It is! The JR Sportbree Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. You could be on the East Coast, the West Coast, down South, Midwest, Canada.
What's up, Canada? I appreciate you. This show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. You can always listen live on the free Odyssey app. Thank you to everybody listening, live on their local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 158, and a smart speaker if you have one. You got a smart speaker?
Ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. We'll be hanging out for three more hours. You missed the first hour of the show. Where you been?
Hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. We talked about the Dodgers and Yankees World Series. We talked about Russell Wilson.
He's the captain of the ship right now. And good for him. And then unfortunately, oh yeah, we talked about the injury to Deshaun Watson. Fans in Cleveland booing him, cheering the injury. That's sick. That's sick people.
And allegations against him were equally as sick. Anyway, you want to talk about injuries. This is this is a little bit of this is a little bit of an update and not an update that you want if you're a fan of the San Francisco 49ers.
We discussed the issue with Brandon Aiyuki. He is out for the season with a torn ACL. It doesn't stop there for the 49ers. This is not good news. There are more injuries.
How about this? Minutes ago, we found out that Deebo Samuel, he has been hospitalized due to pneumonia. Adam Schefter reports this. He has fluid in his lungs.
There is no timetable for his return. So exactly an hour ago, I was right here. I was right here on the radio with you. And I told you that the 49ers with Brandon Aiyuki out with a torn ACL done for the season. We know about Christian McCaffrey been dealing with the pain in his calves and his Achilles. The tiredness that they were going to have to heavily rely on George Kittle and Deebo Samuel.
Well, now you can ask Deebo Samuel out of that equation. We don't know when he's going to return. And the other guy, George Kittle, not as severe. He hasn't been hospitalized.
This is not good, though. He has a sprained foot. George Kittle is now considered to be day to day.
And so let's let's go through this again. Let's look at the 49ers and all of their magnificent weapons, OK? Brandon Aiyuki is gone for the year with a torn ACL. Christian McCaffrey hasn't played a game all season because of his calf and his Achilles. George Kittle now has a sprained foot.
Ricky Pearsall just came back from getting shot on August 31st. You saw Brock Purdy throw three interceptions yesterday against the Kansas City Chiefs. Well, damn it, he's going to have to throw some more. He's probably going to have to throw some more.
Not that he wants to. This this stinks for the 49ers is bad. So Kyle Shanahan, he spoke not too long ago and he said he'd be surprised if Christian McCaffrey returns against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. But he could return November 10th. Against the Buccaneers.
Wow. Is Seattle May is as wacky of a team as Seattle is. Throwing that ball around all the time and with Geno Smith back there. They might hold on. I still think with a Cardinals team that plays no defense. You think about a Rams team. We know the Rams aren't going anywhere. This is why the 49ers will still have chance and they'll still have life. This will be a two team race in the NFC West. I still think the 49ers, if they can get healthy, if they can win some games, they'll be competitive with Seattle. I do not think Seattle is just going to run away with the NFC West. I don't have the confidence in Geno Smith that they're going to go out there and do so.
This is bad. Hickey, how do you feel about the 49ers? It's like they're dropping like flies.
One guy comes back, another three guys go down. It's crazy. It truly is unbelievable. The good news, if you're a 49ers fan, is outside of Iyuk, everything is temporary, right?
CMC so far, and we have to use so far, who knows, right, is trending in the right direction and could be back within the next few weeks. Obviously, that's massive for this offense. George Kittle's injury seems to be more temporary than it is long term.
Deebo Samuel, pneumonia. I mean, the good news is, right, with modern medicine, that should be relatively easy to fix. You kick him in the back, right? Yeah, get that fluid out. No, that's okay. I guess I'm wrong. I'm not a doctor. Whatever.
Whatever you got to do to get the damn fluid out, it seems like it's not the biggest thing in the world. So, if he has to miss a game, he misses a game, but he's not out for two months or out for the year. So, again, outside of Iyuk, at least for the 49ers for the most part, the injuries you're suffering are short term and you should get healthier as the season gets deeper, which we see, right, teams, that's when they usually start to get hurt. The 49ers can get healthy at the right time. That could lead to a deep postseason run.
