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HR 1: Mike McCarthy Presser, Steelers Coordinators Speak · The Steelers Report

0:05
Speaker 1: This is the Steelers report with Brian Bacco and Ed
0:09
Speaker 1: Troop on Steelers Nation Radio, a part of the Steelers
0:13
Speaker 1: Audio Network.
0:16
Speaker 2: Week six across the NFL season.
0:19
Speaker 3: Hard to believe, but we are navigating through the 2026
0:25
Speaker 3: season rather quickly. The Steelers and Mike McCarthy in his
0:29
Speaker 3: Steeler era will look for his first win on the road.
0:34
Speaker 2: So far, Brian.
0:35
Speaker 3: Bacco, he is 0-1 in New England, but he'll try
0:37
Speaker 3: to change that this upcoming Sunday in Tampa.
0:41
Speaker 4: The Bucs don't have a home win yet. They're 0-3
0:44
Speaker 4: at home.
0:46
Speaker 5: It's early in the season, but the Steelers have defended
0:50
Speaker 5: their turf at Acclure Stadium. Meanwhile, the Bucs, obviously they
0:54
Speaker 5: didn't have a win of any kind until Thursday night
0:57
Speaker 5: football against the Cowboys. So you had Back-to-back Thursday nights
1:03
Speaker 5: with the two teams that are in this game. And
1:06
Speaker 5: the Buccaneers, they'd really be feeling down and out right
1:10
Speaker 5: now at 0-5, if not for a pretty rousing performance
1:13
Speaker 5: by Bucky Irving in the run game. The undrafted rookie,
1:16
Speaker 5: Jalen Daniels, probably did some things from that standpoint that
1:21
Speaker 5: maybe hadn't been done in the league since Duck Hodges, perhaps.
1:25
Speaker 5: He was one of the rare undrafted rookies to start
1:28
Speaker 5: meaningful games in the NFL. But, yeah, the Steelers, it'd
1:32
Speaker 5: be a great time to get that first road victory.
1:36
Speaker 5: They haven't had a winning streak either yet.
1:38
Speaker 2: That's it.
1:38
Speaker 5: Obviously, they've gone win-loss, win-loss, win. Yeah, win-loss, win-loss, win.
1:43
Speaker 5: Been every other game, they've found a way to get
1:46
Speaker 5: a W. So it'd be a great time for a
1:49
Speaker 5: first win streak, and you'd feel like you're playing with
1:52
Speaker 5: house money a little bit as you head to Paris.
1:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, they need some house money to play with because
1:56
Speaker 3: this is the part of their schedule that we talked
1:57
Speaker 3: about last week that these next four games, you'd want
2:01
Speaker 3: to go at least three and one. You want to
2:02
Speaker 3: win them all, but if you could at least go
2:04
Speaker 3: three and one, well, they took care of business against
2:06
Speaker 3: the Colts this past weekend, so now it's time to
2:08
Speaker 3: take care of business on the road in Tampa Bay
2:10
Speaker 3: this upcoming week and give yourself some wiggle room because
2:14
Speaker 3: you go to Paris the following week, Brian, and You know,
2:17
Speaker 3: you face a New Orleans team that's only won one game,
2:20
Speaker 3: and really the last couple weeks has not looked very good.
2:22
Speaker 3: Even in those first couple losses of the 2026 season
2:25
Speaker 3: for the Saints, they didn't look too, too bad. But
2:27
Speaker 3: now the last couple weeks, they've kind of gone back
2:29
Speaker 3: to what a one-win team looks like. So who knows
2:33
Speaker 3: what happens there because it's an international game, as we
2:35
Speaker 3: talked about, just like a Thursday night game. There's a
2:38
Speaker 3: lot of factors with travel and other things like that.
2:41
Speaker 3: And then you have Cleveland for a rematch after that
2:43
Speaker 3: before you go into your bye week. But I'm with you.
2:45
Speaker 3: You've got to stack wins. You've got to get back-to-back wins.
2:47
Speaker 3: And more importantly for head coach Mike McCarthy, you've got
2:50
Speaker 3: to get a road win.
2:51
Speaker 2: They have yet to do that this season.
2:53
Speaker 3: And it's tough to win on the road, Brian, in
2:54
Speaker 3: the NFL, regardless of what team that is.
2:57
Speaker 2: It's always tough to go on the road and win.
2:59
Speaker 5: Well, correct me if I'm wrong. I think they have
3:03
Speaker 5: nine home games this year. Is this year that they
3:05
Speaker 5: have an extra? Home game or they have an extra
3:07
Speaker 5: road game?
3:08
Speaker 2: Extra road game.
3:09
Speaker 5: Okay, but the Paris one kind of throws it off.
3:11
Speaker 5: So they've got eight home, eight road, and one neutral site.
3:16
Speaker 5: So you could go 8-8-1 without winning a road game,
3:20
Speaker 5: but nobody wants to sign up for that. You could
3:24
Speaker 5: go 9-8 without technically winning a true road game. But
3:29
Speaker 5: we all want to see a little bit more for
3:31
Speaker 5: the 2026 Steelers and the way that this offense is clicking.
3:34
Speaker 4: Feels like they're capable. of doing that.
3:36
Speaker 5: And, you know, at some point here, and I also
3:40
Speaker 5: think like, I think Steeler nation is going to travel
3:42
Speaker 5: Sunday in, in Tampa, but a lot to build on
3:45
Speaker 5: from that game against the Colts.
3:48
Speaker 4: They, they couldn't come in here and leave with a win.
3:51
Speaker 5: Aaron Rogers is maybe playing as well as we've seen
3:54
Speaker 5: him in a Steelers uniform dating back to the beginning
3:57
Speaker 5: of last season. Jalen Warren has been a superstar, better
4:01
Speaker 5: yards per touch, even than Bajon Robinson, Jameer Gibbs, uh,
4:05
Speaker 5: really anybody at that position we keep tooting his horn
4:09
Speaker 5: every single week but um you know offensive line maybe
4:13
Speaker 5: gelling mike mccarthy mentioned that i think or maybe it
4:16
Speaker 5: was brian angelico mentioned that monday in their press conferences
4:20
Speaker 5: and the receiving core is is thin right now but
4:25
Speaker 5: the the mo with rogers is he's going to throw
4:27
Speaker 5: to the open guy so whoever you plug in there
4:30
Speaker 5: he's on his details knows his stuff knows the plays
4:33
Speaker 5: knows the hand signals runs a crisp route and gets
4:36
Speaker 5: open for Rodgers, so get the ball and help the team.
4:39
Speaker 2: Double B's article is up on Steelers.com right now.
4:42
Speaker 3: Sorting Through Options is the title, and it's a recap
4:45
Speaker 3: of yesterday's Mike McCarthy press conference from Monday, Brian.
4:48
Speaker 2: Your takeaways yesterday, one of the.
4:51
Speaker 3: Biggest news to come out of that press conference was
4:53
Speaker 3: where Mike McCarthy led with, and that's the signing of
4:56
Speaker 3: a Landon Roberts coming back to the black and gold.
4:58
Speaker 3: They brought him in during training camp. He didn't make
5:01
Speaker 3: the initial 53-man roster. Now they bring him back on
5:03
Speaker 3: the practice squad. We'll see if he gets elevated to
5:06
Speaker 3: the 53-man roster once we get to this Sunday against
5:09
Speaker 3: Tampa or beyond. But it's good to see Roberts back
5:11
Speaker 3: because I think he can really fit a need that
5:14
Speaker 3: they needed, that middle inside linebacker spot, specifically with stopping
5:18
Speaker 3: the run.
5:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I don't know if that's going to be
5:22
Speaker 5: an immediate solution there or if they just felt like
5:25
Speaker 5: they needed somebody else in the room in case the
5:29
Speaker 5: time comes for reinforcements obviously coming out of uh pre-season
5:34
Speaker 5: and cut down day they didn't think it was the
5:37
Speaker 5: right time or the right mix for their roster then
5:39
Speaker 5: to keep a landon roberts around but you know omar
5:42
Speaker 5: khan was uh i think you know pretty honest and
5:46
Speaker 5: mike mccarthy was pretty honest at the time about if
5:49
Speaker 5: there's an opportunity to to bring him back they'll kind
5:52
Speaker 5: of keep the door uh keep the door open for
5:54
Speaker 5: it and clearly that was the case they didn't slam
5:57
Speaker 5: the door it looks like there's no Bad blood or
5:59
Speaker 5: hard feelings on either side for a guy who didn't
6:02
Speaker 5: make the team as a veteran. And remember, they brought
6:04
Speaker 5: him back fairly late in the game, too. It was
6:07
Speaker 5: right before that second preseason. It was right before the
6:10
Speaker 5: first preseason game that they signed him.
