August 29, 2023 • 23 mins
Tom and Labs talk about final cuts being made to the roster before getting into the questions of the day on Asked and Answered
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola glaves.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The final cuts are doing just a few hours here.
Did you get yours into? Coach Tomlin? I know that
you're one of the final says for a lot of
these roster spots, so I want to make sure that
you're ahead of it on time this time.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I mean, I don't want to keep here, you know.
And he and I had a little bit of an
argument over you. I mean, I was seven fringe.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I knew I was like fifty four or fifty three.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You know. It was like you or Tanner Muse, You
or Tanner Muse, you know. And I think I convinced
them because I saw Tanner mus was on the cut
list yesterday, and just a little side thing, I'm a
little surprised they cut this many people in advance. Yeah, right,
was it like fifteen or something? Eight and then maybe
eighteen whatever?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Because the Tanne Tomler's or whatever Tomlin was saying, it
was kind of like, we're going to ride this all
the way to the deadline, and that kind of seemed
like the vibe is putting out there.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, and well I think that, you know, the moves
that they made are in their mind, in their mind
or the obvious ones, you know. Plus you know the schedule,
you know, for the rest of this week and into
the long weekend. You know there's cb it Collective Bargaining
Agreement rules, Union rules, and so you know, there's four
(01:24):
mandatory four days off. So you know, my belief is
it's going to be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday players off,
and then Monday, you know, they'll start it like a
regular week, you know what I mean, because the game's
the following Sunday, So you know there's going to be
some kind of you know, practice workouts going on. You know,
(01:46):
in between now and Thursday. You know, it's not going
to be you know, padded practices like it was a
training camp or anything intense like that. But you know,
I think that you want to not be practicing guys
that you're not going to keep. You know that you're
not going to keep, because the last thing you would
(02:09):
want is want of them to get injured or dinged
or something and then you can't cut them, so then
you're carrying a guy on a roster or an injury
settlement with a guy, or you know, any salary cap
drains that might come along with that. That's just not
good business. So you know, I do think that it
kind of makes sense if you know, if you know
(02:31):
who you don't want and you know you're not going
to get anything for them in a trade. Because the
one guy right now that is kind of interesting to
me is Braden Man, the punter, who's not going to
make the team because Presley Harvin the third had a
much better preseason. Right now, I think maybe you keep
(02:52):
him because maybe you think you could get something forming
a trade, conditional something whatever, or at least you know,
want to investigate that possible ability. So because usually you
would think, okay, you know who your specialists are, you
just cut the extra ones. But they kept that braidon Man.
(03:13):
So that's an example of one of the things that
I was trying to say about maybe you try and
do something with him in a trade.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Well, once the Steelers make their final cuts later on today,
the process begins to build up that practice squad. And
our first question today from Larry Heminger is in that vein.
He writes us from San Diego, California, and asks, how
does the timing and the process work to build the
practice squad. When we release our players, do we get
a first chance to add them to our squad or
do all teams have an equal chance?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Okay, Larry, we're taking this podcast on the morning of Tuesday,
August twenty ninth, and it's we're about six plus hours
before the roster cuts are due. So I'm going to
go through a general timeline as to the process NFL
teams will be going through in the next forty eight
hours or so in terms of cutting their rosters and
then assembling their sixteen manon practice squads. And everyone should
(04:06):
remember we're still at sixteen man practice squad, so you know,
instead of really cutting a fifty three, the Steelers are
cutting quote unquote to almost eighty seventy nine. Even though
sixteen of those guys are going to be on the
practice squad not the active roster. There's still guys you
(04:27):
want to, as Mike Tomlans says, you want to continue
to do business with them. Okay, So anyway, here we go, Tuesday,
August twenty ninth, at four pm Eastern daylight time. And
it's important to remember that all of these times at
the NFL, you know, time deadlines, time of day deadlines.
It's always eastern time, okay, So you know you don't
(04:48):
get like Hawaii. If you know Sean McVay flies to Hawaii,
he doesn't get you know, an extra few hours, you know,
to figure out what he wants to.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Just time traveling throughout the globe just to get that
extra advantage.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Right, you know, if you've got a flex capacitor, you
know it's not going to work. Okay. So anyway, four
pm eastern daylight time today is the deadline for all
teams that have their rosters at the fifty three million limit. Okay.
