In the Locker Room with Wolf & Starks (Pittsburgh Steelers)This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and brought to you by acro Sure, the official insurance and cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by Bett MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI, and by FedEx. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig Wolfley and Max Starks.
All right, you know what time it is. What is at the top of the second hour is the power hour.
That's right, And of course, in honor of our you know, nicked up comrade, I am going to pull out the word of the day, Wesley, No.
Way, all right, hold on, let's do it proper.
I'm gonna do it. Let's do it proper. Yes, And the word of the day is coin.
No, that's not the shiny little thing that's in your pocket that jingles.
But this is spelled.
Quo I n and it is a word that means to secure or raise.
With a wedge. It's a verb.
So you know, you can sit there and say, you know, if I'm using it in a sentence, oh, hold.
On, there we go, hold on, I forgot to do that.
You know, you know, you get through the site and you realize that that it's not set up the way because I don't do this correct normally you're building the plane here as we fly it.
It's okay, yeah, exactly exactly.
So we're going to go back to this, and it is you know, I like to provide coins, you know, for the corner of the wall.
So it's wedges for the corner of the wall.
Yes, the white plaster walls coined with red sandstone bricks.
That's right, you know, to you know, I like to raise these corners with a coin.
So yeah, that's it, and that's why I suck at this.
Do you attempt to need?
You attempt to coin many defensive linemen in your day.
That is correct.
Usually in short yardage situations, we like to coin the d line, you know, and create create a wedge for Ben Roethlisberger to get the first down.
Dilly dilly, dilly dilly.
All right, moving on, we did that, you know, of course, in honor of mister Craig. Wolfie says he can't be here in person, he's here in our hearts, and so we've coined that phrase for him.
I love it.
We're gonna, you know what I think, in honor of wolf two, we got make Friday a final donut day of the season, right.
Absolute two, dilutely yes, Wolf needs that. And I will find a donut shop around here. I'm sure there's of all the patients. Maybe maybe I'll have to go grab kin cake. You know what I'm saying.
Listen, if you're gonna do, if you're gonna do some bean, some beignys, I won't hold it against you.
Oh yeah, But the problem is if I, if I do that, the powdered sugar is gonna be everywhere in my room.
Good.
It's true, that's true, because you can't self contain a beignet. That's that's why like Cafe Dumont like is like outside because they're like, we don't want this indoor, like the walls will be caked and powdered sugar dust flying in the air, so they do it outside.
Be like a scene in a movie where like a bomb goes off and everyone's like.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and you can't.
Really see anything. It's just a fog in there of powdered sugar.
Yeah exactly.
It's like somebody emptied the flower by accident, like.
You know, you cough.
It's like it's like this dust cloud that comes out. Yeah, so so yeah, Nye's would be awesome. But then I would I would have to be out with the people, so y'all would get like the full taste of the unpold because I would not dare do it inside of my hotel room because that would be just a nightmare.
You just look like you could just flower around in here.
This is a reference that probably only like twenty percent of our listeners will get, but the ones that do will love it, and I know you will appreciate it.
Max.
You'd just be in your hotel room looking like Ashy Larry from the Chappelle.
Show exactly exactly getting ready to roll the dice you have to dust come out.
You just blow your hand and there's just powdered sugar.
Everywhere, sugar everywhere. I was like, that's my bigye han guys, that's my hands. But you know, I would also say like, will you go to Cafe Dumont? And like the pigeons are flying around, like those are the most that have to be like just just amped up pigeons of all time, right because they're getting free access to powdered sugar. You know, when when they're pecking around so I'm like, imagine a bird on a sugar high.
That. That's the other funny thing that's always a.
Great point, Like, if you're a bird, why would you not just migrate to New Orleans and stay there?
I mean, come on, yeah, exactly, right there in the French Quarter, just hang out. You'll see you'll definitely see some things you never thought you'd see.
Yeah, that's the first thing, including snow for the first time in like one hundred and fifty.
Years, exactly exactly. You're like, I flew south for this, you know what I'm saying.
They was going to be everywhere. I didn't think it was going to be like this.
Yeah, it's sugary snow, question mark my god.
But anyways, opening opening night in New Orleans.
Yeah, exactly.
So we're talking about Super Bowl, right, This is a football show, not not the buzz bird show.
You know.
Speaking of speaking of birds, Andy Reid was wearing a Flamingo tea shirt hit Super Bowl Monday last night.
Yes, he had he had a He had a Flamingo Hawaiian shirt with a I don't know. Listen, the guy whoever makes Andy Reid's like custom Hawaiian shirts, you know.
Brovo to that guy.
They're having a lot of fun.
Oh my gosh, they're just I mean it's like, hey, you know, we did this for the first two mage it this really nice one.
