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Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Stealer Nation, It's the drive on Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 2: West Shooler Matt Williamson High atop chucknoll Field here on
Speaker 2: the campus of Saint Vincent College for a day number
Speaker 2: two of training camp coverage on your twenty four to
Speaker 2: seven home of the Black and Gold. Another day of
Speaker 2: practice in the books, Matt, Another beautiful day year as
Speaker 2: the weather beautiful sunny held off. Yeah, and uh you know,
Speaker 2: day number two, I think, once again, a high paced
Speaker 2: practice and plenty going on.
Speaker 3: Plenty going on, and more importantly, congratulations to young Wesley
Speaker 3: here and a lovely wife when they're tenth year anniversary.
Speaker 2: In the wedding anniversary.
Speaker 3: You guys are still puppies nothing but yeah, you guys
Speaker 3: probably still like each other and everything.
Speaker 2: It's crazy, you know this, this time ten years ago, Matt,
Speaker 2: I was not. I was not in the same frame
Speaker 2: of mind that I'm in right now. You know I was.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't I would not have been able to pass
Speaker 2: a field sobriety test or any of that ten years
Speaker 2: ago at this time. And now we're here taking notes
Speaker 2: diligently and watching another practice. But yeah, I know it
Speaker 2: is my wife and I was ten year anniversary gratulations
Speaker 2: time flies think, yes, I'll be I'll be buzzing home
Speaker 2: tonight for a nice for a nice dinner. But uh yeah,
Speaker 2: and with uh you know, plenty of plenty to get
Speaker 2: to here. And speaking of which, let's go ahead and
Speaker 2: do this now. Okay, if you're ready here, mister de Fabo,
Speaker 2: let me grab you a special guest. We do have
Speaker 2: a special guest to kick off the program here today.
Speaker 2: He's a familiar voice, familiar name, of course, in Pittsburgh
Speaker 2: Steelers media circles. It is of the athletic Mike de Fabo,
Speaker 2: La Trobe's very own. You know, when you look up
Speaker 2: the greatest people from this region. You know, it's Arnold Palmer,
Speaker 2: and it's mister Rogers, and it's Mike de Faba. What's up, dude.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know if I belong in that category,
Speaker 4: but at Dino's, at least in terms of the top
Speaker 4: wing eaters, that's the conversation that I belong in. I mean,
Speaker 4: one of my proudest achievements here was there. My parents
Speaker 4: were having a party. They got Dino's wings, and this
Speaker 4: couple was talking about how they were considering in this
Speaker 4: good for you on your tenth anniversary, naming their son Michael.
Speaker 4: And I sat there and I crushed forty wings, and
Speaker 4: by the end of it they were like, we're naming
Speaker 4: the kid Mike. That settles it.
Speaker 2: So what is it? Why are wings such a big
Speaker 2: deal in this region, like other than the only place
Speaker 2: I've ever been where wings are a bigger deal is
Speaker 2: Buffalo Buffalo.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's hilarious because there's basically, and I'm saying this
Speaker 4: is someone who grew up here loves Latrobe. All they've
Speaker 4: got here are two places, and they're both chicken wing joints.
Speaker 4: Dinos and Sharky's exactly right. And if I have the
Speaker 4: story correct, I believe that they were actually business partners
Speaker 4: at one point. I think there was some type of
Speaker 4: breakup and Sharky ends up moving starting somebody else starts Sharky's.
Speaker 4: So that's why when you look, not only are there
Speaker 4: like two places that are so similar, they have like
Speaker 4: the identical sweet hot sauce they do. There's just some
Speaker 4: slight variation, but it's very similar.
Speaker 3: And I don't think they're particularly buddies. And they're only
Speaker 3: like a block away from each other exactly.
Speaker 4: It's a little chicken wing rivalry right across from Route
Speaker 4: thirty on either side of Rout thirty.
Speaker 2: It's like sheets and wah wah.
Speaker 4: You gotta choose a lot of demarcation. You gotta pick.
Speaker 3: I mean, I kind of experienced it last night because
Speaker 3: we did a night show at Dino's. I got the
Speaker 3: boneless wings because on the air it's hard to get
Speaker 3: to get them all over your face and stuff. It's
Speaker 3: a bone and Boneless is the movie.
Speaker 4: I'll tolerate it when you're on air.
Speaker 3: On the air, I prefer what you know bone in,
Speaker 3: don't get me wrong, but you're on the air. So
Speaker 3: the pig out there, go to Sharky's right after, tell
Speaker 3: the manager and like all this you got brought out,
Speaker 3: all the things food. I appreciated. This is a reason
Speaker 3: I'm not eating because I ate a dinos. He's like, oh,
Speaker 3: he's don't tell me your problems.
Speaker 4: Man, Yeah, you're you're inviting some Yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm just doing my job.
Speaker 2: Mike. We know, coming back here to training camps a
Speaker 2: little bit of a fun homecoming for you every single year,
Speaker 2: and you have that in common with the head coach
Speaker 2: of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike McCarthy, who, of course has
Speaker 2: had his homecoming in his hometown of Pittsburgh now as
Speaker 2: the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I assume that
Speaker 2: most of our are diehard Steelers fans have read your
Speaker 2: article in The Athletic, but you got to do a
Speaker 2: I guess a feature on Mike McCarthy is the industry
Speaker 2: term right where you got to ride around with him
Speaker 2: through his hometown just kind of paint that picture for
Speaker 2: us what that was like, what he was talking about,
Speaker 2: where you guys went, let's what did you get to
Speaker 2: know about the new head coach?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, first of all, it was an awesome opportunity.
Speaker 4: I think that the only reason why Mike McCarthy was
Speaker 4: willing to do it is because he feels so connected
Speaker 4: to the city of Pittsburgh, into the neighborhood of Greenfield.
Speaker 4: And I think he was willing to do it because
Speaker 4: he knew I'm a local, I grew up here in
Speaker 4: La Trobe. I understand what western Pennsylvania is all about.
Speaker 4: And so as we're going through, you know, on one hand,
Speaker 4: he definitely has these feelings where he's making his family
Speaker 4: immensely proud, and he has a job that I think
Speaker 4: is beyond his wildest dreams. To imagine that a kid
Speaker 4: from Greenfield whose father was a police officer, a firefighter,
Speaker 4: and a bar owner, which is basically the Pittsburgh Triple
Speaker 4: Crown in terms of blue collar jobs right there, not
Speaker 4: to mention a Korean War veteran and he worked at
Speaker 4: j N. L. Steele, that the son of that person
Speaker 4: would then coach the Pittsburgh Steelers. So on one hand,
Speaker 4: it's a joyful and exciting opportunity for him, But when
Speaker 4: we started driving through Greenfield, he kind of unexpect actively
Speaker 4: pulled into the cemetery cavalry, Catholic cemetery, and at that
Speaker 4: point I realized that maybe there was another depth to
Speaker 4: the story. And what that is is, you know, as
Speaker 4: he's back in Greenfield, the person that he may want
Speaker 4: to share this with the most, or the person that
Speaker 4: would have been the most proud of all, his brother, Joe,
Speaker 4: who passed away in twenty fifteen, is not here. And
Speaker 4: so they were extremely well connected. They were four years apart,
Speaker 4: but much closer than that would even suggest. And so
Speaker 4: Mike talked about his quote was like everywhere he goes
Speaker 4: in Greenfield, he can't help but be reminded of his brother.
