Big Ben Rates the Steelers 53-Man Roster, Season Prediction and more! Ep 138

Welcome back to Football with Ben Rothelsberger. I am Ben and he is Spence, and we are excited about this episode because it is football week and we can't wait to talk about football and get excited for the regular season and give you like our last preseason um uh show game kind of thing. This is like our our run through. We have Evan upstairs, he can bring some food down. We're we're like basically this is like our last walkthrough before we start this the season of the show. That's right. But before we start talking football, we have to absolutely get into one of our Fs that comes before football, which is right after faith, which all of you know the five F's of footballing is faith, family, food, football, fabir. That's right. Um, we're gonna skip the last Faber, the last F today just because it's you know it's the last preseason game. We need to be ready. That's right. But our kids go, well, my three, and this year for the first time. That's right. Your oldest is going to went to school. She's there right now. So your um oldest daughter is started kindergarten today. That's right. And so this is a first time for you. So we had our kids, our kids went to school today for the first time. Uh, so it's a big day for us, a bigger day, I think, for you, Spence, than me. Uh, because you know, we all remember the fur, well, I don't really remember, but we, you know, sending our kids away for the first time, the emotional, oh yeah, kind of what does that feel like to put our to send our kid away? Because like right now, I basically was like this morning, I'm like, hey, y'all know y'all can just walk, right? Y'all know how to get there, or you don't like we'll see you guys later. Like, I'm like, get out of get out of the house. I'm kicking them out because now I get a little bit of free time to show, get workout in, dah, dah, dah. But for you, it's obviously a little bit different. Yes. So tell the family. Yeah, very well. I and I don't even know how much I can say because I had to be the rock this morning. Yeah. Right? So little little waterfalls. Bro, if and the the thing. Yeah, yeah. Someone's chopping onions in this school. And uh, but uh yeah, so I would I had to like our oldest broke down at it, hit her at breakfast this morning. I'm like, hey, we gotta hustle, we gotta say the schedules. It's the first day that we are doing our this the school schedule at home, get up, breakfast, get ready, all that stuff. And so I'm like, hey, we need a good first rep. We need everybody to understand what everybody's job is. I legit this morning was like, she has to do something. I was like, hey, your job is to eat breakfast, my job is to do this. Everybody needs to focus on their job. Yes, you have to keep them focused. 100%. Mine are still distracted. I was telling my wife, I was like, hey, mom, we need to focus on our job. Everybody to focus on their job. And so get them out the the car, get them on time, you know, we walk them into the classroom. And then but she was emotional at home because she was gonna like be away from y'all. Did that what sunk in? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's uh it's uh because we didn't do preschool. She does at church, she goes, you know, obviously children's church. And so that's her her uh her only really like um what's the word I'm looking for? Her like separate, like be away. All the time, yeah. It's the only like thing she can compare it to. Um, so but what's so nice is in our friend group, and we've we've done a great job of facilitating, like she has a lot of friends in there, so it was a good transition. But it hit my wife, obviously, when she's when we're leaving the classroom. And so I'm I wore sunglasses in, yeah. And uh on purpose. Yeah, of course. You know what I mean? Of course, because sunny it was bright, yeah. It was bright. Um, the the sun was not in the building, but the sunglasses were, and uh, it was just I was prepping to walk back out. But it's a beautiful moment. I thought it was it's for all the parents who are dropping off kids at school for the first time, or I guess we we probably started late. Yeah, we did. We started late. Yeah, but yeah, it it was awesome again. It is such a beautiful thing. I'm sure I'll sit down here and process it more with you off camera. Sure. Did she, when you guys like said goodbye or whatever, what was the was she like like the don't go, don't go? No, yeah. What was it? I watched it in her eyes, like realize what it means when all the parents are kind of like you know, fading out, and then like she's just kids here. And we say we always say to her, I'm like, Hey, be a light and a leader, and then dude, I see you get me going. I'm yeah, and we might have to stop. Okay, no, no, that's what that's what they want to see. They want to see. Um, and then I walked out and um she like realized it, but then her teacher is so awesome as soon as Miss S. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, she's awesome, the greatest. And um, she already had something for them to do, so it was such a course, yeah. So I was like, hey, probably for that, yes, it might be for that reason. She knows what she's doing. I was like, hey, that's a pro move. And so I was like, hey, yo, first day, you're already coloring. Get after a girl. And so she's like, Mom, dad, don't leave. Oh, coloring. Is this glitter? Is this glittering? Yeah, goldfish? Exactly. So that was cool. And then when Ash was dropping off y'all kids, she stopped by the um the kindergarten room and gave us an update. So that was great, too. But yeah, it's awesome. That's all that's great. I love it for her, man. She's yeah, yeah. Well, and in the way our school is, it's not like a crazy long day, but that'll be fun. We're excited. We're happy for you as a new dad getting your your kid to school. It'll only get easier, I promise. Yeah. Um, but anyway, yeah. So first day of school for us for the kids. Happy to have them out of here. Well, you're not uh did I say that aloud? I'm sorry. Uh excuse me, it's my allergies. My allergies are flaring up. Well, so that that was a big thing um for us because we've been gearing up for it and we had a little bit of travel in our on uh in our family, but you just got back. Yes, you just got back from so you do it's