July 17, 2025 • 28 mins
Aaron Rodgers’ talent is unquestionable, but what tangible impact could he have on the success of the offense and as a result, how far can he take the Steelers into the postseason.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Impact. We're gonna talk about Impact, baby.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
That was an impactful opening line.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Have you ever seen the movie Deep Impact? No, it's
a real movie. It's not a I've heard of it
that you might think it is. So in the nineties,
two movies came out, literally like at the same time,
in the same Armageddon Deep Impact, and they were the
same exact movies basically. I mean Armagedon was better Bruce Willis,
(00:41):
ben A Flack, Owen Wilson flying up, of people flying
up into space, putting a nuke in a and an
asteroid in saving the Earth. And then Deep Impact was
the same premise astroid was coming to kill the Earth,
and they like ran and there were some decent people
on that one too, and they just ran parallel with
each other.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I love when that happens.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Like any given year you could have two of the
exact same movie movie come out.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Like there was another one of those was whenever they
had that run of the the President and the White House.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, it's like a white House down.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And what was the other one, Olympus Fall olymp Yes,
that's the same movie.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, exact same. How about it's.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Weird that it happens like that and I always like
to pick which one, like I'm I'm an olympus has
following guy Gerard Butler. I think that one's better.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
The one that always comes to mind for me is
in the nineties, late nineties Animated Ants versus a Bugs Life,
same movie, exact same movie.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I'm more of a bugs life guy. That Yeah, I
lean towards bugs Life. But anyway, we're talking about impact
because on ESPN yesterday, Peter schreg Or Shreggy Shregs he
listed his five most impactful moves of the off season
for the NFL. And I'm not gonna lie to you.
Numbers five, three, and two. I don't even remember. I
(01:57):
don't even retain which ones they were because there I
just don't care that. I don't want to look it
up right now. But number four and number one had
to do with your Pittsburgh Steelers. Do you care to
venture I guess which one was number four and which
one was number one, and I'll you know what, I'll
give you a hint, so you're not spinning wheels. It
was not the most recent trade.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So number one is Rogers. That's right, Yeah, that was
an easy one, and it's.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Not it's not the Ramsey and Johnny Smith trade the
acquisition of DK. Metcalf was his number one.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Four acquisition of DK.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And number four most impactful move of this offseason. So
the Pittsburgh Steelers are checking in at two out of
his five. I think Peter Schrager knows a thing or
two about football and it's pretty plugged in, So unlike
some people that might be on that get up stage,
I don't take his opinion with the grain of salt.
And I think the Rogers one is very obvious. And
(02:51):
you know what, sure it's coming back to me now
because I was going to go down this path of
he's the quarterback, it's the Steelers like that's the second one,
and quarterbacks can directly impact teams more than anybody else.
Number two was Donald to Seattle was his number quarterback
because that if you're just going based on like, okay,
(03:12):
who can have the most potential impact, it's obviously the
top two quarterbacks that moved this offseason. They touched the
ball every play, They control everything that has to do
with the offense.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
This is trades.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
There's just moves any season acquisitions, trades, free agents, anything
like that.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Because I guess like a transition from one quarterback to
another like Kirk to Penix could.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Be a big one.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Two games last year.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, Gino Smith, this is a player playing for the
first time.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Gino Smith, I believe might have been on that list
as well, going to the Raiders. Don't quote me on
that one, but it could have been, because that's got
impact too.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Honestly, all five spots could have been quarterback moves of
some sort, whether it's drafting a guy.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
No drafting. Drafting wasn't so you couldn't go with any
of the rookies. There was that Kama. Yeah, these are
already NFL players, got it that were on the move.
But DK it four and Aaron at one. And it's
so funny that he lists those two as the top
five but also as the two Steelers ones that are
the most impactful because they're so intertwined like they are,
(04:16):
their impact is reliant on each other.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And the offense rules the NFL. If it was something
like a TJ.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Water Miles Garrett, like you remember when Miles Garrett was
doing his hold down saying I need the most money,
but I don't want to play in Cleveland. I'm My
goal wasn't to come to Cleveland when a Super Bowl.
My goal was to win a super Bowl, no matter where.
And then he like two weeks later, if Garrett had
signed somewhere, I bet you Garrett would have made that list.
But no offense to Jalen Ramsey, no offense to John
hu Smith, no offense to Mega Fitzpatrick. I don't think
(04:44):
they have anymore, at least for Minka and Jalen specifically,
they don't have that name weight to them that at
the moment a TJ.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Water or Miles Garrett has currently.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
No, they don't, and they do have name way to them,
but not I don't think to the extent of like
a in his prime star in Earlier.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
This week, we just did that list of the top
twenty five players of the last twenty five years, and
someone put Garrett and Watt on that lay list.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
But talking about it from the perspective of the two
people that actually did move, you know, offense does drive
the bus. DK's in his prime and Aaron Rodgers is
four time MVP in a Hall of Fame quarterback guaranteed
first ballot whenever he decides to retire, and that clock
starts to tick for him, So you know, I see
how it's easy to label those as impact full moves
(05:37):
and ones that when you look at it in the
scope of the NFL is number one and number four
on the landscape. But that doesn't belittle the impact that
I think the John new Smith and the Jalen Ramsey
acquisition make as well, because again, no offense to Jalen Ramsey,
(05:58):
great player, he's probably rapping on the doors to Canton
right now. But the John new Smith part of that
is another is the one area that I'm honestly more
excited for and I think will potentially yield more important
impact for the Steelers team because it is all about
(06:18):
getting that offense closer to what that defense has been
over the past few years. And you know, you've had
different components over the past couple of years as you
try to get that offense going right, Like you've obviously
switched out the quarterbacks a lot and never had anybody
really stick. You discovered a Jalen Warren, you get a
(06:41):
Calvin Austin to break out last year, but it's it's
not drastic change really aside from the quarterback position. Now
you continue to change the quarterback, but you got a
rookie running back in there. You've got now John new
Smith and DK Metcalf, So that's too legitimate, big time
pass catching threats that weren't there in the previous years
that are there now. On top of Rogers, you have
(07:04):
actually been extremely active in making change a thing on
that offensive side of the ball, and it's all in
the effort to get that unit, to get that side
of the football kind of up to speed up to
the level. Maybe not the level, because you want the
level of the defense to be top three, and I
don't think the Steelers offense will be top three, but
(07:25):
you want it to be complimentary. You want it to
be at least you know, oh, if we have the
number two defense in the NFL, we have the number
fourteen offense in the NFL, or that's nirteen off in
the NFL way, it should be more than enough to
win ten games, to win eleven games, getting the playoffs,
and probably put up a better fight in the playoffs.
