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HR1: Live from Training Camp 2026 Day 14 · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

0:00
Speaker 1: This is live coverage of twenty twenty six Steelers Training
0:05
Speaker 1: Camp or the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
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Speaker 1: Easy to drink, easy to enjoy, and brought to you
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Speaker 1: in part by your neighborhood Ford Store creator, Pittsburgh Community
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Speaker 1: Food Bank, First National Bank. Let's Get Started Member FDIC
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0:46
Speaker 2: All right. We are here one o'clock on the dot
0:51
Speaker 2: and we are sitting high, perched high above the Chuckno
0:55
Speaker 2: Field here at Saint Vincent College. This melodic voice that
0:59
Speaker 2: you hear are the airwaves. As Max Stark said, we
1:01
Speaker 2: are joined by, of course, not just a great friend
1:04
Speaker 2: of the program, but our buddy also in the Steelers
1:08
Speaker 2: Audio Network ed troop filling in for Rob King. Uh
1:12
Speaker 2: It's Sunday Buco's play. So that's right. The King must
1:16
Speaker 2: reside over the flock over there on the North Shore.
1:20
Speaker 2: So we will be missing Rob today. But of course
1:24
Speaker 2: the troop in here and we will get into culinary
1:26
Speaker 2: delights as well, but we will talk about football delights
1:29
Speaker 2: first off it. And right now, still got the end
1:31
Speaker 2: of practice, still a competitive period out here for the
1:34
Speaker 2: Steelers in their second to last public practice, right and
1:40
Speaker 2: I thought, you know what we're seeing? Okay, nice catch there,
1:44
Speaker 2: middle of the field still open, which is which is
1:46
Speaker 2: really nice. And I couldn't see is that Roman or
1:49
Speaker 2: was that? Okay? That was Roman? I couldn't tell it
1:50
Speaker 2: was Roman or region from up here. But a nice
1:53
Speaker 2: job running a drill getting into the red zone. A
1:56
Speaker 2: competitive period. There's been a lot of chirping at practice today.
2:01
Speaker 2: Guys have elevated their level of play. We have one
2:04
Speaker 2: game under our belt, and so now the since the
2:08
Speaker 2: urgency starts to really kick in, right because we know
2:10
Speaker 2: now we have games, it kind of goes on a
2:12
Speaker 2: fast track end. And I think that's something that you
2:16
Speaker 2: can feel it out here as palpable. And you know,
2:18
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm excited because not only because we're towards
2:21
Speaker 2: the end of camp, but because there is live football
2:25
Speaker 2: to talk about in live football on the horizon, so
2:28
Speaker 2: kind of just we haven't got to talk about this
2:30
Speaker 2: but kind of like some oh fumble fumble Ruski and
2:34
Speaker 2: was recovered defensively in that moment, and I couldn't see
2:39
Speaker 2: who that was right here, Oh, Deshaun Elliott. Of course,
2:44
Speaker 2: a guy who did not play in the game, but
2:46
Speaker 2: of course we already know who he.
2:47
Speaker 3: Is and Deshaun Elliott. Today Max has had his most
2:50
Speaker 3: workload we've seen so far this training camp, which is
2:53
Speaker 3: good news for the Steelers. You know, he was limited
2:55
Speaker 3: early on in training camp coming back from that injury
2:57
Speaker 3: from last year. They had a plan in play to
3:00
Speaker 3: slowly ramp him up. Well, today he's getting most of
3:03
Speaker 3: the reps. He's been out there with the starting defense
3:05
Speaker 3: quite a bit, and there you seem with the fumble recovery.
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Speaker 2: I mean, once again, twenty five doing twenty five things.
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Speaker 2: That's I mean, this is a guy that you know,
3:12
Speaker 2: until he got injured last year. I mean absolutely just
3:15
Speaker 2: a human heat seeking missile. And that's what you're gonna need.
3:18
Speaker 2: And from what we saw Thursday night, Patrick Graham has
3:22
Speaker 2: that filled into the philosophy. We saw a lot of
3:25
Speaker 2: safety involvement we did in the game defensively, whether it
3:28
Speaker 2: was slot blitz from a safety position out of sub
3:31
Speaker 2: whether it was guys filling the gaps in the outside
3:34
Speaker 2: zone and guys playing up in the box, a lot
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Speaker 2: of single high So I mean very very excited when
3:40
Speaker 2: you see guys like twenty five making plays out here
3:42
Speaker 2: because you know they're gonna get drawn up on game
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Speaker 2: days and stadiums.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a three to four defense on paper, but
3:47
Speaker 3: that's really where it starts and ends. Right, it's more
3:49
Speaker 3: of that nickel look. They're gonna bring that extra defensive
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Speaker 3: back in and you know, good news for the Steelers
3:54
Speaker 3: at least what we saw on Thursday night against the Packers, Max,
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Speaker 3: is they are well positioned with this second right and
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Speaker 3: the likes of Dalen Everett. We even saw Robert Spears Jennings.
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Speaker 3: So the two rookies contributing. We know what Jalen Rams
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Speaker 3: he's going to bring to the table when you throw
4:08
Speaker 3: him into the mix with the Shawn Elliot. Jakwan Brisker,
4:11
Speaker 3: by the way, not practicing today. I'm not sure if
4:13
Speaker 3: that's just a veteran planned day off. We haven't seen
4:16
Speaker 3: Brisker not practice quite yet. Jamel Dean brings in. This
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Speaker 3: is steer secondary Max. It's one of the deepest from
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Speaker 3: a depth perspective that we've seen in a really long time.
4:26
Speaker 3: And something on the practice field just occurred.
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Speaker 2: Roberts doing a Landon Roberts things.
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Speaker 3: He did. He blow it up?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, he blew up. He blew up. It looked like
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Speaker 2: Low Nichols on that one.
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Speaker 3: He came in on a blitz earlier in this practice
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Speaker 3: today and the offensive line just didn't pick him up
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Speaker 3: and he pushed Rogers out of the pocket. But he
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Speaker 3: would have sacked him. It would have been a sack
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Speaker 3: if they would have allowed it.
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Speaker 1: Uh.
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Speaker 3: He's picking up right where he left off from two
4:51
Speaker 3: years ago.
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Speaker 2: Oh man. And it's so good to see because once again,
4:54
Speaker 2: Landon Roberts was one of those guys. I hated to
4:57
Speaker 2: see him go when he initially left and went out
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Speaker 2: to Oakland because he was one of those guys. He
5:04
Speaker 2: was a glue guy. And when we talk about the
5:06
Speaker 2: glue guys, it's being the heartbeat and the kind of
5:10
Speaker 2: that senior mentor and that voice in the locker room,
5:14
Speaker 2: but also the actions definitely meet it up. And right
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Speaker 2: now we see Landon Roberts jaw jacking with Mason McCormick.
5:22
Speaker 2: And let's just face it that was something that a
5:25
Speaker 2: couple of years ago when E Rob was here, we
5:27
Speaker 2: had a situation where he might have touched the quarterback
5:30
Speaker 2: a little bit too hard named justin fields. And then
5:32
Speaker 2: you saw the rookies really kick in and Mason McCormick,
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Speaker 2: Zach Frasier running twenty yards down the field to chase
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Speaker 2: E Rob and E Rob. That was the first day
5:39
Speaker 2: I was like, well, you know, my antics and my
5:42
Speaker 2: intensity gets to me, and that was one where I
5:44
Speaker 2: kind of second guess that thought process, so getting into it.
5:47
Speaker 2: But E Rob has been a guy that brings that emotional,
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Speaker 2: you know, side to the defensive side and gets the
5:53
Speaker 2: intensity up a couple of ticks I thought he thought
5:55
Speaker 2: he's done a great job of bringing that already in
5:58
Speaker 2: today's practice. Back in number five. Now, Jamon Davis, who
6:01
Speaker 2: had a phenomenal game in day one, was number fifty.
6:04
Speaker 2: He's now fifty seven, So let's.
