Speaker 1: Least. He's The Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson
Speaker 1: on your Home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 1: M H m h. Welcome to the Drive. We do
Speaker 1: lovely Wednesday here in Pittsburgh. It's kind of lovely. Always
Speaker 1: do intro tunes from me for a little Yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the intro, if that's just
Speaker 1: music playing in between the you know, between shows, I
Speaker 1: don't want it. I don't recognize it. You know, we
Speaker 1: had We've had the same interro music for I don't
Speaker 1: since the creation of the Drive. But yeah, so anyways, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a Wednesday. Steelers were back on the practice field today.
Speaker 1: We haven't gotten the practice report yet, but I was
Speaker 1: over there. I kind of know who did what, but
Speaker 1: I can't say yet. Hopefully we get the next hour
Speaker 1: and a half or so. We canna chat about it
Speaker 1: a little bit. Absolutely. Uh. I did want to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about Naja Harris man Um. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you feel, but I feel a little vindicated
Speaker 1: in terms of the uh, never take a running back,
Speaker 1: Never take a running back. The analyt I had people
Speaker 1: coming after me last week on that on on Twitter,
Speaker 1: like oh, you're going these guys should never take the
Speaker 1: running back was supposed to fix the running game. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: that's yeah. Excuse me. Anyone who listens to us knew
Speaker 1: we were in favor of it. And that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: as a rule I would take running backs in the
Speaker 1: first round no matter what custances are. You know, be
Speaker 1: the right guy. So I'll be the right guy the
Speaker 1: right situation. The right aren't part of the draft considering
Speaker 1: what else is available. There weren't five other stud offensive
Speaker 1: tackles sitting there or you know what I mean. So,
Speaker 1: and this player also greatly affects the passing game if
Speaker 1: it were a t N who's a good receiver, No,
Speaker 1: you know, because he's not the bell cow. They're trying
Speaker 1: to get physical, and they're trying to make the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: life easier. He does all those things. So the fit
Speaker 1: is great for me. Yeah, I agree on um, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna go that route, they should have taken
Speaker 1: an offensive lineman, or they should have done something else.
Speaker 1: Give me a name, ye, don't just throw that out there.
Speaker 1: They should have taken an offensive linem. They should go
Speaker 1: an offensive lineman, offensive lineman, offensive lineman, give me names. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll just make it up and and and don't say,
Speaker 1: well they should have taken Creed Humphrey in the first round. No, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Creed Humphrey in the second round. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: that would have made perfect sense to me. But then
Speaker 1: you're short of tight end, you know. I mean there's
Speaker 1: a give and take with all the first round grade
Speaker 1: on Pat Okay, and that makes perfect sense. I mean
Speaker 1: in a draft we've said this over not I mean
Speaker 1: in the draft, for they were chasing tight ends for years,
Speaker 1: for years. There's two of them in this one. One
Speaker 1: of them they had no shot in a million years
Speaker 1: at And there were three running backs and they got
Speaker 1: one of each. So the old line prospects suffered a little.
Speaker 1: But it's not like more in green or losers and
Speaker 1: bombs that aren't have any value at all. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't have everything. All four of those guys are
Speaker 1: playing a lot. I mean, how many teams out there
Speaker 1: can you say the top four picks are contributing on
Speaker 1: a nearly every snap basis. Yea, Naja Harris right now
Speaker 1: is on pace for three hundred and sixty touches this season.
Speaker 1: That would be the most for Steelers players since leviy
Speaker 1: On Bell had four oh six in two thousand sixteen.
Speaker 1: He led the league that year. Yeah, I'm sure now
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry is gonna lead the league. He's running onto
Speaker 1: five hundred here. Yeah, I mean especially with the extra game,
Speaker 1: but I mean even in the sixteen game season, he'd
Speaker 1: be set in records. It's bonkers what he's doing. He's
Speaker 1: like sixty sixty carries ahead of the pace that would
Speaker 1: break the all time record. Right as long as he
Speaker 1: stays els sixteen game season, it's the seventeen games, won't
Speaker 1: even Factory doesn't break it in fifty This is like,
Speaker 1: you know, Bonds breaking the home run record in a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty four games, Like you can't even you know.
