It is the JR Sport Brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America.
I hope you had a tremendous weekend. This is where I'm going to be for the next four hours. This is when the show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta. Thank you to our super producer and host Ryan Hickey holding it down for us in New York City. NFL Combine took place over the weekend. We got guys who threw. We got guys who did not throw. We got NFL players who are getting cut. We got guys like T Higgins who have been tagged. The Phoenix Suns continue to stink the joint up in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lakers continue to rise. We got a lot to get into here.
Oh, the commanders made a trade for Deebo Samuel. There's just a lot to discuss. Anyway, you want to be a part of the show? Easy. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. We got some guests who are going to join us. It's already March 3rd. Spring training is underway. We're going to be joined by two-time World Series champ with the Red Sox and the Yankees. Johnny Damon is going to come through and join us later on in the show to talk about all the craziness going on in the NBA, how hot the Lakers look with Luca, how bad the Suns look with, well, Durant and Beal and Booker. Justin Termini will be here from NBA today. And then how about this next hour to kind of put a bow on everything we saw over the weekend and what we might see coming in the NFL over the next weeks between now and the draft.
Jeff Howe is going to join us. Covers all things NFL for the athletic. You can find me online everywhere at the JR Sport Brief. That's at JR Sport Brief all over the place on social media. Thank you for listening on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM 375 and a smart speaker if you got one.
Ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. Before we get into this football that we saw over the weekend or whatever the hell you want to call it, an exhibition of strength and speed and I guess a little bit of football skill, I have to ask our super producer and host Ryan Hickey. Ryan, how are you, man? Did you have a good weekend? I did. Yeah. Well, outside of the fact that it was like a spring day on Saturday and then all of a sudden winter was here by about seven hours later.
Oh damn. Other than that precipitous drop in temperatures, good weekend, fun weekend. You didn't get caught outside in the 70 degrees to, I don't know, 20 degrees? You didn't get caught outside? Oh, I did.
And that's a big reason for the complaint. Oh boy. Well, were you dressed appropriately? Were you prepared? Somewhat. I kind of hedged my bed a little bit where I kind of dressed.
No. Okay. The temperature is going to drop a little bit sweatshirt and I did like a little vignette.
I was like, okay, I'm going to blow a bit sweatshirt and I did like a little vest over it. Okay. And I thought that would be enough.
And then when the real feels like in the teens, it was, when the wind whipping, it was definitely not enough. Okay. All right. So. All right. Well, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you made it.
True. You didn't survive. No, no, no sickness. You didn't get stuck outside.
No hypothermia, none of that. Okay. So that's a, that's a plus. That's a plus. It's good to be back here on a, on a Monday. Last time I sat here, it was February.
Now today is Monday, March 3rd. And the NFL combine, as I mentioned, is coming past. I spoke to some of my buddies out in Indiana, Indianapolis, I should say for the combine. And they were telling me how freezing cold it was outside. And we know inside we had a bunch of prospects who were trying to, you know, heat up their own draft prospects as they tried to jump up over the board.
And I, I got into this last week. The NFL combine isn't what it, it used to be when you got the guys at the top of the totem pole and there's, there's really nothing else for them to gain. We don't got guys sitting around saying, Oh, I'm Chador Sanders. I'm going to, you know, show off my arm strength.
It's it's to the detriment. It's we don't have the stars out there running around. So we'll, we'll get into the NFL combine in a little bit. I do want to get into some news.
That's I guess you can consider it breaking news because it came down the pipe earlier today. And it involves the Cincinnati Bengals, the team that went nine and eight last year, had Joe burrow as an MVP candidate. This man threw the ball all over the place. The defense stunk. And they're trying to figure out all of these contractual scenarios with T Higgins and Jamar chase and Trey Hendrickson. I mean, damn it. They cut, they cut their starting guard today. One of them, Alex Kappa, you might remember him.
He was in that super bowl, helping to protect Tom Brady, then went over to the bangles to help protect Joe burrow. Well, they just dumped him. Welcome to the NFL.
