JR SportBrief Hour 1

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And 615.24, void where prohibited. It is the JR Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love to people listening all over North America. How can you listen to the show? Always on the free Audacy app.

A-U-D-A-C-Y. Go ahead and lock in. You can always listen to this show on your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate. You can tune in on SiriusXM channel 158. If you got a smart speaker, it's not that tough. All you gotta do is ask it to play CBS Sports Radio and boom, up pops the station. CBSSportsRadio.com and so many other ways to lock in to CBS Sports Radio. This is when the show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. I mentioned I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to our super producer and host, who's back in the saddle today, Ryan Hickey. There's a lot to get into today.

Okay? Obviously there's Kirk Cousins press conference from last night and now there may be issues of tampering. There's Saquon Barkley having his introductory press conference. We have some middling quarterbacks who have been traded to new destinations. Sam Howell to Seattle. Ritter is now a member of the Arizona Cardinals.

We have news that it looks like sooner than later, much sooner than later, college football playoff is going to expand. Later on in the show, we're going to take a deeper dive as to what is going on with a lot of these injuries in spring training. It's like baseball season hasn't even started and we got guys like Garrett Cole who have been reliable.

We got a truck like Judge. We got an Acuna dealing with a knee injury, not anything that anyone wants to deal with. Dan Campbell got himself a little bit of a contract extension, old gambling Dan Campbell. Ben Simmons has had surgery. We hear that he might be back next season. Tell me if you've heard of that one before. Joel Embiid might return before the season is up and over.

And then Aaron Rodgers is in the news again for reasons that have nothing to do with football. If you want to participate and be a part of the show, it's real simple. It's 855-212-4CBS. It's 855-212-4CBS. You can also find me online. It's been a very busy day online.

I am at J.R. Sportbrie. Before we do anything, before I say anything, Ryan Hickey, it's good to have you back. How the hell are you? J.R., very good to be back. Missed you yesterday. I will say, worked this shift for a while. I have never really in the last four or five years woken up before like 9, 8 a.m. Woken up at 7 a.m. the last two days. I am exhausted. You're waking up at 7 o'clock in the morning. You're tired? I used to be a morning guy. And now this shift, I just never, you know, I guess lost that ability to be up and at them early on.

And now, boy, I don't know how some people do it. Note taken. Do not reach out to you before 9 a.m., right? 9 a.m.? No, I mean realistically, like 8 o'clock. Oh, okay. I don't think there's too much of a- I'm trying to get up earlier now, but- Yeah, but I don't think there's too much of a reason for me to do so anyway. But certainly, note taken. I think I'm awake in most cases, many hours before then.

Many, many hours before then. But yesterday, Chris and I joked about where the hell you were and that, you know, we had temporarily, you know, held you for hostage. So it's nice to have you back and we're going to keep on rolling, okay?

My man, thank you. Well, thank you for paying the three bucks to get me out of hostage. I appreciate that.

Three bucks and, you know, a bag of quarters got the job done or a roll of quarters got the job done. And speaking of this morning, I had a very, very busy morning. A very, very busy morning. We know that I have been- well, if you listen to the show on a consistent basis, I have been very enthusiastic about women's college basketball. I've been very enthusiastic about the fact that I appreciate where the game is, where the game is going, a lot of the personalities that we currently have in the game. And last night, we spent an entire segment just kind of hyping up the women's game and taking a look at comments by LSU coach Kim Mulkey and just really boosting, saying, hey, I love the women's game and I like where it's going.

Well, I also had a CBS Sports Minute, an Odyssey Sports Minute that I recorded that ran this morning all across the country. And I made a mistake. I made a big, big, big mistake. If you listen to the show, you know, I try to be as straightforward as possible. There's a lot of comedy, there's sarcasm, there's humor. I'm just trying to have a good time.

If you listen to the show, which I've been doing here now for the better part of four years, I've been on the radio in New York City and here CBS for seven years. You know, you know about the work that I've done to uplift other people, whether it be Special Olympics and touring and what have you. But in my minute, you know, I was disrespectful to Camila Cardoso. OK, I called her out of her name. I didn't refer to her by her name, which was the biggest issue was more so about where she was from and her size, which was a mistake. And so my apologies to Camila.

