HR1: New Week and an Old Foe

Published Dec 3, 2024, 10:15 PM
Matt and Dale react to the Browns' crazy loss on MNF as they make the trip to the 412 this upcoming Sunday. The guys break down the latest with the Steelers as they look to build another winning streak.

At least.

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 welcome yet another chilly day here in Pittsburgh.

The drive.

It just a little disclosure. We're up here on the top of Mount Olympus here in Carnegie and the wind just whips across this the top of this hillside. And yes or not, Carnegie, Bridgeville, Bridgeville.

Yep, yep, it's chili. Walking to the car to the.

Walk from the it's like every day. It takes my breath away in the weather's like that. It reminds me of my acron days.

It was. That's how where the football facility was. And speaking of which, wore my sideline jacket and Justin's honor over here.

Little bit of being at pitt Johnstown when yeah, yeah, yeah there was snow up there too, right but absolutely, but.

No, it's chill.

H He's Matt Williamson, I am Dale Lolly. You're listening to the Drive here on Steelers Audio Network, and uh well it is a Mike Tomlin Tuesday today. And he didn't have a lot to say, because of course they just played the Browns two weeks ago.

Yeah, it's a hard game to preview too. It's kind like we just did this, Yeah, just everything.

I just run everything back from we did two weeks ago. But they did play last night. They did play last night. The Browns live quite the game forty one two h Jamis Winston throwing for four hundred and ninety seven yards and four to actually four hundred and ninety seven yards and six touchdowns, yes, four to his team and two to the other one almost seven almost almost four to three, very close for to seven. Jerry Judy goes for nine for two thirty five and a touchdown. They essentially, they being the Browns, could throw the ball deep whenever they wanted to, because well, now we understand why the Steelers made a a little move in the offseason.

Woh, a cornerback, I mean, Levi Wallace has overachieved his entire career going at guy, yeah, going back to walking on a Bama. But you can't run anymore.

And he's basically a zone cornerback. Yeah, and you can't ask him to play man to man against you know, Jerry Judy and Elijah Moore or Michael Woods or anybody anybody Jamari Thrash pick one. He couldn't cover that, any of them. They would just run past him and Jamis would whip it out there.

And that long Judy touchdown. He's just standing there flat footed as Judy comes at him, like you better you think you're going to catch up to him, you know, starting from a dead stop. And I don't know if you saw the next Gen stats today about the game, but there was about twenty routes where Certain was on Judy. He did nothing. Yeah, you know, he did nothing, you know, but they could throw anywhere else but Certain's neck of the woods last night, you know, I mean with a second corner being out. So I mean obviously there was a big thing exposed with Denver in terms of their coverage stuff.

Yeah, and I mean Wallace isn't their normal starter. No, they had an injury there with with Moss the kid.

Out of it. But I love yeah, yeah, who's a good, good young player.

And in fact, they even put in Chris Abrams drain late in the game.

Anybody but Wallace, Yeah, just and it was better. It was better, yeah, right, and highly aggressive quarterback too to the least. And it's not a bad group of receivers. We've seen that team just two weeks ago.

Yeah, so you know, they could avoid certain whatever they wanted, and I don't expect that similar a similar kind of output against the Steelers.

I'd be shocked. I mean, I think they'll throw a lot, and they'll be aggressed with what they do now, and there might there'll probably be some touchdowns maybe for both themes, and certainly some picks and some downfield throwing, no question, but that was kind of an anomaly last night. Yeah, you know, I mean Judy's are number one though now, yeah he is, he has been stepping up big.

But the Browns, to your point, threw the ball fifty eight times, actually dropped back to pass sixty one time in that game, actually maybe even sixty four. Because Winston had three carries for he designed I assume they weren't designed runs for Jamis Winston.

I would assume not. I mean, I think Ford led the team with forty one rushing years.

Yeah, he had nine carries, Chubb had nine carries. They had one for Kadarius Tony, one for Elijah Moore. They didn't really try to run the.

Football, No, they've kind of just scrapped it this is our only formula and live with it. If you saw the stat that they showed on the screen, because Denver is actually the longest streak, but the Browns are the second longest streak of It's like twenty or twenty one games now without having one hundred yard rusher. I mean, like times have changed dramatically from what we used to see from this team. Yeah, for sure. And chub average is three yards of carry now too. He's maybe even like the primary guy.

He had two point three last night. I mean yeah, and Ford's just always on the field because he's the third downback.

Row and they're always throwing. Yeah yeah, but yeah, so then this game, their defense wasn't great to say the least either. I mean, Denver put up points.

Due you know, Jordan Hicks led them with twelve tackles. Grant del put the safety, had six. He left hurt though at.

One there was something going on with him. Ward also left the game like holding his forearm heavy, like it was broke, like all other kind of forearm injuries you could have as a break. But I'm guessing on that.

Yeah, so we'll see, you know what happens with all that stuff. But no, sacks for Miles Garrett. No, he was pretty quiet, pretty quiet in that game, so nobody was putting the crown on his head. Wasn't talking about how he's the best edge rusher or anything like that.

After the game, well, he was in and out of the game for a little too, and he said foot injuries too. I'm sure he's gonna play the Steelers. He finished the game.

But they're now three and nine. They are they're not officially eliminated, but they're eliminated.

They're darn close. They're eliminated. I mean, that's another AFC loss. Yeah, that's it's over.

Yeah, and it put the Broncos at eight and five, which.

They're going to playoffs. They're probably going to the playoffs. There's probably need two more wins to assure a playoffs.

