Speculation swirls as the Steelers have a big quarterback decision to make

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 hose.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Joe Kuzma and Brian E.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Rose.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Steel
City Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzma, joining me
here on this lovely off season day in the middle
of the NFL wasteland of news. And what mister Brian
E wrotes, Brian, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
My friend? I used Unstoppables. I can't stop.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Okay, Well that's uh, I don't know if you should.
You kind of look like that uh, that that meme,
that little gift that goes around with shack. But he
does like the you know, he's got like a starts
like doing that little wiggle.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's like, so we've been streaming something on Hulu of late,
and the commercials are the same commercials every time because
I don't I'm cheap and I'm not paying for commercial
free Hulu, and like I get to I get to
watch Jalen Hurt say He's going to Disneyland a thousand
times a night, and then I get the commercial for
Unstoppables where the woman the guy's like, here, wear your

(01:19):
dirty shirt. I used unstoppables so it don't stink. And
then she just starts going, ooh, I'm gonna feel this
at work today. I'm feeling it going through security and
then there's people on the airplane doing it. And I
was like, you know, we actually use unstoppables and I
never do that.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
You well, maybe I use the all free and clear
so I don't have those problems, right, so you don't
get like the the skin irritations and the rashes from
the supposedly the chemical free whatever. All of it's chemicals
at sub point, you know what I mean. Like we
have one of the big buzzwords out there in recent
years is like microplastics. So it's like, oh, dear Lord,

(01:59):
like I grew up in the eighties, my body's probably
I'm gonna turn into a microplastic. I'm gonna turn into
stretch Armstrong before.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
You know it.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
But uh man, I'll tell you what we're stretching today.
This is like, you know that period before free agency
hits it about above. I was looking back on last
year's news. You know, Mitch Trubisky got released like right
around Valentine's Day, art breaker for him, right, And the Steelers,
you know, they didn't have they didn't have Mason Rudolph

(02:28):
under contract. There was all the speculation at Kenny Pickett
quit on the team, and I was looking back on
all these things, and then I'm like, what the hell
has changed now this year? The three quarterbacks of Steelers
had this year, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Kyle Allen, none
of them are under contract. So every time a quarterback
somewhere in the NFL, doesn't matter where. And I'm gonna
look everywhere. We're gonna uncover every rock. We're gonna look

(02:49):
in every nook, We're gonna buy every cranpy wa Yeah,
this just came.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Over the wire. It just came over the wire. Josh
Allen farted near the owner and now he's up for trade.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Oh oh my goodness. You know the Bills were one
of the teams. Like I was literally gonna go down
every team. That's not ridiculous this has gotten. But I'm
bumping once again. I know everybody's very much looking forward
to talking about defense that probably won't have very many
changes to it, so we keep bumping the topic. There's
not a whole lot to talk about defense. Honestly, most

(03:22):
of the starters are going to be back. They're not
going to trade TJ.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Watt.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
But the more ridiculous things that have come out, and
for those things that are out there, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram,
here on YouTube with the shorts if you're watching our
video version of the podcast, putting out some short stuff
real quick, because like the longer form podcast, we're gonna
probably be doing about what's a week lister's breaking news,
But goodness man, there was one at the end of

(03:47):
the week, right around Valentine's Day, Steelers called about Trevor
Lawrence and then the Jaguars denied it, and I'm like,
who on earth are they calling Shad Con doesn't even
they don't even haven't even hired a GM yet. They
haven't head coach in place, but not a GM. What
like understand there's only thirty two of these jobs. It
may be your childhood dream, but sometimes it's like the
place and the time and the opportunity and whether or

(04:09):
not you should take it. The Jaguars is not a
place that I personally, if I were in the hunt
for work in the NFL, that I'm looking for a long, long,
term career prospect, so to speak, that is a team.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Trevor Lawrence say, they're gonna win a Super Bowl in
like a couple of years. They're gonna it's all good.
Jacksonville is the place to be man, you know, Okay,
Silver Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Trevor Lawrence came up just really really quick, really brief
in our previous show. We've just like glossed over real quick,
and all of a sudden, it was like because it
was dumb. It was dumb. No, he's signed a new contract.
But the contract, the base salaries like whatever team takes
that on, like the bassaries are really low. Jacksonville would
have to be really dumb. And you have an owner
that's doing dumb things, fired at GM and hired a

(04:52):
head coach without a GM. And they still as if
this date, what are we like it went on a Wednesday?
They still do Wednesday February nineteenth. So when this show
drops and you'll see the date, you know, somewhere below
or wherever you're listening or watching from. They still I
haven't seen a GM high. They had their list, their finalists,
but who does Omar Kahan call? Does he call the

(05:13):
other con con you know, like there's too much coning
going on. But I would take Trevor Lawrence and the
contract isn't like terrible. Let Jacksonville do all that stupid
stuff again. It's like when you trade, what are you
giving up in it? This is the guy that's a
top overall pick that's been This is the guy you
can make a legitimate argument for some of these other guys,

(05:34):
not so much their former first round picks. And you're like,
bad situation, but also bad player. This guy never lost
a game until he came to the pros. Then he
had Urban Meyer as a head coach. Like he's been
dealt a really bad hand. Now, if the Steelers really
did call, if Omar Khan really did call on this,
or he was doing his diligence, or however this leaked

(05:54):
because it's just nothing but a rumor. Could be agents
putting something out there too. Maybe Trippor isn't happy being
in Jacksonville.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
You never know.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Maybe the Steelers are trying to shake the trees. This
is the month of liars and this whole off season
because you go in to free agency, nobody wants to
show their cards. It's like, aha, now now we're dealing
new hands. Then's draft. Everybody's gonna lie about that too,
But good on them if they did check, because that
could be a viable long term solution at least for
two three four years, you would think before you honestly know,

(06:25):
if Trevor Lawrence just isn't good, but his ceiling is,
I believe, just so much higher than a lot of
the other players were going to talk about. It's like,
good if they did call. But this reeks bullshit. Oh yes,
for sure.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
It's just I said it last time around. It is.
It is the season of lies. Uh, it is. It
is the season of deceit. It is the season where
anybody can say anything for any reason and somebody will
pick it up. I you know, Adam Schefter could be
walking by, you know, a homeless guy, and he goes

(07:00):
Irvan Lawrence the Steelers, and he's like, I heard it.
I heard it.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Source source trust sorrow.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yeah, a source on the street. There you go, source
on the street.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, that's definitely a street source. Well the other one
that dropped. Okay, So right before that, I was like
ready to I was queuing up. I was actually recording,
and I was talking about Aaron Rodgers because we just
we we we kind of smoked that fool on the
last show just a little bit, but I had to
revisit and it's like he's the odds on favorite, and
it was like DraftKings sportsbook putting this out. So there,
it's you've got to understand only in the any age

(07:34):
of liars and speculation, this is all meant to do
certain things. There's nothing going on in the NFL right now,
right nothing, and nothing can go on unless somebody is
an unrestricted free agent, of which these contracts don't expire
until March whatever. Let me get the actual date here
in a minute. But it's still like a muff away
right before anybody can talk to anybody unless it's their
own players. They could resign their own players. So if

