Steelers' NFL Draft Class Sets Up Najee Harris for Big Year | Omar Khan's Remaining Personnel Issues

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. We've talked a lot about the Steelers draft class and how strong we feel it is coming out of the draft process. But let's talk about how specifically this draft class could impact Naji Harris and the Steelers run game. We'll go over that much more here on the Lockdown Steelers Podcast. I'm your host Chris Carter. 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, bringing you your daily dose of all things on the Pittsburgh Steelers. As always, you can find this show on your favorite podcasting app and especially on YouTube. Like this video if you enjoyed. Subscribe to this channel to get all of your daily Monday through Friday episodes as well as our bonus content. We thank you for making the Lockdown Steelers podcast your first listen every day because we're your team every day. And like I said, we've talked about this draft class. We talked about Frederick Jones, Keanu Benton, Joey Porte, Jr., Donald Washington, down the line. We've addressed Nick Herbig even, Corey Trice. We've talked about all these guys and we'll keep talking about them. But I want to take a step back here on a show by myself today where how does this impact Nodgy Harris because truly the Steelers, they've been in a rebuild. We've been talking about this rebuild with Kenny Pickett and everything they've been doing. But a key piece of this rebuild was to get Nodgy Harris who was projected to be the top running back of his draft class back when they selected him in 2021 and to be the guy who could kind of carry the offense while they looked for their new franchise quarterback and now that they believe they have him and Kenny Pickett while he develops into that franchise quarterback. The run game hasn't manifested just yet, but we did see signs of likes toward the ends of last season. And I think with this draft class, it more accentuates the strengths that you were that the Steelers were finding towards the end of last season. That's not just the draft class. It's also the free agency class. So let's revisit for a second some of the numbers that go into last season and what we saw because if you remember, Steelers came out first, first eight weeks of the season, two and six. Everyone saying, well, this is like Mike Tomlin's first ever losing season. It's going to happen. They're falling apart. They're just going to tear everything down and build from and build again from scratch. But then in the second half of the season, they finished seven and two and that gets them that gets them just short of the playoffs. But the big part of that strength was one, the return of TJ Watt, which can't be overstated. But two also a surge in the run game. And we talked about this after the season, but you go back over the numbers over the first eight games, the Steelers averaged 94.9 rushing yards per game. If that was their season long average, that would have been the fourth worst average in all of all of the NFL, just ahead of the Chargers who don't run, who don't run, just because they have Justin Herbert and the Texans who were just utterly terrible last year. But in the last nine games of the season, they averaged 146 rushing yards per game. If that had been maintained throughout the season, that would have been seventh best behind the Eagles, but ahead of the Cowboys and the 49ers, all successful running teams that are competitive right now. Point being, the Steelers were finding ways to click and they were finding ways to work with both Nijie Harris and Jalen Warren last year. And that was with an offensive line that was figuring itself out, coming together, working to coalesce and started to do so at the end of last season. But there was no first round draft pick on that line. And that offensive line was working with a left guard, Kevin Dodson. Whereas this year, it projects to have Isaac Somalow, a guy that they brought in from the Eagles, who was part of their team at one, the NFC Championship, and a significant part that Eagles fans were sad to see go. So the question is, can Nijie Harris finally get a chance to get going and become the offensive weapon that we think he can be? Now, I prefer, I definitely think so because I've seen Nijie Harris when he gets going in games. We've seen him get loose and tear up games like against the Browns, like games where he's kind of where he's been able to put the Steelers on his back a little bit, take the tough yards, take the tough runs. But something we've talked about too was Nijie Harris, in most of his time with the Steelers, was putting positions where he was often running into brick walls, the offensive line wasn't opening up holes or where he thought they were opening up holes, they were letting guys through. And there was clear miscommunications. And then there were plenty of times where Nijie Harris was not trusting that a hole would be there because the blocking hadn't been