DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: The draft effect

DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: The draft effect

Hey guys, happy Thursday afternoon. I’m Dan Kawachovich of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Double Shot of Steelers. It comes your way at 400 PM generally speaking, Eastern time. That’s live. It’s on our YouTube channel. It’s on our app and a website at DK Pittsburgh Sports for a short time. It’s it’s going to be like for maybe for the another month or so it’ll be on all kinds of social media platforms. That’s going to change. It’s just going to be the two. It’s just going to be YouTube and us before long. And it’s great to have you here. It’s great to be within 13 days of reporting date. Uh exactly 12 days out from the first practice. Uh, wait, did I get that backward? No, today is the exact two week mark from the first full practice on Chuck Nullfield out there in Latrobe. And we’re looking forward to that uh a lot a lot. We’re going to talk about what I consider to be the draft effect. And by the draft, I’m not referring to any draft that’s already occurred, but rather the next one. The next one, that’s what I’m looking at 2026. I’m I’m looking at what’s going on with with uh with uh Hey, somebody’s very helpful out there and friendly and loud. Um, what was that? Say hi. Oh, okay. That’s what I thought. Oh, okay. Okay, cool. I got all distracted by it here. What were we talking about? The draft, the 2026 draft. And see, that’s the thing. When we leave the place open, whatever. Anybody can just walk in and out. It’s, you know, it’s just part of the live program. Customers. She’s a customer. Yeah. Okay. Um, yeah. I just get somebody coming in and All right. So anyway, 2026 NFL draft, Omar Khan has all these picks. He did not give them up in what turned out to be a very, very, very big trade in both directions. Meaning Ma Fitzpatrick going to Miami and obviously Jaylen Ramsay and John Smith coming to Pittsburgh. One of the more common criticisms that I’ve heard, and there aren’t that many criticisms in the first place, is why’d you give up anything? Why why did you give up Minka at all? Why couldn’t you just keep Minka and hand the Dolphins a bunch of draft picks? Well, the obvious answer there is that it takes two to make a trade. And maybe the Dolphins just didn’t want picks. you know, it you can’t just tell the other team what it is that they’re going to take. And the other part is maybe he really does want to hang on to them. Maybe he really does see the 2026 draft, the one that’s right across the river, as being something of value, of something that’s uh important to the team. And and I don’t mean from the Pittsburgh sense. I mean, where the draft is, I know everybody’s going to think that it’s going to be some bigger deal for the Steelers. It’s not. It’s not. You’re looking for your future franchise quarterback. You don’t care if the draft is being conducted on the moon. You know, it’s not going to make any difference uh at all. So, we’re going to talk with with uh with Chris Hock about that when we come back. I want to get your thoughts on it as well. You know, do you feel like Omar is legitimately collecting assets? Does he is he holding on to those assets or did he just happen to stumble upon them, you know, because Dan Moore signed somewhere else? Do you see what I’m saying here? Is there is there more to that story? Uh we’ll deal with Chris when we come back. At DK Pittsburgh Sports, we take pride in coverage that connects our city’s fans to their favorite teams. Now that connection’s 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. Cat it up with our community of thousands of fans all in one place. The new app from DK Pittsburgh Sports. Coverage that connects. Wait a second. How does Brent Haynes know it’s our anniversary? How does that happen? Do you know Brent Haynes? Huh? He’s First thing comes up is happy anniversary. How would he know it’s our anniversary? Well, it’s our anniversary anyway, according to Brent Haynes. And Brent happens to be accurate. So, if he was taking a one out of 365 guess, he nailed it. Hi, Chris. Hi, Chris. How are you? Happy anniversary. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Uh he also came in and dropped five gifts on the process. We appreciate that. Uh let’s talk about draft picks here. That totally everything’s throwing me on this show. You know, first the regular customer is like a from the door and then and then Brent Haynes knows our anniversary. Brent, you’re gonna have to explain this. He says because it’s my birthday. Oh, he might remember from references in the past. I see. I see. Okay. Well, that mystery solved this live episode of Double Shot birthday. That that solved this live episode of Double Shot of Steelers. This rather chaotic episode of Double Shot of Steelers is brought to you by Dazzle Sports, a premier source for sports memorabilia. From the National Football League to Major League Baseball and everything in between. autographs, memorabilia from your favorite athletes, including jerseys, photos, game used items. You can also find cards and collectibles. Show them some love. They’re part of our family now. Get 20% off on your entire order. Use the code doubleshot. Use it as one word at checkout at www.dazzle-sports.com. Dazzle Sports isn’t just a store, it’s where sports memories come to life. Chris, you’ve been a a pretty vocal proponent of Omar Khan’s approach to holding on to draft picks to to getting the draft picks to I don’t want to call it hoarding because that sounds negative and it doesn’t have to be negative. Uh but where where is where is his mindset would you think heading into 2026? Is it I’m just going to get as many of these picks as possible and throw them all in the same basket to move up to get my, you know, superstar quarterback or what? Well, I mean, it’s definitely about just acquiring as many assets as possible. And I think, you know, a GM’s job is to not only forecast what’s going to happen after the, you know, f in the next off seasonason, but in two offseasons from now and three offseasons from now. And I think when Omar first took this job, he begins to forecast. He begins to look at, okay, this is what might happen. You know, oh, by the way, this year we have a lot of expiring contracts, and maybe it’s a circumstance where we want to resign a guy. Maybe