JR SportBrief Hour 1

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Call 562-314-4603 for details. It's weekend. Hope you've had a great start to your Monday. This is when we get started. Every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. You can always lock into the show on the free Odyssey app. Your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate. Sirius XM Channel 158. And smart speakers.

If you have one, it could be a Siri, Alexa, a Google, whatever the hell you talk to at home. Ask it to play CBS Sports Radio and boom. The show comes right up. This is obviously a very busy Monday. NFL players can't sign their contracts until this upcoming Wednesday. But today is the first day.

It's called the legal tampering period. Players can pretty much come to an agreement with potential teams. They just can't sign the deals.

And so we know some of the larger deals that have taken place today. Kirk Cousins is going to be coming here to Atlanta to lead the Falcons. We know as of last night, Russell Wilson is heading to the Steel City.

He's going to be a stealer. Saquon Barkley is switching sides. Saquon Barkley is moving on to the Philadelphia Eagles. Christian Wilkins no longer a member of the Miami Dolphins. This man is going to be a Raider. DeAndre Swift is heading out to Chicago. Tony Pollard is moving from the Cowboys to Tennessee. What does this mean for Derrick Henry? Well, it means Derrick Henry ain't coming back to Tennessee.

But I think we kind of knew that already. So to break down a lot of these moves, just all across the NFL, all across the league, we have multiple guests that are going to be joining us throughout the course of the show. In about 20 minutes or so, Lije Duzable is going to come through and join us.

This man played on the defensive line in the NFL for 10 years, including for the New York Jets. He's now an analyst for CBS Sports HQ. Lije is going to come through and join us in about 20. In about an hour and a half, next hour, D. Orlando Ledbetter writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He's going to come through and talk to us more in depth about Kirk Cousins. And then Dave Zangaro, he covers everything Eagles.

Down in Philadelphia, he comes through via NBC Sports, Philly. And so we got a lot of action that's going on. We're going to talk about Kirk Cousins and Saquon. Those appear to be the biggest moves that have taken place today.

We even got Gardner Minshew, who's going to be joining the Raiders. It's just a busy, busy day. Before I do anything else, just a very simple question.

The super producer and host Ryan Hickey. Ryan, how you doing, man? You good?

JR, I am good. I'm not getting paid today like a lot of other NFL players, which would have been nice. But you know what? The sun's out.

Daylight savings now makes the days a little longer. So outside of millions of dollars, I'm doing pretty good today. How about you? Oh, that's good. I mean, I'm OK. You can rob a bank. I think that'll help you out, right?

No, I don't want to be like Chief Zoholic, you know. Oh, that's right. That's the way that's the werewolf guy that robbed everybody, you know. On his way to Road Chiefs game. Wait a minute. He was robbing banks on his way to Kansas City Chiefs games? Oh, yeah. There's a story that he was going down.

I believe it was for a Texans game maybe last year, two years ago, and on his way down, kind of drove through Oklahoma City. Let me rob a teacher's credit union, you know, get some beer money for the weekend. And would hit some banks and route to some road games.

Wow. I knew he was robbing banks. I didn't know he was robbing banks on the way to see the football team.

I did not know that. It's a small, quick pit stop, you know. Listen, this would have been better off if he was, I don't know, robbing the banks and like maybe putting it into the team or maybe giving the way money away to the poor.

I don't know. We all know Mr. Hunt of the Kansas City Chiefs. The NFL players have called him the biggest cheapskate. Maybe he would have gotten himself some mercy if he was robbing the banks and then helping the people out. But yeah, that's that's one way to get some money.

It's also one way to end up in prison. And speaking of money, I talked about it. Kirk Cousins, no longer a member of the Minnesota Vikings. Kirk Cousins, after about a week of rumors. Well, the rumors are true.

You're going to be a Falcon. Four years, one hundred and eighty million dollars. That is forty five million dollars a season for Kirk Cousins. We know the best of the best when it comes down to the NFL right now.

These guys are making fifty to fifty five million. And so the Atlanta Falcons have said, ah, no more Heineke. Ah, no more Ritter.

I mean, Arthur Blank said it at the end of the year. This man said, look, last season we were deficient at the quarterback spot. And we know Kirk Cousins is coming off of the blown out Achilles.

