September 3, 2024 • 21 mins
Matt Williamson and Tom Opferman are back for another year of The Advanced Scout. The two look ahead to the Week 1 opponent of the Steelers, the Atlanta Falcons
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got some work to do.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is the Advanced Scout with Tom Opperman and Mac Williamson. Well, Matt,
it's great to be back with you again for another
year at the Scout. It's always a fun podcast to
do because I get to steal a lot of good
stuff from you and use it on all the other
shows that I do.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, and I'm just starting to really dig in.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Well, yes and no, I've been digging into Atlanta Pittsburgh
for a month now, accumulating these stats and all that.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Stuff I can imagine. Yeah, you want to get as
a jumpstart on.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Any little thing you see, you just throw it in there.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
But this week, it's like the first week always takes
me by surprise because Labor Day it's an extra week,
and like all of a sudden, I'm on a four
day week and I get ready for those things.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, in that mode. But let's dig in, man, this
is gonna be a fun game. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, you know, it's a little bit hard to dig
into the Falcons and Steelers because they're brand new teams.
New head coach for the Falcons, new offensive coordinator for
the Pittsburgh Steelers, a lot of new pieces, especially two
new quarterbacks for both teams, So we kind of got
to do a lot of guessing on today's advanced scout. Yeah,
one thing I did want to mention that before we
get into this is Cam Hayward getting his extension today
right before we started this pododcast. Yeah, three years, forty
(01:05):
five million, but it's only twenty nine million in new money,
So say what you will about it. Cam Hayward's a
great Steeler and it's good that he is going to
finish his career as Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I think that's all good news. I think the contract's
good news. I don't think it's an exorbitant amount of money,
to be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Good. I mean, inflation is hitting the league super fast.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
That's really the only thing that came down to him. Yeah,
was the money needed to be right because everybody wants me.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
To be and he wanted to be back super quick.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
About what you're saying about we don't know a lot, right,
we do, and we don't. I mean, like Raheem Morris
and Mike Tomlin are really really close. They interviewed Atlanta's
offensive coordinator. Obviously, where as a fan of what he
was doing with the Rams, the offense that the new
offense is the old offense down there, you know what
(01:51):
I mean. So there's some familiarity in some overlap. But
I also think it's I know that you know that,
I know that you know kind of stuff. You know what,
who's going to try to confuse who?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I think we've seen that already. You know, Coach Tomin's
going on the Rich Eisend show saying, uh raheem Morris
better be ready for a Justin Fields package. Who knows
if there's really going to be a package or well,
but hey, keep them guessing like that. So before we
get into it, we always like to give you a
series history between these two teams, and this series began
in nineteen sixty six, with Pittsburgh winning the only two
meetings that took place in the sixties. The upcoming decades
(02:22):
weren't any kinder to Atlanta, as the Steelers were two
and one in the seventies, three and oh in the eighties,
four and oh in the nineties. In the two thousands,
Pittsburgh has four to one and one against the Falcons,
but the Steelers have now won four in a row. Overall,
the Steelers lead the series fifteen to two and one,
and of course, the Falcons and Steelers have never met
in the Super Bowl. Mike Tomlin is four and zero
against the Falcons. However, both of the Steelers' losses against
(02:45):
this franchise have come on the road in Atlanta. So
Atlanta has literally never won a game in the city
of Pittsburgh in their entire existence.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
That's true, and won't have to try it for another
couple of years.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
You know, these two teams with the new quarterbacks and
changes in their coaching staff, theirs similarities as well, But
I know the records were kind of mirror images of
each other last year seven and ten for Atlanta and
ten and seven for Pittsburgh. But I don't think they
were that far off as far as teams. No, we're concerned.
The big difference is the Steelers just eat up in
these one score games. Matt put this thing about the
(03:16):
Steelers had an eight eighteen winning percentage in one score
games last year. They were nine to two by far
the best in the league. Seven to fifty was the
next best with Cleveland, and Tom's got a six to
fifteen winning percentage in such games in the NFL. So
despite you know, on paper, them kind of being similar
teams struggling to find their quarterback at times throughout the year,
Falcons pretty much for the entire year. It's that being
(03:37):
able to pull out the wins in the one score
games that I think made the Steelers go ten and
seven in the playoffs and Falcons under five hundred and
cost Arthur Smith's job.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah, and they both were third placed teams in their division,
won in the worst division league, won the best division
in the league. Turnover stuff was big, and the one
score game stuff Dale and I talked about in the
Drive all the time, and all the analytic nerds and
I'm not to that degree, but I like my share
of analytics will tell you one score games are bound
(04:05):
to regress to the mean. I don't know if they
are with this team, they're so built to do it.
And Tomlin's career is pretty extensive, and he is the
best winning percentage including Belichick in one score games during
that time.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, I think that's the appropriate analysis to have until
you build up a sample size like this and the
results speak for itself. This isn't just three years and
he's done a really good job at one score game, right,
is decades long worth of data that we've collected, so
I'm within them.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
The best coaches too, It's Belichick, It's top always, all right, right,
there's an art to winning games in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, the Steelers don't win any games when they lose
the traditional turnover back.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Isn't that bar?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
That was the stat that I wanted to get to
the most store in this podcast past it is past
three seasons. The Steelers are twenty eight and seven when
they won or tied the traditional war time battle.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
In zero zero And they still win twenty eight and seven, but.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
They are fifteen and one when they lost that turnover
battle over that stretch. Now, when you lose the turnover battle,
you're gonna lose football games more often than not.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
You're not gonna be fish.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Fifteen and one. You should be able to throw three
interceptions and only get one and make up for that
with the offense. And once in a while, yeah, it
could be like four and twelve or something like that.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
At the very least, and even the first part of
its mind boggling, like this isn't Mahomes and the Chiefs
that when you get a bounce or two you just win.