My apologies to everyone associated with the Gamecocks and Coach Dawn Staley. I have no problem owning up when I was wrong, which I was. And I shared an apology online. I have no problem sharing any additional apologies as it relates to the university. And I understand this is this is where we are in life. And it doesn't matter what the intent was.

I screwed up and it was a very poor choice and humor. And I'm still looking forward to all of the women's college basketball. I'm still looking forward to seeing what South Carolina can do.

I got no ill will towards the community there. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you can do. I want to go ahead and see what Caitlin Clark can do, because I love basketball and I love sports. And so I'm going to continue to talk about sports and have fun. And I'd say, hey, you know, for all the years that I've been able to go ahead and do this, there's been a whole lot of love. And there was a mistake yesterday. And now we rock and we roll. Ryan Hickey, can we can we rock and roll?

I think so. That was very well said. Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

This is thank you much. But outside of that, as I said, you were going yesterday. Was there anything that piqued your interest while the hell you were going at the conference? Oh, in terms of what was talked about, I mean, just in a general sense, it's been a very busy time in sports. We know that Kirk Cousins had his introductory press conference.

I know not too long ago that Saquon had his own introductory press conference. So anything that that piqued your interest? By the way, we did do that top six list yesterday of the the biggest, most influential free agent signings ever. And Shohei Ohtani was was number one.

Right, Felicia, I think seven hundred million dollars should get you number one on the list. You know what piqued my interest yesterday? I did get a chance to listen to a little bit of Kirk Cousins. Oh, boy.

And I do I appreciate his honesty and it didn't come off as a shot, but I appreciate the subtle shot he is. He took at former Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks as he told the story through the eyes of his father in law. Oh, sitting around being pained, watching and witnessing the pain. Is that what you're referring to? Needing maybe, you know, some godly, godlike help to maybe, you know, grace Atlanta with a win or two that did not come over the last few years for Kirk's father in law? Well, let's talk about this for a second, because here in Atlanta, yes, Kirk Cousins was introduced yesterday kind of right at the time I was on air as the new quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons. And he talked about the familial connection, his wife being from here. And as you just mentioned, you think about his father and his father in law and the experiences that that he's witnessed when he's taking in the Falcons or the Hawks or the Braves. And so it sounded to me that Kirk Cousins is very familiar with the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The man talked about the traffic.

He started getting into being in the city, said his son Turner was born downtown right down the block from me, a couple of blocks from me on Ted Turner Drive. And so it sounds like he's ready to go. I want you to hear some of these comments from Kirk Cousins. And then I want to fill you in on how a lot of people have responded to Kirk as a result. Let's listen to Kirk tell you about how proud and happy he is to be a Falcon. It's a privilege to be the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. This is a privilege. You know, my father-in-law, I mean, I've watched him, you know, borderline out loud praying, watching games, you know, not just the Falcons but the Braves and the Hawks.

I mean, he loves this. And I sit there in the off-seasons in February on the couch at night watching these teams play, watching these games and seeing how much it means to him. You know, and you realize, man, it is a privilege to get to play for a team with people like that cheering for you. And what you want to do is understand there's a responsibility that comes with that privilege and you're accountable to a lot of people and you got to deliver. And so that's where I say we got to get to work because I understand that and can't wait to do that.

And when you can deliver, you know, it's special. Kirk Cousins actually continued on. And I guess this is one of the larger questions we heard about a month ago. Kirk Cousins told everybody that it was about the money and it wasn't so much about the money and that he would take potentially a discount and it's a little bit of respect. Well, now that you're here with the Falcons, Kirk Cousins, now that you do have this brand new contract that's going to pay you $180 million over four years, why did you choose Atlanta?

In Minnesota, it was trending over the last couple of seasons to be in somewhat year to year. And as we talked with Atlanta, it felt like this was a place where, you know, if I play at the level I expect to play that I can retire a Falcon. And that was something that really excited me. And that's certainly the goal. And you got to earn the right to do that.

