Latest / The Irish Steelers Podcast / Off-season chat with Matt Williamson
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Irish airline aer Lingus will proudly serve as the presenting
- 0:03Speaker 1: partner of Steelers Ireland twenty twenty five. Airlingus's growth in
- 0:07Speaker 1: North America continues in twenty twenty five as the airline
- 0:09Speaker 1: prepares to fly to two new US destinations, Nashville and Indianapolis,
- 0:14Speaker 1: using its new Airbus eight three twenty one xl or aircraft.
- 0:18Speaker 2: This brings the number.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Of transatlantic routes operated by the airline from Dublin, Shannon
- 0:22Speaker 1: and Manchester to twenty four. Steelers fans traveling to Ireland
- 0:26Speaker 1: for the Big Game can enjoy a relaxing journey when
- 0:28Speaker 1: they fly with air Lingus.
- 0:29Speaker 2: Air Lingus, You're very welcome, everybody.
- 0:41Speaker 3: Welcome into this week's edition of the Irish Staters podcast.
- 0:44Speaker 3: As we are just outside of a month from the
- 0:48Speaker 3: twenty twenty five NFL Draft taking place in Green Bay, Wisconsin,
- 0:52Speaker 3: while stears Nation, it's time to take flight with Erlingus,
- 0:55Speaker 3: an official airline partner of the Pittsburgh Steeters and a
- 0:58Speaker 3: founding partner of Steels Ireland. There's never been a better
- 1:01Speaker 3: time to book your trip to Dublin. With nineteen North
- 1:04Speaker 3: American gateways, including flights from nearby Cleveland. You're ready for
- 1:08Speaker 3: warm Irish hospitality and plenty of room on board for
- 1:11Speaker 3: your terrible title, whether it's game day or getaway. Er
- 1:15Speaker 3: Lingus looks forward to saying you're very welcome to the
- 1:17Speaker 3: players and fans at the Pittsburgh Staters. You can book
- 1:20Speaker 3: now at arlingus dot com and we can't wait for
- 1:23Speaker 3: that game later this year NFL dot com slash Dublin
- 1:26Speaker 3: for more information on that. And as we roll on
- 1:28Speaker 3: and get closer to the NFL Draft, it's time for
- 1:31Speaker 3: us to take a quick look back on free agency
- 1:34Speaker 3: for the Pittsburgh Staters, speculate what may be to come,
- 1:37Speaker 3: and to also talk about the ball with a guy
- 1:39Speaker 3: from SNR Staters Station Radio.
- 1:41Speaker 2: Today.
- 1:41Speaker 3: We're absolutely delighted to have Matt Williams and join us
- 1:44Speaker 3: on the Irish Staters Podcast. Rolling on on this week's
- 1:49Speaker 3: edition of the Irish Saiters Podcast presented by er Lingus,
- 1:52Speaker 3: absolutely the lighted to welcome in the guy from Sediars
- 1:54Speaker 3: Station Radio, a guy I had the chance to very
- 1:56Speaker 3: briefly meet over in Indianapolis at the NFL Combine. Welcome
- 2:00Speaker 3: back to Mott Williams, said, Matt, how are you doing fultion.
- 2:04Speaker 4: I am doing fantastic getting close to draft season here.
- 2:08Speaker 4: I mean lots going on. Steelers have done some things.
- 2:12Speaker 4: I kind of like where they're sitting now. I'm sure
- 2:14Speaker 4: we'll have to have some quarterback conversations at some point,
- 2:17Speaker 4: but you know, the league is starting to calm down
- 2:19Speaker 4: before the draft, and Dale and I are bringing out
- 2:21Speaker 4: a show five days a week on Steer Nation Radio
- 2:24Speaker 4: and having a blast doing it.
- 2:25Speaker 3: Man, that's really refreshing to hear, like what you just said,
- 2:28Speaker 3: they're having a blase doing it because you mentioned yourself there,
- 2:31Speaker 3: it is dying down a little bit before the draft
- 2:34Speaker 3: comes in. How do you How do you guys find
- 2:36Speaker 3: that in terms of you know, having a whole year
- 2:39Speaker 3: round schedule. Is that something that you enjoy where you
- 2:41Speaker 3: start to break things down and look at the team
- 2:43Speaker 3: in a different way because it's been what it's been
- 2:45Speaker 3: two months more than two months? Is hard asking?
