BREAKING: Steelers SIGNING Asante Samuel Jr. After Lengthy Sweepstakes + Darius Slay Injury
[Music] Fire. [Music] [Applause] Hey. Hey. [Music] D. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Well, Steelers fans, you asked for him and now he’s here. Asante Samuel Jr. is a Pittsburgh Steeler. Today, we’re going to be talking all throughout this live edition of Steelers Talk. What this means for the Pittsburgh Steelers, what it means for their defense, what position uh they’re going to be playing Asante Samuel Jr., how he fits inside the Steelers defense. It’s all coming up here, guys. We’re gonna be taking your questions as well. So, don’t be afraid to get those super chats in, all that great stuff. We’ll stay live as long as you guys have questions surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers, but we do have a lot to talk about today. First, we’ll get into our uh breaking news uh segment here talking about the Asante Samuel Jr. signing, but then we also have other segments because of course, today is our normal live day Ponzi. And uh uh we already had two segments ready to go, so we’re going to do those as well. We’re going to talk a little bit about quarterbacks for the Pittsburgh Steelers as well today. some 2026 replacements for Aaron Rogers if this is his only season here in the Steel City. And then we’ll take stock of where the top quarterback prospects for the 2026 NFL draft are at at this point in the college football season and what you guys need to know as fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers in terms of that position. Now, Ponzi, he is here. It is uh uh Asante Samuel Jr. We’ve been hearing it for weeks. this fan base wanted to replace Darius Slay with Asante Samuel Jr. and it seems like that is exactly what is happening here. I mean it’s it’s it’s crazy because you know we originally were going to go live today already and like you know he was visiting tomorrow. We already were expecting him to visit tomorrow apparently he apparently he skipped his visit today uh with Chicago and he came to Pittsburgh early. He worked out today so he’s signing his deal today. So, I mean, uh, he wanted to come to Pittsburgh. Of course, the Pittsburgh team doctor did his surgery. Uh, I believe that’s correct. Right. Yes. And, I mean, great fit for the Steelers. Yeah. His dad is a big fan of Mike Tomlin as well. Sante Samuel Senior. Big Mike Tomlin guy. Uh, big Pittsburgh Steeler guy. Uh, so I’m sure that he was in his in the Sante’s ear saying, “You want to go play for Mike Tomlin in in Pittsburgh.” So, I think, you know, the fact that Mike Thomas is the head coach, you know, like him or hate him, you know, players love playing for him and players, you know, he certainly has some sort of cache when it comes to uh getting players here to Pittsburgh because let’s face it, you know, it’s it’s it’s east it’s east coast. It’s cold in Pittsburgh. Uh let’s face it, the facilities for the Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t, you know, state-of-the-art like some of these other teams that they could choose. The reason why players like Asante Samuel Jr. decide to come to Pittsburgh is because they want to win and they want to play for Mike Tomlin. That’s just the truth of the matter. Aaron Rogers came here. That’s why Aaron Rogers came here. It’s likely I’m guessing we’re going to hear from Asante at some point this week. Now, I’m not sure if he’s going to play this week. Okay. Because we have seen uh Steelers uh the Steelers bring in guys on the practice squad and you know ramp them up and give them time. We’ll see if that’s the case with Asante. Uh all three of their starting, you know, corners from last week are still available this week. You got Joey Porter Jr., James Pierre and Brandon Eckles. Um, I’m sure the Steelers feel somewhat comfortable riding with those three going into this game against the Bengals, but I would assume at least by the Chicago game here in a couple weeks, Asante Samuel Jr. is going to be a full go. And the way that I would describe Asante Samuel Jr., guys, is he’s actually very similar to Dante Jackson. Okay, he’s kind of an undersized. They’re actually the same exact height and weight. They’re both extremely aggressive corners that aren’t the best in coverage, but they’ve got really good ball skills. They got great zone instincts and they can read the eyes of the quarterback very well and they get interceptions, they make big plays happen. Um, and that has certainly been the case with Asante Samuel Jr. throughout his career. Um, and uh, in a corresponding move, the Pittsburgh Steelers have released Derek Forest from their practice squad uh, to make room for the signing of Asante Samuel Jr. So Derek Forest’s time here with the Pittsburgh Steelers is officially over. Very short time. Um, so, uh, you’d have to you’re going to have to probably delete that list six with the with the Yeah, I’m going to change it. Don’t worry about it. To a list five. Yep. Okay, cool. Yeah, we can do that. All right. So, um, you know, we’re going to get into this, guys. If you got super chats, feel free to super chat your questions, all that great stuff. But we do want to get into this breaking news cut so we can get this out on the channel as soon as possible. So, uh, if you guys want to get your questions on the show, uh, we’ll make sure to hit those at the end of this breaking news cut. Uh, but we got over 600 people watching live. They want to know what the Pittsburgh Steelers are getting. And Asante Samuel Jr. Um, so we’re going to hit that here in just a second. But make sure you guys click that thumbs up icon if you haven’t already. Can we get to a hundred likes before we get to this uh to this breaking news edition of Steelers Talk. I would greatly appreciate your guys’ support. We got almost 650 people watching live. Asante Samuel Jr. is a Pittsburgh Steeler. Um, the Steelers are signing him to their practice squad here today. And my guess, guys, is that he is being signed to be an outside corner. Now, you know, he’s got kind of the size profile to theoretically play in the slot, but he’s not the best tackler in the world. I don’t think the Steelers uh would love that, especially with some of the tackling issues they’ve had in their defense this year. Um, and you know, they trust Brandon Eckles to play in the slot. They certainly played Jaylen Ramsey to play in the slot, even though it looks like Ramsay might be staying at safety. Um, but if I’d have to guess right now, this does mean that Darius Slay has been benched uh as the as the, you know, at least for the time being as the number two outside corner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I would assume Asante Samuel Jr. will assume that number two outside cornerback position and essentially take the role in this defense that Dante Jackson played last year that Levi Wallace played in this defense for many years as the number two corner. Um, you know, I don’t think you want to Samuel Jr. as your number one corner, per se. I don’t think he’s good enough in coverage to go up against number one caliber guys one-on-one, but he’s certainly good enough to be your number two, just like Dante Jackson for the most part was good enough to be your number two quarterback. So looking forward to talking about Asante Samuel Jr. here guys. We got a lot of Steelers coverage to get to you guys here on this breaking news edition of Steelers Talk Live. So whenever Ponzi is ready to go here, we’re going to dive right in to our breaking news uh segment. We’re going to talk about the Asante Samuel Jr. news. We’ll talk about what it means for the Pittsburgh Steelers moving forward and whether or not he’s going to play this week versus the Cincinnati Bengals. Without further ado, man, let’s get into it right now. Sante Samuel Jr. Here’s a Pittsburgh Steeler. So, let’s talk about it. [Music] Well, Steelers fans, you asked for him and now he’s here. Asante Samuel Jr. is officially signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad. Um, and this is a really big time addition for the Pittsburgh Steelers midway through the 2025 NFL season. Asante had a lot of very interested suitors. He went on a very extensive search to find the right fit and the right team. And the fact that Asante Samuel Jr. picked the Pittsburgh Steelers over other teams that are playing very well right now shows that Asante Samuel Jr. feels like this year’s Steelers team uh can do some good things and hopefully he can be a big part of getting this defense back on track in the tail end of the 2025 Steelers season. Now, this is why you subscribe to the channel, guys. We’re going to get you guys breaking news coverage whenever the Pittsburgh Steelers make a big move. Whether it’s a free agency signing, whether it’s a trade in the offseason or before the trade deadline, whatever the case may be, we get you guys the latest Steelers updates for free every single day on this channel. There’s a reason why we have over 100,000 subscribers here on Steelers Talk. So, if you guys want your daily dose of Steelers news and rumors, click that subscribe button and let’s get into it. Man, Asante Samuel Jr. officially a Pittsburgh Steeler. He’s only 26 years old, 180 lb, 5’10”, the exact same height and weight, by the way, as uh Dante Jackson, the number two outside corner for the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. Um, and he was the 47th overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft by the Chargers. He’s known as kind of like an offzone kind of corner. Um, you know, very good instincts, very good uh in zone coverage. You know, he can play inside and out even though he’s played a vast majority of his snaps on the outside. He’s only had 40 career slot snaps in the National Football League. He was pretty much exclusively an outside corner playing uh in in LA’s off coverage kind of style defense uh in his time in LA. So uh certainly I feel like the Pittsburgh Steelers probably feel like he’s going to fill that kind of role for the Pittsburgh Steelers here as an outside corner. Now you guys can take a look here at what he’s done throughout his career. He’s been known as a ball hawk. Now, last year, you know, he obviously didn’t play all that much, so he didn’t get uh so the stats weren’t like fantastic. Just played in four games, didn’t have an interception, but he had two interceptions in the three seasons previous to that. Um, you know, he he makes plays on the football, he’s got excellent ball skills, he gets interceptions, he’s got a really good eye uh for zone instincts. He’s not the best man-to-man corner, but uh hopefully this is a sign here that the Pittsburgh Steelers are looking to play more zone coverage and play more quarters, play more cover six, cuz that’s really the bread and butter of Asante Samuel Jr. as an outside corner. Now, let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section at the top of today’s show. What is your one-word reaction to this signing of Asante Samuel Jr.? I’ll I’ll let you guys know my thoughts on ASJ and what he brings to the Steelers defense in just a second here, but this will be the pin comment on today’s show. Just a second here, I’m going to tell you about our sponsor today. And while I talk to you about prize picks, let me know your one-word reaction to the Asante Samuel Jr. signing. With that, have word from our sponsor today at prize pickics. And the hard-hitting football action is even better this season with prize picks. The weather might be changing outside, but the feeling of being right never gets old. So, keep the season rolling on with prize picks by getting $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5. Prize picks is super simple to play. Just pick more than or less than on at least two player stat projections. If you get your picks right, you could cash in on prize picks. How you play is up to you. If you want flexibility, choose the flex play where you can get paid even if one of your picks misses. 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It’s just not very often that you add a player of this caliber, a legitimately good number two starting outside corner at this point in the year. And frankly with the miss that they have had in free agency with Darius Slay this year. I mean this is a godsend because this is the type of player that this defense desperately needs because Slay has really struggled all throughout the 2025 season for this defense. Now my scouting report on Asante Samuel Jr. is that you know he’s not a perfect player but what he does he does at a really high level. So, he’s a he’s got great playmaking and especially zone instincts that those intermediate zones, all that different stuff, uh, you know, cover three, cover four, you know, the different styles of zone uh, that you see around the National Football League. He does a really good job playing all of those. He’s not the best man coverage corner. He’s not the best cover corner in the world, and he can be very aggressive. He’s been known as somebody that you can bait into, you know, uh, giving up big plays on double moves and stuff like that. He’s also not the biggest guy in the world. He’s only five 510 180 pounds. So, not the biggest guy in the world either. And he uh run defense is not a strength of his, which is probably one of the reasons why he probably won’t be playing in the slot. But he’s got excellent ball skills. He’s known as a ball hawk. Um you know, he’s somebody that especially if you play a lot of zone, he can be a very uh a very good uh number two corner if you got a good number one corner on the other side of him. And I think the Steelers do have that. And Joey Porter Jr., even with his imperfections, he’s certainly somebody that’s capable of taking away number one uh wide receivers in this league in my opinion. Um and I think that this also another positive to bringing in Asante Samuel Jr. is that he could be a long-term play for this defense. All right, I know you’re probably just signing him to a one-year deal here, but you know, if he works out, you could bring him back. And he’s only 26 years old, and if you bring him back next off season, he’s only 27. So, he’s somebody that could certainly be a very strong veteran presence for this defense alongside Joey Porter Jr. and he’s so uh complimentary to JPJ in my opinion