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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Hello, greetings, Welcome inside, Happy Tuesday, the Jason Smith Show
with my bas friend Mike Harmon. For over forty years,
tire Rack's been open. Customers find the right tires for how,
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(00:53):
tire buying should be. We talked about it last night,
and I wonder how much the Steelers listen to the show.
Mike Tomlin resigns. We are a big deal in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
We're kind of a big deal, kind of a big
deal up and down that corridor, no question about it.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Look the big NFL news of the day. Mike Tomlin,
after nineteen years, resigns as head coach of the Steelers,
and every single NFL analyst was very sure to say,
this is him resigning. He didn't get fired, as so
many want to make sure you know he didn't get fired,
not misappropriate. He's resigning. Okay, he's resigning, resigning, residing, resigning,

(01:31):
fem consciously uncoupling. Uh, well, yeah, that was a very
conscious uncoupling. This is like when I take the thing
out of the train, like in the in the TV
show where it's like the bomb could go off on
the train. What do we have to do? Well, you
have to let the end of the train go and
save the other people. So the guy goes out and
the train just kind of goes down. We gotta go
fifty five miles an hour the whole time. We gotta

(01:52):
do that. We didn't they do the conscious ncoupling it.
That was a really good the That was a great move.
The Denzel Unstoppable with Pine, that was a good one.
I think it was in Pittsburgh. I want to say
it was in Pittsburgh. Denzel is a longtime train motorman
operator Chris Pine is new. They work together and a
train gets out of control. Uh, and they both have

(02:15):
to work to stop it. They're on the train. They
have to stop it because they can't. It's a really
really good movie.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
It was Towns in Pennsylvania, filmed across West Virginia, New York, Ohio,
and Pennsylvania using the real railroads.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Very under Probably one of my top five, well maybe
top three Denzel movies. I mean, that's how good it was.
That's how good it was. I'll go Training Day Glory
and I'll go that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Chris Pine star Trek into the Woods. Yeah, yeah, he's
done well.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
He actually plays Captain Kirk in the movie. Yes, he
gets beamed down to the train, sees there's a problem,
but they can't beam him back up. But they send
down a couple of you know, the Chris Rock. They
send down Yoman Johnson and a couple of other people
and they wind up dying right away. Right, that's where
it goes. The Red Shirt guys, A you're gonna die,
guys in the Red Shirts, Yeah, you're gonna die. So

(03:04):
Mike Tomlin has resigned as head coach of the Steelers. Look,
we talked about this last night that what do we
say the future was gonna be him? Right after the
Steelers lost last night, it was I guarantee you this
is how the offseason is gonna go. They're gonna sit
down with each other and the Steelers are going because look,
the Steelers needing to understand if they replace Mike Tomlin,
who clearly has hit his expiration date with the Steelers,

(03:27):
they were going to have to understand that the guy
they're gonna go out there and get is gonna be better,
potentially could be better. Not a lot of guys are
gonna be better because Tomlin's still for his faults the
last ten years. You know, still you win the division
almost every year, you go to the playoffs, you play
a playoff game. That's how it works. So it was
gonna be a sit down, like, hey, if you come back,
you have to understand that we need a modern offense.

(03:49):
We have to treat the NFL twenty twenty six like
its twenty twenty six. We can't run the offense like
it's nineteen eighty seven. And look, I love nineteen eighty seven.
Guns n' Roses came out with appetite for destruction. The
METSA just won the World Series. I mean, eighty seven
was a great year. I was watching Tony Katain dancing
on White Snake's car and like seventeen different videos. I

(04:10):
mean eighty seven, I love eighty seven. Eighty seven was awesome.
But this is how Mike Tomlin likes to run his offense,
so that the conversation would be, if you're up, you
gotta be up for a franchise quarterback, a different way
of doing things instead of, hey, the quarterback is a
necessary evil, and we're gonna load up on defense. We're
gonna run the football as much as we have to.
We'll throw the football and we have to. We win

(04:32):
clutch games. That's how Mike Tomlin wants to win. If
you are on board with the big changes, great, If not,
maybe we consciously uncouple. And it happened really fast that
Mike Tomlin resigned as head coach. And honestly, as much
as this is a breakup where hey, it's nobody's fault,
it's nineteen years and both sides need to move in
different directions, this is way better for the Steelers because

(04:55):
the Steelers value success differently than any other team. Right,
I'd be more than happy to have my team be
someone that wins nine to ten games a year, sneaks
into the playoffs, loses a playoff game, I'd love the
Jets that I haven't a playoff game in fifteen years, right,
So yeah, I love that. But the Steelers it's different.
And the Steelers you can't keep running your team like this.
You need fresh ideas to come in and run, especially offensively,

(05:17):
like it's twenty twenty six. You need a franchise quarterback
that can throw the football all over the field. You
need to be bold and free agency. You can't just
say well, we'll go get DK Metcalf where e If
DK Metcalf was still great, the Seahawks would have kept him.
I mean they would They didn't have to trade him.
They didn't have to trade they could have kept him.
You have a couple of Jags at running back. Jalen

(05:37):
Warren is okay and Friarmuth is not a great tight end.
You have nothing offensively that scares anybody. You traded it.
You couldn't figure it out with George Pickens. You trade
away as a Pro Bowl year with the Dallas Cowboys.
You need something new. This is great. This is a
great day for the Steelers simply because now they can
move into twenty twenty six in the NFL and as
bad new as everybody else. Yeah, because all the other

(05:57):
teams are saying, yeah, well, you know, they're tough thing
to play against, but hey, we get them in the playoffs,
we're gonna beat them because they can't keep up with
us offensively. They couldn't keep up with a with a
Texans team last night that had the quarterback fumble five
times and throw a pick. You couldn't keep up with
that kind of a team where they had two defensive touchdowns.
You couldn't put enough points on the board offensively. You
needed something new. Great, you know, big I understand the

(06:20):
day for both sides, better day for the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yeah, come down to it. It's that difficult decision that
you make. And we talked about it a lot. We
talked about it during the course of the year. Right
when the hot seat, it was Harbaugh was him, it
was Tom Win. It was back and forth. And now
they're both out, uh, and we get new blood and
end of an era in the NFL. Now it's all
nothing but short tenured coaches outside of the Andy Reid