it’s a circumstance where we don’t and we want to let somebody walk. And when Naji Harris’s 50-year option gets declined and everybody’s kind of flabbergasted about it, then you begin to look at, oh, he was just one of several free agents that ended up all just happening to leave in the same year so that they can get a whole bunch of contracts. Dude, you think a lot of this. Okay. So, so I’m not I’m not disputing it. Just I’d love to hear it. No, this is But this is why I don’t think this is just, oh, hey, we happen to stumble upon some four compensatory picks. Now, this is pretty well this is a well-conceived plan by Omar Khan. Now, the one thing that people keep pointing out and correctly so is that you can’t just trade nine draft picks to go move up in the first round because not all draft picks obviously equal the same. And if the Steelers do have the plan, and I believe they do, have the plan to move up to get a franchise quarterback, whether it’s next season or whether it’s the year after, whenever it is, they are going to have to give up a future first to do it. Or they’re going to have to be really bad. Oh, sure. Maybe they’ll maybe they’ll be really bad this year. Yeah, maybe multiples, Chris. I mean, that’s just that’s that’s life. Yeah. You know, look at what was it? Uh was it the Cleveland Jacksonville trade? Yeah. At the draft. I mean, look at the price that was paid. Yeah. You know, and you can say what you want. I mean, hey, Jacksonville got their guy. They’re thrilled. We’ve we’ve seen that. Okay. They they think, but my goodness, did they pay? They They paid and I think they overpaid. Now, the one thing that I I I would try to What’s his name? Hunter. Yeah. The new the new G Oh, Travis Hunter. Yeah, Travis Hunter. the two-way player, right? Okay. And you look at I mean, I’m going to find this price here. I’m going to read this out loud. It was multiple firsts. I know that. But and it wasn’t even just to here. Jacksonville Cleveland trade. I’m going to type in here and see what comes. I’m going to read the whole list off here. You ready? Yeah. Hey, the Jaguars moved up from number two. They moved up from number five to number two. Yes. Three spots. Three spots. Not even to the number one spot. But all but three spots are not equal in in the first round. No, no, of course not. Of course not. No, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They’re different in every every phase of every round. Okay. But this is the realm we’re talking about, Chris. You’re talking about go get your franchise quarterback. Here’s the price. Jaguars moved up to number two to to to get Travis Hunter. The Browns got, of course, the five pick. It was a swap. They also got their second round pick. That was 36 overall. their fourth round pick 126 and they got Jacksonville’s 2026 firstrounder which I’m laying odds will be a pretty good pick considering it’s the Jaguars and then the Browns swapped back a couple others to try to balance this out uh you know 2025 fourth round or a sixth round or whatever but basically what you’re talking about is two firsts. Yeah. Just to move up from five to two. Now that that’s why, okay, well, where are the Steelers going to try to trade up to? If they do, let let’s just say they are picking about the same spot that they’ve been picking. Let’s just say they go, you know, they make the playoffs and lose in the first round. Again, be part for the course, right? So, they’d be picking probably 21st, 22nd, somewhere around that spot. if they had to trade up to eighth to go get a quarterback. I mean, you could look I think what the Chiefs gave up to go get Mahomes is a little bit more realistic than what the Jaguars gave up to move to the second overall pick. Even though it was Once it happens though, once it happens, you know how that goes. It’s set there. It’s the precedent, you know. Well, look what Cleveland got. Why are we taking less? Right. Um but yeah, so for for those two first for sure, we agree on that. It’s two firsts. Well, I Well, so I’m still under the impression so if you are not trying to trade into the top five, I don’t think you necessarily have to give up two future first. You can probably give up just one. Okay. But you’d have to like again I I’ll go to the Chiefs trade when they traded from 27 to 10 to go get Mahomes. They gave up a future first and then the current third in that year. So that that was the price. Now, maybe now it’s a fir a future first and 2/3 or it’s a future first and a second and a third or whatever. I I I don’t know. But that’s why you you stack up all these picks because then if you do have to trade 2/3, well, guess what? The Steelers right now are in line to have three because they right now own two, their own and the one they got from the Cowboys in the George Pickins trade. And then they’re going to get at least one more for Dan Moore signing with the Titans. It could end up being even another third if Justin Fields plays enough snaps and plays well. It could even be another third if Russell Wilson earns all of his incentives and plays well. I’m not going to count on that stuff, but Right. Right. Right. You never know. Jack Long says, “Assuming the Steelers get their future franchise quarterback next year.” By the way, we’re not burying Will Howard here, okay? Will Howard won a national championship and let’s I mean, he’ll have his opportunities, okay? And he’ll have his chance to go and show everybody, wow, hey, maybe we have him right here. It might not happen right away. It might be next summer. It might be preseason games. Who knows? Who knows? But Jack says, “Uh, assuming the Steelers get their future guy next year, isn’t it likely that he’s not inserted as the starting quarterback and that Mason Rudolph will have to drive the bus until the franchise quarterback is ready?” Obviously, we’re getting way ahead of everything here and we’re throwing all kinds of hypotheticals into the mix. But, but it is worth underscoring here for any especially for anybody who doesn’t know that I think the Steelers could have had Mason for one year. meaning meaning as a contract. That’s not what happened. That’s not what happened. Omar went to Mason and his initial offer to Mason was for two years. Mhm. So that tells me a little bit of something about the Steelers not necessarily wanting to go through the whole changing of the entire room year after year after year. Does