FIRST TAKE | ”Shedeur start Next Week” Stephen A. on Rodgers shines Steelers Crush Browns 23-9

FIRST TAKE | ”Shedeur start Next Week” Stephen A. on Rodgers shines Steelers Crush Browns 23-9

ers currently leading the AFC North with a 4-1 record after beating the Browns 23 to9. It’s a quiet 4-1 record. Uh they face yet another division opponent, the Bengals this Thursday who have a new starting quarterback in Joe Flacco as we know who was traded to the who traded by the Browns to Cincinnati before week six. Mike Tomlin had some words about it. To be honest, it was shocking to me. Um Andrew Barry must be a lot smarter than me or us. um because it doesn’t make sense to me um to trade a quarterback that you think enough of to make your opening day starter uh to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area. Um but that’s just my personal feelings. I love Mike Tomlin forever. I love I love him. I mean, there’s no lies detected there, but nonetheless, does he have a fair complaint, Steelers fan, Stephen A? Yes. I don’t want to say it’s unfair. I mean, he’s right. He’s right with what he’s saying, but I’m just like, well, I think I think he’s right about what he’s saying, but why should the the Browns be concerned about where that it’s all about the assets that you get? What you looking for? You got Joe Flacco. What can you get for Joe Flacco? You know what I’m saying? You got somebody desperate enough to give us a couple of picks for him or whatever. What are you going to do? I’m just saying they’re not thinking about, you know, the division moving forward next year, the year after, or anything like that. and they know how much they’re hurting and they and you know if the Bengals come and they’re so desperate that they’re willing to make an offense like it’s no big deal to me. You’re dealing as a team. You’re not looking at the ASC North. You’re not thinking about Pittsburgh or Baltimore, the fact that they’re within your division. You’re thinking about listen, we got an asset that we want to get rid of. What can we get in return for his services? And it’s just that simple. So for Mike Tomlin to comment about I mean he has every right to do it. I don’t think he’s wrong with what he’s saying because I do think that’s an aberration. It’s an anomaly. I don’t think that’s normal, but the fact that it happened is not a big deal. Yeah, but nobody questioned what the Cleveland Browns were doing. We all praised it and said it made sense. Joe Flacco four games, led the league in turnovers. They were done with them. The Cleveland Browns are in a reconnaissance mission to figure out what they got in those young QBs and whether or not those guys can be a part of the solution at that position moving forward. Nobody questioned the logic behind Andrew Barry trading Joe Flacco. You signed a guy in the off season and guess what? you were able to flip him and get a mid-round draft pick for it. Congratulations to you. It’s a brill It’s a brilliant move. But here’s the problem. It only makes Mike Thomas job that much harder. Absolutely. And I’m sure he’s tired of looking across the sideline against AFC North Approach and seeing Joe Flacco as the quarterback. And then, oh, by the way, at Pittsburgh’s facility, they got projectors in film, too. Yeah. They know that Joe Flacco is a much more competent quarterback than Jake Browning. And when you got them two avatars out there playing wide receiver and Tim Higgins and Jamar Chase with a big armed quarterback like Joe Flacco, they going to have more than a puncher chance in any single game that they play. So where before the Cincinnati Bengals were one of those teams you could pencil in a dub in the ledger, not no more. Right. And that’s what Mike Tomlin knows on a short week against a division rival. Yeah. I I I think look this is I love it because this is such an this is like when when we played like you never helped out your opponent. It didn’t matter in any division opponents you never helped them out. It didn’t matter what was happening to you. You weren’t going to help. So I like that from Tomlin. I’m like it’s a little nasty but I appreciate it. But let’s be real about Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin when when they played the Colts last year basically told his defense keep AR standing up and upright cuz we don’t want to see Flack. They get a hurt and then Flaco comes in and beats him. So you you know what I mean? So it’s like he gets it. He knows he’s seen Flaco in Baltimore. He’s seen Flaco the difficulty he can give you. He understands the the quality of of who that player is. I think, you know, from his perspective, it’s makes his job much tougher than had they faced, you know, Browning before. But I I just love it because he says so many great things. This is the first time he’s like he’s personally offended like you like, “Hey man, like I this is this is this is a shot at Andrew.” But to your point, if you’re the Browns, you you you do business. They’re not they’re they’re nowhere near being in this mix of the AFC North. So why not why not get some kind of capital, some kind a a thousand%. But but let’s keep it a buck. Like I understand playing Joe Flacco is a lot harder than playing Jake Browning. But