May 17, 2023 • 27 mins
Dale and Matt talk about the NFL's Spring Accelerator program and potential candidates for head coaching positions.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson show
on your twenty four to seven home of the Black
and Gold SNR Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome back to the Drive.
I'm Dale LOLLI, he is Matt Williamson and Matt Earlier today,
(00:24):
I posted an article on Steelers dot Com on Tarah
Austin and Frisman Jackson, the Steelers defensive coordinator and their
wider receivers coach, being a tap to go to. It's
the new initiative that the league has started here to
have guys come in and basically meet with head coach
(00:46):
or with ownership you know, around the league. So they
they'll go to the owners meeting or the spring meetings
here in Minneapolis, and they'll be there with thirty eight
other guys will be forty overall, and they'll get an
opportunity to just sit down and meet and greet, meet
and greet ownership gms through the NFL Accelerator program. Well,
(01:08):
I'm looking here at the thirty third team and they
have a list of I have.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
A question about that. I never heard of this, to
be honest with.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
You, Okay, it's something new. They started it last.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Year Okay, so not every team has two coaches. It
sounds like there's forty total Steelers happening to Is it
a minority program.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, so it's a minority program. Okay. It gives the
you know, these minority coaches in some cases when they
did it last year, it was front office people the
opportunity to go and sit down and meet the guys
who make who did basically the decision makers.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's great. That's a great in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And you know, because you can't hire who you don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
As I said, it's kind of like watching tape of
the upcoming component like that.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I know a lot of times NFL teams, NFL owners
get ripped for you know, they hired, they went the easier.
They just hired some you know, some guy who coached
for them eight years ago, or somebody you know who
knew somebody who knews. Like, that's how That's how hiring
goes in every business. Said.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
If I was hiring somebody and my best friend said, hire.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
This dude, I'm like, well, hire that dude.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I mean, that's referrals or what kind of makes the
world go around, doesn't the.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, you're gonna lean that way. Yeah. So this, you know,
this is something that opens the door for some of
these minority coaches, which is good. But I'm looking here
at an article on the thirty third team and it
is seven coordinators who will be twenty twenty four NFL
head coaching candidates. It's by Tom or I'm sorry, Paul
de Moinewitch, who's their senior writer. Yeah, so I'm just
(02:41):
going to roll through some of these names here and
we'll talk a little bit about this. His first guy
up on here is Dan Quinn.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Now he's been around the block and he's bet yeah,
I mean yeah, he's he interviewed for three of the
three of the five head coaching jobs this past offseason
that it's been a head coach before.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Like, is that the best we can come up with?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I gave him big money for coordinator money, often not
to keep him away from the other teams, but kind of,
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Just in case something else, you know, something happens. He
could be Dallas's coaching waiting two.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Like could he even stay there and be the next
you know, promote from with en type of deal.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So here's one of the things. So years is a
defense he's been a defensive coordinator for four years. I
guess in Dallas the record is defensive coordinator forty nine
and seventeen.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, I mean I don't win losses. I'm not sure
win loss of quarterbacks. That it definitely is not a coordinator.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Definitely not coordinating, especially a defensive coordinators. And so they
He then lists his Cowboys average defensive ranking in yards
under Quinn fifteenth, Cowboys twenty twenty two, defensive ranking twelve.
This makes him a head coaching candidate.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Say that's not the best resume builder, and you might
have the best defensive player in the league on your
team too, I mean, yes, helpful. One thing I will
say about him is a lot of these Seattle based
defensive coordinators have not adjusted with the times and got
kind of pushed out. You know, the cover three single high,
you know all the Seattle stuff that took the league
(04:21):
by storm. Well that's not what Dallas runs. I mean,
Dallas has adjusted, and you know he's evolved at least.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah. Number two guy in his list is Ben Johnson,
the Lions offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
That was the name that popped that I had immediately. Yeah,
like thirty six years old.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, last year was his first year as a coordinator,
first year, last year as a coordinator, second year.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, I think it was first.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, you know, the.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Tape heads rave about him though, you know, the inobitions,
the little wrinkles almost like Shanahan esque of making all
the plays look the same and then doing different variations.
And I guess he's really smart, great municator, like you said,
only thirty six, Like he feels like a Steeler head.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Coach higher you know, you know what I mean, the right, right, right,
twenty years but years as the offensive cornator one they
went nine to eight. Last year they were fourth in
total offense. So I get that one. Yeah, I get
that one more than I get dan Quinn. Like, at
least a guy like Ben Johnson is a he's never
done it before, he's never failed somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
It's kind of like our backup conversation conversation, you know,
conversation is dan Quinn might be a Colt McCoy, you know,
like I kind of know what he is, right, I'd
rather take a chance on Will Levis.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, I mean I know again I saw dan Quinn
fail in Atlanta. Yeah, yeah, with Matt Ryan and with
you know, some pretty good guys, and.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
That's always a weird thing to balance, like, well, what
did he learn in his first stint? And everyone, well,
Belichick didn't win in Browns. You know, does that mean
he never should been hired? Who knows? I mean sometimes
these guys have been a league long enough though, that
kind of deal with it, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
The next one on the list is Brian Johnson, who
is the Eagles offensive coordinator. He's thirty six as well.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
However, this is his first year as a coordinator. Yeah,
they lost both coordinators, so maybe he's a smart.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, how you can say he's going to be a
hot head coaching candidate this offseason when he's never done
a thing.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I mean, I guess the logic is he.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Was a quarterbacks coach, Billy's.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
He helped develop hers. He's I mean, Eagles and Chiefs
coordinators are going to get a lot of attention.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
You know what I mean. But he's the whole help
develop the guys thing. Like I see people talk about
Bruce Ario, Well, Bruce Arians helped develop Peyton Manning and
Ben Roethlisberger.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
They probably have been good without Bruce not.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So much either, you know. Tom Moore developed Peyton Manning,
if you want to, you want to give somebody credit there,
and Arians was the wide receivers coach for the first
part of his stint stint with the Steelers when Ben
Roethlisberger was young. He wasn't developing Ben. He was developing
the receivers right right. So this is the word, you know,
(07:13):
too much credit is given in many of these cases,
Like they all have pr guys writing their stuff for them.
