DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: The star power!

DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: The star power!

Hey guys, welcome to Double Shot of Steelers. I’m Dan Kvachovic of DK Pittsburgh Sports, soon to be rejoined by Chris Hock back from vacation and we’re all about to be forever joined by Omar Khan signed a three-year extension. Uh, you know, GM contracts tend not to be the kind of thing that there’s a whole lot of information. We don’t know what they get paid. In a lot of cases, we don’t even know what the terms are, meaning like the length of the contract. So, I’m always a little bit surprised when there’s any kind of announcement related to a GM deal. But there it is. Ramon’s keep or Ramon, I called him Ramon. Omar Raone on the mind. Ramon will be back uh next week by the way. Uh Omar is gonna stay on the job for he’s gonna stay on the job for however long he wants. That’s just how this rolls, man. This is the Steelers, you know. Jeff Rossy’s advising me to not forget to pack my socks for the trip to Seattle. We’re actually flying out in a couple hours here. We’re going to talk about uh Omar Khan and his tenure to date, what he’s done so far. Has it been good enough? Does is it still an incomplete grade? Has he done sufficient work, sufficient advance work toward getting the Steelers eventually their franchise quarterback? We’re going to get into all of that when we come back with Chris Hock. At DK Pittsburgh Sports, we take pride in coverage that connects our city’s fans to their favorite teams. Now that connection stronger than ever, introducing our allnew state-of-the-art app. Find expert inside reporting and original podcasts. Check live box scores. Track the latest stats. Chat it up with our community of thousands of fans all in one place. The new app from DK Pittsburgh Sports. Coverage that connects. What’s happening? Chris Alec, welcome. Hey, welcome home.
It’s good to be home. It’s good to be home.
How was the vacay? Oh, man. It was good. We had a good time. Uh logged uh over 3,000 miles driving during during such uh said vacation, but uh it was good. Uh we had a lot of fun. We capped it off yesterday with a an entire day at Hershey Park.
Um which was a lot of fun. Uh kids had a blast. I had a blast. Wife had a blast. It was fun. It was good.
That’s cool. Hershey’s a neat place. My my favorite thing at Hershey when I was taking the kids there was
to go to the where you can make your own chocolate bar in the chocolate factory. Uh that was just that was wild. I don’t know if they still have that or not. That was a handful of years ago, but it was that was really good stuff. Hershey. And then you drive through town and there’s the little Hershey kisses for street lights and it’s like come on.
Yeah.
Um very very cool. Omar Khan signed a contract today, a three-year extension.
Yeah. Yeah, we’re going to talk today about the job that Omar has done.
Jonathan says it’s crazy how Omar has accumulated both players and draft picks. He has accumulated draft picks.
Um I I always kind of hesitate whenever that that comes up because I don’t know that you’re doing something to make that happen. You know what I’m saying? I mean to some extent I mean you
Okay, the George Pickins trade, you’re getting a draft pick. Uh Dan Moore, you know, what did you do to get that pick? You know, whenever it does come around, you know, you just lost a guy, but
I I like the fact that Omar seems to have his mind somewhere in the future.
Yeah.
Which is a departure from previous Steelers GMs where everything was just all in every single year.
Yeah. Well, and I think you kind of have to do that whenever you’re in the position he’s in right now, which is the team doesn’t have a franchise quarterback. And so, you have to have an eye on the future because when you do have a franchise quarterback, it it is, man, you better be trying every single year to be trying to win the Super Bowl. I mean, you better be going all out. You know, while the Bills have Josh Allen, they better be trying to win every single year. while the Bengals have Joe Burrow. We can make fun of them for not having a defense until the Cows come home, but man, they better be trying to win a Super Bowl every single year while they have that guy.
Um, if and when the Steelers draft their franchise quarterback, they better be doing the same thing. And especially while that quarterback is on a rookie contract. So, uh, yeah, it’s good on Omar for for him to play the compensatory pick game, which we hadn’t really seen him do yet. Now, granted, still very early in his tenure. you you he didn’t even do his do the draft the first year that he took over the team. It was like Kevin Colbert did the draft is like he handed the keys to the car to him said all right here you go. So we’re still very early to kind of see how he’s going to do that. Is that going to be something that he tries to do every single year where he’s just loading up on draft picks every year. Um we’ll see. But uh we’ve definitely seen a difference in the way Kevin Colbert was doing things. Uh for better for worse. Oh, so has Kevin. KC sees the exact same thing. He’s like, that’s not stuff that I would have been doing. And he doesn’t even mean that in a critical way. He just means it’s a different way of uh of doing things here. Ed Vidra says, “Chan’s doing better in the modern trade world. Good vision of future.” Yeah. I mean, if you’re old school NFL, trades don’t even cross your mind. Trades are just I mean, we used to be in the NFL. If you’ve ever seen a list of this, it’s it’s incredible
the pace of trades in the league. how it it it’s gone like this and and nothing ever prevented trades in the league. It’s not like the rules changed.
