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

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

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

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Speaker 1: and I am in beautiful, beautiful mobile, Alabama. MAT's back

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Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh. I hope it's warm there. Matt's nice and

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Speaker 1: plus seventy degrees today a mobile. It's not seven a year,

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Speaker 1: but a little bit of snow starting to melt a little,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's a little chilly though. Yeah, you know

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Speaker 1: that's all part of the process. Actually, would prefer seeing

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Speaker 1: the snow melt after after going through, uh watching it

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Speaker 1: all fall on the ground and shoveling it. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's there's always a little bit of relief there when

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Speaker 1: it starts to melt away the war. There's also some

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Speaker 1: relief because, well, Matt, we know who the participants will

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Speaker 1: be in the Super Bowl this year. Yeah. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I talking about this on my podcast is like, if

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Speaker 1: you told me one year ago that the Bengals were

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Speaker 1: gonna play Matthew Stafford in the Super Bowl, I would

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Speaker 1: have locked you up. I mean, I think about one

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Speaker 1: year ago Bengals were the story around the Bengals was

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Speaker 1: should they take Chase or Seoul? Is Burrow going to

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Speaker 1: be ready for camp? He's coming off this massive knee injury.

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Speaker 1: You know, the Browns are gonna win the division. The

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Speaker 1: Ravens look strong, the Steelers stink. I mean that was

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Speaker 1: the a f C North narrative one year ago. And

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Speaker 1: I just heard this today too. Today actually is the

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Speaker 1: anniversary of day the Rams traded for Stafford. I guess

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Speaker 1: it was right around Super Bowl time. But you know,

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Speaker 1: if you told me Stafford was going to be in

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Speaker 1: the super Bowl before that, I would have been like,

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Speaker 1: your bonkers. That's the worst team in the league, you know.

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Speaker 1: And it's just I say that because steelr fans. Things

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Speaker 1: can change really Fastinus leaked. Yeah, I mean the Bengals

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Speaker 1: were four and twelve a year ago, and not part

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Speaker 1: of that was because you know, Burrown the last six

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Speaker 1: games of the season, but they weren't a great team

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Speaker 1: with him last you know, last year he was you know,

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Speaker 1: he was still going through this all and quite frankly,

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Speaker 1: I mean there is a little bit of luck involved

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Speaker 1: with getting there. It's good fortune, I should say, not

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Speaker 1: necessarily luck, but good fortune. The Bengals were one of

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Speaker 1: the healthiest teams in the league all season long. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, the Rams went through some down periods as well.

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Speaker 1: It looked for a while there it looked like, oh boy,

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Speaker 1: they just aren't going to get their stuff together and

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Speaker 1: make a run at this. And then all of a

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Speaker 1: sudden they started to build some momentum. Um. I know

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Speaker 1: a lot of people in Pittsburgh and Steeler fans in particular,

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Speaker 1: are looking at this and going, well, how can the

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Speaker 1: Steelers compete with this in this conference? You know, in

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Speaker 1: the next decade, You've got Mahomes and you've got You've

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Speaker 1: got Burrow, and you've got you know, Alan and Buffalo

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Speaker 1: and Herbert and well, first of all, Herbert and Lamar

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Speaker 1: Jackson didn't make the playoffs this year, So just having

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Speaker 1: the star quarterback doesn't guarantee you anything. Second, the forty

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Speaker 1: Niners with Jimmy Garoppola quarterback where a couple of plays

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Speaker 1: away from being in the Super Bowl, very close to it, right,

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Speaker 1: and you're just a back up your point. I mean,

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Speaker 1: people don't talk about luck enough or good fortune enough

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Speaker 1: in this game, but it's instrumental because there's still even

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Speaker 1: when you incorporate the Super Bowl run it's still twenty games.

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Speaker 1: It's not two, it's not eighty two. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: not like the other leagues where you have a bad day,

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Speaker 1: no one thinks about it. I say that all the time. Um,

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Speaker 1: I'm not taking anything away from the Bengals. Their way

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Speaker 1: ahead of schedule, and they look like the team to

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Speaker 1: beat in the division for the foreseeable future. I would

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Speaker 1: never argue that. But to your point, they were much

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Speaker 1: healthier than the rest of the division. They you know,

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Speaker 1: little things like they had the most, they benefited the

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Speaker 1: most out of all thirty two teams in the league

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Speaker 1: with penalties, you know, the most yardage, the most penalty differential. Um.

