Speaker 1: All right, good morning. UM, I just want to update
Speaker 1: you a little bit on some injuries again. You know
Speaker 1: about Zach and Leo are both out. We're gonna hold
Speaker 1: Michael out of today's practice obviously with the nose fracture
Speaker 1: and the quad contusion there, and also hold Isaac out
Speaker 1: today with the with the peck strength, just to give
Speaker 1: him extra rest. Right, Yeah, it's it's just not it's
Speaker 1: not it's still still sore basically, Um, excuse me, it's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it just not it's healing, but the strength
Speaker 1: it's not strength yet. The strength is not back necessarily.
Speaker 1: So um, we just want to kind of give him,
Speaker 1: give him this week and and just sort of monitor that,
Speaker 1: get him, get him all the treatment he can and
Speaker 1: and uh, get him, get him through the buy and
Speaker 1: then and then we'll see. So where he's at after that,
Speaker 1: Please send by the game. Who set him back to
Speaker 1: the options are starting that first five? I don't think so,
Speaker 1: not at all. Um. You know, again, he he's he's
Speaker 1: had a lot of reps in there and and uh
Speaker 1: his preseason reps in there, and and uh, uh it
Speaker 1: wouldn't it wouldn't set him back. And he again he's
Speaker 1: he's one of those kids. Very sharp kid, a studious kid.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't wouldn't set him back at all. He's fine, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, just just getting treatment on it and and
Speaker 1: uh but but he came out of the game good.
Speaker 1: He's good to go. Carson came out good, you know,
Speaker 1: a little sort today. But they're all sore, you know,
Speaker 1: only two days removed from from the game. So um,
Speaker 1: just uh, just normal normal game wear and tear. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, the biggest the biggest thing really, and it's
Speaker 1: what you see on film, is that the the aggressive style.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're they love to to get after the
Speaker 1: pastor they'll they'll they'll bring those two middle backers. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, Shazier and Timmins will bring both of those guys.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, one thing you notice too is
Speaker 1: they love to keep their eyes on the quarterback and
Speaker 1: vision on the quarterback. And so it becomes um for
Speaker 1: any quarterback, you know, where where you're looking in the
Speaker 1: progression of plays. Um, you know, you gotta gotta be
Speaker 1: able to look you look off and and do some
Speaker 1: different things that way. And then uh, um you know,
Speaker 1: because it's really when teams that play man I don't
Speaker 1: want to say it's easy, but man coverage is man coverage.
Speaker 1: You know what you're gonna get. When it's zone, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit harder. You gotta be a little more
Speaker 1: detailed and precise in your routes and your progressions. Four
Speaker 1: tee stealers three stealers start. But is different than yeah,
Speaker 1: they were, they were a little similar. This the Steelers
Speaker 1: actually play a true thirty four. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you'll see more of that front with it with this group,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, still play their under front and
Speaker 1: overfront and and mix it up a little bit and
Speaker 1: there in their base packages. So uh yeah, as far
Speaker 1: as the three games this is, this is more of
Speaker 1: a thirty four look you see. You know that that's
Speaker 1: That's one of his strength obviously, is he wants to
Speaker 1: get better every single day. And uh again, in here
Speaker 1: this morning, he and chasing the quarterbacks and and and
Speaker 1: starting in on Pittsburgh, and um, I mean, his his
Speaker 1: his own motivation. He he wants to be he wants
Speaker 1: to be good. I mean, he wants to be one
Speaker 1: of the top quarterbacks in the National Football League at
Speaker 1: some point and and um, you know he he looks
Speaker 1: at excuse me. He looks at the games and goes,
Speaker 1: you know, man, I could have I could have done
Speaker 1: that better on that player. My eyes could have been here,
Speaker 1: I could have sped my feet up on this this drop.
Speaker 1: And those are all things that come with playing and
Speaker 1: with time. And again, you know he attacks every day
Speaker 1: that way. Um, and it's a it's a true sign
Speaker 1: of a professional that that uh uh he can he
Speaker 1: can handle his craft and wants to develop his craft
Speaker 1: that way. With Ben, well, you know, the first couple
Speaker 1: of games, I mean obviously, uh, he's such a smart guy.
