Drive11.4.26Hr1: Bye Week Check List

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

Steelers Nation Radio.

Good afternoon, Steelers Nation. It's The Drive on the Steelers Audio Network. Wes Shuler, Matt Williamson. We are with you for the next two hours on this Wednesday afternoon. As we head into the bye week, and we still have plenty to discuss, we will go around campus a little bit later in the show.

Ah, that sounds about right.

Perfect.

As we do on Wednesdays, talk a little college football. Big weekend here is into the final quarter, the final four games of the college football regular season.

I've been getting a ton of sellers questions the last couple weeks. I think because I've been writing the word sellers, as in like buyers and sellers at the trade deadline, everyone's like, ooh, sellers, stealers.

We'll get there.

I made a really bad joke. Matt was texting us in the group the other day. I was like, I don't know. Should the Ravens be sellers here?

Yeah, I was going to rip you apart on that one. I figured I'm just going to ignore it.

Matt, sellers, they'd have to wait to draft him, okay? They can't just get sellers. They've got to wait to draft him in April. But we will go around campus.

One of these next two days, we're going to have a Ravens conversation, too. I think they're an incredible, weird crossroad right now.

Well, let's do that today, too, because I do want to have some trade.

There's some hotly news.

I do want to have some trade deadline conversation with you here as we are now less than a week away. But, Matt, there is a lot of news of the day today that I think we have to get to. Also, in the final hour, we're going to hear from Ben Roethlisberger today.

Oh, by the way, right, the Hall of Famer, right.

He caught up with Max Starks and Willie Colon. We're going to play you some of that audio in hour number two as well.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah, heck yeah. Pretty funny story. Max and Willie, I guess one of their guests canceled on them or had to reschedule, and Willie was like, Yeah, who can we get on the show? Let me text 7. And a few minutes later, Ben Roethlisberger was on the Steelers audio network.

Okay. I don't have those connections.

Funny how that all works. I heard he was saying great things about the offensive line and about one Zach Frazier. But again, we'll hear that.

I can't wait to hear it.

We'll hear that in hour number two. Matt, I want to start with some news of the day with you here because there's a couple key things to hit on. First, let's kind of stay in our own division, in our kind of local sphere, local orbit here, as Deshaun Watson is now in concussion protocol.

Yeah, yeah.

His status unclear versus the Saints this weekend. This one a little bizarre. I think it all stems from that play early on, on that first drive. We saw he had to exit the game after that hit from Jaquan Brisker. Went to the tent, Shadur Sanders finished out that drive, and then Deshaun Watson came back and played the rest of the game. Well, now the news that he's in concussion protocol, it's a little weird. It raises obviously a lot of questions about everything that went down on Sunday.

It's not insane for concussion symptoms to take a couple days to manifest, but this is obviously just one to keep an eye on in a kind of weird situation off the back of Sunday.

Yeah.

And there's other TV to send us a little note too that I didn't see coming. Interesting kind of stuff. I will get to that too. So concussions, you know how I hate talking about injuries and concussions are probably even more difficult than others. I mean like, Oh, he obviously messed up his ankle and now he can't run, you know, like from where we sit. I don't think there's anything nefarious about it. That's the word, right? I think they legally cleared him out of the blue tent and thought he was fine, but you can't, be a hundred percent certain. It's not like, Oh, it's not broken x-ray.

Get back in there, you know? And I guess things can pop up, but Dale and I used to get, he, he took pride in this, you know, like he used to really lay out the concussion protocol. It would be like, if, if on Wednesday you have not done this, you're not playing. If on Thursday, you've not done this, you're not playing every step.

You got to crawl before you can walk.

Right.

And run. And the next day there can't be any symptoms. And then you have to do a full and, you know, and it's like, you can almost already tell. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, if they haven't, or Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, if they haven't done anything, it's mathematically impossible. I don't know if the NFL put this out and I missed it, but their protocol is definitely different now because there's been a couple, it's easier to get back on the field and concussions than it was two years ago or whatever, because there's definitely times. And I forget which quarterback it was just recently. The, they didn't do anything on Wednesday. And back in the day, Dale and I would have been like, well, he can't

play because yeah, So, I mean, not that they have to tell us all the concussion protocols or I'm not even questioning it in any negative manner, but I do think the concussion stuff is ever-changing. And I would assume for the better as they get more and more knowledge. I mean, again, broken bones, they've fixed the same way my whole life. Concussions are still learning about, you know?

