Steelers Training Camp Kicks Off — These Critical Updates Change EVERYTHING

Join Tommy Jaggi and Shayne Kubas as they give their 53-man roster predictions for the Pittsburgh Steelers as training camp begins. Also, Tommy and Shayne discuss the latest trending news after the first Steelers camp practice and point out the biggest things to watch for at training camp this year.

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Video Transcript

What's up, everybody?

And welcome back to another episode of the Still Curtain podcast.

I'm your host, Tommy Jaggay, editor of Still Curtain.

And joining me as always is Shane Kubis, contributor and copy editor for Still Curtain.

We are going to talk Steelers training camp.

Day one, just wrapped up, Shane.

So we'll talk about the things that we know so far, which isn't a ton because as we're doing this, more and more stuff is coming in.

Uh, we'll give you some of the notes from the day.

We're gonna Talk about pre-camp stuff, what went down upon arrival day before the first start, uh, first day of camp practice.

And the biggest things that you need to know about the Steelers and how it changes, maybe even some of the, the, the roster outlook here.

We'll give our 53 man roster prediction as camp opens up and then we'll conclude with what we should be watching for during this training camp.

It's nice to be back, Shane, after an extended PTO time.

Yeah, you've definitely not missed too much considering you were sort of able to pay attention a little bit yesterday, I know, so.

But in general, yeah, not too much going on before you or while you were gone, but now that you're back, we're definitely hitting the ground running here.

All right, Shane, so let's dive right in with some of the trending news around the Steelers right now.

Uh, as it pertains to training camp, because that's what everybody's going to care about, uh, right now and moving forward.

Mike McCarthy will not have live tackling during his practices.

It's going to look a whole lot different than it did with Mike Tomlin.

And this is a start.

Now.

This is something that If you've been following how McCarthy has done business in the past, you might have already known about this.

Uh, I was told about this as well, that this would not be happening.

And indeed it is not.

The Steelers are not gonna be having live tackling sessions.

Now, the 1st 4 practices, I believe, are unpadded anyway.

We don't get those.

Usually right after that is when Tomlin usually ramps things up, uh, for Steelers practices.

He'll even have the, the backs on backers, a lot of live, uh, stuff like that.

And we'll see what happens, uh, in terms of, of, of what goes on in the sides there, but no live tackling, Shane, this year.

Yeah, which I , I don't really know if I have a strong opinion about this at the time.

Uh, it, it comes down to the fact that like in the NFL, especially in practice, It's becoming less and less physical as a sport in practice because at the end of the day, even if we want the product, product to be as good as possible, we also want the guys to play longer, to be healthier.

And generally speaking, that is something that helps, right?

Like the less body contact you have, the less physicality.

It is going to help you from that perspective, but you also lose a little bit of, you know, what makes football football, obviously.

And it does also hurt players who, you know, are younger, especially who are Trying to learn how to tackle at NFL speed.

It's really hard to do that if you're not live tackling.

So it's gonna come down to preseason games and, you know, working on form tackling and all this stuff.

And I, I don't know how much it'll make a difference, but all I know is the Steelers weren't good at tackling last year.

So like, and they were, they were doing full tackling.

So I don't know if it really is a big deal.

It can't hurt, Shane.

I do think in most cases there's a trade.

Of like you, yeah, sometimes teams that do a lot of live tackling during practice, you come in a little bit fresher, start the season, you're not as rusty.

Uh, other teams that don't, maybe it takes more time to shake the rust off.

We'll see how it impacts this team because like you said, they were not a good tackling team last year.

I mean, Patrick Queen , who, uh, we can talk about, missed over 20% of his tackles that he attempted last year, according to Pro Football Focus.

Really rough.

So, I can't imagine they'll be a lot worse in that department.

And so it's probably worth the trade-off if you can come into the season, maybe a little bit healthier.

Remember, uh, like Derek Harmon was out of MCL entering the season that happened in training camp, so it's not necessarily a camp injury.

Uh, but this is just how Mike McCarthy has done things since 2006, his first year as a head coach when he said, They were pretty banged up and didn't really want to do that again.

So, not surprising to see this happen, uh, but definitely noteworthy considering that there's a lot of padded practices coming up after these next, uh, 3 here.

Uh, it's gonna be padded practice from there, but we won't see live tackling sessions.

Another note, uh, that I think everybody's interested in, backup quarterback.

Who is it gonna be?

What's it gonna be starting training camp?

Well, we have our answer now.

It is Mason Rudolph, the longtime veteran.

It's not surprising though, Shane, and, and again, this is, could be a veteran head coach, then it could just be just kind of an unwritten rule around the NFL.

It's like, you're gonna give the QB2 job opening training camp to the veteran, the guy that's been here who started a bunch of games rather than the guy who has not played an NFL snap yet, which is Will Howard.

It's not to say that it can't change.

Things can change a lot, but right now it is Mason Rudolph running as the QB2.

Yeah, and again, this is not that surprising.

I think that we kind of expected, at least I did, and I'm sure to some extent you did too, that this is how it would start.

It just comes down to how much of a competition is this actually?

Like, is it a situation where You know, Growler and Will Howard are technically battling for QB3.

Is it, you know, right now they're splitting reps apparently that's the word out of training camp so far.

Is it a situation where one or both of them are going to have the chance to actually fight Rudolph for this job?

That's what really is interesting to me now is how it progresses from here, and not so much that Rudolph is the QB2 right now.

I think that was again to be expected.

It's how much of a battle do they allow this to be, because if you look at what they talked about with Will Howard and how they talked about him, it should be a battle, right?

It should be a legitimate competition, but we'll see if that's actually what transpires here.

Yeah, I feel like the only way to get experience, Shane, is to, to get on the field and show what you can do.

And I think that if all goes well, Howard at least have the chance in the preseason, but in training camp, you would like to see him work with not just the twos, but the ones.

I mean, at times, because if whoever this guy is, and we know who Rudolph is at this stage of his career, but if it ends up being Howard, you got to see what he looks like with the starting offense.

That's who he's going to be playing with.

You would assume that he will get some of those chances during the preseason.

We'll see if he gets those reps in training camp.

I think that those reps are valuable.

He only gets so many, uh, like you said, practice time is limited, the new CBA, you only can march your, your coaching staff out there for so long.

And I think that, uh, McCarthy is trying to wait until like the last possible second to put his coaching staff out there and make sure he maximizes these windows here, uh.

So we'll see how this unfolds.

Obviously, we just wrapped up day one, got a long road ahead of us, weeks of training camp ahead of us.

We'll see how it goes and things, how things scale from there.

But as of now, Mason Rudolph is the backup quarterback for the Steelers.

