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HR1: Live from Training Camp 2026 Day 2 · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

0:01
Speaker 1: This is live coverage of the twenty twenty six Steelers
0:05
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0:46
Speaker 1: build it.
0:54
Speaker 2: And thank you very much for being with us in
0:56
Speaker 2: the locker room in Latrobe, high above the field that
1:00
Speaker 2: the players are completing practice, and we were just talking
1:03
Speaker 2: ed troops here on the headsets along with Max Starks
1:05
Speaker 2: on Rob King, we were talking about all the post
1:08
Speaker 2: practice stuff that happens, and because that's what we're seeing
1:11
Speaker 2: right now, just so people know and thank you, we
1:13
Speaker 2: have a lot to get to, a lot to cover.
1:14
Speaker 2: We're not going to be talking about post practice stuff
1:17
Speaker 2: the entire show, but we're watching it now, so we're
1:19
Speaker 2: seeing the guys on the far into the field and
1:22
Speaker 2: and a lot of fans will go and see that,
1:24
Speaker 2: like because this is easy to see and understand. We're
1:27
Speaker 2: watching the jugs machines, guys catching footballs then putting them
1:30
Speaker 2: in the garbage cans, and the garbage cans come out
1:32
Speaker 2: when they're full, and they're brought back to the Judgs
1:35
Speaker 2: machine and guys are waiting for their turn. Then down
1:38
Speaker 2: here below us, we have a couple of offensive linemen
1:41
Speaker 2: working on some drills. On the far field, we see
1:45
Speaker 2: guys running gashers. And that was one of the questions
1:47
Speaker 2: that we were talking about with Ed Troup here before
1:50
Speaker 2: the show began, Max, was that you said, you guys
1:53
Speaker 2: used to do that along the offensive line, And I
1:54
Speaker 2: asked you, did the coaches ask you to do that
1:56
Speaker 2: or do you guys do that on your own?
1:58
Speaker 3: Now, we did that on our own. You know, leadership
2:01
Speaker 3: dictated that. So when I was a young guy, it
2:04
Speaker 3: was Marvel Smith, Alan Fanica, they kind of led that,
2:08
Speaker 3: and you kind of, you know, as a young guys,
2:09
Speaker 3: a rookie and a young guy, you follow what the
2:11
Speaker 3: veterans do because, like shoot, I need to do whatever
2:13
Speaker 3: they're doing because they've stayed around and I need to
2:15
Speaker 3: figure out how to stay around. So you just kind
2:17
Speaker 3: of did it, and then as you got older, it
2:19
Speaker 3: just became habit. So then you brought the young guys along, right,
2:22
Speaker 3: you know, I saw when Willie Cologne came in as
2:24
Speaker 3: a rookie, when Darnell Stapleton came in as a rookie.
2:27
Speaker 3: Then they would just follow what us quote unquote veteran
2:30
Speaker 3: guys or Vesta guys were doing, and it just kind
2:32
Speaker 3: of perpetuated. And that was just kind of how our
2:35
Speaker 3: system ran for the nine years I was here. You
2:37
Speaker 3: just ran your half gassers after practice when it wasn't
2:40
Speaker 3: mandatory because sometimes Cower my first year, Cower mandated that
2:44
Speaker 3: we ran after practice. Not the same thing, you know
2:47
Speaker 3: as Tomlin got in. So it was something that we
2:50
Speaker 3: just kind of got into it. Because the conditioning aspect
2:52
Speaker 3: for an offense, like we don't get packages and come
2:55
Speaker 3: in and off the field. The only way you come
2:56
Speaker 3: off the field is if you're injured, So you need
2:59
Speaker 3: to be in great condition to be able to handle
3:01
Speaker 3: all the snaps of the game. And so it's just
3:03
Speaker 3: kind of kind of how we just operated and watching
3:06
Speaker 3: it out here, this is not a departure from that.
3:08
Speaker 3: You know, offensive lineman working hand drills. One on one
3:11
Speaker 3: we see Ian Achure, Troy Fatanu, and Dylan Cook working
3:15
Speaker 3: through hand drills in the pass pro situation. Other guys
3:18
Speaker 3: talking it through. And then you know, for the receivers,
3:21
Speaker 3: you got everybody working jugs and it's wide receivers and
3:24
Speaker 3: running backs over there working the jugs. D linemen are
3:27
Speaker 3: running their gassers over there, some linebackers as well.
3:30
Speaker 2: But the extra work.
3:32
Speaker 3: No other place because you only got it one to day.
3:34
Speaker 3: It's not like two days back of the day. Like
3:35
Speaker 3: two days back of the day. You're like, man, this
3:37
Speaker 3: is trudging trying to get that extra work. But you
3:40
Speaker 3: know you had to do it one Today's they're free.
3:42
Speaker 3: It's not even one ten pm and they have no
3:45
Speaker 3: more physicality in practice. For the rest of the day.
3:49
Speaker 3: You are shut down. You might have a walk through
3:51
Speaker 3: later on this evening, but that's it.
3:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and you're right, those double sessions. I'm
3:55
Speaker 2: sure your legs feel like you're running on sand.
3:57
Speaker 3: Oh, it's like concrete blocks. When you put your clats
4:00
Speaker 3: on and you're just like, oh my god, Frankenstein out
4:03
Speaker 3: there by the end of it, and you dropped like
4:05
Speaker 3: seven pounds of sweat trying not to cramp up.
4:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, not sure. If you're not sure, if you're sore,
4:10
Speaker 2: or maybe you pull the muscle.
4:12
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no, no, you're just like Okay, I still
4:14
Speaker 3: have a pulse. I know I'm technically alive. I just
4:17
Speaker 3: don't know how alive I am, you know.
4:19
Speaker 2: So I love this And I'm watching Max of Honachar
4:23
Speaker 2: Now he's talking with Troy Foutanu, and Troy Troy is like,
4:26
Speaker 2: you know, telling talking about different things and having a discussion.
4:29
Speaker 2: Here it looks like Mason McCormick is wont is that
4:31
Speaker 2: Mason McCormick has wanted over somebody's wanted over to be
4:34
Speaker 2: part of that discussion. I can't see from here, off.
4:37
Speaker 3: I think that's I think that's uh, Bryce Hoffman might be.
4:41
Speaker 3: I think that's Hoffman. Yeah, because McCollum, there's Jennings over there. Yeah.
4:47
Speaker 2: So the point being, like we talked about this tailing
4:51
Speaker 2: to practice yesterday, you want to be a good teammate,
4:54
Speaker 2: and sometimes being that good teammate is passing on information
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Speaker 2: to a guy who kind of wants your job, you know.
5:02
Speaker 2: So there's Dylan Cook right pencil. Dean right now is
5:05
Speaker 2: the starting right tackle. There's the first round pick, Maxahna
5:08
Speaker 2: short pencil. Din is the right tackle of the future,
5:11
Speaker 2: right and they're having a discussion and Dylan Cook is
5:14
Speaker 2: talking to him about, you know, about different things and
5:18
Speaker 2: where to place your hands and that sort of things,
5:20
Speaker 2: and how to make sure somebody doesn't get by that
5:22
Speaker 2: right hip and get to the passer. And there's Dylan
5:25
Speaker 2: Cook passing, you know, being a great team in and
5:27
Speaker 2: passing along that information to a guy who clearly wants
5:30
Speaker 2: to be the.
5:30
Speaker 3: Starting right tackle. That's why he's here. Yeah, that's why
5:33
Speaker 3: he came here. And honestly, I mean, he wants to
5:36
Speaker 3: be the starting offensive line. He wants to be in
5:38
Speaker 3: that top five right, I mean, and however you can
5:40
Speaker 3: get it as how you get it. And you know,
5:43
Speaker 3: when you have a right tackle on a right guard,
5:45
Speaker 3: seemingly that's the open position battle right now. Because I
5:49
Speaker 3: think for all intents and purposes, what we've seen so
5:51
Speaker 3: far in camp and what we saw at the end
5:53
Speaker 3: of OTA's Troy Fatano had left along with Mason McCormick
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Speaker 3: had left guard, so Garden tackles kind of square away
6:00
Speaker 3: and Zach so that left side center on is taking
6:03
Speaker 3: care of. The question is what's the right combination on
6:06
Speaker 3: the right side, So however you can get in there,
6:09
Speaker 3: you know, Maxi Onoture wants to crack that however it can,
6:12
Speaker 3: whether it is at guard maybe, and if it is
6:14
Speaker 3: Dylan Cook at tackle, or is it Broderck Jones at
6:17
Speaker 3: tackle and Ionotur at guard or Eature at tackle and
6:20
Speaker 3: Hoffman you know, Yah works his way into it or
6:23
Speaker 3: dunk Er like Spencer Anderson obviously is a leading candidate
6:27
Speaker 3: because of what he's done so far, but you know
6:29
Speaker 3: he also has five position flex So that's a heck
6:32
Speaker 3: of a guy to have as your swing interior offensive lineman,
6:36
Speaker 3: let alone outside offensive line. And then you put a
6:38
Speaker 3: swing tackle out there. That's your top seven that you
6:40
Speaker 3: want to go into game day with. So it's gonna
6:42
Speaker 3: be fun to watch how they move them around. Because
6:44
Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy has talked about it on multiple occasions that
6:48
Speaker 3: don't focus on the top five, focus on the top
6:50
Speaker 3: two to three combinations that we can set out there,
6:53
Speaker 3: and that's what you're going to see throughout camp. So
6:55
Speaker 3: it's fun to see all these guys kind of meandering
6:58
Speaker 3: around and talking with each other.
6:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, Kaufman's is a is a really interesting guy because
7:02
Speaker 2: he can play center and guard. You know, it's not
7:06
Speaker 2: hard to get to ten easily on this offensive line.
7:10
Speaker 2: And I don't think you're going to carry ten. You know,
7:12
Speaker 2: I don't see you. I don't see an active roster. No,
7:14
Speaker 2: I don't see you getting ten on the fifty three
7:16
Speaker 2: man roster. And it's a ten deep offensive line group
7:19
Speaker 2: as far as I'm concerned. And you know, it's uh,
7:23
Speaker 2: everyone's going to be focused on two things. One of
7:26
Speaker 2: course the backup quarterback position, right, and who is going
7:29
Speaker 2: to have the inside track to perhaps become the successor
7:34
Speaker 2: to Aaron Rodgers was It was really an interesting give
7:37
Speaker 2: and take. So Aaron Rodgers came out and said, look,
7:39
Speaker 2: this is my last year, you know, and then DK
7:42
Speaker 2: Metcalf the day before practice has started on Tuesday, said hey,
7:47
Speaker 2: never say never, he might be back for an every year.
7:51
Speaker 2: And then Aaron Rodgers said, no, it's it's never on.
7:53
Speaker 2: This is my my last year come back, so you
7:55
Speaker 2: never know.
7:56
Speaker 3: But it's almost like Mike Townley that never say never,
7:58
Speaker 3: but never.
7:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, so it'll be. And by the way, Ahna
8:04
Speaker 2: Tcharus is still down here and still having conversations and
8:06
Speaker 2: still talking about technique issues, you know, so I think, yes,
8:12
Speaker 2: that's an interesting battle. Who's going to be the third
8:15
Speaker 2: and fourth wide receivers? That's an interesting battle. You know,
8:19
Speaker 2: Caleb Johnson trying to make a name for himself and
8:22
Speaker 2: what looks to be a crowded backfield. That's an interesting battle.
8:25
Speaker 2: But that's because those are positions where those guys touch
8:29
Speaker 2: the ball, you know, quarterback all the time, wide receiver frequently,
8:33
Speaker 2: running back frequently. But I have to tell you I
8:36
Speaker 2: am fascinated by what this Deders will do on this
8:39
Speaker 2: offensive line because it is clear again just to reiterate Max,
8:45
Speaker 2: you know, people, hey we signed you know what do
8:48
Speaker 2: you what do you guys think about this free agent? Well,
8:49
Speaker 2: we gave him eight hundred million dollars, so we like them.
8:53
Speaker 2: You know what do you think about this? What we
8:54
Speaker 2: took them in the first round, so we like them.
8:57
Speaker 2: You know, follow what a team does to know what
9:00
Speaker 2: a team thinks about a guy. Well, what the Steelers
9:04
Speaker 2: have done in the offensive line makes it obvious that
9:07
Speaker 2: the offensive line is important. You have three tackles that
9:10
Speaker 2: were selected in the first round in the last four years, right,
9:13
Speaker 2: a free agent in Hoffman that you got, and a
9:16
Speaker 2: second round center in Zach Frasier. So it's clear that
9:20
Speaker 2: the offensive line is important to the Steelers just by
9:23
Speaker 2: their actions, and that makes it important to me because
9:26
Speaker 2: I want to see it be an excellent group. I
9:28
Speaker 2: want to see a group that excels. And again, when
9:31
Speaker 2: you think about you know they always talk about a quarterback.
9:35
Speaker 2: A great quarterback can be the ultimate eraser, right, you
9:38
Speaker 2: can erase mistakes when offensive line can do that in
9:41
Speaker 2: a lot of ways too, when you're buying that quarterback time,
9:43
Speaker 2: when you're opening up holes for a running back, I mean,
9:46
Speaker 2: you can make you know, an average running back look
9:49
Speaker 2: like a really good running back. You can make an
9:51
Speaker 2: average quarterback look like a good quarterback if you give
9:53
Speaker 2: them extra time to throw. So it's a vitally important
9:57
Speaker 2: unit on a team. And the Steelers have invested in
9:59
Speaker 2: that unit.
10:00
Speaker 3: And I'm glad that we have now brainwashed you, as
10:02
Speaker 3: a former quarterback, into believing the intricacies of truths of
10:06
Speaker 3: line play. You know, no, I'm just saying, you know,
10:09
Speaker 3: you know you had you had wolf and now you
10:10
Speaker 3: have me. So you've gotten the inundation and the nuances
10:14
Speaker 3: of offensive line play, and now you are. You are
10:16
Speaker 3: pontificating about these finer points to the general audience, and
10:20
Speaker 3: I don't have to nudge you. I don't even have
10:22
Speaker 3: to nudge you. So I am appreciative of that. But
10:24
Speaker 3: you're absolutely right. I mean, this is the if we
10:27
Speaker 3: if we say, hey, which group has the biggest opportunity
10:30
Speaker 3: to jump this year? I think you have to look
10:32
Speaker 3: at the offensive line right because of the resources that
10:34
Speaker 3: have been dedicated to it and the opportunities that they're
10:37
Speaker 3: going to have to be on display. You have a
10:39
Speaker 3: veteran quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, you have another running back
10:44
Speaker 3: now in the backfield that you get to work with,
10:46
Speaker 3: and a lot of wide receiver tools. So you're gonna
10:47
Speaker 3: need time and space. What does an offensive line have
10:51
Speaker 3: to do? Create time and create space for everybody else
10:54
Speaker 3: to succeed. So you're absolutely right. And I'm really excited
10:57
Speaker 3: about this group because, like you said, I think they'll
10:58
Speaker 3: carry eight on the active roster and then you'll get
11:01
Speaker 3: two to three on the practice squad. That's how it's
11:04
Speaker 3: gonna break down. But you always have to carry at
11:06
Speaker 3: least eight on the active roster to get there, and
11:09
Speaker 3: it's gonna be tough.
11:10
Speaker 2: I don't know how you don't carry nine max for
11:11
Speaker 2: this crew. I just don't.
11:12
Speaker 3: I don't. Oh, it's gonna be tough.
11:14
Speaker 2: I don't know how they gonna be tough on how
11:15
Speaker 2: they can do eight. I just don't know how they
11:16
Speaker 2: can do it unless they make a trade.
11:17
Speaker 3: But you have to do twenty five and twenty five.
11:19
Speaker 3: I know, I know because we've always broken down, like
11:23
Speaker 3: how do you get to your fifty three? It's twenty
11:24
Speaker 3: five offensive players, twenty five defensive players, and then three specialists.
11:29
Speaker 3: And it is tough because you also have to think
11:31
Speaker 3: this wide receiver battle is gonna be tough and you're
11:34
Speaker 3: gonna want to carry five, but you probably have six
11:37
Speaker 3: on this roster that you could keep tight ends as well.
11:40
Speaker 3: How are you gonna disseminate that? We know Darnel Washington,
11:42
Speaker 3: Pat Fryer, Muer there, but you're gonna need a third
11:44
Speaker 3: tight end, Like you start to play the numbers, and
11:46
Speaker 3: the numbers game is tough. It is, yeah, it is.
11:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, here's the other thing too, and you know, like
11:52
Speaker 2: we you know, are they who are they gonna keep
11:53
Speaker 2: for special teams? And you know, when I look at
11:55
Speaker 2: this roster, I would think poy that more well rounded
11:58
Speaker 2: you can possibly be the better. I mean it's always
12:01
Speaker 2: the case, but boy, if you thought you were a
12:06
Speaker 2: special team sort of only kind of guy, I don't know.
12:09
Speaker 2: If they're not much room, it feels like you better
12:14
Speaker 2: be able to do some other things. And again that
12:15
Speaker 2: doesn't mean you will do other things. It just means
12:18
Speaker 2: you better be capable of doing other things because I
12:21
Speaker 2: think there are a lot of guys and again we
12:23
Speaker 2: don't know. This goes back to the conversation we were
12:25
Speaker 2: having yesterday and hopefully you're with us. But you know,
12:28
Speaker 2: look a guy like a guy like Connor Hayward, right,
12:32
Speaker 2: really good special teams player, played a variety of different positions.
