HR3: Live from OTAs

Steelers' DL Keeanu Benton sits down for a chat as the SNR crew wraps up week 1 of OTAs 2025.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
At least.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williams Sision
on your twenty four to seven home of the Black
and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
And we are back. I am Dale Lolly here with
Wes Euler and the Matt Williamson. We are live at
the Steelers OTA session here at the upmc rooney Sports
Complex on Pittsburgh's South Side here on Fox Sports Pittsburgh
and Steelers Nation Radio. And guys, the start of our
number three, the final hour of the first week of OTAs.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
How about it so been good?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
After this hour is up, we will be one third
of the way through the OTA's right this off season schedule.
And people, I think you need to understand, like, so
OTAs are actually broken into three different face. This is
the third phase.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Yeah, people think it's first, but so.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
You have your your Phase one stuff is guys are
here and they're lifting weights and doing a lot of
stuff kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Phase two is also optional, which is optional.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
Phase two it's all optional until many camp.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Two weeks from now is mandatory. That's written into the CBA.
The OTAs are also written into the CBA, but they're
written in there as being optional. Situations. So you know this,
this is just the continuation of the ramping up process.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
It's been going on for a while.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, OTAs did not just start now. OTAs actually started
for the veteran players before the draft, right.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Right, not even knowing who your draft picks were going
to be, right right.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
So they've been they've been together now for quite some time.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
The longer process than even like NFL Network tells you
and stuff like that too.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
You know, this is just a portion that the media
is also allowed to correct.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Correct why, Yeah, yeah, so that's been good today though.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, it's been a spirited session. It's also help that
it's been right here in front of us. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
I like whenever they do the team stuff in field
number one here or too.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
I like it better when everybody did stand in front
of us.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
They don't care about this too much, really don't.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
They should, but they don't.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's not super easy for us to watch practice and
study practice while on the air where we're at. But
you see little things. You see little things in usage
and who's getting a lot of attention and that type
of thing too, who's moving around well? And again I
mentioned this the other day. Again, I'm not massive secret.
But Roman Wilson just the way he scoots and changes
direction and looks a little different. It looks a little different,

(02:39):
I mean, more encouraged than ever.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, I think you know, if even if you look
at where he was at a year ago, this time,
I think it's night and day.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
I think so too.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
I mean last year's time, he was one of the
guys learning to walk.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, you can run now.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
Let me ask you guys this.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
Then off the back of that, say every everything progresses
as well as possible for Roman Wilson, Right, great camp,
great preseason, all that stuff, Like, we get to the
end of August and we're feeling as good about him
as possible. Same with Calvin Austin. We've seen what DK
can do out at training camp. Who who Who's who

(03:17):
gets the first crack at wide receiver number two? Obviously
also kind of assuming they don't add anybody in the
meantime as.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Well, well, you still have Robert Woods there as well
have Robert Woods. But I still think they're gonna add
something to that. I understand practice ending here, I'm gonna
jump off and go talk to a couple of guys here.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
So back to that, I think it's somewhat situational and
role based. If they're all like you said, it's a
perfect work health everyone's.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
I mean, someone's gonna get banged up, someone's gonna yet.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Or they're not gonna be as good as you hope
they are, and all that. I mean again, it's a
time of eternal optimism, as I always say, post draft,
until all mostly bad things happen between now and.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
We are still in the sunshine and rainbows face.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
When people are like, oh, our team's gonna be healthier
than last year, or this guy's going to rebound from injury,
or our first round every first round pick's gonna hit,
and that's not the way they wear it works, you know.
But I definitely see Roman as a true slot, you know.
I mean, three receivers closer to the formation, a lot
of inbreaking routes. It's a lot of what he did

(04:22):
at Michigan. Some of his after the catch stuff here
looks pretty good too. I know people aren't tackling them,
don't get me wrong, But I don't know that he
ever's going to project to two tight ends on the field,
two receivers outside the numbers that he'll be one of them.
I mean, even in a perfect world, I don't think
that's the ideal usage forum. And I understand that Austin

