Speaker 1: He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson, home
Speaker 1: of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Drive. I'm Dale Lollly here with Matt Williamson and
Speaker 1: Matt We are a week away from draft eve. I
Speaker 1: know draft eves harder to sleep than Christmas. Got a
Speaker 1: little better in my old age, get into my forties.
Speaker 1: It took me a good visions of edge rushers dancing
Speaker 1: in his head. That's right. But now we're getting down
Speaker 1: the home stretch here. This is always a tough week
Speaker 1: or so because everything you read and here is bs.
Speaker 1: To be honest with, I don't believe any of it.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll get a trade or a signing or something
Speaker 1: like that, but mostly these teams are buckled down. So
Speaker 1: it's just a lot of anticipation. Yeah, today was the
Speaker 1: last day for for college visits. UM. The Steelers having
Speaker 1: the que Willison today. Uh. Then they'll they'll hunker down
Speaker 1: um and and finalize their draft board and they'll talk
Speaker 1: about you know, where they have they will have every
Speaker 1: player right. Well, he had Bob Labriol on a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago. I thought he explained as well, like
Speaker 1: there's never a quote unquote tie when it comes to
Speaker 1: these pas, No, they will have them. They will have
Speaker 1: them ranked and slotted in their spots. Now you may
Speaker 1: get to the pick or the fifty second pick and say, okay,
Speaker 1: here's who's available. We have this guy rated slightly ahead
Speaker 1: of that guy, but this guy's at a more of
Speaker 1: a need position, so we're gonna take him. But they're
Speaker 1: not fighting about it three minutes before the pain. No. No,
Speaker 1: that's why. So often, as we've seen in the draft process,
Speaker 1: and you and I have covered a bunch of these
Speaker 1: together now on the radio, how many times do you
Speaker 1: see Steelers around the clock and then boom it goes
Speaker 1: to the pick is in. They're always quick about it. Yes,
Speaker 1: they know, they've already they've already had the conversations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've done their homework, They've done down this road many times.
Speaker 1: They don't need all the time, real quick, I mean
Speaker 1: from my experience, and I'm sure the stealers do this
Speaker 1: the same way, because every team does. What you need
Speaker 1: to know is the first steps of building the board
Speaker 1: are position rankings. You rank all your quarterbacks one till
Speaker 1: not draftable anymore. Basically, So, okay, I got a list
Speaker 1: of twelve of them. You do that with every spot.
Speaker 1: You know, however you want to make your positions. There
Speaker 1: are the guys who aren't on there because of medicals,
Speaker 1: are because of off field stuff. Those guys off the board. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there won't be thirty two times seven rounds plus
Speaker 1: comp picked names on your front board. They're probably half
Speaker 1: that they'll have. They'll have, you know, a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty names on their board. Yeah, and the Patriots historically
Speaker 1: have like a hundred, you know, and they pick some
Speaker 1: weird dudes. But anyway, and then your sideboard that if
Speaker 1: you have to go to it, that's not ideal. Usually
Speaker 1: those are your priority free agents that type of thing.
Speaker 1: But more importantly or the thing that people might not realize,
Speaker 1: like hey, Williams and I realized they ranked their tackles.
Speaker 1: I get that, you know, everyone does, just like you
Speaker 1: do on your fantasy drafts. But what's important is the
Speaker 1: horizontal board is is my fifth running back better than
Speaker 1: my eight tackle? You know what I mean by the
Speaker 1: horizonal board is just look at an Excel spreadsheet and
Speaker 1: at the top it has all the position groups and
Speaker 1: again you just rank your you're you're running backs all
Speaker 1: the way down one to twenty whatever. But there might
Speaker 1: be a huge gap between running back eight and running
Speaker 1: back nine. You know, that doesn't mean running back eight
Speaker 1: might be my big guy you've taken the third round.
Speaker 1: Running Back nine is a guy you take in the
Speaker 1: sixth round. Right, And there's ten offensive linemen in between them,
Speaker 1: you know, So it's not just one after another. There's
Speaker 1: all these gaps there. So you when I say positional
Speaker 1: or the horizontal board, look at it from left to right.