Via the NFL operations and rule page, concussion protocol, players with suspected concussions must clear a multi-step independent medical check before returning to the field.

Mm-hmm.

That's all they say.

That's pretty vague.

We used to know it exactly, and now I don't think we know it.

Yeah, and it obviously has changed over the years. We know that. But it is. That's one thing that is, you laid that out well. It's not a torn hamstring. It's not a broken bone. Right, right.

There can be setbacks you don't see coming.

Despite as much, I think, as the knowledge has grown in that regard over the years, there's still just so much gray area, so much uncertainty in how it all plays out. It's not linear. diagnosis and recovery.

But I think the protocol has changed in the last year or two.

Yes, yes it has. Matt, we spoke about Brandon Ayuk. A couple more things I wanted to run by you here. We spoke about Brandon Ayuk on the show yesterday. A lot of questions about would you be interested if he is reinstated. He has now officially filed to be reinstated and plans to report to the 49ers on Friday, according to his agent.

Yeah, and again, I host a podcast with the Locked On 49ers host, and He believes, and he said this even before, that how this will probably happen, 99% chance, is Brandon Ayuk will walk in the facility or whatever to report on Friday. And then they will immediately cut him so they don't have to pay him a thing.

He has not made any money for a long time. He's on this weird away from team list. There's also weird lists out there. There are, yeah. And so, therefore, he has not made any money. He has not been a cap ramification for them at all. So instead of paying him, they will probably cut him. Maybe they'll wait a day and see if they get an offer. But I mean, there would be a minimal cap problem or whatever.

But most likely, he will become a free agent on Friday or Saturday.

Certainly something to keep an eye on.

Yeah. I mean, by all accounts. So again, I learned a little bit more about it today. Ayuk seems like a high maintenance guy. obviously. I mean, and he hasn't played football for quite some time and his knee injury was extremely severe. Like every tendon that could break or tore tore. Now he just got a new agent. Um, Rosenhouse.

It's one of the big names. Everybody knows Rosenhouse. Yes. And Rosenhouse is the one that said my client is healthy now and is ready to return to football. He had a long recovery, but there was more going on there too.

Yeah.

From what my cohost told me is the, his, I use former agent who he hasn't been in contact with, but he didn't legally fire until like a week ago or move on from, I don't know. I guess fire is not the word.

Yeah.

Also is John Lynch, the Niners GM's agent and was like best man in Lynch's wedding. They're like best friends.

Okay.

So like I, you took that personally, like.

You're on the side of the team.

You're working for the bad guys. You know what I mean? Which I guess I could see that strategy, but I don't know why you wouldn't have moved on from that a year ago.

Right.

Yeah.

Right. So I don't know. There's just a lot of weirdness there, including injuries. Would the Steelers want to rock the boat and things are going well now, you know, do you want to change things up with an odd player or is there nothing wrong with them? physically, mentally, whatever, you know, I mean, maybe in San Francisco or maybe thought about not playing for a while and had a really bad knee injury. I don't know the details. I don't think anybody that's not really in the loop does, but what I do know is if the Steelers or chiefs or whoever, I mean, there's a lot of teams that could use a wide receiver right now brought him in.

I'm sure it'd be for league minimum the rest of the year, maybe slightly over probably no signing bonus. So all you're on the hook for is them. Monday check and whatever that cap space is, a couple hundred grand a month or a week or whatever. It's not much. You could probably make that work with the pennies in the cushions. But the last time we saw him, he was awesome. I mean, that was probably three years ago.

I think it was 2023 that he was one of the best wide receivers in the league. And I've been asked so many times, you know, of all the potential wide receivers out there, which one's interesting, which ones don't. And I think they all have pros and cons, but Iuke's style of play is exactly what I want for this team. It would fit very well. Yes.

It would fit very well.

Because I want– I mean, first thing is you have to– for me, checking boxes, first thing is you've got to be a man coverage beater, preferably as more of an outside guy than the slot because I don't want to move Bernard outside because he's been so good in the slot and that's where he's most comfortable. And I prefer not to have a little guy because I don't want the biggest offense in the league all of a sudden to get a little smaller. and chink in the armor and have one less blocker. Ayuk does all those things.