Yeah, it can go on a little bit of a stretch here. And they got the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday. Can't wait, right? Sunday night football, one injured team versus a bad one. Come on, the Dallas Cowboys, y'all got to win that game.
Do something. By the way, Michael Parsons is still unsure whether or not he's going to be able to return on that game on Sunday. So, don't necessarily count on seeing Michael Parsons running around on the field as well, trying to chase down whoever the 49ers decide to throw out there. And if you think about what's left in front of them for the 49ers the rest of the year, they have Dallas, Tampa Bay. They take on Seattle again, which they already have a tiebreaker.
They beat them a few weeks ago. They got Green Bay, not going to be easy. Buffalo, not going to be easy. Chicago, not going to be easy. The Rams, you should win that. Miami, right before Christmas, Tua-Tanga Valoa hopefully is healthy enough to play.
He should be back as soon as this week. And then they end against Arizona. So, they have an opportunity to finish at or around 500. And I think that will keep them competitive to get into the postseason, the San Francisco 49ers. If you're just tuning in, Brandon Iucqui learned a little bit more than an hour ago. He's out with a torn ACL. But now Deebo Samuel has pneumonia and fluid in his lungs. And then you have George Kittle, who has a sprained foot. This is not good for the 49ers. And for Brock Purdy as well. You think about this man who was an MVP conversation last year.
You think about his wallet, not that he's going to cut any of us a check. But this is a guy who is looking for one of those 50, 55, and maybe even a $60 million a year salary to throw that football for the Niners. You can't do it if all you can't do it if all the superstars and all pros aren't out there healthy and ready to go. Having said that, as Hickey said, and I agree, if they can hit a stretch of health at the end of the season into November, into December, I think the 49ers will be perfectly fine. Now, unfortunately, if you're a fan of the New York Jets, I have to tell you about it, team. There ain't nothing fun about them.
They are ugly and pathetic. I don't even know if they are a team. You know, I got to agree with Rex Ryan. Earlier today, Rex Ryan was on ESPN and he said, it's too much I with the New York Jets. And damn it, he's right. And we all know this because the I starts and ends with A. A. R. Aaron Rodgers. Yeah.
Air. Bottom line is Aaron Rodgers is, yeah, he's tone deaf. Like he's so aware of everything else and calling other people out and what other people need to do. And he'll tell you that he sucks and he needs to do better. He's not going to get into great detail about missing passes, right? Like he did with Mike Williams last week.
This guy's going on vacation when he needs to work more with his receivers. And now they got a record now of two and five after the Steelers ran off 31 points against them to win 37 to 15. Old man Aaron Rodgers, 276 yards and a touchdown to the tight end, had two interceptions. One of the interceptions was deflected off the defender and hit Garrett Wilson. Garrett Wilson couldn't catch it. The defender caught it. Devontae Adams in his debut, three receptions for 30 yards.
Garrett Wilson, 61 yards. He was taking blame for the loss last night. I guess if there is good news for the Jets, it's that Hassan Riddick is going to show up to work.
How about that? What a world. We learned that earlier yesterday. The Jets, man, it's pathetic.
It stinks. Peaky, did you, did you, well, you did, you watched that football crap last night with the Jets, right? Oh, of course. Absolutely. Everybody is saying Rob Salah is just, and everybody knew, so it ain't no shock.
Like all of this, quote unquote stuff. This ain't his fault. I mean, these are issues that they had. You brought in Aaron Rodgers and now you got to pay for it.
You got to do everything that he wants. And when things don't work, it's just, it's bad. Here's good news. If you want to find any for the New York Jets, after a four game losing streak, they have New England next. New England's own head coach, Jerrod Mayo. He said, they quit. No, he didn't say they quit. He said, my guys are soft.
