Breaking down the cutdown as Steelers trim roster to 53 players

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Underground, The steelCity Underground, the black and gold standard
for Pittsburgh Steelers coverage. Now here'syour hose. Joe Kuzma and Brian E.
Roage. Hello everyone, and welcometo another edition of the steel City

(00:23):
Underground podcast. My name is JoeKuzma and welcome the regular season. The
regular season the NFL is right aroundthe corner. We had some roster cut,
some roster movement, and to joinme once again after making our near
flawless predictions on the last program,It's a one mister, Brian E.
Rhodes. Brian, you don't eversit up in your chair. There he

(00:46):
is unless it's like a bubble head. How you going? How you doing?
What's going on with my friend?Now? You know, I'm just
sitting here doing nothing, just youknow, waiting until I'm waiting to talk
to you man, doing nothing.And he used to see, yeah,
you were you you you got me. You got me sooner rather than later,
and caught me in the middle.I was like, you know what,
I better eat something I got sometime until Brian and I get on

(01:10):
the horn later. And then he'slike, all right, mid bite my
first bite of my Pepperoni role,dude, the first the first bite.
Where'd you go? They're somewhere.It's always off camera. My homemade Pepperonio
role made by MOA like very muchindulging in the pepperoni roll. Mid bite,

(01:34):
Yeah, mid bite because I gotto the Apple Watch too, right,
so I get it. Everywhere phonesgoing watch is going Apple Watch,
Hey, tether d all these smartdevices, my friend. So yeah,
one day, one day, youknow, I don't know, you're just
not an Apple person, and I'mjust not going to get you to see

(01:56):
my waist. There was something Iwas starting to tell you off air here,
which kind yeah, So I think, alright, programming news folks,
we're gonna get the ninety eight percentof people that tune in right at the
beginning here live show on YouTube,and then we'll have the replay available for
everyone they're in after and for allof our audio listening friends as well.

(02:17):
But live, we're gonna do ourAFC North predictions, Brown's, Bengals and
Ravens, plus the Steelers schedule.We're going to hammer through it. We
were very successful in doing this lastyear. I feel I feel some pressure
though doing that live. I feellike some people could bush us or steerus
in a different direction and twist myarm. But next week, so eight

(02:38):
o'clock Eastern Live, Thursday. Butnext week, I don't know what I'm
doing. Dude. I'm gonna beout of town this Labor Day weekend.
It's the end of summer. I'mgoing back to Shytown. And this is
coming off of our conversation last week. There happens to be a particular band
that has they have a little bitof a tour going on. They don't
always tour, And yeah, Igot roped in to go in to see

(03:00):
Pearl Jam. So after we justgot to talk about it, I shouldn't
say exactly. You know, dudecould sing. We just don't know what
the hell he's saying. Which iswhich is okay, It's part for the
course. I oftentimes don't know thelyrics to songs, whether I hear him

(03:22):
right or not, So I'll eithersay the wrong lyrics on purpose, or
I'll cluck like a chicken. It'sone or the other. So it's very
interesting. I don't want to sitnear you at a concert then. But
I've had people, I've mad peoplebe mad at me because I sing too
loud at concerts, and one guyturned around that he turned around and he

(03:45):
looks at me. This is ata Paul McCartney show, right, Paul
McCartney. The guy turns around,he goes, I paid to hear him,
not you, And I said,hey, he's not wrong. I
was gonna say, what concert wereyou at that somebody could hear you singing
like you could usually hear a collective. I'm sure you weren't the only person

(04:08):
in attendance singing along. My wifeis embarrassed to go to concerts with me
because I am like, if you'reyou've been around me, you know my
voice is loud. You're it carries. Someone said your voice was silky smooth
when we first started doing this.I know I miss whoever that was,

(04:30):
because nobody calls me silky smooth anymore. That's well, you know, smooth,
but I don't know about silky anyway. I'm loud. I'm loud at
concerts. I sing at the topof my lungs. I enjoy myself and
people don't like it. It's probablybecause you're terrible. I got no room

(04:50):
to man, I don't even butI don't try. I don't try unless
you get a couple of drinks inme, and then you know, if
I go to like a kiss concert, I'm probably carrying a note better than
you know all or even Jeane.At this point, those guys, it's
still like I was saying the thingwith like Axel Rose the other day,
with guns and Roses, I respectthe hell out of them. I mean,
you imagine being like a grandpa,well you're close, but like seventy

(05:13):
years old and rocking like that andwearing the makeup and being the demon and
spit fire and spit blood and likethat would be pretty cool. But anyways,
I'm find figure out. I'm tryingto line up something special for the
holiday. Okay, this is myspecial wizardry shake. I'm gonna come up
with something on Earth? Are youdoing there? Yeah, I'll do that.

(05:35):
Maybe good Brian to actually do asolo show for a change. But
but the following week, the previewmight be coming a little late for the
home opener against the forty nine ers, and we'll see what we do.
Usually did the cheat sheet and everything, So I'm not slacking on anybody.
I'm just I'm just letting you insall know that it's the end of summer
and gotta get gotta get shit done. Look I haven't I don't know what

(06:00):
your problem is. You know,Look, you're being lazy. I've told
you a million times. Just showme how you do the magic that you
do to create the show. I'llfigure it out and do one on you
my own. But no, youyou keep going, Oh, I'm too
bensy. I don't have time.Get this guy is so full of it.