(04:42):
is certainly a smaller player, but he's more adept, just
skill set wise, to line up outside the numbers and
battleman coverage. I mean, get a lot of it at Memphis.
He's done quite a bit of it here too. He's
not just a slot. Even if he's the third receiver,
doesn't mean he's the slot. So if you trotted out
eleven personnel right now with Wilson, Austin, Metcalf, I think

(05:07):
Roman's clearly the slot. Austin and Metcalf are on the outside. Okay,
you know, yeah, and Austin certainly can play slot. I
don't mean that way, but I do think that's how
they would line them up, and how they'd use those guys.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
And their different skill sets.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
And yeah, yeah, we're the most comfortable.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
And that is right.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
I think that is I think most football fans, and
you know, particularly our listeners right now, but people that
are tuned in this time of year, I think a
little more football savvy that I would tell the people
who are just watching throughout the season. I think they
understand slip it on your slot receiver, that doesn't necessarily
mean he's your third best receiver. What you can do
and what you want in that skill set. And you

(05:44):
know in twenty twenty five in modern NFL.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, and boy that things are changing so fast too
that even number one receivers that are great X receivers
at the line of scrimmage, the Pickings type, the Metcalf type,
they'll go to the slot now more than that or two.
And I urge people to to really realize that these
guys aren't static before the snap either. You know, they

(06:08):
don't just line up in the same spot and you
know he's in the slot. I mean so many of
them where they actually release from the line of scrimmage.
And what I mean by that is all the motion
and yeah, all the shifts and things like that that
happen that these these coordinators are so good. It's scheming
guys up and getting them in motion. And now you're

(06:29):
seeing all these like fast Tyreek Hill fly into full
speed before the snap. I mean that stuff didn't even
happen a couple of years ago.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
I mean, remember like when when we used to see
Keenan Allen do it, it would be like whoa, yeah, you
know what an advantage to have there.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, there's like I was having a conversation about the
Seahawks receivers. You know, Smith and Jigba and Cup are
both real slot types. They don't really have outside guys,
but they know that, and a lot of these guys,
they're going to scheme those guys up. Even if they
do a line on the outside, probably move towards the
formation and acting like a slot at the snap, you know.

(07:04):
I mean, so it's easy this to say he's this,
and there certainly is true that this is how to
best use them or these are skill sets and not
all receivers are created equal by any stretch in terms
of even the great ones, no doubt. But where they
release from and the motions and the scheming that it
happens now is so far advanced from ten years ago

(07:24):
or whatever.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
Oh a hundred percent.

Speaker 5 (07:26):
And you know what's crazy is three four five years
from now we'll be talking about how it's different than
it was in twenty twenty. Yeah, right, Just the kind
of never ending ebb and flow of NFL coaching, and
it's cyclical in some ways.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
It's inventive in others.

Speaker 5 (07:41):
But yeah, that's that's one of the things too that
you know, I think is a good conversation to have
in these settings. I also wonder too, Matt, obviously the
quarterback plays a role, and how you delegate these things
so without because I know I'm kind of putting you
on the spot here, but without going too deep into
the weeds, how might that you know, delegation of how
you use your wide receivers, how you deploy your wide

(08:01):
receivers change between a Mason Rudolph who is familiar with
a lot of this organization. You know, isn't a typical
first year he's first year back after a year away quarterback,
or you know a veteran who might wear number eight,
who might still be a free agent that we've talked
about plenty.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, and again, Rogers is a very unique character. He's
a very unique quarterback over the course of his very
long and ridiculously successful career. But there are some traits
with him. Is he's not good? I mean, he gets
a bad rep for Oh he brings Randall Cobb Andlizard

