Never home, so I don't have any, don't have any pets. But I'm like, man, I could get a cat if, you know, there's a robot litter box, it cleans the crap for me, what?

And it raises the smell too? It looks like it's an, I'll text it to you, you can look at it. You have a cat? No, I do not. You don't like animals? No, I'm not anti, I love animals.

I don't want the responsibility right now. Oh, same here, yeah, I get it. So yeah. Be careful with your words for animals, Peter might get you.

No, listen, I'm pro-animal, I love animals. Speaking of animals, the Timberwolves. Well, we gotta wait. But the Timberwolves got a player that's hurt, his name is Karl-Anthony Towns. This guy has a torn meniscus. We're gonna get into Karl-Anthony Towns later in the show.

We're gonna talk about this Mike Tyson, Jake Paul exhibition fight, where everybody's gonna make money. We're gonna talk about some of these safeties that have been cut. We'll get into the Kansas City Chiefs and their fans who have basically frozen their body parts off, I'm not exaggerating. We'll talk more about Russell Wilson and this potential marriage with the Steelers. Chip Kelly talks about how unhappy he was and it was time to move on.

It is a lot to get into, we're just getting warmed up. And on the other side of the break, we're going to Denver. We're going to Colorado, it's time to have a conversation with a man who knows all about the Broncos and their current situation, it's Brandon Kristol. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. Dana Carvey and David Spade here. You might know our podcast, Fly on the Wall. We decided to spin off called Superfly and it's fun.

It's just two of us riffing on current events, pop culture. When I looked up the flight, when that door flew off, these people were dead silent, everyone just quiet. I don't think I could contain it.

I think that's free rein to wail on your call button in that situation. Bong, bong, bong, bong, bong. Hey, I don't wanna be a pest.

Was there a door when I got out? Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get here, podcast. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, I'm ruining marriages all across North America.

I love it, good for me. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Earlier on in the show, we talked about the Buffalo Bills and all of their house cleaning, housekeeping maneuvers when it comes to the salary cap and their future. We already know that the Denver Broncos, well, they've taken a big broom and they told Russell Wilson, get out. And in early this morning, we learned that Justin Simmons, a four-time All-Pro, has also been told, get out. We don't need you. We got a lot of safeties that are gonna be free agents.

Well, we know the Denver Broncos got some rebuilding in front of them as they face free agency, as they face the draft. To talk about it all, we're being joined by someone who is very familiar with everything that they do. He keeps up with them for KOA Colorado as an anchor, reporter, or journalist. Joining us right now is Brandon Christal. Brandon, thank you for taking the time to join us. Yeah, JR, happy to do it.

Thanks for having me. No doubt about it. Now, I think I have an idea of how fans feel in Denver right now. But tell me, how do fans feel based on what has taken place with Russell Wilson, his contract, and now the release of someone like Justin Simmons?

Oh, they're different feelings for different reasons. The Russell Wilson failure here is a disappointment because of the assets that were given up, the contract, not that it's any of their money, but the way it can hamstring a team when you commit money. But that deal wasn't gonna happen if there wasn't a commitment to a long-term deal. And at the time, there aren't too many GMs in the league, I think, that wouldn't have taken that swing based on what we saw from Russell Wilson. But pretty quickly after he got here and it wasn't working with Nathaniel Hackett and you weren't sure was it Hackett's fault, was it Russell's fault, you heard about all the other stuff going on with Russ, and Sean Payton brought it up when he got the job to me and a couple other reporters at the Super Bowl, then he brought it up again last year at the Combine, and I'm talking about him having an office and a masseuse and all that, that the grownups let it happen.

Had they have won, though, nobody would care how Russ spends his time in the building if they were a playoff team. And they weren't in year one, they obviously weren't in year two, and Sean Payton pretty quickly realized he couldn't run his offense with Russell Wilson. So the fans were resigned to Russell Wilson, that being a failure, it stings. Justin Simmons, it's sort of like when Champ Bailey, now his contract was done, but they officially said they weren't bringing Champ back. You knew that Justin Simmons' days in Denver might be numbered, you weren't sure if maybe a contract restructure was in the works, but then you see the market correction, if you will, or bloodletting, depending on how you wanna look at it across the league of safeties, you thought, okay, Justin may be in some trouble and there's not gonna be a viable trade partner, but fans are just really sad because Justin has been the only Bronco that's been here through all eight years of losing. He was a rookie that first year, I guess they were a winning team at nine and seven, but no playoffs all eight years of his career, but he's been outstanding on the field, most interceptions in the league and off the field. He's been the best guy in the community that teams maybe ever had. Three-time also paid Man of the Year nominee here locally, goes to every teammates charity event that he possibly can.