now it's an annual event for you. I know. I'm I am blessed to be a part of every every year I get invited and tell my wife I can only do one trip, it's gotta be the crew cup. Yeah, and that and then this was it. This was uh it was a lot of fun. I was back at Pebble Beach this year, which for any of you golf, um you know, people that that that just love golf, the purest yeah, Pebble Beach is where it is. Is that a hard coach? Um it can be very hard. We had beautiful weather. We had four days of beautiful weather. Played three rounds there, one at a place called the Preserve. You drove up into the mountains, and it was like you felt completely different. It was really cool. Um, but uh yeah, it was a lot of fun. Spent a lot of time with with some amazing um couple new friends that hadn't been there, some some friends that had been there for numerous years now to see them. Sometimes you only see them once a year at this. Um, some are friends that have been on the show. It is a it's a you know, I spent a lot of time with with our good friend Nate Bergazzi, Ty Tony, um, Shea Mooney from Dan and Shea. Um it just was a lot of fun to be to be there with these guys and just a lot of laughs, as you can imagine. Uh, a lot of great golf. It's very, very competitive. Um, so it was it just just a lot of fun and and you know, to be out there playing golf. We had four days of I mean, just like like 70s, sunny, like minimal wind, and out there you can get whatever. Yeah, so it was it was beautiful. So we had a lot of fun with that, and um, because of that as well, the uh spent go to the wide, yeah. You know, as everyone knows, we have our uh our jerseys back here. So we're going to be that's part of the green screen. Oh, yeah. But we're gonna because of this. Well, I wanted to, I should have, I should have I wanted to see if people are gonna. I have they're not going up yet. Okay, but I was hoping people would be there. I want people, I just ruined a surprise. I don't know. It ain't nothing happening in the middle of the street. We're gonna we're gonna we might change something. We might have some new decor going up in the back, but um anyway, yes. Some heavy hitters, Mike. Maybe some heavy hitters. I mean, you guys. I mean, those are heavy hitters too. That's a pretty legit jersey. That'll be fun. But it was a great time. Really enjoyed. Thank you, Mike Bennett, um, Ryan Smith. We stay at his place out there. He lives right on 18. And um, but Bennett and the the whole crew, people, Cade and all those, everybody that is involved in in that event. It's just it's first class. It is something special. The swag that we bring home is ridiculous. Um, but more than anything, it's the fellowship, the time together. We had some unbelievable faith conversations while we were out there. And um, yeah, just a just a great time. So I was very happy to do that, but happy to be back. It's hard to be away from the family for that long, especially when you're on the West Coast and they're like going to bed and you're just getting off the golf course. And it's like, uh, sorry. Yeah, well, and that's it's a perfect time of year to have an event like that because it feels like it's the cap the end of summer. Yes. And when you start fall, you know that we start the football season. We do. Right. And you know, instead of going directly into the NFL, I just couldn't happen to notice how bright and beautiful that shirt is that you're wearing. It's like it, it's it's football time. Uh, but this is an unusual logo we got here for some people that that watch the show on a regular basis. Why don't you break us down? It's like my superheroes, it feels bulletproof a little bit. This shirt, you have one too. Yeah, this suited us, bud. Yeah, this is this is this is brought to you by um uh good friends of the show. Good friend. Yeah, well, we could say friends of the show, the CFL, but friend of the show, Goldie. Goldie, yeah. We all know him as Goldie. Um, he's uh, as we all know, a huge CFO guy. He's been dying to get on this show to talk CFL, and we keep brushing him off. So this is about as close as we're gonna get to getting Goldie on the show. Was uh he he brought us these shirts back from Ottawa because he was up there. Yep. Uh and this weekend he reminded me was the Labor Day Classic. Yeah, uh I think that's labor is the no labor. It's labor for L-A-B-O-U-R is Labor to me. Seems more laborist to say it that way, to be honest with you. Um well, maybe it is the Labor Day, but it's it looked like Labor. Maybe it's like the old Lahockey. I don't know. Oh, Mate, little fancy. A little fancier up north. Okay, fine. Maybe it's the Labor Day Classic. Um, but the Labor Day Classic was this weekend. Um, and it's I have to you know look it up. But the Argonauts from Toronto defeated the Hamilton Tiger Cats 37-22. Oh and the Edmonton Elks beat the Calgary Stampeders 28 to 30. Oh, 38 to 28. Okay. Oh, there must have been another Labor Day Classic on Sunday, Saturday. There were other games on Sunday too. But anyway, CFL, big supporters of football. I hope you guys support us. Yeah. Rough Rider. I mean, no, red blacks. The red blacks. That's who that's who I'm supporting today. That's gonna like. Hey, we're just fans of good ball. Yeah, that's it. That's gonna just kind of get us into uh Stiller talk. Yes, because well, before we get before we get to the Steelers, because the Steelers don't play till Sunday, I almost forgot there are this is um NFL opening week, so we do have a big game tomorrow. The opener is the uh rematch of the Super Bowl. The Patriots are going up to Seattle to take on all the all the uh Seahawks plus their 12th man. Yeah, all 12 of them. Uh that'll be uh an interesting rematch to see what happens up there. I can't imagine the Patriots are going to beat them, but you never know. But what a what a great start to the season. And then Thursday is the potential return of Aaron Donald to the NFL, right? When the Rams and Niners travel to, I think are they going to Australia, Melbourne? Or I think they're playing Melbourne. Is he going to that? I thought he was I've heard that the last I heard was that there's no there's I haven't heard anything that says no. Okay. Um, I haven't heard like a definite, but I haven't heard a no. So we'll see. I mean, I I figure like if you're Aaron Donald, you could just