12:36
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, the talk was always, hey, if
12:38
Speaker 2: we had to get out of a game with with
12:40
Speaker 2: Hayward at running back, like for instance, if everybody got hurt,
12:44
Speaker 2: you know you could you could turn around and hand
12:45
Speaker 2: the ball off to him and feel okay about it. Yeah, Well,
12:48
Speaker 2: is that gonna be enough now? Or are those kind
12:52
Speaker 2: of sort of flexible players gonna be squeezed out just
12:55
Speaker 2: because you have guys that can excel at something as
12:59
Speaker 2: a bad up where you know, think about it, special teams,
13:02
Speaker 2: you're gonna give you know, ten snaps a game. Well,
13:04
Speaker 2: if you have to step in ato backup cornerback position,
13:07
Speaker 2: and now you're you're playing James Fear, yeah you might
13:11
Speaker 2: get Yeah, you might get forty something snaps in a game. Right,
13:14
Speaker 2: So so what's more valuable to a team? Yeah, or
13:16
Speaker 2: you conditioned it enough.
13:17
Speaker 3: And that's why I think you always have to when
13:19
Speaker 3: you think of the core four special teams guys right, kickoff,
13:22
Speaker 3: kickoff return, punt, punt return right, these core four areas.
13:27
Speaker 3: If you're a receiver, if you're a dB, if you're
13:30
Speaker 3: a linebacker, if you're a tight end, if you're a
13:33
Speaker 3: running back, you have to almost have this in your
13:37
Speaker 3: mo right. And I think even if you're a starter,
13:39
Speaker 3: you still need to have that capability to put your
13:43
Speaker 3: hand in the pile. Obviously, offensive linemen, because of the
13:46
Speaker 3: way the new kickoff rule is kind of you. You
13:48
Speaker 3: used to be able to do them. On kickoff return right,
13:49
Speaker 3: you could when we had the wedge right right, you
13:52
Speaker 3: could put a guard or backup guard or backup tackle
13:55
Speaker 3: in there and run the wedge. You can't do that
13:56
Speaker 3: anymore now, so offensive linemen are strictly on field goal,
14:00
Speaker 3: field goal protection teams and extra point team. Maybe you
14:04
Speaker 3: get a guy that can go field goal block, taller
14:08
Speaker 3: guy can probably fit in there. I did that. But yeah,
14:12
Speaker 3: if you're any of those specialty receiver style running back
14:18
Speaker 3: defender that blocks those guys, you have to be able
14:21
Speaker 3: to do it. Like it's just it's a it's a
14:22
Speaker 3: part for the course. If you're Jamel Dean, guess what
14:24
Speaker 3: you need to be me to be Core four special
14:26
Speaker 3: team you're Kaden Legian, you better be you better be
14:29
Speaker 3: a return man, right, or you better be a gunner,
14:32
Speaker 3: you know, in those situations. Roman Wilson even right, as
14:35
Speaker 3: much as we want Roman Wilson to crack that top
14:38
Speaker 3: three and be there with Pittman and DK, he's got
14:40
Speaker 3: to be able to do special teams duties. Like everybody
14:44
Speaker 3: has to have those multi facets because, like you said,
14:45
Speaker 3: there's too much talent here and you need to have
14:47
Speaker 3: a differentiation that separates you from the rest of the crowd.
14:51
Speaker 3: So I think it's gonna be really interesting to see
14:53
Speaker 3: how they do that because, like you said, Connor Hayward
14:56
Speaker 3: core four special teams He was an F, he was
14:59
Speaker 3: an H. He was you know, he was a he
15:02
Speaker 3: was a move guy. He was a tight end like
15:03
Speaker 3: he did. He was a little Swiss army knife, right.
15:06
Speaker 3: And Spencer Anderson same thing, right when you talk about
15:08
Speaker 3: keeping Spenser Anderson around, a guy that didn't start, he
15:10
Speaker 3: could play all five offensive line positions right well, and
15:14
Speaker 3: so that's what you need, you know, to borrow autominism
15:19
Speaker 3: from the past. The more you can do, the harder
15:21
Speaker 3: it is for me to cut you.
15:22
Speaker 2: You know, I do wonder though, I think my point
15:24
Speaker 2: on this team is that, you know, Connor Hayward was
15:30
Speaker 2: a great special teams player who was solid at a
15:33
Speaker 2: number of things, right, and that was valued by the
15:36
Speaker 2: other coaching staff. Maybe this coaching staff values the backup
15:40
Speaker 2: corner who were going to have to turn into that
15:43
Speaker 2: special teams player more than the special teams player who
15:46
Speaker 2: can also.
15:49
Speaker 3: I see what you're saying. I think I just I
15:51
Speaker 3: look at this primary talent that that you can develop
15:54
Speaker 3: a secondary talent exactly.
15:56
Speaker 2: And I think I mean, when I look at this roster,
15:59
Speaker 2: I wonder if just that's the way it's gonna have
16:01
Speaker 2: to be because again, you know, we can talk about
16:05
Speaker 2: like I'm a I'm a believer in star football. I
16:08
Speaker 2: think star football players make everybody around them better, and
16:11
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be It'll be interesting to see
16:14
Speaker 2: if from this bedrock of really good players I thinks
16:18
Speaker 2: have a lot of really good players, are some stars
16:21
Speaker 2: going to emerge? Our guys like Connor or Cameron Hayward
16:24
Speaker 2: still at that star level. I mean, at some point
16:26
Speaker 2: father time catches up, right, But I just think that
16:30
Speaker 2: I just think it's a it's a roster that has
16:33
Speaker 2: just got a lot of really good guys at their
16:36
Speaker 2: jobs and not necessary, you know. And I'm not trying
16:39
Speaker 2: to slough off what special teams means by any means.
16:42
Speaker 2: I'm just saying I wonder if it's gonna be the
16:44
Speaker 2: job first, and then okay, you better be able to
16:46
Speaker 2: play special teams also, where as opposed to you know,
16:48
Speaker 2: a lot of teams leave those core for so, Okay,
16:51
Speaker 2: these are four guys, they're special teams. Guys build the
16:54
Speaker 2: rest of your roster around them. I don't I don't know.
16:57
Speaker 2: I'll be interested to see if they're gonna.
16:59
Speaker 3: Have that, Yeah, I think, And that's what I kind
17:01
Speaker 3: of you know, intimated with Kayden Legion, right, I mean
17:04
Speaker 3: we know he's a special team's product, right, but you know,
17:08
Speaker 3: can he be receiver?
17:09
Speaker 2: Well if he's if he's so good at returning though, right, yeah?
17:13
Speaker 2: Is he just one of one and that takes away three?
17:16
Speaker 2: You know, so if you have core four core, you
17:19
Speaker 2: know the core four guys, right, Yeah, you want guys
17:21
Speaker 2: to be able to do a bunch of different things.
17:23
Speaker 2: Let's say Cayden Legion. We know he's a return man, right,
17:26
Speaker 2: and we know he's gonna make the roster. We don't
17:27
Speaker 2: know if he's really gonna help you on as a receiver.
17:29
Speaker 2: I'm just saying we don't know. Yeah, maybe he will, right,
17:32
Speaker 2: we don't. I'm not trying to, I'm just saying, I'm
17:34
Speaker 2: you know, we're going with what argument's sake. We know
17:36
Speaker 2: he's going to return, and now you're down to three
17:38
Speaker 2: four core guys, and like I said, I don't even
17:41
Speaker 2: know if it's going to be three. I mean I
17:43
Speaker 2: could see them saying, okay, you know Dale and Evertt,
17:47
Speaker 2: you're for example, just throwing a name out there. You're
17:50
Speaker 2: are you're our fourth corner. We really feel if you
17:53
Speaker 2: have to play. We feel pretty good about you getting
17:55
Speaker 2: forty snaps in the game, but you better be able
17:58
Speaker 2: to play special teams too, you.
17:59
Speaker 3: Know, you better be able to handle those ten to
18:00
Speaker 3: twelve snaps. Yeah know, whether you're whether you're an R
18:03
Speaker 3: two on kickoff coverage, whether you're a wing on punt
18:07
Speaker 3: coverage and then punt return, you better be able to
18:10
Speaker 3: get back and be able to seal the edge and
18:11
Speaker 3: then kick return as well.
18:13
Speaker 2: Oh.
