At least, he's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven Home of the Black and Gold cast in Steelers Nation.
Radio, and welcome back.
I am Dale Lolly, he is the Matt Williamson and Matt's time for the Fantasy Football Focus.
Here to kick off our.
Number two and as we do on Mondays, we take a look at.
The top performers of the weekend. YEP.
Of course this excludes the Monday night game, but everybody will know that that once you get there, only two quarterbacks this week through from more than three hundred yards.
There's a lot of bad performances a quarterback.
So I just counted it up. Eight quarterbacks this weekend did not throw a touchdown pass thirty twenty two quarterbacks out of thirty through one or fewer touchdowns.
Wow, So okay, you're the mas. Yeah.
The only two guys have more than three hundred yards.
A lot of rusty dudes, a lot of bad offensive line performances. I wonder if defense is going to rule the day for the first month or so.
We'll see, but certainly, you know, uh two Attago Vailoa. They entered thirty eight yards one touchdown pass that being a long one to Tyreek Hill. Stafford threw for three seventeen and the loss. Outside of that, nobody else topped three hundred. Mahomes had two ninety one. Baker Mayfield had two eighty nine and four touchdowns.
So Mayfield a really good day. Man.
Washington's defense, Oh, the horrendous so bad. Yeah, horrendous everybody against. Yeah, Jalen Hurts had two seventy eight and two touchdowns. Lamar Jackson two seventy three in a touchdown.
But it was a slow day in the passing world.
Yeah, I mean only fourteen of thirty quarterbacks had two hundred yards passing.
I notised it was that bad. I mean, there are a lot of rookies out there that looked like rookies. A lot of second your guys that looked like rookies. You know, not to mention the Daniel Jones and Cousins and those guys that you at least expect them from. Yeah, you know, Watson.
Leading rushers. We had six guys who topped one hundred yards. Joe Mixon thirty for one fifty nine in a touchdown.
Thirty is the key, though he had no long runs. I mean it's hard. Team was long. Yeah, okay, long of thirteen with thirty carries almost hard to do. JK. Dobbin. He has no competition none, I mean, which is beautiful for him. JK.
Dobbins had ten for one thirty five in a touchdown. He had a sixty one yard earth that he didn't score on.
Yeah. I mean he showed some explosiveness though, I mean his acceleration and he's a he's a good story right now.
I would expect him to kind of slowly take over the lead in that backfield.
He kind of did during the game. In the first half, Gus Edwards was clearly the feature back, and then they just kept giving Dobbins more and more and more. Yeah, so he's a better player.
Lamar had sixteen for one to twenty two. Ramon's Ray Stevenson for the Patriots and that upset of the Bengals had twenty five for one to twenty and a touchdown.
Time to worry abot Bengals run defense again. Yeah, that's really fixed.
Because he had a long run of seventeen. The problem with Remandre Stevenson is that's gonna be like one of four wins for.
Them this year. I would imagine game script is not going to be kind. He might be a cell high guy right now. And I like the player. They gave him money, they like him. Yeah, his competition isn't bad. I'm sure they're gonna go into every game. We're gonna run this thing through the andre. Yeah, but when you're losing by thirty in the second half, that's not gonna work. Yeah.
Uh.
Saquon Barkley twenty four for one oh nine. Camran through some big holes. Yeah, but he had I mean he was great in terms of explosive plays.
Kenneth Walker had twenty for one oh three in a touchdown.
Might be fighting an injury. Something happened to him later and got hurt in that game too, really Okay, so that'll keep an eye on that.
Something to keep an eye on. Just missing was Aaron Jones fourteen for ninety four, and.
They didn't need him much at the end either.
David Montgomery seventeen for ninety one in a touchdown. I think he had like forty of that in overtime.
I say overtime was blown to him. Rode him. Yeah, And they didn't bring Gibbs into the game until pretty late. Yeah, and Montgomery's always a value.
And then Jayden Daniels had sixteen for eighty eight and two thrushing touchdowns in his debut.
It's a cheap coade. Yeah, I mean he didn't play great, but you know him and Richardson and guys like that can stay alive with their legs for a while.
Some of the guys that you would have expected to have big days.
Sam're White thirteen for forty four. Madison took all the mad stuff. Yeah, Madison out in that way.
Yeah atn twelve for forty four and bad fumble.
Bad fumble and Tank Bigsby. I think we were about it equal with them.
Zach Moss had nine for forty four, but he did Outsnapho.
Definitely the one just behind. Yeah yeah.
Isaiah Pacheco fifteen for forty five, three yards of carry, not great. Derrick Henry in that same game thirteen for forty six. These are guys that went high.
Yeah. Yeah, You've got to be a little worried about Henry's blockings. Probably not gonna be great.
Y Williams eighteen for fifty. Corham wasn't a factor at all.
I don't think you got a carry. No, I only you got one carry, so I think I got almost special teams.
How long are they going to stick with Karen Williams at eighteen for fifty Well.
They're blocking so horrible. I mean, you've seen an O line that banged up in Week one ever, I mean they were on backup tackles really bad. And then strangely they switched Avilia and the guard they signed from the Lions guard center seats yeah, a week ago, late in this process, and then Avilia gets hurt in this game. So they were on three backups already after one game.
Even Jonathan Taylor sixteen for forty eight, he got a touchdown.
He scored, Yeah, but not an efficient offense. But it was all big plays. It's all big days. You can't live on that. That's hard.
Yeah, receivers. Despite not having a lot of three hundred dard passers, we did have ten one hundred yard receivers.
