Drive11.3.26Hr1: MVP Candidates, MNF Observations

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Good afternoon, Steeler Nation. It's The Drive on the Steelers Audio Network. Wes Shuler, Matt Williamson with you for the next two hours on this Tuesday as we have got a lot of fun stuff planned. We'll do our normal Tuesday power rankings. We've got to talk about an impressive performance on Monday Night Football last night from the Chicago Bears.

We'll do some fantasy football stuff today. We'll start digging into your tweets here as the week rolls along, too. And next week as well, of course, as we are staring down the bye week. Plenty to get to on the program here, despite no game for the Steelers this weekend. With that, Matt, I figured if it's all right with you, before we... Before you do.

Oh.

So, for whatever... That's not really that exciting.

To be fair... For.

Whatever reason the weather comes up a lot.

Dude.

First five minutes or first five seconds. Still wearing shorts.

November 3rd.

Still wearing shorts.

I was walking in. I'm like, this might be the nicest day of the year.

It's unbelievable.

It might be the nicest day of the year as I come strolling in here. I'm like, it's warm and sunny and perfect. but not too hot, not too cold.

The foliage is just everywhere you look right now.

It's beautiful.

Leaves flying around.

I mean, windows down the whole way here. I'm like, this might be the nicest day of the whole year.

I think we probably only get like 50 or 60 nice days a year here in western Pennsylvania. This is definitely towards the top of the list.

Holy cow, yeah.

I'm with you on that one. It's like 70 and sunny and a light breeze and you can wear any type of outfit and be just fine.

Absolutely.

Thrilled.

And yeah, you combine that with the changing of the leaves and kind of the fall foliage and everything and it's been a stretch of just some beautiful weeks here in Pittsburgh, in Western Pennsylvania, and today certainly another one of them. Long may it continue. I do think it's going to change here soon. I'm sure it'll be harsh.

If you're looking at the weather reports, but long may it continue, and the sunshine smiling down, not only upon the Steelers, but on all of Western Pennsylvania here on another beautiful, beautiful day.

Matt?

Oh, I got another one. Okay. I had this conversation on my podcast a So last night, more or less, the Bears had 35 minutes of time of possession. Seattle had 25 minutes of time of possession. We kind of went back and forth. Did they have a 10-minute advantage? Or is it 5-minute advantage?

Okay, now see, this is one of my favorite debates.

I feel like I'm counting seconds twice if it's 10 minutes. Every second I hold the ball really counts, too, if you give them 10 there.

Do you know where I'm going to go with this? Do you remember the debate we had a few years ago at Sharky's about this? Do you remember this?

It's come up before.

So there was once upon a time, it would have had to have been two or three years ago because our dear brother Dale Lawley was still with us and was still in good health. I just vividly remember Dale and Pursuta and you and I were sitting at our spiritual home of Sharky's and the Pirates were playing around 500 baseball.

I was probably half paying attention.

You and me both. And we got into a debate of if the Pirates finish 82.

Similar.

Okay. Yeah.

I know what you're talking about.

If the Pirates finish 82 and 80, did they finish two games above 500 or one?

Or one.

Because technically, if you just look at the record, they are two games above 500. Right. But if they would have lost one more game, they would be 500. They'd be 81 and 81. And I remember Pursuta and Dale getting animated about this.

Yes.

I remember they were like on each side.

So every second I hold the ball shouldn't count two.

Everyone knows, too, those knuckleheads Dale and Pursuta don't like to lose a debate.

Oh, no, they're both bullheaded about it.

And I remember them arguing about if the Pirates go 80 and 82 or if they go 82 and 80, Are they a game above 500? Are they a game below 500? Are they two games? It's a fair conversation.

Yes. So I brought it up because I thought somebody smarter than us listening that knows math a little bit might be like, oh, no, it's really five minutes. It's not 10.

That's kind of where I lean, but it's also your defense was out there for 10 minutes more than the other.

Exactly. And so my co-host... I've mentioned him before, Brian Peacock. I brought it up to him thinking he's not going to have any clue. He's the first one to be like, oh, I'm not talking math ever. He's a musician, baseball player, podcaster. You know, like on the West Coast. Like he has nothing to do with math. Great dude. But he actually nailed it. He said, if you and I stand back to back and we walk five miles in the opposite direction, we're 10 miles apart.

Yes.

And that's what's happening. Yes. As I'm holding the ball, you're not.

Yes.

So I'm really gaining like two seconds.

I think that's the way to do it.

I think that's the best way to look at it.

I think so too. Yeah. But it is an interesting debate.

If you can't stay on the field, and I am, we're both walking the opposite directions. That's been rattling around in my cranium all day.

That's a good one. It really is. That's something that I know we've debated in the past with records and things like that. Let us know. You don't want to get at us on X on Twitter if you have an opinion on that one. Well, Matt, since you went there, how about those Chicago.

Bears, man?

They're for real.

My goodness, they are for real. That offense is a juggernaut, and here comes Jeffrey Simmons to potentially change the culture of that defense, too. I mean, I know it's only one game, but TV and I were laughing. I don't know if you remember this, Matt, because it was, what, 10 years ago, 12 years ago at this point, but when the Bears acquired Khalil Mack.

Oh yeah.

And a big off season splash. And their first game was against the Packers at Lambeau and Khalil Mack went out there and wrecked everything that Aaron Rogers and the Packers were. He had like two and a half sacks and a forced fumble and was just a menace. And it was like, Oh my goodness, look at this piece that the bears just added. There was some of those, some of that same vibes for Simmons last night, man.

