How long should the Steelers keep waiting for Aaron Rodgers?

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.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Now here's your hoes. Joe Kuzma and Brian E.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Rose.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello everyone, Welcome to another edition of the Steel City
Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzma and joining me
as a man who never makes us wait, never makes
us wait beyond the draft, never makes us wait beyond
free agency, never makes us wait until mini camps start.
A one, mister Briany Roach, who is always reliable, always here. Welcome,

(00:41):
my friend. How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:44):
I don't think that's true, but it's really not true.
Though I am not always reliable.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
You know.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm not sure that that introduction is actually valid, but
I will take it, and I at least will not
I generally won't leave you hanging if nothing else.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
But that's fair enough. Oh my goodness, the comedy of airs.
Sometimes with us, we're like, hey, ready to do this.
We try and schedule it, Hey, I need a few minutes,
and all of a sudden I'm back with you, and
I'm like, no, I need a few minutes. And you know,
one of my other kerfluffles, I was telling you some
other stuff, and I won't get into that. It was
a headache today things I was managing. But Amazon, you

(01:25):
do the Amazon, Brian, I think you do the Amazon,
and like, you go to return something free returns for Amazon, right,
And I got a slander. I don't know if it's
the good name of Amazon or not. Today it's not
because usually I could just run something to the Whole Foods.
I could just run something to Cole's. You could just
take it there. And the people there, although annoyed with
the influx of extra crap that comes from Amazon's website

(01:49):
in the return pile, they take it. It's their job, right.
But Amazon, for this stupid little case I have for
a handle fire that I picked up, they wanted me
to send this to UPS. Now, let me tell you
about the comedy of bears with this. The case comes
in like a plastic almost like a gallon ziplock bag

(02:13):
the way with a shipping label on it. And I'm like,
what on earth is this garbage? Like it just had
a shipping label on it. Like they start just shipping
stuff and you could see everybody's contents. Doesn't make me
feel very comfortable. But they also send it to the
wrong place. It went to a neighbor who then wrote
on it and left it by my door, addressed to
the wrong address. So I go to return this and

(02:36):
I am forced to send it to UPS, who then
forces me to use a different envelope, a box or whatever,
of which I do not have with me, so needless
they have to make another trip there to put it
in some generic thing. And a Cowboys fan that happened
to be an employee was needling me on the way out.
He was already poking the caged animals. So that's the

(02:58):
reason why I had to say something. It's like, oh,
you're just an unhappy Steelers fan. But I did have
a pleasant conversation with another pile of mine just yesterday,
and he goes, Joe, can we just forget Aaron Rodgers
and not sign them and just forget about Aaron Rodgers?
And I said, well, I wish we meant that I
actually had a position of authority within the front office

(03:21):
or with a stake and ownership or something with the
team where I could do just that, because we know,
within about a week or so, we've got many camps
going under getting underway. You've got Adam Schefter now I
love it. It's always one of these talking heads. They're like,
it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen in a few days.
It was supposed to happen at Pat mcfee's big night
out in Pittsburgh. Didn't happen there. It was supposed to happen,

(03:44):
you know, when free agency started. It was supposed to happen
before free agency started. It was supposed to happen before
the draft. It was supposed to happen, you know, three
days after Monday or whatever. It's just I don't know it.
Will it ever happen? And now Adam Schefter's saying, well,
it's gonna happen before Mini camp. You know, he's not
the only one. He and rapaports even some of the
local people like a Jerry Dulac or Mark Bully. They

(04:07):
have art ruining the second on as quoted that he
wasn't gonna wait too long, and they asked him again
because they have the owner's meetings, and he said, well
that still stands firm, will wait just a little bit longer.
The dude took a six hour tour to the Steelers' facilities.
What in the hell is the hold up. Is he
ever gonna show up? And you know, we could make

(04:27):
this a short show and just say no to this question,
but let's talk about this. What is if he's gonna sign,
what's taken so long?

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Well, maybe it's like the ss Mino he took a
six hour tour instead of a three hour tour. Maybe
he's shipwrecked and he's somewhere on Gilligan's Island. I don't know.
I think, Look, he's a diva and he's a pain
in the ass, and I'm quite content if he never
shows up.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
But do I think he will?

Speaker 1 (04:58):
I think at this point, look, I mean, I'm just
telling it.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
I don't know. I don't freaking know. I can't.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
I can't look into that weird cobweb ahead of his
and and pull out what what his his thought processes are.
Maybe he's waiting for Mulongu of the spirit world to
tell him this is where it needs he needs to be.
I don't know, And I think, you know, look, pull

(05:28):
my leg. I think it's an eighty percent chance that
he's ends up here next year, right, whether he signs
before I mean.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Next year, ye yeah, even older, Like come on, now, like,
let's let's like.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Twenty five, I mean next to this upcoming season, is
what I mean. I think he's probably gonna be here.
I don't know whether I still don't know whether I
think that's a good thing. In fact, my gut tells
me it's not, but we'll see. I do think that's
what is eventually going to happen, as much as it
makes me want to go upstairs and visit the porcelain

(06:04):
bowl and deposit my lunch, I just that's what I
think is gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Maybe I've speculated as to whether or not he wants
to play football. You know all these recent photos we
have of him in a Jets uniform. Supposedly Aaron Glenn,
the new coach, comes in take over for Robert Slaw
who got canned early too. They put the defensive coordinator
in charge of the team, and also one of Rogers' buddies,

