Will Arthur Smith's Steelers offense excel in year two?

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 hoes.
Joe Kuzma, Hello everyone.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
And welcome to another edition of the steel City Underground podcast.
My name is Joe Kuzma. I am flying solo this week.
Mister Brian E. Roach is on vacation. Zach Flash Cladodia
chomping at the bit to come back. Especially you should
be here today because I'm gonna be talking about the
Pittsburgh Steelers offense. But before I could get into those details,
of course, piggybacking off of last episode, myself and Brian

(00:40):
talking about what this Pittsburgh Steelers team, particularly the defense,
might look like without t J. Watt, and now we
no longer have to worry about that due to a
large three year extension that Watt signed became official yesterday,
worth one hundred and twenty three million dollars and eight
of those smack rus fully guaranteed at signing, including a

(01:03):
forty million dollars signing bonus. That means a very fat wallet,
of which his brother JJ Watt commented and said, this
guy better not asked me to pay for dinner anymore
or something along those same lines that put the bill
over there on that side of the table, right. So yeah, TJ. Watt,
he's a Steeler for life pretty much. I know some folks,

(01:24):
there's some there's a lot of like, you know, ups
and down, some positives and negatives and looking at things.
I always try and see the glass half empty, the
glass half full with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But make no
mistake about this, TJ. Watt's a future Hall of Famer.
He's an elite generational talent that doesn't come around every day,
and he's not a guy that could be easily replaced

(01:45):
by any of the other players that are on the roster.
As we noted in the last episode previewing training camp,
can't really see my shirt, it's somewhere in here. I'm
geeked up. I'm ready to go for Pittsburgh Steelers' training camp.
The players are as well as they are re porting
today Wednesday. They're bringing in all the snacks, all the goodies,
all the furniture. So it's time to cover the other

(02:09):
half of the football. Well. I always like the three
phases of football, you know. I love my specialists. I mean,
I don't have much to say, just hoping Cameron Johnston
comes back. I think we talked about this at the
very end of last show, but he comes back healthy.
That guy looked impressive just in camp. Season cut short
with only the one game played Week one against the
Atlanta Falcons. And this is kind of kind of like

(02:32):
kind of dip over into the offensive side of the
ball too, because I don't know who the returners are
going to be for the Pittsburgh Steelers. There's a number
of options there as we go through this depth chart,
look at some of the various players, try and keep
the trying to keep my arms around this show today
and not let it just be a runaway train, which
could be real easy to do when I'm talking about

(02:52):
Aaron Rodgers and the quarterbacks, which I've done an awful
lot this year. So again, I know I'm telling everybody
you go back a few episodes. A lot of the
information we've gone over. This isn't like talking to you know,
a game preview like a month ago. When we get
into the season. This stuff has not dated yet. So
a lot of good information that's out there for those

(03:14):
ens who enjoyed the show and by for those of
you who are enjoying the show, Thank you for joining
us today. Jump into Arthur Smith and his offense. Oh
I didn't mention Chris Boswell. Hold on one second, I
am a little scatterbrain. Chris Boswell. He's on his way
to being the goat. He's the most elite kicker in
the NFL. And Justin Tucker, as we know, kind of

(03:36):
flamed out in Baltimore. So there's no other competition right
away up against the Wizard of Oz. Wizard Boss is
the Wizard of Oz, as Brian has said. So jumping
into year two of Arthur Smith's offense, what can we
expect from Arthur Smith? Do we see an uptick with

(03:56):
the Pittsburgh Steelers based on some of the moves that
they've made this year. Last season, the Steelers offense ranked
twenty third in yards, They were sixteenth in points, they
were fourth in rushing attempts, eleventh, in yards only nineteenth
and touchdowns in twenty fifth, and yards per attempt in

(04:17):
the run game. There are some things that got to
change here because that's just that's really not good enough
and it's some of the worst numbers that Arthur Smith
has experienced. He had a little little worse his first
year in Atlanta. I don't think he had jam Robinson yet,
or at least not for a full season, and they
immediately jumped to you know, third in yards, fourth in attempts.

