Drive9.10.26Hr1: NFL Underway, Steelers Questions

0:00You're tuned to the drive on your 24-7 home of the Black & Gold Steelers Nation Radio. Good afternoon, Steeler Nation. It's the drive on the Steelers Audio Network here, Westsular and Matt Williamson with you for the next two hours on this Thursday. Matt, we had a game last night. We got a game tonight. Yeah. Things are happening quickly. And some potentially big news or at least certainly notable news out of Falcons practice earlier today. Yeah, you sent that to me on the way here. I'm a little shocked about that. Josh Kendall who covers the Falcons for the athletic down there in Atlanta tweeted,

1:04Falcons quarterback to a tag of Iola appeared to suffer discomfort during individual throwing drills Thursday and briefly went to the ground. Tag of Iola missed the first week of training camp due to lower back spasms. Who knows? I mean, it's worth tracking at least. Sure is. Yeah. There is. And I, you know, it's weird to me, Matt, because I think you can correct me if I'm wrong on this. I think Staphanski already said that Penox will not play that's the way I heard a way I understand it is they didn't say this part, but I think they would prefer to play Penox. Two has been really, really bad. And they also need to know about their first round investment and you know, future and all like you ride with Penox. You going back into the quarterback market. So I think the only reason in the Denver myth is that two is starting is because Penox isn't ready. And I do think Staphanski said and he won't be active. So Cooper Rush, we misspoke the other day. Cooper Rush is the back up. They have four quarterbacks too. They have strand. I think it's a name. Yeah. Yes.

2:04So I assume Rush would be the starter if to, if this is serious. I would think so because Michael Penox, we do have Wednesdays kind of first injury reports for both teams as well. Michael Penox was a full practice participant for the Falcons. I remember the fancy saying he's this not ready, but that also being that all the sudden they're going to be like, all right, well, actually Penox is going to start here on Sunday. TJ walked and put his helmet in your back. Right. That doesn't mean you're ready or roll for that. So we could. This is obviously something we'll keep an eye on today and tomorrow and of course leading up to Sunday. But I would imagine that now there's at least a possibility that that you end up getting the Falcons third string quarterback on Sunday. Yeah. And again, I just laid it out. But it'd be nice to, well, I mean, you don't want anybody to get hurt, but you have you avoid the Falcons first choice in quarterback. You might avoid their second choice now. Right. And AJ Brown doesn't look very available for next week. Hey, I'd be dodging the Patriots number one wide receiver next week. Yes. I do want to get to that

3:08in just a minute with you, Matt, as we kind of news the day and react to everything that happened last night. But I want to stick with those first injury reports that that came from both clubs. A few names listed for the Falcons. Penox, like I mentioned, is on there as a full participant. Zachariah branch limited with a hamstring. So Darius Smith limited with a shoulder. Those are two pretty substantial names for them in this. And then also a quarterback, Billy Bowman, limited with a kill ease, defensive lineman, Brandon, doerless, limited with a groin. Wow. He's actually there only remaining accomplished path russure. And then Kyle Hitton, the offensive lineman, limited with a knee. So a lot of these limited to know. Who knows? They can just have them, you know, slower early on in the week. But then for the Steelers, Matt, only one name listed on the injury report. And that's Joey Porter, Jr. limited with the back. Yeah. So again, I mean, there may be there's more to that with Porter. I don't know

4:08how to even comment on his injuries and backs are hard thing to narrow down and all that good stuff. We are, you know, the clock is ticking in terms of his contract situation. Do we know for sure? And maybe this will be a, you know, Mike DeFabo question here in an hour. Is Joey playing if the contract status is, as is, is this back serious? Does, you know, could it keep him out? I don't know. Really hard thing to comment on. We will talk to Mike DeFabo in hour number two, get some hopefully some more clarity on that. Joey was out there in practice today Thursday in the, oh, these are the Wednesday reports, like with Memorial Day, I was everywhere. I'm almost screwed up. And, you know, there's earlier practice times for the Steelers now. So we're still kind of trying to adjust to the, the Mike McCarthy first week, right? If you, if you will. And yes, just getting back into the swing of, so you read the Wednesday reports. Yes. And Thursday, they have practiced already. They have practiced already. Or I think maybe

5:12you're still doing so now wrapping wrapping things up. Well, no, no, I guess it would be in the books by now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the books by now. But according to our buddy DeFabo and, of course, all the other reporters that are down there covering practice. Joey Porter, Jr. was out there today again, to what extent we're not sure. And they're only allowed to report on the first. Yeah, times of change. 30 minutes or 20 minutes or whatever it is. But we will, we will see if we can get some more clarity on that entire kind of murky situation here before we get up out of here today. But Matt, that's kind of in Falcons and Steelers land, some of the latest, some of the news, some of the injury stuff. But then last night, my goodness, two significant injuries, one for the Seahawks and one for the Patriots, Sam Darnold, exited that game very early. Yeah, five plays in. Now he's scheduled for an MRI today. And I think all the talk in Seahawks land as they felt like they they dodged a bullet and he's not going to be out long term or anything like that.