Speaker 1: Or it's like Ruth you know, hitting as many homers
Speaker 1: as five other teams in the league or whatever. Back
Speaker 1: then Gretzky numbers. Here's the he's on pace to catch
Speaker 1: passes Mattea, which would be ten more than Bell's team
Speaker 1: record for a running back of eighty five, also set
Speaker 1: in in the two thousand seventeen So Alvin Kamara is
Speaker 1: probably this is like the second most used receiver in
Speaker 1: the passing game right now in terms of route percentage
Speaker 1: and those type of things. And Kamara to me and
Speaker 1: McCaffrey are elite receiving running backs that have shown us
Speaker 1: this over what three or four year stretch every year.
Speaker 1: If you go pull up, you know Kamara's statue on
Speaker 1: the back of his football card eighty one receptions, eighty
Speaker 1: one receptions, eighty three receptions. Harris is gonna hit that,
Speaker 1: you know, probably in sixteen probably you know, the same level.
Speaker 1: And they're not like there. I mean, one game there
Speaker 1: was a lot of dump offs, but it's not going
Speaker 1: to be entirely behind the lines of scrimmage and that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff too. Yeah. Ben Roethlisberger said something interesting
Speaker 1: this morning when he was talking about how do you
Speaker 1: replace Smith Schuster's snaps in the slot? And one of
Speaker 1: it is replies, well, maybe you know, it'll be more
Speaker 1: use of the tight ends of running backs in the slot.
Speaker 1: M hmm. Indeed, Um, let's let's definitely talk more Harris.
Speaker 1: But since we got together yesterday, I finished my stat
Speaker 1: packet that I do every week for the Steelers dot Com.
Speaker 1: And I didn't realize this, but Claypool, as you alluded
Speaker 1: to yesterday, played a very high percentage of snaps when
Speaker 1: the game was all said and done from the slot,
Speaker 1: and had like over seventy yards receiving from the slot.
Speaker 1: You know, so I'm kind of mad at myself. I
Speaker 1: hadn't thought of that as the media answer. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot more too. You know, obviously Harris can handle it.
Speaker 1: Ebron is you know, yeah, you're gonna get You're gonna
Speaker 1: get him with a ton of Penn State. You know,
Speaker 1: Anthony McFarland back here at some point, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: you want to. They had a plan for him in
Speaker 1: the preseason and field together. They were on the field
Speaker 1: together a lot and then all of a you know,
Speaker 1: then here McFarland gets hurt. And that kind of goes
Speaker 1: out the window. Well you know, now you can, you can.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna put the lodge or snow on the field.
Speaker 1: Right with Harris. McFarland is a different cat. That makes
Speaker 1: things very interesting now because now, okay, you split Harris out,
Speaker 1: put him in the slot, you keep you keep McFarland
Speaker 1: in the backfield, or he's jet motioning or whatever whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. But if you know, if if let's
Speaker 1: say that the opposing defense, you most you get them
Speaker 1: both insidecars. Yeah, okay, you motion Harris over to the slot.