And anyone in Shanahan's offense blocks, too. He did that, too.

No doubt.

It's just been a while, and a million things have happened between. Maybe it's a non-starter. Maybe he doesn't play at all this year. I don't know.

Absolutely could be.

Maybe he can't even pass a physical. I don't know.

Absolutely could be a non-starter, but it's certainly something we're going to keep an eye on here in the coming days.

It's just a crazy story.

It really is.

Crazy turn of events.

And the story isn't completely written yet. There'll still be some more twists and turns here, I'm sure.

Maybe someone gets him and he catches a lot of balls. I don't know. Maybe.

Absolutely. Maybe he's the difference in putting a team over the top.

Yeah.

Matt, a few more of these that I want to run by you. It seems like the Tanner McKee hype train has already been derailed across the Commonwealth, where the Philadelphia Eagles reportedly are naming Joe Milton their starting quarterback for this weekend.

Interesting. I forgot Milton was on the team. They drafted the North Dakota State, the lefty athletic dude.

Cole Payton?

Cole Payton.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Who I kind of liked as like a fifth-round pick, project, talent dude. They had Dalton. He's gone. I forgot when they grabbed Milton.

I think it was just a week or two ago.

Okay, okay. The thing is, I kind of thought McKee, and maybe he still is, could be a quality player that lasts in the league for a while. I'm not saying he's a starter. But he's really immobile, and he has to be protected.

Yeah, if he was playing behind their offensive line from two years ago, maybe it's.

A different conversation. Yeah, maybe they would keep the ship afloat. But what they're doing now gives him no chance to succeed. And frankly, I don't know that winning games is their top priority anyway. I mean, I think they'd love to have a top 6-7 pick, something like that. And Milton's very talented. He's very big. He throws 9,000 miles an hour, and he's super fast in a straight line. Last seen, he was heavily unrefined, and if he got a lot better, he probably wouldn't have been available for nothing. Sure. But it's interesting. Why not?

If you're looking for flyers on guys, he's certainly one that has some upside, unrealized potential, but certainly some potential there.

He may make a throw on Sunday or whatever. It's like, whoa. I mean, if we had a contest of who could throw the ball the farthest in the NFL, he might win. I mean, that doesn't get you real far. I mean, that's real low on the list of things you need to do to be a good quarterback, but he can throw the ball really far.

Speaking of quarterbacks, Matt, Sam Darnold will be out for Sunday's game against the Cardinals because of a quad injury. He is week to week, and so we will see Drew Locke under center for Seattle once again.

And they play the Cardinals, so it's probably, if it was the NFC Championship game, I would think Darnold plays, but Locke's already put a body of work together this season that We can win games with this guy. We should be able to beat the Cardinals with this guy. I wonder if Darnold's been right all year. You know, like I made the joke yesterday. Can the Seahawks win the Super Bowl with Darnold? I know they just did. But, you know, he hasn't been great.

Well, he did pick up that kind of scary injury in the opener against the Patriots.

Right, right, right.

And maybe he just.

Maybe it was ramifications. That was like a hip and weird stuff.

Like we talked about with Jeremiah Love and Ashton Genty yesterday. You pick up stuff in preseason or early in the year, and it can really screw with you the rest of the way.

Or you get out of whack and, you know, you start favoring one quad over the other and pull it or, you know.

It can certainly be something.

Maybe this is just a sit them down. Yeah. Maintenance. We got an easy game here.

Breathe a little bit.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Matt, last one, but certainly not least, some good news here. I wanted to save this for last so we could get out with some good news. Lions all-pro linebacker Jack Campbell, of course, that scary injury on Sunday. He released a statement yesterday saying he has full movement in his lower body, making progress with movement in his upper body as he recovers from his neck injury. He does remain hospitalized, but here's the statement he put out. My family and I want to sincerely thank everybody for the overwhelming amount of love, prayers, and support we've received over the last few days. It means more to us than words can express. I'm incredibly encouraged by the progress I've made in such a short

period of time. I have full movement in my lower body and I'm continuing to make progress with movement in my upper body. I know there's still work ahead, but I remain very optimistic. I'm taking things one day at a time, staying positive and focusing on getting better. Still not out of the woods, but that's good to at least hear some good news about Jack Campbell and that scary incident on Sunday, man.