I mean, this has been subpar quarterback play a good
not great.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Roster, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
So I'm a fan of Justin Fields, don't get me wrong,
But Wilson doesn't throw picks, yes, Fields, does you know?
Like I think Tomlin knows the winning Formula First Football team.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And they just hope that Wilson can give them a
little bit more of that explosiveness in the offense.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know, actually throws a touchdown passes later, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
You know that was what was missing for the past
couple of years, Matt is. These guys were missing layups.
Like I'm not going to cover mat Canada and Glory.
But even the plays that he designed that worked, the
quarterbacks weren't hitting them.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So it was even worse than Atlanta for Arthur Smith.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Last year, Like he designed good plays, couldn't do it,
he could form. So again, Matt Cannada is not the
best defensive coordinator. He should have gone. It's a major
upgrade with Arthur Smith, but he was led out to
dry a lot by the quarterbacks last year. They don't
think Russell Wilson's going to do that this year. They
don't think he's going to leave a lot of plays
out to drive. Of course, there will be a couple
(06:27):
that he misses on, but he's going to capitalize and
that changes the fifteen and one to that.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Maybe five, ten and one, Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Throw an interception. I'm scoring a touchdown on the next drive,
and I'm going to make up for it. Whereas the
Steelers throw an interception in the past couple of years,
that might be five drives worth of football before you
make up that point.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
It's just a total climb with a huge boulder on
your back. So I didn't put this in there, But
they sat Wilson for the last two games last year
because him, so he only played fifteen although he was healthy.
He threw twenty six touchdown passes. The Steelers didn't throw
twenty six touchdown passes over the last two years. They
threw twelve and thirteen over the past two years combined.
(07:10):
I mean, if you can go from twelve to even twenty,
you know how many points that is or points per
game just throwing touchdown passes.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I met the joke all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I think that's been lost on a lot of people
through the preseason because then you see Russ up close
and personal and it's like, oh, he doesn't look that great,
like I don't know how much of an upgrade is
this going to be. It's going to be a major upgrade, folks.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
They throw some time upgrade, don't beat the bottom of
the league in touchdown passes.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Before we get to the Falcons defense and some Steelers
offense stuff, Let's start with the Falcons offense and Kirk Cousins.
And you know what I'm talking about, parallels with these teams.
This parallels with Kirk and Russell Wilson too. They came
into the league at the same time and.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Pretty similar stats.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Their statistics are skewed because Russell Wilson started from day
one and Cousins was a backup for his first three seasons.
You know, he played like four in his rookie year,
five games in his sophomore season, and wasn't until year
four where he started taking sixteen games from Washington's.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And he's really catching up to Wilson now, right. The
last couple of years, I've been as kind to Wilson
his Cousins.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
But the one stat between the two that was awesome
to look today when I was doing the Steeler standard
with Jacob Matt was Cousins, in all those fewer games played,
has four more interceptions thrown than Russell Wilson, surprising one
of six for Wilson won ten for Cousins' career.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
So Wilson has his words. I'm not saying he's great,
but some trends that are good are very low interception rate,
excellent in the red zone, which translates to you guessed
it touchdown?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yep, right, Yeah, he's one of the best in the
red zone that was in the red zone. Efficiency is
a big draw on Russell Wilson. The Falcons offense last
year was twenty sixth in terms of points per game.
They average five point two yards per play, but they
were better at home five point eight. Most teams are
better at home. Their passing game last year was twenty
(08:53):
eighth in completion percentage. But you have to assume all
of these, especially that last one that I said is
going to improve incredibly this year.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And one thing that I think is going to be
the biggest change that you noted, Matt was over the
past two seasons as passing game quarnerback coach, passing game
coordinator quarterback coach for La Zach Robinson used eleven personnel
ninety three percent of the place over that same span,
Atlanta used eleven personnel in NFLO with twenty five percent
of their offensive snap. So might not see a lot
(09:21):
of eleven personnel in Pittsburgh anymore, right, But that's a
drastic change for what the Atlanta fans are going to
see from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four, and
how they line up their personnel very very.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Different, you know, so their offense will look much different,
which again we're speculating, you know, on the changes. It's
not like we saw it in Atlanta last year. But
I think it's safe to say that that's the way they're.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Going to play.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Do they have the personnel to play that way?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Though?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Dale and I just had this conversation a couple minutes ago. Like,
I love London, I'm intrigued with Pitts. Bijon's are really
talented player.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Bijon.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, Mooney's a nice addition, but Ron Dell Moore's out
for the I think that was going to be their
eleven personnel was those five I just mentioned, and now it's.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Ray McLeod Funny.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I don't know if he'd make this team.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I gotta be honest with you. There was so much
made of the Steelers wide receiver corp and rightfully, so
it's weak. You can't it's not good, it's not sure
your credit. But it's funny that they're opening up against
the team that might have a worse one. Or you
can at least make the comparison between the two and say,
I might take Pickens over London, and you know, Mooney's
been better recently than Jefferson, but they both have kind
of fallen off from what they used to be and
(10:30):
they only had one good year each and then you know,
you look at the Steelers'll take all of them over.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Ray McCloud, Yes, after the top two, I definitely would
favor the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So I think the Falcons are on the right track here,
because that's what you want to do in modern day football.