6:14So coincidentally, what they were what they were worried about is either a hip dislocation or a bone fracture through the hip. Yes. And when I say coincidentally, that's what happened to Tua. He had both of them at the same time, which is a he was never really the same since then to be honest with you. But either one of those could have ended Darnold season. The most recent reports are they don't they think they're out of the woods on those things. And that would obviously be very good news for the Seattle Seahawks. Yeah. For Sam Darnold. But then I think maybe the bigger news because of the potential time that he could be out Patriots wide receiver, of course, AJ Brown acquired this off season from the Eagles left last night's opener in the third corner because of an injury. He in the third quarter part of me because of an injury. He is believed to have suffered a high ankle sprain according to Ian Rappaport X-rays were negative for a fracture. Brown has an MRI today to

7:14determine how much time he'll miss. And he left with a boot in a boot. It's not like if he'll miss time. It's how much time I can't imagine he plays it. Even with the long week, I would be shocked. Absolutely. Absolutely. It is a long week. That's a good point. But so any other Patriot news. In terms of, you know, I don't know either injuries they sustained, but I'm sure there are several. They do have the long week to prepare for. So that's that's no worry. It certainly is. And so listen, we saw this last night, Matt. It ain't going to be pretty no matter what. I mean, I thought you last night, you're like, just just get the win and see the sea sea. I saw one boy, and I was, I was joking about this with with with Tyler and him and I were talking earlier. I'm not going to lie. I was I got to get myself back into football shape too. All right. It's not just these players. I was ready for bed. We're getting sleepy. I was ready for bed. I mean, I've got two, I've got two young daughters, bedtimes a little earlier in at this stage of my life because they wake up pretty early. They unfortunately are not the kids that sleep in just yet. They're still up at about 645 every single

8:17morning. Um, it's so when my kids were up to different endeavors as I showed you last night. You're getting up just 4,000 in the morning. Of course, as they should be on the campus of Kentucky there in Lexington, having themselves a good time as we once did when Drake made through that third interception. I like stood up on the couch and did a little fist bump. Oh, you did what the OT. I didn't want to go to bed. I thought for sure that game was going to over. Me too. And really, he screwed that up bad. Really bad criminal mistake. And again, the reaction of, oh my gosh, his drink may have fraud was last year just because everybody off guard in the schedule was easy and all that stuff. And they just kind of overwhelming reaction of wow, these two teams stink last night. And I saw a lot of people on Matt grain of salt, Twitter's not a real place. Social media is not a real place. But we do use it to gauge reaction because everyone can get their voice heard there. I saw so many people like this play calling is pathetic. What's Brable doing? What's Seattle doing? Yeah, folks week one. Get ready for it again tonight. Yeah, ready for it

9:22again on Sunday. It's week one. Now having said that those guys were tired at the end of the game. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's on hips. Yeah, and but now having said all that man, it does really seem like the Steelers are getting some breaks here out of the shoot in terms of their opposition's health. Yeah, and you got to take business, take care of business against the Falcons and you're going either the Patriots are going to be well rested and a little embarrassed. I'm sure too. And you had to go to their building for sure. That's a good point. They're certainly not going to want to start two and oh, no. And I do think everyone knows how high I'm on Drake May. I mean, he's the story of the day. I've flat out. I think he lost them that game. But it's also evidence that progressions not linear. I mean, I tweeted out something that I retweeted something Warren Sharp put out. His last five games may have been really horrible. I mean, including the postseason. However, I am a may apologist. Don't get me wrong. White Seattle's defense twice, Houston's denvers and I think the chargers were the last five defenses he played. Those are top five defenses. Yeah,

10:27Andy lost AJ Brown. I didn't really see anybody open at the end of that second half either. But he definitely forced things. He threw a pick the room that was kind of a jump ball to Romeo dobs to start the game or early the first one. I had a problem with that decision. Go make a play. His guy didn't oh well. You know, the other guy came down with the ball. Next one was progressively worse. You know, it was kind of behind and this guy slipped and was like, yeah, okay. And then the last one was criminal. Yeah. That one's either got to go into seats or Santonio homes on the sideline type of throw. You know, like it can't be to the inside. It just can't. No, it is not. It was very bad. Yeah. But it's also just one game. Just one game. It's just one game. Hopefully though, the Steelers are able to keep that that Drake may struggles. Yeah, it's exactly what's happening. Going week two. But a lot of things will change from week one to week two. And then obviously week two onward as these teams start to knock off some of the rust and get back into football shape. Matt, last thing on kind of the injury front and the news

11:28of the day that I wanted to run past you here is we're getting started is doesn't sound like good news for Brock Bowers. No, a knee scope and is going to potentially miss quote a game or two. Yeah. And again, I host that other podcast with Brian Peacock and he's like, I had this exact same procedure. They shave a little bit of your meniscus off. And I actually need the same thing. I left knees and massive. Do you really? Well, I think so. I know I was torn meniscus in there is some degree. I don't know how bad, but I'm up laying on Sunday. So I just don't care. This hurts the middle on whatever. But my my co-host had a really good point is I didn't realize this timeline of it all. But he was at the head coach of the Raiders first time head coach. Remember how we've always said he kind of bet against first time head coaches. Flatout said yesterday or the day before there's nothing wrong with what Brock. He's going to play. And then this happens which is a direct violation of how you report injuries in this league. I mean, we know why there's

