July 15, 2025 • 29 mins
At nearly long last, the 2025 offseason is about to come to an end when the Steelers report to St. Vincent College next week for Training Camp.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
I couldn't bring any big news back with me this
time on my second vacation, I didn't bring back any
big kind of trade or any free agent fetching you
no wide receiver to no safety.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
You were gone when Rogers was I don't think.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I don't know about that, but I was out. And
then the day I came back was the day that
they traded for day Smith. And yeah, Jalen Ramsey and
Fitzpatrick was gone, outgoing, and we start the next day
all right, like Michael Caine filed you, I filed you
didn't bring a while receive with two You know what.
(00:41):
I'm way cooler this year though about this whole not
having a wide receiver too than I am last year,
because John U. Smith is major upgrade in the past
game and this is old you know news. This is
what we talked about in that weird stretch that I
was here before the fourth of July and we had
an episode. But you know that guy makes me buy
(01:01):
into more of the notion of well, the tight ends
can make up for the production of the wide receiver too.
Last year I did buy into that. I had no
real choice. To be honest, I needed Pat Fryarmouth and
Darnell to carry the lord, and they did not. Now
now that I have a Johnny Smith in that fold two,
and they have, without a doubt, the best tight end
(01:22):
room in the NFL. Not there is no individual in
that room that is the best tight end in the NFL,
or top three even, but overall, that is the best
that you could get to you from one to three.
It's it's untouchable, honestly.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So you have two guys that are at least the
conversation be top ten.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Smith is in the top ten for sure, and that,
of course gives you so much more confidence in that happening.
So I'm alright with that. Going into training camp, maybe
you know, some fat from another team gets cut, you
catch a guy that you didn't expect to be available
all of a sudden open to you throughout training camp,
(02:06):
and you add at that position, or you add at safety. Sure,
but I'm cool with wide receiver too. Right now. I'm
willing to see how this plays out with that tight
end room. And that's not an area that I'm worried
about when it comes to the offense. That's not one
of the bogey areas on the team. And I was
(02:27):
thinking about that a little bit as I was draining
a lot of bogeys on the golf course and watching
Aaron Rodgers, our quarterback, not drain bogies but do par.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
But he almost did you see that clip?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I mean, why do you have to be such a
jerk like Rogers?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I thought I saw a lot of people like coming
at the kid being like maybe I really hit you,
or you just trying.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
To get your your five minutes of fame.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Maybe I'm saw I mean he's a kid. Of course
he's trying to get something so soft, maybe because now
I'm a dad, But I don't know. I feel like
Rogers could have had a better quip then definitely, did.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You see almost doesn't count.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Cow for what? Bro Like, I don't think he was
looking for you to give him, like, you know, a
glove and yeah all this stuff. Maybe he was, but
like I think he maybe was just looking for you
to say something to him, be like something like like
oh did you dodge it?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Like or like I'm not as good as those professionals. Whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
But he's like, don't be pissed off. I didn't hate
you are mad at me.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
But he's good a golf. I mean, I watched a
little bit of that tournament. He's You can go on
the web page for the American Century Tournament and you
can click on every player that played, all the celebrities,
and you can see their scorecards from all three rounds. Like,
he's way better than me.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
He won that tournament.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Joe Pavelski, he had an eagle to walk off.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, he shot like a four under sixty eight. It's
a it's a stable Ford scoring, so you get points
based on what you score in a hole, So he
had like a seventy four points system. But like you
look at his scorecards, like I said, he shot like
four under. Rogers shoot shot like, you know, seventy six
on one round, like a four over. It's freaky stuff.
But I want to talk about the bogies on this team,
the potential things that could derail the Pittsburgh Steelers moving forward,
(04:08):
because I don't think that you can sit there and
tell me that they're not an objectively better team than
they were last year, and therefore that you're not more
excited than you were for this team this year than
you were last year. But there's always some spots on
NFL teams that could really derail things. The first thing
(04:29):
that can always derail an NFL season is injury. That's
number one, first and foremost. But you can't predict that.
Some things that you can predict, though, Let's look at
the offensive side of the ball. I think that the
real obvious potential bogie there is that the offensive line
just doesn't take that step forward that we needed to,
and that Roderick Jones doesn't shift over to that left
(04:50):
side and solidifies himself as a starting left tackle, Fatana
takes the right tackle spot over. You see McCormick, and
you see Fraser blossom, and we've talked about that all
offseason long. How you know there's a worry there. And
before we got Rogers, it was like, does Rogers want
to play behind a line like that? Like it's always
kind of had the spotlight on it. The offensive line
of this is the question mark because Rogers. I mean,
(05:16):
I guess there's always the question mark with a forty
one year old NFL player that like his achilles snaps again,
he just drops off a table as far as his
play is concerned. But I don't think that that's gonna happen.
I think he's gonna be just fine.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
At the very he won't be Aaron Rodgers in twenty ten,
or even twenty fifteen or twenty twenty for that matter.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
He'll be just fine, yeah, at worst, and maybe it'll
be a lot better than that. And maybe he'll show
you a couple of turn back the clock moments throughout
the season that gets you some wins in games that
maybe you had no business winning or you wouldn't have
won last year. But you know, other than his age,
there's more excitement. I think now that he's officially inked
his contract and he's here, sure, and there is a
(05:56):
question about him. The tight ends obviously has everybody's engine revveed.
How can it not. We just established its consensus around
the league. You ask anybody who's not a hater, and
they'll tell you that it's the best tight end room
in football. DK Metcalf is exciting. There's not a real
question mark with him, and especially now that you have Rogers,
the only question mark was gonna be who's gonna throw
(06:17):
the ball at the DK. Well, now you know definitively
who's going to do that, And there is another question mark,
and we'll get to that in just a second. And
it's kind of married. It's symbiotic with the offensive line
and what could be a potential bogie. But the offensive
line is that area that you just look at and
it's like it's got a lot of inexperience still but
(06:38):
not too much. It's got a lot of experienced inexperience.
Like a lot of young guys out there that have
had moments and played in the NFL and had seasons
under their belts, but they're still on the.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Younger of their career, yes, like other than Isac Ciamalo,
Like they're all entering the third year in the league.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
So that's just you know question you can't definitively say.
