Drive11.4.26Batko: Brian Batko on Steelers Momentum

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This Wednesday edition of The Drive. Into the phone lines we go to talk to our buddy Brian Bacco.

He, of course, covers the Steelers for Steelers.com.

You can hear him on this network before us every day, 2 to 4, with Ed Troop on the Steelers Report. Bacco, thanks for taking the time, as always, partner. heading into the bye week with some momentum here, certainly four straight wins for the Steelers. First place in the AFC North. I know the other players haven't really been around this week because they are rightfully so getting some bye week time off. But you just sense the vibes. You know, you're down at the facility much more than Matt and I are. Does this feel like a football team that, you know, is is how do I want to phrase this? They've, they've gone through kind of the rollercoaster start of the season.

They've come out with four straight wins. They've started to find their form. Do you sense maybe some, some renewed energy and some enthusiasm down there on the South side since Sunday?

Not necessarily.

I mean, I think it's a mature team and I answer it that way, Wes, because, and not to like poo poo anything you're saying, that's all exactly true, but I didn't really notice this team seeming down in the dumps or, or pessimistic when they were two and two when they were coming off that loss of the Browns the following week that I think that locker room that night Thursday in Cleveland was pretty heated and we heard from Patrick Graham Monday about some of the soul searching that was done Amy Winehouse musically or otherwise yeah but no I mean right right now I think this is a mature team that kind of taking the personality of their coach on a little bit. Mike McCarthy, I mean, you see him in these videos now, which is really cool.

The Steelers get to put out there for the world to see, like the postgame locker room speeches and things of that nature.

He's fired up. He's excited.

But he's also pretty ho-hum. Like, it was rather straightforward. I told you guys we need to get to 6-2 before the bye.

That's where we're at. And so many of the players were echoing that.

Sentiment following the game Sunday against Cleveland. So in a way, I think they never really lost it, but I think they're pretty tunnel vision on their goals this season.

So I was going to have you do the homework for me, hoping you already know, but I was planning on looking at when everyone went on IR throughout the course of the year and when they're eligible. Who do we think could return for the Bengals game? I know Skoranek is not an IR guy, but I would think he's probably ready, right?

Yeah, I think him getting some limited practices in probably helps with that, Matt.

Yeah, yeah. Ultimately didn't play, obviously, Sunday.

But that gives you a good sign that they were at least considering his involvement. I believe Harmon still has to– or no, Harmon went down in the first Browns game.

So he's good to come back now if he's able to. He's eligible.

I think Pittman went on IR before Roman.

Yeah, Pittman talked Monday. He also played in that first Browns game, but missed.

The Colts game.

So, yes, he is in the same boat as Derek Harmon.

Yeah.

You know, I couldn't really get a good read on whether Pittman was just– you know, trying to be hopeful Monday, or if he was more so uncertain, like normally guys on IR don't even talk to the media.

So that could just be, yeah, that could just be Pittman being a good guy.

And like, he's, you know, he's always been that media good guy type going back to his days in Indy. But yeah, those are the two big ones to circle, I would suppose.

I think Roman Wilson needs another week. I think he has to miss one more.

Okay. Okay. Exactly.

Sticking with the offense there, Mr.

Backo, I mean, my goodness, what this offensive line is doing, what Jalen Warren is doing behind them, it always takes time to kind of figure out what you do well in a given NFL season. But I think especially when you have a new coaching staff for the first time in nearly two decades after 19 years of the Mike Tomlin era, as we mentioned, there were ups and downs in those first four games of the season. There was some good. There was some concern. But we obviously, after week two in New England, we saw that line change to the right side of the offensive line. They had to kind of throw it together on a short week in Cleveland a few days later. But man, ever since then, those last four games, it feels like the just kind

of the the collation of that offensive line there, the connection between that group, what it's meant for the run game, what it's meant for the offense as a whole.

I think this is what Steelers fans, Steelers media.

The people at the top of the organization, Omar Khan and Andy Weidel, I think this is what they've envisioned seeing for a long time.

I think two things have happened since that, really since the loss of the Patriots when they made the, yes, they made the switch on the right side of the line, But Zach Frazier has been playing so much better since that game. And it all starts with him. Brian Angelico was talking about that on Monday.

He mentioned how.

Connected the unit is. And he's like, hey, I've been around a lot of the lines, which he has. He's been at a lot of stops in his NFL coaching tenure. He said it's usually that way, but this one might be up there with any of them that he's been around. So that's a testament to these guys and their chemistry.

I think it's incumbent upon Frazier players be the linchpin of it. But I think Mason McCormick's playing a lot better this year. I think Troy Faltano is settling in more so on that left side. I mean, he's always very critical and hard on himself and expects a lot of himself. But I think that that could be a galvanizing game. for him against the Browns with the demeanor, the mentality that that Cleveland defense came in with. And not only did Troy play well, but I think the between the lines stuff that you could read was all those guys had his back because they knew it's a, it's a team effort. It's a group effort, of course, always, but even thought on and acknowledged after the game, like, When you're on the edge and there's one guy, a

la T.J. Watt, who lines up against you for basically the entire game, in this case, Jared Verse, it's kind of on you individually. And he stepped up to the plate.