be like, you know, I'm only gonna play in home games. Yeah, I'm just gonna try and like you, you, you know what I you know what I'm bringing. Yeah, yeah. It's me, guys. Well, it's so funny, man, because when he was like rumoring his return, um, you know, you always have that question that when a a a player that retires wants to start playing again, right? I remember when when Tom didn't I don't know if the people ask this question so much when Tom did it, but uh they're like, okay, you know, is he in shape? And I'm like, I don't think I think Aaron Donald out of shape is still better than 85% of the Aaron Donald is never out of shape. It's like James Harrison, right? Like James could go play. The only thing you would be concerned with is, and I know I guess that's what you would call out of shape, is the conditioning factor of football. You can go run all you want, but there is a little bit of something of pushing on someone, someone pushing on you, and and repping that over and over. Yeah. But again, yes, those two guys, and there's there's others out there that they're out of shape is better than 90% of people's like peak in shape. Yeah. And so, yeah, I'm with you. I I I he's not gonna miss a beat. But again, if you're smart, you he's on, he's not playing the whole game. He's gonna play a handful of snaps, maybe third downs. You have um Miles Garrett out there now, so you can, you know, I think that's one of the reasons, in my opinion. I have not, I don't haven't talked to Aaron Donald about this, but like he's like, hey, but we we've got Miles. Y'all can't double team me now. We're gonna double team me and him. What are we doing here? There's only hey, they're gonna have there's only gonna be one receiver. They're gonna have everybody else blocking those two. So it could be interesting to see, but the exciting thing is football's back. I couldn't imagine going to Australia. I don't I've never been there in the sense of like, I don't know how long that flight is. Do they have to come back and play the following like in 10 days later? Like, it just seems like that's a rough way to start. Yeah, you're like that's a long way. Everything's backwards long. It's on the other that's a while. I understand it's gotta be a long ways away. Yeah, I understand the um the like the global marketing, like let's get the the NFL into other countries, but that's a to have a long way to go. You can't get your buy week two. That's not true. I don't think so. I I don't that's why I was I don't know what's gonna happen, but it's interesting. So they should play the preseason over there in different countries. That would be that'd be fun. You you get the fans wouldn't over there probably wouldn't know. Like, like, yeah, is this good football or is it just foot football? I'm easy into this. Um, anyway, we're getting that's gonna be exciting to see. I'm I'm just excited for real football to get going. It's fun. Like I'm you know, um, I'm a huge college football fan as well. So having that get started is it just it's a fun time of the year to get going. When the weather starts changing, yeah, it's pretty cool. The sleeves get longer, you know, it's just that time of year and the shirts get redder. It's like the leaves. Well, one thing that we uh a little bit of break from our last episode because we had to double up in one week because ball was happening and we had to talk about it, but we had a little bit of a break, and in that break, we narrowed down from 90 to 53. And so we have not yet talked about the 53 men that are on this roster, and so I think that's gonna be something important to talk about. I want to dive into that right now. Um, we had lengthy, lengthy, excuse me, discussions about whether or not the Steelers should, would, or could keep four quarterbacks. They did. Uh and I feel like, you know, like you tap into some of the the press conferences. It felt like McCarthy was gonna do that all along. Like he's a he's he's a huge fan of all four of these guys. Um but let I want to dive into it. I want to see what what you think about the the 53 that we have and then how it was done. We obviously had to take that position, the quarterback position from another position group. Right. And let's see uh what do you think the impacts of that are gonna be? So anything off rip the uh that stood out to you when when the uh 53 was announced. Um you know the four quarterbacks obviously was was one that that was gonna be talked about because that was, like you said, the big talk leading up to it. Um what position was going to be sacrificed? And and I don't know that any of us will truly know what what spot or what player was let go of because of, right? You can you can speculate, we all can speculate unless the coach comes out and says, you know what, we got rid of E-Rob or we got rid of this lineman or or a defensive lineman or defensive back or whatever it is, we'll we'll probably never know truly the the uh effects of who it is. Um I thought the you know there's three, you know, just going down on the offense. There's obviously the running backs, they kind of listed it as a two running backs um with Rico and Jalen. And I know they kept Eli um Heidenreich, the kid from uh Pittsburgh, which we thought was a great story, which I kind of thought that they would keep him as a practice squad guy. Yeah, but they chose to keep him as a I think that was a running backslash wide receiver. When that was first announced, I thought our running backs were thin. I do too. I do too. And now you've got practice squad and this, that, and the other, but if something happens to one of those first two Rico or Jalen, which heaven forbid we hope it doesn't, like, do you feel confident enough in the other one and Eli as a rookie to to do that job? Seems a little again, that seems a little thin. We thought that maybe that they would keep the um uh the the the blue nickels as the third, and then you could keep bringing put Eli um hide and rec on practice squad, and then you can always bring him up if if something happens to somebody. They kept a fullback too. Um, yeah, I don't really. I mean I don't know much about him, is but but still is is he someone that you you're not gonna use him as a tailback, like a guy doing your offense with. So just that that was uh as I'm going down my 53. That was um a little thinner