July 24, 2025 • 50 mins
Max Starks and Rob King kick off SNR's 2025 camp coverage from Latrobe.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Iheartradios. Live coverage of about twenty twenty five Steelers Training
Camp is presented by FedEx where Now meets Next and
also brought to you by bud Light, Independence Health System,
by Pennsylvania One Call System, by Live Casino, Calciente Pizza
and Drafthouse by Tom's Appliances, South Hills Auto, Laurel Highlands
(00:33):
Visitors Bureau, Wemax, Select Realty, the Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Shop,
and by us Steel.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Hello everybody, and welcome to the trobe and welcome to
the locker room with King and Starks, presented by your
neighborhood Ford Store, alongside Max Starks and Wes Euler who's
here at the controls and CJ Wolfley. I'm Rob King.
CJ just put a hand up in the air and
a and a thumbs up. And once again, you can't
hear that on radio, so no you can't. I figured
(01:05):
we got to paint the visuals Max first of all
before we get into some other stuff. How are you,
my friend? You do all right?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I am late arrival last night, yeah, late night, early morning.
However you want to look at it. Depending on your
age group and demographic it can be determined a bunch
of different ways. So we're gonna go with the positive here.
We're gonna say, yeah, late night, but not an early morning.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So before we get started, I do want to say,
and I think I speak for both of us, we're
sad that I'm in this doing the show and the
reason I'm doing this show, and that is, you know, obviously,
the off season passing of our great friend Craig Wolfley,
and I just wanted to at least, you know, mention
that before we get started. And sad and quick and
(01:51):
tragic and just an absolute downer and bummer it is.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
And I'm right now, I'm like fighting back.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
A lot of the emotion.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
I think throughout the broadcast I'll get through.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
It better to be able to verbalize my words. But yeah,
it's uh, it's a sad day to be up here
with training camp right now.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, yeah, it is. It's a sad day. And we'll
we'll let that that is going to be ruminating for
a while with us. In the meantime, we are here
and we're out looking at fields in which there is
no practice because they've moved the practices to the afternoon.
So before we get into the personnel when you were
out here in camp Max morning and afternoon.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Guy, uh, I'm in the Arab two days. So he
both see all of the above right on the cherry.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Remember remember that, you remember that commercial with Dean Sanders
was playing baseball and football, and you know he kept
answering both to everything. You know, what are you gonna play, Dian?
You know, football or baseball? Both, And at the end
Jerry Jones says, well, okay, Diane, what's it going to
be fifteen twenty million? And he says both both. Yeah, yeah,
(03:06):
So you guys did both when you're here, Yeah, we
did both.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
And I think the biggest thing was that you know
there there was value to it. But obviously that's a
different era of football that you know you needed that
because the conditioning, the off season programs weren't as sophisticated
as they are now. Where you're talking about guys actually
go and train the entire offseason to get ready for
this moment, whereas the idea of two a days or
(03:30):
quote unquote three days even further back, was that you
need to get the guys in shape because guys had
other jobs, they had other responsibilities, and you needed to
get them ready for what the season was. Now, these
guys come in, they've come from specialty training facilities and
they've been working on specific body parts and all this
(03:52):
kind of specialized training even that we see in the
youth level now, right, you know, kids have private coaches.
You know, my kids got private coaches in volleyball, right
and twelve years old. So it's a lot more sophisticated
where you could be more efficient with the time, and
also you know, the player resting, The whole analytics side
of it is there.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I would say.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Probably, but I would think the best time to practice
would be afternoon. But I know, you know, there's a
whole thing with when you're here in the Laurel Valley, right,
it's you don't know what weather is in the afternoon.
You know what weather is in the morning, right for
the most part. And we've had a couple of rain
practices even in.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
That morning, where like Farmer's Almanac, my butt, you know.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
And so I think we're turning back to this gives
you more of an actual game day type of feel
because most of your games are gonna happen between one
and four pm, right, So why not practice, especially this
time you're where you know it's the hottest part of
the day. Put that attrition, Put that adversity in the
guy's court as fast as possible. And no better way
to acclimate than to be out here with little humidity.
(04:52):
And if it does rain, as long as there's no lightning,
guess what the balls on the ground you're gonna play.
So I think I would be more in tune to
the afternoon versus the early morning practice because it's too
much off time.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
In the afternoon, you.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Kind of get, okay, get your legs under you. After
this practice, you get.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The morning regardless it was the day was over at
two o'clock.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Lash, yeah, and you're just walking around.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
I mean, I mean, how much free time did we
have afterwards? Like and then and then there's nothing to like,
see talk about. So I'm all for the afternoon. I
think the afternoon and especially if you're gonna put pads on,
I want to see afternoon full. I want to see
morning cool football. Like that's just We're not some random
group of five school that has like the noon slate
(05:32):
and mountain time, you know what I'm saying, Like this
exactly ten am kick where everybody's still drinking coffee or
Irish coffee at least, uh you know, you know, and
I want to see afternoon football, and I think this
is gonna be cool. And I think for the fans
to you now you get more fans because fans trying
to rush up in the morning to get here in
the middle of rush hour to see practice kind of
(05:53):
messes up their day. For at least, you take a
half day at work, work and then come up and
watch the game. And even if you get here a
little bit late, there's still action going on. And you know,
the players, I think they will appreciate a little bit
more because I think if you looked at the guys
last year, it was like just too much free time
in the afternoon. I mean, Russell's walking around here barefoot.
You know, he took a position group of day down
(06:14):
in the afternoon, they'd walk through stuff and nobody was
allowed on campus. Now in the afternoon, you get action,
you get a little bit more fun. Yeah, the weather's
gonna be a little bit, a little bit more untenable.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
But this is what football is all about.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
It's about creating these opportunities so you can thrive at
the end of the year.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
So quickly before we get back to the meetings and
other schedules for the players, Where were you on the
showing up in shape for camp? Because it used to
have looked they used to have six preseason games, six
at one time. Yeah, in the NFL, and it was
you know, just recently it was four. But you're right,
I mean guys used to show up. There was like
a month the training camp and then you're getting into games,
(06:51):
which just it lasted forever. Like you mentioned, guys had jobs.
You know, Johnny Edtis was laying floors, and you know,
Jack cam was thinking about his next career and and
that sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
W Woodruff was like interning and going to night school
to be a judge right in the off season, you know,
So I mean, yeah, by.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
The way, yeah, yeah for sure. So, uh where were
you and then? And did you show up in pretty
good shape? Because I got to tell you, if you
don't show up in shape, this is miserable. This could
be really miserable. This miserable.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
No.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I only had one year I was here with the
Steels where I did not show up and it wasn't
necessarily in shape. I was still injured, so I wasn't
cleared to play. So I started on the pup list
and I was down there on field three. It was myself,
Casey Hampton, Rashard Menden Hall, Heath was over there briefly.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Pretty good team.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Yeah, so because we were all healing acls, because we
all heard ourselves.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
This was this was after the two thousand and.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Ten season, so we we all well, sorry twenty eleven,
I forget a year going into twelve. So I started
out the year on pop because we weren't clear for
a CLS because we all tore him either in Week
seventeen at that time. That was actually the sixteenth game,
seventeenth week with the buy you know how that works,
and the playoff game against Denver. So Casey and I
(08:16):
both tore our a CLS in the Denver game in
the first half. Rack and Heath got injured in the
Cleveland game to end the season. So in that two
week span we lost four got and then we had
a couple of other guys like Diesel got injured or
Brett Kezel got injured then, and so we had a
lot of guys that were injured going into that playoff.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Was that the t Bow game?
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Yeah, that was the t Bow game. I didn't want to.
I didn't want to say it because it gives him.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Creepy, but it also but it also by the way,
kudos to him. He was in a commercial to talk
about commercials. Have you seen this one where he's these
are a car commercial and he goes to toss his
keys to the guy. It's like just to you know,
like ten feet away and and he tossed to the
guy can't catch him. So good for him for last him.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, I mean, I mean it took a decade for
him to finally drop the bravado.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
But yeah, yeah, you should have been a tight end. Anyways,
go Gators.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I was gonna say, this is some Gatorator crimes.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Well, listen, nobody is safe. I mean, let's just put
it out there.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Nobody say if you put it out there on tape, right,
you are what you put on tape, right, just saying.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Okay, so uh when you But the only reason to
mention that is because think about that four regulars, four
big time contributors in that team out. Yeah, that game
so easy to gloss over, and you didn't have disappointing.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Denver because of the sickle cell.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Right, Yeah, that's right, Yeah, and so down five starters,
and then you talk about the disappointment you're on the road,
you don't win that game when everyone thought you were
going to win that game. Extenuating circumstances, no excuses, own
steer nation, no, So what will happen now? Players will
wake up? Obviously you have breakfast, will they will they
get into meetings, will they lift? What will happen before
(09:56):
practice and after practice?
Speaker 5 (09:57):
So I think one of the biggest things is you'll
get up.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
I know there was early morning training room sessions, and
you know there's there's always a list every day of
mandatory reportees that to be there six forty five in
the morning, and then you'll get either your your pre
practice lift group, and then you'll probably have some light
positional meetings, but they won't be too long because still
the bulk of it is after practice, right, it's the
(10:20):
practice review and then the installation that happens in the evening.
So you still have your heavy meetings in the evenings afterwards,
but in the morning it'll be a little bit lighter,
but they'll be lifting, and there'll be probably some positional
style meetings that you'll have spread out just to keep
the guys kind of occupied and fresh throughout the day,
and a lot of opportunities for.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Them to get off of their leg especially once we
get to pads.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Is lifting light this time of year, guys going at
it heavy? Is everybody a little bit different?
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Well, no, I mean twos film and Too's who's the
head strength coach here? Two's has a plan and his plan. Honestly,
I've actually I was. I was averse to it at first, right,
you know, I'm old school that way, But after I
watched it and Tucson and I have gotten to have
a good relationship, you know, just kind of talking through
the methodology. You know, his big thing is making sure
(11:11):
ligaments are pliable, right, because what do we talk about
this time of year. What happens a lot of times,
A lot of soft tissue injury, right, A lot of pulls,
a lot of strains, and a lot of injuries that
keep guys nagging throughout the product. So his process is
to make sure the ligaments stay flexible, the muscle groups
stay flexible. So it ramps up and down depending on
(11:34):
where they're at in the process and how they get
through the lifts in there, and it's tailored that way,
and each guy has his own individual program. So when
you show up, when you pick up your sheet, it's
geared towards you, and a lot of that, a lot
of that is based on where you're at, what he's
seen in the off season from OTAs to mini camp,
(11:54):
and what injury you're coming off of, or what type
of thing do you have coming into camp that you're
bringing with you. They want to make sure they load
and and stress properly.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
So whether it's yoga, pilates, or or running more in
the off season and f plyopen why are there more?
Why are there soft tissue in? I mean no camp
is coming, yeah, right, and you do see a ton
of them this time of year relative to what we
see over the course of the regular season. It seems
(12:26):
maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, no, No, you're absolutely right, because less contact, right,
and so guys will try and go harder to simulate
than the gym, especially when you don't have that kind
of in thought intuitive approach to how this should go.
And he's while we see a quarterback pushing a sled
last year during his conditioning dro right, if he hasn't
trained like that, why And then ego gets in there, right,
(12:50):
because now everybody's back, and you know, you get to
establish your dominance on you know, on the playground, and
so guys want to look good in front of other guys.
Like if I've been only doing two twenty five in
the gym with these guys from around the league or
my private trainer one on one, Now it's everybody's looking Okay.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Now I gotta put three fifteen on there, right.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
I throw an extra plate on each side and let
him know, hey, I'm still the man here. Okay, guys.