Went to London and lost against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He said, my guys, are soft. Nobody's saying the Jets are soft. They got all this talent. They, they just can't be a team.
It's like an all star team slapped together with Aaron Rodgers and his super friends. Uh, Devontae Adams, first game as a New York Jet. He says, man, we got all this talent, but we just didn't execute.
Tell me if you've heard this before, before he got there. Just didn't execute, you know, in the, in the opportunities or in the moments that we had to, you know, potentially put the ball in the end zone or finish a drive or, you know, get, get three, whatever it was, we just, um, didn't execute, didn't, didn't finish. And that's been the underlying thing with kind of this team this year. And, um, you know, obviously just getting here, but, but hoping that I can do something to be able to change that. Welcome to the New York Jets, man.
I feel like everybody deserves like a welcome. You think about the Hassan Riddick and Aaron Rodgers and Garrett Wilson and Devontae Adams and Quinnen Williams and his brother Quincy Williams and, and sauce garden. I mean, they got stars and names all over the offense and the defense, but they're not a team, man.
They were a team that had a crap quarterback. You know, they brought in a guy who's just polarizing miserable captain Hickey. Does he have a seat? He does. Right. Aaron Rogers. Is he a captain? Of course. He's got to see. Oh my God.
Captain miserable. That's can you, can, can you put that on a Jersey? Like if I wanted to customize a jets Jersey, can I get the number eight with just miserable above the back?
Would they let me print that? Oh, I think absolutely. Oh man. It's a good idea. Yeah. I want to, I don't want to wear it though.
Unless somebody else do it. Captain miserable. Well, let's listen to captain miserable Aaron Rogers. You know, thinking about halftime and running off 31 points, the Steelers did against them. Aaron Rogers said this, we had no energy. I mean, I just felt like the energy and it starts with me, the energy, whatever reason at halftime was a little flat. I felt like it was flat before the game too.
I mean, Sunday night football. So I look at myself and what I can do to bring better energy, but we all got to, we all got to do better. Hickey. How come when he talks about himself, he never gives details. He always starts with me. I need to do better, but then he can go ahead and Hey, why did the guy not catch the ball? Well, you know, he ran the wrong route. Why doesn't he get into detail about himself?
Because he doesn't believe it. Oh wow. Right.
He'll just brush it off. Oh, yeah. I got to say this boiler plate. And then here's actually why what happened. Everybody else's fault.
Never. We played that audio last break, you know, from the, the, the New York Yankees and the Dodgers celebrating their wins as they go to the world series. And in my head, it's so difficult for me to imagine. I close in my eyes and go, Oh my God, listen to Aaron Rogers. Like even visualing visualizing or hearing Aaron Rogers after a super bowl victory with the New York jets is just like, uh, yeah, it seems like a, a pipe dream.
The team is two and five. Do I still think there'll be competitive towards the end of the year trying to get a playoff spot? I do Buffalo bills are going to win the division.
The New York jets are going to have to claw and scratch and fight to get in via wildcard. And is this what you expected? Like, what, what, what is what is it this year?
Right? Like Zach Wilson was the problem. Quarterback play was the problem. So what's the deal? Aaron Rogers stinks. They're not a team. This is awful. And then Aaron Rogers when asked about, Hey man, well, how do you, how do you turn this around? How do you go on a win streak? Right?
Or how do you do this? Aaron Rogers was just like, not to listen to you, the media. Haha. Stop listening to you guys. Number one, number two, gotta be accountable. You know, I got to play better.
That's the key. I got to play better. We got to find a way to run the ball better so we can action pass. Um, you know, I thought did some nice things in the passing game. Breece obviously had a couple of really nice ones, spread the ball around to Tae G and Allen. Uh, Mike had a nice conversion.
Uh, but we got to run the ball better and I got to play better. Uh huh. Yeah. Yep. That's it. They got a big day.
Hickey. They're going to beat new England. All right.
Three and five record. Yes. They will beat the Patriots.