So yeah, all of the impact coming on the offensive
(07:47):
side of the ball for the Steelers this offseason, I
buy into that completely. Again, Jalen Ramsey is gonna have himself,
I think, a really good year and make a lot
of plays for the Steelers defensively, but sticking with d
K and Aaron, which was named on the National TV
as two of the five most impactful moves with Aaron Rodgers,
(08:08):
you know what kind of impact can he have on
this team? And he's not going to be in his prime,
but I still think he's going to have the most
arm talent you've seen before Ben's elbow blew out, and
at forty one years old, I do genuinely believe that
he is better than Ben post elbow and is better
(08:30):
than Pickett, Trubisky, Rudolph Fields, Wilson as far as his
arm talent is concerned. Like, I still think he can
zip that ball around. So I think that that's one
of the obvious areas of impact that you can see
from Rogers right away. It's just like the arm talent
(08:53):
is going to be at a level that we haven't
seen for half a decade now.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
And I think a lot of people who are calling
these Steelers out, or people on Stealers Nation Radio on
the Steelers Audio Network out for saying, well, of course
you're saying that, but you were saying the same thing
about Russell Wilson last year.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But you were a year ago, you were right because
you had.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
No Aaron Rodgers, So there was no reason for us
to believe that we weren't that we were lying to
the public by saying, well, Russell Wilson is going to
be the most impactful quarterback the Steelers have had since
Big Ben because there was no one else following him.
Right now that you have Aaron Rodgers, now you can
say for sure he's going to be more impactful than
Russell Wilson. But that isn't to say that we were
(09:33):
wrong to believe that Russell Wilson could have made.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
An impact last year.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Aaron Rodgers, like you said, four time MVP, Super Bowl Champion,
Hall of Famer, locked in one of maybe the top
ten greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. There, it'd
be foolish of us to say, well, you should probably
wait to gauge how impactful Aaron Rodgers can be compared
to what Russell Wilson. No, Aaron Rodgers is going to
be going to have a greater impact than Russell Wilson
(10:00):
did last year. And I'm with you, Tom, like I
feel like his floor and given the team the offense
that's been built up around him, his floor can't be
worse than middle of the pack, And yeah, middle of
the pack isn't sexy er. It isn't ringing alarms for
everyone saying look look out for the Steelers offense. They're
(10:23):
about to be a huge force to be reckoned with
this year. But if you pair it with how successful
the defense can be as well.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And I think you think they're going to be markedly
better this year. The offense.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, again, we're just asking you to be better than
you were last year, which isn't asking for much. Last
year really reached a cratering point by the end of
the season, by the playoff game, when they were just
incapable of moving down the field effectively and putting up
points consistently. So it's not really asking for you to
(10:56):
be a night and day difference. It's just asking you
to be better. And given the moves, like you said,
the impact moves is bringing in a new quarterback, bringing
in a star wide receiver, one using your draft capital
on a younger and talented running back, it'd be hard
to imagine. It'd be hard to predict that this offense
would take a step backwards backwards from where it was last.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I agree it's not this drastic, but it reminds me
of a few years ago when the running game was
the worst in the NFL. Yeah, and we were like,
well it can't go anywhere right but up, Yeah, and
it did a good mount that next year. They because
you brought a NAUSEI hates it got towards the middle
of the pack more. And it wasn't just like an
arbitrary well we went from thirty two to thirty one,
like it was really improved. But we would joke about
(11:39):
that going into that season. And again, it's not that
drastic because the offense wasn't that bad last year, Like
this was not the worst offense in football. But I
do agree that you just look at all the components
and that damn thing that hangs over your head of
health always being a factor. But you know, if you
just go in and think that things will be relatively healthy,
it's hard to imagine it playing out with them being
(12:01):
much worse because I know they're the second oldest team
in the NFL, and Rogers.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Is leading because it has a big weight to that.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Him and Cam. I mean, those guys are just but
they're also in Cam's case and all Pro still and
Rogers case still a really good mid at least above
half of the league quarterback like, so they're.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Still He's only what two or three years separated from
his most recent MVP season.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
But like the guys like three or four and Metcalf
are old because they're in the NFL. They veterans, but
they're not angel They got two or three more years
left in the town. They the frame. Yeah, they're on
the right side of thirty, so they still have prime
years in front of them. John new Smith's case, sometimes
tight ends are a little bit of a late bloomer.
Maybe John new Smith has a little bit of a
(12:47):
late blossom of his career where it's not in his
early to mid twenties that he's great, but it's in
his late to mid thirties or late to early thirties
that he really puts up potentially all Pro numbers, Pro
Bowl numbers, maybe flirst within a thousand yard season as
a tight end. I don't know, but I'd love to
talk that into existence. So I think that, yeah, they're older,
(13:10):
but these guys can still, the theme of the episode,
make a ton of impact in making that offense better
than it was a year ago. And not significantly so
to where you're in the top you know three in
the league, but significantly so to where it's just a
noticeable difference week in and week out. You're scoring in
the twenties most of the time, and it's not this
(13:30):
sense of if there's a slow start and the other
team gets another a ten point lead on you, where
you're like, this is gonna be tough to come back from.
