DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: Early Kaleb returns

DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: Early Kaleb returns

Hey guys, when we tell you we’re a community, we mean it because if all you got to do is drop by here and you’re on the show, that’s how it goes. This of course is our good friend Dana. He’s a regular in our community making his way to Friday Night Lights in Latroe. decided to to pause here with us here uh from DC. DC. Okay. So, you drove up and Yeah. about four hours. Yeah. I’ve made the drive. And then, as the boss insisted yesterday, she said he has to show up the way his avatar is, which is all suit and tie. Not quite suit. There’s an element of dapper, and it certainly is compared to your regular host here. Uh Dana, what are you looking forward to the most tonight about Friday Night Lights in a football sense? I don’t care about the ambiance, whatever. You’re a football guy. Let’s hear it. Well, what I’m looking forward DJ DK is how the team responds to advers adversity. Whether or not the offense is getting beat, how do they respond? That’s what I’m looking for. Yeah. And what we saw on day one was the offense getting beat. And then we saw on day two the offense responded. Now tonight, the full expectation is that it’ll be full pads because they they they practiced yesterday in shells. They were still trying to beat the snot out of each other. And now here they are on Friday night lights in front of thousands of people at LRO Memorial. Don’t go to St. Vincent. It’s not at Saint Vincent. It’s another stadium. It’s another another campus entirely. Um, offensively though, give me a name that you because I know you you’re just from from from being in our little world here, you’re looking for somebody specific. Who you keeping an eye on? I want to see how Calvin Austin is doing. You’re just you’re just doing this to butter me up because you know I’m a guy. You can’t I was seeing right through you here. You know, DK, we already know that Matt Caf is going to do his thing. Yes. But we want to see Calvin Austin. How’s he doing? Yeah, Cal, what he needs to do more than anything else is make sure that he’s running his routes with precision and then from there get it and go. Like Cal’s not all that complicated a concept, you know. That’s right. And that’s the way Arthur Smith has schemed him schemed him up. What about competition for Cal? And you know who we’re talking about when we bring that up. Well, I I want him to beat a lot of the um maybe double coverage he may be getting and then I also want to see him do some double move cuz normally he’ll just go straight straight out but maybe a double move, a curl and then bounce right back out. Well, if you think about Cal like in the this was before the pads came on, but he was doing some double moves. He was getting open and man, listen, I’m not preaching to the choir here when I talk about, you know, Aaron Rogers and his ability. It’s not like anybody’s going to be surprised by what it is that he can do because he’s done it for 20 years. But the touch on the ball that just went over everybody’s head. And I’m trying to picture that happening on a Friday Night Lights scenario where the crowd, you know how a crowd gets excited as soon as the ball’s out of the hand, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. How about defensively? Give me a name that you want to keep an eye on over there. I want to see how Joey Porter Jr. is doing because I think he the his role is going to be critical to the def defense this year. I think he’s under a lot of pressure. Not a lot of people are mentioning from last year from from last year camp to now. It’s a whole different mindset like he has a lot to prove. Well, he does. Think about this. Mike Tomlin identifies three what he calls coverage people. Okay? He doesn’t even call them outside corner, slot corner, whatever. And what that means is Pton Wilson laid this out for us really nicely the other day. One guy gets one guy. So they’re all like it’s Derell Rivas out there. You know, it’s just everything is about the island. So you have Darius Slay is on somebody, Jaylen Ramsay is on somebody, and Joey Porter’s on somebody. If you’re the other team, who you picking on? You can’t because there’s no handoffs like before. I’d be picking on Joey. Yeah, me too. Because Joey’s gonna get the flag. Yes. Until he doesn’t. Well, hopefully he has worked on that uh over the summer. you know, like how in the past couple of weeks, what have you seen? Well, they haven’t had they haven’t used refs yet, and I we we’ll see if they use them tonight in Latroe. But the the thing that I need to see from Joey more than anything else, and I don’t know that I’m going to because I also kind of get the impression that Mike Tomlin doesn’t mind all that much the handsiness thing. Mhm. I think he sees it as part of Joey’s game as almost a necessary evil that look, he’s going to get away with it what, seven times out of 10. Yeah. Yeah. So, we’ll deal with it when it flies. But I, you know, in a perfect world, no, he’s he’s just covering. Yeah. As long as it’s not detrimental to the to the team. So, that’s a that’s a big thing I’m looking for. Exactly. Nice having you here, Dane. And when we come back, we’re going to be joined by Chris Alec. 