HR 2 - Tommy Radio Returns, NHL Playoffs

With the phones being down Tommy Radio jumps back on to do the hour with Tim

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Brought to us by eighty four lumber Dynasty partner of
the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tim Benz, Tommy Radio with you. All
the phones are down and the computers keep crapping out,
so you know what, Tom, sort of along the lines
of what we were talking about in the two o'clock hour,
were people much more important than us, people who make

(00:26):
a lot more money than us, make extreme decisions about
the length of the NFL schedule or the side of
the NCAA tournament. At one point, people much more important
than us decided that it'd be a great idea to
have the phone lines come over computers and to move
into a different building that had these studios in different places,
and that would make radio a lot better. And what

(00:47):
a decision that has been, you're telling me.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
The phones being connected to the computers has been just
the bane of my existence for the past three four years,
however long we've been in this building. Because the old fix,
you know, it was like a normal phone. You would
just unplug the line and plug it back in, and
usually the phones would reboot themselves. And if that wasn't
the case, then you knew exactly who to contact a
phone company to come in and fix things. But now

(01:10):
with the it's you got to go through so many
corporate layers and engineers there, and it's like done all remotely.
If your phones crap out, you're screwed. I'm just I'm
just glad. It seems to be a cluster wide thing.
You know, nothing's worse than it seems like the mark
Manchew is getting picked on and everybody else can take.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
So Tom and I will just take it through the
rest of the way.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Here.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
We will hear from Brian Metzer at one point later
on in the program, Mets and I will talk some
Penguins hockey Stanley Cup playoffs. Picking up on the playoff conversation,
are you at the point that I am where I'm
just watching the Abs in sort of a I hate
to say it this way, like a Patriots two thousand

(01:52):
and seven. So I just want to see them steamroll teams.
I'm almost disappointed when other teams keep it close.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I mean they just see like they are the most obvious,
like they're obviously gonna win it, I think, is what
I'm trying to say, Like they are clearly the better team.
So I get where you're coming from. To the aspect
of like if it's so obvious who the champion is
gonna be, like, let's put the pedal to the medal, Like,
let's be his story right here.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yes, let's not fool around.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
And you know, oh, we're in a game six in
the Western Conference finals or a game seven in this
we all know how this story is gonna end.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
So let's have the story be really colorfully written.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
And I mean, my funniest thing I saw last night
was the guy who had the uh was standing in
the river with the net and all the fish were
jumping over it. And people are saying that was the
goaltending for the Wild trying to prevent goals against the.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Colorado Avat I'm just gonna say, like, I think the
Wild are the second third best team in hockey, and
maybe the team that has a claim to be the
second best team in hockey as the team they just.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Bounced in Dallas in the first round.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I don't think that the Wild are, you know,
out of their league as far as they're overachieving as
a team or they're not ready yet. I just think
the Avalanche are so much better than everybody else. How
about the Avs in the West and the Canes in
the East are both six and zero.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
I feel like that's more real for the Avalanche.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, and that's probably because I have a bias of
I'm waiting for it to collapse. For the Hurricanes, I
would say collapse is probably the wrong ward. I don't
know that they're going to collapse, but I just feel
like they're not going to get the job done well.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
You know what's funny though, tim if you're the Hurricanes,
you look around all of a sudden and you're the
team that's left with the experience, right Like, usually you're
the choker, You're the team that's, you know, the bride's
maid to the Florida teams, Tampa Bay or the Panthers.
But now it's your turn to be the team that's
got that experience, and it's the other teams that should
feel that pressure. So maybe the Hurricanes just by default
won't have that moment happen this year.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
My bias against the Hurricanes right now is not so
much against the Flyers. I think they'll take care of
the Flyers. The Flyers were shot after beating the Penguins. Emotionally,
just team ready wise to get that deep in the
playoffs with all their youth. I felt real good about
the Hurricanes knocking out the Flyers, which I think will
happen still. But I do have a hunch that whoever
comes out of that Buffalo Montreal series will still beat

(04:05):
the Hurricanes, just because I'm I'm used to them flaming
out just about then, you know, and just not having
enough to get over the Eastern Conference finish line. And
even if they do that, I think they'll be cannon
fodder for Colorado.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
You know.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I think it's just because of the logo on the
chest and them not being in the playoffs since what
was a twenty eleven. But the best team in the
East is Buffalo. And that's not like me splitting the atom.
That's been the case since the Olympic break. They've been
unbelievably hot, best team in the NHL. So to what
you were just saying, with whoever the Canes meet in
that next round, I could totally see the Sabers handling
them and just having the best team in the East