I've never seen anything like it. So it just stings to lose a guy that means so much. Bronco's reporter Brandon Kristall is here with us, the JR sport re-show on CBS Sports Radio. So what does this mean over the next couple of weeks, next week with free agency, with the draft pick at number 12, what is the Broncos' plan, A, potentially at quarterback and then also in free agency? You know, it's funny because I talked to a bunch of different people in the building and on the personnel staff, coaching staff, media relations, and you get different messages from everyone and getting to spend a week with everybody at the combine and talking to people and kind of getting their sense versus someone else's, even though their offices may be two doors down from each other, it's pretty fascinating. And the sense I get is that they have a plan, but executing that plan may not always come to fruition because they're, as you pointed out at 12, 11 teams in front of them that are all gonna have something to say about it, plus the teams behind them that could leapfrog them if they identify, say, a rookie QB. I think we have to keep an eye on the veteran market next week to see, do they bring in a Jacoby Brissett or a Jamis Winston or someone like that, Gardner Minshew, what do they end up having to pay that quarterback, or do they leave it alone because they have fallen in love with one or two of these rookie QBs that's gonna come into the league, these college kids, and they're gonna try to maneuver up from 12.

But I think they probably have more than one plan, honestly, a plan 1A and a plan 1B, but they need to have plans two, three, and four ready. And I think fans, they're feeling eight years of no playoffs. Sean Payton's not feeling that. Even George Payton, who's now going into year four, first time with the same head coach from the year before as the GM, he still doesn't feel the eight years of no playoffs. But I wish I could tell you what their plan is. I'm not sure that even if they have a favorite plan, they know that they'll be able to execute, unless let's say it is Jared Sineman, Jacoby Brissett as their plan A, but I can't imagine that's what it is. Well, Brandon, knowing that Sean Payton basically left television to come back to coaching, you talked about George Payton being here for four years.

We know that the Waltons are the new ownership group in town, Mr. Walmart Family, Walmart Group. Like, how much patience are they going to have with rebuilding this? They threw money at Russell Wilson to bring him in first, but now that that's done, like how much patience are they gonna have? And how much patience is Sean Payton gonna have?

Yeah, that's a great point. Now, Sean Payton, as best we can tell, is the highest paid coach in football. I guess I don't know what Andy Reid makes, but we understood that Sean was just behind Bill Belichick last year, maybe right in line with Pete Carroll. It's not a little bit more than Pete, but somewhere between 18 and 20 million a year on a five-year deal. So he's got one of those years behind him, it's still four more, and that money would come his way if he got fired, but I don't think he's in a hurry to walk away from it. And Sean, I think, in a lot of ways, knows that he can do something no one else has done, and that's win a Super Bowl in a second city, right? No head coach has done that to this point.

And so are they close to that now? It certainly doesn't feel like it. You talk about, it's really Greg Penner who runs the day-to-day. So he is Rob Walton's son-in-law, and he and Rob's daughter, Carrier, married, and they're in Denver in the building. Rob Walton lives in Phoenix, he's big in the car racing, he shows up on game day, he was involved in the hiring process for Sean Payton, but beyond that, he's not tracking. I'm not saying he's not aware of the Justin Simmons move, but when they make moves on Saturday to bring guys up from the practice squad, or they're signing guys with the practice squad, he has no idea what's going on.

And so Greg Penner, though, who was the CEO of Walmart and the chairman of the board for a long time, and ran a hedge fund as well, is a really, really smart guy. You talk about the money they gave to Russ, he kind of inherited that promise. And so with that being understood, and again, we're going off Russ's resume, I don't think he was reluctant, or they were reluctant to write that check. Now, I'm sure they're not loving the fact that they're having to write a $39 million check, they're still paying Nathaniel Hackett and his staff, and having obviously paid Sean Payton and his staff, and they're in salary cap purgatory, at least for another year or so. But I don't think he's impatient, even though he moved on from Nathaniel Hackett that quickly, just less than one year, which is something you don't see.

So I guess we can revisit that. If George Payton gets fired before the year ends next year, and or Sean Payton were to get fired, then we're gonna have to start looking at Greg Penner the way we look at David Tepper in Carolina. But to this point, I think that he's pretty calculated and is kind of taking everything in, right? He didn't come into it thinking he knows everything about running the NFL, and has no problem saying that he's okay knowing what he doesn't know, or not knowing what he doesn't know, and learning that. And that's one thing I think Sean Payton sold him on, was look, I was there with Mr. Benson all the way until the end of his life, but really showed him what being a top class owner is after being around the Maras and around Jerry Jones.