(06:21):
Folks like, Okay, so wechanged a little bit of the process.
So you probably saw. This waswell over a year ago, and
Brian has not made any time inhis schedule too. He doesn't even have
this. You know why you don'thave the silky smooth voice because you've never
hooked your studio mike back up fromlike two three years ago. This may

(06:41):
not be untrue if you aren't aware. Not only does for if you see
all the helmets that Brian has behindhim, he has just as many computer
screens that you can't see like offcamera. Oh geez, he's gonna show
everybody this thing looks like the StarshipEnterprise and we're gonna get We're gonna get
accosted yere for not talking football.There's important football news here. That's why

(07:02):
we're so geeked up and excited.We're geeked up and excited. We're gonna
go out of order. I wasgonna go in order. But how is
there any fun talking about the quarterbacks? Like we would look look at this,
look look look did any did anysurprises occur with the quarterbacks? Yeah?
There we go. This is thelist we had from the last shows.
Who did we have at number one? Because we're missing somebody? Okay,

(07:24):
Pigott, I increased the size ofthe excel spreadshet see, we have
it, we have it. Sell, I don't have we don't have the
budget here. I don't have thetools like ESPN has with all the special
graphics and wizardry, and they couldshift things around on their little surface smart
boards and put it back here,and I'm just gonna draw stuff on it.

(07:45):
And that's gonna say, yeah,yeah, I all, I don't
have something. I have surprised youdon't. But nothing happened with the quarterbacks.
There are some people saying, oh, well, you know, we're
a whole in deadsive purposes. We'reabout to contradict this statement. But we're
like, hey, smart guys,in the room and people were like,
oh, well, maybe they couldtrade Mason Rudolph or something like that,
and Omar can get like a thirdround pick. And we're like, ah,

(08:07):
yeah, I look at these guyson the roster. It's just a
few days ago, you and I. Yeah, right, these guys have
to have actual value. Who wouldbe dumb enough to trade for like Kevin
Dotson or Kendrick Green and lo andbehold, like we called the dots in
one though, we said, ifthere was going to be any room on
the roster for anybody else like SpencerAnderson, seventh round pick rookie this year,
somebody's gotta go. Green's gotta getcut or Dotson's gotta get traded.

(08:31):
Never in a million years did Ithink that Kendrick Green was gonna that there
would be a suitor, especially theTexans, Like the Texans are like at
the top of like the the waiverwire. I know, the Bears are
numero uno. There weren't they likesecond or third like naturally must be.
Yeah, So, like you know, Kendrick Green is not a vested veteran.

(08:56):
I'm perplexed by that he would havejust got cut. Omar Kahn and
he got a sixth rounder. Fornow, you think the Texas are going
to be improved, The whole AFCsound should be a little improved. So
I don't know, like that shouldbe a middle round pick based on their
record. I don't think it's goingto be like, you know, they're
not gonna tak It's gonna be likethe Bears on the top of the sixth

(09:18):
And what do you do with that? Anyways, Well, it looks like,
you know, we'll talk about somemore things here. Almar CON's probably
loading up for some ammunition to maketrades for players on the back end of
your roster or or just fillam inwith some draft picks or whatever. So
but I was, man, Iwas like, I'm not so shocked that
Green's gone or Dotson's gone at all, or so the fact that they actually

(09:43):
got something for both of them.I thought, dots In at least being
a starter for the last few years, that's gonna be valuable to somebody doesn't
have the starting offensive lineman or atleast the depth Kendrick Green. I don't
know that he was actually putting thingson tape that were well, there was
nothing about Kendrick Green's tape that wasgoing to inspire you other than Look,

(10:07):
if you were looking for a guythat that could fall down or be knocked
backwards, that was your guy basedon the tape. There was nothing on
his tape that was going to inspiresomebody to go, I need to give
up a draft pick for that guy. All I can think is that what
they really decided was maybe he canbe a guard, and we will try

(10:31):
and bring him in and let himbe a guard. Possibly. Possibly.
Yeah, I mean, I wastotally. I mean, I don't even
know if surprise is though. Iguess surprise is the I mean, I
mean, I just I don't knowthat he's like pro material. I feel
batter at saying that. I don'twant to say too much because you know,

(10:52):
he snapped back at some guy,so I don't want, you know,
I don't. We don't. Wedon't need Kendrick Green giving us hate
on the show because we you know, we just don't not that I think
Kendrick Green is going to watch this, nor do I think he cares anymore
now that he's going to Houston,right. Yeah, And you were asking,
You're like, do we have anygood photos for Kendrick Green and oh

(11:13):
that's that's still not the best.But hey, he's face proNT that's a
better picture. He's at least facedown, meaning he moved forward as opposed
to on his butt and on hisback. So I you know, that's
a complimentary picture of Kendrick. Iknow you could read his name played on

(11:33):
the back right. And Okay,So Mark made a good point last week
in the SEU back rooms and hewas talking about, like, you know,
those short yardage packages and stuff likethat, and that's why we're making
some of the back and forth becausewe're thinking, like, okay, can
Connor Hayward? They gave him somecarries, can he actually be a full
back slash running back? Do theykeep they keep two running backs? So

(11:58):
they keep three running with this?Anthony McFarland done enough and if he does,
then that makes it four tight ends? And can you keep four tight
ends when you have one it's arookie and one that's you know, Heyward's
a slash guy, iybrid he's maybeundersized. And yeah, so it was
like do you keep eights? Doyou keep nine? Offensive line? Like

(12:20):
where where exactly do you draw theline when it comes to you know who
you keeping who you don't. I'mlike gas grasping for words here specifically,
but the Steelers fifty three man roster, if you hadn't seen it, I'm

(12:41):
pulling it up real quick. We'regonna cover the rest of the offense here.
But nine offensive lineman alphabetical order,Spencer Anderson, the rookie we mentioned
already, making it of course,Mason Cole a surprise, a surprise here.
Dylan Cook is a surprise. Okay, so let me talk about Dylan
Cook. I should actually bring itup and see, he played a mess
of snaps in this last preseason game, and it was something that kind of

(13:07):
like that kind of set off somebells and whistles for me. But I
was too preoccupied with Anderson, Greenand Dotson like at the bottom end of
this roster, and I think therewas anything more than maybe a practice practice
squad spot for Cook. He playedseventy two percent of the game. He
only played one snap less than KendrickGreen did. I'm not sure what the