(04:41):
being the Sabers just rising to the top.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
It would be good, though, to sort of have this
turn into like what it was in ninety two with
the Blackhawks and the Penguins. With those two teams both
had these unbelievable, unbeaten streaks collide in the Stanley Cup Championship,
and that would drum up interest, and that would drum
up viewership. And even though it's not the biggest market
at all in Carolina, as are a market draw but
I don't know, at least drum up the hockey fan

(05:04):
base and you can get some sort of tangential, uh
trickle down.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
You can get some.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Pixie dust because you get a little bit of an
artificial superpower element, one from the East, one from the west,
and see where it goes. If that were to be
the case, I still think it'd be like the Penguins
against the Blackhawks. I think that the Avs would steamroll them. Yeah,
but it would be it would be in. It would
be interesting going in. I think the Avs steamroll whoever
comes out of the East. That would be interesting.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
But don't you think the league would rather have it
from the angle of either a Montreal or a Buffalo.
That market is on the other side of Colorado.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Like I it was not a big market either though,
just a rabid market right, Yes, yeah, it's a good market.
It's everybody will watch, but the size of people they're
watching isn't you know?

Speaker 3 (05:44):
New York.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Theoretically the region is bigger because you've got the just
the alleged whole southern region. But what is that, you
know for for hockey? Uh, Buffalo, You've got everything upstate.
You know, you might even have some fans in Toronto,
you know that are Sabers fans, but you would have
the national eyeballs from Canada for sure, with Montreal in there.

(06:07):
But I still think it's just a matter of who
gets against the hurricane the avalanche, and then the avalanche
take care of business, and whether you like it or not,
that's gonna be who hoist the Stanley Cup.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
How'd you feel about the lottery?

Speaker 2 (06:20):
I think it's hilarious that everybody's crying fixed because the
Toronto maple Leafs won the lottery. I think Madden actually
pointed out something true on Twitter, at least something that
I believe. You know, if the lottery was going to
be fixed by the NHL would probably go to the Rangers,
wouldn't you think, And they would have to do less
fixing to get it to the Rangers because they had
better odds than the Leafs did going into things.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
But I don't know.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's really interesting to see how things move forward with
Toronto as far as the ripple effect with like an
Austin Matthews is concerned, like, do you keep him Tim
and have kind of that build of Matthews as the
veteran and McKenna as the young, up and coming guy
and try to match that together and get a cup
out of it, or do you move on from Matthews,

(07:01):
get a ton of assets for him, and rebuild around McKenna.
It's very interesting where they go the fixed part of it.
Let's just be clear about this.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
You can't yell fix when it works out for the
Maple Leafs and then still be okay with Sydney Crosby's
twenty year existence in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
You can't selectively scream fix. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, Oh, definitely, yes, because that's kind of how we
think we got him. So don't talk out of both
sides of your mouth. Is that where you're saying, yeah,
I mean, and there's I heard a little bit of
that today. Oh my god, the Maple Leaves that was
so fixed those yes, if you even assert that as
to how Crosby wound up here.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
You get people's dander up and they pushed back.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
How can you say that we didn't cheat to get
SID even if we did.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
So what you know, it's like who cares?

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Honestly, Honestly, if the leagues are fixing things for the
league's benefit, that's good for the league. I mean, it
worked for the Nicks in the NBA with ewing and
the frozen envelope, and worked with the Penguins and SID.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
I mean why not?

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Well, the why not about it is, you know, like
then just have it be structured like the NFL and
don't do a lottery. Then you got to deal with it.
It's are you cheating? After the fact? Le rephrase that.
The perception is are you cheating because a certain team
gets the benefit of a lottery ticket? Or do you

(08:19):
have teams intentionally gaming the system and tanking over an
eighty two game stretch, Because, like I think, to a
certain degree, the NFL is tank proof. I know Miami
tank for TUA and all that, but it's going to
be a pretty selective special case for an NFL team
to totally tank for sixteen games or now seventeen games

(08:40):
or events. The longer you go with the season to
kind of combine the two topics conversation, the easier it
is to have tanking, because you're gonna get eliminated a
lot earlier with a lot more games to be played.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
No, I agree with that. What did you think about
the overall? Did you watch the lottery? The production of it?
The teleponeci? Okay, so this is going to kind of
fall flat. But it was just a very odd way
with how they operated the lottery, and maybe this is
how they've done it in years past and I'm just
naive on it and never really watched, but like they
drew like a bunch of like numbered lottery balls and
like then like assigned three of the numbers to the

(09:12):
Canucks and like two to the Rangers, and they like
waited it that way, you know what I'm saying. Like,
so if number three, twelve or fifteen came up the
Canucks one, and I'm just sitting there, like, why don't
we just put logos on the balls? Didn't we used
to do that? Like there'd be five Canuck balls in
there to like four Blackhawks, to three Rangers and one Shark.
Like I just felt like such an overcompliment, over complication

