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Speaker 2: Actor Matthew McConaughey. Alright, alride, all ride gentle man dark
Speaker 2: your whoa weel that Kinger?
Speaker 3: You can feel that King? Huh yeah?
Speaker 2: How about that? Inside the locker Room with King and Starks,
Speaker 2: presented by our neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steeler's
Speaker 2: Audio Network, alongside Max Starks, wes Uler, Justin Miller, and
Speaker 2: our iHeart Studios. I'm Rob King, Thanks very much for
Speaker 2: being with us. Whose idea was that to get that
Speaker 2: fired up?
Speaker 4: Listen that that is the inspiration of the one, the only,
Speaker 4: the late Great Craig Wolfley and CJ reminded us the
Speaker 4: Latrobe five hundred will be underway, I would say tomorrow,
Speaker 4: but we won't be on the airwaves because they'll have
Speaker 4: a walk through and that'll be it. This is the
Speaker 4: last great day that you're jockeying for pole position after
Speaker 4: this practice to figure out when are we going to
Speaker 4: get it done?
Speaker 3: Now? You know, Mike Tomalin has a.
Speaker 4: History, you know, whether spotty or not where sometimes he'll
Speaker 4: release them tonight and then you'll do a walk through
Speaker 4: and tomorrow in south Side. But I know a lot
Speaker 4: of young boys. I don't know if he's gonna pull it.
Speaker 4: But we're not gonna be on the airways tomorrow because
Speaker 4: of the close practice and an early morning one. So
Speaker 4: next time we'll talk will be Thursday. So we figured
Speaker 4: you got to play it because this was one of
Speaker 4: Wolfe's favorite things to do. And you know, thanks to
Speaker 4: CJ for for reminding us about this. But the La
Speaker 4: Trope five hundred, you know, usually starts on UH on
Speaker 4: Route thirty, goes goes to seventy six, then to three
Speaker 4: seventy six and then after that to parts unknown and
Speaker 4: then where guys will live.
Speaker 2: For people who don't know, that is the exodus.
Speaker 4: Yes, mass, mass, exodus mass, let's not play it down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, everybody will be leaving.
Speaker 2: And it is a it's a great it's a great camp, right,
Speaker 2: and the players rave about how great it is. But
Speaker 2: at some point, right, it's it's time to it's time.
Speaker 2: And I think it's you know, we talked about this Max,
Speaker 2: I can't remember what's on the air off Mike about like.
Speaker 3: Vacations, Like you're going to a vacation or whatever.
Speaker 2: And usually at some point, you know, you kind of
Speaker 2: start thinking about home, you know, and that's yeah. And
Speaker 2: once you start thinking about home, by the way, vacation's
Speaker 2: about over.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And if you're driving somewhere, you know a lot of
Speaker 2: people in Pittsburgh drive down to you know, the outer Banks,
Speaker 2: or they go to you know, the head the shore
Speaker 2: down in Baltimore, or you know wherever they're going. You know,
Speaker 2: once you pull into that driveway, man, once you start
Speaker 2: to know you're almost home, it's a it's a good feeling.
Speaker 2: And for these guys knowing that they're almost going to
Speaker 2: be home. As great as camp is, it's got to
Speaker 2: be a sense of release, not relief, but release, like let's.
Speaker 3: Go yeah, no, it absolutely is.
Speaker 4: And let's face it, you know, the NFL has has
Speaker 4: a nice large partnership with a company called Sleep Number,
Speaker 4: So I'm sure a lot of the players have those
Speaker 4: Sleep Number beds so you can finally get back to
Speaker 4: your cooling mattress or your hot mattress, whether your number
Speaker 4: is seventy six or forty or whatever it is. You know,
Speaker 4: they're looking forward to having those creature comforts of home
Speaker 4: coming up. I mean, heck, I'm thinking about my creature
Speaker 4: comforts of home. I've been away from my house for
Speaker 4: almost a month now, so by the time I get home,
Speaker 4: it'll be exactly one month. So I'm just I'm looking
Speaker 4: forward to that. But you know, we still got work
Speaker 4: to do, so I had to kind of push it
Speaker 4: off to the side, right, you know, hit the reminder
Speaker 4: button on there, you know, like we have on your phones,
Speaker 4: like reminder you snoozing that for another day. But you know,
Speaker 4: this is one last padded practice, one last physical tune
Speaker 4: up team on team before they see the Tampa Bay
Speaker 4: Buccaneers in a group setting on Thursday in Afer Shore,
Speaker 4: a closed off practice preceding their showdown on Saturday. So
Speaker 4: a lot of familiar faces over on that Buccaneers sideline
Speaker 4: that will be coming back to Akershore for the first
Speaker 4: time in a while and I mean Larry Foot, Harold
Speaker 4: Goodwin to name a few of the guys who were
Speaker 4: four former Steelers players and coach that will be coming
Speaker 4: back to aftershore.
Speaker 2: You know, it would strike me Max that you know,
Speaker 2: this is another little test for being a professional. You know,
Speaker 2: if this is your first time out at camp and
Speaker 2: you're thinking, Hey, I got to get back into town.
Speaker 2: I've got to you know, get an apartment set up
Speaker 2: or what have you. If you haven't already done that,
Speaker 2: find a place to live. Hopefully guys have already done that.
Speaker 2: But if you're a veteran, you might be getting back
Speaker 2: to your family, like you're talking about. But there's always
Speaker 2: going to be something. There's always going to be a distraction.
Speaker 2: There's always going to be a mental hurdle to overcome.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: They talk about that, and maybe the closest thing in
Speaker 2: football will be a practice squad, but they talk about that,
Speaker 2: particularly in baseball. Hey, they need to call this guy up.
Speaker 2: He's getting bored down in the minors. Okay, well that's fine,
Speaker 2: but that player's got to also push through that because
Speaker 2: are you going to get bored in the majors. You're
Speaker 2: gonna get bored in the NFL. You know, Yeah, you've
Speaker 2: got to find there's always a mental challenge. It's always
Speaker 2: a little bit different for every player. And this last
Speaker 2: practice and walk through, keeping things crisp, keeping your mind
Speaker 2: focused on the task at hand, pushing aside what you
Speaker 2: really want, which is to start to a trope five hundred,
Speaker 2: getting that car and head back to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Another
Speaker 2: little mental challenge for the guys.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because can you keep that foot out of the
Speaker 4: parking lot right for one last practice?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: Can you get your attention so that you can focus
Speaker 4: in laser focus for the two two and a half
Speaker 4: hours that practice will be and then start worrying.