So you get a little bit of that that kind
of creeps in to it. But at the same time,
as camp equalized, you hope guys don't see that, or
guys are not hydrating properly that don't anticipate what the
weather's going to because you have to remember you're coming
up north and you're thinking, ah, it's not as hot
(13:32):
like I know for me, like I trained in Florida
right early on, and then I moved to Arizona. It's
not gonna be as hot here, Pennsylvate. No, you get
here in the Laurel Valley like it is muggy, it
is unit. It's just like Florida. Or it's just like
some humid southern location. So if you haven't been training that,
if you're in San Diego training, you can't simulate this
no matter what time of day you go out.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
It's funny. I was talking to Stephen Brat yesterday. We
were walking over doing a Pirates game and and talking
about the weather and see Diego with the weather here.
He said, if you're near the oat. Now, if you
if you're inland, it's muggy, but if you're near the water,
it's which seems strange to me. You think it would
be muggy, but he said it's He said, you feel
the air here, and I'm like, I don't really feel
it because I'm used to it. I've lived in the
Northeast my entire life. Yeah, He's like this this and
(14:15):
he can feel he can actually feel the difference San Diego.
I can't feel the difference because I've never lived anywhere else.
But he said, you don't have this kind of humidity
in other parts of the country.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
Well, and also because the ocean, you have to think
about what's on the other side of the ocean.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Well, the ocean's got so much water.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Exactly, so there's nothing right, here's here, and here's my
basic meteorological I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Science.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
The more greenery you have, like we're looking at here, right,
it traps wind and it traps moisture.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Wow, So that's why you start.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
So that's why you feel humidity. Whereas on an ocean
that reasons true.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
It's out, it's it's out in the ether, you know
what I'm saying Like that, like there's no land to
trap it or box it in, and we're sitting than
the valley, so it's not like it's it.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Can go out.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's like smoking a cigar inside versus smoking a cigar
outside exactly.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
That would be that would be that would be the
best layman's term explanation. So you feel I feel I
come from a dry atmosphere in Arizona, right, and also
because it's arid because we don't have big green trees, right,
we have we have low shrubs and we have like
palm and cactie, so they're not cutting any of the winds,
so they can move through a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
By the way, you know, so typical. I mean, we've
had days in the nineties. It's gonna think it's gonna
be ninety today, and we have the humidity here. I
get it. But you know, a typical summer day might
be eighty to eighty three degrees in humid And you
hear this about Arizona all the time. Well, the dry heat, yeah,
I still got to fake one hundred and six. Towe
hundred and six.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
It's not bad until it gets over one hundred and ten.
So I'm just gonna let you know that, don't we're
one hundred and six. That's still that's still a good day.
That's still a good day. But because when you sweat, right,
we sweat, yeah, because our body's seventy percent water, right.
Your body regulates, Yeah, your body regulates off your off
of your skin. So if you're feeling wet, your body
(16:09):
is thinking it's cooling down.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So that's why the temperature and turnal rate goes up.
Where the turbines a trap the water.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Trap water inside in Arizona because it evaporates off your
skin because it's so hot, your body's doing more, so
you're dehydrating at a very faster rate. You don't dehydrate
here as much, but your body doesn't know because it say,
we're still hot, but your skin's wet.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
So we don't know what to do in that. That's
why it's like, put on another T shirt, right, you
take two T shirts.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
With you when you go out in the humidity. I mean,
that's why I used to do is as a young
man in Florida. He's like, whatever, whatever you're wearing, to
the car from the front door, and make sure you
have the backup in the car because you have to
change before you get to the site.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
By the way, just in case you're wondering about this science,
we're going to be doing Latin a little bit later on.
Don't worry. Latin breaking down.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
Got a Latin turn a lot little derivative there.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So let me ask you this, what are the players
thinking right now that this is the first day, the
first day is a different day. Is your excitement If
you're a veteran, you're like, oh boy, or are you
excited and ready to go out there? I know the
rookies have got to be excited, and the undrafted guys
and all that, and the and the guys looking to
make a name for themselves. I mean, they're they're probably
(17:22):
bopping around right now thinking, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna
go out there. And show them I'm the guy. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
I mean, you know, it's a little bit different now
because you know when we came in it was it
was pads the first day, like there was no acclimation here.
So I think for them it's measured excitement because it's
an acclimation. You have four practices where you don't have
to put the pads on. You'll come out Spiders, you'll
have your Marvin the Martian cap on, and you'll come
out here and you'll just move around doing team things.
But I think the biggest thing that's gonna make guys
(17:47):
excited is once you see these stands full of full
of Steeler nation and the fans are out here. They're
excited to see the new class, the new crop of
individuals who are vying to be come Steelers. Because you
have to remember, there is no Steelers right now. There's
a group of guys vying for fifty three spots. Now
we know some spots are more assured than others, but
(18:11):
there's a lot of guys that are still competing to
have that helmet on game day, to be a part
of the fifty three that represent this team on a
weekend and week out basis. And this is the forging
or proving ground for that, and it starts today. So
you get to see, man, who's gonna surprise, who's gonna impress,
Who's going to be the standout rookie that everybody's surprised about,
(18:33):
you know when they come out here. Think about when
a Troy Filetano was out here for the first time
last year and the way that he just improved over time.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Even when Broderick was a rookie as well.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Nate Nick herbig right, nobody knew who he was, Like
who's his positional guy? And he wiled the first couple
of days and then we put pads on. It's like, oh,
he's a grown man. I was like, don't don't, don't
let the shock of fool you. You know what I'm saying,
Like he seems easy, breezy, Hawaiian style, but he was
gonna have the Hawaiian pun at the end of the day.
So you get to see these guys and then you
(19:03):
get to track their careers, like from the very inception,
so I mean, you're looking at it Derek Harmon. Is
Derek Harmon going to be that big space eater in
the middle, you know? Or is it gonna be why
y'all black, right, you know who's gonna be that guy
in the middle.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
And then of course how does Jack Sawyer fit into this?
Speaker 4 (19:18):
And of course Caleb Johnson trying to make a name
for himself in a rotation with a Kenneth Gainwell and
a Jalen Warren. You have so many guys, and then
you throw in the free agents, right DK Metcalf, Oh
my god, so many yes. And then of course we
already know Aaron is going to be the centerpiece of that.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
How's he gonna distribute with all these toys?
Speaker 4 (19:37):
John hus Smith, how's he fit into that very very packed,
tight end room. And then of course Jayalen Ramsey on
the outside, Darius slay wan Thorne, like, we have so
many defensive additions as well, So now you get to
kind of see all of that thrown into a pot.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
And I don't know if I'm getting you know, I
don't know if I'm getting gumbo like.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
This is this?
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Are we making the room right now?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Or is it gonna just be you know, guess guess
it's soup Mala gaitani soup.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
You know, so I was cooking with Max. Also, we
have science with math Latin later on. So you know,
back in I think this probably was more prevalent, uh,
when you're talking about back in camp, when guys would
use it to get in shape. But it still happens
where somebody hits the ground running in one hundred miles
(20:22):
an hour, makes a little name for themselves for about
five days, and then just everybody catches up or they
peter out or but I think, or they get injured.
But I mean, I think they're with guys showing up
in better and better shape probably and and the pads
happening later. There are probably fewer those stories, but there
will be those guys as well that'll crop up. For
there'll be the story dajure for for more than one
(20:45):
jour yeah, maybe fives. Yeah, you know, and then and
then that phage that's always part of camp too, exactly
go from soup to soup.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
And that's what you say, because a lot of guys, right,
you know, you look good, you don't have real pads on,
because you know, you have some guys who understand what
practice paces and some guy who only has one butt
it's on off switch.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
And needs to catch somebody's eye.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Probably exactly it's like, hey, I got to make a
name for myself. And then of course now when everybody
starts to you know, become the same height. Once you
get past a great equalizer, right, it's like I need
to make sure I just hold on, you know. It's
like I can't lag behind if I gotta grab the
back of your T shirt and just help me pace myself.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
That's what it is.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
But you're always gonna get those guys and always equated
to I don't know, you remember the movie Gatica. Yeah,
they're talking about about swimming, right he was. He was like,
it's like, what's your trick? I could never beat you
swimming to the booth. He's like, the trick is I
never save anything for the return, right if I just
go full board all the way to the buoye and
I don't bring I don't save anything for the bat.
And some guys are like, I'm saving it all for
(21:46):
the return, Like I need to hit the turn.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So and you can do that if you're a veteran, Oh,
because you know what to expect. You're a rookie, you're
an undrafted free agent. You don'tter hit the ground running.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
You don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
So therefore it's like, that's why they call it a wall,
because you've been going so hard, so low, and you
forget how long that season is because your experience is
a lot short. Now granted, these kids are coming in
a lot more. Think about it, Will Howard. Will Howard's
had a long NFL style season coming out of college
from Ohio State because he went through every level of
the playoffs. You win the National Championship and then boom,
(22:19):
you're right in the combine essentially, and if you do
an All Star Game, it happens literally the week after
the National Championship game, so he would be.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
More versed in that. Jack Sawyer will be more versed
in that, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
And I think that's where it also becomes a level
of sophistication, like these guys are coming in more mature,
more body able because they've been put through that kind
of grinder. I'm not even calling a ringer. It's a grinder,
like a meat grinder to get through that, and you
got to put yourself back together. So it is a difference,
and we're getting closer closer to bridging that gap from
college to pro.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
And one other thing that one of their aspects of
this is that we see guys get momentum with the
offseason workouts, right, so you know a JJ Gallbreath or
a DJ Thomas Jones, Suddenly they're people are paying attention
to them and they're starting to get to know their names.
And now, if you're a player like that, are you
feeling that love from the coaching step because the fans great,
(23:15):
fantastic case or or the media somebody's blogging about somebody great, well,
they got to blog about somebody every day. Where you
want to feel the love is with the decision makers,
the coaches, those people that are gonna say you're on
the roster, you're not on the roster. And the thing
is if you feel it though, if you're that kind
of fringy player, maybe I mean you have to is
another one.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah, yeah, if you're an undrafted free agent or you're
you're the ninety fifth guy signed, you know, to fill
out this training camp roster, you got to do something
to catch their eye every day and only has be
one play, whether it's one on ones, whether it's actually
in a team drill, you do something unexpected or you freeze,
(23:55):
you know and freestyle. Listen if you're gonna freestyle out
here under these circumstances, you better make it successful. If
you're going to jump around and you're supposed to be
in the deep third and you're playing you're playing man
press at at the ten yard line, you had better
hope that, hey, I can jump this round and make it,
because if you don't and the other guy makes it,
you'll make that highlight a different way.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah. Well, there's I mean, I know from my own experience,
and I think this is why we get fights sometimes.
So as my senior year of college, we were, you know,
doing some walk through stuff and running the option and
some running the option and I flip it out and
some some freshman, big kid, yeah, helmet right to my sternum.
I'm like, hey man, this is a three quarter drill,
(24:33):
you know. But he's trying to make sure that his
trying to pop up that because that hurts, you know. Yeah,
And that's and that's where fights happen. When you're not
expecting that extra shove or push, your body relaxes and
and that that that will get your eye up quickly.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
This is why you know, we talk about the art
of the brother in law, right, the art of the
brother in law is Okay, do I know who?
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Do I know my personnel? And who am I going to?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Like?
