The Ringer NFL Show - Aaron Rodgers Is a Pittsburgh Steeler. What Could Go Wrong?

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

The guys react to the news that Aaron Rodgers finally signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers and debate whether it was a smart move. Next, they discuss the Houston Texans signing Nick Chubb, and what that means for his volume. Plus, emails! (00:00) Intro (1:19) Aaron Rodgers signs with the Steelers (25:05) Nick Chubb joins the Texans (27:20) Emails! Check out our 2025 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Kai Grady and Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the brand new Zach Lowe show. That's right. I'm back to have the same in-depth NBA conversations you're used to. We're going to talk about the games. Yeah, the games, the X's and O's, the drama, the trades, the playoffs are coming up. And now you get to see every episode in full on video on Spotify and on my own YouTube channel. Episodes drop every Monday and Thursday with a collection of guests you're going to love. So make sure you follow and subscribe to the brand new Zach Lowe show.

on Spotify or wherever you watch or listen to your podcast. Let's go! Welcome to the Ring of Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hyde for today. I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Krollbeck for the Aaron Rogers Demergency podcast.

I feel like Aaron Rogers waited 85 days to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers, so we waited 85 hours. I feel like that's fine, right, D.K.? Oh, absolutely. I mean, look, it's the beginning of June. We kind of knew this is going to happen. And also Aaron Rogers, you know,

he is who he is. Craig, how are you feeling about all this? This brought us out of summer hibernation, and it should have. It deserves it. I think this is, if we want to get right into it, I think this is a great move by my favorite team that Pittsburgh's doing. I do. I think this is inarguably a good decision. Inarguably a good decision.

Inarguably, a good decision. Was inarguably to sign Aaron Rogers? Inarguably to wait until June 9th to sign Aaron Rogers. Okay, cool. He missed three days of OTAs. They had been in contact with himself. March. Arthur Smith was preparing the playbook for Aaron Rogers since mid-March. They knew he was signing with them since mid-March. They wanted to respect Aaron Rogers' personal life and what was

going on with that. And so he signs a few days after OTAs. They knew he was signing before OTAs, that he didn't want to announce it. I don't think this is a big deal. You sound like all the Jets beat reporters last year who were saying, oh, it's fine. Who gives a shit? He was in Egypt. He's in Egypt. He's on a vacation, blah, blah, blah. And then for the first month of the season, he didn't have any chemistry with their receivers. Well, he was working out with D.K. Metcalfe this offseason, so that no worries there. Remember the time Aaron Rogers said OTAs don't matter and then screamed up, basically

threw Mike Williams under the bus on Monday night football because he turned the wrong way slightly. He missed three days of OTAs. Everybody can relax. So was that your first reaction, Craig? Or is that your three day later reaction? My first reaction was honestly, in the most positive way possible, like, this. this was the best thing you could have done.

This was the only thing and the best thing the Steelers could have done. Like, every other argument to me doesn't make any sense. Like, you can make all the jokes in the world about Aaron Rogers has washed, all this stuff, which is maybe probably true. But like, what were the other? So Kurt, Kurt Cousins, I don't think so.

They tried to go after Matt Stafford. That wasn't going to happen. They didn't want to keep Russell Wilson. They maybe wanted to keep Justin Field, but they didn't want to pay them as much as other teams would have. And it's like, okay, cool. Even if you, to me, this is a really good. solid, like low-risk, high-reward situation where if it burns and flames out and this is a

disaster, next year's a great quarterback class. The Steelers are setting themselves up to have the most picks in the draft next year, which the draft is in Pittsburgh. There's like five great quarterbacks coming out next year. It's supposed to be a much better quarterback class than the one we just saw. I'm kind of like, look, sure, could they have done like Kirk Cousins or something like that? Do you think it's more likely they win a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins or Aaron Rogers? To me, I think it's still Aaron Rogers, even if the likelihood of them being worse is much greater.

To me, it's like low risk because the low risk is them being shitty and getting a top 10 pick in the draft. And the reward is like they win a playoff game for the first time in 10 years. I agree that the upside's higher with Rogers. Do you feel that way, DK? And also just to remember. And Kirk Cousins? Yeah. Yeah.

So I or Russell Wilson or Fields. Do you feel the way too, DK? No, I mean, I've been on the record saying I think they would have been better off just keeping Russell. But. Oh, really? So, yeah. So Rogers,

so again, just to, again, don't want to reiterate. Aaron Rogers got everyone fired on the Jets last year. The Steelers lost five straight games

with Russell Wilson to end the season. They had a really tough schedule at that point. Okay. Russell Wilson wasn't the only reason they lost those games. So,

okay, so Aaron Rogers, just to back up for a moment. As soon as Aaron Rogers loses a game, I'm going to say, look, Russell could have won that game.

Yes. So all these arguments you don't know the answer to. Like, what were we supposed to do? Like I like, bottom out with Mason Rudolph and waste a year of D.K. Metcalf, DJ Watt and Minka and their prime. Like, to me, this is the actually only thing they should have done. Russell Wilson and D.K. Metcalf makes a lot of sense to me, actually.

