September 5, 2025 • 51 mins
King and Starks share their reactions from the NFL's season opener last night and highlight some key matchups for Steelers Jets on Sunday.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is in the locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop
dot Steelers dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And hello everybody, Welcome inside the locker room and we
are delighted to be with you. I'm Rob King along
with Max Starks, Max by Rote. I was ready to
say what was just said by mister Big Voice. You know,
I roll into the locker room King and Starks and
all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
No need, yeah, exactly, no need anymore.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
We've now officially graduated to Big two Big Voice sounder intros.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, yep, yep. I feel pretty good about that. I
don't know how you feel about.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
It, you know what?
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I feel pretty I feel like, you know, not like
like like we've arrived, but we've arrived. We have a
arrived at status by the end of the week that
we are now officially ges had of locker room with
King of Starks.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Max, I'm beside myself with excitement. Did you watch the
game last night?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I did watch the game last night, and I survived
and finished to the end of the game last night.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
This morning, yeah, yes, that was That was this morning.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
It was what are you?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
What are your thoughts on what you So I saw
a good portion of it. I had TV responsibilities. I
came home dismayed that I was going to miss the
fourth quarter and found out that I actually could watch
the fourth quarter because it was delayed by weather, so
I was able to watch it. Your thoughts on what
you saw and what Week one football means and if
anything can be cleaned from that that pertains to Sunday's
(01:50):
game against the Jets, Well, I think.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
When I look at it, I mean, it was it
was all.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Offense in the first half, right, and then you know
in the second half, outside of the first drive of
that second half of Philadelphia, it was all defense. Like
you know, when you look at what Dallas eventually then
then did to kind of stem the tide of offensive scoring.
It was blitzing. It was blitzing Jalen Hurts providing pressure.
(02:21):
Then it felt like neither team could move the football.
And I think, when I look at kind of this
is kind of a microcosm of what we're gonna get.
I think not only in our game, but around the league,
scoring will be depressed, kind of like it was a
year ago when we're talking about Week one, where there
(02:42):
was only like a handful, if that, of teams that
even threw for over two hundred yards in the air.
It was a lot of ground game. It was a
lot of you know, small plays trying to make it happen.
And I think that's what But you know, I look
at what it was when we played the Falcons, right,
(03:04):
not one touchdown was scored, you know, in that game.
And so I look at it and I say, man,
teams don't play in the preseason. Teams don't really get
a feel for themselves. It's new. We have to get
used to each other. What's the rhythm and the flow.
And even though Philadelphia still put up twenty four points
(03:26):
and Dallas put up twenty, it didn't feel.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Like the two star quarterbacks were dueling it.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Out because Dak Prescott through for like one hundred and
eighty eight yards and I think Jalen threw for like
one fifty two. You know, we only saw three hundred
total yards of offense, respectively, and in a bulk of
that came in the first half of the game when
I neither of these defenses were operating at one hundred percent,
meaning they didn't have a star player.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Jalen Carter gets.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Ejected six seconds into it for speaking on Dak Prescott,
which is just unfat them a bull and ridiculous to
say the least. And Michael Parsons is not on this defense.
And the defense could not get any pass rush in
a four man rush, and that's where you saw Dallas like, okay,
(04:15):
we have to add on at one point, I think
they had a nine man box, like literally there was
five the second road defenders within five years of the
line of scrimmage and you have four down linemen, and
I mean.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
It looked like it looked like an old school four
to four defense. Like that's how.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Precise it had to be and how much effort they
had to put into getting after Jalen Hurts in that game.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I thought they did a good job.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Against Saquon Barkley though, and the run game. I think
the addition of Kenny Clark was a welcome added addition
as well as Milton Williams, so I think they had
that part of it. And then for the Eagles without
Jalen Carter. It was very tough sledding for them, and
you realize how many pieces they're missing on that defense.
(05:07):
The aforementioned Milton Williams was on that Philly squad a
year ago and he was the rotational guy between Jalen
Carter and Jordan Davis.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
They would have loved to have had.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Milton Williams last night if they would have known that
Jalen car is going to be ejected such frightens into
the game, yep.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And they didn't have that.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
So therefore, there was a lot more opportunities in efficiency
and running the football. There was also an opportunity for
Dak to really have a clean pocket, and he threw
it thirty four times. Whether his receiver's card is a
whole different story, but it was just I was just
looking at that and I kept saying, man, Okay, this
is what NFL football is going to be. Don't expect
(05:46):
the forty point games. If you get it early, you're
you're gonna be lucky. Because you know, normally this probably
probably would be the verse. You'd like to see the
inverse of it and see teams kind of get better
as the game goes on, but that's not the reality
of it early on football, you know, And I think
that's where I'm gonna be a little, a little kind
(06:09):
of rearing about what can we really expect. The scoring
is gonna be intermittent, You're gonna try and take your shots.
You're gonna try and and have a plan. But defenses,
you know, I feel the rest of the league will
be a lot more convinced and a lot more ready
to go than the offenses.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
We appear to be.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
And I don't want to overreact to this, but we
appear to be in a bit of a trend. By
the way, ceedee lamb man, oh man, some massive drops
late in that game.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, opportunities, oh man.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I mean, if you heard Dallas, you're thinking, man, we
you know, we lost an opportunity to pull an upset.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
And you know, uh, the NFL.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I can't think of a sport in which there are
more fluctuations than the NFL.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
You know, the salary cap has a huge part to
do with that.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You know, you look at a sport like baseball, The
Dodgers are pretty much always going to be good. The
Yankees pretty much are always going to be good. The
Red Sox pretty much are always going to be good
in the NFL. You are as good as your organization
and your ability to manage the cap. A little bit
of luck involved, obviously. You look at a team like
(07:25):
Dallas and you know they they were a good team
until last year and and you know, then the question
becomes bad year, which happens one of the then they
trade Michael Parsons. Is this just a team that's you know,
everyone's ready to flush them, or are they more like
the team that was winning, you know, twelve games a
(07:47):
year for a couple three years in a row there before.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Last year's decline. Are the Eagles?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
You know, inevitably a top team has team has players
Pilford from them. I think that, uh, you know, as
a around the league, just off the top of my head,
Buffalo has done an incredible job of continuing to maintain
their perch as one of the you know, a top
one of the best, as one of the best teams
in the league, despite the fact that they've been hamorrhaging
(08:15):
Pro bowlers in the offseason. You just don't know until
the games start and it's hey man, you know, when
you only have seventeen of them close, there's no moral
victory for the Dallas Cowboys. You know, they had a
chance to win the game in Philadelphia. So that was
one thing that occurred to me is that year by
year there are gonna be fluctuations. Even teams as deep
and solid as Philadelphia, you know, there may be some
(08:38):
weaknesses that we may see.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Exploited throughout the course of the season.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Again, you know, look, you can't uh, you can't legislate
for having a star defensive tackle thrown out of the
game six seconds in, you knows as exposing a weakness.
But it just it fascinates me that you know that
year by year you're never quite sure what you're gonna
get in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah, I mean that that is one of those things
where you do wonder what is it going to look like,
how is the season going to start, how is it
going to be? But the one thing I always say
is caution not because the team you see week one
is not going to be the team that you see
week five, week ten, week twelve into the season.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
This is just to start.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
This is now we're getting into the era where it
is the extended preseasons for a lot of these teams.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
That's right, And.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
So you can't really fret about that aspect of it,
but it is kind of boring. And I think now
because we're in the fantasy football era of life, that
a lot of people take that kind of for granted
what it is and what it can be, and I,
you know, I just I caution it because teams are
(09:55):
going to be are are more worried about, Hey, how
are we going to be when it comes time to
to make to make a play in a game, and
we want to extrapolate it as soon as possible.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
We want to be able to have the answer.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Oh, man, DK on a nine route with forty seconds left,
that's the play. And it's like, no, that's not the play.
Do you know we want to we want to have
something different in place. It's like, and yes, that might
be the play later, but for now, you know, we're
(10:29):
getting used to Aaron and DK getting together on the
same page.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Or man, we we've.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Got the four minute office man handed off to Caleb Johnson.
He's gonna get you four and a half yards per carry. Yeah,
it might get to that, but I don't think that's
that's gonna be right at the beginning of it, because
you haven't played with Aaron Rodgers at all in the preseason.
You haven't played with Caleb Johnson, with Aaron Rodgers in
the backfield, Isaac Ciamalo there, john O Smith actually in
(10:56):
the lineup. All of these parts are going to be
new and you've got to figure them out and you've
got to You've got to go through you've got to
go through the process, and you've got to make your
team that much better. There is a growing and a
chemistry that comes with it, and that's what you have
(11:17):
to kind of get used to is these guys need
to play together. And that's what it's going to be
every year. No matter how great training camp looks, no
matter how good OTA's look, no matter how good mini
camp seems and feels Friday night lights, it's totally different
when you step into the stadium. It's totally different when
(11:38):
the game's now on the line and you have to
go through this exercise with everybody. That's what the difference
is going to be, is that you're going to need
to go through You're gonna need to go through the process.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And I'll tell you one other things too that I
think has happened. And so the year by year fluctuation
in the NFL fascinates me.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I think it's really one of the great parts in
the league is that you don't know. And again it
is another thing to me that underscoes just what the
Steelers have been able to do is a lot more
difficult than people think. And I know, I understand the
Steelers have said, look, we got to get to the
playoffs and win a game. You know, you've been there
(12:28):
the last eight years and your zero and five, I
think is the number. And that's not what the Steelers want.
That's not what Steveers fans want. But you know, when
you have these wild swings of and and not only that,
I mean look at where the Bills were for twenty
years whatever it was, without a winning season. But so
that fluctuation, but also within that fluctuation becomes league wide trends.
(12:52):
And you know when when I can't remember who it was,
one of the coaches in the preseason not long ago,
was asked, just a couple of days ago, was asked
about you know, how can you I might have been
Aaron Glenn.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I don't think it was Aaron Glenn actually, but someone said, hey,
you know when when you when you've got a throwing league,
you know, how can you make sure you throw the
ball better? And the coach said, is it a throwing league?
You know, it wasn't too long ago, you know, going
into last year, and I do wonder if this, if
this is a new trend now. And we talked about
(13:24):
this during the season last year, whether you know Saquon
Barkley and Derrick Henry were helping to set a new trend.
