January 12, 2023 • 27 mins
Spanish voice of the Steelers, Alvaro Martin, joins the locker room for the final time this season, and sings Max happy birthday!
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
This is in the locker Room with Wolf and Starks
on ESPN Pittsburgh and Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your
neighborhood Forward Store. The F one fifty is the official
truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers zero Pittsburgh Camp. I might
(00:38):
start picking the pickards, picking up pickads, picking up pickads.
Bickond u picks. Don't touch that far prefers. This uta
rectorial poster has loved all the red. It's a little
(01:00):
pick SPECTACULARA wow, and I knew every word that you
were saying there, Alvaro Martine, are from our Steelers Spanish
game day broadcast. And by the way, I would I.
I think it's upon you that you must sing Happy
(01:21):
Birthday in Espanol to Max. Now we're talking. Come on, Alvaro,
let's put it in, put it together, here, let's do it.
Here we go in three to one. Coom play on
yours fairly, David, yeahs at coom play on yours, Max Dog,
(01:46):
coom play on yours. Yeah, Here we go, we go.
You really out in westing Me. I sounded just like
I did when I hit forty oh wait a minute, Max,
Max hit the fourth floor. Yes, yes, I I am
(02:11):
a distinguished club. Now the club k the survivors. Yes, exactly, exactly, Yes,
I'm winning the survivor pool right now. So young man,
what have you accomplishing your life? I'm breathing. Okay, I'm
(02:33):
breathing exactly stood up this morning. Can see my toes
were good? Yeah, that's not fair. Your your feet are
so long, man, that listen, listen all about perspective, Wolf.
I could see my toes. That's all we need to focus.
How we need to focus. Does not matter that there's
size nineteens and they stick out like like bok. It
(02:54):
does not matter every every year he buys chew a
larger It's what we can keep saying that I can
see my toes. I can see then, I can see it.
I can see it, and I see it. I can
believe it. I know it looks like the shoes of
a court jester, but you know I can still see
the tip of my I might be I might be
(03:16):
exploring the northern hemisphere, but you know it's all good.
I gotta tell you. I gotta tell you. Max has
been working so hard. Max gets out of that that uh,
you know, broadcast position, and he goes down to the field,
and then he's up again, and then he's catching a fight.
Then he's doing what you call it bowl, and then
he's doing the other bowl, and then he's doing the playoffs.
I mean he can't. I mean he's busy. He is. Yeah,
(03:41):
I don't, I don't stop and and and apparently because
we didn't make the playoffs, I'm now still going to
the playoffs because I got Jacksonville and the Chargers this weekend.
Well there you go. So you're still you're still going
to be getting your air miles in. Yeah, air miles
still fully engaged. And of course there is a San
Francisco game, which is a lot closer. But apparently I
have needed on America's first coast, so I'll be going
(04:03):
to clear across the country. Do alright, alvar that's we're
putting a rap on the season all the week long.
Here is Mike tom called putting a bow on it?
Um Is it a rap or is it a bowl?
I mean, because I tend to think with Mike, you
(04:24):
gotta put a bow on the end of the season,
certainly the beginning of the season one, so good, Well,
he's gotta he's gotta get the sisters first, Um, he's
working his way towards wrapping and bowing, so he's gonna
take his time. And he's always taking his time, particularly
with coaching decisions. They don't come quick. Um, so he
(04:44):
doesn't take his time. I have to say that I
was going to bring up at one of the points
and we're not in there. Of course, he could well
be the players themselves. But one of the things that
strikes me about this season is some of the development
of certain players. Um. Again, it could have been up
to them, but you get a sense, and you guys
would tell me that there were some coaching involved. Um.
(05:06):
I mean, I'm thinking of guys that probably had career
years or near career years. Cameron Sutton, Mason Cole, Pat Friar,
Minka Fitzpatrick, believe it or not as good as he is,
Alex Heismith, County Hayward. Let'sn't even talk about the youngsters.
You know, we're just coming in as freshmen. They have
(05:26):
nothing to have another another year to compare. You're looking
at at players that had either their career years, including
some of the Vets, or near career years. Now maybe
the team needed that said for them to get to
nine and eight. So they just they just put it
out there because the team was desperate. But there were
some new coaches in the staff and you saw this happen,
(05:50):
and that's very encouraging, particularly when you think the kind
of one eighty they did at the bye week where
I actually did the renalta. Just look at the numbers,
and I'm not gonna Borroy with numbers correct but out
of the first eight games, in seven of them they
attempted more passes then they had carries. In the last
(06:10):
nine games, they had seven of them where they rushed
more than they passed. So this is a one eight.
This is a complete change of orientation, philosophy, identity. And
they did it in season. They had to, to be honest,
they had to. It wasn't working. What they had wasn't working.
But they hit on the right note and they ended
(06:32):
up doing well. And to me, that also speaks to coaching.
That's the other bit of avidence I'm gonna throw in
there that some of the new names and the coaching staff.
I mean, again, I have no idea if they were
responsible or if the players who care upon themselves and
I'm thinking Pat Meyer, I'm thinking Grady Brown, Brian Flores,
Arall Austin in a new role, and Mike Sullivan just
(06:54):
to name a few. Again, they may have not done
anything themselves, but you've got a sense that they were
involved in this whole change of orientation and settling down
of roles and what Mike Tomlin calls a division of
labor and the focus of what you have to do.
So I think when you look at the season, that
(07:15):
is something to note about the season. And it wasn't easy.