Speaker 4 (24:59):
I know if I see Hamp, Yeah, Casey Hampton in camp,
Hamp's going to only go three steps, right because he's like, Hey,
I'm here to.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Get my assignment. Show that I know what I'm supposed
to do.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
I was like, I only turn on when the lights
turn on, and right now there's no lights out here,
it's just the sun.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
But then you have Chris Hoke Hokey Bro. Hokey Bro
had one speed, and so you knew that if you
came out in practice for Hoky, like every play was
a game rep. So you had to know your personnel
and where I need to be on the gas tank
to do that. I mean, for me, it was like
Chemo von Oldhoffen versus James Harrison, who's been cut three
(25:38):
times and is trying to make a name for himself
on the edge.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Guess what I'm getting all gas?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
No breaks from James Harrison, right, And that's the mentality
had throughout his whole career.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
But then there are young guys. You don't know who
they are, So.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
That's why you can't brother in law. When you get
when you get the X factor in, it's like, sorry, son,
you know, welcome to the NFL. I'm about to beat
the brakes off of you until we establish this rapport,
until I can look you in.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Your eyes and say, hey, that's enough. I've got to
now put you to sleep.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I'm afraid to talk you. I thought you would telling
me it was enough, because on the radio just looked
at me and said, that's enough. Yeah, yeah, I can
carry I can carry out.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
No, no, no, I.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Think we need to go to a break.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
We need let's pay our sponsors off.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Let's do that. Uh Segment one in the books. Here
from the Trobe. This is the locker Room with King
and Stark's presented by your neighborhood, Ford.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Stoor, Iheartradios live coverage I'll about twenty twenty five. Steelers
Training Camp is presented by Fatex where Now meets Next
and also brought to you by CGR Wholesale Roofing and
Siding Supply Center, by Tom's Appliances, by Always Safe Flagging
(26:52):
and Traffic Control by Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, by
Schneider Downs, by Hassa's Steak and Seahouse by your neighbor
hood Forward Store, by Castle Rock, by clear View Federal
Credit Union, and by US steel.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
And welcome back to the locker room with Kingyon Starts
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store. Going to be again.
We'll fight through this. Gonna be weird to say that,
weird to be here missing our buddy Craig Wolfley, but
the show has to carry on, so Max to say
the least, this was a busy and intriguing off season
(27:30):
for the Steelers. Let's begin. I guess the lead story
is It's got to be Aaron Rodgers, right, I would
say a lot of lead stories. I mean, and here
we go.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Here's here's my first wolf Ism of the broadcast, because
I'm now in a place emotionally where i can actually
say it and not cry, Sweet Marie what we did
in the off season, right? I mean, this is not
this is not your dad's Steelers. This is not your grandpa.
See is that your uncle, your aunties, grandma, the lady
down at the local bush.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
This is no.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
This is a brand new era in Steelers. First of all,
when you look at the moves and this has Omar
Kahn's DNA all over. It is that the Steelers were
hyper not just aggressive, but hyper aggressive this offseason at
attacking needs and also getting guys done. And the checkbook
(28:21):
was open for business from the start of free agency.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Yep, it was. And again I'm gonna jump in with
Aaron Rodgers because he's gonna be Look. TJ. Watt was
a big recent story. But everyone's gonna circle back to
the quarterback positions, to nature of the game. But you know,
there was this long pursuit of Aaron Rodgers. It dragged out,
It seemed interminable. You know, you had you know, some
(28:45):
people say he's holding the Steelers hostage. By the way,
He's not holding the Steelers hostage. That wasn't the case.
But you're also like, make a decision. We want to know.
As a fan, You're like, come on, man, are you in?
Are you out?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
And I think the biggest thing was no football was
getting played during that entire process, right exactly, not even practice.
Was really in a serious situation the time that he
took And listen, he told us from the get go
it was a family problem and it was a family
(29:17):
issue and personal issue he had to deal with. And
who are who are we to say, your family issue
needs to be done now. Whatever it is, you know,
it needs to be done now, because I want to
be able to sit at the bar and brag about
nothing that had to do with football at that moment
except for the idea of football. He's here, he showed
(29:38):
up yesterday, and this is when football's played. So that
was the most important. But I think for us, because
you have to realize, we went through five different quarterbacks
in two years, and so it's the uncertainty that persisted
that really drove kind of that narrative about it. Because listen,
if we were a team that was not in the
(29:58):
playoffs and it was terror and we didn't, we didn't
win as many games if we were let's say the Jets, and.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
You know, our future was just we don't have a direction.
We had a direction.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
We had five different starting quarterbacks and we made the
playoffs the last two years.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Now, granted they were like, well, when are you gonna
win a game? He ever won a playoff games in
twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
It doesn't matter. Do we get invited to the dance? Yes,
that's the most important thing. So now when you get
a veteran quarterback that, like I said, has done a
lot in this league. Right, He's won every award. The
only thing he hasn't done is beat out Tom Brady's records. Right,
that's the only thing he has, and he still has
(30:37):
a couple of them that are within striking distance.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
But he was afforded that cachet, you know.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
He it's not like this is a guy on a
trying to get his second contract and he's like holding
out for more money.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
He didn't hold out for that much money.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
You know.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
That's another thing that people.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
It wasn't like he was asking for twenty five milli
a year like most quarterbacks in that echelon, in that
range get.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
He took.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
He took a dick more yeah, yeah, or a lot more.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
So I think it was like, hey, and you know,
one of the things that Mike Tomlin said along the
process was we've been in constant communication. That's where I
didn't feel bad, Yeah, because I'm like he said, we
were in constant communication. Art Rooney says, down at the
owner's meetings, we're going to wait. I don't know what
that looks like, but we're going to wait. So if
ownership and the head coach are saying this, why should I.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Think any differently about that decision?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
So, but it is.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
It is.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
It's the crux of the entire team is based around
your quarterback. But I'll tell you my most intriguing off
season story was when you sign a DK Metcalf right
out of free agency to that type of contract and
you don't have a quarterback in place, that's just saying,
whoever's going to come here, we're going to be aggressive.
And we went and said we will start building all
(31:48):
the pieces around it and then boom, drop in quarterback
here after we have all the rest of the house built.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Well, yeah, and that's that's very interesting, And I do
want to have a larger conversation about the way the roster.
In my opinion, Max, the roster's gotten better and better
over the last three years. They've really they've really filled
a lot of holes. They've come closer and closer I
think to the upper echelon teams. I think we saw
that last year. We saw close wasn't good enough, but
we saw them get closer. But the thing about you know,
(32:17):
look this, in this game, you cannot win unless you
have very good play from the quarterback position. Frequently elite play.
I think with Jalen Hurs, we saw very good play
from the quarterback position. You can't be worse than that.
You've got to be a top five, six seven quarterback
(32:38):
to have a chance to win a Super Bowl. Now
there was for the bulk of his career, Aaron Rodgers
was that guy. I've said this many times. I love
the quarterback position. I've watched football for a long time.
You know, if you wanted a guide to to sling
rifle shots from out of the pocket, you'd have a
hard time, you know, doing better than Dan Reno for example. Right,
(32:59):
but if sidearm, you know that great arm that he had.
But if you want a guy that can make every throw,
every throw left, right, moving forward, moving backward in the
pocket on the run, there's.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
Time on time down right there.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
To me, right to me, there's never Aaron Rodgers is
the best I've ever seen at it. With that definition
of throwing the football, I've never seen anybody better than
Aaron Rodgers. In fact, he's the best I've seen. I'm
not going to say because if I say nobody better,
that means there's somebody else. No, he's number one. To me,
I've never seen He's the best i've ever seen.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Let's put it that way, yeah, I mean, I mean
you talk about a guy who can throw the entire
route tree absolutely and also can hit every blade of
grass out there right now.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
He is forty one. He's forty one. The other time,
he is always going to catch up with you.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
And that's when you kind of measure it, right, when
you can throw it, when you know when you can
show it, and when.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
You have to hold it a little bit right, yep,
you know.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
And I think that's the biggest thing, but also comes
with that experience.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
It's a being forty one years old. He also knows
when he can gas it and when he can put
put his foot on the brake a little bit.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
And now you need a better, more well rounded team
to give him more options, right, And I think this
is probably the best team he's probably had as far
as the weapons, minus the number two receiver, Like, we
still have to flesh that one. I think that's probably
the biggest question coming into camp offensively, outside of who's
going to be the left tackle as Roger Jones going
(34:28):
to assume the mantle, I think it's the number two
receiver is going to be that big question mark because
We know because we thought when we had DK Metcalf,
it was gonna be DK George Pickens right, one, two,
And we're just filling guys in the slots right, you know,
Calvin Austin, Roman Wilson, however you wanted to shake it out,
who was gonna win that slaughterer, Whether it's gonna be
Pat Friremooth, that was gonna be.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
The number three.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Right now, we're saying the field is number two right
now until we progress through these practices.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
So you've already.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Got a wonderful bevy of tight ends to give you
your short intermediate game middle of the field. DK is
your big play target that's going to take the top
off of the covers, that's gonna create issues. Who's gonna
be Robin to his to DK's batman, and that's Calvin Austin.
The third, that's Roman Wilson, right, and now you have
(35:18):
to insert all these different names behind that, But those
are the guys are gonna first crack at it, and
then whoever whoever comes in second place now becomes your
slot it.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Well, it might be John new Smith.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
And that's now that's the X factor, because like you said,
you have so many tight ends. And we saw up
here training camp last year thirteen personnel that that was
looking like eleven personnel, right, And so do you go
the way of traditional eleven with three wide receivers and
one tight end? Do you go twenty one with two
(35:52):
tight ends that you can flex out of John News
Smith and keep it Darnell Washington in line or a
Pat Friar move in line? Or do you go thirteen
and you get John U, Darnell and Pat Fryar move
as your three guys and guess what now you flex
out Pat and John new and you keep Darnell in line.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
That's what we're going to see.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
That what's gonna flesh out over these next three and
a half weeks and we'll be watching all of that.
But it's interesting, but there is no true number two.
So that's what we're that's what we're here to dig
and find during this But it looks it looks like
Aaron Rodgers has a very healthy problem of too many
receivers to throw to only one football on the field.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
So so many we have again, we're no way we're
getting through every single one of these topics in two hours.
Not a chance.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Now, this is what how about three weeks.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Yeah, oh that's right, we do have I think we'll
get it done. So the thing here's what intrigues me
about John new Smith. And again I can't say that
I'm I'm well aware of his patch catching abilities. Obviously
I'm not that well aware of his blocking. So I
did some research and tried to some answers in that regard.
I think he could be your every down slot receiver
(37:07):
for a couple of different ways. Now, one of the
things that I love about football is the adjustability, right so,
and one of the things that I think makes this
Cheelers playing in this division interesting. And when they talked
about drafting Derek Harmon, and I'm getting a little far
afield here, but Harmon was they identified him. They said,
we think of the big guys, he's the best pass
(37:27):
rusher and he's also a great run stuffer. Well that's
important because it isn't like, you know, hey, the rest
of the league is going spread In the AFC North,
you got to stop Derrick Henry one week and Joe
Burrow the next. Right, you better be versatile, you better
be able to play. So you're looking constantly for guys
(37:48):
who can handle different matchups, but what you get frequently
is mismatches. So I remember when the Redskins now the Commanders,
but the Redskins in those days had the smurf.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
For this fall.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yeah, but but you know you you had the smaller
wide receivers. Why because they were bigger defensive backs. You know,
everyone's trying to and then you know you have you know,
the Herman Moors and these other big receivers come in. Well,
now you better have big defensive backs. And most of
those big defensive backs are gonna be a little slower.
