Live from Training Camp Day 8

Matt and Dale preview tonight's Friday Night Lights practice, talk news around the league, and run a fantasy mock draft.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamsons
on your twenty four to seven home of the Black
and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to the Drive. I am Dale Lolly here with
the Matt Williamson and Matt we got last night. We
were here at live a training camp yep, yep, yep,
Saint Pencil College. Your Steelers will not field today, Yeah,
not practicing until later today. They have Friday night lights
and Matt we get to see the initial use of

(00:42):
the kickoff roll last night.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, the Hall of Fame game, and I didn't study
it closely. I was at Sharky's. But every time with
the pursuito and those shocking shocker absolutely, but every time
it's a kickoff, we'd all alert each other, Hey let's watch,
let's watch. And it was very uneventful, to be honest.
There were like three of them, I think where the
returner actually slipped and fell, and then the pouring rain

(01:05):
came down and the game got canceled eventually too, so
I'm sure the field wasn't great. I didn't see anything again,
just the first blush of strange fun kickoff stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, nobody's gonna show anything crazy in the pre but
you did want to see how the mechanics worked. That
There were eight kickoffs total in the game. The longest
of the eight was returned to the thirty one yard line.
Three were brought back to the twenty six. One was
a touchback that came out to the thirty. The average
starting position on those kicks was the twenty five point six.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Okay, and again there wasn't I didn't really even see
a returner get free, you know, I mean it was
pretty much swallowed up right away. Not a lot to
go off of with that. I don't know if you
caught this or not, though we were laughing about it
like crazy it was. I mean, yes, it rained later,
but they practiced the Charlie Brown holding the kickoff trick.

(01:58):
Each team did it once with the punter came out
held it just to practice it, I guess. And all
I did was hold it and ran off like it.
Really probably didn't need repped to say the least.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, I wouldn't think so, because your punters are usually
I actually asked uh Cameron Johnston about that when I
spoke to him last week. I'm like, are you going
to be the holder on the on the kickoffs, and
he said, no, we really haven't talked about that yet,
but I would assume that's the natural makes sense.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
They're both punters. We were wondering about that too, because
they can't get into play. They are holders in the
real world. I guess there's some art to it holding
it on a tee, but I have feeling you and
I could do just fine at that as well.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
When the XFL they used the official one of the
officials came out and held it really which, as you
can imagine, if you're not used to doing.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
That, you're like and the finger away. I'm pretty sre
you're worried about getting kicked. Yeah, right, it is a
little scary. I'm sure to be that close to someone
swinging their leg that hard. Do you know if, like
all the week one ones are going to practice it too.
I have no idea the idea. I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah. I found it funny that because it's such an
easy track, that may have been something at the league
told them, hey, let's let's get a look at this
just to see what the mechanics look like. Each team
should do it and see what it looks like, because
that's I mean that's that's only been a rule now
for a little over a week. Yeah, before that, they
were going to use the kicking stick, and they decided
they send out a memo to all the teams a
week ago that no, we're going to have a player

(03:20):
come out and hold the ball and then he's got
to run off to the sideline right all.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, to be honest, I mean, just kickoff rule stuff.
I'm much more interested what the Steelers have done here
in terms of who's out there and et cetera, than
what I saw last night. But I'm hoping, you know,
over the course of the preseason we see some cool
stuff or some wrinkles or frankly, some glitches, you know,
that then the rules that no one thought about, and
see how it goes from there. But I keep coming

(03:46):
back to starting to drive at the thirty for a defense.
Isn't that terrible of a penalty for screwing things up?
You know, if you're bad at coverage, just blasted out
of the end zone for now.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
You know, the problem is that at some points you're
going to have to cover it. Yeah, yeah, because at
some points you're gonna play even if you're the Detroit
Lions for example, and you play the game fifteen of
your games indoors, well, at some point you're gonna have
to go to Green Ban in Chicago. Yeah, and you
better be able to handle the kickoffs because if be
in San Francisco, you're not gonna be able to kick

(04:18):
the ball through the end zone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, No,
that's definitely a good point.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
What I should know this, but what is the penalty
for just blasting it out of bouts because of the
fourty Okay, that hasn't changed. That's that's different. I mean
then that's way more of a penalty. That makes sense
to me. Yeah, okay, yeah, I mean it's still a
work in progress. I found it interesting the other day though,
of who the Steelers were putting on their kickoff and
kickoff coverage teams.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, but yeah, I do think that a lot of
people aren't going to a lot of teams. Just again,
if you're in the Northeast or you're in the Midwest
and you're playing in weather conditions, you're not gonna be
able to just blast the ball out of the end
zone every time A cant right, So.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
What if you blasted into the end zone? I mean, yeah,
I think you could probably get to the goal line.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Most of the time, you'll probably get a return, though.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
You'll probably get a return. Yeah, it's still work in progress.
It is an interesting topic. I didn't get a whole
lot out of last night to think differently about it
than I did the day before, though, to be honest
with you.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, Steelers. Of course, we'll have their annual Friday night
lights practice tonight. And as we see here there, they're
taking the time, the field crew here taking the time
to reline the fields. Yeah, here at Saint Vincent College,
and uh.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
It's amazing how much happens behind the scenes, especially on
a day like this.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
They're probably loving it for the field. Yeah. Get a
couple of days off of the field here to allow
the grass to kind of recover a little bit. And
we had a good amount of rain yesterday, Yeah, that
we needed.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Still, I don't know if we're out of the woods
one hundred percent for rain for tonight, I guess sus
the rain down, Yeah, I think it's not great. But
if you plan on going, keep an eye on that.
I mean, they wouldn't move it, right. I think a
couple of years ago it got flat out canceled because
of rain.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, and that was it. That was the torential downpour.
I mean that was like I remember, we were stuck
on a bus for about forty five minutes before they
finally called it. And at that point we all got
off the bus and your had We were stuck over
by the gym for another forty five minutes because it
was just because you couldn't even walk across campus, okay,
And that was when Wolf decided to actually brave it

(06:22):
and come across it. I do remember this story. And
the skunk came up and he didn't see He had
his head down because he's going walking through the rain,
and he didn't see the skunk until he was right
on top of the skunk. And then they did a
little dance where he would he took three steps back,
and the skunk took three steps forward, and then Wolf
would take three more steps back, and the skunk took
a step back and Wolf would step And that went
off for like five minutes. Gave you guys something to

(06:45):
laugh about it. We were laughing like crazy, yeah, And
then Wolf did the right thing and brought his car
around and picked us all up and drove at what
a good Samaritan.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Absolutely, I figured it he'd be you know, I would
have thought he would want to brave the elements with
his lightning situation.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
But there was no lightning. It was just a poor
just pouring ring, pouring.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
From what I checked the weather port like an hour ago.
It doesn't look like it's going to be that bad.
But it does look like it's going to be wet
and sloppy. And that's not a field or field, right,
it's a no, it's.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
A natural grass. Yeah. Okay. Matt Russ Tucker on the
thirty third team, Yeah, has put together his offensive line
rankings in tears. He was my podcast co host way
before you back in the day. Yeah, well get the
better of that now. Yeah. Uh so anyways, line ranks, Okay, Yeah,

(07:34):
let's take a look at this. Uh he's got it.
Thirty two of the New York Giants.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Oh, I think that's too rough. I mean they were
horrendous last year, but they went out and signed two
starters and runing in illumin or. I mean they're not
great players, but I think they now have five starters
where they didn't last year.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
So here's what he what he has. Andrew Thomas Aaron Stinney,
John Michael Schman, it's John Runyon, Jermaine Iluminur.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Okay, see, I think that there's a good chance Neil
was the right tackle. He's been really bad, and Illuminour
replaces Stinny.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Okay, at thirty one, he has the New Orleans Saints,
how about I've seen.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Them at the bottom with a couple of ranks, and
the more you dig into it, I think Ramchack officially retired.
He's out for the season. Out for the season at least. Okay,
there was some debate about that a couple of weeks ago.
If you go left to right, it's not that pretty,
to say the least.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Talisi Fluagga, who is a right tackle in college? Yeah,
Lucas Patrick, Eric McCoy, Caesar Luiz, Trevor Penning. Penning's been
really bad.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
We both loved Fuaga, but he just doesn't seem like
a left to me in traditional sense.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I wonder if they had a better sense of this
going into the draft, of what Armstep was going to do,
if they would have drafted a true left tackle instead.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Well, Ramchicks, Ramcheck's all right, I know, But to me,
when they took f Wagga, I'm like, well, Ramcheck's not
gonna be back.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, But the problem is Penning. It's been so bad.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah, I mean that's what's gum and everything up is
They're gonna put him on the right because he was
so bad on the left.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
But that can make you worse than two spots. Yeah,
I think that. I mean they I think if they
had it all to do all over again, they probably
take a guy whos that I mean, I like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
but they probably take a true left.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
It would be better off. Yeah, I mean absolutely, And
their guards are bad.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
At thirty, the Seattle Seahawks's Charles Cross Lake and Tomlinson,
olatwamieh Anthony Bradford, and Abraham Lucas.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
So everyone was all excited about Cross and Lucas as
rookies two years ago. Lucas the fourth round pick that's
come back to earth and is now a borderline starter.
He was fine early on. Cross still looks like a
good prospect and he's definitely their best player. But he's
not very strong. He deals with he doesn't deal with
power very well, and the inside's not great. I know

