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Steelers Make a Trade and Sign Free Agents · Steelers Country Weekly

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today on Steelers Country Weekly. It's our first off season
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: update now that we're into free agency as we prepare
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: for the draft, a lot has been happening in Pittsburgh
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and we are so glad that we.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Are back to talk some football.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I'm Nick Detulio and as always I'm joined by the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: world famous accountant Eric vanmin showten. Eric, how's it going tonight?
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Not too too shabby?
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: Uh. I've missed you guys, and with that absence, my
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: heart has grown fonder.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Yes, normally, well, I wouldn't say normally because it's been
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a bit for you and me. Historically this time of year,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: you and I would be preparing for March Madness with
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: our alma mater, who we always talk about so lovingly
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: on this program. But also but yeah, we were just
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: going through it all this year with the coaching changes.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Our alma mater, the Cincinnati Bearcats were they were on
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the bubble. Well, this was a really weird year for
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the tournament too. There was a lot of really bad
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: bubble teams. They had a chance, and I believe they
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: had an eight point lead with two minutes left in
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the conference tournament. They lost to Central Florida. They might
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: not have gotten in with just that when there was
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: a couple other things that happened. But they did have
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to play the number one team, Arizona, and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: had they won that game, I think they would have
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: gotten in.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, we didn't even
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: get the opportunity.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: And because of that, they fired their coach, Wes Miller,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and very odd because they fired him before April first,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: which is when his buyout would drop, but they're making it.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: They're not formalizing his firing until then. I don't know
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: how that works out. And if I'm Wes Miller, I'm like, no,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: you fired me today. I want my full nine million,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: not before and a half. But what do I know, right?
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  Speaker 3: I guess what could they do.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Exactly?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So in either case, tonight is Tuesday, March seventeenth.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: This is the first night of the first four in
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and Dayton So that is exciting. I think I'll probably
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: turn that on when we're done here. But yeah, I'm
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: so glad we get to talk about some football, because,
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  Speaker 1: like I said, when when your team's not competitive, it's
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: just not as good. And then I'm not as big
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: into baseball, so really it's just about football for me.
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  Speaker 1: So here we are, man, So we're in the off
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: season and the Steelers have made a lot of moves.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: But I don't know if you have the same thoughts
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: as me, but this feels eerily similar to last year's
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: offseason so far.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, i'd say it's bad on the part.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say it's a little different in that
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  Speaker 1: the moves that they've made seemingly have been on the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: younger side of things then going after a lot of
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: over thirty year old players. But let's just talk about
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: some of the moves that the Steelers have made and
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: go from there. The most important thing is we still
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: don't know who's going to be under center. We mentioned
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: this is similar to last offseason. Aaron Rodgers supposedly has
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: a deadline. I don't know that anyone's said what the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: deadline actually is, So we don't know if he's going
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: to be the quarterback, if the Steelers are going to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: draft one in the first round or make a trade. Honestly,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I think there's a pretty steep drop off after Fernando Mendoza,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: but who knows. We don't know if they'll resign Rogers
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and draft a quarterback. Anything can happen, but here's what
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: we do have so far. Some of the biggest moves
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: so far is that the Steelers traded for Michael Pittman
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: from the Colts, traded him and a sixth round pick
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and received a seventh round pick in return, and then
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: turned around and assigned or re signed him to an
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: extension as well, so the Steelers finally have a true
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: number two receiver. There's been rumors that they might try
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: to move DK. I don't I would really scratch my
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  Speaker 1: head at the logic surrounding that, but for now, let's
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: just assume that.
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  Speaker 3: The Steelers Huh, I haven't heard that.
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  Speaker 2: It's just rumors.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know that there's any validity to it, but
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  Speaker 1: it's just I didn't think they were going to move
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  Speaker 1: on Pickens when they did either, So.
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  Speaker 3: Huh, are you British? No?
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: Why because you're bringing the team so anyway.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Some other moves that they've made are they signed defensive
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: tackle Sebastian Joseph Day and Jaquan Brisker from the Bears
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  Speaker 1: to the safety spot. And that was a big deal
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  Speaker 1: for me because it just seems like they got him
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  Speaker 1: cheaper than they should have. I know he had a
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: little bit of an injury history, so hopefully he can
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  Speaker 1: stay healthy for the team. But definitely safety was a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: big thing they needed. But that's not the only safety
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  Speaker 1: move they've done. They added Darnell Savage and they re
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: signed to Sante Samuel.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: That's a big deal. And then.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: The last thing they did from the secondary perspective was
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: that they added Jamel Dean, cornerback from I think he
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: came from Tampa to the Steelers. So really you've got
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Joey Porter, Junior, Sante Samuel, and Jamal Dean. Seems like
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  Speaker 1: they're really trying to solidify that secondary there and keep
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the defense bit or strong. On the offensive side of
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the ball. We did lose Gain Well, that's unfortunate, but
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  Speaker 1: I think everyone kind of had a feeling that he'd
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: be after the seas and he had he would probably
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: be a little too expensive for the Steelers to bring back.