Bruce Arians developed that. No he didn't, No, he.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Didn't a lot too. I really think Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts,
I think they benefit at least as much from the
quarterback coach that they're they're working with today when they're
not even in the facility, you know, with Carson Palmer's
brother and those type of dudes. Those guys been breakdown
everything about you.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
You know. So Brian Johnson could be great.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
He might be great, who knows.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I have no idea though, I have no idea if
he's any good. Not a clue, nor does anybody else.
So he's perfect.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
He's like the Lions, Dude, if they have the number
one offense in the league, he probably still isn't going
to get high after one year being an coordinator. He
should be on this list of a year from now.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Right, I could make a better argument to Ben Johnson, right,
did more with less? Like Ben Ben Johnson came out
of nowhere last year. The Lions came out of nowhere
last year. Is on offense? Nobody expected that, right, right?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
And they were a fourth best offense in the league.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
You know so well? I mean to me, the jury
still out on Brian Johnson to say that he is
a slam dunk head hot head coaching candidate. I don't
know that. Who knows, right? Right? Yeah? Right? Okay. The
next one is Eric b Enemy, who's now the offensive
coordinator with the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, he's interviewed a million times and he's interviewed, which
tells me a lot, right, right, And I know he's
he's the guy that everybody points well he you know
he's he's at He's inter been interviewed sixteen times by
fifteen teams for head coaching jobs.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Wow, and nobody has hired him.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean, this is public knowledge. He has some sort
of checkered past. I don't know what kind of trouble
he got into as a younger man, but he got
into some kind of trouble, right, and it just implies
he's not the best interview ever, So what's he do?
He takes a lateral move to go from the Super
Bowl champs to a team at the time that had
disastrous ownership and environment to be the offensive coordinator in Washington,
(09:26):
just to get out of Andy reid shadow and show
the world that he can do things on his own,
which I kind of get. I mean, if Washington's talk, well.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I think it was. I think it was absolutely the
move for him to make. Yeah, right, right, right right.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I mean coaching mahomes with Andy Reid, it's hard to
get credit, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
At the same time, I guess you have to win Super.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Bowl every year, right, that's not a bad life.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
And oh, by the way, I've gotten sixteen head coaching
interviews in the last few years. Still, I can't blame
anybodybody else for not getting those jobs. Am I mad
at Andy? Because Andy insists on calling the plays, which
then leads me to this about Eric. They have the
(10:11):
little thing here in the tag about Eric b enemy
Yours is OC five record is OC sixty four and eighteen.
Andy Reid's calling the place Chiefs average offensive ranking under
the enemy. Second, Andy Reids calling the plays. I can't
say this enough. Now I will say this. Andy Reid
also called the plays before this, and he also called
(10:33):
the plays in Philadelphia, and his offensive coordinators, who were
white got other jobs. So I get when people argue
that race is a factor here, I get it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
But in the conversation, he might not an interview.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I mean he might not be a head coach.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, he might not be. Or I mean he sits
down with the owners and doesn't do well.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I mean, he's oh for six and.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
He wouldn't be the first guy that that's happened to,
right right.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I mean, the fact that he's oh for sixteen in interviews,
I think speaks a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, so we'll see. You know, it's one year in
Washington going to reinvent Eric b enemy. Are they going
to be a top ten offense in Washington? I don't
think so. I don't either.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
But I mean, if he can turn, whether he's the
reason Sam Howe's good or not, it is kind of
a good move for him, except he's not gonna get
Super Bowl rings and he could get fired after the year.
Where that would have happened in Kansas, City, Right, but
he could go to owners and be like, look what
I did with Sam Howe. I made him the fifteenth
best quarterback in the league. It wasn't just you know, yeah,
if that happens. If that happens, he's betting on himself,
(11:45):
which in this case though, is a tough bet to win.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah. The next gap is Brian Callahan, who is the
Bengals offensive coordinator. Well, he didn't look to he didn't
look all that smart when he didn't have Joe Burrow, right.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Right, kind of like their head coach, to be honest,
kind of like the head coach.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
He's been their offensive coordinator for four years twenty eight
thirty six and one. The Bengals average offensive ranking under Callahan,
what do you think it would be in four years?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Burrow has been there for three?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yes, well he missed, he missed a good Yeah, he
missed a good chunk of his first year.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
But he said that their average seventeenth, nineteenth and they
were like two last year.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
They were eighth last year. Eight. Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Okay, Yeah, if Brian Callahan does get a head coaching
job somewhere, he should send half of his check to
Joe Burrow.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, he may be the salt of the earth and
the smartest man ever. But his resume doesn't screamhim any.
I always have a hard time commenting on assistant coaches,
and to be very honest, but if you just showed
me a piece of paper with his name on it and
all his accomplishments, it's not that impressive.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah. And I also look at it like, who did
he coach under? Yea, this is where people talk about
coaching trees? Yeah? Yeah, Do I really want Zach Taylor's right, dude?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And I don't know if Callahan came with Taylor from
the Rams. I don't know go back that far in
his history.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Is there? Yeah, I don't know all that stuff. I
don't know if I think I think Taylor might call
the offensive place here too.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I was thinking that too. I almost said that because
I think you started that sentence with Cincinnati coordinator and
I was gonna say, oh, Louis Maroon, Well.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, yeah, I don't think Callahan calls the offensive place.
