JR SportBrief Hour 1

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Void where prohibited. It is the JR Sportbreeze show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and shout outs to everybody tuned in and locked all over North America.

Our super producer and host Ryan Hickey is holding it down for us on the boards in New York City. And I hope you had a great weekend. Hope you had a good Monday so far. Because March is about to get mad. I mean, March is already mad. We got some upset coaches. We got some upset teams. As March Madness is upon us, the NCAA men's and women's tournaments, it's here.

And by the time we get to the end of the week, workplace productivity will be down all over the place. Speaking of all over the place, it doesn't matter where you're at. Thank you for listening to the show. You can always tune in on the free Odyssey app, A U D A C Y. You can lock in on your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate.

You can always tune in. Sirius X, I'm channel 158. And if you have a smart speaker, ask that smart speaker to play CBS Sports Radio and then boom, the show pops right on up.

You can find me everywhere on the internet. I am at J.R. Sportbrief. The phone number here at CBS Sports Radio is 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. And consider yourselves lucky because this is the beginning of the show when I get started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. We know March Madness is here. We're going to give you a recap of all of the madness and who plays who and when they play and who is not going to play.

Hi, hi, St. John's. We're going to get into Rick Pitino in a minute. Also over the weekend, we know that we had some big news. Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, we learned that Justin Fields is going to be moving on from the Chicago Bears, is now going to be a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Kenny Pickett, we talked about this on Friday. We know that he is moving on now a member of the Eagles and he had his introductory press conference today. And so there's still so much more moving and shaking in the world of the NFL. But we know that college basketball is doing all of the moving and shaking right now, even despite college basketball doing all the moving and shaking.

How about this? About an hour ago, we learned reportedly that Chase Young is going to sign with the Saints for a 13 million dollar deal. We'll keep you up to date on that one as things continue on. And speaking of football, hey, shout out to Mike DeFabo. He covers the Steelers for the athletic. We're going to talk about the trade that's bringing in or has brought in Justin Fields to the Steelers. Mike DeFabo coming through to join us in about 20 minutes.

And to break down all of the action and the the who's, the what's, the why's specifically. Ken Pomeroy is going to come through and join us. People utilize his Ken Palm ratings all throughout the course of the year to figure out who the best of the best is and where they're actually ranked. He's going to break down why particular teams are where they're at and why some of them are not. So Ken Pomeroy from Ken Palm is going to come through and join us next hour.

Everybody and their mother has a podcast. I've been saying this for a long time. Now we even have Lamar Odom. And now Hickey, help me out here. I don't want to get in trouble again. It's, you know, why are you laughing? You already know what I'm saying. Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn. OK. Yes. OK.

Yes. Caitlyn, former Bruce. Now Caitlyn Jenner has a podcast with Lamar Odom. And not to be jumped in the news, LeBron James has also entered into the podcast world. LeBron James is going to have a podcast with J.J. Redick. I didn't necessarily see that one coming.

And so we'll get into that later on in the show. Hickey, how you doing, man? You had a good weekend. I did, J.R. St. Patrick's Day was here. So I got to celebrate the Irish heritage. It was a loaded sports weekend. It was it was honestly a great weekend. A lot of fun. That's good.

So what does that mean? Are you hungover right now? You OK? No, no.

Responsibly, of course. You know, so you were hungover yesterday. You know, you know, it was a long day Saturday. We'll just say it was a long day. It was beautiful out.

And just maybe you will say this. It was a slow Sunday morning. That's all. You know, that's a rush out of bed or do anything.

Just kind of hang around for a little bit as as Sunday should be. Right. Exactly.

You had a relaxing Sunday morning. Very much. And then by the time we got to Sunday evening, it was all about the brackets, right?

Oh, yeah. Totally locked in by that point. Totally locked in.

So you filled everything out. You're all set and ready for the games this week. Ready to go, J.R. Let's get some hoops going.

I hear that. Now, look, we know what the who the number one seeds are on the men's side. I know I've said I'm very excited about the women because I am. But let's talk about the men first. UConn numero uno numero uno. Overall, UConn trying to go back to back on championships.

We haven't had a team do this since the Florida Gators in like, what, 06, 07. We got to go back to Joe Kim, Noah. And who's the other bald guy?

