It is the JR Sport Brief show on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you for listening to the show. It gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our super producer and host Ryan Hickey in New York City. We've been hanging out for an hour listening to some of the craziness coming out of Indianapolis. What's going on in Indianapolis? The NFL Combine. That seems like Washington saying, yeah, who cares what happens with Jonathan Allen? He can explore trade. We got crazy rumors about Rob Gronkowski returning to the NFL for what?
Been going for three years. The Tennessee Titans said they believe that Travis Hunter can play offense and defense successfully in the NFL. And then the Cleveland Browns say we like him for the offense. New York Jets alike. Yeah, we got rid of Aaron Rodgers.
Get over it. But we will get rid of him. And the Atlanta Falcons, well, they just continue to say dumb things that they have to at this point in time.
They made a dumb decision last year. We'll get into that in a second. How about this? To talk about all things NFL combine will be joined by Frank Schwab from Yahoo Sports. He'll come through to join us in about 20 minutes from now. Tonight is a big night in the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks are in Los Angeles to take on the Lakers. And we all know that Luca Doncic is out for some revenge.
That should be fun. Speaking of a big day in basketball, Diana Taurasi a couple hours ago, she announced her retirement from the WNBA and from basketball as a whole. Six Olympic gold medals as a basketball player, three championships, an MVP, WNBA's all-time leading scorer, Diana Taurasi said no mas.
And she steps away from the game. So we got a lot to get into, a lot to discuss. Even more news coming out of the combine. Nick Sirianni, head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, has a response to all the NFL teams and organizations, high packers that want to ban the tush push. And we'll hear from Nick Sirianni.
So we have a whole lot more to get into as the show continues on. You want to be a part of the show? Easy 855 212-4227. Thank you for listening on the free Odyssey app where you can also hit rewind. And thank you to people listening live on their local infinity sports network affiliates. You got Sirius XM, it's channel 375. You got a smart speaker, ask it to play the infinity sports network. And if you use the internet, you can find me there. Just go ahead and knock yourself out. Just search JR sport brief.
Everything will pop right on up. Before we have this chat with Frank, I mentioned this in passing earlier on in the show. Today's a day where coaches and GMs, they play chess.
Most of them. I don't think anybody's dumb enough to play checkers at the combine to play chess and say what they can say. It's all a game.
It's manipulation for team building. The new NFL season, the league year starts on March 12. Combine is this week. By the time we get to March 12, we have teams who can start making trades. They can start signing free agents.
There's a lot that will go on and take place for the Atlanta Falcons. They pretty much made their big old decision last year in free agency. They made their big old decision last year in the NFL draft when they made everybody's decision.
When they made everybody kind of scratch their heads and just go, what? When they decided to sign Kirk Cousins, who at this time right now was 36 years old, the man was coming off of a blown Achilles for the Minnesota Vikings and they decided to give him a four year $180 million contract. If you have seen some of the quarterback play here in Atlanta post Matt Ryan, you could understand why they gave this man a deal, but it didn't stop there. The Atlanta Falcons wanted to double down and in shocking a lot of people with the eighth selection in the NFL draft, they selected a quarterback after giving Kirk Cousins all of that damn money. They brought in Michael Pennix Jr., who just a few months prior lost a national championship game, but otherwise had an excellent season with Washington. And so why are you going to sign the old quarterback to a four year deal and then bring on the young quarterback if you believe in the old guy? The old guy was obviously upset about this.
He's not going to scream and cry about it. Falcons had a slow start to the season. They got rolling and then Kirk Cousins got hurt in week 10, busted up his arm, busted up his shoulder, was on the injury report for one week, decided to throw non interceptions to one touchdown. And then the big money free agent signing for the Falcons, he got benched.
Rahi Morris saw enough. The season was basically over by then. He could have sat him down earlier. I was advocating that he keep on playing. I'm not knowing that he was hurt. Nobody knew that he was hurt until after the season ended, after he got benched. Kirk Cousins sat down the week of the Super Bowl with Good Morning Football. And he told everybody, oh, yeah, by the way, when I got benched and I was throwing the football to the wrong team. Yeah, I didn't tell anybody, but like I was hurt. Listen to this. Then against the Saints, got hit pretty good in my right shoulder and elbow.