But that's that was exciting to feel like I could get that opportunity here. Ah, OK. It was a year to year situation up in Minnesota. He didn't want to do that anymore. He wanted the security. And so I know, Hickey, we talked about this a few days ago from all of his comments from about a month ago, maybe more than that, about, yeah, you know, I wouldn't mind staying here. And, you know, I've been very blessed.

Well, he took the security like anybody would. And we played that clip a lot. And at the end, right, he always talk about the structure and tell what the dollars mean. But it's about, you know, what they represent and the structure is more important than even just the overall money. It doesn't sound like maybe Minnesota was willing to guarantee or do the structure Kirk wanted. And all of a sudden now when Atlanta does, it's, hey, I want to be there the whole time.

I love it here. Yeah, it's it's the length of the deal. And let's keep in mind, this is a Kirk Cousins who will be thirty six years old by the time the season starts. This is a Kirk Cousins who is going to be thirty six and is also coming off of a blown out Achilles. And I guess there is reason for optimism because before he went down, there were conversations about Kirk Cousins being in the MVP race. This man had already thrown 18 touchdowns and one of the was one of the league leaders in touchdowns and in passing yards when he blew out his leg. OK, so, yeah, there's there's legitimate optimism as to what he can do if he's healthy.

I think with modern technology, you would think at thirty six, he'd be good and ready to go. He looks good. He looks and sounds enthusiastic. And he was asked, of course, about his Achilles.

And this is what Kirk had to say in response. I'm feeling great. This is my first surgery of my life. So the rehab process has certainly been a first for me.

And it's really been up and to the right for the first four months. It's been a really positive process. I've enjoyed the rehab.

Oh, he's enjoyed. I've never heard of anybody enjoying rehab. You know, I'm fortunate, just like Kirk Cousins. I mean, for a dude who plays football for a living, not me, him.

I've never experienced the surgery. I'm certainly trying to keep it that way. He says he's enjoyed the rehab. I guess it's been good and fun, I guess. We saw Kirk Cousins at the NFL honors over Super Bowl weekend.

This man even did a little bit where he was dancing on the stage. Kirk Cousins, I guess, wanted to show everybody that he was fit and that he was able to move. Am I happy that Kirk Cousins is here in Atlanta as the Falcons quarterback?

Yeah, I am, because it can't be any worse than what we saw last season, OK? Having to think about Ritter, who's been shipped out to the Cardinals and also Heinecke leading the way, was pathetic. The Falcons went seven and ten. All of the weapons that they had pretty much went to waste.

They could have put me out there instead of, I don't know, Drake, London or Kyle Pitts, because they got the football as much as I would have. And that's almost not at all. That's why Arthur Smith is now gone as the head coach of the Falcons and is now the offensive coordinator of the Steelers. And there was no bigger indictment on what took place last year at the quarterback position from anybody but from the owner. Arthur Blank, who, by the way, happens to be one of the nicest human beings that you will meet in life.

I won't let you forget. Arthur Blank, earlier this offseason, just said, listen, our quarterback play, it stunk. But our quarterback play this year was clearly deficient. But quarterback play includes, you know, scheme, play calling, other players. You know, there's a lot of things that go into what makes a quarterback successful or not. Whatever makes a quarterback successful or not. Well, I think Kirk Cousins knows how to be successful. I'm going to tell you that Ritter and Heineke, they do not.

At least Heineke can take you to a postseason, at least fight, fight, fight and fight. And in the case of Ritter, well, he's going to throw a touchdown and then he's going to throw an interception. And then he'll throw a touchdown, you know, five weeks later and then he'll throw three interceptions in between. And so I love the fact that the Falcons have Kirk Cousins. I'm not overly concerned with his injury based on this. Even someone like Aaron Rodgers, he's older, blew out his Achilles. And yes, it was a lot of fluff. But there was certainly some realism in that, hey, he might return at the end of the season if the Jets were into it.

