Speaker 1: This is live coverage of the twenty twenty six Steelers
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Speaker 2: Good evening Stealer Nation. How we doing well? That's good
Speaker 2: us too. It is the five o'clock hour, so that
Speaker 2: means it's the bonus hour here on the drive, our
Speaker 2: final hour of coverage for today, day three, on the
Speaker 2: campus of Saint Vincent College of Course high atop chuck Nolefield.
Speaker 2: But we are just getting started here with our proceedings
Speaker 2: for the next few weeks, and we continue to monitor
Speaker 2: the situation of the line painting robot in front of
Speaker 2: us and all the things going on with the grounds
Speaker 2: crew here. John tweets us and says listening back to
Speaker 2: Thursday's show and loved hearing the play by play of
Speaker 2: the field Zamboni. We need more play by play of
Speaker 2: the field Zamboni with some Caddy shack commentary. Well, you
Speaker 2: didn't get the field Zamboni today, but you got the
Speaker 2: photos the field line painter. And again we are efforting.
Speaker 2: You know, we don't want to over promise and under deliver.
Speaker 2: You want to do it the other way around, right,
Speaker 2: But we're a little excited. We are efforting a member
Speaker 2: of the Steelers grounds crew to potentially from us here
Speaker 2: over the next two weeks or so while we're out
Speaker 2: here for training camp. Are our guy TV doing a
Speaker 2: little bit of doing a little bit of help for
Speaker 2: us in the background. Let's see a bunch of a
Speaker 2: bunch of tweets here to get to for today. Actually,
Speaker 2: Ian says, it's Friday. What's the move tonight? Number one,
Speaker 2: rush out of training camp to beat the traffic. Number
Speaker 2: two stay in, head to your local watering hole. Or
Speaker 2: number three head to meadows to get some ice cream
Speaker 2: with Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 2: Also, guys, what's your favorite type of luxury vinyl flooring?
Speaker 3: Remember and this flooring it definitely is the new.
Speaker 2: Flooring, new flooring up here at the press bos. It's
Speaker 2: at college. We're not rushing out of anywhere because we
Speaker 2: got we got shows tomorrow ian you know, like it's
Speaker 2: tomorrow Saturday, but it's a workday now Tomorrow, after the shows,
Speaker 2: we'll be rushing out of here to go home exactly
Speaker 2: and spend Saturday night.
Speaker 3: And see you laid this out the other day. Day
Speaker 3: of the week doesn't matter at us at all. I
Speaker 3: mean sometimes you have different responsibilities, like I do different
Speaker 3: podcasts on during the week, but whatever, I mean, it
Speaker 3: only matters if they practice or not. So this is
Speaker 3: really no different than yesterday, you know, right, so local
Speaker 3: water so local watering hole.
Speaker 2: It is local watering hole. It is my favorite type
Speaker 2: of luxury vinyl flooring is whatever they put down here
Speaker 2: in this book, in this beautiful Chucknolefield press box on
Speaker 2: the campus of Saint Vincent College in sunny Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: Angry Bike Lane tweets us and says, well, the Steelers
Speaker 2: utilize the middle of the field more this season, I
Speaker 2: would imagine, I feel like that's something we get asked
Speaker 2: this time of year.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, now this scheme will utilize the middle of
Speaker 3: the field more with inbreaking wide receiver routes. But that
Speaker 3: also sells Arthur Smith a little short. I mean Arthur
Speaker 3: Smith is not throw the ball outside the numbers only.
Speaker 3: This is more of a quarterback thing. And I know
Speaker 3: people be like, well, they've been thrown over the field
Speaker 3: for years, Well it's because Russell Wilson didn't throw over
Speaker 3: the middle fields doesn't throw over them. They just happened
Speaker 3: to bring in quarterbacks that don't throw over them. These
Speaker 3: are quarterback things, not coordinator things. And that includes Aaron
Speaker 3: you know. I mean he even in his best day,
Speaker 3: he's always been and this is a compliment, extremely aware
Speaker 3: of risk aversion. I mean his interception numbers were always Yes,
Speaker 3: TD interception numbers are.
Speaker 2: I think believable. I think it's the best in the NFL.
Speaker 2: It's like him and Mahomes in terms of after you've
Speaker 2: qualified and made so many pass I.
Speaker 3: Mean there's years he threw forty touchdowns in five interceptions.
Speaker 3: I mean, crazy stuff like that, and more bad things
Speaker 3: happen between the numbers than outside of the numbers. It's
Speaker 3: more bodies tip balls overthrows, end up doing bad things.
Speaker 3: But he has become reluctant to use the middle of
Speaker 3: the field. I'm hoping that it goes up. But and
Speaker 3: this is true for Ben, this is true for Breeze,
Speaker 3: it's true for Brady Manning. Great quarterbacks, when they get
Speaker 3: to this age, they are not real subject to change.
Speaker 3: Like dude, I put a Hall of Fame career the
Speaker 3: way you do, and yeah, put yourself in their shoes.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to reinvent myself and you know, do
Speaker 3: what I haven't done lately. And so has great success.
Speaker 3: So I hope so, or at least I hope there's
Speaker 3: more of a threat there. I hope so. Yeah. And I
Speaker 3: also think between Pittman that helps those two tight ends.
Speaker 3: They're nice middle to big Bernard. He's a good in
Speaker 3: breaking route out of the slot.
Speaker 2: Maybe you know I meant to tell you this when
Speaker 2: we had our two on Calvin Austin. Yeah, yes, when
Speaker 2: I meant to tell you this on Monday, when we
Speaker 2: did our first show back after our our kind of
Speaker 2: two weeks siesta. During one of those days when you
Speaker 2: and I were off for two weeks, I was at
Speaker 2: home doing some work and it's one of those like
Speaker 2: let me find something to throw on the TV in
Speaker 2: the background and I found on one of the you know,
Speaker 2: ESPN Classics or ESPN News or SEC Network maybe it was.