that make sense? Oh, 1,000%. So now you would now you would enter into a 2026 where your quarterbacks are Mason, Will Howard, another young option, and draft pick kid. Yeah. Okay. Meaning meaning next year’s draft pick kid and now you have a room that’s got somebody who knows the whole Steelers thing and everything else and who if you needed can be your starter, etc. That does that line up for you? Yeah, obviously. Yeah, because that well, first off, Will Howard will definitely be there because he’ll be on his second year of his of his rookie contract. Uh, and then, like you said, Mason Ralph was signed to a two-year deal. Aaron Rogers is only a one-year deal, and he’s already even publicly said that this very well could be his last season. Obviously, we have yet to see how the season plays out because you can say a lot of things in July and August like the Steelers were saying, like those in the front office and higher up were saying last July and August. Oh, we’re definitely going to, you know, pursue Russell Wilson to resign. And then a whole season played out and they’re like, “Yeah, never mind.” So, I don’t think it took that long. No, but a a season will change a lot uh when it comes to um how you approach next off seasonason. So, what happens in 2025 does matter, but the idea that that could be the quarterback room in 2026 is very, very plausible. Uh Chris says, “Do you think that if Will Howard impresses at training camp, meaning the one that’s coming up and the preseason games, the Steelers will still move up in next year’s draft to get a quarterback? The Steelers are going to get another young quarterback. Um Will Howard can tear apart the world in the next two months?” And they’re going to do that. Now, I I hate to keep being the one that dumps water on this, okay? because the the kid is great and the kid has the bright future in front of him and everything. But this idea that keeps getting thrown out there that he can do something in 2025 is not a sentiment that is shared by the people running the actual football team. Now, they might be right, they might be wrong, but it’s going to be their call, okay? And if they see something, they’re not going to they’re not going to allow it to play out. They’re not going to rush the kid. They’re certainly not gonna rush him when he’s a clear number three on the depth chart. So, I I’m not knocking I I was the one who brought him up today. I’m I’m not exempting Will Howard from anything. I just Everybody’s got to chill here a little bit. Yeah, there is a reason why he the one thing that we that we do see and we we talked about it recently with the way Pittsburgh views Mike Tomlin versus everybody else views Mike Tomlin. People in Pittsburgh right now are viewing Will Howard in a very favorable way. And the the league told you the league told you that Will Howard was a sixth round pick. That also means the Steelers told you that Will Howard is a sixth round pick. They could have taken him in the first or the second or the third or the fourth or the If you’re bringing up Tom Brady, you’re you’re only fortifying the point because there’s he’s one in a million. Yeah. Like Yeah. So it the only way that I think the Steelers would by next draft dedicate that type of commitment to Will Howard is if for whatever reason he ends up playing a lot of football in regular season games this year and shows something in those games. That would be the only way in my opinion. Yeah, but the these scenarios are are are pretty far-fetched. I think we can agree on that here too and we can start mentioning some of the names next year. Arch Manning isn’t going to be alone up there. Drew Aller is not going to be alone up there. There’s going to be a bunch of guys and there’s an entire college football season to be played out. I mean, there’s a long long way to go uh in terms of, you know, who takes a step forward, who takes a step back, who gets, you know, hurt. Hate to say that, but who doesn’t even come out of college next year? Arch Manning might not even come out of college. Yeah, he’ll come out of that money, man. I’m sorry. Not Not that the Manning family needs cash, but uh you know, and then Pie Guy brings up the the the scenario that what if Aaron Rogers changes his mind about retiring. I I don’t see that happening. I I don’t see I’m trying to think of examples where somebody would just state right up front, I think this is my last year, and Ben would change their mind at season’s end. Ben would don’t don’t confuse but Ben Ben would throw little hints and stuff but it Ben never meant it. I don’t think Ben meant it at the end. Ben didn’t mean it until he did that lap. Yeah. Over at the stadium. Yeah. I think that was when and even then he’s probably thinking as he’s on his way down the tunnel like I got one more in me. Yeah. Um, now I I’m trying to remember because obviously Jerome Bettis came really close to retiring after 04 and then came back for 05. And obviously, you know, we know the story, but you would know, you would remember better than I would. Was Jerome contemplating like openly and publicly contemplating retirement before 04? Okay. No, not at all. Okay. Not at all. then there that would be the only example I could possibly think of because it’s very well documented how close he came to actually retiring after the ’04 season when they went 15 and1 and lost in the AFC Championship and then he obviously came back and then I mean Hines was balling thinking that Jerome was done. Yeah, they had they had uh they had some coaxing and yeah, community bonding over it and commitment and we’re going to get this for you and then they they went and of course got it. Levi Smith drops 20 gifts on us. Appreciate that. Yeah, Levi, that’s very kind. Uh Jaymood says, “Getting five million a year to party with co-ed seems like the dream as a man in his early 20s.” Now, behave yourself over there. My my guess is that if you’re an NFL quarterback, you probably don’t struggle in that area. Probably not. Whether you’re in college or whether you’re you’re being paid a gazillion dollars, you probably do okay. Um, in in terms of your social life, Damen says if Slash was coming out of college now, he’d be a number one overall pick. Cordell Stewart could do oh, check the boxes. I mean, he he did I mean, he he could do anything and he had the the arm that could, you know, he could throw the ball pretty much the