Latest / In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers) / HR1: Live from Training Camp 2026 Day 13

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HR1: Live from Training Camp 2026 Day 13 · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is live coverage of the twenty twenty six Steelers
• 0:04
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• 0:52
  Speaker 2: And welcome inside the locker room here in the Steaders
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Audio Network alongside Max Stark's I Rob King Hi at
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Top Chuck Nolefield Beautiful day.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Practice is over, very crisp, short practice.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: But Max, we have a lot of game talking to
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: to break down. We have some news with the signing
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: of a Landon Roberts and him getting out there practice today,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: the contract extension of Keanu Benton.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: Action packed. Max. There's a lot, there's.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: A lot to go, a lot that has happened in
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  Speaker 4: the last oh fifty seven hours, not heines fifty seven No,
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: what I did there?
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, I did. Yeah, yeah, so we.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm excited because I think a lot of good
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: things are on the press.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I don't think there's any.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: Negatives to really harp on, but there's negatives to talk
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: about for a first preseason game.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: But I mean, yeah, there are so many positives.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: And we're on a little bit later today with Mike
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: McCarthy press conference that we just played back from this morning,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: So a little bit of a shorter first segment here,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: and because there are so few negatives, let's knock him
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: out and get him out of the way and then
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: we can talk the you know, the rest of the show.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Under the under. I love this kind of summer day.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: A little puffy blue cloud. I don't like that. That one's
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: a little great there. I don't like that that one
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: go away. I like this.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I like them effort Tomorrow's beautiful, beautiful late summer day.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: So Bob Ross X, we're gonna where Bob Ross asked,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: fluffy friendly little clouds there, We're gonna leave with fluffy
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: and friendly because there is so much to like about
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: what we saw and some interesting moves that have happened
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: in the interim. So if I was gonna list the
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: things that I think are either you know, you can
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: call them stock down or hey, this needs to be
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: tightened up, or a negative.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: I think the negative is the penalties.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Too many penalties, you know, Mike McCarthy, you know stresses
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: pre snap penalties. There's a lot of I think six
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: personal fouls, way too many penalties. You don't want that
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: many penalties in the game, you know. It's interesting. So
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: what if Mike tom Win always used to say about aggression,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: I'd rather say whoe than sick of them?
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Right? That was his That was his line.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Uh, Mike McCarthy has a different line. So we're going
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: to scratch out that woe and sick of line because
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: it no longer applies. I'd rather I'd rather our team
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: be too much than not enough, another way of putting
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: it the same way. So I am ceremoniously So here
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: we are. We're on radio. But I'm picking up my pen.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I'm right handed, I have my left hand. I'm calling
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: it play by pipes and it's not an auto pen.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I have my left hand spread out on my stack.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: You can see here, Max, I have a stack of
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: of these pads.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: He's writing packs a lot of papers. Yes, in case
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: anybody's wondering, I mean there's I'm a bit of a
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: tree hugger, but I but I use a lot of
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: paper over the course. But you know what I mean.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: This looks like the white pages for those of you
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: a specific.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: You could sit, Yeah, you would not need to boost
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: your chair for your young child with the amount of
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: notepads I have in my but I am now bretting
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: my left hand on top of this to make sure
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: that I get a good firm indentation. I am taking
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: my pen and I'm scratching. I'm scratching out woe versus
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  Speaker 2: sick of that no longer applies.
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  Speaker 3: That is out. So there it is.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: I've taken six, seven, eight, about ten lines through there.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: It's definitely I don't think. I don't think anybody could
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: read what's underneath him. I'd rather read too much than
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: not enough. That's the new mantra. And you know what,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: it's a great attitude to have. It's a similar attitude
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: as the previous regime. I think it's a similar attitude
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: of every team. Yes, you want to be disciplined. But
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: you know, rather have an error of comission than omission
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  Speaker 2: and this doder's that's something they're going to want to
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: clean up. But okay, but that's maybe the only what
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: I would call negative of the game. There's some concerns.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: That's my only negative.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things that you
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: look at the penalties and like, not all penalties are created.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right. They're not all created equal.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: And the ones that are the annoying bothersome frustrating ones
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: are the pre impost.
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  Speaker 3: I totally agree.
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  Speaker 4: Anything that happens between the hut to the whistle, it's
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: all legal. That's competition. Use Hey listen, gunfight. Gunfighters get
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: shot too, right, So that's that's just that's just a
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: price of doing business. But it's the pre and the post,
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  Speaker 4: and specifically the post when you've had about five and
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  Speaker 4: a half six seconds to figure that emotion out right, yes,
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: or you wait the proverbial twenty four seconds and then
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: you proceed with the next set of emotions that you're
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: dealing with. A guy's on the sidelines, Let it go, right,
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: a guy the whistle is blown dead, let it go.
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  Speaker 3: There's no place for it in this in this game anymore.
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  Speaker 4: Now, I'm also talking about a guy who grew up
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: in the nineties NBA bad boy era of basketball.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: I watched the Attitude era on WWE.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: I played in a very physical, different level Monday Night
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  Speaker 4: jacked up era of NFL football. So I know that's crazy,
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  Speaker 4: but that's what the rules have been. And at the
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: end of the day, you're only hurting your team for
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: some falls. Bravado, right, And so that's where the post
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  Speaker 4: snap is the one that really really gnaws my crawl
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  Speaker 4: at this.
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  Speaker 3: Point, especially and especially in the preseason, this preseason. Can
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: we talking about practice games?
