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.
My people at home, on the roads, the highways, the byways, people at school, people doing stuff they don't want to do, people looking at people they don't want to look at. Thank you for being here. I'll be hanging out with you for the next three hours. Hopefully you enjoy this and being joined by super producer and host Ryan Hickey. He is in New York City and we got so much more to get into.
We've been hanging out for an hour. The show gets started at 6 p.m. Eastern 3 Pacific. Thank you all so much to Max Starks, the Super Bowl champ, two times with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He came through and joined us and we talked about Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson. It's the quarterback battle of the summer. People can't wait for this.
I know they can't. People cannot wait for this one. Also, we talked about the 49ers. It's like the 49ers are stripping their team down to the studs. I mean, everybody was hurt last year.
How much worse can it get? And the 49ers will be competitive in the NFC West. Seahawks are going to be great? Not really.
Cardinals are just as average and mediocre as they come. It's just really the 49ers and the Rams that you got to deal with out there. Anyway, we have so much more to get into. You want to be a part of the show? You can. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. How about this? Next hour, we're going to have another chat with another NFL player who's now also a broadcaster. Pete Bursage is going to join us to talk about the Minnesota Vikings. Not only did he hit people for the Minnesota Vikings, he's now a broadcaster for the Minnesota Vikings. So Pete will join us next hour to discuss what the hell these Minnesota Vikings need to do on offense.
We'll get into them as well. They've added some bodies on defense. Now they got to figure out what to do at the quarterback position because you just can't throw JJ McCarthy out there, right? Got to have a veteran that can actually go out there and go to work with him. And we'll get into the Minnesota Vikings in a bit.
You can find me online everywhere at JR Sport Brief. There's so much more that we need to get into. But before we went to break, looking at the 49ers and all the players that they got rid of, Deebo Samuel and Leonard Floyd has been cut. He's now got picked up by the Atlanta Falcons.
They cleaned house. And I said, you know what? They got a guy. He's moving into his second year. And Ricky Pearsall, speaking of a Florida Gator, Hickey, I missed the boat, man. I should have asked Max Stigler.
I should have asked Starks about Ricky Pearsall. That's that's a gator to another gator. That's right.
That's right. He was good at Florida. I missed it. And as far as I know, Max never got shot.
You know, good. That's good on him, thankfully. Good for him on not getting shot. And we started to discuss the qualifications of the comeback player of the year. It's like the guy came back from getting shot. How could you not give the award to him?
And then it clicked in my brain. Like, we should already know the candidates, potential candidates for comeback player of the year for this season, 2025, that they would give the award out in January or February of 2026. And I had to say to myself, well, Ricky Pearsall got shot. Who else? I mean, in 2025, who went down? Like what athlete in the NFL just had a down year and is likely to bounce back in 2025? I really have to think about it. Well, who had a catastrophic injury?
You have no idea. Hickey, you brought up an excellent candidate. He just resigned with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Who did you suggest? Chris Godwin. We saw that nasty ankle injury that we all goes out of Monday night game, I think it was. It was on national TV. It was. And unfortunately, we all got to see that was pretty bad. But yeah, he comes back.
I should be right there on the list. Yeah, that guy's ankle made the letter L in the wrong direction. It just went the wrong way.
Gordon Hayward ask. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, do you think?
See, but Hickey, is it really? See, he broke his ankle, right? Who am I to say I haven't broken a bone in my body.
I can't wait to hear what comes next. He broke his ankle. Gordon Hayward broke his leg.
OK, yeah, I guess I said that if you I'm Hickey, God forbid it happens to you. I hope not. What are you putting this energy out there for? No, I'm asking you, like if you had a choice. Oh boy. Would you rather break your ankle or you break your leg? I mean, I feel like the answer be leg.
No, bro. I think it's a cleaner break and a cleaner. There's so much going on the ankle. It's a joint.
I guess I don't I don't know. I don't know enough to what's going on down there. Hickey, a compound fracture in the leg is when the bone breaks the skin and it goes the wrong way. My ankles move around, right?
