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Texans and Season Recap, Mike Tomlin Steps Down · Steelers Country Weekly

0:01
Speaker 1: Today on Steelers Country Weekly, we break down not only
0:05
Speaker 1: the end of the season, but the end of an
0:08
Speaker 1: era in Pittsburgh. We're going to talk about the Steelers
0:11
Speaker 1: lost to the Texans on Monday night and coach Tomlin's
0:15
Speaker 1: decision to step down as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
0:19
Speaker 1: I am Nick Detulio and is always I'm joined by
0:22
Speaker 1: the world famous accountant Eric Vamminshowden, Eric, how's it going tonight?
0:28
Speaker 2: Discombobulated?
0:33
Speaker 3: I described to my wife that Tomlin has been the
0:38
Speaker 3: coach of my whole adulthood, so I feel like, you know,
0:45
Speaker 3: feel weird.
0:47
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, Well.
0:50
Speaker 3: I'm hard to even think that we played a football
0:52
Speaker 3: game on Monday night.
0:53
Speaker 1: I know, and I kind of wanted to start with
0:55
Speaker 1: that too, because I'm sure the Tomlin discussion will take
0:58
Speaker 1: up a bulk of our time here, but it did
1:02
Speaker 1: completely overshadow what happened on Monday night, which frankly is
1:08
Speaker 1: probably good because of the game we saw. But let's
1:14
Speaker 1: go back to Monday night and let's talk about this game.
1:18
Speaker 1: A very odd game, very slow, I will say. In
1:26
Speaker 1: the first half, the Steelers were able to muster two
1:31
Speaker 1: field goals and the score after three quarters was seven
1:38
Speaker 1: to six. And you might think that this is a
1:42
Speaker 1: defensive struggle, and it was honestly a sloppy game offensively
1:50
Speaker 1: for both teams. I'll say the Steelers only got about
1:55
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy five yards total. There was a
2:00
Speaker 1: few times where DK metcalf dropped some wide open passes
2:05
Speaker 1: that would have been nice. But I think if you
2:08
Speaker 1: wanted to summarize the game as a whole, I would
2:12
Speaker 1: say the defense held on as long as they could.
2:15
Speaker 1: I mean, they got they got three turnovers.
2:17
Speaker 3: C J.
2:18
Speaker 1: Stroud played a terrible game.
2:22
Speaker 2: I saw. It was.
2:24
Speaker 3: The first time someone spumbled at five times in one
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Speaker 3: A football.
2:28
Speaker 1: Games, right right. It was bad. There was a couple
2:31
Speaker 1: botched snaps. He just at times. He threw an interception
2:36
Speaker 1: where he just it was possibly the worst form I've
2:39
Speaker 1: ever seen, from the throw to the footwork to everything.
2:44
Speaker 1: And I was watching the Manning cast broadcast on ESPN
2:48
Speaker 1: and they actually had Big Ben on and he said
2:50
Speaker 1: it perfectly, and that's kind of what I was feeling too,
2:52
Speaker 1: he said, and this was in the middle of the
2:54
Speaker 1: third quarter. He said, this just feels weird because we
2:58
Speaker 1: have three turnovers and we're losing seven to six, and
3:03
Speaker 1: he's exactly right. Some of those turnovers, at least one
3:07
Speaker 1: of them, I should say, was already in the red
3:09
Speaker 1: zone for the team and they just could not get
3:11
Speaker 1: a touchdown. And then really there was a strip sack
3:17
Speaker 1: return for a touchdown and a pick six at the
3:19
Speaker 1: end of the game that just kind of sealed it
3:21
Speaker 1: for the team and for the what the fifth playoff
3:28
Speaker 1: game in a row the Steelers get blown out. It
3:34
Speaker 1: was not it ended up not being close. But so
3:39
Speaker 1: I guess.
3:39
Speaker 3: The final score is a little bit deceiving because yeah,
3:43
Speaker 3: I mean, there was a good chance.
3:47
Speaker 2: For a while there and then it just kind of
3:49
Speaker 2: the doors blew off.
3:51
Speaker 3: It wasn't really until that fun more recovery for.
3:54
Speaker 2: A touchdown was it like, oh, is it looking icy?
3:58
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I get that. I was
4:00
Speaker 1: just going to say, you could make the argument that
4:02
Speaker 1: the score is deceiving, but at the same time, I
4:08
Speaker 1: was kind of just waiting for the damn to break.
4:12
Speaker 1: The longer it went on, I was just kind of like, Okay,
4:16
Speaker 1: I don't think we're going to be the ones who
4:17
Speaker 1: have the big explosion here, just because nothing has given
4:20
Speaker 1: me any indication and I kind of thought, like, if
4:23
Speaker 1: Stroud starts playing somewhat competent, it's over right, And it
4:28
Speaker 1: would have been over in the first half if he
4:31
Speaker 1: didn't play the way he did too, So I do
4:35
Speaker 1: see both sides of it. But the fact of the
4:38
Speaker 1: matter is at the end of the day, the Steelers
4:41
Speaker 1: get eliminated by a wide margin in the wild card round.
4:47
Speaker 1: They got to host the game this time, which was
4:49
Speaker 1: good but didn't really do him any good. And despite
4:55
Speaker 1: all those moves that were made in the start of
4:58
Speaker 1: the year, in the offseason rather and bringing in certain players,
5:04
Speaker 1: the result ended up being exactly the same. So purgatory
5:12
Speaker 1: is an appropriate description for what would happened. So, speaking
5:19
Speaker 1: strictly about the game itself, do you have any additional
5:24
Speaker 1: takeaways from this one?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I guess you said that the defense
5:31
Speaker 3: held their own. I mean, really, what I thought was
5:34
Speaker 3: interesting is if the offense just chuck the ball into
5:40
Speaker 3: the ground every single play of this game, the score
5:45
Speaker 3: would have been sixteen to three, just from a defensive
5:51
Speaker 3: side of the ball. So, you know, I thought that
5:57
Speaker 3: that was very commendable. You know, there has been frustrations
6:03
Speaker 3: that throughout this year about the defense, but I thought
6:07
Speaker 3: would have mattered.
6:08
Speaker 2: Most They did show up, and you know, obviously we.
