Drive11.3.26Rewind: Tuesday Rewind

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Steelers Nation Radio.

Good evening, Steeler Nation.

How we doing?

Well, that's good. Us too.

I love that little Stevie Ray Vaughan sounding intro.

There, you know. That's what I think of with that one too.

That's always, always.

I do change this up from time to time, but my most common answer of who's your favorite guitar player ever is Stevie Ray Vaughan.

He makes you remind me of Wolf.

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

There's times I would have said Jimmy Page, times I would have said Jimi Hendrix, times I would have said Eric Clapton. But the most common answer has been Stevie Ray Vaughan.

It definitely would not be Stevie Ray Vaughan for me. That style of music just isn't as... No, I love it. I like it. I respect it. It's just not my first choice.

Jimmy Page, yours?

Or I don't know anything about who's good and who isn't. I could not be a guitar analyst by any stretch. But Gilmore with Floyd makes me really happy. I mean, like, Wish You Were Here starts.

Comfortably numb.

Comfortably numb solo.

Yeah, right, right, right.

And Paige.

Not bad. Yeah, Paige is fantastic. Maybe we'll do something on that in the offseason.

We'll do a Best of the West Wednesday where we both rank our top five favorite guitar players or something like that.

I've been in a YouTube rabbit hole lately.

You have? Did I tell you about this one? I don't know, but I was going to tell the audience.

One of my favorite things to wake up to two or three times a month is You know, Matt's a, Matt's a late night, late out.

Oh yeah.

I used to be that way, but I'm not now with two young kids, obviously. So I go to bed way before Matt does. And there'll be a lot of times that I'll wake up. I'll have a text that Matt sent me like a little after midnight. And it's like Jimmy page solo at the Royal Albert hall.

And it's a YouTube video. And I wake up and I'm like, Oh hell yeah.

Let's close it out by evening. Remember the rabbit hole I've been down is if you search on YouTube for First time hearing Stairway to Heaven. There's some like.

People's reactions and stuff.

Yeah, there's like people that do this for a living that know music. And a lot of them are just too young for Zeppelin or have a heavy rap background. And it's just not their stuff.

Classical music background, whatever.

But it's amazing just watching these people that know stuff with headsets on hearing the first.

Oh.

And it's always... And they're like, boy. And they're like, oh, this really picks up. You know, like, whoa, his voice is unbelievable. You know, like, whoa, the drums kicked in. Yeah. It's like, oh, yeah.

There's a couple really good ones with, like, Shakedown Street and Ripple.

Oh, I bet. I mean, I'm sure you can do it.

Because a lot of people, you know, the Grateful Dead's kind of its own.

Yeah.

They're like, oh.

They've been thrust into popularity.

I'm surprised he's not top of your guitar list.

Garcia?

Yeah.

He'd be in the top 10, but I don't know about the top five.

Gotcha.

What's funny is, and we'll wrap this up quick because I realize this is a Steelers and a football show.

Not a chill to the winter, but a nip to the air.

A lot of you don't care. Jerry Garcia's style of guitar playing is so different.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like one of those. It's kind of like Floyd to me.

It's exactly right.

Yeah, yeah.

So I love it for what it is, but it's not my favorite style of just pure guitar player.

Okay.

The Grateful Dead are my favorite band.

Yeah.

And I think Jerry's fantastic.

If you could mimic someone's skills, he wouldn't be your choice.

Correct.

You'd pick Steve Ray Vaughan before that. Correct.

Correct.

Yes.

That's a good way to put it.

Matt, time for a little Tuesday rewind here to kick off hour number two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have two observations for you upon rewatch of Steelers 27, Browns 6.

One on offense, one on defense.

Let's start on defense because I think yesterday we did a pretty good job of giving a lot of individuals their flowers. We talked about Cam and Keanu just controlling and dominating those guards.

It started there.

We talked about how Patrick.

Queen and Peyton Wilson– seemingly these last few weeks have been playing so much better and how that's been helped by the defensive front in front of them, but how those two are making plays all over the place.

I heard a queen stat that I will be in next week's stat packet, but he's rushed the passer 16 times over the last three games, three sacks.

Another one bites the dust.

Yeah.

Get him going downhill.

Another one bites the dust. Let's get queen cranking. We gave those two credit. We talked about T.J. Watt, how he's tied with Will Anderson for sass leaders, and no one's really talking about it. You mentioned Jamel Dean by name and how good we think he's been. I feel like we've given Robert Spears Jennings credit.

A lot of the way.

One name that I don't know if we really mentioned yesterday or if we mentioned certainly not enough was Alex Highsmith. Because my goodness, was he whooping Spencer Faneu. I mean, just absolute, took his lunch money, took his milk money, took his hat and his jacket and his boots.

There's some levels to this. Because I think Highsmith has been on the cusp of being, like, defensive player of the week a couple of these weeks. I mean, like, when they played the Colts, he was a hair away from making six huge plays. You know, and, like, didn't just quite get there. So this has been brewing for some time. I did a podcast yesterday, and I think I called him not the most underappreciated, but the most taken-for-granted Steeler.

