Drive11.5.26Hr1: Mid-Season Report Card

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Good afternoon, Steeler Nation. It's The Drive on the Steelers Audio Network. Wes Shuler and Matt Williamson, we're with you for the next two hours on this Thursday. Our last show of this week before we get a little extended bi-week siesta. I think well-deserved and well-earned around these parts. I can't speak for all the other shows on SNR, Matt, that are getting the day off, too. But we certainly deserve it here on The Drive.

We're carrying our weight around here.

Yeah, but we've got some fun stuff for you today. We will obviously take a look at the upcoming NFL slate. We'll do some fun bi-week kind of conversation and reset. I've got an idea, actually, that a lot of you tweeted us about here. You can get to right off the jump. To kick off hour number two at 5 o'clock, we will talk to the much-requested, never-duplicated Dean of Doom, Lord of Living in his Fears, Bob Labriola for you.

Special treat on this Thursday. A reminder, Ben Roethlisberger did join in the locker room yesterday. We played that on our show here. That is available in podcast form wherever you get your podcasts in the locker room. If you missed that yesterday, number seven here on the network. That was a lot of fun. Tough act for Bob Labriola to follow, but I'm sure he's up.

He's ready.

And Matt, here's where I want to begin today before we get to labs and some around the NFL stuff in our two. one thing you know we had kind of been crowd sourcing a little bit.

Yeah yeah we got five i mean we're gonna have a game to recap monday either.

Exactly right and so i've already got some stuff if you look at my notes here i've already got some stuff planned for monday and tuesday some fun stuff but what i thought we'd do today because this was i think requested by four or five a half dozen of you uh whether it be on twitter on x or in the youtube comments uh kind of mid-season grades for the Steelers position groups.

I like it. Okay.

So you want to start on offense or defense? Let's start on offense. Does that work for you?

I just think how we grade these, and this is going to make the grades harsher than they are, or than maybe people expect, is... Like, I'm going to grade Rodgers against 31 other starting quarterbacks.

Yes.

Not my expectations for, you know, is he better than last year? I mean, like, I'm going to judge the running back room against 31 other running back rooms.

I think that's the way to do it.

Yeah, yeah.

Some of those are going to be very favorable. Some of those are going to leave some to be desired.

Yeah. I mean, if you do any team, someone's going to be near the bottom in some position group.

No one's going to be A's across the board.

No, of course.

So, Matt, let's start with the Steelers offense. Let's start with that quarterback position then, since they are the prom kings.

Okay.

What would you give Aaron Rodgers here about halfway through the season?

A C.

Okay.

I know that sounds really harsh. But, I mean, he's like 28th out of 35 quarterbacks in EPA and success rate. Now, I think his style of play also doesn't lend itself great to advanced stats. I mean, just because a lot of what he does is above the neck and attacking defenses and what they give you type of thing.

Sure.

But I think his inability to run is massive to me. You know, like it's something that's been on my mind since he arrived, of course, but it's really shown up to me lately or just been on my mind lately. Like I've been posting these graphs of all the offenses in the league starting week three and the Steelers running game is way above everybody else, way above everybody else.

without any threat of a running quarterback.

Yeah.

You know, like in like the around campus stuff, I keep thinking about it. Like what if you had sellers on this team? I'm not saying you'd be better. You know how many rushing yards you'd have?

I think your ceiling and your floor would both be affected with somebody like that.

Yes, yes, yes.

Your floor would drop down a little bit because Aaron Rodgers provides a very high floor.

Yes. I'm just talking about the run game.

Yeah, but your ceiling would go up as well.

Right.

I mean, you'd probably run for 30 to 40 more yards a game with a real rushing quarterback. Some of his sacks bother me. I don't think anyone thinks he's a top 10, 12 guy at this point. I got a mailbag question the other day for a different podcast and said, who should be considered in the top 10 quarterback conversation? And I came up with 15 firm names.

So if there's 32 teams and there's 15 that are, I consider top 10 worthy, a guy like Stroud was 14th or 15. Well, then the best you can be if you're outside that 15 is probably like a B minus C plus level. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

You know what I mean? I mean, I'm comparing them to the Mahomes and Allens of the world. He still does good stuff.

Yeah, and that's kind of where I'm at. So you mean a flat C? Are you throwing pluses or minuses on it?

No, just call him a C.

Just call him a C?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because I was thinking C plus, B minus. That's about the range that I was thinking. Because I think everything you've just said is spot on. I also think, though, that there's something to be said for Aaron Rodgers when you see how they have managed to survive or stay above water with all the injuries to the wide receiver room.

Yeah.

And when you do talk about the growth of the young offensive line, particularly the center that we all think might just be the best in the world right now, I think the veteran, steady mentorship and above-neck ability of Aaron Rodgers adds a lot there for that group, too.

