April 8, 2025 • 21 mins
Labs and Tom get right into this week's batch of questions.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Steeler's still waiting on the word of Aaron Rodgers and
this is certainly the dead period of the off season,
A couple of weeks away from the draft. The first
wave of free agency has come and gone. So we're
all kind of in that holding pattern right now, Labs.
So I say, we just tackled some questions. What say
you nothing really new to update.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hey, you're in charge. You're in charge.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know, I don't know what I don't know if
you want to give me that seed, that power to me,
but sure, I'll take it. Well, today's first question comes
from Michael Johnson in Houston, Texas, and of course it's
asking about quarterbacks. Michael wants to know what is meant
by the term quarterback friendly offense.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Okay, I'm gonna speak in generalities here. You know, I
don't don't I don't have the the visual a of
a whiteboard, you know, where I could be drawing this
stuff up. Or even if I did, I don't know
enough about it to do it. So I'll just keep
it general. You know, Quarterback friendly offense what that meant.
(01:13):
What that means is that it's designed with the goal
of making things as simple and straightforward as possible for
the quarterback. I mean, you can do that accomplish that
in a variety of ways, you know. Okay, let's start
from you limit the number of plays he has to
learn and execute, simplifying his reads once the ball is snapped,
(01:36):
and not asking him to try to make throws that
would require more from his physical skills than he possesses.
I mean, you know, if you want to put a name,
a current name to quarterback friendly offense, to me, it
would be Brock Party. And what the forty nine ers
(01:56):
are doing, you know, you know, Brock Party. Again, I'm
all kudos to him, you know, for what he has
turned into. But the guy was a seventh round pick.
And if you know he had the size and the
skills and the arm strength and all of that stuff,
(02:18):
he wouldn't have been a seventh round pick. So he
had limitations in the evaluation process leading up to the draft,
which ended up him being mister Irrelevant. And but you know,
Kyle Shannish, Kyle Shanahan has done a decent job of,
(02:38):
you know, creating an offense or implementing an offense that
doesn't ask brock Perdy to do more than he can do,
and he surrounds and he has surrounded him with a
lot of pretty good players, Christian McCaffrey, Deebo, Samuel, George Kittle,
you know, and on and on and on. Trent Williams
(03:00):
a great left tackle. So that goes into part of
being a quarterback friendly offense. You know, another thing that
a quarterback friendly offense has is an effective running game,
because then you force the defense to respect that and
not concentrate on, you know, trying to make the quarterbacks
(03:21):
life miserable. And if it's a good running game and
the defense has to respect that, then they're also not
you know, pounding the snot out of him on every
pass attempt, and that allows him to stay healthy. So
all of those things, you know, put together, that's what's
(03:42):
basically meant by a quarterback friendly offense.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
James Lebar Junior from Catasauqua, Pennsylvania. Do you think Mason
Rudolph would get better if we played as the number
one quarterback for a full preseason and then a full
regular season. I thought he easily won the competition with
Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky during training camp in twenty
twenty two, but didn't get the chance he deserved.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Okay, look, you know, let me start with this. I
was at training camp in twenty twenty two. I saw
every practice.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Okay, oh yeah, we talked about it on every training
camp reports.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
That's right, right, yes, So I don't want to hear
that Mason Rudolph easily won the quarterback competition because I'm
not saying he had a bad camp, but it was
not It was not a clear cut decision in any way.
(04:44):
Let me be honest with you. You know, Mason Rudolph,
that wasn't his first year with the Steelers, so when
he reported the training camp in twenty twenty two, it's
not like he showed up with a clean slate. I
mean he had Let's go back to twenty nineteen, when
you know Ben Roethlisberger missed all but six quarters of
(05:05):
that season with an elbow arey and surgery. People wanted
Mason Rudolph to be benched. They want Duck Hodges. You know,
there was a there was a There was at least
something that led Mike Tomlin to make that move away
from Mason Rudolph to Duck Hodges. And so you know,
(05:29):
in twenty twenty two, the Steelers' staff and watching him
and evaluating him. They also had all of his previous
NFL experience in mind too, that was part of his resume.
And you know, again going back to twenty twenty two,
you look at Trubisky's NFL resume. Pickett was a rookie.
