Speaker 1: Your tunes about drive on Home of the Black and
Speaker 1: Goals Steelers Nation Radio, we are back. I'm Dale Elly
Speaker 1: here with Matt Williamson and Matt I wanted to go
Speaker 1: back to something that we talked about prior to the draft,
Speaker 1: and it was something that a lot of people were
Speaker 1: kind of I don't know, I want to I don't
Speaker 1: want to say panic is the right word, but they
Speaker 1: were talking about this like it was something that was
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be resolved. And that is the number
Speaker 1: of players that the Steelers have on the contract, because
Speaker 1: everybody that was one of the narratives of soon as
Speaker 1: last season ended, they only got x amount players under
Speaker 1: contract eight team players seven. He was seven team was
Speaker 1: the lowest that it was. Well, that's two years away.
Speaker 1: For one thing, the draft hasn't happened, Free agent hasn't happened.
Speaker 1: You haven't extended some of your guys, we haven't even
Speaker 1: got the MINCA and why there ain't going anywhere. So
Speaker 1: let's let's break that down. I'm interested. So the Steelers
Speaker 1: now have forty four players under contract for the two season,
Speaker 1: and I don't think they want that number to be massive,
Speaker 1: and I think they want to be somewhat liquid next
Speaker 1: off season in terms of going to get the next
Speaker 1: quarterback from the first and foremost or maybe going outside
Speaker 1: the organization for a position or two, you know, if
Speaker 1: need be so. Right now, Um, this according to spot track, uh,
Speaker 1: the Steelers have sixty sixty seven million UH in cap space,
Speaker 1: and I believe that's based on a salary cap, which
Speaker 1: I guess is this assumes a hundred ninety two point
Speaker 1: five million dollar salary cap in it's gonna be more
Speaker 1: than that. I mean, we don't know what's going to
Speaker 1: be in the stands, but the next Penn game tomorrow
Speaker 1: night's yeah, that's just basically doing what they typically do
Speaker 1: and bumping it up ten million dollars. It's gonna be high.
Speaker 1: So sixty seven million, that's the second most amount of
Speaker 1: money going into next year, which is remarkable, Like that
Speaker 1: never happens. They're always second least, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: We've never seen that before. The only team with more
Speaker 1: cap space than them is the Colts. But the Colts
Speaker 1: only have thirty seven players under contract, so those seven
Speaker 1: players make up for that. The Colts have sixty nine
Speaker 1: point two million. The Steelers are sixty seven point four
Speaker 1: Steelers have the most cap space. Well, I was going
Speaker 1: to kind of counter that. I mean, they obviously the
Speaker 1: Colts don't have as many guys under contract, but I
Speaker 1: think the Colts have a big lump still this year
Speaker 1: that will roll over because they haven't spent much. And
Speaker 1: that's true. Yeah, so there are some of those things.
Speaker 1: The factor in fact, if you look at the cap
Speaker 1: space from right now, current current cap space, actually Jacksonville
Speaker 1: has thirty nine point four million envers at thirty six
Speaker 1: point three, the culture two point nine. So they'll probably
Speaker 1: roll over something like you know what I mean? Um?
Speaker 1: Or do they extend wins? Right, They're gonna make that.
Speaker 1: And then they get you know, the Quent Nelson's contracts
Speaker 1: coming up. They got some, they get some big ones.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be expensive. Um. So if you look at
Speaker 1: this from a cap stand, they got forty four players
Speaker 1: on a contract, They got sixty seven million dollars in
Speaker 1: cap space. The number three teams the Bengals at fifty
Speaker 1: seven point five. That was a huge jump there actually
Speaker 1: ten ten million dollars. Then you look at the Jets
Speaker 1: are at fifty two, almost fifty three, Miami's at forty
Speaker 1: eight with a lot of youth and not not guys
Speaker 1: they have to pay soon. On the other side of
Speaker 1: the spectrum, you look at the teams who were over
Speaker 1: the cap a hundred ninety two and a half million.
