Are the Steelers out of their minds for trading George Pickens?

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Underground. The steel City Underground, the black
and gold standard for Pittsburgh Steelers coverage. Now here's your hoes.
Joe Kuzma and Brian E.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Rose.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Steel
City Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzba. I'm here
with my good colleague Buddy and Paula One mister Brian E.
Roach with some breaking news. Brian, how's it going, my friend?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hey, you know, it's always nice to wake up and
have something to talk about.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
I'll tell you what. And I rolled out of bed
a little later than usual today too. Who my phone
was blowing up. Lucky it was on the charger because
I think it would have been completely dead. Oh my goodness,
the amount of news if you hadn't heard already, folks,
if you're living under a rock reportedly and very much
so reportedly. Not one hundred percent done deal, I think
as we're recording, but pretty much as close as your

(01:00):
go to get. With George Pickenney in the past the
physical He's going to be headed to the Dallas Cowboys
in a trade which involves the cowboys future third round
pick in also a swap of late round picks, a
fifth going to the Steelers and a sixth of the
Steelers going over to the Cowboys. So are we surprised, Brian?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Maybe, timing wise, it's going to be a surprise. But
it was almost like one of those things where you're
just unfortunately waiting for the call, as they say, when
it comes for bad news.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I mean, yeah, we you know, we talked about it
in the draft. We said, is he going to get traded?
Are they going to try and get a second round pick?
And apparently they very much so tried to do something,
but they could not get what they wanted during the draft,
and Dallas backed off, and you know, the deal got
sweetened after the draft enough for them to go ahead

(01:53):
and do it. Am I surprised, I'm not, I'm you know,
at this point it was pretty clear they were not
I'm gonna pay huge dollars for two wide receivers, especially
for Pickens and and some of the issues that he
has displayed. You know, as you were telling me earlier,
they may have. They may have actually tried to extend him,

(02:14):
but at the numbers that he wanted. Who knows, And
I'm guessing this is very you know, I'm gonna I'm
just gonna finish with saying this. This is not your
your grandfather's Steelers, and I am not your grandfather, but
be that as it may, it is not your grandfather's
Steelers where you know, they kind of futts around and

(02:36):
try and work things and and let you go. Man,
you don't want to be here and you're out.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, I mean yes and no, they've sent some guys packing,
but they've also they've also had the stench of some
of these guys. I mean, omar CON's been around since
the early two thousands with this team in various administrative spots.
So he remembers what it was like for Mike Wallace
to sit out during training camp, demand big dollars, and
they gave the money to the younger aspiring star at

(03:04):
the time, Antonio Brown that was far from a household name,
but showed some promise. And I can't believe I'm going
to back up. Like a lot of times, I don't
agree with a lot of the talking heads. It's a
lot of quarterbacks that are on radio vice, you know,
all over the place. But you know, this one was
Chase Daniel and he's made a lot of money as
backup quarterback. And he made a good point. Are you

(03:25):
gonna pay somebody thirty million a year for the numbers
that George Pickett's put up? In those numbers, they're not
very impressive. He did lead the team in receiving yards,
but he was not the leading necessarily receiver. He had.
Pafriremuth had seven touchdowns, Calvin Austin had four touchdowns, and

(03:45):
George Picketts brings in fifty nine catches for nine hundred
yards and three touchdowns. And I tweeted this out or
posted or whatever X does these days.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
I exed it.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
I said, you know, those are numbers that those aren't
be coming of a stealer's wide receiver one. Those are
the numbers you would expect from a two or three
when you had like a Juju or a Martebis Bryant
or just Jeraichocontrie.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Like and I understand it, but it's not Ben Roethlisberger
out there throwing the football. But as you said, they
just gave a huge bag to DK Metcalf. Now Sawoman
Willcott's on NFL radio this morning and listening to some
of this coverage, it said, I might have missed this quote.
Maybe he just had it wrong, but I'm going to
repeat it and attribute to him since I heard it
from there. But he said, you know, omark On had
said they were they offered a deal or they were

(04:31):
working on a deal, and good luck to Dallas. Because
George Pickens has the same agent as Micah Parsons, you
might be seeing this thing like where they had with
Jamar Chase and t Higgins having the same agent in Cincinnati,
using two players for leverage for one deal.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Now.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
I listened to one of the Beat reporters from Dallas
was also on with Solomon this morning, and he was
talking and he said he wasn't a fan of this
deal if they don't extend Pickens, but they've already got
CD a lot of money to se Dla. I'm Dak
Prescott's one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the league.
It's like good luck. Now. The thing that confuses me

(05:07):
most is there are folks out there that are upset
about this trade, But I think they're the same folks
that we're talking about whether or not Pickens was legitimately
benched for attitude or hamstring When you had that really
rough part of the schedule that popped up against the
Eagles and the Chiefs and whatnot. So always here and
you know what the you got a sprite there? You

(05:29):
questioned your thirst?

