What will the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers roster look like?

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Underground, The steel City Underground, the black
and gold standard for Pittsburgh Steelers coverage. Now here's your hose.
Joe Kuzma and Brian E.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Rose.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the steel
City Underground podcast. My name is Joe Kuzma and joining
me as always my good colleague in Powell, quite possibly
also an American idiot A one, mister Brian E. Roach.
What's up, my friend, Brian green Day shirt going on today?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yes, I mean this is my official green Day shirt
from the concert in Philadelphia with a picture from the
concert in Philadelphia.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
All Right, you know what I love. I don't know
if you've ever done this before, but I threw my
kid off. Like I get like a photo and it's like,
you know, the whole Akrasure Stadium or Heinz Field or whatever,
you know, like the giant panning of the crowd and
you're literally like a little dot, even on TV. And
I'm like, hey, look I'm on TV. She's like where
and you gotta pose it? And I'm like it's like, well,

(01:08):
we can't see you. I'm like, but I'm still on.
I'm there. I know I'm there. I'm on TV, so
I love it. I love it, I love it. Is
that the kind of photo that you're referring to with
the Green Day concert?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Definitely not in this picture. I am not in this picture.
This is just him jumping on the stage. I just
thought it was so. All I can really say is
I was in the audience and I saw him do
this move because this picture was taken during the concert
that I was at.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Oh Okay, fair enough, fair enough. Well, I doubt you
watched any of the Pro.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Bowl, as I very very very.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Aggressively stated, the Pro Bowl is dumb, and I did
not watch one second of it.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, well, I caught a little bit just pieces here there,
skills comp I was watching the blowout flag football game
where there's like no defense and some referees who you know,
they use the flag football referees. I don't really want
to disparage anybody there, but they don't appear the same
on television as the NFL or even the college variety. Right.

(02:14):
These guys look like they're like weekend warriors that are
officiating the game in Orlando. I caught some of it
because I was at a random sports bar and it
was on Okay, So it's like I didn't go out
of my way to watch it. I saw some of
the highlights and that's about where it ended. But where
it ended was I can't remember if I remember. We
were talking last week and we were like, hey, Russell

(02:36):
Wilson made the Pro Bowl. Well so did Patrick Queen.
I think just shortly after we recorded, the Steelers ended
up with like eight Pro Bowlers somehow. Now TJ didn't
play in the game, Cam Hayward. They don't use defensive
linemen like they in the flag football. They use you know,
they're in Dodgeball, Boswell's and Dodgeball. I think Queen was
in Dodgeball. Actually, I don't think Cam was in Dodgeball.
I think he was in the Tug of War whatever

(02:57):
it may be. And we've got some more.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
NFL have a game show too, I think Cam.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, they did a trivia Yeah, it was like Russell
Wilson and Miles Garrett on the same team, I think,
or something like that.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, let me just restate this. It's dumb.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
It is, and they're trying all of these sports leagues
are trying so hard to get people interested in their
all star games, and they just don't. They don't have
like the I don't know the panache or the spectacle
or anything, you know what it is. I saw somebody
float this by, and I think we're gonna talk about
some of the internet stuff that's rumors along with the

(03:32):
roster shape up, maybe for next year for the Steelers
or this year, but next season twenty twenty five. We
still have one more game left this season that I'm
not sure either one of us care about. I think
the Eagles will win.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
That's just my.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Personal pick here, but I could care less at this point.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
We prefer that the Eagles win simply because I don't
want the Chiefs to win three in a row.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
I'm tired of the Chiefs. I would like somebody else
to win by chance.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Did you see someone was asking Patrick Mahomes which of
his referees were the favorite, his favorite and if he
had any on his Christmas card list, And he handled
it like he was very snarky, but he handled it
pretty well. Now, I guess the NFL Referees Union is
kind of upset about all of the various barbs and
jabs that everyone's taken and saying that they're favored and everything.

(04:19):
It just you know, that's what happens. For whatever reason,
we turned into a society doesn't like winners. I think
what it is is we like the underdogs until they win,
and then all of a sudden it's like, well, this
is obnoxious. We want something else. And I think everyone
would have been cool with like the Detroit Lions and
Buffalo Bills in a Super Bowl. But right now it's like, wow,

(04:39):
we saw this game already, you know, and I'll still watch.
I enjoyed the commercials, even though they've been kind of
watered down and just I mean to be a bad
pun commercialized over the years, but they just don't. They
lack the substance that they used to. And I guess
that's gonna happen depending on who's for the ad.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
So I will tell you this is exactly how I watched.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
The game, going through your phone.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
I will I will play a phone game and pay
attention when I need to. You know, there's just not
there's not a lot of drama in this game. I mean,
you know, maybe maybe there will be. Maybe I'll start
watching and I'll get into it. I just I don't
have a I don't have a big passion for either team.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
I can. I can find reasons why I want them
both to lose.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
I you know, I don't want to deal with Philly
fans if Phillies, if the Eagles win.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
I live there, so I don't want to deal with them.
I just don't want the Chiefs to win.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
So I feel like this is another one of those
Super Bowls where no matter what happens, I won't really
like the outcome. You know what was funny about that
is a few years ago we had the the Harball
Bowl and it was Jim Harbaugh leading to forty nine
Ers against John Harbaugh's Ravens. What was that twenty twelve
the twenty twelve season, and I remember saying, I like,