So guess what. Now we can have quick you know,
Wes Welker type guys in the slot, and we can
beat you with quickness. So now what is gonna happen. Well,
(38:24):
you're gonna get a smaller guy in the slot to
combat that. So he's quick. Well, guess what now we
got John Smith in the slot. You want to you
want to be put a smaller guy in him to
cover him phenomenal. We're gonna pitch the ball to Caleb
Johnson and he's gonna block your little small guy down
into the Ohio River. So so I think he's he's
an intriguing guy for me. So you know what they
(38:46):
said was he's a Again the scouting ports I read
was in we'll see him here in camp soon, willing blocker,
but probably a little bit better because he's not a
huge guy disengaged from the line of scrimmage. Well, that's
by definition the slot or the h back position. Yeah,
so I think he could be you know I and
again I understand where everyone's talking about a number two receiver.
(39:08):
I'm wondering if he might be it, that might be
your guy.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
And the other thing that I'll say is when I
kind of look at it, is that you know, everybody
wants a hins ward, right, A hinds ward comes in
very different riders. He doesn't have to block a guy
in a three point stance coming off the line, But
if that safety wants to creep up in the box,
guess what. Now he's a motion guy zem and he's
a guy that can come get that eighth man in
(39:32):
the box. And I think that's where you talk about
the willing blocker to go heat, seek, destroy type of style.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
That's where you can use him.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
And that's that's such a big advantage because if they're
trying to run any type of week overload or anything.
All you have to do is motion him and now
you're at balance. So he does give you a lot
of flexibility. And that's why we're here in camp to
figure out who are going to be the fifty three,
What does the offense actually look like? Because Aaron's gonna
like what he likes, right, and the player personnel is
(40:02):
going to also dictate what we can and can't do.
And that's that's why this is the forge, right right,
Saint Vincent is the forge and the proving grounds for
what the twenty twenty five twenty six Steelers team is
going to look like.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Such a good Pittsburgh word forge. Yeah. By the way,
Arthur Smith said as much, and I kudos to him about, hey,
we didn't we didn't. I think it's quote with something
that we didn't bring Aaron Rodgers here to hand the
ball off one hundred times a yeah, exactly. That's good stuff.
Going to be part of the intrigue. We have much
more to come. You're listening to the Locker Room with
King and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Ford Sure on
the Steelers Audio.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Network Iheartradios live coverage about twenty twenty five Steelers Training Camp.
He's presented by Fadex where Now meets Next and also
brought to you by bud Light, Independence Health System by
Pennsylvania One Call System by Live Casino, Caldiente Pizza and
(40:57):
Draft House by Tom's Appliances, South Hills Auto, Laurel, Highlands
Visitors Bureau, Wemax, Select Realty, the Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Shop
and Buy Us Steel.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
And Welcome back to Patroll, Pennsylvania. And the Locker Room
with King Starts presented by your neighborhood Ford Store. Some activity,
some stirring going on.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
We have bodies on the prairie.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
We do.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
We have bodies on the prairie.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
So is this a normal thing? Will this happen every day?
Like little walk through stuff and that sort of thing
is that we're doing here.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
So that's what we'll have here. We'll have the walk
through that will happen before practice. Normally it happened early
in the morning. It's now adjusted in accordance to kind
of go through quote the ideas of the day or
the principles of the day, whatever part of the playbook
is being unlocked. You'll get a chance to kind of
(41:52):
walk through it and this is what the Steelers been doing.
We used to do it all the time in season
as well, where you come out and you go through prack,
go through a little pre practice kind of walk through
we called it. Then you go back and locker room,
and then we kind of lounge around a little bit,
have lunch and maybe another little quick little meeting, then
go on the field and actually practice.
Speaker 5 (42:10):
Here.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
A similar concept is kind of getting into the in
season routine of it. You want to walk through what
you're going to do for the day for all the
young guys and the new guys so that they understand.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Kind of what the concept is.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
And this is the opportunity to ask questions, to watch
the starters do it if you're a young guy and say, hey,
well why are they doing it? Well, remember we talked
about this in the meeting. We broke this down, so
this is what you're looking for, and you kind of
get a slowed down, relaxed approach with a very tight script.
And then of course in practice, you know, you turn
the volume to eleven, right, you know, and and that's
(42:42):
what that's what you have to make do with. So
this is this is something I'm glad we get to
see more of it. We didn't really get to see
as much when we were on air last year because
of the morning schedule, So now we kind of get
a full look at it before we get out there,
and of course, you know, all the rest of the
guys will have it. You know, we'll have the drive
available and we'll see a lot of the in game stuff.
(43:03):
And then of course if you go to Steelers dot com,
you can watch me and Pursuit of up top kind
of doing the visuals and kind of explaining a lot
of things before we get up to when we have
pads seven shots, but of course it's called fundamentals in
the acclamation period. We'll go up to fundamentals period every
day until we get passing, they'll be up to seven shots.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
And I think that's exciting for our listeners because not
that we didn't have great content last year during camp,
but with the return of the one fifty five to
two pm practices, I think it gives us even more
content throughout the day that people can kind of sink
their teeth into and reminder, we're the only ones here
on the Steelers Audio Network who broadcast live during practice.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Yes, yes, we are the only ones the league is
still trying to catch up and trying to add a
little bit more. But once again, you know, first to market,
you know, the spoils go to the victor, and that's
where we are.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
And so yeah, you can.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
Make sure that if you're here in the if you're
here in the audio, by tuning in on Steelers Audio Network.
You can also double dip on your second device or
at your computer. If you're in your cubicle at work,
don't worry. Just make sure the spreadsheet is the one
in the little corner and just maximize it when the
boss comes by.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
But you can.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
Actually watch some of Steeler's practice without physically being there.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
Yeah, gentlemen like it.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
I like it, and you've explained how it could be
done efficiently. Yes, so this is Max Stark's a world
of information here.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
And if you're a two screener guy, you know, if
you're a two screener guy, boom, it's just it's already there.
Just put on a screen that he doesn't see, right,
you kind of angle the screen a little bit to
show that you're.
Speaker 5 (44:28):
Doing your TPS reports.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
But but yeah, I mean this is an opportunity for
I think all of us across the network through the
broadcast day, we all get an opportunity to kind of
take a crack at it and be able to talk
about what we're seeing, because you're going to see at
different phases throughout the process, whereas in the morning you
kind of had one one show kind of encompassed the
entire practice, and then everybody else the rest of it. Yeah,
(44:51):
we're assuming it's like, well, here's what I saw, and
here's what I know.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
We heard that.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
We're like, yes, yes, we know that Darnauld Washington is
a scar Sky's and he can catch anything off the
back line and also too.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Sorry Kinger, but just speaking of exciting content for our listeners,
I just got a call from Brandon. That's why I
had to step out there.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
One thirty.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Every day here on Steelers Nation Radio, there will be
a Steelers Legend guest with with Bob Labriola and Tom Opferman.
We'll we'll like, we'll get a little bit of a
heads up who it is, but it'll be a relative
surprise for the listeners every day, and those are great guests.
Hochi Bros. Usually here, Mike Logan's usually here.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
I was in on a few of those last year.
They're awesome.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Those guys are always excited to be back and out
here and talkative and share great stories and everything. So
that'll be one thirty every single day. Lead you right
into practice, going.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
A history, you know what I mean, And and so
many legends, so many great players throughout the course of
the years. You know, as we you know, you mentioned
the DK Metcalf trade. I had to say. I was
at OTAs and and the offseason workouts and then the
mandatory mini camp, and Metcalf was there for the mandatory
mini camp and you know, he kind of had the
(45:59):
jersey kind of rolled up and he's in motion. I'm like,
who is that? Yeah, And then I was like, oh
my god, that's DK Metcalf.
Speaker 5 (46:06):
I'm sorry, why did the statue come to life?
Speaker 3 (46:09):
Yeah, I mean, you know, the the I was thinking
about him and uh, and the acquisition, and again you said,
not your not your normal Steelers' way of doing things,
or hadn't been in the past. The aggressive acquisition of
DK Metcalf for a second round pick. You sign him
to a contract extension. You know, he's uh, he's got
he's got a high motor, a big motor, and a
(46:30):
fast motor. I mean, this guy is big, fast and
strong and plays hard. Another guy who is a willing
blocker on the outside, which is good for a team
that you know still wants to be able to run
the football. But again that is not you know, the
way we had become accustomed to the Steelers doing business.
This is Omar Khan's team. He's been aggressive and I
thought that was a huge pickup for the Steelers. No,
(46:52):
it was a humongo literally and physically.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
Yeah, literally and physically a humongous pickup. And I think
also going after receivers kind of in their prime is
another one where you didn't see the Steelers do this.
Speaker 5 (47:04):
In the past.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
He's twenty seven years old, right peak.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
Yeah, so it so it's like, oh, wow, okay, so
this is not what we're expecting. I mean, making late
a late late in the year or late in the
off season year trade acquisition as well, but getting DK
specifically right out the gates and kind of setting the expectations.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
About what was to come.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
I thought was a very good kind of opening salvo,
so to speak, right and just let you know, boom,
this is what we're doing and blink and you're gonna
miss some stuff, so make sure you keep peeled on us.
And of course we controlled I feel like a lot
of the headlines in the off season in a positive
way for the most part. Because once again, that long
like you said saga of the Aaron Rodgers, it ended
(47:51):
with a happy ending. Right when you open that truck
at the end, it was like he ended up making
it across the yellow brick road, right, you know, he
found his way to Pittsburgh. So I think that's one
of the things that we're not used to. We're used
to just going under the radar and making a splash
here you talk about for a couple of days, and
we kind of go by the wayside. But we had
different moments and milestones that we hit throughout the off
season process to where it culminated in a TJ. Watt
(48:14):
signing at the end and coming into camp with no
contract issues, no negative lingering clouds coming into this. We
come in all free and clear and ready to do
business and focus on football and how this team's going
to approach. But DK was the catalyst for that, and
I mean, I love it. I think bringing a guy
of his caliber, we were always worried about a veteran
(48:36):
receiver here, the offense was so young. This offense matured
very quickly in a year because you're talking about really
Nause and Pat were the ones that were kind of
like the Elder States. But you're talking about four year
guys at this point. Now you bring in in Aaron Rodgers,
that's two decades right there. You bring in, like you said,
a DK metcalf right in the middle of his prime.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
Smith, you got John U.
Speaker 4 (48:59):
Smith got Kenneth Gainwell, a guy who's got a lot
of and just played on a Super Bowl team, right,
So you've got a lot more different cross sections to
really mature this offense. Yes, I know we had Russ,
but you know when we got Russ Russ, it was
more towards the end, it wasn't you know, it was
still a question mark. But could he bring everybody up?
At least now when Aaron comes in, he has more
(49:22):
guys to lean on experience wise, He's not the only
Super Bowl champion on that offense, right, So I think
that's what makes this a very different prospect than it
was a year ago.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Man, I'm so excited, just cannot wait. There's so much,
so many great topics, great talking points, guys are out
there stretching right now. Beautiful blue skies, a couple of
puffy white clouds out there, just American flag just moving
a little tiny bit, not much going to be hot
out of it.
Speaker 5 (49:49):
Can you do that stretch, Rob, That's what I want
to know.
Speaker 3 (49:51):
No, you're actually know what I've been. I've been trying
to do a little bit of.
Speaker 4 (49:55):
Be trying to get off the floor though, after I
sat down with my on the haunches.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
So we try to get it out of these dorm
bets up there for some reason, like five and a
half feet off the ground.
