Steelers Finalize 53-Man Roster — Who’s In, Who’s Out - Pittsburgh Steelers Podcast | Steel City Underground

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. Rose.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the steel
City Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzma and I
am kicking it back with my throwback, my buddy, my friend,
My Powell A one. Mister Brian E Roach, Brian, what's
going on?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
I got this in the mail yesterday. What do we got? Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
A little Ducky terrible toil Ducky.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
He gets to be the little brother of Duck Troy
over here.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I was gonna say, man, you got all those signatures
on that cap. That's a throwback. That's like a Rebod cap.
That was one year I did not get him. And
you know, I'm like the king of caps over here.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
This was a well, you know, as we were talking
doing our little pre show get together, this was a
I need a hat because my hair is a mess.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
And this was the one that I had on top
of one of the helmets up there. So it was
it was what it was available.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
I wouldn't wear this, I know, well, I won't keep
you too long with that. I won't keep anyone too
long with this. We could get right down to it.
We've got some ferv you know what. I didn't think
there was gonna be a lot of pitchforks in torches
with this fifty three man cut down, and yet somehow
people still got to be displeased, unhappy and whatnot. There

(01:42):
wasn't a lot of surprises. I mean, we still didn't
get it perfect, but I think we pretty much hit
the nail on the head. There were maybe just a
handful of names at the bottom of the roster either direction,
you know, a little bit of wiggle room here or there.
I think the most surprising a day early was probably
the punter conversation. Yeah, and that wasn't even that surprising
because we had felt Presley hard or not Presley Harvin.

(02:05):
But they've been trying to get a guy since Presley Harvin.
So Corlis Weightman mikesed the team, and you know, maybe
there's something to be said about he held for Chris
Boswell last year, et cetera, et cetera. There's just maybe
more consistency there than Cameron Johnson missed almost all of
last season.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Yeah, he's the younger, probably more athletic. The bottom line
is like they both had a good, solid preseason and
I'm sure Camra Johnson will find work someplace. I think
Corlus Weightman just won the job out and you know,
not not going and seeing every practice. I mean, you

(02:46):
saw more of him than I did by going to
some of the camp. You know, he just did a
better job and impressed the coaches a little more. So
he got it. We knew it was close because they
we knew they both had a good camp. We lean
towards Camra Johnston simply because he was a big free
agent signing from last year. And you don't really expect

(03:07):
him to lose his position because he got hurt. But
if he got outperformed, he got outperformed.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I'm not even sure that he got outperformed so much
that maybe it was just the money and it's not
even that much money, But is he you know, that
much that much more I'm looking up what he was.
I mean, I'm pretty sure Corliss Weightman is near the
bottom of the charts there but terminated. It was three years,

(03:34):
nine million dollars. I think he was paid on the cap,
only two million of that deal so they get out
from underneath that. They do have some dead money in
the next two seasons this season and next about a
million apiece. But weight man is you know, he's making
about a million. He's probably at this point I'm wondering

(03:57):
if he's actually a tenured player in the NFL two
And I'm not sure if he's had four full season
or enough games. So you got to play about what
eight or nine games half the season to be that
tenured player. And he was close, I'm going to say
that much. So let's see base salary. Yeah, he's at
one point one right now, so probably a little bit

(04:18):
above that. But he did play for the Denver Broncos too.
He played half of the season last year with the Steelers.
It's actually his third go round with the Steelers. But
do you know where things may have gotten gone south
or gotten a little rotten for Cameron Johnston. You see
him here wearing number five.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Jalen Ramsey's number. Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
Jen Ramsey says, you're out. It's all Jalen Ramsey's Cameron Johnston,
you're out. You won't sell me your number. You've passed.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, And I don't think there was a lot of
Johnston Jerseys flying around that Ramsey would have had to
buy out. So but whenever you have those dual numbers,
we always kind of joke that maybe, just maybe those guys,
he is not going to make like the final cut.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Right.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
So, speaking of wide receiver room, and we had one
the coach Sach Megler is still sitting around in the
back rooms. He's like, Hey, I'm gonna pap myself on
the back because I nailed it. Robert Woods, because he
was just being utilized in such an odd way this preseason.
It was like does the old guy still have it?
Does he have does he have any fire to him?
Or they're just testing him by playing late in games.