(06:01):
is it possible that Bain can show up and just
blow up the stadium? And we got close, the Superdome
lost power and they had the delay in the middle
of the game. Well guess where it's being hosted again.
So what's kind of funny too, is is I'm working
on a piece for the website later this week. I
was just reviewing super Bowls. The Super Bowl nine, the
Steelers first appearance also in New Orleans Tulane Stadium, which

(06:25):
held I got into a rabbit hole. You get on
the Wikipedia and you start reading things it's happened to
me with New Coke like a month or two ago,
and yeah, that's a rabbit hole.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I don't want to go back down. Or who has
the distribution rights for Doctor Pepper. That's where it led to. Well,
this led me from super Bowl Superdome to Tulane Stadium,
which hosted three of the first nine Super Bowls, and
Tulane wasn't supposed to hole or host super Bowl nine
with the Steelers and Vikings, and it was because the

(06:54):
Superdome was like over budget, delayed, wasn't ready in time,
and it was ready right after that the game was
hosted like January nineteen seventy five. You know, this is
like several years before I was even thought of, and
they end up posting the game. The Superdome opens like
later that year and citation required. But Chuleane Stadium was

(07:15):
basically almost instantly condemned. It was torn down within five years,
which is just mind blowing because it like opened in
the early nineteen hundreds, which I don't know if any
kids approach you with this, but they they look at me. Now,
Brian went like I was born in nineteen eighty one, Right,
so I missed the Super Bowls the seventies hey days.
I was, you know, very very very young, even with
the Bubby Brister stuff, so I don't have as much

(07:38):
pain of going through the eighties and the eighties Steelers teams.
But you ever have one of these kids come to
you and you're like, you're born in nineteen eighty one. Oh,
you were born in the nineteen hundreds, And it's like,
h that's not quite how that works. But anyway, no,
where you're looking.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
At, nobody talks to me about that because.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
You were born in the eighties, teen hundreds, maybe so, but
a bumps.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
Anyways.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Anyways, Brian, some of the things floating around obviously, where
do we want to be a start with?

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Where do you want to start with? Let's start with
the big one? Miles Garrett? Yes, which one? Which one?
Big one? Miles Garrett is the big one. Cooper Cup's
a little tiny guy. Miles Garrett's big giant guy. And
the answer the answer is no, Well no, it's just no.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
I wrote about this on the website a day or
two ago. Go back may have been today's release. I
sometimes I forget I'm crafting these things. You got to
schedule and put them in the pipeline. Still sitting underground
dot com? I said, are the Steelers a likely landing
spot or an unlikely landing spot for Miles Garrett? And
that's for a number of reasons. Number one, the Browns

(08:47):
are in the same division. Are not going to trade
their best player to a division rival and make them
even stronger. Number two, where's he play for the Steelers?
Is he a hand in the dirt or not? And
they don't need guys that are technically edge us. But
he's got the frame. He could probably play the same
as Cam. He's not much smaller than a cam. Hey
where the Cam's got him by ad fifteen pounds. I

(09:09):
don't even think he has a height advantage on him,
to be honest. So maybe he could play like the
Steeler a three four defensive end that the Steelers do,
or with their you know, nickel scheme without the nose
tackle that they use. Does that affect the way that
he plays?

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Though?

Speaker 1 (09:20):
You just keep sending them after the quarterback because that
dude don't drop in coverage to begin with. And you
already got what you got. Alex Highsmith you've got Nick Kurbig.
So the other problem is is the salary. He's going
to command his base salary. It's gonna be interesting to
see what the Browns would do with that contract. They
have said they're not interested in trading him. Andrew Berry
said no, Kevin Stefansk, get all these guys are saying no, no, no,

(09:41):
and then he comes out Monday and was like, I'm
demanding a trade, and it's like that team needs him.
You know, they can't get rid of that.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
The answer is gonna be, we need you until we
can get two or three first round picks. If they
get if somebody is willing to offer them two first
round picks for Miles Garrett, I think they'll.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Trade him well.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
To be honest, I don't think anybody's gonna offer two
first round picks. One, yeah, for sure, but anything else
is probably a lower round pick, maybe a player, right.
You know, if they can start or rebuild off of
Miles Garrett going someplace else, sure, then I think they would.
If they're smart at this point, I think they should.

(10:23):
The problem is, I don't think they're gonna get those
kind of offers because you know why, because the Cleveland
Browns aren't available to trade with.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
I don't know. I heard a good quote on EXCEMT
Radio and somebody said, you would be dumb if you're
in a front office of any of the other thirty
one NFL teams to at least not ask the question,
at least not entertain the idea. And I agree with that.
You entertain the idea and you say to yourself, put

(10:58):
this work. Could we get them? What would it take?
And then you're disqualifying yourself like we just did. Number one,
when Khalil Mack went to the Chicago Bears traded from
the then Oakland Raiders. Oh, let's see, Khalil Mack was
twenty six years old. He just came off of a
ten and a half sex season. He had had three

(11:18):
of his four years in the league with double digit sex. Chicago,
there was there was a couple other picks, like late
rounds mixed in this, but overall the big piece of
this was Chicago sent two first rounders the current year
the next year, and then they sent like a third
or fourth, and then the guys like swapped like a
fifth and sixth or something like that. Right, you would
have to think that that's probably a very similar valuation