6:16
Speaker 3: Couldn't get it done, you know, offensively.
6:23
Speaker 2: I mean I hate the you know, have the door
6:28
Speaker 2: him and the bottom the way out. But Aaron Rodgers
6:30
Speaker 2: looked horrible, absolutely horrible.
6:33
Speaker 3: I mean, he can blame a lot of different people.
6:36
Speaker 3: He can blame DK for dropping that pass that was
6:40
Speaker 3: a killer. He didn't throw it to him for like
6:42
Speaker 3: over two quarters after that. He can blame in the
6:47
Speaker 3: offensive line. But I think a lot of it was
6:51
Speaker 3: him holding onto the ball too much, doing some like
6:57
Speaker 3: rhythm passing.
7:00
Speaker 2: So you know, I I.
7:07
Speaker 3: Think that there's probably his frustration with him never getting
7:12
Speaker 3: in sync with his wide receivers. But you know what,
7:17
Speaker 3: I'll say this because I thought it was interesting.
7:21
Speaker 2: My father, I guess my brother, my brother in law's
7:27
Speaker 2: dad said he loves.
7:29
Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers, and I was like, yeah, you know, I
7:33
Speaker 3: kind of get it, but.
7:34
Speaker 2: Like he throws people under the bus a lot, and.
7:41
Speaker 3: I thought that, like for me, it was like he
7:46
Speaker 3: complained about the Jets. And he even complained about the
7:50
Speaker 3: Jets first, you know, their number one wide receiver, and
7:57
Speaker 3: and then he comes over to the Steelers and yeah,
8:01
Speaker 3: maybe he doesn't have the star power wide receiver here.
8:06
Speaker 3: You know, we threw it to outlets all year. It
8:09
Speaker 3: was running backs and tight end school war this year.
8:12
Speaker 3: But part of me it just thinks, like was it him?
8:17
Speaker 3: I mean, he had some good games that kind of
8:19
Speaker 3: help save us, but in the end, you know, I
8:22
Speaker 3: think that there were reservations about him joining, and I
8:28
Speaker 3: think it kind of came to fruition in his last game,
8:33
Speaker 3: probably as an NFL player in general.
8:37
Speaker 1: I don't know that I would go quite that far.
8:40
Speaker 1: I think that I think that he was a little
8:47
Speaker 1: handcuffed by some of the things that happened this year.
8:50
Speaker 1: And I think that he did hold onto the ball
8:54
Speaker 1: too long. He didn't get out of the pocket as
8:56
Speaker 1: well as he as quickly as he should have. But
8:59
Speaker 1: there was still time times where the ball was on
9:01
Speaker 1: the money and he didn't get bailed out or his
9:04
Speaker 1: receivers didn't help him out. I should say it was
9:08
Speaker 1: far from a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination.
9:14
Speaker 3: I don't even remember any running like running success like no.
9:19
Speaker 3: I remember chunks every once in a while, but nothing
9:22
Speaker 3: well Warren.
9:24
Speaker 1: Warren was the leading rusher with twelve total carries and
9:28
Speaker 1: forty three yards. So yeah, I'm not going to do
9:31
Speaker 1: the math on that, but it's not good yards per carry.
9:36
Speaker 1: And I thought it was interesting too that he he
9:41
Speaker 1: didn't finish the game either. I get that by that
9:47
Speaker 1: point it's in all reality over, but it is the playoffs, right, like,
9:55
Speaker 1: and if if it's possibly your last game, like, don't
9:59
Speaker 1: you just want to go out out and not ended
10:01
Speaker 1: on a pick six like that? I don't want to
10:04
Speaker 1: say it didn't sit right with me because at the
10:06
Speaker 1: end of the days, his career and maybe that stuff
10:10
Speaker 1: just doesn't bother him. Maybe he's like, I've got a
10:12
Speaker 1: good enough legacy anyway, I don't care if that's the
10:14
Speaker 1: last play. I don't know. I just I thought, given
10:18
Speaker 1: the the type of game it was, I thought he
10:21
Speaker 1: probably should have finished it.
10:24
Speaker 2: Yeah.
10:25
Speaker 1: So, but also at the time I was also thinking, well,
10:34
Speaker 1: maybe maybe he is going to come back. If he's that,
10:40
Speaker 1: if that's his mentality, maybe that's not his last play.
10:42
Speaker 1: Maybe he is going to come back, Because leading up
10:46
Speaker 1: to that moment, we'd started seeing the reports like, oh,
10:50
Speaker 1: he's interested in coming back, it might be Pittsburgh, he
10:52
Speaker 1: might have other options, and it was looking more and
10:57
Speaker 1: more like the Steelers probably wouldn't be taking a quarterback
11:01
Speaker 1: just due to where they could potentially be picking and
11:04
Speaker 1: maybe not having or willing to trade the capital required
11:08
Speaker 1: to get into the top two or three. But I
11:13
Speaker 1: do think that's probably not the case anymore. So it's
11:18
Speaker 1: very odd. But again, going back to the Houston game,
11:23
Speaker 1: I guess my thing is, like we mentioned, we're despite
11:29
Speaker 1: everything that we tried and everything we did, we being
11:34
Speaker 1: the Steelers, the result ended up being the same. So
11:39
Speaker 1: now that that's behind us, I guess we can move
11:43
Speaker 1: to the news. On Tuesday, So what happened was the
11:47
Speaker 1: day started off as normal. Tomlin arrived at the facility
11:50
Speaker 1: about five thirty am in the late after a Monday
11:55
Speaker 1: night game. Too, man, why'd you even go home?
12:02
Speaker 2: Day?
12:02
Speaker 1: But whatever, why did you even go home? Right? Just
12:05
Speaker 1: stay there At that point, he had a meeting in
12:09
Speaker 1: the late morning with President Art Rooney, and then at
12:13
Speaker 1: two o'clock he had a fifteen to twenty minute team
12:16
Speaker 1: meeting with the team where he told them that he
12:19
Speaker 1: was stepping down as the head coach. Art Rooney had
12:24
Speaker 1: a press conference today where he went over a lot
12:27
Speaker 1: of things, but he said that he wasn't shocked by
12:33
Speaker 1: the decision, but he also wasn't necessarily expecting it. He
12:36
Speaker 1: was ready to run it back for at least another year,
12:39
Speaker 1: and that's what he thought that they were going to
12:41
Speaker 1: talk about in their meeting. But he also indicated that
12:44
Speaker 1: Tomlin has no plans to coach in the future. He
12:47
Speaker 1: didn't say near future. He said the future, which I
12:50
Speaker 1: find a little hard to believe.