I mean, Daria sleigh got dumped today too. We'll get into that. This is that time of year. It's time to cut some dead weight. It's trying to make some room to, to make some money. And if you have the bangles and you've been screaming up and down for the past several weeks about how you want to keep the core together.
Well, today's the day to go ahead and do so. The bangles decided to go out there and cut the fat. And in doing so, it's starting to make some room for a guy like T Higgins, who they decided to slap with the franchise tag. Again, this is the news that broke earlier today, courtesy of CBS sports HQ. We've got some breaking news out of the NFL where the Cincinnati bangles have placed the franchise tag on T Higgins for the second straight season. The Cincy whiteout confirmed the news with a tweet that simply says quote tag and quote nice and simple.
Higgins is coming off of an impressive year, 73 catches for 911 yards in 10 touchdowns, despite missing five games. Now under the franchise tag, he said to make $26.2 million next season, the bangles will now have until mid July to work out an extension with T Higgins before that tag becomes official. And they have to work out a long-term deal with Jamar chase and they have to work out a deal with Trey Hendrickson and they're already paying their starting quarterback $55 million. And we all know the Cincinnati bangles as recently as last week, we were reminded by the NFL players association.
The bangles are cheap as hell, but they keep telling everybody that they're going to work this out, that they're going to sign all of their top talents in order to continue to be competitive. Duke Tobin just over the weekend at the combine, he says, of course we want T Higgins here and not just for one season on a tag. We want him here for a very long time.
Our preference with T Higgins is to do a long-term agreement always has been, it continues to be, and we'll work hard to get that done. Listen, I think anybody that's lived a little bit of life, I think anybody that's lived long enough, you certainly understand that you could want something that doesn't mean it's always going to happen. You could desire something that doesn't mean that it's always going to end up in your lap.
You can want something and it doesn't mean that you will ever have it. For right now today, we know that the Cincinnati bangles have one more year of T Higgins. That's what we got right now. And if you go by Duke Tobin, if you go by their starting quarterback, Joe burrow, I mean, he said this at the end of the season, he says, you know what? We, we, we going to keep Jamar. Of course.
Yeah. We untagged a T last year and we got to keep him into the future. This is what their starting quarterback said. They paying him a lot of money. You don't want to make a habit of letting great players get out of the building. Just like I said earlier in the week, T's a great player and a guy that does everything the right way and works really hard for it.
When you have a guy like that, you just can't let him get out of the building. He's a one-of-a-kind person, one-of-a-kind player, and one that, you know, we really count on and is an integral part of, of what we do around here. Oh, well, yeah. I mean, when you're trying to throw for 5,000 yards every year and try to move that number up to 40 to 50 touchdowns, yeah, he's real important. We know that. In the NFL, it's a passing league. I mean, we can look at what the Philadelphia Eagles just did by winning the Super Bowl.
They had a nuclear weapon in the backfield in Saquon Barkley. But Joe Burrow is one of the best quarterbacks in the entire game. I mean, if he wasn't on the Cincinnati Bengals, you could take the idea of them going nine and eight or even being able to turn the season around to end up on the positive side of 500 and then go back to side of 500. You could throw that completely out the window if he wasn't there. And we had a caller hit us up last week.
And I've said this as well. I would hope that Joe Burrow's success didn't peak a couple of years ago at the Super Bowl. You would hope that Joe Burrow competing for the Vince Lombardi trophy wasn't a couple of seasons ago against the Rams. Because the Cincinnati Bengals, they're one of the NFL teams that will scare the living daylights out of you. It's like, hey, how can we take a talent with potential and squeeze the life out of it? How can we take something that has a lot of potential and basically kill it on the spot because of our, well, desire not to spend?
How tricky is it? You say, hey, we'll pay $55 million for a quarterback, but when you come to work, man, you got to buy your lunch. Hey, when you come to work and you want to bring your family to the game, they have to wait outside. These are some of the accusations that have been levied against the Cincinnati Bengals from their own players over the years.