6:06
Speaker 3: Do the swap switch up the numbers.
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Speaker 2: Rob is Rob. You only know him as fifty, He's
6:11
Speaker 2: gonna be fifty. So it's been fun to kind of
6:14
Speaker 2: watch that out here. And also you see after the
6:16
Speaker 2: first game you start to make those tactical changes, right
6:18
Speaker 2: and you know, for our inside backers. We have a
6:21
Speaker 2: lot of high energy, high flying speed at linebacker. But
6:26
Speaker 2: the hammer, the a gap guy, the December guy when
6:30
Speaker 2: the weather's not so great guy. The guy is gonna
6:33
Speaker 2: also take on a Derrick Henry and not turned down.
6:36
Speaker 2: We need we need that hammer. We need that hammer.
6:39
Speaker 2: And he robbed the one thing we've known throughout his
6:41
Speaker 2: whole career, more hammer than he's ever been a nail.
6:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt about that. And and like you said,
6:46
Speaker 3: the other thing he brings to Max to this football
6:49
Speaker 3: team is the attitude. Oh big hit right there in
6:51
Speaker 3: the end zone.
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Speaker 2: Rate and fun and now it's a fight. Now it's
6:54
Speaker 2: a fight. There we go. We got a fight. Yep.
6:56
Speaker 2: Oh it's a clearing fight right there. Okay, stopped. Yeah,
7:01
Speaker 2: a lot of fighting, a lot of fighting, a lot
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Speaker 2: of grabbing.
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Speaker 3: That was Robert Spears Jennings on the defensive side, who
7:07
Speaker 3: took an extra shot there at the end of that play.
7:09
Speaker 3: And the offense did not like that.
7:11
Speaker 2: They they they took they took that personal.
7:13
Speaker 3: Yes they did.
7:14
Speaker 2: And I'm not mad at for an MJ moment. Oh
7:16
Speaker 2: they're still going, they are still wrapping up. It has
7:19
Speaker 2: now moved from the porta potty in the left corner
7:22
Speaker 2: all the way to the dummies and drill drill equipment section.
7:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, several Steeler players quick to get in there to
7:29
Speaker 3: resolve that. Here you have that chippiness store in a
7:31
Speaker 3: practice and you probably walk about waiting for it.
7:34
Speaker 2: I want it. And then the other thing is this
7:36
Speaker 2: is not a hot practice. You normally happens in the
7:39
Speaker 2: hot and it's usually about a week a week or
7:42
Speaker 2: so back that you would see this. But no, it
7:46
Speaker 2: happened right at the end of here and the penultimate practice.
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Speaker 2: One more to go. But well, I like, i'd like
7:51
Speaker 2: to see that life.
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Speaker 3: And if my memory shoves me correct, Max, There's been
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Speaker 3: two skirmishes like that here at Saint Vincent, and both
7:57
Speaker 3: times it's when I was filling in for Rob. You
8:00
Speaker 3: we've done this twice now, and I think the last
8:02
Speaker 3: time was when I was with you as well. So
8:04
Speaker 3: give me something about you and I being in the
8:06
Speaker 3: booth together once again.
8:07
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's something to be said when
8:09
Speaker 2: you have two old linemen, you know, talking about this
8:13
Speaker 2: game and wanting to see the physical nature. That was
8:15
Speaker 2: by far the biggest, like the one we had before,
8:17
Speaker 2: chirpy dust up more talking than it was a movement.
8:22
Speaker 2: And this one, definitely you could feel the homes came off,
8:26
Speaker 2: the whole team engagement there. Everybody wanted to jump in
8:30
Speaker 2: just to see.
8:30
Speaker 3: Well, even Aaron Rodgers went down there. Yeah, and just
8:33
Speaker 3: to make sure everybody was breaking it up and we
8:36
Speaker 3: were okay.
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Speaker 2: Yeah he was, you know, once again, so everybody needs
8:39
Speaker 2: a referee and listen at this point, I don't want
8:41
Speaker 2: to see Aaron in the middle of that. I prefer
8:43
Speaker 2: on the periphery and if he can kind of work
8:45
Speaker 2: his way to say, hey, knock it off, I'm cool
8:49
Speaker 2: with it. But uh but yeah, that one got that one,
8:51
Speaker 2: that one almost that almost went a little bit off
8:54
Speaker 2: the hinges, which I love.
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Speaker 3: Were you ever involved in any of those during your
8:56
Speaker 3: playing days?
8:57
Speaker 2: So I'll be with you, I mean you, I'll be
8:59
Speaker 2: completely honest. Yes, yes, And we also had a club
9:06
Speaker 2: back then. We actually had a fight club. And so
9:08
Speaker 2: if you got into the fight, but you're not supposed
9:10
Speaker 2: to talk about it, right, nobody talks about fight club.
9:12
Speaker 2: But statute limitations up, I'm all got now. We actually
9:16
Speaker 2: used to pass out T shirts. Oh wow, so you
9:18
Speaker 2: earned your shirt if you engaged in a fight, and
9:21
Speaker 2: then you had to have one set fight and it
9:23
Speaker 2: has to be a tribunal of your peers that agrees
9:25
Speaker 2: who the victor is. And so I do still have
9:28
Speaker 2: my original Steelers Fight Club shirt. It was gold for
9:31
Speaker 2: the defense, black for the offense. So you earned your
9:33
Speaker 2: stripes that way, and you know, I love to see it.
9:37
Speaker 2: I'm not sitting there saying, oh my god, you gotta
9:39
Speaker 2: have this to make it resonate. But it's like if
9:45
Speaker 2: you are going to get into those moments, because emotions
9:47
Speaker 2: do run high. I mean, listen, you go. You got
9:49
Speaker 2: ninety guys full of testosterone out on a field and
9:52
Speaker 2: the only thing protecting you is space and opportunity. It's
9:54
Speaker 2: going to happen. It's going to have as hot it's miserable.
9:57
Speaker 2: You got pads on, guys, do a little thing. I
10:00
Speaker 2: mean I can look at my hand and my right
10:03
Speaker 2: middle finger is a direct result of one of those
10:06
Speaker 2: occasions because I punched my teammates with his helmet on,
10:10
Speaker 2: so it was just like and then I wrapped my
10:12
Speaker 2: finger around the other one. It was a whole thing.
10:14
Speaker 2: But I mean that's just the emotion that you're going
10:16
Speaker 2: to go through. In this game. Like, if you don't
10:18
Speaker 2: have that competitive nature in everything that you do, it's
10:21
Speaker 2: going to be it's going to be for a different environment,
10:25
Speaker 2: I think. And you had to trust, Like, listen, I
10:27
Speaker 2: want to see that guy fight. I want to see
10:30
Speaker 2: that guy involved in those moments. I mean, did you
10:32
Speaker 2: ever get in a dust out when you were on
10:34
Speaker 2: the old ball field? Don't don't act like that. Don't
10:36
Speaker 2: be Max.
10:37
Speaker 3: You know me well enough now, I'm a nice guy.
10:39
Speaker 3: I don't I don't get involved in any of that
10:41
Speaker 3: type of stuff. No, of course, I mean, you know,
10:43
Speaker 3: and I'll tell you when it happened more. For me,
10:45
Speaker 3: I was mostly an offensive tackle, but I also played
10:48
Speaker 3: nose tackle on defense because I was a bigger kid. Right,
10:51
Speaker 3: It was when I played defense. It wasn't when I
10:52
Speaker 3: ever played offense. It was when I played defense because
10:54
Speaker 3: you're trying to swarm as a defender, you're hitting, you're
10:57
Speaker 3: making more contact where offensively when you're blocking kind of
11:00
Speaker 3: going up the block. So for those for me at least,
11:03
Speaker 3: it happened more when I was on defense.
11:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I mean, and the defensive guy, listen, he
11:07
Speaker 2: grabbed my face mask. You know, I love him to death.
11:09
Speaker 2: Rodney Bailey, remember, yes, exactly. So I call this giving
11:15
Speaker 2: people the Rodney. Uh. If if it does come to that,
11:17
Speaker 2: well I have to use sign language when words escape me.