(08:37):
and all his guys, and I don't think he brings
them with him. So he can barbecue with him and
have beers. I mean, I think he gets along with
those guys. But trust for him, as it was with
like a Peyton Manning or Brady and Edelman is more
important than Joe average star quarterback. To me, he's just
a career, you mean, all through his career, and that

(08:58):
he's very much a perfectionist in terms of if I
need you at eight yards, I don't need your seven.
I'm gonna throw you the ball at seven and a half, right, yeah, right, right,
And I am very powerful with your career and whether
you get the football or not. And as we all know,
wide receiver is a very dependent position, you know. And
if you're sloppy with things, he's not gonna send you

(09:20):
the foot, You're not gonna get the ball, you know. Hey,
how are you?

Speaker 4 (09:24):
What's happening? Ke bet of Max Man?

Speaker 1 (09:26):
How are you?

Speaker 4 (09:27):
If you want to sit down right here?

Speaker 1 (09:31):
No, no, this is all, this is all just that
one's Hey, whatever, you're you're the star of the show
wherever you prefer. I don't think I'm we're gonna be
able to move you wherever you want to go, and
I will.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
I'll try and move this down for you. To get
you a little more slacked there on that headset. Lady,
ladies and gentlemen, joining us now here at our Steelers
Nation Radio table practice number three here of this Ota phase.
Keanu Betton, Defensive Linement of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thanks for
being here, and uh, seemed like there was a little
extra energy maybe out there their final day of the week.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
A little bit better weather today.

Speaker 6 (10:02):
Yeah, the weather yesterday wasn't permitting, so you know, we
had to come out here and make the most of it.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
House things going so far. The defensive line room's got
some new faces and seems like, you know, energy in
general has been really good this week. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 6 (10:17):
You know, the D line, we got some new faces
in there, and I feel like those guys are fitting
right in. They coming in hungry, ready to work, and
same with our team. You know, were just all excited
to be around each other again and be able to
put hands on people again.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
That's great. What are your initial impressions of the two
draft picks in the room. You guys got some serious reinforcements. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (10:36):
I think I think they're good guys. They ready to learn, man,
and that's that's the biggest thing. Coming in as a rookie,
being a sponge as much as you can, learning as
much as you can. I've noticed they weren't afraid to
ask questions. Everybody's been pretty open. You know, our room
was pretty chill, and they come in ready every day,
good good.

Speaker 5 (10:55):
And it's it is amazing always I think how quick
that flips for someone like you as the first year
or second year guy to now the year three. You're
kind of looked at all real like it's a complete switch. Right,
you're the veteran. Now you're the one who's supposed to
understand what you're doing, help out the new guys. What's
that been like for you? Here is OTAs get underway
with maybe you know, some of those greater expectations.

Speaker 6 (11:16):
Now it's been a little off, man, I had I
had de Horn called me og for the first time.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
Hold on that. But uh, yeah, it's been cool.

Speaker 6 (11:28):
You know, I was that guy who wanted somebody to
help help me and just let me know I want
a loan. And then you know, this ain't the first
time he's gonna this not the first time somebody's gonna
go through it as a rookie, and it's not the
last time, So you know, just being there any way
I can and helping any way I can every day.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Speaking of leadership and the og and all that. I'm
gonna grab the low hanging fruit here. I mean, how
much of an influences Cam Hayward been on you in particular?
I mean, is it do you absorb something from him
like on a daily basis?

Speaker 4 (11:57):
For sure? You know he come in His work ethic
is crazy, you know.

Speaker 6 (12:00):
You when you see somebody on year fifteen, you would
think they the confidence, you know, like the ego would
getting away and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Man, he's so down to earth and willing to help
the younger guys, you know.

Speaker 6 (12:12):
Yeah, like I said on year fifteen, you can you
can be a little conceited and do what you want
to do, you know what you're doing, sure, and not
want to help. But he coming in, He came out
here first day with help. It's working with us, working
with everybody doing everything. So uh that just that just
makes you respect him a lot more. And Dan helping
me off the field and keeping my body together.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
I'm sure his presence in the d line room is
remarkable too. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, it's never a dull moment in every very cool.

