It is the JR Sportbrief Show here on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much to everybody tuned in all over North America.
I'll be hanging out with you for the next three hours. This is a four-hour show. It gets started every weekday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific, as you can guess. We're less than a week away from the Super Bowl. Today is media day, media night, opening night, we got the last time that the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will be in the same building before they play in the Super Bowl on Sunday. Stupid questions will be asked. Children will be thrown around it. Ask questions.
Today, I'm sure we'll get something funny out of it. Roger Goodell spoke. Miles Garrett asked for a trade from the Cleveland Browns. What a surprise. It was still reeling from everything that took place with the Lakers acquiring Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis.
When Benyama got a new running mate and nobody cares. And Zach Levine, well, afterthought. Sorry. We have so much to get into. First of all, thank you to our guest for joining us last hour. Jonah Javad joined us from Dallas. Sports cast are on television for WFAA. In about 20 minutes, we're going to have another chat, this time with Lindsey Rhodes from Sumer Sports to talk about what? The Super Bowl. Football. Yeah, we're going to talk about the game. It is a big game on Sunday. We got Lilo Lang joining us.
Former Denver Bronco will be here at the end of the show to talk about this Super Bowl match up in battle. And so we got a lot to do. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. You can always listen to this show on the free Odyssey app.
A U D A C Y. Thank you to everybody listening wherever they live on their local Infinity Sports Network radio affiliate. If you got Sirius XM, it's 375. And if you got a smart speaker, ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. We open the show by giving you another update on a trade that took place.
And that happens to be Mr. Miles Garrett doesn't want to be in Cleveland, Ohio, said it's not my goal to go from Cleveland to Canton. My goal is to go to a Super Bowl. Well, we know he's going to Canton, Ohio. It doesn't matter what team he's going to suit up for.
We now just have to wait and see what that team is. You know, there's already been a report that the Cleveland Browns do not want to move him and that they don't plan on moving him, which is pretty much the same thing that their GM Andrew Berry said as recently as last week. I just think it's a matter of posturing. I mean, if you're the Cleveland Browns, you don't gain anything by saying, OK, well, open it up for business. You know, let the let the bidding begin. You might as well wait until we get close to the draft.
People are getting antsy to have a better idea of what you may get back. There's there's no rush to trade Miles Garrett. And so the Browns have said we are not moving it. Would I believe that?
No, I don't believe that. I think ultimately he'll get moved. The matter of fact, let's do this. Let's get back to Miles Garrett. We're going to chat with Lindsay Rhodes from Sumer Sports. Sumer really takes a deep dive into the analytics and data side of the NFL. Thomas Dimitrov, who used to run the Atlanta Falcons, is pretty much helping to run and move this part of his life past and forward, or at least as product, I should say. So Lindsay Rhodes is a part of the organization as well. And later on this hour, let's talk about some of the potential destinations for Miles Garrett.
So we'll get into that. Also, earlier today, over the weekend, I should say we learned that Chip Kelly, no longer offensive coordinator at Ohio State. He's going back to the NFL this time, not as a head coach, thank God, but more so as the offensive coordinator for the Raiders. So we got a we got a big mix of football and picky. There's no baseball news, right? Besides that umpire? Yeah, just besides one guy losing his job at a ho-hum day so far in baseball. Yeah, baseball is hey, Alex Bregman, nowhere yet.
Pete Alonso, nowhere yet. And then you got an umpire who was confirmed to be terminated from his job, because he operated a dual account with a friend, a sports betting account. So I guess him and his friend had an email address. And, you know, they made bets together. The other guy made bets, but we'll get into that.
So many more important things. If you want to call up the show, you can 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. You can find me online at JR Sport Brief.