11:20
Speaker 2: But I think that's kind of what it is like.
11:24
Speaker 2: You have those like Cam. When Cam was a rookie,
11:28
Speaker 2: we fought every day and and it was like what
11:31
Speaker 2: are you doing? Like stop it? You know what I'm saying.
11:33
Speaker 2: Like he would just do certain things and he was
11:36
Speaker 2: just like the annoying little brother, and you know little
11:38
Speaker 2: brothers always got beat up. I mean he would just
11:40
Speaker 2: run in head first, and it was just like literally,
11:44
Speaker 2: I'm like, why do you have to be exactly like
11:46
Speaker 2: your dad's name, like you were, like you lead it
11:48
Speaker 2: head first. And so so we fought all the time
11:53
Speaker 2: with Cam. I mean Cam made it a point to
11:55
Speaker 2: go up and down the line. He wouldn't win that much,
11:57
Speaker 2: but he was always willing to tussle. I mean, we
12:00
Speaker 2: have Nick Easton. We used to get in fights with
12:02
Speaker 2: Nick Easton, Hokey Bro, Chris Hope. As much as you
12:04
Speaker 2: see the nice polished guy that's on TV now doing
12:07
Speaker 2: post game, he was on your game.
12:09
Speaker 3: He was on our broadcast the other day.
12:11
Speaker 2: These days, Yes, skin skinny, skinny. I mean Casey Hampton
12:13
Speaker 2: is also skinny too, which is crazy that both of
12:15
Speaker 2: my former noses are look like they're trying to audition
12:19
Speaker 2: for the I call it the husky kids section. They're
12:21
Speaker 2: not quite thin, but they're they're thinner than they were,
12:24
Speaker 2: so he's in transition. They're not wearing corduroy though, but yet.
12:29
Speaker 2: But I think that's one of the things that I
12:30
Speaker 2: look at and I'm like, you know it just it'
12:33
Speaker 2: said natural friction. It said natural friction. That happens, and
12:36
Speaker 2: you want that tenacity. But also I want to know
12:38
Speaker 2: that I could trust my brother. Right at the end
12:40
Speaker 2: of the day, I can trust my brother when it
12:42
Speaker 2: comes as most are you gonna have my back? Because
12:45
Speaker 2: I can tell you Willy Willy was that little brother
12:49
Speaker 2: that it was like, it's only a matter of time.
12:51
Speaker 2: It was a ticking time bomb. As soon as the
12:52
Speaker 2: game clock started, so did his fuse, and it was
12:55
Speaker 2: gonna it was gonna lead down to something, and so
12:58
Speaker 2: we all had to have each other's back. So just
13:00
Speaker 2: sometimes you want that accountability.
13:01
Speaker 3: Let me ask you one more question before we go
13:03
Speaker 3: to break the T shirt that you talked about, was
13:06
Speaker 3: that just an offensive lineman thing or was that an
13:08
Speaker 3: entire organization?
13:10
Speaker 2: That was the unspoken truth? Right, the team can't condone it,
13:14
Speaker 2: like coach Kyward didn't didn't like it at all. Right,
13:16
Speaker 2: we ran after practice if we had if we had
13:18
Speaker 2: a fight, like there was four half gases across the field,
13:20
Speaker 2: no questions asked if you got into a fight. These
13:23
Speaker 2: guys are still running, but it looks like they're actually, Oh,
13:25
Speaker 2: they're getting together, running running actual drills.
13:27
Speaker 3: It's interesting. It looks like practice for the most part
13:29
Speaker 3: has wrapped up here at Saint Fencing College. But on
13:31
Speaker 3: field too, what Max you just described there they're doing
13:34
Speaker 3: some walkthroughs.
13:35
Speaker 2: It looks like, yeah, they're doing walk throughs. It looks
13:36
Speaker 2: like you got the two's out there, Yeah, twos and threes.
13:39
Speaker 2: I see Jennings dunker over there at right guard. And
13:42
Speaker 2: some guys have helmets. Some guys don't have helmets for
13:45
Speaker 2: this drill. So it's a good it's a good it's
13:47
Speaker 2: a good little mix of guys out here. And so
13:51
Speaker 2: with that, I think we should probably take a break
13:52
Speaker 2: real fast. Here we are at this moment, and you
13:56
Speaker 2: were listening to day fourteen covers of the Pittsburgh Steelers Training
13:59
Speaker 2: Camp twenty twenty six from Saint Vincent College right here
14:02
Speaker 2: on the Steelers Radio, Nation Radio and the Steelers Audio Network.
14:08
Speaker 1: This is live coverage of twenty twenty six Steelers Training
14:12
Speaker 1: Camp on the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
14:17
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14:20
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Speaker 1: the Black and Gold score in twenty twenty six, Clearview
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Speaker 1: This in CLEARVIEWFCU dot org and buy iron Workers Local
14:49
Speaker 1: Union number three. We don't go to the office.
14:52
Speaker 2: We build it all right back inside the locker room
15:00
Speaker 2: here high a top chuff, no ole field. Once again,
15:03
Speaker 2: we don't move really, so we're not like a lot
15:06
Speaker 2: of other guys. We don't I don't have the off
15:08
Speaker 2: site shows. We are we are press. We are press
15:11
Speaker 2: box buddies up here and practice officially over like we
15:16
Speaker 2: talked about as we went on the outro and there's
15:19
Speaker 2: still a correction style of walk through esque type of
15:23
Speaker 2: play going on on field two. Field one's almost all
15:27
Speaker 2: but clean. We have a lot of guys doing interviews
15:30
Speaker 2: in Kanum Bitton's down there, of course, talking about the
15:33
Speaker 2: nice contract extension that he got that he just put
15:36
Speaker 2: pin to ink on paper and it was a beautiful
15:41
Speaker 2: deal for him. I'm glad to see that because he's
15:43
Speaker 2: now going to play his natural position. And I think
15:46
Speaker 2: when you talk about the progression right of what the
15:49
Speaker 2: expectation is, I'd rather catch him a year too early
15:51
Speaker 2: than a year too late. And that's a monster contract
15:55
Speaker 2: that could obviously ballooned even more if he does what
15:58
Speaker 2: we expect him to do moving forward. But we're kind
16:02
Speaker 2: of getting back to game versus practice, ed and this
16:06
Speaker 2: is what I wanted to do, you know, says. We
16:08
Speaker 2: haven't had this conversation just kind of what was your
16:11
Speaker 2: initial thoughts and feelings about what you saw Thursday night
16:16
Speaker 2: From a defensive standpoint, we kind of talked about the
16:19
Speaker 2: rookies getting in on it right. You talked about Dylan Everett,
16:22
Speaker 2: Robert Spears, Jennings getting into play. Well, is there anything
16:25
Speaker 2: else you saw that kind of stuck out for you
16:28
Speaker 2: in that game.
16:29
Speaker 3: I think the new Patrick Graham defense is going to
16:31
Speaker 3: be exciting to watch here in twenty twenty six. And
16:33
Speaker 3: you touched on it a bit of go to, you know,
16:36
Speaker 3: getting into that extra defensive back look bringing the safeties back. Max,
16:40
Speaker 3: how about this and you said it on air. I
16:42
Speaker 3: wrote it down because I was in the booth with
16:43
Speaker 3: you and Rob during the broadcast. At one point late
16:46
Speaker 3: in the fourth quarter in the second half, that defense
16:49
Speaker 3: had only given up thirty one total yards I mean
16:52
Speaker 3: for the game. They only gave up one hundred and
16:54
Speaker 3: sixty for the entire game. And the other thing too,
16:57
Speaker 3: is there were three Each team scored three times. Right, Yeah,
17:00
Speaker 3: you mentioned this as why I stole a lot of
17:02
Speaker 3: things off the U and then and then I come
17:05
Speaker 3: in to do my show here on SNR and I
17:07
Speaker 3: just speak to it like I said it, and I'm like, no, Max,
17:09
Speaker 3: I give you credit. I get but you said this,
17:12
Speaker 3: and you're right. Each team had three scores. The difference though,
17:15
Speaker 3: was Green Bay had three field goals and the Steelers
17:17
Speaker 3: had three touchdowns. Now, listen, I'm forty six years old.