Speaker 2: They had on the SEC Championship game between Georgia and
Speaker 2: Alabama from this past season, and I thought, I'm going
Speaker 2: to put this on, you know, I want to kind
Speaker 2: of see what Ty Simpson did. I remember that Georgia
Speaker 2: won pretty comfortably, but I was like, I want to
Speaker 2: see how Ty Simpson looked. I know, he really struggled
Speaker 2: down the stretch, and only put this on. And Jeremy Bernard,
Speaker 2: I obviously wasn't really thinking, but then quickly I hear
Speaker 2: his name on the broadcast and I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: to watch Jeremy Bernard. He made an unreal play in
Speaker 2: the second half that was really the only moment of
Speaker 2: the game where it felt like Alabama was in it
Speaker 2: or had a chance, where he caught a four yard
Speaker 2: screen pass from Ty Simpson, I mean over the middle
Speaker 2: of the field, four yards from the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 2: and he took it like twenty five thirty yards to
Speaker 2: the house, made a couple of Georgia Bulldogs miss broke
Speaker 2: a tackle, So I think he's gonna have something to
Speaker 2: say there too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right on, And that kind of
Speaker 3: leads me to when things got off the rails for
Speaker 3: Bama and Simpson and who is it Ryan Williams.
Speaker 2: He was like the starry but now it's Ryan Williams
Speaker 2: something and he's hyphenated.
Speaker 3: But yes, Bernard was like the only thing they could
Speaker 3: count on for a while there. He was stretched and
Speaker 3: things weren't going well, and then.
Speaker 2: That is it was a lot of that kind of
Speaker 2: st in that game. It's like it's like third quarter
Speaker 2: and they're down twenty one nothing and they got nothing
Speaker 2: going for him, and he just makes a couple of
Speaker 2: guys miss takes it thirty yards to the house, and
Speaker 2: like I said, that was really the kind of only
Speaker 2: moment that they were in that game.
Speaker 3: I know people throw out Deebo Samuel comparisons, who just
Speaker 3: signed with the Niners, by the way, but that's not fair.
Speaker 3: Every draft someone's like, oh, this is this year's debo.
Speaker 3: Well that's not fair. But I do think him as
Speaker 3: a tackle breaker and after the catch is something I'm
Speaker 3: really looking forward to in the preseason and when the
Speaker 3: pads are really on, you know, he's good at it.
Speaker 2: Good questions here from Smooth Dave. Smooth Dave says Patrick Graham,
Speaker 2: traditionally plays a lot of zone coverage. How does that
Speaker 2: mesh with the heavy man corner personnel the Steelers have Also,
Speaker 2: the Steelers were all in on zone blocking schemes, but
Speaker 2: McCarthy traditionally does not run zone. Do we have the
Speaker 2: right personnel for what McCarthy wants to do? So, I
Speaker 2: guess one question.
Speaker 3: I think so with the run game, I'll start there,
Speaker 3: since that's the most recent one. Like I thought, say,
Speaker 3: we wanted about Matt Canada, but late in the Canada era,
Speaker 3: they really weaponized the man blocking scheme, getting this Roder
Speaker 3: Jones in particular, getting them polling on the move lineman
Speaker 3: getting downfield, you know, on the running not just moving
Speaker 3: in Unison, And there's a lot of carry over with
Speaker 3: the offensive lineman. And I do think McCormick's a good
Speaker 3: puller and Fraser can play anything. Faltanu I think can
Speaker 3: handle the man stuff as well. So I don't know
Speaker 3: that they just scrapped in terms of O line building
Speaker 3: when they went zone heavy. I didn't love that considering
Speaker 3: how good demand stuff was working under Canada, and I
Speaker 3: don't think they went exclusively zone lineman either. Also, where
Speaker 3: I'll fight you at is the first part of the question,
Speaker 3: because over Graham's career, every team runs a lot more
Speaker 3: zone demand. If you're running man at a thirty five
Speaker 3: percent clip, that's high now, So yes, everybody runs more
Speaker 3: zone demand. But I think over Graham's career and his
Speaker 3: DNA is man heavier than zone, is more man heavy
Speaker 3: than most coordinators. Last year. You can cherry pick what
Speaker 3: Graham did last year and say the good stuff is
Speaker 3: his and the bad stuff's Pete Carroll, and that's not
Speaker 3: fair to either one of them. But they played a
Speaker 3: lot of old school zone cover three Pete Carroll stuff
Speaker 3: that I don't think Graham put his stamp of approval on.
Speaker 4: That.
Speaker 3: He just got over.
Speaker 2: The way your boss wanted to.
Speaker 3: Right, and that was zone heavy. So I do money talks,
Speaker 3: personnel moves talk. You brought in a bunch of man
Speaker 3: coverage corners, and I think you're about to pay your
Speaker 3: best man coverage corner. I think they're gonna play a
Speaker 3: lot of not only man, but old school press man
Speaker 3: with big people Steelers.
Speaker 2: Burner says, do we think the Steelers bad fourth quarter
Speaker 2: defense was a little bit due to some of the
Speaker 2: previous regime and Mike Tomlin and Tarol Austin's kind of
Speaker 2: bend but don't break, you know, allow yards but not
Speaker 2: points defense. I feel like the extra snaps from that,
Speaker 2: along with uh some you know some turnover issues may
Speaker 2: have gassed our guys by the fourth.
