NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - Fix Your Franchise: Pittsburgh Steelers (w/ 3-Round Mock Draft)

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

If you're interested in adopting Wally, visit yellowbrickroaddogrescue.org Thanks so much! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! It helps us out a bunch. Join our discord to connect with us and fellow addicts! https://discord.gg/WMJFjz4DQP https://discord.gg/PxSFVtWEwW?feature=description timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro 0:05:00 How We Got Here 0:16:37 Mike Tomlin 0:29:20 Draft History 0:42:23 Western and Southern Financial Group 0:43:29 Head Coach Candidates 0:55:23 2026 Starting Lineup 0:58:53 Free Agency 1:01:25 Cap, Trades, Cuts 1:05:04 Free Agent Targets 1:14:11 3-Round Mock Draft 1:28:56 Recap 1:33:07 HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!!! 1:36:58 Outro Follow us on X: https://x.com/NFLSEshow https://x.com/TampaBayTre https://x.com/ConnorJRogers PFF's Mock Draft Simulator! https://www.pff.com/draft/nfl-mock-draft-simulator Help the show by going to subscribe.pff.com and using the code: NFLSE25 You get 25% off an annual subscription at checkout AND you help the show out a ton! We appreciate each and every one of you ADDICTS :) Thanks to Western and Southern Financial Group for sponsoring today's episode. For business or other inquiries, reach us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

All right, top five. Wait, wait, wait, you don't have leather helmet on here. I'm excited for you to talk about it. Well, how about now? Wow. Well, how about now? What the? Best two passersers in the country in Miami.

I'm curious. I'm furious. I don't want to do this show anymore. I just can't take my eyes off David Bailey at four. Like, I feel like somebody just ripped my limbs off and I can't move from this chair. Bailey's kind of a tough cell. We'll get there. I don't want to do this now.

No, we're doing it now. No, no, no, no, we'll do it right now. All right. You have David. You have Bailey? You'll compete. You want to do this? Show up.

The NFL Stock Exchange podcast. Trevor Sakeem of Connor Rogers here with you. Once again, perhaps for the last time, probably for the last time this series because we thought we were done three weeks ago, Connor, for fix your franchise, baby. By popular demand, it's back. And that's because the impossible has been achieved.

And that is that Mike Tom was no longer the head coach to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Never thought I'd see the day, Connor. Truly never thought I'd see the day. Thought he was just going to be head coached. for life. But here we are. Now we've got to talk about a different head coach in Pittsburgh. We've got to analyze the roster and how it is because it felt like, man, it was just so entrenched on exactly what Tomlin wanted for this roster to be for so long. He was the head coach

for 19 years. We're going to take a look at the free agents that they have upcoming, the flexibility that they have. What kind of a job opening this really is? Well, obviously talk about the quarterback position. We'll end with a three-round mock draft. How are you doing, my friend? I'm good, man. It definitely feels weird to hear fixing the stealing. pimping the Steelers, just an organization that never has to even really reset. It's almost reached a point where they feel like they've had a little bit of a, been a little bit of a victim of their own success where credit to Mike Tomlin, who always gets the most out of whatever roster he has,

whatever quarterback situation he has, at least in my opinion. But they never bottom out where they've been able, since Ben Rathlisberger retired, to get a new franchise quarterback or, you know, be a team that stocks all this capital. And they hit on picks in all kinds of rounds. They are all about player development. They are one of the more stable organizations typically in the NFL. And it's funny to be sitting here during an offseason where the Steelers and Ravens and now Buffalo Bills are all looking for a new head coach.

They are. They are. And for the Steelers specifically, it is so interesting because it's the difference of words of like good to great, to be honest with you. And it felt like through the first half of the Tomlin tenure of his 19 years, they were great, right? They won a Super Bowl, made it to another Super Bowl, continuously had one of the best defense in the NFL at first. And then it was one of the best offenses in the NFL. So the Steelers have always been in the conversation. but I think over the last 10 years, and we'll dig into this in a second,

but it just has not been the same story for Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Before we kick it off, just wanted to say shout it to everybody who's already in the PFF, or sorry, the NFLSE Discord, the PFF Discord as well, but the NFLSE Discord, we got over 3,000 people in there. We would love for you guys to be in there as well. Jump on in. Come hang out. We're talking Steelers, we're talking Ravis, we're talking bills.

We're talking everything, NFL draft, so many different things. We've got all this team-specific channel so that when you, crazy news like this happens. Steelers fans, Bill's fans, Ravens fans, they're already talking about it and what it can mean for the future. They're game planning for the future. We love just popping in there and seeing what you guys are saying

about how these teams can improve. And it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun for us to be a part of. If you're not a part of it, we'd love for you to be. So the link is in, the link to the Discord will be somewhere in this channel. If you're watching on YouTube, we'll put it on our socials as well. But I just want to shout with the NFL-S-E Discord,

because, man, I've said the word PFF so many times today. Connor, we have, we have, we recorded nine shows because we did eight different team mock drafts. So I feel like I've just like said the word PFF so many times today. So every time I go to say like a brand name, I'm just, you say eight different team mock drafts? Yes. How many rounds? Three. How long do you do for each team?

Like time range, 20 to 30 minutes? No, no, no, no, no. It's a lot quicker. Here on this show, we do a lot deeper of a dive into all of the mock drafts, which we'll do here at the end of this show for the Steelers. But, yeah, that's why if I accidentally say PFF instead of NFLSC, I've got to try to put one hat on instead of the other. But it's okay. That's insane. Let's dive into this. Let's get into it. Pittsburgh Steelers, let's talk about a little bit about how we got here, as we often do. We take a look at the record. And, Connor, I thought it would be good to go all the way back to 2016 here. for the Steelers because, well, quite frankly, that's the last time that the Steelers have won a playoff game. And when you think about Mike Tomlin stepping down in his words of saying, I just don't

think that, you know, I'm right for this team anymore to take them to the heights that they deserve to be taken to. I think what he's referencing and the reason why fans have been so disappointed with the Steelers team and asked for change and even booed him at times, despite never having a losing record as a coach is because they haven't won a playoff game since 2016, despite having six opportunities to do so. And they've been 0.6 since. So if you go back to 2016, that was the year that they were first in the NFC North, that they made it all the way to the NFC championship game.

They lost in that AFC championship game. You go to 2017. They were 13 and 3, lost in the divisional round. Didn't even win a playoff game that year, despite being 13 and 3. 9, 6 and 1, 8 and 8, no playoffs back to back. Then they make the playoffs back to back years in 2020 and 2020, losing the wild card round. No playoffs in 2022.

And then the last three years, including this season, 10 and 7 lost in the wild card round. So that's kind of a little bit of how we got there. We can talk about sort of the offensive and defensive grades that this team has had. But just let's start with your overall thoughts on the Steelers here in 2025. And I think that'll be a natural conversation for us to talk about Tomlin and sort of who he has been since hired in in 2007. Well, it makes you wonder, right? Not saying Tomlin knew he was going to do this at the end of the year.

That's not the point. But the strategy being to basically run it back, but with Aaron Rogers, who is a player obviously getting to the end here, maybe is at the end. We don't know if he's going to play. but by the level of impact he has is a, you know, a very watered down of his great self. That did Tomlin know like, hey, I got one more year in me giving a crack at it? Let's get the defense right. Let's draft Derek Harmon.

Let's make sure we keep T.J. Watt and our pass rushers. They were a very older roster, which if you're that old of a roster, you kind of have two decisions, right? You're at a crossroads when you're a very old roster in the NFL. NFL. You are a, I still think these guys have something left in the tank. Let's double, triple down, whatever it may be and go for it one more time. Or let's get out in front of this and start ripping apart this thing. And I don't think that's Mike Tomlin's DNA. I don't think that's really been in credit to their organization, the Steelers' DNA. And that led to them going down the road with Rogers, which to their credit, I didn't think they'd go 10 and 7. Now,

I'm sure a lot of Steelers fans are sitting here and going, yeah, well, we lost in the wild card round again. And a lot of their typical shortcomings rose up again. But they gave it a shot. And then Tomlin, I think probably doesn't want to be a part of a retool. And he will be, even with him being under team control, whenever he chooses to enter the coaching carousel again, it doesn't seem like it's going to be this year. It'll be next year, I would think, after a year of television, we'll see. Right.

he'll be the biggest name on the market and he could basically pick his job you would think depending on the trade situation so trevor to me it's one where they kept kind of ringing out the towel for every last drop and eventually it was just it's just time man they have a lot of draft capital now you're not going to i can't see a world where you're running back again with this version of aaron rogers you need to start trimming some of the older players off of this roster and figure out who is still going to be a part of this thing and how you're going to get right. So it's just, it's a, it's not surprising they tried it one more time, but how many times can you keep doing the same thing? Right. Like that's my take on it is. And keeping Tomlin probably

would have been fine if he wanted to be a part of a rebuild, but why would Mike Tomlin want to be part of a rebuild? So now they get to truly do this thing, not from the ground up, but definitely in a place they haven't been in in a very, very long time. Yeah, and I think that the way that things ended for the Steelers this year was just very indicative of just how the Tomlin era has always been for the Steelers, because if you want to look at some of the numbers, the PFF numbers that we have for them this year, they're 24th overall in offensive grade, 22nd and passing grade, 23rd in Russian grade, second and past blocking grade, although I will say,

the Steelers having a very low average set of the target and then Rogers getting the ball out of his hands very quickly goes into them being second. Now they weren't terrible at pass protection overall, but I think the truth is probably closer once again, like towards the middle. So if you put that number towards the middle, 18th and run blocking great as well,

18th and overall EPA per play, 21st in EPA per pass, ninth in EPA per rush. And then you can go to the defensive side of the ball too. 12th in defensive grade, 14th at pass-rest grade, 14th in run defense grade, 17th in coverage grade, 17th EPA per play allowed, 15th in EPA per pass allowed, 22nd in EPA per rush allowed. They're just right in the middle. They're right in the middle everywhere.

