July 31, 2026 • 44 mins
The guys chat more on the landscape of the 2026 Steelers team and discuss more about the future of the quarterback room.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live coverage of twenty twenty six Steelers Training Camp or
the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light, Easy to Drink,
Easy to Enjoy, and brought to you in part by
Pennsylvania One Call Systems Dial eight one one before You
Dig SNT Bank People Forward Banking by Kalucy Chevrolet, serving
(00:22):
the Pittsburgh area for over one hundred and eight years.
Clearview Federal Credit Union. For every touchdown the Black and
Gold score in twenty twenty six, Clearview will donate five
hundred dollars to the Light of Life Mission. Visit CLEARVIEWFCU
dot org and buy iron Workers Local Union Number three.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We don't go to the office, We build.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
It and welcome back in the locker room. And an
absolutely beautiful day. We've had nothing but here at Saint Vincent.
You know, I wonder if they're actually secretly hoping for
one day of rains that can get that indoor. Yeah,
some use beautiful Oh man, I'm not rooting for it,
(01:04):
but they might be rooting for it.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
You never know.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So we have been talking about the quarterback position, and
by the way, Max, you know, we're talking about this
during the break. The show continues during the break right
at least for us. But one thing you you pointed
out and and you know needs to be underline because
we talked about it yesterday, but not at the beginning
of this talk about the second quarterback, Aaron Rodgers made
(01:28):
it clear this is his final year. This is my
final year. Then DK Metcalf came out and say, hey,
never say never, and then went to Aaron Rodgers and said, hey,
DK said never say it, and he said, no, this
is my final year. I never said that's never exactly,
it's it is his final year. And so that brings
you know, listen, you got Ben Roethlisbergramer's prime. What do
(01:51):
you want a veteran backup quarterback and then maybe potentially
a a third guy who you can develop. Maybe, right,
that's what you want when you have that established veteran quarterback.
Nobody's pulling their hair out in Kansas City over who
the third quarterback is going to be. Nobody, No, nobody's
(02:12):
pulling your hair out. Hey, is Shane Bouchelle good enough
to be the number three quarterback in Buffalo? Nobody's pulling
their hair out right now. So, but the Steelers are
facing the end of the road with a Hall of
Fame quarterback. This is it for Aaron Rodgers. That's and
you're absolutely right to have. That sets the framework for
(02:35):
why this is such an important evaluation aspect and evaluation
going on in this camp.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And I think that's what you have to remember because
you know for sure you need one more quarterback next year, right,
if not too right, because of the decision that you make,
will determine that. And I almost want to say, certainly
you're gonna need two quarterbacks next year, because if one
of these guys has to go, whether it's Will Howard,
whether it's Dueller, or maybe it's Mason Rudolph. Right, like
(03:02):
I said, as it stands today, no pass is thrown
in a professional game like environment, it goes to Mason Rudolph. Yes,
but we will have three preseason games to evaluate and
speculate what we can see in the future. Was it
enough that we can trust a guy to be in
that number two role? That's gonna be So we have
(03:22):
three quarterbacks kind of on the chopping block, you know,
to borrow atominism here as in the MacArthur era, two dogs,
you know, three dogs, two bones in this situation. So
knowing that you're going in next year without Aaron Rodgers
and possibly one of these other quarterbacks. You're gonna need
two quarterbacks next year. But the question is do I
(03:45):
thin to go get them high early or do I
think or can I can I wait and get them
in the third round or later like we did with
Drew Aller and Will Howard. That's what the question is
going to be and do and what free agent is
going to be available.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, I think if you make the decision that let's
just say for argument, well just say one of the two.
And it would seem from everything that they've talked about,
even though he hasn't played in a while, that Will Howard,
you know, he's been through Yes it was a different coach,
but he's been through training camp and he has all
that other stuff. They're not talking about rebuilding Will Howard's
(04:19):
mechanics like they were with Drew Aller. And again, I
don't know how quickly that will come along, if it
will come along for Drew Aller, and what the upside
might be once it does. But it feels like, you know,
Will Howard could be maybe is he the guy that's
closer to being the approximation of Mason Rudolph. Now that
does that allow you to make a trade. If that's
(04:42):
the case. Now, if you do that, then potentially you
could go in the next year with two quarterbacks with
Aler and Howard, then you don't need need one quarterback.
But the biggest question is, you know, it is one
of those positions where you know it's it's true to
quarterback position. It's probably truth the goalie position in hockey.
(05:03):
You know sometimes if you have two guys, it means
you don't have any right, well, we got two guys. Well,
if you had one, that's all you need. You know,
you know, two guys. You can't play two quarterbacks at once.
It's not wide receiver, it's not edge rusher, and you
can only play.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
One unless you unless you're the early late late nineties
early two thousands Florida Gators Funny Gun with Rex Grossman,
Jesse Palmer. Okay Johnson and Jesse Palmer like, yeah, we
we went two quarterback early on in my college guys
like holy crap. I was like, Okay, one series is Jesse,
one series is Rex.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
But that's by gun Era and it was college and
it was different, So I think that could be that
could be hedging your bets for next year, But what
does that do for this year? Mason Rudolph is an
awfully nice security blanket to have.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Under circumcercer warm, cozy.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yes, under certain circumstances, he can wind up being one
of the most valuable players you have on your roster. Right,
it's hard to imagine this year one of those other
young guys having that mantle, having the guy that comes
in and saves your season because of what he can
do over X amount of stretch until you get your
(06:17):
future Hall of Famer back. Now, one of those guys
might be that, but right now, before camp starts, that
is zero indication. It is a projection. We will talking
about gazing into the middle distance. That's gazing into the
middle distance. So that's the great beyond. It is the
great Yeah. It really does make this It makes it
(06:38):
a really fascinating discussion in my opinion, and a fascinating
camp to watch.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And I think that's why it's one of the lead
storylines right that we have going into this camp is
what does QB look like knowing that there is no
future with ar right, Yeah, because that's essentially why you
went and got Drew Aller in the third round because
you didn't know already, but now you do know, and
you have to plan ahead. So that makes the Drew
Aler pick look that much smarter in the moment because
(07:05):
you don't know who the future guy's going to be, right,
and and there's no tangible stats to weigh against for
who the future starter is going to be.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, and this is this is the time of year
in which Will Howard or Drew Aller can plant that
seed in the minds of the coaching staff and the
front office of the Pittsburgh Steelers that says I'm the guy.
Plant me now, because I'm going to be the one
that's going to be bearing fruit next season and for
(07:36):
many seasons beyond, because let's face it, you are now
you go from look what I've done to hey, can
I hold the clipboard this quarter? Because you know, can
I take over as the backup this quarter? Because you're
not You're not going to see the field. If everything
goes well, you won't see the field. It's going to
(07:56):
be very difficult for you to get reps in practice. Right.
So let's say let's say, uh, let's go into one scenario.
You keep Aaron Rodgers you keep Mason Rudolph. You are
now the third quarterback, whether it's Will Howard or Drew Aller.
You've shown a lot during the preseason camp. You know,
you've really you've really shined. Okay, guess what you're not doing.
(08:18):
You're not taking any snaps during the season because they're
all going to Aaron Rodgers or Mason Rudolph. Now it's
a little different if one of these guys, the younger guys,
emergence as a second at least you'll get some snaps.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And you know that that veteran off day that Aaron
will probably get during the week, you'll get a little
bit more of a workload than you normally would to
get ready for it. But you're right, you're gonna get
strictly practice squad reps, right thirs string quarterbacks, emergency third
so to speak. You're gonna dress on game day, you're
gonna be on the sidelines, you know, and you're gonna
(08:51):
be ready to go if we get down to that,
we get to a rock party situation right right, yeah,
where you're down to your third string quarterback. But you're right,
I mean, and how much will you see? So that's
why these three preseason games where Aaron is not we
know is not going to play right, like Aaron had
to play last season because Will got injured right before
the before the preseason game started, and then you had
(09:12):
what a luacun that was in and you're like, nah,
let's just go ahead and get Aaron a couple of
ceremonial snaps and then let's have Mason play the majority,
and then we'll put him at the end because Will
was unavailable with the hand injury. This year, you're not
gonna have that excuse, and you're gonna get probably extended
lost like Mason's probably not gonna get He'll probably get
(09:34):
more ceremonial practice reps. Yeah, and then you'll have most
two thirds of this game will be played by both
the rookies, going back and forth and making sure that
they get an equal split. By the time we get
through the third preseason game of I can now have
an apples to apples comparison eighty pass attempts or whatever
through three games or fifty pass attempts where I can
(09:55):
actually put them side by side and say, Okay, this
is what they look like again, comparable competition.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Now we have to make a decision right, and they're
also getting more practice reps now than they're gonna get
during the season two in preparation for those games. Talking
about now, talking about the two young guys, there's gonna
be days where Aaron Rodgers an't gonna do much of anything,
if he might not even practice, And in fact, the
indications seemed to be their days. He won't practice pitch
(10:22):
count and he likes practicing, so they're gonna tell him, no,
you don't get the practice today. So Mason would run
with the first and the other two guys would split
duties to the second and giving them more snaps.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And the way they run these practices out here, so
if people are if you're driving back home from catching
the Mott game today, they ran two fields full go
the entire time, alternating quarterbacks. So field one had Mason
and Aaron splitting reps. Field two had Aler and Howard
splitting reps. Normally, that would have been everybody on one
(10:52):
field and you've been rolling through three different teams, and
then it would have been a dissemination of snaps. Here,
they got double the amount of snaps they probably would
have gotten into Mike Common training camps. So they're already
getting more opportunities to get ready for these games, So
I expect that to kind of be the pace through
camp and then when we get to the preseason games.
