AFC North Foe: Pittsburgh Steelers

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1:00Hi folks, welcome to the episode of Film Study. This is Ken McEusek. We're going to do the first of three episodes today to talk about the other AFC North teams to a round table or a roundabout, I should say. We're going to talk to the Steelers about the Steelers today. A good friend, Alex Kazzora, joins us. Alex, how are you doing? I'm doing well. Can always a pleasure and highlight to be back on the show. I appreciate you as always, one of the really respected analysts of the Steelers and his work is available. A number of platforms will get to that at the end. But big moves for the Steelers this off season. Like the Ravens, Mike Tomlin gone. They have new coaching in place. Talk about that first, I think. Yeah, it's different territory, especially for me as someone who's 33 years old grew up watching Mike Tomlin. And so a new coach, especially from the work standpoint, is interesting, new training camp style, new philosophy. But I would say a lot of people would argue that change was needed and overdue.

2:04And we'll see how Mike McCarthy does. Obviously, Pittsburgh is not, did not go in their usual direction of hiring a head coach. Not today, higher head coach very often. But the norm, quote unquote, is the young, up and coming defensive mind. Next time you go to the tried and true, often some mind of Mike McCarthy. And even before he coaches the game, he's the oldest coach in Steelers history, not just at the time of higher, but the oldest coach to coach a game at any point in franchise history. So Pittsburgh's calculation is a recommitment to winning now. You do that by hiring a coach with a clear resume in Mike McCarthy. And somebody who can hopefully find and develop a quarterback at a McCarthy can do those two things. The head coach higher will be a success. So obviously you've hit on the fact this is not a dynasty higher, but it is a relative short term higher. I would not expect McCarthy to be there six to eight years from now. I guess you never really know. Maybe he'll last into his early 70s and that's a possibility. What for you would be a reasonable over under on McCarthy's tenure there for you to say,

3:06yeah, that worked out, assuming some of these other things you talk about, like finding the quarterback fall into place. Sure, if you're asking me for a number of years, that can be difficult to quantify, but a second contract would make sense, which he would probably get that after four years going into the last year of his contract. It's not Pittsburgh typically does things. But to the point I made, what I think is interesting about McCarthy's higher year, he's not going to coach Pittsburgh for 15, 20 years, the way that Noel Coward and Tom Landed, but if you can find that quarterback at some point who can outlast his own actual 10 year, and lead this team for 10, 15 years, then McCarthy's impact can be a lot deeper and long lasting than his own coaching tenure. Let's say you find that guy in year three, and then he only coaches seven years, but that quarterback starts for the next dozen years. Then that's a success in the byproduct that will help out the next head coach. That's my loose definition of success. Okay, I'll buy that. Do people still think of Rothschildsberger as being Coward's guy?

4:06Because he was right, Rothschildsberg's last couple of years of the Coward era, right? Sure. Yeah, yeah. Oh, four and Coward was there through 2006. So yeah, Tom Land is not given credit for finding Ben. He inherited Ben. And so that is a Bill Coward, Kevin Goldberg selection. Okay. All right. I just wondered how Steelers fans looked at that kind of going back. Let's talk about some of the big moves. The Steelers made this off season. There were a number of them we had went just recently. Let's talk about the other ones first. Yeah. I mean, in terms of you're saying coaching or players or I was actually talking about players, but we can go back to coaching if you have more to say on that. No, I mean, in terms of the players, I mean, obviously reuniting and Aaron Rodgers returning, even though that's not a different move. It was when Tom Land stepped down, the assumption was, okay, Rodgers is done. He's not going to come back with a new head coach, new system. Once McCarthy was hired, that door reopened. Rodgers said as much. He was basically resigned to retiring until McCarthy was hired by Pittsburgh two weeks after Tom Land stepped down. And so there is that reuniting between those two guys. And can they make that old magic work from their time together in Green Bay in terms

