Panthers preview plus roster predictions you won’t see coming

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 3 (00:20):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Steel
City Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzma. I'm joined
here by my good buddy colleague and Powell one, mister
Brian E.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Roach.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Brian, I promise the people you would be back, and
you're back. How you doing, my friend? You promised what
you don't be making promises on my behalf. Maybe I
was never coming back. Maybe I'm retired, but I'm not.
I keep telling people the same thing about Flash. It's
like I just got to get on the same page.
I'm always crossing paths and we just never get on

(00:51):
the same schedule. It feels like it's been a year.
He's gonna have a fire under his ass now that
you know, football's actually started, So there'll be a.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Real football in a couple of weeks. When there's real football,
the real the real Zach Flash Cladonia Zachedonia will return.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah he'll be there, but this is going to be
a pretty meaty episode. I did one over the weekend
because I just wanted to review real quick what happened
with the Buccaneers game and in the inter run, yeah,
every quarterback threw a pick and actually something that may

(01:29):
impact this roster did happen, and let's uh, let's just
get right down to it. Let's get down to it.
Because quarterbacks, I think there's I think there's a common
misconception there might be a spot for Skyler Thompson, and
I only believe that to be true. If Will Howard
is taking a full red shirt year. Now we've discussed
this if, and it's big if number one, the Steelers

(01:51):
are not going to release him because he won't make
it through waivers back to the Steelers. There's no chance,
correct if he's actually hurt, it's a waiver with injury
design or waiver with injury claim whatever too, and that
causes some other things. But transaction wise, what's going to
happen on the wire is for him to come back
this season. If he did go to IR, he has
to make the fifty three first. That's anybody, right. This

(02:13):
happened a few years ago with Josh Dobbs and he
hung around, but generally players that go on IR don't
hang around the team a whole lot, and they don't
get the practice. And will Howard not be able to
be on scout team or get some extra reps in
twenty twenty five, I think would be detrimental to his
future in the National Football League. So he has to
make this roster now, whether or not they exposed Skyler

(02:36):
Thompson the same way to waivers. When I last checked Thompson,
he was signed to a futures reserve contract in January,
so he's not a tenured NFL player. He is subject
to waivers. There's probably some team out there that's thinking
we need a quarterback, and one of those thirty one teams,
maybe it'll be the Browns because they've already got like
eight of them.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
They're going to carry four on their roster, right.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I don't know what, no, maybe more, but there'll be
an exception because Watson will be on IR They named
Flacco their starter. Who knows what's going on with Kenny Pickett.
They got sha Door, they got Tyler Steppuntley, the Goa
Dale and Gabriel and pick up somebody else. Pick up
Skyler Thompson too, might be their best one. But the
Steelers need a quarterback. We've said this, We know the
Steelers need they need it. They A lot of people

(03:23):
are seeing Skyler Thompson and say, hey, this guy may
have potential. May may have potential. He's had great poise,
he hasn't done anything wrong. If anything, he has forced
himself into this conversation. After I watched the camp, I'm
just like, this guy doesn't have a prayer of making
this team. Now I'm saying he's gonna play some somewhere.
He's gonna be on somebody's roster for the twenty twenty
five season. I just don't know that the Steelers come
out the gate, do they have enough players to expose

(03:45):
to have four on their fifty three And then maybe
that first round of cuts goes through, and then they
could sneak Skyler off to the practice squad because then
everybody has already made like a few rounds of you know,
signings and releases or whatever, and then they don't have
room him to make another transaction. It's definitely not a
money thing. But with Will Howard, you can't expose him whatsoever.

(04:06):
He'll be gone for good gone. Yeah, if you put
him on IR he's done. For the year and now
he doesn't practice. So this is a sticky situation. It's
probably the trickier one of all of these. And no,
Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph are not in jeopardy of
losing their respective positions. There was a caller that said
Rogers may need to play Thursday against the Panthers, of
which no, he doesn't.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
He doesn't need in order to earn his spot. Aaron
Rodgers must play or otherwise he's out. He's just gone
because he hasn't shown anything. Look, you know that's silly.
The only reason they brought him in here was to play.
They don't need They know what he is, They know
who he is, they know what he's got. They may
believe that he has more than I believe he has.