(05:25):
And I know you're not a big fan of watching
that final preseason game, but against the Panthers, we had
a few players like that that were playing playing pretty later,
didn't play at all in one case, right, So Woods
odd man out. There was a number of the Steelers receivers.
Then we'll go through some of the positional breakdowns with
the wide receiver room.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
But they kept five and Scotty Guller.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
Miller just Scotty Miller stole his lunch money.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
That's all. Yeah, Scotty, Scotty Miller came.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
Up but stole his lunch money, and you know, Robert
Woods was out. We I mean even even with you know,
the professor of football, Zach Meckler saying that, you know,
we had hinted that that could be a possibility, you know,
and just turned out that way. Like I said, Scotty
Miller still as much money.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, veteran player. We thought he could play some maybe
some special teams roles with Steelers, but just not there.
Scotty Miller, Bens Gronnic guys who do play some special teams.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
They have five.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Wide receivers, and some people are talking about whether or
not they have enough there at that position. What's boomerang?
Back around that later and stick with some of the
notable names. James Pierre, maybe not so notable, because Pierre
actually wasn't on this team at the same time last
season and then was added due to injuries. And that's
somebody we'll talk about in his second too. Someone it's

(06:43):
oft injured and why Pierre was brought back. They know
he's on speed dial on the bat phone or whatever.
Maybe I don't know, is he even a practice squad guy.
He's somebody you could add that knows at least Dandy
Smith and you know, knows the defense with Terra Assin,
knows the special teams, et cetera, et cetera. But Beatie
Bishop was the one that everybody was crying fall over

(07:03):
and we said Beanie was on the way out more
than likely. You said, it's because he picked Aaron Rodgers
twice last year and Rodgers is doing the Ramsey.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
They the bull in his bet card and said.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
Why he's out. Yeah, that's what happened. But I'm calling
it right now. I was in the room. Aaron went
up to Mike. He said, look, you got to get
rid of that little Bishop. Beanie, Beanie baby guy. Get
rid of that guy. He cut me.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
I mean he annoyed me.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
That's not it, obviously, But like here's the reason, like
I wanted to say this, the reason people are all
bent out of shape about this, right is because he
picked off Aaron Rodgers twice, because he happened to be
the right guy in the right place and had a
couple splash plays last year. And we fall in love
with these undrafted kind of guys who seemed to make

(07:51):
good and we forget all of the play that wasn't
good that also went along with that. He was out
of position a million other times. He could have even
gotten some of those picks because he was at a
position for what he was actually supposed to be doing. Look,
you know, I don't wish Beanie any anyo will, and
I'm pretty sure they're going to put him on practice squad.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
I think we read that.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah right, yeah, he's back already. That's so somebody threw
that up there.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
You know.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
Don't don't lose your stuff over a guy who really
wasn't making a huge difference.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, he's a smaller guy. Five po ten bucketyish or
whatever lost his job. Unfortunately, numbers game with Jalen Ramsey.
I know there were some other commenters. I think part
of the fervor comes from me. He's from West Virginia University.
There's a lot of Mountaineers fans and Steeler Nation at
us of the proximity, so that's like another one. You know,
for as much as we talk about some of the

(08:46):
Ohio State guys, whenever there's a West Virginia guy like
Zach Fraser or you know, Beanie Bishop, or you get
a pick guy on the team, like James Connor, sells
a ton of jerseys, right, so there's a lot of
local flavor there. Still, let's move along before we come
back to the corners because we know Bishop is going
to be back. But one guy there's no no word

(09:07):
on just yet is to Marvin le Al. And we
had talked about le Al being a possible casualty, and
since we last talked to Brian, it became more and
more obvious to me watching the game on Thursday. He
was still in there and he was playing as an edge,
and that just signaled to me that they didn't really
know what they could get out of them or what

(09:28):
they could.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Do with them.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
This was kind of the last raw. He played very
late into that game along with some other players, and
I said, well, that did you know, like Beatie Bishop
not playing at all was one thing. Le Al playing
as much as he did and in you know, maybe
a different position. Jack Veall Trade's master of None doesn't
always work with the NFL. You'll probably stick, You'll probably

