January 13, 2023 • 45 mins
It's the final hour of ITL for the 2022-23 season! Max and Wolf continue to take your calls, hand out awards for the season, and laugh about their Looney Tunes Football lineups.
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is in the locker Room with Wolf and Starks
on ESPN Pittsburgh against Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your
neighborhood Forward Store. The F one is the official truck
of the Pittsburgh Steeler back once again with your favorite
game show host Wesley Bob Barker Jeweler Here in the
(00:35):
locker room final hour of this season. Gentlemen, I have
to know Mr Craig Wolfley will start with you first
on this one. Who gets your award for best coaching
job this season? Wow? You know, I'm gotta, I gotta.
It's tough because the low hanging fruit, which we already
talked about, and I know that's somebody else's voice, is
(00:58):
choice because I'd love to go Pat Meyer, but you
know you gotta go also Grady Brown in the secondary.
When you're leading the NFL with interceptions, When your most
valuable player team wise is in your secondary, the back end,
and he's tied for the lead in the NFL with
six of them, you know, maybe we we we just
gotta acknowledge the fact that Grady Brown did a great job. Yeah. No,
(01:22):
I'm definitely, I definitely like both of those choices. I
think both those are great. I'm gonna throw another hat
in there. I'm gonna go with Carl Dunbar just because
coach Coach Dunbar having to make the adjustments, right, you
lose guys left and right. Um, guys are going down
on I R. You have to figure out an answer
(01:43):
for t J. Watt's absence. Um, And you throw the
Marvin Lee al out there as one of the big guys,
and we found a role for him and we realize
his flexibility. So I think Carl Dunbar and just the
job he had to do and retooling the squad. You
went from giving up a bunch of yards in the
year being one of the stingiest defensive lines in the
(02:04):
league in the second half. So I my hat goes
to Carl Dunbar. Pretty sweet, pretty good, pretty good. Hold
on listen to the sun. Oh you gotta love it me,
Mr Game show host. You know what, I would have
probably gone Pat Meyer as well too. You guys have
(02:25):
given some really good shouts. So how about just in
terms of fairness, because everybody knows this is a fair show.
This is a fact based show that we do here,
of course, how about two shouts for Eddie Faulkner and
Alfredo Roberts as well too, to position groups that this
game show host thinks certainly showed growth throughout the regular season,
(02:46):
no doubt about it. You know, you can sit there
and go across the board. You talk about Brian Flores
and one of the stuff that he did defensively and
helping to show up the inside backers and everything else.
Get zooks. He's over and by the way, he's a
were in Cleveland. That's just let's bring him back. Bring
him back, come back, Brian, come back. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(03:06):
don't don't go there. Don't go there. That's where careers
go to die. Um Oh did I say that out loud?
I haven't hit the dump button. Yeah, we dumped it
right over to the Cuyahoga River. It's hard not to go,
Pat Meyer that I mean, just yes, Pat. I think
we all guys after that that Jacksonville game, you know,
(03:28):
that that second preseason game, I think we were all
kind of looking at each other like, man, this offensive
line might struggle mightily. And man, from from where they
were you know, this past weekend to where to where
they started in August, I mean just leaps and bounds.
But who was the voice of reason back then, but
our own Maximilian and he said, we need some time.
(03:50):
You got to give them time. And he was right,
you know, you give them time. And what a great
job Pat Meyer did and marshaling the troops, keeping them together.
And the fact of this is Mike Tomlin spoke about
the availability of the men. You're talking about all five
guys played between nineties of the snaps. That's unheard of. Yeah, no,
(04:12):
I mean the health of that offensive line, I think
is what also yielded the results, because they needed that
time to come together, right jel And if you have
guys injured missing time, that really stunts the progress and
the growth. And they stayed together. Listen, Chucks, I thought
his shoulder was gonna fall off at least seventeen times
this season and and it it did not. It did not.
(04:36):
I mean, he was he was just he was just
a piece of steel um out there. And the rest
of the offensive line, mean, James Daniels, Mason Cole, you know,
for them to get up to speed and get into
the position. And Kevin Dotson listen, you know you want
to talk about you know, you want to talk about
some awesome physical play we're talking about offensive guards, right.
(04:56):
You know, I love this because Steel Rocker actually said
it the same way I did it on Twitter. I
was checking the Twitter feed as well. Mcgilla Gorilla in
Great Pape as the guards. I mean, come on, I mean,
you know what I'm saying. And and Kevin Dotson was
was was like mcgilla Gorilla out there. He was just
destroying folks, especially the second half, I mean, rolling guys
(05:17):
off the st of course, that's a good one. That's Sam.
I had Sam sheep Dog and Hector the Bulldog at
my guards because I want some dogs on the interior.
That's that's that's tough to beat. That's a good call. Okay,
I had let me see, I had the who's the
fighting bull? That was the guy? Umu is it Hector
(05:38):
the bulldog? You know the fighting bull? Yeah? It was.
It was yeah the bull that yeah. Yeah, bugs, bunnies
would would fight. Yeah yeah, I can't find him. Where
did he go? Yes, he's one of my guards. And
then Hector the bulldog is the other he yes. Yeah.
That that's so Spanish too, because toro literally means bull
(06:01):
and they were they weren't really great, that's right, Alvaro
would approve, you know, but but like I said, uh,
leading out, you know what, we gotta have the Alvaro
on this call next time. Yeah, we do that, which
would be great, and he could he could bamboo slist
(06:24):
with with all the Spanish reasons and we'd never know.
Yeah exactly. It's just just make all of his answers
in Spanish and were just like, yep, it sounds so
compelling with the inflections in his voice. Um, but I'm
surprised nobody Captain Caveman at Nose Town. That's come on,
(06:48):
I mean, come on. The guy is physical, he's loud,
he's boisterous, and he just he just clubs everybody. You
know what I'm saying. Like, if there's anybody else to
to put a club move on, somebody wouldn't be Captain Caveman. Yes,
(07:09):
that's here's one for you. I need a cornerback who
can pick it off the opponent, right, So give me
Beaky Buzzard, the vulture that he does his pick off
someone else. You go, a good one. You ready for
these wide receivers? I got here. Oh yes, let's bring it.
(07:30):
So wide receiver one is the roadrunner. I mean you
know absolutely thought about road Runner at running back, but
I don't know if he's got quite the tenacity to
play in the trenches. And I just I want to
burn her down the field right so he can't he
can't run between the tackles, right, Tyreek Hill it running back?
What are we doing here? Yeah? No, he's yeah, yeah exactly.
It's like, no, put that guy on the outside. Let
(07:51):
him blow the top off the coverage every time. That's
where I'm at. And then I think you guys will
love this. Honestly, this might have been my favorite pick here,
my favorite selection of my entire are starting lineup for
wide receiver too. I have Miss Prissy because what do
we know about wide receivers. They can be a little
diva ish and they can be a little prissy, and
(08:12):
Miss Prissy is just I tell you what, my chef's kiss.
She's made for that position. Maybe there we go there
we you know what. I love it, I love it.
I'll give you that one. How about we jump out
for a moment and bring Mario into the conversation. Here,
Mario from Jersey, You're in the locker room. What do
you got to say? I got, I got yes? Back
(08:38):
running back. Yes, absolutely, no one's coming near him. You
even got PEDI guns out. Maybe it's a backup or
something like that. That's one to punch. And he's also
a yeah give me bunny bus bunny. It's art a
(09:00):
he can use his ears as his samilers to show
where everybody got. You gotta go. That is true. That
is true. And he could throw the carrots sometimes, you know,
into the football. Just think the football. That's the joke.
That's good, that's real good. I love it. Absolutely. He's
(09:21):
light on his feet too. You have to remember that.
Like he's very he's very quick witted, very very very
uh yeah, I mean the guy can improvise better than
anybody I know. I mean, listen, when you can fool
you Sammony, sam Elmer Fudd and everybody else. I mean,
you know, you gotta go with that guy. You gotta
go with him and maybe Lola as the maybe the coach,
(09:42):
you know saying the girlfriend. Oh buddy, one for you
from one of my rushers. I got block, Jacques Shallock,
you got you gotta have a little black heart to
(10:05):
be an edge rusher man. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Have a great day. Man. How about we get pepper
In and it's it's do another in the locker room, buddy,
you gotta come in strong. Okay, listen, you've heard of
the People's Choice Award, talking awards. We're gonna go with
(10:28):
the Peppi's Awards. That way. I can't that that way.
I can't be wrong. And again I did this last
year and again it's it's based on tomlin is MS
and the sitcom Welcome Back Carter. Okay, so one Tomulinism.
The next Man Up. We're gonna go with Jimyr Jones.
I haven't watched in the film, so this is just
(10:49):
what I'm saying. There others that could get this, and
this is based on the injury next if you're the
next player in the candidates. But we're gonna go with
Jimmy or Jones for our Next Man Up award, and
we're going with U. The Moving Train Award, we choose
people someone who wasn't on the team at the beginning
of training campus so they got on the train. Okay.
(11:12):
For for that, we're gonna take Malik Read. He could
have been Jamir Jones also, but you know, find no milk.