than I expected at running back. You just gotta hope that everyone stays healthy, obviously. Um O-line nine, that's kind of nine guys. It's kind of what we had thought. Um, you know, they have practice squads. It just means that guys are gonna get a lot of get you got on days off. Maybe Mike McCarthy doesn't give days off, so guys are gonna get lots of reps, but we need to set that five ASAP, which I'm I assume it is set right now. But uh, and you want guys to get reps in, but but we need to get those guys working next to each other as fast as possible. Um the tight ends, three tight ends. I think that's um you know kind of what you would what you would expect. I think that's a good number. I you know, with with uh Pat and Robert and Big Mount Washington. Um that's not a problem. Fullback, interesting. I think again, we'll see how much he uses a fullback, but maybe that he kind of goes as a hybrid tight end, fullback, running back, depending on what he's gonna do. Uh, and then obviously wide receiver, we have six of them, not including um Eli Wright, who's listed as a wide receiver slash running back. Sure. Um Bernard, Metcalf, Pittman, Skaronic, special teams. Um, and it'll be interesting to see too is is um how do you say Wiegen? Yeah, is he going to be the pri who like I'd like to see him and Eli. It is Heidenreich, right? Eli Heidenreich. Um I'd like to see both of those guys get some reps at punt, kick off. Like, let's let both of them kind of keep because that's maybe why Eli was in valuable too as a returner. Uh, because you know what you're getting with with Wiegen, but have both of them in there, and then obviously Roman Wilson. I you know, depending on how much they and who they brought on practice squad. I don't have the practice squad stuff here, unless it's at the bottom, no. Um six feels. You know, you don't want your you don't want your studs, your horses, if you will, running every single practice, every single route. You'd like to give, you know, you're not gonna want DK running all these goes and all this stuff. You're gonna want to give him breaks and Pittman. And um, so it's gonna be interesting to see how they how that wide receiver room plays out. I six is probably a pretty normal number for for teams. I don't know what what is average, but um, you know, anyway. So that that's that's going through the offense. That's kind of where where what they have, my thoughts on it. Um again, the biggest thing that I thought was the the four quarterbacks and the thin running back room. And just as long as those guys, those two stay healthy, because we all know running back is a is a physical position, and and things can happen. Even if it's not injuries, you can you can get banged up. Right. You know, it's like, oh, I got a contusion, I've got sore ribs, I've got this. Like, I'm okay to play, but I'm gonna be a little banged up, you know? Yeah, and that's and that's tough too. I would imagine as a running back, you're like, oh, there isn't relief coming. Where it's like, hey, get me out on this or whatever. Like, if if you need to establish a game or you're in a um or the running game and you're in a game where there's weather and it's like, hey, we ain't throwing this ball. You know, so um, yeah, that's that's hopefully that does become a factor, man. But looking at our offense, I felt good. The thing that bummed me out a little bit was E-Rob on on defense. It makes sense for sure. Um going into the defense, got 24 players over there. Um I'll let you run through those two. Uh, but just the linebackers that kept Carson Brunner, which makes sense because he's a special teams guy too. So I don't know that E-Rob was playing special teams like that. So um but again, is is is you know, eight linebackers seems like a lot. What you got the the insides, the outsides. I know they like Holcomb. Yeah. Um, you know, you you and Peyton Wilson, they they draft there's some thoughts there too, but you know, who's week one, okay. We've got the Falcons coming in. Yeah, two as a starting quarterback, you know, a mobile enough guy, but you've got a running back in that backfield, number seven, no, um, who is like an absolute stud. Okay, yeah. You better be ready to run stop, right? You better be ready to is is is Peyton Wilson your downhill run stopper? Yeah, PQ in there. Okay, you got one guy. Well, and Peyton's fast. I know he is, and he's he can cover. He's got a violence to him, but I know I know what you mean. You don't have no. I'm just asking you you you're in week one. Like, I I feel like there's a spot there. Again, I like Carson Brunner. I think that's a good move. Special teams, you can always have uh is is eight linebackers feel thin? Maybe, maybe it isn't. Maybe that's an I'm and fans, you guys can tell me that most teams kept eight, some keep seven, whatever. But I don't know that like if I was going to go heavy in a spot, I know they're probably a little bit nervous too about the secondary with some things that we can get into, what's there too. But I probably would have gone a little heavier in my linebacker or secondary room. Again, that's that fourth quarterback. Yeah, is that fourth quarterback necessary if you could have got one on practice squad? Because I would have kept E Rob. Like I think that's a I think that's he played for the defensive coordinator in in Vegas. It just feels like, man, I don't know. Well, I don't know why we got rid of him here because I thought before he went to Vegas, he played well here. And so uh unless there's something behind the scenes that we don't know about. Yeah, but right I mean it's it's interesting. I don't know if the play there is like maybe you expect him to be there in a l in a couple weeks where you can pick him up on it a little, you know, a little cheaper or whatever. Yeah, and not and not not guarantee his contract. Maybe there's something else there and they're gonna make some moves last minute. Um, but yeah, okay. The D line, that's fine. That I would just want to get in the linebackers and D Bs. Yeah. That's where it's just like, hmm. Because I know people are talking about we could be a little like our back end could be thin. I think part of that's because JPJ's not out there. Yeah, we don't know what that's happening with that. Especially now that Christian Gonzales, we saw today, signed a mega deal with the Patriots. 