July 1, 2025 • 29 mins
Everyone is reacting to yesterday’s blockbuster trade involving the Steelers trading away Minkah Fitzpatrick to Miami in return for Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Well, I came back from vacation and I figured that
there's gonna be like, not that much to talk about.
I have so much Rogers takes that I baked up
over the week. Well you didn't miss much while you
were gone.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm dead, brother, It just all happened once you got back.
I'm a very big time professional, all right, and I'm
on the Mark Man Show.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I don't know if you've heard this before. I actually
did know, and it causes me crippling anxiety and even
when I'm on vaker Away, yeah you know.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, of course, of course this happens the week of
July fourth, when everybody is taking off. We kind of
waved the white flag off, including the morning shows, Mike Pursuita,
including the Blitz mo Are off all week.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I know, bro, it's wild and like I was ready
to wave the white flag on the week. Mark and
I were texting yesterday morning about these trades that broke,
and we were like, well, that just flushed our easy day.
Oh yeah, but hey, I'll take it because despite that
anxiety I felt on vacation with nothing going on in
the sports world and just being like, yeah, this show's
(01:13):
probably pretty boring for Mark right now, there's nothing happening.
Oh boy, did the floodgates open right now? I mean,
this is week's worth of content. My brother, you can
make this thing run for my dude.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
We are set for for the next month until training
camp start.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I can't remember a blockbuster trade like that with the Steelers.
The last one might have involved a piece in this
one with the first round pick going to Miami to
get Minka. That was a big blockbuster. It goes beyond that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Tim Benz was feeling in for pursuited to day in
the Morning Show, he pointed out that since two thousand
and two, So I guess that just in the newest
division realignment era, right, since the Houston Texans were adopted
into the league. This is the first time a trade
has happened in which a like I think it was
six time pro bowler, four to six time pro bowler.
(02:03):
So not only is this massive for the Pittsburgh Steelers,
the NFL has not seen a trade like this, to
this magnitude, to this, to these to this level of
accomplished players, player twenty plus year.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Player for player is just unheard of, right, I mean,
it just never happens in this League, and Minka Fitzpatrick
goes to Miami and Jalen Ramsey and John new Smith
come to Pittsburgh. A couple of pick swaps involved as
well in the later rounds. But you know, it took
three minutes before I even named what the trade was,
because I think everybody already knows. Yeah, you got to
(02:38):
be living under rock. I said, it's the Blockbuster. It's
the Jaws, right, It's the summer blockbuster for the NFL.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
And what an appropriate year to happen on the fiftieth
anniversary of Jaws.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Before we get into the trade itself and analyzing who's
coming in and what's leaving, talk about Omar Cohn to
start this thing. His identity is very much established now
as the agree GM. Like we I think for a
while at the end of Colbert Senior, when Con was
starting to kind of, you know, probably get a little
bit more say, and then the reins were handed over
(03:10):
to him and we saw him be aggressive, really out
the gate, you know, make moves that were interesting for
the Steelers, and you got a wonder man. I know,
Colbert was the GM, but like I said, Con obviously
was getting more and more influence in that organization, or
else they wouldn't have given him the GM job. After
after Kevin retired, you got to wonder how instrumental he
wasn't convincing them to pull the trigger on the first
(03:31):
round pick to get Menka, because remember, back then, that's
so Unsteelers.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Was the very first glimpse potential to what we saw.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Now again that's under Colbert's name, sure, but that was
we had to have a voice there.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
That was so the first aggressive move we saw this
team make in free agency in maybe our lifetime.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
And that's his style, and maybe it's because he feels
that it's necessity, it's necessary for where the team is
right now. You know a lot of draft picks haven't
panned out for them lately, and that is the Steeler way, right,
You build through the draft, You bake these guys up
and you get oven but it's not working, and you're like, right,
you haven't found the quarterback through the draft and you
swung and you missed on that one. And now you
(04:15):
kind of have to shift almost adapt or die, right
like you have to shift into the free agency waters
to fulfill a roster, to fill out a roster that's
gonna be able to win nine, ten to eleven games
hopefully and try to finally win that playoff game. And
that's exactly what they're doing. But they're taking it to
that next level and they are you know. I used
(04:39):
to see teams like the Eagles, remember when they built
that super team with Michael Vick, And you would look
at the Cowboys obviously, and other teams that do this,
that sign big free agents and build through free agency,
and there wasn't an overwhelming sense of jealousy because the
Steelers were great and they built through the draft and
they won super Bowls and they were just as good
as all those teams, mostly better than those teams a
(04:59):
lot of times. But there was a little bit of
like in this time of the year I was a kid,
I'd be like, ah, man, it'd be cool to get
a superstar player coming right right now. It's like the
norm for the Steelers, like they're they are the off
season of the NFL, and they were that before this trade.
But this just puts like steroids into Barry Bonds and
now we're like beefed up and hitting seventy two home runs.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
The last time you brought in as much pedigree between
Darius Slay dk Metcalf, Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Ramsey in one
off season Smith, Sure, yeah, I mean he's we did
our power rankings for tight ends, like statistically he was
a top five tight.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
End last year. Oh yeah, he might be the best
part of this trade when it's all said and done.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Just in terms of the value you like, you kind
of got, you got, you swapped Jalen Ramsey and make
I Fitzpatrick for secondary pieces and then you kind of
got john Y Smith to boot.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, and maybe the to boot is the one that
we look back at at the end of the year
and we're like, wow, he was in the thousand yard
player and he caught nine touchdown passes from Aaron Rodgers.
He was a second team All Pro tight end. Who
saw that coming? Like, and I'm trying to talk that
into existence, but maybe maybe right who knows? But back
to Omar Man, like, this is just who he is.
This is his identity. He's I don't want to say,
(06:15):
is it a gambler? Is it? Maybe it is. He's
willing to take some risks, he's willing to shake and
this trading menka away to get these down. That shows
you that he is willing to shake things up. And
you know what, you have to give the Steelers credit
for this because I think that when they came to
the podium after getting bullied by the Ravens in the
(06:36):
playoff game, and you saw Tomlin kind of with the
dejected thousand yards there, say we got to do things differently, right,
and we all kind of eye rolled. We were like
heard that before. Well, they're shaking some palm trees now
because ten starters from the opening day roster last year
on Week one are now gone have been replaced. That's eleven.
(06:59):
If you throw Russ in that mix as well, even
though he was hurt and didn't start that game, that's
a full side of the ball's worth of starters that
you have turned the page on and moved away from.
This team looks completely different than it did last year. Yeah,
and that isn't lip service being paid. That's action being
paid after what they said at that podium. So you
got to give them a lot of credit for that
(07:19):
because they said things need to be different, we need
to do things differently. Things are not working out. It's
getting status quo. And we were like, yeah, but you
know what, nothing's going to really change right, you're just
gonna keep doing the steel away. No, it did change.
They shook some palm trees. They traded for DK Metcalf,
they courted Aaron Rodgers. Teams decided no, thanks were the giants.
