How Steelers Coach Broderick Jones Early Could Be Vital | AFC Overrated? | New Rookie Camp Approach

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Rookie camp is over for the Pittsburgh Steelers and we're going to get you some more insight on how things went and specifically what we saw that might be different this year from other years. That and some questions that we take here. Right on the Lockdown Steelers Podcast, I'm your host Chris Carter here today with Alan Saunders of Pittsburgh Sports Now. Let's get into it. You are Lockdown Steelers, your daily Pittsburgh Steelers Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, and welcome to the Lockdown Steelers Podcast. I'm your host Chris Carter for you to get your daily dose of all things on the Pittsburgh Steelers. So as you can find this show on your favorite podcasting app and especially on YouTube, like this video if you enjoy it. Subscribe to this YouTube channel to get all of your daily Monday through Friday episodes. As well as our bonus content, we thank you for making us your first listen every day because we're your team every day. And today's episode is sponsored by Fandall Sportsbook, official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Make every moment more visit fandall.com slash Lockdown today to get started. And as I said before, we're joined by Alan Saunders. You can read all his words at Steelersnow.com. He's the man there. He was that rookie camp with me. We were chilling in the hot sun watching some guys run around without some pads on, but it was still good times. Good to have you back out. It was football like and that was good enough for me. Exactly. And I think I posted like a minute and a half clip of just Broderick Jones doing some pass rush just footwork drills. And I saw people like, oh, football. Yes, please, more, more. Yes, yes. And I was like, guys, guys, it's me. We got it all on way to go. But I do think there were some cool things. And as I said before leading into this, the biggest thing about rookie camp that I look to see, one, are people not injured. And two are how do we how do guys talk when we get to meet them now that now that they're in the facility, they're taking things on. How do they respond to questions? And it's still all preliminary. It's grains of sand sand into the big in the big beach that is going to be their career. But I think we saw some interesting things there. I want to play this clip of Broderick Jones. Because as we talked about last week, you know, we're not in the last week, we showed a clip of him on our Saturday bonus episode. Go check that out if you missed it, by the way, of him talking about being excited to go up against Joey Bosa in week one of the season. Here's more of him talking about what he's looking forward to and working with the Steelers and maybe even working looking forward to with his coaches. So here's Broderick Jones. Is he getting drafted as a special moment, but does it feel like a little bit more real if you put the helmet on and stuff on a field? Yeah, it's definitely real. Now, you know, just being here in the facility with the pads on gear, you know, getting to learning stuff, learning new things and, you know, just trying to figure it out. When this ends, will you stick around here? Will you head back home for a little better after this weekend? No, I'll be here. Kirby Smart talked about the great relationship you had with you. What's your first impression of getting to know Coach Meyer and Coach Tomlin? Oh, man, just being around them, you know, that's the best way for me to feel somebody out just being around them, seeing what they're like, you know, what makes them, what motivates them, what ticks them, you know, just a little thing. So, you know, really haven't been around them a whole bunch, not a lot of time, but, you know, as time goes on, you know, I plan to get to learning very well. You looking forward to going up against TJ Watt and Alex Huystin within a couple of weeks? I'm looking forward for everything, man. You know, I'm just ready to get to work because I know those guys are going to push me to make me better. So, at the end of the day, win-lose the draw, however it goes, you know, I'm always ready. Now, Alan, when we're talking about being ready, we're talking about, you know, we're talking about the challenges that Broderick Jones is going to face here. We brought it up briefly on the Saturday podcast, but then you and I talked about it even more on the final word WPXI on Sunday night. Broderick Jones not only faces Nick Bosa in week one, he potentially faces Miles Garrett in week two with the Browns, Max Crosby with the Raiders in week three with Las Vegas, and then maybe even Will Anderson, the third overall pick of the draft with the Houston Texans in week four, that's a lot of really talented, high prestige, high profile pass starters he's going to have to go up against. He's going to need TJ Watt and Alex Huystin with, I think, to put up to the rigor. And I think that's going to be the biggest thing about this whole lead up to September is how fast does he take on those challenges? I think it's important for like this