Drive10.16.26Hr1: 5 Star Friday

You're tuned to The Drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold. Steelers Nation Radio.

Good afternoon, Steeler Nation. It's The Drive on the Steelers Audio Network here on a Friday. Fired up for a big weekend. Wes Shuler and Matt Williamson with you for the next two hours. And if you are watching on YouTube, Matt Williamson's wearing a hat today.

I thought that might be noteworthy.

What's the story behind? I mean, I kind of like it. You look good, but I'm just saying.

I was on TV.

I don't remember ever seeing you wear a hat.

You wouldn't. I wore one every day of my life.

I've known you now for over 10 years. I don't think I've ever seen you wear a hat.

I don't think one's been on my head for 10 years. So the story behind it is, well, first of all, I've got kind of a jungle going on, as people know. And I think I'm going to get a haircut this weekend because I've got a wedding.

I've got to go to. We did have some people commenting on the YouTube page like, man, Matt's letting the flow grow, baby.

If I actually brush it and it looks all right, but sometimes if I drive here and the window's open the whole time, it's like, and that's unusual for me. And the reason I grew it out is because my mom's been asking me for years. She's like, I loved when you had long hair in college in your 20s, blah, blah, blah. Nice.

And back then, I used to wear a hat every day, all the time. And I just got away from it. I always just cut my hair short. I don't know why I got away from it. And then our friend Reagan gave us these. And I got one the last two years. I'm like, these are nice. I should wear them. Gave one to my son. It took one for myself, and I'm like, we're recording a little early today, and I'm like, I still got to shower. I washed my hair, but I'm like, I'm getting a trim. I'm going to throw the hat on and give it a try, see what kind of responses. And I didn't know if you noticed.

Tyler right away is like, I didn't recognize you. Is that you?

Yeah.

I walked in, and Williamson's talking to Mike Pursuta, and I'm like, who's that guy talking to?

Who's that good-looking dude?

Who's that good-looking dude? The hair's popping out of the back. You got, like, the hockey player look going on here.

This was Matt in college. I, uh, it's probably a midlife crisis is all it really is. Instead of getting a sports car, I put a hat on.

That's a cheaper, a much more fiscally responsible crisis.

Yeah.

And no doubt. I mean, the Corvette will cost you what these days, probably 70, 80 grand. The hat was free.

That's a, you probably won't have this issue with daughters. You've talked about how, like you have to, you know, like give your jerseys down.

Yeah.

When my son was about 16, he found my hat collection, you know, and I hadn't touched them in 20 years, but there's a ton of good ones in there. I mean, there's old school, like, steelers win super bowl official hats and like he took them all to kentucky with him and he's like these.

Are mine now dude it's funny it's funny you say that because when my when my grandpa my grandpa passed away one of my grandpas passed away in 2019 yeah and we all like he had so much cool stuff in his little basement and office down there i bet and me and all the cousins are kind of rating it and who gets this and who gets that my cousin's like i want the yankees jersey you.

Know and like all that's cool yeah yeah yeah.

Dude my grandpa i didn't realize this had so many cool hats really like all this like he's got the steelers 95 afc champion the pirates like uh 91 nlcs hat he had my grandpa had a edmonton oilers 1988 stanley cup champions hat that's cool and.

He wasn't even oilers fan.

Just bought the hat yeah it looked cool at dicks or whatever and just bought it yeah and so i have all those now have like a 1989 WVU Fiesta bowl hat.

That's cool. Oh, I had all my pit bowl game hats and all the ones that were free from, there's a Browns one in there and Akron one in there, several of those. And you know, there's a lot of Steeler stuff I've been given over the years.

I switch them out every few months and like some of my backdrops now for like some of the video stuff that I do for the WVU show and that type of things. I'll swap the hats out every few months with the cool ones that I have. I meant to follow up with you on that, by the way, got a tweet after we had that Jersey conversation a couple of days ago, Corrine tweeted me and said, as a woman football fan who has been given, who was given a Care Bear when I was younger while my brother was given a nice Jerome Bettis jersey, please give your daughters your jersey.

I was actually thinking that as soon as it came out of my mouth. It's like, you're not going to, your daughters aren't going to swipe your stuff. I actually hope they do. I mean, I think that's, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm selling women across the world short. My apologies.

And I think part of that was I was like, oh, well, they're not going to fit into my jerseys.

They might.

They might, right, right.

I've told you this before. I'm the runt of the Eulers.

I mean, my daughter's not fitting my jersey, but yours might fit yours.

Exactly right. I'm five foot 10, 160 pounds. So I'm not small. I'm not big. I'm kind of like the Jalen Warren line of demarcation. All the other Euler men are six, two, six, three. Like I'm the runt of the Eulers. So it wouldn't surprise me if my daughters ended up being six foot tall and taller than me.