Speaker 5 (12:39):
I'm sure part of that too is your coach Carl Dunbar,
who we all know has had a ton of success
at this level, has been a Steeler for a long time.
It we uh Tuesday, the first day of practice, Troy
FALTONU sat down with us for a couple of minutes.
He talked about how in that room there's a real
message clear that if we want to get where we're
trying to go, this group has to be a big

(13:00):
part of it.

Speaker 4 (13:00):
You know.

Speaker 5 (13:00):
We we see the teams that are playing on Championship
weekend and in the super Bowl, and they are strong,
they are physical, they are dominant in the trenches, and
we expect to be that. I gotta imagine it's the
same message for you guys on the other side of the.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
Oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 6 (13:12):
You know me, uh Fraser, Mason, McCormick, those guys. You know,
even in workouts before we even put on helmets and stuff,
you know, I'm I'm racing McCormick and I'm talking stuff,
you know the other side of the ball, like, oh,
you old lineman ain't built for this, whatever the case
may be. But you know, coming out and just working,
you know, making sure it's.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
Iron on iron.

Speaker 6 (13:33):
You don't want you don't want nobody to be soft
that you're going against, because then they don't give you
that confidence when you're going into the game. So I
feel like I got great guys going against a great
old line. Like I said, Zach Fraser and Mason McCormick,
those two guys together and me we out there working
and it's iron sharper iron.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
So a lot of our listeners have a misconception that
the Steelers are three four and that's all you ever
see and the nose tackle just two gaps over the
center over and over. Were like, he's Casey Hampton from
fifteen to twenty years ago. I mean, you're listed as
a nose tackle, but your role is so much different
than what I just described. I mean, can you can
you tell people what the you know, what is ast
of you and all the different alignments and techniques and

(14:13):
things like that. It's a lot different than just eat
up double T.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 6 (14:17):
Yeah, I played nose guard, but I can play it
all the way from zero to a five million. Actually,
I started my first game in four eyes, so I
feel like I could play across the whole line and
it's not just zero, double gap, two gap and you
actually got to make plays and that I'm not saying
though that.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
Casey Hampton and those guys.

Speaker 6 (14:36):
No, it's just different defense, just different yeah, different style
of football.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
So I'm sure some people are like, what's a four eye? Well,
that's the inside of it an offensive tackle shoulder. We're
five's on the outside of an offensive tackle shoulder. Do
you think you'll be lining up against tackles quite a
bit this year?

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Still?

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Okay?

Speaker 6 (14:51):
Yet line up against tackles, guards, center.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, maybe even the tight end.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
I love it.

Speaker 5 (14:59):
Last what I've got for We were kind of kicking
around earlier. You know, this is the first week of
on field stuff for you guys. Three days here. Now
you get the four day pause here before being back
at it next week.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
What are these next four days look like for you?

Speaker 6 (15:12):
For me, I'm I'm just taking time for Myselfsburgh.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
Uh yeah, I'm.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Being Pittsburgh chilling for real.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
Good, get my massages, yep.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Probably go fish.

Speaker 6 (15:23):
I'm gonna come in and work out tomorrow. But Saturday, Sunday,
Mondays rest.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
While you can.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
You a big fisherman, I am. I bet Wisconsin was
great for that yes, it was.

Speaker 6 (15:33):
Yeah, it's a little harder to access fishing spots here,
especially on the river.

Speaker 4 (15:37):
Everything's on like a slope.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, walk the train tracks to get to the waters.
I see what you're saying.

Speaker 5 (15:42):
Sure, and selfishly, I'd like to know some of your
good fishing spots around here, but I'm not going to
ask you to air those out.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
On the fans will be hunting down.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
Keep that private.