season. I don't know that it's important in the long run. I think people could have had it. Like, Lineman, take a long time to develop sometimes. They do. I don't think that's a secret around the NFL. And this is a guy that has a lot of work to do in terms of his past protection. I think he's a pretty solid run blocker right now and could be if he had to play right away. But I think to me, it doesn't matter to me when Broder Jones plays as long as he plays well. You know, like those are really good passrushers. I don't think it's like a five-o-one fire if we see Dan Morgue out there week one. Like he's doing really well against Miles Garrett. He has something really, really well against Miles Garrett. Like I think I would have to be really impressed by what I see from Broder Jones in training camp to think that he would be the better option for my past protection standpoint in week two. Like, I don't know. I just think that's a lot to put on this guy's plate right away. I think he has a ton of talent and is going to be a really good player. But I don't think it's a disaster if he doesn't start week one. Honestly, I think, you know, like that Texans game and then you got kind of the schedule kind of lightens after that, right? Like, I don't know. It seems like there's a nice and then that week six by like seems like you're going to work a rookie lineman in. There's like a kind of good spot in the schedule there to do it. I don't hate that idea. So yeah, I don't know. I think we're probably getting a little ahead of ourselves to be counting reps for Broder Jones against Nick Bosa and Miles Garrett. Let's see how he does against TJ and Alex Seismuth first because like you said, those guys are going to put him through the ringer. And, you know, it was great. One of the things that Broderick said in his introductory press conference was that it was those practices, his freshman year of Georgia, that he really valued when he was going up against, you know, six first round draft picks as a freshman offensive lineman that he really felt accelerated his growth and got him ready. You know, he was a five star prospect when to Georgia didn't play his first year at all. Didn't play his second year until like the eighth or ninth game. So I mean, I don't know. We'll see how he goes. We'll see how he takes. He's got a lot of work to do, but I'm not feeling like this is a I don't think this still is drafted him because they need him to play left tackle September 7th. I think they drafted him because he has a ceiling to be a really good starting left tackle in the league when he gets there. The question will be, will he be able to win that when that first starting left tackle spot by the start of the season? And like you said, it doesn't mean the end of the world or that he was a bust of a pick if he's not the day one starter. Like you said, there's got two core four. I think it's still growing into being in an offensive lineman. Heck defensive lineman take time. Cam Hayward didn't become an all pro pro bowl guy. He's starting for two years. He's back. He's back. Third season. It's okay. Now draft 31st instead of 14th. But I mean, Cam Hayward's a all time great. Like it. Lyman takes some time sometime. Yeah. Lyman take time. It takes time to fill out your bodies and broader Jones is really young. But like we're talking about here, I think a big part of this is also going to be how does he personally take on. He's going to get beat. He's going to get beat that. And that was one thing I give Dan Moore a lot of credit for the Steelers through him and a lot of fire early on. And that first year Alex Highsmith whooped him. I mean, it was just up and down just every rep. He was getting killed. And now wasn't that Alex Highsmith wasn't beating him in year two, but he was able to hold his ground a bit more and he looked more formidable as a left tackle. And that's where the progress was seen there. And even so, Dan Moore Jr. still not a guy that I think projects to be the long term starter at left tackle for this team. Granite, that's why they drafted. Broderick Jones. But the point I make is this. We're going to see a lot of top tier edge rushers coming through the season because mind you some of those names of guys we named in miles and miles here. We're going to have to play them again later in the season anyways. The Steelers just have to see Broderick Jones get making progress throughout all this time. And I think it's going to be up to Mike Tomlin and it's going to be up to the Steelers as staff as a whole to make sure that he's growing in the right way so that he becomes Kenny Pickett's blind side protected because to me, that's the ultimate part of this is that the Steelers have to make sure in that early gauntlet of pass rushers, I'm less worried about Broderick Jones getting embarrassed and more worried about what might happen to Kenny Pickett if he does get embarrassed and the hits he might be forced to take which was the whole reason why they've been investing into this offensive line. Right you get the offensive line and to protect Kenny Pickett. You're not going to then put an offensive London that isn't ready for