November 12, 2025 • 44 mins
The Drive does their weekly check in with quarterbacks in the college rankings, as well as getting all the latest from practice with Chris Halicke.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Your tunes about drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good evening, Steeler Nation. How are we doing? Well?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
That's good us too, our number two of the Drive
here on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network,
West Shooler and Matt Williamson rolling along and we go
to the phone not lines. They beat the blue blo
but bluh. Easy for me to say, we go to
the phone lines. Now for catching up with our buddy
Chris Halleck of course of dk Pittsburgh Sports Plenty that
(00:46):
we want to get into you with you, Chris, thank
you for taking the time. As always, partner, Let's kind
of start from the top. A sante Samuel Junior added
to the Steelers practice squad last night. Your thoughts on
that move and does it seem more like, uh, you know,
more of a chance he could start to be in
the fold next week against Chicago or do you think
(01:06):
there is maybe even a chance he.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Could get elevated to the active roster this week?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Well, I mean we saw Kyle Duggar, uh you know,
come in hit the ground running, and that's point now
obviously he was you know, acquired and was immediately immediately
placed on the active roster. So but you know, Sante Sanguel,
you know he gets here, it's Wednesday, he's gonna get
a full week's worth of you know, the game plan
in terms of practice. You know, for the first full
week of practice, he'll he'll be part of the game
(01:34):
plan process. So I don't want to completely shut the
door on it. Now he is a member of the
practice squad. So what they have to do, and you
know obviously that there would be roster hurdles to to make,
not that it's anything completely out of the ordinary.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
They can elevate him.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
They don't have to necessarily sign him to the active
roster right away. You're allowed to elevate I think up
to three times, so you know, you can elevate him,
see how things go, you know, continue to evaluate. It's
a very low risk move for the Steelers if he
turns into anything close to the player than he was before.
(02:08):
I mean, you look at those first three seasons, six interceptions,
a lot of passes defense. He's a really physical guy,
a guy who would again you know, when we were
talking about free agency way back in February and March,
I mean he was probably one of the top corners
lifted you know, on a lot of a lot of websites,
(02:29):
and so you know, this is a player where you know, yeah,
he had a significant surgery, but is worth the risk
of you know, especially when you're getting him on the
practice squad pretty much for nothing. Absolutely, it's worth the risk,
worth the risk.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
I'm sure you did. I mean, you're thorough what you do.
But it sounded like he did some work on him,
you know, before his injury, and I did as well.
And if you get that guy, I think he's a
starter here.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
He could be. I mean, I mean, when you look
at the Steelers current situation, when you look at you know,
slaves and concussion protocol, and you look at James Pierre,
who should be fair to James Pierre. He's played well
when he's been.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Out to you.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Yeah, he's been probably the best most consistent play we've
seen from him when he's actually played corner. We know
that he's already an accomplished special teams player, but it's
one thing to be good on special teams's thing to
be really good on defense, you know, and he's been
really really solid. Now could you aim higher there? If
(03:38):
your goals are to try to win a Super Bowl. Yes,
you absolutely can't aim a higher there. And so if
you think that Samuel or it appears that Samuel can
possibly be anything close to who he was before the injury,
you know, before he had to have the surgery, then
you're talking about an outside corner duo of potentially if
(03:59):
Slave is out or any kind of length of time
because concussions are always unpredictable. Of Joey Porter Jr. And
the Sante Sanguel Junior, that's a pretty good duo. Then
you consider what you have right now at safety, which
has currently been stabilized by you know, Kyle Duggar and
bringing jail or moving Jalen Ramsey over there. So it's
definitely interesting. And the one thing that this gives the
(04:22):
secondary no matter what, is just more depth, more flexibility,
which when you consider the hits that they've taken, you know,
Deshaun Elliott, you know who, you know, Lord knows how
long he's going to be out, and you consider all
the hits that they've taken, it's they need as many
quality options as possible. And I think it's definitely interesting
(04:43):
to see if Saniel is going to be somebody who
either provides you some really good depth or really turns
back into the guy that he was before, which would
be an amazing development from Steelers.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
It's pretty remarkable the secondary now from three hundred and
sixty five days ago.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It really is.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
I mean, it's like really is. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
And the thing is is that I think when when
people when people see that, they they appreciate the change.
Maybe you know that they see that, Okay, things were
really bad, and they were really bad down the stretch
the news there was change you needed. But I think
sometimes people think that it's just like playing mad and
then you can just swap guys out and you can
just go out there and you know, call whatever coverage
(05:23):
from your playbook and guys are just gonna play it
like they're you know, video game athletes. It's not the
way it works. I mean, these guys have to learn,
you know, a complex languages really, you know, from one
defense to the next. So it's it's not as simple
as just plug and play. There's a lot of nuance
and complexities to to all these different defenses and playbooks
(05:47):
and systems, and so yeah, it's gonna be really interesting
to see, you know how this continues to evolve with
all the changes happening. But yeah, it's pretty remarkable to
see the changes happened.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, I mean, Deshaan Elliott and Joey Porter Junior the
only holdovers, and one of those guys has been unavailable
due to injury unfortunately most of the year. It certainly
has come a long way in three hundred and sixty
five days or even less, just you know, since really
last February March. Chris sticking with some of this similar
conversation practice today. Progerick Jones not in uniform for practice today.
(06:24):
Just something maintenance wise, something rest wise, or might there
be some greater concern there.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
It's kind of early to tell in the week right now.
You will, We'll have to see. You'll have to monitor
it when you consider the inconsistent performance and performance, you know,
maybe it's just like, hey, take a day, you know,
or maybe he's dealing with something, so it's like, you
know what, it's not worth. You know, we can't afford
(06:52):
to lose this guy. You know, he needs to continue
to play me to continue to develop, So you know,
we'll see what happens. It's kind of early in the
week to to I haven't heard anything like, oh yeah,
he's definitely not playing on Sunday. I haven't heard anything
on that regard or anything. But I wouldn't start freaking
out over it yet. But it's gonna be interesting to
(07:13):
see how fins react, because you know, Broaderick continue you know,
continuously probably gets the most criticism, uh, you know, for
you know, of all the offensive linemen. But if he
ends up not playing Sunday, I'm curious to seeing, like
if fans are going to be like, oh god, what's
gonna happen now? Left tackle? It's like, well, I thought,
you know, you get wanted to guy replaced, Well here
(07:34):
you go. You know he's not gonna be playing. Yeah,
it's just gonna be interesting to see how that, how
that plays out. But you know, we'll see what happens,
what what happened. I think he's at least played enough
where if he can get you know, at least one
day's worth of practice, I think you know, he'd get
clearance to play. But you know, we'll we'll have to
see how much how much leewould he gets from Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
So heck with three hundred and sixty five days ago
with the secondary. The secondary is noticeably different from when
they faced the Bengals last a couple of weeks ago.
I mean, other than the people covering Chase and Higgins.
Do you see obviously that didn't go so great? Do
you see any Is there any suggestions you would make
(08:14):
less blitz more blitz more zone, you know, different personnel.
I mean, they've made a lot of defensive changes since then.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
They have. I mean it's hard to hard to say,
like what I would do, because if I was a
defensive coordinator in the NFL, I'd be fired faster than
I was hired.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Sure, but yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
I will say, obviously what they did last time did
not work. Now that used like well Dug Chris. But
at the same time you say that to be like, Okay,
well whatever you did last time, you cannot do anything
remotely close to it again. So, yes, that means blitzing
less often. Yes, that might mean more zone coverage. I
(08:56):
don't think it should be. I understand that, like Zach
Taylor's offense and Stikings offense are different from each other.
But and Carol Loss was clear to point that out
because when he was talking about, you know, during that
week leading up to. I think it was leading up
to playing the Bengals and Joe Flacco. You know, having
seen him the year before when Flacco was playing under
(09:18):
Styking for the Colts. You know, he was saying, you know,
he was asked like, can you look at that game
to study Flack? He was like, no, because it's two
different offenses. Well, at the same time, there are some
similarities to what they do and what you did against
the Colts work. Now, the Colts don't have the receiving
threats that the Bengals has. Almost no team in the
NFL does. So what you have to try to figure
(09:40):
out is what's the best way to put a ceiling
on these guys. Now it's not completely neutralized them, but
I think about like, Okay, when they played the Vikings,
Justin Jefferson had had a good game. I mean, he
had a lot of catches, he had a lot of yards.
But did anybody watching that game ever think that Justin
Jefferson was taking that game over?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Nope, I don't think so.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
No. I like, and you look at his stats, You're like, wow,
I'm kind of surprise he had that many catches for
that many hours. But there was never that feeling that
he was taken over the game. That's obviously not what
happened in Cincinnati. Jamar Chase took the game over and
pretty much won the game single handedly. That's what you
don't want to have happen. So what you have to
do at that point is called whatever coverages you need
to at least limit their impacts, not allow them to
(10:25):
take over the game, and then hope on the other
side that your offense is able to at least repeat
the performance that they had against that same Cincinnati defense
that it's actually minus Logan Wilson now since he was
traded to Dallas, and hope that they can perform just
as good, if not better, so that you can at
least try to outscore them. If Chase and Higgins still
have some pretty decent days, well, if you're going to have.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
To outscore them, you're gonna have to do a lot
differently on offense than the Steelers did Sunday night at
so far, that's for sure. And Chris, while there's a
lot of moving parts there, I don't think I'm you know,
breaking any news either to say that it starts with
the quarterback. It starts with Aaron Rodgers. It seems like
every week Matt and I have a ton of conversation
about Aaron Rodgers, and the first month and a half
(11:10):
or so of the season, it was all really positive conversation.
The last few weeks, there's been some more concern in
that conversation where you had on the Steelers signal caller
after I mean, he just admitted I believe he called
it a stinker when he met with the media, when
he met with you guys today, after his latest performance
or latest last couple performances haven't quite been the same
(11:32):
strong start to the season we saw him have.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I haven't been as concerned about about Aaron until this
past week. Now, I'll go with the Mike Tomlin logic
here and say, you know, I, you know, the whole
two is a pattern thing, and I don't believe I'm
at the two as a pattern yet. I don't think
the performance against the Colts was that alarming of a performance,
or any kind of performance, or any performance in any game.
