Steelers Talk LIVE: It’s Time To TELL THE TRUTH About The Steelers Defense This Year + Week 3 Q&A

Steelers Talk LIVE: It’s Time To TELL THE TRUTH About The Steelers Defense This Year + Week 3 Q&A

[Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Dick. [Music] Dick. [Music] Welcome in to the Steelers Talk live show. I’m your host, Jax Barry. Big shout out to all the real ones tuning in for today’s program. Today, we’re going to tell the truth about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense, kind of debunk a couple myths, go over some of the issues that the team is going through and how they can fix it, which of course is all that matters at this point. We got a bunch of great content coming your way here over the next hour and a half or so on today’s program. First up, the latest news and rumors surrounding the Pits, if they can be put uh into reality when this team plays the New England Patriots on Sunday. Uh then our second segment today, we are going to be going indepth. Okay, so one of the very nerdy segments that I know you guys love on this channel where we’re going to be explaining exactly what’s going wrong with the Pittsburgh Steelers defense, debunk a couple of myths that are currently out there on Steelers uh Steelers social media and all this different stuff. And then we’ll tell you guys what the issues are and how the Steelers can fix those issues as the season continues on. And then uh we’re going to finish up today’s show with a mailbag. So, if you guys have any questions throughout the show, if you guys have any questions about this weekend’s game against the Patriots, any questions about Jawan Bentley, any questions about Isaiah Hajins, any questions about Jabril Peppers, Caleb Johnson, will he be benched? Will he even get a helmet this weekend versus the New England Patriots? All those things would be great questions. You guys can get down there in the comment section by using Steelers in that comment section. Uh, you guys can put hashtag Steelers and then a question behind it for producer Ponzi to be able to see your question and if it’s a good enough question, Ponzi will put it on this week’s mailbag. So, I want to see all the real ones down there in the chat. Spam me uh down there in the comments if you have liked today’s stream. We currently have 98 people watching live, but only 15 likes, man. We got to get that number up to at least 40 likes before we get into our first segment today. So, shout out to Zar Craig. Shout out to Rez. Shout out to Nicholas Girdler. Shout out to Eric Brown. Shout out to Paul. Shout out to Nicholas. Shout out to Cassie, my lovely fiance. Shout out to Eugene. Shout out to Truth Pigeon. Shout out to Eric Brown, Kyle, Michael, Tyler, Kyle, Steven, Joe, Eugene, uh, Stephen, Nicholas, Chuck, Kyle, Joe, Steven, Michael, Paul, Madden, God. Uh, we got Kyle, Joe, Guns, and God. Uh Bowman Turner, Clifford XG, uh Michael Hierrick, hope I’m saying that right. Uh Michael, uh Dwayne Johnson is here. Ethan is here. Robert Lock coming in with the first super chat of the day. We’ll put you up on screen here in just a second here, uh Rob. But let’s bring on our producer today, guys. Mr. Producer Ponzi is here. Ponzi, how are we doing today? And uh our question today before we get into our segments is which new Steelers edition will make the biggest impact? Of course, they bring in Jabril Peppers last week. Doesn’t play a whole lot. He’s still getting ramped up. Uh and then you got Jawan Bentley and Isaiah Hajins being added to the team this week. Your thoughts on those additions? I mean, I really think, you know, like uh we’ve talked about it a little bit before, but Gabriel Peppers, I think, you know, he fits this Steelers defense very well. I think that, you know, uh, he is probably, you know, more on the less of the newer side, but I do think that him and Bentley, uh, could hopefully sure or solidify the Steelers defense. And, uh, you know, I’m really excited for Hajins. I’m anxious to see which role he serves uh, and what that exactly means for Roman Wilson, but I mean, I think, you know, Bentley and Peppers should uh, be a great addition for the Steelers defense that’s been kind of reeling a little bit. Yeah, exactly. Um, I think Jawan Bentley is probably going to have the biggest impact, uh, just because of what he’s going to bring to the run game. All right. Last year and really when this off when this defense was playing really good football, I mean, people forget, you know, outside of this last 10game stretch where the Steelers defense has been terrible, right before that 10-game stretch, they went on a 36game stretch where they were giving up 20 points or or 19 points or less, less than 20 points in 23 of the games they were playing. So, this defense was firing on all cylinders and then all of a sudden midway through last year, things completely hit the fan and then that has bled over here into the 2025 season. So, Mike Tomlin, Terrell Austin, these guys need to figure it out. I think a big reason uh even though Landon was here last year, you the reason why that especially the run defense here in Pittsburgh has been bad to start this year is you don’t have enough physicality and enough physical presence uh at the linebacker spot or at least you haven’t in these first two weeks. But Jawan Bentley, he’s like the same size as a Landon Roberts, and he brings a very similar level of savvy and physicality that that Roberts brought to the table. I think Roberts is a slightly better run defender than Bentley is Ponzi, but it’s not by much. And then I think Bentley is not a great pass defender, but he’s better than what Roberts was bringing to the table, who was a complete liability in that portion of his game. And you know, you bring in a guy like Bentley, I don’t think we’re going to see a whole lot of him this week because linebacker is a tough position to ramp up just one week um after signing and you know, play an NFL game. Uh but I think that he will eventually get into the starting lineup as an early down linebacker. And I think the plan will be for him to play the exact same role played as the early down linebacker to stop runs, blitz, do all those things. And then Pton Wilson can come in on second and long, third and medium, third and long passing situations where he uh was pretty darn good last year. And it seems like uh that’s kind of the role that he still needs to play at this point in his uh football development. So I think Jawan Bentley probably makes the biggest impact. We’ll see what Julius Peppers can do. It sounds like we’re going to see him maybe even start at strong safety over Chuck Clark uh this week on the Steelers defense. So, it’ll be exciting to see if he can be an upgrade to Chuck Clark cuz Chuck was not fantastic last week in coverage. Uh, you know, there’s a couple of assignments where he was just really slow to to click and close and get to uh to get to his man. So, I’m I’m looking forward to seeing what uh this uh you know, these these new players can bring. I think Hajins for the role that he’s going to play as like a wide receiver for as a bigger route runner type. Like I think that he brings a decent skill set that this wide receiver room frankly was lacking before you bring him in. So I like the additions that the Steelers made this week or in last week. I think they’re all really good signings um for what they are and I think that they’re going to help make this team a better football team. So, if you guys want to uh guarantee your spot on the mailbag today and you want to get up on screen right next to me and Ponzi here, you guys can donate to the show via super chat. Uh you guys can donate to the show via Venmo or PayPal. Uh if we can get to $100 total in donations today, guys, we will give away one of these uh Steelers Talk hats to somebody in the chat. $5 raffle tickets. Uh $10 gets you three raffle tickets to win the hat. And then $20 gets you 10 tickets plus your name on the Steelers Talk gong and join the gong squad here on Steelers Talk. Uh and then if you guys don’t want to deal with the raffle, you guys just want to join Steelers Talk Hat Club, uh $50 is the price of admission there, uh greatly appreciate your guys’ support. And if we can get to $250 total today, that’s our goal. We will hit the Steelers Talk Gong. And of course, if you guys donate via Venmo or PayPal, we actually get to keep more of those proceeds. YouTube takes a 30% cut and Apple takes another 10% cut of the super chats you guys send in, but with Venmo and PayPal, we keep more of those donation dollars to help us pay for rent, to help us pay for new equipment, help us uh pay for new uh graphic software, stuff like that. Um, so it really does help us out, guys. And because of that, we’re going to give you double the raffle tickets for the Steelers Talk hat raffle at the end of the show if you donate via Venmo or PayPal. Uh, so big shout out to you guys for donating to the show. All right, let’s get to some super chats here before we get into our first segment of the day. Robert Lockach, $10 says, “Hello, Yinszers.” Hello to you, Robert Lock. $2. From my man Bernard Nixon says, “Forio said A-Rod might regret coming to Pittsburgh.” Uh, especially now with JJ McCarthy not playing particularly well. They have to turn to Carson Wentz. If Aaron Rogers would have waited theoretically for an opportunity, he could have went and played for the team that was probably his first choice or second choice. is I think he really wanted to play uh for for LA uh with Shawn McVey or he wanted to play with Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota. And honestly, you can’t blame Aaron Rogers for that. All right, those are two excellent head coaches with two really good rosters. Can’t blame him uh for preferring those two options, but I do think he’s happy here in Pittsburgh. I think he loves Mike Tomlin. I think he loves working with the guys that he has here in Pittsburgh. Um I I don’t know if he’s going to regret coming to uh to to the Steelers. I think that Florio, frankly, is talking out of his ass, uh, as he usually does. Um, but, you know, I think that he’s very happy here in Pittsburgh, so, you know, this really doesn’t really matter in my opinion. $2 again from Bernard says, uh, could the Steelers get Dexter? Oh, never mind. He says, and could as far as trade midseason, um, I don’t know what that means, Bernard. Uh, he’s saying, could Aaron Rogers ask for a trade or and he could ask for a trade this mid-season? Oh, I see what you mean. I don’t think he’s going to ask for a trade midseason unless the Steelers are really down in the dumps. Like there’s no chance they’re making the playoffs, which I really don’t think is going to happen. Um like they’re going to have to lose like a lot of these next upcoming games versus frankly it’s a it’s a pretty uh it’s probably the most favorable stretch of the Steelers schedule coming up. You got the Patriots and a young quarterback this weekend. Then you’ve got uh uh Carson Wentz in Dublin uh in uh two weeks from now. Then you get the Browns and then you get a burrowless jo uh Cincinnati Bengals team. So like the Steelers, you know, very easily could go 4-0 or three and one over these next four weeks, especially if they can get this defense figured out. Um and you know, when you’re facing a stretch of these quarterbacks, you know, over the next four weeks, there’s no excuse for this defense to not figure it out and play the way uh that we expected them to play heading into the year. Um so I really don’t think that there’s going to be an Aaron Rogers trade midseason. Uh I I just don’t really see that uh happening. I’d put a very very small percentage of that uh happening at this point. Another two from Bernard says, “Could the Steelers get Dexter Lawrence?” Um if they if the Giants make him available, maybe he’s had kind of a slow start. So I’m I’m a little I’m a little surprised they haven’t extended him yet. If if he is if he is available to be extended, uh he’s got three years left on his deal. So there’s like a 0% chance they trade him with three years left. He signed a four-year 90 million. He just Yeah, he just signed a new deal. I believe it was last off season. So, two offseasons ago. Two off seasons ago. So, no. Uh there’s no way that they like he’s arguably the best nose tackle in football and he’s got three years left on his deal. And again, the Giants would take on a ton of of dead cat money if they trade him right now. So, no. I think I saw I think it was Noah Stravine of Sports Illustrated throw this out there. Uh, I I just don’t really see this as a possibility unless the Giants don’t believe Dexter Lawrence is worth the money anymore. Um, I did see something say that Lawrence is apparently like frustrated. Yeah. So, so that so that might be the angle that Noah’s coming coming from there that uh that he’s frustrated and might demand a trade out of New York. And if that happens, then, you know, I would I would be all in. If I’m the Steelers, I wouldn’t trade a first round pick, which frankly I think is what they would want for somebody of this caliber. like he’s argu he’s one of the best defensive players in football. So like I think they’re going to want at least first one first round pick and I do not think the Steelers are willing uh to give that up. I think the most they’d be willing to give up is maybe two seconds. Uh but they really want to use that first round pick next year. Maybe even uh the first round pick in 2027 to be able to go and get their quarterback next spring. So, um, you know, I think that they’re going to try and find an in-house option at nose tackle, whether that’s Keo Benson plays better, whether that’s YA Black replaces him. Um, whether that’s another option that, you know, that doesn’t exist on the roster right now. Uh, I don’t know. But I would say the still the chances of getting Dexter Lawrence are pretty darn slim. Even if he is traded, I don’t think the Steelers uh would trade what would be needed to go get him. $10 from Fluffy. He says, “Donate any raffle tickets.” So $10 is three raffle tickets. So spam those miis down there in the comments section. Fluffy’s giving away some raffle tickets for a for a Steelers Talk hat. We’re currently at $32. Currently at $32 on the day so far. If we can get to a hundred, we’re going to be giving away free raffle or we’re going to be giving away a Steelers Talk hat to one lucky member of the chat. Um, so if you guys want a free raffle entry, spam those me for the next 30 seconds before we get into our first segment of the day. Keep on going. I see Troy. I see Kevin, Michael, Electric Divergent, Troy, Matthew, Kyle, Clifford, Maxwell, uh, Robert, we got Kyle, we’ve got Kevin, Joe, Troy, Rez, Ali, we’ve got, uh, Clifford. Who wants it here, folks? 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 I’m going to give one here to Donna Elliot. Okay. I’m going to give one to Kevin Reed. I’m going to give one to Ali the Reaper. All righty. Okay. So, thank you Fluffy for donating those tickets. Uh let’s get into our first segment here, guys. uh because we got a lot to talk about. Two very indepth segments to talk about today. Um talking a lot about the defense and we’re going to be we’re I’m going to be speaking very truthfully about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense today. Um talking about some of the things that they can improve on, some of the issues that they’re dealing with. Um and you know, maybe uh busting a couple of myths that are out there on Steelers Twitter right now. All right, so first segment today, latest Steelers news and rumors. talking about what Terrell Lost had to say in his media availability. Uh talking about what Darius Slay uh had to say as well. Talking about some other things as well in that news and rumors segment. Then I’m going to be telling the truth in our second segment today about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense at a comprehensive look at the Steelers defense. What’s going wrong, how to fix it, what Tomlin likes to do, and how it can still work. And then we’ll finish up today’s show with a mailbag. Again, guys, make sure you guys get down there and get your # Steelers questions down there in the live chat room. Uh, so you can get your question on today’s show for free. All right, let’s get into our first segment of the day here on Steelers Talk Live. The latest news and rumors surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers. [Music] Today on Steelers Talk, a Steelers player unfortunately suffers a seasonending injury. We’ll talk about that at the top of today’s show. And then Terrell Austin, the defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers, was saying the right things at his press conference today in terms of identifying some of the issues with the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. But I think we can all agree that actions speak louder than words. And then we’ll finish up today’s show with New England’s biggest weakness on defense that Arthur Smith, Aaron Rogers, and the Steelers offense can exploit this week on Sunday versus the New England Patriots in Foxboro. Welcome into the show, guys. Get us started uh today by clicking that thumbs up icon. It takes a half second of your time. It really does help out the channel, guys. It tells the YouTube algorithm that you enjoy our content, that they should push this video in front of other Steelers fans like yourselves. So, if you want to help us grow, get us uh get our videos in front of new audiences here, guys, and help us grow our subscriber base so we can get uh to 100,000 subscribers as soon as possible. We are so close. Make sure you guys click that thumbs up icon if you’re a real one. All right, so now let’s get into the season ending injury here for interior offensive lineman Max Sharping. Um now, he’s on the roster, or at least he was on the 53man roster, but he was uh somebody that had not been active through the first two games. He has been an inactive player on the 53man roster um for the first few games, but now he has torn his ACL and he’ll be out for the season. So, I would say don’t be shocked if they add uh depth on the interior of the offensive line, but it’s not really going to