(09:50):
find a work somewhere else. And maybe if he goes
into a four to three, maybe he's better suited for that.
But he just did not fit in the Steelers schemes.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
Yeah, I agree, I'm not to add to that and.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
One other guy and it was tough and this is
this is one of the reasons why he's probably not here,
is trying to find a picture of Mark Robinson making
a play as much as like when he does hit.
And we you know, we had high expectations. He was
a developmental guy, he was a project and he was
also on the bubble. Maybe he's somebody they bring back
tight end J. J. Galbreth. There was four tight ends

(10:23):
that made this roster. And then of course with the
wide receivers, Brandon Johnson I think a waved injury settlement
type thing, but he could be re signed here in
the near future. There's a lot of fun there's a
lot of funky things that could happen when with the
various designations, and when it comes to these roster moves,

(10:45):
right and one of those one of those is Corey Trice,
and they had changed the roles. I'd forgotten about this,
and actually the Detroit Lions were trying to get this
changed even further because you could still only have up
to I believe ninety players that are signed total for
an entire season, So with all the injuries that they had,
they were bucket up against that number. You can only

(11:08):
bring eight total players back from IR, and I believe
now you could do two without having to do We
were saying Howard had to make the fifty three and
then get reverted over to IR, and that would make
more sense than maybe keeping four quarterbacks, which we'll do.
We'll talk about in a second, but you can have
two players that just go straight to that designation could
come back in four weeks for anybody else like Dean

(11:29):
Lowry's on IR, Donald Parum tight End on IR seasons
over and pup list guys are kind of in that
same there's like another reserve category label, but Corey Trace
doesn't fall underneath that category because he had gotten hurt
at Friday Night Lights. He had actually practiced in training camp,

(11:50):
just didn't participate in any of the preseason games, much
similar to Will Howard in that same situation as well.
They could have done two, but they will still count.
Those two will count against the total eight that come
back during the year. So if you don't need to
make that move, you don't want to make that move,
and you know, God willing the Steelers don't have to

(12:12):
use eight injury designations in a year for guys that
need to come back. So that's that's that's a tough one.
People are like why they keep choice, but not being
a bishop, they could just stash guys on injury to reserve. Look,
if they could do that, don't you think every team
in the NFL would do that. They would have ninety
guys on their roster and then oh, we could bring

(12:33):
this guy back in four weeks whenever we might need them.
And you know that they're not allowed to practice. There's
certain things that they're not permitted to do as far
as the team, and it just it prohibits your development.
And it's the same thing with like the inactives on
game days, right, you only have so many you know what,
like five guys that don't get a helmet or whatever,
because another team might have three guys that are hurt.

(12:54):
And then it's an advantage like it's it's it's the balance.
The scales are tipped one team two more healthy players
than the other. That gives you some maybe some kind
of competitive advantage with that imbalance. So there's a lot
of this stuff. A lot of these maneuvers did and
trying to keep track of all of them and what
they mean and how they work. Apologies if we had

(13:15):
gotten part of that run, but it wasn't. It was
the previous year. It was still like that. And I'm
even old enough to remember Brian where you know, Marquise
Pouncing got hurt and couldn't come back at all. He
got hurt in that preseason game against Green Bay Packers.
I'm not sure that Steelers have played in an afternoon
preseason game since then. If you remember, Jordy Nelson got
hurt for the season, was out for the year in

(13:35):
that same game. It was catastrophic. So we've had more
relaxed rules. But practice squads only had like eight players
then maybe ten, and you had to release guys. What
was that Ross Ventron like the mini People would always
mistake him for Troy poul and Mall. That guy got
released by the Steelers and Patriots and upwards of about

(13:56):
forty five times. I think he's the NFL record. There's
one other NFL record we should talk about before we
got to the next segment. We're going to talk about quarterbacks.
The Steelers will have a different starting quarterback for their
fourth street year. One of those guys just got traded
from the Cleveland Browns and now he's gone going over

(14:16):
to the Vegans.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Los Vegas Raiders.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, if Kenny moves one more time via trade, he
will have an NFL record. I believe he's up there
with a few other players. Oh, Sam Howe, your guy
in the same category. Two, I don't It's like calling
Neil what's his name here?