And from there, kind of dealing with that, you know, was something I was working through and just never really could get it to where I wanted it. And so now it kind of now the season's over. You have the time and the energy to say, OK, let's get the right ankle back. Let's get the shoulder back. Let's get the elbow back.
And if we can do that, you know, feel like I got a new life ahead of me here in pro football. Oh, my goodness. Everybody here in Atlanta had to go, what? Like people were asking the entire time, like, are you hurt, Kirk? Like, you suck right now. Are you hurt? Does your leg hurt? Is your Achilles still bothering you? Is your arm OK? You're just an injury report.
He's like, yeah, I'm fine. Like, why were you on the injury report? A clerical error. That's what Kirk Cousins said. And so naturally, everybody in the Falcons organization from Terry Fontenot, the GM to the the coach and Raheem Morris, they got to do damage control. Why in the hell were you throwing Kirk Cousins out onto the field when this man was all busted up and hurt?
What did you have to gain or benefit from that? And so today we finally got some answers, because let's be real, the Falcons weren't in no damn Super Bowl. They had no space or time to respond. So they waited until today.
Now, this is pretty hilarious. Terry Fontenot, the GM, what did he have to say about Kirk Cousins revealing that he was hurt? The clerk was on the injury report leading into the Denver game, and he went on the injury report outside of that. We're only aware of that particular week. We talked about it when we when that change was made. It was a football decision.
It was baseball football decision. There wasn't anything injury related. What? Wait, wait, wait.
Hickey, help me out here if I'm missing something. The Kirk Cousins originally said that he wasn't hurt. That's what he said. The team said that he wasn't hurt. Kirk Cousins at the time said, yeah, a clerical error while I was on the injury report. And now Kirk Cousins, the week of the Super Bowl says, yeah, I was really hurt. And now the team is saying that, yeah, he was on the injury report one week.
And then the next week it was a football decision. He was never hurt. So Kirk Cousins, am I missing something here?
Is he not just a liar? I think it could be a little bit of both in the sense of I think he could have actually been a little hurt, but football players suppress injuries and are not going to come out unless they physically can't get out there. And I think Kirk is maybe exaggerating the shoulder a little bit to try to beef up his market. I mean, he's not stupid.
He knows, no matter what the Falcons say, they're going to release him or he's going to be on a new team in 2025. And so to kind of make himself more attractive, oh, look, yeah, you know, the play wasn't great, but I was dealing with a shoulder injury. Oh, I think it's a little bit of both here where both can all in the same way or in the same at the same time, I should say both could be right where there was maybe an injury now that how bad was it? He was lying then. He lied about his injury. Yeah, that's a lie. Well, can you say, hey, I was dealing with a shoulder injury and then not disclose how much, you know, you could deal with a shoulder injury and play through and not have it impact your game.
They asked him for like weeks. Are you OK? Are you OK?
I'm fine. He lied. And you're right. Football players do it, but he lied. And of course, he's he's lying again to kind of, well, he's not lying.
But I agree with you. He's certainly trying to boost up his value. And a bad thing, Hickey, for the Falcons, like both, they don't want any part of each other. And everybody has to play nice so the Falcons can get what they want, try to get off of some of this money.
And Kirk Cousins can get he can get what he wants. So everybody has to play nice. Hickey, this is terrible. This is like this is like a family that says we're going to stay together right now and put on a brave face for the kids.
That's it. Like they can't stand each other. They're waiting on the right moment just to go in two opposite directions.
But right now, for the sake of everybody, we have to act like we like each other. Now, is that a good comparison on my way off? No, I think it's fair. Right. You put on a front of everything's OK.
There's no animosity here. And like you said, you kind of push that narrative until the door opens. OK, I can get out of here.
Boom. Whether it's a trade, whether it's a divorce, whatever it may be, then you're out the door as soon as that opportunity is presented to you. But there's no reason right now or I should say it's in your best interest right now to make it seem like on the surface, all is well. It's nuts because you think about the money here.