And now they're zip tying people's legs back together. And so I feel cool with the return of Kirk Cousins. And I feel confident that these Atlanta Falcons can go back to the playoffs, can have a record of maybe 10 and 7 instead of 7 and 10, that they can win the NFC South, which would obviously put them in the postseason, and that they can at least say, hey, we got a guy who can throw the ball, something that we haven't had since Matt Ryan. We know why Matt Ryan is gone. It's because they went after Deshaun Watson and basically failed. The Browns said, hey, we will give him a guaranteed deal.

We will pay him all the money. And things basically went into the toilet at the quarterback position for the Atlanta Falcons. Now, I know there are a lot of fans here in Atlanta not happy with the fact that he said he's happy to be here. And this is where he wants to retire. There are a lot of fans who looked at his comments and said, we don't want to hear about your retirement.

And yeah, sure, you're 36 years old. You're closer to the end than you are to the beginning. We don't know when and how his career is going to end. There are some Falcons fans who wanted to hear, let's compete for a Super Bowl. I'm here to help you compete for a championship. They didn't want to hear anything, anything from Kirk Cousins about I'm here and I want to retire a Falcon.

People want the hardware. I'm not prepared to put the Falcons in the upper echelon of the NFC. But you know what they say about getting in? I guess at that point, everybody has a chance, regardless of how slim it is. Congratulations to the Falcons. Congratulations to new Atlanta man Kirk Cousins and his family happens to be from here. But they're not out of the woods. The Falcons are not out of the water. Matter of fact, the Eagles potentially are not out of the water because yes, they can hold the fancy press conferences, but there could be some issues here as it relates to tampering. Yeah, the Eagles and the Falcons could be in trouble in how they decided to bring on their new star players.

It's the JR sport. We show here with you on CBS Sports Radio 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. We're going to take a break and I'm going to tell you what could go down with the Eagles, what could go down with the Falcons. We're going to get into this potential ultimate expansion of the college football playoff. And no, not the one that begins this year.

I'm talking about another one in a few years. We're going to talk about Derrick Henry. He had his press conference.

Dan Campbell. He got himself a contract extension. Ben Simmons.

You want to talk about surgeries. Ben Simmons had another one. What a shot. We're going to talk about all these injuries in Major League Baseball. A potential return of Joel and B. Aaron Rodgers is so much to get into. Thank you for listening. We're locked into the JR sport.

We show you on CBS Sports Radio. 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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You can find me online at J.R. sport brief. We open up the show by talking about Kirk Cousins had his press conference yesterday with the Atlanta Falcons. There was some criticism here in Atlanta about Kirk Cousins saying, yeah, I'm here and I hope to retire a Falcon.

And there was less less emphasis on a championship. And so that drew some fans ire whether or not they they view the entire press conference or not. Well, Kirk Cousins actually spoke to Charles Barkley on Charles Barkley's podcast. And we'll share with you some of those those comments made by Kirk Cousins about his time and his future. Someone who had his own press conference today introduced to the Philadelphia community. He happens to be from Pennsylvania, played at Penn State. Saquon Barkley and Saquon Barkley let everybody know I'm an eagle and I'm happy to be here.

Listen to Saquon. Yeah. When it when it came to my attention, you know, the team that the Eagles won the team that were interested in me, you know, definitely got excited about it. Obviously, you know, we got everything wrapped up and, you know, just put my signature to the paper. But from being a watch from afar, everything that they're about, you know, the culture here, the fans here definitely got super excited about it. And I'm just happy to be a part of this organization.

And I'm ready to go. If that was this afternoon from Saquon Barkley. Now, here's where things can get tricky for both the Philadelphia Eagles adding Saquon and also. Kirk Cousins joining the Atlanta Falcons, the NFL is investigating. Tampering charges against both the Falcons and the Eagles, I guess, or something about birds, but they are exploring tampering charges. They are saying that there was communication.

There could have been potentially communication between Kirk Cousins and the Falcons before the start. Official start a free agency, the signing day yesterday. Now, Monday at noon, everybody pretty much has the go ahead to have your agent go ahead and talk to the teams.