Speaker 1: And that's where a lot of fights are happening now,
Speaker 1: you know, like, if we already have a receiver, do
Speaker 1: we like this corner better than this center, Well, that's
Speaker 1: a hard conversation, right, and then need comes into play.
Speaker 1: And and that's where you know when when people talk about, um,
Speaker 1: the best available guy, the best available guy is always
Speaker 1: at a position of need, always right. Rarely, really do
Speaker 1: you see a team, yeah, you really see a team
Speaker 1: with we've like the Bengals this year. Do you think
Speaker 1: the Bengals are taking a wide receiver in the first
Speaker 1: three rounds of this draft? Probably not, you know, they
Speaker 1: don't think the first round great on them or something.
Speaker 1: Let's you know, unless Jamison Williams is available in the
Speaker 1: third round, then you're talking best available player. But in
Speaker 1: the first, first couple of rounds, nobody's taken. Oh, he
Speaker 1: was the best guy available. Well, no kidding, he was
Speaker 1: the best guy avail because because you looked at those
Speaker 1: guys through the prism of what you needed, right, because
Speaker 1: you need rookies to play, you know, that's the first
Speaker 1: round picks. They don't sit around. And boy, there's nothing
Speaker 1: worse than than than having to the answer to fans constantly,
Speaker 1: but well, why isn't Lawrence Timmins playing this year? Right?
Speaker 1: And I get it because you know, the Steelers didn't
Speaker 1: meet him to play right away. But there's still luxury
Speaker 1: the teams rarely have. There's still those questions. Yeah. Now
Speaker 1: because of the way the contracts are structured in that
Speaker 1: fift yeer option, Yeah you have the fifty year option.
Speaker 1: But the fift yeer option is expensive. Oh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: on a slam dont no brainer, and it's fully and
Speaker 1: it's fully guaranteed. So you want to have you want
Speaker 1: to know what that guy is by year three because
Speaker 1: you gotta make a decision after year three. So much
Speaker 1: of this is financial, it's not is the player good
Speaker 1: or not? It's is it worth the money? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So anyway, I mean that's what's going on now. Though
Speaker 1: there's fights of is running back six better than safety three?
Speaker 1: You know, maybe it is? You know, I mean that
Speaker 1: that's the kind of thing that is hard for the
Speaker 1: GM or the final decision maker. Yeah, I have a
Speaker 1: hard time. But like when people talk about uh, you know,
Speaker 1: they'll talk about the drink away he was pounding the
Speaker 1: table on draft day, nobody's pounding the table on draft
Speaker 1: day about this stuff. Stuff's already decided if you know
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Yeah, I mean, you don't know how
Speaker 1: the board's gonna fall, and there's gonna be some unexpected
Speaker 1: surprises or hurdles. But the well prepared teams, which all
Speaker 1: of them are well prepared, understand that, well, this is
Speaker 1: a sweet spot for how how often have we talked
Speaker 1: about there's what six or seven safeties and after that?
Speaker 1: I don't really have one that, you know, that I
Speaker 1: think can do what the Steelers need him to do.
Speaker 1: You know, So if we don't get one here, we're
Speaker 1: out of luck. You know. Then you then you're developing one.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be on your bench for a couple of years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or you're calling a free agent. You know, like there's
Speaker 1: a pocket here that we have to hit or we're
Speaker 1: not getting that position. So for us to go away
Speaker 1: from a safety has to be a player that maybe
Speaker 1: has a noticeably better grade on them, just for example,
Speaker 1: you know, right right, you know, for example of pet
Speaker 1: Friar Moose last season, Steelers had a first round grade
Speaker 1: on him. He was there in the middle of the
Speaker 1: second round. You take him. It's a position, yes, it's
Speaker 1: a position of of somewhat of need. Yet but they
Speaker 1: you know, they didn't necessarily have to have Pat Frere
Speaker 1: Moves coming and play right away. They had Eric Keybron.