(06:33):
Nathaniel Hackett, who was signed as the offensive coordinator famously,
you know, he was supposedly the good offensive coordinator in
Green Bay, got a head coaching gig with Denver that
he crashed and burned to just you know, it's you
couldn't even write a script that for how bad Nathaniel
Hackett was as a head coach in Denver, so that

(06:55):
he lands with the Jets and then he even got
pulled of his play calling duties there. Well, Sir Aarons,
is you know at the helm or the captain of
this ship of the New York Jets offense, which then
they bring all his other buddies in and everything else.
And it's just I haven't seen all of the buddies.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
He was thrown with DK Metcalf. He wasn't thrown with
George Picketts. Okay, so that was that's the one thing
that wasn't happening. But that's about it. He had a visit.
There's all this speculation. There's some birds that have been
in my ear about various things, like, you know, with
his personal life, whether he's looking for places, whether he's
enjoying his time at home, whether he's looking for another

(07:32):
home in the Pittsburgh area. There's some things that can't
substantiate or I won't de vault sources here that have
said he sniffed around. But when he went with the
Jets and they brought him in, I remember we talked
about this and they were like they brought him there
and then just to tell them you're not in our
future plans. And one of the questions I guess that
was asked after all the backlash of that, because of

(07:53):
course they made him fly from wherever, you know, show
up in the building and then it was like a
five minute meeting. Well, I guess they asked him if
he wanted to play football, and recounting of this, of course,
there can't be that many people in the room, so
it's like Rogers' word versus maybe a couple of coaches,
maybe there's a staffer or something there. Right, But supposedly
what got leaked out of this was you didn't really

(08:15):
it was like nah, yeah, maybe whatever, you know what
I mean, And there was just kind of like it
rubbed them the wrong way, and it was like ideos
get you know, get out of here. I just now
he becomes this free agent. Everybody puts, you know, this
is a guy that's won however many MVPs for MVPs
during his NFL career. He's been around for I don't

(08:39):
know twenty years now, right, I know he's long in
the tooth, but there's enough. This is a quarterback driven league.
There's enough teams that are desperate for quarterbacks. Have you
ever seen anything where there's somebody like this with the
resume of an Aaron Rodgers where he just hasn't signed
anywhere by this, But I mean, you gotta get on

(09:01):
the train, dude. The train's moving. The train's been moving.
It's like, what's what's taken so long? If it's anybody else,
even like a Tom Brady, Oh well, Tom Brady retire,
he says, like in like a march or whatever, He's like, no,
I'm coming back. He doesn't hold a team hostage.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
I just again, I'm gonna go back to He's a diva, right.
He wants to be the center of attention. He wants
to be the rescuer of a franchise. He wants to
ride in on a white horse and and be the
savior and all of us can go, oh, Aaron, you
have saved us. Thank you, Thank you, Lord Rogers. Give

(09:37):
me Mason and give me Will Howard and go away.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
I'm getting there. The thing about beta diva and brings
in players he's familiar with, you know, the places he
was at Randall Cobbin's up over there, Alan Lazard, et cetera.
There's some speculation is to like just what like if
Aaron Rodgers does side aside from the weight, well, let's
go with the weight. How long do you wait? Because

(10:03):
apparently Rudy has like he signs the checks and he
has said he's a little impatient. He's putting it out
there like you know, hey, dude, you know crapp Er,
get off the pot, let's get moving, and when does
that stop. There's a lot of folks that are in
on these various XM programs to listen to Bill Pollyan,
a former GM for various teams. You know Todd Haley,

(10:25):
obviously he was in Pittsburgh. He was the head coach
with the Kansas City Chiefs. Who get Charles Davis and
some of these other folks. You got guys who were
players and they're involved in organizations at different levels, and
they're talking on the radio and Rogers's name is just
keeps coming up because what else is there to talk about,
because they've got to make up news, and the news
is well, he hasn't signed anywhere yet, right, so you're

(10:47):
talking about when does he need to show up to
be effective. You've got Cameron Hayward out there, like Hey, dude,
if you want to be a Steeler, get your ass
over here. And that was pretty telling. But at what
point can miss mini camps. There's some people, and I'm
listening to some of them that they said, absolutely not.
You want to build that camaraderie. You wanna you wanna

(11:07):
get familiar with the team. You need to, you know,
get familiar with the new coaches and your new surroundings,
everything like that. There's others that are like, well, if
he passed on mini camp, it's not the worst thing.
And it also if he's dealing with whatever might be
a personal issue, then this gives Mike Tomlin and everybody out.
Instead of he signs, doesn't show up the mini camp,

(11:28):
he goes to Egypt or wherever the hell he was
with the Jets, and they're like, where's Aaron. Well, you
don't have to answer where's Aaron Rodgers if you're Mike
Tomlin or anyone else. If Aaron Rodgers isn't, Yeah, exactly, So.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
I'm one hundred percent with.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Look, I don't I don't like to disparage anybody's personal issues,
but I mean, Aaron Rodgers' personal problem could be. I
can't choose which towel set to buy. I don't know
which one gives me. The flat thing sway in my
in my living abode, and I and I can't. I
can't move on until I have made this choice. I
don't know, Okay. I just feel like he's he's such

