Latest / In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers) / HR2: Live from Training Camp 2026 Day 3

Transcript

HR2: Live from Training Camp 2026 Day 3 · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

0:00
Speaker 1: Live coverage of twenty twenty six Steelers Training Camp or
0:04
Speaker 1: the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light, Easy to Drink,
0:09
Speaker 1: Easy to Enjoy, and brought to you in part by
0:12
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania One Call Systems Dial eight one one before You
0:16
Speaker 1: Dig SNT Bank People Forward Banking by Kalucy Chevrolet, serving
0:22
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh area for over one hundred and eight years.
0:25
Speaker 1: Clearview Federal Credit Union. For every touchdown the Black and
0:29
Speaker 1: Gold score in twenty twenty six, Clearview will donate five
0:32
Speaker 1: hundred dollars to the Light of Life Mission. Visit CLEARVIEWFCU
0:37
Speaker 1: dot org and buy iron Workers Local Union Number three.
0:41
Speaker 2: We don't go to the office, We build.
0:43
Speaker 3: It and welcome back in the locker room. And an
0:49
Speaker 3: absolutely beautiful day. We've had nothing but here at Saint Vincent.
0:54
Speaker 3: You know, I wonder if they're actually secretly hoping for
0:58
Speaker 3: one day of rains that can get that indoor. Yeah,
1:00
Speaker 3: some use beautiful Oh man, I'm not rooting for it,
1:04
Speaker 3: but they might be rooting for it.
1:06
Speaker 2: You never know.
1:07
Speaker 3: So we have been talking about the quarterback position, and
1:10
Speaker 3: by the way, Max, you know, we're talking about this
1:12
Speaker 3: during the break. The show continues during the break right
1:16
Speaker 3: at least for us. But one thing you you pointed
1:19
Speaker 3: out and and you know needs to be underline because
1:23
Speaker 3: we talked about it yesterday, but not at the beginning
1:25
Speaker 3: of this talk about the second quarterback, Aaron Rodgers made
1:28
Speaker 3: it clear this is his final year. This is my
1:32
Speaker 3: final year. Then DK Metcalf came out and say, hey,
1:34
Speaker 3: never say never, and then went to Aaron Rodgers and said, hey,
1:37
Speaker 3: DK said never say it, and he said, no, this
1:39
Speaker 3: is my final year. I never said that's never exactly,
1:42
Speaker 3: it's it is his final year. And so that brings
1:47
Speaker 3: you know, listen, you got Ben Roethlisbergramer's prime. What do
1:51
Speaker 3: you want a veteran backup quarterback and then maybe potentially
1:57
Speaker 3: a a third guy who you can develop. Maybe, right,
2:02
Speaker 3: that's what you want when you have that established veteran quarterback.
2:06
Speaker 3: Nobody's pulling their hair out in Kansas City over who
2:09
Speaker 3: the third quarterback is going to be. Nobody, No, nobody's
2:12
Speaker 3: pulling your hair out. Hey, is Shane Bouchelle good enough
2:16
Speaker 3: to be the number three quarterback in Buffalo? Nobody's pulling
2:19
Speaker 3: their hair out right now. So, but the Steelers are
2:23
Speaker 3: facing the end of the road with a Hall of
2:26
Speaker 3: Fame quarterback. This is it for Aaron Rodgers. That's and
2:30
Speaker 3: you're absolutely right to have. That sets the framework for
2:35
Speaker 3: why this is such an important evaluation aspect and evaluation
2:39
Speaker 3: going on in this camp.
2:40
Speaker 2: And I think that's what you have to remember because
2:44
Speaker 2: you know for sure you need one more quarterback next year, right,
2:47
Speaker 2: if not too right, because of the decision that you make,
2:51
Speaker 2: will determine that. And I almost want to say, certainly
2:53
Speaker 2: you're gonna need two quarterbacks next year, because if one
2:56
Speaker 2: of these guys has to go, whether it's Will Howard,
2:58
Speaker 2: whether it's Dueller, or maybe it's Mason Rudolph. Right, like
3:02
Speaker 2: I said, as it stands today, no pass is thrown
3:05
Speaker 2: in a professional game like environment, it goes to Mason Rudolph. Yes,
3:11
Speaker 2: but we will have three preseason games to evaluate and
3:14
Speaker 2: speculate what we can see in the future. Was it
3:17
Speaker 2: enough that we can trust a guy to be in
3:19
Speaker 2: that number two role? That's gonna be So we have
3:22
Speaker 2: three quarterbacks kind of on the chopping block, you know,
3:26
Speaker 2: to borrow atominism here as in the MacArthur era, two dogs,
3:30
Speaker 2: you know, three dogs, two bones in this situation. So
3:34
Speaker 2: knowing that you're going in next year without Aaron Rodgers
3:38
Speaker 2: and possibly one of these other quarterbacks. You're gonna need
3:42
Speaker 2: two quarterbacks next year. But the question is do I
3:45
Speaker 2: thin to go get them high early or do I
3:47
Speaker 2: think or can I can I wait and get them
3:49
Speaker 2: in the third round or later like we did with
3:51
Speaker 2: Drew Aller and Will Howard. That's what the question is
3:54
Speaker 2: going to be and do and what free agent is
3:56
Speaker 2: going to be available.
3:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think if you make the decision that let's
4:01
Speaker 3: just say for argument, well just say one of the two.
4:04
Speaker 3: And it would seem from everything that they've talked about,
4:08
Speaker 3: even though he hasn't played in a while, that Will Howard,
4:11
Speaker 3: you know, he's been through Yes it was a different coach,
4:14
Speaker 3: but he's been through training camp and he has all
4:16
Speaker 3: that other stuff. They're not talking about rebuilding Will Howard's
4:19
Speaker 3: mechanics like they were with Drew Aller. And again, I
4:21
Speaker 3: don't know how quickly that will come along, if it
4:24
Speaker 3: will come along for Drew Aller, and what the upside
4:27
Speaker 3: might be once it does. But it feels like, you know,
4:30
Speaker 3: Will Howard could be maybe is he the guy that's
4:34
Speaker 3: closer to being the approximation of Mason Rudolph. Now that
4:39
Speaker 3: does that allow you to make a trade. If that's
4:42
Speaker 3: the case. Now, if you do that, then potentially you
4:46
Speaker 3: could go in the next year with two quarterbacks with
4:48
Speaker 3: Aler and Howard, then you don't need need one quarterback.
4:51
Speaker 3: But the biggest question is, you know, it is one
4:54
Speaker 3: of those positions where you know it's it's true to
4:59
Speaker 3: quarterback position. It's probably truth the goalie position in hockey.
5:03
Speaker 3: You know sometimes if you have two guys, it means
5:06
Speaker 3: you don't have any right, well, we got two guys. Well,
5:10
Speaker 3: if you had one, that's all you need. You know,
5:12
Speaker 3: you know, two guys. You can't play two quarterbacks at once.
5:16
Speaker 3: It's not wide receiver, it's not edge rusher, and you
5:18
Speaker 3: can only play.
5:19
Speaker 2: One unless you unless you're the early late late nineties
5:22
Speaker 2: early two thousands Florida Gators Funny Gun with Rex Grossman,
5:27
Speaker 2: Jesse Palmer. Okay Johnson and Jesse Palmer like, yeah, we
5:30
Speaker 2: we went two quarterback early on in my college guys
5:34
Speaker 2: like holy crap. I was like, Okay, one series is Jesse,
5:36
Speaker 2: one series is Rex.