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  Speaker 1: But they did sign ric o'dowell from the Carolina Panthers,
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  Speaker 1: who's had pretty good success, especially in a running back
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  Speaker 1: by committee situation that they've got down there too, so
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  Speaker 1: it's I think that'll be good having him come and
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: share the load with Joe.
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  Speaker 2: And Warren as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I know I just went through a lot
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  Speaker 1: of names here, but let's just dial it back a
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: second and give me your take on how you're feeling
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  Speaker 1: on the off season overall so far.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think.
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  Speaker 4: I think that they're showing that they're going to continue
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  Speaker 4: to be aggressive. You're seeing that from the trade for
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  Speaker 4: Pittman with the extension, but they're also being pretty fiscally responsible,
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  Speaker 4: a lot of one year deals with not a ton
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  Speaker 4: of money tied up to it.
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  Speaker 3: So I think that there's really good balance with it,
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  Speaker 3: and you're seeing it on you know, both sides of
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  Speaker 3: the ball.
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  Speaker 4: So you got a number two wide receiver, you got
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  Speaker 4: a number two cornerback.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, overall, I think it's good.
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  Speaker 4: Do I think that we have made any moves that
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  Speaker 4: then makes us anything than what we're we were last year,
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  Speaker 4: which is a make.
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  Speaker 3: Playoffs to lose in the playoffs type of team. No,
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  Speaker 3: nothing yet.
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  Speaker 1: So I think the biggest thing is the Pittman trade.
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  Speaker 2: For sure.
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  Speaker 1: You know, all these defensive signings are are great, but again,
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  Speaker 1: we did all this last year right, and the defense
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: was atrocious at times, So I mean, I'm glad that
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: they're doing something. I think I would have been much
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: more frustrated if they were a lot more conservative here.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: So so yeah, I'm pretty happy so far as I
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  Speaker 1: was starting to say, I think the Pittman thing is
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  Speaker 1: the biggest one because a lot of our concerns this
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  Speaker 1: past year were, Hey, DK is literally the only target
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  Speaker 1: other than Darnhill Washington. That's a problem. And especially when
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  Speaker 1: DK gets suspended for the last couple games of the year, right,
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  Speaker 1: and even when he came back in the playoffs, keep
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: in mind it was a home game in the playoffs.
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  Speaker 2: And we put up six points.
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  Speaker 1: So now again this all goes back to the quarterback position, though, right,
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  Speaker 1: we don't know who's going to be throwing the ball.
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  Speaker 2: If you don't have the quarterback.
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  Speaker 1: Then none of this matters anyway, Right, So I am
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: going to operate under the assumption that Aaron Rodgers is
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: going to come back.
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  Speaker 2: I just call it a gut feeling. I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I think that if he comes back for one year,
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  Speaker 1: I think he played well enough that this could move
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  Speaker 1: the needle a little bit. And obviously he's got familiarity
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  Speaker 1: with Mike McCarthy and his offense.
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  Speaker 2: So is it going to be enough to get us
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  Speaker 2: over the hurdle.
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  Speaker 1: Even with all that, I don't know, like, is the
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  Speaker 1: is the standard now just being able to score a
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  Speaker 1: touchdown in a playoff game, not even to win?
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  Speaker 2: But I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: So look, I don't want to be wishy washing here,
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  Speaker 1: go back and forth. I am happy with the moves
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  Speaker 1: they've made. I don't believe that they've hit a home
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  Speaker 1: run or made a huge signing that's really going to
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  Speaker 1: get them over the hump yet. I think it's a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of little pieces that are going to have to
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  Speaker 1: snowball into a movement.
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  Speaker 2: If that makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, So would you agree though that a lot
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  Speaker 1: of this is just going to come down to what
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  Speaker 1: happens at the quarterback position.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think definitely the quarterback I think above all
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  Speaker 4: just be what what is our I said, offensive identity
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  Speaker 4: going to be?