Speaker 1: Who follows him over? Is it a linebacker? Right? Okay,
Speaker 1: then that means we're probably gonna run the ball here
Speaker 1: to the side because Friar Mud or Gentry might be
Speaker 1: lined up in line as well, or you know, he
Speaker 1: got his speed out on the edge. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of versatility there, and it's it's similar to the conversation
Speaker 1: we had about well, is it a good thing when
Speaker 1: Deonte missed that game? Maybe they'll get back to basics
Speaker 1: and heavier football. It's not a good thing to be
Speaker 1: losing Juju, but they've they've built the team pretty darn
Speaker 1: well to handle it. And the other thing I realized
Speaker 1: I did some more digging between now and yesterday and
Speaker 1: today the two games that Deonte and Claypool missed. Washington
Speaker 1: was on the field for like snaps. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: so he's very accustomed, dude, don't. It's not gonna be
Speaker 1: Ray Ray, you know what I mean? Yeah, that that's
Speaker 1: he'll see. He'll see. He'll he'll see an uptick in
Speaker 1: in offensive snaps, but it's not often like the last
Speaker 1: two weeks. But he's Yeah, he's not gonna be playing
Speaker 1: you know, half the snap at that's not gonna happen. Uh,
Speaker 1: They'll figure out other ways to do it. They want
Speaker 1: to put their best guys on the field, and he's
Speaker 1: not one of them. Yeah, I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean he filled in in two games where someone got
Speaker 1: hurt during the game. That's not the same as we're
Speaker 1: gonna plan right right, right, It's as opposed to have
Speaker 1: to play him. I'm not getting on Ray Ray. I mean,
Speaker 1: he brings a spark to the team. But and you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean there's something they tried that at
Speaker 1: times in the preseason and training camp, and it's just yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna work. But to the original point, Harris's touches,
Speaker 1: expansive route tree, I think all those things are here
Speaker 1: to stay, if not grow, especially his route. You know
Speaker 1: that there will be asked with the types of routes
Speaker 1: will be asking him to run. Yeah, I think they're
Speaker 1: just they're just scratching the surface there, and it's it's
Speaker 1: going to continue to grow. And well, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I think after the first month of the season, NFL
Speaker 1: dot Com put out a list of the top rookies
Speaker 1: in the league behind Javonte Williams. I have super high
Speaker 1: expectations for Williams, Like, if we get the fantasy segment,
Speaker 1: I'm buying him now because he's about to blow past Gordon.
Speaker 1: But it's not close at this point. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: he just saw him on the same football field last week. Now,
Speaker 1: Williams is good. I like Williams, Yeah, but their body
Speaker 1: of work as a professional isn't close. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can't have Williams over Harris. Yeah, it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. I mean, no back as a rookie. No,
Speaker 1: I mean there are many. If I were picking rookie
Speaker 1: offensive skilled players right now have been even offensive rookie
Speaker 1: of the year. It's tough right now. Chase is probably
Speaker 1: think he's number one. I think he's number one, But
Speaker 1: I think Harris is number two. I do too. I mean,
Speaker 1: Pitts will probably get in the conversation. It's always a quarterback,
Speaker 1: you know, driven thing. And I bet mac Jones gets
Speaker 1: more votes than he should because he's a quarterback. I
Speaker 1: don't see any of them doing anything special because he
Speaker 1: doesn't stay. But they're gonna they're gonna be like a
Speaker 1: six win team, you know, well, Lancer fields play enough
Speaker 1: whins all said, and they might win seven. They get
Speaker 1: to play the Dolphins and Jets twice each. You know,
Speaker 1: but the other quarterbacks, Lawrence is actually probably playing the
Speaker 1: best at this point. It's starting to turn a corner.
Speaker 1: But the three picnic, you know. No, I put a
Speaker 1: couple of bucks down on Harris to win Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year a while back, and I bet those odds
Speaker 1: are worse now than they were that he's been. He's
Speaker 1: been over ninety yards and each of the last nine
Speaker 1: total yards and each of the last four games since
Speaker 1: the opener, so and the opening was against it what
Speaker 1: we now knows a very good defense. Yeah. Absolutely, If
Speaker 1: he does that all year long, he's gonna be Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year. He should be. He'll be in a
Speaker 1: conversation is March. He's gonna keep this up. He's gonna
Speaker 1: eight hundred yards receiving this year, right. I mean, think
Speaker 1: of the names we've mentioned to fellow rookies in the league.