Read wind up not getting a hat for the last
few games or whatever, but we're going to give him
the moving train over another one. This another one, the standard,
the Standard award. We didn't do this before, so we're
(11:33):
gonna go with Anthony McFarland. We had a couple of
other candidates that one kick for the Skiba should have
been him, but we're gonna go with Anthony mcfarld. He
came off the practice squad, all got in one game,
so he doesn't have a whole lot of tape, if
you will, but he held up the standard. Who was
the one in front of him then Benny Snail. Okay,
(11:57):
he didn't get a whole lot of playing, but that
one game where he needed to play, he came in
and held up the standard. As far as being optimistic,
I'm optimistic. I'm always optimistic. Last year this time, when
uh Mason Rudolph was the de facto to be one,
I was optimistic even if we were were uh Rudolph.
(12:17):
And then when we signed Trabiskie, I was optimistic to
the point of hoping that he was gonna be Jim
Plunk at two point Oh you know, Jim Punky was
a high draft choice, didn't too didn't do too much
with his first team, but he did come in with
the second team I believe it was and when the
Super Bowl, but I'm always optimistic. Okay, we have one more,
one more award and just the Welcome Back Carter Award,
(12:38):
now for this one, for this one. You know how
sometimes you make the Pro Bowl or All Pro one
season after you really should have. And so while we
we could go with Matthew right, welcome back Carter because
he was with the team before the person who could
have won it last year, it's oversight of my part.
We're gonna give it to back start. Welcome back back
(13:05):
getting this award one year after you year, that's outstanding, Peppi.
Oh that's awesome. Oh and it's a it's a little
bit late, but Complaniels Phillis, thank you very much, the lady,
(13:27):
Happy birthday, the lated Welcome Back Carter Award, and that's
all I have. I love, Thank you, Peppi. That was
just awesome. That's awesome, that's beautiful, and that's pretty that's
pretty good. I would have to I mna have to steal.
So all right, hold on in the in the spirit
of Peppy, guys, who do you have for the Troy
Paula Malu Best Hair of the Year Award. Well, okay,
(13:51):
I'm out of the running. Okay, so let's see. Yeah,
it's definitely not you definitely not voting for yourself here. Not.
You gotta have hair first of all. That is a prerequisite. Yes,
that would be who That's a tough one, that is. Oh,
I know, I got it, Isaiah louder Milk, Isaia louder Milk. Yes,
(14:15):
it's a real good one. Yeah, he's got it. He's
the award winner best Hairs. The Samson, the Samson look.
He's got the Sampson look. Yes, yeah, I give it
to him. Gentlemen, what about what about play of the Year?
Your favorite one single play of this past season? Oh,
I mean I've gotta I gotta go with the Nagy
(14:37):
uh grant uh basketball stomped down like stiff arm in
Atlanta off the turf. Yeah, I mean, I mean he
he bounced him off the turf like a basketball and
he plays football, you know what I'm saying. Like, that's
the one thing where I'm just like that one was
just amazing to uh to see that. I always laugh.
(14:57):
It might be my favorite. I laughed when I think
about because I knew that nas you could run the ball.
I knew that he could catch the ball. I knew
that he could pass protect. I didn't know he was
part mixed martial arts cage fighter. Because I'll tell you what,
that guy he showed me more combustible, irascible, you know,
snagulation type, combative attitude. I I just I really, I
(15:19):
really admire um just how hard he ran, you know,
especially down the stretch. Um, boy, boy, he just showed
me a lot of heart, a lot of heart. There
was you know what. He doesn't get too overly fancy,
but he's that in between with speed, with power, with
um just you know, scrappy. Scrappy is the word I'm
(15:39):
looking for. So that's where I go with that. Um,
let's the best play? I gotta how do I come
up with the best play here? You know? I think,
um the touchdown pass two Pickens on the night that
we had to beat the Raiders. Um was that was
that Pickens? You score that? Yeah? Yeah, Christmas, yeah in
(16:00):
the last minute. Yeah. We gotta go with that one because,
you know, losing a teammate like Franco that meant so
much of the city, that was such a big deal
to put that drive together and win that. That was
the play of the year for me. That's a good one.
That's a real good one. Uh, there's I mean, there's
there's some worthy candidates here. I like both the ones
(16:21):
you guys have mentioned. I think certainly, uh Kenny Pickett
literally just by maybe the lack of fingers for JPP
escaping in Baltimore and dropping that one to Nay certainly
deserves a shout. Um. A lot of things that happened
in that Raids game. Heck, Nika Fitzpatrick and the blocked
extra point Week one to win that game and ultimately
(16:42):
the winning season, and Mike Tomlins sixteen years But for
me Fellas, this one was a while ago. But thinking
about this today and last night while I was putting
these together, my favorite single play of the year was
that George Pickens fingertip catch in Cleveland Week three on
Thursday night. Because Mr Horizontal, Mr Horizontal, Because just one right,
(17:07):
A catch like that never gets It's like the Odell
Beckham catch, right. I mean I can I can watch
that a million times and you're still like, my goodness,
how did he pull that off? And two for me,
it was kind of that moment of We had seen
a lot of that in training camp, but that was
the first time Week three that I think we really
saw it in you know, he made a couple of
nice plays, the touchdown reception from Mason Rudolph in the
(17:27):
preseason in the back of the end zone, right, like
he had made some nice catches in stadium, But in
terms of regular season, I think that was the first
time we really saw it and we were kind of like, alright,
there it is. That's the that's the type of players
we know this guy can make. Obviously that game didn't
go our way. It was kind of in the middle
of the down point of the season there, but looking
back on it, that Pickings catching Cleveland, I think really
(17:48):
kind of set the stage for all Right, this this
kid has got the stuff and he's gonna be a
lot of fun to watch. I like it, and you
know there's got to be consideration for Minca and his touchdown.
Uh you know it's pick Sex against since that was
my second one, yeah, second second player of the game
the game, right, I mean that was ridiculous. It was
(18:09):
Cam had that sack the first play. We absolutely destroyed
cord of Wolson and then after that, Yeah, Minka said, nope, nope, nope,
not to be outdone here on the highlight reach. Could
you imagine if we could go time travel and go
back and somehow t J. Watt doesn't get hurt what
that could have meant to the season. I don't know.
(18:30):
That win off of Cincinnati and t J. Watt solidified it.
I don't know. There's just a boy makes you wonder,
like you know the Philadelphia experiment. Yeah, you get on
that one of the battleships and time travel back, right.
I think I think, I think we wouldn't be doing
our last locker room show of the year today if
if t J. Watt plays all seventeen or even you know,
fifteen or sixteen games, right right? Okay, well we've better
(18:54):
punch out here before we get punched out. Yeah exactly,
all right, what we come back? We still got more
of your calls. Three six is the number, and of
course we still gotta finish out this squad. And I've
got some thoughts. I want to put a guy out there, um,
(19:15):
one at safety and one at fullback. The oft never
used fullback. I think I have a candidate that would
get a lot more playing time if he were in
the lineup here when we come back to the locker room,
esp and S and our radio. This is in the
(19:40):
locker Room with Wolf and Starks on ESPN Pittsburgh against
Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Forward Store. The
F one fifty is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ah we roll along here the pen ultimate segment for
this season. In the locker room, I'm your game show
(20:01):
host Wesley Euler. Max Starks is gonna lead us off
this time, Max with your biggest surprise in the season.
And I mean this in a positive way. All right,
let's not talk disappointments. Let's talk positives. Your biggest surprise
of the year. My biggest surprise of the year I
think would have to be Alex Highsmith Um. And I know,
(20:25):
I know everybody else has given them different types of awards,
but you wondered what Alex was gonna be able to do,
and then what he was able to do in the
absence of t J. Watt, and he just rose to
the occasion. Was a guy that made himself available, played
his behind off, and like you said, I mean, when
(20:46):
you get to that fourteen sack threshold. Um as a
guy they weren't expecting it. That was that was one
of mine. I knew he was gonna have a breakout year.
I was thinking double digits, but to get to fourteen
that was special and that was surprising for me. And
considering that you had two double digit guys on that line.
Um and I know he's a backer, but I'm counting
(21:07):
him in the D line with that, I mean between
him and Cam I mean, that was a huge surprise,
the way he was still able to thrive with a
large absence from t J. Watt. So he was my
surprise of the year. I like that one. Craig Wolfley,
what say you you know I'm gonna go with a
guy that's just beginning to pop, and that would be
Mark Robinson. I think that the things that we saw
(21:30):
from him in the last several weeks of the season
gives hope for maybe this is one of the guys
that can answer and solve the inside linebacker equation. And
by the way, Max Alex Heismith was an outstanding choice.
That's that's great stuff. I think I'm gonna go with
Mark Robinson though, as a guy who really just popped
(21:51):
from me, and I think maybe he's got he's got
the potential for future here if he keeps his nose,
you know, to the grindstone and just keeps working hard.
Those are both very good ones. And by the way,
I think I just hines warded that the last metaphor
alright off hand, I did, I did, I really did.