6:11
Speaker 2: About halfway through camp, I think.
6:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he didn't play in.
6:14
Speaker 5: The first preseason game, but played in the next two
6:16
Speaker 5: and was out there well into them. So, Landon Roberts
6:19
Speaker 5: is a great locker room presence. You don't have to
6:22
Speaker 5: worry about that. So, yeah, I mean, we'll see if
6:25
Speaker 5: it comes to that, but it's always good to have
6:28
Speaker 5: more More horses in your stable, especially when the run
6:31
Speaker 5: games get tight.
6:33
Speaker 3: Brian, the first four games, Patrick Graham was in the box,
6:36
Speaker 3: high above the stadiums where the Steelers were playing, whether
6:39
Speaker 3: it was Accushore or in New England or in Cleveland.
6:42
Speaker 3: There seemed to be some miscommunication going on between the
6:45
Speaker 3: defense and Patrick Graham. So this week he moved down
6:47
Speaker 3: to the field. He was on the field on Sunday.
6:49
Speaker 3: It appears he will remain there. And Mike McCarthy also
6:52
Speaker 3: talked about that yesterday.
6:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, and maybe that's a player preference thing, although McCarthy
6:58
Speaker 5: said he didn't solicit input from anybody that was just
7:01
Speaker 5: what he wanted it to look like and you know
7:04
Speaker 5: I do remember a lot of discussions of that going
7:06
Speaker 5: but way back to early in in training camp ahead
7:09
Speaker 5: of that first preseason game against the Packers you know
7:12
Speaker 5: who's going to be where and why and Patrick Graham
7:15
Speaker 5: said there's pluses and minuses to both setups and you
7:20
Speaker 5: know we we saw the you know some of the
7:22
Speaker 5: pluses I guess early in this season you know that
7:25
Speaker 5: think about the way they dominated the Falcons other than
7:27
Speaker 5: Bajon Robinson in week one and honestly played pretty well
7:30
Speaker 5: again week two in New England on the defensive side
7:33
Speaker 5: of the ball.
7:34
Speaker 2: I thought so too.
7:35
Speaker 5: But I just think maybe the miscommunications have added up
7:38
Speaker 5: a little bit too much for anybody's liking and you
7:41
Speaker 5: give up 27 points in back-to-back divisional games, you probably
7:46
Speaker 5: feel like, alright, let's see what it looks like the
7:49
Speaker 5: other way and only give up 22 against the Colts.
7:53
Speaker 5: Patrick Graham, it seemed like everybody responded well to that
7:57
Speaker 5: and the way that Patrick Graham put it was you
8:00
Speaker 5: have to be pliable as a coach and he's got
8:03
Speaker 5: his beliefs and his philosophies but that doesn't mean that
8:05
Speaker 5: he's going to be stubborn either you've got to be
8:07
Speaker 5: willing to to try new things and feel out what
8:10
Speaker 5: does and doesn't.
8:10
Speaker 3: Work well we'll hear from Patrick Graham coming up here
8:13
Speaker 3: at 220 today in our second segment we'll also hear
8:16
Speaker 3: from coach Angelico and coach Crossman in our third segment
8:20
Speaker 3: today in and around two 40, three o'clock and three 20.
8:23
Speaker 3: It's our top 10 moments in place from this past Sunday.
8:26
Speaker 3: And then we'll finish things up at three 40 towards
8:29
Speaker 3: the end of the show before we hand it off
8:30
Speaker 3: to Wes Shuler and Matt Williamson on SNRs drive at
8:33
Speaker 3: four o'clock going in and around the NFL after five
8:36
Speaker 3: weeks into the season, Brian, Jeremy Bernard, nice game on Sunday.
8:40
Speaker 3: He bounced back with probably his strongest game so far
8:43
Speaker 3: as a Steeler player, six catches for 80 yards. Coach
8:46
Speaker 3: McCarthy talked about Jeremy Bernard as well yesterday, said football
8:50
Speaker 3: comes easy to him. I think there's some young guy
8:53
Speaker 3: mistakes he made on Sunday, but you can see it
8:56
Speaker 3: coming through. I think he's acclimated very well to this offense,
8:59
Speaker 3: the ability to play all three positions. He sticks his
9:02
Speaker 3: nose in there in the run game too. I've been very,
9:05
Speaker 3: very impressed.
9:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, and we saw that earlier in the season when
9:08
Speaker 5: he was serving as the replacement for Michael Pittman Jr.
9:12
Speaker 5: at New England not a lot went right for the
9:14
Speaker 5: offense that day but there was that drive where you
9:17
Speaker 5: saw things start to come together a little bit and
9:19
Speaker 5: click for Jeremy Bernard now I think he's he's really
9:23
Speaker 5: building a rapport with Rodgers and he's earning the the
9:27
Speaker 5: respect and trust of the coaches he's uh he's not
9:32
Speaker 5: a diva wide receiver by any means I think he's
9:35
Speaker 5: slotting into a role quite nicely here and it doesn't
9:37
Speaker 5: seem like he Was crestfallen at all by, you know,
9:42
Speaker 5: not playing a ton of snaps early in the season.
9:44
Speaker 4: And, you know, you got to work your way up
9:46
Speaker 4: the depth chart.
9:47
Speaker 5: And, you know, sometimes that opportunity just it's presented to
9:50
Speaker 5: you because of injuries ahead of you. So, you know,
9:53
Speaker 5: now Bernard seems really ready and polished. And I'm not
9:59
Speaker 5: too concerned about. more action for him opposite DK Metcalf
10:03
Speaker 5: I'm a little more concerned about the rest of the
10:05
Speaker 5: receiving core and who's going to be utilized but the
10:08
Speaker 5: other big thing that they keep mentioning with Bernard is
10:10
Speaker 5: no in every position in that offense and that's really
10:12
Speaker 5: going to come in handy if you know say you
10:15
Speaker 5: want Brandon Smith up from the practice squad again and
10:18
Speaker 5: He's on the outside. Well, now you need somebody to
10:20
Speaker 5: play in the slot. I think Jeremy Bernard has the
10:23
Speaker 5: skill set to do that, too.
10:25
Speaker 3: Coach McCarthy, speaking to Brandon Smith, said, I've known Smith
10:28
Speaker 3: for a long time. He's earned this opportunity. We definitely
10:31
Speaker 3: feel good about Brandon moving forward, so he'll definitely get
10:34
Speaker 3: more opportunities. Look, no Roman Wilson, no Michael Pittman Jr.
10:37
Speaker 3: It looks like we probably will not have Ben Skoranek
10:40
Speaker 3: either in the mix. So the Steelers got to get
10:42
Speaker 3: some players in there, Brian, and they have Brandon Smith
10:45
Speaker 3: sitting right there. He did come up with a catch
10:46
Speaker 3: on Sunday. We liked him at training camp. Remember, we
10:49
Speaker 3: were up at Latrobe each day. We saw Brandon Smith. Look,
10:51
Speaker 3: there's a bunch of receivers in camp. A lot of
10:54
Speaker 3: them go unnoticed. Brandon Smith was not one of them.
10:56
Speaker 3: We noticed him most days.
10:57
Speaker 5: And he was running with the first team sometimes out
10:59
Speaker 5: there because DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr. were dealing
11:04
Speaker 5: with injuries at times in Latrobe, too, or little minor
11:07
Speaker 5: nagging things. Obviously, DK's been out there. for the lion's
11:12
Speaker 5: share of the snaps so far in the regular season.
11:14
Speaker 5: But it did allow the coaches to get an extended
11:16
Speaker 5: look at Brandon Smith. And Mike McCarthy actually goes way
11:18
Speaker 5: back with Brandon Smith to Dallas. Aaron Rodgers goes back
11:21
Speaker 5: with Brandon Smith to their days with the Jets. So
11:25
Speaker 5: it's good to have familiarity with both head coach and QB.
11:30
Speaker 5: And Brian Angelico, too, I think, said that he's always
11:33
Speaker 5: got a smile on his face. He's brought a good attitude.
11:36
Speaker 4: I'm sure it could be.
11:39
Speaker 5: It's probably disappointing for any player, but especially a veteran
11:42
Speaker 5: to not make the 53, but he comes back and
11:46
Speaker 5: circles back to the practice squad. As did a lot
11:48
Speaker 5: of guys who didn't make the team, which tells you
11:49
Speaker 5: that the Steelers front office felt pretty good about their
11:52
Speaker 5: depth of that 90 man off season roster.
11:56
Speaker 4: And yeah, I think with the way he played and
11:58
Speaker 4: at St.
11:58
Speaker 5: Vincent, you're not feeling like, all right, the Steelers have
12:00
Speaker 5: to scramble around to sign somebody at receiver. You can
12:04
Speaker 5: just promote from within and bring up somebody who's been
12:07
Speaker 5: working with this team, going all the way back to
12:10
Speaker 5: OTAs in the spring.
