September 9, 2025 • 44 mins
Matt and Wes discuss all the latest injury updates given by Mike Tomlin at his weekly press conference, as well as the addition of Jabrill Peppers
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Your tunes about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Goal Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
What's going on Steelers Nation.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It's the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network. West Shouler and Matt Williamson with you here
on a Tuesday where Matt, we have certainly got some.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
News of the day to get into.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, Mike Tomlin's press conference just happening a few hours ago,
and some moving and shaking with the Steelers roster pretty
significantly here, let's kind of dive into this first with
Mike Tomlin's injury updates.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, and start there. Yeah, and I think we'll get
into the move.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
That will kind of lead to the move that the
Steelers have made, the addition that the Steelers have made
here to the roster as well. So at his weekly
Tuesday press conference, Mike Tomlin for this upcoming week against Seattle,
the home opener of course, one o'clock at Akersher Stadium,
ruling out Derek Harmony, ruling out the Sean Elliott, Okay,
ruling out Malik Harrison. Okay, those three will be out
(01:12):
all oddly enough with knee injuries. So a similar type
of same church different pew f Yeah, yeah for those three.
Mike Tomlin said he is optimistic about Joey Porter Junior
and Nick Herbig good.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Okay, Herbig was fifty to fifty ish a week ago.
I thought it was a good move to keep him out.
Harrison played some outside linebacker in his stead. Sawyer played
quite a bit. Now you don't have the Harrison option,
and Harrison and Sawyer are much different players than Herbig.
And Seattle does want to run the ball a lot,
but not to the Jets level, I don't think. I mean,
(01:44):
Jets are a running team and did it very well.
Obviously Herbig's not a run stuffer, so give him another week.
Cool harmon, No shock there. I mean I think we
knew that. Maybe next week we'll start to have the
conversation of maybe or does he go to Ireland with us?
Or who knows? You know, we'll see the big news
(02:05):
to me, But not to discredit Harrison. I mean, Harrison's
a decent player. He's a bottom the roster guy. He's
a good special teamer. But Elliott was one I was
concerned about. Especially. I'll break the news. I'm sure people
already know when it comes across that they signed Jabrill Peppers.
I immediately thought, that's not the season ender for Elliott.
This is terrible. And then all the reports started to
(02:26):
come out, you know, since the Prince conference that no,
that's not the case. But did he I don't know
if you know the answer this or not. Did he
mention Harrison or more importantly, Elliott as into reserve guys
or are they like week the week I got the
oppression they were more weak the week, especially Elliott.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I did as well too.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I don't know if he laid that out, you know,
directly the exact roster, the exact kind of spot that
they're in right now.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
But according to that's not always his movie either say
well this guy's going to injury reserve. You just get
the notice in an hour or whatever.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
To the the insiders, right, the Jordan Schultzes of the world,
the Adam Schefters of the world, Deshaun Elliott will miss
a couple weeks with an m c L sprain, all
things considered, not viewed as a serious injury. The goal
is to be back for Week four against the Vikings
in Ireland. That last part, according to Jordan Schultz, right, so.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
That's probably avoids I are I IR is at least four, so.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Which which a void.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
George Kittle just got placed on as well too. I
and I think this is.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
And that can change because like the day ago, Kittle's like,
hey he's an avoid IR. Things are good.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You know, things can can always change rapidly.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
But I think inflammation doesn't go down or I don't
know the.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Medical stuff in the grand scheme of things. Hey, like
all five of those names, those injured names that I
read off for you to start the segment to start
the show here are all on the defensive.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Side of the defenders.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So it's like there's already a little bit of attrition
on that side, and that.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Is the offense on Sundays.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yes, they I think, to say the least, I think
that's fair to say. The good news is though, like
losing a guy like Derek Harmon for the year or
for a long period of time would have been detrimental.
Oh yeah, losing to Shaun Elliott for the year or
for the long period of time could have bored it
on catastrophic.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Relatively for those guys.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Just to be a couple of weeks, it still feels
like you dodged a bullet and it's still manageable.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, I think in the scheme of things, when you
compared to thirty one other teams, you'll take it. I
mean it's probably not number one, it's definitely not thirty two.
You know, like you'll take it at this stage of
the game. You know, Harmon went off and originally went,
oh that looked bad. Elliet went off immediately was rolled out,
Oh that looks bad, and usually it's bad. Well it
wasn't that bad. At least it's not great. The Porter
(04:45):
stuff doesn't shock me either. I was wanting to throw
that out there. I mean, you do get a lot
of strains and pools and things like that, especially week
one dehydration. You know, heat haven't played a time, so
that one, as long as it wasn't like a tear
or anything, I wasn't overly concerned about. You talk Peppers.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Now, I was gonna say, that's where this all leads.
There was, as you mentioned, the news of the Steelers
signing Jabrill Peppers came across the timeline before Mike Tomlin's
press conference, before the Deshaun Elliott news came across the timeline.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yes, so there was.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I had the same reaction like, we have a we
have a group chat that's like the.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Broadcast booth on game days.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Basically, yeah, so Rob King, Max Stark's Missy Matthews, myself
and dan Quinlan And right when that news of Jabrill
Peppers broke, Missy sent it to the group, and Max
and I like seconds apart, texted like, oh no, that's
not good about hell yeah, but that ended up not
being the case, which is good news. But you're still
(05:46):
we would think gonna need Jabrill Peppers at least for
a few weeks to play some kind of role. So
what's that scouting report look like? What do we expect
from him?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
First off, I have no clue if there's any truth
to this or not, but I was shocked he got
cut first of all. Now I think he was let
go of New England for two reasons. First Off, he's
a big personality. He's a handful from what I understand,
good bad so's Ramsay Show's Rogers, you know, I mean, like,
that's not unusual, and the Steelers are not shying a
(06:18):
wife away from that at all. In fact, they're embracing it.
But it's not like they're bad people or not competitive
or taking plays off. It's kind of the opposite. It's
a lot you know, they're you know, and frankly, he
didn't fit this scheme as well as the Belichick scheme.
Belichick once guys that can do a lot of things
(06:40):
really well, which is exactly what Pepper's does. That they're
more of a too high scheme now with Vrabel and
this defensive coordinator, which the further away from the ball,
the less effective he is. I mean, they can find
it different. And he's making money, so let's save some money.
We're rebuilding team. It's not going anywhere. He's not a
perfect scheme fit. Okay, we'll move on. And I was
(07:00):
shocked when happened. But I did some homework today and
that all adds up. No, But what I was thinking though,
is I've been praising the defensive depth for months now.
Really the Steelers defensive depth. Omar's done a great job
tons of defensive line, and he brought in extra outside linebacker.
If Eccles is your fourth corner, wow, that's great. But
safety was the one spot where I didn't think it
(07:21):
was very good. You know, Holcomb's a great third inside linebacker,
but safety, even when everyone was healthy, I was kind
of like Chuck Clark's okay, got you out of the
game yesterday, But he's on someone I'm begging to play
Big Nickel with when everyone's healthy with three safeties on
the field.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And you've been talking about this since the Menka trade.
Yeah right, this is something you brought.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah, so you mentioned this a couple of weeks ago.
If you sign a vested veteran after week one, he's
not guaranteed anything. So I'm just curious this deal might
have been in the works last week before the injury.
Just curious, you know, like he would have been useful
if Elliott was one thousand percent, because I think he's
(08:08):
better than Clark and will be used in a similar manner.
Now here's my Sky report on him. I mean, he
was a phenomenal college player. Oh, people probably remember.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
That he was like his high school highlight tape and
coming out of his senior year of high school, he
was the number one recruit on a lot of people's
big boards.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Yeah, he was like Charles Woodson comparisons at Michigan, Right.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
He had like a Reggie Bush type highlight tape as
a defensive legendary, like a legendary high school tape as
a safety, defensive back, do it all stud on his
high school team.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Yes, and ended up high in the Heisman balloting. Finish.
I think he played a lot of offense for Michigan
from what I remember too, because I don't know it's
a lot, but I think, ye, maybe I can't remember.
He hit the ball in his hand some.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
It was the year that Lamar won the Heisman Trophy.
Funny enough, but he.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Ended up like fourth or fifth in the the balloting.
I think you said again, behind Baker and the guys
that were really good to Shaan.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Watson, DeShawn Watson, Baker, Mayfield, Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Not bad, not bad at all, quarterbacks, et cetera. So
he's a high pick. He's had a really good career.
We don't need to go his whole history, but the
recent tape of him is still really good. I don't
think he's declining at all. I think he's a good,
not great athlete. That's why I say the further away
from the ball has changed directions. Okay, he's a lot
(09:29):
more linear, fast in a straight line, more of a
downhill player. If he's a two high guy, you want
him coming towards the line of scrimmage more than flipping
his hips and going backwards. But still he's better than
Chuck Clark at those things, so you improved that aspect
of it. He's more strong than free, better in your
line of scrimmage. But he's really versatile, and if you
(09:50):
look at his snaps over his career, he's played slot,
he's played linebacker, he's played safety, he's played free, he's
played too high. And I wouldn't say he's awesome at
any of them, you know, but he's not deficient in
any I mean, I think he's quite good in all
exceptional tackler, like rare tackler, rarely, rarely, rarely misses a tackle,
(10:11):
and when he gets there, he's a thumper with the
expression yes, yes he can blitz. I think he's a
better football player than Chuck Clark. And when everybody's healthy,
I think you might start thinking about some big nickel stuff.
Assuming he fills in for Elliott and you like what
you saw, so kind of gift. He's still out there,
and again they may have jumped on him a week ago,
(10:31):
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
That is an interesting point from you that maybe this
is something that they had been planning on hoping on well, I.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Can't believe he's available and we can use the safety yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And you and I talked about it a little bit
of that with Pierre as well too, since he was
active on the roster week one. Now his contract is
guaranteed the entire season, yeah, because he's a vested veteran
as well too, So maybe there was some of that
conversation of, hey, we can't afford to have both of
these guys on the salary for the rest of the season.
How sign a week How can we make this work
(11:04):
for week one and then go from there? And that
makes a lot of sense, It certainly does.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
And my hunch is probably there's five teams saying, hey,
you Burrow, won't we sign you after week one? And
maybe this injury is enough for him to pick the Steelers,
or maybe it was already done deal, don't you know.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Maybe he was already leading this way. The safety room
looks a little bit thin, right, you know, and then
you and then you suffer an injury week one, and
that is just kind of the confirmation that you need there.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Like, it's great that Ramsey can play safety, but I
don't want him to just play safety, you know, right,
or that's kind of defeats some of the purpose.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Here in a weird way, like I want Ramsey closer.