I mean, look, if we're talking about connection, that doesn't feel like a wasted year to me. But again, like, I just, it's an impossible question to answer because who's better in this situation, Russell Wilson or Aaron Rogers? I mean, I don't know. I mean, we're, the Steelers are paying. Aaron Rogers $10 million. Okay. Which is the same amount as like Darius Slayton. So this is, there's also not like some financial situation

here that's untenable for Pittsburgh. They would have probably had to pay Russ more. I think the Giants are paying Russ more than that. Yeah, what did Russ get paid? Is it 10 million or 13 million? It's 10 guaranteed. Okay. Three million in incentives and stuff. I think it's five million in incentives. So if hypothetically gets hurt on the fourth play of the season, it's probably just 10 million. Got it. Yeah. So you could

argue just kind of a discount double check. I like to argue, I would like to have the argument or discussion. I don't even know the answer to this. Who's a better hang? Russell Wilson or Roger? I think to other players in the locker room. I think to other players in the locker room, it's Rogers. I agree with that.

I think the, because Rogers at least, you don't know what he's going to say next. I think Rogers at least I don't know what's going to come out of his mouth. I don't know. Even in like Russell Wilson's heyday, his receivers fucking hated him. It's like a Golden Tate, Percy Harvin. Actually, maybe it wasn't Prisie Harvin. Golden Tate, Doug Baldwin. They both like, publicly.

It seemed like the rust thing had run its course in pit. It had only been a year. It felt like everybody was kind of over it. And again, they literally lost five straight games down the year. So on that, so I think to that point, Craig, I will, and again, I've been pretty harsh on A. Rogers for quite some time now, mostly for things that he says. But I will say, I will make, I will, I will make the case for Rogers and like, basically, why are the Steelers doing this?

And I think, frankly, the case for the Steelers signing Rogers to me is very similar to the case for the Jets trading for Rogers, which. almost gets underrated now. Aaron Rogers was the MVP of the NFL in 2020. Then Aaron Rogers was the MVP again in 2021. And then Aaron Rogers broke the thumb on his throwing hand in 2022. And he had a down season, but almost got underrated. Well, what if his thumb is broken on his hand?

And they kind of underplayed it. So then goes to the Jets in 2023. And he tears his Achilles in the fourth snap. So we don't see him for that season. And then it comes back in 2024. And he's 30, however old he was, 40. recovering from the torn Achilles injury. So yeah, that season probably wasn't going to be great.

So you could pretty clearly argue medically that despite him being old and off the Achilles, he will be better this season than he was last year because he's not recovering from it still. So you could argue that this is probably going to be, he's not going to be an MVP level like 2021. But he might be closer to that 2022 season with Green Bay, but with a working thumb. So it's not crazy to me to think that you're going to get a better version of Rogers in Pittsburgh than you ever saw New York. I fear that a butt is coming.

But I like what you're doing so far. Keep going. Well, we'll go deeper because I don't want to pretend that the Steelers are like idiots. Mike Tomlin is like there's a logic here. And I get it, which again, it's similar to the Jets. The Steelers, when the Jets got Rogers, if you put it in one sentence, it was because the Jets sucked in the Red Zone and they needed Aaron Rogers. That's what the Steelers had this year. The Steelers were 29th in Red Zone conversion rate last year.

Rogers in 2020, I believe basically had one of maybe the best red zone season of all time. Rogers is also literally the best quarterback ever at not turning the football over. Aaron Rogers has thrown an interception one out of every 150 pass attempts. It is literally the best mark ever. And I'll give you a billion dollars if you can tell me who he's tied with. Isn't that get a lot worse last year, though? Yeah, well, that's what we're going to do. Like significantly worse?

Yeah, and the story you're telling yourselves, frankly, is... Horrically worse? Yeah, but Mike Tomlin, what you're telling yourselves is, well, the Steelers aren't the Jets. So Mike Tomlin's looking at this, I think... I'm not Mike Tomlin, but my guess is, Mike Tomlin's. Mike Tom's looking at this and saying, well, we're going to convert more in the red zone because we have Aaron Rogers and he's going to be able to convert more. DK Metcalf, we're going to be a more explosive offense because we have DK Metcalf and we'll be better in the red zone. Rogers to McCalf, we're going to be not being 29th again.

But we're not going to be doing that like James Winston style at the sacrifice to turning the ball over. Defensive coach, no turnovers, red zone efficiency. Defense gets better. Don't get run 200 yards on by the Ravens again on defense. And like we make a Super Bowl run. I think that's the Steelers logic here. Obviously, you know, there's flaws, but beggars can't be choosers. So I do agree, football-wise, it's probably the best option this Steelers had.