affect the offensive line rotation on game day, at least not as of right now. Uh it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they bring in some depth at interior offensive line in the coming days to take Sharping spot. Um but today uh moving on here to the defensive side of the ball. Uh defensive coordinator Tara Austin has been under fire uh over the last several years frankly from Steelers fans. Um and and he addressed the media today after a slow uh start for his defense here to the 2025 season. And honestly, you know, I was listening to it today and I thought he said a lot of the right things and we’re going to talk about a lot of things that he said today, but it seems like he has a firm grasp on what the Steelers defense is doing wrong right now on film and what needs to happen in order for it to turn around. But like I said, guys, at the beginning of today’s show, um I think that we can all agree that actions and results speak much louder than just saying the right things at a press conference uh a Thursday before a game, right? So, we’ll start here with this tweet from Nick Farav. By the way, if you guys want to go follow Nick on X, uh he does some great stuff, some great beatwork stuff uh for Pen Live. Uh great guy. Says Terrell Austin says the Steelers have noticed some alignment issues on tape in their fronts and in the secondary. Added at times they feel like they’re losing on alignment before the snap and that falls on him. Quote, “We have to stop beating ourselves and making it too easy for them.” In terms of the full quote from Austin when he was referring to this, this is what he said. A lot of stuff that I talked about is we have to make sure we don’t get beat before the ball is even snapped. If you don’t make the right call, you don’t line up correctly, you’re going to be in the wrong spot when the ball is snapped. Now, I want to show you guys a little bit of an example here of what I’m talking about here and what Austin is talking about when he says that the team is out of alignment. So, here it is early in the game, a third and seven, third and long situation. The Steelers have an opportunity to get the Seahawks off the field. uh for a field goal attempt or even if they get a sack here uh put them out of field goal range. They’re playing single high coverage here and it’s pretty clearly pre- snap cover one man. Now the issue with this is right here in the slot with Jaylen Ramsey. He is aligned way off. All right. And he has and he’s playing uh with outside leverage. That means that he is lined up on the outside of the slot receiver who in this case is Jackson Smith and Jigba who I think we all know is a pretty darn good route runner. Uh but the problem here is guys, you’re playing outside leverage with this slot corner, but there’s no intermediate middle defender there. All right? You might see this guy right here uh but he’s actually in a man alignment versus a tight end that’s on the line of scrimmage. So he’s he so he does not have that middle of the field uh responsibility. So when uh you know the ball gets snapped, it’s just an easy slant route for Jackson Smith and Jigba. He picks up an easy first down and the Seattle Seahawks move the chains when you know this was just a very bad football play from the Pittsburgh Steelers. They d Seattle Sam Darnold was able to really diagnose this right away. Um and any competent quarterback that the Steelers face if they go out in this formation on third and seven, they’re going to be able to pick up a first down just about every single time. Now, um you know, the thing about uh this particular formation here, guys, is that it is a cover five blitz, which is allowing uh that middle of the field kind of, uh vacation there. And you know, did you guys know that the Pittsburgh Steelers are actually top five in blitz rate to start this year? They’re blitzing at around 40% of their defensive snaps. And uh you know, I think a lot of people on Steelers Twitter are saying stuff like, “We need to blitz more. We need to be more creative. We need to get after the quarterback. We’re not getting to the quarterback enough. Well, Terrell Austin actually addressed this uh in his press conference today and why the blitzing hasn’t led to more pressure and sack production for the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. This is what Austin had to say. He says, “It almost doesn’t do much for us.” Talking about the blitzing, it almost gets them first downs, but I did think that some of the execution of our pressures up front were really good, but we got what we want. But we got what we wanted. Uh we were able to get in and get some hits on the quarterback. We need pressure, coverage, all that stuff. It has to work together. Right now, we are just a little bit off in that area talking about the coverage aspect of their blitzes. Um, and you know, I think that what Austin is alluding to here is that Pittsburgh needs to make the quarterbacks think a little bit more. We just saw it on that uh first uh little snippet from the film that I just showed you guys. They’re technically running a blitz there. It’s a fiveman dog blitz is what the Steelers call it with five people rushing the quarterback. But because you’re giving Sam Darnold such an easy answer pre- snap, he can get rid of the football pretty much instantaneously. And if the quarterback can get rid of the football that quickly, it doesn’t matter how good your pass rush is, guys. They’re not going to get home no matter how successful a pass rush attempt is. Okay, so that’s another thing that I think Terara Lawson correctly identified. Another piece of good news here for the Pittsburgh Steelers is that sounds like Cole Hulkcom will play more this week uh with Pton Wilson a little bit struggling on early downs. Cole Hulkcom I thought had a pretty decent day outside of his first snap which was absolutely embarrassing with him backpedaling in cover three. Uh but other than that he looked pretty darn good in run defense and the Steelers run defense unit as a whole looked a lot better with Cole Hulcom in there instead of Peyton Wilson. Seems like Austin agreed with that. Said today Cole went in last week and did a good job. He gives you a different uh physical presence. I like where he’s going. I think he’s trending in the right direction. guys that deserve to be out there will be out there and I would expect to see more of him as we move along here. So, expect to see Cole Hulcom out there more especially because I think it’s going to take at least this week for the Steelers to ramp up new linebacker edition Jawan Bentley. All right, that linebacker position, if you know anything about playing linebacker, there’s a lot of stuff that you have to understand about defense, about uh the structure of the defenses that you run, about the terminology, about the communication. Linebackers have a lot of responsibilities, guys, in both run defense and pass defense. And it’s going to take a little while for Bentley to pick that up. Uh we saw Jabril Peppers get signed last week, didn’t get ramped up in time to play over Chuck Clark on Sunday versus Seattle. I would expect kind of the same thing for Jawan Bentley this week. I would expect to probably see him more against the Minnesota Vikings in week four. But the good news, speaking of Jabril Peppers, is that we should see him play more this week. Um, Terrell Austin said that he’s done a fantastic job ramping up and that he’s a he’s a he’s a pros pro. He gets the communication aspect of things. And honestly, guys, Chuck Clark did not look great alongside Juan Thornhill in the secondary last week versus Seattle. Getting a guy like Jabril Peppers in there, who’s an awesome run defender, who’s a great tackler. honestly reminds you a lot of Deshawn Elliot and a lot of things he does for this Steelers defense in there. Um, you know, I think is going to is going to do a a good service for the for the Pittsburgh Steelers uh defense this week and it’s going to make this unit better. Also, Austin addressed the double crossers touchdown uh that this defense has surrendered uh not once but twice to start this season. Uh you guys might have seen this all over Steelers social media where people are saying it’s the same exact coverage. It’s a cover one coverage with the crossers and they’re giving up a touchdown. Week one it was versus Garrett Wilson. Week two it was against Tory Horton. But Terrell Austin explained what happened last week and why they actually did uh address it during the week but it was a blown coverage by Darius Sllay. This is what Austin had to say on that incident. That can’t happen and it wasn’t something that was unressed during the course of the week. So, those are the things that I think sometimes as a coach it gets you a little offkilter is when there’s things that happen that you work on and they still occur in a game because we all know in this league if you show a weakness in something that it’s going to continue to show up and keep coming at you and we uh open the door to have those things, you know, keep coming at us every week now. So, that’s why we were a little bit, you know, pissed off and those things and we uh and we have to do better with that. I think our guys are better than that. If I thought they couldn’t do it, then we then we got the wrong guys in here. Uh but I think our guys can do it. We just got to do it better. All right. So, that touchdown that he’s referring to uh with Tory Horton on the double crosser concept, otherwise known as deep mesh or jumbo mesh, there’s different ways uh to call that concept where you got the two deep crossers. Um it’s really a cover one beater. And a lot of people on Steelers Twitter are blasting the Steelers and the coaching staff for not adjusting. Uh but Austin uh seems to infer here that this was a blown coverage by Darius Slay. So let’s just kind of break this all down here one by one. All right, so we’ll start here with this first snippet here, guys. We have to go back to week one when they gave up the touchdown for the first time. You guys can see here that the Steelers are showing cover one here with outside leverage on the outside corners with the Jets playing a condensed split from shotgun. And then when they run this double crosser concept, essentially what it does is it puts this middle of the field defender in conflict where essentially Justin Fields is going to throw the ball to the crosser that this free safety doesn’t cover uh because the inside cross is going to have the advantage versus these man corners who are playing in outside leverage. So, the result, you guys can see here, Thorn, I believe it was Jaylen Ramsay here. As you go to the next photo there, Ponzi, uh, he, you know, Thornhill takes the the other crosser here that leaves, uh, Garrett Wilson one-on-one on Darius Slay here. And, of course, because of the outside leverage, he has him beat, and it ends up being a touchdown for the New York Jets. Then we get to week two here, and it’s a very similar look. All right, it’s the first drive of the game for the Seattle Seahawks, and they’re not in shotgun, but they’re under center. It’s the same look from the Steelers, right? It’s still those same two outside corners and outside uh uh leverage with the single high uh cover one defender there in the middle there in the post, right? And then the result ended up being the same exact thing, right? The two defenders are over here on this one and then on the same side of the field. It’s literally looks like the same exact play. So when Steelers fans saw this on Twitter, they’re like, “What the heck? The Steelers don’t adjust Tara Lawson and Mike Tomlin. They don’t make adjustments.” Uh, but it’s been confirmed here by the Steelers coaching staff and Steelers players now this week that it was actually a blown coverage by Darius Slay. All right. So, here is what’s called the mesh point here where the deep mesh is kind of uh going across here. And what Slay is supposed to do right here is run with his man towards the sideline on this crosser that’s coming across the field. All right, that’s called a peel technique on what’s called zombie, which is uh kind of a Dick Leau thing uh with their three deep stuff. Ryan Clark explained it here. We’re going to go over his tweet here in just a second, but essentially what’s supposed to happen is Juan Thornhill, the free safety, is supposed to cut this underneath crosser because he has the leverage against him. And then Slay is supposed to come off to take Tory Horton who’s coming across the formation. But as we showed, he didn’t do that. He just followed Jackson Smith and Jigba and it led to a wideopen touchdown for uh for Tory Horton in the first quarter. Ryan Clark, who of course played in the Steelers defense back in the day, explained what happened here. He said pre- snap safety has to identify the cut. Uh on film, we can see Juan Thornhill confirming it with Darius Slay uh before the snap. He points at him, which is the cut call. He says, “You call it pre- sna pre- snap based on the reduced split.” Ideally, he flatfoot reads it and cuts the low crosser. Slay pushes to the high crosser. It’s game plan throughout the week. We called it zombie. It was a staple of coach Leau’s three deep system. This route is much more prevalent in today’s game, though. So, you know, it’s good that uh I think I think it’s a good thing here that, you know, the Steelers aren’t just sitting on their hands doing nothing. They did have a plan to address that deep crosser concept. And I also think that it’s good that Terrell Austin uh is acknowledging the faults of this defense and is identifying the faults of this defense on film. But now I think we all agree that actions and results are going to speak louder than the words, right? They have to go out there and actually freaking do it and make the adjustments and make the plays that they just haven’t made throughout these first two weeks. So, I really really hope that this coaching staff can figure things out this week versus the New England Patriots and really uh figure things out for the rest of this season because it just simply hasn’t been good enough through the first two weeks. So, let me know over or under down there in the comments section. Will the Pittsburgh Steelers give up over or under 23 and a half points this weekend? All right, versus the New England Patriots. If they give up less than 24, this would be the defense’s best performance of the season to this point. So, type O for over or U for under. This will be the pin comment on today’s show in just a second here. I’m going to tell you about our sponsor today at uh prize picks. And while I’m telling you about prize picks today, let me know over or under. 23 and a half points for the Steelers defense on Sunday. And with that, let’s have word from our sponsor today at prize picks. And you and I, we both make decisions every single day, but most of those decisions don’t get you paid. But on prize picks, being right with your decisions can actually get you paid cold hard cash. Don’t miss any of the excitement this season on prize picks where it’s good to be right. Football season is finally here and you better believe I’ll be getting in my lineups for uh all the football games this year. Uh tonight’s Thursday Night Football versus the Dolphins and the Bills. And you better believe I’m getting my lineup in tonight. Price Pix is simple to play. Just pick more than or less than on two to six player staff projections. If you get your picks right, you could cash in. Price Pix also puts their users first, so all withdrawals are fast, safe, and secure. Prize Pix also offers Venmo, Apple, Apple Pay, Mastercard, and more for quick and easy deposits into your account this football season. And a new feature from Prize Pix that they introduced this season that I absolutely love is injury reboots. If one of your players leaves the game in the first half and doesn’t return, Prize Picks will not count that as a loss. You guys can take a look at my prize picks projection for this weekend. I am taking uh multiple here on Jaylen Warren. I’m taking the more on both longest run and total rushing yards. I’m taking the more on Trayvon Henderson rush yards. And I’m taking the free play on Patrick Mahomes passing yards. If you guys want to get your play in here, guys, you can do that right now by going to down by downloading the prize picks app today on your phone for free and use code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. Now, earlier this week, Mike Tomlin said in his week three press conference here that Caleb Johnson is losing his kick return duties uh after having that really uh crazy botch situation last week where they gave the Seattle Seahawks seven points which ended up being crucial in the grand scheme of the football game. And you know, now there’s starting to be some people that are speculating whether or not Caleb is even going to get a helmet for this week’s game because if he’s not providing value as a kick return guy and he’s only getting like one or two or three carries a game, like is one or two or three carries a game really worth giving him a game day spot. So that’s really going to be a big question mark for Caleb this week is whether or not uh his workload uh first of all will increase with Kenneth Gainwell not looking too efficient in the run game to this point. and then B, uh, you know, not being able to to do the kickoff return stuff, uh, how much is that going to affect his status, uh, in terms of playing this week? But, you know, who else uh can really contribute on special teams? That would be Mr. Trey Surman. He’s he’s contributed on special teams quite a bit for multiple teams at this point. Um, and you know, I certainly think that this is something that is pretty reasonable here because Trey Surman is somebody where if there’s an injury, he can go in there and he can help out the run game as somebody that does have experience as an NFL running back, but he also, I think, provides more value as a special teams player than Caleb Johnson does at this point. So, even if you put Surman in there, guys, you’re not giving up on Caleb Johnson. All right? you’re just giving him a little bit of a reset, a little bit of a breather