You think the offense can wake up and start scoring
some points in games. So with Rogers and that just
pure arm talent, that's I think at the top of
(13:52):
the list obviously what impact he has. And then the
second one is you saw a little bit of this
last year with Russell Wilson, but Rogers is going to
fill a leadership void and it'll be done in a
much different way than Russell. And I gotta be honest
with you and listen, you're gonna say that I'm being
a hypocrite, and you're absolutely right. But Russell Wilson was
(14:14):
my eye last year, so I defend him. But I
have to imagine that adults much more would gravitate towards
the Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Method of keeping it real. Keeping.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, one hundred percent, Like we can open up a
meeting and not be like everything's great, like the sun
came out, it's beautiful, We're gonna win games. We can
open up a meeting and be like we sucked the
other day, like it was bad out there. Did you
see the clip from quarterback with Joe Burrow on the
sideline when they won that game again against Tennessee but
they were awful they.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
U and Zach Taylor, the head coach, was trying to
console him on the sidelines on the bench, saying like, bro,
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Like we won? They won the game.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Shows as ever you need that leadership. Sometimes I think
it can't always be like everything is great and trying
to can't.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Just like skirt by by the skin of your teeth.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
You can't always be like we suck, like you have
to have moments too where it's like, guys, perfect game,
like we executed practice, were out there, it was it
was it flowed easily, like defense balled out. Like you
gotta have those moments too. But that's part of what
you just said. He keeps it real more like I
think that is what I think will kind of resonate
better because we all know what Cam Hayward looks like
coming off that field after that Bengals game, he looked
(15:26):
dejected like Rogers, I think would be different from Russell
Weather there where he wouldn't even say a damn thing.
And then maybe later he go out and be like, yeah,
we've been sucking. Huh, like you just being like it's
you can't pretend these are adults. These aren't high school
kids anymore where you can be like it's all about
just getting off that pavement and picking your chin up
and going forward and winning that next game. Like, yeah,
(15:48):
that still applies, but they know that already because they're
professional athletes. It can get a little bit wearisome, I
think when you're in the stretch of bad play and
someone's being too overly positive. So I think he obviously,
and again credit to Russ, he did fill that void
that they desperately needed field last year, that leadership void
(16:10):
that was happening on the offensive side of the ball
and really on the team more so on the offensive
side of the ball though, and you need that quarterback
to kind of just be the captain, and they did
get that, But I think you're gonna get it in
a much better way with Rogers, and then furthermore again
not to just keep kind of poop pooing on Russ.
I think we saw and we said this when Russ
(16:33):
came in mentally, he was playing the game at a
level that we hadn't seen since men. He could process defenses,
he could, you know, audible the line of scrimmage. That
first game against the Jets, he came to the line
of scrimmage right away and it just looked so different
from the past couple of years, and including fields where
he just was like immediately like check jigg like hitting
(16:56):
his helmet and pointing at a guy like it just
looked like he was conducted ding the symphony, you know
what I mean. And you're gonna get that to the
next level with Rogers because as cerebral as Russell Wilson
is and as diagnosed the defense as he is a
lot of his stuff too, came from you know, rolling
out improvising, like that's what danger Russ Wilson was like
(17:19):
in his prime, where Rogers is just one of the
most surgical quarterbacks you've seen in the NFL and truly
has that Peyton Manning Tom Brady motor in his head
where it's like a lot of the times, I know
who's open before the snap even happens. A lot of
the times, I know what the defense is gonna do
(17:40):
before maybe they even know what they're gonna do, because
you know, it's based off reaction. Like it's like I
know what they're in and we're doing this, so that
safety's gonna run over there when he sees that route
run and now I know that that's gonna be wide open.
Like he he is a guy that came into the
league first of all with that kind of arch type
(18:01):
of quarterback, right like his highly intelligent field general type
of guy, and it didn't take long for him to
click in and become one of the most cerebral quarterbacks
in the NFL. Now he's forty one, so now he's
like that guy who's he's like a professor almost at
this point. He's written sixteers, like he's he's been published
eighteen different times in Magnet. Like he just is like
(18:24):
almost to take a chess term, a grand master, you
know what I mean, Like they just are on a
different level. The Brady's, the Rogers, the Mannings of the world,
and he's absolutely in that class. And look Mahomes is
smart too, don't get me wrong. Like he knows what
he's doing with life. There's a lot of improvisation in Mahomes'
(18:45):
game too, though, would you agree with me, Like there's
a lot of like, oh, this broke down, I'm gonna
just be an athlete and throw the ball sidear him
and make it happen. Don't get me wrong, Mahomes one
of the smartest quarterbacks of course, and he's cerebral. Rogers
is just different and right now, pound for pound, he's
probably the smartest quarterback as far as believe. I'll throw
one out at you, who's smart to Dak Prescott is
(19:07):
another quarterback that's kind of he doesn't get this. What's improvise, improversed?
What's improvised about his game? Right? Like his game is
very like on time, like cirt like CDs here, like
get the ball out.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
He's a scrambler.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
He can get out of trouble. But it's not about like,
it's more about pre snap with him. And that was
on display against the Steelers last year when he conducted
that game. When he drive, he just went right down
the field. It's funny. Dak Prescott is an underrated quarterback,
but not because he should be considered like, oh great,
(19:41):
he should just be considered like where he is, but
everybody just trashes him.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
And if he was, I mean, it could be other
than Dallas and New York.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
He can probablywhere he'd be treated like a Kirk Cousins
or something. Just a guy who puts good numbers and
like just can't win big games.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Like Dak has done really well, really well sorry in
Dallas because he's had talented people around him like Zeke
and now he's had.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
CD for a while.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
But if you were to throw him, for example, in Minnesota,
where he had Justin Jefferson and all the Adam feeling
and whoever else.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Lovable, I bet yeah, people would have liked him. Okay,
another one, and he's in your division. Who is kind
of like that?
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I was gonna say, Joe, I thought that was the
example you read.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That should have been the one I went with, because
he's kind of like the Rogers type where he could
blossom into really being just someone that is just it's
a it's a super brain. It's an AI computer that
you're basically playing and.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You see and like you just see it week after week.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
He he can actually do both, I think, which is
why Joe was so great. Well that can be calculated,
but he is so good on his feet.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That's what Rogers was. That's why right when he was
a superhero, that's what he could do too. And Joe's
got that to him too, Like he's not only able
to know what you're doing before you're doing it, but
he's also the best athlete or one of them on
the field and his arm is goaling. So yeah, I mean,
it's a very small class in that class of Rogers,
(21:07):
and Rogers is the head of the class. He's the
one that's still up at the board, like he's still
teaching Joe Burrow. If this is like in the classroom,
like Joe Burrow is the star pupil, but he's not
at the chalkboard yet. Given the lessons. So there's three real,
i think obvious areas of impact that you're just gonna
see Rogers be able to bring to this team that
will lead them to better places ultimately lead them to
(21:30):
the playoff win. And that's really what if Rogers and
we'll get to DK in a minute or maybe in
the next episode, if we run up against the time
wise but if if Rogers has impact that deems him
the number one most impactful acquisition, if he proves Schrager correct,
then it comes to the playoff win.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Exactly that that comes with a minimum of ten wins.