12:11
Speaker 3: Finally, just one other item to recap from Monday's Mike
12:14
Speaker 3: McCarthy press conference. He talked about Rico Dowdle being close
12:18
Speaker 3: last week, look good on Friday and Saturday. Good chance
12:21
Speaker 3: we might see Rico back as early as this Sunday
12:24
Speaker 3: in Tampa. We'll see how the week goes on. But
12:26
Speaker 3: one thing he did say, look, Jalen's our featured player
12:29
Speaker 3: right now. I mean, let's make sure we all recognize that.
12:32
Speaker 3: He's hot, Coach McCarthy said on Monday.
12:34
Speaker 2: And he's right. We went over the numbers yesterday here
12:36
Speaker 2: on the show.
12:37
Speaker 3: He's playing great football for us, so it's important for
12:39
Speaker 3: us as an offense, coaches, and players alike to continue
12:42
Speaker 3: to put him in a position to make plays.
12:44
Speaker 2: That won't change.
12:45
Speaker 3: Seems like the staff knows they've got to stay with
12:48
Speaker 3: the hot hand. Jalen Warren, probably going to be the
12:51
Speaker 3: majority of the carries going forward until something changes in
12:54
Speaker 3: that world. But I think Rico gives them a good
12:56
Speaker 3: depth piece because, listen, Brian, the workload that Jalen gives
12:59
Speaker 3: you from a rushing standpoint and a receiving standpoint out
13:03
Speaker 3: of the backfield is great, but it's hard to sustain
13:05
Speaker 3: that through a 17-game schedule.
13:07
Speaker 5: And the only thing that would be worse than losing
13:10
Speaker 5: a game or having a impotent output offensively where Warren
13:13
Speaker 5: doesn't touch the ball enough is Jalen Warren getting hurt.
13:17
Speaker 5: And then you don't have him for an extended period
13:19
Speaker 5: of time. So you got to try to keep him
13:21
Speaker 5: on the field. You got to be smart with him. And,
13:25
Speaker 5: you know, he's not the biggest guy. We know he does.
13:28
Speaker 5: He's always seeking out contact. He never just goes out
13:30
Speaker 5: of bounds or goes down. I mean, he's always going
13:33
Speaker 5: to try to keep his feet running and and pick
13:36
Speaker 5: up more yardage after the catch or after the handoff. But, yeah,
13:39
Speaker 5: I mean, that's going to be good if they can
13:42
Speaker 5: get a more true number two back in here at
13:44
Speaker 5: some point. I don't know that they ever really determined
13:47
Speaker 5: if it was Travis Homer, Lou Nichols, Eli Heidenreich has
13:50
Speaker 5: been inactive in recent weeks.
13:53
Speaker 4: But, yeah, I mean, Mike McCarthy's no dummy.
13:55
Speaker 5: He knows that if they go to Tampa and lose
13:58
Speaker 5: and Jalen Warren only has 12 or 13 touches, the
14:01
Speaker 5: pitchforks are going to be out for him saying, why didn't.
14:03
Speaker 4: He touch it?
14:03
Speaker 5: 18 to 22 times but you know you're damned if
14:06
Speaker 5: you do damned if you don't sometimes as a head
14:08
Speaker 5: coach or a play caller because you know it can
14:12
Speaker 5: easily go from well you know why didn't DK why
14:15
Speaker 5: isn't DK Metcalf getting more targets to why isn't Darnell
14:18
Speaker 5: Washington getting more targets you can't have everybody out there
14:21
Speaker 5: getting a bunch of touches unless of course you have
14:24
Speaker 5: more offensive plays and Mike McCarthy uh you know stressed
14:27
Speaker 5: the desire to do that as well I.
14:28
Speaker 2: Told you we had one more item.
14:29
Speaker 1: I lied.
14:30
Speaker 3: There's one other one lingering out there. Deshaun Elliott now
14:33
Speaker 3: in the 21-day window. Brian, do you think maybe we
14:36
Speaker 3: might see him back in this secondary that's banged up
14:39
Speaker 3: a little bit right now? They could sure use Deshaun
14:41
Speaker 3: Elliott if he could go as early as this Sunday.
14:43
Speaker 5: Yeah, and they opened that window last week. So I
14:44
Speaker 5: think if nothing else, he'll surely be back for Paris.
14:48
Speaker 5: A guy who's, I think, a fan of Paris. He's
14:51
Speaker 5: been there before. I've chatted with him about that. So
14:54
Speaker 5: I think there's natural personal dynamics here, too. I bet
14:57
Speaker 5: Jamel Dean would love to get back for Tampa Bay.
15:00
Speaker 5: I bet Deshaun Elliott would love to play in Tampa.
15:03
Speaker 5: I'm sure Michael Pittman Jr. would have loved to play
15:05
Speaker 5: against Indy, but that just wasn't in the cards. I
15:07
Speaker 5: think there is a chance that Deshaun Elliott suits up
15:10
Speaker 5: this week, and I do think he's getting closer and closer. Otherwise,
15:15
Speaker 5: they simply could have just... not opened up that window
15:18
Speaker 5: for him to return to practice.
15:19
Speaker 2: Sorting through options.
15:21
Speaker 3: Now up on Steelers.com, Brian Bacco's article about Mike McCarthy's
15:26
Speaker 3: Monday press conference. Whenever we come back, we're going to
15:28
Speaker 3: hear from defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. We'll hear what Coach
15:31
Speaker 3: Graham had to say about the return to the sideline,
15:34
Speaker 3: among other things.
15:35
Speaker 2: He's Bacco. I'm Troop.
15:36
Speaker 3: It's the Steelers Report right here on Steelers Nation Radio,
15:39
Speaker 3: part of the Steelers Audio Network.
15:48
Speaker 1: This is the Steelers report with Brian Bacco and Ed
15:52
Speaker 1: Truth on Steelers Nation Radio, a part of the Steelers
15:56
Speaker 1: Audio Network.
15:57
Speaker 2: Well, everyone is dying to know, Brian Bacco, you.
16:01
Speaker 3: Beat Sleep on Sunday night football, but did you defeat
16:06
Speaker 3: Sleep for the second night in a row on Monday
16:08
Speaker 3: night football?
16:09
Speaker 6: No.
16:10
Speaker 4: No, I did not.
16:12
Speaker 5: I think I fell asleep right as the game was
16:14
Speaker 5: heading to overtime.
16:15
Speaker 2: You took the L.
16:16
Speaker 4: Woke up this.
16:16
Speaker 5: Morning and saw, oh, Rams missed a kick.
16:20
Speaker 4: Bills pulled it out. I'll just have to catch the highlights.
16:24
Speaker 2: You and Sean McVay both took an L last night.
16:27
Speaker 4: Yes, we did. That was a very entertaining game, though.
16:30
Speaker 2: I didn't even try to battle Monday Night Football. I
16:34
Speaker 2: hung up at halftime. I saw the first half.
16:37
Speaker 4: I mean, hey, what we expected, right?
16:39
Speaker 5: Two offenses with a lot of answers and, you know,
16:44
Speaker 5: Josh Allen.
16:44
Speaker 4: Was just ridiculous out there. I mean, taking off and running.
16:50
Speaker 5: Whenever he wanted to he never slides like he never
16:52
Speaker 5: just goes down easy he's always trying to i guess
16:55
Speaker 5: one protect himself but still get positive you know get
16:59
Speaker 5: an extra yard or two or threes he's so good
17:02
Speaker 5: at that i'm really.
17:04
Speaker 4: Happy that the bills are not on the steelers schedule.
17:06
Speaker 3: This year ed would you be surprised if i told
17:08
Speaker 3: you that josh allen leads the nfl in rushing touchdowns.
17:13
Speaker 5: No because when they get in close he just unbelievable
17:16
Speaker 5: it's just over eight It's kind of, it's, yeah, it's.
17:19
Speaker 4: Like the Eagles were with the push-push and Jalen Hurts.
17:22
Speaker 5: And I guess still are, but they're not getting close
17:24
Speaker 5: enough to the goal line as often as the Bills are. So, yeah,
17:29
Speaker 5: I mean, Josh Allen, once they get in there, I mean,
17:30
Speaker 5: it's just, there's really no hope of a goal line stand.
17:33
Speaker 5: You might as well just give them the six points
17:35
Speaker 5: and keep it pushing.
17:36
Speaker 3: Coming up at the 340 time today, in and around 340.
17:39
Speaker 3: These times aren't approximate.
17:41
Speaker 5: I say that, and I'm challenging every Bills opponent from
17:44
Speaker 5: here on out.