I mean for years, you were looking for that running
back to take in the first round. Who can we
get Let's go get that bell cow, Let's go get
that guy. Then it became you don't need a guy
in the first round. There's plenty of guys. You can
(13:45):
get a guy later. Then Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry
do what they do, and then you look up and
you see and now some of this is running quarterbacks
for sure, another trend in the NFL. But just look
down the list of the teams that were the top
teams in the league and rushing a year ago, not
throwing rushing, Baltimore number one, Philadelphia number two, Washington, Tampa Bay,
(14:11):
Green Bay, Detroit. Those are all can all be identified
as pretty much top notch teams. And that was your
top six teams in rushing. And so you know what
will inevitably happen, Well, teams will get you know, maybe
they'll get big defensive linemen, like when this tea is drafted,
(14:34):
you know, Casey Hampton. They were one of only five
teams in the NFL. I think it was playing a
three to four. Well, fast forward X amount of years later,
everybody's playing that, you know, and now we're seeing maybe
some shifts away from that to different fronts. I love
the ebb and flow of the NFL, but to your point,
I think that and this is one reason that the Jets,
(14:59):
I think are are more worrisome that you might want
to think. And actually I'll give you two reasons, Max
you ready. The first is thank you Matt Matt Williams.
And I think I mentioned this before, but they converted
seventy one point four percent of the field goals last year,
by far, the worst in the NFL. And that cost
(15:19):
them games. It cost them games, you know, instead of
five wins. You know, are we thinking differently about this team?
It's a five win team. What if they were a
seven win team or an eight win team just based
on the field goal kicker, not based on anything else.
Just the guy booting it through the uprights alone could
have made this Jets team a seven or eight or
(15:41):
maybe you know, let's not get two carried away, but
a seven or eight win team.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And then the other thing is they've clearly committed to
running the football. They want to join this trend. And
when you look at this group at the top Baltimore,
they have Lamar Jackson Philadelphia. They have Jalen Hurts Washington,
they have Jayden Day Tampa Bay. You know, Baker's not
really what you know, a running type of quarterback. You know,
(16:06):
Jordan Love can move, but not maybe a running type
of quarterback. But those top three teams they feature a
running quarterback. Well, guess what, the Jets haven't much improved.
They have the most accurate field goal kicker in the
NFL over the last two years in Nick Folk. Now,
and they've got a running quarterback and an offensive line.
I know, they they have an injury to Elijah vera Tucker,
(16:27):
but an offensive line that's designed to run with a
running quarterback and a stable of running backs, not an
unbelievable group of wide receivers. It doesn't appear outside of
Garrett Wilson. So you know, I think they're I think
they're hopping on the trend. I think they're I think
they want and they were one of the worst. Of
course you would expect that. I mean, Aaron Rodgers not
(16:48):
a running quarterback, but they were not a good running
football team last year. So just you know, they were
the second worst team in the league and running the football.
So just a couple of things to store away when
you start thinking about this Jets game. And I think
we saw last night every touchdown was on the ground last.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Night, Max, it was.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
It was completely on the ground, And you know, you're
trying to figure out what is the identity of these teams.
You think, you know, twenty two rushes for Dallas and
thirty four pass attempts that was their offense. Thirty eight
rushes for Philly in twenty three passes. They were in
(17:32):
verses of each other, but same result came. It was
ground game involved and quarterbacks had to move. Jalen Hurts
led your team in rushing over Saquon Barkley in Game one.
Now I don't expect that trend to continue, but I
think that was by virtue of a couple of those
passing opportunities turned into runs because of the pressure that
was allowed. You lose Lennon Dickerson in that game, right,
(17:53):
and it becomes more of a rush than a pass attempt.
I think it probably would have been more bound for
Philly if the old line was a little bit sturdier.
And that's also what you saw. You saw pressure getting
to the quarterbacks early. Nobody nobody really got near except
for the one time Kneeland got the sack on Jalen.
But there was not that much to be There was
(18:17):
a lot left to be desired here here. Now here's
the other thing. When you think about it, teams and like,
man is gonna be a passing game, and this, that
and the other. George Pickens only got four four targets
in that game. Te Lamb got thirteen targets.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Now, I'm not saying I thought he was gonna get
more targets.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
I did.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
I'm not gonna say what it is, but as of
right now, Dallas, you might have a problem if that continues.
I'm just saying there's a reason why George Pickens isn't
here anymore. And it's like you went you thought the
grass was greener.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Still brown.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Brown right now, but I mean ALVIOUSO it's early, But
that was a very glaring thing that Seedee Lamb got
so many targets. Are you talking about three times as
many targets as George pickketts? And I know George pickints
had to have been opened a little bit more than
just four times. But I digress, I digress. That is
more of the trend of this league. And you know,
(19:21):
maybe maybe maybe maybe we maybe we jumped the shark
on it. Maybe we jumped the shark kinger And you know,
the Steelers are more efficient at the passing game. We're
going to put it out there, but I still feel
like the identity of this team is going to be
the establish an efficient run game. That has to be
the mentality. When you have the weapons that you have,
(19:42):
you want to get one on ones. You don't want
to get teams backing off into his own coverage and
playing two and two men and cover.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Three, cover four cloud.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
You don't want teams doing that because they don't fear
your run. They want to put more guys in the
passing game and the offensive line can and effectively run
the football. You want, you want to put them in
the quantary to wheus do we have to have? Yeah,
we need to have the eighth guy in the box.
And yes I know that means man on the backside,
but we need it because they're so good at running
the football. That's what you want to stats. You want
to get to that point. You want to get to
the point of the respect that Dallas gave Philly for
(20:18):
their for their rushing attack. That's what you that's what
you hope for as a team. But you need to
capitalize on those opportunities as well.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Right, Okay, So Steelers getting ready to go Week one
against the New York Jets.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Can't wait.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I'm going to dive into some of the key matchups
in Max's thoughts on what we might see when we
continue Inside the Locker Room with King and Starks, presented
by our neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Get it direct from
the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at Shop dot
Steelers dot com.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
And thanks very much for being with us. Man. We
are excited.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
We've gone through training camp, we've gone through the preseason,
and we are ready for the real McCoy as they say,
And that is the regular season opener between your Pittsburgh
Steelers and the New York Jets. And Max Starks, let's
begin sort of a more in depth discussion about these
teams by looking at the defense of the New York
(21:34):
Jets and your thoughts on this unit that we're seeing
that I think it's safe to say was a massive
disappointment for the Jets and their fans a year ago.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah, I think that's a proper assessment. They had some
bright spots, but more of it was dark clouds when
you think of where this team was and what this
defense needed to be for an Aaron Rodgers led Jets offense,
and it fell very far by the wayside. The things
(22:11):
to note, though, is this is all but this is
one thing, King, this is what is to note. This
team was fourth against the pass and fourth in total
yards giving up given up.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
In the league. That's the one thing that is the
bright spots.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
So I wanted to point that out before we get
to the bugaboo stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Okay, So now I'm not gonna let you get there.
I'm gonna ask you question. So sometimes statistics, right, you know,
you think about a Jets team that wasn't very explosive offensively,
that that fell behind in a lot of games, and
you think, okay, did that aid those numbers against the past?
(22:55):
Maybe you weren't very good against the run? Did team
just say why throw it? Because I think a lot
of teams will say why throw it when we can
run it? And then that depresses your numbers against the pass.
I'm not suggesting that has everything to do with it.
I'm just suggesting that might have a little something to
do with why the Jets numbers appeared to be better
(23:16):
against the pass a year ago.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
And I'm not gonna I'm not gonna fight you on that, okay,
because I think that is part of where we kind
of get to with the next aspect.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Okay, lay it on me.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Sorry. It was one of.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
The worst fourth down teams at getting teams off the field,
and they were thirty first. They were twentieth in scoring,
so they allowed better than about twenty almost twenty four
points a game, and this is a team that averaged
allowing twenty point four first downs per game and that's
(23:57):
tied for twenty fifth.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
They couldn't turn the ball over.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
They only had seven interceptions on the whole entire year
and that was tied for twenty sixth in the league,
and their turnover margin was minus two.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
So yes, so to your point.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
That's where you know, these numbers look good, but they
can be deceiving. They can be deceptive, and that's what
it is. You know, you're giving up almost twenty four
points a game season, that's that's losing football in the NFL.
Because transversely, you look at the Steelers defense and we
were giving up twenty point four points a game, so
(24:39):
a three point four point difference and we were tied
for eighth in the league in defense.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Right, So yes, go ahead, Yeah, so it could.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
So there's a lot of room for improvement for this
Jets defense. And like you said, a good offense helps
a defense, but go from good to great or from
bad to good, that all helps with time of possession tempo.
Like you said, they didn't get off the field on
fourth down conversions, Kinger, that's bad. A team actually felt
(25:14):
the unmitigated gall to want to run and perform a
play on them, and they couldn't get them off the field. Now, granted,
the Steelers weren't that great either. We were twenty ninth
in the league and fourth down version, but that was
also late in the year. A lot of short yard
situations that yielded negative results. And you think of Cam
Hayward not being on the field, I think that's gonna
(25:35):
be a much improved department for the Steelers. But going
back to the Jets, you know, the Jets didn't really
add that much as far as rookies and committing to it. Yeah,
you got you got some guys, you.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Know that that came in.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
And you've got some guys at corner and safety, and
you got a d n that you drafted.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
And and a linebacker.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
But the defensive line is where I think the biggest
issues are. And I think that's where you bring in
a Harrison Phillips and you want to make sure that
he can help support quinnin Williams. And you want to
see what you got in Tyler Baron that you drafted
from Miami and see if he can do something for
you to add to the pass rush of Jermaine Johnson
(26:26):
and Will McDonald because the pass rush leads to better
pass defense and in the interior the run defense, you
need big bodies to stop inside run game.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And I'm gonna be very.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Interesting to see how this team goes. But like you said,
with a different identity offensively, does that help this defense.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
That's gonna be a question.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yes, if they if they can control the clock. Obviously,
you know it has become more and more a league.