there. And then the hole was there. And there was a lot of confusion. But again, that confusion went away towards the end of last season. And now with Broderick Jones, who projects to be a much better run blocker than a past blocker, at least coming into the NFL in what his tape says, they brought in Isaac Somalow, another physical guy who could be on the offensive line. Even getting darned out in Washington, who we were just talking about on yesterday's show about projecting to be a guy who can help a lot in run blocking. All those things add up to me to being an offense that can be physical, can dominate, or as Mike Tomlin has been quoted by Keanu Beton as saying, goons. Now we'll get to the goon talk a little bit later because that's a whole other thing. But the idea that the Steelers, this is part of what we've been saying all along. They want to run the ball more. They want to out physical their opponents. That's who the Steelers have been when they've been at their best at several different parts of the franchise. And I think Broderick Jones plays in that. Darnell Washington plays into that. Even on the defensive side of the ball, Joey Porter Jr. and Keanu Beton, they're both physical players before anything else. And Naji Harris, he's about that physicality. That's what worked for him so well at Alabama. He feeds off of it. He works into it. And that's what he wants to be able to do. And I think the Steelers, they want to feed him in those moments. And when we go back and we look at some of the weaknesses the Steelers have had in recent seasons, you go back to 2021. They finished dead last in rushing defense. And that was something that they swore would never happen again this year. They finished in the top 10. The year before that, they finished dead last and rushing offense, which led them to drafting Naji Harris. They've been wanting to change those two things. And in fact, when they had the worst rushing stat in 2020, they were 12 and four, they found a way to mitigate it with defense and veteran quarterback play from Ben Rothensberger in an offense that he was all too familiar with. And this is where I think this is going to be completely different now. You're not basing an offense around an order quarterback who needs to know the system. You're basing an offense off of its strengths. And right now, I think you look at this roster, at least on paper, strengths are going to be upfront and it's able to make plays at the line of scrimmage. And then trusting Naji Harris to get yards there. And also building off of that, calling play action, something we talked about yesterday on the show as well. But being able to call play action, catch defenses off guard when they see that you're winning the physical battles because that didn't happen enough for the Steelers last year. And then when you catch them off guard, you find open guys and that opens up opportunities for Kenny Pickett. Last year, the Steelers, when playing in that second half stretch of the season, they won six games where their rushing yards were either rushing yards compared to their passing yards, where 50 yards less or they were more than their passing yard, 50 yards or less or more than their passing yards. Meaning that either there was a very close balance of how much they gained through the air versus how much they gained to the ground or they gained more on the ground that they threw the air and they were six and oh in those situations. Now, you'll probably sit there and think, well, yeah, Chris, when teams are winning, they probably run the ball more. Well, the Steelers never really had too many big leads to defend this year. So they, I don't think that they fit into that category. But one thing that they do fit into is when we look, look at how they play last year, they were playing to protect Kenny Pickett. They wanted to limit how many different odds situations he was put in. They were trying to trust their offensive line, trust the trust, nausea, Harris, to not turn the ball over and for that the defense will keep team, keep teams close enough so that at the end of the game, they get the offense can strike when necessary and that's when they'll take their risks if they have to take them. And that worked out last year. That's not how it needs to be this year. And that's what I want to keep talking to you all about because I don't, whereas I do think you still want to have that run, that run pass balance. You don't want it in the way that you had to have it last year. And I think that's going to be the key difference that makes the 2023 Steelers better than the 2022 Steelers. We'll talk more about that in a second here on the lockdown Steelers podcast. 