Super Bowl REALISTIC for the new-look Steelers? 🤔 ‘PEOPLE WILL QUESTION’ – Stephen A. | First Take

Super Bowl REALISTIC for the new-look Steelers? 🤔 ‘PEOPLE WILL QUESTION’ – Stephen A. | First Take

I’m gonna make it a personal mission on this show to stop allowing people to conflate stuff and and and convolute issues and confuse it. Nobody’s disrespected Mike Tomlin as a coach. Nobody’s disrespected him as a man. To know anything about him is not only to respect him, it’s damn near to rever him. Mike Tomlin is celebrated. And how do we know this? Because people it it’s it’s grading Chev. It’s grading RC. It hurts to have to be critical of somebody that you believe in so much that you know is great on so many levels in terms of motivation, in terms of just upliftment, in terms of so many different things that contribute not just to the football player, but the man we revered this man. What we’re seeing is the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t won a haven’t won a playoff game since 2016. Forget the fact that they haven’t won a Super Bowl since 2008. forget the fact that they lost in the Super Bowl in 2010. That stuff happens. But when you are tied with the 49ers for having the most Super Bowl championships of any NFL franchise in history and on your docket is that you haven’t won a playoff game since 2006 16, I’m sorry. That is not disrespectful. That’s just stating facts. I think that they’re going to have a successful season. I believe in Aaron Rogers still. I damn sure believe in Mike T. I think this is the first time in five or six years the man has actually had a quarterback. Okay, because I still believe in Aaron Rogers. But it doesn’t negate the fact that I’m going to sit here if they go through another season and they don’t make and they don’t win a playoff game. I’m going to sit up here and ask a very uncomfortable question. And that uncomfortable question is, no matter what we believe and feel genuinely from our hearts about Mike Tomlin, is another coach who hasn’t won a playoff game in a decade still at that same job. We’re going to ask that question. Well, there’s also but there’s also not going to be a coach who’s never had a a losing record in that time either, right? Like we in uncharted territory with Mike Tomlin, a coach that’s entering his 19th season. A coach that’s never had a losing season. So, it’s not about can you prepare. It’s not about can you motivate. It’s not about can you get this team ready? Can you get them to believe it’s going to be about how you execute? And I’m going to make a guarantee here today. If Aaron Rodgers is healthy this season, if Aaron Rogers is the quarterback headed into the playoffs this season for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to win a playoff game. There’s a difference between what we’re hearing from Aaron Rogers and both Mike Tomlin than anything we’ve heard from them before. There’s a certainty in their tone, right? There’s an understanding. There’s a level of respect that says, “I not only believe in me, but I believe in him that makes us believe in us.” And the thing that this year is about, it’s about testing what general manager Omar Khan has done around the quarterback position. Have we made this team good enough around the quarterback position where number eight can just do what number eight needs to do in important moments of the games and get us wins? That’s what this T season is about. We don’t need to see Aaron Rodgers that won MVPs. We need to see the Aaron Rodgers that in the time where you need to be stand up, where you need to be a dude that’s experienced this, where you need to be a guy that’s been there and done that. And in my estimation, the best thrower of a football that has ever lived. Can you still do that? And I believe he can. And if Aaron Rogers does, this team wins a playoff game this year. This season has been about the Pittsburgh Steelers doing unsteeler-like things. There’s never been an off season like the one in which the Pittsburgh Steelers have where they went out and got a decorated quarterback, a decorated wide receiver, added to their running back room in the draft, added another tight end. There’s never been a team that’s been that active in Pittsburgh with all these trades. And that stems from the fact that the Steelers had lost their last six playoff games. and Stephen A. You can be a great coach in this league. And nobody is disputing that Mike Tomlin isn’t a great coach. He is, but you can be a great coach and you have to have a great quarterback to win consistently or you’re not going to. Just look at Andy Reid in Philadelphia. He was a great coach. It had gotten stale. They fired him. He went to Kansas City, got a great quarterback. Now Andy Reid is regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time. Yep. John Harbaugh, Shawn McDermott, great coaches with great quarterbacks, have a chance every year. Mike Tomlin hasn’t had that since Ben Rothosberger has been there. Now they’re getting a guy who’s 41 who turns 42 this year. The history of quarterbacks in their 40s who have performed and performed well is not all that great. There’s been Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Warren Moon, and now Aaron