(22:12):
That's that's the hines Ward move there. I'm gonna go
with biggest surprise. And remember this is a positive. It's
the last day of the show here. We're staying with
the glass half for I'm gonna go Jalen Warren. You know, gentlemen,
a lot of talk in this town over the last
couple of years about RB two. Wasn't Benny Snell, wasn't
(22:33):
Anthony McFarland Jr. Was it somebody else that the Steelers
needed to go out and get a veteran in free agency? No,
it was the undrafted rookie from Oklahoma State who played
in the fine collegiate conference of the Big Twelve. If
I might add, who came in and took the reins
this year. You're you're still a newbie in the Big Twelve.
(22:54):
I still look at you don't started a decade of
service at this time, alright, I think even my wings.
I'd like to give a shout out to Cam Sutton
for this as well too, because he was my runner up.
I thought he really did admirably in the face of
a very banged up secondary. But to go from undrafted
(23:16):
rookie to answering all of our questions about RB two
Jalen Warren is my biggest surprise of the year. Al Right,
I like that that one at all. Can't fight that
one at all, absolutely, But can you fight this one?
All right? My defensive coordinator. You know, defensive coordinators are
always looking to do dastardly things to the offense. So
(23:39):
if that's the case, then you gotta go with Dick
Dastardly as your defensive coordinator. Oh, is a very solid choice.
I'm not even gonna lie to you. That is a
good one. See, I had I had Dick Dastardly at
my strong safety position, I could be convinced to put
him to move into d C. You know, he might
(23:59):
be along in the tooth so, you know, as a player,
and not as fast, not as fast as but he's
still crafty in the mind, you know, and especially think
about this. His defensive assistant could be Mutley. You know what,
Mutley is very dubious. Now you're talking exactly that, that exactly,
That's exactly what Mutley would do. Mutley sounds like he's
(24:23):
got COVID you know what I mean? Yeah, he does,
he does, he does. He is a is a very
bad Smoker's cough right there. Um, But you know what,
but what what what? I what I teased? And let
me get your guys thoughts at this, but fullback bam
bam rubble ye. Oh, that's so good that, I mean,
(24:44):
it's one of those is so obvious you just that
you have to say it. I mean, could you imagine
bam bam taking on a lead block. I don't don't,
I don't care what how much you paid. Rod Kuan
Smith ro Quan Smith would turn down the shop. I
think so, I think show I love it. Yeah. And
then Adam Aunt at at at free safety. He's alright, sneaky.
(25:08):
You'd forget about him, You'd lose him in the coverages.
He could come up to the line of scrimmage, nobody
would know he's blitz capable. I feel like Adam aunt
would be a solid free safety for us, and he
can fly an he's super strong. What else do you want? See?
He would have been my Mike Hilton slot corner. You see,
he got the cloke of invisibility. He can weave his
(25:28):
way on the blitz. You know, times it up and okay,
either place because they're doing a very much yeah safety. Look,
look I can see that that works. That works. Although
you know you got a free safety. You want a
guy that can fly around back there. How about Blue Falcon? Yeah?
(25:50):
I like Henry Hawk is your safety's I mean talking
about closing speed, Well, you talk about a ball hawk also, gentlemen,
I've got Pete Puma is my number one corner, my
lockdown guy. I mean he's a zoo keeper in the
Looney Tunes if he could keep track and keep you know,
(26:12):
wrangling up all those characters. I like him as a
lockdown corner. Pete Puma. I played him as my weak
side linebacker, did you Yeah, that's good hunter. He's a hunter, yea.
I also I like Crusher at tight end. He's a
he's a pro wrestler, all right, So he's got he's
got the athleticism and he's got the technical side. Right.
I mean you gotta have. You gotta be an athlete
(26:33):
to be a pro wrestler. You also have the technicality
with your hands and everything. Doesn't that sound like a
tight end. You gotta be able to catch, You gotta
be able to block, You gotta be able to move
your feet. Crusher as my tight end. And I'm getting
some I'm getting some Travis Kelsey vibes here or Jason
I mean either one. I'll take either. Well, yeah, yeah,
(26:55):
Then then we gotta go along in this night. And
then I've gotta i gotta play Yogi Bear some where
in my offensive line because offensive linemen are always going
after the baskets, right, yeah, right, they boo boo basket.
Ye see. And here's the thing. You put him at
right tackle because you don't need him to be the
(27:16):
best technical guy in pass protection. You just need him
to take up space. And you know, I feel like
Yogi Bear would do that because even it wouldn't distract it,
I feel like he could still give you about two
and a half seconds to get the ball off, you
know what I'm saying. Like that's where his strength would be.
I wouldn't put him in left because I need a
little bit I need a little bit more than a
(27:37):
little more athletic. Yeah, but I would take Yogi beartt
my right tackle. Okay, I would agree with that. That's
that's a good point. That's a good one. That's a
good one. Real quick, guys, we've got some people tweet
us about this too. Maybe before we go back to
the phone lines here, let's make sure we get the
tweeters in. Brian tweets and says, I can't call in
him at work, but I had to get in on this.
Wiley Coyote is an offensive lineman because wherever he is,
(28:00):
there's an explosion and he will literally blow holes through
the defensive line. Wallace tweets us here and says, you
gotta have Tasmanian Devil as your strong safety. There's some
Troy Paula Malu vibes there. I like that too. Yeah,
but there's no hair, that's the problem. No hair on him.
We'll get him a wig. Didn't there was something with
(28:26):
a wig? So yeah. Uh. Steeler Nation nine twenty tweets
and says wide receiver bugs bunny. He's fast, he could jump,
He's sneaky with his feet to make corners miss. He
will absolutely get separation. Tasmanian Devil is the running back.
Good luck tackling that spinning devil. He will be devastating,
(28:49):
real devastating. And he tweets and says before picking wildly,
Coyote is a head coach. Take his win loss record
into consideration. Not very promising that Touchette is right. Yes,
George tweets us here and says, how about space Ghost
as a tight end? He would get lost in coverage. Yeah,
(29:11):
that's that's a great pick. And he could also host
a show just like Pat Friar. Move doesn't heck of
a talk show host. Let's see here. Uh Rick tweets
and says, Tasmanian Devil would have to be one of
my safety is just like try Paul Malu spinning tornado
of football death flying around the field. Yeah I could. Yeah, Yeah,
(29:33):
that's that's why. That's why I feel like outside pass rusher.
I mean, listen, do I on Tasmanian Devil spin move?
I'm just saying that, you know what, who's got a
better spin move? Uh? Let's see Alex Higsmith Tasmanian Devil,
or let's see Tasmanian Devil Tasmanian Devil Yeah, that's true.
There's none. There's none better. It's a tornado. I mean
(29:55):
literally his spin moves. That's that's true. So Alex, you
got work to do. Yeah, exactly, I need I need
a couple more rotations, a couple more rotations, a little
more revolutions. There some more fidget spinning going on, exactly,
Manian devil. He can spend in a three cord bucket. Man.
I mean, it's not like he doesn't gain ground going
(30:17):
up and going up the field. He's got to work
on that a little. Yeah, he's a little slow in
the movement latterly, but listen, if you turn the off
the tackle around the line of scrim short corner, short
corner for another corver, top off the coverage guy. How
about George jets Jetson huh oh yeah, you know, basically
(30:38):
sprockets fine est employee right there. Now here's a good one.
G Rob tweets us and says, you know, speaking of
some of these uh Hannah Barbara characters, you've gotta have
speed Buggy as your return specialists. I like that's a
that's a real good one for It's a nice job.
You know, we got some really creative people up there
on the Twitter. Well we got one on whole here too,
(31:00):
now absolutely, so shall we bring him in? I think
the guys the neighborhood. Here we go. Let's bring in
cr from Chicago. So are you're in the neighborhood? Hey,
r Chicago just you know, just gonna dog me out
and say I'm messing up the neighborhood. But hey, I'm
gonna look who I'm hanging out. No, you are the neighborhood.
Are the neighborhood? And Mr Rodgers, it's going to be
(31:29):
excessively hard trying to get through this summer without listening
to you guys on the radio just about every day.
So it's a good thing that uh Western him West
and and uh and um most buddy is going to
be out there two or three times and we'll still
be doing twice a week. I think, yeah, yeah, twice
a week. So I was listening to you guys yesterday.
(31:50):
I really appreciate that because these other guys, you know,
I guess they're being older than you guys. They probably
can't hang out all ye that. Yeah, and you're an
old man too, You're like me, You're an old hey, hey, hey, hey,
you need the old people alone. We got right. Uh.
(32:13):
But but hey guys, I'm kind of out there a
little bit on all this stuff you guys are talking
about with all these uh uh uh superheroes and stuff
like that. So I'm gonna take the general manager role,
and I'm gonna think about adding I'm gonna give up,
and I'm gonna add I'm gonna give up my all
my special team people because special teams are important. So
(32:37):
by only having like four people on special teams, that
gives me the opportunity to get more linebackers and running
backs and all that kind of stuff that we need.