He was shot out of a cannon.

Yeah, so Nelson might be equally as valuable when it's all said and done, but we shouldn't have expected Nelson to come in and just make the line dominant because lines take time. I've said about this for the Steelers for a long time. By putting Nelson at left guard, you make Zabel go from left to right in a short amount of time, and they didn't have cross. But you see it in the left tackle. But you see Simmons in there, and he's got the orange sleeves on.

He used to have the red sleeves in Tennessee. I watched JTO Sullivan's quarterback school a bunch. And, you know, if you're watching a quarterback against Tennessee, he's like, where's Redsley?

Where's Redsley?

You know, and he's that type of dude. I mean, you couldn't help but watch Simmons. Even if you're not one that watches a lot of the line of scrimmage, you had to be paying attention and isolate on him if you're just casually watching this game. And boy, was he good. You know, I mean, boy, was he good.

Speaking of Pursuita, I wake up to a text this morning. Because he's catching on that maybe I know a thing or two about some stats and some theories about the league.

He's finally, after a decade, warming up to some advanced analytics.

Again, bullheaded like Dale. Won't open Matt's stats.

Just watch the game. Who cares about the fancy numbers?

But I wake up to this little nugget on my phone. Extended rest teams. You notice I've kind of been on that trend for a while now. are 13-3 after last night's beatdown by the Bears. Remember, they played Thursday night the week before. Yes, that's right. And I'm like, yeah, I was all over it, and I bet it too, brother.

He's like, oh.

He sees the betting angle.

He sees it, of course.

Of course.

I'm like, it's a real thing. I mean, Thursday to Sunday. I'm not sure if a bye week's going to count, but Thursday to Sunday, I am all over.

We saw it from the Steelers, man. That's when it felt like they really turned a corner.

Yeah, absolutely.

And.

That being said, to your point, I think the Bears are very real. I mean, like, maybe should be one in the power ranks real.

We'll do that here today, and we'll see where they are on the NFL.com power rankings. But I'm with you. I think we all knew that the offense was legit. But that defense now all of a sudden with Jeffrey Simmons.

And they ran on Seattle.

No one does that.

They sure did. Right. I mean, yeah, 126 yards rushing, 247 through the air, a balanced offense. They've got the quarterback. They've got the coach. They have an improved defense.

The defense wasn't junk before Simmons. It was well coached. They got Gordon back their slot. He was kind of making a difference.

Dylan Fenneman starts to look like he's settled in.

And then you add a big, big piece. Yes, you do. You go to Seattle and really say something. A couple notes on Seattle, though.

Just real quick, too, as much as it pains me to say. Devin Bush, pretty good football player.

Yeah, I was going to bring him up too. Pretty good football player. And my big friend group text, they're like, is Devin Bush good now? I'm like, he has been for a.

Couple years, guys.

He has been for a couple years. Yeah, like he was good for the Browns. Yeah, nobody noticed, but yeah, he's good now. Not that the Steelers should have moved on. I mean, it was time.

No, it was the right time.

There was injuries, and he wasn't good then.

Yes. Seattle.

Seattle. I still think they're definitely a contender that felt like a playoff game last night. They could both be in the NFC championship game or either could win the Superbowl. But if Smith and I put this on Twitter, Smith and jig was playing it in Antonio Brown level right now. I mean, like it's every week, all the time, no matter what level you play at. He's as good as any.

Football player was in there for a couple of weeks.

It's good as any football player on the planet at this moment. I mean, it was, it's like a B type stuff, but they need somebody else. I mean, when he's quiet for five minutes, the offense doesn't go anywhere. They need some other weapon that's at least semi-dangerous. And this is somewhat of a bit, and I said it on my other podcast, because I know the irony of it and I'm not stupid and people will be like, of course you can. But is Sam Darnold good enough to win a Super Bowl?

Oh, come on.

Well, his trophy cabinet would say yes. I know.

I mean, like, obviously I'm aware he just did. But, like, you watch him against Caleb or against Purdy or Stafford or Allen or, you know, one of those guys, it's like... Can we win a Super Bowl with this guy? I know it's just been done, but you see where I'm going with it.

I do.

You know what I mean?

You obviously can. The answer is yes.

Yes.

But it's another one of those. It's like Jalen Hurts. They're not the same thing. And I don't say Brock Purdy now because I think he's leveled up since then.

I think he's better than that now.

But it was kind of like Jimmy Garoppolo and Brock Purdy when the Niners went to those few Super Bowls.

Right, right, right, right.

If everything is right around him, yes, you can.

Yes, you can.

You can. But everything better be right around him. And maybe Seattle will be getting close to getting that run game back. They're obviously healthier now in that department. They get Charbonnet back, Jadarian Price back. That's very sad news for my fantasy football team because now Emmanuel Wilson's been relegated to special teams, and he had really been a waiver wire beauty for me the last month or so.

I had a feeling he'd be done, Matt, but he's coming off of a 100-yard touchdown performance.

And then gets no carries on offense.

I mean, come on. Um, yeah, if they can get that run game going, but it is, I mean, right now it is, it's JSN and it's a cast of others. The cast of others hasn't been as good as it was last year, obviously with Kenneth Walker, but elsewhere too.

And I think Nelson will help a lot in the big picture and maybe for years to come.

Gray Zabel looked a little uncomfortable in his first game ever at right guard.

You get Simmons, thanks.

And again, the Steelers parallels there, Matt. Gray Zabel was probably the best rookie offensive lineman last year.

Yeah, he was really, really good.

He was a really good left guard as a rookie.

