The Kyle Bailey Show: Andrew Filliponi

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Sports Radio ninety two to seven WF and z KB
and Smoke Back on a Wednesday, a lot to get
to Roman Harper, two time pro bowler, Super Bowl champion,
SEC Network analysts back at five o'clock for his weekly conversation.
He was the man of the match at Charlotte FC's
big w over the weekend. We'll talk about how much
fun that was. He was double fisting some bruce. So

(00:23):
we'll get to Roman coming up at five. And don't
forget tomorrow night Panthers Steelers Uptown final preseason game. We've
got pregame right here at six. Myself and Chris McClain
make sure to be here for that. And speaking of
we have reached out to our good buddy Andrew Philipponi
ninety three to seven, the Fan in Pittsburgh to talk
a bit about tomorrow night. And Andrew Philipony, I deeply
appreciate your presence here today, my friend. How you been.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm good. I didn't know that Roman Harper doubled as
a soccer fanatic and enthusiast, and so to hear him,
I guess any excuse to double fist beers is a
decent one. So congratulations on all his success now in retired.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Life, it was epic. There's video evidence of it if
you get curious later, So you're can have fun with that.
So it's good to have you back. It's funny. I
was just listening to some audio of Mike Tomlin a
couple of minutes before we had this conversation, and then
I say, you know, let me go see what old
Pony's been tweeting about lately. You haven't popped up in
the timeline, and the first thing I see is that
you're having a hard time taking the Steelers seriously as

(01:25):
a contender with Mike Tomlin still as the head coach
up there. Tell me how you really feel, buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, it's just it's gotten old. I mean, he's been
here since two thousand and seven. Now that Bill Belichick
is coaching where you are in North Carolina. He is
the longest tenured head coach in the NFL, and I
think outside of Pittsburgh there is this feeling that the
Steelers are lucky to have him, that he brings stability
to the organization. Of course, there is the statue here

(01:53):
brought up on every single NFL broadcast, and that is
his long streak of never having a losing season with
doesn't get mentioned as often as the fact that he
is now overseeing the longest playoff win drought of the
Super Bowl era for the Steelers. They have not won
a playoff game since twenty sixteen. Okay, they have played

(02:18):
going back to twenty seventeen. They have played in They've
played in six playoff games, and they have led for
a grand total of four minutes and fifty six seconds.
They have gotten crushed. They got blown out by Baltimore
last year. The final score wasn't as ugly as the
game was, twenty eight to fourteen. They gave up two

(02:41):
hundred and ninety nine rushing yards. Ever since Ben Roethlisberger's left,
he hasn't been able to find the right quarterback, and
he's been the guy in charge of finding the quarterback.
He was the one that wanted Kenny Pickett. He was
the one that wanted Mitch Trubisky. He was the one
who didn't believe in Mason Rudolph. He was the one
who thought that Justin Fields and Russell Wilson, some combination

(03:04):
of the two would work here, and they were both
gone after one year. And now he believes that Aaron
Rodgers at forty one years old is good enough to
compete for a Super Bowl with, even though there's only
one man in the entire history of the NFL, Tom Brady,
who's played at a high level at forty one years old.
So I just think it's time. I'm not saying Mike
Tomlin isn't you know, one of the thirty two best

(03:26):
coaches in the NFL. But I just no longer think
he's the right guy for this job. And we're going
to embark on season nineteen with him here, Kyle, and
I think it's going to be same old, same old,
where they're a mediocre team that doesn't do any damage
in January.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Wow, it's it's funny these fan bases, the perspectives on
their head coaches. The universe is apart. It's crazy to
hear about that.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Now.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Let me let me ask you this, Aaron Rodgers is there,
You have some new offense pieces. You got DK Metcalf,
who I wanted back in the offseason here by the way,
But I hear concerns out of Pittsburgh about these guys
not having much time together, and you know how quickly
they'll jail. They'll jel You are having these conversations every day.
What are your expectations for the offense with Aaron Rodgers

(04:10):
at the helm.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Not especially high because he had great wide receivers last year.
I mean he had Davonte Adams and DK Metcalf in
New York and they went five and twelve. To me.
Starts with their offensive line, which is a work in progress.
They have a pedigree there. Both tackles are first round picks,

(04:34):
but Broderick Jones out of Georgia, going into his third year,
has been a bus so far. Was slated to be
their backup last year and not even be a starter
until their twenty twenty four first round pick Troy fout
Tanu got hurt and now foul Kanu's at right tackle
in Jones at left tackle for this season. So there's

(04:55):
questions about whether or not, especially on the left side,
Aaron Rodgers is going to get the protect that he
needs to be an effective quarterback. And then there's Arthur Smith,
who you know, if you believe the rumors, if not
for Bill Belichick, he might have ended up the If
not for him saying no to the job at North Carolina,
maybe he's there instead of Bill Belichick, but he has

(05:16):
over the course of his career in Tennessee and Atlanta.
On average, his offense is a ranked sixteenth in the NFL,
so he is an average offensive coordinator, even though he's
had great weapons like Bijon Robinson and Derrick Henry at
his disposal. So I don't have super high expectations. I
don't think their offense is going to be able to

(05:38):
compete with the Cincinnatis and Baltimore's of the world in
the division, so I'll think I think it's going to
be about the same as last year when Russell Wilson
was at the Helm, where they had their moments, but
overall it still wasn't a very dynamic offense.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Andrew Philipponi ninety three to seven the fan in Pittsburgh
hanging out with us here talking about tomorrow night's preseason game.
What's going on up in Pittsburgh? Not that long ago.
I guess TJ. Watt got the extension, highest paid non
quarterback in NFL history, I think oneh eight guaranteed. Admittedly
I was not listening that afternoon. What was your reaction
then and is it roughly the same today?