They're just a good team. But like that's what the Steelers have been under Mike Tomlin for so long, I would say in the second half of his tenure, really like you mentioned, it's not even since Ben Rothesberger retired because what year do he retire? He retired in 2021? God, it feels longer than, it feels longer ago than that, which is so weird to say up right now. 2021 was his last season. Was his last season in the league. And they went nine and seven.

But for all intents and purposes, like, Brothusberger towards the end of his career was not the quarterback that he was when he was leading top 10 offenses for the Steelers. And I think that's the thing is that like when you look at the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2016, 2017 years where they were in the playoffs for four straight seasons and they were double-digit win teams in all those seasons. That was the Ben Rothesberger and Antonio Brown, LaVion Bell years. And the offense was just so, so good. And then right when Rothesberger started to really dip, there wasn't really anything else for the team to hang their hat on. Now, the Labion Bell situation obviously was a tough one because, you know, he holds out to the tune of not even

playing for the team. And then he goes elsewhere and he wasn't very good. and Antonio Brown, as we know now, kind of went off the deep end after his time in Pittsburgh. And so they didn't have that same offense overall because some of the pieces fizzled out very quickly. But even with Rothesberger, as he was still on the team, but declining his career, they didn't really have anything to lean on. And it always just felt like either the offense was really good or the defense was really good. There was never really a constant mix of, and I believe I read this somewhere where Tom, In his 19 years, for as much success as they have had as an organization,

has only had one season where they were a top 10 offense and a top 10 defense. The rest of the time, it just never really married up. One side of the ball was so much better than the other. And I think that's how you just get a lot of mediocrity for the Steelers over the last, I would say, 10 years. Right. And it unfortunately over time started to make them a very flawed team, right? When you think of the Steelers, it's a very, not niche, but specific style of football that they play.

But the game has, as it always does, evolved in this era. Yeah. And, you know, listen, once again, credit to them that they've been 10 and 7 the last three years. But you look at the division they're in, you've had Lamar win in MVP, a guy that could challenge you with his legs and throw the ball down the field. when healthy, you have Joe Burrow that is as good of a passer as anybody in the NFL. So they're one of those teams that when they, unfortunately, when they get to the postseason

and they see the big dogs, they feel flawed in a way that they can't play the style of football. And the funniest part is Trev this year, who did they run into in the first round? A team that kind of plays, wants to play their style of football, but it was just better defensively. They're just faster defensively.

Right. That, yeah, going into the fourth quarter, that game was what, point difference, but by the end of it, the damn broke. The damn officially broke because their offense became so, like, you watched this offense week in and week out, and it was jarring for most of the season, how predictable they often were with this version of Rogers at his age. You mentioned the pass blocking grade there, which is high. but the context of it that the ball was out not at an alarming rate and the average depth of

target, I feel like, was mostly historical besides a couple shots down the field of D.K. Metcalf here and there. So it's just really, really hard to go to the promised land playing the style of football that they've hung onto. And I think that they have finally accepted it. You know, we always joke around that the Saints can't shed their salary and do a year or two rebuild. They just keep spending and they just keep spending. The Steelers were kind of leaning into a certain brand of football. And finally, and maybe this is Tomlin, you know, not falling on the sword, but just realizing like it had reached its high point, they in a way need to change. I think that this sort of brings up a little bit deeper of a conversation to have about Tomlin

and specifically the Steelers, which will make the team building part of this conversation very, very, very interesting because in my opinion, it has to be so different moving forward. Alex in the chat said, it's just bad because the system is built for nine and seven and nothing more. Obviously, it can be a little bit better than a nine and seven, but that 10 and seven. Yeah, I mean, 10 and seven, right, right, because we have an extra game now. That comment's not that far off from the truth, though. And I think to understand that, you have to talk about who Tomlin sort of has

been, but more specifically, who the Pittsburgh Steelers have been or an organization for just the longest time. The Steelers are very much a traditional family type of organization. Obviously, the identity that they take on is just a blue collar like Steelers fans, grit, determination, hard-nosed playing style, all that. kind of stuff. And I think all of that really, really worked for the majority of the time that the game of football has existed. That's right. And I think that that's specific to Tomlin's story in why you can see so much of a difference between the beginning part of his career and the ending part of his career. Because when you go to Tomlin, he rose the ranks very quickly. He was a grad

assistant at Memphis. He bounced around a little bit in college football for a little bit. got the Debe's coach job for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under Monty Kippen that he had for five seasons from 2001 to 2005. He was the DC of the Vikings for one year in 06 and then boom. He's hired to just be the third head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers since 1969 at age 35 in 2007 after Bill Cower was done. When you look at his situation there, this is a 35-year-old Tomlin who very clearly the reason why you hire Tomlin at age 35. is because you like how he approaches the game. You like his mindset for the game. You like his mindset for team building.

You're not hiring him because of his expertise. You're not hiring him because of his resume. He doesn't have that yet. He's 35 years old. But you love it because of how he thinks about the game. And I think specifically that goes into Kevin Colbert, who is the general manager for this team for over 20 years. I think he started in 2000.

And his last year was in 2021. Kevin Colbert was very much an old school type of a general manager. And I think that that very much goes into the bond that he and Tomlin had as they built that team together for, let's say, the first part of Tomlin's tenure. This team was very behind, especially when you fast forward a little bit when you get to like 2021, 2021, 2022. They were very behind and they were very reluctant to embrace data analytics, forward thinking, the monitor. the modernized game of football as we see it today, winning in the margins and the details that other coaches and organizations were willing to do

that it just never felt like the Steelers were. Now, after Kevin Colbert stepped down as general manager and Omar Khan took over, it felt like they were a little bit more willing to be progressive into the modern game of the NFL. But I think that mindset was still there because it was very entrenched with Tomlin. And I think that all of that matters

when you go back to sort of the history that Tomlin had because let's think about Tomlin's coaching tree, right? Tomlin's been in the NFL as a head coach for 19 years, Connor. Can you name me one coach from his coaching tree that like went on to be a successful head coach? Successful, I feel like, and maybe I'm selling them too short here, but basically like a successful, really anything that lasted in the NFL. No, because there's no, I don't think of it. No, the point is, is very important because look at the graphic and this highlights it.

The stability that they had and the level that they had it. Yes. And then when it was time to, like, you know, things got shaken up a little bit where Bruce Ariens and Dick Leboe weren't there anymore. And obviously Todd Haley, who is, you know, definitely an interesting personality, but had some good offensive years in the NFL bouncing around. But man, like you're, you nailed it where the pivot since then, specifically this Matt Canada, Arthur Smith back to back. You're right, but it goes back to the original point of them being flawed because

of being stuck in a certain way. Yes. where who's been the coaching tree that is basically dominated this decade, or at least been the most, I don't want to say dominated, but definitely the most noteworthy around the NFL. The Shanahan. I was going to say, Mike slash Kyle Shanahan, yes. Right, because McVeigh falls under that.

Right. So, so many fall under McVeigh. Yes. So you have those that fell under, like, and they're just now, there's these guys everywhere. And to this very hour, there's assistance from those trees interviewing for head coaching jobs. Yes. You are absolutely right that you can't say that about the last 10 years of Tomlin.

No. You see the exact opposite. And I think the reason why is because of how the Steelers go about things. They're just not very progressive, right? They're not looking into the cutting edges of, okay, where is the game going? They're still trying to play the game the way that it was. And I think it goes into what you just said and pointing that out in the graphic. When Tomlin was 35 years old, he inherited Bruce Ariens, who was the wide receiver coach of the Steelers, who then he elevated to offensive coordinator.

He inherited Bruce Ariens, who was already on the roster, who was then his offensive coordinator from 2007 to 2012. And he inherited Dick Leboe, who was his defensive coordinator, because he was the defensive coordinator with Bill Cower, from 2007 to 2015. Legend of the game. 100%. Yes. Iotic. And if you look into why. Bruce Ariens left the Steelers in 2012, the Steelers had success. The Steelers made it to Super Bowls.

They won a Super Bowl with Mike Tomlin and Bruce Ariens is the offensive coordinator. But Bruce Ariens, if you remember this, because he was like this with the Indianapolis Colts afterwards. He was like this with the Arizona Cardinals. And he was like this with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bruce Ariens is pushing the envelope. He always has. He's always wanted to be more aggressive. He's always wanted to pass the ball more in certain situations. He's always wanted to lean into what gives you more explosive in offense, not necessarily just like, hey, this is how we do things. This is how we control the ball a little bit more.

Ariens wanted to push the envelope. And if you remember, in 2012, he retired. Like he was like, no, I'm done. I'm just going to retire. And then the Colts job came open and they're like, hey, you're the perfect guy. We want you to be you here for us. And he went, okay.

So he left the Steelers because he was, somebody who wanted to push the envelope in terms of analytical approaches and being more aggressive and being more, again, progressive with where the NFL game was going. And the Steelers didn't want to do it. They were uncomfortable with it. What the Steelers were really good at for so many years throughout their history, including the first half of Tomlin's tenure, is they had great chemistry with what Kevin Colbert, the general manager saw as good football players, Pittsburgh Steelers, if you will,

and what Tomlin saw as Pittsburgh Steelers, and the draft and developed part of not just draft picks, but also acquiring veterans and getting them on this team, it was very lockstep. But it was locked step with a style of football that, in my opinion, was dying. And that's why you have the second half of Tomlin's tenure and you cannot, this is a team that cannot beat the good teams in the NFL, in my opinion,

because of their reluctance, Kevin Colberts and Mike Tomlins, and now just Mike Tomlins, to evolve the way that you needed to. Timeout management, overall game management. John Ledyard actually shouted this out to me when I was talking to him a little bit before we recorded this. since 2017, Tomlin is 10 for 36 on challenges in game. 27%.