Not for the same reasons as you would say about
Ja Bill Peppers, but I want Ramsey close to the
line of scrimmage.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
I don't I don't want him off the ball. I
don't want him ten fifteen yards off the ball, and
not because he can't turn his hips and get downfield,
but because I want him up near the line of scrimmage.
I want him on defensive backs, playing physical, able to
blitz from the slot every once in a while.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
That was all his avenues available.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Right, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I want him to be able to who have every
option on the table and not be handcuffed in any regard.
And as you kind of alluded to, I don't think
that this is just a stop gap, don't sink the
boat for the next couple of weeks type signing.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
No, I don't think you're renting them for a week
or two and then send them on his way.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
This is somebody who should have an impact, even and
we do this a lot as sports fans, sports media, whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Like when everyone's.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Healthy which never is a case.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
And then you get to that time and somebody else
is banged up somewhere else, nicked up from something, some
one in the outdoor, one in the indoor type thing there.
So I think that this is not going to be
a hey, we need you for a couple of weeks
and then see. I think his role will obviously change
and evolve, but that this could and should be a
(12:50):
guy that's with the Steelers for the next sixteen regular
season games.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Yeah, and it wouldn't blow me away if he's on
the team next year. I mean, he's a good football
player that's valuable. You know, if this works out, bring
him back. You know, that wouldn't shock me one bit.
I'm not saying said Joe Hayden pick up, but I mean,
you kind of got a freebee here. H's the way
I look at it, and you got a good football
player gave nothing up for.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I agree with you on it. I think a name
that a lot of people are familiar with. He's a
former first round pick, like Matt and I discussed.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I mean, he was a high.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Tend twenty nine years old.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I was going to say, because he was in that
that same draft class, with Lamar and Baker and Baker
and those guys, So that that would that would that
would about line up there. But yeah, a big name
and a lot of kind of news of the day
here as as we get rolling if you missed it.
At the start of the segment, Derek Harmon to Shawn
Elliott and Malik Harrison all ruled out for Sunday's home
(13:43):
opener against Seattle, Mike Tomlin saying he's optimistic about the
availability of Joey Porter Junior and Nick Herbig.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
So Wes one mother was a little thing before we
get a break, yep. In order to add Pepper's on
the roster, somebody has to go. So I don't know,
we know that, and sure yet I bet we won't
know that even until tomorrow. So I don't know if
the does Harrison or Elliot go to ir doesn't sound
like it or is somebody else getting chopped? You know?
(14:11):
But I mean, you can't just add them for free.
You can roster limits.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Right again, If someone comes in the indoor, someone's got
to go out the outdoor. Isn't that a Rolling Stone
song or a Rolling Stones album or something in through
the outdoor?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
That's Zeppelin you're right.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Sorry, that's a that's a fatal mistake around. Good thing
to Pauline's not in here with us, or my head
would be chopped off.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Right now, we do.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Have to go to break because we got new Steelers
Nation radio host and longtime Steelers Beat reporter for the
Trib CHRISA. Dampsky joining us on the other side. Is
it correct and saying is this his inaugural drive debut
or did you and Dale ever have his on the
This is number one inaugural drive debut for new Steelers
Nation Radio Steelers Audio Network host KRISA.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Damski.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
When we return on the other side, he was down
there at the facility today, will pick his brain on
some of these things and how the roster might be
moving and shaking. When we return, West Ruler, Matt Williamson,
it's the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Alright, dude, your tunes about drive on your twenty four
to seven home of the black and Goal. Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Back on the drive here on a Tuesday, into the
phone lines we go.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Matt.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
I'm excited about this one. Longtime Steelers Beat reporter has
covered the team currently for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Now
new Steelers Nation Radio, Steelers Steelers Audio Network host. And
of course you know there's a lot of you mount
Lebo guys around these hearts.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Man.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, but now we're getting some more Mars planets in
here too, myself and Chris Damski Dansky.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
What's up, dude, how's it going?
Speaker 5 (16:08):
You get like Kurt Angling here to say, Yeah, I
hear mount Levan a lot. I'm hearing a little plumb
here recently. Now with the Pat McAfee and all that stuff,
there's always plumb top. We need some more Mars. Like
you said, somebody has to be hosted. It's in the contract.
I believe for SNR that the blitz Hos succeeding Meal
will be like David Bednar, JJ Weatherholt or something like that.
You know, it'll always be a Mars alum has to
(16:28):
be a part of that show at one point or another.
But yeah, I'm excited to be part of it two
with Tom and everything.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
So, dude, you guys been a lot of fun to
listen to. Most days. I'm kind of driving in here
while you guys are on air now, so I've been
throwing you on and yes, for those who haven't heard,
For those who haven't checked it out, Chris Adamski, along
with our longtime buddy and you've heard him here for years,
Tom Aferman, are now hosting these Steelers Blitz and doing
a great job. Chris, let's get right into it. We
(16:56):
saw the Jabrill Peppers signing, and we've discussed the Deshaun
Elliott news. He's gonna miss some time, but but seems
to be, you know, relatively, just a couple of weeks,
dodged a bullet, not the end of the world. What
are you hearing about his status? The timeline and do
you think there's any chance he goes on ir.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Yeah, I think it's right in that sweet spot where
it's gonna be, you know, more than two weeks. So
then you're all of a sudden it's four games, and
you figure four games two games now that the bye
week sort of, you know, messes with things. And I
don't know if the travel affects anything at all. I
don't know if you're flying then that making that flight
when you got a you're coming back from an injury,
makes any difference or not. But so maybe that do
(17:35):
But then of course he had the bye week. All
of a sudden, you're extending got four games becomes five
weeks and is it that large or another? But I
think it may be the proofest in the pointing. Rather
than overthink it. They go out and sign another safety
or at least a safety capable player and Jabille Preppers.
Maybe that tells it there and those interesting because I
thought the Steelers it was pretty crazy. I mean, Chuck
Clark's been a starter for what eight seven or eight
(17:56):
years in this league, and it took essentially two injuries
for him to get on the field in terms of
playing every down on the Sunday. And that's kind of
a luxury to see. Where I thought I already had
was depth in the secondary with the guys they brought
in this offseason. I mean, think about all the names,
all the guys they brought in, and it started with
Echols and Ramsey and Slay and of course I said
Clark there in Thornhill and now Peppers. It's like that
(18:18):
there are a lot of guys who have a lot
of experience for a lot of years in this league.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Chris, good to have you on and congrats on the
new gig. It should be a last having you on,
I guess every Tuesday West.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
That's how as long as the damn ski can can
pencil us in awesome.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Something we were talking about is in the first segment,
if none of those injured dudes, Harrison or Elliott will
be the only ones really go on, ir Well, they
got to get rid of somebody to get Peppers on
the roster. Do you think it's Sharping or maybe one
of the d linemen, you know, with if Harmon's on
the cusp of coming back, and now we know Cam's
(18:55):
not a concern, you know what, who could be on
the chopping block?
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Yeah, I mean if I guess if you're presented that
as an if, and I would think more. It seems
to me like the Harrison would be the move. Now
obviously you'd be you know, maybe maybe a shorter linebacker,
although you have short term at least with the practice squad,
you could address that and has been discussed Hulk. I'm
have been playing any snaps at all? Is that kind of.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
So if they're pretty much playing to play Queen and
Wilson every down anyway, and which is almost essentially what
happened in the first week, and what they sort of
talked about and alluded to all the offseason. Then it
sort of mitigates the need to have the death least
in the short term there maybe for a week or
two if that's if that's the case, so at least that's.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Where you go.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
And yeah, they kept an extra o line man. So
you know, nowadays, with the practice squad elevation, I'm sure
if they did, you know, the sharping thing, they could
they could go back to the practice squad with him
then and still have them available if they needed them
from you know, in an emergency type situation in a
given week where they're down a guy or so. It
will gives you a little more flexibility with it. So
you know, it's not like it was. Heck was it
(20:01):
fifteen years ago? We want an ir you're off for
the season, So it a lot less flexibility. You had
seven guys and that was it, and you would be
really judicious with how you've brought in guys or or
or you know, you couldn't put him on the practice
squadf they're veterans. Things like that. Now there's a lot
more maneuverability and things you can do, and especially in
the short term with two practice squad call ups. If
you had to get a guy at a certain position,
they could do it. But I just get the sense
(20:22):
it's probably gonna be Harrison to I are.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I thought out the way you might be in trouble,
and I crushed his name. I apologize a d.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Lineman's funny you say that, because I was wonder I
about me to say his name, and I'm like a
writer and I have to type it, so I just say, oh, that's.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Very good radio.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
I'm like, I'll be like a quality and oh.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Yeah, I crushed every chance I get. Yeah, yeah, I
thought he might be in.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Yeah, he got and he was the scratch. So I
mean he would be obvious, an obvious candidate if you did,
especially you know, as Harmon creeps closer and closer back
to availability.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Chris uh, Derek Harmon. You mentioned him there, Let's let's
talk about him for a minute, Mike Tomlin ruling him out.
But do you get a sense of optimism that there's
a real chance, you know, they'll they'll try and get
him ramped up a little bit this week and then
hopefully kind of green light and good to go for
next week.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Yeah, I thought that. I think that goes a little
bit more. I was almost I thought he might do
the old leave the light on this week, and even
though it wasn't really really on, or the door wasn't
the door might have been a jar and name, but
just the little tiny crack or you had to really
kind of pry it open. So I was I was
sort of surprised he didn't even leave that that little
out for it this week. So but the fact that
(21:34):
he is trending that way in heck, it's like again
it goes back to the they didn't put him on
IR so they fully expected he had a good chance
to be back within the first four games, and this
would be two games then, So yeah, if they're they're
able to see, you know, I would I certainly wouldn't
rule him out at all for for week three. And
I think that was probably if you look at sort
of the timeline anyway from what you heard from that
(21:55):
that first game, and that would be you know, in
terms of weeks, that would be the four weeks out
from that, and that's kind of what the initial reports
were on that, So that would seem to be a
good target at least for that what that Patriots game.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Chris maybe this is simplifying things. It's only one games
of the tiny sample size, but the more you study it,
it sure looks like Jalen Warren took the nause Harris
role and Gainwell took the Warren role. Do you think
that's accurate? Do you think that's did to shock you?
What do you take of the running back rotation and
usage at this point?
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Yeah, you know, I was trying to tell everybody last
week that you'll be seeing Gainwell a lot more than
you probably think. But he played a lot more than
I thought, even with my expectations that he would play.