(04:48):
They may not. But he's he's the guy that they're
going to ride this season. So yeah, he's making the roster.
And and what you said about will Howard it Scott, Look,
Skyler Thompson. Skyle Thompson has made solid work of JV time.
He's done a good job against JV players, So hey, great,

(05:11):
does that necessarily earn you it's a spot on the varsity. No,
it does not you get a spot on the varsity
by performing against varsity players, and they're not going to
give him that opportunity here, so you know, yeah, they
might try and sneak him on to the practice squad,
and if he manages to get there, hey great. I
don't have anything against Skyler Thompson, but he's not going

(05:32):
to plant Will Howard because they spend a draft pick
on him and he's going to have his opportunity to
be on the roster.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
So yeah, and you feel that Will Howard could potentially
be a steal for his draft position, And there was
the there was the talk from coach Tomlin a little
while back that it wasn't so serious. Maybe you can
still get to see him in the preseason. So I
guess we'll see in the coming days, press conferences things
like that who's going to play. But I'm pretty much
under the impression here this is more of a fifty
three man roster prediction in Panthers preview because we're not

(06:02):
going to see all We're not going to see any
of the players we've seen at all this whole preseason.
All these starters are going to be sitting, So it's.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
The guys who sat last time, that sat the first time,
that we hope might play in the second game, are
not going to play in the third games. Well even
less guys playing in the third game, so you know,
hey whatever, I'm even.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Thinking that Mason Rudolph may not even play in this game.
He may he may get us series. Maybe they don't
play him at all. It's going to be all Skyler
and then Logan would side. I mean, it's going to
be it's a bar and burner for sure with the
Panthers game coming up, but they're not playing their players either.
It's a short week. This is going to be about
a handful of players that, you know what the Stefan

(06:42):
Logan story that Mike Tomlin trouts out there every every
few years and talks about. You know, he had that
eighty yard return for a touchdown and solidified his spot,
and I see some performances like that. There's also there's
quite a few players here that have done nothing wrong.
It's just a numbers game of there's fifty three spots now,
I think, what's sixteen on the practice squad. So if

(07:05):
they can get Skyler back to the practice squad, that
would be great obviously, But very seldom does a team
have four quarterbacks across the entire spectrum. The Steelers are
one of you know, maybe half of the league that
rosters three as it is, let alone having a fourth
for that practice squad. We shall see it depossle depends
on the health of power. So moving on running backs,

(07:28):
we got out of quarterbacks in like under ten minutes,
which is pretty phenomenal with mister Rogers on this roster
because we haven't seen him to be able to talk
about him, but running backs, we haven't seen Jalen Warren either.
Some folks are speculating about how much we saw Caleb
Johnson or Kenneth Gainwell. You know what, I think both
of those guys are safe. Obviously the rookie and then

(07:49):
gain Well I think is more than proven and in fact,
the way he's used. I think it's the versatility that
Kenneth Gainwell has in the past game pass protection, being
able to catch the ball out of the backfield. He
has some special teams prowess. But I thought that Tray
Sermon may force his name into this argument also, and
after this game the other day, it was the main

(08:12):
thing they were really trying to get Trey sermon to
do was goal line work right, short yardage work? And
I know it's not the starting offensive line. It's tough
to evaluate where he might be on the roster bubble
because we don't know if the play was meant to
if it was designed a certain way, it's supposed to
be off tackle, did Trey go off tackle? Did he

(08:33):
do what he was supposed to do, or did he
go that way regardless, and there was a defender in
the lane and he should have maybe found something else
or had vision or was it just a cluster fuss
because of the offensive line being a bunch of hodgepodge guys.
Guys are not even going to play center. So it's
hard to evaluate really. But just my gut feeling was
where he was in the game, and then he was

(08:54):
pulled for Lou Nichols, who's been running pretty darn well.
But I mean, he might be a practice squad consideration.
Maybe sermon is two. When I ran the numbers, Brian
three running backs for me, Jalen Warren, Caleb Johnson, Kenneth Gamewell.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
I'm with you. I said that last time around. Those
are the guys that I think they carry, and I
don't think they carry anymore.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
Fair enough, easy enough. The wide receiver room is stacked, stacked, jacked, loaded,
whatever you want to say, Well, DK metcalf stacked.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Well there you go, like like whether you meant it
this way or not, I'm not saying the wide receiver
room is stacked. Uh, DK is DK is DK? Well
after that, it's still what it is, but it is.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
It's a bunch of guys that are all wide receiver
threes and fours. That's the problem. So which one do
you take? Yeah, so this is and this gets further mucked.
If gave Davis, who's paying a visit today for a
second time, I guess they're GOODA signs, Yeah, yeah, if
he signs, you know who I think's out? If he signs,
I think it's Robert Robert Woods. Yeah, I think it's
Roth woods Man. But I think Robert Woods makes it.

