NFL Free Agency: Cowboys & Bengals Are Big Loser From Day 1 (Hour 3)

It is the JR Sport Brief show on the Infinity Sports Network.

Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in all over North America. Hope you have had a tremendous Monday. It has been a busy Monday in the NFL. The legal tampering period started today for prospective free agents.

Basically, you can have an open flirtation. You can come to an agreement with an NFL team on a contract. And then you do the deed, you sign the deal on Wednesday. You've had a lot of moves that have taken place ahead of time. Trades and signings. Like today, we got Sam Donald, who's now the quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. Not that big of a deal moving from Geno Smith to Sam Donald.

You get what I'm saying? Laramie Tunsell. He goes from Houston. He's been traded from Houston to the Washington commanders to help protect Jayden Daniels. We just talked about Miles Garrett not going anywhere. Now the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history. Kirk Cousins is still trying to leave. The New England Patriots adding Milton Williams. And we got an interesting tidbit about his contract.

You're going to blink the Patriots. They added Roberts Blaine or the the linebacker. They added him. And there's just there's a lot going on. We got Josh Sweat going out to Arizona. Shout out to the Cardinals fans that will likely be mediocre again next year.

At least he'll get paid. So much going on. Hey, thank you to Ryan Harris for joining us last hour. Played in the league. Now broadcast with CBS and Westwood One. He came through to have a chat with us.

And then how about this? In about 20 minutes, we'll have a conversation with Mike DeFabo. Because, A, he works for the athletic and he also covers the Steelers. The Steelers have been I guess the Steelers have been busy or maybe not. Justin Fields is on his way to the New York Jets. Kenny Pickett is on his way to the Browns.

And the Steelers need to identify their next quarterback. Is it Rogers? Is it Wilson?

Is it is it someone else? Ryan Harris was here with us and he said if he were the Steelers, he would just go ahead and select Will Howard. Yeah, who just won a national championship with the Ohio State University.

Would he dare go that route? Talking about the Steelers and Tomlin. You bringing in a rookie quarterback? Now you got to throw the ball to DK Metcalf, who was traded to the Steelers.

And then you still have George Pickens there. I don't know if I want to, you know, put that at the hands of a rookie. Hickey, Will Howard would be traumatized after what? Just training camp? Would he make it to week one?

I don't know. He's a tough dude, but that's a big ask right there. Those personalities around him. He has to answer to Pickens and indeed forget DK. Just Pickens by himself.

Oh my God. Gonna bully the poor guy into just every snap. Throw the ball. Throw the ball. Throw the ball. What do you think the Steelers should do?

Hickey? I'm going with Rogers. What do you think they should do? I thought they should have signed Sam Darnold.

Now obviously that point is moot. At this point, honestly, I bring back Russ. I'm just so out on Aaron Rodgers.

I think at this point the headaches and the drama he brings outweighs the production he provides on the field. The Steelers, their roster is better now with DK, but it's still not great. Who's going to be a running back? Where's the running game going to come from? The defense the last half of the year was not very good. They haven't done right now anything to improve it. So if they're going to need more from their quarterback next year than maybe they have the last few years, is Rogers the guy that can get them to the playoffs?

I don't think so. Come on, Hickey. Let's get some spice here. Bring it back. Russell Wilson is just like going to a restaurant and asking for plain white bread. Just give me plain white. No butter. No, not just I just want white bread. Nothing on it. Nothing and asking for a cup of water.

That's what that's what that's what asking or bringing back Russell Wilson does. You're not wrong, but in this scenario you are starving. You haven't eaten in five days.

So let me tell you this. White bread and water. Okay. White bread, plain bread and water sounds a whole have a lot more appetizing than like basically the chef's choice.

And it could be a gourmet meal. It could also just be literally just garbage from the from the alleyway cooked up. No. Well, look, you bring in Aaron.

I hope it's not garbage from the alleyway. You bring in Aaron Rogers. Yeah. You bring in Aaron Rogers.

At least it's going to be something good. I mean, you're a Jets fan. You saw him last year. He played all 17 games. He did. He's not very good.