But we didn't expect you to go to five andy. So yeah, but but it.
But a cool sight, right, I mean, you know we're in the we're in the Cason Superdome, you know, and so we had player interviews like a little bit before. So the way it works for opening night, which is similar to the Tuesday media day that would normally happen today, right, and it would be at the stadium availability as daytime hours craziness ensues. They've kind of streamlined it now to where they actually make it an event, right with admission they tickets, uh, fans can attend inside the Superdome and and you know they have they have hosts that go around and talk to the players, just like we're all doing like in the scrum, you know, running around and trying to get interviews. But it's the first team comes in, and you know last night it was the Eagles.
So they got there.
And this is what I want to say about seven o'clock Eastern Standard time, six o'clock out here. And so I get there and we do some you know like serious XM, Westwood One, Apple Podcasts, NFL Network and a couple of others, get the get the players before they go out, because you know, you have the podium players. There's twelve podiums set up for player your your market players just sit out and answer questions for everybody in a stationary position and then everybody else is just released out into the crowd. Whoever's the non twelve, they get released out into the crowd. And and so you know, we get there and we did, like I want to say, who we pretate Jordan Myy, Alotta Lane Johnson, DeVonta Smith, Jalen Hurts, Saquon Zach Bond, Dallas Goddard. Right, so we got all of those guys ahead of time for the Eagles side, and you know, we got them boom one on one with with our hosts. And so my job and Kirk Morrison's job is we are we are the runners on the floor, out and out in the middle of everybody getting the player interviews that aren't on podiums and not pretaped. So so I get to relax a little bit. In fact, I said, I hung up about the eight by the ap camera guys, because all the players have to go by there, yes and do their you know, do their photos and stuff with the football and all that kind of stuff. So I just hung out there and actually I took some I took I took some photos of the guys getting their photos done. So it was like the camera inside the camera like boom, is that like fourth wall?
That's that's artsy, I think is what the kids call that.
Yeah, yeah, are artisanal, you know, and not like the cheese board. So so you know, I got a chance. And I've known Lane for a long you know, for a long time. In fact, Lane used to train the same facility as me, So it was good seeing him. I got to I got I got to I got to catch up with him a little bit, you know, in a in a more subdued environment before he's about to go out into the fray. And so you know, I got to talk with him for a little bit. My a lot of he's humongous by the way he and you know, but yet he was but he's so like gregarious, I guess you'd say, and just funny, like he's very.
Well, he's very well spoken and witty and everything.
Yeah, it's it's an Australian accident. It takes about ten night points just just by having the accent talking.
I'm convinced.
But it's like for us, I think the I think big men right with an Australian accent and and our you know, our our love of like down Under rugby.
You know, I know New Zealand is not Australia, but similar dialect.
Well, but he's from Sydney.
He is from Sydney, that's right, yeah, exactly, yeah.
Uh, you know for us, it's like you know, you know how you know how women swoon when like a handsome guy has a British accent.
That's us.
Yeah, that's us.
For a big, big man Auzzy. You know, it's just just you just swoon.
Benb Yeah, you're you're like, oh awesome. Oh he's funny and he talks funny. You know, it's great.
Did he did he mention? Did he was?
He asked it all about those reports of the Eagles playing in Australia in twenty twenty six.
You know what we didn't get I don't know if we got to it in our interview, but I'm sure somebody probably you know, asked him about that.
That's gonna be very exciting for him.
Man, Oh, dude, to be able to go back to, you know, the country and play in front of the home crowd, like really.
For the first time, I think, right it would be a regular season.
Game there, first time it would ever be a regular season Now it's a hall now that that flight is not for the faintom heart.
Buddy, I will tell you that right now.
As someone who's who's someone who's made it, I know what you're talking about.
It is rough, Yeah, I don't. You know.
That's my one thing where I'm like, and you're playing technically a day before.
Yeah, everybody else in the US.
And especially you know for as well too, Like coming from Philadelphia, I mean they've got to fly six hours across the country and then eighteen hours to Australia.
That is a journey.
Man, that's a twenty four hour flight.
I mean they'll go they'll go direct obviously, but like, yeah, that's a twenty four hour flight. That's twenty four hours on a plane.
Yeah, dude, I mean you would have you'd have to. I mean, you know, I feel like it almost had to be exhibition style, right, because I don't know how you could make that like competitive and have it count, you know what I'm saying.
It feels like the only way to do that would be to have it be the first week of the season, like to have it be week one. If it's going to be a regular season game, have it be week one, and then you have to give those teams a bye week two. But like what team wants their buy that early in the season as well? That would just create a whole other list of issues.
And that's why I think it had to be an exhibition game, right, yeah.
Because they didn't specify that it was going to be a regular season game to be fair, So you're probably.