(07:55):
the Steelers want to bring back Russell Wilson or Justin Field,
so be it. And I'm really trying not to too
much about those two because that'll naturally come as we
talk about some of these other players. Right, So, Aaron Rodgers,
would you believe in a million years that Aaron Rodgers
not only is he gonna play in the NFL this
upcoming year. And if that's a yes, the Jets still

(08:16):
have to release them. Apparently they're the rumors out there
that they've informed him that he will not be there first. Yeah, yeah,
one of those post whatever cuts, but they got cut them.
And then will they wait until his just free agency
or they hold it close to the vest before they
have to take on some of these bonuses and payouts
and cap charges and maybe they get some sucker to trade,
like a six or seventh round pick that that team

(08:38):
probably desperately needs. You thought that they were very talented
coming into last year. The way they performed did not,
you know, reflect that. But Aaron Rodgers at forty two
years of age, who can't move, who is a statue.
Somebody said, oh, he put up better numbers than Russell Wilson.
I was like, did he?

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Though?

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Like, if you take Wilson over the full year, he
does better than you know, Aaron Rodgers. Say, Aaron Rodgers
had like DeVante Adams and Garrett Wilson, and he had
a better offensive line, and he should have had a
better court dator and he had brace Hall and all
this other stuff. He had better support around him and
didn't do anything. There ain't no way I'm taking air
and whatever money he's going to want He could end

(09:18):
up in a similar situation though, as the Russell Wilson
thing last year, where Denver owed Wilson all that money right,
and maybe Woody Johnson and the Jets, maybe some of
that money's still on the books and Rogers isn't as expensive.
I don't care. I still don't want him. He's going
to go to some dark cave and he's going to
you know, worship Xenu or something with candles and then

(09:40):
arrive at a decision as to whether or not he's
going to play in week six. Like the guy is
just he's so far out there anymore. I just he
reminds me of like Tom Cruise or something in Hollywood.
I just I wouldn't touch him with a forty foot
stick for all the trouble that he brings. And he's
not going to upgrade the position at all, and he's
not a long term solution, and he could be expensive. No,
I'm off the books.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
I'm just gonna say what I have said about Aaron
Rodgers for how many of years, mister overrated. I don't care.
He doesn't win an he won one super Bowl, he
doesn't win anything. Screw him. I don't want him, and
now he's now he's washed up mister overrated, So he's
not even good mister overrated, he's bad mister overrated. Yeah,

(10:23):
I'm out. It's it. There is no in my mind,
there is no universe where a synergy of Mike Tomlin
and Aaron Rodgers actually works. I think Mike Tomlin would
what's the what's the term that I can use safely? Something?
Something slap him silly? And I just can't. I don't,

(10:46):
I don't see it. I'm like, no, I'm out.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
I mean, he took forty sacks over seventeen games. It's
not really terrible.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Look, if I'm Aaron Rodgers, I'm done with this crap.
I'm like, I'm old. I got all kinds of money.
I don't need to do Jack. I can go beyond
the what's his face? The punter guy? What? I can't
remember his name. I never watched the damn show, so
I can't remember his name. Pat McAfee. His yeah, Pat McAfee,
that punter guy, pun guy.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
I had to reach for that because Pat McAfee to
me now is like he's in WWE. He's all over
to play College Game Day and everything else, I'm like
punter guy. That's like, yeah, that's three generations ago for
Pat mckwe.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
When he was playing punter guy. So you know, he
can go be on Pat McAfee and and do his
guest spots and he can. He can. He can try
and pretend he's still one of the cool kids. He's not.
He's old, and that's coming from someone old.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
I was trying to pull up some Rogers stats here
just because somebody out there will be like, no, you're crazy,
and I'm like, no, I'm not crazy. He threw five
hundred and eighty four past attempt sixty three percent, completed
three hundred almost thirty nine hundred yards, twenty eight touchdowns
to eleven interceptions. That's not a whole lot of production

(12:03):
from the old Aaron Rodgers. In fact, how many games
did he have He had won two three six games
where he did even throw for two hundred yards. He
had three games where he didn't throw a touchdown at all.
This season he did appear in every game, so I
mean it was at least, you know, semi healthy. He

(12:24):
had several games, let me see about half of them.
Doing the maps with Joe here, but trying to do
it abbreviated, so I don't count out loud like Sesame
Street like AH one game, I mean Denver got to
him five times. In September, Buffalo got to him four.
He had multiple games where he took three sacks. Sometimes
that's those aren't like necessarily the worst numbers in the world.

(12:47):
He fumbled five times during the season, lost two of them.
He doesn't really run babile and age wise. Okay, I
called him forty two. I'm sorry, he's actually forty one.
He'll be forty two and on December second, so I
accelerated his age. But how many dudes north of.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Forty oldest forty one year old you've ever met?

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Got to be like one of the oldest guys? Is
there somebody older than him in the NFL right now?
I don't think that they're I mean i'd have to
reach a kicker or somebody's old on.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
His face on the screen in standard view and look
at him and put him next to somebody who's sixty
five or sixty three or sixty two even you know,
some really attractive sixty two year old human being, and
you'll go which one of these guys is olders? And
the answers. It's Aaron Rodgers. The Miles. The Miles have
warn him he's worn.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Just so you know, folks, he's talking. Brian's talking about
himself here as but everybody he does. He looks like,
thank you.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
For recognizing that I'm an incredibly attractive sixty two year
old in.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
I've got some The salt and pepper here has been
coming in for years. I think I had this in
my late thirties already. Like you know the same, the
male pattern, baldness and everything like that, geneticstics, genetics. Thanks dad,
you know so oh well, you know you live with
it age gracefully. I know I'm not going to play
quarterback for anybody next year, We'll put it that way.
But Aaron Rodgers. So it's like, you got all this speculation,

(14:12):
there's a there's another one that maybe fall out of
your chair when it's even mentioned. Please don't hurt yourself
on this one, Brian. Let's let's just bring up let's
just bring up the slide. Oh good god, Daniel Jones. No,
he is now linked to the Steelers. Are interesting. I
know that he got cut from the Giants, and who

(14:34):
did he even play for at the end of the year.
Last year, I don't even heard about he was on
the biking that's right, Yeah, yeah, because they Oh man,
I'll tell you what. At the backtrack, go look at this.
You know, everybody was calling him. Everybody was calling him
Danny Dimes. And I'm like, do I have this wrong, dude?

