The Porch Is Live - Grading The Steelers Year

Chris: prep throat. I always have to wait for Instagram to catch up before I start the music.
Steve: Well, IG is our friend.

Chris: IG is our friend. And now is the time.

Marc: Welcome in.

Steve: Did you just mute Mark?

Chris: I didn't mute Mark.

Steve: Mark, what happened? You died. Can't hear me?

Chris: Oh, yeah, I can hear you. Woo! Here we go. Bring it on, motherfucker. Oh, yeah, that's crazy. This music is going to start again if I don't stop it. And I did. How about that? Hey, welcome to the sports porch. This is Pittsburgh. This is the porch in Pittsburgh. And we are live, of course, all over the world. We are live on Instagram. Thank you for being on Pittsburgh. Beautiful there. We are live on Facebook, YouTube X. and linkedin and of course we dropped the podcast so you can listen to the whole thing again and again and again right after the show on the iheart radio app apple podcast spotify and anywhere you get your freaking podcast because the pirates are making moves and we'll talk about that later um hey guys listen it's playoff football time and i can't help but get bored sometimes. Although there were some good games this past weekend. Um, but you know what I want to do first? What I want to do first is I want to tell everybody we also have a website. It's called the porch is live.com. The porch is live.com.

Marc: The porch is live.com.

Chris: There you go. That's how you do it. Schwaber. Thank you very much. And, um, Hey, look, Steelers season is over. Tomlin is coming back. Rumor has it they're working on an extension. And we want to know.

Marc: Why not extend him? He should coach 30 years, right?

Steve: It seems to be the standard because the standard is the standard.

Marc: That's exactly right. The standard is the standard. Yes.

Chris: So this is what I want to know. Tomlin is back. And what are your thoughts? What are your thoughts? Let's start with our resident Ianzer, Hockey Jesus extraordinaire, Steven Dean DeFlitch.

Steve: Wow. You even got the Dean is in the Hockey Jesus Dean is in and we're going to talk about football. Okay. My thoughts are this. I saw this coming weeks and weeks and weeks ago. I tried to I tried to warn you guys that they would be competitive enough that they would either make the playoffs or just miss the playoffs. Tomlin would get re-upped. There would be Kenny Pickett coming back. The only thing that happened between when I said that now was the whole Mason Rudolph thing that blew up that blew up in between. And that throws a little bit of a monkey wrench into things because now the Steelers organization can't just cast him off. They just can't say, well, he wasn't ever the guy we you know, there's no sense keeping him around when he's clearly he's clearly the best quarterback on the team now. So they have to make it look like they offered him something good. to keep him when really they're just going to let him go. I mean, let's face it. They don't want that headache going in the next year in the year that they have to make a decision on big Ken for the fifth year after next year. So what's the easiest thing to do? The easiest thing to do is to just re up Tomlin, make him hire an offensive coordinator. He already said he's going to, uh, going to hire an offensive coordinator and he's already What do you say? Creating a list, a pecking order, I think was his exact words of who's going to be on that list. I don't know who that's going to be, by the way. I keep saying it's going to be left, which only because this is what the Steelers do. But you know what? The Steelers this year did not go through the normal routine in the fact that they actually fired their offensive coordinator midseason. So so they could go off script here, which would be refreshing. Um, but my problem is, is they're probably going to hire the offensive coordinator too late to be able to make decisions about the quarterback. And, and then it could just be a shit storm of, of, of mismanagement, kind of like what they've done with Kenny so far. So I'm hoping here's what I'm hoping. I'm hoping they just come out and say, they're re-upping Tomlin for another couple of years. And that means he'll be here for the next three years. And he's already said what he said about the quarterback position. So I think that's not going to change. And then it will probably be wait until the see who the offensive coordinator is maybe a month or two from now, hopefully soon. And then, you know, start thinking about the draft. Honestly, that's really kind of what what we're relegated to. Is it good for the team? I guess. I don't know, dude. At this point, I don't know what's good for the team. I wish they would just blow it all up, but they're clearly not going to do that. So this is, we're going to have the same thing at least through this year. So they can make a decision on the quarterback who is probably the least talented of them all. Who's probably going to get the starting nod at the beginning of the year. What do you think, Mark?

Marc: Well, um, I wish that they didn't bring Tomlin back, but you know me, I'm fire happy.

Chris: You are, you want Sirianni gone from the Eagles.

Marc: Because look, I mean, the reality is, is that this season, While you can look at it with some positive lenses, right? You can look at it with some positive lenses in that the running game got better, the offensive line got better as the season went along. You saw some development from pickings. Uh, Deontay Johnson stopped running backwards. Um, you know, the defense, uh, with some significant injuries, um, held its own until they were playing, you know, playoff caliber teams, you know, in the first round of the playoffs, basically. Um, you can say some positive things, but aren't we really in the same exact spot as we were the year before and the year before that, and the year before that, and then all the way back to the last time they won a playoff game. You know, it's 9 and 8, 8, 8, 1 and 7 losing the first round of playoffs. If you make it, nothing's different. And, you know, you know, in a league where, uh, you know, coaches. don't get a lot of time to, you know, to succeed. Um, you know, you just really, you know, it's the same old story. What, what, what is successful about, you know, barely making the playoffs or barely missing the playoffs? What is successful about that? Well, you're better than half the league. You're better than half the league. I mean, should that be should that you know, and I know the answer is no, Steve, should that be the standard of success for the Steelers? No, it shouldn't be.