There were some big plays. A J. Brown had a big play, and Pierce had a big you know, Tyreek.
Of course, Jadeen Reid had four for one thirty eight and a score. Can't trust that now.
Though, I can't trust that at all. I mean, love is gonna be out at least a month, it sounds like. But that game seemed like it was a million years ago. But the footing was so bad as it often is. I mean, that makes me crazy they you know anyway, But he was like the only one that had great footing. I mean he was He's like built like a soccer player.
Yeah, Tyreek had seven for one thirty, had the eighty yarders, so other than the eighty yarders six for fiftyes.
So so yeah, I mean atn fumbles and then he hits an eighty yarder like ooh.
Alec Pierce three for one to twenty five and a touchdown. It was a sixty yarder. Don't trust that. Don't trust that. But they do throw deep. Yeah, Jamison Williams had five for one to twenty one in a touchdown.
He might be a cell high for me too.
I mean, now it was I think Shick's targets.
Everyone's a buzz that he's arrived. Maybe he has. I'm kind of rooting for him cause I really liked him coming out of Bama. But I mean he tied Trudavius White in a knot, which is great, but he was just so afraid of the speed. There's anything wrong with that? I mean, that's what this guy does.
Yeah, but I don't know. I wouldn't just automatically throw him into the lineup.
Yeah, I don't know if he'd be in my top thirty six. Yeah A J.
Brown five for one nineteen in a touchdown is kind of just what he does every week.
He had a sixty yard or something. Yeah, Nico Collins six for one seventeen. I didn't score, though, so note there, Dell was clearly the three. Yeah. But Diggs his average up the target was like one one yard. Yeah, it was really low. Yeah. Yeah.
Isaiah likely led to tight ends with nine for one to eleven in a touchdown.
Is he a startuble tight end? Though?
You know I almost drafted him, Yeah, and instead I I didn't. I was gonna use him as my last pick, and I'm like, because I need to back up tight end.
I almost backed up Andrews with him. Yeah, you know, I forget who was the tight end I took. It was somebody I liked, so I did.
Because I figured he's gonna be on the field all the time because they'renna play Yeah, twelve, But didn't expect that kind of.
Time to worry about Andrews. I mean a little. I didn't study the All twenty two, but I assume they game planned around Andrews. Yeah, and likely thrived. But I think he's Is he in your top twelve this week? I don't know. I will go through the he might have to see it again.
Yeah, yeah, that might have just been game script.
Oh yeah, but he's a talented player. Yeah yeah.
H Cooper Cup fourteen for one t and I think he had twenty one targets.
I heard today he had like a forty six percent target share. Yeah, especially when the coup went out and he could miss some time too.
It looks like the coup is going to miss some time, so Cooper Cup is definitely usable.
His stocks going up.
Yeah, Jaylen Waddle five for one oh nine, good, Rashid Rice seven for one oh three, and they.
Featured him a lot, yeah, a lot of quick hitters. He's not going to break long ones.
Just missing was George Pickens at six for eighty five, okay, and it should have been six for about ninety one.
He got robbed his six yards on the the pushoffs.
No, this was to catch before that, and they ruled him down and it was obvious he wasn't down by contact.
Which is hilarious because the league we're in, I'm playing against Chris Carter, who a lot of people know. I beat him by like one tenth of a point. And you mentioned if they if Picking gets those sixty yards, I lose, you know, because he Chris says, oh, that's fantasy football. Davonte Smith had seven for eighty four. Interesting about Smith, many of his reps are other slot Now. Yeah, thoughts in there and those guys, which is rare for him. That's good.
Chris Godwin eight for eighty three in a touchdown look good too.
Like there was a lot of third downs they were going his way, and Baker played well.
Tyler Johnson had five for seventy nine, and but remember on that one, sixty three.
Of it came on he one big play. Yeah, maybe they get some more playing time, but I wouldn't run out and pick him up.
If Nikoua is out up And we just have some news here. The Steelers have signed Corliss Weightman. Oh, okay, that's the that's their punter. News punter. Okay, I don't know much about him.
Well, he's with the Steelers.
They had him on the practice squad and he kicked for Denver last year.
I believe it's good from a holding familiarity standpoint too. Boz has worked with them, so that's good. Yeah, so that takes care of the punning situation. Yeah, yeah, I hadn't thought of that name. When we were talking about you mentioned brad Wing and Harvin has been thrown out there and familiarity is good. Yeah, say no what he's into and Danny Smith knows his strengths and weaknesses and Okay, So.
I'm looking here at our DFS lineup and I can't remember which one I have two. I have two that I played this week, one that I won on the one that I didn't.
I would remember the names.
So I think did we start Cook.
James Cook? Yeah, we had a really obscure tight.
End month I started month. This is the one that we this is we did not win on.
Ours because everyone listenings in it that I don't know.
We finished with ninety nine points seven six points. We had some dudes that well. We had Cooper Cup in the lineup that was a big hit. Daniels in the lineup, a big hit. Yeah, Javante Williams not a big hit.
We'll talk to Nver. He didn't look good. Their offense is bad.
James Cook thirteen point three points, but not what you were you know, didn't score at seventy one rushing yards thirty two receiving yards.
Not an awful game, but real quick on the bills. Kincaid was terrible. Yeah, in terms of production, but they really spread the ball around like Coleman led the receivers and it was only out there seventy one percent of the time. So I think it's a little bit for you, a little bit for you, a lot for Josh Allen, a little bit for you. Yeah right.
Terry McLaurin two for seventeen.