(11:15):
Like you said, no Aaron playing in any of these
preseason games, could be Mason running the first team, rest
with the first team unit for a first couple of
series or two, and then the rest of it. It's
the rookie showcase.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah, and you are going to be faced with an
interesting decision. In an ideal world, you're gonna have these
three training camp practices and then maybe maybe a little
bit of rep work during the season, hopefully not much. Again,
hopefully nothing happened with Aaron. Uh and you know, again,
(11:46):
if they keep Mason, now you're that third guy. Maybe
if you know, if Aaron's out for a week or two,
or you know, maybe even you know, wrap up a
playoff berth and Aaron sits it, then now finally get
some practice whatever whatever the case is that gets you
from here. You're gonna get a ball of work to
January or hopefully beyond, in which you're not going to
get a lot of work. At some point, your staff
(12:11):
and your scouts and there's self scouting that goes on
a little bit as well. Has to make the determination, Okay,
drafts upcoming, do we have our quarterback or not? And
by the way, in an ideal world, you're gonna make
a decision on a guy who has not taken a
snap in a game since a preseason game in August,
(12:32):
and you're gonna have to You're going to have to
make You're gonna have to ascertain then is this the guy?
Because is he hopefully more than that, because supposedly, again
this last draft class was supposedly was supposed to be great.
Is he the guy? Because if he is the guy,
(12:53):
We're not going to trade up all these draft picks.
It's going to hamstring our ability to draft in years
to come, four years to come. We're going to use
those to enhance the roster we already have in place
and to build around that guy, right, and to continue
to build around that guy, or do we need to
just go all in and you're going to have to uh,
you know, listen, it might be you're hoping it's not
(13:17):
obvious in a bad way, right, Yeah, boy, we looked
at training camp and.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Uh, you know, uh, you're hoping, you're hoping that these
are going to be interesting debates that are happening in
February where the team's like, what are we going to
do well?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And competitive? You wanted to make sure there's competitive throughout
this process and through the and through training camp to
where us like, man, these guys are both so good
and they have so much potential there. Oh, absolutely, that's
the best case scenario that you want. If you're going
in a there is a clear cut winner of the
two young guys. If that's the way you choose to go,
(13:55):
you're like, Okay, we got the guy that's going to
be the future, But now who's the next guy after that? Right,
who's going to be your your third and fourth guy
in this process? That's what's going to be the next
phase of that.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
And the other thing is, by the way west, you
are arriving with presence.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Just he is the Santa Claus of cafeteria.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I'm looking at I'm trying to eye it, but your
durn containers. I'm trying to decide whether whether my smoothie
might be worth trading for whatever you got in there.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Oh, I have soup if you either choose cold or hot.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
So I do think it makes it again to recap
because Aaron is retiring, because you still want to win
games this year, because you're hoping one of these guys
is your future quarterback. And and let's add this because
if you think that guy is Drew Aller and he
(14:56):
still needs that development time that you've talked about, add infinitem,
that's another layer on top of it, like okay, are
we betting on the future now in August? Or how
quickly can exit? All of these things make this a
much much bigger story than it might even though everyone
(15:17):
always wants to make it a big story. This year
really really is a big story for the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
You know what makes it the easiest. But you know
how we could tell all this how somebody goes on.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
R that how's your ankle? It feels great? How's your ankle?
It feels great? How's your ankle?
Speaker 1 (15:35):
What kind of hurts?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah? Exactly, not that you do that. But no, no.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
That would make life a lot easier for a lot
of people making decisions.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
That's not us.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
But like you said, all things equal, this is going
to be a huge evaluation year at that position group
because this year, more than years past, it's heavily weighted
because you know, there's not a what if with the
starting quarterback it's win we haven't got it's not if
it's now fully a win. These guys will need to
(16:06):
really show can they or can't they be? And you're
gonna get a different sample size to have to grade
that on and take that into next year.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Big ramifications potentially for this year and definitely for next year.
It's again, it makes it a much more important situation
than normal. So we have much to get to. We
wanted to circle back a little bit on the offensive
line because of some things that Mike McCarthy said this morning.
Also the practice no helmets out there, and you know,
(16:35):
people wondering what kind of practice this is gonna be.
Mike McCarthy had some what I think will be words
of assurance for fans out there. We're going to tell
you all about that when we continue in the locker room.
Here on this steel there's audio network.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
This is Live COVERAGEL Dot twenty twenty six Steelers Training
Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
easy to drink, easy to enjoy, and brought to you
in part by Pennsylvania one Call Systems Dial eight one one.
Before you dig SNT Bank People Forward Banking by kaluucy
(17:13):
Chevrolet serving the Pittsburgh area for over one hundred and
eight years. Clearview Federal Credit Union for every touchdown the
Black and Gold score. In twenty twenty six, Clearview will
donate five hundred dollars to the Light of Life Mission,
they said, CLEARVIEWFCU dot org and buy Iron Workers Local
Union number three.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
We don't go to the office.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
We build it, you know, not an I don't think
anybody would say that that music bed and these things
are usually like public domain music beds, Like I don't
think anybody would hear that music bed and think ac DC.
But there's just one little moment in the song where
it sounds like they're about to break into uh, you
know TNT by ACDC. Anyway, one of my observations that
(17:58):
we will move away from that. So this morning, Mike McCarthy,
I want to get to a couple things sure that
Mike McCarthy talked about. So they were talking about, you know,
no pads and all that, you know, how do you
get your team ready? And he said, you know, I
don't think I've explained this very well because you keep
as it's going to be physical. Practice will be physical.
(18:21):
There's going to be blocking, there's going to be hitting.
What there is not going to be is tackling to
the ground. The finish, That's what there's not going to
be in an effort to cut down on potential injuries
and save guy's legs.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Right, you're saving legs. And he talked about the four
parts of tackling, right, the pursuit, the approach, the rap,
and the finish. You're gonna get the first three. He's
not going to get the finish. Did you ever have
anybody again? The terminology is different, The way things are
broken down is different. Did you ever did you just
(19:03):
say that or did Mike McCarthy say that about the
four part time? He said that.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Okay, said that in a press conference, so he broke
it down. It is interesting that everything is broken down
in that regard. You know, it's it's different, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
We kind of said this yesterday. It's a very academic
approach to football, right, Whereas we talk about a professor
and Mike Tomlin, Mike McCarthy comes in as a teacher. Right,
Teachers foundational says things plainly. They want you to understand it.
So that it becomes a reaction. A professor is more philosophical,
(19:40):
it's more abstract, right, you have to kind of dig
through the philosophy to find the actual concrete application here.
It's like it's like when you go into a kindergarten classroom. Right,
the ABC's are on the board. The cursive, well, not
so much anymore, as I saw on a clip the
other day. Not everybody can read cursive anymore. It's very
sad this generation. But your cursive letters are on the board,
(20:03):
your numbers are on the board, and how to draw
the numbers. Right, they have the little little arrows that
show you which goes first, and dotted lines. And remember
the brown paper with the blue and the red lines.
You had to learn how to write. That's what Mark
McCarthy is. He's that little brown piece of paper with
the blue and the red lines. Whereas you get to
(20:23):
Mike Tomlin, it was a college ruled white sheet of
paper that was blank. Yeah, figure it out right, right,
But I'm gonna give you what you need to do,
but I'm not gonna spell it out plainly. This one
is uppercase lower case, right, it's all writing all the
letters of the alphabet all twenty six of them lowercase
and upper case and figuring it out, and he doesn't.
He wants to be as transparent as clean as possible,
(20:45):
so there's no room for interpretation about what he wants.
And I think that's where it's a lot different. Asay
said breaking down the four parts of a tackle, talking
about the philosophy behind why he does what he does,
explaining that there's more cameras on the field, playing the
tempo behind it, what way you know, recall versus install like,
and he tells the media this so that now not
(21:08):
only do we know on the broadcast side of it,
but also the mass media knows, and the mass public knows,
and the fans know. This is why I'm doing what
I'm doing. You don't have to guess. I'm gonna tell
you plainly what I want to happen.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
And a lot of stressing on fundamentals, a lot of
that and details. So there's a beloved coach in Penguin's History,
Badger Bob Johnson, little tiny tape to tape passes and
all the players are like, uh, this is what we
did when we were in peewee, and then they grew
to embrace it. They grew to enjoy it, they grew
to love it, and he was a beloved figure. So
that was one of the things. Yes, on the fundamentals,
(21:43):
but it is not you know for fans out there,
Oh it's gonna be camp sharm and it's gonna be
so soft. No, it's gonna be. He wants to be physical.