(11:42):
for Miles Garrett, although Miles Garrett is a tad older.
He's twenty nine years old right now. He uh just
turned twenty nine back in December, late in the year,
December twenty ninth, So he's not you know, he's not.
He's a young twenty nine. He's not old twenty nine
about to be thirty when the season kicks off. So
he's a couple of years older than what Khalil Mack was,

(12:04):
but a better player than Khalil Mack was too. I
think up until this point more sacks Defensive Player of
the Year award, whether he's rightfully won that or whatever.
He's had Oh my goodness, Brian uh quick bath thirty two,
twenty eight. I don't know what that comes out through.
Fifty sacks, sixty sixty.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah, twenty eight sixty.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
I'm sorry. It was like sixteen and sixteen and twenty eight.
So he's had sixteen, sixteen, fourteen and fourteen. That's his
last four seasons and he's played damn near every game.
Would it be nice, would you like salivate at the
thought of that? Could the Steelers use some defensive line
help and somebody of that caliber. Just think about the
salary cap though they've got forty million dollars available rejected

(12:48):
by overthcap dot Com, which we'll use for a lot
of these valuations on you know what this roster is
going to look like. I don't think they could afford
him because they got to find a quarterback somewhere. It
don't matter who they bring in. There's not enough money
there for Miles Garrett. And then the following season you're
looking at not only you got the quarterback that's going
to be on the books, whoever that might be, You've

(13:09):
got a lot of guys that are gonna be up
for contracts. Do you bring back either this year or
the following year. You know you're looking already Najie Harris.
You're looking at Jalen Warren restricted free agent. You're looking
at George Pickens entering the final year of his contract
of his rookie deal. Right now, you've got to start
paying guys on offense, and they are paying a boatload
of people on defense. The only way that works is
if somebody like Cam Hayward retires, and that doesn't necessarily

(13:31):
take his money off the books. But Garrett's contract's kind
of interesting with my dude. His base salary is like
a million bucks or so because they kept restructuring his
contract in Cleveland and then he's got like a void
year where it's like a forty million cap hit for
the Browns. All of it's been converted to bonuses. As
we know, bonuses stick with the previous team unless there's

(13:54):
some cash consideration. There's funny business that goes on, there's
things that can be done, but for the most part,
for the Browns to move on those two first round
picks also means that they're still tied to the salary cap,
but the dead cap hits of trading this player and
then a new team doesn't have that. I think Miiles
is also looking for that. One of the Bosa brothers

(14:16):
went over thirty million dollars with his recent contract, Nick
Nick Nixon San Francisco, Right's Nick, So he's over thirty.
Garrett's around like the fifth highest paid at Drusher right now.
He's not like underpaid, but TJ just went a tinch
up to him, and a few other guys just went
up just a tinch over the last few seasons. So

(14:38):
he may be using this as leverage just to get
more money out of Cleveland, and they better be looking
in the couch cushions and stuff for change, because I
know they float things around. But that Deshaun Watson contract,
that's gonna end up being the worst deal in NFL history,
especially now if Miles Garrett leaves town because of it too.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Absolutely. As I said, it is just no, right. It's
not that you wouldn't like to have Miles Gartt on
your team. It's not that he's not a quality player,
it's not that he can't help. It's just no, because
it doesn't work, that's all.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, I don't think it works. I mean, is an
upgrade over Larry Ogunjoeby, Keanu Benton. Yeah, obviously all of
those guys. But geez, you look at the contract that
even Alex Highsmith has I think at the time signed
into being a top ten or fifteen edgresser. He's certainly
a top ten maybe top five contract on the team itself.
Now Oka joebe maybe off the books after this year,

(15:31):
he probably hasn't out in his contract, but still the
draft capital that is, if you're considering the Steelers. I
guess the question we need to ask is are the
Steelers in a rebuild or don't. I don't think there
isn't much a rebuild as some other teams that just
completely wipe everything out, just go on a fire sale,

(15:51):
trade all their players away and have absolutely zero foundation
to build from. There's certainly a foundation here, but they
also need some peace and in order to get those pieces,
particularly when we keep talking about quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, that's
gonna probably happen in a draft. Nobody's getting rid of
a quarterback, even if they're not that great. You saw

(16:13):
the contract that like Tua got, for example, They're gonna
hold on to the Tuas, the Trevor Lawrences, the Kirk
Cousins of the world are still gonna get a boatload
of money. So Steelers got to look somewhere else. And
it's gonna have to be the draft. If you get
rid of your picks for Miles Garrett and he's gonna
be thirty years old and costing you thirty million dollars
a season, I don't know. That just seems like it's

(16:35):
a pipe It's a pipe dream all the way around. Yeah,
the other guy, the other guy, Cooper Cup a smaller guy,
smaller guy. He needs they you would not he would
not confuse these guys in the grocery store aisle. There's
Cooper Cup, there's Miles, Miles Garrett. I probably have to
look up the Miles Garrett and I'm six five, though

(16:56):
he probably dwarfed me. I'm six five, two forty ish.
He'd probably dwarf me, So I can't say that about
a lot of people. I'd probably dwarf Cooper Cup. Still
Cooper Cup, and I look him up. Ram said, they're
moving on for sure, right. We all know we discussed
this during the season. We said whether it be a
fit a wide receiver too, Yeah, okay, all that stuff's great.