135, 404. It's a lot of money, but he's arguably the best corner in the in the business. Yeah. Um, so that I I wonder how much that's gonna have an effect on what JPJ does. Is he gonna say, I want that money? Am I okay being a top five guy? We don't really know. We're not sitting in those meetings. So to be determined there, you might be down a guy. Is he gonna there's been rumors that he's gonna sit out all year? So therefore, now you only have eight defensive backs. Yeah, are you gonna bring a guy in like that's yeah, there's a lot going on there that we don't know about that we won't know about till you know you know what is this Tuesday for a couple more days? Yeah, but yeah, I mean, and the Steelers are notorious for not negotiating. They've always said that they don't negotiate during the season. Now, is that gonna change now? You know, we're gonna give a little bit of leeway now because you need a guy. You don't need a guy. Are they gonna just sit there and say, hey, listen, nope, this is it. I've never worked there and you don't work there anymore. I know. So we were we're just so we can just say, hey, you know what? We don't know. So um, yeah, Robert Spears Jennings making the team. I thought that was one that we we liked. The the interesting thing, too, that we that we didn't talk about that kind of made some news a little bit when it happened was every single draft pick made the team. I don't know that that's happened before. I also like I was talking to a former player uh who has a podcast. Uh we were talking on the phone, and it got brought up between the two of us, like how unusual that was. Yeah, you know, and it's like, huh. Is that like is that because you drafted that well? Either, I mean, if you were just like, you know what, yeah, we're that good. We pick every pick we had, we hit on. Or is it like an ego thing? Like, oh no, so everybody we picked is that good. Uh you know, we we know we know what we're doing. Yeah, I know that exists 100%, but it it's a how usual is it um to draft how many picks did we get? How many guys we got to do? Oh, we had 12 or 13 to get that, right? And then by week one, say, nah, we messed up over here. Let me just, you know, is that usual? Is that we can do that? Not even messed up, but like, hey, wasn't what we thought, and a better opportunity came along. It's probably how you'd think about it. You could, but you but but you're gonna have all seven people, you're gonna have all these draft picks already under contract. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. So I don't know. It just it's just a it's just a it's just a question that I ask. And I think this was a unique time in which the changing of the guard allowed maybe some of that behavior of previous uh regimes. Um and I'm talking about O77 going to Dallas. Yeah. I mean that was something that was like when you see Dallas come down and says he's actually been taught, he was taught Schottenheimer came out. Yeah. Now, whether it was taking a shot at the Steelers or what, but but he came out and said, nope, Broderick's like Uber. Now, he also could be building up his guy, which whatever. But he said like something along the lines of he is uber talented, like he's so good, we just have to retrain some of the things he was taught. Yeah, which to me is kind of like a y'all not yeah, y'all don't know what you're doing. Hey, so it's just gonna be interesting. What if he what if he turns on an all-pro? I mean, you saw what happened. I mean George Pickens over there doing that. I'm like, hey, you know him and J JP GP's going. Yeah, there's some things going on. So, you know, yeah, maybe to your point, maybe there's something there that like the new regime is like, we're gonna keep all our guys and all these young guys because one, this team is a little bit older. I don't know what the average age is, but it feels like the defense, especially, is a little bit older. And it's like, you know what? We're gonna start to like, we need to we need to start transitioning to our team. Which I dude, I don't hate when you're trying to establish something for the future and build along, like it's it's such I mean, Tomlin casts a big shadow, man. He's I mean, he he's doing TikTok videos now. Look at him. What's Juju thinking? I don't know. He's probably he's like, man, I've been trying to get you guys to do that for years. Uh, but you know what I mean? Like, so to get out of that and establish something, I think there to some degree, you have to do that. You have to say, hey man, this is the kind of direction we're gonna go. Um, but that's an I didn't hear that about um Schottenheimer coming out and saying that. That's interesting. Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah, so it's you know, there's a lot to to there could be a lot there, could be little there. Yeah, um, so anyway, that's you know, I again that's it's just um I like some of the stuff that they did. I'm I'm excited to see about the secondary, to see what's gonna happen. Again, if if JPJ's not out there, are you putting who you putting on Jamar Chase, who you put on these stud receivers? Is it Ramsey, which I think absolutely he can do it? Is it Asante Samuel Jr. who's playing really well? Like it's just gonna be interesting to see. So that's we're all gonna be on pins and needles for the next few days to see what's gonna happen with that. Am I missing something on this? I don't know why. Sean Elliott. He got he got put on IR. Oh, okay. I'm like, he got put on short turn, or what is it? Like, which is also that's a big kind of deal because he played in the pre- he played and then all of a sudden was like, did did something happen in a practice or a game where he's got dinged up because it happened after a preseason. Like I'm just saying, bro, if if like the designated to return one, you know, that week eight or whatever it is, yes, it's that's interesting. I'm just saying if if things go far left with JPJ, and that's something that is up again, up in the air, we don't know, and you're yeah, you you're throwing Ramsey on your one receiver, bro. You gotta have Deshaun out there. Well, he can. That's what I mean. Well, you're gonna get some guys to grow up, like some guys are gonna get ready to play quick. Yeah. You know, I think I think it could be the um the young man from