Yeah. But I don't think Russell Wilson is I don't think he's all that. I would say if I had one year, forget all the stuff, even on a football stuff. And I know what Russell Wilson did statistically and what he did at the end of the year.

And this is going to be a great conversation with Mike Defabo. He had shared some of their comparable stats last year between Rogers and also Wilson. And then Wilson comes out on top and in quite a few categories.

But then we saw what he did at the end of the year. I don't know. I'm just be a little exotic, be a little adventurous. You know, why doesn't how about this? I know Mike Tomlin, he got a family, he got kids, maybe bees like I'm too old for this crap. Maybe Aaron Rodgers should take Mike Tomlin out to the wilderness.

Right. That that's that's one way to solve things like he he should go. Mike Tomlin should go on a trip with Aaron Rodgers.

They should go for bonding experience and we should just see what happens after that. Well, how do you think Mike Tomlin is going to come back from that wilderness adventure? Is going to come back more enlightened? Is he going to be now more jovial at the media?

I don't know. Mike Tomlin to me, I don't know. It's just my conspiracy theories now. No, to me, he seems like a gentleman that is not one to be changed or easily influenced by external circumstances. Now, that sounds like Tomlin right there. That's a Tomlinism. We do not care. We will not let outside factors impact our decision making.

Yeah, that sounds sounds about right. We'll have this conversation with Mike Defabo in about 15 minutes. I did share with you before the break that Miles Garrett decided to change his mind after writing an elegant note about how he wanted to leave Cleveland. He went on a whole media tour Super Bowl week about how he wanted out. But he's going to stay with that bum ass team and just collect checks. He's now the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history. Miles Garrett is going to be making 40 million dollars per year.

Now, I got to tell you, this is a couple of things. This doesn't bode well for a couple of franchises in the NFL who just take forever to pay their players. Max Crosby just got thirty five and a half million dollars last week from the Las Vegas Raiders. Before Max Crosby got that deal, the Cincinnati Bengals, Duke Tobin, their GM via Mike Brown, the owner basically said they are going to pay Jamar Chase to be the highest paid non quarterback in the NFL.

But we already knew that number and they knew Jamar Chase and his folks, they knew that number was already going to be at 40. Now, not if the Bengals are going to keep to their word. They got to pay him more than that. If the Cincinnati Bengals are going to honor what they said, they have to go beyond 40 million dollars. It is absolutely hilarious to me that the Bengals and the Dallas Cowboys can continue to make ridiculous mistakes like I was still kind of mind blowing that he would say such a thing, knowing that the market does change, that we were heading into free agency. And now we got a deal that's that's 40 mil plus. I want you to listen to Ian Rappaport.

This is from earlier today. He was asked if the Bengals will cough up more than 40 mil. And then he also had some thoughts on the other wide receiver, T. Higgins, who's making 26 mil. Let's not forget Trey Hendrickson is still floating out there. He told all of this to Pat McAfee.

I think he probably does. And I don't get the sense that the Bengals are that far from it now. I mean, I know it's it's weird. Like I understand the Bengals get criticized. Why have they not gotten the deal done? It takes two to get the deal done. Right. And if you're Jamar Chase, I think Bengals would like it done immediately.

And they've offered really close to that. But if you're Jamar Chase, I mean, it sounds to me like he's like, I got time. There's no rush. I mean, they're not play until September, which is, you know, I don't know, many months, some months away, however many months that is away. So I think Jamar Chase is waiting.

And like, even though it's awesome to get deals immediately, if you wait, they just get higher. So like, I think you're right. I think Jamar Chase is in an unbelievable place. It's going to sting for the Bengals, but I really think they get it done and actually think they probably get both of these guys done. OK, well, we'll see what they do with T. Higgins. I know what that means for Hendrickson.

He's going to be on out the door. But we can talk about waiting. Like the Bengals, like Chase was trying to get this deal done last year, and I don't care if it was already close to 40 and he said, I'm going to go beyond Justin Jefferson by more than a penny. OK, yeah, sure.

Fine. The Bengals could have did the deal last year. And it does take two to get the deal done. But this is the Bengals reputation and not just when it comes down to negotiating contracts. It's like, hey, do we want to pay Jamar Chase 40 million dollars or do we want to pay or charge the players for Gatorade? Like they're going to be like, well, we don't want to do either. And so the Bengals are just always, always behind the eight ball.

