Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger
Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger
Big Ben talks New offense scheme, Will Howard's first snaps, Drew Allar's performance & more Ep 135
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One preseason game can’t crown a season, but it can expose a direction and the Steelers finally looked like they’re choosing one. We hit record right after the opener to talk through what jumped off the screen: the offense has a different feel, the play design creates cleaner windows, and the overall approach looks more like an NFL scoring plan than pure survival football. We also get into the chess match of preseason tape, where Mike McCarthy can show just enough to build timing while still hiding the real communication, audibles, and weekly answers he’ll need once the games count.
Then we pivot to the stuff that can quietly ruin a contender: penalties. Eleven flags for 134 yards is a preseason stat that can become a regular-season identity if it’s not addressed, especially the pre-snap and post-whistle mistakes that have nothing to do with talent. From there, we talk defense with an emphasis on the secondary, what it means to hold up even when everything is “vanilla,” and why names like Asante Samuel Jr. matter when the schedule toughens.
Finally, we spend real time on the quarterback room. Mason Rudolph looks like a pro, but Will Howard and Drew AllAr both flash the kind of decision-making that earns coaches’ trust fast: movement, throwaways, smart aggression, and zero panic. The big question is simple: how do you hand out reps next week to find the truth without overreacting to one night? Subscribe for more Steelers preseason analysis, share this with a friend, and leave a review. Which young quarterback would you give the next start?
Football Is Back And First Reactions
SPEAKER_00Welcome back to footballing with Ben Rothelsberger. Football's back. Hey, it feels good. A little toast. Nothing says football's back like a little yellow belly. Hey, they're on draft.
SPEAKER_02On draft.
SPEAKER_00Preseason football. It's almost real football. Oh, that's a victory beer. It is. Hey, hey. What did I say last week? Almost 30 points a game. Yeah, you did, bro. Just saying. This is what we're looking like. Um, no, we are excited to be in the base, and I'm Ben He Spence. Uh, thank you for joining us on a unique day of the week. This preseason. It don't play games like on Sundays like normal. So we're gonna come to you after the game. So, you know, that way we can give you all our insights from the game a little bit here and there. Um, and and just let us let us teach you a little something.
SPEAKER_02Little little school like I I appreciate you including, I appreciate you saying us. Like, let uh teach you something. I'm not going to teach you anything. Well, I don't know about that, Spence. Well, we're talking about football. We may get into something. Are we talking about football? I promise if we're talking about football, I will teach the listeners of this show nothing. But they teach me plenty, and I appreciate that. Yes. You know, but you're gonna school all of us because not only do you have 18 years knowledge, not only oh uh congratulations, newsbreaking. Uh it's not news at all. Uh, but they're announcing uh your eligibility for a certain haul. Uh as a is a uh Oh really?
SPEAKER_00It's like they're actually announcing it now.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, they I think they put out a list. Oh. Yeah. Am I on the list? Yeah, yeah, I saw your name. Look at you. Let's go. Look at you. Turns out you weren't too bad throwing that thing. Let's go. Um but uh yeah, so that that it just that proves the resume. But not only do you have that resume, the Steelers come out and give you plenty to talk about, plenty to break down. Um I think the highlight of last night's game is obviously the quarterback play, and which we will dive into extensively, but we also have plenty other things to talk about since it's the first time that we got to see any of the rumored changes be put into effect. We have we have uh an eye on the offensive line. We got to see them work a little bit. The defense was something that stood out to me. The DBs was an interesting thing because we have some injuries in training camp with that. The big thing that stood out to me outside of a position play was the offensive scheme, Mike McCarthy. So listen, um let's just where do we want to start,
McCarthy’s Offense And Preseason Gamesmanship
SPEAKER_02my brother?
SPEAKER_00Hello. I would um let's start from the top. Let's let's go, let's let's start with the top of the coaching. Um, you know, we we talked about this this team, how it's gonna look a little different first time having an offensive-minded scheming head coach. And I think you saw it last night. Uh, you saw schemes, and and and I will say this too. We talk about a lot. The preseason is not the time. The preseason is the time. Let me let me let me make sure I say this the right way. The preseason is the time to throw some unique wrinkles, right? You're gonna let let's try things in the preseason. Let's let's throw some, you know, what we're gonna do is we're gonna one of these plays here, we're gonna we're gonna have three offensive linemen. You know, like you just throw some weird things so that teams, if they play you during the regular season, well, they only have preseason film to look at.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So all of a sudden, you know, again, I've said this before on the show. If I'm a if if if I'm a if I'm the Steelers and you are um, who's our first game against regular season? Uh uh Atlanta. Atlanta. You're the you're the defensive coordinator for Atlanta, okay? Um your only film to watch of me as as coach as Mike McCarthy and the Steelers, you can watch Dallas tape, obviously, because he'll he'll bring a lot that he'll bring the same offense, or you can watch preseason. You'll watch both. Okay. So in the preseason, I know you're gonna watch me. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna throw, you know what? I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this play. I'm gonna put three linemen here, I'll put, I'm gonna put like four receivers, like just this obscure look. Or an obscure play, a a quad reverse pass punt. Okay, because you know why? Because if I throw something or Wildcat, right? The old quarter, you know, let's bring, let's bring Roman Wilson in at quarterback or whoever it may be. Yeah. Because you know what that forces you to do? Practice against it. Yeah, prep the room. You may not spend a lot of time, but you have to at some point be like, hey, guys, listen, this is probably not gonna happen, but just in case it does, right? Well, you just spent five minutes to 10 minutes to 15 minutes worrying about something that I have no intention of doing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Instead of focusing on what you know I'm gonna do, right? So as an offense, so as as a McCarthy, as an offense, what you're doing is you're gonna throw some unique things, but you're also gonna hold to the to your chest, to the vest is the like your real intentions, right? You're not you you really don't want to show a lot of hand signals. You don't want to show a lot of audibles, you don't want people to hear the stuff. You know, I mean it's harder for people to record anymore. The Patriots get caught, but you know, you have to just you're you're you're you're like, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you some obscure stuff, and I'm gonna give you like you're gonna have to see our base stuff, but I'm gonna keep a lot of that this outer stuff, the specialty stuff, the unique trick plays. Right. You know, the trick play I'm never running, I'm gonna show you. Yeah, yeah. But some of the the unique stuff I'm gonna keep close to the best. You know, does that make sense when I'm talking about? 100%.