It wasn't easy to do that, and a lot of
teams do that. No, and the success of the running
game is is directly related to again putting getting more reps,
but it's also Pat Meyer getting the Hugs doing what
they're supposed to do. They were doing it, they just
it takes a while. As we've been talking about Max
(07:35):
from the get go said it's gonna be six seven,
eight weeks before you understand when we were coming out
of training camp where this line is gonna be because
it takes some time, and you couldn't have been any
more spot on Max, and you were in that moment, well,
and I think, well, I mean, but but but we've
been in those moments right where you're the guy in
(07:57):
a in a line, or you're the guy accepting the
new guys on your line, and so it it's a
special amount of time that it takes for all of
us to get on the same page. And so I
just simply, you know, I wanted to make sure that
we tempered those expectations because this, like of all the
positions you could put out there on the football field,
(08:19):
like O lines, the only unique one where all five
have to be on the same page. Right, You can
freestyle at other positions. You could do something individually that
can be spectacular and work out for the good. You
can't do that as offensive linement. I can't say, you
know what, I was gonna block the d N, but
you know what this that that safety. I feel like
if we get up to that safety man, he could
(08:39):
pop it all the way. So I'm not gonna block
this d N. I'm I'm gonna run to the safety instead.
You can't do that, you know, because the quarterbacks laying
down look, look, look looking at the sky, wondering why
am I here right now and not looking down field.
So you know, it takes time for that synchronicity, and
everybody has to you know, be on that same page.
(09:00):
You have to understand it. So I mean for Pat
Meyer and that crew to just stick with it um
And like I said, no injuries as well. I think
that was the other thing. We kept the same line
up out there. It wasn't like we had guys rolling
in and out of the lineup like you see a
lot of teams where they're rolling through offensive line and
guys are on i R. You know, they stayed together.
They had some bumps and bruises along the way, but
(09:20):
nothing significant that really kept them out of the lineup
from playing in games. And that's I think what really
ended up being the true testament was the time accrued
on the clock for those guys. It was the only
NFL team that had the same type starters and the things.
You have the same crew the entire season. Everybody else
had injuries and seems to deal with. Fittford was lucky
(09:41):
that way. But again I go back to when you
make that comment, Bax, you may have been the only
person that was willing to bet on that offensive line
when there were two and six. I mean, how many
people said, you know what, with this offensive line, we're
gonna bet the rest of the season, we're gonna run
more than we pass because we think they're built for
(10:01):
that and they're up for that. Not a lot of
people really saw that. I'm sure they saw that in
the building because they made the change, But boy, took
some guts. From the outside, you think, wow, that that
took some guts. What do you think you think that was?
That it was that simple, that clear in your mind
that that was the only way Facebook was going to
make make sort of some kind of advancement, kind of
move ahead in the standings. Well, I think it had
(10:23):
to be a oar. I think it had to be
that you had to to keep hitting the grindstone because
with any run game like you have to take those
two yards, four yards, zero yards, six yards until you
finally cracked the dam. And I think that was the
biggest thing. Run game is a game of repetition. Just
(10:46):
like anything else, You've got to continually stick with. You
can't abandon it at the first sign of a negative player. Listen,
Bruce arians used to do that. B A would be like,
all right, that was 'all shot. All right, now we're
going to the air game and you're like, oh god,
we lost a run game because of one negative play,
and you know, Matt Cannada realized you got a rickie quarterback.
(11:06):
Like what makes a successful formula. You have to be
able to run the ball. You have to be two
dimensional because that ricky quarterback is gonna get overwhelmed at
some point. He's going to feel the pressure and you
need to alleviate that stress and not make every big
play that he's gonna have to throw third and eight, team,
third and eleven. Right, you've got to get him into
(11:26):
third and mediums, third and shorts. So you have a
two way go and you keep teams guessing to where
they can't just either A they want to load the
box and now you're one on one, or be they're
dropping off and like cover eight, you know, and dropping
eight guys only rushing three. So you have to keep
that two dimensional personality about yourself. And and the offensive
(11:46):
line kept showing little glimpses that hey, we're getting better
about it. I'm sure Naji saying, hey, we can run
the ball, just just keep just keep at it as well.
And Nagid, you know, he admitted to it. He wasn't
the best runner. He didn't trust him or early on,
and he had to have that kind of kombay Ya
moment with him during the bye week to make sure
that he was there and that they understood that they
(12:07):
could they could trust each other exactly so. And the
thing about the running game is you're never quite sure
when it's gonna break, you know it, you can tell
it depends on you know, the score and the opponent
and all that thing. But one of the beautiful things
about it, it's like Rocky going to the body before
going to the head. You know, you soften them up,
(12:27):
you lump them up, you marinate their ribs. Body blows.
And you can see it when you take over in
the second half and you see these guys getting up
to the feet slowly starting to argue in the huddle.
They're yelling at each other and things like that, and
you know you're getting to them. You're starting to crack
that rock. And all that does is it incites you
(12:48):
more as an offensive line. The more you see the
defensive guys start to like, uh, you know, kind of
like melt down and start to to you know, question
each other and all that sort of stuff, you realize
you're getting to him. And that's what the beauty of
the run game. Is. It is so wonderful when you're
in those moments when you know that you are just
(13:09):
like in the second half against the Ravens. You see
back in the day, Max your day when you're getting
after the Ravens and your body blowing him. And I
tell a story all the time with with with Hines
Ward and Chris McAllister and he's blocking Chris McAllister and
Hines war and McAlister says, hey, he's up. I don't
want to get over and get in front of Bussy
(13:29):
because busses palpatating the Ravens in the second half. You
know what I mean, that's the way it was done. Man.
