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Steelers 2024 NFL Draft Recap · Steelers Country Weekly

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Today on Steelers Country Weekly, we review the Steelers twenty twenty four draft class,
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and I think we're gonna have a lot to say about it. I'm
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Nick Detulo and as always, am joined by the world famous accountants Eric vanmon
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Shown. Eric. How's it going tonight? Ah? Pretty good rain and
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the cats dogs here Texas. Uh good for the grass, so I'm happy.
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Yeah, we had a little bit of rain over here in Atlanta a
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couple of days ago. That was pretty good. But I spent so much
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time in my yard a couple of weekends ago. I don't want any more
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rain. I want everything to die. I had to clear out so much
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dead things, and now the weeds are starting to come up. It's just
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it's too much. I don't want to go back into the yard anymore.
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I just want to turf. Crass man, if you want to, I'm
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sure you. Your kids be playing some tack there. Gotta start up grass.
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So I've only got grass in my front yard, and if I can
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cut that every week or two, I'm fine. You might appreciate this,
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though. The backyard is just dirt and then mulch wherever I want to put
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mulch down. And last summer, I actually went into home depot and saw
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that they were selling this big block or sheet of turf, like actual turf.
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So I had this brilliant idea. I cut it into strips and I've
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made it like a runner along the fence that divides my ard in my next
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door neighbor's yard. I've got three dogs. My next door neighbor has four
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dogs, and when they go outside, they bark and they run and it
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sounds like they hate each other, but I think it's just it's seven dogs
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barking at the same time. And I was like, man, this is
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perfect. It's going to cover up the dirt so that if it rains,
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I don't have to worry about muddy paws, and my dogs are going to
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be just flying down this turf. It's going to be like the greatest show
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on turf. They said they were so much faster because of that the ground
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and there's did not work out the way I wanted to. The dogs were
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running so hard and like I guess, just when they would stop to go
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the other direction, they'd stop with such force they just tore it right up.
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So that's my only experience with turf, and I think that's gonna be
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it. Well, you know, you win some, you lose. I
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I think the saying for me should be you win some, you lose a
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lot. But at least it's something. But we're not here to talk about
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the yard. That's another podcast. We'll get that go on some other day.
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We're here to talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers Draft. This was a in
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my opinion, great draft. I I love watching the draft. I mean,
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you'd think I wouldn't care as much anymore since we're like ten years older
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than a lot of these guys. But I just think it such a cool
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thing where you see that it's in different cities now, hundreds of thousands of
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people come out, fans from every team, and just the night, well
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really night one, but all three days of the draft. It's just a
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cool experience. So this year it was in Detroit. We had the traditional
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booze of Roder Goodell. He got his hugs two in the first round.
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It was a good night. And before we get into the Steelers class,
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we can talk through some of the top picks as well. Cale Williams number
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one pick. Overall, I think everyone knew that was going to happen,
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especially after the Steelers acquired justin Fields. But one of the things that I
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think helped the Steelers with their eventual first round selection is the fact that six
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quarterbacks came off the board in the first twelve picks. That's never happened before.
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But you know, and it was crazy as well. When those six
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of the twelve picks came off the board, some people were still on the
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board that probably shouldn't have been other teams who may have wanted a quarterback but
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didn't trade. We're like, well, I guess we missed the boat,
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because after those first six quarterbacks were taken, another one wasn't taken until Spencer
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Rattler in the first round or in the fifth round. Rather so, kind
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of like the year the Steelers took Kenny Pickett, where there was a long
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gap between quarterbacks, this time was a little bit more exaggerated. But I
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mean, like we said, it seemed to play out for the Steelers.
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But before we dive into the Steelers first round pick, did you have any
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thoughts overall about the first round, the first evening and how things played out.
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Well, those over pretty I want to say boring. You know,
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there weren't a mat I made trades. I felt like in other years,
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there's quite a bit of like moving around the board. I felt like a
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lot of teams kind of held their spots. If I'm a Falcons fan,
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I'm like, what what is going on? I I mean, I understand,
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like you got Kirk, you got Kurt last year, but spend the
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first rounder on a guy who's on the three history and an older prospect is
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like twenty four right now to sit behind your other older quarterback that has injuries.