Speaker 4: And one thing he said to me was that he
Speaker 4: feels that this is an opportunity to honor his brother.
Speaker 4: And so I think that you just see for so
Speaker 4: many different reasons why Mike McCarthy feels so much pride
Speaker 4: in and obligation. But there's another level to that with
Speaker 4: what he's gone through.
Speaker 3: That's cool. It does take it up even in another level.
Speaker 3: I mean, the connection is unbelievable. So I assume you
Speaker 3: guys agree. But what's really out to me since McCarthy
Speaker 3: took over as a head coach is attention to detail.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and that's really been exacerbated since we've got
Speaker 3: to Latrobe and you see the practice is going on.
Speaker 3: Is that something you just recognized spending that much time
Speaker 3: with him away from football.
Speaker 4: Too, Yeah, definitely. I think that he's very much someone
Speaker 4: that is very aware of the details. I mean, I
Speaker 4: think the other day that practice was scheduled to end
Speaker 4: at what was it to forty six?
Speaker 3: Yep?
Speaker 4: Was that what it was?
Speaker 2: Not two forty seven or twelve forty five, twelve forty seven,
Speaker 2: twelve forty.
Speaker 4: Siven They did not round up in any sort of
Speaker 4: a way. So very much an attention to detail, and.
Speaker 3: It ended at twelve forty six, not at twelve forty seven.
Speaker 4: Right, right. And I think the other thing that that shows,
Speaker 4: you know, people we've talked a lot about the attention
Speaker 4: to detail, I think you're also seeing a coach who
Speaker 4: has an evolved way of thinking. So if I were
Speaker 4: at a stereotype, you know, I thought, Okay, sixty two
Speaker 4: years old Western Pa guy, he's going to come in
Speaker 4: with this meat heead you know, old school. Maybe not
Speaker 4: this old school approach of like we're going to develop
Speaker 4: the callous here with these long, grueling practices, and they're
Speaker 4: going to be hitting, and it's going to be super
Speaker 4: like intense and tackling.
Speaker 3: And I know how we did it twenty years ago,
Speaker 3: so I'm still gonna do it now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right. And what you're seeing instead, I know a
Speaker 4: lot it's been made about this no tackling because it's different.
Speaker 4: I think what you're seeing is he's aware of the
Speaker 4: science behind things, and he's talking to us today about
Speaker 4: priming the central nervous system, and he's big into the
Speaker 4: GPS monitors and how much work these guys do, and
Speaker 4: so everything he does there's a reason behind it. And
Speaker 4: it's I give him a lot of credit because I
Speaker 4: think a lot of coaches who are in their sixties
Speaker 4: would be rigid in their thinking and would do things
Speaker 4: the way that they did them in high school. It's
Speaker 4: very much the opposite. With Mike McCarthy. You could tell
Speaker 4: that he's continued to work at his own craft and
Speaker 4: continued to be on the forefront in terms of sports
Speaker 4: science and what's best for his team and for his players.
Speaker 3: I recall he took a year off between Green Bay
Speaker 3: and Dallas too and really focused on the analytics of
Speaker 3: the game, right, you know, like he didn't just take
Speaker 3: you just go to the beach. I'm sure he took
Speaker 3: some vacations and things, but he realized that that he
Speaker 3: was not super analytically inclined as the league was changing,
Speaker 3: and spent a lot of time at Pro Football Focused
Speaker 3: and all these different analytics outlets. And I think he's
Speaker 3: very self aware that the game changes very fast.
Speaker 4: And you're seeing that on the field here. I mean,
Speaker 4: he's placed a tremendous emphasis so far through these first
Speaker 4: two days on situational football. So we've seen the two
Speaker 4: minute drill in each of the first two days, and yesterday,
Speaker 4: day one, we saw just last second situations. They would
Speaker 4: put four seconds on the clock and the ball on
Speaker 4: the fourteen yard line, for example, And they did a
Speaker 4: series of drills like that, and he brought up a
Speaker 4: stat to his team saying, eight of the seventeen games
Speaker 4: on average are going to come down to the last possession.
Speaker 4: So this is why I'm doing that and explaining the
Speaker 4: why behind it, and also.
Speaker 3: Under started to interrupt. I also think it think it contributes
Speaker 3: to the speed of practice and the conditioning aspect of
Speaker 3: it all too. We're gonna be in shape in the
Speaker 3: late in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 4: Right, Definitely, definitely. Yeah. And he talked about the like,
Speaker 4: like I said before, priming the central nervous system and
Speaker 4: thinking quickly and mentally being tough and all those types
Speaker 4: of things.
Speaker 2: It is Mike the Fabo of the athletic with us
Speaker 2: here on the drive on Steelers Nation Radio. I know
Speaker 2: it's only two practices, and Matt and I joke a
Speaker 2: lot of times about how you can overreact to everything,
Speaker 2: especially in this acclamation period. But have you noticed, you know,
Speaker 2: Matt and I are kind of up here in the
Speaker 2: press box taking everything in. You're down there on the
Speaker 2: field right next to all the action. Have you noticed
Speaker 2: a real increase in tempo? Does it feel like things
Speaker 2: are happening more rapidly than what we're used to out
Speaker 2: here at Saint Vincent College.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean you talked about like me being down
Speaker 4: on the field. I feel like I'm running back and
Speaker 4: forth like crazy, trying to be like, oh, shoot, there's
Speaker 4: the quarterbacks over here. Now, okay, now they're coming over here.
Speaker 4: Now they're doing this. So absolutely, I've seen the pace
Speaker 4: there steps in some cardio too. Yeah, and I mean
Speaker 4: with the detail too. One thing that you'll see that's interesting.
Speaker 4: They have a two minute TV timeout, and so they'll
Speaker 4: say they'll scream on like, uh like two maybe three
Speaker 4: times for a practice two minute TV timeout And we'll
Speaker 4: have to ask Mike McCarthy about this, but I think
Speaker 4: that goes to the attention to detail as well, where
Speaker 4: he's saying, like, let's figure out during those two minutes,
Speaker 4: what you're going to be doing, how much water you're consuming, whatever,
Speaker 4: So that then when it happens to what you need
Speaker 4: to talk to in an actual game, you're ready and
Speaker 4: you're practicing something that's going to happen in a game setting.
Speaker 3: Don't make it four minutes or five minutes to it
Speaker 3: two because that's what.
Speaker 4: They give you in the game, right, Yeah, and those
Speaker 4: are the few times where they're taking a break. So again,
Speaker 4: as we haven't seen a ton, but it sure seemed
Speaker 4: like Mike Tomlin took a macro view to practice. You know,
Speaker 4: he might be with the d lineman, he might be
Speaker 4: with the quarterbacks, he might just be standing at midfield
Speaker 4: CEO and the whole thing. McCarthy, you sure don't seem
Speaker 4: to hear his voice as much, and he seems to
Speaker 4: be very acutely in this specific bot I mean or
Speaker 4: with a specific group, namely the quarterbacks. Yeah, namely the quarterbacks.
