Drive10.29.26Hr2: Scouting the Browns

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

Steelers Nation Radio.

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

It is hour number two of The Drive here on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

Matt, we again, this week has been a little bit of a weird week.

I was in transit from Paris to Dublin to Pittsburgh on Monday.

And so we only have four shows this week.

And you're balancing, recapping everything that happened while looking ahead. One thing that we didn't have time to do yesterday that we typically do on Wednesdays that I want to do now.

Is one of our.

Simplest yet favorite exercises, picking a player from the Steelers' upcoming opponent.

There's a lot I'd like.

I think this one's going to be fun because there's a lot to like.

You should always be like, just give me a Miles Garrett.

Right.

And then we didn't do it last week or last time because it was a Thursday night game.

We didn't do it last time because it was a Thursday night game. I'm like, who did we pick before?

And we didn't do it.

Didn't have enough time. So that, I think, makes this a lot of fun.

Oh, yeah, quick question for you, too. You mentioned your travels because I asked Rob this question today. Are you back to Pittsburgh time? Do you feel like you belong?

I think finally, yes.

He said today he did.

Yes.

And I care about both your well-beings, don't get me wrong, but I'm more worried about the Steelers back on track for winning this game. They're starting to feel right and feel like their travels are behind them.

Yes. Okay.

Last night, I think, was the first night that I went to bed at a regular time and woke up not feeling like I immediately wanted to take a nap.

Okay.

Yes.

So you're getting there, or most of the way there, 90%.

Yes, I think so. Absolutely think so. But today would be the first day that I would definitely say yes on that one. It's always just the weird sleeping and you get hungry at random times and tired.

Yeah, I could see that.

Tired at random times and all that.

I wonder if I should just take it out. Yeah. Let's talk through this Brown situation.

Let's do it. Offense, defense. We'll pick one of each.

I don't think there's a glaring obvious one. but I'm going to throw out a bunch of candidates off the top of my head.

You want to start on one side of the ball? You're just going to kind of, okay. It's the two wide receivers, right?

Judkins is a really good young back. I just want to like, kind of, this is a good way also to teach our fans.

Right, right, right.

He could be my running back any day. And I know some of his numbers aren't great, mostly because most of his career, no one's opened holes for him, but he's a good young back. Um, no one would take the quarterback, even if you're allowed in this exercise. Agreed. Uh, Fano was somebody I'd consider. I know he's a tackle, but a lot of people looked at him like he could be a stud guard too. Short arms.

Top 10 pick in the draft.

Yeah. I mean, he moves really, really well. He's been highly successful. You wouldn't want to move him from left tackle because he's been successful, but, or maybe you move Fano or whatever.

Yeah.

I mean like. Adding him to the offense.

We're never going to not discuss taking a young stud offensive lineman.

Rookie year.

Even though the Steelers have a few of those, you could still always find something to do with them.

Yeah, play 6-0 lineman every snap if you want.

I don't know.

Just put good big people out there that are young and cheap that are super talented.

There's not a lot of those in the NFL.

That's not so bad. Fannin's not for me. Maybe, I mean, nor would he be the pick no matter what. I mean, even if he was a lot better.

Sure.

He's fine. Both receivers have a strong case.

Those are the two that you really circle on offense.

I think it has to be one of those two.

Because they're so young. They're so cost controlled. They fit a position in need for the Steelers. And they both had great starts to their rookie season.

They both looked the part. But they're both so different. Which is cool from a Browns perspective. They did that on purpose. I liked Concepcion better on draft day. And frankly, if the Steelers were taking Concepcion with their first pick, I'd be like, cool. I got no problem with that. He was, when we do our top 20 list or whatever, he was pretty high up there. I had him ahead of like Lemon. But style of play, this goes, we had a little bit of this talk before. If I'm going to add a wide receiver, and this is highly relevant with all the trade talk out there.

This really fits, yeah.

McConkie and... It's not just who's the best.

Guy available and who's having the best year. It's who fits into your puzzle of what you're doing on offense.

You don't need to pull it up. But in Matt's stats, Bernard, since he's become a full-time player, has much better numbers out of the slot than out wide. Now, it's easier to produce in the slot. I mean, I bet you Mark Chase has better numbers in the slot than he does out wide. There's two-way goes. The corner doesn't have a sideline as a friend. They're longer throws across your body, all the way across the field, or they're deep balls.

But in terms of, this is one of my reasons why I'm wishy-washy about the Josh Downs conversation. And Concepcion's bigger than him, but do I want to add, the Steelers have really grown an identity of being big and physical at every position. Is adding a 170-pound slot player and then making Bernard the outside guy really the best approach if you're going to use a resource on a wide receiver? And Concepcion's much more in that downs mold. Yes.

You know, where, boy, he's so dynamic after the catch. And he's a really good returner. And I love the player. And I probably would have a still slightly higher grade on him than Boston. Okay. But the gap's way more narrow after seeing the NFL. Where Boston not only keeps you big, but makes you huge. I mean, like in a Mike Evans type of way. And keeps Bernard where he's supposed to be. Now, Bernard can play outside, but why?

I think you laid that out perfectly.

Yeah, right.

Why bother?