So I had the same issues with him that I
had with the enemy with Kansas City, Like, I don't know,
I don't know Brian Callahan.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
R right, This might be the worst candidate yet on paper.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Right. Next up is Lou and Roumo, the Bengals offensive coordinator. No,
I think he's good.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I think he's a great defensive mind.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
But he's fifty six. Yeah, h his years.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I don't know the human being, but I think he's
kind of a snarly old school coach. You know, he
might not be a leader of man. He might just
be a really good coordinator.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
He's he's been a defensive coordinator for five years. Okay,
so he didn't have I mean he was a position
coach for a long time before that. His record is
a defensive coordinator thirty four to forty six to one.
The Bengals average defensive ranking under him. What do you think?
It is?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Probably not good because, I mean the year they got Burrow,
they had the first pick of the draft. Because they're
stunk on offense and stuck on defense. Twenty second, twenty second,
top five defense.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
The Bengals twenty twenty two defensive ranking sixteenth.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Wow, I was I say tenth?
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah. No, I think he's a good position coach. I
think he's a good coordinator. Yeah, yeah, but I don't
know that I want to hand my team over to him.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah again again, I don't know the human being. He
might be the best interview. He might be a great
leader of men, not the impression I get.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, I think the final guy. Yet, this is the
final guy in this list. A Hero Vero, the Panthers
defensive coordinator forty two years old, just took the job
as a defensive coordinator he.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Was with said he I don't think he was a
decordinator last year.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I thought he was with the Broncos. Yeah, he was
a Broncos defensive coordinator last year. Did a good job, right,
But he's got the stick in the Nathaniel Hackett all
over him, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
He took over for Fangio. Hackett took over for Fangio
and hired him as the DC and DC before that.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
And I think they continue to do a lot of
the same things that Fangio had done because that's what
they had there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, oh, they kept the defense the same.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, wisely, you know, right, So.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, so you know, I think, you know, he's a
he's a young, up and coming guy. I want to
see more, right.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Right, right, I said, I don't know how to comment
on him, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yeah, other coaches on the radar. And wow, the first
guy on there is Thomas Brown, the Panthers offensive coordinator.
He could walk into this room right now and I
wouldn't know who he is. Yeah, I don't have no idea.
And then I do this, Dams, I'm sure I do
this for a living. Uh. The other other three guys
(16:32):
I have heard of, Mike Kofka, the Giants offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
That's a name you always hear.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah, Jared Mayo, the Patriots inside linebacker coach. But it's
my understanding he's been off. He's been basically got the uh,
the sweetheart deal that he's been promised he'll replace Bill. Yeah. Yeah, so.
And then Ken Dorsey, the Bills offensive coordinator. Only one
year coordinator, one year coordinator. And I'll be honest with you,
(16:57):
I wasn't super impressive what the Bills did offensively last year.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, that took a step backwards after behind Dable, after Daboll. Yeah,
so are we done with this conversation. I got a
quick question for you.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
No, you know, I saw it to me like if
you were when you were making this list five six
years ago.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, Tarrell Austin's name was on this list. Yeah, that
was the point I was going to bring up to,
like it shock you that he's not even on the list.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
He's got as good a resume, if not better than
some of these other guys.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Right, we've both been around him. He's smart and he's personable.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You know, I'm sure you know, working against him is
kind of like you know when we talked about in
a romo. He's a little older. Yeah, yeah, he's in
his you know, I think he's fifty eight. But that
doesn't mean he's done. You know, if the Steelers go
out and have one of the top defenses in the
(17:50):
league gets yere, how does Tara Austin not get interviews
for a head coaching job, you.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Would think, I mean, I wonder if there's a little
bit of read the enemy there it's Tomlin's defense.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You know what I mean? Awesome? I mean, I don't
know he got.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Six, right or sixteen interviews?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Right? Yeah? Where's the love? I don't I don't know.
And I think, you know, every year we see like
nobody had ever heard last year at this time of
of Ben Johnson, nobody had ever heard of of the
Carolina guy. Evero, nobody kne who those guys were.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
No no, No, of course.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Heck for you know, at this point in two thousand
and seven or two thousand and six, Mike Tomlin was
largely an unknown name a mom.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
So many of these guys, yeah, aren't well known coordinators
before they get hired.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
So to me, you know, and so again that that
brings me back to the Dan Quinn's last Eric being
Enemy conversation, like do we have to keep bringing up this?
Like at what point do you just say, you know what?
That's enough, right, exactly exactly like you are what you are.
Let's just move on here, you know, in the case
(19:17):
like Raheem Morris, to me, that's a great one. He's
I think, I think he's better than those guys. Yeah,
I know, I agreed.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I know he's close with coach Somlin and you can
see why. I mean, he has a lot of.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
He did a good job in Tampa Bay, right and
has never gotten another shot.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
No, he's a great example. He would be somebody would
be on my short list of all the names we mentioned.
I think he might be my favorite candidate, you know,
if I was an owner.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I mean you're talking, yeah, I just I don't know.
I mean, he's he got three years.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Basically, So I got two little one more nugget on this.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yes, I know a lot of our listeners won in
an offensive coordinator change in Pittsburgh. And folks, if you
don't know this, sixteen new play callers of thirty two
are in place this year and scoring was down. And
I believe, and I'm not defending that cannon won't wear
another you know, I believe many of those moves were
(20:19):
made just to make a move where they're really sixteen
new offensive coordinators just jumping off the page that needed
a job that were overqualified.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
For well well, I mean like six of those were
because the team made a change a head coach too.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That's true too, right, But my point is it wasn't
a good year to go shopping for a new coordinator.