Speaker 1: Now he brought ended up getting hurt, but you know,
Speaker 1: it kind of speeded up the process a little bit.
Speaker 1: They knew they probably were going to resign eric Hebron. Right, alright,
Speaker 1: I'm a big picture thinking. I'm sure they wanted to
Speaker 1: draft a tight end at some point. I'm sure he
Speaker 1: was their second ranked tight end. What you know, Pitts
Speaker 1: is a different animal obviously, and they knew they weren't
Speaker 1: going in the pits market. So wow, I mean, if
Speaker 1: if he's our thirtieth best player on the horizontal board
Speaker 1: and he's sitting there in the middle of the the second round.
Speaker 1: We're gonna gram yeah um. And so you know, I
Speaker 1: think I've gotten a lot of second guessing on that one, because, well,
Speaker 1: they could have taken Creede Humphrey there, Yeah, they could have,
Speaker 1: but then they would they wouldn't have had fire mouth,
Speaker 1: you know. And that's a great example though, Like remember
Speaker 1: last year there was like five centers probab we let
Speaker 1: By Humphrey down to Kendrick Green and guys in between that.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're head conversations three sixty five days ago,
Speaker 1: a week before the draft. Well, what if all the
Speaker 1: centers are there and Friar moves, what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1: We can have our pick of the centers or but
Speaker 1: there's there's good Yeah, there's no tight end that we
Speaker 1: have ranked this high exactly. The rest of these tight ends,
Speaker 1: the rest of the tight ends are like fourth round guys, Okay,
Speaker 1: then we then we take the tight end. That's you know,
Speaker 1: that's that That's how the conversation goes. Yeah, you end
Speaker 1: up now you end up passing on Creed Humphrey, But
Speaker 1: nobody Creed Humphrey was not a slam dunk. Oh, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be a star pick. Otherwise he would have been
Speaker 1: the first rounder. He's a really good prospect, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't noticeably be better than the other four or five
Speaker 1: this time last year. The Chiefs passed on him in
Speaker 1: the second round last year to take Nick Bolton like
Speaker 1: they didn't. If they would have thought he, well, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be he's gonna be a potential Pro Bowl center
Speaker 1: in his rookie year, they would have taken him with
Speaker 1: their first second round pick. They wouldn't have waited to
Speaker 1: the second second round pick, right. I mean, I do
Speaker 1: remember all the mocks we did last year. We ended
Speaker 1: up with Creed Humphrey in the second round quite often.
Speaker 1: Or I remember being on the air live when the
Speaker 1: Steelers second round pick was you know what it came
Speaker 1: up and I thought, and I'm sure I said, Creed
Speaker 1: Humphrey seems like the logical player here. But I didn't
Speaker 1: do as much homework on the Steelers horizontal board versus
Speaker 1: the vertical board, where there's only one tight end worth grabbing.
Speaker 1: And if you get him now, great, And I'm sure
Speaker 1: they felt pretty comfortable. And I know Kennrick Green didn't
Speaker 1: play great in his rookie year. That there's only four
Speaker 1: teams in the center market. One of these five will
Speaker 1: be there in round three. We'll get one of these guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: especially at center, because you know the teams that need centers,
Speaker 1: right right. I mean that's that's very obvious, pretty obvious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, that's why your personnel, your pro
Speaker 1: personnel department plays a BA factor in draft day because
Speaker 1: they're like, right now, I think Dallas is a center
Speaker 1: needy team. I'm just picking one out of the blue. Well,
Speaker 1: they're looking around, going, but the Steelers aren't gonna take one,
Speaker 1: you know, right, Yeah, That's that's what's going on right now.