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I mean it sounds like good planning. That is the most interesting pick
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in the draft. And I don't think it's really even close. And I
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don't think that anyone is looking at that pick in itself and saying that Michael
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Pennox is nest necessarily a bad pick. It's just why would you do both
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things? Why would you sign Kirk Cousins and then draft Michael Pennix. One
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of the reasonings that the GM gave was like, it's a good problem to
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have if he sits for four or five years and learns, because that means
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that Kirk is playing really well. The problem with that, though, is,
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let's assume that Kirk Cousins plays really well for four years, even though
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I think he's only on a two year deal. Then you're gonna have to
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either you're gonna have to give Pennix his fifth year option with having no real
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experience, and like you said, he's already twenty four, he's gonna be
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twenty eight or twenty nine whenever that comes. That's it's nuts. And when
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the GM is on video having to explain to the owner like, hey,
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this is why we're doing it, or this is what's what we're thinking,
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it's just not a good look. And if I'm either Michael Pennox or Kirk
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Cousins, I'm not really thrilled with the situation either. If I'm Kirk Cousins,
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it's not so much the competition that I would be worried about that Michael
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Pennox brings in. It's that I signed with this team, you had the
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number eight pick overall, and you didn't do anything to help us right now,
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like what are we doing here? And it's yeah, I mean,
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it kind of reminds me of like the Jordan Love pick when Aaron Rodgers is
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winning an MVP award, and at least with that one they that was later
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in the first round, but you have a hot tenth pick, like you're
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supecially like be pushing these chips towards the middle of the table, making a
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guy's red shirt for his collegiate career. But that's a good point though.
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The other thing with Jordan Love is I think they trade it up to get
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him too, which is enough wasted asset and I don't want to say wasted.
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They used assets to get to him. And while Love did have a
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good year this past year, how close were the Packers the last three or
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four years that Aaron Rodgers were there where they They were right there. They
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just couldn't get over the edge, you know what I mean. So I
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think there's something to be said for playing for the present versus playing for the
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future. And I don't know. If Jordan Love goes on and gets a
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Super Bowl or two, then maybe we'll say it was worth it. But
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when I look back at that, I'm like, Okay, well, you
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were right there. If you had just done one or two more things,
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maybe gotten one or two different players, like a wide receiver for example,
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to go with DeVante Adams, you could have maybe gotten over the hurdle there,
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because they came close many times in the playoffs. They just couldn't get
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over the finish line. Yeah. I mean if you think of like the
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other like people that have won recently, what got them over the hump is
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they saw this issue and they went out in the dress. So examples of
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that are Rams obviously went out and got a quarterback. Billy went out.
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I know they didn't win, but to get to the Super Bowl went out
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got their wide receivers. They got a J. Brown. The Chiefs have
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gone out and addressed their offensive line through either like Orlando Brown trade or massive
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signing stuff like that. So like people, you got me aggressive when you're
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in that window. So I don't know, weird, but I know we're
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not a Falcons team podcast. Man oh man, I mean there'd be a
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lot to the back there. Yeah. If we were a Falcons podcast,
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we could spend the whole night talking about just that pick. Yeah. But
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let's get to the Steelers. At pick number twenty, the Steelers took Troy
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Faltano, tackle out of Washington. So when we were doing our mock draft,
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I had the Steelers taking Amarus Mims and he ended up going to the
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Bengals. Earlier, I think they were picked seventeen. When I mentioned all
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these quarterbacks going off the board. The reason that helped the Steelers is because
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six quarterbacks going in the top twelve picks leaves a lot of other prospects that
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were probably little higher ranked on the board for the Steelers to take. So
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I think Troy Faltano is actually a pretty highly ranked tackle among the top and
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I think he might have been ranked higher than Amarius Mims. So when we
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were doing our mock draft, I was just looking at the player values and
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I thought Mims would be the one to fall to the Steelers. Not sure
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really why the Bengals took him instead of Faltano, but I'm not going to
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complain. Based on what I've seen. He's one of the top tackles in
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the draft, one of the top tackles from the I guess now defunct Pac
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twelve or Pack ten whatever, Pack two, whatever we're calling it. But
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this, like we mentioned before, was a clear sign of what the Steelers
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valued because they could have gone elsewhere. They could have gone other positions,
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They could have taken a center even and eventually they did, but at least
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in this first round, they saw the tackle that they really liked. On
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the board and that's where Omar Khan decided to pull the trigger. Yeah,
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I mean, yeah, we'll go through it. Obviously there was a trend
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in this draft, but you know, I I'm happy with it. Yeah.
