October 14, 2025 • 39 mins
Tim is in for Mark. He and Tommy Radio talk about the STeelers and where they're at in terms of the pecking order of the NFL. Little college football talk too and the trifecta
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
We live in a world where the Pittsburgh Steelers are
a top five NFL team. We live in a world
where Arthur Smith is a head coaching candidate running the
twenty ninth ranked offense in the NFL. We live in
a world where the Penguins seem to think system first.
We live in a world where Penn State is a
(00:26):
hockey school and pitts quarterback has more people optimistic than
the guy some people wanted to see the Steelers draft
out of Penn State. And we live in a world
where Penn State's football fans think Indiana's head coach can
make them better. In the words of Iron Maiden, I'm
a stranger in a strange land.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Tim bens in for Mark Manaday. Mark is sick.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
As you heard yesterday, I felt that one coming a
mile away. If you heard him on the podcast for
Breakfast Bends, which we taped up Sunday night. I had
the over under on me being here Monday, not Tuesday.
But here I am with Tommy Radio, who joins me
to talk about a myriad subjects, including this list that
I saw at Pro Football Talk before I come on.
(01:09):
It's their power rankings. Pro Football Talk has its Power
rankings out and they have the Pittsburgh Steelers fifth.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Now, Tom, this is, in my estimation, kind of like
college football polls in August, college basketball polls in November.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It doesn't mean much. In fact, it's the NFL. It
means nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Your record is what your record is at the end
of the year, and it doesn't matter what perception says.
It does sort of matter how the Steelers perceive themselves, though,
how they move forward to the trade deadline, how they
move forward using young players or not, how they move
forward thinking that what they're doing is working. Are the
(01:54):
Steelers really the fifth best team in the National Football League?
And before you answer, would you like me to couch
it by telling you who the top four teams are
according to Pro Football Talk?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
You should couch it for the audience, because I'm looking
at this bad boy right now. And spoiler alert, I
disagree with some teams that are behind the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Here some teams that are behind the Steels. They should
not be number five.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
The Bucks are the best team in football. The Colts
are the second best team in football.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
No, they are not.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
The Lions are the third best team in football. They
actually should be higher. I think they might be number two.
The Rams are the fourth best team in football, and
the Steelers by virtue of beating Dylan Gabriel in the
now one in five Cleveland Browns have jumped from number
(02:50):
eleven to number five. According to this Pro Football Talk list,
just beating the Browns catapult level of bully from number
eleven to number five. And do you look at the
Steelers team and say that's the fifth best team in football?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
No, for me, it does not catapult my level of
belief to those heights. I don't think we can really
start having our belief changed in this team until we
see what happens in the stretch after the Cincinnati game.
Don't you agree? Like that's the measuring stick stretch for
the Steelers. Two home games against the Packers and the
Colts back to back. Then you go on the road
for Sunday night football against the Chargers. You go two
(03:28):
and one in that stretch after beating Cincinnati on Thursday night. Okay, Florio,
I'll believe that you're number five. Maybe is this Florio's
list or me? I just associate everything with Pro football
talk of flour.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well does say he does have his byline on it. So, yes,
it is Mike Florio's list. As it turns out, well,
there you go, Florio, I believe in you.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Then if you go two and one in that stretch,
if the Steelers come out of that with just two losses,
they'll set them up self up nice. And those are
some wins against some quality opponents. But do you really
count the Patriots as a win against the quality opponent
just yet? You're got too because they're four and too
and they're in first place in the East. Again, this
goes back to sort of a do you believe in them?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
The quick analogy to college basketball, like that's a quad
one win right for now? Yeah, the Patriots are a
quad one win. That's going to Duke and winning a
Cameron indoor at this point.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
But you don't buy into them yet, do you.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
No. But even at the time, and you and I
talked about this, even at the time, I said that
could be a huge win because that could be the
seventh seed on the line. Now it might be the
third versus fourth seed on the line.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Based on what the Bills look like. I think we
should be all relaxing on the Bills. I saw Florio
bump them out of his top ten down seven spots
on this too. I mean, well it was it wasn't
great against the Falcons.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
That's a tricky specific extreme overreaction. Like he's got the
Eagles eighth, he's got the Bills eleventh. If the Steelers
were to play the Eagles or Bills in a neutral field,
what would the points spread be seven to nine over
a touchdown in favor of the other two teams?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Or Yes, I think that's an easy pick right there.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
He's got the Chiefs thirteen.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
See, they should be flirting with the top five after
what they did. I think that I walked away from
Week six action Tim thinking that the Chiefs are the
best team in the AFC again, even though they're three
and three. Right now, I just see it coming now
Rashie Rice is back, like everything's just going to round
in the form for them, and Mahomes is just playing awesome.
You know, we're starting to actually see statistical performances from Mahomes, like,
(05:23):
you know, fantasy football performances for Mahomes. That was what
he was putting up when he was, you know, a rookie,
second year, third year player in the league, right because remember,
like the past couple of years, Mahomes wasn't really doing
it numbers wise, but he was just winning games, and
they were winning those low score, one score games.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Like now he's lightening it up.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I mean, three touchdowns through the air, one on the
ground against the Lions, Like he's the second favorite for
MVP now all of a sudden.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, So I just view them as the number one
team again in the AFC. They're just they're gonna come
on strong, They're gonna be just fine, and the other
ones are kind of sputtering a little bit.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Well, Tom, this is a situation of my view that
is very similar to what we went through in twenty twenty,
where no one really thought that the Steelers were an
eleven and oh team. They were number one in the
AFC for a week after week after week, unbeaten, and
the Chiefs had won loss right behind them, and everybody
took offense in Pittsburgh that people thought that the Chiefs
(06:18):
were better. Where do the Chiefs get off being ranked
ahead of the Steelers. The Steelers have beaten this team,
the Steelers have beaten that team. And you know, like
I was on board with saying that the Steelers were
deserving to be ranked in front of Casey because they
were eleven and zero and Casey was ten and one.
But I always thought if those two teams would have
to play in the playoffs, I'm picking the Chiefs. So
(06:41):
like there's deserve, there's who are you what based on
what the standings say, and then there's projections. Then there's prognostications,
and that's a completely different kettle of fish. Now there
are some wonky ratings that Florio has in this poll,
and we just went through a whole bunch of them.
The tricky thing with the Steelers, though, is if you
(07:01):
look at who they still have left to play, if
you look at the state of the division, it's hard
to look at the Steelers and for all the reasons
that we've had accumulating our heads over the last eight years,
it's hard to separate that, divorce that from the reality
of what their record is, how bad the division is,
and what their record is likely to be by the
(07:23):
time the playoffs shakeout. Like, they've got four wins already,
likely to get five on Thursday unless they screw it
up against Cincinnati. You're telling me they can't squeeze out
five more wins to get to ten and seven. Do
you think right now it's going to take eleven wins
to win the AFC North I do not.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
That's just two more losses for Baltimore that they can afford.
So of the five wins that they would need.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Then if they were to beat Cincinnati on Thursday, two
more wins against the Browns and Bengals, there's seven they
can't scratch out three more over the next two and
a half months.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
They be able to.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
They should be able to.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And that's what's so kind of funny about what's also
building along with the optimism in Steelers Nation right now, Tim,
the optimism that's out of control. Like I said, you
beat the Browns, let's wait until I don't know about that.
You don't know if it's out of control.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
No, I don't, because like I want to wait to
see if we beat Like you know that a healthy
dose of skepticism out there. I think there always a
healthy dose of Like I was listening to some of
Batch and Pursuita's postgame show. I've heard the station down
the dial. I hear Madden every single day. I hear
people dubious of the hype getting out of control for
(08:32):
the Steelers because they saw it last year, they saw
it in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, but there are different circumstances this year, mainly the
rest of the division really stinking out loud like last year.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
All the rest of the division can stink, they can
win it, and that might mean nothing in terms of
what they do in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Like the big difference of how that might.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Affect the playoffs is they could be ten and seven
and then get a wild card team. It's not all
that good because the whole AFC is soft and you
get the home game and you finally get the playoff win.
Are they a challenger to the Chiefs the Bills that
they go to those stadiums and win in the playoffs?
Do they do it?
Speaker 5 (09:13):
No?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I don't think so. I still don't think so. But
you know, Madden's kind of laid this out there before,
and this would be like so bad luck for the Steelers.
Like what if the Steelers are the third seed, okay,
or if they're the third seed and the Chiefs and
I take that back, the Bills and the Chargers of
(09:35):
the top two seeds, the Steelers are the three seed
and they get the Chiefs coming to Pittsburgh Ackroestra Stadium.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
That's kind of what I was thinking too, Like, the
Chiefs are going to make the playoffs, I'm sure of that.
I think they have an outside shot now at getting
the West back in their control because the Chargers are
just so banged up in the Broncos. I don't know
what the Broncos are, man, I really don't. Probably a
playoff team, But what if the five seed is the
Chiefs and they come to Pittsburgh and you're the four
or the three in the six matchup? Like then you're
(10:01):
just falling into I think, just a devastating trap where
everything was pointing in the direction this year. If you
finally ending that playoff drought, you get the home game,
You've got Rogers, there's a lot of feel good going
into it. You win the Division crown, you get the
hat and T shirt game with the division champ on it,
and then Kansas City rolls in on their you know,
three straight road game run to another Super Bowl starts
(10:23):
in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
But I know I heard Batch on the DV Morning
show today say that the first call out of the
gate fall in the win over the Browns wasn't complained
about Tomlin kicking it on a timeout blowing a time
out at the end of the first half.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That was amazing, you know, I was truly chef's kiss
that that guy called in and was like, I can't
believe Rogers had to burn that time out.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
What are they doing in the bye week? Nothing? Just
sitting around.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I didn't hear any overwhelming amount of positivity pushing back
on whatever point Madden was making that he made on
my podcast. I saw it on all every single comment.