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Speaker 1: And a big Belichick thing that I very much believe

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Speaker 1: in is I think more games are lost in this

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Speaker 1: league than they are one And frankly, to me, the

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Speaker 1: Chiefs and to some degree the Niners lost it when

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Speaker 1: it mattered most more than the other teams stepping up

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Speaker 1: and taken The Chiefs lost that a f C championship

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Speaker 1: game at the end of the first half. Absolutely when

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Speaker 1: they when they didn't put points on the board at

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Speaker 1: the end of that half, when Mahomes had whatever you

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Speaker 1: want to call that, I know people were blaming Andy

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Speaker 1: Reid for that. Andy Reid didn't tell him to throw

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Speaker 1: the ball to Tyreek Hill in the flat and he

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Speaker 1: thought he still had a time out left. Um, that's

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Speaker 1: just a that's just a lack of concentration or a

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Speaker 1: lack of focus in that situation by Patrick Mahomes. Um,

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Speaker 1: they could have survived at second half that they had

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Speaker 1: if that doesn't happen, if they at least get three there. Now,

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Speaker 1: certainly we don't know how the rest of the game

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Speaker 1: plays out. If the Bengals a lot of momentum going

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Speaker 1: into the half, that was the play of the game

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Speaker 1: to me, and to me that is the exact line

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Speaker 1: of demarcation when because I remember when they went up

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Speaker 1: after their third touchdown, I was texting my buds, I'm

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Speaker 1: like and I was put on Twitter, like, congratulations Bengals.

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Speaker 1: This has been a great year. You've hit You've now

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Speaker 1: been outclassed by the team that's probably gonna win it all.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they had had took total control of the game.

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Speaker 1: And I don't know how many times since that whistle

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Speaker 1: blew last night until now, I've said words like hubris, arrogance,

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Speaker 1: you know, from the Chief's perspective, like we're so much

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Speaker 1: better and you guys, we can fiddle around by the

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Speaker 1: gold line and do our our goofy gold line plays

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Speaker 1: and things like that. And they that all year though

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Speaker 1: you saw that, you know, all of a sudden, you know,

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Speaker 1: they they get down to the two yard line and

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Speaker 1: there's Blake Bell taking snaps at center things like that.

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Speaker 1: It's just, yeah, it's just silly things that you shouldn't do.

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Speaker 1: You know. You got to get the ball into the

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Speaker 1: end zone. And and there's something to being trying to

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Speaker 1: be too cute, and I think question and back to

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Speaker 1: just that, even that play is I'm sure well, from

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Speaker 1: what I was told by several sources, Andy Reid was

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Speaker 1: absolutely fuming at halftime, So I'm sure it was either

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Speaker 1: him or the enemy. I think the enemy does the

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Speaker 1: headset stuff that told Mahomes, Okay, we're gonna go We're

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Speaker 1: gonna run a play here because you want to and

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Speaker 1: we we trust you. But there's two options. You're either

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Speaker 1: gonna throw it immediately in the end zone past the

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Speaker 1: goal line, or you're gonna throw it in the seats. Well,

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Speaker 1: Pat says, I'm a superstar, ty reeks a superstar. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna dump it to him. He's better. We're better than

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Speaker 1: you guys, you know, hubrist galore. And he obviously still

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Speaker 1: thought he had a time out too, right because he

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Speaker 1: immediately that wasn't construed to him on the headset. But

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Speaker 1: he should be on top of that to begin with.

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Speaker 1: And then you let the Bengals in it. You know,

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Speaker 1: it had to be totally different attitudes going into halftime

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Speaker 1: and the Bengals come out and frankly, kick your button

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Speaker 1: a second half. Yeah, I tweeted something out about that

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Speaker 1: first half. You know, in the the Chiefs scored in

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Speaker 1: their first three possessions and should have scored on their

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Speaker 1: fourth possession. Let's be frank um. You know that the

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Speaker 1: Steelers defensively in the first half against the Chiefs a

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. Defended that, you know, they had

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Speaker 1: five consecutive possessions against that Chief's offense in which they

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Speaker 1: didn't score points that are notoriously fast starters, right, And

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Speaker 1: people went nuts to me, Well, it doesn't mean that.

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Speaker 1: What my point wasn't that the Steelers were somehow better

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Speaker 1: than the Bengals or anything like that. People misconstrued it.