Speaker 1: That's you know, and I keep seeing again mock drafts
Speaker 1: come out with the Steelers that have the Steelers taking
Speaker 1: in the interior offensive linemen. Continued. Now we're we're a
Speaker 1: week out from the draft, and I and I still
Speaker 1: see that. I'm like, no, they're not going to take
Speaker 1: an interior offensive line. They're not taking Kendrick Green or
Speaker 1: not Kendrick Green, uh uh, the Kenyan Yeah, Kenyan Green,
Speaker 1: Linder Bomb and I Zion Johnson. I just the Steelers
Speaker 1: aren't taking those guys in the first round because they've
Speaker 1: got four starter caliber interior offensive linemen on the roster
Speaker 1: right now, and that doesn't even include Hassin our Blue.
Speaker 1: You know, I think those guys are making the team,
Speaker 1: those guys. Yeah, so that's six eyes on the interior
Speaker 1: offensive line you're not keeping. You know, six will be
Speaker 1: the most you would keep. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: a late Day three guy, or maybe there's a third
Speaker 1: round pick of a player that is six four you
Speaker 1: know that is maybe a guard guard tackle. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you start him at tackle and if he fails,
Speaker 1: he bumps inside in the year. Maybe, but you don't
Speaker 1: have to have a high grade on that player. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: switching gears up real quickly. Um. Steelers announcing today, not surprisingly,
Speaker 1: that they're going back to Saint Vincent College. Um, that's awesome,
Speaker 1: fantastic news. I know Mike Tomlin very happy, but that
Speaker 1: I'm sure aren't Rooney happy about that as well? As
Speaker 1: are we? I would say we are quite happy. A
Speaker 1: little conversation and I think, yeah, it's happy. I think
Speaker 1: fans will be happy about that as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: they could go to the practices at Hines Field, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't the same, and it just wasn't. Um you
Speaker 1: had to sit in the stands. You couldn't. They couldn't
Speaker 1: sign autographs. Uh, you know all the stuff that that
Speaker 1: that you like to do and take the kids out
Speaker 1: and watch a practice and go to to what I
Speaker 1: always call Rooney World where they kids can do the
Speaker 1: forty yard dash and all that kind of stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's just so much there, you know, that's it's all.
Speaker 1: Lock it up the Hill was so cool to me,
Speaker 1: you know, signing autographs all sweaty or before practice you're
Speaker 1: right next to them in their pads and they're walking.
Speaker 1: For a lot of those guys, Matt, that's what that.
Speaker 1: That's all they've got. Like if you're you know, you're
Speaker 1: an undrafted free agent or whatever, and you know this,
Speaker 1: I would drink that in like it was the golden
Speaker 1: nectar of the gods. Like I would. I would stand
Speaker 1: there and sign autographs for three hours because you're not
Speaker 1: what are you ever gonna get that chance again? Like
Speaker 1: you've got thousands of kids are and maybe you make it,
Speaker 1: maybe you don't. I'm sure they all believe they have
Speaker 1: a chance to make it. Oh my god, that's that's
Speaker 1: it's a chance of a lifetime, Like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: all these key people are here and they want my autograph.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? This is great. It's a great environment.
Speaker 1: If if you guys have never come sat in the bleachers,
Speaker 1: round the hill, whatever, you should definitely do it. And
Speaker 1: especially if it's not a crazy ride for you. It's
Speaker 1: a cool day. Um, not the knock any of the
Speaker 1: wind out of your balloon here. But if you've never
Speaker 1: watched an NFL football practice, it's not quite as exciting
Speaker 1: as you might think, right right, But it's more about
Speaker 1: the being there. Yeah, and then you know what happens
Speaker 1: before and after practice that that really makes it special.
Speaker 1: Stop by radio booth and say hello, and say hello,
Speaker 1: we're out there. We're broadcasting. There'll be somebody from Steelers
Speaker 1: Nation Radio broadcasting pretty much all day from training camp,
Speaker 1: including ourselves. So it's it's very exciting time. And for
Speaker 1: for me as a journalist, I love it because I
Speaker 1: get an opportunity to have one on one conversations with
Speaker 1: these guys, um, you know, top of the top of
Speaker 1: the roster, all the way to the bottom, you know,
Speaker 1: I you know, I try to talk to fifty or
Speaker 1: sixty guys throughout the course of training camp. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: just because you can. You can get them one on
Speaker 1: one and you can you can learn a little bit
Speaker 1: more about them. Same thing with the coaching staff. You know,
Speaker 1: they're there are coaches on the Steelers coaching staff that
Speaker 1: have been here for a couple of years that outside
Speaker 1: of maybe one zoom call or something like that, I
Speaker 1: haven't talked to and a zoom calls a much different.