because Joey is that long lanky type of true man corner and then you know they like to rotate coverage away from him at times and if you’re going to be asking Asante Samuel Jr. to play those you know zones and to be a ball hawk and take advantage of interception opportunities kind of like Dante Jackson did for this defense last year. I think that’s the perfect role for him. Um because I don’t think he’s a true number one corner. I don’t think he’s at that level of player, but I think he’s a very good number two corner just like Dante Jackson has been and was for the Steelers defense last year. And you know, I know Dante wasn’t perfect. You know, he’s he’s he had his lapses in coverage last year for sure. And you’re going to see that from Asante Samuel Jr. He’s not a perfect coverage player. Um but like Dante, they’re both very uh good in zone. They’re both very aggressive. They both have good ball skills. I mean, people forget that DJ had like over five interceptions with the Steelers last year. He really did a great job uh identifying the football and making big plays happen. He was a big part of the Steelers turnover culture. And we’ve seen a lot of dropped interceptions from the Steelers defense this year. Uh Asante Samuel Junior’s got really good hands. So, if he gets opportunities to pick the ball off, he’s going to take those opportunities and run with them. But I think it’s a a really good fit with the Pittsburgh Steelers and what they need out of a number two cover corner. And you know, uh, Darius Slay wasn’t up to snuff so far this season. And now that he’s got a concussion, it’s just great that you’re adding a guy this good uh to be your number two corner moving forward. Now, I do have two questions when it comes to this signing. My first question is, who is going to play slot corner moving forward? Now, my best guess is that it’s going to be Brandon Eckles. Okay? And you know, we’ll see if Asante’s able to play this week, but I think, you know, with Asante and, you know, he’s not the best run defender in the world and he’s had some tackling issues in the past. Um, my guess is they will play him on the outside alongside Joey Porter Jr. Now, James Pierre has played pretty well on the outside for the Steelers over the last few weeks. I think he will continue to be that depth piece in case either Joey or Asante gets injured. Darius Slay, we’ll see if they cut him or if they just keep him on the team as veteran depth. I guess we’ll see what they do at that position. But then you got Brandon Eckles who I do think becomes your new starting slot corner. Um I don’t love that because he did have some lapses in coverage last week, especially against Lad Mankey. Uh but he’s generally played well enough this year uh where you feel okay with Brandon Eckles playing uh the slot. And then if you really need to, you can put Jaylen Ramsey in at corner as well. It sounds like Ramsay is going to stay at safety, especially with this move to go get another corner. I definitely think Ramsay is going to be finding a home long term in this Pittsburgh Steelers defense at safety. Uh but if you if push comes to shove and you need more quarterback depth, Ramsay is more than capable of coming down, playing the slot, or even playing on the outside if absolutely needed. But then the second question that I have when it comes to this Asante Samuel Jr. signing is, can they get them ramped up for this week? They got Kyle Duggar ramped up uh in time for uh for the game a couple weeks ago against the Colts. So, it’s certainly possible. But we know this coaching staff is capable of getting a player ramped up in the secondary to be able to play uh with within a very short, you know, you know, time frame. I mean, it’s literally on the same day. They traded for Kyle Duggar on a Tuesday. They’re signing uh Sante Samuel Jr. to the practice squad here on a Tuesday as well. So, it’s certainly possible that they can get him up to speed. I guess we’ll see if he can get ramped up. Um but, you know, if they do, he’ll probably be the starting outside number two corner this week. If not, I would expect James Pierre to get the start on the outside alongside Joey Porter Jr. with Eckles playing in the slot. So, sound out for me down there in the comments section. Grade the signing of Asante Samuel Jr. for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Give me an A, B, C, D, or F. Let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. I think at this point in the year, I got to give it an A. I mean, you just don’t find players that are like legitimately good starting players. Um, you know, coming in. Obviously, he’s coming off a very, you know, serious spinal injury that he had to get surgery from. Um, but, you know, this is this is a good football player that’s only 26 years old and kind of fits the role perfectly for what the Steelers are looking for in this defense at this point in the season. So, for me, I’m going to go with an A. And now, I do have some final items here before we say goodbye today, guys. Uh, the Steelers did make some more roster moves. Yesterday, they released safety Juan Thornnehill. They also uh released Derek Forest from the practice squad today, by the way, uh to make room for Asante Samuel Jr. And then they also poached uh fan favorite UDFA this year out of Iowa, Sebastian Castro. Um the Tampa Bay Buccaneers poached Castro off the Steelers practice squad early on in the season. And now, uh the Steelers have poached Sebastian Castro off of Tampa Bay’s practice squad. So, he will be returning and he will be added immediately to the active roster. Okay, so it’s great to see Sebastian back. And for me, guys, this is a double dose of good news. Juan Thornnehill, uh, to put it in Mike Tomlin’s words today. He wasn’t up to snuff, but Sebastian Castro had a really good preseason. He looked good in camp. He looked good in the preseason games. And, uh, I’ve always liked his tape, man. He’s not the most physically imposing player. You know, he’s not the best tackler in the world, but he’s got great zone instincts as a safety. He can play in the slot. He’s he can take on blocks as a DB uh, in the run game, which is really impressive. and you know, he just plays with great instincts. Man, this guy is a football player and a good backup safety. Um, so I’m glad he’s back in the fold here with the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, now we get to the current safety room for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Obviously, you got Jaylen Ramsey and Kyle Duggar. Those guys seem to be cemented as your starters, at least for now. Jabril Peppers is currently working his way back from a quad injury. Got Chuck Clark, who played a little bit uh this past week. He’s still on the team uh for whatever reason. And then you got Sebastian Castro uh being brought in here as another depth piece on the active roster. Now, make sure you guys click that thumbs up icon if you haven’t already, if you approve of today’s moves, bringing in uh Sebastian Castro and Asante Samuel Jr. and letting go of Derek Forest and Juan Thornnehill. Now, today Mike Tomlin took the podium for Tomlin Tuesday. And usually I have a whole list of takeaways, all that stuff, but today just want to give you guys uh the essential information, namely the injury information. Sounds like Isaac Seamalo is going to be back this week at left guard. He’s dealing with a pectoral injury that kept him out of last week’s game against the Chargers. It looks like 73 will be back in the lineup this week, which is terrific news. Um, and it looks like it’s going to be all hands on deck once again up front for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And then guys that are going to start the week limited for the Steelers on the injury front. Darius Slay dealing with a concussion. I would I would assume he doesn’t play this week, but you never know. Uh then you got Jabril Peppers who’s working his way back from a quad and Cole Hulkcom is finally going to be back this week uh getting back to practice after suffering an illness that has kept him out of the last two games. So hopefully these guys can get better as soon as possible. And if you guys didn’t check out our earlier video today where I preview this week’s matchup versus the Cincinnati Bengals, of course we’re getting uh the the Icy Hot Bowl uh the second one here. We got uh Aaron Rogers and Joe Flacco going up against each other at Acer Stadium on Sunday. Can the Steelers get their revenge and split the season series or will they lose yet another game to the Bengals and get swept by Flaco Chase and the Pussycats? I got my full preview up on the channel right now. I’ll put the chip to that one in the top right of today’s show. And I want to thank you guys for uh stopping by here today for this breaking news edition of Steelers Talk. Asante Samuel Jr. is a Pittsburgh Steeler and that is uh something to celebrate here guys. So, make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven’t already for extensive Steelers news coverage all around the clock throughout the 2025 season. All right, first segment in the books. Um, Coley was on that highlight cut, I’m guessing. Perfect. Okay, so that video will be up on the channel as soon as we can get it up there, guys. But we’re going to continue on with our live show here, guys. And if you have questions, we’ll hit some super chats now. Uh, but coming up, we got some quarterback talk. All right, 2026 replacements for Aaron Rogers. Going to go over the options that could be potentially got via trade, via free agency, a little bit of the draft, and then we’ll take a little bit of a deeper dive in the quarterbacks in this year’s NFL draft, which guys the Steelers and their fans should be keeping an eye on here as we get towards the end of the college football regular season. Excuse me. Uh, let’s get to some super chats here. Shannon Cassidy with a five says he saved the best visit for last. Can’t wait to see what the future holds for ASJ. Him and JPJ might be the best be the duo we needed. Both juniors, lol. I didn’t even think about that. Yeah, man. Uh both both sons of NFL legends as well. So, some great NFL pedigree between these two players. And what I like about the dynamic between these two corners, Ponzi, is that first of all, they’re both young. So they could this this could be the the the tandem here in Pittsburgh for a little while. Um especially they’re obviously going to have to bring back Asante Samuel in free agency next year if they want to bring him back. But um you know they’re both relatively young and you know they they could potentially be the quarterback duo for the next two three years here in Pittsburgh. There’s no reason why that that couldn’t be the case. And I just like how complimentary their skill sets are because you got Joey Porter Jr. who’s kind of the physical longarmed kind of press man style guy and then you’ve got Dante Jackson or never mind I mean uh Asante Sam Jr. They’re pretty much the same player to me, guys. Only I would say Dante’s a bit faster than Samuel is, but they’re both 5’10”, 180 lbs. Literally the same exact size. And they play the game very similarly. They’re both known as very aggressive ball hawking type of corners. Um that can get baited at times from double moves. They’re not the stickiest in coverage, but you know, they’re big- time playmakers. And in this defense where Joey Porter Jr. is going to get lined up on the outside with the opposing team’s number one receiver more often than not. That, you know, having a guy that’s not the best cover guy in the world and Asante Samuel Jr. is perfectly fine by me. I want somebody in there that can read the eyes of the quarterback, anticipate route concepts, poach uh certain uh P interception opportunities and then have good enough hands to capitalize on interception opportunities. Yeah. I mean, we’ve had how many dropped interceptions this year? At least six or seven. Um, and you know, yeah. Yeah. Jesus. 67. Um, but yeah, man. I think that Asante is exactly the type of player that can help out this defense. And, uh, the fact that he’s only 26 years old is is phenomenal. $5 from Brandon Nicholson says, “Does this confirm Ramsay is staying at safety?” Yeah, it pretty much does. And, uh, Tomlin said today at his press conference, pretty much, you know, they’ve found some quote unquote stability at safety with Ramsay and Duggar. And yeah, it doesn’t sound like they want to move off of that. Um, we still don’t know if Jabril Peppers is even ready to come back and Lord knows they’re not going to want to put Chuck Clark back out there at starting safety. So, certainly seems like Ramsay at this point in time is staying at safety. And if they move him off of safety, let’s say Jabril Peppers comes back and they want to play him at safety, something that I could see is them moving Ramsay back to nickel, that’s something that I could see happening. But, you know, I I think that they’ve found their outside starting quarterback duo here with Asante Samuel Jr. and Joey Porter Jr. at least for the rest of this season for sure. A dollar sign with a two says, “Why haven’t we released trash ass Clark yet?” I mean, he’s a bad I mean, I think it’s because that they they trust him to at least like somewhat know the defense and be a and be a pro and be a veteran and somebody that obviously has played at least has some experience playing with this defense. Um, honestly, if I had a choice between Chuck Clark or Juan Thornnehill to get rid of, I would have tossed Clark’s ass out on the street. But, um, you know, all I care about right now is that, you know, Clark’s a backup and he’s not, you know, getting any playing time, which is which is huge. So, um, if he’s on the team, fine. As long as he’s not getting on the field, I I’m cool with it at this point. Especially with how good Jaylen Ramsey and Kyle Duggar have looked at the safety position. Got over 800 people watching live right now. Thank you guys for watching our live coverage of Steelers Talk here. Uh, if you guys have questions, feel free to super chat. All right. We we’re happy to answer any of your Steelers questions today. Um we’ll be happy to answer any and all questions that you have about uh Asante Samuel Jr., about this Steelers defense, about the quarterback situation, about the state of