Speaker 2 (05:30):
No, no, this is my uh what is it called
view Bellevue?

Speaker 4 (05:35):
Bellevue, It's spell some other sparkling water craft.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Roethlisberger always he was grabbing craft, beers and stuff. I've
always got a coffee or a mug in my hand.
You've always got the sparkling water. It's kind of I
think it's our It's part of our in our psyche.
But anyways, I don't think there's a winner or loser
for this trade. I think it's a good trade for
the Cowboys. On the Steelers end, you had started to mention,
you know, maybe some character issues that might have been
the reason he was benched last year. We also know

(06:01):
that he had to come out a few days after
a game and try to apologize for why he didn't
why he didn't want to get physical blocking for Jalen Warren.
We also have seen questionable film where he quit on routes,
including one where Russell Wilson ended up with an interception
across the middle.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
I also saw it.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
You didn't see it as much on TV against the Bengals,
where it seemed like you just something wasn't on the
same page, and that's why both of those guys aren't here.
And if you're going to be a problem off the
field or in the you know, in the locker room,
it's a team sport. And you know, somebody made a
comment to Aaron Rodgers wasn't out there throwing the DK
Metcalf during the or just to meet DK Metcalf. George

(06:40):
Pickens wasn't involved in some of that, but we were surmising,
you know, you put these two on the field together,
Metcalf and Pickens, it might attract whatever quarterback talent. There's
no other quarterback talent out there. You're gonna roll with
what you're gonna roll with. And I would also think
this is far from the only thing that the Steelers had.
This was probably always in their plans. It just took
a little bit lugger for it to material Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Look, I'll give him credit. They didn't panic, They didn't
take what was there at the time. They stuck to
we're gonna get the best we can get and waited
until after the draft. You know, we we expected him
to try and get it too. Look, I told you
this in text. I think that the rest of the
league is starting to learn that you don't monkey with
Omar Khan, right, and and you don't take receivers that

(07:24):
the Steelers are passing on because I mean, let's let's
go down the history. When the Steelers are done with
a receiver, how often have they gone on to future success?
And the answers very rarely. I can I don't even
know if I could think of other than Emmanuel Sanderson.

(07:45):
And that's that's a long time ago. You know, Chase
Claypool dead, you know, dead in the water as soon
as he goes anywhere else. Mike Wallace didn't perform well
once he left. I mean, you know, ab was insane
by the time he left. So I'll discount that one.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
Juju but jujus an Jews.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Not that James Washington performed, but you know, really the
only guy was Plaques and he had the whole nightclub
gun incident or whatever and kind of disappeared out of
the league for a minute, and then it was just Sanders.
I don't like, I can't think of anybody else. You're right,
and Cabali had said, since those guys were drafted, are
the Steelers really still the wide receiver factory aside from

(08:26):
that group? And I'm like, what are you talking about?
They had wines Ward and Plaques and Holmes and Washington
had a very long career Randall l He bounced around
a little bit and was pretty solid. They had guys
before and then, as you said, after, you still have
Martaps Bryant, you still have Juju, you still have Deontay
Johnson further faults. They seem to cut loose at just

(08:46):
the right time.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, look, I'm not you know, I think that they
have gotten a sense of whether the guy that they
are working with is going to continue to grow and
mature and become a better player, or whether that guy
is going to.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
Become a problem.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
And when you talk about guys like Deontay and Pickens,
you know, the juice ain't worth The squeeze is essentially
the way it works, right, And for everybody that's upset,
Oh my god, but we could have had this great
offense and incredible tandem out there.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
Are you kidding yourself that we were gonna win this year? Right?
This is not I think it's very clear that the
Steelers are.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
Going to say it's always a championship, that's always our goal,
because it is.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
But reality does set in.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
This is not a team that was going to win
a championship in twenty twenty five, twenty six, right, and
you're building for next year and all of a sudden,
the amount of capital that they are, you know, essentially
acclimating here or accumulating is pretty intense, and they're gonna

(09:57):
have a lot of ability to play around in the
twenty twenty six draft.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah. Well, there's a few ways of looking at this.
I don't want to suddenly sound like the guy that's
turned on Pickins, you know, I've made more excuses or
have tried to at least hope that the maturity would
get there. I think he just turned twenty four. He's
still a very young player mentality and mentally and physically.
Could be a great find for the Cowboys. The potential,

(10:24):
the potentials there, that's what everyone's screaming about. But at
the other side, are you gambling for seventeen game season?
They have somebody be mature in every moment, and we've
saw Cam Hayward and Roderick Jones obviously the guiding light
for him on the sidelines many times. We saw that
last season, and I think it was just one of