um for him to, you know, really understand the business here in the National Football League and kind of give him a little bit of a reality check that he’s got to really tighten up if he’s going to really solidify himself uh as a mainstay on this Steelers roster, not only this season, but in the future. So, let me know down there in the comments section, which running back three are you giving the helmet to this weekend? Are you type Are you going Caleb Johnson, type KJ? are you going with uh special teams help here with Trey Surman type TS down there in the comments section. Now before we say goodbye today, I do want to point out one very key weakness with the New England Patriots that the Steelers have to take advantage of this weekend. Uh the two starting linebackers for New England, Robert Spain, all right, former Steeler and then Christian Ellis are number one and number two respectively in the entire National Football League in missed tackles. So there is a lot of missed tackles specifically in the middle of this New England Patriots defense. And if you can get Jaylen Warren out in space with these cats, they are not going to bring him down. All right. So the things that I would do if I’m Arthur Smith, number one, exploit these guys in pass coverage. When they want to play zone, I’m throwing it into their zone and I’m forcing them to make a tackle out in space. And when they play man, uh obviously I’m I’m I’m trying to get the ball out to uh the matchups uh that those guys are on as well. Then you get to Jaylen Warren. I think you get you can get the ball out to him in space. Obviously, you can get him the ball uh via handing it off in the run game. And you try to scheme things up to make it one-on-one opportunities between Jaylen Warren and these linebackers where Warren can use his juking ability, his contact balance, all the things that he brings to the table to make these guys miss. Because last week, man, against Seattle, he was awesome. All right, he had 18 total touches for 134 yards. That is way over 50% of the Steelers uh offensive production from their uh offensive weaponry uh for an average of 7.4 yards per touch. So that is really efficient stuff. Fortunately wasn’t able to get into the end zone, but he has an opportunity to have an even bigger game this week versus the New England Patriots. Guys, I really believe that uh with all the missed tackles and really how lost this Patriots defense has looked through the first two weeks, even the Miami Dolphins offense looked pretty decent against these guys last week. I think that this is an awesome opportunity for the Steelers to have a get right game this week and Jaylen Warren to go off yet again. So, let me know down there in the comment section. Will Jaylen Warren have an even better game this week versus the New England Patriots? Give me a yes or a no down there in the comment section. I certainly think it’s possible. He had a hell of a week last week. Think he could probably do it again. Let me know what you guys think down there in the comment section. Thank you guys so much for making it to the end with me here in this news and rumors edition of Steelers Talk. I know we went into the weeds there in the first segment or in the first section of today’s show. Uh so if you made it to the end of today’s program, that makes you a real one. Make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven’t already uh for our Steelers content on this channel absolutely free every single day. All right, Ponzi. So the first segment is now in the books. Our second segment today, uh we are going to be telling the truth about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. uh really a comprehensive look into the Steelers, what they like to run, what Mike Tomlin’s defense actually is schematically, uh talk about some of the myths that are out there about this defense on social media. Um and then talking about some of the issues and solutions that the Steelers can embrace uh to fix the problems that we have seen throughout the first two weeks here in Pittsburgh. What’ you think of that first segment there, Mr. Ponzi? Some some interesting stuff there. I think, you know, honestly, like looking at it, you know, looking at those crossers routes here, I’ll get on screen here in a bit, but um I mean, I didn’t even see that. I didn’t get to look at the film for u the game last Sunday, but like come on, Slay, what are you doing there? It’s the same play basically, but it’s just one under center. Yeah. And what’s what’s frustrating I’m sure what’s frustrating for Tara Austin and Mike Tomlin is that they coached this up during the week last week. They they saw how they lost and how they got burned by Garrett Wilson on that touchdown against the Jets and they said, “Okay, here’s the way we’re addressing this if we see this look this week.” And then they got that exact look. Juan Thornhill and Darius Lelay confirm it before the snap. You can see them point at each other on film, which is the which is the indication that, okay, we’re cutting this. This is this is when we’re going to do Zombie. And Darius Lelay just follows JSN anyway. and he just leaves Tory Horton wide open and he completely leaves the defense and Jaylen Ramsay out to dry. So like obviously Terrell Austin and this in this coaching staff need to drive home the point and they need to get these guys on the same page because clearly on that particular play they were not. Um but you know obviously obviously obviously um you know this defense needs to play better and we’re going to talk about a lot of the things that they need to do better uh in this next video. But, you know, sometimes, man, like sometimes it’s not all just coaching, you know, not getting the scheme right or not making adjustments or all these things I keep hearing on Steelers Twitter. Sometimes it’s the players not doing the things that they have been uh told and taught to do. Now, obviously, there’s a certain level of accountability that this that the coaches hold for not getting those players to execute. Um, but you know, at the end of the day, guys, man, uh, you know, I think that the negativity has really gotten to a certain point here on this defense. And people forget, man, obviously this this last 10game stretch for the Steelers Ponzi has been awful, and we have to tell the truth about the things that they’re doing wrong and the things they need to do better. Um, and we’re going to be doing that in our next segment here. But you also have to acknowledge that, you know, the 36 games before this 10game stretch was a really awesome stretch for Mike Tomlin and Tara Lost on the defensive side of the ball. Now, you can chalk that up to TJ W great talent or whatever, not great scheme, but like the Steelers for 36 games, all right, from the middle of 2022 when they went on that tear at the end of the 2022 season all the way to the Ravens game in the middle of last season um before they kind of the bed in the second half of the year during that 36 game stretch, 23 of their games. All right, the defense was giving up less than 20 points. That is an that is by far number one in the NFL during that stretch. So like you know I think people for kind of forget about that and people kind of say you know this coaching staff can’t coach defense and it’s like that’s not exactly true. Obviously they haven’t done the right things in the last 10 games. All right. But like I I feel like I see so much on Steelers Twitter saying that this coaching staff can’t coach defense when the Steelers lead the NFL over the last 18 seasons in top 10 defensive seasons. All right, 12 of them. That’s twothirds of your defensive seasons under Mike Tomlin. You have a top 10 defense. All right, I don’t think you can go that long of a stretch with top 10 defensive level play almost year in and year out, twothirds of the years you play if you’re a bad defensive coach. All right, that I that’s that’s the only thing I can say, Ponzi. I mean, like, obviously things need to be fixed and we’re going to be telling the truth today on the things that need to be fixed, but I also think that people say there’s no chance that they can turn it around and this coaching staff is completely incompetent when it’s like, how about we give them a couple more weeks to see if they can figure it out, you know? I just think that people are already giving up and it’s a little bit of a panic reaction. Do you think that this is more because for for this season in particular? Uh, but you know, I mean, the last season they did too because of the addition to the secondary, I mean, guys that were gone or there for a while now being replaced by like Jaylen Ramsey, Darius. Do you think that’s just the case because they don’t know the communication or do you think it’s just a team issue? Yeah, it’s not it’s not an excuse, you know, especially if it’s being coached up. It’s not an excuse or especially because these guys are veterans. Like, you get veterans in the building to prevent these types of mistakes. Um, and listen, man, like I’m somebody that’s that’s going to be completely honest in terms of the things that I’m seeing that’s wrong on the film. And that’s what we’re and that’s I’m going to be doing that a lot in this next segment, but I’m also going to try and be fair to Mike Tomlin and Terara Austin and give them credit for the things that they do right, for the things that they have done right in the past. Um, but I’m on record saying, Ponzi, that if they don’t figure out this defense this year and this defense is not good and like they’re in in the bottom half of most metrics, Mike Tomlin should be fired at the end of the year. There’s two. Do you really think that they would let him go? I don’t know. It depends on the win loss record. I really do believe that if they win seven games um and they really underperform on both sides of the ball, I think that they would consider it. I I don’t know if it’d be a straight firing. It’d be more of like a quote unquote mutual parting of ways is I think is the way that I think that they would go about it. But like if you’re going into next year, man, you have the most expensive defense in the National Football League for multiple years on end and like you go an entire season of this defense not playing well and you’re going into a next season where you’re drafting a new quarterback and you’re going to be trusting your head coach to develop that young quarterback, I can’t say that I trust Mike Tomlin if he can’t get this fixed this year. So, um, you know, I I I I try to I try to be fair. That’s what I try to be. All right? I try to uh not get into semantics. I try to uh base my opinions based on what I’m seeing on the film, the actual evidence, and uh that’s why uh we do what we do here on Steelers Talk so you guys can be informed on that. Do you think what’s ahead? I was saying, do you think that like any team would try to trade for Tomlin in that case? Yes. Yeah. I think that I think that that’s a really good idea actually. Like if you win like eight games this year and like somebody comes calling saying, “Hey, we’ll give you a first round pick for Mike Tomlin or even a second round pick.” I’m saying take them. All right. We’ll hire Brian Flores as the next head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ll poach probably Josh Macau or somebody else from that Viking system to come call our offense and develop our young quarterback and we get an additional high draft pick out of it. I think that would be like a really good scenario. Now, I I’m still of the belief that the Steelers are going to win double digit games this year. I still believe they’re going to make the playoffs and I still think by the end of the season this defense is going to be playing a lot better where we’re going to be looking at this team as a legitimate threat in the AFC playoffs once we get to January. All right. But if that doesn’t happen, absolutely you you think about trading Mike Tomlin for especially if you’re going to get a high draft pick, 100% you can do that kind of stuff. All right, so right now we are at $50 in donations. So we’re halfway to do the hat raffle here, guys. Um, $5 gets you a raffle ticket. $10 gets you three raffle tickets. $20 gets you 10 tickets plus your name on the Steelers Talk Gong. The gong squad is what we call it. $50 you get to buy a hat straight up. And then $250 total. We will bang the gong. All right. So, thank you guys so much for your support. Also, a reminder that we will be getting into a mailbag here very soon. Uh, so if you have a question that you want to get on the show, uh, if you want to call me an idiot for any of the takes that I that I make on today’s show, if you want to, uh, thank us uh, and and give appreciation for the show, if you just want to get on the show in general today, guys, questions, comments, uh, all that stuff, criticisms, whatever, uh, you guys can use Steelers down there in the live chat room, uh, to be able to be eligible to get on the show for free today. And then if you super chat with a question, you automatically make the mailbag today. Okay, guys. So, we really do appreciate all the donations that you guys send in. And uh I think we’re about ready to get into our next segment here. Ponzi, uh you know, very very indepth video here, guys. This one’s probably going to go on for a little while. Uh you guys know me. I can get pretty nerdy and in-depth on on these spotlight type of videos. Uh but it’s why I love doing this job, man. I love uh talking about football. I love getting into the weeds. I haven’t slept much this week going over the film, going over all the different stuff because I want to figure out what’s going wrong just like you guys uh want to know what’s going on u on with the Steelers defense right now. U so uh we’re going to get into this next segment here guys where I’m going to be telling the whole truth at least from my perspective about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. We’re going to be talking about uh the issues, some of the potential solutions. So, we’re going to be talking about Mike Tomlin’s scheme uh and what it traditionally has been. And we’re going to be talking about um maybe some of the myths that are going out there on Steelers Twitter right now about this defense, about this coaching staff uh that I want to address on today’s show. So, what’s that? Sounds good. Okay. Sounds good. Do we not have the Do we have the picture with it too? That picture picture didn’t look okay. That’s fine. Okay. Uh so Ponzi tells me we’re ready to go here on our next segment here, guys. Again, get your questions in # Steelers down there in the chat uh to get your question on the mailbag. That’ll be coming up here in about 20 minutes or so. But without further ado, let’s get into our next segment here, guys. Let’s tell the truth about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. [Music] Today on Steelers Talk, we’re going to be having a little bit of a difficult discussion here, Steelers Nation. I’m going to tell you the truth, at least from my perspective, about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. There’s a lot of different hot takes out there about this defense, what needs to happen, a lot of declarative statements about what this team already is just two weeks into a new NFL season. Some people already declaring that this defense is sucks, can’t be fixed, and it’s going to be the doom of the Pittsburgh Steelers here in 2025. Today, I’m going to be taking a little bit more of a nuanced approach here. We’re going to look at some film. We’re going to be looking a at at what Mike Tomlin likes to do from a schematic standpoint. Talk about some of his failures and also some of some of his successes as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. talk about some of the issues we’re seeing on the film through the first two weeks here in 2025 and some potential solutions uh for those problems here in the weeks to come. If you guys want indepth nuance Steelers coverage here on YouTube every single day, that’s what we try to provide for you guys here on Steelers Talk every single day. Um I really put in a ton of hours, guys. I don’t know if you guys have noticed, I haven’t even shaved this week because I’ve been up all night grinding the film trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with this Steelers defense. Um, and I think that we have uh at least some answers here on today’s show. So, if you appreciate the time that we put in here and you guys want that nuance coverage here that doesn’t get too much into uh you know, panicking or anything like that, make sure you guys click that subscribe button right now uh for nuanced Steelers coverage. So, the first things first, and this has to be getting out of this has to get out of the way immediately. The defense has underperformed and the defense has not been good enough to start this season. All right, plain and simply, the expectations coming into this year was that this defense was supposed to be, to use Mike Tomlin’s term, historic. All right, and we’ve we’ve heard guys like DK Metaf say this is the best defense he’s ever seen. We’ve seen Juan Thornnehill saying this could be the best defense of all time. And they go out there in the first two weeks and they give up at least 24 points a game. All right? All right. And they gave up over 30 to the New York Jets who could barely move the football against the Buffalo Bills. All right. So, there’s been some issues with this Steelers defense. And frankly, the issues have gone past just the first two games this year. You can extend this out to the Cleveland Browns game on Thursday Night Football last year. And if we extend it out for the last 10 games, every opponent the Steelers have played have gotten 300 yards of offense. All right. Every single opponent, all right, put them all together, they’re averaging 27 and a half points per game. All right. approaching 30 points a game over the last 10 games for Terara Lost, Mike Tomlin, and this Steelers defense. Now, to be clear, Pittsburgh’s defense has been uh the most expensive defense in the NFL for many years. All right. So, the fact that this defense is over $20 million more expensive than the next most expensive defense