You want to play a lot of eleven personnel. You
want to have a lot of skill on the field.
They might just be lagging behind on the actual skill
part that's on the field. Kirk Cousins, maybe the rising
tide that lifts all of those boats things. Maybe they
get Pits involved a lot more creatively by Jane Robinson's
no slouch in the passing game either.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It has a lot of receiver traits.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Obviously, people that thought that, you know, the Falcons might
be this death star that the Steelers gonna have to
score in the thirties to beat in Week one. That
might be like week twelve, week thirteen for Atlanta. Getting
them early is perfect, you know. There, I agree some
turbulence with this offense. And Kirk Cousin played a single
snap in the preseason. Right, he steps on the field
on Sunday with TJ Watt coming at him for real,
his first game action since getting hurt in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We gate, right, Yeah, it's been a long time.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
He's not going to just start throwing four touchdowns in
four hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I assure not.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I however, I remember this exact conversation with Rock Party
last year a.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Little different, a little different because Party was still on
the same team. What's coming off of an injury, So
that is that is very similar, But I think ours
was more in the camp of we don't think Brock
Party is very good, whereas we do think Kirk Cousins
is good.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
It just might take a little bit of time for
him to get the wheel spinning.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And he's thirty eight or whatever.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, but he is impressive four thousand yards and seven
of his nine seasons as a starting quarterback. Last year
was one of only two times that he didn't get
four thousand yards, but he had twenty three hundred and
thirty one yards and just eight games Matt he hit
eighteen touchdowns in just those eight games. I mean, he
was putting up an MVP type of season before he
went down. And if you remember the Viking season last year,
(12:12):
they started out one and four and he won three
straight games before getting hurt. I think everybody was kind
of starting to think they're going to make a run
and make the playoffs and be a decent team this year,
and then it all, I mean, it literally all just
went up and smoked. For now, he's in Atlanta, So
you know, Kirk Cousins is not that far removed from
being a top tier quarterback in this league and pretty
consistent to a pretty consistent player.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
On top of that.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
After Week eight when he got hurt, he was number
one in completions, He was number one in yardage and
number two in touchdown passes at that point. That doesn't
mean he would have finished that way, but he was
playing really well.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Last we saw him one thing that is a problem
for Kirk though, and this may lead to his injury.
He gets hit a lot. He gets effect only Will
Lewis or Russell Wilson got hit more.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Less Levis gets or Wilson gets hit a lot of
good right.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
There could be more it's quarterback hits than you think
in this game.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
But I think Atlanta's offensive line is the sneaky advantage
in this game. A lot of experience on the offensive.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
One nice of bringing back the exact five, A lot.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Of talent on the offensive line.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I mean, it's one of the top units.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, and it was an offense that was ninth in
rushing the football last year, so yeah, bring back even
all those guys and b John Robinson again. Yeah, I
think they're going to have a very successful running offense,
and we hope the Steelers will have a very successful
running offense. But you know, there's going to be some
growing pains with it, whereas with Atlanta this is just
old hat for them almost.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, even with a new system, just starting the same
five starters goes a long way. It's a better run
blocking group than pass protection. Not that they're bad in protection,
but they really don't have any weak links.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
On the line.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
The guards lead the way, right, They're both really good,
and Matthews has been a quality player forever.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Twenty fourteen first round pick, just forever.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Every Matthews in that family, you know, right, never miss
time and you know, yeah, so that isn't a vantage.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Although I think the Steeler front.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Is one of the best in the league exactly where
the Falcons isn't, which is a.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Good remedy when you're going one of the better offensive
lines in football.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Is that you Steelers must still have some faith in Heyward.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Too, Yeah, no doubt about that. Looking at the Falcons
defensive side of the ball, you know, last year the
defense for Atlanta was targeted downfield on passes eight point
five eight yards only. Defenses with a higher depth of
target where the Rams, Bengals and the Lions. So they
go in and get Justin Simmons and they help out
their secondary there.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
And their pass rush is bad, so people can pat
the ball a little longer and throw it downfield a
little deeper.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Perfect segue into this. The Falcons haven't had a defender
with double digit sacks since twenty sixteen, and that was
Vic Beasley. That's crazy to believe that's Kalais Campbell and
Bud Dupre tied for the Falcons sacley last year. They
each had six six and a half a piece. Neither
is still with the team. So what do you do?
You got and you get Matthew Judon so very calculated
editions on the defensive side of the ball for the
(14:55):
Atlanta Falcons. They came late in the offseason, but they've.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Been looking for pass rush forever. I mean it was do.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You think they found it in Judo when he's healthy.