Speaker 6 (15:52):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (15:53):
Keanu Betton, entering his third year, kind enough to take
some time with us. Thank you so much, Thank you
for having and enjoy the weekend. We we'll get to
a break. We'll have more when we return. On the
other side, as we wrap up our final hour of
coverage from day three of OTA's down here on the
South Side on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
Network, he's the drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson
on your twenty four to seven home of the Black
and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
And we are back. I am Dale Lollie here with
the Matt Williamson and Wesley Euler stepping in here with
us as well.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Fellas, absolutely dude, we couldn't have done it without you.
That's the fact, actually.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Flip that for me justin all right, But yeah, having
lots of fun here, guys. Had a nice interview there
with Keanu Benton one.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, that was great.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
We're talking to Jack Sawyer.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
Keanu Betton is hanging in town for the next four days.
There you go.

Speaker 5 (16:59):
He's gonna work out tomorrow and then and then rest relax,
maybe do some fish in the next the next couple
of days.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
You could do a little fishing here in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
You could.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
I was I was gonna ask him his spots around here,
but then I was like, you know what, I'll let
you keep that to yourself. I don't want people bothering
you're blowing up your castra. You could sit up on
the on the goalpost and just cast down into the water.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
You know when we held the Pittsburgh hosted the bass
Master Classic. Uh, it's probably been about twenty years.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
Twenty years.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, you know the bass population. People don't think of
the rivers as being a, you know, a hot spot
for that kind of stuff, but they actually are for
those who don't know. I used to also be the
outdoors editor at the Observer quarters.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
You actually covered were sitting here with he could have
used some tips.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Actually covered the bass Master Classic. They had everything was
set up over at the arena and they had brought
all the fish in and waited them and all that
fun stuff. Okay, the best part.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Was fast only though, right, like because car or something
you got back, Well.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
You're not going to catch carp on a basslure. That's
how it works. But uh yeah, I mean, you know,
a lot of especially because of all the old factory
what used to be steel mill outlets and things of
that nature, a lot of those areas are really hot
spots with all the bridges as well, with all the
piers in the water.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Fish.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
Yeah, it means natural cover for the fish that so
you can really uh yeah, if you know the river, you.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
Can find the verney holes, right, you can.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
You can do really well.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
But there's tons of species in there too, right, I
mean over the.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
Years, just talking to you know, like guys from the
Pennsylvania Fish Commission and things of that nature, they consider
like the downtown area here, the Point area is like
just completely like its own like whole lakes system like
ecosystem almost, yeah, you know, because it's just such a
convergent in such a massive area of water. And so

(18:59):
many boats on that area that you.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Know, it's just tributaries and outlets and everything all end
up there. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Sorry, Pittsburgh. I believe outside of like Miami County or whatever,
Miami Dade County or whatever has like the highest per
capital number of boats.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
H that doesn't surprise us anywhere in the country.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
Yeah, well you think about you know, I think particularly
for like a non traditional warm weather market like a Miami.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. A lot of boats,
a lot of boats.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
You have to know how deep it is.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
Like at the point, I do not.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Okay, I don't any clue. But he also mentioned the
tho I assumed, I mean barges go through and big
stuff go through. But he did mention the fishing in
Wisconsin isn't bad either. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
The lakes are a different animal.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, when it comes close to Canada.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Yeah, you get some some biggins up there.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah. Yeah, muskies and yeah, pike you could do so you.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
Could do the muskie fishing on the rivers they're in there, right, yeah, Walleye,
you know all that stuff.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
Yeah, and then you can take what you what you
catch to the cookout and and grill it out for
there you go for the for the young bucks hanging around.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
There you go. He implied that he didn't love the
rivers because of the steep slopes from fishing the It
is different.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
It is different.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, you might have to get a boat.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
But there's some nice lakes around the area too that
you can you can go do some stuff in there,
not far far dry. You want to go up to
an hour drive up the up seventy nine to Lake Arthur.