That's a good way to put it.

And that's a compliment, you know, because I think we just kind of assume that he's really, really good, but he's even better than that. Like, if we were to do an edge list, he's higher on the list than I think people think. You know what I mean? I mean, he's a really, really complete player, too.

We don't need to do this now, because it would take us probably 10, 15 minutes to go through it. But I bet you if we went through the other 31 teams in the NFL and we just said yes or no, would Alex Highsmith be their best edge rusher?

15 of them?

I was going to say high teens.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of... That position's loaded.

Not the Texans, you know. Right, right, right. But that position is loaded.

The Rams, Packers, you know, right.

But I bet you for at least half the league, the answer would be yes.

Like Greg Rousseau's having a great year.

It's still a yes.

But it's probably Highsmith. You know what I mean?

You're right.

Yeah.

He's the. He's better than any other edge guy in the division. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good start. That's a good start.

I don't think you really have to think much about it.

Yeah, that's a real good start.

He'd be the best edge rusher for Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Baltimore.

Versus a really good player. Versus a really good player. Moffay's a really good player. But yeah, I think he's a great one to put there. Faneuil had a really rough day.

Yes, he did.

Herbig whipped on him. Highsmith whipped on him.

I still like him as a player a lot, but he had one of those rookie days.

I've been on the soapbox because... I feel like I've been having to defend Faltanu's pass protection lately because it's not perfect. It's really hard to be a young offensive tackle as talented as Faltanu, who, oh, by the way, was close to perfect in this game, by the way. This was his baby's best game as a stealer. And Faneuil.

I mean, like, losing to Highsmith and Herbig and Chase Young... It's going to happen. You know what it's like to block those dudes?

You and I talked all week about how we thought, before Tampa, how we thought Tristan Wirfs might be the best tackle in all of football.

Right.

And Herbig got the better of him a couple times. Herbig got the better of him a couple times. It happens.

Right.

Yeah. Blocking those guys is nearly impossible.

They're millionaires too, right?

Right.

They were drafted for a reason too.

Particularly in protection.

And it's also, as we've mentioned many times, if you're Troy Faltanu, you can win 99% of the snaps, but the one that you lose is the one that everyone's.

Going to, it's the cornerback thing.

You know, right.

It's the Randy Moss versus Revis example that I've told you before that one game where Moss had that incredible ran that route, cooked Revis scored a touchdown and everyone uses that still, but it's like, okay, the rest of the game, I think he had one reception for four.

Yards, you know, like, You watch every snap of the tape. You're like, this is really good.

Like Randy Moss won that battle, but Revis won the war by far that by far that day.

So that was my first one, Matt, was I just, that's a great one. Hi, Smith was, he just jumps off the screen.

If you go back and watch that game with the benefit of not living in every moment.

And what is this?

Yeah.

You just go back and watch from 30,000 feet.

There's probably too many Mondays. We don't even bring them up.

It probably, you know, and there's again, like we mentioned, there's a lot of people on that defense that deserve credit, but I wanted to make sure he got some flowers. That was my defensive Tuesday rewind observation.

Offense here, Matt. All right.

I know we talked about this yesterday, but I think I, I don't want to say undersold it because on Mondays we're just downloading a million different thoughts.

Yeah.

But I want to just go back and reiterate how important I think the decision and the execution of the Pittsburgh plunge of the steel city shove was in that decision to go for it and to not kick a field goal. You and I, we both love our colleague in this building, Tim Benz. But I was listening to him driving home yesterday, and he was filling in for Mark Madden.

I was on the show, and he had this conversation with me.

And Benzie was saying he thinks that was the wrong decision, even though it worked. And he was in the stadium, too.

He felt it.

I wholeheartedly disagree, and here's why.

I didn't think it was wrong at the time. No, in fact— But Tim made some good points to me.

At the time, I'm screaming, you have to go for this year.

Yeah, yeah.

And here's why. Let me walk this back for you.

First quarter— You force two turnovers on the Browns' first five or six plays. Their first two possessions, you force two turnovers. The first one, your offense stalls out. Boz misses from 57 yards. You give Cleveland the ball back at really good field position.

Doesn't matter.

You force another turnover, this time on Deshaun Watson. You go down, drive down the field. Rico, you're in plus territory already. You drive down the field. Rico Dowdle punches it in with that nine yard run, right?

Okay, good.

We didn't take advantage of the first turnover, but we got the second one. We got the seven nothing lead. But at that point, The Steelers had, you know, a few minutes later, I think it was two drives later, the Steelers had a real opportunity to what felt like grab that game by the throat, where you were at first and goal from the two-yard line.

Yeah, I think we were joking. Quit playing with your food.

Quit playing with your food.

Yeah.

And by playing with your food, we mean throwing the fade.

Routes at the goal line. Right, just end this.

Two ill-advised passes, and then the handoff to Jalen Warren, and right there, literally inches, feet, inches away from the end zone, you settle for three.

Yeah. It's 10-0. It's not the end of the world. It's a two-possession lead.

And you're in control of the game in terms of who's playing better football.