Speaker 3: About packing up your bags.
Speaker 4: And for a lot of guys, like you know, a
Speaker 4: lot of guys are gonna go to the team hotel
Speaker 4: and stay there because you know the future is uncertain.
Speaker 4: But for the guys that do have a longer tenure,
Speaker 4: or you are a higher rated draft pick, you know
Speaker 4: you should have a space somewhere that's.
Speaker 3: At least spoken for.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna say that you've moved in yet, right,
Speaker 4: because you never want to assume anything.
Speaker 3: But at least spoken for.
Speaker 4: And you know, the moving date could be oh, let's
Speaker 4: just call it a random number. August thirty first, right,
Speaker 4: you know that you have that intent, but you have
Speaker 4: a deal in place just to make sure. But a
Speaker 4: lot of guys still don't know. You know, we talked
Speaker 4: about this kinger like, you know, if you've got sixty
Speaker 4: guys that you want to keep on this roster in
Speaker 4: only fifty three spaces, you know, there's seven hearts who
Speaker 4: are going to be broken momentarily until they find a
Speaker 4: new home or they get re signed to the practice squad.
Speaker 4: So you you don't want to count your chickens before
Speaker 4: they're hatched and be presumptive. But I think if you
Speaker 4: know you're TJ. Watt, you're Cam Hayward, you can go
Speaker 4: back to your houses that you've lived in, you know,
Speaker 4: for the better part of a decade or more. And
Speaker 4: you know, Aaron Rodgers, he can go back to wherever
Speaker 4: he wherever he has staked his claim as home for
Speaker 4: the year his rental. You know, But there are a
Speaker 4: lot of guys, you know, there's still that uncertainty. I mean,
Speaker 4: if you're the fifth linebacker right now, you're not You're
Speaker 4: not going back to an apartment, you know, if you
Speaker 4: if you're if you're the ninth or tenth offensive lineman,
Speaker 4: you know, seventh or eighth defensive lineman.
Speaker 3: Like he was like, Nah, I'm gonna have to get
Speaker 3: it for.
Speaker 4: These next three exhibitions, we'll call it because we'll count
Speaker 4: the joint practice as a mini game scrimmage type of deal.
Speaker 4: Three exhibitions to to fall into the top group, you know,
Speaker 4: to make your claim that I deserve to be a
Speaker 4: Pittsburgh Steeler. That's what we're looking for. And that's that's
Speaker 4: what the whole point of this is. That's why this exercise,
Speaker 4: that's why you're having a padded practice for the last
Speaker 4: one of open practices. To the fans, that's the moment
Speaker 4: they're fighting for to continue that journey.
Speaker 2: August twenty sixth, that's the day in which you know,
Speaker 2: we're we're looking at the cutdowns, right, and which guys
Speaker 2: are gonna be there, and which guys are going to
Speaker 2: be on the uh, you know, practice squad, which guys
Speaker 2: are going to be maybe claimed by other teams. There's
Speaker 2: some of that that'll be going on there. There are
Speaker 2: gonna be the guys who think they're on a roster spot,
Speaker 2: but then you like another player, who's got another team better.
Speaker 2: So hey, congratulations you made the team, or congratulations you
Speaker 2: made the practice squad, and then maybe the next day
Speaker 2: it's hey, I got bad news for you. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's uneasy times if you're an edge guy, if you're
Speaker 2: a you know, if you're a fourth line player in
Speaker 2: the NHL, if you're the last guy in a bullpen
Speaker 2: in baseball, if you are you know, the eleventh man
Speaker 2: and a basketball team, if you're the fifty third man
Speaker 2: on an NFL roster, there's never there. I don't think
Speaker 2: there's too many nights where you're sleeping easy thinking you
Speaker 2: got it made well.
Speaker 4: And that's why I say the thirty first, because the
Speaker 4: twenty six is the actual cutdown day.
Speaker 3: With the five days after that, yeah, that's where the
Speaker 3: attrition happens.
Speaker 4: So don't put that deposit in until the thirty first,
Speaker 4: Ladies and gentlemen, before you start staking home, make sure
Speaker 4: that you're going into up timber you're still in that roster, because,
Speaker 4: like you said, a lot of things can change. There's
Speaker 4: thirty one other teams that are cleaning house as well
Speaker 4: to cut down to fifty three. And then there's that
Speaker 4: posturing for what I would even say fifty through fifty
Speaker 4: three can change, Like you know, you're the if you're
Speaker 4: the if you're not in that top forty six on
Speaker 4: the list, it gets a little uneasy. But I would
Speaker 4: say fifty through fifty three, those last four spots are
Speaker 4: interchangeable pieces, right.
Speaker 2: So you know, we were looking at a roster ranking
Speaker 2: and another one came out yesterday. I don't know if
Speaker 2: this was the same one Wes, because there is one
Speaker 2: here that that also that had and I don't know
Speaker 2: if this was the same one. It does have the
Speaker 2: quarterback in it. We were go faing because they had
Speaker 2: this stoo there's ranked as the twenty second or twenty
Speaker 2: third best roster. So I'm looking at another one by ESPN.
Speaker 2: This one includes the quarterback. So yesterday to recap, Wes
Speaker 2: found a ranking of the roster and the depth it.
Speaker 2: This one is a future power rankings. We stacked all
Speaker 2: thirty two teams long term expectations. I'm not sure if
Speaker 2: this is the same one that Wes was looking at.
Speaker 2: Is Wes there, Yeah, it was just the same one West.
Speaker 5: It might have been part of that piece. I'm not sure.
Speaker 5: I'd have to look it up. I can go and
Speaker 5: find what you're looking at right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we have the quarterback at twenty percent, the
Speaker 2: rest of the roster at thirty percent, the front office
Speaker 2: at twenty five percent, and the coaching at twenty five percent.
Speaker 2: Now we know that ESPN thinks very highly of this
Speaker 2: year's front office and coaching. I think WES found something
Speaker 2: where they were ranked eighth, right, correct, So that's half
Speaker 2: the battle. In half the battle, you're ranked eighth. I
Speaker 2: can't get to the math that has you ranked twenty
Speaker 2: second as the roster, but I also think that so
Speaker 2: this is twenty five through twenty seven, which teams are
Speaker 2: set up to win over the next three seasons a
Speaker 2: somewhat fruitless exercise when you consider injuries, free agency, somebody emerging,
Speaker 2: somebody not living up to expectations. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: a tough This is tough, you know. But again on
Speaker 2: this one, and this is Ben Solock, Lewis Riddick, Aaron Shatz,
Speaker 2: and Seth Walder. So this is ranking for the next
Speaker 2: three years and they have this Steelers. I'm shuttling down.