(10:44):
these things where he said, oh, you know, it's time
to cut bait. Let's talk about this. Eight games, eight
one hundred yard games.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
Again.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
I don't think he's this is out of forty eighth.
So there's forty games. You know, that's that's just not
DeAndre Hopkins was doing this with you know, TJ. Yeats
and guys like that, Davis Mills as his quarterback. So
we can't just necessarily say, well, there are bad quarterbacks,
because there are definitely receivers who've done it with less. Right,

(11:13):
the touchdowns just three touchdowns. I mean he's only had
one game where he scored two touchdowns. He's only had
eleven games of those forty eight a quarter where he's
actually had a receiving touchdown. These are problematic numbers of
double digit receiving games zero. This is the kind of
production where a third round pick, thank you, sir, may

(11:35):
I have another. I know we wanted more because we're
basing this on the potential, the superstar potential that could
be George Picktts made its phenomenal catches bailing out guys
like Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett and even Mason Rudolph
for Russell Wilson at times, just in fields of course,
in that conversation, but in the grand scheme of things,
the production, it's just not there at all. And I

(11:58):
believe even with but they've currently got on the roster,
it could you could replace that. You can find ways
to replace that.

Speaker 4 (12:06):
Well, and I think that's that's what they're counting on.
I mean, they don't know what they have in Roman.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Wilson yet, and they're going to figure that out, right,
I think they know what they have in Calvin Austin.
They signed what Robert Woods. You know, they've got DK
and they're depending on DK. Right, They've made the investment
in a guy who has been more I guess, has
a better pedigree overall. The thing with the thing with

(12:31):
Pickens is you get you get blinded by the flashes
of brilliance, right, you get blinded by the catches where
you're like, holy Moley, how did he do that? And
then he disappears for the next three series. Right, you
made a very good point and I want to emphasize this, right,
A true number one, an elite number one, a Jamar

(12:52):
Chase level number one. Right, those kind of guys, they
succeed regardless of who's at quarterback because they make the
quarterback better.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
They make them look better.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Look a lot of people were talking about Colorado and
the fact that Shadura Sanders got made to look better
because of the wide receiving talent.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
He had.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
Same thing with Will Howard.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
He got to look better because Ohio State has a
slew of number one receivers on their roster. You know,
those guys make bad quarterbacks look good. And I'm not
saying Shadur Sanders is a bad quarterback or that Will
Howard is a bad quarterback. I'm simply saying they look
better than they may actually be because of the talent
that was around them. A truly talented wide receiver does

(13:36):
not put up those numbers regardless of who the quarterback is, Right,
they make that quarterback look better.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
And Pickens was not necessarily doing that. DK Metcalf can
do that, and we have the unknown obviously the Steelers
did not. Now putting Pickens with Metcalf. That's a salivating concept.
Whether you have Rudolph back there, whether you think Will
Howard has a high ceiling, excite rookie, whether Aaron Rodgers signs,
it sounds enticing until you have one of those moments

(14:05):
where the ball gets turned over because he gives up
on a play, comes over the sidelines and you got
to you know none of that. It just ratchets up
the intensity. It's a team game. You got to fit
in as a team. This was time to maybe move on.
But somebody had also made the comment, I've seen around,
why not get as much as you can out of
him this year and you're gonna get a comp pick
when he goes somewhere else. Well, they were trying to

(14:27):
They were trying to keep him. I guess maybe they
thought it was there, but you get that pick next
year instead of waiting till twenty twenty seven, where the
Steelers got a lot of picks. And we don't know
necessarily what they're trying to build in next year's draft,
but it looks like they're trying to build something by
stockpiling the ammunition to move around. Whether that's just more
ammunition to make another trade for somebody else. They didn't

(14:47):
draft anyone this year. The wide receiver class was pretty poor.
It so the reason the Cowboys didn't. McMillan didn't fall
to them, as many people have mocked. So they go
out and get Pickens. It's the same boat, and now
the Steelers are in it, and perhaps per they maybe
they're looking at another team that may have a cap casualty,
maybe someone that gets released. Maybe they make a trade.

(15:09):
There's already rumors about, you know, a loaded wide receiver
room in Chicago with Dj Moore. There's already some talk
if Rogers comes, maybe they talk with the Jets about
Alan Lazard. I'm not too excited about trading for either
of those guys. You look at the free agent market,
the two top names that are left basically the only
ones that I'd have any interest in Keenan Allen, who's

(15:29):
thirty three years old. I mean, Robert Woods is too,
but Robert Woods is going to play special teams free
up Calvin Austin. So those were some tea leaves going
there already. It's like, you know, we want Calvin Austin
to play more on the field. Mike Tomlin doesn't. He
tried to get ab out of that role for years.
He didn't want him to pull in double duty and
getting hurt returning kicks or punts or whatever. So Keenan
Allen's out there, reliable hand. He actually has been healthy