You felt like you really let one get away there, and you felt like it was self-inflicted because you decided to throw those two stupid passes. So it's 10-0. Then– or pardon me. Sorry.

I'm getting ahead of myself. It's– No, I am right there.

I thought so.

Two passes at the goal line, you end up kicking the field goal, 10-0. You get into one of those situations again, but this time it's first and goal from the eight.

Okay?

So the first one was first and goal from the two. First and goal from the eight, I can understand throwing the football.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Absolutely. But you go incomplete pass, incomplete pass, sack.

Yes.

So you have two first and goal situations, you get six points from those. It's 13-3. And Aki sure is.

Feeling it and not thrilled all of a sudden.

And that's what I was saying. Benzie was in that stadium too.

It did not feel like you had a 10 point lead over your division rival. It felt like, what the heck are we doing? This should be 21 to three and this should be practically, Oh, or at least 17 to three. And this should be a real cushion for the Steelers.

I was just worried like there to get a punt blocked or a big return or something. It's like, you let these guys stay alive. You let them stay alive.

Two goal to goal situations. You get six points out of those.

And then what happens?

Well, Cleveland goes down the field, and they kick a field goal, and now it's 13-6. It's a one-score game late in the first half. And it has no business being a one-score game.

I'm sorry. That's Steel City shove. I have to hit the dump button on myself. The Pittsburgh plunge. Okay.

That's what completely got the, the, and I know some people might not care about this stuff, but if you're in those stadiums, momentum is real, man.

It's, it's tangible.

That's what got it back to the, the, the collective sigh of relief when Pat Fryer moved, punched that thing in, because if you go up 16 to six, you kick a field goal there, you're getting the ball back in half. It's a two score game. Still the, but a 10 point lead does not feel like a 14 point lead. That's a big difference there. It was a big difference for the momentum of the team, for the momentum of the crowd, especially getting the ball back at halftime. If Cleveland would have been able to hold you to a field goal there, they go into the locker room and they go, man, we played like crap for those 30 minutes, but we're right.

Why are we still alive?

Why are we, how are we still alive? Instead they're down 14 points. They're down two touchdowns, 20 to six. And the Steelers are getting the ball back. I, I, I completely disagree. And in that moment, I'm going.

Go for it. Like if, if, if you're, if you're going to be like.

You're moving people off the line of scrimmage, go for it.

You know, if you're going to be that physical bully that we've talked about so much, if you're going to be the, the, the proverbial division champion, who's not letting your foot off that gas and is going to go be Kings of the North again in those moments, that's where you, you take someone's soul. And in a lot of ways, they took the Browns' soul in that moment.

The Browns were flat the second half. The Browns didn't score any points the second half. Steelers come out, and they score that touchdown in the third quarter, and it felt like game over. That, to me, was a huge, huge moment because you had.

Clearly— It was a huge moment. For 29 minutes— Maybe the hugest moment.

For 29 minutes and 55 seconds, you had dominated that team, but the scoreboard didn't show it.

I know.

But all of a sudden— the scoreboard showed it and you felt it amongst the team. You felt it amongst the crowd. You felt it in the stadium.

So I've just two things to add is not defending Tim, but I had this conversation with him, you know, just the two of us on air. And his thought was, if you don't get the tush push, I mean, going for it, if you don't get it, you really give them life. Sure. And like, Just kick the three. You're beating the crap out of them. Land one more body blow.

You don't have to swing for the fences here.

Scared football from Tim Benz.

So I understood his line of thinking.

It's not worth winning if you can't win big.

I'm definitely on your side, too, because live in the moment, I'm like, go for it. Go for it. And you know I love analytics, and I bring this up a lot. There's a lot of times that if you look at the chart, fourth and one, you should go for it. That's easy to say. But the chart doesn't know if the wind's blowing or if there's a torrential downpour or if I'm on my third string left guard and he has to block Aaron Donald or what play I have to call. You know, like, what's your fourth and one play?

Where has the momentum been swinging and all those things? Yeah, right.

What play are you calling on fourth and one? Okay. I mean, I know what I'm supposed to, but my left tackle can't block anybody. And, you know, we're screwing up quarterback center exchanges or whatever. But in this case, it was like, you're moving bodies. just move bodies again, get the yard, you know?

Yep.

It was, I think you and I have had this conversation before, but sports and football, a lot of times it's about moments.

That's what the analytics don't.

They'll never get that.

Don't grasp that part. And in that moment, you needed a touchdown there.

You had your foot on their neck, that entire first half and you weren't able to stomp them out. And Hey, It's 20-6. If the Browns score a touchdown in the third quarter, make it a one-score game again, it could be different.

Sure, they're on scholarship too.

The feeling in.

That stadium amongst the fans, amongst the team on the sideline, it completely flipped in that moment. It went from how the heck are we letting these guys hang around to, oh yeah, now we get the ball back at halftime too, we're about to bury these guys.

Yeah, yeah. I think that was the step on the neck moment. It was.

And it was, I think too, even more in the sense of you're saying to Cleveland, you know, we're not taking the points here with five seconds left and no timeouts. We're, we're, we're punching this, we're punching this thing in the end zone because we know we can.