(11:58):
I honestly think that the issues have been more about
not the team not getting into advantageous third down situations,
and that makes life hard on any quarterback. It doesn't
matter if you're a rookie or if you're a four
time MVP who's played more than two decades in the NFL.
That is never an easy way to live when you're
playing in this league. Is if you're putting yourself in
(12:19):
third and long quite a bit. And the Steelers are
now ranked twenty second in the NFL and in distance
to go on third down, So you don't that's not
a position you want to be in. You want to
be in more advantageous situations. So I wonder, will we
see the Steelers make a more concerted effort to try
to run the ball on first and second down. Now,
(12:39):
sometimes fans will hear that and you'd be like, the
last thing we need to do is turn into a
run run pass team. Well, the thing is, the Steelers
are not a run run pass team right now. You
look at their run rate on first down, it's bottom
third of the league. They don't run the ball a
lot on first down. They run the ball fifty two
percent of the time. That's less than the league average
of fifty four percent. The Bills are right at the
(13:00):
top of the league, and they're well over sixty percent
of the time they're running on first down. And when
you look at what Jalen Warren is able to do
on first down, he's got a fifty five percent success
rate on first down. He's averaging almost five yards you
carry on first down. So it's working when you do
run it with him, So why not do it a
little bit more? That might help turn first and ten
(13:20):
into second and six a little bit more often, and
second and six will get you either another first down
or it could put you in third and two or
third and three, and that's a lot easier to convert
them third and seven, which is what they're averaging right now.
So yeah, it's when it comes to Aaron's performance. Yeah,
this past week was bad. I mean there were a
(13:42):
lot of there were some myth throws that just can't
be there. I saw too much of the same kind
of thing where if you would get hurried a lot
early in the game and even take some hits like
he was like he did this again, you know when
he was with the Jets last year. He would just
get right and you get to the point where you know,
if the first three is not there, like the play's
(14:04):
over like that, there's no hope for anything to really happen.
And then he tries to force things to happen. That's
what ended up happening throughout the throughout the game on
Sunday night. I'm not as concerned about Aaron's performance until
we see it, Like if he goes out there on
Sunday against the Bengals and plays like that again, that's
when you start to get concerned. But I think that
(14:24):
performance was significantly worse than anything else we've seen this season,
which is hilarious because like that's not even the worst
grade that he got from like a PF from like PFF,
which is which is hilarious to me.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
You kind of beat me to it, But I was gonna,
you know, really, yeah, I've been driving home the time
of possession thing all week and it's really been all year.
But there's so many reasons to be poor in time
of possession, and but I think step one is just
run the football a little bit more.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Yeah, I mean listen, you know, I just rattled off
those those stats. Yeah, and I understand, you know, like
sometimes it sounds like you're like I think people live
in the world of this is the way the Steelers
have been and Arthur Smith has this you know, ancient
offense it's not and that's not what the Steelers are
doing right now. They're not running as an Asian offense.
(15:21):
They're not running the ball a lot on first down. Uh,
you know, they're maybe you should more often. And the
last thing, you know, and the one thing that I've seen,
you know, is I can't wait to see that second
and eight run again. Well, the best way to get
out a second and eight on a more consistent basis
(15:42):
is to do the things that you do well on
first down. And right now, Jalen Warren does some really
good things on first down running the football and you
don't have to run it every single time. I'm not
saying that your run rate on first down needs to
be ninety percent, but should you be running it a
little bit more often? Yeah, I think so. Especially you know,
you've found some you know, this team has found some
(16:03):
successful ways to run the ball, whether it's with the
Jumbo package, whether it's you know, through you know, certain
concepts that they've called whenever they have their their normal
you know whatever, twelve or thirteen personnel on the field,
whatever it is, they've found some successful ways to run
the ball. And Jalen Warren has been more successful than
you look at his overall season stats, you know it's
(16:24):
he's been a really good running back, but he's going
under the radar because he's not being used in US
and so I do think that he needs to get
more touches. I think he needs to get more carriers,
and I think they need to make a more concerted
effort to run the ball on first and second down. Again,
that doesn't mean run the ball every single time on
first and second down, but man, I think when a
(16:46):
team is struggling, especially to convert on third downs, what
you need to make sure he is either number one,
do what you can do to avoid third down altogether,
or at least when you do get to third down,
make it third and three, third and four, something that
is really a lot more manageable and a lot easier
to convert. And right now they're not doing that. They're
they're putting themselves in holes either because of penalties or
(17:08):
more often because they're throwing too much on first down
and they're throwing too much, uh you know, and and
that puts you in second along if it doesn't convert.
So it's important to be able to set that tone.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
And be able to run the ball here here, great
stuff as always with our buddy Chris Hallick taking some
time on a busy Wednesday. Buddy, thank you, great stuff
as always, and we will see you this weekend.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
All right, awesome, thanks for having me guys anytime partner.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
There he goes Chris Hallick, and I mean he's absolutely
spot on on a lot of that stuff, and that's
you know, that's something I'm hoping to see moving in
the right direction this Sunday against those Cincinnati Bengals. Matt,
let's get to a break here and we come back
on the other side. Rodney Dangerfield time. Yeah, John Blue
Tarski time. We're gonna go around campus. Grab a brew.
(17:57):
It don't cost nothing. Here on the Drive West Yueler,
Matt Williamson, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Your tune's about drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Back to school.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Back to school to prove to Matt that I'm not
a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my boots
tied tight. Hope, I don't get in a fight. That's
from Billy Madison. It is time to go around campus
here we're not going that back to school like as
and Billy Madison did. But Matt, we have got a beefy.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
So the first time we got three pages?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Three pages?
Speaker 5 (19:02):
How about that? Right?
Speaker 3 (19:03):
The around campus packet? This week we've gotten all kinds
of tweets and messages and comments about this. I told
you last week I went and checked my Instagram dms,
which I typically never do, maybe once or twice a year,
and there were like a dozen of you in my
Instagram dms, like talk about Hayes King, talk about talk
about Sawyer Robertson. Will folks ask and you shall receive?
(19:27):
Because this is getting a lot of fun. As the
road is narrowing, more and more people are putting their
uh hat into the ring of this conversation. And like
we've talked about, I think there's more and more conversation
around two like could the Dante Moors to the North
Sellers of the world? Could they come back for another year?
Even someone like.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Tyson seems like a long shot, even like.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Some because they're gonna be first round picks.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
I mean, I think they go back.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Do you think they go back?
Speaker 5 (19:51):
I do, just because I think they'll make so much
money next year in college.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Time.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
I mean they would be first round picks, though.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
It's tough, and like Ty Simpson as well too, you know,
Fernanda Mendoza is the only one right now that I
say is coming out, no doubt. And then some of
these guys like Hayes King has to you know, some
of these guys that have to come out.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
That's a different story as well too. Carson Beck has to.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
Right right, I don't know if you know this. And
then take go. I just learned today because we did
a segment on at a different show that Simpson right
now is the betting favorite to be first pick overall. Yes,
and Mendoza's right behind him. But still, that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
He started nine or ten games in his entire college
football career. He's done very well, but he's got nine
starts in his college football.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Vegas thinks he is coming out. But I mean the
list too.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
But right off the top of my head, I can't
remember a first overall quarterback pick that was a one year.
Because even people throw Joe Burrow out there all the time,
Cam Newton might be the one.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Cam Newton might be the one. I mean, there's but
Joe Burrow started.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
For before many games. True, how many years Haskins was
very little.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Haskins is a good one. That era was one year.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
That era before everyone was transferring. It wasn't that uncommon
and hardly anybody did well.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
That's a good point. But like Mahomes was multi year.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
All these guys now, like the Sam Darnold's and the
Baker Mayfields and the Jaden Daniels, and like they're multi year.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
A lot of them multi school.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Yeah, yeah, in this packet here more than fifty percent
of the guys are multi school guys. And so yeah,
it is always a lot of moving parts in this regard.
But Matt, here's what we know. Let's start with Fernanda
Mendoza because he's definitely coming out. He's definitely gonna be
a top ten pick. Yes, did not have his best
game against Penn State, but he did the thing that
(21:43):
we like to see, poise accuracy. Despite not having his
best day, led his team to a win in a
big moment in Happy Valley in front of that crowd.
I know, Penn State is not what everybody thought they
were going to be this year, but they still got
some dudes on that defense players. Yes, they've got good
football players. And even when it's not one hundred and
ten thousand, maybe there's twenty thousand empty seats there, it's
(22:06):
still ninety thousand people going nuts. Tough atmosphere to play
in nineteen of thirty, two hundred and eighteen yards, one touchdown,
one interception. He also did run for twenty yards and
a score as well.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
He's and he got the win.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
But he got the win and maybe.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Big time throws with some big time pressure in his
face down the stretch. I like seeing that from him
because so far for most of this season everything's gone
according to plan. It didn't go according to plan on Saturday,
and he still found a way to get it done.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
And it won't in the playoffs, and there'll be some
there are obstacles ahead, I would think. I mean, I
haven't studied these guys or watched every step of that game.
That scouts did not move him backwards because no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
No, absolutely not, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Dante Moore remember left the game against Wisconsin a couple
weeks ago early in the third quarter with a kind
of close line looked like a head type injury, then
had a bye week return to action, didn't have his
best performance, but again, tough spot on the road, top
twenty game in Iowa, crazy environment, and he took his
(23:10):
team down the field to kick a field goal and
win it at the end despite rainy, crappy conditions. Made
some impressive drives, didn't throw any touchdowns, had an interception,
you know, only one hundred and twelve yards passing and
forty six yards on the ground, but their number one
receiver was out. Like I said, it was just too yes, yes,
meant to mention that thank you, coming back off of
(23:33):
an injury, crappy weather on the road against the top
twenty team. Everybody knows Iowa tough place to play, always
have a good defense.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
I mean, well, coach, They're always gonna be hard to play.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
He did the same kind of mendo not quite to
the extent that Mendoza did, but at the end of
the game, when they're in the huddle and the team's
all looking to him, we need to drive and we
need points. Right here, we're gonna lose. He got it done,
drove them down the field and the pouring down rain
to get into field goal position to win that game. Okay,
very high on him, but he is definitely for me.