Speaker 1: Remember before we do, you have them listed second. I
Speaker 1: bet with roll over their third will definitely be in
Speaker 1: the top five, but probably about eighty millions spend because
Speaker 1: the cap is very low. In that projection, that's a
Speaker 1: ton and they don't have to give it to any
Speaker 1: none of us going to bed, right, you know, No
Speaker 1: more of it's going to bed, you know. So the
Speaker 1: Packers right now thirty nine point six million dollars over
Speaker 1: that cap. That's with forty six players signed for next year.
Speaker 1: Dallas has fifty seven players signed for next year, but
Speaker 1: they're thirty two point eight million dollars over that cap.
Speaker 1: The Giants have fifty players signed their twenty four million
Speaker 1: dollars over the cap, and they don't really have they
Speaker 1: don't have anybody, right, they don't have Rogers and Dak
Speaker 1: and Zeke get you know, right. The Rams have fifty
Speaker 1: eight players, they're at eighteen points six million over that cap,
Speaker 1: and this is how they operate. But the Texans, wow,
Speaker 1: they are such a disaster. They've got forty two players
Speaker 1: signed for next year. There's still twelve million dollars over
Speaker 1: the cap. Wow. They signed like thirty guys in free
Speaker 1: agency and almost all of them are one year deal,
Speaker 1: right right right? They can't Yeah, I mean, Watson will go.
Speaker 1: Watson some way, shape or form is not gonna be
Speaker 1: a text in this time next year. I'm sure of it,
Speaker 1: and that will open up a little. Here's here's where
Speaker 1: the list gets interesting. I bet there's an north at
Speaker 1: eight point six million dollars over the cap with fifty
Speaker 1: eight players signed to the Cleveland Browns. Baker doesn't have
Speaker 1: a new deal yet, Garrett does. I don't know where
Speaker 1: else their money is gonna go, but I could see, like, well,
Speaker 1: they gotta pay the corner board. Yeah, he's gonna be expensive.
Speaker 1: I could see him being a franchise guy. They just
Speaker 1: picked up his his his rookie option. I think it's
Speaker 1: thirteen million dollars next year. My immediate thoughts are I
Speaker 1: bet Landry and or O'Dell are they can't afford them?
Speaker 1: Maybe both of them, at least one, maybe both, Because
Speaker 1: if you're eight point six million over the cap, you're
Speaker 1: gonna need six million dollars to sign your rookie class.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need you know, you're gonna want to make
Speaker 1: some moves. So yeah, I mean this this might be it.
Speaker 1: Like people were talking about the Browns as well, the
Speaker 1: long term contender. We'll see. It's different if it's Mahomes.
Speaker 1: You know, Baker ain't Mahomes. I mean, he may be
Speaker 1: a very good player. He maybe take a big step forward.
Speaker 1: You know, he ain't cauna be Josh Allen. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna be my Homes a lot closer to Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: and to those guys. You know, I wonder if it
Speaker 1: next year. You mentioned O'Dell and Landry, and it's the
Speaker 1: first I thought of these things. But even little things
Speaker 1: luxuries that they've been able to have, like Kareem Hunt.
Speaker 1: Do they have to trade Kareem Hunt to Seattle? You know,
Speaker 1: they just to dump them. They gonna give Chubb a
Speaker 1: new deal because they're not gonna jub go no way,
Speaker 1: you know. So some of these moves they've made, I
Speaker 1: don't know if they'll have the luxuries. And I wonder
Speaker 1: the more I think about it, maybe Ward walks after
Speaker 1: drafting Newsom yeah, you know, I mean, right, um, here's
Speaker 1: another interesting one that we can keep the old line intact. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's gonna get exact, big yeah, Like guy like Hooper's
Speaker 1: gonna get cut for sure. The Bills are seven points
Speaker 1: seven million over the cap, and Alan doesn't have his
Speaker 1: new deal, and Alan does that was a new deal,
Speaker 1: and some of those, I mean, we've seen this many
Speaker 1: times in Pittsburgh history. You can get a cap relief
Speaker 1: this year, you know, give him a six year deal
Speaker 1: or whatever. And maybe that's coming for Baker too, But
Speaker 1: these are you know, if you've cap problems, you're not adding,
Speaker 1: you're not you're not adding like you have been the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. No, you can't trade for DAGs
Speaker 1: and you know those type of things. And I think
Speaker 1: their draft showed us that, Like we're just gonna draft
Speaker 1: four linemen to start, start to draft because those things
Speaker 1: are expensive and we know soon we're gonna be losing
Speaker 1: more than we're bringing in every year. The Saints with
Speaker 1: forty six players signed or four point seven million dollars over,
Speaker 1: good for them, but yeah, better than that's without a
Speaker 1: that's without a starting quarters, right, and the cap doesn't
Speaker 1: account for them. The Falcons are three point eight million
Speaker 1: over man Julio and Ryan are hard to move on from.