I was surprised at how much he was out there,
and it is kind of you know, it's I get,
of course, and Tomlin kind of gushed about game all
today about he's coming. I'm obviously get the big stussion
(22:49):
teams play. And he wasn't as if he was super
super productive or anything on Sunday and his debut, but
he has that skill set and I thought it was
a sneaky, little good signing there. They did for very
little money and very little term there to bring a
guy it's been a playmaker like that. In the question
I always had though, was that if he's your perfect
third nine back. I mean that was Warren's role essentially,
or at least least the Lion's share of Warren's role
(23:11):
in the pass. It's almost they're not the same player
by any means at all, but there is certainly some
overlap there in terms of how they'd be used. And
I don't know if Warren is the best. I don't
know if the Steelers thought or hoped. I'm sure there
was a hope that maybe Caleb Johnson would just knock
their socks Offter and Camp in the preseason and maybe
just be able to be the former Nogy. Then you
(23:33):
have maybe too many guys, but that's a you know,
the good problem to have rather than the other way around.
So but you're right, I hadn't thought of it in
the way you put it, but that really seems to
be it's, you know, it's almost roughly. It wasn't exactly
fifty fifty split, which is pretty much what they had
the last two seasons when they were together, the fifty
to fifty split, and if you go by roll and everything,
although there was it seemed to be well, I mean,
(23:53):
you're right, Warren, did you know the whole the full
series thing first and second down. Yeah, so it was
a lot like that, Yeah, in past years, like what
they did. It's kind of funny then, how Warren reversed
his roles from what he held before.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
And looking back on it, I didn't realize at the time.
I'm talking a little bit up the game script too,
like say a twenty point lead that put Bettie in
there and close the guy out, you know what I mean,
And they wouldn't see as much gain well as a shootout.
They were throwing a high percentage of time short, quick
passing game. Maybe that was a little more of a
gainwell friendly script too.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
Yeah, and gainwell always is part of And I think
I don't know what you guys think, but I think
I don't know production wise he had. Of course he
had the real long catch, a couple of long catches
in games in the past, but I don't know what
the numbers exactly were, but I thought maybe it was
in terms of the IYE tests, in terms of the
varied routes and the catches and the plays he made.
Colvin Austin maybe had his best game. And what I'm
getting at with that is that that gain well as
(24:51):
much as he runs routes and almost plays as like
a slot receiver, an extra wide receiver, and people talk
a lot about the extra tight ends and how that
can maybe cover up or mask the knee for depth
at wide receiver, and we certainly saw that in week
one with the We all expected to see Johnny Smith
a lot, and of course Briar and Myth a lot,
and we probably didn't see Darna watching it as much
as most of us thought for sure, But seeing gain
(25:12):
Well and the route team run and everything almost kind
of again serves as it's kind of that, you know,
number two, number three receiver. However you want to put
it in terms of the in terms of the eligibles
that are out there in any given play.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Chris Adamski with us here on the Drive. He is
part of the new Steelers Blitz with Tom op from
in here on the Steelers Audio Network. He also covers
the Steelers for the Trip a Damski. One guy that
we didn't see much of was Roman Wilson. Just ten snaps,
zero targets. Were you surprised by his usage? Again, like
(25:44):
so much of this is, it's one game, It's a
small sample size. We're gonna get more data points. But
were you surprised in that first data point of this
season kind of being such such a small sample, such
a small spin for Roman Wilson.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Yeah, I probably would have you asked me last week,
it would have been more than that, for sure. I
didn't think he'd get any more, of course than Austin
or anything like that. And I mean Scotty Miller got
a lot of play over the preseason there, of course,
and he was kind of the hot guy, and I thought,
maybe it's a little more of him even But but yeah,
there were no I think other the Chronic of course,
was a big play. The one target is Chronic. I
(26:20):
don't think there were any targets even to a wide
receiver other than Austin and Metcalf. You know, I got
the impression, it's crazy. I've gone up and down with
Roman Wilson so many times now, and even I feel
like the Steelers have too. Like I felt a sense
that they were kind of, you know, a little bit
down on him last year in terms of the faith here,
the healthy trash and even he did play, he played
(26:40):
five snaps. Sometimes I know he's injured and that kind
of thing, but I always we make the comparison of
then s apples the oranges in higher pedigree, different position.
I get all that, but fa a Tondo hardly practiced either,
and as soon as they had a chance, they put
him in there immediately to be you know, the play,
and they need to do that with Roman Wilson and
but so I didn't know. I thought early in camp
he wasn't that he wouldn't popping that much. And then
(27:01):
he started to get better in the middle of camp.
And then I really kind of opened my eyes when
it seemed like Aaron Rodgers went out of his way
to praise him and talk about he could be you
know what, he's called him something special in this league
he could turn into. And then I started to get
convinced that we're gonna see a lot more of Rum
and Wilson, but a lot of it could be game
played specific and things like that. We'll see, like I said,
with all the game well, and you know, you're gonna
see the tight ends and as good as Austin was,
(27:23):
you know, maybe there be other games and other you know, situations,
we'll see how it flowed. Maybe he does play a
little more of the third wide receiver. But yeah, I
would have thought a little more than we saw from him. Certainly,
I thought that, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
A targeter too, at least so one guy that obviously
I'm not even gonna candy code it. But Roder Jones
had a really rough day on Sunday, and I thought
the rest of the line held pretty well against a
good front, and there were some bright spots from all
of them, but Jones was very worrisome. Are you getting
the impression at you know, at practice around the organization
(27:56):
that there's a losing trust situation or considering any moves
or they what do you what do you think? How
do you think they feel about Jones?
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Yeah, you know what's about this way and it's nothing
to do with them or whatever. But I made sure
late in the fourth quarter, or you know, once we
got late in that in the second half, that I
was looking through drugs on the field every time. I
wouldn't have been blown away at seven if Calvin Anderson
was running up. And now maybe that's just me, like
I said, that's not based off of you know, infra
or anything, but I thought that was of course, that
would have been sort of almost I don't say seismic,
(28:29):
but that would have. I think that the the ramifications
of that, when you have your first round picked, you
still believe. And it was one gay you can't lie.
I mean you can't look at the stats and the
numbers and the sacks and I know that on every
sack is simple to assign to somebody, but I mean it, yeah,
you kind of have to look at that, and it
is it's his first start at left tackle, so you know,
(28:51):
if that happens in every tackle, that happens once, you know,
in week eleven and everything, he's been okay than that, okay,
you know you kind of look past and sais this
is a bad game and whatever. But yeah, you know,
if if you're doing in week one, it's certainly not encouraging.
But you know that the Steelers, I mean, they gave
Kylevin Anderson what a two year deal, so I guess
that was the faith they have him to be the
swing tackle. But they didn't go out and get you know,
(29:14):
a more you know, like they did kind of with
Herbig a couple of years ago. Guy who has started
and can started, you know, kind of a middle range salary.
There's kind of insurance, and I took that is kind
of faith they had in Broderick Jones. So he still
has a leash. Of course, he still is alterra talented
and everything. But but yeah, you know, obviously you can't
have too many more games in a row where where
(29:34):
you know you're you're probably charge of three sacks.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Chris Adamski last one I've got for you, partner. Uh,
maybe we buried the lead a little bit because we're
about fourteen minutes into this segment and we didn't ask
here talk to you about the quarterback Aaron Rodgers and
what we saw from the four time MVP, the future
Hall of Famer, the Super Bowl champion. Listen again, one week,
one data point. I don't think we all expect him
to throw for four touchdowns every single Sunday, certain, but
(30:01):
for his first in stadium action with the Steelers, his
first in stadium action with d K and Calvin Austin Man,
I thought that's a pretty good starting point.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Yeah it wasn't. Listen, he was there on the road.
You're playing. Whatever you thing about the Jets overall, whether
it be I don't think there'll be any any worse
than you know, an average defense. It's not a bad
defense for short and you know, they got a good
front and things. There wasn't much of a running game
for them from the Steelers, so a lot was and
you're you're playing from behind a lot of that game.
He's back in some of that game, at least you're
playing from behind the end, certainly in the fourth quarter.
(30:32):
And and on that point, that's what if you're signing
a forty one year old former four time MVP of
the league, you're signing him for those drives in the
fourth quarter, right, I mean, that's what No matter what
he is, you know, mobility wise, this and that, whatever,
that's what you're feeling most comfortable about is having him
there for the you know, for those situations. And and
you know, Week one is his debut with the Steelers.
(30:54):
It came through, you got just barely enough of that
second drive to get into getting the balls well range.
But it got the job done and they won the game.
And I've always since there's a you know, a palpable
sort of trust and reverence. Might be, I don't know
if that's a strong reboard or not, but amongst these guys,
I mean, all these teammates, they were, you know, to
varying degrees, they were kids watching Aaron Rodgers win super Bowls, right,
(31:16):
I mean, I mean that most of the roster would
have been what I mean, if you average age of
twenty seven. They won the Super Bowl fifteen years ago,
so he was what they were a goot twelve years old.
So there is kind of that, you know, the cachet
that he has, And I think you saw that in
terms of the offense at times, you know, even though
you know whatever the offense was doing, I never felt
like it was I felt organized and felt everything felt
(31:40):
it was on schedule. Of those kinds of things generally speaking.
So I think you saw the presence of having a
guy like him as your quarterback.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Chris Adamski.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
You could check out his work in the trib Make
sure you are listening to him and our buddy Tom
Opperman at noon right here on Steelers Nation Radio on
the Steelers Audio Network. Chris, great stuff man, Looking forward
to having you a part of the s and our
family and chatting with you all year. Thanks for the
time he.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Went to talk to you, guys.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Care guys there he is.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Chris Adansky, good stuff, good start. Glad to have him
in the fold. You were joking before we went on
air like we need you know, we need more. We
need more reporters. We need more boots on the ground
guys here and not just all of us who yap
from the from the the comforts of our studios. So yeah,
good stuff from him and looking forward to chatting with him,
I think probably just about every single Tuesday here on
(32:32):
the show. We are also from a new guest in
Chris Adanski. Yeah, to a new segment idea that I
have for you on the other side, Matt, a little
Tuesday rewind.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Know what that means bringing on this is?
