Steelers Prepare For Bears | SNR Drive (Nov.19) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers Prepare For Bears | SNR Drive (Nov.19) | Pittsburgh Steelers

You’re tuned to the drive on your 247 home of the black and gold Steelers Nation Radio. Good afternoon, Steelers Nation. It’s the drive on the Steelers Audio Network. West Schuler and Matt Williamson with you here for the next two hours on your 247 home of the black and gold as we hit that Wednesday day. Matt Wednesday day. Say that five times fast. We hit the Wednesday day where we uh start to turn the page a little bit, do some more global stuff. Um our weekly pick a player conversation that has become one of my new favorite segments. Plenty for us to uh to get into and to dabble with today. But I wanted to start with uh I think some pretty cool news for you. Okay, cool. And that is that former Steelers defensive lineman, the great LC Greenwood, has been named one of nine semi-finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2026 in the seniors category. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Uh he was a 10th round pick of the Steelers in the 1969 NFL draft out of Arkansas and N 13 seasons for the Steelers. uh obviously a huge part of the steel curtain and four Super Bowl championships uh playing alongside Mean Joe, Dwight White, and Ernie Holmes. Um and you know, I I know stats were a little different back then. Yeah. Yeah. Sacks weren’t even a thing, you know. Right. Exactly. Right. Um, but he did, even with that being said, Matt, he still finished his career with 73 and a half sacks. Two-time first team allpro, sixtime pro bowler back when that really meant something. Oh, yeah. 100%. Uh, member of the Steelers all time team, NFL 1970s all decade team. Was of course part of that inaugural steel of Steelers Hall of Honor class, that massive one in 2017 when they unveiled the Hall of Honor. Matt, pretty cool. I uh one of the things you and I have talked about this before like when you talk to the Bob Labrielas of the world. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They will always tell you after mean Joe Green it’s Franco Harris, right? Like that’s one of those that you ask the people that have been around for the history of this organization and have really, you know, devoted themselves to it. That’s one of the popular questions is like who’s on that Mount Rushmore? And and they’re always like Mean Joe first, Franco second. Mhm. Another thing that if you ask, you know, people like Labs, um, who is the number one most deserving Steeler who’s not in the Hall of Fame, that should be. Okay. Always LC Greenwood. Yeah. Yeah. It comes up a lot. And, you know, I’ve had these conversations, my uncle, my dad, you know, I mean, people kind of taught me football way back when or, you know, as a fan. And I’m older than you obviously. So, I was alive, you know, when these things were happening, but barely. Yeah. I mean, like I’ve I’ve said before, like the first football game that I remember and really understanding to some degree what was going on was the Steelers win over the Rams in the Super Bowl, the fourth Super Bowl. Like watching every play and like I told you, mine’s the the Super Bowl 30 against the Cowboys at the Steelers lost. So, I understand the lore of LC and you know how how important he was in that era to some degree, but like if you ask my dad or you know certainly Labs would be the best person to talk to about tomorrow. Yeah, I guess we definitely should. That LC was not as as important as anyone on that team because I mean there were bigger stars than him. My goodness. I mean, hey, I’m Lambert. I mean, you blunt to me there were easy Hall of Famers. Green of course, but he’s right there behind that group of no-brainer Hall of Famers, you know. So, frankly, this to me is what exactly what the Veterans Committee is for. Completely agree. Yeah. And that’s why it exists. Uh to appear in this senior’s category now, you could have last appeared in a professional football game in the year 2000. So, it’s a 25 year And it’s obviously been longer for LC and some of these other guys. Started, Matt, here’s the kind of exciting, encouraging part. Started with 182 nominees. Now, right now it’s down to nine. Right. Right. I mean, so he has really made it to the, you know, I mean, from a from nearly 200 names. From nearly 200 names to a single digit list. It amazes me that they start with 200 names. I mean, 182. Like that’s nuts. Like I think Gary Anderson was on that list. I can tell you. I’ll tell you here in a minute all of the the I’m also curious who the finalists are. So nine people uh the seniors blue ribbon committee which funny enough is a ninep person committee as well. They will meet November 25th that’s next week and vote to narrow this down to three. So it will go from 9 to three. Okay. I don’t know how the the how things got whittleled down for this one. Neither did I. And that’s kind of why I wanted to talk through it with you here as well. um just as well TV. Uh those names uh as well as the finalist uh coach and contributor categories will be unveiled in early December. Okay. So I I think there are even different voters. I believe that’s what it sounds like a separate committee. I’m hoping these are older human beings that do this vote. I I would think so. Shouldn’t be a bunch of people who look like me. Right. Right. going to say, I mean, yeah, you can read like anybody else and watch their resumes or go to YouTube or whatever, but at least to have been around in that era, I think is goes a long way. Here’s the other eight names that will be battling with LC Greenwood for Canton immortality. Ken Anderson, we actually talked about him last week. Yeah. Quarterback. Real quick on Ken Anderson, he was, so people don’t know, the West Coast offense started with Ken Anderson when Bill Walsh was the offense coordinator with the Bengals. And then he and then he goes to the West Coast and really it’s really the Ohio River offense. You I mean like it’s and he executed it extremely well before anyone knew who Montana was. It’s like we we talked about Chip Kelly a little bit yesterday. Yeah. People always talked about that crazy style of spread offense that he kind of created at Oregon. It actually happened at New Hampshire, you know, when he was when he was at like a D2 school doing that before Oregon hired him to come across people figured it out and were exposed to it, right? Like Mike Leech gets a ton of credit for air raid stuff. It was actually how mummy at BYU like you know like how all that stuff works. Yeah. Nobody created stuff out of thin air too, you know, but Walsh was extremely extremely innovative and was considered the forerunner to become the Bengals head coach. They made the wrong choice. Got someone else. He goes the Niners. That’s a theme for that organization. Yeah, a little bit. And uh so I think Anderson might even have a stronger case in LC. I mean LC has four rings. Uh what really helps Ken Anderson is he was the league MVP in 1981. LC has the four rings, the ultimate team success, but Ken Anderson the ultimate individual award 1981 MVP. Finished his career, Matt, with nearly 33,000 passing yards and 197 touchdowns. That’s the thing is and people didn’t throw the ball. I mean like that’d be great for now, you know? He was kind of like Marino before Marino, right? And it was a lot of short controlled stuff. Like if you look at like I remember getting like you’re too young for this, but like you get a 1979 passing leaders card and there’d be one from the AFC and one from the NFC, you know, and it was Ken Anderson a lot, you know, like 1975, I’m guessing, maybe like 76ish to 82 or 83. He was always amongst the top passing leaders because nobody knew how to understand the shortcontrolled, you know, I don’t want to get too much into football history, nor am I the the best historian for it. But what Walsh really did the dork out here for a minute, Matt. Come on. The people love this stuff. And it’s this to me is unbelievably innovative is he married Walsh married the drop your footwork with the exact timing down to the tenth of the second to the route. Gotcha. I mean, that’s really the beauty of the bang and Right. Right. Right. This is a three-step drop, you know. This is a fivestep drop. 2.6 seconds, you know. So, I’m going to marry my route combination. You’re going to hit you’re going to throw that thing six inches in front of Jerry Rice’s numbers and he’s going to hit that back foot, right? And defenses didn’t know what to do with it, you know? Right. And frankly, that’s a big reason the zone blitz created cuz you drop into those quick slants and things, you know, that to kind of get in the way, you know. What’s the uh the phrase that you’ve said to me a few times that’s a classic that necessity is the mother the mother of invention is necessity. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So these quarterbacks and wide receivers are dicing us up like this. What’s coming up with the zone blitz? I mean corners are like ball’s coming out before he’s even coming out his break. You know they’ve practiced this route 8,000 times. Montana to Rice, you know, right? But it was Anderson was ahead of the game on that. Speaking of Billy Walsh and those Niners teams and those offenses, Roger Craig also one of also one of he’s gonna have some tough swimming here nominees. He was the running back during that that Montana Rice era. First player to total 1,000 rushing yards and receiving yards in the same season in the NFL. He walked so Christian McAffrey could run. Exactly. threetime Super Bowl champion, eight years in the league, over 1300 yards from scrimmage, 73 touchdowns. Again, ahead of his game, ahead of his time. People remember like NFL film stuff if you watch those Super Bowls or, you know, real high knees, you know, he’s got a real deliberate style, you know, like so he stood out, you know, on a really good team. But recebacks weren’t catching the ball back much back then. I mean, like, think of the awesome running backs of the 70s. That’s like OJ, Earl Campbell, Franco. I mean, they’re phenomenal players, but they don’t have that many catches. That was kind of a Bill Walsh thing, too, was easy throws to running backs against linebackers that can’t cover anyone back then, you know? And Craig was Craig also has the rings. Like, Craig kind of has the innovative Yep. I’m I’m think Hall of Fame case trying to be as impartial as possible. Craig has some of the innovative ahead of his time Anderson stuff. Andy is Elsie’s range. Andy’s got the rings. Right. Right. Right. Those are two very viable C. Now, remember, it goes from nine to three, so it’s not like they’re just picking one of these guys, but yeah, Henry Ellard, wide receiver, uh, in the 80s and 90s. Uh, let’s see here. 814 receptions, 1300 13,700 yards, 65 touchdowns. His yardage as a wide receiver still ranks 15th in league history. surpassed thousand yard receiving seasons seven times in his career. Led the league in receiving in 1988. Solid resume. Really strong. Yeah, I say the resume is better than I thought. I was going to kind of brush it off, but I mean to still be 13th in all time receiving yards when the game has changed so drastically. That to me is impress 15th, but still that’s to be top 15 still when you played in the 80s and 90s. And back then, I mean, there would only be and they played fewer games, 16 at that point, but there was only, I’m guessing, five to seven,000 yard receivers a year. And if he did it that many times, you know, it’s impressive. Yeah. Yeah. He would still be fourth that we’ve mentioned so far. This is an impressive group so far. It is. Yeah. Because I’ll be honest, sometimes these veteran committee guys, it’s like this guy played center and nose tackle back in 1948. What am I supposed to talk about here? Okay. I mean, that’s I I respect it, but I What are we doing here? Which maybe I’m just getting old if I remember these dudes like entire career. A little bit of both. Little bit of both. Uh Matt, I know Halloween was a couple weeks ago, but put your hog nose on because Joe Jacobe is up next. Another good one. 13-year career, all with the team formerly labeled as the Redskins, now called the Commanders. Three Super Bowls as part of that Hog unit. Uh, two-time first team allpro, four-time Pro Bowler, played in Thrust Grim, you know, and Bostic was the center. They were the best. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess he was on that last Super Bowl team. Schlleareth was, wasn’t he? Sarah was on Denver late. Well, he played Washington. He won one with the Hogs and then two with Elwood. I think he’s noticeably older than these guys. This is like early 80s. Mark May was the other tackle and Russ Grim. These guys like Jacobe probably came in the league in like 1980ish, something like that. um powerful, nasty. He’d be outside. I mean, he’d be at the bottom of this list for me, but he’s still many, you know, I think you said several Pro Bowls and, you know, four Pro Bowls, two first team All Pros. Yeah. Three Super Bowl rings, pretty nice career. Through it like Munoz and Jackie Slater. Like they’re they’re the tackles that are you got to beat out for Pro Bowls and all pros, you know? It’s impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Uh let’s go to a uh cornerback here. Eddie Meter. I don’t know him. Is that how he pronounces his last name? I believe it is from the Rams. He played in the 50s and 60s. So that’s probably why you and I aren’t incredibly familiar. But two-time first team AllPro, six-time Pro Bowler, 1960s NFL all decade team, finished his career with 46 interceptions. Still a Rams franchise record. I don’t have much to comment on it, but I do think all decade team carries a lot of weight. I was just going to say that with LC. I think that carries a lot of weight. But one thing I don’t like about the all decade team is if you were drafted in 1985 and you played till 1995, you’re not making an an all decade team. Unless you’re like Lawrence Taylor or Yeah. Yeah. Right. You have five straight years of an all pro. Right. Right. Uh Stanley Morgan, wide receiver, is also a finalist from 77 to 1990. Posted Patriots. Yeah. the most yards per reception in NFL history among players with more than 500 career receptions. 15.2. Yeah. Four pro four-time Pro Bowler as a New England Patriots. Still the Patriots all-time leader in receiving yards. Did play once. That’s impressive. Did play I would have guessed it’s Grank. Seriously? Yeah. Right. Or even Edelman or Welker. Yeah. Right. Right. How much did play his his final season in the NFL with the Colts. Okay. He was deep threat. Scary guy, you know. I mean, those those teams weren’t great. That was like Steve Grogan was the quarterback in the 80s and John Hannah was like their only good player, you know. Two more here, Matt. And one of them, this next one, is a name who It’s funny. I feel like every time we’ve talked about special teams and these type of awards, this guy’s name comes up. Steve Tasker is one of the semiinalists as well too. special teams and wide receiver 85 to 97, seven Pro Bowls, of course, special teams phenom for the Bills. Uh, and those Bills teams that went to and lost four straight Super Bowls in the9s, spot contributor at wide receiver, but best known for kick and punt coverage on special teams. I mean, you can’t tell me I know you can’t tell me that he was important to the Bills four Super Bowl runs as LC was to the Steelers four Super Bowl runs. any of these guys, but this might be his opportunity because there was a lot of buzz when he was up for real. You know, what do you do with Tasker? What do you do with Hester or these guys? And a guy like Hester to me has a lot more weight than Tasker. I mean, he at least touched the ball. He scored touchdowns, like literally changed games. People wouldn’t punt to him. They just punt out of bounds like just walk this guy with the bases loaded. Who cares? So, even if you’re the best gunner ever, that’s why I think they should almost have their own wing. You know, every three years a special team goes, “Listen, if there’s only what, one kicker and one punter or one punter and no kickers in the Hall of Fame, I got a hard time.” I think two kickers. I know Yan Stenerude from the 70s. Ah, Yan. And I think Morton Anderson’s in. Okay. Yeah. Ray Guy is in. Sounds right. Right. So yeah, if you’ve got three kickers in total and I got a hard time putting in a gunner before there’s no long snapper. I mean, nor should there ever be. Christian Coun is going to have something to say about that in a couple years. Last one. Matt Otis Taylor, wide receiver for the Chiefs from 65 to 75. Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs. Uh Super Bowl four champion with the Chiefs. Two-time Pro Bowler, two-time AllPro. Uh also won an AFL championship uh during his 10-year career. led the AFL in touchdowns in 67, led the NFL in receiving yards in 71. A little before my time. I know the name and I knew he’s a dynamic player. Uh, a lot of AFL stuff in there as you mentioned, you know, which I have respect for. But I bet the AFL was fun because they chucked the ball around a lot more than they sure did than the NFL did at that time. You know, I think LC is amongst the top he’s definitely in the top half of these nine. He might he might be second or third in terms of most deserving just Craig and Anderson are going to be hard to Craig and Anderson are tough to beat when you combine the MVPs and the Super Bowl rings. Yeah, but I think LC has got about as good of case as most or more than those nine. He’d make my mind I think he’d make my final three. I think he would as well. Yeah, good for him. We will know that early December uh as they will meet next week to narrow it down from 9 to three and then what will happen is all 20 finalists. So that includes the selection committee’s annual 15 modern era players. Sure. Three senior players, one coach, one contributor will be narrowed down to 20 and then from there they will vote on the enshrinees for this hall of fame class. They actually like sit in the room and they really make their case and they spend the whole day and battle it out. Correct. Uh, of course uh they will be announced at the NFL honors ceremony right before the Super Bowl in San Francisco in February enshrined in August in Canton. Hopefully LC will uh will finally um get his much overdue credit and yeah, he certainly does. Certainly does. And would be pretty cool for his family if that were to happen. Uh and again, we’ll know at least if he made it as a finalist here in the next couple weeks before too much longer. Let’s definitely talk mention at the labs. I I was going to say remind us TV remind us as well too to bring this up to labs cuz he’s great with this stuff and he’ll he’ll be able to really kind of put perspective on not only LC but I think LC against those other eight names. Yeah. I might bring up Ken Anderson to him too as a division guy. Right. Let’s take a break here and we come back on the other side. Matt, I got a little best of the West to tea up for you. Excited for this one. Tyler and I spent yman’s hours putting this together. I worked harder on this than any homework assignment I had in high school. tell you best of the West top 10 running backs in the National Football League right now. Okay, spoiler alert, this was very difficult. I say this is a tough one. I think I got extra gray hairs here in the last couple hours trying to trying to trying to put it together. We’ll discuss that. I’ll let Matt critique on the other side when we return as we roll along here on a Wednesday. It is the drive on Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. Time for a little Best of the West Wednesday here, Matt. And full transparency for you. We’re going to talk top 10 running backs in the NFL right now. Running back power rankings. Okay, just let me be honest with you for a minute. Here’s how this all went down. I was in here this afternoon working on our weekly beefy around campus packet. Yeah, I see the packet here. We we’ll get to that before too much longer as well. But I get that done. I get that all finished, printed off, made up for you and for TV. I actually took one to our buddy Tom Offerman today as well, too, cuz he had been kind of conversing with me about it. I’ll be doing a Wednesday night show with him any minute. Told Tom he had some homework, you know, to to get ready for for this weekend because his Pit Panthers, of course, are going to go down to Atlanta and take on Georgia Tech and Hayes King, who’s been part of this conversation. So, I finish up the around campus packet and we’ve got probably, I don’t know, 45 minutes until showtime. I’m putting together a rough outline for the show like we always do. Nothing crazy because do a little free form jazz, but usually like to have at least Okay, we’re talking to this guest at this time. We know we got a couple topics here to hit on specifically and I go, oh, I go I didn’t put together a Best of the West last night. It’s usually something I do on a Tuesday night. My wife and I got into a little Netflix session last night and I forgot. So, I go TV, I got to come up with a best of the West here. Okay. I don’t know what to do. You know, I’m like, “Ah, what should we do?” I was like, “All right, it doesn’t have to happen every week.” That’s also true. Um, and I was like, “But you know what?” I was like, “What about best running backs in the NFL right now?” Because we’ve done wide receivers. We’ve done quarterbacks throughout the year. You’re biting off a big that project there more than you think, maybe. And I I was like, “Oh, yeah. Let’s do I think I think TV was the one who was like, “How about top 10 running backs?” And I was like, “Yeah, let’s do it. That’ll be fun. That’ll be easy.” It was not easy. No, it’s not easy at all. I I went over this list 30 times. Like I said, I thought I put more thought into this than any homework assignment I had in high school. I scratched names off and changed names around on my list a bunch of times. I really like number one on my list. Spoiler alert, Jonathan Taylor. Okay, after that it gets very difficult, but here’s what I got for you. I’m not even sure he’s won. Here’s what put him over the top. He’s averaging Oh, it’s insane. Yeah. Six yards per carry. That’s a half yard more than anybody else. He has nearly 200 yards more rushing than the second place guy in the NFL right now, James Cook. And he’s had his buy, too. I always He has had his buy. Those stats, you got to pay attention to that. He averages 114 yards per game on the ground. Nobody else in the league averages more than 96. Mhm. He also has 15 touchdowns. If you take away Josh Jacobs, only Javvante Williams even has eight on the ground. So, Oh, I know. the the the touchdown stuff is remarkable. I I felt like I had to put He’s actually catching the ball a lot more this year, too, than he ever has because that’s a good point. Yeah, I he was kind of a one-dimensional runner only early in his career. There was probably five names here that I considered for number one, but when you look at just the pure, it’s hard I think hard not to have Jonathan Taylor number one. I I I’m not going to fight you on it, but the other name that I would really struggle to right is right there is Bjon Bjon Robinson. And a lot of it’s just the eyeball test. I mean, he’s a top fiveish receiving back. Number two after Christian McCaffrey in terms of re reception production. I I bet. I mean, just in yards per route run. They’re the only two that’s above Warren by the way. Um just his highlights though and his ability to move and you know his talent and his pride in his career. Not that Taylor isn’t. Those are the two I’d have considered for one. So let’s start. I know typically we we work we can get one down. Let’s because I think it is kind of better this way for this. I put Jir Gibbs two and Bejon three. Okay. But that was very difficult. I thought about that a lot. Um Bejon has more just and you know production in terms of yardage this season. But Jamir Gibbs 5.2 yards per carry. He’s a rare mover too. He’s a rare mover. I feel like the last couple weeks he’s played so well. Even while the Lions have struggled, he’s been kind of like the lone bright spot, which I think maybe gave a little. But I’ll also admit he’s in a much better situation than Bejian as well. Bejan situations really crumbling and he’s been those to me were the three names that were clearly the top three. Like if you wanted to give them to me