He's going to be thirty six years old in August. But look, man, the Falcons had no choice. The Falcons got a legitimate QB. The Falcons got a dude who was leading the NFL in touchdown passes and yards. That's 16 touchdowns, more than 2000 yards passing when he blew out his Achilles back in October. This is going to be about a full year of recovery for Kirk Cousins.

We've all heard the rumors by now that his wife is his family is from here just north of the city in Alpharetta. And so good for Kirk Cousins on coming back. And this is a good move for the Atlanta Falcons, because now Kirk Cousins can get the ball to Drake London. He can get the ball to Kyle Pitts. Bijan Robinson can certainly go out there and be a threat. Tyler Algier can go out there and be a threat. Cordell Patterson once again is going to be a threat, because if we know one thing, Kirk Cousins is going to throw the ball.

Without a shadow of a doubt, he is going to throw the rock and he is going to be accurate. OK, one thing Arthur Smith did last year with the Atlanta Falcons in the offense, he got too cute. It's like he looked at his quarterback and instead of having a guy just run the ball and at least have the guys run the ball and run play action, he just tried to be too cute. These weapons, all these weapons that the Falcons have, they're going to be utilized. Congratulations, Atlanta Falcons fans. It's basically a two team race in the NFC South between you and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who also, by the way, signed Baker Mayfield to his own contract. Baker Mayfield is going to be sticking around in Tampa Bay three years, one hundred and fifteen million dollars. Baker Mayfield has a home. And let me remind you, Kirk Cousins, a few weeks ago, he talked about his home. I mean, at the end of the season press conference when he was still with the Vikings, Kirk Cousins, he talked about saying, look, I could be open to taking less money in the right situation.

Listen to this. I think that God has blessed me financially beyond my wildest dreams. So at this stage in my career, the dollars are really not what it's about. I had a coach who I was with who was a younger coach at the time.

This was back eight, nine years ago, and I was before my first franchise tag. And we were talking about the situation and he made a great comment. And he said, Kirk, it's it's not about the dollars, but it is about what the dollars represent.

And I thought that was an interesting comment that he made. So there will always be some of that. But to Dave's point, structure is probably more important.

How do you define structure? Everything that isn't the dollars does sounds phony to me. Come on, you're making let me do the math again. Forty five million dollars a year. It's not like he took 20 million dollars less. It's not like he's he's playing for 30 mil. He's playing for 45 million bucks. How could you sit around weeks ago telling everybody, oh, it's not about the money. You ain't out there playing for free. So what what what discount did you give the Falcons? What that you didn't force them into giving you 50? You took five million dollars less. Like, cut it out.

Type of world do we live in? I know it's a crazy one. Hickey, doesn't that sound like a load of B.S.? Yeah, I mean, I hate to say it. I bought into it. I mean, it makes sense in terms of he's made a lot of money. It's I mean, what, the last six, seven years, it's been all guaranteed. And for a guy that's really the only thing he's lacking is postseason success. You would think, OK, he'll sacrifice money, whether it's in Minnesota or in this case, Atlanta, to just build the rest of the team to give him, you would think, the best chance of making a deep playoff run. And then, like you said, you turn around, he signs in Atlanta and it's one hundred and eighty million dollar deal. Yeah, man, he talked about how blessed he was. He doesn't need the money. It's not about the money.

Well, damn it, you took the money, man. General manager of the Minnesota Vikings, Kweze Mensah, he basically said, look, we tried to sign the guy. Obviously, we didn't get the job done. And our Vikings fans are going to suffer. If there's one dude who's really upset about Kirk Cousins moving on, well, it's the wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings. That's Justin Jefferson. Justin Jefferson spoke how much he wanted to have him back, but he gone.

He's not there. And so what do the Minnesota Vikings do next? They going into the draft? Oh, well, they're going to add Sam Darnold. Oh, well, that's not all that enticing. They're just going to throw Nick Mullins out there.

That's also not enticing. The Minnesota Vikings are going to, well, they're going to stink for a lack of better term. They're going to be ass. And Justin Jefferson, he's going to be very upset on those sidelines, knowing that, well, Kirk is not throwing him the ball. I know we've seen Kirk Cousins have a good time, known to rock a chain or two or three or four or five from his teammates. Kirk Cousins is going to have a good old time here in Atlanta. And I think the city will appreciate Kirk Cousins until he sucks in the postseason and then they won't give a damn. Welcome to Atlanta, Kirk Cousins.