- 2:48Speaker 4: Yeah, And for me personally, I am so geared towards
- 2:53Speaker 4: NFL and Saturdays like the only time I have with
- 2:57Speaker 4: my family. So I don't watch a ton of college football.
- 3:00Speaker 4: I mean, if it's on, I definitely leave it on,
- 3:02Speaker 4: but I don't go out of my way to start
- 3:04Speaker 4: scouting draft players then and then free agency hit. So
- 3:08Speaker 4: I hit all those guys heavily. So I always feel
- 3:10Speaker 4: like I'm behind on draft prep, but this last month
- 3:15Speaker 4: and a half two months, it's pretty much all I've
- 3:17Speaker 4: been doing. You know, is when it starts with the
- 3:19Speaker 4: Senior Bowl and then combine where I saw you, which
- 3:22Speaker 4: was great, I really start to hit these guys hard,
- 3:25Speaker 4: and especially this month leading up to the draft, where
- 3:27Speaker 4: you start finding guys that you hadn't really known a
- 3:30Speaker 4: couple months ago. That boy, that's a really good fit,
- 3:33Speaker 4: or boy, this position group's deeper than I thought. And
- 3:36Speaker 4: the team building stuff is really my favorite part of
- 3:38Speaker 4: the whole aspect.
- 3:40Speaker 3: He really is. We just went a free agency we'll
- 3:42Speaker 3: talk about in the wei second. I guess the biggest
- 3:44Speaker 3: news moth for a lot of people over here obviously
- 3:46Speaker 3: is that not just Ireland, but people listening to Europe
- 3:49Speaker 3: as well. First international game in Iran. I think it's
- 3:52Speaker 3: thirteen twelve years bought malpha motics in this podcast from
- 3:56Speaker 3: me since since the London game in twenty five teams
- 4:00Speaker 3: theaters going to Dublin this year. How pumped are you
- 4:03Speaker 3: guys like over there? Where it's all happening in the
- 4:05Speaker 3: burg about that, and is this your first opportunity to
- 4:08Speaker 3: get abroad as well? Not when it happens.
- 4:10Speaker 4: I have never left the country really. I mean I've
- 4:12Speaker 4: gone to Canada, Niagara Falls and things like that, but
- 4:15Speaker 4: I've never been to Europe. But I will tell you
- 4:17Speaker 4: the fan base here, there's a lot of people coming
- 4:20Speaker 4: from Pittsburgh. I mean I've just talked to buddies and
- 4:22Speaker 4: fans and Twitter followers that can't wait. And by all accounts,
- 4:26Speaker 4: I mean the environment, which I'm sure you know ten
- 4:29Speaker 4: thousand times better than me, is going to be very
- 4:32Speaker 4: Steeler centric and very excited to welcome Steeler Nation.
- 4:37Speaker 3: For people listening, I'm gonna repeat it again NFL dot
- 4:40Speaker 3: com slash Dublin if you want to head to that
- 4:43Speaker 3: game or want more information on it.
- 4:45Speaker 2: And I want to talk about free agency.
- 4:47Speaker 3: But one guy I want to talk about very quickly,
- 4:49Speaker 3: Matt is Craig Wolfy. And the thing the reason I
- 4:52Speaker 3: want to talk about this because I mentioned him in
- 4:53Speaker 3: the podcast a couple of weeks ago and the amount
- 4:57Speaker 3: of people like this podcast has been going for a
- 4:58Speaker 3: couple of years since the theater officially come into the
- 5:01Speaker 3: market over here, and the amount of people that reached
- 5:04Speaker 3: out either to meet or put tweet site or postsight
- 5:07Speaker 3: on social media from Europe. Mott whenever he possitied right
- 5:12Speaker 3: right obviously solidly passed away a few weeks ago. Yeah,
- 5:15Speaker 3: it really showed me just how big Steers station is.