I think that to me is the vision. Hence, inarguably. Well, I'm very curious how this offense is going to look because in a lot of ways, I mean, this is the same issue you run into with Russell Wilson. So I guess that's a kind of a moot point. But like the Aaron Rogers offense, it's the Aaron Rogers offense. It's not going to be the Arthur. Well, keep in mind here that Arthur Smith has worked with two guys a lot in his career. Todd Downing and Matt LaFlor, two guys who have, those are the last two people who have really worked with Aaron Rogers calling plays. And again, they've been working together since March. So I do think that there's like a better chance at a fit that actually works here. And also with Mike Tomlin, I do think there's a little bit of like when Aaron Rogers can run the team. That's what you don't want. And the Steelers, luckily, are one of the few teams where Tomlin is the type of person who actually commands the locker room.

I mean, last year on the Jets, you had Sala got fired like week three or four, and then it was Jeff Obrick coming in. Like, it's a disaster. Nobody knows who's running the team. There's more stability from a leadership standpoint, I think, where Rogers will have to at least answer to somebody on a week by week basis. I agree with that. I know that we're viewing out of, like, actual football talking into just like psychoanalizing.

But I agree, Craig, that like Rogers is almost in Baker-Mayfield territory, where I swear he plays better when he's doubted than when people believe in him. And I do think just like Jordan Love, the Jordan Love pick happens and Rogers wins two MVP. something about him Rogers kind of being a punchline now with the steel like I do kind of think I don't want to say more motivation but yeah Rogers probably shouldn't be catered to

Rogers kind of like I mean Belichick pissed Brady off all the time on purpose like Rogers being catered to maybe there were some things lost like I do kind of think Rogers in friction maybe that is the best version of him you know what I mean however DK to your question what will it look like I have a question for Craig I would like to spin that because my two cents here is Craig

you're like the Steelers they finished Owen five. If I may, Craig, I would argue the Steelers finished O and five last year, largely because the offense sucked. And the offense sucked because Russell Wilson is an aging athlete with a very specific play style. And Russ is used to making defenders miss in the pocket, but now is too slow to do it. So what you're left with is Russ being overly reliant on a high degree of difficulty throws to the outside and getting the ball out quick because you're too old to tickets. You're going to say same thing for Rogers. Yeah. And you know who else? Ben Rothusberger before him. This is the same movie for, we're on year 10 of the Steelers having an old quarterback who can't take hits,

who has to get the ball out quickly, but they're too old to be mobile, so it kills the running game. And it's like, in a weird way, we're looking at Mike Tomlin doubling down for like the eight, basically outside of the Mason Rudolph here, like this is kind of going to be the same offense for the eighth of the last 10 years for Pittsburgh. It's kind of the same plan. Just with Rogers, Rogers probably being the best person to do it. Rogers is better than late Rothersberger. He's probably better than Russ. in my opinion. But it's the same thing with the same sets of problems, just the idea that Rogers is more talented.

I don't disagree with that. But what's nice about this is this is not some long-term commitment. This is a truly one-year experiment. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. And if it causes everything to get blowed up, that actually might not be a bad thing. I think that is the fairest point because what some people would maybe call a move of total desperation that is actually unbecoming of your proud franchise. It's $10 million for one year. I think that's fair. A year comes and goes, and I agree with you that the idea, as much as I don't like hearing Aaron Rogers speak all that much anymore, I agree that like if I was a Steelers fan, I don't think I would want to watch. Like I understand why the Steelers fans are all like in unison. Like I can't watch Mason Rudolph again. Like the reindeer. Like I can't watch that guy. I get it. That would be more negligent to me. If they went with Mason Rudolph. By the way, real quick, I was just trying to remember like what happened down the stretch for the for the Steelers last. year. Yeah.

This lineup of opponents is insane. It was crazy. Ravens, Bengals, Eagles, Ravens, Eagles, Eagles, Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs, Bengals, and then they lost to the Ravens in the playoffs. Like, those are like the best teams in the entire NFL. And again, the offense couldn't move the ball, but the defense gave up, I mean, I don't want to get it's wrong.

I think the Ravens ran for 500 yards on the Steelers over two games. So it's not for 10 for a second that it's just like an elite Steelers defense. And the other, the only, so look, we're going to talk about this for a long. time. I think it's really fun. Our podcast specifically is in a funny spot. Now Russell Wilson is going to play for all three of our teams, which is ridiculous. And then

Rogers is going, you know, Rogers is now going to play for the Steelers, which is funny, but Rogers is going to be like Russ, who's now going to play for all of us. But I do think, D.K., tell me if I'm wrong, where, are you saying Rogers, you'd rather Russ over Rogers because you're saying Russ got screwed by that schedule and you think Rogers

is cooked? Or basically, I I do think Rogers has a better chance to execute those high degree of difficulty offense, basically, is where we're at now, where you're not going to be able to run the ball that well, but you're going to have to make these throws. Like, you think Russell Wilson's better suited this point of time than Rogers to get the Steelers to Super Bowl. I mean, I don't think either of them are going to get the Steelers to the Super Bowl.