(09:53):
you just said it, but did they include Haines from
Yukon they do not. I bet he takes one of
those guard spots, one of the spots, but that that's
a team.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
The rest of it's still a mess. You know. The
Steelers have a a excess of good linemen there. Yeah,
that again, you know you start talking about trade possibilities,
that's one that that one really stands out. Ye, it
was two or three days ago.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
I just I mean, I'm not trying to start rumors
or anything like that, but James Daniels in a third
for DK Metcalf, You're like, I could see Seattle going.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
That makes sense to me. You know. Twenty nine are
the Patriots chucks or poor for it? Left tackle Cole Strange,
David Andrews, City sal and Mike Owen.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
It sounds like Chukes is going to do battle with
the other Penn State rookie tackle who's also right turned left,
which is a theme of this rookie class. Yeah, the
one who has to play tackle, but he would be
a really good guard. And Cole Strange has not lived
up the first round billing at all, which none of
us thought you should have first und picked to we

(10:55):
go with.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, that's the poor group tier Patriots might be last year.
They're pretty bad. Yeah. At the next tier up here
you get at twenty eight the Arizona Cardinals, Paris Johnson,
Isaiah Adams, Heise Froholt, will Hernandez, Jonah Williams.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Fro Holts better than people think. I mean, he is
no pedigree and no one knows about the Cardinals centers.
The guards are bad. Neither one of us love Joonah
Williams in Cincinnati, but he's a starter.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
You know. The other thing is they at least have depth.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
They've brought in three or four young guys that are
you know, you're going to be in the mix.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
At twenty seven is Washington. They might be last for me,
Cornelius Lucas at left tackle, Nick Alaghretti, Tyler Biadas, Sam Cosme,
and Andrew Wiley.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
So who's I should know? My head the o lion
expert out there that does really good work. He said it, Well,
he's like Tyler Biadish is a nice pickup, but he
should be your fourth best starter like he was in Dallas,
not your first.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, that's okay, that's another team that could certainly use.
I bet there's another pick back or yeah. Uh, twenty
six to Tennessee Titans. That's a J. C. Latham, another
left right tackle turn the left, Peter Skeronsky, Lloyd Cushion Berry,
Daniel Brunskill, and Nicholas petite Freere. That right side's bad. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
Scornsky really struggled as a rookie. And I don't mean
to make this as a Roman Wilson comparison, but he
had an ankle like this time of year in camp
and was always trying to get on a moving train
and never quite was able to. But they were probably
last last year. At least they're going in the right
direction and they hired a good o' line coach.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Twenty five the Carolina Panthers. It's uh Ekwanu, Damian Lewis,
Austin Colbert, Robert Hunt, and Taylor Moten. The right side
should be good.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah yeah, Ikey needs to be a player. Yeah, I
mean that's he's kind of like Penning. You invest a
lot in these early first round picks and they're not
giving you anything back. The guard's a overspent on, but
they now have a legit pair of guards.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Twenty four is Jacksonville, Cam Robinson, Ezra Cleveland, Mitch Moore's
Brandon Shurf Andton Harrison. I don't see the stars the
Anton Harrison that Like I've seen people who like, there
was a redraft that we did a couple of weeks
ago on here and there were there was on the
redraft they had Anton Harrison going before Broderick Jones and

(13:27):
the tackle of Paris Johnson. No, Paris Johnson went had him,
but the tight the tackle from my right, right right,
I'm like, are you kidding me? Yeah? Right, I don't
see that. I mean, he may be a fine he's
probably the best guy. But that's why the rank or
they are. And I agree with the ranking twenty three
the Miami dolphinsh I agree with that. Tron Armstead, Isa Win,

(13:47):
Aaron Brewer, Robert Jones, and Austin Jackson.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Austin Jackson is a problem left tackle. Is a really
good player Armstead, but he's played ten games a year. Yeah, right,
I don't love the center.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Brewer. He was one of those free agents that change teams.
He's like two hundred and ninety pounds. He's okay, Yeah,
that's the below average tier. Moving up from that, you
have Tampa Bay. That's Tristram Wurf's Ben Bretterson, Graham Barton,
Cody Mott and Luke Getke.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
So Wurf's like a trooper. Was one of the best
right tackles in the league this time last year. They
moved him to left. He didn't skip a beat and
he's got a massive contract a couple days ago which
allowed get g to be his natural right tackle spot,
and so they got they firmed up two spots with that.
If Barton's what they're cracked up to be, then they
should be fine.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Twenty one. The Raiders, you got Colton Miller, Jackson Powers, Johnson,
Andre James, Dylan Parham, and Thayer Mumford. The right side
was bothered.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, that's a lot like the Titans, where the center
to left tackle looks pretty solid and there's some star
power there and some youth, but the right side would
worry me.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's another one that maybe you could probably a receiver
off of them. Yeah, by Dang a interior offensive lineman
to day. I would think the forty nine ers at
number twenty agreed. Trent Williams, Aaron Banks, Jake Brindle, John
Feliciano no resation relation to Jose and Colton mckivitz. I

(15:15):
don't believe there's a Jose Feliciano connection there. I don't
think so.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Yeah, Trent Williams is awesome. He's holding out, he's old,
but he's awesome. There's been a lot of talk that Pooney,
the rookie out of Kansas, could take one of the
guard spots, but it's the Miami Shanahan, you know, McDaniel.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
We don't care about the offensive line, right Yeah, I'll
scheme it up and give me one really good left tackle.
At nineteen the Cowboys, they fallen quite a bit, Tyler Guiton,
Tyler Smith, brock Hoffman, Zach Martin, Terrence Steele.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
From what I understand, it's kind of like the Steeler situation.
Geyiton and Beebee was a third round pick that they're
projecting as a center.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Neither are yet running with the ones they're hoping that
they do, but they need them more than the Steelers
do right now. Too. Yeah, they've they probably the best
at the guards in the league though at eighteen the
Baltimore Ravens, they probably were like five last year though
you looking at Ronnie Stanley, Andrew Voorhee's, Tyler Linderbaum, Ben Cleveland,
Roger Rosengarten.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
I still probably would have him lower. Although there aren't
many lines I'd say they have blown my doors off
that we've discussed. Yeah, yeah, but that's a big area concern.
That's counting on Ronnie Stantle.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Like every every year, this time of year, this is
Ronnie Stanley looks great. Yeah, he looks like he's back
from his injury. Talked to me at Halloween. Yeah, right,
and then you have five games into the season he's
out there, you know, playing half the snaps. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
The one thing they do have is even nice six
man and McCarry that he can fill in a lot
of spots, but he's a six man.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
He's a six man. Yeah. Seventeen Houston, Laramie Tunsell, Kenyon Green,
Juice Scruggs, Shaq Mason, Titus Howard, Kenny Green has not
lived up to be in a first round guard. I
mean usually usually those hit. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
They were the most injureda line in the league last year,
so I could see them taking a big step forward.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Sixteen is Cincinnati Orlando Brown, Cordell Volson, Ted Carris, Alex Kappa,
Trent Brown.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
With a rookie and mimes. He got way yesterday. Oh
did he really he did. They took him to the hospital.
So they're massive. I think their interior is very average.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yeah, you know, uh, I hear the about MEMS. Fifteen
is Denver, Garrett Bowles, Ben Powers, Sam Mustafer, Quinn Miners
and Mike McGlinchey.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
They're all about run blocking. Miners is a star in
the making and he's got paid accordingly. But like Cleveland
and McGlinchey, I mean, they're all big bangers. Those of
the guys Peyton Went and got I don't know if
i'd be that high on Denver either. Fourteen is been
for centers are bad.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, Deon Dawkins, David Edwards, Connor McGovern, Cyrus I'm sorry,
O Cyrus Torrance, and Spencer Brown.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
This seems to me like when you're getting to be
average or above, you know, like this group's pretty solid.
They've invested a fair amount in into their you know,
and I've been mentioning this for years. I think they're
finally realizing that they played football in Buffalo. Yeah, and
you know they're starting to go get O Cyrus Torrens,
who's three hundred and forty pounds in those type of guys.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
At thirteen, the Los Angeles Chargers, Sean Slater, Zion Johnson,
Bradley Boseman, Trey Pipkin's Joe Alt. You want it to
be higher than that, Yeah, I mean considering that you
spent multiple first round draft point picks on that line. Unfortunately, Lindsay,
the center has hard issues, and you know that was
somebody they had invested in and counted on. Zion Johnson

(18:38):
is another first round guard that's been okay, but you
would think they'd hit it by now. I mean, he
needs a show it this year. But they're one of
those them and the Steelers, or the two that I
think have. If I had like a pair of tackles
to build around Slater and Alt would be right there
with the two of the Steelers. Yeah. At twelve, you
have the Rams, Alaric Jackson, Jonah Jackson, Steve Avilla, Kevin Dotson,

