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Transcript

HR1: 3 Man Show · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with King and Starks
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: on Steelers Nation Radio. Presented by your neighborhood Ford store.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: The F-150 is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct from the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Well, hello everybody. Happy Monday to you.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Thanks very much for being with us. We are going
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: to need to add another and. In the locker room
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: with King and Starks. Okay, let's start right there. Max,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: how you doing today? Everything all right?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I am doing well, Rob. And, you know, we are
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: in a very fun, fun new chapter, not only for
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: the season, but also for the show. So I'm excited.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You want to add that extra and, Max? We're
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: going to add an extra and. The extra and.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Inside the locker room, yeah, with King and Starks and.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Willie Colon.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: There we go. Dub C.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: Yes. Yes.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Willie, so happy to have you in the locker room
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: with us as a– well, like I said, we have
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: to add an and, right?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we need to clean that up quickly.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Let's get that– Priorities. Get the priorities in order.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: We are King and Starks and Colon. We are really.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: We sound like a very fashionable law firm right now.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: It really does sound that way. And we are really
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: happy to have Willie with us. We hope you guys,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: everybody that was listening to this program, we hope you're
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: listening to the preseason broadcast where Willie was on the
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: sidelines with us and, you know, obviously did a phenomenal job.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: And we are just, we are tickled to death Willie
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: to have you in the locker room and, uh, you know,
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: moving forward and being part of the team and, and
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: can't wait to get your analysis and input.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: No, I'm excited. I'm excited.
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: You know, when I got the call and thank you
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: to the powers that be and making this happen and
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: always been a fan of you guys and you guys
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: have done a hell of a job. I've become more
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: and more impressed as I continue to hang around you
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: guys and watch how you guys work. So I'm happy
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: to be a part of the team and talk the
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: black and gold football.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Let's start because we have lots to talk about. We
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: were talking about this throughout the broadcast, particularly the last
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: two games when Willie was with us about what this
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: roster was going to look like, what might happen, how
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: are they going to get to 53, offense, defense, how
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: many linemen are you going to keep? Just as an overview,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Max and Willie, Max, let's start with you as a veteran.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: What was your overall before we get into specifics sort
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: of your overall take on what happened over the weekend
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: and this 53 man roster you know I was.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Actually a little I would say the word is surprised
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: and surprised I know can mean a lot of different
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: things surprise could be a negative surprise could be a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: positive and I think I'm I'm on the positive side
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: of that I was surprised because I felt like I
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: knew what 49 to 50 of the guys were going
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: to be on this roster, and then there were three
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: that kind of surprised me when I kind of look
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: at it. And so, yeah, I can't wait to break
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: it all down. But I would say surprise. There was
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: one that I thought was going to be there that
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: wasn't there, and two that weren't there that I thought
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: that ended up surprising me that were actually on the roster.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: So I would say surprised is what I'm going with, Rob.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: Willie?
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Willie? Yeah, I think surprise is a good one.
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: I mean, 11 rookies made this roster, which is, you know,
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: all I can do is attest to my time as
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: a rookie. I think we had drafted 14 guys or
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: three or four or five. I think we had five
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: total guys made it. So to have 11 rookies make
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: the roster, it's interesting because I do feel like as
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: you comb through the roster and you continue to look
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: at it, I mean, this is a solid, they did
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: a hell of a job. Like this is, there's some
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: guys that, that can go. And I, you know, and
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: I don't know how Max feels about this, but anytime
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: you look at a roster and you start to identify
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: each position group and you start looking at, looking at
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: those guys in those position groups, I've always been one
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: of those guys that say, Hey, can I go on
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: the road and win with this guy?
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: You know, can I go to Baltimore? Can I go
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: to Kansas city? Can I go to play? You know,
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: when you start playing.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: All the bullies on the block and you've got to
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: go to their hometown and get the job done, can
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: I win with these guys? And we can, I mean,
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: there's some guys that say, yeah, you can, you can
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: go to battle in Baltimore with these guys. You can
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: go to battle with these guys in Kansas city. So
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: I think it's a very legit Ross. I think they've
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: done a hell of a job. Obviously I know Rob,
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: you talked about this. We're going to, there's some names
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: that are questioned whether they should have made it or not.
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: But as I come through the whole roster, man, there's,
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: there's some, they did a good job for the most part.
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: I'm happy with them with what I'm looking at.