If you have the choice of both, you like the green Cadillac, but the red Cadillac's two grand cheaper, and they're both about the same, I'm taking the red one. You know what I mean? That's not the best analogy, but you know what I'm saying. In terms of team building and offensive building, Boston's like exactly what you're looking for.

Matt, they would both be a really nice belt or a really nice watch to compliment your outfit of what you're wearing. But the one color of that one belt might fit better with the rest of your.

Outfit than the color of that one watch does. Yeah, yeah. Or this tie is perfect. It goes with my suit, you know?

I think you said it perfectly. Heading into the draft process, you absolutely, because you were on Concepcion the whole way, but I think I really started to warm up to it. We would have both taken... Casey Concepcion over Denzel Boston ahead.

Of the draft. Jeremy Bernard is on the team at this point.

I think, though, since the season has started, I think Boston has really, I mean, he has been one of the more impressive rookie wide receivers in the NFL. And then I think as you just look at it now, forget the player that you like the most coming out of college.

I don't care anymore.

Where do they fit in to help you the most? I think it would be hard to argue that Boston wouldn't be the square peg in the square hole.

Agreed, and that would be my choice. And this is real recency biased. Concepcion's hotter right now.

So hot right now.

So hot. The last couple games have been his best of his career.

Boston was gangbusters to start the season.

He started the season much stronger. He slowed down significantly. But a lot of it's because their average depth of target has changed. Like, in terms of yards per catch, Romeo Dobbs is the only one ahead of Boston in the whole league. When they throw to him, they throw to you. You know, they hold the ball and they throw deep. And Concepcion has a very short average depth of target. And he has a ton of yards after catch. So, again, these two players are very different in that they do different things. They complement each other. I think they're going to be a headache for the Steelers for a decade, or at least during their rookie deal. I'm not thrilled that they're there. But lately, Concepcion's been more of the

go-to guy. That doesn't change my answer. I'm still taking Boston.

I think I'm definitely still taking Boston, but it's a fun conversation.

It is.

A lot of good options.

I'd love to have either of them in the black and gold. If you paired either of them with Jeremy Bernard, you'd be looking at it and going.

Oh, these all fit perfectly. And you're still huge.

Yeah.

And we've got two great, you know, young and ascending wide receivers.

Deep threat.

Deep. No doubt.

Young.

No doubt. Yeah, yeah. It's a lot of fun conversation.

Second round contract as opposed to a first round contract. That actually kind of matters.

It definitely does.

Yeah.

It definitely does. But they've got some wide receivers. They've got a running back and a tight end. They've got a left tackle that a lot of people around.

The league would like to have.

They're all in their first or second year.

So final answer, Denzel Boston on offense.

Yes.

On the defensive side, Matt, it is a very similar conversation. There's a lot to like.

Yeah, there is. At every level.

There's a guy to like at every level of that defense.

Their safeties are vastly underrated. I just want to make sure we say that before the show ends tomorrow. Delpit is kind of their more strong than free defense. As we mentioned, the rookie out of Toledo is kind of the big slot. He's on the field a ton now. He's got a lot of ability. Liked him coming out of school. I'm almost certain the Steelers brought him in for a visit. I think they did.

I believe you are correct.

I'm pretty sure they were high on him as well. And then their free safety.

I think they brought Boston in for a visit.

Yeah, they did. Who's the free safety again? Hickman.

Free safety is Hickman. Yeah, Ronnie Hickman.

Doesn't get much credit. He was an Ohio State dude that wasn't... unbelievably flashy right exactly but he is a deep middle tie you talk about tying the room together he lets all them do their man coverage kind of their minka deep middle they play old school deep one single high and a lot of man and you can't do that without a true free safety and he's really really good at that and he's cheap and he's young and he's a really good player none of them would be my pick but their safeties are quite good and the spine of this defense.

Is quite good defense is very strong.

Mason graham's a really good player he's just not for me and he also does not fit.

The steelers mold of defensive line.

He's not long he's not their style of Body type.

But he's been much better than you thought he would be. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I thought he'd be... There were other defensive tackles.

The Browns took him, what, fifth overall? We were like... Yeah.

They traded out of Travis Hunter.

That feels like a reach there.

I would have taken Membo. I said that over and over. I thought Walter Nolan was a better prospect in that draft. I think I had Harmon ahead of him. So I didn't love him, but he's been good. And their style play, he fits. He's an attack upfield all day long. Be little and quick. Versus a really good player. This is no room.

Collins, I think is an underrated guy. Yeah.

They have a deep group of defensive linemen and they'll rotate those guys throughout. And they have a lot of different players that have recorded sacks. I think 11 or 12 guys have a sack on this team.

Interesting.

Not Jared verse, not verse, but she's wild. He's always at the top of league of pressures. He hasn't quite converted them as sacks in his career. There's still a case for Denzel Ward though.

There absolutely is.

Cause considering your team needs.

Hmm.

I think he's a top six or seven corner. Agreed. A little bit older. They didn't care one bit. They gave him a huge contract. He follows. He followed Metcalf a lot in week one. I think you'll get the same thing. They're not afraid that Metcalf is 50 pounds heavier and five inches taller because Ward has handled those guys over and over and over in a really good manner.

But he's expensive. The answer is probably Schlesinger.

