Andrew Fillipponi of 93.7 The Fan In Pittsburgh Joins The A-Team

Andrew Fillipponi from 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh joins The A-Team to preview Texans-Steelers. He talks CJ Stroud against Kenny Pickett, Mike Tomlin's admiration of DeMeco Ryans and Steeler fan frustration with their offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
A little bit of a peak behindenemy lines, if you will. Is
the Pittsburgh Steelers come to town onwhat is kind of suddenly a nostalgic weekend
for Texans fans because t J.Watt's coming to town. But his big
bro had a lot of nice moments, nice games, and a Texans uniform
and he'll be honored. So it'sa little bit of a different feel going
into this week. But the mainthing is CJ. Stroud has kind of

(00:22):
turned some heads. What does Pittsburghthink about the young quarterback they'll be facing.
I think we're feeling right now likeyou guys have the better quarterback than
we do. Which I hate sayingthat because I've been such a huge Kenny
Pickett advocate. But I don't knowhow many Steelers fans took the time to

(00:43):
go back and watch a Texans Jaguarsgame, but I did, and I
am blown away by how polish thisguy looks, how composed he looks.
And I'm hoping that TJ. JayWatt we'll want to rattle his cage a
little in front of his brother.I mean, the Feelers did roster d
J. Watt's older brother, DerekWatt for two years and paid him an

(01:07):
ungodly sum of money to be afullback who barely played just because he liked
having his brother around so much.So hopefully having his brother and family in
the building will bring even more outof a guy right now that is on
pace to probably obliterate the NFL singleseason fac record. So back to the
point of your comments about Kenny Pickett, what makes you bullish on the second

(01:32):
year quarterback? What makes me bullishon him is that he's one of the
smartest people I've been around. I'vedid a show with the guy a couple
of years ago when he was asenior at Pitt and I got to know
him pretty well. And so whenhe came out of college after he had
a massive senior year there and wasa finalist for the Heisman Trophy, and

(01:53):
watching an elevator program that usually goessix and six or seven and five every
year, watching him win the ACCand put up huge numbers and have big
games against teams like Clemson even thoughthey had like thirty NFL guys and Pitt
maybe at four or five, Iwas convinced that he was going to be
a really good quarterback, that hewas not done developing, and if he

(02:15):
could make a huge jump in hisjunior to senior year at Pitt, he
could do the same thing in thepros. I see a guy that should
be very accurate, who reads defenseas well, makes really good snap decisions,
and is pretty underrated as an athlete. I mean, the dude did
a fake slide in college. Theyhad to change the ed They had to
change the college football rules because ofit. When he takes off and runs.

(02:38):
He's not Lamar Jackson or Justin Fields, but he's an upper echelon athlete.
So I see a guy that hasa little Joe Burrow in him from
Joe Burrow, swag from Joe Burrow, confidence, but also the accuracy in
decision making to go with it.So yeah, I loved him out of
college. So far, not greatthis year, coming off his best game

(02:59):
for sure, two touchdowns in apasser rating over one hundred, hopefully trending
in the right direction going to Houstonthis weekend. There's a lot of ways
you could probably look at it.And you obviously are extremely close to him
for now several years and have seenmuch more of the development process, and
I think you're accurately saying it's abit disappointing to see the completion percentage dip
the inability of the offense as awhole, not all on his shoulders,

(03:21):
but as a whole to perform asthey have this year. It's also very
clear he has very little help inthe running game. Two of the worst
rushing teams in the NFL will meeton Sunday. Over the last four years,
they're among the only teams averaging lessthan four yards to carry. Why
can't the Steelers ever, for nowfour straight years run the football? Well,

(03:42):
they made a horrible draft pick.Let's start there. Nah, Harris
is not at number one running back. They used thick on him that they
had no business, kind of aluxury pick to take him with the twenty
fourth pickause they thought a running backwas gonna help Ben Roethlisberger in his is
senior years, and it didn't work. It backfired. They put off the

(04:03):
offensive line. They picked Kendrick Green, and you guys have now and I'm
actually stunned by how competent and adequatehe looks like an actual NFL offensive lineman
on tape. He was atrocious here. I was so excited when the Steelers
got rid of him the offensive line. I'm serious, he was. He

(04:24):
was honestly the worst center I've everseen in my entire life. And it's
not just me you felt that way. I know former Steeler's offensive lineman who
do this for a living, andthey said, this guy if he was
if he was not a third roundpick, he would have been cut his
rookie year. He was that bad. It only got worse. They use

(04:45):
in at fullback and training camp becausethey were trying to justify the pick.
But to go back to your originalquestion, like they made a terrible pick
in Naji. They invested in theoffensive line in free agency, but we
haven't seen it pay off yet.Isaac Sayamalu's coming off his best game.
They got him from Billy. Hewas a right guard for them on a

(05:05):
Super Bowl finalist, but he hasn'tlooked good yet. They're they're not playing
their rookie Roderick Jones, who theyused the fourteenth pick on at left tackle.
I don't understand that they're paying aright tackle way too much money.
The offensive coordinator is an idiot,So you add all that up, and
that's why you've got one of theworst running teams in the NFL, Andrew,

(05:26):
when you look at I mean,you've got Mike Tomlin there in town,
and I am an unabashed Mike Timelinfan, got a man crush on
him, all that kind of stuffwhen you look at a guy like him
who's a natural leader, if youwill, and then you kind of compare
notes and you look at what DemikoRyan's is trying to do in his first
handful of games as what he hopeswill be a long tenure as the Texans

(05:50):
head coach. He's seen any similaritiesbecause I know that coming in, everybody
was just such a huge fan ofDemiko, and are you know, frankly
route for him because of that?Well, I mean the difference is Mike
never played in the NFL, andRyan's was a great player and played there
in Houston for you guys, Sothat too probably factors into how much people