(15:51):
over the years. And Amari Cooper's the other one. The
Steelers have very intimate knowledge watching his film over this
last several years and over the last three years. You know,
split a year with the Bills. Last year after the
Browns traded him. He put up more He put up
more yards, more receptions, and more touchdowns than George Pickens did.
And he's thirty going on thirty one. That's that year

(16:12):
where we're kind of like, maybe you could squeeze a
little more juice out of the player. So if they
dip into the free agent pool, those are the guys
that are available. Maybe some of the trades that aren't.
But as you mentioned, the guys are on the roster.
The players that are still left. We're not looking at
Scotty Miller, Benskronik. Those are the scrappy. Those are the
guys that are also playing special teams. Maybe your fourth
wide receiver, Robert Woods is probably your third guy or

(16:33):
fourth guy. Let's see what Calvin Austin with a four
to two forty speed or a four to three forty
speed from Roman Wilson and we didn't see at all
last season. Let's see what they do. Calvin Austin caught
more tds last year, and his yards per reception was
just off by a tenth of what George Pickens had.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
All good points.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
I look, I just I think this is a team
that understands where they are in their growth cycle.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
Right.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
They know that they're missing the number one component, which
is a quarterback. And I think they're making all the
plans that they can make to prepare themselves if they
don't have one in twenty twenty six, to try and
go get one.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
You know, we'll see again.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
You know, we keep talking about next year's you know
quarterback class is going to be better, but we don't
you know, we talked about this last time. We don't
know that we are projecting that we think it's going
to be better.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
Arch Manning could stink. We don't know yet.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
The guy hasn't played enough for us to have a
real idea of his of his level of skill, right,
he could stink. Some other quarterbacks someplace else, you know,
could all of a sudden pop up and everybody's salivating.
We won't know until the college football season gets underway
what this is really.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
Going to look like.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
But the expectation is it's a better group of guys
coming out next year. But even if it isn't, giving
themselves all this draft capital allows them some movement to
improve the team consistently. They know that they are in
the R word, the re build process. And while we
don't want to hear that that is what's going on.

(18:06):
You know, they they're not in championship position right now.
They're not set to try and compete with everybody else. Look,
lightning always could flash, right, it can strike any time.
You never know. They could suddenly, you know, find magic
in a bottle and go all the way and win
a championship, even with this group, because stranger things have happened.

(18:29):
But it's unlikely and I think they're preparing correctly for
that to try.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
And move forward.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, I hear you with that. It just strikes me
as odd, like we're talking about where's the production? Where
does all this go? Like I didn't feel the Pickens
we were hoping would be wide receiver one and it
just never really materialized.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
Last year.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Was the only guy that meaning was double team just
DK metcalf do that helped that. And then does DK
Metcalf come in and then you have a one A
and a one B or do you have two you know,
two dogs one bone and then they're actually snarling at
each other for it. You know, we were talking about
that dynamic too, but just everything else, as far as
the extra receiver that gets thrown out there just you know,
kind of reeks of like bringing an Allen Robinson in

(19:13):
a Van Jefferson in a Mike Williams and just somebody
that's an extra body. But you've got a proven commodity.
You don't have a question mark of will this guy
be able to do it? Like you said, a few
flashes here or there, but not always on the go,
not wanting to be physical. We know rum and Wilson
will is a physical player. That's the way that Harbaugh

(19:33):
played with that national championship team up with that team
up north. We don't refer to their full name, but anyways,
you know, we'll see how he returns to this. They
might see things or no of things on the practice
field that we don't know that we don't see, and
there's probably other things behind the scenes where you know,
Pickens was just he's a handful of contain and a

(19:54):
lot of people want to blame Mike Tomlin. I was
listening Todd Haley like he handled this one fan that
called in great Brian because he goes the fan immediately
talks about Mike Tomlin, and Haley cut him off and said, Hey,
I've worked with Mike Tomlin. You're not gonna find this
is a great head coach and not gonna find a
guy that lives in breeze football more than this, the
way he handles things, et cetera, et cetera. This isn't

(20:16):
necessarily a Mike Tomlin thing. I'm not going to place
that on Mike Tomlin. Haven't been a Pittsburgh Steelers coach.
Having seen the kind of personalities and characters that are
in that locker room and how it's handled behind the scenes,
I can tell you even though you said you are
a season ticket holder in your daddy and daddy's daddy
before that since nineteen seventy one or whatever the guy said,
apparently that has them entitled. But we hear all those

(20:38):
same negative storylines, the same stuff. The Cowboys are actually
a mediocre team. What have they done? You want to
talk about like a one playoff win since I think
they won the Super Bowls in the nineties. Like Steelers
could be headed there. You never know, but they're trying
not to. These are all moves not to. There's people
that say they're they're not convinced with Omar Khan, like