Right, yeah, And I mean and at least during training camp, you know, you could, you can take care of your guys without it, like you said, like crashing like a bye week, you know that early in the year. No way, because here's the thing. I don't even think they do buys in week two. I think buyers will start to weak four, right.
I believe you are in October?
Yeah yeah, in October? Yeah? So so yeah, so you you could even do that. So I feel like it would have to.
Be like a last preseason game type of deal, or it would be considered a pure exhibition style game.
Now, granted, I don't know.
With Roder Goodell talking about you know, him and the NFLPA are already taught opening talks about eighteen game season, the exhibitious season is gonna get smaller and smaller. But I feel like to go that far, like you would have to do that. Like I feel like Australia, like Japan, you know, and maybe even China, like those would all have to be exhibious just because of the extreme time difference.
I mean they are that you would be under.
They are half the world away, quite literally.
It's yeah, and Max, like, I don't know how many times you've done it, and obviously, I mean, you have much more travel experience than I do. But I was like thirteen when I went to Australia with my dad when the sim the you know, the Symphony played a few nights at the at the Sydney Opera House, and so of course I went with my dad. I was like thirteen. I'm at that age where you can sleep anywhere, sleep wherever, right, I mean, at that point in your life, and it's exactly I mean it wrecked me for a few days. And I'm like thirteen years old, can sleep anywhere anytime, no problem. And I still remember how hard that adjustment was. And I'm not a grown professional athlete.
It is it is substantial, without a doubt.
Yeah, So, uh, you know, I love the idea of spreading football around the world, but that's one where I think, you know, it might have to be And I think that's probably why they haven't because remember they used to go to Tokyo all the time, right right, and exhibition games back back in the late eighties, early nineties. So I mean this was something that you know, it was kind of played around with. I think now coming back around with it, I think you the feasibility of it being a regular season game is probably a little bit too tough.
I mean, your best option is what Seattle, you know, right.
I mean that's the thing too, because they said Eagles and Rams. At least for the Rams, they don't have to travel across North America, you know what I.
Mean, they're at least already exactly. But even for them, it's an eighteen hour flight, Like it's easier, but not not that much easier.
Yeah, And if you're into the whole data analytics and you know, the sleep analysis and body performance. I mean eighteen hours of airplane wrecksh you rex you it rexsh you and I can't imagine. And then and then you know, any amount of time, I mean, you'd have to spend a week over there to acclimate for three free acclimate, right.
You feel off for at least two or when you when you travel that far around the world, you feel off even if you get good nights of sleep, and like you still feel off for at least two or three days at least.
Yeah.
Yeah, because you're literally going you know, quote unquote forward in time.
You are changing the entire rhythm of your of your of your life.
Yeah, and that's you lost a day and you don't know where it went.
And again for even the most well conditioned athletes in the world, that is substantial. And you're right, and that's just getting out there and then finding a way to play the game and then you got to come home and deal with it all again.
Like it's just it's yeah, you know what, It's funny.
Like when I saw that announcement, I was like, oh cool, Like they're good, but you're right, as.
We kind of talk this out.
It just that doesn't seem feasible unless you're doing it for a preseason game and kind of building it in with plenty of rest on each side.
Yeah, exactly.
You know what is feasible though, you know, Steelers going to Ireland to play a game.
Now you're speaking to my language, Max.
Oh, we'll talk about the mother country a little bit, So I know, I know that that's kind of been talked about, and that's kind of has not been finalized by any stretch of the imagination. So let me just make sure I put that out there for Steelers Nations not been finalized, but it feels like something that is going to be.
It's an eventuality.
And you know, as we kind of get closer to that, can't wait for whenever that announcement will happen. But you know, going over like to Europe, is a lot easier, right because you're you're hopping across the Atlantic, smaller body of water than the Pacific, and like you said, you're you're pushing forward in time a couple of hours, so I mean technically you're still in the same day, you know, you're just a little bit earlier than everybody else. That's why these games are played like you know, nine am our time and you know late afternoon local time over there.
But I mean, we've seen the success.
We're used to London, so Ireland being on the same time zone and just a little hop, skip and a jump across from from London town. You know, Germany also in that same that same vein that same strip of Europe. I would love to see a game in Spain that would probably.
Be at the Bernaball Max You kidding me, yea. I was there in twenty and eleven. Unfortunately it was during the summertime. The Real Madrid was hosting Barcelona the day after we flew back to the United States out of Spain eleven. I was so angry that, like I missed that by a day because I would have emptied my bank account. That's like going to you know, Michigan, Ohio State or Steelers Ravens something like that. Is the biggest rivalry in Spain, Real Madrid against Barcelona. But I did do a stadium tour of the Bernabow and it was incredible, And this was before they just did a billion dollars worth of renovations to the Bernabowl over the last few seasons, I've been to Madrid. I've never been to Dublin, so like, I would rather go to Dublin in that theory, but I would love for us to broadcast a game at the Bernaboo because I think it legit might be the sickest arena in the world.