Speaker 3: Quarter part of it. I wouldn't put them at the
Speaker 3: top of the list, but I would put them fourth
Speaker 3: or fifth on the list. You know, again, any whatever
Speaker 3: happens if to a defense, if you're playing more snaps,
Speaker 3: it's bad, no doubt. Too much defense is bad or
Speaker 3: bad defense is too much defense. And if that's because
Speaker 3: of you know, not being off the field because of
Speaker 3: a ben Bert not breakstyle, or your offense doesn't.
Speaker 2: Along gating enough drives, Yeah, that all.
Speaker 3: Of that absolutely contributed. I also don't think they made
Speaker 3: great defensive adjustments late in games too.
Speaker 2: You know it all worked in symphony Matt to have
Speaker 2: a concert that was not very good in the.
Speaker 3: Fourth No, no, I can't talk about that enough.
Speaker 2: One or two more here before we close down this segment.
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh Conversation says, all right, what are the chances or sorry,
Speaker 2: all right, what chances do you give that Mike Tomlin
Speaker 2: ends up coaching after this season and the Steelers get
Speaker 2: a draft pick, is it likely? Unlikely? Highly likely? Boy,
Speaker 2: that pick would be nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it would be I'd say fifth fifty, you know.
Speaker 3: Like I know, John Payton did a year and then
Speaker 3: missed it so much and they traded for him. I
Speaker 3: think that it's a much more comfortable job than he's
Speaker 3: had the last two decades here. And I could see
Speaker 3: any human being being going, Man, I'm making good money.
Speaker 3: I'm still on the spotlight. I not disappeared off the planet.
Speaker 3: I'm still doing really cool football stuff. I may never
Speaker 3: coach again. I mean, yeah, you go back there John Madden,
Speaker 3: like put him in the booth.
Speaker 2: They'll cower, right, you know. There's yeah, there's examples both ways.
Speaker 2: I think of people like Madden and Bill Cower, where
Speaker 2: the general consensus was they'll take a year or a
Speaker 2: couple of years off and then they'll be back, and
Speaker 2: they never were. Then the Sean Payton types, where I
Speaker 2: think people thought, oh, there's a good chance he's going
Speaker 2: to do this for a while, and it was one
Speaker 2: year and then back to coaching. Matt I can It's almost.
Speaker 3: Like when you graduate call or high school and they say,
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna take a year off before I go
Speaker 3: to college. Like how many of them actually do fifty? Right?
Speaker 3: Like this year off' is kind of fun.
Speaker 2: This is another one of those. If you would have
Speaker 2: asked me a week after the announcement was made that
Speaker 2: Mike Tomlin was leaving the Steelers, I would have said,
Speaker 2: he's coming back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought he might even coach this upcoming season
Speaker 3: at that point, right.
Speaker 2: And I just I continue to get some mixed signals.
Speaker 2: I think sometimes I think fifty to fifty is an answer?
Speaker 2: Is is a cop out for this stuff? But I
Speaker 2: think that's spot on. Like, you know who Mike Florio is. Obviously,
Speaker 2: he's Pro Football Talk on NBC. He's a West Virginia guy,
Speaker 2: Mike Florio is, And so he was on one of
Speaker 2: the WVU podcasts that I like a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 2: and they asked him, what's it been like working with
Speaker 2: Mike tom with NBC. Have you gotten to meet him yet?
Speaker 2: Have you been around him much at all? And Florio
Speaker 2: said yes, And they kind of asked him a similar question,
Speaker 2: what do you think his next move is? And Florio
Speaker 2: was like, I have not been told anything. I have
Speaker 2: not even talked about this with Mike. I want to
Speaker 2: be very clear. This is just all me. This is
Speaker 2: just all my.
Speaker 3: Speculations, observations from afar.
Speaker 2: He goes, I think Mike Tomlin's gonna be done coaching.
Speaker 2: I think He's gonna love this. I think he's gonna
Speaker 2: be good at it. I just like just He's like,
Speaker 2: that's just my total hunch. He's like, Mike might hear
Speaker 2: this and text me and tell me I'm an idiot.
Speaker 2: But he's like, I think he's gonna be done coaching. Now,
Speaker 2: that's just one person's opinion, but you're starting to hear
Speaker 2: more of that than you did three months ago.
Speaker 3: Now. I think that's very possible. But I've also heard
Speaker 3: many people that have worked shoulder to shoulder with him
Speaker 3: in this junkie But like anybody, you could have burned
Speaker 3: out over the last year or two and be like, man,
Speaker 3: that was hard on my body, and I'm not seeing
Speaker 3: my family. And now my kids are grown and I
Speaker 3: got a pretty good gig and I can go to
Speaker 3: the beach once in a while.
Speaker 2: Football circles.
Speaker 3: It's interesting, yeah, but the draft pick would be nice.
Speaker 2: It sure would because it would be a first round
Speaker 2: or baby, I would think last one of the day
Speaker 2: goes to Nate. He's oh, he's got two questions. He's
Speaker 2: trying to stir up some trouble with the last one.
Speaker 2: He says, what do you guys think about Gadson and
Speaker 2: fantasy football this year? As a late round tight end? Also,
Speaker 2: which school has produced better athletes all time? WU were
Speaker 2: pit with the he's got the smirk in there. Football
Speaker 2: is not even close. Every other sport though it's WV.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't know, but I believe.
Speaker 2: Well the logo of the NBA is a WVU.
Speaker 3: Guy definitely put out better pro basketball players.
Speaker 2: Men's and women's. Definitely, Definitely Baseball WVU guy is about
Speaker 2: to win NL Rookie of the Year in JJ Weatherholt
Speaker 2: and Gavin Kelly. Our catcher might be the first overall
Speaker 2: pick in the draft next year.
Speaker 3: I'm not even a pit defender. But I don't know
Speaker 3: what other sports they're great at.