Cleveland that we talked about that one week. I think that's is that Brisker? Um I don't know. The the veteran that we got from remember we I had you look it up that one week. Like he is a veteran guy, like maybe he gets out there early, came downhill, made a bunch of hits in the backfield in that first that one preseason game. Um, I don't know. It's gonna be interesting. Um, again, we can you know Evan will be down here in a little bit. We can ask him just if he has any two cents on just a couple little things. Oh, he probably got a pocket book. Uh we don't need too much from Evan. It's preseason still. Give the people what they want. I would say the other thing, though, the last thing to hit on because it specialists is my last thing. I'm not really sure why we kept Boswell. Um I guess just help him have a job or something. I don't know. Maybe he'll, I don't know, whatever. We'll see what happens with with him. Oh, automatic. Yeah. That's so funny. Hey, boss, congrats on making the team. Um didn't even check. He's like, Yeah, he's just like, what day do we need to be here? Yeah, who else? Yeah, I know. So that's funny, man. Yeah, it's it's it's the secondary. Okay, so secondary is something to keep an eye on. And obviously, you can get by with the linebacker, you've got enough, you'll you'll be fine. So missing Erob isn't like the end of the world. I just think I thought it was a shocker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but the big thing is gonna be that we're gonna have to keep an eye on is the running backs. I really feel that just two, that's thin. And in and I feel like Coach T in the past, it always felt like there were a bunch of backs, almost like to point like, gosh, can we get some other dudes? Because you also have to understand that with neither Rico or Jalen will get reps against the defense, the practice squad. So that means you have Eli and a practice squad guy getting reps against the practice against the defense. That's a that's a could be a physical take a toll on your body too. Well, this to I mean, based upon the the list I'm seeing here, it makes me think Aaron's gonna be slinging that thing. I would probably not be a bad move anyway. Yeah, right? Because that's gonna be the question going into this thing. Is Aaron is getting a little bit older. We all know that. That just that's what happens. That's how uh time works. Time that's right, time works. Um, he needs to be and he's got weapons to get the ball to tight end, running backs, receivers, especially. We know he knows the offense. This is his thing. But is he gonna have the time to get the ball out? You know? So speaking of him, yeah, Aaron Rodgers. I mean, Evan's here. Evan Rogers is here. Got it. Oh my goodness. Hello. Look at that. Are these? I'll let you break it down because those Sammies look wowzers. Noise. Wowsers. Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why you watch the show, Chef Evan. It's good to be back. It's good to have you back, brother. This is our um last pre-season show. This is like our run through, like our run through. You know what I'm saying? So hopefully you didn't walk through in like the ballroom, the hotel ballrooms. That way, that's what this is. So, like if you put tomato on my sandwich, then we'll know, like, ah, he's not quite ready. It's not gonna be a good season. Um, well, welcome down, Evan. Uh, we're excited to have you here for the family dinner, and we're excited for this. We are going to dive into two things with you. Okay. But the first thing you're gonna do is you're gonna dive into this food. I mean, tell us what we have. All right. In the bowl, that's a truffle beer cheese tater tots. Grab that now. That's good. Go ahead and have that first. That's the first draft pick. I did some uh sweet, hot, sticky wings in the middle there, a little bit of ranch dipping sauce. And then those are uh grilled cheese smash burger sliders with a little bit of uh jalapeno onion jam. Yes, of course it does. Hey, how do you make onion jam better? Add a little jalapeno. Yeah, yeah, add a little jalapeno, buddy. Oh man, look at that. Well, Evan seems to be in mid-season form. This guy. We'll see when we taste it. Crown him king. We'll see when we taste it. Yeah, we own the North. Um, all right, Evan. So the first thing I would like to talk to you about before we we're gonna dive back into our predictions that we did that I have that we did on 12.5. Yep. We're gonna do it one more time, see if anything's changed. All right. We we just kind of did a quick little um rundown of the roster, 53 man, and we talked about just kind of the surprises or thoughts on it quickly. Give me, you know, two quick thoughts, your two biggest questions, thoughts on the 53-man um concerns, any anything that what should the fan, what should a Steeler Yenzer be concerned about? What are they talking about? I was a little surprised about Elandon Roberts getting brought in and then kind of not making the team. And then I guess the other big one is Joey Porter Jr. I'm sure you guys have talked about that a lot, you know. When with Christian Gonzalez getting paid too. Just talked about that. Wow. What's gonna happen? Oh, geez. What's gonna happen? Did you think the four what did you think of four quarterbacks? Was that a big deal or not as big of a deal as um I mean you lose another roster spot for having that many quarterbacks, but I understand with the the two young guys, right? You know, you don't really know what you have in Howard yet, and you know, you don't know what you have in Aller. So somebody's gonna be missing reps, and it's you know, it's not gonna be Aaron Rodgers or Mason Rudolph. So it's it's kind of a pickle, but at the same time, I kind of understand it. But don't you think that okay, because what I was saying too is having four, I agree. We'll never know who took that last spot or who they took it from. Was he Rob was there? I'm a little potentially concerned with the thinness at running back. Yeah, two running backs plus Eli, it's a little thin. One guy goes down, now you're counting on Eli and one guy to it's like the same thing, you know, a a rookie running back being thrown into that position. You know, it's it's not as wild as a rookie quarterback being thrown into that position, but it's the same concept. You know, it's still gonna be a a