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Would you like to know now? Or should I just
lay it on you at the start? The next time,
I just.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Drop it right on me.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
I'll drop it on you. When we returned from commercial bread.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Read balloon that's aelin reference.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yes, I know that.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
I know that one that's gonna go over, that's gonna
go over like a led Zeppelin.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I do know that one. I can't believe I messed
up up in through the Outdoor.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
I'm not gonna let you live that one down either.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
That's all right, three hundred and sixty five days of penance,
I'll make up for it. It's the drive on Steelers
days you're radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Your tune's about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Back on the Drive here on a Tuesday afternoon, and
we will have a new guest on Tuesday afternoons, Chris
Adanski that we just introduced to you all there. Yeah, awesome,
happy to happy to have him in the fold here
with our S and R family. And not just because
he's a fellow Mars High School graduate and I'm sick
and tired of are you, oh you lebo guys around
here just doing your thing all the time. I also
(34:00):
would like to do a thing with you on Tuesdays.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
He's a show with the Libo guy. Now I think
about it, so connection.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I was just going to say, two of the regular
programs one one Libo Grad and one Mars gradamelor same
color scheme. Maybe that's why we all, maybe that's why
we all get along so well. We are the fighting planets.
That's fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, don't you for don't you
(34:29):
forget it? Another thing that I would like to do
on Tuesdays, And we might have to adjust this a
little bit obviously. When the Steelers play Monday night, Thursday
night football or anything like that, but a Tuesday rewind.
So obviously I know that you have watched the game again,
you have dug more into the numbers again. Since we
do kind of our initial reaction game recaps on Mondays,
(34:52):
I just to kind of peel back the curtain for
you and for our listeners. Monday Night's a big night
for me in terms of rewatch stuff because every and
this too. I think I've mentioned this, but I'm the
Steelers game day engineer, right, so I'm first one in
the booth, last one out of there. I'm in charge
of our entire operations in the broadcast booth, all the
(35:12):
set up, all the tear down, the wireless microphones on
the sidelines, everything with everything.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
With Rob and starts.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Oh yeah, we got to go on the sidelines and
test the microphones before the games, all all that kind
of stuff production. I mean, we get there about four
and a half five hours early before kickoff, just to
give you an idea of how long everything takes. With that,
I am obviously in the broadcast booth, sitting right behind
Max and and Rob and I have and I have
a great view of the game. But there's also a
lot of things that happened that you know, when I'm
(35:40):
there in the broadcast booth doing my job, I might miss.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Oh, I would think, or if something happens wrong.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
If something happened, you know, if Missy's having an issue
with her microphone on the sideline and I have to
step away for five minutes, which happens from time to time.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
What's studying the plays, whatever made the case may be.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
And I'm obviously not watching all the other games that
go on at that time, you know, if we're on.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
The road, like I assume there's a TV in the booth.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
There is, but it's mostly it's on Steelers, you know,
because because Max is looking for replays, Rob's looking for
replays all that kind of stuff, and you know, and
then we get for the away games. We go and
we get on a flight and we're in the air
and so you know, I can I can miss some
action there.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
So Monday's a big rewatch night for me. I like
to watch a lot of.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
The condensed games from stuff from stuff that I missed,
and I like to rewatch the Steelers game in its entirety,
just because again making sure I'm remembering everything.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Correctly.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Well, wait, were the Steelers down six or were they
down nine in the second quarter?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Well, what exactly.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
You're saying similar situational stuff or.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
What exactly was the down and distance when they took
a shot to Calvin Austin at the end instead of
maybe just trying to get a couple extra.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yards or Chris Boswell.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah, yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Different kinds of things like that.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
We'll call it a Tuesday rewind, maybe a you know,
a kind of look back at some things that we
want to talk about from the game that we didn't
talk about in our initial game recap.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Okay, that makes right, Yeah, super quick. You mentioned that
Austin shot. I don't think we brought that up even yet.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
That was one of the things that I wanted to
talk to you about, if you want to go there.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
I just thought that it's noteworthy. I mean, we we
know what Tomlin's formula has been since Ben's elbow injury
in terms of managing the quarterback. How many time we've
cited it that when they throw a pick, they lose.
When they do, don't they do you know whatever. I'm
not sure if that shot would he got taken last
(37:25):
year or definitely the year before or the year before
or the year before, And frankly, I'm not sure Rogers
even asking anybody you know he's taking if he sees
one on one in a matchup, he likes him. I mean,
they didn't one thing that was also true side note,
they didn't throw a sauce at all. I mean, the
rest of that secondary is pretty vulnerable, and I think
(37:45):
there was only one or two balls even thrown. Sauces
way smart and smart, and he followed DK a lot,
but three of the catches DK got were the three
snaps the gardener wasn't on him, You like, Roger's like,
I'm not throwing at sauce. We got other options I
like better. But if DK's not on sauce, I'm throwing him. Yeah.
(38:08):
Every time, Yeah, I mean it was almost every time,
like you and.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
I would joke during training camp. It was like almost intentional.
At the first rep of team period was always Aaron
Rodgers throwing the DK metcalf.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
He didn't run any routes with other quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Every time during training ramime. Yeah, that felt a little
of the same church, different pew. On Sunday it did,
where like every time sauce is not lined up on DK.
That's Aaron's first read and the majority of time he's
going there.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
And that doesn't mean he couldn't beat Gardner. I mean,
I think that's a battle, but the other safeties and
corners were pretty vulnerable. That that's where they're going with football, you.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Know, totally totally, and so that you know what, it's
funny because I didn't really that wasn't even in my
thought process. But I think that's a brilliant call by you.
Like my thought process was kind of, hey, they believe
in Calvin Austin. They had an opportunity to take a
one on one shot with him. It was a fifty
to fifty. I didn't think it was an egregious man
by not calling the pass interference, but I wouldn't bemembe.
(39:03):
Fifty to fifty could have gone either way. I was
just looking at it as like, hey, you get three,
you call your three, four, five, six yard gotta have
it play there. And it turns a sixty yarder into
a fifty four yarder for Chris Boswell.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Which is usually how they've done it. Then make his
life a little easier.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
But your thought process of like a not when Aaron
Rodgers is out there and that's see an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
That is a that is a great show.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
And to kind of piggyback off of that, Matt, the
first note that I had in my Tuesday rewatch way
more explosive pass plays.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Than we've seen oh times one thousand.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
I know there was still the lack of that in
the run game, right, I believe Jalen Warren nine yard
carry I want to say, was the Steelers longest carry,
longest in rushing run ten plus and it's fifty plus
pass game, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
That's how that's the official next Gen three or four.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
The Steelers had a fifteen plus.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Maybe had more I wouldn't say, maybe even.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Six, okay, which is which is a good number and
something that we haven't seen a ton of in the
last few post Ben years.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
And they came about them in a much different way.
So we have seen explosive passing, you know, Wilson deep ball,
moonshots down the sidelines, throwing the ball far and somebody
pickings normally going up and get it down the field,
running go routes. You know, it is to remember the
explosive play rate stuff we did. They ended up being
(40:26):
positive part of it's because no one ever throws deep
on the Steelers. I mean, so they didn't give up
a lot of explosives either, but their explosives came almost
all off play action, which I tweeted some stuff today
about Rogers. I mean, he's never been a big play
action guy, but they've obviously bought in on play action.
Makes my life easier, even more rollouts.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
That's the Senate observation I have wrote down for you.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
By the way, wund No, just that I love it
when a play comes together way more explosive pass plays,
way more play action. Those are my first two notes
from my Tuesday rewind.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
But the explosive play passes were not forty yards downfield,
dk running past somebody or pickings. In fact, he only
threw one pass over twenty yards down the field, and
it was twenty one you know, like if you look
at his chart, there aren't any long balls.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
I mean there's a couple of twenty ish yards ors
o Pepper's.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
That neighborhood about it, right right right, And even like
Austin touchdown was into the end zone, but it was
from the nineteen yard lines, so people fought me. Side note,
I made a lot of enemies on Twitter yesterday because
I put down basically I posted his chart earlier, but
I also just wrote his average depth of the target
(41:42):
was very low, the ball came out of his hands
very quick, and I cited all the numbers and he
didn't attend I wrote down he didn't attempt to pass
over twenty yards. Well, I didn't make that stuff up.
I cut and pasted it from next Gen Stats or
someone the charts this stuff, and everyone's why you hating.
I didn't mean this as a negative. If all he
did was put putting numbers down, if he had been
(42:04):
holding the ball for four seconds, throwing the ball forty
yards on field, he would have got destroyed with that protection. Yet,
I mean that was good quarterbacking. That was lit Land, right.
I mean that doesn't diminish from what he did, you know,
at all. I mean threw a lot of balls behind
the line of scrimmage too, because they couldn't run the ball.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
You.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
I think one of the things that a quarterback like
Aaron Rodgers does, and to his credit, when things were
going good for the first handful of starts last year,
I thought we saw some of this from Russell Wilson
as well too.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
They're gonna take what the defense gives you.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yeah right, right right, it's Rady's the master was right,
yeah right, we're starting, We're starting to get on the
I'm in the led Zeppelin zone and I was just
going to go to top Tom Brady. Some weeks it
was I'm gonna air this thing out the Randy Moss,
We're gonna stretch the field. Other weeks it was we're
going to crush you in the slot with the Edelmans
and the Whelkers running back sometimes you know, the the
(42:54):
Gronk and the Hernandez double tight end sometimes, like that's
what the best quarterbacks do, is they take what the
defense has given them and they run with it.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Mahomes is the best example recently too. He had his
average depth of target this first couple of years was
through the roof, shrug guys off, throwing bombs at Tyreek.
Now he's at the absolute bottom of the league in
average depth of target. Doesn't make him any worse, guys,
you know, I mean, like it's it's hard to beat
a team by death by a thousand paper cuts, you know.
(43:23):
And it bothered me because everyone writing back is why
you hate and it doesn't matter. They got to win.
All they look at all the orgy put up. I'm like, yeah,
because it was all I did was psyche the numbers. Yeah,
and it worked. That's good quarterbacking, right.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Statistics just make people feel some type of.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Way they do. Right, don't be why you're cutting ar
I mean, you couldn't say that bad about Rogers, which
I did. I love that everyone's defending their.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Not saying anything bad about it.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
I'm not saying good or bad. I just pointed out
where the ball was at.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
The middle of the field. Numbers on that passage too,
which is good to see.
Speaker 4 (43:58):
More than in recent Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Yeah, Hour in the Books, Another hour to go. I
don't know. Do you have any other Tuesday rewind observations
you want to get.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
One thousand, but they'll come up over the course of
the week.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
It sounds good. We'll do some of those.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
We want to do a little fantasy football focus to
kick off our number two as well. We'll do all
that as we roll along here on a Tuesday. West
Huler Matt Williamson Hour in the Books, Another hour to go.
