What's that sound? That's the sound of Downy Unstoppable's scent beads going into your washing machine and giving your clothes freshness that lasts all day long.
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Get six times longer lasting freshness plus odor protection with Downy Unstoppable's in wash scent beads. Jeff, how are you man? Hey JR, that was a crazy US basketball game today.
I know that's not why I'm here, but it was pretty entertaining. Hey listen, can LeBron change this too late for him to play tight end? Too late? You know what, I am more than happy if he wants to play tight end, but I kind of like him dominating as a point forward on the basketball court.
I'm not going to lie. Let's see what he does for Team USA, dragging them along right now. Yeah, that was a good game Jeff. Hopefully we got a lot of good NFL games coming this upcoming season. It's still summertime.
It still is. We're entering into training camp. Let's get down to brass tacks.
Jordan Love. We heard Guten Kunst today telling us that the man is at work. He's not going to practice until a deal is done. They expect it to be this week.
Maybe, probably. Is he going to be the highest paid dude in the league? Is he going to sit at 55 mil? I think so.
If Jordan Love is there and he's not practicing, that's telling me a deal is going to be done sooner rather than later. This is where I'm concerned. From week 11 on, you could argue he was the best quarterback in the NFL. 23 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, highest passer rating from week 11 to week 18. But are you really going to pay a guy 55 million, 56 million a year for 8 good games in his career?
That's what I'm worried about. Can we pump the brakes on this kid before we crown him the next whoever? This time last year we called Jalen Hurts the top 3, top 4 quarterback in the league and now he's not even top 10. Wow.
That leads me to the next question, Jeff. I know you cover the Eagles quite thoroughly. Do you not think the Eagles are going to bounce back, especially with this addition to Saquon, especially with all the cornerbacks that they drafted? A little bit of a bounce back year for the Eagles and Hurts, right?
I would think so. I don't think Jalen Hurts is going to have 21 giveaways like he did last year. But Jalen Hurts battled a knee injury all throughout the year. He did his best to hide it, but you could tell.
He would give us the whole, I'm not wearing a knee brace, it's more like a sleeve type thing. I'm like, okay Jalen, you're still, you're not limping because you're strolling through, but it's clearly affecting you. And the Eagles tried to hold him back from his strength, which was running the football. Outside of the tush push, he really didn't run the football that much or that effectively. If they can get him back to that with this offense, and again, like you said, J.R., Saquon's there now. That's going to take a lot of pressure off him. I think Jalen's due for a bounce back year.
I think he's more of the player we saw in 22 than what we saw in 23. But if he can just meet the Eagles halfway there, they're going to win 11-12 games. Without a shot of a doubt, Jeff Kerr is joining us. Covers all things NFL for CBS.
Well, we know the money is up there for the quarterbacks now. Trevor Lawrence is at 55. You think about Herbert is sitting around at 52. Hurts is not far behind him at 51. That's the number.
It really doesn't matter where you are in a pecking order, what you've won. That's pretty much the number. For somebody like Dak Prescott, who's been around the block for quite some time now, where do you think his number is going to fall and are the Dallas Cowboys going to have to overpay next season? I think Dak could make $60 million, J.R.
I really do. And his body of work speaks for itself, right? I don't want to hear, and I criticize the guy a lot for his playoff record, too, but if you're just looking at the complete body of work and what this guy has done, he's worth more than $55 million just based on what the market is stating. He could be a $60 million quarterback in free agency if he gets to that point, and I think the Cowboys have handled this so foolishly. They should have paid Dak Prescott last year before he was top three in the MVP, and Dak had his case to be MVP last year.
He obviously didn't win it, but he definitely had a shot at it, and Dak's got all the leverage right now, because Dak's still coming out of the winner either way. He's going to get paid by somebody, whether it's the Cowboys or whoever, and I'm sure he doesn't have to force the Cowboys to say, pay CD Lance, because he needs to get paid, right? They got paid CD Lance, they got paid Michael Parsons, they got paid Dak. I just don't know what this franchise is going to do, and if I'm Dak, if things don't go the way he wants them to this year, I would go to a team that values him and can pay him the most money. You get what you can get at, what's Dak now, 31 I believe?
He's a guy that can pay a lot of money, and he rightfully deserves it. Jeff, you talk about Dak, and we know the Dallas Cowboys like to make everybody sweat. You got Mike McCarthy hanging on by a thread, Dak Prescott, no contract. You mentioned CD Lam. When you see wide receivers, Justin Jefferson has now set the market at 35 per highest paid wide receiver in the game. What do you think CD Lam's deal is going to look like, and are we looking at someone who's not going to hold in, but someone who will hold out? Yeah, that's going to be, I think AJ Brown's a good barometer for CD Lam, right? AJ Brown's getting 33 million a year, I believe, to surround that number. I think CD Lam is, could fall between Jefferson and Brown, and I think he, you know, if you look on the numbers last year, he probably should get paid a little more than Brown, but now you got Mom Rossing. Brown making a lot of money, like, are the Cowboys really going to wait until Jamar Chase gets paid? Because Jamar Chase might reset the market too. The Bengals haven't paid him yet, and they, you know, right now Justin Jefferson's the bar, but the bar could be raised, and the longer the Cowboys wait, the more they're going to have to pay these guys. And, I mean, you're Dallas, you're really going to just let this guy hold out?