5:38
Speaker 3: But that's by gun Era and it was college and
5:40
Speaker 3: it was different, So I think that could be that
5:45
Speaker 3: could be hedging your bets for next year, But what
5:49
Speaker 3: does that do for this year? Mason Rudolph is an
5:52
Speaker 3: awfully nice security blanket to have.
5:55
Speaker 2: Under circumcercer warm, cozy.
5:57
Speaker 3: Yes, under certain circumstances, he can wind up being one
6:01
Speaker 3: of the most valuable players you have on your roster. Right,
6:05
Speaker 3: it's hard to imagine this year one of those other
6:08
Speaker 3: young guys having that mantle, having the guy that comes
6:12
Speaker 3: in and saves your season because of what he can
6:14
Speaker 3: do over X amount of stretch until you get your
6:17
Speaker 3: future Hall of Famer back. Now, one of those guys
6:19
Speaker 3: might be that, but right now, before camp starts, that
6:24
Speaker 3: is zero indication. It is a projection. We will talking
6:28
Speaker 3: about gazing into the middle distance. That's gazing into the
6:31
Speaker 3: middle distance. So that's the great beyond. It is the
6:34
Speaker 3: great Yeah. It really does make this It makes it
6:38
Speaker 3: a really fascinating discussion in my opinion, and a fascinating
6:41
Speaker 3: camp to watch.
6:42
Speaker 2: And I think that's why it's one of the lead
6:44
Speaker 2: storylines right that we have going into this camp is
6:47
Speaker 2: what does QB look like knowing that there is no
6:50
Speaker 2: future with ar right, Yeah, because that's essentially why you
6:54
Speaker 2: went and got Drew Aller in the third round because
6:56
Speaker 2: you didn't know already, but now you do know, and
6:59
Speaker 2: you have to plan ahead. So that makes the Drew
7:01
Speaker 2: Aler pick look that much smarter in the moment because
7:05
Speaker 2: you don't know who the future guy's going to be, right,
7:08
Speaker 2: and and there's no tangible stats to weigh against for
7:13
Speaker 2: who the future starter is going to be.
7:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this is this is the time of year
7:18
Speaker 3: in which Will Howard or Drew Aller can plant that
7:24
Speaker 3: seed in the minds of the coaching staff and the
7:27
Speaker 3: front office of the Pittsburgh Steelers that says I'm the guy.
7:31
Speaker 3: Plant me now, because I'm going to be the one
7:33
Speaker 3: that's going to be bearing fruit next season and for
7:36
Speaker 3: many seasons beyond, because let's face it, you are now
7:42
Speaker 3: you go from look what I've done to hey, can
7:46
Speaker 3: I hold the clipboard this quarter? Because you know, can
7:49
Speaker 3: I take over as the backup this quarter? Because you're
7:52
Speaker 3: not You're not going to see the field. If everything
7:54
Speaker 3: goes well, you won't see the field. It's going to
7:56
Speaker 3: be very difficult for you to get reps in practice. Right.
8:00
Speaker 3: So let's say let's say, uh, let's go into one scenario.
8:04
Speaker 3: You keep Aaron Rodgers you keep Mason Rudolph. You are
8:07
Speaker 3: now the third quarterback, whether it's Will Howard or Drew Aller.
8:10
Speaker 3: You've shown a lot during the preseason camp. You know,
8:13
Speaker 3: you've really you've really shined. Okay, guess what you're not doing.
8:18
Speaker 3: You're not taking any snaps during the season because they're
8:20
Speaker 3: all going to Aaron Rodgers or Mason Rudolph. Now it's
8:22
Speaker 3: a little different if one of these guys, the younger guys,
8:25
Speaker 3: emergence as a second at least you'll get some snaps.
8:30
Speaker 2: And you know that that veteran off day that Aaron
8:33
Speaker 2: will probably get during the week, you'll get a little
8:36
Speaker 2: bit more of a workload than you normally would to
8:40
Speaker 2: get ready for it. But you're right, you're gonna get
8:42
Speaker 2: strictly practice squad reps, right thirs string quarterbacks, emergency third
8:46
Speaker 2: so to speak. You're gonna dress on game day, you're
8:48
Speaker 2: gonna be on the sidelines, you know, and you're gonna
8:51
Speaker 2: be ready to go if we get down to that,
8:53
Speaker 2: we get to a rock party situation right right, yeah,
8:56
Speaker 2: where you're down to your third string quarterback. But you're right,
8:59
Speaker 2: I mean, and how much will you see? So that's
9:01
Speaker 2: why these three preseason games where Aaron is not we
9:03
Speaker 2: know is not going to play right, like Aaron had
9:06
Speaker 2: to play last season because Will got injured right before
9:09
Speaker 2: the before the preseason game started, and then you had
9:12
Speaker 2: what a luacun that was in and you're like, nah,
9:16
Speaker 2: let's just go ahead and get Aaron a couple of
9:19
Speaker 2: ceremonial snaps and then let's have Mason play the majority,
9:22
Speaker 2: and then we'll put him at the end because Will
9:25
Speaker 2: was unavailable with the hand injury. This year, you're not
9:28
Speaker 2: gonna have that excuse, and you're gonna get probably extended
9:32
Speaker 2: lost like Mason's probably not gonna get He'll probably get
9:34
Speaker 2: more ceremonial practice reps. Yeah, and then you'll have most
9:39
Speaker 2: two thirds of this game will be played by both
9:41
Speaker 2: the rookies, going back and forth and making sure that
9:44
Speaker 2: they get an equal split. By the time we get
9:46
Speaker 2: through the third preseason game of I can now have
9:49
Speaker 2: an apples to apples comparison eighty pass attempts or whatever
9:52
Speaker 2: through three games or fifty pass attempts where I can
9:55
Speaker 2: actually put them side by side and say, Okay, this
9:58
Speaker 2: is what they look like again, comparable competition.
10:02
Speaker 3: Now we have to make a decision right, and they're
10:05
Speaker 3: also getting more practice reps now than they're gonna get
10:08
Speaker 3: during the season two in preparation for those games. Talking
10:10
Speaker 3: about now, talking about the two young guys, there's gonna
10:15
Speaker 3: be days where Aaron Rodgers an't gonna do much of anything,
10:17
Speaker 3: if he might not even practice, And in fact, the
10:20
Speaker 3: indications seemed to be their days. He won't practice pitch
10:22
Speaker 3: count and he likes practicing, so they're gonna tell him, no,
10:25
Speaker 3: you don't get the practice today. So Mason would run
10:27
Speaker 3: with the first and the other two guys would split
10:29
Speaker 3: duties to the second and giving them more snaps.
10:32
Speaker 2: And the way they run these practices out here, so
10:34
Speaker 2: if people are if you're driving back home from catching
10:37
Speaker 2: the Mott game today, they ran two fields full go
10:42
Speaker 2: the entire time, alternating quarterbacks. So field one had Mason
10:46
Speaker 2: and Aaron splitting reps. Field two had Aler and Howard
10:49
Speaker 2: splitting reps. Normally, that would have been everybody on one
10:52
Speaker 2: field and you've been rolling through three different teams, and
10:55
Speaker 2: then it would have been a dissemination of snaps. Here,
10:59
Speaker 2: they got double the amount of snaps they probably would
11:01
Speaker 2: have gotten into Mike Common training camps. So they're already
11:04
Speaker 2: getting more opportunities to get ready for these games, So
11:08
Speaker 2: I expect that to kind of be the pace through
11:11
Speaker 2: camp and then when we get to the preseason games.