I didn't see a single comment that said we were
being way too negative on our live stream on YouTube
United Madden Ben's Unfiltered. I do think there is still
(11:03):
a healthy amount of skepticism out here about who the
Steelers really are. But my balance to that right now
is they can be paper champions like leaf Flowers used
to say. They can be phony Bologney as some people
insist that they are, but they can still win this
crap division if the because you can look at the
(11:24):
Ravens and say, well, they're done. You know, you can
look at the Bengals and say, well they're nothing. They
don't have Burrow. You can look at the Browns and say, look,
how bad the Browns just were in Pittsburgh. Then I
means the Steelers win the division to your.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Point of they're going to the playoffs then in a
home game, to your point about ten and seven taking
the division, I mean, that's kind of what we all
thought the Steelers were going to be this year, right,
another iteration of nine and eight or ten and seven.
So they go ten and seven, and like I was saying,
Ravens are one and five right now, they're two losses
away from the best they could ever dream of, being
ten and seven. And you take care of business again
(12:00):
in Pittsburgh, which you better, you get them one lost
closer to that. And since you earn the split at
the very least, I guarantee you, with how much they've
been messing around with their record earlier in the season,
you're gonna get the AFC tie breaker against them, and
you're gonna win the division, or you'll get the division
tiebreaker against them. So yeah, like I get what you're saying,
Like the Steelers aren't really different than what we thought
(12:21):
they would be at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
They're kind of going to do.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
The same thing, but everybody else just might allow them
to take the division crown.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Anyway, what if the Titans hire Arthur Smith the way
in the middle of the season to be there, is that.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Really being talked about? They're thinking about Art coming home?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Well? Ian Rappaport said yesterday he talked about two candidates.
One of them was Matt Nagy and the other one
was Arthur Smith.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Okay, do you ever wonder if like Rapaport needs to
come up with something real quick because he's got a
hit coming up, and he's like, he's really I.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Think Arthur Smith is a great agent, is what I think. Like,
I was surprised he was even thought about for the
offensive coordinator job, let alone getting it. He got two
head coaching interviews after that offense last year in his
first year that warranted him an interview with Chicago and
New York and now Rapaports out there talking about him
(13:07):
and Matt Nagy to take over for Cam Johnson. Like
if you're what, independently thinking, what have you seen from
Arthur Smith as a head coach in Atlanta or a
coordinator even in Tennessee. Let alone here in Pittsburgh makes
you think, yeah, we want to take our number one
(13:27):
overall pick quarterback and have that guy coach him.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Where do you see that?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And yet rap reports on the NFL network is one
of two names that is mentioned here.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
I mean Derek Henry coming with him or some new
Derrick Henry.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Because that's the only thing that Arthur Smith has done
well is hand the ball off to Derek Henry and
have that kind of offense, you know, flows through the
generational running back, because every other offense that he's had
has been towards the bottom of the league, including this
one right now. Even though it's better than what we've seen,
the numbers don't speak to that, not in the least,
not at all. Twenty ninth overall, and I think.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
They're just what are they running the football? I think
they're like thirtieth or thirty first or something like that.
I haven't checked out.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Weird though that it.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Kind of feels better though, you know what I mean, Like,
it does feel like a better offense, but that's probably
just the Rogers effect and his ability to make a
player two here or there.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Just everybody is so flawed. Everybody is so flawed right
now in the National Football League that the lowering tide
is raising all boats. If you're in Pittsburgh, if you
look at the Steelers offense, the Steelers defense, the Steelers coaching,
everything is being raised by everybody else seeing like, how
do you look at that defense for the Bills last
(14:36):
night and say, well, that's for sure a super Bowl team. Like,
I know Bills fans, I know lots of Bills fans.
I was going on a text thread back and forth
with the guy yesterday's Bills fans. Another lost year with
Josh Allen sounding like people at the end of the Roethlisberger,
another wasted year with Ben and here we're in October,
(14:56):
We're in early October, mid October.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I mean, they're run defense is abysmal. That's why you
kind of could see that coming to mind, I don't
have a lot of weapons going into Atlanta. You could
see that coming with Bijon, just like you knew that
they were going to run and run and run the
ball and the flok couldn't stop them, and you're right,
that's not gonna go. Well, if they haven't fixed that
up come playoff time or added a weapon, they need
(15:19):
Stefan Diggs. I mean, it's just so clear they need
somebody like that.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Would you aggressively pursue a wide receiver if you're the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Oh yeah, I talked about it yesterday. I Mark Show, Like,
that's the obvious thing that the Steelers should be doing
right now. Because of that, what did you say, low
lowering tide around you?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
The calculus of the whole quarterback conversation for them has changed,
is it not? Not just in terms of the NFL
draft not being as stockpile rich as we thought it was,
but also from the standpoint of if they're drafting later,
it's gonna be even harder to trade up. And you know,
like a somebody else pointed out to me, what about
the comp picks. You're not gonna get as much of
the comp picks now potentially as you thought going in
(15:55):
because of lack of playing time and so forth.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
And I mean, we can start to see Aaron Rodgers
coming back really form on the horizon, right, Like.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That's part of it that seems to be very clearly.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Aron gets you to eleven or twelve wins and you
win this crappy division, are you gonna be inclined to
just let him waltz off? And is he gonna be
inclined to waltz off to retirementcause He's not gonna go
out winning a super Bowl. He's gonna go out.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Winning a division and maybe winning a playoff game.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Maybe that might be enough based on where the Steelers are,
isn't for Rogers?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
If he was that good to get them there.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And he gets through an entire season healthy, you know
what I mean, Like there would be another part of
that injury about it, or.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Doesn't get banged up too much.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Like if he's feeling good at the end of the year,
why would you walk away from a twelve win eleven
win team that hosted a playoff game.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And that's another thing about these rankings that we're talking
about right now, is we're we are not taking into
account that the Steelers haven't had their bad stretch yet.
They haven't had their row to five, they haven't had
their three losses to Kyler Murray and Bailey Zappi and
Joe Flacco like they did in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
That's spooky with who's coming up in two days.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
They haven't had their two and six like they did
to open up the season in Mitch Trubisky's first year.
Like they haven't had that bad down stretch yet that
we're all anticipating they haven't had one two and one
to seven two and one to falling out of the
playoffs like twenty eighteen, like that that spiral that they
often have.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
They haven't had that yet.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
They will at some point the well, because they always do,
but it.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
So Florio can say they're the fifth best team in
the NFL because they beat the friggin' Browns.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
That's what's so hard for me to follow with all
this like craziness on the heels of them looking good.
Don't get me wrong, like they did look great, and
that was their most complete performance, but as an awful
football team in Cleveland, that.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Is getting better.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And we said going into the Steelers game was playing
better football than the rest of the teams in the
AFC North, but that was more of an indication on
what the rest of the teams were playing like as
opposed to the Browns.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
The Browns are just like a little engine that could
this year. And that's why they kept, you know, throwing
the ball towards the end of that game and dragging
that game out, which was killing me back here running
that thing like two oh my god. But you know
why they were doing it because it's a Gabriel audition.
At this point, we're gonna run this thing like her.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Sanders right into the starting lineup. That might be what happened.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Did you think he played that bad?
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Though? I don't think he was tough. He just couldn't
do anything. What quarterback could under the pressure exactly get
a lot of help Like I, each tight end dropped
the pass, Judy dropped the pass.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
All right, we come back speaking to the Browns.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
A former NFL coach with Pittsburgh Ties, also has a
problem with what the Browns did trading Joe Flaco to
the Bengals. You'll hear his quote next coming up on
one O five nine the x.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
iHeartRadio Alter Huge.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I haven't heard Andrew Barry say anything about what Mike
Tomlin said about him. I did read what the head
coaches from the Bengals and Browns said, and it was nothing.
All Zach Taylor said was we're happy that he's here
talking about Joe Flacco. After Mike Tomlin buried the Browns
(19:10):
for trading Flaco to the Cincinnati Bengals, Stefanski just said
I would prefer to not comment on that, basically because
he doesn't want to tell the truth, that's why.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
And then there was.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Terry Pluto from Cleveland dot Com. We'll get to his
column in just a little bit, but the star of
the show on this topic today tom was Bruce Arians,
the former Mike Tomlin assistant, the former offensive coordinator for
the Pittsburgh Steelers, and former head coach with the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers and Arizona Cardinals. This is Arians on the
(19:47):
Pat McAfee show today. He was also a coach in Indianapolis,
and they do a segment where it's BS with AB
is something BS or not? And he was asked Arians
by McAfee if trading Flaco within the division was a
BS move by the Cleveland Browns. Obviously, Tomlin thinks that
(20:10):
it is, and Arians apparently agrees with this former boss total.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Books, Okay, it's not a good decision.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
What are you thinking?
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Okay? I mean, first of all, Pittsburgh's a big rival.
Since Snager's nick biggest rival, why would you trade him
to Cincinnati. If I'm gonna trade him, may get a
six round pick for somewhere else. Now, I ain't traded
him in the division. All of a sudden, to mar
Chase and Tikiggins have twenty targets to Marches has ten
receptions almost one hundred yards and one week couldn't get
the damn ball to him.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
The other three weeks and now Pittsburgh's had to play
on Thursday night.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah, Tom, that has been on the record of Cole. Yeah,
he does not want to see Joe and those receivers.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
As like he had him right where we wanted him,
and they go and trade this guyhead to our division rivals, say,
that makes no sense to me.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Now, Terry Pluto's call him on Tom from Cleveland dot Com.