- 5:18Speaker 3: But can you maybe talk just about just what it
- 5:20Speaker 3: was like working with him? And I know you guys
- 5:22Speaker 3: are really gonna miss.
- 5:23Speaker 4: Them, Yeah, absolutely, and a couple things. Just wanted to
- 5:27Speaker 4: note that I think people are aware of some of
- 5:30Speaker 4: the charity work and some of the generous things that
- 5:33Speaker 4: Wolf did behind the scenes, but it was much more
- 5:37Speaker 4: than people even know. I mean, he was very, very
- 5:39Speaker 4: involved with a lot of different programs locally across the country,
- 5:44Speaker 4: et cetera. I've been on the air with them many
- 5:46Speaker 4: many times. We've posted shows together, you know, over the
- 5:49Speaker 4: last decade plus. Always loved it. But he was a really,
- 5:52Speaker 4: really good friend. Actually, his son, Stej Craig Junior works
- 5:58Speaker 4: in the radio station with us too, behind the scenes,
- 6:01Speaker 4: so I've gotten to know the family a little bit
- 6:02Speaker 4: better as well. And I mean, to be honest, I
- 6:06Speaker 4: was I'm a little younger than Wolf, so I was
- 6:08Speaker 4: like seven or eight when he got drafted, so I
- 6:11Speaker 4: remember him as a rookie with touch and his play day.
- 6:15Speaker 4: So I mean go way back as a fan of
- 6:18Speaker 4: Wolf's and then as a you know, podcast partner, radio
- 6:22Speaker 4: partner with them, and then friend and I was at
- 6:25Speaker 4: his viewing of course, and it probably wouldn't surprise anybody
- 6:28Speaker 4: that it was about an hour and a half wait
- 6:31Speaker 4: just to get in, you know. I mean the place
- 6:32Speaker 4: was absolutely packed, former players, people from all walks of life,
- 6:35Speaker 4: and really a big loss for Steiler Nation.
- 6:39Speaker 3: It isn't. May he rest in peace. It's funny. I
- 6:41Speaker 3: was going to say. The couple of guys that I'm
- 6:43Speaker 3: friends with are big Cardinals funds, and they were even
- 6:46Speaker 3: talking about his brother Ron and the fact that it
- 6:48Speaker 3: sort of impassed the whole theaters cried here as well,
- 6:51Speaker 3: So it was pretty cool, I guess to see in
- 6:53Speaker 3: one way that he touched a lot of people over
- 6:56Speaker 3: here with his humor and wittiness as well, even in
- 7:00Speaker 3: his last few years as well. So look, he'll be
- 7:02Speaker 3: he'll be desperately missing. I know he'll be hopefully watching
- 7:05Speaker 3: that and all of us later on this year in
- 7:06Speaker 3: Dublin and across this hopefully, which is going to be
- 7:09Speaker 3: a big, big season. Matt, let's just jump into it.
- 7:11Speaker 3: I know a lot of Steelers fans want to hear
- 7:14Speaker 3: just from over here, you know your teake on this
- 7:16Speaker 3: free agency. I want to go through two or three
- 7:18Speaker 3: players just first off, the one that sticks out to
- 7:21Speaker 3: a lot of us guys, especially internationally, when a team
- 7:24Speaker 3: that I'm gonna be honest with you change your uniform
- 7:28Speaker 3: and a lot of people start looking at them and
- 7:30Speaker 3: you're up the Seahawks down through the last few years.
- 7:33Speaker 3: But the guy that has stood out for a lot
- 7:35Speaker 3: of people, DK Mtcalff to now have him, you know,
- 7:37Speaker 3: to come in and and and the opportunity to really
- 7:39Speaker 3: load up that offense. How excited are you to get
- 7:42Speaker 3: a guy that got into the building.
- 7:44Speaker 4: Yeah. I think it's a big, big move, and I
- 7:46Speaker 4: think it says a couple of things. Is I don't
- 7:49Speaker 4: think the Steelers were or the rest of the league
- 7:51Speaker 4: is super excited about this wide receiver draft class. So
- 7:54Speaker 4: I don't think there's as much instant help there as usual.
