June 1, 2023 • 41 mins
Dale Lolley and Matt Williamson are live from OTA’s. Isaac Seumalo joins the show.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am Dale Lallie. He is Matt Williamson over here,
chatty playing, chatty Kathy.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
What I'm really doing, though, is I'm enjoying the recruits
interacting here next door. Just brings back my roots, my
memories back here. It's cool getting a bunch of recruits together,
don't know each other, and they're all in the same building,
and they started to get a little competitive.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's fun. Yeah. Yeah, sixteen seventeen year old.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We're trying to watch the Steelers practice here and yeah,
they're doing that right in front of us here as
they get this looks like some offensive linemen and tight.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Ends a lot of big bodies.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm gonna grow up and can be a lot bigger. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
So anyways, the Steelers, they're wrapping up their OTA practice
number six over they're on the far field today, so
we can't see quite as well.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
But they should be nicer to us and put do
it right on this one. Yeah, right here in front
of us. They didn't, didn't ask us our opinion on that.
They did not. They did not. They they never do. No.
I was gonna say seldom do, but they never do.
Of course, never do.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Anyways, We are live from the Steelers Ota sessions here
at the up mc rooney Sports Complex Today. We are
expected to be joined by Isaac Samalu, the Steelers new guard.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
There was some I was hesitant to bring it up.
We've been, I've been.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean the first two times were
technical difficulties on our end. Yesterday, Yeah, yesterday, he and
the offensive line we're out there working very long after
practice and by the time they came off the field,
everybody from PR had gone inside, and well they forgot.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
About it and kind of forgot abouts. And he did
as well. And he did as well.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And I wouldn't expect him, remember, since you know, he
was first told about it, like last Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Good point, you know, happens. A lot of happened then,
and who knows. So I assume, Oh, I'm just guessing
he may stick around after practice because it seems like
something he does with some what.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
The offensive line does, they stick around, they hang out,
they he's.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
The old man stuff on the Yeah, I'm hoping. Well,
I'm sure it'll happen sometime between now and during camp.
I want to ask some of the James Daniels choke
score for what's Isaac been as a resource for you?
You know, he's been around the league a little longer,
he's a little older, widely regarded as a fantastic football mind.
(02:15):
Wondering if he's chirping up and throwing some suggestions in
or not or all those things. So it's an interesting
dynamic on that line. And got a high first round pick.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
In the mix.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, absolutely, get a nice mix of ye now old
and young, but a lot of experience, a.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Lot of experience.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yeah, I was blown away last year with the combination
of youth and experience on the O line.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's hard to do.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, And the buzzer or the horn is sounded there,
so that wraps up practice. So they'll go off in
their little position groups here and have a chat about
everything it just happened, and then they'll break off. Guys
who want to stay out here and work. We'll stay
out here and work. Others will head for the locker
room and go get showered up and head off to
some team meetings or whatever they got.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
To do before.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You know, that's just the way this goes these aren't.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
You mentioned this before though?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And this is a Thursday though, I'm sure a lot
of these guys might go back to their home city
for the weekend or figure out, you know, their apartment
here or you mean.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
In a way.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That's why these things aren't mandatory. That's why these things,
you know, when people get all upset that this player,
that player is not.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Here, commitments to you. Right, if your boss.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Told you that this is not mandatory that you come
to something, and you were in a stat you were
well established in your job, you're right, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And as we witnessed in the indoor the other day,
there could be some very established NFL players that decide
I'm going to work out my way, not your way.
And it's not like I'm not using my time properly.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, I mean you don't. They're not sitting around eating cheetos.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
They could be even them, But yeah, you're not gonna
go stop, right.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, these guys put the time in, they put the
effort in, and well, you know you, yeah, you do
have to balance everything. And trust me, if a guy's
not here, it's not the end of the world. It's
not the end of the world. And I guarantee you that,
like Mike Tomlin knows, I'm sure why if.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Somebody misses a day, and I doubt it's boy in
my contract. I'm not happy with my contract or my
role or this team or trade me or any of
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
You're not any of that kind of stuff out of
this Pittsburgh this year.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
No, but you see in some other places.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I mean that's really one of the reason why DeAndre
Hopkins got released.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, they didn't want to. They started ripping management and
things of that nature. That's going to get you out
of town.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, that's a hairy situation there. I mean they're looking
for leaders. They obviously are rebuilding. They told the world
with that release that hey, we understand we're not going
to win anything this year. I mean that's just where
we're at. So obviously a much different situation here. I
always wonder too, you know, like maybe the young guys
that are new to town, you know, half of them
(04:51):
are going home and are leaving town. Other half are
sticking around. I'm just guessing, but they don't have a
lot of buddies yet. So do you go ask the
a fifth round pick and you're the third round picky,
it's new dinner to night. I don't know, well, yeah,
I don't know anybody else you got guys in your
position room and come over and play mad.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
That's what you know.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Rookie classes tend to be pretty close with each other
because right, right, right, you're have thrown together a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
They're asked, Yeah, they're all fish out of water in
a new town, and you know, right, and they're both
they're all similar age.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Of course. You know that's just interesting about the Patrick
Peterson anamic he really is.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I mean you're talking about Patrick Peterson is older than
pretty much everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Is he the oldest sealer? Now? No?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
No, I mean Hayward Stillyard are the same draft class.
They're in the same draft class. I think Hayward's a
little like a couple of months older. Okay, but you
heard that with Ben, Like, but there's not many over thirties.
Ben was, Ben's thirty nine years old, and you know
they're drafting quarterbacks and things and that, like Ben and
Mason Rudolph are almost a full generation.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Oh right apart. I mean Ben's a perfect example. But
can you imagine Brady? You know, yeah, and you know
his wife's a supermodel, and you know you live in
two different lifestyles, right, I mean, people probably don't remember
Giselle as a supermodel, that he's big being drafted with,
let alone Brady's rookie year, or Brady at Michigan or
Ben at Miami or anything that.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
After a while, you get tired of people. You know,
I watched you. I was a kid when you were
played in the Super Bowl in two thousand and five.
I remember watching that game.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Like, I mean, you think Ben has heard a million times,
even from a teammate that I used to please you
on Madden. Yeah, I'm like, okay, that's cool, It's cool,
no matter what.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's only the twentieth time I've heard that this.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Week, this week, right right, so interesting. But no, this
is a very young team. But it doesn't lack leadership.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
No, it certainly does not. And that leadership I think
you see that come out. I mean as we watch guys,
you know there's a bunch of guys over there running.
Have to do that, you know, absolutely not, but they're
doing it as a group.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Ye throw the helmet off and go run sprints.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
A little bit of that often tends to be like, okay,
these five guys from my position group are running. I
don't be the one that I don't want to do it,
but I'm gonna do it because it's peer pressure.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
And this sounds bad, but it was really true with
the Browns. Is man, this is a downtime a year.
But what if the head coach walks by. I don't
want my office to be empty and get out of
here at five o'clock, so I would just throw another
game tape on, although I know this play, you know, like.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I'll go have some more ice cream and just.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Be here, you know, but I really don't want to
be here at this point. And frankly, I wasn't that
productive at that point, like get out of there, you know.
But these guys are obviously a lot more productive than
I am at that point.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Notice the other day too, like even between running back drills,
Jalen Warren would just go off the side run two gassers,
you know, you know things like that like might as well.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, you see a lot of guys doing stuff like that.
It's it's about being in football shape and you know,
knowing for especially for a guy like Jayalen Warren knowing
what football shape is now.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah yeah, yeah you know last year he did I find.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, last year you wouldn't have known. I mean how
would he sure?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
You know, does Washington her big porter? Do those guys know?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
That's why having a guy like Patrick Peterson around it
is so invaluable. That's why having a guy like an
Isaac Samalo is so valuable. Absolutely, James Daniels, the guys
who have been starters.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And this might shock people, but I think we had
this conversation. We've had a lot of them that a
lot of these rookies when they come to OTAs aren't
in as good a shape as you think. Well, why
is that? Well, because they spent like a month touring
around the different teams and on planes.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
They spent two months getting ready for the combine, right.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Working on their starts and their verticals, you know, and
not with pads on and that type of thing where
NFL players or know what to expect every phase of
the you know, of the season of the whole calendar
year where the rookies were just trying to get themselves
drafted and appeal to the giants and commanders and everybody else.
It's tough to do your regiment when you're torn around
(08:50):
the country and they're taking out the dinners and you know,
things like that. Yeah, I mean you know, the next
couple of months, the next couple month or so is
crucial for those guys.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Well, that would be Tomlins.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
That'll be his message, I guarantee you when he speaks
again at the end of the of the OTA session,
so actually the end of the mini camp session, telling
those rookies that they needed what kind of shape they
needed to be in when they come back, you know
for the for training camp. That's some will get it,
some won't. You know, again, you can take that six
(09:23):
weeks off or five weeks off, whatever it turns out
to be, and go on vacation and do those kind
of things. Again, life gets in the way, of course,
other guys will be out training and doing those things.
You know, the entire time training camp is not what
it used to be. You know when they had the
you know, eight weeks of training camp, those guy's use
that to get in shape.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
No, you better show up in shape. That's what I say.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Is I mean a veteran head coach like Tomlin, I'm
sure doesn't bother him at all that a lot of
these rookies are gassed easier than you would like. You
don't have to play tomorrow, you get that. But if it.
But if day one of training camp the same guys
aren't in better shape, well you don't to make shustes anymore.
You aren't touring around the league eating dinners and stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I mean, this was you know, you know what you're
gonna be doing, you know where you're gonna be at ready.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
This is how you chose to use your time, and
you didn't use it wisely. But of course on the
flip side is wow, he looks a lot better shape.
