DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: Set to go!

DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: Set to go!

[Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey everyone, welcome to Double Shot of Steelers. He’s Chris Hack. I’m Don Kvachovich. We’re from DK Pittsburgh Sports and the football team has what’s the count days? Uh 13 days kickoff till kickoff in East Rutherford, New Jersey against the other Jets. And this is a team that look we’ve been viewing this stuff, this whole process from the top down. Uh throughout really, if you go back to OTAAS and everything, everything’s been top down. So when we have discussions here, they’re not going to be about so and so random guy who went to Colgate. It’s going to be, you know, about Aaron Rogers and the rest of the roster. and and yet I can still see things on both the offensive side and the defensive side that look like they’re unsettled from the starting perspective. Some of that stuff Chris got answered or at least addressed a little bit today after practice which just ended by the way over here on the other side. This is the this is the big building for hunting and indoors and stuff but over there is where the grass fields are. Uh there’s there’s work to do. There is. I And listen, they’re you know, Mike Tomlin said it. The sand is running through the hourglass. These are the days of our lives. But I mean, it is true. They got one more practice. They have mandatory four days off uh per the CBA and then a week from today, they’ll be showing back up. And at that point, it’s Jets preparation. It’s Jets week. Um yeah, there’s still some stuff to work out. The other Jets, sorry. Uh but yeah, there’s still some stuff to work out. I mean, yeah, you kind of know, okay, Aaron Rogers is your starting quarterback. Jaylen Warren’s your RB1. DK Mechaf’s your WR1. On the defensive side, yeah, you you kind of know where your Cam and TJ and and so forth. But within that, and this this is what I was eager to talk to you about today, especially since they have their last practice here for for another 48 hours, is that when you get the starting 11 on the field, first off, they’re not the starting 11. I mean, it’s the starting 12 or 13 or what have you. And there are also going to be injury issues which we’ll be getting into shortly. Uh including that might stretch into uh the season opener. What I think of first and foremost is are you strong enough with your top let’s say 13 14. It it’s one of the aspects I’ve liked about the way Omar Khan has built this team. If you look at the way it’s been structured, he he has an emphasis not just on here’s my two outside linebackers. Like let’s start with that. Okay. He he’s also got Nick Herbig. Maybe he’s also got, you know, they went and they drafted Jack Sawyer. Uh there’s there’s a there’s a plus one to all of these positions. Oh, and that’s why, you know, almost all almost all. Yeah. But and that’s why you you build the roster the way Omar Khan has. I mean, Derek Harmon goes down. He’s weak to week with an MCL sprain. Well, you know, you still have Keanu Benton, who did return to practice today, by the way. So, that’s good news. Uh, he didn’t practice yesterday. So, good to see him. Yeah, it’s really good news. You don’t want to be down both Derrick Harmon and Keanu Benton. Uh, but that’s why you build up that that that depth so that whenever a guy goes down because football is a game of attrition, you need to be able to have guys step up. And when we talk about outside linebacker Alex Highmith today said absolutely I’m going to play week one. Like that’s what he said. And so we’re like, “Okay, that’s great news.” Well, Nick Herbig, it’s kind of Yeah. Her big was a little bit more of a a little bit more We got a great plan for coming down. Yeah. Here’s a little bit of Herbig from just a few minutes ago. How do you feel about obviously, you know, having TJ and Alex and you’ve been part of some really great edge rusher rooms, uh, with now with Jack and the way Demarvin’s been playing in the preseason, how do you feel about the depth of of that position going forward where if you aren’t ready to go, you guys are still feel like you’re going to be Yeah, I think uh, this isn’t a shock to anybody that was here before, but I think since I’ve been here, it’s the the best depth we’ve had. Um, and that’s nothing against other guys. It’s just, you know, I’m I’m not a rookie anymore. you know, Jack’s really good player, Lial’s really good player, been in the league for a while, been in the system. Uh, you know, Ant Alex are getting better every every year as well. So, I think just as a whole, you know, we’re kind of uh coming into town and we have a tight-knit group there. So, that’s what a lot of Herbig’s