12:52
Speaker 3: But there wasn't near future.
12:56
Speaker 2: It's also in SAE near future.
12:59
Speaker 1: I've seen other people reporting that he will take a
13:01
Speaker 1: year off, but Art Rooney said he had no intentions.
13:05
Speaker 1: It seemed to him that he had no intentions of
13:07
Speaker 1: coaching in the future. So I'm saying I don't believe
13:11
Speaker 1: that that's the case. I think that it should. I
13:14
Speaker 1: think that we'll see him coaching against in some capacity. Yeah,
13:19
Speaker 1: the uh so. Anyway, it was just interesting that, like
13:24
Speaker 1: the two of us, and as well as a plethora
13:26
Speaker 1: of other people who speculated he wasn't ever, he wasn't
13:29
Speaker 1: on the hot seat. But it sounds like this was
13:33
Speaker 1: entirely his decision. It's been nineteen years and you've been
13:40
Speaker 1: I don't want to say pushing for it, but you've
13:42
Speaker 1: been pointing that out as a distinct possibility for a
13:45
Speaker 1: few years now that it's probably time to move on.
13:48
Speaker 1: And I came around to your line of thinking this
13:53
Speaker 1: year too, if the result ended up being the same,
13:56
Speaker 1: which it was. And I do have to say that
14:00
Speaker 1: despite us and a lot of other people knowing that
14:06
Speaker 1: it's time to do this, it is still a bittersweet
14:08
Speaker 1: thing and it was kind of jarring to actually see
14:11
Speaker 1: it happening to be here in this situation.
14:13
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so.
14:16
Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, Tomlin's been the head coach
14:20
Speaker 1: our entire adult lives and even into a little bit
14:23
Speaker 1: of our childhood too. He's always been there for the tomlinisms,
14:30
Speaker 1: which are hilarious. And I will say, to his credit,
14:40
Speaker 1: I think the most important stat of his isn't even
14:44
Speaker 1: the wins and the loss like the no losing seasons.
14:47
Speaker 1: It's that in his nineteen years, there was only one
14:52
Speaker 1: game that the Steelers were eliminated from playoff contention and
14:57
Speaker 1: playing meaningless football. So certainly the lack of postseason success
15:06
Speaker 1: these last nine seasons is a part of the story,
15:09
Speaker 1: and I don't want to downplay that or put on
15:12
Speaker 1: rose tinted glasses. Now that it's all over. But I
15:16
Speaker 1: do think there is something to be said for coaching
15:19
Speaker 1: teams up and getting the most out of them, which
15:22
Speaker 1: I think will probably be remembered as his biggest strength.
15:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I would say, like Greenberg, his name Greenberg.
15:34
Speaker 1: Greeney, Yeah, Mike Greenberg.
15:38
Speaker 3: He said, you know, did Tomlin lose all those games
15:45
Speaker 3: or did he coach non playoff teams in.
15:48
Speaker 2: The playoffs and both?
15:51
Speaker 3: You know, I think that there are some years that
15:54
Speaker 3: that's true. There are some years that he should have won. Yeah,
15:59
Speaker 3: he had a lot of years were I mean the
16:02
Speaker 3: year I think they went eight and eight, didn't make
16:04
Speaker 3: the playoffs, but had like Duck Hodges's quarterback, I mean,
16:10
Speaker 3: master class of coaching.
16:14
Speaker 2: So you know, he was always adaptable.
16:19
Speaker 3: Just when he thought he was pinned out, he'd do
16:22
Speaker 3: something to kind.
16:23
Speaker 2: Of squirrel away. So yeah, he Yeah, he's he's a
16:28
Speaker 2: fantastic coach. You know.
16:32
Speaker 3: I think that if he does coach again, he will
16:35
Speaker 3: see success.
16:38
Speaker 2: You know.
16:40
Speaker 3: What always happens though, is like people will be like,
16:42
Speaker 3: you know, we lose, you know, we're got losing season
16:46
Speaker 3: next year.
16:47
Speaker 2: People like see see should have had Tomlin.
16:51
Speaker 3: Or like he goes on and you know, he went
16:55
Speaker 3: gets a playoff win with his next team, they're they're
16:58
Speaker 3: gonna say something about that. I do think that there
17:01
Speaker 3: is something he said of like, look like those things
17:07
Speaker 3: could be true, but like Andy Reid might not have
17:10
Speaker 3: won another championship with Philly, you know, like, and.
17:18
Speaker 2: Look how it worked out for both those teams.
17:20
Speaker 3: Right, Like Billy went on to win two championships, the
17:25
Speaker 3: Chiefs of went on to have their dynasty pretty much
17:31
Speaker 3: playing the Eagles, and even like we're seeing it with
17:37
Speaker 3: Sean Payton, he took a year off from the Saints
17:43
Speaker 3: after his Hall of Fame quarterback retired.
17:48
Speaker 2: He went on to the.
17:49
Speaker 3: Broncos, which something to kind of monitor with our situation
17:54
Speaker 3: is because he stepped down, we still own the rights
17:58
Speaker 3: to Tom.
18:00
Speaker 2: So wherever he.
18:01
Speaker 3: Goes next, technically we have to trade him to that team. So,
18:10
Speaker 3: you know, it is kind of an interesting situation of like,
18:17
Speaker 3: you know, we're not gonna trade him to the Ravens
18:21
Speaker 3: for the Bengals, you know, like so and you know,
18:27
Speaker 3: we could potentially recoup some draft picks. I think that
18:32
Speaker 3: Rooney's will, they're not gonna like put him over the
18:36
Speaker 3: barrel and try to get the most out of him
18:38
Speaker 3: if he really wants to go to a team and
18:42
Speaker 3: you know it's.
18:42
Speaker 2: His preferred location. I don't think that they're going to
18:45
Speaker 2: grieve over you know, a.