I would say maybe even in a run of the division,
depending on how well Snawny and Baltimore do, you could
even say you're gonna get You're gonna.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Get wins against those teams.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You could even say forget the win total. Who can
if you're sneaking at nine and eight, if you get
ten eleven, we.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Has a playoff.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, you got a playoff game. It's a playoff, that's.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
What because that is where the impact exactly, that's where
impact is made.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
That's where impact is felt the most is in the postseason.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And I think that you know, people are often looking
at the moves that the Steelers made right now and
trying to kind of make heads or tails of it.
And you know, there's been this They're going all in
type of narrative that has been put out there, and
I kind of do understand what people are saying because
the making a lot of moves and a lot of
high profile moves, but they're not like giving up the
(22:41):
future to do it, which is it's unique about it.
They didn't pay Rogers a ton of money, they didn't
give up a ton of draft bricks. They did hand
out contract to DK Metcalf and they did hand out
but that was a nice little extension or contract to
Jalen Ray.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Be kind of silly not to have done that.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
No, I agree. And since you're not paying George, you
have any for a receiver extension available to You're not
paying your quarterback either, so you have some money to
spend and so it just made a lot of sense
to throw it to someone like DK. Yeah, so I
get kind of why people are like, oh, they're going
all in. I do, But at the same time, like
you have to have a sense of you're going to
(23:19):
lose it all when you go all in, right, that's
poker like. If you're all in, it's a boom or
bust thing. This is not a boom or bust. This
is a boom and wow, this went really well. We
want a playoff game or the bust is the same old,
same old stuff that we've seen. But we also have
our chance to pick our quarterback next year, and we
have kind of a nice nest built with the line.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, k it's a low risk, high reward.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So there is no I think as far as the
true nature of going all in is concerned, I've Ben
says I agree with that, Like, it's not the case
because you're not risking really much of your future here.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's not like what Denver did in order to require
Rus will Well a couple of years back. I remember
they traded like three four first round draft picks.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
There's said a lot of examples of that Philly when
they went and got Vic and got all the other
Like they grabbed a bunch of players. They were like
the super team in filod Ever, they didn't win anything,
but like you also risked and you gave up a
lot of draft capital. The Rams went all in to
win a super Bowl and they did it, and they won,
and they got their chips back, and now they have
a very high healthy.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
They might even be just as a team more like
complete teams as.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Far as like a superstar led team. Yeah, I agree
with that actually, like it's more of a nameless kind
of thing in LA. Now. Stafford's still obviously.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Right, He's the one piece. I mean, Donald's not there,
anybody it used to be.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Donald Beckham, Stafford Ramsey. It was just a lot of
Von Miller. It was just superstars, like.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
But now you have a lot of guys who are stars,
but you have a lot just more complete pieces surrounding
those guys as well. Yeah, it's crazy what the Rams
have done in such a short turnaround.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And so you know, the Steelers they're not, you know,
all in. But I also hear a lot of people say, well,
they can't win a Super Bowl, so are they doing
all this just to win a playoff game? And I think,
I think, yes, it like ish because I do believe
that they are tired of hearing about the fact that
they haven't won a playoff game in as long as
they have, and they're tired themselves of not having won
(25:20):
a playoff game and as long as they have, and
you know, I think they'll say, like the goal is
always with the Steelers is we're going to win a
super Bowl, And that's what they will say, and that's
what they was. The ultimate goal of these moves was
to lead us to a playoff run in a super Bowl.
And that's fine for them to say that out loud,
but I think deep down it really is just a
(25:40):
driving motivation to get that first step. We talked about
it last year all the time. Let's take baby steps first,
like let's just get because there was excitement when the
Steelers ten and three last year they could go on
a run, and I was like, yeah, they could, but
let's win a playoff game first, Like, let's take our
first baby step again, let's remember, let's remember how to
walk again before we run a little bit. And I
(26:01):
kind of feel like, even though you know out loud,
they'll say we're going on a round, go to Super Bowl,
and it's the right thing to say. Every team should
have that mindset. So I Steelers are one of the
greatest franchises ever. They always have that mindset externally.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
They never drop it there.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
But I think internally, it's more like a let's make
these moves, let's win a damn playoff game, because you
can't do the thing that we're saying we want to
do without that first step. And these moves might not
lead to going into Buffalo and slaying him, and then
going into Cincinnati and slaying him, and then going into
Kansas City and slaying him, and oh my god, we're
in the super Bowl. All of a sudden, but it
(26:33):
might lead to going into Cincinnati and slaying him and
then putting up a competition, competitive game against Buffalo, losing
by like a field goal or something like that. And now,
all of a sudden, you feel like there is momentum
moving forward and it feels like a different season and
there is a different stench on the Steelers. It's not
oh easy easy for the first round team who drew
(26:54):
the Steelers. It's that's the Steelers. We remember upset Joe
Burrow and Cincinnati and then really make Josh Allen sweat
it out to get to his ultimate matchup with that,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Like, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but
this team, if they're playing this season, I can't say smart,
but if things go their way, like you say, the
defense carries it with a top three unit and Aaron
Rodgers is Aaron Rodgers enough to make this offense capable
(27:26):
of being a good, good partner to the defense, they
could upset more than one team in the playoffs. I
hate to get really ahead of myself and run away
with expectations here, but they could find their way in
one of those Cinderella situations.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
But here's the thing. They haven't allowed themselves to get
in those situations. Yeah, let's pick up there in the
next episode and we'll go talking to dk Metf and
him that he's gonna bring two. But yes, they haven't
allowed themselves to be that Cinderella in these playoff games recently,
and that needs to change. He's Jacob Brect. I'm Tom Opferman.