Speaker 1: He's such a I mean they're they're on a they're
Speaker 1: on a almost a different level they're but they're on
Speaker 1: the same page, you know, offensively with his receivers and backs,
Speaker 1: and you see him get the ball out of his
Speaker 1: hand extremely fast, and um, you know, you're they're not
Speaker 1: not getting to the quarterback. Uh, defenses aren't getting there
Speaker 1: just because of that. And you know, he's so smart
Speaker 1: and and uh, it's fun to watch him really and
Speaker 1: how he manages that that offense and how he kind
Speaker 1: of commands uh that team and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody rallies around him and and you know obviously a
Speaker 1: big leader and and uh you know, as you know,
Speaker 1: it's a he's a tough guy to to get to
Speaker 1: because because of that, you know, is quarterback. What do
Speaker 1: you think about Ben Well, you know, um, I think
Speaker 1: because of his size. Um, you know, he's hard to
Speaker 1: bring down. I think the way he uh, I know,
Speaker 1: the older you get, the more you have to you know,
Speaker 1: put put emphasis on your offseason programs and and your
Speaker 1: diet and exercise and all that kind of stuff and
Speaker 1: and um and then and then just how how mentally
Speaker 1: sharp you can be, and and knowing your offense inside
Speaker 1: and out and knowing your personnel and moving the guys
Speaker 1: around getting the ball out of your hand. It's much
Speaker 1: like what Peyton does at the end of end of
Speaker 1: his career. He was he was getting that ball out
Speaker 1: of his hand extremely fast. And and that's tough. That's
Speaker 1: tough when you when you go up against you know,
Speaker 1: a pass rush like we have, getting the ball out
Speaker 1: of your hand. Um, it can it can frustrate a defense.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's that's what we try to pride
Speaker 1: ourselves offensively, the same way you know with Carson, get
Speaker 1: the ball out of your hand and just keep pressure
Speaker 1: on the defense. Starter. You referenced Steers and Big Band
Speaker 1: and what they did when he was a rookie as
Speaker 1: type of example, what did you see back then, um,
Speaker 1: that that they did well for reading? Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: obviously the size, the arm strength, UM. Carson probably a
Speaker 1: little bit better, UM athlete, Um, you know, moving around
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um. And and then the fact that
Speaker 1: you know they had great, great defenses around Ben, and
Speaker 1: and a running game and special teams and and um
Speaker 1: you can utilize all three of those and and and
Speaker 1: help your young quarterbacks that way. UM. You've seen it,
Speaker 1: you know time and time again with with teams that
Speaker 1: have that formula can be successful early with a young quarterback. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, Ben is you know, one of the best
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the league of extending plays. And um, the
Speaker 1: one thing he does well is is many things he
Speaker 1: does well, but one of them is he keeps his
Speaker 1: eyes down the field. And and it's something that uh,
Speaker 1: you know, UM, as defensive backs, you sometimes you get
Speaker 1: caught looking into the backfield and sort of let your
Speaker 1: coverage down and and and you know this is a
Speaker 1: week with the with the weapons they have on offense,
Speaker 1: you gotta just you gotta just stick to your guy
Speaker 1: and maintain discipline that way throughout the entire play. More
Speaker 1: utilized Guyberg you got. You got to maintain an advantage
Speaker 1: sort of the unscouted look that a defense may not
Speaker 1: have seen on film. Um, you're seeing a ton of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, drop eight into coverage down Their teams are
Speaker 1: throwing the ball so much down there. You know, the
Speaker 1: run game becomes real important. Uh down there, the RPO
Speaker 1: things with the quarterbacks become become important down there. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, our our our decision making, our timing, our accuracy.
Speaker 1: We talk about this stuff every day. Um. And and
Speaker 1: particularly in the red zone where where Carson has to
Speaker 1: be on point. Um. And then utilize in your strength,
Speaker 1: utilize your personnel. You know, a DGB, a tall receiver,
Speaker 1: Jordan a tall receiver the other day, the screen inside
Speaker 1: the five, things like that, so you kind of keep
Speaker 1: things mixed up and use your personnel that way. Well, um,
Speaker 1: if you're counting, Matt Tobin is a third tight end
Speaker 1: right now. Um. Yeah, well it just yeah, it helps you.