Al Hoffer. We got to go back to those. And then and then Brewer, Corey Brewer, who's not even in the NBA anymore. That's the last time we had back to back champions. UConn is trying to do it.

It's crazy to think that is almost almost going on 20 years. So you got UConn, you got Houston, the Cougars are back. You got Purdue and you have North Carolina.

Those are your top four seeds. And UConn is representing the biggies. They won the biggies. Number one overall tournament seed.

Seven wins in a row. And they have the honor of playing Stetson on Friday. Shout outs to Stetson and everybody down in Florida. The other great element of the NCAA tournament is that people are going to start looking at some of these teams and going, who the hell are they? Where the hell do they play?

I've never heard of this school. So prepare yourselves for that as well. So UConn, Houston, North Carolina and Purdue are leading the way for the men's side. And the number one seeds on the ladies side, you got USC, you have Iowa, you have Texas and then you have the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Looking forward to all of this. And what I like about everything already is that last night after Selection Sunday, we had teams that made it in and we had teams that didn't make it in. And so naturally we have some coaches who are upset and then we even have coaches who are in who are kind of still upset. How about UConn? I just told you that they're the number one seed.

Why on earth would they be mad? Well, their head coach Danny Hurley basically said it's an embarrassment. It stinks that we only got three teams representing the Big East. And you want to know who didn't make it in from the Big East? There's no Seton Hall. There's no St. Johns. There's no Providence. And Danny Hurley decided to stick up for the Big East. Listen to this. You're probably just a little embarrassed for the league, for such a proud league.

And the whole thing is just kind of a shell game. And it just really comes down to what the committee values. To me, I just I don't understand how a Providence team could beat Wisconsin in the non-conference. Creighton, Marquette and have those quality of wins and then not get in. How does Seton Hall do what they did in the second rated conference in the country with 13 games and not get in? How is St. John's so far off of the cut line too? Well, I mean, in the case of Providence, maybe it's because Bryce Hopkins tore his ACL. Maybe that's one of the reasons why they didn't get in.

And in the case of St. John's, well, maybe they got too hot, too late. Maybe it took Rick Pitino too late in the game to start insulting his players. Maybe he should have insulted his players earlier, talking about how unathletic they are, saying that they can't move, they can't run, that they can't jump.

Maybe he should have did better. Anyway, Rick Pitino was not a happy man, thinking about how St. John's ended the season. Five straight wins. They lost to UConn on Friday night in the Big East tournament in the Garden, by the way. But Rick Pitino not happy with their ratings system, the net rating system, which he pretty much says is an embarrassment as well.

Listen to Rick Pitino be angry. He's good at it. With 32 in the net.

Well, first of all, I think we all should probably never mention that word again, because I think it's fraudulent. You know, my son was 25 in the net and he was saying he wasn't in with 25 wins. So I think the net's something that shouldn't even be mentioned anymore. He doesn't want it. He's talking about his son coaching the Lobos, by the way. Rick Pitino is a hickey. Is he ever happy about anything? He's one of the curmudgeons, great curmudgeons of sports, right? Yeah, he's not happy about the net. He's not happy about his own players.

The state of college basketball. Don't get him started on that. There is not much right now in Rick Pitino's life that is bringing him joy.

Why the hell is he doing this? Great question. It's just got to be the money and nothing better to do, right?

I mean, that's most coaches, right? They had no other interest in life. Well, I mean, a lot of the other older dudes, they decided to quit.

They left. He's still sticking around. I will say Rick Pitino on TV kind of following the Jay Wright shoes would be interesting.

Oh, my God. But he would. But Jay Wright doesn't just shot. Could you imagine Rick Pitino without having an association to a team, just letting loose? Oh, he'd be out there destroying people. He would. And he'd love it, too.

He'd probably be wearing his all white suit. Rick Pitino is going to wear all white to rip you on television. Rick Pitino not happy with the net rating system, which is basically, I think at this point, six years old. I can remember when they used to utilize RPI. And it's so crazy how every well, not every league, but specifically in college, we got to go from BCS rankings and no BCS. And they still I feel utilize the BCS, but don't call it that.