5:09of offensive upgrades? You trade for Michael Pittman. That was the first move Pittsburgh made in for agency acquiring him from the Colts and Pittsburgh, hopefully getting a better number to receiver. That's been a real sore spot in lackluster area where you had DK Medcalf and George Pickens in years past, not much else. And once that number one receiver was taken away, there wasn't much else for the passing game to rely on. I was a little skeptical, the Pittman addition because Kenny Beatman coverage can he create explosive plays. He's been hurt for a good chunk of the summer. It's not banked a lot of reps with Aaron Rodgers, but the intent is he'll be able to offer more than Pittsburgh has gotten in recent past. And then you have defensively you signed Jim Aldin to a good money contract. He's going to start opposite. At least we assume start opposite a Joey Porter junior in his whole contract situation. I'm sure we'll discuss. And so from a for agency player acquisition standpoint, those were the big moves. Pittsburgh drafted 10 players for the first time since 2010, all 10 rookies made the team. We'll see a first round pick. Maxi Honnett, your start still unsure about that. He battled summer injury. So from a kind of 30,000 foot view of those are the big additions.

6:12All right. All right. Now they just recently they traded Broderick Jones to the Cowboys. Talk about that a little bit. Yeah, I think it just was end of the road. And I think Pittsburgh tried to explore and go as far as they could with Broderick Jones. And I'm sure that's tough for a GM, even though you can't be emotionally attached to these picks. That was the first selection of Omar Khan's tenure in Pittsburgh traded up and jumped in New York Chets three spots to get this guy. And it just didn't work out. And he had the neck injury last year had to really rehab and work hard this spring. It was great that he was able to participate fully this summer and show his health. He played probably as much as any stealer did in training camp, which most people thought he would enter training camp on active PUP and have to really sit things out. And that was not the case at all. But you know, he's a guy that there's a couple of elements to it. I think his technique was always a mess. His punch was always poor. His hands were too wide. His hands were too low. Maybe Dallas can fix that. He just felt like a bad habit that he could never get right. And then Pittsburgh I did not do him any favors or service by bouncing them around. They played a left tackle at Georgia.

7:13Pittsburgh declared on draft night. He's our franchise left tackle. He yet they moved him to right tackle. Back to left tackle and bounced him back and forth in Jones. After being traded said that did not help me out at all. I can understand that for a young tackle trying to find his way. So I'll be a right tackle and Dallas and compete for that job. But it was just was not going to go anywhere. You draft Maxi, Honiture, you have Troy Fartanu. Jones was not going to start. It's going to be a swing capacity at best. And so you get what you can get and they got a pretty good deal for him too. I thought it was an outrageous return for him. I mean, just I saw it. I'm like the Cowboys got their pockets picked on this. You mentioned that he played a lot this preseason very unusual for a veteran line men like Jones to play 140 preseason snaps. Extremely unusual. And Carson Vincent played 150, but he's still trying to break in as a developmental offensive tackle. And Jared Lichtenhan for Ravens fans played more than that 176 or something this preseason, which was one of the highest totals. I mean, he's just don't see that out of a guy who's been a league for a while. Sure. That was two fold one to show his house.

8:14I think for him and for the team because he missed a lot of the spring. And so they wanted to show that he was healthy and in shape and kind of getting his legs back under him, whether that was for Pittsburgh or somewhere else. Also, frankly, they just they did not sign a single offensive lineman and training camp. And some guys got hurt. They went in the games with 11 healthy lineman. And so they just didn't have a lot of guys available to play snaps and they wanted Jones showcase versus a till. These so you're right. It was unusual, but I think it made sense for him to get those reps. I'm sure Dallas got to evaluate him. Well, yeah, the return was good, but you know, the scarcity of offensive lineman. And if I'll treat that like gold, it's remember what 10 probably traits for offense alignment before cut downs. And if you're young experience versus title like Jones, even though the play is not great, that's going to create value. We we, you know, the Ravens are both ends of that. They they signed an undrafted rookie and Diego Pounds. It was about mind over 18 left tackle in this in this job. 18 offensive tackle. And they ended up trading him to the chiefs. I think that a reasonable value six round pick next year or 28. Sorry, I should say. But they also picked up a guy who is the Jesse Erosco.

