Latest / The Irish Steelers Podcast / It’s almost time for Training Camp!

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It’s almost time for Training Camp! · The Irish Steelers Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: And folks, welcome into the Irish Staiers Podcast another week
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: as we get ready for the start off training camp
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: at Ptsburgh Sediters starting next week. Michael Quid delighted to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: be joined with Jimmy English. First off, Jimmy, how's the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: form I get on?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Good?
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Michael to that to you back in talking serious. It's
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: always my favorite part of the week talking serious football.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Are you guys one week to training camp of your
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: itching And I know the Dave is as well.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: DV doing good and well. Michael's good to be here.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: As I said, talking Steelers is my favorite part of
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: the week as well as just looking forward it and
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: that's the best all you can ask for.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Hello, it's great that we have this partnership now and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: we're we're doing this Staters podcast and we want to
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: thank everyone for listening. And it's great that we're going
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to have talent that's on from s n R and
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: for stais dot com and from the Staters Radio Network.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And we're delighted to have Matt Williamson who's on at
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Williamson NFL and swer. Matt's I haven't gave you couldn't
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: no introductionary, but you're more than welcoming. It's it's it's
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: a great honour hobyo on this podcast especially it's only
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the third episode on How You do.
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: Oh, I am great, I am excited Dale, and I
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: just stated it recorded an episode of the drive Psyched
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: to go to camp all that that entails. We're on
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: three hours a day from three to six Eastern touring camp,
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: so you know as practice is going on and then
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: well after so can't wait, man, can't wait.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: That's a great time. It's e to eleven for people
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: alarmed us a lot of the time. If you got canty,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: get in the bed and just I just listen to
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: you guys. But it's it's great. How it's good following
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a team in the East Coast mops at Have you
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: ever been downing before?
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: I have not.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: I have not been overseas, so I would love to
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: and uh uh hopefully the U the Steelers had that
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: way and take.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Me with them at some point. That's where that's where
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: we're all open for a moth.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: That's that's the uh, that's.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Where we're we're waiting to be waiting with Beata breath Briggain.
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: Renine Stow thiscided the pond uh.
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: I think it could happen in the near future. They're overdue,
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: so who knows, hopefully.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: And so obviously we're we're, you know, just about a
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: week away from comp and what are you looking forward
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: to most about.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Being back in Saint Vincent's actually watching practice?
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: I mean it is a blast, and Dale and I
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: will be up in the press box looking down. The
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: whole experience is a blast. I mean, I'm fortunate enough
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: that I eat lunch in the same cafeteria, you know,
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: the coaches and team and media and everybody's in there
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: and food's great, by the way, and you know, there's
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: just a lot of interaction with Steeler people and it's
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: a blast, and the fans are awesome to us as well.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: And not can you just talk to us about your
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: work with the Steelers and what do you actually do
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: around training camp? You know, is it the best time
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: of the year?
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Would you say?
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: There's no bad times of the year. To be honest
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: with you, the time I dislike most is actually what
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: we're just almost done with here, is that down period.
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: I mean you would think everyone's like, oh, you love
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: the vacations. I'm like, no, I still got to do
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: podcasts and there's just not as much to talk about
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: or I got to write, you know, so all of
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: it I love. I mean, I love the off season
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: because as I always say this that in free agency,
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: in the draft is the only time teams don't lie
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: to you. You know, they tell you exactly what they
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: think of their roster or where they're going to spend
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: their money and their assets and their draft picks. Sometimes
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: you got to kind of you know, read the tea
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: leaves and figure it out. But camp's the same way,
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: you know, like I'm looking forward to, you know, how
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: they divvy out snaps. You know, A great example was
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: last year, this year, you'll be a huge difference. But
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: just to kind of give an example, Mike Tomlin had
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: a tough situation one year ago of we're probably going
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: to start Mitch Trubisky in Week one, but we just
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: use the twentieth pick in the draft on a guy
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: that we love. We want to give him every rep possible.
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: And unlike some teams, the third guy, Mason Rudolph, who
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: of course of course is returning, now deserves snaps as well.
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: You can't just throw himTo the side. So those type
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: of things, I think you'd learn an awful lot and
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: you know examples this year, I would say also revolver
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: around rookies.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Is right now.
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: Dan Moore is the starting tackle, but Roderick Jones has
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: immense upside. You know, how many snaps does he get
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: with the ones? How about Porter versus Wallace or Peterson,
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: things of that nature. You know, does Benton go right
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: away as the starting knows? What about when they're in
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: Nickels he in the second team?
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Defensive tackle rotation?