It's always been this way to some degree, but a
league a team that defends best least. I mean, think
back to those early two thousand teams, Max, when you
guys were, you know, a little bit of a chicken
an egg thing, right. The defense was giving you guys
(27:08):
the ball. You guys are going on long drives that
rested the defense who got you the ball back again,
which allowed you to go on more long drives, and
you know you're winning that time of possession battle.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
And I think.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
For for some years in the NFL, when it became
more in vogue to throw the football, that became a
little less important. As we see teams now trying to
physically manhandle the other team, I think time of possession
has swung back to being a you know, it's always
been valuable, but I think it's it's maybe a little
(27:42):
more of a premium now than it's been, say in
other years, where there's more passing in the league and leading.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
To quick strikes and shorter drives.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
And when I look at the Jets defense, you know,
and you'll get used to this, and everyone in the
locker room will get used to this throughout the course
of the season. The closer I get to game time,
the more worked up I get about the opponent, and
the more I'm like, oh, my goodness, gration, we're facing Goliath.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Every week, doesn't matter who we're facing. I can always
talk myself into thinking, oh, come on, let's go, which
I like because it gives me that little.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Knot of the excitement in the stomach, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But when I look at this Jets team, you know,
so a couple of years ago they bring in Aaron Rodgers,
they go seven and ten. Right, you know, you're running
in what three or four different quarterbacks, none of them
are named Aaron Rodgers. You have a bad season, you
come back next. Last year with Aaron Rodgers. I mentioned
the field goal kickers two and seven in one score
(28:40):
games two and seven, so they were in nine one
score games. Usually teams and you know, again, I think
you can point right to the field goal kicking. Usually
teams will be will find a way if they improve
to be better at those kind of things. Even if
you're four and five in one score games and you're
the Jets, now you're a seven win team. I think
(29:02):
they're easier to dismiss as a five win team than
as a seven win team. But as we look specifically
at the defense, Max, I think you touched on Harrison Phillips.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
I think he you know, he is a.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Just a good, solid NFL defensive lineman, and you put
him in next to one of the best. Quinn Williams
is one of the best. Well, he needs a running mate,
and so now he's got a running mate. And Jermaine
Johnson basically missed last year two years ago and McDonald
came up really nice second year for McDonald. Both those
guys are first round picks. McDonald had ten and a
(29:38):
half sacks last year. You know, Jermaine Johnson had seven
and a half sacks two years ago. He was a
pro bowler, So you are, you know, think of Steelers
fans about and I'm not comparing them as players, please,
but think about the Steelers record when TJ. Watt isn't playing.
How important one player can be to a defense. I
don't want to overstate Jermaine johnson importance to the defense.
(30:02):
But if I've already got them as a seven win
team by just being a better field goal kicking team, well,
you know, now you add Jermaine Johnson back in, does
that win you another game? You know, potentially somewhere along
the line. So you know, and then and then you know,
you look at their linebackers, Quincy Quinn's brother. You know,
he was an All Pro back in twenty twenty three
with the Jets, Jamie and Sherwood. He led the NFL
(30:25):
and solo tackles. Now, a lot of that, again we
talk about statistics and what they mean.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
A lot of that was because the Jets defense was
out there a lot. But he's a good.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Player, you know, so you've got to You've got to
me and they run a you know, a four to
two base. You've got a pretty formidable front six, I think.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
No, I mean, you have a front six that potentially can.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
Do damage, right, that's right, potentially.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Yeah, they have the potential to do that, and the
question is will they be able to do that? And
then and that's what we're going to figure out. We're
gonna see how this team looks. You know, the identity
of it has changed. Steve Wilkes comes in, and Steve
Wilkes has a very long history of success as a
defensive coordinator.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Yes he does.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
So he's he's going to scheme some things up to
uh to give Aaron Rodgers some challenges and you have
some horses in there. There's the potential for it, so
it could be. So now pressure falls off on set
offensive line. Do the young boys on the edge have
the have the horse power to deal with what's going
(31:35):
to come at them? Because it's not going to come
at them. It's not gonna line up in a four
to two nickel and come straight at you, right, That's
not gonna happen. It's going to come in the form
of twists. It's going to come in the form of blitz.
It's going to come in disguise, the coverages. It's going
to be some things that we have to that we
have to worry about. And I think you're absolutely right
(31:57):
when you're thinking about, like who the guys are that
you have to worry about, Well, ninety five is going
to be your biggest problem on the defensive line for sure.
Can the interior handle Quinn Williams. Then at the next level,
like you said, Jamie Sherwood made a lot of tackles,
But I think Quincy Williams is going to be one
of the issues that you're going to look at from
(32:19):
the second level defense, right because he wasn't no slouchid there.
He had one hundred and sixteen tackles, right, Jamie Sherwood
had one hundred and fifty eight. I mean this is
triple digit tackling linebackers here.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
So pick your poison.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
And then the other thing.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
The nickel position is going to be one of particular interest,
right because that's the guy that's going to play in
the box. Potentially it's going to be Michael Carter at
number thirty. Those are the three guys where you have
to know where they're at and they're going they're going
to dictate a lot for your offense on what you
can and can't do by kind of iding those three guys,
(32:55):
as you know, public enemy number one, so to speak,
for them at each level. And then of course you
still got a sauce gardner. You know who the sauce
line up against is Is it DK or is he
going to take the number two like a lot of
number one corners do because you want to be able
to bracket the team's number one receiver.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Are they going to do that? So is Brandon Steven's
going to get the call on that? You know?
Speaker 4 (33:18):
And it's a guy that we're familiar with. We're watching
him in Baltimore, so we know how he plays his game.
And Andre Cisco another guy at the free safety position.
Is he going to be your middle fielder in those situations?
And then you allow for like a Tony Hallan or
Tony Adams or a Malachi Moore to come down and
play and support Michael Carter Or is it an inverse
(33:39):
of it? Do you have Tony Adams down in the
box and then do you use Michael Carter more to
play that that's that strong safety position. There's a lot
of questions that we're going to ask and we didn't
get to see a lot of it in the preseason,
So that's where you kind of worry about, what.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
Well, what is it?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
What what can be.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
But at the end of the day, once the first
snap goes, it's it's awful. But right now as we
sit here on a Friday, that is some of the
issues that you're going through in your head. That's what
the Steelers are going to go through on fast Fridays
in their practice routine. Is how do we feel about
this concept? And can we identify the known guys. That's
(34:17):
the biggest thing, identifying the known guys that are going
to give you a challenge in this ball game.
Speaker 5 (34:24):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And you know the Jets, you know they had some
salary cap space. I'm not sure you know how much
they used of it. When I see a team that is,
you know, turning the corner, like you can go. You
can go one of two ways, right, you can go
(34:45):
in and make a big splash and free agency and
go out and sign a bunch of guys, or you
can take stock.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Of what you have.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
And I feel like they had a thoughtful off season
right up to the acquisition in Paris and Phillips, which
just happened what a week or so ago, A thoughtful
preseason in which they didn't jump in and go gangbusters.
I think they're going to take a long, hard look
at what they've got. I can't think of a splashy
(35:15):
free agent move that they made. You know, they signed
Justin Fields at quarterback. Sure, two years, forty million dollars. Right,
that's not a huge that's not a you know, one
of these quarterback deals. That's just absolutely through the roof
that we've seen around the league. You go out and
get a you know, Brandon Stevens is a guy that
we're familiar with. You know, you I thought they I
(35:38):
thought they made some thoughtful acquisitions in the offseason. You know,
they use another number one pick on an offensive lineman
in Membu. I think they want to kind of evaluate
what they have while also competing, while also being a
team that can give teams trouble. And I think Aaron
Glenn is trying to set that type of tone.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
He was.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
We talked about him a little bit a couple of
days ago. Max.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
He's a three time Pro Bowler himself. Two of those
Pro Bowls came as a member of the New York Jets.
You know, there's probably a little bit of that. You
know that extra vigor is a Jets guy, but he's
a no nonsense guy. He wants to play clean, hard,
physical football. He wants to bring pressure. And that's why
to me that that last aspect of pressure, and and
(36:26):
you know, and and again this is all preamble to
playing hard. I think there's gonna be a hard playing
football team, but also that pressure on the outside. We
have the Matchup show on the Steelers digital platforms with
Missy Matthews and Matt Williamson and my key to defeating
the Jets defense, and no disrespect to Quinn and Williams
(36:47):
because he's a great player. Was Howard Troy Futanu and
Broderick Jones gonna match up? And you just kind of
touched on this to Will McDonald, who's a very good
pass rusher, and Jermaine Johnson, who's a very good pass rusher.
Broderick Jones is getting Look, every team's most teams have
got two good pass rushers, right Cincinnati is still trying
(37:07):
to figure that out.
Speaker 5 (37:08):
They've got one elite.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
But you know, everybody's got some kind of edge that
can give you some problems. Everybody's got a team that's
going to have some guys that have some sacks. So
you know, I'm not suggesting that these are the greatest
pair of bookend ends in the league. But they're pretty good.
Like I said, Johnson was a pro bowler. McDonald of
ten and a half sacks. Troy Faltano essentially now a
(37:31):
first year starter at right tackle right, I mean he
basically didn't play a year ago. He pushes Broderick Jones
over to the left side his first start at left tackle.
I think that's a real key because you've got to
be able to keep Aaron Rodgers upright, and so I
think a lot falls on those young offensive tackles going
against those edge guys for the Jets.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
No, it is.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
It is probably one of the biggest challenges.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
I think this is the one that when we're talking
about the beef eater matchups, this is this is where
it's going to be in and I'm going to probably
highlight this, you know, we talk about it on Sunday
in the trenches. This is one of those matchups that
I'm looking at, I'm looking at the edges. I'm looking
at edges versus our edges, and who's the edges are cleaner?
(38:18):
That was That was a hair reference anyways, nice or
a haircut reference anyways? Yeah, Yeah, that was. That was
that was my little foray. It failed. Uh, but that's
what I'm looking at. Those are the guys I want
to see. I want to see Jermaine Johnson versus Project Jones.