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. And we’re back. And uh we’re going to try to be joined by Chris. There he is. I got the wrong box up. Let me try another one. There it is. Chris did it. How are you, man? What’s going on? How are you doing? Awesome. Uh awesome little uh opening intro there. That was that was pretty cool. Oh, we’ve had we’ve had a a a bunch of people in today and most of them have come uh like Dana did from out of state and they’re coming, you know, for that little event that you’re going to be at tonight. Yeah. A little bit of a different experience for me. Little bit, but at the same time, it it’s a well different is the right word. Uh and I think the Steelers have done a really good job over the years of turning Friday Night Lights, including the cute name and everything. I know it’s based on the TV show or whatever and it’s a high school stadium, but they’ve turned it into an event. The truth is the actual thing that takes place isn’t really any different than anything that happens at St. Vincent. It’s really not. I don’t mean to let that out of the bag, but it’s just not. No, it’s not. But it is a little bit There is a different feeling. I mean, I remember even the first time I even I even played football. I was nine. I might have been nine years old and you know first few games we play it’s during the day it’s in the afternoon but then there’s that one prime time game that we played and I remember being a nine-year-old kid putting on my pads and getting ready to go and the sun’s already down and then you show up to the stadium and the lights are on. It is a little different. There’s a different feeling um you know that and and fans are going to feel the same way tonight. they’re going to be watching football under the lights and it is a really cool experience for them and I think it’s uh I think it’s really really awesome for them and it is a very different atmosphere than the rest of the practices during training camp. So why do you say that? Uh just because like like I said it’s the prime time aspect. I mean even Mike Tolman you know emphasizes that when he talks about it but you can there’s a just a different energy. It almost feels like fans are there showing up ready to watch a game. not to watch a practice. Um, and yeah, it’s just it’s it is different for sure. And I when they have the pads on and you know there’s live tackling periods at certain points at backs on backers happens. It is it’s what happens on the field, they try to simulate actual football as much as they possibly can. We’re going to talk a little bit about Caleb Johnson, you and I. This is a difficult thing, the running back position to evaluate at this stage. Yeah. of of camp. It’s about to become a much much much easier position to evaluate in the very near future. Notably, I think uh when we get to Jacksonville. Yeah, absolutely. because now now you’re going to see I mean those tend to be running back displays preseason games. Mhm. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, listen, Jaylen Warren when he was, you know, a little wrecking ball throughout training camp practices before the first preseason game, it was like, whoa, this guy’s, you know, making a making, you know, he’s turning some heads out here. But then he goes into the preseason and he carries that over into games. That’s that’s where it’s a little bit different. Now granted in that first preseason he also put the ball on the ground a couple of times and then for I think for the rest of training camp Jaylen Moore was actually just walking around holding on to a football the rest of the time even whether he was at the field or whether he was at the cafeteria eating food you know whether it was lunch took to the john. Yeah, I mean he I mean that that was something I was following Jaylen to the jaw just it’s just a line. But no, I mean it but when that you’re right it is it’s one thing to see what Caleb Johnson’s going to be doing tonight, you know, when backs on backers happens again. And it’s another it’s something else entirely when we get to Jacksonville next week and if he goes out there and he looks like the same guy on tape from Iowa and he is just finding holes and he’s accelerating through them and he’s finding that’s going to start Yep. That that’ll get the hype train going real good. But that that will be the first time we really get a and really not just with Kayla Johnson with really any position. But yeah, with running backs, it is a really you kind of need that actual game action to get a first real taste of what they’re going to be like. Now, to date, again, when we’re talking about Caleb, there hasn’t been that much to monitor or whatever, but when he has had the ball, we’ve seen some positives. Uh we have seen that tendency that he has, if you want to call it a tendency, I think it’s just a trait really, something that he’s born with that he gets through the hole or to the hole. I think is probably a better way to say it in in such rapid order that you don’t even realize that it happened. Like you don’t even bother analyzing it. He’s just there and then you’re looking at the rest of the play. You know what I’m saying, Chris? Yeah. So, I I went back and I watched even even my own shock talk that I did on on him uh right when he was drafted. And then I was trying to think of some of the runs that he had. You know, granted these weren’t