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HR1: Power Rankings · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: And you know what is so good and should be
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: just great? An enthusiastically good sign for Steelers fans is
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: that Willie Colon is.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Going power drink to get him through the two hours.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Willie Colon's not messing around. He's like, man, I'm going
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: power drink.
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: I am. I'm bringing it.
• 0:46
  Speaker 5: Hey, man, it's hump day. It's the middle of the week.
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: It's Wednesday. It's game week.
• 0:54
  Speaker 6: Like most parents right now, you're just huffing it, trying
• 0:58
  Speaker 6: to get to the finish line.
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: The kids are back in school.
• 1:02
  Speaker 6: It's crazy how kids are allowed to miss so many days.
• 1:05
  Speaker 6: My kids not only were off last Thursday and Friday,
• 1:08
  Speaker 6: but they were also off Monday and Tuesday. So we've
• 1:12
  Speaker 6: had an onslaught of just.
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: Everything.
• 1:16
  Speaker 6: I mean, from entertaining to cooking to just... We've been
• 1:21
  Speaker 6: after it over in the cologne house. So my week
• 1:25
  Speaker 6: is just honestly... beginning so i gotta i'm trying to
• 1:28
  Speaker 6: power through man but it's always a pleasure rob and
• 1:31
  Speaker 6: uh it's game week baby let's get it going max you.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Ready to go yeah i'm not i'm not i'm not
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: finger painting and doing a red bull right now.
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  Speaker 7: But uh but i'm excited as well um i am
• 1:44
  Speaker 7: i'm in a hotel room in in miami right across
• 1:49
  Speaker 7: from uh uh dural country club so I've got meetings
• 1:55
  Speaker 7: with University of Miami later. I am jacked up on
• 1:58
  Speaker 7: football right now, guys. I am ecstatic. I am in
• 2:02
  Speaker 7: a football overload mode, and I can't wait to talk
• 2:04
  Speaker 7: adult football in the NFL.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: So let me ask you guys this because I think
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: we only get one shot at doing this. And, Willie,
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: I'll start with you on this. But I would imagine
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: there's two slightly different frames of mind. If you're one
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: of the many Steelers rookies that have made this roster,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: You're probably beside yourself, jumping up and down, can't wait. Sunday,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: it's going to be your first NFL game. I'm sure
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: as a veteran, you're also excited. Is there a different
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: expectation level, a different excitement level, a different uneasiness level
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: for all these rookies and then for Cam Hayward, Aaron Rodgers,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: TJ Watt, and all the veterans?
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, man, it is different.
• 2:49
  Speaker 6: For a rookie... you try not to have an out-of-body experience.
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: You definitely want your game, first game, to be a
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: memorable one. You know, my first game starting, that is,
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: was against Baltimore Christmas weekend. And this is when the
• 3:06
  Speaker 6: Baltimore Ravens were the Baltimore Ravens, meaning they were littered
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: with Hall of Fame talent, much like our Steelers was
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: back then. Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, you know, Trevor Price,
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: there was Hello.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: He nodded. I mean, it was just you name it.
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: They had it.
• 3:23
  Speaker 6: And so that was my first NFL start, because as
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: we stated, I know we talked about the story before
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: Max had got hurt. We prior to that against Carolina.
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: So I was next line to start against.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: The Ravens, man.
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: And it was there's a photo of you Google it
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: of me with my kind of head. I'm in my
• 3:43
  Speaker 6: my still uniform. My head is kind of tilted. And
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: I looked like I had been jumped by a herd
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: of lions.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, I got whooped for all four quarters. I
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: looked absolutely exhausted.
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: But with that said, man, I remember going into that
• 3:58
  Speaker 6: game feeling like, man, I just want to belong. I
• 4:02
  Speaker 6: want to not stick out in a bad way, if
• 4:04
  Speaker 6: you will. And you just want to play well. So
• 4:07
  Speaker 6: for all these young guys who have started their first
• 4:10
  Speaker 6: NFL game, They just want to play well. They don't
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: want to have this out-of-body experience.
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: They just want to feel like they can slide and
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: they get the job done. But for vets, man, you
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: still get the goose bumps.
• 4:21
  Speaker 6: You still get kind of the nervous angst and everything
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: that comes along with it. But it is a pleasure
• 4:26
  Speaker 6: watching the young guys, if you will, kind of step
• 4:30
  Speaker 6: into a situation where they're like, man, what is this.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: About to be like?
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  Speaker 6: But it's a blessing. It's a blessing altogether, but it's
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: definitely an experience.
• 4:40
  Speaker 7: Max? Yeah, for me, I went the more traditional route
• 4:49
  Speaker 7: of starting, and this was my second year. So I
• 4:56
  Speaker 7: think it was more so the first time I got
• 4:59
  Speaker 7: to dress, which was week six, my rookie year. And
• 5:07
  Speaker 7: we were actually, funny enough, I'll never forget this. We
• 5:10
  Speaker 7: were playing the Patriots when they were on that 22-game
• 5:12
  Speaker 7: win streak. And I just remember Barrett Brooks saying, man, hey,
• 5:18
  Speaker 7: just breathe. Just relax. You know, it's going to be
• 5:22
  Speaker 7: fine if you get in there. And I remember, like,
• 5:26
  Speaker 7: getting ready that game. And the first time, I'm about
• 5:29
  Speaker 7: to run out the tunnel in a regular season game
• 5:32
  Speaker 7: in a uniform. Because there's the running out the tunnel thing.
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: you know, your rookie year and not dressing, which I did.
• 5:42
  Speaker 7: And that was cool because like, man, the stadium's wild.
• 5:47
  Speaker 7: The stadium's packed. And we were playing, I'll never forget this.
• 5:51
  Speaker 7: We were playing the, the then Oakland Raiders. And it was,
• 5:59
  Speaker 7: and I'll never forget this. Jerry Rice was playing for
• 6:02
  Speaker 7: the Raiders. Just think about that day. Jerry Rice, was
• 6:06
  Speaker 7: still an active player for... So I saw two future
• 6:11
  Speaker 7: Hall of Fame... Because Jerry Rice was playing for the
• 6:14
  Speaker 7: Raiders my rookie year, and Deion Sanders was playing for
• 6:17
  Speaker 7: the Baltimore Ravens. Wow. Which was wild to think that, yeah,
• 6:25
  Speaker 7: in 2004, like, that was... It also makes me feel
• 6:27
  Speaker 7: old as heck saying that, even though Willie's only two
• 6:30
  Speaker 7: years behind me. But I felt like a kid. Like,
• 6:34
  Speaker 7: I didn't even... truly like embrace all of that is
• 6:40
  Speaker 7: now i'm thinking back on it but i remember running
• 6:43
  Speaker 7: out state the tunnel and it was cool but i'm
• 6:46
  Speaker 7: in sweats so i still hadn't arrived yet you know
• 6:49
  Speaker 7: to the regular to the regular season and feeling like
• 6:53
  Speaker 7: a contributing member but we get to the patriots are
• 6:56
  Speaker 7: on the 22 game moon streak and we're winning in
• 7:01
  Speaker 7: the game and russ groom comes over and says hey
• 7:05
  Speaker 7: You're in. I'm putting Marvell down. Okay, I'm ready. Like
• 7:10
  Speaker 7: Willie said, I want to belong. I'm jacked up. I
• 7:12
  Speaker 7: just don't want to fall on my face. I don't
• 7:16
  Speaker 7: want to look inadequate. I want to make the rest
• 7:20
  Speaker 7: of my line proud. And I go out there on
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: the field. It's in the fourth quarter. And I'm up
• 7:27
  Speaker 7: against Willie Mack, Willie McGinnis. Our lineup and the three-point stance,
• 7:36
  Speaker 7: we had a play-action pass going. I'm like, okay, here's
• 7:41
  Speaker 7: my steps in my head. I took the first steps,
• 7:46
  Speaker 7: and I guess I must have been slow as molasses.
