Did the Steelers fumble their plans at the quarterback position?

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 hose.
Joe Kuzma and Brian E.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Rose.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the steel
City Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzma, wishing everyone
to a belated happy Saint Patrick's Day on behalf of
the Steelers, the official whatever of Ireland, and they'll be
there this year, so I thought it was very official.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
The official team, the official team of St. Patrick's Day,
the official team to top of them. Morning to you me,
young laddie, and may the road rise to meet you
and your ass not fall off your butt.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
And the guy wishing that everyone's asked doesn't fall off
their butt. One mister Briany wrote straight from straight out
of Dublin. Maybe we'll say that, we'll spice it up
a little bit, but we'll flip it back and forth.
I am not I did not participate in any of
the drinking festivities yesterday. That was just because I got
too busy. I had some friends that wanted me to
go hang out with them and it just didn't work out.

(01:10):
So no, I am not drunk. Clicking and moving around
here and being frantic. We just have some exciting things
to talk about. And I thought, I don't know, I
thought it was a little festive to at least where
the DMR thing. I miss seeing this logo around. It
was pretty cool. It was on the jerseys, albeit for
a somber reason. But we need to start the show
by We didn't recognize a somber moment last last week,

(01:32):
which was kind of breaking news in the moment when
we went on the air, you know, rest in peace
to Craig Wolfly, you know, along with tunch Ilken. We
we were very happy to have cross paths with both
of those guys in the past, and they were very
helpful to, you know, our endeavors here. So Craig was

(01:54):
Craig was good people. He was loved by everyone. That's
you know, even for somebody as lowly as us that
maybe got the rub elbows with a Craig Wolflely or
touch Ilk and those guys always treated us first class.
So he was st.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yep. I couldn't agree more yep.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
And you know, it's tough to start a show like
that and then just jump into you know, let's crap
all over this quarterback situation. But that's kind of where
we're at. There's not a bunch of not a lot
of free agency activity in Steelers Land. I mean, you've
got Isaiah Laudermilk coming back. You got one Thornhill, who's
you know, a thirty something kind of reserve safety formerly

(02:32):
of the Browns, formerly of the Chiefs. Yeah, these are
some depth signings. I know we're I know we're still
looking for that defensive lineman. But maybe they don't want
to take the reps away from Kenanato Benton. Fair enough,
if Keano Benton's the guy, Brian, we just don't want
we want to preserve who who has been an ageless
Cam Hayward for a while here, But he's not gonna

(02:54):
be ageless forever. So that's what they were looking at.
But geez, there is one glaring hole that's here and
made a comedy. I don't know. There's a position. It's
an important I think it's an important one, is it?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Are you sure? Maybe it's the least important position in
today's NFL? Might be?

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Might be? I know, and I know you were saying
I don't agree with everything you wrote, or maybe anything
I wrote, which is weird. We do agree quite a bit.
But I had an article, and this is kind of
a companion show to it, about the Steelers plans at
the quarterback position, because quite frankly, I'm getting tired of
people saying, well, they passed on or you know, Justin
Fields or Justin Fields moved on on their own. Look,

(03:36):
we don't know what happens behind these closed doors and
these discussions. But the reason I pitched that the Steelers
plan may have involved drafting a quarterback this year is
for a variety of reasons, and I think it's why
some of the veteran quarterbacks, aside from money, are still
sitting around out there. So we've got some names to
throw out here. We've got Justin Fields, We've got Russell Wilson,

(03:59):
we've got Aaron Rogers, and we've got a media local
and national that they see certain players that are available,
they see certain players that have contracts that are up,
and they see teams that have holes they have a
need at certain positions, and then they try and connect dots,
and you've got this whole underlying underground of sports agents

(04:21):
trying to up the market for their clientele and maybe
create a sense of demand, and they can very much
so easily do that when they get somebody like you
or I or you know, the other people out there
to do the same thing we do, to talk about it,
and then all of a sudden it's like, hey, look,
the Raiders have a spot. They might be interested in
Justin or in Russell Wilson because Pete Carroll used to

(04:43):
coach him, and blah blah blah, and they start, you know,
doing the whole Charlie Day thing in Pacific ram where
there's all of the nonsensical lines drawing to everything in
order to come to your conclusion. That's where we're at
on the ride right there, right here, Because despite what
we said last week, and I even said I thought
the ship sailed, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see

(05:03):
that Mason Rudolph returning to the Pittsburgh Steelers a two
year deal, not a lot of money, but he's coming back,
and I was kind of sur I was surprised by
the most part that Steelers nation is more welcoming to
the idea of Mason Rudolf playing quarterback now than all
those other years that he was here. So I like

(05:23):
seeing the positive outlook. But could they did they realistically?
Could they realistically? And you know why it is, Brian,
And I know your gig like you know, I do
know why it is because I defended this guy forever
and everybody kind of just shot on him. And his
numbers aren't too far off from the other guys that
have been here, like Mitch Trubisky or Kenny Pickett or
even Justin Fields. So this, here's here's why people are

(05:47):
okay with it. Their last memories of Mason Rudolph in
his Steelers' uniform are a wonderful little winning streak to
get them into the playoffs. Even though they lost in Buffalo.
Nobody expected them to really win that game, right, So
Mason Mason took a team that was floundering and looked
like it was going to sink and provided some spark

(06:10):
when we'd had none all year long under Kenny Pickett
and Mitch. And that's the last remembrance that Steelers nation
has of Mason Rudolph, right because half you know, nobody
paid attention to what he did in Tennessee last year.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
They're not looking at Tennessee games and going, oh, yeah,
Mason rudolphs our guy. And if they are, they're they're
they're making a mistake. But he was Tennessee was not good.
Let's be clear, Tennessee was not a good team. So
he he has more weapons around him than he had
when he was here before. I am perfect, you know,
my opinion on Mason Rudolph. Perfectly fine backup quarterback. That's

(06:48):
my opinion on Mason Rudolph. But I'm also of the
opinion that we need to stink this year. So I'm
good with Mason.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Rud Okay, why do we need to ain't this year?
Here's the problem. Well, you've got a good problem maybe,
and this is gonna really this is that the Steelers
fumble their plan and we are making a lot of
assumptions about what their plan may have been. Now their
plan may have been justin fields and not Mason Rudolph.
Let's cover Mason Rudolph real quick. Like you said, he
went to Tennessee by the time, he wasn't the starter

(07:19):
there initially, he was not. He traded some time because
Will Levis was you know, drafted. He's just he has
not been good. He's not ready. He may never be good. Okay,
this is the gamble that you take with quarterbacks. When
you draft him, it's a lottery ticket. I'm just gonna
keep referring to the power ball because you have about
that many odds. When it's not this one guy like

(07:40):
a Joe Burrow, like an Andrew Luck or somebody that's
and it could be it could be Marcus Mariota, it's
still a lottery ticket because we see how that may
or may not have worked out. It depends on the year,
it depends on the class, depends on the pedigree of
that player. But outside of that top number one overall pick,
it doesn't always work. Jaden Daniels was a number two. Okay,
we'll leave it at that. Right, do we know that