Speaker 1: It helps you obviously in the run game. You got
Speaker 1: bigger bodies protecting the edge. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: you can still throw the football with with him in
Speaker 1: the football game, and uh um, it's it's an advantage
Speaker 1: I think sometimes, um, you know, with Trey Selik or
Speaker 1: with Art's in there. Um, it creates a little bit
Speaker 1: of a matchup and and you can you can you
Speaker 1: can kind of set the defense based on based on
Speaker 1: the personnel and the and the formation called, and and
Speaker 1: that can give you an advantage as well. Talk off
Speaker 1: during the week about necessarily on the field, you go
Speaker 1: out in the field expose himself just because he really
Speaker 1: could help himself. And I'm wondering, do you think that
Speaker 1: there's a way to rewire quarterback. I think it's hard
Speaker 1: to rewire him. Um. I think you just need to
Speaker 1: constantly keep talking with him and uh um, showing him,
Speaker 1: you know, going back and showing him those plays on
Speaker 1: tape and and just just making him aware and conscious
Speaker 1: of Hey, you know again, as I mentioned before, I
Speaker 1: don't need the extra yard right here. It's okay to
Speaker 1: throw the ball away, it's okay to you know, step
Speaker 1: out of bounds or slide and and just keep showing
Speaker 1: him over and over and over again because not only
Speaker 1: his longevity, but obviously for the team as well. And
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that your quarterback is UM,
Speaker 1: especially your starting quarterback is the guy that's protecting themselves
Speaker 1: the most. Where you're finding the back to the three
Speaker 1: tights can sometimes use two modelsive linement at boil and
Speaker 1: back to the Sometimes you satisfied with that or you
Speaker 1: see yourself adding a full background. UM. You don't ever
Speaker 1: want to take offensive players off the field and put
Speaker 1: d lineman an offensive lineman on the field. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, you can create some bigger size, bigger bodies,
Speaker 1: you know in the run game. UM down the road
Speaker 1: as we go, if you know, if we can develop
Speaker 1: a fullback at some point, we will do that. We can.
Speaker 1: We're constantly looking at that at that position, not only
Speaker 1: around the National Football League but on our roster. But
Speaker 1: right now the three tight end set with Matt Tobin
Speaker 1: in there has has proven beneficial. We're getting out of
Speaker 1: it what we need to and we just got to
Speaker 1: continue to develop. That package is pretty much caught up
Speaker 1: after all the time you know in this stas because
Speaker 1: you want to you know, yeah, yeah for sure, and
Speaker 1: and he's he's he's in a good position right now
Speaker 1: and having four running backs available, you know, on game
Speaker 1: day is also it helps Ryan, it helps Darren. It
Speaker 1: gives them a break and they're not they're not, you know,
Speaker 1: um taking the pounding every single play. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, Windell gives you that to him and Kenyon
Speaker 1: Barner both give you that explosiveness that you want to
Speaker 1: tell back. And and uh, you know one thing Windell
Speaker 1: has two it's got great hands and the ability to
Speaker 1: catch the ball out of the backfield. So it's something
Speaker 1: that we can we can continue to work follow Is
Speaker 1: that something you can see going forward? Just like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so. And and uh, you know you're seeing
Speaker 1: you're seeing, um, two of those guys on the field
Speaker 1: at the same time, you know, two those half back
Speaker 1: type bodies at the same time. And and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the more the more opportunities to put athletes on the field, um,
Speaker 1: you know, to create matchups in this whole leagues about matchups.
Speaker 1: The better for us offensively with the bats a guy
Speaker 1: gets at hand the hand it's a little both. But yeah,
Speaker 1: if a guys, if a guy's rolling, you know, in
Speaker 1: the run game, we want to keep keep feeding him,
Speaker 1: you know, unless it's a big run then we give
Speaker 1: him a break. And and and make make the change.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you want to, you want to. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like it's nice to have that guy on the
Speaker 1: bed you can put in at anytime. DGBS two catches,
Speaker 1: both came on the first drive Monday night. Really wasn't
Speaker 1: even targeted like five minutes. What do you see from him?