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: All those things I think are very telling, and they
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: change a lot during camp. You know, like Jaylen Warren
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: is a great example. When we got the camp, I
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: knew who he was, but not all that well. After
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: true practices, Dale and I are like, this guy's making
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: the team. I mean, this guy's legit and everyone in
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: the stadium could see it. And a weekend he's moved
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: up a death chart, move up to death chart and
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: confirms what we saw as well live.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I think that was so good about training count just
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: for any scene, but especially for us to the theaters
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: that we can listen into you in the evening and
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: get and get that exclusive boots on the grind sort
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: of look I'm here is what's happened, and yeah, we
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: can take it, and I'm read add to the cohort
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: of iris fonds here at I guess not just the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: general question around the court acquisition, just what are your
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: expectations are? What do you want to see specifically, not
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: from Kenny pick At this season obviously, but just just
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: got into com going into the second training company, this team.
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: Well I mentioned this going into Mini camp and OTAs
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: because sort of like we just talked about one year ago,
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: for those events, Kenny was brand new, you know, Trubisky's
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: brand new. You know, it's really the first exposure we
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: had to both of them. And I really wanted to
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: see Kenny one year or this at this last year
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: look like it's his team. And that's not something you can,
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: you know, accuracy percentage or touchdown interception ratio. It's not tangible,
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: but it was obvious it was his team. You know
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: that he's the starter. Everyone respects him in that manner.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: And then in addition to that, his body looks better
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: now than it did a year ago. He's added weight strength,
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: and I'm sure you guys remember there were a couple
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: instances as a rookie year where he got ragged all
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: and throw it around a little bit. I mean, he's
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: never gonna be Ben or Josh Allen, you know, in
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: terms of size, strength, physicality, but he definitely.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Looks more well built for the rigors of.
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: A seventeen plus game season. You know, that was great
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: at camp. It's a little bit different question because he
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: answered those things for me at mini camp and OTAs
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: where you know those in the stands will see that
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: for the first time. This is more of a starting
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: week one thing. But I think two things to really
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: keep an eye on with him that is not at
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: all unusual for rookie quarterbacks is there's two areas of
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: the field that he struggled mightily, and that was the
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: red zone and the area from ten to twenty yards downfield,
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: not the short throws, not the bombs down the sideline,
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: and that's where all the bodies are. All the bodies
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: are ten to twenty yards down field, and they're in
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: the red zone. Everything gets condensed. You know, Trevor Lawrence
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: struggled in those areas. I mean rookies struggle in those
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: two areas. He was near the bottom of the league
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: in both. If he can get to middle the pack
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: in the those two areas. It's gonna result in a
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: lot more first downs, it's gonna result in a lot
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: more passing touchdowns. But more importantly, it'll show that he belongs.
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: You know that some guys never make that transition in
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: those difficult windows to throw, and I really want to
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: see that from him, and I'll be shocked if he
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: doesn't get there.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Matt, you mentioned there previously a couple of the position
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: battles potentially that we're going to see in camp, which
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: to you is the most intriguing position battle this year.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: Great question, and I actually just wrote this article and
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: I don't know that it's necessarily a position battle, But
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: after really digging into some of the analytics and snap
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: counts on the defense, they were pretty high in the
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: league when they used in terms of using their base
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: three four, they were very low percentage of nickel defense
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: with five defensive backs on the field, which is really base.
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: Now in the league, I mean, the league predominantly is
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: a nickel league, but the Steelers were near the bottom
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: in turn a percentage of nickel. So therefore they were
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: at the top of the league in dime. Now that's
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: good and bad. You know, ideally, you don't have that
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: much substitution. Because I reference in the article, you know,
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: the Niners are coming to town week one, and they
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: present massive problems because they're five skill guys. Yuschek, who's
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: very valuable as a fullback that most teams don't use. McCaffrey, Kittle,
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: you know, Deebo and Ayuk are almost always on the field.
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: They don't go to a lot of three wide. They
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: don't bring in extra tight ends as much as other teams.
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: So I worry that the Steelers might be too heavy
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: to deal with those receivers in base to like to
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: deal with the run game in nickel so or in dime,
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: I apologize, So what will their nickel package look like?
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: Who's that second linebacker? How will they use Kean O'Neill?
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: You know, is he going to be a pseudo linebacker.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: I'm not necessarily worried about who the five defensive back
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: are gonna be or the four down linemen. I mean,
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: it's gonna be Hayward, It's gonna be Ogan, Joby watt In,
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: Hayes Heismith. But I wonder who that extra guy is
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: going to be situationally, and I know that's really getting
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: deep down the weeds because left tackle, starting corner, those
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: are going to be position battles. But I don't know
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: that there's a ton of position battles on this team.