conversation was there. It was about the guys who are sure to be playing. Now, now you asked him that, but he also never piped up once in about the hundred questions that he was asked about his actual health status and said, “I’m going to play. I’m going to be there. Put me in, coach.” He He didn’t do any of that. And and that’s not the most encouraging sign, is it? No, it’s not. Again, when somebody like Alex comes and say, “Yeah, I’m absolutely gonna play.” And then Nick’s like, “Oh, we got a great plan.” It’s that’s kind of your answer that you get. And so, um, listen, you know, it’s just it’s it’s part of the it’s part of the the process. That’s why you build the depth. That’s why Omar Khan has done everything that he’s done with through the draft and free agency. That’s why you draft a guy like Jack Sawyer, you know, who’s just sitting there in the fourth round. You’re like, you know, I know we don’t need an edge rusher, but what if Nick, you know, it’s not like Nick’s been the most healthy guy? No. You know, so you get a guy who can come in who was a great player on a team uh that that won a national championship and who knows, you know, maybe he steps in. He did. He had some moments in the preseason, but wow, man. Left a lot of meat. He left a lot of meat. Left a lot of meat on those. All of the bones. No, we’re not doing that. In fact, I’m going to take this further and and try to keep this just the outside linebackers thing authentic here. If you don’t see Herbig, what you will see is a whole lot of TJ and a whole lot of Alex. I I really don’t think you’ll see you’re not going to see Sawyer. I don’t I don’t think you’re going to see Demarvin Lee Allen. I think that’s in large part because look, he did make some plays, especially in Charlotte. He made he he was visible. Yeah. But he also was visible in some bad ways, too. He took some penalties. Oh, yeah. He did. Pretty much threw a guy down by his face mask. Uh but which he’s not in a position to do. No. Like, who are you? Like, if it’s one Jaylen Ramsay does it, everyone goes, “Haha, look at Jaylen. He’s being funny.” Haha. Right. Yeah. It’s funny. Uh but and see that’s I think that’s the one thing for the Steelers that might not be much of a problem in September, but come November, December, January, you don’t want TJ and Alex playing a whole bunch of snaps. I understand they’re your like TJ’s your best player. Like I get it, but they really really want to stress the rotation as like Carl Dunar talked about it throughout the entire offseason during the draft. They want to be able to have that rotation so that when TJ and Cam are on the field, they’re more fresh. And it’s on downs that mean a whole lot more. It’s a lot better to have TJ on the field on third and seven than it is on first and 18 or second and 18, whatever it is. You know, and I know that it’s going to be a Sunday afternoon. It’s going to be in front of 80,000 people, a road stadium, uh, all the national attention, the whole Aaron Rogers versus Justin Fields and everything else that’s going on here. And if you think this head coach is going to be going, “Hey, what’s uh what’s TJ’s snap count right now? Anybody worried about that?” He’s not going to do that. Uh I I want to look at one other position on defense before we take a quick break here. And that is those three coverage people. Ah yeah because when you talk about you talk about rotation, you talk about attrition. There’s a part of me that is a a not a little like a lot leerary of this plan from the standpoint of really you’re just going to have them out there every snap. In fact, since I mentioned Jaylen already, you’re going to have Ramsay out there every snap the other team’s top guys out there. Really? I’m I mean, listen, when you have the the the players of that caliber and they’re playing a position that doesn’t require that doesn’t take as much of a physical toll. I mean, TJ is getting contact every single snap that he’s on the field. He’s getting held. Yeah. Every single Okay. Well, that sure that’s true, too. But Jaylen Ramsay, there will be snaps that he doesn’t touch a guy, you know, either or if he touches a guy, it’s very minimal. Nothing that’s actually that’s going to be wear and tear. It’s a lot of running. But to be fair, the attrition factor applies to Ramsay a little bit more. Not just because of Ramsay himself and if he gets injured, but other guys like Juan Thornhill. He’s still working off to the side right now in terms of coming back. Now, I do believe that he’s trending in a direction where he’s going to be ready week one, but that’s not certain yet. But Ramsay could play more free safety if if Juan Thornnehill doesn’t play. And so when he Yeah. But boy, that takes a bite out of the front. It does. It