9:18I mean, you may not know the terms of baseball term, but Jesse Erosco left in a reliever. Obviously, the meds, maybe you know, from the first time in that division, but kind of proves you can stay around in the major leagues forever. If you're left handed and you can get one out at times, they've changed the rules of baseball. So it's so it's not as easy to do, but they believe it's sharp. Man is still in this league. He's played like 11 different individual teams. He's played for now. It's like 31 32 years old, but the Ravens picked him up at the other training camp and had him play. So just just off of that and you know me and I'm like, you were both nerds about this stuff. As I mentioned it to you, I'm sure you've shouted it out. But I love that you guys signed Nick Finet. I've never cared about a Ravens practice quad move before, but I really hope he gets a single solitary regular season snap. That'll be the 10 team. These played snaps for which will tie the NFL record, which I think is just hilarious. So sorry for the phone call there. But yeah, I'm really hoping for net gets out there because I want to see him tie that record. Who's the other person who had 10? I wonder if you knew that it's not Josh Johnson, even though he's played multiple leagues. Right.

10:19Yeah, I'm being specific. This is where the guy has to actually play regular season snaps and not just signed with the team. There's two. The most recent is Shane Graham, the kicker who played for the Bengals and nine other teams, obviously. And then the other one is Tilly Voss who played the 1920s way back, obviously, and the NFL's formative years were very common for guys to bounce around to a bunch of teams. And so Tilly Voss, Shane Graham, I'm hoping Nick net. All right. What position did Tilly Voss play to you? I think everything. I think in back then you were just playing football. I'm not sure how position full it was. Yeah. All right. Well, really interesting. The Steelers cap shape right now. How do they look for now and going forward? I assume not terrible with the Roger steel being what it is. They just restructured. Bartersy redecade met cap to clear space this year. They spent the offseason with a bunch of contract extensions to Darnal Washington, Keon and Benton, Nick Herbick and Chris Boswell and that even though didn't eat up a ton of space for this year, just from that and the Roger's contract, well, not ginormous.

11:21This is still a pretty heavy one year cap charge to take. So they're okay right now. They're going to have space. You know, next year gets a little bit tight and they're going to want to resign some guys next year. I'm assuming in Zach Rezier, Mason McCormick, maybe even Troy Fauton who paid in Wilson. There's going to be some roster deletions, Jaylen Ramsey, he will be back in 27. It's kind of hard to think that that's going to be the case. So they had to clear some face this year and do that old canned kicking to make it work for this year. But Omar Khan, that's his background. He was the football administration guy and handles contracts and still his final say on contracts right now. So they're okay there. All right. I know you mentioned three guys that are on the table to be resigned in Fattano McCormick. I don't know if you mentioned Frazier, but he's a part of a very good young offensive line. Is that the, is that the, what's going to make a break this dealers this year? Yeah, I would say so. I think it's one of those big things. I mean, there's probably a couple different elements of it and just how the pieces come together. But I think there's more consternation about not that side working left tackle to center

12:22because by the way, Fattano McCormick are flipping back to their college homes of Fattano at left tackle McCormick at left guard after playing right tackle and right guard throughout their early Steelers days. But it's that right side of you soon Spencer Anderson will start at right guard yet to be declared by Mike McCarthy, but he's run first team right guard all year contract year for him. And then what is that right tackle battle? You have Dylan Cook who finished out last year left tackle was Pittsburgh's fourth or fifth string left tackle last year, but played pretty well. He goes to the right side where he played in college and then you have the first on pick and max. He honoured sure who look good in practice, but got hurt. Missed the first two preseason games came back for the finale. Tough start finished it better. He honoured sure is going to start at some point. It's a question of when not if it just will he start out of the gate in week one that remains to be seen. All right. All right. Very good. Now, in terms of the rest of the offense, what would you like to talk about first the receivers running backs? What I know I do want to talk about the running backs. Maybe we start with them. The Ravens got the longtime Steelers running backs coach who I've always been jealous of