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's not practice games. If so Israel mcwom
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: we've got whistled for a couple it's not practice games
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: for him. He's trying to make the roster.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: He is.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: But so I understand, I understand the emotions might be high.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I also get where you're coming from. Do we have
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: time for cricketside or should we stick with football?
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Now? Let's go, let's go the backball hour.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: The backball era at basketball might be my least favorite
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: era in the NBA. I grew up rooting for the Knicks.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: They're my favorite team. I couldn't even really enjoy uh
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: the their run this year because I don't really watch
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: the NBA that much anymore. That was my least favorite
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: era of NBA basketball, eighty two to eighty. You drive
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: to the basket, you're gonna get hitting the kidney. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that's not my favorite era, followed closely by, although I
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: think the NBA is get getting out of this this
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: this three point era, I find it. I rather have
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: the liver shots. Yes, I find it half court threes.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: I know I'm sounding like old man yells at cloud,
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  Speaker 2: but I just have a I just I don't. I
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: don't think it's as entertaining as it used to be.
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  Speaker 2: Four guys fanning out to the three point line while
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: one guy dribbles is not. I don't find that to
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  Speaker 2: be because somebody broke down. Hey, it's not worth you
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  Speaker 2: know it. It's it goes back to the saber metric thing, right,
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  Speaker 2: It's not worthwhile Taking an intermediate jump shot.
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's the most fun jump shot in the game.
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  Speaker 3: Is fun? Listen, you have to that Maye. That's a
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  Speaker 3: team a highlight worthy play.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: Yep, when you sky over people and just shoot the
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: ball and touch it and you know, touch it over
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  Speaker 4: a nice.
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  Speaker 3: Little Oh, it's the best.
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  Speaker 4: Or you dribble a guy and you get a guy
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  Speaker 4: going losing his toes and then you take that baseline jumper,
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: or you hit or you hit the free throw line,
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  Speaker 4: you know, elbow jump shot, like the elbow jump that
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  Speaker 4: was where I made my bread and butter was an
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: elbow jump shot.
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  Speaker 3: It's a big man.
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  Speaker 2: So you had to you had to be able to
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  Speaker 2: make that or you could not play. No, you weren't
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  Speaker 2: allowed on the court, right, Like if you didn't if
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: you didn't have.
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  Speaker 4: A pick and roll, and then you a pick and
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  Speaker 4: pop like and you could hit that hit that mid
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  Speaker 4: range jumper. You weren't seeing you were you weren't seeing
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: the court. You were on the sideline handing everybody. Gatoray
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  Speaker 4: is still in your warm up.
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  Speaker 3: I wonder if I wonder if today's players even know
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: what the elbow is. It's probably that thing and that
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: thing that holds their arm together. Yeah, Like I have
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: an elbow.
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  Speaker 2: I can't use it, yeah right, I can't use it
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  Speaker 2: ofving co for a foul. Yeah anyway, So okay, so
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: so we agree on that. So I and I understand
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: exactly where you're going in the post. And I think
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  Speaker 2: that's a pretty easy cleanup.
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  Speaker 3: Really. I think I don't remember seeing a whole lot
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: of pre snap stuff, you know, Mike McCarthy. Even in
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: the fall start, Troy had a false start and there
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  Speaker 3: was I think that was it.
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  Speaker 4: I think I one think that was it, and you know,
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  Speaker 4: and there's a twelve minute but that was on the
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: other team. I had the twelve minute huddle.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy has talked a lot, I mean a lot
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  Speaker 2: about the anatomy evil play. It's fascinating all the pre
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: snap stuff that goes into it, and then the two
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: point three seconds of playtime and then if if the
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: play extends beyond, what happens you know after that two
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: and a half second mark and and breaks down all
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: these different things. And pre snap isn't just don't jump
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: off sides, it is Yeah, did we get to playing
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  Speaker 2: on time? Are we organized? Are we running around like
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: chickens with our heads cut off? Or are we there
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: ready to go?
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: And that's important to him for a number of reasons.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: One, you don't want to be disorganized, but two it
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: continues to put the pressure on the other team and I.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: Thought the student, we're pretty good at it, but he
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: said there's still room to grow. So I like that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: I'm happy with that. I thought that. I thought that
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: was I thought that was fun to watch. I thought
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: they looked highly organized.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: I thought they, you know, for a preseason game, with
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: all the different personnel groupings you have out there, all
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: the guys, many of whom sadly won't be playing in
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: the NFL for a living. I thought it looked highly organized.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: But he wasn't happy with it, So now you're not
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: totally pleased with it. I think that's great. I think
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: that's fantastic. So there's there's better to come. So okay,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: So the penalties, that was one thing the stock down
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: for me. I really I don't know why I thought this,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: but I thought, we're gonna see Caleb Johnson a lot
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: earlier than we saw him. By the time he was
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: running the ball, he only got a couple of carries
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: there there yeah, two, there are three?
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Was it three? Or for three yards?
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: For three or now? In defense of him, I think
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: he broke a couple of tackles to get those three yards.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: There wasn't much. There wasn't but that's something that bears
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: watching because Travis Homer was the guy who was in there,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: and you know, the top two guys didn't play. Travis
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Homer was the next guy up. We know Travis Homer
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: has he's a personal protector, as you pointed out, on
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: special teams, that's in a very important position. He's known
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: as a terrific special teams player. I highly doubt whether
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: you're going to carry four. But if you carried four,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Lou Nichols was the next guy who came in, right,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: He was the guy that came in the team rushing. Yeah,
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: and then you had you know, Hide and Reich and
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Johnson toward the end. So I don't think that bodes
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: well for Caleb. Now we'll see whether that was you know,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: much like we'll see in each week. You know what
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: quarterback is playing with what group? Right, So Drew Allen
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: was playing with a different group than Will Howard a
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: little bit, you know, So will will that switch then,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: just so that you see these guys with different people,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: maybe that will switch for Caleb.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: But that's not.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: You can't be sleeping easy at night if you are
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: getting into the game in the fourth quarter of a
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: of a preseason game.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, especially for the first preseason game where you saw
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: a lot of different rotation. I mean we talked about
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: on the broadcast. You know, thirteen different guys got a
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: ball passed to him.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: That's a lot, right, So the.
