The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Former Steelers CB Ike Taylor

Episode Date: January 31, 2020

Former Steelers CB Ike Taylor

Welcome to Miami. Hello, Super Bowl. Big game, the ultimate game. This is Sports Talk 790, live from Radio Row, presented by Low T-Center and Twin Peaks. One, two, three, four. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 79. Ross, we are we out with you folks live from Radio Row in beautiful Miami. And now pleased to be joined by longtime NFL veteran, two-time Super Bowl,

Ike Taylor here on in Houston. Ike. How are you doing? What's up, baby? I had to jump on because whenever a New Orleans guy Oh, gee, yeah. Of course, we know he was going to say what's up. Home team, always reping. Gretna in the house.

Yeah, that's sound about right. West Bank, the best bank. I'm from Metery, but it's all good. We call New Orleans. Yeah, people who is not from Metry, they call it Metry. Very good. You spent your whole career with the Steelers, right? Yes, sir.

That's so rare nowadays. It's like guys in the NFL, they want to milk it, they want to get that last penny, they'll go to whatever team they got to. It doesn't happen anymore. One guy just plays his whole career with one team. No, them boys about their bag. You know what the bag is? Them boys about getting to that bag.

That's that money. Yep. Like, for us it was more of like a brotherhood. We didn't want to leave each other. We understood how special that team was, that bond. So we took the discount. But at the same time, you know, our discount was you knew you was going to see that contract. Yep.

Because we was going to win and you was going to see the contract. If you had an opportunity to beat a free agent and go get money, you was probably going to go to a bad team. So you going to a bad team, meaning y'all wasn't going to win, y'all wasn't going to win, you was going to become a salary cap casualty, and that would have been good. So we knew if you signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers, you would have to do something very stupid in the offseason for them to cut you. And that don't usually happen. So that's why I was able to get three contracts over the course of my career. And you were probably only going to play for one coach because they only had like, what,

like eight coaches in the history of their range. I mean, like whatever it is. Stability is everything. Yeah. You're doing the analyst work now too, breaking down the NFL, looking at all the teams. We're in Houston. it was just announced the other day Bill O'Brien he wore the hat of General Manager a little bit last year

they officially announced he's going to be the GM again this year on top of being the head coach on top of being the play caller in your mind can that be successful I mean it's only happened once and it's the man in New England but can Bill O'Brien can the Texans be successful with him wearing all these hats? Gotta give up

something and I think the reason he got to give up one of them because you can't be all in with one you know, it's, you can only drive one car at a time. So only a few people can be a Bill Belichick. And there's only really one Bill Belichick, honestly. And he has a system and it's been working for him and they've been winning.

At the same time with Coach Bill O'Brien, I just think, you know, if you're going to go all in, I would just prefer him just to be an offensive coordinator, so say. And even as an OC, you still want somebody, you know, under you who can kind of balance you out. Because sometimes you just get into one-track mind, you get in the mode, you don't want to care about nobody else's opinion. And sometimes that hurts the team. Just as coach Andy Reid with Eric B. Enemy, you know, Coach Sean McVeigh, like all these guys have somebody, they look to their right or to their left to kind of balance their thoughts out when it comes down on a play calling. Coach Bill does he's doing everything and I think that's that's a lot you know. Doesn't it feel like, I mean, you mentioned Belichick and there's other guys like Andy Reid or Pete Carroll or John Gruden who who have some, a lot of say when it comes to person.

But those guys have won Super Bowls or been to Super Bowls within the case of Andy Reid, been to multiple. I mean, we're trying to figure out in Houston. Can you explain to us how he continues to get all this power and move up? I mean, how do you see Bill O'Brien as a head coach just in general? Deshawn Watson. saving them. Yeah. I mean,

honestly, that's, that's how I'm just looking at it. Like, you know, Deshaun is, Deshawn, he need to be wearing them hats.

Deshaughan. Make him OC. Make him general manager. Yeah, he needs the way. When you just have a, a superior, athletic,

good down the earth, genuine guy in that building, oh, by the way, he's my quarterback. There's not. nothing too much you need to do like coach bill can go home and sleep good at night knowing his quarterback is laser focus the city level absolutely the building love the building love him his teammates

love him i just need to coach them or come up with a game playing that's hard because you can see what they're going through in in cleveland with their quarterback situation so when you got a guy like a Deshawn Watson man he just makes everything so easy so really he should be wearing all them hats because you can just tell by the way he was raised on what he's doing in that community he's just a good down-to-earth dude

would you make of how the season ended you score 31 points in a playoff game typically that should be enough you have a 24-0 lead in a playoff game that should be enough the Kansas City Chiefs just absolutely steamrolled them in the second half and you lose 51 to 3.5

31 but Ike you're up 24 to nothing how do you lose that game the game ain't never over the game I mean we we we just saw new England come back from Atlanta in the play in the Super Bowl 20 to 3 the game ain't never ever over and but I think it got into or wanted to get coach bill O'Brien wanted to get into a shootout with Patrick Mahomes and that's something you don't want to do um you score running the ball. You was gashing KC. defense. Keep that same game plan going.