And yeah, I guess you don't know that stuff. My kids are done growing, but. Both my brother-in-laws are 6'5. I knew, like, my son Mike was going to be at least as tall as me.

My oldest, Olivia, who turned 5 yesterday, she's already as tall as, like, 7- and 8-year-olds in our neighborhood. Oh, really? And I've already told my wife and, like, my mom. If she ends up being taller than me, I'm going to be so— if she gets the Euler height genes and I do it, I'm going to be so mad.

That'd be great. Is she the one that was fiddling around the hoop court?

She sure was, yeah.

Oh, post her mop. She's playing basketball. Get those elbows high.

Games start in December. I'm assistant coach, and I'm excited for it.

I think she's going.

To be able to wreck some people out there.

Beat her under the hoop.

Matt, we're hoping the Steelers are going to wreck some bucks Sunday, 1 o'clock, of course, down there in Tampa. This one, you and I were kind of talking before we started. Have we highlighted enough? And I know we've mentioned it once or twice throughout the week, and we briefly talked about it yesterday when we were kind of going through some Matt's stats stuff. Have we talked enough about that this is another road trip for the Steelers where their opposition has a rest advantage and just haven't really– I think we.

Talk about it every day, and I still don't think we talk about it enough.

And I think, Matt– I've said this to you before. I've said this on the show. There is a very big difference. There's a thin line, but a very big difference between excuses and explanations. If it's something that only you struggle with, it's an excuse. It's something that everybody in the NFL struggles with. It's a little bit more of an explanation.

Yes. TV, can you do us a quick favor? It'll probably take you four seconds. It'd take me five minutes. What are the records of the home Thursday night team? I know the Browns beat the Steelers, and I know Denver won last night just off the top of my head. There's only been five.

The Bucs beat the— We can probably figure it out off our head. The Bucs won on the road last week against the Cowboys.

They were on the road. Okay, yeah. So there's at least one road loss. I think it's four and one. I just wanted to— because I think that kind of counts, too.

That opening Thursday game in Australia I don't think really counts. No, there's no rest of it. That's a neutral site game.

So there's really only four to pick from. That Wednesday night game doesn't count either because they didn't have a game before.

The first one was that Buffalo Bills steamrolled the Lions in that first game.

So it's 3-1 so far, basically.

But 3-1, that's about 25% of the time the road teams win in that game.

And I bet last year it's probably 10 wins, 10-7 or maybe more. Anyway, I also look at Thursdays on the road, as I have since they've been created, as a massive disadvantage, even though you don't have a rest disadvantage. Anyway, those that know Mike Prosciutto, doesn't really appreciate Matt's stats.

Everyone else, these are.

Awesome, Matt.

Thanks.

Mike Pursuta is as old school of sports analyst as you can get.

He does print it out.

We still laugh at him. Pursuta still prints everything out.

This many sheets of paper.

Like it's 2003.

I don't need to ask him what he does with them because he has a file.

I hope he recycles.

Does he just put them in a– does he have years and years of them or does he dump them? He was just in here before. I wasn't meant to ask him.

We can probably go chase him down in the parking lot.

That's a lot of trees. But anyway, he doesn't appreciate Matt's stats. He likes to jag me about on our Thursday night show. Matt, less is more. You don't need to hit this hard. Everyone else is like, give me everything you got. And he's like, this is too hard to read. I'm like, it's 2,000 words. It really isn't that hard to read. You might learn something.

What is it, the Iliad or the Odyssey?

Right. I mean, it'll take you two bathroom trips. And you'll at least learn some things. But anyway, he was all proud of himself last night. Matt, I got a stat for you.

And you're like, all right, let's hear it.

I'm like, okay. So pull back the curtain on this show.

This is your Mr.

Miyagi moment? Right. I'm like, maybe he's catching on, that there's something to learn from stats out there. So I shouldn't maybe tell this part, but we do a three-part show. We do the first segment with Merrill Hodge, which actually is the middle segment.

Okay.

The reason we do it is because Merrill talks the longest. So we have to figure out how much time are on both ends. I got you.

That's the magic of radio. That's the magic of radio.

And we want Merrill's to be the longest because that's the only segment the three of us are on.

Sure. People want to hear what Merrill has to say about the game.

And he's great. And it's a really good format. So after he's done, we take both remaining segments, divide them in two, and we start with segment one, of course. And so he tells me this before we start. So I had to wait the whole Merrill segment until this magical stat came out. And I'm like, in the back of my head, I'm probably like, I probably already know it.

But he actually did the work. And it's a small sample size, but of all the teams that have played on Thursday or that opening Wednesday, remember there was a Wednesday game this year, they are 9-1 the following week with the long break.