(10:03):
Otherwise it's weird where they've had him during camp for
being like.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
To have that veteran guy.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, so, but I don't think if you get another
veteran guy, I think he's out because I think there's
a I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
If you bring game Davison, then then I think I
think Robert Woods is the odd man out. I don't
think spent Minskaronic is going to go anywhere. I don't think.
I think Scottie Miller has earned his way on. And
you're not going to get rid of Roman Wilson or
Calvin Austin third.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
So yeah, and Kelvin Austin Apparently I missed it. At
the very beginning of the postgame show, I think Mike
Pursuer was saying, if this were a regular season game,
he would have been in action. So I know I've
been talking about how we haven't seen much of him
in the preseason. It seems like a recurring thing. Unfortunately
with Kelvin Austin that he doesn't get that much preseason time.

(10:51):
But you know, also mentioning this last episode with someone
else commented in my actual thought process was that Roman
will and didn't play last preseason, not this preseason. He's
shown up. He's shown up enough that he might be
might be starting over, even Calvin Austin or sharing some
of that, some of those snaps, I think the one

(11:12):
guy that's on the bubble here. So I have six Metcalf,
Austin Wilson, Robert Woods, Goronick and Scottie Miller. Brandon Johnson's
my other guy because he's a little bigger. He's six
to two. Rock Taylor's out of the picture now. And
you know, Rock Taylor, he didn't do anything really, he
didn't jump off the page.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
To me.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
I think some of this is where folks they have
their takes, right. It's the same thing as draft Twitter.
They see something online, somebody was impressed. Somebody early on says,
look at this big guy. He could be fast, he
could be all these things, kind of like when Hakeem
Butler came on the scene and then couldn't catch the ball.
Rock Taylor just didn't do enough to earn that spot
over other players. He's already already been released, and some

(11:51):
people were speculating whether he'd come back to the practice squad.
That all depends on who else is there. But I
think Brandon Johnson is in that conversation. Kashawan Williams also
returning kicks and punts. Two is somebody that maybe part
of that practice squad. Usually they at least have two
wide receivers there.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, I'm not gonna argue with any of those those selections.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, and I don't think we have a whole lot
to argue about it. I think you're absolutely right that
Scottie Miller earned himself a spot on the roster.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
He just seems to.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
Do all kinds of stuff. He's just a utility player
willing to stick his nose in everywhere. Scronic, on the
other hand, will be a he's a special teams team
and more or less so he'll be utilized that way.
Tight end room as another and it's kind of full.
But I think everybody here acrosses the finish line as

(12:42):
far as the mainstays. Johnny Smith, Pat Friarmuth, Darnel Washington
thought he was on the hot seat. Connor Hayward, but
he's utility enough, versatile enough is you know, you got
to keep got to keep his bigger brother happy, who's
unhappy right now. I don't think you want to piss
him off any further by releasing his brother in the
middle of these contract disputes.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
So that's where I'm at. I have four for the
tight ends. I'm with you. I you know Connor Hayward. Look,
you know John who's gonna make it. You know Pat's
gonna make it. You know, Darnald Wilson's gonna make it
so Connor Hayward would be on the bubble if they
had risk at any other position group where there were problems.

(13:21):
I don't think that they really do right now, so
I think he's probably safe.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
I've got one other guy to throw in this mix
that could be Connor Hayward light and that's Max Harlman
out of order Dame. I'd probably keep an eye on him.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
J J.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
Gaalbreth, maybe just because I think what Arthur Smith wants
to do is play a lot of tight ends, and
so they're gonna need guys. And if you get Smith
ding for game or two or fire me with Ding
for a game or two, you need one of these
bodies to come in. Maybe Hayward's usage is a certain
way that maybe he gets bumped. I think Harlman and

(13:56):
Galbreth are guys to look out on the practice squad.
I had as many as sixteen ors a team in
this practice squad conversation, and it all depends on who's healthy,
who's not, who's hurt, et cetera, et cetera. And the
offensive line is another one.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Of these.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Areas too, where every year I try to figure out
how many they're going to keep in eight is I
think the bare minimum in order to elevate an additional
two players now from your practice squad on game days,
so they will have eight at a minimum. Let's go
through them. The usual suspects who should be the starter,
Zach Fraser at center, Isaac say Malow, Mason McCormick, or
your guards brought Jones, Troy Flatanu as your tackles from there?