You like chains and hats, like fitting in with your teammates? Atlanta is the best place to be. I think the Falcons have a good chance of going back to the postseason with Kirk Cousins at the helm. Now, is he going to drive them to the promised land? I ain't betting on that. But a playoff berth should be in Atlanta's future if Kirk Cousins stays healthy.

Hopefully this Achilles issue was just a little one off type thing. Somebody else looking to go back to the postseason and have better success than they did last year after they got smacked around by the Bucks. The Philadelphia Eagles, Nick Sirianni, you could say that he's going to be out there coaching for his job. And with DeAndre Swift moving on to the Chicago Bears. Saquon Barkley, he joins the Philadelphia Eagles.

You know, we played this clip for you last week. Saquon Barkley. It's from Pennsylvania. It was originally from the Bronx, New York. He grew up in Pennsylvania. This man went to school the same day as Hickey went to school. Hickey, where'd he go to school? Penn State. Yeah, now he's going to be back in Pennsylvania. Saquon Barkley.

I want to say sleeping with the enemy. I don't know if that's appropriate, but he certainly took their money. A three year contract. Thirty seven million dollars. It's about 12 million dollars per season at 26 million dollars up front.

New York Giants want to go give him that cash. And Saquon Barkley, man, he's going to go out there and help the Philadelphia Eagles become even more of a dynamic offense. You think about the fact that they love to run the football. You think about their weapons with Smith and Brown on the outside. And now you've got Saquon right up the middle as another receiving threat, also a running threat.

You also also have to keep in mind as to also about hurts. This is a dangerous squad. And for Saquon from a couple of years ago, before these these Eagles took on the Giants, Saquon waxed poetic about playing for the Eagles.

Well, listen to this. He talked about the fan base. Their fan base is it's crazy. They're going to be loud. There's going to be chairs. They're going to be bulls.

And there might be some double birds. That's that's Philly. You know, it was funny when we were coming into the game last time, like just like a little kid and his parent. And like, I was just like, Stan, I was like, I want to see if he can flip us off.

And he did it. He just gave us a thumbs down. I was like, OK, we're grown. We're grown.

We're going the right direction here. But I expect it to be a hostile environment. You know, growing up in Pennsylvania, I was in Philly and growing up had a lot of Philly fans.

I know how passionate they are. So it's going to be fun. Oh, well, now he is a Philadelphia Eagle. And eventually he's going to go back to MetLife Stadium. And the Giants fans are going to boom. But there shouldn't be any real animosity.

It's just a matter of circumstances. Nobody gives a damn about running backs. I mean, the New York Giants found his replacement, not as good, by the way, in Devin Singletary.

I know. Very exciting for the New York Giants and their fan base. And we have running backs who have already started to move around here on the board. Josh Jacobs is going to Green Bay. DeAndre Swift is going to be a member of the Bears. Tony Pollard is moving on to Tennessee. Saquon Barkley, I told you, yes, is now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.

You can't make this stuff up. The NFL free agency period, the tampering period is open. We've had some big moves. We've had some small moves.

We're going to have more moves. There's still some big names like Derrick Henry that happen to be available. We have no idea what's going on with Justin Fields.

He doesn't sound too hot like anybody wants him. And so we got a lot to discuss the rest of the show. I told you Dave Zangaro is going to join us from NBC Sports Philadelphia. The Orlando Ledbetter is going to join us next hour to talk Falcons. And coming up in five minutes, we're going to have a conversation with Ligé Doosable. This man is an analyst right now for CBS Sports HQ, held it down in the NFL for 10 years. Ligé is coming up next on the other side.

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Six fifteen twenty four were prohibited. You are listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the J.R. sport show here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

A busy, busy day. Tampering period is open in the NFL. Players are able to negotiate their contracts. They can get the signing on Wednesday.

We know about the big moves, the small ones and everything in between. Cousins and Barkley and Jacobs and on and on. Well, right now to talk about it is someone who was an NFL bet.

Ten years currently an analyst for CBS Sports HQ. Lije Duzable is here with us. Lije, how you doing, man? I'm doing great. How about yourself? I'm amazing.

Thank you for taking the time to hop on. We know the biggest moves of today. Obviously, Kirk Cousins and Saquon Barkley.