I thought it was the most aggressive demeanor flying around the football stealer game of the year, you know, like energy, you know, and maybe it's the hatred. Maybe it was verse talk and maybe this came out flying. Yeah. Like can't be down after the Paris, you know, we got, if we're going into a buy, leave it all out here, fellas, whatever it was, or a combination of all the above. So, yeah, I mean, I think that just kept the statement and momentum going that We're here to throw haymakers. We're coming after Watson. We're not playing passive and letting him complete short passes.

If instead of 13-6-2, if you would have punched in those earlier goal line opportunities, if it was 17-6, if it was 21-6, I would have probably been saying just take the points.

You get the ball back at halftime, just take the points.

Yeah, that would have been the smart move probably. Because you're still very much in the drivers.

In that moment, you really needed to separate, and the Steelers did. And I thought that was massive.

No, it's well said. That was probably the biggest play of the game.

I think so.

Yeah, yeah.

I think so.

Matt, there's our Tuesday Rewind here as we kind of get to the end of Steelers-Browns conversation. Maybe we'll have some more today and tomorrow since it is a bye week. Those were just some additional things that I wanted to kick around after last night's rewatch. Rolling along here on the drive, we're going to get to some of your tweets, your questions, your comments, your concerns, reactions, all that stuff as we roll along here as well.

Euler and Williamson, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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Matt, down the homestretch here in hour number two of the show, there was a couple around-the-league things that I wanted to kick around with you before we get to some audience participation here to close us down. The first sounds like Jeremiah Love is going to miss some more time. Cardinals rookie running back headed to injury reserve. Out four to five weeks with that high ankle sprain. Tell you what, man, it's been a rough year for some young running backs around the league.

I've been tying him and Jenty together heavily because they were both top 10 picks year after year to bad teams. You can definitely question the logic of taking a running back high if you're a bad team. It rarely works out. But the other thing about both of them are they were quite injured when the season started. You know, like they got injured about the same time.

Running back is always a tough proposition.

And it's been really hard to count on either one every step of the way. So love goes to IR, which at this point, the Raiders have more to play for than the Cardinals. I mean, cash them in. And, you know, they ran all over the Cowboys, who are terrible, with Algier and those guys. So fine. I guess keep your prize, you know, prodigy and bubble wrap for now.

Probably should have started on that. But the Jenty thing is a little different in that they don't want to shut him down, but they sort of benched him this past week.

They basically did.

It was kind of similar to the Scataboo situation.

Yeah, right, right, right.

That's a good call. I mean, I think he had two carries, and Washington, the rookie, had like 23. Now, is that a one-off just to try to keep Jenty healthy and– See, but Washington's looked much more explosive than Gent. He does not look healthy the whole year, but he was out there for all the passing situations because they just don't trust Washington protection yet. He's a rookie. He's not much of a receiver. So it's a real fine line.

The Raiders are watching or walking because they're still in the hunt, but these young running backs and it's not, this isn't the glaring example. Never draft running backs high. I'm not a believer in drafting running backs high unless, because especially if you're a bad team. Yeah. I mean, they're not going to put you over the top. But they are kind of parallel situations, you know, and neither one's getting their bang for their buck out of the player.

No, absolutely not. They are a world's difference from Bijan and Gibbs.

Yeah, yeah.

And those two who were selected, you know, not too far apart from each other.

I mean, you see Love out there. He looks great. You know, Jenty doesn't yet.

No, no.

That's a concern.

I don't know if he will all year.

A concern for both. But, yeah, that's a bummer for him.

I mean, for the Cardinals, that's probably the one area that they're most confident in their team depth.

Is at running back.

Yeah, they've got a ton of them, right.

They've got some options there.

I think Beck's turn is coming soon, too. It might be. Speaking of Raiders, it might be Mendoza's turn.

It might be Mendoza's time.

If you're the Ravens, are you interested in trading for one Jacoby Brissett at all, who seemingly has been benched in Arizona as well?

Yeah, they could be real high on my list of guys you could get. Some other names I think you could consider... I don't know if you get Daniel Jones under your cap, and I don't think he's the answer or what you're looking for for that either. But if you recall, the new offense coordinator came from the Bears.

So what about Case Keenum or T-Bag or one of those types? You would think they could acclimate quickly, not by Thursday.

I don't know if the Bears would give up Tyson Bajet.

I don't know.

Right.

I mean, you might have to give something real to get him, you know?

But a lot of those other guys.

I think Brissette, you'd be thrilled to dump. They just gave him a pretty big contract. If he's third string on Minshew and ahead of him, and Beck's going to be ahead of both of them soon.

Yes.

Brissette's perfect for me.

That one, we were talking about that during one of our breaks with three of us, and that one makes a lot of sense to me.

Matt, with that.

I mean, if you traded for him today or tomorrow, he wouldn't play Thursday, but I assume he'd start 10 days from then.

Yes.

I mean, yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. And you'd be competitive.