Speaker 1: The Vikings are the last team that has a little
Speaker 1: bit of cap space there. That's from twenty four downs.
Speaker 1: So the Falcons on down are all over the cap.
Speaker 1: Then you have the Vikings at two point eight million,
Speaker 1: thety Niners are at one point three Real quick question,
Speaker 1: just because I'm just interested with myself, how many players
Speaker 1: do the Vikings have under contract? They have sixty. I
Speaker 1: wasna say they've got a lot of six draft picks
Speaker 1: in the last two year. Compare that to the I
Speaker 1: just mentioned the Vikings and the forty Niners in that
Speaker 1: same neighborhood. Yeah, so the Vikings have sixty players under contract,
Speaker 1: the forty Niners have thirty six, and the Niners are
Speaker 1: the first round pick for a while, I don't have
Speaker 1: a first round pick and they've only got one point
Speaker 1: three million in cap space. I mean, Jimmy's gonna go right.
Speaker 1: I mean, some of those moves are right on, but
Speaker 1: then you're eating dead caps, you know, eating. But depth's
Speaker 1: gonna be a problem for the Niners now. I mean
Speaker 1: they're gonna become a rams Stars and scrubs. Type of
Speaker 1: team real quick. The Chiefs have thirty seven players under contract,
Speaker 1: only have five point five million in cap space? How
Speaker 1: many the Steelers have again under contract? Where are the
Speaker 1: Ravens on there? The Ravens in the middle of the pack,
Speaker 1: their fifteen They have forty nine players in the contract,
Speaker 1: twenty four million dollars in cap space. But again, Lamar's
Speaker 1: but they gotta signed Lamar. Sign Lamar, which again can
Speaker 1: be fine for the first year, give him a big bonus.
Speaker 1: And yeah, but those teams, I mean, who are some
Speaker 1: of the other examples Baker Buffalo, you know when they
Speaker 1: gave him his deal, Dak Prescott when he's gotten his
Speaker 1: money here. But I'm thinking the teams that are about
Speaker 1: to hit that. Okay, the Browns, the Bills, the Ravens,
Speaker 1: they've they're soon going to find out what life is
Speaker 1: like with an expensive quarterback because none of those guys
Speaker 1: are leaving. They're not moving on from him. There, No,
Speaker 1: they're not moving on from him. And the Lamar experiment better.
Speaker 1: I'm a Lamar believer, much more so than Baker. At
Speaker 1: some point he needs to learn how to be a
Speaker 1: better pocket passer. Yes, because the running is not gonna
Speaker 1: last forever, and anyway, when they give him a big deal,
Speaker 1: they may not want him to run as much. To say,
Speaker 1: I think he has he and they have to change
Speaker 1: a little for this to work for the next It's
Speaker 1: still find to scramble. We're not going to design any
Speaker 1: more running place for you know. And we've talked about
Speaker 1: with Josh Allen to who's built much differently and runs less.
Speaker 1: But I think I'm handed to Zack Moss a little
Speaker 1: bit more here if I'm gonna pay him a huge contract.
Speaker 1: And he's only had one good year. It was an
Speaker 1: awesome year, and I'm a believer that he's that I
Speaker 1: was wrong about him. But no one got better more
Speaker 1: from nineteen to twenty than Josh Allen. I mean, what
Speaker 1: if he takes a percent step back? You know, not
Speaker 1: much does this matter to you. I'm looking here at
Speaker 1: the average age of those players. Mhm. The Saints are
Speaker 1: tops at this. See this is weird for me with
Speaker 1: the Saints. They are They're the Mardi Gras in the league.