I think it's between Ward and Schlesinger.

Yeah, it definitely is.

And it's, do you want the guy who might be the best off-ball linebacker in the NFL for the next, other than Fred Warner, for the next 10 years?

But I think he's a successor to Warner. I don't know if he'll be as good. Warner's definitely going to the Hall of Fame. I'm not ready to say this kid's going to be a Hall of Famer.

Sure.

But, you know.

It's the, do you want the longer-term investment or do you want the guy that right now would really take you to another level?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Schlesinger could take you to another level right now, too.

Yeah. And the off-the-ball linebacker play for the Steelers keeps improving.

That's the thing.

Like, it's less of a need to me now than it was if we'd had this conversation when the Steelers went to Cleveland.

Completely agree.

Yeah.

Because it's not like you're looking at it and going, oh, man, Queen and Wilson have really struggled.

We need to add somebody else there. That's not the case. It's not the case.

It's just Schlesinger is only in his second year. He's played only 20-something NFL games.

Right. He went eight years of Schlesinger, three of Ward.

He's probably already the second best in his position in the NFL.

Yeah.

And you've got him cost-controlled.

And he's a $ 25 million achiever.

You've got him cost-controlled for a few more years and all those things.

And unfortunately, you would probably let Queen walk then after the season.

That would probably be the case.

Of course. There's no guarantees he'll be back either way.

You get a third-round comp pick for him and you rock and you roll. Versus Denzel Ward, older, more expensive, but is one of the best at what he does at a position where the Steelers could certainly use another body.

If my only goal was to win the Super Bowl this year, I'd take Ward.

Yeah, exactly right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

This is the, are you pushing your chips into the center of the table, or are you just taking the best long-term option?

Yeah, not that any is bad for the short-term either.

Correct.

But you're balancing all of the above.

Schlesinger's... He's tough to pass on, man.

Like, I've brought this up before. If you look at every player in the league made them all free agents, and 32 GMs had a draft, Schlesinger would go ahead of Ward.

Yeah.

In a vacuum.

Yeah, if you're doing the Madden-style.

Drafting teams with your buddies. Because of what you're getting in age. And there's not many great linebackers in the league.

There's not.

There's more of a shortage position, people know.

There's not many true No. 1 corners in the NFL either, but there's even less No. 1 dynamic.

And Ward is a No. 1 corner. I would not throw that term around much. I'm glad you did.

It's tough to pass on Schlesinger. It just is.

This team's pretty high on the list of guys I'd like to steal.

They sure are, which we would not have said about the Browns many times in the past.

I really hope if and when they draft their quarterback, they draft the wrong one, as they always do.

Yeah, just go ahead and draft. Hey, Browns, just draft the wrong one for us in April, all right? Let the right one slide down the board of the Steelers. Draft the wrong one for us in April.

They might be picking them behind the Steelers.

I was just going to say, that assumes that the Steelers are picking them behind.

Sunday has a lot to do with that.

Yes, it does. Man, look at you, Cleveland. Welcome to the party.

Yeah, really.

It's fun having a football team that is still playing meaningful games at Halloween. You're not very used to that, are you, Cleveland? It's a lot of fun. Now, if we could flip-flop, if we could have a baseball team that plays meaningful games in October.

Like you do.

Well, again, we are.

Are they good? I don't even know.

Yeah, they were in the– that's who the Rays beat to go.

To the late series.

Oh, really?

Okay, so they were a Final Four team.

So they were in the NL– NL, AL, whatever, but they were a Final Four team. They were in the NL or ALCS. The Cleveland Guardians were. So, Matt, Carson Swessinger, final answer on defense. Is that where we're going?

Yeah, but if I had to pick between the two, I think I'd take Boston.

I think I would, too.

Because it fits a more immediate position of need.

And it still addresses long-term dividends as well.

There's four or five really good options.

There really are, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They might have the most options.

Especially ones that fit the Steelers.

You wouldn't rock your cap or any of that kind of stuff.

Of any team that we've discussed so far.

Absolutely. I mean, Bengals are fun.

Bengals are fun. But they don't have the guys on defense that you'd like, like here.

You'd throw Dex in the middle and be happy. You absolutely could.

No doubt.

But he doesn't fit a position of need like a Denzel Ward does.

You're not looking for the next Dexter Lawrence at the trade deadline. Correct.

Correct.

Oh, man, like they've got wide receivers. Steelers want some wide receivers. They've got corners. And they're all cheap. Steelers could use another. Yeah, and a lot of them are cheap and young.

Yeah, that matters.

That certainly does.

And, yeah, this might be the most fun we've had, or at least just the most to ponder with the pick-a-player pre-scout segment that we do here. And that's a good way to kind of comb through the depth chart and give you some.

Of the names. Yeah, tell people about what's coming up here. That's why I wanted to bring those safeties up because no one's.

Going to know. I'm glad you mentioned them.

I'm sure people remember Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. as someone that we talked about a lot in the pre-draft process. But I think Grant Delpit, he doesn't get talked about enough.

Oh, he's a high-quality player.

So he was on that LSU team with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson and Patrick Queen.

Yeah, they were loaded.

And he had a ton of hype coming out of college.

Early second-round pick.

Early second-round pick. Didn't live up to it right away.