12:29the betting world and all those type of things. Absolutely. But I would not be shocked after he laid that out for me. I'm like, Oh, that's exactly what you can't do as a coach. I mean, you were aware of this because it's the procedure. I think happened before or before he even said the words that he's fine. Got you. So you might see a fine. There's going to be a fine comment or something. Yeah. It's I tell you what it's you know, it's a it's a little bit of a different world. We've been living in in the last few years. You're not getting away with anything new head coach guy. You know, right? And we all we know the league has has a little tolerance for these type of things. And we'll often act act swiftly and decisively. I don't think that's anything that's going to be docked draft picks or anything. No, I don't think so. When surprised me if there was a little slap on the wrist and hey, don't let this happen again. Yeah. And it's also not fair to your opponents. I mean, you prepare a lot differently. If Brock Bauer is in the game or not. This is not the third street tight end. I mean, you know, right. I mean, not to mention, hey, I might take the over now on Michael, Michael mayor receiving yards or under on cousins receiving yards or changes a line or

13:34whatever. Over under on certain rush attempts or past things like that without probably the best tight end in the world out there on the field for Las Vegas and week one, maybe even week two. Yeah, certainly something to keep an eye on. I think Vegas is the Vegas plays Miami. I think this week, right? Okay. That sounds right. I don't know the schedules as well as I showed for week one. But after that, I think they have like five or six brutal games because I remember just looking at it for when they do. They host Miami on Sunday, which is the most winnable game they might have all year. But I mean, without their best player, they go to the chargers, to the Saints, host the chiefs, to the Patriots, host the bills, host the Rams. Wow. I mean, oh, in seven, one in six, and then they could be mendoza time before you know it. Then they get the jets. Okay. Okay. But then nine or C. Hawks Broncos. Wow. Wow. That's a tough stretch. That's a little bit of a for a team that finish last that schedule is. Yeah, thanks a lot. That schedule is a lot more difficult than you would imagine. Um, as, uh, as yeah, I mean, so the West must play the West, obviously. Yes, they do. Yes,

14:38they do. So it's a tough division. It's a tough kind of a division that they drew to play there as well. And yeah, lot going on in Raiders land and Brock Bauer is certainly being out. It's not what you want to hear. Yeah. Not the way it starts the season. You're in the silver and black. You're getting ready for the regular season. Yeah. So man, I think that's kind of our news of the day, unless I'm missing anything. No, I mean, we don't need to break down everything that happened in last night's game or anything of that nature. But I do think Seattle stole one, you know, and we already discussed the AJ Brown and how that affects the Steelers. But I was happy to see the Patriots get the L just because you might be fighting them for a wildcard spot. I mean, there's no question about it. Like I wouldn't be thrilled if I was the Rams. Like, geez, Niners are like, thanks. Appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But you're right. Um, and if you can, you know, if you could take advantage of that, Matt, uh, you can find a way to start two and oh, while making the Patriots, oh and two in the process. Yeah, right. And you went ahead to head against them. That could have direct wildcard implications. So it's a really good place to be. I'm

15:39glad you mentioned that. I think we both took the Patriots to be and the Steelers to be second place teams fighting for wildcard spots. Yes, we did. Yeah, yeah. You gave the Steelers the edge over the paths. Yeah, I did not. You, yes, and you took the paths as your last. I did. Right? Yep. So advantage Wesley after one game. All right, let's go ahead and call it, um, Patriots are out of the playoffs. They're done. Let's keep this thing moving. Matt, when we come back, I've got a, uh, a general kind of season setter for the Steelers that I want to run with you. Some Steelers ifs. Okay, cool season will go well. The season will be a success if the season will be a disappointment if things like that that we will kick around and discuss on the other side when we return, as we obviously continue to get ready for Steelers Falcons on Sunday. Just getting started here on the drive today, where Schueller, Matt Williamson, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network. And now a word from our sponsor, Bud Light. There's nothing better than the clean crisp.

16:42There's nothing better than the clean crisp. Uh, what if we just got out of here and grab some Bud lights? The man, we're on air for four more hours. I'll figure it out. Sounds good to me. Anything for the clean crisp taste of Bud Light. Stop up now. Bud Light. Easy to drink, easy to enjoy. Enjoy responsibly, copyright 2026 and has a Bush Bud Light beer St. Louis Missouri. I used to have cable internet, but I'm a 100% kind of fan. So I switched to Verizon Fios. It's 100% fiber internet that's super reliable. So I streamed 100% at the NFL draft live with ultra low lag. And after what went down in the first round, still getting video calls from my best friend, rubbing it in that he called all the pits. I told you they were building their old line. I went bad. Get 100% fiber internet with Verizon Fios because when it comes to your team, it's 100% or nothing. Call 1-E-3-3 Verizon to switch today. Get that hotdog costume ready. Vra.