Speaker 2: I think it's twenty second on this list. Yeah, twenty second.
Speaker 2: So now I can understand a little bit that they
Speaker 2: would be critical of. Hey, you only have a one
Speaker 2: year solution at the quarterback position, which again is thirty
Speaker 2: percent of the battle Max. I still think they're wrong
Speaker 2: on this Steelers' roster because I still think I think
Speaker 2: that when you look at this team, they're a little
Speaker 2: older on defense and they are on offense, but look
Speaker 2: at what they've done. This is again, I just we
Speaker 2: have to go back to this because we had we
Speaker 2: were our Dandard was up a little bit yesterday. I
Speaker 2: want to go back to this just for one segment
Speaker 2: and then we'll move on. Because the Steelers way has
Speaker 2: always been to build through the draft. Now they've been
Speaker 2: more aggressive in free agency. And when I look at
Speaker 2: guys who are signed for the next couple of years,
Speaker 2: there's still guys in their prime. Deshaun Elliott's still in
Speaker 2: his prime. Patrick Queen is still in his prime. You
Speaker 2: just drafted young guys to bolster your defensive line. You
Speaker 2: have you know, TJ. Watt signed for a couple more years.
Speaker 2: They talk about aging roster, but he still remains productive.
Speaker 2: You have Herbie behind him. You know, you're hoping Jack
Speaker 2: Sawyer is going to be a guy. You only have
Speaker 2: Darius slay for one year, but they have a lot
Speaker 2: of hopes I think for for Corey Trice and nobody.
Speaker 2: I don't know, as any roster in the NFL, max
Speaker 2: is set up for absolutely set up for three years
Speaker 2: of success. I mean, that's a really hard measuring stick.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, to glimpse far into the future.
Speaker 4: No, I mean, it's a tough exercise, but you know
Speaker 4: you got to have talking points, right right, Let me
Speaker 4: guess the team that's up at the top of that list,
Speaker 4: rob Let me guess, is it Philadelphia?
Speaker 2: It's Philadelphia, of course, I think because I think this
Speaker 2: is the same I think I feel like as a.
Speaker 3: Philly grew No.
Speaker 4: No, but I mean, but it kind of goes in
Speaker 4: line with where the rankings were we were talking about
Speaker 4: for this year's success, right right. You know they're all
Speaker 4: in the same jockeying position. I'm sure you know. Lamar Jackson,
Speaker 4: like Baltimore is up there in the top three as well.
Speaker 4: Washington's probably up there as well if you extrapolate a.
Speaker 3: Little bit longer.
Speaker 4: Because of young quarterback play, So what quarterbacks are signed
Speaker 4: long term?
Speaker 2: Here's what they have here, so they have they break
Speaker 2: them down by ranking so once again, uh, twenty percent
Speaker 2: for quarterback, thirty percent for roster, twenty five percent for
Speaker 2: front office, twenty five percent for coaching. So the Eagles
Speaker 2: have overall roster minus QB number one, QB number eight,
Speaker 2: coaching number ten. I think I'd be I think if
Speaker 2: I was the ego's coaching staff, I'd be like, what
Speaker 2: what do you mean number ten?
Speaker 3: Well, the run off they got poached. They've gotten poached.
Speaker 4: So you can't depend on your coaches because usually they
Speaker 4: go on to become head coaches elsewhere. Think of the
Speaker 4: Lions right right, Dan Campbell, they would have been high,
Speaker 4: but Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn both both get posted
Speaker 4: to be head coaches elsewhere.
Speaker 3: So I mean I get that one for the coaching.
Speaker 2: Okay, so here's where the Steelers are at number twenty two.
Speaker 2: So this is where Wes. So this is a combined
Speaker 2: ranking because Wes was telling us about the overall roster
Speaker 2: minus QB ranked, they had the Steelers ranked twenty third.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that that was our gutting point. That that got
Speaker 4: our that got our uh yeah, that was our that
Speaker 4: got our browns furled.
Speaker 3: Was just a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was our number one complaint, especially for this year,
Speaker 2: like I could see, okay, maybe the future.
Speaker 3: Okay, I get it, you know you don't. You don't
Speaker 3: have an Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 4: After this year's solution, you're gonna have to go find
Speaker 4: another quarterback.
Speaker 3: But again, minus QB, minus QB, that's what I say.
Speaker 4: I mean, I get, I get that, but it's just
Speaker 4: it's so weird for this year, like with Jalen Ramsey
Speaker 4: and with dk Metcalf and and with like you said.
Speaker 2: Darius slay One thorn Hill.
Speaker 4: I mean, you have so many different and you have
Speaker 4: a super young offensive line exactly that's here for the
Speaker 4: next three years.
Speaker 2: Right, So you have you have the offensive line. So
Speaker 2: you're gonna you're gonna be missing Somala. Well, everybody's gonna
Speaker 2: be missing somebody. You you have a you have a place,
Speaker 2: a very plausible replacement, and then you can go get
Speaker 2: more guys in the draft. Right, and again we're not
Speaker 2: talking about the quarterback position. You trade it for dk
Speaker 2: met guy, then you signed him to a long term deal.
Speaker 2: He's still in his prime. So and then you drafted
Speaker 2: Caleb Johnson at the running back position, and your your
Speaker 2: receivers are young, you're hoping Roman Wilson emerges.
Speaker 4: And you know so that you got two young guys,
Speaker 4: I mean Calvin Austin as well. You tighten you hope
Speaker 4: he eop he hope he comes into his.
Speaker 3: Own right, Your tight ends are fine? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: You know so, uh so most of that offense minus
Speaker 2: the quarterback. And again, and that's not part of this exercise.
Speaker 2: They're here through twenty three, right or twenty twenty seven
Speaker 2: through twenty seven, Yeah, the next three years.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they're here through twenty seven for the next
Speaker 2: three years. So that's shaping up pretty solid. Remember again,
Speaker 2: this is this is no quarterback, right yeah. And then defensively,
Speaker 2: they're talking about the aging guys. Well, okay, so if
Speaker 2: you want to say, hey, three years from now, you
Speaker 2: know Cam Hayward's not gonna be the same player, or
Speaker 2: you know, you know Darius Slay is going to be gone. Okay, Well,
Speaker 2: you signed TJ. Watt to an extension that keeps him here.