(04:40):
They were like tenth a scoring. That was all as
the final season they was there, but they were also
the first in attempts. Some of that had to do
with quarterbacking two. When you have like a Desmon Rudder
or a Marcus Mariota, and those are the guys that
you're saddled with and they take off and run. It's
kind of like Justin Fields. And I think that's what
everybody thought Arthur Smith was going to do coming into
Pittsburgh LEF last year with Justin Fields. Maybe not as

(05:02):
much of a mobile Russell Wilson, But looking back at
that offense, I don't know what you see a lot
differently this season with a one mister Aaron Rodgers, super
former Super Bowl MVP, four time League MVP. What's he
still got in the tank at forty one years of age,
doesn't turn over the ball? A whole lot that was helping.

(05:25):
That was happening with Russ a little bit. I think
Russ was changing some plays. I think Russ was getting
maybe a little aggressive or greedy. You know, it's hard
to fall to player that just has his heart in
the right spot, like in Baltimore where he ran with
the ball and he ends up fumbling, didn't slide or
didn't slide early enough, gets just tattooed. One of the
safety's got him. I think it was Washington of the Ravens,

(05:47):
but I digress. He's gone some of the miscues he
had with George Pickens. Also the reason why George Pickens
is gone. This is a completely different look for Arthur Smith.
And to some degree, we kind of know what Arthur
Smith is. We kind of know what his philosophy is,
and I think it's going to be running the football

(06:09):
and it's going to be interesting to see what that
effect has on a one mister Aaron Rodgers in the
way he plays his game, because you know Aaron Rodgers,
he's not adverse to throwing the ball around the field,
slinging around everywhere whereas I don't know if Arthur Smith's
got the same concepts. You know, the Steelers last season,

(06:34):
they didn't have the most passing attempts. In fact, they
were twenty ninth in the league, twenty seventh in passing yards,
and twentieth out of the thirty two teams with and touchdowns.
They didn't turn it over a whole lot, though only
they were third in the league as far as passing interceptions.
So when I say carry over, you may not see
as many attempts from a forty one year old quarterback.

(06:56):
Maybe not, you know, early in the season. Maybe if
you get behind right a little bit of a shootout
something like that, put Rogers out there. He's going to
read defense, He's going to make maybe some adjustments. He's
certainly got some of the players and tools on this
offense to be able to make some plays. But I
think they're really going to adjust and aid him by

(07:19):
running the football, or at least that would be the thought,
because that's what Arthur Smith is known to do. And
I know you've got all the excitement that's surrounding a
guy like DK Metcalf, little poster child for the podcast
here today, landed a new contract himself, big physical wide receiver,
one genetic freak, maybe another kind of generational athlete, even

(07:42):
though his stats may have not always been up to that.
Some of that's the quarterbacking in Seattle. Some of that's
just having other great wide receivers in Seattle, like Tyler
Lockett over the years. I'm trying to think if Douck
Baldwin was still there when DK started, maybe like his
rookie year or so. And of course Jackson Smith thing Jigba,
which kind of made Metcalf I'd say, you know, obsolete

(08:05):
over there. Seattle just they did a lot of changes
this year. And I know it's not a podcast about
the Seahawks, but a lot of wholesale changes after being
a team that was did they make the playoffs or
they were just out? They won enough games and the
Steelers are still They're very great comparison here because even
though it's been in drips and drabs, but the Steelers
team doesn't look the same as it did last season.