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: Ball was being spread around, and you're not in on
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: the on the schmearing process as we go to like
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: my Einstein brother bagels days, you want to shmear what
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: flavor shmear you want, like Schmeer, But now you know,
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: I'm used to it. But I mean, it was a
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: it was a lot. It was a lot of a
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: lot of guys getting a lot of different touch. Now,
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: Travis Homer, you talked about it.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: He was a lead back. He only got four rushes,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: He only had four touches, but he.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: Also had two passes to him and he completed both
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: of those passes as well, so you're talking about six
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: touches total. Lou Nichols got ten rushes, and Lou made
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: the most out of those and still even caught one
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: out of the backfield. So there was opportunities. But like
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: you said, what are you doing to earn those opportunities?
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: And Eli heiden Reich, even though he came in in
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: the fourth quarter, he was your starting kick returner opposite Caydenwigen,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: so he played throughout the whole game. So that's that's
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: a different thing that you're looking at. You're seeing him
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: scattered throughout out because Green Bay also was scoring, so
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: it gave an opportunity to get in there more. But
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: he's the number one kick returner.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: That's a lot. That's a lot of responsibility for running
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: backs who aren't starters.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: It is going to be a very interesting next couple
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: of weeks at that position. It was one that we thought,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: we thought that was a big game for Caleb, and
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: we just didn't see him until very very late in
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: the game. The only other negative I can think about
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: and Max, you know, obviously you're watching the game through
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: a different lens than I, but I didn't think it
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: was a great game for the for the first offensive tackles,
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: That's the way it.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Seemed to me.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I think both Foutan and Cook gave up a sack,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: but again I don't know, you know, they're twisting. I
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: don't know whether the quarterback called the right protection. I mean,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: there's so much involved, but it just looked to me
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: like that's something that that probably has some room for improvement.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: Uh yeah, the I would just say the running offense
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: wasn't quite there mm hm because backside cutoffs.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: On a lot of those zones warre't.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: Brinston made a living in the backfield, you know, the
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: guy we talked about Anthony Campbell, right, just as well
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: as what you know Anthony Goodlow and Kyler Baugh and
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: all those and Gabe Rubio did the Green Bay defensive
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: line did the same thing to our offensive line, and
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: like you said, there was just it wasn't as clean
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: and Chris, but this is also what this is why
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: you play games, right. You have to figure stuff out
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: on the fly, just because we put it out here
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: and it looks great on paper and it looks great
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: in practice. Like that's why the combinations matter. That's why
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: seeing how guys work together under stress, Dylan Cook and
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: Spencer Anderson, that's really the most extend And they played
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: well into the third.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Quarter, if it serves me.
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So they're trying to figure them out and give
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: them a good opportunity. And Progerick General spent primarily left tackle.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: Now he's also competing for the right tackle job, but
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: he played all on the left. Jennings Dunker, who's been
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: playing left guard most of this camp, was playing exclusively
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: right guard in the second half when he went in,
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: so we're seeing the different combination. Brock Hoffman was playing
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: all three. Interior Ryan McCollum even played right guard.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: We were talking about whether he was a true center
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: or not. They had him out there playing right guard
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: to see if.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: He could be a swing. So a lot of things
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: change in game, and you put guys in stressful situations
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: to see how they respond. So it was not the greatest,
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Like you said, giving up those sacks, Rodick also gave
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: us some sacks two and some pressures. There was middle
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: pressure as well. You know, Spencer Anderson had had his
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: moments in there, and even him and Zach working together,
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: and then Zack and Mason had their Everybody had their moments.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: So the first team offensive line has a lot of
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: the room for growth. And I'm not saying that as
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: a negative or the bare of bad news.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: It's just new.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: The only person's playing the same position as Zach Frasier.
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: Everybody else's playing a new position. Even though there's only
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: there's a quote unquote two guys for a starting job.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: The guys on my left.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Have been doing that all right side, and now you
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: have to do it left side. It's different.
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: And I might have downplayed it because I explained it
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: so easily.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: It's not easy.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: That's why they don't have that many that do it.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: And so it is an adjustment. And we got three
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: preseason games to figure it out.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: And do I have faith? Absolutely good. They're physical, they're strong.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: It's just running offense always.