You know what, we don't want to wait in the
(07:40):
Aaron Rodgers sweepstakes. We'll go take Jackson Dart the Minnesota Vikings.
You know, you know what, I'm not going to fulfill
the far legacy, the Farv prophecy. We are going with
JJ McCarthy. We drafted him in the first round. He's
our guy. You know, all these teams balk away from everyone.
Steelers decided to just stay the course. Say take your time,
Aaron Tomlin. I'll call you every week. We'll talk every week.
(08:02):
You know, Hey, hey, we just traded George Pickens. All right,
Mike t sounds good, like just always up to snuff
with what's happening. And then he comes in at mini camp,
which he didn't do for the Jets when he was
under contract, so already already a better start. And now
you got Aaron Rodgers in here. You make this trade
for Ramsey, who's going into the Hall of Fame one day.
(08:25):
You get John news Smith on top of it, who
was a Pro bowler last year in Miami, had his
best season of the NFL of his NFL career and
he's twenty nine. Maybe he's breaking out. Sometimes tight ends
take a little bit of seasoning to get better. So
they and then you know, you mentioned Darius Slay. He's
almost like an afterthought. The man was part of the
Super Bowl waing defense last year. It is a different team.
(08:47):
Omar is taking an extremely aggressive tack to this offseason.
Tomlin too, because we can't. You know, Sure's decisions all
the time when they're bad. A lot of times people say,
so Tomin makes decisions now too. I mean, they are
going for it. I don't know what it really is.
That's one of the questions. Maybe we can maul over
to this today. But they're going for something, whether that's
(09:09):
winning a playoff game, getting to the gosh darn AFC
championship game. I don't know what it is, but they're
trying to accomplish it and they're being aggressive in doing so.
And that's why it is so asinine when you hear
people try to bring the Pirates and the Steelers together.
Sometimes I hear that on some shows that I do
(09:29):
where they're like, well, the Sailors are kind of malaised
right now, and they're in the me brother. They try
every year to win the Super Bowl, and they put
the resources into it to do so. And this offseason
I think shows you that shines a giant spotlight on that. Now,
we're not content having that five win season that some
(09:50):
people want. We're not content bottoming out trading pieces off
without any real return coming back and seeing if we
get that Joe Burrow, you know what, you go to
that bottom of the barrel, it might be a little
bit longer than you anticipated before you climb back out.
(10:11):
And that's just not what the Steelers do anyway. And
instead they go and have one of the most aggressive
off seasons that you haven't just seen in your lifetime
as a Steelers fan, because it's obviously one of those
one of the more aggressive off seasons that you've seen
in the NFL in a very very long time.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, the Steelers had been topic a pretty much all
off season, and a lot of it came at the
beginning when it was just waiting around.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
For Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
It was three speculation, sure or actual action happening but
now that the action is open, they are involved.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
They're gonna carry this thing all the way into the
training camp. I mean that the people at Networks got
on their knees like Andy Dufrayin and I kind of
did too, thank you. Like we're getting to July twenty fourth,
now we're getting to training camp now easily. We got
topics glore.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, usually this is like less time or speculation time
of the future. Oh, how many different hypotheticals could we
play for this season? But now it's just all, okay,
well let's evaluate because there's so much happening, and Tom
there's probably more to come. I mean, you got John
de Smith who's gonna be a huge help to your
tight end room. And Matt Williamson tweeted this out yesterday saying,
(11:22):
you're not gonna get like a a stud wide receiver too.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
You're not gonna go out and get a T.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Higgins now, but you're still gonna see someone probably be
added to this wide receiver room, like.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
A Kaye Davis type. You think that's what Matt said.
I do. Trust Matt seems to know what he's talking about,
so it's safe to assume there's more moves to come.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, and and and and if you want to talk
about this too, speculation versus action, the TJ.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Watt deal is still on the table. Look, I'm open.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, you're right, and that now chef are saying things
like that he's upset. Teams are gonna call and see,
well you know I was, I was teaching. I mean,
that's just like the business. Hey, this guy's under contract.
He seems to be holding in what's the deal?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Like you would be an irresponsible GM if you're on
the Lions or the Raiders or a team that might
need to pair a pass rusher with the pass rusher
and be like, hey, I just want to kick the tires. Omar,
I know I'm talking about pancakes like that guy in
Draft Day and he's gonna be like, wet you off right,
I'm not trading TJ. Watt. I understand what you're saying.
I didn't mean to say that, Omar Soon No, no,
but I understand what you're saying, like TJ. Watt is
(12:23):
as special.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
But I've been talking about this with Mike Pursuda off
Air a lot since it happened in January.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Even though it's a different sport.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
When the Dallas Mavericks traded away Luka Doncic, that showed
any team across any league, you might as well make
the call. I know it's a different sport, don't get
me wrong, but that's a guy who was a once
in a lifetime player future of the face of the
franchise might go down as the second best player, if
(12:52):
not number one over Dirk like TJ.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Watt, No, he won't be number one over Dirk. Well,
now he won't.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, now he won't for sure, but you you might
as well make it that that opened things up.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You might as well make the call. Well, okay, I
get what you're saying, for sure, because of the comparison
as far as the status of players. But this also, now,
this is an obvious call to make because of the
contract situation exactly this was under or he wasn't, but
he was going to get signed.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
This couple that, that situation in Dallas coupled with oh well,
they went out and they signed Darius Slay. They got
that deal done, They got the Rogers deal done, they
got the dk deal done, they got the Minka trade done. Like,
why isn't why isn't TJ. Wat getting all their attention.
He's gonna say, hey, TJ, we'd love to give you
our attention.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
But here's the other thing that I would throw out there.
All those moves made you have to bring TJ walt back. Now, Yes,
it would be.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So he's to your philosophy of we're going all in
to let that guy go.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
He's the best player still on your defense. So like
you make all these moves, and like you say, oh, well,
you moved on from Minca. He was part of the
Big three, so why not move on from other parts
of xtory because MINCA wasn't that good for the past
couple of years. I'm sorry to be frank.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
No, in the last two years, what TJ made first
team All Pro and then second team All Pro last.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Year, well, I think it made zero. TJ had a
slow year for his stands. Last year, still sad led
the league and force fumbling. Still was a Defensive Player
of the Year finalist. Yes, he had splash. He won
games by himself. There's two of them. Might can always
think of the top of my head, the fountains in
the r by himself. Like you know what, he tried
his damn best to win that Eagles game. Too. He
(14:26):
was a monster against Lane Johnson and the Philadelphia Eagles.
He got hurt at the end of the game, and
that's kind of what I think faded him down the
stretch of the season. But he absolutely balled out in
that Eagles game. I mean again, they were a Najie
Harris fumble away from going in and tying that football game.
In the link it looked like it was a punch
in the mouth moment early. But dude, the Steelers do
what the Steelers do sometimes, and they kind of stabled
(14:46):
themselves underneath them.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
TJ.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Watt went bananas throughout that entire game, started giving Eagles
fits sake one Barkley couldn't do anything. They really strug
until the end of the game when walk got hurt
and things just started to kind of, you know, snowball
downhill because of that turn and over. It's like, what
was an animal last year? He's still the best player
on your team. It would absolutely undo all of the
things that you're doing if you don't bring him back.