I don't know if we can even put this as part of the grade, but if a year from now, Drew Allers, a really successful quarterback for this team, I bet someone will interview him and he'll be like, man, that year with Rodgers was invaluable in my career, too. You know, things like that. The other thing, too, which is super important, especially for the way this team is structured right now with physicality defense, he's only thrown six interceptions, and I don't know if any of them were his fault.

I mean, a lot of them definitely weren't. They were bounced off of people's hands.

Right.

I mean, he hits someone in the hands and it turns into an interception.

It happened to DK on Sunday. It happened to Roman Wilson earlier in the year.

Does he throw two that are his fault, something like that?

Yeah.

That's why I think I would lean more towards C-plus or B-minus.

I would definitely put a plus on it over a minus for C.

Yeah.

And, uh, and maybe, maybe, um, cause like I'm thinking about it, spoiler alert. I think I'm going to give the Steelers wide receiver room, probably a C minus.

Yeah.

I'll be pretty rough on it compared to 31 others.

And I think Aaron Rogers is, is a step above what we've seen from the wide receiver room, but that's probably not the right way for me to look at it. The way that you have framed it is, is probably more apt.

I'm trying to make it as fair as possible. Um, I had something wise to say there. I don't remember. I don't remember. Whatever.

If you think of it, we could come back to it.

Yeah, it'll dawn on me.

Running backs. A. A minus.

Yeah, right. I mean, I'm trying to think whole body of work. Everyone that's participated. Warren's been basically as good as any back in the league. I think Dowdle's exactly as advertised.

I think he's exactly what you want.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, what I was going to say about Rodgers. Definitely better than last year, though. That's not what we're doing here, but If you would have told me going into the season, you're going to get the exact same version of Aaron Rodgers in 2025, or in 26 as you got in 25. I'd be like, hmm, I don't know.

But this version's been better. Yeah, I definitely think that.

So.

Running back's a collective A.

Running back, I think, is an easy collective A.

Yeah, yeah.

Especially when you kind of do the grading, their production versus everybody else in the league to this standpoint, as you just mentioned. Let's go. All right, let's finish on a high note. So let's go wide receivers now.

I don't think it's going to be a high note.

No, I think the offensive line is tight ends.

Oh, okay, you're not wrapping up the segment after this. Yeah, no, no, no, no.

I mean, I think finishing with tight ends and offensive line will be the high note. I think it's a C-. I'm not going to dip down into the D territory because I do think they've had to overcome a lot of different– I mean, Michael Pittman Jr. has not been nearly as available as you thought. Roman Wilson has not been nearly as available as you thought. I do think Jeremy Bernard has been everything that we've wanted. DK has obviously been underwhelming this season. But that doesn't mean he's bad.

That doesn't mean he's bad.

Exactly.

That's exactly what I was going to say.

Bernard helps a lot.

He sure does.

I'm with you as a C-. The one thing I'll fight you on on my grading scale is I don't care if you're injured. Because I'm just saying, what happens between the white lines at that position?

Don't talk about the labor. Show me the baby.

If the whole room is injured, well, you're getting an F. You know what I mean? You're not getting an incomplete.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just, what have you gotten from that position on the field this year is how I'm doing my grades.

I think that's fair.

C minus. I thought about D plus. I did too. Bernard's good. I mean, Bernard's a find.

Yes, he is. And as much as maybe we've been underwhelmed, uh, I still think if we're going like D plus, that means that there's probably 20 some wide receiver units that we would swap the Steelers with. And that might be a little rich.

That might be a little rich. And DK is still starting for 90% of the team. Everyone but the Bengals. You know what I mean?

Right.

I mean, it's not like he's, you're not thrilled with him as your one right now, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the field.

And I will say for all these guys, I know it's not the end all be all, but I think across the board, they have been plus in the run game.

Oh, that's a good call.

So that factors into the conversation as well.

That definitely matters, right.

Matt?

Maybe as good a receiving blocking group as the league. Maybe. Yeah, yeah.

And that gives them a little bit of credit there. Matt, tight ends.

A-minus. For the room, I wouldn't put either one in the Pro Bowl or say they're the best tight end in the league, although Washington's really... unique. Yes, he is. I mean, you ask who you're not going to play against.

He's one of the hardest to play against in the league, as you always like to put it.

But I think they're getting a lot out of that room.

They absolutely are.

Yeah.

They absolutely are. I think A minus is fair for that room. Um, there, I think if we could just, Hey, we'll swap them with the Raiders tight end room. Cause that means we'd get Brock Bowers, you know, type things like that. There's some, but I, I'd be hard pressed to find more than five tight end rooms that we'd swap the entire league. And I think that kind of puts you right in that a minus territory.

Yeah.