Speaker 1: Right now. We have high hopes for Javonte Williams, but
Speaker 1: he hasn't even grabbed the starting job yet. Pitts is
Speaker 1: starting to look like he might be blowing up. The
Speaker 1: quarterbacks are predictably struggling, and probably we'll get better throughout
Speaker 1: the year and the next year or several. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna happen overnight. Lawrence looks better now only
Speaker 1: didn't start season. All the backs from last year, Acres, Dobbins,
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift, all those guys were weren't factors at this
Speaker 1: point of the season last year. So he's ahead of
Speaker 1: the curve as rookie goes by leaps and bounds. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was the man, and I mean he played every
Speaker 1: snap a week one, every staf, every snap, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I think he's you know, this is gonna be.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a Sunday night game this week, so
Speaker 1: I don't know how many people nationally have seen him
Speaker 1: play yet watched every snap start to finish. This will
Speaker 1: be and it's a bad defense. Like he can have
Speaker 1: a hundred fifty total yards this week. I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna be in that neighborhood. Yeah yeah, I mean without question.
Speaker 1: I mean, like again fantasy, there might be five guys
Speaker 1: that start over him this week, you know, just in
Speaker 1: terms of the total production every week moving forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's he's been that kind of you know, we
Speaker 1: we talked about that before the season started, you know
Speaker 1: what our expectations were. And I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: you know rushing yards and yeah, you know fifty to
Speaker 1: sixty catches, Well you might bump the catches up now.
Speaker 1: I forget last night and something about where he's projected
Speaker 1: in those areas, and I wrote back, like I'll take
Speaker 1: the over on the It was like it was like
Speaker 1: a thousand and fifty yards, you know, a little slow star.
Speaker 1: He's he's now averaging like sixty two rushing yards of game,
Speaker 1: and that's only going to go up. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: they haven't had a hundred of rusher in a long
Speaker 1: long time before last week. And I gotta think his
Speaker 1: receiving numbers come down a bit because he's got sixteen
Speaker 1: balls on the game, and because he's also running the ball.
Speaker 1: You know, they're gonna run the ball more. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna care, he's not gonna catch as many. Yes, and
Speaker 1: the hundred percent snapcount thing is great, but we don't
Speaker 1: want that really. I mean, I don't necessarily want Snell
Speaker 1: out there. But if McFarland plays with Harris some and
Speaker 1: maybe has a series of game. That's he's the feature back,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, that would be great. Yeah, maybe right right,
Speaker 1: because that's I'll ask it a lot for a guys
Speaker 1: ever played seventeen games before. Yeah, you saw you saw
Speaker 1: him cramp up a little bit in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: of the game on Sunday. He actually they threw back
Speaker 1: to back to him, uh plays to him and I
Speaker 1: saw him. I saw him initially cramp up and he
Speaker 1: kind of he was running away from the press box
Speaker 1: and I saw him stop on his way back over
Speaker 1: and he started like kind of stretching the leg. He's
Speaker 1: that an achilles or is he just cramping up? And
Speaker 1: then when he went down, I was like, but then
Speaker 1: he stayed in the game. Yeah, this was the next
Speaker 1: Then the next the next play is one where he
Speaker 1: went down. He they had him, you know, he didn't
Speaker 1: say anything to anybody. He just went out and ran
Speaker 1: a pass pattern when he slipped coming out of his
Speaker 1: break because the leg was locking up on him a
Speaker 1: little bit and Roethlisberger tried to throw it to him
Speaker 1: the right and maybe it was kind of an awkward play. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it did. It turned whoa bo I was? You know