And I get it. If the defense has to suffer. So Joe Burrow can thrive and I don't know, play arcade video game football with with Higgins and Chase, then then so be it. The Cincinnati Bengals to me are just they're ultimately just running and running and running and running. In place, Bengals are going no damn way. Let's see what they do with this contract situation for Jamar Chase. And then meanwhile, the captain of we like to just stretch out contracts and deals. I told you last hour that the Dallas Cowboys have added Javonte Williams from the Denver Broncos.

This man is good. And they added him on a three million dollar contract. So you're running back in pay three mil.

Well, we know what the market thinks of you. Last season splitting carries amongst basically three backs to other backs in Denver. He hauled in about 500 yards on the ground, a couple of touchdowns, and now he's going to have the bulk of work with the Dallas Cowboys.

Now that Rico Dowdle is gone and who even knows. Hickey, have you heard Ezekiel Elliott's name? Does anybody want him?

Wow. I don't think I've heard his name one time since week 18. Did he get it? Did he he got did he even play for the Chargers? Did he get one handoff? I don't think so.

Right. You signed for the playoffs and they were one and done. I don't think you got a carry in that game for what I can remember.

If so, it was one or two and that's it. No, that man didn't even play last year. Two hundred and twenty six yards rushing and three touchdowns for Ezekiel Elliott. His time in the NFL that it very well might be done.

Ezekiel Elliott might be playing for the Hickey. Are they the Birmingham? I don't even know. I think the Stallions have. Yeah, I was going to say the horses. I don't know. I was like, wait.

Is there color yoga showing that team? Yeah, I guess. Right. Anything horse related.

It does not sound intimidating. Stallions is tough. The first thing that came to mind were the Barons. And I said, nope, that's the baseball team. Famed by Michael Jordan.

Thank you, MJ. And then I automatically went to horses. So I guess I was I was in the space. Right, Genus. What? Oh, gee. Oh, Genus. That's right. I think that's I mean, animal association. Look at you.

You're just a modern day Jack Hanna Hickey. Look at that. I'll be honest. I kind of just threw that term out there.

I hope it applies, but I'm not exactly 100 percent confident. Next thing you're going to be telling me about Homo sapiens and I don't know what else comes out of that. I also don't know who Jack Hanna is. So that's. Oh, my God. The animal guy.

Yeah, I couldn't tell you. Well, Hickey, he's no longer here. Jack Hanna was like Steve Irwin, but American.

Oh, OK. He was he was before he was before Steve Irwin. We are missing a good American like wildlife expert. Steve Irwin was great.

David Attleboro. I always do. Those are a lot of those voiceovers like Planet Earth, stuff like that. Yeah. It's more Americans in that space.

Well, there is there is that guy that does the the prehistoric animals online. He's American, I guess. For a digital age, it's him. You know, I'm talking about. No idea. Is a guy with a with a ball cap who travels the world just hanging out with weird and exotic animals.

And he's still alive. It's like a YouTube series. It's just some guy on it on the Internet.

Maybe a YouTube series. I guess it is guy. And that's the best we got right now. Guy on the Internet baseball hat on travels around exotic animals.

That's what we have. If I'm going to Google that in the break and I'm almost certain that he would pop up to guys hanging out with like massive snakes and animals. And that that leads us to the other guy, the Dallas Cowboys, these dumbasses.

Michael Parsons, I saw a video of him. He's scratching a lion or a tiger's back. And it's just like, you want a new contract from the Cowboys?

This is exactly what you're doing right now. And by the way, you don't think Michael Parsons looks at the number that was given to Max Crosby? You don't think he looks at the number that was given to Miles Garrett? And yes, Miles Garrett more accomplished.