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: You know, and I'll, I'll add on to that, guys,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: by saying that this is my third year going in
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: as the play-by-play guy. My first year, I was a
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: little mystified by the national perception of the roster. I
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: think a lot of people have just been waiting for
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: the bottom to drop out on this team, and it
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: hasn't happened. And last year, I thought the roster was
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: better than the year before, and more people calling for
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: the bottom to drop out. And once again, it did not.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Steelers won the AFC North. And then going into this year,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: I still don't feel a lot of love for this
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: roster because And I think there are some misperceptions about
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: the roster. One is that it is an aging roster.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: And look, full caveat here, right? I mean, the guys
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: you were expecting to be the superstar leaders of this
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: team are veteran guys. You talk about Aaron Rodgers, Cam Hayward,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: TJ Watt, Jalen Ramsey. To me, the big question is,
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: is there an emerging class of younger players ready to
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: take over For those aging guys, they've been able to,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: I think, balance things pretty well. As Willie said, 11
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: rookies on this roster, 11. We'll get into the age
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: of the roster a little bit because that's obviously some
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: of the makeup. But again, to me, I think it's
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: just easy to look at those four guys and say, ah,
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: it's an old roster. And I understand guys have to emerge.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Guys have to take on big roles. Guys have to
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: be important players for this team. Guys have to ascend
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: to star-level players because I just mentioned four star-level players.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: But I'm bullish on the ability of this roster and
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: what it can do. I'm excited about the season to start.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: So let's begin our breakdown. I guess before we look
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: at the actual position groups, Willie, I'm going to ask
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: you first about the trades that were made, your take
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: on Broderick Jones going to Dallas and Caleb Johnson. going
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: to the green bay packers.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah so for broderick um i was you know it's
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: it's interesting because i i did think he had done
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: enough towards the back end of camp to kind of
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: say all right he's a guy that he can you
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: know maybe beat out dylan cook and uh maybe lock
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: in but then i saw the way max played when
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: he got that one opportunity i said oh okay this
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: is different You know, I think I've said this, and
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: I think I kind of explained this to you guys
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: while we were on air when the game was going
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: on against the Bills, Steelers versus Bills. You know, at
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: first I was hard on Broderick because I felt like
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: he had played enough football that, you know, maybe he
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: should be playing a lot better. And obviously the injury,
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: bouncing back and forth. But then, you know, I had to,
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: you know, I'm one of those guys, try to put
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: yourself in that man's shoes and deal with, you know,
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: try to see through his lens.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: And I have. I've been that guy.
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: I'm from right tackle to left guard, from left guard
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: to right guard, and I've bounced all over the place.
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: And it's a tough transition if, one, you're not conditioned
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: for it, and, two, schematically, you don't understand what's going on.
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: And then I had to think about Brodrick, you know,
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: having gone playing multiple sides, being a part of new systems,
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: the injuries.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: He's been through a lot.
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: And, you know, I felt like the game– in the
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: preseason versus the Jets. I thought he was going to.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: Play a lot better. That didn't happen.
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: However, against Buffalo, I thought he played a lot better
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: once his head was into it. So to see him
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: go to Dallas, sometimes a fresh start is probably the
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: best start for a guy because I think there was
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: so much expectation for him and what he could and
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: can't do. I think there was a calling for him
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: to kind of be the face of that offensive line.
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: I think that now the new face is obviously Troy
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: and Mason McCormick and Zach Frazier. Those are kind of
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: the faces of the offensive line. And I think as
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: he moves on and he figures out what's next, he'll
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: understand that this game is not about what you want.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: It's about what you were able to produce. And hopefully
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: he'll go to Dallas and do a hell of a job.
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: So best selected project in that regard. As far as Caleb,
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: I thought the Steelers really were going to develop him.
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: I really thought he was going to be– I watched
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: him in Iowa. I thought he was a dog. I
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: liked a lot of what I saw on tape of
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: him coming out of college. For some reason, he just
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: couldn't catch fire here, man. And, you know, I don't
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: know if that's a system thing or it was a
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: belief thing. But when we got him in the third round,
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: I thought he was a steal. I think a lot
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: of people did. To see him walk out the door
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: is still a head-scratcher for me. Because, you know, I
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: think it takes guys longer to catch on. I think
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: it took him longer. And, you know, the way Lou
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: Nichols played and, you know, obviously you've got Rico, you
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: got Jalen. Uh, I just, I thought he was going
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: to catch on a lot faster than what we saw. So, uh,
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: but he'll be fine. You know, he's, he's a talented kid.
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: He'll make a way.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: Max.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, where do I start? Uh, uh let's
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: let's go backwards because i think i'll probably pontificate a
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: little bit longer on broderick um i look at caleb
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: and i just say you know.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: That's a word.
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: Yeah there it is hey listen the one thing you
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: get used to willie show willie i will throw out
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: random vocabulary words and and here's the thing i know
• 10:37
  Speaker 6: you're worse you like the vocab of the day i
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: see when you post it Yeah, so we are going
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: to get in there. We're actually going to get to
• 10:45
  Speaker 6: a point where we might actually try and get that
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: word into the show somehow.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: But we'll talk about that.
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: That's a show we should definitely have a segment called
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: Words with Max.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just words of the day, you know? But I
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: think with the Caleb Johnson situation, he was in the
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: doghouse last year, right, Rob? We were there, right? The
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Seahawks game, week two. And when he let that kickoff
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: go behind him and they got the easy score and
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: he didn't understand the rules and then it kind of
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: put him in a doghouse. And I think it created
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: a negative narrative for him that he never quite could shake.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: And I don't know if that was more mentally or
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: the team imposed, but he just never kind of recovered
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: from that. And we thought, okay. New regime, new opportunity,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: simpler running scheme. It's going to work to his benefit.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: And we just didn't see burst. I didn't see, you know,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: like the light bulb clicking on, you know, that you're
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: supposed to see in like the second year of a
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: guy who's ascending. And for Caleb, he just never quite,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I think he kind of counted the room and just
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: never really felt comfortable or confident in himself. And it
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: just led to the preseason performance. He had every opportunity
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: to go grab the third running back job And it
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: never came to fruition. I think, you know, he got
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: in his head once he saw Travis's name as a
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: personal protector on the team. And then, you know, his
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: special teams duty, he wasn't considered a kickoff return guy anymore,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: even with a new staff. And it just kind of
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: created this kind of snowball effect that just didn't quite
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: give him any confidence. And so, I think to at
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: least get a value for him and not just cut
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: him outright, I thought this was the best-case scenario. And
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: obviously going to Green Bay where they don't know what
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: to expect with this whole Josh Jacobs situation with the ruling,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: you've got to make sure that you have someone there. So,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, to find a trade partner and to get
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: something back in return for a guy you drafted is
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: always good versus just losing total value. Because, I mean,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: we've also been around where they've just cut guys. And
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: you're like, man, well, this dude was– You know, this
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: dude was a draft pick one or two years ago.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: There has to be some value. Somebody had to have
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: wanted him because he was taken so high. Well, you're
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: taking in the top two days, and it was just
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: a year ago. Somebody still has a positive thought about
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: that guy and believe that they can be the ones
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: to unlock the code for him. And so I think
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: it was good to find Green Bay in that situation. Now,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Broderick is another one. Hold on, man.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Can I add something quick?