You know we saw this reason we got Bisford ghost
at Indie. They've got a Jonathan Taylor, he's fine, he's
out of the injury list, and they don't use them.
They start passing. We saw it in Atlanta. They've got
(13:50):
Cordell Harrison, he was coming back from a three game
layoff from injury, was fine. They didn't use them. Mariotta
started the game by passing the ball. Then you saw Cleveland.
I mean, I don't get Cleveland, all due respect. They've
got a world class stable of runners. Maybe the best
runner in the league. But what do they do. They
(14:10):
about eleven carries in the first half. That's fine, five
yards to carry, and then at the end of the
first half they give up on it. Let's just he's
get in the feats on the field, but he's out there,
one of the three white receivers to the right. I
just don't get it. And what the only explanation is
that they're looking at that defense is saying we can't run.
(14:30):
We can't do it, not not against the Skis guys,
and they give up on things. They don't even try
things against Pittsburgh. I think part of the seven and
two at the end of the season was just that
kind of dumb luck at the other side decided not
to pursue, but they could have done, and they had
as a great weapon. And and again credit to the
Pittsburgh defense what they were doing week to week two opponents.
(14:51):
And I think people were walking into the game thinking,
I don't know if I can run against this this
this team. I don't know if I can run against Pittsburgh.
Let's just let's just have five wide and see what
we can and get. I don't get that. I thought
it was Baker Mayfield changing plays or sort of influencing
what they were gonna do. Now, I think it's more
Kevin Stefanski. Um, I just don't know why they went
(15:11):
away from something that was so effective in the first half.
They just went away from it. It wasn't that they
were down, you know, ten points start fourteen points at
some point they were, but generally speaking, they were closely.
They gave up on it. But that's good. We'll take that.
Pace will take that any minute now. And if it's
perception that gets you to do that, great, We need
all the help we can get. But the question I
(15:33):
have for you now is when you look at that
division and you still look at up potentially healthy Lamar Jackson,
uh go b and then you see the Shawn Watson
with a year's preparation and preseason. I mean when you
look at that division, everybody ended up with three and three.
(15:53):
When you look at that division, I mean, do you
have the horses, do you have a counselance to say hey,
first step to or anything in the playoffs or any
championship or any confetti game. I love that expression is
to simply win your division? How how will that be
next year? I mean, do you walk away from the season.
Do you walk away from the season thinking we did
(16:14):
something really extraordinary, We really did something that not a
lot of people did, and it just gave the steam
a lot of confidence and and that identity. Really is
that going to be enough in the NFL next year?
That's my question. That's the question I'm sure that they're
asking themselves in the first few days of the off season. Yeah,
I think I think you're absolutely right of our ow.
(16:37):
It is something that when we look at the first
half to the second half, the growth that was made
because I think another thing of our ow and correct
me if I'm wrong, I mean, was this really a
rebuild when you think about what the Steelers accomplished this season?
I mean, can we really call this a rebuild and
we call it a retool because you still finished above
(16:57):
five hundred? You know, you in his third year division?
But like, but like all the reasons you just said,
like if all things are equal, I mean, where is
that big dissemination and how it also speaks to how
good this division is um when you stack it up
against the rest of the NFL. And it's been like
that since Tomlin has been in here. I mean, I
(17:19):
don't think there's really been a law. So I mean,
do you think we call this a full on rebuild
or is this just something where he just kind of
retooled it? Is that? Would that be a better phrase.
I think retooling would be it, But I think we
orienting would be really what what happened here ago? They
went away from from a notion of how to win
(17:41):
games UM within the same philosophy, trying to give the
defense the biggest rest possible and the biggest lead possible,
to make them rests as much as they can make
them turn them all over forced turnovers. So that's that's
philosophy hasn't changed. It's how you did that that changed.
And it didn't within the season, it didn't really. I
(18:02):
mean they topped that. It had three points in that
loss against Cincinnati, but I think they topped the points.
Is that going to be enough? Um? Is t J
gonna play seventeen games every year the way he plays? Um?
You know, you know, those are the kind of questions
that they need to ask, is this enough? Do we
(18:23):
have enough? Do we have another step up next year?
In efficiency, particularly in the passing game, you would think
you would think I would believe that right because we
already saw that growth in just the half of the season.
So those are the kind of questions and I think
when when Tomlin says, you know, I'm in the tricky business,
that's the kind of tricky thing. It's how do you
(18:47):
how do you pick up the threats that matter in
your decision making, what really happened, the trend lines that
really matter, and what made those trend lines move, and
what is indispensable and what's dispensable. Those are very tough
decisions when you have a team like that. One item
that you brought up Max about the opponent, that was
really one of the keys to the Pittsburgh UM season.
(19:10):
I seek as far as you just didn't make the playoffs,
but it was just a really inspiring season in many ways.
And that is that they were very, very very few
incidents where Pittsburgh players, you know, voiced or made clear
their displeasure UM and be to the to the that
would rise to kind of an incident he had to
(19:32):
deal with speaks to the team's culture. Steen speaks to
the team's leadership. It also speaks to Mike Complin and
what he allows and doesn't allow. UM but this team
had every ingredient to start getting pointing fingers and getting
old hockey and getting a little you know, unnamed source
(19:54):
and just ventom spleen, and it largely didn't happen, by
and large in a very difficult season. So that speaks
to again, leadership culture. I think it also speaks to
us since of everybody related to the theme, everyone there
knew the market for air was negative, was zero. Then
(20:16):
it was simply you had to roll in the right
direction and breathe at the right time and pull at
the right time and lift your out of the water
at the right time. Then there was absolutely no margin
for error. And everybody played that way. That is a
trait that will serve as young team, well, particularly the office. Really,
(20:37):
the pressure they played all year, I believe it, man,
I think, I really think this laid the foundation for
the next generation to come because you had to navigate
the loss of a Hall of Fame quarterback, and let's
face it at all, you know that Ben was the
center of the universe in the Steeler world. I mean really,
(20:58):
I mean, let's face it, that's the way it is.