(17:20):
He's gonna be thirty two in June. That's the problem.
That's a major thirty two with.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
An injury history.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
If you can get him, well here's again, you got
salary issues, right, You got to absorb his salary if
you make the trade. I think you can get him
for maybe a fifth and a sixth, right, maybe a
fourth round pick, you know, maybe less.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
You can get him.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Probably for very little, but as far as draft capital goes,
so that's not the issue. But now you've got to
fit that salary, and how do you fit the salary
in do you do restructuring whatever it is, and is
it worth doing for a guy who's thirty two years
old with an injury history.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
Now it's Julio Jones all over again, going to they
never play at all? Who knows Tennessee is that who
traded for him? And then they ripped up the contract
that did something new. His base salary is twelve and
a half million next season twenty twenty five, and then
thirty three years old. He signed for the next two
years under his contract twenty twenty six, his base is

(18:20):
fourteen point eight almost fifteen. He's got roster bonuses that
get paid out now those would carry over, those are
into contract, So the Steelers would have to pay out
an additional seven and a half next year. That brings
the contract to about twenty twenty one million dollars roughly
and in the twenty range again with a five million
bonus in twenty twenty six, the Rams are probably on

(18:42):
the hook oh and five million guaranteed hold on. That
might be another figure that's not thrown in here as well,
that might bump up next year's salary. Rams are gonna
have to eat some of this. They would, they would
save seven and a half and then twenty million over
their next two years, so it would save them some money.
The total cap number under his current contract this is

(19:03):
if he stayed with the Rams twenty nine point seven
and twenty seven point three million dollars too much for
a guy his age that has missed. Let's see, he
played twelve games in each of the last two seasons,
so he's missed five apiece ten total over the last
two years, and then only played nine games in twenty
twenty two before that, so he missed eight games the

(19:25):
year before that, eighteen games over the last three years.
I'm sorry, it's just this is something that would have
to be a bargain basement deal. But I think he'd
be a boost. It would be temporary, very temporary, because
he could go, whoo, we've said this how many times,
thirty one, thirty one.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
That's that's the drop off, that's the cutoff.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Very few guys Randy Moss and he fell off and
then came back, and he was even out of the
league for a year, Jerry Rice. Aren't very many guys
they that go beyond that. I mean, I don't even
know I count them all on one hand. As far
as like the guess old Man's club for wide receiver.
It's not like Cam Heyward playing at thirty five. This
is a position with like speed, the cuts, whatever, and

(20:05):
then you pile on the injuries and I'm just I'm
out on it. I'm like, if they were able, I
don't know what's picks the Steelers still have left. I
know they've given it some up here or there, and
they gave one away for Mike Williams, who falls into
that same category. I think that's a great place to start. Actually,
because Mike Williams, when we're talking about what the twenty
twenty five roster looks like, it's void. Oh he's under

(20:26):
a void year. That was a one year with the Jets.
So that's kind of a moot point. It's not a
guy I'm bringing back. He's thirty one right now, and
just fail to find a way to make an impact
on this roster in twenty twenty four, I just I
don't see it.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
Look, I think the wide receiver room is going to
get rebuilt to a certain extent.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
But it's going to.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Get rebuilt either through the draft or you know, or
they're going to call Seattle and trade for DK.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
You know, we were talking about that last year and
wouldn't have been nice. He's another guy that's getting up
there though physical specimen, without the injury history. Though a
little bit different of a conversation, but still somebody to
be highly paid. Courtland Sutton over in Denver we kept
talking about. But I mean, I.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
Don't think he's even on the market anymore.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, no he's not. He got everything redone another wide receiver.
It really depends who the quarterback's going to. I don't
think it depends on who the quarterback is gonna be.
Whoever the quarterback's gonna be. We know Rooney said, we
be labored this on the last show. We don't want
to hammer this home too much. Russell Wilson or Justin Fields.
One of the two is probably coming back, and one
of the two's probably gonna find suitors in Las Vegas

(21:37):
or New York with the Giants or Raiders out in Vegas.
Like I was just saying, like one of those two
teams there are also quarterback needy. I could probably use
a veteran and also then draft someone as well. There's
no guarantee that that player will end up starting wherever
they land. But the guys like what makes this more enticing?
If you don't get one of those guys, man, you

(21:58):
are just you're gonna be essel well like. And I'm
not a big Fields fan. I've made that very well known.
I'm like, he had enough starts, his numbers tracked very
close to Pickett and Trubisky have put those out on
social media. I'm gonna put together a full article at
some point in the future detailing all of that. I
know some folks are like, hey, well, this guy runs
the football, and it's like, well, Mitch Trubisky had four

(22:19):
rushing touchdowns for the Steelers his first year as the starter, too,
so you can manipulate some stats every one. It's just
he's not a three hundred yard passer. He's not a
multiple touchdown passer. He can move the chain some with
his feet, that's great. Russell Wilson, on the other hand,
I don't know that he's moving a lot with his feet.
His heart's in the right place. You could see that

(22:39):
they were scored some more points, got some more yards.
Something fell apart at the end. Is that falling apart
where we're waiting back around here to wide receiver because okay,
Mike Williams. You got Van Jefferson's another guy they brought
on board that just meant sorry, you know, this may
be a total home makeover. Like you were saying, George
Picketts is in the final year of his contract. Some

(23:00):
people are like, well, it's one year, get something out
of them, and it's like, well, you look what you
looked like when you didn't have him, and then you've
got to replace him and then try and find somebody
else for the with the pair with the replacement. Right,
it's not gonna be a Cooper Cup, and it's probably
a pipe dream even talking about a DK Metcalf. But
the wide receiver room is very, very largely gonna look different.