• 7:49
  Speaker 7: Willie McGinnis caught me dead in my chest and drove
• 7:55
  Speaker 7: me like seven yards deep, beat me on the edge,
• 7:59
  Speaker 7: put a hurry on Ben, and just looked back at
• 8:04
  Speaker 7: me like it's going to be all day. And in
• 8:06
  Speaker 7: my head, I was like, okay, welcome to the NFL, rookie.
• 8:11
  Speaker 7: That's what it felt like, like Willie Mack. And I'll
• 8:13
  Speaker 7: never forget it because I ended up talking to him
• 8:15
  Speaker 7: years later and explaining this to him. And I was like,
• 8:18
  Speaker 7: holy crap, this dude's stronger. And I played four preseason
• 8:22
  Speaker 7: games back then. But there was something about that regular
• 8:25
  Speaker 7: season speed. And I was like, man, this is going
• 8:28
  Speaker 7: to be something. And after that, though, I proceeded to
• 8:32
  Speaker 7: whip him and Richard Seymour behind the rest of the
• 8:35
  Speaker 7: game until it ended for the 12 snaps I got.
• 8:37
  Speaker 7: I gave him hell for 12 snaps.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: By the way, you know, I'm talking to two offensive
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: linemen who, you know, even if you're dressed, chances are
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: you're not going to play unless somebody gets hurt.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: Whereas, you know, Robert Spears-Jennings. Right, that's right.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: A lot of these guys are maybe going to be
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: on special teams or maybe going to get 10 snaps.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: Maybe they're going to play a little bit. of nickel or,
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: or something.
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  Speaker 3: So, uh, I, I guess probably a little bit different
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: expectations for all of them, but I would imagine Willie,
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: it's still the excitement levels got to be just a
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: little bit more peaked for those young guys than the
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: veteran guys who've been through this before and kind of
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: know what to expect.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: And that's why if you think about it from a
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: Steeler perspective, if you're going to start max at a
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: haunted tour this week, if you're Mike McCarthy and you're
• 9:30
  Speaker 6: calling this offense, uh, going into this game plan, you
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: have to now pivot and think about how you're going
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: to protect this young dude too, right? Because even valid
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: as the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Falcons still have a worthy
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: front seven. But if you're going to start the young
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: fella at right tackle, man, you're now– you're scripting plays
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: where you can add chip help, where he has a
• 9:53
  Speaker 6: tight end presence on the outside, where you're now taking
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: them even though he only had one preseason start you're
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: kind of dissecting that family figure out what he does
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  Speaker 6: well and what he doesn't do well and how and
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: how well he can he play with that five and
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: you're also going into it with the understanding that yeah
• 10:11
  Speaker 6: you want him to there's gonna be some trial by
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: fire but you also want to protect his confidence because
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: that's important because as much as you want him to
• 10:18
  Speaker 6: play well week one You also got to get them
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: ready for week two and week three and on and
• 10:22
  Speaker 6: on and on. And so, yeah, there's going to be
• 10:24
  Speaker 6: some learning curves. But also just understanding his first game
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: against the Buffalo Bills, he only played a half. He
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: didn't play all four quarters. When you're a starter, especially
• 10:35
  Speaker 6: a rookie, and Max just said it, the tempo is different.
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: The physicality is different. The conditioning is different because you
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: can go from, all right, you're expecting to go through
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: this in like melodic drive. Well, if the defense gives
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: up two touchdowns early in the game, guess what happened?
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: We're going two minutes, baby. We got to get back
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: in this thing. We're speeding things up. We're calling things
• 10:56
  Speaker 6: at the line of scrimmage. We're moving in a different tempo.
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: So your conditioning now comes into play. And so this
• 11:03
  Speaker 6: young man, if he starts, you're now looking at a
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: guy where we have to now figure out, all right,
• 11:09
  Speaker 6: how do we keep him in the confines of playing,
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: stealing football without him kind of being a sore thumb
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: out there? Because we know one, He's still probably– he's
• 11:18
  Speaker 6: still dealing with a neck issue. Two, his conditioning may
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: not be up to par as the rest of the guys.
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: And three, he just hasn't played a lot of professional football.
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: And so– and we have to do things and protect
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: him out there that he doesn't walk off the field like–
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: feeling like, man, I don't know if I can do this.
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: And two, he doesn't hurt himself. And it's a lot
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: that goes into it. So this week, for.
• 11:40
  Speaker 6: Guys like Max Ahanachor and– Anybody, any other rookies out there, man,
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: it's going to be a ramped up version of football
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: they necessarily haven't experienced. So there's a lot of anxiety
• 11:52
  Speaker 6: that comes into that. I know the night before when
• 11:55
  Speaker 6: I got my first nod, even my second year starting,
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: it's funny that Max brought up Willie McGinnis because my
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: second year starting was against the Cleveland Browns and I
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: played against Willie McGinnis. This is when he was a Brown.
• 12:07
  Speaker 6: He was a little bit of an old dog, but
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: he was still a dog. And he kind of looked
• 12:12
  Speaker 6: at me like.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: All right, Hofstra, let's go.
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: And I was just like, all right, USC.
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: So it was a funny little back and forth, but
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: this is what every rookie around the league.
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: Is going to go through.
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: You're going to get some guys who are your peers,
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: and you're going to get some old dogs who are
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: still out there hunting, and you've got to be ready
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: for the battle.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Okay, so guys, there was some news yesterday that I
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: think is worth bringing up for sure. The Steelers will
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: be playing Tampa Bay, Max, week 18. I'm sorry, October 18th,
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: not week 18, October 18th in Tampa. A contract extension
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: for Baker Mayfield. It's a nice, big contract extension for them.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: I bring it up, one, because the Steelers are going
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: to be playing Tampa Bay, but two, there's already people saying, hey, man,
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: a free agency, Baker Mayfield would be a great target
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, you can take that target
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: off his back if he ever was going to be
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: a target because he's going to be staying in Tampa Bay.
• 13:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah, no thank you. No thank you. Appreciate Baker Mayfield.