(15:09):
You need him this year, and that gives him a
lot of leverage, to be honest with you. I mean,
that is a big time quiver that he has or
an era that he has in his quiver to you know, say, hey,
you made all these moves, you're getting Rogers, you're trying
to win.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Now pay me more than Miles Garrett right like that
is a huge bargaining chip.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And honestly, I don't know if the Steelers can refuse
to do that, but I do think that they can
continue to stand Pat now and try to see if
they can meet some middle ground with TJ. Watt. But
who knows if that comes to be right. Let's talk
about the offensive edition of John new Smith's to start things.
I love to because I do think that that's gonna
be the one that we look back at and say, wow,
(15:49):
you know what, Jalen Ramsey was really good this year,
But John new Smith, I don't know if that offense
is really what it was. If we didn't have John
who now you said, Matt Williamson thinks we'll go get
another receiver. Yeah, I wouldn't hate that, but I'm also
not as uncomfortable with not having a wide receiver too.
Now that we do have Johnny Smith in the room.
(16:11):
Does this mean Pat Friarmouth plays like an out wide
kind of hybrid wide receiver role? Well, I think either
of them could and it wouldn't have to be permanent
because you still have a Robert Woods who knows how
to do that job and in Austin Roman Wilson working
out of the slot. But do you split Firemouth out
wide Smith out wide? Sometimes? DK is a here's the thing,
(16:33):
there are the monstars now. Like we've talked about how
they they didn't pay lip service on that things are
gonna change. Another thing that they haven't paid lipservice on
is we're gonna get huge, Like we're gonna be massive people,
Like we're just gonna be tough to play against. We're
gonna be big bodied players. They have the biggest receiving
room in the NFL. Yeah, by far, And.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I mean throw the tight ends in there to DK,
it's Roberts is small, no, but it's I mean, and.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It's headlined by DK and these three tight ends. Like
they have the biggest pass catching room in the NFL.
And we were talking about this on Mark Show yesterday,
Like there's teams in the NFL that they're just not
gonna be able to play against the Steelers if they're
all healthy, Like their defensive match is not gonna be
able to handle them, and maybe Rogers and maybe this
(17:17):
shows that Rogers is, you know, embracing that Arthur Smith
offense and he's going to try to master like he's
gonna look at what Tannehill did right in that Arthur
Smith offense and he'd be like, I'm gonna make this
even better, Like I'm gonna master what this quarterback was
able to do when you were at one of the
best offenses in the league and you were a number
one seed in the AFC. So I just think that
(17:39):
there's gonna be so many mismatches and matchup problems. And
then when you look at John new Smith, you know,
he just kind of had a really unassuming year up
until twenty twenty three. He's drafted by Tennessee. He has
a couple of good seasons with them, towards the end
of his Tennessee tenure. His last year in Tennessee in
twenty twenty, he caught four hundred and forty eight yards
worth of passes and he had eight touchdowns. Eight eight
(18:01):
touchdowns is a big number, so he's a big red
zone target there. Then he goes to New England and
he doesn't really do anything in New England, and I
remember it was like him and Hunter Henry and everybody
felt like that was gonna be a really good tandem.
He never topped three hundred yards in two years there,
and he only caught one touchdown total in his two
seasons in New England. So he goes to Atlanta and
this is where he kind of starts to find himself. Right,
(18:24):
seventy targets, fifty catches, five eighty two yards, three tuties
in Atlanta. That gets him a contract with Miami. Eighty
eight catches, eight hundred and eighty four yards and eight touchdowns,
picking up fifty five first downs. It was his breakout year.
Is that a blip on the radar? Or is that
a tight end that is a late bloomer that is
(18:44):
now going to have thirty year, thirty year thirty one
and year thirty two of his career be the best
years of his career. And last year was just the
start of it. It's trending up. That's why I like
it Atlanta. You know, he kind of had that, He
kind of had that moment in New England where he
was like, I only got two and forty five yards
this year. I didn't have a touchdown, Like, what's this happened?
Goes to Atlanta almost had a six hundred yard season,
(19:06):
and he goes to Miami, I almost had a nine
hundred yard season. Like he's building up.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
He is one of the best receiving seasons by a
tight end in Dolphins history.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
He is building himself into a very powerful threat at
the tight end position.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
So yeah, again, like I mentioned this earlier, we did
our power rankings for the tight ends.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You go by the numbers. He was a top five
tight end last year. And you have a quarterback now
and Aaron Rodgers that I think is more suited for
that Smith offense to use these tight ends. Russell Wilson
doesn't like tight ends. He doesn't thrown in the middle
of the field, and that's why these tight ends eat
the most. And we know Aaron Rodgers does Aaron Rodgers
(19:47):
ever the hell he wants to right, because he's one
of the greatest quarterbacks. Russ is one of the greatest
quarterbacks ever too, But it's different, and back in the day,
Russ could throw to the middle of the field because
he could find those creases and cracks in the offensive
line and he could roll out more.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You know, what I mean us as probably like a
top thirty, top forty quarterback of all time.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Aaron Rodgers is a top ten quarterback of all time.
You could argue he's in the top five too. Yeah,
And if you take the super Bowl thing out of it,
he's think that's his biggest his biggest flaws is winning, right,
is his team's success because it's just the time.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
He's got the MVPs and he's got the numbers. The
only thing he's missing is this is the rings.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I think Ben said it recently on his podcast. When
Rogers was in his prime, he was doing things better
than what Mahomes is doing now. The one we're seeing
out of Mahomes right now, the accuracy, the throw power. Yeah,
and people kind of, you know, lost their minds about that.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I mean how many I mean, Mahomes does things that
are very off keel, like in preference. But Aaron Rodgers,
how many times did you see him when he's being
tackled managed to get the ball out and throw it
fifty yards down the field into a receiver's hands, perfect like,
perfect position as he's being tackled, Like no one else
was doing that.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
No one else is done since It's almost like I
want to say, Patrick Mahomes is like rock and roll
music and Rogers is more like classical music, like more
like just And then I was also thinking like he
was more He's more like surgical. Yeah, he was just
like like a surgeon with that thing, like I'm gonna
cut you here. I'm gonna cut you there, I'm gonna
cut you there. Brady was like that in a lot
(21:19):
of ways too, like I'm just gonna Brady's cuts were
just like cut down the middle with Edelman. Cut down
the middle with Edelman cut down the Please stop slashing
the same spot, sir. But Rogers just like this cut
will lead to this and then that, and then DeVante
Adams back shoulder throw. Here's gonna pick up that first down,
easy money.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And then I think I'm gonna have a receiver deep
downfield wide open on this play.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I'm gonna do a little play action here. So like
it is a different style for sure, Rogers versus Mahomes.