Great contributor to the Super Bowl team.

And had had a pretty decent start to this season. And then you move them to the right side and he looks like it's his first game in the NFL.

It's hard. It's hard.

You're right.

It's what's three practices on the right side.

And again, he's lining up against one of the best in the business, but you combine that and him playing on the new side of the offensive line for the first time. And he had an evening to forget.

Yeah, he absolutely did. I also think a huge contribution contributing factor that isn't thought about enough is the offense coordinators. Now the head coach of the Raiders.

I mean, it's, Not only does your roster get plucked when you win a Super Bowl, your coaching staff does too.

When you have a big-time defensive head coach, and the Steelers, bring it back to the Steelers through the Tomlin years, especially after Ben, you have to hit on your offensive coordinator, and they did, but then you've got to hit on them again in like a year, and again in a year, and again. I mean, if you hit on your offensive coordinator, he will be there two years max. That's tough, man.

That's a tough way to live.

It absolutely is. It's a champagne problem when you're coming off of a Super Bowl championship.

Like Tampa hit two times in a row. They became head coaches in Carolina and Jacksonville. And then the next time it's like, well, we can't hit three times.

In a row. But you know what's even worse is when you get like the Detroit Lions thing.

Absolutely.

And you don't quite get that ultimate prize.

And then it goes to a rival.

And then your coordinator goes to a rival and is doing a great job there.

That's the best example.

That's cool.

And he didn't get the ring.

You didn't get a ring. You didn't even make it to a Super Bowl. You made it to one NFC Championship game, but you didn't even make it to a Super Bowl.

It's the most fruitful time in Lions history, but you might have missed your window, you know?

You might have. Although, who knows?

I mean, they're still good.

They're still good.

They're still capable.

If they added a piece to that defense, I think we'd like their chances even more. But yeah, it was a tight first half and then a Chicago Bears second half out there last night at Lumen Field. All of a sudden now, too, Matt, just the NFC playoff picture becomes so interesting.

It does.

It's two divisions.

The Niners and the Vikings are still sitting there with one loss apiece. The Bears are obviously at 6-2. Packers and Lions aren't going away. Seahawks and Rams are 4-4, but we don't think they're going away.

But they're a distant second in that division now.

If you're the Niners, you're feeling real good after last night.

And I can't imagine a wildcard team comes out of the East or South.

Agreed. Definitely not the South.

Seven teams are going to come. And definitely not the East.

Unless the Giants and the Cowboys both played great football down the stretch. Right.

No. I don't think. Carolina and Tampa, maybe. I don't think.

I don't think so either.

I like the Rams' chances better than all those. And I like everybody in the North better than them.

You're going to get five of your seven playoff teams from two divisions in the NFC. It seems almost inevitable.

Of those eight teams in the North and West... Not Arizona, but everybody else.

That's funny. I was just thinking of those. You're right. So it's really seven teams for five spots.

Yeah.

Five spots for seven teams.

It really is.

Because you can throw Arizona out.

Of the conversation.

Yeah, they got no chance. But they're all coming out of the same division. There's going to be a lot of, yeah.

It's going to be fun. TV and I at our pre-production meeting today at the Cigar Bar. We were kicking around topics for next week's show. And we're going to do a who right now is a legit Super Bowl player. contender possibility. All the teams will have a discussion next week after another set of data points to which teams do we really think? And I'm not even saying Superbowl favorites, but teams that you could see right now.

Yeah.

That team could win the Superbowl.

Yeah.

I think there's a handful in the AFC and there's certainly a handful in the NFC.

I'm all for it. Funny enough. I wasn't invited to that pre-production meeting, but I had my own as I was laying in bed last night, trying to doze off going, What quarterbacks this year could win the MVP? And I came up with seven names. Okay.

Let me guess. Brock Purdy?

I think it's seven. Six or seven.

Brock Purdy, Josh Allen.

Yeah.

Could.

Jordan Love.

Yeah.

Okay, that's three. I'm assuming Lamar is not on there. Joe Burrow?

Burrow is four.

Not Matthew Stafford.

I think that's done.

Not Sam Darnold. No. Not Kyler Murray.

No.

Not Jared Goff.

I said Goff could.

Okay. Caleb Williams.

Caleb, I said could.

I think I'm missing one.

You're missing one. And this one should be, is why I actually started thinking of it, because I think he's more obvious, or should be obvious to everyone. But this isn't getting looked at in that light.

Not Mahomes.

Mahomes.

No, I ate eight then.

Okay.

I ate eight then because I think Mahomes still could. I would think he's a dark horse now, but I'm not going to count him out.

Trevor Lawrence. Yes. Bang.

Lawrence might be first or second on my list.

He's high.

I mean, like really high on the list.

And you before the season, I'll give you credit where credit's due.

I actually put money on that.

You said if you're going to take a longer shot, you know, player to win MVP, throw a few shillings.

On Trevor Lawrence. I think I put 10 bucks on it or something. Yeah, right. But it was long. It was more than like 12 to one. It was long.

Yeah. That's a $ 10 bet that'll. Return your triple digits.

Yeah, you nailed it, though. I think those lads can win the MVP. I don't think anybody else can.

Let's do that either... Heck, maybe we could do it later this week and next week, too. But let's have that conversation at some point of, as you like to do, we'll go through the division, each team.

That's all I always did. I'm like, Bill, yes, Allen can. I don't think May can.

No. He could be in that MVP list, too.

I was thinking about it, but he started so slow. I mean... May was my cutoff. I'm like, I don't think he could do enough in the second half of the year to be an MVP. The fact that he was a runner-up helped him.