But my special team is going to consist of only
four people, which will be the Fantastic four there talking
(33:00):
about chemistry, yeah, he In other words, we're gonna fire
the place up. Yeah, exactly. It was you got a
wedge buster with the thing, I mean, you know, Mr
Fantastic and technically just come down and red rover the
entire return unit, I mean by himself. You think this,
(33:20):
When things looked their most grim, they come true. Oh
that was that was so late, low hanging, glorious all
at the same time. Hey guys, But I'm gonna change
up a little bit here I might get a little sentimental,
but are you talking about the games and everything? My
(33:42):
best thing this whole year was being at a summer
camp training camp, which is my first and only time
being a Philo fan for all these years. And what
I really appreciate about it was the fact that I
got to hang out with you guys one on one.
I got to sit there and physically watch you do
what you do best in your element. I got a
(34:04):
test and meet Matt and Dale and hang out with
all you guys and uh, Jacob and West and just
just just to be there a part of that stuff, man,
And it was It was really something that I would
never forget if I never get the opportunity to go
back again, to be there with you guys, to see
what you actually do, how you how you work together,
(34:25):
how the chemistry, just all that stuff, and to be
able to do it for like, well out of four
or five hours whatever I was like hanging out with
you guys. I would never forget that. I thank you
guys so much for what you bring to the table.
No other football team has what we have and we
have you guys, and I really really appreciate that. And
I won't steal the nation to know that you guys
(34:48):
are loved by all of us. Man, man, you are
you humble us in a difficult to really say. But
thank you for your kindness, thank you for your kind words,
thank you for being couragement, and we all love your
brother better this summer. Okay, my missing this summer is
(35:09):
every everybody I meet I'm putting I'm putting it out
on all all my tunis. I got access to over
two hundreds still a Nation outfits. So what I'm doing
every time I meet somebody, I'll put a message out.
You have got to go to the summer camp. If
you don't go to summer camp, then how the heck
can you call yourself a still a fan. I mean,
you've got to be a part of this, sayre it's
(35:30):
it's you know. Like I said, I've been I've been
here since seventy three and I've never been there, and
I will always remember that. We'll probably the highlight of
my life. I've been to the football games and all that.
But if you ain't been the Stummer camp, then you
ain't been there. Man. I'm telling you. So, I got
to get out of here because I know other people
out there. But I just want you guys to know
we're gonna miss you guys over the summer, but you
(35:52):
know we're gonna be all right. We're gonna see you
at summer camp of the Lord's with so in the
mantime and then between in time. Here we go, here
we go. Good, thanks, take care man. That was beautiful,
(36:12):
That was great, man, that was awesome, and ah, well
we need to go to break on that one. There's
nothing to say after that cr said at all, and
we are so appreciative of him and all of all
the Steeler Nation and everybody that calls in. But we
got the bell Lap segment coming up, the last bell
Lap segment of the three season of In the Locker Room,
(36:36):
Wolf and Starks, we come back here R s R
and ESPN Radio M. This is in the Locker Room
(36:58):
with Wolf and Starks on ESPN Pittsburgh against Steelers Nation Radio,
presented by your neighborhood Forward Store. The F one fifty
is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers. One final
time here, let's have a little in the locker room
(37:18):
game show. Gentlemen. I've got to know as we close
this thing down for the season, for the next few months.
I need your offensive m v P and of course
your defensive m v P for twenty three season. Oh yeah,
offensive m v P, defensive m v P. You know,
I I gotta go, uh, Naji, I gotta go Naji. Uh.
(37:41):
He just hung with it through you know, having the
bad foot, having uh you know, people saying uh, you know,
he doesn't look so good and this and that, and
then just coming on strong when they needed him to
come on strong. So I would go, I would have
to go, Naji, Mrs stuck you know what. You know what,
well if I I can't deny it either, I mean,
(38:03):
because you can't cut up the offensive MVP in the
five pieces and give it to the old line. So
I think I give it to the guy that made
the old line right, and that also, you know, paved
his own way. And I think for all the reasons
that you said, but I also say the accountability that
he also had of himself, the ability to be able
(38:27):
to self reflect as well and be able to analyze
his own play and realize where it was and where
it needed to be and then get there. I thought
that was another mark by Naji that really that really
endeared me more to him. I mean, you love your
running backs, his offensive line, but how could you not
want to block for that guy? So charismatic but yet
(38:49):
so open and honest about it, and doesn't doesn't look
any further than himself when it comes to blame or
looking at how can we be better? He always looks
at him self first before throwing judgment on anybody else.
So I appreciate Nay for that. So I concur beautiful.
I like those answers, gentlemen, will make it a queen's
clean sweep. I'm going Nagy Harris as well to defensive
(39:13):
m v P. Now, Max will start with you first
on this one. Minka. Well, no, no, let's take Minka
out of the equation because he's your overall MVP. Okay, oh,
you self exactly. Now, that's okay, okay, that's what it's
(39:34):
all right. It's not that I've comment heared the show
for today. That's good, that's all right. Okay. Well, the
number two captain Cam, Yeah, I mean steady Eddie, Mr Everything.
No matter the years, he leads by example, he leads
by voice, he leads by attitude, and for him to
(39:55):
come up with over ten sacks at this point in
his career Pro Bowl Alter Nit my behind that guy
is legendary, and so Captain Cam would be my number
my number two defensive MVP pick, says Manka was taken
off the table, right, and that's as as it should be.
Makea overall In my mind, it was a great pick
(40:16):
by the entire team. He has those magic Maka moments
and he demonstrated. But you know, for a defensive m
v P, taking out the fact that Maka has already
acknowledged as the overall UH, Cam was as you said,
this guy's strength is his strength. This guy's strength is
his leadership. This guy's leadership abilities are are just about
(40:38):
legendary for crying out loud, and he does it best
when he does it on the field. And that's what
we saw. When have you seen a twelve year guy
pick up a young buck and shot put him at
the quarterback? I mean, come on, that one, That one
sack alone was worth the entire season because I have
never seen anybody airmail and offensive lineman at the quarterback
(41:00):
to sack them. It's unbelievable. So yeah, just lock out right,
So that would be my pick two great choice facts.
Those are good ones. Those are good. I mean, can
I be that guy and say T J. Watt is that?
Or am I like? Is that? Is that? The two
hipster of an answer? You know what you do? Hipster? Well,
(41:23):
my hair is getting pretty long right now, rocking the
rock and the hat. You're just young. You're the only
one here that's young. Hey, sorry, man, I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be thirty two in a couple of weeks,
so I will take crying out. Listen, I look like
I'm sixteen, alright. I was about to say fifteen. I'm
not even gonna give Okay, you're right, you guys, listen.
(41:43):
I might not I might not want to say this
all right, because I might be uh like to do
in the opposite of taking the fifth year. I might
be incriminating myself. But I still have my college I D, alright,
from my freshman my freshman year at w V two
thousand nine. My college I D and I still use
it at movie theaters and stuff like that with no issues.
(42:04):
My goodness. Absolutely, I mean, because what are you ten
pounds heavier from your freshman year? This about it, honestly, Max,
I think I lost some white since then. Oh, jeezus.
Oh yeah, hey, neither Wolf nor I can pull that one.
Can not show the college idea. First of all, I
(42:26):
don't even know if we had real I d s
back then. You know, as I'm thinking about it, I
don't think I had a GAT or one card. But yeah,
mine is mine is still comes in clutch for the
five dollar movie ticket. Baby, Can I tell you this
one I did have. I remember I had a freshman
I D. And I'll never forget because training camp the
first year, the vets that shaved my head, and then
(42:46):
I got a black eye, somebody got a finger mine
and then a bloody lip during camp, and then had
zets and everything. And I'll never forget standing there sitting
there taking the picture, and the lady turned Rounch goes,
were you in a car accident? So well, Max, this
is the end of a wonderful year. Thank you brother.
It's been my pleasure, my honor and privilege to lock
(43:08):
arms with you and with West and what a great time.
How we love Stealers Nation. Thank you for tuning in.
We love you guys all. Yes, thank you so much
Stealer Nation for for loving us and giving us your
time two hours a day, five days a week, and
of course listening to us on Sundays. Uh, we truly
appreciate it. Uh. Your love and support is is immeasurable
(43:31):
and we're thankful and we can't wait for the opportunity
to do it all over again next season in a
couple of months, as we started out in late Trobe,
Pennsylvania West. Thank you so much for all that you've done.
Of course, special shout out to Jacob as well, since
a Lamb all the rest of the surf Ninjas in
(43:52):
the background. We appreciate all of you, guys, um, and
it's been a heck of a ride. And I'll leave
you guys with this. I didn't say my left tackle,
my left tackles Gossamer in case anybody yeah see, thank you,
thank you. I feel like I didn't get to give
my position. I gave everybody else a position. But I'm
picking Gossamer at the left tackle because he's a hulking,
(44:15):
big frame guy that's intimidating and scary but also likes pedicures. Um,
so exactly exactly, guys. Well, I appreciate it so much.
I love all you guys, Love you, Craig. I will
hope you see sometime this offseason visiting your brother and
we will actually hang out and possibly barbecue. That would
(44:38):
be awesome. So so with that, we closed the locker
rooms doors for the final time for the three season.