during the first padded practice because almost no running back had any lanes to run through uh during that time. But I started thinking of like some of the times we have seen him run through actual holes. And there was one play that I that was even in my chalk talk in which he did he does this acceleration thing where he knows where he’s supposed to go. He knows where his primary attack point’s going to be. Mhm. And then he can read whatever it is, whether it’s, you know, however it’s taught, whether you’re reading the leverage of the off, you know, uh, wherever your primary attack point is, you read the leverage against the defensive tackle, whether you read the linebacker, whatever it is, he got to about his third step after he had taken the handoff, and you could just see this burst of acceleration that you could only see from the side from a sideline view, but But it wasn’t anything that was overly like, oh, there he goes. You know, it was a very subtle, but you could see it. It was ab it was tangible. You could put, you know, put your eyes on it. And I think that’s what we what’s actually happening whenever we see these type of runs in Latro at St. Vincent College. Again, the big thing is going to be, can he do that when everything’s live? when offensive when the offensive line isn’t kind of just paving a hole for you when the defensive tackles aren’t actually going full boore trying to disrupt everything, you know, that that’s going to be the big test whenever he doesn’t have the same holes he had at Iowa. And there are other tests that he’s going to be put through, too. One thing that we haven’t talked about as much with Caleb uh probably as we should have is that he is expected to be a significant portion of the passing game. Uh that was some information that I came upon I before training camp. It was around three or three or four weeks ago and we’ve yet to see really running backs involved in the passing game and I’m sure there are reasons for that. you just you need your wide receivers to be doing their thing right at this phase, but once you get into uh preseason games and so forth, these are vanilla plays. You’re not giving something away here. Flipping it to your running back and letting them run with it isn’t something where you’re reinventing the sport. Okay? So, they can do a fair amount of that and show it and I think that they will. And that unto itself, Chris, I think is going to show an impact that maybe a lot of people hadn’t even considered as it relates to Caleb. And by the way, Jaylen Warren, too. I mean, we know that Jaylen can catch out of the backfield. What we don’t know, and what I still don’t know is why they ever tried to get Naji Harris involved in this. cuz you can just picture now as I’m saying that the little flip to Naji and then the the 8% drop rate. Well, I mean I think the reason why they tried it with Naji is because he was a he was an accomplished receiving back at Alabama. It’s a little different world, man. It’s it’s different and and the Steelers did not use Naji the same way that Alabama did either. So that’s the only part that I can really or at least the the the I won’t say the only part the the main part that I could say in Naji’s defense is that the Steelers did not use him the same way that Alabama used him. And Alabama is also one of the best college football team, right? And when you have these mismatches in in in college football, it ends up just being a you know a a farce in a lot of ways and again makes things difficult to analyze from an individual standpoint. here. Our bus bus driver Al says, “How’s Caleb’s blocking skills?” Uh, they’ve been on display. They have. Uh, he did not do well in backs on backers, but to be fair, none of the running backs really did well. There was like one, even Jaylen Warren’s most defined win was against Patrick Queen. And yeah, technically a win for Jaylen, but it wasn’t like it was emphatic whatsoever. it still would have created created some pressure. Um but uh backs on backers is heavily skewed toward the defense. So we’ll see what he does tonight. We’ll see uh how he can respond, you know, whenever he uh gets back and does backs on backers again, which I would anticipate that at Friday Night Lights. And if he does it, if he does well or at least if he improves, then that’s what you want to see. You would just want to see him get better every single time. But then also whenever it’s team drill and there’s passes out, you know, there’s an actual passing play, how does he look when it comes to pass protection? When we get to the first preseason game, when he’s out there, regardless of who’s at quarterback, how does he look in terms of being able to pick up a pass rusher? That’s the kind of stuff, too. It’s not just the actual blocking, it’s also the identifying of where you’re supposed to go. All kinds of fun stuff coming in today about Terry McLaren and now, of course, Micah Parson’s people. Greed is so unbecoming. Steeler girl says, “Hi DK and Chris from out there in Hawaii. Uh thought about you over the weekend because of the whole tsunami thing and all the everything flash and everything. I I’m going to presume since nothing really came of that, at least in major headlines, that everything worked out all right.” Uh she says, “Hi TK and Chris. Just want to say that Terry McLaren becomes a Steeler. How do