You're listening to the Steelers Standard on Steelers Nation Radio
(28:03):
and the Steelers Audio Network.
Impact. We're gonna talk about Impact, baby.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
That was an impactful opening line.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Have you ever seen the movie Deep Impact? No, it's
a real movie. It's not a I've heard of it
that you might think it is. So in the nineties,
two movies came out, literally like at the same time,
in the same Armageddon Deep Impact, and they were the
same exact movies basically. I mean Armagedon was better Bruce Willis,
(00:41):
ben A Flack, Owen Wilson flying up, of people flying
up into space, putting a nuke in a and an
asteroid in saving the Earth. And then Deep Impact was
the same premise astroid was coming to kill the Earth,
and they like ran and there were some decent people
on that one too, and they just ran parallel with
each other.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I love when that happens.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Like any given year you could have two of the
exact same movie movie come out.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Like there was another one of those was whenever they
had that run of the the President and the White House.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, it's like a white House down.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And what was the other one, Olympus Fall olymp Yes,
that's the same movie.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, exact same. How about it's.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Weird that it happens like that and I always like
to pick which one, like I'm I'm an olympus has
following guy Gerard Butler. I think that one's better.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
The one that always comes to mind for me is
in the nineties, late nineties Animated Ants versus a Bugs Life,
same movie, exact same movie.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I'm more of a bugs life guy. That Yeah, I
lean towards bugs Life. But anyway, we're talking about impact
because on ESPN yesterday, Peter schreg Or Shreggy Shregs he
listed his five most impactful moves of the off season
for the NFL. And I'm not gonna lie to you.
Numbers five, three, and two. I don't even remember. I
(01:57):
don't even retain which ones they were because there I
just don't care that. I don't want to look it
up right now. But number four and number one had
to do with your Pittsburgh Steelers. Do you care to
venture I guess which one was number four and which
one was number one, and I'll you know what, I'll
give you a hint, so you're not spinning wheels. It
was not the most recent trade.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So number one is Rogers. That's right, Yeah, that was
an easy one, and it's.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Not it's not the Ramsey and Johnny Smith trade the
acquisition of DK. Metcalf was his number one.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Four acquisition of DK.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And number four most impactful move of this offseason. So
the Pittsburgh Steelers are checking in at two out of
his five. I think Peter Schrager knows a thing or
two about football and it's pretty plugged in, So unlike
some people that might be on that get up stage,
I don't take his opinion with the grain of salt.
And I think the Rogers one is very obvious. And
(02:51):
you know what, sure it's coming back to me now
because I was going to go down this path of
he's the quarterback, it's the Steelers like that's the second one,
and quarterbacks can directly impact teams more than anybody else.
Number two was Donald to Seattle was his number quarterback
because that if you're just going based on like, okay,
(03:12):
who can have the most potential impact, it's obviously the
top two quarterbacks that moved this offseason. They touched the
ball every play, They control everything that has to do
with the offense.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
This is trades.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
There's just moves any season acquisitions, trades, free agents, anything
like that.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Because I guess like a transition from one quarterback to
another like Kirk to Penix could.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Be a big one.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Two games last year.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, Gino Smith, this is a player playing for the
first time.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Gino Smith, I believe might have been on that list
as well, going to the Raiders. Don't quote me on
that one, but it could have been, because that's got
impact too.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Honestly, all five spots could have been quarterback moves of
some sort, whether it's drafting a guy.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
No drafting. Drafting wasn't so you couldn't go with any
of the rookies. There was that Kama. Yeah, these are
already NFL players, got it that were on the move.
But DK it four and Aaron at one. And it's
so funny that he lists those two as the top
five but also as the two Steelers ones that are
the most impactful because they're so intertwined like they are,
(04:16):
their impact is reliant on each other.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And the offense rules the NFL. If it was something
like a TJ.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Water Miles Garrett, like you remember when Miles Garrett was
doing his hold down saying I need the most money,
but I don't want to play in Cleveland. I'm My
goal wasn't to come to Cleveland when a Super Bowl.
My goal was to win a super Bowl, no matter where.
And then he like two weeks later, if Garrett had
signed somewhere, I bet you Garrett would have made that list.
But no offense to Jalen Ramsey, no offense to John
hu Smith, no offense to Mega Fitzpatrick. I don't think
(04:44):
they have anymore, at least for Minka and Jalen specifically,
they don't have that name weight to them that at
the moment a TJ.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Water or Miles Garrett has currently.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
No, they don't, and they do have name way to them,
but not I don't think to the extent of like
a in his prime star in Earlier.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
This week, we just did that list of the top
twenty five players of the last twenty five years, and
someone put Garrett and Watt on that lay list.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
But talking about it from the perspective of the two
people that actually did move, you know, offense does drive
the bus. DK's in his prime and Aaron Rodgers is
four time MVP in a Hall of Fame quarterback guaranteed
first ballot whenever he decides to retire, and that clock
starts to tick for him, So you know, I see
how it's easy to label those as impact full moves
(05:37):
and ones that when you look at it in the
scope of the NFL is number one and number four
on the landscape. But that doesn't belittle the impact that
I think the John new Smith and the Jalen Ramsey
acquisition make as well, because again, no offense to Jalen Ramsey,
(05:58):
great player, he's probably rapping on the doors to Canton
right now. But the John new Smith part of that
is another is the one area that I'm honestly more
excited for and I think will potentially yield more important
impact for the Steelers team because it is all about
(06:18):
getting that offense closer to what that defense has been
over the past few years. And you know, you've had
different components over the past couple of years as you
try to get that offense going right, Like you've obviously
switched out the quarterbacks a lot and never had anybody
really stick. You discovered a Jalen Warren, you get a
(06:41):
Calvin Austin to break out last year, but it's it's
not drastic change really aside from the quarterback position. Now
you continue to change the quarterback, but you got a
rookie running back in there. You've got now John new
Smith and DK Metcalf, So that's too legitimate, big time
pass catching threats that weren't there in the previous years
that are there now. On top of Rogers, you have
(07:04):
actually been extremely active in making change a thing on
that offensive side of the ball, and it's all in
the effort to get that unit, to get that side
of the football kind of up to speed up to
the level. Maybe not the level, because you want the
level of the defense to be top three, and I
don't think the Steelers offense will be top three, but
(07:25):
you want it to be complimentary. You want it to
be at least you know, oh, if we have the
number two defense in the NFL, we have the number
fourteen offense in the NFL, or that's nirteen off in
the NFL way, it should be more than enough to
win ten games, to win eleven games, getting the playoffs,
and probably put up a better fight in the playoffs.