Yeah, I don't know much to add. I'm glad you read that, though. That is very, very good news. The worst, it sounds like, they're over in terms of paralysis or anything like that, obviously. Obviously, no word of if and when he's going to get back on the field, but he's... I'm here to talk about football. He's really good at football. Yes, he is.

No doubt. And we hope for a full recovery for him. And whatever that may look like for his football career, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But hopefully everything moving in the right direction for Jack Campbell and all the best to him in his recovery. Let's get to our first break of the show today. When we return on the other side, our buddy Brian Batko of Steelers.com, of the Steelers Report. He will join us to talk about kind of just the state of the Steelers here as we head into the bye week. All that and more as we roll along. Just getting started. It's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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Get that hot dog costume ready.

Bruh.

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

Steelers Nation Radio.

Rolling along on 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 bi-week time off, but can 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?

Um, not necessarily.

I mean, I think it's a mature team and I answer it that way, Wes, because it, and not to like poopoo anything you're saying, that's all exactly true, but I didn't really notice this team seeming down in the dumps 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, uh, was pretty heated.

And we heard from Patrick Graham Monday about some of the soul searching that was done.

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.

He's missed.

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.

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 Fulton 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, oh, 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. 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 Bacco with us here on the drive, you know, Bacco, 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?

He 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 backers, whatever. And it's like, hey, down the road, maybe sooner than later. 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, 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, uh, you know, by tight end standards.

So everybody wins.

Back.

Oh, 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 an 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 Troop 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 that I pointed to was so many people just seemed to resigned 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, were down the road and obviously Aller and Dunker still fit that bill, but I'm a little shocked and very pleasantly surprised with the amount. contributions from the class.

As a whole.

Yeah.

And it's a, it's really from top to bottom and even beyond bottom, considering Kevin Chobody Jr.

Just kind of came in out of.

Nowhere as an undrafted guy who not a lot of us were paying much attention to.

I hear he has, I hear he has more sacks this year than Jared verse. Is that, 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, you know, 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.

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. 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, topped 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 backend 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, you know, 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. But 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, 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 Bacco. 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.

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

I'll figure it out.

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

Stock up now. Bud Light.

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Steelers Nation Radio.

Well, Matt, yesterday you asked the question, should the Ravens be sellers at the deadline? Does the acquisition of Jacoby Brissett mean no? Mean that they are still not giving up? They're not giving up the ship for the 2026 season here?

This has really been on my mind the last 24 hours. And I also think this is a very predictable move. There were a couple other names that, you know, the Bears guys you could think about just because of the offensive coordinator correlation coming over from Chicago. But Brissett basically got benched for Minshew. And they're probably equal players at this stage of their career. But we know what's happening there is Carson Beck's eventually going to get the call and at least see what you got in the guy.

Yeah.

And all that makes sense for the Cardinals. What doesn't really make sense is they did give Brissette a big bump in money in the offseason because he was the starter and they wanted to show respect.

And he was kind of like doing the hold-in thing, I think.

Yeah, a little bit.

Wasn't he?

I don't know if it's, you know. But there was a while there that it was up in the air. Yeah. I think he's a real borderline starter. I mean, that's kind of being kind. People love him. I mean, like, going back to when he was drafted by New England with Brady there. Like, he's a great teammate. Tough as can be. Really good for the locker room. You want him in your quarterback room.

One of the better backups in the NFL.

I say, if he's your two, you're real happy about it. You know what I mean? I think you can win games with him. But there's a ceiling there, too. And last year, he put up some big numbers. They threw the ball a ridiculous amount. I mean, they were always losing.

Trey McBride had a career year.

Yeah. I mean, they threw the ball a ton.

So.

What I've been thinking about with the Ravens before this, and I thought this could be in the works. I didn't think it happened today. I figured it'd be happening after the Thursday night game. So the Ravens' schedule is as follows. They host the Jags tomorrow.

Yeah, tough.

And then they get to wait until Monday night to play the Chargers. Not so tough. Not so tough. And if you look at the rest of it, it's maybe the easiest schedule in the league. And they still have four. Division games, including the two against the Steelers. So I kept thinking all along, and it still holds true, this trade doesn't.

I don't know, man. I mean, they got Panthers, Texans, Bucs after, right?