Speaker 2: You have high Smith on the other side, you have
Speaker 2: herbig backing them up this year. There's way is to
Speaker 2: draft young guys. So you got it. You got a
Speaker 2: Jack Sawyer. We'll see if he's a guy who's capable
Speaker 2: of emerging as a good pass rusher. The D line.
Speaker 2: You short up your D line should be they'll continue
Speaker 2: to add to that. But that's in pretty good shape.
Speaker 2: Jalen Ramsey's here for another couple of years. Joey Porter junior,
Speaker 2: you should be able to, you know, hopefully keep here
Speaker 2: for a few more years. Again, this sort of notion
Speaker 2: that it's an aging roster. Maybe in a couple of spots.
Speaker 2: I think the defense, the defense is what I would say,
Speaker 2: more mature, but I don't think that's a bad thing.
Speaker 2: They should be at their prime. I think this is
Speaker 2: how Max. This is kind of how it goes around
Speaker 2: the NFL, right, Like you you know, one unit is
Speaker 2: generally speaking going to be younger than the other. You know,
Speaker 2: you put your money into something and then you know
Speaker 2: you're drafting or or a position group. You're drafting younger guys.
Speaker 2: So those younger guys are on rookie deals. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know the best time to have that. You know,
Speaker 2: that quarterback is if he hits it big young man.
Speaker 2: You got him on a rookie deal for a few years.
Speaker 2: You don't have to pay him fifty million dollar a
Speaker 2: year now you can sprinkle that around the rest of
Speaker 2: your roster. So roster construction, you know, units one aging
Speaker 2: one younger. Okay, so you know maybe you know, I
Speaker 2: think they'll continue to draft offensive lineman probably every year.
Speaker 2: You certainly are going to have to go out, it
Speaker 2: would seem, and go get a quarterback. You know, that's
Speaker 2: something they've talked about, a young quarterback. But you know,
Speaker 2: that's how it works, you know what I mean, That's
Speaker 2: how you go out and you get a guy. And
Speaker 2: then again we're talking about the non quarterback position. I
Speaker 2: look at the rest of the roster. I think it's
Speaker 2: set up well for the next three years. I don't
Speaker 2: think it's set up like the twenty second the twenty
Speaker 2: third best roster for the next three years.
Speaker 3: I just I don't see it.
Speaker 2: Max.
Speaker 4: I feel like they got the ranking confused with our
Speaker 4: draft position, right, because that's usually the race we're usually
Speaker 4: drafting somewhere between eighteen and twenty three.
Speaker 3: Right, I mean, that's how it's been.
Speaker 4: We don't get because you're saying, now, if we're the
Speaker 4: twenty second best roster, let's inverse that right with draft order.
Speaker 4: So you're saying we're going to be a top ten
Speaker 4: drafting team in three years. That's that's what they're saying.
Speaker 2: That's what that's what the twenty two overall score is saying.
Speaker 2: Is that pretty soon? And so again the bold prediction.
Speaker 2: The Steelers will finish with five or fewer wins in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven. After an unsuccessful twenty twenty five campaign
Speaker 2: with Rogers. They will make an ill fated attempt to
Speaker 2: compete again in twenty twenty six with an aging roster.
Speaker 2: After that fails, they will finally commit to the teardown
Speaker 2: and rebuild in twenty twenty seven. Once again, this is
Speaker 2: coming from ESPN and reading that verbatim, five or fewer
Speaker 2: wins in twenty twenty seven went back to the ninth
Speaker 2: were finished with five to the early nineties to find that, well,
Speaker 2: I think you have to go back further than that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: probably the eighties. What, Yeah, I would have to I'd
Speaker 2: have to look that up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm sure Westteler is feverishly looking up the last time
Speaker 2: the Steelers had five or fewer wins. It's been a while.
Speaker 2: I don't see it happening.
Speaker 3: I mean, And that's my thing, is, like, how brash.
Speaker 2: You have to be here.
Speaker 3: How much do you have to.
Speaker 4: Dislike the Steelers to put that down when it hasn't
Speaker 4: happened in two decades. Yeah, last time we had six
Speaker 4: wins and that was a six and ten season was
Speaker 4: two thousand and.
Speaker 3: Three, you know.
Speaker 5: And again after nineteen eighty eight, now eighty eight, ninety.
Speaker 2: Eight, after an unsuccessful twenty twenty six years old pain
Speaker 2: with Rogers. I don't I don't see that premise again.
Speaker 2: I look at this roster and you think, okay, well,
Speaker 2: Dan Moore's out, Okay, I understand that that's a loss,
Speaker 2: and Najie Harris is out. Well, you drafted a quarterback
Speaker 2: or you drafted a running back, you signed a running
Speaker 2: back and gain well, a lot of people thought Jaalen
Speaker 2: should right or wrong should have been the running back. Anyway,
Speaker 2: it feels like that's pretty well covered. And then you're
Speaker 2: moving your your number one draft pick to left tackle,
Speaker 2: where he's the position you drafted to being. And then
Speaker 2: the right tackle is the guy who didn't play at
Speaker 2: all last year and had already beaten out, uh you know,
Speaker 2: and was going to start at right tackle. And then
Speaker 2: you've had a first round draft pick as well, so
Speaker 2: that sounds to me like kind of a wash. And
Speaker 2: again we're not talking about well, we are now talking
Speaker 2: about successful unsuccessful. You're bringing Aaron Rodgers. It's hard for
Speaker 2: me not to think of that as an upgrade. You
Speaker 2: have dk Metcalf instead of Pickings, and you have John
Speaker 2: new Smith. Now I'm trying to think of how that's
Speaker 2: worse than last year. Maybe it will be, but I'm
Speaker 2: having a hard time. You're like, I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm the Vasco Godama de Gama of thoughts. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to explore why that makes sense. It doesn't make any
Speaker 2: sense to me. And then on defense, And on defense,
Speaker 2: you added, uh, you know, a starter last year in
Speaker 2: a quality in your defensive line, drafted two guys on
Speaker 2: your defensive line. Get Cole Holcomb back, sign another linebacker,
Speaker 2: pick up you know too, all pro cornerbacks. You lost
Speaker 2: Minkah Fitzpatrick. I'm still trying to figure out how that's worse.
Speaker 2: And they went to the playoffs last year.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to.
Speaker 2: Figure out how that's going to be an unsuccessful season.
Speaker 2: But that's why they play the games. Max will find
Speaker 2: out soon enough, won't.
Speaker 3: We Yeah, we will.
Speaker 4: And I think, you know, this is an exercise of
Speaker 4: you know, three years, even though I still am disappointed
Speaker 4: with a one year snapshot.