He theorized that Tomlin was upset from a football perspective,
like the football purist, and Mike Tomlin was offended. That's
how mad he was at the very thought of a
team tanking on a season and a team trading a
(21:21):
quarterback within the division because they're giving up on a
year like that was sort of the nuts and bolts
of his take on it. And I do think that
there was some football symbolism, some football sensitivity from Tom
that it was offended by trading within the division. But
I just think he's pissed because he doesn't get to
(21:42):
play against Jake Browning. I don't think it's much deeper
than that. If he thought that the Browns made a
move that made the Bengals worse, and he knew he
was gonna get the worst out of Cleveland and the
worst out of Cincinnati, he wouldn't have said what he
said yesterday. He would have been fine with it and
would have been grinning like a cheshire cat. But he
was mad because this made the road harder for the Steelers.
(22:06):
He wanted to see Jake Browning twice like the one
guy whose name was not mentioned there. And that was
the big narrative coming out of what Tomlin said, is
he said Andrew Berry by name. He was not asked
about Andrew Berry. The words Andrew and Barry were not said.
The question simply was, hey, Mike, what's you think of
that trade? And he came out with that, And it
(22:28):
was just like Richardson with the Colts, Like Richardson caught
a stray, but that was a direct stray, if such
a thing makes sense. The guy who caught the stray
and all this was a guy who wasn't even mentioned.
And that's Browning. Because Tom Win ostensively he was telling
you we wanted to play that guy. We didn't want
to play Flaco. But Flacco isn't the Flacco of old.
(22:48):
This isn't Joe Flaco from the Ravens circa twenty ten
standing back in the pocket behind Jonathan Ogden and Marshall Yonda,
chucking it downfield and hitting thirty yard bombs and getting
pass interference penalties. This guy's throwing it as quick as
Aaron Rodgers is a lot of time now. Granted, if
the Bengals are able to do to the Steelers pass
(23:10):
rush with the Steelers offensive line did to the Browns
pass rush out of nowhere, Flacco is gonna be dangerous
throwing to t Higgins and to Jamar Chase. Yes, but
I also agree with what Pursuda and Randy said on
the Morning Show today because I had this thought as
well as I'm listening to this.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Isn't he making too big of a deal at.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Joe fla Absolutely, Tim, I'm glad that this is where
he ended up.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Like, why are you spooking yourself right now?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Joe? Why are you so mady something? Joe Flacco? Why
are you so.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Mad about having to play Joe Flacco? All of a
sudden who cares like, yeah, it's flight. It used to
be a punchline around. It's a slight upgrade. And I
mean emphasis on the words slight.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
This forty version, forty year old version of a quarterback
is not the forty year old version of the quarterback
that you have right now in Rodgers. It just is.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
It's not even close.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
And even Flacco when he was kind of an annoyance
and would beat the Steelers from time to time, was
nobody that you really feared. Like you said it was
a punchline. It was like, oh, it's Flacco. That's the
guy who threw the ball to Troy. I don't want
to lose to Flacco. That's embarrassing. Like we delegitimized him
the entire time he was in Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
The whole run up to the twenty fourteen playoffs, when
Leveon Bell was hurt, the talking point was, yeah, Lev's hurt.
That stinks. They're in a bad situation. But hey, what
are they gonna do? Lose it home to fly?
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Oh yeah, that sucks.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
That kind of happened, didn't it.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
It did.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
He's obviously spooked too because of what happened a couple
of years ago in Indy when Flacco came in and
just tortured That was it last year, right, that that
happened in Indy?
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Yeah? Wow.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
I still don't think that he got beat by Flacco.
I think he got beat by Stichan And that's my worry.
When the Colts game comes around, he's beating them with
three different quarterbacks, now, hasn't he?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yes, I remember that right. I think you're correct. I
think Gardner Minshew was in there, Minshew.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Flacco and who was the other one? Do he lose
to Richardson? Maybe it was only two, but I digress.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Flacco torched him last year year and that's gotta be
fueling this is that great. I saw this picture last year.
Flack was gonna kill us. But you're right, it was
more stiking in the offense at that point. I mean,
you watched that Green Bay game or what you could
have when you were, you know, probably still at the
stadium wrapping things up after the Steelers game. Like he
was awful in the first half, he started to do
okay in the second half, started to connect with those
(25:19):
receivers a little bit more.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
If your pass rush.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Mike Tomlin is what it was against Cleveland, and it
should be you paid a lot for it. There's no worry.
He's not gonna have any time to hit receivers twenty
yards down the field.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
They're just not gonna everything's gonna have to be dump
offs and short stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
But mister don't.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Live in your fears. Is afraid of forty something year
old Joe Flacco.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
He kind of lives in his feares a little bit
all the time. Happens a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I mean, we all know it, but it does not
how he presents himself, of course, of course, but it
You can't tell me that there's not a little bit
of that happening here when it should just be.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Vibes are at an all time high. Feel good, we're
kicking quarterbacks ass. It doesn't matter who's back there. They
pressured Gabriel thirty two times, like even great quarterbacks are
gonna have a long day facing that. There's about like
three or four quarterbacks in this league that can swim
in those seas, those rough waters and be successful. Flack,
(26:15):
It's not one of them, never was.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Like the Browns have no obligation to do anything that
the Steelers want. Like this whole thing about his football
sensitivity is being offended.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
By this move?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Whatever? Like if if the Browns were in a position
where they were doing a fire sale and they wanted
to get rid of somebody and they wanted to give
that person to the Steelers, Like what if this? What
if the Browns had decided it's more advantageous for us
to take a pick from the Steelers and give them
Joe Hayden as opposed to cutting him, knowing that the
Steelers are gonna sign Joe Hayden, Like what would Thomas?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
No, that's that's not how we do football in the
AFC North. I refuse to take Joe Hayden unless you
cut him, Like you.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Know what I mean. I know exactly what you mean,
because that's kind of what happened, is they cut them
and the Steelers swooped right in and scooped him up.
But you know, if they had if the Browns said,
we're done with this guy. We think it's better for
us to get a sixth.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Round pick for him. Hey, Pittsburgh, will you give him
to us?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Look, if you're upset or if your football sensitivities are
upset by management moves roster moves by the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I mean, where have you been?
Speaker 3 (27:18):
I mean they spit on your football sensitivities and your
football traditions all the time. They're a poorly run franchise.
I think it's stupid that they traded Flacco, not just
to the Bengals, but I think it's stupid that they
traded him because it's just Shador and Dylan Gabriel in
a quarterback room now trying to find their way through
this season.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Well, here's another thing where I think where Pluto might
have been right Church, wrong Pew, and that is I
do think that there's a coaching fraternity thing that's going
on here. And I don't know really what Tomlin thinks
of Kevin Stefanski as a guy, but I do have
a pretty strong sense that he doesn't like it with
(27:54):
GMS and when ownership overmanages a situation, and I'm sure everybody.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Can see is what's really happening here, right, And Mike
Tomlin knows not to say the name Jimmy Haslam at
a podium, So we'll throw Andrew Berry out.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
There exactly, even though he might be a puppet for Haslam,
which is I think exactly what happened in and can
I give you another theory. I'll give you another theory
on this. My other theory about what has angered Tomlin
about this is not just one move from Barry. It's
not just Flacco that he traded that bothered Tomlin. This
is the same GM that reset the market for what
(28:28):
quarterbacks are worth and what guaranteed money is all about
with Deshaun Watson. And this is the guy that gave
Miles Garrett all that money, and now the Steelers had
to give a ton of money. And Mike Tomlin knows
the back end of that contract looks like with TJ. Watt,
and he would have been willing to give TJ. Watt money,
but not that kind of money, but he had to
because of what Barry gave Miles Garrett after Miles Garrett
(28:48):
said I want out, So they just paid for his happiness.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
That's a great point.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
That's where I think all that is coming from. Those
are the seeds to this. And let me give you
another something. And this is a little behind the scenes,
and I might be speak you want me to break
and we'll do it.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Let's do it later. You're fired up, all right, I'll
do it when we come back.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
There's a little behind the scenes about how that all
happened yesterday, and I'll give it to you when we
come back here on one O five nine The X.
Speaker 7 (29:09):
It's The Woody Show weekday mornings at six.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Listen to the AX at home at worked anytime on
the iHeartRadio app one O five nine The X.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Time Now for your Tuesday bet.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
MGM Baseball Buzz.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Tonight in Milwaukee Game two of the NLCS Brewers and Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Dodgers held on to win Game one.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
X Man of covers the Mark Madden Show, backed by
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Speaker 2 (29:36):
They got your back, not your wallet, all right.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So tom I got off on a rant there regarding
the whole Joe Flacco commentary from Mike Tomlin yesterday about
the trade.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
And so the backstory on this.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Is that I talked about before the break and I
heard this secondhand. I didn't witness this myself or anything
like that, but I was told that Tomlin had a
you know, sort of a interpersonal reaction with a couple
reporters coming off the field after the Flacco trade was made,
Like you know, said something that indicated like why the
heck or how the heck did that happen? Or what
did they get? Did you hear what they got? That
(30:09):
sort of thing, just off the cuff reaction. Some reporters
that I know afterwards were like, Wow, they could tell
that Tom couldn't believe that that took place, and they
were getting ready to ask him, you know, like, but
I think it was a reporter who wasn't there that
just happened to lob the question out there of hey,
would you think of that trade? And the way it
(30:31):
was so open ended, it just allowed Tomlin to walk
through the door and give the exact answer that he
wanted to. And ironically, I wonder if someone of the
reporters that actually heard that exchange had asked if they
would have cooked the stew too much and said, what
do you think what Andrew Berry did there? And then
maybe Toman would have backed off, wouldn't have hit the
throttle as hard. But because the question was so open ended,
(30:52):
he walked right through the door and gave us six.