I'm in Atlanta, you just heard him, super producer and host Ryan Hickey in New York City. You know, right before we went to break, we took a caller, Mark had called us up from Canada. And he basically said, man, you know, every now and then you get one of these life altering trades. I can't imagine if you're a kid. I don't know if kids are so jaded nowadays, maybe they don't feel it. But I think most of us are sports fans. You can remember when you didn't fully have a grasp on the business side of sports.
Like you looked at it and the players were superheroes. And you know, as a kid, you don't fully have a grasp on one timing. You know, the years tend to go by slow as you get older. It's not a joke when they say time flies.
They say it's flying when you're having fun. But in a typical sense, you blink and life just moves on. You know, you're sitting in that classroom all day from age five to 18 or 2022. I mean, that time goes by slow as hell. And you don't realize, you know, watching a star for your favorite team is nothing in perpetuity.
Nothing goes on and lasts forever. But the trader Luca Doncic from Dallas to Los Angeles is a is a gut check for a guy who is only 25 years old, is going to turn 26 at the end of this month. And regardless of how you feel about his conditioning and how physical he is or whether he cares about his shape and his weight and that dude is bad. And I would think going to Los Angeles and now being around LeBron James, who in our last break, Jonah Javad basically said that LeBron is his idol.
Man, we've heard stories for years. The guy's 40 years old about how LeBron James is still able to maintain his high quality of play, pouring millions of dollars into his body. It is a nonstop, no days off commitment from LeBron. And we still see the fruits where he's beating the Knicks and averaging a triple double or scoring a triple double, having a triple double on Saturday night. So I would assume that Luca is is hopefully going to turn his game into a new gear. Like, I don't even know. It's got to be a second or third time that he's had an issue with a calf strain is now reports coming out that he's more than 260 pounds.
His ideal playing weight is in the 240s. It's just it's not good right now. And as we heard from Jonah, the fans in Dallas, man, they have been ticked off. These are the fans reacting over the weekend yesterday because they know all the time. But yesterday they were reacting to Luca being moved.
I've been a master my whole entire life since I've been a baby. This is the worst moment in the history of my life. They could win every game the rest of the season and win the championship. And it wouldn't really matter because all of the emotional value and in that journey just got sucked away. I hope Luca goes crazy on us. You know what I mean?
Yeah, like, I'm I'm done with the math right now. He's supposed to have a statue. He's supposed to have a statue. You got a statue right there. It's supposed to be Luca right there.
It feels like someone close to you died in a way. This new management is putting profit over fans. You don't trade a 25 year old MVP candidate in his crime for a 32 year old made of glass.
Yeah, correct. And that's that's the reaction that that Mavs fans have about bringing in Anthony Davis. I mean, there's a reason that Charles Barkley over the years has called him Anthony Street clothes Davis.
Now, let's not allow it to be lost. Luca Doncic hasn't necessarily been a model for health himself as he's averaging 67 games a season. I just told you about his calf strain.
We're now getting rumors and news that's getting leaked out about how they they're saying, oh, he has a wrist injury so he can try to get his weight down. And welcome to the world of the NBA. Welcome to the world of sports. This is business. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors.
And sometimes you just have to go ahead and read in between the lines. Dallas Mavericks, they didn't want to pay this guy. They didn't trust him to give him this 345 million dollars supermax deal, which would make him the highest paid player in NBA history. I'm talking about a contract that would pay Luca Doncic 79 million dollars in the 2030 to 2031 season. Now, this isn't exactly Joel Embiid, whose contract, by the way, runs until 2029. That is still kind of shocking to me. We've seen what Luca can do because Luca has already taken this team, this squad they had last year. He took him to the finals. He's 25.
It's just it's mind boggling to me. And so for Luca Doncic, this might actually be better. And I know about the money that he's losing, at least on the front end. Chandler Parsons was sitting around on a podcast and said that Luca Doncic just bought a home for 15 million dollars in the metroplex that, you know, he had no intentions on leaving. The Mavs are just putting their own stamp on things.