If you are that caliber quarterback and he is, you know,
that's that's a tough one to supplant to replace, to
come along and have a leader capable of delivering the
mail such as like Ben did for so many years.
So I think we got our man. I think they've
got you know, a lot of progress was made this year,
(21:20):
but you know, I look forward to what what will
be next year. I mean, you've got a lot of
young people coming along making big plays down the stretch
and there was none bigger than George Pickens and Cam
Hayward and you know, the the young guys were just
out there doing stuff that by Glli, that's the new
blood that you need. And you have the philosophery at
(21:43):
the end offense career. It's let's try to bring some
free agents to plug some holes. And uh, it's just
so we can extend the windows, see where we can
go with with what's left offense career. The new regime,
which again the presence of people on top of the
make some people jump in a team didn't matter, It
(22:04):
didn't have an effect at all. Everybody just focus on
their on their business. But also now we have a
team that has players that the team can build upon it.
In other words, players that are young in the rookie contracts,
which are inexpensive contracts, and that maybe in the past
the team and have said, you know, let's get someone
(22:24):
a little bit more veteran here a free agent. Now
the thing may be saying, you know what, we're sticking
with the young ones. We're sticking with the young ones,
and we're gonna bring free agence judiciously in certain areas.
But I think we're gonna focus on developing her own.
I mean, you see Mark Robinson who at the very
end of the season showed up the market, gal those players,
(22:45):
Gaylor Warrens. I mean, that's developing it's talents, obviously. I
don't want to minimize what they the guys think to
think about this too, while you're retooling. When was the
last time the Steelers came away with two first round
draft picks? You know? I mean that that you generally
that happens when you've crashed the season, you know, when
(23:07):
things go downhill really bad. Um, and it didn't. And
this is a rebounding team with some draft capital, with
some good young people coming on. My goodness, I just
I don't know, I'm kind of excited about next year.
You see, if you develop your own and they and
they show that development. Then you don't have to worry
(23:29):
about bringing anybody in at a big ticket at a
big price, and that changes the dynamic of a team
as well. So I think one of the most encouraging
things about the season is development. Development. Again, I don't
want to I don't know enough to know if it's
the coaching or the players or both or a combination
out in Orleans line would be drawn. But this team
now has is also the confidence of plugging a player
(23:53):
and knowing, whoever you were coming in here, we're gonna
make you better and you will be better, and that
is unbelievable. That really helps the team build. You have
to worry about free agency, you have to worry about
bringing you from outside. Uh. That is a significant one. Eight.
I think that happened this season and that's gonna really
(24:13):
vote well for team construction the future because you've got
some big time slec on that team and justified we saw.
But at this point you need to grab people, plug them,
develop them, trust them, and then watch them grow. And
that's what's happened this year. It's it's great. I mean
the see backups become starters to see people that believe
(24:33):
that you are backed up and they pull at the
end of the season though I am a starter. That's great.
Every team on stat and Pitcher had a whole bunch
of stories like that this year. Absolutely, Alvarro, thank you
so much. Thank you for the entire year. We appreciate.
We're gonna miss yes, all of us here. We thank
you for being a part of the locker room. Brother.
(24:56):
Oh listen, it's been my pleasure, my honor, and just
enjoy off season and Max birthday. Okay, yeah, I know,
I know, listen, I'm actually gonna go shopping for those
the four way walkers and get the little tennis balls
on the bottom just to make sure I'm sturdy, and
get some new balances and some maybe even some compression socks.
(25:17):
I don't know, you know, there's not enough time in
the day. Thank you, appreciate, Take care, Thank man, great job.
Oh man. That was the tremendous and and ever so conversive.
Alvaro Martine, who was the play by play for a
(25:38):
Spanish broadcast of the Steelers games, It's always great talking
to It's always you know, you know his game day
when you see him in in our touro uh and
we usually are in the lobby around the same time
heading over to the game. So it's good to see
those guys. Alright, real real quick before you throw out
the brake, thank you as well too. You know, I
(25:58):
like to take the credit for the production side of this,
but you know it was our It was our fearless
leader on the Steelers side of things, Reagan Bruby, who
was the one who said to hey, you know, what
do you think about having Alvarro on the show with
those guys? So so so thanks to Reagan as well
too for suggesting that idea earlier in the season, because
I think you guys will agree. That's that's been one
(26:18):
of our best segments every week. We love it, absolutely,
we love it. Yeah, Olvarro is great too. You know,
it's always great not only to have a weekly guest,
but then a weekly guess that's so great, like a
Varro that has that had so much commentary, which which
is and he's multilingual. I can't even speak English for
crying out loud. I've already had a bilingual birthday, you
(26:40):
know what I'm saying on one show birthday, Happy birthday,
saying to me in two different languages. This is awesome. Alright, West,
your job during the break is learned French. I need
to learn. Get the trifecta going. Yeah, there we go.
