August 22, 2023 • 22 mins
Labs and Tom talk about the Steelers preseason efforts vs Buffalo and then get into this week’s 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):
Before we get into today's crop of question, Labs, I
wanted to talk a little bit about the Steelers' preseason
efforts on Saturday against Buffalo. Everybody was very encouraged after
the Buccaneers game. The first team offense looked good, but
we got to pump the brakes. The Buccaneers aren't supposed
to be that great of a team, and they were
resting a lot of their players in the first preseason game.
Saturday was a different story, though, Labs. The first team
(00:32):
offense was out there for a couple of series, they
finished with touchdowns in both of them, and they were
playing a team that a lot of people think have
Super Bowl aspirations, have had those aspirations for the past
couple of years, and had a lot of their starters
out there as well.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, it was a second straight impressive performance. I kind
of hesitated to use impressive, but I think it's okay
because I didn't I'll be honest. I mean, I certainly
didn't expect them to look this good in some of
these areas this quickly, and you know, the one thing
(01:08):
that really has caught my eye these first two preseason games,
the chunk plays on offense. You know, against the Bills,
you had, you know, Jaylen Warren's sixty two yard run,
you know, and then a one of the previous episodes
(01:29):
of the Mike Tollman Show that airs in the pregame,
I asked him, you know what a chunk run play is,
just to you know, get some idea of you know,
how they measure it, and he said anything ten yards
or more. So, you know, the Steelers have had six
chunk run plays in their first two preseason games. And
you know, you had a twenty five yard touchdown pass
(01:51):
against Buffalo, we had the long touchdown pass to Calvin
Austin six the seven yards was that I think something
like that? Yeah, yeah, and then you know the George
Pickens won. So you know, you're the offense is scoring touchdowns.
(02:12):
They are scoring touchdowns via chunk plays and attack in
the middle of the field. So, you know, all the
things that we kind of were hoping to see or
thought we might be able to see based on you know,
all that fun time we spend up at Camp me
and you you know, it's you're such a liar. You're
good at it though. I like that, But you know,
(02:35):
I just think that that's heartening for the start of
the regular season. You know, got one more preseason game
and then a pretty long layoff, but then September the
tenth San Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, and you know, touchdowns are touchdowns no matter how
you get them. But it's nice to see Kenny on
his two touchdown throws during the preseason, kind of throwing
the guys open right, like threading the needle to George
Pickens in between coverage, putting the ball where only Pat
would be able to catch it against the Buffalo Bills
on his touchdown on Saturday. Kenny hype has been high
(03:07):
ever since he came to Pittsburgh and has been all
off season. But you're starting to see it nationally now, Labs.
You know, I turn on Sports Center, I turn on
NFL Network, and people are very impressed with what they've
seen from Kenny so far. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That makes me nervous though, once once Sports Center starts jumping.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
On, I start questioning what I'm seeing, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
But just to just to refer specifically to the friar
Mouth throw, you know, again, the degree of difficulty against
the Buffalo Bills is a lot higher than the degree
of difficulty against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that throw open
Pat Fryarmouth touchdown pass and that was between Matt Mulano
and Jordan Poyer. Pretty good place, those are, right, They're
(03:50):
recognizable names in big games for a couple of years
at least. So yeah, it's it's it's starting to come together.
I think, you know, just hope now, you know, knock
on wood and all that other stuff. Living in my
fears people kind of do like myself, you know, just
get this through this last preseason game and then you know,
(04:12):
start getting ready for the forty nine ers.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, let's take a stab at some of the questions
that you've sent in today. Our first one comes from
Dennis Slieger from York, PA, and he asks, there was
so much made before and after the twenty twenty two
NFL draft about can you Pickt's hand size? But with
how he played last year and through this past training camp,
do you believe this is a non issue?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Now, I'm gonna be honest, I thought all along it
was a non issue. You know, I don't. This is
this is my only experience with hand size on a quarterback. Okay,
it was during the run up to the nineteen eighty
three draft, and you know, I was talking to people
about Dan Marino and somebody actually looked me in the
(04:53):
eye and said, seriously, his hands are too small. Now,
you know how I hate the comparison, you know, picked
in Marino because they both went to pit or whatever.