that workload out there because that's doing the opposite of protecting Kenny Pickett. Right. I mean, and so I only Dan Moore's a great left tackle but I think he's good enough that if they don't feel the Jones is ready, they're not coming to feel the need to rush him. There's some spots in this. There's the week six by. There's two other long weeks later in the year because they have Thursday night games so then they have like what's like a nine day week in between games. Like there's plenty of time to fit a guy into the starting lineup. It's harder to tackle than it is in other positions because you know, Joey Porter Jr. he's going to play whether he starts or not does it really matter who cares. He's going to play a lot. One will figure it out how much going forward but you know, usually you want to have one tackle but I think there's some time to work a man. I'm not not feeling the need to rush him. We'll see how things go. We will see how things go and it'll be a lot to be talking about but it's I think again it's going to be really interesting to see how he grows in the process and how close will he be to starting. That'll be one of the major things that we see. Can't tell it right now. It's football without without pads. That's a big part of this. It's just how do you look at rookie camp? It's like, well, he didn't lay his hands on another guy in anger. Exactly. He looked tall. I don't know what else you want me to say. He looked tall but I'll say this the way he handled himself. He seemed like he was he was open eye. One thing that I asked Tomlin about in the in the presser on Saturday at the end of the rookie camp media sessions, you know, I asked him Kirby Smart talked about how he was this and broader Jones was just an eager learner and he was he was quick to he was quick to like work with his coach and he really wanted to be coachable. And I asked Tomlin like, did he live up that and Tomlin was like, yeah, sure he did, but everybody should when it's rookie camp. And so I thought it was kind of refreshing that he was just like, I'm not giving this kid any credit just because he showed up and did what we expected him to do in the first two days of practice. And it was just like, you know, the way of that's a very Tomlin thing to do is just like, yeah, sure, but I we expect he's the first round pick. We expect there's a lot more out of this guy. Yeah. And I think he has a good mindset and good attitude though. That's a good thing to have. You know, I don't I expect Tomlin to give him any credit for it. But you know, you can tell when guys are not fully focused on what's happening and not taking things seriously. And I, you know, I think Jones is a pretty diligent guy who's going to work hard and have some fun and I thought he has like an energy to him that I thought was appreciated from the guys are around him. So that's good to see too. Absolutely. I want to talk more about about about where the Steelers are with some of those opponents we talked about, especially in the AFC. We'll get to that in just a minute here on the lockdown Steelers podcast. But first before they do that, I want to tell you guys about our great message from our sponsors, Fandul, who sponsored this podcast. And with the NBA playoffs on fire right now, the conference finals are set. Lakers, Nuggets, Heat, Celtics, it's a lot of action right now. There's no better place to get in on that action than Fandul Americans number one sports book. And all their new customers, a no sweat first bet, which gives you up to $1,000 back in bonus bets. If your first bet doesn't win on Fandul, just go to fandul.com slash locked on and you could sign up today to claim your no sweat first bet. You can bet on who's who scores the most. Jimmy Butler go off again. Will LeBron be killing it? 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Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices vary by state. Options selected by customer, availability and eligibility may vary. Back here on the locked on Steelers podcast. I'm your host Chris Carter here with Alan Saunders of Steelers now dot com Pittsburgh Sports now and all and all that. Alan, before we get to this, I want to just a reminder to everyone who watches the show. We're going to take a call here in just a second from what people have called in and just a reminder, you can call in anytime at 412-223644. Leave your name, where you're from, and keep your question under a minute and we'll try to get you on the show. And we have a lot of calls that come in. There's a ton of calls that sometimes we don't get to, but I guarantee you will get to your call if you donate $10 to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation on the campaign link that I have provided above or on the screen right now. You can use the QR code that's currently on the screen. If you want to, if you want to use that to donate, there's also a link that'll be attached to this episode in the description, whether on YouTube or on whichever podcasting service you use. So without further ado, let's get to Parker the Pocono who has a question about the Steelers standing in the AFC. Hey, Chris, this is Parker