Drive10.14.26DeFabo: Mike DeFabo on Tampa Trip

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Steelers Nation Radio. Good evening, Steeler Nation. How we doing? Well, that's good. Us too.

It is our number two of the drive here on Steelers Nation Radio, the Steelers Audio Network. And to the phone lines, we go to get all of the latest moving and shaking from the south side with, of course, our buddy Mike DeFabo covers the Pittsburgh Steelers for the athletic.

Mike, thanks for taking the time as always. We just saw.

Earlier today, Jalen Warren named AFC Offensive Player of the Week. He's had an incredible start to the season. Maybe his finest game as a Pittsburgh Steeler this past Sunday against the Colts. I believe it was Aaron Rodgers who said, we go as he goes. And boy, hasn't that been the truth? And I hope that's the case moving forward.

Yeah, what more can you say about Jalen Warren? I mean, it seems like everything you ask something of Jalen Warren, he exceeds your expectations. You know, whether we're talking about his career as a whole, came into this league as an undrafted free agent, wasn't even supposed to make the team, curves out a niche for himself, you know, or we're talking about within individual plays themselves, where it looks like they've blocked for four, he turns it into six. They throw the ball in the flat one yard behind the line of scrimmage. He turns it into an 80-yard touchdown.

I think he's been overlooked because you look at him. He's 5'8, undrafted, probably doesn't light up the testing numbers at the combine or anything like that, but he runs with great toughness. He's a good teammate, and he really has incredible versatility when you can use him as a blocker, one of the best blocking backs in the league on passing situations, and then it seems like you can get him the ball in a variety of ways.

Yeah, well said, and I really do hope they look at him as the foundation of the offense and go from there, make him the starting point. What injuries are we keeping an eye on this week? What are the questionable guys, in your opinion? Who's on the fence?

You know, of course, he has already rolled out two of those receivers, you know, Roman Wilson, Ben Skoranek. So we can get into that, I'm sure, later on. You know, the guy that I think is interesting to me is Jamel Dean. He's kind of been dealing with the same ankle injury for a little while. This is his former team.

I'm sure he's incentivized and motivated to get back out there. I'm a little bit more optimistic about his potential status than I was coming into the week, and that's something maybe to monitor later. You know, Deshaun Elliott, you know, when I talked with some people about a week ago, it sounded like there would be a bit of an on-ramp for him and maybe Paris game is more of a realistic expectation. But I wouldn't completely rule out him coming back this week.

How about Rico?

Rico, I think, is going to be back.

I thought so.

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I think that they can find the right– Because as much as you mentioned, they need to build the offense around Jalen Warren. You do need to spell that running back at least a little bit if you're going to keep him healthy and keep him productive late in the season. So I think it's about finding that right balance. I think they'll strike that balance.

I don't get the impression they trust anyone else on the roster to get carries.

I'm surprised with that, to be honest with you. Because I really liked what we've seen from Lou Nichols in consecutive pre-seasons. I thought that he could be interesting. I thought maybe they would get creative and maybe it could be an Eli Heidenreich opportunity, but actually it was kind of jaw-dropping or I guess eye-opening maybe is the right word, that he was inactive in a couple of these games without Rico Dowdle. So, you know, I think it's going to be a one-two punch, but that right hand from Jalen Warren is going to be hitting pretty hard in terms of that dynamic.

Mike, we were joking on the show. I can't remember if it was yesterday or Monday, but around this time of year, every year, Tunch and Wolf would kind of make the same joke about how, you know, this is the point in your rookie season when you're a rookie that, yes, it's still your first year in the NFL and there's and there's going to be growing pains and all that.

But it's kind of like coming back to school now for your second semester, your freshman year. You know where all the campus buildings are. You know where the dining room is. You've made your friends. You know how to balance your social life and your academic life, all that stuff. And we were kind of talking about how it feels like Jeremy Bernard has hit that point. where the game's starting to slow down a little bit for him. He's stepping up in his role. He's doing more. He was a real factor for this offense on Sunday. Does it seem like it's all coming together for him at the right time? He's going to obviously have an increased opportunity with the injuries, and it looks like he's in prime position to step in and hop on a moving train.

Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. He's coming off his best game of his short NFL career to this point. And I think that he is developing with each passing week. One thing that I found interesting is when we've asked Aaron Rodgers about What's it going to take for Jeremy Bernard to earn your trust? He doesn't talk about making catches over the middle and hanging on to the football or creating yards after the catch. He talks about the meeting room. And Aaron Rodgers quizzes his guys on things like hand signals and, hey, you're going to get this coverage.

What's going to be your adjustment, your route adjustment when you see this kind of coverage? And that's really the reason why Jeremy Bernard is getting more of an opportunity to get the football is that he's been passing those tests. And, you know, if you have the chance to talk to him or if you see an interview with him, he really carries himself in a different way than you would expect from a wide receiver. You know, he's very mature for his age, very conscientious. And I mean, I think that, like, I know that in Alabama, they called him Uncle Germ because he kind of conducted himself as that like elder statesman.

And he came into the league with the reputation of being pro-ready. And I think you're seeing some of those things in terms of his preparation and in terms of his approach.

Wes beat me a little to it on the rookie talk, and we had a really good rookie segment yesterday. And I guess a couple things we said made a few waves, not really negative or not. But if it were up to me, Bernard would be my starting No. 2 wide receiver. Spears Jennings would be my starting safety, even when Elliott came back at the expense of Brisker. And Everett would be my starting corner even when Dean came back at the expense of Samuel. Do you think that's possible or crazy?

No, I think you're absolutely right. No, I think not crazy, but yes, possible. And I think you're spot on with all of that.

I mean.

The way that I look at the situation with Jeremy Bernard is he has a great opportunity to basically push those other guys down the depth chart. And by the time Michael Pittman Jr. and Roman Wilson and Ben Skarnick come back from injury, basically established, look, number one, DK, number two is Jeremy Bernard. I think that that's really kind of like setting the stage for him and setting expectations for the next couple of weeks. In terms of the secondary that you discussed, I 1,000% agree with what you're saying at safety. I think that one of my fears and concerns about the way that they've constructed the secondary is Deshaun Elliott was a near pro bowler and probably should have been a pro bowler a couple years

ago because of what he does near the line of scrimmage. And I'm not trying to take anything away from him and say he can't play center field, but But it's like you're taking away what made him special if you're using him in that way more often because you have to play Brisker as the down safety. And so I feel like it makes more sense to play a Spears-Jennings guy.

And Spears-Jennings, you know, talking about guys' approach, I've been really impressed with him as well because, like, when you ask young rookies, what are you working on, they say everything. And he'll give you very specific things. And every week he writes in his notebook one specific thing. You know, he comes from a family where both of his parents were in the military. He talked about like if he didn't make his bed in the morning, he would come home.

He said a hurricane came through his room. His dad would just rip everything up. So he he he taught him like the first thing you need to do in the day is make your bed because now you've done one thing in the day. And that's kind of like his approach. I really appreciate being around him and seeing the way he approaches it. And I think that he has the size, he has the speed, and really it's about just kind of like learning the NFL to develop him into a safety. So I completely agree with everything you're saying right there.

How about Everett?

Everett versus Samuel when that time comes. That one's a little tougher.

Well, I think also with that, maybe some of that situationally, you know, the different types of corners. You know, Samuel, you know, if you're talking about playing the Bengals and trying to figure out who's going to match up against T Higgins, you know, maybe it is Daylon Everett because Daylon is, you know, more physical, um, you know, tolls the type of athlete, whereas Samuel maybe has a little bit more of the veteran savvy to his game. Um, but I, I like what I've seen out of Everett and I would love to see him, you know, maybe sooner than later, like you're talking about take stranglehold on that starting position.

A couple more minutes here with Mike DeFabo of the athletic. He joins us on the drive. Mike, we saw Steelers defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham move from the booth to the sideline this past Sunday. Is that a move that you expect to see in Tampa? Is that something that you think is now going to be permanent moving forward?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I'm, Reading between the lines, it sure seems like when TJ Watt is captured on the headset on primetime TV, screaming at the defensive coordinator, they probably figured, Hey, maybe it's time to make a little bit of a change and move Patrick Gray. down there so that rather than screaming through him through the microphone, you could have face-to-face honest communication. Um, and, and I think that it shows something about Patrick Graham, you know, I've really like, I like the way that he approaches things because, um, he's very thoughtful in what he does.