They always leave out the Alex Van Pelt thing with
the break in the records. But remember, you know, if
people wanted to look at Marino and say his hands
are too small, that just kind of and then you
(05:14):
watched how he played, It just kind of led me
down the path that maybe that wasn't such a meaningful
measurable in the first place.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Plusy, where's the gloves? You know, Kenny two gloves. So
anything that you know, grip wise he needs he gets
from that extra stickup. It's all good. Carlos Arvizu from
CDMX Mexico asks from the roster that won Super Bowl forty,
how many players so far have been inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Okay, Jerome bettis inducted as part of the Class of
twenty fifteen. Troy Polamalo inducted as part of the Class
of twenty twenty. Alan Fanica inducted part of the Class
of twenty twenty one. Now, I know the question only
referred specifically to players, but I'll just throw this in
as you know, extra information at no charge. Assistant coaches
(06:02):
Rush Grim and Dick Lebou both on that staff. Now
they were inducted as players, but when they were inducted,
they both went in in the Class of twenty ten.
And then Bill Cower, the head coach, was inducted as
a coach as part of the Class of twenty twenty.
Those are the you know, players and coaches on that
(06:22):
team who were inducted. Following Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Forty, Joseph Huber from Leesburg, Virginia, the special teams play
against Buffalo looked very good. What were your overall impressions
of the special teams play?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I would agree, Joseph, I generally agree with your assessment.
I'm gonna break it down a little bit here by
category just to say more than I agree with your assessment.
There were no issues, you know, with the snaphold kick
process on field goals and the extra points. Chris Boswell
was four for four overall combined, good good jobs you expect,
(07:00):
but anyway, good job. Now, the Steelers were only penalized
four times in the game. Two were assessed to special teams.
In my opinion, only one really mattered. Connor Hayward was
flagged for an illegal formation on a punt that moved
the ball from the Buffalo fifteen yard line to the
twenty yard line in the first half, which is when
you know, most of the frontline players, the guys who
(07:21):
are gonna make the team were on the field. Then
the other special teams penalty came in the last fifty
five seconds or whatever it was too many men on
the field during a Bill's extra point attempt. And again
at that point, I don't expect to see you know,
any of those guys who were on the field. Then
on the fifty three roster, Okay, moving in around here
(07:43):
to some of the other elements. Calvin Austin the third
had a fifty four yard punt return. Gunneral Chefsy had
a fifteen yard punt return, and the blocking was clean
on both of those. You know, a lot of times
we'll see nice returns anytime, but more often in the
presets season, and they get called back for a legal
block in the back or holding or you know one
(08:05):
of those things that just make you crazy. Anthony McFarland
only returned one kickoff for nineteen yards, and I don't
believe he would have brought that one out of the
end zone. What we're seeing in the preseason is on kickoffs,
just bring it out. We want to work on kickoff returns.
I think we're going to see a whole lot more
fair catches on kickoffs as the regular season begins. Okay, then, finally,
(08:30):
I thought punter Presley Harvin had a great game. He
worked very efficiently with the coverage to keep the Bills
offense pin close to its old own goal line. You know,
Harvin punted did all the punting in the second preseason game.
Braden Man did all the punting in the first preseason game,
(08:51):
so Harvin punted five times. This was the Buffalo's starting
position after each of those, respectively, the eleven yard line,
the fifteen yard line that became the twenty after the
penalty on Hayward, the six yard line, the ten yard line,
and the eight yard line. Okay, now, people, and I've gotten,
(09:13):
you know, feedback from fans moaning about Harvin's thirty eight
point two yard average for the game. Now, that's missing
the whole point of this. You know, in addition to
the field position. You know, that's Josh Allen You're putting
inside his own fifteen. You know, this is not whoever
it was playing. In the second half of the Tampa
(09:33):
Bay game, the Bills were also able to only return
one of Harvin's punts and they only got two yards
out of it. Okay, all five were inside the twenty.
And I guarantee you that Mike Tomlin and Danny Smith
were not moaning about the thirty eight point two yard
average in that context.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Now, it was great work from special teams all around
against Buffalo. Calvin Austin that punt return. You know, I
know how fast he is. I hear it from everybody
who is up big camp, the things I've seen from camp.
He had the big touchdown in the game against Tampa
Bay where he showed his speed, but Labs, it really
showed through the TV broadcast when he was returning that
punt just how much faster he is than everybody else
(10:12):
on that field.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, I mean, and you and I talked about this,
you know, during the training camp reports we were doing
every day from Latrobe, you know, and I hate to
make this comparison because you know, I don't want anyone
to think that, you know, Calvin Austin is more Antonio
Brown than just in this specific way I'm going to
compare the two. But when Antonio Brown first started, you know,
(10:36):
he didn't miss his whole rookie season as Calvin Austin did.
But when he first started, you know, he was a
punt returner in the beginning and a number four wide receiver.
And just watching him in training camp because there's no
never any tackling the special teams in training camp, but
he just had a burst. I mean you could see it.
The way he would hit things, the creases that he
(11:00):
would find, the spots that he would get through. It
just looked different. And Calvin Austin is very close to that.