You don't think he's going to want to maybe sit in that same range? And this might make contract negotiations even more difficult, because if you're if you're Michael, you go, well, I'm younger than him, so pay me more. And the Cowboys go, well, you're not as accomplished. So nobody, absolutely nobody helps themselves here. And the Dallas Cowboys paying Dax 60 mil and Cincinnati Bengals still trying to figure things out with Jamar Chase. They they never help themselves out. It's the J.R. sport re-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 the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. We're going to take a break when we come back. It's time to have a conversation with Mike Defabo, who covers the Steelers for the athletic. We'll get his thoughts on what they do next at the quarterback position. And what do the Steelers also do at the running back position? It appears that Najee Harris might be on his way to the Chargers. So we're going to figure out what the Steelers might do.

Have that conversation with Mike. It's the J.R. sport re-show the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief, the J.R. sport re-show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network with so much quarterback movement in the NFL. We got Geno Smith, now a Raider. We got Sam Donald, now a Seahawk. And Justin Fields is now a Jet. Russell Wilson is free.

Aaron Rodgers is free. What do the Steelers do at the quarterback position? What do they do at the running back position? How do their wide receivers now work when you have D.K. Metcalf in along with Pickens to talk about everything?

Pittsburgh Steelers is someone who covers the team for the athletic. We're being joined by Mike Defabo. Mike, how are you, man? Hey, I'm doing great.

Thank you so much for having me on the show. Before we get to the main event, and of course always a pleasure, before we get to Aaron Rodgers, what are your thoughts on D.K. Metcalf and Pickens being in the same space at the same time on a consistent basis? Well, my first thought is, will Pickens and D.K.

Metcalf be in the same place at the same time very often and for very long? You know, when you look at the situation with George Pickens, he's entering the final year of his rookie contract. And traditionally, the Steelers, if a guy like George Pickens produces on the field the way that Pickens did, it would be a no-brainer decision. The Steelers would lock him up before he could even enter his final year of his rookie contract, make sure he's a Steeler long-term. But, as we know, Pickens comes with some baggage and on-field kind of situations. You know, he had the always blanking open eye black. And, you know, later in the season, Mike Tomlin came out and said he needs to grow up.

Very next game in which he was active, he reported late to that game against the Chiefs. So, there's a lot of things going on there with George Pickens. So, my real question is, is this step one and maybe there's another shoe that's going to drop here? And I think what it does is it really puts the Steelers in a position of power where if you get the quarterback that you like, you want to go for it with two great deep threats with DK Metcalf and George Pickens, you can do that. But, at the same time, if you don't get the quarterback or you decide, you know what, George Pickens is more trouble than he's worth at this point, let's cut bait, let's try to get a draft pick, you now have the flexibility to do that because you have a legitimate number one star receiver on your hands with DK.

So, I think it was a wise move and now really my question is kind of like, what's the ripple effect from it? Now, Mike DeFable here with us from The Athletic. When you think about all the draft picks that the Steelers already possess and have, does that work in their favor to get another solid wide receiver in if they should move off from Pickens? Well, I think what will be interesting really is if you were able to get, let's say, a second round pick back for George Pickens, and then you could get a guy in the first round like Emeka Ibuka. I know the Steelers are interested in him out of Ohio State.

And stylistically, I think that would be a nice match where you've got the big body, big play threat with DK, and then a guy in Ibuka who can work those underneath routes and more of that possession type of receiver. So, I just think that with the Steelers, they've taken maybe like the long game type of approach to this point through Omar Khan's first two drafts. They loaded up on offensive linemen. They tried to restock the defensive line. So, I think if you're thinking long term, getting that pick back may be better than playing out the string with George Pickens and losing him for nothing at the end of the year. Well, Mike, we learned about an hour ago that it appears that Najee Harris, after year after year after year, racking up a thousand yards, that he might be on his way to the Chargers. What is the Steelers' thought process in potentially replacing him?

Yeah, you know, you look at what they've done today. Today, they put a second round tender on Jalen Warren. And you have three options with the tenders.

There's a first round tender, there's a second round tender, then there's a right of first refusal. And really, the Steelers had to decide between right of first refusal or second round. And they chose to pay Jalen the second round, which has a bigger price tag, but it also means you're going to keep him. And that tells you that that was a priority player for the Steelers. And even at the end of last season, you saw the Steelers start to shift, even before the end of Najee Harris' tenure, to more Jalen Warren.