Uh, let's talk about some injury-related news or injury adjacent news.

Uh, Jalen Ramsey beginning training camp on the PUP list, the physically unable to perform.

This was a maybe a little bit surprising.

I just didn't know if he was dealing with much, and maybe I missed something.

I I was away on PTO, Shane, but, uh, dealing with the knee, and you don't want to see an aging defensive back deal with any sort of injury, especially one that has the price sticker attached to him like Jalen Ramsey has, who I'm not a fan of this contract at all.

I think that this is one, that the Steelers really, really should have done something with , even if it was.

We are going to release you unless you take a pay cut, and we're gonna bring you back cheaper because there's nobody out there that's gonna pay you 2/3 of what you're getting right now.

Yeah, this is apparently a bit of a surprise from what I could tell.

Like I hadn't heard about the, the knee.

I hadn't heard anything about this before, you know, it was announced that he was gonna be on the pup list, so.

I don't think it's something that we miss more so that apparently he tweaked it in minicamp and they decided that it didn't need surgery, but he's gonna take some time before he's able to practice.

Weeks is what the quote was.

So does that mean like before the end of like, will we see him in the preseason?

At all?

Is it going to be one of those deals?

Does he start the season right away in week one or does he still needs some time?

I don't think he'll, unless something is a setback, I don't think he'll like start on the pop to begin the season, but will he be full go week one?

I don't really know if we know at this point.

It is interesting because minicamp was quite a while ago.

Now, if you think about it, is it more than a tweak?

Because I feel like a tweak, you should be healthy by this point unless he aggravated it at some point along the way.

Uh, we'll see.

It doesn't, it doesn't sound to be serious or anything that way.

But again, you're, you're talking about a defensive back who's in his 30s now.

I believe he turns 32 in October.

He's got a hefty price tag.

His, his cap number this year, $19.5 million.

It scales from there.

Uh, you just don't want to see this happening and we'll see, uh, if he's cleared to play here after a little while.

But interesting to note, not beginning training camp, uh, with his teammates.

He is on the sidelines right now.

Joey Porter Jr. is the other and he has An injury in air quotation, Shane, because I just don't know.

And, and when it comes to situations like this, we have the right to speculate as fans, is this contractual?

We know that Joey Porter wants to be paid as maybe the highest paid corner in the entire NFL.

Certainly wants to be among the top five.

We just saw Denzel Ward yesterday get a 2-year, $62.2 million dollar contract extension, making him the richest corner in the NFL in terms of a per-y value.

All of this, everything that it's all the tea leaves are pointing to Porter saying, I deserve that contract.

I'm, I want to be next in line for that.

I'm 26 years old, I'm coming off the best season of my career.

I, I didn't allow much in my territory at all in 14 games last season that he was healthy.

Like, he's probably gonna hold out, and this thing is going to.

It could come down to the wire.

Like, I would not be surprised if we're sitting here getting ready for week one.

It's like, all right, it's time to show up and sign that contract now.

Uh , I think there could be a hold in in his future, even after we get past this PUP.

Do you think the PUP is, is real for him?

I mean, the way they described it, it's kind of hard for me to feel like tweaked his back on an exercise bike, like.

I mean, I could see myself doing that, but I don't know if Jerry Porter Junior's tweaked his contract numbers.

He tweaked it, yeah, like I, I mean, again, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like I know if the guy's hurt or if he's able to practice or whatever, but also like whether it's this or him just outright saying like, yeah, I'm not gonna practice.

So we get this sorted out.

I don't really care.

It's just, it's what happens in the NFL.

Like this is what's normal.

It's also probably what's smart for him.

Like we've seen players in the past for the Steelers, TJ Watt, Cam Hayward, just not really do anything at practice while they sort out the contract.

And I think that's fine.

It's a little different with those guys because they had more firmly established themselves and they're older or whatever.

So like, I get it.

But yeah, if I'm Joey Porter Junior and I put up the season I did last year and I'm entering a contract year , yeah, I'm gonna probably wait and wait to do stuff until I find out if this contract's happening or not.

And then once they get past that impasse, then I, I expect him to be on the field if, you know, unless he really is hurt.

Then I bet you as soon as that contract signed, he's gonna be like, you know, I woke up this morning, back's feeling pretty good.

I think I'm gonna go like I just won't be surprised if that's what it's like magic, yeah , I, I think that, I mean, here's some things there, there's no way that anybody in his agency is gonna advocate for him going on the field before he gets that contract.

You're just not gonna do it.

If he goes out there and ruptures an Achilles, tears an ACL, whatever.

That money that you have, it's, you're, you're now looking at being cut in half or maybe not getting your contract this year.

Uh, I mean, he wants that security.

Now, I can see it from both sides because Porter is coming off an exceptional season in 2025.

From the other side of the coin, it's, he's not an all-pro corner.

He's not made a Pro Bowl yet.

Uh, he's been up and down.

He's been one of the most penalized corner.

Owners in the NFL over the last 3 years.

And so, uh, you can see why the two sides may be $10 million per year off in their number, which was like the initial report.

I, I get it from both perspectives.

I, I wonder who's gonna cave first and if the Steelers should have just done this a while ago and we're gonna get worse?

Is Christian Gonzalez gonna get his deal before Porter does and what's that going to mean for him?

Like, there's a chance.

That just waiting is, is only going to delay the inevitable and make it more costly.

And I think that we could be heading towards that.

Uh, but Steelers, maybe they're playing hardball.

It's hard to know because we don't have a lot of inside, uh, information about how these talks are going specifically.

But I, I think we can connect the dots here and say, yeah, there's probably a correlation between Porter landing on PUP and uh the contract that he's, he's looking for right now.

Yeah, again, I'm, I don't want to say that with any certainty because we don't actually know that.

But again, if, if you had, if I had to bet on which scenario is true that he tweaked his back on an exercise bike or he wants money and is waiting to get it, I'm gonna go with the second one probably.

So that's, that's my guess as well.

And again, we'll, we'll see, uh, how things unfold here and when he ultimately takes the field.

If he takes the field at all, you don't want him coming in as rusty.

And like you said, you, you mentioned TJ Watt.

So much more leverage.

What had so much more.

He was, he was already, I think, a two-time All-Pro, uh, in 2021 when he basically held in all of training camp and then showed up and signed his contract right before the start of the season.

Porter, in my mind, as good as he was last year, he does not have that kind of leverage.

He doesn't have the accolades in his corner and he doesn't have the consistency.

This corner either, but we'll see.

Maybe his agent has a, a good enough case already based on what the market, uh, is right now, what the going rate is for some of these corners around the league.

So we'll find out how that works and hopefully sooner rather than later.