Yeah, that's yuh. Time to worry a little bit on that, dude. I didn't like the way Daniels played for much of the game, the passing stuff.
Palmer in with the Chargers two catches for fifteen yards, but he was there. He was on the field the most of all their receivers. They just didn't throw the football, no.
And everything was short that they did.
They didn't have to, right, Mike did get us two for fifteen, so three and a half points out of him for twenty nine hundred bucks. That was that allowed us to pay up for some of these other guys. Unfortunately didn't hit a mon raw Saint Brown's.
One that kills you. Most consistent guy out there.
Eighty two hundred dollars we spent on him. He had three for thirteen.
That's insane. Yeah, I mean I'd go right back to the well on him though. Oh yeah, no concern at all.
And then the Titans defense, uh played well. They got us five points. They didn't give up a touchdown offense.
I said they lost it and didn't give up a touchdown.
Yeah, which is one of the they get dans for giving up fourteen to twenty points.
They had a good defensive day. They give up ninety three passing yards.
Yeah, I mean like Swift had nothing on the ground.
I started the Browns defense in one of my leagues, and they give up a pick six and the Browns defense gets you know, your penalties for it. Yeah, and that's kind of Tennessee's d was a good call. Yeah, they just they played well.
You know, for whatever reason, it just didn't work out for them because of the well, the fantasy rules and stuff, right, Yeah, just the rules of fantasy. The team that won the contest we were in finished with one hundred and eighty four point five to two points.
They had Lamar JK. Dobbins nice, that's probably a value at the time too. Joe Mixon volume volume. Yeah. Mike Evans solid as always. He had two touchdowns. I think. Luke McCaffrey, I know he's too much. He was a hot name. He had three catches for eighteen yards. Okay, I said they threw him one that he was going to throw and he just ran with it.
Zay Flowers he had six catches, but everything was sideways, had no yardage.
There. Your guy Johnny Smith that did not hit one for seven I think. Yeah.
Cooper Cup and the Bears defense. The Bears defense scored twenty four points.
They scored twice. Yeah, Okay, I didn't pay a ton of attention in that game, but I knew they scored it once. So all right. I mean he's a misses there for being the Yeah, they had some big hits too. There's some huge hits. Absolutely, I could win on my other lineup, So it wasn't There was a handful of stinkers, you know, as you know, London Lave Saint Brown, some of these ones that are I still trust. But you mentioned some of the running backs that were drafted high that didn't do well. There were some receivers too, Yeah, and Kincaid and Kelsey wasn't great, Andrews was bad. You know, some really highly drafted guys.
The lineup that I hit on, I had Daniels at quarterbacks as we did, Kenneth Walker, James Connor.
Yeah, Connor played like every snap.
Cooper Cup nice, uh, Nico Collins strong game.
Yeah. I also had a.
Laven in Javonte Williams. But I had the Steelers defense which scored twelve points.
Okay, Stuart is going to be attractive this week coming up, yeah forward, Yeah, absolutely, it was quite the performance.
Yeah, but that's going to do it for the fantasy football focus for today. Tomorrow, we'll take a look at some streaming options, some of them waiver wire pickups.
Could be some injury news on the KUA and some of these guys too.
Yeah, So we'll see where we're at there. But it's going to do it for the fantasy football focus today. He is Matt Williamson. I am Dale, Lollie. You're listening to the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network. We'll be back with more right after this.
This is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven Home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
And we are back.
I am Dale LOLLI he is the Matt Williamson and Matt I'm just looking here at the Steelers snap pounce.
Yeah, from yesterday.
I wanted to go over there, just because the newness of the season here. Yeah, we don't typically necessarily do this.
But I thought there were some noticeable things looking at him.
So the Steelers played sixty eight offensive snaps. The quarterback and offensive line obviously played all sixty eight years After that, it was tight end Pat Fryarmouth as the next highest snap player. He had fifty snaps on the field. That's more than the two starting wide receivers Van Jefferson and George Pickens, as Jefferson had forty nine, Pickins had forty six.
So that being said, he wasn't out there much in twelve. They played so much thirteen and eleven. He is out there, not that he's not out there in twelve, but that was also a preseason thing. The fantasy nerds were all worried maybe they don't like friar Mouth because he's not out there in twelve. It's a you know, relax, you know. I mean they got plenty of playing time. That was seventy three point five percent of the snap. Yeah, and he ran a lot of routes and had a lot of usage. Yeah, and caught four passes.
It wasn't big yardage, but I think, no, that changes a little bit when Russell Wilson's in there. So I mentioned Van Jefferson forty nine yeah, snap, the routes ran the most routes on the of the wide receivers, but just the one catch. One of my guarantees on the pregame show was Van Jefferson over twenty one and a half receiving yards. If it is that low again, I'll play it again.
No, I think he'll be part of the team, you know, part of the passing game. Yeah. They just still wouldn't look that much into them.
I mean that's three catches for a guy who's on the field.
Constant or two. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, So.
I'm not real concerned about that. Pickens had forty six, Michael prud had forty snaps.
Yeah. Again, a lot of he's out there in twelve or he was, And I think there's a trust factor there. He knew that the opponents. Well, I think that's you know, his old team had something to do with it too. They're gonna use all four of those tight ends. Yeah.
Then it was Najie Harris with thirty eight, Darnell Washington with thirty seven. He's the other guy in that twelve package.
Calvin be even higher.
But yeah, Calvin Austin had twenty eight. Jalen Warren got twenty one offensive snaps, Scotty Miller seventeen, Curderal Patterson nine, Connor Hayward five.