And so then you get there by doing things with
two categories of players. You waive players and those are
(05:26):
the guys with fewer than four years of credited NFL service,
or you terminate the vested veterans, who are players with
four years or more of credited service. Just to clarify,
vested veterans are not subject to waivers. They can sign
with any team that's interested in them. Waves players are
subject to the claiming system. Now, when it comes to
(05:48):
the claiming system, players are awarded to teams that put
in claims on them, and that that order is based
on the reverse order of how teams finished during the
twenty twenty two regular season, with the worst teams given
the highest priorities. You know, think of it as the
original first round draft order before all of those draft
(06:08):
day trades were made. You know, people jumping around in
the order, and I'll give you that exact order here
in just a little bit. As we continue with this. Okay, Tuesday,
October twenty ninth, we're still with today seven pm Eastern
daylight time. Teams then will be informed via an NFL
email of all players who have been released. Then by
(06:30):
noon on Wednesday, August thirtieth is the deadline for teams
to submit claims on any waived players. Okay, Then by
one pm on Wednesday, August thirtieth, teams will be informed
of any players that they have been awarded under the
waiver system. Okay. Then if you put in a claim
for AA a waiver claim for someone, and then you
(06:54):
have been awarded him, then you have one hour to
note the league of you got to cut somebody else,
so you got to notify the league of who that is,
so in order to make room for the claimed player
or players, depending on how many you have claimed. Okay, Now,
here's the waiver claim order. And again this was before
(07:17):
all the trades, So Chicago is first. Now they can
claim fifty guys, okay, and they're first for all all
of those. I mean, it doesn't work like you know,
you already ordered your BK broiler and so you know,
the next person gets through.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
The drive until everybody gets.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
One, right, No, that's not the case. If you are first,
you're first for every claim you make, and you know,
so there we go. So it's Chicago, Houston, Arizona, Indie, Denver,
the Rams, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Carolina, and New Orleans, Tennessee, Cleveland,
(07:58):
the Jets, New England, Green Bay, Washington, Pittsburgh. Okay, the
Steelers picked Broderick Jones fourteenth, but they traded up from seventeenth,
so in the waiver claim order, they are still seventeenth,
so Pittsburgh would be seventeenth, and any claim they make
of players on waivers. Then after starting number eighteen, it's Detroit,
(08:21):
Tampa Bay, Seattle, Miami, which was docked a first round
pick for their Shenanigans Stephen Ross. That you know, they're
reinserted back into their normal order for waivers. Okay, Miami
then the Chargers, the Ravens, Minnesota, Jacksonville, the Giants, Dallas, Buffalo, Cincinnati,
(08:42):
San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Kansas City. Okay, and so that's
the order for every claim made on every waved player. Okay. Now, Wednesday,
August thirtieth at six pm, that's the deadline for the
teams to submit their sixteen player practice squads to the league.
Then the league will collate all those and we'll post
(09:04):
each team's practice squad in an email that will send
out to all the teams by eight pm the same day.
So by Wednesday, August thirtieth, at eight pm, every team
in the league will know what every other team in
the league's sixteen men practice squad is. And in general,
you know, it's a free for all. It's very similar
(09:25):
to the end of the draft when teams are permitted
to sign undrafted rookies. So you're going to see a
lot of you know, as I said, a lot of
back and forth going on. A lot of times guys
are signed to practice squads, other people become available. You know,
they'll switch them out sometimes. You know, a team might
(09:46):
not sign sixteen practice squad guys right away. They'll leave
a couple of spots open to fill them in later.
So you know, but these are the general deadlines, the
general guidelines for what's going to happen here the next
I don't know, thirty six hours or so.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Mark Dixon from Eders, Pennsylvania asks, in looking at the
Kevin Dotson trade, for each of the draft picks given up,
we got lower picks and gave up Dotson, and so
it seems like we paid the Rams to take him.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Is this correct?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I don't know. Let me let me explain it the
way I understand it, and then a Mark, you can
decide if you know, the Steelers paid the Rams to
take Kevin Dotson. Okay, Okay, the Steelers sent Kevin Dowson
to the Rams. They got the rams twenty twenty four
fourth round pick and their twenty twenty five fifth round pick. Okay.
(10:37):
In return, the Rams got Dotson, the Steelers twenty twenty
four fifth round pick, and their twenty twenty five sixth
round pick. So, the way I'm looking at it, the
Steelers got the highest draft pick, which was a number
four in the twenty twenty four NFL Draft. The Rams
got the lowest pick, which was a sixth round pick
in twenty twenty five. Now, you know, I agree that
(10:58):
the Steelers not hard harvest some bonanza, some bounty and
trading Kevin Dotson. But let's face it. I mean, the
guy has one year left on his rookie contract, so
you know they're gonna have to, you know, come to
some agreement. Are they only gone him for a year?