He just doesn't want tackling to the ground, so that
injuries that will eliminate certain drills, to eliminate certain things.
Goal line's gonna be a lot tougher. Yep, that's right.
So there's gonna be. There's gonna be, and inevitably, well
(22:06):
you hope not. But usually there's one or two guys
you get a little.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Zealous, I mean, and that's it's the nature pushing each other.
And you put ninety test tubes of testosterone on the
same place that with constant collisions, there's going to be
some testiness and you and you throw it a little
bit of heat, a little heating out on a little
catalyst out there. You're going to get reactions, a little talk.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah you thought you could tackle me? Oh you think
you think, I don't think I think it.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Chirp tap reactions reaction.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
So it is not going to be there's gonna be
hitting in camp. So for those people that think are
there's not gonna be hitting in camp, where we come to,
there's gonna be hitting in camp.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Bud.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
He was asked about the value of guys like Spencer
Anderson and Dylan Cook and he gave a really good
answer about this because he was talking about the fact that, yes,
they're extremely valuable because they have the flexibility to play
(23:11):
a number of positions. Wonderful, that's great, But he also said,
but they're also competing for starting jobs and.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Sting for one position. I know they're they're pretty good
at multiple, but they're competing for one. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
You don't want to be you know, sort of uh,
you know, damned by versatility. Yeah, oh you're so versative,
you're more valuable not playing what what what do you
what do you mean? I want to play now? I
want to be in every snap right. So I thought
that was very interesting, A lot of praise for for
for those guys in both regards, right and right now
(23:46):
they're running with the ones.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
They are running the ones on the right side. You know,
we were watching the the Mott game today and not
even shells, just shirts, shirts and hats, and they took
all the reps with the Ones and Roderick Jones and
Ianare dunker Hoffman, everybody else was on the other column.
McCollum was on the other field, and so it was
(24:10):
it was very clear it's Troy Mason, Zach Spence, and
Dylan that are getting first crack at the starting job.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Think about that second unit. You just said, like, there
are probably teams out there that would say, look, we
have a maybe we have an all pro left guard
or whatever. But if I got to take my starting five,
including that all pro and trade him for that starting five,
I would do it. And I'm talking about that backup,
that backup five. I'm talking about the two first round tackles.
(24:46):
The guy who every stat was better when brock Hoffman
was on the field for the Dallas Cowboys last year.
Now he comes in here and he can play for you,
Jennings Dunker who you just spent a third round pick
on the third round picks off turn into starting part.
Ryan McCollum has done a very credible job when called upon.
(25:06):
Hasn't been called upon that often, but when called upon
to play.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
When Zach was out Zach got injured. That's a step
right on end.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
That's your second team often.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I mean, think about that. You just named on that
second team four guys out of the five that have
starting experience. Yep, that's that's not a bad place to
be for all into and purposes. And like I said,
whoever doesn't win that battle of the other three outside
of the starting five is going to go start somewhere
(25:36):
else because I guarantee you Cincinnati is looking at guys
that are in our camp. Cleveland is looking at guys
who are think about how much resources was spent this
offseason in Cleveland to rebuild that entire offensive line from
the ground up. You get guys that you can go
and work with that could come in. And there's plenty
(25:58):
of other teams I'm sure that would want some guys
from our team. Like you said, if you had to
do a full hockey line change of guys, that number
two unit can go start for a lot of teams
in the NFL right now. Yep, Houston Texas, do you
think they might want some of those guys? Apps of
freaking loutely.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Right, and just as a unit, it's impressive as five guys, Yeah,
you know, like you said, three guys with starting experience,
a first round pick, your first round pick this year
on the third round pick this year. Yeah, that's impressive.
That's impressive team. So the other thing I wanted to
again get to with with Mike McCarthy that he talked
(26:34):
about this morning a Sante Samuel Junior. Yeah and singled
out well, asked about and then praised rather effusively by
Mike McCarthy. You know, and again let's let's do a
quick little rewind here. We're going into last offseason before
(26:56):
people realize the severity of the neck injury. You had
this neck injury, same one Sante Samuel had, Sante Samuel Junior.
And Mike McCarthy Carthy said he I coached against his dad.
So it's Sante Samuel Jr. The uh he was a
top twenty five free agent. Yeah right, yep, Hey, this
is a starting cornerback in the NFL. Do you have
(27:17):
a chance to go get well? He has a next
surgery and you know, the Steelers did a lot of.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
What's that Pro Bowl cornerback?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Right, Steelers did a lot of due diligence on him,
and you know, Mike McCarthy said, physical, great ball skills.
He said, hey, if if I had a been talking
about this flag football they had a flag football team,
he might play offense for me. You know, he's that
good as far as the ball skills. And boy, is
(27:47):
that a comforting guy. If you get Sante Samuel back
to where he was when he was a top twenty
five guy and they were able to sign him for
not that huge of a contract. And now all of
a sudden you have Jamel Dean and our buddy Matt
Williamson did a great breakdown of the cornerback position and
(28:08):
where guys ranked on coverage skills, and Joey Porter Jr.
Was ninth in the NFL, very very good. Number one
in the NFL, Jamel Dean, and then you had a
Pro Bowl to that mix, and then you had a
third rounder to that mix, and you have Brandon eccles
(28:30):
in the slot behind Jalen Ramsey. But to hear that
sort of praise for Sante Samuel Junior was head turning
because he didn't get a chance for the last year,
didn't get much of a chance to well.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
He came came in mid season, late season, I think
probably last third of the season, and you know, had
to play spot duty, but like you said, the flashes
were there, but we already had our established guys already playing,
and it was kind of like, Okay, this is a
nice comfort to know that if anything goes wrong, we
got him in the wing. But now you're looking at him.
(29:04):
You get full training camp to really look at him,
and like you said, we've already got three guys out right.
We got Kent, Ramsey and Porter out right now, so
he's getting extended look and he's looking fantastic at it.
It's like, man, you go to season like, man, if
I have four corners, I'm in a good place, a
really good place.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
And that's a luxury.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That is a super luxury. And we're not even talking
about the secondary guys that are the safety positions, which
is also super deep. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
I mean a lot of teams are groping for two
quality outside starting potential starting guys.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
And a lockdown. But now I even ask for lockdown.
I just need a guy who covered two rights. Right,
we have Jamel d is a lockdown corner, Joey Porter
Juni is a lockdown corner, Sante Samuel potentially a lockdown corner,
and then you're throwing in the rest of the mix, right,
You're throwing in a Dayly and Everett. We're throwing in
all these different guys that have the potential. But that
is a super, super luxurious position to be in.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Yeah, and again we talk about we talk about positions
of course, quarterback. Of course we get that. You know,
there's this notion now that you know you don't need
to spend high picks on draft choices, uh for running
backs because you can find guys who are running back.
Clearly you'd like to have, you know, a good solid
group of wide receiver. We've seen, We've seen how difficult
(30:27):
uh that is, that position has been to fill for
this teelers. But big human beings, you know, edge rushers,
corner I mean that's strong d tackles. Again, I'm Max.
I look at this team and I I don't want
to over sell my own excitement level, but I mean
that is okay to be excited that large people on
(30:50):
offensive line, large people on defensive line, quality starters with
depth at cornerback. Uh, that's a pretty quality depth at
edge rusher, and quality and quality depth at edge rusher.
That's a pretty good.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Place to start. Max, Yeah, and once again, Mike McCarthy
came to a team that did not have a bear.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Cover, right, and he said that, Yeah, to his he said,
I'm not coming to the right Yeah, he's not coming
to the Jets. That's right now.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
But at the same time, it's a beautiful thing to
add those pieces on top of what you already had, yeah,
as opposed to have to go out and just get
those pieces and try and put the best team out
there on paper. It's like, No, I walked into an
established team with established veterans who were homegrown guys and
not a bunch of free agents, and we simply added
(31:43):
free agents at the places that we felt was necessary
to bolster what we already had. Right, there's a difference
when you're building on top of the first floor making
a second floor versus trying to create the foundation.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Yeah, and then again just quickly just well, no, I'm
going to say that because we've got to take a
break about roster construction. We'll dive more into that because
I think it's, you know, obviously something that happened in
the off season and something we should dive into and
give give the time it deserves. And we're going to
do that next we continue in the locker room on
the Steers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
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Speaker 3 (32:56):
Oh, thanks very much for being with us in the
locker room. You know. One of the fun parts about
camp is that the locker room just became the drive
during that.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Commercial, Right, it became the locker drive, the drive room.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
They're in there gap because Matt so so, we're in a.
We're in a. The press box at Saint Vincent has
four separate rooms, right, and the last two rooms to
our right are reserved for guests of the college and.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Come up and watch practa.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Right, the one all the way to the left is
the broadcast room where we're sitting now, and the one
in the middle is Bob Labriola posts up there, there's
equipment as guys are going up and downstairs to shoot.