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We're continuing your discussion here talking about how the Steelers draft class impacts specifically, Naji Harris and the run game and why that's so important for the Steelers identity in 2023 and beyond. Now, again, I go back and I look back to last season and there were times they had to run the ball. They had to play great defense. They didn't want to put Kenny Pickett in those situations. And frankly, it makes sense. The Steelers were throwing a lot of interceptions in the first half of the season. Mitch Trubisky threw a couple himself against the Patriots and the Browns. Kenny Pickett threw three against the Jets, three again against the Dolphins, two against the Bills, two against the Eagles. But then in the second half of the season, you only saw him throw interceptions, one to the Raiders and one to the Browns. But he didn't throw another interception throughout that second half stretch of the season because they were protecting him. Now when the Steelers are running the ball, I don't think they'll be doing it to protect him as much. They'll be doing it because they'll be better at it. And that's the big key here. Ken Broderick Jones coming at left tackle along with Isaac Smolo and make that left side of the Steelers offensive line a more dominant unit. We saw the middle be solidified with Mason Cole. We saw the right side look better with James Daniels next to Chacomo Corifor. But we couldn't see this whole offensive line. We need too many reps where completely together they all moved the defensive line. That's what the Steelers offensive line with that made Lady on Belgo. That's what they did so well. They were all together often and the Steelers kept the same five starters for at least four years, which was a very long time to keep a starting offensive line together if you compare it to other teams in the NFL. But when they did that, they were doing so because that group was moving people and they were getting guys off the ball. They were creating space for Lady on Belgo. So that allowed Lady on Belgo when we look back to his prime to use his fancy feet. He always had his feet chop and he could always change directions and get things going. He wasn't having to worry about defenders two yards behind the line of scrimmage at the line of scrimmage. He could often get to two, three yards behind the head of the line of scrimmage and then make his first move or make it even later than that. But that's what the Steelers have to get back to doing. Pushing people around, being more physical to them and that way Nachi Harris finds the space to make those plays as will Jalen Warren. And when that happens, that forces defenses to think more. Hey, we load up bigger on personnel. We get him bigger strong, bigger linebackers. Do we get in more defensive linemen? Do we take this safety off the field? Do we take the slot corner off the field? And then you try to find the mismatches. And I want to talk more about the 12 personnel packages because I know some of you do want to talk about that. We're going to have on Dorn Dickerson next week, former pit tight end who works at 93.7 in the fan right now and an NFL tight end who played for the Patriots. I want to get his perception perspective specifically on the tight end position for the Steelers. We'll talk about that with him next week. I do think that that balance that we've been talking about, that's the key that we're looking at across the board when we're talking about the Steelers team taking the next step forward. Yes, it requires Kenny Pickett to step up. Yes, it requires Matt Canada to not Matt Canada. It requires Nachi Harris to step up. But it also requires that offensive line to beat opponents at the line of scrimmage. And they, I think Omar Khan, we talked about this all throughout the offseason, whether it was bringing in Somala, whether it was drafting Broderick Jones, he's added guys here to the Steelers roster that they are, I think are going to only help them take that step forward a bit quicker. Danmore Jr., Kevin Dodson did a fine job in the year and you can go back to my grades of them. Danmore Jr. got the lowest of the grades. I think Kevin Dodson, I gave a C. But when you look at, when you look at that side of the line, that was clearly the weakness when you looked at the starting five. Now you add in two guys that project to have high value and should come in coalesce well, and they're not looking for an identity anymore. The other thing to remember is they had a new offensive line coach last year and Pat Meyer. They had a new offense that they were really learning. Even though Matt Canada was the offensive coordinator in 2021, he wasn't necessarily, I don't think that was ever his real offense because it was still revolving around Ben Roth's burger. But now he's able to shape this offense with Kenny Pickett and you're going to have Kenny Pickett in training camp knowing that he is the starter. Not coming in as the third string guy who has to work his way up to the second string and then eventually take the spot off of Mr. Bisky and then get used to the first team. No, he's earned his stripes and he's gotten there and now he's ready coming off of this offseason to be together with those guys just as the offensive line will have that opportunity. Because