(20:59):
maybe they wait for they could get another copick with
you know that's in twenty twenty seven. That's that cop
that's way down the line. Who knows how high that
pick is. Maybe it's a third rounder, maybe it's not
a third rounder. They get the Cowboys third rounder now,
and then they also get to improve a little bit
in the later rounds and that might be a pick
that they use. Maybe if they go after a Lizard,
Maybe if they go after a DJ Moore. The everyone

(21:21):
may not cry and complain so much when you're putting
more proven talent that's out there. And I'm not saying
that those guys are necessarily one hundred percent available. That's
just kind of like where the rumors start to go
because well, the Steelers got rid of a wide receiver,
it means they need to get another. And we've seen
in the past where that's just a false narrative and
they're just going to roll with the guys that are
already on the roster, and that includes someone we mentioned

(21:42):
is being a potential wide receiver to last year in
Pat Fryermuve, who just so happened to have a pretty
solid season led the team in receiving touchdowns with seven.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, and look, we know that Arthur Smith likes tight
ends to be mixed into his offense. I just think
you know it is it is a It's a move
that is, like I said, not surprising. It's it's a
move that is focused on the future and understanding where
they are at this point in time and gives them

(22:16):
the freedom to to avoid external more drama than they need.
Right they they down don't have to worry about a
hold in right as the season starts. They don't have
to worry that Pickens is going to become a distraction
because he's not getting enough. And fine, give that potential
baggage to the Cowboys. If they can't extend him, do
you think he's going to be happy? Right if they

(22:37):
don't get him the money that he thinks he's you know,
deserves and in his worth and find a way to
extend him before the season, you think they're gonna that
he's gonna be, you know, just a uh, you know,
stand up citizen.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
And do everything right. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
I hope he does. I hope this is like a
wake up call for him. I don't wish the guy,
you know, to fail. No, no, no, he has success.
I mean, you know, it's the Cowboys. So I don't
really hope it that much. But I do hope that,
you know, he has success and finds a way to
you know, extend his career and move on.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
But I just I don't know. I don't see that.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
I don't see this as a hugely disappointing move. I
see it as a completely expected thing. I've been talking
about it forever. You've been talking about it as a potentiality,
and and the fact that it's happened now just means
they figured out when they could get what they thought
they wanted to get out of it.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, and they probably did want it. During the draft,
they didn't get it. Everyone's gonna blame, but everybody's sitting there.
It wasn't like this really deep draft class either, but
the Cowboys were sitting there a little higher. They're probably
one of the primary targets in the talks, and you know,
Cob Mark Bully said that it wasn't this was or
maybe it was Jerry Deula, like one or the other
just said it kind of just materialized. But I'm sure
there were talks. You've got the combine, you've got all

(23:54):
the other the owners and everything else. All these meetings
that happened during the off season where oh yeah, legal
team to bring all this and they get to talk
about who's available, who's on the table. So they all
know this, they all know behind the scenes. Nobody's gonna
bury anyone, throw anyone under the bus or anything like that.
It's just, you know, I think the Cowboys, maybe their
offense becomes better. They've got offensive line problems and they've

(24:17):
had trouble running the ball, but they've got Dak Prescott.
He slings the ball over the place. Could be a
good landing spot for George Pickens. He gets an extension,
gets a lot of money, then we'll be able to
with confidence say, well, would you have paid X amount
of dollars for him? Because if Omar Khan had a
deal that was out there and he refused it, he's
obviously thinking he's worth more and we'll produce more. But
as you mentioned very earlier in our broadcast here, there

(24:40):
were some other guys that thought that very highly of
their talents, like a Chase Claypool for example, that didn't
materialize into bigger and better things and just kind of
disappeared off of planet Earth.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
So, look, this is guy, it's got a true number
one now with him? Right, if he thinks he's a
true number one, he's not gonna be the number one
in Dallas. Ceedee Lamb is the number one receiver in
Dallas and is more of a definite true number one.
But that might open things up for George Pickens. Maybe
he has a better year because of it. We just

(25:12):
have to wait and see it is. My expectation is
that nothing changes, right, I'm gonna tell you. My expectation
is that this follows the same pattern of most Steelers
receivers who have moved on from the team. And while
he may have some level of success, he's not going
to suddenly become the number one receiver that he thinks

(25:34):
he might be.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
Yeah, what if he goes out there and just completely
as a knucklehead. What if he goes out there and
puts up fewer yards than last year? Still has two
or three touchdowns. I think that could be much of
a comp pick coming and you know what I mean,
probably not in the third round rage anyway, So selling
High just two one hundred yard games last year, three touchdowns,

(25:56):
Selling not eve one thousand yard season. Selling High was
probably wise. We kind of saw it coming, had that
gut feeling. Would I have kept them long term? Depends
if his attitude would have been proper. The potential is
certainly there, So now what do you do? Does this
weaken the Steelers? I think if you're looking at twenty
twenty five, yeah, it definitely could. It could also mean

(26:19):
opportunity for other players, as we mentioned Austin Wilson. Heck,
even Robert Woods might still have a trick or two
up his sleeve. If he gets out on the field,
maybe they make a move for somebody else. And this
is like George Pickens is long forgotten by the time
we're in October, right, So who's to say we don't
know yet our knee jerk reactions, it does appear that
it's like, wow, well the wide receiver room takes a hit.

