BREAKING NEWS: Steelers TRADE For Safety Kyle Dugger From The Patriots – Steelers Talk LIVE
[Music] Fire. [Music] Hey. Hey. Let’s [Music] show you. [Music] Welcome in to the Steelers Talk Live Show. I’m your host, Jack Sperry. We kick off week nine here in Steelers Nation with a bunch of great Steelers coverage for you guys over the next hour or so. First up, it is Tomlin Tuesday in Steelers Nation, which means we got the latest news and rumors updates from the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. had some very concerning comments on the defense in my opinion today. I’ll break down my thoughts on that, but also a vast array of different kinds of news today. We got a big injury update on Deshawn Elliot that we’ll talk about at the top of news and rumors today. Also, is Marquez Vald scaling signing with the Steelers or not? Like we’ll we’ll discuss that kind of the weird news regarding MVS. Uh and then we’ll talk about a sneaky signing that the Steelers made today that I think uh could be, you know, a real boost to this Steelers defense moving forward in the secondary. And then we’ll have our extensive weekly preview this week for week nine versus the Indianapolis Colts. My score prediction, my keys to victory, scouting report on Daniel Jones, the whole works. Um it’s coming up later in today’s show. Make sure you stick around for for the entire Steelers Talk live show today. And make sure you guys spam those mess down there in the comments section. We already got 73 people watching live. And I want to see who’s in here right now. I want to see who the real ones are. I already see Rad Doctor put in a $10 super chat. We got Grayson Walter in here. We got uh the only key. Uh we’ve got Zar Craig. We’ve got Eugene Payne, Tristan White. We’ve got Austin. We’ve got my lovely fiance Cassie. Vote. Everyone say hi to Cassie in the chat for me. We got Glenn Ali the Reaper Rad Doctor. Steelers fan 151. Glenn Lindsay. We got Darren. We’ve got Dune. We’ve got Keith Dave P. We got Darren Eugene Payne. We got a good crew, man. Ready to talk some Steelers football here on a Tomlin Tuesday. And with that, let’s bring in our producer. Mr. Ponzi is here. and Ponzi, what is your pre preferred but realistic safety duo for this football team after the Deshawn Elliott injury? Now, the update we got today from Mike Tomlin, a very positive one, is that Deshun Elliott is probably going to be able to come back at some point this year. Now, you know, he’s got a hyperextended knee. He’s going to be out for the foreseeable future here. Um, you know, he might be out a month or maybe more, but it sounds like by the end of the season, he will be able to come back, which is extremely good news. Uh, but Ponzi, while Elliot is out, what should be the starting duo here in Pittsburgh? I mean, I definitely don’t want Chuck Clark on the field. That’s that’s the one. [ __ ] Chuck Clark, man. But I mean, I I would want to see a combination of Jabril Peppers. Oh, man. We got Mike Nintendo Master in here. What’s up, Mike? Good to see you, pal. Jabril Peppers. Maybe get some Jaylen Ramsay in there, but I mean, I’d rather much have Jaylen Ramsay uh stick to his position right now. I think just getting Jabril Peppers and getting um shoot why am I blanking Juan Thornton Hill out there. I think that’s a good safety duo out there. I just think that you know you have already your insurance of Deshawn Heli and Jabril Peppers. Why do you not have him on the field? Exactly. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. A lot of people are throwing out CJ Gardner Johnson and then uh moving Jaylen Ramsey up to that safety spot. I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. CJ Gardner Johnson’s a great player uh especially with the attitude and authority he brings to the safety position or to really that big nickel spot, but I mean I I think that they could go a multitude of ways, but overall I think they’re probably going to stay in house. Yeah. You know, we’ll see what ends up happening. Um, I think this week I’m going to let you guys know who what I think they should do this week because I think the plan for this week with Tyler Warren coming to town and the Indianapolis Colts, I think it should be different this week than what I think the long-term plan should be. Uh, in short, I think Ramsay should play safety this week to be able to cover up Tyler Warren, but then go back to Nickel uh, in the weeks to come. And, you know, they did sign Derek Forest today. We’re going to talk about Derrick Forest on today’s show. I like him a lot, man. I liked him coming out of Cincinnati. He is a playmaker. He has good speed. He’s a legit true free safety and you know instead of Thornhill and u and Clark guys that are older players that you know that have lost maybe a little bit of a step. Derrick Forest is only 26 and you know he has come off a couple of injuries the last couple of seasons. He’s had some bad injury luck. Uh but in terms of a mid-season free agency signing that you’re adding to your defense in week nine. Uh you know I don’t think he’s going to be able to have a helmet this week. He’s going to have to get ramped up. I think the first time we see him would be in the Charger game potentially in week 10 on Sunday Night Football. But Derek Forest is somebody uh that I think could potentially finish this season Ponzi as this team’s starting free safety. I really I think that he’s a good I think he’s a ball hawk. I think he’s a playmaker. I think he’s got the speed uh to be able to make plays out there at the free safety alignment. I think he fits the Pittsburgh Steelers DNA, man. He reminds me uh, you know, he reminds me a lot of Deshawn Elliott actually in the way that he’s around the football a lot. You know, there’s just certain guys that are around the football a lot and have really great instincts. Uh, and I think that Derek Forest is somebody that uh, fits that description for me. So, I really like that signing. I’ll I’ll go in more in depth in our first segment here today. Mike Nintendo Master uh, says, “Jack, I want you to know I think you’re a great host.” Well, I appreciate that, Mike, but number 16, man. I mean, I I guess I I’m happy with my ranking. I guess I guess I gotta pick up my game here a little bit, man. I gota, you know, I I I want to be pushed, Mike. I want to be pushed. All right. So, thank you. Thank you for giving me a little bit of extra motivation, but I appreciate you here today, uh, Mike Nintendo Master. He asked a question here. He says, “Should the Steelers make a trade?” If if if the trade, you know, comes up and you you know, that makes sense for the team, then yes, you know, they should. Uh, you know, if you can get a good player at a really good price tag, you know, that can make your specifically your defense better, I think you should absolutely do it. Um, you know, maybe if you get a really good deal on Jacobe Meyers or Calvin Ridley, if you get a really good value for those guys, maybe you think about pulling the trigger on a wide receiver trade. Um, you know, because right now MVS is not on the roster. He has not been signed and according and according to a report today, uh, he’s not expected to sign until next week. So, uh, just a weird situation with MVS. We got multiple super chats uh that are coming in here. We’ll make sure to get to those supers here in just a moment. But if you guys want to get on the show today, you guys can super chat. If you want if you have a question, if you have a comment, if you want to ask me and Ponzi a question directly that you want us to answer on today’s show, if you want to vent on Mike Tomlin or Taylor Austin or just just team in general, feel free to send in uh your rants and we’ll we’ll be happy to react to it. Uh but we got some super chats here to get to right away. We got Rad Doctor with a 10. Shout out to Rad Doctor with that $10 super chat. He put in another five and he says, “We need to stop selling our seats to visiting teams to visiting team fans. Too many cheese heads at the last game.” Yeah, you know, those Packer fans, man, they travel well. And I have a lot of I have a lot of respect for for Packer fans and uh you know, when the Steelers obviously were getting their butts kicked, those those fans were pretty loud at Acers Stadium uh last Sunday night. Uh as a as a nation here, we shouldn’t be allowing that to happen. No, $2 from uh the guy that’s always in here putting in his $2 super chats. Bernard says, “How do y’all grade A-Rod so far?” I think right now, if you know, based on the expectations that the Steelers had for him this year, I would give him an A. Um, you know, in terms of what they’ve asked him to do, I think he’s met the expectations and then some. All right. And I think you could say the same thing for the offense. I think the offense has exceeded expectations this year. Now, obviously, the defense has severely underperformed expectations, uh, which is why you’re sitting at 4 and three with a chance to fall uh, to three straight losses and all the way down to 500 after starting the season 4- one if you lose to the Colts this weekend. Um, but I think Aaron Rogers certainly isn’t the problem, man. He’s been absolutely terrific. Um, has he been perfect? No. Is he an MVP caliber quarterback? You know, I wouldn’t say he’s quite at that level anymore. I still think he’s a good franchise uh caliber quarterback. I’d put him in my tier three of quarterbacks right now. I have bon I have elite superstars, bonafide stars as my second tier and then legit franchise QBs. I would put Rogers in that tier three because he can’t really move. There’s certain things that he can’t do, but there’s also a lot of things that he does at a really high level. Still, he still has incredible arm talent. um you know, still has that fantastic pocket presence. Uh some of the highest football IQ I have ever seen in my entire life. Um you know, he’s certainly up there with with Still got a gun, too. Yeah, he’s still got a gun, man. So, you know, I think that he’s been very smart with the football. I think he’s been pretty efficient. Um he’s done a really good job so far, and you know, he’s exceeded my expectations to this point. Darren Carol with a 10 with a little peach flying through the air. Shout out to Darren for the $10 super chat. Bernard with another one. says, “Mike Tomlin threw A-Rod under the bus three times.” Um, was he talking about that today? I don’t know. I guess so. I’m trying to remember when he was trying to think of of Well, he was talking about the offense and how they couldn’t get off or they they they had a tough time um responding to the offsides call in the second half. And um you know I I can’t remember how many times he mentioned the offense but I don’t know if he was necessarily talking to Aaron Rogers specifically Bernard unless I missed something in the press conference today. I think he was talking about the offense more generally says do you think the offense was the problem on Sunday? No it wasn’t. It was part of the problem. I mean part of the problem when you are getting dominated in the time of possession battle in that second half is the offense couldn’t stay on the field and you know you had stupid penalties from DK Metaf. You had stupid holding penalties, illegal shifts, you know, you had you took sacks. Like, there was just too many negative plays that, you know, there’s just too many negative plays that put you behind the sticks and put you in situations where you weren’t going to uh that you weren’t going to uh convert. I mean, they were they had nine third and longs and then six third and very longs. Like, you’re just not going to, you know, have success when that is the case. You got to stay ahead of the sticks. Um, and that’s certainly the case. Uh, right now $2 from Bernard Nixon says, “Do you think the offense Oh, never mind. That was that was the same one. F Ponzi for m for making me think there was another one there.” Uh, okay. We have another one from Bernard. All right, so Darren again with a three. Shout out to Darren. You got Hector with a two. Says, “Do you act do you actually think we can compete fire Tomlin?” Um, I I think we can. I think it’s possible, but again, it’s it’s it’s a question of whether Mike Tomlin and Tara Austin figure out, you know, how to figure out this puzzle that is the Steelers defense and the personnel specifically and how to use these guys if they just keep doing what they’re doing. No, I don’t think they can compete, Hector. All right. Obviously, they don’t. They have not played like a Super Bowl caliber team because their defense is playing terribly. All right. They’re probably a bottom five, maybe, you know, certainly bottom 10 defense in the league right now. Um, and you know, I think they have the talent to be able to be top 10, maybe even top five. I I truly believe they have the talent to play at that level. It’s just I don’t think that this unit has been particularly well coached and I don’t think the coaching staff and their defensive philosophy has put this team in positions to win. So hopefully they can compete moving forward, Hector, but right now um you know they certainly haven’t done a good enough job at this point. Now this week on Steelers Talk Live, we will be back live again on Thursday at 5:00 p. p.m. Eastern time for our second live show of the week. And then of course on Sunday, an hour of pregame coverage followed by live playbyplay and live analysis of the game itself. Then we have our extensive postgame coverage on the Steelers Talk week nine watch party. So, make sure you guys uh click that subscribe button. Join us on Sunday at 12 PM Eastern. Um because this is going to be a big one, man. Like this this this week’s gonna decide whether or not you’re two games above 500 or whether you go back down to 500. And that’s a big gap between winning and losing on Sunday. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button and join us on Sunday. And now we’re going to get into our first segment of the day here, guys. The latest news and rumors surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers. Um then we’ll get into our week nine preview versus the Indianapolis Colts. Lots of great stuff to talk about today. Can’t wait to dive in with you guys. So without further ado, let’s get into our first segment. [Music] Happy Tomlin Tuesday, Steelers Nation. We’ve got a whole slew of Steelers news and rumors to talk about on tonight’s show. First up, a huge injury update for the Pittsburgh Steelers that you’re not going to want to miss. Then Mike Tomlin took the podium today for Tomlin Tuesday in the south side of Pittsburgh and he said what about the Steelers defense? I’m going to react to that later in today’s show. Then is Pittsburgh signing Marquez Valdis Scantling or not? You know, there’s certainly, you know, a little bit of gray area here. He has not signed with the team right now. Is he going to at all? Is he going to wait till next week? Uh we’ll break down the latest with MVS later in the show as well. And then make sure you stick around because the Steelers I think just made a very sneaky good signing of a player that I think could finish the season as a starting defensive player for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, make sure you guys stick around to see who that sneaky good signing was. But before we get into the content today, I want to thank you guys so much uh for following me and supporting me on X. I just passed over 5,000 followers. Uh, so if you guys want to support me on that platform as well, I put out a lot of my reactions to breaking news stories on X when it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers before I put videos out here on YouTube. So, if you guys want my instant reactions and analysis to everything going on when the news is breaking, you guys can follow me at Jack_Sperry for more free Steelers analysis. I also put out my film analysis out there because I can’t put it up here on YouTube. So, if you guys want uh even more Steelers analysis from me, Jack Sperry on X, you can find me at Jack_Sperry. So, that big injury update that I alluded to in our opener here is that Mike Tomlin said today at his press conference that strong safety Deshawn Elliot, who was previously feared to be lost for the season, is now considered quote unquote weak to weak with a hyperextended knee. And the way that Tomlin was phrasing it, Deshawn Elliot should be back before the end of the season this year, guys. and he will not be lost for the season. Yesterday, Jeremy Fowler from ESPN uh did report that the Steelers are quote unquote bracing for Deshawn Elliot to miss the rest of the season. And you know that seemed, you know, obviously an ESPN reporter is saying that. That seemed pretty darn legit. We even put out a video earlier today talking about replacements for Deshawn Elliott. But this is obviously terrific news. Deshawn is such a big part of this Steelers defense because they’ve used him in a lot of different ways. They put him in the box, sometimes they put him in the slot. Of course, they they rotate him a lot post snap, he’s a very intelligent player, he’s always around the football and he’s a terrific tackler and run defender. And losing a player like that, even though, you know, he has he wasn’t perfect versus Green Bay. Like, I’ve had people on Twitter tell me, “Oh, he he may he gave up that catch versus Tucker Craft. It’s a good thing, you know, that he’s not in the lineup.” And it’s just like absolutely ridiculous because Deshawn Elliott is one of the best defensive players on the Steelers, period. And certainly one of the most impactful. So, the fact that he’s going to be back eventually is terrific, terrific news. And who knows how long it’s going to be. It could be, you know, a month. It could be, you know, a month and a half. Who knows how long Deshawn will actually be out. And whether or not he hits the injured reserve in the days to come. Uh, but the fact that he’s going to be back before the end of the season is terrific news for the short-term and long-term health of one of the Steelers most important defensive players. Uh, and some more good news here on the injury front. Sounds like Isaac Seamala’s injury isn’t that serious. He injured his pec uh last Sunday night versus the Green Bay Packers, and he’s questionable to play this week. All right, so usually pec strains