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: Takes longer than passing offense because passing offense is about
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: timing and space. Running offense is about the opposite, closing space,
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: moving people beyond their will, Newton's force metrics, all those
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: other things right to get a guy displaced. So it
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: is an adjustment, but I'm not discouraged. But it wasn't
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: as nice as I would like to have seen. Yeah,
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: so again, work to do. It's okay, it's a preseason.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: That's it for me. Did you have anything else on
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: the on the downside column? I know we're overdue for
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: a break, but I will save my short tidbit for
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: after the break. Max has got a short tidbit and
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: then we have because I might jump on a soapbox.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: I okay, good, I'm looking forward to the soapbox. We
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: have a long list of things that went right. We
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: have a contract extension. We have a player, a new
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: player who's an old player, who's back in camp. Much
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: much much to get to in the locker room. Here
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: on the Steelers Audio Network, please.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Please live Covery Jump dot twenty twenty six Steelers Training
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
• 17:34
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• 17:37
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• 17:41
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• 17:45
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• 17:49
  Speaker 1: quote today by FedEx the new power move Independence health
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: System expert Care Here Remax Select Realty, they said, Remax
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Select Pittsburgh dot com, the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania. Visit
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: go Laurel Highlands dot com. The Steelers Pro Shop, Visai
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Shop dot Steelers dot com and buy kindienta pizza and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: draft house.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Welcome back inside the lot today. Oh yeah, I turned
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: myself down there, turned to break. Yeah. Sorry, here we go? Right?
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Is that? Where is that where we need to be?
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Check those levels? Check those now? Yeah? Yeah, so much
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: to the dismay of producers everywhere.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: I don't like my I don't like my uh headstone
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: headsets or I F B or whatever I'm wearing. That's
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: an inner inner audio feedback device. Uh that that's what
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: you put in your ear when you're doing TV.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: I don't like it too loud. I don't like to
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: be played at you. You don't like to hear yourself? No,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: I thought you love hearing you.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I uh, I also you. I'm one of those guys.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Now I've got to hey, maybe maybe this is this
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: has gotta be a I'm getting older thing. But there's
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: times where I just like silence while driving the car
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: and just have nothing on.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: No book on tape, no music, no, just just sign
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: the road, just me in the road. I do that
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: a lot. I do, And I've done that a lot
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: up here at camp.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: Like I go and and I'm like, man, I really
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: don't want to hear anything on the radio, Like there's
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: nothing that's gonna draw me to listening right now. And
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: I just because I like to collect, you know, like
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: you said, I like to collect my thoughts. I like
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: to take in and be present.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: I think that's another thing, like, especially with driving and
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: you know how crazy it is. Now, I just like
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: to be present. Yeah, I don't want to be distracted.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: So I turned down what I thought was my ear
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: but was actually my mic.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: That's where you come and ask. That's why I'm not
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: a very technical guy. So, Max, you had one, you
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: were gonna get up on your on your soapbox. We
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: do have a soapbox here in the in the in
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: the broadcast booth. Are you gonna go stand on it
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: right now?
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: I I'm standing on the proverbial soapbox that's here right now.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Max is now nine feet tall soapbox. I want to
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: see better whole discipline in the run game from the
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: running back extensively.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: Oh okay, defensively, because we Alrea talked about the running backs. Okay,
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: so this is the defensive side. I felt like they
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: got pushed back a little bit early, you know, when
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: it was starters on starters. I wouldn't disagree with that.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So that that was my one. That was my
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: one gripe.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: I love the fact that they kept everything in front
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: of them defensively and made a lot of plays going downhill,
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: but there wasn't a lot of press opportunities, and I
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: felt like a lot of underneath stuff was given up
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: in the passing game.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: So two little gripes.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: But once again, this is Vanilla allowing guys to play,
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: giving them cushions, playing very less structured. But I felt
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: like because of that run defense allowed for that soft zone.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: So that was that was my little bit of a
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: technical gripe. Okay, And so it just overall, run the
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: ball and defending running the ball are my two biggest
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: gripes I think in that game as a as a lineman,
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: as a trench guy. Yeah, I felt like that was
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: not where it could have been in those moments. I
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: don't disagree, of course, no top running backs, right, I mean, yeah,
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: there was no. They didn't have Josh Jacob there, didn't
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: have Josh Jacobs there, and we didn't have Rico and Jalen.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: But yeah, but you're figuring that falls on the offensive line. Still,
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: you're supposed to make it.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: You could.
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: A good offensive line could make the average back look great. Yeah, okay,
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: so all right, And and an average back running against
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: a really good defensive line that's getting blocked up makes
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: that back look even better.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: By the way, a pair of third round picks, I
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: believe from two years ago, both Caleb Johnson and I
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: guess Caleb.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: Was, Yeah, it was MARSHALLN.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Lloyd last year or the year before, I can't remember,
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: but Lloyd, they're really really excited about him because Jacobs
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: has been dinged up and had some other issues and
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Lloyd is taking the ball and he's really really excited
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: about him.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Uh but yes, Okay, so that's the Packers.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: So well, let's let's continue on defense then, because you
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: started on uh started our topic here because I just
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: I have so many good things to say about the offense.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: But you know, the one, the one guy when the
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: ones were out there that stuck out to me the
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: most was a Sante Samuel Jr. I just thought he
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: was He was challenged a couple of times. His coverage
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: was absolutely perfect, I mean perfect, couldn't be better. I
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: just thought he I thought again, you know you you
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: want you're looking for You're looking for the evidence to
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: be presented to you when you're hearing all the facts,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: and the facts are. He looked good at OTAs he's
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: all the way back from the neck injury. He's regained
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: that aggressiveness and you know again he talked about it.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: I think last year, Look, it was hard to get
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: up and hit guys when you're when you're next bothering you,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: you know, And so you know he was back. He
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: was he's been aggressive, he's fast. You can see why.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Going into last season he was universally claimed as a
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: top twenty five available free agent and you know, the
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: neck injury is the only thing that kept him from
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: getting big dollars. And now he is showing that. Look
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: as I think he's twenty six as a twenty six.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: Year old, it will be twenty seven during the season.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: This is a young in his prime, talented cornerback.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: And if you are the Steelers and you've got Jamel
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Dean on one side, and you've got Joey Porter coming
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: on the other side hopefully at some point here, and
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: you've got Jalen Ramsey in the slot, and you've got
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Brandon Echols in the slot, and now you have a
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Sante Samuel who can play all three spots, that is
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: again enviable.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And Everett, Yeah, and Dalen Everett. I mean, here's
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: what you need.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: You need four corners because you never know when injury
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: is going to strike throughout the season.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: We saw it last year. Yes, we've seen it.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: I mean, I would argue we've seen it three out
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: of the last four years where we've gotten like decimated
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: at corner and safety and things that got really dry.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: So you need those really top flight guys to fill
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: in or move in and create the matchup opportunities for
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: you at any point during the season. So it's a
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: good problem to have, and like you said, you want
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: to lock that up moving forward. So I wouldn't be
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: surprised if we see something with Samuel because he's earned
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: it so far. He's earned everything out here in camp
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: and it carried to the football field to where we
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: don't have to question is he okay?