I mean, trading those two for anyone's top two, you know, like the Niners don't have somebody behind Kittle. That's that noteworthy or, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And they play a lot. They're on the field together a lot.

That they are. And they're both clearly pluses in the run game and the run blocking department as well in terms of Washington and Muth.

Yeah.

Backo said that well yesterday when that's something that I think we don't talk about enough with Pat Fryer-Muth's game, how much growth he's had in that regard since he was acquired by the Pittsburgh Steelers as a second-round pick.

Took a big jump this past year.

Big, big jump.

Yeah.

Matt, last but certainly not least, the offensive line.

For the season... I'm going to give it a B +, but the recency bias is an A. I mean, like, it's trending, skyrocketing through the roof as much as any line in the league, which is what I expected and what should be expected, but there have been some growing pains. I mean, like, in terms of every snap offensive line play from September to November, you know, is probably the...

eighth best and every week we they play football it goes up two.

Spots yeah if you did since week four yeah they'd be an a or an a.

Plus they've been one of the best you have the first three weeks yeah that counts that counts.

I think i might go a minus i might go a little bit higher than your b plus but i think that's the.

Right range now i said whatever you put on the field counts but i also you know and injuries don't matter and all those things but like especially over the course of a bigger sample size than even what we have i'm gonna weigh when you make a position change, a coaching decision at right guard and right tackle, I'm going to weigh that a little differently than, you know, people got hurt and you just had to put other dudes in there. You know what I mean? Like this is your line now, you know, they took you a minute to figure out who you wanted on your line, but you made the right choice, you know?

And if all these position groups are stocks, I think we are certainly investing in that offensive line, too.

I don't even think it's a buy high. It is a buy high. It is a buy high now. And I recommend buying high.

I still think they can even go higher.

Exactly. Well said, yeah.

It's like buying Apple or Amazon. You're buying high, but it's still going.

It's still going.

It's still continuing to grow. So there it is for the Steelers' positions on offense. Let's take our first break of the day. We will spin the block to the other side and give out some report cards for the Steelers' defense at the bye week. When we return, just getting going here on this Thursday, Euler and Williamson. It's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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Continuing.

It's Professor Williamson and Professor Euler here handing out some grades.

Oh, so what should we give the offense as a whole? I'm going to give it a B.

I think that's fair. If you judge it based off of last year, I think you'd maybe go B +.

Oh, it's vastly improved. It's much easier to watch.

If you judge it based off the rest of the league, I think it's about league average, maybe slightly better.

And definitely trending up. And definitely trending in the right direction. Right, right, right.

So I think B is fair.

I think it's fair.

Hopefully if we were doing this in another week or two, it'd be a B +.

It is going in the right direction.

But I think a B is fair for now.

Okay, I agree.

On to the defense, Matt Williamson. And let's do it. Let's start with the edge rushers because I think that's an easy A.

I think that's an easy A. Sawyer's been valuable.

All four of them.

That's what I'm saying. I mean, he's a distant fourth in value, but he's valuable.

TJ is the co-leader in the NFL in sacks right now and is back to his disruptive ways.

I don't think he's the best pass rusher in the league.

No, I know.

But he has the most sacks. He's still a really good player.

Exactly right. He's doing his he's doing his job. Absolutely. And bouncing back from that year last year. I think Alex Ismith, we discussed this. Was it yesterday or early in the week is so criminally underrated, so quietly effective and good at his job. I think you could say the same thing about Nick Herbig. I know there was some concern about him not necessarily stuffing the stat sheet at the beginning of the year, but he's.

I haven't gotten one of those tweets in a long time. What's wrong with Herbig? Why'd they give him money? He's a backup.

And as you mentioned, for a fourth, I think Jack Sawyer is about as legit as you can get for a fourth guy. Yeah.

And all those guys, including Herbig, who wasn't, are really good at setting the edge, really good against the run. Three of them are good tacklers. Herbig isn't. I mean, when they were having tackling issues, he's one of the guys that are to blame. But he gets to a lot of stuff, too. I mean, in terms of tracking stuff down, he's also playing left-handed a little bit in terms of off the ball and things like that that aren't pure edge stuff all the time. So I think that's been a really, really good room. Like, I'm not sure there's many outside of Houston you'd swap it out with.

And they don't have the depth.

I think that's perfectly set.

Yeah.

Defensive line, Matt.

We're just going to call these the big people. The big people. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A minus?

Took the words out of my mouth. I really like where Benton's going.

Speaking of the guys who the box score doesn't match the eye test.

Yeah. I mean, he is. He's been really, really good.

He's been so disruptive.

Speaking of some of my charts and stuff I find out there, I put one out last night. from Sam Hoppen, who does really good statistical work and contributes to Matt's stats, whether he knows it or not. And it really just put Benton in a good light. He was kind of standing apart from a lot of the defensive tackles in the league. They've been without Harmon.