And I love Zach Fraser to death, and he's probably
the closest to this right now of that group that's
not Ciamalu, But you cannot definitively say that any of
those four have their sea legs under them completely in
the NFL and are out to see for a long
ten to twelve year career. And again, it looks like
(07:22):
most of them are on that track. Jones, that's the
one you're holding your breath about. Fetanu. It's a little
unfair to say because of injury, but hey, injuries have
derailed players much more talented than Fontanu in the past,
so you kind of hold your breath and hope that
he can stay healthy now and put together a good
NFL career. McCormick and Fraser both had really strong rookie
(07:44):
seasons for where they were drafted and what their expectations were.
Fraser expected to take the mantle of the rich history
of a center at the Steelers, and he did a
fantastic job as a rookie, was an All rookie in
a lot of people's eyes. And then you look at McCormick,
who was a depth pick forced into playing because of
a James Daniel's injury, and you can't say anything but wow,
(08:06):
he held his own so much so that we're comfortable
with him being the guy now, don't have to worry
about signing James Daniels, don't have to worry about going
into the draft for another guard, like we got our
guy McCormick. So they're on the right track. But you
still don't feel comfortable saying like, oh, yeah, those guys
are established starting NFL offensive lineman and I think that
(08:26):
not only is this a year that we as fans
want to see that stamp of approval because it means
the team is gonna have more success than they've had
in the past couple years and maybe win a playoff game.
But for guys like Broderick Jones, who's gonna be coming
up on maybe or not maybe, but gonna be coming
up on a contract decision as a first round pick
and a fifth year option, for guys like Fraser and McCormick,
(08:49):
for guys like Fetanu who is coming off of that injury,
they need to stamp themselves as legitimate NFL starting colber
offensive lineman. So that's your obvious I think, Bogie, when
it comes to the offensive side of the ball, what
is that offensive line going to look like? And health
is obviously such a big part of the offensive line,
(09:12):
and the Steelers for years before last year had unfathomable,
fathomable an an enemy, unfathomable health at the offensive line position.
Then last year, that grim reaper finally came and got you.
Because you lose James Daniels and you lose her Big,
who was technically a starter, wouldn't have been I don't
(09:34):
think but was technically a starter had time that was injured.
Foutanu was injured during the season early, like it really
swung back in the other direction. So if these guys
can stay relatively healthy, and if these guys can really
gel starting in a week at training camp and become
(09:58):
not an elite offensive line yet that can be a
couple of years down the road, but become a line
that has moments that make you go, wow, those guys
arrow is pointing way up and become an offensive line
that can give an old man who still might have
a little bit of juice left in his arm and
some young buck running game some room to operate so
(10:18):
that the Steelers can more consistently be scoring in that
twenty three to twenty four point range. Because if the
defense stays healthy, then I think you're going to win
a lot of football games and be more importantly competitive
in a lot of football games against upper tier opponents.
And that's what was most deflating last year, right. It
(10:39):
wasn't just that you lost those four games in a
row and then the fifth one ultimately in the playoff game.
It was just that you weren't even competitive in a
lot of those moments.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Sure, the Eagles game, or it took you forever to
get under you.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, And that's just been somewhat of a trend lately
for the team when you step up in the weight
class and you try to punch in a heavyweight fight
that's outside of your division because in the division they
beat those guys all the time. But it just was
what you said is really spot on. It's like you
went out into the ocean. I just went to the beach,
(11:13):
and that first wave just kind of like oh my,
like you know what I mean, Like it knocks you
right out, and then there's another wave of the come
and now you're trying to kind of fight for your balance, right,
and then you finally get it, but you already have
like sand all up in weird places and like you're
kind of disoriented and your nose is running because the
water's up, and you're like I kind of want to
get out of the water now a little bit because
(11:34):
that was just a bad start. That's what's been happening.
It's just been like whoa or f you got taken
out and then second half comes around You're like, Okay,
I'm out here now, like I'm swimming, like I'm doing
it right. I'm scoring points, turning my back to the
water or whatever. But it's a little late, and that,
I think is what not only you want to see
(11:56):
winds happen, but you also want to just desperately see
games come down to those who's gonna blink between the
Chiefs and you, and the Bills in you and those
teams that are in that upper echelon. They have to
kick a field goal from forty five yards out to
survive the Steelers, you know what I mean. Like, I'm
not gonna have any delusions of grandeur that the Steelers
(12:17):
are gonna be a Super Bowl contending team this year,
but I want them to kind of get back to
that mode where and they're kind of they're just a
scary team. Like it's like, oh, you don't want.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
To see the Steelers. The steel December.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
We have to win this playoff game twenty one to
twenty and absolutely basically die on the field for sixty
minutes just to get through to the next round. And
also if we make a mistake, we lose the playoff game.
Like that's the other thing like in the NFL, and
the Steelers are proof positive of this. In the regular
season because their record is disgusting in one score games,
And I mean that in a good way.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
In the best way. I think they have the best records.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Like it's their proof positive of if you just stick around,
if the game's in the one score range and the
other it's basically comes down to who's gonna make a
mistake like that.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And it's gonna be the other team.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
His Steelers have just been so good at not making mistakes,
and that's the one thing they've really drilled into their
quarterbacks and their offensive mindset is we don't turn the
ball over and we win football games. And now you've
got a guy that you're trying to get the best
of both worlds with that has historically not turned the
ball over much but also can get into the twenty five,
twenty six, twenty seven touchdown range for you.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, I mean, Russell Wilson did lead the NFL I
believe in yards pass in twenty twenty in the COVID season,
So he was as of recent a capable quarterback, but
you kind of saw him fall off when he went
to Denver and then subsequently when he came to Pittsburgh.
But Aaron Rodgers, like you said, Tom he never really did.
(13:45):
He won back to back MVPs after Russell Wilson had
led the league in passing yards that one year when
he was still in Seattle. He didn't have a great
season last year. They Jets only won five games, but
we know the stats, we've seen the number. He had
a pretty decent season. Like you said, for Aaron Rodgers,
he's not gonna be that Aaron Rodgers he was in
(14:06):
twenty twenty one or twenty twenty two, but he can
still put up numbers that are an improvement from what
you've seen over the past couple of years since Ben
Roethlisberger retired. And if that's the case, given everything else
the defense, you assume it improves, the offensive weaponry improves
around the quarterback. The offensive line continues to gel now
(14:29):
that they have Like you said, they're still young, but
they have some semblance of sea legs underneath them. With
all that in mind, there's no reason to believe that
this team is going to bottom out this year. They're
not going to be and I'm with you, they're not
going to be Super Bowl contenders or Super Bowl favorites,
but they're gonna be competitive. They're gonna they're gonna be
a thorn in some team sides, probably the better teams.