Speaker 2 (06:13):
So I think he's worth it. I mean, I think
he's better than Miles Garrett. He's better at everything. He's
got more sacks, he's got more force fumbles, he's got
more quarterback hits, he's got more interceptions in his career
tackles for loss. I mean, he beats Miles Garrett across
the board. And they came out in the same year,
so they've played about the same number of games, and

(06:34):
they both have the same number of Defensive Player of
the Year awards. So I bristle when people say Garrett's
better than what because it's not based on production, it's
based on high test stuff that to me doesn't matter
as much as what you actually do on the field.
So that's number one. But I would say, based on
everything I just said about where I think the Steelers
are in the NFL pecking order and what I think

(06:56):
is best for them long term, I would have tried
to treat him this offseason before the draft, and I
would have used that pick, or even if you traded
him for a twenty twenty six NFL draft pick, I
would have been fine with that a first round pick
in next year's draft. They are in playoff games. TJ.

(07:19):
Watt has played in Kyle. They're zero to four in
the defense gives up on average forty one points, so
he is a tremendous player. But they've built a team
to win with defense, and when we get to the
biggest games, the defense comes up woefully short. So he's
thirty years old. Instead of making him the highest paid

(07:41):
non quarterback in the NFL, I would have tried to
trade him to another team and gotten the pick the
same way they traded DK Metcalf, gave up a pick,
and then signed DK Metcalf for big bucks. This team's
just heavily, heavily invested in defense, even though leagues going
in the opposite direction, and when it comes to how

(08:03):
the defense performs late in seasons, they're just not getting
much return on that investment.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
You and I had some conversations one I believe, at
least down the stretch last season, as we watch Bryce
Young finally start to make a turn, we think, we
hope and that's obviously a big part of the conversation here.
We will not see the starters play in this game,
and that's frustrating for the fans. Training camp was closed off,
fans couldn't be there this year. They won't be there
next year because of construction, and so there's a lot

(08:32):
of you know, deprivation, a lot of football star fans
who are taking in what they're doing via social media.
It's frustrating for them. I've been at joint practice. I've
seen them look good against Cleveland. They look good against
Houston last week, and in the first preseason game. The
starters offensively and defensively did their jobs more or less.
But they're coming off a really rough, kind of lack
of daisical performance against Houston, and so all of a sudden,

(08:54):
the emotional tides have turned around here a little bit.
What do you think from Afar? I know you paid
attention at least down the stretch last year. So what
Carolina has coming back and Bryce Young starting to make
a turn and trying to continue that into his third season.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Well, I love Canalis, Okay, Dave Canalis has elevated the
play of two quarterbacks that people had either forgotten about
or given up on, Baker Mayfield and Tampa, and then
what he did with Geno Smith in Seattle. So I
think his resume speaks for itself. He's the type of guy, honestly,

(09:31):
you know, for the Steelers an organization without a long
term quarterback. I'd want a guy like him as my
head coach instead of Mike Tomlin because I think he
has the talent and the ability to get the most
out of that position, whereas Mike Justin harrided Ben Roethlisberger,
who had already won a Super Bowl. So let's start there.
I think they have the right coach for the quarterback.

(09:54):
I also think their offensive line is pretty underrated, and
I think if you went around the NFL NFL cities
and ask people about Carolina, I don't think they'd realize that.
I thought the protection was good enough in the games
that I watched last year for a quarterback to get
the job done. So the last I would say half

(10:15):
dozen games of Bryce Young in twenty twenty four were
super encouraging. I wasn't sure that the benching was going
to work. We didn't know how he was going to
take it. When Dalton went in, there were rumors he
might get traded, and obviously it was. It made a
big difference because I saw a guy go in and

(10:35):
I thought the accuracy stuff that he was the number
one pick for the stuff that got in the number
one pick status out of Alabama being able to put
the ball where he wanted. I thought we saw a
lot of that, and now the weapons are coming back
to the Hubbard's going to be healthy. You draft Ted
McMillan in the first round, you know you've got Jalen Koker,

(10:55):
who I think has a shot to be a dude
that takes a big step after being an undrafted free agent.
People got to know last year Feelan's rock solid. So
I mean, I wouldn't say they have great weapons, but
I think they have enough within the offense to be
an average to better offensive unit and to make fans
there feel like Bryce Young is their answer and even

(11:18):
get a second contract. What scares me, though, Kyle, is
I just don't know what their defense is. They bring
in all these new starters, I just I don't see.
I don't see enough difference makers who make me think
that they're gonna hold up their end of the bargain.
And Carolina, even in a water down NFC South, is

(11:38):
going to be able to get the job done. It's
the defensive side of the ball that would keep me
up at night if I were a Carolina fan.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
And it is most points allowed in NFL history last
year that in theory, there's only one place to go,
and that's up, but nothing's guaranteed in the National Football League.
Andrew Philipponi ninety three to seven, the fan in Pittsburgh.
Hanging out with us here always great. Catching up with
you brother. We'll do it again soon, you bet, Kyle.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Thank you