HR2: Live from OTAs

Coverage from the 4th OTA practice continues as Rob King joins the program.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is the Drive with Dale, Lolly and Matt Williamson
on your twenty four to seven home of the Black
and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Our number two from OTAs here on day number four.
It's a special edition of the Drive. Wes Shuler, Dale Lallie,
Matt Williamson with you here as practice is ongoing on
a beautiful June day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
We aren't talking about practice.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
We are talking about practice, not the game, practice practice.
But it is exciting. As we mentioned, this is what
June is supposed to feel like. It's it's you know,
it's not certainly not even close to ramped up all
the way to ten. But it is football. It is
happening in front of us, and it is an important
part of the process.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
No question about it. I mean again, it's it's phase one.
People get too excited about this stuff. They get too
excited about who's not here for now. I mean that's
a big thing. You hear all over the pecking order
and all that kind of stuff. But no, I think
it's really valuable. It's three weeks of more or less
being together.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
What's up. Everybody won't be here next week, yes, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:12):
I mean next week we have Next week, we'll have even.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
At least they better begu there while it's gonna getting
a little lighter.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Yeah, we use the analogy if last week was kindergarten,
this is first grade.

Speaker 5 (01:21):
Next week will be like third grade, you know, like
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
It's moving up into the intermediate school, right, you leave
the elementary school into the intermediate or the you know,
intermediate school before you go to middle school type thing.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Yeah, it's an orientation for training camp next week. I
think you'll see a little bit different tempo. All the
big dogs will be here and all that stuff too.
It's not like they'll be blocking and tackling and whatnot,
but sure.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
But and not just on the field too, Like what
they do in the facility behind us gets ramped up
next week as well.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
Too, especially the position meeting room from the I'm sure
Cam Hayward, TJ. Watt, et cetera.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Are gonna be look at the young guys like you
don't know that yet. Come on, man, you've been here
for two weeks. We know that, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes, this is week number three. It's time to start
finding new mistakes, right that's yeah, that's another one. That
you hear the same mistakes you're making week one. You
better be finding new ones, week two, new ones, week three,
you better be improving and getting to the next level
in the process.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
And you hope there's no injuries, you know, knock knock
on work, absolutely, and you know.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
A nice break that everybody needs, and you hope that
nobody's doing dumb stuff from that point.

Speaker 5 (02:22):
And then it's real, you.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Know, six seven weeks of let's not hear anybody's name
in the headlines, and let's all make it to La
Trobe in one piece, and yeah, absolutely, kind of the
the final boxes that we're checking here before all eyes
upon latrobe. Before we get to that, we've got plenty
of other things to discuss, plenty of other conversations. And
you know, guys, this time of year it is and
we repeat this a million times. But for those who

(02:44):
might just be jumping into the to the show here,
we are not allowed to detail exactly what is going
on out here. In practice, we can give you some
observations and things like that, but it's not like training
camp where we can do some pseudo play by play
of what's going on and really paint a picture for you.
I think that you know, allows some bigger picture conversations
this time of year, and one that I always like

(03:06):
having the kind of appeals to. I think the sports
dork in me that I know you guys share as
well too, and the football geek is when you bring
in new coordinators with new philosophies. The first year, the
evolution to the second year to the third year of okay,
when Arthur Smith gets here last year, the majority of

(03:27):
the guy and there's free agency and there's the draft,
and he's got a big say in those things obviously,
but there's kind of a lot of working with what
you got. There might be some square peg in a
round hole. You inherited what you inherited personnel wise, with
what the previous coordinator and coaching staff were doing yes
year two, it starts to feel like where that can

(03:47):
start to move a little bit more towards the OC's philosophy.
And this isn't just on offense, you know, or you
guys like I reference modes a lot. But you know,
he's the one that I do all the hours of radio.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
With every week.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
His first four years in Buffalo, he had three different
defensive coordinators. That's so hard one got fired after his
rookie year. Then they had the same guy for two years,
and then his fourth year a third coordinator. And so
he talks about how I can't remember if it was
odd front to start and then even and then back
to odd, or if they were four to three then three,
four then fourth, but he had that change.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Twe those are changes crazy, right.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
And those are massive changes, particularly when you're asking hand
in the dirt guys to stand up all of a sudden,
or stand up guys to put their hand in the
dirt all of a sudden. And I think some of
those things are a little more noticeable when it's a
change that drastic on the defensive side of the football.
Oh yeah, but there's still obviously plenty of that with
Arthur Smith. And just does now start to feel like

(04:44):
the time where and again we've kind of struck down
the John new Smith conversation. But you know, maybe where
you're looking at some guys who might really not necessarily fit,
like John new Smith where they spent five years together,
but where you're going out and you're saying it's time
to give him some tool that fit the job he's
trying to do, right, Red paint to paint the barn rent.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yeah, and I'll start with a defensive example that I'm
just gonna make up off the top of my head.
And obviously this isn't how it went. There's no fact
behind this at all. Let's say Aaron Donald's coming out
of Pitt He's right next door. He's a certain type
of defensive tackle. He is vastly undersized, but the Steelers
have scouted him as a scout. Everyone doing due diligence
and like, this dude is incredible special. I think he's

(05:26):
gonna be one of the best two or three players
in this entire draft. I mean, he is a special,
special player. They got him right, They still probably don't
draft him under Lebaux. I mean, what's he going to
do in the Lebau scheme. He's not going to Casey
Hampton and he's not gonna Aaron Smith. It is he
so good that he can transcend, maybe, but it's probably

(05:50):
just on third downs or situational So you pass on
and then the next year Dick lebou retires or gets
fired and you go higher a four three guy that
is looking for the next Aaron Donald. It's like we
had the best one, and we knew he was gonna
be awesome, and we passed on purpose right there, and

(06:13):
we thought he was the third best player in the draft,
but not for our draft board. So we turned our
nose at him. And therefore and now he fits our
new scheme perfectly, and we're trying to find one and
there isn't one.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Close to that level, you know, like right exactly.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
You know, Oh, Steelers get stale with their coaches being
around all the time, it's a huge advantage. I mean
I've cited this six thousand times. When I scouted for
the Browns, we were a four to three Miami the
U attacking old school defense. Butch David gets fired. Romeo
Crenell comes in from he wants will Fork, he wants Seymour,