(14:35):
The depth Kelvin Anderson, Spencer Anderson, and Andres Pete, the
veteran former first round pick of the New Orleans Saints
many years ago. I said he was suckingd Win. Did
I text that to you or did I text that
to my cousin?

Speaker 2 (14:49):
I was like, he sucks a little.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Bit, but they had to play. And the reason he's
playing is got to get this guy in football shape.
He has not played a whole lot of reps. He
could end up being the swing tackle. I mean, he's
depth that they need in experience.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Is he going to start?

Speaker 3 (15:02):
More than likely not. Got a bunch of guys who
could be on the bubble or practice squad. Dylan Cook,
who's been on and off the roster with those kind
of transactions through years. Ryan McCullum was probably the only
backup center they have on the roster, a truly dedicated center.
Gareth Warren, who committed a penalty the other day, the
big large guy I think mc Tomalin likes. I think
Mike Tomlin was in the World's Strongest Men competitions or

(15:25):
like the wide world of sports, you know what I mean,
or even maybe some pro wrestle and some Madrie the
Giant or somebody, because Tomlin loves his big guys. And
I think Warren might have a spot on the practice squad.
And Max Sharping is kind of in the same category
as Cooker McCullum. He's a guy that's been around in
these camps and practice squad situations. But eight, I think
is where they are just because of the tight ends,

(15:47):
the receivers, the backs. However many they keep that and
that's why you can't just sneak Skyler Thompson across the
finish line here too.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, they're not going to carry four quarterbacks, don't you know.
They're not in a position to carry four quarterbacks, so
that's not going to happen. But yeah, I know some
years they'll keep nine. I feel like that's been a
number they've hit a couple times, but I mean they're
going to keep minimally eight. It's never it's not going
to go below that for sure.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, I'm with you. I feel the same way with
the defensive lineman as we kind of blow through some
of these seven is what I have. I know they've
kept eight. I know they've kept nine, but we saw
the same thing with linebackers, which will be the next topic.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Eight to ten.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
They had eight I think on the final roster maybe
last year Cam Hayward, if he's there or not, probably
depends on if they keep an extra guy. If they
have seven or eight. There there's a real pain in
the ass trying to figure this out. Not gonna lie
Cannu Betting and Derek Harmon obviously why a Black? I
think they all have roster spots. The more I looked

(16:51):
at this was the crazier that I thought, Wow, there
isn't as much depth here as I thought there was.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
There's not. It's a little scary.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yeah, you got why Black, Isaiah Loudermilk, Logan Lee and
de Marvin lel And it's it's the same thing with
some bodies that you thought with Loudermilk Lee and leol
the triple L's there these guys. Are you cand have
Lowry in there too, But Lowerry's been hurt, So I
don't know where Lowry fits as far as a veteran player.

(17:20):
Probably released and comes back at some point, is my thought.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
I mean, Logan Lee may have earned his spot simply
by being able to be the emergency long snapper and
not doing a James Harrison when he did it.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
You know it.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
But I mean we've had Demarvin Leal as a potential cut.
You know, it's it's been tocked up. Is he done?
Is it? You know? Is it just not working out?
Is he not going to be able to make this roster?
And to be honest with you, the problem is there.
Who the hell else is there? It depends on That's
That's what you get to. If there's a depth issue
right now, it's it's right there, it's at D line.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, I'm thinking about all of the other cuts that
happened around the league, and if there's another body that
the Steelers have like previously scouted had and you know
their their draft talks or draft boards over the years,
maybe there's somebody that you know that just intrigues them.

(18:15):
I think Leol could be a trade candidate. Also, I
think that maybe somebody else since he was a third
round pick, I think somebody else might just take a
shot at him for like a sixth or seventh round
draft pick or something. I mean, we've seen teams traded
for Kendrick Green.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
I mean, that's it happened. So they'll never say never.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
There may be some value, but those teams are gonna
wait to see what the Steelers do if this guy
just ends up. What year are we on with Leole?
He's not tenured either, He's entering contract year year four.
I think so yeah, four, yeah, yeah, So he's still
subject to waivers. Also, so there's teams that know this
guy's on the bubble, they're gonna wait. They're not going
to give a draft unless there's also that threat of