Speaker 5 (20:21):
Or something like that within forty five to sixty minutes.
There's a lot of nice places you can go fishing
around here. Cross Creek Lake up.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
We used to Cross Creek when I was a kid,
a lot.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Very good, best lake. Actually, the lakes and Peter's Township
are very underfished in terms of I remember again, I
used to get all the access to all of the
the Fishing Service commission to do and some of those things,
like I there's some big ones in there. So yeah,
big fishing area, big fishing.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
I dig it, I dig it.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, you need to chat with mister Benton there you go.
I think he needs hell if he knows the hotspots
around here, you know.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
But I remember having share some honey holes with him
sharing that conversation with Josh Miller when he was a
Steelers punter back in the day, and we're talking he
wanted to go fishing it in the trope, and I'm.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
Like, great spots.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
There's some very good spots, like especially he won the
fly fishing.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Right there.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
You can probably within a couple of miles of campus
would find some really good You could take one of
those one of those like golf carts or you know,
like gator type buggies that they have.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
And just go a mile off campus.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
But yeah, so fly fishing creek areas right, and what's
beautiful too.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
So did you get a chance to talk to old
Zach Fraser down there too?

Speaker 3 (21:42):
I did not step into these Fraser conversations. You got
excited there when you saw your.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah, well, that's one of the things that that Matt
and I liked.

Speaker 5 (21:51):
Like Keanu talked about how him, Zach and Mason have
really been pushing each other this offseason throughout this process
the classic iron sharpening iron No, not even necessarily out
on the footlet, but but when they're when they're doing
workout stuff, when they're doing cal you know, racing and
and who's going to have the better workout and all
those different things too, and gotta love it. I mean,
we we've seen the investment there in the trenches on

(22:12):
both sides, and you know, hopefully we see the the
rewards starting in September.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah, absolutely, and uh you know, that's that's what this
is all about. I mean, as I mentioned, I talked
to Jack Sawyer and he's talking about how you know,
I'm watching the Herbigs and the Alex Highsmiths go through this.
Obviously I'll be excited when t J. Watt gets here
and and can watch him work as well, because he's
one of the best, you know in the league, uh
you know, on the in the world really doing what

(22:38):
he does. So you know, those kind of things are valuable.
I think that's why it's a big reason why Cam
Hayward has been here these first couple of days too.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
That's what I was gonna say. It was. I was
asking him a bunch about boy a lot of new
blood in the d line room, and you know, he
kept really harping on how eager the young guys the
two draft picks are to learn and and of course
I had the man and you know what's Cam meant
to you and all that, and he's like he's done
it this long and he still comes to work every
day and puts that helmet on, and you know, he's

(23:09):
very open to teaching us as well. And there's a
good dynamic in that defensive line room, right, it really is.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
And Cam has been the guy that like they've had
to kind of force him to scale back a little bit, right, right,
because he always wanted to practice practice, practice, practice, practice practice.
Like Cam, you don't you don't need to practice on
Wednesdays during the season, right, take that better day off
like you are thirty five.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
You could go hit the pool in there and you know,
be the swimmer. Like coaching. I'm saying this year.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
Training for the Olympics.

Speaker 5 (23:43):
Hey, we do we do have some uh some flag
football opportunities for some of these guys in the upcoming Olympics.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
If if this doesn't work out for him at least.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, why not? But yeah, so what week one in
the books? Here on the field, and they.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Got a lot done. I was really impressed with today's
practice in particular, very spirit. Yeah, and a lot of
the better players out there not competing one hundred percent,
but I mean out there doing football stuff and team
type activities and you know they got a lot out
of this one.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
Yeah, yeah, you know you'll start to see now the
winners and losers from we want to see.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Come on, yeah, because people need to write something like.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
It's very hard.

Speaker 5 (24:24):
You better really be messing up to be a loser
in this set right right, Like there's there's guys that
are having better days. Obviously that's any practice at any level.
But to really say all that guy lost some stuff,
I mean, it would have to be like you were
talking about the guy who's making the same mistakes.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Who learn I mean, you're not. You don't lose out
on the grass here, you might lose in the meeting room.
Like we've gone over this three days in a row
and you still don't get it. Dude, I'm worried about.