So Miller I think was out there for every snap of thirteen. Strange enough, Yeah, I mean these are anomalies or whatever. There's a reason they're doing it.
I mean he's a smart receiver, yes, yeah, yeah, you.
Know, and then he also can he also will block and run situations like in thirteen personnel. Now that's a I think the Warren stuff is a little lower in terms of carries.
I just think that was because of the situation with the hamstring.
Ye know. Yeah, but he was the third down back. Yeah, Yeah. Most of the snaps came on third down.
Defensively, they played fifty six snaps. Three guys were out there for all fifty six. That was Patrick, Queen, Dante Jackson, Minka Fitzpatrick.
And they all will that's the way it's going to stay. Joey Porter Junior fifty four snaps, which probably means he came out for one little thing here, you know what I mean, Like they took him out. Yeah. TJ.
Watt played fifty snaps. Alex high Smith forty nine. I think some of that the high percentage for both of those guys because they were getting so many three and outs.
That's the thing. They were fresh the whole time. Like, I think it's on them to take themselves out. Yeah, you know, like if you're sure you'd love to hurt yet her baby get three and ounce, you're not gonna you're not going to sub those guys now, and you're not gonna pull Wad out. He's a pull himself out. Yeah. Right.
So there weren't I mean, two sustained drives that the Falcons had the entire game, So there was no reason for Wanton Highsmith not to be out there.
Right, and their freshest could be and usually that'll probably be their highest percentage of snaps all year. Well maybe we'll see what I know. Yeah, yeah, uh.
Deshaun Elliott was out there for forty seven snaps. That was eighty three point almost eighty four percent. Hayward played thirty five snaps, that was sixty two and a half percent of the time.
The things not to cut you off or jump ahead, but I like the way they dispersed the true d line snaps. And there was almost equal between Roberts and Wilson too next to Queens. Yeah, I think that's a nice formula.
Ogan Jovi played thirty four snaps, thirty three snaps of Beanie Bishop Kiani Benton had twenty seven. Then it was Wilson and Roberts with twenty four and twenty three, Montrevius Adams with twenty. Nick Herbig was seventeen. CAZy played thirteen snaps, louder Milk ten, Corey Trice seven to Marvin Leo five And the only reason Joey Porter missed those two snaps. He gets a little nicked up.
I say, something happened, I can't remember.
Yeah, So that got Trice on the field, But when they went to dime, Trice was out there.
Trice was out there in dime yeah okay, and Bishop was not. Bishop was not okay with three safeties yeah yeah. So Roberts is the early down inside linebacker and Wilson's the nickel and dime guy. You know, it's pretty cut and dry. I thought Leal would out snap louder Milk, but that's small potatoes. I mean, we're talking about six verse ten or something like that. But Adams and Lowry was inactive. By the way that people didn't know Benton and all those other guys. I think keeping Ogunjobi and Cam fresh is really important. Yeah.
I noted early in the game that at one point they went to their nickel package and they had Benton out there.
I believe it was out he was out there with Oguin Jobi. I think that's what happened.
More Boughton was out there for in Hayward spot.
I'm not saying he's gonna replace Cam, but I've been projector thinking that there's he's gonna play a lot more snaps on third down. Yeah, basically it is the bottom line. He played very few, very few pass rush opportunities on third down, but I think he's earned it that either next Ogren, Joby or Cam. We're going to see him in sub more.
Yeah, not just a nose, yeah, I mean he can rush the pass. Oh yeah. So you know, looking at that game as a whole, again, the defense dominated it. The Steelers dominated at the time of possession. They dominate again the numbers when they win the turnover battle.
No, it's bonkers. It's bonkers, it really is. Or even tie. Yeah, I mean it's that big a deal. And I think that they especially when they realized how strong the defense was playing. We don't need you to do much justin you know, like you can run all you want. I don't. I definitely don't think a lot of his rushes were designed. Only six of them were. Okay, that adds up because I don't think you wanted him getting to hit a ton with Wilson out there. If Wilson was a starter and Fields was out there, you could put him in harm's way a lot more going forward, and I think it'd be even more effective runner that way. But I think a lot of it was roll right if that if you're you know, your your feet are already moving. We don't need you throwing against those safeties or in high traffic areas. Nice layup throws.
Make them the sideline, or just you know, just keep your feet moving past on running the tight end out there into the flat and then make a decision. Yeah, if that come to you, then you you know, you throw to the tight end. If they don't take the five yards.
And a couple of deep shots here and there and run the ball. That's what you needed to win.
I did think the one play he made a great throw at the end of the first half, they rolled the pocket to the left. He came back across the field and there were two there were two defenders over there with pickens, but he kind of split.
The middle of them. One one was deep on him, the other one was underneath.
And I don't think they expected fields to try that pass, right, and he just laid it in the pickens, you know, out there by himself.
Well designed play, well designed play, and I think it was designed to go there. Yeah, yeah, so too.
And in that situation, that was a big three points, big three points and showed some arm strength and nobility and all that stuff too. If I remember to that point, he had like thirty nine passing yards at that point the first half, and then he hit that forty yarder and it.
Was like, okay, now they I thought he was a little tight, and you know, to start the game too. You know, I meant a lot of opportunity here, and he wasn't real smooth with everything to get started. But then he's settled in well, and I think the coaching staff helped him quite a bit too, and he played fine. And even some of the.
Plays that got eraced for the Steelers I thought were impactful. You mentioned the Pickens no offensive pass interference play. It still happened, and it still showed the Falcons that like, well they will still go deep on us.
