August 29, 2025 • 44 mins
Rob and Max run through the last handful of draft classes for the Steelers and how their picks have looked thus far and their expected impact on the upcoming season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Our hour is engaged Optimus. Hey, Happy Friday, bud. Have
a great Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hopefully you get to spend that weekend with your with
your autobot buddies. Uh no Decepticons in the forecast.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hopefully. Yes, we are in the second hour here.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Uside the locker room. There we go, Thank you Kinger.
It just gets you hyped up. It gives you a
little bit of juice. You know when you hear the
big hor I mean, come on, who as a kid
did not sit there on a road trip with the family,
going on the freeway and then you see the big
semi truck and you lock eyes with the semi truck
driver and you and you put the arm up and
(00:49):
you give them the two and then that guy honors
that request. As a kid, that makes your entire childhood
and that nostalgia will always live on as long as
you listen to the second hour of our show.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You know, we we need to find out if that's
cool for drivers. I've never I've never talked to a
driver and asked them like, is that cool? Do they
like doing that? Are they not supposed to do it?
You know? I was I was doing a radio show
in Saint Louis years ago, and I remember I was
(01:23):
going into the radio station and it was ghastly Midwest
Saint Louis hot. You know, ninety five degrees high humidity.
You know, you feel like a guppy every time you're
taking a breath, and you're like, you know, like you
need gills instead of lungs to breathe. And I'm looking
up and I see these I see a mail carrier
(01:45):
and we've probably people will probably understand where I'm going shorts.
But then the socks pulled way up to the knee.
You know what I'm talking about. Have you seen?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, it looked like the hey, the Safari expert he
got the Safari Explorer had on.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, yeah, like he's trying to ticks or something. Yeah, yeah,
you know, so exactly right.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You know, you're like like he like he's about to
go trick through the bush. You know.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
That was a call in show and I just I asked,
I'm like, hey, is that like regulation? I mean, do
you have to have those socks pulled up? Because I
mean I can't even imagine the itchy and sweatiness of
your of your calfs walking around in that kind of
weather with your socks pulled up to your knees. So
we had a bunch of postal workers call in and see,
yes it's regulation, No it is. And I don't even
(02:28):
think we ever got an answer. But I would like
to know, uh, if there's a trucker out there, and
I don't know how they would even call in the show.
Is that is that cool to pull down the thing?
Do they still have those.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
They in today's technology? Do they still have I don't
even know if they have.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I feel like they I feel like they have to
have that right because it's it's a horn, right that
signals people you know that they're coming, you know, in
the way, almost like a train horn. Like you still
have train horns because I hear it when they pass by.
When you know, you stop at the train tracks, watch
the train. You know you still you still hear the two.
So I have to imagine there's no way you you
(03:06):
build semi trucks now and you just don't have that
that that big old air horn or the big smokestack horn,
whatever it is. I feel like you still have to
have that. But you know what, when we get into
the regular season, we do have callers King. Okay, So
we will put that out there and we will we
will pull the pulse of Steeler Nation and we have
(03:27):
some very loyal truck driver listeners out there, so we
will get an answer.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
We will get an answer for you. Uh, very very
very soon.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Aren't you curious? I'm curious? Uh, I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Am, I am.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I feel like I feel like it is because I
feel like I've also cut off a truck driver and
he's honked at me, and I've heard that horn. So
you it changes a little bit in life because you know,
I'm on the freeway, I'm trying to get past it.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You know, you get on certain like highways like I ten,
especially right I ten goes essentially from LA to Jacksonville,
so it spans the.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Entire lower third of the United States.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Uh, you know, you get on those roads where you
got of a bunch of truckers trying to deliver vital
stuff to our to our to our people across the country.
I feel like you have to have that type of
horn and I've heard that horn because I've definitely been
that guy that's like, I gotta get here, I got
to get around this guy, and uh, it's happened.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So it's it's as a kid, it's so much fun. Okay,
So we are doing we are doing draft evaluations, even
though we've just cautioned everybody that you can't really make
a draft evaluation till three years after a draft. But
the Steelers have kept every single draft choice they have, well,
(04:41):
they haven't cut any so Ryan Watts who was taken.
So we looked at the first draft and you know,
I think we have agreed, Max, and we agreed that
at the very least, it'll be a solid draft and
it has a chance to be considerably more than that,
depending upon what happens over the next year or two
with guys like especially with guys like Broderick, Jones, uh At,
(05:03):
Corey Trice, Spencer Anderson, if you know where they if
if Broderick can be an above average starter, if the
last two guys can be starters, it is just a
hall an absolute hall.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And there's a lot of there's a lot of potential
there and a lot of hope that that that's you're
that's you're that you're going for. So yeah, now I'm
definitely in that same category. Whereas like we're all on
on on the on the on the hope side of things.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Okay, So having said that, right, uh now, let's take
a look at the twenty twenty four draft. And the
reason we're doing this in case you're just joining us
here for hour number two, the power hour of inside
the locker room with King and Starks, is because the Steelers,
the backbone of this team is still these guys. And
this is the way the Steelers want to do things right.
(05:51):
So you bring guys in, you develop them as much
as possible, you sign them to extensions. Uh you know,
these are these are the guys learning from the Cam
Haywards and the TJ. Watts who learned before them from
the Ben Roethlisberger's and the James Harrison's and the Joey
Porters and the Jerome Bettis's and the hines Wards. You know,
(06:15):
on and on we go. Uh you know, the Max Starks's,
the David de Castro's, the Allen Fannicaz. Right, this is
the way the pouncies, this is the way it works
for the Steelers. You draft them, you develop them, you
keep them, and so a lot of attention rightly, so
on the big names they picked up lately. Uh, But again,
when you are keeping every guy from a draft class,
(06:40):
I just I have a hard time believing there's another
team in the league. Maybe there is, and I don't
know how to find out that information, but I just
know this. Dealers have this. So everybody that's been drafted
is there. And when I look at this next draft
class again, it looks extremely promising to me. So Troy Faltano,
first round pick. Remember, he was your starting right tackle
(07:02):
last year before he got hurt, right, So let's see
how he progresses now here in his first year as
a starter. Let's see what happens. And again, unfair to
completely evaluate Troy after one year, understand that, but he's
your starting right tackle, and again you were expecting again,
so just sort of the guidelines. You're hoping that first
round pick is going to be a top quality NFL player.
(07:26):
You're hoping the second round pick is going to be
an above average player. You're hoping the third round pick
is going to be a solid starter, maybe that third
fourth round type. And then after that, you're just looking
for people that can contribute in some way, shape or form.
If you get all that done, it's a good draft.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
It is an above average good draft. So Troy Faltano
don't know, right, Uh, don't know TVD, tv TVD TVD,
Zach Frasier, I mean in round two.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Work, don't you need don't you need jerkt TVD he
has to say the TVD category.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Okay, but he is showing, he is showing all the
hallmarks of what you would expect out of a.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
First round pick. Yes, absolutely, that's all We're gonna say. Hey, hey,
TVD good, good, thus far, good, thus far?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Right? Yeah? Uh so again in our guidelines that that's
that's interesting. Okay. So now third round two, third round
picks Roman Wilson TVD right hur, TVD hurt.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, he's he's a Detroit category.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, that's right. This is an unfortunate because we're gonna
have a lot of those. We got four of them,
and one of them is can no longer play, and
that's Ryan Watts because of a neck injury. The next
guy that was taken in the third round, Peyton Wilson
get Okay, so so TBD because everybody's got a TBD
in this draft class. But he's starting this year, Max,
(09:10):
he is, Uh, you're starting inside linebacker next to Patrick Queen.
That's what you want out of a third round pick.
You want a guy to come in and be starter
capable for you. Again, we'll see a couple of years
from now where that career arc takes him. But again,
extremely promising. Would you not agree?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
No? I would.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I would definitely agree that it is promising and the
and the jump is occurring.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Let's see if it. Let's see if the jump lands.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yep, that's right, that's right, because boy, we are getting
really conservative here, Max, But we're doing what we think
is right because you know.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
This is this is what proper reporting looks like. Yes,
it is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
We are we are we are, we are not We're
not clickbait, we're not shock jocks. We're here to deliver
you know, truth, sobering, you know, reminders that you know,
this takes time. This is not This is not a
guaranteed right now. You know, I know everything's in microwave looks,
but this is not it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
This is not it.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
You know what I love about Steel Nation and because
it suits I think my personality and I think your personality, Max.
Is the game's enough. The game's enough. We don't need
the other stuff. The game is enough, the players, the team,
everything about it. It's enough. It's enough for me.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think that that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It's everybody wants it to be whip bam boom pal
you know right now, right, you know, and it's not
sustaining success and to create a lasting culture that does
not have to blow things up every three years, you know,
that does not have to pivot and make these brash decisions.