(09:36):
of this whole process. You didn't see the TV side
of it, So I don't know if this is falling
on deaf ears or not, but it just it looked
terrible to me, like just.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Well, everybody tries they try to overcomplicate the lottery draw
because they're trying to create the illusion we our phrase
dex Then it does make it sound like it's fixed.
They are trying to make people feel better about the process,
so they don't believe it's fixed. If you make it
more complicated, then people feel like, Okay, they're making sure

(10:05):
that the fix isn't in. But you can fix anything.
It's a TV show. Anything can be fixed if it's
on television, you know, So like are gonna you can
make it as complicated and try to make it as
transparent as you want, people are still gonna walk away
feeling like it's fixed if they don't like the outcome.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
You know, we have that all the time.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
We could watch a game and then be mad at
the end of it because our team didn't win and
say they're doing it because of gambling, even though that
doesn't make any sense. People always feel like they're wrong
or it's rigged when they don't get the desired outcome.
So I'm kind of with you, just like, have the
ball get vacuumed up or reach in and grab an envelope.
But everybody's heard the history of the frozen envelope for

(10:47):
Patrick Ewing and the Knicks so many times over now
that everybody thinks that every lottery is fixed, Well, would
would you rather have that? Or would you rather have
teams losing on purpose every year to get the next
Gavin McKenna, whoever.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
It might be.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Now, Tim, you're more locked in on, like, you know,
prospects and in the college hockey world obviously, is there
a legit debate between this Stenberg and McKenna that you're
starting to see kind of has been?

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah? Is that do you think that's real? Or is
that just kind of like we are going to have
a debate for debates sake.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
I think I still think it's going to come back
to McKenna, because you know, some of it was I
think folks assumed, especially those in Canada that didn't have
any appreciation at all for what college hockey is and
what college hockey has quickly become of the rules changes
now with more players coming in from Canada and so forth,
that he was just going to go there and dominate

(11:38):
and he was going to score two goals a game.
And when he didn't do that and his numbers were
a little bit more pedestrian. Even though he led the
Big ten in points and he did a lot of
it with assists, people said, oh, well, maybe he's not
as good as we thought that he was.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
So it evened out.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
But I feel like there were games that I saw
him play, and I saw one in person where like,
is he ever going to get close to the net
and he's he ever gonna hold onto the puck Because
he's great when it comes to finding the open guy.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
His vision is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
The puck is on his stick and it's off his
stick and it's a tape to tape pass to someone else.
He's great when it comes to that. But he does
play on the perimeter a lot. You'd love to see him.
There were times where I was watching him, he was like, kid,
go to the goal, go to the hoop, take it
to the hoop. Does he do that enough?

Speaker 3 (12:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
No. He did a little bit more of that as
the season went along, and I know the game that
I saw against Notre Dame in person, he was very
much on the perimeter, gave it up, had a bunch
of like three assists, and then the next game against
Notre Dame he had like a hat trick in two
or something crazy like that. So I still think he's
the best player. And with all the pomp and circumstance
with Toronto getting the selection, I can't see them going

(12:50):
in a different direction.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
I just can't.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
Now.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
What if you told him as a coach that, hey,
that goalie just said something mean about your mom, go
get him.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
Then yes, then he'll crash the net like an app animal.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Well we come back, we'll talk more about the Aaron
Rodgers situation and some developments of late there one five nine.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
The X Boy boy idiots.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Are off and happy, but they have no real impact
in this world, unless, of course, they're quick enough to
make the NFL the.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
X at one five nine.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
I brought it up last hour, Tom, do you have
a gret Evan fleet update? By any chance? I do
not know. I was Mark handling that.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
I should be keeping an eye on that, since Mark
is such a fan, so I could keep myself up
to date on the news. I've only seen him tweet
about it a couple of times. I think he's kind
of handling it the same way you were handling it,
the unknown element of it, like no one knows for
sure what the hell's going on.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
It was weird the way.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
They did it, especially the clip at the end that
everybody is seizing, like I don't know that song. No,
No one seemed to recognize what the song was. So
it was just like a tease that their next album
is going to be thanks for the wild Ride? Is
that what we're doing here? And that just doesn't seem
like their style. That seems a little too pandering for them.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Does that band like them also think that this is
part of just like the evolution naturally, like they got
to break up, right, because that might be more like
that such a popular trope in rock bands that like,
you know what, it's part of our our like saga,
we have to have the era where we go our separate.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Except when didn't break up, bottom died, you know, So
I mean, okay, yeah, it's fair. I mean leonartt Skinner too.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
I mean, there's some other circumstances that cause those bands
to go different ways. But you get my drift. Like
a lot of popular bands break up go their separate ways.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Uh got this to update you on when it comes
to the Aaron Rodgers situation. I played the clip earlier
when we were talking about Rogers and Arizona and Mike Lafleur,
and I do like your theory that Arizona really might
be a candidate to get Aaron Rodgers because Aaron Rodgers
might want to work with a different Lafleur to make