- 7:57Speaker 4: I mean, usually that's a really strong position. It's definitely
- 8:00Speaker 4: down this year now. I don't think coach Tomlin and
- 8:04Speaker 4: Omar would ever admit this, but I think they got
- 8:06Speaker 4: a little frustrated last year searching for a wide receiver.
- 8:10Speaker 4: Everybody remembers the Ayuk situation, and I was under the
- 8:14Speaker 4: impression that they had a trade in place for Christian
- 8:16Speaker 4: Kirk and then he got hurt that week, and then
- 8:19Speaker 4: there was just some bad luck. And I think that
- 8:21Speaker 4: they were got to the point where enough is enough.
- 8:24Speaker 4: We're going to go out and get really the best
- 8:26Speaker 4: guy they could possibly get, and a huge key to me.
- 8:31Speaker 4: And again we don't know the quarterback, but with him
- 8:33Speaker 4: and Pickens on the outside, I just think that the
- 8:36Speaker 4: running game is going to run into so many fewer
- 8:40Speaker 4: stacked boxes, you know, like Seattle had a really bad
- 8:43Speaker 4: running game, But when you watch the All twenty two,
- 8:45Speaker 4: they faced a ton of cover two defenses because they're
- 8:49Speaker 4: so afraid of Metcalf getting over the top, and they
- 8:52Speaker 4: didn't have a guy like Pickens on the other side
- 8:54Speaker 4: that was a field stretcher. So I think it has
- 8:56Speaker 4: a huge trickle down effect to the entire offense. And
- 9:01Speaker 4: if you're gonna get one on one with either one
- 9:02Speaker 4: of those guys, I think they're just gonna take shots.
- 9:05Speaker 4: And I think he's a real difference faker.
- 9:08Speaker 3: We know how good dkm my cough can be, so
- 9:11Speaker 3: I'm just so excited to see just that early game
- 9:14Speaker 3: on a Sunday, seeing him break off week one of
- 9:16Speaker 3: the season bringing home on I'm totally up for a
- 9:18Speaker 3: lot of excitement over here, for a lot of excitement
- 9:20Speaker 3: as well, not for a guy called Darius Slay. Guy
- 9:23Speaker 3: had a really strong season with the Eagles last year
- 9:25Speaker 3: and fourteen stars last year, forty nine tackles. Really like
- 9:30Speaker 3: a lot of experience in the league and a guy
- 9:32Speaker 3: that we can just slot in through the way and
- 9:33Speaker 3: he's going to be that difference maker in that position.
- 9:36Speaker 4: Yeah, I one hund percent agree with you too. And
- 9:39Speaker 4: don't forget that Andy Whidell, who's high up in the
- 9:41Speaker 4: front office, comes over from the Eagles, and I think
- 9:44Speaker 4: that's a great place to start stealing ideas from. They're
- 9:48Speaker 4: really a successful organization. Now, the track record of corners
- 9:53Speaker 4: that are Slay's age isn't great, but it's a one
- 9:56Speaker 4: year deal.
- 9:57Speaker 3: He was.
- 9:58Speaker 4: I watched all of his tape last year. It was
- 10:01Speaker 4: very impressive and some of his best tape was in
- 10:03Speaker 4: the playoffs late in the season. So he didn't show
- 10:06Speaker 4: any signs of wearing down. I think he's going to
- 10:09Speaker 4: be a great mentor you know, adult in the room
- 10:14Speaker 4: in that corner young corner room, you know, with a
- 10:18Speaker 4: ring on his finger from last year as well. And
- 10:21Speaker 4: I thought that was probably the weakest point of the
- 10:25Speaker 4: part of the defense last year was cornerback two. And
- 10:28Speaker 4: I think that they would have loved to blitz more,
- 10:33Speaker 4: be more aggressive, play less, cover three less zone, but
- 10:37Speaker 4: I felt like Porter was the only corner they trusted
- 10:40Speaker 4: to kind of leave in man de mand situations. And
- 10:42Speaker 4: I think that's changed dramatically. It's a lot like the
- 10:45Speaker 4: Metcalf thing. That wide receiver two was unacceptable last year.