It's it's just wild. They come up with any type of metric to justify who gets in and who doesn't. Well, you know what? At the end of the day. When your conference championship.

That's who gets in automatically, like, don't complain and whine at the end. I mean, we got 32 conferences. Let's let's remember this. This is a sixty four team tournament, 64 teams. And I know they added the first four.

So go ahead. Sixty eight teams, right? When your conference tournament. OK, we've had some shockers here in North Carolina State saying, OK, we got this. But when your conference tournament and then you don't have to worry about anything, that's why you played a basketball game. So you don't have to leave it in the hand of 12 athletic directors and 12 commissioners. Go out there and win basketball games.

Flat, simple period. And then that way you don't have to worry or at least come off like Providence head coach Kim English. You heard Danny Hurley defend.

But listen to Kim English. Just have a whole fit here. Yeah, I think the analytics are right. I think you could schedule bad teams in your non league and beat the snot out of them and beat them by 50 and 60. And I think I think coaching for so long has been a gentleman agreement. I mean, you have a large lead at the end of the game. You know, for health reasons, you take guys out to get some other guys opportunities to play. You take guys out. But right now, it might be a change in college basketball where beating teams by four scheduling to beat teams by 40 and 50 might be a thing to do.

Oh, maybe they needed to throw the gentleman's agreement out the window. Maybe you should go out there and bludgeon teams. Maybe you should beat the snot out of them.

And then you don't have a shadow of a doubt. At least the analytics and the numbers will be on your side. It really, really stinks. No Seton Hall, no St. John's and no Providence. And for me, it's unfortunate that we I think we've heard the last of Rick Pitino, I guess for a couple of weeks. He's even declined the NIT tournament.

We're going to talk about that later on in the show. Nobody wants to play in the NIT. Nobody wants to participate in these ball games. And we'll talk about the transfer portal as well. We got a bunch of loser teams or at least loser players or loser players or loser teams that are going to be involved in that too. So we'll talk about the NIT. A lot of these squads that didn't make the NCAA tournament don't want to go. And then we'll get into the transfer portal because well, we know this.

It is a massive mess. When you talk about college basketball, college athletics in general, it's like free agency has basically started here. And it has started early speaking of starting because we now have the first four. You don't have to wait until Thursday and Friday for a full slate of games. Because on Tuesday, tomorrow, the first four is going to get started in Dayton, Ohio. We got Wagner versus Howard.

Shout outs to Howard. All my folks up at the HBCU in Washington, D.C. We got Colorado State versus Virginia tomorrow night. And then speaking of HBCUs, we got another one. Grambling versus Montana State. That's on Wednesday. And then Colorado versus Boise State. That's going to be on Wednesday before we start moving into the round of 64 on Thursday and Friday. North Carolina is going to take on maybe Howard or Wagner.

They're probably going to smoke them. And then we got Texas taking on Colorado State and Virginia. Some some of the matchups you should pay attention to.

Purdue is also going to take on the other winner of this first four between Grambling and Montana State. So look, we got a lot of basketball coming up. And then as I've told you, I'm very excited for the women's game and talking about bludgeoning and beating a snot out of teams and eliminating teams and showing no mercy. We already got some trash talk here on the women's side.

I know Caitlin Clark. She's she's going to be the star of the tournament. People want to see how far she goes. How far does she take Iowa? Well, they're going to take on West Virginia and their coach of West Virginia, Mark Kellogg. He wasted absolutely no time in telling everybody, hey, we want to send Caitlin Clark home in round two.

Listen to this. Those are two pretty important pieces to this. I already told them let's win one and let's send Caitlin Clark. Yeah, motivation for your team. Let's just worry about Caitlin Clark instead of just beating the team.

I don't know if that's the message you want to share. I know Caitlin Clark is not the whole team. She might as well be. But you got to beat the team and not just her. And so I'm ready for some action. We're going to talk more about the tournament as we continue on with the show. I know we got a lot of upset folks whose teams did not make it in.

Well, next time, win some basketball games and maybe go ahead and win your conference tournament that you don't have anything to debate. 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. You are locked into the J.R. sport reef show. When we come back on the other side, we're going to we're going to get into some of the other news from over the weekend. It's the fact that Justin Fields is now a member of the Steelers. Mike DeFabo is going to join us courtesy of the Athletic. You are locked in to the J.R. sport reef show here on CBS Sports Radio.