if you’re Mike Tomlin, you have no excuse not to take advantage of the misfortune of all of the teams in AFC North. Lamar Jackson hurt, Joe Burrow hurt, the Cleveland Browns rolling out rookie quarterbacks. You got off to a 41 start. You have no excuse. Well, he doesn’t have any not to dominate, but it’s not like I mean, but I’m just saying the tone of your delivery right there. Let’s let’s couch that a bit. He is doing it. He is taking advantage of it. You know, they’re four in one because we didn’t look at the Steelers and expect them to be 4-1 after five games. You certainly didn’t expect him to be at top of the AFC North, but they are. So, he’s actually taking advant He’s doing what you said, Stephen. He’s doing what you said. They were the same last year. They started out 8 and2. I agree with that. What happened? I agree with that. All right. But we ain’t there. They only won two finals. Right now he’s taking advantage of Lamar Jackson’s coming back in a couple of weeks. Jackson’s coming back in a couple of weeks. Stephen A. They have a 77% chance according to our FBI to win their division. The only team in football that has a better chance is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And we’ll see about that with what’s going on with the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta. But they have no they have the Steelers have no choice. It’s a little bit disingenuous that you just threw that number out because last week the Ravens were still favored to win our to win that division. Last week they were favored. They were f they were favored in your eyes cuz they weren’t fed in mine. I wrote the I wrote the Ravens off weeks ago. I wrote the Ravens off week. 71% last week it was the Ravens were supposed to get out. I don’t know who’s doing them books. I’m betting I’m betting against that and I’m listen now. Wait a minute. First of all, I Lamar Jackson might be coming back, but if they decide to trade away half of their players at the trade deadline, the Ravens might look like even when Lamar Jackson was there. That their defense was atrocious as well as the offense. So, there’s that. This division is terrible. The AFC North, let’s just call it what Mike Tomlin is saying isn’t wrong, though. Who the heck says this in the most crowded quarterback room in all of the National Football League said, “Joe Flacco’s going to be my starter.” And then decides to trade him to a division one. He’s not lying. He was right. He’s not lying. And but you know what? Listen, Joe Flacko, I mean, he torched the Steelers last year when he was playing with the Colts. We get that part, too. But the bottom line is is that Cleveland might think he’s so bad right now. You know what what you complained about Mike Thompson. You should be able to beat him at this at this stage of point in his career. You could have that kind of mentality. I understand that Mike Tomlin is not wrong, however, with what he’s saying. The point is valid. It’s just that it really really shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter at this point. Go ahead to your business. I just like I like him taking shots. It was odd, but it was It was odd him calling out Andrew Barry by name though. Yeah, that was odd. Brian Branch is suspended for one game. Was the punishment though justified? Chris Kanty waiting just waiting to dive into as they should. It’s the scrappy image and it’s also that they they won a lot of close games and they were like they had a close game against the Jets. They’re close games close game against the Texans. They’re close games against teams that we don’t necessarily think are great challenges. The fact that they’re finding ways to win in the situation is promising. When they get their guys back, maybe these games won’t be close. They are a proven I mean, they’re a fourtime defending division champ. It’s not like we’ve never seen this group win. And someone made the point that there’s still a lot of guys on that team that won the Super Bowl. Like, we think about them as though there’s there’s quite a few guys left on what was a championship team. We feel like, well, Brady left. This is a whole new team. It’s not a whole new team. There are other guys on that team who can play. The defense is very good. It just when you put the question up there, who is like who is the best team in the NFL? Forgetting healthy just who’s the best team like it probably like if you have to bet your money on it right now, it probably would be the Chiefs. They just came up. I’m going Indie. I’m going Indie. No, you’re not. I would I would believe the Colts are the best. I mean, if you look at the if you look at the resumes of the teams that are right now, who’s had the best wins? I think if we’re doing it college style, like the Colts have actually beat down the numbers they’re supposed to. The Chiefs are two weeks away from a loss to Jacksonville, who then just lost to Seattle. So, like it’s Seattle’s the best team. So, by the transitive postulate there. All right. One way or another, we’ll see. There’s a lot of overreaction to be done and we’ll continue doing it. But I told you we had

FIRST TAKE | ”Shedeur start Next Week” Stephen A. reacts to Rodgers shines Steelers Crush Browns 23-9