Let's talk about Broderick Jones, Shane , a name that I kind of anticipated would be on PUP.

Uh, he is not one of the names on PUP.

He practiced today.

First day of Steelers, uh, training camp.

Broderick was out there with his teammates.

Now, interestingly, Um, and let's back up here for a second.

Broderick had the, uh, spinal surgery, spinal fusion surgery.

We didn't know what his preparation would be like.

We didn't know if he would miss half of training camp, if he would play at all, if he'd be healthy enough to play again.

It looks like health is not an issue because the guy is out there.

Now, from some of the reports, he looks a little bit light overall, just needs.

I mean, that's kind of bit more sand in the pants maybe here, but the thing with him unfortunately so it, I, it was, I mean, yeah, and you don't want to see that.

You want him to come in with the mask that he needs already and not have to kind of rework his body, but that kind of is already shaping up to be a potential issue, uh, this summer.

Um, we've seen him get bulldozed at times when he, when he was light in the past and just this past, uh, training camp.

The other thing to note that I think is perhaps just as noteworthy, Shane, the fact that he's running as the backup left tackle early in training camp, and not the starting left tackle, not the starting right tackle.

We knew Troy Falano was gonna be moving to left tackle, so not surprised to see him starting, but Dylan Cook, who's got a grand total of 4 or 5 starts under his belt, games even in the NFL.

Uh, Broderick is not working as the starting right tackle.

He's working as the backup left tackle, and I think this is a sign to say from the organization maybe, uh, that, yeah, we're done flip flopping you size, we're just gonna stick you over here.

You're gonna be Vitano's backup as the left tackle, and, uh, that's his role at this point.

I, I still do think that if he, especially because right now, he's definitely ramping up.

I'm sure he hasn't been able to do a whole lot leading up to training camp.

I'd be surprised if at some point we don't see him at least get in the mix at right tackle before the end of training camp, if he's back up to speed fully before the end of it.

I just don't think he's ultimately going to win the job anyway.

Like whether, whether he gets the opportunity or not, I think that Cook played really well last year.

I still think he has the inside track to start the season at right tackle.

And then eventually either if he doesn't play well or Ihanier just looks ready to go, he gets a chance to go out there.

But again, I, I think Jones at least will, should be able to fill into that swing tackle role pretty nicely.

And maybe allow them to not have to play Honier if he's not ready if someone goes down, which is really the biggest concern I had going into the season if Jones was hurt was if one of Cook or Fatane goes down, is he Hannahi ready to go in there and actually play play well enough to, to hold on to a job, so.

That might help in that way, but I like you said, I don't think he's going to be in the plans for this team as a starter moving forward.

Yeah, and I agree with that, Shane.

The part that I kind of leave myself scratching my head here is, if you're going to show seniority to these other players, other positions, if you're going to do it to Mason Rudolph, who we just talked about.

Why aren't you doing the same to Broderick?

You're either healthy enough to be on the field and play, or you are not.

There's kind of no in-between with him.

And if he, he didn't even land on PUP, he's clearly healthy enough to play, right?

Like, if there was any concern at all about his recovery from the spinal surgery.

That he wouldn't be out there right now.

He would be on the sidelines with, with Joey Porter and Jalen Ramsey.

He's healthy enough to play.

And so my, in my mind, he's healthy enough to play.

He's the former first-round pick.

You're in, you're in a prove it year, even though it doesn't appear like there's room for him as part of the future.

Uh, why would he not be running first team?

It maybe it's because they just don't view him as a right tackle anymore, and they view those options as Cook.

And Janier moving forward.

I'm really interested to see how the rest of the O-line shakes up.

And let's talk about it right now because we did get our, our first look at the Steelers offensive line to begin training camp.

Uh, this comes courtesy of Nick Frabaugh , who was, uh, on there on the sidelines reporting, said that Troy Fano ran first team right tackle, Mason McCormick, first-team left guard, Zach Frazier, obviously first team center, and then Spencer Anderson, first team right.

Guard, Dylan Cook, first team right tackle.

Uh, a couple of things to note here.

Fulano, we knew that this change was going to be coming.

Uh, I don't see the Steelers turning back from like unless he really struggles or decide like, this guy needs to play on the interior.

So I don't know.

It, it, things have to go really south at this point, but it, I do think that his best skill set in terms of his foot quickness, uh, what he offers in his kick slide and his pass protection, left tackle is the right role for him.

I'm glad that they're doing this.

Uh, at least semi-early in his career.

He's starting year 3 already, believe it or not, even though he only has his 1 year in the game experience, missed the, missed the whole rookie season minus 1 game because of a knee injury.

Uh, but he's going to be this team's left tackle.

McCormick switching from right guard, where he played his 1st 2 seasons now to left guard, uh, where he played 5 years for the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.

I think that hopefully this is a transition that goes relatively well and maybe this is even like more preemptive to say, OK, uh, in the long run, if the Steelers are looking big picture and they rarely do, Shane, at least not with the previous coaching regime.

Uh, but Jennings Dunker by trade was a right tackle at Iowa, uh , in just Historically, it's easier to make the switch from right tackle to right guard rather than right tackle to left guard, because then you're, you're mirroring everything in terms of your, your movement ability, your kick slide.

So maybe it's a preemptive move for that.

I otherwise, I don't really see the point of doing that, uh, uh, if it's not for Dunker, right?

Yeah, that's, I don't, I don't think so either, but at the end of the day, like this starting lineup that is out there right now and and was the first team.

I do kind of expect will be the first team offensive line on week one, like during week one.

I, I, I mean, Anderson is the wild card of the wild cards there, like between him and Cook.

I, I have more confidence in Cook holding on to the right tackle job to start the season.

Dunker is the type of player that if he does transition inside quickly and, and it takes to it really well, is gonna clearly be the most physically talented of those three that could potentially fill in a right guard.

So, he could make it and, and end up making that a competition, but I won't be shocked if Anderson at least starts the season and then maybe gets replaced at some point.

Yeah, I would tend to agree with you.

I think that if I had to just put money on a starting lineup to begin the year, this probably would be it right now.

Uh, I'm not confident about the right side of the line at all, because obviously, uh, Janser being a first round pick, if he has a really strong camp in summer and Cook looks average, maybe they'll just say we're gonna.

He could win in that fire right now and get you those reps. Um , and then I think it's, I, I think there's a chance it can truly be a three-man race for the right guard position, not just between Anderson and Brock Hoffman, but even Dunker in the mix.

I mean, this is a guy I had a 2nd round grade on.

I thought was a really good football player.

The Steelers liked him a lot.

Uh, they ended up taking him in the 3rd round.