But if I told you, there's two out universes and one made it. I'm being a little bit, like there's a little part of me that's just trying to be a contrarian here because you guys think Rogers is so good, even though he just got everyone on the Jets fire. That's not what we're saying. He's better than Russell Wilson right now. I'm not saying that Russell Wilson is good, to be very clear. I just think they both kind of stink at this point.

And Russ can move, I think, better than Rogers. And like Russell's deep ball is still there. I think Rogers can still hit tough throws too. I'm kind of just leaning into it at this point because it is what it is. And I just think they both kind of stink at this point. But I don't know. I guess there is a world. You look at the last five games Rogers played last year in the last

five games Russ played last year. I mean, the Steelers, the five games they lost, they scored 14 points, 17, 10, 17, and 30. It was terrible. And again, they literally couldn't convert in the road zone. And I think that's a large part of it. Craig, I think the flip side. He also had Devonthe Adams. And now he just.

I was going to have Kyle Pitts. Yeah. Yes, by the way, there's rumors. That's the other thing we guys. I'm going to rumors they are trying to trade for Kyle Pitts. I don't know. Are we replaced for all our Kyle Pitts? it's love now.

At this point, I'm like, fuck it. Let's have it like one, sure, we'll take another drink. What is it free in the morning? I know, yeah. Craig, I have a couple, I still have a couple quibbles, but I will say the one thing. I think my quibble is when you're like, oh, it's to June. Well, who cares? My inclination is, there's a reason this basically has never happened.

Honestly, the last time anything like this happened, frankly, is Brett Farve, skipping training camp. But that was back when there were two days and he was too old to run. And he's like, I don't want to do this. It's hard. but at least he had been on the Packers forever at that point and he knew the system. I will quibble with the fact of like,

who cares that he didn't sign until June? Because how many times have you heard Mike Tom and say, we don't care about the outside noise? They're literally a party line, basically, is we didn't sign, Rogers didn't sign till June because we were scared of the outside noise. That's basically what it is. Rogers didn't want a story to be that he was missing practice

so he just didn't sign. So now you're in the position of either giving a playbook to a player without us knowing that wasn't under contract, or he didn't get a playbook till June. That's weird. And I will come back to this. Don't take it for me.

Cam Hayward, who I believe is a captain of the Pittsburgh Steelers and pretty backbone to this whole Steelers or a Super Bowl contender thing said in March, he basically went on his own podcast and was like, if you don't want to be here, I don't want you here. Like sign or like what is going on? And that was like three months ago that Cam Hayward had run out of patience with this. It's one of those things that at the Steelers Start 3 and O, no one will care. But if the Steelers start 0 and 3, everyone's kind of going to be like, that's really weird. You didn't sign until June, isn't it?

And I also think if it goes terribly, some of the shine is going to come off my time. I was going to say the exact same thing. I was thinking this the whole time you were talking. I'm like, winning Kierzal. If they start winning early on, like it'll be fine. They play this. So here's how their season opens at Jets versus Seahawks. Which is unbelievable.

The Jets have just in the fields. It's like a key party where they're getting breakfast in the morning. Fields versus Rogers in the week one is crazy. You guys tell me if this is like a really tough start or not. I think it's pretty easy relative. At Jets versus Seahawks at Patriots versus Vikings by week versus the Browns at Bengals. And then against the pack. Forget the first five games.

I have a scenario. Craig, what if the Jets beat you in week one? Ships. Has there ever been a more must win week one game ever? Then imagine the Pittsburgh of the Jets if Justin Fields just throws for 300 yards. Well, yeah, you know, until Aaron Glenn kind of like, like pranked Aaron Rogers, I feel like, I feel like it was a revenge game for the Jets until Aaron Glenn kind of stuck it to Aaron Rogers. And now I feel like it's also a revenge game for Aaron. Well, Fields also that, well, here's, and this is the thing.

I will say this. I actually agree with what you're saying, Craig, and if I were Steelers fan, I would feel the same way for the most part. My one quibble is this, the one thing you haven't considered of like, what were our options? The Jets pitch, Justin Fields, two years for 40 million. That is not much for starting quarterback. Justin Fields is more or less the lowest paid starting quarterback in the NFL is not on a rookie deal. Well, Aaron Rogers, but that's fair. Well, yeah, fair.

But I guess what I'm saying is I agree that if you put a gun in my head and said the Steelers are going to win the Super Bowl this year with a quarterback available, who is it, I would say Rogers. However, in a world where Sam Darnold just won 14 games of the Vikings and Baker Mayfields a legit starting quarterback now, that the Panthers gave up on him. And Gino Smith, after eight years as a backup, is good in Raiders now. Like, we're all these guys that we gave up on our solid. If Justin Fields has revived, which is not some small thing,

but if Justin Fields looks good, and is 26, right? So 17 years younger than Aaron Rogers. And you could have had him for $40 million. That is the scenario where Mike Tomlin is on the hot seat because Tomlin's the guy who wouldn't play Fields. He played Russ. and if Justin Fields is good, that is the one that was sitting in front of your face.