• 13:17
  Speaker 7: He doesn't need to come back to the AFC North
• 13:18
  Speaker 7: and not to us either. We also don't need to
• 13:23
  Speaker 7: be in that part of the quarterback race. I think
• 13:28
  Speaker 7: there is value in seeing what is out there, but
• 13:32
  Speaker 7: not in that situation. And, yes, listen, he deserved that
• 13:37
  Speaker 7: $ 165 million he got for three years. He can stay
• 13:41
  Speaker 7: with Todd Bowles, and he can stay in the greater
• 13:44
  Speaker 7: Tampa area.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: I'm a little higher on Baker than Max is.
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: I like Baker, too. I'm with you, Rob.
• 13:55
  Speaker 6: Listen, one attribute Baker has is being not only a
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: fearless leader, but the kid has a lot of moxie.
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: He's tough. And I know you got to stay on
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: last year.
• 14:05
  Speaker 7: Good.
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: You got to understand what is, I guess, breakout. I
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: don't want to say breakout games. He's played a lot
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: of football and he's done well, but one of the
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: games that stick out in my head from last year
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: was him. The Tampa Bay bucks, him, especially going toe
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: to toe in Seattle against Sam Darnold.
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: And that was a shootout. I think. And he won
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: that shootout on the road.
• 14:28
  Speaker 6: And from that game on, People were talking about Baker
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: Mayfield in the MVP conversation. Like, he had a legit
• 14:35
  Speaker 6: slot in there. And people were looking at it like, man,
• 14:38
  Speaker 6: Baker has not only stabilized his franchise, but really kind
• 14:43
  Speaker 6: of helped this franchise run along without taking a cliff
• 14:46
  Speaker 6: dive once Tom Brady left the scene. Baker has been
• 14:50
  Speaker 6: able to come on and been everything, if not more,
• 14:54
  Speaker 6: for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So I'm happy he's being compensated.
• 14:57
  Speaker 6: for everything he has done. Now, last year, I thought
• 15:00
  Speaker 6: he played through some injuries. They dealt with some injuries.
• 15:03
  Speaker 6: The defense let him down towards the back end of
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: the season. And then, obviously, they didn't win the division.
• 15:09
  Speaker 6: The division ends up going to the Carolina Panthers. But
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: if you're talking about a young quarterback, not young because
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: he's in his 30s, so excuse me, but if you're
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: talking about a guy who you now have on the
• 15:21
  Speaker 6: roster for the next three or four years that you
• 15:23
  Speaker 6: can build around, because they did lose Mike Evans. They
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: have a fairly decent office line. The running back situation
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: with Bucky Irvin is solid. And by the way, they
• 15:31
  Speaker 6: have Kenneth Gainwell, who we love. And the defense is
• 15:36
  Speaker 6: starting to figure themselves out as well. They're going to
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: continue to build around.
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: Baker. And the thing about that division is.
• 15:45
  Speaker 6: Interesting because I think we talked about it before that,
• 15:48
  Speaker 6: you know, even though the Bucks had won the division
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: in previous time, There was this consensus like, yeah, the
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: Bucs are winning the division, but that's because everybody around
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: them sucks. But now, if you look at the Saints,
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: they're going to be better. The Panthers are definitely going
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: to be better. The Bucs have to be better. Atlanta,
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: once they figure out their quarterback situation, will be better
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: because they have enough talent. So you're talking about a
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: division collectively that's on the rise. So if you're the Bucs,
• 16:12
  Speaker 6: you had to sign Baker because you do not want
• 16:15
  Speaker 6: to be in quarterback purgatory and try to figure out
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: who's going to be the next Aaron Perry. for Baker
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: when every other team around them has their guy and
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: potentially feels like they can move forward and grow into
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: be winners. So I thought it was smart by the
• 16:31
  Speaker 6: Tampa Bay Bucs. I think it speaks volumes for Baker
• 16:33
  Speaker 6: Mayfield that they believe in him. So we'll see what happens.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: You know what?
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: I don't think I'm done with this conversation yet. I'd
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: like to delve into it a little bit deeper because
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: I think the quarterback position is so interesting and so fascinating.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: I want to get your guys' take on just the
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: quarterback position in general and as it relates to the Steelers.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Also going to look at the power rankings. Oh man,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: people are not kind to the Steelers right now. We're
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: going to get into that when we continue in the
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: locker room here on the Steelers Audio Network.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio, brought to you
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store, the F-150 is the
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Back inside the locker room here in the Steelers Audio Network,
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: and We're talking about the Baker-Mayfield extension, and we're going
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: to get on to the power rankings of the Steelers,
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: where they sit, where the rest of the league sit,
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: kind of our own thoughts on who the favorites are
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: for this year and who the teams are to beat.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: But we're talking about Baker-Mayfield. I think Willie and I
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: are probably a little higher on them. But I would
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: say this. To me, I think there's like a sliding
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: scale of quarterbacks, and it's the reciprocal of how good
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: your team has to be. So if you have Patrick
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: Mahomes or Josh Allen– You need a good team to
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: win the Super Bowl.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: You can't win without a good team. But you don't
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: need a super team.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: And then as you bump down a little bit, and again,
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: I'm just using those two guys as examples, but for example,
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Sam Darnold last year. I thought the Seahawks were a
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: super team, and Sam Darnold was good. But Sam Darnold
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: didn't have to be elite. Now, again, he hasn't written
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: his complete story. But to me, I get the feeling
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: that if you're going to win, if you don't think.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: You can win a championship.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: with a quarterback and you're the Steelers right now, I
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: don't think that quarterback is worth pursuing. I think that
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: they're putting together the kind of team though, that you
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: might be able to win with say the 10th or
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: 12th best quarterback in the league.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: I think that's it. You know what I mean?
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: I think Willie, that's kind of the sliding scale I
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: look at. And I think Baker probably for me, that's a,
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: you know, again, just, I'm not looking at all the rankings.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I don't have them in front of me, but my,
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: my gut sense is that's about where he is. And that,
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: in that sort of range. And I think if you've
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: got a good enough team, you can win a Super
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Bowl with a guy like that.
• 19:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think it also just behooves the Steelers
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: to get a team that's built around a quarterback.
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: Well, let me say this.
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: I think one thing Mike McCarthy and I think I've
• 19:26
  Speaker 6: talked lonely about that he's built an ecosystem. And so
• 19:29
  Speaker 6: now if you build it, you give him whoever quarterback
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: that is for the future, office line, weapons on the outside,
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: a running back, You're really just handing the next guy
• 19:37
  Speaker 6: keys to the Porsche hoping he doesn't crash it because
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: the defense is going to be in place.
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: And for every.
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: Quarterback that has had success in the last couple of
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: years has been duped. to the fact they're stepping into
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: a system that's already built around them. So now they can,
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: if they have those bad days, or if they're not
• 19:57
  Speaker 6: as efficient, or whatever the situation may be, Rome doesn't
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: crumble because they're not playing well. I'm always a fan
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: of an outfit that, despite the quarterback, Like, for instance,
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: look at the Broncos. Like, the Broncos are fortunate to
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: win games with Bo Nix, but they're not winning games
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: because of Bo Nix.