in the NFL and they have had this bad of a start to this season and they were as bad as they were to finish last season is unacceptable, especially for this organization and this head coach who claims that the standard is the standard. So, what’s really weird to me about this whole situation, guys, is that before this 10game skid, where the defense has undeniably played poor football under Mike Tomlin and Terrell Austin, they went on a really incredible 36game stretch of over two years worth of games of defensive football where they were the most dominant defense in the National Football League. All right. And you know, you can you can see here from week 10 in 2022, uh that was kind of when they turned their season around after a really slow start there uh in 2022 all the way to week 11. That was the Ravens game at home last year in 2024. That’s 36 regular season games in between those games. All right. Pittsburgh gave up 20 points, all right? Or less or less than 20 points in 24 of 36 of those games. So in twothirds of the games you were playing, you were giving up less than 20 points. that is by far the most in the National Football League. Um, and that is really a dominating type of stat line that Terrell Austin and Mike Tomlin were putting up for, like I said, over two years worth of football games for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And the truth is, guys, you know, with with the Pittsburgh Steelers, they’re really relying on getting that back. They’re really relying on this defense being elite, a team that shuts teams down if they want to win a Super Bowl. And if they can’t do that, and if this defense isn’t great, and this defense u maybe even if this defense isn’t elite, they might have to be a top three or top five defense in the league this year to even have a chance to hoist a seventh Lombardi Trophy. And to this point, in the first two weeks of the season, it simply hasn’t been good enough. And if it continues, they’re going to have no shot to win a Super Bowl this year or honestly win a playoff game. Like, if you want to win a playoff game this year, this defense is going to have to play a lot better. And because of that, I believe that the clock is ticking on head coach Mike Tomlin. All right. And this is where we get honest with Coach T. And I’m somebody that thinks Mike T is a good football coach, is a good uh leader and motivator, but frankly uh this coaching staff has fell short over the last 10 games. And if they have this much talent and this much money on this side of the football and Mike Tomlin and Terara Austin can’t figure it out by the end of the season, this team misses the playoffs or this defense finishes uh bottom half of the league in most defensive categories, I think you got to find somebody else and a new voice in this locker room that can actually fix this defense moving forward and lead this organization to greener pastures. But with that said, I’m somebody that’s not saying it’s over. Uh they have to fire him now. uh he can’t have the rest of the season. I’m not one of those people on Steelers Twitter overreacting at this point. Uh I still think there’s time to fix this, but time is certainly running out. I believe he has to the end of this season to figure it out. Or else, if I’m the Pittsburgh Steelers, I would move on from Mike Tomlin. Now, still to come here on Steelers Talk, we’re going to be breaking down Mike Tomlin’s scheme, what he likes to do from a schematic standpoint, some of the weaknesses, and also the strengths. Then we’re going to be talking about some common myths that I’ve see on Steelers Twitter and even in the comments section about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense uh in this coaching staff. And then we’ll be diagnosing what’s wrong with the Steelers defense so far on film here in 2025 and some of the solutions that I have come up with to fix those problems in the weeks to come. But before we get into the rest of today’s show, guys, I want to give a big shout out to our sponsor today at Mando Whole Body Deodorant. You guys know the feeling. It’s game day and you’ve been working hard all week and then the Steelers are not playing well on defense and your lucky jersey, well by the fourth quarter it might be smelling a little too lucky. Let’s be honest, regular deodorant just doesn’t cut it. And after a long day, things can get pretty right. But there’s a real game changer and that is Mando deodorant plus sweat control. There is this isn’t just another cover up, guys. Mando is one stick that does two jobs. Powerful odor and sweat control. It actually stops odor before it even starts. No more masking, just freshness. This isn’t your typical deodorant. It’s clinical strength, two times better at controlling sweat than the standard deodorant. It controls both sweat and odor for 72 hours. And after just 12 hours, underarm sweat was reduced by 92% of participants. This stuff really works, guys. And I use Mando products every single day. I use their sweat control uh deodorant as well as their uh body wash every single day um when I get ready for work. And I really love the bourbon leather scent, guys. It’s absolutely fantastic. It keeps you smelling fresh all day long. They got a whole line of products so you guys can try out uh and you guys can start if you a little bit worried about getting a whole bottle or a whole stick or whatever. You guys can get Mando Starter pack which is perfect for new customers. It comes with a solid stick of deodorant, cream tube deodorant, two free products of your choice like mini body wash or even deodorant wipes. Plus, you get free shipping. As a special offer for our listeners, new customers get 20% off sitewide with our exclusive code. Just use code chat at shopmando.com/ 20% off sitewide plus free shipping. That’s sop-do.com. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Mando’s got you covered with deodorant plus sweat control. Say goodbye to sweat stains and hello to long lasting freshness with our friends at Mando whole body deodorant today. All right, so now let’s first talk about Mike Tomlin’s scheme and what he likes to do as a defensive uh mind and why this defense has been uh really as consistent as it has been and also some of the issues that it presents uh for the Pittsburgh Steers and some of the inconsistencies that it presents. Now, Pittsburgh is one of the only teams left in the National Football League that consistently uses a true three fourbased defense. So, you’ve got a nose tackle there in the middle, two defensive ends, which really act more as like defensive tackles. They’re interior players in this scheme. Then you got outside linebackers playing on the ball um as edge rushers and then you got two inside linebackers there playing off ball. Then you’ve got two corners on each side and then a free safety and a strong safety. You can bring down the strong safety if need be. All right, so that’s the base three four defense. And really anytime that a opposing offense comes out in in heavier personnel or a six offensive lineman set or a multiple tight end set, whatever the case may be, Pittsburgh is going to go to this alignment. All right, where you got five down linemen, you got two offball backers. You can put another strong safety in there if you want. Um, and you can also put in um the strong safety in the slot if need be. Um, but also Pittsburgh plays, especially with the with the with the emergence of three receiver sets in the National Football League, Pittsburgh has had to adjust and play more four down fronts in their nickel formations where they will still uh consider bringing down a strong safety uh to play in the box if they feel like a run is coming from these three wide receiver sets. This is certainly something that the Pittsburgh Steelers um have run quite a bit. Sometimes they’ll still run like a three four shell by bringing in a slot corner to blitz and be pretty much like a pseudo uh edge rusher from the edge there. They did that a lot with Mike Hilton. We’ll talk about uh that role with Jaylen Ramsay later in today’s show. But in terms of coverage and pre- snap looks, the Pittsburgh Steelers love to run what is called one high safety coverages more than most defenses. really the modern NFL defense really loves to go to high safeties. They really love to uh disguise coverage, all that different stuff. But the Pittsburgh Steelers like to have that extra guy in the box to help defend the run. Um and you know, the problem with single high coverage, and a lot of Steelers fans point this out, is that you don’t have as many options in terms of the coverage that you can play. Usually, you’re restricted to cover one and cover three type coverages. uh you can still do uh some creative stuff and you can still do some rotations. And by the way, Mike Tomlin uh has been about as creative as you can possibly be from one high structures. He does a lot of uh non-traditional tampas. Uh he has done some really creative rotations from single high coverage, pre- snap uh throughout his career. So the Steelers can still get creative and have gotten creative uh with postnap rotations from single high coverage. Uh but certainly there’s not as many options as say a Mike McDonald defense or a Vicfangio defense where they play two high safeties on pretty much every single play. In terms of the coverage types that Mike Tomlin likes to run, uh cover three and cover one out of that single high structure is really the bread and butter of this defense. It has been for a very long time. Uh Tampa 2 is a very po important part of Mike Tomlin’s past. He got his career started under Monty Keifin uh with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who invented the Tampa 2 uh and uh the Steelers have certainly implemented Tampa quite a bit throughout Mike Tomlin’s tenure here in Pittsburgh. And then of course uh with the Dick Leau uh influence here in Pittsburgh. The three deep fire zone defense has certainly made an impact on him and he has implemented that into his defensive structure. By the way, the Steelers do play other coverages. They do play quarters. They do play two Reed or Palms. they do play too high man. They’re not only restricted to these coverages, but these are the ones that you see more often uh in this Mike Tomlin scheme here in Pittsburgh. So, now that we have a a good understanding of what Mike Tomlin likes to do from a schematic standpoint, let’s talk about some of the common myths that I see on Steelers social media about Pittsburgh’s defense and also their coaching staff. Uh we’ll start with Mike Tomlin himself, which is that he’s not a good defensive coach and he’s never been a good defensive coach. I I just don’t know how you can say that when you look at the track record over an 18-year NFL career. All right, and we’re going to be talking about a lot of the things that the Steelers are doing wrong on this video, especially so far this year at the end of things here. But Mike Tomlin has had 12 top 10 defenses in 18 years here in Pittsburgh. All right, you can’t just fall into that as a bad defensive coach. You can’t luck your way to twothirds of the seasons you’re with a team uh to getting top 10 defenses. Now, obviously, he’s benefited from having great talents here. Troy Palamalo, Cam Hayward, TJ Watt have certainly helped him get to those uh get to those top 10 rankings, so to speak, and it’s certainly a fair criticism that those that his defenses have not performed when it matters most, especially lately in the playoffs. But the idea that Tomlin doesn’t know uh defensive coverages or that he doesn’t know how to coach a defense, uh it’s just it’s just it’s just false, guys. is and you guys can see since 2016. All right, this is kind of uh since they started uh tracking EPA per play and success rate or this goes all the way back. All right, since 2016 once they once they started really recording this stuff, the Steelers defense is sixth in EPA per play and second in success rate. They’re also way up there in turnovers uh forced. So, like this defense has been a successful one uh for many seasons, even in recent seasons under uh the toutelage of Mike Tomlin and even defensive coordinator Terrell Austin. And you know, I I I don’t think Tomlin is absolved from criticism when this defense does stuff wrong. We’re going to be honest on this channel and we’re going to tell you when those uh things are wrong, but also we’re going to acknowledge the good things that have happened under Mike Tomlin here. It’s not all bad like a lot of people seem to think that it is. Um and he certainly understands defensive football. All right, that is something that I think is irrefutable uh based on his track record here with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Uh that’s the second myth here, guys, is that the Pittsburgh Steelers have a quote unquote static defense and they don’t do postnap rotations. It’s all uh just super static and they don’t move and, you know, they they they don’t do all this postnap stuff that we’re seeing from other teams in the league. But did you guys know that on 34% of the Steelers defensive snaps versus pass attempts versus the Seattle Seahawks, they had postnap rotations. All right, so they were rotating a lot from cover two. So two high safeties actually down into a cover three look where the safety was buzzing down. That was a lot of postnap rotation that they did uh in this football game. And they also played quite a bit of cover one robber where you start with two high safeties and then a safety comes down into the intermediate zone. They played that quite a bit. They played cover one cross quite a few times as well. Um, which is also a post snap rotation. So, um, you know, this narrative that the Steelers just stand in place pre- snap every single play and they don’t do any postnap rotations. Uh, it’s just not true. And it hasn’t been true for multiple years. I mean, Mike Tomlin and the Steelers defense have been doing postnap rotations for years at this point. All right. And this is somebody that has watched every single snap of Steelers defensive football probably over the last decade on film. All right. I can tell you from from experience, this defense does do a lot of postnap rotations and they will get creative, especially on third down. And every cover three look, by the way, every single one that they ran versus Seattle had a buzzing safety. It came from two high safeties. And a lot of NFL teams are running this. It’s a super modern look because it gives leverage uh and vision uh it gives the leverage and vision advantage for the buzzing defender, the safety. Uh it’s much better than having a linebacker backpedaling out there and doing all that stuff. it’s much much more beneficial to have a buzzing safety and the Steelers have embraced that. All right, so uh I keep hearing that this defense just stays in place and doesn’t move and all this different stuff. That’s just not true. Um they do uh embrace some of the more modern stuff. Then we get to uh the the myth that the Steelers defense isn’t creative. Now maybe it’s not as postnap uh postnapheavy as a Mike McDonald defense or some of these other ones that we’re seeing. And maybe it’s not quite as creative as uh maybe like a Brian Flores defense. But did you know that Pittsburgh ran 12 different types of coverage versus the Seattle Seahawks? In fact, uh their last seven defensive coverage snaps were seven different coverages. All right, so you finish out the game with multiple exotic looks, multiple post snap rotations. And uh especially at the end of the game, they finished with two exotic looks versus Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks. Um, and you know, so this this idea that they just run like the same two or three plays over and over and over again, uh, it’s just not true. And you know, the reality is guys, a lot of great defenses stick to a few core concepts. All right? You look at the Legion of Boom. They played cover three match on every single play because they could. All right? You look at some of the Lovey Smith Bears defenses. They would play cover three on first down literally every play. Then they would roll the Tampa two and then they would have some uh third down stuff that they would do and and mix in there. A couple blitzes. All right. That would be it. All right. Really good defenses can can can afford to be a little bit more uh simplistic. The Steelers have kind of started the season with a little bit more of a simplistic game plan because they thought they had the talent to run that, but I think the Steelers coaching staff is starting to figure out that maybe they don’t have quite the horses as those uh historic defenses had uh back in the day. Then we get to uh another myth here, which is that the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t make adjustments. All right. Um, and you know, this is something that when I watch the film, I do see adjustments being made both in-game and then week to week. Just sometimes they aren’t executed. Uh, this was a prime example this week where there was a double crosser concept that the Steelers have given up a touchdown two straight weeks and then I think a a viral social media, I think it was on Instagram, some film watcher guy put out there saying that’s the same exact coverage. And even though on film it looks the same, it ends up being a blown coverage from quarterback Darius Slay. And that’s of course confirmed by Juan Thornnehill who was the cutting safety on that play and what’s called a zombie adjustment on this double crosser concept. Um so sometimes you know adjustments just aren’t executed by the players. But in terms of that game against the Seattle Seahawks, the I think four of the first five plays were cover one blitzes. Um and then the Steelers only played four more the rest of the game. So the Steelers certainly identified that their cover one blitzes were not working versus the Seattle Seahawks. and then Terra Austin and Mike Tomlin made the adjustment to play less cover one as the game went on. Now, unfortunately, the Steelers run defense couldn’t stop Kenneth Walker in the second half. Uh so, obviously, you know, that adjustment uh wasn’t really picked up or or seen as a positive thing