9-1.

It's pretty good.

It is pretty good.

That doesn't bode well for Steelers, and that's on the road. I mean, some of those are home, some of them are on the road.

And this one's on the road.

We're only in week five, but I also, I didn't reread it, but this morning, all this information comes from Warren Sharpe, by the way. I mean, that's why I'm on such a big kick with it. It has a lot of betting underlying reasons behind it. And his biggest thing, and I couldn't agree more, and he just says it better than me, Sharpe, is it's really unfair. I mean, to be very honest with you, I just pulled it up again today that over the course of the year, as if things aren't going bad enough for the Chargers, they have a 24-game rest disadvantage.

Wow, already?

Over the course of the season.

Okay, okay.

Their opponents... I was going to say, that would be insane. I think that's the worst that's yet to come.

I feel like whenever Warren Sharp put out his schedule analysis back.

He always does the day after the schedule comes out. I don't think he sleeps.

Here's the teams that kind of got the short end of the stick and here's the teams that have some advantages i'm pretty sure the chargers were like a distant last a will anderson type outlier like we were talking about from yesterday but in a bad.

Way and the worst i've ever seen and so they still have a lot of worst yet to come in terms of as if their season wasn't going bad enough like for example philly's minus 15 vegas.

Is minus 13 bad too.

But they're they're minus 24 that's a lot man The Steelers are near the bottom, minus six. And since Warren's been doing this, which is like three or four years in a row, the Steelers have gotten screwed every year. And for some reason, Baltimore always gets an advantage. So these all have to add up to zero. So there's as many pluses as there are minuses. Sure. But nobody's extreme as the Chargers. The Bears are plus 15. That's best.

Buffalo's plus 14. Dallas plus 12.

So....

It's a big deal. And in his article, he goes through, and I didn't have time this morning, but I know it's a massive trend that especially, okay, this is actually kind of interesting because this has changed over the last few years. That Thursday night 10-game rest advantage hits like crazy. It won't be 90%. It won't be 9-1 over the course of the year, but it's a massive, massive advantage.

I think historically it's been like, A low 70s percent win percentage.

Yes, and they also cover the spread more often than not, too.

Like high 60s, low 70s percent of the time winning.

Now, what he found out recently is teams coming off a bye aren't benefiting as much as they used to, and the thoughts are maybe you had too much time.

Sure, and I think that can work both ways.

Because there's new rules. You can't even go to the facility for four days. So, let's go to the beach. that might not be good for football.

Right.

You know what I mean?

You're unplugging a little too. And Matt.

Right. But 10 days is perfect if you're working on seven.

It is. And it can still work both ways because I don't know if you remember this. I said this to you last Friday when the Browns won that game against the Steelers on Thursday night.

Yes.

There was the big the clip that went out and Todd Munkin was like, I don't want to see you guys until Tuesday. You know, and the team goes nuts like we've.

Got awesome vacation.

We've got four days off now.

Yeah.

And I said to you, remember, I was like some of that like that's the Browns Super Bowl now for the next four days. Are they going to go back to their hometown? Are they going to go to their alma mater? Are they going to go to Cancun with their missus?

Right, right, right.

I think they were not as dialed into that Jets game as they should have been, even with a rest advantage. So it can be a double-edged sword still. I think especially, though, when it's the bye week like you mentioned.

The bye week. Because, I mean, there's rules. You can't even go to the facility on.

The bye week. It's like a lockout almost in that sense. Like you're not even allowed at the facility.

I mean, there's just rules like you have to not be here. But that 10 days, I still get to walk away. As a coaching staff, really do two days of self-scouting. Maybe get one more prep day for the opponent. If I usually have seven, I have eight. But then I use the other two for internal issues that I'm working on. I think it's a huge benefit. And the Steelers just reaped the benefits of it last week. Worries that got on me this week, especially in Tampa's building.

Tampa's coming off their best game of the season, clearly. And I thought even going into that game last week that they walloped the Cowboys. They were 0-4, and now they're 1-4. But every one of their games has been a one-score game. You brought that up yesterday. So they're not the typical just getting destroyed bottom-of-the-barrel team.

They're not Miami or the Chargers.

At this point. At least they played everyone tough, and they were all winnable. They're probably closer to a two- or three-win team than a one-win team.

Six-point loss to the Bengals, four-point loss to the Browns, six-point loss to the Vikings, three-point loss to the Packers.

Yeah. I mean, that's... And they're not terrible teams either. No, yeah. You know, right, right.

Vikings are 5-0. Packers are playing much better.

Yeah.