That's the, that's the world where it's a mistake is if the Jets Fields balls out, week one. That is the best non-Rogers argument to me. However, what I would say to that is I do think next year's quarterback class is stronger than we've seen in a couple years. And so two, signing Justin Fields to a multi-year deal, I don't think makes sense for what the Steelers want to do. I don't want to have, could it have been a two-year deal? Did he want a three-year deal? Did he want something longer?

I don't want that. To me, that sticks us back in the Steelers' mediocrity that we've been in. I know Justin Fields is not a Super Bowl winning quarterback. Like, I don't care if he is a little bit better than he was on the Bears, and he's a startable quarterback in the NFL. He's the 20th best quarterback in the NFL.

Like, that is not something I want to do for the next two to three years with the Steelers. I want to know right now, go for it right now, and if it doesn't work, you can start over. Do you really think this is... Bringing in Fields to go 9 and 8, 10 and 7, and it's like, oh, yeah, they snuck into the playoffs again with Fields and they get destroyed in the playoffs.

To me, that's what we'd be signing up for if we brought Fields back. That's fair, but D.K., how do you feel about that logic of just that? Well, it's a good quarterback class next year, because I'm a Giants fan where it's like the Giants were four wins or whatever, and then they win two games, and you suddenly have the sixth pick instead of the third pick. Like, even when you're trying to lose, the Giants played their way out of Jaden, Daniels, Drake, May, and Caleb Williams.

in like a two-week stretch. So the idea that the Pittsburgh Steelers are like, yeah, we'll win four games. I don't know. I don't think. That's fine. And like they're probably not going to have a top five pick. Like they're probably not going to be that bad.

Knock on wood, I would guess. If they did, maybe, I mean, that'd be kind of awesome, actually, if they had a top five pick.

But I think my point is, is like, it seems like next year, the Steelers, it seems like Omar Khan, the GM and ever, like next year does feel like a transitional year for Pittsburgh, regardless of what happens this year.

That's fair. And they're, they're, grabbing a bunch of draft picks. They're going to likely have a lot of comp picks next year. I think they're going to have like 12 picks if everything works out the way it's supposed to. And it's always hard to predict a draft class. But I'm like, I don't know.

It's like one of those transition years where you can get behind the short term and long term goals of the team, in my opinion, as of right now. I feel like it's always fun to think about whether it's better and more effective for your organization long term to be really consistent. like win eight, nine games every year, even though Craig is like, this is mediocrity, this is my living hell, this is literally purgatory. But then you look at a team like the 49ers

who have really stable leadership right now, or at least they have had stable leadership. But then they would like vacillate between really, really dominant and then terrible. They get like the second pick. They get Nick Bosa and you know what I mean? Yeah.

They like kind of like yo-yoed back and forth. Yeah. And like that actually like helped them long. term. I don't know. I think it's obviously an impossible question to answer. And like, even if they have a bad season, and let's say the Steelers go seven and ten, they have like the 15th pick in the draft. It's not like at 15 you get your pick of whatever quarterback you want. Like it's still going to be very hard to like trade up and do all that. Like that's very, very difficult. I mean, the Browns, who was it? I mean, the Jags traded away a first

round pick to move up like two spots. It's very hard to like do that. I guess you could look at the chiefs. The chiefs were good and they traded up to what, 10 to get Mahomes from like 22 or something. But Mahomes wasn't really treated like he was going to be Mahomes. No, no. But like I'm saying as an example of kind of like sneaking your way into the top ten if they needed to. Didn't the bills trade up for Josh Allen too?

Yeah. With the chiefs. Well, with the chiefs. With the chiefs, right? No, no, sorry. The chiefs trade up with the bills for Mahomes and then the bills

traded up for Josh Allen later. The last thing I'll say that this, which we didn't mention it. Rogers beat Mike Tomlin in the Super Bowl. And you know what? I don't care how smart you are. Oh, you still think that matters? Always stays with you.

You never forget that that guy. his singular incredible performance beat you in the Super Bowl. And as a defensive coach, you don't forget those things. It's kind of like how Bill Belichick still talks about, like, Ed Reed, like he just remembers that stuff. And I think that's in the back of Mike Tomlin's mind. It's good call. And if they make the AFC championship game, I will eat crow.

And Mike Tomlin is more about football than me, as Mike Tom would say, that's why I'm well compensated. If they go to the Super Bowl, I'm going to have to eat a lot of crow. But if the Steelers, but if Mike Tomlin's first ever sub-500 season is the only Aaron Rogers year, it's going to be big, like, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. But again, like, what were they supposed to do? Well, if Justin Fields is good, they probably should assign Justin Fields. They offered him more than the just.

Just because it was the best of a bad situation doesn't mean we can't make fun of it. Yeah, also, like, I think the answer is don't get in this situation. Like, I'm still going to make fun of it. Maybe don't draft literally the only quarterback that lived in your building two years ago. That was a terrible, what were they supposed to do then? GM, tell me. I'm just saying it's been. Sometimes you get unlucky.