Speaker 1: I mean it's just a party, you know, spend and
Speaker 1: left and right and Hurricanes and you know, lifted shirt up,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean because they not only they spend
Speaker 1: like crazy. But I mentioned Minnesota has made twenty six
Speaker 1: draft picks in the last two years. The Saints have
Speaker 1: made like fifteen in the last three. You know, like
Speaker 1: they trade up for troutman and guards and you know,
Speaker 1: like they go for quality instead of quantity. And they've
Speaker 1: drafted very well. But they most had that Steelers of
Speaker 1: the seventies draft with Kamara and ram Check and Williams. Like,
Speaker 1: now you gotta pay those dudes. They are unbelievable to
Speaker 1: me because they're so aggressive. But their draft should be
Speaker 1: like the Rams. Like the Rams are super aggressive, never
Speaker 1: the first round pick, but they bring in ten picks
Speaker 1: every year. You know, at least you can have backup
Speaker 1: linebackers that are cheap. The Saints don't do any of that.
Speaker 1: Who do you think is number two in average age?
Speaker 1: This one was kind of surprising because you don't think
Speaker 1: of this team, the SATs the oldest team the league.
Speaker 1: Sat Saints will be the oldest team next year. This
Speaker 1: is this is looking I can call it up for
Speaker 1: this year, but two the oldest the second oldest team
Speaker 1: will be the forty Niners. As I said, Tampa, we've
Speaker 1: been my guests. Let me, let me look at this
Speaker 1: year's bring Yeah, that's kind of like. The Steelers are
Speaker 1: are tenth on that list at twenty seven point two three,
Speaker 1: but they've got they got thirty year old quarterbacks. Assume
Speaker 1: Brady'll still be there, Ben won. So the average age
Speaker 1: going right now as we sit here is the Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay Buccaneers at seven won four years for Okay, that's
Speaker 1: current roster, current guys under contracts current current roster for
Speaker 1: the Bears are second at seven a third at twenty
Speaker 1: seven point one. Wow, I don't think of them as
Speaker 1: an old team. The Patriots are fourth on that list
Speaker 1: at eight four because they've drafted so poorly and just
Speaker 1: had to bring in a bunch of twenty eight year olds.
Speaker 1: The Texans are fifth metric for them, there's no hope.
Speaker 1: There's not a good one around, right. I mean not
Speaker 1: to mention, I mean I don't mean to be course
Speaker 1: towards the women and all the Watson situation. Their only
Speaker 1: card in the only ace they have turned into a two.
Speaker 1: You know, like, you can't get anything for him right
Speaker 1: now unless things change dramatically, and even if they do,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get what you could have six months
Speaker 1: ago for Shaun Watson. They have no means of getting better.
Speaker 1: I mean, whoever Spencer Rattler needs to be a superstar.
Speaker 1: And they if they are earned the first pick in
Speaker 1: the draft that you know what I mean, Like you
Speaker 1: draft him, you're now you're playing two quarterbacks, like right,
Speaker 1: I mean they should never drafted Mills either, because he's
Speaker 1: not a he's a really hard time succeeding on that team.
Speaker 1: And even if he succeeds, you're probably gonna draft a
Speaker 1: quarterback with the top three pick anyway, you know, he
Speaker 1: has to blow your doors off. So the Steelers on
Speaker 1: on the current age of their roster or eighteen six
Speaker 1: point one six with one obvious with one that's with
Speaker 1: Roethlisberger on the roster, I mean Cam and de Castro
Speaker 1: and somebody found. But you're getting younger, right yeah, And again,
Speaker 1: what was the number after the season of guys under
Speaker 1: contract in twenty two? It was like they started off
Speaker 1: with seventeen and now it's up and none of those
Speaker 1: are old people, right, you know, and you're gonna add
Speaker 1: Minca and Watt to that in their prime, so you'll
Speaker 1: be up at the forty six in time, you know,
Speaker 1: been because there's no rush because of the franchise bag
Speaker 1: and all that. But so, I mean, I don't think
Speaker 1: they're gonna go out there shopping for thirty two old
Speaker 1: free agents after this year, you know, I don't see that.