(06:52):
he wants Steeler three four guys. So all the work
I did for nine months was through the wrong lens,
you know, Like I still have reports on the guys,
but it's like I'm scouting for the old team, not
the new team.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Like they're scouting for an Italian meal right now, we're
gonna cook some Indian food instead.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
And to use that example, you know, like get back
to Arthur Smith, All good coaches realize that this is
not a restaurant where I can get the same ingredients
every week. I'm gonna make my lasagna the exactly. I'm
gonna make a big Mac a big Mac, whether it's
in China.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Or I've got a red pain, I'm making the food.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
Right right, and I can order red paint every time,
you know. Like so, any good coach realizes, year to year,
week to week, month to month, I'm not gonna have
the same ingredients where McDonald's has the same little chopped
onions in the sesame seed bun and the big.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Macs the same just drop it off the same thing
every Tuesday.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
But we want the same ingredients as close as we can,
you know. And in terms of I'm the best big
Mac maker going, don't give me hot dogs, you know,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (07:57):
So for this example, when they hired Smith, it worried me.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
And still I don't know where how the woods here
is with the previous regime. Even after Canada was let go,
I thought a lot of their most effective run plays
were on power based stuff, pulling.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Linemen and Harris's bread and Butter, and that was.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
Dodgy's bread and Butter. And I was worried they would
scrap that and just go entirely zone. Well, nobody goes entirely.
I mean, it would predominantly. And it does worry me
that they're less way less inclined now to use power
run schemes.

Speaker 5 (08:36):
But they're not. That's the way. I mean, that was
their decision, and it's fine.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
It doesn't mean it's a wrong decision by any means,
but there was a good thing going that they got
away from. Now that doesn't mean that this new scheme
can't be way better, because I think it is already
to be. Frank I mean than his predecessors, just in
terms of we know.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
And his history of devising run scheme is really really good.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
He makes a lot of things look the same until
they're not, you know, right, And a lot of big people,
a lot of tight ends, and a lot of outside
zone and zone stuff in particular, which is really hard
to defend. I mean, it's a lot of big people
moving is one.

Speaker 5 (09:17):
And over the last.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Couple of years they've drafted a lot of athletic linemen.
You know, you don't want the three hundred and fifty
pound guard. We all love Ramon Foster, but like that guy,
doesn't you know, he's the Aaron Donald in the Lebau conversation,
you know what I mean, not for us anymore, you know,
and certainly a zone runner like Caleb Johnson as opposed
to a man runner like Nausey. Now, if they would

(09:41):
have kept the same scheme with Nausee still be around,
maybe maybe, you know, but knowing what they're looking for
in the future, they knew he wasn't coming back. I
mean basically probably the day they hired Arthur Smith, like,
we got one more year in Nausey, and at that
point he'll be X years old, with a lot of
wear and tear in his body. We'll draft the zone run.
And so this year I would think you're going to

(10:03):
see much more Arthur Smith concepts.

Speaker 5 (10:06):
And even Pickens versus Mech. I mean it.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Affects every position, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
Pickens versus Metcalf, Like Metcalf isn't a j Brown, but
he will go over the middle and do in breaking
routes much more than George.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Did, a physical style of wide receiver.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
And George did more of it last year than his
rookie year, but some of his over the middle effort
was lackluster.

Speaker 5 (10:29):
Would be kind.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
I mean, he wasn't as into that as go balls
down the sideline and then your quarterback.

Speaker 5 (10:35):
Didn't like thrown over the middle.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
But you're going to see a lot of play action,
a lot of some boots and things like that too,
setting plays up better, sequencing plays better, right, That's a
big thing with rhythm. Absolutely, Sequencing plays is one of
the hardest things as an analyst. But the really good
x's and o's people and play callers will tell you

(10:58):
that's one of the beauties. I mean, nobody's not too
many people are re eventing the wheel with different plays,
but how you run them in the small wrinkles and Shannon,
how you.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Can throw a little different things from the same.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Look, right, And I do think you'll see more production
from that. And again we can probably look at all
their offensive additions through the lens of.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
As opposed to what he inherited. And I could tell
you the story of why you know.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yes, and that that to me is again one of
those kind of fascinating offseason things of when you're in
year two, year three with a new coordinator and kind
of the merging of that vision like.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
A you know, you look like Andy Reid and Mahomes.
I mean, these guys have been together forever, especially on offense.

Speaker 5 (11:41):
But you know, like Lebo is a great example.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
On defense, three or four teams are running three four
and you're getting Joey Porter in the certain fourth round
where if Joey Porter came out now, he'd be a first.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
Round absolutely, you know, absolutely those type of things.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
So, but offense is even more so, you know, because
it's defense is becoming the lines between.

Speaker 5 (12:02):
Three four and four three are he learned to lurk, Yeah,
in a big way. Almost every one of the four
man front.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Everyone lives in nickel with package probably means less than
ever before.

Speaker 5 (12:10):
No question. And offense to me is a little more intrico,
you know, I mean a little.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
More technique and things like that too, you know, and
maybe harder to build, especially because quarterbacks are hard to find.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, and you know what's sticking with that and the
continuity thing that you mentioned, Like I think he listened.
He's not a guy that I like to give any
benefit of the doubt too, But I think of Baker
Mayfield comes in with huge in five years, right, Hugh Jackson,
then Freddie Kitchens, then Kevin Stefanski.

Speaker 6 (12:33):
Yeah, like that's that's that's tough.

Speaker 5 (12:35):
Even almost impossible to succeed.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
And I think now you've seen him get in a
more stable situation and he's won division titles and playoff
games in Tampa Bay, and we don't think that he's
one of those upper tier quarterbacks, but he's certainly.

Speaker 5 (12:46):
Been proven good less.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
He's certainly proven that he's been pretty darn good. You know,
top ten type guy, top five, but top ten, top
twelve type guy.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
In the league.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
And all all he needed was a little continuity and
a little stability.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
When a vision year after year now in Tampa and
their offensive coordinator becomes a head coach for that reason,
you know.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
The playoffs the past two years, hire you to.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Try to make Trevor Lawrence into the next Baker Mayfield
and we claim, is you know his career.