The new ownership group and Nico Harrison, they are just putting their own stamp on things. But let me tell you, the Mavs are going to be in the toilet, I believe, for years, because Kyrie Irving, yeah, he's good now, but he ain't going to get no better. Anthony Davis is not going to get any better.
I mean, to trade away an asset who could still potentially be better and Luca, it's kind of more than lost on me. I think he'll actually be better with the Los Angeles Lakers. And I'm sure he's going to go outside. Hickey, we'll see Luca Doncic out in L.A., I would say in one week than we've ever seen Otani out. Oh, definitely. No doubt about it.
I'm with you there. Luca Doncic is going to be the toast of the town, but I think and we don't know how much longer LeBron is going to stick around. I don't think this is his last year.
I think at minimum we get this year and then next year. This is going to be good for Luca, because as I had this conversation last hour with Jonah, this this might be added motivation. This might be the battery in the back.
This might be the twisting them up. This might be the kick in the ass. The wake up call that he needs. Chandler Parsons said that he cried when he found out the news and Lucas put his messages out on social media, thanking the Mavs fans, not the organization. He reportedly rejected the calls of GM Nico Harrison, and he's already said he's excited to compete for championships in L.A. LeBron James has to be thrilled. And from everything that we've heard and I believe this, LeBron James, he didn't know about this.
He said he was out at dinner. OK, fine. Also, let you know that probably LeBron's last favor. We gave you your coach. We got your son on the roster.
I'm going to do what the hell I want to do right now. I mean, even Bill Ryder, you can hear Bill Ryder here on the Infinity Sports Network in the mornings. He talked about the LeBron involvement in this trade on CBS Sports HQ, and even LeBron answered him back. Listen to what Bill had to say.
What's up, Bill? Joe, I'm going to tell you something that was true a year ago, but I think it is pertinent now. There was talk within the Lakers organization that LeBron James had grown a little frustrated with Anthony Davis. It wasn't that necessarily A.D. was going to be traded. We obviously didn't report that on CBS Sports.
It was just, hey, this is something to keep an eye on. LeBron is frustrated with A.D. and he doesn't think that it's working. And that's because LeBron has very, very high expectations. And you fast forward a year later, obviously that reporting, really that information from Lakers sources was accurate. We're speculating here to a degree. I mean, I've got some reporting here that suggestion people that LeBron certainly was involved. But this follows a pattern where LeBron wants to win championships.
It doesn't matter if he's 26 or he's 40 years old. And you're right, there is no chance. There is zero percent chance this trade happens without LeBron at a minimum, giving his approval and maybe, you know, maybe a little bit of a little bit of a shot out the door for A.D. Yeah, well, LeBron took and wasted no time and responded to Bill and just said, you were bleeping a lot. Yeah, and who am I? I can't refute Bill. What the hell do I know?
I don't know. I can only think that if you're the Los Angeles Lakers and this this opportunity is here and we've heard and read all of the stories about. Just trying to to bridge the gap and keep it quiet and not put anybody, I think Jason Kidd might have known.
I think LeBron James, what does he owed at this point in time? So many wild rumors all over the NBA about who's going here. And and Kevin Durant even he said it perfectly. Kevin Durant finding out about the trade on the bench is his reaction went viral. And Kevin Durant certainly talked about it after the game.
Kevin Durant is just like, listen, people, nobody in the NBA is untouchable. If Luka Doncic can get moved and say, well, it's crazy, crazy. I would have never thought Luka Doncic would get traded at this age, you know, mid-season.
The NBA is a little out of place, man. And he can get traded and anybody's up, you know, for grabs, you know. What a surprise today. Kevin Durant's name was was thrown around in trade rumors.
What a shock. Bradley Beal and trade rumors. Jimmy Butler hasn't moved yet. This is shaping up to just be a wild, wild week for the dirt sheets. Not even anything going on in the court right now.
It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We'll get more into that and some of these maybe potential deals for Durant. What's up with Bradley Beal?