That's the tampering period. You can have your agent do all the chat and all the rapping, all the negotiating that you want. But you as the player, you can't communicate with the team.

You're not supposed to. Well, in the case of Kirk Cousins, it appeared that there was a reference to Kirk Cousins speaking to part of the training staff. OK. In relation to Saquon Barkley, Saquon Barkley's former head coach, Penn State head coach James Franklin, he was doing some chatting about this deal with Saquon going to the Eagles. And he basically said or suggested that Howie Roseman had spoke directly to Saquon Barkley before the official start of free agency, that tampering period where only his agent is supposed to have communications. Well, Saquon decided to address that himself. Saquon says that there was no tampering. Listen, Coach Frank, and I think kind of misinterpreted the truth was the the sell pitch to Penn State.

How many Penn State fans are Philadelphia Eagles fans? But that was through my agent and my agent told me that. So, you know, I got it happens and I'm with Philly on that.

Oh, Hickey, it's just it's just like a game of telephone, right? Things things get said. There's miscommunications and it didn't happen. It was via his agent. It wasn't from Saquon. That's what he said. Totally believable because the question we're talking about big time contracts of millions of dollars on the table.

Obviously, you were loose to the lips and you know, the game of telephone is played, not direct communication. Saquon is definitely right. Not lying for sure.

Oh, yeah, he's a hundred percent correct. Or he's trying to save the Philadelphia Eagles behind because. If a team gets punished for tampering.

The punishment is pretty rough. OK, how about this? In 2016, the Kansas City Chiefs were trying to get speaking of the Eagles, they were trying to get wide receiver Jeremy Macklin to join them. Leave the Eagles and come over here to the Chiefs.

OK, well, it was found that there was tampering. Philadelphia didn't get compensation. But Kansas City, they had a third and a sixth round draft pick taken away, they were fined a quarter million dollars. Andy Reid, I know Andy Reid is making millions a year. I don't know what, somewhere between 16 and 20 mil a year. Andy Reid was fined at that time seventy five thousand dollars. The general manager, John Dorsey, at the time was fined twenty five thousand dollars.

And if we want to talk about tampering, let's not forget this. There was a guy and yesterday on my top six list, I proclaimed him as one of the most impactful, influential free agent signings in sports history. Tom Brady was a free agent in 2020. Tom Brady had a chance and an opportunity to go wherever he wanted to.

We know he decided to go to Tampa. We know he won a Super Bowl in his first year. The man has seven Super Bowl rings. He has more championships than any one single organization has Vince Lombardi's.

We know about all of this. But while he was still under contract. With the New England Patriots, the Miami Dolphins tried to get involved. The Miami Dolphins, as we know, Stephen Ross said. I want I want Tom Brady.

You know, how can we go ahead and get Tom Brady here to South Beach? You know, well, the Dolphins were punished for that this past season, last year's draft 2023. The Dolphins were docked a first round pick.

And they will be missing a fourth round pick in this year's draft. And I know Stephen Ross is a real estate magnate. He got money.

He's a billionaire. Stephen Ross was suspended. He was fined one and a half million dollars. Their executive with the Dolphins, Bruce Beal, he was fined half a million dollars. And then he couldn't attend the NFL League meetings two years ago. So sad not to attend the NFL League meetings where bunch of guys get together and I don't know, talk about money. Not not too bad. Maybe he went on vacation instead of having to sit through meetings.

Who the hell likes a meeting? And so we got to see how things play out here. If there's evidence that Kirk Cousins was chatting with the trainer, if there's evidence that Saquon Barkley was talking directly to the general manager before the legal signing period.

Oh, yeah. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to get smacked with a fine and probably a draft pick taken away. I don't think it would be a first rounder. A precedent would tell you maybe it's a third round or a fourth rounder. And it's the same thing for the Falcons.

But I'll tell you this much. For both organizations, the Falcons and the Eagles, they hope that it's pretty much all worth it. Nobody is going to care what draft picks you got docked if the Falcons or the Eagles find success in the postseason. And speaking of the postseason, I told you that Kirk Cousins got in a little bit of trouble, a little bit by not mentioning championships. And on the other side of the break, I want to share with you some some audio from Kirk Cousins, because he chatted up with everybody's favorite commentator, Charles Barkley.

