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Speaker 1: Your tunes about drive on your twenty four to seven

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Speaker 1: home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.

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Speaker 2: Back on the drive here as we roll along on

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Speaker 2: this Monday to the phone lines, we go to catch

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Speaker 2: up with our buddy Rob King, of course, the voice

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Speaker 2: of your Pittsburgh Steelers on the Steelers Audio Network. King

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Speaker 2: or thank you for taking the time. A lot has

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Speaker 2: happened since we last spoke, so let's jump right into it.

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Speaker 2: You actually had the opportunity last week to do a

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Speaker 2: one on one sit down with Mike McCarthy four Steelers

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Speaker 2: dot com, the Pittsburgh Steelers seventeenth head coach and franchise history.

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Speaker 2: What were your initial impressions of the hire, of your

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Speaker 2: conversation with him, just everything that's transpired here in the

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Speaker 2: last week or so.

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Speaker 3: Well, first of all, you know, there's a lot there.

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Speaker 3: You know, I think, like a lot of people, you

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Speaker 3: just sort of expected, even though I cautioned people with

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Speaker 3: three hires in fifty six years, that's not a trend.

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Speaker 3: You know, once a year, once every three years, that

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Speaker 3: might be a trend, but three and fifty six years still,

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Speaker 3: I kind of probably thought they were going to go

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Speaker 3: as they had in the past. Mid thirties guy, you know,

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Speaker 3: maybe early forties. I wasn't sure if they're going to

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Speaker 3: go offense defense. So when they named Mike McCarthy, I

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Speaker 3: was like, WHOA. I was taken aback. But but you know,

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Speaker 3: it didn't take long for me to warm to this hiring.

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Speaker 3: I mean, this is a guy who is I think

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Speaker 3: on his way to the Hall of Fame as well

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Speaker 3: as Mike Tomlin. You know, he's got to obviously a

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Speaker 3: proven track record with that. I thought his press conference

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Speaker 3: was tremendous, you know. The emotional part I think got

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Speaker 3: everybody a little bit in the heart, you know. But

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Speaker 3: then when you when you sit down and talk with him,

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Speaker 3: you realize, you know, this guy's all business, and he

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Speaker 3: said a lot of interesting things, you know, being on

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Speaker 3: the front end of trends, paying attention to trends and

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Speaker 3: don't follow them, get on the front of them, and

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Speaker 3: you know, the different things that I think a lot

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Speaker 3: of people think, well, he's an old school ball coach

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Speaker 3: and so he's just going to be set in his ways.

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Speaker 3: I didn't come across to that away with that impression

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Speaker 3: at all. I came away with a guy who is

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Speaker 3: going to use and then I like the way you

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Speaker 3: talk about a step you know, higher experts and then

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Speaker 3: hire guys that have energy. So like all these things,

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Speaker 3: This isn't a guy to me that's just going to

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Speaker 3: be coaching like it's nineteen ninety nine. You know, this

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Speaker 3: is a guy who's going to bring something new to

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Speaker 3: the party and some expertise to the party as well.

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Speaker 3: And I think that's a really intriguing accombination. Rob.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you agree with me or not,

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Speaker 1: but to me, the two biggest selling points with this

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Speaker 1: hire are pretty obvious. Really, is one, stay as competitive

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Speaker 1: as possible right now. You know, Wes and I have

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Speaker 1: been talking about, Yes, this organization is not going to

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Speaker 1: be cool with a three win season, a four win season, Oh,

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Speaker 1: we'll just take a step back. Is this not the

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Speaker 1: DNA of the organization? And then number two is finding

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Speaker 1: were identifying and developing the next quarterback. And there were

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Speaker 1: some other good candidates out there, but none of them

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Speaker 1: could provide those two boxes checked as well as him.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And there are some good candidates out there who

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Speaker 3: are right back of the same jobs they had. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 3: freed everybody and got everybody excited. Look, they identified the

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Speaker 3: guy and I think you're You're right, and Art Runey

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Speaker 3: said that he said as much, I believe. Before the hire,

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Speaker 3: you know, he was asked, hey, what are you looking

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Speaker 3: for now that Mike Tomlins got and he talked about

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Speaker 3: those things. Look, we want to stay competitive. And I,

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Speaker 3: by the way, kudas to Mike McCarthy for coming right

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Speaker 3: out and talking about let's win a seventh Lombardi and

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Speaker 3: saying the cupboard's not there. I think there's a different

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Speaker 3: perception about the Steelers and has been for a couple

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Speaker 3: of years nationally and with some people locally too that

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Speaker 3: I don't share. Like guys, we talked about this up

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Speaker 3: in training camp and before the season started. I could

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Speaker 3: never understand people saying the Steelers are going to implode

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Speaker 3: this year. And I had nobody picked him to make

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Speaker 3: the playoffs. I was astonished by that. I thought they

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Speaker 3: were a better team than they were the year before.