So yeah, all of the impact coming on the offensive
(07:47):
side of the ball for the Steelers this offseason, I
buy into that completely. Again, Jalen Ramsey is gonna have himself,
I think, a really good year and make a lot
of plays for the Steelers defensively, but sticking with d
K and Aaron, which was named on the National TV
as two of the five most impactful moves with Aaron Rodgers,
(08:08):
you know what kind of impact can he have on
this team? And he's not going to be in his prime,
but I still think he's going to have the most
arm talent you've seen before Ben's elbow blew out, and
at forty one years old, I do genuinely believe that
he is better than Ben post elbow and is better
(08:30):
than Pickett, Trubisky, Rudolph Fields, Wilson as far as his
arm talent is concerned. Like, I still think he can
zip that ball around. So I think that that's one
of the obvious areas of impact that you can see
from Rogers right away. It's just like the arm talent
(08:53):
is going to be at a level that we haven't
seen for half a decade now.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
And I think a lot of people who are calling
these Steelers out, or people on Stealers Nation Radio on
the Steelers Audio Network out for saying, well, of course
you're saying that, but you were saying the same thing
about Russell Wilson last year.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But you were a year ago, you were right because
you had.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
No Aaron Rodgers, So there was no reason for us
to believe that we weren't that we were lying to
the public by saying, well, Russell Wilson is going to
be the most impactful quarterback the Steelers have had since
Big Ben because there was no one else following him.
Right now that you have Aaron Rodgers, now you can
say for sure he's going to be more impactful than
Russell Wilson. But that isn't to say that we were
(09:33):
wrong to believe that Russell Wilson could have made.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
An impact last year.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Aaron Rodgers, like you said, four time MVP, Super Bowl Champion,
Hall of Famer, locked in one of maybe the top
ten greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. There, it'd
be foolish of us to say, well, you should probably
wait to gauge how impactful Aaron Rodgers can be compared
to what Russell Wilson. No, Aaron Rodgers is going to
be going to have a greater impact than Russell Wilson
(10:00):
did last year. And I'm with you, Tom, like I
feel like his floor and given the team the offense
that's been built up around him, his floor can't be
worse than middle of the pack, And yeah, middle of
the pack isn't sexy er. It isn't ringing alarms for
everyone saying look look out for the Steelers offense. They're
(10:23):
about to be a huge force to be reckoned with
this year. But if you pair it with how successful
the defense can be as well.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And I think you think they're going to be markedly
better this year. The offense.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, again, we're just asking you to be better than
you were last year, which isn't asking for much. Last
year really reached a cratering point by the end of
the season, by the playoff game, when they were just
incapable of moving down the field effectively and putting up
points consistently. So it's not really asking for you to
(10:56):
be a night and day difference. It's just asking you
to be better. And given the moves, like you said,
the impact moves is bringing in a new quarterback, bringing
in a star wide receiver, one using your draft capital
on a younger and talented running back, it'd be hard
to imagine. It'd be hard to predict that this offense
would take a step backwards backwards from where it was last.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I agree it's not this drastic, but it reminds me
of a few years ago when the running game was
the worst in the NFL. Yeah, and we were like,
well it can't go anywhere right but up, Yeah, and
it did a good mount that next year. They because
you brought a NAUSEI hates it got towards the middle
of the pack more. And it wasn't just like an
arbitrary well we went from thirty two to thirty one,
like it was really improved. But we would joke about
(11:39):
that going into that season. And again, it's not that
drastic because the offense wasn't that bad last year, Like
this was not the worst offense in football. But I
do agree that you just look at all the components
and that damn thing that hangs over your head of
health always being a factor. But you know, if you
just go in and think that things will be relatively healthy,
it's hard to imagine it playing out with them being
(12:01):
much worse because I know they're the second oldest team
in the NFL, and Rogers.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Is leading because it has a big weight to that.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Him and Cam. I mean, those guys are just but
they're also in Cam's case and all Pro still and
Rogers case still a really good mid at least above
half of the league quarterback like, so they're.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Still He's only what two or three years separated from
his most recent MVP season.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
But like the guys like three or four and Metcalf
are old because they're in the NFL. They veterans, but
they're not angel They got two or three more years
left in the town. They the frame. Yeah, they're on
the right side of thirty, so they still have prime
years in front of them. John new Smith's case, sometimes
tight ends are a little bit of a late bloomer.
Maybe John new Smith has a little bit of a
(12:47):
late blossom of his career where it's not in his
early to mid twenties that he's great, but it's in
his late to mid thirties or late to early thirties
that he really puts up potentially all Pro numbers, Pro
Bowl numbers, maybe flirst within a thousand yard season as
a tight end. I don't know, but I'd love to
talk that into existence. So I think that, yeah, they're older,
(13:10):
but these guys can still, the theme of the episode,
make a ton of impact in making that offense better
than it was a year ago. And not significantly so
to where you're in the top you know three in
the league, but significantly so to where it's just a
noticeable difference week in and week out. You're scoring in
the twenties most of the time, and it's not this
(13:30):
sense of if there's a slow start and the other
team gets another a ten point lead on you, where
you're like, this is gonna be tough to come back from.