Speaking of the line, do you think the sixth offensive line package is here to stay?

Yeah, I think it could be. I would think so.

Becomes a seven offensive line package when you consider Darnell Washington. Be curious to see, you know, how much how much poundage can Mike McCarthy and company.

Get out there?

Can they get Washington and Riley Nowakowski and Pat Friermuth in there all in one formation?

I don't know. We're running out of eligibles at that point, but. Absolutely.

I mean, I think when you've got Spencer Anderson out there lining up as the sixth man, keeping him involved and engaged, and he's just, you know, pancaking people left and right, which is nice to see from him. It's kind of a strange thing. It's like you talk about some coaches. It's like, hey, he was a great coordinator, wasn't a great head coach. Maybe Anderson wasn't a great starting right guard for this team the first two weeks, but he's been a great piece of the puzzle off the bench. So kudos to him for keeping his head in the game and persevering through that. But yeah, put him on one side, Darnell Washington on the other side.

Pretty crazy.

I don't know how many teams are going to be able to stop that. And then Aaron Rodgers acknowledged after the game, you know, being able to run out of 11 points. personnel too now maybe maybe that was somewhat uh you know in his own interests of let's not do too much of the 60 line stuff i still want to throw the ball to some receivers but uh brandon smith that when the numbers when he's on the field are good um as far as him being a big body blocking uh so yeah i think the spencer anderson 60l stuff even if it's not going to be that much of a factor going.

Forward as it has been these past couple weeks it's really nice to have that in your back pocket Brian back.

Oh, with us here on the drive, you know, back. Oh, we're all, you know, different, different media members cover the team in different regards.

Right.

And, And we've all been doing this a long time. We know the drill. You're supposed to be even keel. You're supposed to be level-headed. You're supposed to be objective.

Yeah, we all got into this because we love football and we grew up loving the Steelers, but it is a job.

It is work. There is things that need to be done.

Now, having said all that, is there just a small piece of that childhood teenage fan in you still that just absolutely loves watching Darnell Washington play football and how they're using this guy every Sunday?

If I was a Seahawks fan, I'd love watching Darnell Washington.

Especially in the sense that, I mean, he's basically a unicorn. I mean, Eric green was a little before my time as a football watch.

He was pretty fun fan. He was a large individual, right.

Who could move very fast, but yeah, I mean, there's really, he's one of one in his so-called weight class. If you want to, put it that way. And I mean, he's just, he's providing this team so much. We always knew it was going to be there in the run game to see it in the past game. Expand is great, but I'll even, you know, give a shout out to his running mate the day after election day, Pat Friermuth was pigeonholed by a lot of people as he's a glorified receiver.

He's a six foot five, 250 pound receiver. Don't ask him to block. He's blocking his tail off. I think this season.

So credit the Pat for rounding out his game, much like Darnell Washington is his game as a receiver.

I bring this up. Somewhat routinely, but I just want people to realize that of all the eligible receivers in NFL history, and I'm not talking about like Fridge Perry in the background, in the backfield, Darnell Washington's the biggest. He's the biggest eligible receiver in the history of the league.

I mean, yeah, he's unique.

Yeah.

And, you know, Matt, like I can remember back to, I guess it was last year in training camp where he was coming into a contract year, essentially by the Steelers standards, because that's where you get your extensions. And, you know, there was some of the chatter of, you know, he's just demolishing people in the O-line, D-line drills or backs on backwards, whatever. And it's like, hey, down the road, maybe sooner than later, whatever. Could he be a true tackle?

Why bother, right?

Yeah, some people really dismiss that out of hand, but now that he's in the media world, even Mike Tomlin is saying that he would tell Darnell Washington that all the time.

Well, you get paid about three times as much.

Yeah, I think that's why Washington was, you know, he always said the right things and he was PC about it in media interviews. But I mean, yeah, he's probably thinking like, hey, if I can get paid doing something, let me know what it is. But obviously he's good right where he is right now. And he got the bag, you know, by tight end standards.

So everybody wins.

Backo, one thing that I'm interested to get your opinion on that Matt and I were discussing yesterday is, it sounds funny when you say it out loud, but are we not talking about the year that TJ Watt is having enough? You know, there was, there was so much airtime, so many column inches, uh, dedicated this off season to what is TJ Watt at this point in his career? Uh, can he still be a really good player, but not quite an all pro anymore? Is he starting to regress was last year and exception. Yeah.

Trade them.

Exactly. Right.

A lot of that conversation in the off season is And you look up now and he's tied with Will Anderson for the lead in sacks in the NFL. Again, it kind of sounds funny for what we all know has been a a generational great pass rusher, an NFL defensive player of the year who's going to be in Canton one day. But I still think we might be underselling or at least under discussing what TJ Watt has done so far here about halfway through the season.