Now he can go all day where he couldn't do
o t as well, he's been working hard, you know,
right right, absolutely, that's the way that goes. And that
doesn't mean he can't go to the beach for a
week or you know, oh yeah you could take some
time your girlfriend of Maui or whatever. I mean, enjoy
it because it's going to be a grind.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
But yeah, you know your next seven months are going
to be pretty uh pretty booked.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, it is interesting time for these guys though.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, let's take another break here to the offensive line
starting to trickle direction, trickle this direction, so hopefully we'll
get Isaac samlo on here as he comes off the field.
Uh he is Matt Williamson. I am Dale Allie. You're
listening to a special edition of The Drive here on
Steelers Nation Radio. We're live from the Steelers Ota Sessions
here on the South Side. We'll be back with more
(10:58):
right after this. Welcome back. I am Dale Lallie. He
is Matt Williamson, and this is a special edition of
The Drive here on Steelers Nation Radio and ESPN nine
seventy and Uh. Well, we are live from the Steelers
Ota Sessions here at the upmc rooney Sports Complex, and
(11:18):
we're pleased to be joined now by Isaac sam Molo,
the Steelers new offensive guard. And Isaac, how you doing.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
What's up?
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Guys? Doing good? Uh, glad to be here. Appreciate you
guys having me on.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
How's the Pittsburgh experience treated you so far since signing?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
It's been good.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
I mean everybody, a lot of guys reached out when
I first signed, and obviously the fans in the city
is a football place, so no, it's been it's been awesome, good.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Good.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Isaac had an opportunity to talk to your dad, it's
been about five weeks now, and he said, Isaac's a man.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
A few words, he doesn't talk a lot. Your dad
is not that way. Your dad talks a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
How did what's the difference sharing the personalities. I mean,
he's he's he's pretty, he's pretty outgoing and and obviously
as a football guy.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Yeah, I mean he's a coach, so I think it's
part of his job is to you know, speak, But
I actually think we're he's more similar in that. I
think it feels his choice. He wouldn't be talking too much,
and I I just don't, you know, I mean, I
just speak when I have to, and I think observing
(12:27):
and listening is usually the way to go in most situations.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Does he critique your game?
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Still, Yeah, but it's, uh, it's different than what it
used to be. I think at this point he's more
concerned about me making sure I call my mom.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And doing that stuff stuff.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
I mean, he's just, you know, he's I think he's
just a proud father, which I'm you know, very humbly
and thankful for now.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You come from a really it's a football family. I
don't know if a lot of people know this. You
your sister works for the forty nine ers.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Correct she does? Yea in the scouting department. Oh okay, yep.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So that's gonna be a pretty cool Do you guys
talk football.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
When you when you get together.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
No, I mean it's like, you know, we do this
for work, so I think at the end of the
day we'd rather just talk about, you know, other things
going on and our lives.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Makes some sense. So another just a hunch. Major influence
I would think would be Jason Kelsey, you know, playing
next to him and frankly, I think he's as good
as center as I've ever.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Seen and our unique player.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
How did you learn from him and what was that
experience like, you know, not even just playing with him,
but all the time in the meeting rooms and that
sort of thing.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
Yeah, I mean everything you see and hear about him
from a distance is true in person really not only
on the field. Is he a tremendous you know player
and you know in person, but also off the field,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
He's been a.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
Good friend of mine for a long time and which
I'm very appreciative of. I don't you know, I think,
you know, just being like a good person and friend
off the field. I think that's not commonplace, I think,
but I also do think in the old line room,
you see that a lot, just because you know, guys
are kind of together in this uh this grind. But no,
(14:20):
I mean his uh, his capability, his mental capacity is
you know, uh, you know, unlimited passion. Uh, the way
he plays with reckless abandon but still kind of knows
what's going on and.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
All the time, all the time.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
And I mean it's uh, it's been incredible to watch
and see for the past seven years now.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Your dad's a defensive line coach and has been for
a long time, and he's he's you know, obviously been
it's college level.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
How did you end up on the offensive.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Line that's exact opposite, Like offensive linement and defensive lineman
aren't supposed to mix.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Are they.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
I mean, we I think, uh, you know, we all
we all wear black and yellow out here, so you know,
we're all going towards a common purpose, you know. Obviously,
you know, I played d line in high school, and
I think it just came down that, you know, I'd
be a better on this side, and thought I had
a you know, thankfully and very blessed to have the
(15:20):
opportunity to play offensive line in the NFL. So kind
of it kind of worked out. But there's a lot
I think as an offensive lineman, the more you know
about d lineman, the better you can play. I think
seeing things from their perspective and why they do what
they do makes you feel more comfortable and why you
have to do what you do as an offensive lineman.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
So one of the things your dad said that is
he's told me that you play offensive line with the
defensive lineman's mentality.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Sure you like to deliver the blow.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, I mean, I think the.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
You know, I think the thing that gets overlooked at
offensive line is you know, you have the ability and
the the license to play with very violently at times
and then at times you know how to and then
really how to accurately and precisely be violent. And I
(16:17):
think the defensivelignement can can understand that. But uh yeah, man,
I mean, who doesn't you get you allowed to go
out there and you know, hit people without you know,
any regard for for you know, laws and rules of mankind.
So you know, it's a it's a it's an awesome feeling.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
So when to spin it.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Back real quick to your experience with the Eagles, which
I'm sure was a positive one. I thought the best
offensive line in the league last year mentioned Kelsey Lane
Johnson's been maybe the best right tackle in the league
during that same stretch. But the left tackle Jordan Malatta
kind of came from nowhere and was really talented. Project.
Do you see Broderi Jones, I mean a different path.
He's a first round pick, but could you see him
(17:00):
progressing like Jordan did next year?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah? I mean.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Obviously there are different you know, body types that come
from different backgrounds and whatnot. But Project got all the
all the tools and athleticism in the world, you know,
like an ethic office line is one of those things
that just takes time and experience, regardless of you know,
there's very rare guys that can come in and play
right away, but I think Project possesses those tools and
(17:29):
being able to know when to use, you know, each
tool and then when to I think that's the the
hard part of our office line is knowing when to
do something a certain way versus another way. Understanding angles,
understanding when I have the license to be play a
little bit more reckless versus where I got to be
a little more under control.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
But aggression doesn't seem to be a problem for him, No,
it does not.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
He's he's definitely an aggressive guy, and sometimes you kind
of have to teach guys how to hone that aggression
and kind of foster it into a you know, proper
angle on a run block or using your hands a
certain way. But now he's got all the tools, so
I'm excited to see him grow.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
So, just jumping back to when you when you're growing up,
you guys were all homeschool.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
Correct, Yes, I was homeschooled to like high school or
middle school, so my my older brother and uh, yeah,
we were all homeschooled for a certain amount of time.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Your dad, your mom did a lot of that in
your grandmother as well.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Yeah, growing up in Hawaii, my grandma did most did
all that for me and my older brother especially, and
then my mom growing up outside of Hawaii. And but
there's definitely a unique experience.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
And on your mom's side of the family, a lot
of college professors and things of that nature.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Like, yeah, my uncle's a math professor. My mom's daddy
passed away. It was the professor. I mean, a lot
of a lot of real smart people.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So that the grating was probably a little bit more
difficult than what you saw in regular elementary Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
You know, the expectations and the standard. Once you set
a standard, you know what I mean, that kind of
becomes the standard. And regardless of you know, it's all
about what's relatively good for you. And it may not,
you know, be it may objectively be good, but subjectively
it needs to be, uh, you know, good enough for me.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
And your dad said he had stuff set up in
your backyard, like step ladders and things that you guys
did all the football Me my.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
Older brother used to do, I mean box jumps and
drills and all kinds of all kinds of crazy stuff
in the backyard. But I mean, uh, I don't regret
at all. It was uh some good time.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Sounds like a I mean, you know, you go from
the Islands, you moved to San Luis, Obispo and and
then you know, eventually to h to corrals. That's the
life of being a football coach a son, though, isn't it.
I mean, you can kind of move around a little bit.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Yeah, it' it's a unique life. But I think it
gave me a lot of you know, advantages and insights,
like being able to go to games like that and
spend time with you know, other college coaches and football
college players and kind of see that other side of
it was was really cool.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Last question I really have for you is do you
get a chance to go back to Hawaii very often?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And we get there before training camp by chance?
Speaker 4 (20:22):
If it was?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Uh, it was it was up to some of my family.
You know, I'd be there every week. But not easy though, Yeah,
Tougher said, than done. We try to go back. I
know at least like once a year.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
You're playing on getting there before camp?
Speaker 4 (20:36):
I think so, I think in July hopefully.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, so you join this team. What did you know
about the Steelers before he came here? I mean, obviously
you're just across the state, but yeah, did you have
some friends on he grew up on the West Coast?
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, other than playing
against them, knowing hearing about coach Tomlin, I didn't really
know too much. But coming to visit and then you know,
meeting some of the guys, it's been. It's been awesome.
It's been really good.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
The old line room, you know, is younger, but not
necessarily unexperienced, a lot of guys have played a bunch
of games, so it's been Uh, it's been a good opportunity,
you know, to help out where I can while also
you know, honing in on my craft against you know,
a good defensive line that we have. So and then
(21:28):
coach Tomlin's everything that, uh, everything and more, you know
what I mean, He's a man. So uh, I've I've
enjoyed it so far.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
It seems like, I mean you just mentioned that that
offensive line room is younger. Do you feel like the
old guy in that room at this sport?
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (21:44):
For sure, Yeah I feel it. But you know they
you know those guys the guy old is. You know,
there's a bunch of good players and we've got good depth,
and you know it's guys that want to win and
be good. And you know you can see guys always
doing work before were and after practice. So that's what
I like. You know, the guys that are excited to
(22:05):
be here, you know, want to get better and you know,
want to want to win games.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
That's to be a little bit different perspective for you.