(05:53):
He looked okay, But I don't think you're going to
start a season with a rookie quarterback. And so I
would have gone with Trubisky. I would have started with Trubisky.
And then when it came about that Trubisky was less
decisive than maybe the Steelers would have liked in terms
(06:16):
of getting rid of the ball. At that point, you
spent whatever the twentieth overall pick on a quarterback, so
then you go to him. You don't go to the
other guy, the veteran that you've had around who really
at that point I thought that he had kind of
(06:38):
Mason Rudolph had kind of established himself as a backup
type in the league. So look back up in the
NFL is more than just a spot on the depth chart.
I mean, it's a role it's an important role and
guys have served in that role for a long long
(07:00):
time and made a lot of money. And those are
valuable players who can do that. And so you know,
when I say Mason Rudolph's lot in the NFL, so
to speak, is as a backup, you know, that's not
a criticism of him. I just think that that's what
(07:20):
he is seen as. And if you look at you know,
there were last the previous couple three off seasons, Mason
Rudolph was an unrestricted free agent, unrestricted available to any
team at any price they were willing to pay, and
he didn't get any offers to be a starter or
(07:43):
to come in and compete as a starter. So again,
Mason Rudolph is a good guy, he's a professional, he's
a good teammate, all of those things, and he earns
the money that he has paid. But he's just not
seen as a starter in this league. And it's not
just in Pittsburgh because again, as I said that, the
(08:06):
first time he was an unrestricted free agent, he came
back to the Steelers because he didn't have, you know,
an offer that he liked. And then last offseason, you know,
he ended up going to the Titans, who immediately kind
of established him as a backup behind their young quarterback
(08:26):
Will Levis. So, you know, again, I just think that
this whole thing that Mason Rudolph clearly won the competition
in twenty twenty two, that's that's not true. I think
fans just like Mason. Some media guys liked Mason, and
so they kind of created that. But that's not the
(08:50):
way it unfolded.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Another big bonus of being that career backup labs is
those Monday mornings steal a lot less sore. If you're
number two on the depth chart, you pop right out
of that, you know, I mean, it's not bad.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Jeff did can go golfing enough to go golfing?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Jeff Daniels from Alan Washington. Was there ever any discussion
that you know of for picking Lamar Jackson the year
he came out for the NFL Draft? I know they
picked Terrell Edmunds that year, and I believe it was
before the Ravens traded up to pick Jackson.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, okay, I mean this is another one of those
I think, looking back on something with the knowledge that
you have now, okay, yes, the Steelers had the twenty
eighth overall pick in that draft twenty eighteen, and they
(09:43):
picked Terrell Edmunds. Okay, and yes, the Ravens did pick
Lamar Jackson thirty second overall, but they traded up back
up into the first round to pick him. So, you know,
this is this is kind of like the Tom Brady thing.
You know, when when the Patriots were getting a lot
(10:04):
of credit for drafting Brady Sit in the sixth round. Well,
you know, if you were really that smart, you would
have picked Brady with your first round pick, if you
really knew that he was going to be that good.
So let's go back to the you know, twenty eighteen
NFL draft. I can I'm willing to bet whatever anyone
(10:26):
wants to bet that anyone who was working in the
football department in any capacity of any NFL team, if
they at that time believed Lamar Jackson would have become
a two time NFL MVP before he turned twenty eight
years old. I doubt that there was any Why do
I think that. Let's let's look at let's look at
(10:48):
that draft. Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and Josh
Rosen all were drafted before Jackson in that first round.
The Ravens didn't even used their first for their original
first round pick on Lamar Jackson. They picked a tight end,
Hayden Hurst. Okay, so the Ravens weren't even that smart
(11:12):
because you're telling me that you think that Lamar Jackson
is going to be what he has turned out to
be and you pick a tight end first. Ah. Sorry, Okay,
so that's the way the perception of Lamar Jackson was
at that time. Now, looking at the Steelers in twenty seventeen,
(11:36):
Steelers had a pretty good quarterback. His name was Ben Roethlisberg.