SPEAKER_02I always wondered how much of that was happening in the preseason because it is, and I think you saw this on display last night, it is an opportunity to like, hey, I want reps in these things too against live ammo or with live ammo. And so for sure. Like the that going on going forward on first on fourth down. I'm like, it's probably just to see, just see what we have.
SPEAKER_00That's a fortitude thing. Like, like we don't we're not we're not hitting and tackling during training camp. Let's do it. Uh, you know, one of the things that we always were were very aware of and careful of in the preseason was the like hand signals and audibles, right? You wanted to be really aware, and and we would sit down in meetings afterwards, you know, Charlie or or Bruce or or Byron or you know, Dobbs, like I'm thinking of really like just the guys that was with me for a while that really understood the offense, would say things like, Hey, just so you know, the TV copy caught you doing this. Oh the the TV audio heard this. So you had to be aware of it. You know what I'm saying? So, but it was good to have like that. That's the talk of the communication you would have. So, you know, in the preseason game, you'd be like, Hey, I'm not gonna give hand signals, guys. Yeah, or I may even, if you have a veteran group, you can be like, hey, today, almost like baseball, I'm gonna give you this, but it means this. Oh, okay. You could you could mix up if you trusted your guys. But anyway, that that's probably a lot that we're throwing out there right now. But I I think what you saw from um McCarthy and the offense and the scheming, getting guys open, one of the touchdown passes that Aller threw was a natural little pick route. Um, hard to call it because you know the guy's an actor, not a tractor, uh, and you have to find a way to you know not like set a pick. You're just like, let him just you know run into me today. Design it, right? Design it. Um, what what this reminded me of a little bit with McCarthy and um uh is is watching this and seeing this and what I see from McCarthy and the the little bit of playing against him that I know, plus what I saw a little bit last night, and what I think we're gonna see is I think you're gonna like I would use the comparison of Bruce Arians. Oh, really? Like BA was never the head coach with for us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's high praise for him for you.
SPEAKER_00I I yeah, I mean, I you know how much I love and respect BA. Yeah. And and I'm not I don't want to disrespect either one of those, you know, whatever, but I but but but and when I say that, I like and we've talked about the show. A great offensive coordinator, and listen, McCarthy's the head coach, but let's let's let's be honest, he's he's doing a lot. It's like yeah Andy Reid. Right, right. We know who's called we know who's doing the work, right? A great offensive coordinator is is not even like and I I hate to to to to go over this again because we I've done it in the past, but an a normal coordinator, offensive coordinator, it's a below average coordinator, is gonna call a play and he's gonna watch the play, right? And then once that play's over, he's gonna go to a sheet and he's gonna be like, okay, we it was first down. Okay, first down. Here's my first down play call. Okay, we picked up two yards at second and eight. Let me look at my second and then okay, let's do this.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_00Third and two. Okay, let's go to my third and two. Here's my play call.
SPEAKER_02Reactive to it.
SPEAKER_00Let's let's let's play checkers. The good OCs, the good head coaches, the the the the BAs. I I think McCarthy, I think Andy Reid. I'm I'm sure there's these younger, these new younger guys that that I don't even know of yet. Um, they're doing this first and 10. All right, here's your play. You got it? Okay, I'm I'm watching the I'm watching. He's got it. Okay, because there's and the reason I say this is because it's funny, because Charlie would sit down there where the good ones, okay. I want to make sure I get this in. The good ones will give you a play, and then they're the play is getting ready to happen, and they're on their sheet. Okay, let's see if it's what what can what can happen. I'm not even looking at the play. What could happen? Okay, we can get this play. This could happen. Okay, I have a okay, these are my options. Let's check the play. Here it goes.