You know, so. You know, if it goes the wrong way, who cares, right? You just I mean, snap it back together and it's a hell of a line and let it sit. What's a hell of a line? Which one you snap your ankles?
Look, it's bent the other way. Who cares? You know, no biggie. Yeah, well, that's what they did with Chris Godwin, right?
That's true. Hickey, how many people called two weeks ago or last week and just, oh, he'll be fine. He'll be fine. I'm like he broke his ankle. OK, I expect him to still be good, but like they got broke his ankle.
Let's see him play first. So everybody knows you break your ankle, you'll be fine. They snap it back together. They put some screws in it.
They put you in a boot and off you go. You talk about a clean break deal. Hickey, I don't need to see my bone protruding out of my leg and flopping all over the place. Who wants that? He wants that. Nobody wants that, especially me. And not for you, not for me either. I don't want that. Well, if that happened to me, Hickey, I'd be off for a couple of months, so I'll be OK with that.
Your voice ain't broke. Oh, I'd need a week to recover, right? Of course. Yes, yes.
Coming out of surgery. I'm sure you need a lot of painkillers. They're just going to wheel me into the studio.
Well, do you be surprised? Hey, I know you broke your ankle, but I could get you in tomorrow. Yeah. Twelve hours to recover. I get I get I get a day. I'm still on meds, but come back to work.
It'll make for a better show if you're on drugs. Come back Friday. Funny be interesting. That's for sure. Friday.
Funny would bring a new meaning to to to funny. Yeah. But, you know, all the best to him. Yeah.
Nobody else went great like Deshaun Watson. Would he be eligible for Comeback Player of the Year next year? No.
Right. No, he'd never win it. Well, I mean, he has torn his Achilles twice.
Now they could be back next year. He'll never get an award that feels. Especially with ballots being released, that feels like a tough one there to say he's gone through a lot. Let's reward him with Comeback Player of the Year. OK.
I don't I don't if I was a betting man, I would not bet on Deshaun ever winning that award. Justin Tucker could present him with you. And you anyway. And there's the show.
Let's argue with you anyway. Hey, speaking of the Ravens, Hickey, somebody just signed with the Ravens. According to Ian Rappaport, a receiver is going to Baltimore, DeAndre Hopkins, one year, six million dollars to catch passes from Lamar Jackson.
Oh, wow. OK. And so DeAndre Hopkins is now at the point of his career where it he is like a lot of like a lot of dudes who get old. He's he's club hopping. He's going from one team to the next. This man was just on the Kansas City Chiefs, didn't win a Super Bowl championship there.
And so now it's time to keep on moving. One year contract, six million dollars. Now, DeAndre Hopkins is we talked about him.
He was on the top six list last week when we discussed some of the best free agent wide receivers that would be available. DeAndre Hopkins is not ancient. He will be 30. Yeah, he is. He'll be 33. Hickey, you're amazing. What a guy.
Just all the information that's where you're going to go. Oh, absolutely. He's going to be 33 in June. And I don't think he's done yet. Like this past season, the man holed in six hundred and ten yards receiving took along with five touchdowns. Now, when you think about the Baltimore Ravens, they got Rashad Bateman. You think about Zay Flowers, you now add Hopkins into that mix. Now, Derek Henry, I'm not going to put that guy in the space of LeBron James, but if there was no Saquon Barkley last year, and we know what Saquon Barkley did, Derek Henry would be the best running back in the entire NFL based on what we saw last year. And so any minor step back by Derek Henry is not going to be a major one. And then also playing the style of football that they do out in Baltimore, Lamar Jackson, Derek Henry, they complement each other. Look, DeAndre Hopkins might be a step slower.
That guy still has hands. And just having him out there on the field is a benefit. And only having to pay him six million dollars, all things considered, I think this is a good move for the Ravens. I wouldn't be surprised if DeAndre Hopkins hauled in more than eight hundred to nine hundred to nine hundred yards receiving. And had I say eight touchdowns, I think that'd be a good bounce back here. We want to talk about a comeback. I think DeAndre Hopkins on the Ravens is a is a good move. And and no, he's not going to have all these spectacular numbers. And we know the Ravens, they're not throwing the ball around like that. And as efficient as Lamar was in the conversation again for the MVP award, when he throws the ball, he makes it worth it. I think this is a good move.