Speaker 1: I guess he was in a formation. What are you
Speaker 1: not seeing when you see? Yeah, well that that that
Speaker 1: penalty was actually on Nelson more than that was on
Speaker 1: him because he ended up coming in motion. But those
Speaker 1: are things we can fix. You know. We actually had
Speaker 1: um DGB targeted a couple of times from a play
Speaker 1: call standpoint in the red zone. It's just that the
Speaker 1: play design went to the other side of the field
Speaker 1: and Carson went the other way. Um. You know, we
Speaker 1: just continue to keep working with him. We've increased his
Speaker 1: his workload the last last week and we want to
Speaker 1: continue to do that and move him around. The more
Speaker 1: comfortable he gets with our system. You gotta know where
Speaker 1: he's at. I mean, you see, you see what they've
Speaker 1: done with him, and you're moving him around the field
Speaker 1: in different spots and single them up, put him in
Speaker 1: bunch packages, stack packages. I mean they you know, one
Speaker 1: thing Todd does is does well is he moves his
Speaker 1: personnel around and you know, he takes advantage of that.
Speaker 1: He knows what he has and um, you need to
Speaker 1: know where where he's at. But they've got some explosive
Speaker 1: guys on offense that, um, I think if you put
Speaker 1: all your attention to one guy, another one can can
Speaker 1: can can beat you. So you got to pay attention
Speaker 1: to all those guys. How was that back? Well, I
Speaker 1: think you just you just put on the tape and
Speaker 1: you just watch him and how how he competes. And um,
Speaker 1: sometimes body language on film can can raise an eyebrow,
Speaker 1: good or bad. And in his case, it was good
Speaker 1: body language, meaning you know how he um, you know,
Speaker 1: um completes a deep throw or in his case, he
Speaker 1: makes a nice run and he gets up and he
Speaker 1: excited and motivating and the guys you can just see
Speaker 1: the guys sort of rally and it's you know, you
Speaker 1: don't see at all unless you watch a TV copy
Speaker 1: obviously of the game. But those are things that kind
Speaker 1: of stand out and you kind of raise the eyebrow
Speaker 1: that that this kid has that fight in him, has
Speaker 1: that drive in him, and that competitiveness that you want
Speaker 1: out of that quarterback position. Yeah, you saw it, you
Speaker 1: saw it. I mean I can remember even going back
Speaker 1: and I think it was the first game of the
Speaker 1: season against Montana and just not really knowing much of
Speaker 1: him at the time. But but here and here's this
Speaker 1: this kid out of North Dakota State, you know, playing Montana,
Speaker 1: and you watch the game and you're kind of going
Speaker 1: something special here. It would be this would be a
Speaker 1: good test for us. This will be a great opportunity
Speaker 1: for our players to go against a fine football team. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, the Steelers have great tradition, great history, They're
Speaker 1: They're a good football team and coach Tomlin does a
Speaker 1: great job getting those guys ready to play. And I
Speaker 1: think I think from our standpoint is this will be
Speaker 1: a you know, it's only it's still early in the season.
Speaker 1: Does it make or break your season? No, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, it's a good it's a
Speaker 1: good benchmark for us and in our in our you know, uh,
Speaker 1: success of the year. I wish I was there now. UM,
Speaker 1: I actually spending spend quite a bit of time. I
Speaker 1: want to. I want to I want to get in
Speaker 1: there and I want them to. Um. That's where all
Speaker 1: the dialogue begins, so I can I can hear what
Speaker 1: they're thinking. The quarter backs, particularly Carson Um after practice
Speaker 1: when we're watching film, a chance to get in there
Speaker 1: and watch practice tape and and things like that, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, as often as I can, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: in those be in those meetings. Yeah, yeah, all quarterback. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a tight room. Which a tight room. I just
Speaker 1: let I let I let John, I let the quarterback
Speaker 1: coach run the meeting. Um. If I interject, I interject,
Speaker 1: But you know, I the way it works is I
Speaker 1: send my message through Frank, Frank, through the through the
Speaker 1: position coaches, and at the same time, I, you know,
Speaker 1: if I want to interject something, I'll interject. And and
Speaker 1: just making sure there's one voice in the in the
Speaker 1: meeting room and they're not hearing from now, they're not
Speaker 1: hearing three different answers from three different people. The message
Speaker 1: is the same. Thanks guys,