As you were just describing, and as we talked about
in Latrobe, this guy has a burst, you know, an
additional gear. I mean, I don't know how you know,
what kind of phraseology you want to use, but if
(11:21):
you watch him, or had the opportunity to watch him
doing this in latrob at Saint Vincent College, you would
notice even if, if, even if they weren't wearing number jerseys,
just based on watching it, watching and then comparing it
in your own mind, with your own eyes, you would
see that this guy has something special.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Or you could use the wife test, right, Missus Labriola
takes a look at it. She doesn't know anything, but
she knows that this guy's faster than everybody else on
the field. It's just that obvious to anybody watching. John
Vincent from Conyeat Ohio asks with Kendrick green struggles at center,
why didn't the Steelers move him to guard, which was
his position in college? Why did they thrust him into
the starting lineup as a center?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, Kendrick Green's taking a lot of heat from fans
in the media. Maybe it's well deserved, maybe it's not.
I don't know enough about offensive line play to really
make an intelligent assessment, So you know, I usually rely
on Craig Wifflely and Max Stark, so maybe you know,
we'll get them the weigh in here in the very
(12:23):
near future. But here's the Here was the situation that
created the whole picking Kendrick Green and then thrusting him
into the starting lineup as a center. Okay, Marquis Poncey
surprised the Steelers when he retired on February twelve, twenty
twenty one, because he had always said that he was
sticking around until Ben was done. Now, Ben was in
(12:47):
the process of coming to an agreement with the Steelers.
He took a pay cut and some other things, and
he was coming back for the twenty twenty one season.
O ca so Pouncey, then, I won't say that the
Ben decision to return came before, but they were close
enough that, if you know, Poncey was really serious about
sticking with Ben, they could have communicated and gotten some
(13:09):
sense of, you know, where the talks were with the team.
So anyway, the Steelers did not expect him to hang
it up. Okay. So now you're also coming into the
off season after the twenty twenty COVID year when teams
played in empty stadiums, and that that really bit into
the designated gross revenue, which is what the players and
(13:31):
the owners split up to come up with what the
salary cap is. Okay, So that year twenty twenty one,
the salary cap went down, and that had never happened before,
I mean, and so the Steelers are usually, you know,
pretty tight to the salary cap. Anyway, now they've got
to deal with a salary cap that went down. They
still have been and even though his cap hit wasn't
(13:54):
as you know, monstrous as it had been, it's still
was significant. So the Steelers are in a spot now
where they need a center. Okay, you got to have
a center. They still have been and they're paying them
a you know, a cap amount that is significant, and
the cap went down. So not only can they not
(14:15):
go out and get anyone, they can't even keep their
own people. Because for example, one of the guys who
left that offseason, Matt Filer, he could play center, but
he left because the Steelers couldn't match what he was
going to get from the Chargers. So this is what
you had, I mean, and there weren't a whole lot
of avenues. You know, you can't keep your own guys.
(14:37):
You can't go out and sign anybody, and you got
to get you gotta have one, okay, so you got
to draft one. That year, the Steelers picked Nausey first,
and then in the second round. You know a lot
of moan and should they have picked Creed Humphrey, you know,
Creed Humphrey is a starting center in this league. But
Pat Fireman's a pretty good player too. So you know,
(14:58):
what are you doing for Ben in his last year?
You get him a tight end who can catch the ball,
maybe add another offensive weapon to go with the running
back that you added, or we really going for this
year in his last year? Or do you want to
take a flyer on a center and hope he's pretty good.
Uh So they picked Frearmouth. Then they drafted Kendrick Green
(15:18):
in the third round. So, yes, his college position was guard.
They looked at his measurables. They thought he was pretty
mobile and athletic, and you know, they had had a
pretty good success with a mobile, athletic center by the
name of Dermonty Dawson who's now in the Hall of Fame.
And not to say that they thought Kendrick Green was
the next Dormony Dawson, but they thought that maybe Kendrick
(15:40):
Green could play the position in some ways to be
similar to the way Dermonty Dawson played, and maybe that
would be a good way to go. And so that's
what happened. I won't say that maybe they didn't reach
a little bit for Kendrick Green. Maybe they could have
done some of it, but that's all hindsight now. If
you want to know why it happened the way it happened,
(16:01):
That's why Pouncey retired when they really didn't expect it.
They were in salary cap jail big time, and so
they did what they thought was the best they could
do at that particular time.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, and I got a small hunch that fans won't
be regretting that Pat Friarmouth pick in the years to come.
Dude looks like he's poised to break out and in
a big way this year and the following years. Mike
to Hear from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada asks, at this point,
I see two players on the injured reserve list and
four others were waived injured. How do the salaries and
bonuses of these injured players count against the salary cap?