(14:48):
Matt Lafleur look bad because he wants to make more
family discontent besides just his own. That's a good idea
I hadn't I didn't consider that in the in the
Sara Rogers Arry Rogers, but John Winefuss, who covers the
Cards for ESPN dot com, said, I asked a source
today if all the noise about Aaron Rodgers going to
the Cardinals was real.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
The response was not at all, And when it did.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Come up to Micha Lafleur from the Jim Rome Show,
he tamped it down as well, although he didn't completely
shut the door on And I think it's for the
reasons we pointed out, like what if Jacoby Brissett or
Gardner Minshew gets hurt and we really do need Aaron Rodgers.
I don't want to piss him off by saying we're
not interested. So he just said, I'm gonna focus on
the guys that we have. It's a great non answer answer.

(15:34):
Or really, what's really important to that is what if
Keten Slovas shows us what he's really got Tom, Because
we're obviously gonna win the NFC West, then if Keiden
Slovas comes through for us, yeah, pick.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Up that name you just dropped, Mike lafleor. But you know,
it really was an expertly answered question. As far as
a rookie head coach is concerned, you can tell you
probably had some lessons from Matt uh because as much
as I would love to hear him just be like, nah,
I don't want Rogers. Forget that old man. We're moving forward.
I guess he is kind of creeping that door open slightly.
I don't buy the whole like wine was put out there,

(16:04):
that there's just nothing at all, there, no smoke whatsoever.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
I just don't buy that at all.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
The Steelers' actions would tell you that there is some
sort of semblance of belief that they're if not the
Cardinals another suitor out there because of the UFA.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Tagh, I don't necessarily equate those two that way. Okay,
Like I think the UFA tag was placed on Rogers
because that threat exists at some point between when they
did it and what's the week where he can play
for nobody else, like weeks.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Once tren camp starts, isn't it? Or he once camp
starts he's locked out?

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Is that what it is? Training camp? Okay, pretty sure
it's training camp. I'll double check that.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
But you know that is that kind of the fuel
to why they did that tender as paranoia that he
might just be hanging out waiting for you know, party
to blow out his elbow in week five, week six
or something like that.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yeah, well, that's just it.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
I mean, regardless of whether it's training camp or the
middle of the season. It doesn't make my point any different.
It's that it didn't have to be right now, Like
there was nomin in camp. It wasn't an imminent threat
thing that you know, one team was talking to him currently.
It could be at any point that there's a quarterback
injury over the next couple of weeks that they still

(17:21):
want to be in the mix for compensation.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yeah, it's once training camp starts. Rogers can only sign
with the Steelers if he signs elsewhere before July twenty seconds.
Steelers obviously could match that offer and then would also
receive a comp pick. But they could also work out
a trade though, right, Yeah, I think you could do
that if you had like multiple bidders, you know what
I mean, if multiple people were suiting him, then you

(17:45):
could call that team and be like, hey, what if
we work something out, you know, trade wise, then you
could get jump in the front.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
It's very, very complicated, and.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Maybe I'm reading too much into it that they did
that because there's some actual smoke to this cardinal situation
to another team situation, but it is peculiar that they
put this on him.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
Although didn't you mention that this has actually been done recently.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
It's too Yeah, it was. It's not a quarterback, right
Loja Moore and JK. Dobbins, And they did go to
other teams, okay, and the Ravens got a compeck. I'm
sure in that equation when it came to the try
it wasn't at the fifteen million dollar level, I mean,
or whatever. It's going to be twenty million dollars Rodgers, right,
So you know, the Steelers that way would not be
part of the comp formula, but they could trade him

(18:26):
and essentially get you know, the rough equivalent of what
that would be towards next year.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
I want to throw this hypothetical.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
At you, all right, So let's just say for the
sake argument, Rogers doesn't come back.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
He retires, Okay, And.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
You saw the results of the web pole that I
put out, like forty percent of people want will Howard
to be the quarterback in the event that that comes
to be, that they feel obligated to follow through on
their hype about how much they like Will Howard and
they give him a shot out of the gate. Rodgers