You think the offense can wake up and start scoring
some points in games. So with Rogers and that just
pure arm talent, that's I think at the top of
(13:52):
the list obviously what impact he has. And then the
second one is you saw a little bit of this
last year with Russell Wilson, but Rogers is going to
fill a leadership void and it'll be done in a
much different way than Russell. And I gotta be honest
with you and listen, you're gonna say that I'm being
a hypocrite, and you're absolutely right. But Russell Wilson was
(14:14):
my eye last year, so I defend him. But I
have to imagine that adults much more would gravitate towards
the Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Method of keeping it real. Keeping.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, one hundred percent, Like we can open up a
meeting and not be like everything's great, like the sun
came out, it's beautiful, We're gonna win games. We can
open up a meeting and be like we sucked the
other day, like it was bad out there. Did you
see the clip from quarterback with Joe Burrow on the
sideline when they won that game again against Tennessee but
they were awful they.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
U and Zach Taylor, the head coach, was trying to
console him on the sidelines on the bench, saying like, bro,
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Like we won? They won the game.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Shows as ever you need that leadership. Sometimes I think
it can't always be like everything is great and trying
to can't.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Just like skirt by by the skin of your teeth.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
You can't always be like we suck, like you have
to have moments too where it's like, guys, perfect game,
like we executed practice, were out there, it was it
was it flowed easily, like defense balled out. Like you
gotta have those moments too. But that's part of what
you just said. He keeps it real more like I
think that is what I think will kind of resonate
better because we all know what Cam Hayward looks like
coming off that field after that Bengals game, he looked
(15:26):
dejected like Rogers, I think would be different from Russell
Weather there where he wouldn't even say a damn thing.
And then maybe later he go out and be like, yeah,
we've been sucking. Huh, like you just being like it's
you can't pretend these are adults. These aren't high school
kids anymore where you can be like it's all about
just getting off that pavement and picking your chin up
and going forward and winning that next game. Like, yeah,
(15:48):
that still applies, but they know that already because they're
professional athletes. It can get a little bit wearisome, I
think when you're in the stretch of bad play and
someone's being too overly positive. So I think he obviously,
and again credit to Russ, he did fill that void
that they desperately needed field last year, that leadership void
(16:10):
that was happening on the offensive side of the ball
and really on the team more so on the offensive
side of the ball though, and you need that quarterback
to kind of just be the captain, and they did
get that, But I think you're gonna get it in
a much better way with Rogers, and then furthermore again
not to just keep kind of poop pooing on Russ.
I think we saw and we said this when Russ
(16:33):
came in mentally, he was playing the game at a
level that we hadn't seen since men. He could process defenses,
he could, you know, audible the line of scrimmage. That
first game against the Jets, he came to the line
of scrimmage right away and it just looked so different
from the past couple of years, and including fields where
he just was like immediately like check jigg like hitting
(16:56):
his helmet and pointing at a guy like it just
looked like he was conducted ding the symphony, you know
what I mean. And you're gonna get that to the
next level with Rogers because as cerebral as Russell Wilson
is and as diagnosed the defense as he is a
lot of his stuff too, came from you know, rolling
out improvising, like that's what danger Russ Wilson was like
(17:19):
in his prime, where Rogers is just one of the
most surgical quarterbacks you've seen in the NFL and truly
has that Peyton Manning Tom Brady motor in his head
where it's like a lot of the times, I know
who's open before the snap even happens. A lot of
the times, I know what the defense is gonna do
(17:40):
before maybe they even know what they're gonna do, because
you know, it's based off reaction. Like it's like I
know what they're in and we're doing this, so that
safety's gonna run over there when he sees that route
run and now I know that that's gonna be wide open.
Like he he is a guy that came into the
league first of all with that kind of arch type
(18:01):
of quarterback, right like his highly intelligent field general type
of guy, and it didn't take long for him to
click in and become one of the most cerebral quarterbacks
in the NFL. Now he's forty one, so now he's
like that guy who's he's like a professor almost at
this point. He's written sixteers, like he's he's been published
eighteen different times in Magnet. Like he just is like
(18:24):
almost to take a chess term, a grand master, you
know what I mean, Like they just are on a
different level. The Brady's, the Rogers, the Mannings of the world,
and he's absolutely in that class. And look Mahomes is
smart too, don't get me wrong. Like he knows what
he's doing with life. There's a lot of improvisation in Mahomes'
(18:45):
game too, though, would you agree with me, Like there's
a lot of like, oh, this broke down, I'm gonna
just be an athlete and throw the ball sidear him
and make it happen. Don't get me wrong, Mahomes one
of the smartest quarterbacks of course, and he's cerebral. Rogers
is just different and right now, pound for pound, he's
probably the smartest quarterback as far as believe. I'll throw
one out at you, who's smart to Dak Prescott is
(19:07):
another quarterback that's kind of he doesn't get this. What's improvise, improversed?
What's improvised about his game? Right? Like his game is
very like on time, like cirt like CDs here, like
get the ball out.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
He's a scrambler.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
He can get out of trouble. But it's not about like,
it's more about pre snap with him. And that was
on display against the Steelers last year when he conducted
that game. When he drive, he just went right down
the field. It's funny. Dak Prescott is an underrated quarterback,
but not because he should be considered like, oh great,
(19:41):
he should just be considered like where he is, but
everybody just trashes him.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
And if he was, I mean, it could be other
than Dallas and New York.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
He can probablywhere he'd be treated like a Kirk Cousins
or something. Just a guy who puts good numbers and
like just can't win big games.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Like Dak has done really well, really well sorry in
Dallas because he's had talented people around him like Zeke
and now he's had.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
CD for a while.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
But if you were to throw him, for example, in Minnesota,
where he had Justin Jefferson and all the Adam feeling
and whoever else.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Lovable, I bet yeah, people would have liked him. Okay,
another one, and he's in your division. Who is kind
of like that?
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I was gonna say, Joe, I thought that was the
example you read.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That should have been the one I went with, because
he's kind of like the Rogers type where he could
blossom into really being just someone that is just it's
a it's a super brain. It's an AI computer that
you're basically playing and.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You see and like you just see it week after week.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
He he can actually do both, I think, which is
why Joe was so great. Well that can be calculated,
but he is so good on his feet.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That's what Rogers was. That's why right when he was
a superhero, that's what he could do too. And Joe's
got that to him too, Like he's not only able
to know what you're doing before you're doing it, but
he's also the best athlete or one of them on
the field and his arm is goaling. So yeah, I mean,
it's a very small class in that class of Rogers,
(21:07):
and Rogers is the head of the class. He's the
one that's still up at the board, like he's still
teaching Joe Burrow. If this is like in the classroom,
like Joe Burrow is the star pupil, but he's not
at the chalkboard yet. Given the lessons. So there's three real,
i think obvious areas of impact that you're just gonna
see Rogers be able to bring to this team that
will lead them to better places ultimately lead them to
(21:30):
the playoff win. And that's really what if Rogers and
we'll get to DK in a minute or maybe in
the next episode, if we run up against the time
wise but if if Rogers has impact that deems him
the number one most impactful acquisition, if he proves Schrager correct,
then it comes to the playoff win.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Exactly that that comes with a minimum of ten wins.