Steve: Well, when you say when you say the standard is the standard, you get to create the standard. So for for for probably 43 percent of Steeler fans, that is enough. And for 57 percent, there are some that say, yeah, I'd rather be like that than, you know, be six and ten perpetually, you know.

Marc: Well, but the the idea is, is that, you know, ideally you would I mean, look, all things being equal. Sure. Be great to be ten and seven every year. And then, you know, hit the jackpot and, you know, draft a quarterback at number 25, who turns into a stud and then you win without having a losing season. But the reality is, is that most of the time, the teams that pick in the top 10 in the draft for two or three years in a row, ultimately are the teams that turn the corner and consecutively win 12 games for five, six, seven, eight years. So I would rather have that than where they are right now.

Steve: I actually would like to do a study on that. I don't think that that's necessarily true. I do think they get more talented players, but what they do with those players is really important to have a process set up for them. For example, and we've talked about this Jordan Love. He didn't play his first year. He didn't even really play much his second year. You know, he didn't play until his third year and I think fourth year. Yeah, well, this, this was his fourth year where he actually got to start.

Marc: Right.

Steve: So he did play some in his third year. So, you know, they, they, they did that, right. They had a process for him and they've done it before. So maybe, maybe it's not about the players, but it's about the process. I actually think that, you know, with the new, uh, with the new, uh, general manager. and white L waddle. I can never say that guy's name. Why? Why? Thank you. With those guys there, I have much more confidence in their draft picks based off of what I've seen this year. They seem like they're better. It's and but I still don't have confidence that our coaching staff will play them right away. I mean, they only played their draft picks this year out of injury, not because they thought they were great. So it's, it's a tough, it's a tough sled for the Steelers, you know, being mediocre and not having a process for playing young talent quickly when it makes sense and having a process for when to put it in. It's, Hey, Tom was Tomlin says we're getting beat by the jets. It's time to put in our quarterback of the future. That's not a process. That's just reaction. And that's what frustrates me the most about Tomlin. That's why I don't, that's why I wish they would blow the whole thing up, but I get why they don't because the process gets them mediocre. And that seems to be good enough for now.

Chris: Okay. So, uh, while you guys have been opining on that, uh, I want to get a bunch of our fans comments in here. Kyle is in the house. Of course, the porch baby. What's up, Kyle? Uh, he says, Tomlin, who dat? and uh success successful is the lions he's going back there now let's not get into how successful the lions really are well i mean even if the lions make the super bowl this year there's utility in making the playoffs i don't think i would want that over what the steelers have The last NFC championship game they were in was 91. It was against the Redskins. My buddy Jeff from York is in the house. Thanks for being here again, Jeff. He says, I'll throw a name out there. Rob Chudzinski is the OC. He's at Boston College where Tomlin's son is at, was the OC in the NFL and head coach at Cleveland. Was he an interim guy at Cleveland?

Steve: I thought Tomlin's son was at Maryland, but what do I know?

Chris: Yeah, and get some a shot once I make the playoffs everyone starts at oh and oh see jeff. That's the problem. That's the problem right there It's not about starting at oh and oh it's about winning super bowls period When you see it used to be about winning super bowls, uh, and kyle can't kyle's got such a crush on tom brady He's a easy solution equals coach brady. I don't see that happening

Steve: And we'll and wait and we'll bring in um, um, who's his who's his crush mariah carey?

Chris: Yeah Yeah, we'll bring in mariah carey to sing the national anthem every game every game Actually, I think it's I I think mariah carey is just like he's just like he he's a super fan And he and he wants to be her best friend. Maybe he is her best friend.

Steve: Anyway. Hey, I love mariah carey, too Don't get me wrong mike lawrence.

Chris: Um, we're going to talk a little bit about the rest of the nfl Um, please don't say that name. Please don't say that name. I mean, look all, you know, I, I like Taylor Swift. I think she's very talented. Some of her music. I really do like, but I'm sick of the Taylor Swift story. I mean, give me a, give me a free.

Marc: Hey, I will, I will tell you what though. It has worked. I got a call at 10 o'clock last night from my 11 year old niece wanting to talk football. And she, and I swear to God, she said to me, boy, it really seems like they're much better when they have Pachinko play.

Chris: Okay.

Marc: And I was blown away by that. Like they have tapped into, you know, elementary school and middle school age teenage girls. Yes, they have. They have made fans.

Chris: That's a horrible phrase that you just uttered, Schwaber. It's a horrible phrase, but it's true.

Steve: They have tapped into an audience. They shouldn't have tapped in.

Chris: I am going to stop right there. What happens when Jason Kelsey and Taylor Swift break up? Do they lose all those fans?

Steve: You mean Travis Kelsey?

Chris: I mean, yeah, when, what did, who did I say? What did I say?

Marc: The retired guy. Jason Kelsey was more entertaining with his shirt off.

Chris: Yeah, the big fat guy with the, with the shirt and the beers, like, like he was going to fall out of the, fall out of the luxury box.

Steve: No, he jumped out of the window to grab a Taylor Swift van to bring her up to Taylor Swift. That's hilarious. That was cool, wasn't it? Yeah.

Chris: It was cool. I wonder what his wife thinks about that.

Steve: Do you think his wife was- Dude, he has like three girls that age, so they love it. They love it.

Chris: Of course. Of course. Of course, so tomlin is back. What are your thoughts drop them in the comments? Thanks for being here The sports sports podcast is dropped right after the show on the iheart radio app apple podcast spotify hurry anywhere you get your freaking podcasts and um Let's grade the stealers Let's grade them this year. Just for the heck of it. Just for the heck of it. Let's grade the Steelers. I'm going to put that on the ticker if you're watching us live. Grades for the Steelers. And I'll pose the questions. Let's grade Kenny Pickett.