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, go ahead.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: I apologize.
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: I don't want to cut you off. You know why
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: I think Caleb– It bothers me a little bit, the
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: releasing of him, because it feels like the ghost of
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: John Kuhn has come back. John Kuhn was a guy
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: who was out of Shippensburg, PA, played on the Steelers,
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: was released by the Steelers, and went on to Green
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: Bay and became an absolute dude. Two-time Pro Bowler, absolute
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: Green Bay Packer legend. And he was in our backyard.
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: And if you ever turn on a tape of John Coon,
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: he was athletic. He was a hell of a fullback.
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: He was a fullback that had wiggle, to be honest
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: with you. And Aaron Rodgers used him like a Swiss
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: Army knife. And so did Mike McCarthy. And so I'm
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: watching Mike McCarthy and I'm watching Aaron Rodgers and I'm
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: just like, man. You telling me that we couldn't season
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: this kid up a little more. We couldn't like revamp.
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: There's nothing we could have did with this kid. Cause
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: I watched him in Iowa. I thought he was, I
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: thought he was it. I thought he, I thought he
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: was a legit steal to see him go to green Bay.
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: I just feel like he's going to have a resurgence
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: that reminds me of John. So that's part of why
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: I'm like, I would have loved to see him, you know,
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: at least might kind of do something with him in
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: his office for one more year. But it just didn't happen.
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: So that just want to throw that out there. Max.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely. And I love that you mentioned that because
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: I think that's a great reference, you know, because it
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: was the Steelers were going away from the fullback, right?
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: You know, we had the Thunder Dan Crider era and
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: we thought, boom, John Coon's going to fit right on in.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: And then we went to 11 personnel, never used a
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: fullback again. And it was just like, man, but if
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: we were stuck with this system, we could have. And
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: I think that might be it. It might be that
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: the system has changed. and he's just a square peg
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: in a round hole. Yeah, I hope we don't have
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: the ghost of Super Bowl XLV come back to haunt
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: us because I felt like that was like a crescendo moment. And,
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: of course, we talk about key moments, and people want
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: to place blame on what run game happened where. Anyways,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: but I think that's a great example of a guy
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: going and then possibly greener pastures, right? You know, grass
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: could be greener. And I think for Broderick, this is
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: another one. It seems like former Steelers going to Dallas
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: because what do we have just a short two years ago?
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I believe we traded a third-round pick to Dallas, and
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: it was a wide receiver by the name of George Pickens.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: And so it's like, and what did he go on
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: to do? He went on to be a 1,000-yard-plus receiver
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: and everything else. And so for Broderick, I hope he
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: doesn't go down there and become the next Tyron Smith.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: you know, with that offensive line. And there's a lot
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: of first round draft capital in there. And so Broderick's
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: going and joining that squad.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: But you're right.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think the biggest thing was Broderick seemed
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: to have got up to speed, but he wasn't up
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: to the right speed that they wanted. And, you know,
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: for him, it was just, it was a lot of mental. So,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: you know, sometimes it's a maturity thing with him. And
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: when you think about how we got to this 53-man roster,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: that dual swing capability was huge. And I think that
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Jets game, is what really took a backdoor seat was
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: just how he played in that game. Didn't matter what
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: he did against Buffalo. The image was Packers, he was
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: pretty good at left. And then when he got to Jets,
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: the dress rehearsal, he was bad at right. And they're like,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: that can't be a swing. And so I think they
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: just had it set up in their mind that they
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: were going to, they were going to go in a
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: different direction and play them enough and see if there
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: is a value and a suitor out there to get
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: some value in return because you couldn't keep those guys.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, we ended up keeping nine offensive linemen. So, Rob,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: you were correct. I said eight. You said nine. So
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: I just want to mark that on our little tally
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: vote system. But, I mean, Broderick, yeah, it's just one
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: of those so much talent, so much athleticism, but just
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: couldn't put it all together. And I think that's– That's
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: where the frustration is, is that a first-round pick and
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: you don't fully realize him, you don't fully develop him
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: to be ready. And I think, like Willie said, I
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: don't think it's his fault. I think it's circumstantial, and
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of things that go into it in
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: this process. And you also have to be mentally prepared.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I think he has to be mentally conditioned, and there
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: wasn't a setup for him mentally to succeed from the get-go.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: And you go into three different types of systems and
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: you don't really find your way. You kind of are,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: you know, that, that extra penny and, you know, there's
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: already a dollar made. So you're just kind of hanging
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: out on the end and it just, it never quite
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: got there for him. So I wish him the best.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: You know, I thought, I thought he was a good
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: young man, but at the same time, you know, we're
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: not in the business of having good guys. We're in
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: the business of winning football games and, Mike McCarthy felt
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: that the best way to go about that was that
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Broderick wasn't going to give them the best opportunity to
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: win in the capacity that they saw him as.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: I want to add one more thing.