(26:42):
But at the same time, you look at twenty twenty six,
the draft is in Pittsburgh and they've got like a
dozen picks sitting there lying in wait. They can move
around the draft board. It doesn't mean they're going to
go after a quarterback. What happens if Rudolph or Howard
ends up like showing out and you're like, well, they've
got that's solved, and then they could throw something else
out there. Maybe they use a first rounder on a

(27:03):
wide receiver. You never ever, ever ever know. Likewise, like
the Cowboys, they're in transition, right They got a new
head coach, they had a losing season because Dak was
hurt for much of it. So moving on from Pickens
at this particular juncture, it's just for me. It wasn't
necessarily that he's a bad player. It's just the inconsistency

(27:24):
with maybe the attitude and like you said, the extra
distractions there are going to come when we get to
July and August, when you're in training camp, you're in
the preseason. He's not out there working out. We've seen
this before with Deontay Johnson. It's another guy they cut
bait with that bounced around to like three other teams
already in a year, and the Steelers at least got
Dante Jackson out of that of his services for a

(27:47):
year in a trade. So they just seem to know,
seem to have always had their finger on the pulse
of who to find, who to develop, and when to
move on or when to extend that player. And I'm
just gonna trust the I'm just gonna trust that organization.
I'm gonna trust the scouting department in the front office
that they're making the right move here. And they get
a guaranteed third round pick that will be higher than

(28:11):
a cop pick regardless of where the Cowboys finish, and
then they get the swap and move up a little
bit in an extra round that, like I said, it
might help because we've seen Omar make these moves in
season two, went after Mike Williams, went after Preston Smith
when they feel that they could win now, trying to
add some more bodies to bolster the roster and try
and get over the hump of winning a playoff game,

(28:32):
try to get over the hump of beating teams like
the Ravens, the Eagles of the Kansas City Chiefs. So
I don't necessarily see it as a week move. A
lot of people say the Steelers don't lay down for
a season. I think Mike Tomlin could coach. You could
throw the replacements out there, and he's somehow gonna do it.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Like I said, he won with Mason and Duck right,
like you know you can't. I just can't tell you,
Like I don't think it's in Mike Tomlin's nature to tank,
And I think that he can get to an eight
win or a nine win season, as you said, with
with the replacements. You know, he's just gonna get the
best out of whoever he's got.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
I know he beat Tom Brady with the Buccaneers with
like Sidney Jones and who is the other corner. These
were guys that got like seriously hurt. They were highly
thought of in the draft process, but were pretty much
out of the league on practice squads from the street.
They had like all those DB's hurt. And he had
to start both of those guys against Tom Brady at
home with Mitch Trubisky. I think did Trubisky start or

(29:36):
Trubisky came in because pick a guy hit got knocked
out and whatever was the case, like they still were able.
That still just blows my mind that something like that
occurs a lesser coach, it's not gonna happen. I'm not
saying there aren't other coaches in the NFL that can't
get that done. I'm sure Andy Reid can figure something
out and game plan around it. Among others, probably John Harblaugh,

(29:57):
you know McVeigh with the Rams, somebody like that. Probably,
but most definitely right, But not everybody can do that,
Not everyone in the league. I don't know if half
the teams have a settled coach kind of thing going
on for a long term. They may have a guy
that their hitch two that ladder. You know, half a
quarter of those teams like, okay, we got some of
it's under contract. We're gona look at them this year,

(30:17):
maybe the next year. We'll see how this works. It's
a brand new head coach, or there's definitely dudes that
are on the hot seat too, So I will know
somebody's gonna be like, oh, Mike Talm a mediocre this
and that, and it's like, this still isn't the Jets,
This still isn't the Raiders, This isn't you know, the
Cowboys situation. The Cowboys won like twelve games prior to
last year. In each of the previous two three seasons

(30:39):
with McCarthy and then they're just like, say, Levie, I
don't know that I feel so great about that either.
With the first time head coach. That seemed like such
a shotgun decision. You don't know, like if you're on
the other side of this and you're like, it's kind
of the same way we felt. They gave up a
two and then made DK Metcalf like the fourth highest
paid wide receiver in the NFL. Can you do that though,
when you already have Ceedee Lamb and Deck Prescott under

(31:00):
those contracts. I don't know. So, like what I'm always
comparing to other teams, try to keep it into perspective.
The one I want to bring up, you know, I
think we talked enough about all the other wide receivers,
talked about the offense. It's gonna be young, They're gonna
have to gel offensive line, whoever the quarterback is. Metcalf
is new, Arthur Smith entering a second year, a lot

(31:20):
of moving parts. It may be painful to watch in September.
It's going to be extension of preseason stuff. Like we
said before, right defensively, you would hope that the Steelers
are going to be better, and that they're going to
be not give up twenty eight to thirty points per
game and give up two hundred some yards to Derrick Henry.