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There were a lot of people that said, is he big enough to
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be? Uh tackle? I guess you know, he's not as tile as
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typical tackles are, which I think Tomlin made a joke because I guess he's
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sixty three and like seven quarters or something or seventh and they said, I'll
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give you another quarter in jro, give you whatever it would be for him
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to be a tackle basically for splitting hairs. Here, this dude's talented and
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he's gonna be a tackle regardless something. He's gonna be a great player.
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He was the best player on the on the team won the award for the
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best offensive line in college football. I feel like that means something. So
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yeah, you know, he's a leader. He's the guy who who's play
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stood out. I'm a big fan of investing in the offensive line, so
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uh, definitely kudos on the pick. And you know, I think last
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year we went with like the with the guy that has maybe the athletic build
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and like, you know, we'll have to refine it a little bit.
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And this guy seems more of a tactician. He already kind of has that
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going on, and maybe there athletic skill isn't there as much, you know,
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though he is lengthy, So I like the good mixture of him.
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You know, it's kind of like you got you got kind of covering your
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bases a little bit, because I feel like sometimes people are just like just
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always are just like shooting for the moon on some of the stuff. And
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and I honestly think that that's kind of like what Mims will be with the
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Bengals. Like dude six eight runs like a four to seven. But like,
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I don't know, is he played like eight games in college? So
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is he to be good? I don't know. So uh supposedly took himself
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out of the game. I liked by the way I brought that. Bring
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this up because Nick Saban brought up in his analysis. Nick Saban was fantastic.
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I love to listen Nick Saban in his analysis on the draft picks.
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So so you mentioned Nick Saban. I I didn't watch this live, but
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I've listened to some of the interviews and some of the insights he's given that
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since the draft. Uh, same same props to Bill Belichick two on the
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Pat McAfee show. I know that those two are friends and they coached together.
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Sabin was Belichick's DC when they were in Cleveland. I think those two
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need to get their own show going where they can just go in as nitty
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gritty into the exors as they want to. Yeah, but now, all
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right, So Steelers addressed the offensive line in round one, Troy Faltano out
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of Washington. What are they doing? Round two? They addressed the offensive
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line. They go right back to center Zach Fraser from West Virginia out of
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pick fifty one. Now, my favorite story that I've learned about Zach Fraser
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since the Steelers have drafted him was last game of the year last year.
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He breaks his leg and teams out of timeouts, so to avoid a ten
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second runoff, he literally crawls off the field at to save his team.
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That is like as tough as you can get on the football field. And
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that's kind of what people think of when they try to imagine what a Pittsburgh
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Steeler is. Something kind of like that. So the other center that had
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there were two centers that the Steelers had been linked to. One was the
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Duke center. I think his name was Graham Barton maybe, and then the
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other one was Jackson Powers. Johnson out of Oregon. He went to the
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Raiders. I think, you know, handful of picks before he got to
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the Steelers. That being said, Zach Frazier was still one of the top
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sent rated centers in the draft, and he's from the Steelers' backyard in West
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Virginia. You know what, I was completely happy with this pick. I
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was actually at the Braves game and I turned on my stream to watch the
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Steelers make the pick, and I started jumping up and down and cheering in
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the concourse when we made this pick. Yeah. I mean, look,
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no one else in Atlanta was cheering about anything that the Atlanta Falcons had done
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up to that point. But I was just so happy that we were addressing
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the line. We had kind of talked about it ourselves, and I said,
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all things being equal, I want us to take care of the line
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first, because it doesn't matter who our receivers are, if Russell Wilson can't
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throw the ball, or Justin Fields or whoever, Kyle Allen even so to
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see them hold the line, not make a trade, and still get a
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top center at pick number fifty one. I was, I was stoked about
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this one. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean, there's not
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much else to say other than like, we didn't even have a starter.