Hickey, how do you feel about this? I think it's a good move from the price, right? Six million dollars. And I think he does fit in need in the sense of he's a big bodied physical receiver that can make tough catches in traffic. Zayflower is a really good receiver, but he's a little bit smaller, shiftier, more explosive. I think like the third down receiver that's reliable, the Ravens have not had.
So I like his fit there. He had six hundred yards last year. I think probably that's what it will look like again this year. But I think those six, six hundred yards will be different. Like it'll be more meaningful, more third downs. You said eight touchdowns.
I like that. I think it'll be a big red zone threat, big third down threat. I don't think like, I think his days of a thousand yards are done, even eight hundred are done. But like, I think he could be one of those like really key guys on big, you know, big downs.
You need like an eight yard slant to convert. I think he's one of those reliable receivers that I think is a good fit in this offense. He's he's going to he's going to have more productivity than he did with the Kansas City Chiefs, ultimately. And there's going to be some games where DeAndre Hopkins has three catches for 60 yards and a touchdown. There's going to be some games where he has one catch and you don't even necessarily know that he's out there on the field because we know the Baltimore Ravens and you make a good point. He's he's probably going to have less than eight hundred yards. But the Baltimore Ravens, they run the football.
That's it. And so DeAndre Hopkins, he should go ahead and get ready for for a track meet because he's just going to be doing a lot of running, a lot of blocking and just looking down the field. You know, coming out of Houston, it was a thought a few years ago that this this guy would end up with the Ravens.
Now, he had to make some detours to get there. Obviously, with the Tennessee Titans, what a disaster that was. Anything coming off of Will Levis is positive.
Let's just put it that way. After you catch passes from Will Levis and then you go and end up with Patrick Mahomes. And now you're going from one MVP to another MVP in Lamar Jackson. Good move by the Baltimore Ravens.
I like this. DeAndre Hopkins heading to Baltimore. One year. Six million dollars. It's the J.R. Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven.
That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. DeAndre Hopkins, a three time all pro, going to be thirty three years old. Let's see how much gas he has left in the tank in Baltimore. Great fit for the guy as the Ravens are still trying to get to an AFC championship game and ultimately. A Super Bowl. Let's see, when we come back on the other side of the break, we'll talk about the Super Bowl champs. Yeah, let's talk about the Eagles, because there's some fans of the team that just won the Super Bowl. Tell me how spoiled you are without being spoiled, who have some concerns about the offseason direction? I mean, y'all just won the Super Bowl last month. We'll talk about the Eagles and why some of their fans are just so concerned and bothered.
We'll do that on the other side of the break. It's the J.R. Sportbreeze Show on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbreeze. It's the J.R. Sportbreeze Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. A lot of conversations today about the 49ers and who they let walk out the door and who's not on the team and Debo is gone and Juszczek is gone and Leonard Floyd is gone and Hufanga is gone. Everybody's gone. Rob Salah, the defensive coordinator, is back. I mean, he looks like he can go out there and hit somebody.
I know he used to run those steps out in Santa Clara. Maybe, maybe, maybe he can play double duty. He could be the defensive coordinator and he can also go out there and crack some skulls.
We'll see. The 49ers were expected to be Super Bowl contenders last year and they were just ravaged by injuries, just smashed and destroyed. But the team that actually won the Super Bowl, we got some fans in Philadelphia who are concerned about the Eagles. Why in the hell would you be concerned about the Philadelphia Eagles?
Let's think about this. They just gave Saquon Barkley a new contract. They just re-signed one of their top linebackers. Well, he is their top linebacker.
He had everything that moved in Zach Baum. Of course, you win the Super Bowl, you're not going to get a top pick. The Eagles will be selecting at number 32 overall. But people are concerned about some of the players that they did let go. Like today, trading CJ Gardner-Johnson for Kenyon Green. Yeah, they're getting rid of one of their top cornerbacks. People are like, oh, this guy's the heart and soul.