SPEAKER_01Because you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00Like, it's like what let these are the scenarios, yep, right? Like it's first down's a pass. Okay, we could get sacked, it could be incomplete, it could be second 10, it could be second long, or it could be a first down, you know, like here's my you know, it's like proactive in that. We're we're figuring it out because there's times that that BA or you know, coordinators would have their head down, and I maybe didn't like it's not it didn't radio or didn't come through or it was static, like whatever. And I'm out there like this, and Charlie's like this. Hey, hey, he doesn't have it. Give it to him again, give it to him again, you know. So that's why a good a good backup is always watching because there's time because a good coordinator is is down here. He's like, I'm not once I give you the play, I'm not even thinking about it. Where other ones are like, give me the play, and then they're like, Oh, you want the oh yeah, you didn't get it? Okay, I'm good to you. You know, like you know what I'm saying? I know it's giving you a lot, but no, but yeah, yeah. The nuances, yeah. That's the that's uh that to me, it feels like that's what McCarthy is going to do, what he brings, but outside of even just scheming, I mean it just seems like there's a lot of of the nuance. I stick to my 30 points a game. I I I don't think that's gonna be hard because I don't think you saw even a little bit last night of what the potential is in in the sense of Aaron, yeah, DK, Pittman, Rome. I mean, there there's there's a lot going on. Did I did Jalen Warren even I think did you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_02No, and they did, yeah, they and that was probably the my biggest area of concern. I know, but I'm but again, it's it's week one of the preseason, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I I'm excited about where it can go um in terms of that that that's that's my two cents, uh my soapbox on the offense, on McCarthy, on where where I think that could go. Um Asher's calling me. We are gonna cut this right. Hello? Hey. Yep. Um, we're filming right now. It's okay. Yeah, we're filming right now. It's perfect. It's gonna be great. You wanna be on the show? Yeah, do you want to say do you have anything? Do you want to ask her if I'm allowed to keep this in or do I need to cut it out? Oh, Spence wants to know can we keep this in or do we have to cut it out? Because the fans love these little things. Well, yeah, we can shout out, we can she's calling, she's calling to see if we want um Bridgeside. Oh, shout out Bridge. Shout out Bridge side. We'll shout out Bridge Side. We can shout out Bridgside. We should giant Eagle. We can shout them all out. Um no, I'm good. Do you want anything, Spence from Bridgeide? Um, I got a jet right after this. He's gotta leave really quick afterwards. We're good. We're good. But it is delicious. I typically would say that. All right, love you. See ya.
unknownBye.
SPEAKER_02Shout out Bridge Side.
SPEAKER_00Shout out to Bridge Side and the uh I like the rice ball there. The rice bave you ever had the rice ball? Oh, don't bother. Oh Spence, Spence. They have a rice bowl? Come on, man. It's the the very, very central center of the rice ball. Yeah, is like rice bowl or rice ball? Oh, I'm messing. I'm I haven't had either one of them.
SPEAKER_02No, I haven't had that.
SPEAKER_00The inside is like mozzarella cheese, and then there's like rice, like rice around. It's probably the size of like a like a baseball, maybe a little smaller than a baseball. And then it's deep fried.
unknownIt's deep fried.
SPEAKER_00That's it's got it's got the only thing I that's not a big fan of, it's got little peas in it, which I don't like, but it but you don't it's about it helps to like hold together. The emulsification of it, huh? Hey, dude, I'm gonna be. Besides the mighty mick, I like the mighty mick.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I do the Tommy Pastrami, I do the Tommy Pastrami, but I add tomatoes, onions, um, and I sub out for normal mayonnaise. Because I got a pesto mana. Pesto mana's is good.
SPEAKER_00Oh I do mayo, my mighty mick.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah. And then but I also because you know I'm I'm not just doing one sandwich when I go somewhere, I also do California Love, which is with their turkey. It's it's again, and I'll add you'd like turkey more than ham?
SPEAKER_00I'm more ham than turkey.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know how to mix with pork like that. Oh, that's right. My bad, my bad.
SPEAKER_00I listen. Ham's pork?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, and that was a great episode. And we're back. Um, okay. So, yeah, offense, McCarthy. That's how I feel with offense. About we'll get to the players, but in terms of what I saw in terms of scheming, things like that.
SPEAKER_02Dude, that's that is um probably my greatest sigh of relief because you're going into it and you heard it, and you've mentioned on the show plenty of times about the offensive scheming. You were a you were banging the the McCarthy drum early before, even when he was hired, he's like, hey, man, that's a good one. That's offense, offense. And rightfully so. Obviously, I was an offensive player, but um you know, I didn't know what to expect. Obviously, he has the his career in Green Bay, he goes to Dallas, that doesn't pan out, sits out for a year from coaching, you know. I'm like, okay, what are we gonna get? You see something like that, and it's and in in in um connection with all of the things you're hearing out of camp. I haven't been able to make it out there yet. I'm like, oh, this okay, so this is exactly what I've been hearing from you. Yeah. Um, so and again, week one of the preseason, I'm not about to crown the king, but this was such a refreshing thing to see as a Steelers fan.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I think it would have been fun to ask him. He's the first coach of 50 years not to come on our show, but uh head coach. Um, but um no, it is definitely refreshing to see the offense, like, you know, to to really be like, hey, listen, this is you know, it's not just a fullback cloud of dust, play defense. Yeah, like, yeah, we want to play defense, but we also need to outs, we need to start outscoring people.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And so I think that that he'll bring that, and I think you're gonna have that excitement. We are gonna like, we we don't want it, we don't want this episode to get everyone like too, too excited. We're gonna bring, we're gonna bring people up, we're gonna bring people down. We're choppy dude. And we're gonna bring people back up again. Um because we listen, under Tom, we've been pretty successful in the preseason too. Sure. Um, you know, and so it's it's just what what I would like to see if we're gonna keep talking about McCarthy real quick, um, is one of the things that I noticed last night was the still the amount of penalties.