(14:53):
Like when they go up against teams that are of
the same caliber, if not worse, they're gonna be the
favorite team. They're not gonna win every one of them,
because we know they don't do that. But when they
get to the end of the year and they're playing
competitive teams like Baltimore and in Cincinnati. I'm not sure
when they played Buffalo, but I think it's sometime in
October November. But that game is in Pittsburgh. That's not
gonna be an easy win for Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Granted Buffalo could come in and win that game thirty
five to three like they did a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Anymore, I wanted to come in and have to sweat
out twenty seven before, right, and you want to have
to have them kicking that swirling wind late right at
Akroschuer Stadium off the river, like you just want these
teams to feel uncomfortable moments, and that whole stretch at
the end of last season, it was just so comfortable
for everybody, like he was just started rolling against them.
That playoff game for the Ravens was just comfortable.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
They just ran the ball.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean, what's more comfortable than just being able to
run the ball all over? But there's no stress, there's
no tip balls that get picked off, there's no risk
of really anything happening. When you have Derrick Henry who
never fumbles, although he did against the Steelers earlier. Ironically
in the regular.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Season he did, but he now like his first like
two hundred carries or something.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
You have Lamar Jackson, who can get a little loose
with the football a little bit, but I think in
a playoff game, we'll talk that thing pretty tight. If
they just run the ball for two hundred plus yards,
that's an easy win in the first round for anybody,
even if it's someone not your art drive things a
little bit more when it was them. But so the
(16:20):
offensive line, that's the you gotta really see improvement there
and see them take a step forward there. And then
I said, the other real bogey spot that I can
see on offense, and it's symbiotic with the offensive line,
is that running back room. And that's simply just because
we don't know what the rookie Caleb Johnson's going to
look like, because he's a rookie yeah, I'm very optimistic.
(16:43):
I'm very high off of him. I think getting a
running back out of Iowa is a smart idea for
this team, a.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Team that runs the footballer than anyone in the country, right,
And I.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Think that you have the ability to break him in
with an established running back in Jalen Warren already there
to make life a little bit easier on the rookie's plate.
So I'm very optimistic about the running back room. But
if Johnson, you know, takes a little bit of time
(17:14):
to get traction in the NFL, and Jalen Warren has
to take on a little bit more of a load
than you anticipated, I think it's fair to worry that
that might be too much for him, because that has
been the worry right when it comes to Jalen Warren,
is that is it too much for him to be
to take on that course type of running back, to
(17:34):
be that feature back. Maybe it's not. Maybe he can
prove us wrong, And I don't think he's going to
have to, because I think you're going to have a
really nice tandem here in the running back room, and
I think Caleb Johnson is going to come on just
swimmingly as long as that offensive line in front of
him takes that step forward, like we said, and really
can clear lanes and open up a lot of space
(17:58):
in the running game.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
But I think both of us agree that at its base,
regardless of potential, at its base, the offensive line today
was better than the offensive line that Najie Harris inherited
in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah. Absolutely, Like that's the thing with Naji that's so different,
not just like na she was a first round pick,
so like he comes in in the pedigree is way
higher than Caleb Johnson, and Nagy goes right to the
top of the depth chart. But there was no one here.
It was Benny Snell or naj Hair right.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
There was no Jallien warn behind me.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Right, And that's a huge advantage that Caleb Johnson has.
And I say advantage because some people will be like, well,
what do you mean he's gonna take cares of him,
be like, it'll be easier for a young player in
this league to break in, to not have to just
be that guy right away. And he's a third round pick,
Like he's not a first round Ezekiel Elliott type of
player where it's like, yeah, draft him and he's he's
(18:48):
already ready for the NFL to get you know, four
hundred carries in a season. That's not who he is yet.
You you want to be able to exercise the ability
to bring him along, not slowly because by week in
week one you're gonna see him have impact, but bring
him along with a tandem, bring him along with a
kind of a one A and one B mentality with
(19:09):
Jalen Warren, if you have the ability to do that.
Didn't have the ability to do that with Naji. It
had to be all nause right away. And then Jalen
Warren revealed himself as an undrafted free agent. And then
the offensive line too, is just a lot more established
with pedigree and potential than the offensive line that Naji
Harris started behind. And you know, I'm not trying to
(19:32):
say that a running back because we've seen Josh Jacobs
and Saquon Barkley and Derek Henry now go to different
teams in their kind of it works second phase of
their career and they're great. But there is a select
few I think that can do that. Man, Like, you
want a running back to come out as a rookie
and bang like be like maybe have one of his
best years as his rookie year or in his second
(19:53):
year of the NFL in Nause. I don't think it's
ever really given the full ability to do that, because
he was spectacular at breaking Town early on, and when
the league first got a look at him, it was like, well,
this guy is tough. You know, he's got speed, he's power,
he's he's an interesting BacT angry. He was always doing
that just to get back to the line of scrimmage
or just to get two or three yards and grind
and grind and grind and grind and grind. So I
(20:17):
want to see Caleb Johnson, you know, come out as
a rookie and have that you know, wow, one hundred
yard game in his first four games, you know, just
really have an impact like that, because you I think
at the rookie position, at the running back position, I
think you can see that from rookies more than a
lot of other positions. Maybe wide receivers like that too
in a lot of ways now, but I think you
(20:39):
can really see rookies just come in and have just
a solid, steady nine hundred type to a thousand yard
season right away in the NFL. If you have a
good line in front of him, and if you have
a good offensive mindset. So little bit of a bogeish
feeling on them on the running back room, but I'm
(21:00):
really high on it, and I'm excited to see how
this rookie is going to look and if the offensive
line plays well in Blossoms and the running backs are good,
and Warren and Johnson find a nice, good relationship between
each other, a nice balance between them, and it's very effective.