No.

But as Dale Wally would say, you are allowed to get better, and my goodness has he gotten better over the last couple of years.

He's somebody you need to deal with.

He absolutely is.

Like if he hit the open market, he'd make a fortune.

He's one of the more underrated defensive backs in the NFL. I really believe that. He was a lot of fun to watch at LSU. He was a guy that I hoped the Steelers were interested.

In at the time.

And it's funny how often that's worked out, that those guys that you like for the Steelers end up in Baltimore or Cleveland or somewhere.

Yeah, yeah.

But if we were doing radio stations in those cities, I'm sure we'd be saying the same thing about the Steelers, you know, nabbing some guys that they all liked in the draft process.

Delpit's one of those guys, like, when my son two years ago or whatever was like, what Steelers jersey should I get? I'm like, oh, darn, I'll wash it.

Yeah.

Because no one's going to have it, and he's better than everybody thinks.

Blah, blah, blah. Like, Delpit would be a good one for the Browns.

Delpit would be a good one. Like, yeah, grab a Delpit jersey.

No one's going to be wearing that, and really just signifies you as a ball-knower if you're the one.

Who gets it.

We'll continue with our little kind of pre-scout and conversation around the Browns. Also, some interesting numbers that I wanted to get into on this rookie class as we've been spending so much time talking about it with these two teams that Bill Barnwell put out today, actually.

Yeah, I'm going to read that tonight.

Of ESPN.

So plenty more ground to cover here as we roll along in the back half of the second hour of The Drive. 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.

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

Stock up now. Bud Light.

Louis, Missouri.

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.

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

Steelers Nation Radio.

So, Matt, stop me if you've heard this before. But I misspoke there at the end of last segment.

Oh, did you?

I old missed myself. I Notre Dame'd myself. The castle of Notre Dame, darling.

It's beautiful. You walk in. All right, hold on real quick.

Is it awesome?

Oh, dude.

It's... I'm sure you've done this before, but sometimes you stand somewhere and you look at something.

And you go, how?

Yeah, okay.

Not like these new modern buildings that they build in cities. I get it.

We're so advanced in engineering and technology and all that stuff. But sometimes you see something old.

And you go, how? How did they build that thing so long?

The detail and the sculptures and.

The every inch. The time and the craftsmanship.

Every inch of it's meticulous.

Like, you could sit, you could stay in the inside for two hours and, like, still notice new things. You could stand on the outside for hours and be like.

You could probably go ten times in a row. Look at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The detail, all that.

How did they get that statue all the way up.

There hundreds of years ago?

And they have a crane.

You know, like unbelievable stuff. It was that kind of stuff always impresses me.

I'm not a big.

Like go to the pyramids. You're like, who built these?

That's exactly right.

Yeah.

I'm not a big museum guy, but like architecture stuff I think is pretty cool.

Yeah, yeah.

And especially old architecture.

Stuff of just like imagine how long it took them to build that stuff.

Yeah.

I haven't been to a museum in a thousand years. And the last time was probably a school trip in elementary school. I'm like, this place stinks. It's horrible. I bet I'd love it now. Yeah. You know what I mean? There's a reason they're out there. It's true. Old people like me.

It's true.

I would much rather go to something like Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower than the Louvre.

I gotcha.

Not that I wouldn't enjoy going to the Louvre. And if I ever go back to Paris, I.

Would like to.

But I'm more the architectural style stuff.

Okay.

Especially if you go with a good person that knows their stuff. Like Rob showed you around the city, it'd be awesome to go to the Louvre with an expert.

Like an art person.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a great call.

Maybe I can find one of those for the next time we're out there. All right, funny story for you. We'll continue to interject these for a little bit.

So we are. Going to... I think it was the day that we all went to Notre Dame. It might have been the night before, but.

You're still saying it wrong, but that's fine.

Notre Dame.

I think.

Notre Dame, Notre Dame. That school in South Bend. Yeah.

Fighting Irish.

Before we all went to Quasimodo's home, before we all went to his palatious estate... I think it was Thursday night. Kinger and I were just out walking around Thursday night, Arc de Trump, the Champs-Élysées. Kinger stopped at Yves Saint Laurent and was checking out all the fancy stuff there and drinking champagne and all that good stuff. He told me a story about how one time his wife, they were in a church in France, checking it all out, and they're talking and everything, and some security guy pops out and he goes,« Silence, s'il vous plaît.» And he's like, which means silence, please. In French, silence is silence. And s'il vous plaît is please. So Kinger's telling me these stories about how if you're in any of the churches

or museums or anything and you hear a security guard go, s'il vous plaît.

It means keep it down. Yeah.

I'm sure that they don't want to be able to take a library.

Exactly. It's a tourist attraction, but you got to be mindful at.

The same time. We don't need terrible towels.

So the whole rest of the day, anytime someone would be a little too loud- Kinger, I would be like salon.

See you play salons. We walk into Notre Dame, all of us. There's, there's like 10 of us.

I went through the list of everybody's names yet myself and Kinger, Max Starks and Dan Quinlan and Michael Birch and, and, uh, Alec and Alyssa from, from video and photo, Max Starks. We are walking in the castle of Notre Dame. They asked me to take my hat off when I walk in completely understandable.