(19:02):
the you know, waiver wire orders the same as the
draft order. So if you're a team that's in the
bottom let's say it's the Eagles, for example, the Eagles
aren't gonna sniff this guy on waivers. I don't think
you know they know that's that's so they would need
to trade a draft pick and They've got plenty of
them now, Oh my goodness. Just the John Metchi thing.
There's a conversation too, maybe for another day. People are like, well,
the Steelers just don't trade for this guy. And it's like, well,

(19:23):
he just ends up being another Austin or Wilson I
think in this roster. Yeah, I'm not like, yeah, he
doesn't excite me too much there, But I had what
seven defensive linemen and that that includes Heyward. They may
need to keep someone else if lower oh Daniel a
quality I hope I'm saying that are equal a. He's

(19:45):
a veteran player that could stick here if they need
like an eighth body right now, and Lowry isn't healthy.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Now.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Linebackers, I've got ten, and I've got some that.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
I was impressed. That's a lot.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
I I don't know special teams, man, I mean, who
who do you cut out of this group? Well, Patrick, Queen, Peyton, Wilson,
Cole Holcomb. I know people have speculated Holcomb could be
a trade candidate. I am not trading a valuable inside linebacker.
They've just been burned so many times over the years,
and I don't think Malik Harrison well good not great,

(20:22):
and I don't think he's at the same level. Holcom
could start. Harrison is a backup. Then you've got Mark
Robinson and Carson Bruner. I think they might be two
dogs one bone. If you try and do the four
quarterback thing. This is might might be the spot where
you look at well. I don't think anybody's going to
pick up Mark Robinson off of Waivers. He's going to
just sail through. And Carson Brunner was a very late

(20:42):
round pick also, and Brunner, you know, it's the universe,
w don't. It's a young guy that you don't know
where his ceiling is. But you've tried to develop Robinson
over the years and it's kind of the same old,
same old. He does well in the JV situations and
we haven't seen much else otherwise. So I mean that

(21:03):
one is up for debate.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
T J.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
Watt, Alex Heismith, Nick Herbig Jack Sawyer. Those are your
edge guys.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
That's not for.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Eku. Leota is another name. I think he stood out.
I think he stood out enough to at least be
on the practice squad. Could be somebody that's elevated. If
let's say high Smith was you know, if it lingers
into Week one, he's somebody that might get some might
get a helmet on game day. So but he's still
a bubble roster player. Corners. I broke up corners in

(21:34):
safeties and this one, this one was tough too, Brian, Yeah,
this one was tough too. Again, I think we're mostly
on the same wavelength. But it's like, how many do
you keep? They've kept six, they've kept five. When it
comes to the corner room, they've kept four and five
when it comes to the safeties. Depends on how versatile
those players have been. Can they play multiple positions? We

(21:55):
know Jayalen Ramsey, Darius Lay, Joey Porter Jr. They're not
going anywhere. It becomes very murky after that. As Brandon
Eckle's done enough to earn a roster spot, I think
he does. I think he has more versatility than say,
Beanie Bishop. You've got maybe three or four guys fighting
for one or two spots here Eccles, Corey Trice, James Pierre,

(22:20):
Beanie Bishop. And that's for spots on the fifty three.
Beyond that, Dante Quette, who is a draft pick, hasn't
really gotten any traction whatsoever. I think he goes I
are and we'll see you next year. Daryl Porter, who
came on undrafted guy, a late addition, comes to camp,
probably just had to pack a sleeping bag and show up.

(22:41):
I think this guy's going to make the practice squad.
I think he's got something. We'll see if it continues.
We had that again. We just talked about Mark Robinson.
We were very excited about Mark Robinson in the past
and then.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Till we weren't, so until we weren't.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
Yeah, So I have five corners aside from Ramsey Slay
and I think Echoles, and I think Trice because he's
the larger, bigger body guy that they've maybe invested a
little more into. But boy, it's thin Ice there. Because
Trice has been banged up quite a bit. You know,
there's there's an injury history can set of concerns there.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Uh yeah, I think if if a linebacker drops or
if you go light in one of the other areas,
this is probably where you add they have gone heavier
than this in the bat in the defensive backfield. Uh.
And I don't think. I don't like Chuck Clark is

(23:39):
the only iffy one from the standpoint of a safety,
but I don't think it's very iffy. I think your
safeties are pretty much tied down. Uh So if you're
gonna make room, you're gonna have to find someplace to
add that corner. Corey Trice. The injury bug that bites
him is the question comes, you know, is did somebody

(24:03):
else jump him simply because of the lack of availability?