Okay. Could we beat the Patriots? I think so. We're tough. We're not soft.
We got to get like nine other guys. Right. You have any friends?
Do I have friends? Yeah. They could play for us or with us.
I don't find anybody. Right. Okay.
Let's get all the people from work. Uh, with Stu. Right. Stu. You see Stu. Can he play?
Not well. He could play. I mean, he could play well enough to be the Patriots, I think. So Stu's in. So Zach, Zach can play, right? Yeah. Put him on the line.
He could block for us. Who else do we need? Is that four people? Five of us?
I can't add. That may be enough. To take on the Patriots? Yeah.
Okay. Well, they're soft. Well, you know, Bill Belichick doesn't think they're soft, but we'll get into that. The New York Jets are a joke. You think they're going to make the postseason?
No, their season's over. Oh, nice. That's cool.
That's cool. Nah, you know, I don't, Hickey, it's a pipe dream. Like if the Jets are going to be a disaster, then just go full on. Right.
Like don't half ass it. Everybody's been brought in here to the New York Jets to win a championship. They're two and five right now.
If you are going to really sink the joint up, then it'd be, it would be Hickey. I'd laugh. And I know I don't sound like a fan, whatever, but I love the Jets.
I love them, but I'm honest. I would crack up. I would be amused if they didn't make the postseason because it would just be a comedy at that point. It'd be sad.
It'd be the most New York Jets thing ever. And it's like, look, at that point, if y'all aren't going to the postseason, then just blow the whole thing up, get it over with, and let's move on to the next iteration of let's find the quarterback. It's sad, man. It really is.
I want to cry, but I'd rather laugh. That's one way to cope with it. That's for sure. And I think your idea is right in the sense of if you like the worst thing that just could do this year is go like seven and 10, eight and nine, be right there in the middle, not like the playoffs, not have a high draft pick. It's either all in or all out, you know, go all in, make the playoffs and get in the dance. If that's not going to happen, then bottom the hell out. Oh yeah.
And go three and 14. Oh, whoa, whoa. Come on, man. They're not that bad. They have too much talent to be that bad. Come on. I don't know.
I'm not saying they will, but I'm saying if you're a Jets fan and that's what you should roof, like if you think the playoffs are out of reach or not a possibility, then you should be rooting for this team to lose every game. Yeah. I'm not good as eight wins going to get you.
I'm not there yet. Let's see. They have new England. They should win Houston. I think there'll be surprisingly competitive. I wouldn't be shocked if they beat Houston, Arizona. They'll be competitive. The Colts will be competitive. Seattle.
They'll be competitive. Miami stinks. Jacksonville stinks. The Rams stinks. Buffalo.
You never know. Miami is there. The Jets can pick up some W's man. They can.
They can. Let's see how they run things out. I still believe they're competitive enough to compete for a playoff spot, but they are, the Jets are like a ticking time bomb because the more they lose, the more pressure is on them. And then I think the more they will lose.
And then when it's finally over, I don't know, they call it black Monday. Everybody gets fired. When the Jets have like finished this Aaron Rogers experiment up, they already got rid of Salah. Joe Douglas is getting the boot. Aaron Rogers is likely to go on bailing. Devante Adams is going to say, I'm out. And the New York Jets, they're left with nothing. I don't want to say this is like, you know, the Brooklyn Nets picking up Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, but it might be. And that didn't end well. It worked out for the Boston Celtics, not the Nets. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network, 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. We're going to take a break. When we come back, I said this team was done a few weeks ago. It's the Georgia Bulldogs. And Georgia Bulldogs have now climbed into the number two spot on the AP Top 25. We're going to talk some college football, take a look at some of the bigger things that took place over the weekend. And we'll talk some Deon too. Colorado picked up a victory.
They got a better record than the Jets. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
We're going to be joined by Chris Easterling in about 15 minutes. He's going to join us from the Akron Beacon Journal to talk about the Browns. Things not so good for the Browns. Deshaun Watson out for the year, torn ACL.