Speaker 4 (14:35):
Don't. I don't know that I ever would have compared
Kenny Pickett to Sam Howe, who I didn't like. But
at the same time, I also didn't really ever like
Kenny Pickett. There was a couple of times where he
fooled me. But you know, it is what it is.
There's a reason that that was considered a bad draft class.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
For quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, it was Desmond Ritter on his way out too,
just got cut. Also, was that was that the Saints?
Where is he at last? I think with the Saints.

Speaker 4 (15:08):
So yeah, that Spencer Rattler down there in New Orleans.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
And that situation is just begging for them to, uh,
you know, get arch Archie Manning's grandkid is where you're
looking there, a little bit of legacy maybe at NFL
might be setting it up that way.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Who knows.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Although the Draft in Pittsburgh would also hint that maybe
there's something big, big things hinted. If you think it's
all scripted and it's all you know, WWE style in
the NFL, there's some things that kind of make you
go hmmm. They installed a turf field for the draft
somewhere like over on the north Shore there by Akroshure

(15:47):
Stadium too, and it's supposed to be used for the Draft.
I'm trying to figure out how they're going to set
up the stage where they're going to put all these people,
because if you're going to break records, which is what
they're thinking, I mean Detroit, Destroit was bursted at the seams,
and so was Ashville, and I think they're better set.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Up for that not being as Yeah, I mean know
what the rivers, that's all right there in the rivers.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah. Stage, I mean yeah, stage A.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
You know you're gonna I don't know how much, man,
I don't know. Maybe they clear out those two front
lots and put it right in front of the stadium somehow,
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
They put the garage, they put that garage smacked deb
in the middle now too, So that's uh, yeah, that's
that's rough. You know, they got the gold garage, which
a lot of people were complaining about with tailgating. So
is that new because I haven't seen that new, new ish,
new er, Yeah something. So you don't come that way
usually when you come in.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
So yeah, no, I come over the bridge.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Just take a look over your right when you come
in for the home opener. But all right, let's hit
over to some of the highlights on this roster. The quarterbacks,
there's four of them. There has not been a corresponding move,
you know what, I'm gonna look because we've been getting
bitten by the Twitter machine and the breaking news. So
let's see if there's anything else that we may have missed.

(17:06):
The Steelers, according to Mark Cabully, have not claimed anyone
off of waivers, and the more recent news that we
have besides Beatie Bishop is Robert Woods plans to sign
with the practice squad, so other teams show According to
Tom Pilasero, it say some other teams have showed interest
in Woods before the cutdown, so it could be a
temporary situation. So you know, we're we're trying to stay

(17:30):
on top of it. It's a very fluid situation, especially
with some of the guys on the bottom part of
this roster. We'll see if they keep four, I don't think,
and I'm trying to think of a time now they've
had more than four play in a season. Obviously, the
year Ben popped his elbow, you had, you know, Josh
Dobbs had made the team, and then he got traded,
and then they brought Doc Hodges in, and they brought

(17:51):
Paxton Lynch I think, into the practice squad, maybe even
moved them up after Mason got hurt. But at the
same time simultaneously, I think the only other time times
I could remember, at least in recent modern NFL history,
you got twenty ten, which Ben was technically not on
the fifty three he was suspended, and you had Byron
Leftwich who got hurt, which led way to Dennis Dixon

(18:13):
who got hurt, which led way to Charlie Betch who
then played. Then Ben came back, then Ben sat out,
and Byron Leftwich ends up starting the final game of
the year at the Cleveland Browns, where they absolutely just
throttled throttled to Cleveland, and I believe that was Eric
Mangini's last game as the head coach, it was Hammer Cronell,
but I think it was me and Genie, and he

(18:33):
got shown the door immediately thereafter as part of that
lackluster performance on his team's behalf. But that would have
been before you would have had there. But back in
nineteen ninety five, we're going back, and you had he
who shall not be named. I mentioned his first name, Neil.