17:44
Speaker 4: I guess.
17:45
Speaker 2: Shut them down.
17:46
Speaker 7: Yep. Yep. Exactly.
17:47
Speaker 3: That would help the Steelers and the AFC, that's for sure.
17:50
Speaker 3: The Bills are now 4-1 on the season, and the
17:52
Speaker 3: Rams go to 2-3. So coming up today in and
17:55
Speaker 3: around 340 at the tail end of our show, Brian
17:57
Speaker 3: and I are going to go through the NFL for
17:58
Speaker 3: the first five weeks. We're going to talk about the
18:00
Speaker 3: undefeated teams, the defeated teams. There's three of them that
18:03
Speaker 3: have yet to win a game, all in the AFC,
18:07
Speaker 3: may we add. And then we'll also talk about the
18:09
Speaker 3: one-win teams, the one-loss teams, see where everyone stacks. And,
18:12
Speaker 3: of course, the Steelers, 3-2, will visit. the one in
18:15
Speaker 3: four Tampa Bay Bucs this upcoming Sunday. We'll continue to
18:18
Speaker 3: get you ready for Steelers Bucs as we navigate this week. Yesterday,
18:22
Speaker 3: we talked about the Mike McCarthy press conference to open
18:24
Speaker 3: up the show today, Double B, and some takeaways from
18:26
Speaker 3: an injury standpoint, though. Did Coach have any updates for us?
18:30
Speaker 3: We already talked a little bit about Rico and Deshaun Elliott.
18:33
Speaker 5: Just that the two receivers who went down in-game, Roman
18:37
Speaker 5: Wilson and Ben Skronic, not going to play this week.
18:39
Speaker 4: I don't think McCarthy had.
18:41
Speaker 5: Anything more to add on that front, so I guess
18:44
Speaker 5: he's the The good thing he's not rolling them out
18:46
Speaker 5: for Paris. But, yeah, they're not going to be available
18:52
Speaker 5: just yet. And as far as– I don't think he–
18:56
Speaker 5: no update yet on Jamel Dean, who was able to
18:59
Speaker 5: get a little bit of limited work, I think, last
19:01
Speaker 5: week in practice.
19:02
Speaker 2: It's always a good sign.
19:03
Speaker 4: Did he come in questionable or.
19:04
Speaker 5: Did they roll him out? I can't remember going into
19:07
Speaker 5: the game. No, I think they rolled him out on Friday. Yeah,
19:10
Speaker 5: the dudes who were questionable were. Jalen Ramsey was one
19:14
Speaker 5: of them, and he's obviously continuing to play through that
19:17
Speaker 5: wrist injury. And Rico Dowdle was questionable but did not
19:21
Speaker 5: suit up. Dean was rolled out.
19:24
Speaker 3: We'll get our first injury report of the week tomorrow
19:27
Speaker 3: on Wednesday of this week, so we'll see where those
19:29
Speaker 3: guys land going into Tampa Bay. I think it would
19:31
Speaker 3: be for Jamel Dean. a moment for him that he
19:34
Speaker 3: wants to get back on the field just overall but
19:37
Speaker 3: in particular this week because he gets to face his
19:39
Speaker 3: old team and remember on the other side of things
19:41
Speaker 3: Kenny Gamewell returns and plays the Steelers.
19:44
Speaker 4: As does Myles Killebrew.
19:45
Speaker 2: There you go, Killebrew. And Danny Smith.
19:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, as does Danny Smith.
19:48
Speaker 5: And right now, the Steelers special team struggling a little
19:52
Speaker 5: bit in terms of kick coverage and kick returns. This
19:56
Speaker 5: coming a week after Myles Killebrew forced a fumble on
19:59
Speaker 5: a kick coverage play against the Cowboys. That was a
20:01
Speaker 5: huge play, actually, in that game. Totally flipped the field
20:06
Speaker 5: and set up Tampa Bay.
20:08
Speaker 4: With a short field.
20:09
Speaker 5: So Myles Killebrew is still getting the job done at, man,
20:12
Speaker 5: how old is he now? He's probably in his 30s.
20:14
Speaker 5: He's getting up there in his NFL career, right? Yeah,
20:16
Speaker 5: and he was a special teams captain for a few
20:18
Speaker 5: years for the Steelers, very well-liked and well-respected around the
20:22
Speaker 5: locker room. I always enjoyed chatting with Myles Killebrew, and
20:25
Speaker 5: he's the right boat age of 33 now, and he's
20:29
Speaker 5: still running down there for the Bucs. I think he
20:31
Speaker 5: played some defensive snaps in that game, too, against the
20:33
Speaker 5: Cowboys out of necessity. Maybe a couple guys went down
20:36
Speaker 5: on the back end for Tampa Bay. But, yeah, he's
20:41
Speaker 5: still going strong. And, you know, it's good to see, too,
20:44
Speaker 5: because his 2025 season with the Steelers ended after five games.
20:47
Speaker 5: You know, significant knee injury. It's great that he's been
20:51
Speaker 5: able to get healthy and recover and return. And, yeah,
20:55
Speaker 5: he played four defensive snaps the other day. And he's,
21:00
Speaker 5: you know, 68% of the special team snaps for Tampa.
21:02
Speaker 5: So you'll see him out there.
21:03
Speaker 2: You know, speaking of special teams.
21:04
Speaker 4: Wearing 29.
21:05
Speaker 2: 29. You wore 29 here, didn't you?
21:07
Speaker 4: 28.
21:08
Speaker 2: Oh, look at you. You know you're my numbers guy.
21:10
Speaker 4: I've got it in front of me, but yeah.
21:13
Speaker 2: Come on, Brian Backer. I knew you knew that off
21:15
Speaker 2: by hand.
21:16
Speaker 3: Listen, it's important for us to know the states where
21:19
Speaker 3: they're from, or were born, we should say, and also
21:22
Speaker 3: their numbers. So if you're a fan of our show,
21:24
Speaker 3: you know what I'm talking about from this past offseason.
21:25
Speaker 7: If you know, you know.
21:26
Speaker 2: If you know, you know.
21:28
Speaker 3: But let me ask you from a special teams, and
21:29
Speaker 3: we're going to hear from Patrick Graham here in a second,
21:31
Speaker 3: defensive coordinator for the Steelers, but before we get to.
21:33
Speaker 2: That, Special teams, what's more important?
21:35
Speaker 3: They're both very important, but what do you think is
21:37
Speaker 3: more important for the Steelers to clean up? Is it
21:39
Speaker 3: the return average getting Weege in just to get more
21:43
Speaker 3: return yardage out of these returns on kickoffs or even
21:47
Speaker 3: punt returns for that matter? But I think kickoff's probably
21:49
Speaker 3: a little bit more glaring right now. And then on
21:51
Speaker 3: the opposite side, the coverage on kickoffs, Brian, I feel
21:53
Speaker 3: like they've just given up field position so much this
21:57
Speaker 3: season to their opponent where they're starting these drives, you know,
22:00
Speaker 3: 40-yard line or better than that.
22:02
Speaker 5: I think it's the coverage because right now your defense
22:05
Speaker 5: is dealing with a little more in terms of figuring
22:08
Speaker 5: out who the personnel is that you need and how
22:12
Speaker 5: you can play with that personnel, at least in the
22:14
Speaker 5: kick return game. I mean, if you don't get a
22:17
Speaker 5: good one from Caden Weege in this offense has shown
22:21
Speaker 5: a tendency.
22:22
Speaker 4: To put together drives, also get explosive plays.
22:26
Speaker 7: Right.
22:26
Speaker 5: So maybe that's a little less concerning. But, yeah, you'd
22:29
Speaker 5: like to see both improve here going into week six.
22:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you.
22:32
Speaker 3: I think it's the kickoff coverage for sure that the
22:35
Speaker 3: Steelers got to get right on. They got to get
22:36
Speaker 3: better because there's been too many times this year where they,
22:39
Speaker 3: even against the Colts where they hold them to a
22:40
Speaker 3: field goal, you know, you feel good about your defense,
22:44
Speaker 3: what they're doing. They're not giving up touchdowns. Then, you know,
22:46
Speaker 3: the offense comes down, they score a touchdown.
22:48
Speaker 2: They have all the momentum, they kick it off. And
22:50
Speaker 2: then the other team gets a good return.
22:52
Speaker 5: Tampa Bay has had some really good kick returns already
22:54
Speaker 5: this season with Danny Smith leading the way. So that's
22:58
Speaker 5: going to be a, A game within the game to
23:00
Speaker 5: watch from the special teams phase of things.
23:02
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sure he'll be fired up as well as Killebrew,
23:04
Speaker 3: among others, to have a good game against their former team.
