DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: Off the path

DK’s Double Shot of Steelers: Off the path

[Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey guys, one final time. Hello from Latroe. He’s Chris Hick. I’m Dan Kvachovic. We’re from DK Pittsburgh Sports. And the Steelers just conducted their last public practice, their last real practice of training camp. They’re due to have some smaller session tomorrow morning that’s not open to either the public or the media. So, don’t come out here. We won’t be coming out here. Uh but it’s over. It’s over. Uh training camp in the books. Uh it it almost feels like a last day of school, but then at the same time, it almost feels like orientation is just wrapped up and now the actual the actual work the actual semester the work is about to get underway. Uh it’s it’s always an interesting day, but it was also a day kind of filled with a number of different things. Yeah, it really was. And the thing we’re going to focus on today, I should say things plural, is and maybe we don’t do this enough as the camp is going along. we’re going to do it today is guys who don’t necessarily have the biggest names or the highest profiles or maybe even the the most significant potential for an impact on the roster. But if they’re here and they’re performing well, it’s worth discussing them because they could have a future with the team. They might have a future somewhere else in the NFL. Uh but there’s been a bunch of those guys. Uh Chris, when I say this, what’s what’s the just give me a name. First name that pops to mind here. Honestly, one of them is probably Max Hurleman. It is Max Hurleman. I mean, well, and everyone watching this is going, “Huh?” Well, we’re talking about a guy who who’s coming in. He’s primarily playing receiver, but he can also play running back. He does a little bit of everything. Does stuff in the return game. Uh he was a he played at Colgate University, made it as a walk-on at Notre Dame. I mean, that’s kind of impressive on its own. and he’s shown flashes both at camp and during the preseason game in Jacksonville. But then when you sit when you sit there and you try to break down the five receivers at most six that make the 53man roster. No, probably not. But there’s the practice squad and then you have to think about, okay, well, is he a practice squad guy? See, Herleman is one of those guys who will drive scouts and evaluators nuts. And here’s why. You could put him into an Indianapolis type environment, meaning the combine, and you could run him through the 40 and you could run him through the strength tests and everything else here, and you’re going to come away pretty unimpressed. And he’s not a big guy either, to say the least, and he’s not the fastest guy on the field. The only thing he does well on the football field is to make football plays. And the parallel that I’m gonna offer here is going to be a player who was on the other side of the ball here not all that long ago before he went on to his own fine NFL career and that was Mike Hilton. Hilton had none of the above when it came to the the scouting essentials. All Hilton did was every time the ball was in motion that it was snapped, he found a way to make the play. Yeah. I mean that’s what these players do. Yeah. Whether they make a 53man spot outright like Jaylen Warren did a few years ago or whether it’s a guy that does enough where they’re like, you know what, he’s not going to make the 53, but we’re definitely going to give him a spot on on the practice squad if he gets through waiverss and everything if he’s not, you know, picked up by somebody else. But then, who knows? One injury happens in the regular season and then he has an opportunity to make make his mark. And that’s why they keep those guys. That’s why the practice squad can be so valuable. and they know they can trust him to be a professional about it. That’s something else. You don’t want the PRA. You don’t want guys on the practice squad who think that it’s beneath them or that this wasn’t why they got into the game or they were so used to being a star at their college and now they’re reduced to this. You want your Hurleman types in the fold. Uh I want Herleman on this practice squad. Okay? And I want him there just because in the event of what you’re talking about, I want to put somebody out there that I know, an operative word here again is trust. I want somebody that I know that listen, if I put him out there and we throw him a pass and it’s third and four in some really big divisional game and he just happens to be the target, I don’t want to think that, oh no. Yeah. Oh no, this is too big for him. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you this is this is whenever you figure out the guys that you can trust. This is when you begin to figure out the guys who are not just going to make the roster, not who’s not just going to make the practice squad, but then who’s going to be the most trustworthy guy in certain situations. You know, when Skyler Thompson goes out and he runs a two-minute drill to perfection in practice and then goes into a stadium for a preseason game and does it there too, that’s always a good step for somebody who again, do I think he’s going to make the 53 man? No, because Will Howard’s going to be back. his injury is not, you know, it’s not a season ending type thing and you don’t keep four quarterbacks, but if you can possibly keep him on the practice squad and keep him as insurance in case Rogers or Rudolph or whoever goes down with an injury, you want to have a guy who knows the system and who can be trustworthy. Nice to have. When we come back, we’re going to go at uh my first selection for the lesser names, lesser lights. At DK Pittsburgh Sports, we take pride in coverage that connects our city’s fans to their favorite teams. Now that connection’s stronger than ever. Introducing our all-new state-of-the-art app. Find expert inside reporting and original podcasts. Check live box scores. Track the latest stats. Chat it up with our community of thousands of fans all in one place. The new app from DK Pittsburgh Sports. Coverage that connects. Come on. The offense is going to be diverse this season simply by virtue of who the quarterback is. I I think that goes without saying. Uh Aaron Rogers, this is going to sound really insultingly obvious, but I mean he can see the whole field. He can make all the throws, and he’s not shy about spreading the ball. He doesn’t feel like he needs to feed anybody. Why? Because he’s Aaron Rodgers and you’re not going to get, you know, some kind of lip back from anybody. He’s like, “Hey, man. I was open. Can’t you see?” It’s not going to happen because he’s Aaron Rodgers. Now, that said, there also are a lot of these types of weapons. There are people who can catch the football and they’re even trying to throw the ball to people who, how shall I put this kindly, haven’t shown that they can catch the football. And to me, it’s just a combination of Rogers and Arthur Smith just pressing the button, seeing what works. Yeah. I mean, this is again, this is the whole point of training camp. You’re going to find out who does what, who does what. Well, um, at the beginning of training camp, like I knew Darnell Washington was going to be interesting. at the end of training camp, he’s a cheat code to me. Like that’s just the way things have have played out with Darnell at training camp and in the preseason. It’s just every time he gets if they get first and goal on the two in a in a regular season game, they better just throw the fade to Darnell on the left side or the right side or whatever three times in a row because he’s going to catch one of them. You know, that’s like those are that’s like an example of an impression that you get during training camp. But like when it comes to this offensive development, who who you can use in certain situations, who you can trust on this route or in this situation on third and four, whatever the situation is, and like using guys in different ways and seeing how versatile different guys can be, whether they can play one spot or whether they can play multiple, that’s what they figure out and it’s important to do during the install process. Now, there are training camp type reasons for this, but uh one person who’s gotten a lot of touches on the football and as such a lot of cheers from the crowd and people chanting out his name is Kenneth Gainwell. And here again, now for those of you who are kind of getting warmed up for the season as opposed to completely immersed in all the summertime stuff, he was acquired from the Eagles uh in the off season. He was their uh number two behind Saquon Barkley. He had a terrific game against the Steelers whenever those teams met, which even Gainwell uh himself acknowledged was a factor in the Steelers interest in him. Y uh they were like, “Hey, this guy can do this to us. We’re interested.” Uh he has been a a bright light here. He really has. Uh both out of the back field in terms of catching the ball and running uh running to the outside a lot. Uh we saw today I don’t know how many different passes were thrown his way of all different types too. Uh what have you thought of Gainwell in general and what do they think? I I I think they think of him as I I I almost don’t want to use the word gadget guy because that’s not quite the right no but they’re also going to use him in a variety of ways. He’s not just going to be this guy. Okay, Jaylen Ward needs a spell. Let’s put Kenny Gain. Well, no. They are going to He is