You'd be better off at the quarterback position than you are now, that's for sure. Matt, with that, I want to piggyback off of that into a little fantasy football focus here, a brief one for you. But is Tyler Algier now suddenly very fantasy football relevant?

Yeah, I would think so. I'll be frank, I don't know. I know Bam Knight.

He's rostered in only about 50% of fantasy football leagues.

Yeah, I know Bam Knight was... Got some run there as the number one a couple weeks ago, and then he got hurt. And where I'm going with this, I don't know how injured Knight is. Has James Conner even played this year? I don't think so. So I assume it's basically our year's backfield. Yes, so he's definitely fit.

Anyone that's going to get the bulk of the carries this time of year, pick up for sure. But watching him, although this past week was better, watching him early in the year, I thought he looked really slow. I mean, like, man. he was never the most gifted speed demon out there, but I thought he looked very sluggish early in his cards career.

Two more names.

I want to run by you. How about speaking of gentee? How about Mike Washington jr. From Las Vegas?

For sure. For sure. He looks good.

He does.

I mean, he's fast. He's gets downhill. Yes. I have a hunt. Like if I had them right now, though, I might try to trade them. I just feel like that. He's not going to be the full-time guy the rest of the year. You almost need Jenty to go on IR. He's not going to get two carries a game.

I had him and traded him a couple weeks ago for that same reason.

I kind of thought I was selling him high, and maybe I still was.

Yeah.

But I also wouldn't mind.

I don't feel comfortable starting either one.

No, no.

Last one, Matt, and this is a name that you mentioned earlier. How are we feeling about Jonah Coleman's fantasy football viability now?

Pretty strong.

Flex?

Yeah.

RB3?

His numbers weren't great, but his usage was pretty good.

Usable RB3?

Yeah, with upside to turn into a two. I like his style. I think Peyton will like his style. But Peyton's a big rotation guy, even when he had Kamara. I don't think he's got a real high ceiling, but I think he's probably startable. And I know his numbers weren't great, but when they needed to hand the ball off to a big back, that was clearly their guy.

And he's the one to own in that backfield. I think Dobbins got one carry or something. This past week. Yeah, not many. Very little.

Not many. Oh, so I think that was all I had for you for the fantasy football focus.

A couple of those guys were rookies. I'm a big believer just fantasy-wise. This is a good time. I mean, like, this might be a good time to jump on Price after not doing much last night. Rookie running backs that haven't done much yet, that have fresh legs, like, loves the opposite of this because he's all banged up. But, like, sometimes they come on really strong the second half of the season. They have fresher legs than everybody else. They're starting to get the protection stuff. Coaches are starting to understand them. The guy ahead of them that wasn't great gets banged up and starting to slow down a little bit.

But you can have a lot of fantasy success investing in very young, namely rookie running backs about this time on.

Well said. This is the point where they start to hopefully not look like rookies anymore, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is there any, I've seen a couple people tweet us this, a few different people over the last few days, wondering if you have any, with the trade deadline in mind, targets for fantasy football that people could buy low now that might end up in a better situation, like maybe Stefan Diggs is.

One of those that we discussed.

Yeah.

I wouldn't say you could say buy low about a Jonathan Taylor, obviously.

Yeah, I was going to say some of them.

Maybe a Tony Pollard, but I think people that have him are going to want to hold on to him the way he's been playing.

Like, Taylor's backup, McGowan, is clearly the two. He'd be on the worst team in the league if Taylor moves. I know that's not exactly what you're asking, but he'd be kind of like Algier, a high-volume flex dude on a bad team if Taylor gets moved. How about Jerry Judy? I don't think Jerry Judy's particularly good, but he could be a chief. Or he could be a Seahawk.

He'd upgrade that wide receiver.

Yeah, right, right.

Jerry Judy's a good call. Him, Diggs, I like those ones.

I mean, like, Stephon Ridley's not in any league. Steelers could get him for nothing. Yeah. And he could be, like, your two or three. You know what I mean?

Sure. We'll keep an eye on that here as we get closer and closer now, just a week away from the NFL trade deadline.

These are deep leagues, though. I mean, they're not going to win you the league.

No, but you also might be in that bye weeks and injuries.

If you're in a pinch, you could certainly do worse.

Brian Thomas Jr. is an obvious one. Yeah, good call. Because he has been very fantasy relevant lately and isn't at all at the moment.

Yeah, and if they moved him, watch out. Matt, let's table that conversation for now. Plenty more trade deadline talk and fantasy football talk to come in the next week or so. But let's close this thing down with something we haven't done for a little while, actually, a segment of audience participation.

Yeah, overdue.

We'll get to questions, comments, concerns, reactions, as many as we can before we get up out of here. Reminder, this is this week and next week of the week to do it. If you want to participate with the show, we'll be leaning more on that here around the bye week. One more segment to go. It's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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Final segment here of The Drive on this Tuesday. Let's hit some audience participation before we get up out of here. Matt says, hey, guys, hope you enjoyed that game. It was great seeing Mason McCormick make Jared Verse part of Akershire's foundation.

That's a good one.