11:15
Speaker 2: Like you said, no Aaron playing in any of these
11:17
Speaker 2: preseason games, could be Mason running the first team, rest
11:20
Speaker 2: with the first team unit for a first couple of
11:22
Speaker 2: series or two, and then the rest of it. It's
11:24
Speaker 2: the rookie showcase.
11:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you are going to be faced with an
11:29
Speaker 3: interesting decision. In an ideal world, you're gonna have these
11:35
Speaker 3: three training camp practices and then maybe maybe a little
11:39
Speaker 3: bit of rep work during the season, hopefully not much. Again,
11:42
Speaker 3: hopefully nothing happened with Aaron. Uh and you know, again,
11:46
Speaker 3: if they keep Mason, now you're that third guy. Maybe
11:49
Speaker 3: if you know, if Aaron's out for a week or two,
11:51
Speaker 3: or you know, maybe even you know, wrap up a
11:54
Speaker 3: playoff berth and Aaron sits it, then now finally get
11:56
Speaker 3: some practice whatever whatever the case is that gets you
11:59
Speaker 3: from here. You're gonna get a ball of work to
12:02
Speaker 3: January or hopefully beyond, in which you're not going to
12:06
Speaker 3: get a lot of work. At some point, your staff
12:11
Speaker 3: and your scouts and there's self scouting that goes on
12:13
Speaker 3: a little bit as well. Has to make the determination, Okay,
12:18
Speaker 3: drafts upcoming, do we have our quarterback or not? And
12:22
Speaker 3: by the way, in an ideal world, you're gonna make
12:25
Speaker 3: a decision on a guy who has not taken a
12:27
Speaker 3: snap in a game since a preseason game in August,
12:32
Speaker 3: and you're gonna have to You're going to have to
12:35
Speaker 3: make You're gonna have to ascertain then is this the guy?
12:40
Speaker 3: Because is he hopefully more than that, because supposedly, again
12:46
Speaker 3: this last draft class was supposedly was supposed to be great.
12:50
Speaker 3: Is he the guy? Because if he is the guy,
12:53
Speaker 3: We're not going to trade up all these draft picks.
12:56
Speaker 3: It's going to hamstring our ability to draft in years
12:58
Speaker 3: to come, four years to come. We're going to use
13:01
Speaker 3: those to enhance the roster we already have in place
13:04
Speaker 3: and to build around that guy, right, and to continue
13:06
Speaker 3: to build around that guy, or do we need to
13:09
Speaker 3: just go all in and you're going to have to uh,
13:13
Speaker 3: you know, listen, it might be you're hoping it's not
13:17
Speaker 3: obvious in a bad way, right, Yeah, boy, we looked
13:20
Speaker 3: at training camp and.
13:21
Speaker 4: Uh, you know, uh, you're hoping, you're hoping that these
13:27
Speaker 4: are going to be interesting debates that are happening in
13:30
Speaker 4: February where the team's like, what are we going to
13:33
Speaker 4: do well?
13:34
Speaker 2: And competitive? You wanted to make sure there's competitive throughout
13:38
Speaker 2: this process and through the and through training camp to
13:41
Speaker 2: where us like, man, these guys are both so good
13:44
Speaker 2: and they have so much potential there. Oh, absolutely, that's
13:46
Speaker 2: the best case scenario that you want. If you're going
13:49
Speaker 2: in a there is a clear cut winner of the
13:52
Speaker 2: two young guys. If that's the way you choose to go,
13:55
Speaker 2: you're like, Okay, we got the guy that's going to
13:59
Speaker 2: be the future, But now who's the next guy after that? Right,
14:02
Speaker 2: who's going to be your your third and fourth guy
14:06
Speaker 2: in this process? That's what's going to be the next
14:09
Speaker 2: phase of that.
14:10
Speaker 3: And the other thing is, by the way west, you
14:13
Speaker 3: are arriving with presence.
14:16
Speaker 2: Just he is the Santa Claus of cafeteria.
14:19
Speaker 3: I'm looking at I'm trying to eye it, but your
14:22
Speaker 3: durn containers. I'm trying to decide whether whether my smoothie
14:26
Speaker 3: might be worth trading for whatever you got in there.
14:29
Speaker 2: Oh, I have soup if you either choose cold or hot.
14:34
Speaker 3: So I do think it makes it again to recap
14:38
Speaker 3: because Aaron is retiring, because you still want to win
14:44
Speaker 3: games this year, because you're hoping one of these guys
14:49
Speaker 3: is your future quarterback. And and let's add this because
14:54
Speaker 3: if you think that guy is Drew Aller and he
14:56
Speaker 3: still needs that development time that you've talked about, add infinitem,
15:01
Speaker 3: that's another layer on top of it, like okay, are
15:04
Speaker 3: we betting on the future now in August? Or how
15:07
Speaker 3: quickly can exit? All of these things make this a
15:12
Speaker 3: much much bigger story than it might even though everyone
15:17
Speaker 3: always wants to make it a big story. This year
15:19
Speaker 3: really really is a big story for the Steelers.
15:22
Speaker 2: You know what makes it the easiest. But you know
15:24
Speaker 2: how we could tell all this how somebody goes on.
15:26
Speaker 3: R that how's your ankle? It feels great? How's your ankle?
15:33
Speaker 3: It feels great? How's your ankle?
15:35
Speaker 1: What kind of hurts?
15:36
Speaker 3: Yeah? Exactly, not that you do that. But no, no.
15:41
Speaker 2: That would make life a lot easier for a lot
15:42
Speaker 2: of people making decisions.
15:43
Speaker 3: That's not us.
15:45
Speaker 2: But like you said, all things equal, this is going
15:49
Speaker 2: to be a huge evaluation year at that position group
15:52
Speaker 2: because this year, more than years past, it's heavily weighted
15:56
Speaker 2: because you know, there's not a what if with the
15:59
Speaker 2: starting quarterback it's win we haven't got it's not if
16:03
Speaker 2: it's now fully a win. These guys will need to
16:06
Speaker 2: really show can they or can't they be? And you're
16:09
Speaker 2: gonna get a different sample size to have to grade
16:12
Speaker 2: that on and take that into next year.
16:14
Speaker 3: Big ramifications potentially for this year and definitely for next year.
16:20
Speaker 3: It's again, it makes it a much more important situation
16:23
Speaker 3: than normal. So we have much to get to. We
16:26
Speaker 3: wanted to circle back a little bit on the offensive
16:29
Speaker 3: line because of some things that Mike McCarthy said this morning.
16:31
Speaker 3: Also the practice no helmets out there, and you know,
16:35
Speaker 3: people wondering what kind of practice this is gonna be.
16:37
Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy had some what I think will be words
16:42
Speaker 3: of assurance for fans out there. We're going to tell
16:45
Speaker 3: you all about that when we continue in the locker room.
16:47
Speaker 3: Here on this steel there's audio network.