Speaker 6 (13:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
So again, like I said, that's just one of those
things I'm always kind of very interested in, and I
I know Matt with that too. Obviously, the quarterback under
center plays a big role into this massively. If if
if it's if it's Mason Rudolph, who's starting, you know,
Week one at the at the meadow Lands there against
the Jets. The you know, this same conversation is different

(13:34):
than if it's Aaron Rodgers and you know, the playmaker
types that you might be attacking here if you're looking
to add to that room.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
So this is gonna sound cruel and mean, but this
is not a nice league or a nice world. But
Mason Rudolf is not really at the point of his
career where he can dictate poor you know. I mean,
he's gonna he's gonna paint by numbers, this is what
we need you to do. That doesn't mean he can't
improv or change plays at the line of scrimmage or
any of those things, or have input. Of course, any

(14:02):
good coach, quarterback coach is going to be like, Mason,
what do you like? You know, what do you give
me your favorite stuff? What do you like do in
the red zone. I'll cater to you, of course. But
Ben Russ Rogers, you're not gonna teach the old dog
too many new tricks, you know, and people will be like, oh,
Ben had too much power, no way, he earned it,

(14:24):
earned he earned it, And frankly, I'm gonna cut on him.
It Doesn't'm not cutting on him because he's gone. But
I think it's been the problem for Wilson. A real
problem is.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
That he plays the way he does.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
He's not adaptable physically and mentally as he should be
at this stage of his career.

Speaker 5 (14:43):
And I'll just put it out there.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
I mean, Pete Carroll, Sean Payton, Mike Tomlin have won
a bazillion games between the three of them, and all
Super Bowl champions as well too, and all are probably
gonna end up in the Hall of Fame, and all
said we worked with him.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
Now you gotta go right, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
He wasn't doing the end of his career Peyton Manning
thing and completely changing his game.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
No, no, and now all the defensive coordinators know how
he his play and you know, like.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
And he should have say he's earned it too.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Like you said, every quarterback should have say to a
varying except especially if.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
You're Rogers, Wilson, Ben et cetera. I'm sure if even
if it's not happening now, if Rogers comes here, there's
gonna be things that he does that they've never done
here before. And it's not gonna become the Rogers offense.
Because Smith and Lafleur were together.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
They have a background.

Speaker 4 (15:37):
He's done the Laflora offense, which is the Smith offense
more or less, you know, so they're still gonna speak
the same language, but he's gonna have his own dialect.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
There's a really slang that he puts into the vernacular.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
I mean, at this point in his career, Aaron Rodgers,
he's run every concept, He's seen it all, he's done
it all. That's why you bring that kind of player in.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
I'm going to thrown this out there. He might be like, Okay,
you guys have run slant for the art or out
or come back this way. Under Arthur Smith, I need
it two yards deeper, I need it one step less.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
It's but at seven yards I needed it eight and
a half.

Speaker 5 (16:21):
Yeah, cool, we can do that, you know, right, all right,
and he's gonna get in the receiver's face and be like,
we don't run like that.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
I need you eight and a half.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
Yeah, And I'm not gonna throw it to I mean,
that's a big thing with him too, is he.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
Is very picky trust factor and will punish those that
don't do what he says.

Speaker 5 (16:40):
You know, like it's easy to say, boy, Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 4 (16:43):
Z a diva, and he needs to bring in Lizard
and Cobb and his guys because he wants to have
beers and grill with him and he likes her family,
and he probably does. But it's as much, if not more,
of they know where, they know where.

Speaker 5 (16:58):
I want them to be. And I'm very very particular.
We speak that same slang, so that in a in
a way, and I know this is what we're talking about.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
You'd like him to get here sooner than later, you know,
you know, to do if that's gonna happen, to really
start being meticulous with where these guys are going to be,
you know. And I'm sure protections are the same way,
and all those things too. Where he's definitely an old.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
Dog, No.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
He is not, And that was an old dog who's
super interested in new tricks. If the horn there droughted
out your r but as few But petrary.

Speaker 4 (17:32):
To popular belief, it's not like they signed Aaron Rodgers.
They just threw Arthur Smith's playbook in the fire and said, here, Aaron.

Speaker 5 (17:37):
Run whatever you want.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
It'll be another one of those. Here's the skill set,
here's our philosophy. Where do we where do we find
the common ground?

Speaker 5 (17:44):
And meet in the middle.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
And I'll bet a bazillion dollars that was as much
of a conversation when he visited here as anything.

Speaker 5 (17:50):
You know, how do I marry what I do with.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
What you do? In those same conversations with with Russell
Wilson and Justin Fields a year ago, you know how
to marry options, but they don't.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
Yes, they don't come in before and kind of audition
and to have a chat with you.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
First correct, correct, rolling along here, I thought that that was,
you know, I thought that was a conversation worth having
in some of those philosophies and things like that. We
will have us some special guests for you. In the
last kind of hour and forty minutes or so here
the program. Rob King is going to sit down and
do a segment.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
Super quick on Rogers too. I called it ahead.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
We've got nothing but time then.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
I mean things that he's going to do no matter
where he plays, is manipulate the play clock when you're
trying to give your eleventh guy on. And he's the
best ever at that kind of stuff. He throws a
Hail Mary better than There's some things over his career
that has made him awesome that is still going to
be there, and he's going to play the game he wants.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
And he recognizes when the defense has jumped off some sides,
he just takes a shot.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
He's going to be aggressive as could be on those situations,
you know what I mean. He may not hold the
ball as long and take as many shots as he
did when he was twenty eighth. You know, you know
that his game has changed too, don't get me wrong,
but there are going to be tricks of the trade
that he brings that are really good tricks.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, without a doubt, And that is obviously something that
he could do if he's sixty correct some of that.
Those guys like that never lose. Yeah, no, without a doubt.
Got to get to a break here, But as we
roll along, Like I said, Rob King will join us
for a segment or two at some point here. Jalen
Warren also going to sit down with us for a
few minutes after practice. Get a chance to talk to

(19:25):
number thirty and heading into a big year for him.
That offense, that running back room, all of that and more.
As we roll along with Shuler here with Dale Lalli
and Matt Williams in special edition of The Drive live
from OTA's Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
At least is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt
Williams on your twenty four to seven home of the
Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Rocking and rolling here from the south side is practice
is underway. We've got the offensive lineman here in front
of us defense and the rest of the offense across
the way on a be a utiful day here on
the south side of the sun is shining, the mood
is high. Our guy Rob King going to join us
in just a few minutes. Offensive lineman working on some

(20:25):
technique over here, Matt. Not to get too specific, but
you know, yeah, I thought and some technique. Yeah, what
are you saying again?