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Speaker 1: What I'm saying is is you need. If you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have a stretch like that with your defense, your offense

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Speaker 1: also has to then do something. And the Steelers offense

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Speaker 1: didn't do anything. The Bengals meanwhile, when they went through

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Speaker 1: that same stretch in the second half where they were

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Speaker 1: stopping the Chiefs, their offense got them back into the game.

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Speaker 1: The defensive gave them the opportunity to do that, but

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Speaker 1: the offense followed suit. You know, you can't go through

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Speaker 1: periods of time against that offense. You're not gonna stop

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Speaker 1: them forever. And so you know, when they're not scoring,

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Speaker 1: you better score. And that's exactly what at least slow

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Speaker 1: them down. You have to capitalize and and so you

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Speaker 1: know that's that's playing good team football. Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: playing off of each other. So you know, get a

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Speaker 1: tip of the cap to the Bengals. They did a

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Speaker 1: good job there in the Super Bowl. Um, here's the

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Speaker 1: thing when people talk about, well, how how are you

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Speaker 1: going to compete against this team in the in the

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Speaker 1: in the you know for the next five to ten years,

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Speaker 1: life now gets more difficult for the Bengals. I I

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Speaker 1: realized that they have a ton of cap space, the

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Speaker 1: most cap space in the division, But guys who are

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Speaker 1: on Super Bowl teams are coveted when they become free agents.

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Speaker 1: That might not have been the case before when Bengals

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Speaker 1: players became free agents. They also they also are gonna

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Speaker 1: be picking at least thirty ft in the first round.

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Speaker 1: Not used to that. They're not used to that. Are

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Speaker 1: they going to get the blue chip offensive linemen that

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Speaker 1: they need to protect Joe Burrow? Because that's still a

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Speaker 1: problem that's going to be a problem in the Super

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Speaker 1: Bowl against Aaron Donald and company. I'm I'm I'll bet

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Speaker 1: everything I own that this year's first round pick isn't

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Speaker 1: as good as last year's first round pick or the

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Speaker 1: year before, you know what I mean. Like again, but

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Speaker 1: they're not getting an impact player at thirty one that

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Speaker 1: they would have gotten when they were they typically drafted

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Speaker 1: at ten or or above. No, this is usually where

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Speaker 1: they're picking in the second round, where they get Te

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Speaker 1: Higgins right exactly. So again, life gets more difficult for

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Speaker 1: them now, just like life gets more difficult from a.

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Speaker 1: Homes and Company and has been. The Chiefs have twenty

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Speaker 1: four free agents, that's almost half the roster, and they

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Speaker 1: don't have any cap space space. Right, You know, so

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Speaker 1: they're gonna look markedly different next year. So just because you,

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Speaker 1: again justin Herbert Lamar Jackson, didn't make the playoffs this year,

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Speaker 1: just because you have the star quarterback doesn't mean you're

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Speaker 1: automatically penciled in to the postseason. It doesn't work that way.

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Speaker 1: You also have to have a team around those guys. No, um,

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Speaker 1: I definitely want to talk about that more. And I'm

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Speaker 1: not speaking for you, but we all agree you want

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Speaker 1: to have that guy absolutely, Yeah, it's a cheat code,

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Speaker 1: but still you have to do the right things around him, right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't mean, oh, we got our quarterback,

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Speaker 1: it's we're all it's easy street now everything. You know,

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Speaker 1: we'll be in the Super Bowl hunt for the next

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Speaker 1: ten years. It doesn't not work that way, right, Um.

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Speaker 1: I want to get back to the game for a

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Speaker 1: minute though, back to the the Hubrists and the arrogance

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Speaker 1: by the Chiefs because people didn't I didn't see many

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Speaker 1: people talking about this today, but when the Chiefs handed

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Speaker 1: the ball to McKinnon or Edwards a lair, they were

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Speaker 1: gashing them the whole game. But Andy Reid has to throw,

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Speaker 1: when Mahomes has to do the special stuff and you know,

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Speaker 1: just that's the beauty of Brady to me is he'll

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Speaker 1: gladly hand it to Dylan or Moroney or Blunt or whoever,

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Speaker 1: five hundred times a game if you're not stopping it.

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Speaker 1: Or he'll throw the short screen or short pass over

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Speaker 1: and over and over if it's getting five six yards

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Speaker 1: or a clip. You know, it's not I have to

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Speaker 1: look good. I need to make lefty throws. No, look

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Speaker 1: at its grove a four hundred yards. You know, just

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Speaker 1: take what's working and they that's an Andy Reid thing

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Speaker 1: in a big way, even going back to his Philly days. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it definitely is. You mentioned Tom Brady, Matt. Of course,

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Speaker 1: there were the reports over the weekend that Brady is

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Speaker 1: going to retire. Um. Obviously if that happens, Gronk also retires.