Yeah.
Everybody would just be afraid to do it because it wasn’t part of the culture and you didn’t know the playbook or you weren’t one of us or anything like that. And now it’s like,
you know, even at the NFL trade deadline, middle of the season, the biggest games coming up, you still see a lot of player movements here. Zach says in Omar, we trust. And I I I sense Chris that there’s a little bit of a look, there was a honeymoon period for him.
Yeah. And I I think to an extent that’s still going on. Every time Omar does something, there’s all these Omar cooking memes and all that stuff and everything, right? Uh but at the same time, there’s also a little bit of hang on a second. Weren’t you the guy that was supposed to get us a WR2, not wait until the last second, and then bring in a guy that they didn’t even want, meaning Mike Williams, there’s there’s a little bit of there’s a little bit of h right now from the fans.
Yeah. No, I I I when when you put all your eggs in the brain and I basket and don’t get it and like then yeah, you’re you’re going to it’s going to spur the fans the wrong way. And it should. I mean, it it was a risk. It was a home run swing for trying to really load up and have a really really great duo at wide receiver and it it didn’t pan out. Um, no GM bats a thousand, but you definitely hope that they hit a lot more than they miss. Uh, that was a miss. But man, uh, when we’re talking about the the idea that this team, which I think right now on paper is better than the team that we saw last year, if they can be even better than they were and at least give themselves an opportunity to at least win a playoff game, just to put some respect back into the or put some faith back into the fans for being like, “All right, at least they they can at least get into the playoffs and win games again and then they can go next year and go get their quarterback.” then okay, I think fans are gonna start continue to buy into what Omar’s doing. But it it’s a pretty big year. And the fact that that Art Rooney II did this before he signed TJ Watt to an extension and before he potentially drafts a franchise quarterback, I think that says a lot about how much faith he has in him. Damen says, “I love that Omar is not living in his fears about making trades and bringing people in outside the draft. It used to be limited strictly to the draft to get better and now Khan’s using every tool. Uh there’s a lot of that. There’s a lot of that. There’s been some creativity. There’s been some whatever you’d want to put this trade in. What whatever category you’d want to stick that in. I don’t know that we can have one.
Yeah.
You know, uh this is the first time. Uh well, no, we had you on during the vacation. You popped in from Texas.
Yeah. Uh, but we also haven’t really had a chance to get into much detail here. Now that you’ve had a couple of days to digest this thing
and a lot of and a lot of hours in the car and everything else, is it possible that this trade was made principally for John Smith and not for Jaylen Ramsay? Not that it matters. They’re both here. They’re both wearing uniform and whatever else here. Just for fun. Is it possible that Smith was the target? I I don’t think so. I think I think it was more about Ramsay than it was about anything else. Uh when you talk about the three players that moved, I think the the biggest target of all of them was was Ramsay. And it wasn’t about I think the the least the And what’s funny is like we’ve been getting questions I’ve been getting questions galore about make me ma this mink that. I’m like listen this trade was probably the least about getting rid of Minka.
Oh yeah. is more about acquiring Ramsay and Smith, but I do think it’s more about Ramsay. And the reason why I think that is I do think the Steelers want to get back to being more aggressive on defense. Um I not not only through what I’ve again I cannot go into detail, but through what I’ve seen during OTAAS in training camp and then
mini camp,
right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, mini camp. uh through what I’ve seen there and then also just the personnel changes. You know, the the the signing of Darius Slay to me was a was a big one because it’s like, okay, now you got two man coverage corners. You do.
And you want to be aggressive. You have to have guys who can lock it down in man coverage if you’re going to try to be more aggressive. This to me is like we’re going fullblown. We’re not leaving any holes in that secondary. And I’m sorry, Juan Thornhill as the lone weakness at defensive back is not a hole to me. It’s just not.
No. Although there it’s still possible that they could be looking at safety.
They could.
Yeah. If you look at the numbers, just simple numbers, what they had and what they have now. And anytime you start, you know, no disrespect to Miles Kilbru and everything that he is as a special teams guy and as a football player,
anytime you start bumping him up a little too high on that safety depth chart, you’re probably you see what I’m saying?
No, I know what you’re talking about.
