headtopics
Albert Breer on Terrion Arnold Released by Lions, Aiyuks Drama and Chris Johnsons ALS Diagnosis Senior NFL reporter Albert Breer discusses the latest NFL topics in the news.
Welcome in to the Brew Report for Tuesday, June 30th, our final Brew report for the month of June.
The NFL is largely on vacation now, but we do have a couple of things to clean up from the last couple of days, and the first one is a, a really tough story.
Um, Terry and Arnold, of course, um, was arrested, charged in conjunction with a kidnapping in Florida.
Um, the details, um, to go back and give you the Cliff's Notes view of this.
Uh, they believe they knew who did it, so then they lured those people into another apartment.
The apartment.Um, the charges actually carry a potential life sentence.
But the Lions saw enough to release their first-round pick from 2024.
The first one, and I, I think by now enough of you have seen the letter that Alabama coach Nick Saban, that's Tyrion Arnold's college coach, wrote um in support of Tyrann Arnold.
Um, and I, I, I would say this, like I, I think that matches Trion Arnold's reputation coming out of Alabama.He was seen as a guy who was a versatile defensive back, who was smart, who could do different things.Um, there wasn't a lot of There wasn't a lot of dirt that it felt like you were digging through with him , which is part of the reason why the Lions really felt like drafting him, he'd be a fit for their culture, and, and you look at their track record over the course of the last, um, over the last 5 years since Dan Campbell and, and, and, and Brad Holmes got there, it's been pretty good, you know, when you look at the guys that they've drafted, even the guys they took risks on, Jamison Williams was considered a risk.Um, he did have the gambling allegation, but, you know, he's grown and he, he wound up, you know, getting a second contract.
Um, you know, Jam Gibbs, Jack Campbell, they've seen these guys evolve into really good players, even the guys beyond that, guys like Sam LaPorta, uh, Brian Branch, like so many A+ guys, Aiden Hutchinson, of course, fits into that category.And for one reason or another, this winds up being a mess and a very big mess, obviously.
So, um, I think it's an interesting element to all of this and that, you know, you still are taking a risk with a lot of kids that you don't think that that you may think like, OK, this is safe or that is safe.
You don't know how he's gonna react when he gets money.And obviously, these are still charges, so we, we, we, we are at the point now where we have full closure on, on the case, but obviously, the Lions have seen enough here to move on from Terry and Arnold.
You know, then you move to the football piece of it, which is always awkward when we're talking about a criminal case and moving to the football fallout, but that's the reason why we're talking about it.And he was somebody that the Lions were relying on to continue to grow, you know, going into his 3rd year.
And so now without him, I mean, you're looking at they have DJ Reid who's been a reliable vet at the position.
They brought in Rocky in, um, you know, Ennis Race raw is somebody that they drafted a couple of years ago that hasn't really panned out.Roger McCreary, of course , somebody who was traded in mid-season last year from Tennessee to the Rams.
And he's a reliable pro, um, you know, but you, you, you look at what they're gonna be working on, working with on that side of the ball, and I I, I, I'd say if, you know, you were worried about any position on the roster even before all of this, um, it would probably be corner, especially with the way that they've been able to, to reinforce their offensive line and bringing in Cade Mays and Blake Miller.You know, corner, I think going into camp was really a spot you're gonna look at and say, OK, the Lions are gonna get back to being a Super Bowl contender again.
This is the position where maybe they need to get a little bit better and they need to see some growth in camp.All right, our second topic for today, and this is another one that lingers in the news, and this is the sort of thing that becomes news this time of year, of course, um, when football is shut down, right? And that's Brandon Ayuk and the continued narrative out there on him and I think a lot of it is self-created narrative with some of the things that he's done on social media.And you know, I said this on the podcast with Connor earlier in the week, and this is the part that I, I, I really, I guess I don't understand, right? Like why somebody hasn't been able to get to him and say, show up, get reinstated, show up and force the Niners to cut you.They went after your guaranteed money, when you go after a guy's guaranteed money like that, you know, in most cases, that is the end of the marriage between player and team.
And you went through March and you went through April, and you're angry that they're holding you on the roster, which I understand that.
Show up to the facility, they aren't gonna want you around, and they're gonna wind up cutting you.And I think the longer this goes on, and again, this is a point that I made in the podcast, encourage everybody to download and subscribe.
Let's just say the commanders that, that, that, that have people that know Brandon Ayuk, right? Adam Peters, the general manager there, was the assistant GM in San Francisco when they drafted Brandon Ayuk in 2020.
So there are connections there.Um, if it's not the commanders, right? And right now, what you're calling into question.
Is how much you really want to play, because if I'm a football coach and I'm gonna take a risk on the guy, and I know there's all this other stuff floating around, at the very least, I want to know that his career means a lot to him, that he's gonna sink his teeth into it, he's going to try and save his career.Because if you wanted to play football that badly, it feels like you would have sought a resolution to this in April and May and June, maybe you wouldn't have fired your agent the way that you did.
Um, and now you're going into the summer and do you wanna be on a team or do you wanna post videos on social media?Like that to me becomes the question and it, and it honestly, it is something that's, um, it's hard to, hard to kind of wrap your arms around and you hope he's OK.
You hope he finds a way to go and resume his career somewhere else, but, um, very clearly, this is one of the weirder stories that we've had over the course of this offseason.
Um, that's Chris Johnson.On Monday, he, uh, he revealed the diagnosis in an interview with Michael Strahan.
Um, I, I didn't have knowledge that he had the ALS diagnosis, full disclosure.
Um, it was, he was diagnosed at some point in 2025 and what we're seeing now is he's already lost his ability to speak.Um, you know, it's, this, this is a guy who was incredibly physically capable, um, had the combine record , uh, for the 40, rushed for 2000 yards, was like the centerpiece of some really good Tennessee teams when I first started covering the league.
Um, that last stand for Jeff Fisher there in Tennessee was a really, really good player, fought for contracts, and, you know, like that's one of the things you think about now is like, you know, you're fighting for every dollar when you're a player, um, you know, and you're fighting.And you know, I, I think fighting for, for the money then obviously, uh , when you're in a situation like this is probably something, um, probably something that might help, you know, and, and, and, and, and that you're able to set your family up for the rest of their lives and um you're able to pour money into your own, into your, into your own treatment and, um, so I think, you know, everybody out there wishing the best for Chris Johnson.
Um, I, I certainly think something that needs to be discussed here is, is, is whether there is a link, um, between ALS and football.Um, but that's an uncomfortable piece of the conversation too for somebody like me, um, who covers the sport.
I have, you know, I have kids playing the sport, um, and so, you know, you hope that maybe this shines some light in that and then we can get a little more research on that end too.I always liked Chris when I had conversations with him, um, you know, again, earlier in my career, um, and he was a fantastic, fantastic, fantastic football player, and, uh, a lot of people out there in NFL circles rooting for Chris Johnson now.
Um, that one will be the last one before I take my personal break.It will be a mailbag edition of the report, so I'll put out the call for questions a little later today on Twitter.
You can also leave your questions and comments on the YouTube page, um, here below, or you can get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert R Breer on Facebook at Albert_Breer on Instagram.