does. And then when Ramsay goes back to free safety, then if you want to be a nickel, okay, well, who’s the guy? Are you putting Brandon Eckles in in the nickel position? And well, I asked the head coach that uh in a in a kind of way here. Here, this is this is what I asked Mike Tomlin about Eckles. Mike, when you talk about coverage people, as you have throughout camp here, is is Brandon Eckles one of those guys and how can he fit into that group that makes I think he’s had a great camp in preseason. Um he’s been highly competitive. Uh he’s played top down. He’s kept the ball in front of him. He certainly is an asset to us. Uh we’ll get more detail in terms of how we’re dividing the labor up as we get closer to game week. You know, that wasn’t a no. He’s got Eckles, uh, as you heard, held in high esteem, and he should. He’s got Eckles’s camp performance held in really high esteem. Yeah, absolutely. Listen, I I remember having a conversation with Terrell Austin during training camp and I brought up Brandon Eckles to him and before I even got my question out, he goes, “I’m glad you brought him up.” Like he he made a huge impression on this coaching staff uh in Latroe and has continued to do that here since practice has moved to the Southside. Um listen, that’s a great thing to have because yes, you are asking a lot of Jaylen Ramsay, Darius Slay, and Joey Porter Jr. to be out there pretty much every single snap. People like Patrick Queen can do that, who are built more for that. You know, the linebackers are built to be out there every snap. Well, PQ specifically is one of those guys. You could just tell he grew up playing every snap, probably on both sides of the ball, right? And so, it’s a little bit different when you’re asking quarterbacks to do that. And so whenever one of those guys has to come off and it will happen either because you know hey you know I got banged up on this play or I you know I was you know injured at the end of this play so I had to be helped off. Well then you have the mandatory play off. You know that means Brandon Eckles is going to be the first one on the field and so he is going to play meaningful snaps in this season one way or another. And so for him to have this kind of a camp to emerge as a legitimate option in this secondary that just makes it even better. It’s it’s a it’s a good thing. And and I’ll tell you in in in looking at Tomlin’s answer and the way he put that forth, the one thing that I was looking toward in in terms of whatever it is that he would say was going to be does he hold Eckles like to where he can mention him in the same breath as those guys. You know what I mean? Like there’s a there’s certain phrasing that comes up regardless of who whichever coach or manager you’re talking to where you can just tell he had no issue with it. He I mean he knew the context. I brought it I I even said I even quoted him as coverage people. Yeah. Can he be one of those guys and he didn’t say well no we have three guy the way he did with Ramsay. Oh yeah we have one guy who’s going to He didn’t do that. So Eckles not only can be in this mix. I believe that he will be in this mix in some capacity. It might be a guy gets dinged. It might be a guy uh gets burned or something, but it also might just be, hey, we’re looking for something more. Yeah, absolutely. And that and that’s that to to kind of go off of like Brandon Eckl’s value here is it helps so much when you have the ability to be versatile, when you have the ability to play. Okay, Darius Slay goes down. Great. We can put Brandon Eckles in. he can play outside corner or Jaylen Ramsey because Juan Thornnehill’s out and he’s got to play a lot more free safety. He can slide in and play the slot. It’s it helps so much and that’s why you know people it’s just why like anybody who can be versatile gives themselves a much better chance to to to have a job in this league whether that’s on a 53man roster on a practice squad whatever it is having that versatility helps so much and Brandon Eckles versatility and then quality of play has really really bolstered this quarterback position even though he was the first I think of all them to sign maybe maybe Slay signed before either way it was really close to each other he was buried one way or the Like nobody noticed it. There were no headlines for Brandon Eckles. He’s been a heck of a player here. When we come back, we’re going to go to the offensive side and have a couple of similar discussions. 