Speaker 2: After an unsuccessful twenty twenty five campaign.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they think that it'll be well, they didn't put
Speaker 4: a win total to that one. They're just saying it
Speaker 4: won't be assex and we don't know what that successful means.
Speaker 4: True that that's just a very gray area, you know,
Speaker 4: because are you saying successful as a super Bowl victory
Speaker 4: or you saying winning a first round game in the playoffs?
Speaker 4: Like I like, that's that's a very gray area that
Speaker 4: they don't really kind of expound upon. But at the
Speaker 4: same time, when we're looking at this three year snapshot,
Speaker 4: it's like, oh, they're gonna go for it all again
Speaker 4: in twenty six, and that's when they're gonna get the
Speaker 4: five wins. And it's like that hasn't been five wins
Speaker 4: in almost forty years.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty seven, they're gonna they got five wins. Well,
Speaker 2: let's seay know, let's see where do they have the
Speaker 2: five wins.
Speaker 4: I took it as twenty twenty six would be the
Speaker 4: five win season, which would then commit to the rebuild
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why I thought, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't see that, and I don't see that ever
Speaker 2: being you know this to you, there's way no, I
Speaker 2: just not.
Speaker 4: But I think they also overweighted a lot of these
Speaker 4: one year contract deals and thinking that they're gonna lose
Speaker 4: a lot of pieces after this season and then oh,
Speaker 4: you're not gonna hit these moonshots like you did year ago.
Speaker 4: But it's like, but now it's the moonshofts right now,
Speaker 4: Like those moonshots could turn the long, longer term contracts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll say one more thing because we are
Speaker 2: we we're getting you know, I'm gonna say one more
Speaker 2: thing because we're grossly heavy. We uh. I mean as
Speaker 2: a as a program here, Max, Yes, well as a segment,
Speaker 2: not a program as a segments. So we're going to
Speaker 2: take a break. I have one more thought to share
Speaker 2: with Max on the subject. We're going to talk about
Speaker 2: the scrimmage coming up on Thursday. So lots to get
Speaker 2: to when we continue inside the locker room with King
Speaker 2: and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store. Here on
Speaker 2: this tee, there's Audio.
Speaker 1: Network Iheartradios live coverage Job Dot twenty twenty five Steelers
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Speaker 2: Man. We welcomed me back inside the locker room with
Speaker 2: King and Stark because any of our neighborhood Ford Store
Speaker 2: here on the Steelers Audio network, and uh, you know
Speaker 2: the point I was going to make, and we're one
Speaker 2: more time. We're crashing about this. This ranking of the
Speaker 2: Steelers by ESPN, they ranked him as the twenty second
Speaker 2: best roster in the Futures moving Forward twenty five, twenty six,
Speaker 2: twenty seven. So they they break it down, what does
Speaker 2: your overall roster look like, what does your quarterback look like?
Speaker 2: How do you rank your front office? How do you
Speaker 2: rank your coaching? Front office ranks thirteenth, coaching ranks eighth. Now,
Speaker 2: my I believe in a couple of years, Max, I think,
Speaker 2: what's gonna happen If I'm going to look into my
Speaker 2: crystal ball kind of looking crystal ball?
Speaker 3: Sure, why not? Okay, I'm going to look into my crystal.
Speaker 2: Ball, and I'm going to say the Steelers are going
Speaker 2: to do what Kansas City did. And I don't remember
Speaker 2: where Kansas City was supposed to draft when they got
Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes. I don't remember what their draft.
Speaker 6: I want to say they were twelve and four and
Speaker 6: won the division.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but they were yeah, they were further back.
Speaker 2: I want to say they were like a nineteen to
Speaker 2: twenty position.
Speaker 4: And they jumped in front of the Arizona Cardinals to
Speaker 4: take Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 5: Because that was the year they lost to the Steelers
Speaker 5: in the Boswell Ice Game.
Speaker 6: Yes, eighteen to seventeen or whatever the final score was.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so they made the jump in front because
Speaker 4: they knew the Cardinals needed a quarterback and they jumped
Speaker 4: in front of them because they knew Patrick Mahomes was
Speaker 4: going to go there.
Speaker 2: And I want to say they jumped up maybe fourteen
Speaker 2: or fifteen tenth oh tent was it ten? Yes?
Speaker 5: Oh, they made the big So they traded with Buffalo Buffalo,
Speaker 5: I was picking tenth. Kansas City sent their first round
Speaker 5: pick twenty seventh overall and their third round seventh, twenty
Speaker 5: seventh where they were picking further yep, and their ninety
Speaker 5: first overall pick in the third round, as well as
Speaker 5: their first round pick in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: Right, and the bill they created that the Bills, the
Speaker 2: Bills moved down. They got the twenty seventh pick, so
Speaker 2: they the Bills, the.
Speaker 6: Bills used that capital to go get Josh Allen the
Speaker 6: following year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they got a third, They got a third in
Speaker 2: the first Right. So, so, by the way, in my
Speaker 2: in my never ending uh and feudal attempt to clean
Speaker 2: up our English language, which has resulted, by the way,
Speaker 2: for those who are listening with us, no longer describing
Speaker 2: vanilla offenses. That's vanilla sic. Yeah, basic, we're saving that
Speaker 2: for flavoring. I am on a one man crusade to
Speaker 2: call draft capital simply draft picks. Is that we got
Speaker 2: anybody on board.
Speaker 4: On that or that like draft that's fair because that's
Speaker 4: actually the layman term for that.
Speaker 6: No, no, sorry, I can't do it.
Speaker 3: Capital.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it makes me sound smarter than I actually am.
Speaker 4: That makes you sound like an investment advice exactly.
Speaker 6: You sound like a day trader, all right, Like I'm
Speaker 6: in the big short over here.
Speaker 2: I can't keep up. I can't keep up with the
Speaker 2: linguistic changes. Okay, so that's a one man crusade. So
Speaker 2: what I was going to get back become capital. Capital
Speaker 2: does not become picks. Boom, thank you.
Speaker 3: So well, you can say picks and it equals capital.
Speaker 2: Later, I prefer to say picks.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: That's why you would use picks first, and then I
Speaker 4: understand those picks are capital for a team, you see, exactly,
Speaker 4: So I mean it's okay to say picks.