That's crazy. Right. That seems, I would imagine that's the lowest percentage during that span of time with coaches that have at least 10 challenge attempts, right? No question. I can. Has to be.

And there's a bigger issue there. like is there not somebody specifically working on the staff that is in charge of lining like helping with that decision that seems almost that seems like he's just seeing the play live looking at the jumbo tron and deciding on the fly like yeah you know what this is a good time but but that's that's the thing is that I think that's just how the Pittsburgh Steelers have always done things and I think that for most of the game of football's history. That is how you are successful and win with a lot of the traits and a lot of the emphasis that they had on playing the game a certain level, the toughness, the physicality,

the grit, the determination, all of this kinds of stuff. And you would, you would almost win in the margins just from your, like, scouting the player more so than the athlete. And now the game is too fast. Analytics are too involved. And there are too many ways for you to win in margins that don't involve those adjectives. And I just think the Steelers and Tomlin have been so slow, if open at all, to adapting to those things. So I ultimately think that that's how we got here with Tomlin. And that is why you'll never see the Steelers be a horrendous football team.

Because Mike Tomlin knows what a football player looks like. Him and the Steelers, entire organization and culture, they know what a football player looks like. And they're going to get them more often than not. But are they ever going to get in the postseason and they're going to beat these good teams who lean into the progressive areas of the modern day football better than the Steelers do? No. And I think that's how we get to the point of the playoff record that they have and Tomlin's stepping away at this point in time. Yeah, and it's a tough one.

Like it's, you know, and it's hard to always get a read on what roster decisions, a coach that has that length of that kind of tenure there makes versus what's the GM. and this is kind of the topic of the week in football when you look at McDermott and Bean. McDermott being shown the door and Bean basically being elevated. And you could ask the same thing about the Steelers. But it's sometimes it's okay for both sides to just get a fresh start.

Yeah. You know? I think that's where I kind of land on this one where I think the Steelers maybe need a short-term step back for a longer-term step ahead. and Tomlin, honestly, a year off might do good for him. And I don't know Mike Tomlin where I can say with certain that, like, with confidence that he'll do these things.

But why are you? Why is your challenge percentage that low in the NFL? Why is your game management fallen behind a lot of the coaches in the league? What roster, you know, what things, mattered to you for a roster 12 years ago that aren't valued in the same light today. So, and you can get a better eye on that from stepping away for a year, even if you do TV. You're still focusing on the game as much as ever. So that's why I kind of land on, I think it's just time for both sides.

I agree. I agree. Or great our mock drafts from the PFF mock draft simulator with Mike McCarthy. Well, McCarthy is now a candidate to be the Cil-Rite coach. So maybe you could just go one in one out, maybe high five when you're walking. in and out of the building. Steps away from the cubicle and Mike Tom one sits down. Yeah, yeah.

By the way, somebody asked, somebody asks in the chat, is the background behind me real? Hold on. It does look fake. Wow. It is clearly extremely real. Yes.

The background behind me is very. That are a great AI from the chef. Just rolling in a clip of you grabbing a helmet behind you off your fake background. We're in the lovely PFF studios here. out of Ohio. That's why I grabbed the Bengals helmet. Now realizing that on a Steelers Fixer Franchise episode, they're probably going to I didn't like that. Yeah, probably rub people the wrong way. Sorry. Sorry.

Somebody said, AI's getting real good. Peter's saying damn, Treve, you're short. What are you talking about? It's ridiculous. I'm walking backwards. Five-eight with heels on. Oh, come on. That's just so disrespectful and not true.

That's not true at all. That is tough. You know, a lot of tough guys with letter. You pull up the senior bowl, all right? Pull up the senior bowl. A lot of tough guys with letter avatars. That's a five foot ceiling, you said. It's like a Willy Wonka shot. Hey, you guys, all of you. Um, okay, draft history. I'm never getting up from this chair on the show. Yeah, you can't. No, you can't. Next thing, you know, people are just out of control. Yeah. All right. Yeah, strapped history. This is a, this is a great team to do this for. So the draft history is very interesting because Omar Khan

inherits the GM job after Kevin Colbert leaves. But like we said, Colbert and Tomlin were together for 14 years. And I think that there was just such a strong voice from Tomlin on who he was getting for this team that Tomlin also must have remained such a strong voice in who the Steelers were drafting that I don't know and I've asked some people and it doesn't seem like there's a there's a for sure answer of like what the percentage was of like hey how much of the draft and player acquisition is Tomlin versus Khan and I think con does a lot of the you know oversees all the scouting things you know

he's probably the guy with the quote unquote final decision in the room but it's not like he's drafting guys that Mike Tomlin's like no I cannot I will not play with this guy so it's interesting now that Tomlin has stepped down to see what Omar Khan is going to be like as a GM that now has sort of just the loudest voice in the room, if you will. But when you look at these drafts, 2025, I thought Derek Harmon was a good player for them this year, really helped them run defense. Caleb Johnson was not good, but Jack Sawyer was pretty good for them. I think I like Will Howard than a lot of people do. But you gave this one a B plus and I gave this one to B last year.

Yeah, I like a lot of things about this draft. I think that I expected way more out of Caleb Johnson this year. I didn't, you know, after the draft, I wasn't thinking Kenneth Gainwell would have the impact on this team that he did. But I know Kenneth Gainwell had a great summer out there that he really earned that role in training camp. Will Howard, I think, can develop into a backup. And if you get a backup quarterback in the sixth round, you look at what Harmon was able to do to help their run defense.

Soir for his limitations is a value. in the fourth round with his ability to set the edge. So I thought this was a classic Steelers getting a B and a V plus and a draft. It's kind of like the that really just speaks. It's a microcosm of their entire organization, always a B. How do we get to the A? Right, right. Well, I gave them an A for, I think, the previous two drafts,

which are interesting to kind of look at in retrospect. 2024, I gave them an A plus and you gave them an A. We love the Troy Faltono pick. I think that he could be a starting offense to tackle for them. Zach Frazier's been fantastic. I love Peyton Wilson. I thought Mason McCormick was a really good fit for this team. I like the Logan Lee selection in the sixth round.

Roman Wilson's been super disappointing to me. I thought he was exactly what the doctor ordered for this team. And it feels like he's been a swing and a miss. But now maybe with a new coaching staff and a new offensive mindset, he'll actually be able to stand out for them as a wide receiver two or three. Well, my take on this draft was they rebuilt their offensive line. And I obviously, that matters a lot to me.

And I think that that kind of stands true, right? There's three starters on the offensive line from this draft. So that's why I was so high on it. So even if you look at the Roman Wilson disappointment factor, this was a very good draft.

It is not easy to rebuild your offensive line over two to three years. I felt like they really knocked out a lot of it in one draft across four different rounds. In 2023, if we go to 2023 now. What did I give this one? This one I'm curious to look back at. I think you were higher on, you had a higher grade. Oh no, same thing. A plus and an A.

Yeah. I love this draft because on draft night, Broderick Jones has obviously really struggled for it. He has he has not improved the way that we have needed him to improve. But I think both of us said on draft night, like if Broderick Jones continues to get better, he's a fantastic athlete. If he continues to get stronger and be more consistent, you love getting him as an offensive. tackle for the future in the first round. Obviously, he struggled more than we thought that he was going to. Joy Porter Jr. Okay, some struggles here and there, but starting corner for them. Keanu Benton, I think it's been really nice for them. I was super high on Darnow Washington. I had Darnow Washington as a top 20 player in that class. So to get him in 93, that's a that's a kid an A plus for me. I like Nick Herbig a lot as well. So to get him at 132 and Nick Herbig has turned out to be fantastic for them and you just need to play him more.

Corey Trice, I love. I thought Corey Trice was like a third, fourth round talent, but he had bad injury history and he's had some injuries in the NFL, unfortunately, as well. But I really love this draft on paper, even though it hasn't worked out completely. Yeah, clearly me too, giving in a day. And they got the grades super beefed up by the fact that you nailed it. Nick Herbig, they got 130 second overall. He was my 60th overall player in the draft. So I thought the value on that was out of this world.

And I think it's proven to be that way. And much like you, I had Darnell Washington right. inside my top 20 that year. They got them 93rd overall. Now, admittedly, going back, one thing I missed, it sounds like Darnell Washington fell in that draft because of medicals, and I did not have that information for that draft. And I'm not saying I would have had him.

You got to beef up your league sources. What a whiff. Yeah, that's tough. That's a tough look for your league source. Industry, thank you. Industry sources. Sorry, sorry. Yeah.

Industry source. Yeah. But Darno Washington has outplayed, I think, the value of the 93rd overall pick in the draft. People forget how often third round picks don't really do anything as much as your existence and my existence is based around talking about players in that range of the draft almost every day of the year. Don't tell the people watching the show. I said that. Yeah, there's reasons why we've been really high on the way they draft. And you could see some, a lot of it has been hits, honestly.

But Broderick is a massive problem in my eyes. man it's just disappointing i'll leave it at that yeah yeah yeah he they need obviously it's new coaching staff so i would assume they'll get a new offensive line coach in there and whoever it is i sure hope that uh brojerk can really what they're saying yeah that's the nicest way i can put because i think technically he's just he's just a mess right now he's just so inconsistent with his hands and he's just letting guys totally dictate the contact it feels like every time 2022's last draft we'll look at because we're just looking at the Omar Khan drafts. This is the Kenny Pickett draft, which, look, not great.