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Is he not okay? Neck? No, neck, like you can't
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: tell out there? No, you know.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: And you said you need four cornerbacks, they've got five,
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: and by my count five and Dale and Everett, who
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: I also thought looked good. I thought both the rookie
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: defensive backs look good.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: That is.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: And again this is why for people out there wondering,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I can only speak for myself why I'm so bullish
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: on the roster. Look at that, Like you said, you're
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: hoping to have four, most times you don't have it. Yeah,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: I think the Steelers have five and a really promising rookie.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I think that's and again you could get decimated. We
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: we we saw, you know, we have seen the Steelers
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: using you know, the linebackers. You're calling guys up, Hey,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: what do you well? I I'm working at No, you're
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: not working anymore. Get off the couch.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: Come you can you exactly we need you're playing on Sunday,
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: you know, Alexander ye whatever it was, you know, and
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: what was Miles Jack? Yeah, Miles Jack, yep.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: I mean yes, so so you can get There's no
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: such thing as, you know, too much depth. We've said
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: this before. Nobody looks at a fifty three man roster
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: and says, oh, man, I we are in trouble. We
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: just have too much depth. Nobody, Nobody says that, never
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: said in the history of any type of competitive it.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: So I I just I think that is just a
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: hugely promising development that people probably weren't counting on. An OTAs,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: it seems to me that Dale and Everett has come
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: along quickly. I think the feeling by a lot of
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: draft knicks when he was selected. I haven't heard from
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: the Steelers about this, but the draft Knicks were saying, well,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: you know, good athletes is going to be a bit
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: of a project. Maybe it looks like he's coming along quickly.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I just think that that is such a such a
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: huge positive for the Steelers to see Samuel come out
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: like that under the lights and play. And I know
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: it's just a few snaps, I get it, but hey,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: it's listen, we're watching games. We got games to talk
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: about now.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: It's competitive, competitive environment. So on defense, Max, he was
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: my number one guy.
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, and listen, I think it's I think that's
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: a great choice with the Sante Samuel, Like you said,
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: I thought he did some really really nice things.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: Robert Spears Jennings.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Yep, got him down my list as well. And Everett
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: and Robert Spears Jennings are both on my list. Yeah,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: and Spears Jennings I think is really interesting and I
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: want you to dive into him a little bit. Everett,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: we just mentioned five veterans, five veterans ahead him on
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: the depth chart, right, So the expectation is, okay, maybe
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: some special teams or you know, play a little bit
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: you're able to hopefully again if things don't get too
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: dire on the injury front, you're able to bring him
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: along at a pace that you're comfortable with and that
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: he's comfortable with. Robert Spiars Jennings may have to play
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: at safety. Yeah, yeah, and then that's a little bit
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: different deal number two.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: I mean he's number two off the bench, right, I mean,
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: you know he's gonna and he's gonna play either side safety.
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: So you're talking about the third and fourth safety. Because
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: we didn't have that question, right, we we didn't know
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: who it was gonna be. We brought into veterans to
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: come play at the safety position, and so it was like,
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: well Spears, Jennings, you know, Sebastian castro is he mcuamo.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: What was the other one? Jack Henderson? Jack Henderson. So
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: we were like, okay, you know, how's this rotation gonna work?
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: Especially when Echo, I mean, Elliott and Brisker were both
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: you know, marked down as not playing.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh, boy, you know who's gonna get
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: beat deep, who's gonna get hit on the double move?
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: No double moves were initiated that they got beat on.
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: They kept everything in front of them, and Robert Spears
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: did it. Boy can hit In the alley support run game,
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: he was down quick, fastened, in a hurry and playing.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: At the line of scrimmage. So it was good to
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: see that, Like, what's the reaction, what's the trigger? We
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: were worried about tackling. Now, tackling was a little sloppy
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: early on, but nobody.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: Like really broke a tackle on them, like I mean,
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think about maybe a handful of plays
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: where guys kind of got drug and eventually took him
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: down and then somebody came and supported, but.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: Nobody busted a tackle. Nobody busted in the open field
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: when making a play. Everything was corralled swarm tackling. Everybody
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: was on their job, and I thought that was a
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: very good sign. I enjoyed seeing that, and also showed
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: clean communication.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Like there was no confusion snap you know, like that
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: that's part of the whole pre snap thing we're talking
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: about that you want clean and not pointing around, and
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: you know, too often we've seen guys wide open against
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: his teethers and getting beat deep in the lack of
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: communication by the way, pointing, yeah, finger pointing, it's exactly
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: right by the way, and I'm pointing my finger, you know,
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Max Here, I thought Rayshawn Jenkins.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: You know, I played really well.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought I thought he'd played well, so so
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: I don't want to skate by him because I think
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: he's sort of the veteran. You know, we get excited
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: about the young guys, but Rayeon Jenkins is a new guy,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: and I thought he came up aggressively fast.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Run here another one as well.