All right, we're gonna step aside. Well, well, West takes
a Rosetta Stone class and we'll be back here in
the locker room. Here on Aescenari sped radio
This is in the locker Room with Wolf and Starks
on ESPN Pittsburgh and Steelers Nation Radio, presented by your
neighborhood Forward Store. The F one fifty is the official
truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers zero Pittsburgh Camp. I might
(00:38):
start picking the pickards, picking up pickads, picking up pickads.
Bickond u picks. Don't touch that far prefers. This uta
rectorial poster has loved all the red. It's a little
(01:00):
pick SPECTACULARA wow, and I knew every word that you
were saying there, Alvaro Martine, are from our Steelers Spanish
game day broadcast. And by the way, I would I.
I think it's upon you that you must sing Happy
(01:21):
Birthday in Espanol to Max. Now we're talking. Come on, Alvaro,
let's put it in, put it together, here, let's do it.
Here we go in three to one. Coom play on
yours fairly, David, yeahs at coom play on yours, Max Dog,
(01:46):
coom play on yours. Yeah, Here we go, we go.
You really out in westing Me. I sounded just like
I did when I hit forty oh wait a minute, Max,
Max hit the fourth floor. Yes, yes, I I am
(02:11):
a distinguished club. Now the club k the survivors. Yes, exactly, exactly, Yes,
I'm winning the survivor pool right now. So young man,
what have you accomplishing your life? I'm breathing. Okay, I'm
(02:33):
breathing exactly stood up this morning. Can see my toes
were good? Yeah, that's not fair. Your your feet are
so long, man, that listen, listen all about perspective, Wolf.
I could see my toes. That's all we need to focus.
How we need to focus. Does not matter that there's
size nineteens and they stick out like like bok. It
(02:54):
does not matter every every year he buys chew a
larger It's what we can keep saying that I can
see my toes. I can see then, I can see it.
I can see it, and I see it. I can
believe it. I know it looks like the shoes of
a court jester, but you know I can still see
the tip of my I might be I might be
(03:16):
exploring the northern hemisphere, but you know it's all good.
I gotta tell you. I gotta tell you. Max has
been working so hard. Max gets out of that that uh,
you know, broadcast position, and he goes down to the field,
and then he's up again, and then he's catching a fight.
Then he's doing what you call it bowl, and then
he's doing the other bowl, and then he's doing the playoffs.
I mean he can't. I mean he's busy. He is. Yeah,
(03:41):
I don't, I don't stop and and and apparently because
we didn't make the playoffs, I'm now still going to
the playoffs because I got Jacksonville and the Chargers this weekend.
Well there you go. So you're still you're still going
to be getting your air miles in. Yeah, air miles
still fully engaged. And of course there is a San
Francisco game, which is a lot closer. But apparently I
have needed on America's first coast, so I'll be going
(04:03):
to clear across the country. Do alright, alvar that's we're
putting a rap on the season all the week long.
Here is Mike tom called putting a bow on it?
Um Is it a rap or is it a bowl?
I mean, because I tend to think with Mike, you
(04:24):
gotta put a bow on the end of the season,
certainly the beginning of the season one, so good, Well,
he's gotta he's gotta get the sisters first, Um, he's
working his way towards wrapping and bowing, so he's gonna
take his time. And he's always taking his time, particularly
with coaching decisions. They don't come quick. Um, so he
(04:44):
doesn't take his time. I have to say that I
was going to bring up at one of the points
and we're not in there. Of course, he could well
be the players themselves. But one of the things that
strikes me about this season is some of the development
of certain players. Um. Again, it could have been up
to them, but you get a sense, and you guys
would tell me that there were some coaching involved. Um.
(05:06):
I mean, I'm thinking of guys that probably had career
years or near career years. Cameron Sutton, Mason Cole, Pat Friar,
Minka Fitzpatrick, believe it or not as good as he is,
Alex Heismith, County Hayward. Let'sn't even talk about the youngsters.
You know, we're just coming in as freshmen. They have
(05:26):
nothing to have another another year to compare. You're looking
at at players that had either their career years, including
some of the Vets, or near career years. Now maybe
the team needed that said for them to get to
nine and eight. So they just they just put it
out there because the team was desperate. But there were
some new coaches in the staff and you saw this happen,
(05:50):
and that's very encouraging, particularly when you think the kind
of one eighty they did at the bye week where
I actually did the renalta. Just look at the numbers,
and I'm not gonna Borroy with numbers correct but out
of the first eight games, in seven of them they
attempted more passes then they had carries. In the last
(06:10):
nine games, they had seven of them where they rushed
more than they passed. So this is a one eight.
This is a complete change of orientation, philosophy, identity. And
they did it in season. They had to, to be honest,
they had to. It wasn't working. What they had wasn't working.
But they hit on the right note and they ended
(06:32):
up doing well. And to me, that also speaks to coaching.
That's the other bit of avidence I'm gonna throw in
there that some of the new names and the coaching staff.
I mean, again, I have no idea if they were
responsible or if the players who care upon themselves and
I'm thinking Pat Meyer, I'm thinking Grady Brown, Brian Flores,
Arall Austin in a new role, and Mike Sullivan just
(06:54):
to name a few. Again, they may have not done
anything themselves, but you've got a sense that they were
involved in this whole change of orientation and settling down
of roles and what Mike Tomlin calls a division of
labor and the focus of what you have to do.
So I think when you look at the season, that
(07:15):
is something to note about the season. And it wasn't easy.