Okay. That's a thing. Okay.

You're in a, you're in a, you know, the, zillion year old church here we ask everybody to take their hats off no problem walking around people are lighting candles there's a start mass is going on it's just a million things to look at.

It's really cool so it's a quiet boring nothing going on no no there's.

A lot it's quiet but it's it's quiet but people are talking people are lighting candles people are looking at all the different displays and confessional areas and all that stuff there's a group behind us that's kind of like laughing and chuckling a little bit and we hear we hear a voice boom.

Out salon si vous plaît.

And Kinger and I about fell.

Over laughing and that dude says it like every three minutes of his life.

Because we had spent like the whole day joking about salon si vous plaît and we are in Notre Dame for about three minutes and we hear salon si vous plaît salon si vous plaît so I just thought that was a funny one.

Think how often that dude has to say that though People drinking champagne all day, and then they go, let's go check out Notre Dame. And they're like, well, first of all, it's Notre Dame. Is this where Rudy lined up? Why don't you pipe down?

He probably says that 200 times a day.

Over and over.

C'est long, s'il vous plaît.

Next time the Steelers are on a third down on offense, instead of the quiet men at work, I need the.

C'est long, s'il vous plaît.

If that had been the home team, that's what they should have said. They should have done.

But, Matt, where I was going with all this was I misspoke at the end of last segment. I said a rookie thing that Bill Barnwell had done. It's actually a sophomore year thing.

I apologize.

Oh, yeah. It's supposed to be this great running back class. I mean, there's a brownie on here.

Exactly right. And that's where I wanted to go with it. He talked about what was two years ago, right, which would have been the 2025 draft class.

Rookies last year.

The running backs. that, again, there were a lot of big names in that class.

Ashton Gentry, Omari and Hampton, Quinshawn Junkins, Travion Henderson, Bastille Tootin, Johnny Knoxville, Cam Scagabee.

Yeah, yeah.

And really how.

I mean, it was billed as like a historic running back draft class.

And it hasn't necessarily lived up to that billing.

No, no, no.

I think particularly with the top two, what's going on with Gentry and with Hampton?

Jenty's a tough one because he, I don't think he's been healthy all year. Remember he got injured in the preseason.

Yeah.

So like he's on my main fantasy team. So I've really paid extra attention to him, but like for fantasy, he's unbelievable. His usage is as good as anyone in the league. And he catches a ton of passes, but you watch the tape.

And you're like, he's not changing games for that often.

No. And in the NFL world, if I'm getting it, if I'm using a top 10 pick on a running back, which I never would do, he has to be Bijan.

Or Saquon.

Yeah, exactly. And frankly, Jenty doesn't look close. Nor did he last year, but I think this year he's not healthy. It's a foot thing, you know, and I don't know that he'll ever be that guy. I bet he won't, to be honest. But he's a heavy usage player. I've kind of thought they'd be smart to just shut him down for a week or whatever. Kind of like what Julian Love's going through right now with the Cardinals. You know, like, got injured in the preseason and hasn't been what you want on a not great team, but he's not a bust either. You know, Omarion Hampton might be, might be, I would love to see him somewhere else.

I thought he was poised for such a big year.

Yeah.

Because they had a trade candidate. Maybe they had both of those.

He's a terrible fit in this scheme. He is big and he's fast, but he's, that's only takes you so far in the league and he's really big and really fast. And that's great at North Carolina.

Yeah.

But he's not real elusive, and he's not Derrick Henry big and fast. And that run scheme doesn't really fit him because he's not real patient and doesn't let things develop. He was somebody I kind of feel justified on, just from a fantasy perspective. He was going really early.

First round for us.

Yeah.

Like right at the turn there.

Yeah.

And I thought, I don't think this scheme fits him at all. I mean, he's not a chance. You know, with the Dolphins, or, you know, they went and got Keaton Mitchell to be that guy. So if they're going to keep up with this scheme, I think they should consider moving him. I don't know that he stinks either.

They barely used him.

And their blocking's terrible, and everyone's playing bad there. I mean, so it's everybody's fault.

Then one of the guys that there's a nice write-up on is, of course, Quinchon Junkins.

I bet.

After a brutal start to the season, Junkins is coming off his best game of the year. Heading into the week seven matchup against the Titans, he had carried the ball 73 times for 220 yards, just three point yards per carry. The Browns do have eight new starters on offense, so it was reasonable to expect some growing pains.

But, you know, the Titans then showed up.

And despite playing from behind for most of the contest, the Browns leaned on Junkins, 17 carries, 96 yards, two touchdowns. But, you know, the Browns have leaned into quarterback run concepts under Todd Munkin. And this, you know, obviously the coach that worked with Lamar Jackson for so long. So there hasn't maybe been quite the usage that you would expect for Junkins in the run game this year, for Judkins in the run game this year, pardon me. But, Matt, he always has that ability to hit home runs.

He's really good. Again, these are a lot of fantasy notes, but that's also where I get a lot of Matt's stats, too.

Like, he.