Speaker 3 (24:06):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (24:07):
And I don't know the answer to that. That'll be
in the coach's minds. I think that he is still
young enough, he has still got the skills that they
cove it in that avatar like body. They would like
to see him stick around, So I think he probably
gets the nod. But you know, the injury thing is tough.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, I'm thinking Eccles he's played on the outside, played
in a nickel. Like I said on the last show,
Beattie Bishop, he hasn't done anything wrong, but you can't
teach like, you know, being six to two maybe or
something versus. And I'm not sure where's Bishop's five to
ten and ecles is also five to ten. But Eckles

(24:53):
has actual he has a lot more experience playing in
real game environments, real games, and it's kind of going
over to the same thing. We could jump over to
the safeties also here since we started chair here's the deal.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Wait, breaking news on Beanie Bishop. Okay, Aaron Rodgers basically
said that guy picked me off twice. I want him
out of here. I don't like him.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Oh man, So that would be funny if he had
that kind of pool. I was actually reading something someone
to know. I was reading something that someone just sent
me when you were saying breaking news, because I just
had my phone go off and it wasn't anything important.
It's like some quote from Aaron Rodgers, so not important.
But getting back to you know, Echols and Beanie, Beanie

(25:42):
hasn't really done anything wrong other than maybe he pissed
off Aaron Rodgers last year twice twice they didn't ask
them to sign the ball too sign the ball.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Now they're on the same team.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
But I don't know Chuck Clark. I don't know that
Sebastian Castro has stood out enough or any of the
other safeties. And I think Clark being a guy that's
really just you know, his stock was low because of
coming off an injury and being a little older of
a player. But as a reserve, I think I think
he's nasty, and I think he brings an attitude that

(26:15):
you look at Elliott and Thornhill and this group of safeties,
there are some mean dudes. Ramsey, Sligh Porter, you got
to fit in with all of that. I do like Beanie.
I think Beanie is somebody they could probably bring back
on the practice squad. But when Ramsey came on to
this team and they upgraded significantly at that position, you
need somebody with a little more versatility. And you know, again,

(26:38):
Trice is sixty three two oh six versus you know Beanie?
Is where'd Beanie go? On my list? Beanie? So he's
giving up a few inches and a more than like
twenty five thirty pounds of my maps right there. Just
there's certain certain physical traits that the other guys are
bringing to the table that disqualifies him, unfortunately, and that's

(27:00):
the reason why he was an undrafted player out of
West Virginia to begin with. But I wish you Noel will.
I do hope he gets a spot. I just don't
know where I fitted in there. Five corners, four safeties.
Miles Killerbrew is my fourth safety along with Chuck Clark
and then the starters Deshaun Elliott and one Thornhill. Then
we get to special teams, which is a quagmire now

(27:21):
of what do you do? Because Christian Koontz could be
ready to play. There was a quote out there that
was saying, if it were tomorrow and he needed to play,
be out there gladiator mentality. Can he snapped the football
well enough, timing well enough without any kind of pain
or injury or a half inch of you know, making

(27:44):
a mistake for whoever ends up holding this football, which
is our other battle between Corlis Waitment and Cameron Johnson,
and I think Johnston's going to take this one. But man,
it's it's very very narrow. Much tighter, yeah, much tighter.
And Omar Kahn up two punters the previous year when
we have Brandon Man and it was the big fat one,

(28:06):
uh Presley harb fat punter. Yeah, Unfortunately didn't work for him.
I wanted to like him so much. I wanted him
to go out there and Janeakowski someone and just like
tattoo him into the field.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
But I know that's what I kept waiting for. Look,
I'd have gotten a big, fat, but punter ball if
if he'd just laid somebody out, and you know, I'm
not a guy that wants to I don't do punter balls,
that's you. I don't do the kicker thing, but i'd
have got him. I've gone to find and Pressley Harvin say, look,
you need to sign this. Presley Harvin, big fat punter man.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
I don't know he'd appreciate that. But it doesn't make
you wonder though, will they hold onto one of them
just to hold for a trade bait? Can they do
that like you're gonna get a cut coots? Will somebody
try and pick them up? Well? Man, it's it's it's tough,
and with the specialists, it's usually not a let's have
more than one of these guys on the roster. Let's
stash another one of these guys on the practice squad