16:51
Speaker 1: This is Live COVERAGEL Dot twenty twenty six Steelers Training
16:55
Speaker 1: Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
17:00
Speaker 1: easy to drink, easy to enjoy, and brought to you
17:03
Speaker 1: in part by Pennsylvania one Call Systems Dial eight one one.
17:08
Speaker 1: Before you dig SNT Bank People Forward Banking by kaluucy
17:13
Speaker 1: Chevrolet serving the Pittsburgh area for over one hundred and
17:16
Speaker 1: eight years. Clearview Federal Credit Union for every touchdown the
17:20
Speaker 1: Black and Gold score. In twenty twenty six, Clearview will
17:24
Speaker 1: donate five hundred dollars to the Light of Life Mission,
17:27
Speaker 1: they said, CLEARVIEWFCU dot org and buy Iron Workers Local
17:32
Speaker 1: Union number three.
17:33
Speaker 2: We don't go to the office.
17:35
Speaker 3: We build it, you know, not an I don't think
17:39
Speaker 3: anybody would say that that music bed and these things
17:42
Speaker 3: are usually like public domain music beds, Like I don't
17:45
Speaker 3: think anybody would hear that music bed and think ac DC.
17:48
Speaker 3: But there's just one little moment in the song where
17:50
Speaker 3: it sounds like they're about to break into uh, you
17:53
Speaker 3: know TNT by ACDC. Anyway, one of my observations that
17:58
Speaker 3: we will move away from that. So this morning, Mike McCarthy,
18:03
Speaker 3: I want to get to a couple things sure that
18:04
Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy talked about. So they were talking about, you know,
18:09
Speaker 3: no pads and all that, you know, how do you
18:11
Speaker 3: get your team ready? And he said, you know, I
18:12
Speaker 3: don't think I've explained this very well because you keep
18:15
Speaker 3: as it's going to be physical. Practice will be physical.
18:21
Speaker 3: There's going to be blocking, there's going to be hitting.
18:26
Speaker 3: What there is not going to be is tackling to
18:29
Speaker 3: the ground. The finish, That's what there's not going to
18:32
Speaker 3: be in an effort to cut down on potential injuries
18:37
Speaker 3: and save guy's legs.
18:38
Speaker 2: Right, you're saving legs. And he talked about the four
18:41
Speaker 2: parts of tackling, right, the pursuit, the approach, the rap,
18:47
Speaker 2: and the finish. You're gonna get the first three. He's
18:49
Speaker 2: not going to get the finish. Did you ever have
18:53
Speaker 2: anybody again? The terminology is different, The way things are
18:57
Speaker 2: broken down is different. Did you ever did you just
19:03
Speaker 2: say that or did Mike McCarthy say that about the
19:05
Speaker 2: four part time? He said that.
19:06
Speaker 3: Okay, said that in a press conference, so he broke
19:08
Speaker 3: it down. It is interesting that everything is broken down
19:12
Speaker 3: in that regard. You know, it's it's different, isn't it.
19:19
Speaker 2: We kind of said this yesterday. It's a very academic
19:22
Speaker 2: approach to football, right, Whereas we talk about a professor
19:26
Speaker 2: and Mike Tomlin, Mike McCarthy comes in as a teacher. Right,
19:30
Speaker 2: Teachers foundational says things plainly. They want you to understand it.
19:35
Speaker 2: So that it becomes a reaction. A professor is more philosophical,
19:40
Speaker 2: it's more abstract, right, you have to kind of dig
19:43
Speaker 2: through the philosophy to find the actual concrete application here.
19:48
Speaker 2: It's like it's like when you go into a kindergarten classroom. Right,
19:51
Speaker 2: the ABC's are on the board. The cursive, well, not
19:54
Speaker 2: so much anymore, as I saw on a clip the
19:56
Speaker 2: other day. Not everybody can read cursive anymore. It's very
19:59
Speaker 2: sad this generation. But your cursive letters are on the board,
20:03
Speaker 2: your numbers are on the board, and how to draw
20:05
Speaker 2: the numbers. Right, they have the little little arrows that
20:07
Speaker 2: show you which goes first, and dotted lines. And remember
20:10
Speaker 2: the brown paper with the blue and the red lines.
20:13
Speaker 2: You had to learn how to write. That's what Mark
20:16
Speaker 2: McCarthy is. He's that little brown piece of paper with
20:20
Speaker 2: the blue and the red lines. Whereas you get to
20:23
Speaker 2: Mike Tomlin, it was a college ruled white sheet of
20:26
Speaker 2: paper that was blank. Yeah, figure it out right, right,
20:28
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna give you what you need to do,
20:30
Speaker 2: but I'm not gonna spell it out plainly. This one
20:33
Speaker 2: is uppercase lower case, right, it's all writing all the
20:37
Speaker 2: letters of the alphabet all twenty six of them lowercase
20:40
Speaker 2: and upper case and figuring it out, and he doesn't.
20:43
Speaker 2: He wants to be as transparent as clean as possible,
20:45
Speaker 2: so there's no room for interpretation about what he wants.
20:49
Speaker 2: And I think that's where it's a lot different. Asay
20:51
Speaker 2: said breaking down the four parts of a tackle, talking
20:54
Speaker 2: about the philosophy behind why he does what he does,
20:57
Speaker 2: explaining that there's more cameras on the field, playing the
21:00
Speaker 2: tempo behind it, what way you know, recall versus install like,
21:05
Speaker 2: and he tells the media this so that now not
21:08
Speaker 2: only do we know on the broadcast side of it,
21:10
Speaker 2: but also the mass media knows, and the mass public knows,
21:14
Speaker 2: and the fans know. This is why I'm doing what
21:16
Speaker 2: I'm doing. You don't have to guess. I'm gonna tell
21:18
Speaker 2: you plainly what I want to happen.
21:21
Speaker 3: And a lot of stressing on fundamentals, a lot of
21:24
Speaker 3: that and details. So there's a beloved coach in Penguin's History,
21:28
Speaker 3: Badger Bob Johnson, little tiny tape to tape passes and
21:31
Speaker 3: all the players are like, uh, this is what we
21:34
Speaker 3: did when we were in peewee, and then they grew
21:36
Speaker 3: to embrace it. They grew to enjoy it, they grew
21:38
Speaker 3: to love it, and he was a beloved figure. So
21:40
Speaker 3: that was one of the things. Yes, on the fundamentals,
21:43
Speaker 3: but it is not you know for fans out there,
21:47
Speaker 3: Oh it's gonna be camp sharm and it's gonna be
21:49
Speaker 3: so soft. No, it's gonna be. He wants to be physical.
21:53
Speaker 3: He just doesn't want tackling to the ground, so that
21:56
Speaker 3: injuries that will eliminate certain drills, to eliminate certain things.
22:00
Speaker 3: Goal line's gonna be a lot tougher. Yep, that's right.
22:02
Speaker 3: So there's gonna be. There's gonna be, and inevitably, well
22:06
Speaker 3: you hope not. But usually there's one or two guys
22:10
Speaker 3: you get a little.
22:11
Speaker 2: Zealous, I mean, and that's it's the nature pushing each other.
22:15
Speaker 2: And you put ninety test tubes of testosterone on the
22:20
Speaker 2: same place that with constant collisions, there's going to be
22:23
Speaker 2: some testiness and you and you throw it a little
22:25
Speaker 2: bit of heat, a little heating out on a little
22:27
Speaker 2: catalyst out there. You're going to get reactions, a little talk.