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 all-new state-of-the-art app. Find expert inside reporting and original podcasts. Check live box scores. Track the latest stats. Chatted up with our community of thousands of fans all in one place. The new app from DK Pittsburgh Sports coverage that connects. You know, I’d love to tell you that we could just discard the offensive part and say, “Oh, yeah, everybody knows what we have no idea.” Yeah. like we we probably know even less about the offense and we have a pretty good idea that Aaron Rogers is going to be the quarterback and now I feel like we’re certain, you know, we might not have been over the summer. We’re really really certain that Jaylen Warren is the number one running back DK Metaf and so forth, but a guy we haven’t even really laid eyes on is John Smith. I mean would I mean he’s been out there. He’s been working out. He’s been doing stuff. But I’m talking about as being part of this offense. Uh it seems like forever ago that they ran the the empty tight end set out in Latroe and had everybody gasping over it because he ended up get Didn’t he get a hand off there or something? Pitch, I think. Pitch. Yeah. It’s like you could do so much with this guy. Yeah. And there’s just there’s a lot of depth. That’s one of the reasons that I’ve been kind of like this about the offense. Like I did not like it in Charlotte. I did not like what I saw, but I didn’t say that that’s going to be the end of the season either. No. And and that’s the one thing that I think it makes the offense a little bit more difficult to project because we didn’t see Aaron Rogers in the preseason. We didn’t see DK Medaf in the preseason. We didn’t see John Smith in the preseason. Jaylen Warren was for a cup of coffee. Maybe not even a finished cup of coffee. I su wasn’t out there either. when you’re talking about the line and cohesiveness, you know, I I would have liked to have seen Isaac and the and the line together a little bit more often at least for a couple of series or something in the preseason, but that that is what it is. You know, I I but I think I I think I understand the rationale behind it and and some fans would be like, well, it’s important for them to play in the preseason together to start getting on the same page. Well, they get on the same page in practice, too. And yes, preseason is the best simulation of a game because you’re going to get going up against uh you know a team that’s not dressed in black and gold. I get it. But at the same time, if they’re going to go out there and they’re going to work on vanilla crap, which is exactly what they’d be doing, not actually working on the stuff they’re going to be doing during the season, then are they really getting on the same page on the stuff that really matters? one way or another, we have not seen the first team offense like like this other than, you know, in in settings like this. And I I have some trepidation about that. And I think that’s I think that’s justified. I I look at let’s put it this way. You know, Arthur Smith’s going to have had many months to craft that opening series. Uh several. Several. How deep do those go? 10, 12, 20? something. Every every offensive coordinator is different, but there is a section on each play call sheet. It’s it’s your priority call. Sometimes it’s priority call. Whatever it is, that is your opening script. Okay. Um it had it had better be I think a masterwork. I I don’t think he’s going to leave anything in his figurative hit pocket. I don’t think you’re just going to see two handoffs to Jaylen, you know, second and nine, third and eight, and then throw an incomplete pass short, you know, that was going to be short of the sticks anyway. Yeah. All right. I I think you’re going to have to do better than that. I think to a large extent when they get to New Jersey, they’re going to have to out scheme offensively. They’re going to have to make plays that are so smart, so clever that it’s a simple matter of just executing it as opposed to requiring elite execution. A great throw, a great catch, a great individual run. Yeah, absolutely. And the Jets are going to be a more defensive-minded group. Aaron Glenn being the new head coach there, they are going to be more of a defensive-minded group. And when you talk about what the Steelers have and how it’s difficult to project it right now, the one thing we can say about the Steelers offense is that on paper, it’s probably the best offense they’ve had since pre-arm injury. Ben, I mean, I mean, that’s fair. But it’s on paper. I mean, yeah, it’s on paper and and it’s most of what you’re saying is related to the quarterback, tight end. Yes. Um, you know, and I guess, you know, depending on what, you know, what shelf DK Metaf ends up operating on this year, you could throw him in there as well because they haven’t had a wide receiver like this. I mean, George Pickkins could make the the unbelievable spectacular plays, but I don’t know that he could deliver this consistently. Look, it it’s it’s different and