And I can show you that, and obviously we know the success they had. And so I think he maybe doesn't sell it exactly like that, but just that, hey, I've been in the competition committee for years, I've been around lots and lots of owners, and if we do this together, we can have success. Doesn't mean they will, but I think that's how Sean sold himself to Greg Penner.

I think Greg is going to kind of follow Sean's lead until he feels the need to intervene. Bronco's reporter Brandon Kristall is here with us, the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. The man that got all of this money, and now there are rumors that he's gonna be joining the Pittsburgh Steelers, or at least that there's mutual interest we know, is Russell Wilson. How does the city feel about Russell Wilson? Are they blaming Russell? Are they looking at the team and the injuries surrounding him? What's the overall take? We know people ain't happy about the money.

Yeah, I think it's kind of a combination of both. Not that they were sold a bill of goods, but that just Russ isn't what we thought we were getting. Thought you were getting a guy that's throwing 300 touchdowns. He showed up with 292 career regular season touchdowns and eight playoff appearances and nine Pro Bowls. But then you realize, and maybe it's because of where Seattle's located, and I don't pretend like I haven't watched Seahawks games, but we all saw the highlights week in, week out, and I had Russell on plenty of fantasy teams. But I wasn't watching every game, and you realize how much Pete Carroll and his staff over the years maybe managed Russ. So it wasn't that they didn't wanna let Russ cook, it's that they didn't think that he was capable of making a meal everybody would like, if you will.

So at the end, it's like, he's gonna make the dessert, and everyone's gonna love that. And he did, right? He was, up until Patrick Mahomes has come along and is kind of rewriting every quarterback metric.

I think you could make a case that Russell Wilson's the best off-schedule quarterback that we've seen, certainly in the last 20 years, when you look at his ability to maneuver outside of the pocket. In his whole life, he's just been able to do that with so much success that you thought you were gonna get that here. And it just didn't work from the get-go, and I put some of that on Hackett and his staff, and maybe the way they approached everything with Russ and with the team there in year one. And then this year, I'm not sure how much Sean Payton really gave Russ the keys to anything.

I think it was paring everything down. I talked to lots of people at the combine, lots of analysts and insiders and reporters, and I asked them all just one simple question, how do you fix the Broncos quarterback situation? And I think Chris Sims gave me the best answer. He said, you don't bring Sean Payton to run nine plays. You have Sean Payton to run nine million plays and be on the cutting edge of things offensively. And if you're gonna just run nine plays, then why is Sean Payton even here? And obviously we know why Sean is there.

And so it wasn't gonna work. So I think fans were just disappointed, but Russ isn't their guy. Payton wasn't their guy either, but you go to the playoffs four years in a row and you set the offensive records that he did and go to Super Bowls and win one. Yeah, you become their guy, and Payton stayed here, right? So Payton has become their guy almost as much as Elway, who of course is their guy. But so it's kind of one of those things where they're gonna beat up on George Payton, beat up on Sean Payton, beat up on the ownership group until they have their guy, which is why I think they need to draft a rookie in this first round for no other reason just to appease the fan base, because they are feeling the effects of eight years of no plus. And they haven't really had their own young guy. You can look at Paxton Lynch.

Nope, that wasn't really it. Tim Tebow, we know that that probably wasn't gonna work. And then you go back to Jay Cutler in 06, and he was gone after year three. And in some ways it seems like Josh McDaniels was right. It wasn't like Jay Cutler went on to a Hall of Fame career after he left Denver.

And so you gotta go back to 83. Don Elway was their guy coming in, and that's all that this fan base, and so many fan bases, Chicago, I mentioned them. They have no 4,000 yard passer in the history of their franchise.

So it hasn't been field. It wasn't Trubisky. They hope it's Caleb Williams. So the Broncos just want someone to believe in.

Well, let me ask you this. Listening to you and your insight, and from what I know and what I've obviously observed over the years, simple question, final question, Brandon. Are the Broncos a mess? It seems like they're a mess. They seem like a mess.

Yeah, JR, I think that's the scientific observation, and I think you're spot on. I can give you reasons all these things happened, but it doesn't change the fact that they're a mess currently, right? And so we can, whether you call them excuses or just why things played out the way they are, they are a mess. I feel bad for the fans. I feel bad for the fan base. Absolutely, and your pal, Amy Lawrence, has now become a long-suffering Broncos fan.