He actually out snapped and now carried Najee during the final couple games of the season. So, you know, the way I look at it, they're probably going to have Jalen as one of the backs. And then I very much think that they're in contention to draft a running back. And I think that probably you're looking at a day two, early day three pick.

You know, I know that they have their top 30 visits coming in. And among those, they've got a lot of defensive tackles coming in. They had a lot of wide receivers. And then the third position they were really looking at is running back. So, you know, somewhere within those top three or four rounds, I would very much expect the Steelers to draft a running back.

Mike DeFabo is here, covers the Steelers for the Athletic. We know the big story is Justin Fields moving on. Russell Wilson is still available.

And then Aaron Rodgers also lurks out there, eligible to sign with any team that would want him if they can come to an agreement. First of all, why didn't a deal get done with Justin Fields? I assume it was the price and a commitment, no?

Right. And I mean, Justin also had a say in this. So, it was interesting because Art Rooney, the owner of the team, came out right after the season and said, I would prefer to re-sign one of the guys that we currently have.

Well, it became clear as this process unfolded that really it wasn't one of those two guys. It wasn't Russ or Justin. It was Justin was the priority. And for that reason, when you consider this is an underwhelming draft class and the Steelers probably aren't going to be in range to draft a top guy, the other free agent options, like none of those are very appealing either. I thought that they would really make a strong effort to keep Justin.

But because of the fact that they let this string out, they waited until the final, basically the 11th hour to try to get something done, that gave other teams the opportunity to talk with Justin. And I think that he wanted to get the most value that he possibly could. Because he's in a very different situation than Russell Wilson, for example. Russ has made more than $300 million in his career.

I mean, the hay's in the barn with him. But when you come to Justin Fields, he's just coming off of his rookie contract. He still needs to make his money in this league. Not to mention, he went 4-2 as the starter and Mike Tomlin turned away from him. That had to be in the back of his mind thinking, how soon are they going to pivot away from me if they were looking for the first opportunity to turn back to Russ last time. So, I think all those factors, the money, Justin trying to get his, and then the Steelers maybe being unwilling to meet his demands, and then maybe the sour case in Justin's mouth after last year, all those things led to a breakup and him ultimately going to the Jets. And now the Steelers spinning their wheels and left with kind of the scraps and the leftovers of what was already an uninspiring quarterback class in free agency. Well, when you think about Russell Wilson, we saw how things ended with the Steelers.

He's still available. He can return back to the Steelers. And then there's Aaron Rodgers. Why haven't the Steelers jumped at Russell Wilson? Have they seen enough of him at the end of last year? And what are your thoughts on their options?

Are we going to get one of these two guys in? Yeah, I can tell you what I know there, and that's really what they did with Russell Wilson, kind of stringing him along and using his leverage. And, you know, for as much as they publicly said, not only Art Rooney coming out and saying it was either going to be Russ or Justin, but then also at the combine, General Manager Omar Khan came out and also said it was probably going to be either Russ or Justin. Those public comments do not mirror the way that they have treated Russ at the negotiating table.

And if it truly was that, then they would be right now signing the contract with Russ. Instead, what I think is it seems like they would prefer Aaron Rodgers, but they need to first see what does Aaron Rodgers want? And Aaron Rodgers has some options. So is Aaron Rodgers going to go to the Giants? And then at that point, maybe the Steelers get their option number three with Russ. Or is Aaron Rodgers, who we know has respect for Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin has respect for him.

They've kind of been flirting with the notion that the two of them could be connected for a couple of years now. Does that finally materialize this year? We'll have to see.

If I were to guess, and it's just an educated guess at this point, I think that that would be the way this is going to go. But really, with all the twists and turns, and especially after the way the last year on Florida with the Steelers getting two quarterbacks unexpectedly, really until they have somebody in the building signed to a contract, I don't think anybody can say with certainty who the quarterback is going to be. Mike, the fable is here with us, covers the Steelers for the Athletic. Now, given the options that are right there, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers, I saw you share some interesting information about who's better.

Who do you think would be the best fit before the Steelers to be competitive and hopefully try to win something next year? Yeah, I mean, when you look at the stats that I shared online, and you can follow me on Twitter at Mike the Fable, I have a lot of that information that I shared out there. Russ was the better quarterback in a lot of those metrics. And, you know, you look at passer ratings, Russ was better. EPA per attempt, Russ was better. QBR, Russ was better. CDs per interception.