Marc: Now question, are these outside of Kenny Pickett? If we're, if we're doing, you know, offense, defense, special teams, is this a full season grade or a end of the season? Great.

Chris: Full season, full season, man. At the end of the year, that's when the grades count. That's when they get thrown into your GPA. Right. So, uh, Kenny Pickett.

Marc: Uh, am I going first? Yeah, go ahead. Uh, D plus.

Chris: D plus. Steve?

Steve: D minus.

Chris: D minus. Chris? F?

Marc: I guess I gave him the best grade.

Steve: You did. I wanted to go F, but he did win a few games in there, so I couldn't say he totally flunked.

Chris: DG is in the house. I got to get him in here. DG, thanks for being here. Super fan. Greetings, gentlemen. Seems like the Roonies are taking lessons from nutting by perpetuating mediocrity with Tomlin and his Sandlot coaching staff while the team remains a cash cow. You know, it's interesting. I want to pause the grades on this for a minute. As I was driving in the car this past week and I was listening to sports radio, that thought actually occurred to me because, you know, we're had pitchers and catchers reporting soon. We got some breaking piracies we'll talk about later. I thought to myself, you want to know what? There is an old Chinese proverb, and I don't speak Mandarin or any of the dialects in China, but basically what it says is wealth does not pass three generations. So the first generation, they work their tails off to build this business. The second generation watches mom and dad or whoever struggle to build this business, takes it over and turns it into the dream. And the third generation pisses it away because they had the silver spoon. Is that where we are with pirates ownership? Is that where we are now?

Steve: I know art is second. You meant stealer.

Chris: Yeah. Sorry. Is that where we are with the Steelers? You know, it did occur to me that maybe because it's such a cash cow and they know Steelers fans are like bills fans from the standpoint of it's like rabbit, like they could be good, bad, ugly, indifferent. They're coming to the games man. They're wearing the black and gold. They're tailgating. They're picking they are they are I mean I don't know But one of the guys that we know that owns tickets is thinking about giving them back, dude Okay, so you'll have that but that's that's where I was going. So thanks dg for that comment So kyle says kenny gets a b and and I have no idea why um b minus below average I say I think he thinks kenny is kenny rogers. Yeah, right Or Kenny Chesney Kenny Chesney, yeah, yeah So let's move on not nausea nausea Harris nausea here Jeff my buddy in New York see mine is for Kenny nausea Harris I'm not gonna do every player. So nausea Harris.

Marc: I'll give them a be Steve Oh B plus I

Chris: I'm going to give him a B. I'm going to give him a B because I want to go B minus, but I, but that the performance at the end of the year, when he started running, like he had a real attitude looking like the guy that we drafted, I'll give him a B. Graves is saying C- because they backed in the playoffs. I think he's great him overall. Jeff is saying a B for Najee. Kyle saying a C could be better. Okay, we'll do two more. George Pickens.

Marc: That's a really tough one.

Chris: That's why I wanted to do this.

Marc: That's a hard one. I'll give him a B+.

Steve: Man, he's proven. Oh, okay.

Chris: I'm going to go straight out, straight out with a B. I'm giving him a C. I'm giving him a C because he, um, he acted like a, he acted like a whiny cry baby for over half the season. And I know he was frustrated, but look, if you're, Hey, look, if you're a pro, You're a pro and Graves agrees with me not on the grade, but B- for attitude issues.

Steve: Yeah, but his talent is A+.

Chris: His talent is A. I'm grading the year. That's it. That's what we're doing. DG says he wants our thoughts on Najee taking the fifth year option. We'll talk about that later. Okay. Last grade on the offense. Last grade, I think we're, well, there's two more and we can make them quick. Deontay Johnson. Uh, uh, is not a great Schwab or C plus C plus Steve.

Steve: He's a C.

Chris: He's a C. I'm going to go see with him. And finally, uh, Kyle chimes in here with a D for Deontay. I'm sure that's right. D for Deontay. Uh, Graves says, uh, Johnson is a C. Jeff Paula says Johnson is a C. Mike Lawrence is a B if he stops running backwards. Um, I gave him a C okay. Last offensive grade, the offensive line.

Marc: Uh, offensive line. Um, we'll go B minus. Okay.

Chris: Hey, you give them an a. All right.

Steve: Yep.

Chris: I can't give them an a, but I can definitely give them a B plus. No doubt about it. What do you guys think about the offensive line? Um, since the comments, uh, Jeff says B.

Steve: Um, the only reason they don't get an A plus is because of Mason Cole.

Chris: Okay. Okay. Um, all right, let's go. Uh, Graves says O line C plus C. I, I just think they performed really well by the end of the year.

Marc: Well, hold on though. You know, here's the thing. So I would look, if you split it up, I mean, if you go second half of the season, I'd probably say a minus, but first half of the season. And granted, maybe a lot of this does have to do with Kenny Pickett, not trusting the pocket and running into sacks and things of that sort. But when that was going on for half the season, I mean, I would say, you know, D plus C minus, it was really bad for a good portion of the season, guys.

Chris: Jeff wants us to grade the tight ends. I'm going to give them a D. Let's we'll do a quick one.

Steve: I'm going to give him a D the tight end. Yeah, definitely.

Chris: Not a good year.

Steve: Not a good year for the tight end.