23:08
Speaker 3: Let's hear from Patrick Graham, who spoke yesterday about where
23:11
Speaker 3: the Steelers sit after the first five weeks of the season.
23:13
Speaker 3: And again, Coach Graham returning to the sidelines from the
23:16
Speaker 3: booth after the first four games of the season.
23:20
Speaker 8: Like most decisions, just what we thought was best. And,
23:22
Speaker 8: you know, Coach had been leaning towards that since the beginning, so...
23:27
Speaker 8: you know, and made that move. And it was, it
23:29
Speaker 8: was fun to be down there to feel the energy,
23:33
Speaker 8: communicate directly with the players and more importantly, it was
23:37
Speaker 8: just fun to be on a football field for a
23:39
Speaker 8: football game. And just, you know, obviously my, it's not
23:42
Speaker 8: the first time I've done it in my career.
23:44
Speaker 7: So it was a lot of fun. It was a
23:46
Speaker 7: lot of fun.
23:47
Speaker 5: How's it going to change your workflow as far as?
23:52
Speaker 7: For me, it's just, I adjust my call sheet. It
23:55
Speaker 7: looks a little different.
23:57
Speaker 8: You know, I remember when I was a young coordinator,
23:58
Speaker 8: I would go out there with the Denny's menu. It
24:00
Speaker 8: had the big thing and just trying to move around
24:02
Speaker 8: with it. Now, you know, just got it down. I'm
24:06
Speaker 8: taking notes from Flo, but I don't got quite as
24:09
Speaker 8: small as Flo has his because my eyes are probably worse.
24:13
Speaker 8: But it's pretty small. And just my cadence in terms
24:17
Speaker 8: of during the week, I just changed it up a
24:19
Speaker 8: little bit differently than how it.
24:20
Speaker 7: Would be up at the top. But I was comfortable.
24:26
Speaker 2: Coach Graham talking about his return to the sideline.
24:28
Speaker 3: How about him with the hat on backwards for the
24:31
Speaker 3: press conference?
24:31
Speaker 2: Are you a hat backwards type guy? I mean, Brian Backo,
24:34
Speaker 2: you're a big hat guy.
24:34
Speaker 3: You're not wearing one today because you did TV earlier
24:36
Speaker 3: today for Steelers.com. But are you backwards or frontwards hat?
24:40
Speaker 3: I've seen you do both.
24:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, both, but I've become more of a front-facing hat guy.
24:45
Speaker 5: Some of the Steelers hats are just more made, I think,
24:49
Speaker 5: to face with the bill. toward the front. But if
24:53
Speaker 5: you've got a, if you've got a snap back, I
24:55
Speaker 5: think it lends itself to the backwards hat. Now, granted,
24:58
Speaker 5: Patrick Graham's going fitted cap backwards.
25:01
Speaker 2: That looks better.
25:02
Speaker 1: Yeah.
25:02
Speaker 5: Um, well, that's, that's his look, I guess. And, you know,
25:07
Speaker 5: Patrick Graham was hyped to be on the field the
25:09
Speaker 5: other day. And, uh, you know, he, I enjoyed listening
25:13
Speaker 5: to his take on, uh, the good and bad of
25:16
Speaker 5: being in the booth versus being on the field. And,
25:19
Speaker 5: you know, he brings a certain, uh, sagacity to the
25:22
Speaker 5: equation as a Yale educated guy who's, you know, got
25:25
Speaker 5: the X's and O's down, but I think the juices
25:27
Speaker 5: get flown when you're down there with the fellas.
25:30
Speaker 2: No doubt. And like I said yesterday on the show,
25:32
Speaker 2: whether you're talking.
25:33
Speaker 4: Sagacity is my uncle Tommy word of the week, by
25:35
Speaker 4: the way.
25:36
Speaker 2: It's early in the week. You got a lot of
25:38
Speaker 2: week left for you and uncle Tommy.
25:39
Speaker 4: Or maybe word of the day.
25:40
Speaker 2: Maybe word of the day. I was going to say,
25:41
Speaker 2: we got a lot of week left here for more
25:43
Speaker 2: uncle Tommy words.
25:44
Speaker 3: Uh, but. I can give you five reasons, Brian, and
25:48
Speaker 3: coaches can, I should say, not so much me, but
25:50
Speaker 3: coaches can give you five reasons why it's good to
25:52
Speaker 3: be on the sideline and also another five that it's
25:54
Speaker 3: good to be in the booth, and that's from the NFL, college,
25:56
Speaker 3: and even high school for that matter. But it's good
25:58
Speaker 3: to see you on the sideline, especially from a communication
26:01
Speaker 3: standpoint because you're right there, you're involved in game, and
26:04
Speaker 3: you can address things relatively quickly rather than having a
26:07
Speaker 3: player come over, grab a headset like we've seen in
26:10
Speaker 3: the past with T.J. Watt and company.
26:12
Speaker 7: You got to tell them. Okay.
26:14
Speaker 8: I mean, when I say headbutt, I'm not going like
26:16
Speaker 8: player headbutt. It's like a little tap. But, you know,
26:19
Speaker 8: just let them know I'm tapped into. You know, just,
26:21
Speaker 8: you know, it was funny. I was watching college football
26:26
Speaker 8: Saturday night while I was doing my prep for the
26:29
Speaker 8: games and stuff. And then, you know, you start to
26:31
Speaker 8: feel it like, oh, I'm going to be on the field.
26:33
Speaker 8: And you start watching the game. And that's the fun
26:35
Speaker 8: part about it. That's why we probably all keep chasing
26:38
Speaker 8: these jobs when we get older, even though we probably
26:40
Speaker 8: should retire in a few years.
26:41
Speaker 7: But.
26:42
Speaker 8: It's like, you know, you start feeling like being on
26:43
Speaker 8: the field. And I'm like, I remember Saturday night, I
26:47
Speaker 8: was like, I'm going to be on the field Sunday,
26:48
Speaker 8: giddy up. So I started getting excited, almost like when,
26:51
Speaker 8: you know, when I played sparingly. But I was thinking
26:56
Speaker 8: about that.
26:57
Speaker 7: So in the moment, sometimes that happens.
26:58
Speaker 4: So what was the decision for you to be up
27:00
Speaker 4: top to begin with?
27:02
Speaker 8: I mean, I felt comfortable doing that as well. That's,
27:05
Speaker 8: you know, just when it would be up there, it's
27:08
Speaker 8: a lot. For me, in my personality on game day,
27:13
Speaker 8: it fits me pretty good. So, like, you know, that's
27:16
Speaker 8: why just the years I've done both, I like it
27:19
Speaker 8: up there in the booth.
27:20
Speaker 5: PQ was saying that there were times when either he
27:22
Speaker 5: or Jalen Ramsey was coming up to you and getting
27:24
Speaker 5: that face-to-face communication, bouncing things.
27:25
Speaker 7: Off of you.
27:26
Speaker 5: What were some instances where you felt like it was
27:29
Speaker 5: beneficial to have that face-to-face communication within the game?
27:32
Speaker 8: I mean, even the last play of the game, it
27:33
Speaker 8: was just, you know, the thing that we're trying to build–
27:39
Speaker 8: And whether it's myself and the assistant coaches, the players,
27:43
Speaker 8: all that, trying to spend so much time together, can
27:46
Speaker 8: we anticipate what we're going to do? So, you know,
27:49
Speaker 8: you saw that play before when they got the timeout,
27:52
Speaker 8: like we had a certain look. And as soon as
27:54
Speaker 8: I'm thinking about saying it, they're looking right at me
27:56
Speaker 8: saying the next call.
27:58
Speaker 7: I'm like, yep, you're right.
28:02
Speaker 8: So like I saw their faces, they saw mine. That's
28:05
Speaker 8: exactly what we're going to do. Everybody thumbs up and
28:08
Speaker 8: rock and roll. So that was that input that, you know,
28:12
Speaker 8: just in terms of just each other just communicating with
28:15
Speaker 8: one another and just knowing, anticipating the next move.
28:19
Speaker 3: Brian, I think it's very important to have veterans like
28:22
Speaker 3: Jalen Ramsey, TJ Watt, Cam Hayward on a football team,
28:25
Speaker 3: but also that they have enough confidence in their defensive
28:28
Speaker 3: coordinator and he has enough confidence in them that they
28:30
Speaker 3: can make that in-game adjustments or call and just look
28:33
Speaker 3: at each other and give a thumbs up.
28:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, and it was Friday after practice that Jalen Ramsey
28:37
Speaker 5: used the word. A little bit of a disconnect right
28:39
Speaker 5: now between the coaches and players. They probably just naturally
28:42
Speaker 5: feel more connected when they're down there face-to-face, and Patrick
28:46
Speaker 5: Graham can go over some things right then and there.