And you know, Kevin Dotson also qualified for that performance
(11:20):
based pay thing, and so his cap number, you know,
for his last season is over two million. So the
guy who's not going to be a starter didn't really
play any other position. You know, you got something for him,
and you got rid of his contract. You know, it's
(11:41):
it's it's about as good as it's going to get.
I mean, let's face it, the guy's not John Hannah.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, and although they didn't gain a draft pick per se,
they're going to be picking from deeper pools of talent
by moving up in those draft classes twenty twenty four
and twenty twenty five. So yeah, I don't think that
that's a you know, just hey, take this guy off
our hands and we'll give you whatever it takes to
get him. I think that was a pretty decent trade.
It as far as what you could have gotten for
that guy.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Right, I think it's the best you could expect for
a guy like him. Really, I know he's had injury issues.
You know, he's a guy, and they think that they're
better there, and I don't disagree.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Ed Hernan from Austin Town, Ohio. In today's game, where
I believe the offense gets so many advantages, why is
it still legal for an offensive player to stiff arm
a defensive player in the face mask? Do you ever
see a time where this becomes a penalty on the offense.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, it actually is already a penalty on the offense,
and it will be called when an offensive player in
the process of stiff arming a defender, if he grabs
the defensive player's face mask, you know, closes his hand
around it in some way, or you know, there was
(12:55):
some more kind of contact than just you know, pushing away.
We saw that actually in the preseason opener against the
Buccaneers in Tampa. David Moore, Buccaneers wide receiver, was penalized
for that when he grabbed James Pierre's face mask on
a play. So, yeah, it is already a penalty. It
(13:17):
is called not often, but those are the rules, and
that's when it should be called, when they actually close
their hand on the face mask. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So you know a lot of times you see that
violent movement towards the head. As long as that palm's open,
it really isn't never going to be called for a penalty.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, it's not the striking blow, it's the grabbing and twisting. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Uriel Varazzi from Loretto, Texas asks throughout the preseason Anthony
McFarlane on offense and Kawan Alexander on defense, both suited
up wearing number twenty six. Is that an exemption because
of the ninety man roster or is it allowed during
the regular season as well.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
No, I mean that's just an allowance that's made during
preseason because there's ninety million rosters. Players on the same
team are allowed to wear duplicate numbers along as long
as you know one is primarily an offensive player and
the other one is primarily a defensive player. Now, you
could have some overlap in the situation of special teams
(14:16):
because so many guys, you know, running backs, linebackers play
special teams too, so you know that's a different category.
But once you get to now fifty three million roster.
You can't have duplicate numbers, and my belief is that
it's going to be Kawant Alexander who's going to be
the guy who has the change. McFarland is the more
(14:38):
veteran player on the Steelers and so he would get
first priority in a dual number situation. And I don't
know that inside linebackers. If Kawant Alexander is in fact
not going to be categorized as a defensive back, twenty
six doesn't work for him in accordance with the NFL regulations.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Matthew Johnson from Cashire, North Carolina. I like Mike Tomlin
and really enjoy listening to his press conferences, especially this
time of year. However, he has basically downplayed depth charts,
but at the same time before the Bills game, said
we appreciate the opportunity of our twos verse their ones.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Well, I agree.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
It is good to see your younger developing players against
proven players. Isn't calling them our twos just another way
of saying what most of us refer to as a
depth chart?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
You know, I think that Mike Tomlin's opinion of depth
charts has more to do with the public perception of
them and the inflated importance that comes along with the
public perception of them. Then you know he hates the
idea of it on its face, you know, because within
(15:52):
the team there is a pecking order, you know, the
facto depth chart. If you want that, you have to
follow a more for practices to operate in an organized fashion.
You know, you're a training camp and you want to
get groups on and off the field. You know they'll
you know, second team dime, they yell out and everybody
(16:12):
you know knows who you are, So you have to
have you know, within the team, you have to have
some understanding of what group you're with. And that's how
they referred to with ones, twos, threes. But you know
the difference is and a depth chart that is released publicly,
it's on a piece of paper, okay, And so for example,
(16:37):
Darnell Washington, I'm just picking him up. Okay. You look
on the depth chart that's on a piece of paper.
One of the early ones too. Okay, he's listed as
the number four tight end. But when they call a
personnel grouping out, he might be part of the twos.