He's cursing, he's yelling, he's screaming. I'm like, OK, well, have you seen who they still have? Cooper Dejean, Quinn Yawn Mitchell, like they're not just lacking talent in a cornerback space. And some of the other guys that they got rid of are kind of long in the tooth. Darius Slay still wants to play. He's gone.
James Bradbury was being eviscerated by the fans two years ago. He's now gone. Makai Becton, we don't know where the hell he's gone on the offensive line. He's basically been replaced.
Max Starks made a joke about this. Kenny Pickett has been traded as Super Bowl champ is no longer a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. Kenny Pickett has been sent to the Browns for Dorian Thompson Robinson. Josh Swett is gone. This man is on the Arizona Cardinals. Milton Williams.
We talked about this yesterday. He's hoping to fortify the defensive line for the New England Patriots. Now, those are a lot of names out of there.
Tons of them. And so the Eagles, all things considered, they'll be fine, man. They still got Jalen Carter. He didn't go anywhere. Nolan Smith, all these guys are getting older. All these Georgia guys, they're getting older.
Just told you about re-signing Zach Bart. Like, Philadelphia will be OK. And so for everybody online worrying about Howie Roseman, whatever happened to him and Howie, we trust. Like, this man needs a little bit of grace. The Philadelphia Eagles championship parade last month, this guy got pelted in the head. With a can of beer. And so if he stinks at his job right now, just blame yourselves.
Maybe you screwed him up just a little bit. Howie Roseman, just last week at the combine, he described his philosophy when it comes down to the Eagles' off season. Listen to Howie Roseman, the architect. Really, we have to do whatever we can to make sure that we keep this window open for as long as possible. The most important season is this one coming up, 2025, and doing whatever we can to maximize that. But we have to get creative to make sure that we're keeping as many of our good players as we can. I sat up here last year and I said that's going to include playing young players. And I think that's going to be a huge part of what we are going forward because we're fortunate enough to have a lot of good players who are making a lot of money. Yeah.
Yeah, we got a bunch of young players. Why do I need to pay these all the time? Why do I need to pay these old guys who will basically one step on out the door? Like C.J. Gardner-Johnson is good to stand up on the stage and curse at the championship parade. What are you going to be paying him for the next five or for what? I mean, Cooper DeGene is barely old enough to drink and they don't got to pay him a lot of money. Think about the contract extension to Saquon Barkley. Like you got to keep and pay your core players on Jalen Hurts as a quarterback. He doesn't get talked about a lot.
He doesn't say much of anything. This guy's making fifty one million dollars a year. You got you got A.J. Brown and Devante Smith. They're making approximately what?
A.J. says sitting about 30. You got the Devante sitting there at got to be about twenty five like they're paying a lot of money.
You got to cut the fat somewhere. Howie Roseman continued on and he says, of course, I have some thoughts on what the roster will look like. Of course, we want to repeat as champions. We have a vision of how the team is going to look. What's really important for us to continue playing at a high level. And, you know, I think it's my job every year to make sure that we have that as a starting point, as a base when we start the off season.
And after that, it allows you to get creative. You know, if you don't really have the pillars of your football team, if you don't have those, it doesn't matter how creative you are. It's going to be hard to win. Pillars of the football team. Yeah, Jalen Hurts, A.J.
Brown, Devante Smith, Jalen Carter. They just paid bond. They got the cornerback set up. And it's natural. This is I guess, you know, you get some gifts on Christmas and somebody says, I'm going to take that one away. It's like you still got look at all the gifts you got.
You're going to miss whatever someone takes away, but the Eagles will be fine. Like, please don't enter into a world where you're spoiled. And we have a lot.
Well, not really. If I got to think of spoiled fan bases. Yeah, you rightfully so have expectations. Yankee fans, although they haven't won since 20 or damn it, not even 2009.
Damn. Yankee fans are still spoiled. Laker fans are spoiled.
Every year is supposed to be the championship for them. Hickey, am I missing any other teams? Those are the top two spoiled fan bases, right?