Your best receiver in an offense that, yeah, Brandon Cooks is a nice player, but he's better as a two. You just keep letting guys go by the wayside here. Eventually, you got to pay one of these guys, and are you really going to allow a CD Lam holdout to kind of dictate a season where Dak Prescott could be his final year here? And it almost feels like they want to go through a rebuild. They're just not committed to going through the rebuild.
Jeff Kurz joining us here from CBSSports.com. As we talk about wide receivers with CD Lam, you mentioned Jamar Chase. We know that the Cincinnati Bengals, their owner, their president, their GM, their judge jury executioner, Mike Brown, is known for being tight with a wallet. The man doesn't want to spend money.
He's not going to spend anything. And even earlier today, he said it's unlikely that they do a deal with Jamar Chase. When you look at the AFC North, the injury history of Joe Burrow, how competitive that division is, do the Cincinnati Bengals stand to take a step back?
Yeah, I mean, a step back from what? Last place, right, J.R.? Did they finish last year?
If I'm not mistaken. Yeah, they did win 10 games, but they could in this division. Baltimore's still going to be really good. Cleveland, I think, is going to be really good. If Deshaun Watson ever becomes half the player they paid for, they could be a Super Bowl contender. You know, Pittsburgh's always in the mix.
I mean, they could if Jamar Chase holds out. Look, the T. Higgins thing, I understand that. Look, he's a guy that's a franchise player. He wants a long-term deal. Or else, you know, he's not getting to tender, obviously. So, I'm looking at it as, okay, you didn't get a long-term deal with T. Higgins, fine. If he signs his tender, okay, you let him go after the season. But, Jamar Chase is the guy.
You've got to pay. You paid Joe Burrow, and Jamar Chase loves Joe Burrow, and I'm sure Jamar Chase loves him enough to come, but if they're not going to pay this guy, what are we talking about here? It could get ugly, because Cincinnati has had the result of the offensive line again.
Joe Mixon's not back. They underwent a youth movement on defense. I did like the Gino Stone move at safety. I thought that was a good signing for them. And they always do seem to have a solid defense. I mean, I won't call them out, but if they don't have Jamar Chase, it could be another rough year for Joe Burrow.
And Jeff Kerr is here with us from CBSSports.com, all things NFL. You know, we open up this conversation by talking about Jordan Love and him holding in, and we saw what the Packers did at the end of last season. We saw what a team like the Texans did with their young quarterback in C.J. Stroud. Is there another team or two that you see kind of surprising folks and taking a leap into the playoffs this upcoming year?
Yeah, it was funny. Last year, my trendy pick to be the surprise team was, and again, they ended up becoming trendy for other reasons, because a lot of teams thought they were going to be, or the league did, the Lions, based on all the primetime games. But yeah, this year, that's a really good question, who I think could surprise. You know, if I'm going with a non-playoff team from last year, I think the Falcons have a good enough offense to get to the playoffs.
The Kirk Cousins, Michael Pennick stuff notwithstanding, Kirk Cousins, I mean, this team was a quarterback away from going to the playoffs two straight years, and they didn't do it. So, I kind of expect Atlanta to snap that playoff drought this year. I like what they did with their offense. Rondell Moore with Darnell Moody, obviously Drake London's a good player.
You've still got Bijan Robinson, you can use Kyle Pitts the right way. So, I see them taking a step up. I think the Cardinals are going to be a lot better than people think. I'm not saying they're going to be a playoff team, but they were a much better football team when Kyler Murray was back at quarterback last year. They upset the Eagles in week 17. That was one of the more impressive wins of the season for anybody. So, you know, they're really committed to James Connor running back, but I like what, personally, I think Marvin Harrison could win Rookie of the Year. I mean, the guy, in my opinion, was the best player in the draft. I think he's going to be a stud for that team.
So, Pennsylvania for Arizona, Pennsylvania for Atlanta. Chicago's going to get a lot of hype with Kyler Williams, but that division is, it's going to be tough. I think they'll go through their growing pains, even though it's a better roster.
I like them. The AFC, I'm just trying to think of AFC teams here. Maybe the Tennessee Titans and Will Levitz continues to develop. And, you know, they had a sneaky good offseason, but it's a really tough division.
Yeah, very, very tough. Okay. Well, we'll see what happens. Well, Jeff, I appreciate you taking the time to hop on. You got Marvin Harrison, Rookie of the Year over Caleb. Is that how you're cutting that? Or are we going to go Jayden Daniels?
Because I think that's who's going to win it, but I wouldn't be shocked if Marvin Harrison did win. Okay. All right. Well, Jeff, tell everybody where they can keep up with you and all of your work, man. Yeah. You can find me on Jeff Kerr CBS, at Jeff Kerr CBS on X, and just search Jeff Kerr CBS Sports, and you'll find all my stuff on cbssports.com. Always a pleasure, Jeff. We'll talk to you real soon, okay? Yep. Thanks, Jayar.