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I didn't even think we had a center on the on the team. Uh
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so to not you know, only as you mentioned, get a center.
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But then also I have the reach for him. That's great. So I
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you know, I thought that from a needs perspective, player on the board
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perspective, probably couldn't do much better. So great chat. Yeah, the
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Steelers released Mason Cole, and They've never come out and said it, but
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I'm sure that they were thinking, well, no one else is so them,
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so as a you know, last resort, we could bring them back.
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They also have her big on the line too that they were They have
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said, well, you know, we could always slide him over to center.
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He's played the center before. But we don't even have to worry about
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that now barring injuries. Like you said, they went out and got in
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their first two rounds, I believe, two starters. So you're looking at
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at and I guess they'll have to figure out who's playing left and who's playing
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right tackle. But you got Broderick Jones, the number one pick from last
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year, and then you've got Troy Faltano, the number one round pick from
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this year, and then Zach Frasier the center. So in one year they've
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or alone. In two years, two drafts, they've gotten three anchors on
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the line. Three we think long term starters there and that should be a
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good foundation for several years to come. So I'm happy with it. It
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seemed like all of Pittsburgh was jumping for joy. And there's not many other
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fan bases that would be this pumped up over an offensive line over two offensive
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line picks, But after the things we've seen the last couple of years,
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I think it's understandable. So moving into round three, the Steelers addressed their
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other big name or big need, and that was wide receiver. They went
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out and they got Roman Wilson, a wide receiver out of Michigan. This
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is a guy who's drawing I just did my Chris Collinsworth. Here's a guy.
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Here's a guy who is drawing a lot of comparisons to Hines Ward.
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One of his sayings is no block, no rocks, because he understood that
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at Michigan they were going to run the ball first, and he needed to
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take care of his business blocking guys a little shorter, hees about five to
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ten, but he plays tough, plays with a lot of heart, and
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he was Michigan's leading receiver this past year on their national championship team. Once
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again, you mentioned that this made the draft boring, but I'm I'm fine
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with it as long as the Steelers aren't involved. Weren't many trades. We
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we kind of let the players come to us, and it just seemed to
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work out well this year. I think at pick eighty four, a guy
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like Roman Wilson is a very good compliment to George Pickens. You get the
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tall athletic receiver, you've got the shorter skill receiver there. I think that
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it gives a lot of flexibility to the Steelers offense. Yeah, yeah,
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definitely. I mean it was very exciting. He was Someone described him as
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Heinz Ward, like, uh, which as the Steelers fans and they you
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know, I literally just described him to you as Hines Ward. So I
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am the somebody, Yeah, so you know, But honestly, it's just,
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you know, I think that at least from what my understanding is of
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him as a player, him as a person. I think the Steelers are
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trying to turn the page on on that guy that fell out of like the
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rounds because of this and this and this, and you know, basically George
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Pickens, Antonio Brown, Deontay Johnson, all these guys that are whoper talented
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but are always an issue. You know, what do we do? We
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traded Deontay Johnson and now replacing him with a guy who is supposed to block.
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Go figure, maybe I'll actually teacher wider recom something like that. So
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from what I've heard, he's the guy that can like leave by example.
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So I'm soaked about it. We're addressing you know, we got great value
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again here while also getting a great character. I mean, you'll hear it
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on this pick. You've heard of in the last two picks. You'll probably
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hear it on a couple other picks in this in this analysis. But I
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feel like we've just been hitting. And uh, you know a lot of
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draft puppets that Steelers had one of the best drafts in the in the whole
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entire league. And this is another example of why, Yeah, I have
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to give credit to my coworker Scott who's a Michigan fan, who gave me
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the lowdown on Roman Wilson. But this is another pick that I was I
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was just excited for because we talked about wide receivers being in need, and
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then yet again here's a high quality, I guess, well known athlete given
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that he played on the national championship team that fell down to the Steelers at
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pick number eighty four. And they didn't try to overthink it, they didn't
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try to trade up, trade down. They just took the best player that
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fit their need at the time, and we didn't have to lose any assets
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over it. So again, it sometimes it does just take a little bit
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of luck where these things fall into place, and that's kind of what happened
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here. This next pick probably could be the most interesting, I think of
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the draft for the Steelers. With pick ninety eight, which by the way,
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thank you Kenny Pickett because that was part of the trade for him.