Browns are above 500. Bengals are above 500.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, what they've done is not to be laughed at, you know, necessarily. Like, I think they're a much more difficult opponent, especially when you factor in the rest and all that stuff, than definitely the Colts last week. And another thing I think is interesting, too, is their special teams coordinator, Danny Smith, who we love.

Mm-hmm.

Has their special teams quite good and the Steelers special teams has not been good. You know, that's another hidden yardage advantage situation that kind of favors Tampa Bay. Sure.

And that's all that stuff. And I think all that stuff now starts to carry a lot more weight, Matt.

It does.

You know what I mean?

It's a lot of evidence.

It's, it's, it's, it's one thing to be saying that stuff in week two and week three, but now when you get to this point here and all of a sudden in week six, it's, that's who you are.

Cause your bones are starting to hurt a little more too. You appreciate the rest. I mean, it, That's why there's no buy weeks in week one or two because I don't need a buy yet. You know what I mean? Sure.

Just getting started here on a Friday. We're going to get into some matchups, a little five-star Friday as we roll along here continuing to talk Steelers and Bucs. It's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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I'm not going to lie, I still can't get over the hat. I mean, every time I look over at you, you and I were kind of opposite. You wore hats a lot growing up. Oh, yeah, every day. I never wore a hat until I was 30.

Wow.

That's about when I stopped.

Until I started, until we started having kids and I was up early in the morning.

And hair was a bra.

Like now I wear a hat every morning and it's when I, it's when I get the girls packed up to take them to daycare, throw on a WVU hat, throw on a Steelers hat. I got a cool Guinness hat that I wear from time to time. Bought a, bought a Wrigley field Cubs hat with my dad back in March when I was there. So I kind of switch it up and rotate them. but that's it. But when I started wearing hats, when I was like 30, my boys were like, are you okay?

Yeah.

Like what's we've never, we've known you for 25 years.

Yeah. What's this all about? Right.

West.

Did somebody take your place? What happened here, Matt? It is time here. We're today's a little bit of a different show. As you mentioned, we're a little bit earlier. Um, we are going to normally this second segment is when we have Missy Matthews, but we're going to have Missy lead off the second hour with us here on the show today. So doing things a.

Little bit differently, uh, Changing the batting order, as we said.

Exactly right. Sometimes that's the way it has to be around here. And with that, Matt Williamson, I figure now is as good of a time as ever to get into some matchup conversation. We're humbled and excited to be in these five-star matchups.

Five-star matchup.

Somebody leaving here with a loss.

Not going to be us.

It's a five-star matchup because we're in it.

Five-star matchup.

Everybody we play, it's a five-star matchup because we're in it. Made it a little bit longer of a I noticed that, yeah. Of a drop intro this time.

You led off with Coach Tomlin there, by the way, right?

I did, yeah.

Was that a new additional one? I can't remember. Or has that always been in there?

So I added, so in that one there, the beefier one has him and also has Joe Hayden. Oh, okay.

Yep.

Real quick, when I heard Tomlin's voice, it dawned on me that I saw yesterday, and I really commend him for this. I guess he's gotten a lot of criticism with his new job. yeah, but you favor the Steelers too much. And I guess he came out and said, I'm always going to do that. I never apologize for it.

That's my loyalty. I thought that was super cool. Like people that listen to us, we sometimes pull back the curtain. You know, we're recording this early today and, you know, teach people how the sausage is made. He could be like, oh, I'll be, you know, as unbiased as possible. He's telling the truth. He's like, Yeah, I'm loyal to that organization.

He was with the organization for 19 years.

He's like, I'm not going to hide that one bit. I am not apologizing for that. I loved it.

It's the same if you turn on the World Series coverage right now. Mm-hmm. You got David Ortiz and Derek Jeter up on there still doing their Yankees and Red Sox thing as part of their analysis.

I bet. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I realize Mike Tomlin didn't play for the Steelers, but when you're part of it.

He kind of ran the organization for two decades. For 19 years, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would almost be surprised if he wasn't.

Yeah, right, right, right. But he could pretend that it's, oh, I'm not doing that. He just embraced it.

Sometimes I think that's okay. Sometimes I think at that analyst level, a touch, just a touch, not full-blown, but just a touch of Homer is okay.

It's fine.

Like, they have... And before kickoff last night, they've got Richard Sherman like mic'd up and he's walking around talking to the Seattle Seahawks defensive backs like we used to do it this way. They're using Richard Sherman to lean into the Seattle Seahawks thing because he was obviously a huge part of that organizational success a decade ago. It makes a touch of Homer is OK. You don't want to go full Homer Simpson on us, but a touch I think is actually kind of makes it fun and endearing in a way.

Because it's who you are.