Brandon, are you just hired Drew Rosenhausen is trying to play again. Do you guys have any interest or is that like trying to date the hot but crazy girl? It is.

You got to have the hot, crazy scale, right?

Hot, crazy scale is very important. I don't know how hot he is anymore is the problem.

That's true.

You know. So I knew what the answer was going to be, but I just wrote on Twitter yesterday when this news came out, any interest in Mayuk to the Steelers? And 98% of people said no or you're crazy. What are you talking about? I think there's more to this than that. The last we saw this player, now, again, who knows? It's been a while.

It has been a while.

He is exactly what this offense needs. He was exactly what this offense needs.

There was a reason why the Steelers were very interested in him.

Yes, and the offense has changed since then. But in terms of you need a man-beating route runner that preferably isn't Josh Downs' size. You know what I mean? They could play outside, could play in. That is who he was to AT. Exactly the style that I'm looking for to invest in. Now, I was chatting with my buddy Peacock, who's a Niner fan, and I said, do you think he gets traded? He said, no, I think what happens is I don't exactly understand the list he's on, the exempt list or whatever. The day he reports to the Niners, they will just cut him. Okay.

They're not even looking for a seventh-round draft pick.

I would say at most he's going to cost you a seventh-round pick is what I thought. Because he does have a big contract.

They would rather just get.

And he's high on the crazy scale. You know what I mean? At least in terms of maintenance or whatever.

Yes.

But he thinks at this point, the day he reports... And he thinks that'll happen after the trade deadline because nobody wants to talk about trades and blah, blah, blah. That he will just get cut. Why not, Brantman?

But if it doesn't cost you any draft capital.

And you're not married to a big contract.

Right.

And if he's not, just get rid of him.

Matt, I want to preface this.

Or if he can't play anymore.

I am not using this example to poo-poo this guy.

Yeah.

But would you rather take a flyer on Brandon Ayuk or MVS at this point?

Right.

I don't think that's even a, I don't, that's not much of a debate.

If he gets here and he can't play.

I know what the one is. The other might still have some real upside.

And I can find another MVS. There's 10 of them on the street. Yes. There's no what IU could be.

Correct.

I don't quite understand the whole situation. Did he just need a break from the game? Is he a nut job?

Hot crazy scale.

I just don't know. And they'll obviously know way, way better than me. Maybe he just wanted to step away from the game for a while. I don't know. I mean, I don't think a low-to-no-risk flyer is so insane.

I would agree.

Yeah.

I would absolutely agree with that.

And if that's truly what it is, and as it appears to be, a low-to-no-risk flyer, you don't have much to lose.

No.

And I don't even understand the contract entirely, but I get the impression that... It's not favorable. I mean, I know he's making a good buck. You'd have to pay him the rest of the year. I just don't know if you can cut him after or what it's after. Yeah, I wouldn't. Are you on the hook for a bad player with a bad contract? I don't know.

Right, right. And that's where you don't, that's where you can't.

That's where you stay away.

Jeff says, I'm having a living in my fears moment.

In your guys' opinion, will the Steelers' inability to stretch the field eventually come back to haunt them? I look at three big games down the stretch. Bengals, Broncos, and Jacksonville. Which game is the most concerning? All right, first part, yeah.

Yeah, it's concerning, right.

If you're looking for a.

We can hang with the big boys.

If you're, if you're in the NA at six and two, that's kind of the air you're looking at.

That's what we can start talking about.

Right. You're looking at what could be the, the snafu that keeps you from being a, a legit bonafide.

Superbowl contender winning playoff game. And, and, and that, I think that would be the one for the Steelers right now.

Absolutely.

I think that's fair. Every, every team has them. That's, that's the Steelers right now.

For bills. It's a defense. I mean, it's a big thing.

Yeah.

And this is a big thing too. I mean, this is, what I would call intermediate to deep passing game. The short passing game is fine. Pure old school drop back passing. You know, like Greg Cosell always says, it's great to be able to run around and I love playmakers and, you know, the game's changed forever. And he'll be the first to say like, but I'm old. And eventually it's third and eight. And I need my quarterbacks back foot to hit and drill a deep dig.

Into a keyhole.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, especially when the stakes go up and you're talking playoffs and things of that nature. And Steelers D is really, really playing well. You're not going to keep Josh Allen to six points or 12 points or 13 points. You know what I mean? Like, you're going to play games in the 20s and 30s. Every defense does, you know? And that's going to be drop back passing.

At Bengals versus the Broncos. At Jacksonville. Which one is most concerning? Broncos are least. Yeah, probably at Jacksonville.

I mean, Bengals are always going to play high-scoring games, and it's easier to drive the ball, and their keyhole's bigger.

Their keyhole's bigger. I would say at Jacksonville.

I would say Jacksonville.

With the caveat of that's going to be like a bowl game atmosphere.

It's going to be 50%, 60%, 70% Steelers fans there.

But they're the most well-rounded of those three teams.

But they are the most, yes, most well-rounded of those three teams. Completely agree with you on that one.

And Knicks is not close to Lawrence or Burrow.

That's also the big kicker. Yeah, yeah.