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: I also think, too, if you're to steal the start,
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: you've invested in– I mean, Broderick was a first-round draft pick.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: Troy, now Max. I mean, I'm not sure who that is.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: It's crazy.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: I think you're used to that.
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: You've invested in high talent, high quality linemen. At some point,
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: especially if you're bringing in, I mean, whether it's going
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: to be Drew Adler, whoever the next quarterback outside of Aaron,
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: whoever the next guy up, you want to make sure
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: the Cadillac's ready to roll. So you want to have
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: a five in place that you feel like these guys,
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: this next five is going to be locked for the
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: next three or.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: Four or five years.
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: You don't want to have to continue to reaching the draft. Yeah,
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: you may take a guy to fourth, fifth, and to
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: add depth and quality depth, and hopefully one of those
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: guys pan out to be a guy. But there's a legit,
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: I think, direction the Steelers want to go. They want
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: to have a five that they can lean on and
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: not worry about when they go into the draft especially
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: if you think about drafting uh a new quarterback or
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: potentially grabbing a drew adler say hey man we believe
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: in you long enough we have enough pieces around you
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: um go go do what go do what we need
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: you to do And I think that's part of the
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: reason why Broderick left, too.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I totally agree.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of meat in the bone that you
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: guys just threw out on the table. I'm going to
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: take my gnaw on it in a moment. We've got
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: to take a break, though. You are in the locker
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: room with Max Starks and Willie Colon. And I'm Rob King.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: We'll be back with much more here.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: Love it.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: There's Audio Network.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with King and Starks
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: on Steelers Nation Radio. Presented by your neighborhood Ford store.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: The F-150 is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: And by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct from the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: King and Starks. And Cologne, Willie Cologne.
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah!
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Gotta get that and in there. We gotta get the
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: and rectified here. So, we've been talking about roster construction
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: and the makeup of the roster. The 53-man was just
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: released this weekend. We all have certain thoughts about it.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: I asked the guys to begin with talking about the
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: two trades that Steelers made. Roderick Jones to Dallas and
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Caleb Johnson to Green Bay. And I will give you
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: guys my take on that. And I think you both
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: made great points. Willie, you talked about getting that offensive
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: line in place. I think that's exactly what they're doing here.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: When you look around the roster, I think they are
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: building a strong nest for the next quarterback, the next
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: fledgling quarterback to grow with. Hopefully the offensive line will
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: be a strength by this time next year. Hopefully people
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: will be talking about it as one of the better
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: units in the league. You have two tight ends who are,
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: sort of young veterans in their prime. You have three, well,
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: you have two veteran wide receivers, two young receivers, and
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: then Caden Weegean, you know, to add something as he's
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: more of a developmental piece, I think, in the wide
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: receiver game. But, you know, to go with DK Metcalf
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: and Pittman, you have Roman Wilson and you have Jeremy Bernard.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: So I just think you have two good, solid running backs, again,
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: who should be in their prime. I really think it's
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: a good situation with the drafting of Max Ahanachor And
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: I think the writing was on the wall with Broderick Jones.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: They didn't renew his fifth-year option. They really couldn't with
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: the injury. I agree with Willie. I thought this was
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: his best preseason game. I thought he looked the sharpest
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: in this game. But they drafted Max Ahanachor in the
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: first round to play Max Ahanachor. My overarching view of
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: these two trades, guys, beyond what they do to the roster,
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: is that it's another manifestation of the way the Steelers
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: do business. Other teams might be more worried about the optics. Hey,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: we can't trade this guy. We can't trade this third
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: rounder for sixth. We just took him in the third
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: round last year. We can't do that. We've got to
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: carry him on the roster for another year. We've got
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: to give him an opportunity here for another year. Now,
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: whether he's worthy of that opportunity or not, they've made
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: a decision that it's time to move on from him,
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: and they're not worried about the optics of it. They're
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: not worried about the optics of having selected Broderick Jones
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: in the first round. Now, do they want more to
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: the first round and third rounders? Absolutely. But they're not
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: going to double down on a bet that they're not winning.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean? You're playing whatever– I would
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: make a card analogy, but I don't really know much
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: about cards. But at some point, you've got to throw
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: your hand in and say, that's it. I'm not going
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: to win this hand. And I think that the Steelers,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: their willingness to do that and not worry about the ramifications–
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: on social media or ESPN or if it's a bad
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: look among the fan base and their only worry is
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: about how good the team is going to be is
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: one of the reasons that the Steelers remain a very
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: competitive outfit and a model organization because they don't worry
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: about things like that.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: Rob, can I say something?