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Speaker 3: And I think that the schedule broke bad for him

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Speaker 3: really in a lot of ways, and they still won

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Speaker 3: the AFC and still got to the playoffs. And the

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Speaker 3: perception is this is an aging roster and okay, yeah,

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Speaker 3: some of your best players, some of your most important

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Speaker 3: players are in their thirties, but that's it. Nobody else

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Speaker 3: is in their thirties. They've had three productive drafts. I

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Speaker 3: think it's a and Mike McCarthy said, the coverag's not fair.

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Speaker 3: This is a good roster. Let's go win a seventh Lombardi.

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Speaker 3: So all those things, and you're right. Eventually they got

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Speaker 3: to get that quarterback. And I can talk about the

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Speaker 3: roster all I want, but if you don't have a quarterback,

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Speaker 3: it doesn't matter. You have to have the quarterback in play.

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Speaker 3: So yes, I think that's part of it. But I

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Speaker 3: also think maintaining competitiveness. I think you nailed it, Matt.

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Speaker 3: Those are the things that are important right now moving forward.

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Speaker 2: King Er, Let's talk about the quarterback situation then, because

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Speaker 2: you're spot on. Everybody knows that's the I don't even

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Speaker 2: think it's fair to say the elephant in the room

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Speaker 2: for the Steelers because everyone's addressing it and discuss it's

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Speaker 2: it's not an elephant in the room. It's a well

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Speaker 2: known thing that the Steelers need to idea. It's the

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Speaker 2: room in the elephant. That's exactly right, Kinger. It is

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Speaker 2: well known that ever since Ben Roethlisberger has left. The

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Speaker 2: Steelers have done the quarterback carousel thing, and they've had

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Speaker 2: some good months of quarterback play, they've had some down

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Speaker 2: months of quarterback play, a lot of everything in between. There.

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Speaker 2: Obviously the biggest piece of this equation for this offseason

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty six is the future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers.

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Speaker 2: I think Matt and I have kind of gone back

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Speaker 2: and forth over the last week or so, and even

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Speaker 2: probably before the Mike McCarthy hire of the pros, the

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Speaker 2: cons the age, the experience, balancing all of that with

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Speaker 2: what's available in this free agent and draft class, like

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Speaker 2: who you could realistically replace him with if you weren't

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Speaker 2: going to go that route. Where are you at on

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Speaker 2: the Aaron Rodgers conversation. You definitely want him back, you

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Speaker 2: definitely don't want him back. You still want to kind

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Speaker 2: of wait and see. Where's what's your thought process around

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Speaker 2: number eight? The future Hall of Famer?

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Speaker 3: Well, i'll tell you what. Mike McCarthy was asked that

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Speaker 3: I think was the first question in the press conference.

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Speaker 3: He's like, absolutely, I want him back, yea, And I've already.

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Speaker 2: Talked to him.

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Speaker 3: You know, I thought that was I thought that was

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Speaker 3: impressive and he hasn't ducked that for a second. You know,

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Speaker 3: he wants, you know, and he could easily for people

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Speaker 3: that say, well what else is he gonna say, I'll

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Speaker 3: tell you what else? He could say, well, we're evaluating

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Speaker 3: all of our options right now. And you know, yeah,

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Speaker 3: he could have been vague about it, but he wasn't. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: I want him back. And there were times I thought

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Speaker 3: a lot of times, more often than not, Aaron Rodgers

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Speaker 3: looked really good. I thought his arm talent was still elite.

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Speaker 3: I'm no scout, but I mean, look just looking at

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Speaker 3: other teams and look at the throws, you know, all

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Speaker 3: the games we had and the throws Aaron Rodgers can make.

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Speaker 3: I think it's still elite. You know. Look, I'd still

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Speaker 3: like to see the team run the ball more. I

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Speaker 3: didn't think they ran the football en off this year.