remember that last year going to the training camp, we weren't sure what the offensive line was going to look like. We were thinking, okay, well, Kendrick Green start over Kevin Dodson at left guard. Kendrick Green didn't even play. You know, what will happen? Will Mason Cole be good? Will James Daniels be good? Will Chukuma Korf or switch to left tackle for Dan Moore Jr.? A lot of different things were considered. But now you kind of have your foundation here. Mason Coles your center, James Daniels, your right guard, Chuk chuk's can stay at right tackle. Now you get to add two guys who I think are pretty obvious to be there and then you still have death with Dotsen who's still on the roster, Moore who's still on the roster. You added Nate Herbig, older brother to Nick Herbig, the outside linebacker they drafted out of Wisconsin. But now you have legitimate options at different positions to fill in if someone gets hurt. And again, you're getting a chance for everyone to kind of come in and this is the identity. No questioning anymore what the Steelers need to be good at or what they plan to be good at or what's going to happen there. It's going to be about executing, beating someone to the punch. And when you're setting the tone in games, that gives you that chance to set the tone. That it gives you the chance to kind of keep an opponent off guard and then you dictate the terms of engagement moving forward. That's all part of how I think the Steelers can be a much better team. And again, it revolving around non-gee Harris. If we see this guy making the plays, if he's able to make a guy miss at four or five yards downfield instead of behind the line of scrimmage and then making that and there's not to say that he's not going to have to do that sometimes defense is getting the backfield. It happens. But there were so many regular times throughout the early part of the season where he was getting where he was having to deal with those guys almost every play at the line of scrimmage and not in a way where it's just one one in space and he just has to beat them. He was dealing with them in times where it's up. And listen, not you Harris isn't without without blame. He certainly missed plenty of opportunities himself. But I think when you see a collective group come together and you see hopefully I start to play together more and guys start to better players start to play around each other more, you'll see improvement from them. And I think you even saw that you go back again, go back and look to the 2010 Steelers offensive line or own Foster was there, but Ramon was able to play better when you had a marquee he's pouncing on his right. When you had David DeCastre on the offensive line, when Marcus Gilbert was there, when Bill Nueva was there and you know, and that less side of that line back then, they were definitely not the strongest part of the offensive line, but they were strong and it helped having them having guys to the right of them that were truly talented and setting the tone for the offense and it's been for the offensive line. So all that being said, I really think that the key to the Steelers right now is maintaining the progress with the offensive line, making sure Naji Harris is able to eat and get plenty of yards and then everything comes off of that. I truly think if they bring that there, can he pick it? We've seen him do the off season workouts. We've seen him go through and try to improve and we've seen him kind of improve from last year. You know, we so we talked about how he wanted to make sure that when he made a mistake in the game, he didn't make it again. He wanted to erase things and we saw that with again, only throwing two interceptions in the second half of the season, whereas he had games, multiple games, where he threw three interceptions in the first half of the season. So I think that you can trust Kenny Pickett will get better. I don't think that he'll become our world just yet. I think that he can get to being one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. I think he can be a good to a decent to good quarterback, but all of that will be, I think, based off of how strong and how dominant the run game is to take the attention off of him and to give him the opportunity to make plays while the defense isn't sure about what he's trying to do or just specifically sitting back and saying, we're not scared of your run game because you can't run the ball. We're not scared of your past game because we know you can't throw deep. We're going to sit on these few things that we've seen you do on tape, taking away that factor from a defense can do a lot from an offense that finished 26th in scoring last year, 23rd in overall yards. And as we talked about earlier this week, I believe it was the Tuesday episode. This has to be the year that Matt Canada's offense is ranking up there. It doesn't have to be top 10, but has to be right or right, right above that area. It needs to be 11, 12, 13, 14 at the least, at the