You were in a situation where it was a very bad QB class, and I think that they felt the pressure to take a quarterback, and they got on the board in the first round, and they're like, whoa, none of these quarterbacks have been taken yet. All right, let's take the hometown kid. Let's take the kid for Pitt. Let's take Kenny Pickett here. And Pickett obviously has, I mean, he's still around the league,

and he's still getting some opportunities. Colbert did do this draft, by the way. Oh, this was Colbert's last. He did this draft and then literally step down. Oh, then it peaked out. Nice. Right after this draft. Oh, that's good.

No, that's good. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's good. No, no, no, no, no. That's really, really good. That's exactly what you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's have the guy, let's have the guy pick the players and then leave.

And then it's your problem, pal. God, I hate that. Didn't the Jets do that one year? They do that with McCann. And then Gays, well, Well, Gase went full little finger and got him fired. But yeah. Oh, okay.

And would you be shocked if that happens to Joe Shane this year? No. Dude. No. I don't, Connor, I don't understand why teams do this. Why are we just going to have a general manager in front of the front office? And he's like entering the hot seat going into the year with a new coaching staff. Like Joe Shane.

Somebody gave us a super chat about Joe Shane, which by the way, as we always do, we'll always read the super chats at the end, guys. So I promise we would get to him. But somebody was talking about like, how is Joe Shane there? If John Harbaugh is not, hell yeah,

Joe Shane's my guy. If he's anything short of that, move on from Joe Shane. Move on. What are we doing? What are we doing here? If that's not the case. and we go to Buffalo.

Buffalo is a different situation, but how did Brandon Bean not only stay, but get a promotion? We got promoted. If you were going to tell me that they're going to fire Shaw McDermott, I'd be like, tough business, I get it,

could be time for a fresh start for. But if he's gone, I would have 100% assumed Brandon Bean is also gone. The way that the way that general managers are handled because they are, I think, naturally closer to the owners. That's it.

It's so wild in this league. I just think that it's so wild and so much happens with general managers that go beyond logic. I mean, if you ask me. Dude, they most of the time watch the games with them. I know. When the teams are out there practicing, they're chatting. Ski trips at Tahoe. Whatever it may be.

The NFL. Nile River cruises in the summer. Is that a thing? The wives are good friends. That's dangerous. Once the wives are good friends, can't fire them. The kids get together for summer camp out in the mountains. You can't fire them.

Yeah, that's huge problem. Little Finger was right, actually. People forget that. He did save John Snow's ass. He did what? Save John Snow's ass at the Battle of the Bastards. He did. He did.

Yeah, you hate to give it to him. But sometimes you got to. Sometimes you got to give it to him. Sometimes you got to give it to him. But he had a nice, he had a nice ending. I won't say anymore. So this draft hasn't seen it. Not a good parting gift.

No, no. And remember that year at the Senior Bowl? Like, it felt like Tomlin loved Malik Willis. I know. And, and. Yeah. I think, I think Tomlin did love Malik Will. No, I'm going to say, I'm, yes.

We were there. We were there. You and I were there. We saw it in person. Yeah, this felt like this was one where it felt like the front office really liked Kenny Pickett. And it did not work. Did not work. George Pickens obviously worked out for them. He's not on the team. Yeah, it's just great somewhere else. Well, you just parlayed it with D.K. Metcalfe. I think it's the same player. Pickens is better. Yeah, I also.

He's crazy, but... Okay, what's Metcalf? Like, yep, got my ass. You're right, they are the same player. They're the same player. They're the same exact player. I'd rather have George Pickens, but... Yeah, I like Pickens better. But it's not by much, to be honest with you.

If George Pickens was on the Pittsburgh Steelers this year, the results would be exactly the same. Exactly the same. So. So you had pickings. You don't have them on the team anymore, but you have to get Metcalfe. So it's the same thing. Marvin Leowell in the third round, bad. Calvin Austin, the fourth round, fine. Conor Hayward in the sixth round. Touch push merchant. Love them, love him. Love them. I love Connor Hayward. Yeah, it's fine. Love them. Yeah, that's a tough draft. That's a tough draft. It's tough draft. There's no way around. Anything else? Draft before we get into some head coach candidates for this team. No, this is where it's

going to get real interesting. Wait, somebody, oh, David said you're crazy. Pickens with A-Rod is lights out. What's different? David, what's different? They're the same player. No, I like that Pickens and Pickens is really blossomed with Dak. Pickens is also, I'll give him this,

he was a better route runner this year than I was, than I ever really thought that he was going to become. I thought he was always going to be just an absolute dog at the catch point, a contest to catch dude. year, I will give him his props. He improved a lot as a I think that's a great. I think he's just a better player.

I do. I do think the variance is higher. D.K., like, he is a wild card, but Pickens is a wild card at receiver that we have not, we have not seen that level of wild card recently.

George Pickens is the D.K. Metcalfe of George Pickens. There you go. Yeah. You nailed it Bork. Thank you. Thank you for landing the plane for us. Folks, our game plan of the week,

presented by Western and Southern Financial Group, a game plan for your financial future. What was a game plan in the week? Oh, dude, honestly, what Seattle did to the 49ers, basically just running back the exact same game plan that completely dominated them in week 18, knowing that San Francisco 49ers did not have the healthy players

to be able to adjust enough to beat it. Beautiful. Run it back. And until they could stop it, okay, fine. Them will adjust. Didn't even need to adjust. ran a lot of two high coverages. The 49ers couldn't run into it.

Brock Purdy couldn't throw into it. It was beautiful. It was fantastic. Just like every team wins, starts with a great game plan. Your future should as well. With life insurance built like a championship roster, Western and Southern, helps protect you and your family so you can focus on winning today. Know that tomorrow is covered.

Whether you're just starting out building your dynasty or looking to lock in long-term protection, their coverage options are designed to match your game plan. Visit Westernsouthern.com backslash pf to get your free life quote and start building your financial game plan. today, Western and Southern, built to win back by over 130 years of helping people protect what matters most. By the way, I feel like now is a good time right before we get into the head coach candidates for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I feel like now is a good time to say, if you're not subscribed to the channel, we would absolutely love for you to be. Come hang out with the addict. What are you doing? What are you doing? Do you not like the show? If you've enjoyed any sort of content at all whatsoever that we've done here on the NFL Stock Exchange, we would love for you to become part of the addicts.

It's a free way to help out the show. We would love to have you in the live chat every single week, twice a week, especially as draft season is coming around, man. We got quarterback rankings coming up on Wednesday. We get all sorts of Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl coverage happening all weekend. Or shoot, over the next week and a half, really, because I'm flying out the Shrine Bowl on Thursday. We're getting things kicked off on Friday, man.

We're going to have updates for you every single day after every single practice. You're going to know the NFL draft as best you ever have you subscribe to this channel. So make sure you guys do so. Hey, coach candidates. Connor, these were the confirmed interviews, whether phone or in person, that I could find for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Jesse Mentor, DC from the Los Angeles Chargers,

Chris Shula, the DC from the Los Angeles Rams. Do you say his last name, Nate Shilhaas? Is that how you say his last name? That looks right. Okay, all right. The past game coordinator, excuse me, for the Los Angeles Rams. Speaking of coaching trees,

we have two guys from McVeigh right there. Boom, boom. Yep. Clay Kubiak, offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers. Jeff Halfley, the defense coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. And now the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. That just happened. Okay.

That's why he just went poof on the graphic. Wow. The chef. Thinking on a fly. A guy is just unstoppable. Unbelievable. He's in the kitchen. Yeah.

Who's more cracked? McVeigh or the chef? Yeah, the chef. The chef. I would say the chef. Yeah. Yeah. In 10 years.

the chef's producer tree is going to be McVeigh-like. We've never seen something like this. That's very true. Anthony Weaver, the D.C. for the Miami Dolphins, has also been a candidate, which I assume that he still will be, even though Jeff Hapley's the head coach now for the Miami Dolphins. Brian Flores, the D.C. for the Minnesota Vikings, who was under Tomlin for one year, is the linebacker coach, I believe. He was the linebacker coach for Pittsburgh. Mike McCarthy, the czar of the MDS,

who was the longtime head coach of the Green Bay Packers, and then the Dallas Cowboys, he has interviewed with them as well. And then is you're ever of the defense, then coordinator for the Carolina Panthers? And I believe that's the whole list from what I was able to look up. Connor, anybody stand out for you.

Somebody said, why no college coaches? This is just the list that I saw that are the confirmed interviews for the Steelers. Anybody stand out to you, Connor. Brian Flores. fits everything this organization should be looking for for a leader, but brings the strategy element that I think they've lacked at times if he has the right offensive coordinator with him.

Brian Flores is one of, if not the best game planning defensive minds in the NFL. It's like Mike McDonald, Brian Flores. I feel like I'm missing a really obvious one here right now that I'm ashamed of. Who are you listening? Game planning defensive coaches in the NFL right now. Not just like good coach, but like game planner. Like every single week, they take away what you're good at and challenge you with the roster they have.

Not a great, right? It doesn't have to be a great roster. Just they get the most out of the, oh, Fangio, great call in the chat. Fangio is right. Yeah, for sure. Legends, yes. But I wouldn't put him in that. Van Joseph.

also cooking. Vance Joseph is absolutely cooking right now. Now, once again, like, Flores, why I argue for Flores is I don't always think he has top end talent like some of the other guys. Like Fangio and Vance Joseph have more talent than he had this year. Either way, the point stands that if he has the right offensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz, another good call out, Schwartz is a great DC. Yeah, yeah. But Flores has experience as a head coach as well. I think Brian Flores is the right. fit for this organization. Something tells me within, like you, you want the offensive guy here. Me personally?