So it's like, so I'll stand a lot of times
I'll stand next to Labs because I like to watch
from the vantage point of up here, because this is
(33:48):
where I'm gonna be broadcasting from up above the field. Correct.
But a lot of times I'm like, I'm trying to
be skinny man, you know, standing here looking at it
outside of a window because there's not a there's not
a ton of room to move around. By this time
of day, everybody's gone. Practice is over.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
It's just us in here.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
So Wes has spreading department, Wes has got a booth,
Matt Williams has got a booth, and we just spent
the whole time, uh, doing another segment of our show
off camera talking locker. It knows no bounds, and it's
it's but it's fun. It's fun to talk with the guys,
and it's it's also informative because look, you know, Max
(34:25):
is up hanging out and there's coaches and scouts and
guys you're running into Yeah, we're running into other writers.
Everybody's got their own sort of thing going on. Hey,
I talked to this coach and so you're just kind
of like the little osmosis sort of feeling.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
But ecosystems we were like meteors, just just bouncing between
solar systems.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
We were talking about Sante Samuel Jr. And Matt was
telling us he heard the exact same thing, like a
lot of people. He's turned a lot of heads in
camp already, as as you would expect. I mean, he's
a twenty six year old, you'll turn twenty seven yearing
this season. He's in your prime. Former Pro Bowl quarterback, cornerback. Yeah,
(35:06):
who got a neck injury? Now quickly advise people what
that neck injury did to your career? If it now,
I don't talk about post career. Yeah, where hey Max
might tea hey Max from behind, might turn the whole
body might have to turn to acknowledge you that you're
(35:26):
there's no looking over your shoulder. So what sort of
battle did Sante Samuel go through? Because you went through
the same thing.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Well, I think okay, So a cervical C four C five,
cervical fusion, which means in the vertebrae or the spine, right,
you have bone cartilage disc bone rinse and repeat all
the way down from cervical spine all the way down
to your lumbar right. And you know when you have
(35:55):
to remove one of those discs, which is kind of
the like the brake pad that Joe and Pat, however
you want to look at it. That allows for the
twisting motion. Right, the spine is creating the forward and backwards. Well,
the twist left and right is what those little disc
discs do in between each vertebrae. So you lose one
of those one of those guests compressed almost like squeezing
(36:18):
the jelly out of a donut. Right.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
I'm sad by the way Max is now he we're
on radio. But Max is using this by his own.
His own throat is the is the cervical thing. So
he's got his hand around his throat. In years past,
that's sometimes the hand around my throat.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yeah, run your throat. So we're talking. Since we're talking science,
I'm using my own. But when I talk about battle,
I use robs.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I'm getting stiff armed into.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
The wall up here exactly. It's like the technique.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Right, Yeah, thanks for showing that technique on radio.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, exactly, don't worry. It's like smell of vision.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Now.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
So so where it is in the neck, you have
to then xcize that disc, right, you have to remove that.
Can you put in a bone like a cadaver bone,
or you can go to your hip and you replace
the space. But then you needed to fuse with the
other bones above and below, and so they'll put a
titanium plate in there to keep that bone in place
(37:13):
as it starts to mend to the top and the
bottom of the adjacent vertebrae. Okay, so that has to
now take hold, right, alligraphic bone has to meld with
it and then create a solid bond so that you're
good because if not, you got loosey goosey neck. You
can break it, right, you can break because that vertebrae
is there to protect your spinal cord. So what he
(37:36):
had to do was he had to wait for that
to get the okay that hey, you have a union
between these two bones. Titanium plate in there as backup
protection in the process, and it stays in there, and
then do you have the mobility to do this? Because
it's gonna stiffen. But when Max says this on radio,
he's moving his head from side to side, left to right, okay,
(37:58):
left to right, right, twisting domestic, not bending right, and
you're waiting for that, and then once that is fully intact,
then you get cleared. Right. So he had to go
through this process, and there's no predetermined time that how
long it's gonna take for the bone to attach right
to the above and below adjacent vertebrae. So you wait
(38:20):
through that, and then it's still a worry because you'll
see like little lines in your X rays that'll be like, man,
did it fuse? Did it not fuse? There's a cervical
union non union, Like there's a lot of other things
that go into play with determining it, and a lot
of neurosurgeons and individuals who would clear that are going
to be a little skeptical, and everybody sees it differently
(38:43):
because you know some I remember after my injury, I
was released from the Steelers, I went to Kansas City, Minnesota, Detroit.
I think there was a fourth I can't remember, but
I went to all these teams, and each neurosurgeon looked
at it differently. Kansas City failed me immediately, like, nope,
we can't trust it's a little dark area above and below.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Nope.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Sorry, And that was Todd. That was a Todd Haley
Chiefs team by the way. Anyway, okay, moving on, funny
he comes to be my OC all the way here
after that. But go to Minnesota. They cleared me, but
they did, but they did not need me, So I
was on their short list. And then by the time
we got to Detroit, Detroit cleared me as well, and
(39:26):
I was mid workout, but then the Steelers called me back.
They needed me back, So I literally left mid workout
and came back to Pittsburgh, which you know you had,
you had the doctors here, so I forgot. Uh. Doctor
Canner was was my surgeon worked at UPMC at the time.
Now he's moved on, but Canner did my surgery. So
(39:47):
I was already cleared from the Steelers perspective. That's why
I was able to go do the workouts. So it
was just a matter of do I get cleared or
and what's the necessity of it. So for a Sante Samuel,
it was he just needed to get cleared because, like
you said, talent was never an issue with him. It
was did he heal from the injury? So that's what
you're you're waiting for the cervical union to take place
(40:08):
from the excise disc that you did and you put
a bone in there anyways.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
And cleared uh and signed by this to there's in
November and then activated on December second. Make sure I
had the exact dates. But also people asked about, well
you weren't. And this is why it was so good
to hear the word physical from Mike McCarthy. You know,
he's because he's not a huge guy.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Well you know the tackling, Hey man, my neck hurt.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah, you know, so that you can't put your face
in the fan if if the neck attached to the
face doesn't feel good.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
That I think that was that, you know, I think
that was a big part of it. And just just
again to bring this uh to its to its conclusion.
Here you played I think.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Three more years, right, played three seasons after that.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
And by the way, offensive line which means a collision
with your neck every play, every single play, every play
and practice.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yeah and practic they're hitting your shoulder and neck area
every time. Are aiming for your neck specifically.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
And of course the difference is uh, you know, every
play and by the way, uh, short hard collisions are
still short hard collisions. But then of course there's the
spectacular uh collisions we see spectacular meaning wow, not like
great uh in the open field. So which which is
I think the risk of receiver and and corner and
(41:28):
defensive back tight end whatever is. Those things are happening
at at high high speed, and so you know the
e equals mc squared uh equation. However, sure sure that
that that plays a part. But the fact that an
offensive lineman could have that surgery play three more years
and now we're another almost twenty years since that surgery
took place. Hope you know better surgery is no no
(41:51):
offense and what went on. I'm just say better, you know,
things have things have moved along. That makes you feel
good that he should be able to, you know again,
knock on wood, be able to have a nice long,
productive career.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
For himself exactly, especially twenty six years old. And yeah,
just saying if you get another five years, you're great, right, right,
that's a ten year career, you know. So he's in
a prime position. And like you said, we don't see
any residual. Like you said, we don't see the whole
body turning back with the with the shoulder because he
doesn't have the mobility to go left and right. He
(42:22):
can look back, he can backpedal, turn his body while
still looking. He has all of those no deficiencies. That's
what you want to see and so to see that,
and he's playing at a high level, like you said,
you get him back to that level, you got a
hell of a deal. You got a smoking hot deal.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Smoking hot deal. And then you throw on top of
that the ability to develop a dale in effort who's
got all the traits and who evidently has also speaking
of turning heads with some use that analogy. Since we're
talking about the neck, he's also turned point, Yeah, who's
also turned heads day and effort, And all of a sudden,
you're feeling awfully good about those outside corners.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
You're feeling really good that teams that try and deploy
three and four wide receivers and also try and move
those guys you don't have a fear of I've got
to bump and run right. I don't have to travel
and play man. I can play zone because I trust
the guys that are out there. They can all cover,
they're all top flight guys. That is a hell of
a place to be in. Yeah, that's not like, oh man, okay,
(43:23):
we got our one Revis Island, right. Revis has to
travel with the number one receiver wherever he goes, and
teams are just gonna motion the hell out of them
just to tire you out. You gotta do that boom boom,
boom bump over. Okay, we're hey going from cover two
to cut, you know, going from cover one to cover
two to cover three, or maybe we drop into even
into a cover four and play quarters. We feel good
(43:43):
across the board because we know we have a guy
at each of those positions.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
What a wonderful spot to be in at a critical
position in the NFL. So again, that wraps up today.
Tomorrow Hall of Honor inductees can't wait to see who's
going to be in list, and hopefully, hopefully we hopefully
we'll get a chance to talk to some of them.