I think, just real quick, I think you said this on Tuesday maybe, but I think by this time next year, we're all going to be looking at Keanu Benton's contract as one of the best team-friendly deals in the NFL.

I agree. And I think people, if they aren't already, should be looking at Washington's exactly the same way.

Yeah, good call.

And I think Herbig's, especially if by chance you have to move on from an edge guy or he becomes a full-time starter. I think all those deals, you can say what you want about the Porter stuff, but I think all those deals are going to age really, really well.

Agreed.

YA Black's taking a step forward. I'm not disappointed in him, but I thought they would have gotten more out of Sebastian Joseph Day. Some of it's injury-related. Some of it's just because there's good people in front of you. So that's not necessarily a concern. I thought Cam might actually take a step backwards. I mean, at some point he has to, right? You say that. I mean, I've been saying that about Derrick Henry for five years. He'll probably have 130 yards a night. So I just think if you compare it to all the D-lines out there, it's really good.

I mean, it's one of the best.

One of the best, yeah, of the 290-pound-plus guys on any roster. There aren't many I'd swap them out with.

I think you'd have a hard time coming up with five better.

Yeah.

Maybe you could do a few, but I think you'd have a hard time coming up with five better, and that lends to be about an A-. Yeah.

I mean, obviously, and that's the way they're built, they're better from front to back, clearly. Like our best grades have been given.

Yes.

Yes, they have.

Although I will say I'm very interested for this one, Matt.

Yeah.

Because I think a lot of it, The balance of expectations versus where they rank in the kind of just tiers of the National Football League. How about the off-ball linebackers, namely Patrick Queen and Peyton Wilson, but I.

Think also sprinkle in the holcomb.

Holcomb sprinkled in there a little bit carson bruner i mean i guess i don't think even cows yeah teams guy.

This is another one that's definitely every week i would give it a little bit more a little bit more you know like if you scored an 83 on the test the next week i'd be like oh it's 85 87 you know so i think they're getting more comfortable the coaching staff's using them better I'm just going to go flat out B. And if it was week two, I would not have said that. I'd have been harsh on them. Or week four, I'd have been like, ah, it's a D plus, C minus.

If we were just grading off the last two or three weeks, we might go A minus.

Yeah, yeah.

Or B plus.

And again, I opened the show, I didn't give this position a lot of thought when I said it. If you compare it to all the linebacker rooms out there, there's some awful.

Ones, guys.

That's why I think I'm leaning towards B plus.

For this group. Yeah, I mean, there's 10 that are Bad.

It's it's you know, you say this a lot when we get to draft time and combines and all that stuff. Kind of the philosophy of drafting offensive linemen, because it's just a position group that across the league is not the strongest right now. It's historically not what it has been.

If you have a 78 grade on an offensive lineman and an 85 grade on a safety, take the lineman. Exactly. You know what I mean? Right, yeah, yeah.

Because you can find a lot more, you know, safeties.

You'll find 78 safeties. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Exactly right. So I think for that purpose, I think I would go B +, because this is one of... It is not the days of Urlacher and Bobby Wagner and Patrick Willis.

You're not going to have Lambert and Hamm. Yes. And the guys the Steelers have had. I mean, some ridiculous football guys.

There's no Farrier in foot.

And LeVon and Kedrell Bell. I mean, they were everywhere. Yes.

So I think I'd go B +.

Yeah. And I would strongly consider bringing Queen back. His contract's up after the year. And I would strongly consider extending Wilson.

Extending Peyton Wilson.

Yeah.

I mean, I haven't given that much thought, but you'd kind of not. You'd like to stagger their contracts.

Sure.

You know, where one's a second round pick and one's a eight year veteran. Sure. But I also don't want either one to leave.

One of the things that I have in my notes for us next week, Matt, is power ranking the contract extensions. The Steelers have looming this off season in terms of which we would consider the highest priority.

Okay. I even have to look who those are.

I'm going to have Zach Frazier. Number one, spoiler alert.

Yeah.

But I, but, but those off ball linebackers might not be, I don't.

Want to go shopping for one. I know part of it.

I know.

Right.

All right, Matt, that is definitely going to be where the best grades are with the defense.

Yeah, if we just did the secondary, I don't think I'd grade it great.

Let's start with the corners. We'll split up the corners and the safeties here.

Are we going to call Ramsey a corner? I think the answer is yes.

I think the answer is yes.

He's a nickel, but he's a nickel corner. The lines have just blurred in the league more. Just because Cal Hamilton and Derwin play it doesn't mean it's not a nickel corner position. Do you want to start with corner?

Let's start with corner.