For one thing, It's not a great year to go
shopping for a head All those names you listed, it's.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Not like, man, I'm jaying that guy's yeah, I got
gotta get that guy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
There's not like there's this deep pool of Kyle Shanahan's
out there that you just dip your fishing rod in
and pull three or four of them out, you know
what I mean? So say what you want about the
Steelers offense coordinator situation. If they saw somebody they thought
was better, I bet they would have gone and get them.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
You know, like I think when I look at that situation,
I look at it this way. So year one from
Matt Canada, they're basically running Ben Roethlisberger's stuff, right, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
He was a coordinator basically in name only because they
were going to do whatever whatever Ben thought they needed
(21:25):
to do to be successful. And he had earned that
over his eighteen years. And you know, you're gonna stick
with with with what he what he can do, what
he's physically capable to do, which was way different than
what he was physically capable of doing even five years ago.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I would say, I mean an unkind way of saying it.
But with all respect to Ben, you're coaching around some
obvious limitations of that version of right, right, He's not
gonna sit in the pocket for seven seconds and shrug
offter all songs.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You know, No, that wasn't that wasn't what he was
going to do anymore. So you had that two years ago,
which Canada's first year as coordinator. Last year, it's sort
of similar about the opposite, but the opposite. You're working
with with with two quarterbacks who are brand new, one
of them is a rookie. You're trying to have cobble
(22:15):
ways together to more or less protect your quarterback, especially
when Pickett became the starter.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Again, You're coaching around limitations, right, I mean every I
mean that's part of coaching. I mean there's things that
Kansas City doesn't ask Mahomes to do over and over
again either, you know, But.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
It's kind of the same way like when the when
this in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen, I'm sorry, I
mean you look at that year for Randy Feekner with
with Mason Rudolph and Douc Hodge is both making their
first career starts in that season, especially the games with
Duck at quarterback. You're just you're just trying to survive.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
You're trying to get first downs, You're trying.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
To so you know, so you know, to me, that's
why that's why you bring Matt Canada back. Did I
see enough last year, particularly in the second half of
the season, to say, Okay, this guy deserves another chance?
I did? There was okay, Uh, there was definite progress
(23:17):
from from the beginning of the season to the end
of the season. It was almost night and day.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, there was an identity, there was progress, It was
by far, by far, by far. I just wrote this
article the youngest offense in the entire league is changed.
Good for the youngest offense in the entire league and
a second.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Year quarterback, particularly when what I was doing in the
second half was working, Like if, if, if, that's going
to be your identity, and everything that they've done this
offseason says, yeah, that's going to be their identity. They're
going to be they want to run the football and
and beat people up in the trenches. I mean, okay,
he showed that. He showed that you could do that. Hm.
(23:58):
That was something that that you know, they didn't deal
it with Todd Haley. They didn't deal it with Randy
Fiekner despite at times, uh, you know, Art Rooney the
second coming down said we need to run the ball better,
and then the next year they come out and average
ninety yards rushing. Again, Well, okay, now you know, Art,
we need to run the ball better, and lo and
(24:18):
behold they did.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
H right, right right, So I mean, it's just real
easy to say offense coordinator stinks c score points, he
stinks blah blah blah. You know, like there is context.
And that's why going through that list of these guys
are head coaches next year, are they really all that great?
I mean, are there a bunch of studs out there
right now that are obvious head coaches that will win
(24:42):
games in this league? No, not to buy knowledge.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
And we know based on history, there's going to be
five or six changes at the end of this.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Year, absolutely, and those same five or six will get
fired two years.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
If I was if I was fishing in that pool,
I would not be real like keen On. So oh yeah,
let's go hire one of these dudes. The bad pool,
the BADO. It's not a great pool. Yeah, yeah, it's bad,
which is why you know these things that the that
the league has. Maybe of these forty guys who go
to this coaching seminar or at the at the meetings,
(25:17):
maybe three of them become guys that, oh, hey, I
talked to I remember talking to this guy at the
let's supposed Yeah, let' let's let's bring him in for
an interview. That's how Mike Tomlin got his you know,
Mike Tomlin was not the four runner into the front
runner in two thousand and seven, every I mean everybody
including myself, assumed it was going to become Widen Hunter
(25:37):
Russ Grimm. And then all of a sudden, here comes
Mike Tomlin and you know, coming on the outside, uh,
you know, And and the other two guys get pinned
in the rail and they don't get it, and Tomlin does.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I'm making this up. This is hypothetical, of course, but
mister Rooney might be blown away by a thirty five
year old defensive back coach from the Chargers or whatever.
And four years from now, Tomlin retires off in the
sunset and he thinks, let's call that guy. I remember him,
you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I met him at that symposium and he had some
good stuff to say.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, he's with me, you know, I mean, he had
an ur about him. Let's let's bring him in.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
That's what you're looking for. You're looking for the aura.
You're looking for a guy who can be a leader
of men. Yeah, because that's the main job of your
head coach, Like, can he lead a room of fifty
three diverse personalities? Exactly? Yeah? You know right. So anyway,
before we go off. Oh wait, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
This is totally different fantasy related. I am doing my
first ever Best Ball underdog tournament and I am one
pick away and I'm taking a quarterback. Is it Fields,
Burrow or Herbert?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
This is just this is not dynasty, right, No, it's
not dynasty.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
It's Best Ball. It's you set your your draft, your team.
You never change it. They're big rosters and if you
have three quarterbacks on your roster, whoever has the best
week and Week twelve, you get their points, just like
I take Fields. I think I think I'm gonna take Fields.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, because he's gonna have the biggest blow.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Up games and then I'll get like a Kirk Cousins
or something.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yeah, you get somebody else to give you a nice floor,
but you take Fields because of the upside.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah, that's my plan.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I have one pick away.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm hoping Fields doesn't fallow, but I would settle for
Burrow Herbert.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, hey, did you miss any of our show today?
You can download full episodes of all of our SNR
podcast shows, such as The Drive into the Locker Room
with Wolf of Starks, The Steelers Blitz with Wesson Motes,
The Steelers Standard with Tom and Jacob, as well as
many more. They're all available on the Steelers Mobile app,
the iHeartRadio app, and wherever you get your podcasts. He
is Matt Williamson. I am Dale, Lolly. We thank you
(27:45):
for listening to this edition of the Drive on Steelers
Nation Radio
He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson show
on your twenty four to seven home of the Black
and Gold SNR Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome back to the Drive.