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Speaker 3: There's some some things I'd like to see him do,

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Speaker 3: maybe a little bit differently. But if you told me

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Speaker 3: I could have Aaron Rodgers back, I'm all for it,

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Speaker 3: especially since he, you know, Mike McCarthy seems very intrigued

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Speaker 3: by Will Howard. It came out and said that as well,

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Speaker 3: you know, we had Ben Roethlisberger on Max and I

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Speaker 3: in the locker room, and Ben said the same thing, Hey,

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Speaker 3: I want to see this kid. Well we didn't see

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Speaker 3: him at all because he got hurt and wasn't able

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Speaker 3: to play in camp. So if you're gonna bring a

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Speaker 3: guy into developed quarterbacks, you know everyone talks about, hey,

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Speaker 3: get that young quarterback in this year's draft, Well that

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Speaker 3: seems to have dissipated a little bit. The draft class

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Speaker 3: looks like it's going to be stronger next year in

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Speaker 3: the quarterback department. You know you're bringing Aaron Rodgers in it.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's like what Matt just talked about a

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Speaker 3: moment ago, Wes. You give yourself the best chance to

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Speaker 3: be competitive now and also possibly see if Will Howard

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Speaker 3: is that guy you want to develop to be the

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Speaker 3: quarterback of the future. I'm not saying you're buying time

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Speaker 3: with if. If there's another quarterback out there in free

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Speaker 3: agency and about the only guy I could even think

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Speaker 3: of as Malik Willis, and your scouts and your coaching

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Speaker 3: staff says hey, man, this is the next great quarterback

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Speaker 3: in the NFL, then all bets are off, go get

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Speaker 3: that guy. But I don't know if that person exists

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Speaker 3: in free agency. I don't know if that person exists

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Speaker 3: by a trade, and I don't think that person exists

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Speaker 3: where you're gonna be able to get him in the draft. So,

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Speaker 3: for all those reasons, including again what I said at

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Speaker 3: the head, which is I still think there's a lot

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Speaker 3: left with Aaron Rodgers arm talent, I think bringing him

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Speaker 3: back sounds like a good idea to me.

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Speaker 1: So, Rob, I know you didn't talk to coach McCarthy

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Speaker 1: for you know, a super long time, but you were

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Speaker 1: around him and you sat down with him, and he

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Speaker 1: is a reputation of being extremely detail oriented, especially with

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Speaker 1: offensive scheming and even more so with quarterbacking. Is that

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Speaker 1: an impression you got from him too?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? I got the you know, I would say this

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Speaker 3: more than detail oriented, Yes, I mean I think those

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Speaker 3: things come through, Like you know, when you listen to him.

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Speaker 3: I was impressed by his energy level, just being like

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Speaker 3: let's go, man, Like you could tell he he's ready

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Speaker 3: to get to work, man. I mean, he is eager

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Speaker 3: and fired up and ready to roll. And I do think,

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Speaker 3: you know, talking about what he did in his time

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Speaker 3: off scouting players around the league, you know, talking about

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Speaker 3: the detail of what he's looking for in a staff.

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Speaker 3: It's not a I mean, I'm sure there's some feel

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Speaker 3: and some other things, but hey, let's bring an experts

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Speaker 3: and let's bring an energy. So that's a detail that

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Speaker 3: I've never really heard it described that way. And when

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Speaker 3: he's talking about, you know, the use of I think

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Speaker 3: he talked about it in an interview he had with

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Speaker 3: Bob Poppiani about you know, using analytics and things like that,

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Speaker 3: and talking about being on the front front end of trends.

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Speaker 3: As I mentioned a little while ago. I think all

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Speaker 3: those things are really positive. And you know, look, you

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Speaker 3: see him and he's from Pittsburgh, and he gets emotional,

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Speaker 3: and it's it's easy to think, guy, he's in a

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Speaker 3: bunky of the old coach. No, that's not you know,

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Speaker 3: you know, seems like a super nice guy. But that's

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Speaker 3: not what you're getting. You're not getting a guy that's

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Speaker 3: just gonna be like, you know, laughing and smiling and

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Speaker 3: you know, clapping people on the back and letting other

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Speaker 3: people know he's he's going to be in it. That's

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Speaker 3: a sense I certainly got. He's going to be in

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Speaker 3: it with both hands and both feet and ready to go.