Yes, when you got the Yankees guy and the Red Sox guy. You know what I mean? It's a kind of fun back and forth. Matt, there's going to be a lot of back and forths to keep an eye on this Sunday. You want to start? This is, of course, and most people know this by now, but every once in a while, a reminder, this is just our matchup segment.

We kind of dress it up and call it Five Star Friday, but it's just a matchup segment. You want to start Steelers offense or Steelers defense?

I don't care.

I had a feeling he was going to say that.

I rarely care about such things.

I'm telling you right now, I'm leading off on the score predictions this week.

Okay.

We'll be decisive about that one. Let's start.

All right.

I'll get selfish here. I'll put my hand up. Let's talk about the big men in the middle. Steelers offense. Zach Frazier against.

That's crucial.

The guy's name who I love to pronounce so much.

Vita Vea.

I was going to do it for you.

Vita Vea. Vita Vea.

Vita Vea.

Zach Frazier versus Double V.

He's awesome. Well, they both are awesome.

He's fantastic.

He's fantastic. One thing we haven't brought up enough is their run defense is really, really good.

The Bucs is.

The Bucs is. I mean, yards per carry, I think they're second best.

Real quick, I forget. I was listening to some podcast this morning, and they mentioned how uh tampa bay allows league high receptions to running backs on a per game basis i.

Think that's true it might even be in my stat pack their linebackers are kind of slower and is is.

Part of that though too because they're so good against the run and that's been the way that teams can get the ball in their running backs hands probably a good way of looking at it part of it not the entire thing but part of it.

Like warren's a perfect example if he's running into a wall run into a wall Well, we still want him to touch the ball. Let's flare it out to him and, you know, right.

Let him make a guy miss in space.

I also think such a heavy blitz team, you can beat them with screens and, you know, let everybody come up field, dump it over their heads, that type of thing. And their linebackers aren't great in coverage, too. So if I can get running backs isolated on more downhill thumper run type linebackers, that would make some sense as well.

Back to VEA, though. everyone's going to help on VEA. I mean, it's, it's a very, it's.

Not going to be Zach Frazier in a boxing match for 60 minutes.

But it's going to be a Dexter Lawrence. Like, you know, it's much different than Buckner. I'm trying to think some of the defensive tackles they played. It's very Lawrence like in that he doesn't leave the field and passing downs. I mean, he's not Hampton and Wilfork in terms of nose skills. He really does affect the passing game. I think Lawrence is a little bit better interior pass rusher than VEA, but, He's better than almost everybody.

No doubt.

But he is a big-time pocket pusher. He's just a rare specimen. I'm excited for you to even see him in person and be like, holy cow, I can't imagine. And you've done this, I'm sure. Sometimes you see NFL players and like, I don't know how anybody blocks him. Yes. I can't imagine trying to even formulate a plan how to block, how to prevent that human being from going where he wants to go.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, I could never do it in 4,000 years.

Insane.

Yeah.

I mean, you see Cam Hayward walking on the street. He could go anywhere he wants.

Why a black? How does anybody ever slow that guy down?

Right.

Right. But he's rare. And if they're going to have any kind of interior run success, it starts with at least getting four hands on him and not letting him wreck things.

All right. I'm going to do my best Craig Wolfley here.

All right.

Okay. With this guy, two hands is not going to get it done. You need four hands, four legs, four butt cheeks to slow this guy down.

That's great. And even if you move up to the second level, I mean, you've got to start. Yeah. I mean, even Frazier, as good as he is in his leverage and his wrestling skills, in protection, he may deal with Vea one-on-one a fair amount. You know, I mean, but in the run game, I assume they'll double him. And you just have to do the math that that eats up.

You can't block somebody else then. You know, he's a force.

Matt, this isn't a specific matchup question for you, but I'm kind of surprised. And maybe it's a little bit of negligence that to this point in the week, we haven't mentioned Kalaji Kansi's name once yet. I don't think.

I know.

And he, the pit, the former pit guy, former first round pick. He's had some real good moments in his career. He has some injury stuff. That's kept a lot of last year.

He missed.

What's your kind of take on what we've seen from him so far this season and what you expect?

I'm not making fun of him, but he's DeVito to Schwarzenegger. I mean, like with him and Vea couldn't look any different if they walk in the same position.

He's eye and angle standing next to Jake DeWatt.

I mean, like there are not two defensive tackles that could look different and they happen to play on the same team. And he's a good player.

Like Connor Hayward standing next to Darnell Washington.

Yes.

Like they're not both tight ends. Right. But he's all speed, upfield, leverage, quickness. I haven't... There's some negligence too. I don't know how he's playing this year. I haven't studied him enough.

But.

He was never for the Steelers because that's not the kind of defensive tackle they wanted.

Correct.