What are your early thoughts on both of these guys switching teams? Yeah, when you look at Kirk Cousins, right? To make a funny gesture, right?

Where they say happy wife, happy life. Kirk Cousins' wife is from the Georgia area. But other than that, when you look at it, it just makes a lot of sense because... You look at where Kirk Cousins is coming from. He's coming from the Minnesota Vikings with Kevin O'Donnell. Where did Kevin O'Donnell come from? He came from the Rams. Well, the Atlanta Falcons' new head coach, Raheem Morris came from the Rams also.

And he brought Zach Robinson with him from the Sean McVeigh tree. So when you look at Kirk Cousins, a veteran quarterback, it'll be a lot of the same nuances. You won't have to learn a whole new offense. And then you look at the division, right?

It's a winnable division. And then you add the pieces that they have that Kirk Cousins can throw the ball to, right? You got Bijan Robinson out of the backfield.

You got Drake London. Also Kyle Pitts, who has not really had a consistent quarterback. Maybe they finally get that unicorn-type trait up out of him. Because you got a guy like Kirk Cousins who's been a confident pro. One of only five quarterbacks in NFL history have eight straight seasons with 25 or more touchdown passes. So thought it made a lot of sense for the Atlanta Falcons.

They wanted to go all-in in the Kirk O'Chains race, and they ended up getting them. And we can thank Juan Barkley, right? Not only is this a power move by the Eagles because they get one of the best running backs in the league, but they make one of their division foes a lot weaker by taking them from the Giants and going to the Philadelphia Eagles. And then you look at the history of the running back position while Nick Sirianni has been the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Look at Miles Sanders and what he did. Career year, right, in that offense. And then you look at DeAndre Smith.

What did he do? Career year in that offense. Just imagine Saquon Barkley with Jalen Hurts in the same backfield, and you've still got the slim reaper on the outside and DeAndre Smith and A.J.

Brown. Like, this will probably be the lightest box that Saquon Barkley has ever seen going back to high school, probably. Like, he won't have to worry about eight, nine, ten guys in the box just trying to stop him because the Philadelphia Eagles have so many explosive weapons, you have to account for everybody.

So I thought this was a power move by the Philadelphia Eagles. And also, we also saw something that I think a lot of people were surprised. The running back market kind of came back, right? Saquon's got to be making more than what he would have got if he got France r-attacked by the Giants.

I don't think a lot of people saw that. And then we'll see what the true numbers are for Jacobs. He left the Raiders and went to the Green Bay Packers.

But right now, it looks like that's $12 million a year or two. So we've seen a resurgence in that running back market. Absolutely, Lije DuSable is here with us, CBS Sports HQ analyst.

You played in the New York metropolitan area. You are very familiar with how the fans are. How are Giants fans supposed to feel? There's an understanding about what's taking place here with Saquon. You think the New York fans understand this? Obviously, Tiki Barber doesn't understand. I don't know if you've been on Twitter. He said Saquon is dead to them.

I was a little appalled by that, to be quite honest. Just because it wasn't like Saquon didn't lay it on the line for that team, right? He not only did the fifth-year option, but he got franchise tag as well. And again, we talked about it earlier, he was the focal point of that offense.

So when Saquon Barkley trotted out on that field on Sunday, he knew he was going to get eight-man boxes, nine-man boxes, and he was going to have to make a couple people miss to have an explosive play because he was the focal point of that offense. And he gave the Giants every opportunity to re-sign them. I thought the Giants played it smart because I didn't think he was going to get what he got in the open market. And not only that, I didn't think he was going to get that from a divisional fold as well.

But this is the business, right? You win some, you lose some in negotiations. And I'm glad for Saquon because he got what he truly wanted, kind of put the running back market back where it was. I think it also says a lot about what NFL teams truly feel about this upcoming running back draft class.

It's not really a good draft class. So that's why we see so many veteran running backs that we're not accustomed to seeing on day one get signed to the type of money that they're getting signed to. So I know Giants are going to be hurting because again, he is a pivotal point of the offense. He was the focal point of the offense. So if you're sitting back as a Giants man, you're like, where do we go from here?