Penalties, Discipline, And Hidden Yardage
SPEAKER_00Yes. And that has to be a little bit concerning-ish. Okay. Especially the the pre and post-snap penalties, like the things that you can you should be able to control. I uh the personal fouls, any of that kind of stuff. I would I don't think that I'm wrong in in voicing my opinion and saying that I feel like in my humblest of opinions, that they're that we've had a little bit of a penalty issue here the last five, seven, ten years. Sure. The the personal foul penalties, we've talked about that, the pre and post snap. I'm interested, and so it's like, okay, we we had quite a few. I don't I don't have the stats on how many penalties we had last night, but it felt like for a while, I thought I heard uh um Pump and uh and and Charlie say like, well, there you know, it's seven. At one point it was like, okay, there's the first penalty on the Packers to the seven of the Steelers. I at some point I thought I heard that could have been wrong, but it felt like it was very one-sided early. Now, some people say, well, that's you know, the or the refs doing I no, I just think that you there's penalties. Yeah, I you know I'm saying it does you're you're a penalized team because you you I I agree they had 11 penalties for 134 yards. The Steelers had 11. Yeah for 134 yards. So that's that's seven. Well uh I think it was Todd who says 100 yards is worth seven points.
SPEAKER_02Or up to 43, is what it says.
SPEAKER_00So my thing is okay, we saw the penalties. Yeah, now the next question is, is it going to get resolved? Is it going to be are are you going to be is it going to be are going to be a trouble for it? Or is it just going to be like, hey guys, let's let's try not to do that again? Like let's let's let's see what where it goes because we can't keep being a highly penalized football team and want to have and be a Super Bowl contender.
SPEAKER_02And I'm assuming you're saying that based upon my observation of it not really changing historically throughout the season.
SPEAKER_00And it's like it's it it the behavior that yeah. So um are they is he gonna crack down and say, listen, this is unacceptable. We cannot have these personal fouls.
SPEAKER_02And how much of this is um based upon what you saw, the penalties that were happening, how much of this is like, hey, this is just sloppy play? And I'll say on the O-line, the O-line stuff. I mean, outside of Zach Frazier, I think every other position the guy was playing a different position than they played last year. Uh so how much of it you think it is that getting used to it, how much you think it is it like, hey, you got to tighten the ship up, and how much of it is the refs like in the preseason, they're they're flexing all the new things they have to call. How much does that impact those calls, you think?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, all those are factors, to be honest. And that's why I said let's not, we're not gonna panic on it right now, but uh, but what I don't want to see is double digit penalties every week. Yeah, like we you you can't you can't do that. Um, and you don't want to see like, okay, next week it's two and then it goes back to 13. Like, yeah, let's if you if you're gonna be consistent in the like I I would love, I mean, I'm sure you know there's a scene called the intranet that we can look this up. It just feels like we need a producer. Like, what was the and it's not something we have to do right now, but what was the average NFL like what was the average NFL penalties last year per game per you know per team? Like, where did the Steelers rank? Like, I would think that you would want to be in the top. I mean, I know you would want to be in the top half at least, right? Like, and I'm guessing I could be wrong, this would be another like Chad GPT type thing. Um how does that correlate to wins and losses? Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like, maybe there's no correlation. What it'd be hilarious if like the top three most highly penalized teams were like Seattle, but like the teams that won.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, Seattle was seven. We were ranked uh eighth. Pittsburgh in 2025 regular season, the Pittsburgh Steelers averaged 5.8 penalties per game, ranking eighth fewest in the league.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so that's not that's not bad. It it it felt like it was and that's funny because it felt like it was worse than that. So I I well and and you got to think about the significance of the penalties, too. Yeah, they come to different times.
SPEAKER_02Like if it's if it's a bunch of like, oh, it's false starts, and but if it's like, hey, that was a PI and it's a spot and now they score because of it, it's like yard yards per penalty because you get a five-yard penalty compared to a 30-yard penalty, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Big deal. I mean, 11 for you said 130 something last year. 130 up to 43, they said up to the that's that's a lot of yards. That's a lot of things. So but um so I just want to see, so let's just see what happens moving forward. Is it is there going to be you know, I I I want to see this because I didn't see too much last year when a guy gets a like a like the dump penalty, right? Like the the the extra push, the punch, the the tackle out of bounds, like whatever the the one that you know better. Yeah, am I is that is that guy getting reprimanded, or is it just kind of like uh eh, that's what I want to see.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. And and you you make an interesting point because that many penalties you know, dad's calling me. I'll have to ignore that one. Sorry, Bob. Uh, this is a uh you would think the score would look different with uh with that many penalties on one side, right? And so the fact, what was it, the 28-6? Did they even they didn't even score a touchdown?
SPEAKER_00Uh I don't, yeah, I don't think two field goals, right? Yeah, three field goals,
Defense Takeaways And Secondary Confidence
SPEAKER_00something like that.