(24:04):
You want to be the sixth overall pick or do
you want to come back to Oregon and make twelve
million dollars and.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Win a national championship.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah, and then maybe be the first overall pick.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
And frankly I understand both sides.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Totally.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Lenora Seller's coming off of bye week. He's another one
that we've talked about. This year has not gone according
to plan for him or according to South Carolina. Maybe
off the bye week he can stabilize a little bit
down the stretch because next week they've got another huge test.
They go to number three Texas A and M. He's
oh wait, sorry, pardon me, I'm getting that wrong. He's
(24:36):
coming off of his bye week. This week is a huge.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Test Texas A and M.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Sorry, I kind of conflated that he's coming off of
a bye week, So nothing new to report, but a
massive test on the road in College station there at
Kyle Field that you've described before is the crazy atmosphere
against a number three team in the country.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
I'd be shocked if he comes out.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I would too. But if you look at a lot
of those mock drafts, they still have him going in
the top twenty.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
I mean, like all these guys are gonna have this
balancing act of do I go back, make a nice bock.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Enjoy college life, be a kid for another year.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Fight where an Ohio State guy, and I mean there
might be more competition than Tom last year, no doubt.
Or does he look at it like, well Moore went back,
so I should go to the league because that's one
less guy to fight with this year, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Second quarterback taken.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
Right right right, That'll be fun.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I think, yeah, I think so too. That's gonna be
fun to you know, just Tye Simpson declaire early? Does
Dante Moore declare early? Does that affect somebody like the
North sellers that stuff that you know, when we get
to January, we will absolutely be keeping an eye on.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Speaking of ty Simpson, let's go to him.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Uh two hundred and seventy seven yards, a touchdown, zero interceptions,
and a twenty to nine win over LSU. Didn't light
it up, Matt, but impressive touch. He's accurate and against
what I think is one of the more underrated like LSU.
They fired their coach, They've had a lot go wrong
this year, but I still think that's a top ten
defense in college football.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
The Penn State Conversation. They still have big, fast, strong guys.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Heally was surgical, he was accurate.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
He has impressive touch and you know, two hundred and
seventy seven yards in a touchdown. Confident professional performance against LSU.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Okay, no reason to go backwards on yes, and he.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Continues to check boxes. Let's talk about Jade and Miava.
He's an interesting one for me the USC quarter.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Yeah, it's getting some first round buzz.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
He is like, there's some Josh Allen elements to his game.
He doesn't like getting sacked, and he's good at not
getting sacked. He can extend plays, he can find guys downfield.
He rolled in a thirty eight to seventeen win over Northwestern.
He's calm when the pocket breaks down. His decision making
is really strong and matt one thing that I love
(26:46):
to see.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
He threw an interception in that game. You know what
he did.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I'm reading it now, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Chase the guy down through the interception and forced a
fumble at the goal line. Hit the guy fumbled it
into the end zone. Like that's the kind of effort
stuff you love to see. His one his most negative
play of the game. He chased the dude down forced
to fumble at the goal line after throwing an interception.
Love to see it, Love to see it.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Does he have to come out?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I don't think so.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Okay, I think because he.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Went to UNLV and it is now two years at USC,
so I think.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
He has one more year of eligibility. Trenidad Chamberliss is
another one of these interesting guys. I think he's going
to return to Old miss. But what if lang Kiffin
takes a different job. What if he continues to rise
up some boards like he has. They played the Citadel,
I mean they just absolutely yeah, they just absolutely dominated
(27:40):
a bad team. But he's crisp, he's smart, he's athletic.
He's got the dual kind of threat, can pull it
down and move with his legs. Good decision making has
avoided costly mistakes for most of the season. Little on
the small side, little on the small side, six pounds.
He's another one of those guys that I was kind
of telling you yesterday. While I think the first prospect
(28:00):
group here might be shrinking, that kind of date, that
kind of day two group is growing, and I think
he's firmly in that conversation.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Let's talk about Hayes King. He's the one we've got
here in that conversation.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Absolutely, He's remember he's gonna be twenty five before we
even get to the combine. He's gonna be twenty five
in January. It's his sixth year in college football. He
was three years at A and m now three years
at Georgia Tech. They had a bye week, so nothing
new on him. But they lost to NC State last week,
and he was excellent in that loss. I mean, like,
threw for over four hundred yards, ran for one hundred yards,
(28:34):
accounted for all their touchdowns. They lost, Like they lost
like forty eight to thirty five, but he put up
all thirty.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I mean, he was the one man show for Georgia Tech.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I'm very interested, Matt about ten days from now, he'll
take on that Pitt defense down in Atlanta. And Pitt's
defense has some good dudes on the defensive front. They've
got some Kyle Lewis and some good linebackers that are
going to play in the pros. As you and I
have talked about before, Pet's d defensive backs are always
tough to play against because they do that pressman man style.
(29:05):
Excited to see coming off of his bye week and
their first loss of the season. Hal Hayes King navigates
this because if they went out, he'll be in the
a SEC Championship game. He's one of those guys I
would love to see Georgia Tech gett into the playoff
because I'd love to see him go.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Up against like a.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Absolutely, they're nine to one or eight and one. If
they went out, they'll be in the a SEC Championship game.
And he is a real intriguing one to me.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
He's definitely the name that was tweeted at us the
most in the last week.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
What about because I mean he's putting up like four
or five hundred yards of offense a single week, every
single week.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
He's went on the list, but we haven't dug into
him a lot y.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, he's one I think that we'll be. He'll be
an intriguing conversation around combine and draft time.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Carson Beck quick mentioned he responded fine. Miami bounced back
after that loss to SMU in overtime. He played well
in a win against Syracuse. But like I told you,
he has all the talent in the world. He lacks
the leadership, the maturity. I think I'm just I think
I'm just out on him no matter what I see
down the shitch.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
John Mattier a guy that we've been following through this
process a lot, a guy that you really liked what
you saw in the beginning of the season from him
before he had that hand injury, missed some time, and
has looked a little rusty since. I want to see
how he plays down the stretch here too.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Yeah, that could be the difference to going back or not.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Oklahoma's got a couple of big games here, beginning this
Saturday at Alabama. He's coming off of a bye week. Now,
hand should be as healthy as it's been. They've had
some time, you know, you get the bye week to rest,
reset self, scout all that stuff. Really excited to see
how Mateer finishes the year because he's one of those
guys that you know could kind of be you know,
(30:43):
he's projected, let's say, twenty fifth to thirty fifth pick
in mock drafts, but when he gets to the combine,
when he gets to prodag, all that stuff starts rocketing
up up draft board.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
I could definitely see that.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
He's got that skill set, Matt. Let's talk about Garrett
Smiyer for a second.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Yeah, we've kind of brushed him him in Club Neck.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
We haven't talked a lot about arch Manning. I mean,
those were like the four biggest names coming into the
year and they've fallen back.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
And you know, arch I didn't put him on the
packet this week, but maybe he will be next week.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
They've got he's.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Playing much better and they have to go to Georgia.
So if he can navigate that and somehow win, he'll
he'll get in that conversation again. But nus, I tell
you what. They obviously lost to Alabama, like we were
just talking about with Ty Simpson, but he completed almost
eighty six percent of his passes one hundred and twenty
one yards, zero touchdown, zero interceptions. Like he he's looking
(31:38):
like a day two, Day three pick. Okay, I think
he deserves to be in these conversations again. He's shown
some signs of life, but it would take a lot
for him to get back into the first round.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
And he's not physically overwhelming like he has on the
biggest arm.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
The strong no no, no, no, no, he's a coach's kid. Yeah,
smart above the neck and that kind of stuff. Drew
Aller still hurt. Obviously. We know that Ked club an
interesting one to me, Matt because he was in monkst
That like the Mount rushmore of this of Club Nick, Aller,
nuss Meyer and Arch before the season started. Club Nick
is the one who's maybe clawed back the most. Clemson
(32:13):
defeated Florida State twenty four to ten. He completed over
seventy four percent of his passes two hundred and twenty
one yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, also ran for a touchdown.
I would say after a very slow start to the season,
his stock is starting to trend up. He's one of
the guys that we haven't talked about much, but maybe
I could still see him becoming a first round you know,
(32:34):
Jackson Dart type range selection in the first round. He's
looked much better the last couple weeks than he did
the first half of the season and obviously could finish strong.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
And if his junior tape is as strong as people
thought it was, I mean that didn't go away last
year tape. I don't do the gior or not.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Sawyer Robinson another one of those guys we've gotten a
lot of tweets about the Baylor quarterback six four, two
hundred and twenty pounds coming off of his bye week,
so nothing new to report, but they have utah u
taw Utah, one of the better defenses in the Big
Twelve at home this Saturday. Big test for Sawyer Robinson
this Saturday. Will have more information on him next week.
(33:11):
He'll be one of those guys next week that him
and Mateer I really want to highlight coming out coming
out of their bye week, coming out of their bye week,
kind of a crossroads playing against two really good defense
They're ones to keep an eye on this Saturday. Sam
Levitt Arizona State, loved what he was doing the last
couple of weeks.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Yeah, I thought he was getting some momentum.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
I was.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
I was really kind of, Hey, it's good for my Mountaineers,
but we have to go out to Tempe this Saturday
to play Arizona State. So good that he's not going
to be there, but they have that wide receiver too,
who is Ted McMillan of this year might be might
be a top ten pick. I was as much as
I'm happy that Levitt, you know, for Wu's chances to
win isn't going to play man. To watch those two
(33:50):
against my team is always kind of let's see how
these guys. You know you're going to watch your team
play against those guys.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, ailiar.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
But Levitt could work his way back into this conversation.
I also could could absolutely see him staying another year.
A couple more here, two more Matt, y'all good?