I hope we do uh during the locker room. But
it's a wey able to get one. It's a fun,
(44:09):
awesome day in Steelers history. So that's tomorrow. Believe the
acclamation period is over now. Tomorrow's last day, last day
of acclamation period, so we'll have a lot of fun
tomorrow and then uh and then get into some a
little more football like activities next week. We're going to
get into The Drive next. Max, my friend, thank you
(44:31):
as always as Max Starks. I'm Rob King. We think
the Drive is coming up next with Matt Williamson and
West Jeweler four. Max Starks for our producer Justin Miller
back in the iHeart Studios. I'm Rob King. We thank
you for being with us in the locker room here.
And this year there's Audio Network
Live coverage of twenty twenty six Steelers Training Camp or
the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light, Easy to Drink,
Easy to Enjoy, and brought to you in part by
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(00:22):
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dot org and buy iron Workers Local Union Number three.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We don't go to the office, We build.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
It and welcome back in the locker room. And an
absolutely beautiful day. We've had nothing but here at Saint Vincent.
You know, I wonder if they're actually secretly hoping for
one day of rains that can get that indoor. Yeah,
some use beautiful Oh man, I'm not rooting for it,
(01:04):
but they might be rooting for it.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
You never know.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So we have been talking about the quarterback position, and
by the way, Max, you know, we're talking about this
during the break. The show continues during the break right
at least for us. But one thing you you pointed
out and and you know needs to be underline because
we talked about it yesterday, but not at the beginning
of this talk about the second quarterback, Aaron Rodgers made
(01:28):
it clear this is his final year. This is my
final year. Then DK Metcalf came out and say, hey,
never say never, and then went to Aaron Rodgers and said, hey,
DK said never say it, and he said, no, this
is my final year. I never said that's never exactly,
it's it is his final year. And so that brings
you know, listen, you got Ben Roethlisbergramer's prime. What do
(01:51):
you want a veteran backup quarterback and then maybe potentially
a a third guy who you can develop. Maybe, right,
that's what you want when you have that established veteran quarterback.
Nobody's pulling their hair out in Kansas City over who
the third quarterback is going to be. Nobody, No, nobody's
(02:12):
pulling your hair out. Hey, is Shane Bouchelle good enough
to be the number three quarterback in Buffalo? Nobody's pulling
their hair out right now. So, but the Steelers are
facing the end of the road with a Hall of
Fame quarterback. This is it for Aaron Rodgers. That's and
you're absolutely right to have. That sets the framework for
(02:35):
why this is such an important evaluation aspect and evaluation
going on in this camp.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
And I think that's what you have to remember because
you know for sure you need one more quarterback next year, right,
if not too right, because of the decision that you make,
will determine that. And I almost want to say, certainly
you're gonna need two quarterbacks next year, because if one
of these guys has to go, whether it's Will Howard,
whether it's Dueller, or maybe it's Mason Rudolph. Right, like
(03:02):
I said, as it stands today, no pass is thrown
in a professional game like environment, it goes to Mason Rudolph. Yes,
but we will have three preseason games to evaluate and
speculate what we can see in the future. Was it
enough that we can trust a guy to be in
that number two role? That's gonna be So we have
(03:22):
three quarterbacks kind of on the chopping block, you know,
to borrow atominism here as in the MacArthur era, two dogs,
you know, three dogs, two bones in this situation. So
knowing that you're going in next year without Aaron Rodgers
and possibly one of these other quarterbacks. You're gonna need
two quarterbacks next year. But the question is do I
(03:45):
thin to go get them high early or do I
think or can I can I wait and get them
in the third round or later like we did with
Drew Aller and Will Howard. That's what the question is
going to be and do and what free agent is
going to be available.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, I think if you make the decision that let's
just say for argument, well just say one of the two.
And it would seem from everything that they've talked about,
even though he hasn't played in a while, that Will Howard,
you know, he's been through Yes it was a different coach,
but he's been through training camp and he has all
that other stuff. They're not talking about rebuilding Will Howard's
(04:19):
mechanics like they were with Drew Aller. And again, I
don't know how quickly that will come along, if it
will come along for Drew Aller, and what the upside
might be once it does. But it feels like, you know,
Will Howard could be maybe is he the guy that's
closer to being the approximation of Mason Rudolph. Now that
does that allow you to make a trade. If that's
(04:42):
the case. Now, if you do that, then potentially you
could go in the next year with two quarterbacks with
Aler and Howard, then you don't need need one quarterback.
But the biggest question is, you know, it is one
of those positions where you know it's it's true to
quarterback position. It's probably truth the goalie position in hockey.
(05:03):
You know sometimes if you have two guys, it means
you don't have any right, well, we got two guys. Well,
if you had one, that's all you need. You know,
you know, two guys. You can't play two quarterbacks at once.
It's not wide receiver, it's not edge rusher, and you
can only play.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
One unless you unless you're the early late late nineties
early two thousands Florida Gators Funny Gun with Rex Grossman,
Jesse Palmer. Okay Johnson and Jesse Palmer like, yeah, we
we went two quarterback early on in my college guys
like holy crap. I was like, Okay, one series is Jesse,
one series is Rex.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
But that's by gun Era and it was college and
it was different, So I think that could be that
could be hedging your bets for next year, But what
does that do for this year? Mason Rudolph is an
awfully nice security blanket to have.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Under circumcercer warm, cozy.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yes, under certain circumstances, he can wind up being one
of the most valuable players you have on your roster. Right,
it's hard to imagine this year one of those other
young guys having that mantle, having the guy that comes
in and saves your season because of what he can
do over X amount of stretch until you get your
(06:17):
future Hall of Famer back. Now, one of those guys
might be that, but right now, before camp starts, that
is zero indication. It is a projection. We will talking
about gazing into the middle distance. That's gazing into the
middle distance. So that's the great beyond. It is the
great Yeah. It really does make this It makes it
(06:38):
a really fascinating discussion in my opinion, and a fascinating
camp to watch.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And I think that's why it's one of the lead
storylines right that we have going into this camp is
what does QB look like knowing that there is no
future with ar right, Yeah, because that's essentially why you
went and got Drew Aller in the third round because
you didn't know already, but now you do know, and
you have to plan ahead. So that makes the Drew
Aler pick look that much smarter in the moment because
(07:05):
you don't know who the future guy's going to be, right,
and and there's no tangible stats to weigh against for
who the future starter is going to be.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, and this is this is the time of year
in which Will Howard or Drew Aller can plant that
seed in the minds of the coaching staff and the
front office of the Pittsburgh Steelers that says I'm the guy.
Plant me now, because I'm going to be the one
that's going to be bearing fruit next season and for
(07:36):
many seasons beyond, because let's face it, you are now
you go from look what I've done to hey, can
I hold the clipboard this quarter? Because you know, can
I take over as the backup this quarter? Because you're
not You're not going to see the field. If everything
goes well, you won't see the field. It's going to
(07:56):
be very difficult for you to get reps in practice. Right.
So let's say let's say, uh, let's go into one scenario.
You keep Aaron Rodgers you keep Mason Rudolph. You are
now the third quarterback, whether it's Will Howard or Drew Aller.
You've shown a lot during the preseason camp. You know,
you've really you've really shined. Okay, guess what you're not doing.
(08:18):
You're not taking any snaps during the season because they're
all going to Aaron Rodgers or Mason Rudolph. Now it's
a little different if one of these guys, the younger guys,
emergence as a second at least you'll get some snaps.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And you know that that veteran off day that Aaron
will probably get during the week, you'll get a little
bit more of a workload than you normally would to
get ready for it. But you're right, you're gonna get
strictly practice squad reps, right thirs string quarterbacks, emergency third
so to speak. You're gonna dress on game day, you're
gonna be on the sidelines, you know, and you're gonna
(08:51):
be ready to go if we get down to that,
we get to a rock party situation right right, yeah,
where you're down to your third string quarterback. But you're right,
I mean, and how much will you see? So that's
why these three preseason games where Aaron is not we
know is not going to play right, like Aaron had
to play last season because Will got injured right before
the before the preseason game started, and then you had
(09:12):
what a luacun that was in and you're like, nah,
let's just go ahead and get Aaron a couple of
ceremonial snaps and then let's have Mason play the majority,
and then we'll put him at the end because Will
was unavailable with the hand injury. This year, you're not
gonna have that excuse, and you're gonna get probably extended
lost like Mason's probably not gonna get He'll probably get
(09:34):
more ceremonial practice reps. Yeah, and then you'll have most
two thirds of this game will be played by both
the rookies, going back and forth and making sure that
they get an equal split. By the time we get
through the third preseason game of I can now have
an apples to apples comparison eighty pass attempts or whatever
through three games or fifty pass attempts where I can
(09:55):
actually put them side by side and say, Okay, this
is what they look like again, comparable competition.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Now we have to make a decision right, and they're
also getting more practice reps now than they're gonna get
during the season two in preparation for those games. Talking
about now, talking about the two young guys, there's gonna
be days where Aaron Rodgers an't gonna do much of anything,
if he might not even practice, And in fact, the
indications seemed to be their days. He won't practice pitch
(10:22):
count and he likes practicing, so they're gonna tell him, no,
you don't get the practice today. So Mason would run
with the first and the other two guys would split
duties to the second and giving them more snaps.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And the way they run these practices out here, so
if people are if you're driving back home from catching
the Mott game today, they ran two fields full go
the entire time, alternating quarterbacks. So field one had Mason
and Aaron splitting reps. Field two had Aler and Howard
splitting reps. Normally, that would have been everybody on one
(10:52):
field and you've been rolling through three different teams, and
then it would have been a dissemination of snaps. Here,
they got double the amount of snaps they probably would
have gotten into Mike Common training camps. So they're already
getting more opportunities to get ready for these games, So
I expect that to kind of be the pace through
camp and then when we get to the preseason games.