Also, that wasn't the only running back or Saquon wasn't the only running back introduced today. Derrick Henry introduced to the Ravens fans and their flock. We're going to hear from Derrick Henry. We're going to hear from Kirk Cousins about the championship that he hopes to get here in Atlanta.

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It's the J.R. Sport Brief Show here on CBS Sports Radio. 855-212-4CBS.

It's 855-212-4CBS. We've been talking about some of the introductory press conferences that some of the major free agents have already started to have. Kirk Cousins had his yesterday.

Saquon Barkley had his this afternoon. And we talked about how both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons, they're being investigated for tampering. That there could be some some chances that maybe they lose a draft pick or two if this is found to be true, if it happened. Because Kirk Cousins might have spoken to a Falcons trainer and Saquon Barkley might have spoken with Howie Roseman.

Saquon Barkley denies that fact. And so we just have to stay tuned to see down the line whether or not they get docked any draft picks for impermissible contact. Well, there was another running back who was introduced today. So much fanfare. There was no issue so far of tampering.

It didn't appear to be, you know, any matters of beef or tampering. It's it's Derrick Henry. Derrick Henry, I know this is a dream for a lot of individuals. In Baltimore right now, they were asking for him. They were asking for Aaron Jones. Well, they got a guy who's who's going to go into the Hall of Fame. OK, Derrick Henry joins the Ravens. He was introduced today. And it was actually pretty cool because he said, quite frankly, I'm happy to be here. I'm somewhere where somebody wants me. But your chinstrap, you're ready for a 60 minute fight and knowing that you're going to take some legs.

I have to get some licks. And every every time we played them, it was physical. And, you know, we had to have a great game plan to prepare for these guys, especially on defense, because they give you so many different looks. And then our defense getting ready for Lamar. How you got a game plan against him.

So I'm definitely glad to go on the other side now. Listen, I know the game plan. Punch the other team in the mouth. Give the ball to Derrick Henry and let him punch him in the mouth.

I know the game plan. Give the ball to Lamar Jackson and let him not necessarily punch anybody in the mouth, but have him run past and around people. Their offense is going to be fun.

Their offense is going to be dynamic. Derrick Henry's deal, if you want to go ahead and ask him for a loan, it's a two year contract, 16 million dollars. We know in the modern NFL, if he goes down, there's an injury, he's probably going to get dumped. But if Derrick Henry does what he did this past season, almost twelve hundred yards, which was second in the NFL rushing and twelve touchdowns, there's going to be success in the regular season for the Baltimore Ravens, even though you can take a look at the AFC North and the division as a whole has improved. We know Russell Wilson is now a member of the Steelers. You can expect, I guess, for Deshaun Watson to come back and be healthy from his broken shoulder. They added Jamis Winston as insurance. And in the Bengals, I got to be honest, the Bengals look like a little bit of a mess right now. Joe Burrow is someone who's been prone to little knickknack injuries. You've got T Higgins who wants a new contract, but publicly, at least, has been reported that he wants to be traded.

So I ain't all that sure about the Bengals, but I know every team in the AFC North, they're going to be fighting. And Derrick Henry, with his style of play in cold Baltimore, cold Pittsburgh, cold Cincinnati, and cold Cleveland, the fact that you can give this bulldozer the football and just say go, it's going to spare Lamar Jackson some wear and tear. It's going to spare Lamar Jackson some mileage. Derrick Henry, he continued on, he said, look, Lamar, me, him, same backfield, sign me up. You know, he's one of the best and not the best players in this league. You know, I have respect for him ever since he came in this league and his body of work and what he's been able to do. And I have respect for this organization as well. They have some great players in this organization, just like Lamar, who's done a lot of great things.