He's still a great pass rusher.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
He just did. I'm very ill.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Pressed with him, but he's kind of like Cousins where
he's coming off a major injury. He's older and you know,
we'll see and it might be a good time to
play him too. I mean, are you gonna play thirty
snaps or is he gonna play fifty snaps? Probably less
than more. I always make this joke and not really
a joke, but it was only what two years ago
when I think it was two that TJ. Watt won
(15:24):
the Defensive Player of the Year. He had more sacks
than the Falcons that year, and they've been looking for
set pass rush help almost for like a decade. I mean,
like going back to John Abraham, like Vic Beasley was
not this dominant pass rusher.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
He just happen to have a lot of kind of
like a one off year, Yeah, and he ended up career.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I mean right, because I.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Mean you hit double digit sacks, ten sacks, it's not
exactly like you're lighting the world on fire, right.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Right, I mean somebody does that around here every year.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
There's a lot of talent though on the Falcons defense,
Like there's Jude Jesse Bates as a dude, Asy Tarrell
is a dude secondary suppressed. Yeah, Jude and Simmons, Like
we mentioned Grady Jarrett's kind of one of those guys.
It's just been around forever, but he's still a pretty
solid player.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah. What would you.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Say their run defense is, like their front seven? Is
it formidable?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I think it's the biggest.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So the Steelers should be looking their chops and saying,
we got an inexperienced offensive line. Their bread and butter
is going to be run blocking early on because pass
protection ain't looking good so far and training preseason. We
can move these guys, We should be able to move
these guys.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I would think it's going to be a really run,
heavy attack, and.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Especially with anders in there Formala too, Like, right right,
you've got rookies playing, You've got depth guys playing. Let's
keep it simple, right And I.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Don't love all the line changes that have been forced
upon them all of a sudden and see them all
who's definitely a very stabilizing force that won't be there.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And you know what we talked about the Herbig injury
kind of in the light of oh, this is good.
It opens the door for Fraser now the boy they
need her Biger like Herbig fits in right now, Formali
and plays the next four games and exactly two rookie
starters and Anderson is it McCormick, because it's not even
a question. We know who it is. So their depths
being tested and their starters are being tested.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, And I mean recent news sounds like that might not.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
It might be a very short term thing for you know,
and FORU. You know what I mean, those guys can
be back in the mix sooner than later. But you
gotta get through this one.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
You certainly do. Got to get through this one. Atlanta's
defense just trying to find a little bit more on
what they'll be up against with the Steelers offense. You know,
they finished in the bottom half of the league in
scoring defense for six straight years. That ties the Panthers
current streak in the NFL. They just cannot figure out
that high bar to get over right, No, and for
(17:40):
them to be that consistently bad at scoring defense. And
you know, especially when you look at their yardage, like
their total yardage allowed, they were eleventh in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
That was bad.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Like they were totally fine defense as far as that
metric is concerned. Teams just got in the end zone
a hell of a whole lot against them.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
And not many sacks. Bad on turnovers, didn't cause any interceptions.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That's surprising, the turnover thing. The secondary should have better.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
So I think it's better this year. I mean, strangely
for the Falcons. Last year they threw a lot of
interceptions and didn't create a lot of interceptions. They all
pointed this out today too, just looking at where these
guys came from. They only have one first round pick
on their defense, Torell. You know, most teams have four
or five, you know, like first round picks stick around.
They don't have a lot of pedigree guys Simmons is
(18:27):
a good player. Baits a good player. Judon is a
good player. But they didn't come in the league as superstars.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, no, that's a good point. Your Grady Jarrett's a
fifth round pick, their homegrown guy who's been there for
a while.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Kind of the I think he's slipping more than Cam though, Yeah.
I think based off quickness and getting off the ball,
where Cam's got that old man game of strength and power.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, it's probably. It's like people are probably saying, how
are you getting stronger? Cam? Like as you go on
in your age and your beard gets great. Still there,
old man strength. Before we get out of here, some
key matchups in this game, to keep an eye on
the first one Falcons wide receiver Drake London versus Steelers
cornerback Joey Porter Junior. And this is why I love
having a corner that follows the number one receivers.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Perfect team for it.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
It's perfect team for it when they only have really
one thread at the wide receiver in the wide receiver spot,
you just erase it with one guy and you got
ten other guys that you can play with on the
defense if you're the defensive coordinator and just one guy
takes out their biggest threat in the passing game, and
that's what you even if.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
They play to a draw, Like you're not suggesting London's
going to have zero catches.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
But maybe yeah, but no, I feel like if he
goes like five catches for like fifty yards, hell, I'll
take that one. You're not going to hurt the Steelers
at all.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
You'll take that all day long. And Porter is very
capable of that.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I didn't put it in there, but I'm curious just
along these lines, do the Falcons look at the same way,
like they we have one corner and they have one receiver.
Is Terrell gonna follow Pickens? I have no idea because
I don't know what their philosophy is on that.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And then the final matchup Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson versus
the Falcons safeties, specifically Jesse Bates, you know, All Pro
safety last year Justin Simmons coming into the floor. Why
do you think Justin Simmons took such a long time
to sign. I don't second team All Pro for three
straight years.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
They gave him a one year, seven point five million dollar.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Deal, which is like a prove it deal. It's not
like we just got three straight second year All Pro safety.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Right, So I don't know does the league think of
him as a declining player? That kind of implies that
they do. Did he just frankly overvalue himself. Did he
not want to go to anyone's training camp because he
didn't have to. That's a hard question. But I think
they could be a great safety pairing, or they could
be a good safety pairing, and you don't know how
they're going to use them together, right.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
There's so much unknown when it comes to Week one
in the NFL. Looking forward to getting things kicked off
Thursday with the Chiefs and the Ravens. Then you got
Steelers and Falcons kicking off at one o'clock. Our coverage
starts at nine a m. On DVE format doing it
and that will be there bright and early with Tim Benz.