(08:02):
Drake may is ever gonna be Is he gonna be
a dude in the NFL? We don't know that. So
there's still some time to find out. What I'm trying
to think of here is number one bringing Mason back, Right,
that's probably a good thing. I think Tennessee did sign
somebody else instead of uh Mason, and it was gonna

(08:22):
be a crowded room. And there still will Levis and
they still have the top pick they could go quarterback.
So for Mason, it's a smart move for Mason to
have left for a year and sit under uh Brian Callahan.
Maybe as as he's an offensive guru. He was the
offensive coordinator for Joe Burrow and Company in Cincinnati. Probably
good experience for him. Maybe not the best of experience

(08:43):
when they trade away DeAndre Hopkins and he has nobody
to throw the ball to, and that offensive line was woof, woof,
and you could see the money and everything else that
they put into that. But he comes back, you know,
it still wasn't all that terrible. It's about what you
would expect from somebody like a Rudolf By all means.
I'm not saying that he's going to be the second coming,
that he's going to be the big Ben Roethlisberger, but

(09:06):
I think and there's some jokes about Ben returning to
and it's like at his age, is his accelerated age?
Probably not, But I do kind of look around before
we get the fields, and I kind of wonder. It's
like Number One, you don't have much on the airwaves
about Russell Wilson. He's going everywhere else. He's going to Cleveland,
he's going to the New York Giants. He's taken these meetings,
and if the Steelers were really that serious in acquiring him,

(09:30):
or Aaron Rodgers for that matter, then you really believe
that Omar Kahn isn't that aggressive of a guy, that
the deals would have already been done if they felt
that was the path they were gonna go the guy
they were gonna go with. So everyone just assumes Aaron
Rodgers will eventually sign with the Steelers. What happens when
he doesn't, What happens if he retires, What happens if
he goes to the Vikings? What if Wilson already signed

(09:52):
somewhere else and you're stuck with Mason Rudolph? What was
their planet quarterback? It doesn't appear to me that Wilson
and Rogers were their initial plans. So I'll kick it
over to you. Because you felt that Justin Fields was
their original plan.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
That's that's exactly what I think. I think Justin Fields
was their original plan under their you know, guidelines, right,
that Justin Fields was who they wanted to roll with,
understanding probably that Justin Fields wasn't the guy, right, knowing
that what they need is somebody to get them through

(10:28):
this year and potentially next year, or you know, get
them to the point where they can draft their next guy.
None of these, none of the people you mentioned are
the next guy, right, that's almost a certainty. But with
Justin Fields, there was still that lingering, lingering glimmer of
potential because he was young, because he was fast, because

(10:51):
he had legs that he could run. So there were
things that they could they could sort of say, all right, maybe,
but guarantee you, Aaron Rodgers was not on their plan,
not from the get go. I just don't believe that
for a second. I do believe they absolutely made Aaron
Rodgers an offer. I believe they made the offer. And

(11:12):
that's the end of it, right, because Justin Fields went
to the Jets for it isn't It isn't that the
Steelers are cheap. It isn't anything like that. It's if
he's not the guy, don't overspend for him. Right. What
I believe their plan at quarterback was, which is why

(11:34):
you know the general theme of the show. Did the
Steelers fumble their plans at quarterback? No? I think that
their plan was get to twenty twenty six draft. Right.
Whatever we end up doing is whatever we end up
doing get us in a position where when the draft
is being held in Pittsburgh, we can try and figure
out whether our quarterback is there and then figure out

(11:56):
how do we go get it right. That's what I
believe the plan was. So did they screw that up?
Absolutely not. They haven't screwed that up. Right. What they're
what they're in a position to be is relying on
a second tier or backup quarterback to get them through
next year, which I think was the plan all along.
It just didn't They didn't know who it was gonna be.

(12:16):
They wanted it to be. Justin Fields didn't work out,
And forget the cheap forget the idea that Justin Fields
was maybe gonna turn into this superstar. Hey, look if
two years down the road the Jets have won a
super Bowl and he's turned into you know, the second
coming there, I'll eat my words. I don't buy that
for a second. I don't think that's what's gonna happen,

(12:37):
you know, for Justin Fields say, hey, I hope he does.
I hope he does great. I bear him no ILL will,
But I don't believe that's what's gonna happen. And I
don't think the Steelers thought that either. What they thought was,
here's a guy that's been in our offense for a year,
who Arthur has some familiarity with, and we'd like to
just maintain that consistency going forward for a couple of years.

(13:01):
We're gonna do it under our rules, though, and our
rules were, we're only gonna offer this so much, this
much money for this position because we want to and
be able to invest other places. We want to be
able to beef up other things. Yes, and then take
advantage of a rookie deal or a rookie quarterback and

(13:24):
put ourselves in a position to have that person surrounded
by the most options for success. That's what I believe
the plan was. I don't believe the plan was, Okay,
we're gonna just low ball Justin Fields, and if he
doesn't come, we're gonna go to Aaron Rodgers. They wanted
Justin Fields, they wanted him at their number. He got
a better offer. They said, that's very nice, thank you

(13:45):
very much. We're not gonna pay more than what we said.
And I also believe you and I have talked about this.
I don't believe he was guaranteed to the starting position.
He was guaranteed to be in the room for the
number that he had. Probably he was gonna to be
the starting quarterback because I don't think they were going
to get a rookie quarterback this year that was going
to threaten him. But you never know. You never know.

(14:08):
Even though this is is maybe this much better than
the Kenny Pickett class, it ain't a good quarterback class.
That doesn't mean one of these guys doesn't, you know,
buck the odds and turn into somebody, right It just
you know, from analysis, it doesn't look like there's a
lot of potential or a lot of really surefire guys

(14:30):
in this draft. There's guys I should shouldn't say potential.
There's guys with potential. But Justin Fields has potential, right,
Drake Mayhet, will Levi Strauss, Oh, hey had potential. But
potential doesn't always turn into anything. So do I think
that Justin Fields was the plan? Yes? I think Justin

(14:51):
Fields was the plan. When Justin's field, When that part
of the plan didn't work out, they said, Okay, what's
available out there? Okay, what's Sam Darnold gonna cost this?
That's too much? Plus he went and signed for one
hundred million dollars someplace else. Forget that. What I do
think they didn't want Russell Wilson back. I don't think
they want Russell Russell Wilson back right now. If Russell

(15:11):
Wilson doesn't sign anywhere and they don't get Aaron Rodgers,
I don't think Russell Wilson ends up in Pittsburgh. I
think it's Mason and somebody else, Kyle Allen or some
other backup, maybe you know Gardner, who knows. I don't know.
I don't want to talk about porn stash guy, but
you know, I think they're gonna that's that's what it is.
They just want somebody that they can get through the