Mahomes has already passed Rogers as far as all time
greatness is concerned because of the team success is a
huge part of it, especially with the quarterback and not
since Brady have we seen a quarterback kind of come
out and just win everything. And he's never not made
it to the AFC Championship Game. He retires today, he's
(22:01):
already a first ballot.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Absolutely, he might be. He's better than Rogers is all
around legacies better than that. But Ben was yes, and
what Ben was saying and just kind of going back
and looking at him under a microscope like a three
game sample size from their primes, I bet you'd walk
away more I don't want to say impressed, but like
(22:24):
you'd have a little bit more fun almost watching Rogers. Sure,
and that little flick of the wrist that he does.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Well, let me ask you this. You know, like they don't.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
The Hall rather doesn't like to induct guys from the
same position in the same class a lot at the time, right, Yes,
if some for some reason, because this will be Aaron
Rodgers last season, If for some reason, Pat Mahomes decides
to retire next year said hey, that's it, I'm done.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I've had a great ride, they would put Mahomes in
over Rogers. But that might be one of the examples
where they go, let's do two guys because these are
two all time great Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, But but I was just trying to see, like,
if you had to pick one, would you say I
picked Mahomes.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I would, but Rogers is obviously going into Canton, and
I don't know. I I like Mahomes's style, don't get
me wrong, like the rock and roll aspect and like
every play is always alive kind of with him. I
like it. I liked Rogers' style a little bit more.
It just was kind of more of that traditional sense
of no, not really even the traditional sense. I don't
(23:24):
know what I'm looking for here. I just enjoyed rogers
swag back in the day. Ya swag was out of control.
I think he was that single chin strap, the helmet
that made him look like Marvin the Martian which he
can't wear now, which is which is b s By
the way, they need one. They told him we can't
wear that helmet he was. He was bitching about it
to the media. No I remember ab bitching about the helmets,
but not. But I think Rogers has a claim here.
(23:46):
Can I ask you?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
What? Can I ask you? Or can I propose why?
I think we didn't we enjoyed the Rogers play a
quarterback more is because Mahomes was winning like it's easier
to like Rogers.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
What do you not winning?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, for us, it's weird because he beat us, sure,
but he beat us so early on in his career.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I never felt a vendetta again, Oh I did. I
never did, dude, I never. Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I hate it losing to the Packers, but like I
never like Brady was the guy that I was always sure.
But like I, I never really did play Matthews for
forcing them and I mean him.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
That's the thing, Like, there's it's like easy to hate
those guys. There's a there's an easy escapegoat for Richard
and I don't know, I just liked her. I think
I just liked Rogers, And that's what kind of sucked
about it. It was just like, ah, you beat me, kind
of how I feel when Joe Burrow beats us now,
it's like like, what can you do? You son of
a gun? Can you do Joe sheisty, We'll get you
(24:41):
next time. We actually beat Joe Burrow. Decent him out though,
so and we kind of rock his world when we
play him like he's worst numbers scored him in his
own in his own stadium. You don't talk about that
like the Lamar factor with the Steelers, but like Burrow
throws picks against the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Right, and he doesn't throw picks he did a lot
against Minca. Minca's not there anymore, sorry, And the Ramsey
gets interceptions. Sure, now, yeah, but let's put a bell
on Johnny Smith here. I think that they're good at
at pass catching. Let me ask you that I don't
think I would like a Gabe Davis.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Maybe. I don't think it's a necessity though anymore, Right,
is there there's enough mouths now in that in that
uh pass catching room that you can have, you know,
Johnny Smith Week, Calvin a dk Week. Well that's what
I was gonna ask. Kind of Pat's still tight end
(25:33):
one on the roster. No, yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, but that's a good thing, sure, And I don't
know if it's like definitively John why number one is
just kind of And I also think.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
They're gonna be like twel I mean, he's gonna get
starter snaps. You're gonna see darn, You're gonna see all
three guys out there, you will.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I don't know what that's just what that's that's not
because Darnelle is so good.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
It's just what Arthur loves to do. I don't know
if well Darnell now too. I mean, you take off
of his play in the pass catching game. Don't make
him an extra lineman, I know, like and and now
you're you're running behind hopefully Jones and Fatanu really kicking
in the ear, and you're running behind the como of
either McCormick and and Fatanu or Jones and Ciamalu with
(26:15):
a third edition of Washington Island. That's tough to stop.
And it goes back to what we were saying with like,
teams just aren't going to be able to match up
with the Steeler, right, they just aren't gonna be able
to handle that size. It's and then when it's like
John's just cracks down or something like, it's just not
gonna be fun to play against them at all.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Now, John new Smith is definitely more of a pass
catcher than he is a blocker. But he's still he's
still big. He can still right, he's if he's got
the size.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Like he's not small, and he's he's you know what
he's gonna be able to he does like he he'll
you know chip pass and he'll be very effective at it.
You know, he is the number one tight end to
me though, Now John I think he is too. I
think he is too. I think against Pat it's just
I think they have the best one two punch at
tight end, and then I think they have the best
(27:04):
one two three punch at tight end in the ENF. Sure, look,
Arthur Smith loves his tight ends. Why not embrace it
to the point where you have the best tight end
room in football? Yeah, Like, why not go all the
way there? And again, the twelve personnel is going to
be what they live in. Like so this whole Oh well,
John is the starter over Pat. That doesn't mean I'm
gonna see Pat with his hand on his hips next
to coach t on the sidelines waiting for his like
(27:25):
five snaps a game. Pat's gonna be out there just
as much as Johnny.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And like you said, it just takes so much pressure
off of a Calvin Austin or a Robert Woods. And
maybe he takes the pressure off of it the need
to go get a guy like a Gay Davis. But
if you bring in a guy like Gabe Davis and
it's just what are you doing? Like how many mounds
do you have to feed there?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
But you got a quarterback that can feed a lot
of them. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a great point. So I'm
comfortable with it for one year. I'm coming. Yeah, but
you're supposed to go get your guy in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You better hope that guy can feed all those mounts
as well. Look, I think that the offense everything. I
think every side of the ball got better in this trade.
Both sides the ball did I do, But I think
the offense got I don't want to say a lot better.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
But I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with it now
that Johnny Smith is in the sure. Yeah, yeah, so
nice to see a guy the Steelers have been linked to.
Actually was a little bit, not as much as Johnny,
but a little bit with him.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
It was more so right when the season edy you
heard Jalen Ramsey could be leaving.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
A couple of free agents, heard some blips like maybe
the Steelers like leading.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Up to what was it like March eighth or whatever
that day is that free agency starts, like you were
hearing Jalen Ramsey could be one of the big names
you see moving once free agency opens, and he never.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Did, but Johnny Smith and Jayleen.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Was linked to the Steelers for a while now, and
he's here, and you got Jaalen Ramsey as well.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Let's get to Jalen Ramsey next. Let's talk about the
defensive side of things in the upgrade there. Well, I
think it's an upgrade, but there's a lot of questions
still that from this, So we'll get into all that.
We'll unpack what just went down with the Steelers, the
blockbuster trade between them and the Miami Dolphins. That's all
on the way. Next, Tom offer a minutes Jacob Wrecked
on the Steelers Standard, the Steelers Audio Network and Steelers
(29:12):
Nation Radio
Well, I came back from vacation and I figured that
there's gonna be like, not that much to talk about.