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Call 562-314-4603 for details. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the JR Sport Brief show here on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, March Madness is underway. We're going to talk about it more throughout the show. All week long, we're going to get into March Madness as well. But we did have some big news over the weekend that we must bring our attention to the Steelers and just the span of about three days have totally revamped their quarterback room.

They have likely revamped how they're going to approach the season and how they fit in in the AFC North. So to talk about the arrival of Russell Wilson and also Justin Fields, the departure of Kenny Pickett. Joining us right now via the athletic is Mike Defabo who covers the Steelers. Hey Mike, thank you for taking the time to hop on. Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you so much for having me and Mike, I've been telling everybody Omar Khan is good for business. This team is not boring right now and there's plenty to talk about with the Steelers. Well, I know the fans can be quite fickle when it comes to how good the Steelers are or are not. Here in the offseason, I assume they're pretty thrilled with what has taken place over the past couple of days, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Because if you look at the dynamic of this team, last season, a defense that was top six in scoring basically lugged an anemic offense to the playoffs. And you know, going into the season, there was definitely a situation where the Steelers entered a crossroad and they could have said, we're going to ride it out with Kenny Pickett in year three and give him the opportunity to prove he wasn't the problem. In his entire career, he played just one game without Matt Canada, the offensive coordinator. But instead, a franchise that's been known for patience, a franchise that's had just three head coaches since 1969, and historically did not fire assistant coaches in season, they took a much more aggressive approach. They went out and they got Russell Wilson, and then they subsequently went out and got Justin Fields. And the way I view the situation is, you know, of the available options right now, the Steelers have two of the best ones that were on the open market in terms of what they could do to upgrade. And I feel like both of these guys are better than anybody they had in the quarterback room last season. Well, Mike, you want to talk about the guy who was playing quarterback last year, at least until he got hurt, was Kenny Pickett. And now he is gone, traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. We heard the comments from him earlier today that he feels, you know, he handled things the right way.

What's the latest on why he decided the bail? Was there miscommunication? Is that your understanding? You know, basically the way that I understand things is that Kenny felt when Mike Thomas stood up there at the end of season press conference and said, Kenny will be QB one next season, but there'll be competition. He imagined there would be competition. Now, there's a difference between competition and replacing Kenny Pickett. And when you go out and you get a guy who's a nine time Pro Bowler, a guy who's a Super Bowl champion like Russell Wilson, that's going to clearly be your starter. So I think he felt like, you know, he wasn't given a fair opportunity here. He didn't like the way that things were unfolding.

And truthfully, I feel maybe a change of scenery is best for both people. Because, you know, even though it was, it felt like a feel good story here, Kenny Pickett played at Pitt. He comes with a pre-packaged fan base. He gets to play in the same stadium where he starred and rewrote all of Dan Marino's records in college.

But also with that comes expectation. And not only was he trying to replace a hall of famer like Ben Roethlisberger, he had all that pressure based on everything that came from college. So I think maybe getting out of Pittsburgh for him is the best move. Even for the Steelers, they've upgraded their quarterback room. Swinging that trade for Justin Fields was so significant. So I feel like it worked out for all parties involved.

Mike DeFabo is here with us on CBS Sports Radio covers the Steelers for the athletic. Hey, good for Kenny Pickett, except for he's probably not going to play too much unless Mr. Hertz goes down with an injury. So it sucks for him. Yeah, exactly. I mean, he's not in too different of a situation than he would have been here. And I think some people in Pittsburgh are irked by the way he handled the situation. I mean, fans, because, you know, if you're a real competitor and they bring somebody in, you know, there's one way to approach that. And that would be saying, I'm going to go and I'm going to put my head down and I'm going to work and I'm going to prove to you that you made the wrong decision.

I'm going to stay ready. Instead of doing that, he looked for another opportunity. So definitely some fans here in Pittsburgh that left a sour taste in their mouth the way that things ended. So let's talk about the man who's coming in, Mike. You think about Justin Fields. I assume he's going to see some action, even if it's some gadget plays, a little trickery here and there. What should Steelers fans expect for Justin Fields? Yeah, so as it stands right now, the expectation is Russell Wilson will be the starter and then Justin Fields will serve as the backup. But, you know, Russell Wilson is set to turn 36 in November.