Would you say? Yes, absolutely. Yankees and Lakers. Are the Dodgers there?
Their fans aren't spoiled yet, huh? I wouldn't say yet, just because you look at the history of the Yankees and Lakers, right? I mean, they have in the case of the Yankees, right? 20 with 28 World Series Lakers have what, 17 championships like you're talking about the top of the top in their respective sport.
Dodgers probably will get there, at least not the number, but like just terms of winning a lot in the next decade or so. But I would not say right now. I would say not right now. They're they're spoiled yet. Celtics fans aren't spoiled, are they? Aren't they spoiled?
No, right? I think, I mean, do they go hand in hand? Lakers and the Celtics? You know, I guess it's the Hollywood aspect. Who screams that they want to be a Boston Celtic?
Who does that? That Lakers are very like front runner. Hollywood. That Lakers are very like front runner, right? Like that's a splashy team. The Lakers, like the Celtics, to your point, the Celtics don't get talked about if they're not good. The Lakers get talked about all the time.
Every big star, where do they get mocked to? Lakers. Hickey, growing up as a kid, I had a backboard like a lot of kids on the back of my bedroom door. You want to know what was on the backboard? Was it the L-A-L? Yeah, it was the Lakers. Yeah, it was the Lakers. There wasn't no New York Knicks, there wasn't no Atlanta Hawks, there wasn't no Boston Celtics, there wasn't no Pistons, it wasn't the Chicago Bulls, it was the Los Angeles Lakers.
That's it. I don't think they existed yet. Wait, yeah, they came later. Besides that, what other team did you mention? The Wolves. No Wolves there?
They just started. Jazz? No Jazz? The Jazz existed, but no, no Jazz. Kings?
No. No Kings, no, no, no. Lakers. Lakers.
It's the Lakers, come on. Glamour franchise. But I think that encapsulates the spoiled fan bases. There was a point in time where Dallas Cowboys fans appeared to be spoiled, but I think that ship sailed quite some time ago. And yeah, you know, I don't know, Hickey, are Steeler fans spoiled? They gotta be in that mix too, don't they? I mean, they've, they're complaining.
Which one is it? I guess the tough part is like, they went, what, 25 years, right between the 70s, the Steel Curtain, and winning again in, was it like, oh, five? And they've really not been close since the last Super Bowl they were in, like in 2010. There's the expectation of, we are good, we're normally good, but we don't win a championship. So no, so they're spoiled with Mike Tomlin as their coach.
I'll put it to you that way. Yeah, that's fair. Cause right now the expectations have kind of gone through the roof versus 75% of NFL fan bases. If we took, if we took, let's just, just randomly select, if I picked a name out of a hat, let's see. If I just put, I don't know, I don't want to, I was going to say Stefanski, but in the, in the division, if I just took coach X and made him the coach of the Steelers, the Steelers would just be another team. Like there's actually power and continuity in the succession that the Steelers have had. And I think that's something that a Steeler fans have, I don't want to say taken for granted, but I think the fans who just want to dump Tomlin for what and for who, and they don't have an answer. I think that's, that's part of being spoiled. Like any sports fan is when you take a look and you don't know how good you got it until said individual is gone.
That's when things are, you just got to look in the mirror. Like sure. Yankee fans haven't won a championship since 2009. And then a lot of cases I say to myself, why are people beating up on, on Aaron Boone? And we've had his brother Brett right here on the show. And Brett is like, yeah, I told my brother, why are you even feeding into that stuff?
Just ignore it. The fact is, like it's not Aaron Boone's fault that the Yankees haven't won a championship. I don't know.
Look at the talent, look at the owner who doesn't want to spend with the Dodgers. And can you blame him? I mean, shoot, I don't know if George Thonbrenner was still alive.
Damn it. How old would he be at this point? Hickey, would he be a hundred right now? Close to it.
I don't say a modern miracle, but that would be impressive. Yeah. I think we've reached a point where, oh my God, he would have been, oh damn, 95 years old. Whoa. Okay.
I actually thought it would have been a little bit older. Yeah. He passed, well close enough, 95. He passed at 80.