- 10:49Speaker 4: The cornerback two was unacceptable last year, and it looks
- 10:51Speaker 4: drastically changed.
- 10:54Speaker 3: It's hard to believe we're actually I think it's a
- 10:55Speaker 3: month from the day we're actually for cording that we
- 10:58Speaker 3: were done in Indian oppos at the combine. What's sow
- 11:01Speaker 3: I for you that week? Was there any player that
- 11:03Speaker 3: you spoke to, or any gms or head coaches or
- 11:06Speaker 3: different soft you spoke to where you looked at different
- 11:09Speaker 3: guys that were taking part in the combine and fault
- 11:11Speaker 3: to yourself this guy could be a really good fit
- 11:13Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh or was it just sort of a general
- 11:15Speaker 3: sense in a point, I will.
- 11:17Speaker 4: Say, and this isn't super encouraging. I mentioned how the
- 11:19Speaker 4: wide receiver class is a little light. I think this
- 11:23Speaker 4: draft in general is a little bit light on top
- 11:27Speaker 4: of the top of the line talent across the board.
- 11:30Speaker 4: I mean, certainly, last year we saw all those quarterbacks
- 11:33Speaker 4: and offensive tackles, which are the rarest two positions. This
- 11:37Speaker 4: first round doesn't look that way to me. But something
- 11:41Speaker 4: that really goes back to Kevin Colbert is the Steelers
- 11:44Speaker 4: are one of the best teams in the league at
- 11:47Speaker 4: using free agency metcalfs, lay, et cetera. To prepare themselves
- 11:53Speaker 4: to go fishing in the richest waters in the draft.
- 11:57Speaker 4: And to me, that's the fen of tackle. That's running back.
- 12:02Speaker 4: You know that maybe they wait three four rounds until
- 12:06Speaker 4: they grab a running back or whatever, but this draft
- 12:08Speaker 4: is so deep at those two positions. I think they're
- 12:12Speaker 4: going to find a lot of fruitful players. A young
- 12:15Speaker 4: d lineman maybe even two of them, as well as
- 12:18Speaker 4: a running.
- 12:18Speaker 3: Back if you were Omar Khan, and eventually in the
- 12:22Speaker 3: half weeks on the clock was going on Night one
- 12:25Speaker 3: in the draft. What position would you like to see
- 12:28Speaker 3: us go for first? If you have to put your
- 12:30Speaker 3: not gut in.
- 12:30Speaker 4: Set, without question, it would be a defensive lineman. It
- 12:33Speaker 4: would be a big guy. I think there's three guys
- 12:37Speaker 4: that really stand out to me that it should could
- 12:41Speaker 4: be available at twenty one, and that's Kenneth Grant from Michigan.
- 12:45Speaker 4: He's just a massive, middle of the field, athletic guy,
- 12:49Speaker 4: and I think they need to get younger there. Plus,
- 12:52Speaker 4: I want a draft one high while Cam Hayward's still
- 12:55Speaker 4: around to kind of, you know, be the big brother,
- 12:58Speaker 4: be the mentor. Walter Nolan from Mississippi's another player that
- 13:02Speaker 4: has immense potential. He was the biggest recruit in the
- 13:05Speaker 4: country when he was coming out of high school. And
- 13:08Speaker 4: Harmon from Oregon. The three of them, if I had
- 13:11Speaker 4: to put a chip down, one of those three will
- 13:14Speaker 4: be the Steelers first pick.
- 13:15Speaker 2: In my opinion, it's going to roll in over the
- 13:18Speaker 2: next few weeks.
- 13:19Speaker 3: You were actually saying to me that off camera that
- 13:21Speaker 3: you guys are actually going to be in Pittsburgh for
- 13:24Speaker 3: the Draft where it's all happening. What's not vibe Like
- 13:27Speaker 3: every year because it feels like, you know, you go
- 13:28Speaker 3: from a game of the playoff or the super Bowl
- 13:30Speaker 3: or whatever, and then it dies down for a bit
- 13:32Speaker 3: and then suddenly the fans are right again. It looks
- 13:35Speaker 3: every year a month like ste Nish just shows up
- 13:39Speaker 3: at Akashure and really gets ready for such a big weekend.
