Steelers Make Roster Moves + More | SNR Drive (Nov. 12) | Pittsburgh Steelers
You’re tuned to the drive on your 247 home of the black and gold Steelers Nation Radio. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Good afternoon, Steelers Nation, and welcome to the drive on the Steelers Audio Network. Westuler, Matt Williamson with you here for the next two hours on a Wednesday as we have got plenty to get to. We will go around campus like we always do. We’ll have a little best of the West. We’ll start to talk a little bit about the Cincinnati Bengals, but Matt, we do have some uh I think some pertinent news here to get us started today. 100%. Yeah. uh and that is that the Steelers have made some roster moves. Uh one with a familiar name, one with a new name. And let’s start with the new name here. The Steelers have added a familiar name, but a new name. Quarterback Asante Samuel Jr. to the practice squad. Okay. All right. Now, he was of course originally drafted by the LA Chargers. second round of the 2021 NFL drafts. Appe of the NFL draft, pardon me, appeared in just four games last year after injuries. Had to have that spinal fusion surgery, which ironically enough, he actually had here in Pittsburgh. Might not be ironic. Maybe that’s why he’s here now. You know, I think certainly uh Matt, he is a guy that has had pedigree and has had success in this league. Six interceptions in his four seasons, 37 uh passes defensed. um has started in 47 NFL games, 96 uh tackles. Uh like I mentioned, the four interceptions, three TFLs, a forced fumble. Uh of course, son of AllPro cornerback Asante Samuel. Matt, uh this was something that had been discussed, I think, lightly for a couple weeks. Like I think people knew that he was working his way back and trying to get back before some of this injury stuff. He was a bigname free agent, right? Uh, and now finally the Steelers get it done. He get it gets it done. His medical status, all those things aligning and Asante Samuel Jr. now on the Steelers practice squad. Yeah. So, you kind of mentioned it like right before free agency hit this summer, you know, you’ll find top 50 free agents on the market, blah, blah, blah. He’s on all those lists. So, he’s been unemployed since then, obviously, for this reason. Um he only appeared in four games last year as you mentioned but before that he played over a thousand snaps every other year. I mean he was like 1100 full-time player you know this is not a recurring thing but it’s scary. I mean I hate talking about medical stuff because I know I don’t know about that all the time but we are not doctors. Disc and neck fusion or whatever doesn’t sound great. It’s not like I have a hamstring tear. Right. And oh and finally it’s better. You know broke a finger. Pretty significant stuff. Yeah. It’s a major surgery and you know, but the doctors obviously cleared him. These doctors know more about it than any other team in the league. Um I I can’t imagine that’s a coincidence that he ended up here because he toured like five or six teams before signing with the Steelers. And from what I understand is actually one of the Steelers team doctors. Like he’s a Steeler employee did the surgery, I believe. So in Pittsburgh, I read that last night. Yeah. Yeah. I I can’t quote that as 100% true, but I think so. Um so what are they getting as a player? All you can comment on is what he was pre-injjury, you know. I mean, he’s smaller. He’s like 180 pounds, maybe 185. Um, 510ish, something like that, you know. So, he’s not Joey Porter or Trice or, you know, these really long pterodactyl type dudes, but he’s been really productive. A knock on him is he’s not the most physical guy, especially with tackling. He’s smaller. He’s not a he’s not Jaylen Ramsay as a tackler. Sure. as a corner and more Joe Hayden cut from that claw. Yeah, I think that’s a a decent way of looking at it. Yeah. Um much more of a zone corner than man, but he’s really good at it. You know, like I said, the negatives first. There’s the back neck injury stuff. There’s, you know, lack of great size. Not a great tackler, but he has phenomenal coverage abilities. He’s very fluid. He flips his hips quick. He reads and reacts on his own very, very well. And it also implies to me, well, two things. I mean, in a way, I think they’re fortunate to have somebody that’s been this good in the league out there for free. I mean, totally. If they would have traded for an equal player at the trade deadline for a fourth round pick, I’d have been like, I get it. You know, right? You know, and he’s not 31 years old. That’s 25. And maybe he’s even in the long-term plans. I assume it’s a one-year deal, but I haven’t seen the terms of the contract. I doubt he got like a big bonus or two-year deal, but it could be a part of the long-term plan. Um, I was a little worried about corner depth. I mean, I really don’t want Ramsay to have to We talked about yesterday with Thornhill being gone. It just seemed like that’s your only free now. There wasn’t another shoot at another corner and you have to move Ramsay back. Yeah, I don’t want that. I think they’re happy with him as free and that this helps, you know, keep that at bay. you know, you’re you’re free safety until further notice or maybe for the rest of your life. And that’s great. So, who knows? Um I’m excited to talk to Chris Slater, you know, when what they think the plan is with him, when he may see the field, all those good things. But I’ll take a chance on that freebie in middle of November all day long. I mean, that’s a home run. Absolutely. If they were signed him in June, I’d be like, totally get, you know, right. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. At this point, that’s about as exciting as you can get. Yeah, within the scope of where we are in the NFL timeline, right? The trade deadline’s gone. It’s not the same as trading for Jaylen Wadd or Chris Ave, you know, right? But I mean, like you mentioned, if the Steelers would have traded a fourth round draft pick for a 25year-old starter proven corner at the deadline, we’ve all gone cool. Nice. Right. Right. They need it. Right. Yeah. So, I wouldn’t shock me if he is a starter here in two weeks. I was going to say the timeline is probably you want to give him a week to get up to speed and practice and because it’s again it’s not that you’re stealing him from somebody else’s practice squad and he’s been with a team and went through training camp and all that stuff. He’s kind of coming in fresh. Yeah. Off like legitimately off the streets, you know, and so I’m sure you want to give him some time to get acclimated before just I would think Yeah. We could be wrong, but you know, you go with you go with Eckles, you go with Porter Jr., you go with Pierre for a week here. And Pierre played well. We talked about that. I think he’s earned that opportunity. Yeah, absolutely. I think you’re more comfortable with him than you were in the past. 100%. And again, I I hate playing doctor, but I would think I mean, he hasn’t put pads on or a helmet in quite some time. I mean, can he at least hit a sled and go do all the practice stuff of the week as vigorously? You can’t replicate game. Sure. You know, but I would want him to do some kind of contact before, again, I’m not a doctor. before you throw him out there and play 60 snaps where you’re gonna tackle Derrick Henry, right? You know, right? Yes. Absolutely. 100%. We were on the same page there. From his surgeon, I’m like, do something before you tackle Derrick Henry, you know? Right. Totally. Totally. Do something before you are in a live NFL game where the bullets are flying. And yeah, so again, pretty substantial name, pretty big name, particularly to be available at this point in the NFL season timeline. Yeah. Yeah. As a freebie. And I think there’s rightfully some excitement about that. It is a lowrisk, high-reward maneuver for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Absolutely. And and they weren’t alone. I mean, I think that gives you more confidence that there were many I was going to say several, but I went to many teams that were very interested in the service. Who knows the ones he didn’t visit, but he visited four or five. Um, now every one of them might have been like medical reject, medical reject. I don’t know. Sure. Or you’re going to be buried on the practice squad for a couple weeks. whereas the Steelers were like, “Hey, we got injuries. We got opportunity. We got opportunity and we need you.” Yeah. I I think it could be a combination of both of those things. But certainly um an exciting piece of news I think that came across the timeline last night and uh will definitely be something to keep an eye on. And like you mentioned, we’ll talk about this more with our buddy Chris Hack here. And I’m going to ask Chris this question, but it has crossed my mind in the last 24 hours, too. We know that the team wanted to play more press man. Now, that was the goal back then. We’re going to blitz a lot. We’re going to play press man. We got the corners and I was all for it. I love that vision, you know, and it was something I suggested even in the off season, but now it might be Porter’s really our only man coverage, dude. We’re going to probably play a lot of zones. That doesn’t mean we won’t blitz or will blitz or whatever, but maybe we are going to see a heavier dose of zone going forward, which is fine. Fine. It’s not like man’s better than zone. Yeah. Right. Red paint. Paint the bar in red. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, okay. And I I I think I put particularly in this game, I want to put a lot of people in coverage. I mean, if it’s zone, fine. I don’t have I know I don’t have the man cover corners to deal with Jason Hens. I I know that. I just Not many not many people do. No. Right. Right. But but but the Steelers certainly do not as well. We just saw that a couple weeks ago. And yeah, who knows if he’s going to be involved this weekend against uh Chase and Higgins. I’m guessing no, but I’m guessing no, too. But I would also say crazier things have happened. Yeah, we’ll continue to watch this space. We’ll ask Chris Hock about that in the next hour of the show. We’ll obviously Slay gets ruled out. I mean, he’s not been ruled out yet. We’re just But there’s a good chance as well, too. As you mentioned yesterday, now concussion protocol is usually more of a two-eek proposition in this league than uh than ever before. Um and so plenty to keep an eye on. And you don’t even have to put him on the active roster. You can you can put them up off the practice squad for a while in the meantime, you know. Right. Exactly. Right. So, like they did with Surman and those guys, you know, I like it. It’s something to uh maybe put a little bit of a pep in your step here midweek in November. Yeah, certainly something we’ll be keeping an eye on. Talk to Chris Hock about, see if anything uh in the practice reports kind of indicates how this might move. But he was added to the practice squad. Important to note because Matt moving up from reserve IR to the active 53 man roster as well today is Will Hard quarterback extraordinaire. Yep. Number one in everybody’s programs. He has been activated to the 53man roster. So just real quick before we get into Will Hired uh with him going to the active roster with Asante Samuel Jr. going to the practice squad. Everybody knows there has to be related moves. Trey Surman has been waved and Derek Forest has been released from the practice squad. So, somebody can grab Surman, but they would have to put him on their active roster. Won’t happen. Probably not. I’m sure he’ll clear clear waiverss and go to the practice squad. I think again, barring something surprising, that would be the Yeah. the the the moves here. And Forest is without a job. You you you one defensive back in the door and Asante Samuel Jr. Yeah, one in the in through the outdoor Led Zeppelin, Derek Forest on the way out. So, those are kind of the moves to make room for Asante Samuel Jr. to the practice squad. Will Howard uh elevated to the 53 man, of course, he returned to practice on October 22nd, so it was right towards the end of that 21-day window, right? Per get off the pot, you know, be added to the active. They haven’t needed him, but they don’t want to lose him and they want to keep him here for the rest of the year. and hopefully he never sees a snap unless for some reason week 18 is a meaningless game then I would start him not Rudolph, you know. But I mean that’s a great point. Who knows? Um I don’t know much to add on Howard except philosophically the team wants three. I mean some teams want four, they always want three. It’s worked out