(08:27):
So Arthur Smith has some different personnel, some different players
to work with. The running back room looks a lot different,
the quarterback room almost different. Mason Rudolph's back port and
stash and all. I don't know what's up with that.
My dude. Will Howard, the sixth round rookie pick out
of Ohio State, a big physical specimen himself that a

(08:50):
lot of people say, Look at all the receivers that
he had at Ohio State, look at the offense, you know,
offensive coordinator chip Kelly, Ryan Day, offensive minded head coach.
At the collegiate level, he was playing in a pro system,
he was playing against a lot of pro ready players,
a lot of guys he's gonna be seeing on Sundays,
particularly in the college football playoffs. So I know, I

(09:12):
don't think I'm gonna see Howard this year, but let's
see how he develops. I don't want to spend or
dwell too much on the quarterbacking side of things. I
really just don't know how this is going to factor
in with Aaron Rodgers. If he's a team player and
there isn't all of the diva stuff, and he's really
sincere about wanting to compete in all of these maybe

(09:34):
mentors some of these guys, I think it's going to
be a very good experience for Mason Rudolph and a
Will Howard. Again, I'm saying this over and over, but
Mason Rudolph could be one of these guys. He plays
his cards right. Who knows where else he ends up
playing quarterback at Maybe he gets one more shot at
being a starter in the pros. Maybe that shot is
next year with the Steelers or maybe knock on wood,

(09:57):
there's no serious injuries, but if Rogers doesn't play, that's
going to be your next guy up. Mason Rudolph And
I think, you know, after all of this experience when
he said done in the being a player in the NFL,
I think he's going to make a fine coach somewhere.
I just see it. Just all of the different knowledge
he's been able to absorb, although some of it not
as good when you're talking about a Matt Canada and
Randy Fickner, but you also learn what not to do

(10:19):
right and that's part of his growing experience. But just
kind of the guys that they're going to be throwing to. Okay,
I know there's been some emphasis that's been placed on
various players. DK Metcalf stud wide receiver one. I'm very
excited about DK. He's still in his prime, He's twenty

(10:40):
eight years of age. Who's the wide receiver too? Well.
One of those guys that's out there name gets thrown
around a lot, Robert Woods, and Robert Woods hasn't done
a lot over the last few seasons in the National
Football League. He's bounced around between different teams. You may
remember that he had, you know, his stints with the
Buffalo Bill with the LA Rams, of which he had

(11:02):
you know, his most success to seasons with more than
a thousand yards and then a third one nearly over
a thousand where he had nine thirty six back when
he was in LA, and then you know, some injuries
start to creep up. He's twenty nine, thirty years old,
only played nine games, goes off to Tennessee. This is
the post Arthur Smith Tennessee Titans that didn't do as well.

(11:25):
And of course in twenty twenty two, actually yeah, Vrapel
actually lasted one extra season, but Ryan Tannehill did not.
It was not the same kind of team there in Tennessee,
which were drawing some of the experience for Arthur Smith.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
So with the Houston Texans the last two years, we
know all of the different receivers that have been ian Houston.
You had Stefan Diggs, you had Tank Dell. I'm missing
like one or two guys because there's been guys that
have been hurt, but it's been a logjam. I actually
thought that Woods would have been a trade candidate last season.

(12:04):
And forgive me, man, my memory sometimes is like a goldfish.
I'm trying to remember five dudes that played on the
Houston Texans last year, none of which were on my
fantasy teams, by the way, But you know what, just
for you know, giggles here, let's see Nico Collins, another
guy that was on there. Christian Kirk comes over. Some

(12:26):
of that's this year's roster versus last year's. But you
can get the point that Robert Woods, at thirty three
years of age, was expendable. But he has return experience.
He has experience as a kick returner and a punt
returner and a special teams player, of which he's done
quite a bit of over the last few seasons, particularly

(12:47):
the last three seasons when he was in LA. Didn't
do as much. He did do more special teams trying
to earn his chops in Buffalo when he first entered
the league. I think he's going to compete there. I
know corder Ao Patterson is still on the roster too.
I kind of like the idea of pairing you have
another running back now. Patterson's listed as running back slash

(13:08):
kick returner, you have another running back that's been added,
Kenneth Gainwell, gain well third down back, somebody that's a
little shifty. He could ran, he could catch, he could
kind of do a lot of things. He doesn't do
them exceptionally bad. He doesn't do them exceptionally great. He's
kind of just a jack of all trades, master of none.
Also a guy that was returning kicks I believe punts