Two wins would clinch it. One more and you're probably, you know, good shots. Yeah, you still got a good shot because if you start looking at the uh the overall race. Now, they've got a two game lead on Indianapolis and a three game lead in the win column on Miami.

Okay, so nine wins could still get in mathematically. Ten pretty much locks it up. Yeah, for any of those teams. Yeah, so okay, I like the way Nick is playing. I mean he's I think he's a legitimately good NFL quarterback. Not like that's that system.

Well if it's a system, well, I mean when we were down lock drafts last year, from the beginning I mocked him.

Oh yeah, to Denver. I mean it was a couple like I remember it was like alt Is going to the Titans, which didn't happen. They ended up being Latham, but there was a couple like layup picks and that was one of them. Yeah. He just the receivers have been better too, you know, what fits what they want to do.

You know, I'm watching the pregame stuff and they're talking about you know, obviously they talk glowingly of both teams. Sean Payton stole de von Vley in the seventh round this year. He's like twenty seven years old. Yeah, he's got some words. I mean, right right, I mean there's a reason, there's a reason he went in the seventh round and he's not like a superstar.

Now, he's been a nice pickup on the cheap that's playing for him, and you know, twenty seven year old rookie, right, those guys don't get drafted high.

That just struck me as I'm like, really, we're gonna say he's stolen and now you're gonna compare him the Marquez Colston like.

They were doing a lot of that too. They were straining for some storylines too. I mean, although Jamis presented plenty.

Oh yeah, yeah, he always does, and he's so when when people were banging a drum for the Steelers to sign him a couple of years ago, to Jamis, yeah, back up Ben to be Ben Roth, Roethlisberger's backup and an eventual replacement, I'm like, I don't want anything.

To do with that. See I did. I mean I remember that summer vividly because it was well, maybe it was the one after that too, because Ben was gone. That's when they tried Trubisky. It was there was Trubisky, Mariota, and Winston, and I ranked them Winston by far, Trubisky Mariota. Looking back, I definitely don't want the last two. And I don't think Tomlin could handle his marbles.

Yeah yeah, just it wasn't gonna work. He's a fun player, Oh, there's no doubt. There's entertainment value is off the charge, the ball zipping all over the field and it's going this way and it's going that way, and you just don't know.

And he's grinning the whole time and having a blast. And I get to play in the snow last week, and I mean, like everything's fun. I mean, he's like a little kid out there having a blast.

Throws the ball one hundred miles an hour every yeah, which way.

At my son, who's eighteen, and you know, we were watching the game and at halftime he's like, do you know the Lasik story with Winston. I'm like, yeah, it's insane, and he's like I just heard this. He's like like four years into his career he got Lasik surgery because his vision was so bad and just didn't care, Like I couldn't really see downfield that well, Like, what do you mean you couldn't see You're the first overall pick. It's important. Uh yeah yeah. Yeah.

That would have driven Tomlin nuts and nuts. Yeah you think he's their starter on opening day next year? I think I think he's somebody else's starter, because we know, we've talked about any options. We talked about this a lot. Though they don't have any money.

How many money. I don't know what he's gonna make, Like, do you think he'll make more or less than Field?

I think Gardner Minshew got a starting right like two years. It was like twenty five million dollars for two years.

Over two years. Yeah, that's what I'm kind of thinking, like a Winston Fields type contract.

He's a better player than Gardner Minshew.

I think so, but his lows are brutal, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, but if you're a team that I mean, if you're the Raiders and you know, Giants, Jets of Rogers are going, I mean there's.

Spots, there's spots where he could go. And I just don't think it'll be Watson.

I don't. I don't think.

I think they drafts somebody and Watson may not be ready for the start of the year next year anyways.

Yeah, yeah, I just don't think to kill Watson. They seem to love Winston. I thought it might be Winston in a pick.

I don't think. I don't think they can afford. I don't think they can afford to do it.

Yeah. Maybe that's a lot of quarterback money, and an early pick at quarterback isn't super cheap.

Either, right, you know, you know so, and they've got other things they got to deal with.

They do, they do. Their row line needs to be built, they find a running game. Yeah.

In the meantime, they're now three and nine heading into Pittsburgh.

I don't know what to expect from this game this week, you know I don't either.

Tomlin's talking in his press conference today, and the Steelers will get Alex high Smith back for this game. Calvin Austin is in the concussion protocol.

Okay, any news on on Travis Adams.

There's still pretend I mean there's no still practicing.

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

They got twenty one days and the boat right, Trice's window would close this week if they don't act, So they've got to make a decision there. But you know, Tomlin's talking about this and some Jerry Duole I asked him, you know, are you does it this past game against the Bengals give you more comfort knowing that your team can go in and win a game like this. He gas, look, I'm never comfortable and we have to win a shootout. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, it's just too many variables. It makes sense, and he's a defensive minded coach. Sure, sure, and a lot of things can go wrong either way, you know. I mean that does add a lot of variables in the game. I'm sure the Browns are gonna want to try the same script though. That's what they're gonna that's their only path to victory.

That's their path the victory. Yeah, chuck it all over the place. What's crazy, though, is their pass protections bad? Oh yeah, I mean that's the fly.

Almost didn't get as much pressure as they got on Winston in that game. They didn't get it sacks, no, I know, I can't. I think they sacked him three times.

I mean the Steelers had a hard time getting Winston in the ground too. He moves around better than he did when he was a heavy footage young guy. I mean he's definitely more limber or more nimble now.

The snow is a factor in that. Oh yeah, yeah, in the second half.