Speaker 2: We're working on it. Yeah, I'd like to think we'll
Speaker 2: get to the we'll get to the phase where it's
Speaker 2: no longer draft capital. Anyway, So when we're looking at
Speaker 2: the when we're looking at the Steelers and what they've accomplished,
Speaker 2: and we're looking at the other teams around the NF
Speaker 2: and what they've accomplished, I don't know, as there's another
Speaker 2: team that's accomplished what the students have accomplished, and people
Speaker 2: are like, well I did accomplished anything, they haven't won
Speaker 2: on another Lombardi Trophy. Okay, let's just talk about what
Speaker 2: they have done where they've gotten to what their record
Speaker 2: is without that combination of you know, quarterback in his
Speaker 2: prime and good enough roster around him. It's been a
Speaker 2: while since the Steelers have had that combination. I can't
Speaker 2: think of another team that has lacked that combination that's
Speaker 2: still been able to even get into the playoffs. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was the point I was going to make. And
Speaker 2: I wanted to bring up the Mahomes thing because you know,
Speaker 2: there's this belief out there that you have to be
Speaker 2: terrible to go get the number one quarterback, right, you
Speaker 2: have to draft that guy. And by the way, that's
Speaker 2: no assurance, right, you might get a you might be
Speaker 2: terrible in a year. Like a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: the Steelers drafted Kenny Pickett. They were hoping he's going
Speaker 2: to be the guy. I don't know if there's a
Speaker 2: franchise quarterback that came out of that draft. Is there? No?
Speaker 3: Not one? Right?
Speaker 2: So, and then looky Trac I mean, and then Lea Willis,
Speaker 2: and then look at all of the you know, just
Speaker 2: in recent history, now Bryce Young has started to play better. Right,
Speaker 2: he came on at the end of last year. We're
Speaker 2: going to see him in a couple of weeks. But
Speaker 2: you know, the guy down in Houston and was like, well,
Speaker 2: that should have been the number one pick you had.
Speaker 2: You had to pick of everybody, and you took the
Speaker 2: wrong guy. People were saying that for a while about
Speaker 2: Baker Mayfield. Well, Baker Mayfield might have just been in
Speaker 2: the wrong situation. And again, whether he is that guy.
Speaker 2: Is Baker that guy that elevates a team and becomes
Speaker 2: an elite level quarterback, I'm not sure about that. He
Speaker 2: is a good player, and I think that the Browns
Speaker 2: did a good job trading him in a bad job
Speaker 2: getting rid of him, a good job drafting him at
Speaker 2: a bad job getting rid of m I should say.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: The point is it's very difficult and to win without that.
Speaker 2: And the other point is you just look at them
Speaker 2: home straight. You do not have to be terrible to
Speaker 2: get a franchise quarterback. What you have to do if
Speaker 2: you're a team like the Steelers, who I believe are
Speaker 2: going to have another good season this year and are
Speaker 2: going to be drafting late in the first round. Once again,
Speaker 2: what you have to do is do what the Chiefs
Speaker 2: did and what I don't know. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: examples of this. But trade up and get your guy,
Speaker 2: and then if he's the right guy, it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: what you gave up for. It doesn't matter. I mean,
Speaker 2: you give up this year's first, you give up next
Speaker 2: year's first, you give up this year's third, maybe give
Speaker 2: up next year's third. It doesn't matter. If he's the
Speaker 2: right guy. It's the position is that important to the
Speaker 2: success of an NFL team.
Speaker 3: So you don't have to tank.
Speaker 2: You don't have to quote unquote finally commit to a rebuild.
Speaker 2: You just have to And I think this too. This
Speaker 2: has done a good job of this. They've put the
Speaker 2: roster in pretty good shape. And think about I think
Speaker 2: about if they did this next year, Right, we're gonna
Speaker 2: go out and get this. We're gonna go out and
Speaker 2: we're gonna trade up. We're gonna trade all our picks,
Speaker 2: and we're gonna get a rookie quarterback. Okay, so if
Speaker 2: you're a rookie quarterback. Now the Bears now are trying
Speaker 2: to help Jade and Daniels there. Now they've bolstered up
Speaker 2: the offensive line and they've made all these moves, right,
Speaker 2: that's what That's what it looks like when you're terrible
Speaker 2: and you draft a quarterback Bryce Young taking his lumps
Speaker 2: down in Carolina, right, because you were terrible, So that
Speaker 2: allowed you to get the quarterback you wanted. Now you
Speaker 2: have to build the rest of the team around him,
Speaker 2: so this guy is not emotionally shattered for the rest
Speaker 2: of his career or physically shattered because you can't block four.
Speaker 2: Right now, think about what the Chiefs did. The Chiefs
Speaker 2: already had a good team and they traded up and
Speaker 2: got Patrick Mahomes. Think about what the Steelers have built
Speaker 2: here if they decide to go this route next year.
Speaker 2: And this is all academic exercise of what might happen. Okay, well,
Speaker 2: you're going to walk into a situation where you have
Speaker 2: a number one receiver, other options, three good tight ends,
Speaker 2: four fifths of an offensive line for sure, maybe even
Speaker 2: the entire offensive line, a second year running back, two
Speaker 2: other running backs. What's a better situation for a young
Speaker 2: quarterback to enter? How would you prefer to win with
Speaker 2: that door or the other door that's been in Chicago
Speaker 2: and Carolina, where now you have to backfill that roster
Speaker 2: because you got that guy by dint of being terrible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I agree.
Speaker 4: I mean I think you know you always want to
Speaker 4: try and be a year ahead of the curve. I
Speaker 4: mean that was what always Kevin Colbert's philosophy was was
Speaker 4: to you know, you want to you know, and Bill
Speaker 4: Belichick famously said this, right, I would rather let a
Speaker 4: guy go a year early than to hold on to
Speaker 4: him a year too long. Right, So you know, and
Speaker 4: even in you know, the Kansas City experiments so to speak, Right,
Speaker 4: Alex Smith wasn't wasn't a bad quarterback.
Speaker 3: He's still in his prime.
Speaker 4: But you went and you still got Patrick mahonmes because
Speaker 4: you knew eventually you're gonna have to replace Alex Smith, right,
Speaker 4: you needed somebody who's gonna be an X factor, and
Speaker 4: you didn't mind having him sit. Aaron Rodgers behind Brett
Speaker 4: farre Right, he sat before Drew Brees, you know, was
Speaker 4: there before Philip Rivers got there. You know the Green
Speaker 4: Bay now right, Yeah, Jordan loves Jordan there and waited,
Speaker 4: So you know, you'd like to have that type of
Speaker 4: essnsion because look at let's face it, I mean when
Speaker 4: you think about Green Bay when they brought Brett fav
Speaker 4: Up there. They have sequentially done it right. They've they've
Speaker 4: stuck with their pick, groomed him. You got him a
Speaker 4: little bit early. You know, you picked banana while it's
Speaker 4: still green. You don't get it while it's yellow, at
Speaker 4: the height of ripeness, and they waited for it to
Speaker 4: mature and then they made the move to move on.