Like people have been, you know, up and down, how they feel about Daniel Jones as a quarterback. Could the Giants potentially take a quarterback at the number six spot, even though they still have so many holes on that offense and defense now, uh, I thought another, another big loss and people talking about Saquon, McZinger, McKinney one, that one, I scratched my head on because the Giants had every opportunity to give him the transitional tag to make up the, let other teams actually do the bidding for them. Because at the end of the day, they would have been able to match whatever a team bid for his services.

And yet they didn't do that. And he got paid handsomely, I believe 17 million per year on the open market. So a lot of people thought the safety market was getting devalued, but Xavier McKinney single-handedly brought it back to life. So if you're a Giants fan, you're a little bit perplexed.

Now I think they feel a lot better because there are, there is rumors. They could potentially trade for Brian Burns. Now, if they're able to get Brian Burns via trade, I think, you know, Giant Nation would feel a little bit better losing Saquon and Xavier and McKinney.

Ligia Dusaboulis here with us, the JR sport re-show on CBS sports radio. You talk about Xavier McKinney. He's on his way to the Green Bay Packers, four years, $68 million. Someone who's going to make about $40 million and only about a mil and a half from the Pittsburgh Steelers is Russell Wilson.

We know he made that announcement last night. What does Russell Wilson do for these Steelers, a team that is used to going to the postseason every year? Well, first and foremost, it brings in a veteran presence that's one of the high level, that's a Super Bowl winning quarterback, a former pro bowler, right? And if you're Mike Tomlin in the Pittsburgh Steelers, you're hoping that you're getting a Russell Wilson that can come in and help compliment all of us.

I think we're done with the days of Russ being the focal point of the offense, right? The Steelers have a really good run game, they have some really good receivers on the outside. We can talk about George Pickens and being the young monster that is firing you at the tight end position as well as a really good young tight end. So I think if you're Mike Tomlin, because of where you're at in the draft, and you just took Kenny Pickett a few years ago, you didn't want to try to draft a quarterback when you just took one two years ago, you want to bring in a veteran that's played at a high level in the past and hope that he can maybe turn back the wheels of time, the hand of time, and get back to who he used to be, right, as far as taking care of the football, not turning it over, right, not putting the offense in bad situations as far as taking sacks that he shouldn't take and getting rid of the football. And then you also get the opportunity to push a young Kenny Pickett because people are still questioning and I would say even people in the organization, if he is truly the future of the franchise, we saw a lot of up and down play from him, then he ended up getting hurt and we saw Mason Rudolph kind of take off with his offense towards the back end of the season and lead them into the playoffs. So right now you get Russell Wilson's retreat practically free because of the deal that he signed with Denver Broncos, which is interesting because he didn't actually take a snap on that new deal. People forget he had two years on the pass deal from the Seahawks before he got to the Denver Broncos.

So essentially, the Denver Broncos are paying for his services and you got him for free. And if you're Russell Wilson, this is a smart move because you look at around the landscape of the NFL, you're trying to think of a place you can go and ultimately start. And this is a place where you can go in and compete and I'm sure he had those conversations with Mike Tomlin before signing and Mike Tomlin probably gave him the go ahead and said this will be a true open competition because a lot of times as players, and I'll let people in on a little secret, you know, upstairs people in the front office can tell you one thing, the coach can tell you one thing, but usually when you hear it from Mike T, it's going to be on the up and up. So I'm sure Mike T told Russell Wilson, this is truly going to be a competition. It's not going to be a situation where you have to like thoroughly outbeat him.

Like I'm giving you guys both a clean slate, right? You got to go out there and win the, you know, the quarterback job. So I think Russell Wilson looked at the landscape of the NFL and said, this is my best opportunity. And I know at worst with Mike Tomlin, you know, he goes 500 or better. This is not going to be a losing team.

And without a shadow of a doubt, the man has yet to have one of those. Liget Dusseble is here with us, a former NFL vet, CBS Sports HQ analyst. When you think about some of the other moves that have taken place are Christian Wilkins moving, you know, the Singletary is now on the New York Giants. What move also has caught your eye that you think is going to make a major difference and impact when we get to the season?

Yeah, I like what the Washington commanders have done, another team in the NFC East. I mean, finding Frankie Louvou, I think is an underrated finding. A lot of people, unless you watch the Carolina Panthers, probably don't know who he was.