So, we can go on and on. Really, what it was is Russ was more efficient as a passer. He was more of a big play kind of guy, using that patented moon ball to connect with George Pickens. But he also took a lot of sacks.

He was one of the most sacked quarterbacks in the league. Do you want that, or do you want a quarterback who's 41 years old and Aaron Rodgers, and he was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league against the Blitz, and what they tried to do with the Jets was do a lot of rhythm passing, precision passing, and I don't know that necessarily that fits a guy like George Pickens or DK Metcalf. Those guys aren't necessarily like detailed route runners. They're more of those big play threats that you think about when you think of a guy like Russell Wilson.

So, you know, neither one of them, I think, is going to be the slam dunk answer. And I think that for optics' sake, if the Steelers bring back Russell Wilson, they risk the fan base saying, this is doing the same thing and expecting different results. By the same token, if you bring in Aaron Rodgers, you look at it, and I mean basically Joe Douglas, the former GM from the Jets, lost his job because he believed in Aaron Rodgers too much and tried to surround Aaron Rodgers with enough pieces, and that did not work either.

So basically you're choosing between two options that neither one of them, you can guarantee, is going to be the upgrade. I think that they're going to go with Rodgers just because of kind of a change, and maybe we'll try something different and it'll work. But inevitably, I think if you talk to me a year from now, we're going to be sitting here saying which quarterback or the Steelers is going to be drafting in the first round. I think that's where all this is headed.

Oh, man. Mike DeFable here from The Athletic. Now, I feel like we go through this every year with the Steelers. It's like, hey, we won enough, and now we got to get rid of Tomlin, and Tomlin isn't going anywhere, and now they have quarterback options again. What does this mean for Mike Tomlin if we get the same old again? This season, regardless of who's that QB? Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you that the fan base is definitely frustrated, and really Mike Tomlin is a difficult coach to evaluate.

Well, actually not. That's not true. He's a great coach. There's no question in my mind that he is a great coach who cares about his players and often gets the best out of his team. But when you go eight years without winning a playoff game or a team in a franchise like the Pittsburgh Steelers, you're not meeting expectations. And Mike Tomlin has a saying, the standard is the standard.

It does not seem to me that the Steelers are living up to their own standards right now, and they haven't over the last eight years. So he's not going anywhere. The front office and the ownership group, they really have a lot of respect for him. They just basically one calendar year ago gave Mike Tomlin a three-year extension. They gave him a raise that makes him one of the top five highest-paid coaches in the NFL. They tell you how they feel about him, but that's not going to stop the public outcry and people frustrated that the Steelers are flaming out again in the first round of the playoffs.

Yeah, he has some of the best job security in America. Hey, Mike, always a pleasure having to chat with you. Thank you for the insight. Tell everybody where they can follow you and your work with the athletic. Yeah, absolutely. You can catch all my stuff on the athletic, and you can follow me on social media, at Mike DeFabo, that's D-E-F-A-V-O.

And let's see what this quarterback situation looks like. Thank you, Mike. We'll catch you soon. All right, sounds good.

Thanks a lot. No doubt about it. This is the JR Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Mike, not all that confident with how things could potentially roll out for the Steelers. I get it and understand.

The same old, same old. Like, eventually, whether it's Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson, like, they're going to need a gut check. Like, the Steelers are going to have to—Hickey, maybe this is a good reason to bring Aaron Rodgers in.

I think we all would know and agree with this. In order for the Steelers to bring in their next franchise quarterback, like most teams, they're going to have to crash and burn. And maybe by bringing in Aaron Rodgers, they crash and burn enough that they're forced to look into the future. That's reasonable, right?

No? If that's the thought process behind Aaron Rodgers, sign him. I totally agree. That makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, bring him in, have him, you know, drive you into the ground and start from ground zero. Sounds about right. Hey, thank you, Mike DeFabo, for coming through with the insight. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. So many moves that have taken place today. When we come back, I'm going to talk about the New England Patriots, what they've done, because I see them on the upswing. We'll talk about somebody else who's trying to make his way out of Atlanta. We talked about Miles Garrett wanting to stay. And I think Kirk Cousins, he is—I still think he wants out.