(13:30):
as well for the Philadelphia Eagles last season. It's going
to be important as I bounced back to the wide
receivers here, because I think this is how Robert Woods,
despite his experience at his tenure in the league, he
might get some early reps just based on that, because
I don't know that. I don't know what you do
with Calvin Austin. I don't know what you do with
some of the other receivers on the roster, such as

(13:53):
Roman Wilson, who did not see any playing time last year.
Now I've mentioned they are smaller, wider. Looking up their
actual size as listed by the Steelers, probably with lifts
in their cleats as well. Let's see, we've got Calvin
Austin listed at five nine one sixty two. Rum and
Wilson listed at five ten eighty six, so they're in

(14:16):
roughly the same category here, and they're going to be
competing for reps, probably as the wide receiver too. Somebody's
going to have to ascend. And I got some other
ideas about Arthur Smith, the way he plays in formations,
but Mike Talman doesn't generally like to have somebody who
gets a lot of offensive snaps also returned punts. He
tried to take that those rolls away from Antonio Brown

(14:40):
many years ago, and to much of his chagrin, Antonio
Brown still wanted to, you know, knock over Spencer, the
punter from the Cleveland Browns, kicking rate in the face
and return kicks, do return punts, do flips in the
end zone, stick to the goalpost, and all the other
crazy shit that Antonio Brown did before he started doing

(15:02):
even crazier shit off the field outside of Pittsburgh. Right,
excuse me while I get a swig of that nice coffee.
He got the caff being and the juice is going right.
So the wide receivers the room. We're gonna go through
a few other guys. But when you're looking at purely
like a wide receiver, too makeup or composition. I believe

(15:25):
it's going to be Woods can be one of those
guys that comes out there, but I think he comes
out when it's a multiple receiver set. I don't think
we see a lot of snaps necessarily with Woods in
the game. Rum and Wilson comes from, you know, the
University of Michigan, the Wolverines national championship team from the
previous year under Jim Harbaugh, a very run centric football team,

(15:50):
a very physical wide receiver. Even for his size, he
did not you know, he was injured, didn't play in
the preseason last year. He came back, then he was
hurt again, never really got on the field. So Rum
and Wilson's kind of a wildcard. Is a third round
pick from last year. It's like having a new player

(16:10):
yet again. And Mike Tomlin, especially with wide receivers, has
been reluctant in previous years to throw the rookies out
there right away. He did it with Pickens, but Pickens
still sometimes was limited. So you might have some of
those considerations as you're starting out this year with Arthur
Smith's offense, especially in September, Robert Woods might be the

(16:32):
safe guy to have it's gonna be nicer weather earlier
in the year, where Aaron Rodgers may throw the ball
more versus when they could really lean into the run
game later in the cold weather in Pittsburgh. Now, Rodgers
is accustomed to cold weather. He played in New York
for two years and then played in Green Bay even
colder weather for the rest of his career. Guy's been

(16:52):
around for a minute. So we're gonna see. But can
he make stars out of a Calvin Austin with like
a four to two forty and a rum and Wilson
with a four to three forty. I think you put
those guys on the field at the same time with
like a DK Metcalf. We start talking about some of
the tight ends here in a moment mixed for some
real crazy matchup problems and woods if he loses a step,

(17:13):
who cares. If he's shifty enough and he could still
run routes. Those are the type of veteran players that
know how to get defensive backs off their step, off
their game, get open and move the chains. And as
long as he has that trust with Aaron Rodgers, we'll see. Now.
I know some people will say, well, you're crazy, Joe
Robert Woods might be a cut candidate, also a possibility,

(17:35):
but he's here, he's signed as a veteran to aid
this room where you otherwise don't have an incredible amount
of experience. I mean, you got Kelvin Austin. I still
joke with my cousin from last year, what game was
that where Kelvin Austin. I was like, anytime touchdown might
have been against the Charges, might have been the opener

(17:56):
the week three game. Let me see, where's your game
logs at mister Kelvin Austin last season? Five hundred and
forty eight yards. I'd say it's a little bit of
a breakout. Four touchdowns. You know, he became kind of
a target for Russell Wilson more frequently. Yeah, anytime touchdown
four catches ninety five yards or to see justin fields