But you also got to look at, like, who you could play in the playoffs. Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, you know, right, right, right. Lawrence.

Be able to stand back and throw the ball at points.

Yeah, yeah.

Vegas TJ said, I had no idea Mason McCormick was a rapper dropping a verse like that.

Ah, well done.

That's pretty good, Vegas TJ. That's pretty good.

Blaine says, as a big mess-to-maker guy on the drive, I think it would be fun if you guys could drum up scenarios where the Steelers can go and get him.

Okay. I don't know that that's possible. Because I think he's, as it stands today, I think he's a top two pick.

I think he's the first quarterback off the board.

Which means he's probably a top two or three pick. Maybe somebody wants Jeremiah Smith.

Let's play this out a little bit, though. Scenarios where you could go and get him. Titans and Chargers end up picking one and two. They're staying with Cam Ward and Justin Herbert. Mm-hmm. Someone, I guess if those were the scenarios, they would take Jeremiah Smith.

But maybe not if they're the second team. Jeremiah Smith goes one. You're the charger sitting there, too. You're happy with Herbert. You're open for business to whoever wants QB one. Yep. Or the problem is, guys, it's not. Those things are all great. Those are scenarios where that pick might move. But nobody's going to move to 25. That's a good point.

Yeah.

You're not within striking. I mean, you could get to eight. You can't get to two.

You don't have enough stuff to give up. The scenario would be that Arch Manning lights the world on fire. Darian Mensah lights the world on fire. CJ Carr lights. And all of a sudden, Mestemaker becomes the fourth quarterback, and you can get him at pick 14.

Yeah.

Or there's four that are equal, and you're happy with any of them, and you just take the last one. Yes. Yes. I mean, that's possible.

But it's very tough.

Barring the Steelers falling off a cliff and finishing 6-11, it's very tough to see a scenario where they're going to be able to move up into the top three or four to get QB1.

Like, I can't remember, even if you look up the Julio Jones trade, that wasn't for a quarterback, but I think that's about the biggest jump in round one that I can remember because that was like mid to late 20s to like 5 or 6.

The Atlanta Falcons traded up the 27th pick to the 6th overall pick.

With the Browns.

And that's still not top three.

They sent two first-round picks, two fourth-round picks, and a second-round pick.

Holy cow!

Right.

And that gets you to six. Which, if the draft is today, Mestermaker's not making it to six.

You know what's hilarious?

I don't think you can get to two.

Most of the time when you see a haul like that, it rarely works out.

Right.

The outcome.

Julio Jones became a franchise legend, earning multiple Pro Bowls and All-Pro honors while becoming one of the most dominant wide receivers of his era. The Cleveland Browns used draft capital on players like Phil Taylor, Greg Little, Brandon Whedon, and Trent Richardson.

Ew.

Yeah, that's very Browns-ish.

Advantage Atlanta.

Yes.

Blaine, it's tough to see a scenario where the Steelers can get Mestemaker as long as he continues on the track that we all think he's on.

Let's just put it this way. I don't think the Steelers can get Consensus QB1. Yes. Either someone's just not going to move.

He's not Fernando Mendoza consensus yet.

Right, right, right.

But he's pretty easy.

When that day comes, there will probably be a consensus one. Maybe not. You hope there isn't. You hope there's four or five. Sure. And consensus one is your third favorite.

Absolutely.

And consensus four happens to be your favorite.

Lenore Sellers.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I don't think you can get to two or three overall.

You know what's funny, too, is we've been talking all these weeks about four first-rounders, six first-rounders, seven or eight guys that'll go in the top 50.

Haven't even mentioned Brandon Sworsby's name in any of these exercises.

I know, it's been in the back of my brain, too.

At some point, we're going to have to have that conversation.

I've got to think he's not going to be a first-round pick, even if he crushes.

I'd be shocked if he was, especially this year.

This year, because he's going to be in the draft this year. Even if he is.

If it's a year like last year, different conversation.

Even if 32 teams sit down with him and adore the kid and trust everything he's saying.

If it's the Kenny Pickett year, it's a different conversation.

And he has the best combine and workout ever and goes to the senior bowl and lights it up. I still don't think he's.

He's not going over Mestemaker or Mensa or Carr.

After not playing all year.

It's not happening.

Yeah. Frank.

But that might be gold. You might be real happy about it when you take him with the. This might be— Someone takes him at the 38th pick.

This might be the year.

You've talked about that rare range of, like, the guys— Usually 20 to 50 stakes. The Aaron Rodgers and the Lamar Jacksons that are the exceptions.

This could be— This could be the year that's the exception.

With an exception. Maybe even two.

Maybe even two.

There's a guy like Lenore Sellers available in the second round.

Like, I think Shuck's an exception. Yes.

At least so far, I would say so.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Frank says, have you guys been paying attention to Mike Tomlin on television?

He ain't leaving. He can get the bag with zero stress. Seems like he's loving it.

Although I will say you guys talk about potential candidates for him. I think the one caveat is the Washington commander's job. He's a DMV guy. He's beloved in that area. They have a young quarterback. They're building the brand new fancy stadium in my Mike Tomlin voice. Never say never.