Yeah, yeah. And we all know, too, how you play in the back half of the season means more than you play in the front half of the season in terms of those individual awards. But that's an interesting, fun conversation to get us started here as we are going to do our Tuesday Rewind. And that will maybe be kind of the final thoughts on the Steelers' win over the Browns in Cleveland as we rock and we roll into the bye week in a different type of week here.

A lot of you have tweeted us, have left comments on the YouTube page with content ideas for us for the next week or so. We've saved some of that. Yeah, we've saved some of those and we will definitely hit on some of those as this week and next week roll.

And we also just got word. No Friday show for the bye week.

No Friday show for the bye week. The fellas are getting a much-deserved day off, if you ask me.

Yeah, love it.

At least Matt Williamson and Tyler V, guys, they got some days off when I was in France. But that's okay. I won't hold it against them.

I did other stuff, but yeah.

I won't hold it against them.

The drive got the day off.

The drive got some days off.

Oh, wee-wee.

Sacre bleu. When we return here, let's do our Tuesday Rewind.

You weren't grinding out radio shows in France anyways.

I did one with Backo. That was it.

I was on with them today, by the way. I was on with Brian and Ed.

Steelers Report. They do a great job. They lead into us every single day. In the way that our friends Pursuta and our brother Dale were very bullheaded about their opinions, Matt's very adamant that, you know, Those other shows are nice, but that's like AAA baseball. This is the big leagues here.

I made the joke. It's like putting Sidney Crosby in the minors for a game or two, but all right. That's how you got to keep them motivated. Strive for excellence, fellas.

Sometimes we joke about how- You keep.

Working, maybe sometime you can get to the top gig too.

We joke about how you can't sit behind Matt Williamson because his head's so big.

Comparing himself to Sidney Crosby, that might be a new record there, baby. Put your Stanley Cups and your gold medals on the table. Let's do the Tuesday Rewind when we return. We're going to have some fun this next week or so.

We're rolling, dude.

With no game on the horizon.

Nicest day of the year. Love it.

Want some more of it. It's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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Matt, we were joking yesterday about doing the hyperbolic radio guy thing, right? as we take a look at these week nine power rankings, most of the time, the bottom of the barrel is pretty boring.

Yeah, yeah.

It's like, here's the Cardinals, here's the Jets. This might be the most entertaining bottom of the power rankings conversation that I can remember.

I know who my bottom two are.

Because there are some bad teams, and you can go a lot of different ways with kind of how you view them in the context of power rankings versus the whole season versus. What you think they should be or where they.

Say expectations have a lot to do with this as well you know right there's a.

Lot of uh there's a lot of really good candidates for the bottom of the barrel in this week's power ranking.

I think so but to me to stand out and it's not who you would have guessed a month.

Or two ago no it's certainly not just.

In terms of who do you want to play against i'm.

Assuming you're thinking chargers and colts.

Yes and i think out of colts 32 Like, I don't think they want to play any more games.

I think I would have the Colts at 32.

Who do you want to play most this Sunday? Yes. I think I want to play the Colts.

I think I'm with you on that. Now, we pull these from NFL.com.

Yeah, these aren't ours.

Just so everybody remembers. They have the Eagles dead last at 32.

No way.

And then the Colts at 31.

I mean, I get that as, like, clickbait's maybe the wrong word.

They have lost six in a row.

They're miserable. Yeah.

But I would have the Colts 32nd, probably the Chargers 31, and then I'd start thinking about the Eagles and the Jets and some of these other teams.

Agreed.

I think the Eagles defense, while it's greatly underperformed, is way better than any unit the Chargers or Colts has at the moment. I mean, really rough. So I was fiddling. I don't look at it periodically, but I went to FTN Fantasy and was fiddling with DVOA today. Chargers are 32nd in offense. And it adds up, but no one saw that coming. I mean, everyone's like, this could be the best offense in the league. They hire the whiz kid.

They got both tackles back. Hampton should be a first-round pick in fantasy. McConkie, Herbert, blah, blah, blah. They're the worst offense in the league.

Can we piggyback off that for just a second before we move on here?

Yeah.

Is Harbaugh not getting as much heat as he should? I'm talking West Coast Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh.

I think he should.

Everyone's blaming the whiz kid because he's a dork and he just got fired in Miami and he wears capris and he's a goofball. But if a restaurant's failing, I'm not blaming the GM. I'm looking at the owner.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, right, right.

I'm not.

Harbaugh's the one who hired him Harbaugh's the one who brought him in.

To fix the offense yes thought this would work it's his team watched every bit of the defense hasn't been good either it's not.

32nd I don't feel like anyone is really criticizing Harbaugh and I realize part of that is do you think.

There's any chance he loses his job?

I don't think him. Not with the way that no one talks like he's going to. And I realize if he was doing this as the coach of the Giants, like his brother or the Cowboys or a bigger market, more rabid fan base, I think it would be more of a conversation. There is some of that. It's L.A. No one really cares. It's the Chargers.

He has some cash. He has some money in the bank. I think he's a good coach.

Oh, I certainly think he's a good coach. But it just surprises me when you hear a lot of these coaches who are getting crushed. The Shane Steikens and the Siriannis and the Aaron Glens. You're hardly hearing Harbaugh's name mentioned in those circles.

And they're the worst team in the league. They're the second worst team. They're the most disappointing team in the league. They're the most disappointing team. I don't think it's even debatable. They may have ruined a great quarterback, too. You know, like it's often come up, do you want to trade for Herbert if you're the Steelers? I'm like, I'm all ears.