I'm Dale LOLLI, he is Matt Williamson and Matt Earlier today,
(00:24):
I posted an article on Steelers dot Com on Tarah
Austin and Frisman Jackson, the Steelers defensive coordinator and their
wider receivers coach, being a tap to go to. It's
the new initiative that the league has started here to
have guys come in and basically meet with head coach
(00:46):
or with ownership you know, around the league. So they
they'll go to the owners meeting or the spring meetings
here in Minneapolis, and they'll be there with thirty eight
other guys will be forty overall, and they'll get an
opportunity to just sit down and meet and greet, meet
and greet ownership gms through the NFL Accelerator program. Well,
(01:08):
I'm looking here at the thirty third team and they
have a list of I have.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
A question about that. I never heard of this, to
be honest with.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
You, Okay, it's something new. They started it last.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Year Okay, so not every team has two coaches. It
sounds like there's forty total Steelers happening to Is it
a minority program.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, so it's a minority program. Okay. It gives the
you know, these minority coaches in some cases when they
did it last year, it was front office people the
opportunity to go and sit down and meet the guys
who make who did basically the decision makers.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's great. That's a great in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And you know, because you can't hire who you don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
As I said, it's kind of like watching tape of
the upcoming component like that.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I know a lot of times NFL teams, NFL owners
get ripped for you know, they hired, they went the easier.
They just hired some you know, some guy who coached
for them eight years ago, or somebody you know who
knew somebody who knews. Like, that's how That's how hiring
goes in every business. Said.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
If I was hiring somebody and my best friend said, hire.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
This dude, I'm like, well, hire that dude.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I mean, that's referrals or what kind of makes the
world go around, doesn't the.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, you're gonna lean that way. Yeah. So this, you know,
this is something that opens the door for some of
these minority coaches, which is good. But I'm looking here
at an article on the thirty third team and it
is seven coordinators who will be twenty twenty four NFL
head coaching candidates. It's by Tom or I'm sorry, Paul
de Moinewitch, who's their senior writer. Yeah, so I'm just
(02:41):
going to roll through some of these names here and
we'll talk a little bit about this. His first guy
up on here is Dan Quinn.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Now he's been around the block and he's bet yeah,
I mean yeah, he's he interviewed for three of the
three of the five head coaching jobs this past offseason
that it's been a head coach before.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Like, is that the best we can come up with?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I gave him big money for coordinator money, often not
to keep him away from the other teams, but kind of,
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Just in case something else, you know, something happens. He
could be Dallas's coaching waiting two.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Like could he even stay there and be the next
you know, promote from with en type of deal.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So here's one of the things. So years is a
defense he's been a defensive coordinator for four years. I
guess in Dallas the record is defensive coordinator forty nine
and seventeen.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, I mean I don't win losses. I'm not sure
win loss of quarterbacks. That it definitely is not a coordinator.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Definitely not coordinating, especially a defensive coordinators. And so they
He then lists his Cowboys average defensive ranking in yards
under Quinn fifteenth, Cowboys twenty twenty two, defensive ranking twelve.
This makes him a head coaching candidate.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Say that's not the best resume builder, and you might
have the best defensive player in the league on your
team too, I mean, yes, helpful. One thing I will
say about him is a lot of these Seattle based
defensive coordinators have not adjusted with the times and got
kind of pushed out. You know, the cover three single high,
you know all the Seattle stuff that took the league
(04:21):
by storm. Well that's not what Dallas runs. I mean,
Dallas has adjusted, and you know he's evolved at least.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah. Number two guy in his list is Ben Johnson,
the Lions offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
That was the name that popped that I had immediately. Yeah,
like thirty six years old.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, last year was his first year as a coordinator,
first year, last year as a coordinator, second year.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, I think it was first.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, you know, the.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Tape heads rave about him though, you know, the inobitions,
the little wrinkles almost like Shanahan esque of making all
the plays look the same and then doing different variations.
And I guess he's really smart, great municator, like you said,
only thirty six, Like he feels like a Steeler head.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Coach higher you know, you know what I mean, the right, right, right,
twenty years but years as the offensive cornator one they
went nine to eight. Last year they were fourth in
total offense. So I get that one. Yeah, I get
that one more than I get dan Quinn. Like, at
least a guy like Ben Johnson is a he's never
done it before, he's never failed somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
It's kind of like our backup conversation conversation, you know,
conversation is dan Quinn might be a Colt McCoy, you know,
like I kind of know what he is, right, I'd
rather take a chance on Will Levis.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, I mean I know again I saw dan Quinn
fail in Atlanta. Yeah, yeah, with Matt Ryan and with
you know, some pretty good guys, and.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
That's always a weird thing to balance, like, well, what
did he learn in his first stint? And everyone, well,
Belichick didn't win in Browns. You know, does that mean
he never should been hired? Who knows? I mean sometimes
these guys have been a league long enough though, that
kind of deal with it, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
The next one on the list is Brian Johnson, who
is the Eagles offensive coordinator. He's thirty six as well.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
However, this is his first year as a coordinator. Yeah,
they lost both coordinators, so maybe he's a smart.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, how you can say he's going to be a
hot head coaching candidate this offseason when he's never done
a thing.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I mean, I guess the logic is he.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Was a quarterbacks coach, Billy's.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
He helped develop hers. He's I mean, Eagles and Chiefs
coordinators are going to get a lot of attention.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
You know what I mean. But he's the whole help
develop the guys thing. Like I see people talk about
Bruce Ario, Well, Bruce Arians helped develop Peyton Manning and
Ben Roethlisberger.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
They probably have been good without Bruce not.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So much either, you know. Tom Moore developed Peyton Manning,
if you want to, you want to give somebody credit there,
and Arians was the wide receivers coach for the first
part of his stint stint with the Steelers when Ben
Roethlisberger was young. He wasn't developing Ben. He was developing
the receivers right right. So this is the word, you know,
(07:13):
too much credit is given in many of these cases,
Like they all have pr guys writing their stuff for them.