in any order, I wouldn’t have a fuss about it, but I went Jonathan Taylor, Jir Gibbs, Bejian Robinson. And I think those are like the three absolute elite tier one guys. the thing. I mean, we’re splitting hairs here because those guys are all awesome. Gibbs just isn’t as big as physical as the other team. He’s not, you know, like third and one, you know, or close out a game, you know, like Jerome in the fourth quarter. Exactly. He’s as more electric maybe than either and open field and receiver and, you know, all those things. A lot that those guys are lacking. I would go be jean Taylor Gibbs. Okay. I don’t hate it, but Taylor’s having the best year. His production is having the best year. Yeah. Number four. And then then again, I I said I said to TV, I think this might have been the hardest part was deciding four, five, six, because I had three names in this next tier, but I went back and forth on how do you value this, how do you value that, what? But what it came down to at the end of the day was I said this to TV as we were kind of discussing and arguing it back and forth. Who would I want for a game this weekend? Yeah, I know who I’m picking here. I put James Cook at four. Oh, I would take McAffrey. I put McAffrey at five. Okay. So, and you know what’s funny? You’ll see this. I originally had McAffrey at four and I switched him on my list. So, the only thing that that kind of held me back is Macaff. I don’t love McCaffry’s 3.7 yards per carry. They don’t run the ball very well, but he’s he’s not a great, you know, he’s top 10 in receiving yards in the NFL, man. I just say the receiving stuff. And he’s 13th in rushing. Yes. So I mean he is by far the most productive when you combine Bejian’s close but he is number one when you combine when you combine the receiving threat out of the back field as well too. The reason I pick him crap I just said as well too. Dang it. The reason I’d pick him too is what’s the Ner’s record? 73 something like that. Whatever. What would it be without him? Right. He was the whole offense for a lot of the year. I mean when KD was out and no one at receiver and no party. Cook had a has a better surrounding, better O line, the Allen factor, but you could argue Cook is having the second best season amongst all running backs. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Um nearly a thousand yards already, 5.3 yards per carry, seven touchdowns. He’s averaging 97 yards per game. It’s impressive. Yeah, just signed new contract and that was like a bargain already. Impressive. So, I had again I went back and forth. if I scribbled them around on my list, but I put James Cook four, McAffrey five, and then pretty clearly before we get to the next tier, which is difficult, I have a chain at number six. Okay, I have no problem with that. He produces every week. I mean, third in the league in rushing yards right now. Second best yards per carry in the league behind Jonathan Taylor. He catches like eight balls a game and he’s productive out of the back. I say the receiving stuff is really important to me here. For some reason, they used to think he was a goal lineback and the Ollie Gordon thing has helped everybody. You brought you brought him up yesterday. Yep. I don’t know if he’s on your list or not. I’m best I’m guessing he is. And he’d be a really tough guy to rank, but I think I’d put Barkley there. That’s the one that TV and I had the most difficulty with because I mean a year ago he’s won and I don’t know that year ago he’s like one maybe in NFL history the season he had last year. I don’t think he got worse. I don’t either but he’s averaging just 3.8 yards per carry. He’s 14th in the league and and rushing averaging just 66 yards per game. Saquon Barkley like the holes he ran through last year were obscene too. Ridiculous, right? like his yards before contact. I think he I think he had 1,000 yards even before he was touched over the course of the year. So this is the Did you put in next? Did you say I had him at 11th? I had him my first honorable mention because I tr this is again this is the power rankings the Kansas City Chiefs conversation. Yeah. Are you giving him the past credit and benefit of the doubt or you just talking about this year? See I’m talking about now cuz like I don’t know if Derrick Henry would make my 10. He was number nine for me. Okay. you know, so not very high, but Matt, he is sixth in the NFL in rushing, over 800 yards, 4.9 per carry, seven touchdowns for Derrick Henry. What’s funny is I don’t know the stats all that well. I didn’t until I sat down. Yeah. Right. Right. And that’s why I was like, Jonathan Taylor’s got to be number one. You just look at it on paper. But Squan still passes the eyeball test. And he does. And maybe jumping over people backwards. probably arguing against my own logic because if I were doing this list of like who do I want on my team to win a game on Sunday he’d be six or seven he might even be three or four or five right like if you threw Saquon on the Steelers would you be pretty happy about it like yeah yes I would right all right well let’s keep rolling down the list number seven who was six McAffrey was six oh okay McAffrey five Hane’s having a monster year monster year number seven another guy who’s having a monster year fourth in the league in Russia right now. Five yards per carry. I went with Rico Dowel at number seven. Okay, Matt, the only guys in this conversation that have not fumbled the ball yet this season, Jonathan Taylor, Jir Gibbs, Saquon Barkley, and Rico Dattle. See, that’s where I’ll fight you. Like having an awesome year. He had a a couple huge games. He’s just not better at the game than Saquon Barkley. He’s not. You know what I mean? But he’s been better this year. Oh yeah. He’s had a better season. And that’s again that’s why it’s that’s why this is a difficult I know. And like I said, this was the hardest by far that I’ve done this year. And again, I’m not giving away lifetime achievement awards. If I were to build this list was best of the Williamsons. I I I mean, I would It’s how good they are at the game right now, not necessarily who’s having the best year because he’s he’s definitely in the top 10 for having the best year. Oh yeah, he’s fourth in the league in rushing right now. But like if he was a Steeler, I think him and Warren are 50-50 split. If Saquon’s a Steeler, it’s a 7030 split. You know what I mean? Yes. Eight. Javvante Williams. Another tough one to evaluate because he’s in he’s got a great quarterback and two great wide receivers, but Matt having a great year. He’s fifth in the league in rushing. He’s on that short list of guys averaging five yards per carry or more. eight touchdowns this year already out of the backfield. And he’s, if you kind of look at a lot of the people in front of him, he’s got 20 carries less than Cook and Taylor and and and some of these guys cuz they throw a lot. Cuz they throw a lot. And so he’s another one like he’s the opposite of Bejon, right? You know, like what if you put him in the Falcons offense and Bejon in the Cowboys offense? What would that look like? No question. But when you’re top five in rushing, when you’re on the short list of guys that are over five yards per carry, when you’ve got eight touchdowns already, too. Um, I got him. I got Javvante Williams at number eight. I understand it. Um, he’s Naj’s class and so there was a lot of back and forth. Should the Steelers have just waited a little bit, taken a guy like him? ATN was in that class, too, but he wasn’t the big Steeler back. you know that in Dale and I when we did all our draft prep was like nause you’d be fine but I might rather wait until the early second for Javvante and before his latest injury which was a really really bad one like two years ago I thought he was one of the best young backs in the league and one of the hardest to tackle. I mean he’s a tackle breaker by trade going back to North Carolina. This is a first year I thought he might be done. You know this is a first year where I’m like okay and now I remember that guy. He’s looking like Yeah. Like the medical rebound is in effect. And Dallas is that’s a really underrated pickup they got for like league minimum. Yeah. Yeah. They’re they do a pretty good job with the running back evaluations there in Dallas. I’ll give them credit for that. Number nine, too. I mean, they let him walk actually, but he was good for the Cowboys, but Carolina got him at a discount, too. Yes, they Yes, they Yes, they did. We That was another thing. TV and I were kicking around putting together this list. Nine, Dererick Henry. 10, Kairen Williams. Okay, Kairen Williams is the type of guy that just if he was a Steeler, everybody would love him. Every coaching staff going back to Notre Dame loves him. Team captain, sticks his face in the fan over and over, you know, great in protection. He’s not the biggest, he’s not the fastest, produces top 10 top 10 in the league in rushing yards right now and has the fewest amount of carries of anybody in the top 10. That doesn’t shock me. Uh nose nose for the end zone as well, too. Six touchdowns already, averaging over 75 rushing yards per game. Like I said, it’s tough. And then my honorable mentions, I had Saquon next and I had Bree Hall. I say if he I also put if he wasn’t on IR, JK Dobbins would probably be in this on this list. He just always hurt. Um yeah, I’d love to see what if Breeze Hall was with the Cowboys. That’s right. Or the Chiefs or something. I mean, he’d be lighting it up. There’s some other names like it’s a little early, but I think Judkins is super impressive. He was considered. Okay. I mean, he has nothing around him. Travis CTN was considered. Had a real good year. Um, Genty I still think is going to be a great player, but he’s a little disappointing, but it’s mostly his surroundings killing him. I’m a big Kenneth Walker fan, but he splits too much time. I’m just I’m just spitballing off the top of my head, just throwing out names. if there’s anyone else that’s worth talking about. Kind of drying up here pretty quick though. Josh Jacobs. So, he was he was one he was one that we kind of kicked around. He’s interesting because his yards per carry is way low. Just three 3.8, but he’s got the 11 touchdowns. He’s good in those red zone. Right. Right. Goal to go situations. And he was really really good last year. Like I can’t feel like, oh, he just all of a sudden forgot how to play. Kind of like a Seaquan. Yeah. Yeah. It’s kind him, Saquon, and Henry are all similar. If you’re if you’re doing this kind of Madden style rankings where they really give you a lot of credit for what you’ve done in your career. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those guys I mean, Saquon and Jacobs would be top five. Yeah. It’d be in that neighborhood. And Henry, too. Henry. Henry’s inability to catch the ball is a problem. I mean, it is. But I would when I when I started looking at the numbers cuz I told you I hadn’t done a ton of that. Yeah. And he’s sixth in the league in rushing like averaging 4.9 yards per carry, seven touchdowns. I didn’t think that he was producing like like that. He’s he’s still over 80 yards a game average on the ground. I know he gives you nothing out of the back field. I know. And there’s just a lot of plays that he’s on the sideline when they’re clearly throwing which it’s why I give like McCaffrey maybe a little more boost or you know Squan. It’s a good list. I think Matt, if we did this exercise again 365 days from now, uh the two Ohio State rookies, Quinn Sean Junkkins and Trayvon Henderson in the mix will be will be in the mix. Marian Hampton could be in the mix. Mar Hampton could be in the mix. You would hope Genty’s in the mix of the young guys, you know, he better be. Good lord. Your boy Love at Notre Dame might be in the list, you know, right? Jeremiah Love, how you doing? He looked pretty good in an NFL stadium this past weekend. Sure did. We’ll be talking about him plenty when we uh when we do our NFL draft prep. That’s it for Best of the West. A couple tweets and and newsworthy items that I want to hit on here with Matt to close down the first hour of the show. Hour number two around campus, our buddy Chris Hock, some of Matt’s stats. Plenty more to get to as we roll along here on the drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network. down the home stretch here of the first hour of the program. And Matt, you tweeted out something that is uh a little startling. Nuts. Yeah. A little jarring, right? It is nuts. The Cleveland Browns, since they were reborn as the Cleveland Browns in 1999, will have their 42nd different starting quarterback since the franchise returned to the NFL. Shador Sanders will get his first start. That’s been announced today, right? This weekend, officially official. You can stamp it. You can bookmark it. And that squealing noise you hear in the background is everyone from ESPN and Fox Sports and all the national TV shows giddy with excitement that the content gods just dropped this on their lap. So he got in the game last week and didn’t start. Indeed, this will be his first start. Second appearance, first start in the National Football League. These are the quarterbacks. That’s also important to note that have started a game for the Browns. It’s a long list, folks. Like not just gotten in. Right. Right. Right. Started a game. Right. Yeah. Hang on. 41 other names and and the guys the two dudes at the top, it’s not that many. Tim Couch and Baker Mayfield tied at the top for 59. Yeah. So again, I I spent a year with the Browns. I was with the Jeff Garcia era. We’ll get to him at some point, but I will say a lot of the people that organization and a lot of people around the league at that time really thought Tim Couch could have been awesome, but just went to like the worst expansion team ever. And it was it’s like Carr’s older brother, you know, right? Was Yes. It was just like uh David Carr. David Carr. Like I said, no chance when he went to Houston. Got sacked 40 times a year. Like Yeah. No chance. I mean, like that’s their first pick as an expansion draft, but it’s like this dumped him in the worst nest of all time, you know? And this is a total aside, but I always laugh in every sport, but especially physical contact sports. Football chief most amongst them. I think hockey is in this conversation, too. when people are like, “Just throw them out there. Don’t let on the go. Just throw them out there.” You can shatter somebody’s confidence young and their their body and their confidence and people in the organization like, “Oh, yeah. We ruined him.” Yeah. They they flat out told me that. It’s a little different than like, let’s put this 19-year-old basketball player out there and maybe he gets, you know, dunked on and misses a few shots. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or this left fielder or this pitcher, you know, right gets struck out or makes an error or something. Send them back down to the miners and learn how to hit a curveball. Yeah. Yeah, there’s no minors in the NFL either. Like it just you can absolutely ruin guys too early. Uh so 59 for for both of those guys, Matt, which is not a very high a high number. No. Right. Right. As as as youall picks. Yeah. I like So I’m trying to find the what’s what’s the number here? Let’s see. H It’s lower than I thought. Mason Rudolph has started 18 games in his NFL career. I thought that was going to be higher cuz I was going to like use that as a as a reference point, but it was lower than I thought it was going to be. From what I remember, those two are pretty high. Clearly the top two. Clearly the top two. Then Derek Anderson, Colt McCoy, Brandon Weeden. That’s the list though of guys that have started 20 or more games. So, a little bit more than one season. Yeah. Yeah. Even there’s only one, two, three, four, five that have started 20 or more games. That’s crazy. Crazy. Charlie Fry, then Deshun Watson. Charlie was I was with Akan with Charlie and then we drafted him when I was with the Browns the next year and I vouched for him like big time as a uh charact for his character, leadership, all that stuff which I had no problem with at all. He’s awesome dude, but I was part of the reason that he got in that mix. Him and Deshun Watson at 19. Who would have thought Deshun Watson when they traded all that for him and everything would have only started 19 games for the Cleveland Browns. And that’s the biggest mistake of all of them. But there’s a lot of mistakes on this list. Yeah. TV and I were laughing because it’s become a sexy radio topic in the last couple days of is the George Pickins trade the worst trade of all time. It’s not even in the same stratosphere as the Deshawn Watson trade. It’s not even close. No. Brian Hoyer, Deshawn Kaiser, Kelly Hulcom, Brady Quinn, Trent Dilford, Josh Macau, Jacobe Brassette, Jeff Garcia. Those are all the ones with double digit starts. Wow. Okay. Our starter when I was there. Yeah. So, Flaco was close. He had nine. Nine. Cody Kesler. Doug Peterson, Super Bowl champion, head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Douggee P on that’s hilarious. I forgot that he started a handful of games for the Browns. Jason Campbell, Johnny Menzel, Senica Wallace, Jameus Winston, Dylan Gabriel has six, DTR has five, Robert Griffin III has five. Gez, Jake Delhome, Luke Macau, Tyrod Taylor, Ken Dorsey, PJ Walker, Austin Davis, Ty Detmer, Case Keenum, Kevin Hogan, Bailey Zappy, Spurgeon Win, who the heck is that? Jeff Driscoll, Thaad Lewis, Nick Mullins, Connor Shaw, Bruce Gradowski, and Sunday Afternoon Shor Sanders. Crazy, isn’t it? I mean, what an unbelievably long list. Wild. Yeah. And that’s not since the 70s, since the 80s, right? This is 1999. That’s basically the 21st century. Yeah. Right. I mean, that’s wild. like the Steelers list would have a duck in there here and there or I mean there’s a guy that even the Packers, you know, during the Rogers era, not during the Favre year because he never missed ever, but I’m thinking about like the most stable organizations. Okay, your guy gets hurt and six Justin Fields in there for the Steelers. Yeah. Four Ducks or whatever it was. Yeah. or you know Rogers misses a day and the backup that no one’s really heard about ends up on the list like once every three years or something you know but like the lot many of those names were oh we got our guy you know that’s our answer you know a lot of them were big investments including like Brandon Weeden you know yeah first round pick a lot of first round picks a lot of first round picks on that list Menzel the Deshawn Watson one is obviously a black mark for different reasons but I think the biggest one known as Baker Mayfield. I mean, you just Yeah, cuz he’s good now. You just mess that up. I mean, he’s the only one on the list that’s good now. That’s the worst trade in NFL history, right? That’s one of the worst trades in sports history. That’s worse than like the Red Sox letting Babe Ruth go to the Yankees for a bag of peanuts and a leather glove. Uh Matt, it’s amazing you’re that bad at that position for that long. Insane. And again, when you’ve invested a lot of capital there as well, and there’s probably more to come. We got a couple tweets from people today. I’m sure you saw Brandon Cooks released by the Saints. Oh yeah. If we’d have any before we we got like two minutes here till we got to go to break. Just wanted to make sure to get that in at some point today. Any interest in Brandon Cooks for the Steelers? Couple people tweeting. I’m sure they released him to kind of do him a favor, you know, like uh the Titans did with Lockit, you know, like, “Hey, much time left. Maybe you can latch on to a winner. We want to play some young dudes.” Um, probably not. But I’d have to watch him specifically more. I have not done that. If you didn’t already kind of throw a similar type of MVS into the fold, I He’s also on the small side. You know, MVS is at least bigger. Maybe. It’s a pretty desperate move though. I mean, he’s going to latch on somewhere like Lockett did, you know, with the Raiders. I wouldn’t be against it, but I wouldn’t be I wouldn’t be banging down the door for it. No. Right. Like I don’t think it changes your outcome, you know, or get you any more wins or losses or, you know, it’s not moving the Vegas the Vegas needle on division odds. Could be in the mix. But nah, now if all of a sudden that’s me knocking on wood, you had an injury happen at wide receiver, different conversation. But for where you’re at right now with a similar type of, you know, career arc, although to be fair, I think Brandon Cooks has probably had a better career. But he’s had a good career. You know, you have MVS in the fold. You just added a I know it’s a completely different position on another side of the ball, but like you don’t want to do just a constant carousel practice squad thing. You did just add MVS. You did just add Asante Samuel Jr. Duggar, you know, like every You don’t have to drive every veteran. Did you see they added John Reese Plumbley back in practice? Is that your Caleb Williams scout team guy right there? Okay. I hadn’t thought of that, but that’s He can run around and and has that that athleticism trait for sure. That’s exactly what he’s doing. Hour in the books, another hour to go. When we return on the other side, we will lead off hour number two with our buddy Chris Hock. We’ll talk to him about all this practice squad stuff, all the latest moving and shaking, what he thinks about Aaron Rogers status for Sunday. All of that and more with Chris when we return to kickoff hour number two. Weser Matt Williamson halfway home on the drive. Steelers Nation radio on the Steelers Audio Network. Good evening, Steeler Nation. How we doing? Well, that’s good. Us, too. Hour number two here on the drive on the Steelers Audio Network. And joining us now, as he’s kind enough to do just about every single Wednesday here on the program, it is our buddy Chris Hack. Of course, covers the Steelers for DK Pittsburgh Sports. Chris, thank you for taking the time as always. Let’s jump right into it today. I know it is only Wednesday and the next two days are going to be important, but if you had to make a guess right now, yes or no, Aaron Rogers plays on Sunday in Chicago. It’s It’s really really difficult. I I would still lean no. It’s It’s going to be Mason, but I know that Aaron really really wants to play and and for a couple of reasons. Uh, number one, he’s just a he’s just just a he’s a competitor. You don’t play for this long and be as successful as he is without being the ultra competitor. I mean, he hasn’t taken a practice off all season long until today, you know, like, and that that’s only because of the injury. So, he I mean, when I mean, shoot, we remember when Ben was was older, you know, he would, you know, get the, you know, his vet day. you know, Rogers has not gotten a vet day. Um, but when you look at all the variables that stand in the way when it comes to can he take a snap from under center, can he take a snap out of the shotgun, can he hand the ball off, can he protect himself if he falls to the ground and the natural reflex comes where you you’re falling and you put your hands out, is he going to injure it more? You know, all of these variables are going the way. I I just I’m I don’t know if I’ve seen enough to be like, “Yep, I I really think Aaron’s gonna play, but I’m not a doctor. I’m not gonna pretend to be a doctor.” So maybe maybe they figure it out. I don’t know. But I also know that there’s a lot of faith in Mason Rudolph. uh not just from Aaron himself, but from Arthur Smith and like Tomlin and uh where if they don’t they feel like Aaron’s going to be in in significant danger to reinj or to not to to reinjure it, but to to make it worse, then they’ll they’ll ride with Mason. So, how do you think the game planning and structure of the offense changes if it is Rudolph? Like, I’m sure that they’re looking at it at this part of the week. You know, they’re they’re installing things. There’s a lot already in the in the playbook, but they’re going to attack, you know, the Bears obviously different with a different quarterback. Would you think more play action, more middle of the field throwing? I mean, what what do you think the difference would be? Well, Mason was asked about that today after practice, and he he doesn’t think that it would be all that different if it were, you know, him or Aaron. Of course, there are going to be certain plays in the playbook, or I shouldn’t say in the playbook, but in the game