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: Like both of both Jenkins and Robert Spears, Jenning played
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: the alley support role of the safety in the run game,
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: especially outside zone run game exceptionally well. I mean when
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: we look at this the Packers, I mean rushing twenty
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: four rushing attempts for sixty three yards at two point
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: six yards that carry the longest run nine yards, and
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: that was that was Pierre Strong, the veteran guy. We've
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: seen Pierre Strong played in Cleveland.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: So we know he's a really good but that's all
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: he got.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: I mean, he got three rushes for nine yards and
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: the longest was a nine yard rush, So he had
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: two zero yard rushes like stopped at the line.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: So that's a hell of a sheet. That's a hell
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: of a sheet preseason or not that that's a good
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: day right there, And it was because of those guys
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: playing in the alley role positions, because that's usually where.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: You make your hay kind of tiptoe down the sidelines,
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: get some extra yardage, or you give a juke move.
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: So I thought the rally style tackling and the ability
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: to keep things in front of him and not get
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: busted was awesome.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: One other, No, you know, let's take a break because
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: we're get up against it and there's a defensive lineman
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: that I thought made some interesting statements out there, and
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: an outside linebacker who I thought made some interesting statements.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: We're gonna get to that, and we continue in the
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: locker room here on this steer, there's audio network.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Is live coverage up dot twenty twenty six Steelers Training
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Easy to drink, easy to enjoy, and brought.
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  Speaker 3: To you in part by your neighborhood.
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• 31:40
  Speaker 3: And welcome back inside the locker room, breaking down what
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: we saw on Friday night? What is today? Thursday night, Thursday,
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: Saturday night? You know what day it is? Max? Sorry.
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: The reason why is because I will be giving a
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: shout out tomorrow to my youngest daughter for her birthday.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: Oh quincinnight, Yeah, Quinny's turning twelve. Wow, So yeah, happy birthday.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: Since I can't be there, I'm like, I got I
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: got to talk up my girl on the air waves. Yep.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: An avid reader. Yes, reader, she already knows that Sandina's propheb.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: That's right. She like home, that's right, the new that's
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: rare book. Remember that's the deer book. That's right. To
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: drop everything and read books. So yeah, which is a
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: great thing. Drop everything and read is a great idea
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: in life. We should all do it.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah and uh yes, so Quincy twelve years old, a
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: purveyor of fine books.
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, and even mine? Yeah, exactly, yours.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Yours is a part of the fire my fantasy folks,
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Come on, get out there and read them.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: So yeah, at the door in the stone and she's
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: getting Sandina's prophecy on the way, Happy Birthday, Quincy, enjoy
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: being eleven, it gets it gets eleven.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: Eleven's good, eleven is good, twelve's good. But she's full
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: on tween now. Okay, Oh that's right, that's right, that's
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: exactly tween ager. And uh, I mean she texted me earlier.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: She's like, Dad, I gotta work on my change up.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: You know because softball, Oh okay, softball season is upon
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: us and Dad is the designated catcher at home and
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: at practice. So she was like, Dad, I gotta work
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: on my my change up. I'm like, okay, all right.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: I was like, why did I? Why did I? Why
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: did I go to play it against sports and traded
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: my my knee guards? Oh? What am I doing? Yeah?
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: But that's okay. I mean they make shint guards big
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: enough for you, No, they don't. But they're closed. I
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: mean they're actually pretty close. We're actually pretty good.
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: They get and because they had that little extra you
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: know how now they had they used to just have
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: just the knee protect the reteliprotect. Now they got that
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: little like kind of quarter size when it's on top,
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: so I can use that to cover the top of
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: the knee, and I don't worry about the feet as much.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: So the feet are a little bit higher on that.
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: I just I just need my shin. Yes, yes, she throws.
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: She throws about fifty four miles an hour. Yeah, that
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: ball is like a grapefruit, like a frozen grapefruit coming
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: at you. So if you miss, and I'm left handed
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: as a catcher, I'm.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: Like, oh my god, right with a right handed pitcher. Yeah, yeah,
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: you don't want that, no, Okay.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: So you know, going into the game, I heard that
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: the pregame guys were talking about the roster and you
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: know how many guys, how many actual roster spots they
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: thought were up for grabs. Frankly, I understand the game.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: I've played the game myself. I do think there is
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: there's just some uncertainty with the new coachings have. We
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: don't know what they're going to do. So the guys
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: are talking they thought that five guys.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: In the D line were a lock, and I you know,
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: it's Harmon Benton.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: We're going to be talking about him, Cam Heyward, Ya
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Black and Sebastian Joseph k those are locks, right, And
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: if you're you're probably gonna keep six. So, uh, you
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: know the name Assesea told me woe who came in
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: and did a really nice job for the Steelers last
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: year was mentioned.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: We know Logan Lee is injured.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: Uh you have Lowry the veteran right who's who got
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: an unfortunate penalty and special teams. Yeah, but maybe some
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: room for somebody to grab a job Loganly as we
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: know he is injured right now, he's on IR So
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: that actually, so you're looking for somebody to or somebody's
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: looking at that, and you know if you're Kevin Jobidi
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: or Anthony Goodlow or Gabe Rubio or or Kyler Ball.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: I thought both those guys, but I thought Rubio so
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Ball played toward the end of the game, and I
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: think what you're looking for if you're Kyler Ball is
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: and let's start with him, though, is okay? I played
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: well here, move me up, let me play, I play.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: I played against the threes. Let me move up against
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: the two's and maybe eventually the ones. Let me show
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: you what I can do. And then if you're gay Rubio,
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: you know Gabe was in there earlier and I thought
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: made his presence felt. So those were two guys max
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: to me on the defensive line, where I was like, hmm, okay,
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: they're they're saying game on, let's go.