It was kind of like when I asked him about
taking the college job. He was ready for that too, apparently,
like I was told he was ready to give that
kind of response. After I asked him about the college job.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Perked up a little bit when the question actually came
exactly and I saw this one.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah, I saw this one coming right. This is a
telegraph fastball down the middle. So now what should have
happened is at the end of that press conference on
his way out, when he said some of you guys
are really annoying me today, or whatever he said on
the way out, I should have said, Hey, Mike, one
more question. You're interested in the Penn State job. How
would that have gone over?
Speaker 4 (31:30):
I wish you would have tim as a missed opportunity.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I wonder if there's still a booster they can't write
a check big enough. What if that booster is Pogoula.
You think he can write a check big enough. I
think he can.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
You should just become college coach guy when it comes
to Mike Tomlin, like every time he's a job, a
big job, that it's got to be a big one
an LSU a Penn State.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
What if Penn State hires Nardusia and asked Tomlin about
going over to.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Pitt No, I want Franklin if that happens, so he
can play in the field when the field is better.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
I don't want Tom and I want Franklin if that's
the case.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
So if you're a Pit fan, and I know you are,
if Franklin were to get either the Virginia Tech or
the North Carolina job, if Belichick goes, what would you think?
Would you like that or hate that? As a would
hate that, would hate to be awful because you don't
want to lose to Franklin. Lose to Franklin, Well, he
would give it to you, guys.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
But I also just don't want what I think would
become a really steady consistence, not power, but really good
team rising in the ACC, which is a conference that's
right for one of those teams to rise now because
of Clemson's down.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
He's just got just enough bitterness toward Nardouzian Pit through
like some of the local recruiting wars. No question he
would have questioned victory is over Pitt, like North Carolina
beachs Pit.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
North Carolina beats Pit, Virginia Tech beats Pit.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
But here's the thing with Virginia Tech, he can kind
of get back into the old little like rivalry angled
to it too. With Franklin and Pitt because of the
old big East connection that they have together, Like it
would just not be good. But I think that's what's
gonna happen. I said yesterday. If I'm Virginia Tech, I'm
sprinting towards Franklin. I'm asking him, could he coach this weekend?
Could you just stand on the sidelines and hang out.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
I don't think I think Florida or Florida State. I
think it goes over better at Virginia Tech.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I think he would have Virginia Tech at the top
of the AEC in a couple of years because he
already kind of has the recruiting hotbed there on lock.
He would just move it to Virginia.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
And really, unless you were to lose to Clemson every year,
which is entirely possible, he wouldn't have the whole You'll
lose all your big games because there's no big It.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Doesn't exist with Miami. Every once in a while Smu
sneaks up there. No, it doesn't matter. He'd be the
big game. Yes, great point, that is his big way.
Just seems like a perfect match, doesn't it. Like if
I'm Virginia Tech, I'm salivating over the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Is that Front office sports story right about his offset language.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
He has to search, he has to do for a job.
It's a weird thing to put into a contract. It's
a weird thing for a coach to agree to.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
You. Maybe it's something that he gave in on because
he knew he couldn't stay away at his age, Like
he knew he was going to look anyway, So like,
if they fire me, I'm not gonna want to just
suit my paycheck. I would for a year, though, I
would for a year potentially.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Do you think he's gonna pop up on a desk
somewhere in a couple of months and then finish.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
This season that count is looking for a job? That
said it said TV too? Oh said TV too?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And it would offset the salary with how much he
makes in the TV contract.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Do you see him doing.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Like hittings of what the annual salid it would be.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Do you think a studio job it would fit him
for like these next few months, then he jumps to Virginia.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Tech or he's full of bs anyway, so he'd be
great on two. He'd be great on it. Yeah, Like
do you think he'd be like he wouldn't do big
newon kickoff? Would he just kind of hang around the
Big ten. You gotta get a far away from the
Big ten as you can, oh, I mean like get
to the SEC network. Would too many chirpings? Yeah, you
gotta go to your vanity roots, go to the SEC net.
Like what if he was seriously, if he's on the
desk and they go to ann Arbor, if he's on
(34:49):
the desk and they can't this, he'd he'd just be
setting himself up.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Absolutely, So maybe he just lays low until Virginia Tech
comes calling. Like I said, I'd have him on the
sideline this week. I'd be like, just hang out, just
be part of the Hoky nation for a little bit.
Please start recruiting Trifecta next year. On one to five
nine the X the.
Speaker 7 (35:07):
Spirits Summer News to join us for the XS Halloween CRUs.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
On Thursday, October thirtieth.
Speaker 7 (35:17):
The coup sets sale at eight pm with live music
from the Klinton's playing all your nineties favorites. Ten dollars
and fifty nine cents from every ticket.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Sold goes to the Mario Leamuthe Foundation.
Speaker 7 (35:27):
Join the X crew for this twenty one or older
event and dressing your Halloween best to score prizes All
night fo Tickets are on sale now at Gateway clipper
dot com. The xes Halloway CRUs on the Gateway Clipper
sponsored by Disaster Restoration Services.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
We'll see you one October thirty from the Dollar Energy
Fund Weather Center.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
This report is sponsored by Joe Ball GMC.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
It's gotta be a Nice day partly time out for
the Trifectain has brought to you Danny's Pizza and Hogi's,
Pittsburgh's original oven baked Hogy since nineteen sixty Root eighty
eight in Bethel Park, Tom What.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Is the trifecta for today?
Speaker 3 (36:10):
In honor of Mark Today, this trifecta will be things
that I like to do when I'm home sick. Favorite
things about being sick. I guess you could.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Say favorite things about being sick.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
And we're talking about of course, you know, when you
just have the sore throats, the nose, stuffy, just can't
get out of bed, nothing serious. Number three, the night
quill naps, Oh so good, so good, Just a nice
drug induced coma over the counter, of course, drug induced coma.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Do you prefer the liquid? Nike will or do you
prefer pills Nike will?
Speaker 3 (36:39):
I do prefer the liquid Nike wuill and I like
to put a jolly rancher at the bottom of it.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Oh, so you go, red Nipel No, I do like
the red nicqul.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Yeah, Rednike. Well not the green Nicke.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
I always thought it was purple, but sure we can
call okay, Well, I am colorblind, so keep that in mind.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
I thought it was green. No, pearls are green. The
nighttime pills are green, and then the daytime ones are orange.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
At the daytime o orange for sure. I just like
that nice coating, you know what I mean that like.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
The alcohol burn and pretend that I just took a
shot of whiskey, Like, do one of those after you're
done with it?
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Number two?
Speaker 3 (37:10):
For me, it's gonna be just you know, the chicken
noodle soup, the Gatorade. Love pounding a couple of Gatorades
when I'm sick. They just hit so good sitting next
to your bedstand a little lukewarm.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
What's solid food?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
What solid comfort food do you like when you're You
don't count chicken noodle soup as that. No, it's a soup,
I guess noodles in there, and sure, but it's not
solid food.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
It's a soup.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Solid food when I'm sick, when I'm feeling a little, cheese, eh,
if the stomach's a problem, you gotta kind of avoid
ba though. But otherwise, yeah, gri cheese isn't a terrible thing,
which is like a bagel something like that.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Oh, if you're puking, then yeah, you just won't touch
the cheese.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Ginger ale, yes, Oh, ginger ail is a huge key
or sprite chips.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I remember I used to get that all the time
when I was a kid.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
When I was sick, my mom would put ice chips
in sprite and then give them to me.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
I like a good bagel.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
As far as the solid food is concerned, though, the
number one thing that you do when you're sick is
you just binge a movie trilogy, Lord of the Rings,
Dark Knight. Those are go tos for me. Maybe Back
to the Future. It doesn't have to be a trilogy either,
if you just have a favorite movie you want to
go to, but it's you know, something that you have
seen so much tim that your pass out beautifully said,
(38:17):
I'm right back in Godfather. I just exited Batman begins,
and now I'm towards the end of Dark Knight, but
I know exactly what happened.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
You gotta watch that version of The Godfather where they
chop it up sequentially, so they actually just start in
the el of Godfather too, and then you just because
you can pass out in and out of it the
whole time. Yes, it's perfect rip. Diane Keaton, by the way,
I know I thought she was older than that. Do
you know I met her?
Speaker 4 (38:38):
She winked at me, Tim, That's right, the original k
Adams winked at you.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
She did.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I met her in New York. Why didn't meet her?
She just winked at me when she walked by. Who's
the better k Adams? The original and the godfather of
this one?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Right now? That does NFL media?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
I met her too. She's a lotch Diane Keat was
tall like she was listed five sevens, but I think
she was taller that. She looked like she was like
five foot ten.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Who's taller her?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Dylan Gabriel a Dylan Gabriel by about a half an inch.
I think the Steelers would have been nicer to the
dying ed Keaton. Yeah, I don't think they would have
thrown her around quite as much as they did Dylan Gabriel.