So you know there's a difference there in terms of
(16:58):
what his pecking order for team drills and such is,
and where his name is actually on the piece of
paper that's made public according to NFL rules when you
have to publicize depth charts. So, you know, again, maybe
I'm splitting hairs here, but I would say that it's
(17:21):
much more having to do with the public perception of
them and players having to answer questions about them, you know,
and that kind of stuff than it is to you know,
arguing or referring to your twos against their ones when
you're referring to, you know, situations that crop up in games.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Terrence Vankleeve from Fisher's Indiana. Our joint practices slash scrimmages
between NFL teams becoming more common than previously. It will
make my day if you say that they not only are,
but that they'll also eliminate the need for these atrocious
preseason games.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
This is my opinion, and so I just want to
preface it that way. Okay. The problem with these joint
practices is, you know, they often like just turn into
cheap shots and fights, too much chippy play. You don't
get a lot of work done sometimes, you know, there
was one where Jason Kelsey the Eagles decorated center who
(18:27):
admitted after I forget who the joint practice was with that,
he started a fight. He said, yeah, I did it.
You know, I lost my cool or whatever. Well, okay,
and I'm not ripping Jason Kelsey. I'm just saying that
a season pro like him, decorated guy.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
He's done labs, he's that good.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well that's not get care. But anyway, he's pretty good.
Hall of Fame centers. There aren't that many in the hall.
So but anyway, that's another that's another.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Already also as a podcast, so that's got to help
his case.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Well, there you go. That's silly meat. But you know
you can't have that. And if you know, in joint
practices too, you know, like we saw at Saint Vincent
or are well, relatively early in the in the training
camp process, NFL officials come and work the practices, right, Okay,
they don't do joint practices usually ninety nine percent of
(19:26):
the time. So you don't have any official NFL officials there,
so there's no you know, players will get away with
what they can get away with, and if there's no
officials there, you know there's gonna be stuff going on.
And you know, in preseason games, as meaningless as we
might think they are, as atrocious as fans might perceive
them to be, you know, there are real officials there.
(19:49):
In addition to the real officials. You know, this is
also being watched in New York at the league headquarters,
and so if there's any kind of shenanigans that get
out of hand, you're gonna get fined. Those could be
big numbers for you know, dirty play. So you know,
there's there's kind of a lot of built in how
(20:14):
do I want to say, the turn factor involved in
preseason games that is not present in joint practices, and
I think, you know, unless the coaches have a really
good relationship with each other and respect for each other
and their teams do not have a history of bitter
games in the recent past. You know, joint practices, you
(20:37):
only have three preseason games, so it's not like you're
playing six or seven where you know, god, can we
just do something else instead of another one of these
preseason games. And then here's one last factor. You're never
gonna get rid of preseason games because of one reason
the money. You know, right, the games are televis, so
(21:01):
there are that's part of the broadcast package tickets are sold,
so that's that's also part of ticket revenue that's all
added up throughout the league and divided up between the
owners and the players and helps termine the salary cap. So,
you know, I think three preseason games are not too
many to have to deal with as a fan or
(21:24):
for me and you.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
No, I don't think so at all.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
In fact, I'm very thankful that they cut that down
from four to two three. Jim Wolf from Arlington, Tennessee
has our final question today. Sorry for asking a non
Steelers question, but I saw that Josh Jacobs and the
Raiders agreed to a new contract. I thought that the
time had passed for players and teams to agree to
a new contract since Jacob Jacobs had been franchise tagged. Jim,
I think that is a Steelers related question in a way,
(21:48):
because Steels are going to see Josh Jacobs in week three.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Well, there you go, thanks for bringing.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
It around, for bringing all around full circle like that.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Okay, But anyway that the rule that Jim is referring
to has to do with long term deals. The deadline
is for long term deals between franchise tag players and
their team. So the Josh Jacobs steel was a one
year contract, so there is no deadline when a player
(22:19):
can sign who is on under the franchise tag. A
franchise tag player, there is no deadline for him when
he can agree to a one year contract or sign
a one year contract with his team that tagged him.
So it's a different situation.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Well, last weekend before the Steelers regular season kicks off,
I know you're very upset about that, Labs. I know
you wish that you could get things going right now
if you had your way.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Or let's look at the bright side. I'll be sitting
around my house watching college football all weekend.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
College football does kick off for real this weekend. We'll
be back again next week with another edition of Asked
and Answered before the Steelers take on the Niners in
their season opener. Not this Sunday, but the following. For
Bob Blabrielle, I'm Tom Opfreman. We'll talk to you guys
next week on aston Answered
This is asked and answered questions with Tom Upferman and
Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola glaves.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The final cuts are doing just a few hours here.