Kirk Cousins has a fully guaranteed base salary of almost twenty eight million dollars this season and about thirty eight million dollars next year. You're going to bring him back onto the team after he told this little bit of a fib to protect his ass like a lot of people, players do. Anybody does. Right.
Wants to keep his job. I'm fine. I can go play.
I can play my way out of it. Didn't happen. He got benched. Now he wants to leave. Kirk Cousins is also getting back at the Falcons right now. For drafting his replacement like Kirk Cousins, we heard him, he's not Aaron Rodgers, thank God he didn't start a podcast and turn into a supervillain, but Kirk Cousins, he didn't sit around telling everybody how much he had to drink after they selected his replacement.
He didn't do any of that. He waited until he got benched, knows that he has all this guaranteed money and he's going to play nice, quote unquote, and push the right buttons to try to get out of town. And if you are the Falcons, you're trying to lessen the blow.
But this is the bet that you made and now you got to lie down in it. I thought it was reasonable. And if Kirk, how about this? If Kirk Cousins was hurt last year, maybe Kirk Cousins would have been more open to having a seat for a game or two.
If you didn't draft his replacement and you knew that trouble was there, like this is, this is the Falcons fault, like everything that's happening and everything that took place is a result of them signing a quarterback to a big contract, then drafting his replacement and thinking that they were going to be no bumps like everybody knew that there was going to be a bump. So every dollar and every cent that they have to spend on Kirk Cousins, whether they trade him and Kirk Cousins, by the way, he has a no trade clause. If he wants to sit on his ass and collect money for the rest of his career, he could. Now, ultimately, I think he wants to be traded. I still think he wants to be able to sign and recoup or keep the money that he's owed. He doesn't have to do anything. He can make life life uncomfortable.
You know what? A matter of fact, credit to him, because we've seen some professional athletes go into full on jerk mode just to get exactly what they want. And if you're Kirk Cousins, some of the things that you hear got to drive you crazy.
How about this? Terry Fontenot. He didn't just talk about, you know, his injury status last year. Terry Fontenot says Kirk Cousins. Oh yeah, he was a real good backup last year.
Ouch. Kirk handled that really well at the end of the season. And, and, and obviously Kirk's a, he's a really talented player. He's a great man, all those things.
So, and again, he handled that real well at the end of the season. Oh, he's a great teammate. Somebody trade for him, please. Somebody get him, please, please, please. He's great.
He's a great guy. Teammates love him. Trade for him, please. No more swag surfing here in Atlanta for Kirk Cousins.
The fans want nothing to do with this guy. And I guess if we needed one final stamp, let's listen to Raheem Morris, because he basically told Kirk Cousins, you're the backup. And Michael Pennix Jr. He's the starter.
He's the starter. Michael Pennix is our quarterback. And, and Michael Pennix will continue to be our quarterback. We stood here last year and we talked about looking for that guy.
And we believe we found them. And I got so much confidence in Michael Pennix leading us into the future. And I believe our whole building does. And I believe our fan base does. And I believe our owner does that we are really excited about that young man.
Definitely disappointed at what happened and how we ended last season, but we got a lot of really good things, a lot of positive thoughts for us moving forward and how we want to go out here and try to win ultimately. Man, this is not over. This may, this may go, I don't want to say it's going to go to training camp. I have no idea how fast the Falcons are going to resolve this situation. I just know it's a disaster. They made it. And now they got to live with the consequences.
I know Arthur Blank has sold a lot of wood at Home Depot. Man, he going to have to write that check to Kirk Cousins one way or another. This is a dumb ass team. I'm sorry. It's the JR sport re-show on the infinity sports network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to have a chat with Frank Schwab. He covers all things NFL for Yahoo sports. He's keeping up to date with everything going on in Indianapolis. We'll check in with Frank and get his thoughts on what's going on out there in Indy. I'm going to ask him about these Falcons. I'll ask him about the draft.
There's so much to get into. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport brief show coast to coast here with you on the infinity sports network. A lot of news coming out of Indianapolis today. NFL combine is, well, NFL has descended upon the city, the combine, the players.
They start working out on Thursday, but the coaches and GMs, they started their press conferences today. They're answering questions that we haven't gotten answers to yet. Some are telling the truth.