I mean, because I'm sure Kelsey and Lane Johnson were
the the older statesman in Philadelphia I and well deserved.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
I mean when I first got there, it was Jason
Peters was there too. Yeah, Brandon Brooks just came in.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
So it was it was like walking into the high
stakes poker.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Room and hall of fame potential.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
I mean so, I think it was a great thing
because they were such I mean willing to help guys
to you know what I mean. They weren't oh we're
older with this or that. They were you know, open
and accepting. And uh, I'm thankful for mentors like that,
and hopefully, you know, I can you know, be something
like that.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Uh as my career goes on.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Our guest has been Isaac Samlo, the Steelers new guard.
And Isaac, we appreciate you sitting down with us here
and wish you luck this season. Hopefully we'll get a
chance to do this again down the road and maybe
maybe in a playoff game or something like that.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Oh, that'd be great. I appreciate you, guys.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I appreciate you a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Again, that was as I say, I'm all other Steelers
new offensive guard and big off season acquisition. Good stuff
from him there. And you think about that offensive line dynamic.
We talked about it a lot last year, how young
an experienced they were. Now you've got another year's experience
under the belts of those guys, and you've added another
(23:30):
key piece to that who has plenty of experience himself,
and it brings that nasty demeanor to the He's a weal.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Of a player.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
But I think it's interesting too that you know, he was,
as you just mentioned, he was the young guy with
some hall of fame, I mean true hall of famer
around him. Where now people are gonna be asking him
for advice and he's more than willing to do it,
and there's gonna be a positive influence on the younger guys,
especially Jones, you would imagine.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, I think you know, as he mentioned, you know,
he's I think you see this with a lot of
the the Polynesian players. They don't they let their actions
on the field speak louder than.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Troy is a perfect example. Tyson lewis similar. You know,
they don't. They don't.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
They're not you know, big raw raw guys in many cases,
but they're there. They just go out there and play
and there's a there's a love of the game. That's
the culture.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Oh, absolutely right, it's not. It's a different upbringing.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I'm sure that there's not generations of Steeler fans or
remember me and Joe on the islands and things like that,
you know, and it's it's you were talking about this,
how much harder it is to get the practice and
some of these guys have to get on a plane
to go to practice for high school and things like that,
you know, and go to a different island. I mean
that's commitment too.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And for a guy like like Isaac, I mean he's
grown up around this his entire life. Again, dad's a
football coach.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I didn't realize some of the stuff you brought up
about all the you know, equipment in the backyard and
homeschooling and it was a one shop stop.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I think.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I mean that people think about, you know, you know
the life of a football coach and how much time
you have to spend coaching football. And then you add,
you know, so his you know, his wife is basically
homeschooling the kids. They're moving from the islands to San Luis,
Obispo to you know, to Corvallis, and you know, the
(25:17):
family stayed in court Vallis for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
While you know, while he was a college Joe was off.
You know. It's it's it's tough on the families. It
is I mean a lot of examples.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
When I was in the college ranks, of well, we
hired an O line coach at Akron and the mother
had to pack up there are six kids, all of
which were like twelve and younger from Texas and drive
him up to Akron where you know, we needed him
to coach the olignement and he couldn't help with any
of that stuff, you know, I mean the coach's life
and the entire family of a coach or anyone in
this business can be crazy, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
But just a an interesting family. Like I said, his
sister works, you know, in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You know, I didn't realize that either. That's interesting he's got.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
You know, they're they are a football family, and they're
also a very intelligent family.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
As I mentioned.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
A number of his wife's family members, college professors, you know,
went to MI I t in places like that.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Right, no joke.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
What they do they do well, Yeah, whether it's on
the field or in the classroom. It sounds like and
again we've talked about this, and he's obviously very well spoken,
soft spoken guy, but people rave about his football intelligence too,
you know, And.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I think you know, if you're if you're intelligent. You're intelligent.
You see people who you know, maybe they're not the
most well spoken people, but they understand football. I think
he's maybe, you know, a melding of Look, he's obviously intelligent,
but he also knows football right right right. When you
grow up around it, you can't help But George, you
hear that about well, this quarterback his dad was football coach.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, he's definitely a Jim Ratt. They're Jim Rats and
just knowing the commitments and how it works on both
sides and what dad does when he comes home from
the office and things like that too. And again it's
a it's a good combination of football background and academic
background that you can obviously see with them, and it
translates to the field.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I don't know if you knew this about him, but
Isaac was the second center to start as a true
freshman at Oregon State. The other one was Roger Lavasa
and he did it in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
So that's a really tough position to do that too.
I mean, like, well, you recruit kids as centers and
be like, wow, you're really really good. We can get
you on the field, but you're gonna play guard this
year and then we'll movie the center.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
But they didn't just take it like he wasn't he
wasn't flounder at Oregon State and dad was a football
coach there.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
He just take just because No, he could play star recruit, right,
and they put him in the lineup immediately, like.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
He was making trips to USC in places like that,
and he wound up at Oregon State just happened to
be where his dad coach.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
No, it doesn't surprise me at all. I mean, especially
with his athletic ability and traits and just sitting next
to him, he's very impressive physically as well.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, the big dude that moves well.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, I mean he's not doesn't carry a lot extra weight,
he's got long arms.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
You know, he's powerful guy and obviously.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Works out it a lot, as as we've seen here
with all the Steelers offensive lineman. We're gonna take that
at break. Yeah, he is Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lollie.
You're listening to a special edition of The Drive here
on Steelers Nation Radio and ESPN nine seventy. We are
live from the upmc rooney Sports Complex. We'll be back
to finish up the show right after this, Welcome back.
(28:23):
I am Dale Lollie. He is Matt Williamson and we're
pleased to be joined nas. We were yesterday by one
Thomas Opperman of the Standard Tom How you doing doing great?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Boys?
Speaker 6 (28:34):
It was nice listening to Ike sit down with you guys.
You know, a lot of people said he wasn't a big.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Time presumptuous calling starting to call him.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Hey, you guys like best buddy. You don't like that.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
You don't think that's a good one. You should have
slipped that by him and see if he likes to Yeah, big,
You guys did a good job at cracking that nut.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
You know.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
I was waiting for him to be kind of a
slow interview, but you got some good stuff out of him.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
He was a little reluctant, but he had good stuff
to say. I like to put the headset on.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
That'sa he sat down and didn't even want to go
for it. You gotta talk into the microphone.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
There was a lot of hair there.
Speaker 6 (29:04):
I love that too. Yeah, it reminds me of another
guy his name ended in a similar sounding fashion back
in the day. Yeah, yeah, you.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Would you take away with from what you had to say?
Speaker 6 (29:13):
I think he's going to be a good influence, a
good veteran presence, and I think a lot of people
thought that he was kind of propped up by the
two guys next to him on that Eagles offensive line.
It was refreshing to hear Kelsey, and I do take
it with a grain of salt, because what's he going
to do? Come out and bash his X teammate and
friend and be like, gone.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
So you always you love the one you're with. I
always say that when whenever somebody says, well, ju Ju
said this or this guy said that, but he loved
the one you win, Isaac's no longer with the Eagles.
He could have said, we really think that. You know
that these new guys are going to step in here
and they're just going.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
To replace that. We won't miss a beat.
Speaker 6 (29:48):
You can say that right. He could have done the
vanilla thing too and just be like, I wish Isaac
well moving forward. It was a lot of fun playing
with him. No, he gassed him the hell up. So
I take that vote of confidence out of a guy
like Jason Kelcey and kind of like what you said, Dale,
he couldn't He didn't have to say anything like that.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Sure.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
I like that a lot. I think, you know, this
is more than just a product of two Hall of
famers around him on that offensive line.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yeah, I thought, And maybe I was even guilty of this.
That line was so star studed even went back to
Peters and Lane, Johnson and Melatta and Brooks and all
those dudes, let alone Kelsey. He could have easily been
the forgotten guy. You know, and I'm not saying he's
like getting out of their shadow.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
But his play like didn't allow him to become forgan,
especially in recent years. Like you could make the standards hot, right,
you could make the argument he was right there with
Kelsey and Johnson. A lot of people, just like I said,
assume that, oh he's getting rising tide lifting all.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Right, he's the guy right, exactly right.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
But Kelsey and them come out and they're like, no,
this dude was just as good as everybody else, just
as important, and honestly there was sometimes he lifted us
up whenever we were struggling.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
The tape shows it too.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
Yeah, no question, And I mean again I said this yesterday.
He's just another an example of it. Kind of looks
like this whole team took the Mario mushroom and just
like upgrade in size a little bit, like what what what? Yeah,
the college is so much bigger now.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
It's just nasty. How many guards that look like him.
You know, he's athletic. Yeah, right, right, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You know, you meant you asked him that you know
what he uh what he learned? He does he get
critiqued by his dad? Yeah, his dad's his dad told
me that he watches the game both as as his
dad obviously.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
That's an interesting dynamic, but also as a football coach.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
And he said, I do a little bit of both there,
he said, I'm looking for the effort. He said, you're
playing next to Jason Kelsey. Why why is Kelsey getting
out and getting on that blocks, you know, twelve yards
downfield and you didn't get there.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
So there's always that.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Yeah, yeah, you know, and it's his dad and right right,
so you expect that effort. I was wondering what kind
of critiquer he was, and Isaac danced around that one
a little bit. I think it's more than just call
your mom and yeah, yeah right, sure things are good
at the FAM.