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit of fight there with those guys.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: And and you know, I liked it because Gabe Rubio
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: did the work. We know. He also was in on
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: a lot of tackles.
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, he was in up the field on passing plays,
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: he was in the backfield forcing flow to a different direction,
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: stopping cut off blocks.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: But he just he did the work. He did the work.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: Not all of us going to show up on this
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: stat sheet that we got here, but he was just active.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: He was active. He was rushing the passer. And that's
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: the biggest thing when you're looking at a nose guard position,
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: because he kind of played it that kind of nose
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: interior position.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: Be disruptive, Be disruptive, big body chaos, that's what you
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: need to do, and then you need to have an
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: inline pass rush. Those are kind of the things you're
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: looking for in your nose tackle position. And I felt
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: like he gave you everything in all those categories and
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: showed them at certain points in the game that you
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: can actually go show tangible film against. And it's more
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: apples apples, because these are either you know, young guys, rookies,
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: guys trying to make the team. He's writ in that
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: same category. So he stood out right, you know he was.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: He was the shine. He was the shiniest pirite in
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: the pile. You know, his fools gold right now. Uh So,
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: But like you said, you want to see what the
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: next what the next iteration comes with? Yeah, geology classes.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: I can't do counting, but I could do everything else
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: around it. Good stuff.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: So I again, and it'll be interesting. I don't want
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: to put, you know, get too far down the line.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: But if you're thinking about roster construction and what guys
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: can play, it's clear that it you know, it appears
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: that they value somebody at that nose tackle position. Why
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: a Black is playing there? But you know the thing
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: that you know also is that Sebastian Joseph Day can
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: play there. We've talked about him, what a good teammate
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: he is. He's a good football player. He's a real
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: addition to that defensive line. This isn't you know, no
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: no offense. The guys in the path, you know, you
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: sign a quality. He'd started for a year in New England,
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: because of injuries, and I thought he did a solid
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: job when he was here. But Sebastian Joseph Day has
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: been around. He can play multiple positions. I think that's
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: an upgrade. Another eGain we talked last You know why
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: am I excited about this roster? We talked last segment
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: about I think there's five corners. There's five good corners
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: on this team. Who has that well, Sebastian Joseph Day.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: I mean that gives you five good defensive lineman guys
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: you feel good about, probably better than good about.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: You just signed one of them to a huge contract extension.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one is coming off a Pro Bowl year in
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: which and he's probably going to the Hall of Fame
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: at some point.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: You know. The other guy's a first round pick. You know.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Now you bring a veteran guy in in Sebastian Joseph
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Day to add to that mix. It's a good, solid mix.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: But you know, again, he can play both positions. So
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: what are they looking for and who do they think?
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: It may be a situation where hey, who do we
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: think we can slide on the practice roster? You know, yeah,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: that may come, that may come into play as well,
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: But I think it was heartening to know that it's
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: game on.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: In the defensive line, it is game on.
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: And also one of the things like watching the game,
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: there's a lot of eleven personnel in the first half,
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: so they didn't lend you to a traditional three four,
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: a lot of nickel four to two in the first
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: half of that game because of the three wide receiver
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: sets offensively the Packers were bringing out.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: And then in the second half.
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: That's when you saw more three four because they were
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: playing twelve with two tight ends. So you've got a
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: good mix to see who could do base, who could
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: do sub, who can play the three in a sub,
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: who can play the nose in the sub package, and
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: then also allows guys to play their base personnel position group.
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: So I thought that was also a really good thing
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: to see the versatility where guys had to adjust on
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: the fly and can a nose be a D tackle
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: and can a D tackle be a nose because that's
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: another thing that goes into that metric. When you're finding
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: the five or six guys, you want to see who
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: plays into that properly? How do we get those different
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: guys on the field. When Mike McCarthy talks about I
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: don't want to have to think about the personnel this's
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: and I just wanted to be able to react accordingly.
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: It's a good problem to have if you have three
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: capable guys and you had to pull one of them
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: out that can't all play it, versus saying I have
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: to take this guy out, right, the Casey Hampton effect
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: where we don't play a position grouping to where see
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: Hampton gets on the field, right, Like, those are those
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: type of situations that you love to see. So it's
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: good to see the versatility and them adjust.
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: On the fly. You know.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: I always wondered, and the defensive coordinator at the at
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: the time that Casey was playing pretty good.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he's in the Hall of Fame, right, yeah, I.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: Mean he is picket is he in as a as
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: a defensive backers in as a as a defensive coordinator?
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: But I always wondered what would have happened so they didn't?
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: You know, they had two very fine inside linebackers, Larry Foot,
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: James Ferrier, very fine. Patrick Queen's a little different than
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: those guys to be a little speedier. I wonder, could
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: you play and I don't see this and maybe teams
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: do this could you play a fifty front so you
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: know you don't want to take you clearly don't want
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: to take t J. Watt and high Smith or Herbig
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: off the field. In fact, you want them on the field.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: You want to find a way to get all three
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: guys on the field. But could you think about because
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: you have two rangey, fast linebackers playing a nickel, that
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: instead of having the traditional four to two, was a
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: you know, and and I'm counting the outside linebackers.