He was in New York jet before that. But Frankie Louvou is kind of in the mold of Michael Parsons. And let me temper that, you know, temper expectations by saying he's not a true edge guy. He's like a hybrid edge and linebacker guy. So I think that's why Dan Quinn, you know, really, why it piqued his interest when it came to Frankie Louvou, because this is a guy that can rush off the edge, can blitz him off the edge.

This is a guy that can cover in space well. This is a thumper in the run game. So I can see him using Frankie Louvou, kind of how he used Michael Parsons when he was with the Dallas Cowboys. You might rush him, you know, on the edge sometimes, you might put him at standup line backing position.

I think that was a really good sign. Doran Armstrong is another guy that he brought over from Dallas that he signed for the commanders. It's a guy that was there at third, he was a then. He also has the flexibility and versatility to wind up inside on passing downs on third down. And then also getting Tyler Beatis, again, we talked about Saquon making the Giants weaker about by making the Eagles stronger. The commanders did the same thing with the Dallas Cowboys.

They stole their starting center. And that was a major need for this Washington commanders team because Sam Powell got sacked more than anybody I've ever seen living during the NFL season. So they needed to get some beef up front to protect their future quarterback because it's most likely going to be Jayden Daniels. So getting a guy like Tyler Beatis was big. So those are some of the more under radar signings. I think the commanders have done a really good job to the opening of free agency.

Let's see what they do as we pull up on the draft. Hey, Le'Jae, I want to thank you for your time. Where can people follow you, your work, your opinions and everything you got going on?

Yes, definitely. As you stated, I'm CBS Sports HQ on there on the regular. Also CBS Sports Network HQ Spotlight is on at three o'clock Monday through Fridays. I'm usually on there all the time as well. Find me on Twitter at Le'Jae Dozable and on Instagram at Le'Jae Dozable. Hey, Le'Jae, thank you so much. I know it's a busy day. Appreciate the time. Of course.

Thanks for having me. No doubt. No doubt. So much going on here in this open tampering period in the NFL. I mean, so many moves that we'd even get into Bryce Huff, who had a 10 plus sacks for the New York Jets this past season.

Bryce Huff, I want to say an underrated type player. He's going to the Eagles. And then literally Le'Jae Dozable just talked about Brian Burns potentially going to the Giants.

Well, according to Adam Schefter, that is the case. The New York Giants just picked up a new pass rusher. The Panthers are trading Brian Burns to the New York Giants. You lose McKinney, Xavier McKinney, defensive back goes to the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants, which have historically been known as a team that goes out there and gets the quarterback, at least when they've won championships. They pick up a man from Carolina who's used to doing so. The J.R. Sport Reshow here on CBS Sports Radio 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS is the number.

That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS. We've had some major moves taking place and a matter of fact, when we come back, we're going to talk about a quarterback who is staying with his team. And we're going to talk about another player who was franchise tag. And he wants out.

I'm going to tell you about both of them on the other side of the break. Old Man Winter here. If I had it my way, it would stay winter all year long, short days, wind chill, black ice and a good polar vortex.

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Now during the Hyundai getaway sales event, offers end soon. Call five six two three one four four six zero three for details. 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. Hey, I don't want to be a pest.

Was there a door when I got up? Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get here. I can't. You are listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

The J.R. Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you so much to Liget Doosable, 10 year NFL vet, analyst for CBS Sports HQ. He joined us in the last break, and he's a little bit of a prophet, because while we were having a conversation, he literally mentioned the New York Giants potentially acquiring Brian Burns from the Carolina Panthers, and the New York Giants did. And so now they've added a pass rusher from Carolina, and the New York Giants also got to talk about this. We'll get to this at the top of the hour, because things appear to be getting personal in New York, okay? Saquon Barkley, a couple of minutes ago, actually responded to New York Giants legendary running back and current host on WFAN radio, New York City, Tiki Barber. And so now we got a battle of running backs, wild, wild stuff. Tiki Barber basically said, hey, you're an eagle now, you're dead to us.

Saquon Barkley said, you've been a hater since I got to New York City. Don't smile in my face when you see me. Wow. This is some good stuff.

This is good stuff. I know Tiki. I like Tiki. I never met Saquon, surprisingly, surprisingly never met Saquon, but man, I think these are nice guys. I mean, why are they beefing? Hickey, why can't we all just get along? Well, I mean, after Tiki kind of laid down the law last week, I guess you could say Saquon went against his wishes and now it's war.