Dean and Ramsey I think are really strong, especially because what you're asking Ramsey to do. He's not the Ramsey of old. He proved last year that you can't put him outside against Jamar Chase and do those things. But in terms of playing the run and being tough and blitzing and playing zone in the middle of the field, I think he's been the 10th best nickel.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? And there's a lot of good ones.

He's been what I think we all kind of envisioned him being.

Yeah. And I think Dean's a really good investment. Of course, the elephant in the room is you'd love to have been like, well, what would it have been like with Porter? But you don't have that option.

Sure.

A guy we've mentioned before, Tommy Jaggi, puts out these clips of just like every snap.

I want to know if that's his actual last name.

I don't know. What a jag. But yeah. I don't know him, but he seems like a good guy. He seems like he does good work, but he puts out these great videos that I often retweet. And today he put out every snap of Everett from this last game and they were exceptional. And I didn't know this. Someone went and told me he scored like perfect for pro football focus.

He's their number two rated cornerback this season.

And okay.

For the whole, for the whole year.

Wow.

Yeah.

I mean, and it's a small sample size. Almost all of his snaps have come in three games due to injuries and whatnot, but I think he's a hit. I mean, I think he's a projected starter next year. Um, but the fact that the secondary mostly, but line, you have linebackers also factor in here. They are not man to man capable. You know, they are a zone defense period.

That doesn't mean they play zero snaps a man, but they play like 15%. And I'm going to blame the secondary as a whole for that and hold it against them in these grades. You know, like, When you talk about each player, oh, I like Dean. I like Ramsey. Everett's a good player, you know. But you don't have a lot of man capability. And that makes life tough on Patrick Ramsey. You know what I mean? I'm going to go C +. And there isn't a star there.

No, no, no.

You know what I mean? There's good players, but there's not a star. I'm just thinking about other cornerback rooms.

B +.

I said C +. Or C said C +. I could be convinced it would be minus, though.

I think I'm going to go B-. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's another one where I'm trying to think in kind of the pecking order of the league.

Yeah, and that's a hard position to really judge, too.

It is.

Because some are asked to do a lot more than others. And Samuel's not bad, but I think he's really a three. I agreed.

So I don't think that this group has that bonafide lockdown absolute stud.

Agreed.

But I wouldn't say they have a, Oh, your offensive coordinator coordinator is circling that guy. And that's who we're going to pick on in the past.

Yeah.

There's not a glaring weakness either.

Agreed.

Agreed. Now, if they're in heavy man, I think Samuel gets picked on or, and I think that he's also never going to be a tackler or a physical player. You know, like I think they want to get running backs coming downhill in his direction, not Dean's, you know, I mean, that's not, that's not an uncommon corner thing though.

I mean, Great coordinators make corners tackle.

Yes, they do.

Yeah, it's hard. Yes, they do.

I'll go B minus.

Okay.

Now, Matt, maybe the toughest group of them all. Safety.

D plus. And I really like Spears Jennings.

You do really like Spears Jennings.

And I really like, it's kind of like the Everett conversation, though. I think he's a starter. But that doesn't mean he's one of the best 20 safeties in the league right now. No, sure. I think maybe one day he could be the top 30 safety or something like that. But he still has growing pains and does rookie stuff and is a six-round pick and all those things.

Absolutely.

Brisker's kind of in my doghouse. I think he looks slow. And he, like, Fannin had all that production. Much of it was against Brisker. I think he does kind of have a target on his chest at times, especially against, like, move tight ends. We just haven't seen enough of Elliott for him to factor in much yet. So you hope, I hope, that Elliott and Spears Jennings are your top snap getters going forward, but that's been very slow. I mean, there's only been two games, but Elliott's not getting heavy snaps yet.

No, he had 25, was it, TV on Sunday?

That sounds about right, yeah. Which is like double what he had the first game.

Yes, and it was more than it seemed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

If that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah.

But you get Deshaun Elliott back to doing Deshaun Elliott things, and this grade could certainly improve.

It could improve. Like, I don't think it's terrible. I'm not looking for a safety at the trade deadline. But none of those guys are particularly man-capable. No one's a tremendous– Spearstein's a good athlete, but the other guys don't run great by starting safety standards.

There's not really a ball hawk in that group.

No, no. I mean, there's not anybody to avoid. And I think that's probably the best way to say it. They've been good in run sport.

They have been good in run sport.

Yeah, yeah, and that matters.

It absolutely does.

Quarterback aside, if they took a safety really high next year in the draft, I'd be like, I get it.

Like a second or third round guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Day two guy. Like the third safety off the board and he appears, you know, they put him with Spears Jennings and you're like, ooh, he's 6'2 and can really run.

And your safety group is pretty cheap for the next three or four years.

And I do think a lot of it goes back to Omar's team building. I don't think he wants to spend a ton of money at safety, which was part of the Minka trade.

Sure.