And for me, I felt the biggest risk in bringing in Russell Wilson was it could be seen as a stopgap solution for a team that needs a long term answer. Well, by bringing in a young guy who was at one time the 11th overall pick and has tangible reasons why, you know, he's got a great arm. He has incredible mobility.

When he's on the field, he might be the best athlete out there. So you have a guy that you can develop. And ironically, on draft night, Justin Fields said that he models his game after Russell Wilson.

So he now gets an opportunity to learn from a guy. And the biggest, I guess, criticism of Justin Fields' game and problem with his game is he turns the ball over a lot. That's something that Russell Wilson has found a way to minimize.

So maybe learning from him helps. The other thing that you're mentioning, I completely agree, I think there'll be opportunities to play him this season. The Steelers play the Ravens twice a year. And what that means is twice a year, as the practice squad quarterback, or the scout team quarterback, Justin Fields is going to be mimicking Lamar Jackson.

So there's no reason they couldn't install a package of plays. Certain situations when you bring Justin Fields into the game, you tap into that athleticism without putting the whole thing on his plate and making him the starter. Mike DeFable covers the Steelers for the athletic. When you think about the salaries for both Justin Fields and Russell Wilson for this season, which I think is at $5 million or just below it, what are the salary implications for this season, but then also potentially in the future for both dudes? Yeah, so in the short term, one great thing about what the Steelers have done is they have not committed a lot of draft picks or salary cap space to that position. And you think about how many teams throw massive amounts of money or huge number of draft picks towards this position. So the Steelers can continue to round out their roster in this way. Now, the complicating factor is that there's a 50-year decision due on Justin Fields in May.

And that number comes in at about $23.8 million. But what the Steelers can do, I think, is they can be creative. You could decline that 50-year option, rip up the contract, drop an extension right now. And I think that that would be the prudent approach. You spend some draft capital, not a lot in the conditional six-round pick to acquire him. You'd like to keep him beyond just this season.

So I think that passing up the expensive 50-year option in kind of a long-term deal would be the prudent move. And I think Justin Fields could be down for it because the way it sounds and the way it's been reported, there were a couple of teams interested in him, and he kind of handpicked the Steelers as his destination. So this is a place that he wants to be at least in the short term.

And it's up to Omar Khan to sell him on the fact that long-term this is also a good place to be. Hey, Mike, when you talk about long-term, that's for Justin Fields. When you think about long-term for Russell Wilson, this is a one-year deal for him. But we have heard that at the end of the season, pending what has taken place, that the Steelers may say, hey, we want to work out a longer-term contract with you.

Is there a situation where they keep both on? Yeah, it's going to be a really interesting dynamic there with both of these guys. So Russell Wilson said, when he was introduced to the Pittsburgh media, that he hopes to play five to seven more years. And so this is really, it's kind of a prove-it year for Russell Wilson.

The league is kind of down on him. It wasn't like he had a lot of teams beating down his door, offering him a two- or three-year contract to come in and be their starting quarterback. The Steelers were one of the few, and they presented him with a great opportunity. So I think the Steelers have options. If they can get Fields under contract before the year, then after the season, fully evaluate their situation, then the ball is in their court.

And they can make the decision which of these two, or maybe both. They want to keep going forward. And Mike DeFabo is here with us, the chair of our sport re-show on CBS Sports Radio. That's the quarterback. And obviously, we know the quarterback is the most important position on the team. What are the expectations for the Steelers? What else do they need to do here throughout the course of the offseason, through the draft, through training camp?

What are some of the strengths? And maybe more importantly, what are some of the weaknesses and some of the holes that they still need to fill? Well, as I mentioned earlier, they finished top six in scoring defense last year. And that's a pretty complete unit when you've got Minka Fitzpatrick and T.J. Watt and Cam Hayward.

And then one of the biggest moves that Omar Khan made was he went out and he acquired Patrick Queen. And that addresses the inside linebacker position that has been a revolving door since Ryan Chazier suffered his tragic career-ending injury. So I feel like on defense they're pretty well set. They can continue to fortify some position.