But I liked him at Pitt. I thought if he goes to the right place, he could be an impactful upfield player, and he has been. So in a way, the Schwarzenegger-DeVito thing works to their favor because, boy, it couldn't be any different blocking those two. No doubt. Yeah. So it's an interesting dichotomy.

It sure is.

I mean, they're really different.

It sure is.

He might be 90 pounds heavier. in real and not listed in real world.

Step on the scale for me there. Cousin. Uh, we, I talked about this a little bit. I think it was yesterday or on Wednesday, but obviously one of the matchups I'm very excited for rookie on rookie first round pick on first round pick. We're going to see a lot of Ruben Bain jr. Against Maxie on a chore.

Yeah. And Bain's book is really unwritten because he had one really tough game against Mims. Who's great and we talked we highlighted him yeah yeah and it's a bad matchup just in terms.

Of right tackle by the way for those who aren't familiar.

Um we talked about them when watt had to go against him um and he's been injured a bunch but he was my pre-season defensive rookie of the year pick you know like i just think he's in a really good environment i didn't love him coming out and frankly i don't love the defensive rookie crop to pick from yeah but i thought he could be highly impactful and i still think that could come and Their pass rush numbers aren't great. I mean, they drafted him for that reason.

You know, they needed some more juice off the edge. The other dude I do like there, though, is... I can't remember his name. Who's the other edge?

The other edge is Alshon Robinson.

No.

Reuben Bain Jr., Yaya Diaby.

Diaby.

Yep.

Diaby's not a huge pressure guy, but he's impactful. Or he's not a huge sack guy. He's a big pressure guy, which I know people are like, pressures aren't real. And I get that. All I care about is sacks. But the Obby's a handful. Bane and the Obby could be a really good pairing sooner than later.

Antoine Winfield Jr. is doubtful for Sunday. Doesn't sound like he's going to play anybody else in that secondary that Steelers fans should be keeping an eye on. Does this feel like.

I do want to mention Trotter, the linebacker. The rookie linebacker. He is a hammer like his dad. You brought him up earlier in the week. He was the WVU Transfer, right?

Yep.

Started his career there and then transferred to Mizzou.

He wouldn't fit everybody. I mean, he's not a reverse. You laid it out a couple days ago.

He's kind of a Landon Roberts.

Yes.

But with a little more upside, but that's the type to imagine.

Yeah, and he grew up around the game, obviously, with his father.

His dad was a menace linebacker for the Eagles.

If you believe in instincts, well, maybe that kid had instincts because he was born with them. You know what I mean? He doesn't take a lot of false steps. He gets there and delivers a blow. And in Todd Bowles' defense... He has a spot for those linebackers. Not everybody does. You know, like, you can pick on him in coverage, but Bowles doesn't put him in that situation very often, you know. But he's an interesting dude. The secondary as a whole is pretty good. I don't think there's a standout, but I don't think there's a weakness. There's some versatility there.

All Todd Bowles defenders play hard and will tackle, you know.

A lot of familiar names on that list of defensemen.

Parrish has been pretty good. McCollum's a talented player that's coming into his own. Excited to watch Tykee Smith. They're not a huge name. Tykee Smith's a good one. He'll play some slots.

Another one of those started in Morgantown and then navigated to the SEC for a bigger bag. And there's a Servakier Dennis on this defense too. I forget about him, but he's a Pitt guy. So there's a couple former Pitt guys, a couple WVU ties on that defense. That always makes it fun just kind of from the local angle here. But they are. They're dealing with some injuries on that defense, certainly.

Pass rush has been a problem, but run defense has been really good. But a lot of it's because the ball comes out quick.

Hey, there you go. Establish the run, and then you can really be multiple on Sunday.

And that's Bowles' history, too. That's why Vea is so important to them. Early down run stuffing, and then the blitzes come. And I referenced the Merrill Hodge Pursuit of Show. And I felt the same way. That's why I asked Merrill this question. But he took it to a new level. I'm like, all the stuff Bowles throws out you. And I don't know where I heard it, but somewhere this week I heard Aaron Rodgers, at some point in his career, maybe it was even yesterday, I don't know, It said Todd Bowles defenses have given me the most problems.

Okay.

You know, like in my career, giving him praise. Maybe that was this week. I don't know. But anyway, his pressures and stunts and the way he sets up guys to get free rushers and things of that nature is really challenging to a younger line. And that, that was where Merrill took it to a new level. I'm like this bold stuff. And the way he throws out of an inexperienced line scares me. He's like, Oh, You touched on it. He lit up. He's like, that's 100% true.

It's maybe the scariest thing about this whole game. Third and eights, you just end up with who's blocking who in the zoo. Sure.