Speaker 1: It's completely different. People ask me questions about Matt Canada's
Speaker 1: you know, what's what's Matt Canada's philosophy. I'll be honest
Speaker 1: with you, I don't know, because I haven't had a
Speaker 1: one on one conversation with the man. They have to
Speaker 1: asked that question. Hey, because I don't want to give
Speaker 1: it to everybody else. I'm not gonna ask questions, the
Speaker 1: probing questions like that in front of all the other
Speaker 1: writers because then they're gonna have it too. They want
Speaker 1: to ask if they're gonna have to ask it then
Speaker 1: privately themselves. So I think I think it's a huge
Speaker 1: I think, you know, it will provide much more insight
Speaker 1: into the team. Uh for you know, for a fan perspective,
Speaker 1: because they'll be ab the reporters will be able to
Speaker 1: do it to find that stuff out. Uh, it's just
Speaker 1: so much more that you can you can glean from
Speaker 1: being at those practices, and also we can report what
Speaker 1: we see. That's huge. That's huge, right, you know that
Speaker 1: that's what you talk about it, Yeah, that's absolutely big.
Speaker 1: A couple of notes. There are some things you said
Speaker 1: is you will often reference throughout the season or a
Speaker 1: year or two later. Boy, I remember talking to Raider
Speaker 1: at his first from training camp or whatever. You know,
Speaker 1: some of these guys that aren't huge names and everyone
Speaker 1: has a mic in their face, you know, the first
Speaker 1: round pick, everyone's talks too. But that that you have
Speaker 1: a good knack for picking out the undrafted free agent
Speaker 1: that's catching the eyes of coaches or maybe a coach
Speaker 1: told you, and that's just that's just kind of Those
Speaker 1: are the kind of conversation you know you talked to.
Speaker 1: I make it a point to talk to every position
Speaker 1: coach at training camp at least once, sometimes twice, and
Speaker 1: you do that because you want to find out about
Speaker 1: these always like, hey, this guy's flashed a little bit.
Speaker 1: I've been watching him in my off base there you know,
Speaker 1: where's this guy got a chance? And nothing? They might
Speaker 1: tell you privately, they're not going to say it publicly.
Speaker 1: I don't know the tricks of the trade. I'm not
Speaker 1: a reporter, but if a position coach were too unsolicited
Speaker 1: mention a name to me, that's not an obvious one, boy,
Speaker 1: I mean, radars go remember, no, no, I'm gonna watch
Speaker 1: that guy a little a little more closely and see
Speaker 1: what's there. You know, by the same token, I can
Speaker 1: remember seeing, you know, James Harrison's first training camp and
Speaker 1: you see James Harrison winning is one on ones like
Speaker 1: crazy and just beating people up, and then you asked
Speaker 1: a position coach about it, or one of the coaches
Speaker 1: about him, like, yeah, but he doesn't know what he's doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think that these players know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: But you know, like does he aligne right before the snap?
Speaker 1: You know, does he read the play? I mean, they're
Speaker 1: so it's mind boggling to me. Whenever you get a
Speaker 1: chance to go in a position room or a coach
Speaker 1: is only meeting at defensive staff meeting and they're talking
Speaker 1: about the finer, finer points of the game. That's what
Speaker 1: they're looking for and you know, I'm not bashing leak Willis.