SPEAKER_02So that leads me to to pick your brain about the defense because that was something going into. I think the Pittsburgh Steelers defense is always something you're like, of course it's gonna be great. The secondary was something we had issues with. Um I like the secondary right now. And and uh what I saw last night, especially without some of the ones out there, brother. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00Are we gonna win the friggin' Super Bowl? I don't know. We could talk about it. Come on, man. Um, those boys did very good last night. I I again I don't want to my f I'll be, I'll be completely honest. My focus was more on the offense of watching it, but I will so I'm I I don't feel confident commenting too much on too much the defense because I I wasn't watching were they mostly man, was it mostly zone, was it one high, two high, like were they blitzing, were they not blitzing? Like I didn't get into that, but what I did get into and what I was trying to really watch was the secondary because you didn't have JPJ, you didn't have Ramsey out there, what's that gonna look like? And I'll tell you right now, you've got Asante Samuel Jr. Yes, sir. Hey, what a steal. If he can stay healthy, that young man is ready to play. And I think he's going to be because we don't really know if JPJ is gonna play this year. Or I assume you know he's gonna play, but you know, the the the contract thing, I know they say back, but I we we all know what it is. I'm assuming that whether he goes or doesn't go, I like what you have there. Um, and so I I thought some he made some some plays early on. With a slot or two, man. What was he like? Yeah, I'm telling you, it's I I like where the secondary's at. And it seems like we've always had or we've had in recent years some issues at the safety position in terms of injuries.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I'm hoping that we have some good depth there. Um, but the secondary is is especially if you know you've got some pass rush coming with with with Alex and and TJ and and Nick and and Sawyer. I mean, yeah, it's ball's gotta come out quick. Was it Robert Spears Jennings? Was looking, I mean, yes, it was yes. Yeah, so I'm excited. I'm excited. I what I'll what I'll do this next game is I'm I'm I'm gonna watch a little closer on the defense because the next game feels like it could be a little more of like let's get some guys in there. Yeah, like let's play a little longer, a few more reps, a few more series. Um, because again, you do have to temper all this like Super Bowl talk that we're talking right now, you do have To realize that they didn't like their starters, and you know, their offense looked their offense went down the field on the first series, got a silly penalty. There's our silly penalty we talked about, kept the drive going. Uh Asante Samuel Jr. makes a great play on a back shoulder throw. Um, I thought the Packers' offense looked like they could have, you know, they looked pretty controlling early on, but again, you're still feeling each other out. Uh this this week, I'll watch a little closer on the defense, try and keep an eye on blitzing. But but defenses of coaches do the same thing. It's very vanilla. You're not usually you're not showing a lot of blitzes, you're not showing a lot of different coverages, which is why we when we get into the quarterback talk, we will talk highly about the the play, but we'll also have to temper our talks because of the lack of defense you're seeing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and too, your your one thing we were talking about before we started, you know, who's are your ones playing against their threes? Are the you know it's and that's a hard thing to to temper. I we are holding all of the praise and criticism open-handedly here. Uh, because I that was something that was interesting too, because we're hearing in training camp and from the defensive scheme, man, you're getting kind of that three-headed monster, the edge rushers moving around. I don't think I saw any of that last night. I wouldn't either, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I wouldn't show it.
SPEAKER_02That well, that's and that's what my point is like what what impact is that gonna make? I mean, it was cool seeing Al out there. Um, he seemed to be getting the backfield consistently, which I expect nothing better than that. Um but yeah, man, I I'm it's tough because you're like, okay, yes, we might have the best vanilla.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right. But that's good. If you if you if you've got a great team that isn't showing stuff, yeah, it's a good that's a good problem to have. Yeah, yeah. All right, well.
Quarterback Breakdown From Mason To The Rookies
SPEAKER_00That's a good thing to have.
SPEAKER_02Well, let's uh let's move to, I would say, the topic of um the day. Should have had a better name for that. The quarterbacks. The quarterbacks. I was like trying to produce a title for this segment. Let's talk quarterbacks. Um so we all knew um Mason was gonna open this game up. Yes. There was a little, I don't want to say surprise, but we thought Rod uh Raj was gonna be a good one. Yeah, I thought maybe everyone's gonna play a little bit. It seemed like this would have been the one to do it because of the storyline, but it makes sense first one out, probably not. But I thought Mason didn't hate that he didn't play. Yeah, and I thought Mason did great. I thought he was efficient. I thought he was making throw. I think the line probably didn't hold up as much as he needed him to. Yeah. Some of those sacks. And he's a little less mobile.
SPEAKER_00So some of it's gonna look, it's gonna look, you know, the running back got run over on one. Um, it's a typical backs on backers, Friday night lights. Don't do it. But uh yeah, I don't yeah, we knew Mason was gonna start the game. Well, we found out Mason's gonna start the game, uh, which is kind of what we expected. He's the two on the depth chart. He's gonna go. Uh don't think he played bad at all. Uh just you know did exactly what you wanted him to do. What you would expect from him to do, right? He's not gonna do too much with his legs. He's gonna, if it's there, he's gonna take it. If it's not, he's gonna throw it away. Um, listen, I'm not one to say anybody holds the ball too long because that was my MO. But that's you know, again, so you wouldn't so you would not. I know, I know what happens when you hold the ball. Uh Michael Pursuit used to go on me all the time for that. Uh but yeah, I again. And it's it's going to be interesting because the the narrative right now is like, yeah, I don't I don't have much to say about Mason. Right? Not me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00People. Yeah, yeah. Stealer Nation.
SPEAKER_02Well, and I think it's it's one of those things. And that's good and bad. He's proof. He did he did what we've seen him be capable of doing. Like, yes, he can command the offense. It was cool to see him out there. I think he played well. He took care of the ball, didn't turn it over. He did exactly what you asked him to do. And that moves us into what got the first standing ovation was is finally we got to see Will Howard come in, and we finally got to see what he was made of. And I thought he did not disappoint, man.