But the real question is on offense. And the two glaring holes right now are they cut their starting center, Mason Cole. And so they need to get a center, whether that's in the draft or in the second wave of free agency. And then after trading Deontay Johnson, there's a desperate need for a second wide receiver. And they're planning to have Mike Williams, former charger, come in and they're going to visit with him. There's also some mutual interest with Tyler Boyd, who went to Pitt.

And there's a local guy here. So those are two guys definitely to keep your eyes on for the Steelers and two positions offensively in wide receiver and center that they definitely are going to address going forward. Mike, the fable covers the Steelers for the athletic.

Hey, you mentioned Patrick Queen. And one of the reasons he made very clear that he decided to join the enemy and become a member of the Steelers is because of Mike Tomlin. I mean, is the city going to give Mike Tomlin a break this season? I mean, are they going to blame Russell Wilson? No, I feel you on that. They're pretty hard on Mike Tomlin around these parts. But I completely agree with you. Like the way Patrick Queen explained it, when he was a rookie or maybe in the second season, Mike Tomlin was talking stuff to him on the sideline and saying, you're not a Raven yet because you haven't beat the Steelers.

You're not a Raven. And Patrick Queen said, I wanted to fight him right then and there. And so to go from wanting to fight this guy to wanting to play for him, that just shows the respect that Mike Tomlin has for the players have for Mike Tomlin around the league. And that's one new dynamic, I think here is the Steelers traditionally in free agency in the past took a very conservative approach.

And you might see maybe on week two, they would get some kind of veteran depth guy, but not really a splashy player. But now that they're actually being active and they're actively trying to go out and get guys, Mike Tomlin can be that recruiter. And I guarantee you when Mike Williams comes in this week and Mike Tomlin sits down with him and has a conversation, Mike Williams was going to have so much respect for Mike Tomlin, that's going to hold some weight when he makes his final decision. And I think that played a big factor in both quarterbacks. Russell Wilson, I think, wanted to play for a guy like Mike Tomlin. I think that Justin Fields has a great relationship with Mike Tomlin and wants to play for him.

So you're seeing the coach definitely have an impact not only within the season, but when it comes to roster building and these connections that he's able to form. Mike, when you think about what the rest of the division looks like, we see the Ravens and we know about the Bengals and you got the Browns there as well, getting some insurance by bringing in Jamis Winston behind Deshaun Watson. What do you expect from this division next year? It's always a dogfight.

That's exactly the word that I would use to describe it. I mean, this division, these teams know each other so well. They play a certain brand of football here in the AFC North.

And I think that they've all built their team somewhat similarly. I mean, I think there's so much hatred in such a bitter rivalry with the Ravens, but at the same time, there's so much respect because there's such mere images of each other. So, I mean, I think that it's going to be another season just like last year where you've got multiple teams fighting to the end. They're going to be in that in the hunt graphic. And I wouldn't be surprised to see three teams from the AFC North make the playoffs this year. Hey, well, we're going to find out sooner than later. It's certainly going to be a fun season for the Steelers now that they got they got a quarterback in Russell Wilson. And so now is I mean, he's been pretty durable. Are there any concerns?

I mean, the city has to be jumping and hopping. Like we said, is there any concern? Well, I think the major concern you would have is that it wasn't like a bunch of teams were trying to get these guys.

You got them for very, very little for a reason, because the rest of the league isn't very high on these guys. And there are questions about what Russell Wilson is as a player and also some of the inner locker room dynamics and how that unfolds. There's questions about Justin Fields and his turnovers. And if if he's in a better situation, can he develop into the quarterback that everyone thought he once was? So there's definitely reason for for a bit of cautious optimism. And I think that the optimism comes in the fact that they're not expecting a lot out of this quarterback position.