17:42You're tuned to the drive on your 24-7 home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation radio. Matt, we are getting closer and closer to Sunday. You know, don't get me wrong. Enjoy the game last night. Love having football back on the TV. My wife's rolling her eyes at me already. I'm going to enjoy it tonight. Yeah, yeah. Netflix, by the way, for everybody. Oh, yeah, yeah. If you're flipping through your channels on your TV guide or your YouTube TV or whatever it might be, the game's on Netflix tonight. Weird 835 start time, which I was happy about. I'm on the Erdo 8 doing a show with Mirah Hodge and Mike Pursuda. Well, I am happy for all your success. That'll be even more difficult for me to stay awake tonight. Oh, yeah. But no, I hope the the Rams and Niners stay awake with the weird area codes are all weird, you know, changes and times. I'm curious how that affects this game. Yeah, I don't know if I ever

18:46told I don't think I've told you this story off air before, but this would have been who either right before COVID or I think it was maybe right after COVID. So like 2020, 2021 time frame. And this was when really a lot of sports were starting to go to streaming services. Yeah, Amazon Prime started the Thursday night football. You had Netflix getting into the NFL. You had it all over college football with like things like ESPN plus and you know, certain things like the SEC network and the ACC network that yes, have dedicated channels on some cable, but are more of streaming packages. Heck HBO carries college football games on streaming now, you know, so and I remember I had a conversation with a guy at the time, the WVF led director formerly Shane Lions who now works at Alabama for his thoughts on that and he kind of laid out a lot of the issues and and you know, you've got fans that are older and portions. I said, a lot of people don't like it. Obviously, right. All right. Yeah, and changes. I'm gonna put on two four or 11. Yeah.

19:50But he said the one benefit that I see of if we continue this more and more games or not beholden to traditional cable time slots. He's like, you got a lot more wiggle room with kickoff. Like, oh, think about it in the NFL. Yeah, yeah. In the NFL, you either play it one or you play it for 30. Yeah, yeah, that can be skewed if you're in different time zones. Oh, yeah, of course. East Coast time, one o'clock, four thirty, five, five, five, five, eight o'clock, you know, they don't start eleven, forty five or twelve, fifteen or right. But if you want to start at eight, thirty five instead of eight, fifteen in the streaming world, you can if you're a cop. Nothing start. It's not an NFL role. No, that work thing. Like if you are, if you are like, I, I know pit does this at times, WVU does this at times, college programs do this at times where if your game is just on streaming, it's not on traditional cable, you could play it to a clock. You could play it six o'clock. You could play it one o'clock. You're not beholden to that twelve, three, thirty, eight, fifteen. And so I think we're seeing a little bit of that tonight. It's not a drastic change.

20:54But normally this game would have to be at eight, fifteen. And now it's going to be at eight, thirty five to give the local time in Australia a little more. Yeah. Okay. Starting at 10 a.m. as opposed to to nine, thirty or nine, forty. And so that's that's the one interesting quark of this streaming world. Okay. Is where we start to have more games. I don't think it would ever get to that extent in the NFL because it's all collectively bargain. But in college, if you stagger times, that might be kind of fun where the SEC has their own TV deals and the big 10 has their own TV deals and the big 12 and the ACC you start having kickoffs at noon at two at four. Especially college like you said. Yeah. Yeah. That makes it. So that's the one thing about it that I do kind of like. Yeah. That could be that could work to people's benefits for sure. Absolutely. So side note because of games in Australia, I heard this on the on a podcast today, where they were talking about how much more difficult it is to play this game. Like I guess both teams had the ship tons of stuff via cargo ship or whatever like a month ago

21:57over there. And here's a crazy example that I never would have thought of and I'm sure most would people wouldn't either. So it's illegal and I'm sure this is true for all countries. You can't send in soil because it could be. It could be contaminated or full of bugs in there or something. Yeah. Whatever. So every pair of cleats had to be scrubbed. This in fact, yeah. I mean like all the stuff that I've even dirt on it, which is like everything in the football world. Sure. Had to be totally like shipped ahead scrubbed to even get through custom. Like cleats in particular. That's not that's why not surprising when you lay it out. No. Right. Right. You can't be bringing in foreign critters or whatever. You know. Peter Schreger tweeted it Matt at 744 this morning. The Rams are all in for the night. It is 944 PM in Melbourne. They slept on their flight over. We'll sleep now in the hotel for one night. And then they wake up and play a football game in 12 hours. And I think there's again, they were talking about this

23:00on the podcast too. I think that they're supposed to sleep at 3 PM Australian time. Okay. That gets them still on California time or whatever. Now that doesn't screw up their clock. What I found interesting was Schreger also added this isn't some like random trial and error approach. They don't know. They sent 15 staffers over the last two years have tracked their bodies tracked their sleep rhythms. And this was deemed the best approach. There's no turning back now. Oh wow. So they sent Rams people over. Track their sleep. They're right. And West go do a show in Australia and see how you're how sleepy you are. They're probably over there doing things too. But it also might be a nice vacation. The first time you get a fosters on the beach. Right. But that that was very interesting to me. And Matt, it's either I think going to work out well or it's going to go very poorly. There's going to be a lot that I think we'll talk about in that regard tomorrow when we when we get in here. Again, I'm excited to hear the post game stuff from from both. Yeah.