can keep people out for quite a while. Pat Certan, for example, of the of the Denver Broncos is out a month to a month and a half with a pec strain, which is, you know, similar to what Isaac is dealing with right now. But Isaac could play this weekend. So, uh, that’s certainly good news to hear that Seamalo could play this weekend. if he doesn’t play versus the Colts, my guess is he’d probably be ready to go for the Chargers game uh in two weeks. But the fact that this is going to be a short-term injury is really good news because that means that that will open up Spencer Anderson once again to play that jumbo tight end look that we’ve seen from the Steelers and they’ve had a ton of success with. Uh and then also, I was waiting to hear from Mike Tomlin today with any word surrounding Cory Tric Jr. They still haven’t activated his 21-day practice window as he’s currently on IR. Um, and I’m hoping that this week they they do activate him and maybe they even put him on the the game day roster. Uh, because you know, Darius Slay is certainly on thin ice right now. And if he struggles versus the Colts, I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to getting Cory Trice Jr. on the outside and get those Avatar corners uh going where you got Joey Porter Jr. and Cory Trice Jr. Uh, of course, they were in the same draft class. They’re both very uh physical corners with long arms. And you know, the vision by drafting these two was that they’re going to be able to play press man coverage together on either side of the uh defensive formation. And that vision could still be a possibility, especially if Darius Slay continues to struggle. But now we shift to Mike Tomlin and his thoughts on the Steelers defense and what he had to say today. And I I really didn’t like what Coach T had to say uh to be quite honest with you guys about where he believes the Steelers defense is at. and he said today that he doesn’t see any quote unquote dramatic changes being needed by this Steelers defense despite, you know, the struggles that we have seen this unit have over the course of the first few weeks of the season. This is what Mike Tomlin had to say about Ter, the defensive coordinator in particular. I’ve known Terrell for a long time. He’s very capable. He’s very thorough. I’ve largely been pleased with his work, but certainly he and I are not pleased with where we are right now from a defensive unit perspective. So, we’re just going to keep working on the defense in general. Tomlin said this. We certainly need to be better in third down than we’ve been, but it doesn’t necessarily mean dramatic changes in terms of schematics and things of that nature. It’s details that is usually the difference. We just got to keep doing what we’re doing and do it better. And then when it comes to uh the quarterbacks that the Steelers have been facing, getting the ball out quickly versus the Steelers defense, this is what he had to say. I think this is I think that’s been our life for a number of years. I think anytime you got dynamic rushers, I think that’s the first way that you work to minimize them. I think that’s everyone’s agenda to be quite honest with you when they play us. It requires no quote unquote adjustments. And you know, the fact that Tomlin was going up there saying we don’t need to make adjustments. You know, we have to keep doing what we’re doing. You know, there there’s not going to be any big changes or dramatic changes, I think, is the phrase that he used there. Those those comments are unacceptable to me, man. Like you have to be going up there and saying we can’t be we can’t keep doing the same things if we’re trying to get different results. I mean the literal definition of insanity is that you keep doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting different results. And guys, there is a reason why quarterbacks are getting the ball out fast versus the Pittsburgh Steelers. And it’s not just because of the pass rush. That’s certainly an element of it. And you better believe teams when they game plan against the Steelers want to get the ball out fast because the pass rush uh that the Pittsburgh Steelers have is super talented. But that’s only half of the of the issue here. The other issue is that the Steelers are giving up way too much underneath and over the intermediate of levels of the field giving quick answers to quarterbacks without any push back. They’re playing off coverage and they’re playing to prevent the deep ball, but they’re also sending extra people on blitzes, which of course limits the numbers that you have. uh in coverage. And this is what Mike Tomlin had to say when he was asked directly about quarterbacks getting the ball out quickly versus the Steelers defense. There’s a lot of answers to that. None of it is earthshattering or in interesting. You change up schematics, you play man, you play bogus zones, all of which we do. We just haven’t been doing it well enough to minimize QBs getting the ball out fast versus our defense. Now, you know, I I think that this is complete [ __ ] because, you know, a YouTuber like me can watch the film and and and know that, you know, if you play off coverage from man and then you blitz, that’s going to open up a lot of opportunities underneath. Like, yes, you are playing zone or you are playing man, Mike Tomlin, but you’re also playing a lot of off coverage when you play man, which opens up, guess what? The flats and the slants and the underneath [ __ ] that you’ve been giving away over the last several weeks, especially these last two weeks. And yes, they do play bogus zones, but when they play those bogus zones, their linebackers, their hook defenders, and their curl flat defenders, they usually defend the sticks. They don’t play aggressively in the hard flats. They don’t take away the underneath stuff that teams have been consistently just jamming down the Steelers throats and have been allowed to just go right down the field time and time and time again. So, the idea uh that Mike Tomlin, you know, we’re doing everything we can to take away the underneath routes, it’s like, no, you’re not. All right, that is a [ __ ] answer in my opinion. And there are solutions to this problem. And to just, you know, swat that question away, I think was disrespectful to the reporter that asked it. And I think, you know, it points to the fact that this Steelers coaching staff does not have a full grasp on what the issues are with this Steelers defensive philosophy at this point in the season. So, where are you guys at? Let me know down there in the comments section. What is your confidence level in the Steelers defensive coaching staff right now? I’ll put it on a scale of one meaning no confidence whatsoever to 10 meaning I have a ton of confidence right now after these comments guys I got to give it like a two or a three and I’ve been a big Mike Tomlin fan throughout his career here in Pittsburgh and you know I’m starting to get to my wit’s end when it comes to coach T specifically when it comes to defensive schematics. This will be the pin comment on today’s show in just a second here. We’re going to show you guys a little bit uh from our sponsor here our new sponsor here on Steelers Talk GLD. And while you do that, uh, while we do that, make sure you guys get your question to that question or your answer to that question down there in the comments section. All right, fellas. Let’s be real. Buying men’s jewelry used to be an absolute nightmare. It was lowquality junk that snapped after a week or was insanely overpriced with ridiculous markups. That’s why I rock with GLD. They’ve changed the game in men’s jewelry. You’re getting quality pieces that are built to last without breaking the bank. And unlike a lot of other companies, GLD only uses real gold. None of that cheap stuff. Every single stone is meticulously handset. Plus, their proprietary production process makes sure you’re getting the highest quality jewelry possible. You can literally see and feel the difference with GLD. And a big shout out to GLD for uh shipping me out here an awesome Steelers pendant. Actually wore it on the Steelers talk watch party uh last week versus the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football. I really love it, guys. And I think I’m going to be wearing it on every single watch party this year. And it’s more than just Steelers, guys. You can get a bunch of different teams. You can get your college team as well. And of course, you can get a Steelers penny. They got multiple different options as well. So, I really love the price point that GLD brings to the table as well as the quality. And you know that feeling when you get you your new chain, it just hits different. It elevates your whole fit. The confidence, the compliments, the way you carry yourself, all changes instantly. And GLD has everything from chains to pendants, rings, earrings, even fully iced out watches if that’s your style. And listen, don’t just take my word for it. Over two million customers in 50,000 five-star reviews backs it up. 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And that certainly sent some of these reporters in scramble mode. We’ll start with what was reported yesterday from Jeremy Fowler. Honestly, not a great day from Fowler. got the Elliot uh report wrong and it looks like he’s getting this one wrong as well. Says free agent receiver Marquez Vald is scantling plans to sign with the Steelers Purus reuniting with Aaron Rogers from their Green Bay days. Now Fowler to his to his credit and to be fair to Fowler he did post this after that says most likely starting on practice squad. He’s got 2025 guaranteed money from Seattle and it’s uncertain exactly when he’ll start due to the travel logistics but the visit went well and he’ll sign with the team. So Fowler pretty much saying, “Yeah, he’s not signing right now, but he’s eventually going to sign and he’s already uh agreed to sign on with the team eventually.” And by the way, these reporters, most of them get their information from the agents. So if they’re reporting this, it’s likely MVS’s agent telling Jeremy Fowler uh what’s going on. And then after Mike Tomlin said that in his press conference today, Jordan Schultz from Fox Sports likely, again, this is a message from MVS’s agent saying the Steelers deal with Marquez Valdez Scantling is expected to be signed next week. per source. Okay? And I think that that is the big thing that you need to realize about this, guys, is that, you know, the this wouldn’t get out unless the team or at least the agent wanted it out there. And there’s no way an agent would be putting out there that his client’s going to be signing with a team unless it’s actually going to happen. So, I still fully expect MVS to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers one way or another. And some people seem to think that this means Pittsburgh could still trade for a wide receiver and that maybe they’re they’re holding out on on signing MVS uh until you know the trade deadline passes and then if they can’t find a deal for somebody they’ll just be like you know what fine we’ll just we’ll just we’ll just sign MVS um because you know it’s kind of a backup option and you know there are some wide receivers out there that have been pretty heavily linked uh to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Chris Olive and Jaylen Wadd, it’s been widely reported, are not going to be traded before the deadline, but you never know, I guess. But the guys that I would say are more realistic. Jacobe Myers from the Raiders still looking for a new home. Uh Rasheed Shahed from the New Orleans Saints, it sounds like the Saints are going to try and keep Olive, which means Shahed, who is a free agent next year, could be dealt. Calvin Ridley, I think, could be dealt before the deadline. Christian Kirk, if he can get uh back healthy from his hamstring injury, uh could be an option that the Steelers really liked uh last year before the trade deadline uh before he got injured in Jacksonville. Then Alen Lazard has been a name that has very consistently been linked to the Steelers even going back to the off seasonason. It would be very very cheap. But I think what this is and why MVS has not signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers, at least not as of now, is not necessarily because the Steelers want to, you know, wait until the trade deadline. I think it’s more that you know MVS does know that he is going to you know sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I don’t think that you know this report would be getting out there unless uh you know he and his agent wanted it out there. So this week he’ll study the playbook and you know he kind of knows that if he signed with the team this week he probably wouldn’t play regardless. He probably wouldn’t even get a helmet, all that different stuff. So he’ll sign with the team next week. uh he’ll he’ll probably start he probably already has the playbook uh you know if they have kind of like a whisper agreement uh with the team you know he can get the playbook he can start studying it and then he can start practicing next week with the hope of being able to get a helmet and be uh added to the active roster while he sets up his move to the Pittsburgh area uh throughout the course of this week. That’s what I think this is pro this probably is. And maybe it’s something on the Steelers’ end where maybe they want to bring in uh you know they they don’t want to use up the roster spot this week for somebody that they know is probably not going to be able to play this week. There’s a bunch of different things that this could be. It’s certainly mysterious. Uh that’s certainly the case. But either way, it it certainly sounds uh to me like MVS is going to be signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers next week one way or another. Is it possible they could still trade for somebody and sign MVS next week? Yeah, that’s still possible. But I think the people out there, you know, hoping that they trade for Jacobe Meyers still, you know, maybe it’s a little bit of wishful thinking. Plus, if you trade for Jacobe Myers, if you trade for Calvin Ridley, you pretty much have to bench Roman Wilson uh for the rest of his rookie for for the rest of his second season in the National Football League because the Steelers are not benching Calvin Austin the third. And if you get a Jacobe Myers or a Calvin Ridley and you spend draft capital to get those guys, all the promise that we have seen from Roman Wilson the last three weeks goes right down the toilet unless there’s another injury because that would make him the wide receiver four on this team. And honestly, I don’t think the Steelers want to bench either Calvin Austin the third or Roman Wilson. Whereas MVS can be a wide receiver four where if there’s an injury, he’s got established chemistry with Aaron Rogers. He’s won a Super Bowl before. He’s caught touchdown passes in Super Bowls and he’s a true deep threat. Um, so he could be plugandplay if one of those top three guys gets injured, which is one of the reasons why I think MVS makes sense for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. So, predict it for me down there in the comments section. Will MVS be the only move Pittsburgh makes at wide receiver before the deadline this year? Predict it for me by giving me a yes or a no down there in the comments section. And Marquez Valdis Scanley might not be signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as of right now, but the Pittsburgh Steelers did make a sneaky good signing today in my opinion. And that is Derek Forest, former former Washington commander free safety. And like I just said, guys, I think that this is going to prove or at least it has a chance to be uh a really good sneaky signing that nobody’s really uh, you know, you sees coming because I mean, when I, you know, posted my reaction on X today to the Steelers signing him, there’s a lot of people in my comments saying, “Who even is that?” Well, now let me introduce you to Derek Forest, who is one of my favorite players in the 2021 draft class. He ends up getting uh drafted very late by the Washington Commanders, earns a starting spot for them at free safety and you know had a really good season in 2022, but he’s got 441 speed for somebody that’s 200 lb and a true free safety. He’s only 26 years old, so if he works out, he could be kind of like a Deshawn Elliot type of guy where he could get another contract here in Pittsburgh if he really plays well. Uh but I think he really showed promise at Cincinnati coming out of the draft in 2021. He was one of my ultimate sleepers in that class. Uh, and then also I thought he played really well and he was a real playmaker for that Commander defense when he was healthy in his lone healthy season back in 2022. Uh, and now he’s dealt with some injuries over the last two seasons. He had a shoulder injury in 2023. Only played five games that season and then last year with the Commanders, he dealt with some hamstring issues and he ended up getting cut. He’s bounced around with a couple different teams this season with the Bills in the preseason, then on the Colts practice squad. Ends up getting released from both of those teams and now he’s with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But to kind of call back to that 2022 campaign, man, this guy had four interceptions that season. So, he’s a ball hawk. He had two forced fumbles. He had nine PBUs. Uh he had a TFL. Like, he was a playmaker out there, man. And kind of like how I was talking about Deshawn Elliott, how he’s somebody that’s always around the football, how he’s a playmaker, all that stuff. I’ I view Derrick Force as a very similar type of player in that regard. Now, he’s going to have to prove that he can stay healthy and he needs to prove that the injuries that he’s sustained over the last couple of years aren’t going to affect his play on the field, but he’s got good speed so he can be that true free safety. The Steelers really don’t have one of those right now. Juan Thornhill can run a little bit. Um, but he certainly hasn’t been perfect in coverage this year. We all know that. And then Chuck Clark, I mean, there’s no way in hell he should be playing in the post. He’s just not fast enough at this point in his career. He’s he has certainly lost a step, but that’s not the case with a 