I mean, McCormick has started for 2 years, and he was a former 4th round pick and a small school player.

So, and if he can start from the gate, why not Dunker?

Now, the, the depth is tremendous right now on the offensive line, which is a great thing.

Uh, and so maybe they will roll with a hot hand.

I'll ask you this question, Shane, it's more likely to be the week one starter, Janier, uh, or Jennings Dunker.

Uh, I think Dunker pretty comfortably for me for two reasons.

One, I think Cook is a better player than Anderson in the grand scheme of things.

Like, I know we didn't have a ton of sample size from Cook, but I mean, you, you go back and watch what he did last year.

It's, it's, it's pretty impressive.

I'm not gonna lie, it just is like the tape is good.

It's not just one of those things like, oh, he had like a flash in the pan, like, and it was a flash in the pan from the sample size, but he did look very good out there.

Um, so I think he just has a better chance of, of fending off, especially a more raw rookie inhanier than.

Than Dunker, where it's really for Dunker, I think it comes down to how quickly does that transition inside come and how easily does that work for him.

Because if he immediately is feeling comfortable there and it just shows that he's the better player, I don't think there's any reason they wouldn't just play him because Anderson isn't a good enough player to stop him from taking that job if he is just better than him right now.

I do think Cook might be just experienced enough and have enough of that kind of like, Stability that they believe in him enough to let I Honier sit on the bench to start the season.

All right, Shane, I would almost go the other way here just because, again, the investment in Iannier is a first round pick, albeit 21, but I, I, I think that knowing the investment is higher.

Cook's is is really your primary competition.

Now maybe Broderick, maybe it'll be a true three-way, and we'll find out that Broderick gets reps at right tackle as well, where he obviously started games for the Steelers.

Uh, if it's just him versus Cook, I think that that's.

Maybe an easier path than uh Dunker trying to scale up over top of both Spencer Anderson and Brock Hoffman.

I think Hoffman was a really solid player in Dallas.

Uh, interesting to note as well, right, as of right now, and again, it's, I think it's a seniority thing, it's just the, the order of operations here as most coaches would do.

Dunker is 3rd team offensive line, not even 2nd team right guard.

He's 3rd team right guard, uh, to begin training camp.

I think that'll change relatively quickly.

He's running behind uh Stephen Jones right now, who didn't even make the team, uh, these past couple of years.

And so, I, I think that, uh, at the end of the day.

Dunker will probably be at least 2nd team and maybe uh 1st team, but I would almost give the edge to Iannier as a better chance to be a week one starter.

We'll see though.

I think that this uh lineup they are deploying right now might be the most likely overall.

Let's talk Cole Holcomb for a minute here, and Peyton Wilson, because I think the bigger news, even though Cole Holcomb, uh, some reported today, was running first team linebacker next to Patrick Queen.

This is a little bit discouraging.

It's not that I, I don't think Holcomb can kind of return from that devastating knee injury, what in 2023, and he did a couple of good things for the Steelers last year.

I think it speaks more on Peyton Wilson.

I mean, Peyton Wilson's entering year three now.

He's a former third round pick.

He's obviously a big and extremely athletic linebacker.

I, I wanted him just to just see the organization.

View him very highly and say, you are definitively a starting linebacker for us.

And like you uh mentioned in our chat today, you wish it was that was Queen maybe getting that demotion because we've seen a lot of Queen, and it's most of it's not been good.

We've seen a far less of Wilson, and I think that his highs are still higher than Queen's highs, and I just, I don't know what it does for you to roll out a 29, 30 year old Cole Holcomb, who I don't know how much he has in the in the tank left, quite frankly, I just, uh, maybe this is again, comes down to a seniority thing perhaps, but again, Wilson is entering year 3, so why not just him.

Yeah, I think this is interesting because I actually, uh, wrote about, uh, Holcomb as a guy that could see an elevated role this year in Patrick Graham's defense because I don't think he is the same player that Robert Spillane was for Graham in Las Vegas, but I do think he's more of that like heady, you know, physical type of linebacker that Spillane was for him.

And I think he might fit more of what Graham wants from that second linebacker spot.

Now, I do think if you're going to do that, having Peyton Wilson be the other linebacker a lot of the time is better than Queen being out there at this point because, again, like Wilson hasn't played, you know, significantly better than Queen, especially last year, but he has a lot more potential because we haven't seen him as much as Queen, like you said, like at this point, Queen kind of is what he is and let's prove it otherwise.

With Wilson, you at least have the chance to unlock something because again, even his rookie season was better than anything Queen's done with the Steelers.

So, uh, that's the only thing that's disappointing to me.

Like, even if Holcomb doesn't have a ton left, like you said, I do think he's probably just a steadier presence and it's going to benefit them, especially just trying to keep things in check at the line and make sure that he knows what he's doing and everyone else knows what he's doing.

But if you're gonna do that again, I do think having Wilson out there instead of Queen would be the solution then.

Yeah, and we've written about how this is a huge year for Peyton Wilson, which will really determine his career path.

Is he gonna be a sub-package linebacker the rest of his career?

Can he be a true full-time linebacker and look like after his rookie season, I mean, this guy looked like he could be one of the better linebackers in the league.

I think it's a relatively low bar right now.

I don't think that there's tremendous off-ball linebacker play around the league.

But he had a really promising rookie year, and then kind of took a step back last year, and then kind of had a diminished role playing and then he ended up even playing behind Malik Harrison, who was doing early down work.

And it's like, this is your chance right now.

You got a show.

Can you be that full-time linebacker?

I'd like to see it.

I'd like the Steelers to give him the chance to prove that he can.

And then if he can't, then scale back the other way instead of starting, uh, with Cole Holcomb running ahead of him, would be my preference.

All right, you are tuned into.

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All right, Shane, let's talk notes from day one.

Of Steelers training camp.

And I don't know how many we're gonna have here because again, this is really, really fresh.

Uh, it basically wrapped up as we started recording this show.

And so, uh, let's just talk about the things that we've heard or seen or, or scrolling through Twitter on right now.

Uh, Dale Everett , I, I guess had a, a strong first day of camp, had a couple of nice past breakups.

So, uh, that's encouraging to note from the Steelers' 3rd round pick.

Yeah, again, not a ton of things that have come out.

Uh, Everett, he's a guy that since we're talking about him.

I am fascinated to see if they try to work him in at all in the defense this year because he's very physical as a player and he's very good moving forward.

The problem is a lot of the time in coverage, he kind of doesn't have the feel that I'd like him to have in zone, especially in man, he can be overaggressive.

I wonder if there's a way they could kind of channel that kind of physicality and energy into something productive as a rookie.

It might just be special teams, like I could see him being an awesome gunner for this team or something like that.