from Pocono PA. I got a question for you about Steelers with all the off seasons and the draft, which I think we did pretty good and key necessary players. How would you think the Steelers would do this season coming with how stacked AFC is? Because getting Rodgers for the Jets, still got Patrick Mahomes, got your Joe Burrow. Yes, just let me know what your thoughts about how well the Steelers will do this season off of whatever happened on the offseason, which Omar Khan did a great job. All right. Thank you. Have a great one. Thank you, Parker. Appreciate the question. Appreciate everyone who does call on to 412-223664-4 to leave us a question. How many donations you can give to the Cystic Fibosus Foundation campaign we got running here. But Alan, before we get to how the Steelers will do in the AFC, let's talk about this. How does the AFC stack up right now? Is it overloaded with Supreme talent that's going to make the Steelers success that much harder to get than last year? No. Oh. I think this is a such an overrated talking point. Like interesting. Are good teams in the AFC and are the best teams currently in the AFC? Yes. And would you rather that not be the case? Sure. But look, I mean, the best teams in the AFC are the Chiefs, the Bengals and the Bills, right? We can agree on that. Those are the best. Yeah. The Steelers beat two of those three in their building in the last two years when the Steelers were not good. Like what? I don't know. Like what? They don't scare me. I'm not like shaking in my shoes about playing those teams. Like they have noticeable holes. The Chiefs may be like slightly in a different category. Also the Chiefs not on the schedule this year. Neither. What was that? Like, you know, and the Jets. I love this one. Do you all remember our last viewing of the New York Jets as they were tripping and falling over losing to a two-o list Miami Dolphins team to keep the Steelers out of the playoffs? Do we just forget what the Jets looked like? And Aaron Rodgers was bad last year. Like, I don't know. Maybe he'll be better. You can reunite him with his coordinator. You put some decent, I mean, I think some pretty decent weapons around him. But like, I don't know. Why are we anointing the Jets and just assuming that the Steelers aren't going to get a lot better too? I don't know. I don't see it. I think it's way over discussed. There isn't a team in the AFC. I don't think the Steelers can be. You know, the way you put it right there, I'm not too scared of the Steelers having a hard time beating any of these teams. Any other part of this, like you said, I'm going to pull up the schedule here. The teams that they play, like you said, they don't play the Chiefs or the Bills. And frankly, I think the Steelers, we saw them split with the Bengals last year. In heck, they came seven points within sending it to overtime last year against them in the second game. I think they can absolutely hang with them. And yeah, sure, the Browns will have DeShawn Watson with a full year of being on the team. But the Browns also didn't add much to their roster this year because they didn't have a draft because they are basically down to a third year, a third round pick there. They lost Jadivian Clonning and they just traded for Zadiri. It's visible to y'all. That goes with the defensive. That's pretty much what I don't know. I think the Browns will be better, but they're not like, they're not terrifyingly good to me. The Steelers are way underrated in this whole conversation. I just don't understand why we're looking at the Jets and saying, oh, the Jets got Aaron Rodgers, who by the way, was not very good last year and he wasn't old. Okay. And saying, oh my God, the Jets are going to be so much better. And we're looking at the Steelers who played a rookie quarterback, have their whole team coming back basically. And you're like, you're going to have a healthy TJ Watt probably. Like, why are we not talking about the Steelers? Like, they're going to be a lot better. I don't get it. I don't know why the Jets. Oh, it's fine. Not the comments section. So much better, but the Steelers are going to be the same. I don't buy it. You're firing up the comments section. I guarantee right now, like, yes, that one's Saunders. Get him on every episode. He's bringing the heat. And I feel you though, I feel you on the excitement because here's my thing. I also think the Steelers are going to be pretty good this year. I'm not saying they're going to be Super Bowl contenders, but I'm right with you. They can, they can walk up to the, to the Bengals and take those guys on. The Bengals also lost both their starting safeties who were a huge part of what made that defense good at times. And that's what, and that was a big part of what made that team more of a balanced team last year. It wasn't just Joe Burrow lightening it up every week. That defense, especially in that playoff win against the Ravens had to play very well for them to get where they are. And they lost two big pieces on, and they're going to need to have some other, other, other overturns. I think there's going to be a lot of questions there. But like you said, going