Speaker 4 (24:48):
It, but we're not all privy to that.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
To you rarely see coaches at the NFL level start
yelling and screaming at a player. It doesn't happen. You
don't have to, You shouldn't have to, and you know,
take away their snap counts, and that's something it probably
takes that takes place in the in the like.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Look, man, oh yeah, they'll embarrass a guy in there.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
You put it up on the board, all right, look
at this as they always call it. Yeah, Williamson, what
the hell were you thinking here on that right when
we went over this yesterday?

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Still put your head set on backwards.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
You know, I don't make the news, I just report it, right,
and yeah, you will find yourself on that news report.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
For sure, because you know you just don't have time
for again. You get it's very structured at the NFL level.
You don't have time to stop and choose somebody out.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
No, and what you'll see often, especially during the season,
when you exactly they just pull them off the field.
And that's enough of an embarrassment. Everyone knows why. You know, like,
I'm not going to sit here and coach you up
and have this long conversation again that we just had
inside day after day. Just get off the field, you know,
Brookie euro Upe now you know it in.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
There it was you know the if an offensive lineman
fall started in training camp, you felt shame. Yeah. Yeah,
running laps, right, go run a lap. Think about what
you've done.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
A couple of wraps.

Speaker 5 (26:12):
Everybody take pictures of you as you're running laps around
all the football.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
With all the fans there, right, they know what it is.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Think about how you have disappointed me in the ninety
degree heat as well, too alone with your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
You had one job, one job and screwed it up.
I have a good stuff out here so.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Far, absolutely, And I found it interesting all of the
defensive backs doing the tennis ball droll.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Oh realractice. People might not know what that is. I
mean it's a hand eye coordination.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
A hand eye coordination thing that really could kind of Minka.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
And then say Mincos brought it has worked.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
He does it like every day now all of them
are over.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
There doing it. I was wondering he walked past us
while you were in the scrums or whatever and grabbed
the bucket. I'm like, that must be the tennis ball
bucker exactly what it was, and there doing tennis ball drope.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah, but I did, I did notice it does. We
talked about Joey Porter Junior earlier in the show. Joey
was one of the guys. He was actually working with
Minca on the tennis ball stuff before everybody else got
over there. I mean, again, that's something mentioned he you know,
he had ten pass breakups last year had seven his
first year. You know, you want to get into that

(27:26):
area where you know where slays that get better at
your ball skills, get the interceptions, get the past breakups.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Keanu, do what Cameron does? Yeah, Hey, Harmon, do what
Hayward does? Hey, Herbig, do what Watt does? Hey, all
you guys in the defensive backfield, do what Mica does.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
I mean that stuff really rubs off. It's a good
guy to follow, no question, Absolutely all business too.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
He's he's got the time in these settings to walk
everybody through it as well too, that you know, in
the middle of October on a Wednesday, he's not going
to have That's.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
What I do.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
Dale, do what what Wesley doesn't?

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeh, that's how you get.

Speaker 5 (28:05):
But no, it is And that's again too those I
was really and I'm kind of turning back the clock
here a little bit, but I can't remember if it
was the.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
Twenty twenty or the twenty twenty one season.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
One of those years the Steelers defense had a decrease
in their takeaways, Like twenty nineteen, the year that Ben
had the elbow injury, they had a really high number.
And then I think it like got cut in half,
and there was a lot of conversation around is some
of that just luck verse? What can we really be
doing to coach and teach and attack the football?

Speaker 1 (28:33):
And there was a lot of bad bad ball skills
collectively or right.