Where the hell do the Browns go from here? But before we get to that, I got to talk some college football. I didn't do nothing but watch football all weekend long. I don't know how I did it, where I watched it. I think I watched it here, there, everywhere, but I watched. And especially I watched my local Georgia Bulldogs take on the Texas Longhorns.
We had a whole big conversation about this last week. I said that I believe that Texas was going to outscore the Bulldogs and win. That the Bulldogs wouldn't be able to keep up with Texas in the offense. Well, damn it, they did not.
It was the opposite. I mean, we saw Arch Manning at the end of the first half. Everybody's like, oh my God, they sat down Quinn Ewers and neither quarterback between Carson Beck and Quinn Ewers. Both of these guys were giving the ball up all over the damn place. Carson Beck threw three interceptions.
He threw two on the first couple of drives and they had to rely on the running game to win. And I guess Texas, you take a look at their opponents prior to taking on Georgia. Yeah, they weren't as strong as Georgia. And so the Bulldogs lose to Alabama. By the way, it was good to see them take a loss as well over the weekend.
Thank you so much, Tennessee. But the fact is, the Bulldogs are number two. I said that I thought that these Bulldogs were done.
They obviously are not. I still think that they're going to have to ride the defense to win here. I mean, the defense was helping them score. And then even you think about Texas scoring, they got a little bit of help with that pass interference. Hickey, did you see the fans? They threw the trash.
They got what they wanted. Like what type of, if I throw trash around, can I get a call reversed from the refs? Maybe. That was unbelievable.
Have you ever seen anything like that? No, no. We should just all influence the game. Let's throw trash. I don't even, the explanation that we got from the SEC. And so Texas was fined a quarter million dollars for it, for the fans going out there and being nuts and throwing garbage on the field.
I don't recall anything like that. And I don't think we got clarity. They were like, oh, well, they overturned them. The SEC didn't even give a proper explanation. Kirby Smart at least said that he was told that they, they, they got incorrectly called the wrong number and made the wrong, like it was very sketchy.
And it just, I mean, I don't know what actually happened, but it's, if you're a conspiracy theorist, you have some legs here for this one. People making mistakes, air quotes. Let's take a listen. Kirby Smart is what he had to say about those refs and overturning the call, passing a fairance, helping to set them up for a TD when they said it was a PI.
Listen to Kirby Smart. He was not happy. Now we've set a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, that you got a chance to get your call reversed. And that's unfortunate because to me, that's dangerous.
That's not what we want. And that's not criticizing officials. That's what happened. Well, it kind of sort of is criticizing the, uh, the officials.
Hey, what about the team that the only team that beat the Bulldogs who now have a record of six and one Alabama, I was happy to see them lose to Tennessee 24 to 17. And so now you got Kalem DeBor. He spoke earlier today and he said, look, man, we just got to not listen to you. He gave that whole Aaron Rogers thing. Listen to this. I already heard in the locker room from our players, they understand the big picture is one thing in order to make the big picture relevant. We have to take care of what's in front of us. And, uh, we got to continue to, you know, build, do what championship teams do, build on, uh, championship caliber teams do build on your belief, uh, build on your, you know, just intensity and everything that, uh, that you do. And, um, and then just have some grit.
Hickey, a whole lot of coach speak of nothing, a lot of nothing there. They need more than just grit. That's for sure. They need new players, discipline. Oh, what do you do next year when, when Milro is gone?
Get a quarterback. That's more consistent. That's for sure. Oh boy. Ouch. This is the post Nick Saban era.
Yeah. We knew this was going to happen. I mean, at least they're not Michigan and put it to you that Michigan, what are they doing? They don't know what the college football playoff is. Cause they will not go. They don't USC ain't going out of they lose to Maryland.
People are looking at Lincoln, Raleigh saying, Hey, man, it's time for you to get the boot. And then surprisingly shot us to Colorado. I got a record now five and two beat Arizona as they should. They let 28 to seven and a half.