13:25in recent years in particular of the Steelers abilities to generate mistakels with Eddie Faulkner as their coach. I'm just extraordinary. And I know some of the scheme, it's getting the ball out in the space where they're facing a level two defenders who are a little bit smaller than they are no bigger anyway as opposed to defensive lineman and the whole they can have. But do you think they'll miss any at all? Yeah. I thought Faulkner was a really, really good coach, a really smart guy. What I liked about him the most the training camp and maybe you guys thought during the summer this year was how inventive he was in drills because it can get my nods. And he always had a new drill of something different, something funky, just to kind of teaching the same principles, whether that was ball security or hand-eye coordination or pass protection, but just always some fun wrinkle to apply the same idea in a different way to kind of keep things fresh during practice. And so yeah, he was a really good coach. And of course, developed Jalen Moore and he went from undrafted for agent, big unknown to having a big role and getting a second contract from this. You know, Warren's the first guy first running back to get a second contract from Pittsburgh

14:28since Willie Parker 20 years ago. And so that was kind of a really interesting moment where they paid him last year. So yeah, and then of course, running back in current form Kenneth Gainwell goes to Tampa Bay, good player, but you bring in Rico Dattle, who reconnects with Mike McCarthy and see have a good one to punch there. A lot of question. Who's going to be one A and one B in this team 11 flow. Dattle's really had a career defined by peaks and valleys, big moments and quiet stretches. But I had the guest out of more one A, more and more one B, more and play more and passing down. Stattle a little more on early downs for a second down 60 40 split is my approximation. But Warren's a really good player. He does everything well. He's that bowling ball that can break all those tackles as you talked about. So we'll see exactly how the split goes, but those are the top two. Just to bring up the Eddie Faulkner thing. We had practice indoor one days because there was rain. And first of all, that completely sucks for the media, completely sucks for the team because they're packed onto a single field and the area is much smaller.

15:28But it is kind of cool from the perspective that you can really hear a lot of the things that are said. And so you hear Ledford and his boom, his voice just booms all over the brick and place. Ledford at the podium is, he doesn't even need a microphone, but he uses one and it's very loud. But any Faulkner, we saw him do exactly what you were talking about is making up a new drill and Derek Henry was completely confused by it initially. He's been around obviously long enough to know what he'd drill you could possibly throw at him. But it was something involving like a plus shape set of pads that you would skip over in a certain way and whatnot. It was something completely new to him anyway. Yeah. And I love that higher ledford. And those guys go because when they hired Ledford, I thought Faulkner was going to leave for Baltimore because they worked together at NC State, correct? And so there's a little bit of connection there. I want to say double check me. I didn't know that, but that would be a decade ago or something, right? We're talking about now. Sure. Yeah, it was a while ago, but I'm pretty sure there was a previous connection with those two guys. Any time you're running back coach and O-line coach or in lockstep. Also, by the way, and I'm 99% sure because Eddie Faulkner, I believe his son Elijah

16:33Faulkner, he just scored two touchdowns for UMass last night in the rough set over Rutgers. And so I'm sure Faulkner really happy right now. Pretty cool. How part of how much of a part with the Steelers was Eddie Faulkner in terms of designing the run game? In Pittsburgh, traditionally had gone to the offensive line coach. I can't speak to exactly how it worked under Faulkner's time. I know what Mike Monchak was the O-line coach. He had the he didn't have the title of run game coordinator, but that's where the run game ran through. And so I think probably a little bit less so, especially with Arthur Smith, whenever he came in because run game was still really his bread and butter. Whenever the Steelers fired Matt Canada in 2023, Faulkner became the interim OC. And he wasn't the play caller. That was Mike Sullivan who had the background of doing that. But Faulkner was the organizational guy game planning throughout the week. Tomlin gave him that. And so there was good organization background. In fact, Eddie Faulkner actually was ball states interim head coach for about two months. Way back when I forget to Pete Lembo that got fired, I forget exactly when.

17:34But even Faulkner has the tiniest bit of head coach experience. So I don't mean to make this the Eddie Faulkner podcast, but really good coach. I think you guys got a good hire. No, that's that's a very cool football is finally back in price picks is bringing out their best offer yet. New users who sign up will get $150 in lineups. If you win your first $5 line up and now price picks is available nationwide. So what are you waiting for? Lock in for kickoff because everyone and everything is on price picks. So what you on this football season, I'm all in on Lamar Jackson's rushing stats. This summer, he's looked as fast as anyone and the mesh point between Lamar and Derek Henry should return to be the most powerful offensive combination in the league. I picked more on his rush yards projection for the season because I think he'll again be a nightmare for opposing DC's. He's my guy and he's on price picks. Price picks is going crazy with the deals to start the football season, giving you users a new promo every day during stack September. Make sure to sign up now for guaranteed picks every Sunday, along with profit boosts and daily discounts throughout the month.