Yeah, you’re probably going to have to
you’re probably going to have to make something happen there here. Randy Wagner says, “Chris, you said that 2025 would be a deep running back class, and we feel that Caleb Johnson is going to pay sky-high dividends for our Steelers. Omar’s Omar Khan’s patience slashthird round, you know, Randy, that’s a great example to bring up because having heard stories from others.
Mhm.
Within this within the Steelers actual orbit, okay, not reporters or whatever, but the actual Steelers people.
Yeah.
Omar was driving them nuts waiting that long for Caleb. They wanted Caleb, but they wanted him something. But just just go now. Just go get him now. Go get him now. Go get him. Omar’s like, “Nah, I have a feeling he’s still going to be there.” Remember Omar said that? Like, I think it actually I think I was the one I might have been the one who asked him. Were you?
I did. I did.
Was it you? Okay. It was was one of the two people at our table.
Yeah.
But,
um, you know, did you were you tempted or whatever? And he’s like, “Nah, nah. Everything was going to be okay.” And then he doesn’t give up an actual asset. That’s That’s a skill
unto itself. It really is for a GM.
It really Yeah. I I wholeheartedly agree because there are a lot of guys who are like, you know what, we are completely comfortable with parting with whatever this asset is so that we can make sure that we get our guy. And I I do think that there are certain circumstances that you have to do certain things. Like for example, if and when the Steelers go and get a franchise quarterback next year, you’re going to have to give up capital in order to get it.
Yep. So you have to but you have to set aside certain assets and be like we’re willing to part with these things. But if we can part with or if we can like not have to part with this asset or that asset and we can still get the guy then win-win. And with the way the draft was falling, obviously Omar with his intel and everything felt really comfortable with the fact that Caleb Johnson was going to drop all the way to 83 for them and he did. And that’s still crazy that that had to be aligning teams with running back needs. I don’t see any other way he pulled that off. You know what I mean? Like if he I don’t remember which teams were that were in that range, the seven eight, but if he’s looking at them and saying there’s no way they need a running back, no way they need a running back. No way they need a running back. That’s pretty good work.
Oh, no. It’s fantastic work. And and part of I mean he he even talked about that part of the job during the draft isn’t just doing your own homework on all these players. It’s also trying to learn what everybody else is doing and what they want to and and and know that hey, you know, if we have if at 83 we want to take a running back, but we’re only going to be willing to take Caleb Johnson or these other two running backs at 83 and we’re not comfortable taking anybody else because then it would be a reach. Then you you have your list and you have to kind of know, okay, well, what are these other teams going to do? And you know, I just through my own homework, I’m like, “All right, the Cowboys could take a guy or you know, the the the Broncos could take a guy.” And man, again, it just it all worked out. And I don’t think that’s an accident. And I really don’t. Stealer girl has a terrific question. She often does. Is this addition of these players, is it helping the team per se or is it helping the offensive coordinator? What I mean is for the players revolving around the OC and shouldn’t it be the other way around? Uh there is no doubt that some of these moves, a lot of these moves on offense have been motivated, inspired, fueled by things that Smith wants to do.
Now, is that unusual in the NFL? Heck no.
Is it vital? Is it necessary? Also, heck no. If you’re looking at, you know, do you want running backs who can handle the wide zone blocking scheme? Yes. Do you want your offensive lineman to be able to do that? Yes. Do you still have to coach to the players that you have? Also, yes. We could say all of these things, Steeler girl, about the offense that’s there right now and about the moves that have been made, especially John Smith, especially you could also include Caleb Johnson in that because of his running style. But then I can also throw it at you, Aaron Rogers. Okay. Not that Rogers won’t necessarily fit or the other way around.
Mhm.
But in that case, it is the other way around because it has to be the other way around because Rogers is the one who’s 41 41 going on 42 years old. He’s going to be the guy who comes with all of the encyclopedic knowledge and the ability to read at the line of scrimmage. Those are the assets if you’re the Steelers that you need to capitalize on having that guy with the football in his hands on every snap. Okay. So, Arthur has no choice but to to go in that direction with that call. So, maybe there’s a bit of a give and take there.
Yeah. No, I I I definitely think at least at least when it comes to the draft, and even Mike Tomlin kind of laid this out, the earlier you are in the draft, the the the lesser you worry about schematic fit or matching with a certain coordinator, whether it be on offense or defense, you’re just worried about getting skill. You’re worried about getting talent.