But he might be ruined. I'm not paying a premium for him.

They may have driven that wonderful Ferrari off the lot and just smashed it into a telephone pole.

Drove it right into the Pacific ocean.

Yeah.

I mean, I bring this up his job security Harbaugh's for, for two reasons. First, the obvious they're the most disappointing team in the league and they're terrible. But the other one is I've never met the man, but I think it goes without saying that his reputation is probably true that he's hard to be around. And he wears out.

That you heard that in San Francisco, you heard that in Ann Arbor.

And it's part of the reason why he's a great coach too, is just so intense. And there's a lot there to deal with.

Michael Jordan wore out his relationship with everybody around him too. He also won six rings.

It's great when you're winning rings, but when it's not, it's like, I mean, everywhere Harbaugh's been, he lasts like three or four years. And that's like, we've had about enough. You could go on.

While he's winning a lot too.

Oh yeah.

Win national championships and everywhere he goes, you know?

Won everything with San Francisco that you could except for the Super Bowl.

Right.

Took them to one.

I mean, Stanford and Michigan. Oh, yeah.

Stanford before that. Yeah. Eagles at 32. Colts at 31. Chargers. I think that's still the Eagles higher. Chargers at 30.

Okay.

Colts are just, they have nothing left.

Nothing.

Literally anything.

I mean, they won't be last in any, like, rankings yet.

Is it time to just throw Anthony Richardson out there and see what you got? I mean, see if there's any.

Or Riley Leonard.

Any glimmer of hope there?

Whoever you like better.

So there's your bottom three. I would have the Eagles a little bit higher, but they've also lost six games in a row and are a mess.

I mean, I think I'd still have the Eagles over the Jets and Dolphins of the world.

Jets check in at 29. Okay.

Again, I was just looking at DVOA. They were like 15th in offense.

Their offense is fine.

It's fine. Yeah, and Geno's playing well. Them and the Raiders are sort of similar, except one has their future quarterback on the bench. The other one's going to need to draft one, but they played this past week and both defenses are collapsing at a rapid rate and both veteran quarterbacks are still ripping.

Apart bad defense. Yeah.

Yeah.

28, Matt, the new Orleans saints.

Yeah, I guess they're trending that way in a big way. I mean, it's been pretty rough lately. It has been pretty rough lately. I, we could go a long way.

I would probably still have them ahead of like the dolphins and the Titans and some of the teams ahead of him, them here. But I, I respect.

What the dolphins and Titans are doing lately. But they don't have good players. You know what I mean?

Yes.

If we're drafting players from those teams, we're taking a lot more Saints than we are from the others. Yeah, definitely Eagles. 27 is the Miami Dolphins, Matt. Okay. They're playing a little bit better football, but they're still losing. Yeah, they are. Which for them might be the ideal way for this season to go.

Yeah, that actually works out quite well.

26 is the Washcombs, the Washington Commanders.

Yeah. So pull back the curtain. We come in the... We come in here and we start at 2 every day, even though I know we go live at 4. It's easier for us. It works our schedule better. We can get in and out of here a little quicker because we don't have to sit around for commercials. It's not like we're cheating or anything.

Magic or radio. Mondays, we're always live, baby.

Yeah, that's true. So anyway, I was overhearing Max and Willie and Rob chatting.

The end of their show.

Because their show's going live before we sit down at 2. They were talking about Stefan Diggs for the Steelers. I hadn't thought about that angle. And I know there's some baggage and off the field stuff and all those things, but a veteran route runner that can align in different spots from a bad team. He's kind of the mold I'm looking for. I wish he was younger, but I don't think it costs you much either. It's the first I've thought of that name.

Is he just on a one-year deal with the commanders or did he sign? I'm assuming.

Cause he was out there for a while. I assume it's just a rental. I was thinking it might be.

Okay.

Yep.

I mean, so it would be helpful.

And they already paid his $ 2 million signing bonus.

Yeah, I mean, so he'd be like 500 grand a week or whatever, you know. Not bad.

I don't hate it.

Yeah, yeah.

You're right.

There's a lot of other stuff with him. But if you're renting him for two months.

I've never heard anyone say he's a bad teammate. I mean, he likes to party off the field or whatever, you know.

Hey, me too. Number 25 on these rankings.

He's not the only one in the locker room, probably.

Number 25 on these rankings is the Tennessee Titans.

That might be a little kind.

It is. They're playing their best football right now, but that's also still not saying much.

True or false. the Eagles are favored in Tennessee this week.

In Tennessee? I don't know.

I definitely think they're favored in Philly.

Yes.

In Tennessee, they might be a point and a half dog.

Okay. Maybe close.

Fair?

Yeah.

I think that's about right.

24, the Dallas Cowboys.

Okay.

Making an argument for the most disappointing team, too, lately. But could still win the division. I don't think Philly can win the division.

No, I think Philly and Washington, I believe, are right out.

And I'm with, I forget who writes this, but I would have the Giants first in the East.

Oh, I think you have to do this one.

Part of it's because they couldn't screw anything up this past week.

I'm with you on that.

Yeah.

I would have the Giants at least start playing above 500 football and doing some good things.

I mean, those other three teams did something bad this week. The Giants just sat home and watched it.

How about them Cowboys? Few things in sports never get old.

That's a good one.

Dumping on the Cowboys is one of them.

Yeah, they're easy to dislike.

It's just, it's always fun. It never gets old. You never get tired of it.