Rogers. Tom Brady is the only one who’s won a playoff game at 42 or above. So now the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers are trying to do something that has not been all that common in the past. But they knew they had to try something different because what they were doing wasn’t working. The other thing is too though, Stephen, you heard those names that Adam mentioned, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Warren Moon. If you add Aaron Rogers names to that list, it fits. It’s not like saying Aaron Rogers is a quarterback who’s out of the realm of talent, experience, and accomplishment of those guys. Well, was 28 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and nearly 4,000 yards passes last year. So, that speaks for itself because that was termed to be a bad year for Aaron Rogers. That just speaks to his level of greatness and expectations that have been heaped on his shoulders. Number two, I I I said the Steelers and and the 49ers. I meant the Steelers and the Patriots. I know 49ers have five, Patriots have six Super Bowls. So, the Steelers and the Patriots. But the thing that I want to close by saying is this, RC, listen. To be in a room and you know this man, he’s a personal friend of yours. Mike T is a special special man and a special special coach. I don’t ever want to see him gone from Pittsburgh. Let’s be very very clear about that. But when we’re talking about winning, you know what we have to take into consideration? What we say about everybody who ain’t Mike Tomlin. M if this is another coach at another franchise and you haven’t won a playoff game since 2016 and you’ve lost your last six playoff games, you’re going to at least say, “Yo, what’s up?” Now, it doesn’t mean you showing him the pink slip because obviously it’s going to be hard to get somebody better, but the competition is competition. He even said the standard is the standard. It doesn’t change. And when you haven’t met the standard, people do have I don’t want to see him gone, but that doesn’t mean that a Pittsburgh Steeler fan doesn’t have the right to say, “Yo, what’s up?” And when Aaron Rogers, who just got there, you know, who’s a puppy as a Steeler, as old as he is, he’s a puppy as a Steeler. You just got there and you’re talking about disrespect. It’s not disrespectful to say, “Yo, we’re the Steelers and we can’t even win a playoff game in the last decade.” When you look at his poise, his accuracy, the dual threat that he is in terms of his mobility, the fact that they’ve now acquired Debo Samuels, obviously they’ve improved the offensive line as well. You got to make sure you get McLuren re, you know, re-uped and make sure he’s he’s there for you. All of those things taken into consideration along with the profile that he’s going to bring himself because he’s in an NFC division with the Dallas Cowboys and also with the reigning defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. the spotlight is going to be on him and if he performs obviously that’s going to curry favor which is going to curry votes which would put him in a position to challenge for a league MVP award RC yeah I mean think about this right when when Kanye West dropped college dropout we couldn’t wait for late registration and it ended up being a better album right that’s what we have to expect from Jaden Daniels and yes the expectations are difficult think about the high expectations we had for CJ Stra coming off of an amazing rookie year We watched that team, the Houston Texans, and protections, the protection was an issue the entire year. He couldn’t be or reach the same level of success, the same level of progress. And so now for Jaden Daniels, Adam Peter says, “We’re not going to allow that to happen. We’re going to go out, we’re going to add Debo Samuel. We’re going to go out, we’re going to draft the right tackle. We’re going to bring in Laramie Tonsel because they understand who they have in their young quarterback and they are trying to capitalize on having a great quarterback on a rookie contract. So, I expect Jaden Daniels to play well. They went out and added pieces on this defense because they understand it’s time to compete right now. He was ahead of schedule last year. I believe he snuck up on some people as did this team. They will not do that this year. Won’t surprise anybody. and a major question now about whether or not Terry McLaren is going to be there. So, you’ve been able to go out and make all these contractual moves and acquire all these players, but a key player right now they have a dispute going on with. And just like we talked about with Micah Parsons, there’s no solution in sight with Terry McLaren right now. They’re in a situation where Terry McLaren is going to argue that he should be one of the highest paid wide receivers in the game. He’s produced like it. The prices of wide receivers has gone up. He can say that I was in the same draft class as DK Mechaf. My stats are better than DK Mechaf’s. He’s two years younger. My numbers are better. He got $33 million a year from the Pittsburgh Steelers. The commanders aren’t there. The commanders are going to say, “Hey, you’ve gotten two other contracts. This is your third contract. You’re going to