(15:33):
next couple of years with. And I think Mason's perfectly
capable of being that guy if you're not counting on
him to make you a championship caliber team.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
And you mentioned a lot of things that I was
gonna mention too. I just had to start writing some notes.
One of them is, you know, Mason could be that guy?
And what could be that guy? And who Mason and who?
But I'll come back around to that, because there was
a couple really good points about Steelers being cheap and Steelers,
you know, and Sam Darnold. So I want to throw

(16:06):
that out there, whether or not there's interest in Aaron
Rodgers or Russell Wilson or whether this is just stuff
that's been floated out there by We've got a national
media that runs around and you know, they see, well,
this team they have a vacancy in this position, and
then there's this player that's homeless right now, and let's

(16:28):
we're going to connect these dots and that might be
a fit. And that's where you get some of this from.
You've got plenty of shows on ESPN and Fox Sports
and NFL Network and all these things where you know,
we try to make the same assumptions too. We looked
at free agency and said, these are the players that
might be available, and the Steelers may have some availability
in these spots. So when you're looking at that and

(16:52):
you see Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson are out there
and they have not signed with someone else, of course
you're gonna link that together. Now you only havelureally local
guy that I saw for certain that was talking that
Aaron Rodgers or whatever offer or whatever may have been
out there. But I was thinking about this when you
mentioned Sam Darnold especially, and we're talking about you. When

(17:12):
we were talking about this before this show or before
free agency, we said, would you bring Russell Wilson back?
And you said, only if the price is right. And
you look at what these escalated quarterback contracts are and
we're talking about at least thirty million dollars a year,
and you got you're starting to pay wide receivers then,
and to think that the Steelers are cheap when Omar

(17:32):
Khan went out and he's as I have said, he's aggressive,
and he can give the examples aggressive. Trade Chase Claypool
end up with this high pick from the Chicago Bears.
Go out and move up in the draft for Broderick Jones.
Go out and get Russell Wilson first thing, Send Kenny
Pickett packing, Go get justin Field. These are aggressive moves.
DK metcalf bringing him in and giving him this large

(17:56):
deal is the opposite of cheap or being passive? Are
they being passive at the quarterback position? Yes, because what's
there isn't necessarily what they want to do. They don't
want to. I guarantee you that Russell Wilson and Aaron
Rodgers saw Sam Darnold sign three years one hundred million
and said, look at our resumes. We have a ring
on our finger. We have been there, we've done that,

(18:19):
We still have something we can offer. We don't want
to just be here for one year. We don't want
to be looking over our shoulder at whoever the next
guy is. But you got to pay us thirty million dollars,
thirty three million, thirty five thirty six the more and
more the teams aren't jumping to sign those guys that
will eventually come down. So now you get some of
the stories that go out there. I kind of wonder

(18:41):
about if any of the stuff very very little about
Wilson maybe coming back to Pittsburgh. And I think that's
a preference of maybe the way Wilson was with some
of the media people, maybe with some of the media
people want to put out there, depending on their sources.
But there was a lot on the justin field side
of things. You know, Art Rudy a second came out
and said I would like to have one of the
two guys back, maybe not both of them. Some of

(19:03):
that's also just, you know, more of that gamesmanship, just
that I don't want to say coach speak because he's
the owner so it's owner's speak. You're not gonna say
something bad about them, but you're you know, you're gonna
leave the door open. You're not gonna say, well, this
guy sucked, we don't want him back whatsoever. And I
don't even think the Cleveland Browns have officially said that
about the Shawn Watson, even though that might be true,

(19:24):
because they might be stuck with the I mean, the
forty nine ers had to go back to Jimmy Garoppolo
several years ago. They didn't even bring him a training camp.
They're ready to release him, and then you know, I forget,
somebody got hurt and he ends up playing again and
you know, almost saves the team. They don't want to
put thirty million, the forty million to fifty million on

(19:45):
a quarterback that's not a long term prospect. The guys
that are out there are not long term, not Mason Rudolph,
the guy they just signed, although depending on who it
is with Mason, I don't think it's gonna be Skyler Thompson.
He's under a future's reserves, but he has experience. Like
Tomlin likes the brand guys, they have a little bit
of experience. They've been in another system. He even kicked
the tires on Paxton Lynch and Zach Mettenberger. So this

(20:07):
isn't you know, this isn't anything new from an organization standpoint.
Bringing in Justin Fields and Mitch Trubisky and guys like
that are along the same lines. Although they were first
round picks, maybe they weren't a bust. Maybe they're in
a bad situation. Let's see if the grass is greener.
But I do think whatever was offered to Justin Fields,
it could have been a sticky point on guaranteed money

(20:27):
and opportunity. If the Steelers go out there and do
what the Atlanta Falcons did last year and they make
a big headline signing like they did for Kirk Cousins,
the Steelers go and do that with Russell Wilson or
Aaron Rodgers three years, one hundred million dollars. Then they
turn around in the draft Jackson Dart. All of a sudden,
everybody's gonna be huh, what hm? But that might have
been part of their plan. Just because we don't like

(20:49):
the quarterback draft class, just because it may not look
like the strongest quarterback draft class this year, does not
mean that the Steelers feel that same way. There might
be some intangible and they may also feel this is
a draft, just like with Canny Pickett. Again, lottery ticket
one in a million shot, right, Canny Pickett falls in

(21:09):
your lap. He's the top guy in the class. Nobody
else has taken a quarterback. You take it a shot.
Is it worth taking a first round pick? There's teams
that are giving away three first round picks and then
some and players and everything else just to get their
opportunity to try and win this lottery, and then they
go bust.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Sometimes.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
We've mentioned them millions and millions of times, all the
way through the Ben Roethlisberger thing. So as far as
the plans, I don't know that they are fumbling any plans.
Like you said, I don't know that Wilson wasn't necessarily
the plan. Maybe Fields was, but Fields knew that maybe
they were looking at somebody else. He would have to compete.
He goes to the Jets. There's no guarantee the Jets

(21:49):
won't take someone too, But there's thirty million dollars in guarantees.
That says a little bit differently. It's not the Steelers
being cheap, but it is allocating the money to people
like Metcalf that we'll make that eventual quarterback and that
offense better whenever you end up getting the quarterback position solved.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah exactly. I mean, you know, I don't want to
keep belaboring the same points. But Justin Fields was not
going to be the guy long term is Let's.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Talk about that. Let's talk about that real quick, not
to just cut you off or say we're you know,
we're beating the dead horse. But why do we keep
saying that, because even the Jets on a two year
deal and what little he got it does it screams
like if this works out, then it works out. But
the Steelers have already gotten that opportunity. Last year they
had a free trial of Justin Fields because Russell Wilson
was hurt. Fields was brought in to replace Canny Pickett.