Chris: And one last, one last quick grade. I just thought of Mason Rudolph for the games he played a B plus. I'll give him a B plus. I'll give him a B plus. I'll give him an A for effort, but a B plus on performance. All right, let's move on to the defense. We're we'll do this. Uh, we'll do this, um, a little bit, uh, easier. Um, Kyle says, uh, Jeff, Jeff, or Jeff is saying B plus, um, Gannis DG says, uh, B plus, and Kyle says Rudolph needs to go back to Santa.

Steve: Um, he probably will next year.

Chris: Kyle defensive line. We're not going to grade cam Hayward defensive line. Not, we're going to, we're going to include TJ. TJ Watt always gets an A plus. We'll include him in the linebackers defensive line.

Marc: I think you should include TJ Watt in the defensive line.

Steve: No, no. He's a linebacker. He's an edge rusher. He's an edge rusher. He's the fourth linebacker. No, they're considered linebackers. They really are. They are, but they're not. Come on. I agree with you there. Yes, they're not.

Marc: They're rarely in coverage. Rarely. Jeff says C plus. Interior defensive line mark there. Okay. Interior defensive line. Okay.

Chris: Jeff Wallace says C plus. What do you say, Grant Schwabing?

Marc: Well, is Highsmith a linebacker too? Yes. He's a linebacker too. Okay. Then interior defensive line, I'm going to say C. Yeah.

Chris: C minus. C minus. Yeah. I'm going to give him a C minus as well. Okay. Linebackers to include edge rushers. Oh, Jesus. As a unit. As a unit.

Marc: I guess I got to say a minus. However, the outside, the outside edge rushers are an A plus and the inside linebackers are an F. There you go. I'm not saying, but I'm not saying all things are equal and it's a C because TJ what, you know, uplifts the whole group. And, uh, same, you could, you could say for high Smith. I mean, it's hard. Yeah. So I'm going to, I'm going to say a minus then.

Chris: Okay.

Steve: Stevo C minus.

Chris: Yeah. I, I, I, I mean, I, I love the fact that Watt got 19 sacks, but, um, Honestly, you look at the Steelers as a whole. I'm going to go C, not C minus, but C. Grabe says B plus. Jeff Paulus agreed. Kyle said G for get better. They do.

Steve: They get a G. I agree with that.

Chris: And and jeff is kind of he's where the grand schwa beanie is off outside linebackers a inside c I'm giving them a c. I you know, I I love this whole thing and and and um, I just don't see their inside linebackers is a c grade

Steve: I don't I don't see anything above a D or an F. Their inside linebacker play was horrible again this year, and they went out and addressed the situation. Now, they were injured, but injuries are part of, you know, defining what when they were on the field. If they're not on the field, then they get an F. It's just it's just it's just terrible. It's terrible, terrible.

Chris: Fit let me get this comment in sorry steve instagram comments don't show up in my queue So I want to get them before they disappear fishing with phil on instagram and drop a comment on ig if you if you like Thanks for being here. We're new on instagram the last couple weeks, but we love being here fishing with phil 24 Take out highsmith and what it's a d Before the starters got hurt. They were decent You know, that's tough. Okay, um secondary secondary We're just going to blanket it secondary.

Marc: Blanket secondary. Blanket secondary. Safeties and corners. I'm going to say C plus.

Steve: B plus.

Chris: B plus. Man, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, see, I'm going to say, see, I mean, I, I, I think, uh, um, you know, Mike, I'm seeing all these DS for the secondary, not see JP jr.

Steve: Play. The guy was incredible. Patrick Anderson was a mess. Minka, without his interceptions, still probably led the team in tackles. And I know tackles is a terrible statistic. And they pasted together the other corner OK.

Chris: Okay, so fishing with phil says, uh on on instagram says b-minus roe may be a dog. That was an interesting pickup Uh luke morell's back. He says happy new year guys. Hey, what's up? Luke? Glad to have you back. Welcome back um, grave says b-minus after porter started dg secondary c jeff says d I want I want to talk about your point about porter like you're right. Joey porter had a had a good rookie year and and

Steve: Yeah, I know. Best way to play the position.

Chris: Hansie Porter had a good rookie year and he definitely looks like he has the ability to grow and next year we should expect even better things from him because he's probably going to start the whole year, which would be really nice. Wow.

Steve: There's an idea.

Chris: Overall, I would give our defense a C. Overall defense, a C. What do you think, Grant Schwabini?

Marc: I think it's an accurate assessment. I'll agree. Well, you know, I don't know. I'll give him a C plus.

Chris: Okay.

Steve: Borderline G minus. I'll give them a C minus only because they spent so much money to address it and it didn't get better. So you have to, you have to, you have to say it's worse than the average. So slightly worse than the average is a C minus.

Chris: Yeah. And, and, uh, one last one overall offense. Uh, swabber.

Marc: Oh, I guess I gotta go see.

Steve: Overall, yeah, they get the same grade as the defense. C minus.

Chris: I give him a D. I give him a D. Kyle says O for offensive. Grabe says C. I'm not sure if he meant defense or offense for that.

Marc: So this is very interesting here. So almost we're almost all in agreement that defense and offense, the grade is somewhere between a C minus and a C. So how do you explain a 10 and seven record and a playoff berth at that level of performance?

Steve: Well, it's easy, Mark. We have Mike Tomlin. There you go.

Chris: Mike Tomlin, the greatest NFL coach of all time.

Steve: I actually think most, I think teams that are, are less than that, they have D and F grades for, for their offense and their defense. And by the way, are we going to get the special teams? Oh yeah, why not?

Chris: Yeah, let's create special teams. Go for it. You start then HJ. It's all you.