I want to see Will McDonald, uh, the fourth, you know,
because he puts it on his thing, so you have
(38:39):
kind of have to you know what, He's the fourth,
You're the fourth. I am the fourth. So that's why
I feel like I have to say it. You know,
takes takes one to know one, right, So how will
down the fourth does against Troy Fatano Because I think
we already know what the known problem is in the
interior with Quinn Williams and Harrison Phillips, But we got
a Mason McCormick, a Zach Frasier and Isaac Ciamalo for
(39:01):
that we got three for two and that's where it's.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
More one to one on the outside.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
So the other question is how much body presents do
you give with the tight ends on these guys? How
much chip help do you need from the running backs
during during during the course of the game. That's what
I'm going to be watching for because I think that's
a key to this game is going to be tackles
young tackles first time starting at their respective position, tackles
(39:29):
going and playing against decent to really good talent. And
how we manage that with a quarterback that's not justin fields.
It's not Lamar Jackson, that's not Jalen Hurts. This not
Jayden Daniels. Right, a quarterback that's a true pocket passer
and you need to keep the pocket clean for him.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
How is that?
Speaker 4 (39:49):
How how are these guys going to respond to that challenge?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
And again, just briefly, just to touch on this, I
know it's a little bit obvious for those for those
those really solid football fans, but the minute you have
to start helping is the minute that you have to
change what you're trying to do offensively. If you know,
if you've got to have a running back you know,
(40:14):
chip On Jermaine Johnson, or if you have to have
you know, Darnell Washington, stay in because Will McDonald is
giving you fits. That's one less guy out in the
in the in the pattern, and that is one guy
that you don't have to worry about if you're a
defense covering, so you know, there there is you know,
(40:35):
these things have a trickle down effect. It's not just
about getting Daron Rodgers, but how can affect the rest
of what you're trying to accomplish offensively?
Speaker 3 (40:43):
It is.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
It is a challenge and a problem, but I think
when you look at that, I think this is what
the team has been waiting for. This is why you
use the draft capital that you used was to make
sure that you are a quick to deal with those
things and if not, we need to pivot. But this
(41:05):
is the first challenge along the way, and you know
there are remedies for it. That's why you got four
tight ends, and that's why you know you always keep
a running back usually intererrout more often than not. He's
there in case things happen. He's your insurance policy. He's
the rib tenderiser, and that's what you want to make
(41:26):
sure that you have that guy there so that you're
not going five wise. This team is not you know,
have a pension for five wids. Yes it's in the package,
but that's not what this team's going to rely on.
Your team's going to rely on a lot of multiple
tight end sets. You're going to rely on running the
football efficiently, and all those things go to help and
aid your past defense or past protection so to speak.
(41:50):
That's what this is all geared towards. So if you
do the other things right, you feel like you're limiting
the exposure of those pass rush situations and those one
on one situations, and you take a little bit off
of those guys RPM's accelerator because when you have to stop, go,
get hit, dodge a second block and not a first block.
(42:11):
All those things play into the success of those tackles.
So the big key is those guys off the edge
and how they handle that pass pressure, because there will
be passes in this game, but the efficiency of the
run game will also aid in helping them as well.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
So we are getting you ready for the Steelers and
the Jets, Game one of the twenty twenty five season
for the Black and Gold. We will continue with the
breakdown of the key matchups of this game when we
continue inside the Locker Room with King and Starks, presented
by our neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Forward Store.
The F one P fifty is the official truck of
the Pittsburgh Steeler and vice Steelers Pro Shop. Get it
direct from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at
shop don Steelers dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
And thanks very much for being with us inside the
locker room with King and Starch presented by your neighborhood
Forards store here on the studs audio.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
Never Oh, I don't have to say.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
That again, right, I already forgot about that because the
guy already you keep warning to say it, though, well,
it's by rope.
Speaker 5 (43:25):
I'm used to it, you know.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
So I wanted to get at something quickly, not because
I don't think it's important, but because we have a
short segment here. We have Missy Matthews coming up in
a couple of minutes to join us and give us
some inside scoop, which we love, but real quickly on
special teams. So corless weightman wins the punting battle. He
(43:47):
was twelfth in the league in net punting. You bring
back Chris Boswell. I mean, he's just awesome. Second Pro Bowl,
last year's forty one field goals led the league. You know,
we you know, I don't think we take his greatness
for granted, but he is just great. He's just a
great kicker. And I'm also intrigued to see Kenneth Gainwell
(44:09):
potentially joining Jalen Warren back on kick return because I
think we thought that was going to be a strength
last year with Cordero Patterson, and it really wasn't. Cordero
for whatever reason, you know, the greatest kick returner maybe
in NFL history, you know, wasn't able to do it
up to his normal standards. He's no longer with the team.
You're bringing Gainwell, who had a good year last year.
(44:32):
I think this is gonna be and then other guys
on special teams just just talking about the specialists and
we can talk about some of the other guys a
little bit later on Malie Harrison, Brandon Eckles, guys like that.
But to me, I still think that this is going
to be a strength for this year. There's the special
teams units, and I think the return game is going
to be better.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
No, I think we're gonna have a much improved return game.
I love having Jalen Warren and Kenneth game Well back there.
I think the new dynamic kickoff rule, as we will
call it, is geared towards more of a running back
body style, whereas in the past and the traditional one
you leaned on like defensive back, wide receiver body types,
(45:17):
because those are the guys that have to run the
longer distance, eye the ball as it's in the air.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
This one, there is no action.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
There is no kind of look at the field, take
a snapshot of the field, look back at the ball,
look back down at the field, look back at the ball,
look back down at the field, look back at the ball.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Right.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
You don't have that, You don't have that quandary that
puts a guy in y' All you have to do
is focus on the ball coming to you and where you're,
where you're starting at, whether you're in the end zone
or whether you're out of it. But if it goes
to the end zone, the penalty is going all the
way out to the thirty five. So you'd almost wish
guys would want to stay in the end zone seeing
(45:54):
that it gives you tremendously better field position to start,
you know, start that first on the scrimmage play at
thirty five. But at the same time I say this,
we got a heck of a kicker in Chris Boswell,
a guy who does not matter what position you put
him at, just as long as you call him.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
And he can deliver.
Speaker 4 (46:16):
He delivered, like I said, was it forty plus yard
punt in the Atlanta game when we lost our punter.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
He's a placekicker.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
Different dynamics, different skills set, different set did not match her.
And I think that's where I'm really excited about Chris Boswell,
just because I know how much of a weapon he is.
He is a true special team's cheak code. And with
the guys that we have in that core four area
(46:46):
on top of that blocking leading the way and making tackles, we.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Have some aces out there.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
We have some aces Miles Killerbrew Ace pro Bowler, yep,
a guy that's also a captain for this team. You've
also got a Scotty Miller been Scronic or as we say,
scrow dirt is out there. Those are guys that can
get after it, make plays in the specialties, whether it's
on a return side for Scottie Miller. Now, obviously calvinoss
(47:15):
is probably gonna get the first nod for punt returns
because that was a specialty and that's what he's really
good at. We'll see how his offensive production limits his
availability in that regard. But right now, you assume he's
getting the first crack at Scotty Miller's your backup. Not
a bad duo to have back there on your punt
return team. And then you throw in Malie Harrison, Conter
(47:35):
Hayward right, guys who are core specialists in the special
teams department that know how to disengage and make plays
as well as stick to guys and mirror them on
the return side of things. So I mean, if if
it's me, I feel really happy about this unit and
(47:56):
what and what they can.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Do this year.
Speaker 5 (47:58):
Yeap. And by the way, calvi And had his first
career punt return for a touchdown last year.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
By the way, the Jets, the Jets have some guys
that'll that will scare you a little bit too. But
just quickly in case you're you know, somebody didn't pay
much attention to the preseason, just getting into the regular
season and now just getting your attention turned back to
base back to football from baseball and other sports, golf,
what have you. The new rule is now, you know,
(48:25):
the touchback rule. Last year, You know, I think a
lot of teams said, you know, we're not gonna even
gonna mess with allowing teams to return kickoffs. So we're
just gonna boot it into the end zone and we'll
take our medicine and they can market at the thirty
yard line, and that's what they take over now.
Speaker 5 (48:39):
It's the thirty five max.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
So there are teams that are gonna think twice about
giving up that extra five yards, and I would imagine
we will see more kickoff returns.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Sixty five yards of to fit versus seventy is is
is not what you want to do. And I think
that's why you've seen a lot more kickers really focusing
on getting that ball dropped in in that in that
goal zone area where you have to return it, where
a fair catch is a spot is a spot dropped
and not an automatic move up to the thirty five
(49:15):
type of deal. You can't fair catch it unless you're
in the you know, and then when you're in the
end zone, you gotta take the knee. So don't give
don't give the hand signals or give offsetting hand signals.
As I saw in college. Happened last weekend at West Virginia.
The returner didn't even fair catch it. It was it
was the personal protector that came back and he was
(49:37):
waving his arms. And that's how and that's how they
got the fair catch and it was like what, it's
an invalid signal penalty.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
So you don't want that to happen Nope at all.
Speaker 4 (49:49):
So you want to make sure that you know you're
getting the ball, you're being you feel it cleanly, and
it's gonna lead to more returns. It can lead to
more excitement. I don't know if we can call it
dynamic yet, but it leads to more excitement in a
game where that play was kind of being neutralized a
lot because kickers have such strong legs. I mean, we
(50:10):
just saw a fifty eight yarder last night right by
Jake Elliott to end the first half in the Eagles game.
So kickers have plenty of legs. And we saw Cam
Little do it as well. You know, it boots sixty
three yarder in a game and actually made it. So
kickers have more powerful legs. Well, now we want to
see the precision and accuracy of those kickers. Can you
(50:31):
keep the ball in play and can you make it
to a place where you could have a successful you know,
coverage of that return, and then for the return team,
can you set up an effective wall being five yards
away and allow your returner to get the ball greater
than thirty yards, greater than thirty five yards, and try
(50:52):
and create an even shorter field for your offense. That's
where the excitement's going to come. And I think, but
I will say this, the Steelers one of the best
in the league a year ago. So don't expect it
to come from the Jet side. Only expected from the
Steelers side in my mind.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
So we're going to take a break. We have Missy
Matthews joining us next, looking forward to that. We're looking
forward to this game on Sunday, cannot wait. We will
continue inside the locker room. King and Starks presented by
our neighborhood Fords Store here on this Steeler's Audio Network
This is in the locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop
dot Steelers dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And hello everybody, Welcome inside the locker room and we
are delighted to be with you. I'm Rob King along
with Max Starks, Max by Rote. I was ready to
say what was just said by mister Big Voice. You know,
I roll into the locker room King and Starks and
all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
No need, yeah, exactly, no need anymore.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
We've now officially graduated to Big two Big Voice sounder intros.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, yep, yep. I feel pretty good about that. I
don't know how you feel about.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
It, you know what?