Were you brought up to dislike the Cowboys? I'm just curious at your guy's age.

Yes. I don't think quite to the same extent, but I think I told you this before. I think the only time I saw my grandpa cry was when the Steelers lost Super Bowl 30 to the Cowboys. I think that's the only time.

That was really hard on me too.

I think that's the only time I ever saw my grandpa cry. Yeah.

That was really hard on me for my age and fandom at the time. But I was definitely brought up that the Cowboys are very hated because that was right after back-to-back Super Bowls.

Sure.

At that point, no teams had played each other twice in the Super Bowl before, and they were so anti-Steel Town cheerleaders. I mean, we didn't know who Jerry Jones was, but you so hated the Cowboys.

It's the complete opposite cultures, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

It's totally.

Raiders were one, though. You hate the Raiders most.

Yeah, you've told me that before.

Because they were a legit threat.

I think, I think TV would back me up on this for our age group. And we're in our mid thirties.

It's definitely not the Raider.

I think it would be, it would be Ravens and Patriots, right? Ravens and Patriots. Just because of all the Tom Brady years, Ravens one, Patriots two. I got to tell you, there was a long stretch of time.

The Browns were probably three or two for me, but it was definitely Raiders one.

For Bengals in there too, with the Palmer years and some of that, some of the stuff.

Yeah.

That crew, you know, and, Just the nastiness that that still existed there, but especially in the A.B. Vontaze perfect days and underrated one for me, though, because this was right when I was in high school and college and kind of my most my peak rabid Steelers fandom was the Jets. Oh, because they were good for those few years.

Like the Rex Ryan Sanchez, that.

Loud mouth Rex Ryan with the purple Baltimore stink still on him. Bart Scott, can't wait. See you next week in Pittsburgh.

Can't wait.

I love it when the Steelers would humble the Jets and that loudmouth Rex Ryan and that loudmouth Bart Scott and those loudmouth New York fans.

That'll wear off for you because if you're on the planet 53 years and they're only good for two of them.

I'm a favorite quarterback in the world right now, too.

When I was a kid, the Browns were good. Back to our Browns conversation, they were good. The 80s Browns were good. But then that quickly fell off.

All right, we're doing a lot of them. We're going to do this because it's a bye week. We're doing a lot of different digressions today and for the next week. Do you still have any teams that you would list as, I still hate these guys?

I don't work that way anymore. I think it's because I've been doing this professionally too long. Like, people got mad at me. It was like five years ago on the drive. I said, I'd love to work for the Ravens. Like, you can't say those things, but I have great respect for the organization.

Could you imagine crab cake and Old Bay Williams?

Like, if I went back to the league and had my choice of teams to work for, the Steelers would be one, but the Ravens would be far off, you know, just for my human being.

You're crazy.

You know what I mean?

I mean, I get what you're saying because you respect the organization and how they do business.

Right.

And the Steelers and the Ravens mirror each other in a lot of ways.

And you have a low chance of getting fired after one year and things like that, like real world stuff, you know?

Yeah.

I'm going to like Arizona or Charlotte or somewhere where the weather's warm.

See, I didn't even think of that. I'm just thinking about the organization.

The pressure's off and the weather's warm.

Yeah, like I'd work for Seattle. I mean, there's teams like that would be high on my list.

There's still a lot that I dislike, Matt. Like I dislike the Ravens. I dislike the Bengals. I dislike the Browns. I dislike the Patriots. I dislike the Cowboys.

Like when the Ravens lose the Bills this week, I'm like, oh good, that's for the Steelers. Not like, eh. I just don't think that way anymore, you know?

There's a lot that I still, you know, I dislike a lot of universities and their athletic programs. But there's only two sports in my 35 years of life now. I have two kids. I've worked in this business forever.

I think I know your two least favorite organizations.

There's two sports entities that I would say, there's a lot that I dislike and I'm happy when they lose. But two, that they boil my blood. It doesn't matter the time, the place, the face.

You want bad things to happen to these two organizations.

Yes. And one, it's kind of a... It's pitting the flyers. pitting the flyers okay oh this is my guy and i was gonna say your hint for the one is i don't care if it's football basketball baseball soccer volleyball i couldn't tell you a thing about college volleyball except for i know pitt's lost in the final four like 20 straight.

Years they're super good it makes me.

Happy every time it scrolls across my twitter timeline that they lost in the final four because i don't want them to have happiness in any sport i don't care if it's tiddlywinks that they're playing.

Like pursuit of roots against the wolverines I mean, you root against Pitt.

There's sometimes I think I hate Pitt and the Flyers too much, and then I spend five seconds around Mike Pursuta and hear him talk about Michigan, and I go, maybe I don't hate enough. Maybe I need to add a little fuel to my hate fire there.

Yeah.

No, I've never felt that way about any team.

I hope Virginia Tech loses every game they play, but it's not to that. There's only two logos that, again, doesn't matter the time, the place, the face, if they're great, if they're terrible, if my team's good or my team's bad.

Like you don't want their plane to go down.

No, stop.

Don't say anything. But if a plane were to go down.

I hate, but I'm reasonable.

I don't want anybody to die.

But the level below that of bad things happening to an organization.

Yeah.

If, if, you know, Pitt could go bankrupt and liquidate, they could turn the cathedral of learning.

And they never won another game into an apartment complex. Yeah.

That'd be just, that'd be cool. That'd be just fine. Yeah. I wouldn't miss the backyard brawl at the same time. It's, It's like Batman and the Joker.

Yeah, okay, okay.

I need you.

You complete me. You complete me. You're right, right.

