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Speaker 1: He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson, home

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Speaker 1: of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: the Drive. I'm Dale Lolly here with Matt Williams and

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Speaker 1: Matt the Senior bowlt practices are all wrapped up. Everything

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Speaker 1: getting ready now for the game, UH, Sunday or Saturday.

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Speaker 1: I should say, I just I'm in that Sunday mode

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Speaker 1: when I come to about games. UM. The of course,

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Speaker 1: the seven for seven seven UH specials that we ran

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Speaker 1: here on Steelers Nation Radio is finished. I hope you

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Speaker 1: everybody enjoyed those. UM, just a great time to look

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Speaker 1: back at everything at Ben Roethlisberger did in his career

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Speaker 1: and now we move on to finding the next guy.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing how that works. Yeah, the quarterbacks have been

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Speaker 1: a major topic, of course, as they tip. We are

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Speaker 1: in Mobile, Alabama, UM for the Senior Bowl. Matt, what

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Speaker 1: have you liked from the guys that that that you've

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Speaker 1: seen here from from the coverage? So we have two

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Speaker 1: different perspectives on this. Your you know, foot on the

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Speaker 1: feet on the ground and on top of it. I'm

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Speaker 1: watching everything I possibly can and reading and whatever I

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Speaker 1: can get my hands on. One thing, I think is

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Speaker 1: interesting and I'm I'm not sure if our listeners have

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Speaker 1: paid this much attention to it, but there has not

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Speaker 1: been a coach head coach on camera more than Mike Tomlin.

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Speaker 1: And I have not yet dug into the Thursday stuff

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Speaker 1: because I've been recording stuff all day, but I will

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Speaker 1: as soon as we hang up here. But it's it's

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Speaker 1: pretty clear that him and Kevin are spending a lot

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Speaker 1: of time watching the big people, especially on their one

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Speaker 1: on one ZOH line first line, and then are focusing

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Speaker 1: on the quarterbacks. Now that doesn't mean, folks, that they're

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Speaker 1: definitely gonna take one of these guys in round one,

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Speaker 1: but they are more than doing their due diligence. And

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Speaker 1: Tomlin is even kind of like chuckled at the cameras

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Speaker 1: and made some faces and you know, like realizes everyone

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Speaker 1: staring at what they're doing here. Which there's also you

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Speaker 1: know right now, Uh, Mike Tomlin is the only black

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Speaker 1: head coach in the NFL. Wow, that's so startling, but

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Speaker 1: I mean it's true, it's true. Yeah, Now, you know,

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Speaker 1: Robert sala is a minority. Um, you know, he's coaching,

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Speaker 1: he's coaching the national team down here. But Tomlin right now,

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Speaker 1: is it? And so you know, I think that you know,

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Speaker 1: that's all part of it too, giving every given, everything

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Speaker 1: that's happening right now with the league, with the whole

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Speaker 1: Bland Brian Flory's lawsuit, without question, Yeah that makes some sense.

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Speaker 1: M's amazing and yeah, he's he's a high profile coach. Um,

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Speaker 1: He's been one of the few coaches that I've seen

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Speaker 1: actually be on the field. Uh, you know, for the

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Speaker 1: for the practices, and trust me, on Wednesday, you did

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Speaker 1: not want to be on the field. Uh, the mean

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Speaker 1: it was, I mean that was. I couldn't believe they

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Speaker 1: were practicing, to be quite frank, I mean it was.

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Speaker 1: It was a pretty heavy rain, and particularly in the

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Speaker 1: afternoon practice as we got into the afternoon. Um. And

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Speaker 1: the only reason I was told, the only reason they

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Speaker 1: kept it outside instead of going into the indoor facility

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Speaker 1: as they did on Thursday, was because the TV cameras

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Speaker 1: were set up outside. You couldn't change that. Like if

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Speaker 1: I had been one of those some of those players,

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Speaker 1: I've been like, yeah, I'm not doing this. Isn't there

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Speaker 1: a weather man in mobile like it might might rain folks? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: to the arnest, I mean we on on Tuesday. In

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Speaker 1: Tuesday's practice, we saw a couple of the uh, the

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Speaker 1: guys were having some trouble staying up. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: they were going hard and guys were getting tossed and

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Speaker 1: things of that nature. And Kenny Pickett got rolled up

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Speaker 1: and Desmond Ritter got rolled up as well. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: if you're you're one of the agent for one of

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Speaker 1: these quarterbacks, you gotta look at that and go, hey, hey,

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Speaker 1: I can't have my guy, you know, blowing out his

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Speaker 1: knee here at this practice. And then you do in

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Speaker 1: the rain. Um, you know that was even more so.