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 20:17
  Speaker 6: Because they've had some outings where they've had to have
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: some comebacks. They've had to have some late game miracles.
• 20:28
  Speaker 6: And so it just shows you the system, the defense,
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: and offensive line, and an ecosystem where Bo Nix just
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: has to play quarterback and everything around him thrives. But
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: if you're solely dependent on that one guy, like a
• 20:39
  Speaker 6: Josh Allen, to be the end-all, be-all, then it's hard
• 20:43
  Speaker 6: when Josh Allen can't be Josh Allen.
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: Now, that's not always the case.
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: They have an office line and James Cook, and they
• 20:49
  Speaker 6: now have DJ Moore on the outside and the defense,
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: who couldn't stop the run last season, but they were
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: good enough to at least get them to the playoffs.
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: But you see the deficiencies.
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: So if you can just build a more complete team
• 21:00
  Speaker 6: around whoever that guy is, It just makes you a
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: better team overall, and then you can really start talking
• 21:06
  Speaker 6: about contenders and playoff runs and all that other stuff.
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: So it's a legit conversation. The Steelers are trying to
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: get to that point where everything around whoever this guy
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: is going to be next is set in place, and
• 21:18
  Speaker 6: he can just do his job and play well.
• 21:22
  Speaker 7: And also, Joe, the last time we had a young
• 21:26
  Speaker 7: rookie-style quarterback doing this, with success was Ben Roethlisberger, right?
• 21:32
  Speaker 7: He even took a 2003 season to go 6-10 to
• 21:38
  Speaker 7: get him there and get the rest of the pieces
• 21:40
  Speaker 7: where he had a ready-built defense. He had an offensive line.
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: He had a backfield. He had receivers, and it was
• 21:48
  Speaker 7: just drop the quarterback in the middle of all of that, right?
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: Twenty-one other guys dropped him, and he was number 22
• 21:56
  Speaker 7: on the expectation list, right? just do your job. And
• 22:01
  Speaker 7: that's what you want to try and get. That's the blueprint.
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: When you think of what Omar Khan has seen before,
• 22:08
  Speaker 7: what ownership has been there before a lot of these
• 22:11
  Speaker 7: scouts that are on the staff were there for this
• 22:15
  Speaker 7: type of process and trying to get back to that
• 22:18
  Speaker 7: type of process. You built your lines, you built your
• 22:21
  Speaker 7: defensive lines, you went and got depth. And now it's okay.
• 22:26
  Speaker 7: Once Aaron's done, it's, We've got to be able to
• 22:28
  Speaker 7: insert a quarterback into this growing offensive line that we
• 22:33
  Speaker 7: put a lot of resources into. We just went and
• 22:36
  Speaker 7: got now for the second year in a row in
• 22:38
  Speaker 7: free agency a second receiver. So you've got two big receivers.
• 22:42
  Speaker 7: You're hoping you're having a couple of years. But Ben
• 22:44
  Speaker 7: only got one year with Plaxico before he was gone.
• 22:47
  Speaker 7: And you still had Hines and Antoine Randall-El. Then Antonio
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: comes along. Antonio Brown comes along. the ride as a
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: quarterback is now mature. So you have those there. You
• 23:00
  Speaker 7: have a backfield. You know, Ben had Jerome Bettis and
• 23:03
  Speaker 7: Deuce Staley when he came in as a rookie. That's
• 23:07
  Speaker 7: a heck of a backfield to walk into and know
• 23:10
  Speaker 7: that you're just handing the ball off. And I think
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: that's what you're trying to get to with whoever that's
• 23:17
  Speaker 7: going to be, whether it's Drew or Will or whether
• 23:19
  Speaker 7: he's not on the actual roster. So I completely agree
• 23:23
  Speaker 7: with Willie. Like, you're trying to put the systems in
• 23:26
  Speaker 7: place to where, not to say that you're kid-proofing the
• 23:32
  Speaker 7: team for a young quarterback, but you're well-equipping them to
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: where you're not walking into a situation where the cupboard
• 23:39
  Speaker 7: is bare.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: You know, I used to think, guys, that there were
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: probably only six, seven, eight, maybe ten quarterbacks in the
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: league who could win a Super Bowl. Poor Trent Dilfer
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: is always the guy that's like, well, they won a
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer. because that Ravens team was
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: so good.
• 23:56
  Speaker 7: Almost like despite Trent Dilfer. Right, yeah.
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: Poor Trent. I mean, he has to hear that every time, right? Yeah.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: But I think, you know, I've begun to shift my
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: thinking to I think there might be more quarterbacks than
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: that that could win a Super Bowl. I mean, I
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: don't know where you'd rank Bo Nix, but think about
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: where they were. on the cusp of the Super Bowl,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: AFC Championship game, he got hurt, didn't play. That's a
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: pretty good team they got in Denver. Now, I do
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: think that there's a correlation. Like I said, they're reciprocal.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: If you're the 18th best quarterback, you might need the
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: best team to win. But I'm beginning to think maybe
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: there's more quarterbacks than I thought who could actually win
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: a Super Bowl, given you drop them into the best
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: situation for them to succeed.
• 24:49
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I also think for quarterbacks out there, I guess
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: those Fringish quarterbacks, like you can laugh at Bryce Young,
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: but he has a defense, right? He has a receiving core.
• 24:59
  Speaker 6: He has a damn good head coach. And I just
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: keep using their game against the Rams. They took the
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: Rams to deep water last year and almost beat them
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: in Carolina. So that type of team is capable of
• 25:11
  Speaker 6: making a run and winning a Super Bowl. On top
• 25:14
  Speaker 6: of that, if you look at some of the other
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: Fringish quarterbacks, because obviously, listen, The Jordan loves, the Dak Prescott,
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: the Matthew Staffords, the Sam Darnolds, whoever. We kind of
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: expect those guys to one day hoist the Lombardi. But
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: I think if you also look at what the Colts
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: were able to do before Daniel Jones, think about it.
• 25:34
  Speaker 6: People were kind of looking at the Colts like, is
• 25:35
  Speaker 6: this for real? Is Daniel Jones.
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: Really playing this well? And he was.
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: And that offensive line was playing well. Jonathan Taylor was
• 25:44
  Speaker 6: also in the MVP category. So if Daniel Jones doesn't
• 25:48
  Speaker 6: get hurt And they don't have to summons the spirit,
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: the old ghost of Phillip Rivers.
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, Daniel Jones was on his way, comparatively high
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: he was playing.
• 25:58
  Speaker 6: He was on his way to a Super Bowl run,
• 26:01
  Speaker 6: possibly landing in the Super Bowl. So because of that division,
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: now we didn't expect the Houston-Texas defense to be as
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: nasty as it was, but it turned out to be
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: one of the late defenses. But the Colts were really
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: making noise. And I think people are now looking at,
• 26:15
  Speaker 6: Trevor Lawrence difference after last year. Trevor Lawrence, it took
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: him seven years to arrive, but now he's year two
• 26:22
  Speaker 6: with Liam Cohen. They have an offensive line. They've done
• 26:26
  Speaker 6: things on the defensive side to kind of add more depth.