Some are not. They're all trying to manipulate their way into getting what they want to talk about the latest news that we got today. Everything from the tush push, the future of someone like Kirk Cousins, and Aaron Rodgers, and more. Joining us is someone who covers all things NFL for Yahoo sports.
It's Frank Schwab. Frank, how are you, man? Hey, what's going on?
I'm great. When you think about some of the press conferences and quotes that we got today, is there one thing that caught your attention the most? There's so much went on and you don't know what to really make of a lot of it, but I thought maybe the most interesting thing for me anyway was that the Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Barry came out and said, we think Travis Hunter is a receiver in the NFL.
Now that goes against what we've heard from most everybody. Who either says he's quarterback, first of all, or maybe could play both, but mostly cornerback. And I think the Browns are the only team really on the record to say, no, we think he's a receiver.
And it goes for one, it speaks to Travis Hunter's talent, that you can even have this argument with a straight face. He's pretty much the best quarterback and the best receiver in the NFL draft this year. And also the Titans came out and said, yeah, we think he could do both, but he has before, why couldn't he again?
I don't know if that's just placating on me. I don't want to cause any waves by saying he can't, so what else are you going to answer? But I thought the Browns are the second pick of the draft and could theoretically draft Travis Hunter. I think he's a receiver first and foremost. I think there's the base going to keep going on until the draft when it's revealed who drafts him and what their plan is for him. But Travis Hunter, I don't really remember another player like this entering the draft where he's just so elite at two different positions that there's going to be this ongoing debate.
Well, Frank, what, what do you think is most likely to happen? We know that Tennessee Titans have their thoughts. They had some, some words today on Travis Hunter.
They looked at him as a defender first. What do you think they do to kind of set the table for the Browns and Giants after that? Yeah, it's really hard to tell. They, they didn't, you know, tip off their hand at all today, what I saw anyway. So I don't know that we have an idea of how the Titans are leaning. Usually you learn that this week, though. And I think by the end of the week, there'll be some reports out there saying, you know, maybe this or that is where the Titans are leaning. So I assume it's going to be Cam Ward, the quarterback, Miami. I don't, I wouldn't be shocked if it's Abdul Carter, the pass rusher, Penn state, anybody else.
I'd be pretty surprised. Even a Travis Hunter should wear Sanders. I'd be surprised if he goes over Cam Ward at this point, but it just, the reason I say Cam is just, it's hard to pass on a quarterback.
It really is. You just, you don't have a quarterback. I mean, your coach, Brian Callahan, his first year, I believe they were three and 14. You just can't have another three, 14 season.
I expect to keep your job. Like he knows that. So I assume that the push is going to be, get a quarterback and the whole piece of right guy. I think Cam Ward brings some good things to the table. I think Abdul Carter is a better player, but when you don't have a quarterback, you don't have a chance.
And I think that that's probably going to be what the Titans do. And I don't, same with the Browns really. Hunter Browns pass a quarterback. How do they pass Shidoor Sanders at number two? Like you have nothing at quarterback.
What, what's your option there? So I, as I sit here today, I got on quarterbacks going one, two, just cause you look at the desperation of those teams. And then the giants of three are going to throw up their hands and say, now what do we do? Frank Schwab is joining us from Yahoo Sports. When you talk about the Cleveland Browns and certainly Shidoor Sanders with his last name and pedigree, he's going to have a little bit more influence than, than most prospects. We see that he's not participating in the workout portion by passing the ball to this week at the combine. Do you think that, that Deon would kind of, he's pretty much said he kind of sway where he would or would not get drafted. You think that's a bluff or we, we in reality, right?
Yeah, I don't think so. Like Deon, Deon is very much a salesman in many ways. I like Deon.
I mean, I'm based out here in Colorado. I've seen what he's done to the CU program here and all that, but I look at, if a team wants Shidoor Sanders, I don't think they're really listening to what Deon Sanders has to say about it. Like it's, you know, I mean, that's just what it is.