Bruce Arians developed that. No he didn't, No, he.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Didn't a lot too. I really think Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts,
I think they benefit at least as much from the
quarterback coach that they're they're working with today when they're
not even in the facility, you know, with Carson Palmer's
brother and those type of dudes. Those guys been breakdown
everything about you.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
You know. So Brian Johnson could be great.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
He might be great, who knows.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I have no idea though, I have no idea if
he's any good. Not a clue, nor does anybody else.
So he's perfect.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
He's like the Lions, Dude, if they have the number
one offense in the league, he probably still isn't going
to get high after one year being an coordinator. He
should be on this list of a year from now.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Right, I could make a better argument to Ben Johnson, right,
did more with less? Like Ben Ben Johnson came out
of nowhere last year. The Lions came out of nowhere
last year. Is on offense? Nobody expected that, right, right?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
And they were a fourth best offense in the league.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
You know so well? I mean to me, the jury
still out on Brian Johnson to say that he is
a slam dunk head hot head coaching candidate. I don't
know that. Who knows, right? Right? Yeah? Right? Okay. The
next one is Eric b Enemy, who's now the offensive
coordinator with the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, he's interviewed a million times and he's interviewed, which
tells me a lot, right, right, And I know he's
he's the guy that everybody points well he you know
he's he's at He's inter been interviewed sixteen times by
fifteen teams for head coaching jobs.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Wow, and nobody has hired him.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean, this is public knowledge. He has some sort
of checkered past. I don't know what kind of trouble
he got into as a younger man, but he got
into some kind of trouble, right, and it just implies
he's not the best interview ever, So what's he do?
He takes a lateral move to go from the Super
Bowl champs to a team at the time that had
disastrous ownership and environment to be the offensive coordinator in Washington,
(09:26):
just to get out of Andy reid shadow and show
the world that he can do things on his own,
which I kind of get. I mean, if Washington's talk, well.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I think it was. I think it was absolutely the
move for him to make. Yeah, right, right, right right.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I mean coaching mahomes with Andy Reid, it's hard to
get credit, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
At the same time, I guess you have to win Super.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Bowl every year, right, that's not a bad life.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
And oh, by the way, I've gotten sixteen head coaching
interviews in the last few years. Still, I can't blame
anybodybody else for not getting those jobs. Am I mad
at Andy? Because Andy insists on calling the plays, which
then leads me to this about Eric. They have the
(10:11):
little thing here in the tag about Eric b enemy
Yours is OC five record is OC sixty four and eighteen.
Andy Reid's calling the place Chiefs average offensive ranking under
the enemy. Second, Andy Reids calling the plays. I can't
say this enough. Now I will say this. Andy Reid
also called the plays before this, and he also called
(10:33):
the plays in Philadelphia, and his offensive coordinators, who were
white got other jobs. So I get when people argue
that race is a factor here, I get it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
But in the conversation, he might not an interview.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I mean he might not be a head coach.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, he might not be. Or I mean he sits
down with the owners and doesn't do well.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I mean, he's oh for six and.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
He wouldn't be the first guy that that's happened to,
right right.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I mean, the fact that he's oh for sixteen in interviews,
I think speaks a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, so we'll see. You know, it's one year in
Washington going to reinvent Eric b enemy. Are they going
to be a top ten offense in Washington? I don't
think so. I don't either.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
But I mean, if he can turn, whether he's the
reason Sam Howe's good or not, it is kind of
a good move for him, except he's not gonna get
Super Bowl rings and he could get fired after the year.
Where that would have happened in Kansas, City, Right, but
he could go to owners and be like, look what
I did with Sam Howe. I made him the fifteenth
best quarterback in the league. It wasn't just you know, yeah,
if that happens. If that happens, he's betting on himself,
(11:45):
which in this case though, is a tough bet to win.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah. The next gap is Brian Callahan, who is the
Bengals offensive coordinator. Well, he didn't look to he didn't
look all that smart when he didn't have Joe Burrow, right.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Right, kind of like their head coach, to be honest,
kind of like the head coach.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
He's been their offensive coordinator for four years twenty eight
thirty six and one. The Bengals average offensive ranking under Callahan,
what do you think it would be in four years?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Burrow has been there for three?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yes, well he missed, he missed a good Yeah, he
missed a good chunk of his first year.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
But he said that their average seventeenth, nineteenth and they
were like two last year.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
They were eighth last year. Eight. Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Okay, Yeah, if Brian Callahan does get a head coaching
job somewhere, he should send half of his check to
Joe Burrow.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, he may be the salt of the earth and
the smartest man ever. But his resume doesn't screamhim any.
I always have a hard time commenting on assistant coaches,
and to be very honest, but if you just showed
me a piece of paper with his name on it and
all his accomplishments, it's not that impressive.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah. And I also look at it like, who did
he coach under? Yea, this is where people talk about
coaching trees? Yeah? Yeah, Do I really want Zach Taylor's right, dude?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And I don't know if Callahan came with Taylor from
the Rams. I don't know go back that far in
his history.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Is there? Yeah, I don't know all that stuff. I
don't know if I think I think Taylor might call
the offensive place here too.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I was thinking that too. I almost said that because
I think you started that sentence with Cincinnati coordinator and
I was gonna say, oh, Louis Maroon, Well.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, yeah, I don't think Callahan calls the offensive place.