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: And so now people are looking at Trevor Lawrence like, man,
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: could this kid get hot and make a run also?
• 26:34
  Speaker 6: So it's interesting, but I do agree with you, Rob.
• 26:37
  Speaker 6: There are more quarterbacks you kind of have to side-eye
• 26:39
  Speaker 6: now that if they get hot, They could be hoisting
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: the Lombardi. And I'm not talking about the elite guys.
• 26:45
  Speaker 6: We're talking about those kind of, not body feeders, but
• 26:47
  Speaker 6: that middle of the pack quarterback.
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: And there's enough out there. You can say, man, they
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: can walk up on you.
• 26:53
  Speaker 7: Well, that was Sam Darnold, right? Before last season.
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 26:57
  Speaker 7: He was a middle of the pack quarterback.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 27:00
  Speaker 7: The only year you can really say that Sam Darnold
• 27:02
  Speaker 7: had good, had a really good year was in Minnesota
• 27:05
  Speaker 7: the previous year. But before that, and Willie, you know,
• 27:08
  Speaker 7: this was a walking disaster. And we thought this is
• 27:12
  Speaker 7: another quarterback first-round bust. But like you said, the right venue,
• 27:17
  Speaker 7: the right system, the right players around him elevated him
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: to now we consider him in that category because of
• 27:24
  Speaker 7: the team that he had around him. And we're saying
• 27:27
  Speaker 7: that maybe it was more so environment versus actual skill.
• 27:32
  Speaker 7: And I think we look at it, there are four
• 27:35
  Speaker 7: active quarterbacks in the NFL right now that have Super Bowl.
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: Rings, right?
• 27:39
  Speaker 7: Patrick Mahomes. Matthew Stafford, Jalen Hurts, Sam Darnold. Like, he
• 27:46
  Speaker 7: forced his way into that area of legitimacy, and I
• 27:51
  Speaker 7: think that's something that you have to think about and
• 27:54
  Speaker 7: say that, yeah, the guy who is in that middle
• 27:56
  Speaker 7: of the road, maybe it is a better team that
• 27:59
  Speaker 7: helps him because that Seattle defense helped Sam Darnold out
• 28:02
  Speaker 7: a lot, even though Sam Darnold also picked up his
• 28:04
  Speaker 7: play having Jackson Smith and Jigba, Kenneth Walker II, the offensive,
• 28:09
  Speaker 7: like he had the weapons around him, And sometimes a
• 28:11
  Speaker 7: quarterback we view as mediocre might be able to raise
• 28:14
  Speaker 7: his talent level commissary with the actual talent that's on
• 28:19
  Speaker 7: the team.
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah. By the way, I throw Aaron Rodgers in there
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: as a Super Bowl winner, too.
• 28:25
  Speaker 7: I'm sorry.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: Of course.
• 28:25
  Speaker 7: I was thinking about the last 10 years.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: Yes, I got you. I got you. But I'm ready.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: You're right. I'm ready. Right. I'm ready to throw another
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: one in there.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: We got five, five quarterbacks that have won Super Bowls.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: I apologize. So we want to break into this power ranking.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: Before we do, I have an important question, and I'm
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: directing this at Willie, but I want Max as well.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: So when I'm writing for television, Willie, you know, I've
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: got two intros, we have two separate shows, so I
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: never write, hey, the You know, the Pirates are playing
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: the White Sox. You know, I just I just I
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: think that's boring. So I was writing about dogs the
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: other day.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: OK.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: And so when I came on the air, I turned
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: to one of my co-anchors and I said, bow, wow, wow, yippee, yo, yippee, yay.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Now I'm talking to a guy with a Snoop Dogg shirt.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: So for me, and I might be showing my age. Now,
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: do you think of that as George Clinton or Snoop Dogg?
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: Oh, Snoop.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: Okay, all right.
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: It's definitely Snoop.
• 29:31
  Speaker 7: Wow.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: So I was totally going George Clinton there. I forgot
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: Snoop had that.
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I know.
• 29:38
  Speaker 6: So I'm, I'm, I belong to Omega Sapphire fraternity and corporate,
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: which is a black fraternity. And then one of our
• 29:45
  Speaker 6: songs is atomic dog by George Clinton.
• 29:49
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: So, uh, the Bow Wow, Yippee Yo, Yippee Yay is
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: something that, uh, obviously hits home, but Snoop, um, It's
• 29:57
  Speaker 6: something I grew up an MTV kid, and I remember
• 30:00
  Speaker 6: this song was a song that came on every morning
• 30:03
  Speaker 6: as I got dressed for school. So as much as
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: I love my Atomic Dog, what resonates quicker is Snoop's.
• 30:11
  Speaker 6: If I'm just keeping it a buck, as the young
• 30:13
  Speaker 6: kids say these days, it's Snoop for me, Rob.
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: How about you, Max?
• 30:19
  Speaker 7: I mean, I'm with Willie, right? I mean, you know,
• 30:23
  Speaker 7: I watched Snoop Dogg turn into a literal Doberman in
• 30:26
  Speaker 7: front of my eyes on MTV Jams. You know, I mean,
• 30:30
  Speaker 7: that's what I have a visual of. But, you know,
• 30:34
  Speaker 7: being appreciative around my parents, my father also is an
• 30:37
  Speaker 7: Omega man as well. So I heard a lot of
• 30:42
  Speaker 7: Atomic Dog, a lot of P-Funk All-Stars and George Clinton
• 30:45
  Speaker 7: growing up. But for me, the identity is You know, S-N-O-O-P.
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: P-Funk All-Stars. That whole Parliament Funkadelic. That whole George Clinton universe.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: That was an interesting place to live.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: So, by the way, I came off.
• 30:59
  Speaker 7: The mothership, Rob.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: The mothership. I came off the elevator a year or
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: two ago. I can't remember what.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: I don't like to hang around the press box too
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: much before game time. Hour and a half in before
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: game time.
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: Ready to go. I don't want to get stale. I
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: don't want to sit around. So, I go down to
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: the elevator.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: And I can't get off the elevator because there's somebody
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: in the lobby, and that.
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: Somebody is Snoop Dogg. So he's there.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: By the way, he came up to the press conference.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: I walked by him. Of course I wanted to say something.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: But I was being held back, and I just turned
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: to a person. I said, man, this is a lot
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: of attention being paid on a nature commentator. And they
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: looked at me like I had four heads. Have you
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: guys seen the Planet? The Snoop. It is so funny, man.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: It is tremendous. What does he call that again? It's
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: Planet something or another. It is so good. He plays
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: a Richard Attenborough. Have you seen it, Willie? He plays
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Richard Attenborough. But he just makes it all up as
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: he goes.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: It is hilarious.
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: I think I've seen it. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: seen it. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've seen it.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: It's so good. Of course, he's a big Steelers fan, Max.