It wasn't easy to do that, and a lot of
teams do that. No, and the success of the running
game is is directly related to again putting getting more reps,
but it's also Pat Meyer getting the Hugs doing what
they're supposed to do. They were doing it, they just
it takes a while. As we've been talking about Max
(07:35):
from the get go said it's gonna be six seven,
eight weeks before you understand when we were coming out
of training camp where this line is gonna be because
it takes some time, and you couldn't have been any
more spot on Max, and you were in that moment, well,
and I think, well, I mean, but but but we've
been in those moments right where you're the guy in
(07:57):
a in a line, or you're the guy accepting the
new guys on your line, and so it it's a
special amount of time that it takes for all of
us to get on the same page. And so I
just simply, you know, I wanted to make sure that
we tempered those expectations because this, like of all the
positions you could put out there on the football field,
(08:19):
like O lines, the only unique one where all five
have to be on the same page. Right, You can
freestyle at other positions. You could do something individually that
can be spectacular and work out for the good. You
can't do that as offensive linement. I can't say, you
know what, I was gonna block the d N, but
you know what this that that safety. I feel like
if we get up to that safety man, he could
(08:39):
pop it all the way. So I'm not gonna block
this d N. I'm I'm gonna run to the safety instead.
You can't do that, you know, because the quarterbacks laying
down look, look, look looking at the sky, wondering why
am I here right now and not looking down field.
So you know, it takes time for that synchronicity, and
everybody has to you know, be on that same page.
(09:00):
You have to understand it. So I mean for Pat
Meyer and that crew to just stick with it um
And like I said, no injuries as well. I think
that was the other thing. We kept the same line
up out there. It wasn't like we had guys rolling
in and out of the lineup like you see a
lot of teams where they're rolling through offensive line and
guys are on i R. You know, they stayed together.
They had some bumps and bruises along the way, but
(09:20):
nothing significant that really kept them out of the lineup
from playing in games. And that's I think what really
ended up being the true testament was the time accrued
on the clock for those guys. It was the only
NFL team that had the same type starters and the things.
You have the same crew the entire season. Everybody else
had injuries and seems to deal with. Fittford was lucky
(09:41):
that way. But again I go back to when you
make that comment, Bax, you may have been the only
person that was willing to bet on that offensive line
when there were two and six. I mean, how many
people said, you know what, with this offensive line, we're
gonna bet the rest of the season, we're gonna run
more than we pass because we think they're built for
(10:01):
that and they're up for that. Not a lot of
people really saw that. I'm sure they saw that in
the building because they made the change, But boy, took
some guts. From the outside, you think, wow, that that
took some guts. What do you think you think that was?
That it was that simple, that clear in your mind
that that was the only way Facebook was going to
make make sort of some kind of advancement, kind of
move ahead in the standings. Well, I think it had
(10:23):
to be a oar. I think it had to be
that you had to to keep hitting the grindstone because
with any run game like you have to take those
two yards, four yards, zero yards, six yards until you
finally cracked the dam. And I think that was the
biggest thing. Run game is a game of repetition. Just
(10:46):
like anything else, You've got to continually stick with. You
can't abandon it at the first sign of a negative player. Listen,
Bruce arians used to do that. B A would be like,
all right, that was 'all shot. All right, now we're
going to the air game and you're like, oh god,
we lost a run game because of one negative play,
and you know, Matt Cannada realized you got a rickie quarterback.
(11:06):
Like what makes a successful formula. You have to be
able to run the ball. You have to be two
dimensional because that ricky quarterback is gonna get overwhelmed at
some point. He's going to feel the pressure and you
need to alleviate that stress and not make every big
play that he's gonna have to throw third and eight, team,
third and eleven. Right, you've got to get him into
(11:26):
third and mediums, third and shorts. So you have a
two way go and you keep teams guessing to where
they can't just either A they want to load the
box and now you're one on one, or be they're
dropping off and like cover eight, you know, and dropping
eight guys only rushing three. So you have to keep
that two dimensional personality about yourself. And and the offensive
(11:46):
line kept showing little glimpses that hey, we're getting better
about it. I'm sure Naji saying, hey, we can run
the ball, just just keep just keep at it as well.
And Nagid, you know, he admitted to it. He wasn't
the best runner. He didn't trust him or early on,
and he had to have that kind of kombay Ya
moment with him during the bye week to make sure
that he was there and that they understood that they
(12:07):
could they could trust each other exactly so. And the
thing about the running game is you're never quite sure
when it's gonna break, you know it, you can tell
it depends on you know, the score and the opponent
and all that thing. But one of the beautiful things
about it, it's like Rocky going to the body before
going to the head. You know, you soften them up,
(12:27):
you lump them up, you marinate their ribs. Body blows.
And you can see it when you take over in
the second half and you see these guys getting up
to the feet slowly starting to argue in the huddle.
They're yelling at each other and things like that, and
you know you're getting to them. You're starting to crack
that rock. And all that does is it incites you
(12:48):
more as an offensive line. The more you see the
defensive guys start to like, uh, you know, kind of
like melt down and start to to you know, question
each other and all that sort of stuff, you realize
you're getting to him. And that's what the beauty of
the run game. Is. It is so wonderful when you're
in those moments when you know that you are just
(13:09):
like in the second half against the Ravens. You see
back in the day, Max your day when you're getting
after the Ravens and your body blowing him. And I
tell a story all the time with with with Hines
Ward and Chris McAllister and he's blocking Chris McAllister and
Hines war and McAlister says, hey, he's up. I don't
want to get over and get in front of Bussy
(13:29):
because busses palpatating the Ravens in the second half. You
know what I mean, that's the way it was done. Man.