18:47
Speaker 3: Draft pick or something like that, and I don't think
18:49
Speaker 3: that they should that.
18:52
Speaker 2: Let's put in two decades of work. So but yeah,
18:59
Speaker 2: I mean, we were definitely always in it, So I'll
19:06
Speaker 2: definitely give him that.
19:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a stat that I saw earlier this
19:14
Speaker 1: year that I thought was intriguing to me. But yeah,
19:21
Speaker 1: it's good to call out the the rights to Tomlin's
19:25
Speaker 1: contract and that if he does coach again, it is
19:28
Speaker 1: gonna come at a cost, which I think most teams
19:35
Speaker 1: would absolutely be willing to part with multiple draft picks
19:39
Speaker 1: for that. I believe Peyton. I believe the Broncos sent
19:44
Speaker 1: a first and a second round pick to the Saints
19:46
Speaker 1: for Sean Payton. And that was just going to say
19:51
Speaker 1: that it seems like both parties are pretty happy with
19:55
Speaker 1: how that turned out. The Saints are, I mean, there's
19:59
Speaker 1: still the same but they're they're in a good position
20:01
Speaker 1: to start turning things around. And the Broncos are obviously
20:04
Speaker 1: the number one seed in the playoffs this year.
20:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, and and so how does it work with, Like,
20:10
Speaker 3: so he signed for two years, could he take two
20:14
Speaker 3: years off and then he's out of his contract or
20:18
Speaker 3: is it two years once he comes back.
20:22
Speaker 1: I think it's once he comes back because he didn't
20:26
Speaker 1: complete the year of service. So that's just that's my takeaway.
20:30
Speaker 1: We need to get the lawyers involved, but maybe maybe
20:36
Speaker 1: the do some research. Yeah, student in turn needs to
20:40
Speaker 1: do to research, or we can call the game House
20:42
Speaker 1: legal department, which totally exists. So yeah, it was.
20:50
Speaker 2: It was.
20:52
Speaker 1: It just kind of goes to show you how big
20:54
Speaker 1: of a deal this is though, because I mean there's
20:58
Speaker 1: with Tomlin stepping down, there's currently nine openings. This was
21:04
Speaker 1: the breaking news. It was all over ESPN. There was
21:08
Speaker 1: barely any coverage about anything else. It was picked up
21:13
Speaker 1: by national news like ABC News was reporting on it
21:21
Speaker 1: because this is a job that only opens up once
21:24
Speaker 1: every generation at this point. So, as I mentioned before,
21:33
Speaker 1: the Steelers President Art Rooney did have a press conference
21:36
Speaker 1: today and he talked about several things, but one thing
21:41
Speaker 1: he mentioned with this was that there are no current
21:44
Speaker 1: coaching staff members for the Steelers that they would consider
21:49
Speaker 1: candidates for the head coaching job. Really, the only one
21:54
Speaker 1: I think that would, and I'm not saying it was
22:00
Speaker 1: right or wrong. I'm just saying the only one that
22:02
Speaker 1: would would probably be Arthur Smith because he's getting opportunities elsewhere.
22:09
Speaker 1: But it sounds like there's going to be a complete
22:13
Speaker 1: overhaul of the staff, and with that, I suspect an
22:17
Speaker 1: overhaul of the roster in some way, shape or form too.
22:21
Speaker 1: He did mention that himself and Omar Khan would lead
22:26
Speaker 1: the search with some other people internally, which is good
22:30
Speaker 1: because I heard in a couple of media people saying
22:32
Speaker 1: that they should probably get rid of Omar Khan too,
22:34
Speaker 1: and I'm not quite ready to pull that trigger yet.
22:39
Speaker 1: So the next thing that we have to keep an
22:42
Speaker 1: eye on is who do the Steelers interview and where
22:46
Speaker 1: do we think they're going to go. The famous stat
22:50
Speaker 1: of course, is three head coaches since nineteen sixty nine.
22:53
Speaker 1: All three were in their mid thirties on mid to
22:57
Speaker 1: early thirties. All three were defensive mind guys. So it's
23:02
Speaker 1: tough to say that the Steelers have a pattern when
23:04
Speaker 1: you do it like once every fifteen to twenty years.
23:08
Speaker 1: It could just be that those were literally the best
23:10
Speaker 1: candidates at the time. But we'll see what happens. I
23:14
Speaker 1: don't know if you've been reading the lists like I have,
23:19
Speaker 1: but I have seen almost every single name get mentioned
23:24
Speaker 1: that could even remotely enter your mind for this position.
23:31
Speaker 1: We talked about it last week where we took our
23:34
Speaker 1: most and least preferable jobs. I think if you look
23:39
Speaker 1: at just the rosters, the Ravens are probably still the
23:42
Speaker 1: number one overall destination, like you were mentioning last week,
23:45
Speaker 1: because they have Lamar Jackson, and they do still have
23:48
Speaker 1: a somewhat a somewhat complete Robster Robster roster. They were
23:57
Speaker 1: just kind of plagued by injuries this year. They probably
23:59
Speaker 1: just need to get a few new pieces in there,
24:01
Speaker 1: and I think they'll be okay. The Steelers are a
24:04
Speaker 1: little different though, because they might not have the desired roster,
24:08
Speaker 1: but they certainly do have the history, and you've got
24:11
Speaker 1: the ownership group that, while we have made some more
24:16
Speaker 1: so me have made some complaints about their lack of
24:20
Speaker 1: willingness to spend, they are going to provide the coach
24:24
Speaker 1: as much support and patients as they can, as evidenced
24:27
Speaker 1: by what we've seen over the last twenty years. So
24:34
Speaker 1: let's go through some of the names that we know
24:36
Speaker 1: that they've requested interviews for, because they've already put out
24:39
Speaker 1: four already. You've got Brian and Brian Flores, the defensive
24:44
Speaker 1: coordinator for the Vikings, former head coach of the Dolphins.
24:49
Speaker 1: Have the Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula. You have their
24:56
Speaker 1: Rams passing game coordinator, Neil. I'm not even going to
24:59
Speaker 1: try to say his last name. Shows you profession, shows
25:03
Speaker 1: you how professional we are here. And let me grab
25:09
Speaker 1: the defensive coordinator from the Miami Dolphins. Let's get that
25:13
Speaker 1: gentleman up here.