length of the football field. It was insane. Cordell could do anything. Cordell, and he’ll be the first one to tell you this, was just born at the wrong time, man. Yeah, he just he came into the league at the wrong time. Uh he is a 2025 quarterback. Uh very much so. Way ahead of his time, says says Mr. Mr. Wanderer there. Uh Michael Barnett says DK, I think you’re going to be proved wrong with Arch. I didn’t make a prediction. The Mannings want him to be a three-year starter before the NFL. Yeah, the Mannings want I mean this isn’t leave it to Beaver. I mean, not going to tell him, you know, you know, hey, beef, you need to behave. And this is Come on. You know, these are these are grown-ups. Yeah. You know, it’s going to it’s going to be his call. Yeah. And try like we we can try to go back to when Payton and Eli both came out on their own, but it was a completely different time. The NIL has changed so much about uh college sports and and I mean there are so now first round picks or potential first overall picks are a little bit different from this, but there are so many players coming out of college that or could come out of college that will make more money if they stay in college than if they go to the NFL. Oh jeez. And so because of because of entry level. Yeah. Yeah. So like that hasn’t now again for somebody like Arch Manning, but if Arch Manning doesn’t have the season that he wants to have at Texas, he may want to stay and improve his draft stock so he can be a first overall. Well, okay. But going to the NFL, if even if you’re just serving as a backup or you’re, you know, I mean, look, if you’re if you’re a one or a two overall, you’re going to play. Yeah. All right. They’re they’re not gonna they’re not going to be sitting you. Okay. That’s just weird. right? You get a head start on your NFL career. There’s a value unto that itself. Okay? You’re only going to be an NFL rookie once. If you’re going to be that in 2026 or 2027, you might as well get started earlier to have a better NFL career because news for you, your NFL career isn’t going to last forever. It’s still a finite window. Yeah. So, I I again I’ll I have a really hard time believing that anybody would hang around and, you know, beat up on a bunch of college teams over getting to the NFL. Uh maybe that’s just maybe that’s just me here. Uh Damon King drops uh five gifts on us uh as well. Captain Crunch wants to know if Chris has gotten to play college football 26 yet. Is that what EA’s calling the video game? Yeah, it’s not called NCAA anymore, but I have. It it is like they dropped NCAA. It’s not bad, huh? No. Well, no. So, it came back like the only way it comes back is if they have the licensing for all the stuff and player likeness. Like players are getting now like their likeness is in the game now because it used to not be like way back in the day the video games. It used to be QB QB what what number was Tim Tibo for Florida? Whatever number he was, it was QB number whatever it was and then or 15 QB 15 for Florida. and there were no names. Well, now it’s players names, their likeness, everything like that is in the games and they’re getting paid for it. Um, but last year’s game was the first game in like over a decade. It was phenomenal. Probably the best uh video game that EA came has come out with in probably in over a decade. And this year’s game so far, I’ve only got to play a little bit. I’ve been busy trying to get ready for training camp and this upcoming weekend where I’m come covering the All-Star week, but so far it’s very, very good. I love it. CJ Nielson says, “Isn’t it possible for a comp picks, the comp picks that are coming for uh Russell Wilson and Justin Fields to move up to earlier rounds depending on incentive pay and stuff this season?” Yes. The answer to that is yes. So the the Steelers stockpile of drafts can become that much more explosive over time and you should other than when the Steelers are facing either of those quarterbacks hope that they do really well. Yeah. That’s just how that goes. Yeah. So the the compensatory formula is very convoluted and like there are few who really really understand it. But the the big things that play a that factor into what round those ends up end up being are salary, uh playing time, like so like number of snaps, performance, uh playoffs, awards, like so many different things. So, yes, the better that Justin Fields and Russell Wilson do for their respective teams, meaning that they hit all like the most amount of salary they possibly can, the most amount of snaps they could possibly play, and if they perform well, those could be even better picks than what they are now, which right now, I think Fields is projected to be a fourth and Russell Wilson’s projected to be a fifth according to overthecap.com. So, we’ll see. Obviously, those aren’t handed out until next March, I don’t think, but uh it does depend on how they perform in the season. Brian George asks, “The most memorable training camp moment that I can recall, unfortunately, this one’s a little bit too easy, and it has very little to do with football.” Um, but on the field, if you’re referring to the Steelers and not anything having to do with me, because I have a separate one for myself. uh on the field. It was when the Steelers were going through a big stretch right there on Chuck Null Field and there’s the usual 4,000 5,000 people in the seats and there’s a group of really really young people standing with us on the sideline and I didn’t recognize them but I was told where they were from. They were from Pro Football Focus which was at the time a fledgling operation. Okay. And they were not very popular with the athletes. Okay. Because their grading system then as now has major flaws and not to mention a major major major uh pro- Ohio bias for I guess because that’s where Chris Collins I I don’t know. Okay. And one gentleman stood up in the middle of that field. Stood up and said in the direction of those children, “Y’all grading system sucks.” And the players roared. And the person who was the one who stood up in the pasture like a scarecrow there to terrorize those children was none other than I don’t know. This was this was not I don’t know. Somebody’s got to guess it. I don’t know this story. Somebody’s got to guess it. Paulie wins. It was funny. Yo, rating systems suck. It was remote. Does you remember it? That’s awesome. You