18:14
Speaker 3: That that that's what's going to be really interesting to
18:16
Speaker 3: see how they fall into place, because you know, as
18:19
Speaker 3: we kind of just look at this roster, I mean
18:22
Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of great talent, you know,
18:24
Speaker 3: because where does where do you fit in in the
18:28
Speaker 3: running back room? Right? How do you how do you
18:31
Speaker 3: get Eli heyden Reich, right, who's a really good running
18:35
Speaker 3: back at Navy, Right, but he's also gonna have to
18:37
Speaker 3: be a core for especially like you have to be
18:39
Speaker 3: great at everything right to crack behind Jalen Warren and
18:43
Speaker 3: Ricodowdele and you have some other guys on there who's
18:49
Speaker 3: also going to fight, and Travis Homer who's a great
18:51
Speaker 3: special teams player.
18:52
Speaker 2: Yes, so what is going to be valued? You know,
18:54
Speaker 2: I think you could almost. I guess the point is Mactually,
18:57
Speaker 2: first of all, I think the roster is different. I
18:59
Speaker 2: think it's a the deep roster. And secondly, what is
19:02
Speaker 2: this coaching staff value? We don't know that yet, right
19:05
Speaker 2: don't We won't know details?
19:06
Speaker 3: We know they value details, do they ever?
19:09
Speaker 2: And speaking of that, man ohman, do we have some
19:12
Speaker 2: some interesting stuff to get to you with head coach
19:14
Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy, which we are going to when we continue
19:17
Speaker 2: in the locker room here on the Steelers Audio Network.
19:20
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19:25
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20:02
Speaker 2: And Welcome back to La Trobe, where the jugs machines
20:05
Speaker 2: are still up and the players have pretty much walked
20:07
Speaker 2: off the field. Everything's pretty much gone. Guys have gone
20:10
Speaker 2: up to get themselves some lunch. And you can tell
20:13
Speaker 2: because most of the fans are now moving away. There
20:16
Speaker 2: is there are there like one or two guys left,
20:19
Speaker 2: maybe signing some autographs on their way up to the
20:21
Speaker 2: big the big one.
20:22
Speaker 3: One guy left, So we're seeing way more fans than
20:26
Speaker 3: I'm sure to sign.
20:27
Speaker 2: Yes, probably right. We are going to dive into Mike
20:32
Speaker 2: McCarthy and the camp and the pace of this camp,
20:34
Speaker 2: at the pace of these practices in a little bit,
20:37
Speaker 2: but we have we're gonna get some things Mike McCarthy
20:41
Speaker 2: said ready for you. So that's definitely one of the
20:43
Speaker 2: things we want to talk about. I did want to
20:45
Speaker 2: you know, we're trying to cover all the ground yesterday
20:48
Speaker 2: what the Steelers did in the off season, and there's
20:50
Speaker 2: no way you covered in one show. Uh, you know,
20:53
Speaker 2: I hope we can cover three or four shows because
20:56
Speaker 2: it was a very active offseason, as these off seasons
20:58
Speaker 2: always are. I just did want to jump ahead to
21:01
Speaker 2: a couple of things that I think have happened. So
21:06
Speaker 2: the wide receiver position, So first of all, you trade
21:09
Speaker 2: for Michael Pittman, right, and then you draft Jeremy Bernard.
21:14
Speaker 2: But Roman Wilson's a guy that has been There's been
21:17
Speaker 2: a lot of talk about him and a lot of
21:19
Speaker 2: excitement level. It feels like around Roman Wilson just let
21:24
Speaker 2: me just say the word buzz, like sometimes there's something
21:26
Speaker 2: in the air that you just can't quantify. By the way,
21:30
Speaker 2: that was Maxahonator in training camp, like I just felt
21:34
Speaker 2: there was. I walked out of training camp thinking or
21:37
Speaker 2: not training camp, No, no, I'm sorry, the combine. I
21:41
Speaker 2: walked out of the Combine Indianapolis thinking without any ever
21:45
Speaker 2: being able to put a finger on it. And I'm
21:47
Speaker 2: not a scout, just thinking just he'd be a god.
21:50
Speaker 2: I'd love to see this dealers. There's just something in
21:52
Speaker 2: the air, something it's hard to quantify or qualify exactly.
21:56
Speaker 2: I guess qualified be the right word exactly why that is.
21:59
Speaker 2: But Roman Wilson, to me, there just seems to be
22:04
Speaker 2: some kind of unqualifiable buzz about him.
22:08
Speaker 3: Well, I think when you know we're up here in
22:11
Speaker 3: the northeast, right, yeah, Michigan Football, Ohio State pit like
22:17
Speaker 3: we have Penn State, We have all these kind of
22:19
Speaker 3: big ten acc schools, So a lot of that is
22:26
Speaker 3: is in the air from the year and you heard
22:29
Speaker 3: so much about Roman Wilson. They win a national championship,
22:33
Speaker 3: so there's always the question, hmm, what can he do?
22:37
Speaker 3: And then we draft him, it's like, well, I mean,
22:40
Speaker 3: you see what he did in college, so that has
22:42
Speaker 3: to carry over to the NFL, and we didn't really
22:45
Speaker 3: get to see it the first two years. Injury sidelined him.
22:48
Speaker 3: You won year two, doghouse, no doghouse, catch a train,
22:52
Speaker 3: not catch a train, on the train, fell off the train,
22:54
Speaker 3: all this other kind of hyperbole around him, and so
22:58
Speaker 3: you're like, well, when's he gonna get a fair shake?
23:00
Speaker 3: So brand new staff, yep, brand new coaches, brand new system.
23:04
Speaker 3: So it's like, now, is this a shot? We've been
23:07
Speaker 3: hearing his name mentioned at different pulse points. Yes, when
23:11
Speaker 3: are we actually gonna get the true Roman Wilson? I
23:14
Speaker 3: think that's what we're kind of anticipating, right because he
23:17
Speaker 3: wasn't a first round pick, but second round picks are
23:19
Speaker 3: just as valuable, and so you're looking at that and
23:21
Speaker 3: then you get to the third round and third round
23:24
Speaker 3: is like, okay, I need to hit on these top
23:26
Speaker 3: three and you don't want the top three. Just like
23:28
Speaker 3: we talk about Broderick Jones, right, you want to see
23:31
Speaker 3: those day one, Day two picks hit because that's the
23:33
Speaker 3: foundation of your team. That means you're doing a good
23:36
Speaker 3: job drafting year in and year out. If your first
23:38
Speaker 3: second third rounders are hitting, and then everything after that,
23:41
Speaker 3: your Day three guys four through seven are just simply
23:43
Speaker 3: bonuses at on top of that. So he's a key
23:47
Speaker 3: third round pick and a team where we questioned the
23:49
Speaker 3: wide receiver position a year ago, where was the depth
23:52
Speaker 3: who was going to answer the number two? That's where
23:54
Speaker 3: Roman Wilson really came up in conversation and we just
23:57
Speaker 3: never really got to see it in general from the
24:00
Speaker 3: team who's going to be number two on the squad.
24:03
Speaker 3: So now it's like, well, if he's not gonna do
24:05
Speaker 3: it now, if now, then whenever?
24:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think, oh man, there's just a lot
24:10
Speaker 2: of good points there. One of the things that I
24:12
Speaker 2: I try to point out to people is that I
24:16
Speaker 2: think a third round pick is a valuable pick and
24:20
Speaker 2: there's reasons scouts say we're gonna pick this guy. You
24:24
Speaker 2: want stars in round one, upper level players in round two,
24:29
Speaker 2: and at least solid starters in round three, and then
24:32
Speaker 2: beyond that you can talk about where you know. I
24:35
Speaker 2: think most teams would say that where do you know
24:37
Speaker 2: the four, five, six, seven falls? You know, sevens are hopers,
24:41
Speaker 2: but those I think that's I think every team would agree.
24:44
Speaker 2: First round or star, second round, above average starter, third round,
24:48
Speaker 2: good solid NFL starter, so or a contributor, you know,
24:53
Speaker 2: whatever the case.
24:54
Speaker 3: I love a third round. I don't know if you
24:55
Speaker 3: knew that.
24:55
Speaker 2: Oh, I know, Max, start early in the third round
24:57
Speaker 2: two right, yeah, I was well eleventh, yeah, top third,
25:01
Speaker 2: top third of the round. So uh so you know
25:03
Speaker 2: almost the second rounder, Max.
25:05
Speaker 3: I mean once again, when you look at the third rounder,
25:07
Speaker 3: it's usually a guy that slipped that should that should
25:10
Speaker 3: be a first or second round talent that for whatever
25:12
Speaker 3: reason slipped to the third. So you want to take advantage.
25:14
Speaker 3: That's why I think the Steelers I was a fourth
25:18
Speaker 3: tackle taken, so I really don't know they didn't value
25:22
Speaker 3: offensive linement as much back then when I trapped it.