(11:15):
Like you said, no Aaron playing in any of these
preseason games, could be Mason running the first team, rest
with the first team unit for a first couple of
series or two, and then the rest of it. It's
the rookie showcase.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah, and you are going to be faced with an
interesting decision. In an ideal world, you're gonna have these
three training camp practices and then maybe maybe a little
bit of rep work during the season, hopefully not much. Again,
hopefully nothing happened with Aaron. Uh and you know, again,
(11:46):
if they keep Mason, now you're that third guy. Maybe
if you know, if Aaron's out for a week or two,
or you know, maybe even you know, wrap up a
playoff berth and Aaron sits it, then now finally get
some practice whatever whatever the case is that gets you
from here. You're gonna get a ball of work to
January or hopefully beyond, in which you're not going to
get a lot of work. At some point, your staff
(12:11):
and your scouts and there's self scouting that goes on
a little bit as well. Has to make the determination, Okay,
drafts upcoming, do we have our quarterback or not? And
by the way, in an ideal world, you're gonna make
a decision on a guy who has not taken a
snap in a game since a preseason game in August,
(12:32):
and you're gonna have to You're going to have to
make You're gonna have to ascertain then is this the guy?
Because is he hopefully more than that, because supposedly, again
this last draft class was supposedly was supposed to be great.
Is he the guy? Because if he is the guy,
(12:53):
We're not going to trade up all these draft picks.
It's going to hamstring our ability to draft in years
to come, four years to come. We're going to use
those to enhance the roster we already have in place
and to build around that guy, right, and to continue
to build around that guy, or do we need to
just go all in and you're going to have to uh,
you know, listen, it might be you're hoping it's not
(13:17):
obvious in a bad way, right, Yeah, boy, we looked
at training camp and.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Uh, you know, uh, you're hoping, you're hoping that these
are going to be interesting debates that are happening in
February where the team's like, what are we going to
do well?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And competitive? You wanted to make sure there's competitive throughout
this process and through the and through training camp to
where us like, man, these guys are both so good
and they have so much potential there. Oh, absolutely, that's
the best case scenario that you want. If you're going
in a there is a clear cut winner of the
two young guys. If that's the way you choose to go,
(13:55):
you're like, Okay, we got the guy that's going to
be the future, But now who's the next guy after that? Right,
who's going to be your your third and fourth guy
in this process? That's what's going to be the next
phase of that.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
And the other thing is, by the way west, you
are arriving with presence.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Just he is the Santa Claus of cafeteria.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I'm looking at I'm trying to eye it, but your
durn containers. I'm trying to decide whether whether my smoothie
might be worth trading for whatever you got in there.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Oh, I have soup if you either choose cold or hot.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
So I do think it makes it again to recap
because Aaron is retiring, because you still want to win
games this year, because you're hoping one of these guys
is your future quarterback. And and let's add this because
if you think that guy is Drew Aller and he
(14:56):
still needs that development time that you've talked about, add infinitem,
that's another layer on top of it, like okay, are
we betting on the future now in August? Or how
quickly can exit? All of these things make this a
much much bigger story than it might even though everyone
(15:17):
always wants to make it a big story. This year
really really is a big story for the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
You know what makes it the easiest. But you know
how we could tell all this how somebody goes on.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
R that how's your ankle? It feels great? How's your ankle?
It feels great? How's your ankle?
Speaker 1 (15:35):
What kind of hurts?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah? Exactly, not that you do that. But no, no.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
That would make life a lot easier for a lot
of people making decisions.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
That's not us.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
But like you said, all things equal, this is going
to be a huge evaluation year at that position group
because this year, more than years past, it's heavily weighted
because you know, there's not a what if with the
starting quarterback it's win we haven't got it's not if
it's now fully a win. These guys will need to
(16:06):
really show can they or can't they be? And you're
gonna get a different sample size to have to grade
that on and take that into next year.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Big ramifications potentially for this year and definitely for next year.
It's again, it makes it a much more important situation
than normal. So we have much to get to. We
wanted to circle back a little bit on the offensive
line because of some things that Mike McCarthy said this morning.
Also the practice no helmets out there, and you know,
(16:35):
people wondering what kind of practice this is gonna be.
Mike McCarthy had some what I think will be words
of assurance for fans out there. We're going to tell
you all about that when we continue in the locker room.
Here on this steel there's audio network.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
This is Live COVERAGEL Dot twenty twenty six Steelers Training
Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
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(17:13):
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Speaker 2 (17:33):
We don't go to the office.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
We build it, you know, not an I don't think
anybody would say that that music bed and these things
are usually like public domain music beds, Like I don't
think anybody would hear that music bed and think ac DC.
But there's just one little moment in the song where
it sounds like they're about to break into uh, you
know TNT by ACDC. Anyway, one of my observations that
(17:58):
we will move away from that. So this morning, Mike McCarthy,
I want to get to a couple things sure that
Mike McCarthy talked about. So they were talking about, you know,
no pads and all that, you know, how do you
get your team ready? And he said, you know, I
don't think I've explained this very well because you keep
as it's going to be physical. Practice will be physical.
(18:21):
There's going to be blocking, there's going to be hitting.
What there is not going to be is tackling to
the ground. The finish, That's what there's not going to
be in an effort to cut down on potential injuries
and save guy's legs.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Right, you're saving legs. And he talked about the four
parts of tackling, right, the pursuit, the approach, the rap,
and the finish. You're gonna get the first three. He's
not going to get the finish. Did you ever have
anybody again? The terminology is different, The way things are
broken down is different. Did you ever did you just
(19:03):
say that or did Mike McCarthy say that about the
four part time? He said that.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Okay, said that in a press conference, so he broke
it down. It is interesting that everything is broken down
in that regard. You know, it's it's different, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
We kind of said this yesterday. It's a very academic
approach to football, right, Whereas we talk about a professor
and Mike Tomlin, Mike McCarthy comes in as a teacher. Right,
Teachers foundational says things plainly. They want you to understand it.
So that it becomes a reaction. A professor is more philosophical,
(19:40):
it's more abstract, right, you have to kind of dig
through the philosophy to find the actual concrete application here.
It's like it's like when you go into a kindergarten classroom. Right,
the ABC's are on the board. The cursive, well, not
so much anymore, as I saw on a clip the
other day. Not everybody can read cursive anymore. It's very
sad this generation. But your cursive letters are on the board,
(20:03):
your numbers are on the board, and how to draw
the numbers. Right, they have the little little arrows that
show you which goes first, and dotted lines. And remember
the brown paper with the blue and the red lines.
You had to learn how to write. That's what Mark
McCarthy is. He's that little brown piece of paper with
the blue and the red lines. Whereas you get to
(20:23):
Mike Tomlin, it was a college ruled white sheet of
paper that was blank. Yeah, figure it out right, right,
But I'm gonna give you what you need to do,
but I'm not gonna spell it out plainly. This one
is uppercase lower case, right, it's all writing all the
letters of the alphabet all twenty six of them lowercase
and upper case and figuring it out, and he doesn't.
He wants to be as transparent as clean as possible,
(20:45):
so there's no room for interpretation about what he wants.
And I think that's where it's a lot different. Asay
said breaking down the four parts of a tackle, talking
about the philosophy behind why he does what he does,
explaining that there's more cameras on the field, playing the
tempo behind it, what way you know, recall versus install like,
and he tells the media this so that now not
(21:08):
only do we know on the broadcast side of it,
but also the mass media knows, and the mass public knows,
and the fans know. This is why I'm doing what
I'm doing. You don't have to guess. I'm gonna tell
you plainly what I want to happen.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
And a lot of stressing on fundamentals, a lot of
that and details. So there's a beloved coach in Penguin's History,
Badger Bob Johnson, little tiny tape to tape passes and
all the players are like, uh, this is what we
did when we were in peewee, and then they grew
to embrace it. They grew to enjoy it, they grew
to love it, and he was a beloved figure. So
that was one of the things. Yes, on the fundamentals,
(21:43):
but it is not you know for fans out there,
Oh it's gonna be camp sharm and it's gonna be
so soft. No, it's gonna be. He wants to be physical.
He just doesn't want tackling to the ground, so that
injuries that will eliminate certain drills, to eliminate certain things.
Goal line's gonna be a lot tougher. Yep, that's right.
So there's gonna be. There's gonna be, and inevitably, well
(22:06):
you hope not. But usually there's one or two guys
you get a little.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Zealous, I mean, and that's it's the nature pushing each other.