She cheers for the orange and blue, and it's been eight long years. And look, they're not Cleveland. They're not Detroit. They're not Jacksonville. They're used to playing in Super Bowls and winning division titles and being in the playoffs all the time. When Pat Bowen bought the team, he famously, like Mike Tomlin, there was never a year where they were under 500, or he had more Super Bowl appearances, I'm sorry, than years under 500 when he owned the team, or when he was alive, right? And that was eight or seven trips of the eight that the franchise has made. And so it is frustrating for a fan base that 90,000 people on the waiting list, they still sell out every game, but if they fire Jared Stidham out there at JR without one of those first-round rookies behind him, or it's Brissett and Stidham, or Minshew and Stidham, or Winston and Stidham, and a rookie mid-late rounder that you have to go really Google their highlight tapes on YouTube because you didn't watch a lot of two-lane football or Southeast Louisiana, you're gonna have, I think, by the middle of the year, if they're not winning, you're gonna have a lot of empty seats.

Even with the long waiting list, you're gonna have a lot of empty seats in the powerfield at Mile High. And especially, you go right down the road, not even right down the road, literally across the highway, and I mentioned Kerry Walton-Penner, her cousin, Dan Kroenke, his two teams, the Nuggets and the Cavs, their favorites are right there to win another title in both sports. Fans are excited about that, but they want their Broncos to be right, and that makes, because at the end of the day, this is still a Broncos' town. Wild, wild stuff, for me, 2015 feels like yesterday, but it's quite some time, so I understand. Good memories, but yeah, and you're like, God, eight years, it must have been 18 years.

It does feel like it was longer until you just do the quick math on it and realize it's only eight years, but man, it does feel like it's been a long eight years around here for a lot of folks. Well, Brandon, thank you so much for sharing your insight. Where can people keep up with you, your knowledge, and everything that you find out and know and learn about these Broncos? Just follow at BK Denver Sports. I say on all the social platforms, but mostly on Twitter, not that my Instagram every now and then I'll have something. My TikTok's pretty limited, but at BK Denver Sports, it's like when you think of Denver Sports, think of BK.

It's like when you think of Garbage, you think of Hakeem. Well, thank you, Brandon. We appreciate that. We'll talk to you soon, okay? Let's connect and see what they do after the draft, okay?

Sounds great, J.R., I appreciate it. No doubt about it. Thank you so much to Brandon Crustow coming through that covers the Denver Broncos for KOA out in Colorado. Yeah, the Broncos, there's no other way. They just come across as a massive, massive mess, and I don't feel optimistic. I mean, maybe they hit the jackpot, they bring a quarterback in, and things can look better and move better into the future, but I'm not feeling good about this. It looks like a disaster is, we're in the midst of one, let's just put it that way. 8-5-5-2-1-2 for CBS, that's 8-5-5-2-1-2 for CBS.

Speaking of a disaster and speaking of a mess, there is a former Dallas Cowboy who is playing for another team in Texas who said the Cowboys are pretty much a mess. I'm gonna tell you who said that on the other side of the break. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

It's the J.R. Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. 8-5-5-2-1-2 for CBS, that's 8-5-5-2-1-2 for CBS. Thank you so much to Brandon Kristall for joining us on the other side of the break.

If you missed the conversation, go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. We had a chance and an opportunity to take a look at the Denver Broncos who are pretty much ripping things down to the studs. Not only have they told Russell Wilson goodbye, see you later, earlier this morning, we learned that Justin Simmons, who's been a Denver Bronco for the past eight years, is a four-time All-Pro, always in the mix for Walter Payton Man of the Year, that they have told him to go ahead and take a hike as well. And there are so many safeties that have pretty much been dumped here in the NFL.

And we're gonna get into that later on in the show. It's just wild how many safeties have been told by, whether it's Xavier McKinney from the New York Giants, Micah Hyde and Poyer from the Buffalo Bills. You have Justin Simmons here, Jamal Adams. We know he's been dealing with injuries over the past couple of seasons. He's also been let go.

It's like safeties are the new running back. And we're gonna get into that and how it appears that the NFL is looking to, let's just say teams, are looking to bring down their salaries. But thank you so much to Brandon Kristol for sharing with us that the Denver Broncos, oh yeah, they got some fixing up to do. It's unfortunate. And speaking of fixing up to do, I absolutely fell out of my seat when I saw this headline.

I fell out of my seat when I heard it verbally from this individual. And speaking of messes, to the shock of probably absolutely no one, a Dallas Cowboy, excuse me, a former Dallas Cowboy, took a look at his team and said they're a circus, that they're a clown show, that they are a zoo. It is former Cowboys tight end, current Texans tight end, Dalton Schultz. He sat down with Pat McAfee and he told everybody, what everybody who watches football, anybody who follows the game, told us all something that we already know. Take a listen to what Dalton Schultz had to say about the difference between playing for the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans.