back to this schedule. I mean, some of the teams they got to face, like I said, then I've said before, the Niners getting them a week one, I think that's the biggest favor the Steelers got, got as far as all of this. That being your week one game, they might have some QB problems. They have, they have the best defense last year and they, and they, and they got Jevon Hargre back now. But I think week one, the Steelers will be coming out, fired, red hot and they'll be ready to play. But you look the rest of this schedule. I mean, the Ravens and the Bengals, your, your division rivals, you go up against them all the time. Trevor Lawrence, the Jaguars, they were a playoff team, but you know, they, they're still figuring out who they are as well. All these teams that are on their schedule are not some other worldly caliber. Like I don't look at this like last year when we look, when you and I, before the season, we're looking at that run of the, the, the Eagles, the Bills and the run that they were going to have. We were like, man, that's going to be a rough stretch. And sure enough, they started the season, what one in six or whatever one in seven. I'll just throw, I don't say anything like that this year. Agreed. And like you said, last year they had a rookie quarterback. They lost their best player and maybe the best defensive player in the NFL still. TJ Watt for two months and somehow they rebounded and found a way to go nine and eight this year. You bar any of those types of injuries. You have a better Kenny Pickett, you hope you invested in the offensive line, but not just with broader Jones with Isaac Somalo and depth pieces. You probably gotten a little bit sharper in your run game after the line coalesced last year. The past game might be a little bit sharper because of all that. And then as we said, the defense could be work. I look at this and I say, man, I'm right with you as much as yes, there's talent in the AFC. There's big names in the AFC. I think the Steelers could bang right with those guys, especially if they play the style of football. We're talking about them playing, playing great defense, running the football well and then making it a more balanced attack. So Kenny Pickett doesn't have to air it out for them to win games. And Steelers have an easy schedule. Like they do. They have an easy schedule. Those other teams are going to play harder schedules than the Steelers are. They have the advantage this year of having not made the playoffs last year, of having finished third-night division and they get it easier schedule because of it. And they get some luck like they're playing the AFC South. I don't know. Maybe Jacksonville is good. The rest of those teams don't scare me at all. The NFC West is as down as it has been in a very long time. I mean, the Seahawks still had a good year last year, but I only admit it's looking at them like they're a Super Bowl team. The Cardinals are already faster. Like, you know, I mean, I just think they're this sets up very nicely for the Steelers to me. I don't think that we should be terrified of this big bad AFC Boogie Man like it's some unconquerable foe. And the last one to me is Lamar Jackson. The Steelers own that guy. Now, are the Ravens going to win a lot of games with him? Yeah, sure. Yeah. But like I've on the Steelers, I'm not particularly concerned about Lamar Jackson coming back. In fact, they've had a harder time with his backups than they've had with him. You know, I don't know. He's a good player. I mean, obviously I have a lot of respect for him, but I don't think the Steelers should be shaking in their boots because he's coming back. A thing that you said to as well, them finishing third in the division, they hadn't done that since 2012. Like they've been first or second for almost an entire decade, which means, you know, and that doesn't just that doesn't just mean, oh, yeah, like, you know, it's first or second place. But it's also that's the schedule you're being given. You're playing that as three games where you're getting either the best team of a division from the previous year, like the Chiefs, like the Bills, or you're getting the second best team, which some years was still the bills if it was if the Patriots were still on those years. You know, and that's I think that's a big part of what's happened with the Steelers, you know, in the past in the past few years is that they've had to play. So let's see, third third, third, yeah, third division this year, that's changed up their schedule. Now, when you look at it, that's part of why they're playing the Raiders instead of instead of the Chiefs. You know, so again, I'm right with you, man. I think that whereas yes, the AFC has some serious talent in it, but to answer Parker's question, I think they stack up very well in it. And I expect them to make the playoffs when all is said and done this year. Alan, we got to switch topics real quick and get to some more of your rookie camp thoughts here because I want to ask you something that you were talking about with up hammer with and how things might be a little different with how a rookie camp worked and some of that might give