Steve: Well, if you're looking at this at the special teams, their punning gets an F and there you go. They're kicking. They're kicking gets a B, so I would say special teams. Guess what? Gets a C minus. No, actually it gets a D because the punning was that bad.

Marc: The punning was just don't forget about CA3.

Chris: You know, I got to tell you, this is the one thing like we can we can talk about every single aspect of the Steelers organization. Special Team C-minus from Greggs. Luke Morrell is chiming in here. Punting sucks. Jeff Pauls. So here you go. That is the craziest thing that that the entire and you hear it all over sports radio. Nobody outside of Pittsburgh, as well as everybody inside of Pittsburgh can figure out why the hell Presley Harvin is on this roster as a punter, except that's why. Well, yeah, but I did hear that they are convinced that he is an absolute get this elite holder.

Marc: Hey, hey, by the way, you want to hear that you want to hear something actually kind of funny. So, you know, the guy that hit the trail for the team, you know, the guy that they had in camp was Brayden Mann. Yeah, yeah. Eagles for a little bit. He ended up being the Eagles punter this year. And I just pretty much looked at, like, you know, all the Eagles special teams reviews and everybody gives him an A, like he was an excellent punter this year. Well, because he was just the fill-in punter. No, no, he punted the whole year. They replaced their punter after like four games.

Steve: No, no, for the Steelers, because he was still in the spot until our elite holder came back.

Chris: That's exactly right. The elite holder. Graves, elite holder. A, punting sucks. Rick Morrell says he used to punt and he's good for 40 yards, right?

Steve: I'm more than Percy Harvins.

Chris: Yeah, that's right. He'd be better and I'm good for a pulled hamstring for that.

Marc: I did hear a funny little rant today by you guys know who Ross Tucker is. He's in NFL. Yeah, he actually broadcast some NFL games. Yeah, and he and he used to play and He's of the mindset that we should not have kickers in the NFL. And his and his whole rant, his whole rant on it. I just thought this was funny. He was like, imagine that we're creating the game of football and you know nothing else. And what we say is we're going to get the biggest guys, the most athletic guys in the league, and we're going to move the ball On one end, we're going to try to get into the end zone. And on the other end, we're going to try to knock the crap out of the guy. And some of the guys on the offense are going to try to knock the crap out of the guy that's coming towards them. And one other thing, guys, at the end of the game, we're going to put the whole game on a guy that doesn't engage in this at all. And he just kicks a ball.

Steve: Yeah, well, I think it's brilliant. I love it.

Chris: Maybe what they should do instead is they just have a rotating, like you, you don't have an official kicker or punter, and you just start with like a rotating, like whoever's a starter. So you might have an offensive lineman at one point.

Steve: I know, I know, I know one team today who would definitely be against kicking in the NFL. Who's that?

Marc: Yeah.

Steve: That would be the Buffalo Bills. Wide right. Wide right.

Chris: All right. Hey guys, thanks for watching us on facebook on linkedin on youtube on x and on instagram Of course fishing with phil says great show later guys. Thanks fishing with phil Uh, and of course, we dropped the podcast on the iheart radio app apple podcast spotify or anywhere you get your freaking podcast. So Um, let's move on here because uh, the steeler season is over Um, oh, uh, what are your thoughts about the loot? Yeah. The interview for, um, offensive coordinator, Jeff, we're not done. We got more stuff to do, so stick around. All right. Don't abandon us yet. Um, what are your thoughts about the interview for OC? Who did the interview? I saw that and I just, I can't draw the blank.

Steve: Yeah. No, I think what Luke saying is, you know, when talking about interviewing for the OC.

Chris: No, no, no. They, they, they actually, uh, you guys, you guys talk about your thoughts. I'll see if I can find it. I think they, they announced that they have an interview.

Steve: We can't talk about the interview if we don't know who we're talking about.

Chris: No, you talk about who you think the offensive coordinator should be while I look up the interview.

Steve: I already know that Tom one's going to go with somebody who he's familiar with. It doesn't really matter. Uh, Amy May Schwab says Robinson. And I don't know who Robinson is. Robinson Caruso. Allen Robinson.

Marc: Yeah, I don't know. Who's Robinson, Amy?

Steve: The old man, Robinson. Yeah, I don't know. The the St. Louis Rams, that guy. No, absolutely not. No, that was the old man in the city. We got enough on our hockey team. No more old men. We need youth. We need young guys.

Chris: We need they are interviewing the guy from the Rams, the offensive coordinator from the Rams.

Steve: Um, no, I'm anti Robinson because Robinson is gotta be like 74 years old. He hadn't made it as a head coach in a long while. He brings no new, no new, no new, no new ideas. If that's the Robinson we're talking about, I'm going to look them up.

Chris: Well, Yeah, i'm i'm uh, I do not see anything on it, but I did see Go ahead.

Marc: Oh, okay. Okay. Okay guys, uh Steelers have you got to talk to ram's assistant? Zach robinson Okay, that's right.

Chris: Zach. He's a wide receiver.

Marc: That's right He's become a hot candidate for offensive coordinator jobs around the league Already receive interest from the saints the bears and the patriots

Chris: Other teams sucked.

Marc: Was it expected in New England on Tuesday?

Chris: Bradley B. Photography is joined us on Instagram. Thanks, Bradley B. And he's a big supporter. Beautiful. Thanks, buddy.

Marc: And just to make you feel better, see if he is thirty seven. Yes.

Steve: Thirty seven. Not the old man Robinson.