Speaker 2: It's a good question. They're great volleyball, right, yeah, right,
Speaker 2: but I don't know is there a pro for that?
Speaker 2: There's Olympics, but you know the WV rifle team, we
Speaker 2: got kids winning gold medals.
Speaker 3: Every like a historically good program where we.
Speaker 2: Might be like a you know, like we're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we have the most national titles of anyone, and then
Speaker 2: right in pew pew baby in rifle. So yeah, football
Speaker 2: it is, without a doubt Pit. I think Pitt has
Speaker 2: ten or eleven in the Hall of Fame. W WVU
Speaker 2: has three. But basketball, men's and women's baseball, anything else,
Speaker 2: I'll I'll take WV without a doubt. H Gadson in
Speaker 2: fantasy football this year.
Speaker 3: I think he's a little bit of fools gold because
Speaker 3: they want to play with heavier personnel. They brought in
Speaker 3: a full back, they brought in the Joku, they brought
Speaker 3: in Cohler, So Gadson is not a blocker at all
Speaker 3: as a tight end, and he had a really nice
Speaker 3: stint there as a productive fantasy option for you. But
Speaker 3: I think they're going to play with a lot more
Speaker 3: heavier personnel and Harbaugh loves that stuff and bang, yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't think there'd be a lot of receivers on
Speaker 3: the field. I don't think that there's going to be.
Speaker 3: They brought an alex Ingold to full back, you know,
Speaker 3: so I think he'll get drafted, probably not by me
Speaker 3: in most fantasy leagues, because he did show glimpses and
Speaker 3: he's a really good receiver, but he doesn't block a soul,
Speaker 3: And I think they want big body people real quick.
Speaker 2: I would assume the answer is yes. But if Aaron
Speaker 2: Donald comes back, that resets his five year clock for campus, I.
Speaker 3: Assume it's just like Rivers. I would but last year, right.
Speaker 2: Because that did for Rivers? Right, that even just a
Speaker 2: couple of games is.
Speaker 3: A lot to give up.
Speaker 2: That's a lot to give up, Pillen Rivers a lot
Speaker 2: to give up.
Speaker 3: They come in and look okay for a two.
Speaker 2: Games, Aaron Donald, it's a whole season and you've got
Speaker 2: a shot to win another Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: You're going to like the best team in the league.
Speaker 3: But I do think that I was thinking about that
Speaker 3: the other day. How many years has he been gone? Too?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 3: I think Philip Rivers would have been up this year.
Speaker 2: I believe you're right.
Speaker 3: I mean he would have been competing with Ben.
Speaker 2: Yes, Aaron Donald has been out the last two seasons.
Speaker 3: Okay, so he retired three years out of his he
Speaker 3: waits three years longer.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, not much for a chance to win a
Speaker 2: Super Bowl. I think that's probably a fair.
Speaker 3: And I don't know if Rivers was going for sure,
Speaker 3: Donald's going for sure for sure Donald's first ballot. Rivers
Speaker 3: would get my vote, but he's it's a debate Donald.
Speaker 2: Donald is Donald is first ballot? Or what the heck
Speaker 2: are we doing here? Yeah, Matt Robot stopping for some maintenance.
Speaker 2: We're going to do a quick pit stop for a
Speaker 2: for a break here as well too. We'll continue some
Speaker 2: conversation on the other side. We've been talking a lot
Speaker 2: of tight ends today, some interesting comments from Darnell Washington
Speaker 2: that we'll get to, and a whole bunch more as
Speaker 2: we roll along here in our bone, our West Ruler,
Speaker 2: Matt Williamson. It's the Drive Steelers Nation Radio on the
Speaker 2: Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1: This is live coverage of the twenty twenty six Steelers
Speaker 1: training camp on the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
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Speaker 6: Workers Local Union number three. We don't go to the office,
Speaker 6: We build it.
Speaker 2: Rolling along here in our final hour of coverage today
Speaker 2: on day three from Steelers training camp. Of course, at
Speaker 2: Big Day tomorrow, Haul of Honor class going to be
Speaker 2: announced at ten am right here on SNR. And it
Speaker 2: will be the final of four acclamation practices for the Steelers.
Speaker 2: All is part of Welcome Back to Football weekend across
Speaker 2: the NFL. It's always a lot of fun, always a
Speaker 2: lot of high energy on campus here for that first
Speaker 2: Saturday practice. And I know somebody that all of Steeler
Speaker 2: Nation wants to see this year is, of course, Darnell Washington,
Speaker 2: won a Matt's Favorites, the big Guy, the tight end.
Speaker 2: We spent some time, a decent amount of time today
Speaker 2: on the show from a fantasy football perspective and then
Speaker 2: just an overarching perspective talking about tight ends. Here's what
Speaker 2: the Steelers big man, Mount Washington had to say after practice.
Speaker 3: Offense, Miss Kenny Ginnell and how do you think the
Speaker 3: running backs that have been.
Speaker 6: Brought in will off set that?
Speaker 4: I mean, I miss him, but I feel like, yes,
Speaker 4: I know, well I'm not gonna say no, but yes,
Speaker 4: everybody know KG. You know, he was you know, a
Speaker 4: stule last year, and I mean he's gonna continue to
Speaker 4: be that, but then we brought in new talent. Not
Speaker 4: going to compare those two kind of guys, but you know,
Speaker 4: we brought in new talent.
Speaker 3: So you've been through some injury stuff.
Speaker 2: What's have been like to see product come back with
Speaker 2: How have you guys been there for.
Speaker 6: Getting during this?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 4: Me personally, you know, I go way back with Rod,
Speaker 4: you know, just being in his corner. Uh, I know,
Speaker 4: his injury a lot more different than minds. I you know,
Speaker 4: just really just try to be in his corner and
Speaker 4: just be by the side through it all so emotional
Speaker 4: and all that. So if he needs somebody to been to,
Speaker 4: he knows he can come to me and talk about it.