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Please.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: I think part of the reason for that too is.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: I think if Brodrick had the ability to play guard,
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: they may have held on to him. You get what
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: I'm saying? If they felt like they could have gotten
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: more out of him, if there was a chance that
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: you could have slid him inside, if he couldn't give
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: you any, if you felt like he couldn't give you
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: anything inside, maybe you would have been like, all right,
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: you know, maybe we can salvage this. But I don't
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: think he would have played well. You know, I think
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: his life is spent on the outside, and because he
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: struggled with both tackles, and especially dealing with the neck injury,
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: I think to your point, it was like, all right, we–
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: We got to let this go and move forward because,
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: as I stated, it's about locking up that five for
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: the next guy, whoever that may be. And I think
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: going into next season, even if they've got to get
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: through this season, I think they want to make sure
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: that the five that's ready to go this season is
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: the same five for next year. So this offensive line
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: is not even a question.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: You know who they are.
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: Now it's about continuing to build the roster up and
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: around this offense.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll agree with Willie on that. I think
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: you have to take the long-term view. Like, is Broderick
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Jones in our five-year plan? And when you look at that,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: it was until you draft Max Iannichour. It was after
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Iannichour got injured and you didn't know when he was
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: going to return. And then the Buffalo game happened. And
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: you saw where you could project... based off of the
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: snaps and the actual game play of Ionichor to actually
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: make an apples-to-apples comparison, that's what you said, oh, yeah,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: he's going to be our right tackle. And, you know,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: you said this, Willie, and I thought it was apropos.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: It was as long as you got Darnell Washington next
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: to him for the first four or five weeks of
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: the season, he should be fine, right? You put Mount
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Washington next to him. And you could see the end.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: They started to do some of those things, right? We
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: saw some protective type things to kind of forecast. Okay.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: He needs to get up to speed. And he is
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: an inexperienced player that needs experience. So let's kind of
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: put a little bit of bubble wrap around him until
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: he gets up to speed. And so when you see that,
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: we saw him and Jennings Dunker moving guys off the ball, right?
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: So you saw what kind of like the future looks like.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: It's like, okay. We got Mason and Troy on the left.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: We got Zach, a.k.a. Morgantown Mauler, right there in the middle.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: And then you put Dunk and Max together. I mean,
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: it's going to be a heck of a line in
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: the future, like you said, for the next guy. The
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: cupboard's not bare. We're giving you this. And when you
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: think about how you create a team, especially on the
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: offensive side of the ball, you want your line set
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: before you insert quarterback here, right?
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: Agreed.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Because we've seen the other way around it. Houston. C.J.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Stroud.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, we had a lot of great thoughts for him,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: but then you saw when you don't have a line,
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: you get destroyed and you don't want to ruin a player.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: We saw in Super Bowls where Patrick Mahomes was playing
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: the Tampa Bay Bucks. That line was getting toe out
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: the frame. They were getting worked over, you know, better
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: than the village bicycle at that point. And what did
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: they do? They got rid of everybody and wholesale the
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: line because they needed to protect that quarterback. So sometimes
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: you can retroactively do it. But the best case way,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: the best case way to do it is to have
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: the line set, then drop the quarterback into that offense
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: so that he has his picket fence.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: He has his nuclear family, so to speak.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: You know, it's I need everything in place and then boom,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: insert family here. That's what the quarterback does. Build the house,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: build the fence. put it in a good neighborhood, get
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: the lawn manicured and then drop the family in there.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: It's not a working in progress type of deal. And
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: I think that's what the Steelers kind of looked at
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: was let's build this line. And they, and they went
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: and attacked it in the draft consecutively to make sure
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: that that was the case for whoever the quarterback was
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: going to be.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: I love that approach. I think we all love that approach.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: That's where you start winning football games. And one other
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: thing about this third round pick that you got, and
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I know that you sent a fourth back end Broderick
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: and you got a third and a sixth, you know,
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Sevenths are of almost no value. Sixth can help you
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: move up to make a selection. But a third, in
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: case they don't believe that the quarterback is on this roster,
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: and we're just about to get into that. That's the
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: position we're going to start with when we have the
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: roster breakdown. That third could help you move up. That
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: third gives you some more flexibility. If you look at
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: a roster, you're really hoping a first-round pick is going
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: to be a star. A second round pick is going
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: to be an above average starter. A third round pick
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: is going to be a solid starter for you. That's
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: an asset. Just to move up that little bit from
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: fourth to third is an asset in which you could
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: either trade for a quarterback of the future if you
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: don't believe he's on your roster now, or you can
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: use that to supplement your roster by hopefully getting another
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: starter level player in next year's draft. Okay, so let's
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: get to the quarterback position. And Max, let's start with you.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: I don't think this was any surprise. I think back at,
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: you know, maybe in OTAs or maybe in, The beginning
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: of training camp, we might have been surprised a little
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: bit that four quarterbacks were going to be kept. But
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: I think the more training camp went on, the more
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: we were all pretty confident they were going to keep
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: all four of these quarterbacks.