(31:41):
You've got to hope that those moves are in place.
And I know that there's some trade happy folks that
are out there that are already like, well, the next
move is get rid of TJ.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Watt.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Let's make this very clear. TJ. Watt and George Pickens.
You're talking about an elite generational player who has led
the league in his statistic categories at his position and
one an MVP on his side of the ball, versus
a guy that scored three touchdowns. Like, these are not

(32:10):
the same category.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
They are not.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Do not move on from TJ.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
Watt.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
I think it would be the biggest mistake. I think
a lot of people look at it and say, well,
everybody's getting this forty million a year bag now, and well,
now that they're not giving any money to George Pickens,
you lock up TJ. Watt as a Steeler for life,
because when he's not on the field, you don't win games.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Look, I've said this before and I'll say it again.
Somebody wants to be stupid, right, and come and say, hey,
we'll give you two first rounders and maybe three first
rounders or some giant pot of gold for TJ.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
Watt.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Fine, you have to at least take the phone call,
but you know, to try and go out and look
for a deal for TJ.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Watt.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
No, they're not doing that. I just don't buy that
for a second. As you said, it's a generational kind
of player. It's he's a Cam Hayward kind of guy.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
Right.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
They don't want him in any other jersey. They want
him to be a one jersey, one helmet kind of guy.
That's what they want, and I think that's probably what TJ.

Speaker 4 (33:08):
Wants to.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
The question will just be, you know, can they make
arrangements to make it happen? And as you said, you're
not paying pickens. Now, maybe you find a way to
do it.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
I gotta share. There's a tweet out here. I don't know.
His name's Joe Bildner, but it was just kind of
more of a joke, rummered wide receiver to replacements in Pittsburgh.
Allen was Art Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings, Donald Driver,
Jrmichael Finley. Like a bunch of old Packers. I'm not

(33:37):
even sure that Aaron Rodgers played with all of those guys,
Like Donald Driver was probably pretty old by the time
Rogers playing. I think he did play in that Super
Bowl against the Steelers. But that's hilarious. I absolutely love
some of the tongue in cheeks stuff. Hey, you know what,
Keenan Allen was fairly healthy last year over a thousand
yards with Caleb Williams as a rookie quarterback and a
messive an offense that was the Chicago Bears, he might

(33:59):
still have something to offer. You've got some guys that
you can still get a little bit out of, like
I said, Amari Cooper and actually put up better numbers
over the last few seasons. Look who he had to
play with for quarterbacks, Deshaun Watson and everybody else that
was in Cleveland, right, including the timeless Joe Flacco. But
I know it didn't work in Buffalo. But you just

(34:19):
can't show up maybe sometimes mid season and have it
worked the same problem Mike Williams had coming to the Steelers.
So we'll see. It doesn't get me super excited to
replace George Pickens with one of those guys, but it
does make me feel a little more at ease to
put experienced leaders on the field who are proven bodies,
provided they could be there for a seventeen game season,

(34:41):
not break the bank or something like that. I did
have somebody say something to me the other day that
I will addressed real quick before we sign off, Brian,
and they said, the Steelers are cheap, and I know
it's going to come out somewhere, Yeah, exactly, And I
like it insulted me to my fiber because I know
that's not true. Oh, the Roonies are cheap. They do
this becau cheap. They don't have enough coaches in the

(35:01):
cheap their players go because they're cheap. No, Mike Wallace,
number one. When you're paying Ben Roethlisberger among the top
of the quarterbacks in the NFL for many years, you
don't have the money to spread around. But somehow in
that period of time, they found a way to make
Marquise Pouncy the highest paid center. They found ways to
pay Polamalu. They found a way to make Lamar Woodley

(35:24):
the highest paid defensive contract at the Steelers at the time.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
TJ.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Watt again, you know later on same difference, make a Fitzpatrick.
So that's just blooney. That's just a load of bs,
and I don't buy it. The money when it comes
to Pickens was Look, the production doesn't line up with
what you're asking, toodles, we're gonna get something out of
you before we don't.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
There's a difference between being cheap and being dumb. Right.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
The Steelers spend wisely. They spend on proven commodities, they
spend on production, they spend on what they believe is
going to be elite player. They're not gonna ridiculously overpay
if they don't think the value is there. That doesn't
make them cheap, right you could you could end you
could spend two hundred and forty million dollars for a