great in the past. That’s fine. Um I would assume he’ll be in the mix in training camp and mini camp, but until then he’s running scout team good 100%. Uh I think you’re right. There’s not a ton to add to Will Howard because we’ve had that conversation, I think, many times on these airwaves and on others, but this was kind of the moment that we were waiting for. Is he going to spend the rest of the year on IR? As you mentioned, there is just a possibility they wanted to activate that window, let him practice for three weeks and I thought maybe, you know, um but this at kind of the 11th hour here in a way um puts that to rest. He will be on the active roster. I imagine he’ll be the third emergency quarterback on on game day. Right. Right. Um, and like you said, we’ll wait and see how the end of the season plays out to see if there is potentially an opportunity to see Will Howard in stadium before we get back to, of course, training camp and preseason in 2026. And who knows, he could be in the mix next year. So, I’m absolutely dismissing that. He will be in the mix. Oh, he’ll be in the mix next year in some way, shape, or if there’s a first round quarterback or a second round quarterback or a third round quarterback in that mix as well, too. That remains to be seen. Obviously, what happens with Aaron Rogers? Is there any real chance that he comes back in 2026? That’ll play a huge ball in the air obviously for that. Lot of moving parts, a lot of balls in the air, but we will continue to keep an eye on all of the moving and shaking as we roll along here. But that is kind of your Steelers news of the day. Some uh some pertinent stuff there on both sides of the football and as it relates to the active roster and the 53man roster. Matt, I mentioned Asante Samuel Jr. Uh, of course, the son of Asante Samuel, who was a great defensive back in his own right, 11 years in the NFL, two-time Super Bowl champion. With that, I thought we’d have some fun today for Best of the West. Okay. Top 10 father-son duos in NFL history. Oh, baby. Okay. Yeah. I might have to cheat and Google it just so we don’t miss it. Did you do any of that or is it all copyright? So, what I did was what I did was I off the top of my head regurgitated probably eight to 11 different duos that came to mind. Okay. Okay. I’ve told you before. A little bit of a secret, but I I matured and grew out of it. I was a bit of a Denver Broncos fan growing up, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Loved John Elway, loved Terrell Davis, Steve Atwater, Bill Romanowski, all those guys. Also Ed McAffrey. So like one of the first ones I jotted down was Ed McAffrey and Christian McAffrey, you know, and that’s worthy. Craig and Cam Hayward, obviously the Mannings, Arch and Payton and Eli. So there were say the Mannings are the the easiest, like I said, probably somewhere 8 n 11 12 something like that that I kind of just regurgitated down onto a list. I was like, I’ll put these in order later just as many as I could come up with. Throw them out there. Yeah. And then I looked online. Oh, forgot about that. Oo, forgot about that. And started to kind of formulate a top 10. I got a quick question for you. So, one one of the greatest brothers to ever NHL is Mario and Claude Lemieux. Of course, 99.9% of it 66 and the other one’s brother, of course. So, if dad was terrible, but son was Elway or L, you know, would I I’m glad you brought that up. I say I would I would lean towards I want them both to be good. That’s what I did. Yeah. Okay. the the the ones that made the list are it wasn’t just dad had a cup of coffee and son’s great didn’t even know he was in the league or dad was an all-star you know Tony Dorset and his son who played like three years in the league I couldn’t come up with a thought that’s a perfect Tony Dorset is not on the list because his son had a cup of coffee in the NFL and that was right right it needed to be both of them have the credentials of really good NFL careers yeah good good I don’t want Claude Lemieux on the left right we will have some uh we will have some fun conversation on the other side. Best father-son duos in NFL history. And there’s some Steeler ties on there as you can imagine. We’ll do all that and more as we roll along on a Wednesday. Wesler, Matt Williamson, it’s the drive on Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. [Music] Before we jump into this highly anticipated best of the West here, Matt, first of all, I better pull up my notes as well too before I before I forget. Elaine Lemieux. That’s I know. I screwed up. Yeah. Yeah. Claude is just the other Lemieux who played for the Avalanche. He was pretty good during the same time and he was like an allar. Yeah. And they were not 66’s uh younger brother. I’m sure we’ll have some people jumping in the tweets and quick to quick to correct us there. I would have been correcting you guys too. I correcting me. I should know better. Right. But there is uh a fun topic. Yeah. Let’s go a breast here. Best of the West. Again, we’ve done a couple different things with this this year. Most of the time it is football related, but we also snuck in like Halloween candy in there a few days before Halloween. Last week was my top 10 favorite stadiums that I’ve been to in honor of Sofi Stadium. This week in honor of Asante Samuel Jr. Love it. Top 10 family combinations, fatherson combinations in NFL history. I have some honorable mentions for you, too. just I bet there’s a lot more than I’m thinking of. A lot more. I thought this would be easy. In fact, Matt, I thought this is really hard. Like in my mind when I was scrambling down the names, I was like, you know what? Maybe as a joke I’ll throw in like Ed and Sean Hockeyy, you know, even though they didn’t play like they’re both big name. I was like there probably won’t be that many. I was like, there probably won’t be that many. Like I might need to have an extra one or two in there. I’ll throw in like Ed or Sean Hockeyy. Matt, in total I wrote down 23 different combinations. I bet. I bet that all had had a case. And I want to be very clear with this because when we do these type of things, it’s funny how much participation you typically get. Oh yeah. And how could you do this person? How could you forget that person? And I’m sure everyone’s wheels are spinning like mine are right now, too. I’m like, I’m coming up with a lot as I’m thinking about it a little bit. I spent some time on this, but I didn’t spend hours on this. Okay. I spent like 20, 30 minutes on this this morning while I was having my breakfast and my coffee. So, I hope I didn’t forget anybody. If I’ve got someone number seven on the list and you think they should be number two or three. Okay, that’s fine. But I’m just trying to have some fun with this and and stimulate some some good. Okay. So, do you want me to first run through the honorable mentions? Yeah, I like to we always like to count down 32 to1 basically. Let’s run through the honorable mentions just to kind of set the stage for how good the top 10 is going to be. Honorable mentions. The peeies. Yeah. I say I’m hoping you don’t put Porter on there just cuz he’s a Steeler. I almost didn’t say that, but I wanted to say it and I’m like, I definitely can come up with 10 more. The peeies. They’re in the honorable mention category. Right. Hopefully. Hopefully. Son needs to do more. Son will will will take off here and do a little bit more. Dad was obviously a pro bowler and an allp pro and a Super Bowl champion. That tells you kind of how tight this list is. Trending the right direction for the Porters, though. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Uh Bobby and Marlon Humphrey. Oh, I did not have come up with that one. Pat and Pat Certain II. Oh, that is a good one. Terrence and DK Metaf for another Pittsburgh tie here. Okay. Bum and Wade Phillips to go to the coaching go to the coaching ranks for a minute. I’ll also go to the coaching gets crazy though. I’ll also go to the coaching rankings with with Mike and Kyle Shanahan. Say Shanahan and Right. Yeah. And as I mentioned, I jokingly had Ed and Sean Hawkley on here. Zeus and Orlando Brown. Okay, we’re still honorable mentions. That was still honorable mentions. That was a tough one to leave off. Joe and Dan Cleco. Lot of accolades between those two. Joe was obviously a much better player, but Dan won three Super Bowls in his career. Quick Dan Cleo story. He was at Temple when we were at pick. Yes, he was. And we used to play against like the U when they would have first round dackles all over the place. They’d all rather play against the guys with the U than Cleco. He was this big. And he was he was unbelievable football player. Unbelievable. I mean, he should be I think he even like flirted with fullback and stuff like that. NFL. He played like six or seven years in the NFL. Won three Super Bowl rings. Yeah. I mean, he was a demon. demon. I think I’ve told you this before, but I worked with him in Philadelphia. So, he was part of the Eagles radio network, okay, when I was there for three years. So, he was on our pregame and our postgame show for the Eagles broadcast. So, I got to know him decently well in those years. He used to always tell me the story about when he was at Temple in 2003. They came to Morgantown and won at Mountaineer Field. Rich Rodriguez’s first year as WVU head coach and his first tenure. I assume Temple was a dog. They were. And they beat us like 17 to3 in a really low ugly scoring game. I was there, you know, like 12 years old or whatever. And so he used to like and he was he had like six sacks in that game. Was an absolute menace. It was like that every time we played him, too. It was the same era, right? Um and I would always laugh anytime quarterback play would come up and would get debated on the stations, he would be like, “Oh, I’m just the guy who spent seven years playing with Tom Brady and Pton Manning. What do I know?” Like he won two Super Bowls with the Patriots and then one with the Colts. like that was his NFL career. Pretty pretty stinking good. Um I had Rob Ryan with Rex and Buddy as well too. Yeah, it’s a huge one. More coaching rankings. Uh George and Jamal Adams. Both Pro Bowlers, both really good careers. I didn’t even know that was Jamal’s dad. And Oliver, I didn’t know the Humphre were the dad. Okay. Yeah. Oliver Luck and Andrew Luck. Worth bringing up. I mean, dad or son has carries a lot more weight than dad, but absolutely Ollie was a good he was Warren Moon’s backup. I mean, he might have been He was a good backup. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Bobby Humphrey, uh four years with the Broncos. He was a Pro Bowler in 199 I didn’t realize that was his dad in 1990. Yeah. So that Matt is just the honorable mentions that I had to bump out of the top 10 to kind of give you an idea of how good this is. Now I’m not giving you a hard time, but we we I’m going to criticize your list every week. That’s what this is. That’s the fun of it. I’m going to have a hard time not having the Shanahans and the the coaching trees in the top 10. So that was kind of another like But how much do you wait that? You wait that because of course the Shanahan. If I were you, I wouldn’t even went down that road. I mean, you’re just opening up a can of worms and more angles for people to come at you. I like to make people think, you know, this is my this is my Professor Uler moment, you know, where you can just sit here and make the people think. Uh, number 10 on my list, Mossi and Loa Tatupu. Wow. Yeah, they would have been an honorable mention for me. They would have been an honorable mention for you. Yeah. Yeah. You ain’t got love for the Tatupus? No. Dad played 14 years in the NFL. Was a Pro Bowler. He was an awesome special teamer. Uh rushed for 18 touchdowns in his career. Uh three Pro Bowls for Loa, over 550 tackles, eight and a half sacks, 10 interceptions. Both dad and son Pro Bowlers. That a that ain’t enough to get the Williamson going. Not consider especially the names you just gave me before that. Okay, fine. All right, I’ll be honest. Gan and Gino Atkins. Oh, that’s Gino’s dad. Yes, it is. Huh. Gino was great. Was great. Yes. One of the best Bengals of all time. One of the one of the one of the best Bengals of all time. Eight time Pro Bowler. Two time allpro. Uh and dad had 25 interceptions and nearly 500 tackles. Spending a decade with the Saints and the Dolphins. Yeah. Okay. A long strong career for dad. Steve and Cam Jordan. Oh, good one. Steve Jordan, nearly 500 receptions, over 6,300 receiving yards, 28 touchdowns, and a 13-year career with the Minnesota Vikings. Six Pro Bowls and a member of the Vikings Ring of Honor. Wow. Of course, he was like the Cam Jordan 115 and a half sacks and eight Pro Bowls. It’s pretty good. That’s a pretty good one, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the ones that surprised me that I didn’t think of Steve Jordan. I never would have, but right away was like, “Oh, yeah.” Like no one was playing fantasy back then, but Steve Jordan when I was like 10 or 12 was like, “Oh, like I would collect football cards and I would put like all the tight ends together and I’d always have the best one in front and then you know and I’d ask my dad who’s better.” He’s like, “I’m not playing who’s better anymore, you know.” But he was always like the fourth best tight end in the league, you know, at that at that stage, you know? Right. It’s a pretty that’s a pretty good one. That’s one that I had not had in my in my head that I was like, you know what, the dad and dad and I mean, between the pair of them, they’ve got like a dozen Pro Bowl selections. Yeah. And over aundred sacks and 6,000 receiving yards. And son’s kind of like Gino Atkins. Like he won’t go to the Hall of Fame, but he’ll be an alltime great Saint, all time great Bengal. Right. Right. Right. Casey Hampton. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Hines Ward type. Like Cam, I would put a little ahead of those guys. Yes. But in in the you know these D linemen of this era and along that vein just one spot ahead of them Craig Ironhead Hayward and Cam Hayward check in at number seven. Dad was good. Oh buddy 11 years in the NFL over 4,300 rushing yards made it to a Pro Bowl and then his son is multi- uh first team allpro and has a chance to go to Canton one day. I saw dad when I was real young at uh why can’t I? the fa the famous fry place in Oakland. Oh, the O the O that is no longer standing. No longer standing. And he was sitting at a booth with this many fries in front of him. This many. And his butt was as big as this screen. It felt like to me it’s like a 10-year-old. I was like, can you imagine tackling that dude? You’re like, this is this is the biggest man I think I’ve ever seen. Yes. All right. Now it gets hard because I mean there there’s some stud I mean the man see these last ones that have been like nine eight and seven are really these are like father and son were both pro bowlers and and really now we’re talking like hall of famers probably Klay Matthews Jr. and Klay Matthews the third the Matthews families awesome. Yes. Yes they are. I I wish I I should know better who belongs to Bruce and who belongs to Clay. Jake belongs to Bruce. Okay. Right. Like the Falcons offensive lineman, wasn’t that Jake Matthews? That’s the left tackle now. Yes. Belongs to Bruce. Okay. And then Clay belongs to Clay. So the linebacker belongs to the linebacker. The O line below the line. Okay. That probably makes the most sense. And it would have been my guess if I was connecting the dots. Father Clay Matt over 1500. Both groups have a a case. Yes. And I meant to actually uh the other Matthews were on my honorable mentions list. I didn’t read. Bruce is a Hall of Famer and Jake’s had a really good career. And the Matthews never miss a game. Clay, one of the best linebackers in NFL history. 19 seasons. He’s been a Hall of Fame almost guy for a million years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we’re talking about the older one here, not long hair Clay Matthews of the Packers. Over 1500 tackles, 19 seasons, uh, threetime first team AllPro, also a bunch of Pro Bowls. And then of course Klay III who we know uh allp pro 11 years in the NFL over 500 tackles sixtime pro bowler of course unfortunately won that Super Bowl 45 against the Steelers right and then I mean if you want to throw Casey in there as well too he played four years uh in the NFL with Phil for Philadelphia the linebacker as well too but I was more so like sure no disrespect to Connor but I’m going with Cam as the father son right right but man those those guys are really good and they check in at Number six for me, Matthews family in general. Pretty strong. Pretty good genans there. One that really surprised me, but when you look at the accomplishments on paper, I had to put him at number five. Mark Senior and Mark Ingram. Huh. Okay. Senior was a good player. Senior was uh I mean he 10 NFL seasons, Super Bowl champion, 26 touchdown uh catches. Um, and then you know his son, Heisman Trophy winner, college football national champion champion, rushed for more than 8,000 yards in the NFL, 65 touchdowns, threetime pro bowler. Both sons would have come up with that one. Ton of production, they were a hard one to kind of to kind of pin down where I’d slot them, but yeah, but these top four are really good. So, I had them slotted at number five. Okay. I could easily be argued to have a couple of those people we just mentioned ahead of them. Yeah, I’d have a couple ahead of the Ingram. I might have a couple ahead of them now that I’m thinking out loud, but I’ve got them at number five. Number four, this one. Outstanding. Howie Long with Chris. Great. You can loop loop in both Chris and Kyle here. And I would I think you get extra credit for having two. I think you’re right. You definitely did right. Um, of course, Howie was awesome. Howie, legendary, threetime All Pro, Super Bowl champion, Pro Football Hall of Fame, 13 years with the Raiders. Uh Chris, 11 years in the NFL, Super Bowl champion uh in back-toback seasons with New England and Philadelphia. Kyle, three straight Pro Bowls with the Bears. Pretty good. That’s Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s pretty pretty good. I mean, Howie was I’m sure a first ballot hall of famer. Yes. I think would have to be would have to be. Uh number three, Ed and Christian McCaffrey. You want to talk about an offensive dynamic duo? Sure. Ed McCaffrey, for those who might be too young, if you’re about my age or younger to remember, 13 seasons in the NFL, started with the Giants, but mostly with John Elway and the Broncos, three time Super Bowl champion. He was an allpro, 55 touchdowns in his career. And of course, Christian, maybe the best running back of his generation, I say Tim and Henry, multiple time multiple time first team allpro, right? Phenomenal receiver, phenomenal receiver and running back. one of the more electric players of his generation. And his brother’s on the uh Commanders right now, too. His brother is on the Commanders. He’s He’s not holding any weight. No, not not compared to those two. No, he’s Connor Hayward at the moment. Number two and number one were really difficult to decide between, but name Cache obviously plays into this as well, too. But at number two, I have Jackie and Matthew Slater. Okay, Matt. 17 Pro Bowl selections between the two of them, I’m sure. Now, one’s a special teamer. That’s what kind of pushed him over the top for me. But Jackie, Hall of Famer, 20ome, right? 20 seasons in the league. Seventime Pro Bowler. His number is retired. His son, one of the great special teamers in NFL history. Um, fivetime first team AllPro, 10 time Pro Bowler, and of course, won three Super Bowls with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Awesome. Right. In terms of just accolades on a sheet of paper, it’s hard to top those two as as father and son. Um the only thing that the only negative is, you know, he’s a special teamer. It’s like the Hall of Fame conversation. Do they belong? Five time all pros, a special teamer is he was the best one. And the three Super Bowl rings as well, too. That’s a good point, too. I could I could easily argue for them to be bumped down the list, but when you combine the rings, the all pros, the Pro Bowls of those two, it’s jumps off the page. Daddy’s probably better than people realize. I mean, he one of the better offensive linemen in NFL history. And then Matt, I’m sure you can figure out who’s at the top of the list. Sure. But it’s Archie Payton and you throw in Eli for for a bonuses as well, too. I know Archie was a perennial loser with New Orleans, but he was also he was also a great player. He’s a multi-time Pro Bowler despite being on a team that never had a winning record. He made the Pro Bowl multiple times. And then of course Pton Manning, five NFL MVPs, most in league history. 14 Pro Bowls, two-time Super Bowl champion. Eli, two-time Super Bowl champion, four-time Pro Bowler, like the first family of football. Mhm. And their quarterbacks. And their quarterbacks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe he’s looking a little better these last month or so. Maybe Arch Manning will throw his name into this into this conversation. Although he’s not for later, maybe. Right. He’s nephews, but still. I was gonna bring that up because people don’t remember like when I was taught to be a football fan by like my uncle, my dad, etc., etc. They’re like this poor Manning dude with the Saints. I mean, if he was with any other team, he’d be getting accolade. I mean, they were wearing bags on their heads back then. They were the eights. I mean, they were the worst organization ever. I mean, they were like the Steelers before Chuck Null got there at that point. He was like the only good player. He never had his life. He never had a winning record as the start of the Saints. I don’t doubt it. and was still a multiple pro bowler. But that’s where the athleticism comes from. Dad, Grandpa is a super athlete. Cooper was a wide out athlete and they say he might have been better than Payton and Eli if he would have been healthy. So Arch gets it from Grandpa. I mean, I’m sure there’s some females that contributed to the bloodlines, too, but Right. Right. Right. Have you ever watched I think it was like an ESPN 30 for30 a while ago. It was called The Book of Manning. It’s so good. I think so. Yeah. So good. If you’re a football junkie, it’s it’s worth your time. Yeah. My top two. Everyone knows the the brothers. I just want to give dad some credit there, too. Top one. Number one I’m very confident in. Yeah. Top couple after that. Like like two, three, and four I’m pretty confident in. It’s tough, though. There’s a handful that have to be in the top 10. I I I hope people enjoyed this. I hope people have opinions on this. Get at us on Twitter. Get at us in the comments. Oh, I’m sure. Um, but I had I had fun spending like a half an hour sipping my coffee putting this together and thinking about it and wait, how many had looking up how many Pro Bowls did this guy go to? Well, he went to six. Oh, this guy went to eight. you know, especially some of the like the I knew Jackie Slater was good. I didn’t know how good he was. Oh, you know, like some of some of those type of like that era. I knew Steve Jordan was good. I didn’t know how good he was. Really good play. You know, these are some of the better players of the, you know, late 70s, early 80s. Like you I didn’t know I didn’t know George Adams was Jamal Adams dad. You know, figure figured that one out here. I I knew I knew DK Metaf’s dad played in the NFL cuz I remembered somebody making a reference to that when the Steelers traded for him, but I didn’t know that his dad was really good in the NFL as well, too. They were on the honorable mention list. He was an offensive lineman. Yes. His nickname’s pork chop. Pork chop. You got to be pork chop. You got to be pretty good to have. Yeah. Yeah. He was like 340 lb guard, you know. Right. Right. Right. A nickname that. Cool. So, Matt, how do I do? Pretty good. You like that? You like that as a curveball today for best of the West? Yeah. And and then there’s like Joe Alt’s dad played in the league, you know, like he’s too young, but like there’s a couple that could be on the way. Yeah. That are kind of like the Porter situation where daddy’s, you know, maybe Asante Samuel turns to say if Asant if Asante Samuel Jr. had hadn’t had his injury setbacks and was continuing along a trajectory that he had, they might be on this list during the honorable mentions. If Marvin Harrison, if Marvin Harrison Jr. would kind of live up to his He doesn’t even have to be great for No. If he’s just good, they’ll be on this list. He’ll be on that list. I mean, yeah, he could be real high on this list. Just have a eight-year career, go to two Pro Bowls, you know, and you’re fighting for one of the top spots, right? And don’t look now, but I think Chris Henry Jr. could be a future Hall of Fame type wide receiver. His dad was all right in the pros. That could be, you know, that could be another one that that makes it to the list if Chris Henry Jr. is as as outstanding and dynamic as he looks. Um, but yeah, like the Certain, the Humphre, some of these were really fun to look into. And then I’m like, Bum