28:49
Speaker 5: Mike McCarthy said he thought the defensive lines were good,
28:52
Speaker 5: and he didn't mean Cam Hayward, Keanu Benton, and Y.A.
28:56
Speaker 7: Black.
28:56
Speaker 5: I think he meant the literal lines of communication for
28:59
Speaker 5: who was on the headset and what they were able
29:02
Speaker 5: to transmit information wise, as far as a, this formation
29:06
Speaker 5: against this personnel grouping, because that is the, the obvious
29:10
Speaker 5: plus to being up top is you have that.
29:12
Speaker 4: Bird's eye view of everything.
29:14
Speaker 5: And when you're at field level, like I think Graham's
29:17
Speaker 5: even said, like when you're a field level, like you
29:18
Speaker 5: can't even really see what's going on in the game,
29:20
Speaker 5: but that's why you got to trust your players. And
29:23
Speaker 5: they do have such a veteran laden team to, to
29:26
Speaker 5: help do that. Like, I just think naturally you're going
29:28
Speaker 5: to take Jalen Ramsey's word for something or TJ Watts
29:30
Speaker 5: word for something a little more than a rookie DB
29:34
Speaker 5: or a second-year linebacker. So, yeah, Graham's been laying the
29:38
Speaker 5: foundation for this going all the way back to when
29:40
Speaker 5: he got hired. He talked a lot in the spring
29:43
Speaker 5: and the summer about establishing personal relationships with the players
29:48
Speaker 5: and getting to know what makes them tick as people
29:51
Speaker 5: so that when you do come to this point in
29:53
Speaker 5: the season, I think you can really hit the ground
29:55
Speaker 5: running from a football standpoint even as some things are
29:58
Speaker 5: changing and swirling around you.
30:00
Speaker 3: I think it speaks volumes to the Steelers organization that
30:03
Speaker 3: we feel uneasy this week because of the lack of
30:06
Speaker 3: a pass rush and sack number. But you won the game,
30:08
Speaker 3: and you held your opponent to fill goals. So when
30:10
Speaker 3: you look at that, Brian, you're in good shape. But
30:12
Speaker 3: we've just come to be used to in and around
30:16
Speaker 3: this city, going back to the 70s, the 90s, and
30:18
Speaker 3: the 2000s, that this team lives and dies on sacks
30:22
Speaker 3: and getting home to the quarterback.
30:23
Speaker 2: But now maybe things are changing.
30:25
Speaker 7: I don't know.
30:26
Speaker 2: I guess we'll see how this season plays out. But
30:28
Speaker 2: a win's a win.
30:29
Speaker 3: You hold your opponent to, what, five fill goals and
30:32
Speaker 3: not give up touchdowns, but yet you only have one
30:34
Speaker 3: sack on the day, and it comes from Cam Hayward,
30:36
Speaker 3: who's not an edge rusher.
30:37
Speaker 5: I think if there's one thing to be encouraged about
30:38
Speaker 5: what the defense add to your point, they've won three
30:41
Speaker 5: games this year. Two of them have come with the classic,
30:44
Speaker 5: you know, TJ watt wrecks the game with a huge
30:47
Speaker 5: interception return for a touchdown. The other one is Derek
30:50
Speaker 5: Harmon ends the game with a strip sack fumble on
30:53
Speaker 5: Joe burrow, no takeaways in this latest game, but they
30:57
Speaker 5: found a way to just be stout against the run
30:59
Speaker 5: of Jonathan Taylor.
31:00
Speaker 4: And they took.
31:01
Speaker 5: Away the, the big passes when the Colts were really
31:03
Speaker 5: trying to hit those. So it's a, They're finding ways
31:06
Speaker 5: to win defensively right now while this group is kind
31:09
Speaker 5: of a work in progress.
31:10
Speaker 3: We will flip a coin when we come back and
31:12
Speaker 3: see if we want to hear from Brian Angelico or
31:14
Speaker 3: Danny Crossman. Maybe we'll hear from both, time permitting. But
31:17
Speaker 3: who will we start with? We'll let Brian Bakko decide that.
31:19
Speaker 3: Maybe we will flip a coin.
31:20
Speaker 2: Who knows? We'll figure it out. He is Bakko. I'm Troop.
31:23
Speaker 3: It is the Steelers Report right here on Steelers Nation Radio,
31:26
Speaker 3: part of the Steelers Audio Network.
31:35
Speaker 7: This is the.
31:36
Speaker 1: Steelers Report with Brian Bacco and Ed Troup on Steelers
31:40
Speaker 1: Nation Radio, a part of the Steelers Audio Network.
31:45
Speaker 3: A peek behind the scenes just to give our listening
31:47
Speaker 3: audience this. I have lowered my chair here in our studio.
31:51
Speaker 3: Normally I'm up high.
31:52
Speaker 2: Brian Bacco goes low.
31:53
Speaker 3: He's relaxed. I'm running the controls here. I like to
31:57
Speaker 3: be up in the air.
31:58
Speaker 2: I can see everything. Well, now I've lowered a little
32:01
Speaker 2: low rider, if you will.
32:03
Speaker 3: I kind of give you like that Today Show 60
32:05
Speaker 3: Minutes type look where I have my leg crossed, I
32:08
Speaker 3: got my hand up on my face, Brian, and I'm
32:10
Speaker 3: getting more in-depth with you about the Pittsburgh Steelers.
32:14
Speaker 4: Fireside chat.
32:15
Speaker 2: Fireside chat.
32:16
Speaker 5: Every Monday, I sit in the media room at the
32:19
Speaker 5: Southside facility, UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, and Mike McCarthy's up
32:24
Speaker 5: there at the podium, and then the coordinators are too,
32:26
Speaker 5: and I'm always like kind of, Not always. Sometimes in
32:28
Speaker 5: the back of my head, I'm like, how's my posture today?
32:30
Speaker 5: Is it weird if I'm like sitting all the way
32:33
Speaker 5: upright and stiff? But you don't also want to be
32:36
Speaker 5: like slobby guy like in the second row, like leaning
32:39
Speaker 5: back in your chair like it's eighth period chemistry and
32:42
Speaker 5: you just.
32:43
Speaker 4: Want to be done with the day.
32:44
Speaker 5: So, yeah, you know, I go back and forth on that.
32:49
Speaker 5: But as long as I'm listening attentively, getting in the
32:53
Speaker 5: occasional question, you know, we're we're doing all right.
32:57
Speaker 2: I'm with you.
32:57
Speaker 4: The Pittsburgh media, though, is voracious.
33:01
Speaker 5: The questions, I'm sure you guys all hear it at
33:04
Speaker 5: home sometimes when we play interviews, people shouting over one another.
33:09
Speaker 4: It gets aggressive.
33:11
Speaker 2: It seems like it. Everybody's battling for a spot.
33:14
Speaker 3: It seems like Jerry Dulac, though, your old colleague over
33:16
Speaker 3: there at the Post-Gazette, and currently.
33:18
Speaker 2: Here on SNR.
33:18
Speaker 4: He's usually the lid lifter.
33:20
Speaker 2: He's number one, usually, right? He leads with the question.
33:23
Speaker 4: He sits in the very first seat, so.
33:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're kind of much like in school back in
33:28
Speaker 5: the day, first person called upon, right?
33:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it. He certainly earned it.
33:32
Speaker 3: Jerry's one of the legends, one of my favorites in
33:34
Speaker 3: and around the Pittsburgh media, that's for sure. And you
33:35
Speaker 3: can hear Jerry right here on Steelers Nation Radio Tuesday
33:38
Speaker 3: nights out at the Market District with our good friend
33:42
Speaker 3: Jack Sawyer. I always call everyone our good friend. We
33:44
Speaker 3: don't even know Jack Sawyer, but that's tonight. Yep, Tuesday
33:46
Speaker 3: night for Chalk Talk out at the Robinson Market District.
33:51
Speaker 3: Had my son Brendan out there last week. We had
33:53
Speaker 3: a great time. Double B, so I encourage the listening
33:56
Speaker 3: audience to go check that out if you get an opportunity.
33:58
Speaker 3: You can also hear Jerry on the pregame show as
34:00
Speaker 3: well with Mike Persuta and Bob Labriola.
34:02
Speaker 5: Speaking of Jack Sawyer, we brought this up last week
34:05
Speaker 5: when we were promoting Chalk Talk. Another week of one
34:09
Speaker 5: of those 2024 Ohio State Buckeye National Champions will play
34:15
Speaker 5: a prominent role in this game. Emeka Igbuka for the
34:19
Speaker 5: Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So he's on that list of guys
34:23
Speaker 5: with Will Howard, Jack Sawyer. Shoot, who was it this
34:27
Speaker 5: past week for the Colts? Tui Omolau, JT Tui Omolau,
34:31
Speaker 5: who had a big pass rush against Troy Faltano. I
34:34
Speaker 5: think he was the guy that Aaron Rodgers spun away from, actually,
34:37
Speaker 5: and hit that big third down throw to Jeremy Bernard.