Chris: Yeah. John Robinson. That guy was John Robinson. Yeah. And he coached the Rams.

Marc: Yeah. How about Amy? No one breaking news before we did. I'll tell you what, that's a football right there.

Chris: She's on top of it. I'm not going to put her comment up that I'm not going to leave the station. There's more than us.

Marc: You don't have to, but I will. Yes. Damn it. Um, I don't.

Chris: I have no opinion right now on offensive coordinator for the Steelers because we're at the very beginning of the process. And the truth is that I don't think anybody would disagree. You can't get any worse than Matt Canada. And as far as the guys, you know, Mike Sullivan and the other guy, whatever his name was, that that that take that that Faulkner, right, that took over and, you know, Mason came in and they looked a little better. I lay that more on the on the fact that Mason Rudolph is more of an NFL ready quarterback than can pick it.

Marc: I'll give you guys an interesting name, though. This is the kind of offensive coordinator I think the Steelers could really use. You know, a proven guy who has been an excellent offensive coordinator, has won a Super Bowl as an offensive coordinator, struggled as a head coach, won't become a head coach anytime soon. What about a guy like Frank Reich? And that is somebody that could that could go into a position where hopefully you would think, Tomlin wouldn't feel threatened by him, but he would have credibility.

Chris: I mean, I don't think that's necessarily a bad way to go. Um, I also think they need a quarterback's coach, you know, like a, a good quarterback coach. I mean, when they drafted Mason, they didn't even have a quarterback coach. Um, and Jeff says, yeah, he's from PA too. What do you think? Frank Reich, Steve, if he's even willing to do it.

Steve: Nah, he's just too old. I want, I'm sorry. I want a 30 something year old kid who's coming in here with new ideas. I don't want to has been who's been there, done that over and over and over again. I don't give a shit if he's a threat to Tomlin screw him. It's time to get an offensive coordinator with some balls, a better plan and knows how to pass the ball in 2024. That's what it takes. And if, and if Kenny's not your guy with that offense, great. Bring in another quarterback with him. That's the bottom line.

Chris: Bill Walsh said, after 24 starts, you will know what kind of quarterback you have. And Kenny has had more than 24 starts. So I am off the Kenny Pickett train. Love you, man. Loved watching you at Pitt. Love the fact that I got lucky and called that whole thing. Jeff says Jason Garrett, but Tomlin will be threatened by him. And they're never going to bring in a cowboy. But kenny pickett's not the guy so okay. We got to move on now. Thanks for listening to us on the sports porch On the podcast and the iheart radio app apple podcast spotify or anywhere you get your podcasts, uh, please Subscribe and leave us a review. We would love that. We're on facebook linkedin youtube x and instagram Luke says draft another qb. We'll see what happens. Let's move on to our nfl playoff picks this week Right now, I'm going to review the picks from last week. Mark and Steve took the Ravens. I took the Texans. Mark took the Packers. Me and Steve took the Niners. I took the Bucks. Steve and Mark took the Lions. I took the Chiefs, and you guys took the Bills. It made me feel smart for a little while. So now our records are Mark is 8 and 2. The undefeated run is over. Steve is 6 and 4, and I am once again 2 and 877. Uh, comments here, playoffs playoff. Luke says he loves us. Love you too, buddy.

Marc: Um, you got on the board, buddy.

Chris: I did get on the board. So this week three o'clock game, highly anticipated chiefs at the Ravens. Drop your pick in the comments. H J give us your pick.

Steve: Well, I already know he's going to win this game because I saw the video of a Baltimore Ravens fan doing terrible, terrible things to a terrible, terrible towel. And that is the kiss of death. That's, that's why Buffalo lost. That's why that wind blew the ball wide, right? And that's why Baltimore, Baltimore will not make it to the super bowl this year.

Chris: Okay. So you're picking the chiefs.

Marc: Uh, I will pick the Ravens. Um, I think the chiefs, you know, the, the crazy thing is the chiefs are playing in their best ball of the year right now. Um, but you know, the, the wide receivers that have played the chiefs all year long, um, Yeah, I can't anticipate them having back to back good games. Um, I think it's going to be harder to run against Baltimore's defense than it is against the bills defense. Um, remember the bills were really hot, but you know, they had lost, um, you know, linebackers corner safety. Um, so I think that the ravens will be up to the challenge. I think it'll be a signature game for lamar jackson and the ravens will win 34 to 21 That's interesting, you know, I saw a stat the other day.

Chris: Um, and and I think we have some picks coming in here. Um, I don't know what this Super Bowl logo is purple and red. Interesting. Grabe says no Swifty Bowl. Ravens win. Mike Lawrence gives us the Chiefs. They'll figure out a good defense. And Joe is rating. Maybe he's rating us an F. I have no idea. Yeah.

Steve: Brutal Joe. Joe.

Chris: No, he's just catching up. Thanks, Joe. I saw a statistic very recently while basically in between shows here. That, uh, they showed the record of Andy Reed's record coaching against his former assistants and he's undefeated, undefeated against his former assistants. And John Harbaugh was an assistant coach under Andy Reed for 10 years.

Marc: So I don't know how prime for it to end.

Chris: Yeah.

Marc: Well, just like the way, just like the way the 49ers were, Oh, in 30 trailing in the fourth quarter under Shanahan.

Chris: And then they won. Yeah.

Steve: Well, you guys, you can't make up any games, so just, you know, you can't make up that much space. So just pick it up. Yeah. Uh,

Chris: There's just something about the Chiefs this year. They're peaking at the right time. I'm going with the Chiefs.