Who's blocking who in the zoo. That's the matchup conversation from the Steelers' offensive standpoint. We'll spin the block and talk matchups from the defensive side of the ball when we return here in the back half of the first hour. It's a Friday. It's The Drive. Wes Euler, Matt Williamson, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

And now a word from our sponsor, Bud Light. There's nothing better than the clean, crisp... There's nothing better than the clean, crisp... Uh, what if we just got out of here and grabbed some Bud Lights? But man, we're on air for four more hours.

I'll figure it out.

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The first round, still getting video calls from my best friend, rubbing it in that he called all the picks.

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Closing down the first hour here with the second part of Five Star Friday. Matt, when we look at the Steelers' defense against the Tampa Bay offense, the Tampa Bay offense right now is a little hindered, obviously. There's no Baker Mayfield. Their wide receivers have been a little inconsistent. Bucky Irving's been up and down. But that offensive line, as we touched on a little bit yesterday, is one of the better units in the league.

Yeah, I think so.

So I have to imagine Tristan Wirfs is a focal point, and I would think it would be Alex Highsmith, who probably gets just, when we come in here on Monday, the most snaps lined up against him.

No question. And they won't help Wirfs once in protection.

They probably have it for three years.

Yeah.

You got that dude. It doesn't matter who it is. Obviously, Herbig will take some of those snaps too, but it'll be mostly Highsmith. Watt's coming from the left and Highsmith's coming from the right against left tackles. I mean, I don't care if they flop or not, whatever. That's where they line up. Highsmith almost had three or four super huge plays against the Colts. Like, if you watch the All-22, he was this close to some strip sacks and things of that nature that he was better and more impactful than maybe you would just think on first blush. He's had a great year. I mean, I know his sack numbers aren't quite to Watt's level or whatever, but I have no concerns at all. I think Heisman's fantastic, and

he sets the edge well. But he's at a disadvantage against Wirfs, as is almost any defensive end is. I think he's the best left tackle in the league, give or take.

He might be the best offensive lineman.

Might be the best offensive lineman in the league. Their guards are good. Barton, the center, we talked about in the Frazier draft. They're very, very happy with him.

It's actually, that's kind of a fun down the list, but storyline.

Yeah, it's kind of cool.

How much time we spent comparing those guys when they were drafted. Now they're both very good. Now you get to kind of watch them.

Both teams are happy with the guy they got. Yeah, you get to watch them both.

Obviously, they won't be on the field at the same time, but you get to kind of watch them both as the focal points of their offense here this weekend.

And as you mentioned, none of these guys have missed any snaps, so the continuity factor is phenomenal. The right, the worst came in the league as a right tackle. Yes, absolutely. And that's kind of his.

That Super Bowl season with Tom Brady. Yeah, exactly.

And to his credit, they drafted Gedeke, who really is right tackle only, and said, hey, Tristan, can you move over? Kind of like a Penny Sewell move. It was seamless. But it made them better in two... Well, not better in two positions, but it made their tackle pairing much better because he was able to do that. Because Gedeke's a good player, too. He'll get Watt, of course. But, I mean, Watt has an advantage over him. But this is a good line. It's a really good line. Everybody else, Irving's coming off a really good game. He runs hard.

Had a lot of yards after contact. They played the Cowboys, though. And if you look at, I've retweeted some graphs about defensive output for the year. Run defense. Pass defense. You want to be up here. The Vikings are way up here by themselves.

Dallas is awesome.

Way down here by themselves. You know, like any of these graphs, when there's somebody that's like, why is Will Anderson all by himself? Sure. Dallas is in that bottom left all alone is the clear worst defense in the league. Porter hasn't helped them, blah, blah, blah. So is it going to be that pathetic against Bucky Irving and the bucks as it was on Thursday? It better not.

It better not.

You know what I mean? It's kind of where I'm going with this is, is it, Is it us or is it, you know, like when you break up with someone, it's like, it's not you, it's me. And like, is that just what everyone does against Dallas is ordinary backs just run all over you? Because I think Irving's above average back, but not much. You know, if there's 32 starting backs, he's number 14. Sure. He's not super huge.

He doesn't have overwhelming traits. He was a mid-round pick, but you'd love him if he was your guy and he runs hard. But he doesn't scare me like these Jonathan Taylor-Bijon conversations. I mean, like Warren's a better player than he is.

Jonathan Taylor.

Yeah. I mean, a couple of guys they've faced are far more challenging than him, although his blocking's good. The quarterback's a good runner, and I think he's been coached that he's really poised. I mean, he looks like he belongs. He still made a throw or two against Dallas that, I mean, he hit bland in the chest that should have been a pick six, and he has dropped it. Um, so he might still make a mistake. He's a two, two game starter at the league. Yeah. Um, but I think he's been coached one to two to run, you know, like we're not gonna keep things real diverse for you.