Yeah.
No, I'm right there with you. I mean, if that's the consolation, you know what I'm saying.
Like, yeah, top us top us in I guess.
Yeah, exactly, little pie in the bernabow. You know what I'm saying. I mean, why not, you know, I mean it would be it would be pretty pretty spectacular. But but I I but I don't want to lose sight of that. I mean we you know, Ireland is I feel like the next deserving new country or or you know, area for the NFL. And you know, obviously we've done some outreach out there already. You know, we sent Calvin Austin and counter Hayward out there this past summer. And uh, and I mean the fans. I feel like the fans would be completely awesome. Uh, you know, going going to Ireland and having that game. So hopefully we we we will hear news about that, you know, in the near few sure, probably by the time we get to combine coverage.
Yeah, I would, I would think I would you think so a.
Little bit before that, Yeah, I mean, I think that has to be something that that's eventuality for us that listen cannot wait, it cannot wait for that.
I'm with you, Max it again. We do.
You and I don't know anything specific. We It's funny, you know, Motes and I. We do a tweet segment at the end of our of our shows every day, and every couple of days we have someone tweet us, hey, what's going on with Ireland? Do you guys know anything about Ireland? I wish we did. I promise we don't. But as you kind of alluded to, like it reminds me of us getting the NFL draft.
You know it.
It was talked about for a couple of years. You knew the Steelers were very interested in making it happen. You knew that there was a great chance it was going to happen. It was just kind of a matter of if, you know, could it be twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven, it felt like the Steelers were going to inevitably host the NFL Draft and then bang, it's finally gonna happen. What a little over a year from now, twenty twenty six. I think Ireland is similar, Like I think we're kind of at the point now where it feels like it's going to happen. The question is just when and when we get that official announcement.
Exact exactly, and that's what it is.
And I got to Kennis ready at home to celebrate when the time is official.
Yeah, and trying to get don't don't forget to get a little bush mills as well, or a little back bush, you know, get a little Irish whiskey out there as well. But yeah, oh and I did I did see the boys from Ireland, you know, nice Steelers Ireland podcast.
Uh, they were there.
They had to set up right across from Serious XM. So I did I get to I did get to give them a high five. I took a picture with the U with of course the uh the Gaelic terrible towel.
Love it.
And and so we have funny Michael, you know who's the main guy for for the podcast. So Michael and I it's now like a tradition and that we get a picture with the towel every Super Bowl, you know, so did last year in Vegas during Opening night we did, and then this year, of course we did a media row took a picture with the with the green Terrible towel.
So it's pretty awesome to see those boys there.
I know that they I know they can't wait whenever that opportunity presents itself.
But I was like, as we're talking.
About, like, oh, I guess you could see Michael yesterday, real real briefly in between shows.
He'll be the only he'll be the only person more excited than us. Whenever the announcement comes down.
Man, that's going to He's gonna be over the moon hit him and him and all the fellas. Definitely will be a very happy day for them.
Maybe maybe they announced it on't Saint Patrick's Day.
That would be funny. I hope we don't have to wait that long, but that would be pretty funny. That would be pretty cool.
At the same time, Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, hopefully we'll have to wait that long. But yeah, that would be like the perfect announcement.
Right, I guess it would.
Yeah, exactly, go ahead to go ahead to Saint Patty, you know, but but but you know, getting back to kind of opening Night because I kind of went actually, you know what, I went off the rails.
So you know what we're gonna step aside.
Yeah, we'll take a break here.
I keep teasing this, but I keep kicking it down the road radio.
Yeah exactly. You keep the people guessing. So we'll get back with Bore.
We We we are, we are a we are a topical show that has a lot of topics, and sometimes those topics take us in different directions. But we'll be back with Bore and Opening Night. But tease it again here inside the Locker Room after these commercial breaks on the Steeler Audio Network.
This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and brought to you by acro Sure, the official insurance and cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by Bett MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI, and by FedEx. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig Wilfley and Max Stark's.
All right, we are built for this West and Wesley knows what I mean by that.
You know it is it is you know the excitement.
Around Super Bowl, It's the excitement about you know, you know what's to come on the NFL. You know, Dockett is We've got the granddaddy of them all, the biggest sporting event in the country coming up on Sunday and it is the Super Bowl. And we had a chance to well I had a chance, I said we. I had a chance to kind of talk to a lot of the players last night at opening night, and it was pretty cool.
I mean, I told you, I got to.