you see it working out with DK Metaf?” Whoa. Let’s start with trying to work it out with the salary cap before anything else. I don’t think there the salary cap’s going to be much of an issue if that happens. Um 17 left, right? Uh I mean, right now right now there’s a dis a pretty big disparity between over the cap and spot track. Okay. Um I don’t know who’s right. The only one the only one who could really tell me that is if I were to see Omar Khan tonight on the sideline at and I’d ask, “Hey, how much actual cap room do you guys have right now?” Yeah. Yeah. But uh either way, I mean, McLaren knows I Yeah, right. I’d have to look at um McLaren’s final. I’m not going to pull it up now, but anything I I just like it was with Metaf whenever they signed him to his extension right after they traded for him. They actually reduced his 2025 salary from 18 million to 11 million and then they build the rest of the contract, you know, accordingly. When I’ve gotten to the point now when it comes to any moves that are going to be made, I don’t even I don’t even get concerned about the salary cap. I just don’t. Omar knows exactly what he’s doing when it comes to if he wants a player, he’s going to get him. And I think more of it’s going to have to do with what it is that it would take to satisfy Washington man management from the trade standpoint. Uh you know, if you give up a second second round pick for DK Metaf and then you go ahead and you compare Metaf to McLaren, you compare ages, you compare experience level, you compare accomplishments. And listen, I I after everything they’ve already done and after all the names that they’ve brought in and after looking around in every single direction in Latroe and going, “Whoa, that guy is here.” Like he’s actually real. Like there’s Jaylen Ramsay. Yeah. You know, it just and and he’s almost an afterthought. Any other offseason it would have been the Steelers biggest acquisition like of all time. Mhm. And he was just another guy in that trade. But remember that when it comes to McLaren that you’re you’re going to be doing one of those like you did with Metaf in that event, you have to do a sign and trade and you have to make sure that he’s under contract. You don’t want to have two wide receivers that are of the same age that are into your that are signed. You know what I’m saying? That’s what Williamson brought up whenever we did the Southside beat last night. He he he brought up the fact that they’re both both Metcafe and McLaren are from the same draft class. Um they’re I mean they’re both the same age. I mean this is going to be a situation and he said I mean not to I’m I’m literally taking the words right out of his mouth so I want to give him the credit for it. He’s like I’d rather see that more staggered when it comes to the way your receiver room is built up especially if you have some larger dollar guys. Um, that being said, I still think that it’s I still think it’s something that Omar Khan either will or has already, you know, that he’s turned over that stone. That that would not surprise me whatsoever just to see, hey, Saw, you know, know that he’s requested a trade. Any chance he might be getting told, yeah, we’re not trading him. I don’t care what’s going on. We’re not trading him. Uh, I also think that after last year with the way things went down with Brandon Iayuk that we’re not going to see the Steelers hop, put all their eggs in the Terry McLaren basket and just hope for the best. Um, so I I think it’s intriguing and I said if the Steelers could get him straight up for a second round pick, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Um, but I also understand intrepidation when it comes to, you know, having another large contract in the books cuz now you’re starting to have a number of large contracts. I mean, you got Medaf, you got you got Watt, you got Hayward still, he’s making some money. Patrick Queen is making more money now like like these these contracts do add up after a while. Now, you don’t have to pay a quarterback right now. And even if you draft another one next year, you’re still not having to pay a quarterback for at least four years. But those contracts do add up after a while. Yeah, you you got to you got to be smart about this, too. And you also got to understand that your offense is now predicated on a lot of big bodies, multiple tight ends, and that the Steelers continue to do the polar opposite of burying Darnell Washington. Okay, he is he is very involved in this offense. And I don’t just mean the occasional target to be nice to him because it’s a drill. I mean he’s moving around the line of scrimmage the way he has all summer. None of this is new and none of it changed. Can’t stress this enough with the arrival of John Smith. There’s nothing that indicates a lesser role or lesser or fewer targets for Darnell. And don’t lose sight of that because what a weapon that is to have him available to do both things for you. Block, support at a position where you’re, you know, a little bit questionable, meaning over there by left tackle. Um, you know, there’s there’s only so many targets as this team is currently constituted. Never mind, you know, bringing in a Terry McLaren. Just kind of throwing that out there here. Uh Brock says, “Hey DK, catching my second ever live show training coverage, the training camp coverage