A lot of NFL success is based on timing and luck. And the Steelers have not had good timing the last three years. Also, come on. This is all-time content. This is so good. I actually, what a weird great week one game, Jet Steelers. It's like a really random must-see TV. They should just make that Sunday night.

Fuck it. Honestly, yeah, flex it. Oh, damn, that's a morning game. That's anticlimactic. Well, morning or as some people in Pittsburgh in New York would call it the afternoon. Well, I don't live there. Well, that's where the games are. We're going to have to.

We're definitely going to be. at the draft in Pittsburgh next year. We're going. 100%. I'm going to try to announce a pick. That'd be cool. Oh, my God. You can get the seventh round pick announcement? Can we make that happen? Oh, wow. If anyone, if anyone wants to let us do the seventh round, let us know. Craig's up there with a terrible towel.

Radges! Discount double check! This is from USBN. Running back Nick Chub is expected to sign a one you deal with the Houston Texans, which we're recording this Monday, June 9th. So, contingent on Nick Chub passing a physical, which isn't like,

guarantee. But I am curious what you think of this DK. Hmm. I mean, I don't really think much of it, to be honest, right now. It really felt like Chubb was pretty much washed last year. I think this says more about the Texans. And maybe he's like, you know, doing the Nick Chub thing. I wouldn't put it past Nick Chub to come back and be like way more explosive than he was last year because obviously he was coming off massive injury. But I think this says more about the Texans. It's 29. about Nick Chubb.

Yeah, I mean, Nick Chubb, because, you know, he had, he obviously had a series of horrific injuries. Kind of says he passed the physical. Oh, there you go. There's one. So it's the year after the year after the big injury. So for Chubb, but really what I think it means to me is like the Texans last year, the defense is incredible. The defense, frankly, for Houston is ready to compete for a Super Bowl. The offense was, as I keep saying, uncoordinated, and it was a combination of the offensive line room was a mess.

But also the running backs and Joe Mixon is there. And obviously Joe Mixon is a good running back. But behind him, the Texans don't trust anyone. when Damien Pierce is not, I don't believe, has the trust of the coaching staff. You have Woody Marks, the USC running back is a rookie. And then you have like, what, Daria Ogun Balaale? They just have like this rotating group of running backs. But if mixing goes down, the Texans don't have a running game.

And I don't know if it's that Nick Chub will be that guy. But I think the Texans do fancy themselves a Super Bowl contender. And they probably look at it. It's almost like, I feel like there are always archetypes of players that teams are like, it's almost like a pass fresher where it's like, you know, Von Miller. They're like, if you just get to the Super Bowl, like, can you just like play, 25, 30 steps a game, and be closer. It's just somebody who's been there before, you know?

Yeah. At the very least, the work ethic, can you, like, establish some professionalism on offense as a minimum? And maybe you actually play and, like, can contribute, like, five carries in the playoffs. But, like, in a way that we don't think you'll fumble. And, like, you know, in a way we don't trust Damien Pierce to, like, hit an open hole. But I think, to me, it actually is a move of, like, we want a really, really deeply respected veteran in the locker room for Super Bowl run. I think that actually is what this is. It's like, I don't know, David West or some shit. I don't know.

I think that makes a lot of sense. Okay. Shout out David West. Shout at David West. Okay. We'll just do some emails and we can get out of here. We're going to have episodes all summer, so don't worry. But we get in the two for Rogers, you know, we've treated it with the urgency of Rogers.

I heard, did you guys see that Rogers is only wearing corded headphones because he's a, he's afraid of like the Bluetooth waves? Is he? I thought it's just old. I feel like that's just, I mean, no offense to any old people at this company who maybe we took over the headphones. I'm going to do my own research. Okay. Early returns seem positive. So what number is he?

Rogers is just doing eight, right? Is that the number I saw him he's going to wear? Eight, yeah, eight. Okay. What did he wear in Jets on the Jets last year? I am number blind, by the way. Like, I couldn't tell you any player's number. He wore two?

No idea. You could tell me any number. Yeah, he was eight. He was eight there as well. There's like very few quarterbacks. I can be like, I know what number they are. Right, same. Like, if you ask me, Dak Prescott, I have no idea.

Do you know what number of Tom Brady? he is. 12. Aaron Rogers was 12. Yeah, on the Packers. Like, I know,

like, Peyton and, and, like, you just, like, Baker Mayfield, I don't know. Russell Wilson was three.

I remember that. Well, Russell Wilson was three because he was taking the third round, right? Sneakly, a lot of guys is that why.

I mean, that's actually, tell me that's wrong. I, he'll never admit it, but he was a third round pick. Like, he definitely worked. Brock Purdy's number 256.