Oh, okay. That's... Okay, I was wrong about that then.

Okay.

They got the Bucs too.

Come on, Bucs. Bucs are good.

Beat them up, baby.

I think there'd be a dog in all those games right now. All three of those.

I think so too.

Even with Brissette, if he's in his best. So my big thought was, let's operate under the assumption they get hammered tomorrow night. Cause I think there's no chance for set plays.

I would be shocked.

He's not even in Baltimore yet.

Right. I mean, he's probably trying to book a flight right now to get over there.

Yeah. He maybe he's in the air. Who knows? So I can't imagine he even dresses. So I imagine they get smashed and then you have that long stretch between then and your Monday nighter, as well as a long stretch between then and the trade deadline and I think you'd have to have a serious conversation as an organization.

Not should we be buyers? Because I think that's all the buying you're going to do is per set. Or, but should we be sellers? And frankly, I think the smart move, and I don't think they will do it, would be to start selling off pieces. And frankly, that means Henry.

Yeah.

Andrews.

Yeah.

Bateman. Maybe Roquan. I think his contract's coming up. Marlon Humphrey. And it kind of reminds me like the Eagles or the Chiefs from a year ago. These are good organizations. They win a ton of games. But if you happen to stumble into the eighth pick in the draft in this upcoming draft, maybe it's not so bad for business or the organization and get some old dudes out. You got a young coach. It's kind of a different era already.

But what we don't know, we do know now. I don't know if we mentioned this in the show. Huntley is officially out for the year. His turf toe, he will not play again. So Lamar, there's no news, but he was put on, I mean, they, they announced he's going to IR before the game even ended. I mean, like it can't be, he's just right around the corner.

Now could, I assume the approach there will take is we aren't going to trade our assets. jacoby should beat the chargers and then we're going to try to fight and scratch and stay in this thing and lamar is going to come flying in on a white horse and win the last three games and we're going to roll in.

The playoff week before their last five games okay so they go Jags tomorrow, then Chargers, then Panthers, then Texans, then Bucs, then Steelers. No, pardon me, pardon me, pardon me.

Sorry.

They go Chargers, then Panthers, then Texans, then bye week, then Bucs, then Steelers.

Okay.

So they have a bye week the weekend after Thanksgiving. First week in December.

It has to be the latest one.

It has to be the latest. And maybe that actually works out well for them.

It could. Because that would.

Line up perfectly with four games on IR for Lamar plus a bye week. So potentially six weeks in there for Lamar to return.

Us commenting about Lamar's injury is totally fruitless.

Yes.

Who the heck knows? But it's not he's going to be back immediately in those four weeks, I would think, just by the way they handled it. But here's the other wrinkle or the rub is I think it's pretty safe to say he's not exactly Wolverine healing powers. He misses a lot of time and he seems to get sick once a year and whatever. I'm not giving the guy a hard time. I think he's phenomenal, but he has a contract situation coming up. That's really tenuous.

We laid that out on the show, I think on Monday or Tuesday.

And if you don't recall. The way I gather it is he is like a $ 80 million cap hit next year.

Like 26% of the Ravens cap.

So they have to do something.

Yes.

They can't survive with this contract.

I said to you earlier, I don't care if you're prime Tom Brady, you can't take up 26% of your team's cap with one player.

No.

And it seemed like they did just negotiate with him, but they did. But they knew that this day was coming, that they were going to have to do it again. He's not easy to negotiate. His mom's his agent. And he said, No matter what happens how the season ends.

He's had a lot of injuries lately.

Two injury-riddled seasons. He's going to want 60. That's what he's worth. Do they want to pay him 60? Especially if they're picking eighth in the draft and they're going, we'll take Arch and rebuild this thing. I just think that they're at a real crossroads.

Please take Arch Baltimore. No, no, Baltimore, don't. Don't take Arch. No, I want that guy. Come on.

I mean, if they get hammered tomorrow... I would sell. I don't think they're wired that way. I don't think the Steelers would sell if it was the same situation.

No, the Steelers clearly wouldn't because the year that Ben Roethlisberger threw out his elbow in week two, they went and traded for Minka Fitzpatrick. So, I mean, the Steelers would not.