(10:55):
Because when you make brash decisions, when you do things
based off of short term, short sighted goals, that's when
you end up in the in the wheel of mediocrity,
you know. And we have countless teams we can point
to that have dealt in the wheel of mediocrity trying
to chase Look at Cleveland just you ain't got to
look that far. Look at the New York Jets, right,
(11:19):
I mean, look at what we're going through right now.
We're watching in New York as as you know, a
teams with the Giants is trying to hold on the
coach is trying to stave off, you know, getting fired.
Every year a quarter of this league turns over just
about right, six to eight teams say we're done with you,
we're switching, we're moving in a new direction.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
You know, I washed.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I watched it out here with the Cardinals, right, I
mean at one point they you know, between before they
got to Cliff Kingsbury, you went through Steve Wilkes, you know,
you went through Jason Betcher, right, and then now now
you are on Jonathan Gannon. You know, I look at
I look at other teams that are going going through
these issues. Look at the Raiders the last number of years.
(12:05):
There are too many things where your brash rush get
rid of. And I already talked about the quarterbacks where
you've had to pivot so many times and you can't
get it right when you make those brashes and you
don't compliment, and then you know, we'll see what over
support looks like, right, Bryce Young Caleb Williams, you know,
and you sacrifice the other side of the ball because
(12:28):
you're trying to get you're trying to make your investment right.
These are all those kind of things that go and
it's a balancing act. And listen to those that get
it right, you know, God bless you. But even for
those that get it right over a long period of time,
you know, Father times undefeated, right, and there is going
to come a point. Look at Bill Belichick, the man
(12:49):
won you six super Bowls and he's now coaching at UNC.
So right, nothing's ever permanent, There is no lasting equation.
But you're just trying to stave off as long as
you can to keep that culture in place, and you
pray that there's a direct line lineage. Take the Steelers,
three coaches this nineteen sixty nine. Each one of those
(13:10):
coaches has a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Not a lot of organizations can say that. Actually, I
don't think any organization can say that. I'll be frank,
we are the only one. So there's a process. It
might be maddening in the moment short term, you know,
But once again I caution I always say the whole
hair growth process, there's always going to be an ugly
phase in hair growth before you get to the.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Link you want. Unless unless you just like a baldy,
you know.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
But if you try to grow any type of eighties
hairband hair, dreadlocks, you know, you know, braids, you're trying
to get some type of cool, you know, just flowy hair,
there's an ugly phase in there. There's that, there's that
like one and a half inch to two inch phase
that you're just like, oh my god, you can't. You
(13:59):
can't ponytail it. Sorry, can't pullytail can't can't man bun it.
You know all the time, you know, you kind of
have that ugly phase where it's like every day is
a hat day, and then you finally get that breakthrough
and then it's like, man, I got the long flowing locks.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Man, you know, I like hair blows in the wind.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
I can roll the convertible down, you know what I'm saying, Like,
you get but but there's.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
A process, Kinger, there's a process.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, you have to get through that that ugly phase
to get to the goodness on the other side.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Okay, so that's interesting, Max. We went there, went there,
went you did that was that's wonderful. So I wanted
to look at the rest of that draft because we're
gonna go there a little bit and I think we
can you know, in the fourth round. I think if
you get a starter in the fourth round, you are happy, right,
(14:50):
you are pleased. And the Steelers have Mason McCormick. He's
gonna be starting for the second year in a row. Again.
The tail has not been entirely. We're hoping that he
continues to progress, but again he is starting. And then
no fifth round pick, no seventh round pick. Your two
(15:12):
sixth round picks were Logan Lee and Ryan Watts. Really
feel badly for Ryan Watts because you know, he was
he really felt like he was gaining some steam, He
really felt like he was gaining some momentum. Yeah, when
he got injured, Like I remember seeing him in camp
and you know, is he a corner, is he a safety?
You know, in OTA's and mini camp they're moving him around, Hey,
(15:35):
come on over here. Now you're in the wrong spot.
You gotta go over here. And then all of a
sudden he's in the right spot, and all of a
sudden he's moving around and making plays, and you're thinking, Wow,
this is a promising, interesting guy. And then you know,
unfortunately for Ryan he had the injury. But Logan Lee
sixth rounder, he's made the team again incomplete. And the
crazy thing about last year's draft, and one of the reasons,
(15:59):
you know, I'm not gonna say a huge number one
reason why I think this Steers team is going to
be better than a year ago is because of this
this draft class. Because you know when you think about,
you know, all the offseason moves that the teammate, right,
and again we talked about that. You get Aaron Rodgers,
you get Chilean Rams, you get Darius Slay, you get
(16:22):
John Smith. H okay, great, Now, now we understand you
you lost some guys too. You lost Nagee, you lost uh,
you know, Dan Moore, you lost Minkea Fitzpatrick. I understand
that you bring in some draft choices, but you're you
basically added three other draft choices. You basically added a
first round pick, a third round pick, and a sixth
round pick your team because those guys essentially didn't play.
(16:46):
Troy fount Ton it essentially did not play. Roman Wilson
essentially did not play. Logan Lee essentially did not play.
So by the way, I don't know if I mentioned
Aaron Rodgers and those pickups. So here you are. And
again I keep going back to why I'm baffled as
to how why people think this team's gonna struggle. I
think they upgraded the roster in trades and free agencies.
(17:09):
You know, DK metcalf Rogers, all the guys we just mentioned.
I think they upgraded the team in the draft and
they've got three guys. They've got another first rounder, a
third rounder, and a sixth rounder because those guys didn't
even play last year.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's gonna be trying to figure
out how it's gonna be interesting. It's gonna be interesting, right,
We don't know. Nobody knows because we have we have
zero clue how that's going to happen. And we hope, right,
(17:45):
I mean right now, hope springs eternal and we feel
good about it, but we don't know how that's gonna transgress,
you know, transpire over I said, transgress transpire over.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
The next eighteen weeks. You know, what does it look like?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
What adversity will hit that they that they will have
to overcome individually and also collectively as a team. We
don't know what injuries will pop up. We don't know
what successes and how they deal with that success is
going to come. You know, well, we rather we rather
have to be dealing with that part of it, right,
We rather deal with successes.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
It's like, hey man, look at this, yep, yep, we
did it. Beat yourself on the chest, patch yourself on
the back, poor picole one.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's what we want but we don't know how that's
going to look.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And we all know that this league is built for adversity,
it's built for challenge, but that's also what makes it
so rewarding when you overcome, right, and so it's going
to be very interesting to see how they combat with
that and how this team gels and how well they
work through these things.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Does the communication.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Increase and do they get closer and tighter like like
like a rope getting stretched out? Does does does the
do the fibers connect better to then create that strength
and create that kind of that taught type of strength
that you need to get through a season. Or does
it start to fray? Does communication break down? Do you
(19:14):
have these other issues that now come to the surface
that we're brewing underneath? We don't know. This is the
important this is the fun part of it. We get
to now walk that path with the team side by side.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
That's gonna be fun to watch and see how these
guys grow.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yep. I agree, And I know it's it's a foolish project,
but you know, uh, fools rush in where angels angels
fear to tread. So we're we're no angels for we're
we're rushing in and to some degree, uh, we're we're
(19:50):
holding back a little bit because it's the prudent thing
to do, and it's it's really not just prudent, it's
the only thing to do. But again, when I look
at the as Foutanu is starting for you at right tackle,
Zach Frasier, your second round pick is starting for you
at center. Roman Wilson will be playing I think a
(20:10):
considerable amount as one of your third round picks. Your
other third round pick, Peyton Wilson is starting for you
at linebacker. Your fourth round pick, Mason McCormick is starting
for you at right guard. And Logan Lee is also
on your roster, and we'll see whether he's part of
the defensive line rotation or whether he's observing for a while. Regardless,
(20:31):
I think, again, at the very least, this is pointing
toward a solid draft. At the very I think the
floor for this draft is solid.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
No, I think the floor, like you said, is a
high floor, and I believe we have modern too high ceiling.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Is that a good way to put it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I think I think there's a I feel like.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, and I think and I think that's what has
to play through. But you know, we talked about this
earlier potential. It has the potential potential. We need to
see reality. We need to see it proven right to
let that potential cut ring true because if not, it's
just unrealized, you know, And I want to realize it.
I want to be able to realize what this is
(21:20):
going to be and I believe it to be based
on my analysis and you know, looking at the process
and researching it, it feels good. But once again, you
still got to see the proof is in the pudding,
right good?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Comfort good?
Speaker 2 (21:38):
No, we don't only in food. That's the only time
we see comfort in food. But but yeah, I just
got to see it. And we're going to get to
see that, you know, in a little over a week's time,
right September seventh, we're gonna we're going to start that
path and start to get the visual reinforcement of what
our thoughts are about these play and at this team.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Right, can't wait. We have one more draft class to
look at a little bit more about this Steelers' roster construction.