and Wade Phillips, Mike and Kyle Shanahan. And I had to throw in the Huckles in there for for a joke as well, too. I bet I’ll come up with more as I’m just kicking it around. Like tomorrow, I’m like, “How do we not put this guy up there?” If you think of any tonight or after the show or anything, you’ll be getting a text at some point. I’m sure. Yeah. When you’re when you’re on the Bourbon at 11:45 tonight, shoot me a text. Maybe one day, too. Maybe one of our kids, Matt, will get into this uh this radio hosting thing and we’ll do a top we’ll do a best of the West. We’ll do a best of the West. Father, the Hillgrows. Okay. I’m trying to think there any out there that what we’re doing. Although that skipped the generation cuz Jack, of course, but but still that’s a good one. That’s a pretty good one. Uh lot of fun putting that list together and hopefully you all enjoyed some some flashbacks and some trips down memory memory lane with some of those fathers and uh and some of their sons. Best of the West, top NFL parentson son duos. When we return on the other side, I want to kind of stick with the Michael Pitman Jr. and his dad weren’t bad. Good one. His dad was a good good running back. Not a great running back, but a good running back. No, they should have probably been mentioned amongst my honorable mentions. That’s a good one. We’re going to keep throwing There’ll be a million more. Keep throwing these out throughout the show. I’ve got a kind of piggybacking off of this. We every Wednesday we do a brief conversation at the end of the hour, Matt, where we talk about which player we would steal from the other team if we could. Mhm. I want to uh I think we started it with the Bengals. We did a couple Yeah. It hasn’t changed, but I don’t want it. When you do the same team a second time around, it’s the same conversation. I’ve got an interesting twist that I want to put it on put on for you when we return on the other side. Okay. I’ll tell you. But there’s one thing I’d throw in that different now than too. Okay. So, let’s talk about both of those things when we return. I love it. We’ll do all that and more as we roll along. Wes Schuler, Matt Williamson. It is the drive on Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. [Music] Back on the drive here, closing down the first hour of the program. We will catch up with Chris Hock in hour number two. Talk a little bit more about Asante Samuel Jr., Will Howard, everything moving and shaking down there on the south side. We will go around campus in hour number two as well for what might be the beefiest most exciting around campus segment of the year so far. Seems to be a lot of quarterback scuttlebutt with the the college. A whole bunch. Yeah. Yeah. A whole bunch. And will they who’s coming in? Who’s going out? I mean that kind of stuff too. Arch playing better. You know, made a Led Zeppelin reference at the top of the hour. Now at the bottom of the hour, it’s time for a the Clash reference. Should I stay or should I go? No, that’s exactly what’s going on. asking themselves that. And so we will uh deep dive into that all in our number two. But before we get to any and all of that, Matt, I wanted to put a little twist on our weekly pick a player conversation since it’s the second time that we were having this about the Bengals. But first, you want to give me your new thoughts? Yeah. One more name that I don’t even know I brought up last time or if I did, it was in passing. DJ Turner is really good and he’s cheap and good. I mean, they just signed Samuel, but could use a second corner on a rookie contract that runs a 4-2 flat and considering Hendrickson’s season has been rocky to be kind. I mean, he’s just not in and all that. Turner is like the only bright spot on the defense. Yes. I mean, he’s a good player. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a good way to put it. Uh Hendrickson’s been in and out of the lineup. The first round pick, Shamur Stewart, hasn’t really flashed much. Shown up much. Right. Right. Right. I I do think he the obvious answer is Jamar Chase or Tagen. I mean it’s Jamar Chase you’ll pay him whatever. Who cares? Y and that is the answer. But but that’s that’s a that’s a good kind of followup by I think that’s fair. Th those are usually kind of who I’m looking for in a position young cheap and position of need. That’s kind of like the trifecta that you’re looking for or in positions that are hard to find. Yeah. Right. Yes. Yes. And maybe Chase checks two of those three boxes. He’s just not cheap. He’s just not cheap. But understandably so. Oh, I think you’d pay for that production. Matt, here’s the twist that I want to put on it for you as you are, and I mean this in the best way possible with all compliments, you are a resident football dork. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I want to ask you, you could take a player from the Cincinnati Bengals organization and put him on the Steelers. Any Cincinnati player in franchise history. I think I know where you’re going to go. I think he plays offensive line and I think his first name is Anthony. There’s only two choices. It’s him or Chase. Uh, you would go Chase over oo. Yeah. Yeah. Or over Carl Pickkins was a good player. I would think, man, oo with DK Metaf combined. Oo is like a George Pickins but more consistent and like he’d be the downfield contested catch back shoulder guy. But Chase is better. DK. But Chase is You’re right. Chase is better. Chase is going to Hall of Fame. Johnson isn’t. I mean, I didn’t put all of it in the stat pack because there’s a ton, but like all the stuff Chase is on pace to do career-wise is Randy Moss stuff, you know? I mean, yes. But Moyo’s maybe the best offensive lineman ever. Yeah. Like I bet if you if Ton Wolf were sitting here because they he’s he’s just a smidge older than them, but not much. I mean, they they’re contemporaries might say Muno I know they they’d probably say Webbby, but they they’d say Muno is the best offensive tackle that ever lived, probably. Yes. Yeah. I mean, and and I think you can make a fair argument that he’s the best offensive tackle that ever had. Yeah. Now, I’m a little partial to the Walder Joneses and Ogdens and Pac. I mean, there’s been some great ones since then, don’t get me wrong. Cuz I studied them more and I was smarter when I watched them than when I was six. You know what I mean? And people just told me he was great. But that’s a conversation between one of those two. I guess you take Moz. I like how you threw Chase in there because I wasn’t really considering it, but you’re right. I mean, he might he already is a top five player in the history of that franchise. I mean, we’re not allowed to take quarterbacks. I would take Burrow just because he’s a quarterback. We’ve kind of Yeah. No quarterbacks. Kenny Anderson and Palmer. No, I mean, I think they’re they’re not allowed. No. You know, Boomer Sy, he’s all right. They haven’t had bad quarterbacks. No. What about Chris Collinsworth? Huh? A little Chris Collinsworth on this team. Now, here’s a guy. Mike Tom will walk into film every week and Chris Collinsworth will be sitting off to the side going, “Now here’s a guy.” So, I guess this is my last chance to do this since they’re not going to play the Bengals again this year. But Dale and I kind of had a little thing going where it was like five years ago the Bengals put out their top 50 Bengals list of all time. Oh gosh, it’s terrible. It’s I mean it’s gotten a lot better. You get out of like the top five, 10, it’s probably not very good. John Breach, the kicker was like seven. Yeah. And he’s not even like considered like one of the best kick kickers of all time. He was fine. He lasted 10 years. I mean like Gino Atkins was like three. I mean like it’s OO CO is like top five. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean if there was like Burrow, Chase, Higgins, those some of those guys that are recent weren’t quite relevant yet or were too new. But we we had this thing going like man how many of them would even make the Steelers top 50? Like probably three or four seven maybe. You know like if you did a top five or seven Yeah. If you did a top 50 combining the teams it would be at least 80% Steelers at least. I mean, at least and we’re getting into like, you know, like Leavon Kirkland would be in the top 10 for sure. This might be a he might be 40th on the Steelers list at some point at some point in the offseason when we’re like looking for content to fill. Yeah, we might have to do like a combined top 10 or a starting lineup for like around the division and who wins, who beats who, who’s got the best, and then maybe from there we could expand it to like other AFC. saw one recently and by that I mean in the last year someone put together an all AFC or NFC North team. Oo, which is kind of interesting. Yeah, that would be Now it gets a little hairy like should the Oilers be freeers be in there? Should the Jags be in there? How do the Ravens Browns work? How do the How do the Ravens/ Colts work? Right. Right. Right. I think you just do it from the four teams that are in it now. modern era like 2002 or 2003 whenever the NFL last redid divisions. Not even from then on like Jim Brown would be eligible. Oh, okay. You know, like but the you had to play for the Brownsville Indianapolis. I mean, Steelers and Bengals are easy because they never moved or left the league. Sure. Sure. So, anyone in their history, anyone that wore black and purple in Baltimore and anyone that’s worn brown colors. I like this exercise. Yeah, we’ll put I’m going to add that to my list of offseason content. In fact, fighting over like Lamar or Bradshaw or Ben. I mean, every position is hard. I mean, even if you just do two teams, it’d be hard. Yeah. I mean, it’s hard enough to do a Steelers top. One one of it one selection of it will be very easy. Troy and Ed for safety. Boom. Done. No more conversation needed. But there might be some conversation needed if we actually stopped and thought about it. Right. I say there’s probably other good ones. Some other really good ones if we when we go in. But like Jim Brown’s going to be hard to beat. Yeah. You know, like Sorry Franco, sorry Lev, sorry Derrick Henry, you know, and some of them it’s also like, well, he only was there two years. I’m not going to weigh those as much. Like Kevin Green, you know. Yes. Or Yeah. No, absolutely. Or or Derrick Henry’s a good example in that regard. Think of it, right? I like that, Matt. Yeah, I like that. We might I think of the defense you just put together with Steelers and Ravens. We might have to expand upon that a little bit. Oh, you your Steelers, you could put together a defense of Steelers and Ravens that would probably go toe-to-toe with the other 30 teams all defense around the NFL. You get what I’m saying? Yes. Maybe that’ll be another fun thing we could do in the offseason. Pick your starting Steelers and Ravens 11 on defense, then the rest of the league. And who’s got the better unit? I mean, it’d probably be the rest of the league, but it would be close. It’d be comparable, though. I mean, they they they’d be able to hang. So I also if when when we do that of the four teams and I bet if this was in Baltimore, Cincy or Cleveland, if they were honest with themselves, they’d say do the same thing. Steelers will have still have more than 50%. Yes. I mean they’re still going to dominate. Yes. Like fun exercise, too. Would the Steelers best 22 beat the other three teams combined? Write all this down. People remind us middle of June. This is what we’re going when we got nothing to talk about. between mini camp and the start of training camp. Like those three teams are like, do I want Munoz, Joe Thomas, or Ogden as my two tackles? And the Steelers I mean the Steelers would be not that that good at tackle, you know, but we could do we could do 21st century Steelers team versus 20th Century Steelers team. Y Oh man, I mean this sounds like a lot of what we did during co but it’s a lot. Right. Right. Right. People remind us of this stuff. Right. Hour in the books. Another hour to go. We’ll get into some of Matt’s stats. We’ll talk to Chris Hock. We’ll go around campus, all that good stuff in hour number two. Dang, Matt’s got my wheels spinning. Oh, yeah. We put together a starting 11 for all 32 teams and power rank them. That would take us like a week to do. Oh, that’s a bigger job than That’s a pretty big like whoever does this job. But who would it be for like Jacksonville, your alltime starting 11? Carolina. Oh, there’s some dudes that are borderline. Um, last note, there’s some lunatic that does this for every draft pick. The best 200th pick overall. Love