• 32:11
  Speaker 7: Come on. Oh, well, he did the intro last season.
• 32:16
  Speaker 7: That's why he was there for the primetime. It was
• 32:19
  Speaker 7: kind of like this intro of this. And, I mean,
• 32:23
  Speaker 7: we've had many of occasions where we ran into Uncle Snoop.
• 32:28
  Speaker 7: Willie and I, the statute of limitations is up, right,
• 32:32
  Speaker 7: from Super Bowl XLV, Willie? We're allowed to speak on
• 32:34
  Speaker 7: these things?
• 32:35
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 32:36
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think so.
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: Careful.
• 32:41
  Speaker 7: And Uncle Snoop invited us to get tickets in there.
• 32:44
  Speaker 7: Me and Willie back when we were, once again, roommates
• 32:47
  Speaker 7: again at the Super Bowl because we were both on IR.
• 32:52
  Speaker 7: And so we didn't have the same practice constraints that
• 32:54
  Speaker 7: active players trying to actively win a Super Bowl was.
• 32:57
  Speaker 7: So we were on our Super Bowl tour as, quote, unquote,
• 33:02
  Speaker 7: the old heads, the veterans. So we got invited to
• 33:05
  Speaker 7: the Playboy Party. through Uncle Snoop. And we got to
• 33:09
  Speaker 7: go back to hang out with him, went to the party.
• 33:11
  Speaker 7: He performed. It was awesome. He performed at Super Bowl
• 33:14
  Speaker 7: XL after party. Willie, he came into Super Bowl XLIII
• 33:19
  Speaker 7: after party and got him in there. And so, I mean,
• 33:23
  Speaker 7: we've been around him more than we would have ever
• 33:27
  Speaker 7: thought in our life growing up watching MTV Jams.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: Pleasant at Earth.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: Check it out. That's what it's called. I had to
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: look it up. Pleasant Earth with Snoop Dogg. They are
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: so funny, man.
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: Okay, stick around. I'm pretty sure.
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: I've seen the viral clips for sure. I think a
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: lot of stuff went viral.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they're tremendous. Stick around.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: We are going to be talking about the power rankings
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: around the NFL as we continue to get you ready
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: for week one of the NFL season, Steelers against the Falcons,
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: coming up next here inside the locker room here on
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: the Steelers Audio Network.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: This is In the Locker Room with Rob King, Max Starks,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: and Willie Colon on Steelers Nation Radio. Brought to you
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: in part by the Steelers Pro Shop. Get it direct
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: from the team at the Steelers Pro Shop at shop.steelers.com.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: And by your neighborhood Ford store. The F-150 is the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: official truck of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: Thanks very much for being with us in the locker
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: room today. Willie, I'm glad you brought this up. A
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: happy birthday to Dick LeBeau.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: Obviously, you guys are on the.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: Offensive side, but Dick LeBeau to me is one of
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: those guys that's just certain human beings who are just different.
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: Of course, I never played.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: For the Steelers, but just hearing the stories, what kind
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: of guy can sit down in a room and do
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: Twas the Night Before Christmas to a football team? A
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: group of you know, super aggressive alpha males. And they're
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: all like, yes, that's that hit the spot, man. I mean, just,
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: you know, great golfer, hall of fame player. I mean,
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: just on and on and on. No, but you know,
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: I've never heard of anything but praise for Dick LeBeau.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: What do you, I mean, obviously you guys know him
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: way better than I would know him.
• 35:25
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: Listen, Dick LeBeau is, is a walking kind of Oracle, man.
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: Like he's, my time as a Steeler, he was one
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: of those guys. He just exuded so much calm and
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: swagger and peace. He was one of those guys that
• 35:42
  Speaker 6: you just, when he opened his mouth, you just mesmerized
• 35:46
  Speaker 6: and you listened to what he had to say. Obviously,
• 35:50
  Speaker 6: that defense was under his spell. They absolutely worshipped that dude.
• 35:56
  Speaker 6: But he was just a man's man at that. And
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: I remember, Max can attest to this, while we were
• 36:02
  Speaker 6: off doing our alignment drills or doing whatever we did
• 36:06
  Speaker 6: in the corner, you could always casually peek over and
• 36:08
  Speaker 6: watch old Dickie LeBeau rep out 20.
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: Push-ups real quick and just hit the mat.
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: And, you know, he looks older, but to see a
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: man of his size and at his age still able
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: to do catastetics and do push-ups and sit-ups and He
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: seemed like he was in amazing shape. And he never seemed,
• 36:32
  Speaker 6: and maybe Max knows more than I do, but he
• 36:35
  Speaker 6: never seemed rattled about anything. No matter what state the
• 36:38
  Speaker 6: Steelers was in, rather good, bad, or indifferent, or whatever
• 36:42
  Speaker 6: we were going through internally, he stayed like calm waters.
• 36:47
  Speaker 6: And I thought that was just a testament to why
• 36:50
  Speaker 6: we had so much success. I think for other people,
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: it seemed like there may be At times, there was
• 36:55
  Speaker 6: trouble in the water or maybe the building was on fire.
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: But I never seen that man flinch. I just didn't.
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: And I never seen him upset. I never seen him
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: attack a guy.
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: I was on the offensive side, so I was only
• 37:08
  Speaker 6: privy to what I saw during practice.
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: But he was just an awesome dude.
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: I even remember Max– we went to the hall of
• 37:20
  Speaker 6: fame when he got inducted to the hall of fame
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: and we were all there to see it as a team.
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: And people forget as much as he was an outstanding coach,
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: an outstanding defensive coordinator, but he was a bad-ass cornerback
• 37:32
  Speaker 6: for the Detroit lions. Like he was, he was, he
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: was a guy like he was, he was the guy,
• 37:38
  Speaker 6: you know what I mean? And so people don't understand
• 37:40
  Speaker 6: like he was a superstar at the cornerback position. And
• 37:44
  Speaker 6: so when you put together his legacy, man, He is
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: as iconic as iconic comes. And I'm just humbled and
• 37:54
  Speaker 6: thankful that I was able to talk to him. And
• 37:57
  Speaker 6: every time I saw him walk in the hallways, he
• 37:59
  Speaker 6: would give me a little smirk and a wink and
• 38:02
  Speaker 6: kind of like, hey, big fella. And we'll have one
• 38:05
  Speaker 6: or two, 10 seconds of words. And he kept it pushing.
• 38:08
  Speaker 6: But you always feel like you got something from that moment.
• 38:11
  Speaker 6: So happy birthday to the great Dickie LeBeau.
• 38:17
  Speaker 7: I'm in the same boat with Willie, and I have
• 38:19
  Speaker 7: a little bit closer relationship with Coach LeBeau because he
• 38:24
  Speaker 7: was my dad's defensive coordinator.
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: Oh, wow.
• 38:28
  Speaker 7: Think about that. My dad was his first 3-4 Rover
• 38:32
  Speaker 7: backer when he decided to do a 3-4. He picked
• 38:37
  Speaker 7: my pops to be the guy to do that. And
• 38:39
  Speaker 7: so I've had a deeper connection with with Coach LeBeau
• 38:44
  Speaker 7: because of that. And he would always check on my dad.