Oh, wow. Well, well, I know Tiki. He don't play no more. Tiki's still in good shape.

Why don't we just put him in an octagon and let him go at it, right? Tiki is in good shape. Yeah.

Those biceps did not leave when he retired. Yeah. He's in good shape, but he ain't Saquon right now, right?

You know? What is Saquon? 26?

Still in his prime, entering his prime? 25, 26. Legs are like... Tree trunks. Yeah. What are the things that you get water from on the side of the street? Fire plugs? Fire hose? Hydrant. Fire hydrant. Yeah.

Legs are like fire hydrants. I don't know. And Tiki might be mad at me, but I think if they, these two got at it, look, I think Saquon would win that one. Sorry, Tiki.

Anyway, we're going to talk about that at the top of the hour. Not that I love when things get personal, but I do. I love it. I love it. I love it.

I love it. And so, yeah, there's a lot of people who are happy, not happy with free agency starting here in the NFL. And we got two dudes on opposite ends of the spectrum. One guy is happy.

One guy is not happy. Tiki, who should we talk about first? The happy guy or unhappy dude?

You know, Tiki's a good day, a positive day. So let's talk about the happy guy first. Baker Mayfield is happy.

Okay. Mike Evans is also happy. Mike Evans ends up with another 1,000 plus yard season, ends up with like 13 plus touchdowns. And Baker Mayfield is going to be throwing him the ball, maybe, probably. He signed a contract for the next three years.

So I will assume he will be able to go out there and honor it. Three years, $115 million for Baker Mayfield. That amounts to $38 million per season. And this man who was the first pick in 2018 out of Oklahoma ends up with the Browns, has to prove his worth again with the Panthers and the Rams, actually goes to the postseason here. First year in Tampa Bay, Baker Mayfield isn't going anywhere. And so if you're the Buccaneers, you got to be thrilled with this.

You got to be happy because let's face it, life after Tom Brady, you expected them, or I certainly did, to hit the dumps, especially with Todd Bowles as their head coach. I've never met a more unenthusiastic man than Todd Bowles. I mean, I've met him too.

Even he's boring all times. I can't imagine how he leads a football team, but what the hell do I know? I'm not in there as he coaches the guys. Baker Mayfield, thrilled to be back. Let's keep in mind, after they lost to the Detroit Lions, Baker Mayfield says, I want to return.

Well, he got his damn wish. Listen. I love this group. I said that all year and it's authentic. I mean that. And so it would mean a lot for me to bring back a lot of key pieces to get this back together and to get it in year two in the system that you can make huge strides.

And so I would love that, obviously, who knows how it's going to play out. But I can't say enough about this organization for the opportunity they gave me this year. And so just thankful.

And so I'm hoping it works out. Good for him. I'm happy for Baker Mayfield. This man threw 26 touchdowns.

At least he has some security. We know the Browns wanted to go for Deshaun Watson. Baker Mayfield is like, y'all going for him. Y'all can just let me the hell up on out of here.

And that's pretty much all that she wrote. And so I think when you take a look at the NFC South, two team race, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons. We know that this team up north that I mentioned that just traded Brian Burns to the Giants.

By the way, he got a one hundred and fifty million dollar contract extension. Ridiculous numbers. The Panthers, they're hoping that they can get something out of Bryce Young, hoping. And the New Orleans Saints, I just I can't take them serious. They'll be at around five hundred, you know, with Carr as their quarterback.

I just don't take them serious. And by the way, I know the fans out New Orleans, they hate this man's guts, too. They don't want Carr as their QB. Let's see what the Falcons and Bucks can do as they duke it out for control of the NFC South later on this year. So that's the good news. Take you ready for the unhappy guy.

Let's do it. The unhappy guy would he'd have to be a wide receiver, right? Because wide receivers are, quite frankly, never happy. The wide receiver who's not happy is T. Higgins. He is officially planted as wide receiver number two in Cincinnati. We know that number one spot belongs to Jamar Chase. T. Higgins came into the NFL a year before Jamar Chase.

And Jamar Chase is just flat period, one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. And T. Higgins last year, a lot of injuries only amounted to six hundred fifty yards receiving to go along with five touchdowns. Well, Cincinnati Bengals placed the franchise tag on T. Higgins. He's supposed to make twenty one million dollars.