this year has been intense with all the pageantry. Do the players feel more pressure?” I’m not sure what you mean by the training camp coverage being more intense. If if you’re talking about the stuff that we’re offering from Latroe, thanks. I I I don’t know how that would be pageantry or whatever. Uh if you’re referring to maybe because Aaron Rogers is there that how many how many additional outlets would you say like have come for that are non-Pittsburgh is like one or two max a few extra the first day was a little first day was first day like the Washington Post came which was we had Canadian media media here too Canadian media too um you know and they come down they do cover I mean Canadian media covers the NFL even though they have their own league. Uh the NFL’s pretty popular up there. Oh yeah. And Yeah. And but otherwise I mean it’s it’s the same lot of us pretty much day after day. So I I’m not sure what kind of impression you’re getting or what you’re basing that on. No, there’s no additional anything that when the players come off the sideline in particular, like a Pat Frier move or whoever, they’re seeing the same people, you know, it’s not any different. Ryan Lidle says he’d rather sign Gabe Davis, still young, 26. Uh, obviously would come at a lesser price, infinitely lesser price. Okay, since he’s still available right about now. Uh, and as we’ve been saying for a while now as it relates to Davis, he’s just got to be healthy. Chris, I know you like him a lot. It’s not that I like him a lot. I just think that there there are a couple things. The first thing is I think for what the Steelers have on offense and for what I think they’re going to do on offense, I think Gabe Davis is the best fit for what they need. He’s a guy. Well, he can he can number one, he can contribute in the run game like like in as a blocker like he he’s willing and he’s able to do it. He’s not like the great he’s not hines but it’s I mean he can he can still throw blocks in the run game. He can help take the top off the defense. So that would force the defense to I mean the deep ball is his game. I mean he is when he was with the Bills he was among the league leaders every single year in average death of target. this the deep ball is his game. And whenever you have that, when you have DK Metaf on the other side, you then force the defense to play more to high man or two high looks because if you don’t, then you literally are giving one side an advantage. And you don’t want to do that with DK Metaf over there. So then you leave uh Gabe Davis one-on-one on the other side and he can catch a lot of deep balls. So that would then force a defense to play more too high. that takes another guy out of the box that gives more a better chance to succeed in the run game. I think Gabe Davis is also probably most likely because of number one how affordable he is and he’s still available. You don’t have to give up any assets. Yeah, that’s that’s not a small thing. And don’t forget that one of the things that Omar is proud of and has expressed this pride is that he has not forfeited future assets. Yeah. for for for almost all of what’s been acquired. Now, you can make an argument if you throw Ma Fitzpatrick into there because he was signed for a few more years and you can certainly point out that a second round pick was given up for Metaf, although that was a pick that wasn’t that a pick that they wouldn’t have had. I can’t remember right now, but they they there was something that Go ahead. I mean, the the trade for Medaf was just a second and then it was a a late uh a late round pick swap. Oh, and then Oh, I know what it was. And then they got the the third for uh for George for pickings. Yeah. So, they got they three third rounders right now. So, yeah, this is, you know, Steeler Mama says that this is probably another agent ploy. You can say that about a lot of stuff this time of year. Uh, I’m way more into the the the Gabe Davis type mold than I am here because I am not interested in forfeiting this team’s future. I understand what’s at hand this year, but I also understand that I was just saying there’s only so many targets. There are there’s only so many times you can throw the ball. There’s only one ball to go around. I mean, you’re and the last thing you want to do is try to emulate anything the Jets did with Aaron Rogers last year. You do not you do not want to go into the season or at least now be you know more than a week into training camp been going through the complete offensive install and I’m not saying that this would happen but then trade for Terry McLaren and then Mike Tomlin walks into Arthur Smith’s office and says we’re blowing everything up. We’re going to go back to Aaron Rogers leading you know being second in the league in pass attempts and we’re not even going to run the ball anymore. Like you that’s what the Jets did. You don’t want to do that. Yeah, it it doesn’t really align. It’s exciting and it’s fun, but my goodness, there’s been enough of that already this summer. Dwight Jefferson says, uh, Chris and DK, what kind of tempo do you think the offense will operate under? Will Aaron Rogers use most of the play clock to what what Chris just said here has to be taken at literal face value, which is that you still want this team to be about time of possession. You still want this team to be about