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I feel pretty I feel like, you know, not like
like like we've arrived, but we've arrived. We have a
arrived at status by the end of the week that
we are now officially ges had of locker room with
King of Starks.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Max, I'm beside myself with excitement. Did you watch the
game last night?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I did watch the game last night, and I survived
and finished to the end of the game last night.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
This morning, yeah, yes, that was That was this morning.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
It was what are you?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
What are your thoughts on what you So I saw
a good portion of it. I had TV responsibilities. I
came home dismayed that I was going to miss the
fourth quarter and found out that I actually could watch
the fourth quarter because it was delayed by weather, so
I was able to watch it. Your thoughts on what
you saw and what Week one football means and if
anything can be cleaned from that that pertains to Sunday's
(01:50):
game against the Jets, Well, I think.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
When I look at it, I mean, it was it
was all.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Offense in the first half, right, and then you know
in the second half, outside of the first drive of
that second half of Philadelphia, it was all defense. Like
you know, when you look at what Dallas eventually then
then did to kind of stem the tide of offensive scoring.
It was blitzing. It was blitzing Jalen Hurts providing pressure.
(02:21):
Then it felt like neither team could move the football.
And I think, when I look at kind of this
is kind of a microcosm of what we're gonna get.
I think not only in our game, but around the league,
scoring will be depressed, kind of like it was a
year ago when we're talking about Week one, where there
(02:42):
was only like a handful, if that, of teams that
even threw for over two hundred yards in the air.
It was a lot of ground game. It was a
lot of you know, small plays trying to make it happen.
And I think that's what But you know, I look
at what it was when we played the Falcons, right,
(03:04):
not one touchdown was scored, you know, in that game.
And so I look at it and I say, man,
teams don't play in the preseason. Teams don't really get
a feel for themselves. It's new. We have to get
used to each other. What's the rhythm and the flow.
And even though Philadelphia still put up twenty four points
(03:26):
and Dallas put up twenty, it didn't feel.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Like the two star quarterbacks were dueling it.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Out because Dak Prescott through for like one hundred and
eighty eight yards and I think Jalen threw for like
one fifty two. You know, we only saw three hundred
total yards of offense, respectively, and in a bulk of
that came in the first half of the game when
I neither of these defenses were operating at one hundred percent,
meaning they didn't have a star player.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Jalen Carter gets.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Ejected six seconds into it for speaking on Dak Prescott,
which is just unfat them a bull and ridiculous to
say the least. And Michael Parsons is not on this defense.
And the defense could not get any pass rush in
a four man rush, and that's where you saw Dallas like, okay,
(04:15):
we have to add on at one point, I think
they had a nine man box, like literally there was
five the second road defenders within five years of the
line of scrimmage and you have four down linemen, and
I mean.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
It looked like it looked like an old school four
to four defense. Like that's how.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Precise it had to be and how much effort they
had to put into getting after Jalen Hurts in that game.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I thought they did a good job.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Against Saquon Barkley though, and the run game. I think
the addition of Kenny Clark was a welcome added addition
as well as Milton Williams, so I think they had
that part of it. And then for the Eagles without
Jalen Carter. It was very tough sledding for them, and
you realize how many pieces they're missing on that defense.
(05:07):
The aforementioned Milton Williams was on that Philly squad a
year ago and he was the rotational guy between Jalen
Carter and Jordan Davis.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
They would have loved to have had.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Milton Williams last night if they would have known that
Jalen car is going to be ejected such frightens into
the game, yep.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And they didn't have that.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
So therefore, there was a lot more opportunities in efficiency
and running the football. There was also an opportunity for
Dak to really have a clean pocket, and he threw
it thirty four times. Whether his receiver's card is a
whole different story, but it was just I was just
looking at that and I kept saying, man, Okay, this
is what NFL football is going to be. Don't expect
(05:46):
the forty point games. If you get it early, you're
you're gonna be lucky. Because you know, normally this probably
probably would be the verse. You'd like to see the
inverse of it and see teams kind of get better
as the game goes on, but that's not the reality
of it early on football, you know, And I think
that's where I'm gonna be a little, a little kind
(06:09):
of rearing about what can we really expect. The scoring
is gonna be intermittent, You're gonna try and take your shots.
You're gonna try and and have a plan. But defenses,
you know, I feel the rest of the league will
be a lot more convinced and a lot more ready
to go than the offenses.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
We appear to be.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
And I don't want to overreact to this, but we
appear to be in a bit of a trend. By
the way, ceedee lamb man, oh man, some massive drops
late in that game.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, opportunities, oh man.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I mean, if you heard Dallas, you're thinking, man, we
you know, we lost an opportunity to pull an upset.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
And you know, uh, the NFL.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I can't think of a sport in which there are
more fluctuations than the NFL.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
You know, the salary cap has a huge part to
do with that.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You know, you look at a sport like baseball, The
Dodgers are pretty much always going to be good. The
Yankees pretty much are always going to be good. The
Red Sox pretty much are always going to be good
in the NFL. You are as good as your organization
and your ability to manage the cap. A little bit
of luck involved, obviously. You look at a team like
(07:25):
Dallas and you know they they were a good team
until last year and and you know, then the question
becomes bad year, which happens one of the then they
trade Michael Parsons. Is this just a team that's you know,
everyone's ready to flush them, or are they more like
the team that was winning, you know, twelve games a
(07:47):
year for a couple three years in a row there before.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Last year's decline. Are the Eagles?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
You know, inevitably a top team has team has players
Pilford from them. I think that, uh, you know, as
a around the league, just off the top of my head,
Buffalo has done an incredible job of continuing to maintain
their perch as one of the you know, a top
one of the best, as one of the best teams
in the league, despite the fact that they've been hamorrhaging
(08:15):
Pro bowlers in the offseason. You just don't know until
the games start and it's hey man, you know, when
you only have seventeen of them close, there's no moral
victory for the Dallas Cowboys. You know, they had a
chance to win the game in Philadelphia. So that was
one thing that occurred to me is that year by
year there are gonna be fluctuations. Even teams as deep
and solid as Philadelphia, you know, there may be some
(08:38):
weaknesses that we may see.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Exploited throughout the course of the season.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Again, you know, look, you can't uh, you can't legislate
for having a star defensive tackle thrown out of the
game six seconds in, you knows as exposing a weakness.
But it just it fascinates me that you know that
year by year you're never quite sure what you're gonna
get in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah, I mean that that is one of those things
where you do wonder what is it going to look like,
how is the season going to start, how is it
going to be? But the one thing I always say
is caution not because the team you see week one
is not going to be the team that you see
week five, week ten, week twelve into the season.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
This is just to start.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
This is now we're getting into the era where it
is the extended preseasons for a lot of these teams.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
That's right, And.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
So you can't really fret about that aspect of it,
but it is kind of boring. And I think now
because we're in the fantasy football era of life, that
a lot of people take that kind of for granted
what it is and what it can be, and I,
you know, I just I caution it because teams are
(09:55):
going to be are are more worried about, Hey, how
are we going to be when it comes time to
to make to make a play in a game, and
we want to extrapolate it as soon as possible.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
We want to be able to have the answer.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Oh, man, DK on a nine route with forty seconds left,
that's the play. And it's like, no, that's not the play.
Do you know we want to we want to have
something different in place. It's like, and yes, that might
be the play later, but for now, you know, we're
(10:29):
getting used to Aaron and DK getting together on the
same page.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Or man, we we've.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Got the four minute office man handed off to Caleb Johnson.
He's gonna get you four and a half yards per carry. Yeah,
it might get to that, but I don't think that's
that's gonna be right at the beginning of it, because
you haven't played with Aaron Rodgers at all in the preseason.
You haven't played with Caleb Johnson, with Aaron Rodgers in
the backfield, Isaac Ciamalo there, john O Smith actually in
(10:56):
the lineup. All of these parts are going to be
new and you've got to figure them out and you've
got to You've got to go through you've got to
go through the process, and you've got to make your
team that much better. There is a growing and a
chemistry that comes with it, and that's what you have
(11:17):
to kind of get used to is these guys need
to play together. And that's what it's going to be
every year. No matter how great training camp looks, no
matter how good OTA's look, no matter how good mini
camp seems and feels Friday night lights, it's totally different
when you step into the stadium. It's totally different when
(11:38):
the game's now on the line and you have to
go through this exercise with everybody. That's what the difference
is going to be, is that you're going to need
to go through You're gonna need to go through the process.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And I'll tell you one other things too that I
think has happened. And so the year by year fluctuation
in the NFL fascinates me.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I think it's really one of the great parts in
the league is that you don't know. And again it
is another thing to me that underscoes just what the
Steelers have been able to do is a lot more
difficult than people think. And I know, I understand the
Steelers have said, look, we got to get to the
playoffs and win a game. You know, you've been there
(12:28):
the last eight years and your zero and five, I
think is the number. And that's not what the Steelers want.
That's not what Steveers fans want. But you know, when
you have these wild swings of and and not only that,
I mean look at where the Bills were for twenty
years whatever it was, without a winning season. But so
that fluctuation, but also within that fluctuation becomes league wide trends.
(12:52):
And you know when when I can't remember who it was,
one of the coaches in the preseason not long ago,
was asked, just a couple of days ago, was asked
about you know, how can you I might have been
Aaron Glenn.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I don't think it was Aaron Glenn actually, but someone said, hey,
you know when when you when you've got a throwing league,
you know, how can you make sure you throw the
ball better? And the coach said, is it a throwing league?
You know, it wasn't too long ago, you know, going
into last year, and I do wonder if this, if
this is a new trend now. And we talked about
(13:24):
this during the season last year, whether you know Saquon
Barkley and Derrick Henry were helping to set a new trend.