Speaker 1: They just that's not how they do business. And even
Speaker 1: if they had a veteran quarterback, it's gonna be Derrick
Speaker 1: car Age, it's not gonna be Ryan Fitzpatrick. No, it
Speaker 1: was the same age as Ben. I might yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be that era. But I just I
Speaker 1: just thought they're only getting younger, which not every team is.
Speaker 1: You think every team is, but not every team is.
Speaker 1: It's not a bad thing to get younger while also
Speaker 1: keeping You know, people wonder why did the Steelers pay
Speaker 1: Cam Heyward that money they could have They could have
Speaker 1: spent that on whoever Bud do Pury for example, Cam
Speaker 1: is better than Bud. You spend the money. First of all,
Speaker 1: you spend the money on camp A because he's better
Speaker 1: than the bud be because he's one of your locker
Speaker 1: room leaders. That goes a long way. That's why, you know,
Speaker 1: when you talk about I was asked this question today
Speaker 1: on my chat. How did the Steelers get people to
Speaker 1: buy in. How the Steelers get their players to buy
Speaker 1: into paying it forward, Like, Okay, we brought in a
Speaker 1: I'm the starting wide receiver, Matt, You're a second round
Speaker 1: draft pick. You come in and I help you out.
Speaker 1: Aaron Smith sends it to Hayward, who sends it to
Speaker 1: who sends it to some sophomore at Oklahoma right now,
Speaker 1: you know who. Don't you get that because hey, you
Speaker 1: keep that family type atmosphere in the locker starts with ownership,
Speaker 1: and you do that by being mostly homegrown. Without question.
Speaker 1: They don't see you going out and spending money like crazy.
Speaker 1: Everybody in that locker room for the most part. If
Speaker 1: there's if there's fifty three guys in the locker room,
Speaker 1: forty five of them were guys you drafted or developed,
Speaker 1: and that goes a long way towards building that kind
Speaker 1: of without question. Of course, that starts with the ownership,
Speaker 1: which then in turn, same GM, same head coach, whoever's
Speaker 1: here for three or four years, knows what to expect
Speaker 1: next year. You're in the same camp, you're running the
Speaker 1: same offense, you know, and you see you see them
Speaker 1: them show loyalty towards their guys. They did it to
Speaker 1: M like if I if I do what I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to do and I make this proper, if I make
Speaker 1: the strides that I'm supposed to make, They'll give me
Speaker 1: a second contract and I'll be here for the length
Speaker 1: of that second contract. And these guys know each other.
Speaker 1: The world's much smaller now. I mean, Nase Nausey knows
Speaker 1: Lynch and Peter's and whoever at Bama before Um and
Speaker 1: one of you know, make up. I'm sure every team
Speaker 1: has connections. And the no college guy or free agent
Speaker 1: now goes to a team and doesn't have a clue,
Speaker 1: don't know anybody like we're talking to We're talking to
Speaker 1: Dan Moore and Kendrick Green on draft day and they
Speaker 1: trained together at the same you know. And some of
Speaker 1: these guys are the same agents or trainers or went
Speaker 1: to school or recruited. And then you have Buddy Johnson
Speaker 1: there who's also played with like yeah, dy have mork
Speaker 1: and room with either one of them be you know,
Speaker 1: just as comfortable. And they follow each other on Instagram
Speaker 1: and Facebook, and you know, like they pay attention to
Speaker 1: one another. It's not when I was in fifth grade,
Speaker 1: if my ad moved to Oklahoma, and I had to
Speaker 1: go to a new school and didn't know a soul.