(06:42):
out there, and who knows how long he sticks around.
At this point, he.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Think about the AFC, Nord Zach Taylor's now the last
guy stands. He's the only coach there's only forget about
coach of the longest tenure, he's the only two. He
just defeated the Kurgan. He's the only You want to
play a game tomorrow if you're the Bengals, because the
other teams don't have that coach. At least we have
a head coach.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, but the other team still have better defenses, but
we okay. So then you have a quarterback that doesn't
want to play with you.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Okay, So the Bengal if you played the game tomorrow,
the Bengals the way they are now versus the other
teams without a head coach, doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
They Aaron Rodgers could draw plays in the dirt against
the Bengals defense.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Well, it can't be you go lng So you can't
throw the ball more than one point five areas well,
and that's okay, go short, I'll throw it to you.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
That's okay. They have no pass rush, so you got
plenty of opportunity and he's probably not gonna get hit
in the head. That leads to a touchdown that I
think we were the only people to actually raise our
hand and say what the hell is going on here?
Because the final score got out of sorts. But for
Tomlin and the Steelers, one of the difficult parts of
it all is, and we've quoted it oftentimes, we go
back to the lyrical genius of the song Helter skelter,

(07:51):
when I get to the bottom, I get back to
the top of the slide where I stop and I
turn and I go for a run. You've never bottomed out.
You've never had that go get that next quarterback. Okay,
Mason Rudolph or whatever. You drafted guys, but they weren't
guys that were projected to be go to franchise. I
hate the term load, the term generational guys. You haven't

(08:13):
been in a position to go anywhere near that for
years because you're right on the fringe of the playoffs
or just inside it. Right So you're drafting middle first
round or worse every year. Right now, you're defensive heavy.
Now you're starting to age out, and you'll get away
from some of these contracts fairly fast. But that's the
the other dirty little secret to all of this is

(08:35):
that you've never had the opportunity for a full organizational reset,
even as you go into twenty twenty six, you're not there.
And if you look at the quarterback market, what the
hell is there that has you excited? Yeah, you get
your choice of Kyler Murray or Tua that you have
to go give up assets for. Yeah, let me get
on board that.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Orcus or at least if you identical, because look, the
Steelers do a good job identifying talent. If you identify someone, Hey,
we think Ty Simpson is our guy. We think garrettnus
Meyer's our guy, you identify taking a quarterback of the
future in the first couple of rounds.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Sure, but but it's the point of you know, we
we go in, we get that guy that might be
that top of the line starter. Say what you will
about Ben Roethlisberger, there was a long period of time
where he was in that you know, if we did
the four horsemen kind of thing, that he's still playing
meaningful football and he was tough enough to drag down
that he was going to make a play on you.

(09:29):
He didn't have to like it. You didn't have to
love it. They had a good ground game here. You've
got enough to be dangerous on any given Sunday, but
also less of an offense to where Arthur Smith you
were hamstrung, Right, they still played one more game than
George Pickens.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
And company, just so you know.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
Yeah, so in the end the Steelers can still say
we won. Sure, Sure they can't, Yeah, because George Pickens.
There's no guarantee he's staying in Dallas either.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
You know.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
But just think if you had the George Pickens from
this year in Dallas this year wits.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
If George Picketts wanted to be that guy, he would
have been there. The one thing you got to give
my Tomin credit for is he put up and condoned
or maybe even cajoled some of that that level of
lunacy with the wide receiver and running back position until
it was no longer required for their continued support of

(10:23):
Steelers athletics and move them on. But it's always tough
in these circumstances because you can't say you did a
bad job like most of these other jobs. You guys
get bounced, You're like, hey, it's done, it's just it's
just stay. You're just running in place and it's only appropriate.
And we talked about it yesterday, right tying our besting

(10:44):
Marvin Lewis in terms of most consecutive oustings in the
first round of a first of a playoff run. Because
Marvin Lewis was the same thing. Took the bangles from
the dregs and got them to the where they were stable,
but they never got over. We'll eventually got to move
over with Mike Tomblin. You're just running in place at
this point. You're not even running up that hill.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Right and now here. Don't break, don't stop stop when
I play. I know he said nothing. Harmon said, nothing
that you need to worry about. Plateaued and wait, wait,
take that and play that one back. Harmon said, nothing
you need to worry about. Uh sure, but here's the
thing about Tomlin. Right to go from from the Steelers

(11:25):
to Tomlin, Right, great day for Tomlin and a great
day for the Steelers. For Tomlin, Yes, he's a terrific coach. However,
whatever winds up this year, maybe it's a couple of years.
He's doing television already. Andrew Marshan is a big business reporter,
a sports business reporter, said he's gonna have his pick
of different networks, and Fox maybe would be in the
lead for Tomlin services he get a multimillion dollar offer

(11:46):
to do TV. Is he gonna jump right back into
be a coach now? Maybe not. I would think Tomlin
after this is gonna wait out and pick the job
he wants. More in twenty twenty seven, that seems more
because right now it's like, okay, so is Tomlin gonna
be hind the list in New York? Does he want
to go to Atlanta? I mean it's it's late in
the game for him for this year, but a year

(12:07):
of because he's still young, a year off to go
wait and come back and do it. But this is
the thing, like, like I approach Mike Tomlin like i'd
approach and I would have approached interviewing Belichick for a
job when he was leaving the pay when he when
he left the Patriots and they decided he was he
was out. I would say, listen, if we're gonna give

(12:27):
you this job, you need to run this team with
a modern day style of coaching. And I don't mean
that you need to change who you are, but this
is the type of team that's going to win, and
we need a team that is dynamic offensively, that can
throw the football up and down the field, Like this
is how we're gonna win. You tried it your way

(12:48):
and it didn't win. Right, You tried last years with
Roethlisberger when he had no air yards at every every
ball to Deontay Johnson was two yards past the line
of scrimmage looking for yak, Like, you can't run the
if you think if you're gonna run the team that way. Great, Hey,
awesome to meet you. It's great, but we're gonna go
someplace else. Like, he's got to understand that he's got
to grow and the next head coaching job doesn't have

(13:10):
to be his philosophy. But you know what, Yes, we'll
do it. I have an offense coidator in mind, who's
gonna come in. We're gonna let it to the scoreboard
and do all kinds of things because that's how that's
what's gonna get him another job doing this the last
ten years. Hey, it's great, it's what he did. We
like him, but man, we don't. We don't want that
kind of offense here. That doesn't sell tickets, doesn't excite
the fan base, doesn't do anything we guaranteed to win.