Speaker 4: And I think, truthfully that's the biggest thing for him
Speaker 4: and really the reason why, in my opinion, the Stealers
Speaker 4: are in this situation where they're having a new head
Speaker 4: coach is because Tomlin was unable to identify, draft and
Speaker 4: develop the successor to Ben Roethlisberger. And so now they
Speaker 4: have a coach who specialized not only on the offensive side,
Speaker 4: but in the quarterback position. And you really see the attention.
Speaker 4: All the things that we've talked about are magnified when
Speaker 4: you talk about him working with the quarterbacks in terms
Speaker 4: of every step of the quarterbacks Drop has a name.
Speaker 4: He talks about the QB school and the drills that
Speaker 4: they do, the fundamentals that they do, and you see
Speaker 4: him taking a very hands on approach with his quarterbacks,
Speaker 4: especially those young ones. And so that's really what got
Speaker 4: him here, and that's really a big point of focus
Speaker 4: for him. Is this quarterback position.
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about those two young guys a little
Speaker 2: bit more. Again with the caveat right. If it's only
Speaker 2: been two actices, this is all grain of solid at
Speaker 2: this point. But any any early thoughts and observations on
Speaker 2: Will Howard and Drew out Well.
Speaker 4: Today was a big day for Will Howard because typically
Speaker 4: in every NFL practice, the only quarterbacks will get a
Speaker 4: two minute drill to the top two guys. So yesterday
Speaker 4: it was Mason Rudolph. He had a successful two minute
Speaker 4: drill where he led them into field goal range. Now,
Speaker 4: Will Howard was up during his two minute drill period.
Speaker 4: I'm sitting there saying, Okay, this's perfect. He's gonna score
Speaker 4: a touchdown and we're gonna write a story about how
Speaker 4: the competition is on. He had like three or four
Speaker 4: I think nice completions, chunk plays driving them down the field,
Speaker 4: and then he overthrew Max Hurlaman and right into Strashing
Speaker 4: Castro's arms.
Speaker 2: And so I found it.
Speaker 4: Kind of funny after practice. You know, last year, Will
Speaker 4: Howard was kind of the golden boy, you know, when
Speaker 4: you're a rookie. When you're rookie and you're new, the
Speaker 4: fan basees all of your promise, none of your warts,
Speaker 4: right yep. You know, Like I call it backup quarterback syndrome.
Speaker 4: The less the fan base seas of a quarterback, the
Speaker 4: better they think that they are. There's a lot of
Speaker 4: hype around Will Howard and he always was very polished
Speaker 4: and polite in interviews. So today, uh, you know, our
Speaker 4: our our friend Triva.
Speaker 2: Mike Persuda likes to ask the hard questions, you know.
Speaker 4: Who isn't necessarily known for his tact and and he's
Speaker 4: not someone to beat around the bush. Said to him,
Speaker 4: you know, what did you see on that play? And
Speaker 4: he just said, they intercepted the ball, they picked it,
Speaker 4: you know, and you saw a little bit of a
Speaker 4: different side of Will Howard. And what I took that
Speaker 4: as is Will Howard the competitor. Where Okay, last year
Speaker 4: was okay, I'm.
Speaker 2: New everything shining rainbow.
Speaker 4: Now it's like I'm here to compete and like I'm
Speaker 4: not here to answer questions head down working.
Speaker 3: But I mean, he's not guaranteed a roster spot at
Speaker 3: this point. It's you know, right, he's got a lot
Speaker 3: to fight.
Speaker 4: For, so he's got a lot to prove in. You know,
Speaker 4: these are the things that at some point, it's just
Speaker 4: day two, we don't want to overreact, but at some
Speaker 4: point you do look back and competitive moments at the
Speaker 4: end of practice in a two minute drill, they do
Speaker 4: matter when it comes to this decision making process.
Speaker 3: The last thing I got for is do you have
Speaker 3: any insight inclination thoughts on Joey Porter's situation contractually?
Speaker 4: You know, I don't. I wish I had more insight
Speaker 4: into it other than the fact that I think that
Speaker 4: every day that goes on, if they are interested in
Speaker 4: extending him, I think the price is only going to
Speaker 4: go up because it's exactly like someone said the other day,
Speaker 4: do you make him a top five corner? And I'm like,
Speaker 4: the price of a top five corner is going up
Speaker 4: with every new contract.
Speaker 3: Like daily, right now, right right.
Speaker 4: So if you can get it done, I think you
Speaker 4: have to. Obviously, there's a certain line that Steelers probably
Speaker 4: feel comfortable walking up to, and it's just a matter
Speaker 4: of figuring out where that is and trying to find
Speaker 4: some type of a middle ground.
Speaker 2: Let's stay one for you, for me, let's stay with
Speaker 2: that same position group. Not any real concern over Jalen
Speaker 2: Ramsey starting the season on the pup list, just seems
Speaker 2: like a precautionary thing. Another Mike McCarthy thing that that
Speaker 2: we've heard so much about is just making sure you
Speaker 2: get your guys to September.
Speaker 3: Heltry.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean, you would love to have both
Speaker 4: of these guys on the field just because of the
Speaker 4: fact that you're installing a new defense and communication has
Speaker 4: been a problem for this unit in the past, and
Speaker 4: that's a point of emphasis, and there's going to be changes.
Speaker 4: While these guys have probably played every coverage known demand
Speaker 4: over their careers, you still want them out there. But
Speaker 4: the good news is it does sound like this is
Speaker 4: not going to be something that's going to linger into
Speaker 4: the season. You know, we've seen Jalen Ramsey walking around
Speaker 4: here no sort of brace or whatever, rap or anything
Speaker 4: on his injured knee, and so you just hope that
Speaker 4: he gets healthy sooner than later, because you know, with
Speaker 4: with Ramsey, you're not talking about just use losing one player.
Speaker 4: You're talking about losing you know, your star in the
Speaker 4: nickel defense, meaning your slot corn is what they call it.
Speaker 4: You're talking about potentially safety in some packages, you're talking
Speaker 4: about a corner maybe situationally, and with that, I think
Speaker 4: a lot of coverage disguises him, you know, playing a
Speaker 4: lot of different roles when it comes to those exes
Speaker 4: on a whiteboard and the different coverages and the way
Speaker 4: you may want to disguise it. So you know, that's
Speaker 4: why I think that it's really important for him to
Speaker 4: get out here. But obviously his health is the first
Speaker 4: and foremost most important thing.
Speaker 3: I do have one more thing now that we mentioned
Speaker 3: Ramsey is and the more I think through it, like
Speaker 3: the NFL is really really stressing that big nickel, that
Speaker 3: star you can, everyone calls it something different, but it's
Speaker 3: a brag nickel. So you know, it's Mike Hilton plus
Speaker 3: fifty pounds exactly, Stirwin James, it's Hamilton, it's the gene.