What's the latest with Jimmy Butler? We're going to get into that later on in the show, but we're going to take a break. And when we come back, it's time for a chat with Lindsey Rhodes, who covers all things NFL football for Sumer Sports. Of course, we're going to talk about this Super Bowl, which, thank God, is now less than a week away between the Eagles Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. Lindsey, coming up on the other side, it's the JR sport re-show on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR sport brief.
It is the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. This is a busy week. We got people asking for trades.
We have people being traded in the middle of the night. We got NFL media day. We're getting ready for the Super Bowl.
It's just so much going on. We're going to talk some football. We're going to stay on the gridiron right now because we are being joined by someone who is a host. You've seen her all over covering the NFL right now, a host on Sumer Sports. It's Lindsey Rhodes. Lindsey, how are you?
Hi, I'm doing well. I'm just trying to wrap my brain around this Cooper Cup post. Have you seen this?
Yeah, just was alerted to it right in the break as well. Well, I mean, you got Pukin Nakua and then you got Cooper. He wants his money and a future elsewhere, huh? Wow. Well, no, he doesn't want it. It says that he was informed that the team will be seeking a trade immediately and will be working with him and his family to find the right place to continue competing for championships. I don't agree with the decision and always believed it was going to begin and end in LA. Wow. Wow. We know money talks.
Well, let me ask you this, Lindsey. What are your thoughts on how he would fit in? We know he came back from injury now to share the ball with Pukin. Matthew Stafford, they're trying to figure out his situation financially.
What does this mean for the Rams and hole? Well, I think, I mean, there was already some people wondering about how Cooper fit in. I think prior to this, I don't think this necessarily comes out of left field at all. I'm going to try and pull up his, as we talk, his numbers that we have for him here this season at summer sports. So I can add some context to this conversation. But of course this kind of came out of left field.
So I'll get to those as soon as I can. But I mean, obviously Pukin Nakua hitting in the way that he did. And I think Cooper Cup, I mean, people who play fantasy football know the way that Cooper Cup kind of was a little bit of a roller coaster this year. I think it poses a lot of questions that I had just yet to get to the part of the off-season where I was even getting around to asking or answering those questions about why the roller coaster existed. It makes you wonder if he was injured, if injury was impacting his play. Clearly Puka was, I guess what you'd call kind of like a target earner. And so the offense sort of went in his direction and away from Cooper Cups.
But I always just sort of wondered what the story was and what was going on. So I pulled up his numbers that we have for him that are specific metrics that are pulled through our tracking data. And let's see, so he, his overall grade that we have for him. Why am I not finding this? I'm so sorry that I'm all over the place. No, it's okay. This is news that just came down, Lindsay. Don't worry about it.
I know, right? This is wild news, by the way. Let's see, his route running metrics that we have for him has him in the 46th percentile, ranked 79th this season. Yeah, I don't have him ranked above 45 in anything. And that's in first, which I don't even know if that's specifically, you know, that's kind of a, I mean, is that relevant?
So in terms of his overall receiving grade, I think we had him in the 63rd percentile, ranked 56th at his position. So there was a clear drop-off in play this year that, again, like I was saying, probably really just opens the door for more questions to ask, right? And it seems like the Rams don't like the answers that they have in terms of continuing on with him and thinking maybe they can upgrade the position.
I just don't know why that is. Lindsay Rose is here with us from Sumer Sports. So you think about Cooper Cup and contributing to that championship. And we knew this day would come when Les Knead stood in front of the media and said, you know, screw the picks. And we thought that at some point in time, the chickens were going to come home to roost. And despite success, even coming off of Aaron Donald to go to the playoffs, it appears that that is certainly the case. The other big trade, at least request, this was very clear earlier today was from Miles Garrett, wanting to be now kind of sent off from the Cleveland Browns to pursue somewhere where he can win a championship.