it. I mean I mean some of them are terrible but some of them are incredible you know like the top ones are hard. Yeah. Who’s the best number one pick overall? I mean kids the answer is I mean some might be Pton Manning is hard to beat you know or I mean there’s tons. I was like the answer is and then I was like I don’t know there’s a lot of good ones. And then there’s some like wherever Joe Montana got picked in the third round. Well he it’s him you know Tom Brady in the sixth but there might be Antonio Brown in the sixth. Yeah a couple of those are easy but the maybe the seventh overall pick of all time. Yeah. is probably like four different Hall of Famers. No doubt. Yeah, but like the 22nd might have like nobody. Matt Williamson from Mount Lebo. Remember that guy? Halfway home on the drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network. [Music] Good evening, Steeler Nation. How we doing? Well, that’s good. Us two. Hour number two of the drive here on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network. Wes Schuler and Matt Williamson rolling along. And we go to the phone lines. They blah blah. Easy for me to say. We go to the phone lines now for catching up with our buddy Chris Hack of course of DK Pittsburgh Sports. Plenty that we want to get into you with you, Chris. Thank you for taking the time as always, partner. Uh let’s kind of start from the top. Asante Samuel Jr. added to the Steelers practice squad uh last night. Your thoughts on that move and does it seem more like uh you know more of a chance he could start to be in the fold next week against Chicago or do you think there is maybe even a chance he could get elevated to the active roster this week? Well, I mean we saw Kyle Duggar uh you know come in hit the ground running and that’s a good point. start now. Obviously, he was, you know, acquired and was immediately immediately placed on the active roster. So, but you know, Sante Samuel, you know, he gets here, it’s Wednesday, he’s going to get a full week’s worth of, you know, the game plan in terms of practice, you know, for first full week of practice. Um, he’ll he’ll be part of the game plan process. So, I don’t want to completely shut the door on it. Now, he is a member of the practice squad. So, what they have to do, you know, obviously that there would be roster hurdles to to make. it’s anything completely out of the ordinary. They can elevate him. They don’t have to necessarily sign him to the active roster right away. You’re allowed to elevate, I think, up to three times. So, you know, you can elevate him, see how things go, you know, continue to evaluate. It’s a very lowrisk move for the Steelers. uh if he turns into anything close to the player that he was before. I mean, you look at those first three seasons, uh six interceptions, uh a lot of passes, defense, um he’s a really physical guy, uh a guy who would again, you know, when we were talking about free agency way back in in February and March, I mean, he was probably one of the top corners listed, you know, on a lot of a lot of websites. And so, you know, this is a player where, you know, yeah, he had a significant surgery, but is it worth the risk of, you know, especially when you’re getting him on the practice squad pretty much for nothing? Absolutely. It’s worth the risk. Worth the risk. I’m I’m sure you did. I mean, you’re thorough what you do, but it sounds like you did some work on him, you know, before his injury, and I did as well. And if you get that guy, I think he’s a starter here. He could be. I mean, I mean, when you look at the the Steelers current situation, when you look at, you know, Slave and concussion protocol and you look at James Pierre, who should be fair to James Pierre, he’s played well when he’s been out there. I was going to bring him up to you. I’ve been impressed lately. Yeah, he he’s been probably the best, most consistent play we’ve seen from him when he’s actually played corner. We we know that he’s already an accomplished special teams player, but it’s one thing to be good on special teams. It’s another thing to be really good on defense, you know, and he’s been really, really solid. Now, could you aim higher there if your goals are to try to win a Super Bowl? Yes, you absolutely can aim higher there. And so if you think that Samuel or it appears that Samuel um can possibly be anything close to who he was before the injury, you know, before he had to have the surgery, then you’re talking about an outside corner duo of potentially if Slay is out for any kind of length of time because concussions are always um unpredictable. Joey Porter Jr. and Santi Samuel Jr. that’s a pretty good duo. Then you consider what do you have right now at safety which has currently been stabilized by you know Kyle Duggar and and bringing Jay or moving Jaylen Ramsey over there. So it’s definitely interesting and the one thing that this gives the the secondary no matter what is just more depth more flexibility which when you consider the the hits that they’ve taken you know Deshawn Elliott you know who long you know Lord knows how long he’s going to be out. Um, when you consider all the hits that they’ve taken, um, it’s they need as many quality options as possible and I think it’s definitely interesting to see if Samuel is going to be somebody who either provides you some really good depth or really turns back into the guy that he was before, which would be an amazing development for the Steelers. It’s pretty remarkable the secondary now from 365 days ago. It really is. I mean, it’s like It really is 80% different. Yeah. And and the thing is is that I think when when people when people see that they they appreciate the change maybe, you know, that they see that, okay, things were really bad and they were really bad down the stretch. Then there’s there was change needed. But I think sometimes people think that it’s just like playing Madden and you can just swap guys out and you can just go out there and, you know, call whatever coverage from your playbook and guys are just going to play it like they’re, you know, video game athletes. It’s not the way it works. I mean, these guys have to learn, you know, uh complex uh languages uh really, you know, from one defense to the next. So, it’s it’s not as simple as just plugand play. There’s a lot of nuance and and complexities to to all these different uh defenses and playbooks and systems. And so, um yeah, it’s going to be really interesting to to see, you know, how this continues to evolve with all the changes happening. But, yeah, it’s pretty remarkable to see the changes happen. Yeah, I mean Deshawn Elliott and Joey Porter Jr. really the only holdovers and one of those guys has been unavailable due to injury unfortunately most of the year. It certainly has come a long way in 365 days or even less just you know since really last February, March. Uh Chris, sticking with uh some of this similar conversation practice today, Brick Jones not in uniform for practice today. just something maintenance-wise, something restwise, or might there be some greater concern there? Uh, it’s kind of early to tell in the week right now. We’ll we’ll have to see. We’ll have to monitor it. Um, when you consider the the inconsistent performance performance, you know, maybe it’s just like, hey, take a day, you know, or or maybe he’s dealing with something. So, it’s like, you know what, it’s not it’s not worth, you know, we can’t afford to lose this guy. You know, he needs to continue to play, needs to continue to develop. So, you know, we’ll see what happens. Um, it’s kind of early in the week to to I haven’t heard anything like, oh yeah, he’s definitely not playing on Sunday. I haven’t heard anything on that regard or anything, but um I I wouldn’t start freaking out over it yet, but it’s going to be interesting to see how fans react because you know, Bricki, you know, continuously probably gets the most criticism uh you know, for you know, of all the offensive linemen, but if he if he ends up not playing Sunday, I’m curious to see like if fans are going to be like, “Oh god, what’s going to happen now? Left tackle.” It’s like, “Well, I thought, you know, you get wanted the guy replaced.” Well, here you go. you know, he’s not going to be playing. Yeah, it’s just going to be interesting to see how that how that plays out. But, you know, we’ll see what happens. Uh what what happens. I think he’s at least played enough where if he can get, you know, at least one day’s worth of practice, I think, you know, he’d get clearance to play. Uh but, you know, we’ll we’ll have to see how much uh how much leeway he gets from Mike Tomlin. So, Heca 365 days ago with the secondary, the secondary is noticeably different from when they faced the Bengals last a couple weeks ago. I mean, other than the people covering Chase and Higgins, do you see obviously that didn’t go so great. Um, do you see any or is there any suggestions you would make? Less blitz, more blitz, more zone, you know, different personnel. I mean, they’ve made a lot of defensive changes since then. They have. Uh, I mean, it’s hard to hard to say like what what I would do because if I was a defensive coordinator in the NFL, I’d be fired faster than I was hired. Sure. Um, all of us would, but Right. Right. Yeah. But I I will say obviously what they did last time did not work. Now that like, well, duh, Chris. But at the same time, you say that to be like, okay, well, whatever you did last time, you cannot do anything remotely close to it again. So, yes, that means blitzing less often. Yes, that might mean more zone coverage. Um, I I don’t think it should. I understand that like Zack Taylor’s offense and Shane Stikings’s offense are different from each other, but and Carol also was clear to point that out because he was talking about, you know, during that week leading up to I think it was leading up to playing uh the Bengals and Joe Flacco, you know, having having seen them the year before when Flacko was playing under Stiken for the Colts, you know, he was saying, you know, he was asked like, “Can you look at that game to to study Flack?” He was like, “No, because it’s two different offenses.” Well, at the same time, there are some similarities to what they do. And what you did against the Colts works. Now, the Colts don’t have the receiving threats that the Bengals have. Almost no team in the NFL does, right? So, what you have to try to figure out is what’s the best way to put a ceiling on these guys. Now, it’s not completely neutralizing them, but I think about like, okay, when they played the Vikings, the Justin Jefferson had a had a good game. I mean, he had a lot of catches. He had a lot of yards. But did anybody watching that game ever think that Justin Jefferson was taking that game over? Nope. I don’t think so. No. I like you look at his stats, you’re like, “Wow, I’m kind of surprised he had that many catches for that many yards, but there was never that feeling that he was taking over the game.” That’s obviously not what happened in Cincinnati. Jamar Chase took the game over and pretty much won the game single-handedly. That’s what you don’t want to have happen. So, what you have to do at that point is call whatever coverages you need to to at least limit their impact, not allow them to take over the game and then hope on the other side that your offense is able to at least repeat the performance that they had against that same Cincinnati defense. That’s actually minus Logan Wilson now since he was traded to Dallas. And hope that they can perform just as good, if not better, so that you can at least try to outscore them if Chase and Higgins still have some pretty decent days. Well, if you’re going to have to outscore them, you’re going to have to do a lot differently on offense than the Steelers did Sunday night at Sofi. That’s for sure. And Chris, while there’s a lot of moving parts there, I don’t think I’m, you know, breaking any news either to say that it starts with the quarterback. It starts with Aaron Rodgers. It seems like every week Matt and I have a ton of conversation about Aaron Rodgers. And the first month and a half or so of the season, it was all really positive conversation. the last few weeks there’s been some more concern in that conversation. Where you at on the Steelers signal caller after I mean he just admitted I believe he called it a stinker when he met with the media with when he met with you guys today uh after his latest performance or latest last couple performances haven’t quite been the same strong start to the season we saw him have. I haven’t been as concerned about about Aaron until this past week. Now, I’ll go with the