Speaker 1: That's not how the world works anymore. So you go
Speaker 1: into an environment with friends or acquaintances that have told
Speaker 1: you how things go around here, and I'm sure a
Speaker 1: lot of those aren't so swell, like like kind of
Speaker 1: hate it here, you know what I mean, Like that's
Speaker 1: very important. If you let the cams go, you lose
Speaker 1: a lot of that. You lose some of that that
Speaker 1: veteran leadership, call it whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 1: It goes a long way in that locker room. You
Speaker 1: can trace the lineage of those guys straight back to
Speaker 1: Joe Green, right, Oh that it starts there. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And not every year was super successful, and there's bumps
Speaker 1: in the roads over a fifty year period, but I'm sure,
Speaker 1: but it's there. Let's say they draft a defensive lineman
Speaker 1: in the first round, or even the guy they drafted
Speaker 1: this year, the one before that, or the one before that,
Speaker 1: and you walk in that defensive meeting room and you
Speaker 1: sit next to Cam Heyward your things, Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's not like this is
Speaker 1: a nobody and Cam's not the biggest name in in sports.
Speaker 1: It's not like sitting next to Brady, but we've been
Speaker 1: around the guy. He commands respect, and when he speaks
Speaker 1: in that room, everyone shuts up, and I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: what he does, you know what I mean. Position coach,
Speaker 1: the defense coordinator, the head coach. They keep pulling out, Hey,
Speaker 1: here's what we do and what y'll Cam does this? Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: exactly exactly, And just the way he speaks, in the confidence,
Speaker 1: in the swagger and you know that stuff is important.
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of like when I when I traced
Speaker 1: the you know, I took Cam Sutton and traced him
Speaker 1: back to the Shay Townsend like you see that there
Speaker 1: there's a direct lineage there of those of those kind
Speaker 1: of guys that and they're not pro bowlers, but they're versatile,
Speaker 1: important pieces that played a lot of special teams and
Speaker 1: made their bones. And to be honest, that worries me
Speaker 1: a little bit with Pouncey and al leaving. You know,
Speaker 1: they weren't great players last year. I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna Candy coade it. They weren't, you know what what
Speaker 1: pounds he had been earlier in his career, and frankly,
Speaker 1: they were maybe more liable. They may be better at
Speaker 1: left tackle and center this year than they were last
Speaker 1: year or just on the field, but they're not gonna
Speaker 1: be better in the room. Not yet. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: the Pouncy Poundcy still commanded that respect. He was still
Speaker 1: the he was still the guy. He was still the
Speaker 1: pulse of the team, Like you could go to him
Speaker 1: and you know, what's the team feeling about this? Or
Speaker 1: for example that when they when they were going through
Speaker 1: the situation with the with the the protests and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, you went to Pouncey for that, you know,
Speaker 1: because he was the you know, the the voice of
Speaker 1: the team on that in that situation. Well who's that
Speaker 1: guy now? Like you also went to Cam, So Cam
Speaker 1: still there? Somebody else now needs to step into them
Speaker 1: be TJ now it needs to be you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: Ben's not gonna be there much longer. Is it gonna
Speaker 1: be one of the wide receivers or is it going
Speaker 1: to be Nausey? One of these days? It will be
Speaker 1: this year, But I mean, is he gonna be the
Speaker 1: next ye Rome? Unfortunately, they don't usually play twelve years.
Speaker 1: You know, Um, I don't know this for a fact.
Speaker 1: That's an educated guess. But ab went off the rails
Speaker 1: at one point. Would he have gone off the rails
Speaker 1: a little earlier if Hayward Bay wasn't with him all
Speaker 1: the time, you know what I mean. I've said that before,
Speaker 1: like somebody needed to be the adult in there. That
Speaker 1: worries me a little in that room too. They're a
Speaker 1: little young, yeah, you know they're getting they've been around
Speaker 1: the block though, yeah, I mean they're young, but experienced.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not like you know, you're you're counting
Speaker 1: on three guys who've been here for a year or
Speaker 1: two and okay, now you're getting thrust into the lineup. No.
Speaker 1: I mean maybe last year it had been good to
Speaker 1: have a Hayward Bay that's a core special teamer. But
Speaker 1: those guys aren't gonna can't find those guys everywhere. Here.