some insight into what Omar Khan in his front office is doing. We'll talk about that in a minute here on the lock down Steelers podcast. I'm your host Chris Carter here with Alan Saunders. Stick with us. There's no off season for true NFL fans. Listen, every day to the lock down NFL podcast. Our expert hosts keep you up to date daily in 30 minutes or less on the latest breaking news training camp battles and player moves that will affect your favorite NFL team available now on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcast part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Back here on the lock down Steelers podcast. I'm your host Chris Carter here with Alan Saunders of Steelersnow.com. Of course, Pittsburgh sports now group. Alan, something you and I were talking about and it was about differences in rookie camps. Now, I, this was my first rookie camp that I've attended. I haven't been able to go to others because of other jobs that I've had. But this year, this was, this was, this was an opportunity. I got to see it and you noted something after other rookie camps that you've covered that was a bit of a difference because you explained it to our audience and what you think it might mean. Yeah, I thought there was just a different focus to this year's rookie camp. There were a lot of tryouts there. I mean, a lot, a lot of tryouts and it was very clear. I wrote the Steelersnow.com. This was an all hands on deck scouting job to fill this roster. I mean, they have guys from all over, right? I mean, Gable, a depot from Texas Tech, all American hammer and discus thrower never played a down to college football. Clemson's backup quarterback, eight year vet Nick Boyle, who's going to change his position to Long Snapper. Like, you know, six guys from HBCUs where Omar Khan was the only general manager to go to the HBCU combine in New Orleans. And then they bring six guys to the, to the rookie camp on tryouts. You know, there's a kicker from Mexico. Like they, they were searching far and wide to find guys to fill this roster. And then they didn't treat them like camp fodder. I didn't think I thought those guys got a chance to show what they could do. And it was this very interesting sort of breakdown where you saw position coaches, especially position coaches where the team has a high draft pick. So like Pat Meyer was just married to broader Jones and, and Grady Brown had Joey Porter, Jr. on this shoulder and Corey tries on this shoulder all weekend, right? And you saw lots of instruction, you know, individual instruction about technique and things that still just want to change and improve. And I could get into some super boring minutiae about that. But if you're into that kind of thing, you can check it out still. There's not a comp, but I'm not going to go into like how exactly they want broader Jones foot to move in his past sets, but they want to change it. Okay. So we got all that, but they don't sort of like Tom Lennon, Canada and, and the scouts that were there and TA and those guys were sort of the evaluators, right? They were looking at these guys to see, okay, we've got five open contracts. That's more than I think I can remember them having going into this. Usually they're already at 90 and it's like, okay, if we're going to sign a tryout, we've got to cut a guy. I don't remember having five spots open where it was this really like, hey, play your way onto this team. And I think it made for a really interesting camp and a little bit more like, you know, hey, it's like we said, it's football and shorts. It's football like, but I thought it did make it like they gave them an opportunity to be competitive. And I like that. I haven't seen a lot of that. And my experience in rookie camps over the years. I know I agree. You know, I think that there's in the sense that that I don't get to see rookie camp, but I see rookie camp rosters. And it was kind of like, well, there's a lot of guys here. And it's just like, this seems like there's something going on here that they're looking for something in someone. And part of it might be the rebuilding phase. You know, we've talked about how I think this is a big chance for Mike Tomman to rebuild how he wants his locker room to look. And I think he wants more guys that really want it and an easy way to find those guys. It's not an easy way. It's actually pretty hard, but a way to find those guys, guaranteed a guy who come to you and prove who they are to you from the jump. Not just guys you draft, but guys who earn their way onto the roster the hard way. And if you find those guys, and even if they're just special teamers for a couple of years, you know they're the hardest working special teamers because they're your guys. They're not veterans that you signed up and coming in. Yeah, you can expect them to hold up a professional standard, but they're also going to be guys that may not be as invested into the team. Whereas you get if a guy comes into here, like I think it was a Lonzo Graham running back out of Morgan State. I was a guy who was an HBC. He's an HBC player was brought in and he earned it. He was so nice. He's big. He's also tiny, but that's