17:21
Speaker 3: I've been watching football since I was six years old,
17:23
Speaker 3: so forty years of watching football, being in and around
17:26
Speaker 3: the game. I can tell you one thing. When you
17:29
Speaker 3: have that ratio at any level football, from youth, the
17:32
Speaker 3: middle school, high school, college pros, you're gonna win football games.
17:36
Speaker 3: If you hold your opponent to field goals and you
17:38
Speaker 3: respond with touchdowns, you will win games. So to answer
17:41
Speaker 3: your question, I'm very impressed with this defense one game.
17:44
Speaker 3: I know we're not overreacting just the first preseason game,
17:46
Speaker 3: but when you put all that together, it's a great
17:49
Speaker 3: start for Patrick Graham. It's a great start for that
17:51
Speaker 3: Pittsburgh Steelers defense and that front seven now with Keanu
17:54
Speaker 3: Benten's now signed. It is a young unit, especially that
17:58
Speaker 3: defensive line outside of Cam Hayward. Know he's closer to
18:00
Speaker 3: the end in the beginning, but the rest of that
18:02
Speaker 3: defensive line up front, man, I'm pumped. They're young, they're talented,
18:07
Speaker 3: and they have a ton of upside.
18:08
Speaker 2: Well, I think what it comes down to when we're
18:10
Speaker 2: talking about these preseason games and kind of how we speculated,
18:13
Speaker 2: you only get one first hello, right, and that was
18:17
Speaker 2: a very emphatic first hello for Patrick Graham and for
18:21
Speaker 2: a lot of these rookies. And new guys to the team.
18:24
Speaker 2: So if you're gonna ingratiate yourself, this is a good
18:26
Speaker 2: way to do it. And I know this is this
18:29
Speaker 2: is not gonna necessarily say, hey, because of how we
18:31
Speaker 2: played against the Green Bay Packers in preseason game number one,
18:34
Speaker 2: is gonna mean that when we play Atlanta week one,
18:37
Speaker 2: it's gonna be the same result. Doesn't mean that, but
18:41
Speaker 2: we could start to create the expectation and we could
18:47
Speaker 2: start to kind of see what the philosophy is because
18:50
Speaker 2: obviously not a lot of starters played. You know, now
18:52
Speaker 2: granted you had a lot more starters play on Green
18:55
Speaker 2: Bay side.
18:55
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, I mean, yeah, Packers offense was
18:58
Speaker 3: and Jordan Love was out there.
18:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just wasn't Josh Jacobs. Yeah right, it just
19:02
Speaker 2: wasn't Josh Jacobs. That was really the only missing piece.
19:04
Speaker 2: But Matthew Golden, Christian Watson, Jaden Reid, all those guys
19:07
Speaker 2: are either there. Tucker Craft was out there, Musgrave was
19:10
Speaker 2: out there. Your starting offensive line was out there, Jordan Love,
19:13
Speaker 2: Like you said, so, I mean when you got ten
19:15
Speaker 2: out of eleven of your starters out there on that
19:17
Speaker 2: first series, and you know, now here's the thing. I
19:20
Speaker 2: will say, terrace smack fifty eight yarder pure and then
19:25
Speaker 2: you get the opposite and the opposite direction and it's
19:27
Speaker 2: still just as good at fifty eight yards.
19:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty impressive.
19:30
Speaker 2: That's a that's a heck of a draft pick. But
19:33
Speaker 2: he and he did go to the greatest university there
19:35
Speaker 2: is in all the land, in the University of Florida.
19:36
Speaker 3: So what school is that?
19:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, university. If you aint a gator, your gator bait.
19:40
Speaker 2: I'm just saying. So, you know, I thought the defense
19:44
Speaker 2: did a great job of controlling that. Now I know
19:47
Speaker 2: Dean Lowry got that personal file and it was it
19:50
Speaker 2: was a very technical one and you got to do better.
19:52
Speaker 2: But you know, it's an effort play. Like I've always
19:55
Speaker 2: been a uh, you know, a proponent of. If it
19:58
Speaker 2: happens in between the when it's supposed to, that's just
20:02
Speaker 2: the price of doing business, right, You're just gonna have
20:04
Speaker 2: those moments. And I thought they responded because they could
20:06
Speaker 2: have collapsed. I mean, let's face it, some years in
20:09
Speaker 2: the past, it's a collapse and that turns into a touchdown.
20:11
Speaker 3: Yes, but they held more times than none, more.
20:13
Speaker 2: Times than none. But they gave him about twenty yards
20:15
Speaker 2: of offense after that, and he kep the thirty seven yarder.
20:18
Speaker 2: So there was that aspect of it that I said, Okay,
20:21
Speaker 2: that's a little bit different. Hmm. Okay, I gotta raised eyebrow.
20:26
Speaker 2: But then, like you said, the systematic way they went
20:29
Speaker 2: about everything, I think that was just something we just
20:32
Speaker 2: weren't used to seeing, especially the last couple of years
20:35
Speaker 2: here and everybody knew what to do.
20:38
Speaker 3: Right, And it's also a different approach to max from
20:41
Speaker 3: the standpoint of the last nineteen years. And the Steelers
20:44
Speaker 3: had some great defensive coordinators. Do not get me wrong,
20:47
Speaker 3: but Mike Tomlin being a defensive minded guy, he had
20:50
Speaker 3: his hands in that pot and rightfully so, and his
20:53
Speaker 3: credit there was a lot of success because right exactly.
20:56
Speaker 3: But on the flip side, now you got this is
20:58
Speaker 3: Patrick Graham's defense. R. Mike McCarthy's an offensive guy. He's
21:01
Speaker 3: the opposite of todml and so now you can you can,
21:04
Speaker 3: you know, rewrite that narrative towards an offensive side. So
21:07
Speaker 3: if they have their struggles or something happens and they're
21:09
Speaker 3: facing adversity, why Mike McCarthy's involved. But no, this is
21:12
Speaker 3: Patrick Graham's defense from A to Z and listen, I've
21:16
Speaker 3: gone on record, I'll continue to say it. I've been
21:18
Speaker 3: nothing but impressed by Patrick Graham. In fact, I'll go
21:21
Speaker 3: ahead and say it. I think he could be a
21:23
Speaker 3: head coach in the making at some point if he
21:25
Speaker 3: continues to go down this path. I like what he
21:27
Speaker 3: did with despite the Raiders struggles that they had on
21:29
Speaker 3: defense last year and their team overall, I did a
21:32
Speaker 3: nice job. I was excited when they brought Patrick grahaman here,
21:35
Speaker 3: and I'm excited what I've seen on the practice fields
21:37
Speaker 3: here at Saint Vincent so far with that unit. And
21:39
Speaker 3: I was excited what I saw last Thursday.
21:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, talent gap was the issue with Oakland. Was not
21:44
Speaker 2: a philosophy, yeah right, It wasn't a system type of failure.
21:48
Speaker 2: And so he's brought that idea here and he has
21:52
Speaker 2: the talent. There is no gap in the talent that
21:54
Speaker 2: they have established here, and he's able to do a
21:57
Speaker 2: lot more fun things. And I think that's really what
21:59
Speaker 2: it comes down to it. You know, he is almost
22:01
Speaker 2: like a pick them, like, how do we want to
22:03
Speaker 2: run this team? Like we know there's a certain element
22:06
Speaker 2: of four to two, but is it a true four
22:08
Speaker 2: to two as we know it in a nickel format
22:10
Speaker 2: or is it a four to one with a bit
22:12
Speaker 2: with a bit bigger nickel guy coming down there and
22:14
Speaker 2: kind of being a pseudo box slot guy that you
22:17
Speaker 2: can play with, you move some dime situations. He's got
22:21
Speaker 2: a lot of different things as supposed to because of
22:22
Speaker 2: the body types that he has. I mean, we just
22:25
Speaker 2: you know, Rob and I talked about yesterday, like there's
22:26
Speaker 2: five and a rookie at dB that I feel comfortable
22:31
Speaker 2: about and especially after watching that first game about what
22:35
Speaker 2: they're going to be able to do.
