Steelers roster strengths and concerns heading into final preseason game

[Music] welcome to the underground the Steel City Underground the black and gold standard for Pittsburgh Steelers coverage now here's your host Joe kozma and Brian EO hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Steel City Underground podcast my name's Joe Kuba and joining me here to my side my good colleague and pal one Mr Brian e roach Brian how's it going my friend uh I just want to say thank you to the the individual who figured out it was Derek Tusa oh man I mean that was a deep that was a deep dive I forgot about Derek tuska tuska tuska myself yeah that was uh that that was something yeah kudos for sure because that was a name that escaped me you know it it goes back to you know a lot of the things that are going on right now with the preseason and getting yeah you have some of your favorites hopefuls guys that you would like to see pan out a little more I mean we we beat around the bush on that whole thing we even came up with Anthony chicolo I'd long forgotten about there's some names that just have not surfaced for a long time had a pretty cool article over on the website the other day Brian about just like some under maybe underrated underappreciated not talked about players overlooked players on the Steelers roster 2o and I was talking about guys like Dean Lowry I think he may come up in our last conversation but somebody else like mentioned when I did the solo show I didn't talk about Dean Lowry at all and I'm like yeah you got a 30-year-old dude that's an 8-year NFL veteran he has played in 120 games 84 starts don't talk about him whatsoever and like isn't that kind of weird I mean it just is and I'm like I I don't know that he's going to make the roster but if they keep enough defensive lineman in the way they kept guys like Wendell Smallwood for example he never got to see the field but there were guys now that you could put on the practice squad or stash in case of emergency maybe Lowry is like one of those guys and we're going to hammer around and see some of the strengths and concerns of different position groups but he was one of the players Julius woff who got the play a lot because pton Wilson got the concussion he's been playing a lot he's played the most snaps in the preseason of anybody on the entire roster any side of the football and this dude is what 66265 is an inside linebacker he's an international pathway player of which we haven't mentioned at all he's the 91st spot of a 90 man roster so they use that he's he's a freaking nature I mean but is he going to make the roster I don't know um might as well mention the other two while I'm at it Ja Jack ketto who we have mentioned Arthur Smith wanting to do some jumbo sets eye formation fullback will he be the guy he was with the San Francisco 49ers in ner camp and just for a short spell last year so just minimal NFL experience he's not quite rookie but still kind of a rookie in ways and then uh one other one Ryan Watts who was the sixth round pick this year uh defensive back we're thinking safety but he's kind of like that dimeb backer role special teams player I've been impressed with him what from what I've seen particularly special teams he's done decent against the same level of competition throughout the preseason so these are the kind of guys that are filling out the bottom of the roster or maybe practice squad that may become contributors but we also have some other are of concern heading into this show so I'm going to let you pick which group we should start with because there are some we can talk about till the cows come home and then there are some that we don't have a whole lot to say about well let's just bite into the deep meat [Music] quarterback well that is the Deep meat How concerned that sounds terrible wait I want to rephrase that let's just bite into the Big Apple the bite apple I don't know the Deep meat or the oh that's dirty I don't like it the juicy the the juicy meat the meat that's they're sizzled of that steak Brian something is any word that you put in front of meat and say you're gonna bite into it without actually having a big steak in front of you doesn't sound good yeah okay well my friend quarterbacks what um after that preseason game does that pre number one I asked this question this was the topic of at the last show are people overreacting over the quarterback situation based on that preseason game against the bills I say yes I say it's a huge overreaction um I I I will say you this as as we we've you said this because I watched at least the first half of the last episode um you you mentioned that we have consistently said fool me once shame on me fooled me twice with the the whole preseason concept right they were amazing last year and we were like oh my God they're going to win 16 17 games they're so great uh they stink this year um that doesn't mean that they're going to stink when the season rolls around is there reason for concern I yeah sure we should be concerned and and worried to a to a minimal like we should be like I don't like what I'm seeing but um I don't think we have to be overreacting going the sky is falling It's The End um we won't know until the real gam start absolutely I like the way Russell Wilson handles these pressers and stuff he said there's no worries people were asking about we'll talk about offensive line here maybe we'll do that next rodric Jones bad day in the office for sure but Wilson says he's one of the reasons I came here of course because when he was in Seattle he didn't have an offensive line he was lobbying the GM he was trying to rumors that he tried to get that GM fired we talked about all the diva stuff with Russell Wilson and he's been anything but right now it seems like he's been trying to clean up his image you know but you know Russ get we talked about these guys both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields taking forever to throw the football they're among the longest in the NFL to do it last year Justin Fields had the most time of any quarterback to get rid of the ball so his line was doing an okay job whether everybody else was is a whole other story and now in the preseason he's had the mo he's had an ample amount of time too I believe somebody else had that statistic like a Pro Football Focus or whatever guys just got to get rid of the ball some of that might be the Growing Pains of a new offensive coordinator a new offensive system across the whole board we saw Kelvin Austin have a false start maybe the Cadence isn't there etc etc but we also saw a very close play that could become common place down the field to George pickets you have that one play and it counts his his toes in like an extra inch or so and it's inbounds and touches green we're not having maybe the same conversation maybe they go down to the Red Zone and score which was also a failure these last few weeks no matter who was the quarterback Kyle Allen over growing Austin once again those you know those kind of things so I'm not like we're let's put it this way this game against the Lions 1:00 in Detroit we're not going to have any more to like observe at least probably with I don't know that they have it said but I don't think we're going to see Russell Wilson we might not see a whole lot of even Justin fields for that matter maybe they might give him a half give him some more development he needs to carve these people up like people keep thinking that this