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Speaker 2: Rob King with us here on the drive. He's always

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Speaker 2: ready to go. Kinger, I think, you know one of

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Speaker 2: the things that excites me most. And listen, there are

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Speaker 2: plenty of our listeners, plenty amongst Steeler Nation that aren't

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Speaker 2: gung ho, aren't you know? Over the fence about the

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Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy higher they wanted to go that younger, you know,

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Speaker 2: more ascending kind of prototype that we've seen the organization

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Speaker 2: go with in the past. But even if you're someone

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Speaker 2: who doesn't love it, even if you're lukewarm on it,

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Speaker 2: whatever the case may be, I think you have to

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Speaker 2: be excited about what we're going to see from this

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Speaker 2: Steelers offense there, and I think rightfully so. Over the

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Speaker 2: last handful of years, there's been some some criticism that,

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Speaker 2: you know, too often the Steelers are trying to win

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Speaker 2: games fourteen to ten, and that's just a very hard recipe.

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Speaker 2: You have to have X, Y and Z go exactly

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Speaker 2: your way to win in that style. Whereas with Mike McCarthy,

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Speaker 2: I think it's going to be the complete opposite. We

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Speaker 2: are going to see more wide receivers on the field,

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Speaker 2: a whole lot of three wide receiver sets, which we

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Speaker 2: barely saw. You know, I think what he's going to

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Speaker 2: be able to do with this offense. And you know

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Speaker 2: this is not to throw dirt on anybody that was

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Speaker 2: here previously, but I think it's going to look much

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Speaker 2: more of a modern offense, and that is something that

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Speaker 2: this fan base has been crying out for for a

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Speaker 2: long time.

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Speaker 3: Now it is, and I think that can happen in

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Speaker 3: a number of ways. I think the the Rams are

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Speaker 3: an interesting team, and Matt would know more about this

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Speaker 3: than I, but they seem to use a lot of

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Speaker 3: three wide receivers and run the ball really effectively. You know,

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Speaker 3: you don't have to have a power formation, extra offensive

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Speaker 3: lineman too tight to run the football. And look, I

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Speaker 3: thought this year, you know, this year the offense took

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Speaker 3: a step forward from what we've seen. I think Arthur Smith,

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Speaker 3: you know, he's he's overseen an offense that had the

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Speaker 3: fourth most rushes two years ago to that. I ticked

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Speaker 3: the fourth fewest or fifth fewest rush attempts this year.

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Speaker 3: So he's shown it. He showed adaptability. But he does

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Speaker 3: have a different scheme. It is tight end heavy, it

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Speaker 3: is big personnel, and I think one of the things

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Speaker 3: that became a problem this year, even as the students

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Speaker 3: began to run the football better behind that big personnel.

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Speaker 3: Is that again, guys? You know, I see the game

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Speaker 3: through a different lens of other people. I'm up there

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Speaker 3: calling the game. But it didn't look like a lot

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Speaker 3: of receivers running free a lot for Aaron Rodgers, you know.

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Speaker 3: There looked like he had to zip the ball into

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Speaker 3: tight windows a whole bunch. You know. I remember having

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Speaker 3: this discussion with my son a couple of years ago. Hey, George, picktens,

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Speaker 3: you know, another contested catch, And I said to him,

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Speaker 3: that's great, but how about some uncontested catches? Can we

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Speaker 3: get some guys open? You know? And it just didn't

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Speaker 3: feel like there were a lot of open guys. Maybe

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Speaker 3: maybe there's some analytics or some studies that would that

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Speaker 3: would throw that back in my face, but that's what

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Speaker 3: it looked like to me, and it's understandable. And he

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Speaker 3: got a lot of big guys running around, you know,

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Speaker 3: other guys, you know, quicker guys, receiving guys that maybe

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Speaker 3: can can also schematically or toughness wise or whatever the case,

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Speaker 3: also help you in the running game. That'd be interesting

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Speaker 3: to see. And by the way, I like Darnett Washington,

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Speaker 3: and I like Pat Pryor Wood, and I'll be interested

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Speaker 3: to see how they're utilized. One of the other things

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Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy said was, you got a scheme offensively and defensively,

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Speaker 3: but you have to tailor it to your talent. That's

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Speaker 3: music to my ears, because I'm not sure how well

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Speaker 3: a lot of coaches do that, and I think it's

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Speaker 3: something that he's going to have to do with the

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Speaker 3: roster that he's been given.

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Speaker 1: Rob last thing I got for you is when you

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Speaker 1: look at the current roster, who's under contract, who you

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Speaker 1: know we're going to be back. Do you agree that

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Speaker 1: quarterback aside wide receiver is your biggest need.

