DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: Oh, they’ll run

DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: Oh, they’ll run

[Music] There’s a way to say that there’s no portion of this football team that worries me while also acknowledging that they’re they can still get better in a lot of phases. Good morning to you. Good Friday morning. I’m Dan Kvachovic of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Steelers. that comes your way bright and early every weekday if you’re into hockey and or baseball. I also offer daily shots of Penguins and Pirates, the other two teams in town that I cover, but I was covering this one yesterday over at Acashure Stadium for the joint practice conducted with the Buccaneers. The sun was searing down. It was hot. Some of the tempers got that way as well. Not too much. It wasn’t too bad. And what came of it was mostly what you could call a mixed bag on both sides of the ball really. Defensively, as Brandon Eckles and other players would acknowledge, not everything went the way they wanted. In particular, Baker Mayfield was able to find Mike Evans uh over the middle, deep, sidelines, you name it. some stuff got exposed there. Offensively, as ever is what interests me the most. And in this case, it interested me principally because it represented what’s it’s a continuation of what’s played out in Latroe and of course in Jacksonville for both the good and the bad. The good remained the same. That was the passing game. Talking to DK Metaf and other offensive players afterward, I could tell they were feeling pretty good about that component, and they should. They’ve been there really since day one at St. Vincent. Aaron Rogers has a lot of weapons. Rogers is utilizing a lot of weapons, but what’s yet to materialize is the running game. We haven’t seen it in training camp. We sure didn’t see it in Jacksonville. And you know that was true again yesterday specifically. And this isn’t to pick on the kid. He’s a rookie who’s yet to play a single game in anger in the NFL. But Mike Tomlin said before this practice that he’d like to see Caleb Johnson find a way to get more comfortable, more relaxed. It was his way undoubtedly of challenging the young man to just be his best self and stop worrying about this that or everything else. This was Johnson after the practice about Tomlin’s remarks. You know, me always, you know, when I was I always be hard on myself cuz I always wanted to be perfect and I always wanted to help my team win and do everything I can. So when I messed up, I was hard on myself. So he told me in the NFL you can’t do that. You know, everybody go mess NFL everybody’s good. So you ain’t going to make no plays. you going to mess up play. So, just it’s just big just getting over it and keep moving on and just keep going. Yeah. I mean, he wasn’t great down there. He really wasn’t. There were holes that were there and he ran in the wrong direction. He looked slow and a little bit uncertain in the back field when first getting the ball. And then by the time the first team offensive line was out, the second team guys, they just didn’t block at all. I mean, so you have to be fair about this in all directions. There’s also this to say. Jaylen Warren is really good. Jaylen Warren is this team’s number one running back. And as I’ve been sharing with you for a few days now, Kenny Gainwell is going to be this team’s number two running back. If you want to look at that from the perspective of who Warren is and how deserving he is of this opportunity, that’s a positive. If you want to look at it solely within the context of what kind of camp Gainwell has had, and he’s been really good, very visible, that’s also a positive. If you choose to just focus on the rookie, then you’re going to be talking about Johnson running the way he did the other night in Jacksonville, you’re going to be talking about his inconsistencies in catching the ball when it’s been thrown to him out of the back field. and you’re going to be talking about, as always is the case with a rookie running back, pass protection issues. I can live with a work in progress, very young, very inexperienced running back. So, I’m not panicking about the run game. Nope. What I’m doing is heading to the other part of the end zone and catching Warren coming off the field for 38 seconds of one-on-one Jaylen interview excellence. Enjoy Jaylen Warren Pittsburgh Steers. How’d it feel? Real real football almost. Yeah. Yeah, I loved it. What was the competitive competition like out there for you guys? Yeah, it was it was good. You know, iron on iron. Uh they had some, you know, great competition. We have great competition on us. It’s always good to have days like this. Where’s this offense right now? Are you excited about it? Tell me just about where you are with it. I’m I’m all the way in. You know, we we there. We there. I’m excited to put on display. What have you seen from the kid? The kid. Caleb Johnson. Uh you know, he’s developing. You know, he’s uh he’s doing his thing, you know. Uh I’m excited for him. I’m excited to, you know, gam in the stadium cuz, you know, that’s that’s a dog right there. He’s not worried about anything. Arthur Smith isn’t worried about anything. That’s because they know they’ve got him in addition to their other weapons. Let’s see how Johnson responds tomorrow night in the preseason game. My guess is that he’s going to get a lot of touches. My guess is that he’s going to get some balls thrown his way as well, all in due time. But the guys who are going to matter the most to the running game, my hopes remain high. And by that I don’t mean halfway into the season. 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[Music] Today’s J1 Q comes from Ed, who asks, “I get that you can’t talk about specifics of offensive plays or defenses, but can’t you just speak in general about players who did well, like how did Caleb Johnson look, how did Aaron Rodgers look, things like that? What’s so secretive about how guys did? Ed is referring, of course, to standard NFL team policy related to reporting on practices. Now, there are 32 teams and there are 32 different policies. The Steelers just happen to have one of the most lenient. I’m on the record as saying, and this is for years now. I get this. I I totally get why in a sport specifically like football where the schematics are so scripted and the element of surprise or at least uncertainty within those schematics is so paramount to your team’s offensive success. And and all of that applies to the defense, too, and special teams that you’d be operating at a significant disadvantage if you were the one team that had all of its information going out there that had all of its film and personnel packages. And you know, especially whenever you have the really, really big hip pocket type surprises, those genius level two point conversions for example. Yeah, that would hurt. Now, someone who would be opposed to this might say, you know, just make all the rules the same for everybody and let everybody see, hear, and read everything from all 32 teams and then it’s a level playing surface. I vividly recall a few years ago being in Montreal one morning for a skate at which the Penguins showed a wholly different approach to their power play. Not just the people that they were utilizing, but how they were gaining the zone, how they were setting up, who was shooting, who was passing. And I did my job. I reported all of that on our app and I got some backlash for it. What are you doing? I mean, don’t you realize that the Canadians are going to see all of that and have a chance to adjust? And my response to that was, well, everybody got to see the Canadians morning skate as well, so the Penguins can watch that and adjust to whatever it is that they see Montreal doing. It was all just even. But, you know, I also know whenever there are situations that you’re not going to change, you can slam your forehead against the cement wall and all you’re going to get is a bruised forehead. To answer what you asked there, Ed, why can’t we just say how Caleb looked and how Rogers looked and whatever, I find a way to do that. If you see what our coverage is on the app, you’ll see that we find a way to do that without even coming close. to giving away schematics or even significant personnel things. And there’s also issues related to injuries, which they don’t want to be known for obvious reasons. One player, I can tell you, was hurt yesterday, and absolutely nobody anywhere has reported. It happened right in front of all of us. But unless there was going to be confirmation from another player or a coach or whatever, and there wasn’t, it wasn’t going to come out. not a starter, so don’t sweat it too much. But when DK Medaf goes up for a pass in the end zone and comes down real hard on one of his ankles and was kind of hobbled a little bit heading back to the the huddle and then was taken off to the sideline, I’m going to go find him. And I went and I found him. I asked him to confirm what happened. He did. Asked him how he was doing. He said he’s fine and the job got done. I appreciate the question, Ed. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Steelers today and every day. We’re going to have a live double shot today at 400 p.m. Eastern. You can watch that on the DK Pittsburgh Sports app. And then tomorrow with the game, we’re going to have both pregame and postgame shows from Akasher Stadium just like we did from Jacksonville last week. Lots and lots and lots of real football. Well, almost real football starting to roll our way. Hope you can make it with us this afternoon. [Music]

Oh, relax, they’ll run the ball just fine.

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