22:36
Speaker 3: And Asanti Samuel Junior has been nothing short than fantastic
22:40
Speaker 3: up here at training camp. We've seen the rookie Dalon Everett,
22:43
Speaker 3: who I think is a starter in the making. Hopefully
22:46
Speaker 3: he'll Yeah, it's early. I know he's only a rookie,
22:48
Speaker 3: but if he continues to go down that path that
22:50
Speaker 3: we've seen so far up here at camp, you had
22:53
Speaker 3: a Brandon Echols into that group. We know a Jalen
22:56
Speaker 3: Ramsey can do. This is the deepest we've seen this
22:58
Speaker 3: Steeler secondary in a law time. Max. It's a good
23:01
Speaker 3: problem to have when you think to yourself in past seasons. Okay,
23:04
Speaker 3: Joey Porter Junior is on the pup list. We know
23:06
Speaker 3: his contract situation too is still lingering out there. But
23:10
Speaker 3: right away I think, oh boy, our starting corner are
23:13
Speaker 3: all potential, all pro corner is out. What are we
23:16
Speaker 3: going to do to replace them? Well, now I feel
23:18
Speaker 3: I don't know about you, but I feel good with
23:19
Speaker 3: what we have behind Joey Porter Junior. I still want
23:21
Speaker 3: JPJ in there. But on the flip side, I feel
23:24
Speaker 3: more comfortable now that I think they can, you know,
23:26
Speaker 3: ride that wave if they have to.
23:28
Speaker 2: I think that that's what every defensive coordinator wants, right
23:30
Speaker 2: you know, It's like, listen, I know I need two
23:32
Speaker 2: starting corners, but in today's NFL, as we saw in
23:35
Speaker 2: Green Bay, I've got to have three starter capable corners
23:39
Speaker 2: because we're going to see Nickel and then when injury
23:42
Speaker 2: does happen, I need it. I need two apps. So
23:43
Speaker 2: you need four to five corners in this league without
23:47
Speaker 2: a significant drop off, And I think that's something the
23:50
Speaker 2: Steelers have always had frontline. It's always been about the
23:53
Speaker 2: depth behind it, and not a lot of teams can
23:55
Speaker 2: say that they have the depth of defensive back talent
24:00
Speaker 2: as what the Steelers have right now, like they have
24:02
Speaker 2: a spoil of riches right now. Now once again, that
24:05
Speaker 2: could all go away, because we've seen this last couple
24:07
Speaker 2: of years. You know, it starts out great and then
24:10
Speaker 2: like a Jets game, happens right and you start losing
24:14
Speaker 2: guys injuries, and then you get in middle of the season.
24:16
Speaker 2: I remember, you know, was it two or three years ago?
24:19
Speaker 2: You know, Miles Killerbrew was literally your only healthy guy
24:23
Speaker 2: on the roster. Everybody else was brand new and brought
24:26
Speaker 2: in to play until guys got healthy. So you can
24:31
Speaker 2: go through a rash of injuries at a position group
24:33
Speaker 2: and you know, knock on wood, it's not the dB
24:36
Speaker 2: group because they've done it for the last couple of years.
24:38
Speaker 2: They've been through it and had to weather that storm.
24:40
Speaker 2: But you feel better about it now, like it's like, Okay,
24:43
Speaker 2: well this happens, I don't feel so bad. We don't
24:46
Speaker 2: have to go straight to an open tryout. You know
24:48
Speaker 2: on Pitt's campus, you know, it felt like that. So
24:53
Speaker 2: so I think that's something that you look at and
24:56
Speaker 2: across the board. I mean we look at all these
24:57
Speaker 2: groups because I mean look at just the D line,
25:00
Speaker 2: Like did I expect Gabe Rubio to be who he was, no, and.
25:05
Speaker 3: That you bring up a great point on Gabriel Rubio. Today.
25:08
Speaker 3: He had a good practice, he had a good preseason
25:11
Speaker 3: game last week. And I tell you what, Max, he
25:13
Speaker 3: continues to turn heads. Today he went one on one
25:16
Speaker 3: on a rep with Jalen Warren. They butted heads, and
25:20
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not taking anything from Jalen Warren because
25:22
Speaker 3: again it's it's a you know, make contact release type situation.
25:25
Speaker 3: They don't want to be dragged to the ground. Gabriel
25:27
Speaker 3: Rubio held his own in that situation. Today, ninety six
25:31
Speaker 3: is starting. You're starting to see ninety six more and
25:33
Speaker 3: more out there. And who would have saw that come
25:35
Speaker 3: in a late round draft pick from Notre Dame. He's
25:38
Speaker 3: making He's gonna make it hard for them not to
25:40
Speaker 3: have him on this roster.
25:42
Speaker 2: A six round draft pick that's a passion pick by
25:44
Speaker 2: your scouts. Yeah, and you know, come from prestigious university,
25:48
Speaker 2: but nobody really. I mean, he had a handful of
25:51
Speaker 2: games last year that he played in, so there wasn't
25:54
Speaker 2: really relative consistent tape. You'd have to go two years
25:58
Speaker 2: back to find the consistent tape. And uh, you know,
26:01
Speaker 2: you got. You got to give all the kudos to
26:02
Speaker 2: the scouting staff and the steelers and you know throw
26:05
Speaker 2: one in particular, the head guy of that region, Jim Ward,
26:08
Speaker 2: was a guy that that that had this pick pegged.
26:11
Speaker 2: He went and found it and you know, presented his case.
26:14
Speaker 2: And that's how a lot of guys end up in
26:16
Speaker 2: those later rounds. So you know, right now is where
26:19
Speaker 2: and you can see the confidence building. Yes, I think
26:21
Speaker 2: that's the biggest thing. You know, you're solid. You just
26:23
Speaker 2: want to play hard because you want to get attention.
26:26
Speaker 2: It's like it's like when you get the new toddler
26:29
Speaker 2: in the pre k room and everybody else's been there
26:31
Speaker 2: for a couple of days, a couple of weeks, and
26:33
Speaker 2: then that new toddler gets inserted into daycare and he's crying,
26:37
Speaker 2: drawing all the attention. That's what you do early on
26:40
Speaker 2: in camp as a young guy. You're fighting for your
26:42
Speaker 2: relevance and figure out where the pecking order is. But
26:45
Speaker 2: then when you have you put it on tape. Now
26:49
Speaker 2: that kind of you know, untempered type of frenzy becomes
26:54
Speaker 2: a controlled confidence booster, like I'm doing this because I
26:57
Speaker 2: know what I got to do and it becomes confidence
27:00
Speaker 2: after that, I think game has been building on that.
27:02
Speaker 3: Six five three twenty one. He's hard to miss.
27:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, he has a very large toddler.
27:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's very large tyler. But you know I saw
27:11
Speaker 3: today in practice and it's what you've seen. And you
27:13
Speaker 3: know the last few weeks up here at Saint Vincent
27:15
Speaker 3: too with Gabriel Rubio, and we saw it against the
27:19
Speaker 3: Green Bay Packers Thursday night. So you know, again another
27:23
Speaker 3: good problem to have. We talked about how young and
27:25
Speaker 3: talented that defensive line is again outside of Cam Heyward,
27:28
Speaker 3: very talented, but you know, we again we know he's
27:30
Speaker 3: talking on the talking about the US side of things. Yeah,
27:32
Speaker 3: so now you throw him in.
27:33
Speaker 2: There, Gabriel Ruby. Listen, Cam has more gray hairs than
27:36
Speaker 2: I do. And I am very confident in saying that
27:39
Speaker 2: because I saw it.