We're getting ready for a game week. We're turning the
corner max toward regular season football. We will continue on
with this discussion here inside the Locker Room with King
and Starks, brought to you by your neighborhood Ford Store
(22:23):
here on the Steelers Audio Network. Well, we thank you
for being with us inside the locker Room with King
and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Force or here on
the Steelers Audio Network. And we are going over the
(22:45):
draft picks for the Steelers of the last three classes.
So when Omar Khan took over his general manager of
the team and the success they've had in the draft,
and the fact that they have kept everybody, which is
the really amazing Max, when you think about it, not
one single draft pick cut. The only guy not on
(23:06):
the team is Ryan Watts because of an injury. I
I just think that that's it's pretty incredible. Op Max.
I'm not hearing Max.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Hello. How are we How you doing? I am great?
I am great. Now it's chasing the dog.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
The dog. Yeah, you know I have a Spanish water dog.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, yeah, he's he's a hot mess. He's a hot mess.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Don't worry.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Steelers Nation has heard him before when like a Maleman
comes by our Amazon driver or landscaper.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yes, he loses his mind on the show.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Hey hey, by the way, yeah, good, And how big
is a Spanish water dog.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
It's about forty five pounds. Okay, all right, medium, true
medium dog. He's nowhere near as big as my old dog.
I had had a wonderful Rhodesian ridge.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Back back in the Oh. They are Leoni dogs. Yeah,
my sister in law has one. Unfortunately they've had health
problems with it. It's but they are they are they
they are just like a ball of muscle. But yeah,
but great.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Dogs, yeah, excellent dogs.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
So so yeah, so this was this was this was
our COVID dog and uh yeah, he's.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, I got a COVID do I got an Irish
setter Stella. Yeah see, there we go. You gotta do too.
She was a COVID dog, by the way. Uh you know.
So during the nineteen seventy nine World Series, before the
fifth game, Chuck Tanner, who was from Newcastle and was
managing the Pirates, his mother died until a lot of
people expected him not to be at the game, but
(24:56):
he showed up and there was a press conference and
people were asking him about his mom and all this stuff,
and he just stopped all the reporters, and he said, hey, listen, man,
there's one thing everybody in this room has in common,
and that's we all have the greatest mom of all time.
And I'm like, man, that is so true. Well, the
same thing can be said for dogs, you know. Yeah,
(25:18):
So I'll walk around, I'll walk around the neighborhood and
you know, kids say hey, can I pet your dog?
And I always ask if do you have a dog?
And if they say they don't have a dog, then
I tell them that this is a huge day for
them because they're now petting the greatest dog in the world.
But if they have a dog, you can't really say that,
you know what I mean, So you have to get
back that so you just call it the second greatest dog.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
From there, exactly, yeah, but dogs are dogs are the best.
So by the way, we're going over the players that
the Steelers have kept under Omar Khan, right, who have
and that's all the draft choices And I'm I'm trying.
So twenty twenty two was the first year of the
(26:03):
regime correct or Omar Khan. I'm trying to remember if
Jalen who gets credit for Jalen Warren, right, not. I mean,
Pittsburgh Steelers get credit for him, but I'm trying to
remember that was Omar con Or Regardles.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Kenny Pickett was the last first round pick of Kevin Colbert.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Right, But Jalen Warren was undrafted, right, correct, So he
came in as an agent acquisition, right, So you got
to throw him into the mix of Steelers that have
been kept over the years and not draft but not drafted,
continuing a long tradition of meritocracy for the Steelers in
which if you're gonna beat out, if you're better than
(26:40):
the other guy, you're gonna play. There's no Cyah mentality
that doesn't exist, which is great, and that's one more
obstacle you can remove between you and your stated goal
of being great. Right, I mean Cya is that's that's
not that's not good for building a football team. So
(27:02):
the last draft class we want to get to and
will be a little more brief on this one, because
there truly is zero information on these guys zippo. But
once again, they're all kept. Every one of these guys
has been kept, and that is just incredible. So we
(27:22):
are talking about twenty one players drafted under the Omar
Khan regime, and all twenty one are on this roster.
And again, if you believe that the Steelers are a meritocracy,
and I firmly do. If you do believe that that's
the case, and you see Jalen Warren beating out other
guys and getting carries even though he was undrafted, continuing
(27:47):
that lineage, Beatie Bishop last year coming in undrafted, leading
your team in interceptions. Now not part of the team
this year because the regular roster, because he was beaten
out by somebody else. So if you believe it's a meritocracy,
and I do, then twenty one guys says a lot
about how they feel about these players' potentials. And again,
(28:08):
we don't know anything about this year's draft class, which
is Derek Carmon in the first round, no second because
you traded that for DK Metcalf, Caleb Johnson, Jack Sawyer,
why a Black in the fifth round, Will Howard in
the sixth round, two seventh rounders, and Carson Bruner and
Dante Kent Max. We can't really give much information on
(28:32):
this team other than the fact that Derek Carmon, when
he's healthy, is penciled in to start Caleb Johnson in
the third round is not yet. Jack Sawyer is not.
He is going to be a reserve. Why a Black
looks like he's going to be part of the defensive
line rotation. And then you will Howard developmental quarterback, Brunner
(28:53):
and Kent probably going to be guys that would help
you on special teams. Is going to be out for
a few weeks, but when he returns, would be a
guy that could help you on special teams for now,
Carson Brunner, I think special teams for now. If in
fact he dresses, you know, we'll see which one of
these guys are. You know, some of these guys might
(29:15):
not be dressing. We know that. Again, Max, we can't
grade this. If we we'd be going back on our
word by saying we can't grade it. But again, I
think we have to at least say promising because they're
all on the roster.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, we have we have to. We have to use that.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
And like you said, until otherwise noted, I mean, I
think that's the only way to put it right, until
otherwise noted. This is how we're going to you know,
assume things are going to go. Everything's looking like it
is in a good place. But once again, that's why
you go through the season. If we were just going
(29:57):
to go off of just lists and numbers and analytics
and run and run and run the test scenarios, what's
the point in playing football?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Right?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
But that's what that's what any given Sunday means, any
given Sunday, you can triumph, and you can beat the odds,
and you can beat whatever Vegas has against you, uh from.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
A week to week basis. That's that's the beauty of.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
This human interaction and human you know, skill and talent
is used to make these things come true. And we'll
get to see those guys put that on display and
see what they can do for this year's team.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Uh So.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Again, just one last comment on this and then we're
gonna move on to other topics. But I just think
it's impressive, Max, I think that, and it's and it's
not impressive because these guys were stepping into bad football teams.
These guys have come in and they've been drafted, and
they have proven to be better or a little bit better,
(30:59):
incrementally better, however you want to phrase it, better than
the guys that they're stepping in for on a team
that was already solid twenty one of them. The only
one is again was lost due to injury. Ryan Wats
Who's career has ended certainly for now. I don't know
whether there's any hope of him resurrecting it later. But
(31:21):
that is impressive to me, and that speaks, you know,
if these guys come out and perform the way that
first draft class is looking like it could, the second
draft class is looking like it could. We don't have
much feedback. We don't have any feedback on the third class. Really,
that's impressive. That's how you build a sustainable winner if
(31:42):
in fact, these guys pan out the way early indications
are that they might.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, no, I mean that's and that's the best way
of approaching it, you know. But we will say this,
It is advisable and prudent to have optimism. It is
also very good to have belief and hope. We just
(32:11):
can't say anything factually until we have data points to
support or refute whatever we do. You know, like you
got you know, we always talk about this. Your tape
is your walking breathing resume. They ain't got tape yet,
so we can't make these decisions. But what we can't
say from practices we can extrapolate from preseason games, we
(32:35):
can extrapolate from the small sample size that we've had,
is that there is potential. There is a hmm type
of factor, right, you know, you know, you look at it,
You're like, hmm, that's interesting. That looks good.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
We have we have belief in that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
But once again, that's still in the potential category. Because
once again, when it actually counts, when the lights turn
on the stadiums, they fell it for real. You start
to get the option to put to put a win
or a loss next to your record or your team name.
That's when it starts to really matter. And that's when
you really get to see the medal and the test
(33:18):
of these of these young folks. And I can't wait
to see it. And we're gonna hey, you're hey, you
are you are the recorder. I'm the arbiter for this season,
this season of Steelers football, and I can't wait to
see that kind of unfold over these next eighteen weeks
and beyond, I'm gonna do that. That's my facetious thing
I'm gonna do today, is I'm gonna say and beyond.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
And beyond, and we're just gonna take just the briefest
glimpse at that beyond thing. When we continue with our
final segment, we're gonna are we gonna get a bell
lap Max, next segment.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Oh, we're absolutely go lunch time somewhere.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
You're in charge of the horn of the bell lap,
so U can't wait, Max, gonna take a quick break.
You're inside the locker room, King of Starks, presented by
your neighborhood a Ford Store here on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
All right, back inside the locker room. And you know,
sometimes you gotta let it breathe a little bit, a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I wasn't sure if you're going or not. Wait to
take it? Yeah, take it.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah, all right, it is time for the bell lab.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
That's right, early lunch warning, early lunch warning system out
there for us Steelers Nation.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Uh, you know, go grab the grub. We're going to forge.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
We're going to do our part in about eleven minutes ourselves.