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: As part of the four.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, where you had a a fifty one, you had
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: a five to one, so you kept the nose tackling there.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: You took a linebacker off the field.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Because both Queen and Peyton Wilson are so fast, so
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: sidelined the sideline, and because Jalen Ramsey is a force
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: at that nickel or is today's NFL just you just
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: can't do that.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: I think I think it's position matchup. I think certain
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: teams you can And I would have loved I bring
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: that up less about now.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I used to think, you know, they take Casey
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: off the field, But I'm like, man, I think Casey
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: could I think Casey could come up with some sacks
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: if you left him out there, he was disrupt and
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: not only that, you can't move quarterbacks cannot stand pressure
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: in their face, can't stand it.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: It blows up the entire play.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: And I always saw man Casey Hampton, if you left
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: him in there, gonna be some unhappy quarterback.
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: And I think, I think if you didn't have faster
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: wide receivers and scatbacks and guys moving because because the
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: problem is you get into a three receiver set where
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: this would initiate the nickel, but then you detach the
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: tight end a' lah New England, and now it's a
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: four wide and now you're asking Casey to line shift
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: and then now they're outside linebackers now stuck having to
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: be the additional slot guy.
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: That's right, and you can't pull. There's reasons again, there's
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: reasons against it.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so there's reasons against why you can't do it,
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: and especially back then, right because I you know, do
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: I want to see Joey Porter jumping into coverage like
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: trying to trying to take trying to take a tight
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: end off the ball when he has space and you're
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: in his own structure and you might have a saw
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: dog blitz where you need to send him.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: But now you can't send him because you've got to
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: now drop in the covery. You gotta tell everybody on
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: the back half how to react. So I think that's
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: why you didn't get into having a nose in there
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: like a Casey, because it's the other personnel that gets
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: affected by not having that additional backer out there.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: And these are the decisions that a that a coach
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: and a coaching staff at defensive coordinator have to make.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: I did want to, but I thought Rubio was really good.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: But you can do it better with this crew.
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, maybe, yeah, that's right. Maybe there is a
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: possibility to change it, just to change it like against
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: Atlanta and if you dropped the herbing coverage or TJ.
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: Watten coverage. We've seen t J.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: Watt set balls dropping in. I see so many different looks,
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: you know. We saw one rush where I think the
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: Tuds did have They had five guys lined up and
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: rushed too and dropped the defensive lineman, dropped the d tackle,
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: dropped both defensive tackle back. That didn't work, as I recall,
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: but it's still there's gonna be a lot of interesting looks.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: So Kyler Ball and I thought later in the game,
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: really he did himself no harm by the way he played.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: I thought jam and David was really noticeable throughout the game.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: And again, you know, if he was your first round pick,
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: you might look at it differently, but he was. He's
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: a he's a first round pick. This guy's got some pedigree.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: He's been a starter and a player in the NFL.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: You know, he's I think he played some inside, maybe
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: with the Commanders, or maybe he played maybe he was
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: in college and they projected him outside.
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: Regardless, Yeah, Kentucky he is. He was quite good, I thought.
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: And again, is.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: There a battle for an outside linebacker position? Can he
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: make a case to be on this roster? I think
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: he certainly put his hand up said hey.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: Pick me, opened the door.
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know, I think when you find guys,
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: and some guys take a little bit of time to
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: season and get into that. I think another example of
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: a guy who kind of flashed, you know, because he
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: was playing the right position Hassan Reddick. Remember Hassan Redick
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: yep from Temple went to the Cardinals. They tried to
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: make him an inside backer. I was like, dude, all
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: this dude did was run and rush the passer, and
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: he was very good at That's why he drafted him
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: in the first round. But you draft him and then
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: you're like, Okay, I need you to cover, I need
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: you to be a box guy.
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: I need you to be a rush and disrupt guy.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: And the value wasn't there as a first round But
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: then he goes to Philly hair on fire right, absolutely
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: destroys as a sack master.
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: You're like, oh, this is the guy, and it's like, oh, well,
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: he's close to you know, college Town went to Temple
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: like no, no, no, no, they went down to Carolina
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: did the same exact thing. So sometimes you have to
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: find your groove and teams have to figure out the
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: proper way of utilizing you to where you feel most comfortable,
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: to where you can play and react versus thinking. And
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: that's the difference and sometimes it takes it. But like
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: you said, for a former first round pick, play some inside.
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: Now he's back on the outside. Even though we do
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: have our four right with Jack Sawyer, last year's draft pick,
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: along with the three dollar men as I like to
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: call him, you know, t Jay high Smith and her
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: big all making bank and paid.
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: You know, do you fit in there? How do you
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: fit into that? I mean, are you just a challenger?
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: Are you a guy that you know it's like, hey,
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: maybe we can sneak you onto that practice squad or
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: do you really compete with Jack Sawrier for that time?
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: But he definitely gave himself every opportunity to be successful.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Maxi's are such good problems to have, Yes, when you're
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: going down into the roster and there's going to be
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: battles for I mean, I think a lot of teams
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: they get to forty six forty seven and they're thinking, well,
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: I got a hoper here and this guy and they're
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: they're just trying to fill out the roster. And the
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: Steelers have real battles going on throughout the depth of
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: this roster. So it's fun stuff. We have not touched
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: the offense, we have not touched the contract extension, we
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: have not trust touched the old friend coming back and
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: competing for a spot himself. We're going to get to
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: all that when we continue in the locker room here
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: on the Steelers Audio Network.