Yeah, that's why. That'd be funny. They allowed him. Dude, my favorite drafting with the pettiness ever was Jamal Adams being like, dude, I remember the name of everybody that was taken before me. And Marshall Nathor replied and was like,

dude, you were the sixth pick. That's not, no one can't, oh, congrats in your five names. Yeah. Um,

okay. Yeah, Amon-Ros, St. Brown could list like the 39 people who went ahead of him. He does it every day. The receiver. Yeah.

He's like aria stark. Oh, yeah. Okay. I'll read an email here before we get out of here. I want to read this from Nick. Egg bone. Ah, nope.

That's it. We're asking that one. That's the worst one. Okay. Nick says, so we had asked people about how they, so we were talking about the Red Wings, and how they throw the octopus on the ice before games? And we were like, how do you get an octopus in the stadium if you've done that emails?

Well. Smuggle that. Yeah. Nick says, die hard Detroit Red Wings here. Red Wings fan here. What did you? Oh, God. What did you say?

He said, he said, Kister Stash, that's what he said. You said it. Why, I was just throwing out ideas. You strap it around your crotch and tie its tentacles around your waist. It's kind of like you're wearing a diaper, like an octopus diaper. Or like a windbreaker around your waist. A really big hat. A huge ick.

Imagine just showing up with a giant hat and an octopus under it and easily getting discovered. The guy, the security guy, just lifts up the hat. He's like, hey, man. Well, on that note, Nick's email is. is that here's how you get an octopus in. You buy the dead octopus from the market. You boil the octopus to get rid of the smell, which is funny.

That gets rid of the smell. You lift your shirt. It's like taking a bath. Yeah. You lift your shirt and you secure the dead octopus around your stomach with saran wrap. And then you pass through security. Don't worry.

Those are just my intestines. They're falling out. Like the beginning of Tropic Thunder. So Nick says, because the tradition is so popular, the team actually just pays the fine for people throwing the octopus onto the ice because they don't want stuff on the ice

they find you. But Nick says, I have heard stories of gate security finding the octopus on fans, giving them a wink and then just letting them in anyway. Hell yeah, that's so fucking awesome. Hockey, once again, remains best sport. I will say, Bill said this on a show

the other day and like it's so true when when the Stanley Cup finals and the NBA finals are had. This happens every year. When they're happening like vaguely at the same time, I think they actually schedule them apart, but like they're always happening at the same time. And you hear like what injuries are in the NBA. And then you hear like how hockey players are playing through like punctured lungs. And then you're like, oh yeah, this guy broke his neck three weeks ago and hasn't missed a game.

And then suddenly I'm just like, yeah, you know what, everyone in the NBA should be playing. I know. Like I remember, didn't Moogie bet stub his toe this year? I think he ended up breaking it. But he did break his toe. The original report was like stubbed toe. Yeah. He just can't write that.

Ow. National action. Oh my God. Okay. Do you guys want anything tells baseball players? You want to just get out of here? Well, I wanted to bring up the fact that many people pointed out to us that we already

had the Rube Waddle, Waddell conversation. Oh, the old baseball player. We keep doing this, guys. I think I mentioned it when we were having the conversation that it felt very familiar.

But yeah, we already had that whole conversation. That's called podnesia. Podneesh. We've done it quite a lot lately. We have. We're kind of too young to have entire conversations that we've already had. Part of the problem is we have a lot of conversations not on the show, too, and I can't keep

them straight. I don't know what we've talked about on the show and what we haven't. Two of my best friends were arguing once, like, yelling about where the guys from Florida Georgia line were from, which, I mean, spoiler. If there's any band, which you should know where they're from. And I literally was like, not only is this the stupidest thing I've ever heard, you guys kind of did this already. Yeah.

All right. Could get out of here. This is good. We're quarantining the Rogers conversation away from everything else. Man. It's immunized. Can you guys believe? Craig, did you get a text from your dad when he signed?

I did. I got a lot of texts from concerned friends being like, hey, man, sorry. Also, we also forgot the most important part of this, which was the timing of it was hilarious because it's when Trump and Elon Musk was tweeting each other. Oh, my God. We totally buried the lead. he waits three months to announce he's signing and then like an hour later Elon is like tweeting about Epstein files and shit and it's like oh my god things are going down here yeah that was that was great that was perfect

couldn't have picked a better time for them to do that hi Fid you earlier you were talking about cam heyward's frustrations I think I think I saw today that Rogers and DK Maccf are doing cam Hayward's podcast today so classic yeah obviously cam Hayward like they'll get over it I just it's not like I'm just like pulling out of my ass that it's weird. It's like Cam Hayward said two months ago, like, why is it taking so long? And that was in March. Again, I think the deal was decided.

Albert Breer reported that the parameters of the deal were decided in March. And so I think since then, Rogers has been, you know, preparing to be on the Steelers. Yes, but we're, you put it the best way, which is Rogers is being treated like it's like madmen when they have this really annoying client that they have to keep happy. and like the idea that they're catering to Rogers before he even works for them. Like he literally is getting, this is literally special treatment for someone that had no other options. But again, if he was like, hey, look, there's stuff going on in my life, I'm not going to be there for OTAs so that you can either announce it now and deal with me being the quarterback on the team and not being at OTAs or I can just not sign until after OTAs. What would you pick? I would pick.