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We got this pick from the Eagles, the Steelers took Peyton Wilson, a
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linebacker from NC State. Now here's the deal with Peyton w He was arguably
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the best linebacker in all of college this past year and I think he's been
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injury free for the past two years now. The reason he fell though,
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is that because prior to that he has quite a laundry list of injuries.
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He also doesn't have an ACL in one of his knees and toward the other
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ACL twice among other injuries. So, you know, we talked about players
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falling for character reasons. Here's a guy who fell for medical reasons, kind
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of similar to the Darnell Washington pick last year. I think that was also
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in Round three. It wasn't really a position that the Steelers strongly needed.
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It just kind of got to the point where they were like, the value
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with this player is too high. We'll take him and we'll figure it out.
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You mentioned Nick Saban earlier. He was on Nick Saban's I guess he
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called it the all Saban defense. I guess if he made a defense.
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With all the prospects that were available, he was the last one to go.
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And really it seems to me, again not knowing much about NC State,
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it seems to me like without the the medical concerns, this guy probably
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would have been a first round pick. Uh yeah, I mean, and
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for a variety of reasons. I mean, he's supposedly a tackling machine,
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but also coverage. I mean we've I would say, like we've had our
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collection of guys who are thumpers. I think Bence Wilson or Williams, guys
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that can like defend the run. But we've always been horrible in the middle
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of the field when it comes to the pass coverage. So what was the
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agenda for this offseason? I guess let's store that up. So we have
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Patrick Queen Wilson, and you know, with that in mind, Roberts played
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pretty well, so there's step there. Cool. We don't have to rush
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him back. So you know, we could either get the rookie some some
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reps, or we can have the rookie watch a little bit. And you
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know, nonetheless, I mean, I think it gives us a lot of
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flexibility to it and something that maybe it doesn't feel like a need, but
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gotcha, gosh, man, last year it or why her linebacker room was
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a graveyard. I mean, we just had so many injuries and this is
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just a way too. You know, look, injuries are gonna happen.
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Let's at least take a guy that we know has the chops to be a
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great football player, and at the very end of Day three, why not.
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Yeah, I mean, I really hope this guy stays healthy. One
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of the quotes he gave to Cam Hayward was he said something to the effect
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of, I want to be on the field one hundred percent of the plays
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and I'm always looking to rip someone's head off. Again another Pittsburgh Steeler answer
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right there. But again, no, you bring up a good point about
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the depth. It did seem like the Steelers were cursed at linebacker last year.
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They had solid play from almost every single one and almost every single one
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got hurt in succession. So as long as Peyton Wilson can stay help the
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that's fine with me. We also have to point out that he is the
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third Wilson signed this offseason. There's always a trend every year with Steelers signing
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alumni or family members or if you've got a brother who's on the in the
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NFL, we're going to take you this year. If you had the last
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name Wilson, there's a good chance you were going to sign with the Pittsburgh
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Steelers. So there's our fun fact for the day. Round number four.
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The Steelers go right back to the offensive line this time, they take a
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guard, Mason McCormick out of South Dakota State, the jack Rabbits with the
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one hundred and nineteenth pick. You know, the offensive line coach said,
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Christmas came early, and he's right when you use three of your first five
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picks on the offensive line. I don't know that Mason McCormick is going to
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be a starter, but I do think he's got a lot of upside.
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He's probably been hidden a little bit being in South Dakota State, although they've
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gotten some people into the draft over the last couple of years. But you
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know what, I'm fine shoring up the line for a lot of the same
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reasons you mentioned having depth at the linebacker position. Uh, we're gonna need
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some depth in the line too. I think it was two years ago where
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we had no injuries to the offensive line, and that is a that's just
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that's so rare that I can't even believe it actually happened even once, to
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not have any injuries. Yeah, So I think if you have a good
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prospect that even if he may not be a starter, he may not be
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a starter right away. I think that's a good place to take one.