Your legs can get you out of a lot of trouble. We don't need you sitting in the pocket waiting. Cause that's not what you're going to get broken half. And I like a Buka, but he's not, I mean, like His rookie year, his first eight games were dynamite, and then he got hurt, and Mayfield got hurt.

And they kind of fell off a cliff.

And they were night and day in terms of a passing game and the pairing. And this year, he's somewhere in between. I mean, he's not that first eight games, holy smokes, this could be Smith and the Jigba type guy.

Right, right.

He's been fine. I mean, he's their best guy for sure. I think they miss Mike Evans in a huge way. Like, Godwin's up in age. They don't really have a tight end present. Right. And I'm learning from him every day.

Godwin's your three.

Great. That's how it should be. And then everybody else falls into place. You know, like, they have a rookie that can run who does clear out routes. They don't have a lot of tight end. Lawton's fine. You know, but, like, their pass catchers are below average for sure and aren't elevated by Mahomes or Allen throwing to them at the moment either.

Correct.

Correct. Um, okay. Last one specifically for the bucks offense. How much do you expect that we will see of our reigning team MVP? Kenneth Gainwell. It's interesting.

Um, so they've had three back.

That is wild to say, but it is kind of crazy.

Yeah.

Team MVP, right?

Yeah.

I guess there's a little Pittsburgh connection. Danny Smith, Gainwell pit WVU guys.

You mentioned, you know, um, David Sills, their one, he's like their fifth wide receivers. Also a WVU guy.

Yep.

So there are, there's some cool local ties here.

Um, I don't know, because Tucker is their biggest back.

He's questionable for Sunday.

He didn't play last week. He's been their goal line guy. I know this is from fantasy research. Irving blew up because he finally got goal line carries last week. They always pull him out at the five. He's a fantasy nightmare from that regard. He does all the hard work, and then they pull him out. But Irving was great in goal line situations, and that used to be Tucker's job.

Why I say that is because Gainwell is the opposite. He's only passing down type of guy, you know, I mean, as he was here, but not used as much as he was here. And I don't think the Steelers planned on using him as much as they had to when it was all said and done because they didn't trust Caleb Johnson. So there is three capable backs. Probably only two of them will play. Anyone with a pulse, though, is going to try to get Gainwell a couple touches against his old team. Absolutely. You know what I mean?

Get him isolated against his old teammates, as you should. He's still dangerous. He's as good as he was last year.

No doubt.

He's still Kenny G, baby. From the desk of intrepid video producer Tyler V, don't forget about the Larry Foote connection as well, too, when you talk about these two organizations. He's in his eighth year on the coaching staff there. Interesting balance. He's the run game coordinator and the outside linebackers coach. That's an interesting kind of juxtaposition of two different titles.

Run game, defensive coordinator.

I would think so.

He can't be on both sides of the ball. He can't go to both meetings.

But it's just listed as run game coordinator, outside linebackers. But I think that's got to be defensive.

It has to be.

Usually they would say that. But anyway.

Yeah.

That's interesting. I'd never met Larry Foote, but if you ask like Pursuta and Dale... they were big fans when he would put, he played here. They were like, Oh, I love him growing up. He was cool.

He didn't get the credit with a lot of the other big names in that defense that he played with. Obviously a couple of hall of famers and a couple all pros. And, but he was, he was a really good player, man.

Todd Bowles wouldn't remember me, but we were on the same Brown staff together too. He was, I mean, remember that was like six degrees of Matt Williams separation 20 some years ago, Chuck Pagano was our defensive back coach and Todd Bowles was like, He was the assistant defensive back coach. So he was kind of in his infantile stages as a coach. And everybody in the building is like, keep an eye on him.

That guy's going places.

Yeah.

He'll be in charge of things someday.

And he has certainly gone places.

Yes.

An hour in the books, another hour to go. We will catch up with Missy Matthews when we return to kick off hour number two, and then we will run the gambit of the league. We'll give all of our predictions, both for the game in Tampa and all the other games across the week six slate in the National Football League.

Wes Shuler, Matt Williamson. It is The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

I'll figure it out.

Sounds good to me. Anything for the clean, crisp taste of Bud Light.

Stock up now.

Bud Light.

I used to have cable internet, but I'm a 100% kind of fan, so I switched to Verizon Fios. It's 100% fiber internet that's super reliable. So I streamed 100% of the NFL draft live with ultra low lag.

And after what went down in.

The first round, still getting video calls from my best friend, rubbing it in that he called all the picks.

I told you they were building their own line. I win the bet.

Get 100% fiber internet with Verizon Fios, because when it comes to your team, it's 100% or nothing. Call 1-833-VERIZON to switch today.

Get that hot dog costume ready.

Bruh.

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