It's the Drive on 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 (00:21):
What's going on Steelers Nation.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It's the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network. West Shouler and Matt Williamson with you here
on a Tuesday where Matt, we have certainly got some.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
News of the day to get into.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, Mike Tomlin's press conference just happening a few hours ago,
and some moving and shaking with the Steelers roster pretty
significantly here, let's kind of dive into this first with
Mike Tomlin's injury updates.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, and start there. Yeah, and I think we'll get
into the move.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
That will kind of lead to the move that the
Steelers have made, the addition that the Steelers have made
here to the roster as well. So at his weekly
Tuesday press conference, Mike Tomlin for this upcoming week against Seattle,
the home opener of course, one o'clock at Akersher Stadium,
ruling out Derek Harmony, ruling out the Sean Elliott, Okay,
ruling out Malik Harrison. Okay, those three will be out
(01:12):
all oddly enough with knee injuries. So a similar type
of same church different pew f Yeah, yeah for those three.
Mike Tomlin said he is optimistic about Joey Porter Junior
and Nick Herbig good.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Okay, Herbig was fifty to fifty ish a week ago.
I thought it was a good move to keep him out.
Harrison played some outside linebacker in his stead. Sawyer played
quite a bit. Now you don't have the Harrison option,
and Harrison and Sawyer are much different players than Herbig.
And Seattle does want to run the ball a lot,
but not to the Jets level, I don't think. I mean,
(01:44):
Jets are a running team and did it very well.
Obviously Herbig's not a run stuffer, so give him another week.
Cool harmon, No shock there. I mean I think we
knew that. Maybe next week we'll start to have the
conversation of maybe or does he go to Ireland with us?
Or who knows? You know, we'll see the big news
(02:05):
to me, But not to discredit Harrison. I mean, Harrison's
a decent player. He's a bottom the roster guy. He's
a good special teamer. But Elliott was one I was
concerned about. Especially. I'll break the news. I'm sure people
already know when it comes across that they signed Jabrill Peppers.
I immediately thought, that's not the season ender for Elliott.
This is terrible. And then all the reports started to
(02:26):
come out, you know, since the Prince conference that no,
that's not the case. But did he I don't know
if you know the answer this or not. Did he
mention Harrison or more importantly, Elliott as into reserve guys
or are they like week the week I got the
oppression they were more weak the week, especially Elliott.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I did as well too.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I don't know if he laid that out, you know,
directly the exact roster, the exact kind of spot that
they're in right now.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
But according to that's not always his movie either say
well this guy's going to injury reserve. You just get
the notice in an hour or whatever.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
To the the insiders, right, the Jordan Schultzes of the world,
the Adam Schefters of the world, Deshaun Elliott will miss
a couple weeks with an m c L sprain, all
things considered, not viewed as a serious injury. The goal
is to be back for Week four against the Vikings
in Ireland. That last part, according to Jordan Schultz, right, so.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
That's probably avoids I are I IR is at least four, so.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Which which a void.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
George Kittle just got placed on as well too. I
and I think this is.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
And that can change because like the day ago, Kittle's like,
hey he's an avoid IR. Things are good.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You know, things can can always change rapidly.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
But I think inflammation doesn't go down or I don't
know the.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Medical stuff in the grand scheme of things. Hey, like
all five of those names, those injured names that I
read off for you to start the segment to start
the show here are all on the defensive.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Side of the defenders.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So it's like there's already a little bit of attrition
on that side, and that.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Is the offense on Sundays.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yes, they I think, to say the least, I think
that's fair to say. The good news is though, like
losing a guy like Derek Harmon for the year or
for a long period of time would have been detrimental.
Oh yeah, losing to Shaun Elliott for the year or
for the long period of time could have bored it
on catastrophic.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Relatively for those guys.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Just to be a couple of weeks, it still feels
like you dodged a bullet and it's still manageable.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, I think in the scheme of things, when you
compared to thirty one other teams, you'll take it. I
mean it's probably not number one, it's definitely not thirty two.
You know, like you'll take it at this stage of
the game. You know, Harmon went off and originally went,
oh that looked bad. Elliet went off immediately was rolled out,
Oh that looks bad, and usually it's bad. Well it
wasn't that bad. At least it's not great. The Porter
(04:45):
stuff doesn't shock me either. I was wanting to throw
that out there. I mean, you do get a lot
of strains and pools and things like that, especially week
one dehydration. You know, heat haven't played a time, so
that one, as long as it wasn't like a tear
or anything, I wasn't overly concerned about. You talk Peppers.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Now, I was gonna say, that's where this all leads.
There was, as you mentioned, the news of the Steelers
signing Jabrill Peppers came across the timeline before Mike Tomlin's
press conference, before the Deshaun Elliott news came across the timeline.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yes, so there was.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I had the same reaction like, we have a we
have a group chat that's like the.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Broadcast booth on game days.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Basically, yeah, so Rob King, Max Stark's Missy Matthews, myself
and dan Quinlan And right when that news of Jabrill
Peppers broke, Missy sent it to the group, and Max
and I like seconds apart, texted like, oh no, that's
not good about hell yeah, but that ended up not
being the case, which is good news. But you're still
(05:46):
we would think gonna need Jabrill Peppers at least for
a few weeks to play some kind of role. So
what's that scouting report look like? What do we expect
from him?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
First off, I have no clue if there's any truth
to this or not, but I was shocked he got
cut first of all. Now I think he was let
go of New England for two reasons. First Off, he's
a big personality. He's a handful from what I understand,
good bad so's Ramsay Show's Rogers, you know, I mean, like,
that's not unusual, and the Steelers are not shying a
(06:18):
wife away from that at all. In fact, they're embracing it.
But it's not like they're bad people or not competitive
or taking plays off. It's kind of the opposite. It's
a lot you know, they're you know, and frankly, he
didn't fit this scheme as well as the Belichick scheme.
Belichick once guys that can do a lot of things
(06:40):
really well, which is exactly what Pepper's does. That they're
more of a too high scheme now with Vrabel and
this defensive coordinator, which the further away from the ball,
the less effective he is. I mean, they can find
it different. And he's making money, so let's save some money.
We're rebuilding team. It's not going anywhere. He's not a
perfect scheme fit. Okay, we'll move on. And I was
(07:00):
shocked when happened. But I did some homework today and
that all adds up. No, But what I was thinking though,
is I've been praising the defensive depth for months now.
Really the Steelers defensive depth. Omar's done a great job
tons of defensive line, and he brought in extra outside linebacker.
If Eccles is your fourth corner, wow, that's great. But
safety was the one spot where I didn't think it
(07:21):
was very good. You know, Holcomb's a great third inside linebacker,
but safety, even when everyone was healthy, I was kind
of like Chuck Clark's okay, got you out of the
game yesterday, But he's on someone I'm begging to play
Big Nickel with when everyone's healthy with three safeties on
the field.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And you've been talking about this since the Menka trade.
Yeah right, this is something you brought.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah, so you mentioned this a couple of weeks ago.
If you sign a vested veteran after week one, he's
not guaranteed anything. So I'm just curious this deal might
have been in the works last week before the injury.
Just curious, you know, like he would have been useful
if Elliott was one thousand percent, because I think he's
(08:08):
better than Clark and will be used in a similar manner.
Now here's my Sky report on him. I mean, he
was a phenomenal college player. Oh, people probably remember.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
That he was like his high school highlight tape and
coming out of his senior year of high school, he
was the number one recruit on a lot of people's
big boards.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Yeah, he was like Charles Woodson comparisons at Michigan, Right.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
He had like a Reggie Bush type highlight tape as
a defensive legendary, like a legendary high school tape as
a safety, defensive back, do it all stud on his
high school team.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Yes, and ended up high in the Heisman balloting. Finish.
I think he played a lot of offense for Michigan
from what I remember too, because I don't know it's
a lot, but I think, ye, maybe I can't remember.
He hit the ball in his hand some.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
It was the year that Lamar won the Heisman Trophy.
Funny enough, but he.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Ended up like fourth or fifth in the the balloting.
I think you said again, behind Baker and the guys
that were really good to Shaan.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Watson, DeShawn Watson, Baker, Mayfield, Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Not bad, not bad at all, quarterbacks, et cetera. So
he's a high pick. He's had a really good career.
We don't need to go his whole history, but the
recent tape of him is still really good. I don't
think he's declining at all. I think he's a good,
not great athlete. That's why I say the further away
from the ball has changed directions. Okay, he's a lot
(09:29):
more linear, fast in a straight line, more of a
downhill player. If he's a two high guy, you want
him coming towards the line of scrimmage more than flipping
his hips and going backwards. But still he's better than
Chuck Clark at those things, so you improved that aspect
of it. He's more strong than free, better in your
line of scrimmage. But he's really versatile, and if you
(09:50):
look at his snaps over his career, he's played slot,
he's played linebacker, he's played safety, he's played free, he's
played too high. And I wouldn't say he's awesome at
any of them, you know, but he's not deficient in
any I mean, I think he's quite good in all
exceptional tackler, like rare tackler, rarely, rarely, rarely misses a tackle,
(10:11):
and when he gets there, he's a thumper with the
expression yes, yes he can blitz. I think he's a
better football player than Chuck Clark. And when everybody's healthy,
I think you might start thinking about some big nickel stuff.
Assuming he fills in for Elliott and you like what
you saw, so kind of gift. He's still out there,
and again they may have jumped on him a week ago,
(10:31):
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
That is an interesting point from you that maybe this
is something that they had been planning on hoping on well, I.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Can't believe he's available and we can use the safety yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And you and I talked about it a little bit
of that with Pierre as well too, since he was
active on the roster week one. Now his contract is
guaranteed the entire season, yeah, because he's a vested veteran
as well too, So maybe there was some of that
conversation of, hey, we can't afford to have both of
these guys on the salary for the rest of the season.
How sign a week How can we make this work
(11:04):
for week one and then go from there? And that
makes a lot of sense, It certainly does.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
And my hunch is probably there's five teams saying, hey,
you Burrow, won't we sign you after week one? And
maybe this injury is enough for him to pick the Steelers,
or maybe it was already done deal, don't you know.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Maybe he was already leading this way. The safety room
looks a little bit thin, right, you know, and then
you and then you suffer an injury week one, and
that is just kind of the confirmation that you need there.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Like, it's great that Ramsey can play safety, but I
don't want him to just play safety, you know, right,
or that's kind of defeats some of the purpose.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Here in a weird way, like I want Ramsey closer.