Oh wow. I think we are, we are long past people going, hey, if George Thonbrenner was still, he'd be 95. Okay. I don't know if you want a 95 year old running your team at that point. Yeah.
Come on. It's enough that Mike Brown of the, the, how old is he? Is he 90? No. He operates like it.
He's not. He's probably like, no, I think he's, my guess would be 78. No. 76.
No, he gotta be the same age as Cowboys. Jerry? Jerry's what, 73? Bruh. Hickey, Mike Brown is 89 years old. Oh my God.
I tell you, you wonder why the bagels are so cheap. Come on, bro. Come on. His credit looks pretty good for 89. He does.
He does. You thought I was joking, joking like last week when I said the reason why the bangles make their players family stand out in the cold is because he's just like, well, I'm paying the players, not you. It's an old school philosophy.
It is like, I'm paying, I'm paying you money. You want me to build a daycare for your kids, for you to come to work? No. You want accommodations for your wife and your kids and you, and your parents?
No. You want them to sit at it, buy a suite for them? Like he's 89 years old, Hickey. That's why. Runs like a sweatshop. You lost your hand. You want me to pay for the surgery? No way. Get back in there. Oh, come on. The guy makes the, he's made these guys buy their stuff.
He's like, surgery? No way. Get back in there. Oh, come on. The guy makes the, he's made these guys buy their own Gatorade.
And jockstraps. You actually have no problem. Give me 20 bucks. What? You want me to pay out of pocket so you could look good on the field?
No way. And what does Joe Burrow say when he talks to this guy? He's like, Hey, Mike, he's like, we need, we need Gatorade in the, in the locker room. Mike, you got us of having the guys pay for Gatorade. Okay.
Please. Can we just have something to hydrate our thirst? It's like, I'm paying you $55 million a year. Why don't you buy Gatorade for the team?
You don't need to be hydrated so much. You pay for it. I'm paying you 55 mil a year. You do it.
Like I gave you the money. So you figure it out. You want to practice inside, Joe, you put a roof over the practice.
You want to be warm when you're practicing in December. Not my problem. Come on. You tell me that's not a 90 year old guy. That's it. Back in my day, we didn't have roofs.
We walked uphill both ways to school there and back. And I didn't get paid $55 million. Okay. Oh man. I didn't realize how old he was. That makes a lot more sense now with how they operate. Geez.
Absolutely. The guy's 90 years old. And by the way, you know, I'm not going to, I don't know. I know his dad owned the team before him. You know, I don't want to make any assumptions about how Mike Brown grew up. I'm pretty sure he had a hardscrabble life. The guy 90 years old. I don't know if he had the work of Dan his life. I'm sure maybe his dad made him work because the guy's 90 years old.
And he certainly has this, uh, that approach to the bangles. Good luck trying to sign. Well, I guess they will sign Jamar chase picky. I assume right now at this time, what is it? Seven 30 Eastern time for Mike Brown. You think he's taking a nap or is he eating dinner watching family feud or wheel of fortune?
I was going to say, I mean, I think not. I think he's out for the night. Lights are off. He's in bed. Maybe reading.
He ate dinner. What? Three hours ago.
Three. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Well, he's going to be up probably what? 5.00 AM. So, uh, Oh man. I got to go to bed soon and get that rest.
Hickey. I'd get some emails and I would, I don't get some emails, but I think, I don't know. I think we know why I won't get an email. We're not discriminating. Look, we're just stating facts and nothing. It's right or wrong. I don't mind going to bed early and waking up early, but so Mike Brown is going to get up at 6.00 AM. I was going to say five. 5.00 AM. Yeah.
It's 89. You know, when he's sleeping in for six. Well, he has contracts to negotiate. I don't know. That's why he's up at five.
Yeah. He'll, he'll figure things out. Good luck to the bangles.
Good luck. It's the JR sport. Reshow here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network.