You know, like I don't have X amount of chips to They're going to go to Zach Frazier.

Yes, they're going to go to offensive and defensive linemen. Overall for the defense, Matt, as we round this out.

And also trending in the right direction.

I think that's fair, and trending in the right direction.

Had a Twitter conversation where we were talking about best defenses, and I think Seattle and the Vikings are in their own tier. But I think the Steelers are in the next tier. I think they're there with the Jags and Denver. I think they're a top six defense. Tampa would be in that tier for me. So to me, that's a B plus. I mean, right, right. If I'm going to take them over 25 defenses, it's pretty high.

It sure is.

I don't know if I bet a lot of people don't agree with it. Well, maybe they're coming around, but there were two weeks ago. I don't think people would have agreed with us. No, look, look at all our completions are given up. And you know, now, now they haven't played a murder throw, but still, It's.

Not Ohio State versus Akron.

Right.

Don't have Akron's finest Justin Miller coming in here and yelling at me for that one.

And the Bengals very well may put 33 points up against Steelers.

They might.

I mean, that's kind of what they do. I mean, that's a really tough test.

That's life in the National Football League in 2026. You're not going to hold everybody to 16 points every week anymore. I think B-plus is a fair grade. Matt, let's get to our last question.

Special teams.

So that's on the other side.

Oh, okay.

On the other side, let's do special teams and coaching staff. And some final thoughts as we round this thing out. This kind of mid-season, bi-week report card here on The Drive. Euler and Williamson, we will close down this exercise. When we return, we'll put our red pens away after the grading commences at the end of this next segment. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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Steelers Nation Radio.

Ooh, can you feel that?

I can.

That's the anticipation for about 15 minutes from now, the Dean of Doom.

Yeah, we haven't chatted with him in a long time. The lord of.

Living in his fears. Somebody cue the Phantom of the Opera music.

Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

Bob Labriola going to join us at the top of the second hour. But before we get to labs, we've got to finish our report card exercise here, Matt. Special teams. I have a feeling this one is not going to be the making the honor roll here.

No.

Let's start with.

Okay, I was going to do them all as a whole, but go ahead.

Do you want to do them all as a whole, or do you want to do kicker, punter, return specialist? Let's do kicker, punter, return specialist.

Yeah, and coverage teams.

Okay, fair.

Kicker's a D.

Is it?

No, it's a C-..

I wonder how much of that is what we just, again, it's the.

I don't even care what his name is. I trust him to no end, but is the ball going between the uprights or not?

Yeah.

Not as much as most teams. So far. Am I worried one bit?

I would trust you to know the league-wide numbers because I think if you just look at it and you grade Boswell.

Based off of what he's been. I think kicking is ridiculous right now. Yes.

That's a good point.

It's ridiculously good.

So you would say.

You're below the line so far.

If you're below the line, then it has to be a C minus or lower, right?

Yes.

I guess C would kind of be dead average.

I don't know kickers well. Dale used to make fun of me. I don't even know who Oakland. Maybe it was Oakland back then. We're so old. I don't even know who their kicker or punter is. I just know that the ball goes through the uprights a lot from all kinds of distance. And I would never claim to be a kicking expert. But I bet if I really dug into it, I wouldn't trade Boz for more than three guys. Sure. You know, Aubrey.

Because while he has had some misses, he's still had the big moments that you expect from him.

I still trust him to no end.

And like down in Tampa.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where he had to kick that bomb and there was the miscommunication with the two-minute warning and they had to go out and kick it again, you know?

Yeah.

You know, this one to me is just math. You know, like what percentage are going through the uprights? Yes. You're lower than most right now.

Yes.

So you can't get a good grade.

So you're a C-minus.

Yeah, yeah. It's not like when we do punter, like, yeah, but he's the best fake punter in the world and he throws touchdowns from the punting or whatever, or your coverage teams are great or whatever. It's like the ball going between the uprights or not. It hasn't as much as most teams.

As much as, yeah. As you mentioned, the just kind of nature of how automatic that position has become in the NFL.

Yeah.

Yeah. Cam Johnson. This one, I think is going to be even the, probably the toughest to evaluate all these.

I mean, we're not doing long snapper.

Christian Coots gets an A.

I guess a B. I don't remember many shanks. Um, We could look up punting averages, but those can be misleading too.

Sure.

Because, like, if you're trying to pooch one or whatever, it's going to be short. I mean, this is a compliment to the organization. It's the weakest position in Steeler history times a million. And for much of my life, we didn't trust the punter. Or, you know, there's those Harvin years where, boy, that one went 70 yards and then he hits a 20-yarder. I think Johnson's been really steady to above average.

And this will speak to it. 11th best average punt overall, 14th best net punt distance.

Okay. And again, I have no clue who would even be one on that list.

Borquez, actually.