(18:54):
You had Mike thumbs At. That's too much to delete that.
I can't even name that much. Nope, okay, he shall
not be named. He wore fourteen, and you had Mike,
Tom Zach, Jim Miller. And then sechnically, you had a
quarterback out of Colorado that was listed as a wide receiver.
But there were four quarterbacks and that was a one slash,

(19:16):
Cordell Stewart. Yes, so it's not very common that you
have four quarterbacks on the roster, and the Steelers didn't
want to expose anyone. I'm sure they're getting phone calls.
Omar Khan is fielding some trade talk more than likely
over this group. So we'll see how this moves forward.
Jerry Dulac, one of the Beat reporters that had suggested

(19:36):
that Howard would maybe go on IR but as we
had said, you don't.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Want him to. He won't be able to practice, and
there aren't enough reps to go around even for backup quarterbacks,
let alone having four of them.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
So I don't know. I don't know how they're going
to manage this, but I surmise something happens in the
next week that either maybe Skyler Thompson can have a
deep sigh of relief that he's on the team for
these four weeks, maybe somebody, maybe he gets traded, never know,
maybe my dude, Mason Rudolph gets traded, you ever know. So,
but I think Rudolph has more experience, and the people

(20:10):
that are talking about Rudolph and taking Thompson over, I'm like, Okay,
if you put Thompson in the same situation as Rudolph,
he probably throws as that same interception. I mean, it's
to Kashawn Williams, who even knows if he ran the
right route, look back, whatever he was supposed to do,
And it did look like maybe some heavy coverage too,
So I don't know who to blame. We don't know
who they plays are going to. Speaking of those wide

(20:32):
receivers we mentioned Scottie Miller, Bence Gronnick end up making
that group. There's only five of those guys, a slew
of linebackers, including some rookies, Jack Sawyer and Carson Bruner.
Carson Brunner thought he showed enough, thought he showed some
special teams prowess here he is as one of the
later round picks, ends up making the roster over Mark Robinson.

(20:53):
So they did not keep ten linebackers. Brian off our
notes too or not on our notes was and Cook
who had been off again on again. That's why they
brought Pete in. When Rocherick Jones got dinged a little
bit in camp. I saw Cook getting cooked, and it
was just I think it was time. Maybe he'll be
on the practice squad again, maybe in the future, don't know.

(21:15):
We'll see how that shakes out. And then your defensive backs.
This was the one that was the controversy, right because
Brandon Echoles makes the team over Beatie Bishop.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
But he he's about the.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Same sized guy, but he has far more starting experience
in the National Football League, particularly with the New York Jets.
He could also play in the slot, which means guess
who He is the chief backup too, Jalen Ramsey got
to be able to do got to be able to
do everything. So he offers them the way you want
to say, the flexibility should something happen with Ramsey, that
they don't have to change things up too much if

(21:46):
it's Bishop. We talked about this with the offensive line
all the time. You don't want to weaken two positions
of the five because you need to move people around.
You want to keep those four guys five guys. You
want to keep everybody locked in their spots as much
as possible. And that's exactly where we're at with with
echoes making the team. But the one that was interesting
to me was Dante kent Man. I get some guys

(22:08):
on Twitter. They're like a dog with a bone, and
he's like, well, they're just returning to practice. Yeah, literally
yesterday returning to practice like the guy had been hurt.
You know, Oh, he returned to practice. He's safe to
make the team. Who says that type of stuff, you
know what I mean? Especially for a guy that's what
sixth seventh round draft pick who hadn't played in the
entire preseason. Now, I think they might part of that

(22:28):
might be punt return duties. So yeah, I was wondering
about that. I was wondering about that too. So we'll
see if he's good to go for week one. It's
got to be the reason that he's on on this
final what do you want to say? Final fifty three
man roster? So put that in air quotes final, Yeah, final, Yeah,

(22:51):
it don't float around. It's going to float around quite
a bit just looking at that. The full the full
list here, they put them in alphabetical order, and let
me see if we can blow it through these kind
of quick We kind of went there. The running backs,
Kenny Gainwell, Caleb Johnson, Jalen Warren. We'd already mentioned the quarterbacks,

(23:12):
the wide receivers we had met. We didn't mention it was,
you know, DK Metchev, Calvin Austin, and then Roman Wilson
also making this need to move this into a position
where we could let's see, let's see the full graphic.
There we go, uh Friarmuth, John John new Smith, Darnel Washington,
and then Connor Hayward who's also listed as a fullback