(13:30):
This is a different era in the NFL, and what
we've seen from Tomlin in the last ten plus years.
Is that his philosophy as the NFL has passed him by.
And so if he go, if you change, you tell
me you change, and I believe you, then okay we
can do something here and you come in to be
our coach. But if you say I know what wins
and this is how to win, then I'll say, okay,
we're gonna go someplace else.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Just go someplace where you have the starter kit that
includes a serviceable quarterback, which out of those eight teams,
those are pretty rare. You'd be looking squarely at the
New York Football Giants. And even then you got to
make sure Jackson Dart isn't in the tent right now. Well,
the people who are allowed to see him in the tent,
you know they're not. Everybody's allowed to go in the

(14:10):
tent and.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Say is he in there? Fake? Is he in there? Scato?
Can you go in there and see if he's.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
By the way, he and late in this process because
everybody's been playing, waiting around, playing hungry, hungry hippos to
get past that first round exit out bout a fresca exit,
swollen dome.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Jason Smith, Mike Harmon's Day. Why it's good for the Steelers,
What Tomlin needs to change? How About who the right
call is to replace Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh. We got
that and more. Big NFL coaching news, big matchups with Harbaugh, Stefanski,
and Moore. Keep it right here. We're just getting started
Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio. Hey, facing a peak season,

(14:48):
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Employment Professionals make hiring easier. Visit expresspros dot com to
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Speaker 2 (15:07):
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(15:27):
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Speaker 1 (15:44):
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(16:05):
what you think again, who you agree with, who you
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Mike and I love putting this content out for you
every single night. So we talked about the Tomlin situation
Mike Tomlin, who resigned as head coach of the Steelers
today after nineteen years. Likely, I'm in theory he will

(16:28):
take a year off, probably do some TV, and then
pick his job next year.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, but he said he wouldn't go to the dark side.
That's what he called the media.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, yeah, we'll see. Bill Belichick went to the media.
That happened. Sterling Sharp went to the media everybody. Oh,
the media is evil, the media is Oh you know,
I'm a mean sterling Sharp wouldn't talk to anybody his
entire NFL correct of fame for a long time, wouldn't
talk to anyone. And then at the end, Oh you know,
I'm on TV. I'm gonna talk one of those guys

(16:58):
all those years ago that I would try to argue
with people's like I watched him as a packer. He
was fantastic and he hated everybody.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Reggie Jackson, I think keep on going on.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
I'm never gonna do that. Hey sure, sure, Oh, Randy
john I think he said Randy Jackson for a second,
He's always been on TV. Look, dog, look dog. I
don't want to be the head coach of the of
any team in the NFL. I want to sit here
and tell Simon Cowley stupid. That's all I want to do.
Uh so, yeah, I mean everybody says dogs, Yeah, okay, Oh,

(17:28):
here's millions of dollars to go sit and look. Obviously,
Fox would probably be the favorite because he knows Jay
Glazer for a long time. Right, Jay's talked to us
a lot A couple of times where Tomlin's Tomlin Sun
was at his house when Jay's doing it. Hey, I'm
having a party here, got a bunch of people here,
tom So that seemingly would be the leader. You go
and do TV. I'm sure it's a Sean Payton kind
of timeline where I go for a year, the Steelers

(17:51):
retain his rights, they will trade him to a team
uh in a year, and they'll recoup some sort of
draft stock for him.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
It's funny, right because this week we were talking about
Harbaugh and as he leaves again, no, no, no, no, no no,
He's make it very clear. We got to it. Have
the fifty five million dollars that are still there. They
owe him that money or you'll have to pay against
it very much here with the no no, the Steelers
have Mike tom Win's right, yeah, this is not a
They're not finished at all here in this So. I

(18:22):
love those little details as opposed to all these other
coaching displacements.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Where he's like, yoh, no, we never want to see
that guy. I mean, look, obviously, would he get a
head coaching gig in this cycle if he jumped in. Sure. However,
the Giants seemed to be pretty far down the road.
With John Harbaugh and Kevin Stefanski. Right, you saw Jackson
Dart in the sideline last weekend saying harbarster Fanski. It's like, oh, okay,
someone asked him, Hey, what's going on? You read him

(18:50):
saying Harbarsterfanski. So that's the number one opening. The Falcons
also is a pretty good opening. But Tomlin needs something
big market, right, you know, is he really gonna go
from Pittsburgh to the Falcons. So I kind of feel
like it's the Giants or Bust for Tomlin. And because
they're so far downroad, these other couple of guys, Yeah,
he's gonna wait a here, because honestly, I can't recommend

(19:12):
going to Tennessee or Arizona or the Raiders. I can't
recommend any of those jobs. But that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
When you look around, and this is where we had
our Dante More conversation, it kind of applies here. Guess
who's still gonna be in the coaching cycle The next
time you're looking for jobs, it's gonna be most of
these same spot.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
If I don't take the Raiders' job this year, it'll
be open again next year and I can take it
if I want.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
Either one or two years down the line, it'll come
back open again.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
I mean, will you talk about coaching openings. There's a couple, right,
because even though there's fots like can you you can't
recommend any of those places?

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yeah, I mean I look at Atlanta right where you
got a defense front sevens pretty good. You're in a
division you can go win, but you still have the
same question, who the hell is your quarterback?

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah? Right, you get Bijan, you got Pitts if he stays,
and you got Drake lun So you got some building blocks.
Defensive line wasn't awful, but again that that division is gettable, right,
and before the thing is before we get to Tomlin,
like this is where you know different from Mike Florio
had to report on Pro Football Talk earlier today that
potentially the Giants have already made a big offer to

(20:18):
John Harbaugh in the twenty million dollar range because that
story leaked this week and that he wants control over
the roster and twenty million dollars a year. Now, the
money thing is okay because it's free money and twenty more,
it's not well also, it's not part of the salary cap.
It's our part of it's an owner can pay. You
could pay twenty million dollars for a great head coach. Right. Eventually,
the NFL is going to start paying their head coaches

(20:39):
like colleges are. They're gonna understand that you have a
really good one, you got to do everything you can
to keep them and not get coached by another team
or not figure that out. So it's going to be
a case of hey, twenty million dollars suddenly. Oh remember
we would get great coaches for seven million dollars a year,
eight million dollars year. Boy, that was great. Now it's
gonna be coaches are going to get even more money.
They're gonna get more with their worth. So those guys