24 was the Dallas Cowboys. 23, the Arizona Cardinals.

Okay.

Ooh.

A little kind.

A little kind. 22, the Baltimore.

I mean, they're not favored against the Cowboys, even though they just beat them.

Agreed.

There's some recency bias there.

22, the Baltimore Ravens.

I said they should come soon, and they should be last in the division.

They absolutely should be last in the division.

As currently constructed on November 3rd or whatever.

On QB3.

Right.

Did you see they signed Keaton Slovis today? Wow.

He was at Pitt, right?

And then BYU.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's terrible.

That's not great.

I think like the percent or something. I think they have to make.

Something out of it. When you sign the guy that you replaced, that you kicked off the team because you wanted to go get Phil Djokovic, that ain't a good sign. No. Twist that knife in there a little bit.

I'm a little shocked Slovis is still in the league.

I know. I might have rather had Diego Pavia, and I think everybody knows how I feel about him. 21, the Carolina Panthers.

Times are getting rough for them all of a sudden. O-line's getting banged up.

Boy, is it.

Yeah.

20 is the Las Vegas Raiders.

I don't know.

Maybe they should be a couple spots higher.

Defense is starting to fall apart, but the offense is still quite good and competitive. We had a long talk today about when do you put Mendoza in. That's a tough dilemma.

That is a tough dilemma. Their bye week is still not for another three or four weeks, I think.

I think there's like four or five games after that. But you can't do it now. I'll tell you what, though.

What would the Raiders be like? If Ashton Gentry was a B. John Gibbs, Jalen Warren level running back. 19, the Houston Texans. It's not over, Matt, but it's late early.

I know.

The record is so bad. You have to put them in this neighborhood.

They've got some tough games coming up still.

I definitely think they're better than everybody we've brought up.

Agreed.

A real quick note on the Ravens. It was really easy to overlook this because the game was over after the first play when Lamar got hurt. Their defense hung around and made life tough on Allen for a while. The Ravens D was quite good in that game, but had no help.

Had no help. 18, the LA Rams.

Again, I was fiddling with DVOA. They are 6th in offense, 6th in defense.

They're going to be all right.

I think a distant 32nd on special teams.

But they're going to be all right. In our pre-production meeting at the Cigar Bar, we were talking about teams lying in the weeds in the next few weeks.

I think Miles Garrett's window's opening tomorrow or today or whatever.

I think by Thanksgiving, at the end of this month, we'll be like, oh, there's the Rams that we expected to see.

And they traded for Stefan Diggs or something. Wouldn't surprise me. They could still win the Super Bowl.

Absolutely.

Like in that conversation.

When we have that conversation, they will still be the worst.

They'll be the ones with the worst record that we say can still win the Super Bowl.

Yes, them and Seattle because they're both 4-4.

I don't think anybody we've mentioned can.

I don't think I'd say yes for Houston at this point.

I would have like three weeks ago, and I can't anymore.

17, the Atlanta Falcons. That might be a little rich, but they're also.

I'm not going to hold this week against them. It was so crazy.

That's a good point by you.

But the Rams are better than the Falcons.

Yes.

Yes, they are. 16, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

They are sixth in DVOA. Like, overall, you mean? Yeah. Why I went down this road, I should give credit to whoever did it, but someone tweeted me saying, are we not making enough of the Steelers having two wins over two teams in the top six in DVOA? Cincinnati and Tampa. Maybe not. It was like, oh, cakewalk schedule, blah, blah, blah.

And you're like, yeah, the Saints and Colts aren't great. I get that.

Maybe not.

The Bucs win. The Bucs have been very impressive since the Steeler game.

Yes, they have.

Very impressive.

Makes you feel good as a Steeler fan. So the Bucs are at 16. Here's what we're going to do since we've been slow rolling this thing today. Yeah, let's take a break here. We'll finish up the power rankings on the backside of this first hour of the drive. Euler and Williamson, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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Uh, what if we just got out of here and grabbed some Bud Lights? But man, we're on air for four more hours.

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Final segment of the first hour here of The Drive on this Tuesday. Matt at number 15 in the power rankings. It's the Cleveland Brides.

I'm cool with that.

I think that's probably about right.

I do think we may have slightly given Watson a little bit too much credit. He was pretty miserable.

Yes.

And he's been way more bad than good this year. He's had moments, but he hasn't had a consistent 60 minutes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's pretty bad still.

14 is those New York Giants' highest team in the NFC East.

Sometimes sitting on a bye helps you in these things. It does.

They are 4-2-1. Yeah. Their success. I might have them a couple spots lower, but I think that's about the right range.

I didn't love them coming out of Michigan, but I'm really intrigued with how this McCarthy thing works the rest of the year.

Same.

Yeah.

13, the Green Bay Packers.

Okay. This Josh Jacobs stuff is starting to heat up again. Yes, it is. Yeah.

12 is your Pittsburgh Steelers.

A little low.

I think a couple spots too low, but that's okay.

I think the Steelers were 7 in DVOA. Tampa and Steelers were right in the same neighborhood, like 6-7 or.

6-7?

Yeah, yeah.

Now you're speaking my language. 11, the New England Patriots.

I would put the Steelers ahead of the Patriots.

I would too, and I know the Patriots beat the Steelers, but that was two months ago.

I mean, to me, that's all May, which is a compliment to May, but I don't see a lot else there that... If you took quarterback out of it, Steelers blow them out of the water.

And that was the.

Obviously, that's not how the world works.

That was the Steelers' worst offensive line of the performance of the season. Hopefully, we'll be saying.