And I'm talking about the span of now decades about how cheap they've been. And so now they got a franchise quarterback and now they got to go out there and they got to let him have some weapons. Now, Hickey, you brought up and shared a good stat and a good number as it relates to wide receivers getting paid a crap ton of money, making 20 plus million dollars and $25 million plus, you know, whether or not it's a good idea.
This is what you share with me today. Only two teams, the Eagles and the Dolphins have two wide receivers making $25 million plus a season. We know when we go down to Miami, we see we have a Tyreek Hill and then we have a waddle. We know when we go to Philadelphia, the team that just won the Super Bowl, we can look at a Smith and we can look at a Brown and then we can look at the results.
Now here's, here's the difference I see between both of these. Man, I am not trusting Tua Tonga Veloa to last the season. I look at Tua Tonga Veloa and I say, this man is the slant king. Like I got two short ass wide receivers.
They're going to get off the line, hopefully fast. And I have to make an accurate pass. There's a reason why Tua is able to complete a high percentage of his passes, typically between 65 and 70 percent, because Tua is not dumb enough to stand around in the backfield and try to look down the field, get the ball to the playmaker right away, snap the ball, throw the ball, keep it moving. And we've seen when Tua has decided to run around, well, let's just say he's paid the consequences with his brain. Jalen Hurts on the other hand, this man just won a Super Bowl. Man, he's criticized for not throwing a football around enough. And if you got a guy in Joe Burrow, who's one of the best passes in the game, we saw what this dude was doing when he was on his way out to do at LSU. Man put up ungodly numbers.
Give him some weapons to work with. You know, we'll talk about what they're doing in Washington right now with Deebo Samuel being traded for a fifth round pick over the weekend. If you got a quarterback, man, you just can't throw him out there and make him go to work with Terry McLaurin. If you got yourself a Lamborghini, you got yourself a Rolls Royce, you got yourself a luxury car. You're not just in no disrespect to all the wonderful mechanics listening to us right now. I'm not going to get my all changed by, you know, Buddy the Bum walking down the street. I will not do it. The guy who offers to fix your car, no thank you.
I mean, if I'm paying all this money, I'm going to make sure I have exquisite care. Give Joe Burrow some weapons to work with. They got T Higgins now for one more year. Are they going to come to an agreement with him by the time we get to the summertime by we get to July?
I doubt it. Jamar Chase is going to get his money. They're going to pay him 40 plus.
It's going to start there. You're going to pay him 40 and you're going to come to an agreement with T Higgins on what, 30, 35? And then you're going to pay Trey Hendrickson?
I don't see it. Good luck with Joe Burrow. Hopefully the Bengals can fix the defense this year and that they can go for broke on the offensive side of the ball. That T Higgins, eventually he'll be replaced. And by the time we get to next season, he's going to have to find that big contract and that big deal elsewhere because the Bengals realistically, I'd be shocked, shocked if they come to an agreement on a long-term deal.
It just doesn't seem plausible. Zebra doesn't change his stripes and the Bengals, well, they're not, they're not, they're not a zebra. They're just a cheap cat. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. Picky every now and then they wear that white, they wear the white stripes every now and then. Yeah. Those are pretty fresh once or twice a year. Yeah. Bad-ass. Yeah. Not that cheap. We can, you know, switch up the uniforms every now and I'm surprised they just don't make the guys wear the same uniforms every week.
From like 1985, so does Roland out there, just rip off the back of the, the name plate on the back and just, you know, new name, but same number. Oh yeah. I'm with you. Like high school. Restitch I'm with you.
Like high school. Restitch the jerseys. It seems like a very, uh, Bengals thing to do here. Very Bengals thing. 855-212-4227 is the number.
That's 855-212-4227. I just hope that Joe Burrow doesn't end up like Carson Palmer. That Joe Burrow doesn't wake up one day and go, you know what?
I've played at a high level here and y'all haven't given me no help. We saw that with Carson Palmer. He said, I wanted to get out of here.
Give this guy some help, something to work with. But T Higgins, I don't think they're giving this guy a long-term deal. They could scream as much as they want about how they want to keep him.