Not for the same reasons as you would say about
Ja Bill Peppers, but I want Ramsey close to the
line of scrimmage.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
I don't I don't want him off the ball. I
don't want him ten fifteen yards off the ball, and
not because he can't turn his hips and get downfield,
but because I want him up near the line of scrimmage.
I want him on defensive backs, playing physical, able to
blitz from the slot every once in a while.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
That was all his avenues available.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Right, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I want him to be able to who have every
option on the table and not be handcuffed in any regard.
And as you kind of alluded to, I don't think
that this is just a stop gap, don't sink the
boat for the next couple of weeks type signing.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
No, I don't think you're renting them for a week
or two and then send them on his way.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
This is somebody who should have an impact, even and
we do this a lot as sports fans, sports media, whatever.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Like when everyone's.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Healthy which never is a case.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
And then you get to that time and somebody else
is banged up somewhere else, nicked up from something, some
one in the outdoor, one in the indoor type thing there.
So I think that this is not going to be
a hey, we need you for a couple of weeks
and then see. I think his role will obviously change
and evolve, but that this could and should be a
(12:50):
guy that's with the Steelers for the next sixteen regular
season games.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Yeah, and it wouldn't blow me away if he's on
the team next year. I mean, he's a good football
player that's valuable. You know, if this works out, bring
him back. You know, that wouldn't shock me one bit.
I'm not saying said Joe Hayden pick up, but I mean,
you kind of got a freebee here. H's the way
I look at it, and you got a good football
player gave nothing up for.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I agree with you on it. I think a name
that a lot of people are familiar with. He's a
former first round pick, like Matt and I discussed.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I mean, he was a high.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Tend twenty nine years old.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I was going to say, because he was in that
that same draft class, with Lamar and Baker and Baker
and those guys, So that that would that would that
would about line up there. But yeah, a big name
and a lot of kind of news of the day
here as as we get rolling if you missed it.
At the start of the segment, Derek Harmon to Shawn
Elliott and Malik Harrison all ruled out for Sunday's home
(13:43):
opener against Seattle, Mike Tomlin saying he's optimistic about the
availability of Joey Porter Junior and Nick Herbig.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
So Wes one mother was a little thing before we
get a break, yep. In order to add Pepper's on
the roster, somebody has to go. So I don't know,
we know that, and sure yet I bet we won't
know that even until tomorrow. So I don't know if
the does Harrison or Elliot go to ir doesn't sound
like it or is somebody else getting chopped? You know?
(14:11):
But I mean, you can't just add them for free.
You can roster limits.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Right again, If someone comes in the indoor, someone's got
to go out the outdoor. Isn't that a Rolling Stone
song or a Rolling Stones album or something in through
the outdoor?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
That's Zeppelin you're right.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Sorry, that's a that's a fatal mistake around. Good thing
to Pauline's not in here with us, or my head
would be chopped off.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Right now, we do.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Have to go to break because we got new Steelers
Nation radio host and longtime Steelers Beat reporter for the
Trib CHRISA. Dampsky joining us on the other side. Is
it correct and saying is this his inaugural drive debut
or did you and Dale ever have his on the
This is number one inaugural drive debut for new Steelers
Nation Radio Steelers Audio Network host KRISA.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Damski.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
When we return on the other side, he was down
there at the facility today, will pick his brain on
some of these things and how the roster might be
moving and shaking. When we return, West Ruler, Matt Williamson,
it's the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Alright, dude, your tunes about drive on your twenty four
to seven home of the black and Goal. Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Back on the drive here on a Tuesday, into the
phone lines we go.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Matt.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
I'm excited about this one. Longtime Steelers Beat reporter has
covered the team currently for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Now
new Steelers Nation Radio, Steelers Steelers Audio Network host. And
of course you know there's a lot of you mount
Lebo guys around these hearts.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Man.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, but now we're getting some more Mars planets in
here too, myself and Chris Damski Dansky.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
What's up, dude, how's it going?
Speaker 5 (16:08):
You get like Kurt Angling here to say, Yeah, I
hear mount Levan a lot. I'm hearing a little plumb
here recently. Now with the Pat McAfee and all that stuff,
there's always plumb top. We need some more Mars. Like
you said, somebody has to be hosted. It's in the contract.
I believe for SNR that the blitz Hos succeeding Meal
will be like David Bednar, JJ Weatherholt or something like that.
You know, it'll always be a Mars alum has to
(16:28):
be a part of that show at one point or another.
But yeah, I'm excited to be part of it two
with Tom and everything.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
So, dude, you guys been a lot of fun to
listen to. Most days. I'm kind of driving in here
while you guys are on air now, so I've been
throwing you on and yes, for those who haven't heard,
For those who haven't checked it out, Chris Adamski, along
with our longtime buddy and you've heard him here for years,
Tom Aferman, are now hosting these Steelers Blitz and doing
a great job. Chris, let's get right into it. We
(16:56):
saw the Jabrill Peppers signing, and we've discussed the Deshaun
Elliott news. He's gonna miss some time, but but seems
to be, you know, relatively, just a couple of weeks,
dodged a bullet, not the end of the world. What
are you hearing about his status? The timeline and do
you think there's any chance he goes on ir.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Yeah, I think it's right in that sweet spot where
it's gonna be, you know, more than two weeks. So
then you're all of a sudden it's four games, and
you figure four games two games now that the bye
week sort of, you know, messes with things. And I
don't know if the travel affects anything at all. I
don't know if you're flying then that making that flight
when you got a you're coming back from an injury,
makes any difference or not. But so maybe that do
(17:35):
But then of course he had the bye week. All
of a sudden, you're extending got four games becomes five
weeks and is it that large or another? But I
think it may be the proofest in the pointing. Rather
than overthink it. They go out and sign another safety
or at least a safety capable player and Jabille Preppers.
Maybe that tells it there and those interesting because I
thought the Steelers it was pretty crazy. I mean, Chuck
Clark's been a starter for what eight seven or eight
(17:56):
years in this league, and it took essentially two injuries
for him to get on the field in terms of
playing every down on the Sunday. And that's kind of
a luxury to see. Where I thought I already had
was depth in the secondary with the guys they brought
in this offseason. I mean, think about all the names,
all the guys they brought in, and it started with
Echols and Ramsey and Slay and of course I said
Clark there in Thornhill and now Peppers. It's like that
(18:18):
there are a lot of guys who have a lot
of experience for a lot of years in this league.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Chris, good to have you on and congrats on the
new gig. It should be a last having you on,
I guess every Tuesday West.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
That's how as long as the damn ski can can
pencil us in awesome.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Something we were talking about is in the first segment,
if none of those injured dudes, Harrison or Elliott will
be the only ones really go on, ir Well, they
got to get rid of somebody to get Peppers on
the roster. Do you think it's Sharping or maybe one
of the d linemen, you know, with if Harmon's on
the cusp of coming back, and now we know Cam's
(18:55):
not a concern, you know what, who could be on
the chopping block?
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Yeah, I mean if I guess if you're presented that
as an if, and I would think more. It seems
to me like the Harrison would be the move. Now
obviously you'd be you know, maybe maybe a shorter linebacker,
although you have short term at least with the practice squad,
you could address that and has been discussed Hulk. I'm
have been playing any snaps at all? Is that kind of.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
So if they're pretty much playing to play Queen and
Wilson every down anyway, and which is almost essentially what
happened in the first week, and what they sort of
talked about and alluded to all the offseason. Then it
sort of mitigates the need to have the death least
in the short term there maybe for a week or
two if that's if that's the case, so at least that's.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Where you go.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
And yeah, they kept an extra o line man. So
you know, nowadays, with the practice squad elevation, I'm sure
if they did, you know, the sharping thing, they could
they could go back to the practice squad with him
then and still have them available if they needed them
from you know, in an emergency type situation in a
given week where they're down a guy or so. It
will gives you a little more flexibility with it. So
you know, it's not like it was. Heck was it
(20:01):
fifteen years ago? We want an ir you're off for
the season, So it a lot less flexibility. You had
seven guys and that was it, and you would be
really judicious with how you've brought in guys or or
or you know, you couldn't put him on the practice
squadf they're veterans. Things like that. Now there's a lot
more maneuverability and things you can do, and especially in
the short term with two practice squad call ups. If
you had to get a guy at a certain position,
they could do it. But I just get the sense
(20:22):
it's probably gonna be Harrison to I are.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I thought out the way you might be in trouble,
and I crushed his name. I apologize a d.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Lineman's funny you say that, because I was wonder I
about me to say his name, and I'm like a
writer and I have to type it, so I just say, oh, that's.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Very good radio.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
I'm like, I'll be like a quality and oh.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Yeah, I crushed every chance I get. Yeah, yeah, I
thought he might be in.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Yeah, he got and he was the scratch. So I
mean he would be obvious, an obvious candidate if you did,
especially you know, as Harmon creeps closer and closer back
to availability.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Chris uh, Derek Harmon. You mentioned him there, Let's let's
talk about him for a minute, Mike Tomlin ruling him out.
But do you get a sense of optimism that there's
a real chance, you know, they'll they'll try and get
him ramped up a little bit this week and then
hopefully kind of green light and good to go for
next week.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Yeah, I thought that. I think that goes a little
bit more. I was almost I thought he might do
the old leave the light on this week, and even
though it wasn't really really on, or the door wasn't
the door might have been a jar and name, but
just the little tiny crack or you had to really
kind of pry it open. So I was I was
sort of surprised he didn't even leave that that little
out for it this week. So but the fact that
(21:34):
he is trending that way in heck, it's like again
it goes back to the they didn't put him on
IR so they fully expected he had a good chance
to be back within the first four games, and this
would be two games then, So yeah, if they're they're
able to see, you know, I would I certainly wouldn't
rule him out at all for for week three. And
I think that was probably if you look at sort
of the timeline anyway from what you heard from that
(21:55):
that first game, and that would be you know, in
terms of weeks, that would be the four weeks out
from that, and that's kind of what the initial reports
were on that, So that would seem to be a
good target at least for that what that Patriots game.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Chris maybe this is simplifying things. It's only one games
of the tiny sample size, but the more you study it,
it sure looks like Jalen Warren took the nause Harris
role and Gainwell took the Warren role. Do you think
that's accurate? Do you think that's did to shock you?
What do you take of the running back rotation and
usage at this point?
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Yeah, you know, I was trying to tell everybody last
week that you'll be seeing Gainwell a lot more than
you probably think. But he played a lot more than
I thought, even with my expectations that he would play.