But yeah, I mean you would think though, I mean, I know the Browns aren't a great team and don't have a lot of resources at the moment, but you would think if you're going to try to win shootouts, you'd be able to protect and you'd be better rushing the passer. I mean, other than Garrett. They don't have any they don't have anybody hardly any pass rush at all. Right, Yeah, so.

Again should be an interesting game, is when we just saw a couple of weeks ago. But there's no reason to Steelers shouldn't win this one. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean they should be favored. I haven't seen the lines. I mean, what time did the Browns get back to Cleveland this morning?

Early this morning?

Early, like talking like five o'clock in the morning.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Because the thing about Denver, the stadium is downtown, Okay, the airport in Denver, it is about a half an hour outside of town, farther out than Pittsburgh's airport. It is out there Kansas by the day.

Of course, look at the police escort and get there as quite quick as you can. But bus has only moved so fast. Ye's But either way, I mean, it's a crazy late and it's also.

One of the few places where they make you go through Like most places, they'll process you at the stadium, they kind of speed things up a little bit. In Denver. They make you drive to the airport, go through like a little processing center there, and then walk out to the plane.

Is one more step of the process.

It's just a little a little bit sluck because if you're doing it at the stadium, you get the trickle of guys coming out, so it's there's never a big line. Yeah yeah, but if you're doing it at the airport, uh, it's just a big like I can remember. This is a little funny aside. So when the Steelers won the AFC Championship in Denver in two thousand and five, I was on the team flight at that point, and I'm one of the last guys in line. I'm there with with tounch of Wolf where like the last guys going through the line, let all the players go in and get getting into the back of the plane. Anyways, and Sean Morey, if you remember him, was yeah, special team. He stopped to talk to somebody behind us as we're coming through the door.

So then he came and tried to catch.

Up to the you know, the procession of everybody, and the security guys stopped him and said no, no, you can't go through here, and and he's like yelling, hey, hey, no, and we had to go vouch for him, like no, he's really on the team.

Yeah, he doesn't look like alvil Innuaiva or Cam Hayward or right, it looks like a dude at the air and pound wide receiver right right, special team or a tough guy right right, right. You've told me that story for it's hilarious, Like, oh really, I might know you're prove it. Yeah.

Yeah, so but that's what they make you that you have to do that in Denver. So it just adds another layer. Yeah, another ten to fifteen minutes before you get on the plane and then get ready to go. So they probably got in very very early this morning.

Like five or six in the morning. I'm like, yeah, so today's wasted basically, Yeah, you know.

Not for the coaches. The coaches had to go right to work.

That's what I was going to go. I mean, like, I think it's a massive disadvantage for the Browns to go on the road after that. They also, I know that everyone's playing hard in their professionals, but the season's over. I mean, I like, am I gonna go the extra mile this week? I don't know. There was some but at least from a coach yesterday, yeah, at least from a co perspective, you just game planned for this team two weeks ago, though, I mean there's well I'm not gonna they're not gonna cut and paste it, but I mean it'll be a little easier to prepare.

For for that a little bit. And that's what kind of levels the playing field on this one. But they are certainly at a disadvantage. Oh yeah, you know where there's the Steelers. Yeah, you can look at that game plan that you had a couple of weeks ago.

But now, I mean, couldn't the Thursday night have been here and this one been there, wouldn't have been fairer for everybody, you know. Yeah, I don't know. The scheduling has some quirks.

Definitely does. Yeah, and so we'll see how this all plays out. But yeah, just an interesting game last night.

It was. It was a fun game if you don't care, which factly I didn't care who won. I mean, but Denver's probably getting any of the way Cleveland's. Yeah. I'm just watching them to see what who gets hurt and who doesn't kind of thing, and just watching as a fan. It's a fun game. They're an entertaining team.

So you playoff field in the AFC right now is Kansas City Buffalo Pittsburgh, Houston, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver.

Okay, Denver didn't move anywhere with the win.

No, they're still right there. They're tied with the Ravens, but the Ravens have the tiebreaker over top of them.

So Ravens on buy this week too. They are likely to.

Be the seventh seed, and I don't know how they how their tiebreakers work out with the Chargers.

Have they played twice yet? I don't. I don't know, but I don't think they've played twice.

So they beat the Broncos earlier this season, and they play again December nineteenth.

So a couple of weeks. Yeah, I'd be shocked if the Colts catch them, or if anybody else catches Denver too. Yeah. I mean they're a pretty quality team. I don't think they're a contender, but they're a quality team, and I'll kicking their coverage a little bit this year, a little bit.

I think they'll end up with this much like the Chargers. I mean, yeah, yeah, both of those teams. I'm not going to say that they're going to be it's kind of by default though. Yeah, I'm not gonna I don't know that they're not going to be pushovers into playoffs.

No, but they're missing pieces.

They're not ready to ten.

They have a much better chance to be better a year from now than they are now. Yeah, I think in both cases. I think a big thing is so many teams in the AFC just didn't live up to expectations. Oh yeah, I mean Miami, the Jets, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. Cleveland's a massive example. I mean the picking really big examples. People were picking the Steelers to finish fourth in the division. I think motional. Yeah, I mean I think that was the most common landing spot. You know, some people people thought Jacksonville would be in the mixes a nine to ten minute team too.

Tennessee loaded up this offseason. Yeah, they spent a bunch of money. They're three and nine.

It'd be really bad yeaheah, So careful.

What you wish for people. It's you can try to go for it. It doesn't always work out.