And you put ninety test tubes of testosterone on the
same place that with constant collisions, there's going to be
some testiness and you and you throw it a little
bit of heat, a little heating out on a little
catalyst out there. You're going to get reactions, a little talk.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah you thought you could tackle me? Oh you think
you think, I don't think I think it.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Chirp tap reactions reaction.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
So it is not going to be there's gonna be
hitting in camp. So for those people that think are
there's not gonna be hitting in camp, where we come to,
there's gonna be hitting in camp.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Bud.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
He was asked about the value of guys like Spencer
Anderson and Dylan Cook and he gave a really good
answer about this because he was talking about the fact that, yes,
they're extremely valuable because they have the flexibility to play
(23:11):
a number of positions. Wonderful, that's great, But he also said,
but they're also competing for starting jobs and.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Sting for one position. I know they're they're pretty good
at multiple, but they're competing for one. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
You don't want to be you know, sort of uh,
you know, damned by versatility. Yeah, oh you're so versative,
you're more valuable not playing what what what do you
what do you mean? I want to play now? I
want to be in every snap right. So I thought
that was very interesting, A lot of praise for for
for those guys in both regards, right and right now
(23:46):
they're running with the ones.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
They are running the ones on the right side. You know,
we were watching the the Mott game today and not
even shells, just shirts, shirts and hats, and they took
all the reps with the Ones and Roderick Jones and
Ianare dunker Hoffman, everybody else was on the other column.
McCollum was on the other field, and so it was
(24:10):
it was very clear it's Troy Mason, Zach Spence, and
Dylan that are getting first crack at the starting job.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Think about that second unit. You just said, like, there
are probably teams out there that would say, look, we
have a maybe we have an all pro left guard
or whatever. But if I got to take my starting five,
including that all pro and trade him for that starting five,
I would do it. And I'm talking about that backup,
that backup five. I'm talking about the two first round tackles.
(24:46):
The guy who every stat was better when brock Hoffman
was on the field for the Dallas Cowboys last year.
Now he comes in here and he can play for you,
Jennings Dunker who you just spent a third round pick
on the third round picks off turn into starting part.
Ryan McCollum has done a very credible job when called upon.
(25:06):
Hasn't been called upon that often, but when called upon
to play.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
When Zach was out Zach got injured. That's a step
right on end.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
That's your second team often.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I mean, think about that. You just named on that
second team four guys out of the five that have
starting experience. Yep, that's that's not a bad place to
be for all into and purposes. And like I said,
whoever doesn't win that battle of the other three outside
of the starting five is going to go start somewhere
(25:36):
else because I guarantee you Cincinnati is looking at guys
that are in our camp. Cleveland is looking at guys
who are think about how much resources was spent this
offseason in Cleveland to rebuild that entire offensive line from
the ground up. You get guys that you can go
and work with that could come in. And there's plenty
(25:58):
of other teams I'm sure that would want some guys
from our team. Like you said, if you had to
do a full hockey line change of guys, that number
two unit can go start for a lot of teams
in the NFL right now. Yep, Houston Texas, do you
think they might want some of those guys? Apps of
freaking loutely.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Right, and just as a unit, it's impressive as five guys, Yeah,
you know, like you said, three guys with starting experience,
a first round pick, your first round pick this year
on the third round pick this year. Yeah, that's impressive.
That's impressive team. So the other thing I wanted to
again get to with with Mike McCarthy that he talked
(26:34):
about this morning a Sante Samuel Junior. Yeah and singled
out well, asked about and then praised rather effusively by
Mike McCarthy. You know, and again let's let's do a
quick little rewind here. We're going into last offseason before
(26:56):
people realize the severity of the neck injury. You had
this neck injury, same one Sante Samuel had, Sante Samuel Junior.
And Mike McCarthy Carthy said he I coached against his dad.
So it's Sante Samuel Jr. The uh he was a
top twenty five free agent. Yeah right, yep, Hey, this
is a starting cornerback in the NFL. Do you have
(27:17):
a chance to go get well? He has a next
surgery and you know, the Steelers did a lot of.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
What's that Pro Bowl cornerback?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Right, Steelers did a lot of due diligence on him,
and you know, Mike McCarthy said, physical, great ball skills.
He said, hey, if if I had a been talking
about this flag football they had a flag football team,
he might play offense for me. You know, he's that
good as far as the ball skills. And boy, is
(27:47):
that a comforting guy. If you get Sante Samuel back
to where he was when he was a top twenty
five guy and they were able to sign him for
not that huge of a contract. And now all of
a sudden you have Jamel Dean and our buddy Matt
Williamson did a great breakdown of the cornerback position and
(28:08):
where guys ranked on coverage skills, and Joey Porter Jr.
Was ninth in the NFL, very very good. Number one
in the NFL, Jamel Dean, and then you had a
Pro Bowl to that mix, and then you had a
third rounder to that mix, and you have Brandon eccles
(28:30):
in the slot behind Jalen Ramsey. But to hear that
sort of praise for Sante Samuel Junior was head turning
because he didn't get a chance for the last year,
didn't get much of a chance to well.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
He came came in mid season, late season, I think
probably last third of the season, and you know, had
to play spot duty, but like you said, the flashes
were there, but we already had our established guys already playing,
and it was kind of like, Okay, this is a
nice comfort to know that if anything goes wrong, we
got him in the wing. But now you're looking at him.
(29:04):
You get full training camp to really look at him,
and like you said, we've already got three guys out right.
We got Kent, Ramsey and Porter out right now, so
he's getting extended look and he's looking fantastic at it.
It's like, man, you go to season like, man, if
I have four corners, I'm in a good place, a
really good place.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
And that's a luxury.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That is a super luxury. And we're not even talking
about the secondary guys that are the safety positions, which
is also super deep. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
I mean a lot of teams are groping for two
quality outside starting potential starting guys.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
And a lockdown. But now I even ask for lockdown.
I just need a guy who covered two rights. Right,
we have Jamel d is a lockdown corner, Joey Porter
Juni is a lockdown corner, Sante Samuel potentially a lockdown corner,
and then you're throwing in the rest of the mix, right,
You're throwing in a Dayly and Everett. We're throwing in
all these different guys that have the potential. But that
is a super, super luxurious position to be in.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Yeah, and again we talk about we talk about positions
of course, quarterback. Of course we get that. You know,
there's this notion now that you know you don't need
to spend high picks on draft choices, uh for running
backs because you can find guys who are running back.
Clearly you'd like to have, you know, a good solid
group of wide receiver. We've seen, We've seen how difficult
(30:27):
uh that is, that position has been to fill for
this teelers. But big human beings, you know, edge rushers,
corner I mean that's strong d tackles. Again, I'm Max.
I look at this team and I I don't want
to over sell my own excitement level, but I mean
that is okay to be excited that large people on
(30:50):
offensive line, large people on defensive line, quality starters with
depth at cornerback. Uh, that's a pretty quality depth at
edge rusher, and quality and quality depth at edge rusher.
That's a pretty good.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Place to start. Max, Yeah, and once again, Mike McCarthy
came to a team that did not have a bear.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Cover, right, and he said that, Yeah, to his he said,
I'm not coming to the right Yeah, he's not coming
to the Jets. That's right now.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
But at the same time, it's a beautiful thing to
add those pieces on top of what you already had, yeah,
as opposed to have to go out and just get
those pieces and try and put the best team out
there on paper. It's like, No, I walked into an
established team with established veterans who were homegrown guys and
not a bunch of free agents, and we simply added
(31:43):
free agents at the places that we felt was necessary
to bolster what we already had. Right, there's a difference
when you're building on top of the first floor making
a second floor versus trying to create the foundation.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Yeah, and then again just quickly just well, no, I'm
going to say that because we've got to take a
break about roster construction. We'll dive more into that because
I think it's, you know, obviously something that happened in
the off season and something we should dive into and
give give the time it deserves. And we're going to
do that next we continue in the locker room on
the Steers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
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Training Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light.
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Speaker 3 (32:56):
Oh, thanks very much for being with us in the
locker room. You know. One of the fun parts about
camp is that the locker room just became the drive
during that.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Commercial, Right, it became the locker drive, the drive room.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
They're in there gap because Matt so so, we're in a.
We're in a. The press box at Saint Vincent has
four separate rooms, right, and the last two rooms to
our right are reserved for guests of the college and.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Come up and watch practa.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Right, the one all the way to the left is
the broadcast room where we're sitting now, and the one
in the middle is Bob Labriola posts up there, there's
equipment as guys are going up and downstairs to shoot.
So it's like, so I'll stand a lot of times
I'll stand next to Labs because I like to watch
from the vantage point of up here, because this is
(33:48):
where I'm gonna be broadcasting from up above the field. Correct.
But a lot of times I'm like, I'm trying to
be skinny man, you know, standing here looking at it
outside of a window because there's not a there's not
a ton of room to move around. By this time
of day, everybody's gone. Practice is over.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
It's just us in here.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
So Wes has spreading department, Wes has got a booth,
Matt Williams has got a booth, and we just spent
the whole time, uh, doing another segment of our show
off camera talking locker. It knows no bounds, and it's
it's but it's fun. It's fun to talk with the guys,
and it's it's also informative because look, you know, Max
(34:25):
is up hanging out and there's coaches and scouts and
guys you're running into Yeah, we're running into other writers.