I was surprised at how much he was out there,
and it is kind of you know, it's I get,
of course, and Tomlin kind of gushed about game all
today about he's coming. I'm obviously get the big stussion
(22:49):
teams play. And he wasn't as if he was super
super productive or anything on Sunday and his debut, but
he has that skill set and I thought it was
a sneaky, little good signing there. They did for very
little money and very little term there to bring a
guy it's been a playmaker like that. In the question
I always had though, was that if he's your perfect
third nine back. I mean that was Warren's role essentially,
or at least least the Lion's share of Warren's role
(23:11):
in the pass. It's almost they're not the same player
by any means at all, but there is certainly some
overlap there in terms of how they'd be used. And
I don't know if Warren is the best. I don't
know if the Steelers thought or hoped. I'm sure there
was a hope that maybe Caleb Johnson would just knock
their socks Offter and Camp in the preseason and maybe
just be able to be the former Nogy. Then you
(23:33):
have maybe too many guys, but that's a you know,
the good problem to have rather than the other way around.
So but you're right, I hadn't thought of it in
the way you put it, but that really seems to
be it's, you know, it's almost roughly. It wasn't exactly
fifty fifty split, which is pretty much what they had
the last two seasons when they were together, the fifty
to fifty split, and if you go by roll and everything,
although there was it seemed to be well, I mean,
(23:53):
you're right, Warren, did you know the whole the full
series thing first and second down. Yeah, so it was
a lot like that, Yeah, in past years, like what
they did. It's kind of funny then, how Warren reversed
his roles from what he held before.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
And looking back on it, I didn't realize at the time.
I'm talking a little bit up the game script too,
like say a twenty point lead that put Bettie in
there and close the guy out, you know what I mean,
And they wouldn't see as much gain well as a shootout.
They were throwing a high percentage of time short, quick
passing game. Maybe that was a little more of a
gainwell friendly script too.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
Yeah, and gainwell always is part of And I think
I don't know what you guys think, but I think
I don't know production wise he had. Of course he
had the real long catch, a couple of long catches
in games in the past, but I don't know what
the numbers exactly were, but I thought maybe it was
in terms of the IYE tests, in terms of the
varied routes and the catches and the plays he made.
Colvin Austin maybe had his best game. And what I'm
getting at with that is that that gain well as
(24:51):
much as he runs routes and almost plays as like
a slot receiver, an extra wide receiver, and people talk
a lot about the extra tight ends and how that
can maybe cover up or mask the knee for depth
at wide receiver, and we certainly saw that in week
one with the We all expected to see Johnny Smith
a lot, and of course Briar and Myth a lot,
and we probably didn't see Darna watching it as much
as most of us thought for sure, But seeing gain
(25:12):
Well and the route team run and everything almost kind
of again serves as it's kind of that, you know,
number two, number three receiver. However you want to put
it in terms of the in terms of the eligibles
that are out there in any given play.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Chris Adamski with us here on the Drive. He is
part of the new Steelers Blitz with Tom op from
in here on the Steelers Audio Network. He also covers
the Steelers for the Trip a Damski. One guy that
we didn't see much of was Roman Wilson. Just ten snaps,
zero targets. Were you surprised by his usage? Again, like
(25:44):
so much of this is, it's one game, It's a
small sample size. We're gonna get more data points. But
were you surprised in that first data point of this
season kind of being such such a small sample, such
a small spin for Roman Wilson.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Yeah, I probably would have you asked me last week,
it would have been more than that, for sure. I
didn't think he'd get any more, of course than Austin
or anything like that. And I mean Scotty Miller got
a lot of play over the preseason there, of course,
and he was kind of the hot guy, and I thought,
maybe it's a little more of him even But but yeah,
there were no I think other the Chronic of course,
was a big play. The one target is Chronic. I
(26:20):
don't think there were any targets even to a wide
receiver other than Austin and Metcalf. You know, I got
the impression, it's crazy. I've gone up and down with
Roman Wilson so many times now, and even I feel
like the Steelers have too. Like I felt a sense
that they were kind of, you know, a little bit
down on him last year in terms of the faith here,
the healthy trash and even he did play, he played
(26:40):
five snaps. Sometimes I know he's injured and that kind
of thing, but I always we make the comparison of
then s apples the oranges in higher pedigree, different position.
I get all that, but fa a Tondo hardly practiced either,
and as soon as they had a chance, they put
him in there immediately to be you know, the play,
and they need to do that with Roman Wilson and
but so I didn't know. I thought early in camp
he wasn't that he wouldn't popping that much. And then
(27:01):
he started to get better in the middle of camp.
And then I really kind of opened my eyes when
it seemed like Aaron Rodgers went out of his way
to praise him and talk about he could be you
know what, he's called him something special in this league
he could turn into. And then I started to get
convinced that we're gonna see a lot more of Rum
and Wilson, but a lot of it could be game
played specific and things like that. We'll see, like I said,
with all the game well, and you know, you're gonna
see the tight ends and as good as Austin was,
(27:23):
you know, maybe there be other games and other you know, situations,
we'll see how it flowed. Maybe he does play a
little more of the third wide receiver. But yeah, I
would have thought a little more than we saw from him. Certainly,
I thought that, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
A targeter too, at least so one guy that obviously
I'm not even gonna candy code it. But Roder Jones
had a really rough day on Sunday, and I thought
the rest of the line held pretty well against a
good front, and there were some bright spots from all
of them, but Jones was very worrisome. Are you getting
the impression at you know, at practice around the organization
(27:56):
that there's a losing trust situation or considering any moves
or they what do you what do you think? How
do you think they feel about Jones?
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Yeah, you know what's about this way and it's nothing
to do with them or whatever. But I made sure
late in the fourth quarter, or you know, once we
got late in that in the second half, that I
was looking through drugs on the field every time. I
wouldn't have been blown away at seven if Calvin Anderson
was running up. And now maybe that's just me, like
I said, that's not based off of you know, infra
or anything, but I thought that was of course, that
would have been sort of almost I don't say seismic,
(28:29):
but that would have. I think that the the ramifications
of that, when you have your first round picked, you
still believe. And it was one gay you can't lie.
I mean you can't look at the stats and the
numbers and the sacks and I know that on every
sack is simple to assign to somebody, but I mean it, yeah,
you kind of have to look at that, and it
is it's his first start at left tackle, so you know,
(28:51):
if that happens in every tackle, that happens once, you know,
in week eleven and everything, he's been okay than that, okay,
you know you kind of look past and sais this
is a bad game and whatever. But yeah, you know,
if if you're doing in week one, it's certainly not encouraging.
But you know that the Steelers, I mean, they gave
Kylevin Anderson what a two year deal, so I guess
that was the faith they have him to be the
swing tackle. But they didn't go out and get you know,
(29:14):
a more you know, like they did kind of with
Herbig a couple of years ago. Guy who has started
and can started, you know, kind of a middle range salary.
There's kind of insurance, and I took that is kind
of faith they had in Broderick Jones. So he still
has a leash. Of course, he still is alterra talented
and everything. But but yeah, you know, obviously you can't
have too many more games in a row where where
(29:34):
you know you're you're probably charge of three sacks.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Chris Adamski last one I've got for you, partner. Uh,
maybe we buried the lead a little bit because we're
about fourteen minutes into this segment and we didn't ask
here talk to you about the quarterback Aaron Rodgers and
what we saw from the four time MVP, the future
Hall of Famer, the Super Bowl champion. Listen again, one week,
one data point. I don't think we all expect him
to throw for four touchdowns every single Sunday, certain, but
(30:01):
for his first in stadium action with the Steelers, his
first in stadium action with d K and Calvin Austin Man,
I thought that's a pretty good starting point.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Yeah it wasn't. Listen, he was there on the road.
You're playing. Whatever you thing about the Jets overall, whether
it be I don't think there'll be any any worse
than you know, an average defense. It's not a bad
defense for short and you know, they got a good
front and things. There wasn't much of a running game
for them from the Steelers, so a lot was and
you're you're playing from behind a lot of that game.
He's back in some of that game, at least you're
playing from behind the end, certainly in the fourth quarter.
(30:32):
And and on that point, that's what if you're signing
a forty one year old former four time MVP of
the league, you're signing him for those drives in the
fourth quarter, right, I mean, that's what No matter what
he is, you know, mobility wise, this and that, whatever,
that's what you're feeling most comfortable about is having him
there for the you know, for those situations. And and
you know, Week one is his debut with the Steelers.
(30:54):
It came through, you got just barely enough of that
second drive to get into getting the balls well range.
But it got the job done and they won the game.
And I've always since there's a you know, a palpable
sort of trust and reverence. Might be, I don't know
if that's a strong reboard or not, but amongst these guys,
I mean, all these teammates, they were, you know, to
varying degrees, they were kids watching Aaron Rodgers win super Bowls, right,
(31:16):
I mean, I mean that most of the roster would
have been what I mean, if you average age of
twenty seven. They won the Super Bowl fifteen years ago,
so he was what they were a goot twelve years old.
So there is kind of that, you know, the cachet
that he has, And I think you saw that in
terms of the offense at times, you know, even though
you know whatever the offense was doing, I never felt
like it was I felt organized and felt everything felt
(31:40):
it was on schedule. Of those kinds of things generally speaking.
So I think you saw the presence of having a
guy like him as your quarterback.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Chris Adamski.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
You could check out his work in the trib Make
sure you are listening to him and our buddy Tom
Opperman at noon right here on Steelers Nation Radio on
the Steelers Audio Network. Chris, great stuff man, Looking forward
to having you a part of the s and our
family and chatting with you all year. Thanks for the
time he.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Went to talk to you, guys.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Care guys there he is.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Chris Adansky, good stuff, good start. Glad to have him
in the fold. You were joking before we went on
air like we need you know, we need more. We
need more reporters. We need more boots on the ground
guys here and not just all of us who yap
from the from the the comforts of our studios. So yeah,
good stuff from him and looking forward to chatting with him,
I think probably just about every single Tuesday here on
(32:32):
the show. We are also from a new guest in
Chris Adanski. Yeah, to a new segment idea that I
have for you on the other side, Matt, a little
Tuesday rewind.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Know what that means bringing on this is?