(19:02):
and Rob Haven't seen.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
It's nasty and they spent a lot on guards, probably
too much. Avilia then goes from guard who was good
as a rookie to center. He's the biggest center in
the league. The tackles aren't special, but they're nasty, you know.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
At eleven, the Chicago Bears Braxton Jones, Tevin Jenkins, Ryan Bates,
Nate Davis, Darnell Wright. I think it's a little.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Kind to the Bears. I think Wright's going to be
a really good player and was impressive. I think the
interior is very ordinary. Yeah, at ten, you have the Steelers, Okay,
I'll take the Steelers over everyone mentioned.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, he's projecting Roderick Jones, Isaac samalos At Fraser, James Daniels,
Troy Fatanuk. We haven't seen that yet, No, we haven't.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
If the thirty three team asked me to do line
ranks and projected starters, I probably would do the same.
And I didn't click on this, But it doesn't look
like he's addressing depth very much. But I'll put the
Steelers second line O against anyone in the league.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah. Yeah. Nine is Minnesota Christian darrisaw Blake Brendle, Garrett Bradbury,
ed Ingram Brian O'Neill. Eight the Green Bay Packers, Rashid Walker,
Elton Jenkins, Josh Myers, Jordan Morgan's a tom.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
I wouldn't trade the Packers or Vikings whose Vikings tackles.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Are really good for the stealers. And that's the average tier. Okay,
so the average here a little bit deeper. At seven
are the Jets Tyron Smith, John Simpson, Joe Tipman, Elijah Vera,
Tucker Morgan moses it's just old fragile. Yeah, but at
least there's the first round picked floating in there too.
At six is Kansas City Kingsley Suematiah, Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey,

(20:42):
tray Smith, Jawan Taylor. I think that line is overrated
at this point. I do too.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Left tackles a question. Right tackle did not live up
to the billing.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah. At five is Indianapolis Bernard Raymond, Quenton Nelson, r Kelly,
will Fries and Braden Smith.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Took a big step forward last year. A lot of
us because Raymond got a lot better.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Four is Atlanta Jake Matthews, Matthew Bergeron, Drew Dolman, Chris Linstrom,
Caleb McGarry.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
More geared towards run blocking than protection, but it might
be the best run blocking line of the league.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Three is Cleveland Jedrick Willis, Joel Patonio, Ethon post White, Taylor,
Jack Conklin. I tend to think the arrow is going down,
but they also have to want Jones floating around there too. Yeah.
Two is Philadelphia Jordan Mattia, Landon, Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Tyler, Steen,
Lane Johnson. Yeah. Man, man, they've been one forever and

(21:34):
now that Kelsey. That's the above average tier, and you
have the elite tier is Detroit Taylor, Decker, Graham, Glasgow,
Frank Ragnow, Kevin Zeitler and Penney Sewell. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
And they lost the guard to the Rams and replaced
him as Zeitler, who's fine. And they drafted too, Yeah,
so they'll be fine.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Those are Ross Tucker's offensive line.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
Rakings, Yeah, I might have the Seilers are mid higher. Yeah,
especially when its all say and done. I mean it's
hard to say too. Those guys aren't even starting yet, right.
If we're lying up today, you don't exactly know what
you got in then.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, absolutely, let's get to a break. He is the
Matt Williamson. I'm Dale Lolly. You're listening to the Drive
here on Steelers Nation Radio and Fox Sports Pittsburgh. We
are live from Steelers training camp here at Saint Fncent College.
We'll be back with more right after this.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on
your twenty four to seven Home of the Black and
Gold Steelers Nation Radio, and.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
We are back here at Saint Vincent College. I'm Dale
Lolly here with de Matt Williamson, and this is the
Drive on Steelers Nation Radio. We're also simulcasting here on
Fox Sports Pittsburgh the Steelers practicing later tonight over at
latrob Memorial Stadium. I can head in for that and
go get the it's always good invite ticket, Yes, fireworks afterwards,

(23:01):
the whole deal. It's a fun time. It is, so
Matt five for Friday today, I made a note of
the kicking of Cameron Johnston. It's been super impressive, it
really is. And so I went back and I looked
at the net average, the franchise best net average or

(23:22):
you know, gross average, I should say, a player or
for a punter in the history of the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Hasn't been their strongest position over the year, has not.
So Bobby Joe Green not to be confused with Joe Green, Yeah,
unfortunate name for Steeler Lore.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Averaged forty five point seven yards per kick over twenty
six games in nineteen sixty and nineteen sixty one. That's
the best for anybody who's kicked in more than ten games. Okay,
fair enough, Good for you, Bobby, Joe Green. Yeah, Jordan Barry,
the team's punter from twenty fifteen through twenty twenty, was
forty four point four yards per kick. He also placed

(24:03):
forty percent of his punts inside the opposing twenty, which
is a team record for more than he was better
than I remember. Yeah, yeah, okay, he was pretty solid.
In his career with the Eagles and Texans, Johnston has
averaged forty seven point three yards per punt. Really, and
he has put and this is his career forty point
nine percent of his kicks inside the opposing twenty. Wow,

(24:26):
that's great. That shows up.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
I mean, I hesitate because anyone listened to us, we
would see her and go wow, Presley Harvin preshob But
it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
His driver was impressive, yeah, I mean, and still he'd
put woman in the woods once in a while here
let alone.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
We saw what happened to games and as weather hit
and all that for Harvin. But boy, he could kill
it this guy though. I mean the other day he
was putting him on the five over and over, you know,
with these different.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Suns or having them heading just dead right there.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah, they don't. Punting's come a long way. Like there
was a guy that was on the Brown staff with
me that went on to become the assistant special teams
coach with the Colts, and ten years ago I ran
into him. I'm like, why on earth it has the
rules changed for punt returners. Used to be if you stood,
put your heels on the ten and if you had

(25:22):
to go back to the case anymore.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Not anymore.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
And He's like, because these punters have so many clubs
in their bag, they can really deaden it. They've gotten
to the point now. And Johnston's like the best I've
ever seen live do it, where the if he wants
the point of the ball never is the first thing
to hit. Yeah, so therefore you hit kind of flat
and it sort of stays right right. And I was

(25:44):
watching him swing his leg. He was maybe doing fifty percent.
I mean, it was just all touch. I mean it
was like shooting a free throw, just doing it over
and over and over. And then when he lets it go,
he'll hit this spiral that has great spin on it
goes straight up in the air with distance and comes
down hard. You know, like a rocket, and it's gonna
be hard to deal with. So I think you said

(26:06):
something on the lines of he's gonna be a weapon.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
I agree with that. I remember about this last year
in Houston, forty five point five percent of his punts
were downed inside the twenty.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Wow, you'll take that all day long, almost half almost half.
You're starting with worse than average field position or whatever. Right,
that's goods a long way, man.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
I don't know who Houston's punter is this year. It's
gonna be worse. It's gonna be worse than what he was. Yeah,
and uh, you know, I think you know, when you
look at a team, I.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Wonder, with all their money, why wouldn't they I don't
know what their punting situation.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Yeah, I don't know why they Maybe maybe they just
saw we're not gonna punt.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yeah, I don't know, but I don't know why you
let him go. Yeah that's crazy you mentioned you did.
It's not like he's never dealt with weather either.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah you know. So, No, I'm excited about that. Yeah,
that should be interesting to watch. I do think he's
going to be something of something. You know, again, they
can win games in the margins with a guy like
that helping on special teams.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
And last week one of us said something along the
lines of and no crappy ones, you know, I mean,
don't give me the fifteen yard or where the defense is.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Like you're punting out of your own end zone and
you hit one twenty five yards, yeah, goes bounds or whatever. Yeah,
I mean that's deflating. Oh, it's really deflating. You want
to I mean, that's when you want to get the
driver out. Yes, And that was when Presley Harbin would
struggle the most, sometimes late in the season when you
need the most.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
And things like that, And I mean, I feel for
the kid, but it'd be tough being his teammate, going,
you're here for one thing, you know. I mean, I
know you're not gonna be perfect every time. No one
expects a field goal kicker, but put between the uprights
every time. But you can't leave us hanging like that.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah. Often. One of my other main points of my
five for Friday was that the Steelers might might keep
a true fullback on the roster this year. I'm really
leaning that way.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
I don't know how much you and I have talked
about this, but I've been watching practices with Labs and
I going, it keeps going, there's be a fullback on
this roster, Labs.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
I mean, there's.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
So many practice reps here have had a fullback on
the field. I don't I think you corrected me that yesterday.
I yesterday he hardly played at all Coleto there's only
one fullback on the rock. But he did more special
team stuff. He did more special team stuff. And I
think it was you that said, yeah, because they have
pads on they when tonight when they're banging, he's gonna

(28:29):
bang because he can bang.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
And he's he was with the Niners. I mean, so
he probably has some use check like skill sets. So
last year with the Falcons, Kevin Keith Smith, who was
their full back, he played one hundred and eighty five
offensive snaps, which is sixteen point five percent of their snaps.