SPEAKER_00No, I I was I was um I was pleased with what I saw. I thought his pocket movement was was was really good. I thought he got rid of the ball when he had to. I thought he he used his legs when he had to. Does just enough with his legs, like he's he's definitely mobile, definitely can run, definitely get away from people. I think uh there was one play I think Broderick maybe either got beat or there was an extra rusher and Will had to get flushed right, threw it away. Didn't try and force too much. I think that's key too because you know, as a guy that's that missed last year, didn't get a chance to showcase uh a couple things can happen. You can go out there and almost try too hard, yeah, and try and make all the throws to prove what you can and can't do. I thought he was was very efficient, did exactly what you were hoping for. Um I thought the one that was a touchdown called a touchdown that wasn't a touchdown, this the the middle of the field over the linebackers between the safeties, what a great throw. Uh he didn't disappo obviously didn't disappoint.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00He he to me what happened with Will Howard is he he like more than put his his hat, his name in the in the hat, his hat in the ring, whatever you want to say. Yeah, um, for QB2. Okay. More than more than than than just said that. Like he's like, I'm I'm here. Like I'm I'm standing here. Y'all need to like consider me with Mason. Yeah. Okay. That that that's where I feel I feel that he did again, very small sample size. Okay. Mason has a nine year, I think this is ninth year, maybe. Okay. Big sample size. You know, certain plays here and there, but Will Howard made me say as a coach, or is it my putting my hair in my my GM hat, my football and GM hat? Owner footballing hat. Hey, he needs more reps. Get him more reps with twos. Get him some reps with the ones. Um I would I would strongly consider again with with my hats on, in my opinion, I would give I would take some reps away from Mason to see the two reps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To see what Will Howard can do.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_00Because you want to see him with the better players. I would give him a few one reps when Aaron is, you know, give Aaron the day off. Hey, guess what? Get get get get that guy in there and give him a chance to see what he can do. Sure. So that's how I feel about uh Will Howard, his day, how he performed, and what I'd like to see moving forward. He was obviously the second quarterback in, so he played against their quote unquote better players. That's always that benefits Will. Still wasn't their A squad. Yeah, but he's also out there with the same guy. So uh for not being on the football field for a while, I think if you're a Steeler fan, if you're an owner, a coach, um, a GM, you are extremely excited and uh feeling really positive about what you have by also, I just move it in the mic, by also saying, hey, listen, don't let's let's not sit there and say, hey, we we got we got our next franchise. Let's let's let's see what happens. I wouldn't I would move him up in terms of reps this week in practice.
SPEAKER_02Well, that leads us to the next guy, Drew Allen. And one thing I will say, uh, you'd mentioned something that that triggered this thought in my mind. Um, I will say for all the quarterbacks, I think their decision making was something to get heap praise upon. Yes. Because I think it's it's very easy early to just throw the dumb throw. No turnovers, throw the ball down the field. And that I don't know if that's something that Tom Arthur's doing in there. I don't think if that's a Mike McCarthy thing. I don't know if that's uh Aaron Rodgers thing kind of, you know, or or it's just these young men being able to see it and and save it.
SPEAKER_00I was frustrated early on the first, third, and like long Mason threw the like the little diagonal, like the three-yard pass. I was like, uh, really? This is what we're doing again? This is the offense we have. But but that kind of I think that kind of went, you know.
SPEAKER_02Well, dude, did you feel any certain kind of way that um the tight ends were getting some love where you're like, yes. I mean, what do we yeah, we've been talking about it.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you know, listen, everyone talked about um last year, like the the the offensive quarter is a big tight end guy, like he loves the run the ball and loves the tight ends, like but we have a great tight end that we didn't throw the ball to, so that doesn't make sense to me.
SPEAKER_02A lot of the a lot of this, I mean I saw a couple plays that were reminiscent, I felt like of old seven, right? I mean, left there was one, I think one of Will's drives, it was three shots to the same tight end. Yeah, you know, listen, utilize it. Yeah, utilize it. Um, but yeah, let's let's move to uh Drew Allen. Yeah, because that was something I think going in, everybody the camp was divided, everybody wanted to pick. I got stopped in the street and and got asked, hey man, what do you think, Will or Drew? I'm like uh Pittsburgh. Yeah, I think the Steelers. And uh big fan of Will. I've never met Drew. I'm uh I'm biased, and I told this individual that I'm like, I'm a Will guy, but I like Will. Uh but I'm so excited to see what Drew has. Yeah, he comes out, and I think um I don't want to say puts you know puts a period on it, but I think he makes a statement. I think makes a statement and for I don't think makes a statement against the other quarterbacks, I think makes a statement for us fans to be like, thank God. All right, we're not worried about what we have in the tank here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And I know the last little segment I did, I I I only talked about Will because that was our Will segment. Yeah, um, nothing that I said about Will. I you know, I'm gonna now comment on this one, then I'll combine them because I didn't want to throw it out there earlier. Because I the what I feel about and what I said about Will, I feel the same way about Drew. Yeah. Like let I want him to get more reps. Okay. I'm gonna be excited about what I saw from from uh Drew Aller. I mean, I why don't we just combine them and make him will Will Aller and Drew Howard? Let's just make them the same.
SPEAKER_02They're both we got the technology. AI can do that.