(22:45):
He was never really it was never really said he
was competing for the job, right. It was alluded to
that Russell Wilson was in the pole position, he was
the starter in Tomlin. He screwed that up even more.
Maybe he was just trying to gain people. He knew
Wilson wasn't gonna be ready make the fall. Couls prepare
for two quarterbacks, but it took forever to name who
the starter was week one, right, but wasn't supposed to

(23:06):
be the week one starter. Wilson was hurt. That's the
reason when he got it through six weeks, Tom and
he's this guy that if you get hurt, you're not
gonna lose your job, right, And he puts Wilson back
in and you never see Fields again. Because I don't
think Fields was the plan. But they got that free
trial instead of having to sign him this year and
then go through camp, go through preseason, play some of
the regular season games, and all of a sudden, oh,

(23:28):
we lose a game to the Colts. We lose a
game to the Cowboys. We strugg the quarterback is struggling
against the Raiders, but we pulled this one out. You
don't have another option other than justin Fields, now, you
know what I mean going forward, unless their plan was
maybe to draft somebody and maybe that. I still don't
see a rookie starting in this position. It's probably the

(23:49):
same thing as Trubisky playing over Pickett. It's probably the
same kind of thing over and over. But that's where
I'm kind of thinking maybe that was their plan and
with the Fields thing, they were like, well, for what
we already know he can do, we can we can
find that somewhere else. But Mason can do a lot
of these same things. Maybe not run around, but throw
the ball and move the offense a little bit. He

(24:09):
could do these same things. I hate using the name
bridge quarterback. I hate it. I think it's just whatever
it is, but it really is what it is. It
is you're building that bridge to whomever the next guy
might be. And everybody we've discussed is probably a bridge
to that next guy.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Whomever that Yeah, look I'm gonna I'm gonna go back
to Justin one more time.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Uh huh, By all means, keep keep doing it.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
The thing here is Justin he played okay, but during
you know, forget the fact. I get it. You know,
he had a winning record, and people, here's what I hate.
I hate revisionist history. I really loathe when people go
back and attempt to rewrite history to fit the narrative
that they are trying to. Uh speak, Now, Justin Fields

(24:56):
was not good in the games he played in He wasn't,
but he by no means was lighting the world on fire.
They made the switch to Russ, and everybody complained, oh
my god, how can you sit Justin fields he's been doing,
he's you know, he's got a winning record. And they
shut up in two games. Why because the offense looked better, right,

(25:20):
The offense looked live, The offense was scoring points. And yeah,
by the time they hit the road, the road greater.
That was the end of their season. Russ looked pedestrian,
and so did the offense, but so did the defense.
The whole team looked bad, all right. But to try

(25:41):
and go back and say Justin was, you know, the guy,
and how could they treat him so bad? It's no
different than Charlie Batch starting the season because Ben's hurt,
all right, and getting them through the first three, four
games whatever it was, and then Ben comes back, Russ
was the starter. Justin did a nice job. When Russ

(26:02):
is ready to go, he's gonna play. That's I mean,
that's just the way it works, right. Okay, So that
being said, they saw enough in Justin, right, and maybe,
you know, maybe all the noise about there was some
conflict and Arthur doesn't like Russ doing certain things and
he doesn't maybe doesn't fit what what Arthur really wants

(26:25):
to do. Who knows if there's any truth to any
of that, right, but I do think that they simply
said we saw enough out of Justin to know that
we can we can put together a team to play
right and and we can we can be maybe competitive.

(26:46):
This is where I fall through on on the plan. Right.
To me, the plan is like, I don't really care.
I don't care if you're competitive or not right now.
I don't care because you're not. You're not a super
Bowl championship level team right now. You might have certain
plays who are championship caliber players. It's a possibility your
defense ends up being a championship caliber defense. Your offense

(27:07):
is not championship caliber right now, and you're not gonna
win a championship unless you know the hell freeze is over,
and it is so to me, I don't really care
if you're competitive. I'm quite content and I've said it
multiple times, if we go zero to seventeen next year
and have the first pick in the draft, because now
we can take whoever the hell we want right and

(27:30):
build around that person. If if in fact the best
quarterback who knows right now, we all project next year's
quarterback class is much better than this year's quarterback class.
By the time we get through the college season, we
might change our minds, you.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Know, we might we don't know about Arch Manning or
we don't know, you know, nobody's really looking favorably on
Quinn yours, you know, and it's the name alar went
back to Penn State instead of coming out this year.
And you might have some guys like that, And do
you have the unknowns like like a Will Howard or
Kyle McCord coming out this year And it could be

(28:06):
like Desmond Ritter or Spencer Rattler, or there's like some
of the names that you're you know, enamored with during
this whole draft process. And we've done this for years
and it's like, remember Matt Corral and Sam Howell and
it's like they just, you know, fizzle and fade out
after all the mock draft insanity's are done with. But

(28:30):
you're absolutely right on, you know, the the recency bias
or the last good thing you remember a lot of
people remember the good things about Mason. I didn't think
there was a lot of bad things with Mace. I
saw somebody say, go sign Duck, and I'm like that
dude threw six picks in the last three games. So
that that year and they, you know, nearly made the playoffs.
Well they ever stink enough because they almost did it

(28:51):
with me. That's the real quick fucking Mason, that's what
you said before. And it's like, but okay, are they
gonna win a playoff game? Well, it's not happening with
a Trubisky with a picket with any of these other guys.
So why not just stick with Mason and see what
you could put around him? And if you happen to
have a QB fall in your lap this year, so
be it. And if you know, Tomlin does his wizardry

(29:12):
or whatever, and if you stink, then you end up.
Nobody wants to stink, though they're not. They don't have
the patience to want to wait a full year plus
to wait for that quarterback to then come out there.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
I want to stick. I really want to stick.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
No, no thing I want want to stick.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Of course I don't want to stink, right, But I
do get the point of if you're you need to
be in the position to try and draft the guy
you want, so that multiple for multiple reasons. If you aren't,
that means you have to give up capital for the
years moving forward to get where you want to be. Right,

(29:50):
I don't want to give up two first round picks
to move up to get the quarterback that I want.
I don't want to have to then essentially invest three
first round picks in this because it is a lottery, right,
even if he's the even if he's the best, highest
graded quarterback and everybody is certain he's gonna be, you know,
surefire Hall of famer, he could suck. You know, you

(30:14):
never know what could happen. So I don't want to
I don't want to invest that kind of draft capital
because it ham strings you, right, It puts you in
a position where now you know, you don't have the
ability to surround that guy with the same kind of
young talent you want to be able to surround that
person with. So look, I'm okay, do I want them

(30:36):
to stink? No, I'm okay if if they stink.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah, And and a lot of it is the succession
plans too. That people come out and then they start
talking about, well, they should have planned better, they should
have got somebody when Roethlisberger was still here, And it's like,
but when they did it was a wasted fourth round pick,
they said for Josh Dobbs, because you know, you're absolutely
gonna go out and you're gonna fight another Martavis Bryant.

(31:01):
They just grow on trees. Apparently good players in the
middle rounds, you know what I mean. They never like
luck out, just finding some good players or role players
or whatever. While you can find those players, it's not
a given. Nothing in the draft is ever given. And
everybody mentions everybody mentions Green Bay, but we don't really know.