What are your thoughts? The team says they're not going to move him. That's just a matter of bluff right now, huh? I mean, I mean, I think they have to.
I just don't know. I guess I don't know that Cleveland has enough goodwill built up to have their next move be. We're going to take one of the best players in the league who's pretty well liked, very popular in our town, and we're going to hold them against as well.
I just don't know if that's the play. And I had actually said a month ago, a very unpopular opinion in Cleveland when I was on Cleveland radio, that I thought that they it might be the best move that they had any way to move him. Because while that feels counterintuitive, because he is clearly still playing at such a high level, the way that I'm looking at the Browns build and how much money they sunk into the quarterback position and will continue to for years to come, a quarterback that is not going to play for them and played poorly the entire time. I just think that they are so behind the eight ball in terms of rebuilding that roster in a way that's cap compliant and competitive. And so one of my thoughts was, even though they have so many draft picks this year, a lot of draft capital, they're way over the cap, that I thought maybe the best move was to move this guy who could return a massive return for them and try to upgrade, just try to do all of it as much as possible with young players and start your rebuild here. And then you have more assets to take more shots at quarterback because you're picking second this year. If you're the Browns, my guess is they probably take a quarterback.
That's all I'm hearing is that they are likely to do that. This is not the year that you want that pick, frankly. This quarterback class is not a comparatively good quarterback class. And so the guys that are going at the top that are probably going to go in the top three, there's two of them, I'm not talking to anyone who's saying, yes, they're for sure a for sure thing. I think most people are looking at Pam Ward and at Chidor Sanders and saying, maybe they're good. But is maybe they're good what you want to take with one, two or three?
I don't know. So if I'm the Browns, I want a lot of early picks just stashed so that I can go again and go again and or get a bridge this year, strengthen the rest of the roster. And then next year, try to go again with one of my first round picks that I could pick up in a trade for somebody like Miles Garrett.
Lindsay Rhodes is joining us host of Sumer Sports with Thomas Dimitrov, former GM for the Atlanta Falcons. You were just out at the Senior Bowl and you do talk to folks. Is there anyone who is impressing you as we kind of, I don't want to say transition, we got to get through the game first. But the next big thing will obviously be the draft and the combine. Yeah, so in general, the position groups that you're going to hear the most this year in the draft in terms of like the strengths of this year's class, it's the edge group. There's a lot of depth at edge.
That's good. That's good news for the Browns if they're looking for another edge, if they have to trade away Miles Garrett. Also, the tight end class is very, very strong. And I also think that based on what we saw down in Mobile, you might sort of see a little bit of a reshuffling of, you know, the rankings at that position group.
Arroyo is the name of a guy who I think stand out and really helped himself at the tight end position. The running back class is also a good running back class. Now that doesn't mean that you're going to see a ton of running backs go in the first round because we all know about positional value and how that's kind of bumped running backs down the charts. I mean, my guess is that we probably will see one at least, you know, maybe a couple go in the first round.
But you're not going to see a ton of them. It's funny, I'll tell you watching running backs in Mobile because practice practices and practice scripts the way that those are designed for evaluation at like a Senior Bowl, you know, there's not a great environment to evaluate running back play, you almost have to watch the tape and see them in a game environment because they're not tackling to the ground. And so you know, you're hearing a whistle as soon as it looks like the defenders on you, you don't get a chance to see if the running back can force a missed tackle, or how they get to that second level and how they can pick up speed as they get through the line. So I didn't necessarily get a great read on those guys, or frankly, Jalen Milrow, who has a skill set that I don't think is designed for an evaluation in practice, you really need to take a look at him in a game. And my guess is that once we get to the combine and people start doing the athletic testing, that we'll start hearing more and more about him. But it's not a particularly good year for the quarterbacks, like I mentioned. Well, Lindsay, we know two quarterbacks that we're going to see on Sunday is certainly still scrutinized to different degrees and for different reasons here. Jalen hurts for not throwing the football enough despite picking up these victories. And then Mahomes people are saying, hey, this was a this was a down year with a least or less explosive type team. What do you expect from both of these QBs on Sunday? I am expecting Patrick Mahomes to do all of the Patrick Mahomes things. My guess is so outside of what we know to expect for Patrick Mahomes, I'm a little bit interested to see if he scrambles more. He has been taking off a little bit more in the postseason this year than he did in the regular season and has 27 plus yards rushing in four of his eight games against Fangio in the past. Interestingly, for those of you who are interested in betting, the prop for him is set at twenty nine and a half, which is pretty high. But I kind of see a script where like, I don't know if they're the running backs can be able to run.