(23:23):
Van Jefferson, Scottie Miller, who saw the field, you know,
sparingly Ben'skronick also free agent. I would bring Ben Scronick back.
I liked his special teams play. I thought he was
a fine blocker. I think he's somebody he already knows
the offense. He could compete as a wide receiver three
or four, get in that mix with whoever the other
guys are.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah, I'm I'm I'm okay with bringing Ben's Kronick back.
I look, I don't think Van Jefferson's comes back. I
don't think Mike Williams comes back. You and I are
landing in different places on Pickens in the only in
the sense that you know he he's in. He has
made it a conversation, right, If it was a if

(24:04):
he's a different player, if he's just a guy who
has just busted his ass and and has been drama free. Hell,
Hell if he's Antonio Brown for the first four years
of Antonio Brown's career. Right, it's a different conversation. Right,
you just automatically you know you're going to re up
this guy. But Pickens has made it, made it a
question mark, right, He has made it a decision on

(24:31):
is this a guy we want to keep long term
and watch where he goes, or is this a guy
that you know, we need to.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Divorce ourselves from and see what we can get out
of it.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
So I'm not one hundred percent sold that Pickens is
back in the room next year. You know, it would
take a reasonable offer, and they need to have a
plan in place to address it, because for sure, if
Pickens isn't in the room, the room has gotten worse. Right,
But and they can't that it was bad room to

(25:02):
begin with. They can't have it get worse.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Anybody's a trade candidate. Would they get anything for Calvin Austin?
I mean then you got to replace a punt return or.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Two a fifth. I don't think you get what you
got out.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, I know, And I'm not like, I'm not out
on Calvin Austin, but Calvin Austin isn't gonna just jump
in like, hey we got rid of Deontay Johnson. George
Pickens should be able to pick up the slack. And
I have my own questions. You know, all last year
Brandon I you, that was everywhere that was heading into
the draft. It was like after the free agency we
knew he wanted to contract. We talked about him for months,

(25:36):
off and on, off and on, off and on. We said,
does Dealers need another wide receiver one? I don't know
that they have a wide receiver one right now? Does
that have to do with the offensive coordator, does it
have to do with the quarterback, or does it have
to do with George Pickens. I think you can point
fingers a blame like the Spider Man meme at everybody
in this scenario. There's still a huge question mark there

(26:00):
that maybe if they had an Ayuk, maybe that raises
the profile of this offense a little bit differently, and
maybe we're better. We could better evaluate the quarterback position too,
because you know, one of these two guys is probably
gonna come back. We've also acknowledged that probably either one
of these guys is probably not the answer or a

(26:23):
long term solution. This is we're getting into the Mike
tom z X, the Kent Grahams, the Cordell Stewarts, the
Tommy Maddox type, the situation where we're recycling certain players
and somewhere within there, Charlie Batch gets thrown in and
Byron Leftwich and ended up being backups. But you know

(26:44):
that's where I see Justin Fields in the conversations, where
I see Russell Wilson in the conversation. I'm still pro
Russell Wilson just because Justin Fields. I mean, I looked
at this, We talked about whether there was handcuffs on
those first games. Look at back on it, the Falcons games,
six Chris Boswell field goals. I was thinking about, like,
you know, the conversation around well they benched this guy.

(27:07):
He was four and two do you remember the Las
Vegas Raiders game. Do you remember our post game show,
you and I we we weren't very like over the
Moon over that victory. That was like one of those
wins where you were kind of like, did we really
do we have a sense that this team is the
team we think they can be, And that answer was no.

(27:29):
It seemed like they kind of just skated by and
one because the Raiders were just that bad and the
Steelers defense was opportunistic against what whatever That quarterback situation was,
different backups, different guys playing all the time there in Vegas.
So you look at Fields's stats on that game and

(27:49):
they were just lower and he didn't even have two
hundred yards passing against the Colts or the Cowboys, and
the Cowboys game is one where the Steelers defense forced
three turnovers. They got four in total. One was what
block field goal or turnover on downs because of the
field goal, I believe, and they it was like punts, punts, punts,
And they didn't even have one hundred yards of offense in

(28:09):
the first half and the game was six to three.
And somehow you go back and look at that and
you're like, how on earth did they lose this game,
and it just feel like it's just more pulling teeth.
Then you're at the end of the season and we
gotta look at We're gonna look at defense too, because
the defense, they were only giving up sixteen to eighteen points,
maybe even fewer at the very beginning, thirteen to fourteen

(28:30):
against those teams. Because even the Chargers were Fields had
a fantastic game. I was like, hey, if this guy
does this might be onto something. And he was unable
to replicate it in the next three They moved to russ
offense sores. You go come after the buy, you beat
a team like the Commanders that's on the come up,
and so you're like, Okay, I'm feeling good about this.
Then you have that crappy game that's set up at
Thursday night with the Browns. After you play the Ravens.