22:33
Speaker 3: Yeah you thought you could tackle me? Oh you think
22:35
Speaker 3: you think, I don't think I think it.
22:38
Speaker 2: Chirp tap reactions reaction.
22:42
Speaker 3: So it is not going to be there's gonna be
22:45
Speaker 3: hitting in camp. So for those people that think are
22:47
Speaker 3: there's not gonna be hitting in camp, where we come to,
22:49
Speaker 3: there's gonna be hitting in camp.
22:50
Speaker 2: Bud.
22:51
Speaker 3: He was asked about the value of guys like Spencer
22:58
Speaker 3: Anderson and Dylan Cook and he gave a really good
23:02
Speaker 3: answer about this because he was talking about the fact that, yes,
23:06
Speaker 3: they're extremely valuable because they have the flexibility to play
23:11
Speaker 3: a number of positions. Wonderful, that's great, But he also said,
23:15
Speaker 3: but they're also competing for starting jobs and.
23:18
Speaker 2: Sting for one position. I know they're they're pretty good
23:21
Speaker 2: at multiple, but they're competing for one. Right.
23:24
Speaker 3: You don't want to be you know, sort of uh,
23:29
Speaker 3: you know, damned by versatility. Yeah, oh you're so versative,
23:32
Speaker 3: you're more valuable not playing what what what do you
23:35
Speaker 3: what do you mean? I want to play now? I
23:37
Speaker 3: want to be in every snap right. So I thought
23:40
Speaker 3: that was very interesting, A lot of praise for for
23:43
Speaker 3: for those guys in both regards, right and right now
23:46
Speaker 3: they're running with the ones.
23:48
Speaker 2: They are running the ones on the right side. You know,
23:50
Speaker 2: we were watching the the Mott game today and not
23:54
Speaker 2: even shells, just shirts, shirts and hats, and they took
23:58
Speaker 2: all the reps with the Ones and Roderick Jones and
24:01
Speaker 2: Ianare dunker Hoffman, everybody else was on the other column.
24:07
Speaker 2: McCollum was on the other field, and so it was
24:10
Speaker 2: it was very clear it's Troy Mason, Zach Spence, and
24:16
Speaker 2: Dylan that are getting first crack at the starting job.
24:21
Speaker 3: Think about that second unit. You just said, like, there
24:25
Speaker 3: are probably teams out there that would say, look, we
24:30
Speaker 3: have a maybe we have an all pro left guard
24:33
Speaker 3: or whatever. But if I got to take my starting five,
24:35
Speaker 3: including that all pro and trade him for that starting five,
24:38
Speaker 3: I would do it. And I'm talking about that backup,
24:40
Speaker 3: that backup five. I'm talking about the two first round tackles.
24:46
Speaker 3: The guy who every stat was better when brock Hoffman
24:50
Speaker 3: was on the field for the Dallas Cowboys last year.
24:52
Speaker 3: Now he comes in here and he can play for you,
24:56
Speaker 3: Jennings Dunker who you just spent a third round pick
24:58
Speaker 3: on the third round picks off turn into starting part.
25:02
Speaker 3: Ryan McCollum has done a very credible job when called upon.
25:06
Speaker 3: Hasn't been called upon that often, but when called upon
25:09
Speaker 3: to play.
25:09
Speaker 2: When Zach was out Zach got injured. That's a step
25:12
Speaker 2: right on end.
25:13
Speaker 3: That's your second team often.
25:15
Speaker 2: I mean, think about that. You just named on that
25:17
Speaker 2: second team four guys out of the five that have
25:21
Speaker 2: starting experience. Yep, that's that's not a bad place to
25:26
Speaker 2: be for all into and purposes. And like I said,
25:29
Speaker 2: whoever doesn't win that battle of the other three outside
25:33
Speaker 2: of the starting five is going to go start somewhere
25:36
Speaker 2: else because I guarantee you Cincinnati is looking at guys
25:40
Speaker 2: that are in our camp. Cleveland is looking at guys
25:44
Speaker 2: who are think about how much resources was spent this
25:46
Speaker 2: offseason in Cleveland to rebuild that entire offensive line from
25:51
Speaker 2: the ground up. You get guys that you can go
25:54
Speaker 2: and work with that could come in. And there's plenty
25:58
Speaker 2: of other teams I'm sure that would want some guys
26:01
Speaker 2: from our team. Like you said, if you had to
26:02
Speaker 2: do a full hockey line change of guys, that number
26:06
Speaker 2: two unit can go start for a lot of teams
26:08
Speaker 2: in the NFL right now. Yep, Houston Texas, do you
26:10
Speaker 2: think they might want some of those guys? Apps of
26:13
Speaker 2: freaking loutely.
26:14
Speaker 3: Right, and just as a unit, it's impressive as five guys, Yeah,
26:19
Speaker 3: you know, like you said, three guys with starting experience,
26:22
Speaker 3: a first round pick, your first round pick this year
26:24
Speaker 3: on the third round pick this year. Yeah, that's impressive.
26:27
Speaker 3: That's impressive team. So the other thing I wanted to
26:31
Speaker 3: again get to with with Mike McCarthy that he talked
26:34
Speaker 3: about this morning a Sante Samuel Junior. Yeah and singled
26:41
Speaker 3: out well, asked about and then praised rather effusively by
26:47
Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy. You know, and again let's let's do a
26:51
Speaker 3: quick little rewind here. We're going into last offseason before
26:56
Speaker 3: people realize the severity of the neck injury. You had
26:58
Speaker 3: this neck injury, same one Sante Samuel had, Sante Samuel Junior.
27:02
Speaker 3: And Mike McCarthy Carthy said he I coached against his dad.
27:05
Speaker 3: So it's Sante Samuel Jr. The uh he was a
27:11
Speaker 3: top twenty five free agent. Yeah right, yep, Hey, this
27:15
Speaker 3: is a starting cornerback in the NFL. Do you have
27:17
Speaker 3: a chance to go get well? He has a next
27:19
Speaker 3: surgery and you know, the Steelers did a lot of.
27:23
Speaker 2: What's that Pro Bowl cornerback?
27:24
Speaker 3: Right, Steelers did a lot of due diligence on him,
27:28
Speaker 3: and you know, Mike McCarthy said, physical, great ball skills.
27:35
Speaker 3: He said, hey, if if I had a been talking
27:37
Speaker 3: about this flag football they had a flag football team,
27:39
Speaker 3: he might play offense for me. You know, he's that
27:42
Speaker 3: good as far as the ball skills. And boy, is
27:47
Speaker 3: that a comforting guy. If you get Sante Samuel back
27:52
Speaker 3: to where he was when he was a top twenty
27:54
Speaker 3: five guy and they were able to sign him for
27:56
Speaker 3: not that huge of a contract. And now all of
27:59
Speaker 3: a sudden you have Jamel Dean and our buddy Matt
28:02
Speaker 3: Williamson did a great breakdown of the cornerback position and
28:08
Speaker 3: where guys ranked on coverage skills, and Joey Porter Jr.