I don't, I don't see it happening. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. I told you, we got a busy show, major league baseball.
Well, legend Johnny Damon, two-time world series champ, Johnny Damon's going to come through and join us later on in the show next hour. And about an hour from now, we're going to have a chat with Jeff Howe covers all things NFL for the athletic a couple hours from now, we'll have a conversation with Justin Termini host NBA today on Sirius XM NBA radio. When we come back, we're going to continue to talk about some football. I'm going to get to your phone calls. And then I want to talk about someone who I guess by matter of showing up, he has increased his draft stock and odds over the weekend.
And he was already expected to go high. Potentially number one, we got a lot to get into. We're just getting started. It's the JR sport re-show coast to coast 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. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.
That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Earlier today, we learned that the Cincinnati Bengals. Yeah, they, they franchised T Higgins. They have until the middle of July to come up with a long-term extension. Otherwise he plays this season for $26 million. It seems more than likely something that the Bengals will do. I'd be shocked if they give T Higgins a deal before they give Jamar Chase this. Let's just put that out there. And for the defense that can't afford to leave Trey Hendrickson and let his 17 and a half sacks go out the building. The T Higgins is going to have to wait a while. That's some news that came through and dropped earlier today. And if you're the Cincinnati Bengals, yeah, you try to keep these guys as long around as long as possible because Joe burrow, this man needs, he needs help.
He doesn't need to be out there on an island. Just trying to figure out if he's throwing the ball to me or, or Ryan Hickey. That's not gonna, not gonna work. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.
That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. I do want to talk about a few things that took place over the weekend with the NFL combine. Let's go ahead and hit your phone lines up. Jerry is calling us from South Carolina. Jerry, you're on the JR sport brief show. What's on your mind? Hey, Jr.
Thanks. Take my phone call. How you doing, buddy? Um, excellent. What's on your mind? Yes, sir.
I want to talk about the, um, yeah, with the situation. First of all, with, uh, T Higgins thing was keeping least for this year here. I know it's going to be unlikely going to sign him to a long-term field.
Yeah. Teams out there looking for wide receiver during the NFL free agency period about to start next week, which is like the 12 teams like Texans, the charters and the Broncos definitely in need of a wide receiver, a top-notch wide receiver, and be able to see what happens with Cooper cup and the Rams. What power agreement, um, they come to test. They kept Stafford if they keep cup. Um, well, they, what they've made is a charges.
They've made it. They've made it clear that, and that is news that we obviously learned over the past few days that Matthew Stafford, he is not going anywhere. He is going to stick around and that we don't know the specifics yet on the contract or what the number is.
It was reported that he wanted $50 million. I always found it to be a bluff that he was going to go anywhere, but the Rams have pretty much said, we're going to let Cooper cup walk on out the door, not necessarily walk out the door, but they're going to go ahead and trade him out of the building. And when you think about some of the wide receivers that will be available this year, I feel like we got a lot of, of names that are just switching places after suffering injury. So we got Chris Godwin who broke his ankle last year from Tampa. We know what he does opposite Mike Evans.
Well, he's older. He got a broken ankle. We saw Amari Cooper end up in Buffalo.
He ain't necessarily have the best go around there. Stefan Diggs is coming back from a torn knee. He may not even start the season. Deandre Hopkins just tried to go for broke, uh, winning a championship with Kansas city.
That didn't happen. So there's, I don't know if we got a guy who's just going to solve things. We we've heard over the weekend that even Seattle, they're looking at Jackson Smith and Jigba and they're looking at their wide receiver room and they're saying, man, we, we got to keep the younger guy. We may have to, we may have to make some trades. So yeah, DK could be on the trade block from what I heard. Well, that's what I'm saying. If you got to pick between him and Jackson Smith and Jigba, you're going to keep the younger one. Right.
Exactly. So it's, uh, it's, it's a tough space right now when it comes to wide outs, to be honest, Jerry. And I think we've moved into a place in the NFL. People want to, people want to draft them. Like, like Devante Adams, you know, we'll talk about him later in the show. You know, he developed them through the draft, right? Yeah. But Adams is going to be free too.