can’t beat You cannot beat the big Ragu in a team setting. Unbelievable stuff there. That That That’s He had a He had another one too when uh when Cam Hayward got his not the most recent extension, but the one before that. Uhhuh. And he just yelled out. He did it again. He stood up during stretches. He’s him and Mike Tomlin are the only two vertical people in the entire setting. And he yells out because there were the it was kind of like the you know the elephant in the room. Nobody was really talking about it. You know, Cam got all this money and everything and it and we’re all acting like it’s not a big deal and leave it to 73 to stand up and yell out Cam got paid nuts. That’s awesome. Oh, there’s there’s only one of that guy. You can never Oh, yeah. Paulie remembers this one, too. That’s good stuff. Here, uh, Captain Crunch wants to know, did Jerome Bettis once drive a bus onto the field or something like that, or was it what? Can’t drive a bus onto the field. I mean, it’s it’s a field. You kind of need the field, you know. The last thing you’re going to be doing is uh is getting on uh is just putting tire tracks on it here. Uh I have I have a couple starred here that I thought were pretty good here. I’m going to see if I can find them here. Uh this is a comic book question. Uh Damon King drops five bucks and says uh DK, where does Guy Gardner rank on your list? He’s a he’s a third string alternate Green Lantern. I have nothing to do with anything to do with this Superman movie because the director has cast the real Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, as some 60-year-old dude on another TV show. It’s a long and troublesome story. And I I’ll leave it right there. I want nothing to do with this film. I I really don’t. And for that matter, I’m looking at these commercials. Are you excited about this, Chris? I don’t know. Do you like them? No. No. the the the last Superman movie I was even a little bit excited about was when Man of Steel was coming out and that was only be and that was only because um I I think wasn’t um wasn’t Christopher Nolan like not obviously he didn’t direct it but wasn’t he at least a producer on it or something on Man of Steel Zack Snder? Well, I know Zack Snder directed it. Oh, I don’t know if Nolan had anything to do with it. I I really I’m more into the comics than I am the movies about the comics. I know that’s a backward thing for most. Uh but you know, I I I wish all the bad things upon this director for casting a 60-year-old uh as as Hal Jordan because that just means they’re going to either kill him off or turn him into some secondary role. And those of us who are fans of the character are tired of that. I’ve actually never asked you well like what was your reaction when the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie was coming out? Well, the funny thing about that movie is it’s gotten a a bad obviously a really bad rap in in hindsight. Yeah. But they these idiots a year later they issued a director’s cut of this film. True story. And you know how usually the director’s cuts just a bunch of extraneous stuff that really doesn’t add anything, you know? Yeah. Yeah. like some silly scenes or whatever. These these dopes with the original version of this film, the one that went out to the theaters, they cut out a scene that literally explained the whole movie. Like, it’s like it’s like doing Gandhi and taking out the scene where Gandhi gets shot. Like, you don’t know what it’s about. I have not seen the director’s cut of the Green Lantern movie. So, it’s so if you if you had seen the movie with that scene, it wouldn’t have gotten the reviews that it did. But anyway, that movie ended up hurting the entire thing, including the charact the comic book character and everything else here. Nah, let’s stay on football here. The director’s cut, David Harrison says, was 100. Yeah, because it made sense now because I like Ryan Reynolds. I I like I like so much of the stuff he’s in and I thought that he would make a good Al Jordan, but I mean he he did fine his she’s his wife in real life, right? Blake Lively. I thought she was terrific. Carol, they had a brilliant Sinestro with Mark Strong. Um they had some of the CGI was crap, but then we can say that about every movie. Everybody complains about CGI, don’t they? Yeah. Oh, looks like Marvel. Here, we’ll we’re going to close this particular subject with this. The animated show is the best rendition of Green Lantern you will ever see. And it’s also the best animated superhero series that’s ever been made. I keep it in my phone all 26 episodes. It didn’t get a second season and watch it nonstop. Uh absolute masterpiece. Craig wants none of this conversation. Look at Craig. Please stay on football. This is costing me a lot of money, says Craig. Good stuff. Um, okay. No, no. See, I’m trying to get to football here and and and everybody’s like, you know, no. And then they’re like, Frank, shut up. Let him talk. Pie guy asks if we would give Chase Clayool another shot at wide receiver if you were the Steelers. Clayool fits the profile of the wide receiver. He is that type of wide receiver. He is that outside guy, he is No. Okay. No. No. If you think that he’s all of a sudden gonna just grow up, that’s not how this stuff happens. Uh there are very very few examples of that, Chris. Yeah. No. I I I am not only do I not think that that’s a good idea, I don’t think that’s on the Steelers radar at all. We’ve actually been seeing like there have been opportunities for the Steelers to bring back guys and they haven’t and they’re typically guys well and if usually if those guys have been any kind of problem it’s been no interest like when Deontay Johnson was becoming a free agent there was some well maybe if he goes back to the Steelers maybe he’ll kind of have this course correction and Steelers were never interested they never made him an offer never did anything um Yeah. I’m No, I I don’t No. No. And And again, to to Chris’s point, if you think about, you know, who’s been available, and one of the guys that we talk about, Chris and I, on a regular basis, is the type of receiver you’d love to see them get is a Deontay Johnson type. Well, guess what? The genuine article was out there. And the genuine article is now stuck on the Cleveland depth chart with no quarterbacks. Yeah. So, what are you talking about? They got like 18 of them. That’s true. I