(13:28):
exact snap totals were for the entiregame. We'll just assume it was around
sixty or something. Nobody played.Let's see Logan Woodside played fifty two for
Atlanta, but that's that's their sideof the ball that would affect the Steelers
defense. So fifty eight for NathanBrooks corner, and he played eighty five
percent of the game for the fuckingso they had at least probably sixty five
plays or something like that, sopretty much three quarters of football for both

(13:52):
of those guys, if not more. So. They were definitely testing Dylan
Dylan Cook, we'll see he's stillgonna one of these guys at the bottom
end of the roster, James Daniels, Nate Herbig, who we were contesting.
Of course, they weren't happy withDotson, so they go out and
they signed Isaac Sue Mallow, who'sthe last on this list, and Ate
Herbig. You got Brodick Jones.They drafted for the same reasons. They

(14:15):
didn't necessarily maybe think Dan Moore wasthe strongest. They thought they could upgrade
at least him or Chickwarmo a corefour. So again you got Anderson,
Cool, Cook, Daniels, Herbig, Jones, and then more a core
four Sue Malo nine offensive lineman.How many did we have? I'm looking
here just to bring it up.I think we also we went with nine
as well, but we had Dotsonand Kendrick Green in this list. The

(14:41):
rest of this was pretty pretty muchI had what's his face? You had
Spencer Anderson, and I said,probably Flip Accoy. I was just going
on, maybe they find a specialrole for this guy. Maybe they just
like wiped him up in got theGM there for the Texans. Get a
little too excited. This guy wasalready playing draft day with his picks on

(15:05):
draft day. So so no matterwhat, and you're creating no matter what.
I don't know about whatever, butthis affects the rest of everything else
too. Okay, there's nine offensivelinemen. You did not trim down to
eight. So are you gonna keepsix wide receivers? Are you gonna be
able to keep four? Right?You can be able to keep three running
backs. No, that's too manyplayers unless you trim from the defense from

(15:28):
the other side of the ball.So when you go to the tight and
group and take a look at whattranspired earlier today, the news probably dropped
around two o'clock where Brian just droppedright about now I'm here, I'm here,
get something to do trimming with Ohmy goodness, that samurai sword Yeah,

(15:52):
you see a little smudge on it. That's Randy Jackson's signature. I
mean Randy Jackson. Yeah, it'sa step brother's quote and you don't know
it. And that makes me sad. You're just not gonna get Randy Jackson's
signature. It's all he had onhim. Man was the samurai's word.
So he got Randy Jackson sick.Anyways, the tight ends Zach Gentry,

(16:12):
we said, could be a bubbleplayer, hot seats and out he go
out the door. Yes, wetalked. Maybe you didn't, but I
talked maybe with Zach about this,and I said, that's why Bake Tomlin
was on Grilling and Chilling so earlyduring the off season pre season. Better
rake your appearance now because this show'scanceled. Unfortunately. I was speaking with

(16:37):
for the next season. Yeah,I was speaking with somebody on Facebook and
they were like practice. A lotof people are like maybe practice squad.
And I was like, so thepractice squad is now sixteen players. They
no longer have the requirement for thetenured years, like you were only allowed
to have two accrued seasons. Isgoing toward a vested veteran in the NFL?

(17:03):
And so Zach Gentry very well couldbe back as a practice squad player.
They are going to allow like aregular veteran to make the mantle there,
I guess so yeah, but yeah, they tripped down it is.
Now let's pull up the image thegraphics. You've got pat Frey Muth and
Darnell mount Washington. Listen, isyour only tight ends? The rookie hell

(17:26):
of a blocker. I was justa little concerned about depth. But if
somebody gets hurt and Zach Gentry bouncesback around and he's on the practice squad,
then there's a guy you never knowtoo. There's some other things with
this roster. We got to talkabout. The quid happen. So fullback
tight end slash tight end, ConnorHeyward, he gets his own little listing
there, and that's where they makeroom. They'll jump over to the running

(17:48):
backs. They ended up keeping it. Okay, you're running backs. Okay,
yeah, I was just making sureyou weren't jumping to the defense yet.
Okay, no, no, no, no, no, no,
We've got to cover there's quarterbacks.In fact, we could show the Kentrick
Green thing again because this was AnthonyMcFarlan. There you go. It was
stretching over Kendrick Green, who ledthe way for this touchdown in the final
preseason game in Atlanta. Doesn't doesn'tit really kind of look like in that

(18:11):
picture, Kendrick Green is just sleep. I mean, get you get your
time where you where? You kidding? Man, But I'm tired. I'm
just I'm gonna sleep. I'm justtired. Everybody's gonna be wondering. They're
gonna have to go over to YouTubeand subscribe to find out. So initially,
the only way we find out findthat picture. But if they didn't
see it and they're listening to this, but the only way we made room

(18:33):
for this originally was in in orderto get and we had Anthony McFarland on
our list, and the make roomwas we only kept five wide receivers.
Well yeah, there are six,and we made other cases whether or not
Gunner could have been. It wasreally like, hey, between Boyker,
Boyken, Woiker Biker Bok, GunnarRoshevsky and then aunt Say McFarland, Zach

(19:00):
Gentry and then maybe like Kendrick Green. We had like you know, like
five guys and there's like what likethree seats at the table for those guys,
I think of my bat's right,two or three seats they're competing for.
There's more bodies than there are spots. Yeah, so McFarland gets in,
Gunnar Roschefski gets in there as well. I don't know what, like

(19:21):
I guess, And did you seeSteve Steve Sims who made the team last
five receiver. Yeah, he gotreleased by Houston. So never say never.
As far as bouncing back around,you just never know. I just
the Gunner things a little curious.I'm not gonna lie happy for him.