is like a competition it's like Wilson's going to be the week one one starter if Tomlin had Mitch Tris as his week one guy over Kandy picket then there's no there's no ifans or buts about it you know what I mean and it's it hasn't been a compet it hasn't been a competition really no it's not a competition it was never going to be a competition we knew that from the beginning um you know any the only people who thought realistically it was going to be a competition are people who just wanted to stir up talk um we knew it was going to be this way I think as I said last time around I think the Steelers are thrilled that they got a chance to see Justin Fields they get a sense of Justin fields in in certain scenarios I don't know they're thrilled with what they saw but I'm I'm 100% certain they're thrilled with how this preseason has played out we'll we'll know when we get into the first real game we're not you know third preseason game we already know we're not seeing a lot of anything right you can't you know this is this is the guys who are trying to find out Can Am I bagging groceries next week or am I you you know playing am I on the practice squad there you know or am I previewing myself for another team uh to somebody to pick me up you know you're going to see the bottom group of guys on the roster trying to make their case for their spot you we might because this is a little bit of a different offseason for the Steelers we might see some first string reps um not with Russell but with Justin um initially in the first quarter but you know you get past the first quarter it's you're just gonna the other stuff yeah and you know what I'm not overly concerned I I'm I think the first few games when it comes to Russell Wilson I think it's still going to be a feeling out period all the way around it's always ugly it's always an extension of the preseason because you're not putting you're not going to put TJ watt or Alex heith out there and risk them getting hurt we know what the record for the Steelers is without watt you're not going to put a 30 a guy you're paying 30 million a year uh for out there and risk him getting injured and I think there's similar concern maybe with do it too much with Russ and of course Russ I think had some Russ there's some Jitters you had some of the offensive linemen in different spots are playing all together for the first time really too because I think what samalo and Daniels both didn't play that first preseason game so a lot of those things are they're going to work themselves out if they give these guys enough time people are talking about well Russell Wilson isn't as elusive as he once was well that might be true at 35 years of age but doesn't mean he's not elusive whatsoever and my problem with fields and the only concern with really with Fields is you see him like the the play to Dez Fitzpatrick for example like you could you could see it you could see flashes I don't there was a time when Kenny picket used to anticipate and then they started to get away from that he got too much Happy Feet and I See Fields a lot of times he's got to stand in the pocket and make the reads and sometimes he doesn't come back to the reads or he Stars down some of them a little too long there there's still things that I think are coachable for Fields so no I'm not concerned he's just a backup those things can could probably still get cleaned up maybe hopefully get cleaned up and you do have an alternative at least if Russell Wilson is no good you know what I mean so and the other thing is the the biggest take away from this is as far as concerned and nobody wants to hear this because we wait all year long for NFL season but the Steelers aren't tied to either one of these guys Beyond this season they are not no so you know what I mean if it sucks then you wipe the SL clean this isn't like a Cleveland Brown situation where they have like a $66 million a year cap hit for the next three years with DeShaun Watson and they can't get rid of it because it's all guaranteed money you're you are hitch to that guy for three years and some of these other teams like the Jaguars with Trevor Lawrence the dolphins with Tua even the Bengals with Joe burrow for that matter he's got to stay healthy at least you have a little bit of insight that this guy was a dude in college and he got these guys to the AFC Championship Game twice in a Super Bowl appearance at least you got that to hang your hat on can you do it again blah blah blah you know what I mean uh we'll talk about AFC North teams later but quarterback mildly concerning we're looking for I mean I was thinking about this this morning working out okay we are we are Beyond we are beyond the days of Ben rothberger he could extend plays he did some stuff that was backyard football and on the run will you see that from Russ sure will you see that from Justin sure but Ben was Big Ben for a reason that dude it was like seeing Bettis leave and we didn't know how to appreciate how people just it looked like his uniform was made out of rubber and Defenders just bounced off of them the same thing with Big Ben those days are long gone with any other quarterback that comes around unless you get somebody that's like another Big Ben and they just that they don't exist they don't exist how many how many guys in NFL history can you say were as a loive as Ben rothberger I mean you got Lamar Jackson but he's a different kind of elusive yeah I was gonna say use a different term elusive just say hard to bring down yeah because Ben wasn't terribly elusive right in the sense that he you know he would sometimes PE as you said people would bounce off of him he was just hard as hell to get on the ground yeah I agree hey let's jump the offensive line since that's a big component of the quarterbacks right how concerned are you about let's start with Zack Frasier uh I let me let me say this overall I said this early on we have a we have we have a brand new offensive line they need to work together they need to Jael together you got two rookies and a guy who may be a second-year guy on on the line that's three out of your five guys who are young that's great in the sense that they can grow together but the first couple three games might be hideously ugly until they start to get that in that synchronicity am I concerned about Zack Frasier no I'm more concerned that we don't really have anything behind Zack Frasier now um a lot you know but am I concerned about Zach no not I know and it it was bothering me some that they were calling uh if you're not familiar now Nate herbig officially on IR but you got guys like Ian Rapaport saying projected starter it's like come on guys he was not going to be the starter he' already kind of he was already losing ground to Um Zack Frasier at this point which I got to point this out uh I had to pull it up for you Brian but when we like them when we like them we'll they'll support our cause Pro Football Focus Zack Frasier this preseason 80.7 pass blocking snaps 42 P pass blocking oh that's his rating uh 42 pass blocking snaps and zero pressures allowed he's pretty he's doing pretty damn good and he gets second I I gotta go take a shower we I I I know you said we use them when we when we when we we like what they say but now I feel dirty and I have to go take a shower you know I'm down being down in Southern Ohio I I caught like this car dealer local car dealer ad uh down in Cincinnati I was down in Cincinnati area over the weekend and