25:15
Speaker 3: Miami Dolphins, where's from?
25:21
Speaker 1: Anthony Weaver is the Dolphins defensive coordinator. By the way,
25:24
Speaker 1: Chris Shula is the Rams defensive coordinator and also the
25:29
Speaker 1: grandson of Don Sula. Yeah, so I thought it was
25:38
Speaker 1: interesting because I've heard people throughout Marcus Freeman's name. I've
25:43
Speaker 1: heard media members say call Kurt Signetti, which would certainly
25:50
Speaker 1: not be that same kind of higher that they did
25:53
Speaker 1: the last three times. Another very popular name is the
25:59
Speaker 1: Sea Hawks coordinator Clint Kubiak. So I've been talking a
26:05
Speaker 1: long time here, so I'm gonna turn things over to
26:07
Speaker 1: you a little bit, not necessarily asking you to make
26:11
Speaker 1: your pick for who you think it's gonna be. But
26:15
Speaker 1: let's let me just pose this to you. What do
26:19
Speaker 1: you hope that the Steelers look for and find in
26:23
Speaker 1: their next head coach.
26:25
Speaker 3: I want someone that can mold believes on the tree.
26:30
Speaker 3: I have been vocal about I think that Tomlin is
26:35
Speaker 3: a good coach, but he has not established youngsters underneath
26:41
Speaker 3: of him as coordinators to then blossom into other roles.
26:46
Speaker 3: And it's not to be a stepping stone. It's more
26:52
Speaker 3: of an indication of how well you are about mentoring
26:57
Speaker 3: other people, sharing that knowledge and driving them to be better.
27:03
Speaker 3: I think he's had a tendency to hire friends rather than.
27:08
Speaker 2: Finding the right person to put in the role.
27:14
Speaker 3: So with that, I definitely think it's just someone that
27:19
Speaker 3: could maybe put their pride aside.
27:21
Speaker 2: I do think that Tomlin. One of my biggest knocks.
27:27
Speaker 3: On him was I do think that he had to
27:30
Speaker 3: have his thumb on the people that were underneath of him,
27:36
Speaker 3: and because of that, he needed to be the smartest
27:40
Speaker 3: man in the room.
27:42
Speaker 2: And I think.
27:43
Speaker 3: That you need to put that aside and go out
27:47
Speaker 3: there and create the best coaching staff, not just the
27:52
Speaker 3: best coach. So that's why I do think that, like
28:00
Speaker 3: Marcus Freeman's kind of neat because of the candidates, he's
28:04
Speaker 3: the only one that's really a head coach. I do
28:09
Speaker 3: not want Flores. And here's my reason why he was
28:16
Speaker 3: in the building. He was with the Steelers. He was
28:21
Speaker 3: not as a defensive coordinator.
28:22
Speaker 2: He was just a.
28:24
Speaker 3: Middle linebacker coach or something like that. We had every
28:29
Speaker 3: ability to retain.
28:30
Speaker 2: Him, and we didn't. So if he wasn't.
28:34
Speaker 3: Good enough for us to do whatever we needed to
28:37
Speaker 3: do to keep him, why would we go out and
28:40
Speaker 3: hire him as our head coach?
28:44
Speaker 2: Makes no sense to me, have the thoughts on it.
28:48
Speaker 1: I understand the logic, but it would also make sense
28:52
Speaker 1: to me if they weren't going to just knowing what
28:55
Speaker 1: we do about the roonies not firing coaches prematurely, it
28:59
Speaker 1: would it would make sense to me that they not
29:02
Speaker 1: promote him by firing. I guess that would have been
29:06
Speaker 1: Keith Butler at the time. Maybe it was Tarrell Austin.
29:11
Speaker 1: But I think what you're saying is a distinct possibility too.
29:14
Speaker 1: If he was good enough, I would like to think
29:18
Speaker 1: that they would have done what they could to keep
29:20
Speaker 1: him and let the defensive coordinator walk.
29:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I think that, like as much constability makes sense,
29:33
Speaker 3: like you do need.
29:35
Speaker 2: To kind of re tool. Look at Sirianni. Sirianni and
29:43
Speaker 2: an atrocious.
29:44
Speaker 3: Year two years ago, he retold his coordinators got rid
29:50
Speaker 3: of Patricia went on to win the championship. This year,
29:55
Speaker 3: he had an offensive care coordinator that couldn't carry the load,
29:59
Speaker 3: so he final. So I mean, I'm not saying you
30:03
Speaker 3: need to like put someone on a one year notice,
30:07
Speaker 3: but like someone that's able to make the hard decisions
30:10
Speaker 3: sometimes will help.
30:11
Speaker 2: You get over the hump.
30:13
Speaker 3: And I think that you need someone that's strong enough
30:17
Speaker 3: and confident enough in themselves.
30:20
Speaker 2: To allow others to help guide you in them So.
30:28
Speaker 3: But yeah, for me, I think the person that I
30:33
Speaker 3: want has roots to Cincinnati, and that's Jesse Mentors. Dad
30:39
Speaker 3: was a coach here at Cincinnati. He played at Mount
30:42
Speaker 3: Saint Joe as a wide receiver. It's D three school
30:45
Speaker 3: here in Cincinnati. So I think he understands the Midwest roots,
30:51
Speaker 3: which I understand as much an NFL does not matter
30:54
Speaker 3: as much as college where you're caring about recruiting. I
31:00
Speaker 3: think he does know it would help him understand the
31:03
Speaker 3: fan base, which I think was groaning with Tomlin a
31:08
Speaker 3: little bit. But also I just think he's young enough.
31:12
Speaker 3: He fits the defensive minded mold, and I think.
31:17
Speaker 2: That like having that pedigree of you know, my day was.
31:22
Speaker 3: A head coach. He coached under Jim Harbaugh. Uh where
31:27
Speaker 3: was he?
31:28
Speaker 1: I think he was under both Harbaugh's at different times too.
31:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I just think like he's a guy that
31:36
Speaker 3: I think has moved around seen enough very successful coaches.
31:44
Speaker 2: To be a very balanced guy.