34:40
Speaker 2: He did.
34:41
Speaker 5: He was the bookend to Jack Sawyer. Maybe Jerry can
34:43
Speaker 5: ask Jack about that tonight. Why didn't you warn Troy
34:46
Speaker 5: Faltano about the long arm? you know, you spent all
34:52
Speaker 5: of those years with Tui Omolau in the same D
34:54
Speaker 5: lineman room, give them the game. But no, I'm just kidding.
34:57
Speaker 5: I mean, Faltani tried to snatch and trap his arms,
35:00
Speaker 5: but he missed. And when you miss, you're, you're going
35:03
Speaker 5: to be in a world of hurt against the player
35:04
Speaker 5: with the, the type of strength and pedigree of Tui Omolau. Uh,
35:08
Speaker 5: the week before is Quinshawn Judkins. The week before that,
35:12
Speaker 5: it was, uh, maybe nobody from the Bengals, but the,
35:14
Speaker 5: the Patriots had Travion Henderson.
35:16
Speaker 4: So the list goes on and.
35:18
Speaker 2: On and on.
35:18
Speaker 5: And, uh, Egbuka is going to be a tough guy
35:22
Speaker 5: to stop Sunday in Tampa.
35:24
Speaker 3: Seems like he's starting to heat up, too, as the
35:25
Speaker 3: season's gone on.
35:26
Speaker 5: He's clearly surpassed Chris Godwin, I think, in that receiving core.
35:30
Speaker 2: Oh, I think so.
35:31
Speaker 4: And obviously they traded Mike Evans.
35:32
Speaker 5: Away this offseason and kind of cleared the lane for
35:35
Speaker 5: Emeka Egbuka. You're seeing that Egbuka turns 24 tomorrow, by
35:40
Speaker 5: the way, so I won't wish him a happy birthday.
35:44
Speaker 2: He doesn't make your birthday wishes.
35:45
Speaker 5: Sure, he's a swell guy, but he's not making my...
35:48
Speaker 5: My list, not Tampa Steelers week, that's for sure. But
35:52
Speaker 5: I was going to say, it seems like a lot
35:53
Speaker 5: of teams are clearing the way for Ohio State wideouts
35:57
Speaker 5: to take on a bigger role. Seattle did that for
35:59
Speaker 5: Jackson Smith and Jigba. Then it was Marvin Harrison Jr.
36:03
Speaker 5: Was he in between JSN and Ibuka, I think?
36:08
Speaker 4: I mean, they all probably overlapped, but I think in
36:10
Speaker 4: terms of draft year, he was in between those two.
36:12
Speaker 2: I think so, because he was, what, two years ago?
36:13
Speaker 4: Because he's in year three, I think.
36:14
Speaker 2: This is year three, yeah, it was two years ago.
36:15
Speaker 4: Now he's off to Houston. The Steelers will face him
36:18
Speaker 4: later this season.
36:19
Speaker 7: They will.
36:20
Speaker 4: Another Buckeye.
36:22
Speaker 2: There you go.
36:22
Speaker 5: We'll see if he assimilates into that Texans offense and
36:25
Speaker 5: is another wrinkle when the Steelers welcome H-Town to Pittsburgh. But, yeah,
36:32
Speaker 5: Jack Sawyer, Jerry Dulac tonight. I'm sure it'll be another
36:35
Speaker 5: great show for them.
36:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, last week they talked about during the broadcast a
36:39
Speaker 3: lot of those Ohio State playmakers that you were speaking of,
36:41
Speaker 3: Double B.
36:43
Speaker 2: And, yes, the Steelers will continue.
36:44
Speaker 5: Oh, and also from a college football standpoint, in case
36:46
Speaker 5: you missed it, Jeremiah Smith's still pretty good.
36:49
Speaker 3: Well, I was going to tell you as well, there's
36:50
Speaker 3: a few teams, and we're going to talk about it
36:52
Speaker 3: coming up at the tail end of the show today
36:53
Speaker 3: at 340, when we'll take a peek at the standings
36:56
Speaker 3: so far through the first five weeks of the season
36:58
Speaker 3: that are now competing, potentially, to draft him next year.
37:02
Speaker 3: Some winless teams, and they're all in the AFC. So
37:05
Speaker 3: attention Titans, attention even the Arizona Cardinals, for that matter,
37:10
Speaker 3: in the NFC.
37:10
Speaker 2: Only a one-win team so far.
37:12
Speaker 4: It is Jerry Rice's birthday today, though. October 13th. Another
37:15
Speaker 4: good legend.
37:16
Speaker 2: Do you have any non-wide receiver birthdays?
37:19
Speaker 4: Brian Dawkins from the Eagles.
37:22
Speaker 7: He was a good one.
37:23
Speaker 4: Jarvis Jones, former Steeler, edge rusher.
37:26
Speaker 2: Is Jones still in the NFL?
37:28
Speaker 4: He is not. He's long gone, Ed. I think he's
37:31
Speaker 4: coaching somewhere, actually.
37:33
Speaker 2: He's on a practice squad or something?
37:35
Speaker 5: No, I think those are the big ones for today. But, yeah,
37:41
Speaker 5: Jerry Rice, best receiver ever. I mean, you grew up
37:43
Speaker 5: watching him more than I did, obviously.
37:46
Speaker 7: I did.
37:46
Speaker 6: I did.
37:47
Speaker 5: So how do you compare him to, like, we're getting
37:49
Speaker 5: off on a tangent now, but me as a younger.
37:51
Speaker 2: Danny Crossman is waiting anxiously to hear.
37:53
Speaker 5: Me as a younger guy, though, and generation of watching
37:56
Speaker 5: late 90s, early 2000s NFL when I was coming up,
37:59
Speaker 5: I'm always kind of like, man, it's hard for me
38:01
Speaker 5: to imagine a receiver could be more dynamic than Randy
38:04
Speaker 5: Moss was with his combination of size and speed, but
38:07
Speaker 5: I guess Jerry Rice was pretty much uncoverable in his prime.
38:10
Speaker 2: Man, Megatron with the Detroit Lions.
38:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, even Megatron, exactly.
38:13
Speaker 2: I mean, there's some good ones. But Jerry Rice.
38:17
Speaker 4: Just so smooth, wasn't he?
38:18
Speaker 2: Yes, in the 80s in Joe Montana.
38:22
Speaker 3: I mean, the Montana-Rice connection was just money back in
38:28
Speaker 3: the day. I mean, you figure the 49ers won what, five?
38:31
Speaker 3: I think all five Super Bowls were with those guys, right?
38:33
Speaker 2: Well, no, it would have been.
38:35
Speaker 7: Three.
38:36
Speaker 4: Three Super Bowls, yeah.
38:37
Speaker 7: Three.
38:38
Speaker 2: They would have won the three.
38:39
Speaker 5: He had good size, too, at 6'2, 200, and he's
38:43
Speaker 5: 64 today is Jerry Rice.
38:45
Speaker 2: And he went 64. My goodness, I'm getting old.
38:48
Speaker 3: Jerry Rice went on to play for the Raiders and
38:50
Speaker 3: had some success there, too, even the latter part of
38:52
Speaker 3: his career.
38:53
Speaker 4: As did Randy Moss, actually.
38:54
Speaker 5: And he finished off his career with the Seahawks, which
38:57
Speaker 5: is always one of those weird– what's a weirder image,
38:59
Speaker 5: Franco Harris in a Seahawks jersey or Jerry Rice in
39:02
Speaker 5: a Seahawks jersey?
39:02
Speaker 2: I think Jerry– Well, Franco Harris. Here locally.
39:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, here in Pittsburgh.
39:06
Speaker 2: Here in Pittsburgh.
39:06
Speaker 3: Maybe nationally, the rice part of it, but at least
39:09
Speaker 3: here locally, I would say Franco Harris.
39:12
Speaker 2: Okay, let's finally hear. I was going to say we're
39:14
Speaker 2: going to flip a coin, but here's the thing.
39:16
Speaker 3: I got Danny Crossman already queued up for us, Brian Batko.
39:19
Speaker 3: So if you want to go with Brian Angelico, he
39:22
Speaker 3: was the first coordinator to speak yesterday.
39:24
Speaker 2: I'd have to go all the way back to cue
39:25
Speaker 2: that up.
39:26
Speaker 3: I got Danny Crossman ready to go because he was
39:28
Speaker 3: after Patrick Graham.
39:29
Speaker 2: Let's flip the coin.