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Speaker 3: Yes? In fact, there's there's really no question. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I mean you can look at this team and say,

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Speaker 3: even if they don't bring Kenny Game well back, Well,

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Speaker 3: that's why you drafted Caleb Johnson. You got two good

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Speaker 3: running backs. Go go get another guy in the fifth

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Speaker 3: round or another guy in free agency. You're fine there.

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Speaker 3: I just mentioned the tight ends. Your offensive line. You

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Speaker 3: kept drafting there, they've kept improving. It'll be interested to say,

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Speaker 3: Spencer Anderson the left guard, if he is you might

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Speaker 3: not need to to. You know that that's an area

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Speaker 3: that you might not even need to address in free agency. Again,

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Speaker 3: that's gonna be internal evaluation. Defensively, I think they've got

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Speaker 3: a lot of depth and a lot of places. I

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Speaker 3: do think either a safety or another defensive back is

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Speaker 3: going to be someone they're gonna target. Probably another inside

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Speaker 3: the linebacker. It's gonna be some of their target I

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Speaker 3: think they're always going to try to get guys in

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Speaker 3: free agency here in the draft along both lines for sure,

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Speaker 3: but no question, besides quarterback, they're gonna be looking for

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Speaker 3: a guy. They've been looking for that guy for a

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Speaker 3: couple of years in a tight end heavy offense and

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Speaker 3: haven't been able to find him. Well, if we're going

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Speaker 3: more toward three wide receiver sets, you can bet that's

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Speaker 3: that has to be moving to the top of the

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Speaker 3: top of the line. By the way, too, I'll be

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Speaker 3: interested to see if they can do something more with

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Speaker 3: Roman Wilson, but even even if they can, they're gonna

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Speaker 3: need at least one high end wide receiver in my opinion.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think Roman Wilson and Caleb Johnson

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Speaker 2: gotta be yeah, yes, yes, new you know that classic

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Speaker 2: It's the classic kind of change of scenery, but instead

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Speaker 2: of them moving to a different you know, for organization,

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Speaker 2: it's change of scenery around the organization that they're with currently.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think you can bank on those guys,

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Speaker 2: but they're certainly renewed, uh, renewed life, renewed opportunity for

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Speaker 2: both of them at the same time as well. Great stuff.

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Speaker 3: They're gonna be guys. Yeah, there's just said there's gonna

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Speaker 3: be two guys in the roster, two or three guys

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Speaker 3: in the roster that the coach is gonna look at

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Speaker 3: and say, I don't know why you were playing so

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Speaker 3: much and there's two or three guys in the roster.

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Speaker 3: They're saying, aw come, this guy hasn't been out there.

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Speaker 3: That's just inevitable with scheme and a different set of

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Speaker 3: eyes and all that other stuff.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely well said Rob king Great stuff. Thank you for

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Speaker 2: taking the time with this is with us as always.

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Speaker 2: I hear the three of us will be doing some

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Speaker 2: radio together about three weeks from now out of the

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Speaker 2: combine in Indianapolis, so we'll be looking forward to it. Kinger, Well,

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Speaker 2: we'll talk to you and we'll see you here soon.

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Speaker 3: Anytime. Guys. Always always appreciate you jumping on.

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Speaker 2: Thanks there, he goes voice of your Pittsburgh Steelers and

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Speaker 2: noted local author, Rob King.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we should pump that up more often.

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Speaker 2: By the way, we should. I should have given him

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Speaker 2: a Door in the Stone the second. It's a it's

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Speaker 2: a it's a fantasy you know, if you're a Harry

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Speaker 2: Potter Lord of the Rings type, you know fan, it's

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Speaker 2: a it's a fantasy trilogy from Rob King. The Door

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Speaker 2: in the Stone in the second of the three part

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Speaker 2: series just released, available within the last week or two. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: around bookstores in Pittsburgh. Always on Amazon. Uh, certainly as

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Speaker 2: I'm actually, I think probably when we get back from

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Speaker 2: the combine, going to take some time and read that

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Speaker 2: second book. That's kind of it's kind of my wheelhouse.

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Speaker 2: Like I'm not a U I'm not a fantasy dork. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but I dabble like I do the Star Wars and

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Speaker 2: the Harry.

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Speaker 3: Potter and the Lord of the Rings.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm I'm I'm into I'm into all that, certainly.

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Speaker 3: So.

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Speaker 2: Thanks to Rob King for the time. As always,