(31:23):
And the money they got tied into Jordan Love already,
there's no guarantees that Jordan Love is going to had
an He had a pretty solid season last year. Can
he repeat that? He didn't do it up until this point.
But they moved on from Aaron Rodgers. We thought prematurely,
maybe they knew something we didn't, And they did that
with Brett Farv before because Rogers fell in their lap
when Brett Farv was still there. And that's look, green

(31:45):
Bay seems to have it figured out, and it's like, well,
maybe they do, maybe they don't. Maybe they get Yeah, who.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Thought they got rid of Aaron Rodgers too soon?

Speaker 1 (31:56):
I thought that, no, But but I think people no, No,
nobody thought that at the time. Now you're looking back
on it and thinking, well, maybe maybe they did know
that they got rid of them just then.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Now you got you mentioned Farv and Rodgers, right, Barvin
Rodgers and Joe Montana and Steve Young, name me other
succession plans that that.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, Steve Young wasn't even drafted.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
To say, I did it, but that's what I'm That's
the point I'm trying to make. It's not easy to
sit there and find yourself in a position where you
have a franchise level quarterback as your starter right now
and the guy is sitting on the bench for a
couple of years. That is very, very very rare. You know,

(32:41):
most teams get their guy, and when that guy leaves,
they stinketh up the place for a series of years
trying to find the next guy. And very few are
just instantly transitioned. It's that's a rarity. And so you know,

(33:02):
to to the whole concept of succession plans, the whole
concept that oh you should you should have drafted Lamar Jackson, yeah,
and had the chance for Jalen Hurts when you had
the chance, we're you know, draft well and even regardless
of that, right, because they you know, the Steelers do.
I've said it. I said it when when Ben was

(33:24):
at the end of his career, they did allow him
to play out his career when they probably should have
played hardball and just said, no, you're watched, we're done.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
But but.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
There's no guarantee that Lamar Jackson is Lamar Jackson with
the Steelers. There's no guarantee that the coaching staff was,
you know, able to do the things they want. There's
no guarantee that the team surrounding him was able to
give him the same level of talent and the same
level of success that he ended up with it with

(33:57):
the Ravens, right, we've had issues that offensive line for
years now. We have not It's been a while since
we had a really overwhelmingly powerful offensive line. All of
these things are crap shoots, right, They're just crap shoots
and saying what should have could have. Again, it's revisionist history.

(34:18):
You just don't know they felt things the way they fell.
This is the boat you find yourself in right now.
It's it is. I always believe this. It is pointless
to bemoan things that happened in the past. That you
can't change. There is absolutely pointless to sit in your
in your office or your house or your car and go, oh,
we should have done this, and we should have done that.

(34:40):
Who cares we didn't. It's over that. Now let's look
forward and say what should we do now and move forward?
We don't hey, and even that is pointless for us
as fans. We have no power. Yes, we don't get
to make those choices. Right, we could say what we'd
like them to do. I just hate going back and

(35:00):
revisiting the past to the point of saying, if only,
like if that's gonna be the case, let's just go back,
if only we drafted Dan Marino. And I know people
still still do that, if only well, it is what
it is, you know you those things happened, Get over it.
Let's move forward.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah, and again, where Marino's success was like nineteen eighty four,
that might have been it. They might have still been
bad through the rest of it. Right, So, like you
take a look at who was that draft Gay Rivera,
and he'dn't end up playing very long in a tragic accident,
and you still wouldn't have had Gabrivera. You would have
had Dan Marino at least. But then, okay, Louis Lip

(35:40):
still goes for a thousand yards every season or whatever.
But Uri Richardson or whoever else, Tim Worley and some
of the other poor draft picks that came through the
door aren't helping their cause too much. Maybe maybe Cower
is a little more successful with a Dan Marino than
he who shall not be named. You know, guy from

(36:00):
Super Bowl thirty that went to the Jets as well.
Them Jets, they're always doing something right, So I was
okay with that one. Yeah, I don't think people well,
see that's another thing that's like real recency bias. The
big games. People really hated Neil. They still have a
thing out for Cordell Stewart. And you know what, we
don't talk about those quarterbacks. It's all Bradshaw and Ben.

(36:23):
Nobody talks about anybody else, really, and I mean with
good reason. Those are the two big franchise guys. But
the other two had had some modicum of success here
or there. They just you know, they didn't get the big
over the over the hunt for the big game or whatever.
Since we got Ben on the brain, I was thinking
this too. It's like, you know, you mentioned about bringing
guys back or signing guys like Charlie Batch was very

(36:44):
firmly not in the area of having offers to be
a starting quarterback anywhere else. He was entrenched as being
a backup where fields. This may have been his last
hacienda as far as maybe getting feelers somewhere else. And
with the way it was in Pittsburgh, people were saying, oh,
they mishandled it. And yeah, he played the first six games.
He was four and two. So it was Kenny Pickett
the year before that. And I got some numbers to

(37:05):
also back up my talk earlier about Mason Rudolph versus
justin Fields. But when you're looking at the production and
you're like, okay, the production of what fields is. And
of course as a quarterback, as a running back Fields,
everybody thinks he's Lamar Jackson. Everybody thinks he's Jalen Hurts.
He's had he's had fifteen of his what forty four
games with the rushing TD. He does some stuff with that,

(37:28):
but he's only had five games with one hundred yards rushing.
He's not like Lamar. Lamar is doing it like a
running back, and he had fifteen or five of those
hundred yard rushing games, he didn't even score a touchdown.
Let's just say him running around, you know, for his
life a man Russell Wilson last year. I mean, anybody
you put behind this line. But if you draft another
quarterback to put behind Ben, not only are they not playing,

(37:50):
you're not putting somebody else out on the field. And
I understand that some of these first the second round
picks are usually pretty solid for the Steelers, right, but
the first round picks they've been dicey, like a Terrell Edmonds.
But you got a four year rookie contract, a fifth
year option if their first rounder. If they're not a
first rounder and it's four years, they're gone like twenty
twenty two, you're gonna have to throw the money out
there like a Jordan Love. And the Steelers may inflirt

(38:11):
in their lesson that final that final season with Ben
and asking him to take a pay cut, and he
was down to thirty five million, he had a forty
million cap hit. They don't want to do that again
with Aaron Rodgers. What's the point of having a rookie
quarterback contract if you still got like dead cap and
void contract years of millions of dollars, which you're gonna
see the Cincinnati Bengals right now with signing both of
those receivers Jamar Chase and t Higgins, and they're making

(38:33):
north with thirty million a piece, with Chase being the
highest non quarterback contract in NFL history. Holy smokes man,
how are you gonna find players to put around them?
I saw some report or some article the Bengals know
that they must scout and nail every draft pick. Yeah,
no kidding, because if they don't, Yeah, they're gonna have