• 30:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was– we saw enough to take them
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: into battle next year and see who could win. That's
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: what you wanted to establish. Because, God willing, knock on wood,
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: you will not have to– break the case on either
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: one of them, right? Mason Rudolph is a guy that
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy talked about throughout training camp, praising his ability
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: as a vet to go in and win you three
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: to four games if Aaron should miss. So when you
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: have that level of experience, you don't want to give
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: that away to somebody else. And Mike McCarthy, in his system,
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: he knows what he wants to get out of his quarterbacks,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: and he identified the traits that Mason Rudolph had. So
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: you knew that was your one and two. And then
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: the battle for third. And when you look at just
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: who those guys were, 10 months off in Drew Allard,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: 19 months off in Will Howard, I need to see
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: them shake the rust off. And then Will Howard comes
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: out and has a great, phenomenal two-minute drill that looked
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: almost flawless in execution. And you said, oh, that's something
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: I can work with. That's a desirable trait. And then
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: you saw Drew Allard in the second half make big
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: plays and have also the IQ was building. just had
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: to clean up some of the footwork and mechanical things
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: for him. And he made decisions, the RPO touchdown drive,
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: where instead of handing it off to the running back,
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: tucks it, goes out the back door, jumps in for
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: a rushing touchdown. Some beautiful touch passes down the field.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: These are all traits they can work with. And when
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: you think about a quarterback battle for next year and
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: whether you're going to insert rookie quarterback in from the draft,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: depending on where everything stands, you want to have a
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: good field of four. coming into camp so you keep
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: those two plus mason you got a vet on there
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: that's there to kind of keep the homeostasis going and
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: then you allow three guys to kind of duke it
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: out i think that was a smart approach and after
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: watching you know a handful of these preseason games slump
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: into came back in the third and showed some really
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: good qualities i think you have to be encouraged by
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: that and say all right we got to keep forward
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: this time.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: So while Willie and I mull over the use of
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: the word homeostasis, we're going to take a break. We're
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: going to get Willie's thoughts on the quarterback position. After
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: the break, I'll weigh in as well. I have some
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: thoughts that might be a little bit different, and we'll
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: get to those when we continue.
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: Mine's definitely different.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: Okay, we're going to get to those. We continue in
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: the locker room here on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with King and Starks
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: on Steelers Nation Radio. Presented by your neighborhood Ford store.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: The F-150 is the official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: And by Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct from the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: And Willie Colon. And Willie Colon.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Max Starks.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: I'm Rob King, Willie Colon. So we're talking about the
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: Steelers roster. They got down to 53 over the weekend.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: We already talked about the trades of Broderick Jones and
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: Caleb Johnson, and now we're breaking down the quarterback position.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: Max has had some initial say on this, Willie, and
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: I think both you and I want to go in
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: a little bit different directions, so why don't you lead
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: us off?
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they should have let go of Will Howard.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: Interesting.
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: Just to be frank, I think.
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: If you're talking about what they let go, and I
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: know we're still kind of sifting through this roster, and
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: there's some names that I feel like should have made
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: it but didn't happen. Listen, I think Will Howard Valley,
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: he didn't play because he dealt with a hand injury.
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: But I think during the preseason, I think he showed enough.
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: But I think the common theme as we continue to
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: talk about this roster, not only for this year but
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: building towards next year, listen, you have Mason as your
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: number two. I think Drew Adler, man, if you watch
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: him close, it wasn't just– he's a rookie, but I
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: think what stuck out on tape for me was his
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: ability to improvise when things broke down. Mike McCarthy talked
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: about that before– I think it was after.
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: The game against the Jets.
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: And he goes, you know, the kid did some things,
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: and one of the things I liked that he did
• 34:30
  Speaker 5: the most was when a block didn't happen or a
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: receiver ran around out or there was some indecision along
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: the way, he trusted his athleticism. You can build the
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: kid up. I think there's some things that are just innately–
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: that are just innate that he brings to the table,
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: and that's just his athleticism. I think Mason, you know,
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: if something happens to Aaron, you know Mason has a
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: resume and he's the stabilizer within that room. I think
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: Will Howard moving forward, I just think hanging on to him,
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: I think he just didn't show me enough. I agree
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: with you, Max, the two-minute was impressive that he was
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: able to do against the Jets at home. I think
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: watching him in that Buffalo game, he took some shots.
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: When he calmed his mind down, you sort of see
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: his feet and mind started working in tandem.
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: But I think if.
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: You're really trying to build a roster that you can
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: go to battle with and win games, there's some guys
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: that I feel like you're going to need that they
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: let go. And I think Will Howard, I think you
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: can afford to let Will Howard go. But there's some
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: names that we haven't got to yet that, I don't
• 35:35
  Speaker 5: think we could afford to let them go if we're
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: being serious about making a deep run that can add
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: some significant.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: Depth to our roster.
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: So that's just my opinion.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Interesting.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: So I will say this. I am fascinated about the
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: sort of what's next process. Like how long is it
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: going to take and when will they know or think
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: they know that they've got the next quarterback on the roster?
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: I want to dive into that more because I want
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: your guys' opinion on when that timeline might be. The
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: one thing I will say is I just think from
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: some of the things Mike McCarthy said, I came away
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: thinking that he believes, and he may have even said this,
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: that there's more to Mason Rudolph than we've seen. Just
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: because he's a veteran doesn't mean that he doesn't think
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: there's more upside to him. I thought Mason looked as
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: good as, frankly, I know it's preseason, as good as
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: we've seen him ever look. In his lone preseason action,
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: I thought he looked fantastic. And so I think that,
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: and there's been a lot of people raving about, you know,
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: his presence in the locker room and what kind of
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: a guy he is. And that's all important stuff. And
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: being a good teammate, you know, a lot of number
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: twos are chafing. They want to get out there and play.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: I don't know how good that is for the team.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't know what's going on up in Cleveland.