(16:34):
Does waving them before the first season game mean nothing
counts against the cap?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Uh? Okay, Mike, this is the general rule. Everything counts
on the salary cap. Seriously, I mean you know it
just does. Anything related to player costs counts on the
salary cap. Players on injured reserve list, are paid the
salary that's called for in their contracts. That counts on
the salary cap. You mentioned four players waved injured. Okay,
(17:04):
those guys waved injured. So whatever settlement is reached between
the agent and the team that counts on the salary cap.
So then when the team either puts a guy in
the injured reserve list or waves a guy injured and
then reaches an injury settlement with that player, you got
to sign guys to replace them. Okay, those guys have
to be paid, you know, they have to have contracts
(17:26):
that are at least for the NFL minimum salary. That
counts on the salary cap. So, and what I'm trying
to get to is generally everything related to players counts
on the salary cap. And this is why when these
websites or bloggers or whatever, the Steelers have this much
money left on the cap, they should go sign a
(17:46):
couple of more guys. Well, that really is a deceptive
figure because you know you've got a lot of bills
coming in too that's going to count on that money too.
And you know, in the regular season this is also
an issue. Everybody you put on ir counts on the
salary cap. If you waive anybody injured, the settlement counts
on the cap. The guy replaced counts on the cap,
(18:08):
practice squad counts on the cap. All that stuff counts
on the cap. So, you know, when fans get frustrated about,
you know, why don't the Steelers spend their salary cap money,
My answer to that is it's not as much money
as you think.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And our final question today comes from Tom de Larte
from Orlando, Florida. I found it interesting that in nineteen
seventy four Chuck Noll let Joe Gilliam call his own
plays and then apparently no bench gillim for calling too
many passing plays. Yet the Steelers still rushed for over
twenty four hundred yards that season. And we all know
how the nineteen seventy four season ended. Was it a
(18:44):
technology issue or just Nol's way of calling plays back then?
What was the role of the offensive coordinator? And did
Terry Bradshaw call his own plays for all four of
Steeler's Super Bowl wins during the seventies.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Chuck Noll believed in quarterback calling their own plays. Now
I've you know, I never had the opportunity to, you know,
buttonhole him on why he did that. But I can't
tell you this that Chuck Nole played for the Cleveland Browns.
He was a guard. Paul Brown was the coach, and
at the time, the Browns used what was called the
(19:18):
messenger guards system to send plays in from the sideline
because Paul Brown didn't want his quarterback home his own plays,
even though his quarterback was Autogram who was a great player.
So Chuck was one of the messenger guards. Maybe he
didn't like that. I don't know. Maybe he didn't like
doing that. Maybe he didn't Maybe there was something in
his decision making that was stemmed from that, but I
(19:43):
don't know. But anyway, Steelers quarterbacks under Chuck Nole called
their own plays, and in fact, they didn't even have
an offensive coordinator until Tom Moore, who had been the
wide receivers coach, was elevated to the position of offensive
coordinator for the nineteen eighties three season. So from nineteen
sixty nine through nineteen eighty two, the Steelers had no
(20:06):
offensive coordinator, so that position didn't exist on Chuck Noll's staff,
and to that point, Noel worked personally with the quarterbacks
on the game plan. You know, whatever, and they you know,
he didn't send in plays, but through the conversations that
(20:28):
the quarterback had with Nol, you know, they formulated a
general guideline of how they wanted to attack the opponent.
Now I can use an example Super Bowl fourteen against
the Los Angeles Rams. Now, I remember this was in
the second half, and this was an NFL films thing,
(20:48):
and you know, they're filming everything with mikes and they
have the boom mics and everything, and there's a clip
of Bradshaw and Nol talking. It was during the timeout
or change of possession or something, and they're kind of
on the field a little bit maybe five yards out
onto the playing field. But as I said, play it
stopped and Noel is instructing Bradshaw, telling him, Terry, you know,
(21:11):
in third and short, go for the big play. That's
how we want to attack this defense. Don't forget that's
what we worked on. But he didn't tell them what
to call, but he just said, you know, go to
the big play. And as you remember, the two long
passes the Stalwarths probably broke that game open, you know,
late in the game, early in the second half, and
(21:32):
then in the fourth quarter. So that's how Noel got
his point across to the quarterback about the direction in
which he wanted the offense to go. But in terms
of the four Super Bowl wins that answered Tom's question specifically,
Bradshaw called all of his own plays.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
The Steelers end of their preseason on Thursday in Atlanta,
taking on the Falcons and Labs, and I will be
back with another edition of assid and answered next week.