I have so much Rogers takes that I baked up
over the week. Well you didn't miss much while you
were gone.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm dead, brother, It just all happened once you got back.
I'm a very big time professional, all right, and I'm
on the Mark Man Show.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I don't know if you've heard this before. I actually
did know, and it causes me crippling anxiety and even
when I'm on vaker Away, yeah you know.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, of course, of course this happens the week of
July fourth, when everybody is taking off. We kind of
waved the white flag off, including the morning shows, Mike Pursuita,
including the Blitz mo Are off all week.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I know, bro, it's wild and like I was ready
to wave the white flag on the week. Mark and
I were texting yesterday morning about these trades that broke,
and we were like, well, that just flushed our easy day.
Oh yeah, but hey, I'll take it because despite that
anxiety I felt on vacation with nothing going on in
the sports world and just being like, yeah, this show's
(01:13):
probably pretty boring for Mark right now, there's nothing happening.
Oh boy, did the floodgates open right now? I mean,
this is week's worth of content. My brother, you can
make this thing run for my dude.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
We are set for for the next month until training
camp start.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I can't remember a blockbuster trade like that with the Steelers.
The last one might have involved a piece in this
one with the first round pick going to Miami to
get Minka. That was a big blockbuster. It goes beyond that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Tim Benz was feeling in for pursuited to day in
the Morning Show, he pointed out that since two thousand
and two, So I guess that just in the newest
division realignment era, right, since the Houston Texans were adopted
into the league. This is the first time a trade
has happened in which a like I think it was
six time pro bowler, four to six time pro bowler.
(02:03):
So not only is this massive for the Pittsburgh Steelers,
the NFL has not seen a trade like this, to
this magnitude, to this, to these to this level of
accomplished players, player twenty plus year.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Player for player is just unheard of, right, I mean,
it just never happens in this League, and Minka Fitzpatrick
goes to Miami and Jalen Ramsey and John new Smith
come to Pittsburgh. A couple of pick swaps involved as
well in the later rounds. But you know, it took
three minutes before I even named what the trade was,
because I think everybody already knows. Yeah, you got to
(02:38):
be living under rock. I said, it's the Blockbuster. It's
the Jaws, right, It's the summer blockbuster for the NFL.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
And what an appropriate year to happen on the fiftieth
anniversary of Jaws.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Before we get into the trade itself and analyzing who's
coming in and what's leaving, talk about Omar Cohn to
start this thing. His identity is very much established now
as the agree GM. Like we I think for a
while at the end of Colbert Senior, when Con was
starting to kind of, you know, probably get a little
bit more say, and then the reins were handed over
(03:10):
to him and we saw him be aggressive, really out
the gate, you know, make moves that were interesting for
the Steelers, and you got a wonder man. I know,
Colbert was the GM, but like I said, Con obviously
was getting more and more influence in that organization, or
else they wouldn't have given him the GM job. After
after Kevin retired, you got to wonder how instrumental he
wasn't convincing them to pull the trigger on the first
(03:31):
round pick to get Menka, because remember, back then, that's
so Unsteelers.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Was the very first glimpse potential to what we saw.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Now again that's under Colbert's name, sure, but that was
we had to have a voice there.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
That was so the first aggressive move we saw this
team make in free agency in maybe our lifetime.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
And that's his style, and maybe it's because he feels
that it's necessity, it's necessary for where the team is
right now. You know a lot of draft picks haven't
panned out for them lately, and that is the Steeler way, right,
You build through the draft, You bake these guys up
and you get oven but it's not working, and you're like, right,
you haven't found the quarterback through the draft and you
swung and you missed on that one. And now you
(04:15):
kind of have to shift almost adapt or die, right
like you have to shift into the free agency waters
to fulfill a roster, to fill out a roster that's
gonna be able to win nine, ten to eleven games
hopefully and try to finally win that playoff game. And
that's exactly what they're doing. But they're taking it to
that next level and they are you know. I used
(04:39):
to see teams like the Eagles, remember when they built
that super team with Michael Vick, And you would look
at the Cowboys obviously, and other teams that do this,
that sign big free agents and build through free agency,
and there wasn't an overwhelming sense of jealousy because the
Steelers were great and they built through the draft and
they won super Bowls and they were just as good
as all those teams, mostly better than those teams a
(04:59):
lot of times. But there was a little bit of
like in this time of the year I was a kid,
I'd be like, ah, man, it'd be cool to get
a superstar player coming right right now. It's like the
norm for the Steelers, like they're they are the off
season of the NFL, and they were that before this trade.
But this just puts like steroids into Barry Bonds and
now we're like beefed up and hitting seventy two home runs.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
The last time you brought in as much pedigree between
Darius Slay dk Metcalf, Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Ramsey in one
off season Smith, Sure, yeah, I mean he's we did
our power rankings for tight ends, like statistically he was
a top five tight.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
End last year. Oh yeah, he might be the best
part of this trade when it's all said and done.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Just in terms of the value you like, you kind
of got, you got, you swapped Jalen Ramsey and make
I Fitzpatrick for secondary pieces and then you kind of
got john Y Smith to boot.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, and maybe the to boot is the one that
we look back at at the end of the year
and we're like, wow, he was in the thousand yard
player and he caught nine touchdown passes from Aaron Rodgers.
He was a second team All Pro tight end. Who
saw that coming? Like, and I'm trying to talk that
into existence, but maybe maybe right who knows? But back
to Omar Man, like, this is just who he is.
This is his identity. He's I don't want to say,
(06:15):
is it a gambler? Is it? Maybe it is. He's
willing to take some risks, he's willing to shake and
this trading menka away to get these down. That shows
you that he is willing to shake things up. And
you know what, you have to give the Steelers credit
for this because I think that when they came to
the podium after getting bullied by the Ravens in the
(06:36):
playoff game, and you saw Tomlin kind of with the
dejected thousand yards there, say we got to do things differently, right,
and we all kind of eye rolled. We were like
heard that before. Well, they're shaking some palm trees now
because ten starters from the opening day roster last year
on Week one are now gone have been replaced. That's eleven.
(06:59):
If you throw Russ in that mix as well, even
though he was hurt and didn't start that game, that's
a full side of the ball's worth of starters that
you have turned the page on and moved away from.
This team looks completely different than it did last year. Yeah,
and that isn't lip service being paid. That's action being
paid after what they said at that podium. So you
got to give them a lot of credit for that
(07:19):
because they said things need to be different, we need
to do things differently. Things are not working out. It's
getting status quo. And we were like, yeah, but you
know what, nothing's going to really change right, you're just
gonna keep doing the steel away. No, it did change.
They shook some palm trees. They traded for DK Metcalf,
they courted Aaron Rodgers. Teams decided no, thanks were the giants.
You know what, we don't want to wait in the
(07:40):
Aaron Rodgers sweepstakes. We'll go take Jackson Dart the Minnesota Vikings.