26-year-old Derek Forest here. Um, and he might be the best free safety, pure free safety on this team right now. And, you know, with his ability to be a ball hawk and get those interceptions and make those plays. He’s a hard hitter as well, like he just plays the game in the way that Steelers fans love their players to play the game. Aggressive, uh, you know, hard-hitting, um, you know, around the football, making plays. And to get a guy like this at week nine, somebody that, you know, has upside to be a legit starting free safety, honestly, not even just this year, but maybe even down the line for this football team. I think it’s an excellent signing at this point in the year at a position that the Pittsburgh Steelers, frankly, are desperate uh to get some help in. So, true or false, let me know down there in the comments section. Derek Forest will finish the season as Pittsburgh’s starting free safety over Juan Thornnehill, Chuck Clark, and the rest of the pack. Type T if you think that statement will prove to be true or type F if you think that statement is false. Let me know your reasons why down there in the comment section. For me, I’m going to go out on a limb here and I’m gonna say T for true. That’ll be it for today’s edition of Steelers News and Rumors. Thank you guys so much for stopping by here today. Lots of stuff to talk about today. I’m sure we’ll have even more to talk about tomorrow. So, click that subscribe button if you never want to miss any of our videos here on Steelers Talk. First segment in the books, Mr. Ponzi. And um coming up next, we’ve got our preview for week nine versus the Colts. I’m looking forward to this one, man. Uh I think it’s going to be an entertaining football game. Okay. Um I think it’s going to be highscoring and you guys are are going to see some of the reasons for that when we get into the preview. Um, but if you again if you have questions, if you have comments, if you want to vent, if you want to uh suggest a trade idea, make sure you guys get those uh super chat donations down there in the chat. We’ll be happy to put it up on screen for you guys. Did we get a couple super chats, Ponzi? All right, we did. Darren with another three. Appreciate you, Darren. And then Bernard with a two says, “Do you still think A-Rod comes back?” Yes, I do. Um, or at least I think there’s still a chance, Bernard. You know, it’s it’s too early to say for sure, but like I think everything is setting up for conditions for Rogers to come back next year. All right. I would say the most likely scenario for the Steelers this year is that, you know, they get 10 wins, 11 wins, somewhere in that range and they make the playoffs and, you know, they don’t make and then then they don’t win the Super Bowl. That is exactly the conditions in my opinion, especially if Rogers continues to play well and as long as the Steelers don’t fire Mike Tomlin, I think that’s a big key here. I think if the Steelers get rid of Tomlin, Aaron Rogers retires. I think that, you know, he Rogers has said it himself. Tomlin’s a big reason why Aaron Rogers is here. So, you know, Tomlin needs to stay. If Rogers is going to stay, which is something that I think, you know, Steelers fans are really high on Rogers right now, but they’re not too high on Tomlin. It’s like, well, do you want Aaron Rogers to come back for another year or not? because if you do, Aaron Rogers has to be here or at the very least uh you know, you have to hire somebody that Aaron Rogers wants to play for. And you know, frankly, I think it’s Tomlin or nothing for Rogers at this point. So, um I do think that uh Tomlin will likely be back next year because I think this team will eventually get to 10 11 wins somewhere in in that range. Um, maybe they win a playoff game, maybe they don’t. But, um, I think that that in that scenario, A-Rod would want to come back and, uh, and play for and play for, you know, Cam Hayward, who’s going to be going into his final season next year, play for Mike Tomlin, all those different things. And I think right now, I’d say the chances are more than 5050 that Rogers comes back next season. $5 from Darren says, “Lucky on both Deshawn Elliott and Isaac Savalo’s injury updates.” Yeah, man. And I mean, both those look like they could be real killers because we saw the impact of those injuries on Sunday night. All right, like the two safeties that played the most after he got injured, Juan Thornhill and Chuck Clark. Disasters. Disasters. All right, those two probably shouldn’t play. Uh, and if I had to choose one, I’m picking Thornhill. Chuck Clark has to be sat down. He might even need to be cut. He’s just not a good football player um at this point in his career. He wasn’t a good player last year. He’s not a good player this year. He’s been a liability. All right. And defenses are certainly exploiting that, especially in man coverage. I mean, goodness gracious, you’re putting Chuck Clark on Tucker Craft one-on-one in man coverage. Like, what the [ __ ] are we doing, man? That’s just it’s just dumb coaching right there. Right. So, uh the fact that Elliot should be back uh before the end of the season’s great news. I really like the signing of Derrick Forest. I think that, you know, a combination starting next week versus Los Angeles of Derrick Forest at free safety and Jabril Peppers at strong safety, it’s pretty darn good. And then when Deshawn Elliot gets back, hopefully Derrick is playing well enough where, you know, he’s still your bonafide free safety. And then you have Elliot at strong safety, it’s even better. Um, so you know, certainly, uh, hopefully Elliot gets back soon and Samalo looks like he could play this week and if he doesn’t play this week, he’s probably going to be back the following week versus Los Angeles. So, that would be that would be terrific news if if that ends up being the case. Um, we got um Darren with a five says Tomlin’s time is short. Yeah, man. I would say it to the end of the season. They’re the Steelers just will not fire a coach in the middle of the season, especially somebody with the highest win percentage in franchise history, somebody that’s a future Hall of Famer, somebody that’s won a championship for this organization. They’re just not going to fire Tomlin in the middle of the season. Um, as much as Steelers fans may want them to. Um, but listen, man, if they don’t make the playoffs at the by the end of the year, if this defense is ranking where they if this defense ranks at the end of the season where they are currently ranking and they don’t turn it around by the end of the season, um, you know, you you got to have the conversation and you got to, you know, see what the interest is out there and see if a team is willing to take him for a first round pick because like John Gruden went for a first round pick, you know, like the like Mike Tomlin, you know, is gonna be a Hall of Fame coach, but John Gruden was Not at the time. Shawn Peyton went for what? Did he go for a first? Yeah, he went for a for a first. Same amount of Super Bowls, right? And Tomlin has a higher career win percentage than Shawn Peyton. So, like there’s a lot of teams that would want stability in their organization that would probably trade a first round pick for Mike Tomlin. Um, and you know, if you’re going to be embarking on a rebuild next year and Aaron Rogers retires and you’re going to be drafting a quarterback anyway, like that extra first round pick would be mighty helpful to go get your guy in the first round if that’s what you want to do, right? Or you could get two really [ __ ] good players, right? So, um, that first round pick is is certainly a variable to the discussion here. Um, he gets to the end of the season. That’s that’s what I’ve said and that’s what I’m going to continue to say. I don’t think you fire him mid-season. You give them to the end of the year and if you don’t make the playoffs and you know this defense is is is severely underperforming like they are right now all the way through you trade him for a first round pick. $5 from Alex L says, “Let’s go Steelers talk. Best Steelers news in town.” Alex Lanyard is a real one. He’s always uh helping out our channel and always watching our show. Uh you’re a real one, Alex. $2 from Hector says uh Jack make a head coach candidate vid who’s viable. Thank you. Um, you know, we’ll probably, you know, do that a little bit more maybe towards the end of the season, Hector. You know, we’re we’re only midway through this thing now. Um, and we only have so many videos uh that we do during a week. So, you know, I’m going to say I’m going to hold off on that. I’m just going to be honest with you, Hector. I’m going to hold off on head coach candidates um until, you know, at least until just a few weeks before the season ends. Like, I’m not going to talk about head coach candidates as long as the Steelers are first in their division by a game and a half. You know, this that’s what kind of gets lost in this whole discussion, Ponzi, is that the Steelers are still a game and a [ __ ] half in the in the lead for the division. I mean, they could they could lose this week and every team in the AFC North could win and the Steelers will still be in first place in this division. And I think, you know, one thing that you had done already is that you’ve already made a video about Brian Flores. Yeah, if you want to go see a video, Hector, on on a potential candidate, um, well, maybe maybe not so much now because the Vikings defense hasn’t been playing as well as of late, but I did make a video about Brian Flores being a potential candidate that could work here in Pittsburgh. So, um, if you want to check that one out, we have that on the channel. Uh, you can go uh fetch that if you want. Got a $2 super chat here from Austin. And he says, uh, do you think Caleb Johnson sees any playing time soon? Well, I mean, injuries can always happen, Austin, but um right now the Steelers are very happy with what they have. Uh and Jaylen Warren, who’s playing about as good as any running back in football, maybe other than, you know, the very very top guys. You know, you can make an argument he’s been a top five back in the league this year. You really can. And then Kenneth Gainwell has been a really good player for this offense this year. So, you know, Caleb Johnson, there’s no reason necessarily to rush his development. Um, you know, if you start losing a lot of games down the stretch and like playoffs are not a possibility, then you know, you certainly want to get Caleb Johnson more time. But like, um, Caleb’s had a little bit of a fumble issue this year and, you know, Kenny and Jaylen are both playing well, so there’s really no reason to me, uh, to mess with that, especially because Caleb can’t catch and he can’t pass protect. So, like, you know, just continue to develop him. Don’t put too much pressure on his plate here in week one. He’s a developmental type of guy. All right? But he’s got the physical talent. We know that. Um I I I don’t think there’s any reason to be impatient with this. I know that in in today’s society, we want things and we want things now and we want things very expediently and we want things to happen right away. But like sometimes these things do take time, especially guys like Caleb that need to develop their hands and their pass catching ability and their route running and their pass protection and you know kind of uh you know spend time developing their game instead of having to worry about performing in an NFL football game, right? So um I think Kenny and Jaylen are playing really well right now. Now if there’s an injury certainly you can get Caleb Johnson in that number two running back role, get him some work, all that stuff. But, you know, in the time being, I think I think Caleb’s just fine where he’s at. $2 from Taco Man says, “Uh, why not Ramsay at free safety and elevate Eckles to slot cornerback?” Well, you’re going to see here, you’re actually going to see here, uh, in my preview. This is exactly what I’m prescribing this week. Okay? This is exactly what I think the Steelers should do this week, and we’ll talk about the reasons why during the preview. Um, but the reason why I don’t want it to happen full scale, at least not yet, Taco Man, is because Ramsay’s tackling and physicality and run defense are very valuable. And if you put him at free safety, you put him in the middle of the field. He’s not nearly as impactful uh in that regard. Like you you pretty much take him out of the run fit at that point. And he’s just not an active run defender for you unless he gets past, you know, the initial run fit. And you know, I think that that is a waste, frankly, of Jaylen Ramsay’s tackling and run defense and and physicality. Uh, you know, cuz honestly, that’s probably the best thing that he does at this point in his career. He’s probably the best rundefending corner in football. He’s an excellent tackler. He’s only missed one tackle all season long. Super physical. I want that presence near the line of scrimmage. He’s also an excellent blitzer. We’ve seen that. He had two sacks in one game versus Cleveland. So, um, that’s why, uh, I want Ramsay to be the long-term big nickel in this defense. And also, if you put the tiny Brandon Eckles in the slot, that’s going to make your run defense worse. All right, you have to realize that, you know, a big reason why the Steelers run defense has been as good as it has been in spurts this year is because they got so much size and physicality close to the line of scrimmage. And if you take Ramsay out of there and you put Eckles in the slot, um, it’s probably not going to be nearly as good. So, uh, I am actually suggesting that the Steelers do this this week because I think Eckles is an excellent matchup for Josh DS in the slot. Um, and I think Ramsay is the ideal person to take away. Um, we have a trade in the NFL, by the way. The Patriots are trading Keon White to the 49ers. There’s there’s according to Jordan Schultz. So, um, interesting trade there. Um, he kind of fits their 4-3 system there in in with Robert Salah. They certainly are are down bad in terms of injuries. No. So that makes sense. That certainly makes sense to me. All right, we got another super chat here from Hector Zerone. We’ll put you up here in a second. Then we’ll get into our preview. Hector says, “How do you feel about our O line?” I think it’s been really good. I think I think Brick Jones has taken significant snap uh steps just this season. He’s gotten a lot better as the season has gone on. And he’s, you know, over the span of what, three weeks, he’s shut down effectively. I mean, Micah had I think Micah had a sack, but like for the most part, he played very well against Micah and he played very well against Miles Garrett. Those are two of some of the best pass rushers you’re going to see ever. And he played very well against those guys. And then Troy Futano has looked really good on film to me. Mason McCormack has looked awesome as a run blocker. Zack Frasier is his normal self. He’s fantastic. Sealo’s uh, you know, been spotty, but he’s been more than good enough. And then when you add on Spencer Anderson is the sixth offensive line. And I mean, this offensive line’s been great. So, um, I think that’s honestly one of the strengths of this team right now. I mean, if you would have told me week two we’d be talking about the Steelers offensive line as one of the biggest strengths of this team about midway through the season, I I would have called you I would have said you were crazy, man. But here we are. This offensive line is really jelling. And that’s that’s really good news, not only for the short-term future, guys, with Aaron Rogers being an immobile quarterback, but also for the future, cuz you know, you’re going to be drafting probably your franchise quarterback in the first round next year. Um, and the the idea that you’re going to be putting that guy in a position where you got this great young offensive line blocking in front of him, uh, you know, that’s the number one thing you can give to, uh, a young quarterback is a run game and pass protection and then a good play caller. You know, those are really the three things that really, really help out young quarterbacks. And, you know, it seems like Arthur Smith knows what he’s doing, at least to some degree. Looks like that run game is certainly going right now. And that pass protection has has been holding up pretty good. Um, so what’s up? Yes, we do have a Venmo. Okay, thank you. We got two Venmos. Okay. Okay, there’s one. And then we’ve got All right, we got Caleb. Caleb or this is DJ KJ actually. This is DJ KJ says, “If the Steelers continue playing the way they have been, we don’t make the Super Bowl or playoffs, we’ll be selling before the deadline or before or selling before the 2026 draft.” Yeah, probably. If they if this defense play gives up 30 a game every game the rest of the way I agree with you DJKJ but um listen man this I just I just have this feeling that they’re eventually going to figure it out. I don’t know, man. Like I I I think Tomlin’s comments today on the defense were asinine, but just something tells me that they’re gonna find the right mix. And when they do that, they’re going to start winning a lot of games. And when they start winning a lot of those games, they’re going to make the playoffs. And hopefully they can take that positive momentum into the postseason where, you know, I still think this team gives you the best chance to win a postseason game in a long time. Probably since the 2017 2018 season is probably what I’d say. maybe 2020, but you know, they they really crumbled down the stretch, right? Like this I think this team is set up to play their best football still down the stretch. We’ll have to see if they do that. Um hopefully they can make some adjustments. Um but that’s certainly the case. Okay, $2 from Brian Ruiz who says, uh what does uh let me see here. What does Rooney have to see to fire this clown? Um, yeah, Tomlin, he’s going to have to see this defense be really bad the entire season, okay? It can’t just be for half a season and then if they play well down the stretch and they make the playoffs and they win a win a playoff game, right? If they win double digit games, I don’t think they fire him. All right? Like, he has to have less than 10 wins. They have to miss the playoffs, and I think they have to have