take that back. They certainly have quantity. Uh when you when you look at uh the need that the Steelers have and then you look at some of the players that do exist out there, they’re not bringing them back. And that’s that’s not an accident, you know. So, no, I I believe that the answer would be no on on Clayool. Uh, Cody says, “Not bashing Ma, but someone posted his film of the last two years, which is obviously available to anybody. It was like he was in the wrong place all the time. It’s like his instincts were off.” You know what? You can Chris, you you do this in part for a living. You if you want to make somebody look bad in film, you can do that. If you want to make somebody look good in film, okay? The only way to avoid that is to do kind of like this ongoing series that Chris has now of Aaron Rogers where you say, “You know what? Listen, I’m just doing all 17 games and you make up your mind.” Yeah. Okay. But otherwise, it’s it’s a sampling. You know, I was just doing this myself with the Penguins most recent NHL draft uh class, specifically their number one pick, Ben Kindle. And I’m breaking down I’m breaking down his video, but I’m doing it off of highlights. Okay. As opposed to, you know, raw footage. I’m doing it off of highlights. Well, what’s what’s gonna be on his highlights? A lot of the highlights, not the low lightss. I mean, I can make a Nolachari highlight film. No, I can’t. I can make Nola look like, you know, like he’s Mike Bossy. Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah. No, the the one thing and I always try to be as transparent as possible whenever I do uh the chalk talk videos and that is whether I’m doing this Aaron Rogers series or any other one, I always try to say, listen, if there’s a play where I can see what the concept is or what the entire play is, I can say how I know that’s normally taught. That doesn’t mean that’s how the Jets taught it with Aaron Rogers or that’s how the Steelers te it. Because if I didn’t have a player or a coach tell me exactly how it’s done, anything at that point is an assumption. Well, normally this play is this guy’s the first read, this guy’s the second read. Okay. Well, normally, but that might not be how that particular team is teaching it. Or on the defensive side, you might be like, well, this safety normally has this zone on this cover. You don’t know that for sure. You don’t know what the responsibilities are without actually talking to the people. So, you can assume and you should put that out there that you are assuming. Um, but then you can put stuff together and be like, “Yeah, Ma, his instincts were all off.” And for somebody who covered the team last year, watched all the film, watched all the games, talked with the players, instincts weren’t an issue with Ma Fitzpatrick. There were some other issues. Instinct? Are you kidding? Yeah. Yeah. Ma uh Williams says, “Did uh did the Steelers ever try to bring back Juju Smith Schustster?” They did not, but I wouldn’t confuse that with any perceived character flaws. I mean, Juju’s a he a terrific kid. He works his rear end off. There’s nothing nothing wrong with him except that he has an awful lot of emphasis in his life on social media, which isn’t exactly a problem uh for anybody of a certain age. So, no, but they didn’t. And the reason for that is I would strongly suspect and as I I reported exclusively at the time, Juju was getting his knee drained every Friday. Yeah. Or every game. And no. Yeah, you know, you find that out and then you understand why he lost that extra explosive step that he had, you know, when he was a rookie. Michael Vidy comes in with a terrific question. Says, DK, if we found a way to get John Smith and Jaylen Ramsay without getting rid of Minka Fitzpatrick and keeping George Pickkins, oh, dude, I think we’d be automatic Super Bowl contenders. I’m going to take I’m going to take the uh excuse me the the George portion of this and just say that it cannot be overstated the same way that Chris was describing how video games have changed earlier where instead of just being QB15 it actually becomes a person. Okay, Tim Tibo or whatever it else you want to say about him uh if you go back to his college time he’s a winner. He did exactly what was necessary to win. It’s what made him and the whole legend that he became at that time. Well, they didn’t then and they probably don’t have now a sufficient grading system for that in the video games. George is not a winner. Understand this. George is thinking about one thing and one person when he’s on that field. And it’s it’s it’s better to have him gone, but don’t take that from either of us. Take that from the rest of the team that didn’t want him around. So, no, he does not help you win that. I’m going to throw this to you, Chris. Yeah. As it relates to Minka, we don’t need to keep staying on the MA defense here as if he’s on trial or whatever because it’s crazy to be doing that. He didn’t have interceptions. He wasn’t as quick as he’d been whatever else here. Okay. He’s still make a Why is Justin Simmons still available? Um, well, I mean, just from the little bit of homework I’ve done, um, a lot of the peripheral stats and then we’ve talked about PFF grades, but everything across the board, I won’t say everything, but a lot of the stuff across the board went in the wrong direction last year. But usually the general rule of thumb without even having to do homework is if a guy is a free agent in July, there’s usually a reason why. That means all 32 teams have said no so far to a formerly the spectacular player, right? So, it doesn’t mean that he can’t possibly be a contributing player, but there’s obviously a reason. If he were a true commodity in the league, even just a little bit, he wouldn’t be a free agent right now on July 10th, he just he just wouldn’t he would be on a he would be on a roster with a playbook in his hand and getting ready to go to training camp in a couple weeks. Yeah, it’s it’s suspicious that he’s still out there. And then it’s even more suspicious when you see something as I did earlier in the week from an actual reporter. By the way, that painted this picture as if Simmons is the one taking his time fielding multiple offers. That’s the kind of thing that an agent puts out there whenever whenever he’s not getting any. You make it sound like you’re missing some really hot deal at the supermarket when in fact