Speaker 3: But Ramsey's really well equipped for that. In my opinion,
Speaker 3: he'll play the run. He sticks his face in there,
Speaker 3: but he's got a lot more wear in his wear
Speaker 3: and tear in his body than Dejene or Branch or
Speaker 3: any of those guys him and worry. Maybe he just
Speaker 3: kind of save him from himself a little bit. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's not an easy position to play, even if you're not.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're taking on guards. You know. That beats
Speaker 3: you up?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know. I mean, for all the reasons that
Speaker 4: you mentioned, it seems to fit his skill set, but
Speaker 4: it also is when you are closer to the line
Speaker 4: of scrimmage. You're inherently going to be part of more
Speaker 4: collisions and keeping him healthy is going to be important.
Speaker 4: But I agree with you when you say he's going
Speaker 4: to be successful there and the other part is just
Speaker 4: as a blitzer, you know. I think I think that
Speaker 4: with you know, the way that Patrick Graham wants to
Speaker 4: do things with his simulated pressures. I think that it,
Speaker 4: you know, adding the nickel to those pressures is going
Speaker 4: to be big. I think, you know, bringing him on
Speaker 4: just pure blitzes through the B gap, I think are
Speaker 4: going to be big. You run, fits, run support, all that.
Speaker 4: I think all fits a player like Rams who has
Speaker 4: the coverage ability but also prides himself on the physical
Speaker 4: side of the game.
Speaker 3: I don't see four defensive backs being on the field
Speaker 3: very often, but I don't think he comes off either.
Speaker 3: I think one of the safeties comes off, probably Brisker.
Speaker 4: And and that that was one of my questions coming
Speaker 4: into this, Like I wish I figured, I figured probably
Speaker 4: Brisker would be the one because the tough thing with
Speaker 4: the safety tantam they've got. I like Brisker and I
Speaker 4: like Elliott. I think they're versatile. I think that they
Speaker 4: both can play both, but I think both of them
Speaker 4: are best closer to the line of scrimmage. And what
Speaker 4: I would hate is if they have to play Shaun
Speaker 4: Elliott more in the post than they have in the past,
Speaker 4: because I think he's such a good tackler and so
Speaker 4: good in you know, against the run, that I would
Speaker 4: hate to sacrifice his strength because it fits the defense better,
Speaker 4: and so I would I would prefer to, you know,
Speaker 4: take Brisker off the field and allow Ramsey to be
Speaker 4: the post safety in your single high coverages. But ultimately
Speaker 4: that's something that's to get sorted out here.
Speaker 2: We'll start finding out answers to all these questions over
Speaker 2: the next few weeks. Certainly, Mike de Fabo of The
Speaker 2: Athletic kind of enough to join us here to start
Speaker 2: the show today. Make sure you're checking out that awesome
Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy feature in The Athletic. Thanks for taking the time, dude,
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, Thanks for having me tweeted a free link,
Speaker 4: so even if you don't subscribe, you should be able
Speaker 4: to read it if you just check me out on
Speaker 4: Instagram or Twitter, whatever, Blue Sky, all of it.
Speaker 2: All that good stuff he's out there doing Yeoman's work.
Speaker 2: We're going to share some more observations from practice and
Speaker 2: some moving and shaking around campus here when we return.
Speaker 2: Just getting going today on the Drive, Yuler and Williamson
Speaker 2: Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
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Speaker 2: Back High Top Chuck Noldfield. Here. It's a special training
Speaker 2: camp edition of the Drive. Of course, you know, Matt
Speaker 2: and I are the caboose of this thing for three
Speaker 2: hours every day. There is practice acclamation practice number two
Speaker 2: of four in the books, so we'll have a similar
Speaker 2: type practices Friday and Saturday. Everybody will get a day
Speaker 2: off on Sunday, and then you already know the fun
Speaker 2: begins on Monday when the pads go on. Matt couple
Speaker 2: of things, Oh real.
Speaker 3: Quick, Yeah, I think our listeners know that, but we
Speaker 3: get so many new ones. We don't do shows the
Speaker 3: day there aren't practice, correct, I mean, so you'll get
Speaker 3: a lot, but it's not seven days a week. So Sunday,
Speaker 3: I'm glad you off.
Speaker 2: Like if the Steelers have a practice on a Saturday,
Speaker 2: we do a weekend show. But if like there's a
Speaker 2: not this coming Monday, but I think the next Monday
Speaker 2: the Steelers are off, we'll be off that Monday.
Speaker 3: Day of the week doesn't matter at all, exact practice
Speaker 3: while they're here, we are on the air exactly right,
Speaker 3: if the whole lineup is the same obviously, Yes.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's from nine to six every single day, beginning
Speaker 2: with Labs and tom and ending with the three hour
Speaker 2: edition of the Drive. So yes, so practice days, we
Speaker 2: have shows, days off, we have off. Day of the
Speaker 2: week does not matter. So we'll have off Sunday and
Speaker 2: then we'll be back Monday for what will be a
Speaker 2: big week next week, last week for the Steelers before
Speaker 2: a preseason game. So that's always a lot of work
Speaker 2: to be done here on campus by the guys and
Speaker 2: the coaching staff. Certainly two practices in Matt and you
Speaker 2: know again, we're grain of salt in this whole thing.
Speaker 2: We are just a few steps into a thousand step
Speaker 2: journey here in this absolutely in this training camp, in
Speaker 2: this season at large. But a couple of things that
Speaker 2: I did notice today taking in practice that I wanted
Speaker 2: to run by you great the first I don't think
Speaker 2: this will surprise you or anyone, but a lot of
Speaker 2: what seemed like to me as footwork specific drills for
Speaker 2: the for the four quarterbacks today, it really seemed like
Speaker 2: in a lot of the quarterback periods it was all
Speaker 2: about footwork, footwork, footwork, which is something we know. Mike
Speaker 2: McCarthy is a disciple.
Speaker 3: Of Yeah, and I'm not enough for the next to
Speaker 3: break down exactly the foot placement. But like I do
Speaker 3: a Thursday show with Pursuda and Merrill, Hodge and Merrill
Speaker 3: rightfully so always talks about feet, hips, hands, and this
Speaker 3: has learned from Chuck Noll way back when and every
Speaker 3: position in this game, if you evaluate feet to hips
Speaker 3: to hands, you got a pretty good idea of what
Speaker 3: kind of player it is or what part of that's
Speaker 3: going wrong if you're an offense, tackle, if you're a
Speaker 3: wide receiver, if you're a quarterback, that it all starts
Speaker 3: from the lower body up until you release the ball,
Speaker 3: catch the ball, hit your opponent, and tackle your opponent.