He was coming off a Pro Bowl season. He completed
sixty four point two percent four two hundred and fifty
one yards twenty eight touchdowns. Okay, in twenty seventeen, Roethlisberger
led the NFL in both fourth quarter comebacks and game
(11:57):
winning drives. So you know, you can't seriously tell me
that at the time of the twenty eighteen NFL draft,
there were if if if Jeff or me or you
or whoever was in charge of making the Steelers first
round pick, that you're picking a quarterback. I mean, what
(12:20):
you're trying to do is continue to build the team
offensively and defensively around your two time winning a two
time Super Bowl winning quarterback who's coming off a Pro
Bowl year. So you know, yeah, now it's now. It's
(12:43):
it's fun to talk about they should have done that,
But if you're sitting in that spot at that time,
with the reality of that moment, you're not You're not
picking Lamar Jackson. I'm not going to argue that they
could have maybe done better than Terrell Edmonds, but you're
picking a quarterback there. Sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Todd McCanless from Wildwood, Missouri. When I reviewed the Steelers' roster,
I saw Marcus Golden listed as reserve slash retired. I
don't recall him being with the Steelers or on injury
reserve in twenty twenty four? Was he and I am
just not doing a good job and keeping up with
the roster?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Okay, this is the Marcus Golden situation. He was signed
in the twenty twenty three off season as a backup
outside linebacker slash edge rusher, and Marcus Golden turned out
to be a pretty good number four guy there. He had.
He played two hundred and thirty snaps on defense that season.
(13:43):
He had four sacks, twenty tackles, and he was a
decent you know, in the rotational situation that the Steelers
were using at the time with TJ. Watt, Alex high
Smith and rookie Nick Kirbig. You know, that was pretty
you know, he was a good viable option. Okay. So
(14:10):
then after the twenty twenty three season, when he went
into the twenty twenty four offseason, Golden was an unrestricted
free agent, but he was an older guy, okay, and
so the Steelers didn't bring him back until training camp.
It was August first, twenty twenty four, Marcus Golden returned
(14:33):
on a one year contract. He rejoined the Steelers, came
to Saint Vincent College, had a press conference there, talked
to the media, told everybody how happy he was to
be back. He was excited to be back, grateful that,
you know, he didn't have to go through all of
the off season program or any of that stuff, just
resting his body getting ready for you know, what was
(14:54):
ahead of him at that point. One week after he
came to camp, he announced his retirement. He was done playing,
so which is fine, but to steal a team puts
him on that reserve retired list because they don't want
him going to another team. You know, if you just
(15:15):
let him retire and you don't put him on a
reserve list, then he could leave and say sign with
the Ravens on October first if they needed an edge guy.
And so you put him on the reserve retired list
because if he decides to change his mind and come
back and play for a different team, then you get
(15:38):
something for him. You know, I'm not saying it's going
to be a first round pick or anything, but you know,
you're just holding on to his rights just to protect yourself. Now,
my belief is that that reserve retired list status, I
think it only lasts a year. So he signed in August,
(16:04):
so I would say at some point this summer, you know,
Marcus Golden will come off that list. He's not really
occupying a spot on the ninety man roster. He's not
eating any salary cap space. It's just an administrative thing
that a team does to protect itself.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Herb Graham from Torrance, California. When the Steelers lost to
the Cowboys in Super Bowl thirty, did your receiver run
the wrong route on the last reception interception or did
the quarterback throw the wrong route.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Okay, so you know, we're very familiar with this, too
familiar in today's NFL of this whole concept, and usually
it's from the defense's perspective. When a receiver runs clean,
he's wide open. What happened was a miscommunication. So I
(17:01):
think that you know, if that happened in today's NFL,
what that would be the answer to that, only the
other way. It was a miscommunication. The quarterback and the
receiver weren't on the same page and the ball got
thrown to a guy wearing the wrong colored jersey.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Gary Hopkins from Cincinnati, Ohio has our last question of
the day, Just curious. Do you think mock drafts are
as useless as I do waste of reading?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Well, you know, okay, mock drafts. You know, this is
the deal with mock drafts, as long as readers understand
what they are, and that's in what they are is
this it's the author's guess, guess at how the draft
is going to unfold. And if you, as a reader
or me as a reader, is entertained by that, if
(17:54):
we enjoy that kind of thing, hey have at it.