(12:06):
a pain in the ass. I I I will tell you,
I look look at that Look at that face.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Just look at that face. Don't just want to smack
that face. I just want to smack it anyway.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
I had the perfect image for that too as he did.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, a little smarty jerk.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
This is what I'm gonna say. I, in my opinion,
if he doesn't show up for mini camp, he shouldn't
show up at all. But I get it, mini campus
football and shorts. Is it really going to impact a
twenty year veteran. Probably not. But it's a new team,
a new group of guys. Again, you don't want to
start off on the foot of saying I'm Aaron Rodgers,

(12:46):
the diva. I don't have to be here for this.
You don't wanna. You don't want that to be what
comes off right? You wanna you know, And that's not
that's just not the Steelers way, right. That doesn't fit
into the way the Steelers have traditionally gone about their business.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
But you know.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Who knows it's Aaron Rodgers. I mean, what this says
to me is he has he hasn't done enough damage
to his own personal legacy over the last not just
two seasons with the Jets, but probably three or four seasons,
including the last few seasons with the Packers. The people
are just like, it's okay, I'm okay, you know what,

(13:30):
I got a guy off the corner.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
He lived in a box last week, but I'll take
him over you. It's the way.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
It's actually kind of surprising that people haven't felt that way.
Calling Mason Rudolph the guy in the box. He'd be
people in the media. But I think some of you know,
if Mason didn't have that streak where he wins those
few games and gets them to the playoff game in Buffalo,
there'd probably be a whole different story. But I think
some Dealers fans have changed their tune on him, and
we'll come back around to him little bit. But yeah,

(14:01):
I was wondering about Aaron Rodgers, like, what could the
personal issue be. Would it be a woman? You know,
when he went out to New York. He broke off
the engagement with Shalne Woodley. They were engaged like in
twenty twenty two, and then as everything was coming down
there in February and he gets traded to the Jets,
like I think shortly after that or it was like,

(14:23):
you know, a roller coaster a month or so for him,
but it was like two years ago. And if you
even take that and you go from that February and
he's in, like, you know, a pretty hot and heavy
relationship with someone and then they break off an engagement
and whatever his personal life might be there. From there,
he goes into September with a new team, all these
high expectations, new contract, a lot of money, and then

(14:46):
plays four snaps, blows out his knee. We don't even
know if he's the same player anymore. So aside from that,
it's like, is he's still trying to feel out whether
or not he can play football. Aside from the mental
aspects of whatever else is going on, your other stressers
in your life as to whether you want to play football,
Can you play the game anymore? Is what I'm wondering.

(15:07):
And twenty twenty one with the Green Bay Packers, Aaron
Rodgers becomes a back to back MVP in the league.
He throws for thirty seven touchdowns to four interceptions, over
four thousand yards forty one hundred and fifteen yards sixty
eight point nine percent passes completed. Those were dips, though,

(15:28):
from the levels the previous MVP season in twenty twenty
forty eight touchdowns the five interceptions, So he had eleven
more touchdowns and about another one hundred yards passing or more,
but his completion percentage was almost a full two points more.
He was over seventy at seventy point seven percent. Now
he comes to the Jets, he's still sixty four or
I'm sorry, really didn't have anything. It was just last

(15:50):
year with sixty three percent. He almost throws for thirty
nine hundred yards twenty eight touchdowns to eleven interceptions, and
a lot of that was him just four seeing things.
He didn't look like the same guy, and so maybe
a little later in the season. You know, you can't
really teach old dog new tricks in some of these cases.
But I just kind of wonder if what he's doing

(16:10):
A lot of people are I made this comment to
the guy that was talking about we and we get
off to Aaron Rodgers train, and I said, the wei
aspect of the fan base would still bring Hines Ward back,
they would still bring Troy Paul Malo and Ben Roethlisberger back.
They'd find a way to bring bring Franco Harris rest
in peace, bring him back if they could. You know
what I mean? They remember what they remember. They remember

(16:33):
the good days, right, they have the good memories. But
the last good memories of Aaron Rodgers was also the
same year, the final year that Ben Roethlisberger was in
the league. He has not been that much, that kind
of impact player since Ben took some snaps back in
twenty twenty one. So that's what I've got to ask,

(16:56):
is how much does Aaron Rodgers moved the needle compared
to anybody else, a Mason Rudolph and a complete unknown,
anybody for the Steelers. Is he worth all of this hassle,
all of this trouble, all the drama, all the turmoil,
all the baggage that possibly comes with it. Because then

(17:17):
I got to follow up to this one too.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Man.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
First, I'm gonna quote the late great Jimmy Buffett about
your is it a woman? You know some people say
there's a woman to blame, but I'm gonna tell you
it's his own damn fault. Okay, that's the first part
of this. The second part is is I'll tell you
at least one guy who thinks that he will make
them a better team and move the needle. That's Ben
Roethlisberger on Ben's You Know Football and podcast.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
He did a.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Schedule review and he had them winning eleven games if
Aaron shows up at only seven. If he doesn't, so
he that's a big move of the needle right there,
right I'm telling you, in my opinion, I don't think
he moves the needle at all. I think this team
is it's going to be regardless of whether it's Aaron
Rodgers or Mason Rudolph or Will Howard. To be frank

(18:04):
you with you, I think you know it's going to
depend on its defense, and the offense is a question
mark until we know better.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, one thing I'm going to say about mister Rodgers
is he only had one game over three hundred yards
passing last season. I mean, we could even find that
with Russell Wilson last year. We have many of the
same questions as to whether or not this is the same.
We rehash everything except Russ was younger. There was some doubts.
You know that Russ had bad coaching. He had the