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  Speaker 3: And is it going to be anything better than we've
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  Speaker 3: seen since.
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  Speaker 4: Roethlisberger been pretty pedestrian that since then.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, And I think that's a good segue into
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the next phase of the offseason, which is going to
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: be the draft. The Steelers have twelve picks, that's more
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  Speaker 1: than anyone else. They got a lot of compensatory picks
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  Speaker 1: as well, and you know they've got to pick from
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  Speaker 1: h Dallas to from a trade.
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  Speaker 2: They've got a couple others too.
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  Speaker 1: And the theory that we had for a long time,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: that a lot of people had, was, hey, you've got
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  Speaker 1: all these picks. This quarterback class is supposed to be
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  Speaker 1: one of the best in several years. They'll use those
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  Speaker 1: picks to trade up.
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: As I alluded to earlier, things didn't quite pan out
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  Speaker 1: that way after Mendoza, the uh, if you want to
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  Speaker 1: call it a consensus that it seems like everyone would
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: agree that the next quarterback on the list in the
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: draft would be Ty Simpson from Alabama.
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  Speaker 2: And I just I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I think the fall off is pretty steep. He might
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  Speaker 1: have a lot of upside, But if I'm the Steelers,
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  Speaker 1: I'm either do you pull the trigger at twenty one
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  Speaker 1: or try to trade up a few spots if you're
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: not if he's if you're not one hundred percent sure
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  Speaker 1: that he's the guy of the future. And it might
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: be an unfair comparison, but I go back to drafting
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Kenny Pickett, right, like, do you make the same mistake
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: or is do you risk making the same mistake I
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: should say.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I'll use something that I just thought about
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: with my dad recently. So we went to this car
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: show and we're seeing all these people's.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Like prize possessions. They spend hours and tons.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: Of money to get these things to the shape, And
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: he said, do you think that, like the car that
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: they got and you know, improved, was something that they
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: truly wanted, like they wanted a Chevy Nova, or it
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: was just the best car that was available at that time.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: I just feel like the latter has been more of
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  Speaker 4: our strategy, especially at the offensive side of the ball.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's a really fair comparison, because the fact
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of the matter is you're this year especially like we said,
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  Speaker 1: but in a lot of years, if you really want
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: those guys, you're gonna have to trade up to get them.
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  Speaker 1: And that's just the biggest trade up I think we've
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: seen is the trade up to get to number ten.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Was it to get Devin Bush? Yeah?
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Getting into even the top like six or seven is
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: going to require much more capital to do. And really
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  Speaker 1: what it all comes down to is are you convinced
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  Speaker 1: that that's the guy right?
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: And even then you can be wrong.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, look at what the Vikings are doing right
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  Speaker 1: now with McCarthy and Kyler Murray.
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  Speaker 4: So and they let Sam Donald go. It wasn't even
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: like they never got a guy in the building.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they we had a guy there. I
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: don't know if they just convinced themselves that he was
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: just a product of the system or that it was
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: a fluke. But yeah, you're exactly right. They had a guy,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: they let him go. Now they're bringing in Kyler Murray.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: And McCarthy has played an only a handful of games
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I think too, just due to injuries and whatnot. So,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and that's a separate discussion we can have too, is
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the state of the NFL and they're no longer willing
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to develop quarterbacks too, and how possibly that might be
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: part of the reason why the Steelers brought in Mike McCarthy.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: But but yeah, I think because the Steelers typically play
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: things very close to the vest and because of where
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: they're drafting, I have no idea what they're going to do.