I mean for years, you were looking for that running
back to take in the first round. Who can we
get Let's go get that bell cow, Let's go get
that guy. Then it became you don't need a guy
in the first round. There's plenty of guys. You can
(13:45):
get a guy later. Then Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry
do what they do, and then you look up and
you see and now some of this is running quarterbacks
for sure, another trend in the NFL. But just look
down the list of the teams that were the top
teams in the league and rushing a year ago, not
throwing rushing, Baltimore number one, Philadelphia number two, Washington, Tampa Bay,
(14:11):
Green Bay, Detroit. Those are all can all be identified
as pretty much top notch teams. And that was your
top six teams in rushing. And so you know what
will inevitably happen, Well, teams will get you know, maybe
they'll get big defensive linemen, like when this tea is drafted,
(14:34):
you know, Casey Hampton. They were one of only five
teams in the NFL. I think it was playing a
three to four. Well, fast forward X amount of years later,
everybody's playing that, you know, and now we're seeing maybe
some shifts away from that to different fronts. I love
the ebb and flow of the NFL, but to your point,
I think that and this is one reason that the Jets,
(14:59):
I think are are more worrisome that you might want
to think. And actually I'll give you two reasons, Max
you ready. The first is thank you Matt Matt Williams.
And I think I mentioned this before, but they converted
seventy one point four percent of the field goals last year,
by far, the worst in the NFL. And that cost
(15:19):
them games. It cost them games, you know, instead of
five wins. You know, are we thinking differently about this team?
It's a five win team. What if they were a
seven win team or an eight win team just based
on the field goal kicker, not based on anything else.
Just the guy booting it through the uprights alone could
have made this Jets team a seven or eight or
(15:41):
maybe you know, let's not get two carried away, but
a seven or eight win team.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And then the other thing is they've clearly committed to
running the football. They want to join this trend. And
when you look at this group at the top Baltimore,
they have Lamar Jackson Philadelphia. They have Jalen Hurts Washington,
they have Jayden Day Tampa Bay. You know, Baker's not
really what you know, a running type of quarterback. You know,
(16:06):
Jordan Love can move, but not maybe a running type
of quarterback. But those top three teams they feature a
running quarterback. Well, guess what, the Jets haven't much improved.
They have the most accurate field goal kicker in the
NFL over the last two years in Nick Folk. Now,
and they've got a running quarterback and an offensive line.
I know, they they have an injury to Elijah vera Tucker,
(16:27):
but an offensive line that's designed to run with a
running quarterback and a stable of running backs, not an
unbelievable group of wide receivers. It doesn't appear outside of
Garrett Wilson. So you know, I think they're I think
they're hopping on the trend. I think they're I think
they want and they were one of the worst. Of
course you would expect that. I mean, Aaron Rodgers not
(16:48):
a running quarterback, but they were not a good running
football team last year. So just you know, they were
the second worst team in the league and running the football.
So just a couple of things to store away when
you start thinking about this Jets game. And I think
we saw last night every touchdown was on the ground last.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Night, Max, it was.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
It was completely on the ground, And you know, you're
trying to figure out what is the identity of these teams.
You think, you know, twenty two rushes for Dallas and
thirty four pass attempts that was their offense. Thirty eight
rushes for Philly in twenty three passes. They were in
(17:32):
verses of each other, but same result came. It was
ground game involved and quarterbacks had to move. Jalen Hurts
led your team in rushing over Saquon Barkley in Game one.
Now I don't expect that trend to continue, but I
think that was by virtue of a couple of those
passing opportunities turned into runs because of the pressure that
was allowed. You lose Lennon Dickerson in that game, right,
(17:53):
and it becomes more of a rush than a pass attempt.
I think it probably would have been more bound for
Philly if the old line was a little bit sturdier.
And that's also what you saw. You saw pressure getting
to the quarterbacks early. Nobody nobody really got near except
for the one time Kneeland got the sack on Jalen.
But there was not that much to be There was
(18:17):
a lot left to be desired here here. Now here's
the other thing. When you think about it, teams and like,
man is gonna be a passing game, and this, that
and the other. George Pickens only got four four targets
in that game. Te Lamb got thirteen targets.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Now, I'm not saying I thought he was gonna get
more targets.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
I did.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
I'm not gonna say what it is, but as of
right now, Dallas, you might have a problem if that continues.
I'm just saying there's a reason why George Pickens isn't
here anymore. And it's like you went you thought the
grass was greener.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Still brown.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Brown right now, but I mean ALVIOUSO it's early, But
that was a very glaring thing that Seedee Lamb got
so many targets. Are you talking about three times as
many targets as George pickketts? And I know George pickints
had to have been opened a little bit more than
just four times. But I digress, I digress. That is
more of the trend of this league. And you know,
(19:21):
maybe maybe maybe maybe we maybe we jumped the shark
on it. Maybe we jumped the shark kinger And you know,
the Steelers are more efficient at the passing game. We're
going to put it out there, but I still feel
like the identity of this team is going to be
the establish an efficient run game. That has to be
the mentality. When you have the weapons that you have,
(19:42):
you want to get one on ones. You don't want
to get teams backing off into his own coverage and
playing two and two men and cover.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Three, cover four cloud.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
You don't want teams doing that because they don't fear
your run. They want to put more guys in the
passing game and the offensive line can and effectively run
the football. You want, you want to put them in
the quantary to wheus do we have to have? Yeah,
we need to have the eighth guy in the box.
And yes I know that means man on the backside,
but we need it because they're so good at running
the football. That's what you want to stats. You want
to get to that point. You want to get to
the point of the respect that Dallas gave Philly for
(20:18):
their for their rushing attack. That's what you that's what
you hope for as a team. But you need to
capitalize on those opportunities as well.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Right, Okay, So Steelers getting ready to go Week one
against the New York Jets.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Can't wait.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I'm going to dive into some of the key matchups
in Max's thoughts on what we might see when we
continue Inside the Locker Room with King and Starks, presented
by our neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store.
The F one fifty is the official truck of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and by Steelers Pro Get it direct from
the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at Shop dot
Steelers dot com.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
And thanks very much for being with us. Man. We
are excited.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
We've gone through training camp, we've gone through the preseason,
and we are ready for the real McCoy as they say,
And that is the regular season opener between your Pittsburgh
Steelers and the New York Jets. And Max Starks, let's
begin sort of a more in depth discussion about these
teams by looking at the defense of the New York
(21:34):
Jets and your thoughts on this unit that we're seeing
that I think it's safe to say was a massive
disappointment for the Jets and their fans a year ago.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah, I think that's a proper assessment. They had some
bright spots, but more of it was dark clouds when
you think of where this team was and what this
defense needed to be for an Aaron Rodgers led Jets offense,
and it fell very far by the wayside. The things
(22:11):
to note, though, is this is all but this is
one thing, King, this is what is to note. This
team was fourth against the pass and fourth in total
yards giving up given up.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
In the league. That's the one thing that is the
bright spots.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
So I wanted to point that out before we get
to the bugaboo stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Okay, So now I'm not gonna let you get there.
I'm gonna ask you question. So sometimes statistics, right, you know,
you think about a Jets team that wasn't very explosive offensively,
that that fell behind in a lot of games, and
you think, okay, did that aid those numbers against the past?
(22:55):
Maybe you weren't very good against the run? Did team
just say why throw it? Because I think a lot
of teams will say why throw it when we can
run it? And then that depresses your numbers against the pass.
I'm not suggesting that has everything to do with it.
I'm just suggesting that might have a little something to
do with why the Jets numbers appeared to be better
(23:16):
against the pass a year ago.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
And I'm not gonna I'm not gonna fight you on that, okay,
because I think that is part of where we kind
of get to with the next aspect.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Okay, lay it on me.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Sorry. It was one of.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
The worst fourth down teams at getting teams off the field,
and they were thirty first. They were twentieth in scoring,
so they allowed better than about twenty almost twenty four
points a game, and this is a team that averaged
allowing twenty point four first downs per game and that's
(23:57):
tied for twenty fifth.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
They couldn't turn the ball over.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
They only had seven interceptions on the whole entire year
and that was tied for twenty sixth in the league,
and their turnover margin was minus two.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
So yes, so to your point.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
That's where you know, these numbers look good, but they
can be deceiving. They can be deceptive, and that's what
it is. You know, you're giving up almost twenty four
points a game season, that's that's losing football in the NFL.
Because transversely, you look at the Steelers defense and we
were giving up twenty point four points a game, so
(24:39):
a three point four point difference and we were tied
for eighth in the league in defense.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Right, So yes, go ahead, Yeah, so it could.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
So there's a lot of room for improvement for this
Jets defense. And like you said, a good offense helps
a defense, but go from good to great or from
bad to good, that all helps with time of possession tempo.
Like you said, they didn't get off the field on
fourth down conversions, Kinger, that's bad. A team actually felt
(25:14):
the unmitigated gall to want to run and perform a
play on them, and they couldn't get them off the field. Now, granted,
the Steelers weren't that great either. We were twenty ninth
in the league and fourth down version, but that was
also late in the year. A lot of short yard
situations that yielded negative results. And you think of Cam
Hayward not being on the field, I think that's gonna
(25:35):
be a much improved department for the Steelers. But going
back to the Jets, you know, the Jets didn't really
add that much as far as rookies and committing to it. Yeah,
you got you got some guys, you.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Know that that came in.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
And you've got some guys at corner and safety, and
you got a d n that you drafted.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
And and a linebacker.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
But the defensive line is where I think the biggest
issues are. And I think that's where you bring in
a Harrison Phillips and you want to make sure that
he can help support quinnin Williams. And you want to
see what you got in Tyler Baron that you drafted
from Miami and see if he can do something for
you to add to the pass rush of Jermaine Johnson
(26:26):
and Will McDonald because the pass rush leads to better
pass defense and in the interior the run defense, you
need big bodies to stop inside run game.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And I'm gonna be very.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Interesting to see how this team goes. But like you said,
with a different identity offensively, does that help this defense.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
That's gonna be a question.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yes, if they if they can control the clock. Obviously,
you know it has become more and more a league.