(28:58):
kind of situation they do have. They grabbed someone who
was formerly from Ohio State, Jake mcquaide I think is
currently on the roster and will probably be handling those
duties Thursday. And because of that, I don't think you
see Chris Boswell Thursday either. Like Ben Saals may have
missed that kicking, Ben Sall's actually done pretty good for kicker,
you know, as far as the kickers you see usually

(29:18):
in camp, I think this guy is going to be
on the short like wait list of dial this dude
up in case somebody else does miserably or gets hurt.
He's going to be on like that list of like
five kickers everybody looks for. I hope, I hope he
sticks it out. I hope he plays maybe some spring football.
If he doesn't get on an NFL roster this year,
go go to the UFL show that you can do

(29:40):
this kind of stuff. Come back again next season, and
we'll see where you're at. Because he might actually have
something there, so about it. Not much else I could say,
kicker wearing twenty nine.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Right, Hey, whatever, it's fun. It's fun.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Are any of these really big shocking surprises. We don't
have like any dark horses, any diamonds into rough, any
any anything sleep.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Was there even a camp phenom this year, To be
honest with you, was there even a guy that you
were like, everybody's like, whoa that guy's No, that just wasn't.
I mean, this was the most boring training camp other
than the fact that whoa, whoa, Woa Rogers and stuff.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
There was a difference with that usually you're just you
get sick and tired of seeing. Oh it's Ben Roethlisberger.
I've seen him a few times. Oh it's Antonio Brown.
We know what he's capable of doing. We weren't sure
so much about DK Metcalf and Aaron Rodgers and John Seth.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Are you trying to do there? I am, that's that's
not a pittsburgher. No, it's not a Pittsburgh it's not
a whiny guy. That's that's draft Twitter. That's the draft Twitter,
his mom's draft Twitter guy. Yeah, I don't want to
watch this anymore.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
Doubles is an accountant for the real job, so dabbles
in football and analytics on the weekends. I have no idea, Brian,
I'm making it up on the fly as I go. So,
but yeah, you're right about the camp phene Almost every year,
I think people were trying to force Rock Taylor into that.
I couldn't do it. I thought Brandon Johnson had a
very good camp. Aside from all of those guys, I thought,

(31:17):
you know, Trey Sermon, this is like his third or
fourth team. Can he be a camp fiene on? Like
if he's running and it's not consistent enough. It's not
consistent enough to be a feene On. Nobody was consistent enough,
so it's very it's awkward in that way. But the
excitement around some of the other players though, like Jalen
Ramsey and Darius Slay watching them do their thing, or
we're trying and watch Aaron Rodgers one up somebody, or
when Patrick Queen comes down. Patrick Queen's been snagging some

(31:40):
footballs too. He's been a ballhawk. It's going to be
interesting to see if this is planned to let him
freelance a little more, how that's going to work. But
I don't really have a whole lot of players there
on the hot seat. The guys that I even thought
were like a Demarvin Leal or Connor Hayward, I think
they're pretty much safe. I think the biggest, biggest question
mark is Thompson goes out there and throws for a

(32:01):
buck fifty and two touchdowns in the first half of
this game in a couple of days. What do you
do with them?

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Like trying to put him on the practice squad. It looks,
I mean, that's it. I don't think there's anything that
can happen in this game other than they they foolishly
let Mason Rudolph play and something happens that causes him
not to be available. Uh, that's where I will not wish.
I will not wish that on him, you know. Other
than that, I don't think Skyler Thompson can play his

(32:30):
way onto this roster right.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
No. And I don't know that Skyler Thompson is even
a QB two. Like I feel as comfortable with Thompson
as you would Rudolph as your back, as your primary backup.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
No, no, no.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
He's not QB three. Maybe a little bit of potential.
We shall see, you know, I andn't think he was.
He did do a half bad job. There are certainly
guys that have not lived up and lived to that moment.
But when you're talking about like some of them who've
made it over the years, like a Josh Dobbs or
Duck Hodges, yeah, he's in that category easily. The problem

(33:04):
is there's a rookie, there's somebody that has some pedigree
of just having won a national championship.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
There's a big.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Question mark as to should this guy have gone higher
if he's in you know, a different draft class. He
plays with the Buckeyes for an extra year, all kinds
of different things like that, So that'll be interesting to see.
I'm definitely I don't know that I want him to
play either. To be honest, Will Howard as selfish as
I want to see him. Don't put him behind like