Chris Collins worthless was in one of the ads and I'm like who in her right mind thinks that's going to sell you more cars I know he's like probably like one of the more named Bengals guys of all time but you know he owns Pro Football Focus so that's the tie in here folks but Zack Frasier um yeah I mean Zack Fraser is great and I should say strength or concern right now the concern is pass blocking right run blocking looks pretty darn good with these guys when you have Fraser getting second level s wallo James Daniels now you go to the tackles How concerned are we at the tackle positions of Dan Moore Roger Jones and Troy fanu a little concerned I think I'm nervous there you go but I'm not I don't I don't know that I'm concerned I'm like I'm like the shelter dog that looks at people and like I'm not sure about you but at the same time really would like a pet you know please come give me a treat and a pet um I want them to be good right I think that eventually they will be but right now uh I I think the greatest area of risk probably is on those edges yep and with fanu not getting that time he's not going to be on the field right now and um that's that means Dan Moore is gonna be the left tackle they're not gonna play him on the right how much does that screw at brri brri was good on the right side last year he was adequate enough I'm not as concerned and like I said there were other things that factored into that game weather delay no warm-ups just going out there kind of cold first series especially things of that nature that yeah that can happen in a regular season but I doubt it will uh just another little side note about the quarterbacks the Steelers and the Patriots are the only two teams have yet as of right now as we're talking have not officially named a week one starting quarterback which I do find odd that kind of leads to the speculation of a quarterback battle but again it we all assume it's just Wilson we know that Mike Tomlin he keeps that stuff in his back pocket all the time so I wouldn't read too much into it right now agreed agreed okay but the tackles concerned probably nervous I like the shelter dog analogy that's pretty good we're just hoping that fanu can play on the right side and be a right tackle if not does that mean Jones we know Jones can play both uh presumably so maybe that won't be an issue if they do have to put fanu back on the other side but Jones was drafted last year and moved up to get him in order to play on the left I don't think Jones should be in any bust conversations or anything of the like I think that's just silly talk right now and that that's where I'm going to leave it speaking on the rest of the Steelers offense at this time too tight ends of running backs I think the only concern that we might have Brian is Jaylen Warren tweaked to Hammy that's about it I don't have concerns at either of those two positions uh to be completely honest Naji Harris we haven't really seen a lot out of C darl Patterson but I'm not really worried about him he's here to be a kick returner and you have Pat fouth you have Darnell Washington Washington was looking a little sluggish in pass blocking too the other day he had his moments there was one where they ran the football uh they got behind I think he was over on the right side and they got behind like Jones and I'm trying to think who was on that side it might have been Mason McCormack at that point or might have been Daniels I I don't recall uh but I'm not as worried about those two groups no I'm not I don't I'm again I'm more worried about depth with Jaylen Warren hurting his hamstring than I am about Jaylen Warren or Naji Harris when he's back I'm not worried um I'm worried a little bit about depth I'm not worried about the tight ends they are who they are I had a statistic of why not the worry too uh through the last several games of the season last last year the Mason Rudolph era Steelers getting into the playoffs Naji Harris ended up getting over a thousand yards on the season in the last game playing some backups against Baltimore Ravens who had the one seed locked up and they were resting some starters and let me see so Harris's uh both of his 100 yard games came in the final two games of last season he had 122 and 112 yards that was against the Seahawks against the Ravens over the final three games games he had four rushing touchdowns 312 yards 4.3 yards per attempt on 72 carries this is a guy that's never missed a game in his NFL career he has been playing a 17 Game season which it was established when he first came in this was with bad quarterbacks Matt Canada as his offensive coordinator and also playing with um Dan Moore Jr and also Kendrick green and some other Nota you go through like a 12pack of soda pop we need to call it pop that's what we do polar it's polar I swear I hear it go it's over there it's not as quiet as a church mouse let me tell you but anyways it is not I have no concerns about niji Harris having to carry the load the full way even when he was a little bit dinged up he seems to get better as the season goes on too and I think that Arthur Smith uh is going to just kind of he's going to hammer The Rock he's going to run the football I think that's going to be the identity of this team we just haven't seen enough of it I think the offensive line is probably going to be better as um Road pavers as as opposed to even pass protection so if you're not relying on Justin R Russ to throw the ball 45 50 times I think I have if we are relying on that we're in deep doodo we are wide receivers are the guys they got to throw it to not concerned about George pick whatsoever how about everybody else I am concerned yes I'm I'm concerned about everybody else who specifically because Roman Wilson I'm concerned isn't going to get on the field for quite some time I I just think that's not going to happen now van Jefferson I think is going to be a pleasant surprise he's not going to put up Antonio Brown Martavis Bryant Juju Smith Schuster type numbers speaking of which that name coming up would you take Juju back do what what would he add to this team somebody said he has knees that was the number one thing can he can he pass a physical if he can pass a physical um would I take him back I don't know it's not even fair to say he knows the system anymore right um I mean I like gu gu but he's he is one of a many many in a long line of receivers who left here and basically did nothing um so you know if he comes back is he gonna suddenly do something again I maybe maybe not um I I don't know I I don't think it improves anything let's put it that way you add juj gu to the team I don't think you've suddenly gone we fixed the problem Oh Juju is the savior no that's not the case yeah I'm totally with you on that one uh he just adds experience he adds a guy that can maybe move the chains I mean he's a little versatile he's older now and he really hasn't stuck anywhere that he's been and we're also talking about getting released and the Patriots eating some money in the process with probably the worst wide receiver room in football or one of the worst wide receiver rooms in football name somebody else in that room right now you know what I mean so it's not that's not a great sign and it didn't seem like anybody else was really sniffing around I I would I don't know that I put him out there with no camp now ahead of somebody like a van Jefferson risk cutting like a Scotty Miller who seems to get open and have