(23:35):
here too. That's why Connor's designation is why they couldn't
fit the full graphic or fitted in all one graphic
to split up the offense because you had to be
slash fullback with these large headers. And then you've got
your offensive lineman Kelvin Anderson, Spencer Anderson, Troy Fontano, Zach Fraser,
Roderick Jones, right, McCollum, backup center, Mason McCormick, Andreis Pete

(23:57):
probably your swing tackle in Isaac say A Mall. So
not a bunch of surprises there, other than let's see,
they have nine offensive linemen, which I wasn't sure that
they were going to carry, so Calvin Anderson ends up
making it. I would I would also believe that he's
probably near the bottom of that fifty three. Also, we

(24:19):
get to some of our other positional takeaways here. We
get into the defensive line Keano Benton White Black, Daniel Coaway,
Derek Harmon, Cam Hayward, Logan Lee, Isaiah Loadermilk, and as
Ez Tomao. So a couple of surprises here, I think
with these ones, because we weren't sure about Logan Lee

(24:41):
a qual A and my other my other gentlemen here
EO his initials that I cannot properly say his name,
so I'm just not going to try. I'm gonna have
to find one of those pronunciations.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yeah, get his number.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Everybody talks about numbers anyway, it's you know, it's seven,
it's ninety seven.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
I'm talking about ninety. Just figure out what his number
is and we'll just call him that from.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Now one seventy two, which again, seventy two made the team.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah, you good for you. Seventy two.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
You would not have you for him, You would have
been LIKEO the Hell's seventy two set the eight steads out, however,
and then and then our full group of linebackers, which
include the inside and outside backers.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
No movement on Cole Holcombe.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
He's there, safe and sound, So Carson Bruner, Malik Harrison,
Nick Herbig, Alex high Smith, Cole Holcomb, Patrick Queen, Jack Sawyer, Tjat,
and Peyton Wilson. Maybe one of the more loaded or
potent groups that I've seen overall in very many years
of covering the Steelers. Very impressed with them. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

(25:48):
definitely keep knocking on it. And then our DB's Brandon Eckles,
Deshaun Elliott, Dante Kent, Miles kill A Brew, Joey Porter
Junior Jalen Ramsey, Darius Lay and one Thornhill.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
So the big one here.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Is he got three safeties. So I'm thinking, I'm thinking Ramsey. Yeah,
Ramsey's going to be playing some safety. But it's my guess.
Miles Kilbrew is the chief. Is the only guy besides
Elliott and Thornhill that's a designated safety. So does Chuck
Clark come back? I felt like Chuck Clark was probably

(26:23):
someone that was like a catch and release kind of candidate. Right, well,
and it could happen.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
Right Let's say, let's say that they don't trade Skyler
Thompson and they put.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Will Howard on ir down the road.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
All right, now position opens up and they could bring
Chuck Clark back in.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
I mean, yeah, there's.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
As I said, I when we talk about this is
the final fifty three, it's the final fifty three. I
would bet that on game day on Sunday that this
isn't the.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Final fifty three. No, I don't think so either. And
I'll just I do have some concerns here that there's
I mean, Biles killer Brew is a special teams guy.
He's not Yeah, he's there for special teams, he's not
really a safety special teamers, Chris Boswell, Christia Koontz and
then Cortless Weightman. Cordless Weightman's been great and he's left

(27:16):
Did we meant mentioned that earlier? Being left footed? That
may have been something that also kind of been enamored
with Danny Smith and the coaching staff because it's different.
It's like having a left handed quarterback too. There's just
teams have to prepare a little bit different for it.
Any wrinkle, any edge these teams could get, they're gonna
take it. So maybe no question may not even be

(27:39):
a factor.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
Who knows.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
We thought that the big guy that was gonna go
out there and knock heads Presley Harvin a few years ago,
Ray Iye Winner and just it didn't work out there either.