Did you get yours into? Coach Tomlin? I know that
you're one of the final says for a lot of
these roster spots, so I want to make sure that
you're ahead of it on time this time.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I mean, I don't want to keep here, you know.
And he and I had a little bit of an
argument over you. I mean, I was seven fringe.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I knew I was like fifty four or fifty three.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You know. It was like you or Tanner Muse, You
or Tanner Muse, you know. And I think I convinced
them because I saw Tanner mus was on the cut
list yesterday, and just a little side thing, I'm a
little surprised they cut this many people in advance. Yeah, right,
was it like fifteen or something? Eight and then maybe
eighteen whatever?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Because the Tanne Tomler's or whatever Tomlin was saying, it
was kind of like, we're going to ride this all
the way to the deadline, and that kind of seemed
like the vibe is putting out there.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, and well I think that, you know, the moves
that they made are in their mind, in their mind
or the obvious ones, you know. Plus you know the schedule,
you know, for the rest of this week and into
the long weekend. You know there's cb it Collective Bargaining
Agreement rules, Union rules, and so you know, there's four
(01:24):
mandatory four days off. So you know, my belief is
it's going to be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday players off,
and then Monday, you know, they'll start it like a
regular week, you know what I mean, because the game's
the following Sunday, So you know there's going to be
some kind of you know, practice workouts going on. You know,
(01:46):
in between now and Thursday. You know, it's not going
to be you know, padded practices like it was a
training camp or anything intense like that. But you know,
I think that you want to not be practicing guys
that you're not going to keep. You know that you're
not going to keep, because the last thing you would
(02:09):
want is want of them to get injured or dinged
or something and then you can't cut them, so then
you're carrying a guy on a roster or an injury
settlement with a guy, or you know, any salary cap
drains that might come along with that. That's just not
good business. So you know, I do think that it
kind of makes sense if you know, if you know
(02:31):
who you don't want and you know you're not going
to get anything for them in a trade. Because the
one guy right now that is kind of interesting to
me is Braden Man, the punter, who's not going to
make the team because Presley Harvin the third had a
much better preseason. Right now, I think maybe you keep
(02:52):
him because maybe you think you could get something forming
a trade, conditional something whatever, or at least you know,
want to investigate that possible ability. So because usually you
would think, okay, you know who your specialists are, you
just cut the extra ones. But they kept that braidon Man.
(03:13):
So that's an example of one of the things that
I was trying to say about maybe you try and
do something with him in a trade.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Well, once the Steelers make their final cuts later on today,
the process begins to build up that practice squad. And
our first question today from Larry Heminger is in that vein.
He writes us from San Diego, California, and asks, how
does the timing and the process work to build the
practice squad. When we release our players, do we get
a first chance to add them to our squad or
do all teams have an equal chance?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Okay, Larry, we're taking this podcast on the morning of Tuesday,
August twenty ninth, and it's we're about six plus hours
before the roster cuts are due. So I'm going to
go through a general timeline as to the process NFL
teams will be going through in the next forty eight
hours or so in terms of cutting their rosters and
then assembling their sixteen manon practice squads. And everyone should
(04:06):
remember we're still at sixteen man practice squad, so you know,
instead of really cutting a fifty three, the Steelers are
cutting quote unquote to almost eighty seventy nine. Even though
sixteen of those guys are going to be on the
practice squad not the active roster. There's still guys you
(04:27):
want to, as Mike Tomlans says, you want to continue
to do business with them. Okay, So anyway, here we go, Tuesday,
August twenty ninth, at four pm Eastern daylight time. And
it's important to remember that all of these times at
the NFL, you know, time deadlines, time of day deadlines.
It's always eastern time, okay, So you know you don't
(04:48):
get like Hawaii. If you know Sean McVay flies to Hawaii,
he doesn't get you know, an extra few hours, you know,
to figure out what he wants to.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Just time traveling throughout the globe just to get that
extra advantage.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Right, you know, if you've got a flex capacitor, you
know it's not going to work. Okay. So anyway, four
pm eastern daylight time today is the deadline for all
teams that have their rosters at the fifty three million limit. Okay.