Speaker 2: That's what That's the luxury you would love to have.
Speaker 4: But fortunately, the way that teams are constructed now and
Speaker 4: the way that coaches have to win now, so you
Speaker 4: can't really have that type of comfortability, so to speak,
Speaker 4: where you could draft for the future knowing that your
Speaker 4: job is secure.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: The Steelers have been in a blessed position having the
Speaker 4: same coach for eighteen plus years going into a nineteenth year.
Speaker 3: You can do that.
Speaker 4: You could have done that, but you also have been
Speaker 4: in his prime right, you know, for a majority of them.
Speaker 4: You know he had first fifteen years, you had been Roethlisberger,
Speaker 4: and you didn't have anything to worry about, and then
Speaker 4: you did try and go get those guys, and look,
Speaker 4: Mason Rudolph is still in this roster right, but he
Speaker 4: wasn't necessarily the starter that we wanted, but he's been
Speaker 4: a valuable pick from twenty eighteen. You know, he's been here,
Speaker 4: he's gone in, he's won you games, he's gotten you
Speaker 4: to the playoffs, he's shown that he can be that
Speaker 4: quality guy just as a backup. Hitting a starting quarterback
Speaker 4: that's gonna be a franchise guy for twenty years is
Speaker 4: essentially like trying to throw a dart twenty five yards
Speaker 4: in the dark and trying to hit a bullseye. Right, right, Well,
Speaker 4: that's about how futile the exercise is. And I think
Speaker 4: that's the toughest part that we kind of extrapolate, and
Speaker 4: that's why we see these numbers that we do.
Speaker 2: And I agree, and I think that you know, if
Speaker 2: the Steelers go down that road of trading everything to
Speaker 2: get the franchise quarterback, and my statement was, if it's
Speaker 2: the right guy, it doesn't matter what you gave up,
Speaker 2: And I think that's true. If it's the wrong guy,
Speaker 2: it matters very much what you gave up, right, because
Speaker 2: now you've given up this year's first, next year's first,
Speaker 2: this year's third, next year's third. Right now you have
Speaker 2: set your ability back to go back out again and
Speaker 2: try to get that guy Now, there's other ways you
Speaker 2: can maybe get a guy in free agency, but when's
Speaker 2: the last time a franchise quarterback has hit free agency?
Speaker 2: Teams don't allow those guys to slip away. So you know,
Speaker 2: and here's the other thing too, that you know, as
Speaker 2: long as other places are making bold predictions, I will
Speaker 2: make this prediction. You know, if the Steelers go out
Speaker 2: and get that guy next year. Let's say they go
Speaker 2: out and and make this trade, and they go out
Speaker 2: and get that guy, right, that front office ranking for
Speaker 2: the Steelers is going to be completely re evaluated. People
Speaker 2: are going to look up and say, whoa man they
Speaker 2: traded for Metcalf. Hey, look what they did with the
Speaker 2: offensive line. Boy, that Caleb Johnson's pretty good. Hey, they
Speaker 2: really did a nice job of regenerating your defense. Boy,
Speaker 2: this is a pretty good front office.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's just the way it's gonna go.
Speaker 2: So anyway, Max, I think that even though I'd listen, man,
Speaker 2: I could talk about this subject for a week, I
Speaker 2: do think we need to move on.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: We haven't talked about Saturday's game, and I know you
Speaker 2: have guys you want to talk about. I'd love to
Speaker 2: look back to Saturday's game. I'd love to look forward
Speaker 2: to Thursday scrimmage. Yes, good, okay, good, We're gonna do
Speaker 2: all of that stuff. We're gonna begin to do all
Speaker 2: that stuff when we continue next on the Locker Room
Speaker 2: with King and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Ford Stour
Speaker 2: here on the Steelers Audio.
Speaker 1: Network, Iheartradios. Live coverage of twenty twenty five Steelers training
Speaker 1: Camp is presented by Fatx where now meets Next, and
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Speaker 2: And we welcome back inside the Locker Room with Kings
Speaker 2: Arch presented by your neighborhood Ford Store here on the
Speaker 2: Steelers Audio Network. So we have made our feelings known
Speaker 2: about the rankings of the Steelers' roster for twenty five
Speaker 2: through twenty seven by the Worldwide Leader in Sports. We
Speaker 2: disagree with it, but they're entitled to their opinion, and
Speaker 2: I have said that I will apologize to them if
Speaker 2: they're right at the end of the season. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I'm going to, but.
Speaker 4: Technically that work for him, so you know, I'll just
Speaker 4: I'll just be like shucks, you know, understood, but work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that will work. I don't know if I
Speaker 3: can give them me a kopa. But yeah.
Speaker 2: We have not a ton of time left in this segment.
Speaker 2: But again too, our two will be we have our
Speaker 2: review to review. Give us your quick assessment of what
Speaker 2: you thought of the Steelers' performance in the first preseason
Speaker 2: game against Jacksonville on Saturday night at Jacksonville. And again
Speaker 2: keep in mind that Jacksonville played their starters. They had
Speaker 2: a starter down on each side due to injury, so
Speaker 2: they went ten starters on each side. The Steelers went
Speaker 2: four starters on offense and two on defense. I believe
Speaker 2: was the number that we came up with. So your
Speaker 2: thoughts on on what you saw, you know, just give
Speaker 2: us a brief overview, and then after that brief overview,
Speaker 2: we will get into the next hour specific guys that
Speaker 2: you liked and you thought stood out and that you
Speaker 2: thought helped themselves.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 4: Here here's the briefest overview I can give a performance
Speaker 4: solid highlight depth.
Speaker 3: They're good.
Speaker 2: No, oh go longer?
Speaker 7: Well yeah, no, no, that's too brief. You said, you
Speaker 7: said brief. I was like, hey, I'm gonna give it
Speaker 7: to you as short as it. I will give you
Speaker 7: two word answers brief.
Speaker 3: Two Yeah exactly. Yeah. When have we ever said okay?
Speaker 2: So no, but I would say this, I would say
Speaker 2: the performance was.
Speaker 4: A solid, solid, think about not game planning, not playing,
Speaker 4: you know again, not playing with a host of starters.