And I don't know if he's going to follow, uh, Aaron Rogers around. I don't even know if that'd be the wisest idea, but we going to have a lot of old names that are just, I feel like switching places. Hey Jerry, thank you for calling from South Carolina.
You're welcome. No doubt about it. Yeah. It is going to Hickey. There's no standout.
Am I missing? Like if a Metcalf gets traded and I don't know if that'll be the case, like that'll be a big name, but I don't think the guys who, who can just go out and freely sign, they, I don't want to say they got a little stink on them, but these guys a little bit older. They, they they've been through some things.
No, they have. And that's part of the reason why I think, right. You see in free agency at receiver, but really kind of almost any position, a lot of the guys that actually do reach free agency have some sort of mark against them, production, injuries, age, right?
Like usually if you are young and productive, even if you're on the move, right? You're most likely traded. You're not going to just be able to sign them for free and free agency.
So you're right. Like any of these guys you're talking, I think Devontae could be a good bargain. I think that's a guy maybe that, you know, will, would be probably the best receiver on the actual free agent market. Once the jets eventually cut them. But other than him, in terms of like actual production, like you said, that's just available in free agency.
Not many, not many out there around what's left of Hopkins. Cooper surprisingly didn't, didn't, I don't want to say execute, but didn't, didn't perform up to what you thought he would. And he has a little bit of an issue with drops. So we'll see what happens and how things shake when it comes down to free agency, when it comes to wide receivers, this is why when you're the Cincinnati Bengals and we know Jamar Chase is in a space all of his own, probably with Justin Jefferson, but T Higgins and on a lot of other teams, T Higgins would be a number one wide out. And so the Bengals have to go ahead and figure that out. But as I mentioned, a lot of teams want to build through the draft, whether they're selecting a wide receiver or whether they're getting a quarterback. And that's how quarterbacks end up in a league is they get drafted and teams pray to God that they end up being able to deliver. And so over the weekend, Cam Ward coming out of Miami, I don't want to say he was the flavor of the week, but when you, when you read some of the comments and how he was just evaluated, people are going head over heels.
How about this? Connor Hughes of SNY covers all things with the Jets and the Giants. He says, after speeding, speaking with Scouts, GMs and executives, head coaches, and others, they said that there was no better prospect than Cam Ward at the quarterback position.
Okay. Zach Jackson of the athletic says, it's now thought that Cam Ward is the only top tier quarterback in this class. And that there seems to be a clear separation at this stage between Cam Ward and Chidora Sanders.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated says it's pretty clear to me that Ward is the top quarterback in the draft class and that it's Ward and then everyone else. I even saw a story. Hickey, did you see the story where they said Cam Ward is his hand grew another, I don't know, quarter of an inch or something like that?
I didn't see that one, but I saw Jalen Milrose basically grew an inch from the senior ball, allegedly. Well, they just doing hand. I mean, they got exercises for these things, you know? They do. You can expand your hands bigger than I ever thought you could.
Well, I guess if you got a couple of months and you, it's a different, it's the difference factor between making money and not as just stretch my hands out. Why the hell not? Cam Ward certainly believes in his ability. We saw what he did in Miami, more than 4,100 yards passing 36 touchdowns. And people look at what he does with his arm. People look at what he does with his feet and you would be enamored. And so in the case of Chidora Sanders, when, when you don't compete, man, he would have ran maybe even more of a risk of looking inferior to this guy from a physical standpoint, from an athleticism standpoint. And now they already talks about, oh, he's going to fall. And I'm like, nah, I don't think this guy's going to fall.
I'd be surprised if Chidora Sanders goes past the Raiders. He has a preexisting relationship with Tom Brady. And if he's there for the taking, you don't think Tom Brady thinks that, Hey, I know the guy. I already communicate with the guy. I know his dad.