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  Speaker 1: I could totally see them taking Ty Simpson if he
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: falls to them. I could see them just getting continuing
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: to build around eventually getting the guy in the next
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: year or so, but the fact of the matter is,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: like we said, they have twelve picks.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know that the.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Raiders are even going to be willing to move off
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: of the Fernando Mendoza deal.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: But.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: It's they might have to use quite a few of
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: those twelve picks to get up to number one if
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: they wanted.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: To do that.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: So the other thing too, I thought is interesting is
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: that the draft is in Pittsburgh this year. I do
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: not believe the Steelers would ever be so shallow to
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: draft a quarterback just for the sake of drafting a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: quarterback in Pittsburgh. But it's just going to be crazy.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: And I tried to look at hotels. I was thinking,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll go up and just see what it's about.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Very expensive, so I don't want to spend thirteen hundred
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: dollars to stay at like a day's in for the weekend.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: If I'm being honest.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: With you, Sorry of it.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: So we'll get into the draft more in more detail
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: as we go through next month when we talk in
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: our pre show. But I mean, I'll just read some
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of the picks real quick. They've got one in round
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: one at twenty one, round two at fifty three, they
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: have three in round three, seventy six, eighty five.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Ninety nine.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: In round four they have one, twenty one and one
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: thirty five. Round five they've got one hundred or pick
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty one. In round six they've got
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: two sixteen, and then in round seven they've got three,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: so two twenty four, two thirty and two thirty seven.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: So definitely stay tuned for a busy round seven there.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Just give me your gut feeling.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: What are you what are you thinking that the Steelers
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: are going to do here with the first pick only,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: and it doesn't even have to be a player, just
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: position or strategy.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: I'm a conflicted because while I wouldn't say that we
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: have we don't have holes, I don't see the glaring
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: issue right now.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: At the same time, I.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Don't think that we're in like a position of like
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: just drafting the sexiest pick at that time.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: You know, I guess I would.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: I would prefer to get probably another lineman or if
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: there's a wide receiver that.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Really slips, but I don't know it.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: Would we have really an inclination of what they're gonna
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: do or what I want.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: It would be really interesting to me if.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: If they did go out and get yet another weapon
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: and we still don't have the future, the quarterback of
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the future, because it's almost like they keep loading up
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: and loading up. At some point you do have to
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: get the quarterback right, you are going to have to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: either trade up or make some splashy free agent signing.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: So I'm with you.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't see the glaring holes, but I
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: don't see like a glaring strength either that we can
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: rely on too.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like it's kind of weird to me.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: Maybe I'm just older and I think about it more
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: or read about it, but I feel like the the
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: frequency of a quarterback of starting caliber, hitting the free
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: agent pool and then doing like offset language to go
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: to the new team on Lego veter Minimum is I
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: feel like that's a new dynamic.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: Do you do you feel like that? Because what I think.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: About is Kyler, Murray and Tua they hit the market
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: and then they have this offset language kind of like
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: what Russell Wilson had when he came to our team.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: And the reason why I got coming back to it
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: is if you feel like.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: It's becoming more of a presidence.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, every once in a while, one of those
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: quarterbacks leaving those teams, that's going to.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: Hit, you know, And even it could be this year,
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: it could be next year. We could we could go
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: to that route if you think it's visible.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm more inclined to see
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the Steelers doing that with Mike McCarthy as head coach
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: as opposed to Tomlin, given that McCarthy's claim to fame
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: is developing quarterbacks. So he might take a guy who
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: has been serviceable but is certainly not in the upper
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: echelon like the guys that you mentioned, and rehabbing them
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: for lack of a better So yeah, I mean you could.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I could see the Steelers taking a shot at one
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: of those guys. I mean, I'm not sure if they
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: actually had any conversations with Murray or Tua, the only
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: other guy I think that's available right now or will
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: be available as cousins. And I don't know that you
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: do that. I think you're more so talking about guys
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: who are younger that can still you know, have a
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: good year, and then you resign them for at least
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: a few years after that, right, Yeah, And I don't, Honestly,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know enough about contracts to know who's going
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to be available next year either, and you never know
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: what could happen. There might be guys that get cut
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: before the contracts are up, like you mentioned, that have
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: that that offsetting language. I think what's going to have
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: to happen, though, is if they don't draft a quarterback
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: this year, regardless of whether Aaron Rodgers come back, comes back,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: or if they trot out Will Howard next year, like
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: they have to pull the trigger somehow, right. We can't
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: just you can't do all of these spots and all
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: these building this building up or what we view as
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: building up, and then.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Not get the quarterback. Right.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: You can't survive on just these bridge guys for a
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: year or two at a time and not knowing if
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: they're going to come back or not, and leaving it