Speaker 6 (31:53):
No offense to the guards that the Steelers have with
Daniels or Dotson. But I am so much more comfortable
with this as a sidecard next to Broderick Jones on
the side of that.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Well, here's something we've talked about, tom So.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
My belief is, and this was before they drafted Broderick Jones,
one of the reasons they bring in a veteran guard
on that side is to help Dan Moore out with
some of the Obviously, he's a great communicator. Isaac sim
all right, So now you you've got that interior. You've
got three veteran guys on the interior. Your youth is
on the outside. It's my belief that that Isaac Saamalo
(32:29):
could make Dan Moore a better player and allow Broderick
Jones the time. Because people forget Broderick Jones has started
fifteen career games at the college level. He is not
a finished product by any stretch of the amount.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
That I think.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I get it. I get it, but he doesn't. I mean,
you know, if you're talking about, hey, is he a
finished product? Not by any means, whereas Dan. You know,
I'm not so quick that to just throw Dan Moore aside.
I want to see what he looks like with Isaac
Samalo next.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
I think Isaac kind of sent him at that too,
because something you and I have talked about a lot
that if you're an offensive lineman, it's not like other
positions where you can just throw him out there for
thirty snaps and hey, your real feet wet, you're real fast,
run go routes. You know, you can't run out rots yet,
but you can run gos or you're just a pass rusher,
So we'll put you out there on third and eight.
If you're starting left tackle, you don't leave the field.
So if you have this, you know, if you have
(33:20):
issues to work on, it's gonna be exposed. So don't
assume that Jones is the starter week one.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
And being around here in the past couple of days
talking to people like Craig Wilfley know a lot more
about that than me. That's the guy he points to.
He's been impressed with stand more. He really doesn't say
he's not impressed with Roderick Jones, but he's really noted
what Moore has built his body into over this past offseason.
And so this footwork looks a lot better too, And
you know, maybe that's what a guy getting your potential
(33:47):
replacement draft it'll do to a guy, you know, maybe
kick it into that extra gear a little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So I think more lasceness league a long time it
will Dale.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
I am starting to come around to more like what
you're saying, where it's not just a placeholder like project's
gonna have to do a lot of work to try.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
To beat that guy out.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
And you got you got a two year incumbent starter
on there who basically won that job a couple of
years ago, and and you're gonna be he gonna knock
him off. And Roder Jones isn't gonna shy away from that.
I mean he did that at Georgia. You know, they
had income with guys ahead him. He understands that dynamic.
Now you're professional, and now you know this is a
(34:23):
team that traded up, albeit a little bit, to go
get you.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
But that doesn't mean you're gonna be guaranteed anything. No,
that's in terms of the situation you're gonna be on
the roster. But I mean, I'm sure in training game
we're gonna talk about the left tackle battle.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, I mean that's the way it's way, and who
looks better and which ones you know, which one's worried
because the idea is you're not You're not doing this
to Oh, let's let's just throw a guy out there
and and get him some work and get him get
him acclimated.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Uh, you're protecting your your.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Franchise quarterback, potential franchise quarterback.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
A side note though, and Broderc Jones looks pretty good.
I don't I'm not saying he's guaranteed anything but hundred
percent agree with you. But I hope people weren't misconstrued
in this like, oh, that Jones guy doesn't look or anything.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
He looks just fine.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
No, I'm just reminding people that you're talking about a
young guy who his fifteen career starts under his belt,
you know, and you're gonna throw You're gonna throw him
out there in Week one against Bosha, all right, Right.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
And the Steelers have had to in the past couple
of years throw those linemen into the fire who weren't
as high a pedigree. Example, yeah, Kendrick Green. I mean,
those guys had to come in and start right away
with third round, fourth round pedigree. So if they can
award themselves, you know, maybe a couple of weeks into
the season, until Broderick finally dethrones Dan Moore. I think
(35:40):
that's great for them. Do you think that the right
side is locked down with chokes or do you think
there could be a possibility that Dan swings over there eventually.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
No, you know, and I've heard people you know talk
about that. Here's the thing, Dan Moore's rookie season, the
reason he wound up being the starting left tackle is,
if you're a member, Zach Banner got hurt that year.
The idea that was supposed to be you had Banner
on one side and Chucks on the other on the left.
Speaker 6 (36:07):
Side, and.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Banner wasn't ready to start a camp, so dan Moore
got all the work on the left side and Chukes
was on the right side in that in that camp,
and then when when Banner came back, he only lasted
like a week. So Dan Moore only practiced on that
right side because when they did that, they moved Cheeks
back to the left side and put more on the
right side. It's like three practices on the right side.
(36:31):
That's what he's had.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
He's a left tackle and he's gonna play tackle.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
And he played left tackle in college. He played he
played a little bit of guard in college.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I say, I think he also could be a really
good guard, probably not here because they have a greatest
pair of Yeah, but I mean I think that is
also a fallback plan for him at some point.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
And then on the chuck side of things too, I mean,
he could carve himself out into a very serviceable right tackle.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
So I think he I think he's I think he's
a league average right.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Tackle, which if the rest of your line is above average,
I mean, you can't have superstars at all five spots,
you know.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
And especially on O line.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
I would rather have five b's across the board or
B minuses or B pluses.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Then here's an A and here's a D.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Which ones is which one is the snickers bar? Which
one are we going to go after an attack? I
mean that's that's because that's what teams will do. Yeah, yeah,
I mean you'll see it constantly when when you see
certain teams play, why is Miles Garrett lined up inside
or why is t J Watt rushing from this spot?
Because why is Cam Hayward moving over there? Because they
they are left guard can't block anybody. They have a
matchup that they want to try to exploit.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
And they might and the Steelers might now have seven
C plus the B plus guys.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Well, I was just gonna say that. You guys talked
about depth in the first out and maybe more. And
it was such an anomaly last year for no one
to get hurt on that offensive line, and you had
to know what's going to happen this year at some point,
and they're prepared to deal with it. And one of
the other on her big jumps right her both games,
you know.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
And one of the other things, and Matt loves to
do this is you can play let's let's drop an
offensive formation where personnel group. Yes, you've got six offensive
linemen on the field, you know, by the way, you
get maybe two tight ends out there and.
Speaker 6 (38:06):
Run one of them is a monster.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, one of them is another monster? Are they running
the ball here? But you can also throw the ball
out of those formulations and do things like.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
That, like I guarantee if Roger Jones is not the
opening day starting left tackle, he plays snaps in that game.
Speaker 6 (38:18):
I bet you you're right too. And the tight end
thing too. You know, you gotta have a hitter in there.
If you're Matt Canada for Darnell Washington, because if you're
just running the ball, running the ball, running the ball,
and he's extra beef, you gotta have a play in
there where he releases and gets your I mean, you know,
and I think more of a gifted catcher than gentry.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Already brings a lot more an athlete. Yeah, he gets
more downfield, he brings more after.
Speaker 6 (38:41):
The I love that you can all these teams to
sleep with eighties out there. Looks like they're going to
run the ball twenty yards down the middle of the
foeh man.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
I mean, I think what you can do with six
offensive linemen Friar, Mooth, Washington, Harris and Pickens, right, but
they can get downfield, yes, and.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
You're gonna get it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Maybe not goal line defense against that, but you're gonna
get based.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
You might get a four to four or Street they're gonna.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Bring an extra linebacker on the field or something like that,
and all of a sudden you get a mismatch.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
Right right right.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
I hate pinkins is one on one on the outside
or whatever it is.
Speaker 6 (39:14):
I hate comparing, you know, great groups to modern groups
and saying, oh, they look like this, but it does
remind you a little bit of Fernandez Gronk. When it
comes to the Patriots versatility play that that might be
really like their offensive mo is going through these two
tight ends. Maybe not this year, but when Darnell gets
up to speed too, yeah, it could be real dangerous.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
And we had, you know, when we had Cole Hulkam
on last week and Matt you asked him about, you know,
playing against these Philly guys. Oh right, well, yeah, I'm
glad they're you know, I don't have to do that.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
We asked them about Isaac, you know, like, what's it
like to play against him at all times?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Nasty?
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And there's you know, I think the
Steelers offensively added a lot of nasty, Yes, a.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Lot of a lot of nasty, but good movement players too.
I mean, Jones moves really well, Washington moves really well,
Isaac moves really well well for their size and their length.
And you know, it's an impressible group. Yeah, absolutely, so
a lot of possibilities.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
I always like watching the sprinklers are now on here
in front of us.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
There's an art to it. There is an art to it.
It's not quite the Bolaggio or whatever.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Feel like I'm at bush I'm at Bushwood Country Club, Bushwood.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
No, but it's the synchronicity of it all is pretty cool. Yeah,
you just want to go out there and run through it.
Yeah you absolutely, Maybe I will. I can get your
ring now.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
But yeah, anode, another fun show, another week in the books.
Here the ball rolling into the water there, where'd that
ball come from? I guess there's still there's still some folks,
some folks out there doing some work.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
That ball rolls.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
That's going to be a soaking wet ball.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
CJ. Go run over there and grab that football.
Speaker 6 (40:49):
Take your hand set off first. One other note here,
another electrocuted.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Here as CJ.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Wolfly noted here Isaac Samala wearing the number seventy three, as.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Who famously wore that. Couple of people right out.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
One would be one Craig wolf Ley and the other
will be the ranger.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
So wolf always has a soft spot for the seventy three.
He always does, always finds him, He always finds with
They'll have many conversations. I think there'll be one siding
conversations just the heun talking to both those guys.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Absolutely, but that's gonna do it for our show today.
We appreciate Tom Offerman stopping by here and chatting with us.
We appreciate the Steelers PR getting Isaac Samlo for us
as well, and we appreciate you listening.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
For my partner, be back next week.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
We will be back next week, same same schedule, Tuesday
through Thursday, eleven to to one. Hopefully get some more
players on here with you for my partner, Matt Williamson.
For CJ here on site keeping us on the air.