(36:13):
quarterback that never plays for you.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Right.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
They just aren't going to do those kinds of things.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
Yeah, for real, my dude. Well that was about it
with the I think the worst takes that I've heard
over the over the week, and for the most part though,
like a lot of what I'm hearing, it's just I
can't figure out if people wanted to make up their
minds as to whether or not they wanted Pickens or
they didn't want Pickens. It was like they didn't want them,
but yet they didn't want them, They still wanted them
a little bit, just enough that they didn't want to

(36:41):
see them traded or they felt that they should have
gotten like the.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
Moon for them.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
And it's I think this was fair. I think for
both teams. We'll see, you know who wins the trade.
But the Steelers have proven time and again that they
could find players at the wide receiver position. Just got
to figure out who's throwing the ball. Is Aaron Rodgers coming.
Some people think that's gonna happen by the offseason workouts
when they start around the corner of the rookie minie
camps up first. So we'll see how that plays out.

(37:07):
We'll see if there's any contracts awarded out of that,
and we'll be back around to you sometime next week
as we cover some of that, and we'll see if
mister Rogers finds a finds a neighborhood somewhere, you know,
like in the Pittsburgh area.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
We don't know.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
That's very funny, very very very very funny. I see
what you did there.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
I'm not holding out for him though, Like I still
don't think that he does it's the same thing as
Pickens leaving. Yeah, it's the same thing as Pickens leaving.
I think Calvin Austin could put up a lot of
those same numbers given the opportunity. Maybe one of the
younger guys we just hit. They're unknown. And it's same
thing with the quarterbacks. Rudolph is still like he's starting
to get too known, but he still got enough there
that we don't truly know. Will Howard's a complete wild card.

(37:52):
He could be totally bad. He could end up being
a shocking surprise. But Aaron Rodgers soon to be forty
two year old quarterback that came off of a major
injury the year before, and I just don't know that
he's still you know, it starts to level out where
you've got the player that's got this ceiling, and this
guy's floor and ceiling are like lower than what it

(38:15):
used to be because he just can't perform at the
same level he once did.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
I'm just gonna say the same thing I've been saying.
I would prefer he not be here. If he is here,
I will root for him, and then I will feel
it is necessary to take a shower after every game
because I'll feel dirty or or.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
As we usually do, Brian will just end up telling everybody, see,
I told you so, I've never I've never been that
kind of guy. And usually I don't pat myself on
the back or gloat about some of these moves. A
lot of it is business. It is you know, these
are still human beings that we have to talk about,
and I wouldn't like to want somebody talking shit about me.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
So yeah, wow, yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
Mean I got feelings too, so I try to see
the human.

Speaker 4 (38:55):
Side of it. I've talked a lot of shit about
Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Yeah, I'm not backing off of any he's a Steeler,
but I will in my gut not be happy about it,
but we'll root for him to succeed.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
And the name on the name on the front there
will never be an Aaron Rodgers helmet back there, regardless
of whether he shows up here or not. Oh you
know what ever happened, that's that's kind of funny because
the photo I'm going to point out here in a
second over my shoulder has been rotating.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
It was Juju Smith.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
Schuster knocking out perfect until Shuster left, and I'm like, well,
what do I put there next? And I don't remember
what the next one was. It was Kenny Pickett from
the draft, and then Russ signed last year. Now it's
Mason signing some papers. It's the ever rotating image. I'm
about to just go with the Sports Illustrated cover of
Lambert which is just nudged above there, and just leave that.

(39:49):
But Brian, thank you, buddy for joining me once again
joining Steelers Nation. We'll be back at it as soon
as we have some more we have more breaking news,
we'll be back on the whole or and if not,
we'll be covering some more off season workout stuff and
just continue to look at this roster, see how it evolves,
see what else the Steelers could do. Getting excited for

(40:12):
the season is you know, I'll always be excited, but
right now, it's like a lot of these things are
very like low key. It's just kind of like they're
riding it out. They're getting they're cutting out the cancer
and they're gonna and they're trying to heal and it
might be a two year process to do that. So well,
next time, folks, don't forget the like comment and subscribe.
By name's Joe, his name's Brian, Follow him too over

(40:35):
at not the one he used to have before that.
Yeah I'm still yeah had it's count hacked many years ago.
So if you don't a year ago or whatever, so
get Brian to follow, get Brian to follow, to leave
a rating review wherever you're watching or listening from video

(40:55):
version available on one of our Spotify feeds. Next day
till next time. As we always do, encourage everyone out
there to be safe, be good, and we'll catch you later.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
We would like to thank you for listening and remind
our listeners to follow us on social media and our
website www. Dot steel City Underground dot com

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Are the Steelers out of their minds for trading George Pickens?

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