No, AFC did not live up to expectations across the board. No, we certainly. It wasn't like one the case of this guy beating this guy beating this guy. It was just let me seem it's got battles.

When we were talking over the summer. We talked about how much greater depth the AFC had.

Than the NFC. Not only it's true, I don't think it's true either. Yeah, I'm not sure what the best team you're in the AFC or the depth, but the quarterbacks are Yeah, there's no there's no doubt about that. Yeah.

But these teams all have flaws. Yeah, they do, including the Chiefs and Bills and you know.

Yeah, and you mentioned yesterday the Lions are getting pretty beat up on defense too. Yeah. Eagles might be the best team. It might be. I mean, they're the ones rolling kind of by default.

He's Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lollie. You're listening to the Drive here on the Steelers Audio Network. Matt, Now the Ay're going to take a break. We'll be back with more right after this.

At least.

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 Lolli. He is the Matt Williamson and Matt Joey Porter Jr. Has been a very big topic since the game the other day. People thinking he's having a bad season. He's had some bad games. He's had games where he's been highly penalized, right, and in those games he's been highly penalized a lot. But when you look at the overall scope of everything, he's allowing a quarterback passer rating in his coverage of eighty two point eight, which is really good for a corner, really good for a corner. Even better when you consider that more often than not he has matched up one on one with the opposing team's top wide receiver.

As I say, his job is as hard as any corners in the league. You know. Yeah, they play a lot of Cover three, which is zone, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still align over the best guy or zone quickly turns into man. He still plays a lot of press. It's always against one of the top dudes. Even if it's Higgins alone. The other two are on you know, they're double and Chase or whatever. It's never on Joe Blow receiver. We've talked about this a lot. Man demand corners get penalties in this league, you know, and guys that are going against feature receivers get penalties. He's taking too many, there's no question. And this last game was off the charts. But don't think they're gonna go away, folks. You know like this is I mean, this is a common thing with guys that get his responsibility. And what I found interesting is you said what he did at eighty two passer rating when thrown at So that's different than a quarter that's not apples to apples to a quarterback having an eighty two. Right, because the quarterback decided to throw at you, it should be even higher because you're the guys, right, I think he's open anyways, Right, I mean a throwaway doesn't count against you, a sack and things that hurt at quarterbacks numbers. If they're attacking you, there's a reason, you know, so the success rate should be higher.

And when you're drawing the opposing team's best wide receiver, you're going to see more passes thrown your way just because these teams want to feed their top receivers.

That's what I say they I mean, you're going to scheme up your best guy. I mean, this league is about how can a huge job the offensive coordinator And I think it goes out saying but sometimes you got a reiterator is how can I get the ball in the best player's hands, and it's not as easy as you think. It's not flag football with my seven year old, you know, twelve years ago, where you just pitch it to Johnny who's the fastest dude. Everybody knows where the ball's going. How can I divise ways to do it? Yeah, well, no doubt. Here are some of the other more highly penalized cornerbacks in the league.

J C.

Horn, okay, good young player, Patrick Certain, Yeah, I bet certain's high. I think he had a couple against Pickens. Marlon Humphrey okay, Trent McDuffie, Yeah. McDuffie doesn't always follow, but does a lot of outside stuff now too, Sauce Gardner.

I mean, these are the guys that are considered the top cornerbacks in the league.

So if you're but Jerry Sneid was ahead of Porter last year, he was to have more penalties than him, and he was at like the best cornerback you know, season in the league.

So I'm not gonna lose sleep over this that. Oh you know, he's having a bad season and Pro Football Focus. Pro Football Focus has him as like the number one hundred and seven cornerback. Oh really, I haven't all the Bengals cornerbacks are ahead of him?

Yeah, I think the come on badly swappy one for one anytime you won.

Yeah, this is one of my many problems with the Pro Football Focus grading system. Yeah, you're gonna tell me that, I'm just gonna pick Mike Kilton is having a better season than Joey Porter Junior. And I'm gonna tell you you're full of who is even close.

Yeah. The assignments are way different. The talent's way different. Not apples to apples. This kind of reminds me of this penalty conversation. Kind of reminds me like when you flip this to the other side of the ball. With receiver drops, Yeah, well, the guys that like lead the league in like if you look at the Brady era, Welker and Edelman like led the league in drops almost every year because they're catching the ball amongst linebackers trying to take their head off. They're getting targeted eight thousand times because they're good. If you look at whoever like leads the league and drops, it's usually one of the best receivers in the league. It was like, and it's usually somebody goes over the middle a lot exactly. I mean it's a little more dangerous over there too. It's more dangerous.

Do you see the ball coming out before it's past the line of scrimmage? Just maybe maybe you're getting blocked by an offensive lineman and oh there's the ball.

Yeah, right, little things like Barren Edelman didn't have a lot of time to react to the football.

You're not even out of your break yet. And the balls there right there it is six yard round or whatever too. Yeah, you know, so it's not necessarily indictment. I remember Amari Cooper was one year. I think Evans was one year, Diggs was one year when they were all in their prime. You know, Yeah, because you get thrown ball a lot, you're gonna drop it. But it also that and watching Levi Wallace's struggles last night. Yeah, yeah, that's why you made the trade that you did with Carolina. Absolutely, they really wanted Dante Jackson. They liked Dante Jackson, they'd liked him for a while, and they wanted to a wire him to have two solid corners.

Yes, and it didn't exactly work out, but I very much believe, and I said this for weeks after the trade, if we need a receiver and a corner. I don't want to shop in the corner aisle corner.