(38:53):
to pick up street free Agentsy, it's gonna be a nightmare.
And you know they might I think it was Mark Caboli,
formerly the Athletic that said something like, I'm gonna have
to put up seventy points in order to compete with
the Bengals. But that might not be hard to do. Yeah, yeah,
they might not have a defense. So when you're looking
at what you were just paying Ben three four years ago,

(39:13):
and you're looking at Aaron Rodgers and Russell Russell Wilson
and at Darnold, contract's three for a hunter, and they're like, no,
we're not gonna take anything less than thirty to thirty
five million. You're just like, wow, we just did this.
You know we're not gonna do this again. We've been lucky.
The reason we are not in complete shambles is because
we got Russell Wilson for like a buck and a quarter,
because Denver was paying him last year. If he wanted

(39:34):
thirty forty last year, they probably don't sign him.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Then sign him.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Yeah, well, they only bring him in, but you're gonna
kick the tires at least and give an opportunity. Justin
Fields's market wasn't there. It was pretty much the only
offer of the Steelers. Everybody was penciling him in. The
Cleveland Browns are interested, the Raiders are interested. All these
teams last year, and you knew that the Bears were
lame ducks. They were good to take Caleb Williams. They
had the top overall pick. They had said we're getting

(39:58):
rid of Justin Fields. He's gonna come and jump into
comments and say, well, Fields' agent said that they did
whatever with his wishes and where he won to go.
It's really the only sixth round pick. You may to
tell me. Nobody else was willing to offer more in
the six It sounded like the only offer that was
out there. It was the only option, the only place
to go. And maybe he's able to compete, or maybe
he's able to get a chance to be a starter,

(40:21):
and based on the opportunities last year, now this year
better opportunity for him to go to the Jets. I
don't know how that's going to turn out. But Justin
Fields's first six starts, the four and two start, right,
He lost two of his last three games, So the
recency bias still doesn't just sit well with me. In
that Raiders game, we always bring up, yeah, whatever, but
Rudolph four games, including the Buffalo playoff game in the

(40:42):
three to finish the regular season. You know, he went
three and one, losing the playoff game against the Bills,
So he's three and one against four and two. He
had fifty fewer pass attempts than Justin Fields, about two
hundred and fifty if I'm doing the math correctly, No,
one hundred and fifty fewer yards passing on fifth, the
fewer attempts. You know, he could probably do that in

(41:02):
two games. He probably throws more attempt He probably throws
twenty five apiece because his yardsburre temper eight point five
to six point nine. I'd usually say nice, but six
point nine very kind of middle ground. They both threw
five touchdowns to one interception. Justin took sixteen sacks to
Rudolph taking six, and then Rudolph I think all three
fumbles were in that Baltimore game in the rain if

(41:24):
I'm not mistaken, but he had a one oh six
point one rating. The fields is ninety three point nine.
People were going to think we're crazy when you were saying, well,
most of the fields his games weren't that great Chargers game.
That was it. When we saw the Chargers game, were like, oh,
you know, after two, this is the third game he
gets to play in front of a home crowd. We
want to see more of this, and we didn't. And
that's where it kind of cooled its heels there. I'm

(41:44):
not gonna say that Mason's going to bring a higher
floor than this, but it's quite It's so shocking to me.
I'm gonna pull up the sack percentages because we knew
headed into last year Russell Wilson started doing it toward
the end of the year. That's why he threw picks,
It's why there was you know, he got the ball
pop out ball security issue a little bit. He wasn't
fumbling the snaps like Justin was, but the sack percentages

(42:06):
and holding onto the football, getting rid of it, taking
too long to make those reads. It was just a killer.
It's just a killer, and it was something that was
very hard or would handicap the team. You look at
the negative plays, the turnovers you fumble. Even if you
don't lose the fumble, you're losing yards and now it's
second or third and long, and then basically you run

(42:26):
a half back draw because it's third and twenty and
you end up punting versus you know you would have
had like a if the play was executed properly, you
don't have a first down, maybe you have a third
and short. Also was a problem last year. Right, So
that's where at met with Fields the sack numbers. I'm
trying to just get this the load up on the
screen here, and it was I thought I had it here.

(42:48):
I might have to do this off the cuff because
I don't think I have it right in front of me.
Pull this up. Justin Fields versus Russell Wilson versus Mason
Rudolph Okay Russell Wills for his career more sacked more recently, right,
especially over the last five seasons, which is probably where
we really want to evaluate this. But Russell Wilson over

(43:14):
the duration of his career has been sacked eight about
eight and a quarter to eight point twenty seven, So
that's very high. That's still higher than Ben Roethlisberger during
the Bruce arians era, of which he took two hundred
and fifteen sacks in five seasons. We also said Russ
with five hundred and sixty sacks in the NFL, like

(43:36):
a lot of the guys that have taken more, also
played closer to twenty years, like Tom Brady, also played
over two hundred games. He was the only guy that
wasn't in the top ten all time NFL history, but
yet was top ten sacks that hadn't played two hundred
games to this date. Okay, so that's Russell Wilson. He
took a sacks eight point nine to fours, so just

(43:58):
under nine, I will tell you, and I pulled this
number up for fields that fields. His numbers were down
last year with the Steelers as well. And maybe that's
Arthur Smith, you know, trying to get rid of the
ball just a little bit faster, but maybe it's still
not what they were looking for. Mason. Surprisingly, even with
the Titans in that experience, last year, he took eleven sacks,
five starts, eight games appeared in. He had two hundred

(44:20):
and twenty eight attempts for fifteen hundred and thirty yards,
nine touchdowns to nine interceptions. So he took eleven sacks.
That was still only a four point six sack percentage.
So the previous year he was taking about seven and
a half under center with the Steelers and only those
you know, three games played justin fields with the Pittsburgh

(44:41):
Steelers last year nine zer row four stack percentage. So
it's higher than Wilson. That's higher than Rudolph the previous year.
I think gets also higher than Kenny Pickett. I'm gonna
go back and pull that up. But for his career,
that brought his average down. In Chicago, he was a
twelve point three to five sack percent double digit percentage

(45:02):
eleven point eight nine for his career forty four starts,
fifty games appeared in. That's the problem, even though and
he is a mobile quarterback. We could sit there and
talk about how statuesque Mason Rudolph is or how Russ
doesn't have the same feet Russ. Even Aaron Rodgers for

(45:24):
being the old guy that he is, forty one going
on forty two years old. Aaron Rodgers' lifetime is a
six point four to eight and what the Jets was
a six point five, Like, he doesn't get sacked as frequently.
That's kind of part of the problem here. And I
know part of it is the Steelers fixing their offensive line.