I'm Dale Lallie. We thank you for listening to this
special edition of The Drive on Steelers Nation Radio and
ESPN nine to seventy
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am Dale Lallie. He is Matt Williamson over here,
chatty playing, chatty Kathy.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
What I'm really doing, though, is I'm enjoying the recruits
interacting here next door. Just brings back my roots, my
memories back here. It's cool getting a bunch of recruits together,
don't know each other, and they're all in the same building,
and they started to get a little competitive.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's fun. Yeah. Yeah, sixteen seventeen year old.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We're trying to watch the Steelers practice here and yeah,
they're doing that right in front of us here as
they get this looks like some offensive linemen and tight.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Ends a lot of big bodies.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm gonna grow up and can be a lot bigger. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
So anyways, the Steelers, they're wrapping up their OTA practice
number six over they're on the far field today, so
we can't see quite as well.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
But they should be nicer to us and put do
it right on this one. Yeah, right here in front
of us. They didn't, didn't ask us our opinion on that.
They did not. They did not. They they never do. No.
I was gonna say seldom do, but they never do.
Of course, never do.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Anyways, We are live from the Steelers Ota sessions here
at the up mc rooney Sports Complex Today. We are
expected to be joined by Isaac Samalu, the Steelers new guard.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
There was some I was hesitant to bring it up.
We've been, I've been.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean the first two times were
technical difficulties on our end. Yesterday, Yeah, yesterday, he and
the offensive line we're out there working very long after
practice and by the time they came off the field,
everybody from PR had gone inside, and well they forgot.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
About it and kind of forgot abouts. And he did
as well. And he did as well.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And I wouldn't expect him, remember, since you know, he
was first told about it, like last Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Good point, you know, happens. A lot of happened then,
and who knows. So I assume, Oh, I'm just guessing
he may stick around after practice because it seems like
something he does with some what.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
The offensive line does, they stick around, they hang out,
they he's.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
The old man stuff on the Yeah, I'm hoping. Well,
I'm sure it'll happen sometime between now and during camp.
I want to ask some of the James Daniels choke
score for what's Isaac been as a resource for you?
You know, he's been around the league a little longer,
he's a little older, widely regarded as a fantastic football mind.
(02:15):
Wondering if he's chirping up and throwing some suggestions in
or not or all those things. So it's an interesting
dynamic on that line. And got a high first round pick.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
In the mix.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, absolutely, get a nice mix of ye now old
and young, but a lot of experience, a.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Lot of experience.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yeah, I was blown away last year with the combination
of youth and experience on the O line.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's hard to do.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, And the buzzer or the horn is sounded there,
so that wraps up practice. So they'll go off in
their little position groups here and have a chat about
everything it just happened, and then they'll break off. Guys
who want to stay out here and work. We'll stay
out here and work. Others will head for the locker
room and go get showered up and head off to
some team meetings or whatever they got.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
To do before.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You know, that's just the way this goes these aren't.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
You mentioned this before though?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And this is a Thursday though, I'm sure a lot
of these guys might go back to their home city
for the weekend or figure out, you know, their apartment
here or you mean.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
In a way.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That's why these things aren't mandatory. That's why these things,
you know, when people get all upset that this player,
that player is not.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Here, commitments to you. Right, if your boss.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Told you that this is not mandatory that you come
to something, and you were in a stat you were
well established in your job, you're right, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And as we witnessed in the indoor the other day,
there could be some very established NFL players that decide
I'm going to work out my way, not your way.
And it's not like I'm not using my time properly.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, I mean you don't. They're not sitting around eating cheetos.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
They could be even them, But yeah, you're not gonna
go stop, right.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, these guys put the time in, they put the
effort in, and well, you know you, yeah, you do
have to balance everything. And trust me, if a guy's
not here, it's not the end of the world. It's
not the end of the world. And I guarantee you that,
like Mike Tomlin knows, I'm sure why if.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Somebody misses a day, and I doubt it's boy in
my contract. I'm not happy with my contract or my
role or this team or trade me or any of
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
You're not any of that kind of stuff out of
this Pittsburgh this year.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
No, but you see in some other places.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I mean that's really one of the reason why DeAndre
Hopkins got released.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, they didn't want to. They started ripping management and
things of that nature. That's going to get you out
of town.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, that's a hairy situation there. I mean they're looking
for leaders. They obviously are rebuilding. They told the world
with that release that hey, we understand we're not going
to win anything this year. I mean that's just where
we're at. So obviously a much different situation here. I
always wonder too, you know, like maybe the young guys
that are new to town, you know, half of them
(04:51):
are going home and are leaving town. Other half are
sticking around. I'm just guessing, but they don't have a
lot of buddies yet. So do you go ask the
a fifth round pick and you're the third round picky,
it's new dinner to night. I don't know, well, yeah,
I don't know anybody else you got guys in your
position room and come over and play mad.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
That's what you know.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Rookie classes tend to be pretty close with each other
because right, right, right, you're have thrown together a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
They're asked, Yeah, they're all fish out of water in
a new town, and you know, right, and they're both
they're all similar age.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Of course. You know that's just interesting about the Patrick
Peterson anamic he really is.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I mean you're talking about Patrick Peterson is older than
pretty much everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Is he the oldest sealer? Now? No?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
No, I mean Hayward Stillyard are the same draft class.
They're in the same draft class. I think Hayward's a
little like a couple of months older. Okay, but you
heard that with Ben, Like, but there's not many over thirties.
Ben was, Ben's thirty nine years old, and you know
they're drafting quarterbacks and things and that, like Ben and
Mason Rudolph are almost a full generation.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Oh right apart. I mean Ben's a perfect example. But
can you imagine Brady? You know, yeah, and you know
his wife's a supermodel, and you know you live in
two different lifestyles, right, I mean, people probably don't remember
Giselle as a supermodel, that he's big being drafted with,
let alone Brady's rookie year, or Brady at Michigan or
Ben at Miami or anything that.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
After a while, you get tired of people. You know,
I watched you. I was a kid when you were
played in the Super Bowl in two thousand and five.
I remember watching that game.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Like, I mean, you think Ben has heard a million times,
even from a teammate that I used to please you
on Madden. Yeah, I'm like, okay, that's cool, It's cool,
no matter what.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's only the twentieth time I've heard that this.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Week, this week, right right, so interesting. But no, this
is a very young team. But it doesn't lack leadership.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
No, it certainly does not. And that leadership I think
you see that come out. I mean as we watch guys,
you know there's a bunch of guys over there running.
Have to do that, you know, absolutely not, but they're
doing it as a group.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Ye throw the helmet off and go run sprints.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
A little bit of that often tends to be like, okay,
these five guys from my position group are running. I
don't be the one that I don't want to do it,
but I'm gonna do it because it's peer pressure.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
And this sounds bad, but it was really true with
the Browns. Is man, this is a downtime a year.
But what if the head coach walks by. I don't
want my office to be empty and get out of
here at five o'clock, so I would just throw another
game tape on, although I know this play, you know, like.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I'll go have some more ice cream and just.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Be here, you know, but I really don't want to
be here at this point. And frankly, I wasn't that
productive at that point, like get out of there, you know.
But these guys are obviously a lot more productive than
I am at that point.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Notice the other day too, like even between running back drills,
Jalen Warren would just go off the side run two gassers,
you know, you know things like that like might as well.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, you see a lot of guys doing stuff like that.
It's it's about being in football shape and you know,
knowing for especially for a guy like Jayalen Warren knowing
what football shape is now.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah yeah, yeah you know last year he did I find.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, last year you wouldn't have known. I mean how
would he sure?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
You know, does Washington her big porter? Do those guys know?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
That's why having a guy like Patrick Peterson around it
is so invaluable. That's why having a guy like an
Isaac Samalo is so valuable. Absolutely, James Daniels, the guys
who have been starters.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And this might shock people, but I think we had
this conversation. We've had a lot of them that a
lot of these rookies when they come to OTAs aren't
in as good a shape as you think. Well, why
is that? Well, because they spent like a month touring
around the different teams and on planes.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
They spent two months getting ready for the combine, right.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Working on their starts and their verticals, you know, and
not with pads on and that type of thing where
NFL players or know what to expect every phase of
the you know, of the season of the whole calendar
year where the rookies were just trying to get themselves
drafted and appeal to the giants and commanders and everybody else.
It's tough to do your regiment when you're torn around
(08:50):
the country and they're taking out the dinners and you know,
things like that. Yeah, I mean you know, the next
couple of months, the next couple month or so is
crucial for those guys.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Well, that would be Tomlins.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
That'll be his message, I guarantee you when he speaks
again at the end of the of the OTA session,
so actually the end of the mini camp session, telling
those rookies that they needed what kind of shape they
needed to be in when they come back, you know
for the for training camp. That's some will get it,
some won't. You know, again, you can take that six
(09:23):
weeks off or five weeks off, whatever it turns out
to be, and go on vacation and do those kind
of things. Again, life gets in the way, of course,
other guys will be out training and doing those things.
You know, the entire time training camp is not what
it used to be. You know when they had the
you know, eight weeks of training camp, those guy's use
that to get in shape.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
No, you better show up in shape. That's what I say.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Is I mean a veteran head coach like Tomlin, I'm
sure doesn't bother him at all that a lot of
these rookies are gassed easier than you would like. You
don't have to play tomorrow, you get that. But if it.
But if day one of training camp the same guys
aren't in better shape, well you don't to make shustes anymore.
You aren't touring around the league eating dinners and stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I mean, this was you know, you know what you're
gonna be doing, you know where you're gonna be at ready.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
This is how you chose to use your time, and
you didn't use it wisely. But of course on the
flip side is wow, he looks a lot better shape.