(28:52):
The Steelers that kind of game, Yeah, the Steelers haven't
had a fullback played that many offensive snaps since Roosevelt
Nicks in twenty seventeen.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Sur I mean, that's a pretty fair amount. Yeah, I mean,
so I think eight to ten is probably the neighborhood
you're going to see. And it's old school it's I,
you know, yeah, it's him and behind center I formation.
And I do think that there's a reason that such
players are becoming less and less, you know, semi extinct

(29:22):
in that they don't catch the ball. They're not super
scary as receivers. But that being said, there are so
many second level players in this league, linebackers that don't
really know how to handle a full back. I mean,
if a fullback comes through a B gap, do I
take on his right shoulder? I take on his left shoulder.
I played at Oklahoma in the Big twelve and never
saw one in my life, you know what I mean.

(29:43):
And they come at you hard, and my linebackers are lighter.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Now.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
My only question was with that. A. Is Jack Kletto
going to be any good on special teams? Because he
has to be useful there. He has because if you're
only playing one hundred and eighty or so snaps, you
better be able to do some other things. Yeah. B.
Is he better than Connor Hayward. He's probably a better
lead blocker than Connor Hayward or Michael Pruitt. Right, but

(30:07):
mikeel Pruitt's done a fair amount of that in his
career as well.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Could you save the roster spot at the point, and
maybe it's six plays a game as opposed to ten
if it's one of those guys I don't know, I
mean short yard and stuff here, seven shots, he's been
really effective, I mean, and they don't.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
But they've also used Michel Pruett doing some of that
stuff too. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
I haven't seen as much Iso Downhill blow the linebacker
up from Pruitt and Hayward, but I've seen a lot
of fullback alignments and movement stuff.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, so that will be interesting. Yeah, just something to
keep an eye on here when they get into their
first preseason game. Is Coletto out there on a lot
of different teams. I'm sure he will be. They'll take
a look at him there. Yeah, but if he isn't,
he's in trouble. He has to be valuable on special teams.
He has to maybe not as good as Derek Watt,
but he has to be one of your best eleven.
That was one of the things with Watt that I

(30:56):
think people misunderstood. Like he was signed to play special teams.
He was basically signed by the Steelers to the same
contract that like the Bills signed Matty Kvitch. Yeah, yeah,
there's no difference there. Matta Kaevitch never played on defense
for the Bills.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
No, no, I mean it didn't matter. If killer Brew
is an S an extra name, Matty Kavich has an LB,
he might as well have an STV team and as
their special team, you know, monsters. And yes, Matta Kavitch
and Killerbrew could get you out of a game. And yeah,
Watt played on offense a little, but that's not why
he was employed.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
No, no, no, And it wasn't because he was TJ's
brother either. No. No, he's a really good special team
He was a really good special team player, right. Yeah.
And it's the same same thing with with with Connor Hayward,
Like I still get I wrote a story about Connor
Hayward this offseason. The only reason he's on the team
is because he's Cam's younger brother. No, it's not the case.
I got to get picked up in a second. Yeah,
there's no doubt he puts good tape out there. Yeah,

(31:50):
I think he's going to be a weapon this year
as well. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
I think the way that this scheme moves him around
fits him quite well.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, So I do believe that's going to be the
case with that, uh Mattam. We talked a little bit
about the whole offensive lineman if they if they false start,
having to run. Yeah, thing, it's kind of old school.
And in previous seasons, Pat Meyer if they if they
fall started, will pull You'd immediately pull them out and

(32:19):
they go stand on the sideline. Arthur Smith has taking
that a step further and and now has them you
have to run a lap. Okay, if they if they jump,
if they false start. I know people might look at
that and well, yeah, that's because it's been a problem
for the Steelers. It really hasn't. No, it hasn't. No,
it hasn't. They were they wanted to be, but they
had the second fewest false starts in the league last
year on offense. YEP.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
I think penalties across the board is I'm not making
funny you guys, Steeler fans, but you you look at
you guys really focus on your team more than the
league as much as any fan base I've seen, and
just assume that the Steelers are a heavily penalized team
when the facts don't back that up at all. Yeah,
I mean, it's particularly with the false starts up.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
They had twelve false starts as a team. Last year.
They didn't have an individual player with more than two. Wow.
That was Darnell Washington and Chuokes.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Of Corps for and remember how they started the season,
both Garrett Crosby, I mean, the other pass rushers in.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
The league, the Ravens.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
The Ravens defense is one of the best at causing
offenses to make because they move around so yeah, yeah, yeah,
you can.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Get you to jump easy. And so were the Browns.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
Actually I'm really nerd now, but the Browns, Steelers, and
Ravens are three of the best defenses at creating offensive penalties.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
Yeah, and Steelers didn't bite, I didn't take the cheez
you know. The NFL leader sing single individual leader in
false starts Dylan ra Dunes with the Titans. He had nine. Nine.
He had almost as many by himself as the Steelers
had as a team. Wow.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
And we just did the other line ranks and he's
coming back at right tackle, even though they drafted a
right tackle that we like.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, but I but I do think that they're you know,
with with five offensive linemen drafted in the last two seasons,
and three of them this year, I do think it's
good to reinforce that now. Yeah, and we've seen that.
It's been the rookies, it's been you know, uh, you
know several times. I've seen the rookies be the guys
that have to run because you're just you're just trying

(34:21):
to get a little bit extra.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
You're thinking a little bit more too, and it's not
second nature. And yeah, and it's small thing, but I
bet all these linemen are getting used to these quarterbacks
cadence too, a little bit of that too. You never
dealt with them, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, so there's there's a little bit of that. But
it hasn't been a problem here. No, No, I hope
people aren't. Like, boy, they're jumping off sides left and right. Here,
there's been a couple of people running like you just
notice it because they they immediately run out. The defense
makes fun of them, and they.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
Sure they feel shame, They feel shaved. And those three
hundred and thirty pound guys with pads on don't love
running around and.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Gets singled out a little bit more too. When everybody
sees you running a lap around the field like they don't.
They don't make the defensive linemen if they jump off sides,
go on right right.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
I wonder we did the old line ranks. The Falcons
were really high, and they should have been. I wonder
what they were in false star penalties. They had more
than the Steelers. Yeah, they were like sixteen. They probably
ran more.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
In fact, yeah they were sixteenth. They had sixteen because
they basically had about one a game. Now that's not
even all offensive linemen. As I mentioned, Darnell Washington was
typed for the Steelers league with two I mean receiver receivers. Yeah,
false start all the time of that nature. So yeah,
that's not necessarily just an offensive line stat good point. Yeah,
so but yeah, you know, and I think you know

(35:39):
something as well that happened yesterday we didn't really get
a great chance to talk about was the resigning of
Marcus Golden. I love it. I love it. I thought
that there was a clear roster hole.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
I'm not talking about a starting receiver that they could
use or something like that, but I mean a spot
where I don't know who's going to fill that, and
they seem to kind of have some interest in move
Perilous who got hurt has bounced around here a little
bit too. But Golden to me is a professional. Yeah,
I mean, he's a solid, sturdy run defender. I'm looking

(36:14):
at I posted something here after they signed him. I'm
digging up on my phone here, because how about this.
He only had eighty eight pass rush snaps last year
for the Steelers. Four sacks and eighty eight pass rush
snaps and thirteen pressures. You know, we don't love pressures,
but yeah, the rush pastor eighty eight times and was
highly effective doing so that's great. Yeah, okay, keep them fresh.

(36:36):
And they didn't have, you know, knock on wood, they
didn't have a lot of injuries at that position last year,
so they didn't have to really test their depth all
that much.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
The other thing that does allows you, you know, if
in fact her Big is going to be highly used
on special teams again, which I assume he will be.
Sure looks that way, you don't necessarily have to have
him be the backup both spots on the outside. You can.
You can have Golden back up on the right and