27:41
Speaker 3: I know Cam, Yeah, I could confirmed everyone listening out there,
27:45
Speaker 3: you know exactly a little bit here on the beard man, Yeah,
27:47
Speaker 3: the beard.
27:48
Speaker 2: The must sing to see a little bit more in
27:49
Speaker 2: the hair up to but it's like it's more speckled.
27:52
Speaker 2: But I mean, you know, Cam is definitely way more obvious.
27:55
Speaker 2: So I just you know, like to say, you know, uh,
27:57
Speaker 2: different era, you know, just put that out a fine wine. No,
28:01
Speaker 2: but but I think you have to say, man, what
28:05
Speaker 2: was the issue a year ago we were worried about.
28:09
Speaker 2: This was the highest paid defensive line in the league.
28:11
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah blah blah. But it was also the
28:13
Speaker 2: oldest d line in the league. They got young in
28:16
Speaker 2: a hurry, they did, and they have the youthful participation
28:23
Speaker 2: of a Ya Black of a Derek Harmon, right, and
28:27
Speaker 2: then now you throw in a gay Rubio into that mix.
28:29
Speaker 2: It says he o to maywoe or otomo woe. You
28:33
Speaker 2: throw in what you know. Sebastian Joseph Day is an
28:36
Speaker 2: older but he's that middle range older guy, good depth pieces,
28:39
Speaker 2: a good death piece. Keanu Benten is young. You lock
28:43
Speaker 2: up a young guy and so you know you'll have
28:45
Speaker 2: him till he's thirty now. So doing those type of
28:48
Speaker 2: things and the investment in the draft and the investment
28:51
Speaker 2: in smart free agency allows you to get younger quicker.
28:55
Speaker 2: And I felt like they did it. You know, they
28:58
Speaker 2: turned this roster a lot over the last time years.
29:00
Speaker 2: But this is the best churning process yet. I feel
29:03
Speaker 2: like you've churned the butter enough that you now have, buttermilk.
29:05
Speaker 3: Oh, no doubt. I mean these omar Con drafts he's
29:08
Speaker 3: had the last few years, including that twenty twenty three class.
29:11
Speaker 3: Now with Nick Herbig, Keanu Benton, and Darnell Washington. You know,
29:15
Speaker 3: Joey Porter Junior hopefully next in that group to get
29:18
Speaker 3: a new contract. We shall see. But hey, you know, Max,
29:22
Speaker 3: I don't have to sell this to you being an
29:24
Speaker 3: ex offensive lineman. But the game of football, it's the
29:28
Speaker 3: old adage, it's one in the trenches, defensive line or
29:31
Speaker 3: offensive line. Who's winning the battle up front, who's winning
29:33
Speaker 3: at the line of scrimmage. Well, now the Steelers have
29:35
Speaker 3: positioned themselves on both sides of the ball, on offense
29:38
Speaker 3: and defense that not only are they good and upcoming,
29:41
Speaker 3: they're young and there's a lot of upside and a
29:44
Speaker 3: lot of good things yet to come.
29:45
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, it's definitely a group that is that is
29:48
Speaker 2: bolstered by a lot of draft picks. Yeah, it is.
29:51
Speaker 2: It is. They've invested in it, home grown a lot
29:54
Speaker 2: of these guys. Now you've brought in a guy here
29:55
Speaker 2: and there right, the Sebastian Joseph days, the brock Coffins
29:58
Speaker 2: of the world come in and fill out your roster,
30:01
Speaker 2: but it's not the meat of your roster, especially on
30:04
Speaker 2: both sides of the ball. And I talk about this
30:06
Speaker 2: all the time. The offensive line is the drum beat, cadence,
30:11
Speaker 2: and heartbeat of your team. They control the pace, right
30:16
Speaker 2: we talk about very few stats are offensive line stats,
30:19
Speaker 2: and time of possession is one of those that we
30:22
Speaker 2: can own as offensive linemen exclusively. That means we have
30:26
Speaker 2: enforced our will on you more than you've imposed your
30:29
Speaker 2: will upon us. In a very standard sense. Who stays
30:33
Speaker 2: on the field longer, you know, And I think that's
30:37
Speaker 2: where you have to be. And for a defensive line,
30:41
Speaker 2: that number affects you too, because it's how fast you
30:43
Speaker 2: get off the field that you're not allowing teams to
30:45
Speaker 2: sustain those drives. So those are true like lineman metrics
30:50
Speaker 2: when you're talking about it. Who can grind it out
30:53
Speaker 2: and who can grind the other team to a halt.
30:56
Speaker 2: That's how it is, and that's how it's always been won.
30:58
Speaker 2: By the end of the day, it's who can stay
31:00
Speaker 2: on the field and who can get off the field quicker.
31:03
Speaker 2: And that's all based on your trenches.
31:05
Speaker 3: That's interesting you say that I've never looked at the
31:07
Speaker 3: time of possession and that lens before. But that's smart,
31:10
Speaker 3: and that makes a lot of sense too, because it
31:12
Speaker 3: is a reflection to what's happening up front, whether the
31:14
Speaker 3: offense or defense. Who's winning that battle between those two groups.
31:18
Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, all right, we're gonna step aside. Here one
31:21
Speaker 2: more time. Reminds you you are listening to the Steelers
31:25
Speaker 2: Training Camp twenty twenty six, and it's right here on
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32:17
Speaker 2: All right, back inside the locker room here, and you
32:21
Speaker 2: know we're not We're not going full batty yet, but
32:23
Speaker 2: we are, we're a little we're getting close to it.
32:27
Speaker 2: Talked about this was day fourteen at Training Camp of practices,
32:32
Speaker 2: only one more left here in La Trove at Saint
32:36
Speaker 2: Vincent College. They have just been such an absolute amazing
32:42
Speaker 2: hosts Father Paul and company and practice tomorrow. Of course,
32:46
Speaker 2: last one will be at eleven am. That's to our
32:49
Speaker 2: full practice, full padded practice. Key thing to mention because
32:52
Speaker 2: Saturday was not a padded practice and was not a
32:56
Speaker 2: full practice. It was a one hour kind of correction
33:00
Speaker 2: game type of situation. But tomorrow it will be one
33:04
Speaker 2: last time to catch this group in full pads and
33:07
Speaker 2: don the practice jerseys in public for your viewing access,
33:13
Speaker 2: so people get to come out. The weather hell today
33:16
Speaker 2: which I was really really very down on. Definitely would
33:20
Speaker 2: have taken the under on this one too, because it's
33:23
Speaker 2: still gray and black, and I think around three o'clock
33:25
Speaker 2: is supposed to have some showers and it kind of
33:27
Speaker 2: steadily increased throughout the night, but held off for practice
33:30
Speaker 2: today and Mike McCarthy and the press conference talking about
33:34
Speaker 2: his desire to get out and kind of finish the
33:36
Speaker 2: training Camp chapter with full padded competitive team practice Today
33:42
Speaker 2: was the last install. This was install number eight, as
33:46
Speaker 2: he called it, as he kind of had his checklist
33:48
Speaker 2: of install opportunities. He said, maybe next year we'll break
33:52
Speaker 2: it down to seven so that he can have them
33:54
Speaker 2: all in before the first preseason game. But you know,
33:57
Speaker 2: once again, this has just been a fun invite vironment.
34:00
Speaker 2: It's a different environment because you have the earlier practice times.
34:03
Speaker 2: I mean, you have the built in third day, review
34:06
Speaker 2: day type of aspect. But I felt like everything looked efficient.
34:11
Speaker 2: Everything kind of made sense. Now as we progress through
34:13
Speaker 2: these preseason games and we get to the end of
34:16
Speaker 2: the season and take stock on a look back, we'll
34:18
Speaker 2: talk about what work, what didn't work. But right now,
34:22
Speaker 2: everything from the outside seems to be working and looking good.
34:25
Speaker 2: And you know, knock on Wood relatively healthy in this camp, and.