We take a break. We're going to talk about another team. They need a whole lot of luck. It's the Minnesota Vikings. They need luck and identifying another quarterback to go along with JJ McCarthy. Cause I got to tell you what they got on the roster right now with no Sam Donald and no Daniel Jones. I know that's a stretch. Uh, it's pushing it. How the hell are the Minnesota Vikings going to stay at the top of the NFC?
We'll have that conversation on the other side of the break. You're listening to the JR sport brief, the JR sport brief show on the infinity sports network. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.
It's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. I'm going to tell you about the Minnesota Vikings in a minute. Everybody's worried about their team and what they did not do. We heard about Deandre Hopkins, a one year contract, $6 million.
He's heading to the Ravens and the 49ers are shedding players left and right. And people are even upset about what the, the Eagles are doing, but I'm going to get to the Vikings in a second. Before I do that, amongst all of this NFL news and we are getting ready for dammit, there are conference championship games that have started in college basketball. I can't believe it by the time we roll around the Sunday, we got selection Sunday. By the time we get to this time next week, it'll be full on madness with the first four. And then it's just things are about to get basketball nutty real soon.
And so you can be assured and rest assured. And we got you all covered on the, the college basketball coverage over the next several weeks. And this is a good opportunity to let you know about the defensive play of the week sponsored by the Navy federal credit union, who probably serves the armed forces, DOD veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.
You can learn more at Navy federal.org and defense was optional last night in the Southern conference final, but nevertheless, Wolford punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament on Monday night by taking down Furman 92 to 85. The Terriers returned to the dance for the first time in six years. Time really does fly because I feel like I watched them yesterday, but it's been, it's been six damn years. Wow. Okay. Well, we'll, we'll, we'll get into a lot more college basketball over the next several days. You can best believe in that. Uh, eight five five two one two 42 27.
That's eight five five two one two 42 27. I didn't mention, uh, the Minnesota Vikings and they got, I'm not going to say they got some issues, but they have one major issue and one major hole that they have to fill. Now the Vikings, uh, little, little different when it comes to, you know, what they've done in free agency, fortifying their defensive line and their offensive line. You just heard this from rich Ackerman bringing in will fries to play on the offensive line. They've also added Jonathan Allen who was no longer wanted by Washington. Jonathan Allen is going to be on the front lines of three years, $60 million deal. He's going to replace Jonathan Bullard who I feel like just got there from Houston. And then they also picked up Siobhan Hargrave from the 49ers who basically didn't play last year after he tore his triceps.
Now let's also be real. Jonathan Allen was injured as well. I mean, he tore his pectoral muscle. So yeah, the Minnesota Vikings adding a bunch of dudes who were hurt last year and you flip a coin, you would expect them to be healthy, but that's, that's not their biggest worry.
Defense was one of the top in the league last year. We know Sam Donald is gone. Sam Donald is now going to be throwing passes to Jackson Smith and Jigba out in Washington. But the question right now for the Minnesota Vikings is who the hell is going to play quarterback? If JJ McCarthy stinks, who is going to throw the football for the Minnesota Vikings? If McCarthy isn't ready, like they, they don't have a serviceable veteran on the team.
Like let's think about this. Sam Donald left. Daniel Jones, who we talked about at the open, Daniel Jones left Minnesota to try to take a job away from Anthony Richardson.
Nick Mullins is gone. And so there's all this talk about the Vikings having no choice and all they have to keep around JJ McCarthy and he's going to be QB one this upcoming year. And I'm saying to myself, I understand where they drafted him. They got him 10th overall last year.
They're on the hook with the guy for four years. He has three more years on his deal after this and paying him relative pennies, you know, for what the big name quarterbacks are going to get. But we didn't see this man throw the football a lot at Michigan and yeah, sure. He won a national championship, but in the NFL, he's going to have to throw the ball. Now I got faith in Kevin O'Connell. I believe in him. This man has been able to work with quarterbacks.
Damn it. He just worked with Sam Donald and we saw what he just did. We saw what he did out in Los Angeles before he got the job in Minnesota. I got faith in Kevin O'Connell. I don't know what JJ McCarthy is going to do. And it got to find a veteran QB that they can add to the team. And no, I'm not talking about these big names. There is no way that I see Aaron Rodgers following the Brett Favre path and going up to Minnesota.