Now he can go all day where he couldn't do
o t as well, he's been working hard, you know,
right right, absolutely, that's the way that goes. And that
doesn't mean he can't go to the beach for a
week or you know, oh yeah you could take some
time your girlfriend of Maui or whatever. I mean, enjoy
it because it's going to be a grind.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
But yeah, you know your next seven months are going
to be pretty uh pretty booked.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, it is interesting time for these guys though.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, let's take another break here to the offensive line
starting to trickle direction, trickle this direction, so hopefully we'll
get Isaac samlo on here as he comes off the field.
Uh he is Matt Williamson. I am Dale Allie. You're
listening to a special edition of The Drive here on
Steelers Nation Radio. We're live from the Steelers Ota Sessions
here on the South Side. We'll be back with more
(10:58):
right after this. Welcome back. I am Dale Lallie. He
is Matt Williamson, and this is a special edition of
The Drive here on Steelers Nation Radio and ESPN nine
seventy and Uh. Well, we are live from the Steelers
Ota Sessions here at the upmc rooney Sports Complex, and
(11:18):
we're pleased to be joined now by Isaac sam Molo,
the Steelers new offensive guard. And Isaac, how you doing.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
What's up?
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Guys? Doing good? Uh, glad to be here. Appreciate you
guys having me on.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
How's the Pittsburgh experience treated you so far since signing?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
It's been good.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
I mean everybody, a lot of guys reached out when
I first signed, and obviously the fans in the city
is a football place, so no, it's been it's been awesome, good.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Good.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Isaac had an opportunity to talk to your dad, it's
been about five weeks now, and he said, Isaac's a man.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
A few words, he doesn't talk a lot. Your dad
is not that way. Your dad talks a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
How did what's the difference sharing the personalities. I mean,
he's he's he's pretty, he's pretty outgoing and and obviously
as a football guy.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Yeah, I mean he's a coach, so I think it's
part of his job is to you know, speak, But
I actually think we're he's more similar in that. I
think it feels his choice. He wouldn't be talking too much,
and I I just don't, you know, I mean, I
just speak when I have to, and I think observing
(12:27):
and listening is usually the way to go in most situations.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Does he critique your game?
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Still, Yeah, but it's, uh, it's different than what it
used to be. I think at this point he's more
concerned about me making sure I call my mom.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
And doing that stuff stuff.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
I mean, he's just, you know, he's I think he's
just a proud father, which I'm you know, very humbly
and thankful for now.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You come from a really it's a football family. I
don't know if a lot of people know this. You
your sister works for the forty nine ers.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Correct she does? Yea in the scouting department. Oh okay, yep.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So that's gonna be a pretty cool Do you guys
talk football.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
When you when you get together.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
No, I mean it's like, you know, we do this
for work, so I think at the end of the
day we'd rather just talk about, you know, other things
going on and our lives.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Makes some sense. So another just a hunch. Major influence
I would think would be Jason Kelsey, you know, playing
next to him and frankly, I think he's as good
as center as I've ever.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Seen and our unique player.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
How did you learn from him and what was that
experience like, you know, not even just playing with him,
but all the time in the meeting rooms and that
sort of thing.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
Yeah, I mean everything you see and hear about him
from a distance is true in person really not only
on the field. Is he a tremendous you know player
and you know in person, but also off the field,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
He's been a.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
Good friend of mine for a long time and which
I'm very appreciative of. I don't you know, I think,
you know, just being like a good person and friend
off the field. I think that's not commonplace, I think,
but I also do think in the old line room,
you see that a lot, just because you know, guys
are kind of together in this uh this grind. But no,
(14:20):
I mean his uh, his capability, his mental capacity is
you know, uh, you know, unlimited passion. Uh, the way
he plays with reckless abandon but still kind of knows
what's going on and.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
All the time, all the time.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
And I mean it's uh, it's been incredible to watch
and see for the past seven years now.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Your dad's a defensive line coach and has been for
a long time, and he's he's you know, obviously been
it's college level.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
How did you end up on the offensive.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Line that's exact opposite, Like offensive linement and defensive lineman
aren't supposed to mix.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Are they.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
I mean, we I think, uh, you know, we all
we all wear black and yellow out here, so you know,
we're all going towards a common purpose, you know. Obviously,
you know, I played d line in high school, and
I think it just came down that, you know, I'd
be a better on this side, and thought I had
a you know, thankfully and very blessed to have the
(15:20):
opportunity to play offensive line in the NFL. So kind
of it kind of worked out. But there's a lot
I think as an offensive lineman, the more you know
about d lineman, the better you can play. I think
seeing things from their perspective and why they do what
they do makes you feel more comfortable and why you
have to do what you do as an offensive lineman.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
So one of the things your dad said that is
he's told me that you play offensive line with the
defensive lineman's mentality.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Sure you like to deliver the blow.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, I mean, I think the.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
You know, I think the thing that gets overlooked at
offensive line is you know, you have the ability and
the the license to play with very violently at times
and then at times you know how to and then
really how to accurately and precisely be violent. And I
(16:17):
think the defensivelignement can can understand that. But uh yeah, man,
I mean, who doesn't you get you allowed to go
out there and you know, hit people without you know,
any regard for for you know, laws and rules of mankind.
So you know, it's a it's a it's an awesome feeling.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
So when to spin it.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Back real quick to your experience with the Eagles, which
I'm sure was a positive one. I thought the best
offensive line in the league last year mentioned Kelsey Lane
Johnson's been maybe the best right tackle in the league
during that same stretch. But the left tackle Jordan Malatta
kind of came from nowhere and was really talented. Project.
Do you see Broderi Jones, I mean a different path.
He's a first round pick, but could you see him
(17:00):
progressing like Jordan did next year?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah? I mean.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Obviously there are different you know, body types that come
from different backgrounds and whatnot. But Project got all the
all the tools and athleticism in the world, you know,
like an ethic office line is one of those things
that just takes time and experience, regardless of you know,
there's very rare guys that can come in and play
right away, but I think Project possesses those tools and
(17:29):
being able to know when to use, you know, each
tool and then when to I think that's the the
hard part of our office line is knowing when to
do something a certain way versus another way. Understanding angles,
understanding when I have the license to be play a
little bit more reckless versus where I got to be
a little more under control.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
But aggression doesn't seem to be a problem for him, No,
it does not.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
He's he's definitely an aggressive guy, and sometimes you kind
of have to teach guys how to hone that aggression
and kind of foster it into a you know, proper
angle on a run block or using your hands a
certain way. But now he's got all the tools, so
I'm excited to see him grow.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
So, just jumping back to when you when you're growing up,
you guys were all homeschool.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
Correct, Yes, I was homeschooled to like high school or
middle school, so my my older brother and uh, yeah,
we were all homeschooled for a certain amount of time.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Your dad, your mom did a lot of that in
your grandmother as well.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Yeah, growing up in Hawaii, my grandma did most did
all that for me and my older brother especially, and
then my mom growing up outside of Hawaii. And but
there's definitely a unique experience.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
And on your mom's side of the family, a lot
of college professors and things of that nature.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Like, yeah, my uncle's a math professor. My mom's daddy
passed away. It was the professor. I mean, a lot
of a lot of real smart people.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So that the grating was probably a little bit more
difficult than what you saw in regular elementary Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
You know, the expectations and the standard. Once you set
a standard, you know what I mean, that kind of
becomes the standard. And regardless of you know, it's all
about what's relatively good for you. And it may not,
you know, be it may objectively be good, but subjectively
it needs to be, uh, you know, good enough for me.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
And your dad said he had stuff set up in
your backyard, like step ladders and things that you guys
did all the football Me my.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
Older brother used to do, I mean box jumps and
drills and all kinds of all kinds of crazy stuff
in the backyard. But I mean, uh, I don't regret
at all. It was uh some good time.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Sounds like a I mean, you know, you go from
the Islands, you moved to San Luis, Obispo and and
then you know, eventually to h to corrals. That's the
life of being a football coach a son, though, isn't it.
I mean, you can kind of move around a little bit.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Yeah, it' it's a unique life. But I think it
gave me a lot of you know, advantages and insights,
like being able to go to games like that and
spend time with you know, other college coaches and football
college players and kind of see that other side of
it was was really cool.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Last question I really have for you is do you
get a chance to go back to Hawaii very often?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And we get there before training camp by chance?
Speaker 4 (20:22):
If it was?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Uh, it was it was up to some of my family.
You know, I'd be there every week. But not easy though, Yeah,
Tougher said, than done. We try to go back. I
know at least like once a year.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
You're playing on getting there before camp?
Speaker 4 (20:36):
I think so, I think in July hopefully.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, so you join this team. What did you know
about the Steelers before he came here? I mean, obviously
you're just across the state, but yeah, did you have
some friends on he grew up on the West Coast?
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, other than playing
against them, knowing hearing about coach Tomlin, I didn't really
know too much. But coming to visit and then you know,
meeting some of the guys, it's been. It's been awesome.
It's been really good.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
The old line room, you know, is younger, but not
necessarily unexperienced, a lot of guys have played a bunch
of games, so it's been Uh, it's been a good opportunity,
you know, to help out where I can while also
you know, honing in on my craft against you know,
a good defensive line that we have. So and then
(21:28):
coach Tomlin's everything that, uh, everything and more, you know
what I mean, He's a man. So uh, I've I've
enjoyed it so far.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
It seems like, I mean you just mentioned that that
offensive line room is younger. Do you feel like the
old guy in that room at this sport?
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (21:44):
For sure, Yeah I feel it. But you know they
you know those guys the guy old is. You know,
there's a bunch of good players and we've got good depth,
and you know it's guys that want to win and
be good. And you know you can see guys always
doing work before were and after practice. So that's what
I like. You know, the guys that are excited to
(22:05):
be here, you know, want to get better and you know,
want to want to win games.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
That's to be a little bit different perspective for you.