And it shows, like he talked about how being viable is part of being a good leader. And, You know, early when he first started meeting with these guys, he gave them hip hop history lessons where each guy would have to get up into the front room and talk and give a lesson about some hip hop collective. And the reason was to get them out of their comfort zone and to get them used to communicating. Well, all those same things he's now asking of himself. He would prefer to be up there with all of his play sheets lined up and where he could see the offensive personnel coming into the game. But. he's going outside of his comfort zone to improve the communication. And, you know, so far it's working, but I think, I think it's

a good change. I think that, you know, especially with an offensive minded head coach like Mike McCarthy, he's Patrick Graham has the opportunity to really be like the head coach of this defense. And if that's going to be his role and responsibility, I think you need to have him on the football field.

One more rookie question for you. And we'd let you let you slide here. I don't know how much you watched of Gabe Rubio and it was only 14 snaps from what I remember. But I was pretty happy with him, and I've been pretty happy with him every step of the way. Do you get the impression that the coaching staff think they kind of stole one with him, too, as a run-stuffer?

Yeah, I think that they really do. If you go back and look at some of his college tape, he played really well against Vengo Ioane, the guy that he could be playing against now with the Ravens and the AFC North for years to come. And, um, I'm not sure if maybe the Steelers were even just watching Venga in that situation and notice Gabe Rubio really showing up. Um, but yeah, he he's really, um, like eyeopening because. you know, us in the media, we don't know what we're talking about.

And so we follow these scouting reports and you look at like Dane Brugler from the athletic is one of the big guys who does these reports and he didn't even include Ruby. And so, you know, it's like, oh, okay, well, who is this guy? Well, he showed you pretty quickly in training camp. He was winning a lot of one-on-one reps.

And now, you know, he does a good job of taking on double teams. He's a little bit versatile. You could play him at nose. You could play him at four eyes. So I really like him within the pipeline. The Steelers have made such a big priority of bulking up that defensive front, being the kind of team that can come at you in waves. As a later round draft pick who has some upside and continues to develop, I really like that pick.

Mike DeFabo of The Athletic, always kind enough to lend us some time here in what is always a busy stretch. Make sure you're checking out his coverage this week and every week in The Athletic. DeFabes, great stuff, dude. Thank you for taking the time and we'll see you this weekend.

Yeah, absolutely. See you in Tampa.

See you in Tampa. Tampa. Tampa. Oh, it's supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny on Saturday. It's supposed to.

Be freezing here over the weekend. I'm sorry to hear that, man.

I'm going to be frolicking in my shorts down there. I'm actually kind of looking.

Forward to it.

I was hot yesterday. Kind of looking forward to a chilly fall day, you know?

I hold on to the summer-type days as long as I can now.

I get it.

Because I know it's going to be a long.

Dark summer. Your porch time, your deck time.

You know, right?

Winter is coming, Matt. It is.

And then you're like, boy, I could use a day like that.

And then you're like, my goodness, I'd love to wear shorts and have it be 75 and sunny.

Great stuff with Mike, as always.

And plenty to ponder as we get closer and closer to this weekend trip.

To Tampa Bay. Heck, Matt, a week from now, I'll be flying to Paris. I mean, this is all happening.

Things are happening quick.

This is happening very quick here. It's going to be a busy weekend. next 10 days or so in Steeler land, and I'm jacked up and can't wait for all of it. I will say I do really wish we had that bye week on the back end. I know we're at home at least against Cleveland, but that's that.

Coming home is not going to be easy.

That week's going to be a little bit of a struggle, but we will cross that bridge whenever we get there. Wes Euler, Matt Williamson, when we return, chuck on your collegiate apparel because it's time to go around campus. It's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

Drive10.14.26DeFabo: Mike DeFabo on Tampa Trip

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