Kind of hang out watch the Eagles players come by and you know, have a little personality before they jumped into the fray. And my job was to be was I was on I was on scrum duty, you know. Kirk Kirk Morrison and I. You know, this is our third year in a row doing it together where we go out and we and we plucked players, coaches and everybody you know for like an hour straight for each team and we just we hammer out interviews just to get guys reactions, you know to the upcoming game. The know the regular season, what they've accomplished, and you know, the Kans Chiefs are are are on the doorstep of history, and you know they have a chance to be the first team to ever repeat.
Now we had.
We had what nine repeats with eight different franchises.
Yeah.
Now, obviously, I think if you are listening to this show or you are on this station, I think you realize who one of those franchises are that did back to backs two times? Dust times? Yeah, it was like it was like back to back, little break back to back.
So and they're also the only franchise to ever do that. They're the only one.
That's why I said nine times back to backs have been done. Eight franchises have done it. We are that one exception where we've done the back to back twice, but none none of those teams have been in position after the second Super Bowl to win a third Super Bowl or at least just be at the doorstep, like a couple of them lost in AFC and NFC championship games like the following year.
I think it was the forty nine Ers was.
One of them. Obviously the Steelers as well.
So they've gotten closed. But this is the furthest.
Anyone has gone, and that was, you know, a pretty special rarefied thing. I mean, first of all, they're the only team to be in an AFC Championship game seven straight times.
In a row, which is insane.
I mean, just it's insane.
It's just ridiculous.
And hosted six out of those seven, you know what I'm saying, because I realized that because one of them was hosted in Baltimore.
Correct, that was last year in Baltimore.
Yeah, correct, But all the other ones have been at Arrowhead Stadium, which is insane.
All the other ones, yep, have been in an Arrowhead And I know we kind of forget that because seventh straight hostings. It's like, no, not seventh straight hostings, seventh straight appearances six out of seven.
And speaking, you know, appearances of appearances for you too, just because I wanted to look this up for myself. There have been a couple teams that have appeared in three straight Super Bowls, but they haven't had the opportunity, as you mentioned, to win three straight Super Bowls, like Miami in the seventies did it, but they lost the first one and then won the final two. The Buffalo Bills did. The Buffalo Bills went the four straight in the nineties, but they didn't win any of them. The New England Patriots did it as well too, but they had in kind of the Brady years, but they had a loss to the Eagles in the middle, so they didn't have an opportunity to win the three in a row as well. So yeah, the Chiefs first real kind of shot to have won the two in a row already and now back the third time.
Yeah, yeah, so thank you for that. Yeah, because we're doing a bunch of those nuggets yesterday. I was like I was getting them, but it was like one of those things, it is not the top of my brain.
Yeah, I forgot about the seventies dollars, like I think people remember the Bills because just famously, how do you lose four straight Super Bowls?
Right?
The Dolphins was the one I forgot though. Yeah, I'd forgotten that they had that little run there in the early seventies.
Yeah, yeah, they were.
I mean when you argue, you know, obviously this is the decade of the of the Steelers, but you know, the Dolphins were very successful. I mean that's also when their undefeated season came during the seventies, and like you said, they were a main crux of the Steelers.
Like I know, we talk about Dallas.
And that's like Super Bowl and America's team blah blah blah. But you know, in the AFC it was Raiders, Dolphins, and Steelers that owned the seventies, you know, so it was like those teams were always fighting each other. And then funny enough, on the NFC side, like the Vikings were really good back. Yeah it was Vikings, right, that's right, Purple People Leaders was in full effect. So you know, it's just like when you dive back into the nostalgia of the history, you're like, oh, yeah, you know what the Vikings having this year. It's like, well, the Vikings have technically been to Super Bowls. Course there's no reason why they couldn't make it again. But but yeah, it's been it's been a long time since they've been that type of viable team to bring back the Purple People Leaders.
Uh statement that that was? That was a rare five squad, there sure was.
And I know this is a complete digression, but seems like every time Minnesota has one of those, they just get their hearts broke, like they run into another dynasty or like they did in the late nineties, those great Randy Moss Chris Carter teams just you know, bad special teams. Luck they uh, I tell you what, those Minnesota Vikings, they they are a little cursed.
If I dare.
Say, I would say been a little bit afflicted, a little bit.
A little bit afflicted.
You know.
I think of Bills and the Lions get some of our sympathy in that regards, but Minnesota might be right there at the top of the list with them.
Yeah gosh.
I mean a lot of those I would say NFC North teams minus Green Bay have have had some has some.
Hard luck happened their way.
I mean, you think about the Bears like you know, you do it in eighty five, you don't really sniff again into the early two thousands, and then you know, you lose to.
Peyton Manning in the rain in Miami.