(06:14):
are rooting for him and liked theguy. I heard Mike talk about Ryan's
on Tuesday, and I couldn't helpbut think that Mike sees a lot of
himself and Ryan's. He didn't saythat, but I thought he definitely implied
that with what he said. Youngerguy, defensive minded coach who had to

(06:34):
work their way up. You know, now everybody wants to hire an offensive
coach. This guy's a defensive mindedcoach. And Mike just went out of
his way to compliment Ryan's team forhow hard they play. I think the
line was they don't kick their ownbutt, is what he said when he
was talking about watching the Texans firsttwo games. So yeah, I mean,

(06:58):
I do think that there's a lota lot and Tommin, I think
that you're going to probably a longembrace after this game on Sunday, because
I think Mike's really rooting for DamikoRyan's to do well and succeed in Houston.
Yeah, Andrew I had a chanceto talk with Mike yesterday as well,
and he said similar things about Demikodid a conference call with us here
in Houston. I didn't say heknew him all that well, but obviously

(07:21):
because their time in the league togetherand whatever role Demiko was in his his
mirrored one another. So he's obviouslywell aware of what he's doing and certainly
has a lot of respect for him. I think everybody, like my co
host said, as respect from Mike, do the Steelers a team? And
I think maybe even the fans.So they consider themselves fortunate to have started
the year the way they have despitethe way they've played, or are there

(07:43):
more concerns about the way they've played. Well, there's definitely more concerns because
their offense has looked so bad.So, you know, Steelers fans aren't
stupid. They see that the NFLit's not one by the two thousand and
eight Steelers anymore or thiseen seventy fourSteelers. It's won by teams like the
Kansas City Chiefs, or teams thatare quarterbacked by Tom Brady, or teams

(08:07):
that are schemed up by Sean McVeigh. Okay, so we we recognize that
that's where the NFL is going.And we have by far the worst NFL
offensive coordinator in the league. Andthat's that's that's that's not opinion. He's
been the Steelers offensive coordinator since twentytwenty one. He's the only offensive coordinator

(08:31):
to not have a four hundred yardgame in that time. Every other team
has at least three four hundred yardgames of offense. The Steelers a zero.
They have two thirty point games Fincytook over as offensive coordinator. They
lost both so they have not scoreda game. They've got won a game
scoring thirty points under him. Hisresume was all college coordinating, including one

(08:54):
year spent at pit that was reallygood. But then after that he won.
He went to LSU, got firedafter one year, and then they
won the national championship the next year. So that goes to show you how
important he is. I'd much ratherat your offensive coordinator. That's actually a
big blight on Tomlin's resume is thathe has not sound a good offensive coach.
He's a great he's a great defensivecoach, he's not an offensive guy,

(09:18):
and he can't, for the lifeof them, find offensive coordinators.
The owner had to tell him tohire Todd Haley, and then Haley got
run off because he couldn't get alongwith Ben. But this guy Nat Canada
stinks. I'd much rather at theguy that you guys to have who worked
for Pro Football Focus, Bobby Slowickas an offensive coordinator. Give me someone
from the San Francisco or La RamsTree or somebody proven. Yeah, I

(09:41):
mean, Damiko Ryan's probably looking hischops looking at this Steeler's offense on take
because they're extremely predictable. They're verybasic, They're very bland, and it
really holds the whole team back.I'll tell you what, Andrew, before
I let you go. I canalmost hear it in your voice that they've
got to be people walking around AcroshreStadium with T shirts that say this guy,

(10:03):
Matt Canada stinks. And I thinkthey'd be happy to do so every
day on ninety three seven the fanthere in Pittsburgh. I wish I had
seen this earlier, as I merelymake a statement for you, so I
could have done it here in Houston. You had posted a poll question on
your formerly known as Twitter page whichquarterback will have the better career? And
you can find Andrew at the PonyExpress. By the way, that's an

(10:26):
eye in Pony which quarterback will havethe better career Kenny Pickett or CJ.
Stroud and your responders to that pollquestion voted fifty one percent for Kenny Pickett
over CJ. Stroud. Since Irecently saw it, Andrew, I posted
the very same question on my formerlyknown as Twitter page, which quarterback will
have the better career? Early returnsfrom my Houston based followers ninety seven percent

(10:50):
on CJ. Stroud. Yeah,I mean, and look the fact at
forty nine percent of bands here wouldsay that talasy number one, how disappointed
people are in the offense and ticketsplayed through the first three games, even
though he is coming off the bestgame, and the second point being they

(11:11):
probably watched Stroud a lot if somany of these Ohio State quarterbacks haven't played
well in the pros. So itreally when I saw that the post poll
results, guys like I thought itwas actually very impressive that Stroud scored that
high with people here, which probablysays a lot more about the way that

(11:33):
Kenny Pickett is making them feel thanwhat Stroud has done. And Stroud has
been remarkable. I mean, youbreak war And Moon's record three games in,
you're doing something right. And Iknow how much people down there lave
Warren Moon. So yeah, Imean, I have been on my show
when it's come up. I've saidnothing but positive things about Stroud because of

(11:54):
the way he's played so far thisseason. Just a few remarkable c J.
Strouds seasons away from him passing Miketom Zach as the all time greatest
quarterback from Ohio State. I cannotwait. Andrew wish we had more time
for you. Certainly appreciate you takingthe time and we'll look forward to the
matchup on Sunday. All right,guys, see you. Andrew Philipponi of
ninety three seven the Fan joining ushere on Sports Talk seven night. I

(12:16):
like to cut off his jib too. A good guy.