because the defense was given up a lot of yardage in the second half, but they were trying to do stuff in game last week to try and mix things up uh and get away from those cover one looks that they were just getting blasted by last week. And then another myth here in my opinion, guys, is that the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t blitz enough. Um, you know, I keep hearing this saying we need to be like Brian Flores and we need to blitz more often, right? While the Steelers are blitzing at a top five rate in the National Football League right now. They’re blitzing at about 40% of their defensive snaps. Um, and that, by the way, that’s that’s about double what Mike what Brian Flores is doing in Minnesota. All right, the Vikings are barely blitzing over 20% right now. um because of some of the injuries that they have, they know they can’t hold up on the back end if they are as aggressive as they used to be. So, the Steelers are blitzing. It’s just a matter of, you know, I think Terrell Austin brought it up this week, they’re just not aligning in the correct ways and they’re setting themselves up for failure pretty much pre- snap and giving quarterbacks easy answers so that the blitz can’t get home. So, um you know, it’s not that the Steelers don’t blitz enough. They do it plenty. Uh it’s just that, you know, the coverage on the back end, and we’re going to talk about some of those issues here in just a second, need to be cleaned up. And then the final defensive myth here is that the Pittsburgh Steelers should have kept Brian Flores and fired Terrell Austin after the 2022 season. All right, this one kind of bothers me a lot, guys, because I keep hearing it. But Pittsburgh’s defense finished the 2022 season on an absolute tear. You guys will remember that they won all those games in a row to finish the season. They led the league in sacks. They led the league in turnovers. They led the league in points per game allowed during that final stretch. And guess who was the defensive player, a play caller for the Steelers? It was Terrell Austin. Are you going to fire the defensive coordinator that just where your defense just had that incredible run with? No, you’re not going to do that. No NFL team in the history of the NFL would have said, “You know what, Terrell, you had a great stretch here, great second half of the year. We were the best defense in the league. You’re fired to keep this assistant coach.” That there’s just no way that any team in the NFL would have done that. And by the way, Pittsburgh’s 2022 defense was nothing like the Brian Flores defense in Minnesota. All right. Actually, Flores stole his defensive scheme from Patardi here at Pit. It’s all palms and it’s, you know, a bunch of different quarters and palms combinations along with cover zero and a bunch of uh pre-nap looks with with linebackers walked up to the line of scrimmage. You didn’t see that in Pittsburgh in 2022. In fact, the scheme for Pittsburgh in 2022 looks a lot more than the defense we’re seeing from Pittsburgh right now under Mike Tomlin because guess what guys, it’s Mike Tomlin’s defense. It wasn’t Brian Flores’s defense in 2022. And then two things here, guys. Number one, Pittsburgh wasn’t going to fire or demote Terrell Austin after that awesome end to the 2022 season. Um, you know, you guys can have your opinions on Terrell Austin all you want. There’s just not a single NFL team in the league that would fire their defensive coordinator after the stretch run that they had at the end of 2022. And then number two, if Flores would have stayed on as the defensive coordinator here in Pittsburgh and they fired Terrell Austin, this defense would still be Tomlin’s defense. I mean, Tomlin is in charge of the defensive game planning week in and week out. Now, maybe Flores has a couple ideas that they throw in there, but this would still be Mike Tomlin’s scheme, and it would be it would still look largely the same if Brian Flores was calling the defensive plays here in Pittsburgh. And to be completely clear here, guys, I love Coach Flo. All right, I I am the biggest Coach Flo supporter. I’ve been saying for years that he should be getting another head coaching job. I love his defensive structure there in Minnesota. And by the way, if they fire Mike Tomlin at the end of the year, I he would be the first one on my short list. the players respect him. He’s got a great presence in the locker room. Um, and he can bring over an offensive mind from the Kevin Oonnell, Shawn McVey, there from Minnesota to be the new offensive coordinator here in Pittsburgh. So, this isn’t a Brian Flores thing. It’s more of just they’re not going to fire Tara Lost after the stretch run that they had at the end of the 2022 season. So, let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. Would you be happy if Coach Flo uh is hired as the next Pittsburgh Steelers head coach? Personally, I would be thrilled if Tomlin uh had to be fired at the end of the season and they bring in Flores. I think his defense would work great here in Pittsburgh without Tomlin kind of superseding him. Um, and I think that the offensive tree that he has access to is really good and could be really beneficial for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, give me a yes or a no down there in the comments section. And now, let’s get into the part where you guys probably will get the most uh value out of this, which is what the hell is going wrong with the Pittsburgh Steelers defense and how the hell did they fix it? All right, so let’s get into some legitimate issues that I’m seeing on film that needs to be fixed. All right, so first up, there’s not enough strength in the middle of this defense. Um, Keano Benson, in my opinion, I’ve been saying it on the show, is not a nose tackle. Uh, he’s undersized. He doesn’t have the functional play strength. Um, and he’s very disruptive. he can get into the back field and make some nice TFLs happen. But in terms of being a nose tackle that sits in the middle of this defense, takes on double teams, has to hold the line of scrimmage, he just hasn’t been doing that to start this season. So, personally, I would rather go out and get YA Black um you know, in this spot. And honestly, if you just switch YA Black, who’s been playing defensive end, playing next to Keano Benson, and you switch those two where you got Black at the nose and then Benson at defensive end, which would allow Benson to play more disruptively, that would be excellent. I think that that would actually work and I think that we talk about Benton as a much better run defender in that case because he’s not being played out of position. So that’s the first switch that I would make. And then another switch that I would make here guys is I would get a thumper at linebacker and put him in for Peyton Wilson on early downs. Now the Steelers have brought in Jawan Bentley. They have Cole Hulkcom on the roster. So hopefully this team makes that adjustment. But the Queen and Wilson every down kind of experiment uh it just hasn’t worked through two weeks. Uh Patrick Queen has been out of position a number of times. Uh but Pton Wilson has been out of position even more. He is getting blasted off the line of scrimmage. They can’t provide any push uh either. They’re getting driven backwards. And when you combine a nose tackle getting driven backwards with Peyton Wilson and Patrick Queen who are also getting driven backwards as kind of undersized linebackers, it’s just not a good fit, man. Like Roberts played such a big role in this defense as the thumping early down linebacker and I think the Steelers need to get back to that. So the way that I would adjust uh kind of the size element and the issue here in Pittsburgh is I would start YA black at nose tackle I think you know with his long arms his 330 plus pound frame his functional play strength that’s an immediate upgrade and by the way Kiano Benson at defensive end I think is a an immediate upgrade over ya black because he’s more disruptive than ya is. So, I think that that is a double upgrade right there. And then I would play Peyton Wilson less on early downs. Whether it’s Cole Hulkcom, whether it’s eventually Jawan Bentley that gets in there. Um, you know, I think that you need to get somebody out there that’s a better run defender than Pton Wilson currently is. If you make those two switches, I think the run defense gets a lot better. Then, uh, when we talk about the passing game, I think you got to make quarterbacks work harder than the Steelers, uh, have kind of, you know, put out there so far this season. All right? And plain and simply, like there’s just some instances here, guys, where the defense is just not aligned correctly and is giving opposing quarterbacks easy answers to get the ball out fast, to get chunk yardage. So, you guys can take a look here at this photo um where it’s third and seven early in the game for the Seattle Seahawks. It’s a great opportunity for the Ste for the Steelers to get off the field. They’re playing a cover one uh dog blitz which means five rushers um and with a deep safety which means there’s nobody in a intermediate zone here playing the middle. All right. This guy in the middle right here uh is playing a man alignment against a tight end that’s lined up at the line of scrimmage. So with uh Jaylen Ramsey playing way off the line and outside leverage that allows Jackson Smith and Jigba over here to just cross his face on a little glance route. Darnold gets it out immediately and he picks up an easy 10 yards, 11 yards, and picks up a first down. Like, this is just bad defensive alignment uh that gives the defense easy answers. And the Steelers need to do a better job of not giving those easy answers to opposing quarterbacks and make them hold the ball for longer against this Steelers pass rush, who honestly have been doing a pretty decent job rushing the passer. It’s just these quarterbacks have easy answers and they’re getting the ball out quickly. Another thing that I would do more than what I’ve seen in the first two weeks from this Steelers defense is I would play uh Jaylen Ramsey more as a blitzer. All right, back in the day, all right, Mike Hilton was an absolute menace from the slot blitzing. Teams were literally adjusting their offensive philosophy to guard against Mike Hilton blitzes. All right. And Jaylen Ramsay is more instinctive. He’s bigger. He’s stronger. He’s a better tackler. And he’s better in coverage than Mike Hilton ever was. All right. So, if Mike Hilton could have the effect that he had as a blitzing slot corner that, you know, offenses had to know where he was at all times on this defense, you got to use Jaylen Ramsay in the same way, man. And if you can combine that with some rotating coverages on the back end, some fire zones where you’re sending uh when where you’re sending the corner off the edge and really start confusing people, like that’s really when I think this defense can start cooking with gas. All right. Um, but then another thing here and my final thing here, guys, that I want to talk about with legitimate issues with this team is you got to play more zone. All right. Uh I think that right now the Steelers have been playing a lot of man. Uh in in week two versus Seattle, they ran eight cover one blitzes and almost all of them uh were not successful. And you know, I think that the Pittsburgh Steelers have been kind of approaching this season with a little bit of arrogance, saying we’re so good that we can line up and beat teams and cover one with no disguises, nothing like that. uh we’re not going to, you know, play detailed football in terms of uh the easy answers that we’re giving to opposing quarterbacks. Like our pass rush is too good and our secondary is too good in man coverage. So, we’re just going to be lazy about it and we’re just going to play a little bit arrogantly and that’s just not working out. I think that I hopefully, you know, Mike Tomlin and Terrell Lawson are learning their lesson here. Uh but really, guys, making the quarterback think uh makes the entire pass defense better and it makes every element of the pass defense better. If you’re making the quarterback hold it for longer and process things after the snap, that’s going to allow the defense to get home and the pass rush to get home and get more sacks, get more pressures, uh get more tip ball opportunities, but then also like it’s going to help out the secondary as well, right? Because if you’re making uh guys uh cover and then also the pass rushes get in there, that’s going to lead to more opportunities for turnovers in the secondary. So, you got to make these quarterbacks think a little bit more uh than just, oh, look at this. they playing outside leverage in cover one and there’s nobody in the middle of the field. Let’s just throw it there. Like we got to have better answers than that to start this season. And the Steelers coaching staff needs to realize uh that as good as and as much talent as the Steelers defense has, they’re not that good to play that caliber of football. And hopefully guys Tomlin and Austin have learned that lesson. Like I think that when they got all these players and Jaylen Ramsey and Darius Slay and all these guys, they said we can just go out there, play cover one, and we’re going to dominate just playing that stuff. And it’s just like that is not the case, man. Like this is not the Legion of Boom. All right. This is not the 85 Bears where you can just roll out there, run your thing, and they can’t stop it. All right? You got to be able to get creative here. And we have seen Tomlin and Austin do that in the past. I laid that out in today’s video. They’re more than capable of fixing this thing from a schematic standpoint. It’s just a matter of when and if they can do it. Um, and hopefully it doesn’t take them too long to do it because time is ticking here in the 2025 campaign. So, what’s you guys? Let me know down there in the comments section. Will the Pittsburgh Steelers finish as a top 10 defense this year after their slow start? Give me a yes or a no down there in the comments section. I’m sure at this point in the year it’s a little bit of a hot take, but I think they will finish inside the top 10 by season’s end zone. Now, before I go here, uh, I want to, uh, give you guys a little bit of a quote here from Darius Slay, uh, Super Bowl champion with the Philadelphia Eagles last year, and I think he had some wise words, uh, for the team and for the fan base here, um, after a kind of a shaky start to this season. This is what Slay had to say earlier this week. He said, “Last year in Philly, we started off the same way last season, one-on-one. We wasn’t feeling like we were living up to the Philly standard and and next thing you know, we turn around after the by-week, number one defense in the league, Super Bowl champion. So, I told our guys, man, keep our composure and let’s be detailed. And remember guys, Philadelphia was also coming off a late season collapse in 2023 last year. So, not only were they coming off a collapse at the end of the season where they had a first round playoff exit, but then they go into the next season, everyone’s hyping up the roster, all this different stuff, and with a bunch of new players, and uh they don’t get off to a good start on either side of the football, and people are talking about firing Nick Serriani and all these different things and replacing Jaylen Herz, and they go on and win every single game. Jaylen Herz starts and finishes for the rest of the year. So, if that’s a lesson to anything, guys, is that the first few weeks of the season, teams are very much still trying to figure out who they are. And that’s exactly where the Pittsburgh Steelers are at. I still think they have more than enough talent to make this a legitimate top 10 or even top five defense by the time we get to January. And that is the moral of the story here, guys. I think you are a much different team in January than you are in September. I think last year with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the story of last year’s season should tell us that this defense was amazing the first six weeks of the season and then they were terrible down the stretch. Uh it’s very possible that the Steelers can figure things out here and they can really become uh the defense that they’re capable of becoming down the stretch here if they can make some uh crucial adjustments. All right, that’ll be it for today’s show, guys. This is one of the longest videos we have ever made for Steelers Talk. I’ve been grinding the film all week trying to get you guys a comprehensive view of what the Pittsburgh Steelers are going through right now and how they can make it better moving forward and why I still have hope for this team as we sit here right now heading into this week’s game versus the New England Patriots. So, I hope you guys enjoyed this content. If you want in-depth nuance content like this every single day on the Pittsburgh Steelers, that’s what we try to provide for you guys every single day. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. Until next time, guys. Here we go. Steelers. Oh my gosh. I’m I’m I’m exhausted. Ponzi, I’m exhausted. Oh my goodness. All right, we’re going to give you guys three minutes to get your questions in for the mailbag. Use Steelers or Super Chat to get on the show. Ponzi, your thoughts on that video. It was long, but it was a lot of detail. I think you had a lot of great points in that. You know, it’s just like a lot of people want to flail around their arms and like, “Oh my god, it’s over. It’s over. the Steelers are not going to do anything this year. But it’s like these are simple fixes that they got to make. Yeah. And you know, it’s And by the way, we’ve seen this regime do it a lot over the last almost two decades straight. Now, obviously, like we talked about, there’s things to fix. All right? And if we’re being honest with ourselves, like you can’t just say, “Oh, Mike Tomlin and Terrell Austin are great coaches. They’ll figure it out.” No, you have to we have to actually say, “All right, 10 games in a row, 27 and a half points per game allowed, that sucks.” All right, giving up 300 yards to every opponent you play, that sucks. All right, like some of the alignment issues that we talked about, especially in cover one, just allowing these guys to go into the middle of the field, uh, pretty much unchallenged for easy chunk plays. Unacceptable. All right. But I think and I hope Mike Tomlin and Terrell Austin are figuring out that, you know, the talent level on this team doesn’t mean that you can just play cover one all the time and just sit there and expect it to work. Teams are, you know, the the teams on the other side of the ball, they get paid too, Ponzi. They get paid to they get they get paid uh too. So like you got to be able to get creative. You got to, you know, change the look pre- snap maybe a little bit more than what they’ve done these first few weeks. The Steelers have shown throughout the years they can do that stuff, right? And they even last week they changed the look. What was it 11 times? I believe you said 12 11 or 12 times last week they had a postnap rotation. So, and then once they figured out that cover one wasn’t working um after pretty much the first drive, they got off of it, right? So, listen man, it certainly hasn’t been great. I think it all starts with the run game because if you know if you’re scared of the run and you can’t stop the run, that opens up the play action game. That opens up a lot of stuff uh for opposing offenses and we talked about how you can fix it. I think really a big switch there Ponzi would just be moving Keano Benson and Ya Black just switching positions. Yeah. I mean I think you know like obviously no tackle has been kind of a big issue. You know, a lot of people were like, “Okay, well, one man can’t ruin a defense.” But if you don’t have defensive pressure from your nose tackle who’s getting driven back all the time, they could just run up the middle. That’s it. Exactly. That’s what we’ve been seeing the first two weeks. It’s just every it’s it’s it’s Keano Benson, it’s Peyton Wilson, and it’s Patrick Queen getting driven backwards. All right. And until you find players and you find certain alignments and all these different things to be able to stop that, teams are going to keep doing that and we’re going to see the struggles that we have seen from this team throughout the first two weeks. So that really is the foundation. But we have certainly seen even last year, all right, as early as last year, first half of the season, the Steel the Steelers had like the best run defense in the league. All right, and that was with Keo Benson actually as their nose tackle. So like they can figure it out. It’s just a matter of when they figure it out or if they figure it out. And if they figure it out too late or if they don’t figure it out at all, I have no problem saying Mike Tomlin should be fired. I have no problem saying that. But I also have no problem saying that if you’re saying that this season’s over and this defense can’t improve and this defense can’t play better, I think you’re overreacting. I I I I have two almost two decades worth of defensive film and and and stats and and a track record to back up my claim there. So I think that the I think that you know obviously especially relative to the expectations right Ponzi because all we heard all offseason was this defense was going to be awesome and this defense was going to be unbelievable and historic and the best defense we’ve ever seen in some cases some people are saying that and it’s been far from that. So, like if if the expectation is up here with the talent level here in Pittsburgh, but then you know the the play is down here, I can see why people point to the coaches. All right. I can really I really do understand why people are blaming the coaching staff and to some degree they should be blamed. Absolutely. I think they went into this season with a lot of hubris, but hopefully they’ve learned their lesson and they get back to playing a little bit more creatively like we’ve seen them do over the last uh in the past when they’ve had better defenses and they’ve been more dominant and they’ve actually done a really good job limiting points from their opponents. Um so that’s where I’m at. $2 from Bernard Nixon. Oh, I’m just just looking at questions for the uh mailbag. We can catch up on super chats if you want though. Yeah, let’s let’s catch up on supers. By the way, we are $40 away from the hat raffle, just so you guys know. I thought I heard some Venmos. Oh, we do have some Venmos. I will send you what we got here. If you want to start reading off some of the super chats there, donate all my raffle entries to because Fluffy inspired me. So, what I’m going to have you do is spam me if you want a free raffle entry. Spam those Miis. Spam those Miis if you want a free raffle entry. Shout out to Robert Lock for donating all those tickets. The person who spams me the most will get a free raffle ticket. All right, spam those Miis. Let’s keep rolling here with the super chats. I see Eric. I see Josh. I see Noah the Steelers fan. I see Noah. I see Josh. Noah. Eric. Uh, keep spamming those memes, folks. if you want a free raffle entry because uh we just got a Venmo which is going to lock in this Steelers Talk raffle. Uh DLO says, “Jackberry, can you be our OC?” Um no, I like my job. Goodness gracious, man. With the fan base, with this fan base, no way in calling for a head by week three. No way am I coaching, man. No way. I mean, I love this fan base. This fan base cares. All right, if they’re passionate, all right, but with that passion and that desire to win every game, no matter what or the season’s over kind of mentality, no way do I want to be the coach, man. I I would much rather be on this side of the camera talking about t, you know, judging other people in their coaching. All right. So, appreciate you, DLO, but a $50 super chat from Robert Lock Bang. Robert with a 50. And he says, “This one’s rolling in for giving away a hat away. One raffle pick at a time.” All right. So, we’re going to give away two hats today. Robert uh just locked in one and then he’s also because he put in a 50 and he already has a hat. That means we’re going to be giving away two hats at the end of the show here, guys. Um so spam those Miis if you want a free raffle entry. Uh we’re giving away three right now. I’m going to give one to Noah the Steelers fan. I’m going to give one to Jack Hey. Hey. And shout out to Estavan, by the way. We’re gonna get to your uh Venmo here in just a second. and Estavon won our hat raffle I believe last time. Uh Eric Jender is the third one that I want to give away right there. Alrighty, Eric Jender, you are in. Get some of these other Venmos in here. All right, so we got a couple more $5 Venos to get in on the raffle today. We got a $5 Venmo uh from Donna Elliot. Shout out to Donna. And she says, let me see here. I feel like they really need a fresh defensive plan. It’s pretty bad. Uh it’s pretty bad Dick Leau was about 70 and was one of the best defensive coordinators that they had. Uh Dick Leau was a was a football genius. He really was with the three fire zone stuff. Uh he uh the zombie concept that we’ve talked about on today’s show where Slay is supposed to come off his man, the the corner supposed to cut it. uh that was part of the Dick Leau defense even back when Ryan Clark was still playing and that was before all of these jumbo meshes and deep crosser concepts were really popularized by really Kansas City and Buffalo um about a half decade ago. So I mean Dick Leau was way ahead of the curve uh with a lot of different stuff. So, uh, and then Tomlin has implemented, he’s kind of the Tomlin defense is the best way that I can describe this Ponzi is that it’s a hybrid between the Tampa 2 defense along with, uh, the Dick Leau kind of fire three zone defense. It’s kind of a hybrid between those two. Yeah. Um, and if you if you guys look back to Monty Keifin’s Tampa’s defenses there where they ran the Tampa 2, you want to guess the number one coverage that they ran during those years? I don’t know. almost 50% of their plays called was cover three, not cover two. Cover two was pretty much just like a third down or a second down play call for them um when they were in passing down situations. All right, so they they based out of cover three, the same thing the Steelers uh base out of uh or at least what they used to base out of. Now they really base out of cover one at least to start this season Ponzi. Uh and Tomlin said before the year, “Hey, we want to run more man coverage this year. We want to go up one-on-one against anybody in football. Well, guess what, man? When you don’t have Joey Porter Jr. out there, when you’re playing guys in the slot, outside leverage with no help on the inside, you’re going to get burned, man. Like, you got to like I feel justice at some point. I mean, it it’s just, you know, you got you can’t have that much arrogance uh being a defensive play caller. And I think the Steelers got caught um you know, smelling their own farts. Um you know, loving their personnel a little bit too much. Um, and hopefully they can make the adjustment here to uh uh do some of the stuff that they did when they didn’t have as much talent on this defense. And frankly, were a lot better. I mean, they’ve like at one point you had Malik Reed out there and he was like a starter and he was a good player for this defense. Malik Reed was terrible everyone every pretty much everywhere else he went. So like you know you know this defense when it’s run right it can be really really good. It’s just the start of the season they’ve they’ve kind of gone off the beaten path a little bit. So hopefully they can get back to the ways that they’ve that they’ve been um in some pre previous seasons. But then Estavon Flores with a five. Appreciate appreciate you. Estavan says, “I won a hat last stream from a raffle. How do I get about getting that?” So Estavon send a comment. All right. Send a comment on that Venmo. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With your uh with your uh shipping address. Or another way you can do it, Estavon, is you can send me an email at [email protected]. Ponzi is going to put that down there in the L3 down there in the bottom of your screen. Here you go, Eston. So you can either put a comment on that Venmo that you just sent me, Estvon, with your shipping address, or you can send an email to me at sperry chatsports.com um with your shipping address and we’ll make sure to get that hat to you, Esteon. Appreciate your support. All right, we got super chats to get to. Got some more super chats here before we get into uh the mailbag. Says one. So $2 here from Noah. Says, “If our run game still bad, should we trade Chimera?” Uh trade for Chimera, I think is what he’s asking for again. Um I mean, I’m open to it, but like what’s the price tag? I have to know like what the run game situation looks like at the deadline. I I don’t see that. I really like Jaylen Warren, too. I mean, like Daniel Warren hasn’t been the problem. Well, I think in this case, you’d be thinking about getting Chimera as your number two option. Well, that’s true. But like, do you really would you rather use that draft pick to address something else? Yeah, maybe. I mean, obviously, you know, obviously the the hope is that Caleb Johnson eventually takes over some of the rushing responsibilities this year. Um, and Gainwell kind of gets phased out. But Jaylen Warren is a really good player, man. He really is. Um he’s a dynamic playmaker and I think we’re going to see the Steelers offense prioritize him more because J because Aaron Rogers has taken a liking to Jaylen Warren. When Rogers wants the ball to get to a certain player, the ball is going to be going to that player. So keep an eye on Jaylen Warren if especially if you own him in fantasy. I think he’s he’s going to explode here over these next few weeks. DJ reacts with a five. Says, “I’m honestly sick of the same BS man. It’s old but tiring. This team has an excuse every time. End of year. when will they finally take accountability? Um, listen man, I think, you know, we just got to see the results in the postseason. And, you know, in terms of the accountability, I think the first person that will tell you that they have underperformed in the postseason and it’s unacceptable. Three people, first three people that will tell you that, Mike Tomlin, Omar Khan, and Art Rooney. Those three people will be the first ones to tell you that they haven’t been good enough. All right, we heard it with from Mike and Omar multiple times this offseason. This is why they made all the moves that they made is they they’re trying to make a push so that we don’t have those same results at the end of the season. And you know, if you know anything about Mike Tomlin, man, I don’t really see him as like an excuse maker necessarily. And I think some Steelers fans will laugh at that, but like I he doesn’t really go out there and make excuses. Like he’s usually pretty darn he goes up there and says, “We were not good enough.” all this different stuff. There’s no excuse, like he’s usually the no excuse guy, uh, in my opinion, and I’m sure a lot of Steelers fans will disagree with that in the chat. Um, but like I I think what people really appreciate in the locker room about Tomlin and why these players consistently go to bat for him and why these players love playing for him, and that’s an undisputable fact, is that these players love playing for him. All right? And players from other organizations want to play for him. Um, part of that is, you know, his approach. And his approach very much is no talk, enough talking. Let’s go out and work. All right. And Mike Tomlin said it when they when they signed uh Aaron Rogers. He said, “We will make no bold predictions. We’re just going to we’re just going to go out and work. We’re going to let our play do the talking.” And unfortunately, the play and what the play has been saying hasn’t been too flattering, especially on defense over the last 10 games. Um, but you know, is Mike Tomlin the type of guy that, you know, that just that reverts to semantics and, you know, doesn’t care about trying to fix things? Like, I just don’t see that as Mike Tomlin’s type of personality. Maybe I’m wrong on that, but that’s that’s my take on him. $2 from Bernard says, “Jack, do you think the Steelers beat the Pats?” I do. I think they beat the Patriots this weekend. Um, now we’ll see. Um, obviously the defense has to play better. I said it in my first segment today. It’s nice that Terrell Austin is saying all the things that he’s supposed to be saying and that the things, you know, the things that he’s identified on film are the same things I’m identifying on their film that they need to get better at. But at the end of the day, it comes down to execution and can you get these guys to execute the defense that you’re calling and can you set your guys up for success? I think those two things have been missing and and and and disconnected from the Steelers defense to start this season. either a players aren’t uh executing their role or b the coaching staff uh is not putting them in positions to succeed with the way that they’re aligned. Um those two things need to get better. If they don’t, it’s going to be a long season here in in Steelers Nation. But I really do think that, you know, we’ve seen this coaching staff put together good defenses before. We have. And I know that’s not a popular thing to say in Steelers Nation right now because it hasn’t been good recently. And this is a what have you done for me recently league. But um you know, we’ve seen an 18 season sample size and we’ve had 12 top 10 defenses in the league uh from Mike Tomlin here in Pittsburgh. So that’s twothirds of the years you’re having a top 10 defense. That’s that’s pretty darn good. So um certainly not giving up on Tomlin, but certainly uh acknowledging he needs to turn things around here. Same thing with Terrell Austin. Uh let’s get into the mailbag here, guys. I can’t wait to see your questions. Appreciate all of your guys’ support. Uh let’s finish out today’s live show uh with your questions on today’s Q&A. [Music] Welcome in to the Steelers Talk Mailbag. I am your host, Jack Sperry. Today we are going to be talking uh about your questions. We’re going to be addressing your questions on the Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s been kind of a shaky first two weeks this year um heading into this week’s game versus the New England Patriots. I want to see where you guys are at, what questions you have for me. Uh, and I love having this two-way dialogue with you guys. Uh, every single week, we film these mailbags every single uh, Thursday on our Steelers Talk live shows. If you guys want to get a question on a on a future edition of the Steelers Talk Q&A, you guys can watch our live shows on Thursdays starting at 5:00 p. p.m. Eastern time and get your questions in for free. So, join the most interactive Steelers community anywhere on YouTube. We go live twice during the week and then again on game day. We also put out daily and free content on this channel every single day. All right, so now let’s get into the questions starting with JT Clo versus how much would you want TJ to move on Sunday? So I think he’s asking uh in terms of moving around formationally. Um listen man, I think the right tackle position is going to be very very uh vulnerable for the New England Patriots. Now I think you want to move him around enough to make the Patriots guess on some things. Um, but you know, I think I’ve seen a lot of people say just put him on the other side and it’s magically going to fix the run defense. Guys, they’re going to just run away from TJ Watt no matter where he’s lined up. Uh, you know, if you if if you put Watt in the middle, they’re going to run outside off tackle. If you line them up to the right, they’re going to run left like they have over the first two weeks. If you line him up over on the on the other side, then they’re going to run to the right. So, um, you know, TJ Watt is just such a good run defender. He is the number one graded PFF run defender among edge rushers through the first two weeks. And um you know that’s why they’re running away from him because he’s one of the best if not the best rundefending edge rusher in the