It's part of the deal. It's part of the showmanship, but at the end of the day, Deon knows how the NFL works. And I don't really think that, that, you know, I, I guess there's a possibility pulls Eli Manning and, and again, forces a trade that way. But I think that wherever Shidoor ends up going, I think he's going to be very pleased with that. And, you know, and I, you know, whether it's Las Vegas or Cleveland or Giants or whatever, I think he's, I think he'd be a pretty good pro. I don't know if he's gonna be great.
I don't know if he's that kind of a prospect, but from what I saw from him in college, you know, being out here, he, he's got a chance to have a really, really nice career ahead of him. Well, Frank, you, you talk about the incoming QBs. We have a few veteran quarterbacks who I feel like they're going to be playing musical chairs. Aaron Rogers is eventually going to be out with the New York Jets. Matthew Stafford angling for a contract with the Rams or potentially elsewhere. Russell Wilson up for grabs. Where do you think the biggest splash might come when it comes down to quarterback musical chairs? I think maybe the biggest splash is going to be Sam Darnold just because he's coming off that really good season.
I mean, they kind of went off the rails a little bit in the last two games, but still he played well. I mean, it's, it's hard to really criticize him that much for a good season, but I think the most interesting one is Aaron Rogers, just because he is Aaron Rogers. And, you know, he's one of the five best quarterbacks of all time. And we all know there's the baggage that comes along with it.
Yeah. We saw how he kind of overtook the Jets organization in many ways, gave bearer of that organization, was kind of calling the shots on who got hired, who got signed, all that kind of thing. I don't know that he's going to have to get that influence anywhere else.
I also don't know where the best landing spot for him is. The one that makes sense is the Pittsburgh Steelers, because they're a good football team. They're a playoff football team.
I don't know they're going to win a championship, but a good playoff football team. Every other team looking for a quarterback is bad. Like what point is Aaron Rogers going to play for the Tennessee Titans or the Cleveland Browns or even the Raiders next year? Like what, he can go five and 12 in your last season? I just, I think that the interesting part of all the Aaron Rogers stuff is just fitting the puzzle together and seeing it there as a fifth.
So we'll see. He's the most interesting to me. I don't know if it's the biggest splash because at the end of the day, he's still a 42-year-old quarterback. And I don't think he's going to influence who makes or misses the playoffs that much.
But he's certainly the most interesting just because of who he is, Aaron Rogers. Well, Frank, here in Atlanta, we got a team that everybody's trying to figure out when they will go back to the playoffs. How do you think this situation is going to play out with Kirk Cousins?
I mean, I heard, you know, Terry Fontenot was up there today saying, oh, we're, you know, we're fine keeping Kirk Cousins on the roster. And I just, I don't know who believes that. I don't. I don't know if anybody in Atlanta does. Nobody on earth would you keep?
Yeah, nobody. He's got a $10 million roster bonus coming due on the fifth day of the league year. $27.5 million salary. No team in its right mind is paying a quarterback they benched last year to beat a backup. It just doesn't make any sense.
So I, I get it. You try to keep any kind of trade leverage he has and hoping some team comes out of nowhere and offers a pick for Kirk Cousins, but that ain't going to happen. The entire NFL knows he's going to get cut.
And then we'll see what happens after that. I don't think Kirk Cousins is another guy. Like, does it make sense for him to go grind it out with the Cleveland Browns for a year?
Like, I don't, I don't really know. I mean, that's a bit, a lot of people look at her quarterbacks, all the people look at her quarterbacks and say, well, quarterbacks and all the teams looking for quarterbacks are bad. Like it's just, it's a tough time to be looking for a quarterback. And it's a tough time to be a quarterback looking for a team because all the, all the, all the possible fits just don't seem to make a whole lot of sense.
Frank Schwab joining us from Yahoo sports. You talk about looking for a quarterback. The Indianapolis Colts have already taken a look at Anthony Richardson and they've decided that they want to have a quarterback competition. They have to find the QB. Given Anthony Richardson, we all know about his athleticism.
We all see that he can also fall apart with one hit. Are his days pretty much numbered as a member of the Colts? It was only two years ago they drafted him, not even two full years yet.