28:17
Speaker 3: Was ninth in the NFL, very very good. Number one
28:21
Speaker 3: in the NFL, Jamel Dean, and then you had a
28:25
Speaker 3: Pro Bowl to that mix, and then you had a
28:27
Speaker 3: third rounder to that mix, and you have Brandon eccles
28:30
Speaker 3: in the slot behind Jalen Ramsey. But to hear that
28:35
Speaker 3: sort of praise for Sante Samuel Junior was head turning
28:38
Speaker 3: because he didn't get a chance for the last year,
28:40
Speaker 3: didn't get much of a chance to well.
28:41
Speaker 2: He came came in mid season, late season, I think
28:46
Speaker 2: probably last third of the season, and you know, had
28:50
Speaker 2: to play spot duty, but like you said, the flashes
28:53
Speaker 2: were there, but we already had our established guys already playing,
28:56
Speaker 2: and it was kind of like, Okay, this is a
28:58
Speaker 2: nice comfort to know that if anything goes wrong, we
29:00
Speaker 2: got him in the wing. But now you're looking at him.
29:04
Speaker 2: You get full training camp to really look at him,
29:07
Speaker 2: and like you said, we've already got three guys out right.
29:09
Speaker 2: We got Kent, Ramsey and Porter out right now, so
29:13
Speaker 2: he's getting extended look and he's looking fantastic at it.
29:16
Speaker 2: It's like, man, you go to season like, man, if
29:18
Speaker 2: I have four corners, I'm in a good place, a
29:22
Speaker 2: really good place.
29:23
Speaker 3: And that's a luxury.
29:25
Speaker 2: That is a super luxury. And we're not even talking
29:27
Speaker 2: about the secondary guys that are the safety positions, which
29:31
Speaker 2: is also super deep. Yeah.
29:32
Speaker 3: I mean a lot of teams are groping for two
29:39
Speaker 3: quality outside starting potential starting guys.
29:43
Speaker 2: And a lockdown. But now I even ask for lockdown.
29:46
Speaker 2: I just need a guy who covered two rights. Right,
29:48
Speaker 2: we have Jamel d is a lockdown corner, Joey Porter
29:51
Speaker 2: Juni is a lockdown corner, Sante Samuel potentially a lockdown corner,
29:55
Speaker 2: and then you're throwing in the rest of the mix, right,
29:58
Speaker 2: You're throwing in a Dayly and Everett. We're throwing in
29:59
Speaker 2: all these different guys that have the potential. But that
30:03
Speaker 2: is a super, super luxurious position to be in.
30:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, and again we talk about we talk about positions
30:10
Speaker 3: of course, quarterback. Of course we get that. You know,
30:13
Speaker 3: there's this notion now that you know you don't need
30:15
Speaker 3: to spend high picks on draft choices, uh for running
30:18
Speaker 3: backs because you can find guys who are running back.
30:21
Speaker 3: Clearly you'd like to have, you know, a good solid
30:24
Speaker 3: group of wide receiver. We've seen, We've seen how difficult
30:27
Speaker 3: uh that is, that position has been to fill for
30:29
Speaker 3: this teelers. But big human beings, you know, edge rushers,
30:35
Speaker 3: corner I mean that's strong d tackles. Again, I'm Max.
30:40
Speaker 3: I look at this team and I I don't want
30:42
Speaker 3: to over sell my own excitement level, but I mean
30:46
Speaker 3: that is okay to be excited that large people on
30:50
Speaker 3: offensive line, large people on defensive line, quality starters with
30:56
Speaker 3: depth at cornerback. Uh, that's a pretty quality depth at
31:03
Speaker 3: edge rusher, and quality and quality depth at edge rusher.
31:07
Speaker 3: That's a pretty good.
31:08
Speaker 2: Place to start. Max, Yeah, and once again, Mike McCarthy
31:13
Speaker 2: came to a team that did not have a bear.
31:15
Speaker 3: Cover, right, and he said that, Yeah, to his he said,
31:18
Speaker 3: I'm not coming to the right Yeah, he's not coming
31:20
Speaker 3: to the Jets. That's right now.
31:23
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it's a beautiful thing to
31:26
Speaker 2: add those pieces on top of what you already had, yeah,
31:28
Speaker 2: as opposed to have to go out and just get
31:30
Speaker 2: those pieces and try and put the best team out
31:33
Speaker 2: there on paper. It's like, No, I walked into an
31:36
Speaker 2: established team with established veterans who were homegrown guys and
31:40
Speaker 2: not a bunch of free agents, and we simply added
31:43
Speaker 2: free agents at the places that we felt was necessary
31:46
Speaker 2: to bolster what we already had. Right, there's a difference
31:49
Speaker 2: when you're building on top of the first floor making
31:51
Speaker 2: a second floor versus trying to create the foundation.
31:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then again just quickly just well, no, I'm
31:57
Speaker 3: going to say that because we've got to take a
31:58
Speaker 3: break about roster construction. We'll dive more into that because
32:02
Speaker 3: I think it's, you know, obviously something that happened in
32:04
Speaker 3: the off season and something we should dive into and
32:07
Speaker 3: give give the time it deserves. And we're going to
32:09
Speaker 3: do that next we continue in the locker room on
32:11
Speaker 3: the Steers Audio Network.
32:13
Speaker 1: This is live coverage ob DOT twenty twenty six Steelers
32:17
Speaker 1: Training Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light.
32:23
Speaker 1: Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy, and brought to you
32:26
Speaker 1: in part by your neighborhood Ford Store Creator, Pittsburgh Community
32:31
Speaker 1: Food Bank, First National Bank. Let's Get Started Member FDIC
32:35
Speaker 1: West Shore Home Remodeling Reimagine by Leecom Digital, Donze Appliances
32:42
Speaker 1: Visit Donzappliances dot Com. Guaranteed lowest prices, free next day delivery,
32:48
Speaker 1: CGR Wholesale and by Hassa's Steak and Seahouse hass is
32:53
Speaker 1: Is Hospitality.
32:56
Speaker 3: Oh, thanks very much for being with us in the
32:57
Speaker 3: locker room. You know. One of the fun parts about
33:00
Speaker 3: camp is that the locker room just became the drive
33:05
Speaker 3: during that.
33:05
Speaker 2: Commercial, Right, it became the locker drive, the drive room.
33:11
Speaker 3: They're in there gap because Matt so so, we're in a.
33:15
Speaker 3: We're in a. The press box at Saint Vincent has
33:19
Speaker 3: four separate rooms, right, and the last two rooms to
33:22
Speaker 3: our right are reserved for guests of the college and.
33:25
Speaker 2: Come up and watch practa.
33:27
Speaker 3: Right, the one all the way to the left is
33:30
Speaker 3: the broadcast room where we're sitting now, and the one
33:33
Speaker 3: in the middle is Bob Labriola posts up there, there's
33:38
Speaker 3: equipment as guys are going up and downstairs to shoot.
33:41
Speaker 3: So it's like, so I'll stand a lot of times
33:43
Speaker 3: I'll stand next to Labs because I like to watch
33:46
Speaker 3: from the vantage point of up here, because this is
33:48
Speaker 3: where I'm gonna be broadcasting from up above the field. Correct.
33:53
Speaker 3: But a lot of times I'm like, I'm trying to
33:54
Speaker 3: be skinny man, you know, standing here looking at it
33:56
Speaker 3: outside of a window because there's not a there's not
33:58
Speaker 3: a ton of room to move around. By this time
34:00
Speaker 3: of day, everybody's gone. Practice is over.
34:02
Speaker 2: It's just us in here.