Speaker 3 (50:08):
So that's that's what's happening here in the troupe. We
have plenty more still to come, lots more to talk about,
including the other half of that John Nei Smith trade,
micka Fitzpatrick going out, Jalen Ramsey coming in. We're going
to continue to get you ready for the beginning of
training camp here in the locker room with King and Starks,
presented by your neighborhood Fords Tour On this year, there's
Audio Network
Iheartradios. Live coverage of about twenty twenty five Steelers Training
Camp is presented by FedEx where Now meets Next and
also brought to you by bud Light, Independence Health System,
by Pennsylvania One Call System, by Live Casino, Calciente Pizza
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(00:33):
Visitors Bureau, Wemax, Select Realty, the Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Shop,
and by us Steel.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Hello everybody, and welcome to the trobe and welcome to
the locker room with King and Starks, presented by your
neighborhood Ford Store, alongside Max Starks and Wes Euler who's
here at the controls and CJ Wolfley. I'm Rob King.
CJ just put a hand up in the air and
a and a thumbs up. And once again, you can't
hear that on radio, so no you can't. I figured
(01:05):
we got to paint the visuals Max first of all
before we get into some other stuff. How are you,
my friend? You do all right?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I am late arrival last night, yeah, late night, early morning.
However you want to look at it. Depending on your
age group and demographic it can be determined a bunch
of different ways. So we're gonna go with the positive here.
We're gonna say, yeah, late night, but not an early morning.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So before we get started, I do want to say,
and I think I speak for both of us, we're
sad that I'm in this doing the show and the
reason I'm doing this show, and that is, you know, obviously,
the off season passing of our great friend Craig Wolfley,
and I just wanted to at least, you know, mention
that before we get started. And sad and quick and
(01:51):
tragic and just an absolute downer and bummer it is.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
And I'm right now, I'm like fighting back.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
A lot of the emotion.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
I think throughout the broadcast I'll get through.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
It better to be able to verbalize my words. But yeah,
it's uh, it's a sad day to be up here
with training camp right now.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, yeah, it is. It's a sad day. And we'll
we'll let that that is going to be ruminating for
a while with us. In the meantime, we are here
and we're out looking at fields in which there is
no practice because they've moved the practices to the afternoon.
So before we get into the personnel when you were
out here in camp Max morning and afternoon.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Guy, uh, I'm in the Arab two days. So he
both see all of the above right on the cherry.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Remember remember that, you remember that commercial with Dean Sanders
was playing baseball and football, and you know he kept
answering both to everything. You know, what are you gonna play, Dian?
You know, football or baseball? Both, And at the end
Jerry Jones says, well, okay, Diane, what's it going to
be fifteen twenty million? And he says both both. Yeah, yeah,
(03:06):
So you guys did both when you're here, Yeah, we
did both.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
And I think the biggest thing was that you know
there there was value to it. But obviously that's a
different era of football that you know you needed that
because the conditioning, the off season programs weren't as sophisticated
as they are now. Where you're talking about guys actually
go and train the entire offseason to get ready for
this moment, whereas the idea of two a days or
(03:30):
quote unquote three days even further back, was that you
need to get the guys in shape because guys had
other jobs, they had other responsibilities, and you needed to
get them ready for what the season was. Now, these
guys come in, they've come from specialty training facilities and
they've been working on specific body parts and all this
(03:52):
kind of specialized training even that we see in the
youth level now, right, you know, kids have private coaches.
You know, my kids got private coaches in volleyball, right
and twelve years old. So it's a lot more sophisticated
where you could be more efficient with the time, and
also you know, the player resting, The whole analytics side
of it is there.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I would say.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Probably, but I would think the best time to practice
would be afternoon. But I know, you know, there's a
whole thing with when you're here in the Laurel Valley, right,
it's you don't know what weather is in the afternoon.
You know what weather is in the morning, right for
the most part. And we've had a couple of rain
practices even in.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
That morning, where like Farmer's Almanac, my butt, you know.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
And so I think we're turning back to this gives
you more of an actual game day type of feel
because most of your games are gonna happen between one
and four pm, right, So why not practice, especially this
time you're where you know it's the hottest part of
the day. Put that attrition, Put that adversity in the
guy's court as fast as possible. And no better way
to acclimate than to be out here with little humidity.
(04:52):
And if it does rain, as long as there's no lightning,
guess what the balls on the ground you're gonna play.
So I think I would be more in tune to
the afternoon versus the early morning practice because it's too
much off time.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
In the afternoon, you.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Kind of get, okay, get your legs under you. After
this practice, you get.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The morning regardless it was the day was over at
two o'clock.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Lash, yeah, and you're just walking around.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
I mean, I mean, how much free time did we
have afterwards? Like and then and then there's nothing to like,
see talk about. So I'm all for the afternoon. I
think the afternoon and especially if you're gonna put pads on,
I want to see afternoon full. I want to see
morning cool football. Like that's just We're not some random
group of five school that has like the noon slate
(05:32):
and mountain time, you know what I'm saying, Like this
exactly ten am kick where everybody's still drinking coffee or
Irish coffee at least, uh you know, you know, and
I want to see afternoon football, and I think this
is gonna be cool. And I think for the fans
to you now you get more fans because fans trying
to rush up in the morning to get here in
the middle of rush hour to see practice kind of
(05:53):
messes up their day. For at least, you take a
half day at work, work and then come up and
watch the game. And even if you get here a
little bit late, there's still action going on. And you know,
the players, I think they will appreciate a little bit
more because I think if you looked at the guys
last year, it was like just too much free time
in the afternoon. I mean, Russell's walking around here barefoot.
You know, he took a position group of day down
(06:14):
in the afternoon, they'd walk through stuff and nobody was
allowed on campus. Now in the afternoon, you get action,
you get a little bit more fun. Yeah, the weather's
gonna be a little bit, a little bit more untenable.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
But this is what football is all about.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
It's about creating these opportunities so you can thrive at
the end of the year.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
So quickly before we get back to the meetings and
other schedules for the players, Where were you on the
showing up in shape for camp? Because it used to
have looked they used to have six preseason games, six
at one time. Yeah, in the NFL, and it was
you know, just recently it was four. But you're right,
I mean guys used to show up. There was like
a month the training camp and then you're getting into games,
(06:51):
which just it lasted forever. Like you mentioned, guys had jobs.
You know, Johnny Edtis was laying floors, and you know,
Jack cam was thinking about his next career and and
that sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
W Woodruff was like interning and going to night school
to be a judge right in the off season, you know,
So I mean, yeah, by.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
The way, yeah, yeah for sure. So, uh where were
you and then? And did you show up in pretty
good shape? Because I got to tell you, if you
don't show up in shape, this is miserable. This could
be really miserable. This miserable.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
No.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I only had one year I was here with the
Steels where I did not show up and it wasn't
necessarily in shape. I was still injured, so I wasn't
cleared to play. So I started on the pup list
and I was down there on field three. It was myself,
Casey Hampton, Rashard Menden Hall, Heath was over there briefly.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Pretty good team.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Yeah, so because we were all healing acls, because we
all heard ourselves.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
This was this was after the two thousand and.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Ten season, so we we all well, sorry twenty eleven,
I forget a year going into twelve. So I started
out the year on pop because we weren't clear for
a CLS because we all tore him either in Week
seventeen at that time. That was actually the sixteenth game,
seventeenth week with the buy you know how that works,
and the playoff game against Denver. So Casey and I
(08:16):
both tore our a CLS in the Denver game in
the first half. Rack and Heath got injured in the
Cleveland game to end the season. So in that two
week span we lost four got and then we had
a couple of other guys like Diesel got injured or
Brett Kezel got injured then, and so we had a
lot of guys that were injured going into that playoff.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Was that the t Bow game?
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Yeah, that was the t Bow game. I didn't want to.
I didn't want to say it because it gives him.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Creepy, but it also but it also by the way,
kudos to him. He was in a commercial to talk
about commercials. Have you seen this one where he's these
are a car commercial and he goes to toss his
keys to the guy. It's like just to you know,
like ten feet away and and he tossed to the
guy can't catch him. So good for him for last him.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, I mean, I mean it took a decade for
him to finally drop the bravado.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
But yeah, yeah, you should have been a tight end. Anyways,
go Gators.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I was gonna say, this is some Gatorator crimes.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Well, listen, nobody is safe. I mean, let's just put
it out there.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Nobody say if you put it out there on tape, right,
you are what you put on tape, right, just saying.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Okay, so uh when you But the only reason to
mention that is because think about that four regulars, four
big time contributors in that team out. Yeah, that game
so easy to gloss over, and you didn't have disappointing.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Denver because of the sickle cell.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Right, Yeah, that's right, Yeah, and so down five starters,
and then you talk about the disappointment you're on the road,
you don't win that game when everyone thought you were
going to win that game. Extenuating circumstances, no excuses, own
steer nation, no, So what will happen now? Players will
wake up? Obviously you have breakfast, will they will they
get into meetings, will they lift? What will happen before
(09:56):
practice and after practice?
Speaker 5 (09:57):
So I think one of the biggest things is you'll
get up.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
I know there was early morning training room sessions, and
you know there's there's always a list every day of
mandatory reportees that to be there six forty five in
the morning, and then you'll get either your your pre
practice lift group, and then you'll probably have some light
positional meetings, but they won't be too long because still
the bulk of it is after practice, right, it's the
(10:20):
practice review and then the installation that happens in the evening.
So you still have your heavy meetings in the evenings afterwards,
but in the morning it'll be a little bit lighter,
but they'll be lifting, and there'll be probably some positional
style meetings that you'll have spread out just to keep
the guys kind of occupied and fresh throughout the day,
and a lot of opportunities for.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Them to get off of their leg especially once we
get to pads.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Is lifting light this time of year, guys going at
it heavy? Is everybody a little bit different?
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Well, no, I mean twos film and Too's who's the
head strength coach here? Two's has a plan and his plan. Honestly,
I've actually I was. I was averse to it at first, right,
you know, I'm old school that way, But after I
watched it and Tucson and I have gotten to have
a good relationship, you know, just kind of talking through
the methodology. You know, his big thing is making sure
(11:11):
ligaments are pliable, right, because what do we talk about
this time of year. What happens a lot of times,
A lot of soft tissue injury, right, A lot of pulls,
a lot of strains, and a lot of injuries that
keep guys nagging throughout the product. So his process is
to make sure the ligaments stay flexible, the muscle groups
stay flexible. So it ramps up and down depending on
(11:34):
where they're at in the process and how they get
through the lifts in there, and it's tailored that way,
and each guy has his own individual program. So when
you show up, when you pick up your sheet, it's
geared towards you, and a lot of that, a lot
of that is based on where you're at, what he's
seen in the off season from OTAs to mini camp,
(11:54):
and what injury you're coming off of, or what type
of thing do you have coming into camp that you're
bringing with you. They want to make sure they load
and and stress properly.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
So whether it's yoga, pilates, or or running more in
the off season and f plyopen why are there more?
Why are there soft tissue in? I mean no camp
is coming, yeah, right, and you do see a ton
of them this time of year relative to what we
see over the course of the regular season. It seems
(12:26):
maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, no, No, you're absolutely right, because less contact, right,
and so guys will try and go harder to simulate
than the gym, especially when you don't have that kind
of in thought intuitive approach to how this should go.
And he's while we see a quarterback pushing a sled
last year during his conditioning dro right, if he hasn't
trained like that, why And then ego gets in there, right,
(12:50):
because now everybody's back, and you know, you get to
establish your dominance on you know, on the playground, and
so guys want to look good in front of other guys.
Like if I've been only doing two twenty five in
the gym with these guys from around the league or
my private trainer one on one, Now it's everybody's looking Okay.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Now I gotta put three fifteen on there, right.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
I throw an extra plate on each side and let
him know, hey, I'm still the man here. Okay, guys.