(19:03):
is retired, he's you know, in this darkness retreat or
chasing away drones with his wife or whatever it is.
Howard goes out the Steelers are one in five. What
do they do at that point? Do they turn to
Aler even if he's not ready, or do they turn
it over to Mason.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Just get through the rest of the season.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
I think the key part there is what they think
the development of alor is where they think the development
of alor is at when that moment arises. If they're
you know, one in five and the season's pretty much done,
and McCarthy's confident that Aler is ready to take that
next step, get game reps, be the starter for the
rest of the year, and learn with game action, then
there's no question that you go to Aler and you
try to see what you got with him. But development

(19:44):
is such a key thing when it comes to Aler
and getting the most out of that pick, that I
would be as careful as possible. I even fell into
the trap when you hosted on Monday. You asked me
who would start in week one, and I went right
to Aler and you were like, no, you shouldn't do that,
and you were spot on. It's got to be Howard first,
because it is all about McCarthy, you know, marinating Aller
a little bit, putting some seasoning on him.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Well, that's why I would still be inclined to go
with Rudolph. Now that said, I'm sort of arguing myself
on this. If you are in a situation where you've
already punted on Howard because the season isn't going well, Like,
is Mason going to catch you up to the point
where you make the playoffs, and you keep the blessed

(20:25):
never had a losing season thing alive. Have you known
Mike McCarthy's never had a losing season as the head
coach the Steelers, by the way, I didn't know that. Yes,
never had a winning seasonin right, it's got to give somewhere.
But if you give the reins to Mason, you're probably
not going to make the playoffs anyway. So do you
want to find out about Aler or do you just incubit?

(20:46):
Like if if you have that much faith in Aler
and he's your guy, that I wouldn't run him out
there before he's ready because you could ruin two of them, yeah,
and the other. And then you have to go with
the quarterback at the top of the draft wherever you are,
whether you like a guy or whether you can get
to a guy or not. So you could be painting
yourself into a corner here with how many playthings that

(21:06):
you have at the quarterback position.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
And do you even make that change?

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Right if you're one in five and Alur's not ready
to jump in, do you just let Howard keep getting
a long yer man? And even before it goes to
eighteen or twenty games, like we've been talking about all day.
Seventeen games is long enough, you know, how what it
looks like, there's the difference between this guy has something
and it just hasn't formulated yet, or this guy doesn't

(21:30):
have it at all and you're getting blown out and
you're last of the NFL in passing and he's throwing
interceptions and he's just not seeing the field. You know,
you could put him down on the bench and just
like make him the third QB. Put Mason in there,
see how it goes. But then you haven't learned anything
about Aler either. And how much I think it really
comes down to how much does McCarthy think he's getting

(21:55):
Aler better in the darkness, like without anybody seeing in
practice in sessions that we are not there at the
media that we can't report on anyway, Like he's got
to have his own gauge on how far along this
development is by the time we get to the next
draft cycle, if Rogers is out of the mix and
the Steelers really are a contender to get a top
ten QBAH and a key part of that development is

(22:16):
knowing when to throw him in right, let him swim,
see if he can actually handle being that starting quarterback,
and you you got to be willing to do that.
If you're McCarthy, you got to be willing to hit
that switch with him and see that what you got
Aler is a project, don't get me wrong, but it's
also like, you're not teaching this guy how to play
football for the first time, like that guy that the
Eagles drafted out of Nigeria who they're literally trying to

(22:37):
teach how to play football for the first time.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
I think he's a defensive end. Like this isn't like a.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Massive, you know, like two three year ordeal by the
middle of the season. I think it's realistic that Aler
could have taken a nice little leap in McCarthy's eyes.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
When we come back, we'll continue the Steelers conversation. There's
a little bit more to be said about that offensive
line shuffle we brought up earlier.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
We'll do that next year. On one of five nine,
the X one.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
Oh five nine d X has your shot at x
dra cash because we're nice. Thirteen times a day, nine
am through nine pm, the X will give you the
keyword at the top of every hour. Enterat it wxdx
dot com and you could win one thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
Jest thing, you can spread it on the bed and
roll around in one thousand dollars or whatever. It's your money.

Speaker 5 (23:19):
Listen all day for your chance at some extra cash.
On one oh five.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Nine The X from the one oh five nine The X.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
Super Genius Mark Madden.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
He don't do nothing but win. He just goes how
to win.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Three loud and proud, just horrible.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Horrible the X at one oh five nine.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
A couple of.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
Notes here from Jerry dulac are Steelers Radio Network colleague. Uh,
first and foremost, Tom, did you go to Ireland this year?

Speaker 3 (23:48):
Remind me I didn't get to go.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
No, Well, you're not going to get to go to
London either, even if you can't go to London, because
they're not going to London. It looks like according to
what Jerry has published in the Pittsburgh Post Cauzette. By
the way, do you think during Ravens Week that the
new owners of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette will publish only
in purple and black?