league still uh even at his age. Um so we’ll see how much they move him around. But I think with Morgan Moses dealing with an injury this week, he’s questionable to go. And if he can’t go, that offensive line depth there at right tackle for New England is putrid. Uh so that right tackle position, that position that he usually lines up against, uh should be pretty advantageous for him. So hopefully uh the coverage on the back end can give him a little bit more time. He’s been getting uh early wins. It’s just the quarterback’s getting out the ball out of his hands so quickly because of the coverage on the back end that the Steelers have been running these first two weeks. And uh I’m hoping that this Steelers coaching staff can wake up a little bit and give this pass rusher a little bit more time to get home because I think if they do that uh we might be seeing fireworks. Then we get to Eric Jender says, “Who on the Patriots offense do you think will be the biggest problem for Pittsburgh’s defense and who on the Patriots defense will give the offense the biggest problem?” Good question, Eric Jender. Um, for the Pits for uh the offense, Trayvon Henderson hasn’t gotten a ton of carries or a ton of run these first two weeks, but you look at the two guys that have beaten the Steelers on the ground the first two weeks, slasher types, Bree Hall and Kenneth Walker. Really explosive guys, and that’s what Trayvon Henderson is, right? So, um, if there’s going to be a player on this offense for New England that is going to be a big problem, I think it could be Trayvon Henderson. Now, obviously Drake May, if he plays a terrific game or if you give him easy answers, he’s going to take them. Um, so obviously Drake May and his skill set will be a problem as well, but the guy that can truly like uh do what Kenneth Walker and Bruce Hall did for their respective teams, obviously I think that Trayvon Henderson is their more uh explosive back. So, keep your eye on Henderson. Then on the other side of the ball, uh, Patriots defense, the guy that can give this team the most issues is probably Christian Gonzalez, I would say. Uh, just because he can man up DK Metaf and probably take him away more often than not. Um, you know, that is that’s a tough that’s a tough ask going up against guys as big as DK for anybody, but Christian Gonzalez is legitimately a top five corner in the game in my opinion. So, he can take away anybody. Uh, you’re going to have to distribute the ball a bit more this week in my opinion. Um, and not have to rely on DK. Not that DK has been stellar these first two weeks, but I do think Rogers will have to rely on some other weapons to get the job done uh this week. Then we got one from Meanie says, “Jack with rumors targeting Tyreek Hill as a trade candidate for us if Miami continues this trajectory. Jaylen Wadd may be a better fit and the price if Finns uh do a fire sale. Your thoughts?” Well, according to Mike Florio, and guys, this is I I do not trust Florio’s word on a lot of these things, but he said the Steelers are no longer in on a Tyreek Hill trade um because of his off-field antics. Um I find it hard to believe the Steelers were not aware of his off-field antics beforehand. So, I don’t know. Uh so, if that’s the case, they were just never in on him. So, I I I don’t know how much I trust that report from Florio. Uh but Jaylen Wadd, you know, younger player, I don’t know if Miami is going to want to let him go. Um, also they gave him a contract extension. I think it was last year. So, I really don’t think it makes a whole lot of sense to trade Jaylen Wadd. Makes a lot more sense to trade Tyreek Hill in my opinion. Uh, kind of a cancer in the locker room for them. Older player, big contract, get him off the books. Um, so I I’m not sure if Jaylen is going to be a legitimate possibility for us. Elevate LTS says, “Can the Steelers get Chris Jones if the Chiefs suck this year?” Um, if you’re talking about trade deadline, I I don’t think the Chiefs are going to suck that bad, man. Like, they they’ve been very competitive against two very good teams. Most people have the Chargers and Eagles both in their top five in their power rankings. And, you know, just a couple of tough breaks led to those not going the other way. They could very easily be two and 0 against two of some of the best teams in the league, right? So, u maybe some of their fourth quarter luck has run out. Maybe they used it all last year when they won all those one-score games. Um, but yeah, I I don’t really see Chris Jones being made available. If he is, I mean, go out and get him if you can. I’m not The only pick I’m not willing to give up, no matter what, is next year’s first round uh draft pick and 2027’s first round draft pick. Those are the only two picks that are 100% off the table for me for any player. So, I guess we’ll see what happens, but I would say highly doubted Elevate. What say you guys? Let me know down there in the comments section. What player, if any, should the Steelers trade for this season? and who’s a guy that you want them to target here before the trade deadline this year. This will be the pin comment on today’s show. Um, let me know what you guys are thinking down there in the comments section when YouTube throws this at break your way. Got one from my man Zar Craig says, “If Joan Bentley plays really well, does Malik Harrison get waved when healthy?” I don’t think so. I think Malik gets too much uh gives too much value as a special teamer. I think they’ll probably wave Carson Bruner as the guy that they’d prefer to wave. low-level draft pick. If someone picks him up on waiverss, you know, uh that would be unfortunate because I’m sure they’d want to keep him on practice squad, but um that I think that’s a risk they’d be willing to take. Uh but Harrison, I don’t really see him getting cut. Um really good special team player. And then also if Bentley gets hurt, Harrison is also another thumper type of guy. He’s not quite as good, but um he’s a good backup thumper in that role. So I I think they want to keep him. Kevin Reed says, “If the O line continues to struggle this season, do you think they spend more draft capital in the early rounds on next year’s draft?” Um, certainly possible. It’s also possible they go out in free agency because here’s the thing, Kevin. If you’re looking for starting offensive line, offensive tackle talent in particular, you usually got to find it in the first round. If you’re looking to for a person to start right away, probably definitely got to get him in the first round. So, if you’re replacing Brick Jones and he’s done, you’re have to use your first round pick on Brick Jones’s replacement or you can go out in free agency and get one. Um, so right now I would say if they’re replacing Brick, free agency is actually probably the more likely option, especially because you have another younger player on the other side and Futano. So, getting a little bit of balance between veteran and younger player might make some sense. Um, so honestly, I think left tackle or right tackle um might be one of the bigger needs and one of the bigger uh targets for the for the Pittsburgh Steelers in free agency next year. Gen from Truth Thong, what a name. Says, “Does Calvin Austin impress you on film?” Yeah, he does. Um, Calvin reminds me a lot of guys like Darnell Mooney and Tank Dell where they’re smaller receivers, but they threaten to all levels of the field. Uh, obviously Calvin is awesome after the catch and he’s got great vision. So, you can send him on a on a on a shallow crosser and you can get him the ball out in space and he’s just got runaway speed and great vision when he’s out in space, but then he’s also got some really great wiggle as a route runner and obviously great speed to run away from guys. So, he’s open pretty consistently on film. Um, and then he can obviously beat you deep and take the top off the defense with that with that 4-3 speed that he’s got. Plus, he’s got better hands than people give him credit for. He’s made some tough catches. Remember that 50/50 ball back shoulder in week one versus the Jets. He’s been doing that quite consistently. Uh heading going back to 2024. Made some really tough catches for Russ last year. Um you know, he’s not going to be much of a run blocker, but as a receiver, I think that he is uh potentially a legitimate number two guy. And we saw that come out in week one. Week two, there was some opportunities to get him the football. the play where Aaron Rogers got ripped down by his horse collar and it wasn’t called. Uh Calvin was streaking towards the end zone for a touchdown and he was throwing it to him. So we might be talking about Calvin having another nice corner route touchdown if you know if that play doesn’t happen with the horse collar uh on Rogers. But um yeah, Calvin Austin third. I’ve been saying it for two years. Really impressive on film. Um and I think that he’s going to continue to show that he’s capable of being this team’s number two receiver. Uh before we get to the rest of today’s questions have from our sponsor today at prize picks. You and I, we both make decisions every single day. Throws with great anticipation. Uh, you know, he’s just a gamer, man. And you can see when he’s in those close games, like that close game against Clemson in the season opener, like you can just see the intensity, the focus. That’s the level of competitor that you want in your football team. Um, and also, uh, here’s another added benefit. We’ve talked about the Cognaliz VR technology before and, uh, the Steelers potentially implementing that. Uh, Garrett Usmire uses that Cognalized stuff at LSU just like Jaden Daniels did. So getting a guy uh that that can bring that cognalized stuff here to Pittsburgh and uh kind of uh set the standard for Pittsburgh quarterbacks in the future um I think is absolutely fantastic stuff and I think that that’s what I would do if I’m the Pittsburgh Steelers. Um Michael Hierrick comes in says, “Want to do want do you what do you think about signing Odell Beckham to Pittsburgh Steelers before bye-week?” Uh they just signed Isaiah Hajins. That’s the that’s their answer in terms of a backup wide receiver in my opinion. Uh, and I I actually like the signing. Hajins is six is is tall. Uh, he’s 200 pounds. He’s a good short and intermediate route runner. He’s got good hands. Uh, you know, he provides a lot of things from a bigger p receiver perspective that nobody else on this team provides. DK Metaf has a limited route tree. Of course, Calvin, Roman, and Scotty are all tiny, so they have another bigger receiver they can put in in certain formations, early down situations, stuff like that. Uh he’s not going to change the world or the season or be a complete needle mover. Uh but he’s a contributing piece that I think will find his way on the field this year. Make sure you guys click that thumbs up icon if you haven’t already if you are a real one here on Steelers Talk. Really do appreciate your guys’ support. It helps out the channel, helps put our videos in front of more Steelers fans like yourselves. So if you’re a real one, you want to help out the channel today. Takes a half second of your coordinator right at least to this point. We’ll see you on Arthur Smith. but also to to build a team and to be a team builder and to get the right uh you know put the puzzle pieces together to get his team you know back into hoisting Lombardi trophies, right? But um you know he I mean a lot of players have come in under the Tomlin regime and they have developed and they have been great players here with Pittsburgh. So, you know, it’s it’s I think that he would have been he would have fallen off a cliff a long time before this. Um, uh, if he was just a bad coach all along and he was riding the coattails off of Bill Cower. I think Bill Cower himself will tell you that Mike Tomlin is not a bad football coach. All right? So, um, I think that this is a popular narrative because, you know, obviously Tomlin wins a Super Bowl two years removed from the cower regime. Um, but Tomlin, you know, here’s another thing, guys. In a league as competitive as the National Football League, you cannot be a bad head football coach and win a Super Bowl. It’s impossible. It doesn’t matter what roster you have. Now, you know, there’s guys that can, you know, kind of have one fluky type of season and never win one again. And certainly seems like Tomlin, at least to this point, has been that type of guy. But like, you have to be at least a competent NFL head coach to win a Super Bowl. You cannot be just absolutely objectly terrible and just ride the coattails of another team’s or another or another coach. It’s just not the way it will on this mailbag. Make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. Till next time, guys. Here we go, Steelers. All right, so uh I didn’t see that message that you sent. All right, so we’re still we’re still live. Okay. So, uh we are going to get out of here soon. Uh we will be giving away two Steelers Talk hats here, guys. Got to do Oh, no. We can’t do the We can’t do the spinning wheel because we we lost our Wi-Fi, right? Is that right? Are are we up right now? All right. Um, right now we are experiencing some technical difficulties, guys, and we need our Wi-Fi to be able to spin the wheel uh to do our hat raffles. So, hopefully this hopefully uh that can come back so we can do the raffles. But while we’re waiting here, Ponzi, let’s talk about tonight’s Thursday Night Football uh action. This one should be pretty uh should be pretty crisp because I don’t know if there’s two franchises in more of an opposite direction like regarding both of these teams. It’s kind of crazy how bad the Dolphins have fallen off and I really don’t know. I really don’t know if if the NFL could change the slate and change this game. They probably would have. They probably would have changed this as soon as week one was done. They’re like, “All right, Dolphins, Bills, Del are bad. Let’s get this Let’s get this out.” Yeah. I mean, there’s a couple good matchups this week, too. Yeah. So, I mean, like, well, I actually think that that they thought this would be a good matchup. I think they did, too, cuz Miami is a, you know, before this season was a high-flying offense with Tua and Tyreek and Jaylen, but obviously things have just gone way by the wayside. Um, so yeah, I expect Josh Allen to win this and the Bills to win this game by a lot. All right. So, let’s get uh let’s do this raffle if we’ve got the Wi-Fi back up here. I’m just checking to see if chat is still here. We are good. Sorry about that, guys. Apologize for the technical difficulties. All right, so uh Ponzi is going to get our wheel going here and then we’ll spin it twice and we’ll give away two hats. It’s actually a very winnable one today. Yeah, I would I would I would tend to agree with that. So, whenever Ponzi has that ready, we’ll spin it twice. Uh the winners can email me atjack under or at [email protected]. That’s my email. Uh your shipping addresses and we can get you your hats. Let me just get this wheel set up for you. Sounds good. lot. I mean, obviously, guys, kind of a longer live show today and a couple of longer segments to be quite frank with you. Um, just because I think there’s a lot of information out there that I wanted to let you guys know about when it comes to the Steelers defense. I think that was definitely the longest non watch party live I’ve ever done. Yeah, it’s it’s been kind of a doozy. We’re we’re approaching two hours on the live show here today, guys. So, thank you guys so much to everybody that’s uh that’s made it with us here the full two hours. Um, and now let’s spin the wheel here. Very winnable. Very winnable today. Uh, Estavon has already won one, so you can take him out, too. Oh, yeah. And Robert Lock. And Robert Lock. Shout out to Robert Lock. Trying to look at all the names here and the guys that have won it. I think Kevin Reed might have one, too. Maybe Donna Elliot, too, but I’m not sure. So, keep them on there. All righty. Here we go. All right. Spin that wheel. The winners can contact me at sperry chatsports.com. It’s down there in the bottom of your screen. Donna, all right. Uh, you Venmoed me so I can get in touch with you or you can get in touch with me, Donna. We’ll make sure to get you your Steelers talk hat. Big shout out to Donna Elliot. Let’s spin that wheel one more time here. Here we go. Hey, and Ali the Reaper. Ali, I know you have my information on X as well. You can send me a DM or you can or you can send me an email. Shout out to those two uh for winning those Steelers talk hats. Just send me those emails or those messages, guys. Uh I greatly appreciate your guys’ support. Um really fun show today, man. We told we we we talked a lot about the defense. And I think this discussion needs to be had, frankly. You know, this defense has got to play better. No question about it. And uh I still have hope that they’re going to be able to turn it around this season. I just think there’s too much talent for it not to get better as the season goes on. Um, but you never know, Ponzi. And if they don’t if they never figure it out, Tomlin’s ass should be grass, plain and simply. I I really do think that a team would trade for him. I think so, too. I think I know it’s the same thing. I think we talked about this too with Trader Joey about uh Jim Harbaugh or John Harbaugh saying that a lot of teams would like them as their head coach. Yes, a lot of teams would love Tomlin as their head coach. Teams that just have terrible organizational structure that would just need like a stabilizing force. Um, you know, Dolphins. Dolphins. Um, Cowboys. I do think I think we’ll see a shot. Odds was I think the Cowboys would probably be one. Yeah, we’ll see a shotty. Um, all right, man. So, that’s going to be it for today’s show. Uh, our next live show will be on Sunday for the watch party starting at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. An hour of pregame coverage, live playbyplay, and of course the extensive postgame coverage as well. So, make sure you guys uh click that subscribe button from me and Ponzi today, guys. We’ll see you guys next time. And until then, here we go, Steels. [Music]