Well there was a time, tim all right, we come
back in just thirty seconds. We're gonna get into a
little bit more of the Steelers being the fifth best
(39:24):
team in all the National Football League. Boy, how the
standards have shifted. We're we're like, we're fifth best. We're
fifth best. It's not even fourth place for crying out
loud one oh five nine, The X
We live in a world where the Pittsburgh Steelers are
a top five NFL team. We live in a world
where Arthur Smith is a head coaching candidate running the
twenty ninth ranked offense in the NFL. We live in
a world where the Penguins seem to think system first.
We live in a world where Penn State is a
(00:26):
hockey school and pitts quarterback has more people optimistic than
the guy some people wanted to see the Steelers draft
out of Penn State. And we live in a world
where Penn State's football fans think Indiana's head coach can
make them better. In the words of Iron Maiden, I'm
a stranger in a strange land.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Tim bens in for Mark Manaday. Mark is sick.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
As you heard yesterday, I felt that one coming a
mile away. If you heard him on the podcast for
Breakfast Bends, which we taped up Sunday night. I had
the over under on me being here Monday, not Tuesday.
But here I am with Tommy Radio, who joins me
to talk about a myriad subjects, including this list that
I saw at Pro Football Talk before I come on.
(01:09):
It's their power rankings. Pro Football Talk has its Power
rankings out and they have the Pittsburgh Steelers fifth.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Now, Tom, this is, in my estimation, kind of like
college football polls in August, college basketball polls in November.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It doesn't mean much. In fact, it's the NFL. It
means nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Your record is what your record is at the end
of the year, and it doesn't matter what perception says.
It does sort of matter how the Steelers perceive themselves, though,
how they move forward to the trade deadline, how they
move forward using young players or not, how they move
forward thinking that what they're doing is working. Are the
(01:54):
Steelers really the fifth best team in the National Football League?
And before you answer, would you like me to couch
it by telling you who the top four teams are
according to Pro Football Talk?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
You should couch it for the audience, because I'm looking
at this bad boy right now. And spoiler alert, I
disagree with some teams that are behind the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Here some teams that are behind the Steels. They should
not be number five.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
The Bucks are the best team in football. The Colts
are the second best team in football.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
No, they are not.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
The Lions are the third best team in football. They
actually should be higher. I think they might be number two.
The Rams are the fourth best team in football, and
the Steelers by virtue of beating Dylan Gabriel in the
now one in five Cleveland Browns have jumped from number
(02:50):
eleven to number five. According to this Pro Football Talk list,
just beating the Browns catapult level of bully from number
eleven to number five. And do you look at the
Steelers team and say that's the fifth best team in football?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
No, for me, it does not catapult my level of
belief to those heights. I don't think we can really
start having our belief changed in this team until we
see what happens in the stretch after the Cincinnati game.
Don't you agree? Like that's the measuring stick stretch for
the Steelers. Two home games against the Packers and the
Colts back to back. Then you go on the road
for Sunday night football against the Chargers. You go two
(03:28):
and one in that stretch after beating Cincinnati on Thursday night. Okay, Florio,
I'll believe that you're number five. Maybe is this Florio's
list or me? I just associate everything with Pro football
talk of flour.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well does say he does have his byline on it. So, yes,
it is Mike Florio's list. As it turns out, well,
there you go, Florio, I believe in you.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Then if you go two and one in that stretch,
if the Steelers come out of that with just two losses,
they'll set them up self up nice. And those are
some wins against some quality opponents. But do you really
count the Patriots as a win against the quality opponent
just yet? You're got too because they're four and too
and they're in first place in the East. Again, this
goes back to sort of a do you believe in them?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
The quick analogy to college basketball, like that's a quad
one win right for now? Yeah, the Patriots are a
quad one win. That's going to Duke and winning a
Cameron indoor at this point.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
But you don't buy into them yet, do you.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
No. But even at the time, and you and I
talked about this, even at the time, I said that
could be a huge win because that could be the
seventh seed on the line. Now it might be the
third versus fourth seed on the line.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Based on what the Bills look like. I think we
should be all relaxing on the Bills. I saw Florio
bump them out of his top ten down seven spots
on this too. I mean, well it was it wasn't
great against the Falcons.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
That's a tricky specific extreme overreaction. Like he's got the
Eagles eighth, he's got the Bills eleventh. If the Steelers
were to play the Eagles or Bills in a neutral field,
what would the points spread be seven to nine over
a touchdown in favor of the other two teams?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Or Yes, I think that's an easy pick right there.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
He's got the Chiefs thirteen.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
See, they should be flirting with the top five after
what they did. I think that I walked away from
Week six action Tim thinking that the Chiefs are the
best team in the AFC again, even though they're three
and three. Right now, I just see it coming now
Rashie Rice is back, like everything's just going to round
in the form for them, and Mahomes is just playing awesome.
You know, we're starting to actually see statistical performances from Mahomes, like,
(05:23):
you know, fantasy football performances for Mahomes. That was what
he was putting up when he was, you know, a rookie,
second year, third year player in the league, right because remember,
like the past couple of years, Mahomes wasn't really doing
it numbers wise, but he was just winning games, and
they were winning those low score, one score games.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Like now he's lightening it up.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I mean, three touchdowns through the air, one on the
ground against the Lions, Like he's the second favorite for
MVP now all of a sudden.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, So I just view them as the number one
team again in the AFC. They're just they're gonna come
on strong, They're gonna be just fine, and the other
ones are kind of sputtering a little bit.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Well, Tom, this is a situation of my view that
is very similar to what we went through in twenty twenty,
where no one really thought that the Steelers were an
eleven and oh team. They were number one in the
AFC for a week after week after week, unbeaten, and
the Chiefs had won loss right behind them, and everybody
took offense in Pittsburgh that people thought that the Chiefs
(06:18):
were better. Where do the Chiefs get off being ranked
ahead of the Steelers. The Steelers have beaten this team,
the Steelers have beaten that team. And you know, like
I was on board with saying that the Steelers were
deserving to be ranked in front of Casey because they
were eleven and zero and Casey was ten and one.
But I always thought if those two teams would have
to play in the playoffs, I'm picking the Chiefs. So
(06:41):
like there's deserve, there's who are you what based on
what the standings say, and then there's projections. Then there's prognostications,
and that's a completely different kettle of fish. Now there
are some wonky ratings that Florio has in this poll,
and we just went through a whole bunch of them.
The tricky thing with the Steelers, though, is if you
(07:01):
look at who they still have left to play, if
you look at the state of the division, it's hard
to look at the Steelers and for all the reasons
that we've had accumulating our heads over the last eight years,
it's hard to separate that, divorce that from the reality
of what their record is, how bad the division is,
and what their record is likely to be by the
(07:23):
time the playoffs shakeout. Like, they've got four wins already,
likely to get five on Thursday unless they screw it
up against Cincinnati. You're telling me they can't squeeze out
five more wins to get to ten and seven. Do
you think right now it's going to take eleven wins
to win the AFC North I do not.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
That's just two more losses for Baltimore that they can afford.
So of the five wins that they would need.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Then if they were to beat Cincinnati on Thursday, two
more wins against the Browns and Bengals, there's seven they
can't scratch out three more over the next two and
a half months.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
They be able to.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
They should be able to.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And that's what's so kind of funny about what's also
building along with the optimism in Steelers Nation right now, Tim,
the optimism that's out of control. Like I said, you
beat the Browns, let's wait until I don't know about that.
You don't know if it's out of control.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
No, I don't, because like I want to wait to
see if we beat Like you know that a healthy
dose of skepticism out there. I think there always a
healthy dose of Like I was listening to some of
Batch and Pursuita's postgame show. I've heard the station down
the dial. I hear Madden every single day. I hear
people dubious of the hype getting out of control for
(08:32):
the Steelers because they saw it last year, they saw
it in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, but there are different circumstances this year, mainly the
rest of the division really stinking out loud like last year.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
All the rest of the division can stink, they can
win it, and that might mean nothing in terms of
what they do in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Like the big difference of how that might.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Affect the playoffs is they could be ten and seven
and then get a wild card team. It's not all
that good because the whole AFC is soft and you
get the home game and you finally get the playoff win.
Are they a challenger to the Chiefs the Bills that
they go to those stadiums and win in the playoffs?
Do they do it?
Speaker 5 (09:13):
No?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I don't think so. I still don't think so. But
you know, Madden's kind of laid this out there before,
and this would be like so bad luck for the Steelers.
Like what if the Steelers are the third seed, okay,
or if they're the third seed and the Chiefs and
I take that back, the Bills and the Chargers of
(09:35):
the top two seeds, the Steelers are the three seed
and they get the Chiefs coming to Pittsburgh Ackroestra Stadium.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
That's kind of what I was thinking too, Like, the
Chiefs are going to make the playoffs, I'm sure of that.
I think they have an outside shot now at getting
the West back in their control because the Chargers are
just so banged up in the Broncos. I don't know
what the Broncos are, man, I really don't. Probably a
playoff team, But what if the five seed is the
Chiefs and they come to Pittsburgh and you're the four
or the three in the six matchup? Like then you're
(10:01):
just falling into I think, just a devastating trap where
everything was pointing in the direction this year. If you
finally ending that playoff drought, you get the home game,
You've got Rogers, there's a lot of feel good going
into it. You win the Division crown, you get the
hat and T shirt game with the division champ on it,
and then Kansas City rolls in on their you know,
three straight road game run to another Super Bowl starts
(10:23):
in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
But I know I heard Batch on the DV Morning
show today say that the first call out of the
gate fall in the win over the Browns wasn't complained
about Tomlin kicking it on a timeout blowing a time
out at the end of the first half.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That was amazing, you know, I was truly chef's kiss
that that guy called in and was like, I can't
believe Rogers had to burn that time out.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
What are they doing in the bye week? Nothing? Just
sitting around.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I didn't hear any overwhelming amount of positivity pushing back
on whatever point Madden was making that he made on
my podcast. I saw it on all every single comment.