Speaker 4 (20:31):
This is not divulging, you know, scheme secrets or anything.
But they had offensive linemen on their back with a
medicine ball right above them, dropping it with extended hands.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (20:43):
Yeah, And really what.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
They're working on, it's a huge, huge thing of offensive
line play. Is that six inch punch. Punch punch. You're
in tight quarters? Yeah, I can punch like Tyson when
I come from here to you know from where that's
not where you're coming from. That's not where you're coming from.
You have hands in front of your chest, and it's.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
A short, really really powerful.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
Kill bill, you know, right right getting out of the
coffee right exactly that type of thing where short area
of power is really really important. And what I found
interesting is another thing people don't necessarily think about with
offensive line play and punching is if you're punching with
two hands, I often have to take my shoulders, have
to go with me. You know, they're not always right

(21:27):
in front of my body. If they are great, I
can blast them with two hands and I'm gonna get
better power. But the really good offensive lineman independent hands
is really important. And like they when they were dropping
the medicine ball, they were doing two hand punches, but
they were also doing just left or just right, even
though it's the same.

Speaker 5 (21:43):
Weight and it's harder. But think about like.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Webby going back with all those highlights and he's got
to the white hands and he's knocking knocking this guy
with one or knocking this guy with another. If you
can win with independent hands, especially a tackle against edge
rushers and guys like that, at you might not be
able to get two on If I got to get
two to get to the outside edge and then TJ
crosses my face and I'm kind of hamstrung here, I'm

(22:08):
in trouble.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
So it was just a cool little drilled as we
watched twist his arms around that right and are you.

Speaker 6 (22:15):
Just talking shoulders square there?

Speaker 7 (22:16):
Because also when you're if you're zone blocking and a
lot and a lot of pulling going on.

Speaker 6 (22:20):
Right, it's the same thing.

Speaker 7 (22:21):
Right, you're gonna use that lead hand that inside great
try to push guys off.

Speaker 5 (22:26):
Or even on double team.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
So I'm only gonna get you know, I'm attacking his
outside shoulder with my hand while this one's looking for
the next guy.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
You know, no questions, A great point, no question. So
strength power coordination for independent hands and length and armlengths
is massive. Is It's absolutely huge? Why does arm length matter?

Speaker 2 (22:45):
That's get your hand on somebody.

Speaker 6 (22:47):
Yeah, I can't decide dale sexy or painful with that voice.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Okay, another thing like with arm length to it just
it just dawned on me.

Speaker 4 (22:59):
But like Khalil Max, one of the best in the
last ten years of using like a one arm technique.
If he comes off the edge, even if you're a
long armed guy, and he stabs you with one arm
and only gives you his width and has that kind
of power, He's going to be harder than you no
matter what.

Speaker 5 (23:17):
Yeah, man.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
And he's giving you no surface, no surface to hit.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
And if he has enough power to at least shock
you or sustain your breastplate with one long arm technique,
then this guy over here can do damage you know,
or you know, grab you through, rip you through whatever
you know.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the program, The King in
the Castle, the voice of Pittsburgh Steelers Rob King.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
Published author.

Speaker 6 (23:40):
I haven't heard that published author. Oh yeah, we got
it all going. I guess he.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Even does some TV as well too, But kind enough
to join us here on radio. What's up? Kicker?

Speaker 6 (23:50):
Paul skeins later today, double dipping? Going on?

Speaker 7 (23:54):
That? Is that? Here?

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Is that a road game?

Speaker 6 (23:56):
That is here? They're home for the next nine days.
He's always cracked up to be Oh my goodness, gracious.

Speaker 7 (24:02):
I mean, you know, I've told this to people, and
you know, I remember growing up in New York and
and really yeah and uh and loving you know, I
grew up as a as a Mets fan back in
the day and loved Doc goodin you know, watching watching
him come up. But for and and his first couple

(24:23):
of years were sensational. He came up to a nineteen
year old yeah you know. Uh, Skens came up as
a as a gray haired twenty one year old last year,
you know, so so there was a difference in age,
but as far as just you know, uh, oh thank you.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Because he has a chair. He has a chair.

Speaker 5 (24:41):
I've got a chair.

Speaker 7 (24:43):
Just as far as pure you know stuff, knowing how
to use his ability to grow.

Speaker 6 (24:48):
Like my own private nickname for him.

Speaker 7 (24:50):
Is the Terminator, but you know the first Terminator movie
where not only is he physically scary, but he's learning.

Speaker 6 (24:56):
You know, he's learning, he's learning mentally as he.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
Goes to play. He flies a kind of relentless.

Speaker 7 (25:02):
Relentless, all those things. And this guy's been a pitcher
for two years. Two years. He's a catcher.

Speaker 6 (25:07):
He was a catcher, relief pitcher.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (25:10):
So he's he's uh and I mean you know he's uh,
it's uh. You know, everybody gets to that level working hard.
You can't get there without it. But he's got it.
He's got a different level of that. Everything's a different
level of that guy, I've never seen anybody like.

Speaker 5 (25:23):
I know it's on Pirates Nation Radio, but I've quoted
you before.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
That Johnny Rodger that you.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
Thought he was the best pitching prospect you've ever seen ever.
I mean we're going back there, bombceiver, Doc Good and
Fernando Allawa, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:37):
Yeah, Walter Johnson, Warrick Spond those guys. Yeah exactly.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
So I can't even think of a football equivalent.

Speaker 7 (25:46):
No, I think he's uh yeah, yeah, maybe maybe LT
because he just it's just a.

Speaker 5 (25:52):
Different, different everybody else, right.