We all appreciate you sending in your question to LABS
to hear them read on this very program, and we'll
talk to you then on asked that answered
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Before we get into today's crop of question, Labs, I
wanted to talk a little bit about the Steelers' preseason
efforts on Saturday against Buffalo. Everybody was very encouraged after
the Buccaneers game. The first team offense looked good, but
we got to pump the brakes. The Buccaneers aren't supposed
to be that great of a team, and they were
resting a lot of their players in the first preseason game.
Saturday was a different story, though, Labs. The first team
(00:32):
offense was out there for a couple of series, they
finished with touchdowns in both of them, and they were
playing a team that a lot of people think have
Super Bowl aspirations, have had those aspirations for the past
couple of years, and had a lot of their starters
out there as well.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, it was a second straight impressive performance. I kind
of hesitated to use impressive, but I think it's okay
because I didn't I'll be honest. I mean, I certainly
didn't expect them to look this good in some of
these areas this quickly, and you know, the one thing
(01:08):
that really has caught my eye these first two preseason games,
the chunk plays on offense. You know, against the Bills,
you had, you know, Jaylen Warren's sixty two yard run,
you know, and then a one of the previous episodes
(01:29):
of the Mike Tollman Show that airs in the pregame,
I asked him, you know what a chunk run play is,
just to you know, get some idea of you know,
how they measure it, and he said anything ten yards
or more. So, you know, the Steelers have had six
chunk run plays in their first two preseason games. And
you know, you had a twenty five yard touchdown pass
(01:51):
against Buffalo, we had the long touchdown pass to Calvin
Austin six the seven yards was that I think something
like that? Yeah, yeah, and then you know the George
Pickens won. So you know, you're the offense is scoring touchdowns.
(02:12):
They are scoring touchdowns via chunk plays and attack in
the middle of the field. So, you know, all the
things that we kind of were hoping to see or
thought we might be able to see based on you know,
all that fun time we spend up at Camp me
and you you know, it's you're such a liar. You're
good at it though. I like that, But you know,
(02:35):
I just think that that's heartening for the start of
the regular season. You know, got one more preseason game
and then a pretty long layoff, but then September the
tenth San Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, and you know, touchdowns are touchdowns no matter how
you get them. But it's nice to see Kenny on
his two touchdown throws during the preseason, kind of throwing
the guys open right, like threading the needle to George
Pickens in between coverage, putting the ball where only Pat
would be able to catch it against the Buffalo Bills
on his touchdown on Saturday. Kenny hype has been high
(03:07):
ever since he came to Pittsburgh and has been all
off season. But you're starting to see it nationally now, Labs.
You know, I turn on Sports Center, I turn on
NFL Network, and people are very impressed with what they've
seen from Kenny so far. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That makes me nervous though, once once Sports Center starts jumping.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
On, I start questioning what I'm seeing, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
But just to just to refer specifically to the friar
Mouth throw, you know, again, the degree of difficulty against
the Buffalo Bills is a lot higher than the degree
of difficulty against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that throw open
Pat Fryarmouth touchdown pass and that was between Matt Mulano
and Jordan Poyer. Pretty good place, those are, right, They're
(03:50):
recognizable names in big games for a couple of years
at least. So yeah, it's it's it's starting to come together.
I think, you know, just hope now, you know, knock
on wood and all that other stuff. Living in my
fears people kind of do like myself, you know, just
get this through this last preseason game and then you know,
(04:12):
start getting ready for the forty nine ers.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, let's take a stab at some of the questions
that you've sent in today. Our first one comes from
Dennis Slieger from York, PA, and he asks, there was
so much made before and after the twenty twenty two
NFL draft about can you Pickt's hand size? But with
how he played last year and through this past training camp,
do you believe this is a non issue?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Now, I'm gonna be honest, I thought all along it
was a non issue. You know, I don't. This is
this is my only experience with hand size on a quarterback. Okay,
it was during the run up to the nineteen eighty
three draft, and you know, I was talking to people
about Dan Marino and somebody actually looked me in the
(04:53):
eye and said, seriously, his hands are too small. Now,
you know how I hate the comparison, you know, picked
in Marino because they both went to pit or whatever.
They always leave out the Alex Van Pelt thing with
the break in the records. But remember, you know, if
people wanted to look at Marino and say his hands
are too small, that just kind of and then you
(05:14):
watched how he played, It just kind of led me
down the path that maybe that wasn't such a meaningful
measurable in the first place.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Plusy, where's the gloves? You know, Kenny two gloves. So
anything that you know, grip wise he needs he gets
from that extra stickup. It's all good. Carlos Arvizu from
CDMX Mexico asks from the roster that won Super Bowl forty,
how many players so far have been inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Okay, Jerome bettis inducted as part of the Class of
twenty fifteen. Troy Polamalo inducted as part of the Class
of twenty twenty. Alan Fanica inducted part of the Class
of twenty twenty one. Now, I know the question only
referred specifically to players, but I'll just throw this in
as you know, extra information at no charge. Assistant coaches
(06:02):
Rush Grim and Dick Lebou both on that staff. Now
they were inducted as players, but when they were inducted,
they both went in in the Class of twenty ten.