So you get a little bit of that that kind
of creeps in to it. But at the same time,
as camp equalized, you hope guys don't see that, or
guys are not hydrating properly that don't anticipate what the
weather's going to because you have to remember you're coming
up north and you're thinking, ah, it's not as hot
(13:32):
like I know for me, like I trained in Florida
right early on, and then I moved to Arizona. It's
not gonna be as hot here, Pennsylvate. No, you get
here in the Laurel Valley like it is muggy, it
is unit. It's just like Florida. Or it's just like
some humid southern location. So if you haven't been training that,
if you're in San Diego training, you can't simulate this
no matter what time of day you go out.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
It's funny. I was talking to Stephen Brat yesterday. We
were walking over doing a Pirates game and and talking
about the weather and see Diego with the weather here.
He said, if you're near the oat. Now, if you
if you're inland, it's muggy, but if you're near the water,
it's which seems strange to me. You think it would
be muggy, but he said it's He said, you feel
the air here, and I'm like, I don't really feel
it because I'm used to it. I've lived in the
Northeast my entire life. Yeah, He's like this this and
(14:15):
he can feel he can actually feel the difference San Diego.
I can't feel the difference because I've never lived anywhere else.
But he said, you don't have this kind of humidity
in other parts of the country.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
Well, and also because the ocean, you have to think
about what's on the other side of the ocean.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Well, the ocean's got so much water.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Exactly, so there's nothing right, here's here, and here's my
basic meteorological I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Science.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
The more greenery you have, like we're looking at here, right,
it traps wind and it traps moisture.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Wow, So that's why you start.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
So that's why you feel humidity. Whereas on an ocean
that reasons true.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
It's out, it's it's out in the ether, you know
what I'm saying Like that, like there's no land to
trap it or box it in, and we're sitting than
the valley, so it's not like it's it.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Can go out.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's like smoking a cigar inside versus smoking a cigar
outside exactly.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
That would be that would be that would be the
best layman's term explanation. So you feel I feel I
come from a dry atmosphere in Arizona, right, and also
because it's arid because we don't have big green trees, right,
we have we have low shrubs and we have like
palm and cactie, so they're not cutting any of the winds,
so they can move through a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
By the way, you know, so typical. I mean, we've
had days in the nineties. It's gonna think it's gonna
be ninety today, and we have the humidity here. I
get it. But you know, a typical summer day might
be eighty to eighty three degrees in humid And you
hear this about Arizona all the time. Well, the dry heat, yeah,
I still got to fake one hundred and six. Towe
hundred and six.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
It's not bad until it gets over one hundred and ten.
So I'm just gonna let you know that, don't we're
one hundred and six. That's still that's still a good day.
That's still a good day. But because when you sweat, right,
we sweat, yeah, because our body's seventy percent water, right.
Your body regulates, Yeah, your body regulates off your off
of your skin. So if you're feeling wet, your body
(16:09):
is thinking it's cooling down.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So that's why the temperature and turnal rate goes up.
Where the turbines a trap the water.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Trap water inside in Arizona because it evaporates off your
skin because it's so hot, your body's doing more, so
you're dehydrating at a very faster rate. You don't dehydrate
here as much, but your body doesn't know because it say,
we're still hot, but your skin's wet.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
So we don't know what to do in that. That's
why it's like, put on another T shirt, right, you
take two T shirts.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
With you when you go out in the humidity. I mean,
that's why I used to do is as a young
man in Florida. He's like, whatever, whatever you're wearing, to
the car from the front door, and make sure you
have the backup in the car because you have to
change before you get to the site.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
By the way, just in case you're wondering about this science,
we're going to be doing Latin a little bit later on.
Don't worry. Latin breaking down.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
Got a Latin turn a lot little derivative there.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So let me ask you this, what are the players
thinking right now that this is the first day, the
first day is a different day. Is your excitement If
you're a veteran, you're like, oh boy, or are you
excited and ready to go out there? I know the
rookies have got to be excited, and the undrafted guys
and all that, and the and the guys looking to
make a name for themselves. I mean, they're they're probably
(17:22):
bopping around right now thinking, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna
go out there. And show them I'm the guy. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
I mean, you know, it's a little bit different now
because you know when we came in it was it
was pads the first day, like there was no acclimation here.
So I think for them it's measured excitement because it's
an acclimation. You have four practices where you don't have
to put the pads on. You'll come out Spiders, you'll
have your Marvin the Martian cap on, and you'll come
out here and you'll just move around doing team things.
But I think the biggest thing that's gonna make guys
(17:47):
excited is once you see these stands full of full
of Steeler nation and the fans are out here. They're
excited to see the new class, the new crop of
individuals who are vying to be come Steelers. Because you
have to remember, there is no Steelers right now. There's
a group of guys vying for fifty three spots. Now
we know some spots are more assured than others, but
(18:11):
there's a lot of guys that are still competing to
have that helmet on game day, to be a part
of the fifty three that represent this team on a
weekend and week out basis. And this is the forging
or proving ground for that, and it starts today. So
you get to see, man, who's gonna surprise, who's gonna impress,
Who's going to be the standout rookie that everybody's surprised about,
(18:33):
you know when they come out here. Think about when
a Troy Filetano was out here for the first time
last year and the way that he just improved over time.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Even when Broderick was a rookie as well.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Nate Nick herbig right, nobody knew who he was, Like
who's his positional guy? And he wiled the first couple
of days and then we put pads on. It's like, oh,
he's a grown man. I was like, don't don't, don't
let the shock of fool you. You know what I'm saying,
Like he seems easy, breezy, Hawaiian style, but he was
gonna have the Hawaiian pun at the end of the day.
So you get to see these guys and then you
(19:03):
get to track their careers, like from the very inception,
so I mean, you're looking at it Derek Harmon. Is
Derek Harmon going to be that big space eater in
the middle, you know? Or is it gonna be why
y'all black, right, you know who's gonna be that guy
in the middle.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
And then of course how does Jack Sawyer fit into this?
Speaker 4 (19:18):
And of course Caleb Johnson trying to make a name
for himself in a rotation with a Kenneth Gainwell and
a Jalen Warren. You have so many guys, and then
you throw in the free agents, right DK Metcalf, Oh
my god, so many yes. And then of course we
already know Aaron is going to be the centerpiece of that.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
How's he gonna distribute with all these toys?
Speaker 4 (19:37):
John hus Smith, how's he fit into that very very packed,
tight end room. And then of course Jayalen Ramsey on
the outside, Darius slay wan Thorne, like, we have so
many defensive additions as well, So now you get to
kind of see all of that thrown into a pot.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
And I don't know if I'm getting you know, I
don't know if I'm getting gumbo like.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
This is this?
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Are we making the room right now?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Or is it gonna just be you know, guess guess
it's soup Mala gaitani soup.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
You know, so I was cooking with Max. Also, we
have science with math Latin later on. So you know,
back in I think this probably was more prevalent, uh,
when you're talking about back in camp, when guys would
use it to get in shape. But it still happens
where somebody hits the ground running in one hundred miles
(20:22):
an hour, makes a little name for themselves for about
five days, and then just everybody catches up or they
peter out or but I think, or they get injured.
But I mean, I think they're with guys showing up
in better and better shape probably and and the pads
happening later. There are probably fewer those stories, but there
will be those guys as well that'll crop up. For
there'll be the story dajure for for more than one
(20:45):
jour yeah, maybe fives. Yeah, you know, and then and
then that phage that's always part of camp too, exactly
go from soup to soup.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
And that's what you say, because a lot of guys, right,
you know, you look good, you don't have real pads on,
because you know, you have some guys who understand what
practice paces and some guy who only has one butt
it's on off switch.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
And needs to catch somebody's eye.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Probably exactly it's like, hey, I got to make a
name for myself. And then of course now when everybody
starts to you know, become the same height. Once you
get past a great equalizer, right, it's like I need
to make sure I just hold on, you know. It's
like I can't lag behind if I gotta grab the
back of your T shirt and just help me pace myself.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
That's what it is.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
But you're always gonna get those guys and always equated
to I don't know, you remember the movie Gatica. Yeah,
they're talking about about swimming, right he was. He was like,
it's like, what's your trick? I could never beat you
swimming to the booth. He's like, the trick is I
never save anything for the return, right if I just
go full board all the way to the buoye and
I don't bring I don't save anything for the bat.
And some guys are like, I'm saving it all for
(21:46):
the return, Like I need to hit the turn.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So and you can do that if you're a veteran, Oh,
because you know what to expect. You're a rookie, you're
an undrafted free agent. You don'tter hit the ground running.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
You don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
So therefore it's like, that's why they call it a wall,
because you've been going so hard, so low, and you
forget how long that season is because your experience is
a lot short. Now granted, these kids are coming in
a lot more. Think about it, Will Howard. Will Howard's
had a long NFL style season coming out of college
from Ohio State because he went through every level of
the playoffs. You win the National Championship and then boom,
(22:19):
you're right in the combine essentially, and if you do
an All Star Game, it happens literally the week after
the National Championship game, so he would be.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
More versed in that. Jack Sawyer will be more versed
in that, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
And I think that's where it also becomes a level
of sophistication, like these guys are coming in more mature,
more body able because they've been put through that kind
of grinder. I'm not even calling a ringer. It's a grinder,
like a meat grinder to get through that, and you
got to put yourself back together. So it is a difference,
and we're getting closer closer to bridging that gap from
college to pro.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
And one other thing that one of their aspects of
this is that we see guys get momentum with the
offseason workouts, right, so you know a JJ Gallbreath or
a DJ Thomas Jones, Suddenly they're people are paying attention
to them and they're starting to get to know their names.
And now, if you're a player like that, are you
feeling that love from the coaching step because the fans great,
(23:15):
fantastic case or or the media somebody's blogging about somebody great, well,
they got to blog about somebody every day. Where you
want to feel the love is with the decision makers,
the coaches, those people that are gonna say you're on
the roster, you're not on the roster. And the thing
is if you feel it though, if you're that kind
of fringy player, maybe I mean you have to is
another one.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah, yeah, if you're an undrafted free agent or you're
you're the ninety fifth guy signed, you know, to fill
out this training camp roster, you got to do something
to catch their eye every day and only has be
one play, whether it's one on ones, whether it's actually
in a team drill, you do something unexpected or you freeze,
(23:55):
you know and freestyle. Listen if you're gonna freestyle out
here under these circumstances, you better make it successful. If
you're going to jump around and you're supposed to be
in the deep third and you're playing you're playing man
press at at the ten yard line, you had better
hope that, hey, I can jump this round and make it,
because if you don't and the other guy makes it,
you'll make that highlight a different way.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah. Well, there's I mean, I know from my own experience,
and I think this is why we get fights sometimes.
So as my senior year of college, we were, you know,
doing some walk through stuff and running the option and
some running the option and I flip it out and
some some freshman, big kid, yeah, helmet right to my sternum.
I'm like, hey man, this is a three quarter drill,
(24:33):
you know. But he's trying to make sure that his
trying to pop up that because that hurts, you know. Yeah,
And that's and that's where fights happen. When you're not
expecting that extra shove or push, your body relaxes and
and that that that will get your eye up quickly.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
This is why you know, we talk about the art
of the brother in law, right, the art of the
brother in law is Okay, do I know who?
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Do I know my personnel? And who am I going to?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Like?