So'll be looking forward to that. For Matt Williamson, I'm
(20:57):
Tom Opferman. This has been in the Advanced Scout
We got some work to do.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is the Advanced Scout with Tom Opperman and Mac Williamson. Well, Matt,
it's great to be back with you again for another
year at the Scout. It's always a fun podcast to
do because I get to steal a lot of good
stuff from you and use it on all the other
shows that I do.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, and I'm just starting to really dig in.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Well, yes and no, I've been digging into Atlanta Pittsburgh
for a month now, accumulating these stats and all that.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Stuff I can imagine. Yeah, you want to get as
a jumpstart on.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Any little thing you see, you just throw it in there.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
But this week, it's like the first week always takes
me by surprise because Labor Day it's an extra week,
and like all of a sudden, I'm on a four
day week and I get ready for those things.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, in that mode. But let's dig in, man, this
is gonna be a fun game. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, you know, it's a little bit hard to dig
into the Falcons and Steelers because they're brand new teams.
New head coach for the Falcons, new offensive coordinator for
the Pittsburgh Steelers, a lot of new pieces, especially two
new quarterbacks for both teams, So we kind of got
to do a lot of guessing on today's advanced scout. Yeah,
one thing I did want to mention that before we
get into this is Cam Hayward getting his extension today
right before we started this pododcast. Yeah, three years, forty
(01:05):
five million, but it's only twenty nine million in new money,
So say what you will about it. Cam Hayward's a
great Steeler and it's good that he is going to
finish his career as Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I think that's all good news. I think the contract's
good news. I don't think it's an exorbitant amount of money,
to be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Good. I mean, inflation is hitting the league super fast.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
That's really the only thing that came down to him. Yeah,
was the money needed to be right because everybody wants me.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
To be and he wanted to be back super quick.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
About what you're saying about we don't know a lot, right,
we do, and we don't. I mean, like Raheem Morris
and Mike Tomlin are really really close. They interviewed Atlanta's
offensive coordinator. Obviously, where as a fan of what he
was doing with the Rams, the offense that the new
offense is the old offense down there, you know what
(01:51):
I mean. So there's some familiarity in some overlap. But
I also think it's I know that you know that,
I know that you know kind of stuff. You know what,
who's going to try to confuse who?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I think we've seen that already. You know, Coach Tomin's
going on the Rich Eisend show saying, uh raheem Morris
better be ready for a Justin Fields package. Who knows
if there's really going to be a package or well,
but hey, keep them guessing like that. So before we
get into it, we always like to give you a
series history between these two teams, and this series began
in nineteen sixty six, with Pittsburgh winning the only two
meetings that took place in the sixties. The upcoming decades
(02:22):
weren't any kinder to Atlanta, as the Steelers were two
and one in the seventies, three and oh in the eighties,
four and oh in the nineties. In the two thousands,
Pittsburgh has four to one and one against the Falcons,
but the Steelers have now won four in a row. Overall,
the Steelers lead the series fifteen to two and one,
and of course, the Falcons and Steelers have never met
in the Super Bowl. Mike Tomlin is four and zero
against the Falcons. However, both of the Steelers' losses against
(02:45):
this franchise have come on the road in Atlanta. So
Atlanta has literally never won a game in the city
of Pittsburgh in their entire existence.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
That's true, and won't have to try it for another
couple of years.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
You know, these two teams with the new quarterbacks and
changes in their coaching staff, theirs similarities as well, But
I know the records were kind of mirror images of
each other last year seven and ten for Atlanta and
ten and seven for Pittsburgh. But I don't think they
were that far off as far as teams. No, we're concerned.
The big difference is the Steelers just eat up in
these one score games. Matt put this thing about the
(03:16):
Steelers had an eight eighteen winning percentage in one score
games last year. They were nine to two by far
the best in the league. Seven to fifty was the
next best with Cleveland, and Tom's got a six to
fifteen winning percentage in such games in the NFL. So
despite you know, on paper, them kind of being similar
teams struggling to find their quarterback at times throughout the year,
Falcons pretty much for the entire year. It's that being
(03:37):
able to pull out the wins in the one score
games that I think made the Steelers go ten and
seven in the playoffs and Falcons under five hundred and
cost Arthur Smith's job.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah, and they both were third placed teams in their division,
won in the worst division league, won the best division
in the league. Turnover stuff was big, and the one
score game stuff Dale and I talked about in the
Drive all the time, and all the analytic nerds and
I'm not to that degree, but I like my share
of analytics will tell you one score games are bound
(04:05):
to regress to the mean. I don't know if they
are with this team, they're so built to do it.
And Tomlin's career is pretty extensive, and he is the
best winning percentage including Belichick in one score games during
that time.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, I think that's the appropriate analysis to have until
you build up a sample size like this and the
results speak for itself. This isn't just three years and
he's done a really good job at one score game, right,
is decades long worth of data that we've collected, so
I'm within them.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
The best coaches too, It's Belichick, It's top always, all right, right,
there's an art to winning games in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, the Steelers don't win any games when they lose
the traditional turnover back.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Isn't that bar?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
That was the stat that I wanted to get to
the most store in this podcast past it is past
three seasons. The Steelers are twenty eight and seven when
they won or tied the traditional war time battle.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
In zero zero And they still win twenty eight and seven, but.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
They are fifteen and one when they lost that turnover
battle over that stretch. Now, when you lose the turnover battle,
you're gonna lose football games more often than not.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
You're not gonna be fish.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Fifteen and one. You should be able to throw three
interceptions and only get one and make up for that
with the offense. And once in a while, yeah, it
could be like four and twelve or something like that.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
At the very least, and even the first part of
its mind boggling, like this isn't Mahomes and the Chiefs
that when you get a bounce or two you just win.