be 30 years old.” We saw this week Courtland Sutton sign for $24 million. Mike Evans signed for $24 million. Is it DK Mechaf North of 33? Is it one of those deals? Terry McLaren’s not going to sign for that. And right now, again, they’re stuck. They’re stuck in a spot where there’s no obvious solution. If it was so obvious for a player as talented and popular as Terry McLaren, it would be done by now. Yeah. And it’s not. And he’s not practicing. Stephen A. And they need him. It’s not done. It’s not done yet. That’s not a good thing. But I think the presence of Jaden Daniels helps him immensely because you want to do what you can to protect your most valuable asset, the face of the franchise. And obviously, this is a veteran receiver that he played with last year that helped him immensely. So, that goes a long way. The other thing we got to pay attention to in terms of what may assist um uh Jaden Daniels along with Debo Samuels arrival is the fact that you’re the commanders. You brought back both primary tight ends and Zack Z and John Bates. You got to remember, he had his career revived last year with about 66 catches or what have you. So that goes a long way. That’s a reliable weapon. And in Bait, you got a cat that’s a blocking specialist. So I look at all of those things and I just say to myself, the things that they’ve been doing says we know who we have in Jaden Daniels. We know what he means to this franchise. We know what he means to the future of this franchise. Let’s make sure we do what we can to take care of him. And I think McLuren falls in that category. It’s not going to get him maybe the money that he wants, but it’s certainly not going to be something that’s insulting to him that makes him say, “Oh my god, I can’t play this year. I can’t play for this team.” I think that somewhere in the middle, they’ll find a way to reach an accord. And but I think that’s the thing though, right? It can’t be in the middle of 24 and 33 to Terry McLaren. That that’s not something I believe that Terry McLaren is going to accept. And here’s why, right, Stephen? A win. When guys don’t play well in their contract years, when guys don’t have that year that makes you feel like they are continuing to get better, continuing to contribute to winning for your team, then the contract reflects that. They say, “Wait, we can’t pay you what DK Metave got because your statistics aren’t the same. Your impact aren’t the same. You can’t have that conversation with Terry McLaren.” And like you said also, Stephen A, it’s not just what he was able to do. It’s the fact that what he is able to do is exactly what Jaden Daniels is good at doing, which is throw the deep ball. Telly Terry McLaren stretches the defense. There was play after play after play where on the receiving end of a great Jaden Daniels deep ball pass was Terry McLaren. You don’t want to allow or you don’t want it to be a situation where missing a player allows or makes your superstar young quarterback take a step back. You want to see him take the next step and become a top tier quarterback. The executives and the coaches on Jeremy Fowler’s list voted Jaden Daniels fifth, which was number one in the NFC and only behind Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and Lamar Jackson. Terry McLaren was a huge piece of that. And if I’m his agent, I’m standing on the table time after time after time in every conversation reminding Dan Quinn and reminding Adam Peters of that exact thing. Stand on your business, huh? I’m on that business. I get it. I’m standing. Listen, listen. Listen. That’s that that’s an excellent soliloquy that you put out there and you didn’t tell a lie. The brother can ball. Nobody’s calling him a scrub. The brother can ball. He can play. He deserves his bag. But when we talk about his bag, let’s understand that when we’re talking about a Justin Jefferson, when we’re talking about a Jamar Chase and Cats like that, it’s a different level. And it’s not to say that he’s asking for that. CD Lamb, you can throw him in there. It’s not to say that he’s asking for that, but he wants numbers in the ballpark. What I’m saying is if they get in the ballpark, he can’t he can’t he he he can’t, you know, just just just summarily dismiss that. No, listen. You can’t be arguing over 33 or 34 million if they put 32 on the table. They’re not there. That’s basically they’re not there. I agree that I agree that they’re not there. That’s the problem. They’re not there, right? So, if they’re not there, there’s nothing to talk about and that’s where they’ve been, right? There’s a lot of ground to make up and cover here. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Stephen A. Smith, Ryan Clark and Adam Schefter join Molly Qerim on First Take to discuss the new-look Pittsburgh Steelers as Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin form a new QB-HC relationship. Then, they discuss Terry McLaurin’s hold-in at Washington Commanders training camp.

0:00 Stephen A. sets the record straight
2:15 RC on Mike Tomlin
3:37 New type of offseason in Pitt
5:40 Rodgers’ stats
7:30 Jayden Daniels’ sophomore season
9:57 Deal still not done
12:20 Could this hurt Daniels?

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