plan because Arthur Smith will set the game plan. We need to attack the Bears in and he’ll list out all the different ways and how they’re going to attack them, either on the ground or through the air. Um, and then throughout that game plan, there will be certain concepts or whatever that maybe Mason prefers over Aaron, but sometimes, and Mason said, there is overlap. There are certain plays where they both like them. So, I don’t think it’ll be all that different based off of what Mason said after practice, but you know, it was pretty I I think we get we we might overromanticize what ended up happening because in the first half the Steelers scored 10 points. Like second half the offense scored 10 points. Like it was the same output. Um it looked different. Sure it looked a little different but it was still the same output. And that’s ultimately what the goal is is to score points and they scored the same number of points. So I don’t think it’d be like the offense is going to be completely different or anything like that whether it’s Aaron or Mason. Chris, what is your confidence level in the Steelers defense right now? It’s something Matt and I talked about a little bit on Monday I believe it was, but it feels like they are rounding into form at the right time. Um they have been up and down throughout the course of the season, but it seems that they’ve stabilized a little bit. Uh much better on a down basis, still getting the splash once again with two massive defensive touchdowns obviously on Sunday. Is are they playing as as well as they have at any point this season? Well, there was a three-week stretch early early in the season in which the defense was playing at a at a level. I I think I even sent the graphic to to Matt at one point and was like, “Dude, they’re like over these three weeks like one of the best defenses or at least one of the most efficient defenses in the NFL like in terms of like EPA and everything like that.” And then the the Bengals game happened, like the week seven Bengals game happened and then the Packers game happened. And so we’re here right now, it’s been a three-week period where you look at the EPA numbers over the last three weeks, they’re I think sixth in total EPA and they’re second in drop EPA over the past three weeks. So yeah, they’ve been playing a lot better and over the last three weeks they have been one of the better defenses, but because they’re about to face an offense that um ranks in the top five both in total offense and in rushing. So, it’s going to be a challenge. You know, this is this is not going to be easy. But, I will say that the way that they’re playing and against higher quality opponents and offenses in general, uh I mean, holding that Bengals offense to 12 points is pretty impressive. Um, so yeah, I think the defense is probably playing at its best that we’ve seen this season. And I I I would be a little bit more confident going into this game as opposed to like when the wheels fell off in Cincinnati back in week seven. Yeah. And you mentioned the pass defense and I I think they’re doing a much better job of marrying the pass rush to coverages. We’ve seen some personnel changes. You know, Ramsay’s now a full-time safety. We’ve seen a lot more too high. We’ve seen more uh a different usage of coverages out there. Do you think these are things that are here to stay? I mean uh you think we’re going to see cover four, cover six, you know, like what do you nerd out with me a little bit here on the on the schematics with the uh the coverage stuff? Well, I mean, so it’s funny because when they were playing the Chargers, they went back to really, really high single high back to really, really high blitz rate. So, what they’ve been doing really is they’ve been kind of throwing different things out there every week. Um, obviously against the Colts and then this past week against the Bengals, it was a lot of too high. Uh, this past week, it was more too high than we’ve seen all season long in one game. the shift from I mean their their man coverage in the week seven loss was 34.6% uh according to to fantasypoints.com which was like right at their season average and this past week it was at less than 9% in terms of man coverage. It was a massive drop. They went to almost completely zone coverage in this game. A lot of cover two um you a healthy dose of both cover four and cover six. I mean, but again, when they played the Chargers though, and I I think people will misremember the Chargers game, the defense actually played really well in that game. Yeah. They just got completely gassed out. Um because the offense just did not hold on to the ball, didn’t do anything. Um but they ran with a lot of single high and blitz that are at a high rate in that game. So, I think the the thing now that they’re showing is that now offenses don’t know what to expect and they don’t know how to how exactly to game plan. Um, that’s actually a really really good thing to do because you’re versatile enough to be able to attack an offense whether you’re running out of two high and playing a lot of cover two, cover four, or you can run out of single high and run a lot more cover one and uh but even then when they ran cover one this past week, but they didn’t do it very often. When they ran it, we finally saw a whole defender in the middle of the field. We hadn’t seen that before. You know, it’s just been cover one, it’s man free and everybody’s blitzing who’s not covering ever who’s not having to cover somebody. that wasn’t the case. The Duggar interception, he came down from a from a too high look and robbed the middle of the field and Slacko flew threw it right to him. So, uh, you know, that’s something we didn’t see before. So, the fact that we’re starting to see a a wide variation of of schematics and coverages against different offenses. It’s kind of hard to predict what they’re going to do against the Bears. Chris, last one I’ve got for you, buddy. It’s been pretty quiet on the Asante Samuel Jr. this week. Um any it’s been hey it’s been 14 months right Matt since he played a a regular a regular season NFL game. So I think it’s fair to expect him to need some time to get up to speed. Do you think we could see him activated at all this week or does that still feel like uh just a practice squad role for Asante Samuel Jr.? I feel like right now it’s still the practice squad role. I mean, they’re they’re right now what they have to do is they have to get Darius Slay back into the fold and then figure out how they’re going to divvy up the snaps between Slay and James Pierre because while Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that Slay would go back and be the starter, I’m not exactly convinced that that means that Slay is really going to be, you know, carrying the workload there because interesting. Well, I mean, well, well, think about it this way. Calvin Austin was named as a starter for the offense. Like he came out in the introductions this past week. Who played more snaps on Sunday? Was it Roman Wilson or was it Calvin Austin? Great. Roman Wilson by a by a mile. Like Ro Roman Wilson played way more snaps than Calvin. So it could be a situation which yes, Slay is the starter, but who ends up playing more snaps at the end of the game? And with the way James Pierre is playing, personally, I don’t know how you just put that on the bench. Uh, and I think he’s playing better than anything Slay has done in a Steeler uniform. I would agree with that. And but just because you you and I agree on that doesn’t what Mike and TA are going to think. But at the same time, I also don’t think that they’re seeing that and they’re like, “Yeah, we’re going to put that on the sideline either.” So, um, I’m I’m curious to see how they’re going to handle that. I think that’s probably the bigger story in the secondary right now as opposed to getting Asante Samuel because like like you said like he’s he’s got a he’s still coming back from from this. This is his first real football action that he’s seeing with a team. Um he’s learning the defense. I understand like Kyle Duggar came in and hit the ground running like pretty much right away. But that’s just be like just because Kyle Duggar did it doesn’t mean that Asante Sam’s gonna do it or any other defender can do it. That’s not an easy thing to do. So, I I right now I’d be kind of shocked if Samuel just all of a sudden became like like got activated or got elevated and just started playing snaps. Especially when you consider Slay’s coming back, Pierre’s playing at a really high level. Porter is playing at a really high level. Eckles is playing at a at a at a at a good level, too. So, I I don’t think they necessarily need to rush him in. Uh especially whenever you they’re they’re at least getting another guy back. And he doesn’t have special teams value. Yeah. You know, exactly. Can’t I don’t think he’d run down on a punt or kick and get a tackle in that way and, you know, knock some of the rest. Yeah. I don’t think I don’t think coming off of what he’s coming off of, they’re going to ask him to to Yeah. like go go go with a whole bunch of defensive staffs and then, oh, hey, yeah, we need you on special teams, too. Especially whenever you consider that, you know, they have a number of guys who can probably play special teams that aren’t playing as much special teams like James Pierre. like is he playing as much special teams with him playing pretty much all but I think it was like all but one snap or two snaps uh this past Sunday. So it’s kind of funny how how it’s playing out right now. Yeah, it is always great stuff with our buddy Chris Hock and uh hey starting Sunday afternoon in Chicago, we’ll begin to get the answer to some of these questions. Chris, great stuff as always, buddy. Thank you for the time and we’ll talk soon. All right, thanks for having me, guys. I appreciate it as always, dude. There he goes. Chris Alec, great stuff from him. Great point on the secondary there. Um, nine just 9% of the time, man, coverage against the Bengals. Look at him pull pulling out the numbers, baby. I love it. And, uh, you saw that change. Have plenty of success and and and yield a a great day for the Steelers defense on Sunday. Another tall task, of course, against Caleb Williams and these Chicago Bears this coming weekend. Matt, we’ll finish talking more about the Bears specifically, but when we return on the other side, you know what time it is? Yeah, let’s do it. Time to go around campus. You ready, Blutoo over there? All right, you you you ready? Rodney Dangerfield can’t get no respect. We’ll go back to school around campus. Talk about some of these college quarterbacks on the other side when we do our weekly uh collegiate check-in here on the drive on Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network. Ah, it’s time to go around campus here on the drive. Matt, week 13 edition, the penultimate week of the college football regular season. this weekend and then you know next weekend the weekend after Thanksgiving which is always one of the best weekends of college football that’s Saturday after Thanksgiving that’s kind of rivalry weekend across college football like Ohio State Michigan Ohio State Michigan and Auburn Alabama and all these great rivalries that’s used to be when the backyard brawl was and I’m confident one day it’ll get back there when Pit and W are inevitably in the same conference again at some point but beggars can’t be choosers I’ll take it on the schedule. But yes, it was much better when it was Thanksgiving night or Black Friday night or sometime that weekend. But yeah, week 13 of 14 here in college football. Then obviously it’ll be conference championship weekend. Notre Dame or Notre Dame, pardon me, Navy and Army uh coming up as well too. And then before you know it, I mean about a month from now, the playoff will be beginning in college football. And so really coming down the home stretch here as the picture gets I think clearer and clearer, Matt. a bunch of amongst a bunch of these names here on this on this sheet. So, let’s jump into it as we always do. I’ll go through some of the names here and then I’ll give you some matchups to watch this weekend if you are so inclined. Matt, deservedly so, still lean this thing off. Fernando Mendoza, of course, quarterback