I mean, this has been subpar quarterback play a good
not great.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Roster, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
So I'm a fan of Justin Fields, don't get me wrong,
But Wilson doesn't throw picks, yes, Fields, does you know?
Like I think Tomlin knows the winning Formula First Football team.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And they just hope that Wilson can give them a
little bit more of that explosiveness in the offense.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know, actually throws a touchdown passes later, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
You know that was what was missing for the past
couple of years, Matt is. These guys were missing layups.
Like I'm not going to cover mat Canada and Glory.
But even the plays that he designed that worked, the
quarterbacks weren't hitting them.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So it was even worse than Atlanta for Arthur Smith.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Last year, Like he designed good plays, couldn't do it,
he could form. So again, Matt Cannada is not the
best defensive coordinator. He should have gone. It's a major
upgrade with Arthur Smith, but he was led out to
dry a lot by the quarterbacks last year. They don't
think Russell Wilson's going to do that this year. They
don't think he's going to leave a lot of plays
out to drive. Of course, there will be a couple
(06:27):
that he misses on, but he's going to capitalize and
that changes the fifteen and one to that.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Maybe five, ten and one, Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Throw an interception. I'm scoring a touchdown on the next drive,
and I'm going to make up for it. Whereas the
Steelers throw an interception in the past couple of years,
that might be five drives worth of football before you
make up that point.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
It's just a total climb with a huge boulder on
your back. So I didn't put this in there, But
they sat Wilson for the last two games last year
because him, so he only played fifteen although he was healthy.
He threw twenty six touchdown passes. The Steelers didn't throw
twenty six touchdown passes over the last two years. They
threw twelve and thirteen over the past two years combined.
(07:10):
I mean, if you can go from twelve to even twenty,
you know how many points that is or points per
game just throwing touchdown passes.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I met the joke all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I think that's been lost on a lot of people
through the preseason because then you see Russ up close
and personal and it's like, oh, he doesn't look that great,
like I don't know how much of an upgrade is
this going to be. It's going to be a major upgrade, folks.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
They throw some time upgrade, don't beat the bottom of
the league in touchdown passes.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Before we get to the Falcons defense and some Steelers
offense stuff, Let's start with the Falcons offense and Kirk Cousins.
And you know what I'm talking about, parallels with these teams.
This parallels with Kirk and Russell Wilson too. They came
into the league at the same time and.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Pretty similar stats.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Their statistics are skewed because Russell Wilson started from day
one and Cousins was a backup for his first three seasons.
You know, he played like four in his rookie year,
five games in his sophomore season, and wasn't until year
four where he started taking sixteen games from Washington's.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And he's really catching up to Wilson now, right. The
last couple of years, I've been as kind to Wilson
his Cousins.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
But the one stat between the two that was awesome
to look today when I was doing the Steeler standard
with Jacob Matt was Cousins, in all those fewer games played,
has four more interceptions thrown than Russell Wilson, surprising one
of six for Wilson won ten for Cousins' career.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
So Wilson has his words. I'm not saying he's great,
but some trends that are good are very low interception rate,
excellent in the red zone, which translates to you guessed
it touchdown?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yep, right, Yeah, he's one of the best in the
red zone that was in the red zone. Efficiency is
a big draw on Russell Wilson. The Falcons offense last
year was twenty sixth in terms of points per game.
They average five point two yards per play, but they
were better at home five point eight. Most teams are
better at home. Their passing game last year was twenty
(08:53):
eighth in completion percentage. But you have to assume all
of these, especially that last one that I said is
going to improve incredibly this year.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And one thing that I think is going to be
the biggest change that you noted, Matt was over the
past two seasons as passing game quarnerback coach, passing game
coordinator quarterback coach for La Zach Robinson used eleven personnel
ninety three percent of the place over that same span,
Atlanta used eleven personnel in NFLO with twenty five percent
of their offensive snap. So might not see a lot
(09:21):
of eleven personnel in Pittsburgh anymore, right, But that's a
drastic change for what the Atlanta fans are going to
see from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four, and
how they line up their personnel very very.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Different, you know, so their offense will look much different,
which again we're speculating, you know, on the changes. It's
not like we saw it in Atlanta last year. But
I think it's safe to say that that's the way they're.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Going to play.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Do they have the personnel to play that way?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Though?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Dale and I just had this conversation a couple minutes ago. Like,
I love London, I'm intrigued with Pitts. Bijon's are really
talented player.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Bijon.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, Mooney's a nice addition, but Ron Dell Moore's out
for the I think that was going to be their
eleven personnel was those five I just mentioned, and now it's.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Ray McLeod Funny.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I don't know if he'd make this team.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I gotta be honest with you. There was so much
made of the Steelers wide receiver corp and rightfully, so
it's weak. You can't it's not good, it's not sure
your credit. But it's funny that they're opening up against
the team that might have a worse one. Or you
can at least make the comparison between the two and say,
I might take Pickens over London, and you know, Mooney's
been better recently than Jefferson, but they both have kind
of fallen off from what they used to be and
(10:30):
they only had one good year each and then you know,
you look at the Steelers'll take all of them over.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Ray McCloud, Yes, after the top two, I definitely would
favor the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So I think the Falcons are on the right track here,
because that's what you want to do in modern day football.