You know, read your heart's content. But let me just
say this about this this this off season's crops of
mock drafts, and it's you know, it used to be
back in the old days, the people who did mock
(18:16):
drafts were either beat writers or national guys or you know,
with with you know, some some gravitas, you know, guys
who called a lot of people on the phone. And
and you know you, except for mel Kuiper, you didn't
do like twenty versions. I mean these mock drafts started.
(18:39):
Some mock drafts start the day after, you know that, like,
for example, the twenty twenty six mock drafts will start
the day after the twenty twenty five draft is over.
You know, they go the way too early mock draft.
Well yeah, so, and everybody does them, and they do
so many versions of them. And but this is a
(19:00):
thing that haunts me off about these. A lot of
these in this cycle they didn't even have The people
who wrote these didn't even have correct the number of
draft picks that the Steelers had in this draft and
in what rounds they were. So if you didn't even
do that basic bit of research checking, Okay, what rounds
(19:23):
are they picking in and where in the rounds are
they what rounds do they have? Multiple picks. What rounds do?
They have no picks. But you put your mock draft
out there, it's meaningless, you know, it's not worth the
cyber space that it eats. So that's my little speech
on some of the mock drafts this offseason.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I've made three of them so far on my show
on Steelers Nation Radio. Are you proud of me? Or
are you disappointed in me?
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You've done three?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I've done three, But I got a lot of airtime
to fill in a lot of non topics to discuss.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Well, but I would bet that you at least have
the number of picks that the Steelers have. Correct, you know, no,
I do, I do? I do? You're right, well, you're conscientious.
I mean I wouldn't do you Well, I'll tell you what.
There's that too, because from the beginning, from the beginning,
(20:22):
when these drafts, mock drafts started coming out, one of
the first things I do every year is, you know,
I send an email and ask where are our picks?
And I get the email back and that's there. It
is there. It is. It's not that hard, No, it isn't.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
This podcast is excruciatingly hard, though, So we'll take a
breather for a week, reset ourselves, and then we'll be
back next week. Maybe we'll have some quarterback news or
some other newsworthy things happening, but you know, right now,
if it's not Rogers, you're kind of just waiting until
the draft at the end of this month. For Bob Labriola,
I'm Tom Moferman. Thanks as always for listening. We'll talk
(21:05):
to you next time on Asten answered
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Steeler's still waiting on the word of Aaron Rodgers and
this is certainly the dead period of the off season,
A couple of weeks away from the draft. The first
wave of free agency has come and gone. So we're
all kind of in that holding pattern right now, Labs.
So I say, we just tackled some questions. What say
you nothing really new to update.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hey, you're in charge. You're in charge.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know, I don't know what I don't know if
you want to give me that seed, that power to me,
but sure, I'll take it. Well, today's first question comes
from Michael Johnson in Houston, Texas, and of course it's
asking about quarterbacks. Michael wants to know what is meant
by the term quarterback friendly offense.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Okay, I'm gonna speak in generalities here. You know, I
don't don't I don't have the the visual a of
a whiteboard, you know, where I could be drawing this
stuff up. Or even if I did, I don't know
enough about it to do it. So I'll just keep
it general. You know, Quarterback friendly offense what that meant.
(01:13):
What that means is that it's designed with the goal
of making things as simple and straightforward as possible for
the quarterback. I mean, you can do that accomplish that
in a variety of ways, you know. Okay, let's start
from you limit the number of plays he has to
learn and execute, simplifying his reads once the ball is snapped,
(01:36):
and not asking him to try to make throws that
would require more from his physical skills than he possesses.
I mean, you know, if you want to put a name,
a current name to quarterback friendly offense, to me, it
would be Brock Party. And what the forty nine ers
(01:56):
are doing, you know, you know, Brock Party. Again, I'm
all kudos to him, you know, for what he has
turned into. But the guy was a seventh round pick.