And so then you get there by doing things with
two categories of players. You waive players and those are
(05:26):
the guys with fewer than four years of credited NFL service,
or you terminate the vested veterans, who are players with
four years or more of credited service. Just to clarify,
vested veterans are not subject to waivers. They can sign
with any team that's interested in them. Waves players are
subject to the claiming system. Now, when it comes to
(05:48):
the claiming system, players are awarded to teams that put
in claims on them, and that that order is based
on the reverse order of how teams finished during the
twenty twenty two regular season, with the worst teams given
the highest priorities. You know, think of it as the
original first round draft order before all of those draft
(06:08):
day trades were made. You know, people jumping around in
the order, and I'll give you that exact order here
in just a little bit. As we continue with this. Okay, Tuesday,
October twenty ninth, we're still with today seven pm Eastern
daylight time. Teams then will be informed via an NFL
email of all players who have been released. Then by
(06:30):
noon on Wednesday, August thirtieth is the deadline for teams
to submit claims on any waived players. Okay, Then by
one pm on Wednesday, August thirtieth, teams will be informed
of any players that they have been awarded under the
waiver system. Okay. Then if you put in a claim
for AA a waiver claim for someone, and then you
(06:54):
have been awarded him, then you have one hour to
note the league of you got to cut somebody else,
so you got to notify the league of who that is,
so in order to make room for the claimed player
or players, depending on how many you have claimed. Okay, Now,
here's the waiver claim order. And again this was before
(07:17):
all the trades, So Chicago is first. Now they can
claim fifty guys, okay, and they're first for all all
of those. I mean, it doesn't work like you know,
you already ordered your BK broiler and so you know,
the next person gets through.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
The drive until everybody gets.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
One, right, No, that's not the case. If you are first,
you're first for every claim you make, and you know,
so there we go. So it's Chicago, Houston, Arizona, Indie, Denver,
the Rams, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Carolina, and New Orleans, Tennessee, Cleveland,
(07:58):
the Jets, New England, Green Bay, Washington, Pittsburgh. Okay, the
Steelers picked Broderick Jones fourteenth, but they traded up from seventeenth,
so in the waiver claim order, they are still seventeenth,
so Pittsburgh would be seventeenth, and any claim they make
of players on waivers. Then after starting number eighteen, it's Detroit,
(08:21):
Tampa Bay, Seattle, Miami, which was docked a first round
pick for their Shenanigans Stephen Ross. That you know, they're
reinserted back into their normal order for waivers. Okay, Miami
then the Chargers, the Ravens, Minnesota, Jacksonville, the Giants, Dallas, Buffalo, Cincinnati,
(08:42):
San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Kansas City. Okay, and so that's
the order for every claim made on every waved player. Okay. Now, Wednesday,
August thirtieth at six pm, that's the deadline for the
teams to submit their sixteen player practice squads to the league.
Then the league will collate all those and we'll post
(09:04):
each team's practice squad in an email that will send
out to all the teams by eight pm the same day.
So by Wednesday, August thirtieth, at eight pm, every team
in the league will know what every other team in
the league's sixteen men practice squad is. And in general,
you know, it's a free for all. It's very similar
(09:25):
to the end of the draft when teams are permitted
to sign undrafted rookies. So you're going to see a
lot of you know, as I said, a lot of
back and forth going on. A lot of times guys
are signed to practice squads, other people become available. You know,
they'll switch them out sometimes. You know, a team might
(09:46):
not sign sixteen practice squad guys right away. They'll leave
a couple of spots open to fill them in later.
So you know, but these are the general deadlines, the
general guidelines for what's going to happen here the next
I don't know, thirty six hours or so.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Mark Dixon from Eders, Pennsylvania asks, in looking at the
Kevin Dotson trade, for each of the draft picks given up,
we got lower picks and gave up Dotson, and so
it seems like we paid the Rams to take him.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Is this correct?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I don't know. Let me let me explain it the
way I understand it, and then a Mark, you can
decide if you know, the Steelers paid the Rams to
take Kevin Dotson. Okay, Okay, the Steelers sent Kevin Dowson
to the Rams. They got the rams twenty twenty four
fourth round pick and their twenty twenty five fifth round pick. Okay.
(10:37):
In return, the Rams got Dotson, the Steelers twenty twenty
four fifth round pick, and their twenty twenty five sixth
round pick. So, the way I'm looking at it, the
Steelers got the highest draft pick, which was a number
four in the twenty twenty four NFL Draft. The Rams
got the lowest pick, which was a sixth round pick
in twenty twenty five. Now, you know, I agree that
(10:58):
the Steelers not hard harvest some bonanza, some bounty and
trading Kevin Dotson. But let's face it. I mean, the
guy has one year left on his rookie contract, so
you know they're gonna have to, you know, come to
some agreement. Are they only gone him for a year?