You know, you know what, I'm not going to fulfill
the far legacy, the Farv prophecy. We are going with
JJ McCarthy. We drafted him in the first round. He's
our guy. You know, all these teams balk away from everyone.
Steelers decided to just stay the course. Say take your time,
Aaron Tomlin. I'll call you every week. We'll talk every week.
(08:02):
You know, Hey, hey, we just traded George Pickens. All right,
Mike t sounds good, like just always up to snuff
with what's happening. And then he comes in at mini camp,
which he didn't do for the Jets when he was
under contract, so already already a better start. And now
you got Aaron Rodgers in here. You make this trade
for Ramsey, who's going into the Hall of Fame one day.
(08:25):
You get John news Smith on top of it, who
was a Pro bowler last year in Miami, had his
best season of the NFL of his NFL career and
he's twenty nine. Maybe he's breaking out. Sometimes tight ends
take a little bit of seasoning to get better. So
they and then you know, you mentioned Darius Slay. He's
almost like an afterthought. The man was part of the
Super Bowl waing defense last year. It is a different team.
(08:47):
Omar is taking an extremely aggressive tack to this offseason.
Tomlin too, because we can't. You know, Sure's decisions all
the time when they're bad. A lot of times people say,
so Tomin makes decisions now too. I mean, they are
going for it. I don't know what it really is.
That's one of the questions. Maybe we can maul over
to this today. But they're going for something, whether that's
(09:09):
winning a playoff game, getting to the gosh darn AFC
championship game. I don't know what it is, but they're
trying to accomplish it and they're being aggressive in doing so.
And that's why it is so asinine when you hear
people try to bring the Pirates and the Steelers together.
Sometimes I hear that on some shows that I do
(09:29):
where they're like, well, the Sailors are kind of malaised
right now, and they're in the me brother. They try
every year to win the Super Bowl, and they put
the resources into it to do so. And this offseason
I think shows you that shines a giant spotlight on that. Now,
we're not content having that five win season that some
(09:50):
people want. We're not content bottoming out trading pieces off
without any real return coming back and seeing if we
get that Joe Burrow, you know what, you go to
that bottom of the barrel, it might be a little
bit longer than you anticipated before you climb back out.
(10:11):
And that's just not what the Steelers do anyway. And
instead they go and have one of the most aggressive
off seasons that you haven't just seen in your lifetime
as a Steelers fan, because it's obviously one of those
one of the more aggressive off seasons that you've seen
in the NFL in a very very long time.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, the Steelers had been topic a pretty much all
off season, and a lot of it came at the
beginning when it was just waiting around.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
For Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
It was three speculation, sure or actual action happening but
now that the action is open, they are involved.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
They're gonna carry this thing all the way into the
training camp. I mean that the people at Networks got
on their knees like Andy Dufrayin and I kind of
did too, thank you. Like we're getting to July twenty fourth,
now we're getting to training camp now easily. We got
topics glore.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, usually this is like less time or speculation time
of the future. Oh, how many different hypotheticals could we
play for this season? But now it's just all, okay,
well let's evaluate because there's so much happening, and Tom
there's probably more to come. I mean, you got John
de Smith who's gonna be a huge help to your
tight end room. And Matt Williamson tweeted this out yesterday saying,
(11:22):
you're not gonna get like a a stud wide receiver too.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
You're not gonna go out and get a T.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Higgins now, but you're still gonna see someone probably be
added to this wide receiver room, like.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
A Kaye Davis type. You think that's what Matt said.
I do. Trust Matt seems to know what he's talking about,
so it's safe to assume there's more moves to come.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, and and and and if you want to talk
about this too, speculation versus action, the TJ.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Watt deal is still on the table. Look, I'm open.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, you're right, and that now chef are saying things
like that he's upset. Teams are gonna call and see,
well you know I was, I was teaching. I mean,
that's just like the business. Hey, this guy's under contract.
He seems to be holding in what's the deal?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Like you would be an irresponsible GM if you're on
the Lions or the Raiders or a team that might
need to pair a pass rusher with the pass rusher
and be like, hey, I just want to kick the tires. Omar,
I know I'm talking about pancakes like that guy in
Draft Day and he's gonna be like, wet you off right,
I'm not trading TJ. Watt. I understand what you're saying.
I didn't mean to say that, Omar Soon No, no,
but I understand what you're saying, like TJ. Watt is
(12:23):
as special.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
But I've been talking about this with Mike Pursuda off
Air a lot since it happened in January.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Even though it's a different sport.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
When the Dallas Mavericks traded away Luka Doncic, that showed
any team across any league, you might as well make
the call. I know it's a different sport, don't get
me wrong, but that's a guy who was a once
in a lifetime player future of the face of the
franchise might go down as the second best player, if
(12:52):
not number one over Dirk like TJ.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Watt, No, he won't be number one over Dirk. Well,
now he won't.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, now he won't for sure, but you you might
as well make it that that opened things up.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You might as well make the call. Well, okay, I
get what you're saying, for sure, because of the comparison
as far as the status of players. But this also, now,
this is an obvious call to make because of the
contract situation exactly this was under or he wasn't, but
he was going to get signed.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
This couple that, that situation in Dallas coupled with oh well,
they went out and they signed Darius Slay. They got
that deal done, They got the Rogers deal done, they
got the dk deal done, they got the Minka trade done. Like,
why isn't why isn't TJ. Wat getting all their attention.
He's gonna say, hey, TJ, we'd love to give you
our attention.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
But here's the other thing that I would throw out there.
All those moves made you have to bring TJ walt back. Now, Yes,
it would be.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So he's to your philosophy of we're going all in
to let that guy go.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
He's the best player still on your defense. So like
you make all these moves, and like you say, oh, well,
you moved on from Minca. He was part of the
Big three, so why not move on from other parts
of xtory because MINCA wasn't that good for the past
couple of years. I'm sorry to be frank.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
No, in the last two years, what TJ made first
team All Pro and then second team All Pro last.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Year, well, I think it made zero. TJ had a
slow year for his stands. Last year, still sad led
the league and force fumbling. Still was a Defensive Player
of the Year finalist. Yes, he had splash. He won
games by himself. There's two of them. Might can always
think of the top of my head, the fountains in
the r by himself. Like you know what, he tried
his damn best to win that Eagles game. Too. He
(14:26):
was a monster against Lane Johnson and the Philadelphia Eagles.
He got hurt at the end of the game, and
that's kind of what I think faded him down the
stretch of the season. But he absolutely balled out in
that Eagles game. I mean again, they were a Najie
Harris fumble away from going in and tying that football game.
In the link it looked like it was a punch
in the mouth moment early. But dude, the Steelers do
what the Steelers do sometimes, and they kind of stabled
(14:46):
themselves underneath them.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
TJ.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Watt went bananas throughout that entire game, started giving Eagles
fits sake one Barkley couldn't do anything. They really strug
until the end of the game when walk got hurt
and things just started to kind of, you know, snowball
downhill because of that turn and over. It's like, what
was an animal last year? He's still the best player
on your team. It would absolutely undo all of the
things that you're doing if you don't bring him back.