I don't see it. Like at that point, putting Aaron Rodgers into the building would not only stunt the organization, it would stunt the development of JJ McCarthy. Like, well, why do you need that guy in it? Russell Wilson. I think he's learned his lesson when he had carte blanche in Denver. You don't want him in Minnesota.
You're going to suck the air out of the room with his Superman cape and goody two shoes attitude. I noticed these are not the most exciting names, but if you have a Minnesota Vikings, I'm, I'm looking at somebody like Cooper rush. I know drew lot drew lock. Is he all that exciting?
Oh, Nikki, what do you think they should do? Like it just put Cooper rush day. He had a better season than I would ever thought with the Dallas Cowboys.
I don't know if I want a splashy name. I think I want to bring in somebody decent and let JJ kind of learn. I think you need like a failsafe in case he's not healthy. Cause again, he missed all last year, two knee surgeries, just kind of like a break glass in case of emergency kind of guy.
I like the Cooper rush. Honestly, he's not in my radar. Jamis me like, is that too flash of a name? Too many interceptions.
Well, that's also true. If you had Justin Jefferson, do you, do you go over and punch Jamis in the mouth? Is it like, what do you do? You got to punch him? I think he's too lovable for that though. Is he, do people really love him? I mean, I feel like everywhere he goes, he's beloved by teammates and the fan base. He's like a cult hero. I think people are rolling their eyes at him. Well, I'm just, when he's throwing touchdowns, I guess that's a lot easier to love him than when he was making some mind boggling interceptions. I've never, I've never seen a quarterback. That's more of a 50 50 than him. Like he can, he can give you a game where he throws six touchdowns, but he's going to throw six interceptions too. It's just, I mean, he started his own club.
What, what do you want? He did 30 30. He did a record. That's unbreakable. I don't know if we'll ever see that again.
What did he do? Like 32 to 33 or something like that, that year in Tampa? I think he got on the dot 30 interceptions.
I think the last picky through, I think if I'm not mistaken, it may have been an overtime, like a pick six. And it was 33 touchdowns to 30 interceptions. He, he threw 5,100 yards that year. Bruce Arians told them, just keep on chucking. At that point, Bruce Arians said, well, man, can we get Tom Brady in here now?
Like, do we got to wait until next year? Can we get Tom Brady in here now? That was a final straw. No wonder Bruce Arians had all them hard issues, man. He had to watch this guy throw that football around. Do you remember what Jamis said when he was cut by the Buccaneers?
Oh, remind me. He said he took it as a compliment because they're replacing him with the goat. Ah, yes, I did hear that. That, you know, if it wasn't for the goat, he'd still be there. But you know, because it's the greatest of all time, he's getting replaced. That's the only reason why he's out of there. Yeah.
Hell of a spin zone. And the next year he was in New Orleans doing nothing. Wait, wait, he got hurt, right? Did he get hurt that first year? I think he was, if my memory is correct, I think the first year he was backing up Drew Brees.
That's right. Last year. And then the next year he had a chance to play.
Right. And he was doing well. And then got hurt. And then he got hurt.
Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever old angry man Sean Payton was telling him. Now, you know, Sean Payton hated his guts. Does Sean Payton like anybody or anything? He was miserable on television. I mean, he had to like Drew Brees, I'm assuming, right? You can't hate him. And that's it?
That's it, right? Just I like Drew Brees. Nothing else. I bet you a guy hated Gumbo. He hated the Mississippi River. Hated Louis Armstrong. River's too muddy for him? Yeah, River too muddy.
The Jazz is too jazzy. You like the hurricane drinks down there? He hated the rum. He is a miserable you-know-what. What a guy.
It's the JR sport reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. I bet you he loves Denver now too. He likes Drake May. Nothing else. Hates the mountains. Yeah, you know what? Speaking of Denver, when we come back, the MVP conversation in the NBA is just off the rails right now. They're going to give it to Shay Gilgus Alexander, but Jokic is the best player. We'll discuss this. Don't move.