a little bit of report could do some things if they have to throw Scotty Miller out there ahead of like let's say Kelvin Austin just doesn't get the job done or Roman Wilson can't get out there I think Scotty Miller provided he makes this team will be okay I think they got to get somebody else where I was looking at special teams I was looking at the punt coverage Johnson can like boom these kicks I got to get somebody out there that can like play Gunner and just get downfield that's fast and that was like a miles Boyen or something so I I don't know that they're done adding to this wide receiver room and boy can add some size too somebody's going to tackle Scotty Miller is not going to not going to do it against some of these guys you know they did have him back for one of the punt returns I think uh the other day so they're kind of triing him in that area too and seeing if he could be like a return guy but I still think they need somebody that can cover I don't think they're done with that room is it going to be a Brandon iuk I'm so tired of hearing about it that dude I don't think is leaving San Francisco he's a long line of guys that cry about their contract and want to stay in their current situation but make more money that's what it boils down to he's trying to use other teams for leverage I don't think John Lynch the GM of the 49ers is interested in getting rid of him I don't think Kyle Shanahan's interested in getting rid of him I know they drafted Ricky peaw who's now was dinged up another rookie that's in a similar situation of like a Roman Wilson they're not gonna be able to just throw him on the field and be able to replace auk so I don't think auk's on the table somebody else might get be a uh like a roster casualty somewhere else around the league before you see any movement on any of that but I don't know that that movement's going to be the Pittsburgh and I don't think he's the Savior for this wide receiver core either I think George Pickins is the savior and I think we see somebody else probably overachieve from what we're expecting right now whether that be Jefferson or Austin and that overachieving doesn't have to be a whole lot they're going to run the football Jaylen Warren I think had the second most receptions on this team last year he's going to be involved especially when you're talking about Wilson or Fields they hold on to the ball too long maybe they don't make the reads they're going to look for that checkdown that also means Pat frith so those type of things help help me rest a little easier at night when I go to sleep instead of thinking wow they need like two dudes that could be wide receiver ones I'm cooling my heels on that especially 30 28 to 30 million a year yep with you 100% jump the defense defensive line any concerns whatsoever I I me I I I I mean generally speaking no but there is there's like this hint of a concern subtextually right there's this there's this hint of yeah we got a couple old dudes there and what happens if if you know this is as last year cam got hurt Larry's always hurt but always plays what happens if this is the year that that degrades a little bit I don't know am I concerned no but um I I there's this yeah there's like there's like this thing in the back of the head that's like going what about this that preseason game the defensive lines on both sides were giving everybody hell they probably making all the offensive lineman throw fits for the bills in the Steelers because ogga Joby was having a good game Betton was getting back there we saw de Marvin Leal I think is really turning a corner now too Isaiah louder book's kind of on the lower end of this we mentioned Dean Lowry being the veteran that he is but he's there if there's dep or they need like they they keep seven guys because when I did this 53 man exercise I'm trying to find somewhere to put John Reese plumbley Jr plumbley because I I think he's like a slash he's an athlete he's somebody but does he make the 53 probably still a long shot unless he's going to be a straight up uh kick returner or something of that nature they they're throwing them passes they have them running the ball Jack keto's kind of doing the same thing as a fullback there's there's a few lower roster spots that are still TBD right overall though I I don't mind the depth that they've got here you'd ever want to see somebody yeah I think cam will still be more well cam will not play at the level he did last year I don't think I think that's for sure the previous two years with double digit sacks does he return to that level 35y oldy between probably yeah somewhere in between which is still going to be better than a lot of the guys that are out there in the National Football League so uh that's where I'm at with the defensive line I'm trying to think if I miss somebody here uh let me take a look real quick dep chart OG Joby bton Hayward Lowry oh Mont trivus Adams he's he's pretty solid too I think he seems to get get better and better and better and better I think like I I I'm still decently impressed with him for being a guy that was poached to fill just fill a spot after they took him off the Saints practice squad a couple of years ago so he's kind of like a shelter dog it go to the well how many times going to go out to go to the well before we take you out back to the shed I'm going to I'm going to say it at least four four more times uh in this episode maybe not that that works well what this folks Brian Eduardo roach he'll be here all week don't forget to try the vi that's not my name I called you something like that on the last show but you didn't listen Eduardo is what you did call me yes Eduardo we'll find another one maybe I use Ebenezer so we'll keep going Landon would be a good one that's that begins with a proud to be Brian El Landon it make me sound I sound like I'm from Lord of the Rings you do Brian El Landon roach of Middle Earth it sounds very very very uh Regal it sounds I like it Patrick Queen is a Regal name too or linebackers Al Landon Roberts oh what do we got here what do you got what is that a box oh a bobblehead nice nice nice nice nice the promoting product that we're not even promoting that's that's you know hey that's okay sold out anyway you can't get it anyway so who cares that was one of the FCO limited editions wasn't it yeah yeah F FCO always does some good stuff they've been good friends over the years somewhere back here on the on the set no longer have Kenny but I do have the Franco sitting there Franco Harris commemorative one so that's a little somber because when that one came that was like it just passed and it was like within that same like week and I was like I was so excited to get it and it was like man I look at it it was just like a reminder and that's that sucks I wish he would have lived the scene his you know day in the spotlight but yep anyways back on to the we were mentioning a couple of inside inside linebackers any con I don't think this concerns me as much as it did even a year ago you could never have enough enough depth here but I mentioned the German he's probably so far down the depth chart he might be a practice squad guy think he could even fill in Patrick Queen flies to the ball Payton Wilson maybe to the detriment of his own health flies to the ball um you've got Alon Roberts a thumper a leader Cole hul to be determined should he be able to come back be healthy and play at the level that he was starting to really find his Groove