Speaker 3: Do you like the fact that you guys have an
Speaker 3: offensive mind you this year?
Speaker 5: I mean nothing against my commis, but it seems like
Speaker 5: a lot of them offensives gonna be pretty excited about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like me for sure. This this my
Speaker 4: first time ever in football. Even go back to Georgia,
Speaker 4: Kirby Smart. Everybody knows he's a defensive mind, you know,
Speaker 4: Mike t defensive mind. So so this is my first
Speaker 4: time ever experiencing it, you know, in football. So, uh,
Speaker 4: it's a lot different. I enjoy it, you know, just
Speaker 4: because like the head coaches like you know, like he's
Speaker 4: he's cool, but you know, like when you mess up,
Speaker 4: he's also get on you can you know, get out there,
Speaker 4: which I mean all he doing is coaching. So all
Speaker 4: all we can do is to get better and just
Speaker 4: take it in and soak it in and you know,
Speaker 4: just continue to get better.
Speaker 2: Is that one of the reasons or did it play
Speaker 2: into the fact that if you signed that extension you.
Speaker 6: Wanted to be here?
Speaker 4: I mean, I for sure wanted to be here. But
Speaker 4: I mean I can't tell you what they think from
Speaker 4: us there, So I don't know that.
Speaker 2: It was a really impressive teeming to drive that the
Speaker 2: offense office. So if you guys don't abdy' just what
Speaker 2: did you see from them? How do you guys feel
Speaker 2: picking with the ball time?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 4: Just just some things I picked up on it, you know,
Speaker 4: just seeing one of our brothers make a play and
Speaker 4: then it's just like get you excited, you know, just
Speaker 4: for uh, just make make me want to make the
Speaker 4: next play next. So I feel like you're feeding off
Speaker 4: each other energy and just just continue to dry it
Speaker 4: down the field. Feel like things are moving first here
Speaker 4: like already a couple of days in or uh to me,
Speaker 4: same page, you know, I kind of just like to
Speaker 4: take it day by day, just be where my feet is.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I know we're early.
Speaker 1: In the process, but do you feel like there are
Speaker 1: a ton of changes on offense you feel comfortable?
Speaker 4: For me, yes, just you know it kind of just
Speaker 4: go back on the uh, you know, head coach being
Speaker 4: an office of mind god. So just seeing the head
Speaker 4: coach and the offense of unit meeting, that's that's a
Speaker 4: lot different from me. So yeah, probably the most important
Speaker 4: question I was the Probably the wedding. It was fun,
Speaker 4: you know that that was actually my first wedding obviously
Speaker 4: besides mine, but my first wedding I intended as a
Speaker 4: guest ever in my life, and you know, Pat money Man,
Speaker 4: So just seeing just seeing everything said I like that,
Speaker 4: you know, it was amazing first wedding and you know,
Speaker 4: I enjoyed it a lot.
Speaker 2: Mount Washington speaking after practice Matt good amount of tight
Speaker 2: end conversation on the show today, Yeah, a lot, and
Speaker 2: obviously here in Pittsburgh. But I think now across the league,
Speaker 2: Darnel Washington is one of those guys that everybody is
Speaker 2: very interested to see what it looks like for him
Speaker 2: in year three in this new Mike McCarthy offense.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's super interesting no matter what, even if
Speaker 3: he's just a blogger, I mean he's a rare cat.
Speaker 3: I still think there's a lot more receiving potential there too.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I would bank on it, but
Speaker 2: I think he's got the possibility to end up on
Speaker 2: some of those top ten titens lists at some point
Speaker 2: in his Even though.
Speaker 3: He catches like forty balls in a year, I mean,
Speaker 3: his impact in the game is way way more.
Speaker 2: He could be a force in the red zone, he
Speaker 2: could be a force in the run game, and certainly
Speaker 2: one of the more intriguing Steelers, and I think just
Speaker 2: guys across the national I think it.
Speaker 3: Was the combine. Remember when Omar was at the podium
Speaker 3: and they were talking about all these extensions coming up
Speaker 3: and he's never going to show his hand. But I
Speaker 3: remember when someone asked him about Darnell, he went, I'll
Speaker 3: take twenty two of them.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: He did, like he didn't even hesitate.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh's And then the extension got done pretty quickly.
Speaker 3: Pretty quickly, and it was a big number, but it should.
Speaker 2: Be absolutely absolutely big number for a big man there
Speaker 2: Mount Washington and hoping for big things from him and
Speaker 2: Pat Fryermuth here in twenty yeah, twenty six. One more
Speaker 2: segment to go when we return on the other side,
Speaker 2: will wrap up the day's proceedings on this Friday edition
Speaker 2: bonus hour of the Drive Euler and Williamson. It's all
Speaker 2: part of our ongoing training camp coverage Steelers Nation Radio
Speaker 2: on the Steelers Audio Network.
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Speaker 2: Final segment of the day for us here on the drive.
Speaker 2: Final segment for our Day three coverage from St. Vincent
Speaker 2: College of course, Chuck nol Field here. All part of
Speaker 2: Steelers training camp twenty twenty six. Fourth practice will be tomorrow. Reminder,
Speaker 2: it's Hall of Honor Day. It's Welcome back to football
Speaker 2: day across the NFL.
Speaker 3: That will be fun.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a lot of fun, lot of and
Speaker 2: that Saturday crowd tomorrow I think is gonna be oh yeah, insane.