(20:59):
are gonna get the money. Not again if you had
to worry about salary cap or some kind of of
but you don't, so it's it's fine. But overall, the
fit for John Harbaugh is way better in Atlanta than
it is in New York. New York is New York
is the best job. Clearly, New York is the best job. However,
the the chance of success is way better from in Atlanta, because,

(21:21):
as you said, the division is terrible. I mean, it's
not the AFC North, which is absolutely terrible and only
as one head coach right now Wadell Joe Burrow says, hey,
I want to trade. They're gonna say, hey, we're canceling
the AFC. You want it, you want us to fire
the coach. We're canceling the AFC North. No, nobody wants
to any of these teams. Joe Burrow wants out, there's
nobody we care. We're canceling the AFC North and we're

(21:42):
gonna let Lamar Jackson go to auction, so uh, just
go ahead, bid whatever you think you want for Lamar Jackson.
There you go. We're gonna get rid of that division entirely.
But this is a division that's terrible. That what this
team is, they have a lot of young talent, and
what they do is they need a situation where you
need an adult in the room that can, that has
the cachet to handle what's happening with the question a

(22:05):
quarterback between Pennix and Kirk Cousins, figuring that out, how
that's gonna work this year, getting the most out of
Michael Pennix junior, who has not been great right, figuring
out how to get the most out of an offense
when it's revolving around Bejon Robinson, who's the best running
back in the NFL? Can you get the most out
of Drake London? Do you want to extend Kyle Pitts?
Can you make Kyle Pitts finally after five years into

(22:27):
the guy we thought he was coming out of college? Right?
These are all things that a guy with cashe needs
to come in right because Raheem Morris did a pretty
good job there, but in the end, is his coaching
acumen is not? You know, with all those young players,
he never could get them together right now, There's other
situations where if you're looking to start things over again,
you want to start like Raheem Morris is your guy,

(22:48):
right to go in and say, hey, we need a
guy to get us from A to B. Raheem Morris
is that guy? Now B two C. That's a different thing.
So John Harbaugh having the cache, who's not gonna listen
to him when he walks into it and says, look,
this is what we're doing. You have a lot of
young talent. You gott to Harness and get on the
same page. Atlanta is has too much talent to beat

(23:08):
the Bills and lose to the Jets, right Like, I mean,
this is this is the type of season they had
or this this is Atlanta, right like he could have
won the division if they had just beaten the Jets. Right.
So this is where you need someone coming in that's
got that that that image and the optic of what
he says we're gonna go do, right Like like the
big saying about Bill Parcells, I forget. One of his
players who signed with him in free agency says, you

(23:30):
know he he's the type of coach that tells you,
you know, what's your favorite food? And I say cheese,
and Parcel says, there's cheese on top of that mountain,
go get it. And I run up that mountain for
him to go get that cheese, right Like, if you
tell me there's good cheese top, I will run. You
would run up that hill, yeah, I mean, depending on
how big of a hill it is, because I don't
want to run too much. Run well, I could run now, No,
I'd write with you, my new body, Now I could

(23:51):
run a little bit. Did you up that hill a
little bit? Now? But like, you know, that's the type
of coach that horrible. He's won the Super Bowl he is.
He's crafted an offense, he's crafted the team that's competitive
every year, that stays in it, and yeah, did his
time run the course after eighteen years? You have, of
course at this, But between him and Stefanski, like, Okay Stefanski,

(24:11):
I feel like he's a better fit for the Giants
because he's a quarterback guru. He's the guy that I've
won and competed in Cleveland, which was a train wreck
with all kinds. I don't care who you gave me
a quarterback. We still went out there and we either
got to the playoffs or my team didn't quit, or
I got the quarterback to play well, whether it was
Shador Sanders or whether it was Joe Flakko off his

(24:34):
couch and and Stefanski going into New York. That's what
Jackson Dart needs. This is a Jackson Dart driven team
with all the weapons you got to make sure you
are unlocking him. And Stefanski is much more of a
quarterback guy than John Harbaugh is. So that's why I
feel like the fits, even though the Giants are going
for John Harbaugh, I feel like the fits are kind
of opposite, where Stefanski's a much better fit in New

(24:54):
York and Harball's a better fit in at Lant. Yeah,
I would agree with you. Uh.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
You know, in the quarterback position, it's always just been
kind of set it and forget it for Harbaugh all
those years. So that's something to navigate. We know that
Kirk Cousins restructured his deals, so the question there and
how quickly in the rehab process will Penix be ready?

Speaker 1 (25:14):
How available is he?

Speaker 4 (25:15):
Like?

Speaker 3 (25:16):
You've still got to navigate that, right because for John Harbaugh,
he had Flacco and goes straight into Lamar Jackson. That's
pretty good run. Not many teams have been able to
do that, right. We always cite what you did in
Green Bay, going from Farv to Rogers into what Jordan
love is and you can decide how much you love
or hate him and Lafleur while you're at it. But

(25:38):
for John Harbaugh down in Atlanta, all of that fits
to his personality and the way he's run that squad
for a load these many years. For Stefanski, to your point,
he's gotten the best out of a hodge podge of quarterbacks.
And you're also looking at coming into a pretty good

(26:00):
defense and being in Cleveland, the poison pens have been
out right, there's no positivity there. It lasts about three
weeks and then it blows off like you know whatever
in the next storm. It's that when when Cleveland was
playing well, like even in the Coach of the Year seasons,
it was always at arms length, like always looking to

(26:21):
find waiting for the factory of sadness to show its face,
and oftentimes it did and he finds himself and the
odd man out.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Even though Barry was the guy that.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Saddled everything with the contract, you know at Haslam's urging,
going back to the Deshaun Watson stuff that ham strung
them quite often when it came to adding more players
in Atlanta. The one thing, though, you still do need
to figure out whether you're gonna franchise Kyle Pitts or
keep him around or move away from him. But that's

(26:52):
that's the minute of it for Stefanski in New York again,
you know the noise, You've got a pretty good defense
that's already installed. You got a division that's very uncertain.
We'll get into what Philadelphia did today, but the the
arms length they've got, Nick Sirianni. You look at Dallas,
they can't get out of their own way, all right,
and then Washington had that surge for a year and

(27:16):
and drifted right back down. Now, I'd be remiss if
I didn't point out the fact that right now, your guy,
Zach Taylor my guy.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Why isn't my guy guy? Because he's the last man
stand He's the only he's everybody's guy. He's the Highland.
You can't just be my He's every He's the only
guy in that division. Is like bladder. I am the
president of everybody. I am the of everybody.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Does he get a prize for surviving everybody else?