Speaker 1: what was going on there? He's fighting through an injury,
Speaker 1: and Roethlisberger said, hey, he said this morning, he said,
Speaker 1: I told him, like, look, it's okay. If you're cramping up,
Speaker 1: let me know, I won't throw the ball to you
Speaker 1: the right absolutely, can you still have value as a
Speaker 1: decoy here if you if you're not until you get
Speaker 1: to the you know, for this one play or two
Speaker 1: plays or whatever. But to his credit to he's a
Speaker 1: tough guy. He wants to fight through everything. Typical Obama dude,
Speaker 1: super competitor, doesn't want to come up. And it's probably
Speaker 1: something with it because because the Bama stuff right in
Speaker 1: your Obama lose your job? Um, what was I gonna
Speaker 1: say with that? It is just cramps though, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: he was fine, he's fine. I saw he you know,
Speaker 1: he had to keep the red que on it beside
Speaker 1: his name on on the fantasy stuff. No, he's fine,
Speaker 1: He's okay. Yeah, he was just yeah, fair enough. And
Speaker 1: apparently he had he is so well put together, like
Speaker 1: there's not much body fat there. That's cramp easier. They go,
Speaker 1: those guys cramp up, you know, and I'm sure they're
Speaker 1: they're probably talking, you know, with Garrett Chamont this week Okay,
Speaker 1: what can we do to make sure that that doesn't
Speaker 1: happen again? No, absolutely, because we're gonna use you, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna use you a lot. Forty plush yards total
Speaker 1: of total offense. He would have got another barely played
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, right that thought he didnt because I
Speaker 1: was playing against him in fantasy this week and I won.
Speaker 1: It was like two oh one than one. I would
Speaker 1: have been enough to put in trouble. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: he probably would have got at least five or six
Speaker 1: more touches, you know, And I'm not ripping on the
Speaker 1: guys behind them, but the drop off is it's significant.
Speaker 1: And you see the difference, like James Conner has been
Speaker 1: okay this year, like he's he's been productive for the Cardinals. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a part time player, but he's abusing three point
Speaker 1: one year as you carry. Is it really that low? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean he's done some good things, but yeah, right,
Speaker 1: you know the other guy, and he's better than Snow
Speaker 1: and hush, you know what I mean. I mean there's
Speaker 1: a big gap from Harris to Connor, and there's another
Speaker 1: gap from Connor to the backups here currently. So you
Speaker 1: see the value of that running back. What it means
Speaker 1: to the offense, uh, to be able to just hand
Speaker 1: the ball off and go, okay, there's four yards, there's
Speaker 1: five yards, you know, and you know he falls forward.
Speaker 1: But again, the offensive line plays a part in that
Speaker 1: as well. And of course he did a much better
Speaker 1: job last week. You know, I mentioned yesterday or Monday,
Speaker 1: I can't remember which day now that that they had
Speaker 1: sit on you on the offensive line meetings to talk,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of go, yeah, you mentioned yesterday the
Speaker 1: day before. It's really interesting wondering you know why. It's
Speaker 1: almost like a quarterback meeting. What do you like? What
Speaker 1: are your favorite player? You know, what do you come from?
Speaker 1: Tell us what you like? Yeah, you have some power
Speaker 1: here now you're not gonna do what we tell you.
Speaker 1: Tell us what you want if you think back about it. Um,
Speaker 1: you know Levy on Bell's rookie year, he didn't run
Speaker 1: like he did. He was a totally different beast the
Speaker 1: next year. In the year after that, it's like it
Speaker 1: was more than just losing the weight to the style
Speaker 1: of running, because he didn't run like that. Mission state,
Speaker 1: we're just stopping the hole, trying to matrix things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, so that growth they they looked. It's almost
Speaker 1: like they've accelerated that growth process by having him do that.