Mike Tomlin logic here and say, you know, I, you know, the whole two as a pattern thing, and I don’t believe I’m at the two as a pattern yet. I don’t think the performance against the Colts was that alarming of a performance or any kind of performance or any performance in any game. I honestly think the the issues have been more about not the the team not getting into advantageous third down situations and that makes life hard on any quarterback. It doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie or if you’re a four-time MVP who’s played more than two decades in the NFL. That is never an easy way to live when you’re playing in this league is if you’re putting yourself in third and long quite a bit. And the Steelers right now ranked 22nd in the NFL and in distance to go on third down. So you you don’t that’s not a position you want to be in. You want to be in more advantageous situations. So I I I wonder will we see the Steelers make a more concerted effort to try to run the ball on first and second down. Now sometimes fans will hear that and you be like the last thing we need to do is turn into a run pass team. Well the thing is the Steelers are not a run pass team right now. You look at their run rate on first down. It’s bottom third of the league. They don’t run the ball a lot on first down. They run the ball 52% of the time. That’s less than the league average of 54%. The Bills are right at the top of the league and they’re well over 60% of the time they’re running on first down. And when you look at what Jaylen Warren’s able to do on first down, he’s got a 55% success rate on first down. He’s averaging almost five yards a carry on first down. So, it’s working when you do run it with them. So, why not do it a little bit more? That might help turn first and 10 into second and six a little bit more often. and second and six will get you either another first down or it could put you in third and two or third and three and that’s a lot easier to convert than third and seven which is what they’re averaging right now. So, um yeah, it’s it when it comes to Aaron’s performance I yeah, this past week was bad. I mean, there were a lot there were some missed throws that just can’t be there. Um, I saw too much of the same kind of thing where if he would get hurried a lot early in the game and even take some hits like he was like like he did this again, you know, when he was with the Jets last year, um, he would just get rattled and you get to the point where, you know, if the first read’s not there, like the play’s over, like there’s no hope for anything to really happen and then he tries to force things to happen, that’s what ended up happening throughout the throughout the game on Sunday night. I’m not as concerned about Aaron’s performance until we see it. Like if he goes out there on Sunday against the Bengals and plays like that again, that’s when you start to get concerned. Um, but I I I I think that performance was significantly worse than anything else we’ve seen this season, which is hilarious because like he that’s not even the worst grade that he got from like a PF from like PFF, which is the worst one to him, which is hilarious to me. you kind of beat me to it, but I was going to, you know, really I’ve been driving home the time of possession thing all week and it’s really been all year, but there’s so many reasons to be poor in time of possession and but I think step one is just run the football a little bit more. Yeah. I mean, listen, you know, I I just rattled off those those stats and and and I I I understand, you know, like sometimes it sounds like you like I think people live in the world of this is the way the Steelers have been and Arthur Smith has this, you know, ancient offense. It’s not. And and that’s not what the Steelers are doing right now. They’re not running as an ancient offense. They’re not running the ball a lot on first down. Uh you know, they’re maybe you should more often. And the last thing, you know, and the one thing that that that I’ve seen, you know, is I can’t wait to see that second and eight run again. Well, best way to get out of second and eight on a more consistent basis is to do the things that you do well on first down. And right now, Jaylen Warren does some really good things on first down running the football. And you don’t have to run it every single time. I’m not saying that your run rate on first down needs to be 90%. But should you be running it a little bit more often? Yeah, I think so. Especially, you know, you you found some, you know, this team has found some some successful ways to run the ball, whether it’s the with the jumbo package, whether it’s, you know, through, you know, certain concepts that they’ve called whenever they have their their normal, you know, whatever 12 or 13 personnel on the field, whatever it is, they’ve found some successful ways to run the ball. Jaylen Warren’s been more successful than your you you look at his overall season stats. I you know it’s it’s he’s been a really good running back, but he’s going under the radar because he’s not being used enough. And so I I do think that he needs to get more touches. I think he needs to get more carries. I think they need to make a more concerted effort to run the ball on first and second down. Again, that doesn’t mean run the ball every single time on first and second down, but man, I I think when when a team is struggling, especially to convert on third downs, what you need to make sure is either number one, do what you can do to avoid third down alto together, or at least when you do get to third down, make it third and three, third and four, something that is really a lot more manageable and a lot easier to convert. And right now, they’re not doing that. they’re they’re putting themselves either in in in holes either because of penalties or more often because they’re throwing too much on first down and they’re throwing too much uh and and that puts you in second and long if it doesn’t convert. So, it’s important to be able to set that set that tone and be able to run the ball here. Here. Great stuff as always with our buddy Chris Alec taking some time on a busy Wednesday. Buddy, thank you. Great stuff as always and we will see you this weekend. All right. Awesome. Thanks for having me, guys. anytime, partner. Thank you. There he goes. Chris Hock. And I mean, he’s absolutely spot on on a lot of that stuff. Um, and that’s, you know, that’s something I’m hoping to see moving in the right direction this Sunday against those Cincinnati Bengals. Matt, let’s get to a break here. When we come back on the other side, Rodney Dangerfield time. Yeah. John Blutarski time. We’re going to go around campus. Grab a brew. It don’t cost nothing here on the drive. Wester, Matt Williamson, Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. [Music] Back to school. Back to school to prove to Matt that I’m not a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight. Hope I don’t get in a fight. That’s from Billy Madison. It is time to go around campus here. We’re not going that back to school like Adam names on this list and Billy Madison did. But Matt, we have got a beefy. It’s the first time we got three pages. Three pages. How about that? The around campus packet this week. We’ve gotten all kinds of tweets and messages and comments about this. I told you last week, I went and checked my Instagram DMs, which I typically never do, maybe once or twice a year, and there were like a dozen of you in my Instagram DMs like, “Talk about Haze King, talk about Brendan Sorsby, talk about Sawyer Robertson.” Well, folks, ask and you shall receive because this is getting a lot of fun as the road is narrowing, more and more people are putting their uh hat into the ring of this conversation. And like we’ve talked about, I think there’s more and more conversation around too like could the Dante Moors, the Lenor Sers of the world, could they come back for another year? Even someone like Tyson seems like a long shot. Even like some because they’re going to be first round picks. I mean that I I think they go back. You think they go back? I do. Just cuz I think they’ll make so much money next year in college. It’s It’s tough. I don’t know. I mean, they would be first round picks, though. It’s tough. And like Tai Simpson as well, too. You know, Fernando Mendoza is the only one right now that I say is coming out. No doubt. And then some of these guys like Hayes King has to, you know, some of these guys that have to come out, that’s a different story as well too. Carson Beck has to, right? I don’t know if you know this and then take go I just learned today because we did a segment on uh a different show that Simpson right now is the betting favorite to be first pick overall. Yes. And Mendoza’s right behind him. But still, that’s pretty crazy, right? Started nine or 10 games in his entire college football career. Yeah. Now he’s done very well in them. He’s run but he’s got nine starts in his college football career. Vegas thinks he is coming out but I mean more anders are on the list too but right off the top of my head I can’t remember a first overall quarterback pick that was a oneyear because even people throw Joe Burrow out there all the time. Cam Newton might be the one. Cam Newton might be the one. I mean there’s but Joe Burrow started for Trabiscy didn’t start many games. True. I don’t know how many years they were. Haskins was very little, Trabisc. That’s a Haskins is a good one. Newton was one year. That era before everyone was transferring, it wasn’t that uncommon and hardly anybody did well. That’s a good point. But like Mahomes was multi-year. All these guys now like the Sam Darnolds and the Baker Mayfields and the Jaden Daniels and like they’re multi-year. A lot of them multi-chool. You see on this packet here, more than 50% of the guys are multi-school guys. Um, and so yeah, it is always a lot of moving parts in this regard. But Matt, here’s what we know. Okay, let’s start with Fernando Mendoza because he’s definitely coming out. He’s definitely going to be a top 10 pick. Yes. Um, did not have his best game against Penn State, but he did the thing that we like to see. Poise, accuracy, despite not having his best day, led his team to a win in a big moment in Happy Valley in front of that crowd. I know Penn State is not what everybody thought they were going to be this year, but they still got some dudes on that defense. They still have good football players. Yes, they’ve got good football players. And even when it’s not 110,000, maybe there’s 20,000 empty seats there. It’s still 90,000 people going nuts. Tough atmosphere to play in. 19 of 30, 218 yards, one touchdown, one interception. He also did run for 20 yards and a score as well. He’s And he got the win. but he got the win and made some big time throws with some big time pressure in his face down the stretch. I like seeing that from him because so far for most of this season, everything’s gone according to plan. It didn’t go according to plan on Saturday and he still found a way to get it done and it won’t in the playoffs and there’ll be some there are obstacles ahead. I would think I mean I haven’t studied these guys or watched every snap of that game that scouts did not move him backwards because No, no, no. Absolutely not. Okay. Absolutely not. Yeah, Dante Moore, remember, left the game against Wisconsin a couple weeks ago, early in the third quarter with a kind of clos line, looked like a head type injury, then had a byee. Returned to action, didn’t have his best performance, but again, tough spot on the road. Top 20 game in Iowa, crazy environment, and he took his team down the field to kick a field goal and win it at the end despite rainy, crappy conditions. Made some impressive drives. uh didn’t throw any touchdowns, had an interception, you know, only 112 yards passing and 46 yards on the ground, but their number one receiver was out. Like I said, it was just Wasn’t Mendoza’s receiver out, too? Yes. Yes. Meant to mention that. Thank you. Uh coming back off of an injury, crappy weather on the road against a top 20 team. Everybody knows Iowa tough place to play. Always have a good defense. Well, coach, they’re always gonna be hard to play against. He did the same kind of Meno, not quite to the extent that Mendoza did, but at the end of the game when they’re in the huddle and the team’s all looking to him, we need a drive and we need points right here. We’re going to lose. He got it done. Drove them down the field in the pouring down rain to get into field goal position and win that game. Okay. Still very high on him, but he is definitely for me. You want to be the sixth overall pick or do you want to come back to Oregon and make $12 million and win a national championship? Yeah. Yeah. And then maybe be the first overall pick. And frankly, I understand both sides. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Lenor Sers coming off a byee. We He’s another one that we’ve talked about. This year has not gone according to plan for him or according to South Carolina. Maybe off the bye-week he can stabilize a little bit down the stretch because next week they’ve got another huge test. They go to number three Texas A&M. He’s Oh, wait. Sorry. Pardon me. I’m getting that wrong. He’s coming off of his bye-week. This week is a huge test. They go to Texas A&M. Sorry. I kind of I kind of conflated that. He’s coming off of a bye-week, so nothing new to report, but a massive test on the road in College Station there at Kyle Field that you’ve described before is the crazy atmosphere against a number three team in the country. I’d be shocked if he comes out. I would too, but if you look at a lot of those mock drafts, they still have him going in the top 20. That’s the thing. I mean like you’re all these guys are going to have this balancing act of do I go back make a nice buck and enjoy college life be a kid for another year fight an Ohio State guy and I mean there might be more competition at the top last year no doubt or does he look at it like well more went back so I should go to the league because that’s one less guy to fight with this year you know what I mean second quarterback taken right right that be that’ll be fun chicken didn’t you know I think so too that’s gonna be fun to you know does Tai Simpson declare early. Does Dante Moore declare early? Does that affect somebody like Lenor Sers? That’s stuff that, you know, when we get to January, we will absolutely be keeping an eye on. Speaking of Ty Simpson, let’s go to him. Uh 277 yards, a touchdown, zero interceptions, and a 20 to9 win over LSU. Didn’t light it up, Matt, but impressive touch. He’s accurate and and against what I think is one of the more underrated like LSU, they fired their coach. They’ve had a lot go wrong this year, but I still think that’s a top 10 defense in college football. Kind of like the Penn State conversation. They still have big, fast, strong guys. You know what I mean? He was surgical. He was accurate. He has impressive touch. And, you know, 277 yards and a touchdown. Uh, confident professional performance against LSU. Okay. So, no reason to go backwards on any of these. Continues to check boxes. Let’s talk about Jada Miyava. He’s an interesting one for me. The USC quarterback. Yeah, it’s getting some first round buzz. He is like there’s some Josh Allen elements to his game. Okay. He doesn’t like getting sacked and he’s good at not getting sacked. He can extend plays. He can find guys downfield. He rolled in a 38 to7 win over Northwestern. He’s calm when the pocket breaks down. His decision- making is really strong. And Matt, one thing that I love to see, he threw an interception in that game. You know what he did? I’m reading it now, but yeah. Yeah. chased the guy down that threw the interception and forced a fumble at the goal line. So great hit the guy, fumbled it into the end zone. Like that’s the kind of effort stuff you love to see. Sign me up. His one his his most negative play of the game. He chased the dude down, forced a fumble at the goal line after throwing an interception. Love to see it. Love to see it. Does he have to come out? I don’t think so. Okay. I don’t think this is transfer because he went to UNLV and is now two years at USC. So, I think he has one more year of eligibility after this. Trinidad Chamblas is another one of these interesting guys. I think he’s going to return to Old Miss, but what if Lane Keifin takes a different job? What if he continues to rise up some boards like he has? They played the Citadel. I mean, they just absolutely not take away from this past week. Yeah, they just absolutely dominated um a bad team, but he’s crisp, he’s smart, he’s athletic. Um he’s got the dual kind of threat. Can pull it down and move with his legs. Good decision- making. Has avoided costly mistakes for most of the season. Little on the small side though. Little on the small side. 61 200 lb. He’s another one of those guys that I was kind of telling you yesterday. While I think the first round prospect group here might be shrinking, that kind of that kind of day two group is growing and I think he’s firmly in that conversation. Oh, let’s talk about Haze King. He’s the one we’ve got. Is he in that conversation? Is he in that same neck of the woods? Okay. Absolutely. He’s, remember, he’s going to be 25 before we even get to the combine. He’s going to be 25 in January. It’s his sixth year in college football. He was three years at&m, now three years at Georgia Tech. They had a by-week, so nothing new on him, but they lost to NC State last week and he was excellent in that loss. I mean, like threw for over 400 yards, ran for 100 yards, accounted for all their touchdowns. They lost like one man show. They lost like 48 to 35, but he put up all 30. I mean, he was a oneman show for Georgia Tech. I’m very interested, Matt, about 10 days from now, he’ll take on that Pit defense down in Atlanta. And, uh, Pitt’s defense has some good dudes on the defensive front. They’ve got some Kyle Lewis and some good linebackers that are going to play in the pros. As you and I have talked about before, Pitt’s defensive backs are always tough to play against because they do that press man up style. excited to see coming off of his bye-week and their first loss of the season. Uh how Hayes King navigates this because if they win out, he’ll be in the ACC championship game. He’s one of those guys I would love to see Georgia Tech get into the playoff because I’d love to see him go up against like a Do they have a chance? I don’t even know where they’re at. Oh, absolutely. They’re nine and one or eight and one right now. If they win out, they’ll be in the ACC championship game. Um and he’s a real intriguing one to me. He’s definitely the name that was tweeted at us the most in the last week. What about Hayes King? What about his cuz I mean he’s putting up like four or 500 yards of offense every single week. Every single week. He’s been on the list but we haven’t dug into him a lot. Yes. He’s one I think that we’ll be he’ll be an intriguing conversation around combine and draft time. Absolutely. Carson Beck quick mention. He responded fine. Miami bounced back after that loss to SMU in overtime. He played well in a win against Syracuse. But like I told you, I I He has all the talent in the world. He lacks the leadership, the maturity. I think I’m just I think I’m just out on him no matter what I see down the stretch. John Matir, a guy that we’ve been following through this process a lot. A guy that you really liked what you saw in the beginning of the season from him before he had that hand injury. Missed some time and has looked a little rusty since I want to see how he plays down the stretch here, too. Yeah, that could be the difference to going back or not. Oklahoma’s got a couple big games here beginning this Saturday at Alabama. He’s coming off of a byee now. hand should be as healthy as it’s been. They’ve had some time to, you know, you get the by-week to rest, reset, self scout, all that stuff. Really excited to see how Matier finishes the year because he’s one of those guys that, you know, could kind of be uh, you know, he’s projected, let’s say, 25th to 35th pick in mock drafts, but when he gets to the combine, when he gets to Proday, all that stuff starts rocketing up up draft boards. I could definitely see that. He’s got that skill set. Uh, Matt, let’s talk about Garrett Nusmire for a second. Yeah, we’ve kind of brushed him. Him him and Clubnick. We haven’t talked a lot about Arch Manning. I mean, those were like the four biggest names coming into the year and they’ve fallen back and you know, Arch, I didn’t put him on the packet this week, but maybe he will be next week. He they’ve got he’s playing better, right? He’s playing much better and they have to go to Georgia. So, if he can navigate that and somehow win, he’ll he’ll get in that conversation again. But Nus, I tell you what, um, he they obviously lost to Alabama like we were just talking about with Tai Simpson, but he completed almost 86% of his passes, 121 yards, zero touchdowns, zero interceptions. Like he he’s looking like a day two, day three pick. Okay. I think he deserves to be in these conversations again. He’s shown some signs of life, but it would take a lot for him to get back into the first round. He’s not physically overwhelming like he doesn’t have the biggest arm, the strongest body. No, no, no, no, no. He’s a coach’s kid, smart above the neck and that kind of stuff. Uh Drew Aller still hurt. Obviously, we know that K Clubnick’s an interesting one to me, Matt, because he was amongst that like the Mount Rushmore of this of Clubnick, Aller, Nusmeer, and Arch before the season started. Clubnik is the one who’s maybe clawed back the most. Uh Clemson defeated Florida State 24-10. He completed over 74% of his passes, 221 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, also ran for a touchdown. I would say after a very slow start to the season, his stock is starting to trend up. He’s one of the guys that we haven’t talked about much, but maybe I could still see him becoming a first round, you know, Jackson Dart type range selection in the first round. He’s looked much better the last couple weeks than he did the first half of the season and obviously could finish strong. And if his junior tape’s as strong as people thought it was, I mean, that didn’t go away either, you know, or last year tape. I don’t know if he was junior or not, but Sawyer Robinson, another one of those guys we’ve gotten a lot of tweets about the Baylor quarterback, 6’4, 220 pounds, coming off of his bye-week, so nothing new to report, but they have Utah, Utah, Utah, one of the better defenses uh in the Big 12 at home this Saturday. Big test for Sawyer Robinson this Saturday. We’ll have more information uh on him next week. He’ll be one of those guys next week that are him and Matir I really want to highlight coming out coming out of their bye coming out of their bye-week kind of a crossroads playing against two really good defenses. Okay. Okay. They’re they’re ones to keep an eye on this Saturday. Sam Levit, Arizona State. Loved what he was doing the last couple weeks. I thought he was getting some momentum. I was I was really kind of Hey, it’s good for my Mountaineers, but we have to go out to Tempe this Saturday to play Arizona State. So, good that he’s not going to be there. But they have that wide receiver too who is T McMillan of this year. Yes, he’s first round pick. Might be a top 10 pick. I was as much as I’m happy that Levit, you know, for WVU’s chances to win isn’t going to play. Man, to watch those two against my team is always kind of let’s see how these guys, you know, you want to watch your your team play those guys. Yeah, absolutely. Barometer, but Levit could work his way back into this conversation. I also could could absolutely see him staying another year. Couple more here. Two more. Matt, y’all good? Yeah. Roll along, man. Okay, Talon Green. He’s another one that we’ve gotten tweets about. Spent three years at Boise State, now is in his second year at Arkansas. He will be uh coming out in the draft this year. He kind of defines size and dual threat. Matt, he’s 66 225 and you know, they fired their coach Sam Pitman like a month ago. So, it’s a program that has been not been a good year. Wallering in the wilderness, you know, wallowing in the wilderness. But his dual threat ability is undeniable. single-handedly willed them to a win over Mississippi State. Key runs, timely throws. He is that offense. Handles pressure with maturity. Like Sellers, hard to evaluate on a bad team. Sounds like a lot like Sellers, but has undeniable traits. Okay. A lot like Sellers, not quite the arm, but much more prototypical size. 66 225. Like much like Sellers, not quite the arm strength, but but much better prototypical size. Someone like that, you know. would be great for me the Steelers with a 22nd pick if Rogers is coming back. Totally. You know, just sit there and absorb everything that Rogers says. Jordan Love 2.0. Exactly. Right. Just like you did with Brett and Jordan did with you. You know, right? I I am absolutely uh with you on that one. Last, but certainly not least here, got a couple tweets this past week about Brendan Sorsby as well, too. Now he’s coming off a by-week and before that had perhaps his worst performance of the season blowout loss at Utah. Utah’s really good really good defense. And now you say he’s at UC. Is that Cal? Cincinnati. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, right. I should have I put UC in the packet. Yeah. Um he started I remember we were going to talk about Cincinnati. I for didn’t know his name. Yep. Started at IU now is at Cincinnati. Matt didn’t have his bye-week this past week and and you know was tough performance, tough sledding um against Utah. He’s got a Arizona team at home that’s kind of ripe for the picking. I expect him to bounce back in a big way off a bad performance and then a by-week. But if you look at his numbers for the year, he’s another 63 235. You like the size, you like the athleticism. He’s thrown for over 2,000 yards, 21 touchdowns, only two interceptions. Also over super productive, over 450 yards rushing, eight touchdowns on just 73 rushing attempts. He averages 6.2 yards per carry. He is all of division one football responsible for the most touchdowns in college football with 29. I need to do more more work on this guy. These are he’s intriguing couple sentences here about him. Yeah, he’s he’s he’s really started to get on my radar. And you know, we’ve talked a little bit about Derek Bell who does some social media film breakown stuff in in Steelers territory. He loves college quarterback, you know, breaking down films and I saw him last week. He was getting really into Brendan Sorsby. Okay. So, I think the word spreading a little bit. He was not one of these kind of on the radar guys at the beginning of the year. Yeah. That’s why I don’t know him. But a little bit like Hayes King, a little bit like Sawyer Robinson. I mean, Matt again, 29 touchdowns, you know, eight of those on the ground, 21 through the air, only two turnovers. Yeah. Productive. Productive. No, that’s really intriguing. Um, and I’m I want to watch him down the stretch here, too. And hoping that Cincinnati can maybe back door into a Big 12 championship game. I would love to see him up against that Texas Tech defense. Matt, matchups in week 12. There’s a whole bunch from a quarterback standpoint to keep an eye on here. Particularly Friday night, fun Clemson and Clemson and K Clubnik are at number 15 Louisville Friday night. Oregon number nine Oregon and Dante Moore host Minnesota Friday night. So, some fun ones on Friday. Big time quarterbacks playing. Yes. Two nights from that. Exactly. Right. And I always I kind of like So, you know, college football used to have a strangle hold on Thursdays like a decade ago. You remember in the Big East days like it was always it was always W view and Virginia Tech pit in Miami, you know, Thursday night. They played a lot of Thursday big games. Now that’s moved to Friday because of course the NFL has said you’re going to have that battle much like they did to the NBA with the uh Christmas Day. Hey, guess what? That’s ours now, buddy. Sorry about that. Um couple fun games to watch on Friday night. Then Saturday, Indiana plays at noon. Uh Mendoza hosting that Wisconsin team, which is a little bit on the up and up now. uh playing better lately as Wisconsin. Uh Sellers in South Carolina, like I mentioned, go to&M. Yeah, I really like the&m quarterback Reed as well, too. He’s only a sophomore, so he’s not draft eligible, but he’s one of these Jaden Miyava types that, you know, we might be talking about a lot next year if you want to keep an eye on him. Uh Cincinnati plays at noon, hosting Arizona, like I mentioned, if you want to watch Sorsby. I know a lot of people around here, a lot of Pit fans, a lot of Notre Dame fans. Your noon slate is locked in. Yeah. But there’s, man, there’s some good quarterback matchups in the in the noon slate as well, too. Then at 3:30, please watch Oklahoma and Matier against Alabama and Simpson. That’s the one if you can only watch. That’s awesome, right? That’s the one if you can only watch one at 3:30. Two top 12 teams, two first round talents at quarterback. Then Iowa takes that really good defense on the road to USC. Excited to see how Mia does against a very stout, very stingy Iowa defense. You think Mia’s stocks going up? Yes. Yeah. Yes. That’s a top 20 matchup um out there at the uh at the Coliseum in LA in Southern California. Uh Chamblas and Old Miss, they host Florida 7 o’clock at night. Florida is another one. They fired their coach. They’ve been a program up and down, but they got dudes on defense like they like they always do. Sure, they have athletes, right? Want to see how Chambers does against that athletic defense that can move uh at home in a good test at 7:00. As I mentioned, Baylor hosts Utah, one of I think maybe the most underrated team in college football in Utah. Really good defense on the road in Waco against Baylor 7 o’clock. How does Sawyer Robinson look out of his by-week? And then finally, I threw Arch on here in this regard where Texas number 11 Texas goes in Georgia, right? Goes to Georgia Saturday night 7:30. Let’s see how Arch has been arrow up these last couple weeks. Let’s see how he looks in a tough environment against a top five team. I mean, real quick on Arch. I mean, everyone on the planet seems to think, “Oh, he’s going back. He has Manning money. They’re going to give him a ton.” We don’t know that. I mean, if he finishes super strong and if they win their last two games, they could get into the playoff and then look out. And if he has another solid game or two in the playoff, Yeah. again, if his agent’s telling him he’ll be a top 15 pick in the draft, I mean, I’m I I bet if he comes out, he’d be considered for number one. Absolutely. I mean, because he just still has some undeniable. He still has the same things we talked about in the summer. I mean, I’m just I just know how it works. Uh, last question for you. Yes. Does Notre Dame have a dude? They have a true freshman or something? They do. So, it’s the true freshman bowl. That’s what I thought. Okay. Between, uh, Henchel, of course, the, uh, the Pit quarterback, and then, um, the Notre Dame quarterback, uh, Carr, CJ Carr. Okay. Two great. I just know a lot of people be watching that game, so I figured Notre Dame had to have somebody. If you want to watch that game for an NFL prospect, Jeremiah Love, the Notre Dame running back. Running back. So, he’s like genty. I mean, he’s going to be a Bejian Robinson, Ashton Genty, top 10, top 15 pick at running back, which, you know, means a lot. Means a lot. Uh, so yeah, huge week 12 slate. I’m very happy the Steelers are home on Sunday. That means I don’t That means I don’t have to get on a plane Saturday night. That means, hey honey, take the girls and go somewhere nice cuz daddy’s got a bunch of college football games to watch for 14 hours. Baby, I’m excited to dig my heels in. Love it. There’s your around campus. A beefy one, maybe the longest one we’ve ever done here heading into week 12 and a big week in college football. We’ll come back on the other side. Few minutes, put a bow on this thing on this Wednesday. Wesler, Matt Williamson. It’s the drive on Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. Down the home stretch here on the drive, Matt. And we only have a couple minutes. Uh clock was a little we had a couple beefy segments today. Yeah, we did. Beefy around campus. Beefy Best of the West. Yeah, I bet both those ones. Talked to Hock, our buddy Chris Hack for a long time. So, just a couple minutes here before we got to go. And uh I did want to get to one tweet from Annie that caught my eye. Uh along the Aaron Rogers conversation, she’s asking why we haven’t seen the tight ends function as a pseudo wide receiver too like there was so much conversation about coming into the season. Yeah. Is it because they’re bigger, slower, and less adept at running complex routes than wide receivers? Is it because they’re needed for their blocking duties? Just wondered uh for your guys insight. Well, it’s a good question. It is a good question, and I don’t have a good answer. Um I would like to see Fri Moose role grow a little as a pass catcher. As a pass catcher, yes, John to me has been a little disappointing. I mean, and I think that’s more on him than them. Um, now I’m not saying he’s stinks or is worthless or anything like that, but he would be last in my snap count pecking order of the three for sure, but one of these things, and I’m not, and I’m kind of using it as a copout. It’s so easy to say, well, we need more Warren. Why is Metaf only getting four or five targets? I know where you’re going with this, but it’s true. They don’t run any plays. They run the fewest plays in the league. If you ran an extra 10, 12, 15 plays a game, right? That’s three more for Warren and three more for Metaf and six more for your tight ends. I feel like a broken record shot to Calvin Austin. I feel like a broken record with time of possession and not run enough plays. But I mean it’s it’s crippling. I mean it’s you can’t win getting out snapped by 10 15 plays a game especially as the season goes on. And we talked about the other day like the defense is on pace to play like three games more than the offense. Can’t have it. Not right. Right. Matt, before we go real quick, latest practice report just came across the timeline. Brick Jones listed with a groin his reason for not practicing today. All right, so we’ll follow up on that. Get a little jump on that tomorrow. Get a little bit more into that tomorrow. Obviously see what the Thursday practice report looks like, but there’s kind of a followup for you for today. But that will do it for us today. Big thanks to our buddy Chris Hack for taking the time to join us. Our guy Tyler V, Mr. TV for making sure we look handsome on YouTube. Big shout out to Matt Williamson. I’m Weser. Take care everybody. We will talk to you tomorrow. As always, you know where to find us. It’s on your 247 home of the black and gold. It’s Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network.
Matt Williamson and Wes Uhler talk about the latest roster moves for the Steelers and more on SNR Drive on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025
00:00:47 – Steelers roster moves
00:16:06 – Best of the Wes – Top 10 Father/Son Duos
00:36:49 – Around Campus preview
00:47:18 – Chris Halicke calls into the show
01:05:18 – “Around Campus” Talking College QBs
01:28:36 – Reading fan tweets
01:30:31 – Wednesday’s Steelers Practice/Injury Report
#HereWeGo #Steelers #NFL
Watch more on Steelers.com
18 comments
Another Steelers bad move! This is typical! Smh…
Let’s go Will Howard put him in sundays
Steelers please get at least one hometown guy on this program please. Matt is awesome but he brings up the Browns every episode. Now this kid is a Bronco fan admittedly?
Nah yall tripping 😅
Honestly it made me sad when Matt said “ we usually count down 32 “ 😞 love u Matt, miss u Dale
It feels like the Steelers run the ball on second and long far too often, usually ending up with minimal gains and setting up third and long. Given that the run game hasn’t been a strength, and the wide receiver group is already a weakness, it seems like they’re leaning into the least effective part of their offense.
Excellent guest and an engaging discussion today!
Boys, don't forget that there are some quality QB's in FCS programs.
You are probably just ignorant to the fact or just didn't mention that Clay Matthews Sr. the 1950s 49ers linebacker is the father of Bruce and Clay Jr (the Browns/Falcons LB) and then their kids were Jake from the Bruce Matthews side of the family and then Clay two kids, Clay Matthews III played for GB and the Rams and also Casey Matthews who most forget about. It ain't just one father side combo or whatever, it is three generations of NFL players.
Love the show as always men. Dale, I think you meant Alain Lemieux, not Claude. Claude Lemieux was not Mario's brother, it was Alain.
The Matthews family has great family pedigree.
Terry and Eric Metcalf
Great another guy that can’t tackle! That’s the new Steeler way! Tackling is optional on this team!
If they’re spending 10 minutes on a random list Wes googled in the middle of football season I cannot imagine what this show will be in the middle of May.
How the hell can yall say Porter is our only man corner he's a walking pass interference. Even in college all he does is grab and hold he's horrible in man coverage. I hated the pick i couldn't believe they picked him.
Offense is sputtering . Steelers Answer: Get another defensive player, makes sense !
We got a CB who hasn’t played in 20+ games and had back surgery. Cmon man
You mean Roman and Dillon Gabriel aren’t #1??
Maiava in the 2nd would be a steal