going to be a specific weapon in this offense. It might not be something that’s going to come with 800 yards receiving or 600 yards rushing or whatever it is, but it will come with its own unique way of being able to attack defenses because he can run the ball out of the backfield. He’s a running back, but he can also line up in the slot. He can line up out wide and he can run routes. This might be the most pass the best passcatching running back the Steelers have had since Levon Bell. Like to be completely honest. Yeah. In terms of playing that position and being able to go run routes. Yeah, he’s he’s certainly been the best running back in camp in that specific skill. Uh and he came off the field just now after practice and I did something that not a lot of people have been able to do here in this camp and that was I caught up with him. Kenny Gwell, you’re all over the football. You’re getting so many reps and everything. This this is kind of what you envisioned, isn’t it? Uh yeah, most definitely. Um I’m finally getting opportunity, you know, show my talents, what I really can do. And um you know, I’m just happy for the opportunity and I’m going to work my ass off to do what I got to do. How do you fit into this offense? And the reason that I asked that is because you’re doing so many different things. Um I say we got a dynamic quarterback, you know, and um basically we can go off any scheme we need to. And uh I’m just here to help this team win, man. We trying to get a Super Bowl this year. So, I mean, I’m just chasing that dream. You enjoying yourself? Yeah, I am. I’m having fun. He’s a pretty cool dude, too. We noticed that when we were at his press conference when they introduced him, too. It’s like, what do you want us to call you? You know, is it Kenneth? Is it Ken? Kenny. And he goes, “Well, I get a little bit of all of that.” He goes, “But you can call me Kenny G.” Kenny G. And that’s what we’ve been hearing from the stands here at Chuck Nullles. So, uh, Kenny G it is. Uh, let’s have your guy here. Other side of the ball. other side of the ball. So earlier in the show we were talking about overlooked guys and everything. This guy was overlooked until the second Minka Fitzpatrick was traded away and that’s Juan Thornhill. No one knew his name. I mean people knew the Steelers had signed him but he was thought to be this depth guy to be behind Minka Deshawn Elliot. No, he is now the starting free safety and even like so overlooked that the second MA was traded people are like oh got to go Justin Simmons or got to go you know got to go get somebody else and Thornel Sim I did that. I’m not going to lie. But Thornhill’s sitting there going, I’m a player. I can play. And he’s come out here and he has been impressive. Like not just a guy who’s like come out, oh, he’s just doing his job, you know? He’s he’s being the average Joe. He’s made plays. He’s gotten past his defense. He’s made interceptions. He might I I don’t count stats in training camp, but he might, if I like of what my memory serves, be the guy who has the most interceptions. He’s just gotten his hand on the ball a lot. even in yesterday’s two-minute drill against Aaron Rogers. And you know, when I caught up with him to talk talk with him after practice, I was like, you know, I asked him a couple questions like, you know, hey, how how was this first training camp and and everything like that being with the Steelers and how is this whole process going along? So, I know you guys have a camp have a practice tomorrow and everything, but still last public practice training camp. How was your first Steelers training camp? I can’t even lie to you. It was It didn’t disappoint at all. Like, the fans showed up each and every day. uh had a great turnout every day. Practice was great. Um today was probably one of the worst ones for me cuz it was hot, but uh we definitely got a lot of good work in. So like obviously like there’s always talk about like certain teams do training camp different. Steelers have live tackling. What was it like to be part of this physical type of a of a camp? Uh, I think it was great for us, you know, like if you just take a look at us playing Jacksonville uh, last week, I felt like it showed, you know, like it looked like it wasn’t our first time out there tackling. And if you really watch their film, it doesn’t seem like they tackle as much if I’m being honest. And I think it just prepared us for that preseason game. Then it’s just going to give us an extra step um, an advantage when it comes to our opponents. As far as the install process from the time you guys got here till now, has how have you felt things have gone along? Not just what you guys are learning in the classroom, but also the way you guys are able to take it out here. Uh, I think