Speaker 1 (27:40):
I'm the head coach of the NFC North, which team
the entire division?

Speaker 3 (27:44):
I run everything. But right now, Zach Taylor is tied
for the fifth longest tenure of a head coach in
the National Football League. Yeah, you got Andy Reid McVeigh,
Shanahan McDermott, and then you've got Zach Taylor and Matt
Lafleur at seven years.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Everybody else has been cycled out repeated Well, remember, Zach
Taylor has been to a Super Bowl, So remember he
does have that's resume. It's okay, you know he's got
You only get to trade on that for so many
or why he's the only one left in the Hey?
How long? How many? How much said is left in
the hour glass?

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Man?

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Now wait a minute, Frostburg, you know where he's going.
You have this information here?

Speaker 4 (28:25):
Yeah, so everything you guys just said about John Harbaugh
is irrelevant.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Okay, Okay, wow, okay, I want to hear this. Go ahead.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
I'm so sure that we actually have audio of his
press are already we do?

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Oh boy? Okay, wow, this is now, this is this
is audio. You're only gonna hear here the Fox Sports radio.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
All right, John Harbaugh arriving at his Steelers press conference.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Okay, and w Van little Spray can sure? I was
I was really? I was really, I was honest. I
was expecting John Cenas music. Let me retire. How about

(29:07):
Raven's head coach Steve Ravens owner Steve Ashatti today saying,
uh yeah, we would hire Tomlin if they if they
hire uh they if they hire Harbor in Pittsburgh? Yeah
why not?

Speaker 3 (29:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:17):
No, it was it was fun. Yeah. No, you want
to talk paint a beard? Oh sure? Oh yeah yeah
yeah yeah, grow a beard and sure sure and then
you have the wolf pack behind Yes, you got your factions.
Now this works. I just come on in if you will.
It's John harm So there's your fits for Harborlle and Stefanski.

(29:39):
Time now to find out what's trending. From a guy
who's got a lot in common with Kevin Stefanski. They
both have a beard. It's Steve Sega. Yeah, yeah, same
checks keep coming. But his is longer than yours. Though
it is longer than yours, my tenure is longer. Does
that count? Okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, that's good, that's true. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
If you didn't hear, head coach Mike Tomlin did down
from the Steelers' job after nineteen seasons. Today, he still
has two years left on his contracts, so the team
retains his rights. He never had a losing season, but
lost his last seven playoff games, the last five by
double digits, including last night. The Eagles removed Kevin Pittulo
as offensive coordinator this past offseason. He was promoted to

(30:18):
replace Kellen Moore. Philadelphia's offense just led the league in
three and outs this past season. The Chargers fired offensive
coordinator Greg Roman and offensive line coach Mike Devlin. With
all the injuries, the Chargers used twenty nine different offensive
line combinations this past year, and Justin Herbert was hit
more than any other quarterback. Roman had been an assistant

(30:39):
for Harbaugh at Stanford and with the forty nine ers. Also,
Carolina will pick up the fifth year option on quarterback
Bryce Young's contract for twenty twenty seven. The Ravens want
to renegotiate the contract of quarterback Lamar Jackson by March
to lower his cap number. NFL free agency starts in March,
and Buffalo wide receiver Terrell Shavers has a torn acl

(31:00):
just as wide receiver Gabe Davis and wide receiver Joshua
Palmer is on ir forum. Curtis Samuel returned to practice today.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman will hold a news
conference on Wednesday. ESPN said he is not expected to
leave for an NFL job. There are currently nine head
coach openings in the pros. Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadig

(31:20):
declared for the NFL draft, Ohio State tight end Max
Claire declared for the draft, and Yes college Football's national
title game still some days away. Monday, Indiana at Miami,
The Diamondbacks acquired third baseman Nolan Aeronado and cash from
Saint Louis. Anthony Davis and the Mavericks will be reevaluated
in six weeks after his second opinion. Surgery is not

(31:41):
required on his left hand. Laker's about to start up
at home against Atlanta. They were listed as questionable, but
they're both playing. Lebron James and Luka Donzig. Still half
hour away from tip of Golden State's home game against Portland.
The other games are finals wins for Minnesota and Houston
wins for Denver and Miami. That minute so to win
was one thirty nine to one oh six at Milwaukee.

(32:03):
They shot sixty percent from the floor and dominated even
though Anthony Edwards was out tonight with a foot injury.
In college basketball right now at Kansas, Jayhawks lead number
two Iowa State sixty five forty four, eight and a
half minutes to go. In that game, twenty fourth rank
Tennessee won at overtime against Texas A and m yukon edge.

(32:24):
Seaton Hall and a top twenty matchup went to Virginia
at Louisville seventy nine seventy in the NHL. Win number
eleven in a row for Tampa Bay A shootout victory
two one at Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Back to you, Thank you, Steve, Jason Smith, Mike Carmon
live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Again, wait and
tip off. If the Lakers lose to the Hawks tonight, Yeah,
that's now Suddenly it went from last night. Hey, the
Lakers have problems to woo, Lakers have problems. Dominique might
go off, he might, Yeah, spud Web, I mean that that,
you know, the the alley oop game between the two
of them is off the hook.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Trey Young's not there anymore, no now walking through that door.
These I mean, look, Luca and Lebron both gonna play.
But I have a question for you. I got an answer,
all right, Bob, So Steve said, Marcus Freeman's gonna have
a press conference so owing to that nWo music we had.
Is he challenging the high school wrestling coach that a

(33:16):
posts his son?