It's always been this way to some degree, but a
league a team that defends best least. I mean, think
back to those early two thousand teams, Max, when you
guys were, you know, a little bit of a chicken
an egg thing, right. The defense was giving you guys
(27:08):
the ball. You guys are going on long drives that
rested the defense who got you the ball back again,
which allowed you to go on more long drives, and
you know you're winning that time of possession battle.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
And I think.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
For for some years in the NFL, when it became
more in vogue to throw the football, that became a
little less important. As we see teams now trying to
physically manhandle the other team, I think time of possession
has swung back to being a you know, it's always
been valuable, but I think it's it's maybe a little
(27:42):
more of a premium now than it's been, say in
other years, where there's more passing in the league and leading.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
To quick strikes and shorter drives.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
And when I look at the Jets defense, you know,
and you'll get used to this, and everyone in the
locker room will get used to this throughout the course
of the season. The closer I get to game time,
the more worked up I get about the opponent, and
the more I'm like, oh, my goodness, gration, we're facing Goliath.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Every week, doesn't matter who we're facing. I can always
talk myself into thinking, oh, come on, let's go, which
I like because it gives me that little.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Knot of the excitement in the stomach, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But when I look at this Jets team, you know,
so a couple of years ago they bring in Aaron Rodgers,
they go seven and ten. Right, you know, you're running
in what three or four different quarterbacks, none of them
are named Aaron Rodgers. You have a bad season, you
come back next. Last year with Aaron Rodgers. I mentioned
the field goal kickers two and seven in one score
(28:40):
games two and seven, so they were in nine one
score games. Usually teams and you know, again, I think
you can point right to the field goal kicking. Usually
teams will be will find a way if they improve
to be better at those kind of things. Even if
you're four and five in one score games and you're
the Jets, now you're a seven win team. I think
(29:02):
they're easier to dismiss as a five win team than
as a seven win team. But as we look specifically
at the defense, Max, I think you touched on Harrison Phillips.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
I think he you know, he is a.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Just a good, solid NFL defensive lineman, and you put
him in next to one of the best. Quinn Williams
is one of the best. Well, he needs a running mate,
and so now he's got a running mate. And Jermaine
Johnson basically missed last year two years ago and McDonald
came up really nice second year for McDonald. Both those
guys are first round picks. McDonald had ten and a
(29:38):
half sacks last year. You know, Jermaine Johnson had seven
and a half sacks two years ago. He was a
pro bowler, So you are, you know, think of Steelers
fans about and I'm not comparing them as players, please,
but think about the Steelers record when TJ. Watt isn't playing.
How important one player can be to a defense. I
don't want to overstate Jermaine johnson importance to the defense.
(30:02):
But if I've already got them as a seven win
team by just being a better field goal kicking team, well,
you know, now you add Jermaine Johnson back in, does
that win you another game? You know, potentially somewhere along
the line. So you know, and then and then you know,
you look at their linebackers, Quincy Quinn's brother. You know,
he was an All Pro back in twenty twenty three
with the Jets, Jamie and Sherwood. He led the NFL
(30:25):
and solo tackles. Now, a lot of that, again we
talk about statistics and what they mean.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
A lot of that was because the Jets defense was
out there a lot. But he's a good.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Player, you know, so you've got to You've got to
me and they run a you know, a four to
two base. You've got a pretty formidable front six, I think.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
No, I mean, you have a front six that potentially can.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
Do damage, right, that's right, potentially.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Yeah, they have the potential to do that, and the
question is will they be able to do that? And
then and that's what we're going to figure out. We're
gonna see how this team looks. You know, the identity
of it has changed. Steve Wilkes comes in, and Steve
Wilkes has a very long history of success as a
defensive coordinator.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Yes he does.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
So he's he's going to scheme some things up to
uh to give Aaron Rodgers some challenges and you have
some horses in there. There's the potential for it, so
it could be. So now pressure falls off on set
offensive line. Do the young boys on the edge have
the have the horse power to deal with what's going
(31:35):
to come at them? Because it's not going to come
at them. It's not gonna line up in a four
to two nickel and come straight at you, right, That's
not gonna happen. It's going to come in the form
of twists. It's going to come in the form of blitz.
It's going to come in disguise, the coverages. It's going
to be some things that we have to that we
have to worry about. And I think you're absolutely right
(31:57):
when you're thinking about, like who the guys are that
you have to worry about, Well, ninety five is going
to be your biggest problem on the defensive line for sure.
Can the interior handle Quinn Williams. Then at the next level,
like you said, Jamie Sherwood made a lot of tackles,
But I think Quincy Williams is going to be one
of the issues that you're going to look at from
(32:19):
the second level defense, right because he wasn't no slouchid there.
He had one hundred and sixteen tackles, right, Jamie Sherwood
had one hundred and fifty eight. I mean this is
triple digit tackling linebackers here.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
So pick your poison.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
And then the other thing.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
The nickel position is going to be one of particular interest,
right because that's the guy that's going to play in
the box. Potentially it's going to be Michael Carter at
number thirty. Those are the three guys where you have
to know where they're at and they're going they're going
to dictate a lot for your offense on what you
can and can't do by kind of iding those three guys,
(32:55):
as you know, public enemy number one, so to speak,
for them at each level. And then of course you
still got a sauce gardner. You know who the sauce
line up against is Is it DK or is he
going to take the number two like a lot of
number one corners do because you want to be able
to bracket the team's number one receiver.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Are they going to do that? So is Brandon Steven's
going to get the call on that? You know?
Speaker 4 (33:18):
And it's a guy that we're familiar with. We're watching
him in Baltimore, so we know how he plays his game.
And Andre Cisco another guy at the free safety position.
Is he going to be your middle fielder in those situations?
And then you allow for like a Tony Hallan or
Tony Adams or a Malachi Moore to come down and
play and support Michael Carter Or is it an inverse
(33:39):
of it? Do you have Tony Adams down in the
box and then do you use Michael Carter more to
play that that's that strong safety position. There's a lot
of questions that we're going to ask and we didn't
get to see a lot of it in the preseason,
So that's where you kind of worry about, what.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
Well, what is it?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
What what can be.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
But at the end of the day, once the first
snap goes, it's it's awful. But right now as we
sit here on a Friday, that is some of the
issues that you're going through in your head. That's what
the Steelers are going to go through on fast Fridays
in their practice routine. Is how do we feel about
this concept? And can we identify the known guys. That's
(34:17):
the biggest thing, identifying the known guys that are going
to give you a challenge in this ball game.
Speaker 5 (34:24):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And you know the Jets, you know they had some
salary cap space. I'm not sure you know how much
they used of it. When I see a team that is,
you know, turning the corner, like you can go. You
can go one of two ways, right, you can go
(34:45):
in and make a big splash and free agency and
go out and sign a bunch of guys, or you
can take stock.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Of what you have.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
And I feel like they had a thoughtful off season
right up to the acquisition in Paris and Phillips, which
just happened what a week or so ago, A thoughtful
preseason in which they didn't jump in and go gangbusters.
I think they're going to take a long, hard look
at what they've got. I can't think of a splashy
(35:15):
free agent move that they made. You know, they signed
Justin Fields at quarterback. Sure, two years, forty million dollars. Right,
that's not a huge that's not a you know, one
of these quarterback deals. That's just absolutely through the roof
that we've seen around the league. You go out and
get a you know, Brandon Stevens is a guy that
we're familiar with. You know, you I thought they I
(35:38):
thought they made some thoughtful acquisitions in the offseason. You know,
they use another number one pick on an offensive lineman
in Membu. I think they want to kind of evaluate
what they have while also competing, while also being a
team that can give teams trouble. And I think Aaron
Glenn is trying to set that type of tone.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
He was.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
We talked about him a little bit a couple of
days ago. Max.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
He's a three time Pro Bowler himself. Two of those
Pro Bowls came as a member of the New York Jets.
You know, there's probably a little bit of that. You
know that extra vigor is a Jets guy, but he's
a no nonsense guy. He wants to play clean, hard,
physical football. He wants to bring pressure. And that's why
to me that that last aspect of pressure, and and
(36:26):
you know, and and again this is all preamble to
playing hard. I think there's gonna be a hard playing
football team, but also that pressure on the outside. We
have the Matchup show on the Steelers digital platforms with
Missy Matthews and Matt Williamson and my key to defeating
the Jets defense, and no disrespect to Quinn and Williams
(36:47):
because he's a great player. Was Howard Troy Futanu and
Broderick Jones gonna match up? And you just kind of
touched on this to Will McDonald, who's a very good
pass rusher, and Jermaine Johnson, who's a very good pass rusher.
Broderick Jones is getting Look, every team's most teams have
got two good pass rushers, right Cincinnati is still trying
(37:07):
to figure that out.
Speaker 5 (37:08):
They've got one elite.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
But you know, everybody's got some kind of edge that
can give you some problems. Everybody's got a team that's
going to have some guys that have some sacks. So
you know, I'm not suggesting that these are the greatest
pair of bookend ends in the league. But they're pretty good.
Like I said, Johnson was a pro bowler. McDonald of
ten and a half sacks. Troy Faltano essentially now a
(37:31):
first year starter at right tackle right, I mean he
basically didn't play a year ago. He pushes Broderick Jones
over to the left side his first start at left tackle.
I think that's a real key because you've got to
be able to keep Aaron Rodgers upright, and so I
think a lot falls on those young offensive tackles going
against those edge guys for the Jets.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
No, it is.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
It is probably one of the biggest challenges.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
I think this is the one that when we're talking
about the beef eater matchups, this is this is where
it's going to be in and I'm going to probably
highlight this, you know, we talk about it on Sunday
in the trenches. This is one of those matchups that
I'm looking at, I'm looking at the edges. I'm looking
at edges versus our edges, and who's the edges are cleaner?
(38:18):
That was That was a hair reference anyways, nice or
a haircut reference anyways? Yeah, Yeah, that was. That was
that was my little foray. It failed. Uh, but that's
what I'm looking at. Those are the guys I want
to see. I want to see Jermaine Johnson versus Project Jones.