I don't know. I just I feel like we might see Mahomes run the ball a little bit against his defense, his Eagles defense is insane. So what we know to expect of Patrick Mahomes is that he's going to somehow elevate his play and we're going to see the best version of himself in the biggest game because that's a consistent pattern that he has established. It's been a down year for Patrick Mahomes in terms of the numbers.
And so he's been a perfect example for someone like me who's going around and talking to a lot of local affiliates this week about their teams and looking at our summer sports metrics, looking at Patrick Mahomes and serve using him as an example of like he ranked twenty seventh in our passing all in one metric metric this year. Right. Is he the twenty seventh best quarterback? Was he even this year? Of course not. So some of these things, just because you don't get a chance to see the best that a player has in any one game or any one year, even it doesn't necessarily tell the whole story.
Right. So I think that that he's in an interesting position after a year that I would just evaluate in general as being a roughly down year for him hurts is fascinating because of the way that people talk about him and whether or not they will be able to have much success in the passing game, I think will be very important here. They did in the last game against the commanders and did not in their first two playoff games. Well, the commanders are a different defense than we're seeing for these other defenses that the Eagles have faced.
Like they're just not as strong on that side of the ball yet. But so I'll be interested to see if he can move the ball through the air, what kind of impact Trent McDuffie has against these wide receivers, because he's been a stud. Chris Jones, you know, we talk about the players on the eagle side of the ball top to bottom. That roster, I think, is the best in the NFL. But you could make an argument that the Chiefs have the best high positional value players just across the board. Like, is Chris Jones the best defender in this entire game?
You know, and I think the answer might be yes. And so I think it'll be really fascinating to see how the specific, you know, guys here and there for the Chiefs, what they're able to do with Bagnolo, who I think is a total game changer, the coaching staff for the Chiefs in this game. Well, Lindsey, I mean, we see and hear all of the work that you do on a summer sports show with Thomas Dimitrov. And it's very data driven.
Tell us a little bit more about the company in whole and why it was created on the back end to allow professional teams and colleges to use some of the data that you guys find. Yeah, I think in general, football is evolving to the point where now we have the capability to really do a deeper dive on the things that we used to evaluate just with our eyes, which is problematic in a lot of ways, because you could have a guy who has been very, very good throughout his career. But what you're looking for is maybe, maybe the moment when he no longer is as good, you know, and your eyes, you would continue to give that person the benefit of the doubt.
I think Aaron Rogers is the perfect example for me this year, where all of the deeper numbers suggest that Aaron Rogers had a, like, actually a very bad year. But people who see the passing yards number and Aaron Rogers name attached to it are like, but, and so I think it the way that you have a chance to kind of go under the hood here, and ask questions that are player agnostic, and allow teams, Sumer provides a lot of information to teams who are clients about, you know, when a player there are little small things that will show up in their tracking metrics that could indicate that a player has maybe started to drop off. And so maybe that's something that a team wants to know so that they don't go offer him a new five year deal. And then also on the flip side, players, it helps you evaluate players that are good before you've given them the opportunity to consistently prove that in terms of the box score metrics. And so I think that this is also interesting once you kind of broaden out and you think about ways that you can make this information available to the fans. I just think it helps make create smarter football fans in general, but then also people who play fantasy and we're going to be getting into the fantasy space this summer, which I'm really excited about. It affords you the opportunity to just make smarter moves because you're better understanding what is actually happening on the field. Takes a little bit of the guesswork out of the game.