• 38:47
  Speaker 7: You know, I remember having to call him on my
• 38:49
  Speaker 7: cell phone and talk to him. And they talked during
• 38:53
  Speaker 7: Super Bowl XL on the field. Because I called my
• 38:56
  Speaker 7: pops from– we were training in the Pontiac Silverdome. I'll
• 39:01
  Speaker 7: never forget. It was my second year in the league.
• 39:02
  Speaker 7: We were training in the Pontiac Silverdome. The only other
• 39:05
  Speaker 7: time that Super Bowl was played was the Bengals in 1982.
• 39:09
  Speaker 7: When my father played. Oh, wow. And Coach LeBeau was there.
• 39:15
  Speaker 7: And we stood at the spot where he stacked Joe
• 39:18
  Speaker 7: Montana because he was the only person to ever stack
• 39:20
  Speaker 7: Joe Montana in a Super Bowl. And we had, like,
• 39:24
  Speaker 7: this moment. And then from that point forward, you know,
• 39:27
  Speaker 7: Coach and I have always had this like deep connection
• 39:30
  Speaker 7: and so he would always ask hey how's Ross doing
• 39:33
  Speaker 7: you know he called him he called him Ross and
• 39:37
  Speaker 7: and we would talk about like things from his younger
• 39:39
  Speaker 7: days to now and kind of what he's learning and
• 39:42
  Speaker 7: you're right that then like patience that he showed and
• 39:45
  Speaker 7: My pops was like, that was Coach LeBeau, like, as
• 39:48
  Speaker 7: fiery as– because, you know, he gets that little squeaky
• 39:50
  Speaker 7: voice when he's over there trying to get guys going,
• 39:53
  Speaker 7: you know.
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 39:55
  Speaker 7: But it was never, like, a mean, gruff tone. That's
• 39:59
  Speaker 7: just how he always has been. You know, I think–
• 40:02
  Speaker 7: and I think that swagger and that coolness, like you said, Willie,
• 40:04
  Speaker 7: comes from being a player and with that dude. You know, like,
• 40:09
  Speaker 7: there's very few things– like, I look at, you know,
• 40:12
  Speaker 7: as much as people want to make fun of, like,
• 40:13
  Speaker 7: a Deion Sanders– You don't really see Deion yell and
• 40:17
  Speaker 7: just get all mad at a player and stuff. If
• 40:22
  Speaker 7: he does raise his voice, it's because it's instruction time.
• 40:26
  Speaker 7: It's never to call a guy out or demean him. It's, hey,
• 40:30
  Speaker 7: I need you to listen, so I'm going to raise
• 40:32
  Speaker 7: the volume of my voice so not only you hear me,
• 40:35
  Speaker 7: but the rest of the team hears me. And he's
• 40:37
  Speaker 7: just always had that. And like you said, one of
• 40:40
  Speaker 7: the fondest memories, of course, is Christmastime, Will. when Coach
• 40:44
  Speaker 7: LeBeau would get in front of all of us, and Rob,
• 40:47
  Speaker 7: you can appreciate this as an author and writer, he
• 40:51
  Speaker 7: pinned his own open for Twas the Night Before Christmas.
• 40:55
  Speaker 7: He wrote his own intro in verbatim and in the
• 41:00
  Speaker 7: context and cadence of Clement Clark Moore. The only reason
• 41:05
  Speaker 7: I know that guy's name is because of Coach LeBeau.
• 41:09
  Speaker 7: And so... that stage. Like, I mean, he was, he's like,
• 41:14
  Speaker 7: and he feels like one of those traveling stages, you know,
• 41:17
  Speaker 7: that just comes by and parts wisdom and it moves,
• 41:20
  Speaker 7: moves on to the next village. Like that was kind
• 41:23
  Speaker 7: of his ethos, but could also leave practice at four
• 41:27
  Speaker 7: o'clock and play nine holes of twilight golf and be
• 41:31
  Speaker 7: done before the sun got, got, got, got out of sight.
• 41:34
  Speaker 7: Like he was that dude. Like we played golf at
• 41:36
  Speaker 7: the Steelers outing play with coach the boat. It was like,
• 41:40
  Speaker 7: He's not going to kill you. He's a scratch golfer,
• 41:42
  Speaker 7: but it's 200 yards right down the middle of the fairway.
• 41:47
  Speaker 7: It's chipping right onto the green six feet out, six-foot
• 41:51
  Speaker 7: putt in, boom, next hole, and rinse and repeat. He's
• 41:55
  Speaker 7: so methodical. That's why I think things just don't bother him. And,
• 42:00
  Speaker 7: you know, it's a blessing when you have that, and
• 42:02
  Speaker 7: that's why those guys fought hard. We had some of
• 42:04
  Speaker 7: the wildest human beings on our football team on the
• 42:06
  Speaker 7: defensive side of the ball. Like that linebacker, Cor Willis.
• 42:10
  Speaker 7: You know, when you have Joey Porter, Clark Higgins, Larry Foote,
• 42:15
  Speaker 7: and James Ferry in the same room, and they were
• 42:20
  Speaker 7: harassing Keith Butler. Like, we would come out there in
• 42:24
  Speaker 7: those meetings in the lobby area, and they were doing, like,
• 42:26
  Speaker 7: disco stuff. And then you throw in James Harrison along
• 42:30
  Speaker 7: the way that's growing up in this. That was the
• 42:33
  Speaker 7: wildest bunch in all of football, wildest room I've ever seen.
• 42:36
  Speaker 7: they would just take over the meeting. Butts couldn't talk.
• 42:39
  Speaker 7: They'd be flicking the lights, playing, like, whatever, the EDM
• 42:43
  Speaker 7: music or whatever. Yeah. But if Coach LeBeau walked in there,
• 42:49
  Speaker 7: lights on, music off, sitting in straight, listening, and he
• 42:54
  Speaker 7: didn't have to raise his voice. So, yeah, Coach LeBeau
• 42:57
  Speaker 7: is a special human being. He's one of the most
• 42:59
  Speaker 7: unique and storied figures, I would say, in football.
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's awesome stuff. Great tributes, guys. Happy birthday to him. Okay,
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: so real quick, we're going to dive into the power
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: rankings around the league. And this is coming from The Athletic.
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: We'll use various sources over the course of the year
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: to give everybody a little bit of love. They're usually
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: not that far off, but there are times where there
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: are teams that they're higher on or lower on than
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: somebody else. So let's jump into this because we're going
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: to dive into it more next hour.
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: But number one.
• 43:32
  Speaker 7: L.A.
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: Rams, look, no question, right? Can we just move on
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: from them? Everybody's got them as a super team. They
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: trade for Miles Garrett, Trent McDuffie, Aaron Donald's back. Right, Rams, clear,
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: move on.
• 43:45
  Speaker 7: Yeah, let's do it.
• 43:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I guess. I agree to it.