(28:52):
You beat the Ravens, you're feeling pretty good. You're on
top of the AFC North with two wins, and then
the whole thing just goes in. The crapper defense gives
up a bunch of points. The offense could do nothing.
It's just like a giant mess and it leaves us
in this situation, right now where we can't confidently say, well,
if they had Russell Wilson next year, they're gonna absolutely
do this. It could look like the beginning of the

(29:13):
year of the beginning of Russell Wilson's starting, or it
could look like the end of Russell Wilson starting. The
same if you run it back with the same defense,
if you go with Justin Fields, isn't gonna look more
like it did with Trubisky and with Pickett, and you
need that defense to play strong. But what if they
go and do the thing that they did with Russ
at those last five games, Fields is gonna be stuck
in the same situation. So for quarterback, for me, it's

(29:37):
just bring back one of the guys that knows this
system and then put some pieces around him. They're gonna
have to do that wide receiver. I think they're gonna
have to look in the draft. We're gonna look at
free agents that are available. But the guys on this
roster right now were pretty much like, eh, yeah, yeah, right, yeah,
that's pretty that's pretty yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
This is one of the rare occasions where.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
The who of the quarterback is is it's important, but
it's less important, right and the reason being, they got
enough holes that were exposed at the end of last year,
enough problems that were exposed that any quarterback they can
get via either trade or free agency or in this
draft where it is. You know, we said that the

(30:23):
Kenny Pickett draft was a historically bad This is bad too.
This is a very bad quarterback draft. Generally speaking. There
may be guys who turn into something, but you're not
basing it on what you've seen so far, right, And
they all have flaws and warts, even the two guys
who are likely to go in the top ten. You know,
as somebody said, compare this year to last year, and

(30:46):
there isn't one guy who goes in the top in
the first round this year that's in this draft. Okay,
So what I'm getting at is, it doesn't it matters
less who who they end up bringing back, as long
as they know the system, they're comfortab bull enough in
the system, and they can operate within the system. They
need to fix so many other things, right, give them

(31:07):
the weapons that they need.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
They got to figure out that. To figure out their
running back.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
They have to figure out their wide receivers, they have
to figure out their defensive line.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
They have to figure out their offensive line. They got
a lot they got to figure out another quarterback. They've
got a lot.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Of stuff to figure out, and the quarterback is an
important piece to that. But based on what you can get,
it is probably you're not You're not finding the next
Bin or the next Bradshaw or Brady or Mahomes in
the group of people.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
That are out and you know what, Brady. Hold on
a second, because somebody's like, you could definitely find uh,
look at Brady, look at Purdy, hit or well it
might even sold on Purty. Still, I wasn't originally how
much of that is Kyle Come.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Purty isn't lighting up the world. He was operating within
a system. Brady quarterback.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
I don't care what you say. Yeah, just the players
that are around all of them. I think Brady grew
into something different eventually, But you tend to forget Brady Purdy.
Those guys don't play unless the guys in front of
unless Drew Bloedsoe gets hurt. And they may have only
they had three quarterbacks. I think New England didn't always.
Belichick wasn't always like a three quarterback guy, right, But

(32:18):
I think Brady might have been the third guy at
least coming into camp there and then he ascended to
the backup and then and the rest is history, Tuck
Roll and everything else after Bledsoe gets hurt and Purdy
is much the same way they drafted Trey Lance. They
gave away a bunch of draft capital to pick third
overall Trey Lance, right after Zach Wilson. And you look

(32:40):
at that and you're like, wow, you know, those are
some bad, bad, bad that will set franchises back a
long time because my whole thing was okay. So my
thing with Fields has been he started forty four games
in the NFL. This will be entering year five. Had
he played with the Steelers, had to Steelers drafted him

(33:00):
as a first rounder, and had he been playing here
in the last four seasons and played the way he's played,
people would have ran him out of town like Kenny Pickett,
they would have ran himut of town two years ago.
So how much more patience do you have? When does
the potent? When does he fulfill the potential? And people
will mention like Sam Darnold, I'm not exactly sure that
he's there yet either, And I don't want to get

(33:22):
into this whole thing again. But we have named so
many quarterbacks over the years. The Mariota's, the Winston's, the
everybody like that have failed. More than likely, you're going
to draft a quarterback and they're going to fail, And
in order to know if they're going to fail or not,
you probably have to let them start twenty to thirty
games in two three seasons and you set everything else

(33:45):
backward if it doesn't work out. And even when they
do turn out good, well, Joe Josh Allen needed all
this time, and Peyton Manning didn't have a good rookie
season exactly exactly that, and even Ben got kind of lucky.
You look at Ben's statistics weren't great over the first
three seasons. Either they got to grow, they got to learn,
they got to get that experience and whether or not
to turn that corner or not. It's when you then

(34:07):
have to decide, is this the guy or are we
cutting loose from this guy? So hard to do when
you're constantly changing offensive coordinators. If you put another quarterback
in there and they're learning it, there's just nobody out
there that I'm interested in having other than the two
guys they just had this year. But it is important
to note, you know, Kyle Allen's also free agent. I'd

(34:28):
bring him back, probably at least as the backup. Like
I'd feel comfortable if you bring back either. I'm not
gonna say comfortable comfortable, but I'd be okay with wilsoner
Fields and then Alan is your backup. And then if
you end up one of these quarterbacks, it's not a
great draft, and it's like Desmond Ritter falls into the
third round or something like that. I remember you used
to rag on Sam Howell really bad too, and he

(34:50):
fell in there, Matt Corral, that draft class was just
not that great. It could happen again, Yeah, it could happen. Yeah,
so who knows? Who knows where Will Howard's stock is
and McCord who moved to Syracuse, and guys like that,
they're very much developmental quarterbacks. You're looking at like anotherly

(35:11):
Inentry Jones, you're not looking at. Well, all these guys
got hurt, and Perty got put into a good situation,
and Brady got put into a good situation and then
they excel and they're gonna be running for their lives
if they don't patch up the offensive line. But before
we get to the trenches. My friend running back Anjie
Harris coming back. He had some Instagram posts he was