25:25
Speaker 2: You were the fourth tackle taken.
25:27
Speaker 3: Robert Gallery, Vernon Carry and Jacob Rodgers were the only
25:31
Speaker 3: three tackles taken before me, And then you had.
25:33
Speaker 2: Who had the best career of those guys me case
25:37
Speaker 2: you were wondering.
25:39
Speaker 3: Usual league. Yes, those other guys didn't didn't sniff that.
25:42
Speaker 3: Uh so I think I won that. That battle gallery
25:46
Speaker 3: is supposed to be all that too. Remember he was
25:47
Speaker 3: supposed to be next Tony but and then he played.
25:49
Speaker 3: He lasted two series at tackle and the rest of
25:53
Speaker 3: his career the next seven years guard.
25:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had a solid career though.
25:57
Speaker 3: He was solid. Yeah, I mean you know, but he
26:00
Speaker 3: came here week one rookie year. Joey Porter beat him
26:03
Speaker 3: four sack in the first series and they took him
26:05
Speaker 3: out at left tackle and put him to right tackle.
26:07
Speaker 3: Then Clark Haagan's beat him for sack a second series,
26:09
Speaker 3: and then he got pulled out the third series and
26:12
Speaker 3: the fourth series he played left guard and that's where
26:14
Speaker 3: he was. Wow, that's how fast his tackle career was.
26:17
Speaker 3: And I watched it live because Jerry Rice was still
26:20
Speaker 3: the wide receiver for the Raiders. Wow. And I watched.
26:23
Speaker 3: I'm never because I was just like, oh my God,
26:25
Speaker 3: Like Jerry Rice is on the field and I'm watching
26:29
Speaker 3: this live happen. And then I look across him like
26:32
Speaker 3: that's the guy who got drafted number two overall let's
26:34
Speaker 3: see how good he is. Oh, not as good as
26:35
Speaker 3: I thought.
26:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, not that Max had a chip on his shoulder.
26:39
Speaker 3: Never, oh never, not that I still hold that. No, No,
26:42
Speaker 3: that I can recall that immediately.
26:44
Speaker 2: I think the point of the elliptical path to the point,
26:49
Speaker 2: the point being that, you know, the the Steelers, I
26:52
Speaker 2: think less than a lot of other teams.
26:56
Speaker 4: Uh.
26:56
Speaker 2: If the coaches say I don't want this guy, he's gone.
26:59
Speaker 2: I'm I think in other organizations, Look, the general manager
27:04
Speaker 2: and the coach always work in tandem. But a coach
27:07
Speaker 2: might you know, who's hired by a general manager, might
27:11
Speaker 2: protect the general manager by keeping a guy around. Well,
27:14
Speaker 2: he's a third round pick, let's keep him around. So
27:16
Speaker 2: first of all, the scout's always believing a guy you're
27:19
Speaker 2: going to take at that point, right, So if if
27:22
Speaker 2: the coaching staff doesn't isn't getting something out of him,
27:26
Speaker 2: there's got to be something in the back of scouts
27:28
Speaker 2: minds and a lot of organizations that say, well, the
27:30
Speaker 2: coaches aren't maximizing this ability because we've seen this ability,
27:33
Speaker 2: we believe in this ability. We've scouted this guy for
27:36
Speaker 2: four years. We you know, we've gone to his pro day,
27:40
Speaker 2: we've interviewed him, we sat across the table from at
27:42
Speaker 2: the combine, and all these other reasons as to why
27:44
Speaker 2: you picked a guy. Sometimes people think that it's just
27:49
Speaker 2: a simple cya as to why a guy's around. But
27:52
Speaker 2: there's a lot of belief in a guy, that's why
27:54
Speaker 2: you took him that high. But if but there's there's
27:58
Speaker 2: no cya here with the Steelers, Like I mean, we
28:00
Speaker 2: just look at the the the undrafted players, look at
28:03
Speaker 2: guys who have been high picks, who've been cut. They
28:06
Speaker 2: move on, They make the determination and they move on.
28:10
Speaker 2: And so that makes this a really big year for
28:13
Speaker 2: Roman Wilson and a really big year for Camblem Johnson.
28:16
Speaker 2: Those guys are facing big years in a Steelers' uniform,
28:19
Speaker 2: big big camps. They might it may not get to
28:22
Speaker 2: a year, you know, they may There may may be
28:25
Speaker 2: no twenty twenty six for certain players who were drafted high.
28:28
Speaker 3: Well, and I think Roger Jones, you got to put
28:30
Speaker 3: it at the third short that well because you did
28:33
Speaker 3: bring in Maxiana Chore, you did draft a Jennings Dunker,
28:37
Speaker 3: you brought in a brock Hoffman. Like every position group
28:41
Speaker 3: is loaded. Nobody was like this group is you know,
28:45
Speaker 3: just check it, check it off a box. We know
28:47
Speaker 3: who's gonna be here. No, no, no, everybody's in contention.
28:51
Speaker 3: I mean even for the outside linebackers. We know that
28:53
Speaker 3: all three of those guys are paid, right, TJ. Watt,
28:55
Speaker 3: Alex high Smith and now Nick Herbig. But at the
28:59
Speaker 3: same time, who's gonna be number four? You got a
29:01
Speaker 3: real battle here. And Julius Welshoff keeps showing up, keeps
29:04
Speaker 3: coming to camp year after year, and he's been hit
29:07
Speaker 3: a guy in his name, But who else is going
29:09
Speaker 3: to be that fourth guy? Because you need a fourth
29:11
Speaker 3: rotational guy, and Jack Lawyer is another one. And then
29:14
Speaker 3: you throw in, well, now Nick Herb has been paid,
29:17
Speaker 3: does he bump one of the two for reps? Now?
29:20
Speaker 3: Because of what the what the contract DICTIM right? So
29:25
Speaker 3: there's a lot of things. There's no certainty with any
29:28
Speaker 3: of these positions. You have to be very versatile and
29:32
Speaker 3: you have to put your best foot forward every day,
29:33
Speaker 3: especially with how practices Ran and he talked about how
29:38
Speaker 3: he has all these additional cameras watching guys, so big
29:41
Speaker 3: brothers always watch, yes, and so you have to be
29:44
Speaker 3: on your p's and q's even when you're in individual drills,
29:47
Speaker 3: so there's no slack, there's no time off, and you're
29:50
Speaker 3: very efficient on this field when you're out there and
29:52
Speaker 3: a lot of things are moving and you got to
29:54
Speaker 3: you gotta talk about a moving train. This is like
29:56
Speaker 3: moving bullet train right now.
29:58
Speaker 2: Yes, efficiency is definitely and we're gonna, as I said,
30:01
Speaker 2: we're gonna dive more into Mike McCarthy's philosophies and his
30:04
Speaker 2: practices on the team on the field as well. But
30:08
Speaker 2: we talked yesterday about, you know, is this the year
30:11
Speaker 2: finally we get to see TJ. Watt moving around and
30:14
Speaker 2: her Big and high Smith and all these guys, but
30:16
Speaker 2: particularly TJ. Watt who has mostly stayed in that left side.
30:20
Speaker 2: But DK Metcalf also said, Uh, it was DK or
30:25
Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy. I think they both said we're gonna move
30:28
Speaker 2: them around, right so, and you know sometimes that means
30:34
Speaker 2: you know, pre snap movement and different things. So when
30:36
Speaker 2: you talk about moving guys around, it's not just gonna
30:40
Speaker 2: be on defense. I think most fans would probably leap
30:43
Speaker 2: to TJ. Watt and is he gonna get moved around?
30:45
Speaker 2: I think you're gonna see them trying to find different matchups.
30:49
Speaker 2: I think they're gonna find different motions and different things
30:52
Speaker 2: that try to isolate guys in matchups they want on
30:56
Speaker 2: offense just as much as we're gonna see it on defense.
30:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he kind of intimated that from the
31:02
Speaker 3: first day press conference where he talked about guys being
31:05
Speaker 3: able to play all three positions of the wide receiver,
31:08
Speaker 3: so the X, Z and the Y or the A,
31:10
Speaker 3: however you want to put it. You have to be
31:13
Speaker 3: able to play all three and that's going to be
31:16
Speaker 3: a key determining factor with how they move it because
31:18
Speaker 3: you need to be able to get into a sudden
31:21
Speaker 3: two minute situation or sudden no huddle. You've got to
31:24
Speaker 3: be able to be positioned flex right, and you've got
31:27
Speaker 3: to be able to move around to different spots when
31:30
Speaker 3: given So you might not you might say, ah, I'm
31:32
Speaker 3: an ex but you need to be able to play
31:33
Speaker 3: that Z. You need to know all the routes and
31:35
Speaker 3: all the combinations for the Z on any given play.