I can get the most out of Chidora. I think Tom Brady, I don't want to say he's that arrogant, but I think he would certainly be that full of himself. And so not a surprise that Cam Ward is being looked upon as the guy right now. There's even stories that are coming out that say the New York jets would be interested in getting cam.
Of course, everybody is going to be interested. Is he going to fall past the Tennessee Titans? Is he going to fall past the Browns? Is he going to fall past the New York giants? The Patriots don't need a QB. The Jaguars don't need one. The Raiders pick at six. The New York jets would have to trade up out of the seven spot to get their hands on cam ward and cam ward is playing the game because this man stood in front of a microphone and cam ward actually said that the jets are an attractive landing spot.
He must not read the news. Listen to this. Especially with the receiver court, they have the defense, they have, um, being able to talk with their head coach for the first time was decided. And so, you know, um, I think the jets are, you know, not too far off, uh, maybe a couple pieces, you know, I'm just hoping I can be one of them. Yeah. Well, I heard the New York jets were one veteran quarterback away.
And how did that turn out? Yeah, you can get the ball of Garrett Wilson. That'd be nice, but he's playing the game as he should. You're not going to lop a team off from a potential competitor. You want all the teams in a feed-in frenzy to go ahead and add you.
And how about he did that as well? Cam ward said last week on pro football talk, he said, look, I don't care what NFL team adds me. They get in the winter, but it's the tightest, um, the Browns, giants Raiders, whether, you know, what other team that needs a quarterback, uh, I think I'd be a part of, you know, everybody's solution. The, the pick will never mean anything. Uh, whether the draft was 20 years ago to this draft, the pick will never mean nothing. No difference between the first round and seven round pick is assigned a bonus. Uh, then they, you got to go prove that every time you step on the field and, you know, you always got to remember, you know, that there's somebody always wanted to, you know, get behind you and try to catch up.
So, you know, I'm willing to, you know, put that work in to, you know, put myself, my family, my teammates and, you know, good situation. No smart guy. He's like, Hey, I know I got to show Hickey. Is that the opposite? That got to be the opposite of what Jamarcus Russell thought when he was on his way into the league. Right.
Right. He's like, somebody will take my job. I got to keep my job. Like Jamarcus is like, what day do I get paid? And how little can I do to make sure that I still get paid every, you know, every two weeks. Yeah. So it's like me in college and stuff.
I was paying them in touche. What the heck is this guy? Mark Williams, the past three games, I guess, until he gets hurt. But anyway, we'll get into some basketball stuff. Uh, later on in the show, cam ward, certainly jumping up, uh, everybody's draft board. As much as he could jump up, it's been said for weeks that this guy is going to be the first quarterback selected and no, no news, nothing. As far as I'm concerned, everybody went out to the combine and got cold and said nothing else. No, no breaking news. No, nothing outside of a Deebo Samuel being traded.
And we'll get into that at the top of the hour. 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. You know, speaking of, of Las Vegas, there's a, there's a free agent quarterback who can actually sign with Las Vegas. Would that stop Las Vegas from drafting should door. I'm going to tell you what QB might end up working for Tom Brady. And no, it's not, it's not Aaron Rogers, not him. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. I'll tell you who that QB is on the other side of the break. 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. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.
That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. And we learned earlier today that T Higgins has been tagged by the Cincinnati bangles. We went through the entire weekend watching the underwear Olympics take place in Indianapolis, Indiana is the NFL combine finished up yesterday. And then the next thing you know, we're going to continue to move towards free agency. Next week, teams can start picking up guys that they would find attractive. We just talked about a bunch of wide receivers who, I don't know how attractive they are given their age and some of the injury histories, guys like Deandre Hopkins, he says, he's not done.
He has something left in the tank. We've got a guy like Amari Cooper. He's not free to sign wherever the hell he wants to go. These are guys who have typically played for contenders that are just, they're playing musical chairs right now. And it's not just the wide receivers. We have veteran quarterbacks who have bumped up their stock over the past year, and now they have an opportunity to move on as well.