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: on a hope and a prayer. So yeah, I think
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: if they don't take the quarterback this year, if Aaron
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Rodgers does come back for one last go round, I
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: do think they will sign a quarterback next year.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: It's just you can't wait any longer.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Now I say sign a quarterback, I mean they will
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: either sign or draft a quarterback next year.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: You just can't.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I cannot see with all these other removes that they
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: are making to try and stay competitive, that they neglect
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the quarterback any longer.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: YEP, I agree, right.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: So one last thing that I wanted to talk about
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: today was something that we've talked about several times over
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the last couple of years, but especially this past year,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: is the NFLPA report Card. Basically, that's just the players
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: vote on and rank the teams based on several categories
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: like including the facilities, nutritionists, what the kind of food
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: is like, the locker room, the training, and the coaching
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: positions as well as well as the ownership. And the
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Steelers got a very poor grade. They were one of
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the lowest ranked teams when you do the composite scores.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: But there were a couple things that I really wanted
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: to talk about, which was.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: The ownership.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: For what it's worth, Tomin got an a and I mean,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I'm not surprised. We've we've heard that before that he's
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: a player's coach, and yeah, if I were a player,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: i'd probably like playing for him too.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: But one thing that I have talked about was.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: The I've talked a lot about the field itself and
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: this is that this is the Pittsburgh Steelers. They need
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: to have their own stadium. I understand that the county
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: or the city owns the stadium, so the Steelers can't
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: just kick pit out, but it is ridiculous that the
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: primary tenant for that stadium has the worst conditions possible
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: because they played the last on the weekends. And then
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the owners the ownership got a D minus overall and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: they cited the the lack of willingness to spend. When
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: you look at the training room getting low rankings, the
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: locker room getting low rankings, the facilities getting low rankings,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the playing surface getting low rankings. We've talked about how
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Tomlin always had the smallest coaching staff. Was that a
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: product of Tomlin or was it a product of the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: ownership not wanting to spend the money.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Maybe a little bit of both.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: It seems like, you know, where is the investment here?
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: And really for starters. I don't want to pretend that
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I have anywhere near the net worth of an NFL owner,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and it's not my money to spend. I get that,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: but it just feels like the ownership is resting on
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: the history and saying like, hey, this is the Pittsburgh
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Steelers way. This is how we do things. We're not
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: changing for anybody, darn it. And well here we are again,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: stuck in purgatory.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: Right, yeah, yeah, I mean it happens a lot.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: You see it a lot with I'm not sure if
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: the Steelers are as strict about this, but I know
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: the Bengals also don't guarantee money after the first year
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: unless you're like the quarterback.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know about that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but so well, yeah, I mean.
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: We've been they've been together for two decades, so I
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: mean it's it's hard.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: You're gonna have to.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: Untangle some of the tomlinism rooneyisms.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: And figure out what our new persona is. So we'll see.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: But unclear right now.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: I will say that.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I believe the coaching staff that McCarthy's assembled is already
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: the largest that the Steelers have ever had, So I
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: do think that's a step in the right direction. And
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I understand too that at the end of the day,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: the guys are getting paid at a minimum hundreds of
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: thousands of dollars, but a lot of them are getting
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: paid millions of dollars each year, So it's not to
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: say that they're complaining.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: It's and I'm.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Look, if you were on the market looking for a
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: new job, and you had offers from two teams and
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: or from two companies, and they were both for the
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: same amount of money, you would probably pick the one
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: that had the better workplace culture right or or was
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: in a better location. So if I'm looking at the Steelers,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: just hypothetically speaking, I could sign with the Steelers who
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Or I could sign with a
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: team like the Dolphins who are in Florida have better facilities.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: They have if we really want to get nerdy, they
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: pay less tax on my salary. You know, That's kind
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: of what it comes down to. So I did just
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: want to mention that I don't think that anyone's necessarily
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: being ungrateful. It's just look, I mean, this is a
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: metric that is literally stacking you against other teams, other companies,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: and you came in dead last.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Like, yeah, I.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't want to work for that kind of a company
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: that got that report either.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: So who man, we talked through the gambit tonight, off
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: season stuff, report cards, draft, anything else you wanted to
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: hit on while we're still here, and I know I
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: already forgot one thing. I know what you mentioned before,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: so I'll let you take it away.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: Well, I just wanted to highlight the you know, get
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: your thoughts about the botched Max Crosby.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: Two first rounders trained.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: Than ever was.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: That was one of the more interesting things I've seen
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: in a while. And maybe I'm just naive, but when
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I saw that it fell through because he failed the physical,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, that stinks. How unfortunate for everybody,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: But I had to let everyone else fill me in.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: There were a lot of people that were really upset
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: with the Ravens for how they handled that, because Crosby