running the clock. Chris, when you and I run into Arthur Smith after games, what has him beaming more than any other number? Time of possession. Time of possession every time. And he’s able to say to you, 3523. Do you see that? 3523. Did you see that? Uhhuh. Yeah, coach. We saw 3523 was last thing we looked at upstairs coming down because we knew you’d bring it up. Yeah. And that’s that’s that’s what they want this to be built on because that that is a is a tide that raises all ships because now your defense is not out there as long. Now your TJ Watt snaps are more valuable because TJ is going at full engine. Your Cam Hayward snaps are more valuable. Your 17g game impact is huge by having your defense out there less. And if it they’re out there less just because Aaron Rodgers is standing behind center looking around now. He can wink at Mike Tomlin by the way. He can do that again, right? Actually going to ask him about that. Uh but he can now look over at Tomlin and wink at him and buy himself some clock. And then also, let’s not forget Aaron Rogers is eminently capable of going up to the line of scrimmage and using that time to his advantage. Well, and that’s that’s why whenever when when DK was reading the question and as soon as I said is he will Rogers use most of the play clock, that’s why I just started nodding my head like yes. If anything, I know that he is already driving the Steelers defense crazy with how much of the play clock he is using during training camp practices, during during team drills. It’s not helping in camp. He is he is milking that as much as he possibly can and the defense is ready to go and he’s using the cadence and he’s you know he’s I mean yesterday’s practice he got multiple times got guys to jump offside like that that that kind of stuff. Again, this is stuff that he’s been doing for a long time. Age does not change that. Age does not change your ability to use your voice or to use a really good cadence or it doesn’t make your make your football smarts any any worse. You can if anything, you can only get better when it comes to that kind of stuff. So, yeah. No, he he’s going to use use the play clock. Swan asks, “Hey guys, David Baktiari is currently a free agent. as a seasoned left tackle and a friend of Aaron Rogers. Is there any sense if Brick Jones struggles that he could be signed? Boy, Buck Terry is an unusual case. Um, let me tell you a little bit something about him and his history. Uh, he probably either the most or one of the most respected players at his position in his prime. Alejandro Villanoeva used to tell me that the way he would b his time during the week and preparing for a Steelers game wasn’t so much focusing on his opponent, but it was focusing on Baktiari film because he wanted to be that good. He wanted to be that much of a master of technique uh that Baktiari’s always been. Now, as for where he is, he is a free agent. He’s 33 years old, which actually isn’t all that old in left tackle land. But the Packers finally had to give up on him after the 2023 season because he’d played only 13 games over three seasons because of persistent just nonstop injuries. So, the fact that he hasn’t been in the league since 2023, I I really don’t know what to say. You know, there there was a there was some speculation a little while ago that he was being looked at by the Patriots or whatever, but listen, man, look at what league we’re talking about and look at what is the hottest, most precious, most valuable non-quarterback position on the field. If David Bakari was healthy, he’d be somewhere and really really getting paid. That’s when there is a free agent that is remaining a free agent for any length of time. There is usually a reason that means all 32 I mean okay this is another thing I want and I’m not trying to dunk on the guy at all because he’s here and the Steelers wanted him. But when Mason Rudolph first hit free agency like I’m talking about first time before like like before he was brought back and ahead of the 2022 season he was a free agent for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And all 32 teams were saying, “No thanks.” And then the Steelers were finally the ones to bring him back after they had already drafted Kenny and obviously signed Trabiscy and they brought him back and he was QB3. But it took a long time for that to happen. Gabe Davis is still a free agent right now because there’s a lot of concern over his knee. Amari Cooper, there is concern over him. Now, it could be because of injuries last year because could be because of age, but either way, it’s August 1st and he’s still a free agent. This is a guy at one point who was one of the better receivers in the NFL. Uh Kanan Allen is just now starting to really kind of get some traction in terms of making, you know, signing with a team. Again, there are reasons why. And when then you’re talking about a guy who didn’t even play at all in 24, it it just makes it that much more foggy. And I just hard time that being a backup plan. Yeah, there’s a leriness in general. This has nothing to do with baktiari specifically, but whenever you’ve been out for a while, there’s a perception whether it’s fair or not that you have checked out. Okay? And that’s a really difficult thing to come back. Anybody who saw our show today with Ramon Foster, somebody asked Raone, “Do you miss playing?” Before they even got to the the the G sound in playing, he goes, “No.” What about this time of year? No. Yeah. It’s it’s that kind of sport, you know. I ran into David Dcastro not that long ago or half of him anyway. These guys, man, they slim down when they get out. Oh man, I saw Matt Smith was at practice yesterday and he onethird of him. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that’s different. Crazy. Use some of their transformations. Maris, have you seen Maris? Maris might in a million years know that he was an offensive lineman. Not same pedigree, but very very recent. Mason Cole has also lost a lot of weight. A lot. Yeah, I could I could see that. I could see that a lot. But these guys when they’re out, they’re out. And And they remember, you know, all of what they have to go through, what they have to endure in these sessions as as physical and punishing as they are and the recovery processes and everything else. And no. So I mean actually in Bakiari’s case just to close that out with the three-year run that he had of injuries that only multiplies this. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I was just going to say like I I I uh saw Max Starks last night. We were we were uh just meeting up and and having fun and I I mean that dude still looks like he could play. And the thing is is that he’s not he’s he’s not even as big as he was when he was playing. like that. That’s just what’s what’s He’s just a large human being. He’s just Well, that’s what I used to say about Max was that when he played when he played tackle, it was the only way to beat him was to to go rent, you know, get a cab. Yeah. And go all the way around him. Yeah. For real. He can move and he was just massive. By the way, like I think I think people need to remember people need to remember about Max. He was the starting right tackle when they won Super Bowl 40 and he was the starting left tackle when they won Super Bowl 43. I wonder how many tackles have won multiple Super Bowls starting on both sides on on either side. I don’t have I don’t have that answer. John Molesco is asking about Zack Banner. I really I really liked him left tackle. I really liked him, you know, but uh yeah, that’s that’s that’s a little tough. Uh we’re going to take a couple more questions today. Um looking here for uh the ones that I’ve that I’ve starred. Oh yeah, Cody Silva came in with a couple of bucks and says, “Is Pat Meyer the Matt Canada of offensive line coaches?” He might be. If by if by that you mean what the public perception of him will be, I I have a feeling that he’s going to be the one. Well, I mean, Tomlin’s the one that always has the target uh, you know, on his back from the fan standpoint, but, you know, people are going to start asking the question of Meyer that they’ve asked of of others in the past, especially as it relates to positional guys because it’s so targeted. Who has he made better? They’ve given him an assortment of first round, second round picks, and they’ve also gotten guys who are really expensive. The free agents that they brought in, James Daniels, Isaac Slo, these are these are pricey players. It’s not like he’s just been given a, you know, a bunch of sludge. And to me, his job, Meyer’s job, hinges singularly on the performance of Brick Jones. It it it Oh, come on. It No, no, I agree with you, but I don’t think it should. And like, I understand. I I get it. I I I get that there’s so much. I mean, it was Omar Khan’s first first draft pick. They traded up to get the guy. The coach can only do so much. I think part of this has to also be on Broadick, especially when you look at what he did as a rookie. It’s not like he hasn’t put accomplishments on NFL tape before, right? And so part of this has to be on the player. I I But the easy scapegoat is to blame the coach. Whether it’s the head coach or whether it’s the position coach or the coordinator, whatever it is, the easiest way out for fans is to blame the coach when the player needs to take a brunt brunt of the blame, too. Because when you look at everything else that’s transpired, James Daniels, yes, was a free agent, but he just got a contract with the with I think the Dolphins coming off of an Achilles injury. Like that’s a major injury for an offensive lineman. And he got that contract because he played really well for the Steelers. Mason McCormack comes in as a fourth round pick out of South Dakota State, is then thrust into the starting lineup when James Daniels goes down and plays pretty darn well all things considered. Zack Frasier, second round pick, comes in and has a phenomenal rookie year in which he like according to what Matt Matt Williamson looked up, he he put this on Twitter the other uh like I think a couple weeks ago, two blown run blocks all year and the best pressure rate against of all centers in the NFL. I mean, that stuff is being completely forgotten when it comes to Pat Meyer. And it’s only Brick Jones’s failures that’s being attributed to him. I think just the but I think you’re right though that if Brick Jones fails this year, Pat Meyer will win for it. Yeah. Not Not everything in life is fair. Uh our last question for the day comes from Derek Dockerty who says, “Look, who looks faster, Jaylen Warren or Caleb Johnson?” Uh I’m going to throw an incomplete onto this one because I still want to see Caleb