Speaker 1: Here's a guy here, okay, the guy who was the
Speaker 1: number eight picking the draft, and he's he's now a
Speaker 1: special core special teams and he's not gonna be better
Speaker 1: than James Washington, and James is gonna have a tough
Speaker 1: time see in the field. It side note, I was
Speaker 1: talking to Stan Sabeurn on on Friday and we were
Speaker 1: just talking about these things. And he kind of was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I kind of feel bad for James Washington. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: me too, because he's done nothing wrong. He's a quality player.
Speaker 1: And but then I thought about it after I hung
Speaker 1: up with him, thinking that I worked the Steelers advantage
Speaker 1: because Juju, I think, is going to be the third
Speaker 1: wide out this year in terms of packing order. Again,
Speaker 1: he didn't really do anything wrong either, but the other
Speaker 1: two are stars in the making. So if that works
Speaker 1: out that way and they don't get decimated by injuries,
Speaker 1: Juju is gonna leave after the year. You're gonna get
Speaker 1: a compic and you're gonna say, hey, James, how about
Speaker 1: you sign it two or three year Mason. Mason is
Speaker 1: going to be the next guy, at least get his
Speaker 1: shot to be the next guy here. You were his
Speaker 1: guy in college. How about you stay? And I think
Speaker 1: you get him on the cheaper year from now you know,
Speaker 1: add him to that forty four list, give him four
Speaker 1: million a year. I don't know, and don't draft a receiver.
Speaker 1: It might work out quit pretty well. Big picture. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll see, and there's there's still a lot that has
Speaker 1: to be uh sussed out with all of them. But
Speaker 1: certainly James might leave the team receptions this year. I
Speaker 1: don't know, they're They're not in the situation that the
Speaker 1: dire situation that many people said, Oh, they've they've seven
Speaker 1: team players under contract for next year, they're gonna spend
Speaker 1: all that money real quick. Well, they spent a while
Speaker 1: on sixty seventy million of it, and they've got forty
Speaker 1: four players under contract and still have one quarterback under contract.
Speaker 1: A month ago they zero, Um, they have their franchise back.
Speaker 1: I mean, just looking at that at that roster, what
Speaker 1: it what it looks like. Here's that's that's Hayward, that's
Speaker 1: to it, that's Fitzpatrick. That still counts Ben Roethlisberger. No,
Speaker 1: you know he's but he's not going to be here.
Speaker 1: But that counts Zack Banner, Devin Boys, Juju Smith, Schuster again,
Speaker 1: same situation. He's Ben. They've got the option on those, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think will be on which, by the way,
Speaker 1: I did find out that if if he signed somewhere else,
Speaker 1: even though you it's a it's got the option on
Speaker 1: it like that, they still get a comp pic for it. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we treated like a free agent. Yeah, if he's Okay,
Speaker 1: Sutton Boswell, Derek what Mason, Rudolph Eric Ebron is a
Speaker 1: they've I think they have an option on him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if he'll be back or not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that one's up in the air. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people when they took Friar just assumed
Speaker 1: Hebron's one year and done here. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's to slam dunk. I think you kind of see
Speaker 1: how that goes. Lululu hag Warmly, Claypool, Johnson's Highsmith Lane
Speaker 1: was more than a one year deal. Yeah, good good,
Speaker 1: Anthony McFarland, Kevin Dotson, Zach Gentry, as they a bug,
Speaker 1: Ulyssie s Gilbert, Carlos Davis, I Sai Louder all the rookies.
Speaker 1: So you've still got a couple of those. I think
Speaker 1: this needs to be mentioned, but it's true for every team.
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned, the Vikings have drafted twenty six players
Speaker 1: in the last two round two years. Well, some of
Speaker 1: those guys aren't gonna make the team, you know this year, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, some of those guys aren't gonna be good enough.
Speaker 1: Gentry might not be good enough. The seventh round picks
Speaker 1: from the last two years might not be good enough.