(35:32):
on a boat somewhere and he's just like, I'm on
a boat mother, you know, and he's got he's flipping
the bird everywhere. And some people are starting to take
that as will he return, will he not return. I've
already seen mutterings of that, and it's you know, it's dumb.
It's dumb. The speculation rumor mill. You have. The problem
is Jalen Warren is a restricted free agent, so a
new contract something, even if it's for one year, they're

(35:56):
gonna have to lock him up and up to two
guys that they're going to try to hold on to
long term. Here, I think that you're probably looking at
holding on to Jalen Warren as opposed to Naji Harris.
Even though Naji Harris has been very serviceable, I believe
he's been giving a raw deal too. He's been playing
behind bad offensive line play. He still somehow turns out

(36:19):
the yards. He's durable, he's almost he's available for every game.
He doesn't miss games. He usually doesn't turn the ball over.
He can't be used in the past game I think
he's a quirky teammate. I'm not sure if he's a
leader in the locker room or not. The Steelers need
some of those guys too at some of what's missing
when a Ben Roethlisberger, Marquis pouncing and those guys kind

(36:41):
of fade away after all these years in order to
get back to the Steelers' way. So is there a
continuity there with naj Can you afford to have nause?
And Jalen Warren is Nause looking for like some big
se He's looking for Jerry Jones to give him a bag,
you know, because that's the kind of guy that go
oh running back and then you know, ro sixty million
dollars at him. We saw the resurgence of the position

(37:03):
this past season. Everybody's like, nah, we don't want Aaron Jones.
We don't want but Josh Jacobs, Hey, I'll take that guy.
And you saw these guys, Saquan and everybody else move
around the league and somebody like Najee Harris. I think
in their agent they're sitting there looking at that and saying, hey, Steelers,
if you don't pony up, maybe one of these other
teams will be foolish enough to do so, I'm a
coin I think, Yeah, I'm a coin flipp I'm sorry,

(37:26):
I'm a I'm a coin flippist. Whether or not he
comes back, both if I want him back, and both
if the team will do that, I think it's fifty
to fifty either way. I'm good either way too.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
I think that I'm I'm more like it's probably seventy
five twenty five that he comes back seventy five percent
that he doesn't not because just because of you can't
underestimate the stupidity of other teams to.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
Overpay for people. Right, and I like Nause.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
I would not be upset to have Nause come back,
but it has to be in the right footing the
right price.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
If they fix the offensive line, I think I think
the point that you're made is very accurate.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
With the right offensive line, you have no idea who
Naju can be right with A with a dominant offensive line,
you have no idea what he can produce right, because
he's never had one right every all the entire amount
of time he's been here. Right, the offensive line has
been subpar. It has not been a dominant offensive line.

(38:26):
Put that guy behind a dominant offensive line, and maybe
he's Eric, you know, Derrick Henry. Maybe not, but we
don't know, which is why I'm not upset if they
bring him back.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
I just don't think they're going to be able to.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
And while I like Jalen Warren a lot, I'm not
sure Jalen Warren is your feature back.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
As a long term solution. Right now.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
You're back to Isaac Redmond days to a certain extent,
and I don't not that Jalen Warren is Isaac Resmond.
Isaac Redman was more of a power back than Jalen
Warren is. But you know, you're not talking about having
an elite level running back.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
So you know, you got to figure that out.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Whether they draft somebody in one of the second or
third rounds and because they know Nag he's not gonna
be here, or whether they find a way to bring
Nase back and they focus on, you know, fixing the
offensive line.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
They just they got a lot of stuff to do.
They got a lot of work, They got a lot
of work ahead of it.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Oh yeah, I know. That's why this roster is gonna
look a lot different than you may think. I was
trying to look at like some of the running backs
that might be up, and Nase's about at the top
of the list, and you know, maybe maybe Aaron Jones
who's now north of thirty. You've got like a AJ Dillon,
Nick Chubb who's had his injury history and he's thirty

(39:45):
years old. Javonte Williams out of the same draft class,
not a lot of exciting names. Travis Homers, Alexander Madison
and Mira Abdullah. JK. Dobbins who's had his shariff issues.
Chase Edmunds has had some too. Like all of these
guys are almost like around that thirty it is twenty
nine thirty years old. Uh, kind of area. With the

(40:10):
exception of Javonte and then Nause. Nause and Jalen Warren
and me are Jerome Bettis and Willie Parker. You take
Jerome Bettis out of the equation and just Willie Parker.
It's you know, they still got it done. But can
Warren play a full seventeen game season. You're not gonna
do Belcow anymore. I think Tomlin has finally realized that

(40:32):
he has used committee. He did use committee back then
with Parker. They have Milde Moore and somebody else too,
uh escape in my memory. And but the other committee
didn't work with like Isaac Redman and you know what,
Baron Batch and just some Chris Chris Rainey. They tried
that dreet Archer was thrown into that mix. Somewhere. There's

(40:55):
some like there's a bad running back after Mendenhall did
well and then Mendenhall got hurt, was never the same
player again. So yeah, the running back room could look different.
I'd be totally fine if they ran it back and
they were able to bring Nausey back. It depends what
he's gonna ask. That quarterback contract looms looms large. The