Or you? Well, we've done a lot of these fixture franchises, and I think I've said this a couple of times, like, I'm always going to lean offense because of you solve a problem before it begins, where if you are an offensive-minded head coach, you'd never have to worry about another team poaching your offensive mind. And if you have a defensive coach, like I also love the three names that I love the most of the ones that are here for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I agree. Brian Flores is one of them. Jesse Minter and Chris Schuller are the other two that I would shout out that I like the most for the Steelers because these are younger, more aggressive, more cutting edge type of defensive minds.

And obviously Flores has the head coaching experience and you'd really have to get into like, hey, why didn't it work out in Miami? Hey, why did it feel like so many bridges were burned when you were done with Miami? What happened? When things didn't go well, what happened? And he's got to be able to answer those questions pretty confidently. And if he can, I think you've got a really damn good football coach that now has head coaching experience, which is very, very valuable. But if not, you've got these two guys in Jesse Minter and Chris Shula, who are these up and coming type of progressive defensive minds and just progressive overall coaches at the NFL level that is very different to what the Steelers have had and sort of. of what we were ranting about of why Mike Tomlin felt like he was stuck in the mud

when he couldn't beat these great teams is you just, you don't have a forward enough of a mindset. And I think both of those guys at least give you the opportunity to have that. But the issue is, hire a defensive mighty coach. Let's say you nailed an offense coordinator next year. Guess what? They're gone. Let's say you hire somebody else.

And let's say you hit it big. You get two in a row that you love. you win the division, you get into the playoffs again, you make a little bit of a run. Boom, gone. Every year, if you have a good offensive. I think this year taught us that basically no head coach is safe, really,

outside of the ones that are elite offensive minds. And if you've got teams firing John Harbaugh and Kevin Stefansky and Mike Tomlin stepping down and Sean McDermott, then anybody can go at any point in time, which means there's going to be at least six or seven, sorry, head coaching openings every single year. And with that being the case,

you always are going to be afraid that your offense coordinator is going to get poached. So that's a long way around me saying that I would lean OC, but of these names here, I think Mike McCarthy's probably the only one that I would actually go with on the offensive side. Yeah, it's right. It feels like, as my dog has a meltdown,

what I'm Gracie? She has her own opinions. No, yeah, she's getting in the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. It's a fine balance of in a dream world you get that guy, but because then you don't have to worry about replacing that side of the ball as so many head coaches do,

but then there's the flip side of it. Like you said, you don't just hire offense to higher offense. And that's why ultimately I think they're going to go with one of Minter, Shula, or Flores. And I know Shula is the favorite at the moment, but I don't know what that's fully based on either. I think I'd hire Minter. Minter was amazing this year. Yeah. And he has a feel for the division already.

He does, yeah, as the Ravens, D.C. Which matter. I feel like, out of all the divisions in football, Isn't this feel like the division that cares the most about one another? Like the AFC North. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, I say that it's like working with William Barr on Jets for the last four years. Like Raven Steelers means something.

It means something. Yeah. Playing the Bengals and Browns means something. They do make moves at times those organizations and it makes sense. You strategize against your division. All right. You want to go with Flores or Mentor? Those are the two choices.

I think I would bring Minter to the table. Let's go Minter. Because I think we've gone down the Flores rabbit hole, I feel like, a couple of times. Or correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah. I don't know if we've actually given Jesse Minter to one of these teams. We talk about him for a lot of teams. Every time.

But, yeah. And Greg Roman's now available. So he can come on down, you know, with Minter. He worked on the staff this past year. No, I don't think that they're hiring. Who's going to get Brian Daibald to be their offensive coordinator? Well, Brian Dable could be the Bill's head coach. I know.

I know. That would be a wild turn of events. Yeah, it would be. Yeah, that would be. A lot of the chat saying, like, why do they not want Shula? That's not, they could very well want Shula. That's not what we're saying. I even wonder if there's a world where if you hire Shula,

you could get Shula has to come over and be your offensive. coordinator. It's great question. Because then he could call plays. Right. He's already under McVeigh and Mike LaFleur. Right. It's weird to see a guy's name mentioned in the coaching cycle for head coaching jobs that is not only not the play caller, but also not the offensive coordinator. Because I show you how smart the NFL world thinks he is. I actually kind of like that. So pivot because Shula, you feel like, has a better offensive staff with him where Minter, we have a little bit of an unknown territory going right now? I don't think it's like one's a negative versus the other.

I just like the idea of having a little bit of a plan here where you get Shula and then Shilhas who know each other very well. They're already on the staff. Under McVeigh, who we've talked about, has probably the longest stretching branch of coaching tree in the NFL. That's the area that we just discussed with the Tomlin era that you are missing of these progressive coaches that you want to hire. and that I do feel pretty good with.

If you believe in Shula as sort of like the CEO type that could like stand the test of time where the coordinators come and go, then obviously you give somebody who's getting a lot of offensive coordinator and head coaching looks already. You give him the opportunity to continue to work with somebody that he's already been on staff with and allow him to call plays.

I kind of like that. I like it. Good pivot, Trev. I wasn't thinking of just connect. them together. Our boy K. Endthoder in the chat says, but then you've got to replace Nate in 12 months.

You do, but unless we're hiring an offensive-minded head coach, which... Yeah, but it's like Kenny Pickett, not our problem. We're not fixing the Steelers next year. Ken Thotter. Ken T. Hoder.

All right, I'm going with Shul and Shulha. I'm with you. Let's do it. I'm going both on. Package deal there. Okay, let's get into the projected starting lineups. Take a look at the roster. We'll take a look at free agency,

and then we'll get into a three-round mock draft here with both of those guys now in place here as the Steelers coaching staff. Quarterback. Only the Lord knows. Only the good Lord knows. He probably doesn't, honestly. Probably doesn't. Yeah.

Yeah, he's probably asking us. He's probably watching. Yeah, he's busy creating the Fernando Mendoza's and Arborosos and Arvel Reese's of the world. Why Mackayle-Lemons like, thanks. Forget about me. Doesn't need it. Running back, I have- Doesn't need him. I have Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gamewell.

Kenneth Gamewell is a free agent, but I feel like they're going to bring him back because of how much he was involved in the offense this season, even with the new offensive staff. You have D.K. Metcalf, obviously, is the top wide receiver. I don't know who's going to be wide receiver two and wide receiver three on this team. I believe that Calvin Austin is a free agent. Roman Wilson is still there. is he more of a factor with whoever's new on offense. Pat Friarmooth, you still have him at the tight end spot.

Roger Jones, Troy Fontano, or your offensive tackles, Mason McCormick's a guard. Jack Frazier's one of the best centers in the NFL already. And then I think you've got one guard spot open there on offense. Any thoughts there before we move to defense? No, that's something that you feel good about, right? Oh, yeah, Darno Washington, too. I'm dumb.

He was not on the depth chart because he was hurt. But yes, Darno Washington obviously is here too for this team. Right. this will it'll be interesting how we spend some money on offense because they do have cap space a projected starting lineup on defense cam heyward i have in here but with a question mark next to him because i just don't know how much longer cam heyward's going to play this is a nursing home some of this and if you move on from cam heyward which we'll get to in a second you could save a good chunk of change and so like is this a situation where cam heyward and the steeler sort of like come

to a mutual agreement of like hey tomlin's not here any longer are you just going to call it a day for your NFL career? So maybe, but I have him in the lineup because if he's back, he's going to be back. I still think he's playing at high level. Keanu Benton, Derek Harmon, two defensive tackles that you feel pretty good about as well. T.J. Watt signed the contract extension,

so I don't really think he's movable, although we can discuss that a little bit more in a second. Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig. Highsmith is somebody who I think is also potentially movable for this team, but Herbig should still be there, unless he's going to be a Tampa Bay. Buckingier, of course. I'll never forget fixing the bucks.

Payton Wilson. And Patrick Queen, again, a question mark next to Patrick Queen because we have the ability to move on from him and save some money. First outside corner, not sure, although James Pierre is a free agent. You can bring him back so he could be a starting outside corner for you. Joy Porter Jr., Jalen Ramsey, Deshaun Elliott's his safety, but then I think that they're, Kyle Dugger is a free agent. Miles Kilber is a free agent.

and Drewbill Preper is a free agent, so who knows it's safety as well. I guess we could just throw up the Steelers free agents here for 2026 now. And this is, well, the potential team needs. Quarterback, wide receiver two, maybe OT1, depending on Project Jones, or darn out Washington's ability to gain 10 more pounds

and things for playing left out. Maybe another corner that you're adding there and then potentially linebacker. potentially linebacker, depending on what happens. Linebacker could use an upgrade, but you're probably thinking to upgrade some of these spots before that. Steelers free agents for 2026, Ann Rogers, Caldugger, Calvin Austin, Isaac Sumilo,

Adam Thielen's already retired. Kenneth Gamewell, which I have an asterisk next to him because I think he'll be back. Gibral-Peppers, Isaiah Loudermil, Milk. You guys can see him on the screen. The four free agents that I think they'll bring back, or Kenneth Gamewell, James Pierre, Connor Hayward.

Actually, yeah, I only have those three on there. It's like guys that I think they're most likely going to bring back, but I'm not sure about any of the other ones. Yeah, I'm with you. Adam Thielen basically in the lot retired as fast as we've ever seen someone retire after a game. Yeah, without actually retiring during the game. It's like I'm done. Rogers now a Tomlin gone doesn't make sense for him to run it back there.

But wouldn't shock me if Rogers' charge me if Rogers' charge. tries to hang on for another year in another place. Colts? Vikings? Vikings? I think that's what he wanted. Dude, if he goes to the Vikings. That's what he wanted last year, if he feels like.

I'd be mad if he goes to the Vikings. Why are you going to be mad? Because it's just the Brett Farr of career arc. Yeah. Time is a flat circle. Jackers, Jets, Vikings. Right. It's lame.