(18:35):
same idiot coach that was there in Nathaniel Hackett right
in Denver for a year that Rogers had his offense
bringing back his offensive coordinator. That makes you wonder how
much of that is Matt Lafleur up in Green Bay.
And you know Rogers, it's not like he's going to
be a mentor. Let's not kid ourselves. He's not like

(18:56):
anybody they brought in there. He didn't like. He made
a big fuss over the Jordan love. So we can't
be like, hey, this would be good for Will Howard
maybe he just gets to watch and see. But it's
also bad for Will Howard too because he'll never get
off the bench.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
He won't.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
There's no path to Will Howard playing any meaningful snaps.
If Aaron Rodgers signs, unless Aaron Rodgers ends up injured,
I think Tomlin would stroll Aaron Rodgers out there with
a half gimpy arm because it's going to be a
veteran quarterback over a sixth round rookie. Okay, and I know,
I leave Frog Mason Rudolph, but a lot of that

(19:29):
applies to the same for Rudolph. I don't think that
Tomlin would be benching. It depends how much they pay
Aaron Rodgers. I mean, they're only paying Mitch Trubisky eight
to ten million, and they wouldn't put Rudolphe in over
MS either.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
An interesting observation you just made.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Even Mason said that when they when he was talking,
somebody was asking man.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
It might have been Koboli.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, Kabali's asking Mason Rudolph about what the pecking order
was going to be, and Mason basically said, I don't
know what the numbers are gonna be yet, because like
it or not, that's going to have an impact.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, it's sure will. I mean, you're paying somebody The
money talks, right, It's that was the Trubisky thing. Why
are you paying this guy, you know, eight million dollars
or whatever. I know he restructured it, but it was
like an eight to ten base to put the guy
that's making two million dollars in over them, right, So
there's some business decisions there. You have to justify what

(20:21):
you're paying certain players some more. Roger statistics. Now, he
had four games where he completed fewer than sixty percent
of his passes last season. It's almost a quarter of
the year. He had one that was rate on the
money for sixty percent. That was a win, but that
was against the Tennessee Titans, and it was thirty pass
attempts and all. But let me see, got to do

(20:45):
the math here. All but two games he had at
least twenty eight pass attempts, so he's thrown the ball
touchdown wise, he had three games where he did not
throw a single touchdown pass. He had another four with
only a single pass, and then he had two games
with three and one with four. So only three games
with three or more touchdown passes. It is not moving

(21:05):
the needle.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Fore, yeah, tell me the receiving group he had in
New York last year.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
I can do that very quickly. He had Davante Adams
for half the season, which is which is Adams, which is.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
A big night.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Right, Hold on a second, I'm trying to pull up.
Let's see by receptions Garrett Wilson off the top of
my head. Yes, running back Bryce Hall Tyler Conklin as
a tight end. Well, Bryce Hall is supposed to be
a guy. That was fantasy Darling, Alan Lazard, and then

(21:40):
some of the younger guys you had. Let me see, Well,
Mike Williams was there and they got traded to the Steelers.
You mentioned Mike Williams. Yeah, Xavier Gibson, who didn't see
a whole lot of time, mal Chai Corley. So they've
got some one in two year players.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
Take it that way. Davante Adams, Bizard and Garrett will Wilson.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
All right, those three guys, are they better than what
he's gonna have this year in Pittsburgh?

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Hold on, I need to we need like Jeopardy music
or something. He likes sound effects and he like that
little soundboard you get hit and dude, do do do
do do like that would be awesome, It would be awesome.
Let me drum roll please, No, no, what was the
question again? No, the Jets receivers are better, So.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
And with the Jets receivers, he's sort of stunk. Okay,
he wasn't great, so now you're gonna give him. I
think DK may is. I don't think DK is as
good as Garrett Wilson. I'll just I'll say that out front.
But I do think he's close, but that's it, right.
The rest of it is just not the same. It's
a it's a lesser core, and you're asking him to

(22:50):
do better not gonna happen. I just I don't buy it.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
You're gonna ask him to do better than that, and
you just watch Justin Fields and Russell Wilson not do
better than that. Aaron Rodgers a year older right now,
he's clocking in about forty one and a half, forty
one and one and seventy one days years old. He'll
be forty two December second. So, yeah, he said it

(23:15):
wasn't money. Money wasn't the issue, and I truly believe that.
I think the Steelers made an offer. I don't know
how much they're going to pay him, even brock Party
money is too much, and brock Purty actually has a
pretty decent deal for the forty nine ers to get
out ahead of with that, but still monster money, no
trade clause, all that kind of stuff. That's what these
guys are seeking. And Aaron Rodgers, he's seeking more than

(23:35):
one year. I don't know if he's got more than
one year. He's almost forty two. I don't know if
he's got a year. I'm not sure he's.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Got six months.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, it's tough. It's a seventeen game schedule. He's been
playing for twenty years. It takes a toll on your body.
You got to move now to a new city. Now
he's got all the agents, he's got all the money
in the world. None of that's going to make a
difference unless he's got again, Like we said, he's got
some type of relationship there that's got him tethered to
wherever his current residence is. I don't know if he's
living in California or wherever he's at these days. So

(24:05):
that's I think that's immaterial to everything else. Because the
other thing that we were talking about, we mentioned all
of the We mentioned Jets coaches, we mentioned Green Bay coaches,
but Aaron Rodgers should he come to Pittsburgh. We saw
what happened with Russell Wilson, and I didn't really have
a lot of bad to say about Russell Wilson. I
think Russell Wilson played a lot better than everyone else

(24:27):
that was basically out there ahead of him, such as
Kenny Pickett, justin Fields and those Some people will think
that's blasphemy because even at that Russell Wilson was probably
still a bottom, you know, bottom third tier of a
quarterback in the National Football League. Last year, but we
saw a nicer ball, We saw more yards on offense,
we saw more touchdown passes, and then we saw things

(24:49):
start to fall apart. Russ takes off runs with the ball,
doesn't protect it, fumbles in Baltimore in a game that
was basically like the AFC nor Championship, we know that
he threw an interception maybe two where we also picked
up on, well, did George Pickens run the right route?
Or you know, is George Pickens or is Russell Wilson
changing plays? Is he having a spat with Arthur Smith?