Speaker 2 (24:06):
That would be such an expert troll from them, Just
like did you see the international Ravens fan at the
draft come out from from the UK? It was like, Pittsburgh,
I keep this short, just like your postseason.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yes, I did see that.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
You know, one really enjoyable thing about not being not
having the volume up. You know where we were for
the draft this year in a different room, the volume
only was up for a short amount of time. I
missed a lot of the shenante like was it mark
Ingram who was up there forever yelling at Steelers fans?

Speaker 4 (24:35):
Like that?

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Just felt like it went on for two, you know,
because round one Goodell makes the picks. But yeah, round
two it becomes the WWE, right like they bring out.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
All of the X players, the fans, and.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Quite literally WWE star Pat McAfee was also out there
making a couple of picks.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Like it just it devolves into something just well.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
At any rate, what Jerry wrote is that it looks
like the Jags are protecting that game at home that
they have against the Steelers, probably because there's more Jaguar,
more Steelers fans in Jacksonville, and they'll fill out the
stadium regardless of how they're playing.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
There's usually a home game down there, it feels like
for the Steelers.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
But the Jaguars apparently blocked the London game from being
Pittsburgh and Jacksonville. They protected their home game, so they'll
be down in Florida, not in So I guess that
means there's one possibility Steelers depot at this outside of
a road trip against the Saints. We're gonna host a

(25:37):
twenty twenty six game in Paris, one of the few
remaining possibilities in the schedule for an international game. The
Jaguar is one of the only other ones. But according
to what Jerry said, the Jaguars are intent on keeping
that game in Jacksonville. So that's good news enough to
go overseas. It looks like this year. I'm sure that
if part of going to an eighteen game schedule is
they want every team to go overseas at one point

(25:59):
another every year, enjoy the opportunities that they have to
not go overseas while we can, and then it's gonna
become sort of status quo every season. Here's another thing
that came up to Jerry Road, and it's not so
much about the news of the moment, which is he
says that the most imminent extension that exists right now
is Chris Boswell, and I'm not surprised about that. Especially

(26:21):
after Aubrey got his deal done. They might not like
it because he made so much in Dallas, but at
least we know what the parameters are now, and from
what I understand, they were at least talking in that neighborhood.
Aubrey took it up a little bit more, of course,
and maybe they should have gotten the deal done.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
For course per year with Aubrey, that's a lot for
a kicker, ver much.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
But at any rate, one of the other guys that
people have talked about is Nick Herbig. Okay, like, do
you give her Big an extension because he's going into
his last year and that just feels like an automatic. Yeah,
give it to him. Give it to him, and then
you can move on from Alex high Smith next year
or you know that freeze you up if you can't
do anything with water and what is another down year?

(27:02):
Then you're safe because you've got Herbig there. Okay, let's
I got it. That makes sense that I see that logic.
But can I float this at you. Alex high Smith
has one year left after this season. Right now, if
you were to get rid of Alex high Smith, the
dead money is eleven million dollars and that's if.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
You cut him pre June one, post June one, what
is it?

Speaker 1 (27:28):
It's a dead money of five point six and then
fourteen point five million in cap savings.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Okay, you could do that this year.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
I don't know why you would, because he was playing
pretty well towards the end of last season.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
Next year pre.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
June one, the savings on Alex high Smith fifteen point
five million and the dead money is only five point six.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
So I guess where I'm going with this.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Tom is like, I don't necessarily see the absolute need
to lock up her Big for what would be significant
money to be the third outside linebacker again this year.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
When you could wait on it.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
If high Smith isn't worth keeping, you just get rid
of high Smith and give all of high Smith's money
to her Big anyway, and you could do that in
advance of free agency, And like, what if Sawyer is better?
What if high Smith is still good? What if wat
has a bounced back season. Then if that's the case,
you're not using her Big as much. You're still never

(28:39):
gonna use them all that much against the run. I
don't think so. I don't see the rush that a
lot of people do to extend her Big to big
money this offseason.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
What do you think I agree with you on that.
Now I'll add onto it a little bit. You know,
right now, your highest cap hit players TJ.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
Watt.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Your third highest cap hit player is Alex Highsmith. So
two of your top three cap guys are at that
edge rush position. They make up about twenty percent of
the cap. And I know the way contracts work in
the NFL team you know, you'd extend her big to
big money. You probably would offset some of that cap
towards later in the contract, and you might even end
up saving some cap this year. But to continue to