Speaker 3: Whatever it is now quarterbacking. And this is where Bill
Speaker 3: Walsh really just took it to a new level. From
Speaker 3: what I understand in the history world of West Coast
Speaker 3: is back in the day, the Bradshaw Staubach day, you
Speaker 3: ran an out route and I let the ball go
Speaker 3: when you were open, you know. Then Walsh realized, which
Speaker 3: is utter genius when you think about it, that if
Speaker 3: I can time the quarterbacks drop and nobody was a
Speaker 3: shotgun back then three step drop, He's gonna time up
Speaker 3: with Jerry Rice as slant yep perfectly like you're throwing
Speaker 3: it whether it's there or not, you know. And now
Speaker 3: that was forty years ago, fifty years ago, and people
Speaker 3: have caught on. But it's almost indefensible when the feat,
Speaker 3: marry the release, marry the route combination and take. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it just takes over and over and over and over,
Speaker 3: and you never have it perfect like There's a famous
Speaker 3: story when Brady was married to Giselle. I guess she
Speaker 3: got mad at him because they're on some glorious beach,
Speaker 3: you know, when done the off time, and he's got
Speaker 3: shoulder pads on in a football working on his footwork
Speaker 3: in the sand. Yeah, I got an extra hour hunt.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go fiddle by it and I'm gonna jump
Speaker 3: in and swim with the sharks or whatever. You know.
Speaker 3: Like it. You're never we are going to have it perfect.
Speaker 3: It's so precise, and a lot of it, too, is
Speaker 3: being able. Brady was on the best at this too.
Speaker 3: Is like it's not always gonna be perfect. In the pocket,
Speaker 3: someone's gonna blow a block. They're gonna bring more blitzers
Speaker 3: than I can. We know football is an uneven world.
Speaker 3: It's an unpredictable world. But if I have repeatable mechanics
Speaker 3: that starts with your feet and ends with your fingertip,
Speaker 3: it goes a long way. I mean, even like if
Speaker 3: you look at like Mahomes and Rogers in his prime
Speaker 3: doing all this ad lib stuff, but it's repeatable. It's
Speaker 3: not the first time they've thrown that side arm pass
Speaker 3: with great balance in their lower core their lower half
Speaker 3: and core and just takes reps and reps and reps
Speaker 3: and frankly, I don't think the coaching staff at Penn
Speaker 3: State did Drew Aller a whole lot of favors in
Speaker 3: that where a lot of bad habit. I mean, now
Speaker 3: it's with him. Let's get rid of the bad. Now
Speaker 3: we'll start to teach you the good. You know. So
Speaker 3: it's gonna take a lot of time, but I'm sure
Speaker 3: you just do it over and over and over.
Speaker 2: I expect we'll see a lot more footwork specific stuff
Speaker 2: for the quarterbacks throughout the next couple of weeks. Here.
Speaker 2: Second thing, Matt, I got four total observations to run
Speaker 2: past you. Here. Second one is there was a pretty
Speaker 2: lengthy special teams period during practice today in which Chris
Speaker 2: Boswell and Cam Johnston did a little showing off Boswell.
Speaker 2: They kind of put him on the spot. He went
Speaker 2: a perfect seven for seven on his field goals, including
Speaker 2: drill in the last one, Matt, which was about a
Speaker 2: fifty four fifty six yarder and he had seven to
Speaker 2: ten yards despair. It kind of reminded me of like
Speaker 2: a yep, still got it, you know? Yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: thanks everybody, still got it, you know here here it is.
Speaker 3: Signed a little extension in the offseason. Don't forget about me,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: Right, seven for seven for seven and capping it off
Speaker 2: with a fifty five ish yarder and thanks, thanks for
Speaker 2: coming out. Everybody, tip your bartenders and have a good night.
Speaker 2: And Cam Johnston, I was thinking of you. You've told
Speaker 2: this story a couple of times in the in the
Speaker 2: history of this program, but you mentioned what would have
Speaker 2: been two seasons ago, I believe was signed the first sign, the.
Speaker 3: First time, the big contract for a punter at the time.
Speaker 2: You had had you know, shared the story a couple
Speaker 2: of times how you and Dale were doing the show
Speaker 2: and we're both like intrigued by the punter because he's
Speaker 2: got every club in his bag, and You're like, wow,
Speaker 2: you know, he hit some with a ton of hangtime,
Speaker 2: he hits some in the corner where they bounce and
Speaker 2: it's it's coffee. He's got every club in his bag.
Speaker 2: He was looking like that guy once again out there today.
Speaker 2: He had a couple really impressive punts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, Dale and I would sit up
Speaker 3: here and watch practice and comment on things going on.
Speaker 3: There were a lot of special Teams periods and you'd
Speaker 3: watch Harvin and Harvin was really good here. I mean
Speaker 3: Harvin's problems were like when the weather hit and some
Speaker 3: of the clutch situations and the winds swirling, and you
Speaker 3: gotta have a great punt to beat the Ravens, and
Speaker 3: you know those didn't always go great. But in La
Speaker 3: Trobe in a beautiful day, you know, with nothing on
Speaker 3: the line, that thing exploded off his foot, like you
Speaker 3: could see why he was a draft pick as a punter.
Speaker 3: That's a rarity. But then you compare him to the
Speaker 3: guy like Johnston, who maybe his driver isn't as strong,
Speaker 3: but he puts down the fairway every time. He doesn't
Speaker 3: put him in the woods, but then he pulls out,
Speaker 3: Like you said, all these different clubs and the end
Speaker 3: over end. I mean some of the balls are end
Speaker 3: over end, some are deep spirals, some are just designed
Speaker 3: to be hard to catch, some are designed to die
Speaker 3: on the green next to the hole. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: and he really I'm not a punting expert. I never
Speaker 3: watch Special Teams film, but I think anybody sitting here
Speaker 3: if you watched him, be like, he's doing a lot
Speaker 3: of different things. He's not just kicking me football.
Speaker 2: No, And like you mentioned it, it draws differently, it
Speaker 2: spends differently.
Speaker 3: Sideways and wants to kick the point and like all
Speaker 3: these different things that he tries.
Speaker 2: Enjoyed seeing the special teams period today. I don't know. Again,
Speaker 2: I don't think that'll be as as regular of a
Speaker 2: staple as it was, of course during the Mike Tomlin era.
Speaker 2: But certainly a portion of practice today had those guys
Speaker 2: front and center, and they both delivered like like you
Speaker 2: would expect him to. Two observations left here, Matt. They
Speaker 2: both relate to coaching. The first and again this is
Speaker 2: this is one practice today, but it seemed like the
Speaker 2: case they were learning seemed like the case yesterday on
Speaker 2: Wednesday for the first as well, Patrick Graham spending a
Speaker 2: lot of time with the defensive line and edge rushers.
Speaker 2: A lot of time you see the defensive coordinator almost
Speaker 2: exclusively with with those with those guys up front.
Speaker 3: Okay, I don't have a lot of work on.
Speaker 2: Hand placement and technique that it's seemingly that that's been
Speaker 2: his kind of what he wants to accomplish here, at
Speaker 2: least to begin.
Speaker 3: I guess the Steelers D line and edge coaches are
Speaker 3: a little on the younger side. Yeah, you know, maybe
Speaker 3: he's just overseeing that portion of it. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't have a reason why that is. Maybe tomorrow
Speaker 3: he'll be with the linebackers, next day with the safeties.