The focus is just football, you know what I mean? And going back and like telling some people like how kind of being around the Cowboys like practice facility and game day, describing some of the interactions and stuff that you see on a day-to-day basis, like surprised a lot of people. They're like, holy crap, like that actually happens like at a practice facility and like this. Like what, like what, like what?

You don't have to out anything, but like what are you? No dude, it's just like, there's people literally going on tours while you're listening in the weight room and they've got like a one-way, they've got a one-way mirror for people to like look at, like it's literally, it's a zoo, dude. There's people tapping on the glass, like trying to get people's attention as if they're doing power cleans or whatnot. And it's just, it's different. And I mean, that's the brand that they've built. That's what Jerry Jones likes. That's the way that they run things. And there's nothing wrong with that.

It's just, you don't realize like how many eyeballs and how much that can maybe distract from stuff just in the locker room being in the facility until you go somewhere else and you're like, holy crap, like dude, there's none of that. Yeah, Dalton Schultz started his career in 2018 with the Dallas Cowboys, okay? And I gotta tell you, just from firsthand experience, I have not been, well, that's not true, that's a lie. Yeah, I'm lying. Hickey, I almost lied on the radio, I was almost a first.

Props to you for calling yourself out. I did. Now, I have been to the stadium, Jerry's World. I got in a full tour. It is absolutely amazing, AT&T Stadium.

It's just bananas, it's ridiculous. I've also been up in Frisco, Texas to the practice facility. And the practice facility exists like an entire mall, an entire museum, an entire restaurant, an entire facility built for the Dallas Cowboys.

It is genius. What Jerry Jones has built and expanded upon is genius. This isn't a practice facility in the middle of nowhere, hidden from the public, everybody knows where it is. I mean, part of their practice facility, they can utilize for high school games, expand it to the public.

There's malls and food and fancy shopping. This is the Dallas Cowboys way. And so it's no shock to hear this from Dalton Schultz. But the Dallas Cowboys really are the only team that does this. This is what they've built things around.

And it is a distraction. You're in the weight room and yeah, the Dallas Cowboys are charging for you to see, I don't know, Dalton Schultz or Lawrence or Dak out there lifting weights. This is just wild stuff. I mean, Dak Prescott, he just spoke recently and he talked about the Cowboys having a great culture. Listen to this. Yeah, the coach is high, honestly. And the coach is great from my standpoint. And I say that in the sense that I actually don't know what all talk's been said.

So I don't want to go into a, I don't know good, bad or whatever. I've heard some, but I can't, you guys know of anybody, I'm not the one listening and I'm trying not to. So, but my point is, yeah, that's something I've always bragged on and took pride in. So if there's questions of that, concerns on that, I feel attacked.

I'm sure some guys in the locker room do, but at the end of the day, it's a business. And the way that this business plays out, people don't get exactly what they wanted. There's always sourness, I guess you can say somewhere.

And so, yeah, I don't want to make anything bigger than what already comments have had. No, I mean, there's been a lot of people who've been saying negative things about the Cowboys forever and their culture and what they do inside and what they don't. I just, it's tough to believe that when you have an owner in Jerry Jones who treats the team like it's the Hunger Games. When you have an owner like Jerry Jones, who's at the forefront, just discussing every major decision. When you have an owner like Jerry Jones, who has a weekly radio spot to pontificate for, it seems like, I don't know, for about an hour about any and anything that Jerry wants to slowly discuss and talk about.

Like, it's a distraction. It's not just about football. It's made Jerry Jones a crap ton of money. But it's also been to a detriment, I believe, to the football operations, and that they can't focus in on what is a cliche now, making the main thing the main thing, and that's football. And for Dalton Schultz, yeah, oh hell yeah, there's a difference between playing for the Dallas Cowboys, where the amenities are beautiful and the facility is beautiful and the stadium is beautiful, and now going and playing at NRG for the Texans.

I'm just keeping it real. But the fact of the matter is, I'm sure he appreciates just playing football, because for the Dallas Cowboys, that is not all it's about. It's about making money any way possible. Yeah, even having tours while the guys lift weights. Some wild stuff. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

Yeah, sure, Dallas Cowboys are a mess. This morning, there was a giant press release about a circus and a mess that is coming to AT&T Stadium this coming July. It involves Mike Tyson and a guy who's a fighter, boxer, entertainer, YouTuber, I don't know what he is.

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