And you know, Kevin Dotson also qualified for that performance
(11:20):
based pay thing, and so his cap number, you know,
for his last season is over two million. So the
guy who's not going to be a starter didn't really
play any other position. You know, you got something for him,
and you got rid of his contract. You know, it's
(11:41):
it's it's about as good as it's going to get.
I mean, let's face it, the guy's not John Hannah.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, and although they didn't gain a draft pick per se,
they're going to be picking from deeper pools of talent
by moving up in those draft classes twenty twenty four
and twenty twenty five. So yeah, I don't think that
that's a you know, just hey, take this guy off
our hands and we'll give you whatever it takes to
get him. I think that was a pretty decent trade.
It as far as what you could have gotten for
that guy.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Right, I think it's the best you could expect for
a guy like him. Really, I know he's had injury issues.
You know, he's a guy, and they think that they're
better there, and I don't disagree.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Ed Hernan from Austin Town, Ohio. In today's game, where
I believe the offense gets so many advantages, why is
it still legal for an offensive player to stiff arm
a defensive player in the face mask? Do you ever
see a time where this becomes a penalty on the offense.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, it actually is already a penalty on the offense,
and it will be called when an offensive player in
the process of stiff arming a defender, if he grabs
the defensive player's face mask, you know, closes his hand
around it in some way, or you know, there was
(12:55):
some more kind of contact than just you know, pushing away.
We saw that actually in the preseason opener against the
Buccaneers in Tampa. David Moore, Buccaneers wide receiver, was penalized
for that when he grabbed James Pierre's face mask on
a play. So, yeah, it is already a penalty. It
(13:17):
is called not often, but those are the rules, and
that's when it should be called, when they actually close
their hand on the face mask. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So you know a lot of times you see that
violent movement towards the head. As long as that palm's open,
it really isn't never going to be called for a penalty.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, it's not the striking blow, it's the grabbing and twisting. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Uriel Varazzi from Loretto, Texas asks throughout the preseason Anthony
McFarlane on offense and Kawan Alexander on defense, both suited
up wearing number twenty six. Is that an exemption because
of the ninety man roster or is it allowed during
the regular season as well.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
No, I mean that's just an allowance that's made during
preseason because there's ninety million rosters. Players on the same
team are allowed to wear duplicate numbers along as long
as you know one is primarily an offensive player and
the other one is primarily a defensive player. Now, you
could have some overlap in the situation of special teams
(14:16):
because so many guys, you know, running backs, linebackers play
special teams too, so you know that's a different category.
But once you get to now fifty three million roster.
You can't have duplicate numbers, and my belief is that
it's going to be Kawant Alexander who's going to be
the guy who has the change. McFarland is the more
(14:38):
veteran player on the Steelers and so he would get
first priority in a dual number situation. And I don't
know that inside linebackers. If Kawant Alexander is in fact
not going to be categorized as a defensive back, twenty
six doesn't work for him in accordance with the NFL regulations.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Matthew Johnson from Cashire, North Carolina. I like Mike Tomlin
and really enjoy listening to his press conferences, especially this
time of year. However, he has basically downplayed depth charts,
but at the same time before the Bills game, said
we appreciate the opportunity of our twos verse their ones.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Well, I agree.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
It is good to see your younger developing players against
proven players. Isn't calling them our twos just another way
of saying what most of us refer to as a
depth chart?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
You know, I think that Mike Tomlin's opinion of depth
charts has more to do with the public perception of
them and the inflated importance that comes along with the
public perception of them. Then you know he hates the
idea of it on its face, you know, because within
(15:52):
the team there is a pecking order, you know, the
facto depth chart. If you want that, you have to
follow a more for practices to operate in an organized fashion.
You know, you're a training camp and you want to
get groups on and off the field. You know they'll
you know, second team dime, they yell out and everybody
(16:12):
you know knows who you are, So you have to
have you know, within the team, you have to have
some understanding of what group you're with. And that's how
they referred to with ones, twos, threes. But you know
the difference is and a depth chart that is released publicly,
it's on a piece of paper, okay, And so for example,
(16:37):
Darnell Washington, I'm just picking him up. Okay. You look
on the depth chart that's on a piece of paper.
One of the early ones too. Okay, he's listed as
the number four tight end. But when they call a
personnel grouping out, he might be part of the twos.