So I had the same issues with him that I
had with the enemy with Kansas City, Like, I don't know,
I don't know Brian Callahan.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
R right, This might be the worst candidate yet on paper.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Right. Next up is Lou and Roumo, the Bengals offensive coordinator. No,
I think he's good.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I think he's a great defensive mind.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
But he's fifty six. Yeah, h his years.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I don't know the human being, but I think he's
kind of a snarly old school coach. You know, he
might not be a leader of man. He might just
be a really good coordinator.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
He's he's been a defensive coordinator for five years. Okay,
so he didn't have I mean he was a position
coach for a long time before that. His record is
a defensive coordinator thirty four to forty six to one.
The Bengals average defensive ranking under him. What do you think?
It is?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Probably not good because, I mean the year they got Burrow,
they had the first pick of the draft. Because they're
stunk on offense and stuck on defense. Twenty second, twenty second,
top five defense.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
The Bengals twenty twenty two defensive ranking sixteenth.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Wow, I was I say tenth?
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah. No, I think he's a good position coach. I
think he's a good coordinator. Yeah, yeah, but I don't
know that I want to hand my team over to him.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah again again, I don't know the human being. He
might be the best interview. He might be a great
leader of men, not the impression I get.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, I think the final guy. Yet, this is the
final guy in this list. A Hero Vero, the Panthers
defensive coordinator forty two years old, just took the job
as a defensive coordinator he.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Was with said he I don't think he was a
decordinator last year.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I thought he was with the Broncos. Yeah, he was
a Broncos defensive coordinator last year. Did a good job, right,
But he's got the stick in the Nathaniel Hackett all
over him, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
He took over for Fangio. Hackett took over for Fangio
and hired him as the DC and DC before that.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
And I think they continue to do a lot of
the same things that Fangio had done because that's what
they had there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, oh, they kept the defense the same.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, wisely, you know, right, So.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, so you know, I think, you know, he's a
he's a young, up and coming guy. I want to
see more, right.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Right, right, I said, I don't know how to comment
on him, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yeah, other coaches on the radar. And wow, the first
guy on there is Thomas Brown, the Panthers offensive coordinator.
He could walk into this room right now and I
wouldn't know who he is. Yeah, I don't have no idea.
And then I do this, Dams, I'm sure I do
this for a living. Uh. The other other three guys
(16:32):
I have heard of, Mike Kofka, the Giants offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
That's a name you always hear.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah, Jared Mayo, the Patriots inside linebacker coach. But it's
my understanding he's been off. He's been basically got the uh,
the sweetheart deal that he's been promised he'll replace Bill. Yeah. Yeah, so.
And then Ken Dorsey, the Bills offensive coordinator. Only one
year coordinator, one year coordinator. And I'll be honest with you,
(16:57):
I wasn't super impressive what the Bills did offensively last year.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, that took a step backwards after behind Dable, after Daboll. Yeah,
so are we done with this conversation. I got a
quick question for you.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
No, you know, I saw it to me like if
you were when you were making this list five six
years ago.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, Tarrell Austin's name was on this list. Yeah, that
was the point I was going to bring up to,
like it shock you that he's not even on the list.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
He's got as good a resume, if not better than
some of these other guys.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Right, we've both been around him. He's smart and he's personable.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You know, I'm sure you know, working against him is
kind of like you know when we talked about in
a romo. He's a little older. Yeah, yeah, he's in
his you know, I think he's fifty eight. But that
doesn't mean he's done. You know, if the Steelers go
out and have one of the top defenses in the
(17:50):
league gets yere, how does Tara Austin not get interviews
for a head coaching job, you.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Would think, I mean, I wonder if there's a little
bit of read the enemy there it's Tomlin's defense.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You know what I mean? Awesome? I mean, I don't
know he got.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Six, right or sixteen interviews?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Right? Yeah? Where's the love? I don't I don't know.
And I think, you know, every year we see like
nobody had ever heard last year at this time of
of Ben Johnson, nobody had ever heard of of the
Carolina guy. Evero, nobody kne who those guys were.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
No no, No, of course.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Heck for you know, at this point in two thousand
and seven or two thousand and six, Mike Tomlin was
largely an unknown name a mom.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
So many of these guys, yeah, aren't well known coordinators
before they get hired.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
So to me, you know, and so again that that
brings me back to the Dan Quinn's last Eric being
Enemy conversation, like do we have to keep bringing up this?
Like at what point do you just say, you know what?
That's enough, right, exactly exactly like you are what you are.
Let's just move on here, you know, in the case
(19:17):
like Raheem Morris, to me, that's a great one. He's
I think, I think he's better than those guys. Yeah,
I know, I agreed.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I know he's close with coach Somlin and you can
see why. I mean, he has a lot of.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
He did a good job in Tampa Bay, right and
has never gotten another shot.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
No, he's a great example. He would be somebody would
be on my short list of all the names we mentioned.
I think he might be my favorite candidate, you know,
if I was an owner.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I mean you're talking, yeah, I just I don't know.
I mean, he's he got three years.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Basically, So I got two little one more nugget on this.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yes, I know a lot of our listeners won in
an offensive coordinator change in Pittsburgh. And folks, if you
don't know this, sixteen new play callers of thirty two
are in place this year and scoring was down. And
I believe, and I'm not defending that cannon won't wear
another you know, I believe many of those moves were
(20:19):
made just to make a move where they're really sixteen
new offensive coordinators just jumping off the page that needed
a job that were overqualified.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
For well well, I mean like six of those were
because the team made a change a head coach too.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That's true too, right, But my point is it wasn't
a good year to go shopping for a new coordinator.
For one thing, It's not a great year to go
shopping for a head All those names you listed, it's.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Not like, man, I'm jaying that guy's yeah, I got
gotta get that guy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
There's not like there's this deep pool of Kyle Shanahan's
out there that you just dip your fishing rod in
and pull three or four of them out, you know
what I mean? So say what you want about the
Steelers offense coordinator situation. If they saw somebody they thought
was better, I bet they would have gone and get them.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
You know, like I think when I look at that situation,
I look at it this way. So year one from
Matt Canada, they're basically running Ben Roethlisberger's stuff, right, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
He was a coordinator basically in name only because they
were going to do whatever whatever Ben thought they needed
(21:25):
to do to be successful. And he had earned that
over his eighteen years. And you know, you're gonna stick
with with with what he what he can do, what
he's physically capable to do, which was way different than
what he was physically capable of doing even five years ago.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I would say, I mean an unkind way of saying it.