Steve: By the way, this is Taylor Swift's last game in the booth.

Marc: Chris is a momentum guy.

Chris: You, you know, it, it's all about the momentum. Okay. The late game lions at the 49ers. And I'll tell you what the lions, that game against the Rams that they play where they won by one point had me kind of thinking like, Ooh, if this is the kind of football, they're going to play the rest of the playoffs. This is going to not be good. Then of course they pull the box, you know, and it's like, It's the box, you know, although I would take Baker Mayfield on the Steelers. We can have a debate about that some other time. But I'm looking at that team and that defense is coming on at the right time. And they have that grit.

Steve: They have no defense in Detroit. Did you see how many points they gave up to frickin Tampa Bay?

Chris: OK, well, I'm going with the Lions. I also, I'm just going to end this right now.

Steve: Yeah. You guys are fools. The 49ers will not lose. Even if Deebo Samuels does not play, this game is a slaughter. It's a 21 point win for San Francisco.

Chris: All right. So we know where you're coming down. Uh, but what's funny is last week you called me a, you, you, well, nevermind. Um, I was going to say he called me a fool for, uh, in the box and well, I, I, I did pick the box and they did lose. So, uh, okay.

Marc: Number two to the bowl.

Steve: Uh, you guys just want Detroit to win. I don't know why you're, you're, you're sucked into the Dan Campbell vortex. Yes.

Chris: We'll take another kneecap. Jeff says it's going to be kansas city and detroit. Uh, jeff polis. Grabe says the niners are that good. I'm not disagreeing with you. They are that good and you guys know I'm a broad. Okay.

Marc: I'm a broad. Did you watch the game this past week?

Chris: The niners are that good. They looked horrible.

Marc: Now they still won and they still won. They did still win.

Chris: Yeah, but it was against green bay, you know, I mean, yeah, they should have lost that game.

Steve: Green bay was hot. They had a lot of momentum coming in.

Marc: They had that momentum, but then the momentum ended in the fourth quarter.

Chris: That's why I picked the Lions.

Steve: They ran out of momentum.

Chris: That's why I picked the Lions.

Marc: That's why your Kansas City Chiefs are going to lose that momentum.

Chris: Okay, you are watching the sports porch on facebook linkedin youtube x instagram And of course we drop the podcast the sports porch right after the show on the iHeartRadio app apple podcast spotify Excuse me, or anywhere you get your friggin podcast pirates burp So, uh, I got one more comment here. It might be a prediction two more. Um, let's see, Mike, uh, Lawrence back to Tomlin sort of look up a comedian named Josh prey on Facebook. He does funny impressed. Yeah, I saw that guy. It's funny. Um, you blew off my nausea option question until later. I heard a lot of, okay, let's, let's get to that real quick. Niners were flat in green Bay. We're, we're that hot. Um, I, uh, do you pick up the fifth year option on nausea?

Steve: Yeah, sure. It's not going to be that expensive. They got the cap space. Yeah, absolutely. Pick it up. Those two running backs are better together than they are. You don't want Jalen Warren by himself. What are you going to go and get Dalvin Cook? Just just give him the fifth year.

Chris: Yeah, at this point after the line came together and he started running like the guy that we wanted him to be, I say pick up the fifth year too.

Steve: Don't give him a two-year contract. Don't extend him. Just give him the fifth year and then we'll see where it goes from there.

Chris: Make him earn it. Schwaber, any thoughts on that?

Marc: I actually disagree. I mean, I actually like nausea. I've always been pro nausea as compared to you, Mr. Klein. Right. But I say just, you know what? Let him play out this year. Let's see if he stays healthy. And, you know, if he has another good year, then maybe we'll bring him back, hopefully on a team friendly deal. If not, we draft a running back in the second round.

Chris: All right. There you go. There you go. OK.

Steve: I agree with that either.

Chris: Uh, I want you guys to somebody else.

Steve: No, they just can't go with you. Yeah, right, right

Chris: I want you guys to know that you can catch the sports sports podcast dropped after every show anywhere you get your podcasts and hockey Jesus who is in the house preaches on that sports sports podcast. Every single penguins game without fail. Hockey Jesus has something to say. So what do you got to say about hockey Jesus?

Marc: And before we get started, you can also catch Hockey Jesus on our Deportes channel.

Steve: Uh, yeah, that's coming soon. Thank you, Mark. Um, you know, everything I said this, this past week, I, you know, I gave my, I gave my mid season spectacular where I kind of laid out what the pens need to do to make the playoffs. I'm optimistic. They will make the playoffs. I know they lost the other night in Vegas after having a two nothing lead going into the third. But I didn't actually think they were going to win that game anyways. However, when you have a two goal lead going into the third, you should get at least the loser point out of that. And they didn't. And this team has here's the problem with the Penguins right now. They have no identity. Like the only identity you can say they have is they're schizophrenic, like One week, they'll come back in the third period, and they'll score a goal by pulling the goalie, and they'll salvage a point out of the game, maybe even get the win in overtime, right? The next week, they're doing the exact opposite, where they have a two-goal lead going into the third, and they lose it and can't even get another goal and don't get any points. And this is the problem with the Penguins. They just don't know who they are. They don't play consistent enough to their system to be able to say, well, you know, if they go into the third period with a lead, they're going to be good. Or, you know, if they score the first goal, it's going to be a good game. Or, you know, if Jari has over 39 saves in a game, they're going to win. The reality is, the only thing you know about the Penguins is, if they only score two goals, they're not going to win the game.

Chris: Yeah, you had really great stats on that. What are they, two and eight in games where they scored two goals?