Mark Andrews at tight end. Eric Horne Smith at the linebacker positions from great leaders, guys who set a good example, so excited to be teammates with everybody. And excited to get in the RB room and get to know those guys and be able to compete against them and all of us make each other better. They're going to be fun to watch, but just let me know what happens in the postseason. Like, we can start adding and swapping out pieces and interchanging guys here or there.

Just let me know. Is it going to make a difference in the postseason? Odell Beckham Jr. has been released. I mean, certainly he wasn't the player that he was, you know, before the multiple torn ACLs. And so they still need that deep threat. And maybe Zay Flowers can expand and grow into being that guy in his second year. And yeah, you would think even Mark Andrews coming back off his leg injury, which he did in the postseason, that he's going to be good by the time the season starts. It's just a matter of whether or not the Ravens can throw the ball when they need to.

Like in the postseason, when I don't know, let's just say Patrick Mahomes is carving them up. And instead of having to run the ball, Lamar Jackson is going to be tasked with going out there and throwing it around. Well, there was a rumor that has been floating around and it's not a rumor.

It's actually a report of the adjacent lock and four who we've had here on the J.R. sport brief multiple times. He's been doing the media rounds and he has said that the 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, they have been in communication. He said that the Ravens actually reached out to the 49ers to try to bring in Debo Samuel. And we know Debo Samuel is also one of the most dynamic offensive players in the NFL. He didn't have a season that you would say is his most glowing last year, only about 900 yards receiving to go along with seven touchdowns.

Still not all that bad and shabby. But we've seen him operate as a wide receiver. We've seen him operate as a running back where you kind of can just run a sweep for him. When Debo Samuel is on the field, you have no idea what he is going to do. Are they putting him in motion? Are they putting him in the slot?

You have no idea what's going on. Well, the Ravens pretty much say that's a lie. They hit him with the Maury Povich treatment. Lie detectives said that is a lie because while Derrick Henry had his introductory press conference, as you can assume, the general manager of the Ravens, Eric DeCosta, was also on hand. And he said, us, the Ravens, trying to trade for Debo Samuel?

It ain't true. Listen. You know, that specific reports probably I read the Lorax last week at a local elementary school.

And I would pipe with that report that is similar to that. The Lorax. I know the Lorax is a Dr. Seuss character, little orange dude.

He's saying this is this is fantasy. Hey, Hickey, you ever read the Lorax? No, that was not a book that we had to read like when we were younger. Green Eggs and Ham, right?

Yeah. Oh, classic. Dr. Seuss. What's another Dr. Seuss?

Green Eggs and Ham. Can you think of another one? Are You My Mother? That was one that we read a lot. Excuse me? Oh, you never heard that one?

No, no, no. Dr. Seuss had a book. Are You My Mother? Yeah, it's from the story of like a baby chick and the baby chick loses her mother and she goes around like all different animals, like a lion, a snake, an elephant and asks, are you my mother?

Wow. No, I I don't remember this one. He could he could have used that one as an example. He's talking about the Lord.

Are you my mother? I'm going to have to go ahead and and Google that one and wild stuff. Either way, Jason Lock and Forest stands by his reporting. He said, I think there's multiple teams calling the 49ers about Deebo Samuel. I had two general managers say that they heard the Ravens, among others, making exploratory calls with them, trying to see if this Brandon Iuc situation might result in them being willing to trade somebody who has a little more call certainty and who's at a period of time where, you know, his contract is already established. Deebo Samuel's contract doesn't expire until next season at the end of 2025.

I mean, even when Deebo Samuel signed his contract, which is paying him approximately twenty three million dollars per year. There were a lot of conversations as to how do we classify him? Is he a running back? Is he a wide receiver? How the hell do we pay this dude who's just a a dual threat? Well, he's somewhere kind of sort of in the middle. You know, the top wide receiver in the game is Tariq Hill. He's making 30 million dollars per year. And Deebo Samuel, he's sitting at twenty three. You do the math.

One is greater than the other. Not that difficult to actual surmise. But look, the Ravens, they'll beat people up in the regular season.

Let's see what they do come playoffs if, knock on wood, they stay healthy. 855-212-4CBS. It's 855-212-4CBS. Greg is here from Michigan. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. JR, Mr.