Yeah. Well, there's certainly a lot of data. We see all the technology, modern technology used all across sports.
The NFL are no different. Lindsay, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow you and listen to the show? I am on the Twitter at Lindsay underscore Rhodes. You can follow me there with links to all of our work. And please go check out the Sumer Sports website because I know I'm mentioning a lot of these, like you hear about EPA and yards per outrun and some of these like nerdy stats that we like to use that we think are a little bit more predictive than like passing yards and stuff like that. And it's hard to find some of those stats in places that are not behind paywalls. So the Sumer Sports website has a lot of data for people who are interested in that, but don't want to pay for it. And there's also a way that you can sign up on the website right now to be a part of a beta test for a product that we're launching called Sumer Brain, which is effectively like a Google search, but for football stuff, if you put a lot of football related questions into Google, they're going to send back some bad information your way. And so we are currently in the process of training that to answer some high level football questions.
So you kind of have an all in one, one stop shopping thing. Hey, Lindsay, thank you so much for the information and insight. Enjoy the game and enjoy New Orleans. Thank you. You as well.
Thank you so much. This is Lindsay Rhodes, co-host of the Sumer Sports show, along with former Falcons GM Thomas Dimitrov. And as we spoke right at the beginning, there is another NFL player who apparently looks like he is going to be on the move.
And his name is not Miles Garrett. We'll talk about it. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport Brief show here with you on the infinity sports network. I need you to think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.
Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from their professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Thank you so much to Lindsay Rhodes for joining us in the last break co-host of the Sumer Sports show with Thomas Dimitrov, literally right when we started the interview, the message just came on down. Hickey had shared it with me and Lindsay had saw it as well. Cooper Cup letting everybody know that the Rams are getting ready to move on. They got a young rookie in Puka Nakua. They're trying to figure out the status and situation, the contract situation with Matthew Stafford. Matthew Stafford is like, I want to continue to play. Everybody's like, well, we don't know if it's going to be with the Rams.
And so they have to make a choice here. And Cooper Cup has certainly dealt with his share of injuries over the past few years. This season, dealing with another ankle injury, got rolled up earlier in the year, only played 12 games. This is his full message that Cooper Cup posted on social media. Man, about 30 minutes ago, I was informed that the team will be seeking a trade immediately and will be working with me and my family to find the right place to continue competing for championships. I don't agree with the decision and always believed it was going to begin and end in LA.
Still, if there's one thing that I've learned over the years, there's so many things that are out of your control, but it is how you respond to these things that you will look back and remember. He's showing love to Los Angeles, all that good stuff. 2024 best training camps. He's getting ready for 2025.
He's coming for it all. And Cooper Cup says, thank you, you, Los Angeles. Not, not surprising you. Look, I'm surprised that the Los Angeles Rams even made it to the post season. Given all the, I don't want to call upheaval, just you got Aaron Donald, who retired, we're learning about Stafford and his contract. Puka Nakua was hurt. Cooper Cup has been hurt off and on. It feels like his entire career.
God bless him. He helped them win a Super Bowl and got that MVP over the Bengals. And that Super Bowl actually took place in LA in the 2021 season.
Like not a shot. Like this is a completely different Rams team. And you got to give credit to Sean McVeigh for continuing to keep them competitive.
I mean, let's be real. There were conversations after Sean McVeigh won the Super Bowl as to whether or not he was going to return. Aaron Donald staked a return on Sean McVeigh coming back.