And I'm not saying the Steelers would dump Cam Hayward if it was the same situation. But, I mean, you'd entertain offers for the Batemans of the world and things like that. I just think it's a really interesting situation of how you handle it and how you self-scout yourself. Can Brissette keep us competitive until Lamar returns? Does Lamar ever return? Does Lamar ever play another down for the Ravens?

That's not 100% guaranteed either. They're all fair questions. They could come to a real impasse in the offseason and be like, well, we're going to trade them. I just think the whole thing is chaos and could go a lot of different directions. They could have an Eagles-like season all.

Of a sudden. Completely agree. And that is certainly something we'll keep an eye on.

I don't like their chances tomorrow.

We do not feel bad for Baltimore's problems. In fact, we're glad they have them. Matt, the kind of NFL, ESPN NFL reporters, Graziano, Jeremy Fowler, Schatz, all those guys, they put together a trade deadline kind of primer for all 32 teams. Should you be looking to buy? Should you be looking to sell? What's kind of your goal at the deadline? All that stuff. I figured we've got a couple minutes left here in the first hour. We could take just a look at the Steelers snapshot real quick.

Steelers currently have a little over an 80% chance to make the playoffs. And if the draft, if the season ended today, the Steelers will be picking 22nd in the draft. Right around where we always find ourselves, Matt Williamson. Here's what they say. What's the deadline goal?

They're projecting them to win the division and lose in the first round. Exactly what that would be. Because if you won the first round, you'd be like the 26th or whatever.

Yeah. What is the deadline goal? Don't mortgage the future for the present. Coming off their most well-rounded performance of the season, the Steelers aren't in desperation mode at the deadline. They could use help at cornerback and wide receiver, but only if the price is right. I think that's well said.

While the Steelers are in win-now mode, their top priority remains finding their next franchise quarterback. Could that answer be on the roster in Drew Aller or Will Howard? The Steelers still don't want to surrender the kind of significant draft capital that could be used to land a premium prospect.

I think that all makes a lot of sense.

I'm in that same boat. If the right deal's there, I'd make it, but I don't have to make a deal.

Who could be on the move? Who should the Steelers target? Who could be on the move? Quarterback Mason Rudolph. The Steelers are more likely to bring in players at the deadline. In fact, I don't expect Pittsburgh to move anyone, but it does have a surplus at quarterback, and should more quarterback injuries occur around the league, perhaps teams call on Rudolph with an attractive offer.

I guess if I had to pick, I mean, if the assignment is pick one current Steeler most likely to leave, I guess he's as good as any.

I mean, it's not going to be Highsmith. There's not a huge list to pick from.

No, no.

I mean, I would bet, and I think they said this, that they probably won't move anyone. I mean, I don't think the Vikings are like, Rudolph's going to take us to the promised land and bench Kyler. If it wouldn't have been the Ravens, maybe the Ravens would have called.

If it wasn't that divisional foe.

Right, right, right.

And then who should the Steelers target? This from Aaron Schatz, Colts wide receiver Josh Downs. The Colts and Steelers already made a wide receiver deal in the offseason. Why not one more? Downs' ability to get open against zone coverage would fit the short passing game the Steelers run with Aaron Rodgers.

I get that. What I'm more interested in is he has a lot of ability to get open against man coverage. Yes, he does. That's the allure. That's what that.

Wide receiver group could really use, could certainly really use. So there you have it. Obviously, we are not even close to being finished with our trade deadline conversation as we roll along this week.

I think there'll be a lot of action. There was today. I mean, every step of the way, we're going to see stuff.

Pretty much every day, there's been something going on, and I would certainly expect that to continue. Hour in the books, another hour to go. When we return, we will go around campus. We will hear from Ben Roethlisberger. We'll have plenty more.

Oh, I just read the trade is not finalized until the weekend. So he won't even be a Raven fan. at kickoff tomorrow night, officially. But the deal's a handshake deal. I'm sure he'll be in Baltimore. I'm sure he's learning the playbook as we speak or on a plane or whatever, yeah.

You got to have all those checks and balances, I guess, before he becomes officially a Baltimore Raven. Hour of the Books, another hour to go. Euler, Williamson, it's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

And now a word from our sponsor, Bud Light.

There's nothing better than the clean, crisp, There's nothing better than the.

Clean, crisp.

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

I'll figure it out.

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

Stock up now.

Bud Light.

Louis, Missouri.

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

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

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