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Would you like to know now? Or should I just
lay it on you at the start? The next time,
I just.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Drop it right on me.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
I'll drop it on you. When we returned from commercial bread.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Read balloon that's aelin reference.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yes, I know that.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
I know that one that's gonna go over, that's gonna
go over like a led Zeppelin.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I do know that one. I can't believe I messed
up up in through the Outdoor.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
I'm not gonna let you live that one down either.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
That's all right, three hundred and sixty five days of penance,
I'll make up for it. It's the drive on Steelers
days you're radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Your tune's about Drive on your twenty four to seven
home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Back on the Drive here on a Tuesday afternoon, and
we will have a new guest on Tuesday afternoons, Chris
Adanski that we just introduced to you all there. Yeah, awesome,
happy to happy to have him in the fold here
with our S and R family. And not just because
he's a fellow Mars High School graduate and I'm sick
and tired of are you, oh you lebo guys around
here just doing your thing all the time. I also
(34:00):
would like to do a thing with you on Tuesdays.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
He's a show with the Libo guy. Now I think
about it, so connection.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I was just going to say, two of the regular
programs one one Libo Grad and one Mars gradamelor same
color scheme. Maybe that's why we all, maybe that's why
we all get along so well. We are the fighting planets.
That's fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, don't you for don't you
(34:29):
forget it? Another thing that I would like to do
on Tuesdays, And we might have to adjust this a
little bit obviously. When the Steelers play Monday night, Thursday
night football or anything like that, but a Tuesday rewind.
So obviously I know that you have watched the game again,
you have dug more into the numbers again. Since we
do kind of our initial reaction game recaps on Mondays,
(34:52):
I just to kind of peel back the curtain for
you and for our listeners. Monday Night's a big night
for me in terms of rewatch stuff because every and
this too. I think I've mentioned this, but I'm the
Steelers game day engineer, right, so I'm first one in
the booth, last one out of there. I'm in charge
of our entire operations in the broadcast booth, all the
(35:12):
set up, all the tear down, the wireless microphones on
the sidelines, everything with everything.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
With Rob and starts.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Oh yeah, we got to go on the sidelines and
test the microphones before the games, all all that kind
of stuff production. I mean, we get there about four
and a half five hours early before kickoff, just to
give you an idea of how long everything takes. With that,
I am obviously in the broadcast booth, sitting right behind
Max and and Rob and I have and I have
a great view of the game. But there's also a
lot of things that happened that you know, when I'm
(35:40):
there in the broadcast booth doing my job, I might miss.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Oh, I would think, or if something happens wrong.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
If something happened, you know, if Missy's having an issue
with her microphone on the sideline and I have to
step away for five minutes, which happens from time to time.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
What's studying the plays, whatever made the case may be.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
And I'm obviously not watching all the other games that
go on at that time, you know, if we're on.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
The road, like I assume there's a TV in the booth.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
There is, but it's mostly it's on Steelers, you know,
because because Max is looking for replays, Rob's looking for
replays all that kind of stuff, and you know, and
then we get for the away games. We go and
we get on a flight and we're in the air
and so you know, I can I can miss some
action there.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
So Monday's a big rewatch night for me. I like
to watch a lot of.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
The condensed games from stuff from stuff that I missed,
and I like to rewatch the Steelers game in its entirety,
just because again making sure I'm remembering everything.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Correctly.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Well, wait, were the Steelers down six or were they
down nine in the second quarter?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Well, what exactly.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
You're saying similar situational stuff or.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
What exactly was the down and distance when they took
a shot to Calvin Austin at the end instead of
maybe just trying to get a couple extra.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yards or Chris Boswell.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah, yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Different kinds of things like that.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
We'll call it a Tuesday rewind, maybe a you know,
a kind of look back at some things that we
want to talk about from the game that we didn't
talk about in our initial game recap.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Okay, that makes right, Yeah, super quick. You mentioned that
Austin shot. I don't think we brought that up even yet.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
That was one of the things that I wanted to
talk to you about, if you want to go there.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
I just thought that it's noteworthy. I mean, we we
know what Tomlin's formula has been since Ben's elbow injury
in terms of managing the quarterback. How many time we've
cited it that when they throw a pick, they lose.
When they do, don't they do you know whatever. I'm
not sure if that shot would he got taken last
(37:25):
year or definitely the year before or the year before
or the year before, And frankly, I'm not sure Rogers
even asking anybody you know he's taking if he sees
one on one in a matchup, he likes him. I mean,
they didn't one thing that was also true side note,
they didn't throw a sauce at all. I mean, the
rest of that secondary is pretty vulnerable, and I think
(37:45):
there was only one or two balls even thrown. Sauces
way smart and smart, and he followed DK a lot,
but three of the catches DK got were the three
snaps the gardener wasn't on him, You like, Roger's like,
I'm not throwing at sauce. We got other options I
like better. But if DK's not on sauce, I'm throwing him. Yeah.
(38:08):
Every time, Yeah, I mean it was almost every time,
like you and.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
I would joke during training camp. It was like almost intentional.
At the first rep of team period was always Aaron
Rodgers throwing the DK metcalf.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
He didn't run any routes with other quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Every time during training ramime. Yeah, that felt a little
of the same church, different pew. On Sunday it did,
where like every time sauce is not lined up on DK.
That's Aaron's first read and the majority of time he's
going there.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
And that doesn't mean he couldn't beat Gardner. I mean,
I think that's a battle, but the other safeties and
corners were pretty vulnerable. That that's where they're going with football, you.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Know, totally totally, and so that you know what, it's
funny because I didn't really that wasn't even in my
thought process. But I think that's a brilliant call by you.
Like my thought process was kind of, hey, they believe
in Calvin Austin. They had an opportunity to take a
one on one shot with him. It was a fifty
to fifty. I didn't think it was an egregious man
by not calling the pass interference, but I wouldn't bemembe.
(39:03):
Fifty to fifty could have gone either way. I was
just looking at it as like, hey, you get three,
you call your three, four, five, six yard gotta have
it play there. And it turns a sixty yarder into
a fifty four yarder for Chris Boswell.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Which is usually how they've done it. Then make his
life a little easier.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
But your thought process of like a not when Aaron
Rodgers is out there and that's see an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
That is a that is a great show.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
And to kind of piggyback off of that, Matt, the
first note that I had in my Tuesday rewatch way
more explosive pass plays.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Than we've seen oh times one thousand.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
I know there was still the lack of that in
the run game, right, I believe Jalen Warren nine yard
carry I want to say, was the Steelers longest carry,
longest in rushing run ten plus and it's fifty plus
pass game, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
That's how that's the official next Gen three or four.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
The Steelers had a fifteen plus.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Maybe had more I wouldn't say, maybe even.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Six, okay, which is which is a good number and
something that we haven't seen a ton of in the
last few post Ben years.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
And they came about them in a much different way.
So we have seen explosive passing, you know, Wilson deep ball,
moonshots down the sidelines, throwing the ball far and somebody
pickings normally going up and get it down the field,
running go routes. You know, it is to remember the
explosive play rate stuff we did. They ended up being
(40:26):
positive part of it's because no one ever throws deep
on the Steelers. I mean, so they didn't give up
a lot of explosives either, but their explosives came almost
all off play action, which I tweeted some stuff today
about Rogers. I mean, he's never been a big play
action guy, but they've obviously bought in on play action.
Makes my life easier, even more rollouts.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
That's the Senate observation I have wrote down for you.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
By the way, wund No, just that I love it
when a play comes together way more explosive pass plays,
way more play action. Those are my first two notes
from my Tuesday rewind.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
But the explosive play passes were not forty yards downfield,
dk running past somebody or pickings. In fact, he only
threw one pass over twenty yards down the field, and
it was twenty one you know, like if you look
at his chart, there aren't any long balls.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
I mean there's a couple of twenty ish yards ors
o Pepper's.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
That neighborhood about it, right right right, And even like
Austin touchdown was into the end zone, but it was
from the nineteen yard lines, so people fought me. Side note,
I made a lot of enemies on Twitter yesterday because
I put down basically I posted his chart earlier, but
I also just wrote his average depth of the target
(41:42):
was very low, the ball came out of his hands
very quick, and I cited all the numbers and he
didn't attend I wrote down he didn't attempt to pass
over twenty yards. Well, I didn't make that stuff up.
I cut and pasted it from next Gen Stats or
someone the charts this stuff, and everyone's why you hating.
I didn't mean this as a negative. If all he
did was put putting numbers down, if he had been
(42:04):
holding the ball for four seconds, throwing the ball forty
yards on field, he would have got destroyed with that protection. Yet,
I mean that was good quarterbacking. That was lit Land, right.
I mean that doesn't diminish from what he did, you know,
at all. I mean threw a lot of balls behind
the line of scrimmage too, because they couldn't run the ball.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
You.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
I think one of the things that a quarterback like
Aaron Rodgers does, and to his credit, when things were
going good for the first handful of starts last year,
I thought we saw some of this from Russell Wilson
as well too.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
They're gonna take what the defense gives you.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yeah right, right right, it's Rady's the master was right,
yeah right, we're starting, We're starting to get on the
I'm in the led Zeppelin zone and I was just
going to go to top Tom Brady. Some weeks it
was I'm gonna air this thing out the Randy Moss,
We're gonna stretch the field. Other weeks it was we're
going to crush you in the slot with the Edelmans
and the Whelkers running back sometimes you know, the the
(42:54):
Gronk and the Hernandez double tight end sometimes, like that's
what the best quarterbacks do, is they take what the
defense has given them and they run with it.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Mahomes is the best example recently too. He had his
average depth of target this first couple of years was
through the roof, shrug guys off, throwing bombs at Tyreek.
Now he's at the absolute bottom of the league in
average depth of target. Doesn't make him any worse, guys,
you know, I mean, like it's it's hard to beat
a team by death by a thousand paper cuts, you know.
(43:23):
And it bothered me because everyone writing back is why
you hate and it doesn't matter. They got to win.
All they look at all the orgy put up. I'm like, yeah,
because it was all I did was psyche the numbers. Yeah,
and it worked. That's good quarterbacking, right.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Statistics just make people feel some type of.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Way they do. Right, don't be why you're cutting ar
I mean, you couldn't say that bad about Rogers, which
I did. I love that everyone's defending their.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Not saying anything bad about it.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
I'm not saying good or bad. I just pointed out
where the ball was at.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
The middle of the field. Numbers on that passage too,
which is good to see.
Speaker 4 (43:58):
More than in recent Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Yeah, Hour in the Books, Another hour to go. I
don't know. Do you have any other Tuesday rewind observations
you want to get.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
One thousand, but they'll come up over the course of
the week.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
It sounds good. We'll do some of those.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
We want to do a little fantasy football focus to
kick off our number two as well. We'll do all
that as we roll along here on a Tuesday. West
Huler Matt Williamson Hour in the Books, Another hour to go.
It's the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers
Audio Network.
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