39:30
Speaker 3: The coin comes down and it says special teams coordinator
39:33
Speaker 3: Danny Crossman is up.
39:35
Speaker 2: He spoke to the media yesterday. Let's hear what Coach
39:37
Speaker 2: Crossman had to say.
39:39
Speaker 6: Danny, they had a pretty big kick return against you
39:44
Speaker 6: guys yesterday.
39:44
Speaker 4: What are you seeing that needs to.
39:46
Speaker 7: Be cleaned up? That was a Any bad play, I
39:49
Speaker 7: always start with me.
39:50
Speaker 6: It was a call that was not a great call
39:53
Speaker 6: based on the return they happened to run. I was
39:56
Speaker 6: thinking something else.
39:58
Speaker 7: Good for them. They made a good play.
40:00
Speaker 6: There's things that we need to do better with some
40:02
Speaker 6: avoidance and some leverage and some presses. When we have
40:05
Speaker 6: opportunities to make tackles, we've got to do that. We
40:08
Speaker 6: missed a couple of other tackles, other spots.
40:10
Speaker 4: In the game.
40:12
Speaker 6: You don't ever want to start the game like that.
40:15
Speaker 6: After a big play, To give up field position like that,
40:18
Speaker 6: put the defense in a bind, obviously they did a
40:19
Speaker 6: good job to get the stop, but that's got to
40:22
Speaker 6: get eliminated. You look around the league and those things,
40:27
Speaker 6: they're never going to put you in a good position. Again,
40:32
Speaker 6: for them, good call for them against us and against
40:34
Speaker 6: that call, so bad.
40:36
Speaker 7: Call by me.
40:37
Speaker 3: Danny Crossman acknowledging the mistakes that were made on the
40:41
Speaker 3: kickoff coverage.
40:42
Speaker 2: At least it's good that he's putting that out there, Brian.
40:44
Speaker 2: He knows it. They know it. It's something that he
40:46
Speaker 2: definitely have to clean up going forward.
40:49
Speaker 7: Yeah.
40:49
Speaker 5: And, you know, Anthony Gold for the Colts really got
40:52
Speaker 5: loose on that return. And I mentioned it earlier, but
40:56
Speaker 5: I'll pull up the, you know, specific statistics for Tampa Bay.
41:02
Speaker 5: You know, they don't have a kick return touchdown this season,
41:07
Speaker 5: but they've done some damage in that realm because they've
41:12
Speaker 5: got kickoff returns of 48, 47, and 40 yards already
41:16
Speaker 5: this year, all from three different players. Cameron Johnson's their
41:21
Speaker 5: main guy on that front, but Kenny Gainwell has a
41:23
Speaker 5: 40-yard kick return himself, and that tells you that they've
41:28
Speaker 5: got some guys with some juice back there returning and
41:31
Speaker 5: some vision, but they also are just doing a good
41:33
Speaker 5: job scheme-wise to block that up.
41:35
Speaker 2: So in other words, they really got to clean it
41:38
Speaker 2: up rather quick.
41:39
Speaker 7: Yeah.
41:39
Speaker 2: Because what's coming around the bend.
41:41
Speaker 3: Seems to be doing pretty well so far this season.
41:45
Speaker 7: There's a lot of elements involved in it.
41:47
Speaker 6: I think that we're making progress in some areas. We
41:50
Speaker 6: just got to get it all tied together on each
41:52
Speaker 6: individual play. So you have one little breakdown. It can
41:57
Speaker 6: be a disaster play where if that doesn't happen, you
42:00
Speaker 6: think you've got an opportunity for a good play. So
42:02
Speaker 6: like I said before, until we get those plays, the
42:06
Speaker 6: getting better, it's got to show on Sunday. So that's
42:09
Speaker 6: what we keep working for. It's fundamentals, techniques, but little
42:12
Speaker 6: things become big things, both good and bad. So we
42:15
Speaker 6: just got to keep working on those fundamentals and techniques
42:17
Speaker 6: and hopefully keep grinding and get a result because that's
42:22
Speaker 6: what it's all about.
42:23
Speaker 4: You guys have worked a lot with the rookies on
42:26
Speaker 4: special teams.
42:27
Speaker 5: What stood out about the way that group collectively has
42:29
Speaker 5: continued to progress and grow over the.
42:31
Speaker 7: Course of the year?
42:32
Speaker 6: Obviously, it's a good class.
42:34
Speaker 7: It's a good group.
42:36
Speaker 6: We've had some of those guys really performing at a
42:39
Speaker 6: really high level going forward. Maybe some other guys need
42:43
Speaker 6: to step up and perform at those levels. We'll look
42:45
Speaker 6: at where we're at with the roster and those kinds
42:47
Speaker 6: of things going forward. Again, a group that loves football,
42:51
Speaker 6: and it all starts with that. They play hard, so
42:54
Speaker 6: we're happy to have all of them. Obviously, keep working
42:57
Speaker 6: with them, just like we do every guy on the roster.
42:59
Speaker 6: We've talked about it since training camp. It's Once we
43:03
Speaker 6: got to 53, it's not only the 53, it's the
43:05
Speaker 6: practice squad guys.
43:06
Speaker 7: You've seen this.
43:06
Speaker 6: We've had elevations every week. So every guy is available.
43:12
Speaker 6: Sometimes we know it early. Sometimes it happens late in
43:14
Speaker 6: the week. So you've got to keep prepping every guy
43:16
Speaker 6: with that possibility that you could be active any week
43:19
Speaker 6: at any time. It could happen on Tuesday.
43:21
Speaker 7: You may have an idea.
43:22
Speaker 6: It may not happen until Friday or Saturday.
43:24
Speaker 2: Coach Danny Crossman agrees with us, Double B.
43:26
Speaker 3: He likes this rookie class and how they're contributing to
43:29
Speaker 3: this football team.
43:30
Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy said that yesterday, too.
43:31
Speaker 3: I had to laugh when he said, look, everybody likes
43:33
Speaker 3: their draft class on the night of the draft.
43:35
Speaker 4: I'm glad you said that because that's so true.
43:37
Speaker 3: Yeah you know nobody's not going to hate the players
43:39
Speaker 3: they just drafted but these players are making an impact
43:42
Speaker 3: on special teams that's normally the spot where rookies cut
43:45
Speaker 3: their teeth though this rookie class is also cutting their
43:48
Speaker 3: teeth in game as well um but either way you
43:51
Speaker 3: got to get better uh and you got it all
43:53
Speaker 3: starts with danny crossman the coach he's admitting that and
43:56
Speaker 3: they got to clean up that.
43:57
Speaker 2: Kickoff coverage, but also the return.
43:59
Speaker 3: They need to do a better job returning the football, too.
44:02
Speaker 3: And I think Caden Weijin, who they invested a lot
44:04
Speaker 3: in picking him in the fourth round from Iowa, has
44:07
Speaker 3: to start, you know, moving that.
44:09
Speaker 2: Needle a little bit more.
44:11
Speaker 5: And, you know, Jeremy Bernard not playing on special teams. Obviously,
44:13
Speaker 5: he's just kind of focusing on the offensive side of things.
44:16
Speaker 5: And Maxi Honachor is an offensive lineman. But, yeah, I mean,
44:20
Speaker 5: it's been good to see Robert Spears Jennings, of course,
44:23
Speaker 5: pitching in there. Riley Nowakowski on special teams quite a bit,
44:28
Speaker 5: even Daylon Everett here and there, and Gabriel Rubio doing
44:32
Speaker 5: some of the dirty work, given that he had a helmet,
44:35
Speaker 5: as he should be. But the Steelers still have some
44:39
Speaker 5: stalwart guys on special teams, whether that's Nick Herbig.
44:44
Speaker 4: He played 10 special team snaps.
44:47
Speaker 5: Jack Sawyer's less so involved in the defense, but he
44:53
Speaker 5: plays a bunch of snaps on special teams. Peyton Wilson
44:55
Speaker 5: still plays on special teams here and there. So, I mean,
44:58
Speaker 5: this isn't a, this isn't an organization where it's like, Hey,
45:01
Speaker 5: once you get to a certain point, you know, you're,
45:03
Speaker 5: you're never going to help out on the third phase
45:04
Speaker 5: of the game.
45:05
Speaker 4: No, it's, it's still, it's still vital.
45:07
Speaker 2: That's going to do it for our number one.
45:08
Speaker 3: When we come back, we'll kick off the 3 o'clock
45:10
Speaker 3: hour with our top ten moments and plays from Colts
45:15
Speaker 3: Steelers this past Sunday.
45:17
Speaker 2: I'm E.T.
45:18
Speaker 4: He's B.B.
45:19
Speaker 3: It is the Steelers Report right here on Steelers Nation Radio,
45:22
Speaker 3: part of the Steelers Audio Network.