Speaker 2: Weather report looks great too. I think in the evening
Speaker 2: it's supposed to rain a little bit, but it'll be
Speaker 2: completely fine throughout the late morning, early afternoon. Hall of Honor,
Speaker 2: Welcome back to football. First Saturday practice. It's gonna be
Speaker 2: jumping in here for the Steelers fourth and final acclamation practice.
Speaker 3: Very cool. Now I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 2: No I am too, and obviously we'll look forward to
Speaker 2: a little day off Sunday, going home and seeing our families,
Speaker 2: and then back on Monday for what's going to be
Speaker 2: another big day here because the pads go on and
Speaker 2: the Pat McAfee show is going to be broadcast. Fay
Speaker 2: the baseball field right to Matt and I's left here.
Speaker 2: So a lot of moving and shaking over these next
Speaker 2: few days on campus. The man who is in charge
Speaker 2: of all of it, the conductor of this of this
Speaker 2: process for the Steelers, Mike McCarthy speaking ahead of practice.
Speaker 3: Sticking with quarterbacks for a second, just in the short
Speaker 3: time you've had to work with them in the offseason,
Speaker 3: where have they begun to show some progress?
Speaker 6: And what more would be the points of emphasis during
Speaker 6: their training camp here?
Speaker 3: Well, the's fundamental.
Speaker 5: It's in every day, all day deal. I mean, just
Speaker 5: being in the meetings. I think Aaron is doing in
Speaker 5: an exceptional job just sharing the past experiences and as
Speaker 5: we're able to go through the quarterback school and so,
Speaker 5: you know, just all the little tidbits and you know,
Speaker 5: the guys are definitely soaking it up. So that's an
Speaker 5: ongoing you know, I mean, that's it never ends, you know,
Speaker 5: So I mean that's why you do it. It's the
Speaker 5: baseline of everything we do as far as playing from
Speaker 5: the pocket. So you know, the young guys are doing
Speaker 5: a good job there, but they need reps. You know,
Speaker 5: they need seven on seven's. I need the group work,
Speaker 5: you know, just the progression of the drill work showing
Speaker 5: up into the competitive work. So, I mean this is
Speaker 5: obviously a critical time of year for them, and you
Speaker 5: know the preseason will be big for the young guys.
Speaker 3: Like you mentioned mock game. That what you said, Todor,
Speaker 3: what does that really entail?
Speaker 5: Uh, it's just trying to hit all the different situations
Speaker 5: that occur throughout the game. You know, it's you have
Speaker 5: a primary emphasis for instance, it's kind of it's cut
Speaker 5: into two two phases. You know, the first phase is
Speaker 5: game management and special teams. You know, one of the
Speaker 5: things throughout the year is just you know, through through experience.
Speaker 5: You know, you get down to the first preseason game
Speaker 5: and you know your boundary, your boundary communication, your boundary
Speaker 5: management is something that you know you usually just work
Speaker 5: on right before you go out. So you know, it's
Speaker 5: a ninety man roster. So we're My point is we're
Speaker 5: hitting those things now. You know, I don't think you
Speaker 5: can do enough situational work, the awareness of it, the
Speaker 5: importance of stressing the defense with the personnel group, having
Speaker 5: the right personnel groups, just all the little things that
Speaker 5: go into the makeup of a game.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: Then you get into the second part of it, and
Speaker 5: you know, like today's second part is really review the
Speaker 5: last two days, so we kind of it's a format
Speaker 5: I've always tried to kind of go one or two,
Speaker 5: you know, one do two installs review two installs reviews.
Speaker 5: So it's and it kind of matches the workload capacity
Speaker 5: of what you're looking for as far as like next
Speaker 5: week we have two padded practices review, then we'll have
Speaker 5: three padded practices. Once will be the biggest stress point
Speaker 5: and it's more going into the Saturday night UH scrimmage
Speaker 5: in downtown. So so just you know, it's a flow
Speaker 5: that really works physically mentally, and it really gives you
Speaker 5: a chance to hit all the situations.
Speaker 7: Mike Spencer Anderson and Dylan Cooker played a lot of
Speaker 7: roles here through OTA's Mini camp first couple of days.
Speaker 7: I understand that I've been pads on you. What have
Speaker 7: you seen from those two.
Speaker 6: On the right side.
Speaker 5: Well, I'd just like to recognize your first point. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's it's an excellent example with I think we talked
Speaker 5: about the other day. I mean you talk about position flex.
Speaker 5: You know, those guys to find that very well, and
Speaker 5: that's a real credit to them what they've done in
Speaker 5: the past and and how we view them their ability
Speaker 5: to play multiple positions, but also give them a chance
Speaker 5: to compete to win a job, you win a starting job.
Speaker 5: So been very impressed with their work, and you know
Speaker 5: the old line of D line. I'm sure they're you know,
Speaker 5: they're looking forward to getting past the Mars practice because
Speaker 5: you know they can get in the pads and you know,
Speaker 5: things can get you know, get get into the real
Speaker 5: stuff for them. But I think both those guys have
Speaker 5: done done an excellent job so far, Mike. So far,
Speaker 5: Roman's gotten a lot of work, kind of a lot
Speaker 5: of passes.
Speaker 3: Aaron's gone his way a lot.
Speaker 5: How have you kind of seen Roman, uh kind of
Speaker 5: evolve throughout just the short time you've had with him,
Speaker 5: and how has he taken to these opportunities. You know,
Speaker 5: I just look back to you know, Roman and like
Speaker 5: a lot of things in life, you know, I look
Speaker 5: at with the first impression. Frankly, him and I were
Speaker 5: walking up from the meat or driving back from the
Speaker 5: meeting yesterday, and we're talking about the Michigan working out,
Speaker 5: you know, and he's you know, he came out. I
Speaker 5: was at the workout, and we're talking about, you know,
Speaker 5: the Harball family and just what impressive team it was
Speaker 5: and how impressive, uh, that whole workout was. And you know,
Speaker 5: him coming out of college and and then you know,
Speaker 5: and going back to when when I arrived here, we
Speaker 5: had a conversation on the phone, you know, you want
Speaker 5: to introduce himself, and you know, talked about you know,
Speaker 5: his his first year and and and really and this
Speaker 5: really hasn't changed in then I said, I need you
Speaker 5: to be a multiple physician player. I said, I want
Speaker 5: to be able to line you up both inside and outside.