a bottom 10 defense. If those three things happen, I think there’s a chance, Brian. If those three things happen, you have to miss the playoffs, you have to have less than 10 wins, and you have to have a bottom 10 defense. If those three things happen, I think they will consider trading him. And that’s not even a guarantee. I think they consider it at that point. So, uh, this is a team that very famously and is very proud of the fact that they’ve never fired a coach in the Super Bowl era. Um, and you know, they’re very cognizant that Mike Tomlin is Canton bound. Um, so you know, they’re they’re going to be very very cautious letting go of Mike Tomlin. But if they don’t make the playoffs, they don’t get to 10 wins, and they have a bottom 10 defense, I think that the conversation will be had. But if any of those three things don’t happen, um, I think that they’re going to keep them. Well, you know, maybe if they if the defense turns it around, but they still only win eight or nine wins, like they might still consider it. Like I really think the big thing is the win total and whether or not they make the playoffs. Okay, so that’s what I think. Okay, let’s get into our second segment of the day. Our in-depth week nine preview, Steelers versus Colts is coming at you right now. [Music] This week, the Pittsburgh Steelers look to get back in the win column, taking on the number one team in the AFC. Uh Daniel Jones and the Indianapolis Colts are coming to Acer Stadium on Sunday afternoon. And today here on Steelers Talk, going to be breaking down this game uh very in depth. We’re going to be going over um the the team trends. We’re going to be going over specifically Indianapolis’s roster and scheme breakdown. We’ll go over my keys to victory for what the Steelers need to do to win. And then we’ll get into my official score prediction at the end of today’s show. So, make sure you guys stick around. But this week’s watch party here on Steelers Talk, we have the largest watch parties for Steelers fans anywhere on the YouTube platform. We have over a 100,000 people watch our show every single week because we like to think we give you guys really great coverage, an hour of pregame coverage every single game. Uh breaking down, you know, what what to watch for in the game, all that great stuff. Super chat promotions, uh all that stuff. Then during the game, we have live playbyplay and live analysis of the game itself, uh where we we react to to the game together. And then we got extensive postgame coverage as well, breaking down what happened in the game and, you know, kind of my takeaways, all that stuff. So, our coverage this week starts at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. Uh, game starts at 1, so we get an hour of pregame coverage. Make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already to never miss any of our live watch parties this year and to never miss any of our free content here on Steelers Talk during the 2025 season. All right. So, this week, man, the number one seed coming to town, the 7-1 Indianapolis Colts coming in um to take on the 4-3 Pittsburgh Steelers. And, you know, the Steelers are in danger now of losing three straight and going down to 500 after starting their season with a 4 and one record. So, this is a really a big game for the Steelers. If they can pull this off and they can get to 5 and three and extend their advantage in the AFC North coming off a win against a team as hot as this one, uh that would certainly feel really good. But of course, if you know, you lose, um, you know, you’re looking at, you know, a lot of despair in this Steelers, uh, fan base here heading into Sunday Night Football in week 10 versus the Los Angeles Chargers. And you can take a look at Indianapolis’s results so far this season. Now, what I’ll say about Indie is that they haven’t played a lot of like legitimately good teams this year. All right, they did beat Denver, who is uh, you know, playing well this year, but they won that game at home because of a leverage call on what would have been a game-sealing play for the Denver Broncos that ends up being reversed because of that leverage call on a kick and they end up winning that game as a result. Okay. Um, so that game a little bit fluky, but they did beat the Denver Broncos. That is the best game, best win on their schedule, but they’ve played a lot of bad teams, man. the Dolphins, the T the Titans twice, the Raiders, uh they nearly lost at home to the Arizona Cardinals with Jacobe Brassette at quarterback and then they only won by one score versus a Chargers team that didn’t have Amarian Hampton and didn’t have Joe Alt. So, right now they’re seven- one. They’re first in the AFC North. Uh obviously, you know, they are very they are a good football team. I’m not trying to say that they’re not a good football team, but they’ve only played really two good teams so far this year and they lost one of those games. Um that was to the Los Angeles Rams. So, this will be uh certainly a team. Uh that’ll be interesting to see if the Steelers can take down. But out this week uh for both teams, Deshawn Elliot has a hyperextended knee. Uh he is out. And then Daniel Aqual is going to be out for the season with an ACL tear. If you guys didn’t get our injury updates earlier in the week, then Charvarius Ward still on IR with a concussion. He is their number one outside corner. Um so they’ve certainly been missing him. And then the injuries to watch at this point in the week while I’m recording this video is Isaac Samala, the left guard, dealing with a pectoral strain. Um, could play this week, might not. We’ll have to see. And then Samson Ebukhan, the defensive end. Missed last week versus the Titans. He’s dealing with a knee issue. He’ll be questionable uh heading into this game, at least to this point in the week. Now, we can take a look here at what the Colts bring to the table from a coaching perspective. And Shane Stiken is one of my favorite head coaches in the league, bar none, guys. I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time and really I’ve been saying for years if you get him a good a decent quarterback he’s going to be special but he’s had to deal with the likes of uh Gardner Mchu and you know all these and Anthony Richardson all these guys that they’ve had in Indianapolis over the years. Uh but despite that he’s got a winning record as the head coach of the Colts 24 and 18. Uh he runs a modern pro spread offense. He’s probably one of the best running the spread in the National Football League today. Really really good stuff. He’s implemented a lot of true pro style stuff as well, under center work, all that stuff. It’s one of the more versatile and one of the most multiple offensive schemes in the National Football League. It’s really, really difficult to play against. And then Lanarumo comes over from the Cincinnati Bengals over to the Indianapolis Colts this year. Runs a balanced 4-2 system. He likes to tailor his defensive game plans to uh the opponent every single week. They run a lot of different stuff. Um, and in Cincinnati, I think that it was a little bit too much overload where they put too much on the plates of of guys and they just didn’t uh really execute the defense there in Cincinnati. Didn’t have a lot of talent there. Um, so tough to run this style of defense with not a lot of talent. But certainly Indianapolis’s defense has been pretty decent this year. Now, the good news about Lu Anarumo being their defensive coordinator is that the Pittsburgh Steelers with a bunch of different coordinators and a bunch of different quarterbacks have killed his defenses over the last three seasons while he’s been the DC over there in Cincinnati. And obviously, personnel matters in the National Football League. I want to get that out of the way first. But in the last six matchups between the Steelers and a Lou Anorumo defense, Pittsburgh Steelers are averaging over 350 yards of offense and they are averaging over 27 points per game. Um, and that is obviously really good numbers and you know that that’s with like Kenny Picket and that’s with like uh Russell Wilson and all these different guys that they’ve had. That’s with Mason Rudolph and all these guys that they’ve had throughout the years and this is even with like you know uh you know Eddie Falner calling the plays and all these guys that you know have been uh interim OC’s uh and you know all these different guys that have been here in Pittsburgh over the years. So kind of doesn’t even matter what the offensive coordinators and uh quarterbacks have been over the years. The Steelers have been very successful against Lou Anorumo defenses over the last several years and they certainly seem to know how to attack his tendencies. But the bad news is it it’s also flipped on the other side. Shane Syiken has called three games in his career against the Pittsburgh Steelers and he has dominated the Steelers defense in all three and that includes last year when he had Joe Flacco and Anthony Richardson at quarterback. Uh you guys can take a look uh the three matchups that he has faced against the Steelers since 2022. one with the Eagles in 22 and then two with the Colts. Uh Pittsburgh has given up an average of 377 yards per game of total offense to those offenses. Um and then they’ve given up over 30 points a game uh in these Stiken le offenses. So there’s something that Stiken just fundamentally understands about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. that if Mike Tomlin and Terrell Lawson don’t do a lot something a lot different from what they’ve done in years past against this scheme, uh it’s going to be a long day for the Pittsburgh Steelers defensively. Um and it certainly doesn’t help that, you know, the Colts are beating everybody anyways. You know, like in previous seasons like this, this offense hasn’t been quite as good, but this year with Daniel Jones leading the way and Jonathan Taylor being maybe a leading MVP candidate, I mean, this offense is the best offense in the National Football League through the first eight weeks of the year. I mean, you just take a look at how many categories they are first in. First in points per game, first in in total uh offense. They’re first in yards per play efficiency. They’re first in EPA per play efficiency, first in EPA per rush, okay? And they’re top 10 in every single major category that you look at when you’re evaluating team offense, okay? They don’t give away the football. Uh they’re efficient in the red zone and on third down. They can pass the football, they can rush the football. They’re very balanced in that regard. Um, you know, this is, you know, the the most dangerous offense in the National Football League until proven otherwise. And I know they’ve played a lot of bad defenses. In fact, they’ve played the Titans twice, which is a huge advantage, but I mean, they’ve taken advantage of those opportunities, and you got to give them credit for that. On offense here, this is what we’re going to be looking at talent-wise for the for the Indianapolis Colts or the Fighting Indiana Joneses. Uh, you got Daniel Jones, Danny Dimes himself as the quarterback of this team. We’ll talk about him later in the show. Really good offensive line as well. Bernard Raymond, one of the best left tackles in the game as far as I’m concerned. Same thing goes for Quinton Nelson on the left side on the left side at the guard spot. They got uh Tanner Bordilini who’s been really good at center for them this year. Matt Gaves uh from Pit uh is at right guard. He’s had a really good season. Same thing goes for Braden Smith. There’s not a single weakness on this entire Colts offensive line. kind of similar to what Stiking had in Philadelphia where he built an excellent offensive line as the OC there. And then Michael Pitman Jr.’s their number one receiver. He’s their short and intermediate uh kind of threat there and he’s a Yak monster. Very tough to bring down after the catch. Uh Alec Pierce is their true deep threat. Then you got Josh DS as their slot. Very complimentary set of weapons in the receiver position. And then really their dynamic piece that they added in the draft this year is rookie out of Penn State, Tyler Warren. He’s been a complete revelation. They they use him in very creative ways. They’ll put him out at fullback. They’ll they’ll they’ll insert him into the C gap and do some very creative stuff with him and and and finding ways to get him open. And then Jonathan Taylor might be my pick for MVP right now. He’s been so good. He’s had, I think, three separate performances with three touchdowns. Um and once this Colts team gets into um you know, run the football mode, they just can’t be stopped. Uh but then on the defensive side of the ball, they’re a little bit more beatable, but there’s and they’re certainly have their weaknesses. You know, they’re not very good on third down, okay? They’re below average in the red zone as well, but something that they do do very well is that they take the football away. And just to show you how big turnovers are, I mean, they’re not really like top 10 in any other category other than takeaways and points per game allowed. So, that shows you just how much points allowed and takeaways are inextric inextricably linked. uh you know, if you can turn the football over, you’re not going to give up nearly as many points. Um and that’s certainly been the case to this point in the season for the Indianapolis Colts, but this is certainly a beatable group. Take a look at their roster on this side. You got Leatu Latu, in my opinion, their best defensive player, period. He is really good out of UCLA, a secondyear player. Insane cross chop. All right, so that’s going to be a test for Brick Jones this week. But then the guys on the interior are really good as well. Deorce Buckner, still one of the best interior pass rushers in the game. And then Groer Stewart is one of the best runs uh plugers in the league as a true nose tackle. Quitty pay, good run defender. He’s not going to give you much in terms of pass rush, but the Colts seem to be okay with that with uh the production they get from Lu and Buckner in that regard. Terms of the offball backers in this defense, you got Zire Franklin who’s not grading out too well according to Pro Football Focus, but he’s been in this defense a while. And then Germaine Pratt coming over uh you know, he’s very familiar with this system that Lou Anarumo runs. uh he of course is coming over from Cincinnati where he’s a veteran of this Anarumo scheme. Um so you know he he’ll be out there on the field for this uh Colts defense. Then you get to the secondary and it’s certainly a group that you can take advantage of a little bit. Kenny Moore is their best corner but he’ll be playing in the slot in their base nickel looks. Then Mai Blackman and Jonathan Edwards will be playing on the outside when they’re in nickel. Uh none of these guys outside of Kenny, who’s an awesome corner, uh really good slot player, uh is grading out super well, but Cameron Bayham, Nick Cross, you know, solid players. I wouldn’t say those are star players, but they’re certainly good enough. Um and they have certainly graded out in the top half among uh safeties in the National Football League to this point in the year. So, still to come here on the Steelers Talk preview for week nine, my keys to victory versus the Indianapolis Colts, my scouting report on quarterback Daniel Jones, and my official score prediction uh for this one. will uh the Pittsburgh Steel is getting back into the win column this week. I’ll give you my prediction at the end of today’s show. But before we get into the rest of this week’s preview, let’s have a word from our sponsor today at Ethos. In the summer before I started here at Chat Sports, guys, my family unfortunately lost my late grandfather. And as you tend to do when you lose a loved one that’s really close to you, you begin to think about your own mortality and what would happen to the people dependent on you if something were to happen. With today’s sponsor, Ethos, your family can be protected. Cassie and I are getting married soon, and shortly after that, I imagine we’ll buy a house and start having some kids. 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Application times may vary, rates may vary, and a big thank you to ethos for sponsoring today’s edition of Steelers Talk. My first key to victory for this week’s game versus the Colts is to make Danny Dimes uncomfortable. All right, Danny has certainly shown throughout his career if you can put pressure on him, he is going to crumble a little bit. And part of the reason why he’s had so much success there in Indianapolis is because their pass protection is usually very, very good. Now, you take a look at what Daniel was able to do versus the Steelers defense last year when he was still playing for the New York Giants. 63.1% completion percentage. Nothing crazy there. 