I don't know who he plays for.

From the Browns.

Okay. They just played.

You don't know who Borquez plays for.

I think I would have got that if I thought through it. But yeah.

I think that's about a B +.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you're kind of right on the fringe of the top 10, I think that's about a B +.

Consistency goes a long way.

Yes, it does.

And I think that's been absolutely the case.

Matt, Caden Weejan.

Now, I'm not going to... If he was undrafted, you have to grade him the same way as if he was a first-round pick. You can't be like, well, you used a high pick on him, you're not getting your return on investment.

I'm glad you said that, yes.

Because this is not a return on investment conversation.

Um....

C minus. Again, I don't know the 31 other returners well enough where I'd rank him. I don't think he's 32nd. I know he isn't number one. I don't love the return on investment, but that's not the conversation.

So here's the kind of, I don't know, maybe dilemma with Caden Weegean.

The other thing, too, is so much is dependent on your blocking, and I don't watch the tape enough to be like, boy, their blocking is the worst in the league.

He is second in kickoff return yardage in the league. Now, a couple things there.

Total yardage.

That could be misleading.

Some of these guys have only played six or seven.

Games still to this point.

And he's played eight. His average return is low. It's not even in the top 32. Oh, okay.

So it's low.

That's on kickoffs. On punts.

And it's not like teams are just driving out of the end zone because they're so afraid of him.

Exactly right.

They want him to return.

On punts, his yardage, just his pure return yardage is 21st overall in the league. Or sorry, just his pure return yards, not average.

Yeah, yeah, add them all up.

His average is about this, it looks like, because they don't give me an exact number for this, but it looks like about 28th.

It's a D.

I think so.

Yeah, and that's not even judging. And he used a fourth round pick on him.

Yeah, that's just comparing him to his contemporaries. Yes.

Now, he's a rookie. There's some shows guys in the league that have been doing it longer, and I bet he gets better at it. But I also haven't seen a lot of glimpses of, whoa, he faked that guy out of his shoes.

And there hasn't been that one game-changing moment, which is quite often how you grade on a curve for special teams.

Yeah, and if he takes one to the house two weeks from now, all those numbers will go super high crazy because he got an 80-yard return or whatever. But you can't be thrilled with the return game.

No, no.

And he's not the only one returning kicks. Whoever's been his sidekick has been a certain, you know, Eli's done some, blah, blah, blah. Nobody's been like, wow, you got to get.

That guy out there.

Oh, you got to get that guy out there. Kick coverages, Matt.

Seems definitely below average to me. But also quietly getting better. C-minus. C-minus.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's what I was thinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say special teams as a whole is probably a C-minus.

And that's the greater picture that I was going with, too. I do think you're right. I think there's some optimism that it's been a little better the last few weeks. Heck, everything's been a little better the last few weeks for this team. Now you've got the bye week to really self-scout and, okay, how do we, instead of preparing for your opponent, okay, how can we get better?

Skoranek comes back. He might be your best special teamer.

That's a great call. Yeah. It's a big help.

Spears Jennings might go to the Pro Bowl as a special teamer.

He might go to the Pro Bowl as a special teamer, and I would expect him to even continue to get more comfortable there as things slow down for him his rookie year.

I should know this, but again, this just shows my lack of intel on the special teams. Now that Spears Jennings is a starter, I still think he's running down as much.

I think so.

Because sometimes people are hesitant to do that, where you don't want to tire a guy out running down on a punt, and then you have to be the last layer of defense the next play.

Yes, or just the additional chance for injury exposure.

Yeah, well, that too. I mean, I don't think he's the point where he's so valuable.

He still played 19 special team snaps on Sunday, 76% of the special team snaps.

I assume they hadn't taken him off. I mean, he's not Minka or Troy.

So maybe he's not 80-some, but he's still 70%.

Well, he wouldn't be on field goal protection anyway, or extra point protection. There's a couple things, you know, the only big guys.

All right, Matt, we got about five minutes left here. How about we go coaching as a whole? Or do you want to go offensive and defensive? Or do you want to just go as a whole?

Let's just do a staff. Okay.

I think I'd go B plus at this point.

That's exactly what I was going to say.

And I will also say, though, I am optimistic that if we do this exercise at the end of the year, it's more likely to go into the A's than it is to drop down. I think we talked about this a ton, but we probably even undersold it in the moment. Or maybe we didn't and everyone just called us Homer honks.

but it, a new coaching staff for the first time in 19 years. It was going to take some time for them to figure out the personnel and vice versa. I think you had those growing pains in the first three or four games of the season, first two or three games of the season. I think ever since then, it's probably been an A. So I think you kind of, you kind of land on a B plus there for the full, for the full gambit.

Yeah.

And often in the off season, sorry, not gambit, gambit.