We thank you, but remember you can go get this
in all of our other shows. If you're missing us
in the off season, you can go download the podcast
Steelers mobile app, I Heart Radio app. But wherever else
your podcast to five We're still there, will be in
(44:59):
your hearts and minds, but well also be on the
podcast universe. This has been in the locker room and
he's Wolf, I'm Starks. Bye bye,
This is in the locker Room with Wolf and Starks
on ESPN Pittsburgh against Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your
neighborhood Forward Store. The F one is the official truck
of the Pittsburgh Steeler back once again with your favorite
game show host Wesley Bob Barker Jeweler Here in the
(00:35):
locker room final hour of this season. Gentlemen, I have
to know Mr Craig Wolfley will start with you first
on this one. Who gets your award for best coaching
job this season? Wow? You know, I'm gotta, I gotta.
It's tough because the low hanging fruit, which we already
talked about, and I know that's somebody else's voice, is
(00:58):
choice because I'd love to go Pat Meyer, but you
know you gotta go also Grady Brown in the secondary.
When you're leading the NFL with interceptions, When your most
valuable player team wise is in your secondary, the back end,
and he's tied for the lead in the NFL with
six of them, you know, maybe we we we just
gotta acknowledge the fact that Grady Brown did a great job. Yeah. No,
(01:22):
I'm definitely, I definitely like both of those choices. I
think both those are great. I'm gonna throw another hat
in there. I'm gonna go with Carl Dunbar just because
coach Coach Dunbar having to make the adjustments, right, you
lose guys left and right. Um, guys are going down
on I R. You have to figure out an answer
(01:43):
for t J. Watt's absence. Um, And you throw the
Marvin Lee al out there as one of the big guys,
and we found a role for him and we realize
his flexibility. So I think Carl Dunbar and just the
job he had to do and retooling the squad. You
went from giving up a bunch of yards in the
year being one of the stingiest defensive lines in the
(02:04):
league in the second half. So I my hat goes
to Carl Dunbar. Pretty sweet, pretty good, pretty good. Hold
on listen to the sun. Oh you gotta love it me,
Mr Game show host. You know what, I would have
probably gone Pat Meyer as well too. You guys have
(02:25):
given some really good shouts. So how about just in
terms of fairness, because everybody knows this is a fair show.
This is a fact based show that we do here,
of course, how about two shouts for Eddie Faulkner and
Alfredo Roberts as well too, to position groups that this
game show host thinks certainly showed growth throughout the regular season,
(02:46):
no doubt about it. You know, you can sit there
and go across the board. You talk about Brian Flores
and one of the stuff that he did defensively and
helping to show up the inside backers and everything else.
Get zooks. He's over and by the way, he's a
were in Cleveland. That's just let's bring him back. Bring
him back, come back, Brian, come back. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(03:06):
don't don't go there. Don't go there. That's where careers
go to die. Um Oh did I say that out loud?
I haven't hit the dump button. Yeah, we dumped it
right over to the Cuyahoga River. It's hard not to go,
Pat Meyer that I mean, just yes, Pat. I think
we all guys after that that Jacksonville game, you know,
(03:28):
that that second preseason game, I think we were all
kind of looking at each other like, man, this offensive
line might struggle mightily. And man, from from where they
were you know, this past weekend to where to where
they started in August, I mean just leaps and bounds.
But who was the voice of reason back then, but
our own Maximilian and he said, we need some time.
(03:50):
You got to give them time. And he was right,
you know, you give them time. And what a great
job Pat Meyer did and marshaling the troops, keeping them together.
And the fact of this is Mike Tomlin spoke about
the availability of the men. You're talking about all five
guys played between nineties of the snaps. That's unheard of. Yeah, no,
(04:12):
I mean the health of that offensive line, I think
is what also yielded the results, because they needed that
time to come together, right jel And if you have
guys injured missing time, that really stunts the progress and
the growth. And they stayed together. Listen, Chucks, I thought
his shoulder was gonna fall off at least seventeen times
this season and and it it did not. It did not.
(04:36):
I mean, he was he was just he was just
a piece of steel um out there. And the rest
of the offensive line, mean, James Daniels, Mason Cole, you know,
for them to get up to speed and get into
the position. And Kevin Dotson listen, you know you want
to talk about you know, you want to talk about
some awesome physical play we're talking about offensive guards, right.
(04:56):
You know, I love this because Steel Rocker actually said
it the same way I did it on Twitter. I
was checking the Twitter feed as well. Mcgilla Gorilla in
Great Pape as the guards. I mean, come on, I mean,
you know what I'm saying. And and Kevin Dotson was
was was like mcgilla Gorilla out there. He was just
destroying folks, especially the second half, I mean, rolling guys
(05:17):
off the st of course, that's a good one. That's Sam.
I had Sam sheep Dog and Hector the Bulldog at
my guards because I want some dogs on the interior.
That's that's that's tough to beat. That's a good call. Okay,
I had let me see, I had the who's the
fighting bull? That was the guy? Umu is it Hector
(05:38):
the bulldog? You know the fighting bull? Yeah? It was.
It was yeah the bull that yeah. Yeah, bugs, bunnies
would would fight. Yeah yeah, I can't find him. Where
did he go? Yes, he's one of my guards. And
then Hector the bulldog is the other he yes. Yeah.
That that's so Spanish too, because toro literally means bull
(06:01):
and they were they weren't really great, that's right, Alvaro
would approve, you know, but but like I said, uh,
leading out, you know what, we gotta have the Alvaro
on this call next time. Yeah, we do that, which
would be great, and he could he could bamboo slist
(06:24):
with with all the Spanish reasons and we'd never know.
Yeah exactly. It's just just make all of his answers
in Spanish and were just like, yep, it sounds so
compelling with the inflections in his voice. Um, but I'm
surprised nobody Captain Caveman at Nose Town. That's come on,
(06:48):
I mean, come on. The guy is physical, he's loud,
he's boisterous, and he just he just clubs everybody. You
know what I'm saying. Like, if there's anybody else to
to put a club move on, somebody wouldn't be Captain Caveman. Yes,
(07:09):
that's here's one for you. I need a cornerback who
can pick it off the opponent, right, So give me
Beaky Buzzard, the vulture that he does his pick off
someone else. You go, a good one. You ready for
these wide receivers? I got here. Oh yes, let's bring it.
(07:30):
So wide receiver one is the roadrunner. I mean you
know absolutely thought about road Runner at running back, but
I don't know if he's got quite the tenacity to
play in the trenches. And I just I want to
burn her down the field right so he can't he
can't run between the tackles, right, Tyreek Hill it running back?
What are we doing here? Yeah? No, he's yeah, yeah exactly.
It's like, no, put that guy on the outside. Let
(07:51):
him blow the top off the coverage every time. That's
where I'm at. And then I think you guys will
love this. Honestly, this might have been my favorite pick here,
my favorite selection of my entire are starting lineup for
wide receiver too. I have Miss Prissy because what do
we know about wide receivers. They can be a little
diva ish and they can be a little prissy, and
(08:12):
Miss Prissy is just I tell you what, my chef's kiss.
She's made for that position. Maybe there we go there
we you know what. I love it, I love it.
I'll give you that one. How about we jump out
for a moment and bring Mario into the conversation. Here,
Mario from Jersey, You're in the locker room. What do
you got to say? I got, I got yes? Back
(08:38):
running back. Yes, absolutely, no one's coming near him. You
even got PEDI guns out. Maybe it's a backup or
something like that. That's one to punch. And he's also
a yeah give me bunny bus bunny. It's art a
(09:00):
he can use his ears as his samilers to show
where everybody got. You gotta go. That is true. That
is true. And he could throw the carrots sometimes, you know,
into the football. Just think the football. That's the joke.
That's good, that's real good. I love it. Absolutely. He's
(09:21):
light on his feet too. You have to remember that.
Like he's very he's very quick witted, very very very
uh yeah, I mean the guy can improvise better than
anybody I know. I mean, listen, when you can fool
you Sammony, sam Elmer Fudd and everybody else. I mean,
you know, you gotta go with that guy. You gotta
go with him and maybe Lola as the maybe the coach,
(09:42):
you know saying the girlfriend. Oh buddy, one for you
from one of my rushers. I got block, Jacques Shallock,
you got you gotta have a little black heart to
(10:05):
be an edge rusher man. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Have a great day. Man. How about we get pepper
In and it's it's do another in the locker room, buddy,
you gotta come in strong. Okay, listen, you've heard of
the People's Choice Award, talking awards. We're gonna go with
(10:28):
the Peppi's Awards. That way. I can't that that way.
I can't be wrong. And again I did this last
year and again it's it's based on tomlin is MS
and the sitcom Welcome Back Carter. Okay, so one Tomulinism.
The next Man Up. We're gonna go with Jimyr Jones.
I haven't watched in the film, so this is just
(10:49):
what I'm saying. There others that could get this, and
this is based on the injury next if you're the
next player in the candidates. But we're gonna go with
Jimmy or Jones for our Next Man Up award, and
we're going with U. The Moving Train Award, we choose
people someone who wasn't on the team at the beginning
of training campus so they got on the train. Okay.
(11:12):
For for that, we're gonna take Malik Read. He could
have been Jamir Jones also, but you know, find no milk.