264 yards passing. That’s not bad, but he didn’t have a touchdown and he did throw an interception late in crunch time. Uh, so certainly not like a abysmal performance from Daniel Jones by any stretch of the imagination. Uh but certainly not a great one either. But now that he’s got Shane Stiken calling his plays and all these great players around him um and a fantastic supporting cast, uh certainly going to be a little bit more of a challenge to uh corral Danny Dimes. Now you take a look at my scouting report for him. Um I really like his size. You know, obviously that’s always been a good thing with him. 65 230. Um but the mental processing is really good with him, guys. He can get through a full field progression read. Uh he gets through it quickly, gets the ball out relatively fast. Um, and also he’s a plus rusher. Of course, you know, Vanilla Vic is the is the moniker there. Um, I don’t expect him to, you know, run off, you know, rip off any 80 yard runs or anything like that, but he’s certainly somebody you have to account for in the run game. Uh, he does have a good arm. It’s not a great arm. It’s a good arm and he does have some good accuracy as well. Doesn’t get too wild with the accuracy and with the stroke. But then the cons, uh, pocket presence uh, can be very, very shaky. he can have have really tough time sensing pressure and that’s why he’s such a good fit here in Indianapolis and why he was such a bad fit in New York is because they didn’t have a good pass protection unit in in New York. He’d take a bunch of sacks, he would fumble a lot, all that stuff and he was the worst quarterback under pressure in the league when he was in New York. Now he’s not under pressure nearly uh at the same rate and he seems a lot more comfortable. He can also be somewhat conservative. He likes to check it down. He likes to take the safe option. um you know now if there’s an open receiver down the field he’s going to take it and he has been more aggressive this year um but that has been a tendency on his film throughout the years and then the playmaking upside don’t know if he’s a special playmaker out in space he usually likes to tuck it and run it if he’s not going to throw it within structure but I do consider him a tier three franchise quarterback which I consider to be a good starter that is probably the biggest tier of quarterbacks in the National Football League for me but you know he’s been very productive this year and you guys can take a look at his advanced numbers second in adjusted EPA per play, second in success rate. Uh he’s been top 10 in completion percentage over expectation, which is a fantastic number for him. Uh the yards per attempt is top three in the league. So super super efficient stuff. Um and you know, the one thing that does stand out to me on this graphic is something that’s not fantastic is the big- time throw percentage. It’s not like he’s carrying and elevating this Colts offense a bunch. It’s a lot based on the scheme. It’s a lot based on the run game. It’s a lot based on the play action game. Uh guys getting wide open. Um and he’s just a really good point guard is the way that I would describe Daniel Jones. If you can protect him, if you can give him a clear picture, uh he’s going to be able to most most of the time get the football where it needs to go. I think he’s more of a trailer than a truck where he’s not driving the bus. Uh or he’s driving the bus, but he’s not the bus, if that makes any sense. Then we get to my second key to victory. And a big thing in terms of stopping the passing attack is to stop giving these quarterbacks easy answers. Because if there’s anything Daniel Jones loves is to get rid of the football quickly out to a flat or to a slant or to something underneath or to a checkdown. And what are the kinds of routes and what are the kinds of things that the Pittsburgh Steelers have been giving up, especially over the last two weeks? It’s a lot of flats. It’s a lot of slants. It’s a lot of underneath stuff. And you know, if that happens again this week, you know, the Colts are just going to slice and dice him all day long. And you know, that’s the world that Daniel Jones wants to live in. All right. Daniel Jones wants to be able to, you know, get the ball out fast and, you know, put it underneath and get it to his playmakers out in space. Where Daniel Jones is more uncomfortable is when he has to throw the ball down the field to guys that are covered. All right, that is something that should be a big point of the game plan for the Pittsburgh Steelers this week. Try and take away the underneath stuff as much as you possibly can. Put as much pressure as you can on Daniel Jones. And if that means taking more risk with with maybe Alec Pierce hitting a deep shot on you once or twice in this game, so be it. All right. I don’t I just don’t I’m just sick and tired of this defense getting gashed time and time and time again because they’re blitzing and they’re playing conservatively on the back end. It’s like no, let’s take away those underneath stuff. Let’s make Daniel Jones uh earn everything that he gets in this ball game. But then um you know something that Mike Tomlin certainly needs to do in this game and Terrell Lawson needs to do is solve the personnel puzzle on the defensive side of the ball. This is something that the Steelers just haven’t been able to do to this point specifically in the secondary. U but certainly it affects you know the the the pass rush as well because they’ve played Nick Herbig less than 30 snaps these last two games and he only played 24 snaps versus the Green Bay Packers. That is your most productive edge rusher on your team getting 24 snaps in an NFL football game. that is unacceptable. Um, so my easy fixes when it comes to the personnel stuff, okay, get a three-way starting offensive or outside linebacker rotation going. All right, TJ Watt, Nick Herbick, Alex Heismith should all be getting very similar amount of snaps. I don’t care if Heismith and Watt are making more money. They are very similar in terms of the impact that they can make and a three-way starting rotation will keep everybody fresh. Then I would start dribb peppers at strong safety. Okay. And I think that that is going to be the plan this week. And then I would bench uh Chuck Clark. Okay. And you can put who you want at free safety. Um you know, Juan Thornnehill wouldn’t be my first choice. We’ll get into my who my first choice is here in just a second. Uh but you know, if it’s a choice between Chuck Clark or Juan Thornhill this week at free safety, uh give me double deuce. But the guy that I would play at the other safety position this week is Jaylen Ramsey. Okay. And I don’t think that this is a long-term fix. I don’t think that necessarily you want to go the full Woodson here and and and just convert Ramsay to a full-time safety. I’m open to that idea if it really works, but I think that Ramsay’s a really good player in the slot and a really good tackler. But for this week in particular, okay, without Deshawn Elliott and you know, you’re the number one thing that you got to do in terms of the passing game and who to cover is how do you cover Tyler Warren? And you got to have somebody that’s physical, somebody that’s got the size, and somebody that’s got the coverage ability. Because Warren obviously has size, but he can also get open. He’s great after the catch. So, you’re going to want somebody that can tackle, somebody that can tackle bigger bodies, somebody that can play in coverage, um, and has instincts and to take them away. And I think Jaylen Ramsey is probably the best suited to take away Jaylen uh, to take away Tyler Warren in this ball game. Um, and I really hope that’s the plan for the Pittsburgh Steelers heading into this ball game. And I think that Jaylen Ramsay is actually much more suited to take away a dynamic tight end like Tyler Warren than he’s suited to take away a dynamic wide receiver like Jamar Chase like they tried to do a couple of weeks ago. Just with Ramsay’s size and physicality and uh you know his length and his ability to tackle, I think that you know he is a perfect matchup for Tyler Warren this week. And I think you know if anybody’s going to be able to shut him down or at least contain him, it would be number five. Now you might be saying at home, “But Jack, what do we do at slot quarterback this week?” Well, I would start Brandon Eckles. Okay, and Eckles is an undersized guy. Uh, but he’s very fast and he’s very shifty. And guess who else is undersized? Shifty and fast. That would be Mr. Josh DS, the slot wide receiver for uh the Indianapolis Colts. So, I think that’s a really good matchup for Eckles uh this week. So, I just think that the puzzle pieces fit together uh this week in particular to play Ramsay at safety and Eckles in the slot. Um, and if that really works out for you, maybe you can think about making that a more full-time thing. Uh, but you know, just for this week, uh, I do want to see them play Ramsay at safety so that they so he can erase Tyler Warren from this ball game. But then we get to, uh, Jonathan Taylor, and it’s going to be tough to to contain this guy because he might be the MVP of the league right now. He’s certainly the offensive player of the year. He’s had three different occasions where he’s had three touchdowns in a game. I have him in fantasy and he is absolutely dominating for me, ladies and gentlemen. And I if anyone knows how good Jonathan Taylor has been this year, it is me. But like, you know, the Steelers I think are more than capable of stopping Jonathan Taylor in this game. That might sound crazy to you because, you know, they gave up that big performance to the Bengals running back room and they had a couple poor games uh earlier in the year, but just last week, man, the Pittsburgh Steelers did a really good job bottling up Josh Jacobs and the Green Bay Packer rushing attack. And it wasn’t until they were gassed at the end of the game and Emanuel Wilson was getting the carries that they started giving up some yardage. But Josh Jacobs was effectively shut down. This is like a top five running back in the game today, only getting two and a half yards per carry. And also just a few weeks ago, this Steelers defense also shut down um Quinn Sean Judkins. Okay, now obviously not having Deshawn Elliot is going to uh is not going to help things out. I mean, that the the Packer run game had double the yards per carry after Deshawn Elliott got injured uh in the second half of that Sunday Night Football matchup. So, they’re certain certainly going to be asking Jabril Peppers to fill some big shoes there this week. Um, but the Steelers, I think, are capable of at least containing Jonathan Taylor from completely wrecking this ball game. And hopefully that’s exactly what happens once we get to Sunday. But now shifting over to the offensive side of the ball. Feed Jaylen Warren. Okay, feed the beast. Okay, Jaylen Warren has been absolutely fantastic this year. Every single game, he’s making an impact. He’s making people miss. He’s one of the toughest guys in the league to bring down upon first contact. Um he can catch passes out of the back field. He can run the football obviously. Hopefully you have Seamalo in this game so he can run jumbo personnel packages. And this run game has been you know probably a top three run game in the in the league ever since you know they started going to those jumbo personnel packages in week four. But another thing here is that, you know, last year when this Steelers team played uh the Bengals in week 13, uh Jaylen Warren and Naji Harris combined had over 100 receiving yards in that game. So there’s certainly uh a gap here where Anaruma likes to send fiveman palms and quarters blitzes, which leaves the middle of the field with that little checkdown to the running back wide open. If he comes out with that same [ __ ] this year, keep feeding uh Jaylen Warren. And you know, of course, along with that passing production, you can get him his normal workload as the number one running back. Uh there there shouldn’t be an offensive player outside of Aaron Rogers and Zack Frasier that touches the ball more than Jaylen Warren in this ball game, period. But then uh there’s certainly some opportunities for the Steelers to exploit some perimeter mismatches in my opinion in this ball game. Okay? Because you got Mai Blackman and you got Jonathan Edwards. Two guys that are very young, still learning, not the best outside corners. if they go man coverage and you give they give you opportunities to go to DK Metaf deep or even Roman Wilson um you know they’ve been playing Roman on the outside while they play Calvin on the inside when both of those guys are healthy this year and Roman Wilson had a couple nice catches as an outside receiver this past week. So I’m expecting Roman Wilson to potentially have a really good game. He’s going up against Jonathan Edwards who is not a great corner. So I think Roman has a very good matchup this week. But also I think DK Metaf versus Mai Blackman. Are you kidding me? That is a huge mismatch. I think that there’s certainly going to be opportunities for Aaron Rogers uh in the play action game in particular. If Jaylen Warren and that jumbo personnel package is rolling, uh there’s going to be opportunities to load up that play action deep passing game uh and get Matt Caf and Roman uh some some some some nice deep shot deep shots in this ball game. But then uh my final key to victory here is to play the cleaner game. The Steelers have lost every game that they have not played the cleaner ball game in and they have won every game that they have played the cleaner game in terms of penalties, in terms of turnovers. when the Steelers can force turnovers and they don’t turn the football over and when they’re not committing penalties and their opponents are committing penalties, the Steelers win ball games. All right, but over the last two weeks and in every game they’ve lost this year, it’s been the exact opposite. They’re turning the football over more. They’re on offense. They’re not turning it over as much on defense. In fact, not at all on defense. They’re they’re getting these bad penalties that are putting them behind the sticks, especially on offense. You got to play cleaner than what they have over the last two weeks if you want to win. uh especially against Indianapolis and they will not uh you know hesitate to make you pay for self-inflicted wounds. Okay? And we’ve seen too many of those self-inflicted wounds over the last few weeks from the black and gold. Hopefully they clean those up this week. But now you take a look here and it’s time to predict the score of this ball game. Um we’ll start with the trends and what the trends say in terms of the points per game production. Colts offense uh is getting 33.8 points per game. more than a field goal, more than any other team in the field, which is just insane. As Steelers defense is giving up 25 points per game. And then on the other side, Steelers offense is giving up is getting just the exact same number. It’s kind of crazy. They’re they’re scoring the same amount they’re giving up every single game. And then the Colts defense is giving up just 19.3 points per game. The trends would predict a Colts win. Final score 30-23, uh, which is outside of the margin of error. So, the trends would tell you that the Colts are the clear favorite in this ball game. But my prediction for this game, guys, is I will go with the Colts. Okay? And I just think at the end of the day, the things that I’m hearing from Mike Tomlin and um you know, the comments that he’s making about how they don’t need to make adjustments and they don’t need to make changes to this defense and it just sounds to me like they’re going to be running the same [ __ ] that they’ve that really always run this year. And Shane Stiken is going to be able to identify that on film and they’re going to be able to get the ball out fast. they’re going to be able to uh you know you know completely make mince meat of this Steelers defense. That’s probably my prediction. I hope I’m wrong. I really hope I’m wrong on that. But I think the Steelers offense will have a very productive day. They’ll put up over 30 points and once again they’ll have a very solid performance versus a Lou Anarumo defense. And I would say take the over in this ball game, folks. But I think at the end of the day, the Colts will end up making make they’ll end up make more plays and they’ll um they’ll win this game by a touchdown and the Steelers will go down to 4-4 after starting 4- one. So, it’s your turn. Let me know down there in the comments section. Predict the score of Steelers versus Colts this week. I’ve got the Colts winning. Um but, you know, hopefully the Steelers can figure something out on defense. I don’t have a high level of confidence that’ll be the case. Uh, but I’m certainly going to be hoping and we’re going to be here covering it at all here on the Steelers Talk Watch Party on Sunday. Again, guys, that starts at 12 PM Eastern time on Sunday. We’re going to have extensive coverage for you guys on this channel. So, make sure you click that subscribe button uh because we’re going to have injury updates throughout the week. If there’s anything that comes out surrounding this football game leading into um this week’s matchup at Acer Stadium, we will let you guys know with our coverage here on Steelers Talks. Make sure you click that subscribe button to never miss any of that action. All right. Uh, that is it for our segments today. So, we’ll stay live as long as the super chats keep flowing. Uh, but Taco Man with a two says, “Slay has lost too much speed, too big of cushions.” I I don’t disagree at all. Now, I think last week he did better in coverage. He was abysmal as a tackler. That that’s really where Slay wasn’t very good last week was in tackling, but in coverage he was actually okay. Um, you know, I think he had that one pass break up on a third down in the first half. That was a big play. Um, that was one-on-one in press and he was able to stick with his guy. Um, and he didn’t really have any coverage lapses after that either. So, in coverage, Slay was actually okay in my opinion, but he only played half of the defensive snaps, so there was a limited kind of, you know, workload there. And then he had some really bad effort tackling type of issues. Um, and like you can’t be slow and have tackling issues. It’s just not a good combination. I mean, unless you’re Chuck Clark, right? So, we’ve seen too many uh lapses from Slay this year. Whether it’s uh whether it’s miscommunication issues, whether it’s coverage bus and zone coverage, whether it’s uh not being able to stick with guys in man coverage, he has been a liability this year. And I hate to say that. Um I’m sure he’s a great guy. He’s a great personality. I love watching him on Rich on Richard Sherman’s podcast, but um I’m certainly wishing him the best, but I mean we’re we’re going to tell the truth on this show. He has not played well this year. So, this might be his final chance. It really might because let’s just say they go be his final year in the NFL. It will be. And he’s already said this is his final year. Yeah. He said it he said it uh when he signed with the Steelers. This is his last year. Got um maybe he wants to expedite that retirement process. I don’t know. But let’s just say they go with my plan here. Okay. They put Ramsay at at safety uh to guard Tyler Warren and then they put Brandon Eckles in the slot to guard Josh DS. So that leaves you with a couple options. You could go with Darius Slay on the outside. You could go with James Pierre on the outside or you could maybe if he’s healthy enough activate Cory Trice Jr. and play him. And I think that that would be a very popular idea. But like the