the team after a five and four start to the season, about this week’s matchup against Cincinnati. I’d be happy to answer any and all of your questions surrounding the black and gold here today, guys. And we’ll stay live as long as the questions keep coming in. All right. So, Dan Flity, uh, with a five here says, uh, JS, I think that’s directed to me. If we move on from Tomlin, what potential replacements could you see taking the head coach role? Well, there’s a lot of different guys that, you know, could be available. You know, I think that um, two guys that come right to mind. Number one is the guy that I’ve been advocating for uh, recently, which is Brian Flores. Brian Flores, I think, would be an excellent head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not only uh does he come from, you know, not only does he come from like the tradition of Steelers head coaches being defensive head coach guys, but you know, he already has the respect of a lot of the leadership in the locker room because he was here when TJ Watt was still here and Cam Hayward was still here. And a lot of these guys know who Flo is and they know what he’s about and he would have instant credibility in the locker room. Also, he’s a brilliant defensive mind. I think we all acknowledge that. A lot of people still say they they wish that he would have been kept on as the defensive coordinator over Terrell Austin. And another thing that I really like about Imponzi is that if you’re going to go get a defensive head coach, you want somebody uh that has connections to a really good uh offensive coordinator. And he has connections to the Kevin Oonnell Shawn McVey coaching tree. And you know what? If he brought over Josh Macau as the offensive coordinator or whoever the next hot shot guy to come out of Minnesota is here to Pittsburgh. Okay. Like I think that would be an excellent setup where you have an awesome OC uh that can help develop your new franchise quarterback. You’ve got Brian Flores who’s a great team leader. Um you know elevated frankly a lot of those Miami Dolphins teams. I mean allegedly Steven Ross straight up asked him to tank and Chris Greer the GM was building the team to tank and actually lose games so that they could get a quarterback. And Brian Flores said no I’m not going to do that. I’m going to try and win. and then pretty much with like a practice squad roster got them to like eight wins. Like it was incredible in a top 10 defense. So he’s been one of the better defensive minds for a long time. I also think that he’s grown as a person, Ponzi, because I know that people are going to point to how he treated Tua, a young quarterback, and how that did not work out. Um, but I think what he’s learned from players coaches like Mike Tomlin and Kevin O’Connell, is that you don’t have to be a tyrant to be a successful NFL head coach. Because all Flores knew before he went to Miami was Bellichian style, you know, complete tyrannical style, you know, head coaching. You know, pretty much Bill Parcels and, you know, the modern NFL and the modern NFL player doesn’t want to be bullied. They don’t want to be tyrannized. You know, they they’re making a lot of money. Okay. U so you have to be able to have that, you know, kind of softer touch and, you know, be, you know, be very supportive and all that stuff of these players. And I think Mike Tomlin and Kevin Oonnell have really taught Brian Flores how to do that. So I think seen a lot of Gruden in the chat. I mean Gruden would be vibes, ultimate vibes, but frankly he hasn’t been an innovative offensive mind since the 2000s. Uh he was still running a pretty old school offense in Las Vegas before he got fired. Obviously that would come with a lot of political backlash as well if you end up sign if you end up bringing him in, which you know some people will care about that, some people won’t. Um, and you know, I don’t know, man. I I I I would love it for the vibes. Love it for the vibes, but you know, I just don’t know if he’s actually like the best man for the job. You know what I’m saying? Uh, then Mike McCarthy is another name that comes to mind because he’s Pittsburgh born and raised. He knows uh what Pittsburgh Steeler football is supposed to be about. Um, you know, I think he’d be honored to take the job. So, that’s another guy that that just comes to mind. But there’s a lot of guys out there, you know, Clint Kubak, you know, if you want to go get a younger offensive line would be a great option. You know, there’s a lot of great uh head coaching u you know, opportunities out there for guys that that could be brought in. Cliff Kingsbury has shown some really good things in Washington his two years there. Um if you want to go get an air raid style quarterback or Kyler Murray next off seasonason, you know, you can bring in Cliff, bring in Kyler and get those two back to that’s a possibility. Like there’s a lot of different things that you could do at the head coaching position for sure. Dan with a 10 says, “Is there a reason why the offense can’t run through Pat and Janu like the Patriots did with Gron and Hernandez with wide receivers like Welker, Branch, uh Chad Johnson, and Edelman. The reason why they can’t do that, Dan, is because Janu Smith stinks. I’m sorry, man. He He’s just not worth the money that they’re paying him. And Pat Fmouth has been fine this year. He’s had some mistakes, but like he’s such a he’s such a good zone killer is what Mike Tomlin is the phrase that he uses. Uh, you know, he finds those soft spots so well. He’s got really solid hands, runs pretty good routes, he’s an okay blocker if you put him in the right position to block, but John Smith can’t block to save his life. Can’t run routes at all. Doesn’t have particularly good zone field and doesn’t have great hands. Like, it’s just the only thing John Smith can do a little bit is run after the catch. and even that isn’t as impressive as it was last year with the Dolphins uh when he when he was a Pro Bowler. So, um in my opinion, they should be running more 11 personnel um when they want to you when they want multiple receiving threats out there. You know, I think they should base especially on early downs in jumbo 12 and 13 personnel like they have all season, but then when they’re in heavier situ when they’re in more pass heavy situations, they’re still sticking in 12 coverage and playing John Smith and Pat Fmouth as slot receivers. That’s just not gonna work. All right. Like you got to have Pat as your true receiving tight end, but then you know you get um a combination of three receivers out there. DK Metaf for sure, probably Calvin Austin the third for sure out there and then somebody you know filling in at that number three spot. Whether that’s Roman Wilson, whether that’s MVS, whether that’s somebody else. Um you know, if that whatever works, you know, that’s is kind of my philosophy on that. Uh Dan. So, you know, for you to have Gronk and Hernandez work, you’re going to have to have somebody block like Grank and Hernandez did. And frankly, neither Pat or Janu blocks the way those guys did. Frankly, Darnell Washington is closer to the blocker Gronk was uh than either of those two guys. So, um you know, I think they’re trying to find that right mix. And I think at times it’s worked really well, but in other times, like the Charger game, it wasn’t working at all. So, that’s kind of where we’re at right now. All right, I see your guys’ super chats coming in. We will make sure to get to um all of you guys all of your guys’ super chats uh by the end of today’s show. But it’s time to get into our next segment on today’s program, which is some potential Aaron Rogers replacements on the quarterback market if the Steelers have to go find another veteran quarterback in 2026. So, without further ado, let’s get into it right now. [Music] Welcome in to Steelers Talk. I’m your host, Jack Sperry. Today we’re going to be going over Pittsburgh’s options at the quarterback position if they’re going to have to replace Aaron Rogers in 2026. Whether Rogers retires or whether Rogers falls off a cliff here in the second half of the 2025 season, um you in either one of those scenarios, the Steelers are going to be looking for a new quarterback next year. So today we’re going to be breaking down some of the options that could be available in the 2026 offseason and which guys would potentially fit and who probably wouldn’t fit. Uh we got a lot of options to talk about on today’s show, guys. So kick us off down there in the comment section by letting us know what is the percent chance that Aaron Rogers is the Steelers starting quarterback next year. Put it on a scale of zero, meaning no chance he comes back next year. um you know he’s absolutely done after this season to 100% meaning he is definitely coming back for another season. Let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. Now before I start with the potential replacements for Aaron Rodgers, I do want to make abundantly clear that I am still very open to Aaron Rogers returning in 2026. Just because we’re talking about potential replacements today doesn’t mean that if Aaron Rogers plays really well down the stretch and you know he wants to come back for another season, then I would say no to that. you know, if he plays, you know, if he plays the way that he has played for a majority of this season, not the way he played against the Chargers, but um, you know, if he continues to play some good football down the stretch, this he makes the playoffs and, you know, you know, he he finishes this this season strong, I’m absolutely open to him returning as this team starting quarterback in 2026. But with that said, I think we do have to acknowledge that it’s still very possible that Pittsburgh will be looking for a new starting quarterback next year. Whether that’s Aaron Rogers retiring at the end of the year, which he has alluded to a number of times, or whether that’s he just plays poorly down the stretch and, you know, maybe, you know, old age is catching up to him and he’s just not a good player anymore. In those two cases, the Steelers will be looking for a new quarterback. So, I think it’s worth the discussion to see who could potentially be out there during the 2026 off season. Now, the big question at the end of the 2025 campaign that the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to have to kind of answer, and this is going to affect a lot of things. This is going to affect Mike Tomlin’s future with the team. This will affect who they get at quarterback. This will affect whether or not they consider trading TJ Watt, Cam Hayward, and a lot of the older veterans on this team. Are the Steelers going to try and continue to try and win Super Bowls in the present heading into 2026? or will they embrace a rebuild and take a step backwards as an organization to draft younger players and kind of uh embrace a new day of Pittsburgh Steeler football? Um, and that’s going to be an interesting question to see what they uh what the answer to that question is going to end up being. I think a lot of things are going to go into that decision where the Steelers finish in terms of uh their record and how successful they are in the po in the postseason if they even make the postseason. And you know, I think that if they want to win now, and I think if that’s the answer to that question, which is honestly pretty likely, Cam Hayward only has one year left on his uh contract, and he’s likely to retire after the 2026 campaign, my guess is the Pittsburgh Steelers, at least for one more season, will in fact try to win now. And if that’s the case, and Aaron Rogers is not going to be that answer, they’re going to need another veteran starting quarterback. All right, so we got some options to discuss here. First one is a very familiar name that we talked about this off seasonason and that’s Matthew Stafford. Okay. And I think you know what was crazy was I remember doing polls on this channel saying would you uh rather have Matthew Stafford or Justin Fields as the starting quarterback of the Steelers and like 65% of Steelers fans said Justin Fields which is nuts to me. But Stafford is one of those guys that has been on a year-to-year kind of situation with his current team with the Los Angeles Rams. And the Rams seriously considered letting him go this off seasonason. Apparently, they were very close to trading him to the Las Vegas Raiders. Um, just because, you know, they’ve been kind of in a year-to-year situation with his contract and he continuously wants to get paid like top 10, top five caliber quarterback money. And you know, it certainly seems like next off seasonason, especially if Stafford doesn’t play quite as well down the stretch, it could be a possibility that they don’t give him another one-year extension uh next off seasonason and they could look to trade him to a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers that could potentially be looking for one last ride for Cam Hayward. And listen, man, Stafford would be kind of that next evolution of the veteran quarterback option here in Pittsburgh, right? You start with Russell Wilson, then you upgrade to Aaron Rogers. And I think we’ll all, you know, kind of say Rogers has been better than Russ so far this season. And I think Stafford would be an even higher step up from where Rogers is this year. Stafford still arguably playing at a top five quarterback level. Um even though he himself is getting older. Um so if you can land him, you know, this would be kind of the next iteration and and the next step up in the Pittsburgh Steelers search for that veteran quarterback uh to get this team potentially into Super Bowl contention. Uh, so certainly Matthew Stafford, if he’s available and you’re not bringing back Rogers, I would be highly interested in bringing in Stafford. But then Daniel Jones is still slated to be a free agent next off seasonason. Now, I highly doubt he gets to free agency. Okay. Uh, the Colts just traded two first round picks in exchange for S Gardner. So, I would say I would fully expect the Indianapolis Colts at some point to come to some sort of agreement with Daniel Jones to be their next franchise quarterback and to give him a two, threeyear extension. um especially over the course of those two uh first round picks that the Colts won’t have an opportunity really to