(37:03):
her Big on the left or however you want to
do that and just it just have them play sides basically.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Yeah, And you know, if you get matchups two with that,
you do so her Big led the team in special
team snaps last year. By the by the looks of things,
and as well as this signing, I think there's a
good chance he's in contention for it again.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
And if you got to think about this, if you
just run down on the punt team, you don't want
to have to defend Lamar Jackson the next play, you
know what I mean. Like, I know he's not a starter,
but he might be when there's an injury or whatever. Night,
He's have another option, and Golden's good, and.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
He gives him a different look than her Big, Like
her is. Herbig's the speedball off the edge. He's probably
twenty pounds heavy, whereas Golden is the you know, the
powerful technician, better and tough. Yeah. The other thing too.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
We've talked about this a thousand times, but I think
one of the reasons Golden's still out there is he
has a special teams and bag. But I wonder, you know,
everyone's learning this kickoff rule together. I know he's an
older dog to teach that trick to, but no one's
done it before.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah. Just watching that game last night, it was basically
everybody was kind of like, kind of you take it
on the block and trying to duck under and get
to the get to the back. Yeah, they all have
a gap. That is what it looked like to me.
He could do that.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah, I mean he's only been for one practice and
he wasn't involved, which why would he be. But I
wonder if tonight or tomorrow he gets some of that.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Yeah, that'll be something to watch here over the next
few days. Is a because he has to have the
acclamation period. Oh right, right right, I forgot.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
It applies to every player, not just the team as
a whole.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
So we'll see where they mix him in at once
they once they get into this and uh, Matt, we're
basically we're one week out from a game.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
I know, we saw when last night, which is the
most anti climatic thing in NFL all the time. But
Steelers are gonna be I had a game. I mean,
like there'll be a lot to talk about even this week.
I mean we probably have a couple of real physical
practices coming up as well. I'm pretty excited. I'm pretty excited.
I like where this team is at right now. I
want to see more Russell Wilson, you know.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Yeah, I wonder if he makes it out there tonight. Yeah.
Do you think he'll play in Week one or the preseason? Yeah,
I'm leaning that way as well. But if he get
ramped up all week, that'd be a good start. Yeah.
He's been doing a little bit more each day. Yeah,
but they're just slow playing this because they know what
they have in him.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
Guys, trust me, I saw him in the cafeteria an
hour ago. It's not like he's got anything wrapped. He's
bouncing around. He's in good and you know he's in
good spirits. If it was Week one, he'd play, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
Yeah, no doubt. You know, I just think that they
he took all the reps throughout the preseason or throughout
the season stuff. Uh, he was there for everything. So
these people saying, well, he's going to be way behind.
I'm working with receivers, and I might add after practice
every day he's out there throwing with the receiver.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Yes, he's not doing a lot of running or changing directions,
but he's timing the time and some deeper throats.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
And even the other day after the walkthrough, he went
and took with went and worked with Najee Harrison, Jayalen
Warren on some routes and things that. I mean, they're
just they're getting he's getting the work.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
In and the little we played yesterday was by far
the sharpest I've seen any quarterback here.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah. You know, so he's been on the block. Yeah,
I'm not concerned about that at all. I'm not either
people trying to read too much into that stuff. And
like I said yesterday, you know, when Arthur Smith or
Mike Tomlin ar asked about Justin Fields, don't be surprised
when they say, oh, yeah, he's looking good. He's When
have you ever heard a coach come out and say, oh,
he's awful. Right, And I'm not saying I'm not saying
the Fields has been off, but that's what you say

(40:35):
about your guys.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah, and he is coming along well. I mean I
think they're happy with what he's doing. But I think
Wilson's just better. Yeah, way more experienced, especially if it's
eleven on eleven with on the road loud, picking up
blitzes and all the mental stuff. I mean, he's gonna
be really sharp with that.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Honestly, I think Fields would tell you that, Like nor
Russell's a guy, it's just the facts. Yeah, I mean
that's just the reality of it.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
And we talk all the time. There's this national misnome
er that there's a quarterback competition here. I don't think
anyone within the miles radius think there's a quarterback.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Competition, so either yeah, so uh, anything else from this
first week of padded practices stand out to you.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
I think they have ten good offensive linemen, which I
don't think there's many teams that could say that. I
think their defensive linemen are interesting. I'm starting to get
a little have an eyebrow up on Leo, you know.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
And I like it's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Yeah, and if with the addition of Golden and Hulcombe
still floating out there, I think this could be one
of the best front sevens in the league. I mean,
I think the linebacker additions are massive and have a
ripple effect in a huge way. We sort of touched
on it with Rob yesterday, but we you know, it
just kind of ran out of time. If they can
if they can play a higher percentage of Nickel, it's

(41:54):
going to help them dramatically. And even if it's big
Nickel with those three safeties, or or keeping Wilson and
Queen on the field for almost every snap or however
they decide to do it. Man, teams have attacked the
middle field against these guys, unfortunately since Ryan's years injury,
and I think the answer is finally solved. I mean,

(42:15):
it's not throwing Morgan Burnett at the problem or unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
But the other thing, you know, it's not Robert Splain
out there right right. And the other thing that they
can do now is that they don't have a tell right.
You know, in those previous years, Okay, Robert Splain's out there,
we're gonna go, you know, they're they're thinking it's going
to be you know whatever, and teams are going to
attack that. Well, now it's Patrick Queen, Yeah yeah, yeah,

(42:40):
Now it might be Peyton Wilson, it might you know
it Just it's a different You don't have to change
based on down and distance.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
And I wanted to give a shout out to Roberts too,
because when they signed him, I'm like, oh, I like
the way he plays, hard school patriot banger, and I
thought he'll be a rundown player.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Only he proved to be better than that.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
He outkicked what I thought of him when they signed
him last year, Like he could be out there on
third and six.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah, they've they've got legitimate linebacker depth. Yeah, which would
be interesting to see HLKM if he's you know, where's
he at?

Speaker 3 (43:11):
Yeah, which I guess leads me the other thing too,
Lowry Cordoll Patterson holk them.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
When do we see them? Patterson? I don't care about
it at all to be alarmed. No, keep him and Bubble.
We're up until the season starts. But they might have
some fun wrinkle with the offense with him, you know,
Jack keeps or something like that. Right, But again, he
knows the offense. True. He spent three years with ar
you know, Arthur Smith in Atlanta. It's not like Arthur
Smith's reinventing the wheel here. Like he could probably step
in there tomorrow and know the you know, if he

(43:38):
had to play fifty plays, know exactly what was going
on at receiver and running back.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
So which also, if they do keep a fullback and
they keep four tight ends, could Patterson be your third
receiver or your third running back and your fifth receiver
or you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (43:55):
I don't know. Again, you're you're always talking about that
position flexibility. Can you kill two birds with one stone? Yeah?
And then maybe you can keep a fullback and even like.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Connor, Hayward could get you out of a game if
you had a couple of running back injuries.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
You know, they get some guys who give you that
kind of flexibility.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
Between Hayward, Patterson, Preuit, you know, they could do a
couple of things.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yeah, so that's interesting. I don't see them keeping six
receivers this year now. I don't either. I mean, even
if they traded for one, I don't see them keeping six. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
I think Jefferson's making the team. You know, Pickens is
making the team. I don't know anyone else is guaranteed.
Roman Wilson, Oh okay, yeah, yeah, out of side, you're right.
I would think Austin, like Austin's chances, but I don't
know he's guarantee.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
But that would be four. That's four and then maybe another. Yeah. Yeah,
I mean, if I had to, if I had to
put money on it right now, who that guy would be?
To me? Watkins? Maybe it's Quas Watkins or Scotty Miller. Yeah,
and Watkins gives you a little bit something different, a.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
Little more proven to a little bit more of a
track record. Neither one is gonna help you on teams,
which doesn't help you know, there's no.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
Yeah, I don't know that any receivers are going to
help you on team unlessen gunner. I don't know that.
I don't think they have that guy. Yeah. I think
that's a big part of the Matta Cavis signing. Yeah,
but I don't I also don't think you can afford
to have that keep that guy right now based on
because you're not going to use him on kickoff, kick
returns or kickoff and you don't his return guy often
at least he's a punt returner. Yeah, so that gives

(45:29):
him a leg up. I assume corners will be your gunners.
I assume so as well, but I don't know which one.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
I don't know who that is. It won't be Porter, No,
it won't be Jackson, you know. Yeah, it won't be
something you're running out the pretty quick.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah, I mean, is it?

Speaker 3 (45:43):
Rush is a trice they're gonna have to That could
be the difference to make the team er off of
those guys, absolutely, or those nickel guys have a chance to.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Yeah, they better be good at it and start watching
that as well here. Yeah, once they once they start
kicking the ball for We've seen a lot of.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Punt in practice, no, because kickoffs starting to rule today.
So I really don't know who the starting gunners are
at the moment. I don't know if they know who
the starters. Yeah, a gunner are right now. That'll be
interesting certainly in game one.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Absolutely absolutely, let's get to another break. He is the
Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lollie. You're listening to The
Drive here on Steelers Nation Radio and Fox Sports Pittsburgh.
We are live from Steelers' training camp here at Saint
Vincent College where the Steelers will practice a little later
today over at Latrobe Memorial Stadium for their Friday Night
Lights practice. And go check that out over there. But

(46:33):
nobody's nothing going on here right now. But it's always
a weird day. Yeah, it is kind of a weird day.
Campus is kind of quiet, you know. I used to
seeing it not crowd up with people in all the
breakfasts for lunch and just everything's just a little off,
just a little different. But we'll be back with more
right after this.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamsons on
your twenty four to seven Home of the black and
Gold Steelers in radio.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Hey Steeler fans, you can gear up with the latest
sideline apparel, hats or jerseys of your favorite players, authentic
memorabili You have custom items and exclusives you can only
find directly from the team one of the official Steelers
pro shops. They're located to Decker Sure Stadium, Grove City, Premium,
Mount Let's or Tangarette Let's, or you can visit online
at shop dot Steelers dot com. He is the Matt Williamson.