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Speaker 1: I think the practice has got better in regards to

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Speaker 1: that as the as the week went on, but it

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Speaker 1: was still a factor. Um. You know, you certainly don't want,

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Speaker 1: you know, once you're guy getting hurt. Uh. At the

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Speaker 1: Senior Bowl practices. Yeah, And speaking of the cameras, there

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Speaker 1: was a lot of footage that it looked like you

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Speaker 1: were looking through a lake. I mean, like the cameras

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Speaker 1: and discovered in in water um my hunt. I mean

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Speaker 1: with that practice situation, and maybe there is truth to this,

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Speaker 1: even though they don't tell you that is I would

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Speaker 1: think some coaches and scouts want to see them handle

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Speaker 1: those situations. It wasn't Yeah, it wasn't bad in that

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Speaker 1: regard because you did get to see these guys throw

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Speaker 1: the football, and I mean they were obviously you know

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Speaker 1: when they were doing one on ones and things of

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Speaker 1: that nature. Um, there were some issues with guys being

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Speaker 1: able to kind of you could tell who had good

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Speaker 1: shoe and who didn't. Pudding and all those. Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: guys are getting bull rush and all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: their feet are just sliding all the way back. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's nothing you can do about that. You do about that,

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Speaker 1: and that the tracks from the evaluation. But I also

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Speaker 1: heard some people talking about, Wow, some of these guys

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Speaker 1: really embraced it and had fun with it. Then you know,

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Speaker 1: you get to learn some of these dudes personalities. And

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Speaker 1: then today they go to the indoor and you can

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Speaker 1: see things a little cleaner, of course, So yeah, I

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Speaker 1: understood it. But boy, that's I've been down there in

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Speaker 1: some bad weather, but that looked like definitely the most

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Speaker 1: rain I've seen. For it was a lot of rain.

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Speaker 1: Like I mean, I was, I was trying to stay

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Speaker 1: back underneath the uh, the stands a little bit. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, and shooting out the time and looking watching

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Speaker 1: practice from out the tunnel and things of that nature.

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Speaker 1: And every once in a while you get the rain

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Speaker 1: would stop and you walk out there and then it

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Speaker 1: would start again. You go back into tunnel and there's

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Speaker 1: water dripping everywhere, and you know, it was five hours

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Speaker 1: of just miserableness, Like, yeah, five five hours until you know,

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Speaker 1: most of most of the time, I'm typically watching practice

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Speaker 1: for two hours. You know, this is this this is

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Speaker 1: five hours of practice back to back. Uh yeah, but

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Speaker 1: it's like along those lines, I just wanted to get

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Speaker 1: your impression your first time down there. Um, this is

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Speaker 1: a different stadium than I'm used to, but it used

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Speaker 1: it's still it's a pretty long day and I love

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Speaker 1: the Senior Bowl, but there's it's not for the faint

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Speaker 1: of heart, you know what I mean. I will say

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of I I did run into some

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Speaker 1: other beat writers. Um, there's a lot of people down

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Speaker 1: here who quite frankly, I'm not sure what they're doing

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Speaker 1: in terms like there were there were children running around

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Speaker 1: the stand yesterday, right, right, because it's open and people

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Speaker 1: can do that, right, But yeah, it's it's it's just

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Speaker 1: it's a strange set. There were people, you know, the

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Speaker 1: first day, I'm I'm sitting there and I see a

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Speaker 1: husband and wife come in and they sit down in

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Speaker 1: the in the stands, and I'm I noticed their husband

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Speaker 1: and wife. I'm like, a weets, great day to take

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Speaker 1: your wife out to the stadium, I guess, and I'm watching,

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Speaker 1: and finally they get up to leave it I know

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Speaker 1: it was Barry Alphareus and his wife. Oh really, if

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Speaker 1: I didn't know, I would have gone down and talk

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Speaker 1: to him, because you know, I live in Washington County

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Speaker 1: as well still and and uh have actually, you know,

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Speaker 1: know a lot of people from Burgotstown and and we're

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Speaker 1: gone to talk to Barry. But you know, yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: some brandos in the seats and you know, you wouldn't

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Speaker 1: even notice. And it is an interesting environment. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: it hasn't changed all that much. But it's not like

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Speaker 1: the Combine where everyone's together in the same spots at night.

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Speaker 1: But it's you know, there's a lot of people there

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Speaker 1: and what's I'm not sure when you fly out. But

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Speaker 1: one of the the really interesting thing is the mobile airport.