His rookie, basically nobody blocked for him. Like, he got hit behind the line of scrimmage more than any back in the league. And they totally threw that offensive line away and just brought in an all-new offensive line. And it's been a lot better. And then this past week, Dylan Sampson, who's also in this class, they drafted two running backs last year, came back, and he's definitely going to be the receiving back. So, like, Judkins is better in the real world than for fantasy because he's a really good ball carrier and a capable receiver, but he probably isn't going to get many catches with Sampson around.

There's some crazy stats about him that aren't his fault, but this past week is one of, I think, only two games in the NFL that he's averaged more than four yards a carry.

Wow.

And that's not a big number.

No.

I mean, that's kind of like the bar, you know, like four yards of carry.

Okay.

It gets me a second and six.

All right.

You know, but it's not his fault though. You know, I mean, some guys it's your fault. Partially it's Gentry's fault. I don't think any of it's Judkins fault.

He also didn't do a ton as a receiver, his rookie season, but it's not really his thing, but he's been much better in that regard this year.

Yeah.

Yeah. But now Samson's here, that's probably going to go away.

Yeah, good call. Good call.

He had three rushes of 10 or more yards against the Titans, which matched his season total up to that point.

That's rough. Let's not let him get going in that regard.

No, no. He's good with the ball. I mean, he's a good player. He could be my back all day long.

He was one of those. Last year in fantasy, I drafted him towards the end of the draft.

And he ended up being a good investment. He was one of those stocks that you bought low that ended up hitting.

And it could have been a lot better. I mean, they still had the worst run game in the league.

I think he would have put up even better numbers. So I just wanted to get into that. I wanted to get your thoughts on the two big names.

I wanted to talk about Henderson, though, too.

You want to talk about Trayvon Henderson a little bit?

Yeah.

So... He had a big run against Steelers.

He's the definition of a home run hitter.

Yes.

His highlight tape is very good. He's very explosive. He's very fast. I don't think he's a very good player, though.

Okay.

If you watch him down in and down out, and his usage keeps showing this, they don't lean into him that much. He misses a lot of holes. Being a running back at Ohio State, as you know, is a pretty nice life.

These are big holes.

Judkin's going to take half of it.

There's a first-round lineman, and there's a third-round lineman, and here's a first-round quarterback.

And if I get in space, no one's catching me. And Judkin's going to do all the hard work. But here's why I wanted to bring up Henderson. Remind me during the draft, and I'm reminding everyone during the draft, because I bring this up often, usually when rookies struggle. I love Dane, I love McShay, all those guys. They do great work. And all the draft Nick said about Henderson coming out of Ohio State. Highly adept in past protection.

That's nice.

That is.

Yeah, that's nice. I do a fantasy podcast every Wednesday, and we were talking about Henderson. And how I explained it was, that's great. Being at Ohio State or, frankly, Akron or wherever, being good in protection matters. And he's willing to stick his face in that.

And you don't say that about many running backs in college now because they're not asked to.

I mean, if you're good, you go out on, we don't want you blocking.

Correct.

We'll find some blockhead to block, you know, or whatever. But how I said it on the fantasy show was one of the co-hosts was like, well, what do you mean? Like, why doesn't that translate? I'm like, that's like being good at math in fourth grade. And then you go to MIT the next year. That doesn't mean you're good at math at MIT. you got to deal with Flores is blitz packages, not to mention the lethal dudes that they get you blocking are velociraptors. You know, there's way better human beings at their job than even if you were played against Ohio state every week. And the blitz packages are so much different than the knowledge of it. You can be as willing as you want, but it's like, yeah. Oh,

you're the best kid in elementary school at math. Go to MIT next year and see how you fare.

How you fare.

I mean, there's some that translate. Like, Zeke Elliott was great at Ohio State, and it translated. But don't assume, because you're great at even the biggest program, that it translates. It's night and day.

I don't think I ever told you guys this before or shared this on air, but I actually had a grandfather who went to MIT.

He did.

Now he's no longer with us. But I wish he was so that I could ask him, hey- what was the jump like from a, from math class in high school?

Right.

I bet it's pretty strong, but it's pretty good. I mean, the big thing that great defensive coordinators do is how can I isolate your back in protection? It's one of the things Flores does best. Like I'm going to bring enough that I'm going to make it's, it's sweeping the league right now too, especially because all the under center stuff, all the play action stuff, we're not going to let you get the play action. Cause we're going to blitz like crazy. And Flores has taken it to a new level and everyone's trying to copy him. And a huge key of that is we're going to make your back pass block as many snaps as I possibly can.

Because he's going to mess it up at some point.

He's going to mess up. He's going to definitely mess up more than offensive linemen.

He's just going to get beat or he's going to read something.

Wrong and miss. Even if he's blocking Jalen Ramsey, let alone TJ Watt. You know, I mean, he's going to mess it up. And Henderson has been, back to him, he's been terrible in protection at the league. I should have opened with that. Just because you're good at Ohio State doesn't mean you translate the league. So he's not even out there on third downs because he's terrible in protection.

That's a tough way to live.

Right. That's a tough way to live. One more segment for us to go here. We will turn it over to you good people. Questions, comments, concerns, reactions. We'll hit on as many as we can before we get up out of here. Euler and Williamson, it's The Drive, 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.

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

Stock up now. Bud Light.

Louis, Missouri.

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.

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

Steelers Nation Radio.

Final segment of the drive here on this Thursday.