(41:15):
tight end room it should look about the same. Fire
Muth extended Darnel Washington under a rookie deal. Michael Pruitt,
he's older and you know whatever, he's like thirty three,
thirty four years old. I know he's an Arthur Smith guy.
He's a Vetman type guy. I don't know that he
comes back. Connor Hayward is still that hybrid. He's still
in a rookie contract. He maybe fight fighting for a

(41:36):
roster position regardless because of his specialized kind of usage,
kind of like a Jalen Samuels he's a guy that
you like, but where do you play him? Where does
he fit in? Primarily as a special teamer? Right, so
you we could immediately kick over to, as you've said,
repairing the offensive line. At least they have one foot
in the door. We're not like, hey, the Steelers need

(41:56):
to use ten they need ten areas where they need
to use the first round pick. They've used a few
of these and they've got one coming back that didn't
get the play in Troy Faltanu. Problem is Mason McCormick.
You're thinking, maybe he's the future. They're drafting, planning ahead.
Maybe James Daniels doesn't come back free agent. Now he
comes back, what's his value after an injury? Is he

(42:19):
a guy that they could bring back because maybe he
doesn't have the market. What's his medicals look like, what's
his physicals look like? Is he ready to go? You know,
right at free agency he may not get signed right
out to keep by anyone. I don't know. It's a
it's a mystery, you know what I mean. These cards
are held closely to the agent's best in order to
get the best deal for their players. We do know

(42:42):
that Daniels was very good when he did get the play.
I think Zach Frasier will make a leap in here. Two.
I thought he did excellent. He made all the Pro
Football Writers All Rookie Team. He had a pretty high
Pro Football Focus grade, which I know we only care
about those when they actually, you know, attribute things like
two sacks for Isaac sa Malo who got named to

(43:02):
the Pro Bowl. Dan Moore junior Roderick Jones. Does Broderick
live up to the billing at left tackle? Or is
he just as bad as he was on the right
doesn't provide an upgrade to Dan Moore. I think at
least if Fatanu pans out, if you do bring Daniel's backer,
you got McCormick back with an extra year, or you

(43:24):
find somebody else that's a guard, right. I feel like
guard is a position it's more easily to be had,
and maybe the Steelers are really only a player, maybe
not even a player, away from hopefully having this line fixed.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Uh that's hopeful, I mean it's it is definitely hopeful.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
If Iftanu is a good tackle, which is.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Up in the air right now, we don't know.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
I feel like they both both Broderick Jones and Patana
were guys that were not your normal prototypical tackle tackles, right,
they did things in college that tackles didn't really do.
And while they were really good in college and they
were able, their athleticism was able to allow them to
overcome that doesn't always port, you know, push its way

(44:14):
into the pros.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
So, I don't know. Broderck Jones is starting to verge.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
On the.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Heading of bust, but we haven't seen him play as
natural positions, So I don't know. You know, we could
find Look, James Daniels doesn't come back, you know, maybe
you find some way to slide a new guard in
through the draft, maybe through free agency, and maybe all
of a sudden you got Fatano on the right, you
got Broderck Jones on the left, and you see what

(44:45):
you got.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
I think that's what they have to do. Anyway.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
You've got to see if these bookend tackles are going
to be the tackles that you move forward with. It's
pretty clear right now at least that broder Jones probably
isn't the answer at right, right, So you got to
figure that out.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah, we knew Dan Moore wasn't the answer. It rights,
I don't think Dan Moore will be back. We'll have
some more to ground to cover here, Brian, because you
know this is still very heavy on the offensive side
of the ball for this conversation, as we said, we'd
probably have to split this up. We'll throw special teams
in with the defense when we bounce back around to
this topic next week. Because out of all of the

(45:26):
guys that are in the top ten here when it
comes to these when it comes to these contracts, I'm
only seeing like maybe one or two dudes that play
on the offensive side of the ball. Everybody else is
on that highest paid defense and there are a lot
of question marks there and also some free agents. But boy,
the Steelers still have their work cut out for them

(45:49):
on the offensive side. Quarterback, wide receiver, running backs of
question now, we still have question marks on the offensive line,
and the offensive line is gonna be the most important thing.
I think you hit the nail on the head. What
if Najie Harris played in Philadelphia probably puts up some
pretty big numbers too. So that's a huge piece, a

(46:09):
huge piece of the puzzle for the Pittsburgh Steelers going
forward in twenty twenty five. But we do think that
this team at least on offense is going to look
a lot more different than they did in twenty twenty four.
Thank you, my friend once again for joining me, joining us.
I know you're up against it. I know we're up
against it. Folks, don't forget to like, comment and subscribe,

(46:31):
follow us, leave a rating and review. Wherever you may
be watching or listening, you can always watch the show's
video version on YouTube next day, also on one of
our two Spotify feeds. Also be sure to catch us
on social media putting some new stuff out there in
the off season. Always looking for some suggestions too, So

(46:51):
leave some comments. Unless you're like one of these two
other guys. The one guy said I was terrible and
said I was a liar because I said justin fields
through five touch out passes. I'm like, it's just it's statistics, man,
I'm like, you know versus opinion. Hey, you know, and
I don't get too rouled up. Somebody has a difference
of opinion. You and I don't always agree, Brian, just uh,

(47:12):
we always turn out to be right too, which is weird.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
So that's that's true.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
So folks, that'll do it for us, As we always
close out the show here. My name's Joe, his name's Brian.
Until next time, we encourage everyone out there to be safe,
be good, and we'll catch you later. We would like
it 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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