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Speaker 1: After that last practice has like every NFL person in

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Speaker 1: the world washing this little area. Well, I'm flying out

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Speaker 1: after the show today, so, um, I'll be going to

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Speaker 1: see a bunch. I'm sure, so I'll still see a bunch. Uh. Luckily,

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Speaker 1: I guess maybe I didn't leave last night. Um, I

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Speaker 1: don't know if I got back into Pittsburgh. Oh right, yeah.

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Speaker 1: All the kids are off school here and there was

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Speaker 1: his though. I mean, it's just raining. I mean, come on,

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Speaker 1: and I'm sure it's all going to freeze soon and

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Speaker 1: we're up. I have no desire to be buddy Holly here. No,

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about my kids being staying home from school

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Speaker 1: and school getting canceled and work from home days because

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Speaker 1: it's raining. Come on, let's let's talk about you mentioned

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Speaker 1: the big uglies, some of the I'm really warming up

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Speaker 1: to some guys. Yeah. Trevor Penning to me is a stud. Yes, yeah,

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Speaker 1: just love that guy. Love the demeanor that he plays with,

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Speaker 1: love the nastiness. Uh, he is a absolute beast. If

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Speaker 1: if he were available at twenty, I would run the

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Speaker 1: pick to the to the podium. Um. I don't know

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Speaker 1: that that's gonna happen, but you know he went to

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Speaker 1: Northern Iowa, so there, you know it's not exactly a

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Speaker 1: football factory. But I say that, and they had a

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Speaker 1: pretty highly touted UH offensive lineman last year. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: started for the Bills though you know it this year

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Speaker 1: and I think you went in the third round. But

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Speaker 1: still Penning is gonna be a first rounder unless he

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Speaker 1: really screwsed up the combine for something. Man Spencer Brown

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Speaker 1: was the other guy friending when Penning was so good.

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Speaker 1: Spencer Brown played right tackle right, and he's a former

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Speaker 1: tight end athlete type. You know, Penny was the left,

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Speaker 1: Penning was the left tackle, and and Spencer Brown was

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Speaker 1: the right. Even tho it was a year younger, he's

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Speaker 1: the better prospect. So a couple of thoughts are I

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Speaker 1: think right now everybody would have Penning as offensive tackle

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Speaker 1: four behind the Bama dude Neil Um Mrs Cross right,

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Speaker 1: And maybe he's even fighting those guys to get in

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Speaker 1: their peer because I think he's closer to three than

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Speaker 1: he is five. Although there's some other guys I like, Um,

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Speaker 1: could you get the twenty? I guess it's possible. It's possible.

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Speaker 1: It's possible. I mean, I don't think that's a slam dunk. No,

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Speaker 1: I would bet know or if I had to put

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Speaker 1: a chip down right this minute. Let's let me ask

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Speaker 1: you this before we continue. Okay, so we assume that

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Speaker 1: those other three tackles are gonna go Yeah, yeah, everybody

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Speaker 1: loves lender Bomb. M hm. So that's for offensive lineman.

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Speaker 1: If if he if he's the fifth, Now you are

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Speaker 1: talking that maybe it's either him or lender Bomb at twenty,

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Speaker 1: because how many of those guys are gonna go in

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Speaker 1: the top twenty. See, that's what I was about to

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Speaker 1: say too, I mean linder Bomb aside. I was about

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Speaker 1: to say, the more I study this draft, I think

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Speaker 1: the quarterbacks and tackles are gonna go higher than people think.

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Speaker 1: When when when were you and I are doing mocks

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Speaker 1: and May and April. I think we're going to kind

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Speaker 1: of laugh at the net the notion that Maleek, Willis

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Speaker 1: or Penning could have got there at twenty because I

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Speaker 1: do something at the top of the draft that's strong.

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Speaker 1: So if I don't love elite prospects, other spots take

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Speaker 1: that quarterback. Yeah yeah, I think I think he's ridiculously safe.

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Speaker 1: I mean I saw nothing from him this week that

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Speaker 1: I didn't like, you know, in terms of the of

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Speaker 1: the power, the size, the footwork again. The nastiness so nasty. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's going out of his way to be nasty too.

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Speaker 1: He's just been a real asshole. I guarantee, I guarantee

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Speaker 1: you Craig Wolfley will love this guy. Mm hmmm, because

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Speaker 1: he gives that he throws somebody to the ground and

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Speaker 1: then gives him that extra shot, you know, it gives him.