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19:37So what does it take to be in the other third? You have to do extensive amount of research to be good. There are people that spend copious amount of money, time, resources, energy, their dedicated their lives to basically becoming good at it. All that and still. And yes, two thirds of people on CalShe lose money. That's CalShe in their own CEOs words. Go to www.fairpredicts.com to learn more. Well, let's talk a little bit about the defense and actually, it's White receivers. But what do we want to talk about? The White receiver or Titans for that matter. Sure. Yeah. White receiver Pittsburgh, certainly on paper, has a better looking group than last year, but it's a little question of who's going to come together and who's really going to create chemistry and trust with Aaron Rodgers. As you know, that's the big thing. If Rodgers doesn't trust you, it doesn't matter how talented you are. You're not going to play. It's not going to work. And so it is nice. The Pittsburgh has, even though there was a lot of debate about should Rodgers return or should Pittsburgh move on to have the same quarterback coming back and back to back years has not happened since Ben Rothisberger at the end of his tenure. And so they have that week one starter and just to have for DK Metcalf and Pat Fryum,

20:40we never have the same quarterback and week one and back to back years. That's good for those guys. You trade for Michael Pittman. You trade up and draft Jeremy Bernard in the second after the whole McCuy lemon, miss in that whole situation there. So we met calf. Pittman. I'm a little worried that Pittman is he going to be able to add something new to this offense or is it going to be some of the dirty work underneath work, which Pat Fryum with his done well throughout his career. Pittsburgh traded for Pittman under the intent of diversifying his route tree. It's been hard to really see that because he's been hurt for a large part of the summer to not play in the preseason. Missed the back half of training camp and wasn't too impressive before he went down. Roman Wilson has looked good in practice, struggled to translate that to game action. Bernard struggled more in practice and done well in games. But he's a rookie and asked Aaron Rogers trust. So passing game top targets met calf certainly give me the top guy expect my McCarthy to really get him the ball a lot more than Arthur Smith did last year. Pat Fryum with should certainly research. He was frozen out of the offense last year as Arthur Smith got his guy John Smith a lot of touches.

21:40Fryum with and Rogers Red Hawk connection throughout training camp should be a really good year for him. The question will be everything beyond Pittman and him's his acclimation to the system and then which young guy can step up and Roman Wilson or Jeremy Bernard. All right, all right, that's outstanding. That's very detailed and a short period of time. Let's flip it over to the defensive side of the ball. Now you mentioned Keanu Benton was one of the guys that they've added to a long term deal here. Hey, where does it sign through what year? Through next year and that'll probably be his last year of his NFL career. Okay. All right. Well, I think there's a lot of Ravens fans will be happy to see that. I'm going to tell you that after all. Appreciate it. How about there are other guys that are down line men. Are they carry five? I'm assuming right? They have seven on the 53 right now, which is the one. Maybe they've been going seven. You're talking seven, including like a four three end, right? They play. I'm including like down like, complete three tech defensive. I'm not including TJ. I'm not including Alex Heismuth. Seven true blue, 300 pound defensive lineman. Yeah, Pittsburgh really has invested heavily in the trenches and some of those are second

22:42year players. It's a good mixture of the veteran in Hayward. You had a veteran for Asian and Sebastian Joseph Day who's been hurt for a lot of camp, probably be good for a week one, but he's a run stuff or a good locker room community guy. You have two second year guys you're excited about in Derek Carmen and YA Black. Then Carmen can take a big step in year number two. He said a really good summer. YA Black's playing more nose tack after playing more defensive end last year. Of course, Keanu Benton broke out last year. Got the big contract. He's probably going to play less nose tack. I really want to see him and how they get him snaps at nose tackle versus YA Black. Of course, Hayward is still Kim Hayward. Then two rookies made this team six drum pick, Gabriel Rubio out of Notre Dame. When Pittsburgh drafted him, nobody, myself included knew who the heck Gabriel Rubio was, but he's a Pittsburgh Steve was liming. He's big. He's long. He runs to the football. Then they had an undrafted for agent Kevin Joe Buddy Jr. make this team out of Syracuse who had a good year last year. Got hurt in 2024. He came on strong at the end of the preseason and captured one of those final spots. It's a good looking group on paper. They have to play well.