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: You got a backup who wants to play. And that's,
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: you know, that's not always, sometimes that's healthy. It's not
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: always healthy. No one's playing but Aaron Rodgers, unless Aaron
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: Rodgers is hurt. And so knowing where you are in
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: that scheme of things and still being a good teammate,
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: that's something Mason Rudolph brings. And I think that's an
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: intangible that's important to go with the upside. As far
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: as Will Howard is concerned and Drew Aller, look, I
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: think this is a big reason Mike McCarthy is here, Max,
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: to develop the next quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: what fascinates me is, How do you know when, because
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: these guys aren't going to get any snaps. If everything
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: goes according to plan, you won't see these guys take
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: another snap until next year. They're going to be in practice.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: At what point does Mike McCarthy and his staff do
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: your scouts internally who are maybe self-scouting the Steelers say, aha,
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: that's our guy. We don't need to take a pick
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: next year in the draft. We've got our guy. Or
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: is it going to be a crapshoot? Heck, the draft's
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: a crapshoot, too, as we know. But, I mean, do
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: you say, well, we're not really sure, so let's roll
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: with Drew and Will next year and see what happens?
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: Or do you think there's going to be an aha moment?
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: Or maybe it's already happened, where they've already identified one
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: of these guys as their future starting quarterback.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: Well, when I look at it, I think you have
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: to believe that there's– one of those two have shown true. And,
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: you know, while I think, you know, with Willie– saying that,
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: you know, he was probably one of the expendables. I
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: could argue both of them. You know, one of them
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: could be expendable and one of them, you know, could
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: have done that. And I think because it was so
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: close and we don't know what exactly the metric is
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: that they're looking at, like what are the qualities they
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: desire most in a starting quarterback? And you kind of
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: had a mixed bag of both of those things. That's
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: where I think, you know, it came to the decision,
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: we got to keep both of them. Because one of
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: them will go on somewhere else. I mean, we look
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: at what teams are looking like. I like the Dolphins, right?
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: They traded for Kyle McCord from the Packers. I thought
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: for sure, you know, a guy like Kyle McCord would
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: have been their third quarterback for sure. But they obviously decided, hey,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: we're going to make a trade for him. They like
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: having Tyrod behind. Jordan Love. So they make that trade
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: with the Dolphins. I think you could argue a lot
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: of teams don't have their backup quarterback. And what both
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: of these kids shown was that they can go on
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: elsewhere and be a backup this year for sure, if
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: not competing for a starting job in a year or so.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: You know, I think that's kind of where you were like, OK,
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: rather have it and not need it than to need
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: it and not have it. And injuries do happen. Let's
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: just be honest. Injuries happen in this league all the time.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, for Will Howard, he got shelved. He got
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: injured and didn't even have a snap last year. That's
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: how fast it can happen for a quarterback or any
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: position on the field. So to have the double insurance policy,
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: you know, redundancies on redundancies, I think at least for
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: this year and then get a real look and then
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: make your decision next year. I don't think it hurts
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: in the wait-and-see process, but I also get what Willie's
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: saying is, does he help you win now? Well, we
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: won't know. You know, we could get into a San
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: Francisco situation where you're down and you don't have that
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: emergency third and you're trying to put an injured guy
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: back out there. At least you have a third and then,
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: you know, you can move forward if things do happen
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: that way.
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: But I want to say this.
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: So, listen, for me, when I looked at the quarterback room,
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: obviously Aaron's the guy– Mason gives you, you know, because
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: of his resume and how long he's played and how
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: he's perceived in the locker room, he seemed like the
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: shorthand number two. When it came down to the two
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: young guns, I never thought Drew had a chance to–
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: he was never going to get cut. He's a Mike
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: McCarthy guy, right? You drafted him to develop him. And
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: so it was like– so for me, the three was
• 41:07
  Speaker 5: already set. The question mark was always Will Howard. And
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: so now that you look at Will Howard and you say, yeah,
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: the kid, he may need some more time and we'll
• 41:15
  Speaker 5: figure it out. But I'm saying to myself, okay, what
• 41:18
  Speaker 5: happens if you don't figure it out? And I think
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: you've made a great example about talking about development and practice.
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: If you're Mason Rudolph, I'm not letting Will Howard take
• 41:28
  Speaker 5: any of my reps. I'm barely getting any reps myself.
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: If I'm Mason Rudolph, these young guys behind me see nothing.
• 41:35
  Speaker 5: I'm going to be honest with you. Maybe that's just
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: a competitive bone to me. But because, you know, Aaron's
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: taking on the first team. He has to get himself acclimated.
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: And ready to go.
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: Will Howard will do whatever he has to do. And
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: towards the back end of practice, he may see, what,
• 41:48
  Speaker 5: three or four reps, and then that's his day. And
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: so now you're telling me I got to split it
• 41:52
  Speaker 5: with two other young guys?
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: Like, no, I'm not doing that.
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: And so if I'm Mason Rudolph, I'm throwing glass against
• 41:59
  Speaker 5: the wall. None of these guys are seeing my reps.
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: So if I'm Mason Rudolph and I'm taking that attitude...
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: then you're going to have to develop these guys in OTAs.
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: And if you're developing– if you plan on developing both
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: of these guys in OTAs, then you damn sure have
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: to look into the draft because one of these guys
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: may have to go anyway. You get what I'm saying?