Speaker 4 (27:48):
So that was our big fat punter was just a
big fat waste of time.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, and I mean, you know, nothing against him really,
but I mean, weight man, he had a very solid
he had a very solid season. Okay, someone somewhere, it
might have been Ray Fittpaul to maybe that was talking
about this. I think these may be some high marks
for the Steelers's franchise. He had punted sixty five times,

(28:15):
He had three thirty one hundred and five yards. It
was a forty six point four average, forty one point
seven net, twenty seven of those into twenty eight inside
the ten. I thought Johnston still looked really good. I
mean it was really it was that close though, I
will say that much from watching him, it was like
and I think they were both fairly consistent. I think
it just came down there maybe money, I don't know, money,

(28:37):
and maybe maybe there's still money in age, yeah, age,
and maybe some health. There may be some health concerns
there too, you never know, and in the consistency of
the kicking game, left footed whatever. So that's pretty much
the prognosis on that. What's next for everything? Brian Well,
I mentioned Kashawan Williams. He's going to the practice squad
two as that hits the wire here as we are

(28:59):
on air. But like you said, this could keep this
could keep going. I do think that there is a
corresponding safety move. I don't think that they could go
in with just three safeties on paper.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
We'll see if.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Yeah, we'll see if it's something like where Dante Kent
maybe gets moved. I don't know, I really don't know.
You would think that they would have used one of
those designations like they did on Trice. This doesn't mean
that Trice makes the roster either. He's around, He's got
to get healthy. How long does that take? Is he
eligible in the four week window? Is he eligible in

(29:36):
six weeks? Is he eligible you know, in November? Does
he get released with a with a some type of
settlement or something like that in the anteriom. If they
do activate him, they got the twenty one days he practices.
Does he just outright get released or cut? Who are
they making? Who are they moving? As this roster continues
to change and evolve. Where do they have a luxury?

(30:00):
They have extra offensive linemen? They need at least eight,
I believe, in order to have that call up from
the practice squad, so you could still see Robert Woods,
you know, called up to the active roster for game day,
maybe Beanie Bishop. So you know, it's good to still
have some of these guys in the fold. We'll see
who else ends up getting signed to this practice squad

(30:22):
in the coming days. The injury thing with Brandon Johnson,
I was like he was on the roster last year,
but they're gonna have to add maybe another wide receiver,
maybe a running back like a tray sermon. I mean,
I guess Williams just got signed with Wood, so that
might be it. Maybe just two.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Did they keep another kicker or punter? I was wondering
what happens with Ben Saals. I thought he had a
pretty good preseason. So there's still a lot of questions
that are out there on how they have to structure
their practice squad to meet the needs of the depth
for that depth chart at each position, and then also
just get through the practice of the various practices. So
all true.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
So nowidering that it's we're really two weekends away, right,
can't wait? I can't wait two weekends away before the
first official kickoff game. But there is something coming up,
and I mean, you know, we're down at the end
of the show, so I need to ask you what
are you thinking about Saturday?

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Oh jeez, you're talking about the Buckeyes. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
This look, the Higo State doesn't normally open the season
with a game of this magnitude.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
No, Texas got Texas coming in.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
You know, you got you gotta hey there, So you go,
our boy, our little boy arch is going to come
in and and uh, you know, maybe wreck our Buckeyes.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
I'm going to be annoyed. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
We'll have to see, but I'm interested. What you what
you think? What's the scuttle? But in the great state
of Ohio about this game, Ohio.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
State's pretty entitled. I would think if they lose this,
it's going to be fire Ryne Day and like the
whole world is going to course it, just like it
was against you know, that university up North last season.
I thought I was looking at that and I was like, man,
if I could squeak out there. I mean, the weather
is gorgeous right now for football season. You got the
you know, you're in the seventies for August. But man,
they're gonna be easily one hundred thousand people there. I

(32:16):
don't know how you maneuver. You probably have to park
twenty miles away for forgetting to that game.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
We think it's bad to buy, you know, NFL tickets,
and I told you this, Yeah, buying college tickets, forget
about it. Those the tickets to the Texas game for
crappy seats are like one thousand dollars a seat.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, you're in my whatever deck that's all the way
up behind the march man.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
I've gone to tons of Ohio state games, and I
know what that's what the big you know what the
horseshoe is like. But I haven't gone in years, and
I don't think I'm ever going again, because it's absurd.
My brother who lives in Columbus, the other brother, not
the one that was dropped on his head, and oh no, wait,
actually this is the one that was dropped on his
head and roots for the Bengals. The one that lives

(32:58):
in Jersey roots.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
For the Eagles also. He said, well, no, he's just
a front runner.