And if you know he had the size and the
skills and the arm strength and all of that stuff,
(02:18):
he wouldn't have been a seventh round pick. So he
had limitations in the evaluation process leading up to the draft,
which ended up him being mister Irrelevant. And but you know,
Kyle Shannish, Kyle Shanahan has done a decent job of,
(02:38):
you know, creating an offense or implementing an offense that
doesn't ask brock Perdy to do more than he can do,
and he surrounds and he has surrounded him with a
lot of pretty good players, Christian McCaffrey, Deebo, Samuel, George Kittle,
you know, and on and on and on. Trent Williams
(03:00):
a great left tackle. So that goes into part of
being a quarterback friendly offense. You know, another thing that
a quarterback friendly offense has is an effective running game,
because then you force the defense to respect that and
not concentrate on, you know, trying to make the quarterbacks
(03:21):
life miserable. And if it's a good running game and
the defense has to respect that, then they're also not
you know, pounding the snot out of him on every
pass attempt, and that allows him to stay healthy. So
all of those things, you know, put together, that's what's
(03:42):
basically meant by a quarterback friendly offense.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
James Lebar Junior from Catasauqua, Pennsylvania. Do you think Mason
Rudolph would get better if we played as the number
one quarterback for a full preseason and then a full
regular season. I thought he easily won the competition with
Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky during training camp in twenty
twenty two, but didn't get the chance he deserved.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Okay, look, you know, let me start with this. I
was at training camp in twenty twenty two. I saw
every practice.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Okay, oh yeah, we talked about it on every training
camp reports.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
That's right, right, yes, So I don't want to hear
that Mason Rudolph easily won the quarterback competition because I'm
not saying he had a bad camp, but it was
not It was not a clear cut decision in any way.
(04:44):
Let me be honest with you. You know, Mason Rudolph,
that wasn't his first year with the Steelers, so when
he reported the training camp in twenty twenty two, it's
not like he showed up with a clean slate. I
mean he had Let's go back to twenty nineteen, when
you know Ben Roethlisberger missed all but six quarters of
(05:05):
that season with an elbow arey and surgery. People wanted
Mason Rudolph to be benched. They want Duck Hodges. You know,
there was a there was a There was at least
something that led Mike Tomlin to make that move away
from Mason Rudolph to Duck Hodges. And so you know,
(05:29):
in twenty twenty two, the Steelers' staff and watching him
and evaluating him. They also had all of his previous
NFL experience in mind too, that was part of his resume.
And you know, again going back to twenty twenty two,
you look at Trubisky's NFL resume. Pickett was a rookie.
(05:53):
He looked okay, But I don't think you're going to
start a season with a rookie quarterback. And so I
would have gone with Trubisky. I would have started with Trubisky.
And then when it came about that Trubisky was less
decisive than maybe the Steelers would have liked in terms
(06:16):
of getting rid of the ball. At that point, you
spent whatever the twentieth overall pick on a quarterback, so
then you go to him. You don't go to the
other guy, the veteran that you've had around who really
at that point I thought that he had kind of
(06:38):
Mason Rudolph had kind of established himself as a backup
type in the league. So look back up in the
NFL is more than just a spot on the depth chart.
I mean, it's a role it's an important role and
guys have served in that role for a long long
(07:00):
time and made a lot of money. And those are
valuable players who can do that. And so you know,
when I say Mason Rudolph's lot in the NFL, so
to speak, is as a backup, you know, that's not
a criticism of him. I just think that that's what
(07:20):
he is seen as. And if you look at you know,
there were last the previous couple three off seasons, Mason
Rudolph was an unrestricted free agent, unrestricted available to any
team at any price they were willing to pay, and
he didn't get any offers to be a starter or
(07:43):
to come in and compete as a starter. So again,
Mason Rudolph is a good guy, he's a professional, he's
a good teammate, all of those things, and he earns
the money that he has paid. But he's just not
seen as a starter in this league. And it's not
just in Pittsburgh because again, as I said that, the
(08:06):
first time he was an unrestricted free agent, he came
back to the Steelers because he didn't have, you know,
an offer that he liked. And then last offseason, you know,
he ended up going to the Titans, who immediately kind
of established him as a backup behind their young quarterback
(08:26):
Will Levis. So, you know, again, I just think that
this whole thing that Mason Rudolph clearly won the competition
in twenty twenty two, that's that's not true. I think
fans just like Mason. Some media guys liked Mason, and
so they kind of created that. But that's not the
(08:50):
way it unfolded.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Another big bonus of being that career backup labs is
those Monday mornings steal a lot less sore. If you're
number two on the depth chart, you pop right out
of that, you know, I mean, it's not bad.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Jeff did can go golfing enough to go golfing?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Jeff Daniels from Alan Washington. Was there ever any discussion
that you know of for picking Lamar Jackson the year
he came out for the NFL Draft? I know they
picked Terrell Edmunds that year, and I believe it was
before the Ravens traded up to pick Jackson.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, okay, I mean this is another one of those
I think, looking back on something with the knowledge that
you have now, okay, yes, the Steelers had the twenty
eighth overall pick in that draft twenty eighteen, and they
(09:43):
picked Terrell Edmunds. Okay, and yes, the Ravens did pick
Lamar Jackson thirty second overall, but they traded up back
up into the first round to pick him. So, you know,
this is this is kind of like the Tom Brady thing.