(45:45):
But the only way you can really do that and
allocate picks and money to that is by not dumping
it all into the quarterback position too.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
One hundred percent. You know, we're beat again, beating a
dead horse with the with the concept that you know,
I I think again boils down to this. They they
they had a plan that they did not I don't
even say they didn't anticipate it, right. I am positive

(46:14):
that they had to be at least, you know, mostly
aware that somebody could outbid them for justin fields. But
they had a plan, they had a number, they had
they had a setup that was going to work for them.
So they tried to execute that. The Jets came in
and said, we're going to give him more money, and
and absolutely Justin Field should take it. Then narrative, Oh,

(46:37):
he's mad at Mike Tomlin because of this and that
they he felt Mike tom pull crap. You know he
took more money because there's more money, right, I mean
only Josh Allen can say, oh, what's six more million dollars?
After in the end of the day, we need six
more million dollars? Right, Justin Field says ten more million dollars.

(46:58):
I want ten million more dollars. I'm taking it.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
You might not have another chance to get it, like
by all means exactly, and who knows if the Steelers
offered the same exact contract. But you know, the Steelers
are going around to the Senior Bowl looking at all
these quarterbacks and you might have to look over your
shoulder or are they bringing back fields? And then the
day after they bring back Russell Wilson, Justin Field is
gonna feel like a fool because his opportunity to earn

(47:22):
even more money is by being a starting quarterback. And
even if he doesn't amount to anything in New York,
being a starter there for at least a year is
still going to meet he makes more. Look at some
of the money that was thrown to some of these guys.
Who's the backup that's in Denver right now behind bon Nicks.
Oh my goodness. I was like, that's the same contract
Mason Rudolph, just Scott or Trubisky or some of these guys. Still,

(47:43):
they end up making some money. Don't kid yourself. This
is still a business. We don't necessarily know what the
offers were. We don't know what the plans were. The
Steelers could have just very easily moved on. Maybe the
agent comes back and says, you know what, do you
want to match this? And they say no, and then
they're the one's moving on. The perception is the Fields
did because he's the one who's signed, signing and going

(48:04):
to another team. We don't really know all of that stuff.
We can only speculate on what some of the people
in the media say by their sources. You know, I
want I want to say something about the media.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Yeah, I'm gonna say something about the media because I
think it's important that we all understand that everything the
media says is true. Yes, no one ever tells a
false tale. Everything is completely sourced. They they listen, you know, look,

(48:37):
nobody makes anything up. Uh. The media is such a
hot mess anymore. Forget whether it's just a sports media
media and in general, trying to find a media outlet
that that you can depend on to be accurate and
correct and not have some level of complete bullshit in

(48:58):
it is next to impossible. Yeah, at this point in time,
I forget whether it's news media, sports media, entertainment media, anything.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
They're all full of shit. I'm sorry, it's all who
they're and it's a lot of it too. They're cozied
up to or the point they're trying to make. I
mean we're making. I'm making the point I've made various
many points against Justin Fields. I come from that slam.
So if you're trying to look for something that's sunshine
and rainbows, I'm trying to be fair at least, you know,
I do have a modicum of professionalism and integrity to it.

(49:27):
But some people do not. They just want to say
hot takes whatever spouts out of their mouth. We know
all those big names, there's one in Pittsburgh that has
the initials MM. You know they're gonna say whatever gets
them ratings too, because ratings equals money for them. So
let me rewind real quick. If you thought Ben Roethlisberger
was being hit like a pinata during the Bruce arians era.

(49:48):
Two hundred fifteen sacks was an eight point sixty one percentage,
just slightly under what Russell Wilson and Justin Fields took
last year. It was not good. Am I saying the
offensive ordinator's a problem? Hard to say that when Arthur
Smithson his first year, is the offensive coordinator, but we
hope not. But it has been a recurring problem with
the Pittsburgh Steelers for a few seasons now. So yeah,

(50:12):
we'll see what else comes of this quarterback position talk.
I was gonna pull up the picket stuff just real quick.
I know, I ruffle some feathers with him going for
and too to start, you know his campaign to say
Fields did, but it wasn't all that more impressive really.
He struggled to throw a touchdown and still too though
there's like, say, some embedded stuff that's in this and

(50:33):
his SAC percentage was six point five five with Steelers
more in line with Mason. So for a mobile, guys, Charles.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
If Charles is out there and Charles is still listening
to us, that's our residence Brown Browns.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Yeah, I I I.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Could be wrong. But I have a lot of recollections
of a lot of trash talking about Kenny Pickett. So
I really want to know your feelings on the fact that,
you know, Kenny Pickett your quarterback now, whether or not
he ends up playing there or not. And I'm just
gonna say this, it would almost warm my heart to

(51:13):
have Russell Wilson go sign in Cleveland, now, I know,
just just just because, like it would almost just make
me go. You know, irony is a terrible, terrible thing,
and you know, karma comes around and whatever. Let Aaron

(51:34):
Rodgers follow the Brett fairepath and go and let Russell
Wilson go to Cleveland, just so Kenny Pickett can go,
What the hell is going on in my life? What
did I do so wrong that every time I run
away from this guy he keeps coming back.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Yeah, he's gonna have to compete with them, which would
be hilarious. And at the same time, you might have
Mason starting and I think we may have mentioned that
on the last podcast or something, just the fact that,
well we were saying Jameis Winston and we're like, you
have Winston in a Steelers uniform, Well, let's put Mason
in a uniform against one of the other former quarterbacks
in a Browns uniform. Make it happen, and schedule makers

(52:10):
will if that's what ends up playing out, they'll be
an early season game against Cleveland Browns. I have no
doubts about that. They will put that. They love their storylines.
They tried to get the Russell Wilson revenge game in Denver,
it didn't materialize. In week two. You had Arthur Smith
go back to Atlanta in week one. You know, you've
had the Christmas Day game against you know, Taylor Swift

(52:31):
against Sierra. Like, none of that stuff is is by
as an accident, as much as we may try and believe.
So I know you're just.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Who's Taylor Swift. I don't understand any of that.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Yeah, I know you don't, and it's probably for the better.
It'd be complete. So I think that's about it, Brian,
And like we're gonna have to start talking about maybe
who the quarterback targets could be. I keep saying Dart
just because it's like that's the guy that seems like
he'd be most likely there if they don't make a
move on the draft board, and he's got a lot
of the same similar tools to justin fields, but he'll

(53:05):
come cheaper and it'll come more longer term to find
out if he has a higher ceiling or a lower floor.
You don't know that too. He could be absolutely terrible.
Maybe they take that shot. I know that's not where
you want to go.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
You want to be.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
You want the oh and seventeen parade like they did
in Cleveland and Detroit and want that.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Let me just they keep saying the same thing. I don't.
I don't want them to go in seventeen. I'm just
okay if they do.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
Well, let's agree on one thing here. But either way
of what we're looking at is paying or a quarterback,
like you're not just going to get a quarterback that
leaves another team that is a one bona fide starter
and not be paid at least thirty five to forty
million a year, if not more. Most of those guys

(53:57):
are being gobbled up. You got Georgie Loves getting fifty
a year. You got two type of va Loa's getting
fifty a year. Just name them all. And I mean
Dak's up to like sixty. I mean, okay, there's Dak
and he throws the ball around or whatever, and still
he doesn't doesn't have a lot to show for Joe Burrow,
what's he Josh Allen, he still doesn't want anything either,