at Indiana. He had been quiet the last couple weeks. Not bad, but not lighting the world on fire, but he was outstanding. I don’t think his stock was dropping before this weekend. It wasn’t like maintaining maintaining. He wasn’t lighting the world on fire, but you know, like against Penn State, he wasn’t great, but he made a lot of plays down the stretch for them to win that game. But I tell you what, he looked like the dude this weekend. They dominated Wisconsin 31 to7. Completed 92% of his passes, 299 yards, four touchdowns, no turnovers, tight window throws all over the middle of the field, which you love to see. Um, he’s got 30 passing touchdowns this season. He’s easily like I I we can talk about Tai Simpson and we could talk about Dante Moore and Lenor Sers and some of these other guys. I I I think if you don’t have him as QB1 right now, I think you’re projecting and reaching a little too much. Yeah, like it’s pretty cut and dry Eval. It seems like especially because 65, you know, we’ll get to him in a second, but Tai Simpson had a bad day this past Saturday against Oklahoma. So, it had kind of become the sexy thing for a lot of people to have Tai Simpson as the first quarterback off the board. I don’t know, Matt. I mean, he’s got 10 starts in his life and eight of them are really good and two of them are really bad. There’s not a lot of middle ground there, but Mendoza, he’s 65. Like you said, he is, I think, the in what has been a underwhelming quarterback class overall from what we thought it was going to be coming into this year, right? He’s been the one that is consistently arrow pointed up. Yeah. Like he hasn’t faltered or Yeah. And and and is is QB1 if we want to talk about how does he compare to the the Joe Burrows and the Trevor Lawrenes and the Andrew Lux and the you know the people that we Cam Wards and all those things that’s a different conversation. But he is QB1 right now. Ty Simpson the Bama quarterback who was the other guy in this conversation. Shaky performance. He looked bad for the first time this year since they lost week one at Florida State. I mean, on paper, hey, 66 uh% 67% completion percentage, 326 yards, one touchdown, one interception is not one one interception. Not terrible, but Matt, he had two turnovers, the interception, and a fumble. The interception was a pick six by Oklahoma. The fumble was a field goal by Oklahoma. He put them in a 10- nothing hole early and they were never really able to claw out of it. I give Oklahoma a ton of credit. Their defense is great. They played hard. Yeah, but they there’s no reason Alabama should have lost that game other than two bad Tai Simpson turnovers. They also had a chip shot miss field goal by their kicker which plays into it as well. I should mention that. Um but he just never looks settled. He looks shaky. The two turnovers. Um, and what was a costly loss for Alabama at home for like again for the first time all season and really since week one when he was only partially on the radar, I would have the I would have the stock down for him for the first time this year. Totally get it. Not not crushing him for it, but it was he struggled on Saturday. It was a shaky performance. Like so leading into this Oklahoma game, it seemed more and more just stuff I’ve read, heard, etc. that no, he’ll be in this draft. And I never quite understood that because like, okay, he’s got a lot of buzz at that point and he’s playing great and blah blah blah, but I I I can’t believe it should be a foregone conclusion that he’s definitely going to be in this draft with the little experience he’s had. For most of these guys, I don’t think it should be a foregone conclusion. But again, I I still think right now if he declared, you know, if the draft was coming up in the combine and all that stuff and he declared today, I still think he’d be a top 10 pick on every draft. So, that’s tough to turn down if you’re if you’re, you know, a kid. And I I certainly still think that there’s a good chance that he comes out and goes in the top 10. But what if he looks shaky again? Oh, he’s got some big games coming up that could be The SEC has their kind of joke week before the final week of the season. This is something the SEC gets crushed for every year, but they’re all playing like the Citadel and Western Kentucky and Florida. Like, so I forget who Alabama plays, but it’s it’s someone they should demolish. But then they have to go and then he’s got the Auburn then they have to go two Iron Bowl for the to Auburn for the Iron Bowl which is always a little bit of a challenge and Auburn’s been up and down and they fired their coach but they’ve got a good defense. What if he doesn’t light the world on fire against Auburn? What if Oh yeah, what if they don’t make the playoffs do but he struggles. Things could still change but Tai Simpson like I said for the first time all year the stock dropped a little bit on Saturday. Okay, Dante Moore took care of business against Minnesota big time. 42-13. Kind of similar to Mendoza. After a couple subpar outings, he he bounced back and and really looked the part. Over 300 yards passing, two touchdowns, zero interceptions. He was accurate. Matt completed 90% of his pass. Um he’s got the athleticism. Oh, yeah. He still has some issues sometimes, you know, with with missing some guys, but I think that’s to be expected. He’s another one who’s still so I mean, he’s he’s a neat little time. Yeah. He’s like 20 years old still and is a true thirdyear, you know, guy. He to me kind of defines the sitting on the fence of would probably in all likelihood be a first round pick if he went pro. I would be shocked if he didn’t go in the first round. Yes. But could make a lot of money coming back at Oregon and could potentially win a national championship next year because I know I’ve mentioned this to you before, Oregon’s good now. They’re like sixth or seventh in the country, but they have a chance to be great next year, right? They’re one of the They’re like the youngest team in the top 10 and they have a chance to be great next year. you know, they have money and they’ll keep all those dudes. And I think Phil Knight is, how do I put this without being callous, Matt? I think Phil Knight is pushing all his chips into the center of the table for Oregon football while he’s in his 80s and might be on the back nine of his Yeah. Right. I’m not trying to be callous in saying that, but he’s in his 80s. He’s older. Last chance to get national tournament. You’re right. He’s he’s going all in. And so, that’ll be a very interesting one to evaluate. But for both Mendoza and Dante Moore, I thought you were kind of waiting the last couple weeks to see another one of those vintage performance from those two. You got it. And you got it from both of them. Okay. Lenor Sers, Matt, he showed he showed some life for the first time in a while, but it was also kind of a tale of two halves. So, South Carolina and Sellers looked outstanding in the first half in Texas A&M at in College Station at&m, one of the toughest environments in the country. You’ve talked about that before. the number three team in the country on the road. They were up 30-3 at halftime. I know it was a crazy game and Sellers looked like the destroyer of all worlds and South Carolina looked like the team that people thought they were going to be uh in the preseason. They ended up giving up 28 unanswered points in the second half to lose 31 to 30. The largest comeback, as someone posted this, it was the largest comeback in SEC conference play since like 1948. Really? So, I’m not saying that was all on sellers. It’s not like he fell apart in the second half. He wasn’t throwing pick sixes left and right or he turned the ball over like crazy, but Texas A&M made some adjustments at halftime. They slowed down the South Carolina offense. They figured it out uh on defense. It was one of those like I still would say stock up for Sellers after that performance, I would think. But I would have loved to see him Matt just will his team down the field once for one second half score to win that game. But that’s that’s that’s you know that’s picking hairs. His ability is skill skills are still so evident though. Yeah. Right. He’s one of the like if Dante let’s let’s hypothetical Dante Moore goes pro. He goes, “Guys, I love my time here. I’d love to come back and win a national championship. I but I’m too good to pass, but I’m going to go in the top 10 of the draft. I’m I’m going I’d love to see Sellers wind up at a place like Oregon.” Oh man. Like would he be the Heisman favorite? Oh my gosh. Yes. Without a doubt. Over like Arch. I mean Arch would be in the conversation. Julian Seyan from Ohio State. That quarterback’s going to be in the conversation. Absolutely. But he receiver from or from Ohio State. Yeah. Jeremiah Smith as well too. Absolutely. But Sellers is perhaps the most intriguing case for me because we know the raw talent. It’s undeniable. But he’s been fine this year. Not outstanding. His team’s been really bad. His coach could get fired. What’s the future look like for him? Yeah. But I’m telling you, if you watch those first 33 or those first 30 minutes, every time I watch him, I’m like, boy, I’ I’d love to get my hands on that guy. And perhaps the toughest envir one of the great home field advantages in college football on the road against the number three team in the country. I mean, he really looked the part for most of that game, but they just couldn’t hold on against an&m team that feels legit. Feels like he might not have an easy decision coming up here, right? He He might not. He might not. And sticking with that game, I’m going to Where am I? Where’s my Where’s my page here? I’m going to jump ahead a little bit, Matt, because we actually got a tweet from a Truth 2321 who said, you know, Wes, can you uh give me your This was yesterday, said, can you give me your thoughts on Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed? Can we get your thoughts on him tomorrow? You sure can. Absolutely. He was the other part of that duel with Sellers. I’ve mentioned his name a couple times. It’s come up, but I don’t know a ton about him. Right. First time he’s been on the packet. Do you want the good or you want the bad? Well, it’s two different halves, right? that. But just in general to me, picture Bryce Young. Okay. I don’t know if you could see that on the list. Now, he’s he’s taller than Bryce Young. He’s 6’1. I say, but 185 pounds. That worries. Now, Bryce Young’s like 510 185. Right. Right. But he’s 61 185. Really bad in the first half. Six of 19, two interceptions. But, you know, tale of two halves type thing. 16 of 20, nearly 300 yards, three touchdowns after halftime. tied for the SEC lead with 22 touchdown passes. His arm strength worries me a little bit, but he is just crazy athletic, Matt. And I mean, that’s why they’re third in the country. I mean, yeah. Feels like one of those guys who still has a ton of juice to squeeze. Like if you got him in an offense with, and I know they’re not going this route, but like a Ben Johnson type, a Kyle Shanahan type, a Shawn Oh my goodness. if the if the Rams could draft him and have him sit behind Stafford here and let McVey coach him up. Lot to like about his game. I don’t love his his slight of frame. That worries heck. And I wish he had a little more arm strength, but there’s a lot to like there with Marcel Reed as well, too. He rightfully so is one of these guys who’s bursting on the scene. Only his third year, so he could certainly come back. Uh but he I think now will be heavy in these conversations when we get to to combine season and and all of that. I didn’t know he was in in the draft mix. So, you know what’s funny is I did not either. I had to go back and look. I thought he still had I thought he was like Julians saying from Ohio State. I thought he still had another year, but he red shirted and then this is you now two. So, he’s been on campus for three years basically and that’s the that’s the line of D. He’s coming up more and more that maybe he’ll dip his toe. Maybe Jad Mava USC. Uh I I tell you what, against a really good Iowa defense, he put up 254 yards passing, which doesn’t sound like lighting the world on fire, but that’s the second most that Iowa has given up. That’s a successful day against a successful day. Top 10 nationally in passer efficiency, passing yards, and yards per completion. Like he is he’s got that he’s got that he’s got that Lincoln Riley toutelage about him, you know? Like he’s just smart with the football. He looks like a Lincoln Riley quarterback. comfortable, knows what he’s being asked to do, but he’s got a lot of ability, too. Ton of ability. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Matt, big one this weekend. This will be on my list of of games to watch at 3:30 where USC travels to Oregon. Top 15 matchup. MAVA against Moore. That’s maybe the one game on Saturday if I could only watch one. Yeah. That I would. Especially for quarterbacks. I mean, especially two top 15 teams, two two quarterbacks that could be first round picks. That’s a that’s a good one. and obviously very important for the Big 10 uh conversation and playoff race as well. Trinidad Chamblas at Old Miss. Uh this guy is a fun watch, Matt. He’s got some limitations. Uh but six times in nine starts this year. He’s gone for over 300 yards passing. He could do it with his legs. He if he wouldn’t have, you know, not gotten into the fold for Old Miss until I think week three, I think he would be in the Heisman conversation as well, too. Old Miss is ranked fifth or sixth in the country right now. You and I have talked a little bit about some of the lane keen offense stuff and how there’s some Oh yeah, there’s some quirky collegiate elements of that offense that don’t necessarily translate to the National Football League, but kind of similar to Jackson Dart. He’s a guy who can do it with his arm, could do it with his leg in that Old Miss offense. I continue to I I think limitations, but really fun to watch and there’s a lot to be intrigued by there. Okay. What do you think he’ll declare? I think that depends on what Lane Keifin does. Okay. There’s a good chance he’s not back. There’s a good chance he could end up at LSU or Florida. I know some people have even mentioned him in an NFL job. That would shock me because again, I just don’t think his offense translates to the NFL game. But if there’s been a lot of smoke this week about Lane Keifin potentially going to LSU or potentially going to Florida. Now they’re saying if Alabama misses the playoff for the second straight year, they’ll fire Kalin Deborah, the Alabama coach, after just two years and they would maybe go after Lane Keifin. Okay. Apparently Old Miss has been trying to get him to sign a contract extension and he’s been dragging his feet waiting on somebody. So makes all the sense in the world. There’s some smoke around this situation too. He’s one that I would definitely venture with the Giants which makes no sense to me but makes no sense to me him at the NFL level. I think he’s a great college football coach. I would I would not want him at the NFL level because I don’t think his offense translates. But Trrenidad Chamblas kind of similar to Lenor Sers another one of those if they come back for another year and depending on what happens with their program and their head coach would be very interesting where they could end up. You would say Sellers is more gifted though. Yes. I mean Sellers is might be more gifted than all these guys, right? Yes. And he’s got more of the, you know, Chamblas is not slight of frame, but he’s 6’1, 200 lb, where Sers is 63, you know, 230, 240, but he’s another one of those. Say Lane Keven goes to Florida or LSU, maybe he goes with him, you know. Oh, I thought you think we were going to say I’ll just go to the pros. Maybe say Lane Keven goes to Alabama and Tai Simpson goes to the pros. Maybe Chamblas follows him to Tuscaloosa. A lot to watch there in the next couple months as well. Hayes King, Georgia Tech, that school in the Oakland district of Pittsburgh heads to Atlanta to take on Hayes King. And I put this in the packet, Matt. I’m very excited to see how Hayes King produces against that Nardusi Pit style of man-to-man defense that we talk about all the time because Hayes King has been a a stat stuffer like you wouldn’t believe. Leads the country in yards per game. um over 340 yards uh from the line of scrimmage per game for him. Does it with his arm, does it with his legs, threw for over 370 yards and ran for over 50 yards last week as Georgia Tech came from behind to beat Boston College. He’s been ACC quarterback of the week five times. He’s going to be 25 in January. I mean, he he’s older. This is his sixth year of college football, but he’s doing something that you want to see a grown man do at that level. I’ve mentioned this to you. I Georgia Tech has a chance to win the ACC and go to the playoff. I think they might have a losing record without him. I mean, that’s how that’s how valuable and important he is. Like, I want to see him at the Senior Bowl. I I I want to see him against this Nardooi defense. And then, yes, I am kind of selfishly rooting for Georgia Tech to make the playoff cuz I want to see him against some real high level competition. I mean, they could easily be one and done in the playoffs. Absolutely. Still, you’d have one more test, one more in all like Pit’s not out of it. SMU’s not out of it. Virginia’s not out of it, but I think in all likelihood it’s probably going to be Georgia Tech or Miami if I’m remembering correctly. That’s the that’s the ACC playoff representative. I know Carson Beck is I’d much rather see Hayes King get that opportunity. Sure. Sure. But he’s got a big challenge uh against Pit in that defense this weekend. I think especially, you know, a Pit team that’s going to, you know, be looking to wipe that Notre Dame embarrassment. Uh, you know, get some mouthwash. The pistachio theory, right, Matt, that we that we share. Uh, excited to watch Hayes King this weekend. No, I’m all for it. Uh, Carson Beck, I’ll go with him. Another like remember since that terrible performance against SMU where he then threw his his coach and his offensive coordinator under the bus in the post game. He’s been really good in their last two games. Dominated Syracuse, dominated NC State, 78% completion, 290 yards, three touchdowns. But I’m still out on a Matt. Like, I just don’t believe in the leadership and the maturity. He’s got all kinds of talent. He’s an average athlete though, right? Average athlete, but he’s got the 6’4 body type. And I mean, you was a top recruit and all that. Absolutely. Absolutely. And if he ended up getting to the NFL and maturing and figuring it out, it wouldn’t shock me, but I’m not using a first round pick on this guy. I get it. I get it. John Matir, of course, led the Sooners to a big victory against Alabama on the road, but Matt, he was just okay. He kind of did the game manager thing a little bit. uh 138 yards. Seems like he’s working his way back. He’s the one for me. I give him a lot of credit because he’s toughing it out. Oklahoma’s had maybe the toughest schedule in the league uh in the country and they’re 8-2. They’re in line for a college football playoff bid. They just went to Alabama in one. They’ve got Missouri and LSU, two tough ones to close down the year. uh big games ahead that I’m hoping he kind of finds his form. But I he’s one that I’m really interested when we get to Senior Bowl season and combine season what the medical stuff on him is. I bet there’s stuff I I don’t think he has looked like he did the first few weeks of the season, but I also know he’s got a a big hand injury to his throwing hand. I’m willing to give him some benefit of the doubt. Is he running as much? Is he as reckless as he was? I wouldn’t say as much, but he’s still using his legs. Okay. Like again, I mean, he has to. He’s finding ways to to to help that team to victory. Oklahoma’s got a really good defense and they’re leaning on that defense and he’s making just enough plays. I’m sure all the leadership, toughness, all that stuff is they they rave about him in in Sooner circles. And so again, he’s one that is real interesting to me, you know, when we get to that. I bet scouts have a lot of questions though, too. Yes. That need the health and and all that stuff. A couple more here to touch on. Garrett Nusmeer. Matt, we might have seen the last of him in terms of his college career. He didn’t play this past Saturday in LSU’s win over Arkansas. He’s out with an abdominal injury. He’s listed as doubtful for this weekend. We might have seen the last of him. I wonder just with his pedigree and we knew a lot about him before the season. If he never plays another snap in college level, goes to the pros, does somebody get somewhat of a discount on him? Yeah. you know, and ends up having, oh, I remember that guy from two years ago, you know, I’m not saying that should be the Steeler round. He could still be a day a late day two pick. Yeah. Yeah. Dylan Gabriel type third round pick. But yeah, he was, you know, amongst the leaders in that clubhouse when the season started. Him and Aller and Clubick and Arch and none of those guys have really lived up to it. I give Aller at least a little benefit of the doubt because he got hurt earlier in the year. So, uh, Kade Clubick, another one. Uh, Clemson beat Louisville in a in a in a nailbiter, 20 to9. He was okay. 187 yards, no touchdowns, no turnovers. He’s a game manager club. He seems okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. He’s a He’s a day two or day three pick. He will absolutely get drafted. you know, he I think could be one of these guys that gets into camp and people think that there’s some juice to squeeze there, but he’s had a rough year. Clemson’s had a rough year, but like I said, I’m I’m not completely out on him. I just don’t think he’s a first round pick, but we’ll definitely get drafted. Crazy. Okay, Sam Levit, Arizona State. He’s hurt and out for the year as well, too. He’s another one, Matt, when when uh when this time rolls around, is he going to go pro? Is he going to transfer? Uh not much to go off of this year, right? Not much to go off of this year. He was outstanding last year. Not much to go off this year. His coach, Kenny Dillingham, has been mentioned in some circles for some of these big jobs. He’s also been mentioned out there in Arizona as a potential Arizona Cardinals uh head coach if they move on from Ganon. So Sam Levit, one to watch, one to circle. Sawyer Robinson, the Baylor quarterback, uh they fell to Utah 55 to 28. Not really close, but man, he continues to put up massive numbers. 430 yards and three touchdowns, over 3,200 yards passing this season, 29 touchdowns, just nine interceptions. He produces like crazy. Uh he’s 6’4 220. Like he’s got he’s intriguing to me. He’s got the frame. Like I told you, his his to see his buzz picking up after the season. His offensive coordinator, Jake Spiddle, no known name that’s going to just completely blow your hair back, but he’s had like six or seven different quarterbacks that he’s coached in his career that have been drafted. Okay. Gino Smith and Will Greer and Davis Webb and Johnny Manzel and you know again no one that’s blowing your Kyle, you know. Um and so Sawyer Robinson I think is one of those guys who Baylor struggled this year. I think his stock will rise when we get into the postseason postseason time play. Tayen Green’s another one of these hard to evaluate guys. The Arkansas quarterback really struggled in there. Lost to LSU just 11 of 19 two interceptions. He’s got traits like crazy. He’s 66. He’s got a rocket arm. He’s an athlete. But he is s in such a bad situation. Like worse situation than sellers, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just hardless. Arkansas fired their coach like a month into the season and they’re playing in the SEC against great competition every week and every week it goes poorly and every week he looks like he’s trying to put the team on his back and, you know, do so much. Intrigued by him. He’s one of these guys like if the steel you’re telling me right now the Steelers draft him in the third round, I’d be all for it and just learned. Yep. Sits behind Aaron Rogers or somebody for a year if if they end up going that route. Could he be Bama’s next quarterback? Absolutely. Okay. He could be a Yeah. And again, I never know how these guys feel about transferring in conference. I’m just saying. Or whatever. I mean, could he