You know, if you're the Bears, so so yeah so, but you know once again they're still trying to rebuild once again. So new, another new, another new head coach coming into the Fray. And of course I got a chance to talk to their former head coach, Matt Naggy, who is the office of Coordinator for the Chiefs. I got to talked to him last night. It was great just to hear his insights. I didn't realize this, but Pat Mahons could read defenses his first year in the league.
Wow, could not like they say, he struggled.
He would he would go into the meeting world like go watch film, but didn't really know how to watch film. So Alex really had to kind of help him and and and coach him through it his first year. I think he did such a good job that they were like, hey, Alex, we're going with the young guy, which, yeah, you have that from time to time. Yeah, but and also let's see full disclosure. Right seven years later, the dude has been to five Super Bowls.
So I think he did a good job.
Alex Nuts And that's the I think that's one of the things that people forget too in the kind of the grand scheme of what the Chiefs have done here. They were twelve and four the year before they drafted Patrick Mahomes, Like, yeah, I think a lot of people and hey, I think a lot of Steeler Nation right now, just because it's it's been so long since we've been there. There's just the thought process of you have to have a bad season to go secure your next franchise quarterback. But there's proof in the putting right there with Kansas City, and if you want to talk Buffalo as well too, they traded up twice to get Josh Allen. They traded up two different times in that draft to get Josh Allen. The Chiefs went and got Patrick Mahomes a year after going twelve and four and winning their division. So you don't have to necessarily have this bottom out season. You just have to identify the right guy and be aggressive about going to get him.
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. And then, like I said, not all gyms are in.
The first round exactly, right, Jaylen.
You're going to find a couple of cubics or conias, you know what I'm saying. You're gonna find a couple of pieces of just chip glass, you know, in the first round as well. You know, because famously, right, Tom Brady is not a first rounder. Jalen Hurts, who's playing in this super Bowl, not a first rounder. Rock Purdy a year ago, definitely not a first rounder. Heck, he was barely drafted, you know what I'm saying, mister irrelevant. So there are the exceptions to the rule that you can find these quarterbacks in the later rounds now, Obviously, you know that'll be something that I think the Steelers key in on. I don't think there's anybody worth a first round pick available by the time they pick, so you know, if you're gonna do it, it's gonna be your later rounds, your second third round. Now, one of the guys I was talking about those of note, if you're going to bring in a rookie, you know, at some point, depending on what you want to do with justin fields, you know, should Door.
Sanders cam Ward?
And who is should Sanders cam Ward? And uh Quinn yours?
Mm hmm, Rounder Hill Gabriel, No, absolutely not, no out.
He had one quarter of excellent football this season.
That was the first That was the first, like quarter and a half against Georgia.
I think I think cam Warton or Sanders are the only two like nailed on first round picks at this point exactly.
They're in the upper tier.
And then from there, I would say everybody else like tier two.
We're talking about Quinn, Will Will Howard.
You know another one, Dylan Gabriel. I'm also happy that Drew Aller stayed for another year. Yet he needs it because he's still a little bit too inconsistent. He's too hot and cold for me. He reminds me a lot of like Drake May. And then of course we see why Drake May, you know, is not having successes because I felt like it was very streaky for him as well.
Totally totally agree, and I you know what, there's a lot of interesting like this draft is intriguing for different reasons because it's more so which of these guys do you believe in? Who do you think has the most potential? All those different things. The twenty twenty six NFL Draft, it's gonna be a lot of guys like Drew Aller, like the Carson Becks, maybe even like an arch Manning right who. It'll be a loaded quarterback class for different questions. A year from now, we're I think we're really getting into two very intriguing back to back quarterback classes coming out of college football.
Yeah. No, it's good, it's good.
And you're talking about, you know, positive redefining the face of you know, a lot of franchises with those decisions. And you know, the questions is always who is going to reach right.
Because someone's going to reach on Jalen Milroe, Someone's going to reach on Quinn Ewers.
We just know it.
Yeah, it's got it gotta be. Yeah, I mean because also everybody thinks they're getting bo Nicks. You know what I'm saying with those guys because you've seen it now. We don't know what we're getting with JJ McCarthy, and that'll be the Vikings decision. But you know, for everybody else is gonna be I need a quarter I don't have a quarterback. I gotta go get him. He won't be around the second time that I pick, So you know, that's all. That's always the other thing. It's the frenzy around, like you know, when teams are picking, what who are they picking? What are there? What are their needs or whatever? And you know, and so somebody will say, well, QB was our number one need, so I don't care. I need to get a first round QB. And that's kind of the worst type of mentality to have, is that you're chasing this quarterback that that you in your heart you know he's not he's not there, but you're hoping he proves you're wrong.
And that's the one thing where I'm like, Okay, what are we What are we doing here? Right? You know, saying like what are we doing?
So you know that's gonna be really really really interesting. You know, who is the who is the who is number three at the quarterback position, and that's where I think the combine kind of comes in.