fact that he’s not being activated right now and we didn’t get an update from Tomlin tells me that Trice probably won’t be activated this week. No, I don’t think I mean especially since that we didn’t get anything regarding him. I mean honestly what’s the most appealing option for you in that case? What I would do is I would I would start Slay and I would probably put him on Michael Pitman Jr. because Pitman’s not going to burn you deep. No. Like I would put Joey Porter Jr. on Alec Pierce and have him play press on him and take away the deep shot. Okay. And then what I would do outside of that is I would try and take away the underneath [ __ ] with with bogus zones and uh you know playing hard flats and you know I’d probably put Joey Porter Jr. manto man on Alec Pierce and Meg and then I would shift the coverage away from him. That’s probably what I would do. Yeah. I mean go ahead. The the only problem that like with anything is just making sure Tyler Warren doesn’t beat you because Steelers have been terrible at Yeah, that that’s that’s the risk with playing zone versus versus Indianapolis is that they can scheme Warren up to get a matchup that they like versus man. You could just line up Jaylen Ramsay on him and there’s nothing they can do. May they can try and get some rub routes going or whatever, but um I I think Ramsay matches well against Warren. And I do like that you you put that in the uh the little preview right there. But like and that would mean you would be trusting Jabril Peppers to play in center field at free safety. And you know, it’s not like he’s a speed demon necessarily. He’s not slow necessarily, but it’s not like he doesn’t have the athletic ability, more or less Chuck Clark. But I mean, it’s just more of a question of he hasn’t had the game reps in the Steelers defense. And like you know the steel and then in terms of a stopping Jonathan Taylor perspective, it would be nice to have both Jabril Peppers in the box and uh Jaylen Ramsey in the slot uh because those are two very good run defenders that can they can barely get downhill really fast. Exactly. But like if you’re if you’re if you’re doing my plan, you’re getting lighter uh at the line of scrimmage with Eckles, but I think Eckles lines up really well with Josh DS and his skill set. So, like you you’re going to have to pick your poison here. Um I would rather, you know, put Peppers in free safety and and trust Eckles in the slot. And frankly, I think he’s earned that trust throughout the season. He’s been he’s been he’s been better than Darius Slay. And by the way, he got about half of the outside quarterback snaps last week, which tells you a lot about how they’re feeling. Yeah, right now they’re certainly trending towards Brandon Eckles being a full-time starter if Sle continues to stink. And you know, I think what a place that I would love to get to here, Ponzi, is I would love to get to a place where we got Joey Porter Jr. as the the Meg the Meg guy and the guy that you know we play in press. Then I would Oh, we have a Steelers trade. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Kyle Duggar is a Pittsburgh Steeler. Whoa. Hold up. Let’s get this. Okay. Okay. According to Tom Pelisero, I think I think is who had it or maybe Diana Rousini. Wow, that actually changes everything. Tom Pelisero from Tom Tom Pelisero from NFL Network says, “Trade the Patriots are sending safety Kyle Duggar to the Steelers per sources.” All righty. Hold up. Let me get this going up. Okay. Okay. Well, oh, we already have trade details, too. Uh, I think it’s a seventh round pick, if I’m not mistaken. That’s actually incredible value. Hold up. Let me get this. All right, it is. They’re sending a seventh round pick. The Steelers have multiple of those next year. Or no, they’re sending a sixth round pick in exchange for Duggar and a seventh. So, the Steelers still have the same amount of draft picks that they have. They still they still keep their 12 picks. They just downgrade one of them. Okay. So, obviously we’re going to be staying live to uh take your questions and of course we’ll do a breaking news live cut. What’s up? Yeah. But just so you guys know, uh breaking news here on Steelers Talk. The Pittsburgh Steelers are trading for Kyle Duggar. All right, man. Well, my initial reaction is I like it. The initial reaction is I like Kyle Duggar as a player. He’s very versatile. He’s big. He’s fast. And he’s going to be your starting free safety. Former first round pick back in the Bichc era. And he’s played with Jabril Peppers before. Plus, he’s got the size to play almost like hybrid linebacker as well when Deshawn Elliot gets back. Yes. Yeah. Well, probably not the quote. Yeah, because that that’s not going to matter now. So, Kyle Duggar is a Pittsburgh Steeler. Very versatile safety. He’s played free safety. He’s played box safety. He’s played with Jabril Peppers, of course, so they already have a little bit of established chemistry. terms of this week, whether or not he’s going to be able to play, I don’t know. I don’t know if he’s going to be able to play. So, what we need, Ponzi, is we need um we need a new live thumbnail. So, put so put this in production. We need new live thumbnail. We need VOD thumbnail. We need VOD copy. We can just keep the VOD uh or the live copy what it is. And then um obviously um you’re going to need to get a script together here. I would say I’m going to send you a doc here. So ju just just bear with us here, guys. We got a little bit of behind thescenes uh action here. Um we we got to get a breaking news video ready for you guys uh for Kyle Duggar, who is a physical downhill player. Um he can, you know, he plays a very similar role to Deshawn Elliott as a true strong safety, but he’s also played deep safety. He’s fast enough to do that. He’s played with Jabril Peppers in the past. I like this. Correct. Uh no, perfect. All right. So, I would say the the the graphics that I want obviously get trade ready. Say, what’s your one-word reaction to this trade? And then grade the trade, basic ones, and then probably a list for cat of his of his stats. Um, yeah. And then we’ll just send me full screen for a lot of it. Obviously, we have that player card as well. Correct. So, we’ll need a we’ll need a player L3 as well. Breaking news, the Steelers are trading for Kyle Duggar. Have Duggar’s head shot or if we have a big cam of him, I don’t know. Yep. Great. So, we can use that Steelers logo obviously in the background. So, I’m sending you a doc right now. Uh, just use this as a general template. This is actually, ladies and gentlemen, this is actually a Ponzi’s first breaking news action uh in terms of trade. It’s the first trade that’s ever happened uh in his career as a Steelers producer. What’s up? Okay, great. All right. All right. I have my oneword reaction L3 in there as well for you to look at. Ponzi. So, just getting that doc kind of just use that template. But we’re going to talk about this trade and uh if you want to get that trade graphic up on screen as soon as as possible um Ponzi but thank you guys so much for joining us here. We have breaking news here on Steelers Talk with 250 people watching live. Um Kyle Duggar is a Pittsburgh Steeler, big physical safety on his way to Pittsburgh. On the same day they they signed Derek Forest. So, they’re they’re really loading up um here in the safety room. And this tells me, guys, and really my biggest takeaway for you guys right now is Juan Thornhill and and Chuck Clark are in trouble. All right, these guys, they they not only are you getting Deshun Elliott back eventually, but you add not one but two safeties to the room in one day. I mean, good luck, folks. Good luck, Chuck and uh and Juan. My guess is like I it would not shock me if if Chuck Clark gets released and I think that’s the right move, man. Chuck has just not played well. It’s kind of boggled my mind. Now, the thing that I would say Duggar is more known for is that he’s more more known as a rundefending safety. But so it’ll be interesting to see what they do with Gibbril Peppers. Like do they even play Peppers now? Or or I mean they could they do have that chemistry and Peppers is faster I believe. Let me see what these guys ran. But yeah, man. If I if I’m Chuck Clark, I’m shaking in my boots right now because the Steelers um you know there’s the room in the safety room is shrinking at this point and we we have help on all that stuff. Great. Well, thank God the trade Thank God we didn’t sign off, Ponzi. Thank God we didn’t sign off. We were about to, you know, go through some super chats and sign off, but now we have a trade. So, Jabril Peppers is 40 time 4.46. Kyle Duggars was 4.49. So Peppers, I mean, obviously that’s a while ago that they they they’ve been in the league a while, but I would say Peppers is probably the more suited for free safety, but honestly, they’re both kind of more suited for box safety, and they’re both really versatile pieces. The way that New England would use these guys is they they would use them as versatile pieces where they could both play deep, they could both play in the box, they could use them in different ways, and they would rotate these guys a lot pre- snap. So, I’m wondering if that’s kind of what the Steelers’s vision is. And this also hearkens back to another season where the Steelers defense was really struggling to start the year and then they trade for a safety and the defense completely turns around. Of course, I’m referring to Minka Fitzpatrick when they traded a first round pick for him all those years back. And, you know, that was a situation where the safeties in Pittsburgh’s defense were absolutely terrible that season. you immediately add Minka Fitzpatrick and you know it pretty much fixed the defense overnight that season. Now I’m not necessarily saying that’s what’s going to happen here. Obviously Duggar um you know Duggar’s an older player all that stuff. He’s not you know a secondyear player coming off a first round pick selection like Minko was. But you know obviously the Steelers feel like the safety room is a big problem in their with their football team right now. Have we changed the live title? And good value, man. I like the fact that he’s physical. I like the versatility. I like the chemistry with Jabril Peppers, who’s going to be this team’s one of this team’s starting safeties. Now my question is, do they get Duggar? Yeah. Breaking Steelers trade for SA uh trade for safety. Kyle Duggar probably breaking news colon in all caps. Yeah, Steelers Talk Live at the end. Put a bar and then Steelers Talk Live. Actually, maybe I can change the title here actually. Um do we not have the thumbnail yet? Did people go home? Okay, cool. Half days. Well, we’re going to be here for probably another hour or so, I’d say. Maybe even a little bit longer. We’re going to take your questions. Um, obviously this is a breaking news situation, so bear with us here. What’s up? Can’t be worse than what? No. No. No. No. Yep. Okay, let me see what we got here. So, if you guys are just joining us, we got 246 people watching live. The Pittsburgh Steelers have traded for New England Patriots safety Kyle Duggar. Um, big versatile safety, almost like a hybrid linebacker type. He’s getting up there in age, but the Steelers don’t give up that much for him. He’s known as a good locker room guy. That’s obviously the second piece New England has traded away today. But if I’m Chuck Clark, and this is my biggest takeaway, guys, Juan Thornnehill and Chuck Clark might be cooked. All right? like their their days playing in this Steelers secondary are probably limited at best to over at worst. My guess is we’ll probably hear about one of those two guys being cut in the hours to come. Um, and another big question that’s going to need to be answered here is how quickly do does this team get Duggar uh ramped up? And then another question is when Deshun Elliott gets back, what the hell do they do? Do they put Duggar at linebacker on like third downs and take Patrick Queen off the field because he’s been a little bit of a liability in coverage and pair him up with Pton Wilson along with Deshawn Elliott and then whoever they got playing free safety at that point. Yeah. On the player L3 and breaking news is the title. And whenever we have those graphics ready, we can just go right into it. What is What did Jack say for sponsor? Okay, gotcha. All right, so we’re going to get into a breaking news cut as soon as we have that ready for you guys. Um, we have any thumbnails in here? Jeez, it’s breaking news. Nobody’s helping. Oh, here it is. All right. Yeah. Interceptions, PBUs, force fumbles. All right. How how far away are we, do you think? Okay. Well, let us know what your reactions are down there in the comments section. Grade this trade A, B, C, D, or F. The Steelers have traded a sixthround pick in next year’s NFL draft. They have multiple of those uh in exchange for Kyle Duggar and a seventh round pick. So, the Steelers still have 12 draft picks next year. They pretty much just trade Duggar for a late round pick swap. And I don’t hate this deal whatsoever for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Where the hell is this? There we go. All right. So, I’m going to put a new live poll in the chat right now, guys. Grade the trade A, B, C, D, or F. I just have a lot of questions, you know, are they bringing them in the play free safety? Are they going to play more of a two high safety kind of system more now where you have those split safeties instead of the true deep safety? because I don’t know if Jabril Peppers or Kyle Duggar fits that description like Derek Forest does. Derek Forest des is a true free safety, but I don’t I like when I think of Kyle Duggar and Jabril Peppers, the two guys that are, you know, assumingly going to be the new starting safeties for this defense until Deshun Elliott gets back, I they strike me more as, you know, either a pair of starters in a split safety system or a strong safety. Sounds good. But uh you know, it sounds like Marcus Valdis Scan will be going to the Pittsburgh Steelers signing with the team next week. That’s going to be their move at wide receiver. They bring in Derek Forest, an established veteran at free safety, and now they bring in Kyle Duggar. And I wonder what the role for Duggar looks like in this team moving forward. Do they put him at free safety? Do they put him at strong safety? Do they try and make some adjustments to this defense where they play more kind of split safety stuff like we’re seeing from Salah and like we’re seeing from Flores and what we’re seeing from uh McDonald and and Jesse Min like the and Fangio. Is that what we’re going to see here? And we literally put out a video today, guys, earlier today, uh, talking about this possibility. I said, if you wanted to trade for a safety, the one safety that makes sense is Kyle Duggar. And you know, certainly it’s going to be interesting to see here if they can get Duggar ramped up in time to potentially go up against Tyler Warren this weekend. Like maybe their plan is, okay, maybe we’re going to put Brandon Eko on the outside, keep Ramsay in the slot, put Duggar on Tyler Warren, and then put Jabril Peppers at free safety. Um, so we’ll see if Kyle Duggar can learn the system in time. He’s he’s going to be, you know, he’s going to be able to practice tomorrow. I’m guessing he’s he’s, you know, he’s getting travel arrangements to go to Pittsburgh tomorrow and he’ll be in the building tomorrow. He’ll probably practice tomorrow and he’s going to have a full weeks of full weeks worth of of practices to get himself ramped up. It wouldn’t shock me if we see Kyle Duggar start for this team as early as this week. It might we might have to wait a week, but because again, when we signed Jabril Peppers, we had to wait a week before he was able to play. But right now, I’m seeing a lot of bees in the chat. And um uh we have one more social to build here. Ian Rapaort. Steelers are placing Deshun Elliot on injured reserve. All right, so that makes a lot of sense. So, uh, obviously the breaking news here, uh, the Pittsburgh Steelers have traded for safety Kyle Duggar. He’s known as a bigger safety. That’s a downhill thumper. Can even play a little bit of hybrid linebacker in a three uh, safety formation. My guess is he’s the new strong safety at least for the time being and then he will be a versatile chess piece that they use um and three safety packages and that sort of stuff when Elliot gets back. But obviously you’re you’re at least four weeks. Um you’re you’re you’re going to be at least a month without Deshawn Elliott. Now, it sounds like Deshawn’s going to be able to come back at some point this year, but uh it sounds like the Steelers don’t really have a lot of confidence in their safety room to be able to hold down the four, especially in run defense because Deshawn Deshawn’s role as a run defender is absolutely huge in this defense. Of course, we’re going to get to all your super chats uh once we get done with our breaking news cut here on Steelers Talk. Ponzi is currently uh putting together our graphics uh for this breaking news and uh I’ll be sharing my complete thoughts on Kyle Duggar. All right. One he’s been one of my favorite safeties to watch for years, man. He’s he’s getting older, but and I I don’t know if like if they want him to play free safety, I don’t know if he’s going to be able to do that. But if they wanted to play strong safety, I don’t really understand the move because Jabril Peppers can play uh strong safety. And and you know, he is also a pretty big guy. Like like how big is Jerrell Peppers? If I remember correctly, he’s like 20 like 15 pounds or something like that. Maybe not that big, but yeah, he’s 217 pounds. and he’s also a good run defender and a good tackler. Like I unless you’re going to be going to like a split safety kind of rotationheavy defense, I I don’t know how this works, but it’s certainly interesting and I think it might be an indication that the Steelers may be adjusting some things to their defensive scheme, which is certainly good. probably 2024 full seasons. And another thing that you have to take into account here is that you’re also in in you’re also bringing in the contract for Kyle Duggar. Um just to look at the contract here. Let’s take a look at his contract how much the Steelers are are bringing on