24:02Matt, I got some Steelers ifs for you here that I want to run past you as we kind of continue listen. Last night was fun tonight will be fun. But we're just kind of playing with our appetizers at this moment. We're waiting for the main course Sunday at Aggershire Stadium Steelers ifs. So let's just start right off the top. The Steelers will have a successful season if. Oh, I think you were going to fill in the blanks. You want me to start on this matter? No, go ahead. Yeah, start. We can go spit ball from there. Overarching. I think if you get back to the playoffs and win a game this year, I would call that a success. Yeah. Okay. So I see we're going this then too. I've heard a lot of podcasts that do these type of things too. What's like for the Rams of successful season is being as doable if they don't it's not a successful year. You know, Seattle is a simple champ. Like if we're new in Dolphins Nation radio, we might say successful years picking first overall next year and having Malik Willis be the guy. Yeah. I mean, I do think that our teams like that. Like the Raiders, the Dolphins, Tennessee, successful season is. Identify your quarterback and still

25:07get a high draft. We got a high. We got to we got the quarterback check and we're confidence could be about that. And we're still rebuilding or the constructive struggle. For the Steelers, I think it's winning a playoff game. I mean, if you had to put like one bar that if you asked Steeler Nation and said, Hey, I genie comes out of the bottle. You want to play off game? Is that a successful year? Or like your your your your go fish. You know, the yeah, yeah, yeah. Like right now Steelers fans of people could let us know this on Twitter and in the YouTube comments. If you could sign up for right now, the Steelers win double digit regular season games again. Go back to the postseason. Win a playoff game. You taking that or you going fish. Yeah. I don't think it would be unanimous. I'm taking that because a lot of people. You might be like, well, that means we didn't win the Super Bowl. And I would want to at least have that chance out there. And I only won play off game. You win. Not like. And then you see what happens after that. Yes. I there would certainly be some people that would say, no, I'm never going to sign up for it unless it's a Super Bowl. And I completely get that. But I think maybe I would too.

26:11I mean, or I know, I don't know. Norship wouldn't and players wouldn't either. They want to say absolutely. I don't want to be captured anything. I think that in retrospect, looking back, say, yes, I would take that double digit wins back to the playoffs, playoff win in year one of Mike McCarthy. And maybe that's the only way to do it is take it now or play the go fish game. It's just if the season ends and you want a game on the road in Buffalo and then lost in Kansas City or at home against New England. Yeah. No, whoever. Yeah. I mean, that's hard to say that that would not be a successful year for the Steelers. Now, I'm sure there's some people out there saying you're only successful years. If Drew Aller gets there and shows season, you could say that maybe the Steelers go six and 11. But you see 10 games of Drew Aller and you think he's got a shot to be the guy. I would call that a success. I would say that is a success. We need to be good. You're picking in the 11th, 12th, 13th overall. Yeah. And your young foundational players, the Bentons and Fragers still look like young foundational players. And from Thanksgiving on,

27:11the offensive line looked like it was kicking butt. Right. But you had a lot of injuries or Rodgers got hurt or whatever. And you still didn't win a ton of game. But you're really optimistic when the season ends and what you could become. Yes. That's a totally different approach. But yeah, I think that would also be a successful, well, maybe it wouldn't be a successful season. It would be success for the franchise. You know what I mean? Like, is that a good season? No, not really. You won six games. It's not a good season. I'm your first losing season. Yeah, right, right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But the bigger successful endeavor, you could see the forest through the trees. Yeah. Like what? Drew's really good. Yeah. Yeah. No, 100%. I think you, that you're right. Because it would be weird to call it a successful season. Right. But for the long term, you could look at it as a foundation with you. Yeah. That's that's that's building block year. That's the good way to put it there. I like, I like framing it that way. The stealer season is not a success if if you're below 500, I mean, normal circumstances, all that other conversation.

28:15Am Rogers plays. Yeah. 1617 games. You're not destroyed by injuries. You've average injury, luck, blah, blah. Yeah. I think eight and nine. You know, you got a lot invested in some older guys and then on your defense and McCarthy's an established head coach. Nobody's taken eight and nine and saying, that's all right. Yes. Yeah. No way. No. I think you could also point to, you know, it's it's in all likelihood if it wasn't a success, the reasons why, aside from devastating injuries, which we always do, possibility, but you can't really factor that into conversations like this. The offensive line doesn't seem to be taking any steps forward or developing or getting any better. If it's like, boy, we have no run game and we're one-dimensional. Yes. Or, you know, we can't stop the pass or our pass rushes. John some some of your older veterans on defense who have had outstanding careers, but they're they're kind of clearly at the finish line. Yeah. It's like, boy, all these guys got old the same time. Yeah. You got old real quick.

29:18I think those would be kind of the the reasons why if we're looking back in January and saying, oh, man, not only was that not a foundational year, not much to build on, it was just a poor season. Well, this will sound rough and it is if for a chance, you know, four or five year key guys, we know who they are, all look old at the same time, it also could work well for the for the organization. Still would be a bad year. But it's like, okay, now we have to just change the way we look at this roster. These four and their money and their experience. Thanks for great years, but it's time to move on youth movement. I know the words like rebuild or, you know, don't exist in the vocabulary here, but you know, you could really build something special around what you have in the young guys. Now, the more likely thing is though, kind of like what I said is like, let's say you win seven or eight games and there's some huge problem. Your past rush stinks or

30:19your coverage stinks or your passing game stinks. That would be terrible because you don't want to go into the off season going, well, our goal number one is to find the next quarterback. But oh, by the way, we have this huge problem we have to solve too. Like chances of getting them both fixed in off seasons probably slim. Yes, it is. Yeah, like Atlanta, they fixed their past rush in one off season with two first round picks. Great. But if you had some other huge issue that they had a quarterback issue and a note at the time, then you get in this spot where they're right. Then you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. That to me, I think, in listen, for, I feel like for the Steelers organization, this conversation is a little bit easier than maybe some others. Yeah, because it's just so clearly what we define as success, what we define as failure, they've also had so many similar seasons in a row. A lot of similar seasons. So if it's better than what it's been, yeah, if it's worse than what has been, boo. And we, and we, I think we,