before he got hurt that's a lot of dudes and you still got Tyler matak cavage who's going to be a special teamer Mark Robinson it's probably going to be a special teamer Mark Robinson has looked good I mean he's looked better I've been happy with his progress in the preseason I'm not concerned about this group I mean if it if all fails it's because of like the same situation of last year you can't prepare for getting three or four Dudes hurt and then having to pull people off the street that that's the difference Patrick Queen makes right last year we knew we had hul we knew we had Landon Roberts and then we had other guys right but we were still like well it all depends we you don't know we'll see what they're like the last three years it's always been like question question Patrick Queen is there now all of a sudden it's like yeah I don't care we're good yeah I'm with you on that one and that's about where I'll let that one uh rest because Queen should be in every down back Wilson could be in every down back I was actually debating they probably won't play with the nose tackle but I was like they could almost play like a three four a lot of teams are going to play three wide receiver type sets so you you don't ideally want to put Queen on a wide receiver or you get stuck with Roberts out there but push comes to shove capable you'll see the outside line I saw herbig do it the other day actually just the same way the TJ does and man I so impressed with Nick Nick herbig is you got to find some more ways to get this dude on the field I he's been doing tremendous he looks great I know it's JV sometimes and he's JV but he's playing at a varsity level against these JVS I'd like to see what he does at a varsity level and we got to see a little bit of that last season too but then again you already got TJ Watt and Alex High Smith Marcus golden retired we don't know if Leal would be like that fourth outside linebacker or if there's somebody else that they would add that's just the only concern there again is depth you have anything sign somebody didn't they just signed somebody to be an outside linebacker not anybody of consequence I know but I mean it's it's it's like that point in time where we signed we're just at the point where they're like signing people and you know they're going to be around probably um unless they can find somebody else I I'm still concerned about the outside linebacker depth at this point but I'm not concerned about the top three uh linebacker Kaa Kaa Kaza to Zeno I don't know how to say the dude's first name k y a h v a Caya or Caya to Zeno I think is maybe the pronunciation for that that is one where this is another guy that I'm I'm gonna go remember when we had that guy no you won't I I don't even know that some of these guys to be honest they're they're feeling spots on the roster right now they might not even be in this preseason game and then they're going to be gone as fast as they were here Marcus Haynes a defensive lineman as we go into the DBS and the corners kind of called this one Anthony Everett gone he had his chance at first pre season game and completely blew it I think Cory tce has played well enough that he's going to be the third uh the next guy off the bench behind Dante Jackson Joey Porter Jr and then of course uh Darius Darius rush it hasn't been bad uh you know you could complain where you may want but then you're just kind of the old man yelling at clouds in some of these preseason games rush rush put it this way no no worse than um James Pierre you know you're looking at something like that so Everett we kind of were talking about that there might be somebody else that come comes along I think we're morly concerned about probably the biggest concern anywhere else on the roster correct me if I'm wrong or if you have a different thought Brian but nickel Corner the guy that's going to cover in the slot uh yeah you because you thought it was going to be fixed and it's not um I I think that is the probably the number one issue that there is uh yeah definitely definitely the number one issue they could still see they still see him Omar Khan adding somebody I mean You' got guys like trace and rush but I think those players as we know are best suited to playing on the boundary right they're going to play on the outside they're not going to cover in the slot I don't think you're going to put them on tight ends running back put that picture back up yeah he got in there first of all that is a serious looking ref look at that guy he's like he is focused in he is he is just he's like yes I'm that's a good thing though Brian he's got to be there he's watching it you know he's he's looking through the play he's in a good position because this C this the camera is at an angle right so he is right there to be able to make the call I mean the one that made the call and Charlie bat saying it wasn't a catch for pickings I almost called bull [ __ ] on that one like in real time how the hell can you you know and Bob pompan is just going along with it with the local broadcast and I'm kind of like how the hell can you make that determination the thing I had with Rush here was he plays the ball really well I was like get your head around man we don't want uh pass interference because you just never know you'll get riveron remember riveron Al riveron all we used to talk about oh my goodness it's just everything went against the Steelers uh Tom couldn't win challenges somebody brought that up St statistically somewhere on the X and they were talking about how you know Tomlin kind of been bullied into submission to not challenge plays because he couldn't win when Al riveron was in the command center for two or three years y but yeah rush so we'll come back full circle here so uh but just one second when I was at Friday Night Lights I'm trying to think it was was it one of the side judges line judges his name was Dwayne we'll put it that way we looked him up because they all have numbers they have unique uniform numb Dwayne um you know d a n e and he was cool he came over like so we saw him like warming up and I looked up the name and do the old thing that embarrassed me the same thing I did at Kevin cber at a Penguins playoff game you see people walking out of the club my C cousin's like that's Kevin Colbert I'm like no it's not he's like yeah it is and it's like how else do you know Hey Kevin and there's nobody else in the hallway and it like Bellows down the hall he turns around he's like with his wife or whatever then you're like oh [ __ ] what do I do next didn't have a follow-up to it well the same thing happens with this with this referee he comes over and it was funny I don't know if I told the story already so forget me if I'm a broken record but he comes over and we're like yeah we know our referees we love our referees no we just have a smartphone we looked you up your uniform number real quick but we're asking him he loved the new kickoff rule he thought it was pretty cool he's ping around but yeah these guys were doing the full thing they were relaxed they weren't wearing like the full uniform you know they had shorts on CU it's like a practice so that's their informal gear but yeah these guys are always like they're in fantastic FC shape they're checking the field even the field that is at the latro Memorial Stadium they're walking around they're looking making sure the pylons are where they need to be is there padding on the field goal post like all the