The f the further you get into the draft, the fifth round, sixth round, seventh round, then you start like, okay, this might be a better fit for us, and then we can try to coach up some of the other stuff. Um, but certain things, yeah, you’re not worried about schematic fit. Like for example, if the Steelers do trade up and get a quarterback next year, they aren’t going to be trading up and being like, who’s going to be the best fit in Arthur Smith’s offense? They are not going to give one flying, you know, what about what schematic fit the quarterback’s going to be. If they have an opportunity to get a very uber talented quarterback to be their quarterback of the future, they are not going to care about schematic fit. They if they can get
what’s his style? Listen, if you’re going that high,
well, first off, if you’re going that high, you’re going to be a quarterback who can do a little bit of everything. You’re not going to be super limited. I mean, otherwise, you’re not going that high, right?
Okay. So, that that’s uh that’s part of it here. William wants to know, “Hey DK, who gets to take the credit or blame for first round picks?” The only grade, that’s the only grade on Omar that I feel is incomplete. As always, credit or blame or hierarchy questions end up getting mushed into a great big ball. That’s the way the Steelers like it. That’s also reality.
I know nobody wants to hear this because everybody wants one place to say either that was this guy’s fault or that was a Tomlin pick or that was a con pick. And they’re never going to give you that. But they also don’t have that to give you. By every accounting, every accounting, they find a way to reach consensus. Maybe sometimes it won’t be the ideal consensus for one individual, but they will find a way to get on board. It’s just how they roll. Nobody wants to accept that, but it’s been going on for a long time.
Yeah. Um, it’s funny because the first thing I thought of here for a recent memory was the the the fact that it keeps getting thrown out there that Kenny Picket was a Mike Tomlin pick. You think Art Rooney the second was sitting there on the other side of the room being arms folded and everything being like, I don’t like this pick. I’m sorry. He was just as much giddy about that pick as Mike Tomlin was.
Everybody was. Everybody was. Casey Casey was.
Yeah.
And they don’t apologize for that after the fact.
Yeah. you you you can you can only live in the moment that you’re in.
You know, you can’t forecast the future. You also can’t forecast other circumstances. Who knows to what extent too that Kenny was affected by Matt Canada, the bad line, lack of everything. I’m not going to revisit Kenny now, but yeah, that that’s that’s yeah, I love this one here from Kick. He says, “The level of football intelligence is incredibly high on this team.” I want to throw in an asterisk before we comment on that. You just sent out a whole truckload of football intelligence to Miami.
Very true.
Okay. That is one of the smartest individuals. I don’t mean smartest football players. I mean one of the smartest individuals I’ve ever covered in any sport in Minka Fitzpatrick. So, however much you brought in, remember that he went out. Okay. Now, when you’re talking about football and intelligence, uh Frank says Art Rooney has of course he does. He’s the owner, but that doesn’t mean he’s sitting there stamping stuff at the end of some Dr. Seuss looking assembly line in the draft room. I mean, it’s just a, you know,
Yeah.
You know, everyone keeps fishing for this. It It just doesn’t exist. Yeah. Ma’s a genius when it comes to football. A genius. out.
Mhm.
If you’re talking about the overall football IQ when you’re bringing in a Jaylen Ramsay who’s famous for this.
Mhm. And you’re bringing in an Aaron Rogers who, you know, as Mike Tomlin likes to say, doesn’t need my uh what’s his what’s his doesn’t need my doesn’t need my endorsement.
Yeah.
Uh needs no endorsement from me. That’s his that’s his exact line. Yeah. You’re talking about what should be a pretty smart football team. You really are. Yeah, Jaylen Ramsey and I you I saw it on the tape. I just put my chalk talk up uh maybe about a half hour or so before uh we went live on here and uh it was on the tape. Uh you you could see him diagnose plays before they happened or or before anybody else noticed that they were happening even after the ball had already been snapped. Um he reacts to things very well and it’s because he he knows what he’s doing and he and he studies the other team. So he’s a very smart football player. for Aaron Rogers. Again, we’ve talked about it before. There’s nobody better than Pton Manning when it comes to diagnosing and changing things before the snap at the line of scrimmage, but Aaron Rogers is right up there with some of the best of all time to do it in terms of getting the offense into the best situation possible. Uh, nobody bats a thousand on that. But again, uh, when you talk about the ability to consistently get the to be able to read what the defense is doing, possibly change something or go to one of the built-in checks, Rogers even said sometimes sometimes there are three plays called in the huddle. He’ll make sure to get the offense at in the right play. Uh, when you have that ability, yeah, the this is going to be a smarter football team than it was last year. I definitely believe that. And that’s saying something because again to reemphasize your point, Ma Fitzpatrick was like an extension of the coaching staff on that field.
Uh he he might have been smarter than the coaching staff on the field. Just leave it there. John Glink has a terrific entry here. He says, “I asked about a week ago if it was unreasonable for the tight end room to get 1,500 receiving yards this season.” This is actually a great point to bring up because when he asked that Chris, you remember this?