I mean, they had Travis Hunter. They said, Hey man, you, you feel inside? Well, you just got hurt. It was sit down.
Don't don't don't play. They set them out. Should door Sanders, 250 yards accounted for three touchdowns. They throw a couple of INT. So, you know, Dion was happy about what his boy said or what he did. And he says, yeah, the offense was good.
That's what he told Fox. The guys went out and they were aggressive upfront and they were very physical and we made a pretty much of a commitment to run the ball. We know we can throw the ball. We know that we can spin it with the best stuff, but whenever we have a lot more balance, we're better.
We're just that much better. It balanced. So balance is good for everybody.
Balance is good for the world. In Colorado, they got Cincinnati up next. I think Cincinnati will give him a little bit of a run. Let's see if Colorado can go six and two.
Better than the crap smoking mirrors that they pulled last year where they were all style and no substance. Oregon still sitting here at number one, or they moved to number one after knocking off Purdue. The Bulldogs are back at number two. Penn State sitting at three. The Ohio State at four. Texas, losing to Georgia.
They're five. Miami is six after beating Louisville. And congratulations to Tennessee sitting at seven after beating Alabama 24 to 17. It's the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, it's time to have a chat with Chris Easterling from the Akron Beacon Journal.
I'm going to ask him about these Browns. What are they doing the rest of this year? And what do they do next year? And when does Deshaun come back? And what do the fans think?
It's a disaster. We'll have that conversation with Chris on the other side of the break. You're listening to the JR Sportbreeze.
It is the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We got more football tonight. Man, the Ravens at the Bucks. We got the Chargers and the Cards. Had all this news about Brandon Iuke and his injury and now Deebo Samuel has pneumonia, fluid in his lungs, Kittle has a sprained foot. But I want to say probably the biggest injury that garnered so much attention yesterday was Deshaun Watson going down.
Blew out his Achilles, is out for the year. The Browns are one and six. They've given him $230 million guaranteed. They've traded all the picks and fans are booing, but they're cheering the injury. Things are not looking good right now for the Browns. It may not be good into the future to talk about the Browns and what's next for the coach of the year. What's next for their GM? What happens with the team joining us right now is Chris Easterling.
He covers the Browns for the Akron Beacon Journal. Chris, how are you? Not too bad, JR. How are you doing? I'm very well.
Thank you for taking the time to join us. I guess after all of the chastising done by the Browns organization, the coach and the players about the treatment of Deshaun Watson as he was caught off the field yesterday, what's the temperature in Ohio right now with this situation? Well, I think now it's kind of looking forward. I mean, now it's because the bigger issue now is the guys they think might start next Sunday against Baltimore. They don't know if he's going to be able to start because he has his own injury.
That's the way in Thompson Robinson with a finger injury. So it might be Jamis time Sunday in Cleveland against the Ravens. But as far as Deshaun, it's just the latest, whatever you want to call it, the latest roadblock, the latest pothole, whatever you want to call it, that has just marred this trade since, you know, marred him or this organization since they made the trade back in March 2022. Well, Chris, given all of the draft capital that they gave up to acquire him and the guaranteed contract, what do you think is the likeliest scenario when it comes down to Deshaun and his future? Are they going to, you know, bring him back next year and then cut him if it's another mediocre year? Like, what is most likely for the Browns in the long term as with their relationship with him? Well, the problem is the amount of money, like you said, the amount of money they have tied up in him.
I mean, he's still got two years of 73 million dollar cap for the team in 25 and 26. So it's, my guess is, I think you have to look at it at some point and say, we've got to move on. We can't, we're three years, we've gone through three years of this. It's that we've never gotten anything close to a full season. We can't bank that in the last two years of this, we're actually going to get anything close to a return on our investment. So it might be time to cut bait. It might be time to let's figure something out. Let's, you know, he's going to get his money and it's going to take, it's going to be a big hit on the cap, but I mean, you got to kind of look at the future and say, we're just, every time, next year, you're just stunning the growth of this franchise going forward because I mean, you have no guarantees. He's good.