And uh, you know, because I also have a plane
to catch, so I got to make sure I forge
before I get in the air. You know, the air
takes it out of you, so you know, may hydrate.
Everybody says healthy, say hydrated, especially on this long Labor
Day weekend holiday weekend.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Huh. The the the.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Airplanes will be a moving a lot of bodies moving
through the air and obviously of course the highways and
the byeways traveling to spend that extra day. You know,
you don't get you get Monday off. You also get
a reprieve from us on Monday. But we'll be back
live in action for game week uh starting on Tuesday.
So looking forward to it. Man, it is going to
(35:24):
be great. All right, I'm done. There's my PSA for
the day.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
So you're gonna be in Morgantown on Saturday, Yes, sir,
getting ready for well, not getting ready by.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Play guy Brian Custer. Okay, Brian Custer. Yeah so so Custer.
We we met with coach Bernard Clark of Robert Morris already.
On Wednesday, they will be meeting with rich rod in
uh in about ten minutes. So I won't be there
for that meeting, but I'll get the notes from that one.
Just because they were like, yeah Rich Rocket meet at noon.
(36:01):
I was like, well, I kind of got this show
that I gotta be can you jump out of zoom
and catch part of it? Not because it's in person.
So it's in person meeting, so no zoom capability. I
am intrigued. I mean I did text. I didn't get
a text back. I was like, hey, can you like
turn your phone on and put it in there. But
I think he's a little weary about that. We usually
(36:22):
try and do if we're in person. We wanted to
be with the people that are there present, and I
get that. So I sent my questions over.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
So we're good.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And a new start for Westernginia football.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yes, new start with a second stint of Rich Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
That's right by the way I'm spending I'm spending my
Labor Day weekend. As it turns out, I got very fortunate.
I think it's fortunate. But I'm driving to see my
sister in New Jersey and we are heading up with
our spouses to Madison Square Garden to see the Who
(36:58):
Hobble on tour hovel on stage on their their final tour.
I was a huge Who fan growing up. I figure, man,
this is you know, we talked about music at the
beginning of the show. This is where I am.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Man.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
You know, if somebody's in their sixties right now and
I'm going to see him in concert. They're a young guy. Uh,
So you know, it's kind of where I am, but
it is what it is, and uh and I would
I would have been very disappointed if I didn't have
a chance to see him. They're not coming to Pittsburgh,
and as luck would have it, they're gonna be somewhere
I can get to on a weekend that I'm off.
(37:33):
I'm working tonight, but I'm off, and then I'm working
on Monday, but I'm off Saturday and Sunday. So away
I go, hopefully traveling hopefully by the way you travel safely,
and I hope to do the same. Now, just quickly,
because you mentioned it, I was thinking about, what do
we do we tackle this now? Do we get to
(37:56):
it next week at least briefly touching on it? Because
we've been building the case for the Steelers. I know
I certainly have twenty one draft picks. All these guys
they picked up, basically not only having a draft class
added the last year's team, but essentially having like two
first round picks, an additional third round pick, an additional
(38:17):
sixth round pick to add to the team because those
guys really didn't play last year. Now they're part of
your roster this year. You made some big ticket pickups
in the offseason, and you know, I'm waiting for all
the predictions to come out. Everybody's got the Steelers in
third in the division that I've seen, behind the Ravens,
who would be now winning the AFC North for the
(38:40):
third consecutive time, behind the Cincinnati Bengals, ahead of the
Cleveland Browns. I've seen people say, and this is it,
this is Mike Tomlins. You know, first losing season, They're
gonna be eight to nine. I've even talked to people
who think it might all collapse this year. I just
don't see it, Max, I don't see it again there,
(39:02):
you know, am I wrong? I don't know. We'll find out.
That's why they play games. Yeah, but you know, I
do think it's you know, I just wanted to take
a glimpse of that because that that appears to me
to be where everybody's head. Maybe, you know, some people
might be going back and forth on the Steelers, Bengals,
second and third, but I have mostly seen Steelers. I mean,
(39:26):
I'm sorry, Ravens, Bengals, Steelers, Browns.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah, I mean, once again, this is why we play
the games that we do. And you know, I believe
the year before they also had the same thing about us, right,
uh huh, yep, yeah, And what do we do every year?
And second, yeah, it feels like like every year you
want to doubt us. And you know what, God bless
those guys, because I guess you got to be shocking.
And you know, I get I guess you know, some
(39:53):
people just get tired of seeing us in a position
where we're not as weak as you want us to be.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
And you know that that's your choice.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
I always choose optimism. I always choose the goodness of things.
But apparently, you know, not everybody feels that way. And
you know what, good luck to you. Good luck to you.
And like I said, we will see, we will see
the games played out.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
But that's why you have a schedule, that's why you
have I hate when people try and.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Predict the scores and hey, what what what's your what?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
What? What?
Speaker 2 (40:23):
What's your plan for for games this season? When you know,
what do you think your predicted score is going to be?
When more than we lose, you know what I'm saying.
I mean that that why would I sit there and say, oh, yeah, no,
this is the year we're gonna suck really bad.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
We're gonna really be bad because we don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
We don't know, and we also know adversity hits, and
we don't know if that hits, you know, the week
that we play them, the week before we play them,
the week after we play them. But adversse's gonna hit
every team. And it's about when you catch that streak
and you ride it and you live to your potential,
you play to the best of your abilities, and good
things happen. I will remind people I have. I have
(41:00):
been a one seed and lost an AMC Championship game.
I've also been a six seed and won a Super Bowl,
and then been a two seed and won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
You know, So.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Even though you're slotted high, doesn't mean you're gonna finish
at the top, right, It's just you're trying to get
the golden ticket at the end of the season, and
that's an opportunity to be in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
What everybody's fighting for.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
We we we have the we have the guy that
I think speaks well. He's Optimism Prime Starts I think
that's his name, right, starts a second half of our
show for us optimist.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
But you know what, he could be optimism prime.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
His optimism prime. And by the way, to your point.
So every night on our our on our broadcast hockey
and baseball, we have the keys to the game, and
the guys have to come up with the keys to
the game. And listen, I do the exact same thing.
Look at the matchups. You know who's gonna you know
in this week one which we're gonna get to you
next week. Hey man, that that front four for the Steelers,
(42:01):
front five, whatever it is, you know, that's that's an
area they try to improve to stop throat. I think
they're gonna see a lot of run. And so how's
that defensive line in it? Is that going to be
the key to the game. Of course, the minute you
say that, you know Justin Field is going to throw
them all forty times. Right. So I always say, you
know what's the key to you? Well, key game is
score more runs, score more goals, right. I mean, it
(42:22):
doesn't really matter how as long as you do it.
And I think the key for the Steelers this year
in each game is going to be to score more points.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Hey, And you know what, that would be a very
good prudent plan, you know, listen, I mean.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
We got to do more than that. We'll bring that.
We'll bring more than that.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
We're better, we bring better analysis than that.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
But once again, it's more prudent to do it week
by week than to do an entire season's analysis, because
the team at the beginning of the season is not
the team at the end of the season. There's a
lot of growth that happens along the way. So I
can't sit there and condemn a team week one, you know,
and expect them to be the same condemned team.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
There's a couple of times where you know that's been
proven right. I mean, we've had some winless teams. It
has a win win seasons.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
But for the most part, all intents and purposes, those
teams progress. Those teams get better by the end of
the season.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
And if you catch heat at the right time, which
is what you're.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Trying to do. You're trying to where when do I streak?
And when I say the words streak, I mean win streak,
not the other streak that gets you thrown out of
stadiums and banned for life. When you when you streak streak, Hey,
the streak you don't want that.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
We don't want that.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah, exactly, you don't want Freak the tank streaking. You
know you definitely don't want that one either. So Max,
hey man, save travels. I'm sorry, I I I thought
I thought you'd wrapped up. I beg your pardon.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
No, what that's all.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
We're gonna do it a weekly, week to week bat No,
We're gonna.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Week the week basis, and you gonna and and that's
what we're gonna do. And that's that's the proper analysis
to take take it week by week. Then we do
quarter snapshots. Then we get through this season. But it
smile markers on this journey, right, mile markers, not milestones.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Safe, safe travels to UH to Morgantown. Good luck on
the game will be What time is the game time?
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Game time is two pm kick UH Eastern Standard time.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I'm gonna look for that on on serious satellite as
I am in my car and my journey and uh. Max,
I hope you and the family have a wonderful weekend,
Labor Day weekend. Hope everybody out there listening does the same.