(14:55):
You know, the Daniel Jones. Could he be a fit
for the Steelers? And I started to look at numbers.
I know, sometimes I get too deep in the stats.
It's like, you got to have these intangibles. But you
take a look at what he did and it's like, Okay,
he had a year here where he threw for He's
never really thrown for a lot. His first season, he

(15:16):
had twenty four touchdowns of twelve interceptions. Hasn't really played
like twenty twenty three. He missed a lot of games.
Last year. He was cut loose early. He had two
thousand and seventy yards eight touchdowns of seven interceptions. The
previous year he only had nine hundred and nine yards
six or two touchdowns and six interceptions. The previous year, though,
thirty two hundred and five yards, sixty seven percent completion percentage,

(15:39):
fifteen touchdowns, five interceptions, but wait, man, he's got this
other intangible. That same year he ran for seven hundred
and eight yards and seven touchdowns, Like so he could
run the football too, Brian, you know, that sounds an
awful lot like we were making the same arguments for
just just justin fields. That's who it sounds like, I mean,

(16:04):
and justin fields. To me, he has fewer starts, So
Dandy dimes here is sixty nine nice sixty nine starts
in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
So he's got like ends on too.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, pretty much, right, right, So so he's got he's
got twenty five more starts to justin fields. If I'm
gonna give anybody a shadow of a doubt as to
whether or not they're gonna break through that ceiling, you know,
change the scene rate can help anybody. You know, he
had Brian day bole. They he had Saque at one point.

(16:35):
They fumbled that too. There's a lot of good arguments
there for bad. The Giants have been like just bad
perpetually for the last decade, for being such a storied franchise.
I feel bad. I feel bad for them, But how
do they dig out of that well? I'm hoping that
the Steelers don't end up in the same run, and
I feel like that they're already there, Brian, because we
take a look around, it's just the names we're already saying.

(16:56):
We're like, reject, reject, reject. No, not gonna happen. And
we're gonna we'll look at potential people in the draft too,
and we're gonna be talking about this to the cows.
Come home, because you have now arrived. At mid nineties,
early two thousands Pittsburgh Steelers, a decade of Mike tom zach. Hey.
He looked good for the other team, for our opponent,

(17:17):
he he beat our butt. He'll be good for Mark
Malone looked good for a year. Mark Malone got to
the AFC title game. Yeah, for a year. So if
Mark Malone oh for seven, three, five, nine six two
jumps in the comments again, we're we're building up your
boy there.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Really you have his number?

Speaker 1 (17:34):
No, No, it's it's like some troll.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
He's gonna be impressed as hell. Man, he's gonna be like, wow,
you got you got that number down. I miss I
miss Mark Malone ninety seven eight five four three oh
one or whatever his number is. You know, I haven't
been called a ball lickor in a in a couple
of weeks.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
So, hey, well, I don't think there's anybody that we're
gonna be ball licking on this list necessarily. I think
still we're going to find out as we come back
around that the best choices that bring one of the
two back Russell Wilson just the fields, because we are
on that point in the ride. We are at the
Let's find Tommy Maddox, the XFL MVP for the only

(18:11):
season that league operated in like two thousand or two
thousand and one. Let's let's drap Cordell Stewart out of
Colorado and Cordell ahead of his time, and you know,
maybe in a different era he it was the big
games with Cordell, right, Cordell, just the big game with
the turnovers. It does sound familiar, doesn't It sounds familiar

(18:33):
as of late, and somebody we idolized its going into
Hall of Fame too, But also it sounds familiar from
he who shall not be named. The dame begins with
his initials are n D and it's not an ordered
dame or n oh, I should say, as in no,
we don't.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Want him, as in no, let's not talk about him.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
No, let's not talk about him and kick Graham high
priced free it. Remember back then it was like three years,
fifteen million dollars something like that, and it's like, wow,
that was like a large quarterback contract for the time.
And yeah, that didn't happen either. They gave They gave
Niel a lot of money too. Back then he was
making double Rod Woodson, which is just insane when you
think about it, like he was making.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Good money and then left for even better money.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
That's where we're at. I mean, who knows where Charlie Batch.
Charlie Batch gets picked up. You never know if Charlie
Batch was thought of as another reclamation project, a guy
that was highly drafted. I think second round everybody was
the top fifty I believe if I recall four year
starter in Detroit and kind of just like a five
hundred ball kind of guy. And that's you know, we
take a look at some of the guys in the draft,

(19:33):
especially the ones that are going to be available to
the Steelers. I don't expect the higher ceiling than Mason Rudolph.
I expect like probably more like ALANTR.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Jones.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
By the time you get some of these guys, because
you know Shad or Sanders. You look at the teams
who have needs are at the top of the draft. Well,
the Browns do something, you know, they move on from
Deshaun Watson went picked two. You got, the Raiders are
in there, the Giants are in there, right, A couple
others maybe not as many opportunities this year. That's why
the free age. Yeah, two potential. Here's here's how bad

(20:04):
the quarterback class is this year. There is a mock
draft by a major sports ESPN guy or NFL guy
analyst who has three running backs going in the first round.
When's the last time three running backs went in the
first round? Uh?

Speaker 2 (20:22):
You know we used to have. Wasn't that long ago?
We were having conversations, will any running backs go in
the first round? There are so few quarterbacks that they
got three quarterbacks or three three running backs in the
first round. It's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
No, there's you got Did you see did you see
the same one that I did where the Steelers and Chargers,
picking back to back, both took running back and.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Then the next guy took Trevon Henderson.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
And then Travion and then and then a Mecca Buca
went to see Seattle like at twenty five, and I said,
there's no way Abuka gets past twenty one with the Steelers.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, there's no way.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
There's no way they're gonna take running if they resigned
Jalen Warren or not she Harris, which Jalen more likely
can be restricted.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Travion Henderson is not a first round pick.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
No, no, I don't mean I love I.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Love Trevion Henderson as a third round pick, but in
a first round pick.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
No, no, it's Trevion even the best running back on
the Ohio State roster on that championship team Stata Bull.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Right, he's a different kind of back, right, He's the
one that has He's the breakaway, he's the not to
compare him to Saque, but he's the Saque of the group. Right,
he has breakaway speed. Judkins is more of a Naji
type back. Right, he's more power. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Ashton gent from Boise State was the pick for the Steelers.
And then the other top guy whose name is escaped
because running back is not on my Bengo card, at
least not that early. I mean to me, that's I
didn't want to get in a running back. But that's
like taking Todd Gurley maybe or what's his name in Indianapolis.

(21:54):
Guys with a lot of I mileage to them so
and then come into the pros and and end up
injury prone or something. I don't know, I'm not I
feel like there's so many teams that get a lot
of mileage. I mean, Jayleen Warren was undrafted. We'll leave
it at that. But yeah, with the quarterback situation, like
Sanders already gone, like top ten Cam Warred out of Miami,

(22:15):
He's already gone. And then you see names like you know,
like Jackson Dart or Quinn Ewers or Jalen. Milro's one
where everybody wants to make him the next Jalen Hurts,
and Jalen Hurts wasn't Jalen Hurts. And I don't think
Milroe is gonna be Hurts, Like I don't. Milroe to
me just doesn't project to be a uh an NFL starter.
I know he's got like some I just don't think

(22:37):
he was good in college. Like maybe it's somebody that's
the fellow.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Think about last season, was there anybody lighting it up
that you were like, that's the dude, that's the dude.
Everybody's gonna be after it.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
A dude, there's nobody that's like in the you look
in the legacy of the last you know, twenty five years,
there's not like a Hayton Manning. There's not like a
Andrew luck coming out. There's not a Joe Burrow coming out.
Even Trevor Lawrence. There isn't somebody like that in this class.
Arguably there really wasn't last season either, but you had
a number of like super seniors due to the the