But he is fascinating just because of the physical profile and the SEC experience, so.

All right, Shane.

Another one is obviously a, a, a player that fans are gonna have lots of eyes on this game, and that's Drew Aller, the other 3rd round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, uh, this past draft.

He had a couple of nice throws in camp today.

Some of them, you know, they're out there.

You can find them on social media, people taking clips, uh, during practice.

I think one was in.

Like an 18 yarder to to Max Rohman down the field, and then he had another uh strike for a touchdown in in 11 on 11.

So a couple of nice throws.

He did have , I think someone uh noted that he had a batted pass that resulted in an interception.

So picked him up, uh, we know that the dude's got arm talent for sure.

So it's kind of, it's nice to at least know that that's on display early, and I think that.

The Biggest thing for him, Shane, if at least in my mind is you just have the, you gotta have the, the willpower and the, and the stones to want to throw the ball over the middle of the field.

You can't, you can't be a checkdown Charlie.

You can't just play it safe.

You got to try to make plays and make something happen.

Well, don't tell Aaron Rodgers that, but anyway, um, I'm gonna try not to, to criticize him too much today.

Uh, no, but again, Aller is very much a wild card in camp this year because, one, like the focus for him should just be like learning how to play quarterback properly, cause frankly, he never really did that at Penn State.

So that's gonna be the focus for him, but any positive signs, I mean, I watched the throw.

It was, it was a legitimately good throw, but I've seen him do that before.

It's not like he , at Penn State, the problem and why he ultimately didn't go higher in the draft isn't because like he never made big throws or he never did that.

It's just, again, like you talked about it, he was kind of either one of these guys that wanted to check the ball down to be safe with it.

When he did fire the ball down the field, it was inconsistent.

And also like the decision making at times just like nonsensical.

It's like, what were you trying to do?

So if he can hone some of that stuff in and then start to be more aggressive without being, you know, careless with the football, you might have something here, but I don't expect to really get a huge glimpse of that until maybe we'll see him in preseason, do some fun stuff like that'll be nice.

I would honestly, if I was him, I'd tell him when he goes out to be like, just throw the ball around, man.

Who cares?

Like, you're not playing this year.

You don't have anything to prove right now.

Just go out there and, and whip it around the field, see what happens.

So we'll see what happens.

Yeah, and, and that's the way that you.

We should play.

I mean, there's, I think it was even Patrick Mahomes who said, yeah, we're, we're trying to see what we can do in camp.

We're trying to make all the throws that we normally wouldn't make because now's the time to practice all that kind of stuff.

And so, uh, I think that that's the mentality the Steelers should operate with.

It's not just run through the offense.

It's see what you can get away with and see what you can, uh, make work.

Uh, and obviously we'll, we'll know more as, as we dive deeper into this.

So I don't want to give, uh, too much on here because it practice just wrapped up.

We don't know all that much.

I will say a couple of non-Steelers notes, but some ASU North notes.

Uh, Shamar Stewart had a gruesome knee injury today, and that's not good for the Bengals, obviously, this guy, uh, first round pick.

It hasn't really taken off so far.

Had the whole holdout situation as a rookie, and now he got his, uh, leg buckled.

Uh, it almost looked like it went inside out there.

You can look up the video if, if you got a strong stomach, but, uh, he was carted off the field, and then Ja'Marr Chase was involved in a scuffle at Bengals camp already too, and in their first practice.

And so, uh, not exactly the, the start that, uh, they want to see.

Yeah, the Bengals, they have a lot to prove this year.

Um, and so far it's, I mean, one practice, but you don't want to lose Shamar Stewart.

He was, he had a rough year between injuries and just ineffectiveness.

He was a player that I did like to some degree , but I think I would have felt better taking him at the end of the first round, maybe early 2nd as a. Developmental player, but he might not have the chance to develop if he can't stay on the field.

And then you, Ja'Marr Chase, like we know, he, we know Ja'Marr Chase, like he's, he's one of those guys.

He, he likes to mix it up and, and do some goofy stuff.

But in general, I like, it's first day of camp.

I will say one note I wanted to make because this is a concern for the Steelers in my opinion.

Uh, Nomdi Matabuke apparently back for the Ravens, which, uh, was not 100% guaranteed that was gonna ever happen.

And the fact that he is, if he is himself at any point, that's somebody I don't want to face every week on that or any time.

So, uh, keep an eye on that one, I guess too.

All right, we will get to our roster predictions now, Shane.

But, but, before we do that, from the highs, the heartbreaks, every headline, this is the Still Curtain podcast, your source for Steelers Talk powered by Still Curtain.com and the voices at fan site.

We're gonna be bringing you all of the training camp coverage over the next few weeks.

A lot of it's already out there on our site.

Make sure you go check it out over on Still Curtain.com.

All right, Shane.

Back in May, you and I made our roster predictions, are way too early.

Steelers 53 man roster predictions.

And though we're just one day into camp, uh, and we made these these updated predictions before practice even took place today.

There are some changes and a couple of notable changes from mine.

I'm interested to see if you have any.

Uh, but I did make some changes to my updated roster prediction as training camp kicks off.

And we'll go up position by position here, and we'll kind of just cross-examine each other's rosters to see if we are on the same page and we can alternate, uh, as we go.

And if you recall, Shane, you can make a note of any changes that you had from your prediction back in May to what you have right now.

So let's start with the quarterback position for the Steelers.

And again, we are doing this as predictive as possible.

This is not what would we do roster prediction.

This is a predictive roster prediction.

What are the Steelers going to do in our minds?

And so, uh, at quarterback , Shane, I've got 3, the same 3 as I had before.

I have Aaron Rodgers, Will Howard.

In Drew Aller.

I, even with the the buzz about Rudolph being the team's current QB2, I do think that there's a quality chance still this could flip flop by the end.

I'm not confident in it by any means, and I'm probably less confident than I was before.

Uh, at the end of the day, we're talking about a 6th round pick in his 2nd season, who didn't take a preseason snap last year.

So it wouldn't be, I wouldn't bat an eye if Howard is the one who was cut, but I'm gonna stick with my guns and say Howard is the QB2, Allard is the QB 3.

So this is where I have a change, and it's one of, one of my only changes, a couple of changes.

Uh, they , so Omar Khan mentioned it when asked about it, and Mike McCarthy said it whenever he was asked about it.

I'll call them on their bluff right now.

All four of them are making it for the first one.

I'll just, I don't think they should do this, just to be clear.

It's, I think that's possible, the initial roster, I think, yeah, the initial roster, because at this point, like it's been a conversation for a while.