(29:16):
allocate that much of your space, that much of your
resources towards just that one position group seems very foolish
to me. So to go the path that you just
laid out, you protect yourself from, you know, paying three
guys and having them make up like twenty five percent
of your cap maybe eventually and you can just kind
of move that Highsmith money over to her big if

(29:37):
that is what you know the play this year dictates
you doing.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Here's another thing that I'll put out there, and this
is kind of taking it back to the quarterback, which
we always do and I hate to do that, but
it factors into every conversation. Do you really want to
put money on the books now, even though you've got space?
I get it, But let's say that next year's best option,

(30:02):
because every year.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
I keep hearing this is a.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Better quarterback draft, this is a better quarterback draft, it's
a better quarterback draft, and it never is.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Right, So let's say we get to where we were
again this offseason, and the best option for the Steelers
isn't to draft the quarterback again, even if they are
further up, Like you know, it's ty Simpson territory, Like
what if they do have the option to trade for
a quarterback? What if they or there's a free agent quarterback?

(30:31):
Like what if the option is something better than Kyler Murray?
Like what if they you know, remember there was that
year back in twenty twenty two where Rogers and Wilson
moved and people both thought there was tread on the
tires for both of them. Remember that, Like, you know,
where they're actually commanding money in free agency and trades, Like,
I just don't know about putting an extra money on

(30:51):
the books that you might not need to for when
it comes to quarterback territory.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Next offseason. You follow me there. I absolutely follow you
with that one.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
You need to keep keep your options open when it
comes to finding that quarterback at any avenue you can
find in that. I prefer it be the draft. I
think it's more logical that it would be the draft.
But that's Sam Donald avails himself. You know that the
next Sam Donald you want to be able.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
To strike, right because they were interested in in Sam Donald,
but they weren't as interested as the Seahawks were exactly,
And you weren't gonna make the money talk like Seattle
did to bring Sam Donald in. So you want to
be able to have the ability to do that, to
strike if you need to. And furthermore, just because you
don't have money tied up to a quarterback position right now,
that doesn't mean that you have to, you know, just
burn a hole through all your money and sign all

(31:34):
your other players too, like, oh, we have this money
to spend, so we might as well extend her big.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
No, I think you should stand pat with him. I'm
interested to see you know, Jerry mentioned her Big. He
mentioned Chris Boswell is imminent. Do you see any momentum
towards Joey Porter Junior happening because I think that's the
one they need to rush to get done.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
I haven't heard much momentum. I kind of feel like
that's on the gender jus one.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Yeah, like you have to sign him.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah, because corner is such a position, never pick a
good one until you finally did with him.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, he's kind of been up and down, but he
certainly is arrow up right now.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
Definitely.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
I think where Jerry was coming from is how close
is it to being done? And the kicker is the
close kickers right? And I went to her Big before
Porter just because I thought there was conversation. I mean,
like kind of playing off what you said is obvious.
You gotta get Porter down.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
That's no, that's a good point, Like Porter is Porter
becomes a conversation. If we work our way through training
camp and get closer to the season and they still
don't have that extension done, that's that's when he becomes
the conversation. But you're right about her Big right now,
Like that's the debatable one in the moment, And I
think the answer to the debate is you just have
to tell him, you know, play out this contract and
we'll see where we are on May sixth, twenty twenty seven,

(32:48):
pengu was Talk Next one five nine, The X, It's.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
The Woody Show weekday morning six to ten, one nine,
a lot of publication.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
The ex at one oh five nine.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Tondy have images of Jason Robertson dancing in your head.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Yet during the offseason.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
In the four first round picks, we'd have to send
to Dallas to sign him. Isn't that what the RFA is.
It's something absurd.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah, but you don't have to sign that. You can
come up for you can do a different trade.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
Ye.

Speaker 5 (33:24):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
So this is what the Hockey News said about Robertson.
Adam Gretz said, I say dream scenario for the Penguins
because this is probably all it will ever be. This
is the type of player that should be at the
top of the Penguins wish list if they did want
to do something bold and aggressive. He's still in his twenties.
He's one of the best players in hockey. He could
be a franchise centerpiece for probably the next seven or

(33:46):
eight years. They have the cap space to pay him
whatever he wants. And it's almost all those reasons why
the Stars are be insane to move him. The cap exists,
but they should be moving other people to make sure
he stays, and I suspect they will do that exactly.
It would also likely cost you ben kindall as a
starting point, and at the risk of saying something controversial,

(34:07):
this is the one player potentially available that I think
would be okay to let me say it again and
at the risk of saying something controversial, this is the
one player potentially available that I think I would be
okay with that. But it's not likely going to come
to that. It will probably stay in your dreams and
at one point or another and I gotta find it again.