(19:41):
I thought he got enough usage inthe preseason that it would at least leave
some doubt as to whether or nothe would make the squad. So that's
about all the more I got tosay about Gunner. That's all the more
I got to say about that.Oh a little course for his gump quote.
But they kept six. I guessyou got another guy could return kicks,

(20:03):
because I mean, like Calvin Austinhasn't done this yet. We're still
effectively a rookie. So if hegoes out there and runs a route the
wrong way or something mid game,he probably gets yanked and Gunner starts getting
his reps. If he's act andto be honest with you, he's not
a big you know, Calvin Austinthirds is mini me right, He's a
tiny little guy. I don't knowthat you want him returning kicks. I

(20:25):
mean, I know that you dobecause of the excitement, But if he's
going to be a part of theoffense, I don't know. Do you
keep Gunner just so that you don'tget him killed? Yeah, Gunner probably
will. I don't know. I'mgonna say returns kickoffs. Isn't that how
he was such a nightmare with itlast year he lost the job. To

(20:47):
be completely honest, though, hewasn't the nightmare like Ryan Switzer was.
Oh no, that's yeah. Hewas. He'd run all over the place
and get two yards backwards. Aguy that really would backwards. So bringing
up bring up the can never findit here. So the running backs there

(21:08):
you go Nase Harris, Anthony McFarlandJr. And Jalen Warren. Wide receivers,
Calvin Austen the Third, Miles Boykin, Beyante Johnson, Gunnaroschewsky, George
Pickens, and Allen Robinson. Thatmakes your six wide receivers, three running
backs, two tight ends. Withthe hybrid being Connor Heyward for your third
tight end, nine offensive lineman,and of course three quarterbacks, and now

(21:30):
you can dress. The third isyour emergency. So I like Mason Rudolph,
like teams aren't trying to trade,like if they just straight cut.
That's what you gotta know too,Like Zach Gentry is a vested veteran,
which means he isn't subject to waivers. He becomes a free agent immediately.
The strategy behind this. Now,I had to look this up. Like
I said, I was still thinking, and I don't know if they changed

(21:52):
it last year they changed it thisyear, but I'm thinking maybe before because
it's hard to say, like ifguys like Wendell Smallwood we're tenured, I
don't know. I'm not going tolook it up. We're ten year guys.
But I started to think there weremore veterans on practice squads last year
than normal. So but in recentyears, or at least heading into this
year, sixteen players doesn't matter now. Like you used to be ineligible if

(22:15):
you had more than two years,four years makes you a vested veteran.
So when you're cut, it's notwaivers. You're gonna become a free agent.
The other guys goes subject to waiver. So nobody's gonna trade for Zach
Gentry, for example, because hehad one, like literally one year on
his contract. They signed him toa one year deal. Why would you
trade for somebody like that, Likethat's gonna be cut and then becomes a

(22:36):
straight up free agent. And inthe case of a lot of the rookies,
then they were subject to waivers andanother team has to pick them up.
Now they can't like pick them upand then signed them to a practice
squad either, and you can't justsign Let's say the Steelers go ahead and
when they announced practice squad signings andthey bring back Zach Gentry, and then
Zach Gentry's signed in the practice squad, another team has to sign him to

(22:56):
their fifty three man outright. Sothere's a lot of like strategy and stuff
with this where you forget the CodyWhite Nikien Butler were gone a week ago,
but they could still be part ofthis because they will have gone through
the whole waiver reclaim process already andnobody's just gonna pluck them out of the
sky. But well, they bothon I R two, So yeah,

(23:18):
I was. I think Hakim wasactually waived injury designation. Maybe yeah,
let me double check that. Icould take a look at this right now.
I love pulling up the transactions becausewell, I forgot the Kevin Dotson
trade was a fifth round. It'sfifth and a sixth round and then a
fourth and a fifth where they're swappingin each other next two drafts with the

(23:41):
Rams. So that's kind of importanttoo, because if the Rams aren't they're
a little shaky. That fourth roundpick interest is a viable one. The
fifth round pick could also be viable, and I don't mind losing a fifth
and a sixth. So I'm tryingto remember who I was listening to on
Exam former GM. It wasn't BillPolian. I was the guy at one

(24:03):
of the guys with the giants inRick Spielman. Spielman, Yeah, I
think that's that's who it was.And he was talking about how like those
picks, whether or not you usethem to actually draft players or you use
them to acquire players, it's almostentirely for depth in order the run dot
your roster, So no harm,no file. That's why a lot of

(24:23):
teams are willing to part with it, so omar cons trying to get a
little bit of bargaining chips here.He may have some more coming. And
I was trying to see the yeah, waved injured wide receiver Cody White and
the keen Butler. So it's actuallylisted both ways. If you take a

(24:45):
look at it off of Steelers dotcom, it's actually listed with an ampersand
which usually I might say something likewaved injured. See just below it waved
injured Duke Dawson and then waved IsaiahDunne. So they us have both been
waved with injury settlement. Good call, Brian. So you can't place him
on IR and then bring him backanyway. So if the guys are healthy,

(25:08):
healthy in October or something, youcan bring him back. I think
you know. So a bunch ofplayers in the NFL too on the pup
list that will not be playing forfour weeks. All around, you've got
oh, I can't remember his namenow, the Colts running back that's that's
holding out. What can I thinkof his name from Wisconsin? Taylor Taylor?

(25:29):
Yeah, what's his first name?Not Fred? Frank, Bill,
Bill, Joe, Joe Taylor,Brian Taylor, Zach Taylor Fred like Taylor
his name probably not even Taylor.I don't remember what else. Oh geez
o, man, Like, you'redriving me crazy? How do I how
do I like totally lose something likethat? Jonathan Taylor. Oh, it's

(25:52):
West Taylor. See how's half run? Well? I knew it was Taylor.
I'm not Taylor Swift, so Icouldn't think of his name, but
set the attendance record, set theattendance record at Aquiser Stadium. Never never
heard of him. Every Taylor couldbe a gender neutral name. Let's let's

(26:15):
be sensitive to that. There.Taylor Hawkins, I've heard of Taylor Hawkins.
Yeah, mister Taylor Hawkins. Anyways, Von Miller add to that list.
Kyler Murray add to that list.And a few others that will not
be playing a pretty there's a prettysignificant number. Austin Corbett, who's now
with playing on the offensive line ofthe Carolina Panthers. Quite a few notable