(15:09):
You need him this year, and that gives him a
lot of leverage, to be honest with you. I mean,
that is a big time quiver that he has or
an era that he has in his quiver to you know, say, hey,
you made all these moves, you're getting Rogers, you're trying
to win.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Now pay me more than Miles Garrett right like that
is a huge bargaining chip.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And honestly, I don't know if the Steelers can refuse
to do that, but I do think that they can
continue to stand Pat now and try to see if
they can meet some middle ground with TJ. Watt. But
who knows if that comes to be right. Let's talk
about the offensive edition of John new Smith's to start things.
I love to because I do think that that's gonna
be the one that we look back at and say, wow,
(15:49):
you know what, Jalen Ramsey was really good this year,
But John new Smith, I don't know if that offense
is really what it was. If we didn't have John
who now you said, Matt Williamson thinks we'll go get
another receiver. Yeah, I wouldn't hate that, but I'm also
not as uncomfortable with not having a wide receiver too.
Now that we do have Johnny Smith in the room.
(16:11):
Does this mean Pat Friarmouth plays like an out wide
kind of hybrid wide receiver role? Well, I think either
of them could and it wouldn't have to be permanent
because you still have a Robert Woods who knows how
to do that job and in Austin Roman Wilson working
out of the slot. But do you split Firemouth out
wide Smith out wide? Sometimes? DK is a here's the thing,
(16:33):
there are the monstars now. Like we've talked about how
they they didn't pay lip service on that things are
gonna change. Another thing that they haven't paid lipservice on
is we're gonna get huge, Like we're gonna be massive people,
Like we're just gonna be tough to play against. We're
gonna be big bodied players. They have the biggest receiving
room in the NFL. Yeah, by far, And.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I mean throw the tight ends in there to DK,
it's Roberts is small, no, but it's I mean, and.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It's headlined by DK and these three tight ends. Like
they have the biggest pass catching room in the NFL.
And we were talking about this on Mark Show yesterday,
Like there's teams in the NFL that they're just not
gonna be able to play against the Steelers if they're
all healthy, Like their defensive match is not gonna be
able to handle them, and maybe Rogers and maybe this
(17:17):
shows that Rogers is, you know, embracing that Arthur Smith
offense and he's going to try to master like he's
gonna look at what Tannehill did right in that Arthur
Smith offense and he'd be like, I'm gonna make this
even better, Like I'm gonna master what this quarterback was
able to do when you were at one of the
best offenses in the league and you were a number
one seed in the AFC. So I just think that
(17:39):
there's gonna be so many mismatches and matchup problems. And
then when you look at John new Smith, you know,
he just kind of had a really unassuming year up
until twenty twenty three. He's drafted by Tennessee. He has
a couple of good seasons with them, towards the end
of his Tennessee tenure. His last year in Tennessee in
twenty twenty, he caught four hundred and forty eight yards
worth of passes and he had eight touchdowns. Eight eight
(18:01):
touchdowns is a big number, so he's a big red
zone target there. Then he goes to New England and
he doesn't really do anything in New England, and I
remember it was like him and Hunter Henry and everybody
felt like that was gonna be a really good tandem.
He never topped three hundred yards in two years there,
and he only caught one touchdown total in his two
seasons in New England. So he goes to Atlanta and
this is where he kind of starts to find himself. Right,
(18:24):
seventy targets, fifty catches, five eighty two yards, three tuties
in Atlanta. That gets him a contract with Miami. Eighty
eight catches, eight hundred and eighty four yards and eight touchdowns,
picking up fifty five first downs. It was his breakout year.
Is that a blip on the radar? Or is that
a tight end that is a late bloomer that is
(18:44):
now going to have thirty year, thirty year thirty one
and year thirty two of his career be the best
years of his career. And last year was just the
start of it. It's trending up. That's why I like
it Atlanta. You know, he kind of had that, He
kind of had that moment in New England where he
was like, I only got two and forty five yards
this year. I didn't have a touchdown, Like, what's this happened?
Goes to Atlanta almost had a six hundred yard season,
(19:06):
and he goes to Miami, I almost had a nine
hundred yard season. Like he's building up.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
He is one of the best receiving seasons by a
tight end in Dolphins history.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
He is building himself into a very powerful threat at
the tight end position.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
So yeah, again, like I mentioned this earlier, we did
our power rankings for the tight ends.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You go by the numbers. He was a top five
tight end last year. And you have a quarterback now
and Aaron Rodgers that I think is more suited for
that Smith offense to use these tight ends. Russell Wilson
doesn't like tight ends. He doesn't thrown in the middle
of the field, and that's why these tight ends eat
the most. And we know Aaron Rodgers does Aaron Rodgers
(19:47):
ever the hell he wants to right, because he's one
of the greatest quarterbacks. Russ is one of the greatest
quarterbacks ever too, But it's different, and back in the day,
Russ could throw to the middle of the field because
he could find those creases and cracks in the offensive
line and he could roll out more.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You know, what I mean us as probably like a
top thirty, top forty quarterback of all time.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Aaron Rodgers is a top ten quarterback of all time.
You could argue he's in the top five too. Yeah,
And if you take the super Bowl thing out of it,
he's think that's his biggest his biggest flaws is winning, right,
is his team's success because it's just the time.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
He's got the MVPs and he's got the numbers. The
only thing he's missing is this is the rings.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I think Ben said it recently on his podcast. When
Rogers was in his prime, he was doing things better
than what Mahomes is doing now. The one we're seeing
out of Mahomes right now, the accuracy, the throw power. Yeah,
and people kind of, you know, lost their minds about that.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I mean how many I mean, Mahomes does things that
are very off keel, like in preference. But Aaron Rodgers,
how many times did you see him when he's being
tackled managed to get the ball out and throw it
fifty yards down the field into a receiver's hands, perfect like,
perfect position as he's being tackled, Like no one else
was doing that.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
No one else is done since It's almost like I
want to say, Patrick Mahomes is like rock and roll
music and Rogers is more like classical music, like more
like just And then I was also thinking like he
was more He's more like surgical. Yeah, he was just
like like a surgeon with that thing, like I'm gonna
cut you here. I'm gonna cut you there, I'm gonna
cut you there. Brady was like that in a lot
(21:19):
of ways too, like I'm just gonna Brady's cuts were
just like cut down the middle with Edelman. Cut down
the middle with Edelman cut down the Please stop slashing
the same spot, sir. But Rogers just like this cut
will lead to this and then that, and then DeVante
Adams back shoulder throw. Here's gonna pick up that first down,
easy money.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And then I think I'm gonna have a receiver deep
downfield wide open on this play.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I'm gonna do a little play action here. So like
it is a different style for sure, Rogers versus Mahomes.