31:21everybody knows this that regardless of what that is, people will run with the narrative of the coaching change being the big effect. Oh, yeah, yeah. Right. If the Steelers win a playoff game, it'll be well, that's all you needed was a more offensive mind and a different thinker. Mike Tomlin had hit his expiration date and it was time to move on. The Steelers maybe he's got a perfect opponent that week. You know, you know, right. The Steelers win seven or eight games and have their first losing season. Well, Mike, Tomlin was the glue that held it all together. Sure, his own port. He was, you know, right. Winning, or, and you also know too, Matt, say the Steelers win, win, have a good season, win a playoff game or a couple. Oh, well, he was just doing it with Tomlin's players. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's just, it's, it is funny how, how all that stuff works, but it's certainly, we know it's all very unfair. Basically, we know there's going to be on both ends of that spectrum. There's going to be wild reactions, uh, based on how this season plays out one way or another. My favorite one or least favorite one is Brady leaves a Patriots goes the box wins, wins, wins, and New England kind of falls apart. So Bella checks a terrible coach.

32:28Yeah. Brady carried him from the right. It was all Brady the whole time. Those those 20 years were just total fluke. Bella checked in. Know what he was doing. Just lucked into this guy with 199th pick. This might shock you, but having good players often correlates to winning championships. Yeah. And I think Bella checked helped Brady become a great player too. Yes. Yes. But it's funny how that works in the opposite way to now with Matt. For decades, we heard Andy reads a great coach, but he can't win the big one. Yeah. Of course. And now no one said that for seven or eight years or so. It's into this quarter. So he got himself a Hall of Fame quarterback. Man, I imagine what Andy reads resume would have been if he would have been able to get one with a dawn of a McNabb in the Eagles. My goodness. Yeah. Really? But it is funny. I'm ready for the narratives, Matt. I'm ready for the back and forth. The wins and the losses and all that good stuff that comes in between. Let's get to our last break of the first hour here, Matt. You want to go a little around campus when we were. Yeah. I mean, look forward to this. And I also, I don't even want to call it a segment. And I did some of this last year, but I think it's time to bring it back. I can just talk about some games for everybody to keep an eye on this weekend. I'm really focusing on

33:33quarterbacks and prospects. I always focus on prospects, but I definitely want to watch some games where, you know, some of these top quarterbacks are involved. Well, there'll be two of them squaring off down in Austin, Texas. I knew that one. That was a monster. Yeah. We'll talk about that a little bit more when we return to close down the first hour of the show. Our buddy Mike DeFabo, going to join us in the second hour. So plenty to get to as we roll along here on the drive, you'll learn Williamson Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network. And now a word from our sponsor, Bud Light. There's nothing better than the clean crisp. There's nothing better than the clean crisp. What if we just got out of here and grab some Bud lights? The man, we're on air for four more hours. I'll figure it out. Sounds good to me. Anything for the clean crisp taste of Bud Light. Stop up now. Bud Light. Easy to drink, easy to enjoy.

34:34Enjoy responsibly, copyright 2026 and has a bush Bud Light beer St. Louis, Missouri. I used to have cable internet, but I'm a 100% kind of fan. So I switched to Verizon Fios. It's 100% fiber internet that's super reliable. So I streamed 100% at the NFL draft live with ultra low lag. And after woke me down in the first round, still getting video calls from my best friend rubbing it in that he called all the pits. I told you they were building their old line. I win the bet. Get 100% fiber internet with Verizon Fios because when it comes to your team, it's 100% or nothing. Call 1-8-3-3 Verizon to switch today. Get that hotdog costume ready. Brah. You're tuned to the drive on your 24-7 home of the Black & Gold Steelers Nation Radio. Matt, we've got some juicy college football action on Saturday. We typically do this time of year.

35:51Weak one can be a little hit or miss, but then after that, there's some great games every week in the college football schedule. Most death. Most death. We were just talking about the wire. We were just talking about the wire. There's a couple of jokes we can make, but let's just say for those of you that have seen the wire, you probably get what we're alluding to. For those of you who haven't, it's on HBO. Get with the times. Okay. There's a couple of holds up. A couple of still all. It's one of the best shows ever. And in the ongoing conversations, debates of like, what's the best TV show ever? Is it the sopranos? Is it breaking bad? Is it game of thrones? It never gets mentioned as much as it should. No, it's in the conversation. Matt, the crown jewel of the college football weekend, Saturday night in Austin, Texas, where number one, Ohio State visits number five, Texas Longhorns. With a prospect of this game. You're going to imagine a little SEC verse big 10 good on good.