You should probably work for the team. Like you should probably, like, and maybe they wanted, maybe the Steelers actually were happy to have the flexibility in case he did some crazy stuff. What was he doing? I don't know. Craig, can you get some by this? Maybe it was real personal stuff. He said he said on Rogan that he's, there's people close to him that have cancer and he's dealing with that. So I don't know. And that's so legit. I don't want to just.

You feel bad now, I bet, huh, D.K? No, I don't want his besmirch. Like, I'm sure there's real stuff going on. I'm not going to say anything about that. I just don't, I just don't necessarily see how that conflicts with like getting a playbook. Maybe he probably does have a play. Well, if he has a play. Okay, then sign with,

why is he working? Sign with the team. Because then it's three months of Rogers isn't showing up. Where's Rogers? Oh, he's doing the easy in. What pyramid is he in today? If Rogers came out and made a statement, dude, if Rogers came out and said,

I am not going to the pyramids or anything. I have like some serious personal things growing up my personal life. People I really care about are going through things that I would like to keep private. I hope everyone keeps my privacy. I'm going to be away from OTAs. and we're going to be back and ready for training camp and just put out a statement, like I don't think people will be mocking that,

to be totally honest. Like, it's different to take into Netflix for the story. I think you're right. I think that is probably correct. But has there ever been more media coverage for a team that just goes nine and eight every year? Like it's pretty remarkable. They just have a different quarterback every year.

They just go nine and eight. Rogers, Kenny Pickett, nine and eight. I can already see the take purge. Like, you know, in a world where, actually, should I save it? I mean, probably. yeah, I'll save it. Okay. All right.

Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Carlos. I mean, I've got to watch all these MacAfee interviews every Tuesday now. Oh, no. They'll find you. No, the answer is yes, Craig. Don't you worry.

All right. Thank you, Lord. Lauren. Thank you, Kenny Rogers. Oh. I think I just think of Kenny Rogers, roosters. Yeah. Dude, that's the, that's the origin of the meme of the Kramer meme.

It's like, it's the NBA Cup, Jerry. My buddy has a life-size cutout of Kenny Rogers in his house. My friend Courtney, every time she walks by it, just screams. It's just like right there in the corner of your eye. He puts it right in the bathroom. So it's like- She like jumps scared of him? Yeah, like legitimately.

It's great. I think they had to eventually take him down because it was causing too much. Take Kenny Rogers down? Yeah. Oh, the post, not okay. The life size cut out. That sign-fell episode, I mean, it had to be. Ryder was literally living in an apartment across

from a Kenny Rogers chicken. It had it. It's so bright. It had it. Maybe they changed the name of it, but I'm sure they were just like, yeah, this is like, honestly, we did that to Zach Schwartz, who used to work at the Ringer. And Zach Schwartz had the, this giant green neon light. I don't know who made it, but it was just like green neon ringer light. And then we moved some deaths around, and Zach Schwartz faced this neon light. And then after like three weeks,

Zach Schwartz comes to me and is like, I think I can't I think this was like affecting my vision like he couldn't drive to work he was like staring to do sleep and then like he like sheepishly went and asked to change his desk and I was like yeah you should definitely like move you should turn that off

but for three weeks he just stared at because yeah like we blinded like when Craig tried to have an LED light and then he almost died two feet from my fucking face we almost killed you do you want to tell that story

I do feel comfortable yeah we were like figuring out our out of home video set up And so we got sent these LED panels that I set up literally two feet from my face at my desk. It was a ring light. It was a rectangle. It was a straight rectangle of light. Yes. And it was blasting at me.

We record for 90 minutes. We're doing it three, four times a week. And literally after two weeks, I basically had it like a perpetual headache all the time. And I was like, I felt hazy. And I was telling my wife, I was like, I think something's wrong with me. Like maybe I need to go to the doctor. Like I don't know what you could have home, right? No, I like, I, like, I, like, I, like, I, like, I, like, I, I, like, I, I, like,

Everything hurt. Like, my brain just hurt. And then I was trying to, like, go back and retrace my steps. And I was like, when did this begin? What has changed in my life in the last two weeks? And I was literally scrolling through my photo album, my phone. And I looked at this one stupid photo I sent, I think, to Liz, probably of my desk set up. And I was like, it's the fucking LED light.

This thing is poisoning my office. It's just blasting you in the face. It's the ringway, Jerry. And then, you know, I started doing some Google researching. I started doing my own research. and it appears as though an LED light a foot away from your eyes is perhaps not the best.

I'm glad you made it. Thanks. I was worried about you. I know. Can you imagine if I didn't make it to the 2020? LED light killed Craig. Before Aaron Rogers joins his dealers. You might wish that you were blinded for this guy's season.

Just wait for Justin Fields to throw for 350 on Tomlin's defense and you're like, I got four more months of this. Okay. Goodbye. everyone.