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Yeah, you know this was a weird offseason. I mean, protecting the
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quarterback has always been a priority, but there's typically been the same us on
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the tackles. But with the Aaron Donald effect, people are looking a little
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bit more towards interior pass rushers, and so guards are starting to get paid
30:15
like tackles. There were, gosh, the Carolina Panthers, I think gave
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out two twenty million dollar year contracts to guards over this past offseason, so
30:25
that's becoming the Norman. James Daniels is I think in his last season under
30:33
contract, so it could be a little bit of like, we'll see what
30:40
happens next year kind of thing. Jim Daniels been playing great, but I
30:47
don't know about we want to pay him twenty million dollars, so we'll see.
30:52
Well, all right then, But again for this drafts three alignment and
31:00
the top five picks, you can tell where the focus was at this point.
31:04
I would say the only need or strong need was a cornerback. But
31:12
by this point in the fourth round, I still don't think you really want
31:15
to reach when there's other good prospects there. So that being said, and
31:21
knowing that they did eventually address it later in the draft, and they did
31:25
this offseason as well with the Deontay Johnson trade. I'm still good with the
31:30
guard pick. Moving on, the Steelers did not have a round five pick.
31:36
In round six, at pick number one seventy eight, they took Logan
31:41
Lee, a D lineman from Iowa. Interesting first defensive pick of the draft
31:48
for the Steelers, and it was it took until round six, which again
31:52
we're fine with. We know all the money's on the defensive side of the
31:56
ball anyway right now, but still a little out of character for what we're
31:59
using too. You know what. This is a depth pick. I don't
32:06
really have much to say about this other than I knew they were going to
32:09
address defense at some point. We keep talking about depth at certain positions.
32:15
D line is another one. I mean, Cam Hayward is probably in the
32:21
last year or two of his career. He's not immune from injuries as well,
32:28
and really no one is. But when you have that kind of situation
32:31
on the D line, this is this is a fair pick to make.
32:36
I would say, yeah, Yeah, I mean I will say at this
32:43
point in the draft, knowing players and their outlook gets a little hairer for
32:49
me. Yeah, I like the pick of the line kind of fits and
33:00
you know, and yeah, that's how I got with this. Now fair
33:08
enough, And the last pick for the Steelers this year was in the sixth
33:13
round, one ninety five Ryan Watts, cornerback out of Texas. This was
33:19
really their last position of need. You could argue safety, but I don't
33:22
think that was as pressing as cornerback. We also have to remembered that last
33:28
year in the seventh round, the Steelers selected Corey Trice, another cornerback who
33:32
went on injured reserves, so we didn't get to see him. Hopefully he
33:36
comes back healthy and is able to make the roster too. But they spend
33:40
a late pick on cornerback. I think this is depth really. I don't
33:45
mean, maybe they expect him to be playing at some point, I don't
33:49
know. But again, they needed this position and they had the prospect there
33:57
that they liked for where he was and if he can come in and make
34:00
something work, great and if not, I don't think anyone's gonna lose any
34:05
sleep over it. But as far as the pick itself for where it was
34:07
totally fine with me. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess pedigree
34:15
of coming from Texas that's green. Uh. You know, at this point
34:21
in the draft, though, again, it's tough to say how much of
34:24
an impact that they will make. So let's see. Yeah, all right,
34:31
well, let me run through the picks again real quick, just one
34:36
one at a time. Troy Futano, Zach Frasier, Roman Wilson, Peyton
34:42
Wilson, Mason McCormick, Logan Lee, and Ryan Watts. Okay, so
34:52
let me ask you for your letter grade. How are you gonna grade the
34:54
Steelers on their draft? Yeah, I think I would go I don't want
35:05
to sound wish you was, because I was weighing in between the two.
35:10
I'm gonna go beat. Plus, I think that they really did great job
35:16
in the front end of it. You know, on date three, did
35:22
we nail the picks or kind of fill the holes that we needed to I'm
35:27
not sure. So I think that's where I'm it's a little hesitant to do.