And Matt, as you can imagine, as we go to the participation to get us up out of here, still plenty of questions centering around the impending trade deadline and what the Steelers might do.

I think there's a lot of action still to happen across the league. There's a lot of names that could go. There's a lot of teams that should be selling. And the other thing is, I think this applies to the bear trade that just happened. there's not this big bad wolf team that you look at like, are we a contender or not? They're, they're way better.

It's not like the Rams are six and one and killing everybody.

Why not us?

Yeah.

That's well said.

I think you'd say that we've talked about that with college football this year.

I don't think there's a big, who's the best team in the league.

I think Miami might be in college football, but they also haven't played anybody with a pulse yet.

So I need to see it before I really believe it.

Yeah.

And they don't look like the you from whenever I remember the you that have first round picks behind first round picks.

And we might, uh, get to Christmas and say, Oh yeah, the Rams look like that, you know, or, Oh yeah, the bills look like that. The bears look like that, whoever. But I think you're right. College football and the NFL both feel like there is not that proverbial big, bad wolf. Like there was not that, Oh man, that team looms as a buzzsaw.

Yeah. I'm sure that crossed the bear's mind. Like, should I throw my hat in the ring? All my hats in the ring, you know, or not. And like, Let's do it. We got a shot. It could be us.

It certainly could be us. So plenty of questions about the trade deadline. And you're right, Matt. I think we've seen a lot of movement already, and that's only going to continue for the next, what, five days here or so until we get to deadline day.

And the short term for here... Steelers aren't going to sell Queen or Highsmith or, I mean, if anything, they're buying.

I continue to see Alex Highsmith pop up on a bunch of these lists.

And I'm like, what are we doing?

Yeah, you're not paying attention.

If the Steelers were 2-5 instead of 5-2, it's a completely different conversation.

Right.

The last time I checked, they are 5-2 and tied for first place in the division. Right. And by the time you and I get on a microphone Monday, they could be 6-2 and in first place.

In the division.

Absolutely.

The only— I mean, I shouldn't even say these words. The only way you'd trade like Highsmith is— Trading Highsmith in a second rounder for Justin Jefferson. Oh, yes. I don't think you guys think about that. That's the only way something like that happens.

But I don't think the Vikings are going to give up on Justin Jefferson.

If you're going to land some superstar back, okay. Then I'd listen. But he's not going anywhere for a draft pick.

Sudash says, hey, guys, given that we don't want to give up too much draft capital, what would you give up if the right wide receiver was available? I think I would give up anything that wasn't the Steelers' first-round pick.

I don't think the Steelers' first-round pick can ever go anywhere in any deal.

Until you have a franchise quarterback.

Right, right.

If we got Caleb Williams on his third year of his deal, yeah, I'll give up two first-round picks.

I'm talking about between now and the trade deadline. I can't move the first no matter what.

Until you have young Ben Roethlisberger again or young Terry Bradshaw again, I'm not moving first-round picks.

And I would be– it would have to blow my doors off to move this year's second.

Agreed.

I mean, I'm going to need that for some capacity either to fill a need or to move up or whatever. Um, could a third go for the right guy? Yes. Yeah.

Yeah.

Would I do a third for Brian Thomas jr.

I'd really think about it.

I think about it, you know, or If it's a wide receiver that fits. You have two thirds.

You have two thirds.

Yeah.

If it's a wide receiver that fits and has some term on their contract.

It's not just a rental. Like, I'm not giving them a third for downs.

No chance.

And I really like downs in a vacuum. We already talked about how I like other Boston. It's the Boston versus Concepcion conversation. You know, I want Boston types. I don't want Concepcion types. Not that you would. Turn your nose up at Concepcion, though. He doesn't mean he's a lesser player. And Downs is very Concepcion-like in that conversation.

But he's a free agent at the end of the season. Yeah.

I'm not giving up a day one or day two pick for a rental. I'm just not.

I doubt you know this answer. I don't know this answer. But does the Steelers' policy of not negotiating during the season apply to somebody that's not on the team now that you trade for?

I don't know the answer, but if I'm speculating and assuming, I would think it absolutely does.

I assume so too.

Because if you're not going to negotiate with Joey Porter Jr., one of your own who you drafted and developed in season, why would you do it with some dude that you just traded for from another team?

Right.

So if it is a rental though, if you had a contract in place where as soon as he gets here and I added two years to his deal, that's a different story.

But I just don't think we're going to be in that position.

I just don't think that's how it works.

I don't either.

I mean, I know it's never happened since I've covered the team, but they've traded for someone mid-season. and extended them that day.

And when they have like the, the big Minka Fitzpatrick type, he was already under, they're already under contract because.

You're making those moves for guys that are already under contract.

Right.

It wasn't a rental.

I would say Matt, maybe one day we'll cross that bridge when we get there, but I don't know if we'll ever have the opportunity to cross that bridge.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's a rare situation that you would want to, and it's not a rental.

That's not 33 years old. And you're saying you're, you're gearing up for one last run.

Right.

DeForest Buckner type, you know?

Right. Right. Right.

You know, like, Seattle should do that with Nelson.

If Seattle could extend Nelson before the end of the season, brilliant. Brilliant.