(23:15):
COVID rules and everything. So quinn Ewers mentioned Riley Leonard, like,
I love seeing these names because Riley Leonard's a guy
to me, he could fall like he could go on drafted.
You know, it reminds you of like we're talking about
Matt Carral a few years ago, or somebody like that.
Will Howard in the.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Fourth, in the fourth, That's what I'm doing, Will Howard in.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
The fourth, Dylan Gabriel. But yeah, but where does that
get you. He's not gonna start Week one for the Steelers,
He's probably not gonna start at all next season, and
they're still gonna This is a bridge year by all means,
whether they take a developmental quarterback or not. How many
guys get drafted middle rounded and Dupp. I don't want

(23:57):
to hear Tom Brady. I don't want to hear Brock Purdy.
Dak Prescott probably should have gotten drafted a little sooner,
but Jerry Jones is willing to forego all, like, you know,
the stuff that's out there in the media or whatever,
take chances on guys. Randy Gregory was one of those guys, right,
and that didn't work out. But you know, Dak Prescott,

(24:18):
that just ended up being a lot of smoking mirrors
and whatever. But very few, very few. You might get
a second rounder that's a serviceable guy, but most of
the time your elite players Lamar Jackson's the bottom of
the first round. Okay, almost everybody's got to be a
top ten, top five pick. It's because of how these

(24:38):
teams are tripping and falling over each other in order
to get that surefire guy it's going to be the
face of his franchise for fifteen plus years. And there's
just one of those guys on this list.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
I think it has to do more. And I'm just
telling you, like you look at the exceptions to the rule, right,
and those guys tend to fit a system that works, right,
the team builds the system around those guys, or they
fit within the system that that team has, and and
and they just work. You know, tom Brady goes to
a different team. Is Tom Brady tom Brady? Maybe not right?

(25:13):
He just happened to be in in a system that
fit what he could do. Built Belichick and the offensive
coordinators at the time that he was working there knew
how to get the most out of him, and he
excelled it within that system, you know. But he goes
someplace else. Does he even ever start? You never know, right,
So you don't know, Like, and that's why I say

(25:34):
Will Howard in the fourth you don't know. Will Howard
showed some signs, right, Is he ideal candidate for the NFL? Hell? No?
You know, he makes some bad decisions. He doesn't always
read the field well. He misses guys that are wide open.
But on the plus side, he's got a little bit
of juice in his legs. He's a little elusive, and
he's got a decent arm. Not the best, but decent. Right,

(25:57):
Maybe you catch fire with one of these guys, but
that's what it is. You catch fire. You get lucky. Right.
The point you're trying to make is Yeah, if you're
really looking for the pedigree guys, they're top they're top
ten guys, and they very rarely slide out of that.
So there's just and there's nothing. This is not the year.

(26:17):
This is like worse than the Kenny Pickett year.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well, it's just not precisely, that's precisely like we're already
what I met, while we're already here. This is where
your stop is. You are here on this ride. Mitch Drubisky,
can he picket? You know you've already had the Justin Fields,
Russell Wilson, Mason Rudolph. You've had the guy that was
on your roster for a little while that you took
in the middle rounds, tried to develop, didn't turn into
franchise quarterback. You had a guy you took with the

(26:42):
with your top pick, top of the class. It's like, wow,
that would have been awesome if it worked out. Didn't
work out, because that's the way a lot of this
stuff plays out. You gotta guy what number two overall
and then number seven overall, two former Bears. It didn't
work for the Bears, probably not working for the Steelers either.
And then Russell Wilson, who's been around forever, and he's
one of the few examples of a middle round guy

(27:05):
that's done better. And he was because he did because
he did what he did and and you know, at
a much younger age, albeit it gave some new what
do you want to say life to smaller quarterbacks. And
we're finding out that russ is also an exception to
the rule like Drew Brees was when it comes to
the smaller quarterbacks in the NFL. So I will say

(27:27):
this much about Will Howard and I know we're Buck guys.
Homer's here and he had four years with Kansas State
in the one year with the Buckeys last year and
an explosive ass offense. Right, he did throw for twenty
four touchdowns at Kansas State in twenty twenty three, but
the dude has fifty games in college over five years.

(27:48):
That's the kind of stuff you want to see. You
don't want these guys to have like twenty four collegiate
starts and then you try and trot them out there. Right,
that's usually the kiss of death when it comes to
your college quarterbacks is when they don't have the experience.
You've got three years of cam Ward with thirty eight games,

(28:08):
but he's thrown three thousand, you know, thirty two hundred yards,
thirty seven hundred yards, forty three hundred yards, thirty nine touchdowns.
Last year, however, Canny Pickett was an older guy coming
out right five years at pitt and he had broken
Morino's record. He at forty three hundred yards forty two
touchdowns to seven interceptions. It was almost like one of

(28:29):
those things where the mistakes of my forefathers, and everyone's
sitting at the draft table, Rooney sitting there and they're like,
we don't want to make the Dan Marino mistake of
the early eighties with the draft with eighty two. Draft
was at eighty two, eighty four, eighty four, maybe it
was somewhere there because then Malone went the AFC title
game and lost to Marino.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Right, So.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Funny how that works out. They already had a guy.
Malone was the first round pick, if I'm not mistaken.
So and they've invested in people and it's like, well,
this is the guy that we hitched our saddles to.
Let's go defense. It didn't work out with Gabe Rivera,
so there's just we talk about this, we'll have another show.
Probably at some point we relook at all of you know,

(29:13):
Kenny Pickett's much like the Bills ufflo of Bills for years,
went through all of this too. They took EJ. Manuel
and he was the only guy in the first round
of his draft class. Feel bad for him. Didn't work out,
and you know he got maybe another cup of coffee
somewhere else and then done. But one thing I do
want to do. Bruh, Well, go ahead, Brian, you got
some more thoughts on the college.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
You're too kind. That's all I'm gonna say. You're too kind.
You feel bad for all these people. I don't feel
bad for any of them. They got a chance to
blame in the NFL, and so great, they made more
money than I'm going to make in my lifetime in
a few years. Great, I don't feel bad for any
of them.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Well, you know what it depends like if your first
round pick, Yeah, I mean Brock Purdy, I don't know, man,
you make like he's going to six hundred thousand. He
will now, but let's just say he never got a
chance to play. And it's like, okay, you got in
the NFL. Nobody remembers who you are because you were,
you know, mister irrelevant. And then he makes you know,
six figures for a couple of years, and hopefully you're

(30:06):
wise with that money and don't piss it all away
or else. Then it doesn't mean a hill of beans
if he made more than me or you, because he's
irresponsible with it. You see that so many times. I
think it's a little bit of a fallacy. Yeah, it's
a fallacy.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Sometimes.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Not everybody's making that Aaron Rodgers money, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Of course not you.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Don't have a yacht. They're not on a boat like
Odell Beckham junior in.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yeah, I mean, the bottom line is, you know, you
don't you know, colleges are not breeding NFL quarterbacks anymore, right,
So you know, when you find one that you can
make work and fit and and and put into the
system or build around you, go for it. They thought
that was the case with Kenny Pickett, and it didn't
turn out to be. Whether it was because he was

(30:46):
a whiny little you know what and didn't want to compete,
or whether none of that's true and he just you know,
they just soured on him. He never he never really
play that well, right, I mean, he had those moments
where you were kind of going, wow, that feels kind
of cool, kind of magically got us on a comeback.