34:31
Speaker 3: I think that's a good point. Max. We were talking
34:32
Speaker 3: about that on our midday show before you came in
34:35
Speaker 3: here to the press box about before this camp started,
34:38
Speaker 3: a lot of the narrative and talk was in and
34:40
Speaker 3: around Mike McCarthy saying, look, we're not gonna we're not
34:43
Speaker 3: gonna be hitting right, We're not gonna have this physical
34:45
Speaker 3: camp that a lot of NFL teams were going away
34:49
Speaker 3: from Mike Tomlin and the Steelers for a number of years.
34:51
Speaker 3: We're one of the last to still come out here
34:53
Speaker 3: and do the back on backers and have that physical camp.
34:55
Speaker 2: Well.
34:56
Speaker 3: I don't know about you, but from what I saw
34:57
Speaker 3: in preseason game number one Thursday night, his formula is
35:01
Speaker 3: working and it's working well because they were still hitting
35:03
Speaker 3: on Thursday night. They were still playing physical football. And oh,
35:06
Speaker 3: by the way, when we've seen the full padded practice
35:09
Speaker 3: practices up here at Saint Vincent College, it's been physical.
35:12
Speaker 3: I mean there's been times where you know, the players
35:14
Speaker 3: have made contact. We saw an altercationarity end where things
35:18
Speaker 3: got hot because a guy took an extra shot at
35:20
Speaker 3: the end of a at the end of a play.
35:23
Speaker 3: So my whole point is what is also played out
35:26
Speaker 3: in this type of philosophy or game plan practice plan
35:31
Speaker 3: for Mike McCarthy is what you just said, Max. The
35:33
Speaker 3: injury part of this, and again we'll all knock on
35:35
Speaker 3: wood as we say that they've avoided that for the
35:38
Speaker 3: most part. I mean, I can't think of you know,
35:40
Speaker 3: Brandon Echles went down with an ankle door in a
35:42
Speaker 3: practice session. Maxiona Chor had a had an injury during
35:46
Speaker 3: a practice. But outside of that, I don't remember there
35:49
Speaker 3: really being anything else other than the old phrase of
35:51
Speaker 3: Mike Tomlin used to always use bumps and bruises associated
35:54
Speaker 3: with play.
35:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and that's kind of par for the course. Yeah,
35:58
Speaker 2: you know, you want to see more part of you
35:59
Speaker 2: want to see both. Yeah, I think that's good point,
36:01
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, in any aspect of life, sport or anything.
36:06
Speaker 2: And we've had a couple of bogies, but I felt
36:08
Speaker 2: like they've responded in kind. And the overall overarching theme
36:11
Speaker 2: is there's been a relatively healthy camp and you hope
36:15
Speaker 2: that that pays dividends in December and January was the
36:19
Speaker 2: things that you do now to lay the foundation and
36:21
Speaker 2: take care of the body in August will yield those
36:24
Speaker 2: dividends for the start of a new year, and hopefully
36:26
Speaker 2: that leads to a new opportunity because playoffs is the
36:29
Speaker 2: new year, so you hope that transpires. But well, we'll
36:32
Speaker 2: see how that goes. But I liked what it's done.
36:35
Speaker 2: I liked the new approaches right of the efficiency on
36:38
Speaker 2: the field of what we do see in practice. I
36:41
Speaker 2: think has also been uh, you know, frenzied. It looks
36:45
Speaker 2: a little bit like you're like you're staring at like
36:46
Speaker 2: you're standing at the old ant farm, right, because there's
36:50
Speaker 2: a lot of things going everywhere and you're trying to
36:51
Speaker 2: figure out, Okay, where's this new tunnel going and trying
36:54
Speaker 2: to track your ants. That's what it feels like on
36:56
Speaker 2: here because it's a lot of movement, a lot of schools,
36:59
Speaker 2: and it's different because you don't get to see everything
37:02
Speaker 2: at once like it used to be. But guys are
37:05
Speaker 2: getting a ton of reps, and that's the at the
37:07
Speaker 2: end of the day. To get guys up to game speed,
37:10
Speaker 2: you must have reps to fall back upon, to coach upon,
37:15
Speaker 2: to watch, to learn, to retool. And Mike McCarthy's given
37:20
Speaker 2: every guy I'm talking, even down to the third stringers.
37:22
Speaker 2: I would arguably say the third string has been the
37:25
Speaker 2: biggest beneficiary of this type of environment because those reps
37:30
Speaker 2: that they didn't used to get, they're now getting. And
37:33
Speaker 2: you're seeing almost you know, not quite one to one
37:36
Speaker 2: with your starters, but you're equal with the second team,
37:40
Speaker 2: if not, if not a little bit more because he's
37:43
Speaker 2: running two fields at the same time, he's going through
37:46
Speaker 2: all of these different individual periods that lead into team
37:48
Speaker 2: periods and then you can split off and do and
37:51
Speaker 2: get the work. There's just a lot more reps being
37:54
Speaker 2: created out here.
37:56
Speaker 3: I love it, and I'll give you a much smaller
37:58
Speaker 3: scale version of that. I was the head coach of
38:00
Speaker 3: my sons, Brendan's youth football team the last four years.
38:04
Speaker 3: Now you're talking third grade through sixth grade. But I
38:08
Speaker 3: never wanted my players standing around.
38:10
Speaker 2: Now.
38:11
Speaker 3: The reason for that is at that age, right, it's
38:14
Speaker 3: you're gonna lose that attentionis man, right. So I was
38:16
Speaker 3: always doing our practices, and we had two hour practices,
38:18
Speaker 3: four days a week. Was I didn't want anybody staying around.
38:21
Speaker 3: So if you're not running, if you're not running the
38:24
Speaker 3: drill with us, then you're off on the side doing
38:26
Speaker 3: something else. Now fast forward all the way up to
38:29
Speaker 3: the professional NFL level. What we've seen here with Mike
38:31
Speaker 3: McCarthy is what you just said, Max, is he doesn't
38:34
Speaker 3: want that with his players either. He wants to get
38:36
Speaker 3: the most out of these practices. The most reps so
38:38
Speaker 3: filled one and two pretty much being used at all times.
38:41
Speaker 2: I love it.
38:42
Speaker 3: I loved it from day one, and I love it
38:44
Speaker 3: here on day number fourteen.
38:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, because in the preseason, who's going to be playing
38:47
Speaker 2: a majority of this It's not your.
38:48
Speaker 3: Starters, that's your backups.
38:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's your backups, and fast fight for going to
38:53
Speaker 2: be a backup.
38:54
Speaker 4: So I need to equip the guys that are going
38:56
Speaker 4: to be spending the most FaceTime in these preseason games
39:00
Speaker 4: with the best opportunity while still keeping my first team fresh,
39:04
Speaker 4: while still keeping them active. Because if I'm focusing on
39:07
Speaker 4: second and third string, right, my starters are are the
39:09
Speaker 4: ones sitting around drinking the gatorade, hanging out, not doing much.
39:13
Speaker 4: So it's like, no, everybody's going The cycle is going
39:16
Speaker 4: to be almost like like the rings of the Olympics, right,
39:20
Speaker 4: They're all all turning, and they're all turning at the
39:22
Speaker 4: same time.
39:23
Speaker 3: Now from a media perspective from us up here, and
39:25
Speaker 3: I'm sure fans too, as the ant thing that perfect
39:28
Speaker 3: because I don't know about you. But when we're and
39:31
Speaker 3: we're on door in the actual practice, we have Chris
39:34
Speaker 3: and Damski over here. He's watching something here, Brian Baco
39:36
Speaker 3: is watching something over there. I'm right here. There's a
39:38
Speaker 3: lot of moving parts of your trying. Your head's kind
39:40
Speaker 3: of spinning a bit, but as you said, they're getting
39:43
Speaker 3: the most out of this practice with these guys. Speaking
39:45
Speaker 3: of Brian Backoh, he walks right into the room right
39:47
Speaker 3: on cue.
39:47
Speaker 2: I just said your name exactly. He popped in like
39:49
Speaker 2: a genie, you know, and did you bring wishes?