things you wouldn't think of as a normal human being there just being a fan watching an attendance we asked him where he was week one and he nearly like he went to start talking and he goes I can't tell you that I'm like but you do know you do have your assignments already so I thought it was intriguing that they already had them CU some of these things week to week or they might move the crews or you don't want conflicts so the the scheduling for them is just as difficult to make sure you don't have the same referees you at most you might see the same crew twice in a season just because there aren't enough to go around for 17 games so I thought that was kind of intriguing so yeah the the referees we we [ __ ] on them all the time right but for that one I'm going to say dude was right there and he didn't throw a flag on it that I recall Darius rush I think made a great play so right since you said his name is Dwayne I'm just telling you that all I can hear is Bruce Willis going I'm not the one who just got bleepity bleeped on national TV Dwayne no and I think of Dwayne are automatically default to Bob newart and Daryl Daryl and Daryl my brother Daryl and my other brother Daryl yeah Dwayne Dwayne Dwayne and Dwayne but anyways back okay now back after the little referee thing that was there and uh speaking of the challenge thing it should be a little less um what you want to say apprehension for Tomlin to challenge now because you don't have to win both of them to get one back you just have to be right on one of the two to get a third challenge I think that's going to be helpful this year I I really don't feel that the coaches do it out of spite or the only reason it' be a tactic is if you have like a 50-50 call and you were going to call a timeout anyway and you're going to use it like and give your team give your team a blow right so um so that should be less apprehensive for Mike Tomlin in giving some challenges this year so before it was just like if you use it there were I think there was uh you you use it you lose it and then you don't have anymore but if you do get successful on one of the two now you don't have to be successful on both of it you don't have to be you don't have to be right all the time it puts a little more onus on the officiating but it also helps I think the officiating and the teams and makes it more fair and balanced that was that's completing my thought slot Corner beanie Bishop does not get out there he gets dinged up in one The Joint practices he doesn't play now I know this dude had five or six years of college two three different colleges he played for he's one of these guys with the co exceptions he got one more year of that this year they just had um what's his name Nagi that runs the Senior Bowl was on NFL Network today they're going to have the largest class at the Senior Bowl I think they have a list of up to 600 potential players this time and that's because they're also bringing in Specialists and they're allowed to have Junior play in the All-Star games now so there's like there's a lot of considerations going out there plus you got a lot of dudes that are still in their fifth or sixth year eligibility from all the co stuff so this the last year you're going to see like the bow nickes that end up being like the van Wilders of the world or and Tommy Boy is another one a lot of people go to college for eight years yeah they're doctors and lawyers so yeah I don't think uh I don't think you can call it the Senior Bowl anymore than if Juniors and seniors can be there you have to call it the Junior Senior Bowl yeah think well and if you if you lose sponsorship for Reese's you just don't want to call it just the Reese's Bowl because then it could be it could be change we we know that from hfield so which people is there a senior Senior Bowl then if there's a Junior Senior Bowl is there needs to be a senior Senior Bowl the senior senior the red shirt bowl or something yeah uh anyway uh B Bishop has a lot of he's you know he's older he's more mature he's more experienced than some of guys that would be undrafted free agents coming out of college but he's still an undrafted rookie that's out there your players that you TR Thomas or grayan Arnold got hurt and then um I lost the dude's name again I was looking for this the other day it's Thomas Graham Jr who has played Safety or something like that nickel corner it's it's not concerning for one reason CU we know they might only play a quarter of the game somewhere between 20 and 30% of the game you know Sutton's going to be around for the second half of the year but these games still count until he returns so they need to have somebody out there that is credible that could hold down the fort and I don't know that they have that yet that's the concern yes I agree with that okay so I still think they'll add to it safety depth I don't know that there's a concern here I told you about Watts I like this depth but you've got Minka you got the Shawn Elliot you got the Monte KY and if they play more safety heavy packages and have those guys on the field then maybe the nickel Corner thing a moot point yep yep I'm not worried there either they had uh cam Sutton playing some safety in Camp miles kber we saw picked off Mitch trabis that was fun so Miles kerw could get at it if need be and he's the special team's Ace any concerns about special teams all right well you know of course we're concerned about the punter because we're always concerned about the punter the punter wait oh wait a minute I'm not concerned muscle memory I'm sorry it's muscle memory I like I can't not say we're concerned about the punter for how many years have we been concerned about the punter but we're not we're not concerned about the punter I am not concerned about the punter either I am so less concerned about the punter that I went and sought out uh getting him to sign the kicker ball the guys who anybody who puts their foot on the ball this guy is he's going to be a good one it's like overlooking Queen so glad I am so glad that Bill Burr you know retired from Comedy to come be our punter it's just it's awesome I know dude I wish I had a photo of him without his helmet on I know I had one somewhere in the archives here but I just I don't have it pulled up or set up here uh but yeah he does look like Bill Burr 100% of the way um I just realized too was going cycling through these photos I didn't go through offensive line depth but I'm not we said we were already concerned just Center but they got a couple guys that can play guard I don't know about tackle dep it shouldn't be a depth problem L fanu is not healthy but on the Specialists uh Boswell misses you know a kick is very a field goal attempt is very un Boswell like and is that just Jitters for the preseason I'm hoping so it's just one of those things where when everything's going wrong everything's going to go wrong and in that game everything was ugly except for Cameron Johnston I I I will worry about BOS when I need to worry about BOS I mean we know the truth right it happened with Jeff Reed it happens with all of them it happens with all of them one day nothing works anymore yeah I don't know what it is it's there's some kind of environmental link to the moon the phases of the moon and then the kicker all of a sudden can't kick um he's been kicking he's been the greatest kicker since slice you know since ever and BOS has been awesome BOS has been awesome even when he was hurt he was