(47:26):
I am Dale Lolly. This is the Drive on Steelers
Nation Radio and Fox Sports Pittsburgh were simul casting here
while we're at training camp. And I might add again, Matt,
if anybody out there is listening and you'd love to
sponsor the Drive on the Nation Radio, we're looking. We're
looking for sponsorships here so while worth through time. We
have listeners all over Yeah, we uh we get them

(47:46):
from all We've had a lot of people, just a
ton of people out here at training camp approach us
and say they're they're listening, and we always appreciate that.
It's uh yeah, always good to hear from the fans.
And uh, I've even got a few saying Matt that
they they they didn't like it at first when we
did it, but they've gotten back into fantasy football because
we talk a little fantasy football on a regular basis.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
Yeah, we had a couple of people say, well, now
I'm back in the league because you guys or man,
I learned a lot about the league even if I'm
not in fantasy.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yeah, and that's why we talk. I mean, it's not
just about fantasy football. It's about you. You learn a
little bit more about the league in general without question,
or we wouldn't do it. I mean it's I stole a.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
Snippet from Fantasy Life today and I sent it to
you and Rob about red zone passing, and it was
all about George Pickens could get a lot more fantasy
points this year and something's gonna go down. Well, the
crux of it was because Russ Russell Wilson is good
in the red zone good in the red zone, and
pick It was really bad to be honest with ye, right,
you know, so that that stuff matters.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
So we're gonna do a little fantasy mock draft here.
We haven't done one in a while, uh, and we're
using the Draft Wizard on fantasypros dot Com. The teams
we are drafting against. The number one is high at
as a kittle. No, Hyatt is a kite. There we go.
Got uh two is that it ain't so. The three

(49:08):
is the Murray up offense for is it urts so good? One?
Uh five is can't stop the Thieling Nice. Six is
bake Man and Robin. There you go. I like that. One,
uh seven is a glass of charpen a. Eight is
the Baker's dozen. Nine is Breesey's pieces. Good good, like

(49:30):
that we're picking at ten in this one. I did
kind of random start here. Better call Hall is number eleven,
So Breese Halls he's resenting there. Uh he's on both
sides of us, right, yeah, And then twelve is wattle waddle. Okay,
all right, So the pi we're ten is the bottom line?
Yeah right, okay. So McCaffrey, lamb Tyreek Hill, Jamar Chase,

(49:51):
Justin Jefferson, A mon Ross, Saint Brown, Bjeon Robinson, Breese
Hall and A. J. Brown went ahead of us. No
real shockers there. The top suggested pick for us Matt
Garrett Wilson. I don't hate it.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
I don't think there's a running back worth it, the
Bijon Breese.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
And yeah, the top running back to suggestion is Jamiir Gibbs,
and well, I think he will be used more this show,
yeah than Dynamic. Yeah, there's David Montgomery still a thing.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
I mean, if Gibbs were there or their next pick,
I'd strongly consider it. I don't think I could take
him over a safer receiver.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
That's the one running back duo in the league, Detroit's
that I would take over the Steelers right now. Yeah,
and outproduce the Steelers too. Yeah. What other receivers besides
Wilson or you're looking at Garrett Wilson, Pooka, Nakua, Marvin Harrison,
Davante Adams. I think he stands out, Chris Olave, Drake London. Yeah,
I think Garrett Wilson stands out for sure. Yeah it yeah, Drake,

(50:52):
Garrett Wilson, it is. That's a bit of a projection,
it is.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
But even without Rogers, he wasn't bad for fantasy. Yeah,
their quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Now we were back up here at two three and
the picks after us were Sakuon Barkley, Jonathan Taylor, Pooka
and the Koola Jamir Gibbs, who was running backs, got
hit pretty hard there. Three out of four. So it's
Travis at and Kiren Williams, Isaiah Paiceco, Devin and Chan.
I think i'd go receiver. Yeah, A lot of those

(51:21):
guys have bust potential. I don't want to take Marvin
Harrison Junior in their list. He seems too high. Yeah,
I would much rather have DeVante Adams there. You two.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
I have Adams ranked. He's my highest rank receiver that's left.
I'm five with it.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Yeah, that's a nice start at the receiver positions. Nice.
We're gonna we're gonna win the receiver position most weeks.
Oh yeah, with starting with those two guys. Now running
back is yeah, uh so running back here, we're back
up again. You got Rashad White, Joe Mixon, Josh Jacobs,
James Cook, Kenneth Walker, Aaron Jones. I kind of Kenneth Walker.

(52:00):
There are those guys.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
I think one of them will also be around the
corner too. Yeah, I think Walker is the best player.
I think Cook and White are attractive because they're receiving skills. Yeah,
I'm fine with Walker.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
There, although Josh Jacobs will catch some balls.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
Oh well, in Green Bay and mixing plays a ton.
That whole group to me is pretty even. Yeah, I
don't know we have to get two of them, but
I'm sure we could, especially little running backs that win.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
So I think the question would would you rather have
Josh Jacobs and Kenneth Walker or say Kenneth Walker and
Aaron Jones.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
It's about saying I think to me, I'd rather have Jacobs.
So you're saying take him now and hube Walker falls.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
If I remember, three of the four picks at the
eleven twelve teams were running running backs, so the chances
are we're gonna get you. No, only one of them
is gonna get swiped if anything. Yeah, I'm fine with that.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
And hope that Kenneth Walker we can slide him through
that next pick, but will be another Yeah, and he did. Okay,
So the picks were Nico Collins, Mike Evans, James Cooker,
Shad White. Okay, that didn't really hurt us. Then no,
let's do it two and two Kenneth Walker. There we go. Okay,
that's not a bad running back duo. No, it's not.

(53:18):
I mean I think Walker's undervalued in fantasy right now.
I think so too. All right, back up here, the
top Roger receiver available is George Pickens. Okay, I like that.
T Higgins, Keenan Allen, Terry McLaurin. That's the company that
George Pickens is keeping.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
I have them ranked ahead all those guys. I do too,
I mean but similar. I mean they're not far off.
I think we'd be really strong on wide receiver if
we do that.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Who's the tight end and who's the quarterback tight end?
You're looking at Dalton Kincaid, Evan Ingram, Kyle Pitts, George Kittle.
But one of them will be there. One of them
will be there once we come back around. I like
Kingkaid the best. But quarterbacks you're looking at Anthony Richardson,
Joe Burrow, Kyler, Murray, Dak Prescott. I think they Pickens.
I think you take Pickens as well. I think he's
my nineteen thrank receiver I was looking at this morning.

(54:04):
They have him as wide receiver twenty eight. That is
too low, too low, too low. I'm liking that a lot.
I'm like in our receiving corps a lot. That red
zone stuff I sent you today was remarks, I think
he gets a double digital touchdowns this year. I think
he's had like two catchuble passes in the end zone
his whole career. Yeah, like that's gonna change. Okay, the
tight ends now available at six three. If kN Kaid's there,

(54:26):
I think you run it up. He is not, Okay,
Evan Ingram, Coyle, Pits, Jake Ferguson, David and Joku. I like.
I like Pits is my favorite. I like Pits there
a lot. I think the Kirk Cousins factor. Yeah, he
was hurt much of last year difference. I'm that it
would be my selection too. Yeah, it's been kind of easy. Yeah,
we're not struggling here at all. We got basically all

(54:48):
of our starting spots in the lineup are now filled.
We can still get out of my weight quarterback either
quarterbacks available Kyler, Murray, Dak Prescott, Brock Perty, Jaden Daniels. Okay,
I bet they will be there though. Well, I like
I like Murray and Daniels.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
I like Murray a ton. Yeah, quick question. You know
I was thinking of something else when you say because
I didn't hear Murray, Because I think Murray stands out.
We have three receivers. Do we start three and a
flex or we start two in a flex, three in
a flex. Okay, so we still have a flex. We
could still do a flex spot.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
The top flex player available, Well, you got Rashid Rice,
Naji Harris, Jayalen Warren, DeAndre Hopkins.

Speaker 3 (55:27):
Hopkins just got hurt. Yeah, So I think Caler Murray.
I think Kler Murray's a chance to be the number
on quarterback.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
What's all said done? Like, there's not many people that
many problems with that can say that. Yeah, I don't
have a problem with that. He could rush for eight
hundred and throw for four thousand. Okay, so we did that.
Now we could fill our flex spot if you would
consider one of the Steeler backs. Well, Naji Harris went, so,
you got Nase I'm sorry, Yeah, Jayleen Warrem went so yeah.

(55:53):
Naji Harris, Tony Pollard, Javonte Williams, Brian Robinson are the
top backs of vag He's in my favorite of that group.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Yeah, I think he's going to catch more passes issues
watching practice, it seems that way.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Yeah. Yeah, and Russell likes to throw the running backs.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
Like they're they're doing what I thought they'd do more
of is when he came out of Bama. They're detaching
them a little bit. He's running real routes. They're certainly
detaching the man moving them back in. Who's the best receiver?