Gets hurt and it goes wrong for the Jets. Right. Jets were what, eight and three when Farf got hurt? Oh, damn, why they? Oh, they were rolling. People forget that. They're out of their brains. They're just like, Farwood, the Jets sucked, but then it was awesome with the Vikings.

Farve and the Jets were rolling, and then he gets hurt. I think he tore his bicep, and then they sucked. Either way, it always goes wrong somewhere. Yeah, it's true. Effective cap stays that we have for this team. Well, actually, let me read the chat here. You want to see Let Nine cook? That's why you stop the show

Because that's what the chat is right now Yeah No, somebody was talking about Steelers needs We got quarterback wired receiver left tackle Corner safety, yep Move project to right guard Man

I mean if you draft an offense to tackle You can probably move in the right guard I do not like him at guard No I don't either Because if you can't use your hands to tackle Brother That speed to power at guard's going to hit different Yeah it's going to be different

All right, glad we've read the Let 9 Cook in the chat. Yep. Cap space, $32.1 million in effective cap space is the eighth most in the NFL. 56 players under contract. So they do have a lot of players that are under contract. They don't have to do a ton, but they do have some flexibility here. Potential cuts. Cam Hayward.

You can cut him anytime, save $14.2 million. So if it retires, you can save $14.2 million as well. Patrick Queen saves $13.3 million if you cut him at any time. I think that's. you're moving on for Patrick Queen. I'd call them today. And you're not even legally allowed to. It's not the new league year.

I actually would text them. Beat it. Yeah. Email. You know, this meeting could have been an email. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This cut could be an email.

This cut could be an email. Tide in Johnny Smith, I think with Arthur Smith, no longer the offensive coordinator there. That means that Johnny Smith will be gone as well. So I think that you're looking. I think that you're, you've got at least $20 million extra for this team. So they're going to be floating around $50 million to work with.

the potential trades that you could have, T.J. Watt is not cuttable for this team, but if you trade him, you get $12 million of cap relief. If you trade him pre-June 1, you get $32 million if he's a post-June 1 trade. Alex Highsmith, you save $8.5, around $8.8 million,

if you traded before June 1, 14.5 if it's post-June 1. I don't know. I don't know what the next coaching staff is going to want to do with that current defensive line rotation. I think a lot of people are going to look at Nick Herbig and be like, yo, let's play this guy a lot more. And I think that there's a world where Alex Highsmith does get traded for draft capital, especially for a team that's trying to rebuild with a new coach and a new philosophy.

So I think there is a good, I think there's a world where Alex Highsmith is traded. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, Herbig's 24, so you want to keep him as a building block pass rusher. Right. It feels like a watt trade while nothing should ever surprise us in the NFL. doesn't feel like their identity to trade their best player. No, no. So high strength would be the guy out of the three,

or they just keep all three of them and actually feel like they have an identity or a foundation on their defense. Somebody said, why would you trade why? I don't think they're going to trade wide. I think people have talked about how he wasn't quite the same this season, even around the injuries that he had. He's 31 right now.

He'll be 32 next year, and he's just expensive. So I think that like if somebody were to give you a crazy trade for him, you would probably entertain it, but I don't think the Pittsburgh Steelers will. So this is where it stinks that the NFL, unlike specifically basketball and a little bit baseball, not as much in hockey anymore as there used to be. I don't know if it's lack of creativity

or it's just very hard to do because of the salary cap and how the NFL operates. There's not a lot of great player for player trades. Like the Steelers have three pass rushers. Could they trade one to upgrade one of the many, needs we went through. Probably not because the NFL just doesn't operate that way. No, they don't. But it would be really, it would be much cooler if the NFL did have more trades like that because I think it's one of the fun aspects of the other leagues. Yeah.

I think we're looking at $20 million extra to work with and maybe we find a High Smith trade. I don't think they're going to be like Jones and to get rid of them. But I think we're at least talking about Patrick Queen and Johnny Smith are no longer going to be on this team. And if Kim Hayward is also not going to be on this team any longer, then you're talking about having $65 million in cap space to work with. Right. So for now, let's operate like they have about $53 million or whatever it is with Cam Hayward on the team, which is enough money to do whatever we need to do.

Okay. So now we bring in some potential free agent targets for them. And I think this is where we have to have the quarterback conversation. They're currently picking, what's their, what's their draft pick? 21, I think. They're 21 in the first round. It feels like they're always picking right around 21. There's a world where obviously you're not getting Fernando Mendoza.

You're not getting anywhere close. the quarterbacks in this upcoming class are very interesting because I don't know what happens now that Dante Moore is not in this group anymore. I don't know if any of the quarterbacks in the top 10 get pretty desperate and go, eh, Ty Simpson, we work with that. Or does anybody look at Trinidad Chambliss and say, you know, this is somebody, it's a back end of the first round type of a player. We'll have a lot more thoughts on the quarterback class when we do our quarterback ranking episode on Wednesday,

guys, which you can tune into at the same time, 4.30 p.m. Eastern time. Nice promo. Kind of think you got to take a swing at the veteran market. I would take a swing at Malik Willis for this team. I would too. Like this is the team that it makes sense for. They have cap space. They're not a bad team.

And if the new offensive coordinator watched what Matt LaFleur did with Malik Willis when he had to start and says, I can do those things, it gives you an exciting ceiling maybe to tap into. I think that makes the most sense for them. Because I guess the next level of this conversation is, do you think that this team would be in on Kyler or Tua? Because I think they're both going to be available once they get cut.

God, definitely not Tua. I mean, it's cold in October in Pittsburgh. That's true. You get like two games at Tua. Very true. And then Kyler, from everything that is thrown around. It's just not that Steeler mentality.

Just because Tomlin's gone, doesn't mean the organization as a whole is going to totally get away from their identity. I would prefer Malik Willis of the three for the Steelers specifically. I think so too. Oh, man, Kevin in the chat is saying high Smith to the 49ers for Mac Jones.

That actually makes sense for both teams if the 49ers are willing to get rid of Mac Jones. And the Niners would all their injuries. Need more pass rush. of Mikel coming back from injury, a lot of Bosa coming back from injury, solid probably not there anymore. If you bring in,

this is somebody from the chat as well. If you're bringing in the McVeigh guys, wouldn't Jimmy G make more sense for a year? He would make sense. Now more sense, adding the word more to that, it kind of depends on what your outlook is. Like if they're totally punting on finding a long-term quarterback answer, and saying, hey, we're just going to be preparing for the 2027 NFL draft,

then I actually do agree that Jimmy G makes sense for this team. But if you're actually searching for somebody that you hope to be your quarterback moving forward, I think you'd take a chance on Malik Willis. Yeah, it's Malik Willis. Okay. All right. All right. So we're signed to Malik Willis.

Wide receiver, anybody up there? The chat kept saying, if you're going to sign Malik Willis, think about getting Romeo Dobbs. I thought that was really interesting. Amiliarity. He's played good football. You're not going to the Alec Pierce and Wondell Robinson prices of the market, which maybe you don't want to do after paying DK all that money at wide receiver. Your organization's always been very good at drafting wide receivers traditionally.

Dobbs is an interesting fit. Spencer's been so mad in the chat about us, even entertaining, trading Alex Highsmith. but I do think that is something that's on the board. Obviously, we didn't do it. Now, we're keeping the pass rushers. Yeah, we'll keep the pass rush. Okay, so Malik Willis, I like Romeo Dobbs.

I think that that would be excellent for them. It feels like he started to play some of his best football, too, where... And then I also think that if we're talking offensive guards, like you can get a starting offensive guard. Like, there's a lot to go around. Elijah Vera Tucker is obviously the swing that we've talked about so many times to fix your franchises. Like, do you have any feelings on if the Jets are still interested in him or not?

It sounds like they really want him back. Okay, okay. Now, that's good to know. There's two avenues to that. One, you find a deal with him. Does he want to be back? Who knows? You find an extension with him.

Or do you want him back so badly that you actually franchise tag him instead of Brise Hall? Or do you just have to tag Hall and then you lose AVT? but it sounds like the Jets want him back. Franchise tagging and injured O-Linman is tough. Tough. That's why I think they really want to find a deal. Because the transition tag for Briece is like $11 million, so it's like, who cares?

Right. Jets aren't paying. I mean, you and I have $11 million. Just walk over the room. Everything on this side of the camera for you is just, piles of cash. I just sit around money. We could tell.

I do this show for fun. Yeah, we... I do this show for fun. It just happens to have some benefits. Um, okay, so I like Malik Willis. I like Dobbs. And then do you like any of these offensive linemen?

Christensen's been my guy. If the Panthers let him go, but Panthers fans obviously are saying that they would love to keep him. You like any of these other guys? Simpsons played in this division before. I thought he had a down year compared to the previous year. So maybe you got him at a discount.

You brought up Christensen. With Kevin Jenkins, I feel like you always worry about the health. Yeah. I don't think any of these guys really moved the needle for me for the Steelers. Let's see. Typing away. Sorry, folks. Let's see.

Does anybody else? make a lot of sense for them here. Maybe a veteran linebacker. No, because, like, I don't think Quay Walker fits what they would need. I can't really think, no, I mean, I can't really think of any other free agent guys that really. Well, the chat's bringing up, like, why wouldn't you just resign Isaac, say, Mello? I guess at that point, yeah, sure, you bring him back. because how old is he?

He is 32. Ooh, okay. All right, bring him back. Sure, it's fine. All right. There we got the offensive line. We got another wide receiver. We have a quarterback option.

We're going to need a linebacker at some point in the draft because... Let's see. We cut Patrick Queen. We did cut Patrick Queen. And they have Cole Holcomb, who I think is a free agent as well. Malik Harrison, Peyton Wilson. Yeah, they would probably need another linebacker. Okay, so let's go into the draft.