And the fact that they're doing this the way they are, where Rudolph is the QB2 right now, and again, we're hoping, at least I'm hoping, that that becomes a competition between at least Howard and, and Rudolph, which is the only competition I think could happen.

But if they really are like committed to all these quarterbacks, if they all, if they think they're all worthy of being on the roster, if Howard doesn't win the QB2 job, I just don't know if they're gonna cut him.

I don't know if they're gonna wanna cut him, even if he doesn't win it, unless it's like embarrassing that he like he just can't play, but cause we know Aller's not getting cut, he, there's, I don't think there's anything he could do to get cut other than like do something actually like bad, like not like on the field the field, yeah, off the field, so like, and well, you know, hopefully not, but In in that situation, like if they do like all these quarterbacks, fine, prove it.

Put all 4 of them on the roster to start the season, figure it out.

That's what I'm gonna go with right now.

I still don't think that they should do it, but I won't be surprised if at least again, initially, that they do.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised either, Shane, and I just go back to some of the things that Omar Khan said.

Oh, we're gonna, this Aaron Rodgers situation is gonna be behind us before free agency and before the draft.

And so it's hard to take them at their face value right now where they kind of backtrack on some of those things.

But I totally get that.

I, I think that if they like all four enough, I think the initial.

roster is not out of the question.

Obviously, you can't, you can't justify rostering for.

Like some, after you make the initial cutdown, something would have to change from that point and say, all right, we got to look to trade one of these guys or one's gonna come up with a fictitious injury that we can stash you on IR and then, uh, promote you again later on in the season and we'll see how the other guys are doing.

Uh, but yeah, I think that that is possible, but I will stick with the 3, and I have Rudolph missing the roster despite, uh, knowing that he is rolling as the team's QB2 right now.

Let's go to the running back position, and I did decide to keep this.

The same, Shane, I have the same 4 as I did last time in those 4, let me pull this up right here, uh, are Jalen Warren, Rico Dowdell, Caleb Johnson, I still have Macon as the team's 3rd round pick last year, and then Travis Homer for special teams purposes.

So, I just have the 3, and it's Warren, Dad, and Johnson.

I, I think Homer certainly can make it, but I think the way that the roster is constructed right now, I think they're gonna want to have this running game funneled through the top 2 guys, and I think that The number one priority for them should be to have someone behind them, that if one of these guys gets hurt, you don't have to put the entire load on whoever is still healthy, right ?

Especially if it's Warren, because we've seen that they've never really wanted to give him like the huge, huge load and huge amount of touches.

So Johnson still, to me, until proven otherwise, makes the most sense in that situation to be that backup running back.

And I just think there's so many other players, and there's one that I'll get to later that I think fills in for this especially, that can be good special teams for this team that can handle a lot of that, like, stuff that Homer should theoretically be good at as well, where they can get away with keeping just 3 backs and having special teams value come from somewhere else.

Yeah, and I think that's totally fair, and my preference would be 3, like I, if I, if a decision was up to me, I'd rather have just 3 running backs, and I would use that resource somewhere else.

I don't think that Homer is like this.

Irreplaceable player.

I do think he's a quality special teamer, just to give you a little teaser, I, I have kept one fewer safety than I have in the past, and I kind of just view him as the Miles Kiliber role, which is basically a core special teams player.

Uh, we'll see if that holds true.

Uh, let's go to the wide receiver position here, and I do have the Steelers keeping 6 wide receiver, wide receivers, Shane, how many do you have them, and 5 is not out of the question either.

I still have 6, and I'm assuming we all, we have the same 6 with the top 3 guys, Pittman Junior , Bernard, Metcalf, and then Weigian, Wilson, and Scaronic, I'm guessing, right?

Yeah, we have the same, the same.

I mean this group to me, like, unless it is a situation where they keep 5 instead of 6, I feel like this is the group, right?

And who that 6 that wouldn't make it, unless like for some reason they don't think Scaronic is worth it anymore, which I doubt because of the special teams value.

I mean, Wilson is the wild card, I guess, but so far, like the earlier, now I don't know how he did today in camp.

I haven't seen any reports on that, but apparently Rodgers made a comment about him yesterday that he looks better and so I think he's trending in the right direction at least.

So I'd be a little surprised if he doesn't make it either.

So yeah, somebody said something about a miscue at one point, I think between Rodgers and.

But which you don't want to see that often, but you're right, because they, they were talking him up, uh, just in recent days here.

So, uh, we will see what happens here, but I think those are the 6 that I would bet on.

It's hard to envision 5 because Cronic is such a valuable special teams player, and quite frankly, I'm gonna say it, he's pretty.

Close to Rodgers, and I think that that matters.

You went with a 42 year old quarterback.

He's going to have some say.

I mean, this is the guy who was able to dictate to the organization that they want to go out and sign Adam Thielen and Marquez Valdes Scantling last year as washed as those guys were, uh, Rodgers had the pole to make that happen.

So he certainly has the pole to keep Scaronic around in my mind.

Yeah, so again, I don't expect him to be cut.

And again, you need to have someone who can actually play receiver outside of the top 3 guys on the roster then, which, no offense to Scaronic, like he's not really truly a receiver, probably at this point, especially.

And Weigian didn't do it in college, let alone at the NFL level.

I can't, I can't expect him to make an impact on offense this year, at least not in any meaningful way.

So you would then have to kind of keep Roman Wilson around just to have a body there, so.

Yeah, you can't really roll with just 3 true receivers and 2 special teams guys.

I do think 6 is the most reasonable for, for several reasons, and, and you just outlined them.

All right, let's talk about tight end here.

Uh, this team typically keeps 4.

I can see a route for 3 because quite frankly, I just don't know if there's enough talent to keep 4.

I did make a change here as well to the tight end.

Uh, when we made this back in May, this was before Robert Tunion signed.

And so, uh, I do believe , and so, um, I have, I had JJ Galbraith as my 4th.

I'm keeping Tunion as a 4th.

I, I just don't trust organizations gonna be OK with keeping 3, especially knowing that Noakowski is more of the H-back type tight end.

If Friarmouth were to go down or Washington, you don't have an F tight end, you don't have a Y tight end that could replace either one of those guys.

I think they have to have a bit more flexibility there.

And I'm with you all the way.

I have the same 4.

I have obviously Friarmouth and Washington with Nokowski being that flex piece is the fullback H-back type, and then Taunion is like the 3rd actual tight end.

I will say the path to 3 is a little bit more clear this year if they wanted to do it because I do think Nokowski is more of a tight end than Connor Hayward ever was.

Obviously he's a bigger player, a little bit more traditional in that way, but ultimately, I still think they probably want to have that 3rd guy.

That's actually a full size tight end in the room.