Speaker 4 (24:59):
I know if I see Hamp, Yeah, Casey Hampton in camp,
Hamp's going to only go three steps, right because he's like, Hey,
I'm here to.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Get my assignment. Show that I know what I'm supposed
to do.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
I was like, I only turn on when the lights
turn on, and right now there's no lights out here,
it's just the sun.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
But then you have Chris Hoke Hokey Bro. Hokey Bro
had one speed, and so you knew that if you
came out in practice for Hoky, like every play was
a game rep. So you had to know your personnel
and where I need to be on the gas tank
to do that. I mean, for me, it was like
Chemo von Oldhoffen versus James Harrison, who's been cut three
(25:38):
times and is trying to make a name for himself
on the edge.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Guess what I'm getting all gas?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
No breaks from James Harrison, right, And that's the mentality
had throughout his whole career.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
But then there are young guys. You don't know who
they are, So.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
That's why you can't brother in law. When you get
when you get the X factor in, it's like, sorry, son,
you know, welcome to the NFL. I'm about to beat
the brakes off of you until we establish this rapport,
until I can look you in.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Your eyes and say, hey, that's enough. I've got to
now put you to sleep.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I'm afraid to talk you. I thought you would telling
me it was enough, because on the radio just looked
at me and said, that's enough. Yeah, yeah, I can
carry I can carry out.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
No, no, no, I.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Think we need to go to a break.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
We need let's pay our sponsors off.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Let's do that. Uh Segment one in the books. Here
from the Trobe. This is the locker Room with King
and Stark's presented by your neighborhood, Ford.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Stoor, Iheartradios live coverage I'll about twenty twenty five. Steelers
Training Camp is presented by Fatex where Now meets Next
and also brought to you by CGR Wholesale Roofing and
Siding Supply Center, by Tom's Appliances, by Always Safe Flagging
(26:52):
and Traffic Control by Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, by
Schneider Downs, by Hassa's Steak and Seahouse by your neighbor
hood Forward Store, by Castle Rock, by clear View Federal
Credit Union, and by US steel.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
And welcome back to the locker room with Kingyon Starts
presented by your neighborhood Ford Store. Going to be again.
We'll fight through this. Gonna be weird to say that,
weird to be here missing our buddy Craig Wolfley, but
the show has to carry on, so Max to say
the least, this was a busy and intriguing off season
(27:30):
for the Steelers. Let's begin. I guess the lead story
is It's got to be Aaron Rodgers, right, I would
say a lot of lead stories. I mean, and here
we go.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Here's here's my first wolf Ism of the broadcast, because
I'm now in a place emotionally where i can actually
say it and not cry, Sweet Marie what we did
in the off season, right? I mean, this is not
this is not your dad's Steelers. This is not your grandpa.
See is that your uncle, your aunties, grandma, the lady
down at the local bush.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
This is no.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
This is a brand new era in Steelers. First of all,
when you look at the moves and this has Omar
Kahn's DNA all over. It is that the Steelers were
hyper not just aggressive, but hyper aggressive this offseason at
attacking needs and also getting guys done. And the checkbook
(28:21):
was open for business from the start of free agency.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Yep, it was. And again I'm gonna jump in with
Aaron Rodgers because he's gonna be Look. TJ. Watt was
a big recent story. But everyone's gonna circle back to
the quarterback positions, to nature of the game. But you know,
there was this long pursuit of Aaron Rodgers. It dragged out,
It seemed interminable. You know, you had you know, some
(28:45):
people say he's holding the Steelers hostage. By the way,
He's not holding the Steelers hostage. That wasn't the case.
But you're also like, make a decision. We want to know.
As a fan, You're like, come on, man, are you in?
Are you out?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
And I think the biggest thing was no football was
getting played during that entire process, right exactly, not even practice.
Was really in a serious situation the time that he
took And listen, he told us from the get go
it was a family problem and it was a family
(29:17):
issue and personal issue he had to deal with. And
who are who are we to say, your family issue
needs to be done now. Whatever it is, you know,
it needs to be done now, because I want to
be able to sit at the bar and brag about
nothing that had to do with football at that moment
except for the idea of football. He's here, he showed
(29:38):
up yesterday, and this is when football's played. So that
was the most important. But I think for us, because
you have to realize, we went through five different quarterbacks
in two years, and so it's the uncertainty that persisted
that really drove kind of that narrative about it. Because listen,
if we were a team that was not in the
(29:58):
playoffs and it was terror and we didn't, we didn't
win as many games if we were let's say the Jets, and.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
You know, our future was just we don't have a direction.
We had a direction.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
We had five different starting quarterbacks and we made the
playoffs the last two years.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Now, granted they were like, well, when are you gonna
win a game? He ever won a playoff games in
twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
It doesn't matter. Do we get invited to the dance? Yes,
that's the most important thing. So now when you get
a veteran quarterback that, like I said, has done a
lot in this league. Right, He's won every award. The
only thing he hasn't done is beat out Tom Brady's records. Right,
that's the only thing he has, and he still has
(30:37):
a couple of them that are within striking distance.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
But he was afforded that cachet, you know.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
He it's not like this is a guy on a
trying to get his second contract and he's like holding
out for more money.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
He didn't hold out for that much money.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
You know.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
That's another thing that people.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
It wasn't like he was asking for twenty five milli
a year like most quarterbacks in that echelon, in that
range get.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
He took.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
He took a dick more yeah, yeah, or a lot more.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
So I think it was like, hey, and you know,
one of the things that Mike Tomlin said along the
process was we've been in constant communication. That's where I
didn't feel bad, Yeah, because I'm like he said, we
were in constant communication. Art Rooney says, down at the
owner's meetings, we're going to wait. I don't know what
that looks like, but we're going to wait. So if
ownership and the head coach are saying this, why should I.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Think any differently about that decision?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
So, but it is.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
It is.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
It's the crux of the entire team is based around
your quarterback. But I'll tell you my most intriguing off
season story was when you sign a DK Metcalf right
out of free agency to that type of contract and
you don't have a quarterback in place, that's just saying,
whoever's going to come here, we're going to be aggressive.
And we went and said we will start building all
(31:48):
the pieces around it and then boom, drop in quarterback
here after we have all the rest of the house built.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Well, yeah, and that's that's very interesting, And I do
want to have a larger conversation about the way the roster.
In my opinion, Max, the roster's gotten better and better
over the last three years. They've really they've really filled
a lot of holes. They've come closer and closer I
think to the upper echelon teams. I think we saw
that last year. We saw close wasn't good enough, but
we saw them get closer. But the thing about you know,
(32:17):
look this, in this game, you cannot win unless you
have very good play from the quarterback position. Frequently elite play.
I think with Jalen Hurs, we saw very good play
from the quarterback position. You can't be worse than that.
You've got to be a top five, six seven quarterback
(32:38):
to have a chance to win a Super Bowl. Now
there was for the bulk of his career, Aaron Rodgers
was that guy. I've said this many times. I love
the quarterback position. I've watched football for a long time.
You know, if you wanted a guide to to sling
rifle shots from out of the pocket, you'd have a
hard time, you know, doing better than Dan Reno for example. Right,
(32:59):
but if sidearm, you know that great arm that he had.
But if you want a guy that can make every throw,
every throw left, right, moving forward, moving backward in the
pocket on the run, there's.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
Time on time down right there.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
To me, right to me, there's never Aaron Rodgers is
the best I've ever seen at it. With that definition
of throwing the football, I've never seen anybody better than
Aaron Rodgers. In fact, he's the best I've seen. I'm
not going to say because if I say nobody better,
that means there's somebody else. No, he's number one. To me,
I've never seen He's the best i've ever seen.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Let's put it that way, yeah, I mean, I mean
you talk about a guy who can throw the entire
route tree absolutely and also can hit every blade of
grass out there right now.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
He is forty one. He's forty one. The other time,
he is always going to catch up with you.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
And that's when you kind of measure it, right, when
you can throw it, when you know when you can
show it, and when.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
You have to hold it a little bit right, yep,
you know.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
And I think that's the biggest thing, but also comes
with that experience.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
It's a being forty one years old. He also knows
when he can gas it and when he can put
put his foot on the brake a little bit.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
And now you need a better, more well rounded team
to give him more options, right, And I think this
is probably the best team he's probably had as far
as the weapons, minus the number two receiver, Like, we
still have to flesh that one. I think that's probably
the biggest question coming into camp offensively, outside of who's
going to be the left tackle as Roger Jones going
(34:28):
to assume the mantle, I think it's the number two
receiver is going to be that big question mark because
We know because we thought when we had DK Metcalf,
it was gonna be DK George Pickens right, one, two,
And we're just filling guys in the slots right, you know,
Calvin Austin, Roman Wilson, however you wanted to shake it out,
who was gonna win that slaughterer, Whether it's gonna be
Pat Friremooth, that was gonna be.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
The number three.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Right now, we're saying the field is number two right
now until we progress through these practices.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
So you've already.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Got a wonderful bevy of tight ends to give you
your short intermediate game middle of the field. DK is
your big play target that's going to take the top
off of the covers, that's gonna create issues. Who's gonna
be Robin to his to DK's batman, and that's Calvin Austin.
The third, that's Roman Wilson, right, and now you have
(35:18):
to insert all these different names behind that, But those
are the guys are gonna first crack at it, and
then whoever whoever comes in second place now becomes your
slot it.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Well, it might be John new Smith.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
And that's now that's the X factor, because like you said,
you have so many tight ends. And we saw up
here training camp last year thirteen personnel that that was
looking like eleven personnel, right, And so do you go
the way of traditional eleven with three wide receivers and
one tight end? Do you go twenty one with two
(35:52):
tight ends that you can flex out of John News
Smith and keep it Darnell Washington in line or a
Pat Friar move in line? Or do you go thirteen
and you get John U, Darnell and Pat Fryar move
as your three guys and guess what now you flex
out Pat and John new and you keep Darnell in line.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
That's what we're going to see.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
That what's gonna flesh out over these next three and
a half weeks and we'll be watching all of that.
But it's interesting, but there is no true number two.
So that's what we're that's what we're here to dig
and find during this But it looks it looks like
Aaron Rodgers has a very healthy problem of too many
receivers to throw to only one football on the field.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
So so many we have again, we're no way we're
getting through every single one of these topics in two hours.
Not a chance.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Now, this is what how about three weeks.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Yeah, oh that's right, we do have I think we'll
get it done. So the thing here's what intrigues me
about John new Smith. And again I can't say that
I'm I'm well aware of his patch catching abilities. Obviously
I'm not that well aware of his blocking. So I
did some research and tried to some answers in that regard.
I think he could be your every down slot receiver
(37:07):
for a couple of different ways. Now, one of the
things that I love about football is the adjustability, right so,
and one of the things that I think makes this
Cheelers playing in this division interesting. And when they talked
about drafting Derek Harmon, and I'm getting a little far
afield here, but Harmon was they identified him. They said,
we think of the big guys, he's the best pass
(37:27):
rusher and he's also a great run stuffer. Well that's
important because it isn't like, you know, hey, the rest
of the league is going spread In the AFC North,
you got to stop Derrick Henry one week and Joe
Burrow the next. Right, you better be versatile, you better
be able to play. So you're looking constantly for guys
(37:48):
who can handle different matchups, but what you get frequently
is mismatches. So I remember when the Redskins now the Commanders,
but the Redskins in those days had the smurf.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
For this fall.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yeah, but but you know you you had the smaller
wide receivers. Why because they were bigger defensive backs. You know,
everyone's trying to and then you know you have you know,
the Herman Moors and these other big receivers come in. Well,
now you better have big defensive backs. And most of
those big defensive backs are gonna be a little slower.