here. So, his base salary this year was 9.75 million. Um, his his signing bonus, which the Steelers are not on the hook for, was 4.5 million. I believe the workout and roster bonuses have already been cashed in. So obviously uh we’re about midway through the season. So you know the Steelers are taking on um probably around56 million maybe $7 million of that of that base salary. That’s not bad. That’s not bad. And here’s the thing with Kyle Duggar, guys, that you have to keep in mind. He’s under contract for another two seasons. Okay? He’s under contract for another two seasons and his cap hit next year would be over $11 million in 2026 and over $13 million in 2027. So, I don’t know how much of that is guaranteed. Um, I’m sure the Steelers can probably part ways with him, but like they’re getting a player here where they have him under contract for the next three years. This might be a mainstay for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their defense, especially if they want to use him in a coverage linebacker type of role. I’m really intrigued by this move, man. All right. Well, we have our breaking news cut ready for you guys. Thank you so much for joining us. Uh over 400 people watching live. Get your questions in with super chats. I’ll be happy to answer any questions that you have after our breaking news cut. Uh we’re going to be taking questions and doing all that fun stuff. Uh the Steelers make a trade. The con artist has struck. It is a safety Kyle Duggar heading his way to the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, let’s talk about it right now. [Music] The con artist has struck and it is for a defensive player here. The Pittsburgh Steelers have traded for New England Patriots safety Kyle Duggar. They are sending a late round pick swap uh for Kyle Duggar to the New England Patriots. And this is certainly a move that indicates to me that the Pittsburgh Steelers are serious about fixing this defense. This is a player they have a vision for. Um and if I’m Chuck Clark and Juan Thornhill, I’d be shaking in my boots right now. Welcome into this breaking news edition of Steelers Talk. And this is why you guys subscribe to the channel, okay guys? cuz every time the con artist strikes and this might not be the only move that the Steelers make before the trade deadline. Okay, so make sure you guys click that subscribe button for the very latest Steelers news updates and every time they uh have breaking news action uh we are going to make sure to get you guys a video for free on this channel. So here is the official trade details. The Pittsburgh Steelers are getting Kyle Duggar Duggar and a 2026 seventhround pick and they are sending a sixth round pick next year to the New England Patriots. So, in terms of the total amount of picks, the Steelers aren’t giving up any draft picks here. They just downgrade one of their picks from a sixth round pick to a seventh round pick to get somebody to help out this secondary. While uh Deshawn Elliot is dealing with his injury, Tom Pelisero had the scoop today. Says trade. The Patriots are sending safety Kyle Dug Duggar to the Steelers per sources. New England gets a 2026 sixthround pick for a 2026 7th. and Duggar who had lost his starting role. Now a new opportunity in Pittsburgh and followed right after that was uh Pelisero’s teammate there at NFL Network Ian Rapaort saying the Steelers are placing safety Deshawn Elliot with a knee injury on injured reserve uh to make room for Duggar source said. So that all makes sense to me guys. Okay. Um you know you make a trade like this you know you you you downgrade one of your picks to get somebody at the safety position. Today, Mike Tomlin confirmed that Deshawn Elliot has a hyperextended knee and he said that they had not discussed about putting him on IR at that point. Well, obviously they had that conversation today and apparently the medical professionals that work for the Steelers recommended that, you know, he’s not going to be available for the next month. So, the Steelers decided to put Deshawn on IR, which will put him out for at least the next four games. And now they’re going to replace his spot on the active Steelers roster here with Kyle Dougler with Kyle Duggar. And Duggar is somebody that’s a former first round pick, very versatile player, very athletic player. He’s a downhill thumper. Um that’s known as one of the more versatile safeties in the National Football League. Now, he’s getting a bit older. Uh as Pelisero mentioned, he did lose his starting job to not one but two rookies in that New England Patriots defense with Mike Vrabel coming in. Uh but really big, versatile, you know, downhill thumping type of safety. known as more of a, you know, run defender, uh, than maybe a coverage player at 216 pounds, around the same size actually as his former Patriot teammate, Jabril Peppers, who lo and behold is playing here with the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, he’s got that established chemistry with Jabril Peppers. And if the plan is to play Peppers and Duggar at the safety spot over the next uh several weeks here, at least over the next month before Deshun Elliott gets back, having that chemistry between those two. And of course, Peppers having that relationship with Duggar should help Duggar, you know, get ramped up in the week to come. We’ll see if he ends up playing versus the Indianapolis Colts. you know, he should be in Pittsburgh tomorrow and he should be good to practice and um who knows, maybe he gets ramped up in time to uh get a nice uh you know, start for for the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday uh right after he gets traded tonight. But let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. What is your oneword reaction to this trade? Um let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. At the other end of our sponsor break here, guys, I’m going to let you guys know my one-word reaction. Make sure you get down there for today’s pin question and let me know your one-word reaction. And with that, let’s have a word from our sponsor today at GLD. All right, fellas. Let’s be real. Buying men’s jewelry used to be an absolute nightmare. It was lowquality junk that snapped after a week or was insanely overpriced with ridiculous markups. That’s why I rock with GLD. 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Use code chat to get 50% off plus a free chain at gl.com. That’s 50% off and a free chain with code chat at gld.com. After your purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. A big shout out to GLD for sponsoring today’s edition of Steelers Talk. So, my one-word reaction to this trade is versatility because that is what Kyle Duggar is really known for and specifically his versatility of being able to be a bigger safety and be kind of a runup support safety in particular. Uh he’s somebody that’s a really reliable tackler. He’s somebody that really takes blocks on well. He does a lot of the things that Deshawn Elliott did really well in this Steelers defense. And now that you’re going to be missing Elliot’s presence, it’s very clear that the Pittsburgh Steelers wanted somebody that they trusted even more than Jerel Peppers to play that role. And that built-in chemistry with Peppers, I think, indicates that the Steelers do plan on playing Duggar and Peppers at the safety position moving forward. Now, you guys can take a look here at his stats over the last four years um with the New England Patriots. And you you guys can see, man, he’s been a very productive player over the years. He’s been a ball hawk at certain times. He’s he can force fumbles. He puts up a lot of tackles, man. He is uh very athletic for his size. Now, I don’t know if he’s like a true free safety center fielder type where you’re going to trust him to go sideline to sideline from a center field alignment or anything like that. Um but it’s very clear that the Steelers really like Duggar’s uh run blocking skill set. And then also, you know, taking away tight ends. Uh that’s another big thing that Deshun Elliott is asked to do in this defense. And it might be something that the Steelers ask him to do as early as this week going up against a guy like Tyler Warren. Uh I suggested earlier today on X that you put Jaylen Ramsay at safety this week because you need somebody that can cover tight ends and that’s one of the things that Kyle Duggar is best at. So when I look at Duggar’s profile, I see somebody that’s a really good run defender. He can get off blocks. uh he’s he’s very used to being able to uh you know do disguises and he’s very uh he’s he’s he’s a much better fit I would say in the Pittsburgh Steelers defense than what he was under that new Mike Vrabel scheme. Uh that Vable scheme kind of requires a little bit lighter safeties that can move around. Uh Duggar wasn’t somebody that was necessarily fitting that bill and you know the Steelers bring in kind of a lighter safety today. Uh 200 pounder that’s also runs a 441 and uh Mr. Derrick Forest, he’s being added to the practice squad. We’ll see what happens with him. Uh, he was a former starter for the Washington Commanders. I think that’s a pretty sneaky good signing. Um, and you know, I think a big takeaway that I have with this guys, and you can send me full screen here, Ponzi. I think that this is a clear indication that the Steelers kind of understand they have a safety problem right now with Chuck Clark with Juan Thornnehill. We saw those two guys play in the second half uh on Sunday when Deshawn Elliott left the game and it just wasn’t pretty. Okay. Um you know, Juan Thornnehill, I think, is a little bit better than Chuck Clark. I think if they end up cutting one of these guys, it would probably end up being Clark, especially once they eventually get Deshawn Elliott back. And that’s another thing about this deal, guys, is that Elliot is is expected to be back at some point this season. At least it sounds that way. And if that’s the case, you know, Kyle Dougler, Kyle Duggar and his value, I think, becomes as a third safety piece, okay? And you can come in in those kind of dime package looks and you can maybe take Patrick Queen off the field. And let’s face it, Patrick Queen, who’s been a really good early down linebacker. He’s been really good as a blitzer. He’s been really good in run defense this year. I think Patrick Queen, uh, there’s a lot of things to like about him, but he is sometimes a liability in coverage, especially zone coverage. and bringing in a guy like Duggar allows you to potentially match him up with the likes of Peyton Wilson who’s an excellent coverage linebacker and that just fortify this passing defense that much more in those situations. But for the time being, obviously, I think Duggar is probably going to be your starting strong safety. We’ll see if he gets ramped up in time to play for the play in the Colts game this week. He’s going to have a full week of practice. Uh, so I don’t think there’s necessarily any reason to think that he can’t get ramped up in time, but you know, it certainly seems like the Pittsburgh Steelers want to make a change at safety. They understand that especially with Elliot out of the lineup that is a problem area uh when it comes to the personnel on this team and they feel like Duggar’s ability to stop the run, be versatile, do a lot of the things that Deshawn Elliott does in this defense um and then also provide help as a third uh kind of safety uh once Elliot comes back is going to be something that, you know, I think can really benefit the Pittsburgh Steelers. for the price tag, guys. Just, you know, moving a sixth round pick down to a seventh round pick. You’re not even giving up the total amount of picks that you have in the draft next year. Uh, I think it’s good value for Omar Khan and the Pittsburgh Steelers. And, you know, if you would have told me that this was the price tag to go get Kyle Duggar after this Deshawn Elliot injury, I would have taken it every single day of the week. And, you know, one of the reasons why you click that subscribe button here on Steelers Talk is we actually mentioned Kyle Duggar as the guy that the Steelers would target in a trade if they wanted to go get a safety. So, that’s exactly why you click that subscribe button. Uh, but make sure you guys let me know down there in the comments section. Uh, grade the Kyle Duggar trade before I give some final thoughts here before we say goodbye. Uh, A, B, C, D, or F. Let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. Obviously, the final grade is going to is going to come in due time. But right now, I would have to say, you know, A minus, B+, getting a good player for very low price tag that can help your defense right now. Uh right now I don’t see uh too many downsides with making this move for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now just some final thoughts here before we say goodbye for this breaking news edition of Steelers Talk. Um I think that Duggar, somebody that obviously can help you out in the short term. Deshawn Elliott is on IR with that hyperextended knee. I think he immediately plugs in as your starting strong safety. Now a question that I do have is, you know, what happens to the free safety position? Are you planning on putting Jabril Peppers, another 217 pounder, out there at free safety? Are you planning on eventually getting Derek Forest ramped up to play free safety? Like, what exactly is the plan here? Are you planning on playing more split safety stuff? Because I don’t really see Jabril Peppers or Kyle Duggar playing a true free safety role. Um, but you know, the Steelers do play a lot of split safety stuff, but they also play a lot of true single high safety stuff as well. So, do they just trust Jabril Peppers to play that role? Are they going to, you know, continue to not give Peppers any snaps on defense and they’re just going to play Duggar at strong safety? Like, there are legitimate questions here when it comes to this deal. And then another thing to keep in mind is that Duggar’s under contract for not one but two more years after this year and he’s got a pretty hefty price tag. So unless Duggar balls the f out this year, um, you know, I think that he probably gets cut next off season regardless because he doesn’t have any more guaranteed money on his deal. But just keep that in mind where this is a player that’s under contract for a couple more seasons after this year. So maybe the Steelers have, you know, an open mind to keeping him long term. He’s still, you know, he’s 29 years old, so he’s getting up there in age. And, you know, for an athletic player like this, you can certainly see some regression physically coming on the horizon, especially at the price tag that he’s at right now. Uh, but overall, I think it’s a good short-term move for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Uh, I think it makes this team better and for the price tag, I think it’s a pretty darn good value for Steelers GM Omar Khan. All right, that’ll be it for today’s breaking news edition of Steelers Talk. I’m going to have more color and more context and more numbers to kind of back up everything. This is a true breaking news situation. We’re getting information to you guys as soon as possible. So, tomorrow we’ll probably have more information on this trade um, and kind of what the role could potentially be, all these different things, my full scouting report. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button. That video I think will probably come out tomorrow morning. Uh, so I really do appreciate all of your guys’ support. Make sure you guys click that subscribe button because if the con artist strikes again, we’re going to be back here with another video. So, thank you guys so much for all of your support. I’ll see you guys next time. And until then, here we go, Steelers. All right, so we’ll get to your questions and Ponzi has been thrown into the fire here over the last 30 minutes or so. Um, Ponzi, get on screen here and let’s talk about this trade a little bit. I think it’s an interesting move. I don’t think honestly I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t really expecting it, especially after the Derek Forest signing today. Yeah, I kind of thought that, you know, the plan was going to be okay. And we’ve talked about it in my preview and I’m going to have to completely [ __ ] change my preview now everything. God, dude, we’re going to have to throw out these the first two segments here. Uh, did you let whoever’s highlight cutting know? I got it. Great. Who’s who’s who’s got it? Col’s got it. Perfect. Okay. Um, so that breaking news cut will be up on the channel shortly here, folks. So, thank you guys so much for bearing with us here. But, um, it’s kind of weird because Duggar and Peppers have coexisted in a defense before and very successfully, I might add, and they were really good. And I will say that the Steelers defense resembles a Bellich style defense that they played in a lot more than what Vrabel’s running in New England right now. And I think it’s honestly the perfect fit. And it’s really funny how they ended up the Patriots ended up with Kyle Duggar and Jabel Peppers at the beginning of the season, right? And now the Steelers have basically swapped the safeties. And listen, man, it’s been a complete overhaul of the safety room today. You you know, you you bring in a guy that’s more of like a true free safety in Derek Forest. Yeah. And then you bring in a guy in Kyle Duggar who’s more of, you know, a thumper and a little bit more in terms of like bigger almost like hybrid linebacker type of guy. And you know, I I kind of view Jabril Peppers in that kind of same way. He’s also a good tackler. He’s also a bigger guy. They’re like the same size, 217 pounds, and they’re both athletic dudes. Um, both are getting a little bit older. And I I’m sure New England wanted to, you know, embrace the youth movement that they that they got going on right now. But they’re gearing up for something because they they just sheded a couple made a couple moves to clear up Cap. Yeah, they might be trying to trade for Jacobe Meyers here and uh you know lock him down for a couple more seasons. I mean, yeah, that could that could be a possibility. All right, let’s get back to these super chats here. The only key we’ll we’ll keep we’ll stay live as long as you guys keep super chatting. So, as