Speaker 2 (56:16):
I'm just curious. You're looking at Jordan Addison, Courtland Sutton,
Christian Watson, Xavier Worthy. I dodn't nawedge you over all.
I like nause. He's gonna get twenty touches a game.
Yeah yeah, yeah, at least eighteen. He's gonna eighteen to
twenty touches per game. I think he can spike his
receptions by it. I guess it's a good backup running back.
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
And you hate to say, I put if Warren guitar
Harris's money. I mean, yeah, he's one of those guys.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Okay, we're back up here again. Uh. The top players
available Jerome Four, Brian Thomas, Jakobe Myers, Zach Sharbonay, we.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
Have Walker, We do have Walk. Charbonnet is the best
of that group, and we have Walker. Would be done
done at running back.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Wide receivers available. You're looking at Brian Thomas, Kobe Myers,
Jamison Williams, Curtis Samuel Do you roll the roll the
dice here? On Jamison one.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
I love the player, all the reports are great. Year three,
I didn't love what he's done on the field thus far.
He hasn't played a lot, though, I know, I know
the opportunities areas.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Take Sharponne here, Okay, now we gotta we got our
running backs are down your set? Yeah, we have four
guys you can live with and wide receiver. Then you're looking, well,
I guess who you just went? Yeah he went, Jameson
Williams went. So you're looking at Brian Thomas to Kobe Myers,
Curtis Samuel, Josh Palmer. Quarterbacks, you're looking at Brock perty
Jaye Daniels is still there. I think I grab him.

(57:39):
Yeah that's a nice yeah. Yeah, side potential.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
If Murray had not been available when we picked a quarterback,
I would have around the corner. We can take some
shots on receivers though.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
Yeah, we gotta do that a little bit. So top
receivers available, Rashid Shaheed, Brandon Cooks, Mike Williams, Khalis Shakir.
I like all those guys. Yeah, for what we're paying
for him. So yeah, this is eleventh round. Johan Dotson
is there either, Gabe Davis to Mario Douglas, that old groups.

(58:13):
Dantavian Wicks hear really hearing really good things about him
from Packers.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Camp, I know, and everyone's talking about how can he
get past Dubbs and Watson and Reid. He might be
better all of them. Yeah, I'm not like predicting that,
but he might be the one, and they're all fighting
for the two.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
And if that's the case, you might be able to
get a guy like Romeo Dubbs. I agree, Yeah, who's
all of a sudden He's fine, I mean's fine, He's fine.
I mean he's an NFL receiver. Be buried though. All Right,
Dontavian Wicks is a little ups we can we can
afford to do an upside guy because of the three
starters that we got.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
Like, I think he's a really good football player. I
think the Packer's stile one there.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Khalis Shakira is still there. I'm fine with that too.
I wanted to go receiver here, Rashid Sihe, Brandon Cooks,
Khalil Shakir, Johan Dotson.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
I mean, Cooks is a two, he is, Shakiro might
be a one, though it might be. I also like Shaheed,
I think that offense we knows be better. I'm cool
with Shakir though, I mean they're all in the same
neighborhood for you. Yeah yeah, And we might need to
start one.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
So we have five receivers now that I think we can.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
The nice thing there, too, is if we missed on Wicks,
if he's the third or fourth there and he's unstartable,
Shaki is going to get eighty targets on the field
all the time.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
All Right, we're in around thirteen here. We just need
the best player available backup tight end to be a
We don't have a backup tight end. Cole Komette is there, Yeah, yeah, Oil,
Herbert Rashawn Johnson, Brandon Cooks. What else is there at
tight end? Well? Look, Muskgrave is there, Hunter, Henry Kate Aughten.
I might take a roll ice on musk Grave. Yeah,
I don't hate that. No, he could hit a lot

(59:53):
of those guys can't really hit hit. Yeah, all right,
musk Grave is to pick. Okay, good value pick there,
said they say the experts they do. We're around fourteen now.
We probably got to go defense and special teams here.
Just the last pickers are two more. We got what
we got three more defense. Oh we get well, we

(01:00:15):
do three. We have this is our last true position player.
Here's the thing, though, defense is available the Jets, the Steelers,
the Chiefs, the Bills. They gotta take the Jets. Like
at Jets defense. Yeah, buys in week twelve, which is
a good thing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
I don't mind the Chiefs or Steelers either, But no,
I don't either, but the Jets one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Later by yeah true, then I think you just take
best running back or receiver available.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Yeah. Okay, So looking at that, you got Kenneth Gabwell
Orodrick esteem the Mario Douglas, Clyde Edwards Hilaire yuck. How
about a receiver? I don't even mind have an extra
receiver Michael Wilson, Miles Sanders yuck. I don't think he's
even gonna make the team. Uh So, looking at their
you got to Mario Douglas, Michael Wilson, Rashad Bateman, Marvin Mims,

(01:01:09):
Jermaine Burton. I like some of these guys as prospects,
but not for re draft fantasy today. Quinton Johnston, Javon Baker,
DeMarcus Robinson. I don't hate that's gonna take De Marcus Robinson.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
He's in number three on a team that lives in
eleven and he was really productive and they gave him money.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Yeah, and what if comes to one play away from
being really productive? Do we trust cup to say? Seventeen games? No, Robinson,
look to stay healthy. Those guys around. Yeah, and we're
up here in round.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
I think Robinson's gonad up on my team a lot
at this neighborhood and people were like, why you have him?

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
Like, yeah, he could pay off quick. We gotta take
our kicker here. We've got Jason Sanders, Kay Fair Barn,
Tyler Bass, Jake Moody, well Fair, Baron's bye week is
in week fourteen. Oh great, there you go. He's gonna score.
That'll be fine. Yeah, we get a C minus for
that team didn't like it. Seventy out of one hundred.

(01:02:08):
We ended up with Kyler Murray at quarterback, Josh Jacobs
Kenneth Walker as our two starting running backs, with the
wide receiver group of Garrett Wilson, DeVante Adams, George Pickens.
Our tight ends is Kyle Pitts. Our flex player is
Naujie Harris the Jets defense, and ky Fair Barn is
our kicker. On our bench, we have Zach Sharboney, Jayden Daniels,

(01:02:31):
Dontavian Wicks, Khalil Shakir, Luke Musgrave, DeMarcus Robinson. Now we
went a little more upside potential on the bench there,
and we're maybe a little short at running back.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Yes, I don't love our I don't see a league
winning running back there. Yeah, potentially it's good. I probably
would give it a B minus, not a C minus.
It's not one of my favorite drafts that we've done.
I like Walker, but I felt like we kind of
had to go running back there.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Yeah, the way the draft fell, uh So looking at
the teams here, the team that picked first took running
back running back Christian McCaffrey Dereck Henry to start the draft.
That could be pretty much, but they're old. They are old.
I mean, what if they both hit the wall. The
team that picked eighth when Brest Hall, Travis atn Devin

(01:03:23):
at Chan. I don't like the eight ten part, but
I would love Hall in the first wide receiver there.
In eighteen. They then went C. J. Stroud in the
fourth round. So the receivers are Christian kirk Keenan Allen,
Jayden reed.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
It's not horrible, but that's not the approach I would
take you now, Like if you were taken a receiver
and said at.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
N that's lit worldly for Stroud for me too. He
isn't run the team that picked ahead of us at
nine when a j Brown, Brandon a Jaylen Waddle, that
could be good, could be but yeah, but they also
got you know what kind of running backs do they
end up with? Ended up with Joe Mixon and Zamir White.
They're just volume guys that aren't breaking. Yeah, and they
took McLaurin, Jake Ferguson, Tony Paul. Why would you take

(01:04:03):
their quarterback? Justin Herbert backed up by Tua herbertot her too. Yeah,
he's out until the season opener. Yeah. Yeah, Saquon Barkley
Jamir Gibbs was team eleven. They end up with Nico
Collins as their number one. Uh. They then took Rashad
White and t Higgins, Dalton Kincaid, DeAndre Hopkins, lab Mconkie,

(01:04:25):
key On Coleman. Dak Prescott is the quarterback. So you
can wait. That's a nice waight there. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
I don't love what they did by waiting, but I
like the move the weight there. I mean, they could
lead the league in pass the towns. Oh absolutely, I
think they did last year. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
But yeah, so that's a little fantasy draft there. We'll
change gears here a little bit and talk a little
more NFL stuff here. As you mentioned justin Herbert with
the foot injury planner for Fascia Toy those Linger too,
those are problems. Yeah, and I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
I mean he's one of the things you have to
worry about least with with the Chargers team. But it's
all new changes, you know. I mean, he's the leader.
He's a great young player. That's kind of reminds me
of like Burrow in camp last year, or you know,
is he gonna start the season strong in a new offense.
I have my doubts, and that injury lingers like crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
From what I understand how it works, and I hate
talking doctor stuff, is it's your it's your heel. It's
that it's like that tendon or whatever that like connects
to all your foot to your heel, and it heals
a little bit every day, and then you wake up
and you like break it again, and it like rips
every morning, and then each day.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Is just a little worse but or a little better.
But it's frustrating. Yeah, and painful and painful, right, very painful.
As I mentioned, Amarius Mims left on a cart. They
took him to the hospital yesterday for the Bengals. He
seems to be okay, he said, he's he's he said
he's okay. What type of injury was that that? I
didn't see what what the injury exactly was. Let's see

(01:06:06):
what they what they.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
Had wonder was such a big guy. Was it like
heat troke or heat exhaustion or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Yeah, nobody do. We'll figure it out. Yeah, but he
needs every rep he can get too. Absolutely, he didn't
play much in college. That was a problem. That was
one of the problems for him.