They've got a great defense. They're going to install a very run heavy scheme with Arthur Smith. They're planning to build the trenches and bolster that offensive line. So if Russell Wilson, who has at times been criticized as being a glorified game manager, if he comes in and he's a glorified game manager here, that might be exactly what this team needs. All he needs to do is put the ball where it needs to be, orchestrate this this run heavy offense, and then bring that trademark deep ball and unlock George Pickens, who's been painfully underutilized. If he can bring that deep ball, that's really going to be the thing that sets this offense apart and helps get this team to that next level. Well, Mike, have fun with the Russell Wilson press conferences throughout the year, OK? Yeah, definitely. I feel like I definitely have more motivational quotes than like my my middle school, high school health class.

It's like the same kind of vibes when he's talking, but he does his thing. Yeah, no doubt about it. Put him in a book, steal him and sell him. You got that advice for me. Where can people follow you and all of your great work keeping up with these Steelers? Yeah, absolutely.

I keep it easy. You can follow me on Twitter. It's just at Mike DeFabo. Hey, Mike, thank you so much. We'll catch you down the line, OK? All right. Sounds great.

Thank you so much for having me. No doubt about it. That Mike DeFabo covers the Steelers for the athletic. He is going to be very busy throughout the course of the season. Obviously, Russell Wilson, one of the most intriguing players in the NFL of the Steelers, one of its marquee franchises and the fan bases, just one of the best fan bases in sports period, even outside of the NFL.

And by bringing in both Justin Fields and and Russell Wilson. Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of eyes on the Steelers to see how those two individuals bounce back. It's the J.R. Sportbreeze show here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

We're going to bounce back from a break and a newsflash. When we come back, I'm going to take your calls. The phone lines are open. It's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We'll talk Steelers. We'll also talk more college basketball because, well, quite frankly, there's a lot to get into with college basketball. 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. And don't you want that feeling all the time?

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That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P.com slash grow. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the JR Sport Brief show here on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you to Mike Defabo joining us on the other side of the break to talk about the Steelers. Mike Defabo represents the athletic, and we talked about the additions of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. As we continue on with the show, we're going to get into more college basketball. I do want to share with you some thoughts, and I don't want to say this is lost because we've pretty much known this for weeks and months at this point.

The Chicago Bears are going to select Caleb Williams, and RG3 had some points and comments about what they should do or what they should not do or what Caleb Williams shouldn't do. We're going to get into that next hour. I'm going to get some more of your calls.

I do want to talk to you about this. Yeah, we got March Madness starting this week. The transfer portal is also open for college basketball, which makes no sense to me.

Well, I mean, let's be real. There are a lot of things in college that don't make any sense, and we're going to get into a lot of them, but let's get to your calls right now. That's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. Let's go ahead and hit the phone lines up, and let's talk to Brent. He's calling up from Illinois. Hey, Brent, you are on CBS Sports Radio. What's going on with you? Oh, thank you, JR. Great to talk with you again. Thank you.

First here, I just talked to Ryan. I want to apologize. A couple of weeks ago, when I came back from Vegas, I said I had a better weekend than you after when you got, you lost your voice. I would never take a shot at you. You're my favorite person in the whole wide world.

I want you to know this. You think that I was offended by that? I would, but it was tongue in cheek, and you go, did he take a shot? I would never do that.

Oh, but I said that in a joking way. I don't care. You're not going to say anything that's going to make me go home and cry. I know that you're my, I love you, JR. You're my favorite person. I just want positivity.

Well, thank you. What's up? A shout out, and I hope I can call you a few years from now and see success at DePaul University, talking about the big East.

Chris Holtman gave his introductory press conference today for DePaul, new head coach. I hope for the big East, this was a start for a new direction competing with UConn, Marquette, and I just hope the success at DePaul is going to be in the future now. Yeah. I hope for you, a Chicago guy, that you guys can have some success. We think about Ohio State, the Buckeyes. Well, it's tough to say. I'm trying to identify the last time that they really, really had sustained success, but I can say that about every single college program who has sustained success when the players just jump around like it's free agency, because it is.

It's tough to say. Right, right. Well, I remember, like I said, I went to Terry Cummings' retirement number game. I remember Chicago had in the early, late 70s, no late, early 80s, Chicago didn't have any great sports team to talk about, but boy, what did he talk about DePaul? They're those warriors with Ray Myers, head coach Terry Cummings, Mark McGuire, Clyde Bradshaw, but those were the days. And seeing Terry Cummings, I met him years ago, but it is retirement.