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Speaker 1: Uh yeah, Um, I've gotten a lot of questions. I

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Speaker 1: wrote about this and we actually kind of talked about

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Speaker 1: it last week. What happens at Brady retires? Well, now

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Speaker 1: it's a reality, and what happens um, you know for

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Speaker 1: that for that Hall of Fame in class in twenty

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Speaker 1: in five years when Ben Roethlisberger is also an eligible um,

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Speaker 1: you know, Peter King wrote about it today and said,

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Speaker 1: all you know, Brady will have his own day. Ben

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Speaker 1: can wait. That's a that's a bunch of bs. If

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Speaker 1: the guys are deserving to get Yeah, Um, it's that

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Speaker 1: Peter King is a blowhard. I mean he he really is.

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Speaker 1: He really is. I again, I sat in that meeting

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Speaker 1: with him, with those guys a couple of years ago,

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Speaker 1: and King was the only guy in that room who

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Speaker 1: consistently on every player had to give his two cents,

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Speaker 1: like nobody else's opinion could possibly matter except for Peter King.

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Speaker 1: The guy just loves to hear himself talk. Now, I

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Speaker 1: would hope that the voters, the Hall of Fame voters,

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Speaker 1: will look at that in an honest way. I mean again,

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Speaker 1: as I mentioned last week, there have been other instances

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Speaker 1: where two star quarterbacks went into the Hall of Fame

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Speaker 1: at the same time. Dan Marino went in the same years.

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Speaker 1: Is Steve Young for God's sakes, right? You know Am

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Speaker 1: Aikman went in the same year. Is Warren Moon? Um?

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Speaker 1: You know, just three you came up with just because

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Speaker 1: it's just because it's Brady. I mean, if that's the case,

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Speaker 1: they give Brady his own draft, his own the Hall

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Speaker 1: of fame class and don't put anybody else in. And

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Speaker 1: they put him in right now, Yeah, go with the

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Speaker 1: five years song, song and dance or whatever, you know, Right,

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Speaker 1: But if the guys, if the guy's deserving to go in,

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Speaker 1: he goes in that I mean, you know that it

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Speaker 1: shouldn't be Well, he's going to have his own day, right,

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Speaker 1: I think that's the most foolish thing going. I mean,

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Speaker 1: why ding someone else that's more than qualified is an

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Speaker 1: easy decision. Because here's the other thing is gonna happen, Matt,

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Speaker 1: is that you're gonna have Eli Manning eligible two years

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Speaker 1: before that. Yeah, then you're gonna have Rivers and Breeze

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Speaker 1: right at the same time. So now you're gonna have

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Speaker 1: three quarterbacks. I assume Breeze is getting in. I think

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Speaker 1: Rivers is the one that suffers. That's gonna be the problem.

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Speaker 1: So then you're gonna have You're gonna have Breeze, Roethlisberger,

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Speaker 1: and Brady on the same ballot. Then I think Rivers

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Speaker 1: will suffer there too. And he showed better. Hope that

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Speaker 1: Rogers doesn't retire a year from right, you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean, He's keep bumped and keep getting bumped. I

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Speaker 1: hope that wouldn't happen to Ben. That's why you don't

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Speaker 1: bump the guys. You vote them in when you when

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Speaker 1: you can get the opportunity to vote them in. Right.

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Speaker 1: A couple of notes on Brady. First of all, it

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Speaker 1: goes about saying his greatness and all those things. That's

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Speaker 1: tremendous and gronk to me, is the most deserving tight

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Speaker 1: end in history as well, you know, I mean so

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Speaker 1: Adrian Peterson could be up. It could be the best

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Speaker 1: class ever. Maybe that's how you pump it is. This

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Speaker 1: is the best Hall of Fame class in the history

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Speaker 1: of the Hall of Fame, which you very well could be.

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Speaker 1: You're insane if you make any of those four Ben Peterson,

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Speaker 1: you know, any of those guys wait, because there anyone

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Speaker 1: listening would say, of course their Hall of Famer's wrong. Brady,

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Speaker 1: um My Hunches. It's probably gonna come out in the

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Speaker 1: next day or two that it's official, you know that.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it was leaked wrong or whatever,

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Speaker 1: but I'm sure Goodell in the NFL didn't want the

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Speaker 1: a f C champion the championship games overshadowed by an

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Speaker 1: all time great retire I think there's also I think

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Speaker 1: there's also a bonus that comes out on February four.