23:42You guys have to be able to really break out and ascend, but on paper, the talent is certainly there. Okay. That is just remarkable to me that they play, that they have seven on the roster. The Ravens have always carried five. This year they're carrying six and it's a big hub, hub a lube, but I think it's more interesting to do the fact that Matt Beekay, they're not sure if he's going to be ready for the opener. So they're going to have five ready for that. But the Ravens, the question would be, are they ready to move to like having four active on a more regular basis? That drives me into like near stroke behavior when that behavior, you know, I'm worried about a stroke because I think it's a big risk to take on an individual game, but they, you know, the notion that they would ever carry more than five really is never come up before. And I'm shocked that the Steelers with, you know, being built in a lot of ways similarly would have more, you know, players of that type. And just where they, where they sacrificing it, I assume there are 25, 25, three roster,

24:46right? 26, 24, 26 offense, 24 defense and they even kept four quarterbacks. We didn't talk about it. It's a very different, you know, roster construction this year. They went later at linebacker, which was weird. They only kept eight linebackers for outside linebackers, edge rushers and four offball guys. Usually it's four edge rushers and five offball. So for three, 14, eight linebackers is pretty light, but that's where Pittsburgh currently stands. Yeah. I'll buy that at safeties and corners. Then they have how many of those if they have eight plus seven, they have, they have nine total safeties plus corners to which is a little light. Correct. Yeah. Now, that's, it depends how you classify Jalen Ramsey, probably going to play more slot corner than safety. That was the intent at least you could say six corners and three safeties. It's the Sean Elliott unfortunately former Raven went on injured reserve. And so that made things a bit lighter in the secondary could cause Ramsey to play more safety. But yeah, that's the construction. You could sit there and say, you know, five two corners, three true safeties and then Ramsey playing slot corner and safety. Okay. Did they lose Elliott for the year? No, he's designated to return. And so he'll be out at least the first four games.

25:49He came off that really severe injury last year. They eased him back into the summer this year. He played in the preseason game against the Jets the second one and then didn't feel right after that. Well, Marc Conn is saying it's not a setback. Not sure how you can really say it's not a set pack. Obviously, something happened that was unintended, but his body just not right. And so they're going to give him some more time to recover and be ready because you know how Elliott plays. It's one speed only. It's full force. And so that certainly takes a toll on your body. I certainly loved him as a player and I think it was two years ago, right? He had the fantastic tackles. Sorry, stops the Miss Tackle ratio like 25 to two or something. Yeah, it was crazy. Miss like two tackles all year something wild. Yeah, outstanding player. All right. Let's start with the most important developing young players. I'm sure we've probably talked about some of those in the office already. But who on the defense is really critical for the Steelers to develop and that maybe it's on a first contract? Sure. I would say Derek Carmen, first round pick of last year. I thought it was a good rookie year, but it was a little bumpy. He got hurt a lot.

26:50He got hurt right before the week one. He got the right was the preseason finale. Missed the first two games got hurt again with a knee injury later in the year. And so just never really had that steadiness to get into a groove, so to speak. He's been healthy all year. I had a really dominating training camp. The past rush has always lagged behind the run defense when they drafted him. Ken, my my polar bond, Harmon was he could be a great runstuffer and a good past rusher. So can he develop a go-to move as a past rusher? That'll be the challenge there. But he's really good against the run. He's going to play that left defensive and spot for Pittsburgh beyond that. The Kerbic big contract this year, $100 million man, how Pittsburgh fits in their three, their top three at outside linebacker, TJ Watt, who was going to move around more than just play left outside linebacker this year. Alex Heismith and Herbig, you're going to see all three guys on the field in certain packages, especially those obvious past rough situations. And then secondary joy, Porter Jr. the contract situation there, but still a really good player. And that's kind of the number one name to watch at cornerback.

