Scout’s Eye with Matt Williamson: Going after Cousins?

Hello everyone, Matt Williamson here. How's it going? I'm coming from you. I'm coming from the owners meeting.

Recording this Monday afternoon, you've got back to my hotel room. There is the big owners,

banquet party tonight that I've heard described as like the best wedding you've ever been to,

which is very accurate. I've been to quite a bit of them. A lot of food, a lot of drinks, a lot of

celebrities, a lot of head coaches, all the owners. It's a pretty cool environment. And I'm guessing

not that I'm a reporter or a sleuth of any means, but I'll probably find out some scoop tonight

as everyone's throwing a couple back and relaxing a little bit. So I'm kind of looking forward to that.

Also tomorrow, which is Tuesday, probably when you're listening to this, is going to be a heavy

Steelers media contingency day. There was some stuff that happened today, Monday, but tomorrow is going

to be a lot more Steelers oriented. For you guys that don't know how this works on Monday,

the 16 head coaches from the NFC went into this banquet room with like 16 huge round tables.

And they basically just parked their butts there and anybody wants to come down and talk to them,

can for an hour. And there's a bunch of recordings and I get a little nuggets here and there. And

tomorrow is the AFC group. So I'll be on the air probably when it happens. But I'll try to

stick my nose in there a little bit. Just get the vibe. See how McCarthy's handling things. And

there's also some local stuff that goes on from there. And I'm pretty sure Mr. Rooney and Omar

will be at the podium tomorrow. So a lot of Steelers stuff to at least comment on. Along those

lines, just feeling the vibes. Today everybody was here. Yesterday it was very barren and things

were getting set up. And we were like a day ahead of schedule. But just kind of reading the vibes

and talking to people close to the team and some national folks I know. And obviously one of the

big topics of conversation surrounding the Steelers is the Roger situation of course. And

here's my impressions from afar. I guess I would say but not super far. I think that they are

absolutely going to get this done. So let me preface it by that. I think Rodgers will be the Steelers

starting quarterback. And it'll be much to do about nothing. And I don't think there's any frustrations

or hard feelings or anything along those lines. But I also think that the Steelers maybe thought

they would have an answer by now. I'm recording this March 30th. Some people thought that by the end

of March we thought this would be locked up. And I guess we have a day. You could do it on the 31st.

Someone I talked to you thought, you know how perfect it would be. I mean the NFL draft is in

Pittsburgh. Of course 24 days away. Maybe Rodgers walks out wearing his jersey and introduce the

first round pick. And I'm back. You know like place goes crazy. Probably maybe they're waiting for

something like that. That would be very Rodgers-esque. So I think it's all going to happen. I don't think

there's any frustration. But a couple of birdies told me that and you have to have some kind of

contingency plan if you're the Steelers. If you don't know it's a done deal. If you don't at least

have a handshake done deal. You at least have to consider something. And I think just talking to

people and this doesn't surprise me at all. And I know it's not real inspiring. But I think if

Rodgers decides to retire. I don't think he's going to play for anybody else. I think that's

her too often. She's going to either say, sign me up for another year of Steelers or I'm hanging

it up and getting all my life's work and doing a radio. If people decide to walk away,

I think they would immediately pivot to Kurt Cousins. And I get it. I also think a lot of you

be like, just put Howard in there and tank and see what you got. They're not going to do that.

There's no way they're going to do that. And Cousins played well, highly respected. I'm not going

to sit here and bang the drum for Cousins. That's not at all what my intentions

are in this podcast at all. I'm just telling you, I think that that's not the craziest thing I've

ever heard. It's not the best pivot. I talked to Jeremy Fowler on the air today and brought up

even their car. He said there's been very little interest around the league in acquiring car.

He think, not he, but several people thought Cousins would be the immediate pivot for the Steelers.

And I think that there that is in line with Cousins not yet signing anywhere.