And maybe they already had that conversation with the agents before they pulled the trigger on the trade. But I don't think they also have the policy that the Steelers do. Or, you know.

Kyle says, with the amount of teams that now own multiple first-round picks next year, I'm thinking more and more the Steelers should wait until 28, roll with Aller and or Howard next year, go get a stud, linebacker, wide receiver, corner, and keep building the nest.

I understand that.

I would also look at it the other way, though, Kyle, because think about it. These teams with multiple picks, okay? Yeah.

They're only going to take one quarterback.

Right, they're only going to take three.

If the Jets have three picks in the top 14, and they're saying, okay, our top pick's untouchable, maybe even we're going to use two of those picks to move up to second overall, but we still got this third one that sits at 14.

That you know isn't going to be a quarterback.

Yeah, and I urge everyone to rewind to yesterday. Today, Halloween-ish. It looks like you might not even have to trade up to get one of the first-round quarterbacks. Or you might not have to mortgage the farm to get... We always say they're going to pick 20. They might pick 28. They might pick 15. I don't know. But the way this quarterback class is shaping up, I don't know about that.

I understand that logic. It'd be fun to see Aller or Howard for a year. And you might be like, well, we don't need a quarterback. Those guys are awesome. And we got all this other stuff. That'd be great.

Or they fall on their face in 2028.

And it's one of those proverbial years where there's the Fernando Mendoza and nobody else.

And you're not going to get the Fernando Mendoza.

Yeah.

And I know a lot of people were like, well, if it doesn't work out with Aller or Howard, well, then you're gonna have a top five pick anyways.

I'm like, I don't know.

Maybe they never have in the history since I've been alive.

They went 8-8 with a guy named Duck.

Yeah, right, right.

Who's now more known for being the husband of a famous country singer than he is an NFL quarterback.

There's always somebody worse. That doesn't mean they're going to turn into the Titans.

Listen, I realize that I am speaking from a narrative because I've been doing this around campus thing, and I just told you yesterday there's already four guys that I think are nailed on first-round draft picks at quarterback, and they'll probably be five or six by the time we get to the end of the year. I'm tired of kicking that can down. I understand your thought process, and I don't think it's a terrible thought process. But I think this is the time to step back into that batter's box and swing for a franchise quarterback.

And we've mentioned it, and I'm not saying this, I'd condone it, but I would listen to all situations. If McCarthy's unbelievable with the Giants, and they have Dart and McCarthy, and you can get one of them for a second, and you don't think you could land the first-round quarterback, I get it. Or the Titans end up in the first overall pick, and they're going to take... arch or whoever and you can get ward for a two i think about it you know what i mean like there's other approaches than you have to use the first round pick on a quarterback but i'm with you i want josh allen you know i mean like i want i want i'm not i don't want to settle yep i don't want the i don't want the other not those

guys are garbage i don't want the other guys.

The 12th or the 14th best quarterback right right i want a top seven guy We got a lot of really good tweets today. A reminder, I will save some of these. We're going to have plenty of time for audience participation next week. I promise we'll do a lot more of it. But last one of the day, we've had a bunch of people. Our buddy Michael Adesso tweeted us about this. Checker tweeted us about this. I saw it a few more times. Questions about a guy like Reek Woolen. On the Eagles, on a one-year deal, fits a position of need. And if that's a guy, the Steelers could kick the tires on.

Maybe.

Very fast, very long man coverage ability. Also fits the scheme the Steelers are playing. Their last game or two, people pick... He gets picked on because Quinion and Dejean are the other guys.

Sure.

And he's not a No.

1 corner.

I think he's under contract up through next year. I think he signed a two-year deal this offseason. Oh, no, he's a Reynolds.

Okay.

I mean, I don't love Reynolds.

I don't either.

Yeah, I mean, he'd be helpful.

But he could be a cheap Reynolds.

Yeah. Do we know that he's one of the Steelers' top two corners? Probably. Dean's better. Yeah. I mean, he's not.

I think Dean's your one.

Yeah.

Regardless.

I mean, unless you trade for sauce or something like that.

Sure.

That's a different conversation altogether, which I don't think it's the craziest conversation either. But I don't know where Wolin gets you. I mean, most of them give up like a fifth or sixth round pick, and he's in the equation and a rental corner. That's not a stud. I don't think he puts you over the top.

No.

But he'd be useful. He'd be some nice fire insurance, though.

Yeah, yeah.

If you were to pick up another injury or something. We'll continue to talk more plenty about that. I'm sure we'll have tomorrow some trade conversation, but obviously we'll be mostly focused.

On the Browns.

The league's keeping us busy with trades.

But then the trade conversation will really heat up next week with the bye week and the deadline looming.

I bet between now and our Monday show, there's four trades. Absolutely.

Absolutely.

That'll do it for us today. As always, a big shout out and thank you to the video producer of this program, Mr.

TV, Tyler V. For Matt Williamson, I'm Wes Shuler. Take care, everybody.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for participating. We will talk to you tomorrow. As always, you know where to find us. It's on your 24-7 home of the black and gold. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

Drive10.29.26Hr2: Scouting the Browns

Kapitelklicken springt direkt hin

Shownotes

Transkriptvom Podcast bereitgestellt · Zeitmarken springen hin