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Speaker 1: It puts the helmet in their ribs once we're on

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Speaker 1: the ground. There was a rep yesterday where he drove

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Speaker 1: the edge pass rusher so far past the pocket and

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Speaker 1: then like into the end zone where they practice and

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Speaker 1: then just shove them into the goal post, you know,

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Speaker 1: for fun, you know, like that. That's that's what this

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Speaker 1: guy is, you know. And at six and three quarters

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Speaker 1: three I talked to him. Uh I wrote about him

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Speaker 1: on d K Pittsburgh Sports. On Thursday, I talked to

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Speaker 1: him um at the media availability and uh I asked him.

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Speaker 1: He mentioned he's training with Neil and Cross down in Texas, Okay,

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Speaker 1: And he came back around to that and I said,

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Speaker 1: so you mentioned some of the guys who were considered

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Speaker 1: the top guys you know at the position in this draft.

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Speaker 1: I said, where do you where do you feel, you like,

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Speaker 1: you come in, you know, with those guys you know

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Speaker 1: now having you know, lined up with them and practice

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Speaker 1: see him every day and yeah, and he's like, I'm

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Speaker 1: right there with him. I'm like, I don't doubt it's confident.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, I'm sure he does. I don't think he's

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Speaker 1: lacking for confidence or you know, faith in his own ability.

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Speaker 1: And I'm sure he and I know he has. I mean,

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Speaker 1: he's dominated everyone in Northern Iowa too, and now he

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Speaker 1: comes here and realizes, hey, I can play with these guys.

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Speaker 1: You know that I'm one of the best guys here.

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Speaker 1: He might be the best prospect there period. Yeah. I

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Speaker 1: really liked him what I saw of him this week.

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Speaker 1: And man, he he just has I think he has

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Speaker 1: Steeler written all over him. If they if they can

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Speaker 1: get him, but we'll see. Um. One guy I wasn't

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Speaker 1: impressed with and I had wanted to see him was

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Speaker 1: Daniel Filele out of Minnesota. I didn't like him at all, really,

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Speaker 1: just too sluggish, too too slow, too slow, too big,

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Speaker 1: you know, too big. Um you know, moves like a

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Speaker 1: like a guy who's too big and doesn't use his hands.

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Speaker 1: And that happens a lot with some of the bigger

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Speaker 1: guys because they just went with their size at college. Um,

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Speaker 1: but all too often he would, you know, let guys

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Speaker 1: get into his body and then um, you know he would.

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Speaker 1: He was one that was on the ground quite a bit. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So for people who don't know, he's the offense attack

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Speaker 1: with Minnesota. And here's his measurements. Six eight and an

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Speaker 1: eight I mean three hundred and eight the seven pounds

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Speaker 1: with eight six inch you know wingspan and eleven inch hands.

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Speaker 1: I mean he he's like fifty pounds heavier than anybody

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Speaker 1: else there. I mean he's strange looking. Um, grew up

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Speaker 1: in Australia and it's very new to the game, so

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Speaker 1: you know, technique and hand usage and things like that

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Speaker 1: I think are excusable at this point. But you know

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Speaker 1: how much patience are you gonna have with those things?

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Speaker 1: How coachable is he? I don't know those answers. Um,

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Speaker 1: I'm interested. I mean, I'm sure you saw more reps

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Speaker 1: of than than I did. But what I saw on

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Speaker 1: TV held up pretty well. I thought he moved reasonably well.

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Speaker 1: But he's such an odd size that. I mean, Villa

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Speaker 1: in a Wava had those issues where you almost have

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Speaker 1: to bend at the waist and lose leverage. Yeah. Speaking

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Speaker 1: of Villa in Auava, a guy did kind of like

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Speaker 1: a little bit was Bernard Raymond. Um. I thought he

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Speaker 1: he even walks kind of like Villain the Wava kind

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Speaker 1: of has that that big guy you know, walked to

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Speaker 1: him that and he moves his feet really well. I

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Speaker 1: mean he's he's light on his feet. Yeah. I'm pulling

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Speaker 1: up his measurables now. He's a slightly over six six

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Speaker 1: three oh four. He's also really interesting because he's from Austria, Austria,

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Speaker 1: not Australia, Austria. And I saw an interview with him

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Speaker 1: today and he was a soccer player. I guess he

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Speaker 1: was a goalie and a defender in soccer and was

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Speaker 1: like this, this game is not physical enough for me.

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Speaker 1: I really don't like it. And I guess he was

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Speaker 1: pretty good and a bunch of his neighborhood buddies had

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Speaker 1: a football and they would just go to fields and play.