it’s going great. You know, like the first few days might have been a little bit slower cuz a lot of guys might have been thinking a little bit more, but uh, we got a lot of smart guys. So, I think everybody’s picking up on the playwork pretty well and now I think we’re just out there playing fast and having fun. All right. Thanks, Ju. Appreciate it. No problem. Now, the question that plagued Thornhill in Cleveland, of course, was availability. In fact, the Browns fans, such as they are, had absolutely no use for him because they got tired of hearing him on on the inactive list. And he had a calf injury and it it it held him back. And calf injuries are slow and laborious to even once you’re healed, even once you’re active again, yeah, they still impact you here. The safety breakdown, what are we talking about in general, Chris, here? because we got a little bit used to this three safety setup uh for a while over the past couple of seasons. Is that really going to be the case now? Because I’m seeing Thornhill and I’m seeing Deshawn Elliott and I’m seeing coverage people. Yeah. So, I had a conversation with Tara Lost and he’s not going to give me the ingredients to the sauce. He never does, you know. He’s very specific about that. Likes his job, too. Yeah. So, but the Steelers are probably going to use a whole lot of nickel this year because of who they have at quarterback. They got Joey Porter Jr., they got Darius Slay, they got Jaylen Ramsay. And as long as those three guys are healthy, they’re going to play. It’s there are not going to be a lot of times in which one of those three guys are standing on the sideline holding his helmet unless, you know, injury dictates it. And if they are, Brandon Eckles will be on the field. So, it’ll be essentially the same formula anyway, right? And so when you look at like all the three safety stuff, I think safety right now is more to complement and really play safety support to what the quarterbacks are going to be doing, especially when they’re in man coverage. Now, Deshawn Elliott, we obviously know what his game is. He’s going to play more in the box. He’s going to play closer to the line of scrimmage, and he’s going to be almost an extra linebacker, especially on rundowns because he’s such I mean, how good of a tackler is he? He’s he’s pretty good, isn’t he? Like pretty good tackler. Uh Juan Thornhill, he’s going to be your center. Just a little bit. He Thornhill is going to be your your center fielder back there now. And in the preseason game, he showed what he can do while playing center field. And Brian Thomas Jr. also knows what he can do with the imprint that was left on his chest from that hit. And outside of that, I mean, that’s the dude from the Jaguars the other night. If you’re not referencing, oh my goodness, what a hit. Although, in fairness to that guy, he also leveled. Was it Miles right before that? No, Beanie. Oh, no. No, that was a different receiver who who trucked Beanie. Okay. Okay. Diami Brown, I think I think the guy’s name, but Oh, yeah. But but either way, I mean, so this safety position, I think you’re looking at four. You’re looking at your starters obviously being Elliot and Thornhill. And then Miles Kilibru is making the roster. He’s a special teams captain. He’s one of the best special teams players in the league. And then Chuck Clark has come in. He’s a veteran. He’s proved that he’s healthy. He’s looked good in practice. I think that those are your four safeties going into Yeah, I’ve liked Clark, too. Um, before we sign off from Latroe for good, I’d be I’d be out of line if I if I didn’t mention two guys that aren’t going to make this team. Have virtually no chance of making this team, but they’re going to make some team somewhere. He knows where I’m headed here because this team does not have one starting NFL punter. It has two. Uh Cameron Johnson is your starter here, but Corus Waitson is going to be one of the 32 somewhere in the league. Should be. It really should be. I mean, if he’s going to have to wait for an injury or whatever else, but he’s going to be sitting there with with his phone on his chest there, you know, waiting for the call. Uh and he has deserved it. The amount of daylight between and this is a compliment between Johnston and Weightman is it it can’t be more than this. It’s not much. It’s it really I mean we talk about this being a punter competition and I think that that all Cameron Johnson has had to do is just prove that he’s still the same guy that he was before show he was healthy. Yeah. And and he has I mean he’s still booming the ball and the spirals and the location and the inside the 20 and the directional and they’re both doing that. Yeah. Uh the end over end the the deliberate flip back to the It’s It’s been a joy