I mean, he already came back from the shoulder injury, not looking even like the same player you saw in spurts last year before he got the injury. So, I mean, I think at some point, you know, they come in, they sit down and they have to think about what it's going to take to move on from them. Chris Easterling is joining us from the Akron Beacon Journal. We know this is going to reverberate throughout the organization. When you think about the general manager and Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski, I don't expect him to go anywhere unless it's his own choosing.
Is Berry going to feel a hit for this? Because it certainly feels like from when they made the trade for Watson, it was done from all the way at the top, the Haslam's. Right. I mean, yeah, that's the thing is everybody is sort of tied to this. They all went all in on him. You know, Kevin went down, Stefanski went down and met with DeSean in Houston when they were trying, when they were courting him and, you know, went over what this offense was going to look like with him. And, you know, Andrew obviously sacrificed years of draft capital that in hindsight has probably set this franchise backwards because they're an older roster now. They don't have some of that young talent that they need, young first round talent that they need to, you know, to stay competitive, to keep this window open. And like you said, the Haslam's signed off on it. I think it was driven by the Haslam's, but that hasn't stopped them before from, you know, making decisions and, you know, creating scapegoats and ball guys. And I don't think it will happen, but let's see where this season goes because there's still a lot of season left and it can only get worse from here or for the football team, especially where they sit right now because, I mean, they're just, you already did Amari Cooper, DeSean Watson's injured and it just, I mean, you're getting to the point where other guys are probably going to get moved. So my guess is it gets a lot, lot darker before this team, before they see the light.
Well, Chris, that was my next question. You see Amari Cooper, he goes out, well, he gets sent out to Buffalo. At least Nick Chubb came back and I'm like, this guy's working his way back to do what?
Get pained and beaten down? Like what's his situation? He's on the last year of his deal, you know, they reworked it, they incinerated it. The thing is Nick Chubb may be about as beloved an athlete as there's been in Cleveland. And I mean, if there was a, if you had a, you know, approval rating, Nick Chubb, may be the highest of any Cleveland athlete in the last half century.
I mean, he's that popular. That's why they made sure, even after the injury last year, that we're going to take care of you. The city needs you. I don't know if you read the Players Tribune piece, Nick sat down for where he talked about how the city, you know, this was for the city and how much the city, the mutual love that exists between him and the city. And that's what complicates this is that he's such a beloved player, but, you know, you got to get younger. But if Nick Chubb shows, that may be the thing that fans hold on to over the course of the next two and a half, three months is, hey, can we see Nick Chubb get back to being something close to Nick Chubb? And then maybe I would assume they do everything they can to bring him back at a rate that makes sense, because obviously he's an older running back, he's an older running back. There's a lot of, you know, the two knee injuries, all that. So, but my guess is, you know, he's a Brown, he's a Brown for life, but, you know, let's see where again, let's see, let's see how it looks at the end of the season, because he's coming back from a major, he's still trying to do something that I don't, I can't think of somebody to come back from two major knee injuries on the same knee. So let's see what he could do, because I think that's a subplot to this season that at least I think is going to keep some fans engaged as it continues to careen out of control.
Well, Chris, you talk about Nick Chubb being a Brown for life. Kevin Stefanski has kind of geared this team towards success from what we saw with Baker Mayfield, not up until now, but he's been a two-time coach of the year. We saw what happened last year when Flacco comes through. Do you see a scenario where Kevin Stefanski, even through his successes, just moves on whether he wants to do it or they let him go?