You know, when when the Patriots were getting a lot
(10:04):
of credit for drafting Brady Sit in the sixth round. Well,
you know, if you were really that smart, you would
have picked Brady with your first round pick, if you
really knew that he was going to be that good.
So let's go back to the you know, twenty eighteen
NFL draft. I can I'm willing to bet whatever anyone
(10:26):
wants to bet that anyone who was working in the
football department in any capacity of any NFL team, if
they at that time believed Lamar Jackson would have become
a two time NFL MVP before he turned twenty eight
years old. I doubt that there was any Why do
I think that. Let's let's look at let's look at
(10:48):
that draft. Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and Josh
Rosen all were drafted before Jackson in that first round.
The Ravens didn't even used their first for their original
first round pick on Lamar Jackson. They picked a tight end,
Hayden Hurst. Okay, so the Ravens weren't even that smart
(11:12):
because you're telling me that you think that Lamar Jackson
is going to be what he has turned out to
be and you pick a tight end first. Ah. Sorry, Okay,
so that's the way the perception of Lamar Jackson was
at that time. Now, looking at the Steelers in twenty seventeen,
(11:36):
Steelers had a pretty good quarterback. His name was Ben Roethlisberg.
He was coming off a Pro Bowl season. He completed
sixty four point two percent four two hundred and fifty
one yards twenty eight touchdowns. Okay, in twenty seventeen, Roethlisberger
led the NFL in both fourth quarter comebacks and game
(11:57):
winning drives. So you know, you can't seriously tell me
that at the time of the twenty eighteen NFL draft,
there were if if if Jeff or me or you
or whoever was in charge of making the Steelers first
round pick, that you're picking a quarterback. I mean, what
(12:20):
you're trying to do is continue to build the team
offensively and defensively around your two time winning a two
time Super Bowl winning quarterback who's coming off a Pro
Bowl year. So you know, yeah, now it's now. It's
(12:43):
it's fun to talk about they should have done that,
But if you're sitting in that spot at that time,
with the reality of that moment, you're not You're not
picking Lamar Jackson. I'm not going to argue that they
could have maybe done better than Terrell Edmonds, but you're
picking a quarterback there. Sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Todd McCanless from Wildwood, Missouri. When I reviewed the Steelers' roster,
I saw Marcus Golden listed as reserve slash retired. I
don't recall him being with the Steelers or on injury
reserve in twenty twenty four? Was he and I am
just not doing a good job and keeping up with
the roster?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Okay, this is the Marcus Golden situation. He was signed
in the twenty twenty three off season as a backup
outside linebacker slash edge rusher, and Marcus Golden turned out
to be a pretty good number four guy there. He had.
He played two hundred and thirty snaps on defense that season.
(13:43):
He had four sacks, twenty tackles, and he was a
decent you know, in the rotational situation that the Steelers
were using at the time with TJ. Watt, Alex high
Smith and rookie Nick Kirbig. You know, that was pretty
you know, he was a good viable option. Okay. So
(14:10):
then after the twenty twenty three season, when he went
into the twenty twenty four offseason, Golden was an unrestricted
free agent, but he was an older guy, okay, and
so the Steelers didn't bring him back until training camp.
It was August first, twenty twenty four, Marcus Golden returned
(14:33):
on a one year contract. He rejoined the Steelers, came
to Saint Vincent College, had a press conference there, talked
to the media, told everybody how happy he was to
be back. He was excited to be back, grateful that,
you know, he didn't have to go through all of
the off season program or any of that stuff, just
resting his body getting ready for you know, what was
(14:54):
ahead of him at that point. One week after he
came to camp, he announced his retirement. He was done playing,
so which is fine, but to steal a team puts
him on that reserve retired list because they don't want
him going to another team. You know, if you just
(15:15):
let him retire and you don't put him on a
reserve list, then he could leave and say sign with
the Ravens on October first if they needed an edge guy.