(34:28):
Here the reference was made to Robertson being the kind
of player that the Penguins would need to be the
Jake Genseil replacement, and it sort of struck me when
I heard that. When I read that, I was like, Wow,
do we talk enough about how much of a swing

(34:51):
and a miss all those guys have been so far
on the Jake Genzel trade front. Because the ones in
the k Panamav Panamerav went back to Russia, Lucius didn't
sign and is going to become a free agent on
I think it's August the fifteenth. Let me see if
I can find this year. Yeah, this is from Pennsburg Lucius,

(35:13):
whose rights were acquired as part of the Genseel trade.
Kyle Dubas sit on his GM show back in April
that he wouldn't be signing. He qualifies to become a
free agent on August the fifteenth, So you miss on him,
you miss on panamarav Covenan hasn't been good enough yet
in bunting. Where's bunting now? He's still playing. He was

(35:34):
on a playoff team. I can't remember which one or
if he's still playing.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
He is on the Stars. So he got bounced. Okay,
so but they're over for four.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
So far unless coiven In turns into something And are
you starting to become dubious of that as I.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Am big time and In was like the centerpiece guy
of that deal, and Panamara were like the big parts
of that deal, right, Like those were the youthful guys
that you got in the big time prospects that you
could see Panameraa of becoming your third line center one day,
and then you could see Covenen being on your top
line as a wing one day. And Ponomarov is in
the KHL for the foreseeable future, and with Coiven in

(36:10):
it just feels like he's a four A player right
because he's killing it in Wilkes right now and has
been every time he goes down there, like he's driving
the bus or one of the driving forces for this
playoff run. But then he gets to the NHL level
and it's just not clicking for him.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
The fact that nobody panned out yet from that deal.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
And you got one left right, like Coiven is the
only one left that you could really realistically think.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Will right exactly.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
The fact that no one is really panned out from
that deal has made the transition between we are trying
to stay good but get younger at the same time.
That was a real dent in that process. I mean
a real dent. And I don't think that's talked about enough,
do you?

Speaker 3 (36:53):
And no it's not.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
I know if that's because Dubus has done so many
other good things people don't want to hang that over
his head, but come on, I mean, like that was
a major foul ball.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
It was, and to really you know, kick that kind
of you know, walking in both worlds into gear where
you're competing and staying competitive, you have to nail a
trade like that, you have to get at least two
of those guys coming in and being nailed on NHL players,
and one of them being a top line type of
player like you hope Coyvenen would be. And then that
allows you to walk in both of those worlds because

(37:24):
you're competing now with coven and playing with Sid and
doing a really good job. And then there's also that
future of beyond Sid when it comes to a guy
like a coven In and when it comes to it
U Ponomarov. So, oh, yeah, that was a big time
miss from the Penguins. They're feeling that massively right now.
Let me correct myself here. It was Michael de Roso
who wrote the line about ginstl So it's a different
I saw it in the Hockey News at twenty six

(37:45):
year old years old, Robertson would be a great fit
on a Penguins team that is focused on the future.
This is because he has several years left in his prime. Furthermore,
he would finally give the Penguins their much needed Jake
Ginsel replacement. The collective of that trade was supposed to
be the Jake Gentzel replacement, and then you were going
to need something on top of that. So I'm one

(38:06):
hundred percent in favor of going and getting Robertson. I
wrote about that months ago when it came up, like
before the Olympics, if you remember, that was the first
time the Robertson story started to bubble. But him coming
here now would be in addition to whoever else was
supposed to be good from that trade already, like Coivenin
should not be a question by now. We should know

(38:28):
where he's going to be on this team next year,
not if, and if it's an if, how good is
he really going to be?

Speaker 1 (38:35):
We should be starting to get excited about Lucis, not
wondering where he's going to be on August the fifteenth,
Potomera if we thought could be at least a serviceable
fourth liner like Bunting. I never thought all four of
those guys would work out, but I thought the collective
of the four was supposed to be something to equate
losing Genzel, and then that freed up money so you

(38:56):
could get something almost as good as Gonzil in free
agency or acquisition.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
And honestly, if coyven In just turns into a legitimate,
you know, top line wing scores thirty goals. That's that's
just a one for one replacement right there, and you're
just with that one prospect, you pretty much feel that
you've gotten enough and you've been able to move on
from again. So but Covenan's the biggest disappointment in that
entire group by far, because he had the highest ceiling
in that group.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
When we come back a lot to reset, we'll look
at our web pole that we had out there about
the schedule expanding potentially for the NFL, the NCAA tournament expanding,
maybe get back into some pirates talk. We never got
to the offensive line shuffle for the Steelers. We'll do
that too. One of five nine the x WO