Jerome Bettis: Steelers’ run game will be ‘big part’ of 2025 offense | Dan Patrick Show | NBC Sports

Jerome Bettis: Steelers’ run game will be ‘big part’ of 2025 offense | Dan Patrick Show | NBC Sports

Jerome Bettis, the bus. He stopped by yesterday after the show. We sat down and talked to him and uh I was kind of surprised at uh his physique. He almost looked like a mini bus and I said uh he might be losing that great nickname of the bus. No, that ain’t going nowhere. That ain’t going nowhere. I still got some more. What’s your weight compared to when you when you played? Uh right now I’m still 20 pounds over when I played. Okay. Yeah. So, you’re But I had those big old shoulder pads on, so it make you It make you look like you a lot bigger than you really are. But now it’s no shoulder pads. It’s all stomach. Did you pick shoulder pads to make you look bigger? No, I needed them because I was doing a lot of a lot of heavy lifting. So, the little bitty shoulder pads didn’t work for me. I needed to have some shoulder pads that actually worked. A lot of these players nowadays, the shoulder pads don’t even work. I needed some functional shoulder pads because there were guys bigger than me trying to take me out. So, I needed some real shoulder pads. Okay. But explain to me that nobody has knee pads anymore. Small shoulder pads. You might have a mouthpiece, you might not. Like, what’s what’s going on? It’s, you know, it’s about speed now. I think that’s what everybody is trying to get as much speed as they can. So the big guys are wearing little pads and little shorter pads so that they can be quicker and faster. And then the fast guys are wearing nothing. No, no pads. No, nothing. Very They want to be as quick as they can possibly be. And but doesn’t that hurt if you hit me in the thigh? If you get if if they hit you period, you hurt. Right now, these guys are trying not to get hit at all, but if you get hit, it’s going to hurt. What’s the worst place that you got hit? Uh, I I got hit in the quad. Okay. And it split my quad and it I it split it vertically. So So the muscles kind of went that way. They didn’t It didn’t tear it. They tore apart. Wait, who hit you? Uh, it was a You know what? We were playing Jacksonville and I don’t I don’t remember who hit me. You know, it was one of those hits. It didn’t seem like much, right? you get hit and you you know you get up and and then you say oh and then the day after you’re saying uh we got a problem because this is not this not working that well and and that’s what happened. But if you could and you could run like Derek Henry or Saquon Barkley, who would you want to run like? Oh, Saquon Barkley because once he leaves he’s gone. But Dererick Henry doesn’t get caught too often. He doesn’t get caught very often, but Seaquin is gone once he he is gone. And and I what I just I just love the way he plays. I mean, Derrick Henry is a throwback. He could have played in any era, right? I mean, he’s playing in this era. He could have played any era. Uh Seaquin is just is just fun because he’s he does some things that I don’t think any other human can do at times. I mean to see that run that he had that he jumped it was just you had to rewind it because I was like are you serious? I mean I’ve seen a lot of great runs in my lifetime. But I think that was the single most most athletic run from a running back that I’ve ever seen. You know your longest run from scrimmage? Uh from scrimmage? Uh yes. It was I was it it was my rookie year I think. Um it was we played we we were playing uh New Orleans and I think it was 70 71 71 I’m cheating myself man. I can’t cheat my yard. I like how you acted like you didn’t know. I I I knew I knew I remember it but I don’t I didn’t I didn’t I thought it was 70. Uh honestly no it was to the house. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Take that. Take that. Barry Sanders. Can you explain Can you explain Barry Sanders? Let’s say nobody saw Barry Sanders and you’re going to say, “Hey, there’s this guy.” It’s one of those you say, “Well, he does he goes, he’ll stop.” I think that’s the right answer. Then and then after all of those you say it is a touchdown, it’s a touchdown. It’s a touchdown. But I can’t really tell you how he got there. He he he went one place, he transformed to another place and ended up in the end zone. I can’t tell you how he got there because people he did something special and it was special, but I don’t know what he did. Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis joining us here. Lake Tahoe. The Steelers let Naji Harris go and it always feels like that offense is predicated on having a a good running back there. Yeah, you know, they they they went away from Naji. I was a big fan of Naji Harris. I saw him develop every single year uh and was impressive. But are they going to be a passing team? No. No. They’re going to run the football. They drafted young kid uh from Iowa who’s really really good running back. Yeah, but you bring in Aaron Rogers and DK Metaf. Well, you’re still going to throw the football, but you’re still going to have to run the football. If if if you ask Aaron Rogers to throw the ball 40 times, that’s a mistake. Okay? And Aaron would tell you that’s a mistake. I don’t think he wants to throw the ball 40 times at 40 years old. Right? So, he wants a running game, too, because now if he can throw between 25 and 30 balls a game, that that’s meaningful uh touches. And so, I I just think they have got to run the football because what you don’t want to do is have him running around in the pocket at 40 40 years old uh and taking those hits. You want them to play action and and I think that’s when Aaron Rogers is at his best. play action. He’s moving. He’s getting the ball out. He’s He’s, you know, quick in the huddle, out of the huddle, running. So, I think running the ball is a big part of what they need to do. Would you rather play for Marcus Freeman or Mike Tomlin? Oh, man. That’s tough. Well, I’ll tell you this. I I would say Mike Tomlin as a as a adult, right? As a guy who’s a veteran guy. If I was a college player or a rookie first, second year, I would want to play uh for Coach Freeman 100%. Because your son is there as a freshman. He’s there as a freshman. Yeah. And and I think it’s two two totally different types uh of of coaches. One, he’s you know, he’s been there, he’s done that. He knows how to reach you. And the other guy is a young coach. He’s got energy. And you know, he’s you think he may be one of the players. He’s built something special there. He really has. And he’s tapped into the second generation of of NFL players. He has. And and and I think part of that is NFL players understand the benefit of the educational side of it and they say, “Hey, if we if I can get my son there, um that’d be a great win for me.” Now, you know, it’s a little different because, you know, the guys are transferring and moving around, but, you know, they they want to they want to try to get there because I think Coach Freeman, he resonates to those fathers of of players who played, you know, I played and, you know, a lot of other different guys, they played and so now their sons are going through it and we know the questions to ask and we know what looks genuine. And when you look at coach Freeman, you see that’s genuine. How’s your golf game? It’s, you know, it’s good until until you tee off. Until they put the lights on, until the lights come on. It’s good until they they line up all the people on the fairway and it’s like, okay. Uh, no. But it’s it’s it’s good. But more nerve-wracking playing in the Super Bowl or playing in this celebrity event? Oh, this celebrity event. Way more nerve-wracking. the the Super Bowl is is only nerve-wracking in pregame because, you know, you come out for the pregame and it’s ah, you know, it’s so much energy. It’s so much energy, right? And so, you seeing, you know, all these people and people on the sidelines, you know, celebrities and this that. So, you seeing all these people as you’re trying to warm up, you know, uh, and so people talking to you and so you don’t really get a chance to warm up the way you did, but you warm up warm up twice in the Super Bowl. You come out an hour and a half before, then you come out about 30 minutes before. So you So it’s it’s a lot different. But here, uh, you know, it’s just you and that ball. It’s like, man, you start talking to yourself. Come on, do the right thing. Go in the hole. Please go in the hole. Then you start begging, please go in the hole. Great to see you, Buzzy. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for having me. It’s always great.

NFL Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis joins Dan Patrick to discuss Aaron Rodgers’ fit with the Steelers, how Pittsburgh’s run game will look, and how certain elements of the NFL have changed since his playing days. #NBCSports #DanPatrickShow #steelers
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Jerome Bettis: Steelers’ run game will be ‘big part’ of 2025 offense | Dan Patrick Show | NBC Sports
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