long as you guys got uh questions, all that stuff. Uh we got 355 people watching live right now. Says Kyle Duggar uh and Peppers duo. Yeah, I think that I think I think I think that’s going to be the plan. I think so, too. I mean, it just makes sense. There’s chemistry there and they run a different style safety where you can move both of them around. Yes. Yes. And you can you can do a lot of different disguises with these guys. That’s exactly what Bich did in New England for all those years. Yeah. And you know if you want to run kind of this like split safety system where you know you use your safeties in run fits a lot of the time. These two both these guys can run defend and then you got Jaylen Ramsey on the outside and that’s kind of dangerous. So, like that’s like like if you’re trying to stop Jonathan Taylor this week, you’re trying to, you know, really solidify this run defense the rest of the way. Um, you know, this could be a safety duo that could get that job done. And obviously, these guys have shared a secondary in the past. Um, and with the with the with the Patriots and it’s been and it was very fruitful. They were a very good safety duo for multiple years in New England. Yeah, I obviously they’re a little bit older. Yeah, that that’s the downside of this. And that’s the downside of this of this duo. And then eventually when you get Deshawn Elliott back, you can use Duggar as more of like a hybrid linebacker, almost like a coverage linebacker. Yeah. I mean, I really like this next one from Taco Man. Taco Man with the five says, “I think uh it means that third downs and obvious passing downs. Duggar replaces Queen in the box to play uh with Wilson and Ramsay shifts to free safety and echoes in.” Yeah, it could be like that could be something that that that does work. Um, and then when Elliot comes back, you don’t even shift Eckles in. Like Eckles might just be your starting outside corner. Yeah. And you would have basically Ramsay, Wilson, Duggar, maybe Peppers on there, too. Yeah. Yeah, man. There’s a lot of interesting possibilities with this. There’s a lot of like And then and then Derek Forest, who I think is a pretty decent player when he’s healthy, is in this mix now. Um, don’t hate that at all. Maybe Derek maybe Dererick is like, well, maybe I don’t want to be a part of this team now. Um, I I don’t know. We’ll have to see on him. He’s having a hard time finding work, but um I think he played pretty darn well for the Commanders, and I think he I mean I think he’s got a chance to be a pretty decent player. $5 from It’s Guju says, “Do you think TJ is not who he used to be watching this year’s film or do you think QBs are just getting the ball out quick and he’s tired sometimes?” Uh I would say more the second than the first. Okay. Like there are examples on film where like the old TJ is still very much there. Um, I just think that teams, you know, they know how to how to guard him, which is to uh chip him on the outside. And when you give him chip help, you know, he’s not much of like a true power rusher. He’s got some power to his game, but he likes to win on the outside. That’s how he wins. That’s how he’s always won. Um, and they are getting the ball out fast. That’s a big part of it. It’s Guju. Like I I think, if I’m not mistaken, I think I have the graphic up of the the average time to throw if you want that. What’s that? The average time to throw if you want to see that. Well, yeah. I mean, you can throw it up there as B-roll, whatever. But, you know, these defenses or these offenses, I should say, are just getting the ball out super fast, man. They just are. And, uh, it just negates the pass rush. You know, everybody is everybody’s numbers are down in the pass rush. All right. uh you know when when Herbig’s been out there he’s been the most productive but his numbers um you know I think could be even better if these quarterbacks were holding it longer. You got Heismith numbers are down, TJ’s numbers are down. Cam’s numbers are down. It’s not because those players stink. Those players are really good on film. It’s more about uh you know these quarterbacks where they’re getting the ball out really fast, man. I mean Jordan Love last week had a 2.64 average time to throw. If that was for the entire season, that would be second fastest in the league. That just to put just to put in perspective where we’re at right here. And like Dylan Gabriel had a faster average time to throw than him. Drake May did as well. Like Sam Darnold, Carson Wentz, Joe Flacco had it under two and a half seconds. Like that is that is a that is a ridiculous number right there. And uh the fact that Mike Tomlin had the audacity to stand up there today and say, “Oh, you know, there’s nothing that we can do schematically to stop this. They just do it. This has been our life for many seasons. No, it hasn’t. It hasn’t been this fast. Okay? And I know Tomlin likes to say stats are for losers, but like the film doesn’t lie, dude. Like they’re they’re gashing you. They’re gashing you to the short and intermediate levels of the field. And uh obviously it’s exciting to add a new player here in Kyle Dougler Duggar, but I’m I’m just going to point out if the scheme doesn’t change, we’re still [ __ ] I mean, it’s not I feel like more so we we’ve been kind of, you know, banging on this this desk for long enough about like it’s not really the personnel, it’s the scheme. You can move people around here. Well, it’s a little bit on the personnel. I mean, it’s a little bit on the personnel if getting the right people out there. And I feel like, you know, you can have guys like, you know, Daryus Slay man, but you’re not going to win on those reps a lot just because Daryus Slay isn’t who he once was. Jaylen Ramsey isn’t who he once was. get these guys, you know, playing zone and getting their eyes on the quarterback, using their smartness or using their intelligence rather and, you know, doing better in the positions where putting your players in positions to succeed. And I feel like, you know, Tomlin hasn’t really been doing that and we we really have seen really this defense who where we hyped them up, you know, beginning of the season fail because of that. Exactly. Uh, next super chat here. Bernard says, “Do you still think the Steelers can win 11 games?” I think it’s possible. It’s not impossible, but they obviously in order to do that, Bernard, they’re going to have to turn it around on defense, and they’re going to have to do it quickly if they want to get to that 11 game mark. Like, listen, man. If this defense turns it around, they even play top 15 level ball. Like, I’m not even asking for top five. I’m not asking for elite production. I’m asking for good enough, okay? If they’re good enough, I think they certainly get to 10 wins. And you know, if this defense can play in a top 10 level, you know, it’s going to be really tough to play the Steelers because they can run the football. They score points in the red zone. Uh they don’t turn the football over that much on offense. And then, you know, if the defense can turn it around, start creating more turnovers. Um you know, stopping the ball, you know, not giving up so many yards and so many plays in a given in given game, man. All right. when we’re about to get out. Okay. Yeah, man. Just when we’re about to get out. Bernard with another one. He has another one. I’m trying to get up. He has a couple more. Sure you guys get your super chats in. We’ll stay live. As long as you guys have questions, as long as you guys got comments. Um if you guys are missing the breaking news, uh Kyle Duggar is a Pittsburgh Steeler. Steelers send a sixth round pick in exchange for a seventh round pick and Duggar. Um, I think it’s good value for a player that obviously is going to be the Deshawn Elliot replacement, at least for now, and could be a potential hybrid third safety slashlinebacker uh, for passing situations. And, you know, if this is the Steelers way of saying we got to get Patrick Queen off the field in passing situations because he’s been a liability, which he frankly has been in past coverage, um, I’m honestly okay with that. I I am. I didn’t even really consider that angle. I was just kind of using him as that queen replacement there. Yeah. And you know, even, you know, with Derrick Forest, right, you bring him, you’re bringing him in here. Um, you know, you could you could think about even doing that now where you could put Forest at free safety, have on third downs, Duggar playing in the box as a as almost like a hybrid linebacker replacing Queen, and then you have Jabril Peppers playing another, you know, the other safety spot. On paper, that sounds pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and you know, you could put Ramsay in that spot, right? You know, and then you could put Ekos on the field on those passing situations. But, you know, I kind of feel like where we’re trending here, where we’re trending is Joey Porter Jr. and Brandon Eckles will be the outside corners. Uh, Jaylen Ramsey will be the nickel. Um, what’s up, Coley? Is it out? Thanks, Peace. Captain Cully, ladies and gentlemen, he’s a [ __ ] legend. Staying late to to help us out. Anything else? No, I think we’re good. Thanks, man. Okay, we film more segments, though. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Uh Bernard says, “A-Rod always has bad defenses. Feel bad for Yeah, he always does. He always does. He had a bad defense last year. He always had bad defenses in Green Bay.” Um I just think he had a good defense. Yeah, the one year where he thought he was going to be able to come in, score 16 points, and be able to win ball games. It it just hasn’t been the case. Or I mean, even when he first got traded to the Jets, they had a great defense that year. He probably thought these last two spots he was like, “Man, this defense is great, but uh not so much.” $2 from DL. What’s up, DL? Says, “Oh, we would be in the Super Bowl if Andy Reid was head coach.” I mean, maybe. I mean, who’s the defensive coordinator? Because Reed’s not calling defensive plays. If Spags is calling the defense, that’s good. Yes. Yes, we would. We would be going to the Super Bowl if we had Andy Reed. Spag’s going to be considered a head coach candidate. I don’t know. I feel like he was he was a it’s just some guys are coordinators and that’s okay. I feel like that’s okay. Like I mean even like Cliff Kingsberry, Josh McDaniels really good coordinator, not a head coach, right? So there those guys exist and I think the league has kind of accepted that that’s what Spags is at this point. Um appreciate you guys. Do we have any more? Feel like we have I feel like we had some before the Duggar trade went through. I mean, I could see I want to I want to say we had some we were going to hit some before the dugger trade hit and then we had to shift to breaking news. We already got Oh, Hector says last one. What’s going on with our pass rush edge? They’re playing TJ too much. They’re playing him 93% of the snaps and he’s getting gassed by the end of the game. And like I think their mentality is we’re paying you $41 million per season. You’re going to play every snap that you can. And I think TJ wants to be out there, but like you got another excellent edge rusher sitting on your bench for a large majority of the game and Nick Herbick, who has frankly been the most productive edge rusher on your team, and that includes the $41 million per season guy. So, I think you what you need to do is you got to keep these guys fresh, get a three-way starting rotation going. Um because they’ve all earned it. They they’re all really good players. And I think the way you kind of handle that is you try and tailor it so that TJ’s on the field more for early downs, Herbig is more on the field for later downs, and you just find a way to kind of uh, you know, shift these guys in and out, get them fresh and keep them fresh throughout the game and throughout the season. Uh, the only key with the fives is I bet the Colts are laughing at us in the film room. Unfortunately, I think that’s probably the case. Yes. Uh, the Steelers in the film. And by the way, that’s why you go out and make a move here in the in the defense for for Kyle Duggar, right? You think he can ramp up now? Um, we’ll see. We’ll see if he gets ramped up in time. Uh, it took Pepper two weeks to get ramped up. Remember, they signed him in week they signed him after Elliot got injured in week one. They signed him in week two. He didn’t play until week three. Both Elliot injuries have corresponded with getting a former Patriot safety. Yeah. But the fact that you sign two, you either you acquire two different safeties today, it does not bode well. Either Chuck Clark or Juan Thornhill, their ass is out of here, man. I’m telling you. $2 from Bernard says, “Do you think A-Rod at 41 is out playing Favre at 40?” Um, I’d have to look at the numbers at this point, but they’re they’re both playing really good. I Favre was playing at like almost an MVP level in Minnesota that year. Well, I feel also or was was Favre 40 his first year in Minnesota or did he have did he turn 30 his second year? Because in the second year he was he was bad. See if I can find Brett Farm stats real quick. Brett Favre looking up on the internet. It’s very dangerous by the way. It’s not like the answer to this question really matters. Yeah. You know, it’s not like it really matters who was better. All I care about is that Aaron Aaron’s playing well. He turned 40 when he uh went to Minnesota. Okay. Put up 4,000 passing yards, 33 touchdowns. Actually, very fun fact, in this one season in 2009, he had his lowest interceptions in his entire career when he was a full-time starter. Yeah, I would probably say Favre played better. Um, I would say Favre I would say Favre I would like as someone that watched a lot of Brett Favre um growing up, you know, I would say Favre probably was playing better that one season in Minnesota than A-Rod is right now. But I feel like it’s also two different. But then again, but then again, Aaron Rogers doesn’t have Adrien Peterson, you know? You know what I’m saying? Uh, so I love Jaylen Warren. He ain’t no AP. Yeah, Warren’s a great back. Adrien Peterson is probably the greatest I’ve ever seen to be quite honest with you. So I would take Favre Bernard, but that’s not to say like I to me I thought Favre should have won MVP that year. He was unbelievable for that Vikings team. So like yeah, he finished second in MVP that year. So, I don’t think A-Rod’s playing quite at that level. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, A-Rod, I don’t think is playing at quite that level, but I’m certainly happy with what Rogers is is providing here in Pittsburgh. Um, is that the last question? Yep. All right. Um, well, we still got 350 people watching. Uh, but we’re going to wrap it up here, guys. We’ve been live for quite a while. It’s already uh past 7 o’clock here on the Central time zone. Uh, it’s even later on the East Coast. So, I just want to thank you guys so much for sticking with us here through our breaking news coverage. Uh we’re going to have um another video come out tomorrow. We’ll probably re to everything. We’ll probably we’ll probably uh provide some more color to the Kyle Duggar move uh as well as talk about a little bit of the Derek Forest move and talk a little bit about what Tomlin had to say today because obviously we have to trash that first segment today and even the second one and we’re going to have to refilm preview tomorrow as well. All right, man. Uh that’s going to be it for today’s show, guys. I appreciate all of you guys stopping by here today. Again, next time we’ll be live is on Thursday, so make sure you guys click that subscribe button. We’ll have another video come out tomorrow, probably around lunchtime, breaking down Kyle Duggar’s profile and all the latest surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, until next time, guys. We go Steelers. [Music]
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29 comments
Steelers 27 Colts 17❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Let's go Dugger ! 😢🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
A+ for Dugger… let's GO !!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Hi Cassie
How long are they going to wait to get the defense back in doing their job!
The lack of defense = 1 It cancels out everything the offense can do.
STEELERS 35 DOLTS 34 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Defense -5. That's negative 5
I don't like how Mike t seems to be blaming the offence for a lot of the short comings … Does he not realize how bad his defense is ?
Me
Tomlin will not let them trade him he has a no trade clause in his contract he will tank this team until he is fired plain and simple
Bro, the tier 3 on Aaron Rodgers is so disrespectful name another quarterback that has his intelligence and his ability to throw the ball is accurately as he does
Yo⚜️🫡
WHEN WILL ROONEY AND STEELER MANAGEMENT REALIZE THAT TOMLIN HAS NO ANSWERS TO STEELERS POOR DEFENSE – HE IS A 10 YEAR LOSER AND MUST GO, FOR STEELERS TO BECOME A SUPERBOWL CONTENDER #
Okay so here we go again we think the savior is another OLD player past his prime that another teams leftovers and sloppy seconds and we think they are going to help us ??? Smh … you know what the Steelers have football low self esteem
Colts will skin us. We cannot stop the run and tackling sucks
Dugger is so mid now 😆 it adds depth if u get injuries at least
Yeah
Me
Sunday will be here before you know it and I hope Steelers are going to be ready with some extra powder in their shells.🌟👍🇺🇲
Darius slay old
1
Mavs did sing
With Austin as DC and slay and Clark in lineup we’re done. We need to fix our defense and it starts with Austin.
Cut chuck clark cut Darius slay if you stay with the same defense game plan and put faster younger players in their lineup place. Or they need to change the game plan and play more zone type defense and let the older slower players read it more. Offense just needs to keep getting first downs. Stop punting on third down.
Don’t draft a QB next year let Aaron mentor will howard. And start will Howard after training under Aaron for 2-3 years. Save drafts for defense
He did sing go lock at the Steelers
If Tomlin and Austin don’t change something I bet the colts go 400 yards on us.
2 on Tomlin and Austin