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Yeah, roll on man, Okay.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Taylor Green he's another one that we've gotten tweets about.
Spent three years at Boise State, now is in his
second year at Arkansas. He will be uh coming out
in the draft this year. He kind of defines size
and dual threat Matt. He's six six five and you
know they fired their coach, Sam Pittman like a month ago,
so it's a program that has been wallering in the wilderness,
(34:31):
you know, wallowing in the wilderness. But his dual threat
ability is undeniable. Single handedly willed them to a win
over Mississippi State. Key runs timely throws. He is that offense,
handles pressure with maturity like Sellers, hard to evaluate on
a bad team. Sounds like a lot, but has undeniable
trades a lot like Sellers. Not quite the arm but
(34:52):
much more prototypical size six six five, much like Sellers.
Not quite the arm strength, but much better prototypical size.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
Someone like that, you know, would be great for me,
the Steelers with a twenty second pick. If Rogers is
coming back, totally yeah, just sit there and total absorb
everything that Rogers says.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Jordan loved two point zero.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Yeah, exactly right, just like you did with Brett and
Jordan did with you. You know, all right, I.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Am absolutely with you on that one. Last, but certainly
not least here.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Got a couple tweets this past week about Brendan Soresby
as well too. Now he's coming off a bye week
and before that had perhaps his worst performance of the season,
blowout loss at Utah.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Utah is really good, really good defense.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
You say he's at UC.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Is that cal Cincinnati?
Speaker 5 (35:40):
Oh okay, okay, yeah right, I should have I.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Put UC in the packet.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Yeah, he's I remember we were to talk about Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I yep, started at IU. Now is at Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Matt didn't have his bye week this past week, and
and you know, was a tough performance, tough sledding against Utah.
He's got a Arizona team at home that's kind of
right for the picking. I expect him to bounce back
in a big way off a bad performance and then
a bye week. But if you look at his numbers
for the year, he's another six three, two thirty five.
You like the size, you like the athleticism. He's thrown
(36:10):
for over two thousand yards twenty one touchdowns, only two interceptions,
also over over four hundred and fifty yards rushing eight
touchdowns on just seventy three rushing attempts. He averages six
point two yards per carry. He is all of Division
one football responsible for the most touchdowns in college football
with twenty nine.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
I need to do more work on this guy. Are
he's intriguing. A couple sentences here about.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Him, he's he's really started to get on my radar.
And you know, we've talked a little bit about Derek Bell,
who does some social media down stuff in Steelers territory.
He loves college quarterback, you know, breaking down film. Yes,
and I saw him last week. He was getting really
into Brendan Soersby. Okay, so I think the words spread.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
In a little bit.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
He was not one of these kind of on the
radar guys at the beginning of the name, but a
little bit like Hayesk, a little bit like Sawyer Robinson.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I mean Matt again.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Twenty nine touchdowns, you know, eight of those on the ground,
twenty one through the air, only two turnovers.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
Yeah, productive, productive, No, that's really intriguing.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
And I want to watch him down the stretch here
two and hoping that Cincinnati can maybe backdoor into a
Big twelve championship game. I would love to see him
up against that Texas Tech defense. Matt matchups in Week twelve.
There's a whole bunch from a quarterback standpoint to keep
an eye on here, particularly Friday Night. Oh fun Clemson
and Clemson and Cake Club Nick are at number fifteen
(37:33):
Louisville Friday Night, Oregon number nine, Organ and Dante More
host Minnesota Friday Night.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So some fun ones on Fridays.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
Too, big time quarterbacks playing.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Yes, exactly right, And I always I kind of let so.
You know, college football used to have a stranglehold on Thursdays,
like a decade ago. You remember, in the Big East days,
like it was always it was always WVU in Virginia, Tech,
pitt in Miami, you know, Thursday night big games. Now
that's moved to Friday because of course the NFL has
said he much like they did to the NBA with
(38:04):
the Christmas Day. Hey guess what that's ours now?
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Funny?
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Sorry about that. A couple of fun games to watch
on Friday night. Then Saturday, Indiana plays at noon Mendoza
hosting that Wisconsin team which is a little bit on
the up and up now playing better lately as Wisconsin.
Sellers in South Carolina, like I mentioned, go.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
To A and M.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Yeah, I really like the A and M quarterback read
as well too. He's only a sophomore, so he's not
draft eligible, but he's one of these Jada Miava types
that you know, we might be talking about a lot
next year if you want to keep an eye on him.
Cincinnati plays at noon, hosting Arizona. Like I mentioned, if
you want to watch Sowersby, I know a lot of
people around here, a lot of Pitt fans, a lot
of Notre Dame fans. Your noon slate is locked in, Yeah,
(38:47):
but there's man, there's some good quarterback matchups in the
in the noon slate as well too. Then at three
point thirty, please watch Oklahoma and Mateer against Alabama and
Simpson that's the one if you can only watch that's
the one, if you can only watch one at three
thirty to top twelve teams to first round talents at quarterback.
Then Iowa takes that really good defense on the road
to usc Excited to see how Miava does against a
(39:08):
very stout, very stingy Iowa defense going up.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yes, yeah, yes, that's a top.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Twenty matchup out there at the at the Coliseum in
La in southern California, Chamberless and Old Miss they host
Florida seven o'clock at night. Florida is another one. They
fired their coach. They've been a program up and down,
but they got dudes on defense.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Like they like they always do.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Want to see how Chamberless does against that athletic defense
that can move at home in a good test at
seven o'clock. As I mentioned, Baylor hosts Utah, one of
I think maybe the most underrated team in college football
in Utah, really good defense on the road in Waco
against Baylor seven o'clock. How does Sawyer Robinson look out
of his bye week? And then finally I threw arch
(39:52):
on here in this regard where Texas number eleven, Texas
Goesse to Georgia Saturday night, seven point thirty. Let's see
how Arch has been arrow up these last couple of weeks.
Let's see how he looks in a tough environment against
the top five team.
Speaker 5 (40:05):
I mean, real quick on Arch. I mean, every on
the planet seems to think, oh, he's going back, he
is manning money, They're gonna give him a time. We
don't know that. I mean, if he finishes super strong, and.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
If they win their last two games, they could get
into the playoffs, and then look out and he has
another solid game or two in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Again, his agent's telling him, you'll be a top fifteen
pick in the draft.
Speaker 5 (40:25):
I mean, I bet if he comes out to be
considered for number one.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Absolutely, I mean, because he just still has some.
Speaker 5 (40:32):
The same things we talked about in the summer. I mean,
I just I just know how it works. Last question
for you, Yes, does Notre Dame have a dude?
Speaker 3 (40:39):
They have true freshman or something they do, so it's
the true the true freshman ball. I thought between Henschell
of course, the pit quarterback and then the Notre Dame
quarterback car CJ.
Speaker 5 (40:52):
Carr okay too great watching that game, so I figured
Notre Dame had that somebody if.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
You want to watch that game for an NFL prospect
here am I love the Notre Dame.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
Running He's like genty.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I mean he's gonna be a Bijon Robinson Ashton genty,
top ten, top fifteen pick at running back, which you
know means a lot, means a lot. So yeah, huge
Week twelve slate. I'm very happy the Steelers are home
on Sunday. That means I don't know, that's good for you.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
I don't have to get on a plane Saturday minute.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
That means, hey, honey, take the girls and go somewhere
nice because daddy's got a bunch of college football games
to watch for fourteen hours.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Baby.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
I'm excited to dig my heels in love it. There's
your round campus, a beefy one, maybe the longest one
we've ever done here heading into Week twelve and a
big week in college football will come back on the
other side few minutes. Put a bow on this thing
on this Wednesday, Westheeler Matt Williamson. It's the Drive on
Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Your tunes about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Down the home stretch here on the drive, Matt.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
And we only have a couple minutes. Clock was a
little We had a couple of beefy segments today. Yeah,
we did beefy around campus, beefy best of the West.
Talked to Halleck, our buddy Chris Hallick for a long time.
So just a couple of minutes here before we got
to go, And I did want to get to one
tweet from Annie that caught my eye along the Aaron
Rodgers conversation. She's asking why we haven't seen the tight
(42:33):
ends function as a pseudo wide receiver too, Like there
was so much conversation about coming into the season. Is
it because they're bigger, slower, and less adept at running
complex routes than wide receivers? Is it because they're needed
for their blocking duties? Just wondered for your guys insight. Well,
it's a good question.
Speaker 5 (42:50):
It is a good question, and I don't have a
good answer. I would like to see Friar moose Roll
grow a little.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
As a pass catcher.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
As a pass catcher, yes, John new to me has
been a little disappointing. I mean, and I think that's
more on him than them. I'm not saying he's stinkster,
is worthless or anything like that, but he would be
last in my snap count pecking order of the three
for sure. But one of these things and I'm not
and I'm kind of using it as a cop out.
(43:19):
It's so easy to say, well, we need more Warren.
Why is Metcalf only getting four or five targets? I
know where you're going with this, but it's they don't
run any plays. If they run the fewest plays in
the league.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
If you ran an extra ten to twelve fifteen plays
a game, right, that's three more for Warren and three
more for Metcalf and six more for your tight ends.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I feel like a broken record with Calvin Austin.
Speaker 5 (43:38):
I feel like a broken record with time and possession
and not run enough plays. But I mean it's it's crippling.
I mean it's you can't win getting out snapped by
ten to fifteen plays a game, especially as the season
goes on. And we talked about the other day, like
the defense is on pace to play like three games
more than the offense.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Can't have it right, right, Matt, Before we go real quick,
latest practice report just came across the timeline. Broderick Jones
listed with a groin his reason for not practicing today.
All right, so we'll follow up on that, get jump
get a little bit more to that tomorrow obviously see
what the Thursday practice report looks like. But there's kind
of a follow up for you for today. But that
will do it for us today. Big thanks to our
(44:18):
buddy Chris Hallick for taking the time to join us,
our guy Tyler V mister TV for making sure we
look handsome on YouTube. Big shout out to Matt Williamson.
I'm West Shuler. Take care everybody. We will talk to
you tomorrow. As always, you know where to find us.