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Is he? Is he challenging in a cage? Man? Or
so too soon on you let's go come on now.
We got more football on the way. But coming up next,
we got the play of the day and a huge
injury in the NBA. We break it down for you
next right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Fox Sports Radio, Mary Max playing one of my favorite
bands of all time, I'm Getting There. You know how
many times I listen to this album growing up, like this,
the La Guns, Appetite for Destruction and Faster pussy Cat Like.
I wore those albums out eighty seven eighty eight, Like hey,

(34:09):
Mike Tomlin The Offense back in eighty seven, that's where
I was listening to La Guns. I don't know this
album Electric Gypsy. This is the song oh first La
Well because Tracy Gunns. Yeah, I'm original guitarist of Guns N'
Roses before boy, that's a bad career move. Blank you Axel,
I'm gonna go start my own band. Oh wow, damn it?
At that point, what are you gonna do? My U?

(34:32):
My wife actually was flying back to Michigan to visit
her family this two three years ago, and she calls
me and she says, you're not gonna believe who I'm
in the airport with. I said, what, She goes, I'm
here with. I think I'm pretty sure I'm here with
La Guns. I said, what she was, I'm here with
La Guns. I go, are you kidding me? She goes, yes,
they're all like flying to like Buffalo to do a

(34:53):
gig or something like that or I don't know. I
was like, you gotta get a picture. Yeah, cause I'm
pretty sure because she knows because La Gun is one
of my bands.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
Pam flyes private.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Uh yeah, I wish no this was La Guns. If
this was the eighties, she'd be flying. This is twenty
twenty two and La Guns is probably flying commercial and uh,
I was like, gotta get a picture. So she gets picture. Go, yes,
that's Mick crips, that's it. I sa, oh my god,
you gotta you could talking with La Guns And I
said how was it? And she goes ah. They said
they were going, so my husband is the biggest fan.
Can I please get a picture? He listens to you

(35:24):
guys listening all the way back since in the eighties.
They said yeah, sure, So they all pose. They go,
where are you aheaded? They go, We're going to do
a concert, and one of them said not happy about it,
like like apparently they got booked the last minute. Yeah,
we'll go to a concert somewhere. Okay, gonna clear to
the airport. Smile, yeah, this person who you were enjoy it? Yeah,

(35:46):
I mean you got LA Guns getting recognized in the airport.
Like I'm like, okay, man, I want to talk to
that guy. What is it about the gig that you're
not happy? Oh dude, I'll play some LA Guns for you.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Man.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
You go, oh my goodness, Yeah, LA Guns is great.
Then some big big hits in the nineties kiss My Love, Goodbye,
ballad of Jane Ballot. So uh. Anyway from the La
Guns and back again Mary mcnow playing all music from
nineteen eighty seven because of the Mike Tomlin line of
the offense that he runs being from nineteen eighty seven.
It's time now for the play of the night. And boy,

(36:19):
when you're able to double up another guy, When when
when Wemby doubles up your guy, Mike Harmony, you get
to be the play of the night. And now here
we go. The matchup we've been looking forward to is
the Webbin Yama against Hall Grend.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Got a history between the two.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
He goes right to work.

Speaker 5 (36:35):
Oh you're a weapon, Yama.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Starting now with a bag around it. Wenby Yo your
guy chet home gun chet wenby posting chet Yeah, and
who won the war? Well, no, that's true, that is true. Yeah,
but it's true.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
But getting post horizon and I love the fact that
there's some u some hatred there, there's some some angst
and some anger, and and that it goes out on
the court. The fact that this is like the forty
seventh time they're matching up, yeah, before the end of
January is a problem. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
No, it's a uh, it's a hey, they're trying to
make this rival Let's kind of make this rivalry happen. Man,
watch this. We can't watch this on Peacock. We can't
make a d and Luca happen. So, uh, you know,
we gotta do something here. Uh look the other big
NBA story. I'll have more in this developing stories the
night goes on. Anthony Davis is now out for the
season after a hand injury that he suffered the other

(37:30):
day just just knocking his hand in, you know, trying
to trying to break up a play.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
He is. His hand injury is gonna keep out for
the season, however, potentially could return in the playoffs. Now
the Mavericks are not going to the playoffs. You have
to worry about that. But this is why the Mavericks
are continuing to talk about trading him because his potential
return for the playoffs, he could help a team. So
even though the injury here, he's out for the year.

(37:56):
A D says no, AD says no, he's okay. It
looked like a pretty inocu like I'm just banging my
hand against your jersey, and oh man, I'm out now.
You know, there's two things about this is One is
that I can't trade for a D because I can't
hold my breath every time he gets on the court.
I can't do it.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
Man.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
I thought, Hey, they got the best trade they could
for Luca with a D. But now he can't even
stand in the court. Over a year with Dallas, he
get when he plays, he's still great, But I can't
hold my breath. You can't hold your breath for a
guy you count on so much. So I know they
want to deal him, and I know somebody's gonna jump
in and eventually feel you know, hey, I'm getting a
little antsy here. We need something else. Hey let's go

(38:34):
in for a D. Maybe it's the next somebody's gonna
do it, but I can't do it because he's he's
too big an acquisition to be someone that well, I
know I'm not gonna have him for the playoff run.
I know he's just gonna get hurt. I can't count
on him. Well, I wouldn't have traded for him before then.
I mean last year. You can make the argument, all right,

(38:54):
here's what we need to do. This situation in Dallas
is untenable. Go find some assets, make him run, and
see what you can put together here. You come back
and you've got some injury long hint, injury history on
the veterans on your squad to try to get yourself
back to whole around Cooper flag. And clearly has it worked.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
And now, I mean he's been in and out of
the lineup much of the year and now you don't
even know if he's available at all until next fall. No,
I mean it's yeah, long ago. I mean, look, it
goes back to his operation shutdown all those years ago.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
When he wanted to go to the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
He was raised the eyebrow like all right, eye opening,
got what he wanted, played well and had big runs
in Los Angeles. But you're at the point where it's
a declining asset and for what you have to do
to match money forget about it.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, and this is what makes it even tougher for
Mavericks because not only Okay, you're gonna trade him, but
how hard it is because aad is a guy that
they have to trade, right, because it hasn't worked. It's
been a year, and he's a daily reminder to the team,
the fan base, the NBA that they traded Luca and

(40:03):
everybody's still mad. Right, you tried to make it work
for you. He can't stay healthy, so you got to
move on from him because he again, he's a walking
reminder of the Luca trade, So move on. You're building
around Cooper flag trade, Anthony Davis, Right, I get that,
But how are you going to How is the team
gonna make the money work and give up assets whatever
they are for a d for a guy that baby
can play this year. Maybe maybe he's healthy. I mean,

(40:25):
you are absolutely stuck if you're the map.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yeah, I love that the report that he's gotta have surgery.
You all better stop. List of these lies on these
apps like that, on these apps.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
That calling where I do I do fantasy on sleeper.
The sleeper app is lying. Yeah, we got more NBA
on the way. But straight ahead we get back into
the biggest NFL story that I keep it here. Jason
and Mike fox Man Blank the Packers. Yeah, well that's
that's the thing, right blank the Packers, Blank the Packers.