I mean, this team should, in all expectancy, put up points,
(21:25):
control the football, keep the defense on the sidelines for
extended period of times. To put it in a very
basic way, have a lot of success.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
I think they can. It's it's really hard for me
to look at this team at its base and let's
you know, let's just throw all potential outer ceilings and floors,
just look at the players on the roster and say, oh,
this team is going to just take a this team
is going to take a step back offensively. I just
don't see that happening. You get, you get younger at
(21:59):
running back, you get your offensive lineman gel together with
another year playing together. You get an upgrade at quarterback,
you get an addition to the tight end room a
significant one.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
You get an upgrade at wide receiver with the G George.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Pickens being replaced by DK Metcalf, and you take all
that into consideration. Look at last year. I don't know
how this offense can do worse, and they might not
do much better. Let's also like say this too. I mean,
we don't want to run away with expectations here. They
might not do that much better, but I would find
(22:36):
it very hard to see them going in the negative
direction compared.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
To twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Because you remember a year ago when we were saying,
oh well, the offensive line added Troy Futanu, and that.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Was before the injury.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Of course, they added Zach Frazier at center, which did
work out. Jalen Warren and Naji Harris are both health.
George Pickens is healthy. You have two quarterbacks that you
can use between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. You got
Pat Firm, you have Darnel Washington again. How can this
offense be any worse? And it, like I said, it
(23:13):
wasn't much better than it was in twenty twenty three
when it was Kenny Picking and Mason Rudolph.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And mister bisky.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
There were moments that looked better, like when Justin Fields
was doing Justin Fields positive things, but then you saw
him do Justin Fields negative things. There were moments when
Russell Wilson had that what five game winning streak, but
then it was followed by a four game losing streak
and a fifth when you.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Include the playoff loss.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
So there were flashes, but it wasn't consistent at really
any point over a long.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Stretch of last year.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
So I think my hope for the offense in twenty
twenty five is show us some consistency. Like you said,
the most important thing is get into that twenty four
to twenty five twenty six points per game range a
consistent week to week basis over the course of the
entire season. You don't have to score that every single week.
It'd be great if you did, but just show us
(24:08):
that you can do it more than what three times
per season like you did last year. Right, we know
the record the splits when the team scored twenty or
more points versus nineteen or fewer points when they scored
nineteen or few where they have like one or two
wins if they if they score more, they're fine because
their defense does enough to prevent another offense from scoring
(24:31):
that much. You remember all the only game that you
can really remember, the only two games that stick out
offensively were the games in Washington and the game in Cincinnati.
Besides that, there was really no there was nothing else
to point you would say, Wow, look at this offense,
Look what it can do on a weekly basis.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
It was just those two examples.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
So those were the peaks for sure. The Jets game
was fun too, like after that Rockies start like.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
They started, Yeah, I think I think that there they.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Said Beanye Bishop interceptions that really set them up well, And.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
I think that stuck out too, because that was Russ's
first game and so you just felt a shit.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Kind of it was kind of like you were That
was the game where you were like kind of going
up on the roller coaster. And then that Commander's game
and the Bengals just kind of reached that peak and
it was like wow. But then as soon as you
like I forgot what this was like to yeah, shoot
out like this, to go back and forth.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Was that Cincinnati game where they scored forty seven forty
eight points the last game they won on the year,
or maybe they won one more against Cleveland and that
was it.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I don't believe that that was the last game that
they won in the year. I'm having a little bit
of I think.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
They won the next week against Cleveland and it wasn't
It wasn't a great game either.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I know they had to win against the Ravens. That
wasn't a Picasso sandwich dion there in the Russell Wilson
era where they didn't score that many points. Yeah, just
got the dub at Akroscher Stadium.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
But no, they won one more game, and it was
that Cleveland game. That wasn't a given h But it
wasn't the Thursday night lost either. They they scored forty
four against Cincinnata, They played against Cleveland in Pittsburgh, and
then they lost their last four or.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Fifth including the fifth including the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
The Cleveland game in Pittsburgh was the first game without Pickens, right,
and they scored like a Van Jefferson touchdown or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Maybe.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, I mean, they scored twenty seven points in that game,
which seems high, especially if George Pickens was not out there.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
We didn't know yet what was to come. We thought
the offense was still just a Okay.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
There, yeah, yeah, I'm looking.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I mean, unless he just had a goose egg, there
is no there is no George Pickens on the statute
for that game.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Now that started his stretch of being out. So if,
like we said, the two things in the offensive side
of the ball that we have the most question marks
for the line the running backs if health permits, if
Rogers can just stay upright, and if he can really
fulfill that kind of far of arc. As far as
you go from the Packers to the Jets, the Jets washes.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Out, you laid down Minnesota Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, look, I know they don't have a Super Bowl,
but let's just stretch a little bit here for the
sake of the analogy. Okay, you go from the just
to a historic franchise like the Minnesota. I've been around
for ever, been in a ton of get to the game.
Always kind of good Minnesota like they oh yeah, they
always like you see those graphics, that's like most regular
(27:17):
season wins or regular season win percentage is now always
not even without Super Bowl. Just rank them all like
six or something like that. They're like, yeah, they win,
They're consistent pretty much for a franchise. We beat their
ass back in the seventies. So that's cool. I can
say all this stuff and feel good about it. Like, uh,
they have history of rich players like Tarkenton, Randy Moss,
(27:38):
the Purple People, Eaters like and now Rogers leaves the
Jets goes to historic franchise. They have the Super Bowls.
They have a bunch of historic players, like you know,
it's a cornerstone type of franchise, like always winning very consistently,
more so than even the Vikings who went on a
consistent You get where I'm going with this, like, maybe
(27:59):
we can catch a little bit of that magic and
maybe you can get yourself on a nice little.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Run and that can That doesn't have to be a
super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
That can just be getting into the playoffs, momentum, winning
a yeah game, getting that weight off your shoulder of oh,
you haven't won a playoff game, and however many years
going on a decade almost and then going into the
division round and being a real pain in the ass
to be for whoever is the Chiefs, the Ravens, whoever.
You walk into that stadium.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
And then you use that momentum not just for this season,
but for seasons to come. You say, hey, look at
what we did with this forty two year old quarterback,
but a great young defensive corps, a great young offensive corps.
Let's bring in the guy of the future and let's
trade up and.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Get a quarterback. Yeah, and let's try to convince Aaron
to come back.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah one more year.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Let's try to say, hey, Rogers, one more ride. And
I think that that can absolutely work.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
You don't have to you don't have to win the
Super Bowl for the season to be a success.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Absolutely. We will continue to talk about this on the
defensive side of the ball, the bogie's on that side,
the potential ones. Also talk of course about TJ. Watt
because that's never going away, and we're getting close to
that next point, right, that next kind of point on
the calendar where you're like, will a deal come? So
we'll talk about that next on the Steelers Standards, Steelers
Audio Network, the Steelers Nation Radio
I couldn't bring any big news back with me this
time on my second vacation, I didn't bring back any
big kind of trade or any free agent fetching you
no wide receiver to no safety.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
You were gone when Rogers was I don't think.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I don't know about that, but I was out. And
then the day I came back was the day that
they traded for day Smith. And yeah, Jalen Ramsey and
Fitzpatrick was gone, outgoing, and we start the next day
all right, like Michael Caine filed you, I filed you
didn't bring a while receive with two You know what.