(26:36):
names that are there that gave mean opportunity just to bring up that.
Josh Dobbs may be starting Week onefor the Arizona Cardinals, who made a
play to get him from the ClevelandBrowns, who couldn't decide if they wanted
to keep or release Kellen Mond allweek. So Josh Dobbs gets set there.
I guess they really wanted him,and they're probably tanking. I feel

(27:00):
I'm happy that he may have thatopportunity. Right, They got Clayton Tune,
and then there are other three quarterbacks. Murray's on the pup list.
He's not playing for four weeks.They got they got rid of Coult McCoy
and Jeff driscoll or somebody. Howdid that guy have a career, didn't
James Harrison almost killed Colt McCoy,Yes, Like I think it was like

(27:21):
a Thursday night game. They werewearing the old seventy fifth anniversary kind of
just assumed he died at some point, like from like just you know,
six years later after James Harrison him, he just went, you know what,
I should have died when that happened. I'm dead, you know,
But like you keep, I keepevery now and then I'm like, cult
McCoy is entering the game, Likewhat now entering the game? That'd be

(27:44):
a real reason to boo too,Like, I don't know he did,
okay, he was winning games,but he just doesn't fit the mold.
I think of what they're trying todo, and that's los to get Caleb
Williams so straight up tank mode.Dude's been around since twenty two hand.
I mean, that's a pretty that'sa pretty healthy career. What do we
got here for Colt? About twelveyears would have been a thirteenth season.

(28:07):
That's pretty impressive for that guy.Yeah, I mean he made He played
in fifty six games, thirty sixstarts, and quite a few of them,
like over the last couple of years. He had six starts in each
of the last two three in eachof the last two seasons with Arizona,
and he went two and one andone and two. But I mean it
was the dumpster fire team. Otherwisethey did better than other loser quarterback that

(28:30):
the Browns drafted. That was fromNotre Dame whatever his name was, Oh,
Brady Quinn, that guy when youbefore you specified Nordre Dame, I
was gonna say which one, butI know and wait a minute, you
could still say wait, wait,wait, wait wait wait wait wait wait
wait wait, you can still saywhich one was it Deshaan Kyser from Notre
Dame two. But I know.I know our resident Brown fan is losing

(28:55):
his mind right now, but Imean he to admit they sucked at drafting
quarterback. It did? Yeah,yeah, that's I mean, they had
that laundry list. It may havethere may be somebody else that's like Spurge
and win, or somebody might havewent to Order Dame for all I know.
So, I mean, Brady Quinn, I don't know if I want

(29:17):
to go down the rabbit hole oflet's let's let's not let's not go down
the Browns. Right. Well,so we'll talk about the Browns on Thursday.
Oh wait, away, we havesomething to talk about about Thursday.
We're gonna do that. Now,We're gonna wait until the end of the
show to talk about Thursday. Aboutthirty. Well, I mentioned Thursday already,
were you so? Yeah? Foreight o'clock eight o'clock Eastern. I'm
hope you're on board that, remembernow, Okay, I remember. Now,

(29:38):
I was gonna jump to defense.But before I do, I think
we got to show kickers and punterslove. There's a lot of trades.
Wait a minute before before we gothere, Like, I just want to
do my math. I think themaths indicate and we need like a little
graphic that says, you know,math with Brian or something. But the
maths would indicate that we have twentyfour players all on the offense that were

(30:02):
retained. Is that with the masterin the game, I don't know.
Like so it's like three quarterbacks,three running backs. That's six, right,
I can do six, six ridereceivers that's twelve. Two tight ends
right, that's fourteen. One fullbackguy that's fifteen, and nine offensive linemen

(30:26):
that's twenty four. Whatever you say, pal, I'm not counting a long
way with three three guys that arethe long snapper, the kicker, and
the punter. That means there's twentysix that we we've kept more defensive guys
than offensive guys. That's my point. Say so early, Oh I do

(30:52):
say so, and don't call meShirley. I'll call me Shirley, which
is always great. Oh man,you've got me hold on a second.
You've definitely got me thinking here,and I've got something for you because I'm
just that kind of guy. AndI worked really hard. This was Express

(31:15):
graphics that made this not the highestbudget. But we have math with Brian.
Yeah, mass with Brian. Butyou need an s at the end
of that maths. This is themaths. Maths we'll have to do like,
uh, all right, I'm verycontent with that as a quality graphic

(31:37):
though, that is so equals theability of my maths. There you go,
I plot maths with Brian. Thereyou go, But special teams.
Did you notice the special teams andnot the math with Brian? We've got
to Yeah, I do something aboutthat. Hold one, get the there

(31:59):
we go, Here we go.Oh, that's because you won't see it.
There you gotta go all the waydown down downtown, downtown, down
town. You went downtown too far, christ too far downtown. But did
you say three for special teams?There's four? What? Yes, there's

(32:20):
two punters. Did you not God, did you know that? You did
not? Did you not see thatearlier? Chris Boswell of course, kicker,
Christian Koonts uh long snapper, andadmittedly boys with my cousin with my
cousin Brad he sees them everywhere inChristian kots is like you're the guy who
recognized me, like the only fanin the world. And then uh,
Presley Harvin and Braden Man and everybody'slike out of their mind. They're like,

(32:45):
wait, you kept two punters overZack Gentry. And that's where I'm
like thinking, Okay, Zach Gentrycould be back. He's a free agent.
Just hold your horses. This istransactional and we're gonna re sign you,
or they make another and they makea trade. If you're up a
roster spot and they had somebody that'soff of waivers, or one of them

(33:05):
two punters is not going to bethere in two weeks. One of those
punters isn't going to be there tomorrow, my friend, and tomorrow. This
is a later Tuesday recording for everyone. So here's here's my summation. Is
either one of these two guys tweakedto hurt something and somebody's going to injured
reserve because they got to make thefifty three in order to call them back.