(41:00):
Who knew Ben Johnson? Was this this chesty all the time?

Speaker 3 (41:04):
Well, I mean you gotta be uh to call games
like he does.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Oh that is true. That is true.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
Also, I mean there's still the underlying issue that needs
to be addressed.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Is it a.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
Chess match you're playing when you can't really get anything
going in the first hal? Are you playing a rope
of dope kind of more?

Speaker 1 (41:23):
You're throwing darts and hoping to warm up at some point.
That's what it is. I can't die there, it is.
I'm warmed up now.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
I thought you just come out of play tembo like
it's the final two minutes right off the juke.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Who's stopping Pooka. Here's what we're doing. We are going
to hypnotize the Bears into thinking that every minute of
this game is the final two minutes of the four
I think that's the only way to operate. Just like life. Man, Guys,
you're always in a two minute drill lived in the
fullest bet. Bears are up sixty seven and nothing. I
can't believe they're playing every minute like it's the Latin.

(41:54):
Ah now I see, now I want to know today. Baby,
let's go hey, game of the week, right, that's the
uh Sunday Sunday night game. Man, everybody is leading. That's
the the point spread or the weather.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
It's actually the temperature of the sausages.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
This sausage, you know, the Wieners Circle offering hot dogs
for life if the Bears win.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
The Super Bowl. Yeah, that's a that's a that's a
bit of a risk right now. Is this number number
two team in the AFC, Man, you're you're one night,
cold weather game away from the NFC Championship game. I
mean that's where you are, and you gotta play Sam Donald.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
Yeah, take down the Rams, then you go get Sam
Donald and you're the most opportunistic defense in the game.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Doors open, man, Doors open for the Bears. I mean really,
doors open for the Bears. This may be there to.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
I will have by Al frankin remote helmet on right
with my satellite dish, reporting live from the mead streets
of San Francisco during Super Bowl week.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
When that happens, this may be, this may be their
toughest game. We had passed the Rams. We're going to
the super Bowl. Let's think about that. How fantastic is this? Now?
I'm living in my high life while that's happening. I know,
by the way, congratulations. Steve Winwood was trending earlier today
on social media speaking of being back in the high life.
Give us eleven. The Steelers now looking for a new

(43:19):
head coach after Mike Tomlin resigned earlier today. Last Hour,
we talked about the Steelers' aspect of it, what's next
for Tomlin, Why it's good news for Pittsburgh that they
can now get a head coach who is much more
modern and can is okay with opening things up offensively,
understanding you to push the ball down the field. You
can't just run an offense like it was nineteen eighty seven,

(43:40):
which has been the big year for the show tonight.
Whenever we play La Guns on the show, it's nineteen
eighty seven. So the guy to go after, right, And
I know that this is it's weird because I can
kind of see tomorrow playing out like the end of
Iron Man, when Tony Stark's gonna go out that has
to explain what happened and who the flying thing was

(44:02):
and what that flying being was, and they all tell him, hey,
don't say anything. You know it was it was you know,
one of your one of your jets that was out
there and it was an exercise. Just don't say anything.
Don't blow the lid off this. Okay, He's got that
big prepared statement. He walks out to the press conference.
Everything's we're gonna get some sort of cover up, and
he goes, I am iron Man, So okay. I kind

(44:25):
of feel like we could be on the cusp of
that tomorrow because Marcus Freeman said to have a press
conference where he is going to announce he's staying as
head coach with Notre Dame. He had the legal issues
over the course of the past few days at his
son's wrestling event, and Notre Dame put out video that
they say exonerates him. It shows him and his son
leaving the event. Just been a really ridiculous headline. And

(44:46):
I know that the overtures for the NFL not quite there.
Would I leave Notre Dame for the Falcons. Probably not.
Would I eave Notre Dame for any other job that's open.
Probably not. Would I leave for the Giants, but they
seem to be down the road with John Harbor. The
Steelers is a job where you say, hey, sorry, Notre Dame,
I have to go to the Steelers because what the

(45:07):
Steelers offer you more than any other job in the
entire National Football League is you know, I'm gonna get
years to get it right. I'm not leaving Notre Dame
for a job where I'm going to get fired after
two years, where if I falter. They stick with guys
right now, they've had success, and you wonder are things

(45:28):
gonna change if if suddenly they start out three and fourteen,
four and thirteen. But you know this is a team
that went Chuck Nole, Bill Cower, Mike Tomlin, like, you know,
they don't have a lot of guys right this is
their entire runs NFL at coach. That's the one job
you leave anywhere for because you know you're getting a
chance to succeed. They do it differently, which is good

(45:50):
for the head coaches. And Freeman is young, energetic, he
relates to the players. Now now he's a defensive head coach,
which doesn't lay in with the vision that the Steelers
need an offensive mind. But the Steelers have shown what
we want to do over the course of the last
sixty years of our playing is that we want to
hire a young head coach that is well versed everywhere

(46:10):
in the NFL and the team is going to grow
with him, and we're going to be able to win
because of it. And we get the right guy. And
they're more concerned with getting the right guy. Bill Kerr
was the right guy. Mike Tomlin was the right guy.
Marcus Freeman checks all the boxes at being that next
young head coach that his team believes in. He's achieved

(46:30):
great everything you want in the resume so far, being
able to get to the National Championship game in the
NIL era. Yes, would he be smart enough to bring
an offense corner to say we got to throw the
football up and down the field. You know, CJ. Carr
is gonna be a Heisman Trophy finalist next year, just
so you know, the odds came out for the Heisman
Trophy this year. He's number two. So Notre Dame doesn't
have a problem being dynamic offensively, right it's not just hey,

(46:51):
we're gonna run Jeremiah Love because he's great. We know
we got to throw the football. So it's not that
he's got to come in with some crazy offensive system
that works. Doesn't have to be Mike March gowing up
with the greatest show on turf, but he needs to
be open to we're gonna bring into the modern NFL.
We're gonna run a great offense. We're gonna be able
to spray the ball all across the field because this
is what wins. I know, Marcus free Hey, I'm staying.