The corner market was not a good place to be shot.

I mean, everyone's making a little more than they should at their age, and the free agent market.

Guys like Eli Apple or all over the league. I saw him in a game last week this weekend. I'm like he was still in the league.

For that, but there was like a woozy a and guys like that make him more than you know that you want to pay on the open market, and rookie corners get picked on no doubt, and so you want to you know he's I didn't and it.

The Steelers didn't know that Roman Wilson was going to get hurt.

Sure, sure, and they obviously had talks even before the draft with many teams many right things just didn't happen.

You know, if Roman Wilson was part of the equation right now and was playing, well, who knows.

What he I mean, it would be a benefit. I mean, who knows how much he would help he or whatever, But he's gonna be in the mix going forward. Yeah, now I keep getting asked about that.

Well, you know what's going on with Rome and Wilson like, well nothing really, he's on IR.

Right now, and I don't think he plays this year, right, I don't think he does either. Yeah, basically red shirt ear for him, which is unfortunate. I mean, you only get four in the rookie contract and one's already gone, you know, but that's how those league works.

That was a situation with Calvin Austin coming out of his rookie year, and.

It's also true of your first round pick.

Calvin Austin looks like, oh yeah, nice complimentary player for Yeah, he's.

Going to have a good NFL career. Yeah. He seems to getting better and better too.

I mean he's never going to be a star, you know, because he is what he is. He's one hundred and sixty two pounds.

Yeah, and he took some shots to guy hit a little bigger.

Yeah, but he does some things that make you a more dangerous team. He's still for the team leading touchdowns.

And he's not just a little guy run fast only. I mean he's a much more developer outrunner. He can play inside, he can play out. Had a good conversation on my podcast today about Judy and Matt Harmon who's a receiver expert was always harping on this, and people don't. People look at receivers and think a wide receiver is a wide receiver playing the slot is a power slot versus Welker kind of slot first, an outside guy and X versus Z. It's almost like asking a center to play left tackle. Yeah, you know, And in Denver that's what they were doing with Judy. He played a lot of slot, but he's not a real good contested catch type guy. And then they'd play him at X where he lined up on the line of scrimmage and the certains of the world just beat him up, you know, And he still isn't good at that. But if he's the Z and he's moving behind the line of scrimmage and he's a motion guy, he's dangerous, you know. Like, not all receivers can do all receiver positions. There are receiver positions for a reason. Yeah, Oh, there's no data. They can do a few things, I guess, it's my point.

Yeah, but he's not just a slot or you know, but with this particular line, I mean, he can move inside and outside and they do that with them, and then they kind of do get interchangeable with some.

Of those guys.

Yeah, yeah, which is kind of the beauty of what they what they have there.

I mean, he's not going to line up as the X on the line of scrimmage against certained for sixty snaps and win a lot that he doesn't have to. Not many people do, right, right, that's the Pickens job. That's why that's the big dog job. Yeah.

But I just think that the you know, when you start looking at the Steelers roster build and what they have now, Yeah, they've had some offensive line injuries that you know, we'll see how this continues to play out here. Maybe they get Troy Filetanu back.

At some point. Yah.

I guess that's still possible. It's a possibility, especially I have a deep playoff run or who knows, you know what, you get alex Higsmith back this week. You got all four of those outside linebackers that you can do some stuff with.

You've got last segment, I brought up Adams too, like you may have the entire defront like you want it. Yeah, I like this late in the season in the season is pretty rare. Yeah, I mean even without him, you're pretty stacked. Yeah, no doubt front.

I mean the injury stuff that they were having early in the season, it's kind of gone away a little bit.

Yeah, and hopefully it doesn't. It doesn't could strike at any minute of Every team deals with that stuff. But it's nice that Trice and Adams and maybe Futanu and you know are looming at least you know that some guys coming back. Yeah, you got Sutting back from suspension. He looks a little better now.

And that are early and even some of those guys that went on I are early in the season. You know you've gotten back.

I mean there's the James Daniels of the world that you don't have anymore. Yeah, everyone team has those guys.

Yeah, the offensive line is really the only place on the team where they're dealing with those injuries that have been long term type things that they're not going to get a lot of those guys back.

No, I mean we mentioned the first round pick, but like Herbig and Daniels, I mean those are good players. Yeah. On the other line, you know you just didn't have.

But you know, so the depth on this team, this is when it starts to show in December. Yeah, when you start to put you know, you look at that Cincinnati team that they just played. Yeah, they're missing guys left and right.

And it's glaring holes. Yeah, and the damn is breaking. I mean there's holes in the boat. You know, there's no doubt. Unlike last year though, it's a lot of the rookies got hurt, you know, So it's not like a lot of the rookies are starting to get their feet under them. The Fraser's and mccormicks are look like they fit in from the start, especially Fraser, you know. I mean, it's not like they're not getting It's not like it's a bad rookie class at all. But you might look next year and be like, man, but Hanu and Wilson are really contributing here too, you know. And in addition to Peyton Wilson and some of the other guys are you know, in the rookiel you have to be very like when you say Wilson with this team. Now, I realized that as I came to.

Designate here, which Wilson you're talking.

To, Just say the rookie Wilson. There's two of those two.

Yeah, right, But guys like Peyton Wilson are getting plenty of yeah, solid playing time.

You know, I'll be interested to see what they do. Now, if you lost Roberts or Queen, that's not great, but you'd survive, yeah, I know, much better than you did. Last year was a disaster. Yeah.

And and so you know, in a lot of these situations, I mean you start looking at their depth chart and it's like.