So I'll give that nod to Tunian in that situation.

So I think that the part that would just concern me, Shane, is that if, if Friarmuth or Washington suffers a big injury, I don't think there's anybody that can replace those roles.

I think that Tunion can, can serve as a Friarmouth replacement if need be.

Like you're not going to replace Darnell one for one, but they probably have an extra body and probably a little bit bigger bodies in there as well.

Uh, so we'll call it 4, and I'll, I'll swap, uh, Galbraith out for Robert Tunnion this time around.

Uh, offensive line.

Because of this, I added one, so I didn't take away anybody or or swap anybody.

I had 8 before, and I had Broderick missing the group because I had him, uh, beginning of the year, uh, not able to perform, and, and I just didn't know how this would go with his health.

And so.

Uh, I went from 8 to 9.

I added Broderick to the mix, and I couldn't take one away because the depth is just, quite frankly, it's too good.

This is maybe the strength of the entire team right here.

And it's hard to leave one of these guys off the roster knowing that they would not circle back to the practice squad.

I don't think any of them could without landing somewhere else, because there's a lot of bad O-line play around the NFL.

So the guys I have, uh, Troy Fontano, Mason McCormick, Zach Frazier.

Max Janier, Jennings Dunker, uh, Dylan Cook, Broderick Jones, Brock Hoffman, and Spencer Anderson.

I just can't see the team maybe parting ways with any of those guys who could all pass as starters in my mind.

And so, at least low level starters, I think that 9 is the most likely route unless Broderick is traded or somebody lands on IR before the season.

Yeah, I'm, I'm there with you again.

I, I have the same group I did before.

I had Broderick's name in here, but mostly I was just like, I think he's going to be on the roster at some point, whether it's at the start of the season or otherwise.

So now that we know that he's at least healthy enough right now to practice, unless something were to be a setback with him or something else happens that's unexpected.

I don't think they're going to be willing to part, like you said with any of these guys, like this is an amount of depth that just most NFL teams don't have at the end of the day, like, Broderick Jones as a starter may worry you a little bit, and this has been a problem in the past.

Him as a swing tackle, different level of concern.

Like as a different, there's a lot of teams like if one of their tackles goes down, you.

You may not have heard of the guy that's about to play for them, even if you follow the team.

Like that's, that's kind of where we're at with some offensive lines in the NFL.

It's gotten a little better.

I'd like to think over the past couple of years.

I think we're starting to get back into it a little bit of having some more like truly like playable backup tackles and guards and stuff, but it still isn't as good as the Steelers have for the most part around the world.

Yeah, I mean, you're talking about, I, I don't know if there's many teams around the league.

I'd have to go and do a deep dive into that.

They are 4 deep at tackle, they are 4 deep at guard with, with legitimate guys who can pass the starters, like I said, so you don't often get that.

Uh, the, the biggest question I would have, Shane, with this group is, what's the discrepancy if somebody gets injured.

In some cases, would it be potentially addition by subtraction?

Depends on who gets injured, and obviously not Zach Frazier.

You're, you're gonna get worse.

That happens, you're gonna get worse if Futano gets injured.

But if, I don't know if, if Cook went down early in the season or Broderick, whoever ends up being the other starting tackle, and you throw Janser in there, or I, I just don't like their depth is so good.

I think it's a good thing.

I'm not, I'm not saying something negative about the starters.

I just think that their depth is so good at right now in the old line.

That you could potentially be just as good even if you have an injury as long as that injury is not Frazier or Fataic.

That's, yeah, as long as it's not one of those two, like I, I think even McCormick, like I think he's a little bit ahead of the rest of the guards in terms of talent and what you like it, it wouldn't be the same drop off as it would be for Frazier, at least, obviously, but still more of one.

But yeah, if you, if Frazier gets hurt, you might be in trouble.

Like Hoffman could probably fill in at center fine, but like Frazier is the one that if he goes down, you're really in trouble.

I would argue Fatano too a little bit like you said, like, and you mentioned it because of the tackles, unless he haunterer is ready to go and just like doesn't win the job for some reason.

I don't think, I think him and Jones, there's a big gap between like Cook is the one on the bench to start the year.

I think there's still a gap between him and Cook, like, but again.

It's much less of a gap for the Steelers than most teams between their starter and backup.

So now the counterargument here, Shane, obviously you can only start 5 offensive linemen.

Sometimes you'll, there'll be certain packages you throw a 6th guy out there.

They like to do that.

9 is heavy.

I mean, this is a, this is a really big group.

And so that's a, a lot of roster investment there, and you're gonna be having 4 guys basically on the sidelines at all times and could be out there on, uh, field goal attempts or whatever like it's, it's 2 guys or so.

Probably even getting a hat on game day cause you just don't need to dress that many.

But it's really hard to justify cutting any one of those guys, cause this is where the talent is on the team.

So, I'm sticking with 9 .

We'll see if they keep all 9, and hopefully all 9 can go be healthy, uh, entering the season, and we can see if that prediction holds true there.

Let's move over to the defensive side of the football.

Let's talk about the interior defensive line.

I'm sticking with my same 6.5 is just too light for me.

7, I just can't justify a 7th player.

Maybe worthy of that spot, even though the Steelers did just spend a 6th round pick on a defensive lineman.

I think that there's a chance Gabe Davis makes it.

I don't have him making the initial roster .

I think his best route is probably through the practice squad.

So my 6, I've got Cam Hayward.

Derek Harmon, Keanu Benton, Sebastian Joseph Day, YA Black, and Azizi Otamewo.

Uh, that's a pretty strong group in my mind, and I don't know if you need to go any deeper than that unless an injury pops up.

And in that case, you can, you can elevate a Logan Lee or a Gabe Davis.

Again, I'm in the same boat with you there, like, I, I, the same six, it, it, it, unless something changes with how they want to construct the roster.

I just don't think a 7th 7th defensive lineman is good enough to make this team right now and over some other players.

Now, in my situation, I do have 4 quarterbacks.

So like, maybe you can make an argument like if they don't do that, you could keep everything else I have the same and then have that 7th defensive lineman, and that's fine.

But like you said, there's no one right now that's jumping out to me before we get to see them in camp at least and see what they can do that should absolutely make the roster because even someone like Like Dean Lowry is a veteran or something like that.

I think he's better as like a practice squad guy, like a veteran practice squad that if someone gets hurt, he can hop off and, and play.

So, yeah, 6 makes the most sense.

You're going to play a lot of the, the 4 guys, especially like Sebastian Joseph Day being that 4th guy now, maybe Wyatt Black obviously too, but those top 4 guys are going to play a lot in this defense.