31:47
Speaker 3: And he played wide receiver at Mount Saint Joe, so
31:50
Speaker 3: which is actually interesting because Tomlin was a wide receiver
31:54
Speaker 3: in college went on to be a defensive minded coach,
31:58
Speaker 3: so it is actually kind of similar. Would fit the
32:01
Speaker 3: exact moment of what we're looking for. So if you
32:06
Speaker 3: had to say who I wanted to be, not who
32:10
Speaker 3: I think it will be, I think it'd be jesse Mentor.
32:14
Speaker 1: I'm a little disappointed in you because when you said
32:16
Speaker 1: the person you wanted his Cincinnati roots, I thought you
32:19
Speaker 1: were going to talk me up there for why I
32:21
Speaker 1: should be the head coach. You and me are in
32:23
Speaker 1: the right age range which had some.
32:27
Speaker 2: Grade school basketball coaching experience, so I did you know
32:34
Speaker 2: some Uh, but you didn't have the coaching tree.
32:38
Speaker 3: I don't remember you talking about any youngsters taken under
32:42
Speaker 3: your wing.
32:43
Speaker 1: Well, I never got to be the head coach, so
32:44
Speaker 1: I couldn't establish a coaching tree now, I was what
32:49
Speaker 1: I was starting to say there was.
32:51
Speaker 2: Uh.
32:52
Speaker 1: The scary thing is you and I are right in
32:54
Speaker 1: the age range now, which uh where the Steelers normally
32:58
Speaker 1: higher coaches, which is kind of scary to think about. Yeah,
33:02
Speaker 1: so at least we have that going for us. But
33:05
Speaker 1: we're yes, were young enough for something, I guess.
33:14
Speaker 2: Yeah.
33:14
Speaker 1: And I I don't know about Jesse Mintor. I know,
33:20
Speaker 1: I understand why they would request to interview him. I
33:26
Speaker 1: don't know if they've officially done that or not yet.
33:29
Speaker 2: Only two have seen are the ones out now there?
33:33
Speaker 1: Well, it is confirmed that they did, Brian Flores and
33:37
Speaker 1: Anthony Weaver, and I think Jesse Mintor was listed as well,
33:41
Speaker 1: just not on the list that I had at the moment,
33:44
Speaker 1: but he's He's been requested for other teams too, so
33:49
Speaker 1: he's one of the one of the candidates there. There's
33:55
Speaker 1: so many different ways they could go with this. They
33:59
Speaker 1: could decide to break the mold. They could go after
34:01
Speaker 1: a coach who does have head coaching experience. I really
34:09
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to be Signetti for sure.
34:16
Speaker 1: I understand that he's from Pittsburgh, and it might be
34:20
Speaker 1: a little different if the Steelers or the team calling
34:23
Speaker 1: you than someone else. But I mean, I just I
34:29
Speaker 1: don't know, man, I just don't don't see that happening.
34:32
Speaker 1: I think the Steelers, while they're not going to pigeonhole
34:36
Speaker 1: themselves into getting someone who's thirty two thirty four, they
34:40
Speaker 1: probably do want someone who's going to be there for
34:43
Speaker 1: a long time. And I think he's sixty seven sixty six, So.
34:47
Speaker 2: Is he really yes?
34:50
Speaker 3: I mean, he didn't look like spring Chicken, but I
34:53
Speaker 3: would not have pegged him for.
34:57
Speaker 2: Mid to late sixties.
34:58
Speaker 1: Well, when you never smile, you don't exert those muscles,
35:01
Speaker 1: and therefore you don't get any wrinkles. So but my
35:06
Speaker 1: point is, I'm not even sure that they call him.
35:10
Speaker 1: I understand the logic of people thinking that the guy's
35:12
Speaker 1: been successful everywhere he's gone. He's from Pittsburgh. I just
35:16
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think
35:18
Speaker 1: Marcus Freeman is going to leave Notre Dame, at least
35:20
Speaker 1: not right now. He's got a good thing going there.
35:25
Speaker 1: He's one of the most beloved coaches by their fan base,
35:31
Speaker 1: if you will, considering what they had before him. I
35:37
Speaker 1: just maybe I'm wrong. I like, I really do like
35:40
Speaker 1: Marcus Freeman, another former Cincinnati Bearcat assistant coach. I just
35:46
Speaker 1: I think he's going to stay put it notre dame.
35:48
Speaker 1: So I think that the hire is going to be
35:52
Speaker 1: a relatively unknown NFL assistant. It may not even be
35:57
Speaker 1: someone who's on the list that we have. But one
36:04
Speaker 1: thing that I thought was interesting is people have always
36:08
Speaker 1: talked about Tomlin as a culture guy as a player's coach.
36:12
Speaker 1: He's not a guy who's all about the schematics. Not
36:15
Speaker 1: to say he doesn't draw up the x's and o's.
36:17
Speaker 1: Obviously he has to know what he's doing to get
36:19
Speaker 1: to that level, right, But he's the culture guy. So
36:26
Speaker 1: I would like them to This is gonna sound so
36:31
Speaker 1: stupid when I say it out loud. I want them
36:35
Speaker 1: to find the best possible candidate. You need to have
36:38
Speaker 1: someone who does have strength to bring a locker room together.
36:41
Speaker 1: But I do feel like we need some better schemes
36:45
Speaker 1: as well. So keeping all of that in mind, I
36:49
Speaker 1: would lean towards someone who's got the ability to call
36:53
Speaker 1: the to call plays, and I'm looking at it on
36:55
Speaker 1: offense too, because the way that the league is moving
37:02
Speaker 1: offense is more important than ever. We're going to need
37:06
Speaker 1: to draft a quarterback at some point. That quarterback is
37:10
Speaker 1: going to need to be developed. I don't care who
37:14
Speaker 1: they are at this point, when they come out of college,
37:16
Speaker 1: they need to be developed. So knowing that, I just
37:20
Speaker 1: think I'm leaning towards an offensive guy, someone who's a
37:24
Speaker 1: little more into the schematics, and I think right now
37:30
Speaker 1: Clint Kubiak is the hot candidate for that. I think
37:35
Speaker 1: if you're him, though, and this is maybe why I
37:40
Speaker 1: go back to it might be some relatively unknown coach,
37:47
Speaker 1: is if you are the number one offensive candidate for
37:52
Speaker 1: head coaching jobs, you're going to be sprinting to Baltimore
37:56
Speaker 1: or maybe even the Giants. Right So, the only the
38:05
Speaker 1: only way I see them getting a guy like that
38:09
Speaker 1: is just that candidate buying in and saying, yes, I
38:14
Speaker 1: know we might not get the quarterback of the future
38:18
Speaker 1: this year, but we're going to be really patient with you,
38:22
Speaker 1: and you know you've got at least three to four
38:24
Speaker 1: years and we'll get you the quarterback at some point.