And today we find out he doesn't give a damn about your tag. T. Higgins wants to move on. T. Higgins wants to be traded from the Cincinnati Bengals because they haven't come to any type of terms on a new contract.

Well, is anybody shocked or surprised? Let's remember this. Joe Burrow is making fifty five million dollars. Let's also remember the Cincinnati Bengals are one of the cheapest organizations in the entire NFL. The Cincinnati Bengals a couple of years ago were charging their players for water. Hickey, remember this? The Cincinnati Bengals only give their players three meals a day.

What is it? Once a week or Wednesday? It's sad that we know that. To get the Bengals over the hump, you only get breakfast, lunch and dinner one day out of the damn week. Let's listen to the general manager. This is Duke Tobin. He says we hope to keep T. Higgins. They tagged him, but he don't want to be there. Listen to Duke.

It's really simple. He's a good player. We want to keep him. And we have resources to do that. So we decided early to do it. And that's where we are. We like T. We're a better team with T. So with the way that we've managed our cap, we had the ability to put the franchise tag on him. And we did.

You did. Duke Tobin doesn't want to be there because you haven't come to terms on a long term contract, a long term deal. Duke Tobin continued on.

This is also from the scouting combine. He's like, listen, we want to keep him, but Joe Burrow's making all the damn money. It makes it tough. Well, it puts constraints on you. You've got to be really judicious with your money. You've got to determine what's needed and what's just wanted.

Like I've said before, it's a finite pie and we slice it up a lot of different ways. We want to keep as many good players as we can. But there's always hard decisions to make. Now listen, T. Higgins can request a trade. It doesn't mean a trade is going to happen. I mean, if we think about some of the teams that actually need wide receiver help, it's a lot.

It really is. I mean, I told you about the Panthers. They need somebody to help out Bryce Young.

You need somebody to go out there and work with. I could think about the Arizona Cardinals and then Kyler Murray. I can go forward and take a look at, I don't know, the Texans. You want to tell me that CJ Stroud couldn't utilize a little bit of help with the wide receivers. T. Higgins can help out a lot of squads, but this could all be a move just to try to jump start some contract talks with the Bengals. But this is the Bengals. You would think with $30 million extra in cap space, you would think about with all the money that the Bengals have saved by not providing their players with free water and three meals a day, you would think that the Bengals would have enough to actually move forward and provide T. Higgins with the contract.

The top wide receivers in the NFL right now are making about $30 million per year. T. Higgins, not in that space, not in that category. But listen, pay the guy.

Pay the guy. Joe Burrow is one of the best. Let's keep him with somebody to work with. The JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Nobody being traded around here. A matter of fact, we're going to get ready to take a break. And on the other side, because I will return, we're going to talk about Russell Wilson, the man who is a Pittsburgh Steeler. We're going to talk about Saquon and Tiki Barber. We're going to get into a conversation with D. Orlando Ledbetter. He's joining us from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. So much going on.

It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. We've seen a lot of change in the past 20 years, but two decades later, Mountain Dew Baja Blast is still a fan favorite, bringing you the cold, tropical lime flavor that folks can't get enough of. It takes you back to a sunny day at the beach with every delicious sip.

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Heaven. Wait, is it getting warm in here? Your cold snap is over, Old Man Winter. Spring has arrived.

Spring. Spring is here, which means it's the perfect time to get away in the Hyundai you've always wanted. Visit the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event, where you can get great deals on all of our award-winning Hyundai models, like the tech-filled Tucson and Kona, as well as the spacious Palisade. Enjoy wherever you go with the peace of mind that comes with America's best warranty and three years or 36,000 miles of complimentary maintenance.

But hurry in. These deals won't last. Add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event. Now get 0% APR or up to 1,500 bonus cash on the Hyundai Tucson, now during the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event. Offers end soon. Call 562-314-4603 for details. It's that time of year.

Cash the ticket. Jim Costa with Mike Valenny. We shift the focus from football to college hoops, playing that system that's not a system but sure plays like a system leading up to the tournament. We're looking for that value with the daily dimes. We look for the gross lines, getting us ready for the tournament where we're going to break down all the matchups and have an eye on some future plays too. This time of year, baby. Search Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.