He was talking about Pat Frymouth and Darnell Washington and both of us were like, he says, “Would you still say it’s unreasonable or potentially possible?” Listen, John Smith had 883 yards last year. Where was Pat? In the 700 range. 600 700 range. Something like that. six or seven. I can try to look it up real quick.
One way or another between those two figures and Darnell Washington and there will be targets to the third tight end. There will be targets to the third tight end in this offense.
Mhm.
Uh whoever that and when I say third tight end, I don’t mean third tight end on a depth chart or wherever else here. I’m talking about third tight end as far as as as a receiving option. So 1,500 out of tight end. If you don’t get a WR2, you better get 1,500 out of the tight end. How about that for an answer?
Yeah. Uh Pat had 653 last year, by the way. Okay. 653 plus 883 plus a handful for Darnell. Darnell gets a couple hundred. Mhm. Okay. Just throwing it out there. Yeah. Um, I I I’m going to say I’m definitely going to to to change and say it’s not unreasonable and say it is potentially possible. I don’t think it’s necessarily a lock either because if they do go and get
a WR2, you’re again there’s only one ball to go around. DK Medaf is going to get his targets. WR2 will get some targets. Pat Frymouth and Jonno Smith will get their fair share of targets. Also, don’t forget about the fact that Aaron Rogers is in the older stage of his career. So, his extending the play isn’t as much of him rolling out and trying to make these phenomenal plays we saw 10 years ago. Sometimes that is just checking it down and getting it to the running back. Running backs will get their fair share of targets as well, especially whenever you have Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell who can both catch the ball out of the back field. Um, I I I’m not going to say it’s a luck. I would not say go place a bet on 1,500 dollars 1,500 yards for tight ends, but is it possible now? I do think it’s possible. James Galloway, man, we’re getting some good questions today. How long do you think it’ll take for Omar’s big picture to come into view? If I had the same sense that Omar himself might for what his big picture is, I’d be better equipped to answer that. That’s not something that Omar’s ever brought up to my knowledge where he talks about.
Not specifically. No.
No. Like I’m I’m This isn’t necessarily a fair comparison because the Penguins are in a different phase, but when I think of the way that Kyle Dubis has spoken about the Penguins bigger term future and what it is that they’re aiming for, it’s really been laid out. Now, that’s necessary because the Penguins are now about to roll a bunch of children out there along with Sid and Gino and Tanganger and everybody else. But so he has to explain himself. Omar’s not Omar’s not there. And and the and the NFL and the Steelers are a little bit of a different environment, too. Omar’s big picture. What’s it look like in your head, Chris?
Uh it looks like, again, I I got it at the owner’s meetings. I really, again, it wasn’t specifically laid out where he’s saying, “This is what I’m doing.” But from the time that I was at the owner meetings,
I really got the vision for not just acquiring a bunch of draft capital, which we’ve now seen play out.
It’s about knowing how important a long-term solution is a quarterback to him. It is important to him. He is tired of one-year fixes. And I know you’re going to hear that and say, “Well, why’ they sign Aaron Rogers?” Well, because that long-term fix was not available this year. It just wasn’t. You’re not going to sign Mason Rudolph. You can bring Mason Rudolph back and have him back and be like, “Yeah, this could work out for this year or even next year, but it’s not a long-term solution right now.” Nobody else, not even Justin Fields, was going to be a long-term solution right now. Could have turned into it possibly. Maybe Aaron Rodgers, if he’s not signed, maybe we find out. But it’s really about getting to the draft and drafting your quarterback. That’s what it’s about. Um, and with the capital that’s been added and knowing how aggressive Omar has been with both free agency at times and with trades now, especially, it would not be surprising to me to see him be aggressive in the draft and go and get that quarterback that they truly believe, knowing for sure that the next time they draft a quarterback in the first round, it is not going to be a guy that they be like, hm, maybe he could develop into something. No, it’s going to be a guy that they fully believe is going to be their guy. It’s not going to be a Kenny Picket situation again. Right. Right. That’s why I learned that ahead of the draft and that’s why I knew they were not drafting Shader Sanders. Thousand%. Nobody who actually covers the team wondered that for a second. Useless knowledge says if the Steelers had a Patrick Mahomes, would they be a Super Bowl contender? I wonder what the answer to that is though if you plied it across the league. Like what percentage of the 32 teams could you say yes? Just like inst just drop parachute Mahomes onto somebody’s training camp and just say here here’s Mahomes. Go nuts. Is that half the teams in the league that just instantly become contenders? Yeah.
More than that.