Let's go into the draft with that strategy. And for the Steelers, we're doing a three-round mock draft. Connor, we got our work cut out for us here because we've got some extra picks to work with. They have a first round pick. They have a second round pick. They have their third-round pick. But they also have an extra third-round pick because of the George Pickens trade. They have another extra third-round pick, which is a comp-pick for Danmore Jr.

We're not doing the fourth round, but they have their fourth-round pick and then a comp pick for Justin Fields in the fourth round. They have a fifth rounder. They have two sixth rounders with comp picks for Russell Wilson and Dante Jackson. And then they have two seventh rounders as well. Steelers got a lot of picks. Yeah, they have the fourth per tankathon. They have the fourth most draft capital value in this entire draft.

Yeah, yeah. It's a great damn more money, or damn more junior money if he can get it. If you can go out and get it as a Dan Moore, good for you. You got to do it. So Chris Shull is a head coach, Nate Shieldho. is the office coordinator. We got Malik Willis a quarterback. We got Romeo Dobbs at wide receiver.

We cut Patrick Queen. We cut Johnny Smith. We kept Alex High Smith. We're assuming that Cam Heyward is still part of this team. T.J. Watts is still part of this team. But let's take into it. Yeah, let's do it. Let's get into it here.

Let's go to pick 21. All right, pick 21. Picture Steelers on the clock here. I don't love Caden Proctor for this situation. actually. No. I need some people are going to be looking at Caden Proctor and they're like, hold on. Offensive linemen, he could play guard for you and then potentially he could play tackle for you if Broder Jones doesn't work out. But I'm not convinced that he's an offense attack long term and I think you start to have some tweener problems with him. And that's, I don't know. I just, I don't love it. I don't love it there.

I'm with you on that one. He wouldn't be valued to me as the 21st pick in the draft. Don't need tight end. Don't need edge rusher. This is not a Cade McDonald type of a team. Nope. Of course, we signed Dobbs. Otherwise, I'd consider taking Casey here. I mean, we don't have a lot of... I think about it.

We don't have a lot of options here. Think about it. Might be taking them anyway. I'm looking at C.J. Allen. I'm looking at Casey Concepcion. Yeah, C.J. Allen is definitely a need-based pick. Ty Simpson's also still here. Right. And this is what I'm kind of expecting for Ty Simpson.

Right on this range. I'd say like the Jets at 16 to the Jets at 33. Because you have Jets, Steelers. Just the Twilight Zone in between the Jets picks. All those picks that teams can come back in for like the Giants did with Jackson Dart last year. And then the Jets again at 33. They also need a starting safety. And the chats talked about Emmanuel McNeil. Warren. I think that you you've seen his stuff

more recently than I have. We haven't done full safety e-val yet. Do you think he's like picked 21? Or I mean, it's weird. I haven't gotten there and you guys know how much I love him, but this draft just has this fall off where you're like I think we got to wait for 53 for safety. Yeah, I'm not

taking them at 21. There's too many. Like, Halsey's my guy. Thienaman, Dalton from the PFF NFL show. He loves them in. Ramsey's great. McNeil Warren is great. Even Genesis Smith, who I think is going to go higher than where I currently have him ranked in the consensus board. I think that he'll get some third round type of love to him. So I don't think we would take safety here at 21.

No, the talent for me, if you're not taking Caden McDonald's, which obviously they aren't, would be Concepcion. C.J. Allen, the need picks are C.J. Allen and Colton Hood. The talent pick with like a little bit of need is conceptual. The Steelers need to be more explosive, man. Like him, Dobbs, and Metcalf with Malik Willis? Him, Dobbs, Metcalf, and then if you're signing Dobbs, I think that you're not bringing back Calvin Austin. No, you don't need to.

But what I'm saying is that, like, Roman Wilson is also on that team still as like wide receiver four. Yeah. No, no, no, no. I'm not saying that that's a reason to not take CXFSEON. I'm saying that, like, you feel good about those four wide receivers. It's a lot better than what it looked like this year. So we were asked why aren't.

aren't we considering Sadiq? I don't really know what Sadiq's role on this team is. Yeah. Sadiq would basically play the Johnny Smith role at that one. That's not the 21st pick in the draft. No. Because they have Darno Washington. They have Pat Farmeruth.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't be thinking about Sadiq. I really like KC here. We weren't dealt a good hand. The only thing is, is Tyler, can you show us wide receivers? Like, is there anyone else? Because we do have those three picks in the third round. Can you scroll down a little bit, Tyler? See, do we get into the point where we go like Zachariah Branch or Dionne Berks or Antonio Williams?

Or do you think that Casey is just so clearly like, yeah, I'd feel much more comfortable about him than waiting up for one of those guys? It's a good question. Because I don't think, because corner gets outside corner specifically starts to get thin. It does. I like Colton Hood where I don't think it's egregious to take him here. I'm not taking a small corner at 21 in Terrell. Yeah. No, I would probably be taking C-Sayerhood.

How about a shout out from Abis saying Monroe Freeling? Yeah, so Monroe Freeling. I haven't rewatched tackles yet, so I can't give like a strong take here. I think he's been really solid. I watched him in the middle of the year because I was like, oh, this guy's draft eligible. And his numbers aren't great because he's been beaten a handful of times and he just hasn't. Pull up his numbers again because I feel like I've watched him by watching all the. edge rushers we just ranked. Right, right. And he's got numbers in like the 70s over the last two years.

So he's just really solid. I think he's a good pass blocker, but he's just not a people mover in the run game. I was surprised he declared. Not that he's obviously going to go if he declared. I think he's a senior. Oh, he is a senior. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The thing is like what, what level of senior? No, he's a junior. Oh. Yeah. So that means that he's getting, yeah, he's getting first round. Clearly getting some big feedback. Yeah, this was it. Wow. This was his true third college season. It's becoming more and more of a rarity these days for like the non, you know, top guys. Yeah, to me it's still just Casey.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Let's go Casey. All right, fine. Let's have fun. Casey Concepcion. So now the wide receiver group is, is D.K. Metcalf, Romeo Dobbs, and Casey Concepcion. And then you have Pat Farramuth and Darnow, Washington, and two running backs out of the backfield that you feel pretty good about going to in the passing game. All right. Lee Hunter and L.T. Overton, the two top guys on the board.

Nistradian Price. Don't need running back, though. See, okay, Kamari Ramsey, I would think about here. That's what my eye went to right away. Yeah. Josiah Trotter is kind of like the heavy hitter. Right. You know? So if you wanted to, if you wanted to pair Peyton Wilson with Trotter,

and he's more of like that heavier hitting linebacker, man, we lost some linebackers, didn't we? Deante Lawson, I felt like would have been perfect for this. They all win. This has been our, I think the toughest hand we've been dealt with a mock draft. I think that we go, I think we go safety here. I think we go Emmanuel McNeil Warren or Camarie Ramsey. I like McNeil Warren's fit of just being able to do every role for,

when you watch Chris Schuller's defense of the Rams to different ways he uses Quentin Lake and Cam Curl. McNeil Warren fits exactly that. he's so physical, which both curl and Lake are. He can play up with the line of scrimmage. He's got enough range. He can cover in the slot if you need them to. This would be like Shula's type of safety.

I don't hate that at all. Yeah, I love the player fit here. I think Ramsey can do some of that as well, but it feels like McNeil Warren has just been on another level when it comes to making big plays. I mean, 33.3% forced to completion rate for Emmanuel McNeil Warren. and you're happy if a safety gets like 15 to 20% force to completion rate.

33.3 is nuts. That's crazy. All right, let's take him. I do think that secondary, specifically the safety spots have been an issue for Pittsburgh. And so let's take McNeil Warren here at 53. And then we still got these three third round picks to work with. Yeah, you see it?

Which one? Yante? Yeah. Just like when you think of a guy that's loud, brash and physical in a sealer uniform. How old is Ramsey? Let's see. J-O and Ramsey contract.

What do we got here? Ramsey has three more years left on his deal, 26, 27, and 28. And then he has three void years after that. Yikes. He is going to be 32 next year. You play Scott and the nickel for you, right? I know, but Ramsey.

And Ramsey is actually, true safety. Oh, well, they had to Sean Elliott, too. I was thinking Elliot would play one of the slots or one of the safety spots and then Emmanuel McNeil Warren would play the other one. Yeah, no, that's fair. Let me make sure I know where Ramsey was playing this year.

I guess it doesn't really matter because it's a new coaching staff, right? And they can basically play Ramsey anywhere. I'm sorry, Ramsey got 10 snaps at half back this year? What is it, victory formation? What is this? I'm immediately pulling up the film. Yes, it's victory formation.

Okay. I'm like, what? I thought you were joking. No. Okay, so Ramsey did play free safety the most snaps. He played 462 snaps at free safety. He played 367 at Slot Corner. He played 165 out wide.

He played 186 in the box. I love this player. I love Jalen Ramsey. Dude, I would not. opposed to Keante Scott here. It's drafting with a big picture mindset. Yeah, 100%. 100%.

Okay. This is a slot stud for you. And adding Emmanuel McNeil Warren and Keante Scott, you just, you have some dogs and playmakers at the secondary level that you can now pair with Ramsey. Joy Porter Jr. can be a starting outside corner for you. If you're bringing back James Pierre, which I think they're going to, he's obviously good depth and a rotation player probably starting outside corner for you as well that would probably make the starting lineup as ramsie mcneill warren at safety with the sean

elliott behind them joy porter junior on one side james pierre on the other keontes scott in the slot i'm i'm pretty i'm pretty great with that in the secondary i really am yeah i feel really good about it okay uh is one of these picks here going to be jacob rodriguez uh chase bassantis and Carter Smith. I would say, how do you feel about Carter Smith? Remember how much of a difficulty we had thinking about the long term of guard?