It's on your twenty four to seven home of the
Black and Gold. It's Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Your tunes about drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good evening, Steeler Nation. How are we doing? Well?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
That's good us too, our number two of the Drive
here on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network,
West Shooler and Matt Williamson rolling along and we go
to the phone not lines. They beat the blue blo
but bluh. Easy for me to say, we go to
the phone lines. Now for catching up with our buddy
Chris Halleck of course of dk Pittsburgh Sports Plenty that
(00:46):
we want to get into you with you, Chris, thank
you for taking the time. As always, partner, Let's kind
of start from the top. A sante Samuel Junior added
to the Steelers practice squad last night. Your thoughts on
that move and does it seem more like, uh, you know,
more of a chance he could start to be in
the fold next week against Chicago or do you think
(01:06):
there is maybe even a chance he.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Could get elevated to the active roster this week?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Well, I mean we saw Kyle Duggar, uh you know,
come in hit the ground running, and that's point now
obviously he was you know, acquired and was immediately immediately
placed on the active roster. So but you know, Sante Sanguel,
you know he gets here, it's Wednesday, he's gonna get
a full week's worth of you know, the game plan
in terms of practice. You know, for the first full
week of practice, he'll he'll be part of the game
(01:34):
plan process. So I don't want to completely shut the
door on it. Now he is a member of the
practice squad. So what they have to do, and you
know obviously that there would be roster hurdles to to make,
not that it's anything completely out of the ordinary.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
They can elevate him.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
They don't have to necessarily sign him to the active
roster right away. You're allowed to elevate I think up
to three times, so you know, you can elevate him,
see how things go, you know, continue to evaluate. It's
a very low risk move for the Steelers if he
turns into anything close to the player than he was before.
(02:08):
I mean, you look at those first three seasons, six interceptions,
a lot of passes defense. He's a really physical guy,
a guy who would again you know, when we were
talking about free agency way back in February and March,
I mean he was probably one of the top corners
lifted you know, on a lot of a lot of websites,
(02:29):
and so you know, this is a player where you know, yeah,
he had a significant surgery, but is worth the risk
of you know, especially when you're getting him on the
practice squad pretty much for nothing. Absolutely, it's worth the risk,
worth the risk.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
I'm sure you did. I mean, you're thorough what you do.
But it sounded like he did some work on him,
you know, before his injury, and I did as well.
And if you get that guy, I think he's a
starter here.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
He could be. I mean, I mean, when you look
at the Steelers current situation, when you look at you know,
slaves and concussion protocol, and you look at James Pierre,
who should be fair to James Pierre. He's played well
when he's been.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Out to you.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Yeah, he's been probably the best most consistent play we've
seen from him when he's actually played corner. We know
that he's already an accomplished special teams player, but it's
one thing to be good on special teams's thing to
be really good on defense, you know, and he's been
really really solid. Now could you aim higher there? If
(03:38):
your goals are to try to win a Super Bowl. Yes,
you absolutely can't aim a higher there. And so if
you think that Samuel or it appears that Samuel can
possibly be anything close to who he was before the injury,
you know, before he had to have the surgery, then
you're talking about an outside corner duo of potentially if
(03:59):
Slave is out or any kind of length of time
because concussions are always unpredictable. Of Joey Porter Jr. And
the Sante Sanguel Junior, that's a pretty good duo. Then
you consider what you have right now at safety, which
has currently been stabilized by you know, Kyle Duggar and
bringing jail or moving Jalen Ramsey over there. So it's
definitely interesting. And the one thing that this gives the
(04:22):
secondary no matter what, is just more depth, more flexibility,
which when you consider the hits that they've taken, you know,
Deshaun Elliott, you know who, you know, Lord knows how
long he's going to be out, and you consider all
the hits that they've taken, it's they need as many
quality options as possible. And I think it's definitely interesting
(04:43):
to see if Saniel is going to be somebody who
either provides you some really good depth or really turns
back into the guy that he was before, which would
be an amazing development from Steelers.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
It's pretty remarkable the secondary now from three hundred and
sixty five days ago.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It really is.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
I mean, it's like really is. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
And the thing is is that I think when when
people when people see that, they they appreciate the change.
Maybe you know that they see that, Okay, things were
really bad, and they were really bad down the stretch
the news there was change you needed. But I think
sometimes people think that it's just like playing mad and
then you can just swap guys out and you can
just go out there and you know, call whatever coverage
(05:23):
from your playbook and guys are just gonna play it
like they're you know, video game athletes. It's not the
way it works. I mean, these guys have to learn,
you know, a complex languages really, you know, from one
defense to the next. So it's it's not as simple
as just plug and play. There's a lot of nuance
and complexities to to all these different defenses and playbooks
(05:47):
and systems, and so yeah, it's gonna be really interesting
to see, you know how this continues to evolve with
all the changes happening. But yeah, it's pretty remarkable to
see the changes happened.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, I mean, Deshaan Elliott and Joey Porter Junior the
only holdovers, and one of those guys has been unavailable
due to injury unfortunately most of the year. It certainly
has come a long way in three hundred and sixty
five days or even less, just you know, since really
last February March. Chris sticking with some of this similar
conversation practice today. Progerick Jones not in uniform for practice today.
(06:24):
Just something maintenance wise, something rest wise, or might there
be some greater concern there.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
It's kind of early to tell in the week right now.
You will, We'll have to see. You'll have to monitor
it when you consider the inconsistent performance and performance, you know,
maybe it's just like, hey, take a day, you know,
or maybe he's dealing with something, so it's like, you
know what, it's not worth. You know, we can't afford
(06:52):
to lose this guy. You know, he needs to continue
to play me to continue to develop, So you know,
we'll see what happens. It's kind of early in the
week to to I haven't heard anything like, oh yeah,
he's definitely not playing on Sunday. I haven't heard anything
on that regard or anything. But I wouldn't start freaking
out over it yet. But it's gonna be interesting to
(07:13):
see how fins react, because you know, Broaderick continue you know,
continuously probably gets the most criticism, uh, you know, for
you know, of all the offensive linemen. But if he
ends up not playing Sunday, I'm curious to seeing, like
if fans are going to be like, oh god, what's
gonna happen now? Left tackle? It's like, well, I thought,
you know, you get wanted to guy replaced, Well here
(07:34):
you go. You know he's not gonna be playing. Yeah,
it's just gonna be interesting to see how that, how
that plays out. But you know, we'll see what happens,
what what happened. I think he's at least played enough
where if he can get you know, at least one
day's worth of practice, I think you know, he'd get
clearance to play. But you know, we'll we'll have to
see how much how much leewould he gets from Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
So heck with three hundred and sixty five days ago
with the secondary. The secondary is noticeably different from when
they faced the Bengals last a couple of weeks ago.
I mean, other than the people covering Chase and Higgins.
Do you see obviously that didn't go so great? Do
you see any Is there any suggestions you would make
(08:14):
less blitz more blitz more zone, you know, different personnel.
I mean, they've made a lot of defensive changes since then.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
They have. I mean it's hard to hard to say,
like what I would do, because if I was a
defensive coordinator in the NFL, I'd be fired faster than
I was hired.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Sure, but yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
I will say, obviously what they did last time did
not work. Now that used like well Dug Chris. But
at the same time you say that to be like, Okay,
well whatever you did last time, you cannot do anything
remotely close to it again. So, yes, that means blitzing
less often. Yes, that might mean more zone coverage. I
(08:56):
don't think it should be. I understand that, like Zach
Taylor's offense and Stikings offense are different from each other.
But and Carol Loss was clear to point that out
because when he was talking about, you know, during that
week leading up to. I think it was leading up
to playing the Bengals and Joe Flacco. You know, having
seen him the year before when Flacco was playing under
(09:18):
Styking for the Colts. You know, he was saying, you know,
he was asked like, can you look at that game
to study Flack? He was like, no, because it's two
different offenses. Well, at the same time, there are some
similarities to what they do and what you did against
the Colts work. Now, the Colts don't have the receiving
threats that the Bengals has. Almost no team in the
NFL does. So what you have to try to figure
(09:40):
out is what's the best way to put a ceiling
on these guys. Now it's not completely neutralized them, but
I think about like, Okay, when they played the Vikings,
Justin Jefferson had had a good game. I mean, he
had a lot of catches, he had a lot of yards.
But did anybody watching that game ever think that Justin
Jefferson was taking that game over?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Nope, I don't think so.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
No. I like, and you look at his stats, You're like, wow,
I'm kind of surprise he had that many catches for
that many hours. But there was never that feeling that
he was taken over the game. That's obviously not what
happened in Cincinnati. Jamar Chase took the game over and
pretty much won the game single handedly. That's what you
don't want to have happen. So what you have to
do at that point is called whatever coverages you need
to at least limit their impacts, not allow them to
(10:25):
take over the game, and then hope on the other
side that your offense is able to at least repeat
the performance that they had against that same Cincinnati defense
that it's actually minus Logan Wilson now since he was
traded to Dallas, and hope that they can perform just
as good, if not better, so that you can at
least try to outscore them. If Chase and Higgins still
have some pretty decent days, well, if you're going to have.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
To outscore them, you're gonna have to do a lot
differently on offense than the Steelers did Sunday night at
so far, that's for sure. And Chris, while there's a
lot of moving parts there, I don't think I'm you know,
breaking any news either to say that it starts with
the quarterback. It starts with Aaron Rodgers. It seems like
every week Matt and I have a ton of conversation
about Aaron Rodgers, and the first month and a half
(11:10):
or so of the season, it was all really positive conversation.
The last few weeks, there's been some more concern in
that conversation where you had on the Steelers signal caller
after I mean, he just admitted I believe he called
it a stinker when he met with the media, when
he met with you guys today, after his latest performance
or latest last couple performances haven't quite been the same
(11:32):
strong start to the season we saw him have.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I haven't been as concerned about about Aaron until this
past week. Now, I'll go with the Mike Tomlin logic
here and say, you know, I, you know, the whole
two is a pattern thing, and I don't believe I'm
at the two as a pattern yet. I don't think
the performance against the Colts was that alarming of a performance,
or any kind of performance, or any performance in any game.