Speaker 7 (25:54):
Than everybody else, right exactly right off the bat. Yeah,
you know, I don't I don't say that lightly. I've
thought about a lot. I've I've talked to other baseball people,
and I think other people would agree that never seen
anything like them.

Speaker 6 (26:05):
Wow. So there we go. Yeah, we've got football practice
front of Ustown.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
We have never seen we have never seen anything like
Rob King here in these parts in western Pennsylvania. Uh So, Kinger,
I mean you are you're a savvy and astute sports mind. Okay,
you know you do the football, you do the baseball,
you do the hockey. A little bit of this, a
little bit of that. Published author trilogy fantasy novels is
what Ornstone.

Speaker 6 (26:28):
Go out and buy it available on Amazon.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Sorry, that's Rob J R. R. King sitting sitting next
to us here. I know that you've been kind of
back and forth around with some of these practices, not
all these practices, correct, Uh, what are you looking for?
What are you observing? Who you've been talking to? What's
at the forefront of your mind out here on day
number four of OTA.

Speaker 7 (26:48):
So a little different than what you guys are looking
at and a little different than I would be looking at.

Speaker 5 (26:54):
Pronunt, I mean.

Speaker 6 (27:01):
Exactly why yay fowl?

Speaker 7 (27:05):
Like?

Speaker 6 (27:05):
Uh like did you hunter?

Speaker 7 (27:08):
Fo?

Speaker 5 (27:11):
Okay, I will work on it, foul.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
I had a very nice conversation yesterday, by the way,
as much as I could confirm. Uh yeah, yeah, Black's
high school coach, and uh he's an interesting guy, just
from the fact that I was watching some of his
high school tape. He was standing up as an outside

(27:38):
linebacker slash left tackle.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, right, he played on the edge.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
They used him on all kinds different stuff.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
And uh, I know you did say something really athletic.

Speaker 7 (27:52):
I mean he's big enough where they could have just
gone out with ten. He could have been both left
tackle and the outside guy. Right, he's a big human being.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
He was like he played in high school at two fifty.

Speaker 5 (28:03):
Wow, that was one hundred pounds ago.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yeah, because he was playing basketball, he was running track.

Speaker 5 (28:08):
I loved playing that back.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
He did all that stuff. I agreed, Yeah, played big,
you know baseball, that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (28:14):
And not to words your mouth, I remember you talking
to Kirk Farrens for the y y Ye Black story
and said something along the lines of he was better
than I'm not gonna throw out the names, but he
was better than some of the guys that were drafted
way ahead of him in yes.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Years, Like it was they were at the same prospect camp.

Speaker 5 (28:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah, and a guy who got drafted in the first
round out of Iowa to the Yah Yeah, yeah, yeah,
was the better prospect. He just happened to put on
eighty pounds in college.

Speaker 5 (28:48):
That's crazy, eighty eighty And he doesn't look fat. It's
not like he's just eating pizzas. And he's one of
those rare body types.

Speaker 6 (28:59):
So and I know you asked the question, so I
will try to answer it.

Speaker 7 (29:03):
So and I've told this to people like when I
was watching for years as a fan, or somebody who's
gonna be doing a pregame show or whatever much too.
I'm sure my wife's annoyance. I would I would, you know,
I'd be watching a game and I'd freeze it. I'd
be like, like, look, this guy's coming up. They're gonna
they're gonna roll into a covered you know, cover three
from this cover two shell, and this guy's gonna come.

(29:23):
And my wife's like, can we just watch the game.
And I don't really watch games or practices that way anymore.
I'm looking at the position groupings making sure I've got
the guy's memorized.

Speaker 6 (29:34):
I'm not really and I'm sure I just watched the
seven shots, you know, to see who's doing what.

Speaker 7 (29:40):
And you want to see along the way, has the
ball coming out of Will Howard sand or Mason Rudolph's
sand or who looks sharp running things? How do you
know intrigue by a lot of the same players that
other people are maybe even outside the draft picks like
DJ Thomas Jones, Sebastian Castro, another Iowa guy. How are
they looking? How are they moving around? But my job

(30:00):
is to is to know the numbers and and and
call the game. It's a little different than than how
I used to watch games or how i'd watched practices
from a couple of years ago.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
So but still I've actually been and I know you
haven't done it for years after years after years, But
if it's a team that you don't see often, how
hard is it for you to learn the opponent in
five six days or whatever. Well, I think that, and
you don't have to know their ninetieth guy like you
do in the Steelers the preseason.

Speaker 7 (30:31):
Yeah yeah, but preseason preseason is is tougher, and I'll
start digging into some of those guys over the next
couple of weeks.

Speaker 5 (30:38):
But I did last I wouldn't expect people to know
the Bucks eightieth guy.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
I better know who he is, though, I guess, I guess,
And when he gets caught up, when he gets caught
up on a random Tuesday afternoon in July or right, I.

Speaker 7 (30:50):
Guess I'll start a little bit on some of those
other opponents. Now that's what I did last year. I
just kind of worked backwards so that when I got
ready for so, you know, trying to trying to kind
of boil it down to a to almost like a
forty six or whatever. You'd be memorizing for an opponent.
So if I look far enough ahead and and uh,

(31:11):
you know, the more you do.

Speaker 6 (31:12):
It, you know, I wish i'd.

Speaker 7 (31:14):
I didn't realize this till my junior year of college
that the teachers were actually right, Like the longer you
study it for a test, the better you did to amazing.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
If you shut up the class, you had a better
chance of succeeding.

Speaker 7 (31:24):
So Rob versus all of the the combined knowledge of
teachers over the years, I wanted to lose it, right, Yeah,
so you know, so I think that. So I'll do
a little bit of that and then you know, as
Wes can attest to, when I get on the when
I get on the plane, I am digging into the
next team on the way home. I got I got
the rosters printed out, just because it's a length the

(31:46):
time thing. You know, the more you do it and
the more you look at it, the more aware you
are those guys. And it has to be like a
like a different language.

Speaker 6 (31:54):
You just have to be able to.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
Ship behind going over pronunciations.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
That makes sense, Yeah, muttering to myself with his with
his little book light because he doesn't want to turn
his airplane light on.

Speaker 6 (32:04):
He's so nice.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
He doesn't want to book He's got the book lights
so he doesn't mess up anybody's sleep.