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think the starters outside of left tackle
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: and maybe Joey Porter Junior are pretty well set.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: That's that was actually gonna be in the second question
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: because I did read some of that article and I
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: noticed you did say we do have a lack of
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: you know, uses for the nickel defense, you know, throughout
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: twenty twenty two, And I was just gonna ask you,
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: is that something you see us trying to work on
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: through at training camp with the new personnel or is
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: it just very much going to be the same, you know,
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: staying with the same twenty twenty two you know, dame
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: defense as you say.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: So my thoughts on it are I always say it
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: this way, that you can't have everything if you're team building,
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: you have to cut corner somewhere, and I think that
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: the Steelers are cutting corner at linebacker off the ball,
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: where you know, people call it the inside linebacker position.
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: You know, they got rid of all three of those
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: dudes from last year, totally reshaped it, but they didn't
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: invest heavily in it, and a couple notes on that
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: as a Steelers fan found out in the harshest of manners,
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: when you invest heavily in a rookie linebacker Devin Bush
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: in this manner, most of those guys busts. They really get,
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: you know, going against the Shanahans of the world. They
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: run the wrong way or they bite on play action.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's a much tougher adjustment for young linebackers.
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: Even like Rokwan Smith with the Ravens first two years
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: were very up and down. Now he's starting to get it,
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: but you have to pay him a fortune. So I
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: kind of agree with that in that I would cut
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: corner at linebacker because the hit rate is really really low.
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: But that's your problem then. I mean in Nickel, like
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: for example, the Bills, the Bills never leave Nickel. It
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: doesn't matter what you throw out there. It was always
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: Edmunds and it was a Milano out there because they
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: trusted those two linebackers to do everything. The Niners the
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: same way with Fred Warner. You I mean, like they
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: trust those guys to do everything, and they're extreme players
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: that they don't have to substitute a whole heck of
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: a lot. I think that's going to be a weakness
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: of the Steelers defense. It's very It's something you can overcome.
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: But if you're weak at linebacker, you don't want to
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: play a ton of snaps with two linebackers out there,
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: you know what I mean, or they're gonna get picked on.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: You've covered a team for you know, a decent light
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: at the time. I'd love to know if you have
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: any memories or anything you liked to share from us,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: because there's so many fonds here, not just in Ireland
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: but across Europe that are staters fans that have never
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: had an opportunity, never mind to win the training inccount,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: but they've never actually maybe been to a geem as
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: well in Pittsburgh. O any interesting memories that you have
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Froblem training COUMP you can share with.
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: I mean tons, to be honest with you, my best
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: Steeler memories though, or probably like a lot of listeners
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: as a fan, I mean, I was born in nineteen
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: seventy three, you had to be a Steeler fit, you
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: know what I mean. Like they were just starting to
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: get popular. Like the first game I remember is their
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: fourth Super Bowl win where I actually knew what a
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: first down was and knew all the players and things
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: of that nature. And I often say, if it's all
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: for Joe Green and those guys, I would not be
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: doing this for a living, you know. So to see
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: some of those guys now come back, and that's why
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: I that's that might be my favorite thing now I
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: think about it is every day at training camp. I
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: bet your listeners don't know this, but a former Steeler
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: makes the tour. He eats with the team, he talks
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: to the team, he sits down with us for a segment.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: So we talked to Mel Blunt, Rocky Blier, Mike Wagner,
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: I mean, on and on and on, Jason gild and
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: Lewis Lips. You know, guys that I watched when I
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: was a kid, you know, like like everybody else, just
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: like a fan loving it. And I get to sit
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: down with Mel Blunt every year and just pick his
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: brain or whatever, you know. So that kind of stuff
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: is there's still so much nostalgia at Chuck Noldfield, and
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: it's Saint Vincent's that I become a fan again, which
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: I really enjoy.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: It's not a it's never a job for me. I mean,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: I have the best.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: Job in the world, but I do get goosebumps and
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: become a fan when I'm there a couple times.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: A year for sure.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: Now, the three of us were talking on last week's
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: episode about, you know, our bold predictions for this season,
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: and I came out with a bit of a screwball
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: towards the end of the show, and I predicted that
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: the theater for bringing back the yellow helmets this season
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: compliment the.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Cornerist jerseys, which.
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: Is the black block of course, and the yellow block numbers.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: So I've let to get your thoughts on the probability
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: of that occurring this season.