They got dudes everywhere. It was about this time last year when they were pulling and linebackers.

Yeah, Eric Rowe was a relevation, revelation, and now you know he's on the practice squad right now. Resigned him a couple of weeks ago to the practice squad and seven eight of them just in case of rainy day.

Yeah. Yeah, and they've done a nice job churning the bottom of the roster too. I gotta give Omar and people credit. I mean Edmunds and Scornic and Pierre. I mean, guys, you didn't break camp with that. Are know exactly what you're getting from? Yeah, that's valuable. Man. Chronic's a dude. Chronics a dude. Yeah. I think he needs to play.

Yeah, he just does goods, the dirty work, the dirty work.

He's tough, he's physical. Special Teams contributions are rate. He is a slot, but blocking from that positions.

He is a big slot. He is a power slot.

Yeah, absolutely, And him and Austin couldn't be any more different.

Nor you stand next to ben' skronick and you're like pretty big rip up, pretty big wide receiver.

Yeah. And that Ram background. I mean they use Cup and the Kua like fullbacks at times. I mean they'll wayhm on defensive ends, you know, like those guys are not afraid to throw their body around and block in any way. He's as good as them, but he has the same mold. He's the same archetype.

Let's talk real quick about what Arthur Smith has been doing here, because.

I thought, by the way, this might blow people away. But some of these national podcasts I listened to, who are some of the coaching candidates Arthur Smith might be ready? Yeah right here, Like are you crazy? What are you talking about? He runs the ball like he's doing a really good job. Guys.

They threw the ball twenty seven times in the first half. Yeah against the Bengals.

They ran at nine.

They played that games absolutely. They threw to run late early, to run late, and it worked. They wore the Bengals down.

Yeah, do you think there might be more of that? I mean, like even this week, I think they're very comfortable with it. Yeah, you know, if you're gonna load the ball, I mean a lot of it's just Wilson. I'm sure at the line of scrimmage too. You know, he probably has a run and a pass.

He's now got six games under his belt. They feel a little more comfortable. He Okay, we know what Russ is going to do in the offense here. They have a pretty good rapport between Hill Smith and Okay. They had their meeting every Friday night to decide what they're going to run and you know what plays are going to work, and these are part of the discussions. Okay, if they give us this look, then we're gonna check to this and yeah. Yeah, stuff like that that you know, I just don't know that you've been able to do the last couple of years.

So back to Smith, I mean, it's one of the hardest jobs out there in terms of the critiques you're gonna get from fans and even media people.

I have yet defied a great play call an offensive coordinator in WSURG who has been beloved exactly. There's no Dick Lebow, the offensive coordinators, they're right right.

I mean the play could how could you call that on third and one?

Because if it doesn't work, why do you Why didn't you throw the ball?

And a high percentage of offensive players don't work, you know, And if.

You pass on third and one, why didn't you run the ball exactly? Third and two or third and three exactly?

And hey, I can nitpick what he does too, but I don't know that he has the most talented group of skill guys or line in the league right now. I mean far from it. And I think that unlike the previous years, I think you're getting more out of your talent than the other way around, you know what I mean. I mean, if here's a bunch of fives and sixes, that's not saying them that this team is. They're better than that. You're getting six and seven production out of them, you know, that's something we said.

I mean, if you if you look at the overall offensive numbers, I mean, they're clearly middle of the pack in many of these numbers, you know, offensive yards per game, they're or right behind the Vikings, right ahead of the Chiefs.

Yeah. Playoff teams, playoff teams.

If you look at the points per game, well, now they're at twenty four point seven, right behind the Vikings, right ahead.

Of the Chiefs.

Remember that company they played those first six games that they played this season. We're very close to the vest.

I would say. And if you just extrapolated from when Wilson became the.

Start, it's about twenty eight points a game.

I mean, everyone knows. I do like this stat pack, and for this upcoming game, I don't really care about the year long trends nearly as much as when most of these games were and when Winston took over, because it's a lot different. I mean they're noticeable quarterback changes and upgrades. Yeah, for both teams. Yeah, really it is.

And I will say this, so the Browns game last night was the first time on the road that Winston has gone out and produced a game like that.

Oh really, the other games that.

The other twenty point game that he had or more than twenty point games because they had none with Watson, Oh, their numbers pre win Center so bad they were. Those were all at home though, the games when he scored twenty four or more. The games on the road he had, you know, fourteen and ten, and then last night was the big one again. Yeah, Levi Wallace, Oh yeah, yeah, I mean that was steeling issues, right, But now I think Arthur Smith has done an outstanding job. You know, three hundred and forty four yards per game, the passing games now to two hundred and basically two hundred and eleven yards passing per game. If you remember when they made the switch, I think fields was as a team they were averaging between one hundred and sixty and one hundred and seventy passing yards per game.

Right.

The rushing has stayed pretty similar. Yeah, it's at one thirty three point one, and you're not getting the rushing yards that you run fields from fields as much.

I think it like twenty seven yards. Yeah, I mean he is not scrambled as much as I expected. He hasn't really had to. Yeah, it's not like I've been yelling at the TV, like run, run, run, you know, but he hasn't. He's not going to run for two or three hundred yards this year.

No, it's not going to happen, and he hasn't needed to.

No. Yeah, your point, and that wasn't suggesting that Arthur Smith's going to be a head coach next year. But it won't be shocking to me if he interviews or puts another year like this next year and it becomes a real hot candidate again because he's really well respected in the NFL community. He really is.