Speaker 1: I love the leak Wills. I hope he's a Steeler,
Speaker 1: don't come wrong, but like he knows none of that
Speaker 1: stuff yet. Snow, you know, exactly right, right right, totally
Speaker 1: multiple clay that could go good or bad, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one last thing I wanted to touch on here. Report
Speaker 1: coming out today that Deebo Samuel was asked Tots for
Speaker 1: a trade. Um, people get well the Steelers with the
Speaker 1: Steelers trade for Deebo Samuel. Ye, would they be a
Speaker 1: whole segment? Yeah, but it would they'd be interested in
Speaker 1: Deebo Samuel. Sure, I'm sure they would be interested in
Speaker 1: Deebo Samuel. But then you got to pay him. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean again without going twenty minutes on a diet
Speaker 1: tribe about this first off. Two, the Steelers picked up
Speaker 1: myleth Boy Catt today. But I think it's a little
Speaker 1: bit noteworthy to big strong fast didn't work work with
Speaker 1: the Ravens at all. But it's you mentioned last week
Speaker 1: you thought there was more of a need for a
Speaker 1: big outside guy than there are. It's an interior and
Speaker 1: that fills it, and that it doesn't fill it fill it.
Speaker 1: It provides you with a guy who has played NFL
Speaker 1: snaps right to fill. At worst, he's your he's your
Speaker 1: fifth receiver because he could play special teams right right,
Speaker 1: right exactly, you know, so a limit, it lessens the
Speaker 1: need on draft day. But again, this is a huge
Speaker 1: conversation because I think there's a lot going on to
Speaker 1: the receiver position in the NFL right now. But Debo
Speaker 1: is not alone. He's just the one in in the news.
Speaker 1: Metcalf A, J Brown, McLaurin, Deebo and Frankly Deante Johnson
Speaker 1: who hasn't made any stink. But all those guys were
Speaker 1: drafted on Day two the same year and have been
Speaker 1: phenomenal football players. They're heading into year four and heading
Speaker 1: into year four and haven't made any money, you know,
Speaker 1: like they're frustrated. I mean, and there's massive wide receiver
Speaker 1: played iconics, changing moving around the NFL right now. You
Speaker 1: mentioned mc Canada. I think he would adore Deebo Samuel,
Speaker 1: but you gotta pay him a year from now two.
Speaker 1: I mean him and Deonte are in the same boat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you trade for him, then you gotta pay him,
Speaker 1: and you what you're gonna have to pay him there's
Speaker 1: a reason he wants out of San Francisco because they
Speaker 1: don't want to pay him. Or yeah, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how all these things are going, you know, because would
Speaker 1: you rather And again, seel is gonna face this with
Speaker 1: Deante Johnson because it might be a situation too with
Speaker 1: with the Deebo Samuel that he doesn't like how they're
Speaker 1: using him. It's possible. I was thinking he's a little
Speaker 1: bit different than everybody else. He maybe look at Disco.
Speaker 1: If if I'm gonna be part running back, part wide receiver,
Speaker 1: my career is gonna get shortened. And it will and
Speaker 1: it will absolutely know if I'm carrying the balls, if
Speaker 1: I'm carrying the ball six to ten times, and there
Speaker 1: were games last year where he had double digit carries
Speaker 1: and these are in the round carries. These are they say,
Speaker 1: running back carry's, which makes which makes no sense to me,
Speaker 1: because one thing if forts have had left and right
Speaker 1: is running backs. Oh yeah, and they've proven for thirty years,
Speaker 1: going back to Daddy Shanny, that you can win with
Speaker 1: okay running backs. You know, they're better with good ones.
Speaker 1: I think the beating they gave they gave Debo was
Speaker 1: a little foolish but they were Final four team and
Speaker 1: they were winning. And it's hard to you know, tell
Speaker 1: a coach that stop doing what you're doing when you're
Speaker 1: winning playoff games left and right. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: the idea is to win. But right, right, right, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not good for debo, not good for debo. But
Speaker 1: I don't I don't see the Steelers getting into that conversation.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a break. He is Matt Williams and
Speaker 1: I am Dale Lally. You're listening to the Drive here
Speaker 1: on Steelers Nation Radio. When we come back. Well, Tom
Speaker 1: mcshae and uh uh right, mel Kiper have put together there.
Speaker 1: They're three round dueling. We'll we'll go over that next
Speaker 1: right after this on the Drive