35:34
But you know, I thought, especially the first two days, which
35:38
most important, they really got the value and didn't get to a trigger happy,
35:49
you know, like they last year. We saw us moving around the
35:52
board. This year we kind of like just said to us, so I'm
35:58
very happy with the draft. I'm gonna be a little more positive than you.
36:01
I'm gonna give them an A on this one for a lot of the
36:07
same reasons you mentioned. I guess I just weigh that more. Again,
36:13
no trades. Last year, the trades worked out in their favor. They
36:16
really what they traded up to get Broderick Jones, but really didn't have to
36:21
get much or have to give up much, and then they ended up trading
36:23
back to get Darnell Washington, so they recouped some of that. This year,
36:30
there were no trades. I know they talked with teams at certain points,
36:34
but the picks fell to them so they didn't have to really lose anything.
36:37
I think that's always a plus when you can get the guys you want
36:42
without having to give up anything. I think the biggest need for me,
36:49
in my opinion, was the offensive line. And again I say it all
36:52
the time, it does not matter who the wide receivers are if the quarterback
36:59
cannot throw the ball. And it's been a problem for years in Pittsburgh,
37:05
even going back to Big Ben's last couple of years, when Ben transitioned to
37:13
throwing the ball in like a half second after the snap because he just could
37:17
not hold on to it without getting sacked. You know, that's a problem,
37:22
and that really hasn't been fixed. I mean, I guess we have
37:24
to wait and see if it'll be fixed with this draft. I think it
37:28
will be. But all that to say, it's just been a problem that's
37:31
plagued them for several years now. And it's not like Russell Wilson is a
37:37
spring chicken either, And even if you put justin fields out there, you
37:40
got to protect him too. So taking the three guys with the top five
37:46
picks was huge. They still got a wide receiver in the draft that I
37:52
think can make an impact for a variety of reasons, not just his skill
37:58
as a player, but some of the things you said, like the mentality
38:01
that he brings compared to the mentality that some other players that are no longer
38:06
on the team brought, and they're just their attitude to how they're going to
38:10
play the game. I think that that alone is going to be a pretty
38:15
big step too. And then things like the Peyton Wilson pick. I guess
38:22
I'm going to choose to look at that as caution cautiously optimistic, because to
38:29
me, that's the biggest risk reward pick given what we've seen him do,
38:35
but we also know that there's that injury concern. All that being said,
38:40
they didn't have to give up anything to make any of these picks. They
38:45
filled a position of need in one way or another with every single pick.
38:50
The value is right at every pick. I'm just feeling good about this draft
38:55
class. So I'm gonna go ahead and give them the A and keep watching
39:00
the con artist work as magic, because these last two drafts have been pretty
39:06
fun to be a Steelers fan for. Yeah. Yeah, One little thing
39:13
I feel like I want to mention too is I feel that they feel we
39:22
have our future starter on the roster at quarterback. The reason why I feel
39:31
like I said that is because if we felt like we would have to make
39:37
a move next year, because let's be honest, we're not going to be
39:40
picking at the top of the draft, we probably have to have ammunition to
39:45
go up and get a guy, we would have likely trade it back or
39:50
accumulated some picks for next year. And because we didn't really do that,
39:58
I mean, it's not how the question that we won't trade future pick,
40:02
but that normally pass more, etcetera, et cetera. So from a planning
40:08
perspective. I just felt like, maybe that's just an indication that they feel
40:15
that Fields or Wilson will be the answer going forward. So yeah, no,
40:21
no, you're right. I speaking of not picking in the top five,
40:28
the Steelers are the only team in this millennium that has not picked in
40:30
like the top five. We have not had a top five pick since Terry
40:35
Bradshaw that was nineteen seventy. So I think that stat's more impressive than the
40:42
three coaches in sixty years STAT, to be honest with you, So yeah,
40:47
I think when you're in that position, you have to make the choices
40:50
that the Steelers have made with Russell Wilson and Peyton Justin Fields. I'm with
41:00
you. I think that one of those two is going to be the starter,
41:04
at least for the next four years. If it's Russell Wilson, I