(33:28):
Neither of them is a vested veteran, so they're both subject to waivers.
So it would be very difficult withteams like the Eagles, I think
don't have a punter right now,for example. And yeah, that's kind
of funny because Drew Krisman actually gotconformer of the formerly of the university,
and it's to say Bengals did notwin his job in camp, and he
is out there. So I thinkOmar Kunn is either trying to work some

(33:51):
things right now, because there's howmany kickers got trade in the last two
days. You got you had Cadjorkcut from the Browns, and you had
Dustin Hopkins traded over from the Chargers. Because I'm trying to think of the
other guy who won that job withthe Chargers. So the Chargers sent third
kicker Hopkins, who was an olderveteran thirty two thirty three years old,
about the same age as Chris Boswell. They sent him to Cleveland for whatever

(34:14):
late round draft pick, and thenWill Let's went over to Denver, and
then Nick Fulk went from New Englandto I don't know where, Houston somewhere,
I don't know, I don't remember. I just know there was like
three or four kickers he got movedaround Corless Weightman. He was formerly of
the Steelers. He's been bounced aroundthe league a little bit and has some
starting experiences upon her. He's floatingaround out there too. But it makes

(34:35):
me wonder what the move is herefrom Omar Khan. If it's an ir
move, Let's say Presley Harvin ortweaked something, and that's why they're keeping
Braden Man, who has experience liketwo or three seasons. He just hasn't
had a fourth season to be tenuredin the NFL. And from all accounts
and purposes, from what I saw, inner asn't a whole lot to look
at when you're a training camp withthat stuff. But everyone else's accounts that
are actually paying attention to that stuffsaid, hey, he's been pretty pretty

(34:58):
decent. So there's a reason whythey were holding on to them, and
that could be it. There couldbe more transactions coming within the next day
or two. Didn't want to subjectthem to the waivers. So there may
be an extra spot here on theright. And this segment should be called
Kickers with Joe. Kickers with Joe. I'm not going to take the time
to quickly. I was gonna drawit, but I don't actually have a

(35:21):
pen in a paper. I don'tI don't actually I don't have those things
anymore. We don't write in thereal world. So the the this graphic
was in fact correct. The mathswith Brian he only had three specially all
right, So so the minor adjustmentsto the maths is, yes, we
still kept more defensive players, butinstead of twenty six, we kept twenty

(35:44):
five almost than even almost yes,almost. Do you think fifty three minus
the three special teams players would giveyou fifty divided by two? The maths,
the maths would tell you that that'stwenty five. Yes, it does,
Yes, it works, Yes,I think it works. Okay,

(36:05):
defensively, there's there might be anothercatch release here too. We'll have to
see. Let's just let's just knockhim down. On Trevius Adams, we
thought, hey, this guy couldbe he could be borderline, but he's
got some position flexibility, kind ofbent and rookie. Obviously, Cam Hayward's
still grown ass man from Marvin Lealis saia a lot of milk. Some
people had him on the bubble.I didn't. I kind of saw him

(36:28):
clear, like over Adams or Wattsprobably like I wouldn't say clear clear,
but clear enough at least right now. What entering year three, yeah,
I still kicked the tires. Andof course Larry Okenjobi and we talked about
armand Watts being the more veteran guywho was, you know, at least
playing varsity ball against some JV guysat the very least. So de Bradon

(36:51):
Pihoko is the guy that's a lotof Braden's and you spell them differently in
in Diego State. Hoo. Yeah, And probably practice squad material. Not
a lot of starts are playing timein the NFL. Probably won't garner a
lot of interest as far as waiversor anything like that. So believe Phocos

(37:12):
a waiver candidate. I could actuallyshould back up what I'm saying. So
oh, there's a semi Phihoko too. He's got like a whole family and
Villiami Phohoko. They got to berelated that can't be quit. Well,
then we need all of them.Let's just have a whole practice squad of
guys name Phoco. Three three seasons, it'll be the Phohoko squad. Three
three seasons, three seasons. Throwup gang signs now so three seasons in

(37:37):
the NFL. So he's subject towaivers. Phoco the linebackers man only eights
on the lower end. Now forthe Steelers side of things, Juan Alexander.
Since Anti McFarland made a team withtwenty six, makes you wonder if
Kwan's going to change to a singledigit. We were surmising that before.
Yep, Marcus gold Nick Herbig tearingit up in the preseason three and a

(37:58):
half sacks, Alex high Smith,the new contract, Cole Holcombe, Landon
Roberts both new guys via free agencyas well as Alexander was Mark Robinson the
only tenured inside linebacker from last year'screw that's still back. And to be
completely honest with high Smith and closingthis out with t J. Watt,
as you're outside guys, Herbig andGolden are new too. These are it's
like five new linebackers out of theeight that were kept for this fifty three

(38:22):
man roster. No te Tanner,Muse, no Nick Quikowski. Kind of
veteran guys we'll see. I don'tbelieve Muse is not tenured or vested venue.
I should stop saying tenured because Ithink vested veteran is the appropriate term
there. But team No. OneI and then Wikowski is though. So

(38:45):
we'll see if any of those guysstick to the practice squad, because nothing
else really stands out from that room, so to speak, as far as
like players that could be added,maybe they'll have opportunities elsewhere the defensive backs
room. They kept ten right,let me cop them one, two,
three, four, five, six, seventy eight nine ten. We were
discussing, yeah, well it's fiveand five usually, and we had a

(39:09):
big miss here. Who was thebig miss? You're gonna say, Elijah
Riley? Kenny Oh, Kenny Robinson? Yeah, I think, well we're
talking about flash. Flash was like, really, I think a little higher
on Riley. I was higher onRobinson. I thought both of them had
a shot, and rightfully so,I think Riley has the more position flexibility

(39:30):
to maybe play a slot corner.But they're also gonna use Patrick Peterson in
that spot too, So I mean, Chandon Sullivan. It's really no big
surprises that you've got all of themmixed together here. Make if it's Patrick
Demante, Kazy, Miles Killibrew KeianO'Neill all safeties, and of course Kazy
and Neil are listed as co starters. Patrick Peterson, James Pierre, Joey