27:51But the secondary is a little more, a little more experience when you have a Santhei Samuel Jr., who had a really good training camp, really good summer, Jamel Dean, Ramsey. They brought in Jocqueon Briskert, hometown kid, formerly the Bears. So there's some experience that they just been hurt a lot in the secondary. A lot, not a lot of guys playing together under a new scheme, Porter included. And so how does that look early in the year? Is there going pains of a second year that has just not gotten a lot of reps together? Is last I heard Porter was threatening to hold out week one. Is that off the table now, finally? It's not off the table. He said it kind of sheepishly. Kim Hayward did this last year too, as he angled for his deal. I think it's probably something out of that playbook. It would be a surprise if Porter did not play week one. Even if there is no contract on the contract, certainly could still happen. Okay. All right. Fear enough. Let's talk about where you expect this team to finish in the AFC North. Obviously, it's a team with some young talent, no doubt about it. Do they have the quarterback they need to compete in the AFC North? That's the big question. And you would expect Lamar Jackson. Obviously, if he doesn't miss what the five games last year, the Ravens were

28:53likely win that division. Your Burrow misses half the year. The Bengal's defense is better. I've been mixed and I'm still kind of sorting through my thoughts. A little bit. So I apologize if I'm hedging here, Ken, but the gunpaper, the roster does look better. You like the pairing of McCarthy and Rodgers in the passing game. Should be more proficient. McCarthy's always had acceptable or to really good off fences. And defensively, I really like the higher patch of grammar. It's a new DC. I think it's a really good coach, really well respected. The run defense, I think could be top five this year. Can the secondary and defense create more turnovers and continue that take away culture? That is one concern of mine. I just wonder, you know, Mike Tomlin for all his works. And I don't we don't have to relitigate all of Tomlin's issues. The internet has done that for us, but he was really good in two areas. One score games and against the division. No team had a higher win percentage in one score game. So Mike Tomlin and his Pittsburgh Steelers during his 19 year, 10 year. And Pittsburgh has the longest active streak of going 500 or better against your division than any other team in the NFL. I think it dates back to 2010. Last time Pittsburgh was worse than 500 against the AFC North, which is always

29:57tough and always brutal when you're facing some really talented teams and those games are always close. Can Mike McCarthy replicate those things? Can he be good against the division and good at one score games? That remains to be seen. And it is a talented division because the Ravens, I think are a good team. I love the Jesse Miner higher. The Bangalos defense should be better that offense. So prolific in the Browns are always a tough out. Even if they're the Cleveland Browns Pittsburgh has to go to Cleveland, week four on a Thursday, they always lose that game. I don't know how they get stuck in that schedule every single year. But point is I'm just kind of mixed. I wonder if it's going to be a, the more things change, the more they stay the same where you bring in a new head coach, but you might finish nine and eight, just like you have been. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. Asking a handicap to other moves in the division now. And I didn't have this on the plan. But I think I'm going to do this with everybody. The first is if you have a Cincinnati bang goes, do you trade the 10th overall pick to get DJ reader? Sorry. It's a lot more. It's a lot more. Yeah, you threw me off for a second there. It was trying to process. I mean, obviously I'm not as in tune to, to, to bangles world.

30:57I understood their mindset of this was not a good interior defense, a line class. We want to win now. And so if he can play to that Dexter Lawrence level of a couple years ago, then yeah, I think they need that high impact pass rusher or run stuff for, I mean, all the above that he offers there. So I understood the move. It was a heavy price to pay. I was surprised by that price tag, but the bangles defense was so bad last year. They're missing and they have to win now in this burrow chase Higgins window. So yeah, I think I understood why they did that. Okay. I have heard bangles fans typically say we would have blown the traffic anyway. It's the most diffused thing I can't ever accept it. You know, as Ravens fans, we expect a certain thing out of the graphics and the capital is like gold, you hoard and whatnot. But, but yeah, I didn't, I didn't like it. The second is the obvious one in Cleveland is which way we would have gone in the quarterback in the quarterback role. Yeah. I mean, I don't think there's a great answer there. I don't exactly have belief in Watson or Shudder Sanders long term, but I don't know.