31:37
Speaker 3: Push you need to know where that WHY or a
31:39
Speaker 3: position is depending on if there's a tight end or not.
31:41
Speaker 3: That's a very nuanced part of it. But you have
31:44
Speaker 3: to be able to play all three right, and you
31:45
Speaker 3: have to be able to fit in. And I think
31:46
Speaker 3: for DK, he has to know that. Pittman has to
31:49
Speaker 3: know that as well as Roman Wilson, Jeremy Bernard, Scornic
31:52
Speaker 3: Legion and everybody else. You've got to know every aspect
31:56
Speaker 3: of this offense. And it's very academic in the approach
31:58
Speaker 3: that he's having. You know, he talked about today about
32:00
Speaker 3: quarterback school, right, and how he trains everybody like how
32:04
Speaker 3: he trained quarterbacks. So that's why you see a lot
32:06
Speaker 3: of different individual instruction periods on the field. If you
32:09
Speaker 3: come out to practice, you'll see those different aspects being utilized,
32:13
Speaker 3: just to make sure that everybody knows the entire offense,
32:17
Speaker 3: not just your schooling specific job.
32:20
Speaker 2: There was so much to unpack with what Mike McCarthy
32:22
Speaker 2: is doing. We're gonna try to unpack it for you
32:25
Speaker 2: over the course of this training camp because there are
32:27
Speaker 2: different things and we expect to see uh here practically
32:31
Speaker 2: what we are seeing here practice, and then the question becomes
32:33
Speaker 2: how does that carry over to the games. One last
32:35
Speaker 2: thing I did want to say about the receiver position,
32:38
Speaker 2: and again we're just sort of giving the broad views
32:41
Speaker 2: of what's going on, and we are definitely as these.
32:43
Speaker 2: As this camp goes on, we're gonna be able to
32:45
Speaker 2: there's gonna inevitably knock on wood, but there's gonna be
32:48
Speaker 2: some guys get hurt, dinged up, hopefully not seriously, but
32:52
Speaker 2: shifting up and down of you know, depth charts and
32:55
Speaker 2: that sort of thing. But Omar Khn said, you know,
32:58
Speaker 2: he he feels good about the roster and some of that.
33:02
Speaker 2: I think the question was about wide receiver because this
33:07
Speaker 2: is the time of the year. Over the last few years,
33:09
Speaker 2: it's Brandon Nayez or it's somebody else. We're hearing the rumors.
33:12
Speaker 2: Of course they traded for DK Metcalf, but we're hearing
33:14
Speaker 2: these rumors of what's gonna happen. Well, you got DK
33:17
Speaker 2: Metcalf a couple of years ago. You got Michael Pittman,
33:20
Speaker 2: who I love and I think was a missing element
33:22
Speaker 2: before this year. You still have Roman Wilson from a
33:25
Speaker 2: couple of years ago in that third round, you have
33:27
Speaker 2: picked up You have picked up Jeremy Bernard in a
33:30
Speaker 2: second rounder. There's other guys in this year's draft. There's
33:33
Speaker 2: other guys that can you know, Caden Reigen, where does
33:35
Speaker 2: he fit in Ben's kronic? We know he's a special
33:37
Speaker 2: teams days, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But I
33:41
Speaker 2: think that you know, when you when you talk about
33:43
Speaker 2: you know, and Omar said, look, if something comes along
33:46
Speaker 2: to improve the team. Of course I'm still looking to
33:48
Speaker 2: improve the team. But that sense of urgency, that sense
33:52
Speaker 2: of we have a big problem here that needs to
33:56
Speaker 2: be fit, I don't think we're looking at that here
33:58
Speaker 2: in Liatrobe this year. Max.
33:59
Speaker 3: I just don't know. I think you. I mean, you
34:02
Speaker 3: look across the board and it's very tough to find
34:07
Speaker 3: the issues now. Obviously, once we get into pads, once
34:10
Speaker 3: we get into preseason games, you take an injury or
34:13
Speaker 3: two at some certain position, then we might have that conversation.
34:17
Speaker 3: But as it stands right now, you have plenty of
34:20
Speaker 3: quality depth at every position, gifts, and there's a multitude
34:26
Speaker 3: of guys. I mean, we talked about even when we
34:27
Speaker 3: had attrition like we do right now. We got three
34:29
Speaker 3: dbs on pup right. I don't see a significant drop off.
34:34
Speaker 3: Sante Samuel's looking great out there. Jamel ten had a
34:37
Speaker 3: really nice breakup in the two minute drill today. You know,
34:39
Speaker 3: you have all these and then you're going to get
34:41
Speaker 3: three more dbs soon enough that are going to be
34:43
Speaker 3: added in there, right, Dante Kent, Joey Porter Junior, and
34:46
Speaker 3: Jalen Ramsey. Then how much better is that secondary going
34:49
Speaker 3: to be? That you're gonna be able to run two
34:50
Speaker 3: deep really at quality guys who could be starters. And
34:53
Speaker 3: then we haven't gotten to that linebacker might be if
34:57
Speaker 3: I have to nitpick, linebacker might be the one where
35:00
Speaker 3: you don't have that true banger, but you have athletes
35:03
Speaker 3: there that can run, cover and do a lot of
35:07
Speaker 3: things really well. That might be the one group if
35:10
Speaker 3: I'm nitpicking of all the groups out here, and I
35:12
Speaker 3: think the other ones have question marks, but there's quality
35:15
Speaker 3: depth on how it's going to play out offensive line
35:17
Speaker 3: quality depth, How is it going to play out? We
35:18
Speaker 3: don't know, but we know that we have really good
35:21
Speaker 3: talent in that position. Running back, it's got a deep
35:23
Speaker 3: group as well. Wide receiver. I didn't even mention all
35:27
Speaker 3: the other guys they brought in. Levi Wentz was another
35:29
Speaker 3: rookie they brought in, Joaquin Davis, a kid from n
35:32
Speaker 3: C Central that's a burner. So you have all these
35:35
Speaker 3: Max Hurlman, right, we have a lot of guys everywhere
35:38
Speaker 3: that you can't sit there. Defensive line, set it and
35:41
Speaker 3: forget it. There's dogs on that defensive line, so tight end.
35:45
Speaker 3: We know what Darnault Washington is to this team because
35:47
Speaker 3: he just got paid right long half our already paid.
35:50
Speaker 3: So there's everybody everywhere. We have four quality receiver quarterbacks
35:55
Speaker 3: that we're going to figure out how it gets to
35:56
Speaker 3: a top three. There's depth everywhere. That's the good thing
36:01
Speaker 3: about where we're at right now.
36:02
Speaker 2: At this point, I think I got to tell you too,
36:03
Speaker 2: we'll die more into this, but big people depth. It's
36:06
Speaker 2: the hardest depth to have. The students have big people depth.
36:09
Speaker 3: On the offensive going to be paching.
36:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, offensive and defensive line. A lot of big people
36:14
Speaker 2: depth on this uh steers roster. Oh Man, there's so
36:18
Speaker 2: much more to get to. Uh, we can't wait to
36:20
Speaker 2: get to. It still feels like the first day of school,
36:22
Speaker 2: to be Max doesn't like the second school doesn't feel
36:24
Speaker 2: like the second day school.
36:26
Speaker 3: You still have the outfit laid on the bed the
36:28
Speaker 3: night before, you know, So it's it's still it's still
36:31
Speaker 3: fresh and new. I get you.
36:33
Speaker 2: We're gonna continue with much more here in the locker
36:35
Speaker 2: room on this year there's audio network.
36:42
Speaker 4: Because the reps, the quarterback school. Obviously, I think we
36:46
Speaker 4: all start somewhere as coaches. You know, my starting point was,
36:49
Speaker 4: you know, the quarterback room. So uh, that's I trained
36:52
Speaker 4: the team in a lot of ways. How I learned
36:55
Speaker 4: learned you know, the training of the quarterback position, and
36:57
Speaker 4: I think you know and then you take it down
36:59
Speaker 4: in either into the science of what every play represents,
37:02
Speaker 4: like today when the emphasis in the team meeting today
37:05
Speaker 4: was the anatomy of a play, you know, and the
37:09
Speaker 4: pre snap is the first part of a play. So
37:12
Speaker 4: everything that goes on in the pre snap up until
37:14
Speaker 4: the ball snap, you know, the specifics, the mannerism, disguise.