(31:06):
But you know, at the same time, and I remember
saying this at the time, three quarters of el Stinko
for one quarter of pretty good is not going to
balance out in the long run.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yeah, and unfortunate. That was a lot of the case.
And you never know if you give grows into anything else.
But there's only there's such a such a thin line
of patience, you know, when it comes to the NFL.
Coach doesn't do well, he's usually gone. And I know
that's what people think. Oh and you just recycle and
get somebody new and hopefully you catch lightning in a
bottle and get lucky. But there's teams that haven't even

(31:41):
played in the Super Bowl that have yet to capture
that same kind.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Of Cleveland anything. Yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
And you've tried everything to talk about the quarterback carousel
there and not having a franchise guy really since Artie Kozar.
So that's we've seen a jersey with the names that
go right down, you know, all the way by by,
by the way, Deshaun Watson is not on the table
for the Steelers. Don't even bring it up.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Oh come really, somebody somebody brought that up.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
I've seen, I've I've seen it in passing. I wish,
I wish, I wish I could just bro.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
I I feel dumber having heard that.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
I you know, the things I see sometimes, you know,
just running the social media stuff for SU is incredible.
Some of the stuff that people send through comments and
messages and d ms and hate mail and texts and
everything else that we get. Let's go through because apparently

(32:39):
no one's off limits, but we could say some teams are.
I'm going to go through division by division. I'm gonna
start with the NFC and the NFC East, which has
the champion Eagles. Jalen Hurts No. And even so there's
still I got to repeat this in case people hadn't
tuned into a prior episode, Jalen Hurts goes. If if
Jalen Hurts goes to the Steelers and he's behind Ben Roethlisberger,

(33:00):
he doesn't play, probably doesn't have the same career trajectory.
Who knows if he's even on this roster right now.
A lot of it's the opportunity, the timing, everything else.
So when they have it settled, they took Saquon and
turned to a running football team. So Hurtz doesn't lead
the league in interceptions this year and it worked out,
it paid dividends. They also have had some kick ass

(33:21):
defensive drafts. So if you say defense doesn't win games,
I dare you to turn on that Super Bowl and
say something otherwise. Especially Man and I was just talking
to somebody about this the other day and it was like,
when you're on Mitchell, he's a Mac guy out of Toledo, right,
That's why he falls where he does. And then let's

(33:42):
just look at that oh Man and Dejen Dejen he
was injured at Iowa and coming out and how all
this just falls into place for the damn Eagles and
they're able to take those risks. They had the good base.
Hopefully the Steelers can have that. Hopefully they have a
foundation like this. Maybe you get a serviceable quarterback. I
think you're gonna find it on any of these other
NFL rosters. So Cowboys, Dak Prescott's not going to be available.

(34:04):
There's nobody to call there, and the hypothetical, yeah, it's
the same hypothetical, as is Trevor Lawrence thing that omar
CON's gonna pick up the phone. Who's available? The Giants,
we already know they're looking for one. We talked about
Daniel Jones the Eagles. No, not not not bringing Picket
back either. The commanders, come.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
On, Jane Daniels, he's stunk, He'll he'll be he's he's overrated,
he'll be traded. Sure we can get him for a song.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
No. Well, there is the argument that Jaydon Dane who
knew Jaydon Daniels was going to be Jaydon Daniels coming
out of college.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
And I just don't see what.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Hold on? I will, I will let you know. He
was in the first round, as was absolutely everybody second overall. Right,
that's right, there you go. Why am I drawing a
blank on that?

Speaker 2 (34:50):
It was? The question was why I was gonna let
you struggle with it.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, you know what, sometimes man, the coffee doesn't kick
in early enough for me. But yeah, a lot of
this forgetful, Like Caleb Williams is in a memorable draft
pick for me. Could he be a guy he's meant
to be because he's top overall? Drake May was Drake
mayor Reach. He made the Pro Bowl. He's got a
really bad roster. I mean, apparently everybody that you know, you.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Know, nobody want to show up. I decided to pass
though I didn't. I didn't. I I politely did not
take the inventa Brian.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Brian was too busy, uh for the Pro Bowl. Couldn't
do the Pro Bowl. Shame.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
So now we're in the North and we've had a
number of phone calls with the Bears of we as
though as working in the front office. But we've talked
me and you have talked about the Bears. O Marcone
and the Steelers are the ones making that phone call,
and the Bears are just not answering anymore.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
I don't think.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Detroit Lions Jared Goff no, but he's been serviced. But
what I'm saying is too, is like I'll make Cord
bets if he's not going anywhere. There's nobody there Green
Bay Packers and Jordan love No and going there. I'm
not even sold that he's like the right move. But
they're winning some games. Vikings have an interesting one. But
we have arrived here on the ride too, where the

(36:10):
Minnesota Vikings a few years ago had Sam Bradford, they
had Teddy Bridgewater, and those guys get hurt, and then
they had case Keenum and they are a bad call
away from progressing possibly to the super Bowl. And then
all of a sudden, none of those three guys come
back the next year, and they bring in Kirk Cousins

(36:32):
and give him one of the largest contracts a free
agent quarterback has ever received at they three years, ninety
six mel and then they extend them after that it's
still hadn't paid off. Now they have a coaching change.
They draft JJ McCarthy. Sam Darnold was a one year
let's kind of maybe he starts and then McCarthy eases
in and only cow we won fourteen games and one

(36:57):
and done. But now you see the thing with Donald,
a guy that was number three overall was him and
Mayfield number two overall, number three, yeah, somewhere in there,
and how many teams he's played on, and I don't
look at Sam Donald. They're talking about whether they're going
to franchise tag Sam Donald in Minnesota to begin with,

(37:18):
and what kind of money he might come in. And
I got to remind people of Justin Jefferson and Addison
and all these guys that are there, that are in
hocketson that are catching the football for this guy, do
they risk Do they risk it and put McCarthy in there.
And we're talking about Daniel Jones just being there, but
he was there because they needed somebody behind Donald in

(37:38):
case Darnald got hurt. So his likelihood of returning there
is probably nil. Jones is gonna try and get a
second chance somewhere, maybe, but it'll offer it up. I
don't know, but yeah, McCarthy probably isn't gonna go anywhere either.
They know they got their ace up their sleeve, and
they may bring Donald back and spin the wheels on him,
and if he's terrible, have an out in the contract.