I didn't see a single comment that said we were
being way too negative on our live stream on YouTube
United Madden Ben's Unfiltered. I do think there is still
(11:03):
a healthy amount of skepticism out here about who the
Steelers really are. But my balance to that right now
is they can be paper champions like leaf Flowers used
to say. They can be phony Bologney as some people
insist that they are, but they can still win this
crap division if the because you can look at the
(11:24):
Ravens and say, well, they're done. You know, you can
look at the Bengals and say, well they're nothing. They
don't have Burrow. You can look at the Browns and say, look,
how bad the Browns just were in Pittsburgh. Then I
means the Steelers win the division to your.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Point of they're going to the playoffs then in a
home game, to your point about ten and seven taking
the division, I mean, that's kind of what we all
thought the Steelers were going to be this year, right,
another iteration of nine and eight or ten and seven.
So they go ten and seven, and like I was saying,
Ravens are one and five right now, they're two losses
away from the best they could ever dream of, being
ten and seven. And you take care of business again
(12:00):
in Pittsburgh, which you better, you get them one lost
closer to that. And since you earn the split at
the very least, I guarantee you, with how much they've
been messing around with their record earlier in the season,
you're gonna get the AFC tie breaker against them, and
you're gonna win the division, or you'll get the division
tiebreaker against them. So yeah, like I get what you're saying,
Like the Steelers aren't really different than what we thought
(12:21):
they would be at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
They're kind of going to do.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
The same thing, but everybody else just might allow them
to take the division crown.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Anyway, what if the Titans hire Arthur Smith the way
in the middle of the season to be there, is that.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Really being talked about? They're thinking about Art coming home?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Well? Ian Rappaport said yesterday he talked about two candidates.
One of them was Matt Nagy and the other one
was Arthur Smith.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Okay, do you ever wonder if like Rapaport needs to
come up with something real quick because he's got a
hit coming up, and he's like, he's really I.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Think Arthur Smith is a great agent, is what I think. Like,
I was surprised he was even thought about for the
offensive coordinator job, let alone getting it. He got two
head coaching interviews after that offense last year in his
first year that warranted him an interview with Chicago and
New York and now Rapaports out there talking about him
(13:07):
and Matt Nagy to take over for Cam Johnson. Like
if you're what, independently thinking, what have you seen from
Arthur Smith as a head coach in Atlanta or a
coordinator even in Tennessee. Let alone here in Pittsburgh makes
you think, yeah, we want to take our number one
(13:27):
overall pick quarterback and have that guy coach him.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Where do you see that?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And yet rap reports on the NFL network is one
of two names that is mentioned here.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
I mean Derek Henry coming with him or some new
Derrick Henry.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Because that's the only thing that Arthur Smith has done
well is hand the ball off to Derek Henry and
have that kind of offense, you know, flows through the
generational running back, because every other offense that he's had
has been towards the bottom of the league, including this
one right now. Even though it's better than what we've seen,
the numbers don't speak to that, not in the least,
not at all. Twenty ninth overall, and I think.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
They're just what are they running the football? I think
they're like thirtieth or thirty first or something like that.
I haven't checked out.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Weird though that it.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Kind of feels better though, you know what I mean, Like,
it does feel like a better offense, but that's probably
just the Rogers effect and his ability to make a
player two here or there.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Just everybody is so flawed. Everybody is so flawed right
now in the National Football League that the lowering tide
is raising all boats. If you're in Pittsburgh, if you
look at the Steelers offense, the Steelers defense, the Steelers coaching,
everything is being raised by everybody else seeing like, how
do you look at that defense for the Bills last
(14:36):
night and say, well, that's for sure a super Bowl team. Like,
I know Bills fans, I know lots of Bills fans.
I was going on a text thread back and forth
with the guy yesterday's Bills fans. Another lost year with
Josh Allen sounding like people at the end of the Roethlisberger,
another wasted year with Ben and here we're in October,
(14:56):
We're in early October, mid October.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I mean, they're run defense is abysmal. That's why you
kind of could see that coming to mind, I don't
have a lot of weapons going into Atlanta. You could
see that coming with Bijon, just like you knew that
they were going to run and run and run the
ball and the flok couldn't stop them, and you're right,
that's not gonna go. Well, if they haven't fixed that
up come playoff time or added a weapon, they need
(15:19):
Stefan Diggs. I mean, it's just so clear they need
somebody like that.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Would you aggressively pursue a wide receiver if you're the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Oh yeah, I talked about it yesterday. I Mark Show, Like,
that's the obvious thing that the Steelers should be doing
right now. Because of that, what did you say, low
lowering tide around you?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
The calculus of the whole quarterback conversation for them has changed,
is it not? Not just in terms of the NFL
draft not being as stockpile rich as we thought it was,
but also from the standpoint of if they're drafting later,
it's gonna be even harder to trade up. And you know,
like a somebody else pointed out to me, what about
the comp picks. You're not gonna get as much of
the comp picks now potentially as you thought going in
(15:55):
because of lack of playing time and so forth.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
And I mean, we can start to see Aaron Rodgers
coming back really form on the horizon, right, Like.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That's part of it that seems to be very clearly.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Aron gets you to eleven or twelve wins and you
win this crappy division, are you gonna be inclined to
just let him waltz off? And is he gonna be
inclined to waltz off to retirementcause He's not gonna go
out winning a super Bowl. He's gonna go out.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Winning a division and maybe winning a playoff game.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Maybe that might be enough based on where the Steelers are,
isn't for Rogers?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
If he was that good to get them there.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And he gets through an entire season healthy, you know
what I mean, Like there would be another part of
that injury about it, or.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Doesn't get banged up too much.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Like if he's feeling good at the end of the year,
why would you walk away from a twelve win eleven
win team that hosted a playoff game.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And that's another thing about these rankings that we're talking
about right now, is we're we are not taking into
account that the Steelers haven't had their bad stretch yet.
They haven't had their row to five, they haven't had
their three losses to Kyler Murray and Bailey Zappi and
Joe Flacco like they did in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
That's spooky with who's coming up in two days.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
They haven't had their two and six like they did
to open up the season in Mitch Trubisky's first year.
Like they haven't had that bad down stretch yet that
we're all anticipating they haven't had one two and one
to seven two and one to falling out of the
playoffs like twenty eighteen, like that that spiral that they
often have.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
They haven't had that yet.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
They will at some point the well, because they always do,
but it.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
So Florio can say they're the fifth best team in
the NFL because they beat the friggin' Browns.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
That's what's so hard for me to follow with all
this like craziness on the heels of them looking good.
Don't get me wrong, like they did look great, and
that was their most complete performance, but as an awful
football team in Cleveland, that.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Is getting better.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And we said going into the Steelers game was playing
better football than the rest of the teams in the
AFC North, but that was more of an indication on
what the rest of the teams were playing like as
opposed to the Browns.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
The Browns are just like a little engine that could
this year. And that's why they kept, you know, throwing
the ball towards the end of that game and dragging
that game out, which was killing me back here running
that thing like two oh my god. But you know
why they were doing it because it's a Gabriel audition.
At this point, we're gonna run this thing like her.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Sanders right into the starting lineup. That might be what happened.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Did you think he played that bad?
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Though? I don't think he was tough. He just couldn't
do anything. What quarterback could under the pressure exactly get
a lot of help Like I, each tight end dropped
the pass, Judy dropped the pass.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
All right, we come back speaking to the Browns.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
A former NFL coach with Pittsburgh Ties, also has a
problem with what the Browns did trading Joe Flaco to
the Bengals. You'll hear his quote next coming up on
one O five nine the x.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
iHeartRadio Alter Huge.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I haven't heard Andrew Barry say anything about what Mike
Tomlin said about him. I did read what the head
coaches from the Bengals and Browns said, and it was nothing.
All Zach Taylor said was we're happy that he's here
talking about Joe Flacco. After Mike Tomlin buried the Browns
(19:10):
for trading Flaco to the Cincinnati Bengals, Stefanski just said
I would prefer to not comment on that, basically because
he doesn't want to tell the truth, that's why.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
And then there was.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Terry Pluto from Cleveland dot Com. We'll get to his
column in just a little bit, but the star of
the show on this topic today tom was Bruce Arians,
the former Mike Tomlin assistant, the former offensive coordinator for
the Pittsburgh Steelers, and former head coach with the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers and Arizona Cardinals. This is Arians on the
(19:47):
Pat McAfee show today. He was also a coach in Indianapolis,
and they do a segment where it's BS with AB
is something BS or not? And he was asked Arians
by McAfee if trading Flaco within the division was a
BS move by the Cleveland Browns. Obviously, Tomlin thinks that
(20:10):
it is, and Arians apparently agrees with this former boss total.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Books, Okay, it's not a good decision.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
What are you thinking?
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Okay? I mean, first of all, Pittsburgh's a big rival.
Since Snager's nick biggest rival, why would you trade him
to Cincinnati. If I'm gonna trade him, may get a
six round pick for somewhere else. Now, I ain't traded
him in the division. All of a sudden, to mar
Chase and Tikiggins have twenty targets to Marches has ten
receptions almost one hundred yards and one week couldn't get
the damn ball to him.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
The other three weeks and now Pittsburgh's had to play
on Thursday night.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah, Tom, that has been on the record of Cole. Yeah,
he does not want to see Joe and those receivers.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
As like he had him right where we wanted him,
and they go and trade this guyhead to our division rivals, say,
that makes no sense to me.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Now, Terry Pluto's call him on Tom from Cleveland dot Com.