Is gonna really help, no doubt, narrow that, narrow that, narrow that group down, you know.
As far as the who is who at what, who needs to control what, That's gonna be really interesting to see. But I go back to Opening Night just talking about like Matt Naggy, I interviewed Vic Fangio as well, talk about defending, you know, against Patrick mahomes It was like, you know, it's oh and eight against Patrick Mahomeshi, so we as crazy to think that it's like he's got a beat on him. But I will say this, he's really excited about the team that he has to go effective, like you know you could because you know, you have Jaylen Carter, Jordan Davis, right, you have Bryce Nolan Smith. You have front guys who can get pressure. And then you know in the back half, Zach Bond is just a tackling machine. He just all he knows is tackling and he and so I took a picture of him last night.
I sent it to watch Man. Dude.
I mean, between him and a Lua kid, I'm like, who doesn't get the most tackles, you know, you know, I mean they're all like one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty tackles a year easily. Like that's that's a ridiculous amount of contact and looks fine. So I took a picture of him last night. I was like, oh my god, it's Pozzi two point zero. You know James Harry too. And I said it to I said it to James and then he's like, man, I'm with the kids. I showed the kids that Leah said, Daddy, why are you wearing an Eagles jersey?
Oh my god, I love little Leo.
That's fantastic. Oh I love that.
Yeah story, and so yeah, he was like, man, I was like, he's like, I can't deny it now. I was like, my baby almost almost called him daddy.
That's hilarious. That's when you know, can't tony it.
Yeah, can't deny it.
So but but yeah, so you know, got got to interview like those guys, you know, I know, I said, Matt Naggy that was the chief side, but Vic Fangio, we got to interview him. I interviewed Jordan Davis. I also did who else do? Uh?
All of them are like running together now because like this, this, this, this and this.
Well, you know what we do need We do need one more break before the top of the hour. So if you want to do that, give some time, some time to rack your brain here during during our uh, during our intermission.
Thank you for keeping me on track, because I realized we kind of blew through. Uh good, that first segment really long. So yeah, were sepside. We'll be back with more. I will have the names that I remembered when we come back here inside the locker room.
This is in the Locker Room, presented by Ford and brought to you by acro Shure, the official insurance and cybersecurity partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, by Bett MGM, Huntington Bank, PNC, PEPSI, and by FedEx. Where now meets next? Now here's Craig Wilfley and Max Starks.
Alright, it's time for the bell laugh.
All right, that's early lunch warning system. And also lets you know it's towards the end of the show. Final lap has been gunn here and we were talking about, you.
Know, super Bowl Opening night Eagles.
I was going through some of the players that I had I was actually lined up to do Cam Jurgens. I did not get to talk to him or Dickerson, you know. There Kenny Pickett, we we did do Kenny Pickett. I didn't get to interview KP. But Kenny Kenny was uh nice enough to go on with one of our other co hosts, Rich Gannon and Bruce Murray.
So of course quarterbacks talking quarterback stuff was always, you know, always always a good listen to, you know, and funny enough.
Carson Wentz on the chief side, No, not the Eagles, Carson Wentz, but the Chiefs Carson Wentz. Both those guys were actually getting a pretty heavy dose of of TV interview time, so didn't get to talk to either.
One of them in the process.
You know, I like to pick the brains as a big boys, so like you know, you know, I got a chance to talk to.
Juwan Taylor Florida Gator.
By the way, Flortigator, the Gators.
All we do is retackles. Man.
I'm just saying they got two tackles for the Chiefs that are both Florida Gators. Just say in the Super Bowl down in Gainesville exactly. I'm just saying, what other what other school could said that, right, you know, I'm just you know, you know, I mean, sometimes it just makes sense, right, you know, don't think harder than it is. You know, great, great, great offensive lineman come from the University of Florida. But so got to talk to those guys. Guys got to talk to Drew Trankwell, Drew is not a big dude to play linebacker like he's he is.
He is slim, fit, but so fast.
I was like, dude, you know, I asked him, I said, how does it feel, you know, to know, you know, obviously you're you're moving teams, and you know you're you're with the Chargers, you're in l A and then all of a sudden you come over to the Chiefs and all you do is go to Super Bowl three straight in a row. For you, Bud, it's after you know, not making the playoffs with the with the Chargers. So he kind of kind of, you know, talked about just how blessed fortune he was. Obviously, you know, they liked him enough that they wanted him, so talked to him. Nick Bolton the other the other kind of you know, middle backer for that squad, I should say, Mike stylebacker for the squad.
Uh, we talked to, uh, we talked to Jalen Watson just to read as well.
Just that I mean those young corners, man, the young young secondary guys that they are, they are built differently.
Oh.