Steelers Talk by Chat Sports goes live on Thursday, September 18th, to discuss the latest surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers struggles on defense and how Mike Tomlin & Teryl Austin can fix those issues heading into their Week 3 matchup vs. the New England Patriots on Sunday. On today’s show, host Jack Sperry and producer Xavier Pon get honest about the Steelers defense, what’s going wrong and what can be done to fix the issues we’ve seen in the first 2 weeks of the 2025 NFL season from this group that was supposed to be an elite unit heading into this season after adding veteran players like Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay this offseason. Also on today’s show, Jack takes and answers your Steelers news questions on the weekly Steelers Talk mailbag.

Whenever Steelers breaking news hits, Jack is going to get a video out to you guys no matter what (even on his off days)! Hit that sub button for more Steelers rumors: https://www.youtube.com/SteelersTV?sub_confirmation=1

Today’s Donation Menu:
$5: Raffle Ticket
$10: 3 Raffle Tickets
$20: 10 Tickets + Name On Gong
Every $50: Lemon Shot!
$250 Total: Hit The Gong!

Here is all the ways you can donate to Steelers Talk on today’s show:
– Venmo: @Jack-Sperry
– PayPal: @CaptainJackRabbit

For more Steelers rumors discussion, hit up Jack on Twitter: https://x.com/jack_sperry

Never miss any of the latest NFL, NBA, and college football news & rumors by following @chatsports on social media and subscribing on YouTube:
– X: https://x.com/ChatSports
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chatsports
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chatsports

Share today’s video with a friend you think will enjoy our content to help us grow our family here at Steelers Talk!

The Real One’s know that liking today’s video is the easiest way to help out the channel!

Let your voice be heard by answering today’s questions on the Pittsburgh Steelers:

Make sure to turn on your notifications to NEVER miss a breaking news story for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year!

Follow the latest Steelers rumors & news on the Chat Sports Pittsburgh Steelers website: https://www.chatsports.com/pittsburgh-steelers

Check out more Steelers Talk here on YouTube:
– Steelers Rumors: NOBODY Is Talking About This College QB That May Be PIT’s 1st Round Pick Next Year – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoSBK0SBMx4
– Steelers News & Rumors: SIGN Christian Wilkins Next? + Derrick Harmon RETURNS To Practice – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouaVbe1fKoA
– ANOTHER SIGNING: Steelers Sign ILB Ja’Whaun Bentley In NFL Free Agency | PIT’s Next Elandon Roberts? https://youtu.be/xnL2zWyevKQ

#Steelers #SteelersNews #SteelersRumors #CSB