38:29
Speaker 1: But some coaches may not want to take that risk,
38:33
Speaker 1: right if because you might get blamed at some point,
38:39
Speaker 1: even if it's not your fault, even if you can't
38:41
Speaker 1: get the right quarterback. If you go to Baltimore, you've
38:45
Speaker 1: got a known commodity in Lamar Jackson, You've at least
38:49
Speaker 1: got one year of Jackson Dart and Cam Skataboo in
38:55
Speaker 1: New York showing you some glimpses. Right. So, I don't know,
39:00
Speaker 1: long winded answer, just to say it's going to be interesting.
39:04
Speaker 1: And I think that despite what you and I want,
39:08
Speaker 1: it would not surprise me if the head coach ending
39:10
Speaker 1: up ended up being someone that we didn't even have
39:14
Speaker 1: on our radar.
39:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, my good.
39:24
Speaker 1: My goodness. All right, Well what I don't even know
39:35
Speaker 1: where to go from there. This kind of still has
39:37
Speaker 1: me at a little bit of a loss of words,
39:39
Speaker 1: and we are we're still trying to process it too,
39:44
Speaker 1: And it's not going to be a quick thing. I
39:48
Speaker 1: imagine we'll have the head coach well before the draft, obviously,
39:52
Speaker 1: but the next thing that happens is the roster. What's
40:00
Speaker 1: going to happen here. I don't think Aaron Rodgers comes back.
40:06
Speaker 1: I think someone like Cam Hayward maybe looks at retiring
40:10
Speaker 1: and we could have a completely different team come September.
40:17
Speaker 2: Yeah.
40:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, if there's enough, if there's a personnel
40:25
Speaker 3: change that you'd like to see, what would it be.
40:33
Speaker 1: When it comes to the players, I think they do
40:35
Speaker 1: need to get younger, and I think there might be
40:37
Speaker 1: some cap issues. I don't you and I were texting
40:45
Speaker 1: a little before. I think they just got to get younger.
40:49
Speaker 1: I think Cam, if Cam wants to play another year
40:54
Speaker 1: or two, as long as he's not holding out for
40:55
Speaker 1: more money, I think that'd be okay. But uh, I
41:00
Speaker 1: think you got to move off guys like Ramsey. I
41:03
Speaker 1: think you got to try to find some sort of
41:06
Speaker 1: trade partner for TJ. Watt. And the money might be
41:10
Speaker 1: an issue there, but it's not impossible. You can make
41:12
Speaker 1: it work if the ownership's willing to spend some money.
41:17
Speaker 1: But that's what I would do. And I don't want
41:20
Speaker 1: to get too far ahead of things right now, but
41:23
Speaker 1: I would say Omar Khan has done a good job
41:27
Speaker 1: of building up both the offensive and defensive line. They're
41:30
Speaker 1: both young, they're both improving. Maybe the strategy is in
41:34
Speaker 1: this draft, we continue to get weapons and then look
41:37
Speaker 1: at next to your finding the quarterback and going from there,
41:43
Speaker 1: or maybe we hire John Harbaugh and bring on Joe
41:48
Speaker 1: Flacco and try to run it back like it's twenty
41:51
Speaker 1: twelve in Baltimore. Right doesn't really do much for aging
41:55
Speaker 1: the roster down, But it's okay. Let me let me
42:00
Speaker 1: turn it back around on you. I assume you're in
42:04
Speaker 1: agreement with me that Aaron Rodgers is not coming back.
42:09
Speaker 1: I think one of the main reasons he was there
42:11
Speaker 1: was for Tomlin, so I don't think he's going to
42:13
Speaker 1: come back. So outside of that, let me ask you,
42:19
Speaker 1: what do you think is going to happen? And then
42:21
Speaker 1: what would you like to see happen?
42:27
Speaker 3: So I think that they will ask camp Payward if
42:34
Speaker 3: he would like to go to the king tender, If so,
42:37
Speaker 3: the ground that wish and trade him away.
42:42
Speaker 2: I think TJ would say on the roster just hard
42:46
Speaker 2: to move. I think they'll cut.
42:53
Speaker 3: Guys like Patrick Queen, guys that like, we're signed to
42:59
Speaker 3: relatively higher deals, but.
43:02
Speaker 2: We can get out of Patrick Queen, Jonas Smith.
43:06
Speaker 4: They come to mind, what would I like to see.
43:12
Speaker 4: I'd like to see us just run out Mason Rudolph
43:19
Speaker 4: for one year and finally.
43:22
Speaker 2: Draft from the top ten for a while.
43:27
Speaker 3: But Rooney also said he does not like taking, you know,
43:32
Speaker 3: years off, so will they you know.
43:38
Speaker 2: I here's the thing.
43:42
Speaker 3: I don't want us to become the Saints. The Saints
43:44
Speaker 3: have been the Ants ever since they lost Breeze, and
43:52
Speaker 3: we've been trying to We've been stuck in purgatory since
43:57
Speaker 3: Ben has injured his elbow. So I think if you
44:04
Speaker 3: really need to fix what's broken, it probably wasn't just Tomlin.
44:09
Speaker 3: It was probably also our inability to just say, do
44:15
Speaker 3: we have enough pieces right here to be a championship team?
44:21
Speaker 3: Because if you don't, don't push it, Like don't yeah,
44:29
Speaker 3: this rockter going into next year does not inspire me
44:33
Speaker 3: to say that this is going to be a.
44:35
Speaker 2: Championship caliber team. And if not, I think it's.
44:40
Speaker 3: It's a hard decision to say, finally got to push
44:43
Speaker 3: a little bit of a reset.
44:45
Speaker 2: It doesn't need to be scorched earth.