Speaker 4: You really showcase your depth, and I think for a
Speaker 4: Mason Rudolph, you couldn't have asked for a better performance
Speaker 4: from him in those first two drives, right, walk it
Speaker 4: down the field on the one defense and end in
Speaker 4: a touchdown. Their ones tried to walk down on our defense, Ben,
Speaker 4: but don't break field goal. So you say, right there,
Speaker 4: apples to apples. Our twos look better than your ones.
Speaker 4: That's what we're saying right now. So that gives another
Speaker 4: kudos to the depth. Then, of course, Skyler Thompson, your
Speaker 4: fourth string quarterback, was carving up that defense three touchdowns
Speaker 4: in his time in the game and a high percentage
Speaker 4: over seventy four percent completion percentage in that in that
Speaker 4: in that route, and yeah, it was a closer game.
Speaker 2: It was a it was a one score game. But
Speaker 2: considering what.
Speaker 4: We had versus what they had, you know, it was
Speaker 4: a solid performance for our team. The young guys played
Speaker 4: better than expected. Defensively, you know, if I'm gonna go
Speaker 4: with the negative, not enough pressure on the quarter. It
Speaker 4: did not get a sack, yep, whereas their defense got
Speaker 4: two sacks in that affair. Noe, that one interception that
Speaker 4: was had was called back, so we would have had
Speaker 4: a turnover in that game, missed the turnover opportunity. Offensively,
Speaker 4: run efficiency wasn't there. It had moments, but it wasn't there.
Speaker 4: But the passing game and protection and route running was
Speaker 4: super crisp, super clean for a guys that are fourth
Speaker 4: and fifth down down the depth chart played really well
Speaker 4: And hello, mister Roman Wilson, welcome to the NFL. Had
Speaker 4: a solid performance out there with the ones as well.
Speaker 4: So I think that's kind of where my highlights going.
Speaker 3: What the snapshot looks like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one thing that I would add to the overview,
Speaker 2: and I agree with all of that. I agree with
Speaker 2: you know, basically your twos against their one and the ones,
Speaker 2: and they're started there, you're you know, they're trying to
Speaker 2: start fresh and all that other stuff. And you know,
Speaker 2: we remember Bill Cower taking a lot of his starts
Speaker 2: out and going up the Buffalo years ago because it's
Speaker 2: a game the Steelers didn't need to win. And Max,
Speaker 2: I believe you were on that team, correct.
Speaker 3: That when I first started left Guard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so they're starting place of starting young bucks
Speaker 2: like Max Starks and others. And you went up there
Speaker 2: with a lot of your two's and beat their ones.
Speaker 2: And it was a pretty solid Buffalo team that needed
Speaker 2: that game. They needed to win to make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: And so people were howling, oh, this steerer the integrity
Speaker 2: of the game, and which is a completely different subject
Speaker 2: than I understand where people would go there. I have
Speaker 2: mixed feelings about that myself. You know, hey, for the
Speaker 2: good of the game, the integrity, year one should be
Speaker 2: playing their ones and and all that didn't matter because
Speaker 2: you guys went up in a game Buffalo had to
Speaker 2: win and you beat them well.
Speaker 4: And also we had sewed up the one seed at
Speaker 4: that point. We're fourteen and one going in right yep.
Speaker 4: So it was like, we know we have a longer
Speaker 4: push ahead of us with a young quarterback that it
Speaker 4: had that that had set the rookie start record. Uh,
Speaker 4: you know, I should say reset that record for most
Speaker 4: wins by a rookie quarterback before their first loss. So
Speaker 4: it's like why tempted fate and Charlie Batch came in
Speaker 4: that game.
Speaker 3: Chucky A. Kobe came in at center.
Speaker 4: So Jeff Hardings and Allen Fanica set out for myself
Speaker 4: and Chucky to go in. You know, we set out
Speaker 4: I want to say we also set out, uh peasey
Speaker 4: and put in James Harrison in that game at some
Speaker 4: point as well. We also had some young linebackers believe
Speaker 4: Crimp cl Clint Creek, Walt god I just because we
Speaker 4: used to call him Buddy Lee so I could get
Speaker 4: away from the tongue tie. But we Buddy Lee went
Speaker 4: in and the inside backer positions.
Speaker 3: Uh, we had a lot of guys.
Speaker 2: Brett Kezel came in. We sat Chemo.
Speaker 4: I mean, we set a lot of starters because we're like,
Speaker 4: what else do we need to prove we got the
Speaker 4: one seed? You know, it's like and for that game,
Speaker 4: you know it's important and maybe you're trying to give
Speaker 4: Buffalo a shot, but really not really, you know, give
Speaker 4: them a chance at it, and they still didn't.
Speaker 2: We ended up winning that game, so you know, it
Speaker 2: was it was one of those that was tough.
Speaker 4: I believe Verron had a lot of carries that game
Speaker 4: as well, Haynes over Jerome because Jerome I believe set
Speaker 4: out and Deuce I believe set out.
Speaker 3: So I mean, you know, that's what it is.
Speaker 2: And like you said, the integrity.
Speaker 4: We could talk about how many years did Tony Dungee
Speaker 4: set out all of his starters in the last week
Speaker 4: of the season, right, you know, And and Bill Belichick
Speaker 4: did the same thing, you know.
Speaker 2: So yeah, And as it relates to this game, because
Speaker 2: that is another subject and maybe one will we'll tackle
Speaker 2: inside the locker room, But as it relates to this game,
Speaker 2: that's what sprung to my mind is that your twos
Speaker 2: went down to beat their ones. Now, Buffalo a different story.
Speaker 2: That was that was a better team I think than
Speaker 2: this Jacksonville team certainly was last year. And it was
Speaker 2: a regular season game versus the preseason game. But the
Speaker 2: same thing, when your twos go out and beat the
Speaker 2: other team's ones, you're feeling awfully good about your depth,
Speaker 2: even if it's just for a quarter or so in
Speaker 2: a preseason game down in Jacksonville. We're just looking for signs.
Speaker 2: We have more looking and more signs and more analysis
Speaker 2: from Max Starks. We're gonna get into the guys that
Speaker 2: Max really thought stood out in this preseason game. We're
Speaker 2: also going to look forward to the scrimmage coming up
Speaker 2: because we've got another game coming up against Tampa Bay.
Speaker 2: There's gonna be a scrimmage. What does that mean for
Speaker 2: the guys as they break camp and get into this scrimmage.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that and more when we continue inside
Speaker 2: the locker room with King and Starks, presented by your
Speaker 2: neighborhood Ford Store. Here on the Steel there's Audio Network