Speaker 3: I don't know. Maybe he just has an agenda the
Speaker 3: first two days where it started the big people and
Speaker 3: go backwards. I'm making this up as I go. I
Speaker 3: don't know. One thing that is really common in the
Speaker 3: NFL with this Fangio system that a lot of teams
Speaker 3: are starting to mimic Fangio's defense coordinator the Eagles is
Speaker 3: they'll play a lot of four with two high safeties
Speaker 3: and light boxes. And a new term that people are
Speaker 3: gonna hear a lot is used to hear about how
Speaker 3: the Steelers used to two gap. You know, they would
Speaker 3: take a guy down the middle and basically look over
Speaker 3: both shoulders, trug him the side, and you're in charge
Speaker 3: of two gaps. And that allowed the Kendrell Bells of
Speaker 3: the world. And that's why you wanted bigger. Quote DN
Speaker 3: used to be Aaron Smith. You can't have a two
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty pound guy trying to manhandle a tackle
Speaker 3: where the Warren SAPs and Aaron Donald are one gap penetrators.
Speaker 3: Just win that, you know, all right, but a big
Speaker 3: key And this goes actually back to the Eagles re
Speaker 3: signing Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. Is defensive tackles in
Speaker 3: that Fangio system are now doing a gap and a half.
Speaker 3: And I don't know how they teach it, and I
Speaker 3: don't know how much the nude staff will do it.
Speaker 3: But the Steelers didn't do much gap and a half
Speaker 3: stuff under the former regime. You know, they were in
Speaker 3: charge of their gap. They do some of it, but
Speaker 3: there's some teams that are highly exclusive and they really
Speaker 3: put an onus on elite defensive tackle play because basically
Speaker 3: you got to control three gaps.
Speaker 2: Two guys to control three gaps.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're also still need to make plays in
Speaker 3: the backfield too, you know. That's why you pay Davis
Speaker 3: and Carter for that system. You know. Then the last
Speaker 3: maybe he's doing more of that reason I brought up, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's that.
Speaker 2: Actually that makes a lot of sense. And then the
Speaker 2: last one I maybe should have mentioned this with the
Speaker 2: quarterbacks too, but it just seems like, you know, so
Speaker 2: far and again only two practices here of Mike McCarthy,
Speaker 2: but that the quarterbacks have been doing their own thing
Speaker 2: more than we typically see like a lot of times
Speaker 2: the quarterbacks. Yeah, they'll have their own their own you know, uh,
Speaker 2: positional period stuff going on. But then we'd see him
Speaker 2: with the running backs, then we'd see him with the
Speaker 2: tight ends, then we'd see him with the wide receivers,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of moving around where through these first
Speaker 2: two days and especially today, it really seems like he's
Speaker 2: got the quarterbacks, which we again gets back to those
Speaker 2: details and that I want you working more on footwork
Speaker 2: in this stuff than I do, you know, your handoffs
Speaker 2: with Jalen Warren. Yeah, we can accomplish that stuff later,
Speaker 2: but it just seems like the quarterbacks have been more
Speaker 2: secluded on their own focusing on themselves as opposed to
Speaker 2: being paired with other units like we've seen in the past.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's a really good observation, and I'm
Speaker 3: sure it's for the reasons you mentioned, you know, like
Speaker 3: they're probably a little bit of bragging, to be honest
Speaker 3: with you, Like they're all in third grade right now.
Speaker 3: We're inn ap science down here. We're doing our own thing.
Speaker 3: We know, all the things they're doing. We understand all
Speaker 3: the offense. I don't need to be out there well
Speaker 3: the coaches coach the tight ends and the running backs
Speaker 3: and all that. I don't need you guys to do that.
Speaker 3: We need to get you guys better at what we're
Speaker 3: working on here. So I know McCarthy has a tradition
Speaker 3: of being very hands on with that position and kind
Speaker 3: of secludes them a little bit, you know, not for
Speaker 3: the detriment of the team. It's not like they're not communicating.
Speaker 2: Sure, that's going to be something that I'm very, very
Speaker 2: interested to keep an eye in on part of me
Speaker 2: as we roll along. Is that just to start here?
Speaker 2: Is that something that that we're going to see continue.
Speaker 3: One other is at Chris Sadamski and I were kind
Speaker 3: of laughing about this at lunch, and we don't meet
Speaker 3: it derogatory towards the old coaching staff. But now if
Speaker 3: you've never been here, there's three fields in front of us. Yes,
Speaker 3: now you get team drills going on the same time
Speaker 3: in field one and field two. It used to be
Speaker 3: just ones versus one on this field, and then twos
Speaker 3: versus twos, so they're getting double the work done. And
Speaker 3: Chris and I were like, why haven't they done that
Speaker 3: for thirty years. It's not like they're short on fields.
Speaker 3: You know, you have a bunch of coaches. It's all
Speaker 3: on tape, you know. So not only are they running
Speaker 3: a lot more plays per minute per field, they're using
Speaker 3: both fields. And these guys are like constantly in motion, yeah,
Speaker 3: constantly emotion.
Speaker 2: They are moving a lot out there. And so that,
Speaker 2: you know, speaks to that conditioning that we know is
Speaker 2: a real part of this whole process for Mike McCarthy.
Speaker 2: And again we're still early doors here, very early doors,
Speaker 2: and we're just looking to pick up on trends.
Speaker 3: I think it's mental conditioning too, like things happen quick,
Speaker 3: you know, and boom you get this too minute TV
Speaker 3: period or you know, like things he's sprung on you.
Speaker 3: But I think why there they might be they will
Speaker 3: be contray or you know, giving up some physicality conditioning.
Speaker 3: They are definitely adding to the aerobic heart cardio part
Speaker 3: of it as well as the mental speed of the game.
Speaker 3: You know, so you might be adding two things for one,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Hey, that that mental toughness is uh is just as
Speaker 2: paramount man.
Speaker 3: Right if you're tired in the fourth quarter. I don't
Speaker 3: care how physically tough you were in Liatrobe.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it is really we know that this
Speaker 2: is a game of minutia and a game of margins,
Speaker 2: and that is one that I think doesn't doesn't get
Speaker 2: discussed enough.
Speaker 3: And I wanted to mention it with Mike a minute
Speaker 3: ago too. I mean, let's not forget I haven't brought
Speaker 3: it up for a week, but their fourth quarter defense
Speaker 3: was horrendous. Yes, it was the biggest problem on the
Speaker 3: whole thing.
Speaker 2: We went through those numbers a few weeks. People want
Speaker 2: to go back and find and find the episode and yeah, hey,
Speaker 2: if you keep doing what you're doing, you're gonna keep
Speaker 2: getting what you're getting. Yeah, right, right right, And so
Speaker 2: let's let's see how it all plays out here. But yeah,
Speaker 2: they have they have been moving and putting a lot
Speaker 2: on these guys. There's been a lot of the uh,
Speaker 2: you and I have made this joke in the past,
Speaker 2: the John Wooden it's like they're asking these guys a lot,
Speaker 2: like be quick, but don't hurry out out here a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and uh, And we'll be keeping an eye on all
Speaker 2: that as we continue to roll along here throughout this process.