31:59I understand the contract of Watson and the sort of sunk cost fallacy of let's just give him one last look. I don't know how you can go with Watson. I mean, I just don't think the fan base hates it. I'm not sure if the locker room loves it. He's not going to be your long term option. What are we really trying to gain? What is best, like what is best case scenario out of it to Sean Watson, sorry, Lichier, I struggle to find what that is. And fair and a shudder Sanders probably it's not going to be your next franchise quarterback either. It just that was just the weird one where they pass up on Jim Schwartz, his there head coach, they go to Todd Monkin, like I'm getting, and maybe I'm wrong on this. And Raven's fans can speak to a better than I can, but like I'm getting David Cully vibes from Todd Monkin, where it's going to be like, I want to done. They're going to fire him. They're going to go hire a hot shot, you know, Nate Chilhouse next year, something like that kind of start this thing over. So I think Monkins in a really tough spot. Yeah, it is. You can see you can see him struggling with it really in terms of announcing the quarterback and what's going on. I agree. I he's not long for it. He's he's actually younger than I think he seems like he's older than me and he's not. He's like 59 or something, but he seems a lot older than that.

33:02He seems like closing it on 65. I would have said from watching the coaching the Browns will only H him more. I guess. Yeah, two for one relationship there. All right, Alex always a pleasure to have you on the show. Keith, tell folks where they can find your work online. Sure, you can follow me at Alex underscore Kosora K O Z O R A and check out the website. Steal us depot. Check out the Twitter account too at Steal us depot. I just want to mention too really quickly. I forgot about it because I let my special teamers, Chris Boswell returns a new punter, but also returning punter and Cameron Johnson and Pittsburgh drafted a high return guy in Cain Lee, and so can he have an impact? He ran a punt back against Buffalo. I cannot wait for the Ravens game because Ryan Eccleys your punter this year, right? He got the job and at Michigan State, flashed you, Michigan State Iowa, Weijen ran back a punt. It had another long return for a near touchdown to against Eccleys. And so I would love that kind of battle within the battle of Eccleys in Weijen meeting each other at the NFL level. Eccleys kind of known for outkicking his coverage.

34:02He has a booming, booming leg and kind of a low hang time to go with it. So it's not the greatest combination. The Ravens already had potentially some issues with Eccleys the holder. At least I'll say that there's something wrong with their three man process in terms of their kicks that they're trying to figure out. So they've missed a couple and they actually brought in a kicker for the practice squad, which is a credible waste of a practice squad to do for Luke's confidence. I'm sure that confidence is already shaken and now you got Jake Moody sitting there. That feels like it's not great for his back. First of all, Jake Moody, if he replaces Luke, it'll be even worse. Whatever it is, it'll be worse. But I think they want to kind of toughen up the loop is the idea that competition is good and whatnot. But it's been addressed several times and DeCosta talked about it on Tuesday and he said, we need to start making some kicks. So I understand it, but it is what it is. We'll see. All right. Other folks out there, please, you're still studying mailback at gmail.com. For your questions, I will direct them to the proper show.

35:04Be more know your foe coming up. And especially if you have a question for our guest on Know Your Fos starting next week with the Colts, we'd love to have that Alex. Thanks again for joining us. Thank you, Ken. Take care. And we'll talk to you next time on Film Study. CalShe's own CEO says it himself. And yes, two thirds of people on CalShe lose money. So what does it take to be in the other third? You have to do extensive amount of research to be good. There are people that spend copious amount of money, time, resources, energy. They've dedicated their lives to basically becoming good at it. All that and still. And yes, two thirds of people on CalShe lose money. lose money. lose money. That's CalShe in their own CEO's words. Go to www.fairpredicts.com to learn more. Dave Roberts here. There you are surrounded by fans, sharing wings, sharing drinks, high-fiving random strangers. Everybody remembers the game. Nobody remembers the guy coughing behind you until a few days later. At 2am, you wake up with the fever and your throats on fire.

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