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Speaker 1: And then he found some um Vienna League. He's the

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Speaker 1: Vienna Vikings, he said today, and he got on that

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Speaker 1: team and I guess he quickly ascended because he is

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Speaker 1: a really talented guy tight end turn tackle type player

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Speaker 1: Central Michigan. People don't know so, I mean, they recruited

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Speaker 1: him out of Austria. I guess, um he could be

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Speaker 1: at play at twenty two. Yeah, I don't. I don't

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Speaker 1: like him obviously as my as I like, UH like

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Speaker 1: the penning on it, there's definitely some something there with him.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think he's a he's some multiple clay

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Speaker 1: that you know, could could seriously be in play. As

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Speaker 1: you mentioned. Uh Johnson is another guy that Uh. I

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Speaker 1: thought Wednesday's practice for him wasn't quite as good as

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Speaker 1: he looked on to Tuesday. He was kicking everybody's butt. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but there was a play on Wednesday that he made

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Speaker 1: And I made note of this in my in my

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Speaker 1: notebook on on Wednesday on on d K Pittsburgh Sports

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Speaker 1: that they hadn't planning center. He had not. He had

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Speaker 1: never played center befover ever. Um. So he snaps the ball,

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Speaker 1: gets out into space about fifteen yards outside the tackle box,

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Speaker 1: and and and goes and finds a defender and blocks

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Speaker 1: him on a screen pass. I don't know if people

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Speaker 1: would understand truly how difficult that would be for a

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Speaker 1: guy who's never done that before. I've never done it before.

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Speaker 1: The hunter said, Um, I like the player at a time.

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Speaker 1: And here's what I know about him is he really

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Speaker 1: should be a guard. But even late in his career

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Speaker 1: Boston College, they put him at left tackle, even though

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Speaker 1: he's under six three six two and three quarters, because

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Speaker 1: he was the best guy, right because he's, you know,

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Speaker 1: the more important position. And I'm sure he's our best lineman.

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Speaker 1: So you play left tackle, short, coach, no problem. And

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Speaker 1: I think that's what's going on here too, is outside

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Speaker 1: of lender Bomb, it looks like a very weak center class.

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Speaker 1: So I think they're trying to see if some of

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Speaker 1: these smart type of dudes can do both. And and

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Speaker 1: of course he's not gonna say no. Um. They were

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Speaker 1: comparing him a lot to Rodney Hudson, which I think

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Speaker 1: is a pretty decent comparison because Hudson is very very smart,

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Speaker 1: um very tough, and it is certainly more center than guard.

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Speaker 1: I think Johnson's more guards and center. But they also

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Speaker 1: like Hudson. When I saw a zion up close, like

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Speaker 1: when the camera got right next to him, there's like

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Speaker 1: hardly any fat on his Yeah, he's put together really well.

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Speaker 1: I was gonna mention that. I mean he's very well

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Speaker 1: found running back. Yeah, he's he's really put together. Well. Um,

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Speaker 1: I liked what I saw this week from Jamari Slayer

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Speaker 1: or Sailor as well from Georgia. Uh. He looks like

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Speaker 1: he's a nasty uh plucker as well. Uh. He's probably

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Speaker 1: more of a second round guy. Um might be able

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Speaker 1: to get him coming back around, but you never no,

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Speaker 1: I mean, his his stock may rise based on you

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Speaker 1: know what he did this week. Yeah, he's do you

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Speaker 1: agree he's a pure guard. I mean he's under six three,

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Speaker 1: he's three twenty. I mean everyone at George is huge

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Speaker 1: by the way. Yeah, he's got long arms for a guard.

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Speaker 1: He was pretty darn good there. He has some nastiness

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Speaker 1: to him too, But I mean he looks like a

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Speaker 1: tenure starter guard from Yeah. Yeah, I think you know

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Speaker 1: you could you could plug him in and play him

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Speaker 1: right away and be very happy. I think he's a

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Speaker 1: day two guy though. Yeah I do. I do too. Yeah. Um,

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Speaker 1: but let's take a break. Matt. He is Matt Williamson.

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Speaker 1: I'm Dale Lawley. You're listening to the drive here on

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Speaker 1: Steelers Nation Radio. Come back, Well, let's talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit about what happened with the Steelers, just name how

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Speaker 1: that could affect things moving forward. Uh. In terms of

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Speaker 1: Chris Morgan leaving to become the offensive line coach of

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Speaker 1: the Bears, will do that right after this on the

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Speaker 1: Drive