least, they have to be able to put those numbers up. We talked a lot of offense so far in this show. I want to talk a little bit about defense. I got a friend here to help me do it because we're going to talk about the steal, one of the Steelers additions they've made in free agency during the draft, which was a signing of a slot corner, but other moves that Omar Khan has to make. We'll talk about that in just a minute here on the lockdown. Steelers podcast stick with us. We'll be right back. The Tampa Bay Rays are for real this season and they just swept one of the best teams in baseball to prove it. The Pirates, they have not run into a buzz saw a team like the Rays and I think it got to them. Bounced back in game two against the Lakers. Can they keep this momentum going as the series heads to LA? And just like that, it's a best of five. And the Vegas Golden Knights are looking to build on a high scoring game one victory in their second round series against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. That's the way this team had played back in the inaugural season in the playoffs. For all these stories, head over to lockdown Rays, locked on Warriors and locked on Golden Knights. Check out lockdown's new series, Paving the Way. Each episode will highlight a different voice from around the network, a locked on host whose journey in the industry has helped pave the way toward creating a more inclusive and diverse media landscape. That's Paving the Way presented by State Farm, available now on the lockdown presents podcast feed. Back here on the lockdown Steelers podcast, I'm your host Chris Carter. We're continuing the show here. I want to switch from offense to defense here because we've done a lot of talk about the Najee Harris and the run game and the offensive line. And that's great. I think that's vital. But one thing that has been strong about Steelers defenses and I will keep talking about this throughout the off scene. But one thing that I've always believed that the Steelers defenses got right of the past was that they were strong up the middle. When you look back to those Steelers defenses, they didn't necessarily have to have their best players up the middle, but they had to have very good to great players up the middle. You go through the 70s, you look at the Steel Curtain defense with Mean Joe Green and Ernie Holmes up the middle there on the defensive line, Jack Lambert at middle linebacker and then even safeties like Mike Wagner and Donnie Shell there in the safety position who could line up in the middle part of the field. That allowed the Steelers to have a strength in the middle so that they could trust guys on the outside to win like Mel Blunt, Jack Ham and JT Thomas and other guys like that. Even the Steelers in the 2000s that were successful. You look up the middle. Who was up the middle? Casey Hampton, nose tackle was just mean, bad and just eight people up. James Fairer, inside linebacker set the tone was a captain on the field was able to get so much done there. Then of course Troy Polamalu wouldn't always line up in the middle because he would just line up everywhere, but you had him lurking over the middle part of the field and again that strength allowed guys like Deshae Townes and Ike Taylor to live on the outside. The Edge Ruchers could do their thing, but if you controlled the middle part of the field, that means you were shutting down the run. That means you were taking away short passes and you weren't giving up deep plays down the middle if they're hitting deep plays. They're hopefully hitting them down the sidelines and you're putting your corners in positions where they have to just focus on specific jobs, which I think is a big part of it. What are the Steelers done for the middle of the defense? Well, defensive line, I think they still got it. They got Cam Hayward, they got Ogun Jobe, they got the Maiti drafted Keanu Benton who we talked about earlier this week as maybe being the nose tackle for the team moving forward. Arthur Mote suggested that. That linebacker, they have not addressed linebacker with a draft pick. They've gotten Cole Holcomb and Landen Robert, so I think are decent linebackers. But as we talked about with Arthur Mote's, there guys that maybe won't be holding up in coverage too well and the teams are going to try to pick at it some way or it's shape or form. Now, maybe they'll be bringing in, you know, make if it's Patrick, I think he's part of that middle equation when he goes in the deep middle. But underneath in the middle, other guys are going to help. Is the Monte KZ going to roll him around there? How is Keanu Neil going to fit in there? And then they recently brought in Chandler Sullivan. And if you're wondering why Chandler Sullivan, you're like, well, he's definitely just an upgrade over Arthur Mote. He'll be a really good slot corner. There's a chance for that. He's had more interceptions for sure. But here's Luke Braun from Lockdown Vikings giving his take on Cha-Chan and Sullivan