Speaker 1: Last I leave some bounds not to mention all the
Speaker 1: the usage and stuff we mentioned compared to other rookies
Speaker 1: and fellow rookies from last year at that position. Um,
Speaker 1: where was I going with this? Just the original thing
Speaker 1: about you know, don't take running backs high. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: throw hypothetical out there. Let's say the Chiefs last year
Speaker 1: didn't take Clyde ed to Hilaire but took Jonathan Taylor. Yeah, like,
Speaker 1: I think they took the wrong back. But I don't
Speaker 1: think taking Taylor in that offense, the Chiefs wouldn't be
Speaker 1: two and three, That's my point, or even swift, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, like, but Taylor in that offense, but you
Speaker 1: know they might be four and one. We're not talking
Speaker 1: about my home struggle a little bit right exactly. They
Speaker 1: took the wrong back or if you put nausea in
Speaker 1: that out and you know that offense, wow, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's like they're you know, when Leonard
Speaker 1: Fournette went third overall, if that had been Christian McCaffrey,
Speaker 1: would anybody have been Nobody's nobody's given the Panthers a
Speaker 1: hard time about it. I mean, frankly, no one's given
Speaker 1: Dallas a hard time about it. I mean they took
Speaker 1: Zeke and fifth or something like that. If the back
Speaker 1: is worth it, he's worth it. Yeah, exactly. I mean
Speaker 1: that's a different conversation. Should Cowboys have paid Zeke what
Speaker 1: they did and all those things or I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean that that to me is a totally different conversation.
Speaker 1: But we don't have to cross that bridge for five
Speaker 1: more years. It looks pretty good this year, right right,
Speaker 1: And they got the quarterback back. Every thing hunky dory.
Speaker 1: Again and again. I always harp on this. I mean,
Speaker 1: whoever the next quarterback is anywhere from a third round
Speaker 1: pick that Aaron Rodgers and anybody in between is gonna
Speaker 1: be sure happy. Naja Harris is that back. It makes
Speaker 1: it more attractive. We haven't talked about this yet. Jay
Speaker 1: Glazer reported over the weekend that Mike Tomlin prefers to
Speaker 1: have a veteran quarterback instead of breaking in a you know,
Speaker 1: a young guy here. Um makes perfect sense to me.
Speaker 1: Everything that you do moving forward from this point in
Speaker 1: terms of how that offensive line continues to grow in
Speaker 1: terms of, oh boy, what's Naja Harris going to be here?
Speaker 1: In terms of what Chase Claypool and Deante Johnson Hart
Speaker 1: and Pat Fiarmouth, like, you've made a pretty good nest
Speaker 1: here that very you know, if if I'm a veteran
Speaker 1: quarterback and I'm looking at that going, that's not a
Speaker 1: bad situation. Great running back, I got a defense, I
Speaker 1: got a head coach and GM and ownership I trust.
Speaker 1: I mean, if if you're a big free agent in
Speaker 1: any sport, I would start with ownership and stability, you know,
Speaker 1: and all. You know, like if you're a head coach,
Speaker 1: like do I really want to be the head coach
Speaker 1: to Jacks? You know, you want to go to the
Speaker 1: Jets right right? Yeah, they're offering me more money, but
Speaker 1: it's I mean more money fine, you know, but if
Speaker 1: I have some choice in the matter, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: to a stable environment that's won a lot of games
Speaker 1: in this league, assuming that's what's important to the guy.
Speaker 1: If it isn't, that's not the guy you want anyway.
Speaker 1: And quite frankly, they take it. Let's say they take
Speaker 1: a left tackle or whoever. They take it, even if
Speaker 1: he's starting at this point, which looking around the league,
Speaker 1: he probably wouldn't be. Um. Now, I know Dan Moore
Speaker 1: starting for the Steelers. Yeah, you know, like there saw
Speaker 1: and those guys that doesn't move the needle for Oh boy,
Speaker 1: they get they get this left tackle twenty third. Overall,
Speaker 1: he's on Orlando Pace or or even Penny soul or
Speaker 1: because even this line, I'm sure there's people I would like,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers or whoever. Why would he ever come play
Speaker 1: behind this line? Well, he's not playing behind this line,
Speaker 1: and we five of two thousand twenty one. He's playing
Speaker 1: behind the line that they create for two thousand twenty two,
Speaker 1: which might look like this line plus the fifteenth pick
Speaker 1: in the draft as the best guard we've ever seen,
Speaker 1: prospect type of guy Quit Nelson like guard or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know. I mean. So if they do go the
Speaker 1: veteran route, I mean again, we're waging ahead of ourselves.