34:04
Speaker 3: So Wes has spreading department, Wes has got a booth,
34:07
Speaker 3: Matt Williams has got a booth, and we just spent
34:09
Speaker 3: the whole time, uh, doing another segment of our show
34:13
Speaker 3: off camera talking locker. It knows no bounds, and it's
34:17
Speaker 3: it's but it's fun. It's fun to talk with the guys,
34:21
Speaker 3: and it's it's also informative because look, you know, Max
34:25
Speaker 3: is up hanging out and there's coaches and scouts and
34:28
Speaker 3: guys you're running into Yeah, we're running into other writers.
34:31
Speaker 3: Everybody's got their own sort of thing going on. Hey,
34:34
Speaker 3: I talked to this coach and so you're just kind
34:36
Speaker 3: of like the little osmosis sort of feeling.
34:39
Speaker 2: But ecosystems we were like meteors, just just bouncing between
34:43
Speaker 2: solar systems.
34:44
Speaker 3: We were talking about Sante Samuel Jr. And Matt was
34:48
Speaker 3: telling us he heard the exact same thing, like a
34:50
Speaker 3: lot of people. He's turned a lot of heads in
34:54
Speaker 3: camp already, as as you would expect. I mean, he's
34:57
Speaker 3: a twenty six year old, you'll turn twenty seven yearing
34:59
Speaker 3: this season. He's in your prime. Former Pro Bowl quarterback, cornerback. Yeah,
35:06
Speaker 3: who got a neck injury? Now quickly advise people what
35:12
Speaker 3: that neck injury did to your career? If it now,
35:17
Speaker 3: I don't talk about post career. Yeah, where hey Max
35:20
Speaker 3: might tea hey Max from behind, might turn the whole
35:24
Speaker 3: body might have to turn to acknowledge you that you're
35:26
Speaker 3: there's no looking over your shoulder. So what sort of
35:30
Speaker 3: battle did Sante Samuel go through? Because you went through
35:33
Speaker 3: the same thing.
35:33
Speaker 2: Well, I think okay, So a cervical C four C five,
35:36
Speaker 2: cervical fusion, which means in the vertebrae or the spine, right,
35:41
Speaker 2: you have bone cartilage disc bone rinse and repeat all
35:47
Speaker 2: the way down from cervical spine all the way down
35:50
Speaker 2: to your lumbar right. And you know when you have
35:55
Speaker 2: to remove one of those discs, which is kind of
35:58
Speaker 2: the like the brake pad that Joe and Pat, however
36:00
Speaker 2: you want to look at it. That allows for the
36:03
Speaker 2: twisting motion. Right, the spine is creating the forward and backwards. Well,
36:07
Speaker 2: the twist left and right is what those little disc
36:12
Speaker 2: discs do in between each vertebrae. So you lose one
36:15
Speaker 2: of those one of those guests compressed almost like squeezing
36:18
Speaker 2: the jelly out of a donut. Right.
36:20
Speaker 3: I'm sad by the way Max is now he we're
36:23
Speaker 3: on radio. But Max is using this by his own.
36:26
Speaker 3: His own throat is the is the cervical thing. So
36:29
Speaker 3: he's got his hand around his throat. In years past,
36:31
Speaker 3: that's sometimes the hand around my throat.
36:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, run your throat. So we're talking. Since we're talking science,
36:38
Speaker 2: I'm using my own. But when I talk about battle,
36:40
Speaker 2: I use robs.
36:41
Speaker 3: I'm getting stiff armed into.
36:43
Speaker 2: The wall up here exactly. It's like the technique.
36:46
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, thanks for showing that technique on radio.
36:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, don't worry. It's like smell of vision.
36:52
Speaker 3: Now.
36:53
Speaker 2: So so where it is in the neck, you have
36:56
Speaker 2: to then xcize that disc, right, you have to remove that.
37:00
Speaker 2: Can you put in a bone like a cadaver bone,
37:02
Speaker 2: or you can go to your hip and you replace
37:05
Speaker 2: the space. But then you needed to fuse with the
37:08
Speaker 2: other bones above and below, and so they'll put a
37:11
Speaker 2: titanium plate in there to keep that bone in place
37:13
Speaker 2: as it starts to mend to the top and the
37:16
Speaker 2: bottom of the adjacent vertebrae. Okay, so that has to
37:20
Speaker 2: now take hold, right, alligraphic bone has to meld with
37:23
Speaker 2: it and then create a solid bond so that you're
37:26
Speaker 2: good because if not, you got loosey goosey neck. You
37:29
Speaker 2: can break it, right, you can break because that vertebrae
37:32
Speaker 2: is there to protect your spinal cord. So what he
37:36
Speaker 2: had to do was he had to wait for that
37:38
Speaker 2: to get the okay that hey, you have a union
37:40
Speaker 2: between these two bones. Titanium plate in there as backup
37:45
Speaker 2: protection in the process, and it stays in there, and
37:48
Speaker 2: then do you have the mobility to do this? Because
37:52
Speaker 2: it's gonna stiffen. But when Max says this on radio,
37:55
Speaker 2: he's moving his head from side to side, left to right, okay,
37:58
Speaker 2: left to right, right, twisting domestic, not bending right, and
38:03
Speaker 2: you're waiting for that, and then once that is fully intact,
38:07
Speaker 2: then you get cleared. Right. So he had to go
38:10
Speaker 2: through this process, and there's no predetermined time that how
38:14
Speaker 2: long it's gonna take for the bone to attach right
38:16
Speaker 2: to the above and below adjacent vertebrae. So you wait
38:20
Speaker 2: through that, and then it's still a worry because you'll
38:23
Speaker 2: see like little lines in your X rays that'll be like, man,
38:28
Speaker 2: did it fuse? Did it not fuse? There's a cervical
38:30
Speaker 2: union non union, Like there's a lot of other things
38:33
Speaker 2: that go into play with determining it, and a lot
38:36
Speaker 2: of neurosurgeons and individuals who would clear that are going
38:40
Speaker 2: to be a little skeptical, and everybody sees it differently
38:43
Speaker 2: because you know some I remember after my injury, I
38:47
Speaker 2: was released from the Steelers, I went to Kansas City, Minnesota, Detroit.
38:55
Speaker 2: I think there was a fourth I can't remember, but
38:58
Speaker 2: I went to all these teams, and each neurosurgeon looked
39:00
Speaker 2: at it differently. Kansas City failed me immediately, like, nope,
39:03
Speaker 2: we can't trust it's a little dark area above and below.
39:05
Speaker 3: Nope.
39:05
Speaker 2: Sorry, And that was Todd. That was a Todd Haley
39:08
Speaker 2: Chiefs team by the way. Anyway, okay, moving on, funny
39:12
Speaker 2: he comes to be my OC all the way here
39:14
Speaker 2: after that. But go to Minnesota. They cleared me, but
39:18
Speaker 2: they did, but they did not need me, So I
39:21
Speaker 2: was on their short list. And then by the time
39:24
Speaker 2: we got to Detroit, Detroit cleared me as well, and
39:26
Speaker 2: I was mid workout, but then the Steelers called me back.
39:29
Speaker 2: They needed me back, So I literally left mid workout
39:32
Speaker 2: and came back to Pittsburgh, which you know you had,
39:34
Speaker 2: you had the doctors here, so I forgot. Uh. Doctor
39:40
Speaker 2: Canner was was my surgeon worked at UPMC at the time.