(00:41):
I'm way cooler this year though about this whole not
having a wide receiver too than I am last year,
because John U. Smith is major upgrade in the past
game and this is old you know news. This is
what we talked about in that weird stretch that I
was here before the fourth of July and we had
an episode. But you know that guy makes me buy
(01:01):
into more of the notion of well, the tight ends
can make up for the production of the wide receiver too.
Last year I did buy into that. I had no
real choice. To be honest, I needed Pat Fryarmouth and
Darnell to carry the lord, and they did not. Now
now that I have a Johnny Smith in that fold two,
and they have, without a doubt, the best tight end
(01:22):
room in the NFL. Not there is no individual in
that room that is the best tight end in the NFL,
or top three even, but overall, that is the best
that you could get to you from one to three.
It's it's untouchable, honestly.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So you have two guys that are at least the
conversation be top ten.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Smith is in the top ten for sure, and that,
of course gives you so much more confidence in that happening.
So I'm alright with that. Going into training camp, maybe
you know, some fat from another team gets cut, you
catch a guy that you didn't expect to be available
all of a sudden open to you throughout training camp,
(02:06):
and you add at that position, or you add at safety. Sure,
but I'm cool with wide receiver too. Right now. I'm
willing to see how this plays out with that tight
end room. And that's not an area that I'm worried
about when it comes to the offense. That's not one
of the bogey areas on the team. And I was
(02:27):
thinking about that a little bit as I was draining
a lot of bogeys on the golf course and watching
Aaron Rodgers, our quarterback, not drain bogies but do par.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
But he almost did you see that clip?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I mean, why do you have to be such a
jerk like Rogers?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I thought I saw a lot of people like coming
at the kid being like maybe I really hit you,
or you just trying.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
To get your your five minutes of fame.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Maybe I'm saw I mean he's a kid. Of course
he's trying to get something so soft, maybe because now
I'm a dad, But I don't know. I feel like
Rogers could have had a better quip then definitely, did.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You see almost doesn't count.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Cow for what? Bro Like, I don't think he was
looking for you to give him, like, you know, a
glove and yeah all this stuff. Maybe he was, but
like I think he maybe was just looking for you
to say something to him, be like something like like
oh did you dodge it?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Like or like I'm not as good as those professionals. Whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
But he's like, don't be pissed off. I didn't hate
you are mad at me.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
But he's good a golf. I mean, I watched a
little bit of that tournament. He's You can go on
the web page for the American Century Tournament and you
can click on every player that played, all the celebrities,
and you can see their scorecards from all three rounds. Like,
he's way better than me.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
He won that tournament.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Joe Pavelski, he had an eagle to walk off.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, he shot like a four under sixty eight. It's
a it's a stable Ford scoring, so you get points
based on what you score in a hole, So he
had like a seventy four points system. But like you
look at his scorecards, like I said, he shot like
four under. Rogers shoot shot like, you know, seventy six
on one round, like a four over. It's freaky stuff.
But I want to talk about the bogies on this team,
the potential things that could derail the Pittsburgh Steelers moving forward,
(04:08):
because I don't think that you can sit there and
tell me that they're not an objectively better team than
they were last year, and therefore that you're not more
excited than you were for this team this year than
you were last year. But there's always some spots on
NFL teams that could really derail things. The first thing
(04:29):
that can always derail an NFL season is injury. That's
number one, first and foremost. But you can't predict that.
Some things that you can predict, though, Let's look at
the offensive side of the ball. I think that the
real obvious potential bogie there is that the offensive line
just doesn't take that step forward that we needed to,
and that Roderick Jones doesn't shift over to that left
(04:50):
side and solidifies himself as a starting left tackle, Fatana
takes the right tackle spot over. You see McCormick, and
you see Fraser blossom, and we've talked about that all
offseason long. How you know there's a worry there. And
before we got Rogers, it was like, does Rogers want
to play behind a line like that? Like it's always
kind of had the spotlight on it. The offensive line
of this is the question mark because Rogers. I mean,
(05:16):
I guess there's always the question mark with a forty
one year old NFL player that like his achilles snaps again,
he just drops off a table as far as his
play is concerned. But I don't think that that's gonna happen.
I think he's gonna be just fine.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
At the very he won't be Aaron Rodgers in twenty ten,
or even twenty fifteen or twenty twenty for that matter.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
He'll be just fine, yeah, at worst, and maybe it'll
be a lot better than that. And maybe he'll show
you a couple of turn back the clock moments throughout
the season that gets you some wins in games that
maybe you had no business winning or you wouldn't have
won last year. But you know, other than his age,
there's more excitement. I think now that he's officially inked
his contract and he's here, sure, and there is a
(05:56):
question about him. The tight ends obviously has everybody's engine revveed.
How can it not. We just established its consensus around
the league. You ask anybody who's not a hater, and
they'll tell you that it's the best tight end room
in football. DK Metcalf is exciting. There's not a real
question mark with him, and especially now that you have Rogers,
the only question mark was gonna be who's gonna throw
(06:17):
the ball at the DK. Well, now you know definitively
who's going to do that, And there is another question mark,
and we'll get to that in just a second. And
it's kind of married. It's symbiotic with the offensive line
and what could be a potential bogie. But the offensive
line is that area that you just look at and
it's like it's got a lot of inexperience still but
(06:38):
not too much. It's got a lot of experienced inexperience.
Like a lot of young guys out there that have
had moments and played in the NFL and had seasons
under their belts, but they're still on the.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Younger of their career, yes, like other than Isac Ciamalo,
Like they're all entering the third year in the league.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
So that's just you know question you can't definitively say.