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: is obviously coming off of an injury. So yeah, depending
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: on how you make your physical, he might not pass it.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: And if you want him to fail it so you
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: can back out of the deal, you could probably alter
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: the training that way too. But yeah, what happened was
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: they had a deal in place. I believe it was
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: technically before the league the new year started, but you
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: can like do that agree in principle, so they had
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the deal in place for agency started. The markets were set.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Teams like made free agent signings and other deals based
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: on the assumption that Max Crosby was not available, and
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: then the Ravens, depending on who you listened to, pulled
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: some shady things and then were able to renig on
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: the deal, so other people couldn't even make a trade
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: for Crosby because they've already got their salary caps messed.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: And then the Ravens just turned around and signed Trey Hendrickson.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: So crazy, I mean, looking at it from the Ravens perspective,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: they still got a top ed rusher. They claim that
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: they wanted we still wanted to get Hendrickson.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: I don't believe that for a second.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't believe that either. I think that's just
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: oh well, we wanted both, we only got one. What
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: can you do, right, So from a division perspective, that
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: really that's just really crazy because it really weakens one
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: of the few strengths the Bengals had on defense and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: goes to a division rival no less and yeah, funny supposedly, right,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: But no, it was just crazy all around. And I'm
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: glad that everyone else seemed to catch on to the
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Ravens villainous ways before I did.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Like I said, I just must be naive.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: But I did think that the reaction to the Baltimore
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: was crazy, Like people are saying, we're never going to
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: deal with them again, We're never going to trust them.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: And I guess it's interesting because if you're the Raiders,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you had contingency plans in place, but you
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: were probably like, Wow, we got two first round picks.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: We are definitely going to be able to rebuild around
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: presumably Fernando Mendoza, or maybe we can trade those first
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: round picks and acquire some more. But I guess keeping
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Max Crosby on your roster isn't necessarily the worst consolation
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: prize in the world.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: No, it's not, But I just wonder, like, what do
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: you do with Okay, so you now just expected Max
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: Crosby to clear his salary off your books, You make
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: a signing, and I'm not exactly sure. I didn't fall
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: it h so much in the treat the.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: Details of it, but.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: How does it work when it comes from a salary
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: cap position position to where like if he comes back
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: and he adds to your salary cap because you went
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: out and spent on people, which I think they spent
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: the most out of anyone in the NFL, Like what
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: if now all of a sudden you're over the cat.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: Do you have to like.
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: Cut people or do you cancel the contracts you already made?
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: How does that work?
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: I think that's it.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you got to cut people or I don't know
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: that you can cancel the contracts you already made without
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: taking those hits.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: But yeah, you got to make changes elsewhere.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: And that's why people were so pissed at the Ravens, right,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't It wasn't even just the Raiders. It
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: was other teams made signings under the impression that Crosby
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: was gone, and then due to their salary cap implications,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: they couldn't even try to take on that contract either.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: So yeah, man, just just really weird because it was
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: probably one of the bigger trade headlines that we've seen
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: in a while, especially anytime a player is dealt for
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: two firsts. And then there was some drama too where
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: Crosby was unhappy that they weren't playing him even though
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: he was injured and he tried to play anyway.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: And just, man, what a mess.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: But I guess if you're the Ravens, you don't really
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: care at the end of the day, because you still
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: have Lamar, you still have Derrick Henry. You still have
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: a very talented edge rusher that you brought in. And
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: you and I, I think we're in agreement that this
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: was one of the best, if not the best off
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: season coaching hires as well.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so if you win, who cares? Right?
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Maybe the Raiders?
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, but I didn't really trust them to win anyway.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: So and again they could they still have the top pick.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: If Mendoza is the guy, then might not matter anyway.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: You might have the quarterback of the future. And again
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: keeping Mac keep Max Crosby on your roster. Yeah, that's
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: just the optimist though in me.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: You know, I always thought about that about you, that
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: I was an optimist. Yeah, you must.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Have been dozing off while I was talking through a
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: lot of this past year.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: All right, now, I'll ask you, was there anything else
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: you wanted to hit on while we're here together?
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: I should do it.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I agree, I think we touched on it all. Gonna
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: be interesting to see if anything else happens in the
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: lead up to the draft. Obviously, the big thing for
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: the Steelers once again is what do we think Aaron
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Rodgers is going to do?
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: I have to.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Imagine that the Steelers already know. I think they knew
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: last year too, but for US fans it's annoying.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: Right yeah.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: So, and on that note, I think we can wrap
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: up here, So folks, we'll be back next time with
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: a pre draft special where we'll go through our mock
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: draft and I had to come up with predictions for
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: what we think the Steelers will do and hopefully, well,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: we'll get something right here. So for the world famous
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: accountant Eric Vaminschutin, I am Nick de Tulio. And this
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: has been another episode of the GameHouse dot COM's Steelers
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Country Weekly