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: Wow, that is so out of my wheelhouse. I don't
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: My son, who's now sixteen and he's grown up watching
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: the game and knows an awful lot about it now,
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: always makes fun of me because my mind doesn't work
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: that way. He always talks about the uniforms that day.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: I should bring him on, you should ask him, because like,
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: I don't even know numbers all that well. I just
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: know the way they move and how they play. My
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: mind doesn't work around oh the jerseys are different today,
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: or he switched numbers or that kind of thing like,
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: yeah's the wrong guy. I apologize, but it sounds good
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: to me.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I'm in.
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: That's all I want to hear.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, fingers crossed and just just just won or not.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: Are there any you know, specific rookies and you've got
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: your eye on and training count that could leave you saying,
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: oh God, we've got a player on our haunts.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: You know how they players?
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: You know, we've puck up from the draft, and it's
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: going to be like, Wow, he's our next you know, superstar.
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: If you're like, I mean Roger Jones has I'm gonna
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: take that a different direction because I think Jones has immense,
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: immense upside that he can be one of the best
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: left tackles in this league two years from now, three
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: years from now. But I don't want people to get
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: discouraged if he isn't because he's gotten by, not gotten by.
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: It's not a lack of you know, work or anything.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: He just went to an awesome school that had great
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: people in front of him that he still has a
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: lot of work to do technique wise, Like, for example,
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: you'll see a lot of his pass sets he drops
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: his head for a split second. There's no reason to
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: do that and you lose sight of things. His handwork
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: still needs you, you know, some work as a run blocker.
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: He's very accomplished. But if he doesn't win the starting
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: job immediately, I'm sure everybody's gonna lose their mind. He's
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: a boss and he can't play. But you got to
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: think that positions different than others. You know that if
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: you're a wide receiver that is very very fast, but
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: you're not an accomplished route runner, you don't run a
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: full route tree, well I can still put you out
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: there twenty he plays a game and run go routes.
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: You know, if you're just a pass rusher, I don't
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: need to put you out there in first and ten,
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: But in pass rush situations you're out there.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: An offensive lineman, especially a left tackle, he's out there
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: every play. So if you have a discernible weakness or
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: a discernible thing that you really need to work on,
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: I can't have you out there for one hundred percent
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: of the snap. Doesn't mean we don't love you or
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: you're not going to be a great player.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: We were talking over the first cold episodes of Rolling
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: our expectations for this year. I mentioned the last episode
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: a round the schedule of the Steelers, you know, from
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: being ice for a few weeks and months, just one
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: are your faults on this schedule as the Staters try
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and make a run and try as far as the
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: con this.
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: Year, I think it's extremely favorable. And that shocks me
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: because the AFC is so strong, and I think the
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: AFC North might be the best division in football with
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: the AFC East, and the division games are gonna be tough.
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: I mean, there's just no way around that. All five
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: of those games are gonna be very difficult. Steelers Ravens,
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: no matter what the record is a tough game anyways,
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: but all three of those teams are contenders to me
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: or everybody.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: As good as the Steelers.
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: But the rest of the AFC games are unbelievably favorable,
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: I mean, as strong as the conference is, and just
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: take a step back. I mean, the biggest thing that
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: hurt the Steelers, well there's a couple, but a huge
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: thing that hurts the steel for not getting in the
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: playoffs last year was losing to the Jets in Miami
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: and the Patriots all those conference all those conference tiebreakers. Well, now,
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: besides the Jags, the Titans, the Colts, the Texans, the Raiders,
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: all those teams look very very favorable. You know, some
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: of their short all their short week games are at home.
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: They have nine home games as opposed to eight. I'm
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: real big on rest advantage. Rarely do they play a
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: team that is more rested than them this year. Even
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: some of their road games, namely Vegas, La, is gonna
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: be littered with Steeler fans. I mean, there's gonna be
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: so many Steeler fans there's gonna feel like a home game.
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: So there aren't. Just the way the schedule.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Fell was very favorable to them.
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: Yeah, but you mentioned the former Georgia Blulldog there and
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: Broderick Jones. I'm curious to get your toss another former
• 17:57
  Speaker 6: Georgia Blulldog to be dropped in Dinall Washington and how
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: you see him complimenting the tight end groom with pop
• 18:04
  Speaker 6: firem obviously a clearer number one. So how would you
• 18:07
  Speaker 6: envision and Darna Washington getting in there.
• 18:11
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I didn't know if it'd be the tight end
• 18:14
  Speaker 7: market or not, but I wrote several articles, was on
• 18:17
  Speaker 7: the air a lot saying this rookie tight end class
• 18:20
  Speaker 7: before the draft is exceptional and is as good as
• 18:23
  Speaker 7: I've ever seen.