41:07
mean, I don't expect him to play forever, but I think about forty
41:12
is still the shelf life for a quarterback unless you're Tom Brady. So so
41:19
yeah, I think that no matter who the quarterback is, though, they're
41:22
taking care of him with the picks that they made in this draft. Yeah,
41:28
So that's the Steelers draft we're both pretty high on at me a little
41:34
more than you, But that's fine. I tend to be mister positivity around
41:37
here. So okay. I know we talked about the Falcons pick with Michael
41:47
Pennox in the first round. Were there any other interesting picks that caught your
41:52
eye this draft at any point? You know? I know there was a
42:00
lot of to do about the Bills trading with the Chiefs and then knowing that
42:07
the Chiefs were gonna go up and go get a wide receiver. I don't
42:13
mind it. I mean, people made a big deal with that, but
42:17
it there was a team. So I'm trying to think, let's say the
42:22
Patriots old Tom Brady time frame. Would you not trade with the Patriots because
42:30
of that basically standing in your way each year? Or would you make the
42:37
trade regardless? Looking objectively, I would hmm. To be perfectly honest with
42:50
you, I'm I would always be reluctant to trade with anybody just because I'm
42:55
always like, well, wait a minute, is there something you know that
42:58
I don't know? Or am I really getting the best value here? And
43:01
maybe that's because I've spent so much time watching the Steelers never make a trade
43:05
for anybody until last year. I don't know. I guess I just trust
43:09
no one when it comes to that. So, honestly, all things being
43:13
equal, for being objective, i'd probably not trade. Yeah, okay,
43:20
Yeah, I mean I don't really have a problem with it because I kind
43:22
of view it as I was thinking about it in fantasy, right, like
43:28
when you're cheering for the other team not to score on you. It's just
43:31
like, well, as long as I took care of business and I I
43:37
did good, I would never have to worry about anyone else's plate. So
43:40
right, But yeah, no, I just thought it was an interesting thought
43:47
process because, yeah, some people felt like it's the rich getting richer.
43:54
Yeah, well, looking back at this draft overall, I'm pretty happy with
44:02
it. I don't know if there's any picks that I was left scratching my
44:07
head on other than Michael Pennox won. And I just thought that the run
44:13
on quarterbacks was really odd. I don't know BOONEX go on to the Broncos.
44:21
I think it was twelve. I was just like, really, he's
44:22
a top twelve pick. But again, it's just interesting that, you know,
44:30
the Raiders probably would have taken a quarterback, but by the time it
44:35
got to them, it's like, well, Spencer Rattlers, the next one
44:38
up, we're really going to take him. So they just took the best
44:40
tight end off the board, which it'll be interesting to see Gardner Minshew on
44:46
that team. And it sounds like because of the way the draft played out,
44:52
which I guess is interesting, he's going to have at least one year
44:54
to see if he can make something happen. And if he doesn't, then
44:59
I would bet that the race are going to make a pick next year.
45:04
And it seems like the number one prospect at least as of right now,
45:07
is going to be Shador Sanders. So really, no way, I'm just
45:16
telling you who is projected to be number one right now. Don't shoot the
45:20
messenger. I okay, so maybe it's just like different brands for different folks,
45:30
but like, I don't know, Sture's out there yelling at all like
45:37
teammates that are transferring out of the Colorado and saying like, I don't know.
45:45
I just see this all as just like a big old circus. I'm
45:49
like, I wouldn't pick them. It's just me so I but don't necessarily
45:55
disagree with you. I am just telling you the news news schmooze. Well,
46:07
I think on that note we should probably end it. So was there
46:12
anything else you wanted to talk about before we sign off for the evening?
46:15
I'm good, okay, all right, Well that'll do it for our draft
46:22
recap. The next time we'll be here, it'll be the June special.
46:25
And I don't know what we're gonna talk about in June. Maybe we'll have
46:29
to think of some big hypothetical show, but or maybe we can just talk
46:32
about maybe there'll be another trade or something that we can talk about to get
46:37
us through those slow months as we lead up to September. So for the
46:43
world famous accountant Eric vanmin showten, I'm Nick Detulio and this has been another
46:46
episode of the GameHouse dot COM's Steelers Country Weekly