Often in the off season, I talked about how I talk about how I vote or I bet against rookie head coaches, you know, like in Baltimore or, you know, even if Minter is wonderful, it's just, I equate it to taking a baby home for the first time. There's going to be so many things that you don't have an owner's manual for. And McCarthy is not a rookie head coach. But don't underestimate a new coach on a new team. I mean, if Tomlin coaches next year, we all know he's a good coach. He's going to have a rougher time than he did between... year 10 and 11 with the Steelers, you know, like, I'll just go ask Cam. Especially if you've.

Never done it before.

No doubt. But even a guy who's been around the block.

Yes.

But I really have been impressed with McCarthy's thoughtfulness. You know, like a small example is, it sounds like no one's allowed to go to the practices, but just kind of leaked out that They spend a lot of time working on Howard and Allen. You know, like make sure that they get their reps, even though there's no chance of them really playing in the game.

I think the same with a guy like Jennings Dunker.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I just think that everything is really well thought out.

And you know what? That kind of emphasis on young people development, we laid that out at the beginning of the season, how it's literally a part of their schedule Wednesday through Saturday.

Yeah, yeah.

Time carved aside for the rookies and for development purposes. Exactly. I think when you see guys like Gabe Rubio and Kevin Jobity who have to jump in and do a job and are able to hop on that moving train, I think that speaks to that as well.

And I wonder, you know, like if he's still the head coach in three, four years, his first rookie class when they're veterans now will be like, yeah, I got a lot of work as a rookie behind the scenes.

And they'll help the next group and make that transition more seamless.

Exactly. I also think he's clearly an upgrade in offensive play design and play call.

No doubt.

I mean, I think that's not worth what.

We've seen with Darnell Washington the last couple of weeks alone, I think.

Yeah. And I would say the defense is in better hands. Yes. Tomlin's a great coach and he was very involved in the defense, but they were really generic. And I mean, and more is not always better. I mean, there was times where you want to be execution-based, not scheme-based, especially when you had AB and Bell and why make it difficult?

You know, like, I know we don't have a ton of time, but I watched the JTO Sullivan Chargers cut up from this week. The scheme is a disaster.

Disaster.

I mean, there's like receivers running into each other. I mean, like all the free stuff. He laughed through the whole video. Like, this is comic. You know, like, and it's just too much. It made me want Herbert more. He has his warts and he might be damaged, but he has no chance to succeed. You know, like some of their protection stuff is so unsound. All the pre-snap motion. I mean, O'Sullivan's just like laughing at them the entire video for an hour and a half.

Matt, one other thing that I think we should mention with the coaching staff, too, because this was something we talked about a lot coming into the season, McCarthy's struggles with penalties, especially when he was in Dallas. Steelers are tied for seventh fewest flags against this season, Matt, and pretty much every team wins.

And haven't had their bye.

Pretty much every team around them hasn't had their bye.

Yeah. So by the time we come back next.

Week, they might be like fourth fewest penalized in the league.

Yeah, that's great.

So that's a coaching staff thing as well, too, certainly.

We talked about that a little in the offseason. It definitely was a weakness on paper during his Dallas stretch in particular. I didn't go back to his Green Bay days that much. But every year he was Dallas' head coach, they were near the bottom of the league, the most penalized teams. Maybe it's just because Jerry Jones took guys that were undisciplined.

Maybe.

I don't know. You know what I mean? Maybe it's just these players are smarter and more disciplined or they stress it more. Yeah, I don't know, in terms of team building. Or maybe they're going to be penalized like crazy the second half of the season. I don't know.

Don't you put that on me, Ricky Bobby.

The offensive line development goes a long way, too, in this coaching conversation.

It absolutely does. And in the penalty conversation, too. Not as much procedural stuff, not as much as Tunch would have called it, habeas gravis, when you're struggling on the offensive line there. So there's your report card. About midway through the NFL regular season here and approaching the bye week, I'm sure that's something we'll do again whenever we get to January. Hey, maybe February.

And I think if a guy comes out, a genie comes out of the bottle in Latrobe and sat in the drive chair with us and said, these will be your grades on November 3rd. Would you take them or not? Yeah. Yeah.

I would have been surprised.

I would have been surprised by the cornerback grades, but I, I was overall.

I would have taken it. Here's your report card on November 3rd. You want it or not? I want it. I want it.

Yeah.

Yep.

Because I think much more of those areas are trending up versus plateauing or trending down as well. So midterm term report cards you'll take. And then I think the final report card might even be a little more kind. Halfway home here on The Drive on this Thursday. When we return to kick off the final hour of the week, it is the great Bob Labriola making his triumphant return to The Drive. Wes Shuler, Matt Williamson, Labs on the other side to kick off hour number two. 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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Drive11.5.26Hr1: Mid-Season Report Card

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