(18:16):
this time against Chargers in Week three. So sometimes not
so bad of the memory, not so much of the
goldfish versus the steel Trap. I still remember that. It
was just funny because I think the bet was something
like plus thirty six or thirty eight hundred, like for
the prop bet. I'm not much of a betting guy.
I talk about the odds a lot of times I
know enough to be dangerous. I don't usually put my

(18:38):
money at risk, though, That's one of those ones where
I wish I would have thrown twenty dollars down. I
would have been a nice little chunk of change to
have at the end of the day, little extra beer money,
so to speak. So Kelvin Austin, I believe third on
the season, third in receiving yards for the season with
the Steelers. Last year we start to get into Obviously,

(19:03):
George Pickens didn't put up the big wide receiver one
numbers that everyone was hoping for. Only nine hundred yards,
fifty nine receptions, three touchdowns. I believe all of that
can be matched or exceeded by DK metcalf. So Austin
was third on the team with five hundred and forty
eight yards, and he had one more touchdown than George Pickens.

(19:24):
That's really a feather in his cap. The rest of
the room. Ben Scaronic, real scrappy guy that you know,
these special teams demon you got to have guys there too.
He's also been somebody that you could run, you know,
an underneath route, move the chains, pretty steady hands, also
a physical guy that could be out there as a
wide receiver too. If you see him in Metcalf, I'm

(19:47):
thinking run, run, run, run.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
And.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Excuse me. That goes back to Arthur Smith's philosophy. It
goes to the running backs. You got Jalen Warren, great
pass pro of just sometimes concerns with protecting the football
hasn't been as durable as a Niji Harris, who, of
course our prayers go out to too for the you
know incident he was involved in around the fourth of July,

(20:16):
and now he's on the non football injury list or
the pup or placed him on one of them out
there with La and he's already got to compete with
Omari and Hampton. So it's like, my, how the mighty
like fall? And you know, he was definitely looking for
that big payday and now you know his career is
potential jeopardy. So we'll see. But that's because Jalen Warren

(20:36):
does such a fantastic job when he's on the field.
Got more of a share of the snaps last year,
also a large not only a probably a better pass blocker,
but also a bigger contributor in the passing game for
the Pittsburgh Steelers. He actually had thirty eight catches for
three hundred and ten yards. Those rank two more catches

(20:56):
than Austin and ranks behind them yards wise, He's not
going to get as many per reception. He's not really
lining up in the slot like a Lavon Bell. But
guess who might And I'm not gonna say Todd Haley's
gonna come back and miraculously make a running back into
a wide receiver two. But in this category, uh, Caleb Johnson.
This guy is going to be a beast. He just

(21:20):
has like those same kind of traits of a Lavon
Bell six four. I believe he could play every single down.
Will he start right out the gate? Probably not. As
long as Warren's healthy, you could ease Johnson in there.
But I think by the end of the year we're
gonna be talking about Johnson an awful lot. If you're
one of the fantasy football types which I do risk

(21:41):
my money on, it's the long term bet versus the
short short term gamble. Right, I don't know, Caleb Johnson
might be somebody I stashed, particularly if I'm going to
handcuff that is, put him with Jalen Warren. So in
case of Warren, gets hurt, you have the next man
up that you can insert into your lineup. He's just
he's just chiseled. He's just built a different way. So

(22:02):
I could see Johnson getting an awful lot of reps
and getting them early. We get into the tight end
room and we start to talk about some of the
other weapons that the Steelers have. Wide receiver two category
definitely Pat Fryarmuth, who finished a year with sixty five
receptions for six hundred and fifty three yards and seven touchdowns.
Will those numbers be bigger this season? I don't know

(22:25):
that they will. When you add a Pro Bowl player
such as john Al Smith to the mix, I don't
know who can be a potential wide receiver too on
this roster. It could be Firemuth, could be Smith. I
know I was talking running backs. You might not have
to worry about all these other wide receivers. They might
be there to make a big play if Rogers could
deliver the ball downfield. Smith and Mike McDonald's offense down