SPEAKER_00Oh but what Drew did with his arm strength. Now, listen, I'll say this. You know, I remember um it's funny because the stat comes across, right? He when you throw like a slant or a an in, I mean, how many times have I said on this show when you throw a screen that goes for like 70 yards, there's nothing better. Yeah, that's what happened, right? He threw a great ball, but the receiver did all the work. But it looks great on your stats. But I I was pleasantly surprised. Not that I didn't think he was gonna do anything, but like I didn't know what to expect. Guy, uh he's another guy that hasn't played football in a while, coming off injuries and been been months since he's played football. We all we heard about training camp, we've heard about the big arm, the great throws, heard about some inconsistencies, but I thought he was super consistent, just like Will. He made good decisions with the ball. They didn't turn the ball over. That's that's to me. I mean, it doesn't get any better than that as a young quarterback, as a coach with young quarterbacks. Threw the ball away when you had to, ran it when you had to, didn't try and force it, found the open guy. Now there was one ball that maybe could have got, you know, was closer to being intercepted, but it wasn't. So who cares? I don't care if it goes through a guy's hands and the chest. Who cares? He didn't intercept it. Um, I was so I was extremely excited. I'm I'm extremely excited about both young quarterbacks. I think what you saw last night, again, uh part of me wanted to sit here and do this show with you as like the the like the double, like I'm this, I'm the positive guy, I'm the negative guy, I'm this, you know. So I'm I'm trying to give a little bit of everything so that people can take what they want from. I'm sure there'll be the the talking heads will take what I say and you know do their thing with it. But not from you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um extremely excited. Yeah. He earned more reps. He earned more reps with the twos, he earned reps with the ones. I would this next week in the preseason, depending on what Aaron does, obviously you you let you you decide this is all based off what Aaron does. If Aaron is not gonna play again, I would strongly consider starting either Will or Drew, either one of them. I I don't I don't care which one it is. Um I'm sure the the the the Aller fans are like start Drew, bring Will in second. The other start. I don't care what it is. It's a win-win. I just yes, it is. I just want both of them to get rep better, more better reps against better players.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Better players on your side of the ball. I want to see Will Howard and Drew Aller throw to DK, throw to Pittman, throw to to Roman, to to um, you know, all these. I I want to see more of that because I want to see does it get too big when it speeds up? Because though the the ones are a lot faster than the twos, the threes, whatever. Super excited about that. I don't care what order it is, I don't care if it's just like a hey, you had a better week in practice, you go first. Yeah, or you go say, or I just think they need to get more reps with better. Okay. Um, and and that's how I think both those guys, I'm like part of me is right now between those two players, Will and Drew, without without breaking down the film and knowing the offense and being like, ah, he made a wrong read or he did this. I would you could blind draw and be like, okay, you get to play first. And you'd feel good. I would feel fine. Yeah, yeah. I would because I want to see it, right? Right. Because what I want to say, like, I'm I know we're building these guys up, but here's what I I have this here, and I this is with with means no disrespect. I'm just going the only reason I pulled, I I looked this up and pulled this up is because it's the last from what I I'm pretty sure the last quarterback we took early. Okay. Okay. We took a quarterback really early, and his very first preseason game, his stats, 13 to 15, 95 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, three rushes for 16 yards. Crowned him king. Okay. Yep. Don't even need to say a name because it's not, it's not, but so my point is saying is like it's one, it's one game. Right. So now I'm now I'm the other guy, right? It's one game against twos, threes, guys that may not make a team. Great job. Great throws. You know, it was ran for a touchdown. But but show me that next week against the twos. If if you're Drew moving up to the twos, if you're Will moving up to the ones, show me that against one level better of defense. Yeah. Show me that against now the defense is maybe show me a blitz. Let me see make a hot. There was a throw that Drew made at one point where someone came free, but there was pressure in his face, he just kept retreating, retreating, retreating, made a great throw. Yeah. Like those are the things you want to see. Like I love that. He didn't panic, didn't go to the ground, didn't do something stupid. Retreated, stayed to get stayed mentally sharp with it, and hit his receiver. So there was a lot of really good to see from these receivers or from these uh two quarterbacks. Not a lot of negative at all that I saw from just watching it. Yeah. So I would be incredibly encouraged as a Steeler fan to say, I think our future is there. Yeah. But let's be certain.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay. So that when they clip it, they'll cut off that last part.
SPEAKER_00And it's like big bunch says the but again, you got you got you have two op I love the fact you have two options. 100%. You can't afford to put either one of those on practice squad. No. Like somebody's scooping them up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know how that can be. So this is an interesting conversation, man, because I feel like you have two more games to for the fan base to see and and for the to see what the future looks like and for those players to get uh reps with in in-game. In unless we're blowing somebody out, or God forbid something happens to our starters, like come the Falcons in September. Like it none of this matters because it's Aaron's team. Right, for sure. So this is all really exciting right here, and we have just a couple, we have two more games to figure out all of this stuff in in in game, and then for for the next 18 weeks, it is what it is. Where does all this excitement go from? So you have two extremely talented, three really ta talented quarterbacks, two two young guys that are promising for the future. You get say sample size, let's just say it just keeps trending up and to the right, and it's all uh it's all coming up roses. Where do you take that excitement? Where do you take that those those um credentials now that like okay, well, they'll never gonna see the field the the rest of the year.
SPEAKER_00And I and I had to figure out the right, because I already know what I want to say, but I know it'll it'll be the headlines of all headlines because Crisis King. Well, yeah, that's the best headline of all. Um in 2004, there was a young quarterback that wasn't expected to play either.
SPEAKER_02Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm saying? I did, yeah. And so I'm again, and I'm not trying to compare the quarterback, the starter now, to the starter then. Yeah, not I'm not saying that a little different, but there was a young quarterback that wasn't supposed to play. You were three, right? I was three coming in, maybe I was probably even four, three. I was like splitting time with three. Yeah, and then you know, so yeah, you you you you you hope that you don't need to put that guy in. Right. But what you need to figure out is if you have to put that guy in, which one which one, and do you feel confident? And right now, again, it's one game. After after this one game, as a fan, as someone that understands the game, I would say I am confident in either one of those guys. That being said, it's a very small sample size, and it can change really quickly. If I see this week, if if you watch this week and both of them just go out and poop their pants, yeah, you're gonna be like, eh, you know what?