(39:52):
Porter Junior, the rookie. ElijahRiley is your surprise what Chandon Sullivan is
like your veteran the kind of slotnickel guy and Levi Wallace last year's outside
boundary corner starter who I believe willalso be a starter probably week one,
as they east Joey Porter into oneof these spots, go back to that
picture. Okay, we could dothat, all right. You know,

(40:12):
I've been I've been as as thekids as the modern kids be saying,
I've been a stand for Alex Highsmith, like since before he was Alex Highsmith.
I've been. I've been in thatkid's corner of the whole way.
What the hell did somebody just hithim upside his head before that picture was
taken? What is going on inthat picture? Is he looking at something

(40:35):
so shocking that he can't believe he'sstaring at it? I don't know,
man, Actually I kind of wantto scroll the rest of the graphic too,
because like it doesn't seem like,I don't know, like it's not
the most flattering. You got somemolo on there, I mean, some
all looks top. For mean,Kenny looks normalized, right, He's like,
I mean, you know, Kennylooks a little like Henny looks a

(40:58):
little photoshopped there. To be honestwith you, like like somebody like smushed
his head a little bit. Idon't know, it's not somebody. There's
too much. He's wearing too muchmakeup in that picture. Yeah, they
did the snapchat the other thing too. Yeah, they over they overmade up
him for that picture. Minka looksokay in his picture, but Alex looks

(41:19):
like he's like, uh, Ican't believe I'm here. Yeah. Well,
let's talk about the guys in ain the defensive backs room, the
only one we really swinging miss.I mean, we had Kukowski. Actually
we could go with everything. Let'sgo excel sheet. There we go.
Hey, we're at Oka, Jobile Aalbett and louder Milk. We had
Watson Adams about making his team.We pretty much nailed that. I actually

(41:43):
didn't think we did, but wedid. About that out on our back
Yeah, I think you may havehad Fohoko on yours, but I did.
But I did that just to beyou know, entrarian. Yeah that's
yan, Yeah, which is fine. The linebackers room, we added an
extra body. We had nine instead, so Quakowski did not make the cut.
And then as you kind of scrolleddown here, we kind of had

(42:04):
this pegged with the corners. TreyNorwood is the one that saw the outside
looking in maybe a practice squad candidate. I'm not exactly sure if he got
hurt. I don't believe. Idon't even know that he got much time
in the preseason. Did he playin that last game? Now I gotta
look and see. I don't believehe was. Yeah, I actually did.

(42:24):
Oh man, that's bad when Idon't recognize that, right, that's
gotta be not always with the defensivebacks. Like if they're doing their job,
then you shouldn't notice them. Butsomething happened there. Something definitely happened
there. So if you didn't heara name mentioned, it's more than likely
because they're no longer a Pittsburgh Steeler, they're not there. Yeah, but
they're there. They may be downto Quickie mark, you know, could

(42:45):
be over at the quick check thecheckers, what what's what's the other one?
Stop and go, I don't know, wash sheets, Oh yeah,
we got keys, ye do themall? But yeah, I mean the
cuts really started with I had thatup on the on the screen and it

(43:07):
was like, you know, ModreHarper and Neville Clark and you know,
James Nine, wim B. T. Potter like all the obvious folks.
And then it was Lavert Hill MannyJones, Tanner, Muse, Tobian Duke,
Bayla, Raven Clark, William Dunkel, Tanner Morgan, Darius Higgins,
Jalen Elliott, and Kenny Robinson.That would have been everything on Monday,

(43:28):
and then here on Tuesday you hadKendrick Green traded for sixth round pick with
Houston Texans and Luke. The releaseswere Luke Barkus, Chris Wilcox, Braden
Fihoko, Jonathan Marshall, Nick Kakoski, David Parralis, Quincy Rochet, Ryan
McCullum, Greg Bell, Zazavian Valade, Trenton Thompson, Trey Norwood, Zach

(43:49):
Gentry, Rob Rodney not Robin RodneyWilliams, Jordan Bird, and Dez Fitzpatrick.
So I'd be interesting to see youhow they comprise the practice squad.
I don't want to get too muchinto predictions because they're probably there's probably stuff
already out there. I hadn't takena look yet to see, you know,

(44:12):
here's some players that are starting tocome back or anything like that.
I actually don't think that. Ithink they have to wait before o'clock tomorrow,
before that news starts coming through ofwho got all the waiver claims and
everything like that. So yeah,there's a lot of cause and effect going
on out there. So like youknow, like Kendrick Green gets traded to
the Texans, then the Texans releasedsomebody a center guard, jim Jimmy Morrissey.

(44:36):
Like there's just every everything has likea consequence. Is pretty much to
that. I believe the Baltimore Ravenswere trying to get Lakwan Treadwell signed over
to their practice squad. That waspart of the rumor mill, the rumblings.
I'm trying to think which other onesmay have been surprising. Lay At
Collins with the Cincinnati Bengals starts onthe pup list, will miss the first

(44:59):
four games. What else came about? I'm trying to think if there were
any other surprises. Anthony Schwartz gotcut from the Cleveland Browns. I mean
that was Schwartz. Yeah, youremember Schwartz. He was like a really
fast guy. He was like athird or fourth rounder. The only guy
I remember Schwartz as the guy stuckhis hung on these guys stuck his tongue
on the thing in Christmas story andthat the Schwartz. Oh that wasn't that's

(45:21):
not what I was. The firstthing I was thinking of was made the
Schwartz be with you. Well,I thought of that too, but you
know a little base baseball's reference there. You know, everybody with the Steelers
can be a dark helmet. Sooh, I butchered that the Cardinals was
actually Coote McCoy, David Blow,and Jeff driscoll were all like, because
Josh Dobbs wasn't there. So actuallyit's the three of the four that was