And then we talked to Quinon Mitchell and uh Cooper Jean obviously first and second round picks for the Eagles.
Uh. You know, Quinnyon obviously is a.
Kid from the area or the region I should say, because he's from Toledo.
And just you know, had a fantastic Senior Bowl. Uh. And you know, Eagles went and got.
Him and boys that paid off for them so far.
You know, unbelievable draft what they were able to do with remaking their secondary with those two first picks.
Yeah.
And then and but also you had Jalx Hunt, you had Jeremiah Trotter junior.
I got to talk.
I was like, I was like, dude, I played against your dad. Like I'm at that age now that the kids are now the second generation of the guys I played against. It's wild to see that. But I mean, bright kid went to Clemson, good good, good, solid kid man. So it was it was it was pretty cool to get to talk to all those dudes. But but yeah, you're in there for an hour and you're just ripping off interviews, probably get about three four questions at the most, and then you move on to the next one.
And we were doing that, you know, it was all night last night.
Didn't get back to the hotel to almost eleven, and uh, of course at that point, I'm like, dude, I'm hungry, you know.
I mean, but because I was.
Stunning and you've been you've been neglecting us for the last few hours.
Yeah, and you've been burning all these calories yapping the whole time. So because because I went, I had lunch at Drago's right when I talked to you and Moti yesterday, but then I didn't eat again until after eleven o'clock and so that was yeah, so it was all I mean, it was.
It was about eleven hours.
So I went from eating lunch at Dragos, went straight to the college show on the college station for Serious XM for three hours, then hopped on a shuttle over to the Superdome and then went straight into interviews and you know, meeting and all the hoopla that's associated with it, and then get back to the hotel at eleven. So I was like, man, I'm like I need to eat something, and you put something in my system. So we ended up, you know, going to this little restaurant pub bar down like literally a block away from our hotel, and we had we had we had frozen pizza and yeah, it was like it was like, yeah, we just heated up. Now, mind you they had a homemade shepherd's pie, but the pizza was frozen. I was like, make it make sense.
When I said, you got to have the good shepherd's pie, a.
Good shepherd's pie, but we also know you like pizza, so we're gonna give you Gjorno's.
Hit the spot didn't.
Yeah I did not have that on my Bingo card, but listen, it came through in the clutch though I'm like anything, it didn't require me. Like door and everything still closes early during the week here. I mean nothing was open past really like ten. Maybe eleven was pushing it, but we didn't get back to after eleven, so everything was still closed. But it's not you have to go into the French Quarter. And I'm be quite honest, I'm now at that age where I don't know about going down the French Quarter.
You know, after correct, eleven o'clock midnight.
Correct.
So I'm like, you know what, this frozen pizza tastes delicious. I know there's the mother spots in the first quarter, but I'm not going over there for me.
Would have would have spurned this frozen pizza. But it'll do. It'll do the trick now.
Just fine, Yeah, exactly.
I'm now in my early forties, so I can I can say that frozen pizza just does enough to make sure that I don't have to do any more walk because I also hit like thirteen thousand steps yesterday.
I was gonna say that that's the one thing about like the combines and the Super Bowls and all that you do get your steps in.
That's the good part of it.
The walking is. The walking is fierce.
And I'm going to make that walk to the convenience enter in a little bit after after we end this show here to.
Jump on, you know, for college again.
So you know, it was fun. It's a fun week. I'll keep updating you guys, you know, every day about my previous day's exploits. Yeah, and we'll keep it rolling to the end of this week. Final week of the locker Room here and hopefully we get Craig back soon, hopefully wishing him a full recovery, not just a not a speedy recovery, but a full recovery as he gets over his illness.
But until then, you'll be.
Rocking with Max and West until otherwise noted. So with that, I turned the reins over to Wes and Motes for the next show.
God bless you.
But I know what the schedule feels like, because I'm about to go do it myself.
Well, I forgot Max Motes is actually out today. So I appreciate you, Day. I appreciate Day. I appreciate you taking this segment a little bit longer for me because you just made life easier on West solo on the other side. So for that, I am grateful.
That's right, That's right. I forgot about that. So yeah, so hey, that's what we do. We back our buddies up on these moments. So it'll be a little bit a little bit shorter.
For you Wes after this, hopefully, but you know, we'll be back tomorrow sayingbat channel, saying bat time. Here inside the locker room, I'm Max Starks. We love Craig Wolfley. He is he's he has.
A fathead right now, stand in right now.
You know, we we put it in his chair so that we know that he's here with us in our heartsts. Of course, West, you are the ones and two CJ and the Sinsey in the background keeping us on air. And I had no drops today, West. I just want to say that good record for the remote broadcast, and we'll be back with more tomorrow here inside the locker room.
Go make it a great day.