And saying, yeah, yeah, we still need to honor the deep ball field is a good d pass or two. Yeah, Yeah. The same thing with they're going to throw the ball deep. Yeah, I mean that's a Smith thing.
The same thing with the Watt strip sack at the end of the first half. That was the harbinger of things to come. It got a race because they said he was off side, which.
Was debatable, by the way, But yeah, from that point on, he dominated the game, dominated the game and really was feeling himself and he played a tremendous game. Yeah, and yeah, that right tackle McGary Gary. Yeah, he's fine, but I mean, like I was just talking to Wolf and he's like I was watching him before and he keeps his hands real low, and it's like, that's a bad omen against wat And there aren't many that can even go toe to toe with them without help to begin with, you know, and Denver isn't one of them. You know. Mcglinchy's okay, but he's more of a run blocker too. He's kind of a McGarry type right tackle. And then Bowles I think got hurt. I know you got hurt. I don't know what his status is, but something to keep an eye on this seating With that, they're just both a couple of guys. Yeah, and that's more of a run blocking line too, without the talented skill positions that Atlanta has.
Yeah, we'll get a little more into. Yeah, take an early look at see what happened in their game. It was great they lost to Seattle, so we'll do that in return. He is Matt Williamson. I am Dale, LOLLI. You're listening to the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network. We'll be back to finish up the show right after this.
He's The Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on your twenty four to seven Home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
And we are back.
I am Dale Lully, he is Nan, Matt Williamson and Matt looking here at the Broncos game against the Seattle Seahawks. They lose the game twenty six twenty but even that was a little misleading, misleading because Denver had two safeties in that game.
It's hard to lose a game and you get two safeties. Somehow they did. They sure did. They're bad. I mean they really are, and I watched a lot of it. I thought Seattle didn't play very well, but then they started to kind of get their feel and started to really play. They're just better team, you know. I Mean, it was new coaching staff in Seattle and they weren't great. But the Denver's lack of talent just shows up. I mean, bo Nicks, like all the rookies, struggled in week one and I'm sure he'll be better, but anytime he went deep or anything that was not a layo throw was horrible. They didn't get much in the running game. It was more McLaughlin than Williams. Actually, certain's great, but the rest of the defense is just lacking talent. Really. The pass rush is okay, but it's not a real daunting team. I Mean, the thing that worries me most about the Denver game is it's in Denver early in the year. Yeah.
Nick's twenty six or forty two in that game for one hundred and thirty eight yards. That's three point three yards per pass attempt. Yeah, that's not gonna beat anybody.
It's not gonna beat anybody. And he did make It's crazy. I mean, times have changed so quickly at the court, you first round quarterbacks that all these guys are athletes, you know, as he as good an athlete as Jaden as Daniels. No, but he made a play with those legs and he scored, and so you know, those guys can hang around a little bit while they learn. But he's a long way away. And I was trying to find it here because he had some crazy numbers about he threw twelve passes that were ten or more yards down field. Ten I mean, that's not much. He only completed two of them for forty two yards and two interceptions. Yeah, just on the yards. Yeah, ten yards of past a line scramming. Yeah, the Steelers defense could feast again this week. Yeah, his average air yard completion was only two and a half yards down field. Oh, I mean, like that's rough. That's hard way to live man.
Well, and that's why you look at they averaged per catch. Yeah, this is per reception five point three yards of catch. Yeah, so he must have that is ridiculously low. So it sounds like their average completion left his hands went two and a half yards downfield, and then they got another two and a half on top of it after the catch.
That was their average completion for the day. Yeah, you're not going to beat this defense. No, you might not score a point due that. Yeah, right, that's that's brutal. But I'm sure certain will get pickings and that's a brutal assignment. But I bet that defense on the field a lot too. Yeah.
Josh Reynolds had five catches for forty five yards. He had the twenty five yarder, so his other four catches went for twenty yards.
Okay, so that's five yards of catch. Did he get hurt in the game that? I don't know who was the other because there was a receiver i'd never heard of Von Vailey. Vailey, Yeah, that one of the receivers got hurt and then his production spiked after that.
He had he led them with eight catches for thirty nine yards.
No for nothing, thirty nine yards. They're not using mims, they're not using Franklin Doulschitz, the tight end had like twelve. He ran as many routes as all the other tight ends combined. And he's not scary. I mean, it's it's an uphill climb for those guys if they can't run the ball.
Vailey had a nine yard catch as as long you take that out of the equation. He had seven catches for thirty yards.
Yeah, and I really hadn't heard of him before that.
Portland Sutton had four for thirty eight.
He's fine, you take that out of the equation.
He had a seventeen yarder, three for twenty one.
Yeah, it's all short. Protection was bad Seattle, I think confused the young quarterback a lot. He was double hitting, you know, double patting the ball a lot and just taking you know, not getting it out quick.
Julian McLaughlin had five catches for one yard, Yeah, one yard on five.
He was a better runner. I mean Williams one yard run, five catches. Come on, you could see this week.
Ten guys, ten Steeler defenders at the line of scrimmage and make it Fitzpatrick just cleaning up fifteen yards back and say, okay, just play goalie.
Yeah, yeah, No, I think it could be some of that.
Yeah, because they're not gonna They're not going to try anything down the field.
No, And I haven't thought about the Broncos a time. I get Seattle's pass rush too, right, which is getting a little better, and they're starting to get some dudes, but like Pittsburgh's, I'm sure poor girl will be on Sutton. Yeah, I mean, what's this passing game will be like without Sutton? I mean, if if he can do what he did to London, London's a lot better than Sutton.