And there is no quarterback who has positioned himself. Well, we kind of failed at the end, but there's not a quarterback who had a better season and a quote unquote prove it type year free agent year than Sam Donald. We know ultimately he was supposed to be out there with JJ McCarthy trying to compete for the job, maybe keep the job and seat warm until he was ready to take over in his rookie season. JJ couldn't even make it to the regular season. He didn't even get through the preseason.
He didn't get through training camp. And so Sam Donald was bestowed the job. And for a 27-year-old quarterback who had to start his career playing for the New York Jets, he was able to turn things around here. Sam Donald had himself a year, 4,300 yards passing, 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He did everything except for, I don't know, win in the stretch, losing to the Lions, losing to the Rams, costing himself, I don't know, 10, 15 million dollars a year. He just played for 10 mil. And so Sam Donald is going to make more money this upcoming season, regardless of where he ends up. Will that be back with the Minnesota Vikings? Probably unlikely.
You'll probably receive more money and a better price from another team. And so where is Sam Donald going to go? Ben Gosling from the Star Tribune, he talked about Sam Donald and some of his options to make some cash.
Listen to this. I wonder about the Raiders. I don't think it's a great situation in terms of the personnel, but, you know, new organization getting to work with Tom Brady in whatever capacity that looks like. I think that would be an interesting place for him to go.
I think Tennessee is the other one that maybe makes some sense. I don't know how he'd feel about that, but I think it's a possibility. Yeah. You don't know how do you feel about that? You know why you said that? Because the team sucks. Like, I'm going to work for Tom Brady before I take a look. And if you're Sam Donald, you don't want to just go to teams and cities. We are basically keeping the seat warm for the incumbent.
Well, you're just trying to hold somebody's hand until they hand a job over like you want somewhere where you can get the money and say, I got the job. You know, for as wishy washy as Gino Smith is as a player, he's been able to hold onto that job in Seattle. Does anybody look at Gino Smith and say, oh my God, this guy's going to win us a championship?
No. But if you're Sam Donald, you got to look at what Gino Smith has done and say, man, I can do that. And some. And when you think about the Las Vegas Raiders specifically, they do have Jacoby Myers. They do have Brock Bowers out of Georgia who decided to catch every single pass thrown his way if they got something to work with.
And I'll say this again. They got Tom Brady. Now, there's no guarantee that Tom Brady, the executive, is going to work out the same way the quarterback probably hardly that being the case. But what better situation there is to work for the greatest of all time. And so we don't know what the Raiders are going to do at number seven. But if I am Sam Donald and I have the opportunity, I'm taking that job.
Another opportunity they've talked about. I'm not going anywhere near this. It's the New York Giants. Why would Sam Donald want to torment himself by going back to New York? Now, I understand it is the New York Giants. It's not the New York Jets.
Why do you want that the same scrutiny? Why do you want to go back to that house of horrors where you threw all those interceptions? Like if I'm Sam Donald, I'm staying clear the hell out of New York or New Jersey, however the hell you want to call it. There's not an NY that I want to wear on my helmet.
It doesn't matter if it's the Jets or the Giants. I'm staying clear the hell away. Go to Las Vegas.
Nice in the desert. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. Dave is here from Tampa. You're on the JR Sport Reshow.
Go ahead, Dave. JR, tell me you agree with me, man. I'm a draft junkie, and I have purposely looked over 12 different mock drafts, and they're all over the map.
And tell me this, JR. The two out of the three teams in the first round has to take a quarterback. You would think that Tennessee and Cleveland would take quarterbacks.
Absolutely. Well, that's what I was getting at by getting a Travis Hunter. I've been watching the NFL since the 72 Dolphins. This Travis Hunter, I will say, is Deion Sanders. Whoever picks up this guy is going to—when all's said and done, 15 years from now, he's going to be a Hall of Famer. I mean, we had Champ Bailey in here a couple of weeks ago, and Champ didn't go that far, but when you think about the comps, Champ is obviously one of the most accomplished cornerbacks that the NFL has ever seen. And he had high praise for what Travis Hunter's been able to do.