And I love Zach Fraser to death, and he's probably
the closest to this right now of that group that's
not Ciamalu, But you cannot definitively say that any of
those four have their sea legs under them completely in
the NFL and are out to see for a long
ten to twelve year career. And again, it looks like
(07:22):
most of them are on that track. Jones, that's the
one you're holding your breath about. Fetanu. It's a little
unfair to say because of injury, but hey, injuries have
derailed players much more talented than Fontanu in the past,
so you kind of hold your breath and hope that
he can stay healthy now and put together a good
NFL career. McCormick and Fraser both had really strong rookie
(07:44):
seasons for where they were drafted and what their expectations were.
Fraser expected to take the mantle of the rich history
of a center at the Steelers, and he did a
fantastic job as a rookie, was an All rookie in
a lot of people's eyes. And then you look at McCormick,
who was a depth pick forced into playing because of
a James Daniel's injury, and you can't say anything but wow,
(08:06):
he held his own so much so that we're comfortable
with him being the guy now, don't have to worry
about signing James Daniels, don't have to worry about going
into the draft for another guard, like we got our
guy McCormick. So they're on the right track. But you
still don't feel comfortable saying like, oh, yeah, those guys
are established starting NFL offensive lineman and I think that
(08:26):
not only is this a year that we as fans
want to see that stamp of approval because it means
the team is gonna have more success than they've had
in the past couple years and maybe win a playoff game.
But for guys like Broderick Jones, who's gonna be coming
up on maybe or not maybe, but gonna be coming
up on a contract decision as a first round pick
and a fifth year option, for guys like Fraser and McCormick,
(08:49):
for guys like Fetanu who is coming off of that injury,
they need to stamp themselves as legitimate NFL starting colber
offensive lineman. So that's your obvious I think, Bogie, when
it comes to the offensive side of the ball, what
is that offensive line going to look like? And health
is obviously such a big part of the offensive line,
(09:12):
and the Steelers for years before last year had unfathomable,
fathomable an an enemy, unfathomable health at the offensive line position.
Then last year, that grim reaper finally came and got you.
Because you lose James Daniels and you lose her Big,
who was technically a starter, wouldn't have been I don't
(09:34):
think but was technically a starter had time that was injured.
Foutanu was injured during the season early, like it really
swung back in the other direction. So if these guys
can stay relatively healthy, and if these guys can really
gel starting in a week at training camp and become
(09:58):
not an elite offensive line yet that can be a
couple of years down the road, but become a line
that has moments that make you go, wow, those guys
arrow is pointing way up and become an offensive line
that can give an old man who still might have
a little bit of juice left in his arm and
some young buck running game some room to operate so
(10:18):
that the Steelers can more consistently be scoring in that
twenty three to twenty four point range. Because if the
defense stays healthy, then I think you're going to win
a lot of football games and be more importantly competitive
in a lot of football games against upper tier opponents.
And that's what was most deflating last year, right. It
(10:39):
wasn't just that you lost those four games in a
row and then the fifth one ultimately in the playoff game.
It was just that you weren't even competitive in a
lot of those moments.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Sure, the Eagles game, or it took you forever to
get under you.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, And that's just been somewhat of a trend lately
for the team when you step up in the weight
class and you try to punch in a heavyweight fight
that's outside of your division because in the division they
beat those guys all the time. But it just was
what you said is really spot on. It's like you
went out into the ocean. I just went to the beach,
(11:13):
and that first wave just kind of like oh my,
like you know what I mean, Like it knocks you
right out, and then there's another wave of the come
and now you're trying to kind of fight for your balance, right,
and then you finally get it, but you already have
like sand all up in weird places and like you're
kind of disoriented and your nose is running because the
water's up, and you're like I kind of want to
get out of the water now a little bit because
(11:34):
that was just a bad start. That's what's been happening.
It's just been like whoa or f you got taken
out and then second half comes around You're like, Okay,
I'm out here now, like I'm swimming, like I'm doing
it right. I'm scoring points, turning my back to the
water or whatever. But it's a little late, and that,
I think is what not only you want to see
(11:56):
winds happen, but you also want to just desperately see
games come down to those who's gonna blink between the
Chiefs and you, and the Bills in you and those
teams that are in that upper echelon. They have to
kick a field goal from forty five yards out to
survive the Steelers, you know what I mean. Like, I'm
not gonna have any delusions of grandeur that the Steelers
(12:17):
are gonna be a Super Bowl contending team this year,
but I want them to kind of get back to
that mode where and they're kind of they're just a
scary team. Like it's like, oh, you don't want.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
To see the Steelers. The steel December.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
We have to win this playoff game twenty one to
twenty and absolutely basically die on the field for sixty
minutes just to get through to the next round. And
also if we make a mistake, we lose the playoff game.
Like that's the other thing like in the NFL, and
the Steelers are proof positive of this. In the regular
season because their record is disgusting in one score games,
And I mean that in a good way.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
In the best way. I think they have the best records.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Like it's their proof positive of if you just stick around,
if the game's in the one score range and the
other it's basically comes down to who's gonna make a
mistake like that.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And it's gonna be the other team.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
His Steelers have just been so good at not making mistakes,
and that's the one thing they've really drilled into their
quarterbacks and their offensive mindset is we don't turn the
ball over and we win football games. And now you've
got a guy that you're trying to get the best
of both worlds with that has historically not turned the
ball over much but also can get into the twenty five,
twenty six, twenty seven touchdown range for you.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, I mean, Russell Wilson did lead the NFL I
believe in yards pass in twenty twenty in the COVID season,
So he was as of recent a capable quarterback, but
you kind of saw him fall off when he went
to Denver and then subsequently when he came to Pittsburgh.
But Aaron Rodgers, like you said, Tom he never really did.
(13:45):
He won back to back MVPs after Russell Wilson had
led the league in passing yards that one year when
he was still in Seattle. He didn't have a great
season last year. They Jets only won five games, but
we know the stats, we've seen the number. He had
a pretty decent season. Like you said, for Aaron Rodgers,
he's not gonna be that Aaron Rodgers he was in
(14:06):
twenty twenty one or twenty twenty two, but he can
still put up numbers that are an improvement from what
you've seen over the past couple of years since Ben
Roethlisberger retired. And if that's the case, given everything else
the defense, you assume it improves, the offensive weaponry improves
around the quarterback. The offensive line continues to gel now
(14:29):
that they have Like you said, they're still young, but
they have some semblance of sea legs underneath them. With
all that in mind, there's no reason to believe that
this team is going to bottom out this year. They're
not going to be and I'm with you, they're not
going to be Super Bowl contenders or Super Bowl favorites,
but they're gonna be competitive. They're gonna they're gonna be
a thorn in some team sides, probably the better teams.