toss up. Okay. I concur. I can agree. No, I was gonna ask about the running backs, but you got it. Okay, good. All right. Well, uh, so far. So far, you're round one. What'd you say was on that beer truffle beer cheese? Truffle beer cheese. How do you make beer cheese better? Truffle a little truffle. All right, Evan, we're gonna do this. We're not gonna take too long on this. We're gonna hit through this Ross, the schedule one more time. Yep. Don't make don't look and cheat off what you said last time. You have to look away. Just be, you know what I'm saying? I'm not gonna tell you what you had last time, but we're gonna go through this real quick, and I'll give you my prediction and your prediction. So we start obviously this week. Uh we open up at home against Atlanta, who just named Tua as their starter. Come on. Listen, I have Rothesburg is allowed to mess up any name. Yeah, you can mess. You can botch any word in the English dictionary. Wow. Or any dictionary. Rolling Gardner. Is that a win or a loss for the Pittsburgh Steelers? I say a win. I do as well. We keep the same. We then go to the Patriots, who have had their offseason um issues is not the right word, but you know, challenges media uh attention. Yeah. And they're going obviously tomorrow night up to Seattle to play as a rematch. What do you think happens at New England? It's at New England? It's at New England. I unfortunately I'm gonna pick a loss. Okay. I also am going to say loss. We're still the same. After that, the Bengals come, the Bengals come to town. Evan, what's gonna happen with the Bengals coming to town? Victory. Just for the people. The buns of the Smash Burger are cheese or grilled cheeses. Yeah. Just so y'all knew what we was happening over here. That's amazing. I am gonna go with a loss. I think they're gonna have a lot of five hours. Are you seen their pre scene? No, I haven't watched it all. I don't know that they know what they're doing. Okay. At the Browns. Okay, that's what I thought. We'll just kind of keep that one rolling. Um we have the Colts coming to town after that. Don't know anything about who's who's is who's there where the Colts? No, McAfee's gonna FaceTime you the Thursday beforehand. Probably. Dan Jones? The who? Daniel Jones, yeah. He's back. Yeah. Okay, what do you think? Michael Pittman revenge game. Are we at home? Yes, it's at home. I'm picking a win. The Michael Pittman revenge game is. I am also going with a win. I think we'll our defense will overwhelm, Daniel Jones. All right, we're going at the Bucks. At the Bucks. Win. I am going lost. They have one of the best defensive fronts in the business. All right, we're then traveling to France to play the Saints. That's a win. That's a win. That's a win in any country. I agree. That's a win. Doesn't matter where it's at. Who's the Saints quarterback? Don't know. All right, then the um Browns come. Okay, it's a win. You're still winning the Browns. We're being the Browns here. Yeah. Okay, that's what I thought. The Cleveland disrespect is immaculate. Oh, that's not disrespect. It's truth. Um, then we're going to Cincy. Back to Cincy after that, Evan. We'll split. We'll lose that one. Gonna lose that one. I say we're gonna lose that one as well. We're gonna sweat. I'm just yeah, well, that's where I'm at right now. That's what I feel. I just feel Cincy is going to somehow surprise people. I don't know if it's a surprise people, but I think their their offense we know is very good. Has a chance to be very good. I think their defense is going to be just marginal, like better than it was last year. Yeah, so that makes me nervous. What what week is that? I mean, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Burrow will be down and out. Oh, Burrow's already out. He's done by week three. Well, if that's out, then it might change, but okay, then we're going at Philly. Unfortunately, I I want the they haven't won there since what, like 1974. The Steelers, right? Yeah, really? Yeah. When's the last time you won in Philly? I guess never. I think, right? I don't know. Evan, you're the guy we asked those questions to. I'm the last person you should be asking. I the year might be wrong, but I know it's been a long time. Um, all right. I'm going with a win. Against Philly? I think it's gonna be something's gonna be I think something's gonna just happen. I just think it's I think it hurts. I think it's just I think our defense is gonna get after him, and and we're just gonna find a way. If Boswell can actually, you know, kick a field goal. Surprised he made the team. Barely make anything. What? Boswell kicked really kick? You like that? Well played. Um, I think Boswell's gonna win that game. Like a 65-yarder. With his eyes closed. Something crazy. Yeah, and he'll actually kick it left footed. Um, all right, Broncos coming to tan. That might be an L. Okay. I'm gonna go with a kind of getting a loss too, but I feel like I need to like boost up the. Okay. Uh Texans. They look they look pretty good. It's here though. Yeah. I'm gonna go win. Okay. My um heart says win. My head says loss. It's a rematch of the postseason. It's gonna be fine for postseason. I'm still gonna go W just because I'm gonna go that way. At Jacksonville. Um Win. I'm gonna take a win there. Yeah. I'm gonna go win there as well. Um Ravens here. When? I'm gonna go win as well. At the end of the year, there we go. Panthers here. When. I agree. Um at Titans. When I agree. At Ravens. Loss. I agree. Two peas in a pot. So Evan had uh we Evan, we both were 12 and 5 at the at the start at the start of this thing. Okay. Right now, Evan is one loss, two losses, three, four, five. Come on, Evan. Five losses again. He's consistent. That's impressive. Yeah. So 12 and 5, but he does have a different. He says we're gonna beat the the difference is he we're gonna beat the Bengals at home where he had his loss before. He had us losing at Cincy, where we had the win before, and then everything else was the same. So he swapped the two. Swap the two. Okay. Which so he doesn't know. I don't. It all depends on Joe Burrow. M Knees is good for four weeks. I have us at 11 and 6 now. So I so you went you you lost some stock, huh? I did. Just just I switched spots. I switched the Bengals as well. The home one. I went to a loss this time. And then I was losing to the Bucks, losing