Positive, thanks for taking my call. Certainly. What's on your mind, Greg? Cat in the Hat. Another one is Cat in the Hat. Well, that's the main.

Everybody knows Cat in the Hat. I'm trying to think of another one. And the Grinch Stole Christmas. Ah, yeah, there you go. The Grinch Stole. Yeah, they made a movie out of it.

Yes. Real quick, you're sounding real good on CBS Sports Minute. Let me tell you, in Detroit, we're loving every second of it. Oh, my God. There's so much to talk about.

But real quick, I know we're getting to a break. Dan Campbell, well-deserved. Everyone wants to play for him.

We just need a little bit of plus tax. Better secondary. Better defensive pass rusher. And I think we'll be in the Super Bowl. But look out if Baltimore gets Debo with Derek.

Like I said the other night, it's a great team there. Well, I know you said you already have the Ravens as currently constructed as the Super Bowl champs, correct? That and my Buffalo Bills.

How are you going to have both? You're going to pick the Bills? These are like competitors here in the AFC.

I know. I got my Lions, I got my Bills, and I got my Ravens. And my Atlanta Falcons.

I really like them. I mean, football is going to be awesome this season. Let me tell you. It always is, Greg. Love you, brother. Have a great one.

Everyone go for your dreams. Thank you, Greg, for calling from Michigan. He's kind of hedging his bets there, right? He might as well have told me, hey, in the AFCJR, I got the Buffalo Bills, I got the Baltimore Ravens, and then I got the Kansas City Chiefs. He might as well have told me that if he wanted to be so accurate. And, Hickey, how in the hell? We talked about Dr. Seuss. How the hell did we miss the Grinch that stole Christmas? How did we miss that?

That's a terrible oversight. I did not realize the Grinch stole Christmas was Dr. Seuss. I just must have never put two and two together, especially because it's like a Christmas movie now. And so I know more of the movie than the book.

So, actually, Gregory in Michigan just kind of more educated me than anything else. He beat both of us to it. Well, look, all the Dr. Seuss characters, they look the same. They just happen to be different colors. Like, the Grinch is green.

The cat is black. What's the stupid thing? The Lorax? He's orange. And, look, they all have mustaches on my buggin', right? No? Would you say the Grinch has a mustache? I guess, yeah. Yeah, it curls.

Yeah, you're right. Is he furry? The Lorax? I don't think the Lorax has a mustache. I think the main thing for him is he's furry. Yeah, I guess fur could be a mustache. Yeah, I guess you're right about that. Thank you to Eric DaCosta, general manager of the Baltimore Ravens, for allowing us an opportunity to go ahead and talk about the Lorax.

Not something that I had on my agenda today, but there you have it. Let's see if it's true. I mean, if he's telling a lie, then we'll see Deebo Samuel on the team.

Well, maybe he'll be sticking with the 49ers. I have no idea. It is the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Our friend, Mr.

Positive, just brought up an interesting point. He talked about Dan Campbell. Dan Campbell got an extension today to stick around with the Detroit Lions. The whole gambling Dan Campbell is not going anywhere. I remember it was only a season and a half ago that they were getting ready to give him the boot and the Lions were able to turn their season around. And now he's being rewarded for going to the postseason, almost going to a Super Bowl. Let's see if Dan Campbell has learned his lesson.

We're going to talk more about Dan Campbell on the other side of the break. And then speaking of the Kansas City Chiefs. They're in the news today because they want a new stadium. And I got to tell you something.

It looks like the Kansas City Chiefs are threatening to leave Kansas City if they don't get help building their stadium. I wish I was lying. I wish. You know what? We're going to talk about this on the other side. We'll talk about Dan Campbell. We'll get into the Kansas City Chiefs. We'll talk about the expansion of the college football playoff again. There's so much to do, so much to discuss.

It's the J.R. sport brief show here on CBS Sports Radio. 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.

Heaven. Wait, is it getting warm in here? Your cold snap is over, old man. Winter spring has arrived.

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