And there's this idea that he's this old guy.

He's forty two years old, right, he's still a puppy in head coaching. I saw something today.

They were talking about him as a possible, you know, head coaching candidate, and I said, if he were ten years younger, I'm like, if you were ten years younger, it'd be thirty two talking about if you were ten years younger.

Like, that's like when Tomlin got hired in McVeigh. I mean, m McVeigh is still like the second youngest head coach in the league.

I get it because he doesn't look like a young guy.

He doesn't know. I mean, he doesn't look like young McVeigh or young Tomlin.

Right, what's the Commanders coordinator Cliff Kingsbury. Cliff Kingsbury like he was all you need to go when when when the Steelers were interviewing Arthur Smith and people say you need to go get a good young coordinator like Cliff Kingsbury. Kingsbury's older than Arthur Smith.

Yeah, this doesn't look to say right, former NFL quarterback. Yeah, he's a better athlete.

Whereas Arthur Smith was an offensive lineman.

Yeah, they tend to be a little dumpy. It tend to age a little differently, no question, a little grizzled. And absolutely I forget where does it go with that? Anyway? Now, I think that that was a really really good hire. And yes, Weekend you can nitpick, but it does fit the team.

The mentality and when like Bill Belichick said that before the season started, like did Arthur Smith was the perfect fit in Pittsburgh.

For what they wanted to do. Yeah, and he's been right. He's been right. And you can look at Atlanta and the Falcons have a lot different personnel than what Smith had. And I used to joke, I mean, I'm sure Fields was like, you could have got me Dj Moore and Keenan Allen to doonsday and I'm sure Arthur Smith could have been like I wouldn't mind Kirk Cousins and Pennix and you know Mooney and you know anyway, but he was so criticized there for not using his best guys. Maybe Pitts is not that good by the way, I mean, like maybe he hasn't been great. And by the way, they.

Were utilizing John hus Smith, who.

Is pretty pretty good, right, right, right, That's what I was gonna say, Like we all sure Pits is better than John Hue. And it's not like Pitts didn't do things there, you know, but like maybe he next personnel quite well.

Yeah he did use Drake London. Oh yeah, you know, he did use b Jon Robinson now years better than people think too.

Was a good point. We're going to rotate those guys.

In absolutely, especially rookie that you don't want to hit the rookie wall.

Yeah, and absolutely they were saving him a little bit early too. And then he was that one day he was like totally sick and didn't play at all.

Yeah, so I think he got a bad rap in Atlanta, But that's neither here nor there. And when you know, he was asked about the North Carolina job, issul and he said, look, five or six years ago, you know, for a head coaching job, I would have I would have listened to anybody.

Yeah, it'd never been a head coach before obviously.

Right, I said, Now, I'm pretty I'm happy where I'm at. My family's happy here, I'm happy here. And you know this, this organization head.

Coaching is off for everyone either. I mean I didn't study him as a head coach as a leader of men in Atlanta, but I do think he's a better coordinator than he is the Tomlin CEO, you know, and that's there's not many people.

That kind of guy though. Yeah, does he can't learn that? And absolutely a little more so. Again, he's forty two years old.

If that's still a career goal, he could get there, but he might just end up being a really good coordinator.

He could he could have twenty years as a head coach beyond this, I mean, if he wants it.

Yeah. Yeah, he's got a lot of time. Yeah. So no, but he's been a success story.

Yeah, And I thought, really, I thought he called an excellent game on Sunday, and I thought Wilson orchestrated said game and game plan perfectly.

So we were talking a little offensive personnel before. Anytime there's a coordinator change, you're gonna try to get new pieces for him. And some of them came directly from Atlanta. Great, you know, Wilson was somebody they thought fit. Same with fields, play action. I think they want a mobile I think he wants a mobile quarterback. He drafted Ritter. But room's not built in one off season either, right, you know what I mean? Like, if you can give him one more off season of Arthur Smith guys.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of wide receiver. Yeah, they go after this off.

I mean they go get a Drake London style guy, or you know, to put the pair with Pickens or I'm not making fun of Michael pruittt He's been a fine player, but maybe they settled for their Pruet. But they're going to upgrade that guy by two tiers, you know what I mean? Or whatever. You know, I'm not even picking on him. Or they inherited Nause but that's not really the back I want. But I'm making it work, you know. I mean there's a hundred examples. But give him another offseason to get his type of players. This front office will find them.

Yeah, absolutely, but let's get through a break. He is the Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lollie. You're listening to the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network. Matt and I'll be back with more right after.

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 Lolly, he is the Matt Williamson and this is the Drive on the Steelers Audio Network. And of course you can hear the Drive every Monday through Friday from four to six pm right here on these very airwaves. Of course, you can also download the Steelers Mobile app and it'll go right to your phone and sure listen to it then where you can watch us on the Steelers YouTube channel and check it out there. Leave us some your replies, your comments, all that good stuff. We appreciate that, Matt. We were just talking about the choice of Russell Wilson to run this offense. Thus far on play action plays, he is twenty seven of thirty nine for three hundred and sixty eight yards. Okay, that's a nine point four yards per attempt off of play action. The interesting thing is though he has not yet thrown a touchdown pass on play action.

Yeah, I bet it's coming, gonna be coming, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's always been a great play action passer. I mean, that's one of the reasons he's here.

That's over sixty nine percent on play action.

Yeah, you'll take it. Yeah, that's a fair amount of yardage too, and a good yards per attempt without question. And some of those are deep balls, yeah, just part of it. Yeah.