You want to play a lot of eleven personnel. You
want to have a lot of skill on the field.
They might just be lagging behind on the actual skill
part that's on the field. Kirk Cousins, maybe the rising
tide that lifts all of those boats things. Maybe they
get Pits involved a lot more creatively by Jane Robinson's
no slouch in the passing game either.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It has a lot of receiver traits.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Obviously, people that thought that, you know, the Falcons might
be this death star that the Steelers gonna have to
score in the thirties to beat in Week one. That
might be like week twelve, week thirteen for Atlanta. Getting
them early is perfect, you know. There, I agree some
turbulence with this offense. And Kirk Cousin played a single
snap in the preseason. Right, he steps on the field
on Sunday with TJ Watt coming at him for real,
his first game action since getting hurt in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We gate, right, Yeah, it's been a long time.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
He's not going to just start throwing four touchdowns in
four hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I assure not.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I however, I remember this exact conversation with Rock Party
last year a.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Little different, a little different because Party was still on
the same team. What's coming off of an injury, So
that is that is very similar, But I think ours
was more in the camp of we don't think Brock
Party is very good, whereas we do think Kirk Cousins
is good.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
It just might take a little bit of time for
him to get the wheel spinning.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And he's thirty eight or whatever.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, but he is impressive four thousand yards and seven
of his nine seasons as a starting quarterback. Last year
was one of only two times that he didn't get
four thousand yards, but he had twenty three hundred and
thirty one yards and just eight games Matt he hit
eighteen touchdowns in just those eight games. I mean, he
was putting up an MVP type of season before he
went down. And if you remember the Viking season last year,
(12:12):
they started out one and four and he won three
straight games before getting hurt. I think everybody was kind
of starting to think they're going to make a run
and make the playoffs and be a decent team this year,
and then it all, I mean, it literally all just
went up and smoked. For now, he's in Atlanta, So
you know, Kirk Cousins is not that far removed from
being a top tier quarterback in this league and pretty
consistent to a pretty consistent player.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
On top of that.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
After Week eight when he got hurt, he was number
one in completions, He was number one in yardage and
number two in touchdown passes at that point. That doesn't
mean he would have finished that way, but he was
playing really well.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Last we saw him one thing that is a problem
for Kirk though, and this may lead to his injury.
He gets hit a lot. He gets effect only Will
Lewis or Russell Wilson got hit more.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Less Levis gets or Wilson gets hit a lot of
good right.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
There could be more it's quarterback hits than you think
in this game.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
But I think Atlanta's offensive line is the sneaky advantage
in this game. A lot of experience on the offensive.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
One nice of bringing back the exact five, A lot.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Of talent on the offensive line.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I mean, it's one of the top units.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, and it was an offense that was ninth in
rushing the football last year, so yeah, bring back even
all those guys and b John Robinson again. Yeah, I
think they're going to have a very successful running offense,
and we hope the Steelers will have a very successful
running offense. But you know, there's going to be some
growing pains with it, whereas with Atlanta this is just
old hat for them almost.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, even with a new system, just starting the same
five starters goes a long way. It's a better run
blocking group than pass protection. Not that they're bad in protection,
but they really don't have any weak links.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
On the line.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
The guards lead the way, right, They're both really good,
and Matthews has been a quality player forever.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Twenty fourteen first round pick, just forever.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Every Matthews in that family, you know, right, never miss
time and you know, yeah, so that isn't a vantage.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Although I think the Steeler front.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Is one of the best in the league exactly where
the Falcons isn't, which is a.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Good remedy when you're going one of the better offensive
lines in football.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Is that you Steelers must still have some faith in Heyward.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Too, Yeah, no doubt about that. Looking at the Falcons
defensive side of the ball, you know, last year the
defense for Atlanta was targeted downfield on passes eight point
five eight yards only. Defenses with a higher depth of
target where the Rams, Bengals and the Lions. So they
go in and get Justin Simmons and they help out
their secondary there.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
And their pass rush is bad, so people can pat
the ball a little longer and throw it downfield a
little deeper.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Perfect segue into this. The Falcons haven't had a defender
with double digit sacks since twenty sixteen, and that was
Vic Beasley. That's crazy to believe that's Kalais Campbell and
Bud Dupre tied for the Falcons sacley last year. They
each had six six and a half a piece. Neither
is still with the team. So what do you do?
You got and you get Matthew Judon so very calculated
editions on the defensive side of the ball for the
(14:55):
Atlanta Falcons. They came late in the offseason, but they've.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Been looking for pass rush forever. I mean it was do.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You think they found it in Judo when he's healthy.
He's still a great pass rusher.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
He just did. I'm very ill.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Pressed with him, but he's kind of like Cousins where
he's coming off a major injury. He's older and you know,
we'll see and it might be a good time to
play him too. I mean, are you gonna play thirty
snaps or is he gonna play fifty snaps? Probably less
than more. I always make this joke and not really
a joke, but it was only what two years ago
when I think it was two that TJ. Watt won
(15:24):
the Defensive Player of the Year. He had more sacks
than the Falcons that year, and they've been looking for
set pass rush help almost for like a decade. I mean,
like going back to John Abraham, like Vic Beasley was
not this dominant pass rusher.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
He just happen to have a lot of kind of
like a one off year, Yeah, and he ended up career.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I mean right, because I.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Mean you hit double digit sacks, ten sacks, it's not
exactly like you're lighting the world on fire, right.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Right, I mean somebody does that around here every year.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
There's a lot of talent though on the Falcons defense,
Like there's Jude Jesse Bates as a dude, Asy Tarrell
is a dude secondary suppressed. Yeah, Jude and Simmons, Like
we mentioned Grady Jarrett's kind of one of those guys.