Sutton had Courtland Sutton had twelve targets in this game. He had four catches for thirty eight yards.
I think a lot of them are just uncatchable too. Yuck. Yeah, it's it's rough, as we like to do her. Let's go through their lineup.
Okay, a quarterback, it's Bonnick, Jared Stead in the backup, Zach Wilson, the third stringer there. I don't care who the Steelers start at quarterback this week. They have an advantage.
They do, they do, There's no question.
Running back, it's Javonte Williams, glim McLaughlan, Rodrick, esteam Ay, Blake Watson.
I'm not sure a steam May won't take that backfield over sooner than later. I'll take the Steelers backfield. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree with that too.
Wide receiver, it's Sutton, Josh Reynolds, Marvin Mimmes, with Vailey, Troy Franklin, little Jordan Humphrey.
Yeah, not a great group. I think Reynolds did get hurt, especially he's not great. But the Steelers could use a Josh Reynolds. He's a fine player. Yeah, it's about a wash. I mean, Mems and Franklin are names, but they can't even see the field. One of them was inactive. Yeah. And I'll take Pickens over Sutton. Yeah yeah, yeah, he's a much better player.
Yeah, tight ends, Adam Troutman, Greg Dolcich, Lucas Krawl Steelers.
Yeah, it's not great. I mean I think they've won the worst rosters in the league. They have two fullbacks on their roster, Nate Adkins and Michael Burton. Okay, fair enough, they get the fullback edge.
Then the offensive line is Garrett Bowles, Ben Powers, Luke Wattenberg, Quinn Miners, Mike McGlinchey.
Miners is a star. The guards in general were decent. Bowls is probably a little above average left tackle, but far from great mcglinchey's. And then all of them are all run blockers. First, the center's bad. Yeah, he's one of the worst already centers in the league. It's uh, you'd be a great schemer and offensive mind and all that.
Steelers have a huge advantage with that defensive front against that line, especially if they're going to run.
This style of offense.
And this style of offense is the reason Russell Wilson is no longer the quarterback. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean this is that they're running the Drew Brees offense here, yeah without without yeah yeah right, and and Ramcheck and all the linemen they had there too.
When we get the defense, this blew me away. And I was just looking at their depth start like you're doing now. I'm like, they don't have any first round picks on defense. Certain's the only one they have one first round pick, like pick up the bust from a year or two ago and see if you can make them into a backup. Like there's no pedigree on defense.
Yeah, the defensive ends are Zach Allen and John Franklin Myers.
They're both bullies. Yeah, you know, they're not edgebender types, they're bully types. The nose tack was DJ Jones, another fine player that would be in the mix here, you know, but you know he's not great. Wouldn't be starting, No, it wouldn't be starting.
He's like an Adams the out the linebackers Baron Browning, I like Browning a lot, Alex Singleton, Cody Barton on the inside, Jonathan Cooper on the strong side.
And Browning's really an edge bender speed guy. You know, he's a pass rusher. Those other dudes are more off the ball, but they're not dynamic.
It's almost like they're playing they're playing a three four defense without the edge rushers without.
Yeah, that's the gooday of putting it, because like, Zach Allen would be a nice three four defensive end type guy here, and Franklin Myers is that type of guy. But where it's not Von Miller and de Marcus Ware.
Anymore, Browning would be the Steelers three, you know, yeah, yeah, And he's a nice player, but he's not as good as Heighsmith, right, I mean, it'd be battling herbig like he'd love to have.
Him Cooper would. And they're inside guys are off the ball line Singleton and Bartner, Yeah, Yu and their mid round picks a playlate mid round picks uh Certain at cornerback.
So with Roley Moss on the other side, Moss a younger guy they drafted out of Ioway. They seem to like him, Yeah, but still a young guy.
Yeah.
With Jakwan McMillan as the nickelback, I give the Steelers the edge there.
Two. I mean, Certain's good, Ratain's awesome, But I mean I'll take Jackson. Jackson carries a lot of weight In that converse.
Porter and Jackson are the next two guys if you're ranking for group, and I think Jackson the gap between Moss and Jackson is maybe greater than that than it is between Certain and Porter. Certain's good. I think Porter's reaching starting to reach it.
Start to get in the neighborhood at least. No, I agree with you. I mean, yeah, if you could take any Bronco you want. Certain Yeah, without I'm not even sure he number two would be on my list. The safeties, I'm not sure they are off the top of my head.
P J Locke and Brandon Jones.
That's not good.
Brandon Jones was a player five years ago. Yeah, when he was in Miami. Okay, that's the brand. I wasn't sure Jones while I was sitting there thinking, I'm like, is that the same one?
Uh No, ain't that's not even him.
Never mind, I'm completely wrong. That's not that Brandon Joe.
These guys are. I mean, this is a brutal roster.
They wouldn't even be on the steel As roster.
No unless they're great special teamers, and they really wouldn't. I mean, so I just want to double check because I want to The Russell Wilson trade hurt them. I mean, they they didn't have a second round pick this year, they didn't have a first in twenty twenty three, and they didn't have a first in twenty twenty two. So what's what's Nick Benito's story? Was he not in the mix or is he on injured reserve or something?
He is backing up Baron Brown okay.
He's a good edgresser too. So I assume Browning and Benito will be the two edgebender guys. And they're fine, but they're not high spand on want you know, I mean, like they're okay.