Speaker 5: He's going a hell of a job inside. Frank I'm
Speaker 5: gonna you know, everything talking to him about this. But
Speaker 5: I think we can start working a little bit more
Speaker 5: outside too, because you know, his vertical his vertical speed
Speaker 5: and and his ability to you know, we call it
Speaker 5: the audobonn out there on the numbers. I think he's
Speaker 5: he's an excellent, has an excellent skill set for that
Speaker 5: also too so. But he's done a really nice job.
Speaker 5: I mean he can line up at exit the n
Speaker 5: F and you know, so so far he's done exactly
Speaker 5: what we asked.
Speaker 3: Anyone else, Mike Travis Homer, Uh, he looks like he's
Speaker 3: uh has a lot of leadership duties on Special Teams
Speaker 3: so far? What did you know about him from the Special.
Speaker 1: Teams where in the pass to kind of hand him
Speaker 1: to personal protector job?
Speaker 5: Right, Holt in the first Well, I mean we're you know,
Speaker 5: we're working reps and so forth. I think it obviously
Speaker 5: his history is he's a veteran Special Teams player. But yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm once again, I'm looking forward to getting into the
Speaker 5: padded work. And you know that that personal protector is
Speaker 5: important cause obviously the identification responsibility and and you do
Speaker 5: want to experienced player in there, you know. But we
Speaker 5: got some good young guy. We got some young guys
Speaker 5: that that that uh, you know, will have an opportunity
Speaker 5: in there.
Speaker 4: Also think I know, uh, how's aren't on yet, But
Speaker 4: how do you anticipate the guys in in your previous
Speaker 4: experience being able to bring some about physicality without full tackle.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I I think I must have done a bad
Speaker 5: job with the Our practice will be physical, you know.
Speaker 5: I think the only thing that's different is we don't
Speaker 5: want to go to the ground and in risky injury.
Speaker 5: But I think everything else will look will look the same.
Speaker 7: Mike, There's been some opportunities for Sante Samuel Junior in
Speaker 7: camp and he's been noticeable. What what's jumped out to
Speaker 7: you about him? And could he be a you know
Speaker 7: guy that work into the mix during the season.
Speaker 5: I know, personally I'm kind of on him.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: It's just like anything in this league. You know, you
Speaker 5: come into a new job, new situation, especially as the
Speaker 5: head coach. Uh, there's individuals that you know obviously compete
Speaker 5: against his father, you know, but he's he's he's frankly
Speaker 5: been one of my favorite players, you know, since I
Speaker 5: arrived there. I just love the way he works. He's
Speaker 5: extremely physical. His his ball skills are off the charts.
Speaker 5: You know, that's a big thing of you know, that's
Speaker 5: that's something I really look for in defensive backs. We
Speaker 5: want to take the ball away, catch the flash of
Speaker 5: the ball, and he has all that and he's done.
Speaker 5: You know, he's he's been here every single day off
Speaker 5: season program. He's had two really good practices so far.
Speaker 5: You know, he really had his first day, he had
Speaker 5: did a really nice job. So I think I think
Speaker 5: the young man's a hell of a football player.
Speaker 2: What's it like working with him? After you said competing
Speaker 2: against his dads?
Speaker 4: That happened?
Speaker 2: How often has that happened to you?
Speaker 5: Well, you know, you know, you know where they are
Speaker 5: because they're going to pick the ball off. So you
Speaker 5: know his father was the same way, So you're definitely
Speaker 5: conscious that would were I think it was talking hard
Speaker 5: about you know, were talking about the flag football candidates,
Speaker 5: and I think his name was one of the names
Speaker 5: come up. I mean, he'd be on my flag football
Speaker 5: team too, So I mean he could play you know how,
Speaker 5: I play him one offense just because of his skill set.
Speaker 5: But he's he's a very talented young man.
Speaker 2: What else do you have on that flag football candidate list?
Speaker 3: You got to go now, right?
Speaker 6: For that two years, Mike, you've you've talked to us
Speaker 6: about things like GPS.
Speaker 3: Monitoring and you know, some sports science type of stuff.
Speaker 7: Is that something that you've always kind of leaned into
Speaker 7: or is there a point in your coaching journey starting
Speaker 7: to you know, explore those kinds of topics a little
Speaker 7: bit more.
Speaker 5: Very fortunate to come up in some excellent programs. You know,
Speaker 5: I've worked for you, great organizations. I've been around people,
Speaker 5: you know, my whole career that you know, we're forthcoming,
Speaker 5: you know, been exposed to a lot. But you know,
Speaker 5: as a head coach, you know it's I frankly look
Speaker 5: at it's part, you know, part of your job responsibility.
Speaker 5: Those are tools. GPS is a tool, supports science is
Speaker 5: a tool there, but still it's a people's game. I
Speaker 5: think we got to be conscious of that. I'm not
Speaker 5: gonna you know, GPS is part of the is part
Speaker 5: of the evaluation. It's not going to drive every decision
Speaker 5: that we make. That's that's not realistic. You know. The
Speaker 5: human part of this is uh, you know, I think
Speaker 5: we want to refer more to the steel mill operation
Speaker 5: than we do it to the GPS, so that that
Speaker 5: that won't change here, Uh.