(33:30):
that backup offensive line and expose him to risk him
to injury like the Cincinnati Bengals did with Joe Burrow
on Monday Night against the Washington Commanders where he was
running for his life.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Oh my, that guy out of there. Or let him
play I don't care, let him play the whole third game.
Wait that was the third game. I don't know. I
can't even pay attention anymore. But yeah, let's let's make
sure that Joe Burrow plays the final preseason game completely.
Marchase and t Higgins, all of them. Put them all

(34:03):
in all the whole game, no breaks back. Let him
play two ways. Make him play something on defense too.
Let's let's let's make Joe Burrow be a safety on
defense and you know, have him hit some guys. That'll
be good. Let's do that.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
And then on the whole other hand, like I was saying,
Joe Flacco ends up becoming the starter over in Cleveland
and he hasn't even played like the other guys.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
The other guy's had an opportunity to pass Flaco up
and didn't do it.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
Couldn't do it, couldn't do it, couldn't do it. That's
I'm gonna throw some shade. I do think my optimism
for the Steelers team. We'll see what happens with the
fifty three. Let's see if Gabe Davis or somebody else
is another addition to this team. And I had one

(35:01):
more thing that was I was just checking to see if,
by any chance, we had some Gabe Davis news. And
I got some jail in mc millan news. The guy
who got hurt at the beginning of the last preseason game.
You talk about exposing, you know, young players with a
lot of potential. He had a great year last year
and what he was like like the twelfth wide receiver
Taket it was a very deep wide receiver class. He's
gonna be out to about week nine is what they're
projecting right now.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Oh wow, Yeah with the neck.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Injury, man, Like my heart goes out to him. I'm really,
what do you do there? Like like it's just one
of those freak accident type things. So our best wishes,
you know, I thoughts go out to h you know,
players like that, like McMillan and others. And that's about it, Brian.
I mean, we're just I guess we're gonna try and

(35:46):
force ourselves through this game like the Clockwork Orange movie
where it's like they hold your eyes open, like look
look at this, watch this, and.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
You're like, but I don't want it anymore, Like you're not.
I gotta tell you. It's been a preseason two. I
have been known not to watch the third preseason game
at all.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Well, I'm not gonna lie. It might be some background noise.
Maybe i'll catch it. Maybe i'll catch a little bit
of it on the replay where I could zap through
some of the you know exactly. So that's that's that's
much more likely that I will NFL rewind the third
preseason game so that I can just zip through, as
opposed to trying to sit there for three hours. Well,

(36:26):
somebody mentioned getting the Bucks feed and they're showing like
all the Tampa you know there, they got the dignitaries
on the sideline. Maybe a former player shows up, they
start interviewing a coach, whatever it might be has nothing
to do with the Steelers and you're missing plays in
the middle of it. That is in a nutshell what
happens in the final preseason game for sure. So just
just hope that you got the Steelers feed instead of
the Panthers feed, because I don't know what kind of

(36:47):
dignitaries Carolina's had recently, like it's been, that's been a
tough team. That team had Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield
and whifted on both. That's yep, that's tough. That's real tough.
So folks, I think that'll that'll do it for us
Steelers and Panthers Thursday night. I didn't go through all
the pleasantries. I don't know that. I want to just

(37:09):
know that the game on local TV. Check it out
still see underground dot com. We'll have the guide up
that morning for where you can watch and listen and
tune in. And if your local is usually not a problem,
but the NFL Plus for out of market people, if
you pay for that, you'll get the preseason game there
and it's just you know, Bob Pompiani and Charlie Batch
and all your local crew, and you might get some

(37:31):
a few more tidbits from that than you might if
you get stuck with the national feed. I'm not sure
this one. I don't think it's on NFL network this
time either. Just that first game was so if you
could check it out, cool. If you don't get to
check it out, I don't think you're going to miss
a whole hell of a lot. So I just coming
from us. If you've listened this far, you may have
actually put in more time than you will Thursday watching

(37:51):
that game.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
But thank you for being a diehard.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
Thank you for being a diehard Steelers fan and supporty
steel City Underground. Don't forget the like, comment and subscribe,
leave a rating review. Wherever you're watching or listening. You
could watch our video version of this on YouTube Spotify
next day. My name is Joe Kuzma and his name
is Brian E. Roach. Till next time, folks. As we
always do, we leave you off with this. We encourage

(38:15):
everyone out there to be safe, be good, and we'll
catch you.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Lady. We would like it.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
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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