Yeah. Because I mean half the teams now make the play well almost half the teams make the playoffs now. 14 to the 32 make the playoffs. And I think if you were to put any of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, or Joe Burrow onto any of those playoff teams, they are obviously a Super Bowl contender because
like I think just as a just as a a an example, totally random one, a team like the Vikings, you put a you put one of those quarterbacks, you see what I’m saying though, but they instantly just like this. Why? Because they already have a whole lot of good material. They just need to, you know,
they just don’t know what they have right now in the moment in in JJ McCarthy, but they were able to do what they did with Sam Darnold. And Richard Paris says, “With all these moves that Omar has made, we still have all that draft capital for next year. There is a plan.” Say it again, it’s nice having draft capital. Draft capital isn’t a plan unto itself. We’re talking about a plan here. We’re talking about, look, we can kid each other here, but all we’re talking about when you we’re talking about a future plan here is where are they going to get this quarterback? I mean, this isn’t everything that we just said about parachuting
Yeah. Mahomes and everything else, you know? Well, and the the other part of that is that even if this all plays out, as I’m as I’ve been describing, even if they do trade up and go get their quarterback next year, whether it be seventh overall or 10th overall, whenever it is,
there’s no guarantee the guy works out.
There’s just there’s never that guarantee. It’s not like they could draft it. I don’t care if you like Garrett Nusmire or Lenor Sers or Drew Aller or any of these guys, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to work out. You have you’ve now drafted your guy. you’re going to do everything you can to back him and to and to make sure that he you put him in the best situation possible to to so that he can succeed because if he succeeds then you have a you have a chance to win a Super Bowl for the next decade and a half probably. But man, there’s no guarantee it works out. Captain Crunch tries to give Steelers some credit for the way they’ve bounced back from the whole Kenny Picket fiasco. They have not. I’m sorry, Captain. I don’t mean to. No, they have not done that yet.
Not yet.
U when you just make a first round draft pick
vanish
and that’s all that happened with Kenny. It just vanished. It becomes a zero sum for you. And then you go before that and Naji Harris I mean I understand he had a you know he had something of a running back’s level career here. Okay. But that becomes a zero and you don’t have anything to show for that asset. It hurts you in a gradual kind of quiet way. There’s just there’s a there’s fewer and fewer assets in motion because you didn’t even turn them into anything. You didn’t turn them into other assets. And that takes a toll. It’s not something that anybody yells at the TV about on Sundays, okay? But it’s what causes what it is that’s making you yell at the TV on Sundays. Irish Steel wants to know who is this magical round QB1. We’re gonna be getting to that, huh?
Yeah. I mean, who is that guy?
It’s way too early to name a name. I mean, it just is. I mean, like I a really great example uh right before the college football season started last year, Carson Beck was one of those guys who was thought to be one of the top guys in the upcoming class. He wasn’t even in the class. He stayed. And you you I mean and now coming into this draft, the first name that’s always mentioned, and notice I didn’t name him earlier when I just listed off three guys, Arch Manning keeps being listed as the as one of the guys. This is going to be his first college season, like full full-time like where he is the full-time starter. You think he’s just going to go one and done in college? I mean, it’s possible. Sure, he wouldn’t be the first, but doesn’t mean that he he’s not a guarantee to be in the draft next year. He’s just not. Um, so it’s too early to name a name. It’s July. We’re not even at the start of the college season yet, which obviously starts before the NFL season starts. Macaroni Salad is going to be the only TJ comment that makes it onto the screen today. Just trade Watts to the Rams for their two first round picks. Lol. Never mind. Please, people, stop with the TJ trade talk. Love the show.
You know, you can do the TJ trade talk. Just do it elsewhere. Do it on on on shows or other forums where there isn’t the same, you know, awareness of what the history is of this franchise, what the history is of this particular player and this extraordinary individual. He’s going nowhere. He doesn’t want to go anywhere. The team doesn’t want to go him to go anywhere. The resolution is there. There’s no issue here. Okay? They can be, and hear me out on this one, okay? Because I’m going to use the terminology carefully. They can be far apart in what is today on the 3rd of July and it still makes no difference because you are one actual conversation away. Like they could that we could bring them here. Okay? They could sit among the bobbleheads and they could talk to each other and they could figure it all out. Oh, here’s a way that you can do this. And here’s a way that you can say that you’re paid more or less or whatever the same as Miles Garrett or whatever it is that might have your agent all hung up and you get to be a Steeler for life and we’re happy to have you and the and imagine imagine that on a week where you add Jaylen Ramsay and John Smith to your football team and not to mention trading Minka out that you would feel the need anywhere at all to discuss the single most predictable element of the entire summer, which is that TJ will stay. Yeah. So, the one thing and and I I think the time away helped helped kind of clear my head on this a little bit. Um, the one thing that I think we we all need to know or remember when it comes to football negotiations, like football contract negotiations, is that it’s not just as simple as average per year, like AAV or APY, whatever, however you want to say it. It’s not just about how much the guy gets paid every year. If that were the case, the contract would be done by now. This isn’t baseball where where contracts are fully guaranteed and just be like, “Oh, I just want to make sure I’m paid even.1 million more than the next guy.” If that were the case, it’d be done. You got you got guaranteed money to negotiate. That’s an entirely different subject, especially when you consider TJ Watt’s age. Again, does not mean that it won’t get done. It just means that the Steelers might have a certain amount of money they’re trying to only pay out in terms of guaranteed money and TJ might be like, “Listen, I want this.” I don’t think a average annual value is the problem here. Guaranteed money is the thing is most likely the sticking point right now. So, that’s something everybody needs to remember because football contracts are not fully guaranteed and that is often times the sticking point in these kind of these kind of negotiations.