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Speaker 1: It's like a fifteen million dollar signing bonus that he

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Speaker 1: gets for playing out the season, that kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: So you might as well hang out till I'm not

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Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure it might be. I may be

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Speaker 1: sure by the end of the week, a week or so,

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Speaker 1: and I'm sure ownership is fine with it, and sayeah,

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Speaker 1: he got your super Bowl right right. My other take, though,

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Speaker 1: which goes back to a f C stuff the box.

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Speaker 1: Without Brady, they're gonna get hit hard with cap stuff

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Speaker 1: and old dudes, and I mean, they're not gonna be

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Speaker 1: close to being the same team that we've seen the

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Speaker 1: last two years. Fair enough, they want a Super Bowl?

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Speaker 1: Who cares if Rogers goes, which I think is Are

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Speaker 1: there any good teams left in the NFC in the

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Speaker 1: North and South? Are horrendous? Rogers horrendous? I don't think

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Speaker 1: you'd tell themselves. I don't think Rogers is going anywhere.

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Speaker 1: I think I think he'll look at the situation the

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Speaker 1: same way and go, well, you know, I've been knocking

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Speaker 1: at the door here the last few years. Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: Ram the Rams are still good, but they're gonna have

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Speaker 1: cap issues. I mean they've they've They've got a hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars of cap space and a bunch of free agents. Um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the nfcers are gonna have a young quarterback. Yeah, the Niners.

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Speaker 1: Niners will have a young quarterback. Yeah, Arizona is still Arizona,

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Speaker 1: but we beat them last year. Um, you know, as

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Speaker 1: your only hurdle in the conference or one. So you know,

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Speaker 1: people saying, well, you know, Rogers is gonna want to

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Speaker 1: move on and he's gonna go to an a f

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Speaker 1: C team. Why would Aaron Rodgers at this point in

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Speaker 1: his career want to go to the a f C. Right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I honestly agree with you. But Green Bay

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Speaker 1: is right there with New Orleans for the worst cap

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Speaker 1: situation too, so there's no doubt. Yeah, he's gonna go

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Speaker 1: back to a worse environment than he just lost with,

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Speaker 1: but that's still probably better than two thirds of the league.

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Speaker 1: You still got a good chance to get to the

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Speaker 1: NFC Championship, just probably being yeah with your eyes closed.

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Speaker 1: I mean, right, the Denver hirings to me are so

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Speaker 1: easy connect the dots, but I'm not going to ignore

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Speaker 1: the fact that he could still end up in Denver,

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Speaker 1: because on draft Day last year, I thought that that

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Speaker 1: actually was going to happen. But they're still the second

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Speaker 1: or third best team in that division, you know, even

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Speaker 1: with Roight. I mean that's a brutal climb. Yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: no yeah, no doubt. And I mean the Raiders, the

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Speaker 1: Raiders were a playoff team this year, right you're saying,

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Speaker 1: you're saying they're the they're the third best or fourth

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Speaker 1: best team in the division. They were. They were the

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Speaker 1: actually the one that went to the playoffs this year.

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Speaker 1: So there's still a lot to be hashed out with

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Speaker 1: all that, and obviously, um, you know, we'll get a

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Speaker 1: better handle on things as as this offseason continues to

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Speaker 1: go on, and news and notes will come out and

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Speaker 1: the guys will retire who we didn't expect to retire,

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Speaker 1: guys will come back. The whole Rogers thing sort itself out.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure that'll be a hot topic at the UH

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Speaker 1: at the NFL scouting combine this year. Where's Aaron Rodger.

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Speaker 1: What's Aaron Rodgers gonna do? Um? You know those kind

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Speaker 1: of thing that things tend to happen during those kind

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Speaker 1: of situations where the entire league is gotten together, which

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Speaker 1: by the way, is also what's happening this week and

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Speaker 1: here in Mobile, Alabama. I want to talk about this

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Speaker 1: game preview some of the star players, like some guys

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Speaker 1: I've got an eye on this week, Matt, some guys

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Speaker 1: that I'm taking a good hard look at. Let's talk

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Speaker 1: about that in the next segment. He is Matt Williamson.

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

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Speaker 1: Steelers Nation Radio. We'll be back with more right after

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Speaker 1: this