(22:51):
in Miami, Mike McDonald's the wrong guy. That's the Seattle Seahawks.
Mike McDaniel of the Miami Dolphins, head coach, very offensive
guru right Pro Bowl year. I know Pro Bowls like everybody,
yach yack, whatever, but first of his career, not just
a popularity contest. He's the only guy on the Dolphins
who made this team. He was targeted a one hundred

(23:12):
and eleven times. Becomes the only guy that makes the
Pro Bowl on this roster because he caught eighty eight
of those balls for eight hundred and eighty four yards
eight touchdowns. This will be his third go around with
Arthur Smith. So Arthur Smith knows John L. Smith, and
the other Smith knows the other Smith. The Smith's know
the Smith's, and the Smith's know football. He's going to
know how to Arthur is going to know how to

(23:32):
use John hu in this offense. And that might be
a lot of big looks for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Those
big looks, they include big dudes such as Darnell Washington,
who you know. You think he might be underutilized or whatever,
but half of his receptions last year moved the chains
of Pat Friermuth, who was already discussed a little bit earlier.

(23:54):
I think he just keeps breaking out, continuing to improve.
I think if he if ed Roethlisberger was still here
with the Pittsburgh Steelers, we would be talking a lot
more about Pat Fryermuth and all of the big things
that he's doing. So when you get him more involved,
you get John ol Smith involved, you get Mount Washington involved.

(24:17):
I think they're going to pound the rock and just
a lot just based on the two backs that they
got a lot of that is obviously going to depend
on the offensive line. But we take a look one
more time at Arthur Smith and his history as an
offensive coidator and head coach. So I've got six years
here between. You've got two with the Titans, three with

(24:38):
the Falcons, and last year with the Steelers. His passing
offenses first two years in Tennessee, of which landed him
a head coaching job, he made Tannehill into a household name.
But they were only thirty first and thirtieth excuse me,
and past attempts, twenty first and twenty third in yards,

(24:58):
but eighth overall in touchdown five and two ranks for
interceptions turning the ball over. That's what really bit him.
When he came to Atlanta, they were still they were
nineteenth attempts. They ran the ball, are they threw the
ball a little bit more, i should say, but they
also turn it over a lot, and not for much
of a payday here, twenty fifth in touchdowns, twenty first

(25:20):
in interceptions. They just weren't getting it done offensively at all.
They were ranked twenty ninth overall twenty six to ten points,
and offensively they were twenty ninth in rushing attempts, thirty
one in yards. It just it wasn't working out in Atlanta.
So Arthur Smith. Smith goes to make some adjustments and

(25:42):
for better and worse, you know. Again, that was Matt
Ryan's final year, and Matt Ryan didn't even throw for
really four thousand yards. His yards per attempt were a
little bit down to twenty touchdowns to twelve interceptions. They
flipped the script just a little bit. The offense gets
a little bit better, but they were number one in
rushing offense in twenty twenty two, the Atlanta Falcons. Where

(26:05):
mind you, he's got his offensive coordinators and stuff too,
but Smith was still holding the play sheets down in Atlanta,
and the double duty sometimes it just doesn't fit some
of these guys. So it might have been better to
just come back and operate into booth onto sidelines wherever
you find Arthur Smith and just be an offensive coordinator
versus the head coaching duties also thrown in as well,
So where this land Arthur Smith. Well, they were third

(26:29):
in yards, they were tenth and touchdowns, they were fourth
in yards per attempt the passing offense right back down
thirty first. There was only one team that actually attempted
fewer passes in twenty twenty two than the Falcons, or
gain fewer yards in the air. That's kind of hard
to imagine if you have an Aaron Rodgers, but it's not
so hard to imagine when you picture what the Steelers

(26:50):
offense looked like last season. Now Atlanta would They would
also kind of have a little bit more of a
rebound in twenty twenty three. Despite the up and down
quarterbacking Kirk Cousins Michael Pennix. The passing offense still he
didn't lean on him too much, but twenty fifth in attempts,
twenty two in yards. They didn't score a whole lot.