Cincy. Oh, I flipped the Philly. Okay. Flipped Philly and flipped at Ravens. Interesting. I had us beaten the Ravens at there at the end of the season. I'm gonna go lost. Is that just instinctual for you? You think the first time around? You're like, well, of course I'm gonna beat them. Yeah. Then you realize I'm not the quarterback. I'm just not quite sure what's gonna happen. I have no control over this. We will we will keep an eye on that the rest of the way. So all right. Um, Evan, thank you for this. We will be excited for next week when this is real, and hopefully your food is you know gotten up to slow now. Yeah, not amazing like so. Okay, um, thank you, Evan, very much. Appreciate you. Thank you, everybody, for being a part of this. Well, before we go, um you you can go. I don't know what to do with my hands. What do I do? What do I do? Uh as we as we dive out of this show, we are going to, folks, do our best this year to give you some amazing guests. We're gonna do, I will do my best to get my wife on the show. Oh, we're just trying to get a castle. We're just trying to figure out if she wants to come on a live show for like the game, like the game, or if she wants to come on here where we can edit her. Yeah, I'd listen as not her, you know, just you know, she's just passionate. He's a pass, she's a passionate person. Um live, just we I know you know this. We it reiterated for Ash's sake. I can't edit anything out of the live one. Okay, just um I'll leave it at that. But as we're leaving, I do want to talk real quick. Yep. Part of our family dinner. As we talked about my um pre-week things I had going on with the crew cup and everything. You had been watching a little bit of what you're eating and your your what was going into your body because you were participating in something this last weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So go ahead. Tell us about it, please. Uh a little bit. It was a triathlon plus one. It was a quad a quadathlon. Oh, quadaton. Quathon. Quadathlon. Help us people. What is it? Four sport for event, four event marathon event called. What'd you do? Uh so it was it was walked, ate, yeah, drank, skipped. Yeah, that's before I got there. Okay. It was uh row. Um then we all in a boat together? Yeah, yeah. Well, the iron? The irony is if we're on separate teams, we're in a boat and we gotta row against each other in the same boat. Seriously? No, no, no. It was the row, the rower. Yeah. And then bike, and then the ski, and then you had a run. Ski? There's no snow? Yeah, yeah, ski or bro. Oh, the row machine. Wow. Okay. All right. So me and my wife did it together. A good friend of ours named Mallory Diamond, she owns a gym out in Beaver Falls. I guess it's technically Aliquippa, is where it's located, but um, it's called Box Strong. Awesome place. If you're looking for a place to do some uh boxing workouts or an awesome community, you should check it out. Every year on Labor Day, they do an event called The Forge. And it's these four events who team up. Me and my wife did it. This is the first time us doing it. Uh, and this year, they always find like a nonprofit or something or a good cause to support. They did the serval project this year. As you know, it's big fans of the serval project. Awesome organization that is doing everything it can to combat human trafficking. So it was awesome to be able to uh support that organization uh in that way. But yeah, man, listen, I'm not I'm uh I'm athletic, but there's a big gap, as you know, from athlete like being athletic and being an athlete. Yeah, yeah. And uh I'm on the I'm on the lower part of that gap. And uh so I was yeah, training, not I mean, I say training, I was just staying, you know, trying to stay light on my feet. Um and I I surprised myself. You know, I thought my wife, who owns a gym, was going to uh just blow me out of the water, but I kept up. So you carried the teams while here. Uh listen, I wouldn't say that. My wife would though. Uh no, I was kidding. No, no, it was she uh so we had to split up the the the uh events, she had the harder events, but she also picked I had to bike and I had to run. Okay, and so she did the row and the skier. So she I got assigned to all that stuff. And then um, but you had to do the whole thing. So when you first got there, they got the these like pairs of shoes from like Goodwill or something. But each you got a shoe and you had to do the whole thing holding the shoe, and the shoe was to represent somebody who was who had been in human trafficking, and so you had to carry that with the whole time, and then in the run, you had to run five laps around there. I think it ended up being a mile or just over my own, but it's uphill, downhill, but the steep hill at the end, and and you had to cross the fin, you had to go find the pair to your shoe at the end, and then cross the line with both to represent, you know, searching for these people, and but you had to do all these events with a with a with a shoe. So it was a it was a cool element to remind you of why you were doing what you were doing, but um, yeah, so your boy had to run. I went home, put the Norma Tex on immediately, dude. And it's like it's just a mile, let's be honest. Like, but yeah, I was hurt. Good job, Spence, for a great cause as well. Yeah, um, that's really cool. So uh how you feel today, buddy. You a little sore or you're dude? I'm gonna be honest with you, I feel good. Good, which may I I was gassing myself up. Thank you for saying that. I needed that. Uh an athletic athlete. Thank you so much. Yes, you heard it first. It's like anytime somebody who's been a professional athlete says that, like Ab said that to me one time. Oh, yeah, you're athletic. I'm like, real quick, can you write that? Can you write that down? You say that? Yeah, but no, I feel good today, man. Good, good. All right, well, that's the show for today. We appreciate you guys uh tuning in. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Um, we might get to them. No, I'm sure we will. Spence at least will get to them. Depends on what you say. Um, but no, let us know um anything that you, whatever you thought of the show. You agree, disagree, um, what a quad-thon is called. Uh, we'll take that as well. And we look forward to seeing you guys next week after a Steelers W. Here we go. See you then.