(14:53):
Like when they go up against teams that are of
the same caliber, if not worse, they're gonna be the
favorite team. They're not gonna win every one of them,
because we know they don't do that. But when they
get to the end of the year and they're playing
competitive teams like Baltimore and in Cincinnati. I'm not sure
when they played Buffalo, but I think it's sometime in
October November. But that game is in Pittsburgh. That's not
gonna be an easy win for Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Granted Buffalo could come in and win that game thirty
five to three like they did a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Anymore, I wanted to come in and have to sweat
out twenty seven before, right, and you want to have
to have them kicking that swirling wind late right at
Akroschuer Stadium off the river, like you just want these
teams to feel uncomfortable moments, and that whole stretch at
the end of last season, it was just so comfortable
for everybody, like he was just started rolling against them.
That playoff game for the Ravens was just comfortable.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
They just ran the ball.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean, what's more comfortable than just being able to
run the ball all over? But there's no stress, there's
no tip balls that get picked off, there's no risk
of really anything happening. When you have Derrick Henry who
never fumbles, although he did against the Steelers earlier. Ironically
in the regular.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Season he did, but he now like his first like
two hundred carries or something.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
You have Lamar Jackson, who can get a little loose
with the football a little bit, but I think in
a playoff game, we'll talk that thing pretty tight. If
they just run the ball for two hundred plus yards,
that's an easy win in the first round for anybody,
even if it's someone not your art drive things a
little bit more when it was them. But so the
(16:20):
offensive line, that's the you gotta really see improvement there
and see them take a step forward there. And then
I said, the other real bogey spot that I can
see on offense, and it's symbiotic with the offensive line,
is that running back room. And that's simply just because
we don't know what the rookie Caleb Johnson's going to
look like, because he's a rookie yeah, I'm very optimistic.
(16:43):
I'm very high off of him. I think getting a
running back out of Iowa is a smart idea for
this team, a.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Team that runs the footballer than anyone in the country, right,
And I.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Think that you have the ability to break him in
with an established running back in Jalen Warren already there
to make life a little bit easier on the rookie's plate.
So I'm very optimistic about the running back room. But
if Johnson, you know, takes a little bit of time
(17:14):
to get traction in the NFL, and Jalen Warren has
to take on a little bit more of a load
than you anticipated, I think it's fair to worry that
that might be too much for him, because that has
been the worry right when it comes to Jalen Warren,
is that is it too much for him to be
to take on that course type of running back, to
(17:34):
be that feature back. Maybe it's not. Maybe he can
prove us wrong, And I don't think he's going to
have to, because I think you're going to have a
really nice tandem here in the running back room, and
I think Caleb Johnson is going to come on just
swimmingly as long as that offensive line in front of
him takes that step forward, like we said, and really
can clear lanes and open up a lot of space
(17:58):
in the running game.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
But I think both of us agree that at its base,
regardless of potential, at its base, the offensive line today
was better than the offensive line that Najie Harris inherited
in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah. Absolutely, Like that's the thing with Naji that's so different,
not just like na she was a first round pick,
so like he comes in in the pedigree is way
higher than Caleb Johnson, and Nagy goes right to the
top of the depth chart. But there was no one here.
It was Benny Snell or naj Hair right.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
There was no Jallien warn behind me.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Right, And that's a huge advantage that Caleb Johnson has.
And I say advantage because some people will be like, well,
what do you mean he's gonna take cares of him,
be like, it'll be easier for a young player in
this league to break in, to not have to just
be that guy right away. And he's a third round pick,
Like he's not a first round Ezekiel Elliott type of
player where it's like, yeah, draft him and he's he's
(18:48):
already ready for the NFL to get you know, four
hundred carries in a season. That's not who he is yet.
You you want to be able to exercise the ability
to bring him along, not slowly because by week in
week one you're gonna see him have impact, but bring
him along with a tandem, bring him along with a
kind of a one A and one B mentality with
(19:09):
Jalen Warren, if you have the ability to do that.
Didn't have the ability to do that with Naji. It
had to be all nause right away. And then Jalen
Warren revealed himself as an undrafted free agent. And then
the offensive line too, is just a lot more established
with pedigree and potential than the offensive line that Naji
Harris started behind. And you know, I'm not trying to
(19:32):
say that a running back because we've seen Josh Jacobs
and Saquon Barkley and Derek Henry now go to different
teams in their kind of it works second phase of
their career and they're great. But there is a select
few I think that can do that. Man, Like, you
want a running back to come out as a rookie
and bang like be like maybe have one of his
best years as his rookie year or in his second
(19:53):
year of the NFL in Nause. I don't think it's
ever really given the full ability to do that, because
he was spectacular at breaking Town early on, and when
the league first got a look at him, it was like, well,
this guy is tough. You know, he's got speed, he's power,
he's he's an interesting BacT angry. He was always doing
that just to get back to the line of scrimmage
or just to get two or three yards and grind
and grind and grind and grind and grind. So I
(20:17):
want to see Caleb Johnson, you know, come out as
a rookie and have that you know, wow, one hundred
yard game in his first four games, you know, just
really have an impact like that, because you I think
at the rookie position, at the running back position, I
think you can see that from rookies more than a
lot of other positions. Maybe wide receivers like that too
in a lot of ways now, but I think you
(20:39):
can really see rookies just come in and have just
a solid, steady nine hundred type to a thousand yard
season right away in the NFL. If you have a
good line in front of him, and if you have
a good offensive mindset. So little bit of a bogeish
feeling on them on the running back room, but I'm
(21:00):
really high on it, and I'm excited to see how
this rookie is going to look and if the offensive
line plays well in Blossoms and the running backs are good,
and Warren and Johnson find a nice, good relationship between
each other, a nice balance between them, and it's very effective.