(38:01):
They just part with the bunny and McCarthy slides in there.
Maybe he takes the tour, you know, it's the relay race.
They hand him the baton and he goes from there.
But who knows. McCarthy could be bad too, And we
don't talk about that university up north.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yeah, we don't do that. Look, I'll give you this,
if if Russ signs elsewhere, Let's say Russ goes and
plays with the Raiders and Justin signs elsewhere, and Daniel
Jones is putting around and putting around and putting around,
and they don't have anybody. You know, maybe Daniel Jones

(38:34):
comes in on a one year deal for next to
nothing because nobody else will take him. That's the scenario
where they're gonna get a Daniel Jones is when they
fail to get one of the guys they actually want,
but they're not getting They're not getting anybody else from
any other team, Like, you know, are they getting Geno Smith? No?
Are they getting brock Purdy?

Speaker 1 (38:53):
No?

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Are they getting Kyler Murray. No, they're not getting anything.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
I'm going through the rest here right in, some of
the guys not available and whatnot. And just by the way,
I had Jaydeon Daniels still up on my screen fifty
five college starts, just to give you an idea of
the experience factor. Sam Darnold at USC two year starter,

(39:17):
twenty seven games, and then mis Trubisky kind of territory too.
If I bring Trubisky up, he was what a three
year guy up at North Carolina thirty four starts. He
had a little bit more, But you want a guy
that's got between forty and fifty you know games, some
guys will have just a little bit more because they
have postseason. Maybe guys have played five years, didn't come
out of college early. So Jaydan Daniels, a five year

(39:39):
guy in college makes a huge, huge, huge difference. So
let me probably like blast through some of these little
faster in others. We just we just trounced Kirk Cousins
when it comes to the Falcons, and they have panics there,
so Cousins might be available, But talk about another guy
that's overpriced in a statue probably beyond this statue of

(40:01):
limitations of even looking into somebody like that. We put
it this way, if you thought I didn't like Aaron Rodgers,
I'll take Aaron Rodgers ten out of ten over Kirk
Cousins at this point. So maybe nine out of ten,
maybe I'll give that one chance to Kirk cutten. No,
not really. Carolina Panthers didn't they just resign Andy Dalton.
They're bringing the old red rifle back. Yeah, there was

(40:22):
a two year deal out there for Dalton, just got
re signed. But you know they're still trying to do
it with Brent Bryce Young. He's shown he's flashed here there.
It's still not all the way. It's another guy that
was like top of his draft, the Saints, Derek Carr.
We saw what happened without car there. Spencer Rattler. Remember,
people were like, you gotta go get Spencer Rattler, Gotta

(40:43):
get Spencer Ratler. He could be the next gotta be
the next big thing. This is the guy that Steelers
could develop.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
And I know.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
The Saints aren't all that in a bag of chips,
but still just shows you. How about the Buccaneers with Mayfield.
Kyle Trask was drafted stucond round behind Brady. It is
just never it never slid him into that spot. Somebody
there knows something behind the scenes that says, we don't
hear that guy's name. It all for being a second
round pick. So no, we're not knocking, we're not We're

(41:13):
not coming looking for any of these guys. And then
you mentioned Kyle Kyler Murray. I've seen that one float
around Steelers. Maybe. No, No, he's just another.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
A little teeny tiny man.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
No, he is a younger version of Russell Wilson without
any of the accolades, and worse accuracy and smaller. He
might be smaller.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
Like so there's this there's this virtual reality game that
I like to play, this walk about mini golf that
I play.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
Oh yeah, on the on the Quest, Yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
And now they have this mini mode and you can
and I just pretend I'm Kyler Murray and the ball
is like this ginormous and I'm Kyler Murray and I'm putting.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
I haven't fired up the headset for a while. That's
a great game. By the way, I'll give it a plug.
I get paid nothing to say so, but maybe I
recommended it to you at one time. Maybe I used
to know you that it is. It really feels like
you're playing in like a nature golf course. It's awesome.
The Rams, Matt Stafford's name comes up a lot. That's
why I go through all the teams, because I forgot

(42:15):
about him three four years ago rad as Ben was retiring.
You remember my famous words, I'm like, I like Matt Stafford.
He's just been saddled with a lot of bad Lions
teams and injuries with those teams and himself. And you
put this guy on a team and they did with
the Rams, with some weapons, with the offensive minded coach,
and they went a ring and he came out. He

(42:35):
was available a year too soon for the Steelers to
have taken a stab at him. He comes with a
price tag, he now comes older, expensive injury history.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
It's not some of the options that are out there.
I take Matt Stafford over almost all of them except
Russell and Justin right, and the reason is Russell and
Justin are coming with the only cost being money. Right,
I don't is Stafford going to be a free agent
or is he going to cost us more than that?

(43:08):
As a trade guy.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's another one of these informed
that I'm moving on. But are It's like Justin Fields
was informed and then no teams were That's the other thing.
I don't know what fields his market is. They're playing
for the Steelers really increase his asking value or whatever. Now, Like,
I don't think that it did. I don't think it
changed anything from last year where teams were unwilling to

(43:31):
part with, you know, a Day three draft pick to
acquire them, except for the Steelers. After and I know
we we went over the semantics of panicking or whatever,
but they're just like it was that knee jerk reaction
of not even knee jerk reaction. It was immediacy of
Kenny Pickett's a he's been a dick and we got
to get rid of him, and we need somebody else.

(43:54):
And that's about the best way of explaining it. I
liked Matt Stafford, but Matt Stafford's thirty seven. He's not
gonna run around much more than.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
It's a stopgap. I mean, it's the same thing we're
talking about with Cousins, and we're talking about with Aaron Rodgers.
He's at the end of his career. I like him
better than I like either one of those guys. I
think he may have more left in the tank than
either one of those guys. But let's not be you know,
let's not kid ourselves. He's your bridge, yeah, you know. Yeah,
And whoever you bring in, you almost hope they stink

(44:26):
so that you can actually draft a good quarterback.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
That's so funny that you mentioned that, because that's the
thought of the thought of twenty twenty five, Like I
don't want to waste another year of Cam Hayward and TJ.
Watt and micka Fitzpatrick. But you almost are, like Toma
needs a losing season, so these guys are somewhere with
and everybody's like tank, tank, tank, and they're never going
to tank. They're always they've got enough.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
They haven't.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
They're not so bad that they're gonna win only four
games unless there's a lot of injuries. Even when they're
playing all of those backups in twenty nineteen and had
Duck Hodges in there, even they still were that close
to making the playoffs, and so that almost got us
all the way through the NFC there was just the
forty nine Ers and the Seahawks remaining. And unless we

(45:10):
want Joshua Dobbs back from the forty nine Ers, there
really isn't anything there or Drew Locke or somebody like that.
There's nobody there on those teams that the Steelers should
be picking up the phone for either. Nope, I agree,
I know you agree. And before I before I jump
over to the AFC on my phone. Here, Eric Edholm,

(45:32):
another one of these NFL draft gurusover NFL dot Com
or whatever it says, the Steelers are one of seven
teams for that they're in the running for Shador Sanders
out of Colorado. Dion's kid. He's another guy where I
have his nubbers up. Yeah, four thousand yards thirty seven touchdowns.