Steve: And they're actually two and 14 overall in games where they score two goals or less. So they haven't even won a single goal where they scored one goal in a game. Yeah, right. So this is the problem with the team. They have one of the best goals against averages in the East. In fact, they have the best goals against average in the East, yet they can't win a game where they only score two goals. That doesn't make any sense, especially when Tristan Jari is like the fifth highest ranked goalie in the league right now in save percentages. and wins. So that's the problem with this team right now. What they're good at, they're not winning games that they should be good at. And it really is really bizarre to watch. I think that's what they need to figure out here in the next 20 games. Are they going to get the power and here's the thing about the power play power play still one of the worst in the league bottom five. I think their bottom seven actually now because they've scored some goals in the past five games and other teams have gotten worse believe it or not. But I think if they figure it out, it makes the team better. And here's why I say that. Because what's happening is other teams are clutching and grabbing and holding, and they're not afraid to commit penalties against the Penguins. And that slows their game down. And it's not allowing them to open their game up a little bit. So when they open their game up a little bit, that's when they score more goals. So even if they win four to three, great. Who cares if they give up three goals? Who cares if they give up four goals if they score six? Because that's where they win games. So they got to figure that out. Is that the team they want to be? Because if they want to be this team that only does give goals against at a low rate, they got to figure out how to win a 2-1 game. They gotta win a three-goal game every night. It's gotta be like, when we get the three, we're done. We shut it off. We're good. But they don't. And that's the problem. So, they play tonight in Arizona, so they do get a chance in about 36 minutes. to drop the puck and see what they can do in Arizona. That's the game I thought they would win. And this is a game where they probably could open it up a little bit because Arizona has a lot of young, young bucks playing for them and they like to, they like to skate a lot. So I think it'll, I think it'll be very interesting. I'd like the pens to win tonight. I see them scoring four or five goals tonight, probably winning like four, three, five, four, something like that. Mike, I think that's where, that's where I see the game tonight. Stay up and watch it. I think it'll be worth it. The thing about the penguins is they always have a period where it's just like, oh, my God, I have to sit through this period. And then they have a period where it's like, holy shit, I'm glad I didn't miss that period because there'd be like four or five goals scored and not all of them by the pens. But and you never know what you never know what It's going to be, it could be the first one. It could be the second one or the third one. Rarely, rarely is it like that in overtime, by the way. Uh, the penguins are pretty terrible in overtime still. Um, but once again, I'm not a big fan of overtime and I don't want to get into that. Um, so, so late in the, in the podcast, but, um, I think the overtime rules and, and everything with overtime point system all needs to change. Um, but that's never going to happen with the NHL. were we No, we don't. He actually got hurt at the end of the game in Seattle, but he came back the next night. So he's he's fine. Bottom six guy, Chad Ruedel. You can't kill this guy. He'll be playing hockey until he's 45.

Marc: Schwab player, Minnesota tough.

Chris: There you go. Gene says he loves the he loved the mid-season spectacular for a moment there in the middle of your broadcast I thought the medics were going to be sent in to open your airway I hope you're over that cough steve has a problem if he's got a steve steve's the kind of guy hockey jesus Is the kind of guy he can talk forever? But when he has to do it for like like in our shows right here we you know you give him the floor and it's like he goes on and on and on and on but when it's like solo and he's got to do it he like loses his voice he starts to cough there's convulsions i'm not sure about that maybe you just need here's here's what happened last week i had strep throat yes that's right oh yeah doing it on strep throat That's why you wouldn't kiss me when I came over to watch football the other night, and I thank you for that.

Steve: There's no kissing with this throat. Not even my wife.

Chris: This is bad. All right, listen, I.G. shuts us off after an hour. So what I want to do is I want to get this last bit in here. Of course, everybody wants to know when the pirates coming back. So pitchers and catchers, they report in just a few days. And breaking news tonight, the pirates have signed the Raldus Chapman to a one year, ten and a half million dollar contract. Now, Chapman is thirty five. So There's my steve impression.

Steve: There you go. No, no, no much.

Chris: No, no, no. What'd you say? Yeah, right. Well, but, but he can probably throw harder than rich hill even at this. It was in his forties by the way. Um, Yeah, yeah. And now this is kind of an interesting thing here. He pitched for the Rangers last year, and we signed another Rangers pitcher a little bit earlier this year. So we got a little bit of that recent World Series experience on the team. I like that. Rangers East. I like, I like the, uh, I like Chapman on the team as, and we, we had this debate setup guy for Bednar. He can also really be a reliever, but you know, he struck out 103 and 58 and a third innings last year. So that's a lot of strikeouts. That's that's that's a lot of that's a lot of strikeouts and jeff says they should hire a translator So that being said, you know talking about the pirates gives steve a headache and he's got to do an h hockey jesus After the game tonight. So after tonight's game go to the sports porch podcast. You can hear the hockey jesus preach Again again, and i'm going to drop this show in the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts.

Steve: Hopefully they can get the game in in less than three hours so I can go to sleep today.

Chris: All right guys listen, thank you so much for joining us on instagram facebook youtube linkedin x all over the world a live show every monday night at 7 30 eastern and you can of course You can catch the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts. Thanks for being here, Jeff. Have a super week. All right, Graves. See you, bud. Thanks, Graves, for being here. Thanks, Mike, for all the comments. Really appreciate it. Let's go. You guys are the absolute best. I am your technical director, and I am out. Let's go, Bucks.

Marc: Let's go, Beds. Root Weedle, go!