(11:58):
I honestly think that the issues have been more about
not the team not getting into advantageous third down situations,
and that makes life hard on any quarterback. It doesn't
matter if you're a rookie or if you're a four
time MVP who's played more than two decades in the NFL.
That is never an easy way to live when you're
playing in this league. Is if you're putting yourself in
(12:19):
third and long quite a bit. And the Steelers are
now ranked twenty second in the NFL and in distance
to go on third down, So you don't that's not
a position you want to be in. You want to
be in more advantageous situations. So I wonder, will we
see the Steelers make a more concerted effort to try
to run the ball on first and second down. Now,
(12:39):
sometimes fans will hear that and you'd be like, the
last thing we need to do is turn into a
run run pass team. Well, the thing is, the Steelers
are not a run run pass team right now. You
look at their run rate on first down, it's bottom
third of the league. They don't run the ball a
lot on first down. They run the ball fifty two
percent of the time. That's less than the league average
of fifty four percent. The Bills are right at the
(13:00):
top of the league, and they're well over sixty percent
of the time they're running on first down. And when
you look at what Jalen Warren is able to do
on first down, he's got a fifty five percent success
rate on first down. He's averaging almost five yards you
carry on first down. So it's working when you do
run it with him, So why not do it a
little bit more? That might help turn first and ten
(13:20):
into second and six a little bit more often, and
second and six will get you either another first down
or it could put you in third and two or
third and three, and that's a lot easier to convert
them third and seven, which is what they're averaging right now.
So yeah, it's when it comes to Aaron's performance. Yeah,
this past week was bad. I mean there were a
(13:42):
lot of there were some myth throws that just can't
be there. I saw too much of the same kind
of thing where if you would get hurried a lot
early in the game and even take some hits like
he was like he did this again, you know when
he was with the Jets last year. He would just
get right and you get to the point where you know,
if the first three is not there, like the play's
(14:04):
over like that, there's no hope for anything to really happen.
And then he tries to force things to happen. That's
what ended up happening throughout the throughout the game on
Sunday night. I'm not as concerned about Aaron's performance until
we see it, Like if he goes out there on
Sunday against the Bengals and plays like that again, that's
when you start to get concerned. But I think that
(14:24):
performance was significantly worse than anything else we've seen this season,
which is hilarious because like that's not even the worst
grade that he got from like a PF from like PFF,
which is which is hilarious to me.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
You kind of beat me to it, But I was gonna,
you know, really, yeah, I've been driving home the time
of possession thing all week and it's really been all year.
But there's so many reasons to be poor in time
of possession, and but I think step one is just
run the football a little bit more.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Yeah, I mean listen, you know, I just rattled off
those those stats. Yeah, and I understand, you know, like
sometimes it sounds like you're like I think people live
in the world of this is the way the Steelers
have been and Arthur Smith has this you know, ancient
offense it's not and that's not what the Steelers are
doing right now. They're not running as an Asian offense.
(15:21):
They're not running the ball a lot on first down. Uh,
you know, they're maybe you should more often. And the
last thing, you know, and the one thing that I've seen,
you know, is I can't wait to see that second
and eight run again. Well, the best way to get
out a second and eight on a more consistent basis
(15:42):
is to do the things that you do well on
first down. And right now, Jalen Warren does some really
good things on first down running the football and you
don't have to run it every single time. I'm not
saying that your run rate on first down needs to
be ninety percent, but should you be running it a
little bit more often? Yeah, I think so. Especially you know,
you've found some you know, this team has found some
(16:03):
successful ways to run the ball, whether it's with the
Jumbo package, whether it's you know, through you know, certain
concepts that they've called whenever they have their their normal
you know whatever, twelve or thirteen personnel on the field,
whatever it is, they've found some successful ways to run
the ball. And Jalen Warren has been more successful than
you look at his overall season stats, you know it's
(16:24):
he's been a really good running back, but he's going
under the radar because he's not being used in US
and so I do think that he needs to get
more touches. I think he needs to get more carriers,
and I think they need to make a more concerted
effort to run the ball on first and second down. Again,
that doesn't mean run the ball every single time on
first and second down, but man, I think when a
(16:46):
team is struggling, especially to convert on third downs, what
you need to make sure he is either number one,
do what you can do to avoid third down altogether,
or at least when you do get to third down,
make it third and three, third and four, something that
is really a lot more manageable and a lot easier
to convert. And right now they're not doing that. They're
they're putting themselves in holes either because of penalties or
(17:08):
more often because they're throwing too much on first down
and they're throwing too much, uh you know, and and
that puts you in second along if it doesn't convert.
So it's important to be able to set that tone.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
And be able to run the ball here here, great
stuff as always with our buddy Chris Hallick taking some
time on a busy Wednesday. Buddy, thank you, great stuff
as always, and we will see you this weekend.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
All right, awesome, thanks for having me guys anytime partner.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
There he goes Chris Hallick, and I mean he's absolutely
spot on on a lot of that stuff, and that's
you know, that's something I'm hoping to see moving in
the right direction this Sunday against those Cincinnati Bengals. Matt,
let's get to a break here and we come back
on the other side. Rodney Dangerfield time. Yeah, John Blue
Tarski time. We're gonna go around campus. Grab a brew.
(17:57):
It don't cost nothing. Here on the Drive West Yueler,
Matt Williamson, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Your tune's about drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Back to school.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Back to school to prove to Matt that I'm not
a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my boots
tied tight. Hope, I don't get in a fight. That's
from Billy Madison. It is time to go around campus
here we're not going that back to school like as
and Billy Madison did. But Matt, we have got a beefy.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
So the first time we got three pages?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Three pages?
Speaker 5 (19:02):
How about that? Right?
Speaker 3 (19:03):
The around campus packet? This week we've gotten all kinds
of tweets and messages and comments about this. I told
you last week I went and checked my Instagram dms,
which I typically never do, maybe once or twice a year,
and there were like a dozen of you in my
Instagram dms, like talk about Hayes King, talk about talk
about Sawyer Robertson. Will folks ask and you shall receive?
(19:27):
Because this is getting a lot of fun. As the
road is narrowing, more and more people are putting their
uh hat into the ring of this conversation. And like
we've talked about, I think there's more and more conversation
around two like could the Dante Moors to the North
Sellers of the world? Could they come back for another year?
Even someone like.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Tyson seems like a long shot, even like.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Some because they're gonna be first round picks.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
I mean, I think they go back.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Do you think they go back?
Speaker 5 (19:51):
I do, just because I think they'll make so much
money next year in college.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Time.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
I mean they would be first round picks, though.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
It's tough, and like Ty Simpson as well too, you know,
Fernanda Mendoza is the only one right now that I
say is coming out, no doubt. And then some of
these guys like Hayes King has to you know, some
of these guys that have to come out.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
That's a different story as well too. Carson Beck has to.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
Right right, I don't know if you know this. And
then take go. I just learned today because we did
a segment on at a different show that Simpson right
now is the betting favorite to be first pick overall. Yes,
and Mendoza's right behind him. But still, that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
He started nine or ten games in his entire college
football career. He's done very well, but he's got nine
starts in his college football.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Vegas thinks he is coming out. But I mean the
list too.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
But right off the top of my head, I can't
remember a first overall quarterback pick that was a one year.
Because even people throw Joe Burrow out there all the time,
Cam Newton might be the one.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Cam Newton might be the one. I mean, there's but
Joe Burrow started.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
For before many games. True, how many years Haskins was
very little.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Haskins is a good one. That era was one year.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
That era before everyone was transferring. It wasn't that uncommon
and hardly anybody did well.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
That's a good point. But like Mahomes was multi year.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
All these guys now, like the Sam Darnold's and the
Baker Mayfields and the Jaden Daniels, and like they're multi year.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
A lot of them multi school.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Yeah, yeah, in this packet here more than fifty percent
of the guys are multi school guys. And so yeah,
it is always a lot of moving parts in this regard.
But Matt, here's what we know. Let's start with Fernanda
Mendoza because he's definitely coming out. He's definitely gonna be
a top ten pick. Yes, did not have his best
game against Penn State, but he did the thing that
(21:43):
we like to see, poise accuracy. Despite not having his
best day, led his team to a win in a
big moment in Happy Valley in front of that crowd.
I know, Penn State is not what everybody thought they
were going to be this year, but they still got
some dudes on that defense players. Yes, they've got good
football players. And even when it's not one hundred and
ten thousand, maybe there's twenty thousand empty seats there, it's
(22:06):
still ninety thousand people going nuts. Tough atmosphere to play
in nineteen of thirty, two hundred and eighteen yards, one touchdown,
one interception. He also did run for twenty yards and
a score as well.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
He's and he got the win.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
But he got the win and maybe.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Big time throws with some big time pressure in his
face down the stretch. I like seeing that from him
because so far for most of this season everything's gone
according to plan. It didn't go according to plan on Saturday,
and he still found a way to get it done.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
And it won't in the playoffs, and there'll be some
there are obstacles ahead, I would think. I mean, I
haven't studied these guys or watched every step of that game.
That scouts did not move him backwards because no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
No, absolutely not, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Dante Moore remember left the game against Wisconsin a couple
weeks ago early in the third quarter with a kind
of close line looked like a head type injury, then
had a bye week return to action, didn't have his
best performance, but again, tough spot on the road, top
twenty game in Iowa, crazy environment, and he took his
(23:10):
team down the field to kick a field goal and
win it at the end despite rainy, crappy conditions. Made
some impressive drives, didn't throw any touchdowns, had an interception,
you know, only one hundred and twelve yards passing and
forty six yards on the ground, but their number one
receiver was out. Like I said, it was just too yes, yes,
meant to mention that thank you, coming back off of
(23:33):
an injury, crappy weather on the road against the top
twenty team. Everybody knows Iowa tough place to play, always
have a good defense.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
I mean, well, coach, They're always gonna be hard to play.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
He did the same kind of mendo not quite to
the extent that Mendoza did, but at the end of
the game, when they're in the huddle and the team's
all looking to him, we need to drive and we
need points. Right here, we're gonna lose. He got it done,
drove them down the field and the pouring down rain
to get into field goal position to win that game. Okay,
very high on him, but he is definitely for me.