Yeah, it's, it's interesting. Let's put it that way. I haven't given up on Anthony Richardson becoming a good quarterback, but he just has so far to go. I mean, he could improve his completion percentage 15% and still be the worst quarterback in the NFL that way. I mean, we're talking about just a long way to go as a passer just to be kind of mediocre. And he does have athletic gifts, but again, like you said, injuries are an issue now too. Like there's multiple layers of Anthony Richardson where you're saying like, is this already kind of a sunk cost for the Colts?
And I wonder if they're looking at it that way too. And the fact that, you know, Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard seem to be on the hot seat in Indianapolis, that doesn't help Anthony Richardson at all. You can't, if you were to tell me like, yeah, Anthony Richardson needs two, three more years before he fully gets, you know, the development he needs.
Well, Steichen and Ballard don't have that time. It's like, they don't, they can't sit here and wait for Anthony Richardson to complete 48% of his passes again. So I don't blame them at all for looking at other options as a quarterback. I think Colts are going to find out what everybody else has found out, that you can want a quarterback.
That's awesome. There ain't many quarterbacks available to you. So I think it's just going to be very interesting to see what happens with Anthony Richardson. I'm rooting for him. He's just this dynamic athletic talent. I hope he does develop. I hope it does become a really, really good quarterback. But like, I think you said it right. Like his time is numbered there.
Let's put it that way. I think he's got to show some improvement very, very quickly to kind of get himself back into that, you know, circle of trust with the Colts. Well, hopefully he doesn't ask out of any more games in the process there. Well, Frank, we see how drafting a quarterback and having a great coach can turn around your fortunes. Two seasons ago, we saw what happened with Houston, the Texans, with Stroud and D'Amico.
And now we pretty much saw what took place with Quinn and Jaden up in Washington. We see Drake May now being paired up with Mike Vrabel. What team do you think has an opportunity to make a big jump this upcoming season? I know we got to get through free agency, but do you see a team that's kind of put the pieces together to maybe kind of make a splash? You know, I think, you know, I don't think it's not going to happen the way it's happened the last couple of years with a rookie quarterback doing it. Like, I can't imagine Tennessee Titans draft Cam Ward and they're all of a sudden 12 o'clock next year. I don't think Cam Ward's that kind of a player.
So you look at it in other ways. I do think one team that is maybe is the Jacksonville Jaguars, which sounds crazy, but we all kind of liked the Jaguars a couple of years ago. And now Trevor Lawrence gets a new offensive coach who I think can. Well, he did a great job with the Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield last year. They do have some talent.
Bryd Thomas Jr. had a great rookie season, all that kind of stuff. So I wonder, and it's not a tough division either. Like that division, Houston's pretty good, but they took a step back last season. So I look at teams that could come kind of out of nowhere and make a big improvement. Sometimes it's going to happen.
I mean, it always happens every year. Jacksonville comes to mind. I think Chicago's the obvious answer because we're all waiting on Caleb with Ben Johnson to see what he does as coach. But if you're looking for somebody, not everybody's going to say, I think maybe Jacksonville. I want to see what they do this off season, see how they go about, you know, finding guys to fix their defense, how they, you know, approach a draft. But when you look at say what team could maybe jump up five, six wins, win a division, I think Jacksonville is in that category. They just need to figure out what Trevor Lawrence is at some point. Wow. Well, and Trevor Lawrence, he's going through so many coaches.
Let's see if this one fondly works for him. They're paying a guy $55 million. Hey Frank, last question for you. Forget all these teams that are trying to get closer to a championship. The team that just won a championship is now being kicked in the behind because of a play involving a behind. It's such a push. What's the big deal, no deal? Like why we got the Packers complaining about this for? I think it's just sour grapes.
I really do. I guess we can't stop it. So we need to get a rule in here to take it out of the game. I mean, there's no other way you could stop that play with the Eagles running. Now other teams run in and you can stop it once a while.
Nobody else has figured it out like the Eagles because Jalen Hurts is really, really good at it and all of the lines are really good at it and they practice it well. No other team has had the level of success in the Eagles, which is another reason I think it's hard for me to believe you could ban it. Like what if like we said like, well, you know, Justin Jefferson's a really good running flag route. He can't run that anymore.
He's got to legislate it out of the gate. Like we would, that'd be ridiculous. But basically what we're doing with the Eagles, right? Like we're saying like you have this unstoppable play on third and one, fourth and one. You can't run it anymore because we can't stop it. Like that doesn't seem fair to me at all.