awesome BOS has been awesome but at some point whatever it is whatever witchcraft allows them to do what they do um their deal with the devil ends and they stink yep I'm with you I'm not worried about boss so I do think uh the the only other spot to be concerned about maybe is your returners I have not seen cordello Patterson I wonder if that's just one of those things where this is a veteran and we know what he could do and we're not going to show the rest of the league yet what we're going to do but it's a whole new kickoff rule I don't know if it was just a camp thing and now they're working on it behind closed doors unless there's a drone that flies up and then they have to put the wall up like they did at The Practice Facility speaking of which JJ Watt being down there too was pretty cool uh he was down there what I think one or two days he's working out with the team and helping coach Mike Tomlin even tweeted it out which was neat and it's just like and he said he was going to keep his phone on one more year that's an interesting little blurb that's out there it's like I don't know like do we really need JJ Watt in this rotation it's like come play with your brother dude just for fun we need him no but it'd be fun look it would be fun let let's let's put it this way what if Russell and Justin both stink well if that happens we stink right if we stink and somebody gets hurt why wouldn't you just call just come hang out and play with TJ for or you know the rest of the year why not yeah I think yeah I no that'd be fun I'd be pretty hyped up about it uh you know he might have to uh barter with Ogen Joby over um that number 99 Jersey but yeah back to kick and punt returners I have no idea I just don't think they have it's not it's not sold on me aside from Patterson who's not going to return punts so is it going to be Calvin Austin is it going to be Scotty Miller is it going to be somebody else TBD John Ree plumbley another riding back I mean Godwin auab who was returning these last year I was just doing the the season recall for that final Ravens game last year remember when he laid out of bounds and then touched the short the kick that was fielded short uh that was awesome but you have all new kick return rules Etc and I just don't know who's on this roster it's not like you have like a third a defined third running back you have Patterson that's it and he's going to be the guy but for all of these setups so far through the season you've had two guys that have been back there to cover the cover the area in that Landing zone so I I am a little bit concerned with the return teams the coverage teams have been a mixed bag because you have a lot of the dudes that are going to be playing on those teams playing a lot of time in the actual game itself whereas they won't be when you get to the regular season so maybe they won't be maybe they maybe they're working into football shape and they're not there and they're tired in coverage maybe that's not as concerning and I know that Danny Smith does a hell of a job as the special teams coach so I I don't I alleviate some of that concerns coaching this is the intangible we don't talk about enough how much are you worried about Mike tomman as a head coach I'm not at all regular season or postseason I I'm gonna be honest with you I'm not worried about him even the postseason I don't believe coaching has cost us the postseason victories um that we've lost you know you look back there's always you you've hit on it a million times there's always something else going on I it's ultimately it's the head coach's responsibility but it let's let's say that finally the stars align and we get to postseason in a healthy state where we're not dependent on a third string quarterback or a second string running back or combination thereof where we don't we aren't missing the best defensive player in the league uh or something like that let's say that we get there I think you know then I'm I'm not worried in the least I'm not I'm not even worried with in either case Mike Tomlin gets more out of bad players than anybody I've ever seen yeah including those quarterbacks he's had the last few years including just pulling people off the street to play in the secondary which we saw the year before last against the Buccaneers he just he got look what he got out of Eric row look what he got out of Miles Jack eventually you're going to hit the wall Buffalo healthier team and mistake free for the most part like the stars still made mistakes but now let let's talk about the others I don't have a concern about Terell Austin or the defensive staff I don't have a concern about Danny Smith but there's people now that have turned their head in this preseason about Arthur Smith was he the was he the right choice is this offense going to look any different Etc and I think with the play calling I think when you're not gamling for an opponent and attacking specific weaknesses they're running plays to see specific things how they work in a game setting or in a situational setting I don't think I I don't think any of this with Arthur Smith uh has any validity to it any of the criticisms that are already coming out where people are worried I know people are looking ahead the week one against the Falcons they're like oh man I don't know the Steelers you know they had this chocked up to a victory already but now I don't know I actually heard somebody say that on Steelers Nation radio one of the hosts and I'm like you had that chocked up already how can you have that chocked up nobody knows who these teams are right now you're going to look at this in like November and be like man I had a lot of these teams wrong and then some of these teams are going to turn it around and end up making the playoffs look where the Steelers were when they lost to the two- win Patriots the two- win Cardinals they had Mitch trabis as their quarterback and you're like I wrote this team off and then they make the playoffs you know so you you don't know until it's all said and done so uh I talked about muscle memory and being concerned about things uh after the the last I don't even know how many years maybe since Todd Haley um and even the last maybe a year or two of Todd Haley uh I'm conditioned to be concerned about the offensive coordinator until you prove that I don't need to be concerned about the offensive coordinator I will be concerned about the offensive coordinator yep I mean that's fair enough until you see it prove me wrong right yep are you and overall for the season are you concerned about the season I mean I always get like the it's the nervous Jitters the anxiousness but I don't I think the Steelers and you talk about Mike Tomlin I know people will [ __ ] and complain about the no losing Seasons thing but it holds a lot of validity in what he gets out of a lot of these players if he can finally get a team that's healthy I do think that the Steelers will be able to run the football I do think that're offensive line will be improved it might take some time I don't know that the quarterback position is going to blow us out of the water but I do think that like nji Harris or Jaylen Warren are going to be more than what we have seen in years past I think the defense is going to be as good or better than in years past and I think strong defense just take a look at the Cleveland Browns as a as a good example the Browns you expect more out of their offense right they definitely have some pieces there