Speaker 2: Let's get to a break here when we come back.
Speaker 2: There was a pretty big story across the NFL today
Speaker 2: involving a quarterback and a contractual dispute that I want
Speaker 2: to discuss with Matt as we close down this first hour.
Speaker 2: Keep those tweets rolling in, you know, we'll hit those
Speaker 2: in the five o'clock hour. Plenty more ground to cover
Speaker 2: here as we roll along. West Yuler, Matt Williamson. It
Speaker 2: is the drive. We're at Chuck Nolefield on the campus
Speaker 2: of Saint Vincent College, all part of our ongoing training
Speaker 2: camp coverage Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
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Speaker 2: Final segment here of the first hour of the Drive
Speaker 2: on campus, of course, all part of our ongoing training
Speaker 2: camp coverage of Matt. We've got a few minutes here
Speaker 2: to close down the hour. And did you see this
Speaker 2: will not surprise anybody because he does this quite often,
Speaker 2: But you see Baker Mayfield flamethrowing today with his media
Speaker 2: availabil about his contract situation.
Speaker 3: No, but this couldn't surprise me less. I think it
Speaker 3: came out yesterday that talks are off. Yeah, he's a
Speaker 3: free agent after the year.
Speaker 2: He's a free agent. He's a free agent after the year.
Speaker 2: And actually, our our buddy Jeremy Fowler, had a very
Speaker 2: candid interview with Baker and you know, asked him about
Speaker 2: the contract extension and his thoughts and everything. You know,
Speaker 2: a lot of times you get the cookie cutter, you know,
Speaker 2: politically correct answer of well, you know, it's an ongoing
Speaker 2: process and this and that, and yeah, I'm a little disappointed,
Speaker 2: but ya da da dah. Baker Mayfield said he feels disrespected,
Speaker 2: he feels undervalued. Jeremy Fowler followed that up and asked
Speaker 2: him you know, is it the money? Is it the
Speaker 2: length of the contract? Is it that in Baker Mayfield
Speaker 2: was like, it's everything, But they haven't offered me any
Speaker 2: contract more than two years. And I don't understand how.
Speaker 2: You know, they say that I'm a franchise quarterback, but
Speaker 2: they're not backing that up with their actions. And it
Speaker 2: basically said, you know, I think that I've earned it.
Speaker 2: You know, we won back to back division titles in
Speaker 2: twenty three and twenty four. But he said now that
Speaker 2: even if the Bucks want to try and negotiate, he
Speaker 2: won't be speaking to the organization and that quote not
Speaker 2: going to be bothering him with it unless he's actually
Speaker 2: recognized for his value end quote.
Speaker 3: None of this surprises me. It might even be a
Speaker 3: bigger conversation than we have time for. But if you
Speaker 3: remember he's I mean, I have respect for it. I'm
Speaker 3: not making fun of it, but he's one of these
Speaker 3: athletes that the world's out to get me. I have
Speaker 3: a chip on my shoulder. I was a walk on, which.
Speaker 2: Made sense for a long time, but then when you
Speaker 2: win the Heisman and you're the first overall pick, it
Speaker 2: can be a little unbecoming.
Speaker 3: You're not rock party in the seventh round.
Speaker 2: Yes, right, But I also get it. He's always been
Speaker 2: that chip on the shoulder guy and it's worked for it.
Speaker 3: It's worked for attitude wise. So I'm about three episodes
Speaker 3: into the series Quarterback on Netflix two.
Speaker 2: And he's featured in this season.
Speaker 3: This season, he's featured, and they don't talk about his
Speaker 3: contract much at least to this point. But he's very
Speaker 3: likable as you can imagine, with his family and behind
Speaker 3: the scenes and the work ethic and all those things too.
Speaker 3: And they go through the season. I'm to the point
Speaker 3: where I'm in the series where he's really starting to
Speaker 3: get beat up. And if you remember, he was in
Speaker 3: the MVP conversation through like seven or eight weeks.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, like week eight we had that
Speaker 2: Midway Award winners, and he was right in the thick
Speaker 2: of the MVP conversation.
Speaker 3: Now at this point, he's got like three injuries. I
Speaker 3: think he's got three more coming, you know, and respect
Speaker 3: the heck out of it, but he also isn't young,
Speaker 3: isn't the biggest, puts himselves in harms way, and I
Speaker 3: can't have no matter what I mean, I respect you
Speaker 3: being out there. But if you're out there, I need
Speaker 3: you to win. There's no and he was a compromise.
Speaker 3: I can't have that version ever again, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean because the second half of the season, again
Speaker 3: good for him for you know, gutting it out, but
Speaker 3: the play was horrendous for reasons out of his control.
Speaker 3: I also think that organization's interesting too, Like we know
Speaker 3: Todd Bowles pretty much has to win this year.
Speaker 2: I think so. I think it's division title or looking
Speaker 2: for seeking other employment.
Speaker 3: And therefore you don't if you extend Baker now you
Speaker 3: don't know the new coach is even interested in that
Speaker 3: or once to get his own guy. So that's kind
Speaker 3: of sticky. No, by the way, some real fixtures of
Speaker 3: that organization, Levante David's gone. Mike Evans went to San
Speaker 3: Francisco Vidavea two days ago requested a trade, like are
Speaker 3: people jumping off the sinking ship?
Speaker 2: It starts to feel like that a lot, yeah, a
Speaker 2: little bit, and Vidavea probably I'd be like.
Speaker 3: Cam and TJ. And I mean, like, these are fixtures
Speaker 3: of the team. They've been in a.
Speaker 2: Long time, long long time. And you're right, from Tampa's standpoint,
Speaker 2: it's a little different. You know, I feel like people
Speaker 2: had that same conversation about Jackson Dart, like, would Harball
Speaker 2: want to work with Jackson Dart?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, But it's different when it's a draft pick, younger
Speaker 2: guy as opposed to someone someone that you're gonna give
Speaker 2: real money to for three years. Even though he's not
Speaker 2: gonna get Josh Allen money, he's gonna he's gonna demand
Speaker 2: a big payday.
Speaker 3: It doesn't sound like two years is gonna cut it.
Speaker 2: It doesn't sound like two years is gonna cut it.
Speaker 2: He is thirty one years old, which for a quarterback
Speaker 2: he probably know in theory, has plenty of tread on
Speaker 2: those tires, but he's been beat up a lot. He
Speaker 2: is a little bit smaller, as you mentioned, and so
Speaker 2: there's just there's a lot of layers to this. But
Speaker 2: you're right, Matt, it it starts to have that kind
Speaker 2: of everyone's looking around and this is not the best.
Speaker 2: We went from so much stability for so long, from
Speaker 2: Brady to the Baker. They made the they made the
Speaker 2: playoffs for like six or seven straight years, won the
Speaker 2: division over and over again, and had some real playoff success.