draft a future uh rookie quarterback with. Right. So, I think that Daniel Jones will be in Indianapolis for probably this year as well as at least the next two years, barring some unforeseen disaster from him. Um but, you know, technically he is slated to be a free agent at the time of me recording this video, so we at least have to talk about him. Uh but certainly he is a he’s probably a game manager type of quarterback that the Steelers would probably consider paying uh if if he ends up hitting the open market. But then going back to the trade market here, Kyler Murray has been a popular name among some Steelers fans as a potential option uh dealing with injuries this year. Uh some people are kind of theorizing that he’s getting softbenched by Jacobe Brassette there in Arizona this season uh because the Cardinals want to keep him healthy enough to be able to trade him next off season. I certainly think that’s a possibility. Uh Kyler has not been super productive over the last several years under the Jonathan Ganon regime, but former MVP candidate. He’s still pretty darn young and he does have a lot of talent. Um, so if the Steelers are looking for somebody, you know, to kind of bring on as a reclamation project as a former high-end starter in this league that still has a lot of talent, um, you know, I don’t know how, you know, his little body would hold up in the AFC North necessarily, but, uh, it certainly would be an interesting one there if the Pittsburgh Steelers can pull something off for Kyler Murray. Another guy that they could consider is Gino Smith. Now, Gino has just fallen off a cliff this year in Las Vegas, but you know, the Gino stands out there would say, “Well, that’s because the Raiders are are are terrible. They haven’t had Brock Bowers for most of the season. The defense is terrible.” So, they’re constantly having to throw the football in the second half. The run game hasn’t been great. The pass protection’s been bad. The weapons aren’t good. And Gino Smith being a very aggressive quarterback has been, you know, putting the ball in harm’s way pretty much out of desperation. Now, you know, I think that Gino has certainly regressed from where he was in his Seattle days. There are some years there in Seattle where he was pretty darn good and maybe in a better situation like in Pittsburgh. Um, you know, he maybe he could, you know, find another uh life in the National Football League as a starter. He’d probably come cheap in a trade for somebody that’s a big body with a big arm. Lots of big plays on his film over the last several years. It’s at least a name to consider. And then Tuata Tongue of Aloa is another name that could be out there in the trade market. But personally guys, I’m not the biggest fan of the Tua tongue of Ailoa idea, especially when it comes to an AFC North team because I just don’t know if he can play in cold weather. And you know, once the weather once the schedule turns to November, gets pretty cold in this division, man. It gets pretty cold in Pittsburgh. So, I just don’t have any trust whatsoever in a tongue of Aloa to play in the cold. Um, you know, he’s he’s had opportunities to play in cold weather games throughout his career and he he’s had some of the worst games of his career in those kinds of conditions. He doesn’t have a strong arm. So, when it’s windy outside, he’s not going to be able to cut through it. Um, and he’s really a player that is very dependent on the scheme itself. All right? If you don’t have an elite scheme with elite players around him, he’s not going to be somebody that’s very effective for you. So, for me, even though Tuan Tonga Valoa, very productive player throughout his time, especially during uh the Mike McDaniel era, they’re in Miami. I just don’t think it’s a fit here with the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, what’s the best way forward? Let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. What should the Pittsburgh Steelers do next year? Should they try and continue to win now? Type W for win now. Or do you think they should embrace a full-scale rebuild and take a step backwards so that they can take two steps forward uh in the near future? Type R for rebuild or W for win now. This will be the pin comment on today’s show. So, in just a second here, I’m going to let you guys know about a great piece of Steelers apparel that you guys can get in your closet today. But while I tell you about that opportunity, make sure you answer today’s pin question down there in the comments. And if you guys want the limited edition Steelers Salute to Service Hoodie, officially licensed by the National Football League, you guys can use our link chatsports.com/pits salolute25 to get it in your closet today, especially if there’s somebody in your life that uh loves the Steelers that you’re looking for a great Christmas present for. Um, this is a great uh uh item to go get here because I really like the army green color this year, guys. you know, usually they they really go heavy camo and I just don’t know how versatile camo is um you know, year round necessarily in in a bunch of different situations, but I think this army green can be worn in any situation. Um also, you got that awesome American uh flag patch uh there on the right sleeve. You got the Steelers patch on the chest. It’s just very minimal looking uh which I really appreciate, guys. So, if you uh like the style of this hoodie, you want to get it today. Go to chatports.com/pitsolute25 to get it in your closet today. All right, so now let’s talk about some quote unquote reh rehab quarterback options for the Steelers because there’s certainly been some quarterbacks over the last several years that were kind of left for dead. You know, people kind of labeled as busts and then they turned out to be really good starting quarterbacks when you put them in the right situation. Just a couple off the top of the head there. Sam Darnold obviously with the Minnesota Vikings and now with the Seattle Seahawks. Sam’s arguably a top 10 quarterback in the league right now. He’s playing almost at an MVP level. He’s playing unbelievable football. Daniel Jones was left for dead in New York. Then he goes to a better situation in in Indie and all of a sudden he looks like, you know, a legitimate franchise quarterback. And there’s a lot of different examples out there, especially recently. Baker Mayfield left for dead. All right. Was considered a backup level quarterback and now he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the league playing for Tampa Bay. So, there’s a lot of these guys out there, former first round picks and, you know, high draft picks that just haven’t worked out uh that in the right situation could really work out with a new team. And you know, I I think that the top guys in this category, Trevor Lawrence, uh, hasn’t had the best season to this point, and if things really hit the skids in Jacksonville, he’s got a very tradable contract. And if Liam Cohen wants to go get quote unquote his guy in the draft next year, and you want to get a pretty high draft pick for Trevor Lawrence, uh, Lawrence certainly has the body and the and the and the arm strength to be able to play in the AFC North. That would be one that I’m highly interested in if he’s available. M. Jones probably less so. He’s playing good ball with San Francisco, but he doesn’t have the strongest arm in the world. Um, you know, he plays well in Shanahan style offenses, so maybe that would be a fit uh with Arthur Smith, but uh personally, he’s not my favorite option. Justin Fields, we know Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith like Justin Fields, but um you know, he’s had a number of opportunities in this league, man. He’s just never made it work. Bryce Young, another guy that’s kind of smaller, not the biggest arm. Not sure if he’s a great fit for AFC North football, but he’s a former number one overall pick and Carolina could be looking to move off of him this off seasonason. Then Tyler Shuck, I mean, if the Saints have like the number one or number two pick and they can take Ty Simpson or Fernando Mendoza or one of these guys, uh Tyler Shuck is a guy that I know Arthur Smith was high on in this year’s NFL draft. He played very well last week if he continues to play well down the stretch. Um and you know, it’s certainly possible that the Steelers could be in on him as well, even though I would say that one is probably less likely. Uh, but another option that the Steelers could do next off seasonason is that they could bring in a bridge quarterback and then bring in a younger quarterback to learn from that bridge QB. Um, and you know, this is something that most NFL teams do when they plan to draft a quarterback. Some of the bridge options out there, one of them is currently on the team. Mason Rudolph, uh, still has another year with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He signed a two-year contract. So, honestly, that might be my preferred option just because, you know, he’s already on the team. and we’ve seen Rudolph, you know, do some good things with this team as the starting quarterback. Um, so as a mentor to a younger player, I would have no problem with Rudolph playing that role. But Jacobe Brassette is playing some good football for the most part in Arizona uh this year. He doesn’t turn the ball over. Has a big arm. Uh he’s system quarterback that if you scheme things up for him, he can he can hit open windows. Uh Joe Flacco is another guy that, you know, he would complete the cycle for uh the AFC North. He’d play for every single AFC North team. We know Mike Tomlin has a lot of respect for him. If he comes back for another season, he could be a bridge option for this team. Trod Taylor, another guy that protects the football. Big play, big play kind of guy. Um, you know, can run around a little bit. Getting older though. And then Jimmy Garopppolo, somebody that’s played in Shanahan style offenses quite a bit in his career. Could certainly be a bridge option for somebody next year. Uh, but you know, when it comes to the young quarterback options that you can pair with that Bridge guy, you could look at three different options in my opinion. You could stick with Will Howard, who you drafted last year and the team really likes, or you could go with a rehab quarterback, you know, somebody that’s been cast aside, somebody that can learn from a veteran, but maybe can be your future. Or you could draft a quarterback in the early rounds of the NFL draft. And, you know, we’ll start with the first option there with Will Howard. And as much as I like Will, I just don’t know if Pittsburgh should necessarily bank on a sixth round pick being their franchise quarterback of the future. Um, I know a lot of people like Will, especially because guys like John Gruden have hyped him up saying he’s like the next Josh Allen and all this stuff, but like he’s not going to be Josh Allen, guys. He just he just doesn’t have the dynamic playmaking ability. Uh, he’s not as good of a rusher as Josh Allen is. Um, all those different things. And you know, I think the reality of the situation when we’re looking at the AFC conference is that if we want this Pittsburgh Steelers team to be perennially in the Super Bowl hunt, all right, you’re going to have to get one of these superstar level quarterbacks, especially once they get to that second contract because the because the one-way ticket to purgatory is you draft a quarterback that’s good but isn’t great and you pay that good quarterback elite level money and then you don’t have any money to surround that good quarterback with the surrounding cast that they need in order to compete for Super Bowls. But teams like Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore, all right, these teams with legitimate superstar quarterbacks that are continuously in the hunt for Super Bowls, um, you know, those are the guys with with the elite quarterbacks. And the Steelers have to do their very best to try and get one of those uh types of guys as their next franchise quarterback if they want to get on that level, which I think we all uh want for this team. And when I look at Will Howard, you know, even though he was a six round pick, I do think he has potent starter potential. Okay, I think that he has the potential to be someone like of the ilk of a Derek Carr. Now, I think he’d be more athletic than Derek Carr is, but you know, both have strong arms, both have good deep balls, but neither of them are are necessarily special in the mental processing department um or the accuracy comp department to be quite honest with you. And um you know, if Derek Carr, you know, there’s nothing wrong with Derek Carr. Derek Carr was a fine starting quarterback in this league for a long time, but he never won a playoff game playing inside the AFC for the Raiders for many years and never won one with New Orleans either for a reason. It’s because he’s a limited quarterback and that’s what I think the upside for Will Howard is. Um, so I’m just not sure if I want to bank on that upside, especially in this conference with so many superstar QB talents to compete with. But some of the other rehab quarterback options that you could consider, I’m I’m honestly not the biggest fan of bringing any of these guys in because they’re such long shots at this point. But, you know, these are guys with some level of talent. You know, whether they are first round picks, second round picks, a lot of them have good arm talent. They can move. You know, they’ve still got some level of physical talent left in them. So, if you wanted to bring them in, um, you could think about it. But honestly, guys, I think if you’re bringing in a younger quarterback, I would want to draft a quarterback. in the early rounds of the NFL draft and draft your guy of the future that this coaching staff falls in love with as their guy. And there’s a lot of interesting options that are going to probably come out in next year’s NFL draft. All right, the top the top three definitely right now are Tai Simpson, Fernando Mendoza, and Dante Moore. You’re probably going to have to trade up for one of those guys if you want them because they’re probably going to be going in the top eight of the draft this year. Lenora Sers is a very intriguing option. Will he go back to school? Will he come