Travis is coming from right here outside of Atlanta and Georgia. JR, do you agree with me? I played high school football in the 70s, man. I think cornerback position, besides maybe being a pitcher in baseball, is one of the toughest positions to play in. I have watched Travis Hunter's last two years, the position that he plays, and I look at Deion Sanders.
Yeah. Well, I don't know if you can look at—well, we saw Deion pretty much return kicks. We didn't see him all the time going out there. And playing the way that Travis Hunter wants to play on both sides of the football. So in playing cornerback, yeah, you're playing a position where you're going to get beat. You can talk about being a starting pitcher. Yeah, what does a good starting pitcher mean? Nowadays, I'm going to give you six innings, and I give up, what, three or four runs? What are they calling a quality start now?
You're there to fail. And you think about some of the numbers that wide receivers put up. What's an ideal game for a wideout? Eight to 10 catches, 100 yards plus receiving, one touchdown a game? Like, somebody had to get burned on the defensive side of the ball to get that.
And I've shared with you some of the numbers from Travis Hunter here. Like, nobody threw the ball his way in college. They didn't even bother throwing the ball. I'm not going to put this guy, I guess, the most recent cornerback that we've had.
Darryl Reavis and Reavis Island. It's like nobody threw the ball his direction. I'm not putting Travis Hunter there. But if you pay attention to some of the metrics, they say he's a little taller than what people thought. He's a little heavier than what people thought.
And yeah, he's going to go high. It's just a matter of what numbskull team says, hey, you know, we'll go ahead and take him. Maybe it's not a numbskull team. You know, I talked about the New England Patriots. They don't need a quarterback. They select at number four overall.
And let's also be real. Depending on who you ask, most people say that the quarterbacks are not the creme de la creme. You have Cam Ward, who we just discussed, and you have Shadore Sanders. That's that's a wide gap between Shadore maybe falling to six at the Raiders. If you're the New York Jets, are you taking a quarterback if you're the Jets?
I'm probably at Justin Fields. I'd get a young guy and see if I could sink or swim or lose with him. At least he's somewhat proven, more proven. You know what he is.
You know what he isn't. Rather than saying, oh, well, I'm going to take Jackson Dart. What the hell would you do that for? And then the New York Jets. They got a, Hickey is it? What's the guy from Florida State? He blew out his leg last year.
Jordan Travis. Yeah, they got they got him. They got him in mothballs and cobwebs. I don't know if he's big enough to play in the NFL, but they certainly selected and drafted him as a project. But, well, the New York Jets fired everybody, including the GM, Joe Douglas, and then also the last head coach, Rob Salah. So he may not even be worth a damn at this point to the new regime. The point being, if you're not selecting a QB at the top, you may want to wait.
Like even somebody like Jackson Dart, just because he threw over the weekend. People are falling in love with him. Oh, my God, we got a sign. Oh, my God, we got to have him.
It's tricky at the top. If I'm the Jets and I stick at seven, I ain't taking no QB. Not at all. Patriots don't need one.
Hickey, I would be surprised because we are really going to find out how people feel. I think Travis Hundert is going to end up with the Patriots at four. And honestly, I would consider that a steal because that means at least I mean, obviously, Abdul Carter is a great talent, but that means if he's dropping a four, we're talking about at least then two quarterbacks going.
Yeah, I'm with you. I don't feel we know the the Browns are going to take a QB. I would say somehow, some way the New York Giants are likely to take a QB and the Tennessee Titans, if they stay in the spot, I don't know. Are they taking Travis Hundert number one overall? I don't know.
Like, do I do I want that? Am I prepared to say, hey, I'm going to because if the Titans select anybody but a quarterback at number one, I think the Titans are basically saying we're going to tank for one more season and then try for a quarterback next year. People aren't trying to build Rome in a day. It's not fix the whole world in one NFL draft. 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. You know, speaking of getting a quarterback some help, we're going to talk about a QB who just got himself a dynamic wide receiver, or at least they hope. Don't move, I'll tell you who it is.