Be safe, be with your loved ones, have a great
weekend for Max Starks I'm Rob King. We got a
(44:46):
game week coming up next week New York Jets. We
will talk to you then inside the locker room with
King and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store here
on the Steelers Audio Network
Our hour is engaged Optimus. Hey, Happy Friday, bud. Have
a great Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hopefully you get to spend that weekend with your with
your autobot buddies. Uh no Decepticons in the forecast.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hopefully. Yes, we are in the second hour here.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Uside the locker room. There we go, Thank you Kinger.
It just gets you hyped up. It gives you a
little bit of juice. You know when you hear the
big hor I mean, come on, who as a kid
did not sit there on a road trip with the family,
going on the freeway and then you see the big
semi truck and you lock eyes with the semi truck
driver and you and you put the arm up and
(00:49):
you give them the two and then that guy honors
that request. As a kid, that makes your entire childhood
and that nostalgia will always live on as long as
you listen to the second hour of our show.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You know, we we need to find out if that's
cool for drivers. I've never I've never talked to a
driver and asked them like, is that cool? Do they
like doing that? Are they not supposed to do it?
You know? I was I was doing a radio show
in Saint Louis years ago, and I remember I was
(01:23):
going into the radio station and it was ghastly Midwest
Saint Louis hot. You know, ninety five degrees high humidity.
You know, you feel like a guppy every time you're
taking a breath, and you're like, you know, like you
need gills instead of lungs to breathe. And I'm looking
up and I see these I see a mail carrier
(01:45):
and we've probably people will probably understand where I'm going shorts.
But then the socks pulled way up to the knee.
You know what I'm talking about. Have you seen?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, it looked like the hey, the Safari expert he
got the Safari Explorer had on.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, yeah, like he's trying to ticks or something. Yeah, yeah,
you know, so exactly right.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
You know, you're like like he like he's about to
go trick through the bush. You know.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
That was a call in show and I just I asked,
I'm like, hey, is that like regulation? I mean, do
you have to have those socks pulled up? Because I
mean I can't even imagine the itchy and sweatiness of
your of your calfs walking around in that kind of
weather with your socks pulled up to your knees. So
we had a bunch of postal workers call in and see,
yes it's regulation, No it is. And I don't even
(02:28):
think we ever got an answer. But I would like
to know, uh, if there's a trucker out there, and
I don't know how they would even call in the show.
Is that is that cool to pull down the thing?
Do they still have those.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
They in today's technology? Do they still have I don't
even know if they have.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I feel like they I feel like they have to
have that right because it's it's a horn, right that
signals people you know that they're coming, you know, in
the way, almost like a train horn. Like you still
have train horns because I hear it when they pass by.
When you know, you stop at the train tracks, watch
the train. You know you still you still hear the two.
So I have to imagine there's no way you you
(03:06):
build semi trucks now and you just don't have that
that that big old air horn or the big smokestack horn,
whatever it is. I feel like you still have to
have that. But you know what, when we get into
the regular season, we do have callers King. Okay, So
we will put that out there and we will we
will pull the pulse of Steeler Nation and we have
(03:27):
some very loyal truck driver listeners out there, so we
will get an answer.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
We will get an answer for you. Uh, very very
very soon.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Aren't you curious? I'm curious? Uh, I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Am, I am.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I feel like I feel like it is because I
feel like I've also cut off a truck driver and
he's honked at me, and I've heard that horn. So
you it changes a little bit in life because you know,
I'm on the freeway, I'm trying to get past it.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You know, you get on certain like highways like I ten,
especially right I ten goes essentially from LA to Jacksonville,
so it spans the.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Entire lower third of the United States.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Uh, you know, you get on those roads where you
got of a bunch of truckers trying to deliver vital
stuff to our to our to our people across the country.
I feel like you have to have that type of
horn and I've heard that horn because I've definitely been
that guy that's like, I gotta get here, I got
to get around this guy, and uh, it's happened.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So it's it's as a kid, it's so much fun. Okay,
So we are doing we are doing draft evaluations, even
though we've just cautioned everybody that you can't really make
a draft evaluation till three years after a draft. But
the Steelers have kept every single draft choice they have, well,
(04:41):
they haven't cut any so Ryan Watts who was taken.
So we looked at the first draft and you know,
I think we have agreed, Max, and we agreed that
at the very least, it'll be a solid draft and
it has a chance to be considerably more than that,
depending upon what happens over the next year or two
with guys like especially with guys like Broderick, Jones, uh At,
(05:03):
Corey Trice, Spencer Anderson, if you know where they if
if Broderick can be an above average starter, if the
last two guys can be starters, it is just a
hall an absolute hall.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And there's a lot of there's a lot of potential
there and a lot of hope that that that's you're
that's you're that you're going for. So yeah, now I'm
definitely in that same category. Whereas like we're all on
on on the on the on the hope side of things.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Okay, So having said that, right, uh now, let's take
a look at the twenty twenty four draft. And the
reason we're doing this in case you're just joining us
here for hour number two, the power hour of inside
the locker room with King and Starks, is because the Steelers,
the backbone of this team is still these guys. And
this is the way the Steelers want to do things right.
(05:51):
So you bring guys in, you develop them as much
as possible, you sign them to extensions. Uh you know,
these are these are the guys learning from the Cam
Haywards and the TJ. Watts who learned before them from
the Ben Roethlisberger's and the James Harrison's and the Joey
Porters and the Jerome Bettis's and the hines Wards. You know,
(06:15):
on and on we go. Uh you know, the Max Starks's,
the David de Castro's, the Allen Fannicaz. Right, this is
the way the pouncies, this is the way it works
for the Steelers. You draft them, you develop them, you
keep them, and so a lot of attention rightly, so
on the big names they picked up lately. Uh, But again,
when you are keeping every guy from a draft class,
(06:40):
I just I have a hard time believing there's another
team in the league. Maybe there is, and I don't
know how to find out that information, but I just
know this. Dealers have this. So everybody that's been drafted
is there. And when I look at this next draft
class again, it looks extremely promising to me. So Troy Faltano,
first round pick. Remember, he was your starting right tackle
(07:02):
last year before he got hurt, right, So let's see
how he progresses now here in his first year as
a starter. Let's see what happens. And again, unfair to
completely evaluate Troy after one year, understand that, but he's
your starting right tackle, and again you were expecting again,
so just sort of the guidelines. You're hoping that first
round pick is going to be a top quality NFL player.
(07:26):
You're hoping the second round pick is going to be
an above average player. You're hoping the third round pick
is going to be a solid starter, maybe that third
fourth round type. And then after that, you're just looking
for people that can contribute in some way, shape or form.
If you get all that done, it's a good draft.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
It is an above average good draft. So Troy Faltano
don't know, right, Uh, don't know TVD, tv TVD TVD,
Zach Frasier, I mean in round two.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Work, don't you need don't you need jerkt TVD he
has to say the TVD category.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Okay, but he is showing, he is showing all the
hallmarks of what you would expect out of a.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
First round pick. Yes, absolutely, that's all We're gonna say. Hey, hey,
TVD good, good, thus far, good, thus far?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Right? Yeah? Uh so again in our guidelines that that's
that's interesting. Okay. So now third round two, third round
picks Roman Wilson TVD right hur, TVD hurt.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, he's he's a Detroit category.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, that's right. This is an unfortunate because we're gonna
have a lot of those. We got four of them,
and one of them is can no longer play, and
that's Ryan Watts because of a neck injury. The next
guy that was taken in the third round, Peyton Wilson
get Okay, so so TBD because everybody's got a TBD
in this draft class. But he's starting this year, Max,
(09:10):
he is, Uh, you're starting inside linebacker next to Patrick Queen.
That's what you want out of a third round pick.
You want a guy to come in and be starter
capable for you. Again, we'll see a couple of years
from now where that career arc takes him. But again,
extremely promising. Would you not agree?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
No? I would.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I would definitely agree that it is promising and the
and the jump is occurring.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Let's see if it. Let's see if the jump lands.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yep, that's right, that's right, because boy, we are getting
really conservative here, Max, But we're doing what we think
is right because you know.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
This is this is what proper reporting looks like. Yes,
it is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
We are we are we are, we are not We're
not clickbait, we're not shock jocks. We're here to deliver
you know, truth, sobering, you know, reminders that you know,
this takes time. This is not This is not a
guaranteed right now. You know, I know everything's in microwave looks,
but this is not it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
This is not it.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
You know what I love about Steel Nation and because
it suits I think my personality and I think your personality, Max.
Is the game's enough. The game's enough. We don't need
the other stuff. The game is enough, the players, the team,
everything about it. It's enough. It's enough for me.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think that that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It's everybody wants it to be whip bam boom pal
you know right now, right, you know, and it's not
sustaining success and to create a lasting culture that does
not have to blow things up every three years, you know,
that does not have to pivot and make these brash decisions.
(10:55):
Because when you make brash decisions, when you do things
based off of short term, short sighted goals, that's when
you end up in the in the wheel of mediocrity,
you know. And we have countless teams we can point
to that have dealt in the wheel of mediocrity trying
to chase Look at Cleveland just you ain't got to
look that far. Look at the New York Jets, right,
(11:19):
I mean, look at what we're going through right now.