Read wind up not getting a hat for the last
few games or whatever, but we're going to give him
the moving train over another one. This another one, the standard,
the Standard award. We didn't do this before, so we're
(11:33):
gonna go with Anthony McFarland. We had a couple of
other candidates that one kick for the Skiba should have
been him, but we're gonna go with Anthony mcfarld. He
came off the practice squad, all got in one game,
so he doesn't have a whole lot of tape, if
you will, but he held up the standard. Who was
the one in front of him then Benny Snail. Okay,
(11:57):
he didn't get a whole lot of playing, but that
one game where he needed to play, he came in
and held up the standard. As far as being optimistic,
I'm optimistic. I'm always optimistic. Last year this time, when
uh Mason Rudolph was the de facto to be one,
I was optimistic even if we were were uh Rudolph.
(12:17):
And then when we signed Trabiskie, I was optimistic to
the point of hoping that he was gonna be Jim
Plunk at two point Oh you know, Jim Punky was
a high draft choice, didn't too didn't do too much
with his first team, but he did come in with
the second team I believe it was and when the
Super Bowl, but I'm always optimistic. Okay, we have one more,
one more award and just the Welcome Back Carter Award,
(12:38):
now for this one, for this one. You know how
sometimes you make the Pro Bowl or All Pro one
season after you really should have. And so while we
we could go with Matthew right, welcome back Carter because
he was with the team before the person who could
have won it last year, it's oversight of my part.
We're gonna give it to back start. Welcome back back
(13:05):
getting this award one year after you year, that's outstanding, Peppi.
Oh that's awesome. Oh and it's a it's a little
bit late, but Complaniels Phillis, thank you very much, the lady,
(13:27):
Happy birthday, the lated Welcome Back Carter Award, and that's
all I have. I love, Thank you, Peppi. That was
just awesome. That's awesome, that's beautiful, and that's pretty that's
pretty good. I would have to I mna have to steal.
So all right, hold on in the in the spirit
of Peppy, guys, who do you have for the Troy
Paula Malu Best Hair of the Year Award. Well, okay,
(13:51):
I'm out of the running. Okay, so let's see. Yeah,
it's definitely not you definitely not voting for yourself here. Not.
You gotta have hair first of all. That is a prerequisite. Yes,
that would be who That's a tough one, that is. Oh,
I know, I got it, Isaiah louder Milk, Isaia louder Milk. Yes,
(14:15):
it's a real good one. Yeah, he's got it. He's
the award winner best Hairs. The Samson, the Samson look.
He's got the Sampson look. Yes, yeah, I give it
to him. Gentlemen, what about what about play of the Year?
Your favorite one single play of this past season? Oh,
I mean I've gotta I gotta go with the Nagy
(14:37):
uh grant uh basketball stomped down like stiff arm in
Atlanta off the turf. Yeah, I mean, I mean he
he bounced him off the turf like a basketball and
he plays football, you know what I'm saying. Like, that's
the one thing where I'm just like that one was
just amazing to uh to see that. I always laugh.
(14:57):
It might be my favorite. I laughed when I think
about because I knew that nas you could run the ball.
I knew that he could catch the ball. I knew
that he could pass protect. I didn't know he was
part mixed martial arts cage fighter. Because I'll tell you what,
that guy he showed me more combustible, irascible, you know,
snagulation type, combative attitude. I I just I really, I
(15:19):
really admire um just how hard he ran, you know,
especially down the stretch. Um, boy, boy, he just showed
me a lot of heart, a lot of heart. There
was you know what. He doesn't get too overly fancy,
but he's that in between with speed, with power, with
um just you know, scrappy. Scrappy is the word I'm
(15:39):
looking for. So that's where I go with that. Um,
let's the best play? I gotta how do I come
up with the best play here? You know? I think,
um the touchdown pass two Pickens on the night that
we had to beat the Raiders. Um was that was
that Pickens? You score that? Yeah? Yeah, Christmas, yeah in
(16:00):
the last minute. Yeah. We gotta go with that one because,
you know, losing a teammate like Franco that meant so
much of the city, that was such a big deal
to put that drive together and win that. That was
the play of the year for me. That's a good one.
That's a real good one. Uh, there's I mean, there's
there's some worthy candidates here. I like both the ones
(16:21):
you guys have mentioned. I think certainly, uh Kenny Pickett
literally just by maybe the lack of fingers for JPP
escaping in Baltimore and dropping that one to Nay certainly
deserves a shout. Um. A lot of things that happened
in that Raids game. Heck, Nika Fitzpatrick and the blocked
extra point Week one to win that game and ultimately
(16:42):
the winning season, and Mike Tomlins sixteen years But for
me Fellas, this one was a while ago. But thinking
about this today and last night while I was putting
these together, my favorite single play of the year was
that George Pickens fingertip catch in Cleveland Week three on
Thursday night. Because Mr Horizontal, Mr Horizontal, Because just one right,
(17:07):
A catch like that never gets It's like the Odell
Beckham catch, right. I mean I can I can watch
that a million times and you're still like, my goodness,
how did he pull that off? And two for me,
it was kind of that moment of We had seen
a lot of that in training camp, but that was
the first time Week three that I think we really
saw it in you know, he made a couple of
nice plays, the touchdown reception from Mason Rudolph in the
(17:27):
preseason in the back of the end zone, right, like
he had made some nice catches in stadium, But in
terms of regular season, I think that was the first
time we really saw it and we were kind of like, alright,
there it is. That's the that's the type of players
we know this guy can make. Obviously that game didn't
go our way. It was kind of in the middle
of the down point of the season there, but looking
back on it, that Pickings catching Cleveland, I think really
(17:48):
kind of set the stage for all Right, this this
kid has got the stuff and he's gonna be a
lot of fun to watch. I like it, and you
know there's got to be consideration for Minca and his touchdown.
Uh you know it's pick Sex against since that was
my second one, yeah, second second player of the game
the game, right, I mean that was ridiculous. It was
(18:09):
Cam had that sack the first play. We absolutely destroyed
cord of Wolson and then after that, Yeah, Minka said, nope, nope, nope,
not to be outdone here on the highlight reach. Could
you imagine if we could go time travel and go
back and somehow t J. Watt doesn't get hurt what
that could have meant to the season. I don't know.
(18:30):
That win off of Cincinnati and t J. Watt solidified it.
I don't know. There's just a boy makes you wonder,
like you know the Philadelphia experiment. Yeah, you get on
that one of the battleships and time travel back, right.
I think I think, I think we wouldn't be doing
our last locker room show of the year today if
if t J. Watt plays all seventeen or even you know,
fifteen or sixteen games, right right? Okay, well we've better
(18:54):
punch out here before we get punched out. Yeah exactly,
all right, what we come back? We still got more
of your calls. Three six is the number, and of
course we still gotta finish out this squad. And I've
got some thoughts. I want to put a guy out there, um,
(19:15):
one at safety and one at fullback. The oft never
used fullback. I think I have a candidate that would
get a lot more playing time if he were in
the lineup here when we come back to the locker room,
esp and S and our radio. This is in the
(19:40):
locker Room with Wolf and Starks on ESPN Pittsburgh against
Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your neighborhood Forward Store. The
F one fifty is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ah we roll along here the pen ultimate segment for
this season. In the locker room, I'm your game show
(20:01):
host Wesley Euler. Max Starks is gonna lead us off
this time, Max with your biggest surprise in the season.
And I mean this in a positive way. All right,
let's not talk disappointments. Let's talk positives. Your biggest surprise
of the year. My biggest surprise of the year I
think would have to be Alex Highsmith Um. And I know,
(20:25):
I know everybody else has given them different types of awards,
but you wondered what Alex was gonna be able to do,
and then what he was able to do in the
absence of t J. Watt, and he just rose to
the occasion. Was a guy that made himself available, played
his behind off, and like you said, I mean, when
(20:46):
you get to that fourteen sack threshold. Um as a
guy they weren't expecting it. That was that was one
of mine. I knew he was gonna have a breakout year.
I was thinking double digits, but to get to fourteen
that was special and that was surprising for me. And
considering that you had two double digit guys on that line.
Um and I know he's a backer, but I'm counting
(21:07):
him in the D line with that, I mean between
him and Cam I mean, that was a huge surprise,
the way he was still able to thrive with a
large absence from t J. Watt. So he was my
surprise of the year. I like that one. Craig Wolfley,
what say you you know I'm gonna go with a
guy that's just beginning to pop, and that would be
Mark Robinson. I think that the things that we saw
(21:30):
from him in the last several weeks of the season
gives hope for maybe this is one of the guys
that can answer and solve the inside linebacker equation. And
by the way, Max Alex Heismith was an outstanding choice.
That's that's great stuff. I think I'm gonna go with
Mark Robinson though, as a guy who really just popped
(21:51):
from me, and I think maybe he's got he's got
the potential for future here if he keeps his nose,
you know, to the grindstone and just keeps working hard.
Those are both very good ones. And by the way,
I think I just hines warded that the last metaphor
alright off hand, I did, I did, I really did.