Speaker 5 (28:36):
I think there was a lot of conversation from you know,
people outside of these walls that was like, hey, it's
it's just luck. Sometimes it goes away and sometimes it doesn't.
And there is of course a monicum of that. The
football is not a circular shape. It bounces, and and
there was there's the crazy stat from last year the
Eagles had like twenty one fumbles and only lost three
or four of them. Like, that's a crazy anomaly that

(28:58):
they fumble. Luck they got that they got lucky with.
But you can absolutely coach that stuff. You could absolutely
get into those details to make a difference in the
turnover department.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Absolutely, And like the last two years, nobody has more
tips at the line of scrimmage than the Steelers. I
mean like two years ago the Chiefs had more. This
year the Steelers, or they were two last year, two
years ago, this year they're one. Cam Hayward has way
more bad passes than anyone in the league over the
last two years, those turned into those turned into turnovers, and.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
Those aren't by Those aren't accidents.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Those aren't accidents. He's gotten really good at it, and
collectively as a team, they're really good at it. I
put a lot of this stuff out on Twitter last
night just I was fiddling on Pro Football Focus and
Watt has more forced fumbles than anyone in the league
by far, especially over the last couple of years, and
particularly last year her Big tied for third. You know
what I mean, Like, these aren't accidents.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Bruce Smith led the league in that three years ago.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah right, And you know, like for you know, Terrell
Evans was a good football player, but he didn't have
that knack for taking the ball away, you know, I mean,
you got to have guys that have a knack for
it in the secondary. Minka has that knack, even though
he doesn't have a ton of takeaway as the last
seventeen or twenty games or whatever, but you know, he
has the knack. And I think a lot of it
starts with pass rush too. I mean, if it's step

(30:18):
one of how do we create turnovers, rush the passer,
force throws, hit the quarterback, you know, get your hands
up at the line of scrimmage, and this team has that.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
And I think there's there's been a direct correlation over
the years that the Steelers have been one, two, three,
top five in the NFL in sacks and team sacks
and the years that they were you know, up their
top ten and turnovers forced as well too.

Speaker 4 (30:36):
There's a direct correlation.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Absolutely, it's not an accident. There is some variants, of course,
right always, and your Eagles example is a great one.

Speaker 5 (30:44):
Yeah, I mean that's that's not if they have twenty
one fumbles or whatever they had last year.

Speaker 4 (30:48):
Again, they they're not going to get seventeen of them
back or eighteen of them back. That's not going to
be the case.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
It helps you win the Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (30:53):
There is some luck invites you can still control what
you can control within that realm of of some luck.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Put yourself in the best It's like being a playing poker.
As I said, it's like playing poker, you know, playing
the odds perhaps the best situation.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Absolutely. Conversely, you can control your own turnovers.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
A little bit more.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
You know, you can not put the ball in harm's
way throwing the football. You can be better at ball protection,
and we see them work a lot of that out here.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
You know guys running with the ball and you know
others are beating at it.

Speaker 5 (31:25):
With the clubs and clubs, the box the boxing gloves.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yeah, somebody should do that while we're like they're sitting
right over there.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
We can have some over the head the air.

Speaker 4 (31:38):
Radio radio host combine. One of these years we need
to do.

Speaker 5 (31:41):
Yeah, someone like get Kabali right and give him a
boxing glove and let.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Them hurt himself. We're gonna hit him. He's not hitting.

Speaker 5 (31:47):
He'd be enthusiastic about it, though, I tell you, I
don't see if you go over the bag would be
someone trying to like knock your your headset over off
your ear while you're in the middle of delivering a
well thought out tangent.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Guys, let's get to another break here, come back to
wrap up the show. He is Matt Williamson. That's what
Slee Euler. I am Dale Lolly. You're listening to our
live ongoing coverage here from Steeler Ota sessions at the
upmc rooney Sports Complex here on Pittsburgh's South Side on
Pittsburgh or Fox Sports Pittsburgh. I should say not just Pittsburgh.

(32:22):
We are in Pittsburgh, Fox Sports Pittsburgh and Steelers Nation Radio.
We will be back to finish up the show right
after this