(27:10):
There were a ton of turnovers. The Falcons offensive line
should have been a lot better than what they were.
A lot of people got fired or they moved on
from and I apologize too. That wasn't Kirk Cousins in
twenty twenty three. Kirk Cousins was last year with Michael Pennix,
Desmond Redder, Taylor Heineke, Logan Woodside even had John Olsmith

(27:31):
throw pass. I don't think we're going to see that again.
Maybe we will. Maybe it was in some of that.
I'm sorry. I was thinking about last season too, because
Kirk Cousins got sacked it off a lot, as we
know it was turning the ball over, lost his job
to Michael Pennix. But the Steelers instead last year about
in the same category as what the bad quarterbacking in
Atlanta was too. They didn't lean on throwing the ball

(27:54):
as much either. Twenty ninth in attempts twenty seventy yards.
Not hard to imagine that, especially with six games to
start the season. With justin fields now running the football.
The Steelers were fourth in attempts, eleventh in yards and
score Enough mentioned this before nineteenth in scoring twenty fifth
in yards per tempt That's got to get better, and

(28:17):
how will it get better? Developing the offensive line I
believe is key to this. I believe Friar m youth
Smith Washington maybe even Connor Hayward gets involved in this.
Do you hand the ball to Cordero Patterson much anymore?
Maybe a gimmick play here or there, but it's going
to be all the big boys up front. You've got
Zach Frasier, who I think is developing into a premier player.

(28:40):
Maybe not elite yet. Hard to say in year two
when you've only got his rookie year to go buy,
but man, it was a good rookie year. And the
Steelers know how to find centers at the pro level.
Isaac say Malou Pro Bowl level year as well. We
all thought he was a very good addition years ago

(29:00):
as a free agent to the Steelers. He's playing left guard.
Mason McCormick fills in now for James Daniels, who was
hurt last year. McCormick ended up coming in for originally
Spencer Anderson was in that mix too, and I think
he's going to play all everywhere on the line this year.
Maybe is that extra lineman so McCormick, he's just gonna
have to be better run blocking. I think the pass

(29:21):
blocking grade was a little bit higher for him. But
all around, you're talking about a fourth round pick out
of South Dakota State, coming and stepping into the pros
in like week four, you know, that was still September
or early October, and he's going to play the full year.
Impressive enough. I don't think he was as big a
liability as you would say Troy Fatanu. Yeah, another like

(29:42):
bonus player this year. Gets to play a little bit
in Denver and that was it. He was hurt for
much of the preseason. Very much looking forward to seeing
what he's capable of doing at right tackle because Roderick
Jones moving over to the left. Rodericks, you know, he's
on a hot seat. We're gonna have to talk about
some of this too with some of the offensive linemen.

(30:04):
Who's on the hot seat, who's not. So when you
put all these pieces together, hopefully Roger can play a
little bit better on the left side. We have high
hopes for Fontanu and McCormick. Of course, uh just got
to be steady on the interior there. I think if
the interior guys are good enough, I think that the
various tight ends that the Pittsburgh Steelers have can help

(30:24):
hold down the fort for you know, some run heavy personnel,
some twelve personnel, some jumbo sets, maybe along the goal line,
and maybe this translates into more points, but it also
translates into game planning and controlling the football in the
time of possession. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, something that they

(30:45):
struggled mightily to do. Got to be complimentary with their defense.
I think their defense got gassed against world class offenses
toward the end of the season. You can't say that
the Ravens aren't a world class offense and you play
them twice in the same division. You play them twice
near that later span, especially when you had to go
on the road and face them. You had the Chiefs,
you had the Eagles, you had the Cincinnati Bengals, and

(31:08):
then you had the Ravens yet again in the playoffs
for a third time. Those are some tough games. And
the shootout too with the Bengals, even though that was
a victory in Cincinnati, that kind of preceded where the
dominoes started to fall. So if the Steelers, Aaron Rodgers
has got to be there to make sure this team
isn't a three and out team, that they're not like