(25:11):
Now all the other controversy as to whether or not
they would play fields, and I don't think that they
were genuinely interested in bringing fields back unless they were
just gonna do fields Rudolph, and then you know, still
draft somebody like Howard, which you know, everybody'd be salvating
overfields until we're four or five, you know, games in
the season and be the same thing all over again,

(25:31):
all the same numbers, except you're not getting three four touchdowns.
They're showing him throw ball in practice one of the
you know, Twitter Darling NFL coverage guys, and it was
like a fifty yard bomb. Beautiful. They caught them a future.
They may have found The Jets may have found their
future franchise quarterback. And it's like, yo, there's no defenders.
They're wearing shorts, all the other stuff that we always

(25:53):
talk about, like more than likely, he just takes off
and runs with the football, right, And it isn't really
about fields. It's more about the Steelers finding their quarterback
in the future. Rogers isn't going to be the quarterback
of the future. We don't need to beat that dead horse.
We know about his age. He's probably a one year
gap type of guy, like filling Bridge type of guy.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Right.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Whether or not they look to draft somebody next year,
I don't know the Steelers. Somebody made a good point
about this I was listening to that said, what have
you known the Steelers to just lie down and tank
like they need to?

Speaker 3 (26:24):
They don't.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
People are starting to get on board with what you've
been saying, like with the they need to stink because
they've been all these years of having a future Hall
of Fame quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger. They're always drafting at
the bottom of each round. They'll never be within the
earshot of trying to fly a draft the next quarterback.
But the Steelers they're still going to try and remain competitive.
They're not just gonna say, well, this is fine, the

(26:45):
building's on fire, let it burn down for a year
like some of the other teams do. They would totally
sign an Aaron Rodgers if they feel that Rogers could
get them into a super Bowl type position. They're not
going to sit there, lie in wait and be like, well,
we're looking for arch Manning next year. When we made
that argument a million times, we don't even know. Look
at quinn yours. This all the labels were placed on him,

(27:06):
and it's whether or not arch Manning is available, and
whether or not he's any good and whether or.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
Not even comes out he that's what I mean out next.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Year, Yeah, whether he's available.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Right, So.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Aaron Rodgers comes to pit, let's say he signs. I
was mentioning Russell Wilson having some friction. Do we run
Arthur Smith's offense, because now there's like I heard somebody
talking about, like Arthur Smith preferred Justin Fields, and I
think that's bullshit. I really do, just straight up. If
he preferred them and they had a real problem with Wilson,
they would have sat Wilson's ass down. They were palling

(27:39):
him a million dollars. This isn't even the same justification
of a Mitch Drubisky type thing. It was a veteran quarterback,
who's running the offense better, who's better for the team.
It was Russell Wilson all the way through, except for
a gadget play here or there where Justin Fields got in.
So I don't buy that for a minute. The way
that things were run in a week one and maybe

(28:01):
the first two weeks this season going into Denver and
we're like, is this really tailored? Was it designed for Fields?
And he had all of training camp, he had all
of the preseason. You saw Rusk get in for a
little bit of the preseason. Then he was oh, he
was hurt again and he couldn't. He didn't even reaggravate anything.
They just sat him down and they gave Justin Fields
a shot and it didn't work. And it was supposed
to be Arthur Smith offense. Now you supposedly have Russell

(28:24):
Wilson out there changing plays or calling, and I like
that type of stuff. But maybe the flexibility wasn't there,
or maybe it didn't fit within what their plan was.
Maybe that's why George Pickens looked like he's the ball
isn't where it's supposed to be delivered. You don't know,
because we're not in those closed conversations. But if you
think Aaron Rodgers is gonna come here and that's going

(28:44):
to be any different, Aaron Rodgers is gonna come here,
and you need to do what Aaron Rodgers has been doing,
and what Aaron Rodgers excels at at almost forty two
years of age, not what Arthur Smith wants to do.
If you want what Arthur Smith wants to do, you
got to run with Mason Rudolph and or Will Howe.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
I don't disagree with that, you know. Look, I've been
saying all along, I don't want Aaron Rodgers here. I
don't want to have to root for him. I don't
want to have to feel like I have to take
a shower after every Steelers game. I don't I don't
want him. I don't want it. If he's here, I'll
cheer for him, but I don't want it. Does he
fit with what Arthur Smith wants to do? Probably not.