it is. Yes. On paper, it looks enticing and everything else here. I just I just feel like when you go out there on the field, Chris, it’s going to require some What? Who? Wait, where’d that guy? I think you’re going to need that. I I agree. And And it’s not just going to be line up and pound them is what I’m saying. No, and it can’t be. Listen, when you have Aaron Rogers as your quarterback, again, I don’t think they’re going to be the 2024 Jets in which Aaron Rogers is going to end up being second in the league in pass attempts. I don’t see that happening. I don’t also see the Steelers being a team that’s going to automatically lead the league in rush attempts either. I think they’re going to be a team that’s going to try to beat you in a number of different ways. They’re going to be a team, yes, that wants to run the football and wants to do it successfully, but also Aaron Rogers can run the quick game when the when the running game isn’t working. Hey, let’s run the quick game. Let’s move the ball that way. The old old school West Coast offense type stuff where you just, hey, first and 10, let’s hit a four- yard completion. Now it’s second and six. We’re on schedule. We can. This is such a good point. If again, this goes back to those of you who were out in Latrobe and watched training camp when Rogers was really clicking out there. Yeah, he was able to hit some stuff downfield, but for the most part, it was these timing routes. Uh including off to the sides. Okay, that’s not a swear word in in his vocabulary. No. Throwing to the side. Okay, so don’t every time you see a throw that goes sideways or whatever, you don’t have to have visions of Matt Canada dancing in your head. You There there are plays that get you five, six, seven yards and they look so effortless. Yeah. Whenever he’s on. Oh yeah, absolutely. But then on top of that, you do have the ability when you have Aaron Rogers as your quarterback to attack the middle of the field. And whether that’s out of play action, whether that’s a, you know, attacking the scene down the field, whatever it is. And listen, Rogers has made throws in training camp and I can’t get into specifics here, but I can just say that from what I’ve seen in practice, he has the ability to make throws downfield that still are going to make you go, “Whoa.” Yeah. Where’d that come from? That’s a guy who’s definitely been who’s won MVP four times. The question is when it comes to Aaron Rogers, and it really does matter probably more than anything when it comes to this offense, regardless of who his targets are or uh weapons are, regardless of any of that, is how often is he going to be able to look like that guy? Because when you have an elite quarterback who’s at the top of his game, Patrick Mahomes showed it. He had nothing at receiver a couple of years ago and the Chiefs won a Super Bowl just because Patrick Mahomes is otherworldly whenever he’s at the top of his game. So, if Aaron Rogers is more like the 2021 Aaron Rogers, don’t do that. I’m just saying if he’s more like that, I’m not going to say he’s going to get to that same level. Okay. But if he’s going to be more like that and or if he’s going to be more like the 2024 version early on in the season before he could really move because he’s still recovering from injury and he’s beat up and whatever, there’s a big difference there almost regardless of who he has to throw to. There’s a lot of different there’s there’s a lot of different things that still need to be unfolded about this offense. There’s a lot of things, as we talked about earlier, that need to be unfolded about this defense. Heck, there’s still roster things to be determined. Uh, long way to go, an uncomfortably long way to go. Uh, guys, we appreciate you watching. Make sure you download the app. I actually got t-shirts. She made t-shirts. That’s awesome. She made t-shirts like look like this. And then it has just says download the app. For real. I just forgot to I forgot to put it on today. I’ll have it. You know what? I promise I’ll have it on for uh for our show tomorrow. But uh yeah, download the app. That’s our app, DK Pittsburgh Sports. Go do that. And after you do that, email me directly, dkdpittsbergsports.com, and uh I’ll hook you up with You’re not going to say no to this. It’s it’s the premium level of the app. And just just do that. Email me and uh we’ll uh we’ll hook up tomorrow. Yeah, absolutely. Kill the lantern flies if you see them. Yeah, I saw one of them was I think one landed on me while we’re while we’re talking. They don’t like you. They don’t like me at all. I don’t like All right.

The Steelers are a tough read right about now, and today’s practice didn’t make that much easier.

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