It was just happiness. And now we've got a new head coach, just hope for success in the future. Yeah, man. Well, look, it's been, wow, 20 years, 20 years? Yes, 2004, 2004. 20 years? Damn. Time flies? 20 years?

Damn. Hey, Brent, good luck with that one, okay? Hey, great to talk with you, JR. You're my favorite. Yeah, thank you so much, Brent.

You be well. I don't know, maybe with all this new transfer portal, this move players around that, maybe there's a chance and an opportunity for them to just get a kid out of Chicago who wants to stay at home. Damn, if I would have said 10 years, not 20 years. Hickey, it's almost impossible to build. Let me not say it's impossible. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to build a sustainable program where you just win and can build anything when everybody's just hopping around. It's tough, man. Yeah.

Sustainability, you're a million percent right. To give Brent and other DePaul fans hope is, you could also argue now it's easier than ever to get a downtrodden, I mean, they've been a doormat basically in the Big East for forever. It's easier to get a doormat-like program back to relevancy and competency because now you can pick up a few guys and all of a sudden, a new class two years from now, or even this upcoming off season, maybe now all of a sudden you could double or triple your win total in one year because it's easier to build your team than it's ever been before. You get one guy off the street and your fortunes can change and then you'll be good one year and then you'll suck the next. That's just how it goes, unfortunately. We'll talk more about the opening of the transfer portal.

Maybe that's a boon to some of these teams who want to turn things around, but still there's no guarantee of sustainability. 855-2124 CBS. That's 855-2124 CBS. John is here from South Carolina. You're on the JR Sportbreeze show. What's up, John?

Good show, JR, like regular. I'm a diehard Cleveland fan. I'm 70 and I retired down here to South Carolina and I just got to love what Pittsburgh did getting both those two guys. I mean, with Tomlin and those two guys, that guarantees Pittsburgh, you know, a good 500 record or above like he's always done because he's a great coach and that's about as far as I see him getting. The good news for me as a Browns fan is that just means they won't get any good high draft picks to address their quarterback situation for the next couple of years, which I'm not loving Deshaun Watson by any stretch because I think he's on the down slide of his career too, sadly, but I still like what they did as a Browns fan because I hate Pittsburgh because they beat the heck out of me for decades and I just think they're going to keep themselves on this like, you know, 500 record and never get a high draft pick and good luck getting a quarterback and that's my thought on it. You are such a great Browns fan that you are more concerned with the other team being average than your own team getting better, huh? No, I wish my team could get better but I got a feeling that contract with Deshaun is a long-term hurting factor and I don't see him getting much better than Russell Wilson. I mean, I just think that Browns made a bad choice on that, it's sad, but I got to live with that and at least I'm living with the fact that on top of that the Steelers are going to keep on going back.

I love, I mean, Tom was a great coach and he's always going to keep it that 500 record and that's what always keeps them going out. All right, John. Well, thank you for calling from South Carolina. I'll catch you soon, okay? Yeah, buddy.

Thanks for listening. No doubt about it. Shout out to John for calling from South Carolina. Look, if you're a Browns fan, I'd be more concerned about Nick Chubb's leg, Deshaun Watson's broken shoulder and who knows, maybe Jameis Winston helps resurrect the team.

I have no idea. Maybe he'll help out the offense. We know the defense for the Browns.

Uh, pretty, pretty damn good. Defense is the name of the game in the AFC North. Anyway, it's the JR sport re-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. I'm going to get some more of your calls on the other side of the break. And then I want to talk to you more about the transfer portal and the NIT. Things that are just, why the hell are they going on during March Madness? We'll discuss it.

Your calls too here on CBS Sports Radio, the JR sport brief show. 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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Well 2024 is the year. In celebration of their 20th Baja-versary, you can sift Baja Blast all year long. So pick up a Baja Blast wherever you are, in stores now. After the end of a good fight, you deserve an ice cold reward. Medela is the mark of a fighter. You've earned this rich golden lager with a crisp refreshing taste. Because you know, the bigger the fight, the better the reward. You put in the hours, the energy, the tough labor. You are a fighter and Medela is your reward. Medela, the mark of a fighter. Prick responsibly.

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