We're watching in New York as as you know, a
teams with the Giants is trying to hold on the
coach is trying to stave off, you know, getting fired.
Every year a quarter of this league turns over just
about right, six to eight teams say we're done with you,
we're switching, we're moving in a new direction.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
You know, I washed.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I watched it out here with the Cardinals, right, I
mean at one point they you know, between before they
got to Cliff Kingsbury, you went through Steve Wilkes, you know,
you went through Jason Betcher, right, and then now now
you are on Jonathan Gannon. You know, I look at
I look at other teams that are going going through
these issues. Look at the Raiders the last number of years.
(12:05):
There are too many things where your brash rush get
rid of. And I already talked about the quarterbacks where
you've had to pivot so many times and you can't
get it right when you make those brashes and you
don't compliment, and then you know, we'll see what over
support looks like, right, Bryce Young Caleb Williams, you know,
and you sacrifice the other side of the ball because
(12:28):
you're trying to get you're trying to make your investment right.
These are all those kind of things that go and
it's a balancing act. And listen to those that get
it right, you know, God bless you. But even for
those that get it right over a long period of time,
you know, Father times undefeated, right, and there is going
to come a point. Look at Bill Belichick, the man
(12:49):
won you six super Bowls and he's now coaching at UNC.
So right, nothing's ever permanent, There is no lasting equation.
But you're just trying to stave off as long as
you can to keep that culture in place, and you
pray that there's a direct line lineage. Take the Steelers,
three coaches this nineteen sixty nine. Each one of those
(13:10):
coaches has a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Not a lot of organizations can say that. Actually, I
don't think any organization can say that. I'll be frank,
we are the only one. So there's a process. It
might be maddening in the moment short term, you know,
But once again I caution I always say the whole
hair growth process, there's always going to be an ugly
phase in hair growth before you get to the.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Link you want. Unless unless you just like a baldy,
you know.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
But if you try to grow any type of eighties
hairband hair, dreadlocks, you know, you know, braids, you're trying
to get some type of cool, you know, just flowy hair,
there's an ugly phase in there. There's that, there's that
like one and a half inch to two inch phase
that you're just like, oh my god, you can't. You
(13:59):
can't ponytail it. Sorry, can't pullytail can't can't man bun it.
You know all the time, you know, you kind of
have that ugly phase where it's like every day is
a hat day, and then you finally get that breakthrough
and then it's like, man, I got the long flowing locks.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Man, you know, I like hair blows in the wind.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
I can roll the convertible down, you know what I'm saying, Like,
you get but but there's.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
A process, Kinger, there's a process.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, you have to get through that that ugly phase
to get to the goodness on the other side.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Okay, so that's interesting, Max. We went there, went there,
went you did that was that's wonderful. So I wanted
to look at the rest of that draft because we're
gonna go there a little bit and I think we
can you know, in the fourth round. I think if
you get a starter in the fourth round, you are happy, right,
(14:50):
you are pleased. And the Steelers have Mason McCormick. He's
gonna be starting for the second year in a row. Again.
The tail has not been entirely. We're hoping that he
continues to progress, but again he is starting. And then
no fifth round pick, no seventh round pick. Your two
(15:12):
sixth round picks were Logan Lee and Ryan Watts. Really
feel badly for Ryan Watts because you know, he was
he really felt like he was gaining some steam, He
really felt like he was gaining some momentum. Yeah, when
he got injured, Like I remember seeing him in camp
and you know, is he a corner, is he a safety?
You know, in OTA's and mini camp they're moving him around, Hey,
(15:35):
come on over here. Now you're in the wrong spot.
You gotta go over here. And then all of a
sudden he's in the right spot, and all of a
sudden he's moving around and making plays, and you're thinking, Wow,
this is a promising, interesting guy. And then you know,
unfortunately for Ryan he had the injury. But Logan Lee
sixth rounder, he's made the team again incomplete. And the
crazy thing about last year's draft, and one of the reasons,
(15:59):
you know, I'm not gonna say a huge number one
reason why I think this Steers team is going to
be better than a year ago is because of this
this draft class. Because you know when you think about,
you know, all the offseason moves that the teammate, right,
and again we talked about that. You get Aaron Rodgers,
you get Chilean Rams, you get Darius Slay, you get
(16:22):
John Smith. H okay, great, Now, now we understand you
you lost some guys too. You lost Nagee, you lost uh,
you know, Dan Moore, you lost Minkea Fitzpatrick. I understand
that you bring in some draft choices, but you're you
basically added three other draft choices. You basically added a
first round pick, a third round pick, and a sixth
round pick your team because those guys essentially didn't play.
(16:46):
Troy fount Ton it essentially did not play. Roman Wilson
essentially did not play. Logan Lee essentially did not play.
So by the way, I don't know if I mentioned
Aaron Rodgers and those pickups. So here you are. And
again I keep going back to why I'm baffled as
to how why people think this team's gonna struggle. I
think they upgraded the roster in trades and free agencies.
(17:09):
You know, DK metcalf Rogers, all the guys we just mentioned.
I think they upgraded the team in the draft and
they've got three guys. They've got another first rounder, a
third rounder, and a sixth rounder because those guys didn't
even play last year.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's gonna be trying to figure
out how it's gonna be interesting. It's gonna be interesting, right,
We don't know. Nobody knows because we have we have
zero clue how that's going to happen. And we hope, right,
(17:45):
I mean right now, hope springs eternal and we feel
good about it, but we don't know how that's gonna transgress,
you know, transpire over I said, transgress transpire over.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
The next eighteen weeks. You know, what does it look like?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
What adversity will hit that they that they will have
to overcome individually and also collectively as a team. We
don't know what injuries will pop up. We don't know
what successes and how they deal with that success is
going to come. You know, well, we rather we rather
have to be dealing with that part of it, right,
We rather deal with successes.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
It's like, hey man, look at this, yep, yep, we
did it. Beat yourself on the chest, patch yourself on
the back, poor picole one.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's what we want but we don't know how that's
going to look.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And we all know that this league is built for adversity,
it's built for challenge, but that's also what makes it
so rewarding when you overcome, right, and so it's going
to be very interesting to see how they combat with
that and how this team gels and how well they
work through these things.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Does the communication.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Increase and do they get closer and tighter like like
like a rope getting stretched out? Does does does the
do the fibers connect better to then create that strength
and create that kind of that taught type of strength
that you need to get through a season. Or does
it start to fray? Does communication break down? Do you
(19:14):
have these other issues that now come to the surface
that we're brewing underneath? We don't know. This is the
important this is the fun part of it. We get
to now walk that path with the team side by side.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
That's gonna be fun to watch and see how these
guys grow.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yep. I agree, And I know it's it's a foolish project,
but you know, uh, fools rush in where angels angels
fear to tread. So we're we're no angels for we're
we're rushing in and to some degree, uh, we're we're
(19:50):
holding back a little bit because it's the prudent thing
to do, and it's it's really not just prudent, it's
the only thing to do. But again, when I look
at the as Foutanu is starting for you at right tackle,
Zach Frasier, your second round pick is starting for you
at center. Roman Wilson will be playing I think a
(20:10):
considerable amount as one of your third round picks. Your
other third round pick, Peyton Wilson is starting for you
at linebacker. Your fourth round pick, Mason McCormick is starting
for you at right guard. And Logan Lee is also
on your roster, and we'll see whether he's part of
the defensive line rotation or whether he's observing for a while. Regardless,
(20:31):
I think, again, at the very least, this is pointing
toward a solid draft. At the very I think the
floor for this draft is solid.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
No, I think the floor, like you said, is a
high floor, and I believe we have modern too high ceiling.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Is that a good way to put it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I think I think there's a I feel like.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, and I think and I think that's what has
to play through. But you know, we talked about this
earlier potential. It has the potential potential. We need to
see reality. We need to see it proven right to
let that potential cut ring true because if not, it's
just unrealized, you know, And I want to realize it.
I want to be able to realize what this is
(21:20):
going to be and I believe it to be based
on my analysis and you know, looking at the process
and researching it, it feels good. But once again, you
still got to see the proof is in the pudding,
right good?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Comfort good?
Speaker 2 (21:38):
No, we don't only in food. That's the only time
we see comfort in food. But but yeah, I just
got to see it. And we're going to get to
see that, you know, in a little over a week's time,
right September seventh, we're gonna we're going to start that
path and start to get the visual reinforcement of what
our thoughts are about these play and at this team.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Right, can't wait. We have one more draft class to
look at a little bit more about this Steelers' roster construction.
We're getting ready for a game week. We're turning the
corner max toward regular season football. We will continue on
with this discussion here inside the Locker Room with King
and Starks, brought to you by your neighborhood Ford Store
(22:23):
here on the Steelers Audio Network. Well, we thank you
for being with us inside the locker Room with King
and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Force or here on
the Steelers Audio Network. And we are going over the
(22:45):
draft picks for the Steelers of the last three classes.