SPEAKER_02Does okay, so like they crap the bed, is it you you the first week just no roll away? So how do you so how do you how do you temper that?
SPEAKER_00You you would you would what I would do is I'd say, okay, if if you go out, so I'd say both of them had A performances, maybe even high A's. I mean A plus feels too perfect, right? But really strong A performances. If both of them go out this week and just give like poopy poopy, D F, like multiple interceptions, which again, I don't see that, but just to say it happens. I would say, okay, which one was the anomaly?
SPEAKER_02Sure. Like Yay, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00Which one is which one is the real, which one's not? I used to joke with you know with Benjamin, he would have like a really good golf round and then a really bad one. I'm like, well, which one are you? Which one are you as the the quarterback?
SPEAKER_02Bro, I can turn this into a sermon so quick. I won't for the sake of our listeners, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm saying? But yeah, it it's it's you have to find out what you have. And I just think that you have two guys that are athletic enough that can make things happen with their legs, that have huge arms, that can make throws because sometimes having a big arm can get you out of a lot of trouble. Yeah, you know, like my first year, these guys are probably both way more athletic and can run better than me, but that got me out of trouble with my legs. And so I wasn't ready to be in there in the sense of like sitting in the pocket, go read one, two, three, check down duck. But I was able to like, okay, is one, two not there, I'm gonna make something happen and then make the throw. Both these guys can do the same thing. So I just want to see in a larger sample size. Cool.
Next Games, Playmakers, Kicker Worry, Closing
SPEAKER_02Well, we got the Jets, and then we're headed to Buffalo, I believe.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Is the preseason. Um, do you see Aaron coming in at all next week?
SPEAKER_00Well, now save them for the now with the three um game thing. I forget which game is like the important one. Like when we used to play four, like the third game was like super important. Like the starters played for almost like you know, full quarter, if not a half. Because you want to see the two-minute drill, one either two-minute drill or the first drive of the second half. But with three now, it feels like is the third one the important? Whichever one is the important one. I would like to see, I don't need to see him, but I'd like to see Aaron get a series with his guys so he can feel it. Not for Aaron, more for the other guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um would I love to see Aaron um you know, play a half? Yes, probably, but I don't need it. Sure. Uh, I'd love to see like, you know, because I just think that he'd go out with his weapons and what McCarthy does and you know, all right, I just you just scored the first three series, you're done. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, I think we got what we need. So I don't I don't know. I I just but again, what watching last night, the line needs to to get a little bit more, which which I I'm hoping we'll see the first rounder. Yeah, hope we'll see uh Max, I believe, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Hanachor.
SPEAKER_00I I think we'll we see him out there. Let's let's see what that can do. Let's let's sure up that line before we put Aaron out there.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So you probably if he's gonna take any snaps, definitely in Buffalo.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if that's the the important one.
SPEAKER_02Is it Buffalo? I might just make it.
SPEAKER_00I think it is. I think it is. No, I think you're right. I think you're right.
SPEAKER_02Uh because we have two here, and then it's then go to Buffalo and then the home opener back here.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00All right. So yeah, no, I think it's uh I'm excited. I know we're wrapping this thing up. I I uh there's nothing else I really feel I can take away from that game. Um, I I would like to see, I would like to figure out why uh in watching SS game Roman Wilson has had such a big camp, wasn't quite as involved, or wasn't thrown to maybe. And that may be because that's Aaron's been thrown to him. And Aaron's, you know, sometimes you you lock into a guy. You know, when when I'm when I'm throwing, I'm out there getting the reps, like I've got my guy, and the next guy may have a different guy. Yeah, yeah. So I'm not I'm not discouraged or worried about it. Um, but but you expect to see him playing a bigger role in the world. I do I would think so.
SPEAKER_02I mean, from what you hear from camp, how do you know? Yeah, I and one guy that I've been high on since we got him, I think he picked up where he left off in college was Jeremy Bernard. I thought he played great.
SPEAKER_00I mean, what a great that catch and run on the sideline, showing physicality, getting north. We'll just continue to see what what they what they bring to the table.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, dude, this is one of those things, this or one of those times where I'm like, we might have too much talent.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, like what we need to figure out is a kicker. Kicker is gonna be that's gonna be our downside this year. We gotta find someone that's because that is accurate, consistent, yeah, can can try and put three points on the board, can be automatic. The guy we have now, I just don't I don't know if I trust him. So, you know, people always ask what what would you like to see in the draft? I'd like us to get a kicker. Oh, Boz, why don't you do something?
SPEAKER_02I I'm I'm surprised Boz even dressed. He could have done, he could have gone out there and done that with sweatpants.
SPEAKER_00He's like, I gotta put the helmet on for this. Boz, he didn't even break a sweat yesterday. He was probably he was he was golfing, he was probably playing on his phone on the sideline. Can't even do that anymore, Boz. Good job, Boz.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, oh hey, it's a great start. Football was back. Man, we felt it in our house. Yeah, I'm sure Steelers need to do that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, little boys, Benjamin. They were so excited. Benjamin was so excited. He he wanted everyone to know that he thought Will played really well, and Drew made some great throws. Yeah, I think they know. I think they they know. I think they saw that, pal. I think they saw that. They have TVs, they saw it.
SPEAKER_02They have TVs. All right, well, we appreciate you guys tuning in. Um go Steelers.
SPEAKER_00You know, when the yellow belly's gone, the show's over. There you go.
SPEAKER_02So now we've come to the end of the road.
SPEAKER_00Until next week. See ya.