I mean, because I'm sure Kelsey and Lane Johnson were
the the older statesman in Philadelphia I and well deserved.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
I mean when I first got there, it was Jason
Peters was there too. Yeah, Brandon Brooks just came in.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
So it was it was like walking into the high
stakes poker.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Room and hall of fame potential.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
I mean so, I think it was a great thing
because they were such I mean willing to help guys
to you know what I mean. They weren't oh we're
older with this or that. They were you know, open
and accepting. And uh, I'm thankful for mentors like that,
and hopefully, you know, I can you know, be something
like that.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Uh as my career goes on.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Our guest has been Isaac Samlo, the Steelers new guard.
And Isaac, we appreciate you sitting down with us here
and wish you luck this season. Hopefully we'll get a
chance to do this again down the road and maybe
maybe in a playoff game or something like that.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Oh, that'd be great. I appreciate you, guys.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I appreciate you a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Again, that was as I say, I'm all other Steelers
new offensive guard and big off season acquisition. Good stuff
from him there. And you think about that offensive line dynamic.
We talked about it a lot last year, how young
an experienced they were. Now you've got another year's experience
under the belts of those guys, and you've added another
(23:30):
key piece to that who has plenty of experience himself,
and it brings that nasty demeanor to the He's a weal.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Of a player.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
But I think it's interesting too that you know, he was,
as you just mentioned, he was the young guy with
some hall of fame, I mean true hall of famer
around him. Where now people are gonna be asking him
for advice and he's more than willing to do it,
and there's gonna be a positive influence on the younger guys,
especially Jones, you would imagine.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, I think you know, as he mentioned, you know,
he's I think you see this with a lot of
the the Polynesian players. They don't they let their actions
on the field speak louder than.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Troy is a perfect example. Tyson lewis similar. You know,
they don't. They don't.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
They're not you know, big raw raw guys in many cases,
but they're there. They just go out there and play
and there's a there's a love of the game. That's
the culture.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Oh, absolutely right, it's not. It's a different upbringing.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I'm sure that there's not generations of Steeler fans or
remember me and Joe on the islands and things like that,
you know, and it's it's you were talking about this,
how much harder it is to get the practice and
some of these guys have to get on a plane
to go to practice for high school and things like that,
you know, and go to a different island. I mean
that's commitment too.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And for a guy like like Isaac, I mean he's
grown up around this his entire life. Again, dad's a
football coach.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I didn't realize some of the stuff you brought up
about all the you know, equipment in the backyard and
homeschooling and it was a one shop stop.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I think.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I mean that people think about, you know, you know
the life of a football coach and how much time
you have to spend coaching football. And then you add,
you know, so his you know, his wife is basically
homeschooling the kids. They're moving from the islands to San Luis,
Obispo to you know, to Corvallis, and you know, the
(25:17):
family stayed in court Vallis for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
While you know, while he was a college Joe was off.
You know. It's it's it's tough on the families. It
is I mean a lot of examples.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
When I was in the college ranks, of well, we
hired an O line coach at Akron and the mother
had to pack up there are six kids, all of
which were like twelve and younger from Texas and drive
him up to Akron where you know, we needed him
to coach the olignement and he couldn't help with any
of that stuff, you know, I mean the coach's life
and the entire family of a coach or anyone in
this business can be crazy, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
But just a an interesting family. Like I said, his
sister works, you know, in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You know, I didn't realize that either. That's interesting he's got.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
You know, they're they are a football family, and they're
also a very intelligent family.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
As I mentioned.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
A number of his wife's family members, college professors, you know,
went to MI I t in places like that.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Right, no joke.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
What they do they do well, Yeah, whether it's on
the field or in the classroom. It sounds like and
again we've talked about this, and he's obviously very well spoken,
soft spoken guy, but people rave about his football intelligence too,
you know, And.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I think you know, if you're if you're intelligent. You're intelligent.
You see people who you know, maybe they're not the
most well spoken people, but they understand football. I think
he's maybe, you know, a melding of Look, he's obviously intelligent,
but he also knows football right right right. When you
grow up around it, you can't help But George, you
hear that about well, this quarterback his dad was football coach.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, he's definitely a Jim Ratt. They're Jim Rats and
just knowing the commitments and how it works on both
sides and what dad does when he comes home from
the office and things like that too. And again it's
a it's a good combination of football background and academic
background that you can obviously see with them, and it
translates to the field.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I don't know if you knew this about him, but
Isaac was the second center to start as a true
freshman at Oregon State. The other one was Roger Lavasa
and he did it in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
So that's a really tough position to do that too.
I mean, like, well, you recruit kids as centers and
be like, wow, you're really really good. We can get
you on the field, but you're gonna play guard this
year and then we'll movie the center.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
But they didn't just take it like he wasn't he
wasn't flounder at Oregon State and dad was a football
coach there.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
He just take just because No, he could play star recruit, right,
and they put him in the lineup immediately, like.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
He was making trips to USC in places like that,
and he wound up at Oregon State just happened to
be where his dad coach.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
No, it doesn't surprise me at all. I mean, especially
with his athletic ability and traits and just sitting next
to him, he's very impressive physically as well.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, the big dude that moves well.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, I mean he's not doesn't carry a lot extra weight,
he's got long arms.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
You know, he's powerful guy and obviously.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Works out it a lot, as as we've seen here
with all the Steelers offensive lineman. We're gonna take that
at break. Yeah, he is Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lollie.
You're listening to a special edition of The Drive here
on Steelers Nation Radio and ESPN nine seventy. We are
live from the upmc rooney Sports Complex. We'll be back
to finish up the show right after this, Welcome back.
(28:23):
I am Dale Lollie. He is Matt Williamson and we're
pleased to be joined nas. We were yesterday by one
Thomas Opperman of the Standard Tom How you doing doing great?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Boys?
Speaker 6 (28:34):
It was nice listening to Ike sit down with you guys.
You know, a lot of people said he wasn't a big.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Time presumptuous calling starting to call him.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Hey, you guys like best buddy. You don't like that.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
You don't think that's a good one. You should have
slipped that by him and see if he likes to Yeah, big,
You guys did a good job at cracking that nut.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
You know.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
I was waiting for him to be kind of a
slow interview, but you got some good stuff out of him.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
He was a little reluctant, but he had good stuff
to say. I like to put the headset on.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
That'sa he sat down and didn't even want to go
for it. You gotta talk into the microphone.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
There was a lot of hair there.
Speaker 6 (29:04):
I love that too. Yeah, it reminds me of another
guy his name ended in a similar sounding fashion back
in the day. Yeah, yeah, you.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Would you take away with from what you had to say?
Speaker 6 (29:13):
I think he's going to be a good influence, a
good veteran presence, and I think a lot of people
thought that he was kind of propped up by the
two guys next to him on that Eagles offensive line.
It was refreshing to hear Kelsey, and I do take
it with a grain of salt, because what's he going
to do? Come out and bash his X teammate and
friend and be like, gone.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
So you always you love the one you're with. I
always say that when whenever somebody says, well, ju Ju
said this or this guy said that, but he loved
the one you win, Isaac's no longer with the Eagles.
He could have said, we really think that. You know
that these new guys are going to step in here
and they're just going.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
To replace that. We won't miss a beat.
Speaker 6 (29:48):
You can say that right. He could have done the
vanilla thing too and just be like, I wish Isaac
well moving forward. It was a lot of fun playing
with him. No, he gassed him the hell up. So
I take that vote of confidence out of a guy
like Jason Kelcey and kind of like what you said, Dale,
he couldn't He didn't have to say anything like that.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Sure.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
I like that a lot. I think, you know, this
is more than just a product of two Hall of
famers around him on that offensive line.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yeah, I thought, And maybe I was even guilty of this.
That line was so star studed even went back to
Peters and Lane, Johnson and Melatta and Brooks and all
those dudes, let alone Kelsey. He could have easily been
the forgotten guy. You know, and I'm not saying he's
like getting out of their shadow.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
But his play like didn't allow him to become forgan,
especially in recent years. Like you could make the standards hot, right,
you could make the argument he was right there with
Kelsey and Johnson. A lot of people, just like I said,
assume that, oh he's getting rising tide lifting all.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Right, he's the guy right, exactly right.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
But Kelsey and them come out and they're like, no,
this dude was just as good as everybody else, just
as important, and honestly there was sometimes he lifted us
up whenever we were struggling.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
The tape shows it too.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
Yeah, no question, And I mean again I said this yesterday.
He's just another an example of it. Kind of looks
like this whole team took the Mario mushroom and just
like upgrade in size a little bit, like what what what? Yeah,
the college is so much bigger now.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
It's just nasty. How many guards that look like him.
You know, he's athletic. Yeah, right, right, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You know, you meant you asked him that you know
what he uh what he learned? He does he get
critiqued by his dad? Yeah, his dad's his dad told
me that he watches the game both as as his
dad obviously.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
That's an interesting dynamic, but also as a football coach.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
And he said, I do a little bit of both there,
he said, I'm looking for the effort. He said, you're
playing next to Jason Kelsey. Why why is Kelsey getting
out and getting on that blocks, you know, twelve yards
downfield and you didn't get there.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
So there's always that.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Yeah, yeah, you know, and it's his dad and right right,
so you expect that effort. I was wondering what kind
of critiquer he was, and Isaac danced around that one
a little bit. I think it's more than just call
your mom and yeah, yeah right, sure things are good
at the FAM.