You know we saw this reason we got Bisford ghost
at Indie. They've got a Jonathan Taylor, he's fine, he's
out of the injury list, and they don't use them.
They start passing. We saw it in Atlanta. They've got
(13:50):
Cordell Harrison, he was coming back from a three game
layoff from injury, was fine. They didn't use them. Mariotta
started the game by passing the ball. Then you saw Cleveland.
I mean, I don't get Cleveland, all due respect. They've
got a world class stable of runners. Maybe the best
runner in the league. But what do they do. They
(14:10):
about eleven carries in the first half. That's fine, five
yards to carry, and then at the end of the
first half they give up on it. Let's just he's
get in the feats on the field, but he's out there,
one of the three white receivers to the right. I
just don't get it. And what the only explanation is
that they're looking at that defense is saying we can't run.
(14:30):
We can't do it, not not against the Skis guys,
and they give up on things. They don't even try
things against Pittsburgh. I think part of the seven and
two at the end of the season was just that
kind of dumb luck at the other side decided not
to pursue, but they could have done, and they had
as a great weapon. And and again credit to the
Pittsburgh defense what they were doing week to week two opponents.
(14:51):
And I think people were walking into the game thinking,
I don't know if I can run against this this
this team. I don't know if I can run against Pittsburgh.
Let's just let's just have five wide and see what
we can and get. I don't get that. I thought
it was Baker Mayfield changing plays or sort of influencing
what they were gonna do. Now, I think it's more
Kevin Stefanski. Um, I just don't know why they went
(15:11):
away from something that was so effective in the first half.
They just went away from it. It wasn't that they
were down, you know, ten points start fourteen points at
some point they were, but generally speaking, they were closely.
They gave up on it. But that's good. We'll take that.
Pace will take that any minute now. And if it's
perception that gets you to do that, great, We need
all the help we can get. But the question I
(15:33):
have for you now is when you look at that
division and you still look at up potentially healthy Lamar Jackson,
uh go b and then you see the Shawn Watson
with a year's preparation and preseason. I mean when you
look at that division, everybody ended up with three and three.
(15:53):
When you look at that division, I mean, do you
have the horses, do you have a counselance to say hey,
first step to or anything in the playoffs or any
championship or any confetti game. I love that expression is
to simply win your division? How how will that be
next year? I mean, do you walk away from the season.
Do you walk away from the season thinking we did
(16:14):
something really extraordinary, We really did something that not a
lot of people did, and it just gave the steam
a lot of confidence and and that identity. Really is
that going to be enough in the NFL next year?
That's my question. That's the question I'm sure that they're
asking themselves in the first few days of the off season. Yeah,
I think I think you're absolutely right of our ow.
(16:37):
It is something that when we look at the first
half to the second half, the growth that was made
because I think another thing of our ow and correct
me if I'm wrong, I mean, was this really a
rebuild when you think about what the Steelers accomplished this season?
I mean, can we really call this a rebuild and
we call it a retool because you still finished above
(16:57):
five hundred? You know, you in his third year division?
But like, but like all the reasons you just said,
like if all things are equal, I mean, where is
that big dissemination and how it also speaks to how
good this division is um when you stack it up
against the rest of the NFL. And it's been like
that since Tomlin has been in here. I mean, I
(17:19):
don't think there's really been a law. So I mean,
do you think we call this a full on rebuild
or is this just something where he just kind of
retooled it? Is that? Would that be a better phrase.
I think retooling would be it, But I think we
orienting would be really what what happened here ago? They
went away from from a notion of how to win
(17:41):
games UM within the same philosophy, trying to give the
defense the biggest rest possible and the biggest lead possible,
to make them rests as much as they can make
them turn them all over forced turnovers. So that's that's
philosophy hasn't changed. It's how you did that that changed.
And it didn't within the season, it didn't really. I
(18:02):
mean they topped that. It had three points in that
loss against Cincinnati, but I think they topped the points.
Is that going to be enough? Um? Is t J
gonna play seventeen games every year the way he plays? Um?
You know, you know, those are the kind of questions
that they need to ask, is this enough? Do we
(18:23):
have enough? Do we have another step up next year?
In efficiency, particularly in the passing game, you would think
you would think I would believe that right because we
already saw that growth in just the half of the season.
So those are the kind of questions and I think
when when Tomlin says, you know, I'm in the tricky business,
that's the kind of tricky thing. It's how do you
(18:47):
how do you pick up the threats that matter in
your decision making, what really happened, the trend lines that
really matter, and what made those trend lines move, and
what is indispensable and what's dispensable. Those are very tough
decisions when you have a team like that. One item
that you brought up Max about the opponent, that was
really one of the keys to the Pittsburgh UM season.
(19:10):
I seek as far as you just didn't make the playoffs,
but it was just a really inspiring season in many ways.
And that is that they were very, very very few
incidents where Pittsburgh players, you know, voiced or made clear
their displeasure UM and be to the to the that
would rise to kind of an incident he had to
(19:32):
deal with speaks to the team's culture. Steen speaks to
the team's leadership. It also speaks to Mike Complin and
what he allows and doesn't allow. UM but this team
had every ingredient to start getting pointing fingers and getting
old hockey and getting a little you know, unnamed source
(19:54):
and just ventom spleen, and it largely didn't happen, by
and large in a very difficult season. So that speaks
to again, leadership culture. I think it also speaks to
us since of everybody related to the theme, everyone there
knew the market for air was negative, was zero. Then
(20:16):
it was simply you had to roll in the right
direction and breathe at the right time and pull at
the right time and lift your out of the water
at the right time. Then there was absolutely no margin
for error. And everybody played that way. That is a
trait that will serve as young team, well, particularly the office. Really,
(20:37):
the pressure they played all year, I believe it, man,
I think, I really think this laid the foundation for
the next generation to come because you had to navigate
the loss of a Hall of Fame quarterback, and let's
face it at all, you know that Ben was the
center of the universe in the Steeler world. I mean really,
(20:58):
I mean, let's face it, that's the way it is.