watching these guys. And remember we’re talking about punts here. Uh, when it comes to the kickers, listen, nobody’s close to Chris Boswell, so I’m not going to say that I’m not going to say that Ben Sols, who’s right out of the University of Pittsburgh, is going to be that kid. But he’s had himself a camp, too. And that shouldn’t surprise anybody who saw him at pit. No, he he’s a he is good enough to be one of the 32 starting kickers in the in the league. I I think I said this while we were on the practice field. I’m like, if the Steelers went into the season with Ben Sols as their kicker and Corus Weighton as their punter, they’re they’re going to be in a good spot. That just shows the embarrassment of riches that they have with Cameron Johnson as a punter. Oh, and by the way, the best kicker in the NFL and Chris Boswell. So, I mean, listen, I Ben Sauls should have a job. Corus Wakeman should have a job. If they don’t, it’s a travesty. and the Steelers will gladly put them on the practice squad or do whatever they need to do to keep those guys just as insurance in case Johnston goes down or Boswell goes down. Uh but yeah, it’s it’s just to think about where we were just a couple of years ago in the punter situation and now to see that they have two that could really do the job well for them. If there’s such a thing as a training camp offensive MVP, I’m going to go ahead and name him. And uh it’s appropriate that I would be the one to name him since I spent the better part of the summer burying him. No one impressed me out here uh on the field, off the field, in every capacity the way Aaron Rogers did. Uh he didn’t just address every concern anybody could have had. He blew those concerns off the map. Uh I I can’t say enough about the way he carried himself. I can’t say enough about the way he was throwing the ball. and he did it again today with these guys. Hear me out. I just want to give you one play here because we’re still allowed to do this from real quick. Give a shot real quick. Okay, so Rogers, he has a he he’s watching for Jaylen Warren going off to the right side. Okay, and for whatever reason, he has to kind of move out of the pocket a little bit, but he’s going backward. And as he is, he’s using his left foot as some kind of center of gravity, but otherwise he’s way off balance and in the air. So, you’re thinking, you the football fan are thinking he’s just gonna lob this. It’s the only thing he could possibly do. His no way he can get a hard throw off. People, he buried this ball, the point of the ball between the three and the O on Jaylen’s chest. And I I turned to Chris and I’m like, how how do you do that? Well, and my response to him was he was doing this with the Jets last year, and I don’t watch the other Jets, but he this I I even talked about it. Uh there was a play last year, and for those who watch my chalk talks, where Allen Lazard was running a drag or a low shallow cross over the middle, had a dude running downhill at him full speed like Rogers did. And Rogers off of his back foot with Lazard running over way the other way. Flips it and it’s a seed over to Lazard right on the money. We’re talking he’s in the middle of the hashes and by the time Lazard catches the ball he’s over on the 10 like where the big 10 is for the 10 yard line. That is a that that is unheard. That is special arm talent. And he proved he still has it. Yeah, I was going to say that that’s been there all along. It’s just a matter of what percentage of it left. And Chris said something to me on the sideline yesterday that I’m going to repeat for you here. And that is is if the Steelers just get 80% of what he was in 2001 in Green Bay 21. Uh I always do that. It’s 2021. Yeah. The the postcoid year. Uh then they’re going to be in in going to be in really really good shape offensively. Guys, we’re checking out from Latroe. We’ll have another regular show uh for you tomorrow. In the meantime, you have an assignment and that’s to go get our app. Go get the DK Pittsburgh Sports app. Download it for free. Uh you can find it on your Apple App Store and on uh Android. You can find it on Google Play. You’ll love it. Yeah. I listen all the work that we do. It’s on there. It goes on the app. All the training camp practices. I’m going to be writing some stuff to wrap up camp here. 53 man roster protection coming out tomorrow podcast. And we’re communicating nonstop with everybody on our app. So, if you want to ask us questions, that’s where we are. So, go get our app right now and uh we’ll we’ll talk about tomorrow what you think about the app. All right, take care.

On the Steelers’ final day of practice in Latrobe, Pa., Dejan Kovacevic and Chris Halicke bring up some lesser-known performers

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