I don't watch him as much as I would like on TV, but it sounds like he's embracing the job as you knew he would.

I don't understand how you couldn't love that role.

Yes. And maybe he never coaches again.

You make great money.

You work a couple days a week. Seasonally, you have one one millionth of the stress of an NFL head coach.

Yeah.

But some of those guys, man, they're just football people and they can't turn it off. Hit me.

I think Washington is a phenomenal one. Especially because it's hometown.

Washington.

You're a quarterback. And it's not the old owner.

Yep.

New stadium. There's some momentum around that organization for the first time in forever.

Tampa is starting to play much better. Maybe he saved his job, but I thought when the Steelers were playing Tampa, I'm like, he's done.

That's another organization that Mike Tomlin knows well.

He's worked for them. They've won. You could be the best team in that division. The Jets, for sure.

Absolutely.

I think the Jets will be.

Any of.

Those three first-round picks will do. Dealer's choice.

I think the Jets will be a highly attractive job.

Maybe that's how you get messed up, man.

As you get That's the thing You get a pick You get a pick from the Jets And then you move up.

It's like the third one But it's 13th overall.

You go from 10 to 3 Yeah buddy That's the only way you could Yeah buddy Cowboys But there's one huge thing With the Jets Ownership That would.

Be the same thing with the Cowboys. Could you imagine Mike Tomlin working for Jerry Jones?

And the Cowboys are my last one.

Where 10 minutes.

After the game, Jerry Jones is going to go and do media and talk about what he thought about what the head coach just did for three hours?

I'm sure if Tomlin was in this seat, he would say the same thing. I heard him say this on one of the interviews. He said, there's not 32 jobs for me.

Yeah.

Which basically means there's six owners I'm not working for. Yes. And I would bet the Jets is one of them. Is Dallas one? I don't know. I mean, they'll pay you more than anybody, but I don't think that's what he's in it for. That wouldn't be a bad job, though, in terms of what you inherit in Dallas.

No doubt.

And that's one of those places you can win there. You are a legend forever.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it reminds me of when they went and got Parcells.

Correct.

At that kind of similar stage of his career.

And the Cowboys, they're going to hire a name.

I don't think they're just going to get the young dude anymore. I mean, they might just make you an offer you can't refuse. You know money won't be an object.

Matthew this is a good final one for matthew.

For the day the first round pick though oh that's right they don't or i think they have green bays they do for michael parsons for parsons yes correct because i don't think anyone's gonna give you a top 10 pick for a coach i don't think.

Top 10 right i mean if you're the jets though and you have three picks that are all in the top 15.

Maybe you get one of those and you have to throw in tomlin in a second or something yeah yeah.

Third yeah yeah Last one of the day goes to Matthew.

When the Steelers hired new coaching staff, we hear their names, we discuss them, but after that, assistants often fade in the background. Any position coaches that deserve a shout-out for making noticeable impact and doing a good job developing their players?

Good question, Matthew.

It's a great question. It's also one of the hardest ones on the planet to answer unless you're in the building. It's very hard. I would single out Scott McCurley because he's actually a friend of mine. We would GA together. And Tom Arth just because they.

Are– How about James Campin, the offensive line coach?

For sure. But I brought those two up just because they're the holdovers. And I have a feeling things like the Spencer Anderson 6-0 lineman stuff, Arth had a lot of– this is what we did last year and it worked. And it worked. I think having two guys on one side of the ball is probably very valuable. This is what we used to do. Do what you want with that information. I would have to say Campen. Some of the young D linemen are developing pretty well. You know, the YA Blacks.

Petko is making a name for himself in the coaching world.

Yeah. Jobbity looked like he belonged, you know. Gabe Rubio.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I don't think anybody's, if it's not a position group, I'd be like, that's terrible, you know. But it's really hard, really hard to comment on those if you're not in the building and in the room.

Intrepid video producer Mr.

TV says, how about a shout-out for Jason Simmons, defensive pass game coordinator, defensive backs coach, and Joe Witt Jr., assistant head coach and secondary coach. Yeah, what those two have done with trades and injuries and movement.

They were counting on Porter and Dean being their guys.

Well said there, TV.

Elliot was out a lot. There's been a lot of movement back there.

Echols has been hurt.

And to be frank, it's not the most talented group on the team.

No, it's not.

I mean, the secondary is amongst the least talented group in the team.

Those are some good ones.

We're going to hit plenty more of your questions, comments, concerns, and reactions as we roll along this week and next week into the bye week. We'll be back tomorrow with more. We'll do around campus tomorrow, and we'll have some other trade deadline looming conversation. But that will do it for us today.

Thank you.

As always, a big shout-out to resident... statistician, intrepid video producer of this program, Tyler V.

Mr.

TV. For Matt Williamson.

Does he really do that many stats? You give him credit for that. The owner of Matt's stats is sitting right here.

The guy who.

Also compared himself to Sidney Crosby is sitting right here.

That's Sidney Crosby.

I'm Wes Uhler.

Take care, everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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