You know, like if I'm the Raiders, he'd be perfect mentor from Mendoza. I could probably come

in there. They've been linked together. And I could probably come up with three or four teams

that had made sense, you know, just as the veteran presence, maybe help a young guy, maybe even

compete for a starting job. But he hasn't signed yet. And my hunch is he probably knows, again,

I'm speculating like crazy here, that Raiders will probably be a Steeler. But I might as well

not sign a contract until he does because they probably will give me a buzz.

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Three other small nuggets I just wanted to touch on. More and more people I talk to.

And as you know, I've really been on the fence about this matter. Most people

feel pretty strongly to rather strongly that these Steelers will draft a quarterback,

not Tyson Sin, somewhere higher than the seventh round O'Leacon during the picket draft class,

somewhere between Nusmeyer, Beck, Peyton, in that neighborhood, third to fifth round.

Some even said maybe like a Nusmeyer in the second. To me, I'm not doing that. And I don't

dislike Nusmeyer, but I mean, those first two picks to me are not roll the dice on a maybe

kind of quarterback. I mean, those are O'Lean wide receiver, maybe a safety. I mean,

some kind of difference maker round out your roster. But a lot of people think that they're

leaning pretty strong that the Steelers will take a quarterback and add them to the mix.

I've said it a million times. I'm on the fence. I can make really strong cases for both. I have

done that. Pam just wanted to kind of pass along something I learned. Two other notes.

Roger Jones has been a big tap topic of conversation. And I think he'll be a really big topic of

conversation tomorrow when all these Steeler folks are on the podium or getting interviewed.

There was some inclination today that I would say it's leaned towards good news.

And from that, I really only mean the medical stuff. They still have not declined or picked up

his fifth year option. I think there's like a zero percent chance they'd pick up his fifth year

option. But we did talk to some folks today that said picking up his fifth year option is about

20 million. If Dan Moore's worth 20 million on the open market, if you know Jones is going to be

healthy, why not pick up the fifth year option? Buy yourself one more year. He's probably as good

as Dan Moore was when he signed. And I thought, okay, I see that. It gives me one more year of a

left tackle. But I urge you to listen to my podcast yesterday. I would much rather use that money

on Cook and Anderson. And frankly, I am very much on the board there. I'm going to bring that up

over and over and over. That's kind of my new kick. I'm on. So Jones has been a questionable player

and with very questionable health as we speak on March 30th. I don't think there's any way you pick

up his fifth year option. But I can't wait for a new offensive line coach to get their hands on him

hopefully. And hopefully we do get more news in terms of the medical maybe as soon as tomorrow.

Last thing, I saw this on fantasylife.com that Kenneth Gainwell, he logged 85% of the snaps

in the two-minute drill last year. So his 85% two-minute snap share tied for seventh amongst

all running backs. While he also handled 74% of the long, down and distant situations.

So third and long, two-minute situations, passing down stuff. Passing down obvious stuff. He was out

there basically three quarters of time, if not, and indefinitely more than that. And just maybe bring

this up. I mean, you just hand all of that to Warren, which is my immediate yes. And Dowd will take

some of the more early down stuff. Cool. I definitely don't trust Johnson to do it in any way.

Maybe Homer could do it a little, I mean a little, but he's not a good enough player for me to be

like, oh, you're going to hand all the critical passing down situation stuff. I think that really

goes to Warren. And again, this is from fantasylife. This is a fantasy nugget. I would sure add up for

a lot more fantasy points for J the more and all those catches, all those down distant situations

that are pivotal for pivotal for fantasy. But the last thing I want to bring up along those lines is

if you're going to draft the back, which I still think they will, especially if they make 10 picks.

I mean, you start putting roster spots together. And again, I don't think it's the top three rounds.

Would you lean towards a back that is more passing game slash third down oriented as opposed to

big heavy banger type? And again, that's a beauty of Warren to me is he can be the heavier guy

compared to a game. Well, he could be the later guy, lighter guy, compare to Dowd out out. And

you wouldn't have to pigeonhole yourself in the draft if you're going to take a running back what

type. But I did find it interesting that that much of a void in clear passing situations

is arriving from the year ago. All right, thanks. Tomorrow tonight's the party. Tomorrow will be

a lot of busy stuff. I'm sure we'll have a lot of talk about it.

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