He theorized that Tomlin was upset from a football perspective,
like the football purist, and Mike Tomlin was offended. That's
how mad he was at the very thought of a
team tanking on a season and a team trading a
(21:21):
quarterback within the division because they're giving up on a
year like that was sort of the nuts and bolts
of his take on it. And I do think that
there was some football symbolism, some football sensitivity from Tom
that it was offended by trading within the division. But
I just think he's pissed because he doesn't get to
(21:42):
play against Jake Browning. I don't think it's much deeper
than that. If he thought that the Browns made a
move that made the Bengals worse, and he knew he
was gonna get the worst out of Cleveland and the
worst out of Cincinnati, he wouldn't have said what he
said yesterday. He would have been fine with it and
would have been grinning like a cheshire cat. But he
was mad because this made the road harder for the Steelers.
(22:06):
He wanted to see Jake Browning twice like the one
guy whose name was not mentioned there. And that was
the big narrative coming out of what Tomlin said, is
he said Andrew Berry by name. He was not asked
about Andrew Berry. The words Andrew and Barry were not said.
The question simply was, hey, Mike, what's you think of
that trade? And he came out with that, And it
(22:28):
was just like Richardson with the Colts, Like Richardson caught
a stray, but that was a direct stray, if such
a thing makes sense. The guy who caught the stray
and all this was a guy who wasn't even mentioned.
And that's Browning. Because Tom Win ostensively he was telling
you we wanted to play that guy. We didn't want
to play Flaco. But Flacco isn't the Flacco of old.
(22:48):
This isn't Joe Flaco from the Ravens circa twenty ten
standing back in the pocket behind Jonathan Ogden and Marshall Yonda,
chucking it downfield and hitting thirty yard bombs and getting
pass interference penalties. This guy's throwing it as quick as
Aaron Rodgers is a lot of time now. Granted, if
the Bengals are able to do to the Steelers pass
(23:10):
rush with the Steelers offensive line did to the Browns
pass rush out of nowhere, Flacco is gonna be dangerous
throwing to t Higgins and to Jamar Chase. Yes, but
I also agree with what Pursuda and Randy said on
the Morning Show today because I had this thought as
well as I'm listening to this.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Isn't he making too big of a deal at.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Joe fla Absolutely, Tim, I'm glad that this is where
he ended up.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Like, why are you spooking yourself right now?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Joe? Why are you so mady something? Joe Flacco? Why
are you so.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Mad about having to play Joe Flacco? All of a
sudden who cares like, yeah, it's flight. It used to
be a punchline around. It's a slight upgrade. And I
mean emphasis on the words slight.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
This forty version, forty year old version of a quarterback
is not the forty year old version of the quarterback
that you have right now in Rodgers. It just is.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
It's not even close.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
And even Flacco when he was kind of an annoyance
and would beat the Steelers from time to time, was
nobody that you really feared. Like you said it was
a punchline. It was like, oh, it's Flacco. That's the
guy who threw the ball to Troy. I don't want
to lose to Flacco. That's embarrassing. Like we delegitimized him
the entire time he was in Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
The whole run up to the twenty fourteen playoffs, when
Leveon Bell was hurt, the talking point was, yeah, Lev's hurt.
That stinks. They're in a bad situation. But hey, what
are they gonna do? Lose it home to fly?
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Oh yeah, that sucks.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
That kind of happened, didn't it.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
It did.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
He's obviously spooked too because of what happened a couple
of years ago in Indy when Flacco came in and
just tortured That was it last year, right, that that
happened in Indy?
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Yeah? Wow.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
I still don't think that he got beat by Flacco.
I think he got beat by Stichan And that's my worry.
When the Colts game comes around, he's beating them with
three different quarterbacks, now, hasn't he?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yes, I remember that right. I think you're correct. I
think Gardner Minshew was in there, Minshew.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Flacco and who was the other one? Do he lose
to Richardson? Maybe it was only two, but I digress.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Flacco torched him last year year and that's gotta be
fueling this is that great. I saw this picture last year.
Flack was gonna kill us. But you're right, it was
more stiking in the offense at that point. I mean,
you watched that Green Bay game or what you could
have when you were, you know, probably still at the
stadium wrapping things up after the Steelers game. Like he
was awful in the first half, he started to do
okay in the second half, started to connect with those
(25:19):
receivers a little bit more.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
If your pass rush.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Mike Tomlin is what it was against Cleveland, and it
should be you paid a lot for it. There's no worry.
He's not gonna have any time to hit receivers twenty
yards down the field.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
They're just not gonna everything's gonna have to be dump
offs and short stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
But mister don't.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Live in your fears. Is afraid of forty something year
old Joe Flacco.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
He kind of lives in his feares a little bit
all the time. Happens a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I mean, we all know it, but it does not
how he presents himself, of course, of course, but it
You can't tell me that there's not a little bit
of that happening here when it should just be.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Vibes are at an all time high. Feel good, we're
kicking quarterbacks ass. It doesn't matter who's back there. They
pressured Gabriel thirty two times, like even great quarterbacks are
gonna have a long day facing that. There's about like
three or four quarterbacks in this league that can swim
in those seas, those rough waters and be successful. Flack,
(26:15):
It's not one of them, never was.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Like the Browns have no obligation to do anything that
the Steelers want. Like this whole thing about his football
sensitivity is being offended.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
By this move?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Whatever? Like if if the Browns were in a position
where they were doing a fire sale and they wanted
to get rid of somebody and they wanted to give
that person to the Steelers, Like what if this? What
if the Browns had decided it's more advantageous for us
to take a pick from the Steelers and give them
Joe Hayden as opposed to cutting him, knowing that the
Steelers are gonna sign Joe Hayden, Like what would Thomas?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
No, that's that's not how we do football in the
AFC North. I refuse to take Joe Hayden unless you
cut him, Like you.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Know what I mean. I know exactly what you mean,
because that's kind of what happened, is they cut them
and the Steelers swooped right in and scooped him up.
But you know, if they had if the Browns said,
we're done with this guy. We think it's better for
us to get a sixth.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Round pick for him. Hey, Pittsburgh, will you give him
to us?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Look, if you're upset or if your football sensitivities are
upset by management moves roster moves by the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I mean, where have you been?
Speaker 3 (27:18):
I mean they spit on your football sensitivities and your
football traditions all the time. They're a poorly run franchise.
I think it's stupid that they traded Flacco, not just
to the Bengals, but I think it's stupid that they
traded him because it's just Shador and Dylan Gabriel in
a quarterback room now trying to find their way through
this season.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Well, here's another thing where I think where Pluto might
have been right Church, wrong Pew, and that is I
do think that there's a coaching fraternity thing that's going
on here. And I don't know really what Tomlin thinks
of Kevin Stefanski as a guy, but I do have
a pretty strong sense that he doesn't like it with
(27:54):
GMS and when ownership overmanages a situation, and I'm sure everybody.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Can see is what's really happening here, right, And Mike
Tomlin knows not to say the name Jimmy Haslam at
a podium, So we'll throw Andrew Berry out.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
There exactly, even though he might be a puppet for Haslam,
which is I think exactly what happened in and can
I give you another theory. I'll give you another theory
on this. My other theory about what has angered Tomlin
about this is not just one move from Barry. It's
not just Flacco that he traded that bothered Tomlin. This
is the same GM that reset the market for what
(28:28):
quarterbacks are worth and what guaranteed money is all about
with Deshaun Watson. And this is the guy that gave
Miles Garrett all that money, and now the Steelers had
to give a ton of money. And Mike Tomlin knows
the back end of that contract looks like with TJ. Watt,
and he would have been willing to give TJ. Watt money,
but not that kind of money, but he had to
because of what Barry gave Miles Garrett after Miles Garrett
(28:48):
said I want out, So they just paid for his happiness.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
That's a great point.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
That's where I think all that is coming from. Those
are the seeds to this. And let me give you
another something. And this is a little behind the scenes,
and I might be speak you want me to break
and we'll do it.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Let's do it later. You're fired up, all right, I'll
do it when we come back.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
There's a little behind the scenes about how that all
happened yesterday, and I'll give it to you when we
come back here on one O five nine The X.
Speaker 7 (29:09):
It's The Woody Show weekday mornings at six.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Listen to the AX at home at worked anytime on
the iHeartRadio app one O five nine The X.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Time Now for your Tuesday bet.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
MGM Baseball Buzz.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Tonight in Milwaukee Game two of the NLCS Brewers and Dodgers.
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Dodgers held on to win Game one.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
X Man of covers the Mark Madden Show, backed by
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Speaker 2 (29:36):
They got your back, not your wallet, all right.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So tom I got off on a rant there regarding
the whole Joe Flacco commentary from Mike Tomlin yesterday about
the trade.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
And so the backstory on this.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Is that I talked about before the break and I
heard this secondhand. I didn't witness this myself or anything
like that, but I was told that Tomlin had a
you know, sort of a interpersonal reaction with a couple
reporters coming off the field after the Flacco trade was made,
Like you know, said something that indicated like why the
heck or how the heck did that happen? Or what
did they get? Did you hear what they got? That
(30:09):
sort of thing, just off the cuff reaction. Some reporters
that I know afterwards were like, Wow, they could tell
that Tom couldn't believe that that took place, and they
were getting ready to ask him, you know, like, but
I think it was a reporter who wasn't there that
just happened to lob the question out there of hey,
would you think of that trade? And the way it
(30:31):
was so open ended, it just allowed Tomlin to walk
through the door and give the exact answer that he
wanted to. And ironically, I wonder if someone of the
reporters that actually heard that exchange had asked if they
would have cooked the stew too much and said, what
do you think what Andrew Berry did there? And then
maybe Toman would have backed off, wouldn't have hit the
throttle as hard. But because the question was so open ended,
(30:52):
he walked right through the door and gave us six.