probably pieces that are more name brand than what the Steelers have and then even last season They Carried that whole team with defense the Steelers largely did the same thing with Kenny picket Mitch trabis and then you got Rudolph out there that was able to throw the ball around they had two back-to-back 30-point games I'm not going to say that they're going to put loads of points on the board but I think the additions of like Elliott and Patrick queen and a healthy cam Hayward and you got bon in a second year and pton Wilson Dante Jackson Joey Porter in the second year there's a I mean you still got Minka you still got TJ watt this is a this is a really really really really good group that I don't I think just too much is being honed in on Russell Wilson and Justin fields and they're just ignoring the defense overall I think the defense is going to be able to shut down probably all of these opponents they went 5-1 in the AFC North last year with with less I am not concerned about the defense um I I'm just not I I agree with the defense should be a better group than they were last year and they were good last year um assuming all stays status quo right injuries throw monkey wrench into everything but assuming that people stay healthy I I'm not at all concerned about the defense I I am concerned that the offense may be boring uh may not score as many points as we'd like um but you know the the thing the thing that happened last year and the thing that happens the years when the defense carry us is turnovers tend to come our way right and that's the thing you just never know how those balls are going to bounce that sounds bad too um and you know I just you never know the direct you know we could have I can remember Seasons where we were knocking the balls out we were we were you know TJ stripping stuff and we just didn't get them right every you know tipping dropping interceptions we just weren't getting the turnovers and when we don't get the turnovers then the defense being good doesn't always set us up for victory um and that's one of those unknowns I think the defense is going to be lights out um if they if they can take the ball away if they can score I don't then I'm not worried as much if if it's one of those Seasons where the defense is really good statistically but we're not getting turnovers M I don't know yep just for some reference the offense was 28th in points scored 25th in yards last season the defense was sixth for points in 21st in yards they gave up a lot of yards but did not relinquish a lot of points they were eighth in turnovers the offense was second I didn't really realize how much the offense gave up the ball if you're worried about Wilson protects the football that's why he's going to be the starter right right but Fields maybe not so much but they were still in all of this uh 29th in first downs where the defense was eighth so if we think the defense is better and the offense should be better then you're looking at a better team I understand he got a gauntlet of a schedule thank goodness that part of it is in the second half of the Season where they have some time to marinate and work on some things against maybe not so great opponents and you get a lot of the divisional play they're not going to get like a cheap loss against somebody in a division in like week two because they still hadn't figured out the Run game or something you know what I mean so that for me we'll have some more Brian me me and you will have some time to talk before the first game of the season and look again like we do against the we'll look at the whole schedule put that up against the AFC North and try and figure it out but last year we had everybody with winning records I think when we did it and lo and behold it happened and we said that that isn't like but it happened so we had 13 wins too but we were off a plus or minus three there more than we thought we didn't we didn't pick those two that we should have won yeah well that's absolutely true and that would have that would have skewed things it just makes you wonder if certain players I always wonder what happens if Kenny picket doesn't get hurt and do they still make the playoffs do they still there's a lot of what ifs I'm not going to go into all of that folks don't forget to like comment and sub subscribe leave a rating review wherever you're watching or listening to that's a whole thing like for next season I think people are probably crapping All Over Kenny picket for what happened with the Eagles he he had no time to throw at all in that preseason game the other day too so it was just like everybody's using that to try and justify the trade or or the Steelers dumping them and they just who cares this is preseason that's the more all the more I was looking at it so this is the way I look at it who cares he's not anymore well I care I'll give you one I'll give you one more Mike tanon bomb former NFL general manager he goes out and says should the Steelers trade Russell Wilson to the Vikings because now J.J McCarthy's out for the season right and they gotta roll with Sam darnold should they trade Russell Wilson who may not be tradable I don't know to the Vikings get a draft pick whatever the hell the Vikings are giving up a box of peanuts or Cracker Jacks or whatever for Russell Wilson so then they could start Justin Fields because he's been seeing this and oh well Fields has been in contention and I think he's got more reps so he's going to be the starter and then sign Ryan tanah Hill to be in this mix who has had no Camp no preseason he might know Arthur Smith's lingo terminology maybe not the whole installed system but when you when you go from Wilson to fields at least you might be able to run some semblance of the same offense but if you go from like fields to tanah Hill you're probably not going to have much an offense whatso I'm like what a take this is stop saying these things stop just stop it makes my head hurt stop saying it well Brian I'm sorry but I almost forgot to bring that up that is probably I remember Zach wanted to do something like the worst take of the week or something or the worst take for the show there you go by far that's the worst one that I've seen out there so folks uh thank you for joining us sporting still City Underground wherever you may be watching or listening what again thank you to my good pow Brian e roach here for joining us again today uh we'll we'll catch you again after the 1:00 preseason game don't think oh this one's nationally televised too so you can catch this on NFL Network just as a programming note for our two percenters that are still out there so it's Saturday it is Saturday I'm sorry did I keep saying it's Saturday one o'clock which is you know kind of strange but the I won't get to watch this one either cut Downs are a little you're probably not going to miss anything to be completely honest other than I actually thought about just going up to Detroit cuz it's a short trip I've never been to a game at fordfield but then I was thinking there's nobody of Interest like I'm going to be snoozing like through the first quarter already so and I got other plans so anyways uh folks uh once again my name's Joe his name's Brian as we encourage everyone out there to always do as we close out the show be safe be good and we will catch you later we would like to thank you for listening and remind our listeners to follow us on social media and our our website www. steelcity underground.com