I think it's just sour grapes. I don't think the NFLs can legislate it out of the game because I don't think this is a league-wide thing where you just say, well, nobody can stop this play. It's kind of boring for the fans. I get like there are rules put in place in every sport all the time that somebody brought up today is this like, you know, banning the shift in baseball. If you ban this just for the optics of the game and the watchability of the game, maybe I could buy that argument. But to me, it's not that. It's not a player safety issue. It's just other teams whining that they can't stop it. So I don't know why.
I don't know why you have to make a rule change based on that. Yeah. Look at the Green Bay Packers leading the charge on that one.
Hey, Frank, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow and read your work with Yahoo Sports? Yeah. Best place is just at Yahoo, yahoo.com slash NFL, but also on all the social media at Yahoo Schwab. So, you know, interesting time of year with the combine for agencies coming up draft after that. These teams are trying to, like you said, be the next Washington commanders and try to go from last place to make them a playoffs. It's always interesting. We'll see what team actually goes in the right direction and we'll see what team kind of makes the next big mistake.
It happens every single year. Hey, Frank, thank you for the time. We'll catch you down the line. That's why I appreciate it. No doubt about it. That Frank Schwab covers all things NFL for Yahoo Sports.
Appreciate the time. It's so crazy to think about that. People still complain about the tushbush like Nick Sirianni at his press conference today.
And what is it for him to talk about? Right. We're here at the draft or excuse me, we're preparing for the draft. You know, we won the Super Bowl.
Leave me alone. We're going to draft somebody on offense. We'll get a guy on special teams. We'll find another defender out of Georgia. Nick Sirianni doesn't have too much to say, but of course today they asked him about the tush push. Well, he would Nick Sirianni had to say about the Packers trying to get the move banned.
And you know what? Things are great for the Eagles. Things are awful for the 76ers.
At least the fans have a little bit of a distraction right now. We're going to hear from Nick Sirianni. And then I want to briefly talk about what's going on with the Sixers because Paul George, who they just signed to this big old contract, Paul George is already throwing his team under the bus.
It's not all brotherly love in Philadelphia. You're locked into 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. Thank you all so much to Frank Schwab from Yahoo Sports for joining us in the last break to talk about everything going on in Indianapolis.
It's the week of the NFL combine. Who's getting traded? Who's not getting traded? Who's moving? Who's not going anywhere?
If you missed that conversation with Frank, go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. And Frank, like everybody else, most people, I don't know, I feel like we had two callers hitting us from yesterday. It just so happened to be from, you know, Milwaukee. They were the only people that agreed that the tush push should be gone. Nobody else, everybody else is just like, it's a football play.
Like, let's get over it. Including Frank Schwab. Well, you want to know who else spoke this week at the NFL combine or today?
Nick Sirianni spoke. And when you win the championship, what the hell is there for you to say? Like you don't have no high draft selection.
You, you still a high, you probably still smell like champagne. Nobody cares what you do in the draft. Okay. Nobody cares. Eagles fans don't care. But Nick Sirianni was asked about the tush push and the fact that the Packers, they want to ban it. And specifically their general manager and president Mark Murphy said there is no skill involved in a tush push.
Nick Sirianni found that to be offensive. I've seen some of the, the stuff like, you know, that it's an automatic play or, you know, that it's not a, we work really, you know, I almost feel a little insulted because we worked so hard at that play. The amount of things that we've looked into how to coach that play, the fundamentals is always, there's a thousand plays out there, but it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players go through and do with the fundamentals. I can't tell you how many times we practice the snap. We practice the play because it's not a play that it's easy to practice.
There's different ways. We figured out how to practice it. It's not fair. And it is pretty ridiculous because ultimately like the Philadelphia Eagles put together a team that can actually have success doing this. I told you this yesterday over the past two years, they have an 86% success rate when it comes down to that goal line one yard, push 86% success rate.
Other teams are higher at like, like 72%. The Eagles are far and away the best team at executing it. And I don't know, maybe it's the fact that they, they drafted giants and brought in giants to work on the offensive line.