Yeah. So at the beginning of the year, people who have been listening to this since summer scouting, they know that I actually thought about Carter Smith as a potential center. Yeah, I remember you saying that. But he's played so well at left tackle.

Yeah, he has. I mean, you feel good about maybe even him a tackle. I like it a lot of guard. I'm much more comfortable with him on the interior. but yeah, man, Carter Smith has been excellent for this team. You see fantastic pass blocking grades, really good as a zone blocker. Man, pretty good in between the tackles is a gap blocker as well. I like Carter Smith.

I think he gives you some good versatility here inside. Let's roll. Let's roll with Carter Smith. Okay, Carter Smith as our fourth pick there and then our fifth pick. Damn. Xavier Scott went back to school, by the way, for everybody. Oh, he did go back to school. I'm pretty sure, yeah.

The season lost the injury. He decided to go back. Smart. I was really hoping and banking on Jacob Rodriguez. Can we see linebacker? It's got to be thin. Yeah, it's got to be thin. Just go with another Indiana guy, Nadin Fisher.

I don't know how he's going to run. Yeah, I don't think this is early. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Well, Scooby Williams, based off name alone. Okay, you scroll back up Tyler and go to the top of this list. All right, Trey Moore, yeah. I feel like Kyle Luis is the only one who I'd think about here, but he's small. Man, I forgot the extended Friar, but it makes his lack of usage even more strange.

Because I was looking at Sam Roush, but they have never been a tight end. Can we see the overall board here? Ooh, what about Skylar Gil Howard? Missed a lot of time this year. He's got hurt. But really good pass rusher before that. To kind of be a rotational guy for you. Yeah, 14.4% passers win percentage is a really good number for an interior off the

defensive lineman. He looked really good at Texas Tech this year before he got hurt. He was also really good at Northern Illinois. Last year, he was one of the better players when they upset Notre Dame. last year. I do like him a good amount because they've got Derek Harmon really good

as a run defender for them. I think he could give you a little bit more in passers as well. I think I would like Skyla Gil Howard the most. Let's do it. You're probably getting a value because of the injury.

Those first couple weeks it was like, is it going to be a top 75 pick, this guy? And then, you know, he got hurt and transferring up, but you don't get a full sample size. Let's go Skyley Gilhauer here. I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan.

of his. And I think that that gives them a pass rusher that this is a fun draft, man. This is, it's fun when you have that many picks and it kind of shows it feels like picking outside the top 16 in this draft is a buzzkill. But then when you have extra capital in the dead middle of this draft, there's some value to be had. I, I love this draft. I love this. I truly did not know the journey that we were about to go on when we didn't feel great about it at first and then it really rounded into form. All right. So to recap us fixing the Pittsburgh Steelers,

we're getting Chris Shula as a head coach, who is the defense coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams. We're now getting him as head coach. Nate Shieldhoss, as he was the past game coordinator for the Rams, giving him the opportunity to call his own plays and be the offensive coordinator under Chris Shula. We signed Malik Willis at quarterback.

We signed Romeo Dobbs in at a wide receiver. we cut Patrick Queen, cut Johnny Smith, Cam Hayward is back, Alex Highsmith is back, T.J. Watt is back, Isaac Sumelo is back, James Pierre is back, Kenneth Gamewell is back, and then this draft right here, Casey Concepcion, Emmanuel McNeill Warren, Kiante Scott, Carter Smith, Skylar Gil Howard. I really like that. It's the offense that they have now,

but you're putting Malik Willis in at quarterback. You've got the two running backs coming back this year. You're adding Romeo Dobbs, you're adding Casey Concepcion, and then on defense, you've got the same guys up front, although you're throwing Skyla Gil Howard in there on the interior defensive line. We didn't add a linebacker. So linebacker, we kind of missed on that one, but I feel like you can get some veteran linebackers in there and you can feel decently good about it. And then the secondary man, adding Keontte Scott and Emmanuel McNewell Warren, Jalen Ramsey's probably moving back to safety. You've got James Pierre on one side. You got Joey Porter Jr. on the other.

I feel pretty good about this youth movement and new overall outlook for the business. Pittsburgh Steelers. Me too. I think, you know, in hindsight, what we learn from this exercise is that maybe getting a veteran linebacker, like you said, Trevor, and for agency should maybe be a little bit more of a priority with the more times you go down the board and realize what will be there and what won't. But I think we solved a lot of needs with the right value. And the Steelers now are a much faster football team after this rebuild. That's the biggest takeaway to me. They are, they have a little bit more emphasis on strategy from the top levels of their coaching with speed from a personnel standpoint. There we go, folks. We'd love to hear your thoughts on our thoughts on the Pittsburgh Steelers and fixing their franchise here.

This would probably be the last episode of the Fix Your Franchise series. There were just so many of you that were like, hey, when Tomlin got fired or stepped down, I should say, hold your respect, step down, didn't get fired to fix the franchise. And we're a podcast of the people. So we listen to the people here. If you want to give us your feedback, you can in the comment section. That's a great way to give us some feedback there and have some good conversations as well in the PFF diff scored. And if you're not in that, you can find the Discord link in the description of this show. You can follow the show at NFLSC show on basically all the social media platforms. He's at Connor J. Rogers.

I'm at Tampa Bay. Trey, Wednesday, Wednesday's episode of the program, we're going back to the 2026 NFL draft. And we are doing our early quarterback rankings. We're going to give you our early rankings. We're going to do our top eights. but we're also going to just have a much larger quarterback conversation. And we're going to rope in the veteran quarterback market that's coming up this offseason. And when we might get into the, okay, I like these guys.

And then after them, I probably start thinking about a veteran quarterback and options like that. So, Connor, I think it's going to be a fun conversation to talk about it like that. Yeah, cranking through the tape right now on some of the more depth of the class. So I think it's going to be a really, really good back and forth. All right. For those of you who are watching live, stick around for the after the episode portion of the show. We're going to run through all the super chats for you guys. If you are listening after the fact, we will have the after the episode stuff on Fridays.

We will create an after the episode compilation that we have been over the last couple of weeks. So you'll be able to see that at a one-off video on Friday. For Tyler Cook, the chef putting it all together behind the scenes. Oh, shoot, I totally forgot this. This is so bad for me. and we have over 11,000 people watching. So it's very good that Tyler reminded me of this. Wanted to shout this out for any addicts and listeners out there who might be pet people.

Anybody who is thinking of or is interested in potentially adopting a dog. My wife and I are fostering a dog right now. He's a pup. My wife knows somebody from work who runs a rescue. And they were saying, hey, can you watch one of our pups for a week? We need somebody to give him a home for a week. said yes, we would love, quite frankly, we would love to adopt this dog. Our dog that we have now, he's just not the biggest fan of a puppy in his dojo space.

And so if we, uh, if we end up adopting a dog, you'd probably have to be a little bit down the road because we got to get him a little bit more ready for that. But this dog, his name is Wally. He is the sweetest, dude, he is the sweetest. He is so smart. Look at his pink paw pads. He is just, he is a, he is a, I cannot stress this enough. a wonderful dog. He's a puppy, so he's got the puppy energy to him. He's got all the zoomies,

and he's a little clumsy. But man, he has taken to his training very well. He's getting better at potty training all the time. We've already taught him how to sit. Alyssa has taught him how to shake, and he learned how to shake in like five minutes. He's just, he is, he is, I just cannot say enough good things about this dog. So we are in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. We would drive a good amount of ways for this dog to find a one. wonderful loving home because he absolutely deserves it. He's the absolute best. We have loved spending time around him.

Yellow Brick Road Dog Rescue.org is where you would go to find Wally's profile and apply to potentially adopt him. And we could be in contact with you guys as well. Anybody reach out to me if you need help, like find his profile. But that is where you go to apply to be, to apply for adoption for him as a dog. and if you have any other questions, please, like, reach out to us. But as you guys know from the seven-round mock draft, the live seven-round mock draft, the live seven-round mock draft that we did for charity last year,

pet rescues, dog rescues, a very big part of my heart. And so I just would love to find this dog a loving home because he absolutely deserves it. So check out that website. If you have any questions about it, please feel free to reach out to me again at Tampa Bay on all the social medias or comments on on on on on on this video as well and I'll be able to find you and go back and forth with you so uh so let me say can I drop him off in Australia I don't have the I don't have the means to be able to drop him off Australia but uh short of that we will do whatever we can to find this this guy at home because he's the absolute best so

thank you Tyler for reminding me about that but yes yes somebody take somebody adopt Wally come on look at that face dude it's adorable He's just the cutest. We think he's got a little bit of a hound mix in him. We were told that like... Oh, you'll know with the sniffing range. I learned. We were told that all of his brothers and sisters got adopted

and he didn't get adopted yet. Oh, come on, dude. I'm just like, my heart's, like, shattering. So that's why, like, we're doing everything that we can because this dog is just the sweetest, the sweetest dog in the world. So we think that he'll, I mean, you see the pause. The paws are a little bit bigger.

We're thinking he's going to be, I don't know. Oh, he's going to be a big boy. I can tell. Long legs, big paws. 50, 60 pounds, something like that. You know, he's too. Granny stays in the cage until Wally's adopted. So if you guys are interested, yes, Wally's the Drake May of Mike Evans.

Yes, he is. Absolutely he is. If you guys are interested at all whatsoever and you're anywhere around the North Carolina area, even honestly like some states that are surrounding, like we'll maybe work with you to make this happen because we would love to find him a loving home. Appreciate you guys so much. Thank you. Again, stick around after the episode.

We'll run through all the super chats to the chef. cook for everything he does to put this show on for connor rogers i'm trevor sycamas saying thank you guys so much once again for watching this episode of the nfl stock exchange podcast we'll see you guys on wednesday