So when Omar Khan took over his general manager of
the team and the success they've had in the draft,
and the fact that they have kept everybody, which is
the really amazing Max, when you think about it, not
one single draft pick cut. The only guy not on
(23:06):
the team is Ryan Watts because of an injury. I
I just think that that's it's pretty incredible. Op Max.
I'm not hearing Max.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Hello. How are we How you doing? I am great?
I am great. Now it's chasing the dog.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
The dog. Yeah, you know I have a Spanish water dog.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, yeah, he's he's a hot mess. He's a hot mess.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Don't worry.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Steelers Nation has heard him before when like a Maleman
comes by our Amazon driver or landscaper.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yes, he loses his mind on the show.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Hey hey, by the way, yeah, good, And how big
is a Spanish water dog.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
It's about forty five pounds. Okay, all right, medium, true
medium dog. He's nowhere near as big as my old dog.
I had had a wonderful Rhodesian ridge.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Back back in the Oh. They are Leoni dogs. Yeah,
my sister in law has one. Unfortunately they've had health
problems with it. It's but they are they are they
they are just like a ball of muscle. But yeah,
but great.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Dogs, yeah, excellent dogs.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
So so yeah, so this was this was this was
our COVID dog and uh yeah, he's.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, I got a COVID do I got an Irish
setter Stella. Yeah see, there we go. You gotta do too.
She was a COVID dog, by the way. Uh you know.
So during the nineteen seventy nine World Series, before the
fifth game, Chuck Tanner, who was from Newcastle and was
managing the Pirates, his mother died until a lot of
people expected him not to be at the game, but
(24:56):
he showed up and there was a press conference and
people were asking him about his mom and all this stuff,
and he just stopped all the reporters, and he said, hey, listen, man,
there's one thing everybody in this room has in common,
and that's we all have the greatest mom of all time.
And I'm like, man, that is so true. Well, the
same thing can be said for dogs, you know. Yeah,
(25:18):
So I'll walk around, I'll walk around the neighborhood and
you know, kids say hey, can I pet your dog?
And I always ask if do you have a dog?
And if they say they don't have a dog, then
I tell them that this is a huge day for
them because they're now petting the greatest dog in the world.
But if they have a dog, you can't really say that,
you know what I mean, So you have to get
back that so you just call it the second greatest dog.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
From there, exactly, yeah, but dogs are dogs are the best.
So by the way, we're going over the players that
the Steelers have kept under Omar Khan, right, who have
and that's all the draft choices And I'm I'm trying.
So twenty twenty two was the first year of the
(26:03):
regime correct or Omar Khan. I'm trying to remember if
Jalen who gets credit for Jalen Warren, right, not. I mean,
Pittsburgh Steelers get credit for him, but I'm trying to
remember that was Omar con Or Regardles.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Kenny Pickett was the last first round pick of Kevin Colbert.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Right, But Jalen Warren was undrafted, right, correct, So he
came in as an agent acquisition, right, So you got
to throw him into the mix of Steelers that have
been kept over the years and not draft but not drafted,
continuing a long tradition of meritocracy for the Steelers in
which if you're gonna beat out, if you're better than
(26:40):
the other guy, you're gonna play. There's no Cyah mentality
that doesn't exist, which is great, and that's one more
obstacle you can remove between you and your stated goal
of being great. Right, I mean Cya is that's that's
not that's not good for building a football team. So
(27:02):
the last draft class we want to get to and
will be a little more brief on this one, because
there truly is zero information on these guys zippo. But
once again, they're all kept. Every one of these guys
has been kept, and that is just incredible. So we
(27:22):
are talking about twenty one players drafted under the Omar
Khan regime, and all twenty one are on this roster.
And again, if you believe that the Steelers are a meritocracy,
and I firmly do. If you do believe that that's
the case, and you see Jalen Warren beating out other
guys and getting carries even though he was undrafted, continuing
(27:47):
that lineage, Beatie Bishop last year coming in undrafted, leading
your team in interceptions. Now not part of the team
this year because the regular roster, because he was beaten
out by somebody else. So if you believe it's a meritocracy,
and I do, then twenty one guys says a lot
about how they feel about these players' potentials. And again,
(28:08):
we don't know anything about this year's draft class, which
is Derek Carmon in the first round, no second because
you traded that for DK Metcalf, Caleb Johnson, Jack Sawyer,
why a Black in the fifth round, Will Howard in
the sixth round, two seventh rounders, and Carson Bruner and
Dante Kent Max. We can't really give much information on
(28:32):
this team other than the fact that Derek Carmon, when
he's healthy, is penciled in to start Caleb Johnson in
the third round is not yet. Jack Sawyer is not.
He is going to be a reserve. Why a Black
looks like he's going to be part of the defensive
line rotation. And then you will Howard developmental quarterback, Brunner
(28:53):
and Kent probably going to be guys that would help
you on special teams. Is going to be out for
a few weeks, but when he returns, would be a
guy that could help you on special teams for now,
Carson Brunner, I think special teams for now. If in
fact he dresses, you know, we'll see which one of
these guys are. You know, some of these guys might
(29:15):
not be dressing. We know that. Again, Max, we can't
grade this. If we we'd be going back on our
word by saying we can't grade it. But again, I
think we have to at least say promising because they're
all on the roster.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, we have we have to. We have to use that.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
And like you said, until otherwise noted, I mean, I
think that's the only way to put it right, until
otherwise noted. This is how we're going to you know,
assume things are going to go. Everything's looking like it
is in a good place. But once again, that's why
you go through the season. If we were just going
(29:57):
to go off of just lists and numbers and analytics
and run and run and run the test scenarios, what's
the point in playing football?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Right?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
But that's what that's what any given Sunday means, any
given Sunday, you can triumph, and you can beat the odds,
and you can beat whatever Vegas has against you, uh from.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
A week to week basis. That's that's the beauty of.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
This human interaction and human you know, skill and talent
is used to make these things come true. And we'll
get to see those guys put that on display and
see what they can do for this year's team.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Uh So.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Again, just one last comment on this and then we're
gonna move on to other topics. But I just think
it's impressive, Max, I think that, and it's and it's
not impressive because these guys were stepping into bad football teams.
These guys have come in and they've been drafted, and
they have proven to be better or a little bit better,
(30:59):
incrementally better, however you want to phrase it, better than
the guys that they're stepping in for on a team
that was already solid twenty one of them. The only
one is again was lost due to injury. Ryan Wats
Who's career has ended certainly for now. I don't know
whether there's any hope of him resurrecting it later. But
(31:21):
that is impressive to me, and that speaks, you know,
if these guys come out and perform the way that
first draft class is looking like it could, the second
draft class is looking like it could. We don't have
much feedback. We don't have any feedback on the third class. Really,
that's impressive. That's how you build a sustainable winner if
(31:42):
in fact, these guys pan out the way early indications
are that they might.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, no, I mean that's and that's the best way
of approaching it, you know. But we will say this,
It is advisable and prudent to have optimism. It is
also very good to have belief and hope. We just
(32:11):
can't say anything factually until we have data points to
support or refute whatever we do. You know, like you
got you know, we always talk about this. Your tape
is your walking breathing resume. They ain't got tape yet,
so we can't make these decisions. But what we can't
say from practices we can extrapolate from preseason games, we
(32:35):
can extrapolate from the small sample size that we've had,
is that there is potential. There is a hmm type
of factor, right, you know, you know, you look at it,
You're like, hmm, that's interesting. That looks good.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
We have we have belief in that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
But once again, that's still in the potential category. Because
once again, when it actually counts, when the lights turn
on the stadiums, they fell it for real. You start
to get the option to put to put a win
or a loss next to your record or your team name.
That's when it starts to really matter. And that's when
you really get to see the medal and the test
(33:18):
of these of these young folks. And I can't wait
to see it. And we're gonna hey, you're hey, you
are you are the recorder. I'm the arbiter for this season,
this season of Steelers football, and I can't wait to
see that kind of unfold over these next eighteen weeks
and beyond, I'm gonna do that. That's my facetious thing
I'm gonna do today, is I'm gonna say and beyond.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
And beyond, and we're just gonna take just the briefest
glimpse at that beyond thing. When we continue with our
final segment, we're gonna are we gonna get a bell
lap Max, next segment.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Oh, we're absolutely go lunch time somewhere.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
You're in charge of the horn of the bell lap,
so U can't wait, Max, gonna take a quick break.
You're inside the locker room, King of Starks, presented by
your neighborhood a Ford Store here on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
All right, back inside the locker room. And you know,
sometimes you gotta let it breathe a little bit, a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I wasn't sure if you're going or not. Wait to
take it? Yeah, take it.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah, all right, it is time for the bell lab.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
That's right, early lunch warning, early lunch warning system out
there for us Steelers Nation.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Uh, you know, go grab the grub. We're going to forge.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
We're going to do our part in about eleven minutes ourselves.