Everybody's got their own sort of thing going on. Hey,
I talked to this coach and so you're just kind
of like the little osmosis sort of feeling.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
But ecosystems we were like meteors, just just bouncing between
solar systems.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
We were talking about Sante Samuel Jr. And Matt was
telling us he heard the exact same thing, like a
lot of people. He's turned a lot of heads in
camp already, as as you would expect. I mean, he's
a twenty six year old, you'll turn twenty seven yearing
this season. He's in your prime. Former Pro Bowl quarterback, cornerback. Yeah,
(35:06):
who got a neck injury? Now quickly advise people what
that neck injury did to your career? If it now,
I don't talk about post career. Yeah, where hey Max
might tea hey Max from behind, might turn the whole
body might have to turn to acknowledge you that you're
(35:26):
there's no looking over your shoulder. So what sort of
battle did Sante Samuel go through? Because you went through
the same thing.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Well, I think okay, So a cervical C four C five,
cervical fusion, which means in the vertebrae or the spine, right,
you have bone cartilage disc bone rinse and repeat all
the way down from cervical spine all the way down
to your lumbar right. And you know when you have
(35:55):
to remove one of those discs, which is kind of
the like the brake pad that Joe and Pat, however
you want to look at it. That allows for the
twisting motion. Right, the spine is creating the forward and backwards. Well,
the twist left and right is what those little disc
discs do in between each vertebrae. So you lose one
of those one of those guests compressed almost like squeezing
(36:18):
the jelly out of a donut. Right.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
I'm sad by the way Max is now he we're
on radio. But Max is using this by his own.
His own throat is the is the cervical thing. So
he's got his hand around his throat. In years past,
that's sometimes the hand around my throat.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yeah, run your throat. So we're talking. Since we're talking science,
I'm using my own. But when I talk about battle,
I use robs.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I'm getting stiff armed into.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
The wall up here exactly. It's like the technique.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Right, Yeah, thanks for showing that technique on radio.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, exactly, don't worry. It's like smell of vision.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Now.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
So so where it is in the neck, you have
to then xcize that disc, right, you have to remove that.
Can you put in a bone like a cadaver bone,
or you can go to your hip and you replace
the space. But then you needed to fuse with the
other bones above and below, and so they'll put a
titanium plate in there to keep that bone in place
(37:13):
as it starts to mend to the top and the
bottom of the adjacent vertebrae. Okay, so that has to
now take hold, right, alligraphic bone has to meld with
it and then create a solid bond so that you're
good because if not, you got loosey goosey neck. You
can break it, right, you can break because that vertebrae
is there to protect your spinal cord. So what he
(37:36):
had to do was he had to wait for that
to get the okay that hey, you have a union
between these two bones. Titanium plate in there as backup
protection in the process, and it stays in there, and
then do you have the mobility to do this? Because
it's gonna stiffen. But when Max says this on radio,
he's moving his head from side to side, left to right, okay,
(37:58):
left to right, right, twisting domestic, not bending right, and
you're waiting for that, and then once that is fully intact,
then you get cleared. Right. So he had to go
through this process, and there's no predetermined time that how
long it's gonna take for the bone to attach right
to the above and below adjacent vertebrae. So you wait
(38:20):
through that, and then it's still a worry because you'll
see like little lines in your X rays that'll be like, man,
did it fuse? Did it not fuse? There's a cervical
union non union, Like there's a lot of other things
that go into play with determining it, and a lot
of neurosurgeons and individuals who would clear that are going
to be a little skeptical, and everybody sees it differently
(38:43):
because you know some I remember after my injury, I
was released from the Steelers, I went to Kansas City, Minnesota, Detroit.
I think there was a fourth I can't remember, but
I went to all these teams, and each neurosurgeon looked
at it differently. Kansas City failed me immediately, like, nope,
we can't trust it's a little dark area above and below.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Nope.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Sorry, And that was Todd. That was a Todd Haley
Chiefs team by the way. Anyway, okay, moving on, funny
he comes to be my OC all the way here
after that. But go to Minnesota. They cleared me, but
they did, but they did not need me, So I
was on their short list. And then by the time
we got to Detroit, Detroit cleared me as well, and
(39:26):
I was mid workout, but then the Steelers called me back.
They needed me back, So I literally left mid workout
and came back to Pittsburgh, which you know you had,
you had the doctors here, so I forgot. Uh. Doctor
Canner was was my surgeon worked at UPMC at the time.
Now he's moved on, but Canner did my surgery. So
(39:47):
I was already cleared from the Steelers perspective. That's why
I was able to go do the workouts. So it
was just a matter of do I get cleared or
and what's the necessity of it. So for a Sante Samuel,
it was he just needed to get cleared because, like
you said, talent was never an issue with him. It
was did he heal from the injury? So that's what
you're you're waiting for the cervical union to take place
(40:08):
from the excise disc that you did and you put
a bone in there anyways.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
And cleared uh and signed by this to there's in
November and then activated on December second. Make sure I
had the exact dates. But also people asked about, well
you weren't. And this is why it was so good
to hear the word physical from Mike McCarthy. You know,
he's because he's not a huge guy.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Well you know the tackling, Hey man, my neck hurt.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah, you know, so that you can't put your face
in the fan if if the neck attached to the
face doesn't feel good.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
That I think that was that, you know, I think
that was a big part of it. And just just
again to bring this uh to its to its conclusion.
Here you played I think.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Three more years, right, played three seasons after that.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
And by the way, offensive line which means a collision
with your neck every play, every single play, every play
and practice.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yeah and practic they're hitting your shoulder and neck area
every time. Are aiming for your neck specifically.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
And of course the difference is uh, you know, every
play and by the way, uh, short hard collisions are
still short hard collisions. But then of course there's the
spectacular uh collisions we see spectacular meaning wow, not like
great uh in the open field. So which which is
I think the risk of receiver and and corner and
(41:28):
defensive back tight end whatever is. Those things are happening
at at high high speed, and so you know the
e equals mc squared uh equation. However, sure sure that
that that plays a part. But the fact that an
offensive lineman could have that surgery play three more years
and now we're another almost twenty years since that surgery
took place. Hope you know better surgery is no no
(41:51):
offense and what went on. I'm just say better, you know,
things have things have moved along. That makes you feel
good that he should be able to, you know again,
knock on wood, be able to have a nice long,
productive career.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
For himself exactly, especially twenty six years old. And yeah,
just saying if you get another five years, you're great, right, right,
that's a ten year career, you know. So he's in
a prime position. And like you said, we don't see
any residual. Like you said, we don't see the whole
body turning back with the with the shoulder because he
doesn't have the mobility to go left and right. He
(42:22):
can look back, he can backpedal, turn his body while
still looking. He has all of those no deficiencies. That's
what you want to see and so to see that,
and he's playing at a high level, like you said,
you get him back to that level, you got a
hell of a deal. You got a smoking hot deal.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Smoking hot deal. And then you throw on top of
that the ability to develop a dale in effort who's
got all the traits and who evidently has also speaking
of turning heads with some use that analogy. Since we're
talking about the neck, he's also turned point, Yeah, who's
also turned heads day and effort, And all of a sudden,
you're feeling awfully good about those outside corners.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
You're feeling really good that teams that try and deploy
three and four wide receivers and also try and move
those guys you don't have a fear of I've got
to bump and run right. I don't have to travel
and play man. I can play zone because I trust
the guys that are out there. They can all cover,
they're all top flight guys. That is a hell of
a place to be in. Yeah, that's not like, oh man, okay,
(43:23):
we got our one Revis Island, right. Revis has to
travel with the number one receiver wherever he goes, and
teams are just gonna motion the hell out of them
just to tire you out. You gotta do that boom boom,
boom bump over. Okay, we're hey going from cover two
to cut, you know, going from cover one to cover
two to cover three, or maybe we drop into even
into a cover four and play quarters. We feel good
(43:43):
across the board because we know we have a guy
at each of those positions.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
What a wonderful spot to be in at a critical
position in the NFL. So again, that wraps up today.
Tomorrow Hall of Honor inductees can't wait to see who's
going to be in list, and hopefully, hopefully we hopefully
we'll get a chance to talk to some of them.
I hope we do uh during the locker room. But
it's a wey able to get one. It's a fun,
(44:09):
awesome day in Steelers history. So that's tomorrow. Believe the
acclamation period is over now. Tomorrow's last day, last day
of acclamation period, so we'll have a lot of fun
tomorrow and then uh and then get into some a
little more football like activities next week. We're going to
get into The Drive next. Max, my friend, thank you
(44:31):
as always as Max Starks. I'm Rob King. We think
the Drive is coming up next with Matt Williamson and
West Jeweler four. Max Starks for our producer Justin Miller
back in the iHeart Studios. I'm Rob King. We thank
you for being with us in the locker room here.
And this year there's Audio Network
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