and what he meant to the Vikings secondary. Hey, what's up, Chris? What's up, Steelers fans? It's Luke Braun here from Lockdown Vikings giving you a quick lowdown on Chan and Sullivan. Lockdown Corner played for us last year. It didn't work out with us with Sullivan. I won't mince words about that. The Vikings didn't even, they told him right at this outset of free agency that they weren't going to try to bring him back. And I think the reason for that was A, you could kind of tell that offenses were trying to scheme to get him one-on-one with people. Like he was a bit of that marked man. But also there were a lot of coverage busts on the Vikings defense and Shannon Sullivan was involved in a lot of them. You can't really tell who messed up or what it was supposed to be. You just know that somebody was supposed to go here and somebody was supposed to go there and they both go there and you go, somebody messed up. But in a lot of those situations it was Chan and Sullivan and someone else and it was very often Chan and Sullivan and someone else. So he's either the most unlucky guy in the world or he was responsible for a few coverage busts and communication issues. That was all over the Vikings defense. So it's not entirely his fault. Totally could have been a coaching thing. But it just, it did not work out in Minnesota for kind of those reasons. I would say that if he is your anointed day one starter with no camp competition, I would say that that's probably something to be concerned about. So there you have it. Luke Braun from Locked On Vikings explaining who Chan and Sullivan is and you're probably getting the same vibes that I get from here and that thinking, okay, well he doesn't sound all that much better if he's giving up coverage bust. And I think one thing that Arthur Mallet did well was he would at least communicate well. He would be in the right spot. He just wasn't a guy you wanted matched up with really talented receivers in the slot because he wouldn't be able to keep up with the shiftier ones that had really good releases and ran good routes or were just bigger than him because they could, they could kind of move them off the ball. Now Arthur Mallet's going to give you a heart, effort and fight. I think the work attention to detail there and maybe a change of settings will help that with Chan and Sullivan. But we look at the how the Steelers are constructed right now and you think, man, that could be a weakness that defense is definitely pick at. Especially because the coverage linebacker situation combines with this slot and coverage linebacker right in the middle part of the field. Now for the Steelers, I think the only thing that works out for you here is that if you look at this defense, that's the main weakness that you look at. Granted, you still want to see how your outside corners fair with Patrick Peterson being a new ad, Joey Porter Jr. being a new ad, Levi Wallace being solid there last year. That's not exactly a sure fire thing that they're going to be a leader or anything like that or even very good. But I think that you feel more comfortable about them based off the personnel that you've brought in and the additions that you've made there. And defensive line, edge rusher and safety, I think you're probably happy about right now. But that middle part of the field, that's going to, the short middle part of the field, that could be a place where teams pick at the Steelers that this year and it could become a theme for this defense. Now here's the thing about that is that if you're able to be great in every other facet, if you're able to stuff the run, if you're able to have really good corner play on the outside, if your safeties are taking away the deep ball and making plays on Aaron, Aaron thrown passes, you might not be crushed by this. You might forced an offense to have to dink and dunk over the middle so many times that eventually you take advantage of it and you catch them napping and catch a quarterback making a mistake and that you forced them to be perfect for an ADR drive doing stuff like that. Again, predicates itself on taking away the run, getting after the quarterback, and having good corner back play on the outsides to force that to be the thing. But if it is that thing, maybe this weakness can be negated. But as of right now, I still think this is, this is still something that Omar Khan needs to address. Now we talked a little bit about this with Arthur Moats yesterday. There aren't that many off ball linebackers that really scream at you and think, oh yeah, they're going to solve that problem. Deon Jones, who was with the Browns recently, he's a guy that kind of comes up in that conversation. But other guys like Rashawn Evans, he's more of a runstopper like the guys that they got. Is that Cunningham? You heard Arthur Moats talk about him. So there's a lot of questions as far as can they get that guy? And maybe the answer is finding another slot corner. Maybe the answer is finding someone who's willing to