But now you get into this Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, mindset, well, my quarterback's stats is going to be better than yours, and now you got Beast Mode mad at everybody because you didn't handle the ball off on the one-yard line.

Or if you're the Atlanta Falcons, you're mad because you didn't run the ball in the second half. and that's what he had to fight. Ike Taylor NFL Network, long-time NFL vet, two-time Super Bowl champion here on the Mad Times show. Ike, you mentioned Deshaun Watson, talked about him, and we see Lamar Jackson's going to be an MVP,

Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl. Is he too, do you think of Deshawn Watson in that level or a tick below, and if he is below, how does he get up to that level? No, he definitely that level. Okay. That's what I'm saying. I think it's more of the O.C.

You know, I think it's the O'S. Sean Watson is definitely in that level. Give him a tight end. Give them two running backs. Offensive line be nice, too. Real nice. So for this draft, give the man three offensive alignment. Because you see what they're doing for Garapolo and San Fram.

Right. He's surrounded by nothing but good offensive line, and he's able to do what he do. All right. And keeping with the Texans there, I feel like, you know, As I mentioned, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, those guys in the AFC, if the Texans are going to compete with those guys, they've got to build up the defense, too. No, no question.

But I think you hit it on the head. If it's one person I'm going to rely on game in, game out, that's going to be Deshawn Watson. Some are going on to help them out with this offensive line. You know, they made the trade for Laramie Tunsell last year, and they get Kenny Stills, and obviously they give up a ton of future first-round picks to do that, first-then-second-round picks to do so. They're almost handcuffed now because you don't have those draft picks in the first or second round this year next year.

You got to go all in. Tonsul's in the contract year now. You got to pay him. Oh, by the way, Deshaun's still on his rookie deal. He's going to be wanting to be paid soon. Will Fuller, your first round pick from last year, he's coming up for a contract. So how do you make it work? You can't pay everybody.

What's the priority? No, you'll figure something out. You can tag a few people. You can franchise tag. You can transition tag. So you can tag at least two of them to hold them there. Of course you're going to want to pay Deshaun. Deshaun, Deshaun, no hand going to well, so really ain't going to be in the rest of paying him.

He going to get his anyway. Everybody else I try to figure out because ain't nobody going to get Deshawn Watson kind of money on that team, but DeShan. So there will be no rush. As far as like picks, you still have opportunities to get good solid picks in the third and fourth round. agree with you there y'all definitely need some offense alignment but at the same time you can you you can figure a way out will full of hand going to well he he's not going to get too much because he's

been injury prone um tonsill as well it's a reason why they traded you it's a reason why they traded you so you're going to take this hometown discount uh but that that's that's just how it is the only person i'm really concerned with it just shown if i'm in the front of office like that's the have to pay everybody else, you know. I can go in a drive and get me a pretty good receiver. Now the left tackle might be a tough position. I usually got a, I need to go high if I want to have a future, you know, slash Hall of Fame guy that offensive line standpoint.

But like I say, man, right now my focal point, if I'm their front office is Deshaun Watson. I want to hit you with a couple of rapid fire real quick. We've got a lot of quarterbacks hitting the market. I'm just going to say a name. You tell me where this guy's playing next year. Drew Breeze. He a saint? Tom Brady?

Patriot. Philip Rivers. They already said he's not coming back to San Diego. Put him in Tennessee. That would be interesting. It's going to be hard for Phil. Because nowadays you've got to be able to wiggle. There is no really sitting in the pocket quarterback now.

In them days, these young guys, they too fast. These defenses are too agile. The big guys are moving too fast. The game is changing. So the sit-in-the-pocket quarterback, you don't really have to scramble, but you've got to be able to move a little bit, and Tom really ain't able to move.

Phil, for sure, ain't moving no well in the pocket. There are many guys left in the league that you picked off, by the way. You picked off any of those guys? Tom was my first pick. Okay. I got a pick from Drew. He gave him one, so both of them gave me Christmas present. Tom gave me a Christmas present.

Drew gave me a Christmas present. Man, I got Philip. I was going to say, Phillips got a lot. Yeah, Philip. Yeah, we call him the Candy Man. All right. Two more. James Winston.

Where's he playing? Back in Tampa. Speaking of that, that's the new candy, man. Yeah, ain't lying. That 30 for 30. That's a good question. Honestly, I don't know why I can see James Winston fishing. They could probably slap him with the franchise tag in Tampa,

keep them but it was going to leave me when that last one, Cam Newton, because Carolina's got a whole new staff in there. He can go anywhere. Like really? He's going to Chicago. If Cam comes back healthy, if Cam comes back, he can go anywhere. I wouldn't.

I don't know about the O.C. in Chicago. That's my only concern. I don't know about the quarterback in Chicago right now. That's what I'm saying. It could be the O.C. That's exactly what I'm saying. Like, the Greg Roman is in the world, there's only a few of them. Adjust your whole playbook.

Great Roman and the Baltimore Ravens is just a whole playbook. You know how much pride and ego you got to leave it, that dough to do that? You know how much? So it's a tell tell sign. Like, a lot of OCs really don't know. They don't know how to adjust. All they know is what they know.

And it's hard to adjust.