nobody’s shopping there. Yeah. Uh very very different. Uh Danny H says, “DK Chris, did Mike Tomlin diminish the free safety positions impact or is the question of the day or is the free safety position just not as impactful as it used to be in the modern NFL?” I don’t think it’s as impactful as it used to be. Uh and again with a lot of defenses not just at the NFL level but even going down to the college level are running more coverages that used to not be ran such as cover four which is again a zone coverage with man principles which puts a lot on you’d rather have three corners out there with one safety than two corners and two safeties you know and that’s why you have a lot I mean I I I put in the in the Steelers feed on our website on dk pittsports.com. The overall nickel usage in the league and there’s a reason why there are some teams who are in the nickel 80% of the time or 75% of the time. That’s because they are running typically more coverages that require more cornerbacks. So, there is a much higher emphasis on corner than there is on safety right now. David uh does some of the agents work for him here and says Simmons said he wants to be on a contender. He’s holding out for the right team. He’s holding out on the 10th. The same thing happened. So like not the I don’t remember when he signed last year but it was also later and he ended up signing with Atlanta. Do we Okay, like even when he signed with Atlanta, and I was pretty high on Atlanta last year, but Atlanta to me was like I I was even saying I thought they were going to go like 10 and seven and make the playoffs, but it wasn’t going to be anything more than that. I didn’t say, “Oh, NFC Championship or Super Bowl or anything like that. I thought they could have been a playoff team. I thought they could have won their division.” Um, they weren’t even whenever he signed. So, I I don’t know if I buy that. Mike says, “Uh, DK and Chris, who are the Kings of the North right now?” The team that all others are measured by, it depends on if you’re asking on an official or an unofficial basis. On the official basis, of course, it’s the Ravens. On the unofficial basis, of course, it’s the Ravens. I mean, I mean, what are we talking about here? Yeah. I’m not just saying that because they they want I mean, look at look at what they’ve got. Look at the draft that they just had. Yeah. Look at the class of people that they have as the as the cumulative centerpiece of their offense and look at what those individuals just did to your team. Okay? Because it wasn’t just Lamar Jackson, it wasn’t just Derrick Henry, it was I say likely, it was Mark Andrews, it was all these guys. They they just did damage and the Steelers did not have an answer for it. when last they met. Yeah. Yeah. No, the Ravens are absolutely the class of the division right now. They are a very very well-run uh organization when it comes to building a football team. It helps a lot when you have a franchise quarterback. Not denying that at all. Um but also good on them for developing Lamar Jackson because he was not a finished product coming out of Louisville. So, um yeah. No, that that is and I don’t mean to leave out their defensive guys in particular, Rocoan. I mean, they’ve got players, okay? They’ve got players all over the place. Yep. And it’s not just our view that the Ravens had a good draft. That’s a pretty much universally accepted thing. Uh they went and they got a lot of stuff done. They really did. They do. And it’s going to be a challenge. Now, that said, they’re going to they’re going to meet twice this fall. The Steelers are going to win one of those games and the Ravens are going to win one of those games. They’ll both be decided by three points. The only difference in in anything really is that Justin Tucker won’t be around anymore to participate in those endings. Yeah. No, that is not how I meant that to come out. Oh jeez. Oh, I’m just gonna shift from that really quick, but I was just gonna say like listen, the Steelers and Ravens, like what’s the major difference between them right now? Because both organizations have players, both franchises have players. Um, the Ravens are stronger at certain positions, the Steelers are stronger at at other positions. The biggest difference between the two is that the Ravens have a franchise quarterback and the Steelers don’t. So if you were to put you in and your Lamarness, it’s just it’s just the truth. It’s the truth. He is a franchise quarterback. He’s one of the He is He is He is Oh, no. Here they come. You need to massage your ego after that one. You can’t give me credit. Like there’s people, “Oh, that was funny, DK.” No, if if I said it by accident, it can’t be funny, right? I guess it can. Oh, no. It can absolutely be funny. I just can’t take credit for it. You can take credit for it. It’s just a happy accident. Oh geez. Oh. Oh, it was a h. It was happy, right? I see where you’re going. See, that one was on purpose. Okay, I see what you’re doing here. You know, we’re gonna we’re going to take uh just a couple more here. And by the way, Tim sounds like he has a radio background. He says, “To clarify, the dump button is the button in the radio studio that kills the last 30 seconds before it goes live.” We don’t have one of those. No, I shouldn’t tell you that. Um, yeah, that Freudian slip, too. Uh, come on. Give me one one more good question. Good football question here. You see one, Chris? Anywhere? Oh, man. I’m too busy trying to All right, since nobody’s doing a football one, we’re gonna end with Levi coming in with another $20 contribution as it relates to the Superman movie and comics. He says, “I’m with you on DC, DK.” That goes back to early childhood. I mean, I was single digits when I started with DC. Uh, I’ve been a fan ever since the death of Superman Saga in the early 90s. Not to brag, but I have a very nice collection of Green Lantern comics. I’m working on the first series. Now, Levi, you’d have to clarify what you mean by the first series. The first series was back in the 1940s, meaning meaning the original Green Lantern. Alan Scott. I have every Green Lantern from August 1958 on and almost all of his appearances. The only ones that I’m missing, meaning the real Green Lantern, Hell Jordan. The only ones that I’m missing are in the Silver Age Justice League period. And they’re expensive. It’s going to cost about 10 grand to to finish