Speaker 6 (32:09):
Yeah, but yeah, so I.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
Would also think it's hard for you, unlike me, to
watch the rest of the league on Sunday. I mean,
like you might watch Thursday night game, Monday night game,
but like a corner for the Bills is starting to
play a lot, I don't know that probably until game week.

Speaker 7 (32:22):
Yeah, there's no way I'll ever know as much about
the league as you will, not a chance, and as
many no matter how many, no matter how many years
I put into it, you know. So I mean, just
you know, I don't want to bore people forever with this,
but like so lasts last year Wednesday, this is the
time of year for this day. It is so last

(32:43):
year Wednesday was my day. Wednesday was my day to watch,
you know. And thank goodness for the forty five minute condensed.

Speaker 6 (32:51):
Games on the NFL.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
He so much easier than I probably.

Speaker 7 (32:54):
Watched, like, yeah, eight hours of tape on Wednesday, just
the same opponent, rolling to watch three or.

Speaker 6 (32:58):
Four games just always kind of clear my head and
then boom right.

Speaker 7 (33:01):
Back to three or four games to the point, so
so hopefully get to the point and right, you know,
what they're trying to And then maybe Friday I would
actually like and I'm calling the games. I go along,
you know, you know, in my living room, and just
to make sure I've got the numbers correct. And then
maybe Friday like, so call bills.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
Will you call it like you're the Bills announcer.

Speaker 6 (33:20):
I would, Yes, they're playing, right, I don't care who
they're playing. I don't care. I don't care who makes
it tackling for the Bears, So I'm just looking at them.

Speaker 7 (33:26):
And then and then, you know, I always feel like
on a on a Sunday game, I better be able
to be like maybe ninety percent ready for a call
by a Thursday, you know. And then the rest of
the time it's just kind of you know, tweaking and
trying to pick up notes and interesting anecdotes about guys
which you pick up along the way. But you know,
the number one job I have is to call the game,

(33:47):
you know, and then and and be right on the
numbers and be right on and be able to do
it without thinking, without consulting my charts and all that stuff,
memorize it obviously. Yeah, and that's that's the way. I
mean when I was doing high school games. Is the
difference in high school games was you had to memorize
both rosters every week.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
On a team.

Speaker 6 (34:04):
You're no, there's no team.

Speaker 5 (34:06):
You're not wearing Steeler gear, You're not wearing methyl Park
gear or whatever.

Speaker 6 (34:09):
But you know what I have to tell you, I
I love it.

Speaker 7 (34:13):
I love memorizing rosters. I love watching tape. I love
watching football.

Speaker 5 (34:17):
I also learn so much about the opponent.

Speaker 6 (34:20):
Yeah, and then and then and then you know, flush
it and move on.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
And you know, my process is so much different. But
when I started digging into the stats and the tape,
and I mean, you learn so much more about.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
The opponent by Wednesday Thursday. Yeah, And a lot of
the work is done for you if you dig up
the right stuff right right.

Speaker 7 (34:36):
And by the way, that is, uh, that's invaluable stuff
for me. So you know, my job isn't necessarily to
have all that information, but certainly.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
Some of it.

Speaker 5 (34:47):
You know what, it paints a picture.

Speaker 6 (34:48):
It paints a picture, so.

Speaker 7 (34:49):
You know that's you know, I think traditionally your stats
have come out on a Thursday morning, right, Matt stats,
I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
But so for people, lady was up Wednesday night, almost
started chat last night.

Speaker 7 (35:00):
By the way, Matt Williamson will give you what six
seven pages. It's the Bible of stats and statistics and
trends and other things. And that comes out by Thursday.
Another reason for me to have kind of a pretty
good grasp of a team by the time I go
to bed Wednesday night.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
Sure, then Thursday, the average listener doesn't need to know
Darnell Mooney's yards per route run, but you at least
have a better picture of how they're using them.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
You know what I'm saying, How often are they in
twelve or thirteen personal right right?

Speaker 6 (35:29):
Exactly all right?

Speaker 7 (35:30):
And that may and that may send me down another
rabbit hole of stuff to look at. That'll that'll be
relevant to me. So so Matt's stats is like a
cornerstone of part of my research for forgetting the you know,
getting getting ready for uh for the broadcast. So those
are the things I'm trying to polish up on Thursday Friday,
and then maybe I'll watch one last I'll save like

(35:50):
one last game and just call it make sure, okay good,
I got them cold. On Friday finish up my charts
on Friday or Saturday, and then go call a football
game and.

Speaker 6 (35:58):
Do it again. It's awesome.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
And then I bet like the inactives come out and
you're like, I did so much work.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
And that guy right first, the first thing he says
every Sunday or you know, Saturday, Monday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
all the different days that Christmas, you know, all these
different days that we play games. Now, walks into the
booth before the games, looks right at me and dan
Quinland and goes, we got an actives yet, we got
an actives yet? You guys, see you you've seen any
inactives yet.

Speaker 7 (36:24):
And then invariably somebody will be called up and you're like,
who that I know? The Ravens cold, Who the heck is?
You know, eighty four or whatever? So now now now
you're going over to the other booth and calling on
their gay Jerry Sandusky, by the way, great guy. No
you go, you go in, Hey, Jerry, who the heck
is eighty four? Oh well, we called him up a

(36:44):
couple of days ago. So there's always a couple of
last things like.

Speaker 5 (36:47):
That, and you know something about the guy. Then at
least too, you know.

Speaker 7 (36:49):
Yeah, and there's something you know when the routine is
fun and we're we're so lucky to do what we
do and have the routine be fun, you know, the
routine be enjoyable. The routine get you excited. I mean,
if there's if there's a time, toughness to people all
the time. So I used to play pick up basketball
the Why three or four days a week and unfortunately

(37:11):
uber competitive. Same way with my golf game, you know.
So if I had a bad day at the Why,
I'd be you get off the court at one point thirty.
Maybe I'm driving to work at three o'clock, I'm still steamed.
I've got home, I've showered, I've packed my lunch, I'm
in the car, I'm still madame. And then halfway in,
I'm like, hey man, I gotta I got a ball
game today.

Speaker 6 (37:31):
So all always good for the world, you know.