Johnson really cut loose. Yeah, those situations haven’t presented themselves to him in the camp setting just yet. However, I will say that you will you will be in for I don’t want to say surprise, but you’ll be happy when you start paying attention to that yourself in the preseason games and you realize that there isn’t that much daylight between them in that regard or when it comes to hitting holes. I’m a little leerary of going too far with the hitting the holes thing because I feel like I’m a little over the top with it sometimes because we had a running back that we were covering for years who would just look at the hole and go, “Huh, look at that. It’s a hole. What am I supposed to do with that thing?” Yeah. Having guys, two guys who are attacking that hole is going to be an adjustment, I think, visually and viscerally for all of us. Yeah. It’s it’s just it’s hard to to to say at this point in camp again because number one the first real run team drills of camp which you know that that is live tackling the defense just sm I mean Warren couldn’t get anything going. Johnson couldn’t get anything going. Kenneth Gainwell had one good run and he had I mean Cory Tro had him dead to rights and Gainwell just spun him around like a top and then just you know went went past him. But even then, that was for that was a moderate gain, I think, of like six or seven yards. It wasn’t anything like massive. It’s not like he broke off and, you know, gained 20 yards. Um, yeah, it’s just it’s hard to say at this point because we’ve had literally one padded practice in which there’s been live tackling during run team. So, it’s just it yeah, it incomplete is the the correct answer. Guys, when we come back, we’re going to take care of a little bit of business here on the Double Shot Show. All right, let’s take a look at what we have here. Uh, Steeler Mama came in with a gift. I’m pretty sure our good friend Carrie did, too. Oh, there’s Carrie right there with one gift as well. Um, the butthole coming in with one gift. Do you notice how that’s just become so normal? Yeah. like it’s just become like a a way of life here. Antonio Jackson uh with five early gifts in the show. All of this much appreciated. Cody coming in with a couple of bucks here. Jim Matthews became a new member. We’ll be putting up the membership count here in a moment. Uh Manny had 10 gifts right there. Macaroni Salad with 20. And Justin Watson sliding under the closing garage door there as he sometimes does. Comes in with with five. And let’s have that membership count now. It is. She says close the comments. I’m closing the comments right there. 2014. We’re just hovering around that 2,00 mark. Uh, as I was discussing earlier in here in this in the shop with with with Dan, our community member who was here at the beginning. Uh, we got to get a jump on this thing to get up to 3,000. Uh it’s that’s that’s something that that’s a that’s a very real goal for us, a way to make sure that we’re funding this show properly and that we can do all these live hits and membersonly things. Uh and speaking of that, tonight when Latroe uh when the Friday Night Lights thing is over uh in Latroe, one way or another, we’re going to find a way to hook up with Chris. I don’t know exactly how that’s going to go. We’re going to have to stay in touch as far as logistics go. The Wi-Fi isn’t great up there and and other stuff. So, it might have to be something that we’re once you’re bust back to St. Vincent or something. I don’t know. Probably what it’s going to be. That’s probably what it’s going to be here. Yeah. Just because like once once practice is over, it’s like players are literally running off the field to get back to the bus and I’m trying to get as many interviews as possible and it’s even harder to do that tonight than it is at normal practices. So, uh and then the bus ride back isn’t always the the quickest. So, yeah, we we’ll we’ll figure that out. But, uh, and then I think I have to be out of the Roger Center by 11 p.m. no matter what. There we go. Well, we’re going to get it done one way or another here. Um, and your your membership, this is going to be members only. So, your membership, well, let’s put it this way. If you don’t have one yet or you showed up here in a non-green script, now would be a really good time to get it because you’re going to get some really good information uh tonight that you’re not going to be able to get anywhere else. It’s dkps.net/join. You can see right under uh Chris over there. Uh that type that into your web address, okay? Don’t go tapping on Chris’s head or anything like that. You don’t want to give him a concussion. dkps.net/join. Type it into your URL and become a member. It’s 99 cents a month and it covers all of our shows and all of our stuff on the Steelers channel. Uh and it gets you first in line for asking questions and all that other stuff. So, let’s get that done now and start getting that number a little bit higher up to 3,000. Appreciate you guys. Uh really do everybody who’s in. Appreciate everybody who who watches or partakes in any of our programming. And we will see you member people tonight.

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Kaleb Johnson, poised to be a big part of the Steelers’ offense as a rookie, is off to a running start.

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