I think that's pretty clear. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you to Mike DeFabo from The Athletic for joining us in the last break. 855-212-4227 is the number. That's 855-212-4227. I need you to thank O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.

Your guaranteed low price is an excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. I think it's a consensus right now when it comes down to the Pittsburgh Steelers, regardless of whether they bring in Aaron Rodgers, whether they bring back Russell Wilson, that they're still kind of—they're on a treadmill. They're not going anywhere. They're just grinding their gears until they ultimately have to just kind of fall flat and try to draft their quarterback of the future. Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers are not long-term solutions, and the Steelers aren't in a place where they can just go out there and hit a grand slam. I mean, that was the New York Jets' intention in bringing in Aaron Rodgers. And, of course, he got hurt, and the Jets weren't prepared.

The pressure got to everybody, and everybody ended up getting the boot. Now, that won't happen with the Steelers. I want to see it happen just for the story of it all. I like a good story. You can put Aaron Rodgers with the Steelers, and let's just see how things crash and or burn, because I don't think it's going to end up with a championship. Now, I do want you to hear this. Albert Breer was having a chat with Dan Patrick earlier this year.

This is back in January. And he said that if there's one team that could have a good ride, smooth sailing with Aaron Rodgers, that it would be the Steelers. And I will say this for Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh. Like, he's shown a remarkable ability to deal with whatever personality comes his way. I mean, we didn't know that Antonio Brown was a problem until, like, the very end in Pittsburgh. Think about that.

You know what I mean? Like, we didn't know who he had in that receiver room, you know, like at the time. He had Antonio Brown and Mike Wallace and Emmanuel Sanders, big personalities, Le'Veon Bell at running back. Like, I mean, how he's managed George Pickens over the last few years. I'm not willing him to Pittsburgh, but I'm just telling you, like, I don't think that part of it would be as big a problem for Tomlin as it might be for another coach. Hickey, if Aaron Rodgers is on the Steelers, does he still do Pat McAfee on Tuesdays?

Ooh, I bet you yes. I think they would let him do it. Let me ask you this question off of that. If, let's say, the Steelers do sign Aaron Rodgers, let's say with the beginning of training camp kind of being the marker there, what do you think the number is higher of? Aaron Rodgers' appearances on Pat McAfee or touchdown passes? You're saying by what time, when? Starting training camp. So, you know, late July, right? Through the end of the regular season or through the end of the season period, what number will be higher?

Aaron Rodgers' appearances on Pat McAfee's show or touchdown passes? Damn, so what is that? 25 weeks, I guess, right? Roughly, yeah. Yeah. Oh, he just had, didn't he have 25 touchdowns with the Jets?

28, I believe was the number off the top of my head. Right. So, I mean, ugh. So, you take the over. You take more touchdown passes than Pat McAfee's show appearances. DK, yeah. Well, DK who was there and whoever else they had, Pickens is still there. You know, I don't think they're going to downgrade at wide receiver, you know? And Pickens isn't known as someone who's, I think he had like four touchdowns last year. So, I would take the over on 25. I think he would hit that mark right, I think he'd hit that mark okay.

Okay. Now, what that sounds like, Hickey, that's why I say I want this to happen. I want this to happen just as much as I wanted him to go to the Jets. Just so I could see how bad things would be and that ended up as bad as a lot of people thought. I want to see it happen with the Steelers. Is it? Nothing wrong with that?

Nothing wrong with a crash and burn? I mean, here in Atlanta, earlier today, I mean, Grady Jarrett who was born and raised in Atlanta, played for the Falcons after his stop up at Clemson. Now, he's with the Chicago Bears and then the Falcons got to deal with their own issue. I'm not going to put them in the same category as Aaron Rodgers, but like we got Kirk Cousins here and nobody wants him. Kirk Cousins doesn't want to be here anymore. It's a story unto itself. So, Hickey, when it comes to a good QB story and controversy, I'm here for it all, man.