36:51And speaking of prospects, what caught my attention was I was looking at the like the ESPN college football 100 rankings of the players. Oh, okay. The amount of guys on these two teams that are in the top of these rankings are insane. Like number one on their list is Jeremiah Smith, the Ohio State wide receiver. Leonard Moore, the Notre Dame cornerback that we briefly mentioned, I think a week or two ago, is number two on the list. Colin Simmons, Texas edge rusher number three. Number arch cam before number eight Julian, say in the Ohio State quarterback. Number these aren't even draft prospects. This isn't like Danes list. Correct. Correct. This is ESPN's college football top 100. Okay. So maybe arch is a little lower. Most of these guys are out. Wow. It translates. Yeah. Yeah. 12 Trevor Goosby, the tackle for Texas 13 archmaning the quarterback for Texas. 15 cam Coleman, the wide receiver for Texas. He's the AJ Greenclown. I mean, Matt, it's, you know, this list is littered with these guys at the top. And that one going to be a lot of fun for a lot of prospects to watch on both sides.

37:54But I think all eyes will be on, of course, archmaning and Julian, say in the two quarterbacks. Yeah. And so again, I'm sure Ohio State's just fine in terms of prospects, you know, say in and Smith, of course. But it seems like they don't have as many blue chippers as usual. I'm sure they'll have. They last, I mean, last year they were low. I mean, they were about three in the first 10 picks or whatever. So in terms of like top studs, I think they're a little lighter than usual. But I'm sure there's also a million third and fourth round picks around their secondary and linebackers and offensive line without a doubt. In the future, first round picks that are. Well, you guys are so far away. Yeah. But you laid it out. I mean, Texas could be that team this year in terms of just like. What college has the most top 20 prospects? Texas is all over it in terms of pro prospects. I think Texas leads the way right now. Yeah. Remember, we did that last week. We look at the mcj. Four that could go in the top 15. Mcj and Munch laid out the players that they think could be the number one overall pick in April's draft.

39:00They'd for right. They had four techs. 17 overall. Four of them were Texas. Four from Texas. Yeah. And the guy you talk about tackle, receiver quarterback. Ed rusher. Ed rusher. And if you're going to have four studs, those are four pretty good positions to have them at. And they may have others, but they have an off the ball linebacker. The pit fans will remember the transferred from pit this past year that is projected to go first round as well. Yes. I would know his name. It's drawn to blind. I am drawn to blank on his name right now. But yes, he started with a B. I'm sure when we go to bring a short name. We'll both remember it. But yeah, both these teams loaded with prospects. So if you are someone maybe maybe like my good friend, Matt Williamson, who watches college football through the guys of pro prospects. Yeah, I don't care who wins. This is the good. All right. Oh, you don't have to be a college football junkie or even really give a rip about college football to to enjoy that one on Saturday night. That's going to be a lot of fun. And namely, and the two quarterbacks, the two quarterbacks, both could hit home here. You know, could could be first round picks and we could be talking about them potentially in

40:01stealer circles. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and by February time when we get to the combine and we start to turn our attention. And I think they are to talk to receivers in the draft and let somebody else emerge. I'd be very surprised. I think Tony for Miami's not only Miami, but he's only a second year. So he's got another year to go. I really like Nick Harbor from South Carolina. He is a absolute freak, but he's got to put it all together. You know, you know, there's a there's a difference between being just a crazy freak athlete and being a great wide receiver. You know, someone like Jeremiah Smith has obviously blended both of those things. And and I think that machine Biles is the linebacker. TV of course came in big for us. Yes, that's exactly right. So a lot of pro prospects to watching that one. And what should be a wild atmosphere? You know, you have Matthew McConaughey down on a sideline. Yeah, his burn orange jacket. I'm sure as Ohio State and Texas two of the biggest brands. In college football two top five teams Saturday night. Down there in Austin. That's going to be a lot of fun.

41:01But there's obviously some other games to keep an eye on Matt. I'm keeping an eye also on Oklahoma at Michigan. This one. Oh, absolutely. Especially about what happened. The Wolverines is past week. How do they respond to that? What's the what's the atmosphere like? This is another SEC and big 10 good on good. And two quarterbacks to keep an eye on. I mean, they're massive programs. Does anybody knows? You know, right? Meteor from Oklahoma who you and I have talked a lot about last year. Is underwood even eligible? Underwood is not. Okay. I've not seen them on the floor. But he was an all world recruit. Yeah. And hasn't really put it. I'm not sure if he's aren't thrilled with them. No, even before Saturday. Yes. And so. Is this the game where maybe it finally clicks? Or is this the game where it continues to go south? You know, what is what is definitely a crossroads in his career? I would think what is the what does Meteor look like in a really big. Spot on the road early in the season. Remember Matt first few weeks last year his stock was through the roof. Oh, I know. And then he had that hand injury and just wasn't quite saying. It's like kind of fell by the way.

42:03Can he get back into the conversation? Can he get back on everybody's radar? Did we expect to Michigan to be down? I know what happened on Saturday was shocking to all. But did we think it was going to be a down year for Michigan? They were preseason ranked 16th. That's low for them, I guess though. But still they hired Kyle Wittingham from Utah, who I thought was maybe the most underrated coach in college football. I knew people very happy with that. 15, 20 years. It's just mad. Again, it's so hard for me in the roster turn over a year after year. And I put even less stock into college football week one than I do NFL week one. Oh, for sure. They play no preseason games. They show nothing. They've got 30 younger human beings. 40, 50 new guys on the roster every year that are trying to coalesce and come together. This is a big one for for mature a big one for both of these programs. And you know, too, if you're Bryce Underwood and you put on a big show here, all the sudden maybe you start finding yourself in some of these conversations. It's over. Yeah. Exactly right. Exactly right. And then Matt, kind of the final one that I wanted to highlight for you here in this conversation