And so you put him on the reserve retired list
because if he decides to change his mind and come
back and play for a different team, then you get
(15:38):
something for him. You know, I'm not saying it's going
to be a first round pick or anything, but you know,
you're just holding on to his rights just to protect yourself. Now,
my belief is that that reserve retired list status, I
think it only lasts a year. So he signed in August,
(16:04):
so I would say at some point this summer, you know,
Marcus Golden will come off that list. He's not really
occupying a spot on the ninety man roster. He's not
eating any salary cap space. It's just an administrative thing
that a team does to protect itself.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Herb Graham from Torrance, California. When the Steelers lost to
the Cowboys in Super Bowl thirty, did your receiver run
the wrong route on the last reception interception or did
the quarterback throw the wrong route.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Okay, so you know, we're very familiar with this, too
familiar in today's NFL of this whole concept, and usually
it's from the defense's perspective. When a receiver runs clean,
he's wide open. What happened was a miscommunication. So I
(17:01):
think that you know, if that happened in today's NFL,
what that would be the answer to that, only the
other way. It was a miscommunication. The quarterback and the
receiver weren't on the same page and the ball got
thrown to a guy wearing the wrong colored jersey.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Gary Hopkins from Cincinnati, Ohio has our last question of
the day, Just curious. Do you think mock drafts are
as useless as I do waste of reading?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Well, you know, okay, mock drafts. You know, this is
the deal with mock drafts, as long as readers understand
what they are, and that's in what they are is
this it's the author's guess, guess at how the draft
is going to unfold. And if you, as a reader
or me as a reader, is entertained by that, if
(17:54):
we enjoy that kind of thing, hey have at it.
You know, read your heart's content. But let me just
say this about this this this off season's crops of
mock drafts, and it's you know, it used to be
back in the old days, the people who did mock
(18:16):
drafts were either beat writers or national guys or you know,
with with you know, some some gravitas, you know, guys
who called a lot of people on the phone. And
and you know you, except for mel Kuiper, you didn't
do like twenty versions. I mean these mock drafts started.
(18:39):
Some mock drafts start the day after, you know that, like,
for example, the twenty twenty six mock drafts will start
the day after the twenty twenty five draft is over.
You know, they go the way too early mock draft.
Well yeah, so, and everybody does them, and they do
so many versions of them. And but this is a
(19:00):
thing that haunts me off about these. A lot of
these in this cycle they didn't even have The people
who wrote these didn't even have correct the number of
draft picks that the Steelers had in this draft and
in what rounds they were. So if you didn't even
do that basic bit of research checking, Okay, what rounds
(19:23):
are they picking in and where in the rounds are
they what rounds do they have? Multiple picks. What rounds do?
They have no picks. But you put your mock draft
out there, it's meaningless, you know, it's not worth the
cyber space that it eats. So that's my little speech
on some of the mock drafts this offseason.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I've made three of them so far on my show
on Steelers Nation Radio. Are you proud of me? Or
are you disappointed in me?
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You've done three?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I've done three, But I got a lot of airtime
to fill in a lot of non topics to discuss.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Well, but I would bet that you at least have
the number of picks that the Steelers have. Correct, you know, no,
I do, I do? I do? You're right, well, you're conscientious.
I mean I wouldn't do you Well, I'll tell you what.
There's that too, because from the beginning, from the beginning,
(20:22):
when these drafts, mock drafts started coming out, one of
the first things I do every year is, you know,
I send an email and ask where are our picks?
And I get the email back and that's there. It
is there. It is. It's not that hard, No, it isn't.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
This podcast is excruciatingly hard, though, So we'll take a
breather for a week, reset ourselves, and then we'll be
back next week. Maybe we'll have some quarterback news or
some other newsworthy things happening, but you know, right now,
if it's not Rogers, you're kind of just waiting until
the draft at the end of this month. For Bob Labriola,
I'm Tom Moferman. Thanks as always for listening. We'll talk
(21:05):
to you next time on Asten answered
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