(31:30):
two minutes with a commercial break and the defense is
back on the field. Do have higher expectations for this. Yes,
I do, because I think Aaron Rodgers, despite everything that
I've said about him, his age, and know some of
the regression and stuff, he still I think achieved a
pinnacle in the National Football League higher than what Russell
Wilson did. And I love Russell Wilson, but a lot

(31:51):
of Russell Wilson's game had been backyard football, drawing things
up in the dirt, extending play. I don't know that
you necessarily get that with Rogers, but you might. You're
going to get faster decision making with Aaron Rodgers. The
age is just a number when it comes to decision making.
Remember you're like a goldfish or not. Like I was
saying about myself, He's going to recognize things and he's

(32:14):
going to react and quickly. If the physical traits are
still enough for Aaron Rodgers, I think that translates to
far better than what the Steelers. You know, just look around,
stand around like a statue with the Mitchell Trubisky, Candy Pickett,
Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, at times, even Mason Rudolph. I

(32:36):
think Mason Rudolph reacted a little better, but you don't
have as large of a picture. I think a body
of work to draw upon to make that conclusion. But
very clearly we did with Fields and Wilson a hold
it onto the ball way too long. Trubisky did two
years ago. We knew that before he even came into Pittsburgh,
as we did with Fields and Wilson. So Aaron Rodgers
he got sacked some. I think, you know, I tried

(32:58):
to say that the Jets had a better offensive line.
I think that this offense, it's not going to be
the cluster fuss that we saw in New York with
Robert Sela getting let go, and you know, you still
had Nathaniel Hackett, who we found out really wasn't an
architect of much in Green Bay. It was Matt mcflur
and a lot of his influence along with Aaron Rodgers.

(33:20):
So when you take that, a lot of the equation.
I think Rogers comes in. I think the I think
everything kind of fits together and you've got an upgrade there.
I think the offensive line should be better than it
was last season as well. Dan Moore, you know, he
was always healthy and always available. But Roger Jones, he's
got to play to the level of at least the
Dan Moore, and I think Fatanu plays better than Dan

(33:40):
Moore did on the right side, So I say that's
an upgrade as well. You don't lose anything with the
three interior guys. They were already here. Caleb Johnson faster
to hit the hole than Najee Harris, DK Metcalf. I
don't think he's going to be on the wrong page
with an Aaron Rodgers. I don't think he's going to
run the wrong route, cause Turner he's a big physical dude.

(34:03):
The tight end group, chard Al Smith he's in addition,
I just think all the way around, excuse me, this
is a far better group than the Pittsburgh Steelers fielded
last season. And to answer the title question, well, Arthur

(34:23):
Smith's Steelers offensive cel in year two. Even if they
get to the middle of the pack in some of
the offensive statistics, I think we're going to see a
far better range of success. And that's going to be
complementary to the changes that we talked about in the
last episode that the Steelers made on defense. So I

(34:45):
think they rank higher. I think they ranked better. I
think they're going to rank better in scoring. Obviously, I
think the attempts you're still going to see a lot
more running. You're going to see limited passing, but I
think you see better scoring on both sides. I think
you see more yards per play. I am both the
run game and the past game and your two of
Arthur Smith's offense. Folks, don't forget to like, comment and subscribe,

(35:09):
and if you have any comments, any thoughts, please leave
them here in the comments the Best Places YouTube. If
you're watching the video version of the podcast, thank you.
I know some of gems are out there watching on Spotify,
we have two different feeds once again, an audio video feed,
so video next day on Spotify on that feed, So

(35:30):
thanks for supporting the platform. Here. My name is Joe.
I'm excited training camps getting underway. Check out social media
as we continue to repost a lot of stuff over
on x formerly Twitter. We'll post some stuff also on Facebook,
and I will be out there in person for some
eyewitness accounts as well as the time permits. So until

(35:51):
next time. As we always kind of put a bow
on this show, we encourage all of youents out there
to be safe, be good, and we'll catch you up.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
We would like to 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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