39:44
Speaker 2: Now he's moved on, but Canner did my surgery. So
39:47
Speaker 2: I was already cleared from the Steelers perspective. That's why
39:49
Speaker 2: I was able to go do the workouts. So it
39:51
Speaker 2: was just a matter of do I get cleared or
39:54
Speaker 2: and what's the necessity of it. So for a Sante Samuel,
39:57
Speaker 2: it was he just needed to get cleared because, like
40:00
Speaker 2: you said, talent was never an issue with him. It
40:02
Speaker 2: was did he heal from the injury? So that's what
40:04
Speaker 2: you're you're waiting for the cervical union to take place
40:08
Speaker 2: from the excise disc that you did and you put
40:10
Speaker 2: a bone in there anyways.
40:11
Speaker 3: And cleared uh and signed by this to there's in
40:14
Speaker 3: November and then activated on December second. Make sure I
40:18
Speaker 3: had the exact dates. But also people asked about, well
40:22
Speaker 3: you weren't. And this is why it was so good
40:24
Speaker 3: to hear the word physical from Mike McCarthy. You know,
40:27
Speaker 3: he's because he's not a huge guy.
40:29
Speaker 2: Uh.
40:30
Speaker 3: Well you know the tackling, Hey man, my neck hurt.
40:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, so that you can't put your face
40:37
Speaker 2: in the fan if if the neck attached to the
40:40
Speaker 2: face doesn't feel good.
40:41
Speaker 3: That I think that was that, you know, I think
40:43
Speaker 3: that was a big part of it. And just just
40:46
Speaker 3: again to bring this uh to its to its conclusion.
40:49
Speaker 3: Here you played I think.
40:50
Speaker 2: Three more years, right, played three seasons after that.
40:52
Speaker 3: And by the way, offensive line which means a collision
40:55
Speaker 3: with your neck every play, every single play, every play
40:58
Speaker 3: and practice.
40:59
Speaker 2: Yeah and practic they're hitting your shoulder and neck area
41:02
Speaker 2: every time. Are aiming for your neck specifically.
41:05
Speaker 3: And of course the difference is uh, you know, every
41:08
Speaker 3: play and by the way, uh, short hard collisions are
41:12
Speaker 3: still short hard collisions. But then of course there's the
41:14
Speaker 3: spectacular uh collisions we see spectacular meaning wow, not like
41:21
Speaker 3: great uh in the open field. So which which is
41:24
Speaker 3: I think the risk of receiver and and corner and
41:28
Speaker 3: defensive back tight end whatever is. Those things are happening
41:30
Speaker 3: at at high high speed, and so you know the
41:34
Speaker 3: e equals mc squared uh equation. However, sure sure that
41:39
Speaker 3: that that plays a part. But the fact that an
41:41
Speaker 3: offensive lineman could have that surgery play three more years
41:44
Speaker 3: and now we're another almost twenty years since that surgery
41:47
Speaker 3: took place. Hope you know better surgery is no no
41:51
Speaker 3: offense and what went on. I'm just say better, you know,
41:53
Speaker 3: things have things have moved along. That makes you feel
41:56
Speaker 3: good that he should be able to, you know again,
41:58
Speaker 3: knock on wood, be able to have a nice long,
42:00
Speaker 3: productive career.
42:01
Speaker 2: For himself exactly, especially twenty six years old. And yeah,
42:04
Speaker 2: just saying if you get another five years, you're great, right, right,
42:07
Speaker 2: that's a ten year career, you know. So he's in
42:11
Speaker 2: a prime position. And like you said, we don't see
42:13
Speaker 2: any residual. Like you said, we don't see the whole
42:16
Speaker 2: body turning back with the with the shoulder because he
42:19
Speaker 2: doesn't have the mobility to go left and right. He
42:22
Speaker 2: can look back, he can backpedal, turn his body while
42:24
Speaker 2: still looking. He has all of those no deficiencies. That's
42:28
Speaker 2: what you want to see and so to see that,
42:30
Speaker 2: and he's playing at a high level, like you said,
42:33
Speaker 2: you get him back to that level, you got a
42:35
Speaker 2: hell of a deal. You got a smoking hot deal.
42:38
Speaker 3: Smoking hot deal. And then you throw on top of
42:41
Speaker 3: that the ability to develop a dale in effort who's
42:45
Speaker 3: got all the traits and who evidently has also speaking
42:49
Speaker 3: of turning heads with some use that analogy. Since we're
42:52
Speaker 3: talking about the neck, he's also turned point, Yeah, who's
42:55
Speaker 3: also turned heads day and effort, And all of a sudden,
42:58
Speaker 3: you're feeling awfully good about those outside corners.
43:01
Speaker 2: You're feeling really good that teams that try and deploy
43:03
Speaker 2: three and four wide receivers and also try and move
43:06
Speaker 2: those guys you don't have a fear of I've got
43:09
Speaker 2: to bump and run right. I don't have to travel
43:12
Speaker 2: and play man. I can play zone because I trust
43:15
Speaker 2: the guys that are out there. They can all cover,
43:17
Speaker 2: they're all top flight guys. That is a hell of
43:19
Speaker 2: a place to be in. Yeah, that's not like, oh man, okay,
43:23
Speaker 2: we got our one Revis Island, right. Revis has to
43:26
Speaker 2: travel with the number one receiver wherever he goes, and
43:28
Speaker 2: teams are just gonna motion the hell out of them
43:30
Speaker 2: just to tire you out. You gotta do that boom boom,
43:33
Speaker 2: boom bump over. Okay, we're hey going from cover two
43:36
Speaker 2: to cut, you know, going from cover one to cover
43:38
Speaker 2: two to cover three, or maybe we drop into even
43:41
Speaker 2: into a cover four and play quarters. We feel good
43:43
Speaker 2: across the board because we know we have a guy
43:45
Speaker 2: at each of those positions.
43:46
Speaker 3: What a wonderful spot to be in at a critical
43:49
Speaker 3: position in the NFL. So again, that wraps up today.
43:53
Speaker 3: Tomorrow Hall of Honor inductees can't wait to see who's
43:56
Speaker 3: going to be in list, and hopefully, hopefully we hopefully
44:01
Speaker 3: we'll get a chance to talk to some of them.
44:03
Speaker 3: I hope we do uh during the locker room. But
44:06
Speaker 3: it's a wey able to get one. It's a fun,
44:09
Speaker 3: awesome day in Steelers history. So that's tomorrow. Believe the
44:16
Speaker 3: acclamation period is over now. Tomorrow's last day, last day
44:20
Speaker 3: of acclamation period, so we'll have a lot of fun
44:22
Speaker 3: tomorrow and then uh and then get into some a
44:24
Speaker 3: little more football like activities next week. We're going to
44:28
Speaker 3: get into The Drive next. Max, my friend, thank you
44:31
Speaker 3: as always as Max Starks. I'm Rob King. We think
44:35
Speaker 3: the Drive is coming up next with Matt Williamson and
44:38
Speaker 3: West Jeweler four. Max Starks for our producer Justin Miller
44:41
Speaker 3: back in the iHeart Studios. I'm Rob King. We thank
44:43
Speaker 3: you for being with us in the locker room here.
44:45
Speaker 3: And this year there's Audio Network