Speaker 4 (33:03):
He didn't he didn't care anything about sports until he
moved out here, and then all of a sudden, now
he's like all Philadelphia all the time. Whatever. I don't care.
He's allowed. But uh yeah, my brother that's out there
in Columbus. He said that the way that you you
can go is you just you know, it's harder to
scalp tickets than it used to be, but if you

(33:24):
go and show up at the stadium, you'll find somebody
who'll get you in for less money.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
I'm sure, I'm sure of it.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
It's all everything's gone digital, which you know, I don't
hate that because whenever there was somebody trying to hawk
tickets now in Pittsburgh, you know, they got like a
lanyard in the credential on and everything, and we know
that they are the that they're they're licensed or at
least recognized to be able to sell tickets, right, But

(33:51):
when they're flashing around something they printed off their computer
at home, like, it's not I feel very confident about
buying that, you know.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
So I got this piece of paper, Can I come in? No,
you can't come in. I'm sorry. That's a counterfeit, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
And there's some closing business for us there. We've got,
you know, a full week weekend lying ahead before you
get to September seventh with New York. So yeah, I
get through this weekend and it's a week from Sunday,
so we're gonna have another couple shows. We still got
to do our AFC North predictions. Stay tuned with that, folks.

(34:27):
And we were talking about maybe if you had some
interest in some of our tips and experiences going to games,
whether that be at home with the Pittsburgh Steelers, at
Akroshuer Stadium, or wherever else, including the parking disaster, it
is in Miami. We can share some stories about that,
so hit us up in the comments, let us know

(34:48):
what you want to hear from us. As then we
get to that preview gets the New York Jets in
about two weeks from now, two weeks from now, one
week from now, one week from now. So I can't
do ten days, ten days from ten days, but we've
got we've got some programming we can cover. So it's
good to have some news. And football is back, baby,
I can't be more excited about it. So I thought

(35:11):
about going to New York too, Brian, but I just
I don't know about that one.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
I'm not doing that. You know.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
First of all, we're going to Ireland. Yeah, so that's Ireland.
I'm going to go to the Seattle game, so I
will my first ever actual home opener that I'm attending
in stadium because I usually sell home opener tickets because
they get a lot of money. But I'm going to
go to the Seattle game. I'm not going to go

(35:37):
to several others, but I'm going to Seattle. So, like,
September is cram full, right, I don't know that I
want to even try to go to New York and
deal with that. So plus you know the big news,
the big news because I'm you know, as I just mentioned,
the Ohio State Texas game is on Saturday at noon. I,
on the other hand, will be in Atlantic City to
watch Jaws in Imax for its fiftieth and of release.

(36:02):
Fancy fancy, fancy my phone. I'll be like this, not
watching the fake animatronics shark and screaming at the that's.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Your own funny.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Oh Okay, I was gonna say, I'm like, if you
if you booked like your seats at like twelve oh
five or something, that's your own fault.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
You only have yourself to play over. But because it's
a four o'clock show. But we'll be down there and
I won't watch any of the game. I might listen
to some of it on the radio.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Well, as we're goofing off and buying time, we got
the full practice squad, so we can go. Yes, we
could go through it. Our two percenters are probably the
only ones that are gonna maybe hear that. Yeah, that
are gonna hear this.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
So we've got Beanie Bishop, Sebastian Castro, DeShawn Jamison, James Pierre,
Darryl Porter five, DBS, Kyler baw De, Marvin Lel Back,
there you go, Julius Welshoff, No, all right, my dude,
Dylan Cook, Steve Jones. Then we got for your offensive line,

(37:03):
and you've got two running backs Lou Nichols and Trey
Sermon and JJ Galbretz back tight end. Three wide receivers
Kashawn Williams we mentioned earlier, along with Robert Woods and
Max Hurlman. Max Harlman, Hey, good job guys. So there's
your sixteen that are there and it's probably going to
change again tomorrow, so we'll leave you off with that.
Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. My name is Joe,

(37:26):
his name is Brian Folks. Football is back till next time.
We encourage everyone out there to be safe, be good,
and we'll catch you later.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
We would liked it.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
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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Steelers Finalize 53-Man Roster — Who’s In, Who’s Out

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Steelers Finalize 53-Man Roster — Who’s In, Who’s Out