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: I'll give you guys a little bit of a bulk.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you what, I'll give you the next three,
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: and then we'll head to break. Next three, they've got
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: Seattle number two, your world champions, The Bills, number three.
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: The Patriots, number four. I'll tell you what, I'll even
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: go to the Broncos, number five. So Seahawks, Bills, Patriots, Broncos.
• 44:15
  Speaker 7: Last year's Super Bowl, you know, playoff teams. Everybody was
• 44:19
  Speaker 7: in the playoffs a year ago, had a deep run, blah, blah, blah. And,
• 44:23
  Speaker 7: you know, Josh Allen, they always want him in there,
• 44:25
  Speaker 7: even though they haven't made it that far in recent history. But, yeah.
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: Again, I don't have any real beef. Do you? Any
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: guys have any beef with that?
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: You really can't.
• 44:38
  Speaker 6: If you paid attention to the playoffs and how everything transpired,
• 44:42
  Speaker 6: you really can't. The only team I would probably bump
• 44:46
  Speaker 6: over the Broncos would be the Texans. I think they're
• 44:49
  Speaker 6: just probably a better, more well-rounded team. But the Texans,
• 44:53
  Speaker 6: they're probably right behind the Broncos, so you probably can't
• 44:55
  Speaker 6: say that.
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: Close.
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: 49ers.
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: Really? Texans.
• 45:01
  Speaker 7: Oh, wow.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: Okay. Chargers.
• 45:05
  Speaker 7: Let's end there.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: 49ers, Texans, Chargers. So a lot of AFC teams. 49ers, Texans, Chargers. Any–
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: that's pretty high for me for the Chargers. But, okay,
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: so five of the top eight.
• 45:23
  Speaker 7: Chargers and Niners I would probably have pretty high just
• 45:25
  Speaker 7: because the Niners have a lot of issues. You know,
• 45:28
  Speaker 7: you still have Nick Bosa coming off an injury. George
• 45:30
  Speaker 7: Kittle coming off an injury. Christian Kanifree's. eternally injured at
• 45:33
  Speaker 7: some point every single season. So, I mean, yes, they
• 45:38
  Speaker 7: have a Mike Evans added to that receiving core, minus
• 45:42
  Speaker 7: whatever Brandon Ayoub did this offseason. I think he went
• 45:47
  Speaker 7: to the Antonio Brown School of Social Media. But, yeah,
• 45:52
  Speaker 7: I mean, yeah, those two I would probably– I don't
• 45:57
  Speaker 7: know where I'd have them. I think they are a
• 46:01
  Speaker 7: little bit too rich for those two teams. Everybody else
• 46:03
  Speaker 7: I agree with, but those two are pretty high for me.
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: It seemed last year, guys, like.
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: If I recall correctly, this was more NFC centric last year.
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: Five of the top eight in the AFC.
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: It feels like there's a different perception just in one
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: offseason about how much better the AFC is.
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I think it's the quarterback play.
• 46:30
  Speaker 6: I think when you look at the quarterbacks who are all,
• 46:33
  Speaker 6: I mean, between Josh Allen, Drake May, who was an
• 46:37
  Speaker 6: MVP candidate, and you talk about what they bring to
• 46:40
  Speaker 6: the table and how much those teams have arrived because
• 46:43
  Speaker 6: of their play alone, it's not hard to kind of
• 46:45
  Speaker 6: wrap your head around.
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: I think when you talk about the AFC moving forward, you.
• 46:50
  Speaker 6: Know, they're... Listen, I love Patrick Mahomes, but we don't
• 46:55
  Speaker 6: know what Patrick Mahomes is going to look like this
• 46:57
  Speaker 6: year coming off of ACL.
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: We just don't.
• 46:59
  Speaker 6: I mean, there's reports that he looks fine and he
• 47:02
  Speaker 6: should be ready to go, yada, yada, yada. But I
• 47:05
  Speaker 6: know coming off of ACL, there's still some acclimation that
• 47:08
  Speaker 6: needs to be done because you're not the same quarterback.
• 47:10
  Speaker 6: And I know when you bring in Kenneth Gainwell and
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: you get Eric Bien, the goal now is to try
• 47:15
  Speaker 6: to balance out that offense and now run the football. Also,
• 47:18
  Speaker 6: I've said it before and I'll say it again, and
• 47:19
  Speaker 6: I don't mean to be redundant, The Jaguars will be better,
• 47:22
  Speaker 6: and I think Trevor Lawrence will be better, and I
• 47:25
  Speaker 6: think he's going to springboard off last year under William–
• 47:27
  Speaker 6: excuse me, Liam Cohn.
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: So that's going to be good.
• 47:30
  Speaker 6: And I also think people who aren't given, believe it
• 47:33
  Speaker 6: or not, Kirk Cousins and what he's going to do
• 47:35
  Speaker 6: for that Raiders outfit, like having a professional quarterback who's
• 47:38
  Speaker 6: efficient from snap to snap, now having an offensive line
• 47:41
  Speaker 6: and some legit weapons around him, I think the Raiders
• 47:44
  Speaker 6: are going to be sneaky better. I know a lot
• 47:45
  Speaker 6: of people want to see the Mendoza show, but I
• 47:47
  Speaker 6: think after seeing it in the last two preseason games,
• 47:50
  Speaker 6: they probably want to keep them on a shelf a
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: little bit and kind of grow them organically. But Kirk Cousins,
• 47:54
  Speaker 6: when healthy, he doesn't have the mobility to scramble around,
• 47:58
  Speaker 6: but in the pocket, he can still deliver. So I
• 48:00
  Speaker 6: think you're talking about out of the quarterbacks who we
• 48:03
  Speaker 6: already don the elite quarterbacks, there's some, there's some guys
• 48:07
  Speaker 6: that are kind of down there that.
• 48:09
  Speaker 5: That you can't just, you can't just scoff at. They can,
• 48:11
  Speaker 5: they can play some football.
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: Okay. So go ahead, Max, real quick before we go
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: to break, you want.
• 48:16
  Speaker 7: To, I was going to say, and Justin Herbert, you
• 48:18
  Speaker 7: have to think, has always been that strong talent, has
• 48:20
  Speaker 7: always been missing something. Mike McDaniels is their OC. And
• 48:24
  Speaker 7: Mike McDaniels, with a healthy, logical Tua, has done some
• 48:29
  Speaker 7: damage and put up some yards. So you imagine you
• 48:31
  Speaker 7: actually get that confident OC with Justin Herbert. I think
• 48:34
  Speaker 7: that's why people feel so high about Justin Herbert and
• 48:37
  Speaker 7: what the Chargers can do and why they have them
• 48:40
  Speaker 7: crowned like preseason AFC West champions. Because of that fact,
• 48:44
  Speaker 7: I just wanted to throw that in there as well.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's worth talking about, and that situation is worth
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: talking about. We're going to kick some more of this
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: stuff around. We are getting you ready for the first
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: week of the season. Steelers hosting the Falcons as we
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: continue in the locker room here on the Steelers Audio Network.