And uh, you know, because I also have a plane
to catch, so I got to make sure I forge
before I get in the air. You know, the air
takes it out of you, so you know, may hydrate.
Everybody says healthy, say hydrated, especially on this long Labor
Day weekend holiday weekend.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Huh. The the the.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Airplanes will be a moving a lot of bodies moving
through the air and obviously of course the highways and
the byeways traveling to spend that extra day. You know,
you don't get you get Monday off. You also get
a reprieve from us on Monday. But we'll be back
live in action for game week uh starting on Tuesday.
So looking forward to it. Man, it is going to
(35:24):
be great. All right, I'm done. There's my PSA for
the day.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
So you're gonna be in Morgantown on Saturday, Yes, sir,
getting ready for well, not getting ready by.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Play guy Brian Custer. Okay, Brian Custer. Yeah so so Custer.
We we met with coach Bernard Clark of Robert Morris already.
On Wednesday, they will be meeting with rich rod in
uh in about ten minutes. So I won't be there
for that meeting, but I'll get the notes from that one.
Just because they were like, yeah Rich Rocket meet at noon.
(36:01):
I was like, well, I kind of got this show
that I gotta be can you jump out of zoom
and catch part of it? Not because it's in person.
So it's in person meeting, so no zoom capability. I
am intrigued. I mean I did text. I didn't get
a text back. I was like, hey, can you like
turn your phone on and put it in there. But
I think he's a little weary about that. We usually
(36:22):
try and do if we're in person. We wanted to
be with the people that are there present, and I
get that. So I sent my questions over.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
So we're good.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And a new start for Westernginia football.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yes, new start with a second stint of Rich Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
That's right by the way I'm spending I'm spending my
Labor Day weekend. As it turns out, I got very fortunate.
I think it's fortunate. But I'm driving to see my
sister in New Jersey and we are heading up with
our spouses to Madison Square Garden to see the Who
(36:58):
Hobble on tour hovel on stage on their their final tour.
I was a huge Who fan growing up. I figure, man,
this is you know, we talked about music at the
beginning of the show. This is where I am.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Man.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
You know, if somebody's in their sixties right now and
I'm going to see him in concert. They're a young guy. Uh,
So you know, it's kind of where I am, but
it is what it is, and uh and I would
I would have been very disappointed if I didn't have
a chance to see him. They're not coming to Pittsburgh,
and as luck would have it, they're gonna be somewhere
I can get to on a weekend that I'm off.
(37:33):
I'm working tonight, but I'm off, and then I'm working
on Monday, but I'm off Saturday and Sunday. So away
I go, hopefully traveling hopefully by the way you travel safely,
and I hope to do the same. Now, just quickly,
because you mentioned it, I was thinking about, what do
we do we tackle this now? Do we get to
(37:56):
it next week at least briefly touching on it? Because
we've been building the case for the Steelers. I know
I certainly have twenty one draft picks. All these guys
they picked up, basically not only having a draft class
added the last year's team, but essentially having like two
first round picks, an additional third round pick, an additional
(38:17):
sixth round pick to add to the team because those
guys really didn't play last year. Now they're part of
your roster this year. You made some big ticket pickups
in the offseason, and you know, I'm waiting for all
the predictions to come out. Everybody's got the Steelers in
third in the division that I've seen, behind the Ravens,
who would be now winning the AFC North for the
(38:40):
third consecutive time, behind the Cincinnati Bengals, ahead of the
Cleveland Browns. I've seen people say, and this is it,
this is Mike Tomlins. You know, first losing season, They're
gonna be eight to nine. I've even talked to people
who think it might all collapse this year. I just
don't see it, Max, I don't see it again there,
(39:02):
you know, am I wrong? I don't know. We'll find out.
That's why they play games. Yeah, but you know, I
do think it's you know, I just wanted to take
a glimpse of that because that that appears to me
to be where everybody's head. Maybe, you know, some people
might be going back and forth on the Steelers, Bengals,
second and third, but I have mostly seen Steelers. I mean,
(39:26):
I'm sorry, Ravens, Bengals, Steelers, Browns.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah, I mean, once again, this is why we play
the games that we do. And you know, I believe
the year before they also had the same thing about us, right,
uh huh, yep, yeah, And what do we do every year?
And second, yeah, it feels like like every year you
want to doubt us. And you know what, God bless
those guys, because I guess you got to be shocking.
And you know, I get I guess you know, some
(39:53):
people just get tired of seeing us in a position
where we're not as weak as you want us to be.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
And you know that that's your choice.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
I always choose optimism. I always choose the goodness of things.
But apparently, you know, not everybody feels that way. And
you know what, good luck to you. Good luck to you.
And like I said, we will see, we will see
the games played out.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
But that's why you have a schedule, that's why you
have I hate when people try and.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Predict the scores and hey, what what what's your what?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
What? What?
Speaker 2 (40:23):
What's your plan for for games this season? When you know,
what do you think your predicted score is going to be?
When more than we lose, you know what I'm saying.
I mean that that why would I sit there and say, oh, yeah, no,
this is the year we're gonna suck really bad.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
We're gonna really be bad because we don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
We don't know, and we also know adversity hits, and
we don't know if that hits, you know, the week
that we play them, the week before we play them,
the week after we play them. But adversse's gonna hit
every team. And it's about when you catch that streak
and you ride it and you live to your potential,
you play to the best of your abilities, and good
things happen. I will remind people I have. I have
(41:00):
been a one seed and lost an AMC Championship game.
I've also been a six seed and won a Super Bowl,
and then been a two seed and won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
You know, So.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Even though you're slotted high, doesn't mean you're gonna finish
at the top, right, It's just you're trying to get
the golden ticket at the end of the season, and
that's an opportunity to be in the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
What everybody's fighting for.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
We we we have the we have the guy that
I think speaks well. He's Optimism Prime Starts I think
that's his name, right, starts a second half of our
show for us optimist.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
But you know what, he could be optimism prime.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
His optimism prime. And by the way, to your point.
So every night on our our on our broadcast hockey
and baseball, we have the keys to the game, and
the guys have to come up with the keys to
the game. And listen, I do the exact same thing.
Look at the matchups. You know who's gonna you know
in this week one which we're gonna get to you
next week. Hey man, that that front four for the Steelers,
(42:01):
front five, whatever it is, you know, that's that's an
area they try to improve to stop throat. I think
they're gonna see a lot of run. And so how's
that defensive line in it? Is that going to be
the key to the game. Of course, the minute you
say that, you know Justin Field is going to throw
them all forty times. Right. So I always say, you
know what's the key to you? Well, key game is
score more runs, score more goals, right. I mean, it
(42:22):
doesn't really matter how as long as you do it.
And I think the key for the Steelers this year
in each game is going to be to score more points.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Hey, And you know what, that would be a very
good prudent plan, you know, listen, I mean.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
We got to do more than that. We'll bring that.
We'll bring more than that.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
We're better, we bring better analysis than that.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
But once again, it's more prudent to do it week
by week than to do an entire season's analysis, because
the team at the beginning of the season is not
the team at the end of the season. There's a
lot of growth that happens along the way. So I
can't sit there and condemn a team week one, you know,
and expect them to be the same condemned team.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
There's a couple of times where you know that's been
proven right. I mean, we've had some winless teams. It
has a win win seasons.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
But for the most part, all intents and purposes, those
teams progress. Those teams get better by the end of
the season.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
And if you catch heat at the right time, which
is what you're.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Trying to do. You're trying to where when do I streak?
And when I say the words streak, I mean win streak,
not the other streak that gets you thrown out of
stadiums and banned for life. When you when you streak streak, Hey,
the streak you don't want that.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
We don't want that.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah, exactly, you don't want Freak the tank streaking. You
know you definitely don't want that one either. So Max,
hey man, save travels. I'm sorry, I I I thought
I thought you'd wrapped up. I beg your pardon.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
No, what that's all.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
We're gonna do it a weekly, week to week bat No,
We're gonna.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Week the week basis, and you gonna and and that's
what we're gonna do. And that's that's the proper analysis
to take take it week by week. Then we do
quarter snapshots. Then we get through this season. But it
smile markers on this journey, right, mile markers, not milestones.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Safe, safe travels to UH to Morgantown. Good luck on
the game will be What time is the game time?
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Game time is two pm kick UH Eastern Standard time.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I'm gonna look for that on on serious satellite as
I am in my car and my journey and uh. Max,
I hope you and the family have a wonderful weekend,
Labor Day weekend. Hope everybody out there listening does the same.
Be safe, be with your loved ones, have a great
weekend for Max Starks I'm Rob King. We got a
(44:46):
game week coming up next week New York Jets. We
will talk to you then inside the locker room with
King and Starks, presented by your neighborhood Ford Store here
on the Steelers Audio Network
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