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: It would be a shame if they didn't get one
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: of the top eight ten guys, because you're gonna get
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: them at a discount. You know, you're gonna spend ninety
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: cents on the dollar, ninety cents on the euro. You know,
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: I mean you're gonna be You're gonna get a better
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: deal on these guys because not everyone's in the tight
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: end market. And I guess there is a knee with Washington,
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: which if you're between him and Muskgrave, they took the
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: other one, so that benefited the Steelers. Now, I think
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: his key is he also.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Has a little bit of work to do as a blocker.
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: He has a mens upside there as well, just like
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: his teammate at Georgia. But he's bigger, stronger than everybody.
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: He could throw them around without doing a lot of
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: technique work. But I'm sure you guys are aware of
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: your listeners that before the Claypool trade, the Steelers were
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: very very heavy in eleven personnel, with three receivers on
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: the field, tight end and running back. They make that
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: trade and Gentry as a second tight end, his snap
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: count goes up immensely and the third receivers drops immensely.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: So with all respect to Gentry, if Washington can just
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: be better than him sooner than later, maybe not the
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: first stap of day one, that's a huge upgrade. And
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: it makes you a big, physical football team and you
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: know they're going to run the ball a lot. Plus
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: he stretches the field better. And this also applies to
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: Alan Robinson. But back to what we mentioned a bit ago,
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: where was Kenny his worst the red zone and from
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: ten to twenty yards downfield, Well that's where Washington and
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: Alan Robinson do their best work. I mean the Steelers
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: know these things too.
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I suppose just a final question from Amos. A
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: lot of us we spoke on the podcast a couple
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: of weeks ago, but Nick herbig and we're very excited
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: about him. Is there anything you can sort of tell
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: us about him? Because you know, he's come from the
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: Seeing College as TJ, and there's a lot of expectations
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: this stuff, you know, surrounding him. Is there anything you
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: can sort of tell us that may sort of back
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: us up and saying that we think he's going to
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: be the stale of the entire draft. I feel like.
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: Maybe his advanced metrics in terms of like pass rush
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: win rate, you know, pressures, things like that that don't
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: show up on the back of his football card. You know,
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: how many sacks and tackles he has are extremely, extremely high,
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: So that's great.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: He's a very good athlete.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: I think he's versatile enough to maybe play the second
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: level like a Timmins or Chad Brown did, as well
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: as rush off the edge. Now I'm not disputing that
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: I like him as much as you do. I'm excited
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: about him. I think he'll be a phenomenal special teams
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: player the second he you know, the day one, which
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: is a great way just to get on the field.
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: But I do think I think signing Marcus Golden was
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: really good for him because I didn't want to ask him,
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: especially his weight.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: He's a little smaller to.
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: Be the true number three there, you know, I mean,
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: let alone, if Water high Smiths were to miss time,
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: having Golden there to play twenty STAPs a game when
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: they need a break or if somebody's injured, I think
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: is great for Herbig's development as opposed to well, you know,
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: you're active on game day because of special teams and
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: if what you know or high Smith pulls up lame,
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: you got to play the rest of the game.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I think that's asking too much. So I think that
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: all works out well for him big picture, you know, not.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: Just just finally from us.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: You know, you've done an awful lot in your career, Todt,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and it's been it's been really insightful year from you today.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: But obviously we were on the Irish podcast, how much
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: would you love being able to fly over here for
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: a game at some point ten whatever year's done? The
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: line for a Stader's game a double.
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: High on the list, no doubt about it. Like, I
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: hope I never retire. I hope someone still pays me
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: to talk about the Steelers in the NFL when i'm
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: you know, in auspice, you know, like when I'm nearing
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: the end. I hope so I can still do it
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: to that level. But boy, would it be fun to
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: do a week over there, hit the pubs, all that
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: good stuff, and put on my Lambert jersey and just
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: be a fan in the stands. I mean, to me,
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: that would be more fun than covering the game and
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: writing an article after and.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: All those type of things.
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: I mean, just to experience your guys culture with all
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: my buddies that have been over there just love it,
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: so it would be high on the list, you know,
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: bring the wife and all that good stuff.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I guess for anyone listening, I guess I
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: guess for anyone of those new books you can Gettt
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Williamson nfl out. If anyone is listening to Steeters element
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: of this books, please do get us at the Steters
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Island and all social media fire over some questions, some
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: opinions and we will read the mycy next week is
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and this is why ask this next week is the outiverse,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: free of the game in Dublin, so do get your memories,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: your photos, your posts in hot staters Ireland head us
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: up as well as social media map. I'm sure we'll
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: get talking throughout the year, throughout the season. And thank
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: you so much for your time and enjoy camp as
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: a stars next week.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, this was a blast, and keep
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: me in the loop. I'd love to come back.