So you know, that was all part of the equation here with signing Russell Wilson. And you know, to me, I think it's a pretty good fit. And you know, we've been kind of banging that drum all season long.

I'd be shocked if he's not the opening day starter next year. I would too.

Yeah, that's where I was gonna go with that. You know, you already see the speculation out there. I think I mentioned it yesterday. You know who's going to be the Steelers quarterback next year? The Stealers quarterback for twenty twenty five is on the roster right now.

I tend to agree. It's funny. I did a mail bag today for a different podcast, and almost all of them were off season questions. You know, just not good or bad. You know, you think Naus you'll be back. You know what are they gonna do? You know, line changes? You think they'll go after a big time receiver. Go get thee Higgins quarterback stuff galore. And I answered the quarterback thing by saying, my hunch is very shortly after the seat, after the Steelers are eliminated, he'll sign a two or three year deal at market price minus ten percent. You know whatever that.

Is Baker Mayfield type deal, three years, one hundred million dollars, something like that.

The contract I used, which doesn't mean he's the same player. It was a bad contract for Daniel Jones, but I think it could be a similar contract though, like what Daniel Jones got. You know it won't be I mean at his age or I doubt it'll be cousins because he was on the true open market. But I think you'll get him at a good price because I think he'll want to be here. They're gonna want him to be here. Money's on an issue for him, but you can't disrespect them either, right. He deserves the going rate. He's your starting quarterback. You don't give him ten million, and then I don't know what you do with the two Though I would still talk to Fields, I wouldn't.

Yeah, I would keep I'd keep the door open. Yeah, I don't.

Think I'm using a first round pick on a quarterback. No, I don't think so either, And I see a year from that.

I've seen a lot of mock drafts, you know, having the Steelers take a first round quarterback, and I don't think that's going to be the case. No, that doesn't mean I don't take one in the middle rounds.

I would think about it. I don't know the class well enough. Everyone's like this class, thanks, you know, there's not many to pick from. If that's true, I might just taking one to take one. But if there's one that catches your eye in the third round that you are fourth round, that you have a second round grade on. Sure, But I kind of looked at it like Wilson on a two or three year deal, maybe Fields on a one. Don't draft anyone this year and draft one next year. We're you know, I could live with that.

Yeah, I could too, But I would also at least consider taking a quarterback if if the if there's somebody there that you like, I'm not going to force it, yeah yeah, but if you get to, you know, in the middle rounds, and there's somebody there that you think, well, this guy's got some he's got some traits.

Some traits to develop that we can develop. Somebody has a high upside. I'm not trying to I'm not picking on him, but I'm not trying to find the next Mason Rudolph. That can be a lifetime too. I'm looking to swing for the fences and hit a deck, you know. And there's a theory out there in the draft community in the NFL that I believe in. It's easier said than done because you only get so many picks, right, But the Packers were big on this draft one every year, no matter what. If it's seventh rounder and you flush them, so what. But they had like Hasselbeck and Brunell, you know, guys that went on to have really good careers. They were just stuck behind Brett Faarr. You know that they drafted. You know. So it's never a idea if you miss, Okay, we took a swing, we'll go sign a safety instead that we needed or whatever. But if you hit, even if it's just a long time too, it's well worth a fifth rounder or later for a second round pick. Yeah, I mean without question, you know, like Landry Jones was worth the pick. Yeah, Mason Rudolph was worth was worth the pick if he actually if he had panned out to be what they thought he might be. I mean they they drafted him thinking that he might be Roethlisberger's replacement, right, right, right. They didn't draft him thinking he's going to be a long term two. Sure. Sure, And the fact that he is a long term two is still worth it. Yeah. I mean, like he's gonna be in the league ten twelve years.

I mean he's He had a better record as a Steelers starting quarterbacks as the quote unquote backup and Charlie Batch, Charlie Batch is revered in Pittsburgh.

Sure, and I get that that's knock on Charlie obvious, not at all, right, right, but Mason's start record as a starter, Yeah, being the backup was better. Yeah, he could definitely compete with the Batch Gradkowski left which era backups? Yeah, you know, RT, no question.

So I mean that he won, You won games with him, you won, he kept you in the hunt in twenty nineteen. Yeah, he got you into the playoffs last year.

Yeah. Yeah, that's worth that's worth it. It'd be nice to have that type of guy behind Wilson next year.

Yeah, or somebody again better maybe maybe maybe you out kick your coverage on it. Maybe you get the next Russell Wilson. Absolutely, that's exactly what Wilson was. Yeah, well he plays like a first rounder, but he's little. We'll take them a third. Well, so you know, right, Yeah, but when your quarterback is thirty five thirty six years old, you should be thinking of that direction.

Yeah. I would love to kick it down the road one more year, you know, in terms of like the first round guy, yeah, you know, or something like that, or a Fields or somebody like that that just keeps developing and then you know, by that time is a true starter. Who knows.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, But well we'll keep keep that in mind here as we get into well, December football and then January football. We're not gonna talk a ton of draft yet people.

No, and it teating up though. I mean I'm trying to do more and more homework on it. And Steelers have some free agents that need to be discussed at some point too. Yeah.

Yeah, but that's all stuff for work. No, Yeah, we'll cover it when the season is over. We're gonna get to another break that's going to do it for our number one of the drive here on the Steelers Audio Network.

Matt and I will be back with our number two right after this

SNR Drive with Matt & Dale (Pittsburgh Steelers)

Dale Lolley and Matt Williamson tackle the days topics regarding the Pittsburgh Steelers each aftern 
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