37:17
Speaker 4: That's why, that's why it's a fundamental the cadence, the
37:21
Speaker 4: substitution patterns, you know, the ability to get to get
37:23
Speaker 4: this personnelit and quickly in the red zones. So you
37:26
Speaker 4: have to practice all those little things now because it's
37:29
Speaker 4: going to show up in preseason games. It's going to
37:30
Speaker 4: show up when you get out there for the first
37:32
Speaker 4: time with a ninety manin roster. So so you got
37:34
Speaker 4: the pre snap, but then if you go if you
37:36
Speaker 4: watch as you watch film, you study the film you'll
37:39
Speaker 4: see in the first two point three seconds that's really
37:41
Speaker 4: the act. That's the execution battleground. That's where really the
37:44
Speaker 4: play gets established in the first two point three so
37:47
Speaker 4: that's another time block. So and then above two point
37:50
Speaker 4: three two point five, now you get into extended play. Okay,
37:53
Speaker 4: So now we're talking about extended plays, which is what
37:56
Speaker 4: big place big play opportunities, which is another still fundamental.
38:00
Speaker 4: So that's that's the way my brain works. That's the
38:03
Speaker 4: way I've learned it through the as of a quarterback
38:06
Speaker 4: in my time this league. And that's why we train
38:07
Speaker 4: our team. So all our situational emphasis, you know, really
38:11
Speaker 4: is broken down every specific play and how we can
38:14
Speaker 4: train in those in those little heal segments in our
38:18
Speaker 4: and hopefully as I express this, you know, hopefully you
38:22
Speaker 4: see that in our practice structure.
38:26
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38:30
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39:07
Speaker 1: Union number three. We don't go to the office, We
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Speaker 1: build it.
39:14
Speaker 2: Thanks for being with us in the locker room here
39:16
Speaker 2: in the Students Audio Network. Absolutely gorgeous day Saint Vincent College.
39:21
Speaker 2: Big puffy cumulus clouds, I mean powder blue behind him,
39:26
Speaker 2: wind blowing left to right. But none of that really
39:28
Speaker 2: matters as far as Steelers Football is concerned, because they're
39:31
Speaker 2: done for.
39:31
Speaker 3: The day exactly.
39:32
Speaker 2: They're finished yet. So a couple of things that again,
39:35
Speaker 2: we're gonna talk quite a bit about Mike McCarthy and
39:38
Speaker 2: his practices and his philosophies next hour as we just
39:43
Speaker 2: begin that, because that's gonna be a topic all throughout
39:46
Speaker 2: training camp. It was a topic in the off season.
39:48
Speaker 2: It was a topic in OTAs, and we saw some
39:51
Speaker 2: of it in OTAs, and we're seeing it play out
39:53
Speaker 2: even more here as he's asked more questions and it
39:56
Speaker 2: becomes a little more into the microscope here in the trope.
39:59
Speaker 2: I did want to ask you in the offseason.
40:02
Speaker 3: T J.
40:03
Speaker 2: Watt and some of the other guys, Nick Herbig, Sawyer,
40:06
Speaker 2: some other guys were involved in these workouts in Wisconsin.
40:10
Speaker 2: And then Aaron Rodgers went to parts unnow and wouldn't
40:13
Speaker 2: say where, up in the mountains somewhere, that's all we know,
40:16
Speaker 2: for a retreat with his his players. And you know,
40:21
Speaker 2: the receivers, receiving corps and quarterbacks and an opportunity for
40:27
Speaker 2: those guys. And I think the value Aaron Rodgers was
40:31
Speaker 2: talking about this, and I think DK Metcalf to some
40:33
Speaker 2: degree as well, the you know, that extra little layer
40:38
Speaker 2: of really getting to know somebody, right. You know, you
40:40
Speaker 2: come in, you come in the locker room, you work
40:42
Speaker 2: with guys, and you know, maybe certain guys hang out
40:45
Speaker 2: after practice. You know, maybe they go home to their
40:47
Speaker 2: families or whatever. But that level of really getting to
40:50
Speaker 2: know somebody unplugged and away from the other pressures. And
40:54
Speaker 2: I you know, people talk about this quote unquote distractions
40:58
Speaker 2: of family. That's called life first. I would never label
41:01
Speaker 2: my own family as a distraction now, so but whatever
41:04
Speaker 2: you want to use that label for, they're away from
41:07
Speaker 2: that and together how much connect togetherness like that. We
41:12
Speaker 2: talk about it in terms of patrop but just these
41:14
Speaker 2: off season workouts, how much can that help? I mean
41:17
Speaker 2: it can.
41:18
Speaker 3: It can prove invaluable because the more time you get together,
41:22
Speaker 3: the better chemistry is. Right, the more minutes I spend
41:27
Speaker 3: like with you, like when we're doing broadcasts, right, Like
41:30
Speaker 3: we get these two hours a day every day and
41:33
Speaker 3: then we walk right into the booth and then there's
41:36
Speaker 3: no drop off. So we understand each other's idiosyncrasies, We
41:40
Speaker 3: understand how to communicate with each other, We know when
41:42
Speaker 3: the breaks are happening, when to get out of things.
41:45
Speaker 3: And the more that you do it, the easier and
41:47
Speaker 3: more kind of unconscious. That is same thing with wide
41:50
Speaker 3: receivers and quarterbacks, same thing with with with with defensive
41:53
Speaker 3: linemen offensive linemen. The more time I get to spend
41:56
Speaker 3: to know you, the better teammate I can be. And
41:59
Speaker 3: the less we have to talk, the less we have
42:01
Speaker 3: to think about it. It just becomes a reaction and more
42:04
Speaker 3: of second nature. So you're just creating deeper bonds into
42:08
Speaker 3: that second nature.
42:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that you know when you you
42:12
Speaker 2: know when, Yes, I do think that bond and when
42:15
Speaker 2: you get to know somebody, you know, you'll do a
42:18
Speaker 2: little bit more for him, right, Yeah, just without even
42:20
Speaker 2: It's just that's just human nature.
42:23
Speaker 3: Human ning is that vested interest, right right, and seeing
42:26
Speaker 3: you and I succeed, and the more that I can
42:29
Speaker 3: do to help you, the more that we can do
42:31
Speaker 3: to succeed, right, and you'll want to do for it,
42:33
Speaker 3: and we become a better unit, right, We become a
42:36
Speaker 3: better team, and we're able to bond better, and then
42:39
Speaker 3: it's easier getting through things like like some questions, I
42:42
Speaker 3: don't have to ask you because already know what you're
42:43
Speaker 3: thinking about it, so we just roll into it versus hey,
42:47
Speaker 3: do you think this is okay? Or that it's like yeah, no,
42:49
Speaker 3: let's go, you know, and we just kind of go
42:51
Speaker 3: through it. And I think that bond and that practice
42:55
Speaker 3: is always good, and it translates onto the football field
42:57
Speaker 3: because now, especially when we're just talking about quarterback wide receiver,
43:02
Speaker 3: Now you can get fun with it, right, you can.
43:04
Speaker 3: You can make up all kinds of hand jargon that
43:07
Speaker 3: might not mean anything, but it's gonna mess up the
43:09
Speaker 3: defense because you guys already know each other and you
43:12
Speaker 3: know how each other thinks, and the same thing with
43:14
Speaker 3: communications offensive line. Sometimes it's a grunt, it's not even
43:18
Speaker 3: a word that comes out, and we know what to do, right.
43:21
Speaker 3: We know that if we say this, we can make
43:23
Speaker 3: up words that only we understand that's not typical to
43:27
Speaker 3: what the defense is picking up. Like they know what
43:29
Speaker 3: a deuce block is, right, right, But if we're going,
43:32
Speaker 3: you know, if we're going something else, we could say,
43:34
Speaker 3: you know, dose dose dose, and now it still means deuce,
43:38
Speaker 3: you know, and they're like trying to figure out out
43:40
Speaker 3: the third time you say it, and they're going to
43:41
Speaker 3: figure it out.
43:42
Speaker 4: You know.
43:42
Speaker 3: Defensive line are a little bit slow, but not that slow.
43:45
Speaker 3: But you know, you can start creating things. I mean,
43:47
Speaker 3: we you know, we had different crazy calls. We had
43:50
Speaker 3: sugar calls. Who knows what sugar is? Right, Sugar's set
43:53
Speaker 3: off the ball and allow them if we know they're
43:55
Speaker 3: gonna twist, to let them show themselves as oppose us
43:58
Speaker 3: colliding into each other or having them bang off and
44:00
Speaker 3: we're separated on different levels, back off and let it,
44:02
Speaker 3: let it show itself. You can create those type of
44:05
Speaker 3: things when you have these type of intimate, one on
44:07
Speaker 3: one type of workout scenarios that are that are predetermined, like, hey,
44:10
Speaker 3: we're gonna spend seven days in Wisconsin in Madison, right,
44:14
Speaker 3: Or we're gonna go out to San Diego and spend
44:16
Speaker 3: a week at a passing camp, Like you get to
44:18
Speaker 3: do that kind of stuff and have fun. So then
44:20
Speaker 3: when you get here, it's just simply adding on to
44:23
Speaker 3: what we've already built together.