And then Bill Cower, the head coach, was inducted as
a coach as part of the Class of twenty twenty.
Those are the you know, players and coaches on that
(06:22):
team who were inducted. Following Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Forty, Joseph Huber from Leesburg, Virginia, the special teams play
against Buffalo looked very good. What were your overall impressions
of the special teams play?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I would agree, Joseph, I generally agree with your assessment.
I'm gonna break it down a little bit here by
category just to say more than I agree with your assessment.
There were no issues, you know, with the snaphold kick
process on field goals and the extra points. Chris Boswell
was four for four overall combined, good good jobs you expect,
(07:00):
but anyway, good job. Now, the Steelers were only penalized
four times in the game. Two were assessed to special teams.
In my opinion, only one really mattered. Connor Hayward was
flagged for an illegal formation on a punt that moved
the ball from the Buffalo fifteen yard line to the
twenty yard line in the first half, which is when
you know, most of the frontline players, the guys who
(07:21):
are gonna make the team were on the field. Then
the other special teams penalty came in the last fifty
five seconds or whatever it was too many men on
the field during a Bill's extra point attempt. And again
at that point, I don't expect to see you know,
any of those guys who were on the field. Then
on the fifty three roster, Okay, moving in around here
(07:43):
to some of the other elements. Calvin Austin the third
had a fifty four yard punt return. Gunneral Chefsy had
a fifteen yard punt return, and the blocking was clean
on both of those. You know, a lot of times
we'll see nice returns anytime, but more often in the
presets season, and they get called back for a legal
block in the back or holding or you know one
(08:05):
of those things that just make you crazy. Anthony McFarland
only returned one kickoff for nineteen yards, and I don't
believe he would have brought that one out of the
end zone. What we're seeing in the preseason is on kickoffs,
just bring it out. We want to work on kickoff returns.
I think we're going to see a whole lot more
fair catches on kickoffs as the regular season begins. Okay, then, finally,
(08:30):
I thought punter Presley Harvin had a great game. He
worked very efficiently with the coverage to keep the Bills
offense pin close to its old own goal line. You know,
Harvin punted did all the punting in the second preseason game.
Braden Man did all the punting in the first preseason game,
(08:51):
so Harvin punted five times. This was the Buffalo's starting
position after each of those, respectively, the eleven yard line,
the fifteen yard line that became the twenty after the
penalty on Hayward, the six yard line, the ten yard line,
and the eight yard line. Okay, now, people, and I've gotten,
(09:13):
you know, feedback from fans moaning about Harvin's thirty eight
point two yard average for the game. Now, that's missing
the whole point of this. You know, in addition to
the field position. You know, that's Josh Allen You're putting
inside his own fifteen. You know, this is not whoever
it was playing. In the second half of the Tampa
(09:33):
Bay game, the Bills were also able to only return
one of Harvin's punts and they only got two yards
out of it. Okay, all five were inside the twenty.
And I guarantee you that Mike Tomlin and Danny Smith
were not moaning about the thirty eight point two yard
average in that context.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Now, it was great work from special teams all around
against Buffalo. Calvin Austin that punt return. You know, I
know how fast he is. I hear it from everybody
who is up big camp, the things I've seen from camp.
He had the big touchdown in the game against Tampa
Bay where he showed his speed, but Labs, it really
showed through the TV broadcast when he was returning that
punt just how much faster he is than everybody else
(10:12):
on that field.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, I mean, and you and I talked about this,
you know, during the training camp reports we were doing
every day from Latrobe, you know, and I hate to
make this comparison because you know, I don't want anyone
to think that, you know, Calvin Austin is more Antonio
Brown than just in this specific way I'm going to
compare the two. But when Antonio Brown first started, you know,
(10:36):
he didn't miss his whole rookie season as Calvin Austin did.
But when he first started, you know, he was a
punt returner in the beginning and a number four wide receiver.
And just watching him in training camp because there's no
never any tackling the special teams in training camp, but
he just had a burst. I mean you could see it.
The way he would hit things, the creases that he
(11:00):
would find, the spots that he would get through. It
just looked different. And Calvin Austin is very close to that.
