Scout's Eye with Matt Williamson: Kicking off the preseason

well hello everyone I am Matt Williamson coming to you from my dorm room here in latro PA just finished up practice just finished up the cording drive with Rob King and my man de Loi I wanted to chat with you um pull back the curtain um as of this second as I'm recording this at 3:06 p.m. on Wednesday August 7th Brandon iuk is not a stealer and I do promise you as soon as I humanly can the second that happens which I tend to think it will but I don't have that knowledge I don't think anyone knows for sure despite what you're reading at this stage I will give you something on that along that line as well but this podcast will hold up for a couple days either way and the Steelers released their dep chart on Tuesday and frankly there's not a whole lot of shock there I mean a couple news and notes is and this correlates with practice but starting with the offensive line bradick Jones is listed as the starting right tackle for some reason they have Troy fanu as the backup left tackle although he has not played one snap of left tackle that I've seen and Dan Moore is a starting left that being said as we talked about yesterday this is a second practice in a row where fanu looks like he is now the starting right tackle I mean that's how these last two practices have gone I know that's a small sample size Jones and Moore have been rotating at left with the ones um I think that's all good news I I wouldn't look into it too much if Jones you know hasn't you know kick Dan Moore out of the out of the equation that shouldn't happen yet it didn't happen yet it hasn't happened yet wouldn't even shock me if if bradick Jones doesn't start this game coming up that being said what I think is going on and kind of reading the tea leaves and talking to people is they want faton you to play a lot you know you're the right tackle looks like you're passing every test we loved you coming out all those good things and Jones we've had you unfortunately for you and I know you can do both but we've had you do so much at the the right side let's ease you back into the left you know I mean get your footwork right your hand placement correct we don't need Alex heith beating you 100 times in a row because you're a little backwards at the moment so let's ease you back into that and kind of like we talked about last week might not be long before he's clearly the left tackle this I think this stuff will clear itself up as immediately uh hering's ahead of Frasier on the depth chart no shock there and Frasier hasn't earned it yet I'm not saying he's bad prospector I'm worried about him but he hasn't earned it hering's been better I I think it's clear and the depth chart shows this as well that van Jefferson is the number two receiver and he is listed as such I mean the three receivers they list in amongst the starters are Pickins and Jefferson on the outside Calvin Austin as the Sloter third guy Roman Wilson right behind him okay you know that that that all adds up to even though Roman Wilson isn't doing much but we're getting some good reports on him by the way I think he's out of a boot for the most part maybe we will actually see him before the regular season that would be great um they list Conor Hayward as a fullback ahead of Jack ketto but they do very different things I mean I could understand hayward's also listed as the third tight end ahead of Michael puit ahead of Rodney Williams I actually think ketto and Hayward will both be on this team and have some special teams value as well um on the defensive side of the ball there's not a ton to report in terms of the depth chart being released all the starters are the people you would think and maybe you wouldn't think this but the starting Nickelback is beanie Bishop you know and maybe that's the most shocking thing to you on the dep chart amongst the starters okay um Sutton is listed as the third Nickelback for obvious reasons I mean I think he should just have an asterisk by his name and graylin Arnold who is a name you need to know and pay attention to him in these upcoming preseason games he's the backup nickel he has special teams capabilities he could make this team um I found it interesting interesting that they listed Ryan Watts as a strong safety and I also was intrigued today that he was one of the few guys on the starting kickoff and kickoff return team I think that's a really promising situation for watt uh watts and the backup outside corners I also think are notable in that it's Trice B uh backing up Jackson and Rush backing up Porter which would be great if they can hold down the fort and are quality number twos when the season starts I'll take it I mean so I think that's a good thing better Line's your number one source for all your summer Sports this season from MLB Golf and so many more all the latest stats news and scores available to follow your favorite teams get the latest odds and lines including the latest team matchups player props and odds on just about every sport out there head to the website today or use your mobile device to get in on the action bet online where the game starts [Applause] [Music] so it has also come out that uh my Comm had a press conference this morning you know Wednesday morning he is going to play the starters but resting seven players Russell Wilson who's slowly getting back into being the top top quarterback but they want to play Fields a fair amount um Isaac camalu isn't going to play at all they've been resting him a lot and I think it's also an opportunity for these young guards particularly McCormick and Anderson to run with the ones and I think they've been quite good and frankly I think this coaching staff is really high on their guards overall cam hay not going to play TJ watt's not going to play heith isn't going to play Minka is not going to play I don't think that shocks anyone um maybe heis Smith's not quite to the level of watt Hayward Minka but he's very important and I think it shows how much they value him and then the last guy that is going to sit out that game is Patrick Queen which I wasn't sure if he would or not just because he's new you know like does he get the same respect but I think they've seen more than enough of him to be honest with you to say we are keeping him in bubble wrap he is a really important every down player that is going to play a lot of snaps hopefully in this this uh regular season and maybe into the playoffs so we are not going to put him In Harm's Way and any way shape or form makes me really think that they have no worries about him wearing the green dot or any of that kind of stuff communication so I thought that was a really good sign too that they're resting him now I don't know how to take this but word out of Houston who remember they played in the Hall of Fame game so this is their second preseason game coming up is they are going to quote play their starters now are we going to see stoud and Diggs and denil Hunter and tonsil and some of their stars that have been a little older I know Stout's not but he's a starting quarterback he's a star maybe I mean again it's their second game none of those dudes play at all in the Hall of Fame game but I'm also hearing much like the Hall of Fame game we might get really bad weather for the preseason game here in Pittsburgh like there's a massive storm coming through and so a lot of this stuff might even change I mean that's unfortunate you know like if if field conditions are bad or it's really hard to operate it's hard to evaluate these players that being said I'm guessing that maybe you'll get Will Anderson and denil Hunter as the defensive ends for a series or two which would be great for those tackles we just talked about um maybe you'll get some of their top receivers I'm sure tank Dell won't play he's been coming back from injury but maybe get Nico Collins for a little or you know see how the Joey Porter does against him you know things like that so I do think this is a good team to play and I think Tomlin even recognized he said something along the lines of we're happy that they have a game under their belt and we don't because that kind of gives Houston's especially young guys a little bit of a leg up so that's a nice you know challenge for us and of course Fields is starting um it doesn't sound like he's going to play a ton but all that is good news to me you me I think this will be a fun game to evaluate like always I mean the fourth quarter won't be great I'm sure um and the other note though and I think I mentioned this to you guys yesterday is I really do believe going back to those guard s and some of this o line talk we started the show with that their second team o line is probably one of the better ones in the league so therefore when you have the twos out there on offense I'm thinking you know the second team o line with Allen and not Nai or Warren not Pickins not Fri M I would expect that group to still be pretty good you know because these lines that have played together and are quality players deep into preseason games just lend to a lot less sloppiness in mistakes and communication errors and easier to evaluate these guys although I hope the weather doesn't ruin that or vastly change it so that's where we're at um again if something on iuk breaks um all over it you know but I'm not going to comment on stuff that hasn't happened um over and out take care [Music]