Drew Sanders is another guy they drafted highly a couple of years ago. He's out for this, you know, he's on okay right now.
Yeah, they have not drafted very well. And Jonah Ellis is another one of the edge guys. He's a rookie this year that will play. But I'm looking at this draft, the drafts lately, it's not very good. Yeah, they got issues. Yeah, it's not a good roster. No, it's not. And I remember, like before the draft, I forget what. I was a guest on some show and they're like, who would you want to least be in charge of I'm like, I'd rather be the GM of thirty one teams than Denver and bo Nick doesn't change that for me, no, you know what I mean. He's a good fit there, but I thought he was overdrafted. If he took him at thirty.
I would understand the second round guy. Yeah, yeah, I traded him down to Denver in the in the in our pre draft stuff because he did fit this offense, and Peyton has all the control when he's gonna hand pick his guy, and Knicks might be fine.
I mean, he may end up being not Drew Breeze. We might end up being a good player. I just thought you could have got them ten picks later.
But they got like five guys in their entire roster that you look at and go, yeah, he could be on this one.
Sure, Like yeah, I'll give you a fifth round pick for Courtland Sutton and throw them off that, you know, maybe a fourth to me, I mean, I'm not gonna he's not going to be a game changer. Knights too.
They're paying McGlinchey a bunch of money, but I don't want him over Roger Jones right now? No, or Fatan, who don't you'd like to have Quinn Miners.
Miners is a star and Miners would be my next pick. Not that the Steelers need them, but I mean, like the two days, I see two building blocks. A quarterback aside is certaining Miners.
So it's a cornerback and a guard and a guard.
Right, It's they're in a bad situation. It's not good. I mean, even like Bulls is a free agent after the year. You know, I have him anyway, right, he was good the year he could hold yeah, you know.
And other than that, I mean, I think I would be surprised if he does them multiple penalties in.
This game, probably if even plays. Yeah, yeah, so no, it's not a stiff test on paper, but Peyton will do some stuff.
And the road game is that the other factor that's playing on the road there.
There's I'll pull it up. But their history is with the other thing.
The other thing about this Matt and this just goes to show you as much as people want to say Russell Wilson was bad last year in Denver.
He's playing with a lot of these guys.
This roster is not markedly different than what it was last year.
I think they won eight games. Yeah, I mean, that's the way I'll kick their coverage in terms of win losses. Now. I understand that it's different when Elway and Manning were there, but all time, they're eighty three, thirty three and two at home in September. That's the thing that scares me. It's the light air, it's the lack of oxygen. Guys that aren't in shape. Yet they hate playing there in September.
But I'm not concerned about that for this particular team though, because the Steelers have great depth.
That's what I say. The defensive line depth is great. If wat only plays sixty percent of a snap and Herbi g has to play forty, Okay, I still think you can easily win this game because you're still more Your two's are going to be more talented than a lot of the guys are even going against. Yeah, it's a bad roster and the offense. I mean not o line and quarterback, but Arthur Smith rotated dudes in like crazy. Yeah that's that's kind of his calling. Come. Yeah, so that doesn't worry me as much. Yeah, it's I'm also not the one out there running wind sprints and without getting oxygen. But people got players hate playing there early, no no doubt.
Yeah, looking at this roster, Matt, it's bad, man, it might be the worst one in the league.
I might rather rather have Washington's or the Patriots. They at least have some Carolina Yeah, I mean, give me Drake may or in, you know, some defensive dudes, and at least Washington has a couple of things. I mean those it's right there with those teams. Though it's bad, bad, Yeah, Carolina is rough, but there it's this one's right there with them. And this is what Peyton wanted. This, this is what he I mean, he's building it. He inherited Wilson, which didn't help things. But it's problematic and I think they can be picking in the top five. It's the game you gotta win. Yeah, is a game again, oh, no doubt, no doubt.
And it's a road game. It's about to back row games, which again is a challenge. It's a challenging situation. But yeah, it's a game you should win.
It's a game you should win.
Steelers favored by two and a half points in this one. Just looking at some stuff from around the league here. As I mentioned earlier in the show, Lamar Jackson not present during the open portion of Monday's practice for the Ravens. No explanation on that. In fact, Harball was asked about it.
I remember him limping around in the game or anything like that.
He said, he'll give you an injury updates on Wednesday when he has so we'll see what that is.
They did a lot of crying after that game.
By the way, complaining about the calls you know that happened on their offensive line, complaining about that not being a touchdown at.
The end of the game, when it was obviously it was not a touch pretty clear. That's why they have replay. I mean he was out of bounds.
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah. Anyways, Josh Allen with the Bills cleared to practice. Apparently he has a left hand injury problems.
They play Thursday, Yes, yeah, but I mean he finished the game, but he has a wrist slash hand injury.
This is a bad one for them to Ron Johnson with the forearm will not play in that game.
Broke his forearm.
Yeah, he's like the best slock corner league and they're playing the Dolphins this week. Yeah, that's a noteworthy mentioned in Carolina Panthers a moment ago. Their best player Derek Brown. This is horrible, potential season ending injury for them. He's the best player, like he said, Yeah, he's their only good player on deep. We're one of the only good players on defense.
Uh.
In Chicago, Roma Dunzie, their rookie top ten draft pick. He is set to have an MRI today on his knee. Not good news there.
That would be terrible news too, as it looks like he is a really bright Freuzer for the Browns. David and Jokhu considered week to week with the ankle injury. I think it's an he's not gonna play for a couple of weeks.