As you were just describing, and as we talked about
in Latrobe, this guy has a burst, you know, an
additional gear. I mean, I don't know how you know,
what kind of phraseology you want to use, but if
(11:21):
you watch him, or had the opportunity to watch him
doing this in latrob at Saint Vincent College, you would
notice even if, if, even if they weren't wearing number jerseys,
just based on watching it, watching and then comparing it
in your own mind, with your own eyes, you would
see that this guy has something special.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Or you could use the wife test, right, Missus Labriola
takes a look at it. She doesn't know anything, but
she knows that this guy's faster than everybody else on
the field. It's just that obvious to anybody watching. John
Vincent from Conyeat Ohio asks with Kendrick green struggles at center,
why didn't the Steelers move him to guard, which was
his position in college? Why did they thrust him into
the starting lineup as a center?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, Kendrick Green's taking a lot of heat from fans
in the media. Maybe it's well deserved, maybe it's not.
I don't know enough about offensive line play to really
make an intelligent assessment, So you know, I usually rely
on Craig Wifflely and Max Stark, so maybe you know,
we'll get them the weigh in here in the very
(12:23):
near future. But here's the Here was the situation that
created the whole picking Kendrick Green and then thrusting him
into the starting lineup as a center. Okay, Marquis Poncey
surprised the Steelers when he retired on February twelve, twenty
twenty one, because he had always said that he was
sticking around until Ben was done. Now, Ben was in
(12:47):
the process of coming to an agreement with the Steelers.
He took a pay cut and some other things, and
he was coming back for the twenty twenty one season.
O ca so Pouncey, then, I won't say that the
Ben decision to return came before, but they were close
enough that, if you know, Poncey was really serious about
sticking with Ben, they could have communicated and gotten some
(13:09):
sense of, you know, where the talks were with the team.
So anyway, the Steelers did not expect him to hang
it up. Okay. So now you're also coming into the
off season after the twenty twenty COVID year when teams
played in empty stadiums, and that that really bit into
the designated gross revenue, which is what the players and
(13:31):
the owners split up to come up with what the
salary cap is. Okay, So that year twenty twenty one,
the salary cap went down, and that had never happened before,
I mean, and so the Steelers are usually, you know,
pretty tight to the salary cap. Anyway, now they've got
to deal with a salary cap that went down. They
still have been and even though his cap hit wasn't
(13:54):
as you know, monstrous as it had been, it's still
was significant. So the Steelers are in a spot now
where they need a center. Okay, you got to have
a center. They still have been and they're paying them
a you know, a cap amount that is significant, and
the cap went down. So not only can they not
(14:15):
go out and get anyone, they can't even keep their
own people. Because for example, one of the guys who
left that offseason, Matt Filer, he could play center, but
he left because the Steelers couldn't match what he was
going to get from the Chargers. So this is what
you had, I mean, and there weren't a whole lot
of avenues. You know, you can't keep your own guys.
(14:37):
You can't go out and sign anybody, and you got
to get you gotta have one, okay, so you got
to draft one. That year, the Steelers picked Nausey first,
and then in the second round. You know a lot
of moan and should they have picked Creed Humphrey, you know,
Creed Humphrey is a starting center in this league. But
Pat Fireman's a pretty good player too. So you know,
(14:58):
what are you doing for Ben in his last year?
You get him a tight end who can catch the ball,
maybe add another offensive weapon to go with the running
back that you added, or we really going for this
year in his last year? Or do you want to
take a flyer on a center and hope he's pretty good.
Uh So they picked Frearmouth. Then they drafted Kendrick Green
(15:18):
in the third round. So, yes, his college position was guard.
They looked at his measurables. They thought he was pretty
mobile and athletic, and you know, they had had a
pretty good success with a mobile, athletic center by the
name of Dermonty Dawson who's now in the Hall of Fame.
And not to say that they thought Kendrick Green was
the next Dormony Dawson, but they thought that maybe Kendrick
(15:40):
Green could play the position in some ways to be
similar to the way Dermonty Dawson played, and maybe that
would be a good way to go. And so that's
what happened. I won't say that maybe they didn't reach
a little bit for Kendrick Green. Maybe they could have
done some of it, but that's all hindsight now. If
you want to know why it happened the way it happened,
(16:01):
That's why Pouncey retired when they really didn't expect it.
They were in salary cap jail big time, and so
they did what they thought was the best they could
do at that particular time.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, and I got a small hunch that fans won't
be regretting that Pat Friarmouth pick in the years to come.
Dude looks like he's poised to break out and in
a big way this year and the following years. Mike
to Hear from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada asks, at this point,
I see two players on the injured reserve list and
four others were waived injured. How do the salaries and
bonuses of these injured players count against the salary cap?