Speaker 1: They eat. You know that you're probably either using cap
Speaker 1: space or draft picks for the for this quarterback, maybe
Speaker 1: both if it's a Rogers like situation, But if it's
Speaker 1: a Rodgers like situation, he makes everybody around him so
Speaker 1: much better. Anyway, you can fix both things. They have
Speaker 1: enough cards in their hand that they can do both.
Speaker 1: It's not like whoever gets here has to play behind
Speaker 1: this line now. And I believe definitely three of those
Speaker 1: starters will be better in their second and third years
Speaker 1: in two thousand twenty two than they are now. We're
Speaker 1: already starting exactly. UM. I looked at it thus far
Speaker 1: this season, UM chooks A core four is not giving
Speaker 1: up a sack. Trade, UM trying to think what it was.
Speaker 1: Kendrick Green has not giving up a sack. Both of
Speaker 1: those guys have been penalized four times. In the Green
Speaker 1: it's it's been three holding penalties. Core for hasn't drawn
Speaker 1: a holding penalty this season. His penalties have all been
Speaker 1: pre snap stuff. Uh. Trey Turner's got one sack given up.
Speaker 1: He hasn't been called for a holding penalty this year.
Speaker 1: He's been solid. Yeah. Dotson has been called for two
Speaker 1: holding penalties. He's given up a sack. Damn Moore has
Speaker 1: given up two sacks, and I think he has holding
Speaker 1: penalty or two? Is OK? I mean that's it's when
Speaker 1: when we were talking about that offensive line is what
Speaker 1: we talked about, Like it wasn't one guy that stunk
Speaker 1: better if it was almost right, Yeah, because then you
Speaker 1: could then you could fix it easier. But it's been
Speaker 1: a big picture it's not better that way, you know,
Speaker 1: to let them all grow together. And again, I mean
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a lot of resources to fix it
Speaker 1: and might not need as much fixtion. Yeah what you
Speaker 1: thought it was two weeks ago. There's so much. There's
Speaker 1: already starting to shift a little right, right right, And
Speaker 1: here's is part of that. Yeah, and you don't need
Speaker 1: first round picks everywhere, and you know, fifteen million dollar
Speaker 1: guys to win this league be nice, but those guys
Speaker 1: don't grow on trees, you know, and they could go
Speaker 1: get one if they had to. This isn't college football
Speaker 1: where you you get I'm gonna go draft. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go sign these five in Miami and pick up a
Speaker 1: few tackles rights. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I like where
Speaker 1: they said big picture. It's amazing and it's I felt
Speaker 1: there was a big part of that felt this way
Speaker 1: coming out of the Green Bay game that that you know,
Speaker 1: and we talked about it like, okay, this was what
Speaker 1: you wanted. They didn't win the game, but they showed
Speaker 1: signs of improvement absolutely, especially the line in the Nobody
Speaker 1: wanted to hear that. Fans didn't want to hear. They
Speaker 1: got their They get their butts carrying to pick first
Speaker 1: in the draft, right shot. Now there's tangent. Now there's
Speaker 1: tang will proof. But it was better. That's very true.
Speaker 1: There's not the stats to back it up. There's a win.