Speaker 7 (37:34):
And that's the way I think, that's the way we
all feel about our jobs, right, and gets you excited
and gets you looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
You gotta have a short memory, I mean, all these
guys right right, totally totally. Now, there are there are
absolutely times that this feels like work, But it's still
a lot of fun during those times that it feels
like work. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot better
than being in an office or you know, swinging a
hammer on a roof for the the you know, a
dozen other things up today. I will see it.

Speaker 7 (38:03):
You know. One of my commutes is from our station,
uh you know, on the on the I guess they
call it the north Shore as opposed to the north side,
right across the river. And we walk over into the
ball game to do a pregame show, and every once
in a while a glance over those buildings downtown with
all those office buildings and think, I am so glad
I'm not going to one of those for work, and
I'm not.

Speaker 5 (38:23):
I'm not sure a lot you'll love it.

Speaker 6 (38:24):
But yeah, it's just not right. It's not it's not
you know, somebody asked me, what what is?

Speaker 1 (38:29):
What is?

Speaker 2 (38:29):
You know?

Speaker 7 (38:30):
An intern came in, what's one of the best things
about your job? And I said, I love it all
And he started to walk in. I said it one
more thing. No meetings, Like you know, I'm not. My
wife's in meetings.

Speaker 5 (38:39):
All the time.

Speaker 7 (38:40):
Her mind is my mind is I'm I'm I can't
even listen to a book on tape. I'm like, wait,
what did they just say? I gotta I gotta rewind it.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
I think my only meeting of the week is with
with YouTube. Whenever we figure out what we're going to
talk about in the video room, exactly fifteen minutes of
oh they're outside zone games pretty good, or this wide
out needs double work.

Speaker 6 (38:57):
Five minutes of busted chops, five minutes. Right, you didn't
give it away, we go exactly.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Not too shabby, Fellas, not too shabby, Kinger, you got
time for another segment? Sure? All right, we'll continue the
conversation with Rob king to close out this eleven o'clock hour.
We'll have Jalen Warren sit down with us for a
few minutes in the next hour as we continue to
bring you all the coverage from Day four of OTAs.
Here on the South Side, it's a special edition of
the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
At least is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt
williamsonsha on your twenty four to seven home of the
Black and GOLDNR. Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
The train is rolling on by on the South Side.
It's all happening down here at the upmc rooney Sports Complex,
week number two of OTA's practice number four of six
of the optional phase. Here, of course before next week
is capital two thirds two thirds of the way through.

(39:55):
Correct some math for you, As of course, next week
will be with a capital M mandatory for the three
practices of this particular phase of the off season. Rob
King hanging out with us for another segment. All right,
king Er, I gotta know this too, do you often?
How often?

Speaker 7 (40:14):
Not?

Speaker 5 (40:14):
Really?

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Sometimes find yourself crossing name signals with all that you balance.
So for example, and I don't know, this is the
one that comes off on the top of my head.
I'm sure I could come up with a better one,
but you'll get what I'm saying here. O'Neil Cruz is
a big name Pittsburgh Pirate. There was a big name
wide receiver for the New York Giants for a while
called Victor Cruz. He ever find yourself like crossing your

(40:35):
signals of somebody's first name, similar names, different sports with
all those plates that you're juggling.

Speaker 6 (40:41):
I think that I've had to bite my tongue with
high Smith and now call MAlonzo heisch.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
That's what I mean.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
That's there is no calling Max Crosby Sidney Crosby right.

Speaker 7 (40:56):
Right, Yes, for years I called Brian McCrae the outfiot
for the Mets, Hal McCrae.

Speaker 6 (41:03):
Who was his dad.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
That's understandable.

Speaker 6 (41:08):
I I remember I was called right and I didn't
add to junior and that.

Speaker 7 (41:15):
Very wady, so you know the and and there was
a coup when we were when I was first when
I first moved to Pittsburgh, we were doing Saint Louis
Show and Pittsburgh Show out of the same region, and
the shows are similarly named Midwest Sports Report and Pittsburgh
Sports Tonight or something like that. So once or twice
I would start to say the other show not Pittsburgh

(41:37):
or Midwest, but then confused, like the end of it,
you know, uh, Midwest Sports Tonight or Pittsburgh Sports Report
when it was Midwest Sports Report, Pittsburgh Sport Today. And
then the only one I ever remember saying once on
the air was Rams quarterback Cordell Stewart. I did say
that once on the air as opposed to Steelers quarterback.
But for the most part, I think this is compartmentalized.

(41:59):
This is different from bay, you know what I mean.
So I think, but some of those things are are
and you hope you've built up enough in the in
the bank of trust and goodwill so that the person
at home, Uh, that's one slide here, that's what that's
that's a fout town who slide here, That's right. So
so that's what you hope and not by he doesn't

(42:21):
know how mc cray from Brian mccraig. H. So you know,
you hope that you have some some grace from the
from the listeners, but you might get it doesn't make
me happy.

Speaker 6 (42:30):
I don't I don't like doing it.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
So you guys all remember Travis Fredrickson. He was a
perennial Pro Bowl center for Dallas, really really good player.

Speaker 5 (42:36):
Everyone knew who he was.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
And I'm doing a lot of national stuff in podcasts
and all the time, but no one else knew but me.
Was our backup center when I was a pit was
Rob Frederickson. Swell fella, not so good at football.

Speaker 5 (42:49):
He was a walk on. No one knew who Rob
Frederckson was. So I would call Travis Rob all the time.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
And I'm the only one that got the angle on
the planet unless you were on Pitt's team, which nobody was,
and so they're like, who.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
Are you talking about? Talking about the Giants, Like I'm
talking about like the best center in the league. And
they're like, that's not that.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
He was.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
Speaking of that. Frank Ragnow retire weekends. It's kind of
I don't know if that caught them by surprise.

Speaker 5 (43:23):
I was wondering about that too.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
I don't think they draft up one though, did they?

Speaker 5 (43:26):
They drafted two.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
Interior linemen and Mahogany from Boston College last year fell
He should have been a third or fourth round pick.
He fell to the sixth because of injuries.

Speaker 5 (43:38):
But he can.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
He has a center background, so they have addressed interior line.
None of them are like rag Now though, top three guys,
so maybe they sort of saw it coming or.