It was kind of like when I asked him about
taking the college job. He was ready for that too, apparently,
like I was told he was ready to give that
kind of response. After I asked him about the college job.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Perked up a little bit when the question actually came
exactly and I saw this one.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah, I saw this one coming right. This is a
telegraph fastball down the middle. So now what should have
happened is at the end of that press conference on
his way out, when he said some of you guys
are really annoying me today, or whatever he said on
the way out, I should have said, Hey, Mike, one
more question. You're interested in the Penn State job. How
would that have gone over?
Speaker 4 (31:30):
I wish you would have tim as a missed opportunity.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I wonder if there's still a booster they can't write
a check big enough. What if that booster is Pogoula.
You think he can write a check big enough. I
think he can.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
You should just become college coach guy when it comes
to Mike Tomlin, like every time he's a job, a
big job, that it's got to be a big one
an LSU a Penn State.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
What if Penn State hires Nardusia and asked Tomlin about
going over to.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Pitt No, I want Franklin if that happens, so he
can play in the field when the field is better.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
I don't want Tom and I want Franklin if that's
the case.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
So if you're a Pit fan, and I know you are,
if Franklin were to get either the Virginia Tech or
the North Carolina job, if Belichick goes, what would you think?
Would you like that or hate that? As a would
hate that, would hate to be awful because you don't
want to lose to Franklin. Lose to Franklin, Well, he
would give it to you, guys.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
But I also just don't want what I think would
become a really steady consistence, not power, but really good
team rising in the ACC, which is a conference that's
right for one of those teams to rise now because
of Clemson's down.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
He's just got just enough bitterness toward Nardouzian Pit through
like some of the local recruiting wars. No question he
would have questioned victory is over Pitt, like North Carolina
beachs Pit.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
North Carolina beats Pit, Virginia Tech beats Pit.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
But here's the thing with Virginia Tech, he can kind
of get back into the old little like rivalry angled
to it too. With Franklin and Pitt because of the
old big East connection that they have together, Like it
would just not be good. But I think that's what's
gonna happen. I said yesterday. If I'm Virginia Tech, I'm
sprinting towards Franklin. I'm asking him, could he coach this weekend?
Could you just stand on the sidelines and hang out.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
I don't think I think Florida or Florida State. I
think it goes over better at Virginia Tech.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I think he would have Virginia Tech at the top
of the AEC in a couple of years because he
already kind of has the recruiting hotbed there on lock.
He would just move it to Virginia.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
And really, unless you were to lose to Clemson every year,
which is entirely possible, he wouldn't have the whole You'll
lose all your big games because there's no big It.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Doesn't exist with Miami. Every once in a while Smu
sneaks up there. No, it doesn't matter. He'd be the
big game. Yes, great point, that is his big way.
Just seems like a perfect match, doesn't it. Like if
I'm Virginia Tech, I'm salivating over the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Is that Front office sports story right about his offset language.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
He has to search, he has to do for a job.
It's a weird thing to put into a contract. It's
a weird thing for a coach to agree to.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
You. Maybe it's something that he gave in on because
he knew he couldn't stay away at his age, Like
he knew he was going to look anyway, So like,
if they fire me, I'm not gonna want to just
suit my paycheck. I would for a year, though, I
would for a year potentially.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Do you think he's gonna pop up on a desk
somewhere in a couple of months and then finish.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
This season that count is looking for a job? That
said it said TV too? Oh said TV too?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And it would offset the salary with how much he
makes in the TV contract.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Do you see him doing.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Like hittings of what the annual salid it would be.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Do you think a studio job it would fit him
for like these next few months, then he jumps to Virginia.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Tech or he's full of bs anyway, so he'd be
great on two. He'd be great on it. Yeah, Like
do you think he'd be like he wouldn't do big
newon kickoff? Would he just kind of hang around the
Big ten. You gotta get a far away from the
Big ten as you can, oh, I mean like get
to the SEC network. Would too many chirpings? Yeah, you
gotta go to your vanity roots, go to the SEC net.
Like what if he was seriously, if he's on the
desk and they go to ann Arbor, if he's on
(34:49):
the desk and they can't this, he'd he'd just be
setting himself up.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Absolutely, So maybe he just lays low until Virginia Tech
comes calling. Like I said, I'd have him on the
sideline this week. I'd be like, just hang out, just
be part of the Hoky nation for a little bit.
Please start recruiting Trifecta next year. On one to five
nine the X the.
Speaker 7 (35:07):
Spirits Summer News to join us for the XS Halloween CRUs.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
On Thursday, October thirtieth.
Speaker 7 (35:17):
The coup sets sale at eight pm with live music
from the Klinton's playing all your nineties favorites. Ten dollars
and fifty nine cents from every ticket.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Sold goes to the Mario Leamuthe Foundation.
Speaker 7 (35:27):
Join the X crew for this twenty one or older
event and dressing your Halloween best to score prizes All
night fo Tickets are on sale now at Gateway clipper
dot com. The xes Halloway CRUs on the Gateway Clipper
sponsored by Disaster Restoration Services.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
We'll see you one October thirty from the Dollar Energy
Fund Weather Center.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
This report is sponsored by Joe Ball GMC.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
It's gotta be a Nice day partly time out for
the Trifectain has brought to you Danny's Pizza and Hogi's,
Pittsburgh's original oven baked Hogy since nineteen sixty Root eighty
eight in Bethel Park, Tom What.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Is the trifecta for today?
Speaker 3 (36:10):
In honor of Mark Today, this trifecta will be things
that I like to do when I'm home sick. Favorite
things about being sick. I guess you could.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Say favorite things about being sick.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
And we're talking about of course, you know, when you
just have the sore throats, the nose, stuffy, just can't
get out of bed, nothing serious. Number three, the night
quill naps, Oh so good, so good, Just a nice
drug induced coma over the counter, of course, drug induced coma.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Do you prefer the liquid? Nike will or do you
prefer pills Nike will?
Speaker 3 (36:39):
I do prefer the liquid Nike wuill and I like
to put a jolly rancher at the bottom of it.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Oh, so you go, red Nipel No, I do like
the red nicqul.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Yeah, Rednike. Well not the green Nicke.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
I always thought it was purple, but sure we can
call okay, Well, I am colorblind, so keep that in mind.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
I thought it was green. No, pearls are green. The
nighttime pills are green, and then the daytime ones are orange.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
At the daytime o orange for sure. I just like
that nice coating, you know what I mean that like.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
The alcohol burn and pretend that I just took a
shot of whiskey, Like, do one of those after you're
done with it?
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Number two?
Speaker 3 (37:10):
For me, it's gonna be just you know, the chicken
noodle soup, the Gatorade. Love pounding a couple of Gatorades
when I'm sick. They just hit so good sitting next
to your bedstand a little lukewarm.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
What's solid food?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
What solid comfort food do you like when you're You
don't count chicken noodle soup as that. No, it's a soup,
I guess noodles in there, and sure, but it's not
solid food.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
It's a soup.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Solid food when I'm sick, when I'm feeling a little, cheese, eh,
if the stomach's a problem, you gotta kind of avoid
ba though. But otherwise, yeah, gri cheese isn't a terrible thing,
which is like a bagel something like that.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Oh, if you're puking, then yeah, you just won't touch
the cheese.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Ginger ale, yes, Oh, ginger ail is a huge key
or sprite chips.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I remember I used to get that all the time
when I was a kid.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
When I was sick, my mom would put ice chips
in sprite and then give them to me.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
I like a good bagel.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
As far as the solid food is concerned, though, the
number one thing that you do when you're sick is
you just binge a movie trilogy, Lord of the Rings,
Dark Knight. Those are go tos for me. Maybe Back
to the Future. It doesn't have to be a trilogy either,
if you just have a favorite movie you want to
go to, but it's you know, something that you have
seen so much tim that your pass out beautifully said,
(38:17):
I'm right back in Godfather. I just exited Batman begins,
and now I'm towards the end of Dark Knight, but
I know exactly what happened.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
You gotta watch that version of The Godfather where they
chop it up sequentially, so they actually just start in
the el of Godfather too, and then you just because
you can pass out in and out of it the
whole time. Yes, it's perfect rip. Diane Keaton, by the way,
I know I thought she was older than that. Do
you know I met her?
Speaker 4 (38:38):
She winked at me, Tim, That's right, the original k
Adams winked at you.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
She did.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I met her in New York. Why didn't meet her?
She just winked at me when she walked by. Who's
the better k Adams? The original and the godfather of
this one?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Right now? That does NFL media?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
I met her too. She's a lotch Diane Keat was
tall like she was listed five sevens, but I think
she was taller that. She looked like she was like
five foot ten.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Who's taller her?
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Dylan Gabriel a Dylan Gabriel by about a half an inch.
I think the Steelers would have been nicer to the
dying ed Keaton. Yeah, I don't think they would have
thrown her around quite as much as they did Dylan Gabriel.
Well there was a time, tim all right, we come
back in just thirty seconds. We're gonna get into a
little bit more of the Steelers being the fifth best
(39:24):
team in all the National Football League. Boy, how the
standards have shifted. We're we're like, we're fifth best. We're
fifth best. It's not even fourth place for crying out
loud one oh five nine, The X
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