44:25
Speaker 2: Right it is, Uh, you know that a team cohesion
44:29
Speaker 2: and community. Look, it's important in all sports. That's why
44:33
Speaker 2: they're team sports. I just think Max and I've said this,
44:37
Speaker 2: I'm probably not original and saying it to meet's the
44:40
Speaker 2: ultimate team sport. There's no other sport like it. It
44:44
Speaker 2: is just it's you gotta have it got, you gotta
44:48
Speaker 2: have it got.
44:49
Speaker 3: To every other sport, you can have one or two
44:50
Speaker 3: guys take over and everybody can kind of fill in, right,
44:53
Speaker 3: But here all eleven have to be on the same
44:55
Speaker 3: page because if there's one breakdown, the whole thing collapses
44:58
Speaker 3: like a house of cards. Right.
45:00
Speaker 2: And again, every sport's a little bit different. But obviously
45:04
Speaker 2: you know I do a lot of baseball stuff too,
45:06
Speaker 2: and yes, it's a team sport. Yes you need to
45:09
Speaker 2: be able to turn too. Yes you need to be
45:10
Speaker 2: able to hit the cutoff man. Yes, you want to
45:12
Speaker 2: see you know, guys move runners along, lay down a bunt, whatever. Ultimately,
45:17
Speaker 2: it is a lot of one on one matchups, a
45:20
Speaker 2: lot of it, and if the pitcher is outstanding that day,
45:23
Speaker 2: he can carry a team to victory pretty much by himself.
45:28
Speaker 1: Yep.
45:28
Speaker 2: Okay, So now let's you know, of course you need
45:30
Speaker 2: the other nine guys behind you. But and they're all degrees.
45:33
Speaker 2: But now let's imagine you have the greatest quarterback in
45:36
Speaker 2: the world and nobody's blocking for him, right, nothing. If
45:41
Speaker 2: you took those five receivers off the field, or there's
45:43
Speaker 2: five offensive linemen off the field and just you know,
45:46
Speaker 2: snapped it to Josh Allen, he's got problems.
45:49
Speaker 3: You got a lot of I don't care how good
45:50
Speaker 3: you are, right, Barry Sanders, Right, we talked about one
45:53
Speaker 3: of the greatest running backs of all time. If you
45:55
Speaker 3: don't have an offensive line, it doesn't matter because you
45:58
Speaker 3: can't win the game by yourself. Everybody has to glean
46:03
Speaker 3: on or depend on somebody else. Right, All the cogs
46:06
Speaker 3: in the wheel have to be connected or us the
46:07
Speaker 3: wheel doesn't turn. And that's where this makes this special
46:11
Speaker 3: basketball even right, if you have an MJ, he makes
46:14
Speaker 3: everybody else look better. But he's the main event. Kobe
46:17
Speaker 3: Bryant's the main event. Lebron's the main event. But you need,
46:21
Speaker 3: you know, you need other guys. This isn't that type
46:24
Speaker 3: of sport where you could just take over. I mean,
46:25
Speaker 3: Sidney Crosby can go over, but he still needs teammates.
46:29
Speaker 3: But ultimately, one on one him and the goalie, you're
46:32
Speaker 3: picking Sidney Crossby, right, you know what I'm saying. So
46:34
Speaker 3: that's where you have to have this whole team cohesion,
46:38
Speaker 3: and you have to have communication and chemistry because it
46:40
Speaker 3: all matters. And we've seen it, you know, as we've
46:43
Speaker 3: called these games, right, you've seen teams that aren't together
46:46
Speaker 3: and it falls apart. It doesn't matter how good the
46:48
Speaker 3: talent is individually, and yes you'll get some individual wins,
46:51
Speaker 3: but as far as the war or the game itself,
46:54
Speaker 3: you're gonna lose that battle every time because the best
46:57
Speaker 3: eleven is always going to prove to be better than
47:00
Speaker 3: some of eleven. Different great parts.
47:02
Speaker 2: Agreed, and the interconnectedness happens on a number of different levels,
47:06
Speaker 2: and I think that they're gonna try very hard to
47:08
Speaker 2: make sure this happens on the field to play. Just
47:11
Speaker 2: one last final thought on that. A big part of
47:13
Speaker 2: that is the interconnectedness of human beings and how they are,
47:19
Speaker 2: and then scheme and units and all that other stuff
47:22
Speaker 2: you know comes after that. But to have guys like
47:24
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers and TJ. Watt and other veterans cam here
47:27
Speaker 2: understand what that means and the importance of it. And
47:32
Speaker 2: when you're seeing like we've seen in other years, you know,
47:35
Speaker 2: like I said, we said someton working with the young guys.
47:38
Speaker 2: You know, Daniel's working with McCormick out here, Dylan Cook
47:41
Speaker 2: working with Hana Try. That's another manifestation of what we're
47:44
Speaker 2: talking about and one of the things that you know
47:47
Speaker 2: that that will pay dividends as this journey of a
47:51
Speaker 2: season goes on.
47:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and it's it's reached one teach one essentially, right,
47:57
Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter that we're in the middle of
48:00
Speaker 3: a position battle. I need you to be redder because
48:03
Speaker 3: team success supersedes individual accolades, and that's how you have
48:08
Speaker 3: to prove it or else you're not gonna be here,
48:10
Speaker 3: right If you're not a team player, If you're not
48:13
Speaker 3: if your team me and not team us. It will
48:16
Speaker 3: show itself very quickly and they won't want that. They
48:19
Speaker 3: want they want us guys, not me guys. In this process,
48:22
Speaker 3: you know, I'll throw it back till once again because
48:24
Speaker 3: we're still getting into the Mike mccarthurary. We don't have
48:26
Speaker 3: mccarthyism's yet. We only have tomlinisms to go off of.
48:29
Speaker 3: For the last two decades. It's I want volunteers, not hostages. Yep, right,
48:34
Speaker 3: that's what you're looking for out here. Yet to volunteer
48:36
Speaker 3: your time, it takes a little bit extra, but it's
48:38
Speaker 3: going to pay off in season because it's not a
48:41
Speaker 3: matter of if. It's a matter of when those injuries happened,
48:45
Speaker 3: and I need to make sure the guy behind me
48:47
Speaker 3: is prepped and ready to go. I mean, I went
48:49
Speaker 3: on IR the year in twenty eleven, we went to
48:52
Speaker 3: Super Bowl forty five. I injured my neck midway through
48:55
Speaker 3: the season. I missed two days of practice. Right, I'm
49:00
Speaker 3: on IR. I'm in the room making sure Jonathan Scott
49:02
Speaker 3: is good to go. I'm watching film with him every day. Well,
49:06
Speaker 3: you know, I'm sitting inside for practice and allowed to
49:08
Speaker 3: be out on the field during I are but I'm
49:10
Speaker 3: sitting in I'm sitting in the team lounge taking a nap,
49:12
Speaker 3: and then they wake me up for meetings. We go
49:13
Speaker 3: into meetings, and then afterwards I have an additional meeting.
49:16
Speaker 3: I flew to every single game. I'm on the sidelines
49:19
Speaker 3: in his ear after every play, like that's what it takes.
49:22
Speaker 3: And ultimately he replaced me. I got I got released,
49:25
Speaker 3: then I came back.
49:26
Speaker 2: But that's what it is.
49:27
Speaker 3: And I didn't have bitterness towards it. And I was like,
49:30
Speaker 3: because this is what the job entails. You not only
49:33
Speaker 3: have to be at the best at your position and
49:34
Speaker 3: the best you know at your job, but you also
49:37
Speaker 3: have to be a good teacher, and you have to
49:39
Speaker 3: be an open teacher in a group that depends on
49:41
Speaker 3: community success. Like an offensive line. We don't have individual stats.
49:44
Speaker 3: I All we have is starts, games played, and penalties
49:48
Speaker 3: and sacks given up. Right, there's no goodness stat there
49:52
Speaker 3: that you can play fantasy with at all. Right, But
49:55
Speaker 3: that was the communal approach. We were all brothers to
49:57
Speaker 3: each other, and you had big brothers. He had little brothers.
50:00
Speaker 3: And then you pray that one day the younger brothers
50:02
Speaker 3: become the big brothers and can teach the new, the
50:04
Speaker 3: little brothers, and you pass on those traditions and those
50:06
Speaker 3: things because it is all about team success at the
50:09
Speaker 3: end of the day.
50:10
Speaker 2: Here he's Max Starks, I'm Rob King. We're going to
50:13
Speaker 2: talk about Mike McCarthy and the imprint he's already putting
50:18
Speaker 2: on this team and it is significant and it is different.
50:22
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that much more to come when we
50:24
Speaker 2: continue in the locker room on the Steelers Audio Network.