(16:34):
Does waving them before the first season game mean nothing
counts against the cap?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Uh? Okay, Mike, this is the general rule. Everything counts
on the salary cap. Seriously, I mean you know it
just does. Anything related to player costs counts on the
salary cap. Players on injured reserve list, are paid the
salary that's called for in their contracts. That counts on
the salary cap. You mentioned four players waved injured. Okay,
(17:04):
those guys waved injured. So whatever settlement is reached between
the agent and the team that counts on the salary cap.
So then when the team either puts a guy in
the injured reserve list or waves a guy injured and
then reaches an injury settlement with that player, you got
to sign guys to replace them. Okay, those guys have
to be paid, you know, they have to have contracts
(17:26):
that are at least for the NFL minimum salary. That
counts on the salary cap. So, and what I'm trying
to get to is generally everything related to players counts
on the salary cap. And this is why when these
websites or bloggers or whatever, the Steelers have this much
money left on the cap, they should go sign a
(17:46):
couple of more guys. Well, that really is a deceptive
figure because you know you've got a lot of bills
coming in too that's going to count on that money too.
And you know, in the regular season this is also
an issue. Everybody you put on ir counts on the
salary cap. If you waive anybody injured, the settlement counts
on the cap. The guy replaced counts on the cap,
(18:08):
practice squad counts on the cap. All that stuff counts
on the cap. So, you know, when fans get frustrated about,
you know, why don't the Steelers spend their salary cap money,
My answer to that is it's not as much money
as you think.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And our final question today comes from Tom de Larte
from Orlando, Florida. I found it interesting that in nineteen
seventy four Chuck Noll let Joe Gilliam call his own
plays and then apparently no bench gillim for calling too
many passing plays. Yet the Steelers still rushed for over
twenty four hundred yards that season. And we all know
how the nineteen seventy four season ended. Was it a
(18:44):
technology issue or just Nol's way of calling plays back then?
What was the role of the offensive coordinator? And did
Terry Bradshaw call his own plays for all four of
Steeler's Super Bowl wins during the seventies.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Chuck Noll believed in quarterback calling their own plays. Now
I've you know, I never had the opportunity to, you know,
buttonhole him on why he did that. But I can't
tell you this that Chuck Nole played for the Cleveland Browns.
He was a guard. Paul Brown was the coach, and
at the time, the Browns used what was called the
(19:18):
messenger guards system to send plays in from the sideline
because Paul Brown didn't want his quarterback home his own plays,
even though his quarterback was Autogram who was a great player.
So Chuck was one of the messenger guards. Maybe he
didn't like that. I don't know. Maybe he didn't like
doing that. Maybe he didn't Maybe there was something in
his decision making that was stemmed from that, but I
(19:43):
don't know. But anyway, Steelers quarterbacks under Chuck Nole called
their own plays, and in fact, they didn't even have
an offensive coordinator until Tom Moore, who had been the
wide receivers coach, was elevated to the position of offensive
coordinator for the nineteen eighties three season. So from nineteen
sixty nine through nineteen eighty two, the Steelers had no
(20:06):
offensive coordinator, so that position didn't exist on Chuck Noll's staff,
and to that point, Noel worked personally with the quarterbacks
on the game plan. You know, whatever, and they you know,
he didn't send in plays, but through the conversations that
(20:28):
the quarterback had with Nol, you know, they formulated a
general guideline of how they wanted to attack the opponent.
Now I can use an example Super Bowl fourteen against
the Los Angeles Rams. Now, I remember this was in
the second half, and this was an NFL films thing,
(20:48):
and you know, they're filming everything with mikes and they
have the boom mics and everything, and there's a clip
of Bradshaw and Nol talking. It was during the timeout
or change of possession or something, and they're kind of
on the field a little bit maybe five yards out
onto the playing field. But as I said, play it
stopped and Noel is instructing Bradshaw, telling him, Terry, you know,
(21:11):
in third and short, go for the big play. That's
how we want to attack this defense. Don't forget that's
what we worked on. But he didn't tell them what
to call, but he just said, you know, go to
the big play. And as you remember, the two long
passes the Stalwarths probably broke that game open, you know,
late in the game, early in the second half, and
(21:32):
then in the fourth quarter. So that's how Noel got
his point across to the quarterback about the direction in
which he wanted the offense to go. But in terms
of the four Super Bowl wins that answered Tom's question specifically,
Bradshaw called all of his own plays.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
The Steelers end of their preseason on Thursday in Atlanta,
taking on the Falcons and Labs, and I will be
back with another edition of assid and answered next week.
We all appreciate you sending in your question to LABS
to hear them read on this very program, and we'll
talk to you then on asked that answered
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