Scout’s Eye with Matt Williamson: Tentative optimism

0:00Hello everyone, I'm Matt Williamson, how's it going? A lot of news and notes to discuss today's steal are related. I want to start with Cam Hayward. They restructured his deal this morning Wednesday and it frees up about four and a half million to five, something like that, of available cap space for this year. I don't think that's the biggest aspect of all this. They also, I assume, are going to cut Millie Karrison on these days and free up another five. That's another 10 that they can have with their access from different than yesterday basically. So Cam will end up getting a chunk of money, which should rather have now than then. But my biggest takeaway from this is, first, I mean, it's never been confirmed that we

1:00knew he was coming back this year. Well, he's coming back this year. That's a done deal, obviously. Because they put another year on his deal, it makes me think, and I know he could easily retire after the season and get out of all this, but it makes me think that they probably are going to get two more years out of Cam Hayward. I think that's great news. I hope that, I guess a better way to put it is, I hope team and player see it that way. That we're happy. I think you're playing incredibly well. He gets better every year, which is amazing. We can get two more years out of you and playing at a high level. I mean, I think that is phenomenal. So I wanted to knock that off my list. The other thing is, I don't know if we've talked much about Javon Hardgrave, but he is officially now released from the Vikings. And I think he would be the nose tackle type the Steelers are looking for. Now, full-discute Lozier, I've not gone back and watched his most recent tape with the

2:03bikes, but we know what he once was. He is a big bodied nose, but with benefits. I mean, he can get up the field and be disruptive. And I don't think it'd be super expensive at this point. They have the money. They would just kind of finish out the D line for now with the exception of maybe you draft somebody that you're super excited and wasn't good and believe they were there. But I would definitely have interest in Hardgrave. Maybe DJ Reader as well. I'm just talking about some of these veterans that you tend to age slowly, but Hardgrave offers a lot more against the past. So I just wanted to throw that name out there. It would Hardgrave do anything for you at four million a year, something like that. I could see it. That money you save with cam just give it to his old buddy Hardgrave. I could see that. I don't think that makes you too old there or anything. Again, that's another thing I want to bring up too is I'm getting a lot of feedback of boy, the Steelers just keep adding old guys and it will get older.

3:06They're going to draft like 10 guys in April that are 22 or younger basically and five of them on the first two days. I mean, so there's going to be a youth movement here folks and I know it's not what everyone's to hear, but they're trying to balance winning now with building for the future and I understand the whole situation to be very honest with you. Yeah, the NFL season's done, but is it ever really? You can still bet online with America's best sports betting site, the Fandole Sportsbook. That includes all current sports, all of this summers coming sports and hey, for what it's worth, you can get in on NFL action toward the 2026 season already. Never a dull moment, never an inactive moment, the best place to bet on sports, play online

4:06games, build your fantasy team, is it Fandole? Steelers also made another move today, Darno Savage was signed. Mixed feelings is not the way to say that, but tentative optimism I guess is how we could describe this situation. So Savage was the first one pick of the Packers. Come and McCarthy were never in the organization together, that was LaFloor's first draft. That was also the Devon Bush draft. I pretty much know for a fact on good sources that if the Steelers had not traded up for Devon Bush and stayed put, I think with the 20th pick that year, assuming Bush would have gone, but you would have. That Savage would have been their pick, that they were really, really high on him coming out of Maryland. He had a great tester, a little bit under sized safety, but he was also sort of a little

5:08ahead of his time and that he was a safety that could play the slot, then had a lot of versatility. They loved them back then, now Kevin Colbert's not here and my Tomlins on here and maybe they were the two to love them, so maybe that doesn't even matter, but I do know that. I thought Savage was very, very good. His first couple of years in Green Bay, playmaker, active, really shows up on tape, versatile. Lately, things have not gone well. He signed a big deal with the Jags, lasted there for about a year, was released and signed with Washington. I think he had a real, real short stint with Buffalo last year and injuries and just inconsistencies have kind of derailed his career. So I would not count on him as, oh, they got a starting safe. I think what you get out of him is kind of a total crap shoot, wild card, sort of like

6:10when you went for peppers and dougger and those guys that had pedigree. This guy is more free than them. Those guys are more strong in the box, bigger body types. But I like to pick up. I mean, it's a one year deal with basically no risk. I don't think there's hardly any guaranteed money. If so, it's very little. He definitely has ability. He might come to camp and light it up and realize my career is on the fritz and this is my last chance to make any kind of splash or he might not even make a thing. But he is a brand name, dude. And I'm usually, and this is a big common thing, but the organization is a whole of getting the pedigree guys when, I mean, this guy is like 10 cents on the dollar from what you would have paid for early in his career. So I like that picked up quite a bit. So the league year did start today and so I mentioned Hardgrave is officially released. As is Kyler Murray and there's been some speculation that Murray and the Steelers could, you

7:14know, get matched here. I don't think that's the case. I think he's going to Minnesota. I'm very fine with that. I think it's going to be Rogers. But I did just want to address it that all these dudes that are, you know, Kirk Cousins and guys are going to be cut are now officially released as is a case with Hardgrave. And it doesn't break my heart really that Kyler is, I think, going to be a Viking. Maybe by the time you hear this, I don't know. But I think being in Minnesota will be great for his career and I'm fine with it not being in Pittsburgh. Last thing I want to talk about today and this really doesn't influence the Steelers all that much, but this Crosby backing out of the trade, Max Crosby, Raven situation really rubs me wrong. And I've talked about it in a couple of different outlets that this could have went way wrong for the NFL. And here's why I mean, if by chance the Raiders were not a team that just had almost

8:15unlimited amount of cap space, they made all their moves with the thought of not only as Crosby gone and his money's gone, but we also have what the 13th pick in the draft too. You know, so the ripple effects of this, first of all, I think it's 30 pool by the Ravens that they're just aside. Oh, we got a deal done with Hendrix and we don't want to give up a draft pick. So we're going to get a pretty similar dude for similar price and we're going to reneg on the deal basically. But where I'm going with this is, what if all of a sudden the Raiders who now have to take Crosby back couldn't afford Linderbaum or would have made totally different deals or signed a massive defensive end that they wouldn't have signed anyway. You know, like I'm just saying the leagues and a half to examine the process that this could have been much worse, you know, like Dallas could have been like, well, we would have

9:16signed, we would have made the deal for Max Crosby and we would not have traded for Richon Gary. And now we have Gary because otherwise we would have Crosby because he's available. I mean, just the butterfly effect of how this could have went, could have been catastrophic and I bet at the owners meetings coming up here, which I'll be at. The owners look around and be like, guys, we dodged the bullet here. And frankly, I don't know that this is true because I don't think the Ravens did anything against the rules per se. But we also know the NFL can, even if you didn't get arrested, they can suspend it. You know what I mean? Like they can still find you or whatever. Might they dig into this and be like, you kind of went against the shield and we're going to ding you a draft pick or something. I just don't know that this is done. And I think the whole free agency situation is going to get reexamined and it's very flawed already.

10:17This is not Tyson Aluaylu saying, I'm not going to go to the Jags and say it's sealers. It's way bigger than that and could have affected many, many teams. So that's my thoughts on that over and out. If you liked the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.