(22:12):
That's that's the hines Ward move there. I'm gonna go
with biggest surprise. And remember this is a positive. It's
the last day of the show here. We're staying with
the glass half for I'm gonna go Jalen Warren. You know, gentlemen,
a lot of talk in this town over the last
couple of years about RB two. Wasn't Benny Snell, wasn't
(22:33):
Anthony McFarland Jr. Was it somebody else that the Steelers
needed to go out and get a veteran in free agency? No,
it was the undrafted rookie from Oklahoma State who played
in the fine collegiate conference of the Big Twelve. If
I might add, who came in and took the reins
this year. You're you're still a newbie in the Big Twelve.
(22:54):
I still look at you don't started a decade of
service at this time, alright, I think even my wings.
I'd like to give a shout out to Cam Sutton
for this as well too, because he was my runner up.
I thought he really did admirably in the face of
a very banged up secondary. But to go from undrafted
(23:16):
rookie to answering all of our questions about RB two
Jalen Warren is my biggest surprise of the year. Al Right,
I like that that one at all. Can't fight that
one at all, absolutely, But can you fight this one?
All right? My defensive coordinator. You know, defensive coordinators are
always looking to do dastardly things to the offense. So
(23:39):
if that's the case, then you gotta go with Dick
Dastardly as your defensive coordinator. Oh, is a very solid choice.
I'm not even gonna lie to you. That is a
good one. See, I had I had Dick Dastardly at
my strong safety position, I could be convinced to put
him to move into d C. You know, he might
(23:59):
be along in the tooth so, you know, as a player,
and not as fast, not as fast as but he's
still crafty in the mind, you know, and especially think
about this. His defensive assistant could be Mutley. You know what,
Mutley is very dubious. Now you're talking exactly that, that exactly,
That's exactly what Mutley would do. Mutley sounds like he's
(24:23):
got COVID you know what I mean? Yeah, he does,
he does, he does. He is a is a very
bad Smoker's cough right there. Um, But you know what,
but what what what? I what I teased? And let
me get your guys thoughts at this, but fullback bam
bam rubble ye. Oh, that's so good that, I mean,
(24:44):
it's one of those is so obvious you just that
you have to say it. I mean, could you imagine
bam bam taking on a lead block. I don't don't,
I don't care what how much you paid. Rod Kuan
Smith ro Quan Smith would turn down the shop. I
think so, I think show I love it. Yeah. And
then Adam Aunt at at at free safety. He's alright, sneaky.
(25:08):
You'd forget about him, You'd lose him in the coverages.
He could come up to the line of scrimmage, nobody
would know he's blitz capable. I feel like Adam aunt
would be a solid free safety for us, and he
can fly an he's super strong. What else do you want? See?
He would have been my Mike Hilton slot corner. You see,
he got the cloke of invisibility. He can weave his
(25:28):
way on the blitz. You know, times it up and okay,
either place because they're doing a very much yeah safety. Look,
look I can see that that works. That works. Although
you know you got a free safety. You want a
guy that can fly around back there. How about Blue Falcon? Yeah?
(25:50):
I like Henry Hawk is your safety's I mean talking
about closing speed, Well, you talk about a ball hawk also, gentlemen,
I've got Pete Puma is my number one corner, my
lockdown guy. I mean he's a zoo keeper in the
Looney Tunes if he could keep track and keep you know,
(26:12):
wrangling up all those characters. I like him as a
lockdown corner. Pete Puma. I played him as my weak
side linebacker, did you Yeah, that's good hunter. He's a hunter, yea.
I also I like Crusher at tight end. He's a
he's a pro wrestler, all right, So he's got he's
got the athleticism and he's got the technical side. Right.
I mean you gotta have. You gotta be an athlete
(26:33):
to be a pro wrestler. You also have the technicality
with your hands and everything. Doesn't that sound like a
tight end. You gotta be able to catch, You gotta
be able to block, You gotta be able to move
your feet. Crusher as my tight end. And I'm getting
some I'm getting some Travis Kelsey vibes here or Jason
I mean either one. I'll take either. Well, yeah, yeah,
(26:55):
Then then we gotta go along in this night. And
then I've gotta i gotta play Yogi Bear some where
in my offensive line because offensive linemen are always going
after the baskets, right, yeah, right, they boo boo basket.
Ye see. And here's the thing. You put him at
right tackle because you don't need him to be the
(27:16):
best technical guy in pass protection. You just need him
to take up space. And you know, I feel like
Yogi Bear would do that because even it wouldn't distract it,
I feel like he could still give you about two
and a half seconds to get the ball off, you
know what I'm saying. Like that's where his strength would be.
I wouldn't put him in left because I need a
little bit I need a little bit more than a
(27:37):
little more athletic. Yeah, but I would take Yogi beartt
my right tackle. Okay, I would agree with that. That's
that's a good point. That's a good one. That's a
good one. Real quick, guys, we've got some people tweet
us about this too. Maybe before we go back to
the phone lines here, let's make sure we get the
tweeters in. Brian tweets and says, I can't call in
him at work, but I had to get in on this.
Wiley Coyote is an offensive lineman because wherever he is,
(28:00):
there's an explosion and he will literally blow holes through
the defensive line. Wallace tweets us here and says, you
gotta have Tasmanian Devil as your strong safety. There's some
Troy Paula Malu vibes there. I like that too. Yeah,
but there's no hair, that's the problem. No hair on him.
We'll get him a wig. Didn't there was something with
(28:26):
a wig? So yeah. Uh. Steeler Nation nine twenty tweets
and says wide receiver bugs bunny. He's fast, he could jump,
He's sneaky with his feet to make corners miss. He
will absolutely get separation. Tasmanian Devil is the running back.
Good luck tackling that spinning devil. He will be devastating,
(28:49):
real devastating. And he tweets and says before picking wildly,
Coyote is a head coach. Take his win loss record
into consideration. Not very promising that Touchette is right. Yes,
George tweets us here and says, how about space Ghost
as a tight end? He would get lost in coverage. Yeah,
(29:11):
that's that's a great pick. And he could also host
a show just like Pat Friar. Move doesn't heck of
a talk show host. Let's see here. Uh Rick tweets
and says, Tasmanian Devil would have to be one of
my safety is just like try Paul Malu spinning tornado
of football death flying around the field. Yeah I could. Yeah, Yeah,
(29:33):
that's that's why. That's why I feel like outside pass rusher.
I mean, listen, do I on Tasmanian Devil spin move?
I'm just saying that, you know what, who's got a
better spin move? Uh? Let's see Alex Higsmith Tasmanian Devil,
or let's see Tasmanian Devil Tasmanian Devil Yeah, that's true.
There's none. There's none better. It's a tornado. I mean
(29:55):
literally his spin moves. That's that's true. So Alex, you
got work to do. Yeah, exactly, I need I need
a couple more rotations, a couple more rotations, a little
more revolutions. There some more fidget spinning going on, exactly,
Manian devil. He can spend in a three cord bucket. Man.
I mean, it's not like he doesn't gain ground going
(30:17):
up and going up the field. He's got to work
on that a little. Yeah, he's a little slow in
the movement latterly, but listen, if you turn the off
the tackle around the line of scrim short corner, short
corner for another corver, top off the coverage guy. How
about George jets Jetson huh oh yeah, you know, basically
(30:38):
sprockets fine est employee right there. Now here's a good one.
G Rob tweets us and says, you know, speaking of
some of these uh Hannah Barbara characters, you've gotta have
speed Buggy as your return specialists. I like that's a
that's a real good one for It's a nice job.
You know, we got some really creative people up there
on the Twitter. Well we got one on whole here too,
(31:00):
now absolutely, so shall we bring him in? I think
the guys the neighborhood. Here we go. Let's bring in
cr from Chicago. So are you're in the neighborhood? Hey,
r Chicago just you know, just gonna dog me out
and say I'm messing up the neighborhood. But hey, I'm
gonna look who I'm hanging out. No, you are the neighborhood.
Are the neighborhood? And Mr Rodgers, it's going to be
(31:29):
excessively hard trying to get through this summer without listening
to you guys on the radio just about every day.
So it's a good thing that uh Western him West
and and uh and um most buddy is going to
be out there two or three times and we'll still
be doing twice a week. I think, yeah, yeah, twice
a week. So I was listening to you guys yesterday.
(31:50):
I really appreciate that because these other guys, you know,
I guess they're being older than you guys. They probably
can't hang out all ye that. Yeah, and you're an
old man too, You're like me, You're an old hey, hey, hey, hey,
you need the old people alone. We got right. Uh.
(32:13):
But but hey guys, I'm kind of out there a
little bit on all this stuff you guys are talking
about with all these uh uh uh superheroes and stuff
like that. So I'm gonna take the general manager role,
and I'm gonna think about adding I'm gonna give up,
and I'm gonna add I'm gonna give up my all
my special team people because special teams are important. So
(32:37):
by only having like four people on special teams, that
gives me the opportunity to get more linebackers and running
backs and all that kind of stuff that we need.
But my special team is going to consist of only
four people, which will be the Fantastic four there talking
(33:00):
about chemistry, yeah, he In other words, we're gonna fire
the place up. Yeah, exactly. It was you got a
wedge buster with the thing, I mean, you know, Mr
Fantastic and technically just come down and red rover the
entire return unit, I mean by himself. You think this,
(33:20):
When things looked their most grim, they come true. Oh
that was that was so late, low hanging, glorious all
at the same time. Hey guys, But I'm gonna change
up a little bit here I might get a little sentimental,
but are you talking about the games and everything? My
(33:42):
best thing this whole year was being at a summer
camp training camp, which is my first and only time
being a Philo fan for all these years. And what
I really appreciate about it was the fact that I
got to hang out with you guys one on one.