I want to see Will McDonald, uh, the fourth, you know,
because he puts it on his thing, so you have
(38:39):
kind of have to you know what, He's the fourth,
You're the fourth. I am the fourth. So that's why
I feel like I have to say it. You know,
takes takes one to know one, right, So how will
down the fourth does against Troy Fatano Because I think
we already know what the known problem is in the
interior with Quinn Williams and Harrison Phillips, But we got
a Mason McCormick, a Zach Frasier and Isaac Ciamalo for
(39:01):
that we got three for two and that's where it's.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
More one to one on the outside.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
So the other question is how much body presents do
you give with the tight ends on these guys? How
much chip help do you need from the running backs
during during during the course of the game. That's what
I'm going to be watching for because I think that's
a key to this game is going to be tackles
young tackles first time starting at their respective position, tackles
(39:29):
going and playing against decent to really good talent. And
how we manage that with a quarterback that's not justin fields.
It's not Lamar Jackson, that's not Jalen Hurts. This not
Jayden Daniels. Right, a quarterback that's a true pocket passer
and you need to keep the pocket clean for him.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
How is that?
Speaker 4 (39:49):
How how are these guys going to respond to that challenge?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
And again, just briefly, just to touch on this, I
know it's a little bit obvious for those for those
those really solid football fans, but the minute you have
to start helping is the minute that you have to
change what you're trying to do offensively. If you know,
if you've got to have a running back you know,
(40:14):
chip On Jermaine Johnson, or if you have to have
you know, Darnell Washington, stay in because Will McDonald is
giving you fits. That's one less guy out in the
in the in the pattern, and that is one guy
that you don't have to worry about if you're a
defense covering, so you know, there there is you know,
(40:35):
these things have a trickle down effect. It's not just
about getting Daron Rodgers, but how can affect the rest
of what you're trying to accomplish offensively?
Speaker 3 (40:43):
It is.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
It is a challenge and a problem, but I think
when you look at that, I think this is what
the team has been waiting for. This is why you
use the draft capital that you used was to make
sure that you are a quick to deal with those
things and if not, we need to pivot. But this
(41:05):
is the first challenge along the way, and you know
there are remedies for it. That's why you got four
tight ends, and that's why you know you always keep
a running back usually intererrout more often than not. He's
there in case things happen. He's your insurance policy. He's
the rib tenderiser, and that's what you want to make
(41:26):
sure that you have that guy there so that you're
not going five wise. This team is not you know,
have a pension for five wids. Yes it's in the package,
but that's not what this team's going to rely on.
Your team's going to rely on a lot of multiple
tight end sets. You're going to rely on running the
football efficiently, and all those things go to help and
aid your past defense or past protection so to speak.
(41:50):
That's what this is all geared towards. So if you
do the other things right, you feel like you're limiting
the exposure of those pass rush situations and those one
on one situations, and you take a little bit off
of those guys RPM's accelerator because when you have to stop, go,
get hit, dodge a second block and not a first block.
(42:11):
All those things play into the success of those tackles.
So the big key is those guys off the edge
and how they handle that pass pressure, because there will
be passes in this game, but the efficiency of the
run game will also aid in helping them as well.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
So we are getting you ready for the Steelers and
the Jets, Game one of the twenty twenty five season
for the Black and Gold. We will continue with the
breakdown of the key matchups of this game when we
continue inside the Locker Room with King and Starks, presented
by our neighborhood Ford Store here on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
This is in the Locker Room with King and Starks
on Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Forward Store.
The F one P fifty is the official truck of
the Pittsburgh Steeler and vice Steelers Pro Shop. Get it
direct from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at
shop don Steelers dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
And thanks very much for being with us inside the
locker room with King and Starch presented by your neighborhood
Forards store here on the studs audio.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
Never Oh, I don't have to say.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
That again, right, I already forgot about that because the
guy already you keep warning to say it, though, well,
it's by rope.
Speaker 5 (43:25):
I'm used to it, you know.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
So I wanted to get at something quickly, not because
I don't think it's important, but because we have a
short segment here. We have Missy Matthews coming up in
a couple of minutes to join us and give us
some inside scoop, which we love, but real quickly on
special teams. So corless weightman wins the punting battle. He
(43:47):
was twelfth in the league in net punting. You bring
back Chris Boswell. I mean, he's just awesome. Second Pro Bowl,
last year's forty one field goals led the league. You know,
we you know, I don't think we take his greatness
for granted, but he is just great. He's just a
great kicker. And I'm also intrigued to see Kenneth Gainwell
(44:09):
potentially joining Jalen Warren back on kick return because I
think we thought that was going to be a strength
last year with Cordero Patterson, and it really wasn't. Cordero
for whatever reason, you know, the greatest kick returner maybe
in NFL history, you know, wasn't able to do it
up to his normal standards. He's no longer with the team.
You're bringing Gainwell, who had a good year last year.
(44:32):
I think this is gonna be and then other guys
on special teams just just talking about the specialists and
we can talk about some of the other guys a
little bit later on Malie Harrison, Brandon Eckles, guys like that.
But to me, I still think that this is going
to be a strength for this year. There's the special
teams units, and I think the return game is going
to be better.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
No, I think we're gonna have a much improved return game.
I love having Jalen Warren and Kenneth game Well back there.
I think the new dynamic kickoff rule, as we will
call it, is geared towards more of a running back
body style, whereas in the past and the traditional one
you leaned on like defensive back, wide receiver body types,
(45:17):
because those are the guys that have to run the
longer distance, eye the ball as it's in the air.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
This one, there is no action.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
There is no kind of look at the field, take
a snapshot of the field, look back at the ball,
look back down at the field, look back at the ball,
look back down at the field, look back at the ball.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Right.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
You don't have that, You don't have that quandary that
puts a guy in y' All you have to do
is focus on the ball coming to you and where you're,
where you're starting at, whether you're in the end zone
or whether you're out of it. But if it goes
to the end zone, the penalty is going all the
way out to the thirty five. So you'd almost wish
guys would want to stay in the end zone seeing
(45:54):
that it gives you tremendously better field position to start,
you know, start that first on the scrimmage play at
thirty five. But at the same time I say this,
we got a heck of a kicker in Chris Boswell,
a guy who does not matter what position you put
him at, just as long as you call him.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
And he can deliver.
Speaker 4 (46:16):
He delivered, like I said, was it forty plus yard
punt in the Atlanta game when we lost our punter.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
He's a placekicker.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
Different dynamics, different skills set, different set did not match her.
And I think that's where I'm really excited about Chris Boswell,
just because I know how much of a weapon he is.
He is a true special team's cheak code. And with
the guys that we have in that core four area
(46:46):
on top of that blocking leading the way and making tackles, we.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Have some aces out there.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
We have some aces Miles Killerbrew Ace pro Bowler, yep,
a guy that's also a captain for this team. You've
also got a Scotty Miller been Scronic or as we say,
scrow dirt is out there. Those are guys that can
get after it, make plays in the specialties, whether it's
on a return side for Scottie Miller. Now, obviously calvinoss
(47:15):
is probably gonna get the first nod for punt returns
because that was a specialty and that's what he's really
good at. We'll see how his offensive production limits his
availability in that regard. But right now, you assume he's
getting the first crack at Scotty Miller's your backup. Not
a bad duo to have back there on your punt
return team. And then you throw in Malie Harrison, Conter
(47:35):
Hayward right, guys who are core specialists in the special
teams department that know how to disengage and make plays
as well as stick to guys and mirror them on
the return side of things. So I mean, if if
it's me, I feel really happy about this unit and
(47:56):
what and what they can.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Do this year.
Speaker 5 (47:58):
Yeap. And by the way, calvi And had his first
career punt return for a touchdown last year.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
By the way, the Jets, the Jets have some guys
that'll that will scare you a little bit too. But
just quickly in case you're you know, somebody didn't pay
much attention to the preseason, just getting into the regular
season and now just getting your attention turned back to
base back to football from baseball and other sports, golf,
what have you. The new rule is now, you know,
(48:25):
the touchback rule. Last year, You know, I think a
lot of teams said, you know, we're not gonna even
gonna mess with allowing teams to return kickoffs. So we're
just gonna boot it into the end zone and we'll
take our medicine and they can market at the thirty
yard line, and that's what they take over now.
Speaker 5 (48:39):
It's the thirty five max.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
So there are teams that are gonna think twice about
giving up that extra five yards, and I would imagine
we will see more kickoff returns.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Sixty five yards of to fit versus seventy is is
is not what you want to do. And I think
that's why you've seen a lot more kickers really focusing
on getting that ball dropped in in that in that
goal zone area where you have to return it, where
a fair catch is a spot is a spot dropped
and not an automatic move up to the thirty five
(49:15):
type of deal. You can't fair catch it unless you're
in the you know, and then when you're in the
end zone, you gotta take the knee. So don't give
don't give the hand signals or give offsetting hand signals.
As I saw in college. Happened last weekend at West Virginia.
The returner didn't even fair catch it. It was it
was the personal protector that came back and he was
(49:37):
waving his arms. And that's how and that's how they
got the fair catch and it was like what, it's
an invalid signal penalty.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
So you don't want that to happen Nope at all.
Speaker 4 (49:49):
So you want to make sure that you know you're
getting the ball, you're being you feel it cleanly, and
it's gonna lead to more returns. It can lead to
more excitement. I don't know if we can call it
dynamic yet, but it leads to more excitement in a
game where that play was kind of being neutralized a
lot because kickers have such strong legs. I mean, we
(50:10):
just saw a fifty eight yarder last night right by
Jake Elliott to end the first half in the Eagles game.
So kickers have plenty of legs. And we saw Cam
Little do it as well. You know, it boots sixty
three yarder in a game and actually made it. So
kickers have more powerful legs. Well, now we want to
see the precision and accuracy of those kickers. Can you
(50:31):
keep the ball in play and can you make it
to a place where you could have a successful you know,
coverage of that return, and then for the return team,
can you set up an effective wall being five yards
away and allow your returner to get the ball greater
than thirty yards, greater than thirty five yards, and try
(50:52):
and create an even shorter field for your offense. That's
where the excitement's going to come. And I think, but
I will say this, the Steelers one of the best
in the league a year ago. So don't expect it
to come from the Jet side. Only expected from the
Steelers side in my mind.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
So we're going to take a break. We have Missy
Matthews joining us next, looking forward to that. We're looking
forward to this game on Sunday, cannot wait. We will
continue inside the locker room. King and Starks presented by
our neighborhood Fords Store here on this Steeler's Audio Network
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