And even Sean McVeigh, there's conversations about whether or not he would go into television. And so nothing, zip zero zilch and nada, nothing that happens with this team. The Los Angeles Rams is a shock or surprise to me at all. And so what happens with Cooper Cup? I have no idea, but I know that the Rams are going to go forth and they're going to try to find some assets. And this is probably something else that's going to take us through the draft. And I don't think Cooper Cup is going to end up on one of these loser teams that are rebuilding. You got to put them on a contender.
Somebody that feels like they're, they're one guy away. The problem is Cooper Cup in his history of, of leg injuries, a torn ACL, the high ankle sprains and Achilles issues. Like we just heard this from Lindsey Rhodes who joined us in the last break. He is not ranked as highly as a wide receiver as he used to be.
And I don't have to be a doctor. I don't have to look at some stats for a guy who is known for his route running. High frequency, high usage rate known for his route running. I would think a history of ankle and knee and Achilles issues wouldn't necessarily mean that Cooper Cup is going to age gracefully. He's already 31 years old and no surprises here. The Rams have mortgage or they did mortgage their future for a championship. They got that championship and now it's time to cash out on some assets to try to build into the future.
Hickey, are you surprised that this is coming down the pipe that they want to move on from Cup? No, because to your point, his age, his injuries, also now his price tag as well. And to the Rams credit, they've drafted really well the last few years, right? Obviously Pukanuku is a standout, but they got guys like Jordan Whittington, right? Defense. Defense is all young. And so it makes sense when you still have staff are playing at a high level of, hey, look, if we think we can do this, you open up some cap flexibility of a very young and inexpensive defense.
Like you look, is this setting them up for maybe T Higgins, right? Whether it's in a trade or for agency, like you open up yourself to be able to add on offense because your defense is so cheap and you move away off of what is unfortunately a more expensive, like you said, injury prone wide receiver. Yeah, we know, we know who is not going to pay T Higgins and that's going to be the Cincinnati Bengals. They got to probably throw a $40 million a year spot, uh, just that Jamar chase. And I mean, after he just led the world and everything receiving, uh, the Bengals just, they just continue to look absolutely ridiculous. And thinking about Cooper cup, his money financially, he's old $20 million this year, uh, $20 million in 2026. And I don't want to call that a discount, but given his talent and where he was, it is a discount.
We got the top wide receivers, uh, in the game right now, sitting at $35 million a year, which makes it not a surprise that Jamar chase is going to be looking at that, that, that 40 spot to kind of move things forward. So, uh, Cooper cup, not happy that he's going to be moving on. He, I guess he won't have front row hickey, no front row tickets to see Luca. Huh? That's over.
Oh, I didn't think about that poor Cooper cup, right? He got a call in the favor. He can't afford the front row seats anymore. Huh?
The cops. Well, if he's, let's say to your point, maybe the trade happens closer to the draft. I mean, do you hook up a guy that you know is on the way out? Like if he's still a member of the Rams next month, can we still milk some tickets? At least we know Puka Nakua is, I don't want to call him the flavor of the month. He's the guy I've seen him sitting around at more Laker games.
You can't miss him. He looks like the football version of Johnny Damon. I mean, Shohei Ohtani was wearing his Jersey, the one game he went to get out of it. No, he was with his wife when he was sitting there with his wife.
Technically it's probably Shohei Ohtani 17 like Rams Jersey, but 17. Oh, you mean at SoFi stadium. Oh, that's right. That's right. I thought you meant Shohei at the Lakers game.
Oh, no, we would. We did see him once. That's right. Yeah. Which is still kind of, it's creepy to see Shohei Ohtani outside. It is. Right. Just participating in normal human being activities.
Is he the only person you feel that way? It's like, oh my God, the man is outside eating popcorn with his wife watching a basketball game. He took the battery out his back and put him back into storage when the game was over. Put him back in that baseball cage or whatever the hell he's living. It's the JR sport re-show here on the infinity sports network. We're going to talk more Cooper cup and the miles Garrett and Luca. We're going to talk about it all. Superbowl don't move.