(24:04):
You want to be the sixth overall pick or do
you want to come back to Oregon and make twelve
million dollars and.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Win a national championship.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah, and then maybe be the first overall pick.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
And frankly I understand both sides.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Totally.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Lenora Seller's coming off of bye week. He's another one
that we've talked about. This year has not gone according
to plan for him or according to South Carolina. Maybe
off the bye week he can stabilize a little bit
down the stretch because next week they've got another huge test.
They go to number three Texas A and M. He's
oh wait, sorry, pardon me, I'm getting that wrong. He's
(24:36):
coming off of his bye week. This week is a huge.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Test Texas A and M.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Sorry, I kind of conflated that he's coming off of
a bye week, So nothing new to report, but a
massive test on the road in College station there at
Kyle Field that you've described before is the crazy atmosphere
against a number three team in the country.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
I'd be shocked if he comes out.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I would too. But if you look at a lot
of those mock drafts, they still have him going in
the top twenty.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
I mean, like all these guys are gonna have this
balancing act of do I go back, make a nice bock.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Enjoy college life, be a kid for another year.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Fight where an Ohio State guy, and I mean there
might be more competition than Tom last year, no doubt.
Or does he look at it like, well Moore went back,
so I should go to the league because that's one
less guy to fight with this year, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Second quarterback taken.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
Right right right, That'll be fun.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I think, yeah, I think so too. That's gonna be
fun to you know, just Tye Simpson declaire early? Does
Dante Moore declare early? Does that affect somebody like the
North sellers that stuff that you know, when we get
to January, we will absolutely be keeping an eye on.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Speaking of ty Simpson, let's go to him.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Uh two hundred and seventy seven yards, a touchdown, zero interceptions,
and a twenty to nine win over LSU. Didn't light
it up, Matt, but impressive touch. He's accurate and against
what I think is one of the more underrated like LSU.
They fired their coach, They've had a lot go wrong
this year, but I still think that's a top ten
defense in college football.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
The Penn State Conversation. They still have big, fast, strong guys.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Heally was surgical, he was accurate.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
He has impressive touch and you know, two hundred and
seventy seven yards in a touchdown. Confident professional performance against LSU.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Okay, no reason to go backwards on yes, and he.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Continues to check boxes. Let's talk about Jade and Miava.
He's an interesting one for me the USC quarter.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Yeah, it's getting some first round buzz.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
He is like, there's some Josh Allen elements to his game.
He doesn't like getting sacked, and he's good at not
getting sacked. He can extend plays, he can find guys downfield.
He rolled in a thirty eight to seventeen win over Northwestern.
He's calm when the pocket breaks down. His decision making
is really strong and matt one thing that I love
(26:46):
to see.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
He threw an interception in that game. You know what
he did.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I'm reading it now, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Chase the guy down through the interception and forced a
fumble at the goal line. Hit the guy fumbled it
into the end zone. Like that's the kind of effort
stuff you love to see. His one his most negative
play of the game. He chased the dude down forced
to fumble at the goal line after throwing an interception.
Love to see it, Love to see it.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Does he have to come out?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I don't think so.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Okay, I think because he.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Went to UNLV and it is now two years at USC,
so I think.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
He has one more year of eligibility. Trenidad Chamberliss is
another one of these interesting guys. I think he's going
to return to Old miss. But what if lang Kiffin
takes a different job. What if he continues to rise
up some boards like he has. They played the Citadel,
I mean they just absolutely yeah, they just absolutely dominated
(27:40):
a bad team. But he's crisp, he's smart, he's athletic.
He's got the dual kind of threat, can pull it
down and move with his legs. Good decision making has
avoided costly mistakes for most of the season. Little on
the small side, little on the small side, six pounds.
He's another one of those guys that I was kind
of telling you yesterday. While I think the first prospect
(28:00):
group here might be shrinking, that kind of date, that
kind of day two group is growing, and I think
he's firmly in that conversation.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Let's talk about Hayes King. He's the one we've got
here in that conversation.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Absolutely, He's remember he's gonna be twenty five before we
even get to the combine. He's gonna be twenty five
in January. It's his sixth year in college football. He
was three years at A and m now three years
at Georgia Tech. They had a bye week, so nothing
new on him. But they lost to NC State last week,
and he was excellent in that loss. I mean, like,
threw for over four hundred yards, ran for one hundred yards,
(28:34):
accounted for all their touchdowns. They lost, Like they lost
like forty eight to thirty five, but he put up
all thirty.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I mean, he was the one man show for Georgia Tech.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I'm very interested, Matt about ten days from now, he'll
take on that Pitt defense down in Atlanta. And Pitt's
defense has some good dudes on the defensive front. They've
got some Kyle Lewis and some good linebackers that are
going to play in the pros. As you and I
have talked about before, Pet's d defensive backs are always
tough to play against because they do that pressman man style.
(29:05):
Excited to see coming off of his bye week and
their first loss of the season. Hal Hayes King navigates
this because if they went out, he'll be in the
a SEC Championship game. He's one of those guys I
would love to see Georgia Tech gett into the playoff
because I'd love to see him go.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Up against like a.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Absolutely, they're nine to one or eight and one. If
they went out, they'll be in the a SEC Championship game.
And he is a real intriguing one to me.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
He's definitely the name that was tweeted at us the
most in the last week.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
What about because I mean he's putting up like four
or five hundred yards of offense a single week, every
single week.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
He's went on the list, but we haven't dug into
him a lot y.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, he's one I think that we'll be. He'll be
an intriguing conversation around combine and draft time.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Carson Beck quick mentioned he responded fine. Miami bounced back
after that loss to SMU in overtime. He played well
in a win against Syracuse. But like I told you,
he has all the talent in the world. He lacks
the leadership, the maturity. I think I'm just I think
I'm just out on him no matter what I see
down the shitch.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
John Mattier a guy that we've been following through this
process a lot, a guy that you really liked what
you saw in the beginning of the season from him
before he had that hand injury, missed some time, and
has looked a little rusty since. I want to see
how he plays down the stretch here too.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Yeah, that could be the difference to going back or not.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Oklahoma's got a couple of big games here, beginning this
Saturday at Alabama. He's coming off of a bye week. Now,
hand should be as healthy as it's been. They've had
some time, you know, you get the bye week to rest,
reset self, scout all that stuff. Really excited to see
how Mateer finishes the year because he's one of those
guys that you know could kind of be you know,
(30:43):
he's projected, let's say, twenty fifth to thirty fifth pick
in mock drafts, but when he gets to the combine,
when he gets to prodag, all that stuff starts rocketing
up up draft board.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
I could definitely see that.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
He's got that skill set, Matt. Let's talk about Garrett
Smiyer for a second.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Yeah, we've kind of brushed him him in Club Neck.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
We haven't talked a lot about arch Manning. I mean,
those were like the four biggest names coming into the
year and they've fallen back.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
And you know, arch I didn't put him on the
packet this week, but maybe he will be next week.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
They've got he's.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Playing much better and they have to go to Georgia.
So if he can navigate that and somehow win, he'll
he'll get in that conversation again. But nus, I tell
you what. They obviously lost to Alabama, like we were
just talking about with Ty Simpson, but he completed almost
eighty six percent of his passes one hundred and twenty
one yards, zero touchdown, zero interceptions. Like he he's looking
(31:38):
like a day two, Day three pick. Okay, I think
he deserves to be in these conversations again. He's shown
some signs of life, but it would take a lot
for him to get back into the first round.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
And he's not physically overwhelming like he has on the
biggest arm.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
The strong no no, no, no, no, he's a coach's kid. Yeah,
smart above the neck and that kind of stuff. Drew
Aller still hurt. Obviously. We know that Ked club an
interesting one to me, Matt because he was in monkst
That like the Mount rushmore of this of Club Nick, Aller,
nuss Meyer and Arch before the season started. Club Nick
is the one who's maybe clawed back the most. Clemson
(32:13):
defeated Florida State twenty four to ten. He completed over
seventy four percent of his passes two hundred and twenty
one yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, also ran for a touchdown.
I would say after a very slow start to the season,
his stock is starting to trend up. He's one of
the guys that we haven't talked about much, but maybe
I could still see him becoming a first round you know,
(32:34):
Jackson Dart type range selection in the first round. He's
looked much better the last couple weeks than he did
the first half of the season and obviously could finish strong.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
And if his junior tape is as strong as people
thought it was, I mean that didn't go away last
year tape. I don't do the gior or not.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Sawyer Robinson another one of those guys we've gotten a
lot of tweets about the Baylor quarterback six four, two
hundred and twenty pounds coming off of his bye week,
so nothing new to report, but they have utah u
taw Utah, one of the better defenses in the Big
Twelve at home this Saturday. Big test for Sawyer Robinson
this Saturday. Will have more information on him next week.
(33:11):
He'll be one of those guys next week that him
and Mateer I really want to highlight coming out coming
out of their bye week, coming out of their bye week,
kind of a crossroads playing against two really good defense
They're ones to keep an eye on this Saturday. Sam
Levitt Arizona State, loved what he was doing the last
couple of weeks.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Yeah, I thought he was getting some momentum.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
I was.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
I was really kind of, Hey, it's good for my Mountaineers,
but we have to go out to Tempe this Saturday
to play Arizona State. So good that he's not going
to be there, but they have that wide receiver too,
who is Ted McMillan of this year might be might
be a top ten pick. I was as much as
I'm happy that Levitt, you know, for Wu's chances to
win isn't going to play man. To watch those two
(33:50):
against my team is always kind of let's see how
these guys. You know you're going to watch your team
play against those guys.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, ailiar.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
But Levitt could work his way back into this conversation.
I also could could absolutely see him staying another year.
A couple more here, two more Matt, y'all good?
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Yeah, roll on man, Okay.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Taylor Green he's another one that we've gotten tweets about.