I'd love to play them again. Same.

Hopefully we'll be saying for the next decade that that game in Foxborough was the last time we saw the Steelers' offensive line really struggle before they started to realize their potential and it all came together. Into the top ten, number ten, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Yeah, I'm sure they're dropping, and they should be, but not vehemently.

Matt, down from number one last week to number nine this week, the Minnesota Vikings. I think that's fair.

They were sort of a paper champion at one. I mean, they were undefeated and all that.

They should still be in the top 10, I think.

Yes.

But yeah, one was way too rich.

I do think Minnesota and Seattle's defense stand alone. They're the only tier one teams for me. And the Steelers would be in tier two, by the way. But the Vikings, oh, is really rough.

Number eight, the Cincinnati Bengals. Okay.

Man, I don't know. I'm okay with it.

Yeah.

I would be real okay with it when I don't think they're going to do it. I think they're the Best team in the league to go be aggressive on trade deadline day. You could get Brees Hall or Tony Pollard, let alone Jonathan Taylor.

It doesn't even have to be Jonathan Taylor.

Right. And Buda Baker. The positions they need, you wouldn't have to pay that much to get a running back, a linebacker, safety. You could really push your chips in and be the best team in the league. I doubt they do it.

I'd say the same thing about the Buffalo Bills if they went and got a Derwin James or a Buda Baker.

They'll give me two guys in the back seven for Buffalo.

Seven is the Seattle Seahawks.

You're not going to have these quarterbacks forever, guys. Eventually, you just got to give up picks and be like, we got Burrow and Allen.

And the AFC is wide open. It's not a few years ago where it felt like the Chiefs were the big bad boogeyman every single year. Number seven, the Seattle Seahawks down a few spots after that watch.

That's fine. We talked them to death.

That's fine.

They should add another weapon, too.

They should. Six, the Denver Broncos.

I don't know.

That's probably too rich for me.

They're going the right direction, but slowly, and I don't know that I buy it offensively.

Number five, I think this is about as high as they've been all year, the Detroit Lions.

I am starting to buy them.

Me too.

I think the defense has gone from a D minus to a C minus, and that might be enough.

Matt, I like the top four here. I think this would be my tier one. I would absolutely say these four teams are legit, not just Super Bowl contenders, but maybe favorites. Four, Jacksonville. Three, Chicago. Two, San Fran. One, Buffalo. I don't know about having Buffalo at one, but I would have them with those four teams.

Chicago or San Fran would be my one.

I think that I would have the same.

The Bills would be three.

Jacksonville, four.

But I think those four, I would say, are the tier one.

Yeah, I agree.

On current form, right?

Not projecting like we do with the Rams. Right, right, right.

But right now.

The AFC teams have more holes.

They do.

The Bills are so lopsided. And the thing about the Jags, on the surface, it doesn't look like they have holes. But their O-line is bottom eight. And that's not going to get better. It's bad. You're not going to pick up Orlando Pace.

No.

It's like Jacksonville's offensive line is a huge concern. Buffalo's secondary is a huge concern.

Like Jacksonville's better than the Steelers. But if I'm Jacksonville, I would not want to play the Steelers in round one. Deal with Herbig and Highsmith and Watt and Cam. You could really level the playing field.

And what the Steelers can do with running the ball and controlling the clock.

I'm just in terms of blocking people. They run into the wrong team in the playoffs. They could get overwhelmed.

There you have it. Those are your week nine. Holy cow, we're in week nine already of the NFL season. Matt, don't look. You probably already have, though, because you're a bigger sicko than me. Good week for the Steelers. I should say this differently, actually. Not a good week for the Steelers to have a bye week from our viewing perspective.

I have such mixed feelings if it's a good time to have a bye or not.

No, I just mean from what else we can do on Sunday. Earlier today, I was looking at Sunday's slate of games. It's not great.

I actually don't know it yet.

Sunday's slate of games in the NFL this week is a lot of.

You said college is awesome.

College is awesome on Saturday. So maybe Sunday I'll plan to be a family man and not be barricaded in the basement for 12 hours.

I have to be, but that's fine. No early game though, right? Quadruple headers have worn on me a little bit.

There is a early game, yes. It's in Madrid.

Oh yeah, it's the Bengals too.

The Steelers.

I'm definitely going to be.

Like Broncos, Panthers, Cowboys, Colts, Jets, Chiefs, Lions, Dolphins, Giants, Eagles, Rams, Commanders, Texans, Chargers.

I think we talked about it yesterday, but the Sunday nighter was garbage too.

It's Bucks-Bears this week, which is a little better.

I'm talking about Washington-Philly.

Yeah, that was, oh. Packers-Patriots is really the only game that I circled on Sunday is I gotta watch that.

I know the NFL hates this and it goes back to the power rankings, but Usually about this time of year, there's five to seven teams that you just don't want to watch. Totally.

And a lot of them are playing against each other or playing a really good team this weekend. I will say, though, the Monday night football game, Vikings-Bills, chef's kiss on that one.

Fun, okay.

Me and the fellas may have been making plans in the group chat to put the kids to bed early on Monday night and go meet at our local watering hole for that little Monday night football class share six days from now. There's your power rankings. There's your quick peek at week nine. Obviously, we'll have more discussion on that as the week rolls along. Hour in the books, another hour to go. When we return on the other side, what are we doing to start hour number two? I don't remember.

You can figure it out.

We'll figure it out when we get there. Euler and Williamson, halfway home. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

Drive11.3.26Hr1: MVP Candidates, MNF Observations

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