Again, I think anything's on the table. I mean, you have the Haslam's owning this team and, you know, they've shown previously that, you know, they're willing to move on, they're willing to cut bait. I mean, they're willing to fire coaches, fire GMs if they don't like where it's going. So I think it's all about what does Kevin do to try to salvage this? What can Kevin do to keep the locker room, which I will say, at least right now, is still something he's done. I think he's engendered a lot of goodwill in that locker room. I think the players really do like Kevin, they like playing for Kevin, because I think Kevin gives them shelter. You know, we in the media get frustrated talking to Kevin sometimes because he refuses, you know, even when Deshaun was playing bad, he refused to just blame it on Deshaun.
He's like, we all have to do it. And the players appreciate that. Now, what he says behind closed doors, I'm sure, you know, I'm sure players catch it for, you know, not doing what they have to do, you know, on a given play and game and whatnot. But publicly, he gives them the cover.
And I think players appreciate that. But this season is going to test a lot of that because this, I mean, just the direction this season is going, you know, he's going to burn through a lot of it because it's just, it's looking like one of the worst seasons, it's going to be the worst season since he's been here. And it might be the worst season since they went winless in 2017. Chris Easterling is here with us from the Akron Beacon-Journal. Where and when do they find that next quarterback after Watson? I think their whole, my guess is that, you know, I've just started diving into the quarterback. Coming into these, I don't think they thought they were going to have to look at this quarterback class. I mean, I'm sure they did their due diligence, but they thought, we're going to get DeSean back.
This is the year. So I think they've had to pivot, but right now they're looking, you know, I think that was why Dorian Thompson Robinson was elevated to the number two spot is because part of it for the rest of the season is they got to know what they have in him, finally. They have to fully answer that question before they can really move on and say, do we need to get up? And we don't like this quarterback draft class. And it's a mixed review. You get a mixed reviews on this draft class, you know, the, you know, what it, what it potentially could be if they don't like it, do they go out and they get a veteran to be the bridge guy for 2025 and then hope maybe, you know, maybe a Garrett Nussmeier in 2026, you know, the kid at LSU or somebody else that the 26th draft class has somebody a little more appealing that can be your your long-term plan.
But right now, I mean, my guess is if it's not, not DTR and I'm not sure it will be, my guess is it's either going to be a bridge guy or it's going to be a bridge veteran, or it's going to be somebody, you know, Sugar Sanders, Carson Beck when yours, I mean, insert somebody they're going to have to because you have to, your window is closing rapidly on one of the most talented collections of players this franchise has had since the expansion theme was started in 1995. Well, Chris, thank you so much for the time. The information is, just does not feel good. If you're a Browns fan, where can people follow you, your work, your writings? Fill us in. You can follow me on Twitter or whatever we're calling it today at C-Easterling-A-B-J.
You can also read my work at thebeacongeneral.com. There's a click on sports and there's a subpage for the Browns. You can read it there, and we'll, I mean, we're here to the end regardless of what direction this season goes, but it's certainly going to be interesting to see where it goes because I have a feeling there's feeling there's still a lot of dominoes to fall before the season ends. Oh yeah.
And there's a lot of stories. Hey Chris, thank you so much. We'll catch you on down the line. Okay. All right.
Thanks a lot, JR. No doubt about it. That Chris Easterling covers the Browns for the Akron Beacon Journal. Man, this is, it's a disaster, man.
In Cleveland, it's a disaster. Hickey, are the Browns and the Jets, are they like cousins? Are they related? They are brothers and sisters.
Okay. Or brother and brother, I guess. Brother and brother, yeah. It is bad, man. I think it has it worse. The Brown, at least the Browns are, they're closer to what they know needs to happen, like blowing it up. The Jets have to, they have to hit rock bottom. They haven't gotten there yet. But at least the Jets didn't give up massive draft capital and have Aaron Rodgers guaranteed on their books for the next two years. Oh my God.
They have an easy out. Both situations are painful in different ways. I feel for the fans. Jet fans and Browns fans just need to go out and start a support group.
That's what needs to happen. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're getting ready for Monday Night Football. We're going to talk about the Bucks and the Ravens, the Chargers and the Cards. We got you covered. It's the JR Sport Reshow. Don't you move.
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