39:54
Speaker 3: I don't know if, but that's the first time he's
39:55
Speaker 3: ever been referred to as a genie. But I like it.
39:57
Speaker 3: I might have to steal it when we're in season.
40:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, that's that's it. But I think that's but
40:04
Speaker 2: that's the beauty of it, right, And if you come
40:07
Speaker 2: here with the group, everybody's gonna get a different experience, yep.
40:10
Speaker 2: And everybody gets to see something that they want to
40:13
Speaker 2: see because it's all going on simultaneously. You know, you
40:16
Speaker 2: get to pick and choose. I mean, it's like a
40:17
Speaker 2: choose your own adventure book right when we had his kids, right,
40:19
Speaker 2: you know, it's like, okay, if I've been picked to
40:21
Speaker 2: this page, Okay, skip to page forty three and start
40:23
Speaker 2: your adventure here forgot about it? Yeah? My girls love it.
40:26
Speaker 2: We take it on. We take it on our trips.
40:28
Speaker 2: We put it in the backpacks and whether we're in
40:30
Speaker 2: the in the car or in the sky because we
40:32
Speaker 2: do a lot of travel volleyball. I want them, you know,
40:34
Speaker 2: you want them to be engaged and do something productive
40:36
Speaker 2: and not just sit on their phone. So uh, it's
40:39
Speaker 2: still something that me and my wife loved because we
40:41
Speaker 2: had lots of car rides as a kid. So it
40:43
Speaker 2: just has to go on from there. Good see you,
40:45
Speaker 2: Brian and Brian Becko now is disappearing back into the list.
40:48
Speaker 2: The proverbial lamp, which is the door up here. But uh,
40:52
Speaker 2: but yeah, no, it's just it's it's a great opportunity.
40:55
Speaker 2: So I think we are almost Oh no, we sud
40:58
Speaker 2: that a little bit of time. Good good, Ah, I
41:01
Speaker 2: forgot this ed and this is this is where Dad
41:04
Speaker 2: of the Year is just talking about my girls. Yes,
41:06
Speaker 2: just popped in my head. Happy birthday to my youngest child,
41:11
Speaker 2: Quincy at least Starks. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta
41:13
Speaker 2: give my daughter a happy birthday, Quince, say vibes to her.
41:17
Speaker 2: She's at breakfast right now with uh with grandma.
41:19
Speaker 3: But the time, she's not sleeping in all day.
41:24
Speaker 2: No, No, she's not sleeping in all day. She's actually
41:26
Speaker 2: had school all week. But it is a Sunday, so
41:28
Speaker 2: technically it'll be okay, but but no, how old She's twelve.
41:33
Speaker 2: She's twelve, so I have a full blown tween. Yeah,
41:35
Speaker 2: full blown tween. And uh and I spent like two
41:37
Speaker 2: hours on the phone with him last night. We were facetiming,
41:40
Speaker 2: but with both of them, and they were getting ready
41:41
Speaker 2: for their cousin's birthday party and and then hers was
41:44
Speaker 2: the next day. So it was like, so everybody was
41:46
Speaker 2: like texting. It was cool.
41:47
Speaker 3: Is Quince Is she volleyball player as well?
41:49
Speaker 2: Quincy's volleys lley volley and softball?
41:52
Speaker 3: Okay, softball too.
41:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a picture of softball. She just had her
41:55
Speaker 2: ev ows yesterday.
41:57
Speaker 3: So she's the new travel season coming up.
41:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, with the season coming up for fall ball and
42:02
Speaker 2: and yeah, so she was out there and she's gonna
42:04
Speaker 2: be I think she's gonna be on a new team
42:05
Speaker 2: this year. I think this will be the first time.
42:07
Speaker 2: So that's why they wanted to evalid, you know, they
42:09
Speaker 2: try and keep everything competitively balanced in the league. So
42:12
Speaker 2: she was like, Dad, I need to work on my
42:14
Speaker 2: my change up. I'm like, okay, I mean, first of all, uh,
42:18
Speaker 2: you you have an actual the tic tac toe like
42:22
Speaker 2: for pitching. You have the pitching tic tac toe and
42:25
Speaker 2: you have a net that you can put behind it,
42:26
Speaker 2: so you could tell work on this. Get home. She's like, no,
42:30
Speaker 2: I need you here. We got to work on the chair.
42:32
Speaker 2: I was like, all right, okay, well I'll be home
42:33
Speaker 2: next weekend, so we'll start that process. But yeah, it's
42:36
Speaker 2: my girl's birthday today.
42:37
Speaker 3: I don't know much about softball, having not played it,
42:41
Speaker 3: right yeah on our side, but I have covered it
42:43
Speaker 3: over the years with w P I L and I
42:46
Speaker 3: do know one thing. It all starts and ends with pitching.
42:49
Speaker 3: So it does you know, if you're gonna get a
42:50
Speaker 3: good picture and your catcher, that's it. That combination.
42:53
Speaker 2: We got to have that combination because listen, you can
42:56
Speaker 2: negate really good pitching with bad catching, like if they
42:59
Speaker 2: if they can't, if they can ant spread and cover
43:01
Speaker 2: that ball, if sometimes it gets a little low or
43:03
Speaker 2: it gets a high and away. I mean the steels
43:05
Speaker 2: are just constant. Yeah you know, I mean run on
43:07
Speaker 2: you every time. Yeah, they'll run on you every time.
43:09
Speaker 2: So you got to have a good combination there and
43:11
Speaker 2: so ques working on that that that she I mean,
43:14
Speaker 2: she she loves it, so you know, that's her fall sport,
43:16
Speaker 2: and then spring that's when we kind of diverge and
43:19
Speaker 2: go back to VOLLI. She'll still play volleyball at her
43:22
Speaker 2: school because the rules are a little different. But yeah,
43:25
Speaker 2: I mean my girls, they're active in sports. I love it,
43:28
Speaker 2: and you know, it's it's just cool. You know, these
43:30
Speaker 2: are one of those days where like, man, she's twelve,
43:32
Speaker 2: already hit you, Man, that hits you quick.
43:36
Speaker 3: The Brendan who I reference to, I've his head coach.
43:39
Speaker 3: So he's twelve, yeah, yeah, a little older. He turned
43:43
Speaker 3: he turned twelve in January. So I'm still going to
43:45
Speaker 3: seventh grade. Seventh grade. Yeah, so that's why I'm not
43:48
Speaker 3: coaching him.
43:48
Speaker 2: Now.
43:49
Speaker 3: He's going to middle school, so he'll play. He'll play
43:51
Speaker 3: middle school. And so my days are over. I'm here
43:53
Speaker 3: with you, Max. What I'm happy about. I did my time.
43:55
Speaker 2: Hey, it's good to have a graduation, exactly right. I mean,
43:58
Speaker 2: I think that's the biggest thing. I'd rather be your
44:00
Speaker 2: with you any else. Yeah, no, I appreciate it, and
44:02
Speaker 2: we are Oh yeah, we still got a minute, Still
44:04
Speaker 2: got a minute.
44:05
Speaker 3: We will save us on track. You know, what, do
44:07
Speaker 3: you want to talk to some offensive linemen? I answer
44:09
Speaker 3: your thing, and that there's some battles going on.
44:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are some good battles. I think that definitely
44:14
Speaker 2: I will pull the soap box out, So we might
44:17
Speaker 2: have to save that for this next segment. Let's do it,
44:19
Speaker 2: because I don't I don't want to sell us either short,
44:22
Speaker 2: you know, with with with our passion and UH and
44:25
Speaker 2: expertise in this area. So we'll do We'll close out
44:29
Speaker 2: our number one here inside the Locker Room at Saint
44:32
Speaker 2: Vincent Cotllege. You're listening to Inside the Locker Room and
44:36
Speaker 2: the Pittsburgh Steelers Training Camp Edition twenty twenty six right
44:41
Speaker 2: here on Steelers Nation Radio and the Steelers Audio Network