out? Um, and could he be available for the Steelers to go get? Brendan Sorsby from Cincinnati is a name you guys should be watching out for. Darien Mensah, another guy you should be watching out for out of Duke. Jordan Mayavas had a very productive season with USC this year. John Matir, not sure if he’s going to come out either, but he’s very uh intriguing as a developmental type of quarterback prospect. Sam Levit probably doesn’t come out this year after getting injured this season. He’ll probably go back to school as a red shirt sophomore. Um, you know, I I but he’s a very intriguing physical talent if he does come out. And Carson Beck, not my favorite option there, but a lot of people uh like the mental processing on him. Uh, so just some names to keep your eye on there. But my preferred strategy, guys, at the quarterback position next year, is that I want to have it set up so that this team has an established number one veteran quarterback that’s not going anywhere. Okay, they’re going to be your starter next year, but then you draft a young quarterback that can develop behind that quarterback. Whether that’s trading for Matthew Stafford and then drafting a quarterback, whether that’s bringing back Aaron Rogers and drafting a quarterback, um, whatever the case is, uh, with that situation, I would rather have an established veteran QB1, um, that’s a little bit on the older side, you know, on a one-year deal. And then you have that young quarterback to learn from that veteran quarterback for an entire season, and then that quarterback takes the reigns as the starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers at the start of the 2027 campaign. That’s my preferred strategy. But now it’s your turn. What say you guys? What is your ideal QB1 and QB2 duo here in Pittsburgh for next year? Let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. For me, I would probably say Matthew Stafford and Tai Simpson. That would be my ideal setup. How likely that setup is probably not vary, but that would probably be my ideal setup that is at least somewhat realistic for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. That’ll be it for today’s edition of Steelers Talk by Chat Sports. Thank you guys so much for talking some uh quarterbacks here with me today. Make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven’t already for more extensive Steelers coverage all throughout the 2025 season. All right, second segment in the books now. Ponzi and we got one more to go and it is stockwatch for the 2026 QB draft class. Uh, I’ve got six quarterbacks that I think I would be considering taking with my with my round one pick if I were the Pittsburgh Steelers at this point in time. Um, some very intriguing names out there and there’s two guys, Ponzi, that I don’t think a lot of people are talking about that I think they should be talking about. All right. Obviously, everyone knows about the top three. Um, but there’s two guys that are pretty darn good that I don’t think anybody’s talking about or at least not many people are talking about that I think come draft night, we’re going to be talking about these guys quite a bit. They’re very good players. All right, so let’s get to some super chats. Jonathan Perry says, “Peppers and Duggar at safety, uh, Ramsay at the slot.” Probably. I mean, it’s it’s it’s a possibility, Jonathan, when when Peppers comes back, that could be the plan. And, you know, I would be supportive of that plan because you’ve got Ramsay who’s an awesome, you know, tackler, run defender in the slot, close to the line of scrimmage, um, still playing in the middle of the field, still being able to read the quarterback’s eyes, do all those things, be an impact player in the slot, um, and all those things. And I would I would prefer Ramsay in the slot over Eckles. I would. So, if you’re if you’re asking me, would I rather have Peppers at safety or Eckles at slot corner? I think my answer is I’d rather have Peppers at free safety and I’d put Ramsay um in the slot. That’s probably the way that I would do it. But honestly, I think the way the Steelers are going to do it is they’re just going to have Brandon Ekles at in the slot and they’re probably just going to have Peppers be that special teams player that he’s been all season long. Rotate in maybe and maybe rotate in. Um you know, maybe on early downs that’s what they do to get the bigger nickel kind of package, whatever. But um you know, I would certainly be supportive of that plan, Jonathan. I think it would be a pretty good one. $2 on the only key says, “Is this going to be MVS’s debut?” I mean, I I’ll use the same phrase Mike Tomlin did today. We’ll see. Um, you know, you know, we’re just going to have to see how he progresses in practice this week. Now, especially because Calvin Austin III played his worst game of the season last week and it’s not even close. Um, I think I think Yeah, two drops. One of them led to an interception. very uncharacteristic game from Calvin in my opinion where he looked just straight up bad on film. Um, and I look at MVS as somebody that has experience with Rogers. He still has his speed with him. It would not shock me if Aaron Rogers advocates for him to get a helmet and for him to be a part of the game plan this week. So, we’ll see what happens. Um, but it certainly sounded like Tomlin was very open to the possibility. So, if I had to guess right now, I would say he gets a helmet. To what? I would think so, too. To what extent does his role look like? I’m not 100% sure, but you know, that’s where I’m at right now. $2 from Bernard says, “I’m a little worried about Rogers. He looked old.” Um, I don’t even know if that’s necessarily the case. I think he overthrew a lot and he was very frustrated. Like, if anything, he had too much arm. Like it’s like here’s the here’s the difference between between um Big Ben and Aaron Rogers with with Ben like it was just so obvious he didn’t have the arm strength. He couldn’t throw it deep anymore. And like you could tell as the season goes on went on he just couldn’t throw the ball anymore. Um and with Aaron if anything it’s the exact opposite. He’s overthrowing guys right? So, I will say Rogers doesn’t move as fast as he once did, but he still has very quick feet. He’s still moving around in the pocket pretty well. Um, pocket presence is there. I don’t think his body is in terms of like mobility. We’re not going to see him on the run. Uh, escaping. He’s not going to be escaping the pocket all that much. But listen, man, I think that I think it was just an off night accuracy-wise for Aaron Rodgers. All right. And I we’ll see if those accuracy rows continue, but I don’t think that they will. I mean, let’s just take the eight game sample size before. Did any of those issues show up in a major way? I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I mean, I think that he looked pretty damn good the first eight games. So, you know, when we have this body of work of nine games from Aaron Rogers and only one of them he’s looked that bad, you know, I I got to look at, you know, the the bulk of the work that Rogers has had and he’s been pretty solid. Has he been like MVP caliber? No. All right. He hasn’t. But like, has he been expecting that? Has he been like a pretty good top 15 level starting quarterback in the league? Yeah, he’s probably been top 15 so far this season outside of that one game where he looked like just terrible. Um, but I I had I still have hope that he’s going to regress back to the mean uh or progress maybe back to the mean just because, you know, bad games happen. I mean, Josh Allen put up what 13 14 points against Miami shitty defense last week and, you know, I don’t think anyone’s talking about how Josh Allen is washed, right? So, I’m not saying that Aaron Rogers is a great quarterback, but you didn’t bring him in to be an MVP. All right? It’s kind of similar to Russell Wilson last year. Russell Wilson gets all the blame for looking like, you know, a mid quarterback last year. Um, and I’m just sitting there and I’m like, well, this wasn’t the deal. The deal was Russell Wilson is going to come in. He’s going to have a really good run game. He’s going to have multiple good weapons to throw to and he’s going to have an elite defense. Down the stretch, he didn’t have any of those things. George Pickkins gets hurt. There goes your receiver core. All right, Mike Williams doesn’t do jack for like the entire season after you trade a fifth round pick for him at the deadline, right? Then on defense, complete collapse down the stretch. Russell Wilson was not built to carry an NFL team to a championship, but he got blamed for it for some reason. And you know, it’s just a it’s just a, you know, an imbalance between expectations and, you know, what a guy’s actual role is. And what did what did the Steelers bring Rogers in to do? They brought him in to be a game manager just like they brought in Russell Wilson to be a game manager last year. I think Rogers has been a much better game manager this year than Russell Wilson was last year. And if this defense can turn it around, which they still can, they still have some of the best talent up front. They looked really good on Sunday. They looked pretty darn good on Sunday and they looked really freaking good against the Colts. All right. And now you’re adding Asante Samuel Jr. to that mix. If this defense can play top 10 to top five level football on that side of the ball, this team can beat anybody in the game. Anybody. They’ve beaten the Patriots and the Colts, two of some of the best teams in the AFC, fair and square. All right. So, I I’m not throwing in the towel on Aaron Rogers, Bernard. All right. I’m not going to ride that roller coaster, so to speak. Now, if he puts together two or three really bad performances in a row, we’ll start to think about it. Then we can have that conversation. All right. But you know, outlier performances happen in the National Football League. They just do. Russell Wilson led an led the Steelers offense to 42 points in a game last year. All right, that was his outlier performance and it was really good. Sometimes the outlier performances are really bad. All right, and unfortunately that was the case for Rogers last week and hopefully he can, you know, play like his normal self heading into this week and in future weeks. And by the way, if there’s any defense in the league where you can you can have a get right game, it’s against Cincinnati. uh Cincinnati’s defense. I mean, in Thursday Night Football, I think I torched. I think the Steelers score over 30 points this week. I do. And I think we’re gonna I think the the discussion around Aaron Rogers and this Steelers offense is going to be completely different a week from today than it is right now. $5 from the only key says, “Do you think Jacobe Meyers would be okay if Aaron yelled at him?” Um, I think I think Jacobe Meyers’s problem with the Steelers is a you have state income tax in the state of Pennsylvania. You don’t in Florida. The weather is much worse in Pittsburgh than it is in Jacksonville. And in my opinion, if Jacobe Myers wanted to actually win football games, he would have came to the Pittsburgh Steelers. If he if he didn’t mind a little bit of cold, if he didn’t mind not having the fanciest facilities in the world, all that all that stuff, yeah, I think he would have picked the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he picked the Jacksonville Jaguars because he wanted the nicer weather because he wanted the offensive head coach versus the defensive head coach because of all this different All right. I just think that he probably got more he would get more targets in Jacksonville. I mean, it kind of shows now. Yeah. And I think I think that, you know, he’s Yeah, that’s a good point, Pon. He’s going to get more targets in Jacksonville’s offense, which is more pass heavy. Uh, in the Steelers offense, they play a lot of 12 and 13 personnel. Like, you think Jacobe Myers is going to be happy coming off the field when they want to play 13? No way, man. So, plus the fact that it’s cold, plus the fact that all this different stuff, I think Jacobe Meyers, the number one thing on his list was not winning football games. And I think if it was, he would have chose Pittsburgh over Jacksonville. I mean, he’s in a contract year. He’s going to be thinking about these things. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And also the Raiders old wide receiver coach is the wide receiver coach in Jacksonville. And apparently he was really good friends with them. So I it I can’t say it shocked me that he went to Jacksonville because of the, you know, state income tax and getting more targets and uh the better weather and the wide receiver coach. I’m just saying that if his number one thing on his list was winning football games, he would have came to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I I do to the second point of Keith’s question here of Aaron Rogers yelling at him. These guys are professionals, guys. Like Aaron Rogers is a respected quarterback. People view his opinion greatly. And getting yelled at is just a a common theme in sports. If you played sports, you’re going to get yelled at. That’s just how it is. And Aaron Rogers is basically a quarterback who’s also a coach. So, he knows these things. He knows what he he knows what he wants out of his receivers. You know, yelling at Calvin Austin when he drops the ball, you can’t do that. What you want him to be, hey, it’s okay. It’s okay, guys. We’ll get it next time. Like, no. Yeah. You want him to be Russell Wilson where he says, “You’re good, King.” after he drops a wideopen pass. No. When Calvin Austin the third drops a pass leading to an interception, I want my quarter quarterback to say, “How the do you not catch that?” like Aaron Rogers did uh on that play instead of you know what Russell Wilson would have done? He would have went right over to Calvin Austin III, patted him on the head, and said, “You’re good, King. You’re good.” And it’s like, “No, you’re not good.” All right. And I also love that the I also love the double standard when it comes to Aaron Rogers and yelling versus Tom Brady. Tom Brady would ream his guys on the sideline and people would say, “Look how focused he is. Look how competitive he is. Look how much fire Tom Brady plays with Rogers, but then when Aaron Rogers does it, it’s, oh, he’s, oh, look how bad of a teammate he is. Oh, you know, he’s he’s he’s he’s, you know, he’s toxic and all this stuff.” It’s like people want people see what they want to see. They people see what they want to see. And with Aaron Rogers, unfortunately, a lot of people want to see the bad stuff. Um so when they see him yelling at players instead of um oh man, look how fire he is. Look how look how accountable, look how competitive and how look how he’s keeping his guys accountable he is. It’s no, he’s an And it’s like all right. Well, that’s what you want to see, man. We all see what we want to see. $2 from Big Ben says CJ Stout an option if he continues to struggle. H I I don’t I don’t think so. I think that I think Houston would give him at least one more year. If Dave would trade him, it would be not next year or this year. It would be next year off season. So like 2027 offseason. Yeah. Because he’s because they’re probably going to pick up his fifth year option. And yeah, I think he’s been like the the whole thing with the Texans is that they’re they’re having a whole bunch of issues, but I don’t think CJ Shroud has been the main reason for that. I mean, but he’s been a part of it. He has been a part of it. Like, like, dude, his inaccuracy sometimes is so bad. Like, he’ll have open like he’ll have clean pockets and just miss a wideopen receiver. That’s not on the That’s not on the the O line. That’s not on the coordinator. That’s on CJ Strad missing throws. And that’s that doesn’t just happen once or twice a game. Sometimes that happens nine to 10 times a game. So that has to be something that gets addressed with CJ Strad. I think he’s got a lot of talent and a lot of potential. We saw that in his rookie season when he was more comfortable. But these last two years, man, inaccuracy has been a big problem with CJ Stout. Yeah. And I don’t think that the Texans would move off of him. I don’t think so either. I think they give him one more year just because they’ve seen the potential. And you just don’t move off of young quarterbacks with star potential like he has. Unless you’re the Jets. Unless you’re the Jets with like Sam Darnold. Well, Darn. Well, Darn. Well, Darnold Darnold had the standard what, three years there. He had the standard three years. Like, you get three years in this You get three years in this league to to determine if someone’s the guy or not. A lot of times people want to just give people one year. Yeah. You know, and they gave Sam three years. It didn’t work out because they had terrible coaching and then he went to a different place with better coaching and he worked out. I, you know, I I just think that’s the way it works sometimes. Um, $2 from Victor. Appreciate you, Victor. Um, we got another one here from Shannon Cassidy. Says, “Asant Samuel Jr. chose Pittsburgh over San Fran. Priorities matter.” I mean, listen, man. If you want to come win football games, you know, listen, I know that the Steelers just took a have lost three of their last four and all that different stuff, but this team has a lot of talent on it. It really does. And I’ll say this right now, if Mike Tomlin wasn’t the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, I highly doubt Asante Samuel Jr. I think his dad was in his ear a lot. Yeah, exactly. I think his dad was in his ear saying, “Man, Mike Tomlin, one of the best in the biz, you know, this defense could really use a number two corner. You can fit right in and and be the missing piece to that defense.” And I think he agreed. And uh, you know, he could have gone to San Fran. He could have gone uh you know well I mean some of the other teams you know kind of colder way he could have gone to Charlotte which is you know I mean he canceled against uh Chicago. Yeah he canceled the Chicago uh uh visit. He could have gone to Minnesota and played in a dome you know like he could have he could have gone to all those different places. He decided to come to Pittsburgh. All right. And that that means something. That means that he wants to win. That means that he feels like this team is capable of winning. And I I tend to agree with him. Obviously this team needs to play better. I mean, losing three of your last four, all three in embarrassing fashion is not great, but you know, adding a player like Asante Samuel Jr. gets this team closer to their potential in my opinion. So, all right, man. We got one more segment to get to before we finish up today’s live show. Stockwatch for the 2026 QB draft. Um, you know, definitely a lot of interesting prospects. gonna be sharing my thoughts, my feelings on this year’s draft class, which includes two potential first round QB draft targets that nobody is talking about right now. Let’s hit it. [Music] Today on Steelers Talk, we’ve got Stockwatch for the 2026 QB class. When it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers, as this team continues their search for their next long-term answer at the quarterback position, there’s certainly quite a few quarterbacks that could be taken in the first round of the NFL draft in Pittsburgh next year. Today, I’m going to be sharing my updated thoughts on all the top guys in this year’s class. Now, make sure you guys stay tuned to the end of today’s show for two quarterbacks that I think could by the end of this process be first round picks that nobody or at least not many people are talking about right now. Now, before we get into the video today, predict it for me down there in the comments section. Will the Pittsburgh Steelers draft a quarterback in round one of the 2026 NFL draft? Simply give me a yes or a no down there in the comment section. For me, I think they absolutely will. All right, so now let’s start with the guys at the top of the class because it really feels like we have our big three. We have the three guys that are pretty much for sure going to go in the top 10 of the NFL draft. That is if they all come out and that is Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, that is Oregon’s Dante Moore, and that is Alabama’s Tai Simpson. I think that these three guys have consistently played very good football all throughout the 2025 college football season. And I would say the only guy among these three that is for sure coming out is Fernando Mendoza. He’s a red shirt junior. Um you know obviously he’s got a ton of Heisman hype right now after that awesome uh you know finish versus Penn State last week. You know he’s got serious arm talent. Can layer throws over the middle of the field. Can throw it down the sideline as a cannon of an arm. He’s he’s got a little bit of of athleticism as well. Not the best pocket presence. Not the most out of structure playmaking ability in the world either. Um, but he’s got the profile of someone that projects to be like a more athletic version of like Jared Goff. And Goff has been super productive in the right situation there in Detroit. This guy reminds me a lot of his profile and I certainly think that’s worth a top 10 selection. I think Ty Simpson is actually my number one quarterback in this class right now. The sheer amount of NFL quality throws over the middle of the field on his film this year in the SEC has been mindboggling. I mean, he he is fearless throwing the ball over the middle of the field with anticipation in tight windows with precision and accuracy. He’s already proficient playing under center and playing in the play action game. That’s something the Steelers really want to do with with Arthur Smith as the offensive coordinator. He did a ton of it in Tennessee with Ryan Tanahill. And uh you know, Simpson I think certainly should come out, but there are some rumors that he could stay at Alabama because when Ty Simpson, a young Ty Simpson, was growing up, you know, dreaming about, you know, his football dreams. He wasn’t dreaming of playing in the National Football League. He was dreaming of playing quarterback for the Alabama Crimson Tide. And he finally, you know, he had to wait and wait and wait for his opportunity. He finally got it this year. And he’s still got another year of eligibility. So, you know, some people around him are thinking this has been his lifelong dream. He’s not going to just want one year of it. He’s going to want a full two years being the starting quarterback of the Alabama Crimson Tide. So, we’ll see what happens. I mean, if he’s like the bonafide number one overall pick, there’s going to be a lot of people in his ear saying, “You got to go this year.” And my guess is he probably will. Uh we’ll see how his Heisman campa camp campaign goes over the next few weeks, but you know, he loves the Alabama Crimson Tide, and it’s going to take quite a bit for him to not come back for that second year of starting. But then, uh Dante Moore, it looks like that he certainly has a chance to stay as well. He’s only a red shirt sophomore. There’s been some reporting uh from Todd McShet and others that, you know, Oregon is starting to set up the infrastructure for him to stay in place there in Eugene for another season. I think Dante could come out and the fact that he is still, you know, pretty darn young, I think is actually a positive to his draft profile because teams can look at him and say, “Hey, he still has a he still has room to grow. he’s, you know, he still has an ability there to maybe sit for a year and learn from a veteran quarterback because he is coming in so young and he can develop at the NFL level as opposed to developing at the college level. Um, but you know, it’s certainly something here where people are starting to notice that the more college snaps you take, the better you translate to the NFL. And that might be something on the mind of Dante Moore who hasn’t gotten to some of those thresholds yet. So certainly talented enough, easy thrower of the football, really good out of structure playmaker, and he’s shown off some flashes of really high-end mental processing as well. Certainly a top 10 pick if he comes out, but he’s just a red shirt sophomore, so he could come back to school. Uh, but if any of these guys come out, if the Steelers are going to get any of them, they’re going to have to, you know, probably trade up inside the top 10. And I think, you know, for as inconsistent as the Steelers are, I think we all expect them to be somewhere around the 8 to 10 win range this year. and that won’t get you inside the top 10. You’re going to have to trade up to get one of these guys if you want one of them. Now, if they fall in love with Tai Simpson or if they fall in love with Mendoza or if they fall in love with Moore, they just got to have them. I could see the Pittsburgh Steelers trading not only this year’s first round pick and maybe even some uh additional mid-round picks in this year’s NFL draft to go get him, but also next year’s 2027 first round draft pick to go get their guy. Um, I certainly think that there is an arms race going on in the National Football League right now with multiple teams with multiple first round draft picks. So, we’ll have to see where the Steelers stack up um, come this off seasonason. But, I certainly think if you’re going to get Mendoza Moore or Tai Simpson, you’re going to have to probably trade up if you’re the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, what say you guys? Let me know down there in the comments section. Is it worth trading two first round picks to trade up for a quarterback this year? Type T if you would trade two first to go get uh Simpson Mendoza or more or type S if you would stay put and not trade up for one of these marquee QB prospects. This will be the pin comment on today’s show. So in just a second here I’m going to tell you about our sponsor today at prize picks. Well tell you about prize picks today. Let me know T for trade or S for stay put. Now let’s have word from our sponsor today at Prize Pix and the hard-hitting football action this football season. It’s even better with our friends on Prize Picks, which is a free app that you can download on your phone right now. The weather might be changing outside, but the feeling of being right never gets old. So, keep the season rolling on Prize Picks by getting $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5. Uh, prize picks is simple to play. Just pick more than or less than on at least two player stat projections. And if you get your picks right, you could cash in. 