I love it. It would be interesting to see Aaron Rodgers tank the Steelers because like, look, the Jets are a disaster. No, no, but the Jets are a disaster, right?

So that's not new or full. Oh, wow. A Jets quarterback flaming out.

I haven't seen this before. Steelers, though, quote, unquote, model franchise having their quarterback flame out and that franchise flame out because of him, that would hit different. A little different than what we're used to seeing.

Without a shadow of a doubt, you're right on that one. Wild, wild stuff. It's kind of crazy to think about Kirk Cousins comes across as a good guy, goody two shoes. They're putting chains on this guy. He talks about how he's shopping at Kohl's and he's endearing himself to Atlanta until he stunk.

It's just a lot going on. And now nobody wants the guy. And so last week he met with the ownership here, Arthur Blank.

He is the ownership. And they basically told him, no, man, we're not going to move you unless we could do something good for the team. And so Kirk Cousins is is a name that, you know, he's not he's not thrown around like a lot of these other dudes because they're free. It's like Kirk Cousins is currently in quarterback purgatory. I don't know when he gets moved. He's due a roster bonus next week. It's just rather odd. I guess the Falcons are ready, willing, able to swallow all the money just to keep them like we don't know what appendix is going to do. And we don't care if you want to leave.

I just I don't know. And what NFL players on the team that he doesn't want to be on? Ultimately, somehow, some way everybody gets their way unless they're just going to call Kirk Cousins on a punk card and say, listen, man, you're just going to stand on the sidelines and like it.

Wild, wild stuff here. You think he's moving? They have to move him, right?

Definitely. Question is when I thought they would be around now. It seems like they're at least dug into where they're not going to release them.

Let's say tomorrow, Wednesday. I mean, I guess they'll pay that bonus this week. And I mean, what the hell? I guess another ten million dollars in the bucket.

Screw it. But I don't know what team like what team is going to trade. I could see a few teams being interested to sign him as a free agent.

Probably pretty cheap. Who's trading for him, J.R.? I don't. That's the question. Who wants Kirk Cousins like like he ain't going back to Minnesota.

We know that's not happening. I just in New York Giants, I don't know. What are they trading for a guy for? Just the Browns. He has to go to the Browns. That's it.

Right. And if you're the Browns, you trade it for him. You screw with the Watson contract. You know, you finally get your first round pick back for the first time since making the trade. I get it's not going to be high competition anyway. Like a sixth or seventh round pick, probably. But still, why give that away for a guy that you expect to maybe be there a year to keep you afloat, maybe two.

And that's it. This is he's going to he's going to be the most happiest looking, unhappiest person ever on the Falcons sideline. He's going to be getting paid to just stand around. Dan Graziano was on get up and he actually talked about the Falcons holding on to Kirk Cousins for now.

Listen to this. So they're still telling Cousins they're not going to cut it. He's got a 10 million dollar 2026 roster bonus that becomes fully guaranteed if he's still on the Falcons roster on Sunday.

This coming Sunday, this coming Sunday. But they've already paid him 90. So like if they I don't think that deadline is going to affect them. Just, you know, 10 million.

I mean, so but they're continuing to tell Cousins and other teams that they are not going to cut him. Man. Is it too late for me to play quarterback? It's too late. Never too late. Never. Never.

All right. I'm just like, man, I could get the ball to the five, you know, five yards or 10 yards, 15 yards. Maybe it'll go 20 by accident. I just. It's crazy.

I miss my calling. How tall is Kirk Cousins? Like 6, 2, 6, 3.

He does look pretty big. 6, 4. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I missed out, man. You missed out to your wide receiver skills. You could have been getting Jamar Chase money out here.

I would have taken 40 million dollars a year. That would be nice. Yeah.

Kirk Cousins 6, 3, 205 pounds upon last measurement. Yeah. All these NFL players making out like bandits today. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to we're going to take a look. There's so many big deals.

There's so many small deals. I told you about the New England Patriots. They have really gone above and beyond and trying to improve their team. Real impressed with what they've done this entire offseason. Adding Mike Vrabel as a start 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27 will run you through a lot of the deals that took place today. It's the JR sport re-show on the Infinity Sports Network. Don't move.