Maybe that's it. Maybe their quarterback can squat 600 pounds. Maybe that has something to do with it, but no, just because they have better players and their players can execute it. Let's whine and cry and ban the tush push.
Nick Sirianni says, man, if they ban it, that ain't fair to us. I mean, we saw it in the championship games that, you know, a team failed at it and ultimately didn't end up winning the game because of it. I watch every, every week, I watch every first, first and goal red zone fail every single time. And sometimes that first and goal starts at the one and you see the team not be able to get in because they're not able to do that. And so the fact that it's, that it's a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that away, I think it's a little, a little unfair.
No, just a little. He's right. It is unfair. I said this, most people have said this, Frank just said this, Hickey said this, do something about it.
I don't know. Maybe because the Eagles got bigger offensive weapons and get bigger defenders, learn how to defend it. Stop whining. I never thought I'd say that to an NFL team, but damn it.
It's the executive who's doing the chatting. What a shock. What a surprise. Just shut up, man. Next, go back to Brazil and beat them next time. Come back healthy.
Do that. If you're the Green Bay Packers, shout out to the people listening in Green Bay, even all five of them who were, are mad at me right now, everybody else. I love you. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.
That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. At least the Eagles are, uh, they're winning themselves some games, right? There is no love for the basketball team right now. The Sixers suck. They got a record of 20 and 37 last night.
They lost to the Chicago Bulls, one 42 to one 10. Paul George him in his four year, $212 million contract looks like crap right now. And so Paul George took the opportunity last night after another loss, after Jolynn beat had the watch again because his knee hurts.
Paul George took the gloves off. He basically said, playoffs, championship, winning any of that, throw it out the window because we suck. We've shown no sign of a team that will compete. And, um, you know, they just don't have, you know, the habits of a champion or a playoff contender team would have.
So, you know, to be honest right now, it's, it's a little far-fetched. Um, you know, all we can do is work hard, try to just keep going for one another, but we've shown no signs of a, forget championship, but a playoff contender. I hope he's, I guess he is including himself in that Paul George is averaging a whopping 16 points a game. They're paying this guy like an all-star four years, $212 million. He was mad that the Clippers didn't give him a gigantic deal. He wanted the deal Kawhi Leonard got. Maybe he realized that Kawhi is never healthy and doesn't play either. So I might as well get paid like him. He's getting that cash to do nothing for the 76ers.
This is bad. Paul George needs injections to play. And it's just, and bead, he just needs a new body.
That's not coming. Pick, you know, what's crazy. I saw that DeMarcus cousins. He said that Joel Embiid needs to lose weight for DeMarcus. Cousin said that, Oh boy, come on.
That's when you know, yeah, you know, you need to lose weight. When DeMarcus cousins, I read a quote that said, I didn't hear it, but I read a quote. It's just like, Hey, the NBA isn't what it used to be years ago.
You can stand to lose, I don't know, 30 pounds. And you know, you don't need to be that big running up and down the court to be dominant. It's like the league is different now. Like, damn DeMarcus cousins is telling you to lose weight. What a world, maybe DeMarcus cousins. He would still have a career if he wasn't as heavy as he was. He blew out that Achilles is basically curtains for him. Uh, anyway, speaking of NBA, it's time to let you know about the defensive player of the week sponsored by the Navy federal credit union who proudly serves the armed forces, DOD veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.
You can learn more at Navy federal.org. A big shout out to Anthony Edwards of the T wolves last night. He helped save the day with a huge block on Shay Gilgas, Alexander under 15 seconds left in overtime to preserve a one 31, one 28 win over the thunder Minnesota.
They were losing by as many as 25 points in the second half, but they came back from a 16 point deficit with less than four minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Me, I turned that game on already in overtime. I was like, Dan, what did I miss? I, I missed it all. I missed it all.
I did. I'm not going to miss Luca in the Lakers tonight. You can bet your ass. I will be watching that the minute that I walk out of this studio. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.
That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. A matter of fact, when we come back from break, we're going to talk Lakers. We're going to talk Mavs. I'm going to get to your calls. We're going to do it all. It's the JR sport re-show on the infinity sports network.