Great minds think alike because that was one of the themes of the Steelers report today with myself and Ed Shroop was kind of like, yeah, not all the takes from the preseason have aged that all that well through eight games. And, you know, some of them like put my own hand up, may a call, but certainly I'm not right about everything. And, I'm sure there's some, if you went back and found some sound bites or clips, I'd sound like an idiot after what the Steelers have done over the last month.

But that was a big one that I.

Pointed to was so many people just seemed to resign to the fate of TJ Watt, like being a shell of himself in 2026. And that's been far from the case. And I didn't even necessarily think that that was a a super rational thing because, you know, last year, yeah, the sack numbers were down, but he had some game changing plays last season.

He had to do it in some different ways. And it was a little more few and far between.

Especially because his availability was iffy down the stretch and, you know, had those issues, but I mean, you still saw flashes of it in 2025, and now that he's maybe a little bit healthier and maybe rejuvenated a bit in some way, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, with the new defensive scheme and just another year of chasing that playoff success, I think he looks fantastic, and I think there's a lot of juice left in those legs.

So along the lines of thinking what we knew then compared to what's really happened here, basically at the midway point of the season. Myself included, you know, when the draft ended, I thought a lot of these draft picks were for down the road and obviously Aller and Dunker still fit that bill. But I'm a little shocked and very pleasantly surprised with the immediate contributions from the class.

As a whole.

Yeah, and it's really from top to bottom and even beyond bottom, considering Kevin Chobity Jr. just kind of came in out of nowhere as an undrafted guy who not a lot of us were paying much attention to.

Hey, I hear he has more sacks this year than Jared Verse. Is that something you can confirm?

I can confirm that, yes.

I think that is a legitimate statistic, and.

He's played two games.

So, yeah, but I think Max has probably been the, like if you want to say first half offensive or first half rookie of the year for the Steelers, you know, Ed and I handed out some of those awards too. And I said, for me, it's close between him and Bernard, but he he's out there every snap as an alignment.

So I'd give Max the, the edge, but you're seeing the playmaking with, with Bernard and getting up to speed with Aaron Rogers.

And that's like, you know.

Every snap player too now, basically.

You know?

Yeah.

He is with the depth issues and that receiver, uh, But that's an under-the-radar part of it, too, that's impressive is he's doing this with one of the most.

Figured we wouldn't see much of them.

And to be fair, at least the defensive guys, they haven't had a ton of exposure, but they're pitching in and they're doing an admiral job of it.

Backo, last one I've got for you. The Steelers, you know, I think maybe biggest offseason acquisition was Jamel Dean. And we spent a ton of time talking about that secondary and Joey Porter Jr. and how it could all come together. And obviously, due to trades, due to injuries, all that stuff. It's been a I think the puzzle pieces have fit together much differently than we all kind of anticipated or discussed during training camp during the preseason as this roster was coming together. But one thing that I think has been undeniable, man, Jamel Dean has been so good for the Steelers. You're hardly saying his name on Sundays, which is a very good thing if you're a defensive back. Obviously, that huge play in that in that game down in

Tampa against his former team that really helped the Steelers get victory down there in Florida. He's one of pro football focuses, top ranked corners.

I know.

Before last week. He was their second highest ranked quarter. I haven't looked at that again this week, but he had another outstanding performance on Sunday. I just think he's been so quietly effective on the back end for Pittsburgh.

And he's got like four or five forced fumbles already.

Now, I don't know that any of them yet have fallen the Steelers way, but he's really good at the peanut punch, dislodging the ball from a ball carrier. Maybe eventually he'll Puck luck will catch up to him and he can get a forced fumble that's actually lost by the offense.

But yeah, he's been a boon for this team.

And, you know, I think when you look back at how the whole Porter thing played out, clearly Omar Khan and Andy Weidel were doing their due diligence at that position. You can never have enough of them, even right now, as we all sort of. circle around trade deadline talk, speculation. I can understand the notion of the Steelers going out and maybe trying to get another corner because you don't want to be up against it if injuries do set in.

Right now, I feel like they're sitting pretty with the two starters and then even the top backup. in Everett, but yes, Jamel Dean, uh, he's balling out and you know, it's a week to week league.

So, you know, there'll be no rest for the weary.

They come back from the buy and he'll face the best receiving core in the NFL. So they will need him again against Jamar chase T Higgins and company.

Brian, we'll let you go, but breaking some news, Jacoby were sets heading to Baltimore.

Oh, baby.

How about them apples?

Wow.

Do you think the Ravens were listening to the drive yesterday or something? Brian Backo, Steelers.com.

Make sure you're checking out all his work there, listening to him on the Steelers Report every day right here on this network.

Great stuff, cousin. Thank you for the time, and enjoy the bye week.

Baltimore had to do that. All right, I'll let you guys dissect it from here. Appreciate it, guys.

See you.

There he goes. Brian back. Good stuff.

Fun conversation with him as always. Let's talk a little bit more about that and some other trade deadline stuff. When we return on the other side, Euler and Williamson, it's the drive on a busy Wednesday Steelers nation radio on the Steelers audio network.

Drive11.4.26Batko: Brian Batko on Steelers Momentum

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