But with all respect to Ben, you're coaching around some
obvious limitations of that version of right, right, He's not
gonna sit in the pocket for seven seconds and shrug
offter all songs.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You know, No, that wasn't that wasn't what he was
going to do anymore. So you had that two years ago,
which Canada's first year as coordinator. Last year, it's sort
of similar about the opposite, but the opposite. You're working
with with with two quarterbacks who are brand new, one
of them is a rookie. You're trying to have cobble
(22:15):
ways together to more or less protect your quarterback, especially
when Pickett became the starter.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Again, You're coaching around limitations, right, I mean every I
mean that's part of coaching. I mean there's things that
Kansas City doesn't ask Mahomes to do over and over
again either, you know, But.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
It's kind of the same way like when the when
this in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen, I'm sorry, I
mean you look at that year for Randy Feekner with
with Mason Rudolph and Douc Hodge is both making their
first career starts in that season, especially the games with
Duck at quarterback. You're just you're just trying to survive.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
You're trying to get first downs, You're trying.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
To so you know, so you know, to me, that's
why that's why you bring Matt Canada back. Did I
see enough last year, particularly in the second half of
the season, to say, Okay, this guy deserves another chance?
I did? There was okay, Uh, there was definite progress
(23:17):
from from the beginning of the season to the end
of the season. It was almost night and day.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, there was an identity, there was progress, It was
by far, by far, by far. I just wrote this
article the youngest offense in the entire league is changed.
Good for the youngest offense in the entire league and
a second.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Year quarterback, particularly when what I was doing in the
second half was working, Like if, if, if, that's going
to be your identity, and everything that they've done this
offseason says, yeah, that's going to be their identity. They're
going to be they want to run the football and
and beat people up in the trenches. I mean, okay,
he showed that. He showed that you could do that. Hm.
(23:58):
That was something that that you know, they didn't deal
it with Todd Haley. They didn't deal it with Randy
Fiekner despite at times, uh, you know, Art Rooney the
second coming down said we need to run the ball better,
and then the next year they come out and average
ninety yards rushing. Again, Well, okay, now you know, Art,
we need to run the ball better, and lo and
(24:18):
behold they did.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
H right, right right, So I mean, it's just real
easy to say offense coordinator stinks c score points, he
stinks blah blah blah. You know, like there is context.
And that's why going through that list of these guys
are head coaches next year, are they really all that great?
I mean, are there a bunch of studs out there
right now that are obvious head coaches that will win
(24:42):
games in this league? No, not to buy knowledge.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
And we know based on history, there's going to be
five or six changes at the end of this.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Year, absolutely, and those same five or six will get
fired two years.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
If I was if I was fishing in that pool,
I would not be real like keen On. So oh yeah,
let's go hire one of these dudes. The bad pool,
the BADO. It's not a great pool. Yeah, yeah, it's bad,
which is why you know these things that the that
the league has. Maybe of these forty guys who go
to this coaching seminar or at the at the meetings,
(25:17):
maybe three of them become guys that, oh, hey, I
talked to I remember talking to this guy at the
let's supposed Yeah, let' let's let's bring him in for
an interview. That's how Mike Tomlin got his you know,
Mike Tomlin was not the four runner into the front
runner in two thousand and seven, every I mean everybody
including myself, assumed it was going to become Widen Hunter
(25:37):
Russ Grimm. And then all of a sudden, here comes
Mike Tomlin and you know, coming on the outside, uh,
you know, And and the other two guys get pinned
in the rail and they don't get it, and Tomlin does.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I'm making this up. This is hypothetical, of course, but
mister Rooney might be blown away by a thirty five
year old defensive back coach from the Chargers or whatever.
And four years from now, Tomlin retires off in the
sunset and he thinks, let's call that guy. I remember him,
you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I met him at that symposium and he had some
good stuff to say.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, he's with me, you know, I mean, he had
an ur about him. Let's let's bring him in.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
That's what you're looking for. You're looking for the aura.
You're looking for a guy who can be a leader
of men. Yeah, because that's the main job of your
head coach, Like, can he lead a room of fifty
three diverse personalities? Exactly? Yeah? You know right. So anyway,
before we go off. Oh wait, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
This is totally different fantasy related. I am doing my
first ever Best Ball underdog tournament and I am one
pick away and I'm taking a quarterback. Is it Fields,
Burrow or Herbert?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
This is just this is not dynasty, right, No, it's
not dynasty.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
It's Best Ball. It's you set your your draft, your team.
You never change it. They're big rosters and if you
have three quarterbacks on your roster, whoever has the best
week and Week twelve, you get their points, just like
I take Fields. I think I think I'm gonna take Fields.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, because he's gonna have the biggest blow.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Up games and then I'll get like a Kirk Cousins
or something.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yeah, you get somebody else to give you a nice floor,
but you take Fields because of the upside.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah, that's my plan.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I have one pick away.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm hoping Fields doesn't fallow, but I would settle for
Burrow Herbert.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, hey, did you miss any of our show today?
You can download full episodes of all of our SNR
podcast shows, such as The Drive into the Locker Room
with Wolf of Starks, The Steelers Blitz with Wesson Motes,
The Steelers Standard with Tom and Jacob, as well as
many more. They're all available on the Steelers Mobile app,
the iHeartRadio app, and wherever you get your podcasts. He
is Matt Williamson. I am Dale, Lolly. We thank you
(27:45):
for listening to this edition of the Drive on Steelers
Nation Radio
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