Speaker 1: You know, anyone could see it in, you know, on
Speaker 1: the surface. Back to Harris, I mean, if he's not
Speaker 1: consistently getting hit behind the line of scrimmage, he is
Speaker 1: going to rip people up. I mean, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be Jamal Charles taking an eighty yards, but boy, I mean,
Speaker 1: you get him a little head of steam. And even
Speaker 1: when he gets hit behind the line of scrimmage, he's
Speaker 1: one of the better backs in the league at least
Speaker 1: gif line or getting something out of it. So he's
Speaker 1: perfect for this environment. Yeah, you know, I mean, if
Speaker 1: the line's blowing blocks, it's not like it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a minus three. You know, run every time it's you know,
Speaker 1: they've they've had it. They have a you know, he
Speaker 1: talked about somebody, your your buddy has a certain type
Speaker 1: as a girlfriend. He's dating a blonde. Every time they're
Speaker 1: backs are the same thing, Like, yeah, they have they
Speaker 1: have a type of backs that they want, and he
Speaker 1: sounds you know he might be the he's more prototypical
Speaker 1: of all of them. Yeah. Really, he's the drawing up
Speaker 1: in a lab as a steeler back for today's NFL.
Speaker 1: There was a time when it was jerome, but they've
Speaker 1: realized you have to have receiver there, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And he's because he's a big guy that
Speaker 1: catches the ball. He can handle a heavy workload and
Speaker 1: he's drinking handle weather and protection and massive hands. I
Speaker 1: don't I mean just they're like, what like I remember
Speaker 1: when we when we first they brought t J. Wanted
Speaker 1: to introduce introduce him. They brought him over to us
Speaker 1: while we were doing a show. Yeah we're doing you know,
Speaker 1: like you know, shake his hand and like holy macro h. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I'm always blown away with nausea. With the long
Speaker 1: arms too, I mean, it's such and both those things
Speaker 1: are such an advantage, not just for stiff arms. But
Speaker 1: he has this massive catching radius and I bring it
Speaker 1: up I feel like every week, but you watched every
Speaker 1: every practice and pre preseason and camp, how many balls
Speaker 1: did he catch three feet over his head and you know,
Speaker 1: just just scratching the safe right, that's the common people.
Speaker 1: And maybe now with with Smith Schuster gone, you might
Speaker 1: see more of that. We'll see. Yeah, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: think they can handle this, miss Schuster loss. He's a
Speaker 1: good player. They just can't. What they can't handle was
Speaker 1: a bunch, you know, like what's happened early in the
Speaker 1: season where Okay, Claypool's out of game, and then Johnson's
Speaker 1: out of game, and then Washington mrs. They need all
Speaker 1: those guys too, and Johnson now need to stay health.
Speaker 1: They need to stay healthy. And honestly, if you look
Speaker 1: at it, you know, overall they're getting pretty nice. Maybe
Speaker 1: they don't have the experience of what Seattle has, but
Speaker 1: it's pretty darn close in terms of the skill set
Speaker 1: that they bring to the table. With Johnson and Claypool.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah right, I mean there they have some similarities
Speaker 1: lockt the Metcalf verse Johnson and uh Claypool. If Claypool
Speaker 1: turns into Metcalf, great, yeah look out. But they're not.
Speaker 1: I mean they're in the same Moldy and Frankly, I
Speaker 1: mean this sounds optimistic too. I think Juju's injury just
Speaker 1: stat wise helps Claypool more than anybody, especially if he
Speaker 1: is going to operate out the slot a lot. You know,
Speaker 1: like I just envisioned him after the catch, quick hitters
Speaker 1: go routes from the slot. Juju wasn't gonna go routes
Speaker 1: from the slat or you know, deep skinny point where
Speaker 1: if he did, it was you know, right all right,
Speaker 1: and he overthrew him twice and right. Yeah, So now
Speaker 1: that I'm just like to see where the offense is
Speaker 1: at this week. Yeah, it should be fun and it
Speaker 1: should be a game where they so bad, it's atrocious,
Speaker 1: really really bad. They can't get off the field. But
Speaker 1: we'll talk to labs next, right, Yeah, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that more with Bob Levy Aldo. We have him in
Speaker 1: the next segment here. Don't you go anywhere you want
Speaker 1: to hear that. He is Matt Williams and I'm Dale Lala.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the drive here on Steelers Nation Radio.