We’re taking just a couple more today. I have a flight tonight. David says, “My chest hurts when I yell at the TV.” Don’t do it. Don’t make your chest hurt over sports. Don’t.
We can all take it seriously. When your chest starts hurting, don’t even joke about that. You know, we have the We have the foam lunatic bricks here. If you come into the shop, you can throw those at the TV. That way you don’t break your TV.
That way you don’t break the TV. And you know, you can keep that rotator cuff healthy, too. black and gold goggle says DK, if we can’t question the thinking or discuss TJ because it’s never going to happen, then we should never talk about Tomlin being fired because that’s never going to happen either. Okay? I mean, almost every discussion that we ever have about Tomlin being fired ends with he’s not going to. Uh when I wrote the column that I did after this past season that the Steelers need to move on, I didn’t do so with the pretense that it was going to lead into that action.
Okay. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take the stance that the Steelers wouldn’t be better off with a new head coach or moving on. Yeah. You know,
that’s Yeah. That that that’s just I mean Yeah. I I remember I remember when you wrote it and no nothing’s like oh it’s funny how that happens sometimes though that that certain things are written and it’s like you should like as if you’re writing it is going to make it happen.
Yeah, I see that. Well, it’s not going to happen. So why are you writing that? Because it’s an opinion piece and I feel that way. But okay, you know Mark Cunningham says I stole his thunder about the lunatic brick. He was going to recommend it. Yeah, I assume Mark has one. They’re useful. They’re useful. Unlike useless knowledge here says trade Tomlin to the CFL, Tomlin could pick his employer.
Yeah,
that’s one thing that the people who who have Tomlin’s back will always have right. Uh there is no shortage of teams that wouldn’t climb a mountain to have him as their head coach. You can say what you want about that, but it’s true.
It’s 1,000% true.
Yeah. Yes.
Get outside of Pittsburgh and ask people about Mike Tomlin. The the the conversation changes very very drastically. Yeah. Oh my god. As soon as you as soon as you exit city limits. That’s what I’m saying. Like it’s it’s it’s it’s
you know funny. I I I did a hit with on ESPN about
was that about a month ago and the guys who were doing the show and I apologize I don’t remember their names at the moment they were terrific these hosts
and it it was it was an all football show and they asked me about Tomlin and I about whether or not you know what his what the reaction is to him Pittsburgh and I told them I really don’t think I misprayed They were their minds were blown, man. And they took what I said and they blew it up on social media with these giant graphics and everything. And I’m like, who is this news to that he’s unpopular in Pittsburgh?
Yeah.
You know, like it’s crazy the separation. Yeah.