Speaker 5 (43:53):
Right, he's had some bad injuries.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
It's almost a the Castro like retirement. Yeah, very similar.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
Great example because okay there, they'll be okay there, but
you lost Zeitler, who was really good. I thought all
those into your guys were more Zeitler driven. We're just
gonna throw three guys at the right guard position and
go from there. Now it's two spots. Think it's a
little hairy, you know.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
And again it happens, you know, after the draft.

Speaker 4 (44:19):
Right, I mean, now there's there's no centers out there.
I mean you'll get one that's not close, but still there.
They're gonna be weaker there by a lot.

Speaker 7 (44:26):
Right.

Speaker 6 (44:27):
It is interesting the cycle of teams.

Speaker 7 (44:30):
And you know how again, uh, you know, people, I
understand people want more from the Steelers. The Steelers have
stated they want more from the Steelers. But how difficult
it is to maintain your position at the top, you know.
And it'll be interesting over the next couple of years.
The Lions haven't gotten quite there yet, you know what
I mean? And it is there is the windows starting

(44:51):
to come down a little bit, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (44:52):
It's not going up.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
You start losing the attrition s.

Speaker 6 (44:56):
Can you maintain it?

Speaker 7 (44:58):
You know?

Speaker 4 (44:59):
Absolutely could win the super here, no one would say
that's crazy talk. But you're picking at the end of
the round. You're not having three first round picks anymore.
After the Stafford trade, all of a sudden, you've had
to pay Soul and Saint Brown.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
People start cherry picking. Some of your right agents.

Speaker 4 (45:15):
Both your coordinators are on other teams, as are a
lot of other coaches like, you're losing more than you're
gaining consistently, and the division's probably the hardest one to leap.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Right, It's one of the things to me. I know,
some Steelers fans scoff at the at the twenty one
consecutive non losing seasons. That's the thing, right, It's really
hard to stay at that level.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
Yeah, yeah, I mentioned this off the air.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
I just happened to find the graphic and I threw
it on Twitter and it got so much response, good
and bad.

Speaker 5 (45:46):
Most regular season wins in the two thousands, the Steelers
are second behind the Patriots, and a million people are like, well,
tell me how many playoff wins I've had. They're fifth, right,
you know it's pretty good. Yeah, for twenty five years.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
Into three Super Bowls and that you know, one games.

Speaker 5 (46:05):
And how many division titles and right, and I.

Speaker 7 (46:08):
Still, you know, I still bring up the Bills into
the Bills windows not closed yet. But they went twenty
years without a winning season, right, twenty years, twenty years
of no hope and still follow that you're gonna say,
followed by close but not not good enough.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
The Lions went thirty years without a playoff appearance.

Speaker 6 (46:28):
It's it's it's crazy thirty years to playoff win part
and again and again.

Speaker 7 (46:33):
Uh, that's not to that's not to you know, make
light of of the fans wanting more because the Steelers
is said they want more. We understand that. I get that,
but I but and and you know, you know you
don't want to celebrate it. Okay, fine, the Steelers probably
don't want to celebrate it either. They want to celebrate
playoff wins and chance the division titles, and.

Speaker 6 (46:52):
That's why they want to celebrate. So I understand that.

Speaker 7 (46:54):
But just when you think about how almost impossible it
is to do what they've done, it it's only been
done one at a time in NFL history.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
Just to cite this, I mean, it's I just think
it's really eye opening that since two thousand, the Patriots
have two hundred and seventy regular season wins. But they're
trending the wrong direction lately. They're having some downtimes now too.
The Steelers are second at two point fifty five. Packers, Ravens, Eagles, Colts,
those are the teams right behind their chiefs, gaining on

(47:24):
everybody quick, but their second with two point fifty five.
The Browns have one hundred and thirty nine, the Jags
have one hundred and fifty three, the Lions, who are
trending very much the right direction, one hundred and fifty eight,
one hundred and sixty one for the Raiders.

Speaker 5 (47:41):
I mean they have one hundred more wins in these teams. Right,
that's a lot more enjoyable Sundays.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah, you and you want to let's be clear about
this too, Like you want to be the fan base
the franchise that has the higher expectations, right, you want
to be a Steelers fan looking at it and going, yeah,
it's good, it's good compared to everybody else, but it's
still good enough for me, right. I have to I
joke about this all the time. My best friend, both
his parents went to Ohio State. They're a huge Buckeye family, right,

(48:07):
And as you can all imagine, until until they won
the national championship, and even still kind of now, they
all wanted Ryan Day's head on a platter. Not good enough,
not good enough, not good of His record against everybody
that wasn't Michigan was like fifty two and three, right,
but it wasn't good.

Speaker 5 (48:22):
Enough, and losing the Michigan in the regular season.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
This year was get him out of here. They wanted
they wanted them out of here in the whole time.
I'm like, I would hire Ryan Day as the WVU
head coach.

Speaker 6 (48:32):
In five sets.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
But my expectations is a WU fan, I should my
initials are WV. After all, I got to make that call, right.
My expectations of a WU fan are not the same
as an Ohio State fan, and like resource, no doubt,
but I would rather have the Ohio State expectations of
you know, we better beat Michigan and we better contend

(48:54):
for a national championship every single year. You would rather
have the Steelers expectation if we better be winning playoff
games and contending every single year. But you got to
see that forest through the trees.

Speaker 5 (49:02):
Here, a Patriots fan has complained the last two or
three years. Shut come on.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Yeah, by the way, we don't run from it, We
run to it. To it, right, That's exactly right. That's
exactly why we're gonna let Rob king get back to it.
King Er, thank you very much for the time.

Speaker 6 (49:17):
Always a pleasure, guys.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
And hopefully we'll do this again out here in the
next morrow days. Yeah, let's do it. Are you absolutely
two hours in the books, one more hour to go.
In this final noon hour, we will be joined by
Steelers running back Jalen Warren after practice concludes. I want
to get into some more of those numbers that Matt
laid out here as well too. In our final hour,
Dale Lolly, Matt Williams, and I'm Wes Yuler. It's a
special edition of the Drive Live from OTAs on Steelers

(49:41):
Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.