(29:21):
I mean he's a you know, but then again he's
an older guy. Maybe he Why would I even begin
to go down this path of maybe he'll change.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
Old dogs do not grow new spots.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
He's not gonna learn new tricks. Aaron Rodgers, as you said,
it's gonna do what Aaron Rodgers wants to do. And
if Arthur Smith, you know, and he starts to butt heads,
maybe I'll get what I want and they'll stink so
bad that they have any pick they want next year,
and it won't be about tanking one hundred. They're not

(29:53):
gonna tak Here's my great fear is they will have
this drama and this chaos and somehow Mike Tomlin will
still get them to win nine games and they'll be
picking in the middle of the damn draft.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, it's almost like what I don't know who said it.
It might have been Solomon Willcott's or somebody like that,
and he was talking maybe I don't know, Todd Hayley,
Charles Davis, somebody I listened to so many of them,
Pat Kerwin, Jim Oh it is Jim Miller. They had
somebody to call it in with Pat Kerwin and Jim Miller,
and Miller says, you know, he almost kind of cuss

(30:28):
this fan out because it was like among the fire
Tomlin type crew, and they're like, hey, what quarterback has
he had? And you're gonna well, sometimes it has to
do with coaching or whatever. It's like, what coach do
you know that's going to coach up the guys that
have been taking snaps here? Tomlin's probably got the most
out of all of that that anybody's going to get.
Let's give him some credit for that. I know it

(30:50):
feels like some things get stale. I know people are
tired of not winning a playoff game, but they're still
trying to sort this out. As the defense gets older,
some of these startup players start to age, they're still
trying to put them within the earshot. Instead of having
TJ say well, I really don't want to this team
has no future. I want to go sign somewhere else
instead of being a Steeler for life. You don't see

(31:12):
those kinds of things. I know there's players that leave.
You could pay about eight to ten of them prime dollars,
and then everybody else, you've got to kind of start
to you know. That's why free agency never looked that great. Yeah,
Roethlisberger and all the names that we mentioned, you know,
throughout all the years, when you have that big quarterback contract,
it takes a big chunk that salary cap. They've got
the money. I don't think Rogers is asking for a

(31:33):
whole lot. If anything, he'll be I think he'd be
more amicable to playing a little on the cheap if
he feels the teams a contender and can put some
other talent around him. But let's talk about the future
of the Steelers without an Aaron Rodgers. This isn't I
don't still don't think they're in a tank type mode.
And I know that you know, Arthur Smith, Mike Tomlin,

(31:54):
they talked about mobility. Okay, is Mason Rudolph and will
hire the most mobile quarter in the world. No, But
can they screwed away from danger?

Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Can Aaron Rodgers get away? He knows how to protect
the football. I wouldn't necessarily think that he's gonna get
away from anybody. I don't think Aaron Rodgers is a
guy that you're going to put under center and do
a tush push with so you know you're gonna lose.
You're gonna lose like a third one and fourth to
one type deals. And to be honest, justin Fields he

(32:27):
did it, but you know he made me kind of
WinCE a few times. And he could do it, or
Russell Wilson would go and do it. Russell's a little guy,
though he could fit in those little gaps, a little
cracks or whatever. The Rogers. I just picture him going
out there. Remember what it was like when Ben was
trying to run in his final year. It was it
was like quicksand you know, quicksand was everywhere. When we
were like kids watching cartoons, we had to worry. We

(32:49):
don't have to worry about quicksand so much as adults
as we were led to believe. But it sure looked
like Ben was.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Wait a minute, are you sure I'm still convinced that
every place I go quicksand is I have to I
have to take a stick and poke everything in front
of me.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Quicksand could be there.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah, you might need something to kind of find your
way out of there. So I think if they go
with like a Mason Rudolph, I don't know if it's
the best for Will Howard development, but I still don't
know what Aaron Rodgers really brings to the table to
help the rookie quarterback anyways, besides firmly seat him with
a clipboard in an earpiece right on the sidelines for

(33:28):
a whole year. If the Steelers are kind of stinking
a little bit and they're still you know, you've gotten
to see Will Howard through camp, through preseason, brew September, October,
maybe part of November, and it's just not working. And
for the first time in a long time, Mike Tomlin
is cratering towards losing season, and it's pretty obvious to

(33:48):
you know, Mason Rudolph isn't the future of this team too.
You might see some time on the field. The best
of luck is is that you don't see him at all,
because Mason's doing his job and Mason's not doing anything wrong.
Mason's getting everything done, and maybe he surprises some people more,
maybe even surprises us, because I don't know that we've
got the you know, highest level of expectations. Excuse me

(34:14):
for Mason Rudolph, but I think we have more than
what some of the talking heads national TV, even locally
some of those folks. I know Kabali is a big
fan and thinks that maybe he'd be able to get done.
Maybe he turns out and does some stuff like Gino
Smith did, and that's a pleasant surprise. And now you
have You don't have the longest term future. You don't
have eighteen years of Mason Rudolph as your quarterback, but

(34:37):
you might get eight to ten. You might have five.
At least you know he's thirty, right.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
I'll go with five. Eight to ten. Eight to ten
is a little rough, and look, obviously.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Playing nobody's hit him in like a five six years.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
So I'm gonna fall back on what I've said all along.
Mason Rudolph is not a franchise quarterback. He's a backup quarterback.
I think if you if you're looking five to ten
years or five to six years of Mason Rudolph, you're
looking at five to six years of non non competitive and.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
They won't do that obviously. So you know, like I'm
just saying, if you actually give him the baton, even
this year, if you give him the baton, he's.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Going to.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
He's going to play, and until he shows that he's
not capable of playing and we're talking about this without
any kind of Aaron Rodgers in the way, right, you
just go in Rudolph's QB one, Howard's gonna be QB three.
They'll probably even put Skyler Thompson absolutely three to five
starts with Miami there. But that's a guy that could
be leapfrog the same way Kenny got kind of thrown