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
You would think the plan with him, like if he'd
be in the Steelers right now, I'd be like, he
needs to be out there every snap. He needs to
be out there a ton in the preseason and maybe
that's gonna slow him down to.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Yeah, so we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
Looking at that Bengals team and where the heck did
that go? I hate how they do this. They burrow
At this point, I believe has been the only quarterback
in the division who is who is I believe taking
every snap in camp.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
Who's been available for every pride and totally available. I
think you're right, You're think right. Lamar's had some illnesses.
We know what's going on here with Russ. I think
Watson had something, and plus he was coming back from
big injury. I think they wanted to bring him in slow. Yeah,
usually the opposite with Borrow.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
John Harbaugh reaffirmed that Justice Hill will have a major
role as the backup running back to Derrick Henry.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
He just hangs around. I never quite get it. Maybe
he's better on special teams. And I know, I think
they wanted to be Keaton Mitchell, who couldn't be any different.
But he's gonna be out a while. So very big
and he's tiny, right yeah, right, but he's gonna be
out a while. And you saw the Hopkins stuff too, right, Yeah, yeah,
he's gonna be out four.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
To six weeks. It's significant.

Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
It's significant, right, Yeah, that mean a guy like Burps
gets a bump or maybe I don't know, Yeah, I
don't know, but at least they did did address a
receiver position.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
Deontay Foreman is doing better after being he had a
blow to the neck that led to him being immobilized
and transported to a medical center for further evaluation. Are
going X rays and cat scans. They all came back negative,
but they're kind of counting. Cleveland's counting on Deontay Forman
a little bit. I don't think you can count on
Shubb and I think Ford's droomed forward is just a guy. Yeah,

(01:08:10):
I get for him a credit man.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
I mean, he came back from a really serious Achilles
He's one of the only running backs in history that's
had success post Achilles tear. He runs hard and he's
one of those guys if he's coach, have a hard
time cutting him. You know, he couldn't protection solid, gets
what's there in a little bit more does his assignment.
He's been a bunch of teams. He's not special anymore,

(01:08:32):
but good for you to have a career like that
after dealing with what he did.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
As I mentioned, Deshaun Watson's been in and out of practice.
He had a scheduled off day yesterday to rest his
surgically repaired shoulder. That's significant. I don't I don't think
people are talking about that one enough. I know that
he had shoulder surgery in the offseason.

Speaker 3 (01:08:49):
And there's so many things going against him, contract, off
the field, what they gave up for him, all that stuff.
But injuries have been right there with all of them.
I mean, poor play is the biggest problem really, but
he can't stay healthy either right now. And a shoulder, like,
I think that's still a thing for him. Yeah, something
right out of the woods.

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
Some of the videos I've seen him throwing up there.
I mean he's throwing interceptions, He's not the ball doesn't
look good coming out of his hand. I haven't heard
anything good yet, No, not at all, right right, Like,
I think they could be maybe bad. I think Jameis
Winston might play games, yeah, you know what I mean, Like,
you don't all of a sudden, you don't have Nick
Chubb out there to run the ball. And I understand

(01:09:29):
they didn't have that the entire second half, but they
also went to Joe Flacco because they went to more
of a passing offense. We always don't have Flaco. You're
gonna you're gonna be counting on Watson to throw the football.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
We always talk about actions and money. You speak louder
than coaching words. You got and sign Huntley and Winston.
That's weird. You know, you have a true starter that's
like the most expensive guy in the league, and you
try it, you try, you go get two true number
twos because they like dtr enough that he was a
fine three. Yeah, he's cheap, and now their quarterback room

(01:09:59):
is even. You're not going to keep four, I would
assume not. I mean, no one will give you anything
for Huntley or Winston or they would signed him, right,
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Elijah Moore also left their practice with a concussion yesterday.

Speaker 3 (01:10:10):
Okay, so something worth to keep an eye on. I
imagine he doesn't play preseason opener.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
Yeah, that's kind of a look around the AFC North
at what's going on there. Of course, the Steelers practicing
tonight over for their Friday Night Lights practice and should
be a physical practice. We've seen he is, seen him
get through these first few practices without any major injuries.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
Yeah, knock on wood on that. Revan Wilson has me
a little concern. But oh, in all, I mean some
bumps and bruises, and there were two or three things
like Rodney Williams, Roderick Jones where I went, oh no,
and then they were back a day later.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
I have noticed Broderick he kind of tweaked that elbow
the one day and he is wearing a brace on
that elbow now, so I wonder if he hyper excited
it a little bit. But he hasn't missed time. No,
he was back in that practice. He's a tough guy
like that. Man, He's definitely a tough guy. Yeah, kind
of a tone setter. They get a lot of tone
setters on that line now.

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
Even like a Herbig who's not a first round pick
or anything like that. He plays hard. Spencer Anderson plays hard,
Sam Malo and all three of the rookie of the
young guys McCormick.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
McCormick was mixing it up. Really been impressed with like
their second team line in the preseason game lines. Yeah,
is going to be interesting to watch.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
I think he'll be as good as any Again, I
think they have ten legit guys, all of whom have
pretty distinct positions. You know, they have four tackles, four
guards to center, you know what I mean. Yeah, so
they get little bit of a position, a lot of
depth there.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Again, when you start counting numbers with this team, and you, okay,
if you're gonna keep four tight ends in three running
backs quarters, you only keep five wide receivers, but you're
still probably need to steal a spot somewhere on that offense.
You know, on that offense, I.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
Think nine's probably the O line number and they have ten.
There's none of those guys I want to cut. I
don't want to cut cook. I don't want to cut.
I understand what care you get in trade? I guess yeah,
or hopefully they're all healthy that you can trade one
of them.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
Right, So that's that's something to keep an eye on.
The same thing defensive line. Like you start counting numbers
and all of a sudden you're like, okay, we're maybe
you got seven of guys with louder Milk.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
Idn't think he's in trouble, you know, I mean, or
needs to do more. At least they like Loudermilk. I know,
I know, But I don't think Lowery's in cut. I
don't think Adams is getting cut. You need to see
Lowery on the field here, that'd be nice, that'd be nice. Yeah,
but he's a pretty proven track record. Yeah, there's pro
I would like to see him soon though. Yeah, I
think he is going close news.

Speaker 2 (01:12:32):
Yeah, you know, linebackers same, you know they keep four
or five Matta Kaevitch is one. I think they keep five.
I think Robinson is uh. I think he's in trouble.
He might be in trouble this year.

Speaker 3 (01:12:43):
Yeah, and signing Golden that's one of the fifty three. Yeah,
I mean that they didn't have yesterday, you know, so
as is the case. I mean, there will be some
tough cuts, there's no question about that. I just don't
think there's a chance they add somebody else from outside
the organization too.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Yeah, I think it's again, would change the change the
dynamic of the numbers there, without a doubt, without a doubt.
But I think you know, when they when they get
down to cut, this is gonna be tough cut this year. Yeah,
it is.

Speaker 3 (01:13:09):
I still don't know what to make a corner outside
of you know what Sutton is, you know his situation,
you know the two starting outside guys, both of whom
have I think have looked really good. I think Jackson's
looked quite good. Other than that, I don't know exactly
what to think of corner. But there's talent and there's
size and length, and you know, we'll see who steps up.

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
Yeah. Yeah, that that's uh, definitely something to watch here
as we move forward here into week basically week two,
because yeah, I think one was that first week is
not in pads, you know, really training camp started on Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
I say, the dog days are starting to kind of
settle in a little bit. It's gotten a little bit hotter.
Friday Night Lights is always a I guess kind of
like halftime, yeah, give or take, you know. So the
preseason games are right around.

Speaker 2 (01:13:56):
The corner, Right around the corner again, we always sneak
up on a week from today, the steel will be
playing their first preseason game. Can't wait for that to happen.
Can't wait for Friday Night Lights tonight and see what
happens with all that.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
But Matt, that's going to do it for our show
today and tomorrow we'll have we'll be on during practice
three to five. Yeah yeah, I mean that's the weekend thing.
And will Friday Night Lights to review yep.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
And then when we come back for our regular weekday
schedule starting next Tuesday, Rob will be back with us yep. Yep.
So there we go. We'll have that. Man. It's fun,
absolutely moving along with training camp here that it's a
definitely a moving train that you never never slows down,
never slows down. Hopefully we get weather issues resolved tonight too. Yeah,
things change on a daily basis, but that's going to

(01:14:39):
do it for our show today. So for my partner
Matt Williamson, for Justin Miller back on site keeping us
on the air as he always does, I'm Dale, Lolly.
We appreciate you listening to this edition of the Drive
on Steelers Nation Radio and Fox Sports Pittsburgh.