work more over them over the middle. But I can tell you right now, as it stands on the Steelers roster, that's one of the bigger weaknesses that I see on it right now. And Omar Khan, he's done a very good job addressing a lot of the Steelers weaknesses. He's brought up, brought in help for the left side of the offensive line. He got youth on the defensive line. He got a new, tall, young tight end who can maybe be a better blocker and help with the run game as well. He got a cornerback for the outside who can maybe be the guy that takes up the torch at the next really, really important Steelers cornerback for the long term and Joey Porter Jr. And he got a little bit of edge depth there in the fourth round with Nick Herbick. But still no linebacker, no slot corner. Those are going to be the spots. Now as it stands right now, I believe according to overthecap.com, Steelers should have about 7.4-ish million dollars left in cap space. That might need to be updated with rookie contracts and official things there and how they're going to fit out. But they can also still, I believe, maneuver some cap space to be open. I think that Omar Khan should still absolutely be involved. We talked a little about them adding another veteran edge out there in this offseason. Still, I think adding other experience at off-ball linebacker and or the slot position are also important to kind of stabilize in this defense and making sure that that's not a glaring weakness that teams circle and say, hey, we don't want to go up against, we don't want to try to run against Cam Hayward. We don't want to try to test test TJ White and Alex Heissmith if they can get to our quarterback. We don't want to try to go after Patrick Peterson if he's playing well. If Joey Porter Jr. is playing well, you don't want to go after them. You know we're going to go after? We're going to go after those linebackers that are primarily run stuffers, not pass cover guys and force-chanded Sullivan or Arthur Moats to run with our slot guy in the underneath middle part of the field. If that's a thing, it's going to be up to Tara Lawson, defensive coordinator and Mike Tom and the head coach to scheme up ways to protect that part of the field, why not compromising other parts of it? Or it could be up to Omar Khan to make some more moves before the season starts to make sure that's not something they have to as much compensate as much for conceptually. We'll talk more about that as the off-season rolls along. We got tomorrow's episode of Lockdown Steelers Podcast. The Friday episode coming up, so stick with us here. Thanks so much for checking out the Lockdown Steelers Podcast. We appreciate everyone who comes through the show and listens to us. Remember, you can listen to us on all your favorite podcasting apps. You can also watch us on YouTube. Like this video if you enjoyed it. Subscribe to this YouTube channel and leave it all of our daily Monday through Friday episodes as well as our bonus content. And if you want to have up the Lockdown Steelers Podcast, go on Apple Podcast. It leaves a five-star view with the positive comment. Do both at the same time and you get a shout out at the end of the show. Like this person, we have thank you, thank you, Fly Guy or TY-TIE Fly Guy. It's TY-T-Y. But he says, five stars, the best, simply the best Lockdown host, the best scoop on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Chris is the man, makes my day listening to you and your guests. Thank you so much, Fly Guy. I appreciate you for your five-star view. If you want your shout out, go and have a podcast. It leaves a five-star view with a positive comment. You both at the same time. You get a shout out just like that one. We'll be back tomorrow with more here on your Pittsburgh Steelers. I'm your host Chris Carter following Twitter and Instagram at Carter critiques. Read my work at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and find me every day Monday through Friday right here on the Lockdown Steelers Podcast. The Tampa Bay Rays are for real this season and they just swept one of the best teams in baseball to prove it. The Pirates, they have not run into a buzzsaw, a team like the Rays. The Warriors bounce back in game two against the Lakers. Can they keep this momentum going as the series heads to LA? And just like that, it's a best of five. And the Vegas Golden Knights are looking to build on a high-scoring game one victory in their second round series against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. That's the way this team had played back in the inaugural season in the playoffs. For all these stories, head over to Lockdown Rays, Lockdown Warriors and Lockdown Golden Knights. Then check out Lockdown's new series, Paving the Way. Each episode will highlight a different voice from around the network, a locked-on host whose journey in the industry has helped pave the way toward creating a more inclusive and diverse media landscape. 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