I got to sit there and physically watch you do
what you do best in your element. I got a
(34:04):
test and meet Matt and Dale and hang out with
all you guys and uh, Jacob and West and just
just just to be there a part of that stuff, man,
And it was It was really something that I would
never forget if I never get the opportunity to go
back again, to be there with you guys, to see
what you actually do, how you how you work together,
(34:25):
how the chemistry, just all that stuff, and to be
able to do it for like, well out of four
or five hours whatever I was like hanging out with
you guys. I would never forget that. I thank you
guys so much for what you bring to the table.
No other football team has what we have and we
have you guys, and I really really appreciate that. And
I won't steal the nation to know that you guys
(34:48):
are loved by all of us. Man, man, you are
you humble us in a difficult to really say. But
thank you for your kindness, thank you for your kind words,
thank you for being couragement, and we all love your
brother better this summer. Okay, my missing this summer is
(35:09):
every everybody I meet I'm putting I'm putting it out
on all all my tunis. I got access to over
two hundreds still a Nation outfits. So what I'm doing
every time I meet somebody, I'll put a message out.
You have got to go to the summer camp. If
you don't go to summer camp, then how the heck
can you call yourself a still a fan. I mean,
you've got to be a part of this, sayre it's
(35:30):
it's you know. Like I said, I've been I've been
here since seventy three and I've never been there, and
I will always remember that. We'll probably the highlight of
my life. I've been to the football games and all that.
But if you ain't been the Stummer camp, then you
ain't been there. Man. I'm telling you. So, I got
to get out of here because I know other people
out there. But I just want you guys to know
we're gonna miss you guys over the summer, but you
(35:52):
know we're gonna be all right. We're gonna see you
at summer camp of the Lord's with so in the
mantime and then between in time. Here we go, here
we go. Good, thanks, take care man. That was beautiful,
(36:12):
That was great, man, that was awesome, and ah, well
we need to go to break on that one. There's
nothing to say after that cr said at all, and
we are so appreciative of him and all of all
the Steeler Nation and everybody that calls in. But we
got the bell Lap segment coming up, the last bell
Lap segment of the three season of In the Locker Room,
(36:36):
Wolf and Starks, we come back here R s R
and ESPN Radio M. This is in the Locker Room
(36:58):
with Wolf and Starks on ESPN Pittsburgh against Steelers Nation Radio,
presented by your neighborhood Forward Store. The F one fifty
is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers. One final
time here, let's have a little in the locker room
(37:18):
game show. Gentlemen. I've got to know as we close
this thing down for the season, for the next few months.
I need your offensive m v P and of course
your defensive m v P for twenty three season. Oh yeah,
offensive m v P, defensive m v P. You know,
I I gotta go, uh, Naji, I gotta go Naji. Uh.
(37:41):
He just hung with it through you know, having the
bad foot, having uh you know, people saying uh, you know,
he doesn't look so good and this and that, and
then just coming on strong when they needed him to
come on strong. So I would go, I would have
to go, Naji, Mrs stuck you know what. You know what,
well if I I can't deny it either, I mean,
(38:03):
because you can't cut up the offensive MVP in the
five pieces and give it to the old line. So
I think I give it to the guy that made
the old line right, and that also, you know, paved
his own way. And I think for all the reasons
that you said, but I also say the accountability that
he also had of himself, the ability to be able
(38:27):
to self reflect as well and be able to analyze
his own play and realize where it was and where
it needed to be and then get there. I thought
that was another mark by Naji that really that really
endeared me more to him. I mean, you love your
running backs, his offensive line, but how could you not
want to block for that guy? So charismatic but yet
(38:49):
so open and honest about it, and doesn't doesn't look
any further than himself when it comes to blame or
looking at how can we be better? He always looks
at him self first before throwing judgment on anybody else.
So I appreciate Nay for that. So I concur beautiful.
I like those answers, gentlemen, will make it a queen's
clean sweep. I'm going Nagy Harris as well to defensive
(39:13):
m v P. Now, Max will start with you first
on this one. Minka. Well, no, no, let's take Minka
out of the equation because he's your overall MVP. Okay, oh,
you self exactly. Now, that's okay, okay, that's what it's
(39:34):
all right. It's not that I've comment heared the show
for today. That's good, that's all right. Okay. Well, the
number two captain Cam, Yeah, I mean steady Eddie, Mr Everything.
No matter the years, he leads by example, he leads
by voice, he leads by attitude, and for him to
(39:55):
come up with over ten sacks at this point in
his career Pro Bowl Alter Nit my behind that guy
is legendary, and so Captain Cam would be my number
my number two defensive MVP pick, says Manka was taken
off the table, right, and that's as as it should be.
Makea overall In my mind, it was a great pick
(40:16):
by the entire team. He has those magic Maka moments
and he demonstrated. But you know, for a defensive m
v P, taking out the fact that Maka has already
acknowledged as the overall UH, Cam was as you said,
this guy's strength is his strength. This guy's strength is
his leadership. This guy's leadership abilities are are just about
(40:38):
legendary for crying out loud, and he does it best
when he does it on the field. And that's what
we saw. When have you seen a twelve year guy
pick up a young buck and shot put him at
the quarterback? I mean, come on, that one, That one
sack alone was worth the entire season because I have
never seen anybody airmail and offensive lineman at the quarterback
(41:00):
to sack them. It's unbelievable. So yeah, just lock out right,
So that would be my pick two great choice facts.
Those are good ones. Those are good. I mean, can
I be that guy and say T J. Watt is that?
Or am I like? Is that? Is that? The two
hipster of an answer? You know what you do? Hipster? Well,
(41:23):
my hair is getting pretty long right now, rocking the
rock and the hat. You're just young. You're the only
one here that's young. Hey, sorry, man, I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be thirty two in a couple of weeks,
so I will take crying out. Listen, I look like
I'm sixteen, alright. I was about to say fifteen. I'm
not even gonna give Okay, you're right, you guys, listen.
(41:43):
I might not I might not want to say this
all right, because I might be uh like to do
in the opposite of taking the fifth year. I might
be incriminating myself. But I still have my college I D, alright,
from my freshman my freshman year at w V two
thousand nine. My college I D and I still use
it at movie theaters and stuff like that with no issues.
(42:04):
My goodness. Absolutely, I mean, because what are you ten
pounds heavier from your freshman year? This about it, honestly, Max,
I think I lost some white since then. Oh, jeezus.
Oh yeah, hey, neither Wolf nor I can pull that one.
Can not show the college idea. First of all, I
(42:26):
don't even know if we had real I d s
back then. You know, as I'm thinking about it, I
don't think I had a GAT or one card. But yeah,
mine is mine is still comes in clutch for the
five dollar movie ticket. Baby, Can I tell you this
one I did have. I remember I had a freshman
I D. And I'll never forget because training camp the
first year, the vets that shaved my head, and then
(42:46):
I got a black eye, somebody got a finger mine
and then a bloody lip during camp, and then had
zets and everything. And I'll never forget standing there sitting
there taking the picture, and the lady turned Rounch goes,
were you in a car accident? So well, Max, this
is the end of a wonderful year. Thank you brother.
It's been my pleasure, my honor and privilege to lock
(43:08):
arms with you and with West and what a great time.
How we love Stealers Nation. Thank you for tuning in.
We love you guys all. Yes, thank you so much
Stealer Nation for for loving us and giving us your
time two hours a day, five days a week, and
of course listening to us on Sundays. Uh, we truly
appreciate it. Uh. Your love and support is is immeasurable
(43:31):
and we're thankful and we can't wait for the opportunity
to do it all over again next season in a
couple of months, as we started out in late Trobe,
Pennsylvania West. Thank you so much for all that you've done.
Of course, special shout out to Jacob as well, since
a Lamb all the rest of the surf Ninjas in
(43:52):
the background. We appreciate all of you, guys, um, and
it's been a heck of a ride. And I'll leave
you guys with this. I didn't say my left tackle,
my left tackles Gossamer in case anybody yeah see, thank you,
thank you. I feel like I didn't get to give
my position. I gave everybody else a position. But I'm
picking Gossamer at the left tackle because he's a hulking,
(44:15):
big frame guy that's intimidating and scary but also likes pedicures. Um,
so exactly exactly, guys. Well, I appreciate it so much.
I love all you guys, Love you, Craig. I will
hope you see sometime this offseason visiting your brother and
we will actually hang out and possibly barbecue. That would
(44:38):
be awesome. So so with that, we closed the locker
rooms doors for the final time for the three season.
We thank you, but remember you can go get this
in all of our other shows. If you're missing us
in the off season, you can go download the podcast
Steelers mobile app, I Heart Radio app. But wherever else
your podcast to five We're still there, will be in
(44:59):
your hearts and minds, but well also be on the
podcast universe. This has been in the locker room and
he's Wolf, I'm Starks. Bye bye,
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