Speaker 6 (31:53):
No offense to the guards that the Steelers have with
Daniels or Dotson. But I am so much more comfortable
with this as a sidecard next to Broderick Jones on
the side of that.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Well, here's something we've talked about, tom So.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
My belief is, and this was before they drafted Broderick Jones,
one of the reasons they bring in a veteran guard
on that side is to help Dan Moore out with
some of the Obviously, he's a great communicator. Isaac sim
all right, So now you you've got that interior. You've
got three veteran guys on the interior. Your youth is
on the outside. It's my belief that that Isaac Saamalo
(32:29):
could make Dan Moore a better player and allow Broderick
Jones the time. Because people forget Broderick Jones has started
fifteen career games at the college level. He is not
a finished product by any stretch of the amount.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
That I think.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I get it. I get it, but he doesn't. I mean,
you know, if you're talking about, hey, is he a
finished product? Not by any means, whereas Dan. You know,
I'm not so quick that to just throw Dan Moore aside.
I want to see what he looks like with Isaac
Samalo next.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
I think Isaac kind of sent him at that too,
because something you and I have talked about a lot
that if you're an offensive lineman, it's not like other
positions where you can just throw him out there for
thirty snaps and hey, your real feet wet, you're real fast,
run go routes. You know, you can't run out rots yet,
but you can run gos or you're just a pass rusher,
So we'll put you out there on third and eight.
If you're starting left tackle, you don't leave the field.
So if you have this, you know, if you have
(33:20):
issues to work on, it's gonna be exposed. So don't
assume that Jones is the starter week one.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
And being around here in the past couple of days
talking to people like Craig Wilfley know a lot more
about that than me. That's the guy he points to.
He's been impressed with stand more. He really doesn't say
he's not impressed with Roderick Jones, but he's really noted
what Moore has built his body into over this past offseason.
And so this footwork looks a lot better too, And
you know, maybe that's what a guy getting your potential
(33:47):
replacement draft it'll do to a guy, you know, maybe
kick it into that extra gear a little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So I think more lasceness league a long time it
will Dale.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
I am starting to come around to more like what
you're saying, where it's not just a placeholder like project's
gonna have to do a lot of work to try.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
To beat that guy out.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
And you got you got a two year incumbent starter
on there who basically won that job a couple of
years ago, and and you're gonna be he gonna knock
him off. And Roder Jones isn't gonna shy away from that.
I mean he did that at Georgia. You know, they
had income with guys ahead him. He understands that dynamic.
Now you're professional, and now you know this is a
(34:23):
team that traded up, albeit a little bit, to go
get you.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
But that doesn't mean you're gonna be guaranteed anything. No,
that's in terms of the situation you're gonna be on
the roster. But I mean, I'm sure in training game
we're gonna talk about the left tackle battle.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, I mean that's the way it's way, and who
looks better and which ones you know, which one's worried
because the idea is you're not You're not doing this
to Oh, let's let's just throw a guy out there
and and get him some work and get him get
him acclimated.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Uh, you're protecting your your.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Franchise quarterback, potential franchise quarterback.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
A side note though, and Broderc Jones looks pretty good.
I don't I'm not saying he's guaranteed anything but hundred
percent agree with you. But I hope people weren't misconstrued
in this like, oh, that Jones guy doesn't look or anything.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
He looks just fine.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
No, I'm just reminding people that you're talking about a
young guy who his fifteen career starts under his belt,
you know, and you're gonna throw You're gonna throw him
out there in Week one against Bosha, all right, Right.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
And the Steelers have had to in the past couple
of years throw those linemen into the fire who weren't
as high a pedigree. Example, yeah, Kendrick Green. I mean,
those guys had to come in and start right away
with third round, fourth round pedigree. So if they can
award themselves, you know, maybe a couple of weeks into
the season, until Broderick finally dethrones Dan Moore. I think
(35:40):
that's great for them. Do you think that the right
side is locked down with chokes or do you think
there could be a possibility that Dan swings over there eventually.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
No, you know, and I've heard people you know talk
about that. Here's the thing, Dan Moore's rookie season, the
reason he wound up being the starting left tackle is,
if you're a member, Zach Banner got hurt that year.
The idea that was supposed to be you had Banner
on one side and Chucks on the other on the left.
Speaker 6 (36:07):
Side, and.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Banner wasn't ready to start a camp, so dan Moore
got all the work on the left side and Chukes
was on the right side in that in that camp,
and then when when Banner came back, he only lasted
like a week. So Dan Moore only practiced on that
right side because when they did that, they moved Cheeks
back to the left side and put more on the
right side. It's like three practices on the right side.
(36:31):
That's what he's had.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
He's a left tackle and he's gonna play tackle.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
And he played left tackle in college. He played he
played a little bit of guard in college.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I say, I think he also could be a really
good guard, probably not here because they have a greatest
pair of Yeah, but I mean I think that is
also a fallback plan for him at some point.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
And then on the chuck side of things too, I mean,
he could carve himself out into a very serviceable right tackle.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
So I think he I think he's I think he's
a league average right.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Tackle, which if the rest of your line is above average,
I mean, you can't have superstars at all five spots,
you know.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
And especially on O line.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
I would rather have five b's across the board or
B minuses or B pluses.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Then here's an A and here's a D.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Which ones is which one is the snickers bar? Which
one are we going to go after an attack? I
mean that's that's because that's what teams will do. Yeah, yeah,
I mean you'll see it constantly when when you see
certain teams play, why is Miles Garrett lined up inside
or why is t J Watt rushing from this spot?
Because why is Cam Hayward moving over there? Because they
they are left guard can't block anybody. They have a
matchup that they want to try to exploit.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
And they might and the Steelers might now have seven
C plus the B plus guys.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Well, I was just gonna say that. You guys talked
about depth in the first out and maybe more. And
it was such an anomaly last year for no one
to get hurt on that offensive line, and you had
to know what's going to happen this year at some point,
and they're prepared to deal with it. And one of
the other on her big jumps right her both games,
you know.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
And one of the other things, and Matt loves to
do this is you can play let's let's drop an
offensive formation where personnel group. Yes, you've got six offensive
linemen on the field, you know, by the way, you
get maybe two tight ends out there and.
Speaker 6 (38:06):
Run one of them is a monster.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, one of them is another monster? Are they running
the ball here? But you can also throw the ball
out of those formulations and do things like.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
That, like I guarantee if Roger Jones is not the
opening day starting left tackle, he plays snaps in that game.
Speaker 6 (38:18):
I bet you you're right too. And the tight end
thing too. You know, you gotta have a hitter in there.
If you're Matt Canada for Darnell Washington, because if you're
just running the ball, running the ball, running the ball,
and he's extra beef, you gotta have a play in
there where he releases and gets your I mean, you know,
and I think more of a gifted catcher than gentry.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Already brings a lot more an athlete. Yeah, he gets
more downfield, he brings more after.
Speaker 6 (38:41):
The I love that you can all these teams to
sleep with eighties out there. Looks like they're going to
run the ball twenty yards down the middle of the
foeh man.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
I mean, I think what you can do with six
offensive linemen Friar, Mooth, Washington, Harris and Pickens, right, but
they can get downfield, yes, and.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
You're gonna get it.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Maybe not goal line defense against that, but you're gonna
get based.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
You might get a four to four or Street they're gonna.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Bring an extra linebacker on the field or something like that,
and all of a sudden you get a mismatch.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
Right right right.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
I hate pinkins is one on one on the outside
or whatever it is.
Speaker 6 (39:14):
I hate comparing, you know, great groups to modern groups
and saying, oh, they look like this, but it does
remind you a little bit of Fernandez Gronk. When it
comes to the Patriots versatility play that that might be
really like their offensive mo is going through these two
tight ends. Maybe not this year, but when Darnell gets
up to speed too, yeah, it could be real dangerous.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
And we had, you know, when we had Cole Hulkam
on last week and Matt you asked him about, you know,
playing against these Philly guys. Oh right, well, yeah, I'm
glad they're you know, I don't have to do that.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
We asked them about Isaac, you know, like, what's it
like to play against him at all times?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Nasty?
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And there's you know, I think the
Steelers offensively added a lot of nasty, Yes, a.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Lot of a lot of nasty, but good movement players too.
I mean, Jones moves really well, Washington moves really well,
Isaac moves really well well for their size and their length.
And you know, it's an impressible group. Yeah, absolutely, so
a lot of possibilities.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
I always like watching the sprinklers are now on here
in front of us.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
There's an art to it. There is an art to it.
It's not quite the Bolaggio or whatever.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Feel like I'm at bush I'm at Bushwood Country Club, Bushwood.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
No, but it's the synchronicity of it all is pretty cool. Yeah,
you just want to go out there and run through it.
Yeah you absolutely, Maybe I will. I can get your
ring now.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
But yeah, anode, another fun show, another week in the books.
Here the ball rolling into the water there, where'd that
ball come from? I guess there's still there's still some folks,
some folks out there doing some work.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
That ball rolls.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
That's going to be a soaking wet ball.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
CJ. Go run over there and grab that football.
Speaker 6 (40:49):
Take your hand set off first. One other note here,
another electrocuted.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Here as CJ.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Wolfly noted here Isaac Samala wearing the number seventy three, as.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Who famously wore that. Couple of people right out.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
One would be one Craig wolf Ley and the other
will be the ranger.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
So wolf always has a soft spot for the seventy three.
He always does, always finds him, He always finds with
They'll have many conversations. I think there'll be one siding
conversations just the heun talking to both those guys.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Absolutely, but that's gonna do it for our show today.
We appreciate Tom Offerman stopping by here and chatting with us.
We appreciate the Steelers PR getting Isaac Samlo for us
as well, and we appreciate you listening.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
For my partner, be back next week.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
We will be back next week, same same schedule, Tuesday
through Thursday, eleven to to one. Hopefully get some more
players on here with you for my partner, Matt Williamson.
For CJ here on site keeping us on the air.
I'm Dale Lallie. We thank you for listening to this
special edition of The Drive on Steelers Nation Radio and
ESPN nine to seventy
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