(47:12):
I'm staying. But this is a job where I think
both sides say, let's make one more run before we go.
And there had been internal talk with the Steelers about
Freeman before when Tomlin was still the if he ever leaves,
who would our next guy be? And so knowing that,
knowing that for Freeman, uh yeah, I think it's worth
one more phone call, one more situation. Hey, at a

(47:33):
really dicey situation at Notre Dame. Here. Yes, it looks
like he's getting past that the wrestling, the wrestling thing,
and everything looks great for him going forward. But man,
I think you need that phone call because this is
the job you leave anywhere for.

Speaker 3 (47:46):
Yeah, the wrestling thing is more kind of a what
what happened here? And the superior film comes out and whatever,
and they were quick to jump on that. The larger
issue is there are very few times that we see
the outlier team pop into the cycle. Right, you'll have
a coach step down, Right, that's been theorized in the

(48:08):
next year or two. That might happen with Andy Reid
with the Chiefs. But all the other times that we
get into the coaching cycle, what are we looking at
eighty ninety percent of those teams. Do you're going there
because it's one of thirty two or because you have
the hubrist and the idea that I can figure this out. Right,

(48:29):
it's like picking that quarterback off the scrap heap. Say
he was wounded mortally by the Jets as in his
first couple of years, and that after a couple of
rehab assignments, you can turn them into a pro bowler. Right,
you could do that, But for the most part, we're
cycling these same damn jobs every year, like, all right, hey,

(48:49):
Cleveland's available, Okay, cool, Yeah, that makes sense. And there's
the Raiders. They're always out there for you. Your guy
staved off his short term ex cutionin there with the Jets,
so they'll get a second bite at the apple. But
all of that to say, it's usually the same squads
that we're talking about in this coach a karasa. All
of a sudden, Pittsburgh becomes open. Wait a minute, hold on,

(49:12):
hold on to your point. Yeah, you're gonna get a
chance to build essentially the college program. You're also going
to a division, so as long as they don't abolish
the divisional systems, you're going into a place where you
can go and continue this run and win. Right, two
of your competitors have announced that they're getting rid of

(49:34):
the coaches.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Now.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Baltimore has the luxuries and they do have a quarterback.
Cincinnati doesn't have anybody on defense, although maybe Stewart actually
plays well as second year remains to be seen. Hendrickson'll
be gone and Joe Burrow still could put a flare
up in the sky saying I want out. But and

(49:55):
then Cleveland can't get out of its own way. Good defense,
but still myriad ques on what they do offensively in
their next coaching higher So all of a sudden, you
look at Pittsburgh. It's a model of stability because they're
gonna give you everything you can to win for Tomlin. Again,
all those years we watched it with Roethlisberger, and I
would have loved to be a fly on the wall

(50:16):
when they were discussing what they were doing with the
quarterback position the next year. So if you're Marcus Freeman, like,
that's what I get. I get to help pick that
part of the set, right, omar Con, that's not just you.
We have to be an agreement that we're pushing this
thing ahead because you do have some components yet right at.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Obviously they're okay with that because Tomlin wanted this kind
of offense and this is the offense omark on game, Okay, great,
you want Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Aaron Rodgers. Okay,
all right, great, go run it. I mean, I can't
believe that's the preferred way they wanted to do things,
But this is what Tomlin wants. Tomlin's been pretty successful, Okay,
we give him what he wants. Now, it's completely outdated,
and you know why they haven't won a playoff game

(50:53):
in ten years because they stuck with Roethlisberger. Too long
when he couldn't throw the football anymore, went to other
quarterbacks that couldn't throw the football, tried to get by
with guys that weren't any good. So, yeah, you need
a change, You need a change for that to happen.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
No, but that again, that goes to the difficult part
of trying to put yourself in that Pittsburgh bubble against
the rest of the NFL because all of us, all
of you listening across wherever you are across the globe
on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you're listening to the show,
like you're looking at your fan and going, man, I'd
kill for that stability. I'd kill for the idea that

(51:27):
I'm between you know, eight and a half and eleven
wins every year as opposed to, Wow, we really suck again. Yeah,
and then you get one year of kind of a
hope of Hey, on paper, this line's up. Think about
how many times have we talked about Baltimore even this year? Right, Hey,
this roster looks like it's assembled to be a world
beating No, they couldn't even get away started at all.

(51:50):
He gets traded the Chargers. He finishes with what nine sacks?
Total when you add the playoff runt, like like what happened.
But in Pittsburgh it's been status quo and you've been
just good enough to stay above that line and stay
competitive and play meaningful football in December. So that's the standard, right,
That is the baseline that Marcus Freeman or whoever ends

(52:12):
up in the job. Some of the guys that are
in the heads of some of the betting odds, I
just scratched my head, going, really this these are these
are the guys that rise up. But Marcus Freeman with
a press conference scheduled, I mean, does he go Leo
DiCaprio and just I'm not bleeping leaving or is it
something far more?

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Uh? Other bigger on the line here? Other jobs I get.
But the steel Becers you want it, boy, The Steelers
give you what every coach wants. I want years and
years and years to succeed. I know, I don't know,
I gotta prove I got a bill, but I want
years and years. The Steelers is the only program that
gives that to you, right. I mean the Cowboys do
a little bit because Jerry Jones, when he hires somebody
doesn't want to hit a mistake, so I'll stick with

(52:52):
a guy longer than I have to. So there is that,
but that comes with its own set of problems. The
Steelers like, yeah, come stay, you win, I will will
give you time. We like being relevant, we like winning games.
I mean, it's it's it's absolute paradise for an NFL coach.
I gotta go there and be there for eighteen years.
Not that you can't go other places and be there
a long time with John Harball's with the Ravens that long.

(53:13):
But but it's only because hey, I've been able to succeed.
We want a super Bowl. But you know, going in,
if my first couple of years of bed, they're gonna say, no, sweat,
keep building. Okay, great, that's what I want. I mean,
that's that's what anybody wants. That's why that's the job
you leave Notre Dame for. That's the gig.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Can't wait for that attention to viewing. Maybe you'll call
out his his ad and everybody on the way out and.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
You you were whining too much. You couldn't take it.
I am I am iron Man.