Mahomes has already passed Rogers as far as all time
greatness is concerned because of the team success is a
huge part of it, especially with the quarterback and not
since Brady have we seen a quarterback kind of come
out and just win everything. And he's never not made
it to the AFC Championship Game. He retires today, he's
(22:01):
already a first ballot.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Absolutely, he might be. He's better than Rogers is all
around legacies better than that. But Ben was yes, and
what Ben was saying and just kind of going back
and looking at him under a microscope like a three
game sample size from their primes, I bet you'd walk
away more I don't want to say impressed, but like
(22:24):
you'd have a little bit more fun almost watching Rogers. Sure,
and that little flick of the wrist that he does.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Well, let me ask you this. You know, like they don't.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
The Hall rather doesn't like to induct guys from the
same position in the same class a lot at the time, right, Yes,
if some for some reason, because this will be Aaron
Rodgers last season, If for some reason, Pat Mahomes decides
to retire next year said hey, that's it, I'm done.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I've had a great ride, they would put Mahomes in
over Rogers. But that might be one of the examples
where they go, let's do two guys because these are
two all time great Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, But but I was just trying to see, like,
if you had to pick one, would you say I
picked Mahomes.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I would, but Rogers is obviously going into Canton, and
I don't know. I I like Mahomes's style, don't get
me wrong, like the rock and roll aspect and like
every play is always alive kind of with him. I
like it. I liked Rogers' style a little bit more.
It just was kind of more of that traditional sense
of no, not really even the traditional sense. I don't
(23:24):
know what I'm looking for here. I just enjoyed rogers
swag back in the day. Ya swag was out of control.
I think he was that single chin strap, the helmet
that made him look like Marvin the Martian which he
can't wear now, which is which is b s By
the way, they need one. They told him we can't
wear that helmet he was. He was bitching about it
to the media. No I remember ab bitching about the helmets,
but not. But I think Rogers has a claim here.
(23:46):
Can I ask you?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
What? Can I ask you? Or can I propose why?
I think we didn't we enjoyed the Rogers play a
quarterback more is because Mahomes was winning like it's easier
to like Rogers.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
What do you not winning?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, for us, it's weird because he beat us, sure,
but he beat us so early on in his career.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I never felt a vendetta again, Oh I did. I
never did, dude, I never. Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I hate it losing to the Packers, but like I
never like Brady was the guy that I was always sure.
But like I, I never really did play Matthews for
forcing them and I mean him.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
That's the thing, Like, there's it's like easy to hate
those guys. There's a there's an easy escapegoat for Richard
and I don't know, I just liked her. I think
I just liked Rogers, And that's what kind of sucked
about it. It was just like, ah, you beat me, kind
of how I feel when Joe Burrow beats us now,
it's like like, what can you do? You son of
a gun? Can you do Joe sheisty, We'll get you
(24:41):
next time. We actually beat Joe Burrow. Decent him out though,
so and we kind of rock his world when we
play him like he's worst numbers scored him in his
own in his own stadium. You don't talk about that
like the Lamar factor with the Steelers, but like Burrow
throws picks against the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Right, and he doesn't throw picks he did a lot
against Minca. Minca's not there anymore, sorry, And the Ramsey
gets interceptions. Sure, now, yeah, but let's put a bell
on Johnny Smith here. I think that they're good at
at pass catching. Let me ask you that I don't
think I would like a Gabe Davis.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Maybe. I don't think it's a necessity though anymore, Right,
is there there's enough mouths now in that in that
uh pass catching room that you can have, you know,
Johnny Smith Week, Calvin a dk Week. Well that's what
I was gonna ask. Kind of Pat's still tight end
(25:33):
one on the roster. No, yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, but that's a good thing, sure, And I don't
know if it's like definitively John why number one is
just kind of And I also think.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
They're gonna be like twel I mean, he's gonna get
starter snaps. You're gonna see darn, You're gonna see all
three guys out there, you will.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I don't know what that's just what that's that's not
because Darnelle is so good.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
It's just what Arthur loves to do. I don't know
if well Darnell now too. I mean, you take off
of his play in the pass catching game. Don't make
him an extra lineman, I know, like and and now
you're you're running behind hopefully Jones and Fatanu really kicking
in the ear, and you're running behind the como of
either McCormick and and Fatanu or Jones and Ciamalu with
(26:15):
a third edition of Washington Island. That's tough to stop.
And it goes back to what we were saying with like,
teams just aren't going to be able to match up
with the Steeler, right, they just aren't gonna be able
to handle that size. It's and then when it's like
John's just cracks down or something like, it's just not
gonna be fun to play against them at all.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Now, John new Smith is definitely more of a pass
catcher than he is a blocker. But he's still he's
still big. He can still right, he's if he's got
the size.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Like he's not small, and he's he's you know what
he's gonna be able to he does like he he'll
you know chip pass and he'll be very effective at it.
You know, he is the number one tight end to
me though, Now John I think he is too. I
think he is too. I think against Pat it's just
I think they have the best one two punch at
tight end, and then I think they have the best
(27:04):
one two three punch at tight end in the ENF. Sure, look,
Arthur Smith loves his tight ends. Why not embrace it
to the point where you have the best tight end
room in football? Yeah, Like, why not go all the
way there? And again, the twelve personnel is going to
be what they live in. Like so this whole Oh well,
John is the starter over Pat. That doesn't mean I'm
gonna see Pat with his hand on his hips next
to coach t on the sidelines waiting for his like
(27:25):
five snaps a game. Pat's gonna be out there just
as much as Johnny.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And like you said, it just takes so much pressure
off of a Calvin Austin or a Robert Woods. And
maybe he takes the pressure off of it the need
to go get a guy like a Gay Davis. But
if you bring in a guy like Gabe Davis and
it's just what are you doing? Like how many mounds
do you have to feed there?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
But you got a quarterback that can feed a lot
of them. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a great point. So I'm
comfortable with it for one year. I'm coming. Yeah, but
you're supposed to go get your guy in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You better hope that guy can feed all those mounts
as well. Look, I think that the offense everything. I
think every side of the ball got better in this trade.
Both sides the ball did I do, But I think
the offense got I don't want to say a lot better.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
But I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with it now
that Johnny Smith is in the sure. Yeah, yeah, so
nice to see a guy the Steelers have been linked to.
Actually was a little bit, not as much as Johnny,
but a little bit with him.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
It was more so right when the season edy you
heard Jalen Ramsey could be leaving.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
A couple of free agents, heard some blips like maybe
the Steelers like leading.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Up to what was it like March eighth or whatever
that day is that free agency starts, like you were
hearing Jalen Ramsey could be one of the big names
you see moving once free agency opens, and he never.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Did, but Johnny Smith and Jayleen.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Was linked to the Steelers for a while now, and
he's here, and you got Jaalen Ramsey as well.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Let's get to Jalen Ramsey next. Let's talk about the
defensive side of things in the upgrade there. Well, I
think it's an upgrade, but there's a lot of questions
still that from this, So we'll get into all that.
We'll unpack what just went down with the Steelers, the
blockbuster trade between them and the Miami Dolphins. That's all
on the way. Next, Tom offer a minutes Jacob Wrecked
on the Steelers Standard, the Steelers Audio Network and Steelers
(29:12):
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