So guess what. Now we can have quick you know,
Wes Welker type guys in the slot, and we can
beat you with quickness. So now what is gonna happen. Well,
(38:24):
you're gonna get a smaller guy in the slot to
combat that. So he's quick. Well, guess what now we
got John Smith in the slot. You want to you
want to be put a smaller guy in him to
cover him phenomenal. We're gonna pitch the ball to Caleb
Johnson and he's gonna block your little small guy down
into the Ohio River. So so I think he's he's
an intriguing guy for me. So you know what they
(38:46):
said was he's a Again the scouting ports I read
was in we'll see him here in camp soon, willing blocker,
but probably a little bit better because he's not a
huge guy disengaged from the line of scrimmage. Well, that's
by definition the slot or the h back position. Yeah,
so I think he could be you know I and
again I understand where everyone's talking about a number two receiver.
(39:08):
I'm wondering if he might be it, that might be
your guy.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
And the other thing that I'll say is when I
kind of look at it, is that you know, everybody
wants a hins ward, right, A hinds ward comes in
very different riders. He doesn't have to block a guy
in a three point stance coming off the line, But
if that safety wants to creep up in the box,
guess what. Now he's a motion guy zem and he's
a guy that can come get that eighth man in
(39:32):
the box. And I think that's where you talk about
the willing blocker to go heat, seek, destroy type of style.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
That's where you can use him.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
And that's that's such a big advantage because if they're
trying to run any type of week overload or anything.
All you have to do is motion him and now
you're at balance. So he does give you a lot
of flexibility. And that's why we're here in camp to
figure out who are going to be the fifty three,
What does the offense actually look like? Because Aaron's gonna
like what he likes, right, and the player personnel is
(40:02):
going to also dictate what we can and can't do.
And that's that's why this is the forge, right right,
Saint Vincent is the forge and the proving grounds for
what the twenty twenty five twenty six Steelers team is
going to look like.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Such a good Pittsburgh word forge. Yeah. By the way,
Arthur Smith said as much, and I kudos to him about, hey,
we didn't we didn't. I think it's quote with something
that we didn't bring Aaron Rodgers here to hand the
ball off one hundred times a yeah, exactly. That's good stuff.
Going to be part of the intrigue. We have much
more to come. You're listening to the Locker Room with
King and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Ford Sure on
the Steelers Audio.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Network Iheartradios live coverage about twenty twenty five Steelers Training Camp.
He's presented by Fadex where Now meets Next and also
brought to you by bud Light, Independence Health System by
Pennsylvania One Call System by Live Casino, Caldiente Pizza and
(40:57):
Draft House by Tom's Appliances, South Hills Auto, Laurel, Highlands
Visitors Bureau, Wemax, Select Realty, the Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Shop
and Buy Us Steel.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
And Welcome back to Patroll, Pennsylvania. And the Locker Room
with King Starts presented by your neighborhood Ford Store. Some activity,
some stirring going on.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
We have bodies on the prairie.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
We do.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
We have bodies on the prairie.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
So is this a normal thing? Will this happen every day?
Like little walk through stuff and that sort of thing
is that we're doing here.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
So that's what we'll have here. We'll have the walk
through that will happen before practice. Normally it happened early
in the morning. It's now adjusted in accordance to kind
of go through quote the ideas of the day or
the principles of the day, whatever part of the playbook
is being unlocked. You'll get a chance to kind of
(41:52):
walk through it and this is what the Steelers been doing.
We used to do it all the time in season
as well, where you come out and you go through prack,
go through a little pre practice kind of walk through
we called it. Then you go back and locker room,
and then we kind of lounge around a little bit,
have lunch and maybe another little quick little meeting, then
go on the field and actually practice.
Speaker 5 (42:10):
Here.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
A similar concept is kind of getting into the in
season routine of it. You want to walk through what
you're going to do for the day for all the
young guys and the new guys so that they understand.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Kind of what the concept is.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
And this is the opportunity to ask questions, to watch
the starters do it if you're a young guy and say, hey,
well why are they doing it? Well, remember we talked
about this in the meeting. We broke this down, so
this is what you're looking for, and you kind of
get a slowed down, relaxed approach with a very tight script.
And then of course in practice, you know, you turn
the volume to eleven, right, you know, and and that's
(42:42):
what that's what you have to make do with. So
this is this is something I'm glad we get to
see more of it. We didn't really get to see
as much when we were on air last year because
of the morning schedule, So now we kind of get
a full look at it before we get out there,
and of course, you know, all the rest of the
guys will have it. You know, we'll have the drive
available and we'll see a lot of the in game stuff.
(43:03):
And then of course if you go to Steelers dot com,
you can watch me and Pursuit of up top kind
of doing the visuals and kind of explaining a lot
of things before we get up to when we have
pads seven shots, but of course it's called fundamentals in
the acclamation period. We'll go up to fundamentals period every
day until we get passing, they'll be up to seven shots.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
And I think that's exciting for our listeners because not
that we didn't have great content last year during camp,
but with the return of the one fifty five to
two pm practices, I think it gives us even more
content throughout the day that people can kind of sink
their teeth into and reminder, we're the only ones here
on the Steelers Audio Network who broadcast live during practice.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Yes, yes, we are the only ones the league is
still trying to catch up and trying to add a
little bit more. But once again, you know, first to market,
you know, the spoils go to the victor, and that's
where we are.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
And so yeah, you can.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
Make sure that if you're here in the if you're
here in the audio, by tuning in on Steelers Audio Network.
You can also double dip on your second device or
at your computer. If you're in your cubicle at work,
don't worry. Just make sure the spreadsheet is the one
in the little corner and just maximize it when the
boss comes by.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
But you can.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
Actually watch some of Steeler's practice without physically being there.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
Yeah, gentlemen like it.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
I like it, and you've explained how it could be
done efficiently. Yes, so this is Max Stark's a world
of information here.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
And if you're a two screener guy, you know, if
you're a two screener guy, boom, it's just it's already there.
Just put on a screen that he doesn't see, right,
you kind of angle the screen a little bit to
show that you're.
Speaker 5 (44:28):
Doing your TPS reports.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
But but yeah, I mean this is an opportunity for
I think all of us across the network through the
broadcast day, we all get an opportunity to kind of
take a crack at it and be able to talk
about what we're seeing, because you're going to see at
different phases throughout the process, whereas in the morning you
kind of had one one show kind of encompassed the
entire practice, and then everybody else the rest of it. Yeah,
(44:51):
we're assuming it's like, well, here's what I saw, and
here's what I know.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
We heard that.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
We're like, yes, yes, we know that Darnauld Washington is
a scar Sky's and he can catch anything off the
back line and also too.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Sorry Kinger, but just speaking of exciting content for our listeners,
I just got a call from Brandon. That's why I
had to step out there.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
One thirty.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Every day here on Steelers Nation Radio, there will be
a Steelers Legend guest with with Bob Labriola and Tom Opferman.
We'll we'll like, we'll get a little bit of a
heads up who it is, but it'll be a relative
surprise for the listeners every day, and those are great guests.
Hochi Bros. Usually here, Mike Logan's usually here.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
I was in on a few of those last year.
They're awesome.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Those guys are always excited to be back and out
here and talkative and share great stories and everything. So
that'll be one thirty every single day. Lead you right
into practice, going.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
A history, you know what I mean, And and so
many legends, so many great players throughout the course of
the years. You know, as we you know, you mentioned
the DK Metcalf trade. I had to say. I was
at OTAs and and the offseason workouts and then the
mandatory mini camp, and Metcalf was there for the mandatory
mini camp and you know, he kind of had the
(45:59):
jersey kind of rolled up and he's in motion. I'm like,
who is that? Yeah, And then I was like, oh
my god, that's DK Metcalf.
Speaker 5 (46:06):
I'm sorry, why did the statue come to life?
Speaker 3 (46:09):
Yeah, I mean, you know, the the I was thinking
about him and uh, and the acquisition, and again you said,
not your not your normal Steelers' way of doing things,
or hadn't been in the past. The aggressive acquisition of
DK Metcalf for a second round pick. You sign him
to a contract extension. You know, he's uh, he's got
he's got a high motor, a big motor, and a
(46:30):
fast motor. I mean, this guy is big, fast and
strong and plays hard. Another guy who is a willing
blocker on the outside, which is good for a team
that you know still wants to be able to run
the football. But again that is not you know, the
way we had become accustomed to the Steelers doing business.
This is Omar Khan's team. He's been aggressive and I
thought that was a huge pickup for the Steelers. No,
(46:52):
it was a humongo literally and physically.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
Yeah, literally and physically a humongous pickup. And I think
also going after receivers kind of in their prime is
another one where you didn't see the Steelers do this.
Speaker 5 (47:04):
In the past.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
He's twenty seven years old, right peak.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
Yeah, so it so it's like, oh, wow, okay, so
this is not what we're expecting. I mean, making late
a late late in the year or late in the
off season year trade acquisition as well, but getting DK
specifically right out the gates and kind of setting the expectations.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
About what was to come.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
I thought was a very good kind of opening salvo,
so to speak, right and just let you know, boom,
this is what we're doing and blink and you're gonna
miss some stuff, so make sure you keep peeled on us.
And of course we controlled I feel like a lot
of the headlines in the off season in a positive
way for the most part. Because once again, that long
like you said saga of the Aaron Rodgers, it ended
(47:51):
with a happy ending. Right when you open that truck
at the end, it was like he ended up making
it across the yellow brick road, right, you know, he
found his way to Pittsburgh. So I think that's one
of the things that we're not used to. We're used
to just going under the radar and making a splash
here you talk about for a couple of days, and
we kind of go by the wayside. But we had
different moments and milestones that we hit throughout the off
season process to where it culminated in a TJ. Watt
(48:14):
signing at the end and coming into camp with no
contract issues, no negative lingering clouds coming into this. We
come in all free and clear and ready to do
business and focus on football and how this team's going
to approach. But DK was the catalyst for that, and
I mean, I love it. I think bringing a guy
of his caliber, we were always worried about a veteran
(48:36):
receiver here, the offense was so young. This offense matured
very quickly in a year because you're talking about really
Nause and Pat were the ones that were kind of
like the Elder States. But you're talking about four year
guys at this point. Now you bring in in Aaron Rodgers,
that's two decades right there. You bring in, like you said,
a DK metcalf right in the middle of his prime.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
Smith, you got John U.
Speaker 4 (48:59):
Smith got Kenneth Gainwell, a guy who's got a lot
of and just played on a Super Bowl team, right,
So you've got a lot more different cross sections to
really mature this offense. Yes, I know we had Russ,
but you know when we got Russ Russ, it was
more towards the end, it wasn't you know, it was
still a question mark. But could he bring everybody up?
At least now when Aaron comes in, he has more
(49:22):
guys to lean on experience wise, He's not the only
Super Bowl champion on that offense, right, So I think
that's what makes this a very different prospect than it
was a year ago.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Man, I'm so excited, just cannot wait. There's so much,
so many great topics, great talking points, guys are out
there stretching right now. Beautiful blue skies, a couple of
puffy white clouds out there, just American flag just moving
a little tiny bit, not much going to be hot
out of it.
Speaker 5 (49:49):
Can you do that stretch, Rob, That's what I want
to know.
Speaker 3 (49:51):
No, you're actually know what I've been. I've been trying
to do a little bit of.
Speaker 4 (49:55):
Be trying to get off the floor though, after I
sat down with my on the haunches.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
So we try to get it out of these dorm
bets up there for some reason, like five and a
half feet off the ground.
Speaker 3 (50:08):
So that's that's what's happening here in the troupe. We
have plenty more still to come, lots more to talk about,
including the other half of that John Nei Smith trade,
micka Fitzpatrick going out, Jalen Ramsey coming in. We're going
to continue to get you ready for the beginning of
training camp here in the locker room with King and Starks,
presented by your neighborhood Fords Tour On this year, there's
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