I mean, this team should, in all expectancy, put up points,
(21:25):
control the football, keep the defense on the sidelines for
extended period of times. To put it in a very
basic way, have a lot of success.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
I think they can. It's it's really hard for me
to look at this team at its base and let's
you know, let's just throw all potential outer ceilings and floors,
just look at the players on the roster and say, oh,
this team is going to just take a this team
is going to take a step back offensively. I just
don't see that happening. You get, you get younger at
(21:59):
running back, you get your offensive lineman gel together with
another year playing together. You get an upgrade at quarterback,
you get an addition to the tight end room a
significant one.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
You get an upgrade at wide receiver with the G George.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Pickens being replaced by DK Metcalf, and you take all
that into consideration. Look at last year. I don't know
how this offense can do worse, and they might not
do much better. Let's also like say this too. I mean,
we don't want to run away with expectations here. They
might not do that much better, but I would find
(22:36):
it very hard to see them going in the negative
direction compared.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
To twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Because you remember a year ago when we were saying,
oh well, the offensive line added Troy Futanu, and that.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Was before the injury.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Of course, they added Zach Frazier at center, which did
work out. Jalen Warren and Naji Harris are both health.
George Pickens is healthy. You have two quarterbacks that you
can use between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. You got
Pat Firm, you have Darnel Washington again. How can this
offense be any worse? And it, like I said, it
(23:13):
wasn't much better than it was in twenty twenty three
when it was Kenny Picking and Mason Rudolph.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And mister bisky.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
There were moments that looked better, like when Justin Fields
was doing Justin Fields positive things, but then you saw
him do Justin Fields negative things. There were moments when
Russell Wilson had that what five game winning streak, but
then it was followed by a four game losing streak
and a fifth when you.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Include the playoff loss.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
So there were flashes, but it wasn't consistent at really
any point over a long.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Stretch of last year.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
So I think my hope for the offense in twenty
twenty five is show us some consistency. Like you said,
the most important thing is get into that twenty four
to twenty five twenty six points per game range a
consistent week to week basis over the course of the
entire season. You don't have to score that every single week.
It'd be great if you did, but just show us
(24:08):
that you can do it more than what three times
per season like you did last year. Right, we know
the record the splits when the team scored twenty or
more points versus nineteen or fewer points when they scored
nineteen or few where they have like one or two
wins if they if they score more, they're fine because
their defense does enough to prevent another offense from scoring
(24:31):
that much. You remember all the only game that you
can really remember, the only two games that stick out
offensively were the games in Washington and the game in Cincinnati.
Besides that, there was really no there was nothing else
to point you would say, Wow, look at this offense,
Look what it can do on a weekly basis.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
It was just those two examples.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
So those were the peaks for sure. The Jets game
was fun too, like after that Rockies start like.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
They started, Yeah, I think I think that there they.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Said Beanye Bishop interceptions that really set them up well, And.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
I think that stuck out too, because that was Russ's
first game and so you just felt a shit.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Kind of it was kind of like you were That
was the game where you were like kind of going
up on the roller coaster. And then that Commander's game
and the Bengals just kind of reached that peak and
it was like wow. But then as soon as you
like I forgot what this was like to yeah, shoot
out like this, to go back and forth.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Was that Cincinnati game where they scored forty seven forty
eight points the last game they won on the year,
or maybe they won one more against Cleveland and that
was it.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I don't believe that that was the last game that
they won in the year. I'm having a little bit
of I think.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
They won the next week against Cleveland and it wasn't
It wasn't a great game either.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I know they had to win against the Ravens. That
wasn't a Picasso sandwich dion there in the Russell Wilson
era where they didn't score that many points. Yeah, just
got the dub at Akroscher Stadium.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
But no, they won one more game, and it was
that Cleveland game. That wasn't a given h But it
wasn't the Thursday night lost either. They they scored forty
four against Cincinnata, They played against Cleveland in Pittsburgh, and
then they lost their last four or.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Fifth including the fifth including the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
The Cleveland game in Pittsburgh was the first game without Pickens, right,
and they scored like a Van Jefferson touchdown or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Maybe.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, I mean, they scored twenty seven points in that game,
which seems high, especially if George Pickens was not out there.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
We didn't know yet what was to come. We thought
the offense was still just a Okay.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
There, yeah, yeah, I'm looking.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I mean, unless he just had a goose egg, there
is no there is no George Pickens on the statute
for that game.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Now that started his stretch of being out. So if,
like we said, the two things in the offensive side
of the ball that we have the most question marks
for the line the running backs if health permits, if
Rogers can just stay upright, and if he can really
fulfill that kind of far of arc. As far as
you go from the Packers to the Jets, the Jets washes.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Out, you laid down Minnesota Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, look, I know they don't have a Super Bowl,
but let's just stretch a little bit here for the
sake of the analogy. Okay, you go from the just
to a historic franchise like the Minnesota. I've been around
for ever, been in a ton of get to the game.
Always kind of good Minnesota like they oh yeah, they
always like you see those graphics, that's like most regular
(27:17):
season wins or regular season win percentage is now always
not even without Super Bowl. Just rank them all like
six or something like that. They're like, yeah, they win,
They're consistent pretty much for a franchise. We beat their
ass back in the seventies. So that's cool. I can
say all this stuff and feel good about it. Like, uh,
they have history of rich players like Tarkenton, Randy Moss,
(27:38):
the Purple People, Eaters like and now Rogers leaves the
Jets goes to historic franchise. They have the Super Bowls.
They have a bunch of historic players, like you know,
it's a cornerstone type of franchise, like always winning very consistently,
more so than even the Vikings who went on a
consistent You get where I'm going with this, like, maybe
(27:59):
we can catch a little bit of that magic and
maybe you can get yourself on a nice little.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Run and that can That doesn't have to be a
super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
That can just be getting into the playoffs, momentum, winning
a yeah game, getting that weight off your shoulder of oh,
you haven't won a playoff game, and however many years
going on a decade almost and then going into the
division round and being a real pain in the ass
to be for whoever is the Chiefs, the Ravens, whoever.
You walk into that stadium.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
And then you use that momentum not just for this season,
but for seasons to come. You say, hey, look at
what we did with this forty two year old quarterback,
but a great young defensive corps, a great young offensive corps.
Let's bring in the guy of the future and let's
trade up and.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Get a quarterback. Yeah, and let's try to convince Aaron
to come back.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah one more year.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Let's try to say, hey, Rogers, one more ride. And
I think that that can absolutely work.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
You don't have to you don't have to win the
Super Bowl for the season to be a success.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Absolutely. We will continue to talk about this on the
defensive side of the ball, the bogie's on that side,
the potential ones. Also talk of course about TJ. Watt
because that's never going away, and we're getting close to
that next point, right, that next kind of point on
the calendar where you're like, will a deal come? So
we'll talk about that next on the Steelers Standards, Steelers
Audio Network, the Steelers Nation Radio
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