(54:19):
but you know, you know, he's an upper echelon guy.
Lamar Jackson still an upper echelon guy. But she still
got a lot of mid tier guys. Meet Kirk Cousins.
He's gonna be the highest paid backup quarterback right now
because that didn't work out. So there's still a lot
of that floating.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Around the league.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
I'm sure there's other names that could toss out there too,
But the teams that seem to compete and do well
are the ones that are able to play with the
guy under that rookie contract. Watch out for the Commanders.
Everybody was looking out for the Texans, the way you're
able to add and supplement to that team when you're
not sinking all the resources into like one player or
if you're the Bengals, three players. So I think now

(54:56):
we don't know all the contract details, and they'll smooth
it out and try and make those cap it's less.
They could do whatever with Trey Hendrickson and maybe some
other players, but on the offset on the average per
year is forty four percent of their cap tied into
three players. You can't do that, and the Steelers would
be trending that way. They'd be trending that way with
DK Metcalf, they'd be trading that way with TJ.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Watt.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
And then of course, if they paid Rogers or Wilson
or overpaid for those guys, there's nobody else out there
to just grab. So this might be the path find
yourself a bridge quarterback. Who's the best of those? Nayson
was serviceable, while who's here? I would prefer him over
let's say, Jacoby Brissett or Jamis Winston. I mean, but
none of them really moved the needle for you. None
of them are like, let's go get I'm excited, let's

(55:39):
go buy their jersey or whatever. And I always felt
Mason had a little bit more that shew off the bone.
I'll leave that for another show. But is he gonna
do any better or worse than what you know, Fields
or Wilson may have. It's a very hard up.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
Not.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Yeah, it's a very very tough debate. You're you're quibbling
over crumbs, basically.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
Yeah, in that case, Like I'll tell you, I feel
the way I feel right now in this offseason is
the exact same way I felt the year before we
drafted Ben We you know, the year before and again
the year before we went whatever four and whatever to
draft beIN whatever our record was that we really stunk.

(56:19):
We we we had drafted Palamolo in two thousand and
three and then we had a horrible year. Uh and
we were in position right and all I remember going
through the season was good, we need a quarterback and
we're not gonna get one if we keep drafting in
the twenties and the in the lower teams. And that's

(56:42):
the way I feel right now. Good, let's let's let's
go ahead and roll with what we got. I'm I
am one hundred percent on board with screw Aaron Rodgers
because I as I said last time, it will cause
me intestinal grief. If I have to root for Aaron
Rodgers next year, I'll do it, but it'll hurt me.

(57:04):
It'll hurt me, and I will be sad, and I
will feel like I need to shower on a daily basis,
even if I've taken one every after every game, I'm
just gonna feel like I need to go shower now.
And so I'm I'm, I'm one hundred on the Rudolph
the Red Nose Reindeer train. Let's just roll with Mason

(57:28):
uh through this season, see where we end up and
uh and and make twenty twenty six the season of joy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
And you know what, it just aligns with the script
and the people who say the NFL is fixed and
it's WWE style storylines because the draft next year in Pittsburgh.
You can't line it up any more beautiful than that,
really can't. But the Insers, as much as they complain
about mediocrity, as much as they say, well, Tom, no

(57:58):
losing seasons, Yeah, there are people that have been born
that are Steelers fans that have not seen them at
the losing season back to two thousand and three. Are
they gonna be able to handle that kind of No?
I don't think they could stomach it. I really don't.
And they'll be complaining one way or another. So rip
the band aid off. Let's just go with it. And
you know what the other thing is to Brian, I
was thinking, if this was kind of the plan they

(58:19):
liked somebody in this draft, that doesn't prevent them drafted
somebody next year, it might it might hurt them in
other area. They're gonna have a ton of comp picks
next year from the looks of things. That's another thing
where it's not signing Rogers or Wilson that could impact
that formula. Don't touch that with a forty foot stick.
You're gonna get like third rounders, fourth rounders. You're gonna
get four comp picks out of this, and they're already

(58:40):
in line. If they could get more than four, that's
the cap on it for one team. They could get
like five or six from the way the formulas kind
of set up. Now there's not any big signings or
to do's out there, they'll be able to load up
around with the you know, as long as they scout properly,
they'll find some role players and stuff and they'll fill
in whatever areas. They'll also have money to be know,
you got to extend TJ.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
Watt.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Do you bring George George Pickens a long term plan?
Are you gonna pay two wide receivers? Exactly? I, you know,
you just don't know.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
I don't know that they're not going to have a
second round pick this year because I don't know that
they're not going to get a second round pick for
George Pickens at this point or or I don't know.
I mean somebody, somebody I think at the Athletic wrote
an interesting article that the rest of the league is
has learned their lesson and is not going to trade
for a Steelers wide receiver with a high pick because
of Chase Claypool. That could be very true, all right,

(59:31):
that could be accurate. That. Look, he's fleeced some guys
and gotten some value for it, and I'll give him
credit for that. You know, right now, whether Pickens is
here next season or not, I don't care, right, I
really don't. I just if he's here, great, you know,
we'll see how it goes. I don't see them tying

(59:53):
up a huge amount of money in George Pickens afterwards.
They're not going to extend in beforehand, and we'll see
what happens. But I think there will be things that
occur before the draft so that they are in a
position that they want to be in when the draft
comes around. I still do not buy that they're going
to draft a quarterback in the first round, and if

(01:00:13):
they do, I will be as against it as I
was when they picked Kenny Pickett, and I will continue
to point out that I thought that was a bad decision.
I accepted it because I knew it was gonna happen,
but I didn't like it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Well, they need, and I think they still need somebody
else on the roster. Just no matter who that's someone
else is. It's not going to be Meekyler Thompson, and
you know, somebody's going to be jast.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
It could be Joe Jamis Winston. It could be any
quarterback that they draft in the in the in in
the third round and below. I just investing a pick
in the first round. Hey, if it works out, I'll
eat my eat my words. But I haven't been wrong
about the quarterbacks that I wanted to take and the
ones I didn't. And I don't think I'm going to

(01:01:01):
be wrong this season year either.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Yeah, I know, and you know we're putting a bow
on this, but it's like, just imagine if root all
four a draft pick were to work out, they would
look like the smartest people in the league. And it,
you know, everything begets copycat stuff, everybody blowing all these
picks to move up like Carolina did or whatever. Uh,
maybe they won't copycat as much. So Ryan, thanks for
joining me once again. Man, there was a lot to

(01:01:24):
talk about here, even though there's not a lot to
talk about ahead the moment. So Steelers continue to be
quiet on the free agency front. If we get some
more news, we'll be jumping back in here with another
episode sooner rather than later. Until then, don't forget the
like comment and subscribe. My name's Joe. This is my
main man, mister Brian e. Roach. Until next time, we
encourage everyone out there to be safe, be good, and

(01:01:46):
we'll catch you later. 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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Did the Steelers fumble their plans at the quarterback position?

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