If you are that caliber quarterback and he is, you know,
that's that's a tough one to supplant to replace, to
come along and have a leader capable of delivering the
mail such as like Ben did for so many years.
So I think we got our man. I think they've
got you know, a lot of progress was made this year,
(21:20):
but you know, I look forward to what what will
be next year. I mean, you've got a lot of
young people coming along making big plays down the stretch
and there was none bigger than George Pickens and Cam
Hayward and you know, the the young guys were just
out there doing stuff that by Glli, that's the new
blood that you need. And you have the philosophery at
(21:43):
the end offense career. It's let's try to bring some
free agents to plug some holes. And uh, it's just
so we can extend the windows, see where we can
go with with what's left offense career. The new regime,
which again the presence of people on top of the
make some people jump in a team didn't matter, It
(22:04):
didn't have an effect at all. Everybody just focus on
their on their business. But also now we have a
team that has players that the team can build upon it.
In other words, players that are young in the rookie contracts,
which are inexpensive contracts, and that maybe in the past
the team and have said, you know, let's get someone
(22:24):
a little bit more veteran here a free agent. Now
the thing may be saying, you know what, we're sticking
with the young ones. We're sticking with the young ones,
and we're gonna bring free agence judiciously in certain areas.
But I think we're gonna focus on developing her own.
I mean, you see Mark Robinson who at the very
end of the season showed up the market, gal those players,
(22:45):
Gaylor Warrens. I mean, that's developing it's talents, obviously. I
don't want to minimize what they the guys think to
think about this too, while you're retooling. When was the
last time the Steelers came away with two first round
draft picks? You know? I mean that that you generally
that happens when you've crashed the season, you know, when
(23:07):
things go downhill really bad. Um, and it didn't. And
this is a rebounding team with some draft capital, with
some good young people coming on. My goodness, I just
I don't know, I'm kind of excited about next year.
You see, if you develop your own and they and
they show that development. Then you don't have to worry
(23:29):
about bringing anybody in at a big ticket at a
big price, and that changes the dynamic of a team
as well. So I think one of the most encouraging
things about the season is development. Development. Again, I don't
want to I don't know enough to know if it's
the coaching or the players or both or a combination
out in Orleans line would be drawn. But this team
now has is also the confidence of plugging a player
(23:53):
and knowing, whoever you were coming in here, we're gonna
make you better and you will be better, and that
is unbelievable. That really helps the team build. You have
to worry about free agency, you have to worry about
bringing you from outside. Uh. That is a significant one. Eight.
I think that happened this season and that's gonna really
(24:13):
vote well for team construction the future because you've got
some big time slec on that team and justified we saw.
But at this point you need to grab people, plug them,
develop them, trust them, and then watch them grow. And
that's what's happened this year. It's it's great. I mean
the see backups become starters to see people that believe
(24:33):
that you are backed up and they pull at the
end of the season though I am a starter. That's great.
Every team on stat and Pitcher had a whole bunch
of stories like that this year. Absolutely, Alvarro, thank you
so much. Thank you for the entire year. We appreciate.
We're gonna miss yes, all of us here. We thank
you for being a part of the locker room. Brother.
(24:56):
Oh listen, it's been my pleasure, my honor, and just
enjoy off season and Max birthday. Okay, yeah, I know,
I know, listen, I'm actually gonna go shopping for those
the four way walkers and get the little tennis balls
on the bottom just to make sure I'm sturdy, and
get some new balances and some maybe even some compression socks.
(25:17):
I don't know, you know, there's not enough time in
the day. Thank you, appreciate, Take care, Thank man, great job.
Oh man. That was the tremendous and and ever so conversive.
Alvaro Martine, who was the play by play for a
(25:38):
Spanish broadcast of the Steelers games, It's always great talking
to It's always you know, you know his game day
when you see him in in our touro uh and
we usually are in the lobby around the same time
heading over to the game. So it's good to see
those guys. Alright, real real quick before you throw out
the brake, thank you as well too. You know, I
(25:58):
like to take the credit for the production side of this,
but you know it was our It was our fearless
leader on the Steelers side of things, Reagan Bruby, who
was the one who said to hey, you know, what
do you think about having Alvarro on the show with
those guys? So so so thanks to Reagan as well
too for suggesting that idea earlier in the season, because
I think you guys will agree. That's that's been one
(26:18):
of our best segments every week. We love it, absolutely,
we love it. Yeah, Olvarro is great too. You know,
it's always great not only to have a weekly guest,
but then a weekly guess that's so great, like a
Varro that has that had so much commentary, which which
is and he's multilingual. I can't even speak English for
crying out loud. I've already had a bilingual birthday, you
(26:40):
know what I'm saying on one show birthday, Happy birthday,
saying to me in two different languages. This is awesome. Alright, West,
your job during the break is learned French. I need
to learn. Get the trifecta going. Yeah, there we go.
All right, we're gonna step aside. Well, well, West takes
a Rosetta Stone class and we'll be back here in
the locker room. Here on Aescenari sped radio
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