44:48
Speaker 1: But no, I'm with you and the other there's so
44:55
Speaker 1: many moving pieces here. But Dante more just announced that
44:59
Speaker 1: he's going to stay or in another year, and he
45:01
Speaker 1: was possibly a top five pick. He was certainly the
45:04
Speaker 1: number two ranked quarterback in the onmost draft rankings, So
45:10
Speaker 1: an already thin quarterback class has become even thinner. So
45:17
Speaker 1: to what you're saying, I agree with you. You may
45:21
Speaker 1: not have to do a full rebuild, but at a
45:23
Speaker 1: certain point you're gonna have to pull the trigger on
45:27
Speaker 1: a quarterback in the draft. And I'm not saying that
45:32
Speaker 1: you necessarily have to trade up into like the top
45:36
Speaker 1: five or the top ten to get one of those guys.
45:39
Speaker 1: This year, you might have to trade up the number
45:40
Speaker 1: one if you want the best quarterback, depending on what
45:42
Speaker 1: the Raiders do, but you better not miss when you
45:48
Speaker 1: do pick that quarterback, otherwise you're gonna be setting yourself
45:53
Speaker 1: back for a few years. I was just gonna say,
45:58
Speaker 1: we know that all too well too. So it's going
46:04
Speaker 1: to be interesting to see who they hire and where
46:09
Speaker 1: they go in the draft, because this really is a
46:13
Speaker 1: big like the changing of an era here, it's not
46:17
Speaker 1: the standard is not the standard anymore. So I think
46:25
Speaker 1: if it's up to me, and we'll talk about it
46:27
Speaker 1: as we get closer to the draft too, I would
46:31
Speaker 1: start drafting weapons to make the team better overall, and
46:36
Speaker 1: so that when I think the right guy is there
46:41
Speaker 1: in the draft, or if it's free agency or through
46:44
Speaker 1: a trade, which I don't think is going to be
46:46
Speaker 1: the case. My quarterback can walk into a somewhat good situation.
46:53
Speaker 1: I don't want to. I don't want to draft a quarterback.
46:58
Speaker 1: I don't think it'd be good if let's just say
47:00
Speaker 1: we drafted someone like cam Ward through some magic or
47:04
Speaker 1: whatever this past year. I don't think that would have
47:08
Speaker 1: been a good situation for him to go on a
47:10
Speaker 1: team where your only weapon is DK Metcalf and you
47:13
Speaker 1: don't have all that knowledge that Aaron Rodgers has. Granted
47:18
Speaker 1: it might have been better for him than what he
47:19
Speaker 1: ended up at with the Titans, but I would much
47:24
Speaker 1: rather try to set my quarterback up for success. So
47:27
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna get a very clear indication of
47:30
Speaker 1: what Omar Khan and the Rooney's desires are on draft
47:34
Speaker 1: Day when we get to that point, and by then,
47:38
Speaker 1: by then we'll definitely have a coach too, so we'll
47:41
Speaker 1: know were they leaning towards defense, were they leaning towards offense,
47:46
Speaker 1: and we'll see what happens there. Yeah, definitely, just I'm
47:53
Speaker 1: still kind of shaken up by the by the news.
47:56
Speaker 1: It's a little disjarring, and I guess We're just gonna
48:00
Speaker 1: have to get used to it like we did nineteen
48:03
Speaker 1: years ago. Right, Yeah, man, Well, what else? What else
48:12
Speaker 1: can we say about about the end of the Steelers,
48:16
Speaker 1: the end of Mike Tomlin's tenure, and where we go
48:20
Speaker 1: from here. I don't know. I was gonna say favorite tomlinism,
48:29
Speaker 1: but I think we're gonna have to save that one.
48:33
Speaker 1: And I think I'll end with this. You mentioned you
48:38
Speaker 1: made a good point earlier. You said you're gonna find
48:40
Speaker 1: it annoying when let's say the Steelers have a losing record,
48:44
Speaker 1: you'll see people come out of the woodwork saying we'll
48:47
Speaker 1: see I bet you wish you had Tomlin. I think
48:50
Speaker 1: most reasonable fans understand that you might have to go
48:55
Speaker 1: through a couple bad seasons to get where you need
48:59
Speaker 1: to go. But like we said, I think it was time.
49:06
Speaker 1: I think there's an outcome where this is good for
49:08
Speaker 1: both parties. Maybe not to the level of what we've
49:11
Speaker 1: seen Andy Reid do in Kansas City, but I think
49:14
Speaker 1: both sides can definitely find success. And I think whatever
49:18
Speaker 1: Tomlin does, whether it's if he does anything else, if
49:22
Speaker 1: it's a podcast, if it's media, I'll definitely watch that
49:28
Speaker 1: and be glued to the TV. But I think we'll
49:33
Speaker 1: finally get some answers to over these last ten years,
49:38
Speaker 1: especially where who was responsible for the successes that we
49:44
Speaker 1: saw and who was responsible for the failures Because I've
49:48
Speaker 1: alluded to the owners not wanting to spend money. We've
49:51
Speaker 1: always talked about some in game management and losing the
49:54
Speaker 1: teams like you shouldn't having a very small coaching staff. Uh.
50:00
Speaker 1: I'm just eager to see what happens, and I think
50:02
Speaker 1: we'll have a clearer understanding of how much of this
50:07
Speaker 1: responsibility is with Mike Tomlin and how much is with
50:10
Speaker 1: the Rooney's. So yeah, all right, well, I think that's
50:16
Speaker 1: gonna do it for us. But I'll give you one
50:18
Speaker 1: last chance. Was there anything else you wanted to say
50:20
Speaker 1: before we wrap up our last episode of our tenth
50:25
Speaker 1: season on the airwaves?
50:29
Speaker 2: Just wow?
50:32
Speaker 1: Man? Yeah, ten years and we're gonna do it and
50:37
Speaker 1: until they cancel us or until they stop paying us.
50:40
Speaker 1: Right there you go? All right, folks, Well, thank you
50:49
Speaker 1: again for tuning in with us. As always, I'm Nick
50:52
Speaker 1: Detulio and joined by the world famous accountants Eric vanmin showten.
50:56
Speaker 1: This has been another episode of the GameHouse Dot COM's
50:59
Speaker 1: stealer Country Weekly