(35:39):
into that backup role. Almost immediately you knew that was
the guy you wanted to roll with. It's very risky business,
though they've been here with the rookie. It's a sixth
round quarterback, but it is a sixth round quarterback. I mean,
in the case of both guys, you've got some question
marks at least. So with Rudolph, like I've said, Rudolph
was playing with guys like Johnny Holton, Dion Keane, and

(35:59):
Man Dante. In twenty eighteen, No quarterbacks coach Randy Fickner
was Ben's buddy pretty much, and the Steelers were even
willing to throw Duck Hodges out there and keep things afloat.
They give Duck Hodge as a chance and sent Josh
Dobbs in a trade off the team. That's how much
they had faith in Duck Hodges, you know, at least
being able to keep them competitive. They maybe feel the

(36:21):
same way with Rudolph. Maybe we get to see him
with all of the starters for a chance. Most of
his starts have been Inopportunity comes in, Ben blows out,
his arm, comes in at halftime. You don't take these
kind of reps. You have a COVID year. The night
before the Lions game, you're playing in inclement weather and
Ben Roethlisberger's out due to the COVID deal and Rudolph
gotta go in there, or you haven't played against the

(36:41):
Browns and like eight to ten starters are seated on
the sideline because it's a it's a meaningless game when
it comes to playoff seating and stuff like that. I'd
like to actually see him have the full compliment of
everything behind him, even the winning streak that he had.
You know, it is makeshift offensive coordinators. It was Eddie
Faulkner and Mike Sullivan and you know, maybe maybe to

(37:02):
his benefit, it wasn't Matt Canada, so but I mean
to even talk about that. Those were those were his
coordinators Victor in Canada and then some makeshift guys so
he might have a real coordinator here with Arthur Smith,
maybe see what he might be able to do. And
then if he can't do it, you go to the
sixth round guy who threw six touchdowns to one interception
in three college football playoff games against the top elite competition.

(37:25):
A lot of players that are now playing on Sundays
instead of Saturdays. Right, So Howard, he's a bigger body guy.
What is he like six five, two thirty or so.
He's tough to bring down. He's mobile enough. I wouldn't
say he's necessarily a runner in the spirit of like
a Justin Fields or something who also came from the

(37:47):
Ohio State university. But I mean some people knocked his
arm or whatever. Oh he only played one year in
Ohio State, but that experience is still pretty darn good experience. Well,
it's not like he only played one year in college.
You know, it was four or five years whatever. He
played a Kansas State I think as a starter for
three years. So that's a very big deal in the
development of these young quarterbacks. And he had Chip Kelly

(38:08):
as an offensive coordinator too, so he just had a
pro offensive coordinator. This guy had, like you know, post
graduate courses getting into the NFL. As far as part
of his football career, I'll tell you Kurt Warner likes him.
John Gruden likes him. I don't know if that makes
me like him more or less, but I mean, you know, look,

(38:31):
I think he's just let's set our expectations closer to reality.
He's a sixth round draft pick, and he's a sixth
round draft pick for a reason. He was surrounded with
a wide receiver room filled with first round draft picks.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
And Jeremiah Smith potentially one of the best, two of
the best running backs in the league, an offensive line
that had tons of folks.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
I mean, he was in a stacked situation.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Oh yeah, right, he But that being said, he executed
in that stack situation, and you know, there is a
mindset of being a winner.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
I don't know what will Howard's gonna look like.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
I wanted them to draft him simply because I wanted
to have an Ohio State quarterback on this team so
that I could I could be excited about that. Whether
he does anything or not, I have no idea. You know,
I think he's got a chance. It's just going to
depend on how they can groom him and how they
can grow him.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah, I'm with you on that, my friend, Development Development development.
I think it was a pretty a pretty big tell though,
that they decided or did he immediately came after the playbook, right,
that was a pretty big to do on a lot
of you know, the blogs, a lot of the speculation,

(39:51):
the social media, everything else that was out there. So
it'd be interesting to see how that translate translates to
him getting to the pros. Of course, he had all
the big games the college Football Playoff. It was the
first time this was expanded. They made a change to
that too, Brian now at straight seeding for the top

(40:12):
four teams, so that's also pretty intriguing. So, but that's
in foot that's in college football. No changes to the
NFL's format for the playoffs, So I'm glad they didn't
try and go to some NBA thing where they just
gave the top four teams all the home games. I
think that really kills the division, the division rivalries, the

(40:33):
division aspect of you know, why would you play in
the AFC North. Who we care about those games? If
winning the AFC North didn't mean that you had a
home playoff game, that's the whole point of the way
the divisions are aligned and the way everything's set up.
So I'm kind of glad they weren't going that path.
Push push is still legal. I think we beat the
dead horse on Aaron Rodgers or the quarterbacks again for

(40:54):
at least this month. We'll see if he actually shows
up in a week or two and we have some
more of that to talk about. I guess the only
other thing that's been that's dropped recently is they're gonna
allow the NFL players to play flag flag and people
are asking, like, well, this is twenty twenty eight Olympics,
so we're still like three years off. That's a long time.