Linebacker Mohammad Diabate with the hip his week the week. Defensive tackle Maurice Hurst his week the week with an ankle injury.
No offensive tackle news though, No, Okay, I think Jones definitely came out of that game. Yeah.
For Dallas, tight end Jake Ferguson has a sprained m c L and a bone bruise.
The people thought it could be a season end of knee, but it looked bad. The bone bruises are They can linger too. Yeah, that's something that's a little more. They don't have a wealth of weapons.
Here's the Garrett Boles news for Denver. He exited with a dude on an ankle injury. He has a contusion and both X rays and m r A came back. MRI I came back negative. According to Sean Payton on Monday.
Okay, well, the least he's got a chance to play then. Yeah. Uh. For Green bay.
Malik Willis will get to start in week two if Jordan Love cannot play.
Jordan Loves not gonna play. I thought that was a four conclusion. I thought they might sign Tannehill.
He said, if he's not cleared to play, there's still a chance Love could play.
Okay, I thought that was Don's an mcl sprain, so you know, they might just put a brace on it and get shot or whatever.
You know, he didn't run it all all.
Now he didn't. I wasn't really impressed with how him or Hurts played in that game, to be honest. Yeah, for Indianapolis.
On the other side of that game, defensive tackle DeForrest Buckner, according to Shane Steichen, is progressing well with a back injury that's not good for him though that issue is not good, very very important for them. Josh Downs his status is yet to be determined. He may with the ankle injury and place kicker Matt Gay also his status will be determined.
He had hernia surgery, so he didn't play in Week one either.
For Jacksonville, cornerback Tyson Campbell's gonna miss some time because of a hamstring injury.
Far and away their best corner. Yeah, there's a huge drop up after that, and they just gave him big money.
In Kansas City Wide receiver Marquis Brown, with the shoulder injury heading in the right direction, could make his debut this week.
Yeah, I heard that. That's rich get Richard, you know.
For the Raiders defensive entiree Wilson suffered a knee sprain against the Chargers. Not considered long term, but we'll see what happens with.
The Okay, he has not been impressive yet in the league.
No, and cornerback Josh Jones or Jack Jones not expected to be suspended by the league for his involvement with a scuffle with wide receiver Josh Palmer near the end of the loss.
That was a pretty big fight.
Yeah, he still could be fine. Both were rejected from that.
Now, that got kind of ugly at the end. Two new coaches trying to be tough guys and instill that you, yeah, build a program fighting kneecaps. Yeah, a lot of that.
For the Rams, Putka Nakua placed on injury reserve. He's out a minimum of four weeks. That's a minimum. People always say he's out for four weeks. It's the minimum.
I mean they know he's going to be out four weeks. Yeah, that's why they put him on.
Uh, Steve as an mcl sprain. He's gonna have an MRI, but we'll see how long that is. Typically that mcl sprain is two to four weeks.
Okay. And again he was a center that they turned into a guard a week ago and then he got hurt.
In Miami, Devin a Chan dealing with an ankle injury.
He did not practice today. They play Thursday, Yeah, they play Thursday t I think he went back in. I think he finished the game, but he was out for a little bit.
Sometimes those ankle injuries, you can go out and finish with it.
Yeah, and you take the shoe off and it blows up.
Raheem Moster with a chest did not practice.
Yeah, I think the rookie played quite a bit at the end.
Tracy, Yeah, Malik Washington with a quadricep did not practice. Jalen Phillips with an achilles was limited. Jayleen Ramsey with the hamstring limited.
After signing a monster deal. Yeah. Uh, a lot of injuries for a Thursday Night cam.
Yeah, absolutely, guys in Minnesota. Jordan Adison dealing with a significant, significant soreness in the ankle injury he suffered.
We'll see what his status is moving bat that could be worse than that for.
New Orleans Marshaun Lattimore dealing with a minor hamstring injury. They play the Dallas this week. See how that goes. For the Giants, Gneralshwsky dealing with a groin injury. Could be out several weeks for that and warms up warm ups. Darius Slayton is in concussion protocol. Linebacker Carter Coughlin he has a pictorial injury. He'll be out several months. And cornerback Nick McLeod day to day with the knee injury.
So and they were pretty bad.
Yep, So just like okay, Cornerback Bryce Hall in Tampa Bay just located ankle and fractured fibula.
Out for the season. He's a starter for them, right, he might be their nickel Okay, But yeah, yeah, not Bresaw. It's Bryce Saw, Bryce Hall.
And safety Antoine Winfield likely out a couple of weeks.
With Yeah, that's the one that worries you. Yeah, yeah. Uh.
In Tennessee, Dylan Ratouns has Bruce rib expected to be limited in practice this week. We'll see if he's able to get out there. And the Washington commander is changing kickers going from from Cade York to Austin Cyber So.
There's one of those teams with the revolving door kicker probably all year.
Yeah, and it looks like the Browns are going to sign York back. They've already cut there. No, they cut their okay, so they traded York too. Yeah, okay, they must not be happy. Well, that's not a long audition to be absolutely whoever they kept. Yeah, he's the reason they lost on Sunday, the same thing in Washington. The kickers the reason they.
Yet, Uncle Rico, Matt. It's going to do it for the show today. Yeah, we got a good one tonight too.
Absolutely got a big game tonight Jets at San Francisco. So we'll keep an eye on that one. But that's going to do it for our show today. So for my partner Matt Williamson, for Justin Miller here on site keeping us.
On the air, I'm Dale Lollie.
We thank you for listening to this edition of the Drive on the Steelers Audio Network.