That exists there. I’m I’m telling you, the the
non-losing seasons, nobody nobody here mentions that like ever. No one cares about that. Yeah. Uh it’s it’s funny. It it is really because again like I remember going like every time I go to the Senior Bowl because every single time Mike Tomlin is a he gets a lot of attention because he’s always there and he’s not only just there because there are other head coaches that make it there too, but he’s always right there. This is getting as close to the action as possible before he actually put himself in harm’s way. But getting as close to the action as possible every single time and then you just you will hear because it’s all these bloggers and podcasters who people don’t actually cover teams but they get credentialed through the Senior Bowl and then they go up and they’ll just start asking the players about Mike Tomlin. I mean that’s just what they this is what they do. They just like, “Hey, how was your interaction with Mike Tomlin? I saw you say hi to him.” It’s like it’s it’s they they get giddy over him, man. It’s it’s crazy. Like
the qualifications to get a credential for the Senior Bowl is that you need to have a neck. That’s about it
pretty much. Wade says, “Have a great fourth weekend, everyone. Remember why we celebrate it. Be safe and have a great time.” And on that note, Chris is going to hang with us as we take care of some business here on Double Shot of Steelers. I’m not sure where we are in the uh the membership count, but our goal is to get to 3,000 by the time the football flies in the Meadowlands. That would be on the 7th of September. Uh it’s going to take some work, but we also have some big shows coming up, some high event shows, meaning we’re going to get we’re expecting much larger audiences, for example, when they get to Latroe. So, more of a chance of getting some new people involved
uh in that. Just as an example, right now, like we have 2,000 people watching. We have 2,000 right now. We have 24,47 memberships. So, not not everybody comes in every day to watch. Uh but you you gradually as those numbers uh as those numbers increase, ideally ideally uh you know, we’ll be able to get on more of a trajectory to get to that 3,000 goal. If you want to become a member of it’s not just this show, it’s this channel. That means Chris’s Chalk Talk. It means my daily shots. It means Matt Williamson Scouts Eye. It means the Raone Foster Show. And Ramon will be back next Wednesday. Go to dkps.net/join. And that’s a URL. You can’t just click the screen. You have to type it up into your web address field. dkps.net/join. So, I’m going to Seattle tonight. Watch a red-hot baseball team all of a sudden.
Future dynasty, baby. This is what we’re talking about here. Listen, it’s one thing to sweep the Mets. It’s another thing to sweep the Cardinals and not give up a single run to the Cardinals. It’s another thing to fly all the way out to the far side of the continent and take on a pretty good group of Mariners with the story of the year in baseball in Cal Raleigh. Obviously obviously Cal Raleigh is the story of the year. Um that’s it’s going to be interesting. It really all of a sudden even though they’re 13 games under 500, I find the Pirates to be interesting.
Well, yeah. I mean they’re playing what? They’re better better than 500 under under Don Kelly now, aren’t they?
Yes, they are two games over 500 under Don Kelly. Yeah.
Yeah. So, I mean,
how about this? Did you know that they are 19 and9 at PNC Park under Kelly? Dude, it’s it’s for the most part still haven’t been able to hit until the past week,
right? Yeah. And and that’s that’s I mean, we knew we knew that team could pitch. They just needed to hit and they still need to hit consistently. They need to do it for more than a week.
There was a group of Cardinals fans who stopped in here yesterday after the game and you know how Cardinals fans are their their lives are baseball. Okay.
Yeah.
And they’re wearing the red and whatever else.
They had nothing negative to say, including about their own team because the Cardinals had just won 10 out of 13. Mhm.
And they said that was an absolute massacre. We got beaten all three phases. No apologies, no nothing. No let down, no setback, no nothing. You watch. we’re going to go to our next opponent, meaning the Cardinals. They think they they go to New York next and we’re going to mop up with them. But that we had no chance against that because the Pirates did it on in all three phases.
Well, and that that’s the thing. And not to try to turn this into a completely Pirates, you know, thing, but I mean, shoot, they need to listen, if you’re not going to be a power team, and I remember writing this whenever they were playing the when I was covering those Rangers games. If they’re not going to be a power team, which they’re not, and they are admittedly not that. Don Kelly even said it.
No,
they they got to be a team that can just pummel you to death with singles and doubles. And
that’s what they did yesterday. Yeah.
Yeah. Steal bases and just be like, “Oh, enough already.” It’s that annoying brother that just won’t leave you alone and start jabbing you in the shoulder with the with the whatever sharp toy he’s got in his hand. It’s like, “God, just get away from me.” Like that. Like those annoying teams can do a lot of damage without Yeah. It’s just water torture. That’s what that is. We want to thank Macaroni Salad for dropping 10 gifts. We’re just going to call him Mac from now on. 10 gifts onto the process here. Michael was here with five bucks in a good question. Levi came in early to set the tone with 20 gifts.
Thank you.
Uh yeah, that’s much appreciated there. Uh Adam Reed has been a member of this channel now for two full years.
That’s awesome. Two full years as of today. Carrie always drops one and Noob lives up to Noob’s nickname, becomes a noob here.
That’s awesome.
As a as a as a member. So, yeah, I’m going to I’m going to Seattle to cover some baseball and everything else here. We will not obviously have any shows tomorrow or over the weekend and everything else. Everybody have a a wonderful and safe and healthy and everything else, Fourth of July. and Chris and I will see you again Monday. That one might be just you.
Tuesday, maybe.
We’ll see. We’ll figure it out on the flight. We have lots. It’s five and a half hour flight. We got me and the boss had time to talk about it. So, all right guys, we’ll see. We’ll see you some point or other early next week. Bye.

Might all of the Steelers’ big names have an impact all by themselves?
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