It's just been around forever, but he's still a pretty
solid player.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah. What would you.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Say their run defense is, like their front seven? Is
it formidable?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I think it's the biggest.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So the Steelers should be looking their chops and saying,
we got an inexperienced offensive line. Their bread and butter
is going to be run blocking early on because pass
protection ain't looking good so far and training preseason. We
can move these guys, We should be able to move
these guys.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I would think it's going to be a really run,
heavy attack, and.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Especially with anders in there Formala too, Like, right right,
you've got rookies playing, You've got depth guys playing. Let's
keep it simple, right And I.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Don't love all the line changes that have been forced
upon them all of a sudden and see them all
who's definitely a very stabilizing force that won't be there.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And you know what we talked about the Herbig injury
kind of in the light of oh, this is good.
It opens the door for Fraser now the boy they
need her Biger like Herbig fits in right now, Formali
and plays the next four games and exactly two rookie
starters and Anderson is it McCormick, because it's not even
a question. We know who it is. So their depths
being tested and their starters are being tested.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, And I mean recent news sounds like that might not.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
It might be a very short term thing for you know,
and FORU. You know what I mean, those guys can
be back in the mix sooner than later. But you
gotta get through this one.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
You certainly do. Got to get through this one. Atlanta's
defense just trying to find a little bit more on
what they'll be up against with the Steelers offense. You know,
they finished in the bottom half of the league in
scoring defense for six straight years. That ties the Panthers
current streak in the NFL. They just cannot figure out
that high bar to get over right, No, and for
(17:40):
them to be that consistently bad at scoring defense. And
you know, especially when you look at their yardage, like
their total yardage allowed, they were eleventh in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
That was bad.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Like they were totally fine defense as far as that
metric is concerned. Teams just got in the end zone
a hell of a whole lot against them.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
And not many sacks. Bad on turnovers, didn't cause any interceptions.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That's surprising, the turnover thing. The secondary should have better.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
So I think it's better this year. I mean, strangely
for the Falcons. Last year they threw a lot of
interceptions and didn't create a lot of interceptions. They all
pointed this out today too, just looking at where these
guys came from. They only have one first round pick
on their defense, Torell. You know, most teams have four
or five, you know, like first round picks stick around.
They don't have a lot of pedigree guys Simmons is
(18:27):
a good player. Baits a good player. Judon is a
good player. But they didn't come in the league as superstars.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, no, that's a good point. Your Grady Jarrett's a
fifth round pick, their homegrown guy who's been there for
a while.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Kind of the I think he's slipping more than Cam though, Yeah.
I think based off quickness and getting off the ball,
where Cam's got that old man game of strength and power.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, it's probably. It's like people are probably saying, how
are you getting stronger? Cam? Like as you go on
in your age and your beard gets great. Still there,
old man strength. Before we get out of here, some
key matchups in this game, to keep an eye on
the first one Falcons wide receiver Drake London versus Steelers
cornerback Joey Porter Junior. And this is why I love
having a corner that follows the number one receivers.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Perfect team for it.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
It's perfect team for it when they only have really
one thread at the wide receiver in the wide receiver spot,
you just erase it with one guy and you got
ten other guys that you can play with on the
defense if you're the defensive coordinator and just one guy
takes out their biggest threat in the passing game, and
that's what you even if.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
They play to a draw, Like you're not suggesting London's
going to have zero catches.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
But maybe yeah, but no, I feel like if he
goes like five catches for like fifty yards, hell, I'll
take that one. You're not going to hurt the Steelers
at all.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
You'll take that all day long. And Porter is very
capable of that.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I didn't put it in there, but I'm curious just
along these lines, do the Falcons look at the same way,
like they we have one corner and they have one receiver.
Is Terrell gonna follow Pickens? I have no idea because
I don't know what their philosophy is on that.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And then the final matchup Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson versus
the Falcons safeties, specifically Jesse Bates, you know, All Pro
safety last year Justin Simmons coming into the floor. Why
do you think Justin Simmons took such a long time
to sign. I don't second team All Pro for three
straight years.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
They gave him a one year, seven point five million dollar.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Deal, which is like a prove it deal. It's not
like we just got three straight second year All Pro safety.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Right, So I don't know does the league think of
him as a declining player? That kind of implies that
they do. Did he just frankly overvalue himself. Did he
not want to go to anyone's training camp because he
didn't have to. That's a hard question. But I think
they could be a great safety pairing, or they could
be a good safety pairing, and you don't know how
they're going to use them together, right.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
There's so much unknown when it comes to Week one
in the NFL. Looking forward to getting things kicked off
Thursday with the Chiefs and the Ravens. Then you got
Steelers and Falcons kicking off at one o'clock. Our coverage
starts at nine a m. On DVE format doing it
and that will be there bright and early with Tim Benz.
So'll be looking forward to that. For Matt Williamson, I'm
(20:57):
Tom Opferman. This has been in the Advanced Scout
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