43:11is another one that you're going to want to keep an eye on, you know, from a quarterback standpoint, Oregon travels to Oklahoma state to still watch Oklahoma. That's a really good one. That's a really, really, really good one. Oklahoma state did not have a good first week. No, they did not. No, they absolutely did not. They lost to Tulsa after being a lot of people's dark horse big 12 pick. Yeah, they've got Mesta maker who a lot of people have been hot on. Oh, yeah, super hot. And then Oregon obviously has one of those guys who could be the first overall pick in the draft in their quarterback Don Teymour. And they got a lot of prospects too. Oregon struggled a little bit out of the gate against Boise, you know, in their own right. They didn't have they started very slowly. They themselves in glory week one. They had to kind of grind out a one score win at home against Boise State Boise State a good program. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No push over. Oregon's supposed to be a national title contender this year. How do they respond on the road after they're not having their best showing week one at his Oklahoma State respond back at home after they just lost

44:12and are now hosting one of the best teams in the country. Keep an eye on the quarterbacks especially, but a lot of prospects on the Oregon side of the ball. Yeah, defensive lines loaded. Again, they're pretty stacked too. Not quite Texas level of blue chippers from what I understand, but I'm sure a couple will emerge as well. So real quick, and since you brought up more, I got the impression and a lot of the competition needs to be addressed. But the top quarterbacks that we've talked about in the offseason, more or less all seem like they all had pretty strong showing. Yes, I mean Miami was really good. LSU. I was just going to say some of them are like Miami and Mensa. Yeah, and they just beat up on a terrible Stanford team and it looked like they were playing a video game on easy mode. But I mean, he might be the leader for the Heisman Orals side. You know, right. But then you also had someone like Trinidad Chambers. Yeah. Who was who was in a neutral side in that. I watch a lot of that one, right. Against a fellow ranked team in Louisville, found a way to get his team the win in a back and forth game.

45:15Really looked strong in the process. Sam Levit. Real quick on Chambers, because I mean to bring this up. And it really showed up in this game. But we always talk about short quarterbacks and they can't see and blah blah. And there's a lot of truth to that. Wait, there's some numbers. He throws over the middle a lot and is very, very good at it. So maybe he's kind of the outlier in terms of short guys seeing the field type of situation. Hmm. You know, it'll come around in draft time. But assuming it keeps up, his over the middle stuff is very strong. I like that. Yeah. And that's going to help him a lot. It's needed. He's going to be a fun debate whenever the draft time comes around. Yeah. Because he has so much ability and he does so much well. He doesn't have the God gifted natural frame and body that a lot of prospects do. There actually is verified measurements on him too. He's 5117. That's a tough quiz for you. Know what that is? 511 and 78. Yes. So he's this much behind. Maybe he'll be six foot at the calm.

46:15Down there a little bit. Yeah. Mississippi. And then Sam Levit, the LSU quarterback that we talked about. Yes. Man, they made claims. He's kind of exciting. They made it look like they were playing one of those, you know, FCS program. That was not a competitive game at all. Oh my goodness. Right. Ran away with that thing and Levit looked very good in the process against a. He's a real playmaker. Oh my goodness. Yeah. He's an interesting one because again, so much of what he does, I don't know how it I'm not saying it doesn't. I just don't know. There's some debate. Yeah. To the NFL. But man, is he is he a lot of fun to watch? Is he a lot of fun to watch on the weekends without a doubt? Ellis, use a contender or anything. Oh my goodness. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Their left tackle is a real dancing bear too. Yeah, he's one of those that could be a top five. Yeah, certainly. So those are kind of some of the things that I'm keeping an eye on this weekend Matt, as we as we really start to get into the good stuff in the college football season. Yeah, we have some good matchups. We got some we got some we got some real good matchups, including what should be a pretty fun one here on the North Shore between pit and UCF.

47:18You got a little, yeah, a little ACC big 12 action at at Acresure Stadium on Saturday. I have a photo in my basement of pit verse UCF, which was the first ever game I'm on the sideline. Is that I've heard that story before? I didn't know that that was against that. That was the first ever game at then Heinz Field. How about that? Before the sealers, you know, yeah, I know you've told that story of being there for the first game and seeing the place get built with recruits and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't know it was against UCF then. Just so happens one of my absolute best friends got married that day and I didn't go. I went to the game. I was working. Matt, if you and I had a list of all the wettings and anniversaries and holidays and things like that that we've missed because of work, it would be a pretty extensive list. I had a pretty cool gift for him though. He and his wife met when he was in pit med school. Got him. They're both our pit fans and I got them season tickets and a handwritten note for Antonio Bryant wishing them a happy wedding or an hour. So that was kind of cool. Yeah, right. He was our obviously our biggest star at the time. That is that's awesome. That's what makes up for you not being at the wedding, I think.

48:21Hour in the books. Another hour to go. In hour number two, I've got some more of Matt stats that I want to dissect. We will also when we return, talk to our buddy Mike DeFabo of the athletic, get all the news, all the movement and shaken from practice earlier today. His thoughts on some of the injuries the Falcons are facing his thoughts on Joey Porter Jr's status, all of that and more to kick off our number two. Wesheweeler Matt Williamson, it's the drive. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.