those off. You collect something, Chris? Uh, actually, no. I don’t really collect. I really don’t. I just never got I never asked you that. Yeah. I never got into collecting. I I I think for a little while as a kid I collected baseball cards, but that didn’t go very far. Um, no, I don’t really collect. It’s funny. There is such a thing they refer to it as the collector’s mentality. It’s a really like she’s not a collector of anything at all here. And she wonders like why why do you why do you really really need that? Like you talk about it as if you need it. Like you don’t understand. I’ve got issues one through nine, but I’m missing seven and my life is incomplete. Okay. Life. Yeah. And it’s all I can think about. Yeah. So, it it’s Yeah. We appreciate you, Levi. We appreciate all you guys. When we come back, we’re going to take care of a little business. A little business here on the Double Shot of Steelers. You know, a lot of people here are bringing up like, “Why don’t you do like an all comic book show or something like that?” First of all, I don’t think anybody would want that. At least very few. It’s just you end up being vocal. But then somebody else mentioned, “Why don’t you make it members only?” Yeah, we’re talking here. Even if you need to pay them to watch it, not the other. I’m not paying them to watch it. Yeah, I think that’s what happened. Listen to the cynic here. She’s been she’s been married to me now as of today 29 years and still just totally begrudges the comic book thing. And the main reason for that is they take up a lot of space. Have you ever moved an entire collection of comics? Lots of white boxes housing lots of miler covers and lots of plain white backing boards. Baby, how many comics is it? Do you know? No, because I it’s not important to me. I I ended up streamlining the volume just to focus on the Hal Jordan appearances. So, I even like books that I’ve read, Superman, Batman, stuff like that from the past. Flash, uh Wonder Woman, I would just move on from, okay? You know, and trade them in for something that I needed toward my my specific collection, which is Howal Jordan appearances. Damon King came in with five gifts today. We appreciate that. Uh Brent came in and wished us a happy anniversary today. It is number 29 for us. And yes. Yeah. I She was pretty young if that’s what you’re wondering. For her to be having a 29th anniversary. Um she was she was pretty young. How old were you when when we married? You were 21. Yeah. I was pretty young. My my wife and I my wife and I’s anniversary actually even though you were a month away. 20 days. 20 days would be my wife and I’s anniversary. Is that right? So right during training camp. Wow. That Yeah. We didn’t do that on on I did definitely did not get married. I didn’t have that in mind. Yeah. No, did not. We were also the dumb ones. We were also the dumb ones that got married in in on July 30th in Texas. Yeah. Uh yeah. For next year’s anniversary, we’re talking about how we might go back to uh to Romania and Serbia. Romania was where I I found her. Oh my god. Don’t put it like that. I just did, didn’t I? Ordered ordered to be bride. Seriously, I still control the buttons here. I can turn you off anytime. She can also put like horns on my head here or things like that. Here, Tim came in as a new member. CJ uh dropped $5 on us here. Thomas came in with one. Levi uh did a a 20 early on and then a 20 late because he just could not resist the comic book conversation that we were having. And we’ll we’ll talk about having a a non-sports member show someday. Just kind of, you know, separate these things uh for everybody else. Fishing for trout I missed early on. Uh came in with five gifts. Been with us forever. great friend uh to this channel. Uh Cody with one, Carrie always with one. Uh Cody just kept commenting. He was like, “Oh man, I just got to keep doing this.” And uh the last word for the day comes from DV who says, “Is Cam’s number 97 an instant nonreissue after he retires?” I would say yes. It’s tough to give out 97. I would think so. Um I tried to think of some other like great, but I mean James Harrison’s 92 has been given out. It has, but James isn’t. No. With all due respect, no. Um I would think no, it would not be reissued. I would think he’d be closer to the other numbers that are not reissued as well. Um so, but then we say that and and he gave out Maris’s number to Kendrick Green as soon as Green showed up at the door. So, I don’t know what else to say about that one. And and Heath and and Heath Miller’s 83 has been going on, too. So yeah, I think there’s there’s there’s bigger names than those who who who’ve had reissued. I mean, you’re talking about Swan and Stalworth, you know, both of whom I mean, those are the those are to me are much bigger than than Debo and and Heath and so forth for that. I kind of understood those being being those consistently being given out after they left because um for the longest time receivers were not allowed to wear anything other than 89. Yeah. So that’s like 10 numbers and then you’re also sharing those with the tight ends. So it’s hard to do that. But then whenever receivers were allowed to start wearing 10 to 19 and now that receivers can wear any number, I would probably think twice about giving out 82 and 88. Well, obviously what’s John Smith’s number? Well, he was nine with the Dolphins. That’s why I’m asking because you’re going to have this enormous human wearing nine at tight end and you’re going to have this enormous human wearing four. Uh, well, wide receiver. No, Chris Boswell is wearing nine and that’s one thing thing for a punter to give away a number. It’s another thing for Oh, it’s another thing for Bos. Yeah. The first team all pro kicker. And Bos is very much the type where he’d he’d want to either negotiate on it or say uhuh. I don’t. It’s a strong willed strong willed young man. Yeah. So, I I don’t know. I I don’t think Johnny is getting nine. I I I don’t Wow. I have to look and see what he wore at other what other stops, but I don’t think he’s wearing nine. Good stuff. We can talk about more of this tomorrow if you guys want to. We’ll be back tomorrow with a weekending show here. See you all then.

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Can’t help but try to connect the Steelers’ 2025 season and the NFL Draft

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