a guy who now rocks it. Motor behind him though. Right. No, he gets going, but Alan, I mean a guy like that. Now he's signed with an NFL team and now he's going to be able to come into OTAs. He's extra motivated to like, hey, every day I'm going to be proven it. And I think there's a competition that Mike Tomlin, Omar Khan, this whole organization wants to foster amongst all the guys to fight for those last roster spots. And that'll push everyone down the line and help create this environment that I think they want to rekindle with the Steelers locker room. Yeah, a guy named Mike Panasek who's he played defensive line at Michigan State, got to the NFL, moved to center with the Carolina Panthers, did the like practice squad thing, washed out, got cut, Steelers had him in like the end of the year for a free agent visit. They were probably considering whether to sign them to a reserve contract, put them on the 90 man, then they didn't. He went to the XFL was an all XFL center, I believe for St. Louis, and then comes back to try out a rookie minicamp. And he's like 30 in this rookie minicamp full of like 21, 22, 23 year old guys, he's bald, he's got a big beard, you know, stands out. But like, man, you know that guy wants it, right? Like I'm with you. I thought it was, I don't want to make too much out of rookie minicamp in any direction good or bad. But I did think there was a real positive competitive energy because of the way they structured things that I really, I'm not sure I've seen in the past. And I think that is that's if there's something to notice that's different about this rookie camp compared to others, that's what I think we're both looking at here is a maybe a tonal shift for how the Steelers use rookie camp. Like you said, in the past, it's been more so about, Hey, we drafted these guys, let's make sure that they get in. Let's see how adept they are. Let's see how serious they are and then get them ready for OTA's because then that's that's going to make that many undrafted guys. There's only six undrafted free agents. Usually they sound like 10, 12. It almost seems like they kind of intentionally held some spots to dangle some carrots for tryouts, right? Like it honestly kind of feels like that that they could have signed some more undrafted guys right after the draft. They didn't. They left some slots over. They want guys to come in and earn it. I don't know. It's interesting. They're not a team that spends a lot of money in that undrafted free agent marketplace. And I think that's something where they've fallen behind a little bit where like a lot of other teams are now giving out some like six figure signing bonuses and guaranteed money to undrafted guys. I think they've decided they're not going to play that game. But maybe this is another way instead of saying, okay, like, I don't know, we didn't get any guys who really wanted instead of just going down the line and going to the next guy, maybe they find a way to make that process more competitive and bring it, bring it, you know, cast a wider net instead of signing one guy who you're not really sure about, let's bring in 30 of them and then we'll know for really sure about them. And you know, I wrote the Browns had five tryouts and the Texans had four and the Steelers had 33. There's something going on there, right? Like that's like you don't get that different from your peers unless there's something intentional happening. I'm right with you. There's something going on here and we'll see how the Steelers handle it, how many more of those tryouts guys that they will sign and if they don't sign them, who do they go get because OTAs, I think there's, we have a full week off of the Steelers doing their own things, but then OTAs will be starting up and then many campers right around the corner. And then we will get to see who who become all their training camp invitees. It's going to be a fun process seeing that. Find out more about that at Alan Saunders with his group, Steelers now.com. Alan, let me know all the things you guys got coming up and where to find it. Who's not.com, myself, Nick Fairbaugh, Holgang, Ritten. We got some interviews left over from rookie camp getting into some film on some of these rookies going a little bit more in-depth with that this week. And then yeah, getting ready for OTAs. They'll be here before you know it just next week. So lock them on and I'm trying to take some days off here because I'm allowed to. Yeah, you're the boss man. You can do what you need to do. Alan, thanks so much for joining us here in the lock down Steelers podcast. Appreciate everything you do. Check them out at a Saunders underscore PGH on Twitter to find out stuff or Steelers now.com to go as written work. I'm your host Chris Carter here in the lock down Steelers podcast. Before I sign off, one of this, which a happy belated Mother's Day to my mom was able to spend a nice brunch with her. I love her. I love you so much. Mom, I hope that you're continuing to have a great week going into everything else here. Thank you for everything you've ever done for me. I love you very much. 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