Speaker 3: Never never will.
Speaker 5: But those are really good tools that have been exposed
Speaker 5: to and just have used them and have history and
Speaker 5: now I'll be able to do it in three places.
Speaker 5: You know, So you got you have criteria that you're
Speaker 5: able to interact with both the you know, trainers in
Speaker 5: the strength and conditioning coaches, and it has served us well.
Speaker 5: You know, I think we've clearly, I know, first using it,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say twenty percent was the number that kind
Speaker 5: of jumps out of me, just when you look at
Speaker 5: practice and you try to reduce the fatigue injuries. You know,
Speaker 5: we were higher in my earlier days as a head coach,
Speaker 5: but I think it's probably more of a product of
Speaker 5: how you trained back then too. You know, you practiced
Speaker 5: a lot more, you had more team meetings and so forth,
Speaker 5: and you can see that just in the practice reps.
Speaker 5: So blessed the coach in that in that era as
Speaker 5: a head coach, because you know, you know how many
Speaker 5: reps you know, you say, if you get eleven hundred
Speaker 5: reps as an offense during the season, you try to
Speaker 5: emulate that in your training camp. So and now that's
Speaker 5: opportunity does not exist, you know, because of the limits.
Speaker 5: You know, but where do you get those reps? And
Speaker 5: that's where the mock game's important, you know, that's these
Speaker 5: mock games and the quarterback extra critical in the offensive line.
Speaker 5: They're critical in these mock game situations because they control
Speaker 5: the tempo and the pace and the you know, the
Speaker 5: pre snap part of it. So these are really quality
Speaker 5: reps that we get in these mock games and it
Speaker 5: still keeps me hitting the totals that I'm comfortable and
Speaker 5: used to training a football team. So so just been
Speaker 5: fortunate to be part of the old age, you know
Speaker 5: in the nineties, fifteen days in a row of two
Speaker 5: days and pads. You know, I'd go to Jill to
Speaker 5: day if if I try to do that, but you know,
Speaker 5: but just to have the understanding of what that looks
Speaker 5: like and how you how you do that and just
Speaker 5: try to you know, practice safer.
Speaker 4: You've given Dylan Everett some challenging assignments all the way
Speaker 4: back to ot as obviously DK kind of got him yesterday.
Speaker 3: What do you look for a young player in terms
Speaker 3: of response to the moment, they.
Speaker 5: Think, exactly what he did. I mean, that's what you want.
Speaker 5: It's you know, it's a seven route. He's holding his
Speaker 5: leverage and you got to you know, extraordinary athletes going
Speaker 5: to keep competing, you know, making plays on the ball,
Speaker 5: and that's that's you know, to me, that's that's a
Speaker 5: high quality rep because of the big play importance in
Speaker 5: our game. You know, you have to make those plays
Speaker 5: and you know, obviously you can see the trust there
Speaker 5: and had a DK to where you put the ball
Speaker 5: and you know DK won that battle. So you can't
Speaker 5: get enough of those reps, you know, for all of
Speaker 5: our guys. But yeah, he's you know, he doesn't look
Speaker 5: like a rookie.
Speaker 2: I've been impressed with Micha McCarthy there speaking laying down
Speaker 2: kind of the the objectives with the mock game that
Speaker 2: the Steelers had in practice today. Matt, And that's another
Speaker 2: day for us in the books.
Speaker 3: Yeah, gone along quick, we say that, and then you
Speaker 3: get to like every two it's like boys starting to
Speaker 3: drag a little bit. Yeah, like the same thing every year.
Speaker 2: We are ready for the pads to go on on Monday,
Speaker 2: without a doubt. But we are looking forward to to
Speaker 2: a big Saturday. Like we've said here a couple of
Speaker 2: times on campus Hall of Honor announcement that will be
Speaker 2: at ten am right here on s n R Steelers
Speaker 2: Audio Network, Steelers Nation Radio tomorrow. You'll hear you'll hear Labs,
Speaker 2: you'll hear mister Rooney and and that's always a fun
Speaker 2: special bay here down at the Rogers Center on campus
Speaker 2: just to our right as they introduce the new Hall
Speaker 2: of Honor class for your Pittsburgh Steelers, and of course
Speaker 2: it will be welcome back to football Saturday here and
Speaker 2: we're expecting a big crowd for the first weekend practice
Speaker 2: as always. You know, Steeler Nation is going to come
Speaker 2: out in droves. But that will do it for Matt
Speaker 2: and I for today. Thanks to our guy Justin for
Speaker 2: producing back at the ranch, and thanks to the Green
Speaker 2: Line painting robot for keeping us entertained over the last
Speaker 2: three hours.
Speaker 3: Absolutely he deserves a lot of credit.
Speaker 2: He's finally onto field number two, so only only took
Speaker 2: that robot about two and a half hours to one field.
Speaker 3: But you know what, I think that was segment one.
Speaker 3: We were like, whoa, what is that?
Speaker 2: It's Jesus, it's been a slow process. But you know what,
Speaker 2: slow and steady wins the race. At least that's what
Speaker 2: I was told when I was growing up.
Speaker 3: Let's let's remember this for a week from now when
Speaker 3: they do it again, like they got it down? Pat,
Speaker 3: is it better this the next time around?
Speaker 2: That's all we're looking for this time. Improve it better
Speaker 2: every single day or something like that for Matt Williams
Speaker 2: and Unleshuler. Take care, everybody. We will talk to you tonight.
Speaker 2: As always, you know where to find us. Our coverage
Speaker 2: from training camp starts at nine am here at Saint
Speaker 2: Vincent College and it's always on your twenty four to
Speaker 2: seven home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio
Speaker 2: on the Steelers Audio Network