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: So I'm just– it's just– I think it's a weird–
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: it's just weird to me. You have your three, move forward,
• 42:25
  Speaker 5: beef up the roster. The season towards the back of
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: the season gets a little heavy for us. We got
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: some dogfights ahead of us. Let's keep– let's continue to
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: add quality depth and go to battle with what we have.
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: I think from a quarterback position, you have Aaron, you
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: have Mason, Drew's the young gun, continue to build him up. Hey,
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: you tell him, Hey man, you don't say a word.
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: You just listen, learn and react, you know, and just
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: be as, and be an ambassador team when you're, when
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: you're away from the locker room, that's it.
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: And I think you just move forward. You send Will.
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, there's a lot of teams right now who
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: are looking for that type of quarterback. All of the dolphins, Falcons,
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: whoever let Will go, you know, find green and pasture
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: somewhere else and you just move on from it.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: So, And of course, we don't know whether these discussions
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: took place and the Steelers weren't happy with a return
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: offer for Will Howard. These are things we're not privy to.
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: I'll also say this just to throw out one more
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: caveat or one more layer to this conversation. You know,
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: I'm not 100% sure that they don't think Mason Rudolph
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: could start and get him to the playoffs next year.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: And then in that case, maybe it's another year of
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: developing the two young players behind him. Again, I just
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: came away with– guys, nobody told me anything. Nobody came–
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: nobody pulled me aside and said, hey, this is how
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: it's going to be. Sometimes you just– it's just osmosis
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: or whatever. You're around it enough and you start to
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: hear it. I had this conversation with Max about Max Ahanachor, Willie,
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: that at the Combine I came away thinking, boy, I
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: really hope the Steelers draft this guy. Wasn't any one
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: thing I could put a finger on. It was just
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: listening and keeping my ears open and hearing what people said.
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: Well, he's a large human being.
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he is a large human. I just get the
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: sense that there's– Not a lot of prairie mammals walking
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: around like that.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: I just get the sense there's a lot– that the
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: Steelers think there might be more to Mason Rudolph than
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: we've seen. And so maybe these are your two developmental
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: guys for next year. And, again, as we examine what
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: would it take to move up in the draft, if
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: the Steelers have the kind of season that I expect
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: them to have, which is another 10 or 11 win
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: type of season, another drafting 22nd, 24th, whatever it is,
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: hopefully further down. Hopefully they're drafting 32nd in the draft.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: To move up and get that quarterback who you're labeling
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: as the next Ben Roethlisberger or whatever, the next franchise guy,
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: that's going to cost you a first, maybe next year's first,
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: maybe that third you just picked up from Dallas, maybe
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: another second. If that's what it costs you, I just
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: name four starters. that you're expecting to get in the
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: draft in the next two years. So I can understand
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: why you would want to hang on to that extra
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: quarterback and say, let's just make sure that the cost
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: is going to be so high to have to move up.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: Let's just make sure that we don't already have that
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: guy on this roster. That's one of the reasons I
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: thought they would go toward four and one of the
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: reasons that I think it's okay that they went to
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: four because– What you can save is a lot.
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I apologize to cut you off. No, not at all.
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: As you mentioned, see, I thought the Steelers were going
• 45:40
  Speaker 5: to keep 10 linemen, right? And I thought leaving, letting
• 45:45
  Speaker 5: Will walk made sense to me because I feel like
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: with the line we have, you know, and we're still
• 45:50
  Speaker 5: kind of, you know, listen, I think Max should start
• 45:54
  Speaker 5: at right tackle. I think he has to continue to
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: get in condition. But this also was dealing with a net, right?
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: And so Max, I mean, Max Starks, this is, can
• 46:02
  Speaker 5: attest to what he may be going through or what
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: he has to go through, right?
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a young gun.
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: He may be able to recover fast or whatever, but
• 46:10
  Speaker 5: we still, he hasn't played a full game of football.
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: You know what I mean? Dylan Cook is somebody who
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: is up and down in his play. So my thing
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: is like, all right, keeping 10 linemen is, made more
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: sense to protect an old Asian veteran in case injuries.
• 46:26
  Speaker 5: People forget, like me and Max in Super Bowl year,
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: the year we won Super Bowl 43, we lost Kendall
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: Simmons at right guard, our starting right guard, and we
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: lost Marvell Smith and Big Max Stark steps in. We
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: lost two significant starters on that line, and boom, because
• 46:41
  Speaker 5: we had quality depth. You know what I mean? So
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: I think the more linemen you have, especially when you
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: have a season where you're like, we got to run
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: the ball better, We want to be able to protect
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: Aaron at all costs. We want to be able to
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: play significant games like we continue to do in December,
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: but have enough big bodies where we're not feeling like
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: we have to kind of, you know, we have to
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: kind of reshape ourselves, our identity on the fly. And
• 47:02
  Speaker 5: so that, that, that's, that was part of my thinking
• 47:06
  Speaker 5: when I was kind of looking at this roster.
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: And we're, and we're sure, and we're sure to tackle
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: right of the nine. We only have three tackles that
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: you could say going into this Max, Troy, and Dylan,
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: and then everybody else is a bigger one. So, yeah,
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: it's going to be very interesting. I can't wait to
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: get into the offensive line breakdown.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: Yes, and we're going to get to that. We've got
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: to get to the wide receivers, the running backs, the
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: tight ends. Hopefully we can get through the offense today
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: as we continue in the locker room with King and
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: Starks and Cologne here on the Steelers Audio Network.