Speaker 1: But once upon her, which is a different it's somewhat
Speaker 1: of an advantage of other teams that you probably are
Speaker 1: going to have a pun her for four years on
Speaker 1: the seventh round contract, you know, and Niken Still they'll
Speaker 1: they'll get t J. Water under contract, you know, they'll
Speaker 1: get they'll get some of these guys that are that aren't.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who the other priorities are at the moment.
Speaker 1: I would think a lot of that's probably done. It's
Speaker 1: not like last year we looked like, well, I they
Speaker 1: could get Matt Filer done, maybe that would be something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who those guys are. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess you could look at like chooks a core for potentially,
Speaker 1: but what's different from other years. If you have to
Speaker 1: you can go get a tackle. Yeah, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: bad business. I don't think they're ever gonna be doing that.
Speaker 1: Or you can trade for a guy. You know, you
Speaker 1: could trade for the next Doorlando Brown where we could
Speaker 1: go to Buffalo Route and sign seven of them and
Speaker 1: see what sticks. No, I mean just to have the
Speaker 1: fact that they have so much cap space obviously factors
Speaker 1: in for a quarterback. But one of these days we
Speaker 1: need to figure out who could be the Steelers quarterback
Speaker 1: next year. Like that should be a fun conversation, and
Speaker 1: we have all offseason. I don't even know that we would.
Speaker 1: We could throw out ten names, and I still don't
Speaker 1: know would be if we'd be right. So I think
Speaker 1: we can name twenty guys, Daniel Jones and to uh,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers and Deshaun Watson and will soon everyone that's
Speaker 1: in coming out in the draft this year, Mason Rudolph,
Speaker 1: Dayne Haskins, you know, like there's a lot of scenarios,
Speaker 1: Derek carr Lock, you know people. I don't know. If
Speaker 1: if I were I don't know, if I went to
Speaker 1: Vegas and they had odds on who's the Steelers quarterback
Speaker 1: next year, I have no clue. I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess Mason Rudolph would have the best odds. I
Speaker 1: guess just based on the fact that he's here. He's
Speaker 1: under contract, you know, he's the only one under but
Speaker 1: outside of the chance he plays us here and it
Speaker 1: does well. Um, But my point with that is names
Speaker 1: aside any of those names I mentioned, including Rogers, Wilson, Watson,
Speaker 1: they could do it now they couldn't. Couldn't have done it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the whole thing with Ben, Why would you
Speaker 1: bring him back? That's a wasted year. They even have
Speaker 1: a whole lot of other options they were gonna they
Speaker 1: were gonna spend. He's gonna cost him twenty two million
Speaker 1: dollars whether he's here or not. But it's here or not.
Speaker 1: So they questioned him became is it worth the extra
Speaker 1: four million dollars to bring him back? Yeah? And you're
Speaker 1: not going to get Rogers for four or live in
Speaker 1: Dalton even or somebody like that. I mean, so next
Speaker 1: year you can if you want, if you fall in
Speaker 1: love with the guy, you can get them. You can
Speaker 1: get whoever you want. Maybe you can't get the first
Speaker 1: pick in the draft, I mean, if you're picking twentieth
Speaker 1: or or even twelve, I mean you might not be
Speaker 1: able to get to one. But you can get the
Speaker 1: three or four dudes that are gonna be on the
Speaker 1: trade block, the highest price free agent. You know you'll
Speaker 1: be able to get who you want. It's all on
Speaker 1: the table. Everything's kind of opened up. Last year they couldn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that that wasn't the case. That's why it
Speaker 1: was always funny whenever, you know, the national media talked
Speaker 1: about him like they can't do it. They just couldn't
Speaker 1: do it right Now, they've set themselves up to do
Speaker 1: it very very well. Next year, those people will be
Speaker 1: right right finally exactly. Doesn't mean they're gonna go spend
Speaker 1: thirty million on the next Kirk Cousins on free agency,
Speaker 1: but they can if they love somebody, right. But that's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this show. So for my partner
Speaker 1: Matt Williamson, for Jacob Breck here on site keeping us
Speaker 1: on the air, I'm Dale Lally. We thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to this edition of The Drive on Steelers Nation
Speaker 1: Radio