Speaker 2: Even you know, they won one or two playoff games
Speaker 2: after Brady, But it just it feels like now they're
Speaker 2: kind of coming to the end of that road.
Speaker 3: Their best prayerad yes, And I think from their standpoint
Speaker 3: for Tampa, it's probably like this crossroads is looking a
Speaker 3: lot more like we're gonna need to reset here, so
Speaker 3: let's not give out a bunch of contracts and hang
Speaker 3: on to a bunch of people trying to win an
Speaker 3: extra game or two. Totally understand and unfortunately for the
Speaker 3: Bucks they don't have like a rece and second round
Speaker 3: pick and the you know in in the mix that
Speaker 3: maybe they're excited about. I mean, if he was, if
Speaker 3: he if they don't understand him, the chance of him
Speaker 3: coming back to Tampa or slim and none.
Speaker 2: I would think it's almost none, almost none, unless there's
Speaker 2: like a brand new not just coaching staff but front
Speaker 2: office and all, you know, all the people that.
Speaker 3: They had a lot of success and you know, decided
Speaker 3: to make an offer, right. But I would think he's
Speaker 3: in a test free agency. I almost didn't bring this up,
Speaker 3: but a lot of people said, well, Rogers is gonna go.
Speaker 2: To go there.
Speaker 3: That would not be my first choice. I would understand
Speaker 3: the lodge, I.
Speaker 2: Don't think it would be any of my first five choices.
Speaker 2: Probably not need more fingers on the yah and I listen.
Speaker 3: But I'd like I respect him as a player. He's
Speaker 3: a good quarterback.
Speaker 2: I do too. And you know this, I've I've always
Speaker 2: gone back and forth with this, like Motes used to
Speaker 2: try and wind me up on this all the time,
Speaker 2: because I hated Baker Mayfield when he came into the league,
Speaker 2: not because any of the chip on his shoulder stuff
Speaker 2: or anything like that, but because every year, you know,
Speaker 2: this was this was back when w VU actually had
Speaker 2: a semblance of a football program, and every year he'd
Speaker 2: be like Will Greer against Baker Mayfield for the Big twelve,
Speaker 2: and he would come and score seven touchdowns and you know,
Speaker 2: rip my Mountaineer heart out and stomp all over it.
Speaker 3: And he was probably pretty unlikable at that stage of
Speaker 3: his career too.
Speaker 2: I mean, he don't you remember, he was like crotch
Speaker 2: He's crotch grabbing against Kansas, you know, not against Ohio
Speaker 2: State or Alabama. Against Kansas. He had so he had
Speaker 2: some incidents. He had that situation to college where he
Speaker 2: ran from the police and all that, and.
Speaker 3: Oh they showed on the on the show, I mean
Speaker 3: like he looked. I don't know if he was in
Speaker 3: talks skate or not, but I.
Speaker 2: Strongly I'm sure he probably wasn't any kind.
Speaker 3: Of runs into a wall, yes, yes, but he kind
Speaker 3: of made fun of himself in the show. He's like,
Speaker 3: I was a little younger, I've grown up a little.
Speaker 2: Since, and I think he certainly has, but he does
Speaker 2: still do. He does still have that walk on.
Speaker 3: Mental videos of me when I was twenty.
Speaker 2: Absolutely there might be a couple of grainy ones of
Speaker 2: me from the from the early flip phone days, but
Speaker 2: that's about it. Yeah, and then he goes to the
Speaker 2: Browns right and saw like, oh man, Like I hated
Speaker 2: this guy in college. Now he's in Now he's in
Speaker 2: the division with a team that I don't like, but
Speaker 2: I do respect him at the same time because he
Speaker 2: he's had a lot of ups and downs in his career.
Speaker 2: He has very rarely been in an ideal situation. Felt
Speaker 2: like he was not that long ago in Tampa and
Speaker 2: was really having a lot of success. Yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 2: it'll be it'll be very interesting for us.
Speaker 3: A hard one to write a contract for though, What
Speaker 3: would the numbers be in the outs and you know,
Speaker 3: the dedication to him.
Speaker 2: It's it's Tampa is going to be one of those
Speaker 2: just from a you know, if we take off our
Speaker 2: black and gold glasses and set the Steelers aside, if
Speaker 2: we were to rank like the most interesting situations to
Speaker 2: monitor in the NFL this year, they'd probably be towards
Speaker 2: the top of the list. It's going to be really
Speaker 2: interesting to see how that all plays out for him,
Speaker 2: for Todd Bowles, for that entire organization.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, So that is interesting. Now, not all
Speaker 3: this is his fault, and some of it was well
Speaker 3: deserved too. Not many quarterbacks go from first overall pick
Speaker 3: to Carolina to the Rams to now Tampa and then
Speaker 3: maybe next year to another team. I mean five teams
Speaker 3: in seven years or something like that.
Speaker 2: Is maybe the only other one. I mean, he was
Speaker 2: what's second overall right behind him.
Speaker 3: But if one of those teams adored you, they wouldn't
Speaker 3: have left you out there exactly. He might just be
Speaker 3: right below the line of I'm willing to, you know,
Speaker 3: hitch my wagon to him.
Speaker 2: We're gonna see how it all plays out this year
Speaker 2: in Tampa Bay. It'll be interesting. Last thing from kind
Speaker 2: of around the league today, Matt. Before we closed down
Speaker 2: this first hour of the program, we discussed a little
Speaker 2: bit the injury of Chris Brasel, the second of course,
Speaker 2: the Carolina Panthers rookie wide receiver. Matt, and I learned
Speaker 2: yesterday that you could tear an LCL as well as
Speaker 2: a we knew ACL and MCL, but you also have
Speaker 2: a lateral collateral ligament ELCEL. Chris Brasel did tear that
Speaker 2: he will undergo season ending surgery. The team announced today.
Speaker 2: That's a bummer, it really is.
Speaker 3: And no team's getting destroyed by injuries in the early
Speaker 3: portion like Carolina. Two tackles are kind of in the mess.
Speaker 2: You talked about that a little bit yesterday.
Speaker 3: Yes, Scourton really promising defensive end, you know, take the
Speaker 3: top off young receiver.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, not not not a great start to uh
Speaker 2: to Carolina's year, trying to run it back as division
Speaker 2: champions there in the NFC South.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, Atlanta doesn't have a quarterback as we speak. We
Speaker 3: just talked about Tampa. Like South isn't getting any strongest.
Speaker 2: It might be getting weaker. Yeah sure, Hey the Saints
Speaker 2: might just be sitting pretty.
Speaker 3: Yeah back and you know, let everyone fall apart exactly right.
Speaker 2: Sometimes that's it. Sometimes your enemy will take care of themselves.
Speaker 2: You just got to stay buttoned up. Hour in the books,
Speaker 2: two more hours to go. I want to talk a
Speaker 2: little offensive line with Matt when we return. Plenty to
Speaker 2: get to as we roll along here. Keep those tweets
Speaker 2: rolling in. We'll get to those in the final hour
Speaker 2: of the show. Wesh Yeuler, Matt Williamson. It's the Drive
Speaker 2: Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.