Spent three years at Boise State, now is in his
second year at Arkansas. He will be uh coming out
in the draft this year. He kind of defines size
and dual threat Matt. He's six six five and you
know they fired their coach, Sam Pittman like a month ago,
so it's a program that has been wallering in the wilderness,
(34:31):
you know, wallowing in the wilderness. But his dual threat
ability is undeniable. Single handedly willed them to a win
over Mississippi State. Key runs timely throws. He is that offense,
handles pressure with maturity like Sellers, hard to evaluate on
a bad team. Sounds like a lot, but has undeniable
trades a lot like Sellers. Not quite the arm but
(34:52):
much more prototypical size six six five, much like Sellers.
Not quite the arm strength, but much better prototypical size.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
Someone like that, you know, would be great for me,
the Steelers with a twenty second pick. If Rogers is
coming back, totally yeah, just sit there and total absorb
everything that Rogers says.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Jordan loved two point zero.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Yeah, exactly right, just like you did with Brett and
Jordan did with you. You know, all right, I.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Am absolutely with you on that one. Last, but certainly
not least here.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Got a couple tweets this past week about Brendan Soresby
as well too. Now he's coming off a bye week
and before that had perhaps his worst performance of the season,
blowout loss at Utah.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Utah is really good, really good defense.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
You say he's at UC.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Is that cal Cincinnati?
Speaker 5 (35:40):
Oh okay, okay, yeah right, I should have I.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Put UC in the packet.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Yeah, he's I remember we were to talk about Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I yep, started at IU. Now is at Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Matt didn't have his bye week this past week, and
and you know, was a tough performance, tough sledding against Utah.
He's got a Arizona team at home that's kind of
right for the picking. I expect him to bounce back
in a big way off a bad performance and then
a bye week. But if you look at his numbers
for the year, he's another six three, two thirty five.
You like the size, you like the athleticism. He's thrown
(36:10):
for over two thousand yards twenty one touchdowns, only two interceptions,
also over over four hundred and fifty yards rushing eight
touchdowns on just seventy three rushing attempts. He averages six
point two yards per carry. He is all of Division
one football responsible for the most touchdowns in college football
with twenty nine.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
I need to do more work on this guy. Are
he's intriguing. A couple sentences here about.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Him, he's he's really started to get on my radar.
And you know, we've talked a little bit about Derek Bell,
who does some social media down stuff in Steelers territory.
He loves college quarterback, you know, breaking down film. Yes,
and I saw him last week. He was getting really
into Brendan Soersby. Okay, so I think the words spread.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
In a little bit.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
He was not one of these kind of on the
radar guys at the beginning of the name, but a
little bit like Hayesk, a little bit like Sawyer Robinson.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I mean Matt again.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Twenty nine touchdowns, you know, eight of those on the ground,
twenty one through the air, only two turnovers.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
Yeah, productive, productive, No, that's really intriguing.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
And I want to watch him down the stretch here
two and hoping that Cincinnati can maybe backdoor into a
Big twelve championship game. I would love to see him
up against that Texas Tech defense. Matt matchups in Week twelve.
There's a whole bunch from a quarterback standpoint to keep
an eye on here, particularly Friday Night. Oh fun Clemson
and Clemson and Cake Club Nick are at number fifteen
(37:33):
Louisville Friday Night, Oregon number nine, Organ and Dante More
host Minnesota Friday Night.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So some fun ones on Fridays.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
Too, big time quarterbacks playing.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Yes, exactly right, And I always I kind of let so.
You know, college football used to have a stranglehold on Thursdays,
like a decade ago. You remember, in the Big East days,
like it was always it was always WVU in Virginia, Tech,
pitt in Miami, you know, Thursday night big games. Now
that's moved to Friday because of course the NFL has
said he much like they did to the NBA with
(38:04):
the Christmas Day. Hey guess what that's ours now?
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Funny?
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Sorry about that. A couple of fun games to watch
on Friday night. Then Saturday, Indiana plays at noon Mendoza
hosting that Wisconsin team which is a little bit on
the up and up now playing better lately as Wisconsin.
Sellers in South Carolina, like I mentioned, go.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
To A and M.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Yeah, I really like the A and M quarterback read
as well too. He's only a sophomore, so he's not
draft eligible, but he's one of these Jada Miava types
that you know, we might be talking about a lot
next year if you want to keep an eye on him.
Cincinnati plays at noon, hosting Arizona. Like I mentioned, if
you want to watch Sowersby, I know a lot of
people around here, a lot of Pitt fans, a lot
of Notre Dame fans. Your noon slate is locked in, Yeah,
(38:47):
but there's man, there's some good quarterback matchups in the
in the noon slate as well too. Then at three
point thirty, please watch Oklahoma and Mateer against Alabama and
Simpson that's the one if you can only watch that's
the one, if you can only watch one at three
thirty to top twelve teams to first round talents at quarterback.
Then Iowa takes that really good defense on the road
to usc Excited to see how Miava does against a
(39:08):
very stout, very stingy Iowa defense going up.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yes, yeah, yes, that's a top.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Twenty matchup out there at the at the Coliseum in
La in southern California, Chamberless and Old Miss they host
Florida seven o'clock at night. Florida is another one. They
fired their coach. They've been a program up and down,
but they got dudes on defense.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Like they like they always do.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Want to see how Chamberless does against that athletic defense
that can move at home in a good test at
seven o'clock. As I mentioned, Baylor hosts Utah, one of
I think maybe the most underrated team in college football
in Utah, really good defense on the road in Waco
against Baylor seven o'clock. How does Sawyer Robinson look out
of his bye week? And then finally I threw arch
(39:52):
on here in this regard where Texas number eleven, Texas
Goesse to Georgia Saturday night, seven point thirty. Let's see
how Arch has been arrow up these last couple of weeks.
Let's see how he looks in a tough environment against
the top five team.
Speaker 5 (40:05):
I mean, real quick on Arch. I mean, every on
the planet seems to think, oh, he's going back, he
is manning money, They're gonna give him a time. We
don't know that. I mean, if he finishes super strong, and.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
If they win their last two games, they could get
into the playoffs, and then look out and he has
another solid game or two in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Again, his agent's telling him, you'll be a top fifteen
pick in the draft.
Speaker 5 (40:25):
I mean, I bet if he comes out to be
considered for number one.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Absolutely, I mean, because he just still has some.
Speaker 5 (40:32):
The same things we talked about in the summer. I mean,
I just I just know how it works. Last question
for you, Yes, does Notre Dame have a dude?
Speaker 3 (40:39):
They have true freshman or something they do, so it's
the true the true freshman ball. I thought between Henschell
of course, the pit quarterback and then the Notre Dame
quarterback car CJ.
Speaker 5 (40:52):
Carr okay too great watching that game, so I figured
Notre Dame had that somebody if.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
You want to watch that game for an NFL prospect
here am I love the Notre Dame.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
Running He's like genty.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I mean he's gonna be a Bijon Robinson Ashton genty,
top ten, top fifteen pick at running back, which you
know means a lot, means a lot. So yeah, huge
Week twelve slate. I'm very happy the Steelers are home
on Sunday. That means I don't know, that's good for you.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
I don't have to get on a plane Saturday minute.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
That means, hey, honey, take the girls and go somewhere
nice because daddy's got a bunch of college football games
to watch for fourteen hours.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Baby.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
I'm excited to dig my heels in love it. There's
your round campus, a beefy one, maybe the longest one
we've ever done here heading into Week twelve and a
big week in college football will come back on the
other side few minutes. Put a bow on this thing
on this Wednesday, Westheeler Matt Williamson. It's the Drive on
Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Your tunes about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Down the home stretch here on the drive, Matt.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
And we only have a couple minutes. Clock was a
little We had a couple of beefy segments today. Yeah,
we did beefy around campus, beefy best of the West.
Talked to Halleck, our buddy Chris Hallick for a long time.
So just a couple of minutes here before we got
to go, And I did want to get to one
tweet from Annie that caught my eye along the Aaron
Rodgers conversation. She's asking why we haven't seen the tight
(42:33):
ends function as a pseudo wide receiver too, Like there
was so much conversation about coming into the season. Is
it because they're bigger, slower, and less adept at running
complex routes than wide receivers? Is it because they're needed
for their blocking duties? Just wondered for your guys insight. Well,
it's a good question.
Speaker 5 (42:50):
It is a good question, and I don't have a
good answer. I would like to see Friar moose Roll
grow a little.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
As a pass catcher.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
As a pass catcher, yes, John new to me has
been a little disappointing. I mean, and I think that's
more on him than them. I'm not saying he's stinkster,
is worthless or anything like that, but he would be
last in my snap count pecking order of the three
for sure. But one of these things and I'm not
and I'm kind of using it as a cop out.
(43:19):
It's so easy to say, well, we need more Warren.
Why is Metcalf only getting four or five targets? I
know where you're going with this, but it's they don't
run any plays. If they run the fewest plays in
the league.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
If you ran an extra ten to twelve fifteen plays
a game, right, that's three more for Warren and three
more for Metcalf and six more for your tight ends.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I feel like a broken record with Calvin Austin.
Speaker 5 (43:38):
I feel like a broken record with time and possession
and not run enough plays. But I mean it's it's crippling.
I mean it's you can't win getting out snapped by
ten to fifteen plays a game, especially as the season
goes on. And we talked about the other day, like
the defense is on pace to play like three games
more than the offense.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Can't have it right, right, Matt, Before we go real quick,
latest practice report just came across the timeline. Broderick Jones
listed with a groin his reason for not practicing today.
All right, so we'll follow up on that, get jump
get a little bit more to that tomorrow obviously see
what the Thursday practice report looks like. But there's kind
of a follow up for you for today. But that
will do it for us today. Big thanks to our
(44:18):
buddy Chris Hallick for taking the time to join us,
our guy Tyler V mister TV for making sure we
look handsome on YouTube. Big shout out to Matt Williamson.
I'm West Shuler. Take care everybody. We will talk to
you tomorrow. As always, you know where to find us.
It's on your twenty four to seven home of the
Black and Gold. It's Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network.
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