(41:15):
I mean, some of these guys are gonna be too
old maybe play, or maybe even when they're older, they're
just gonna maybe wipe the floor with the competition from
like South Korea or something, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Look, here's the thing, flag football.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
I know, I played flag football at the same time
I played real football.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Flag football ain't the same, right. Flag football is for
little teeny fast people, not real football.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Why because you can't beat anybody up, you can't bully them,
like there's not the contact isn't there. I am telling
you right now, I think that there's every chance in
a flag football league with professional athletes that that is
not the deciding factor because that's not what they're.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Used to it might be, And I know some of
the flag players were out there saying, well, don't just
think all the NFL players are going to take our spot.
And I kind of laughed at that too, because I
still think. I think it's this way, like with a
lot of sports, a lot soccer in particular. Right, Oh,
why is the American team? Why aren't we the best
in men's soccer like women's we are because there aren't

(42:18):
as many women's sports, taking all the prime female athletes
away from soccer. Soccer he is one of the prime
sports for females to play, kind of basketball in the
same category. But you look at all the competition, like
you've got, you know, guys in the NFL. If there
wasn't an NFL, might have been playing soccer instead or
something like that, right, just so to speak. So I
do think they can make that translation some of them.

(42:39):
I don't think all of them. I don't know if
there's anyone currently on the Steelers roster you make it.
DK Metcalf. He might be thirty or thirty one. But
what happens when you get a guy like that out
there and he's an accelerated age with the contract that
he has. And I believe I thought I saw it
was designated only one player from each team, and may
have read that incorrectly, But I kind of wonder, like,

(43:03):
do you risk putting somebody out there it's getting paid
twenty thirty million dollars a season, they're playing the Olympics
for you know, some national pride or whatever, when you
know that they could probably put high school players out
there and maybe get the same kind of results. You know,
I don't necessarily want to say, well, high schoolers are

(43:25):
still amateurs. So high school into college, we're talking about
some amateur athletes. But I think that's where you're gonna
pull a lot of these players from. You might get
a little dazzling, like I keep thinking of somebody like
a Tyreek Kill, like you said, small fast guys, but
it's gonna be somebody we haven't heard or don't know
of just yet. Or it's gonna be somebody that's incredibly
young just coming into the league now, like a Travis
Hunter that plays both ways that ends up in the

(43:47):
flag football thing. There's really nobody on the Steelers that
I just like, you know, I'm not like TJ. Watt's
that coulda go out there and risk blown out a
knee on a cut somewhere, you know, wherever they end
up playing just to bring home the gold or team
you say. You ever know, though, I might be proven wrong.
It might be a really cool thing, really cool bragging rights,
and an amazing experience for those players too.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Look, anytime you get a chance to play in the Olympics,
that's got to be you know, a life kind of
a lifetime kind of an event thing. Right, It's a
big deal. So I'm not gonna, you know, discourage I'm
just saying I hate flag football. I don't like playing it.
I didn't like it. When I played it. I was exhausted.
I was like, hell, I don't like this. This stinks.

(44:33):
Why because tiny little people would run around all the
place and I couldn't catch them because I was not
that small or fast.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
So it bothered me.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Ryan, It's like a tree trunk. Don't let them, don't
let them fool you. Yeah, it's over there somewhere. You'll
find it.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
I found it.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
Well, my friend, that's a signaling we need to put
a ball on the show. Of course, so that I
heard that too on one of the callers on or
one of the guys on XM. The phone was going off.
It was like some hilarious ring tone. It was some
song and I was like, oh, I would have never
guessed that. But Brian, thanks once again for joining us.

(45:09):
And you know, uh, We're still on Aaron Rodgers Watch,
whether we like it or not, at least for the interim.
If he doesn't come, and then it's gonna be like,
well is he gonna come for training camp? And we
kicked this can to like the end of July.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
These are the most joyous days of my life.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
I've never been happier or more filled with hope than
I am right now. Right And also, I've got to
tell you, I got to tell you I have to
apologize to the viewership. My my normally smooth and silky
voice is now dry and squeaky.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
So I'm sorry. I'm just like, I've been coughing so
much over the last week. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
I know.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
He apologize for.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
The u the raspiness of enduring my vocal toneages.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
Don't let him fool you, folks. Brian's been out here
smoking eight packs of Marlboroughs every day.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
So if I'm smoking eight packs of anything, it's weed.
So and I'm not smoking that either, let me be clear,
not because I don't want to, just because I'd rather
take the edibles.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
I don't like to smoke.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Stuff is annoying, you know, mean stinks, and hey, it's
not gonna help your lungs anybody. I know, it opens
up some, but you thit the cough. You could get
off with some of that. That's friends that are like.
That's like I was like, did you just inhale like
like tar, like just a whole bunch of tar and everything? So,
uh no, just teasing, that's what you said. You kind
of sound like Mark Simpson's uh yeah, yeah, brush, somebody

(46:43):
give me you actually sound like the sponge You sound
like the SpongeBob guy. It's like.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
Captain Captain Crabby or whatever. Then.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Anyways, folks, wait jumped the shark. Don't forget to like,
comment and subscribe. Hopefully you've already done that. We know
you instead, if you're still hanging around here, if you're watching,
thank you for watching on YouTube next day, on Spotify,
or wherever you may be listening from. Thank you for
supporting Steel City Underground until next time. My name is Joe,
his name's Brian. As we always close out the show,

(47:17):
we encourage everyone out there to be safe, be good,
and we'll catch you later. We would liked it. Thank
you for listening and remind our listeners to follow us
on social

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Media and our website www dot Steelcity Underground dot com

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