go to a big school and Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Virginia, you know, James Franklin and Virginia Tech or somebody like that? Uh I’m sure a lot of teams be really interested. Does Dante Moore go pro and he ends up at Oregon? Does Matier go pro and he ends up at Oklahoma? Maybe. Certainly. Uh I do believe he it’s his fifth year in college, but I think he still has one more year of eligibility because he started at Boise State, I believe, with a red shirt. So, he should have one more one more year. Brendan Sorsby, we’ve talked a little bit about him, the Cincinnati quarterback. He struggled in back-to-back games after really looking good in the the middle portion of the season. threw two interceptions in their loss to Arizona. His He’s got arm talent, man. And it flashes. But overall, in the last two games, I think his productions really dropped. He’s a candidate, I would say, to return to Cincinnati or maybe he upgrades, too. Yeah. You know, as much as I hate saying that, too, because, you know, I’m a I’m a fan of one of these programs that gets plucked from, you know. Oh, I know. I hate that we have to have that conversation. I hate it, too. But he’s to me a real candidate to return to school. Um, but he also his stock’s not going crazy or anything. No, it’s it’s down these last couple weeks, but you know what? They play number 11 BYU this week. They like he he he’s still got some opportunities. Cincinnati’s still play I think they’re like seven and three, so they’ve still got a lot to play for down the stretch here. Uh, but his stock has dropped a little bit. Matt, couple games to keep an eye on as we wrap this thing up. Week 13. Of course, it is the SEC dead week, but I give Missouri and Oklahoma credit for saying no to that utter nonsense. Oh, that’s cool. Number 22 Missouri in Oklahoma to take on number eight. Uh remember Bo Pribula? He’s the kid from York, Pennsylvania who was at Penn State, transferred because he was going to sit behind Drew Aller. Uh he’s an interesting one for me for next year. He’ll be in this conversation, I think, with the Julian Sayans and some of these guys. Okay. Next year. Name to know. Matier against a good uh Missouri defense. That game’s at noon. The one to watch this weekend like I mentioned. Clearly top 15 big one in the in the in the Big 10 between two old Pack 12 rivals USC and Mava uh in Eugene to take on Oregon and and Dante Moore that’s at 3:30 also at 3:30 Arkansas and Talon Green go to Texas. Arch Manning’s been a little bit better. It sounds like he’s been better was okay against Georgia this past week. Didn’t kind of you know again you want to see these guys like will the team to victory. Yeah, I know. But I’m I’m willing to put Arch back in this conversation. I definitely think he’s going to be back in college football next year. It sure sounds like it. Still a fun quarterback to watch from this perspective. Oh, no doubt. That’s at 3:30. And then of course that school in Oakland goes to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech and Marcus King at 700 p.m. And then another guy that we haven’t talked about, Matt, because he’s only a true freshman. He’s not going to factor into this conversation for at least two more years, but Bear Bachmire, true freshman quarterback. I don’t know them. True freshman quarterback at BYU. BYU is number 11 in the country. They go to Cincinnati for a night game. Nip at Night. That’s what they call it. Nippert Stadium is Cincinnati. They call it the Nip at Night to play off of Nick at Night for all you Nickelodeon kids out there. So you’ve got Bear Brockmire who two years from now I think could be a you know a highly touted one of the best freshman quarterback in the country. 11 BYU at Cincinnati against Sorsby in a big one for both of those teams. BYU looking to stay in the playoff hunt. Cincinnati uh could potentially work their way into a Big 12 championship game if they beat BYU and have a couple things fall their way. So, those are the games that I’m watching this weekend. Good stuff. I got one quick question. I’ve been asking for this for weeks cuz the Riola kid at Nebraska. What’s his story? Dylan Riola, I believe he would be draft eligible. I think this is his third year, Matt. Cuz he’s not popped up on lists. I assumed he was not eligible. I I think he’s still one more year away. Let’s see here. You’re right. Looks like he’s a true sophomore. He’s not like hurt for the year or anything. I mean, he’s a true sophomore, so he’s still a year away. He’s an intriguing one. He was a crazy highly touted recruit. That’s what I’m saying. Yeah. He’s had some really good in his center. His dad played in the National Football League. Yeah. His dad was a center in Nebraska. Really good player. I think he won like the Remy. Yeah. Wasn’t he there with like uh Eric Couch and those guys? Not Tim Couch. Eric, the trophy winner. End up being a safety. And you know what? He’s one of those guys that has a ton of talent. Been waiting for him to take off though. Okay. Like Matt Rule got out there and you thought, you know, Matt Rule is coaching the all these places. He’s been all right, but hasn’t lit the world on fire. He has been okay in big games. But we’ll be talking about him in the off. We’ll talk about him. We’ll we’ll talk about him next year. Definitely. You want something funny though? Actually, bringing this full circle. He’s got a younger brother who’s a top quarterback recruit. say I saw his brother in Nebraska. He just decommitted from Nebraska. That’s why I was he was on my noodle. I saw the headline. Maybe he’s like I don’t want to follow in Big Bro’s footsteps. Have you seen the Dylan Riola stuff though with the Patrick Mahomes obsession? No. Is he oddly obsessed with Mahomes? Wears the same number as him. 15. Has the same haircut and the same facial hair. That Patrick Mahomes goofy hair and goatee. And he does the same Patrick Mahomes like when he runs down into the end zone and flex like people make fun of him because like dude like get your own thing like you’re trying so hard to be but his own thing is clearly like he doesn’t even hide that same number same haircut same pregame routine doesn’t even hide it so I don’t know part of me thinks it’s kind of cool that that much like I respect this guy the other part of me is like it’s kind of corny get your own thing here but he’s a name too that will will be in these future conversations as as we’re doing this in in years to come. Certainly, Matt, one more quick segment to go. We’re going to pick a player on the other side from the Chicago Bears and get up there. We got an injury report, too. Oo. Okay. A couple quickies before we get out of here. Some important stuff to get to. All that more as we wrap this up on the drive on the Steelers Audio Network. Just a couple minutes left here on the drive as we close this thing down. We do have the Steelers latest Wednesday practice report across the timeline. Matt, before we do that, you’ve got some news though on some other bigname quarterbacks in the AFC North. Yeah, again, Lamar not practicing on Wednesday and second straight week. Yeah, I mean I think he’s not quite himself, not quite running as much the knee. Um, but the big news is Burrow listed as a full participant. I’m sure he’s chomping to get back at it. Has to be. I would love to shut him down if I were them, but that’s not how Burrow operates. No, it’s not. I think we’re going to see him this year, whether it’s this week or not. Exactly right. And he had targeted Thanksgiving. I don’t love that. I mean, it’s good that you’re past Cincinnati. I I mean, maybe he could help you beat the Ravens, but help the Steelers, but I mean, like, good point. I don’t know. I I just worry about the kids’ health. Yeah. You know, I would I appreciate the competitive spirit, but it’s like they’re not going anywhere, and that offensive line is not great. And and quarterback hasn’t been the problem. I mean, doesn’t make the defense any better. Correct. Matt, Steelers practice report here on a Wednesday as we wrap this thing up. No surprise here. Mike Tomlin said it would be the case, but Aaron Rogers did not practice today with that left wrist injury. Darius Slay. There’s some talk that Rogers might practice tomorrow though. We will be waiting to see. Start tomorrow is when you really want to see. Darius Slay full participant with that concussion. Seems like you know barring something popping up. He’s he’s green green lit for this weekend. Jaylen Warren did not practice with that ankle. Also, I don’t think a lot of a shot on Wednesday. I didn’t give him give him some extra time. Cole Hulkcom for the first time in weeks here back to a full practice participant. Love to see that. Miss is finally gone. Love to see that. Isaac Seamalu did not practice with that pec. I don’t think that’s surprising on a Wednesday. No, not for him. Isaac Seamalu limited today with his pec injury that’s still lingering a little bit. Who you said? Sealu twice. Sorry. Highmith was first. He did not practice today. Highmith didn’t practice with the pec. Gotcha. Seamalu limited today with the pec. Okay. Uh, I would assume Cali will play, but again, I I think so, especially especially with his being limited today and and not a DNP. Uh, Jonnu, TJ, and Cam all given a rest day and then Keshan Williams limited with concussion. That is your injury report. Not a lot to take away from that. I I I wouldn’t say any of that is unexpected. Uh, one notable thing here as we wrap this up, one name that you will notice that’s not on that list is Corey Trice Jr. Just minutes ago, according to our buddy Chris Adamsky, his activation window has expired and he will be out for the season. According that was coming, but according to friend of the show Chris Adamsky, Wednesday, today at 4:00 was his that’s the official was his cut off point. And so that means he is out for the year unfortunately. And I guess him not being on the practice report would would back that up. Rarely do these windows open and they get shut again. But he got hurt in practice again. He’s only he’s only practiced once since Latroe and he got hurt in that practice. It is such a bummer, but it’s also just hard to ignore at this point. Right. Right. And just unfortunately he just can’t stay healthy and it stinks for him. It stinks for the team. I mean I assume he’ll be in mini camp and all those things next year, but I I don’t know that you can count on him as a piece of the theme. It’s a good good way to put it. If he ends up surprising us all and being a bonus next year, great. But I I think you’re right. When you’re going forward, when you’re plotting this thing out, when you’re talking about priorities and, you know, draw season needs, drawing up the blueprint for 2026, I would be hardressed to like put them on the side and if you get something out of them, great. That’s a bummer. That is a bummer. Bummer news to uh to end today’s show on, but I had fun today, Matt. Good show. A lot of good stuff. Good conversation with our buddy Chris Hack. A lot more Bear stuff tomorrow. A lot more. We are going to deep dive into into Matt’s stats tomorrow. We’ll catch up with Bob Labriola, get his thoughts on LC Greenwood’s Hall of Fame candidacy. We’ll get into some of your tweets tomorrow. We will do our Chicago Bears pick a player tomorrow as well. But that’ll do it for us today. Thanks to Chris Hock for joining us. Thanks to our video producer and resident statistician, Tyler V, Mr. TV. And of course, a big shout out to Matt Williamson. As always, I’m Wes Uler. Take care everybody. We’ll talk to you tomorrow. You know where to find us. It’s on your 24/7 home of the black and gold.

Matt Williamson & Wes Uhler talk about what the Steelers gameplan could look like going into Sunday’s matchup against the Chicago Bears on SNR Drive Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025

00:00:14 – Segment 1
00:01:02: – L.C. Greenwood is a semifinalist for the Pro Football HOF Class of 2026 in the Seniors category + discussing others on the list
00:19:18 – Best of the Wes – Top 10 RBs Right Now
00:44:51 – Chris Halicke Calls Into The Show!  
00:58:35 –  “Around Campus” Talking College QBs
01:29:03 – Today’s Steelers Practice / Injury Report

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