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So, now I got three guys that are not in that, you know, top tier, upper echelon of guys that are going to go in the top 10, but guys that I think the Steelers and you guys should be keeping your eye on here for the rest of the college football season. The first one is Lenor Sers. Okay? And anybody that’s watched Sellers play this year knows that he still has some development to do. um he’s just not, you know, mentally processing defenses at the way that he needs to if he wants to be a day one NFL starter. Um the accuracy has not been there either. You know, there’s certainly things that he needs to get better at in order for him to be one of those marquee top five caliber pick type of guys heading into the NFL draft next year. And even, you know, even if he does come out, even with some of the deficiencies he has in his game, I mean, Anthony Richardson had a lot of those deficiencies in his game and he still went in the top five. So, a guy like Sellers who has a lot of traits he can’t teach, incredible playmaking instincts, pocket presence, uh, incredible contact balance as a runner, speed, size, a cannon of an arm. It’s a lot of things that in his profile you just can’t teach. And, you know, the stuff that you can teach, footwork, you know, to some degree, accuracy, mental processing, those are things that, you know, teams would certainly be taking a look at and taking a shot on probably in the first round if he decides to come out. And there’s certainly u you know some talk about him going back to school and playing out his senior year maybe transferring to a different program that can uh you know continue on his development but there’s certainly a risk to coming back for your senior year as well. I mean just look at Drew Aller. He probably would have would have been a first round pick this year if he would have came out in the NFL draft. He had a pretty good end to his season last year. Um having some really good performances at the end of the season in the college football playoff etc. decides to come back to Penn State to try and win a national championship. And not only does he not look very good and he doesn’t develop all that much, but then he gets injured and now he’s being talked about as like maybe a late day two, but probably a day three draft prospect when he would have gotten a first round selection most likely if he would have came out last spring. So that is certainly something that could happen to Lenora Cellers if he gets injured or tears his ACL next year coming back to school. that could take him from a potential round one prospect if he comes out this year to somebody that’s not getting taken uh on the first day of the NFL draft in 2027. So, if I’m sellers and if if my agent is telling me, “Hey, man, you’re probably only going to go like maybe top 15. You might not go top five, but you get you get picked somewhere between like pick eight and pick 15 if you come out this year.” I’m coming out of the draft. All right? If anything, I’m going to a team that is better suited to take on my talents. Maybe they have an established veteran quarterback for me to sit behind. And honestly, I think the Pittsburgh Steelers could be a really good spot for Lenora Cellers if he decides to come out in the draft this year, especially if Aaron Rogers comes back next year because you got one of the smartest quarterbacks to ever play, one of the best mental processors in the history of the game and Aaron Rodgers to learn from. And you know, all the guys that have learned from Rogers over the years, Jordan Love in Green Bay, Zack Wilson in New York, Will Howard currently here with the Pittsburgh Steelers, they all rave about Aaron Rogers’s ability to mentor young quarterback talent. So that could be exactly what Lenora Cers needs in his rookie season. You have Rogers play out the final year of his career as the starting quarterback here in Pittsburgh in 2026, followed by Lenora Cellers taking the reigns in 2027. You could honestly say that might be the best setup for a guy like Lenora Cellers at this point in his football journey. But a couple guys that I don’t think a lot of people are talking about are Brendan Sorsby from Cincinnati. This guy’s a lot of fun, man. And you know, I look at his film and you know, I I watched it. I’m going through all these quarterbacks right now. I was like, who is this guy out of Cincinnati that’s got crazy arm talent, he’s got good size, and he can run. All right. Like, this guy’s got a bunch of great tools. He can mentally process uh the defense pretty well, too. It’s not perfect, but it it’s certainly a lot to work with there. And he’s put up some really good numbers this year with Cincinnati. He pushes the ball down the field a lot. Only has two interceptions on the season. Uh now, last week he did not have a particularly great uh game. I think it was against Utah where, you know, he I think he had like 11 completions. So, listen, man, a little bit up and down for sure, but this guy would be more of like a late first round type of guy that you don’t have to trade up for, but he has a lot of physical tools to work with. He’s got a really smooth, fluid throwing motion and a lot of power to that arm as well. And he’s got some nice pocket presence and playmaking instincts and he can run with the football. There’s a lot to work with there with a guy like Brendan Sorsby. Um that really intrigues me and if he, you know, really plays well down the stretch here, uh I I I got to consider giving him a first round grade, you know, when I officially do my grades this spring because I’ve been really impressed with this young man. And another guy that brings a lot of good stuff to the table is Duke quarterback Darien Mensah. Now Mensah could certainly come back to school. Um and so can Sorsby by the way, but um Mensah is somebody that has a lot of physical talent, easy smooth throwing motion, some really great arm talent, can run with the football as well. And he has had uh some really good numbers this year as well, man. He’s got the tools that you look for. Um certainly and he would be coming out a little bit early. So, you know, his representation would have to be telling him, hey, you’re probably going to be a first round pick because he’s got first round caliber tools. And frankly, there’s not a lot of quarterbacks in college football that have put up the numbers that Darien Mensah has put up this year. 24 touchdowns to just four interceptions, almost 70% completion percentage, and almost 2,800 yards passing. And that’s not even counting what he does as a rusher, guys. Like Darien Mensah has done a hell of a job this year. And when you watch his film, man, it it looks like, you know, at times first round caliber tape. All right. And this is another guy that I kind of came on to late in terms of his film, but when I saw it, man, I’m like, dude, this guy’s better than most of the guys that are getting a lot of the first round hype right now. Um, in certain moments. So, definitely keep your eye on Brendan Sorsby from Cincinnati and Darien Mensah from Duke. There are two very interesting prospects that could be within range of where the Steelers are going to be picking in the first round of the NFL draft this year. and you probably wouldn’t have to trade up for them. So, take your pick down there in the comments section between these guys kind of as mid to late first round quarterback prospects. Which one would you pick? Type LS for Lenora Sers, type BS for Brendan Sorsby, or type DM for Darien Mensah? Let me know what you guys think down there in the comment section. Honestly, I think I’d be perfectly fine at this point taking any one of these gentlemen uh in the NFL draft next year. Now, some other interesting names to keep your eye on. Sam Levit from Arizona State. Love his play style. He’s so much fun to watch, but he’s so inconsistent at this point in his college career with his accuracy and his mental processing and his decision-m plus he’s coming off a major injury and he still has two years left of eligibility. Like he’s he’s going to be coming back to school, but if he comes back but if he does come out of the draft for some reason here this spring, he’s got the physical talent. That definitely intrigues me. Same thing goes for John Matir. good rusher of the football, powerful arm. Um, you know, kind of that little bit funky sidearm release, but he’s an absolute gamer. Somebody that would be a little bit more of a developmental type of guy, but somebody uh to keep your eye on for sure if he decides to come out. And then Jada Mayava from USC. Certainly catching my eye with his production this year uh in Lincoln Riley’s USC offense. He has been really good mentally processing defenses. He’s been really accurate with the football. not a ton of athleticism and outer structure playmaking ability. Um, and he doesn’t have like a bazooka of an arm or anything like that, but you know, certainly the production catches your eye in terms of Mayava. And then some other potential dart throws. Like if you don’t want to take a quarterback in round one or even in round two or round three, you want somebody that, you know, has some physical tools, has shown some flashes in college football, um, but you don’t want to spend a high-end draft asset on a quarterback. Kade Clubnik had a really rough start to the year, but he’s actually played a little bit better uh before he got injured. And then Drew Aller obviously he’s got the physical to the physical tools and the elastic arm talent, but he’s coming off a major injury and he’s never had the mental processing chops uh in college, so you’d have to develop him. Garrett Nusmeer has had a disaster of a season this year. Lots of turnovers. He’s been playing with some injuries as well, but uh he was he kind of reminds me of like Sam How’s trajectory where he was supposed to be like the number two overall pick in the draft. Remember that one one draft class there um and they ends up going in the fifth round. I see a very similar trajectory for Garrett Nusmeer. And then Carson Beck, some people really like him. Some people think that he’s a really high-end mental processor, but he just hasn’t ever played uh consistently well and on the big stages of college football, and he’s played some really bad games throughout his career. For me, he’s nothing more than a day three dart throw. All right, guys. That’s going to be it for today’s show. Thank you for talking some college football with me here today. Make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven’t already, and let me know down there in the comments section who your guy is in terms of this year’s draft class and who you’re hoping the Pittsburgh Steelers draft, next year’s NFL draft in Pittsburgh. All right, we are um done with our segments for today, Ponzi, but we will be back live on Thursday at 5:00 p. p.m. Eastern time, maybe 600 p.m. Eastern time, depending on when we can get live. But uh uh we’ll be live on Thursday again to talk about any other news that comes out during the week. If we get any update on if Asante Samuel Jr. is going to play this week or anything like that, we’ll make sure to get you guys updates on that. And then we have our week 11 watch party. We’ll be going live at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. A half hour of pregame show followed by live playbyplay and analysis of the game itself and postgame coverage. So if you guys want to join us live later in today’s program and we do have a Venmo, by the way. Yeah, Brian said he sent a Venmo. All right. Well, Brian, we’ll get to your Venmo here. I’ll wait for that. Uh, Bernard Dixon with another two says, “Do you think Sunday was the outlier of trends for A-Rod?” Yeah, I think so. I think so. When you look at his other performances, Bernard, and like just on the film, like he hadn’t had that many missed throws in any game this season, and frankly, it wasn’t close. Like, he’s had some games where he’s had some misses, like maybe two or three. He had like six or seven like bad misses in that game against the Chargers. It was just not good. Um and I think that he’d be the first one to tell you that he did not play well um on Sunday night and you know he was at the press conference he was like I played terribly today. So um I think when you look at his performances throughout the year I mean we’ve seen what multiple four touchdown performances from A-Rod this year. Um you know he’s towards the still towards the top of the league in touchdown passes this year. Like he’s I think he’s going to be fine. All right. I’ll start to worry about Aaron if he uh really struggles against the Bengals defense this week. And if he struggles again for a third straight week against a bad Chicago Bears defense, all right, now I’m now I’m willing to listen to Aaron Rogers’s washed kind of discussions. But, you know, the Chargers defense is really good. And, you know, he was just we haven’t seen these types of mistakes from him throughout the season. So, I have no reason to think that this is going to be the Aaron Rogers that we see the rest of the way. I’m just hoping that, you know, last week was the outlier and this week he progresses back to the meat. $2 from Brian Ruiz and he says, um, been seeing the media talk about Tomlin to the Giants. Can we trade him for a first? Yeah, let’s get a QB whisperer or offensive guru. I mean, yeah, man. I here here’s my thing. I think you can get a first round pick for Mike Tomlin. I do. I mean, yeah. It might not be a 2026 first round pick. It might be a 2027 first round pick because be happy with that cuz what cuz if you got to think about the Giants situation, right? They’re going to have like a top five pick next year. Top 10 at the very least. You’re not trading that for I don’t know if you’re trading a top 10 pick guaranteed for Mike Tomlin. But what they might do is they might trade their 2027 draft pick for Mike Tomlin and maybe second. Or you think just a first would get it done? Just a first. Okay. And by the way, the Steelers can use, you know, that would mean that they would have two first round picks in 2027 as as ammo to go trade up for a quarterback in 2026 if they really feel like they want one. Right. So that Giants pick would be pretty valuable, too. Exactly. And then if you don’t have an opportunity to trade it for a quarterback, then you have two first round picks in 2027, you know. So, I think that that would be something that would work. Now, in order for the Steelers to consider that, the Steelers will need to miss the playoffs, and I think they’ll probably have to get less than 10 wins. They they probably would need to have Mike Tomlin’s first losing season in order to consider it. Um, which isn’t impossible. Like, if this offense just can’t get it going the rest of the season, they look as bad as they did against the Chargers, they will. They they probably will not win nine games this year, but as we’ve seen throughout Tomlin’s tenure, they just never do that. They they always find a way until it’s proven wrong. Assume they’re having a winning season. Exactly. So, like I I think the vast majority of the chances here, like the like the I would say at least 85 plus% chance Tomlin returns next year. Uh because I think they do make the playoffs. I think they probably do still get to 10 wins this season. I I I do think that they still do that. I think the defense is playing better. I think the offense won’t play as bad as it did against the Chargers in most games down the stretch. We’ll see what they do against Baltimore. Like people talk about the Baltimore matchups like we’re destined to get swept by them. When was the last time we got swept by Baltimore? All right. Like like they almost always at least split with Baltimore. Okay. Then you’ve got this week versus Cincinnati. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t win this game at home. No reason. Okay. Um I know people are going to say, “Well, you lost to them on on, you know, a couple weeks ago, but that was on Thursday night on the road. Um you know, your defense wasn’t playing as well.” This week is completely different from week seven, guys. It just is. So, you should be able to win that. So, that’s two wins right there. The Bears have just not played really good football this year. They just haven’t. um you know that defense has major issues and so does that offense. I think Caleb Williams is going to crumble um facing this Steelers defense. So that’s three wins right there. And again, you can’t count your chickens before they’re hatched, but you know, we can look at the at the at the landscape here. Already got three wins. I think the Buffalo game is more winnable than people want to give the Steelers credit for. They just got pumped by the Miami Dolphins of all teams. All right, so that is a very winnable game. That’s four potential wins. Okay, then let’s say you know they split with Baltimore. Then you got Miami, a team that you should win at home in a cold potential cold weather game. I know it’s on prime time and the Steelers have sucked on prime time games this year, but I still think the Steelers are going to win that game. U so that’s five right there. Then you get Cleveland again. All right, Shadur Sanders will probably be starting that game. That’s potentially six more wins right there. Okay. Um and that’s accounting for a loss versus Detroit. that’s accounting for a loss uh against Baltimore. Okay? And that would get you to 11 wins. And if you lose to Buffalo, you still get to 10 wins, right? So, as long as the Steelers kind of take care of their business, and I know that that is, you know, this is the Steelers, they don’t take care of their business, or at least they haven’t. Um, if they do it though, there’s a very clear path to 10 wins and potentially even 11 wins still for this team. and 10 and for sure 11 will win you the division. All right. Like nine wins might win you the division this year just because Baltimore I mean they’ve got some tough games at the end of their schedule Ponzi. Like these next few these next few weeks they’ve got some easier ones. They got Cleveland. They’ve got the New York Jets. Then they’ve got uh I believe they have us. Do we have their schedule? I think we have a listical. Yes. also saying I’ve seen this last time the Ravens swept the Steelers was 2019. Okay. So it’s so it’s somewhat recently but recent history like dude the last time 20s it’s eight and three so far. Yeah, dude like the Steelers I mean obviously the Steelers have lost to the Ravens. They’ve lost their last two games to them, playoff game included, but like Lamar Jackson has not generally played well against the Steelers. It’s Derrick Henry. And LA last year, the two games that the Ravens won, it was Derrick Henry running all over the Steelers. And who knows, that might happen again this year. But here’s Baltimore’s final stretch. And just for reference, they’re sitting at four and five right now. I think most people expect them to beat Cleveland and New York. All right. Uh so that’s going to be two wins right there. But then they get Cincinnati at home on Thanksgiving and Burrow is likely to return. And whenever Burrow’s playing, man, they’ve got a shot. I would still say that they win. But here’s the thing, Ponzi. In division with Burrow playing in those two games, something tells me they’re going to split. Something tells me they’re going to split. So you have a loss versus Cincinnati. Then I think we can bank on probably at least one loss versus Pittsburgh. So that’s two losses right there. All right. Then you get New England, a really tough team at home. That is a tossup at best. And then you get Green Bay on the road. Those are going to be two tough games. I think they lose at least one of those two games. So that’s three losses right now that you can look at the rest of Baltimore schedule. And right now with them already at five losses, right? Four and five. If you add just three more losses, they’re sitting at nine and eight. And 10 wins wins the division for you if you’re Pittsburgh. I ultimately too, Sperry, I really do believe this. I think potentially the division comes down to that last game. Yeah, and it absolutely could. It absolutely could. Um, if the Steelers win in Baltimore though, it might not as much. No, but I think if if the way that I predict it is that they’re going to basically be in a virtual tie going into week 18. if the Steelers lose, you know, a game they shouldn’t like the or a game that you don’t have them winning, uh, like Buffalo. Well, okay. So, let’s just let’s just go through the exercise. All right. Do we have the one for Pittsburgh, too? Yes. Yeah. Let’s go to the one with Pittsburgh first. If I had to predict the the record of the team heading into that final matchup versus Baltimore, I would say they beat Cincinnati. I would say they beat Chicago. I’m gonna say they lose to Buffalo, even though I think that it’s very possible they win that game. I think they Let’s just Well, who who do we say wins the first matchup? Let’s just say win. Let’s just say the Ravens win. All right, let’s say the Steelers have a two-game losing streak there. Um, and they lose those two games. I think they should certainly still beat Miami. I think they probably lose to Detroit on the road. And then I think they beat Cleveland 17. So that’s what, four more wins from what they have right now. So that would put us at nine wins. So we would be So we’d be nine and seven going into the final game versus Baltimore with a loss to Baltimore already. Yep. And then with Baltimore, say they beat Cleveland. I’ll say they beat New uh they’ll beat uh New York. I’ll say they beat the Bengals at home. We’ll say they beat Pittsburgh. So at that point, they would actually take the division lead. So that’s already four wins right there. I’m going to say they lose to Cincinnati on the road and just say that that’s the split. I’m going to say they lose to New England and then I mean that week 17 game against Green Bay is going to be huge I feel like. Yeah, because if they lose that game then they’re sitting with what? Eight wins. So if you have them winning five so far or four? Four. So that puts them at eight wins. So that puts them at eight wins. So, if they lose to Green Bay 2, they’re sitting at just eight and eight going into the final game. And the Steelers would be nine and seven, right? And if the And you would be right in that scenario then because if the Ravens win against the Steelers and they sweep them, then they win the division at 9 and eight because they get the tiebreaker for beating us twice. Yeah. So, you’re right, Ponzi. It certainly is setting up where both times where the Steelers play the Ravens, the winner of that game will be probably first place in the AFC North after the conclusion of those two games. And you know, obviously the Steelers take care of business. You know, it’s a one-ame lead, but it’s still a lead. Still a lead. Still lead business with those two Ravens matchups. The division could be locked up by then. Dude, I’m Dude, I’m telling you, if the Steelers play the way that they’re capable of playing, and I know that’s I listen, man, I get it. Oh, Tomman can’t do that. What? Blah blah blah blah blah. Just on paper, all right, with the way that we’ve seen this offense play at times this year and the way this defense has played at times, if they put it all together, there’s absolutely no reason why they can’t beat Buffalo and they can’t beat Baltimore at least once, if not twice this year. Even then, maybe Detroit. I mean, it’s always possible, but like I don’t think they’re going to win every game down the stretch. It’s not realistic, right? I think, you know, if the Steelers put it all together in the sec in the final stretch here, they could lose two more games and they could finish the season with 11 wins. I It’s still within reach and even if you add on a loss to Buffalo there, it could be 10. However you want to slice it. But it’s also possible that, you know, depending on the week, the offense or the defense just looks like dog like it has the entire season. you lose some of these games that you should win and you start giving up some of these games and they end up costing you the season. That’s also possible as well. I just I I find it very hard to believe that this team doesn’t get to at least nine wins, especially with this team being coached by Tomlin, but that’s kind of where I’m at right now. It’s it I feel like you know an understated part you know it is kind of looking past an opponent against this weekend to say that it should be a win but if it becomes a loss then we have serious questions. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, I think we’re going to I think we’re going to wrap up for the day here, guys. Thank you so much for stopping by here today. Asante Samuel Jr. is a Pittsburgh Steeler. I mean, the football gods have delivered us a starting starting corner midway through the NFL season and it didn’t cost a draft pick, man. Hallelujah. It’s absolutely fantastic stuff, man. We’ll have more coverage for you guys tomorrow here on Steelers Talk. So, if you don’t want to miss any of that, click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. Till next time, guys. Here we go, Steelers. [Music]
Steelers Talk by Chat Sports goes live on Tuesday, November 11th, to discuss all the juicy Steelers news and rumors items fans are talking about this week as the Steelers prepare to take on the Cincinnati Bengals at home this Sunday. On today’s show, Jack reacts to the latest Steelers injury news, shares his take on what Head Coach Mike Tomlin had to say at his weekly press conference today in Pittsburgh, and goes over Pittsburgh’s top options at the quarterback positions in 2026 in the free agency, trade, and draft markets as this very well could be Aaron Rodgers’ lone season here in the Steel City, so Omar Khan could very rapidly be back to looking for the right solution to finding the next franchise QB for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the years to come.
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39 comments
Use Dugger, and Peppers, Ramsey at Safety's also Ramsey rotated in slot with Castro, Echols.
Steelers need to go out and get a good Offensive Lineman even a retired one. AND PLEASE sign another wide receiver.
FIRE tomlin immediately.
I lived through the ‘Chuckie’ era in Tampa watching the Buccaneers. Gruden could not put a team together after that SB.
Im curious of why did we draft Will Howard when everybody keeps talking about drafting a QB in the 2026 draft. They could of used that draft pick for something else we needed instead of drafting him. Why not play him if the steelers crash or if we lock up a playoff spot so we can see what he's got
All I know is the Steelers better draft a shit ton of offense next year. I'm talking AT LEAST a round 1QB, WR, OT and maybe another WR in the draft or free agency. This whole " our D is gonna try and hold off Opposing offenses just long enough for our Offense to suck their thumbs HASNT WORKED!
Every coach named is garbage we’ll be drafting great
Aaron Rodgers is NOT an upgrade from Russell Wilson. Just like Tua, Trevor Lawrence would be questionable throwing in cold weather. You DO KNOW they both currently play in Florida, Jack…YOU DO KNOW THAT, RIGHT?? smh
Why don't the Steelers cut Rodgers and put in Skyler Thompson?
Skyler Thompson had a fantastic preseason, had like the most touchdowns, and had damn near 500 yards in preseason…
You're wrong again, Jack…
You don't need a superstar quarterback to win a Super Bowl…
I was born an raised in St.Louis Missouri. I was there when the 99 Rams won their first Super Bowl in franchise history…
Ever heard of a guy named Kurt Warner, Jack?
Kurt Warner was stocking shelves in Iowa a week before he got the call from the Rams to be a backup to Trent Green…nobody even knew who the hell Kurt Warner even was until he went like 9-0 after taking over after Green went down…lol
Not to say Skyler is anything like Kurt Wanrer but, it is a perfect example to look at what you got, FIRST BEFORE going somewhere else…
They signed another washed up scrub!!!
B
54
Shouldve signes Robert Salah when they had the chance
S. P
Dm
Kyler is too small. And he does NOT like to be hit. REBUILD!
Mason needs a chance. And he knows the system. But Tomlin has NEVER been a fan of Masom and frankly the Steelers have not treated him all that well.
Bengals could very well beat the Steelers again. And you say Rodgers had been better than Russ. Steelers were 10 and 3 until Russ deconstructed. What will you say IF Bengals whip the Steelers again?
ASJ = A
Approve of the changes? I’m ecstatic!!! Welcome back Castro.
AR in 2026 maybe 5/6
100%
W
Don’t we have that strategy already with Rogers and Howard? Why change horses now when we have not seen Howard. It seems we have much more important roster needs for 1 and 2 round pics besides an untried college qb and some older qb as a one year stopgap. Really disagree with you this time.
BS seems like the best option if he comes out AND we can use early pics for other needs like wr (Tate at OSU) or OL help at LT or guard.
Ty Simpson and Aaron Rodgers
There's a reason(s) why Dugger came in on a Tuesday n immediately became a starter, whereas Peppers was on this team way before him n is still a backup. He's cooked. Special teams ace only at this point 🙁
Myers went where he has a better chance to keep his stock treading upwards. I don't hold that against him.
T
Awesome signing good depth n hard hitting option
ATTA BOY, SPERRY! Real 1z
NOW ALL THE STEELERS NEED IS TO PLAY THE NEXT TOM BRADY AT QUARTERBACK – YES, SKYLAR THOMPSON – QUICK READ & RELEASE / CANNON ARM / ALWAYS ON THE MONEY #
Let Howard get a chance draft other quarterback, late round
A
Mason has another year on his contract. Let him cook…or microwave frozen burritos.
One word: needed!
Slay has been a disaster, Thornhill sucks, Elliott’s injury has been a thousand cuts, an Ramsey moving to safety was needed… but no depth after JPJ at CB.
Steelers on their loosing streak a little early, Dam , A trade is not going to save them..
I was at the Sunday night football game. I guess the Chargers 75% of the fans were Steelers fans I never thought that I would watch a game and be so embarrassed. Everybody left with like eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. What’s going on we got so much talent. It’s so sad. We got so many great players there are committed to the Steelersand haven’t won a Super Bowl.
We need another Wr 🤬
a