So you know there's a difference there in terms of
(16:58):
what his pecking order for team drills and such is,
and where his name is actually on the piece of
paper that's made public according to NFL rules when you
have to publicize depth charts. So, you know, again, maybe
I'm splitting hairs here, but I would say that it's
(17:21):
much more having to do with the public perception of
them and players having to answer questions about them, you know,
and that kind of stuff than it is to you know,
arguing or referring to your twos against their ones when
you're referring to, you know, situations that crop up in games.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Terrence Vankleeve from Fisher's Indiana. Our joint practices slash scrimmages
between NFL teams becoming more common than previously. It will
make my day if you say that they not only are,
but that they'll also eliminate the need for these atrocious
preseason games.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
This is my opinion, and so I just want to
preface it that way. Okay. The problem with these joint
practices is, you know, they often like just turn into
cheap shots and fights, too much chippy play. You don't
get a lot of work done sometimes, you know, there
was one where Jason Kelsey the Eagles decorated center who
(18:27):
admitted after I forget who the joint practice was with that,
he started a fight. He said, yeah, I did it.
You know, I lost my cool or whatever. Well, okay,
and I'm not ripping Jason Kelsey. I'm just saying that
a season pro like him, decorated guy.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
He's done labs, he's that good.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well that's not get care. But anyway, he's pretty good.
Hall of Fame centers. There aren't that many in the hall.
So but anyway, that's another that's another.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Already also as a podcast, so that's got to help
his case.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Well, there you go. That's silly meat. But you know
you can't have that. And if you know, in joint
practices too, you know, like we saw at Saint Vincent
or are well, relatively early in the in the training
camp process, NFL officials come and work the practices, right, Okay,
they don't do joint practices usually ninety nine percent of
(19:26):
the time. So you don't have any official NFL officials there,
so there's no you know, players will get away with
what they can get away with, and if there's no
officials there, you know there's gonna be stuff going on.
And you know, in preseason games, as meaningless as we
might think they are, as atrocious as fans might perceive
them to be, you know, there are real officials there.
(19:49):
In addition to the real officials. You know, this is
also being watched in New York at the league headquarters,
and so if there's any kind of shenanigans that get
out of hand, you're gonna get fined. Those could be
big numbers for you know, dirty play. So you know,
there's there's kind of a lot of built in how
(20:14):
do I want to say, the turn factor involved in
preseason games that is not present in joint practices, and
I think, you know, unless the coaches have a really
good relationship with each other and respect for each other
and their teams do not have a history of bitter
games in the recent past. You know, joint practices, you
(20:37):
only have three preseason games, so it's not like you're
playing six or seven where you know, god, can we
just do something else instead of another one of these
preseason games. And then here's one last factor. You're never
gonna get rid of preseason games because of one reason
the money. You know, right, the games are televis, so
(21:01):
there are that's part of the broadcast package tickets are sold,
so that's that's also part of ticket revenue that's all
added up throughout the league and divided up between the
owners and the players and helps termine the salary cap. So,
you know, I think three preseason games are not too
many to have to deal with as a fan or
(21:24):
for me and you.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
No, I don't think so at all.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
In fact, I'm very thankful that they cut that down
from four to two three. Jim Wolf from Arlington, Tennessee
has our final question today. Sorry for asking a non
Steelers question, but I saw that Josh Jacobs and the
Raiders agreed to a new contract. I thought that the
time had passed for players and teams to agree to
a new contract since Jacob Jacobs had been franchise tagged. Jim,
I think that is a Steelers related question in a way,
(21:48):
because Steels are going to see Josh Jacobs in week three.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Well, there you go, thanks for bringing.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
It around, for bringing all around full circle like that.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Okay, But anyway that the rule that Jim is referring
to has to do with long term deals. The deadline
is for long term deals between franchise tag players and
their team. So the Josh Jacobs steel was a one
year contract, so there is no deadline when a player
(22:19):
can sign who is on under the franchise tag. A
franchise tag player, there is no deadline for him when
he can agree to a one year contract or sign
a one year contract with his team that tagged him.
So it's a different situation.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Well, last weekend before the Steelers regular season kicks off,
I know you're very upset about that, Labs. I know
you wish that you could get things going right now
if you had your way.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Or let's look at the bright side. I'll be sitting
around my house watching college football all weekend.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
College football does kick off for real this weekend. We'll
be back again next week with another edition of Asked
and Answered before the Steelers take on the Niners in
their season opener. Not this Sunday, but the following. For
Bob Blabrielle, I'm Tom Opfreman. We'll talk to you guys
next week on aston Answered
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