(45:53):
All that stuff is just you know, wonderful. But he
has twenty four collegiate starts. I mean, do we really
know who somebody like a chador Sanders is. Like. Those
are the kind of things that like really disturb me
about the draft because we could talk about size or

(46:14):
strength or you know, all of the things that are
immeasurables six two, two fifteen. No, he's not a giant,
but he's also not teeny tiny on the quarterback spectrum.
But as we go through the AFC, there are some
physical specimens that haven't necessarily panned out. I'm gonna jump
over a little uncharacteristically to one of your favorite guys,

(46:36):
Will the Will levis Is of the world, because what
the Tennessee do is he panned out.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Before you do that. Though that let me just give
me you my two cents on SDAR. Okay, Sanders, if
he's there at twenty one, maybe you take a shot,
but you don't move up to get him. You don't
give up anything to get him. That's it.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
I might be okay with that. Would you take him
over like one of these top flight receivers, because you
still need somebody to.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Be with one of the receiver.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
I don't know, man, I'm in love with the Buka.
I can't. I can't lie, so I mean, I don't.
I just don't see that far. The draft is a Buka.
That's that's it's a Buka.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
And you know what, what's the little stupid draft day
thing that I'll have up eventually, Buka no matter what.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Look drafting soonity. But then on the insanity you're taking
Abuka like seventeen times because you've acquired eighty picks though,
But we'll we'll do that. We might do more than
one of this year.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
I'll replace I'll replace the entire team. That's great.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
I'll be up for contract at the same time, exactly.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
I mean screwed well.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
Mason Rudolph's new home where you got to play a
little bit, and you know you had the Callahan is
it Brian Callahan? I always get having the dad confused.
But the former o C from the Bengals, they got
the new coach, they was supposed to develop Levis, they
benched them for Rudolph. Nothing looked good there. The whole
team kind of stinks, and I wouldn't. There was just
somebody on social media saying, hey, maybe they should inquire

(48:04):
about Will Levis, Like that's like inquiring for a like uh,
Kenny Pickett with bigger hands.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
Maybe maybe I don't want anybody who considers themselves dreamy.
I'm out on the will Lestrauss. I don't I don't
want I don't want that used pair of pants. I'm
out out.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
And you look at like the Colts. They went and
took Anthony Richardson, athletic guy. He took himself out of
a game, like like is he there? Like is he
gonna about anything? We talked about Trevor Lawrence with Jacksonville.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
C J.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Stroud with the Texans. I mean the South is a
pretty good deal. In a heartbeat, yeah, I know you would.
They're not going to the A the AFC East. Three
of the four teams already really locked up to. I
mean Josh Allen, he's not with Buffalo and he's not
going anywhere they have. Trubisky's a backup to a Taka Loo.
I'm not going anywhere near I wouldn't go near to
a Dolphins made a huge deal with him. Drink May

(48:58):
rookie with the Patriot well now six ear player at
the Patriots. Jets have a big undecided, big question mark.
A lot of people are like, oh, Justin Field's will
go there, It'll be a great fit for them, And
it's like, yeah, so they could go and draft somebody
else next year, of course, and just keep They'll just
keep recycling trying to find a quarterback for twenty years. Also,
you go to the AFC North, there's nobody in the

(49:18):
AFC North that's trade partner's door. Would they be even
if there was someone that were available, shot, not even
worth wasting breath. Of course, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson
are settled in their positions. The Browns are never settled.
But Browns aren't trading the Steelers the number two pick.
That'd be the craziest thing I'd ever seen. It would
have to be some like real wild It.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Will happen in mock draft insanity.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
It would, it will, It will mean. It has to.
It has to. It's a given. Unless you get another
team to trade with Cleveland, and then they trade with
that team trades with the Steelers, so that might work.
And then just finally it's just like the reason I
did NFC first, there were a few more targets, and
it's more likely that an NFC quarterback is going to
come over to the AFC if there were a transaction,

(50:02):
particularly a trade you don't want. The AFC is not
gonna set somebody within the same conference, usually unlikely devor
Broncos got their guy with Bo Nicks. I think at
least somebody that they're gonna be attached to for the
next few seasons. Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes, Chargers with Justin Herbert,
and then the Raiders have an undecided situation there as well.

(50:23):
So there's a few. The AFC, although more settled, also
has probably more of the question marks on the quarterback
side of the equation than even the NFC has. Albeit
the Rams, like, I don't know what the Rams are
thinking of doing. They usually give their draft picks away.
So are they gonna go and like try and land

(50:44):
like Kirk Cousins or somebody. Are the Raiders gonna try
and go after Russell Wilson. That's what people say. There's
always all these links, there's always all this speculation and rumors.
We've just speculated on all thirty two teams and we've
pretty much come to the conclusion. You could take your
lot of your your daily lotto numbers and maybe have
a chance at hitting at somebody in the draft, but

(51:06):
I wouldn't count on that replacing your day job necessarily.
In order to put an analogy out there to the Steelers,
would they be in the market for a quarterback, They're
gonna have to sign somebody, signed somebody else probably to
be a backup, and then maybe draft somebody to be
duble developmental. Could it be all three new players could be?

(51:27):
Could be. We didn't mention Kyle McCord either, a Syracuse
but he falls like way down the line too on
this draft.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Buka in the first, will Howard in the fourth. There
you go, I don't know, man, I'm not sold on
trade up with Buck Guys, my friend, it's it's just.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
I don't know. And I was talking about that too.
It's like how many like Philadelphia is old Georgia, so
why not. But Steelers haven't had as much Ohio state
flavor recently. There was like a few years there where
they were kind of like beating around the bush at
guys like they got San Antonio and then they brought
Cam Hayward in and a few others they had like
Will Allen, Yeah Shazier, So that they definitely derand Grant,

(52:09):
who's most famous play was like a preseason game. But
just in closing, it's like bringing back wilsoner Field isn't
necessarily the worst thing. Obviously, I prefer Russell, the experienced veteran.
I felt he played better. I can give you all
the reasons why. That's a whole show in its of itself. Fields,
I mean, if you're gonna live or die with that,
so be it. I don't expect anything much more than

(52:31):
what we saw with like Kenny Pickett, maybe just a
tanch more. He does use his feet, but it also
replaces some of the passing. Maybe he can move the
chains a little bit. Maybe if they do that and
they don't take a stab at quarterback, maybe they're putting
some more players on the field to build a better team.
So maybe you find that quarterback in the following year.
Just really depends on what these guys are going to cost.