- 13:41Speaker 4: Yeah, they really do. And what's cool about it is
- 13:45Speaker 4: it's probably been ten fifteen years in a row where
- 13:49Speaker 4: I've been basically the only media member that's on the
- 13:53Speaker 4: air for every single draft pick, you know, so it's
- 13:57Speaker 4: a good twenty hours of coverage that I'm on.
- 13:59Speaker 3: That's not easy.
- 14:00Speaker 4: It's not easy. At least something happens every couple of minutes,
- 14:03Speaker 4: you know, at least there's a pick to be made.
- 14:05Speaker 4: But it's super cool because the facility where Steelers headquarters is,
- 14:10Speaker 4: there's not a lot of us invited, you know, it's
- 14:12Speaker 4: just it's a very small group. They feed us well,
- 14:15Speaker 4: which is great. You know, if they if they draft
- 14:18Speaker 4: the D lineman in first round, the defensive line coach
- 14:20Speaker 4: comes out and sits with us after, so we get
- 14:22Speaker 4: to really pick their brains on and off camera. And
- 14:26Speaker 4: then after they draft that D lineman in first round,
- 14:29Speaker 4: they fly them to Pittsburgh and the young man comes
- 14:31Speaker 4: and sits with us, you know, like Joey Porter Junior
- 14:34Speaker 4: the one year I couldn't feel I mean, he got
- 14:35Speaker 4: there so quick because he lived close. I don't know
- 14:38Speaker 4: they've ever seen anyone happier to be a new Steeler
- 14:40Speaker 4: the day after he got drafted. So it's a really
- 14:43Speaker 4: really cool environment. I'm lucky to be a part of it.
- 14:47Speaker 4: And then a year from now, it's gonna be here.
- 14:49Speaker 4: I mean it's not gonna be in Green Bay. It's
- 14:51Speaker 4: going to be in Pittsburgh. I don't know what that's
- 14:52Speaker 4: going to do for our coverage, but it's gonna be nuts.
- 14:56Speaker 3: It's gonna be really exciting. That was walking along on
- 14:58Speaker 3: the way to the stadium, even the in December when
- 15:00Speaker 3: I had the chance to go out there and was
- 15:02Speaker 3: talking to somebody about it, and I can just imagine
- 15:04Speaker 3: what's going to be like. It's going to be special.
- 15:05Speaker 4: Man.
- 15:06Speaker 3: We'll give we will get through this year first in
- 15:08Speaker 3: a very unique situation as well in Green Bay as well. Look,
- 15:11Speaker 3: it's going to be a really interesting few months with
- 15:14Speaker 3: this situation, with the draft coming up.
- 15:16Speaker 4: MAP.
- 15:16Speaker 3: I know you're going to be keeping very very busy.
- 15:18Speaker 3: We'll encourage everybody to check out Saeters national media as well,
- 15:21Speaker 3: not just to keep up with this podcast, but to
- 15:23Speaker 3: keep up with everything happened in state side Matt. Hopefully
- 15:25Speaker 3: we'll see over here very very soon. For now, hey,
- 15:27Speaker 3: thank you very much for your time. Thank you.
- 15:29Speaker 4: Now it's fun. Let's do it again.
- 15:34Speaker 1: Irish airline aer Lingus will proudly serve as the presenting
- 15:38Speaker 1: partner of Steelers Ireland twenty twenty five. Airlinus's growth in
- 15:41Speaker 1: North America continues in twenty twenty five as the airline
- 15:44Speaker 1: prepares to fly to two new US destinations, Nashville and Indianapolis,
- 15:49Speaker 1: using its new Airbus eight three twenty one xcel Or aircraft.
- 15:53Speaker 1: This brings the number of Transatlantic routes operated by the
- 15:56Speaker 1: airline from Dublin, Shannon and Manchester to twenty four. Steelers
- 15:59Speaker 1: fan fanes traveling to Ireland for the Big Game can
- 16:01Speaker 1: enjoy a relaxing journey when they fly with their Lingus.
- 16:04Speaker 2: Air Lingus, You're very welcome.