I would say maybe even in a run of the division,
depending on how well Snawny and Baltimore do, you could
even say you're gonna get You're gonna.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Get wins against those teams.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You could even say forget the win total. Who can
if you're sneaking at nine and eight, if you get
ten eleven, we.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Has a playoff.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, you got a playoff game. It's a playoff, that's.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
What because that is where the impact exactly, that's where
impact is made.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
That's where impact is felt the most is in the postseason.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And I think that you know, people are often looking
at the moves that the Steelers made right now and
trying to kind of make heads or tails of it.
And you know, there's been this They're going all in
type of narrative that has been put out there, and
I kind of do understand what people are saying because
the making a lot of moves and a lot of
high profile moves, but they're not like giving up the
(22:41):
future to do it, which is it's unique about it.
They didn't pay Rogers a ton of money, they didn't
give up a ton of draft bricks. They did hand
out contract to DK Metcalf and they did hand out
but that was a nice little extension or contract to
Jalen Ray.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Be kind of silly not to have done that.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
No, I agree. And since you're not paying George, you
have any for a receiver extension available to You're not
paying your quarterback either, so you have some money to
spend and so it just made a lot of sense
to throw it to someone like DK. Yeah, so I
get kind of why people are like, oh, they're going
all in. I do, But at the same time, like
you have to have a sense of you're going to
(23:19):
lose it all when you go all in, right, that's
poker like. If you're all in, it's a boom or
bust thing. This is not a boom or bust. This
is a boom and wow, this went really well. We
want a playoff game or the bust is the same old,
same old stuff that we've seen. But we also have
our chance to pick our quarterback next year, and we
have kind of a nice nest built with the line.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, k it's a low risk, high reward.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So there is no I think as far as the
true nature of going all in is concerned, I've Ben
says I agree with that, Like, it's not the case
because you're not risking really much of your future here.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's not like what Denver did in order to require
Rus will Well a couple of years back. I remember
they traded like three four first round draft picks.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
There's said a lot of examples of that Philly when
they went and got Vic and got all the other
Like they grabbed a bunch of players. They were like
the super team in filod Ever, they didn't win anything,
but like you also risked and you gave up a
lot of draft capital. The Rams went all in to
win a super Bowl and they did it, and they won,
and they got their chips back, and now they have
a very high healthy.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
They might even be just as a team more like
complete teams as.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Far as like a superstar led team. Yeah, I agree
with that actually, like it's more of a nameless kind
of thing in LA. Now. Stafford's still obviously.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Right, He's the one piece. I mean, Donald's not there,
anybody it used to be.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Donald Beckham, Stafford Ramsey. It was just a lot of
Von Miller. It was just superstars, like.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
But now you have a lot of guys who are stars,
but you have a lot just more complete pieces surrounding
those guys as well. Yeah, it's crazy what the Rams
have done in such a short turnaround.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And so you know, the Steelers they're not, you know,
all in. But I also hear a lot of people say, well,
they can't win a Super Bowl, so are they doing
all this just to win a playoff game? And I think,
I think, yes, it like ish because I do believe
that they are tired of hearing about the fact that
they haven't won a playoff game in as long as
they have, and they're tired themselves of not having won
(25:20):
a playoff game and as long as they have, and
you know, I think they'll say, like the goal is
always with the Steelers is we're going to win a
super Bowl, And that's what they will say, and that's
what they was. The ultimate goal of these moves was
to lead us to a playoff run in a super Bowl.
And that's fine for them to say that out loud,
but I think deep down it really is just a
(25:40):
driving motivation to get that first step. We talked about
it last year all the time. Let's take baby steps first,
like let's just get because there was excitement when the
Steelers ten and three last year they could go on
a run, and I was like, yeah, they could, but
let's win a playoff game first, Like, let's take our
first baby step again, let's remember, let's remember how to
walk again before we run a little bit. And I
(26:01):
kind of feel like, even though you know out loud,
they'll say we're going on a round, go to Super Bowl,
and it's the right thing to say. Every team should
have that mindset. So I Steelers are one of the
greatest franchises ever. They always have that mindset externally.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
They never drop it there.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
But I think internally, it's more like a let's make
these moves, let's win a damn playoff game, because you
can't do the thing that we're saying we want to
do without that first step. And these moves might not
lead to going into Buffalo and slaying him, and then
going into Cincinnati and slaying him, and then going into
Kansas City and slaying him, and oh my god, we're
in the super Bowl. All of a sudden, but it
(26:33):
might lead to going into Cincinnati and slaying him and
then putting up a competition, competitive game against Buffalo, losing
by like a field goal or something like that. And now,
all of a sudden, you feel like there is momentum
moving forward and it feels like a different season and
there is a different stench on the Steelers. It's not
oh easy easy for the first round team who drew
(26:54):
the Steelers. It's that's the Steelers. We remember upset Joe
Burrow and Cincinnati and then really make Josh Allen sweat
it out to get to his ultimate matchup with that,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Like, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but
this team, if they're playing this season, I can't say smart,
but if things go their way, like you say, the
defense carries it with a top three unit and Aaron
Rodgers is Aaron Rodgers enough to make this offense capable
(27:26):
of being a good, good partner to the defense, they
could upset more than one team in the playoffs. I
hate to get really ahead of myself and run away
with expectations here, but they could find their way in
one of those Cinderella situations.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
But here's the thing. They haven't allowed themselves to get
in those situations. Yeah, let's pick up there in the
next episode and we'll go talking to dk Metf and
him that he's gonna bring two. But yes, they haven't
allowed themselves to be that Cinderella in these playoff games recently,
and that needs to change. He's Jacob Brect. I'm Tom Opferman.
You're listening to the Steelers Standard on Steelers Nation Radio
(28:03):
and the Steelers Audio Network.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.