(45:43):
it. I guess Kyler Murray didn'tcount. He would have been a fifth
quarterback. She said, yeah,another guy. I was like, if
you could have compile as many midquarterbacks in a room as humanly possible,
that's what Arizona was going for there. So and you know what, I'm
happy for Dobbs, but man,he's set up for failure with that team.
I just feel bad. I justdon't think that the team has a
lot of talent, and he's definitelya bright guy. But he's got to

(46:07):
get on a moving train and learnall this and they're going to be playing
in two weeks. Yep, that'snot the best scenario. But look,
he's you know, he's doing acall McCoy man. I mean years his
Dobb's been around too, like sixseven. Dobbs is a he's a vest
He might be a vested veteran becauselet's see, he was at least a
backup. I'm curious about that now, I'm curteous. No, he's not,

(46:35):
because only two of his seasons inPittsburgh was he on a fifty three
man roster for at least nine weeks? Yeah, I gotta have half the
season, but he's got three inbecause Tennessee he was with Tennessee. Well,
he might not there too. Imean he had two starts. I
have to see when he actually started. I think he was there maybe long
enough. That's kind of goofy howthat ends up working. But he was
at least with the Steelers, althoughhe didn't play. I'll take that back.

(46:59):
How many games was he with Tennesseelast year? Now, I'm curious.
So this is like two percent ortrivia going on right now? Two
percent or trivia and we can playgraphic next next. No no no no
no no no no no no nono no. I don't know what the
hell song you're playing. Pretty.I was like Jaws da no no.

(47:24):
The other one with Super Mario Brothers. You're just terrible. You're terrible,
very tongue. He was with Tennessee, so he was on the Browns roster
long enough last year, so thereyou go. I think he's earning his
healthcare and pension, so he's goodto go there for mister, did you
realize Josh Dobbs was with the DetroitLions last year? Totally like escaped my

(47:46):
brain. So I did not rememberthat, or did I. I will
be fair and tell you that Ireally do not pay attention to what Josh
Dobbs is doing. Where is whereabouts. It's gonna be kind of interesting because
if he does want a future incoaching, you take a look at this.
He's been with the Steelers, andthe Steelers traded him to Jacksonville.

(48:07):
Course, then he ended up,you know, with Cleveland, and he
ended up with I guess Detroit fora couple of weeks, and then the
Titans, and now he's going toArizona. Learn a lot of stuff along
the way, meeting and making alot of contacts, Like Josh Jobs is
a rocket scientist, right, Don'tyou think there's a like there's a level
of coach like that? Is toosmart for really too smart to coach because

(48:29):
you outsmart yourself and you just endup doing things that are like this,
no, this should work, buteverybody else is like, what did you
do? That was the dumbest thingyou ever did? And then there's a
level that's not quite that smart.That's like the Bill Belichick's and the great
coaches and Tomlin you know those guys, Right, they're good. They're not
the most genius guys in the world, but as far as football coaches,

(48:50):
they're awesome. They're great, they'refantastic. I'm not really trying to insult
all these guys, but they're notrocket scientists, right, Okay, they're
not you know, super I don'twant to. I don't want to use
that term, the super genius term, because it'll just make me annoyed with
that guy. Anyway. Yeah,they're not MENSA members, but they're very
smart, very very competent, highlysuccessful football coaches. But it's like there's

(49:15):
that sweet spot where maybe you're toosmart and don't I don't know, Josh
Shops might be too smart to coachfootball. It's there is a truth to
that, like you're talking over yoursubjects, you know, over your subject
manner, over your like students andeverything like that. So yeah, I
could see that. I could definitelysee that that would be interesting. So
I think I'll do it for us. Man, We got a live show

(49:37):
to catch up on later this weekeight o'clock Eastern Thursday night on We're going
to be in this September, whichgets us. No, we're not.
It'll still be the thirty first Augustthirty first, so end of the month.
Yeah, I love your mister tChain. By the way, Brian,
I know, I'm just sitting heregoing I'm wondering how many of the

(49:58):
things that I have put on cameratoday, as Joe actually noticed that I
put on camera today. I noticedall of them. I just don't want
to acknowledge most of them. Hethrown me off enough. People are probably
like, what is this guy?He's like, whoy uh No, I'm
not trying to sing pearl jam Iam. I'm tongue tied because Brian's distracting

(50:22):
me the way it goes. That'sright, it is, well, folks,
that'll do it for us. Thanksfor joining us once again on the
stee City Underground podcast. Thanks forwatching or listening wherever you may be,
and don't forget the Like, commentand subscribe, leave a rating and review
wherever you may be. A willcatch you again live Thursday Night so AFC
North Predictions. It should be agood time as always. It's uncut,

(50:45):
it's unfiltered. We will screw up. So come on, come on along
and make fun of us. Gotleave you this? Yeah, please sere
me. I know that one.Pretty good? Pretty good. That's that's
pretty good. Thank you, thankyou? Yes, yes, yeah,

(51:07):
don't forget to try the veal.Yeah, I've set somebody with that really
bad one time. They're like thatbecause nobody, nobody should ever eat terrible
thing. Don't the baby, thebaby baby cows cows, babies. They
don't get to walk around. Theyhave no life. They're just sitting a
little pen. Don't eat the veal, it's a terrible things. Eat the
liver. Don't eat they established theliver. That's disgusting. Can't do that.

(51:32):
Can't do that. Now. I'mgonna go finish my pepperoni role.
Dude, that's good. Eat that. Eat a pepperoni roll. That's that's
what you should sign. Like thechickfil Like the Chick fil A. Cows
with the sandwich boards on the chickenor or you could just be like Ving
Rhims on the Arby's commercials. Youknow, we have the meat. We

(51:52):
have the meat. We we wehave more than enough. All right,
that's enough from us folks down theone percenters until next time. My name's
Joe, is name's Brian. Weencourage everyone out there to be safe,
be good, and we'll catch youlater. We would liked it. Thank
you for listening, and remind ourlisteners to follow us on social media and

(52:15):
our website www dot steel City Undergrounddot com

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