(52:54):
And I feel like Wilson and Fields are both gonna
want like long, longer term deals. They're gonna like three years,
what player doesn't and what that security, And.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
That's that's where you get to. So, like I know
you're partial to Russ I'm not partial to either one,
but I probably lean more Justin than I do Russ.
And the reason simply being that if you're gonna sign
one of those guys to a a three year deal,
I'd kind of rather it was the young guy. And
I think, just in my own, in my own world,

(53:26):
in my own little universe, I think you get Justin cheaper.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
You might, but do you? But that's like one of
the only thing. I see two things when people like
put Fields ahead of Wilson, Actually I see a couple more.
I'll go through. One of them is people say, well,
they were four and two and look what they did
earlier in the season, and they didn't really give them
a chance. Let's pump our brakes. They get based on
Rudolph a chance and not even if we're out there

(53:53):
begging for a guy that dealers at a first round
grade on supposedly moved up in the draft in the
third round, the leap over Cincinnati in order to go
get But we're gonna do this for Justin Fields already
has forty four starts. Now, Justin Fields already has an
NFL career before coming to Pittsburgh. He has six starts,
but don't forget he had three preseason games in an
entire training camp. He had his audition all the way through,

(54:14):
and those last three games just they weren't cutting it,
and Rust comes in. Everything's great until it's not. And
there's a variety of reasons for that. That doesn't necessarily
sell me on him for the future. But I do
feel if there's a guy you're gonna ride with, and
then over the next two three years you have an
opportunity to ride with this guy and get the air
apparent in you. Probably you're probably not gonna stink enough

(54:38):
to have one of those top picks, or you're gonna
have the whole team just fall off the wheels where
you're in the basement. That's all fine and dandy. We
like winning, right, but when you only win, you only
wins just enough. It's not enough to go towards to
a super Bowl. And it's also how long term right.
Justin's young, but doesn't mean he's the future. You could

(55:00):
sign him for three years and he might either one
might last just two, he might not even last one.
He might last this year, and then the next two
relegated to a backup or not even on the team.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Yeah, I'll state the same things I stated before. Neither
one of the guys is the future, and you're not
winning a super Bowl with either one of them. I
don't believe you're winning a super Bowl with Russ. Don't
believe you're winning a super Bowl with Justin Fields. I
think you know, if what you're trying to do is
figure out how to get to the point where you
can get your quarterback, right, you don't have him, and
you're not getting him this year unless you unless you

(55:31):
strike gold in the draft, you're not getting your quarterback
this year. And and the you know, the nuggets that
are in the draft look a lot more like fool's
gold than real gold. So always always even the ones
that look like gold end up fools gold. We mentioned
Darnold before, Mayfield had to bounce around how many times?
Like I said, again, when you got a guy that's

(55:52):
the top overall pick, usually even the second pick taken
Subisky is like a real bad outlier. He's like Ryan
Leaf level bad, right, But I mean Fields wasn't. Fields
was like the third or fourth QB taken in that draft.
So I mean, I realistically, if everybody's again not falling
over one another tripping over one another for the most

(56:13):
important position in football. Then maybe justin fields isn't a
first round pick, but you know, the transaction has changed
a lot, and that's why we're saying, like running back,
we're surprised that this mock draft has like three of
them in the first round. We'll table running backs for
another day, probably somewhere where we cover defense eventually. So
we're up against it here. Time to put a bow

(56:34):
on this show, folks. Just be careful of all the
I know, even saying fake news or misinformation it's a
dirty word these days, but it's exactly what it is.
It's clickbait, it's engagement bait, it's rage bait. It just
it's out there to try and get you to respond
and to look at stuff, and you know, goodness, so like,

(56:55):
please call us out if we do that.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
I try not to do that. The reels are very
much like that because there's such a short format. You
can't help but just say what you're trying to say
and just get it out real quick. I'm like this show,
so we appreciate our two percenters that are still here
at the end as we bounce around everywhere else. Yeah, too,
shame my friend. So I always cut it over to
you when you start to drink, because I think that's

(57:17):
only fair.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Of course it is. You know, you're secretly just trying
to murder me. I get it. You want me to
choke on my drink, because I have done that to
you multiple times in the past.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
All the time.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Hey, you know, as we've said, tis the season of
Deceit tis the season of BS run rampant. You know,
any anything you could possibly imagine, you're likely to hear.
But you know, let's let's get past the free agencies
and we'll have a better clue of where they're going. Yeah,

(57:50):
it's the same thing.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
My buddy's already starting with fantasy football. He is such
a fanatic with it, and he's like, what where would
you rate these wide receivers for next year? And I'm like, dude,
I don't know where, something like where do you put
mylik neighbors with the giants? You don't even know who's
throwing the ball to them. How can you rank them?
You know, you know it's impossible.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
I only I only pretend to be a rooney. I
don't I don't play that game the right way.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
I know but still the same way, Like, where would
you rank George Pickens right now? You can't.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
You can't actually can rank him very high, to be honest.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Yeah, you don't know who's gonna throw him the ball,
even if you felt like he was gonna.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
Pay, I don't even know, because I don't know if
he's going to be on this team.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
And you know what, And that's like, wide receiver is
definitely a need for the Steelers. We had it on
the list last year. The lists are very similar in
a lot of ways. Secondary was a bigger, you know
need last year. The quarterback was still there, wide receiver,
the slot corner position. So they're gonna be looking at
a lot of the same things this year. Running back
that wasn't on there last year. Yeah, possibly, possibly, possibly,

(58:51):
I guess we'll see what happens. You don't think it's
going You don't think, but I don't know. You can't say.
You can't say you don't know until you don't know.
Right Cam coming back either.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
So I can say I always said Cam was coming back.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
I didn't say, I know you did, but remember you
said Cam's coming back. So it was very very similar
to the click engagement bait misinformation type stuff. Cam had
to come out and say I'll never play for the
Cleveland Browns a year ago, remember that I got that shirt. Hey, bro,
I ain't going to Cleveland. Well, Brian, I'm not either,

(59:28):
and neither of you. So I'm not take care of
my friend atch again next week. Thanks again for joining us,
and uh, you know everyone else. It's like, I'm at
a complete loss. What do you do when there's no football?
Somebody said the UFL is coming around, and I'm like, okay,
I used to get excited about the spring football, but man,
the UFL thing is just falling so far off the
radar for me. I might check out a couple of

(59:50):
games here, but I'm not very invested in it.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
So you know what I said. I said, Man, I
really missed football.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
That's fair. And it's like watch in the Pro Bowl, right.
They need to get something like hockey's got. So we
have some fights. That's what we need, and you get
these guys that actually care about it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Football is just a it's a different beast when you
get at that level. Nobody wants to get seriously hurt.
Where hockey's like, you know, I will. It's put the
flesh wound, I'll play with it. So the gladiator kind
of mentality of football players is kind of thrown out
the window anymore, and with the millions of dollars and
also concussions and everything else, so it's kind of an
interesting thing. But again topic for another day. My friend,

(01:00:30):
you enjoy the rest of your week. Everyone else, thank
you for joining us here on the Steel City Underground podcast.
Don't forget the like, comment and subscribe. I still got
my coffee in my hand because you know, I'm sorry
to lose my voice here. So till next time. Here's
my friend. My name's Joe. His name is Brian. Until
next time, we encourage everyone out there to be safe,
be good, and we'll catch you late. We would like it.

(01:00:53):
Thank you for listening, and remind our listeners to follow
us on social media and our website www dot steel
City Underground dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
MHM

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