Having a, you know, a 6th, 7th, 8th type of guy, like this doesn't really make a ton of sense, I don't think.

All right.

And what do you guys think?

If you're here in the live chat with us, drop in a message here.

Uh, do you agree with what we outlined so far in our roster prediction?

What would you change?

What do you think the Steelers are going to do?

Let's talk about the edge rusher position.

And Shane, I'll go ahead and let you give the four that I believe that I know that you already have written down here.

Yeah, if it's anyone, if there's anyone in this group that, uh, gets added, I'd be surprised when we put it that way.

Um, DJ Watt, obviously, Alex Highsmith, Nick Herbig, and Jack Sawyer.

If there's anyone else, like I said, I don't know where he's at, and I don't think they care.

This, to my, in my mind, Shane, and this is kind of year over year.

It's not just like these last two years.

I mean, last 2 years, it's, it's gonna be the same exact group, and I will be floored if it's anybody but these 4, barring injuries, of course.

But year over year, knowing that this team has historically kept 4 edge rushers or outside linebackers, if you use that language for the position.

There is not a 5th that you can find that's even worthy of justifying outside of like an extraordinary training camp uh forthcoming.

It's gonna be these 4, they keep 4 at the position.

Maybe Patrick Graham will do things slightly differently.

It's just, even if he does, and even if you wanted to keep 5, like who on earth are you putting.

In that spot right there, like I, I just, it's, it's really hard to make a case for one of these, uh, journeymen to, to kind of be worthy of taking up a roster spot unless they do something spectacular, unless you're gonna like do something weird or like they, because I know Jermine Davis is like sort of a hybrid now at this point.

He's a good athlete, but he's just had a really rough career to date so far.

So unless he's like technically a linebacker but also play edge.

A little bit like then you could sort of make the argument that like if he made the roster, but I would still categorize him as a linebacker who then just moonlights at edge if that was what happened.

So I still would say like, because technically Malik Harrison is almost an edge rusher sort of sometimes because that's really all he does is set the edge sometimes.

So like it, it's, it's a weird one, but like, yeah, in general, I think that those are the, the four guys that we have to think about here.

Yeah, pretty easy position to predict, and uh I'd like to see if I would eat my own words on that.

I doubt it.

Uh, linebacker position, I kept the same five here as well.

Patrick Queen, Peyton Wilson, Cole Holcomb, Malik Harrison, and Carson Brunner.

Shane, last time we talked about this, we toyed with the idea.

Is Carson Brunner.

Somehow more safe than Holcomb or Harrison, because there's a lot of overlap with those two guys, whereas Brunner is, he can play a couple 100 special teams snaps, and his role is very clearly defined as like the reserve linebacker and core special teamer, where I think there's a more overlap with Holcomb and Harrison.

I think there's a chance one of those guys is out, but I think most likely this this team keeps 5, and then they just kind of rotate him in.

So this is where I have a change.

So I added a 4th quarterback, uh, right, for to call them on their bluff.

I, I think that they might start the season with 4 linebackers, um, because I think, assuming Jalen Ramsey's healthy to start the year, obviously, I think this team is going to play a lot of nickel defense, and I think they might value having an extra player like whether again it's the quarterback in the situation or maybe it's a secondary piece or something like that.

I wonder if they're gonna value having that over 1/5 linebacker in this type of defense.

And for me, then it would be Malik Harrison getting the ax because we already saw, now granted, this is the benefit of seeing Cole Holcomb play with the 1s today, uh, but I think Holcomb's pretty safe at this point.

Um, Brunner, again, I think is just a more impactful player because of what he does in special teams, and I think that if he does have to play defense, like I, I'd love to see what that looks like, frankly, like over Emilik Harrison at this point, even though they're very different players.

Um, but yeah, I could see the, the three linebackers getting kind of in a rotation type of thing, the top guys and then Brunner being the special team or backup type, so I went with that for this one.

Yeah, I mean, I think that you make a good case right there.

I, it does seem like overlap.

It seems like a little bit of overkill and perhaps, and how hard is it to get Malik Harrison level play if you needed it in a pinch, if somebody got injured, like I, there's gotta be somebody that can just come up and plug holes, right?

I don't know.

I mean, what's is Landon Roberts still hanging around out there?

Did he sign?

I forget.

I, I don't know actually.

I'd have to double check that, that, I mean, honestly, he might be better than both of those guys still.

Oh, I think he was back on the Steelers, yeah.

Um, but yeah, I, I, I don't think it would be that hard if you also like, would it, I don't even know for sure that Malik Harrison would get a job right away.

Like, no offense to him.

The Steelers are overpaying for him, no doubt.

That's another, uh, side of the argument there is you could say you're also paying too much for this guy if you wanted to save, have that little extra leeway going into the season with cap as well.

Uh, let's go to the cornerback position and I added that 9th offensive lineman, so I had to cut down somewhere.

I decided to cut down at cornerback instead of linebacker.

And so my 5 cornerbacks instead of 6, I have Joey Porter Jr. Jamel Dean, uh, Dale Everett, Asante Samuel Jr. Brandon Eccles.

And that means that I have Dante Kent, last year's 7th round pick, not making the roster.

I initially had him on my May roster prediction.

I'm taking him off at this point.

I mean, he's got a lot to prove.

He's a late round pick.

He's got to work his way up the ladder.

Not to say that he can't.

I think I certainly think that he's in contention to be that CB6 here uh for this defense.

And I know that it is my one hang up here is I know that Patrick Graham wants to play a lot of sub-package, and so I wanted to keep 6 corners.

But at the same time, I think that this is maybe where the weakest talent pool was at the end of the roster.

The rest of it I like, uh, but I, I mean, Kent's gotta show something, otherwise, he's gotta show something.

I, and I like Spencer Anderson or, or Brock Hoffman obviously better than I like Dante Kent.

It's simple as that.

Yeah, the other thing that sucks with Kent is that he's on the pup to start the, to start training camp, not a good career track.

Yeah, I mean, he started, he got back late in December.

And then obviously tore his knee up.

So now you have to wait to see when he can get back.

So if he can get back at some point in training camp, I mean, they did like him last year, clearly, they liked him enough to keep him around and give him a chance to come back, but you have to be able to play to show anything, obviously.

And that could impact, like you said, the roster construction because if he's not the 6th corner, Who would be at that point realistically like of the guys that are on the roster right now, no one that really stands out.

Um, I also have 5, but it's the same 5 I had before and it's the same 5 you have.

I had 5 in the last time we did this too because I technically Jalen Ramsey is a safety, but he's probably going to technically play corner, but we'll get to that in a minute, yeah, yeah, and that, that's a.

Good point as well.

Probably a lot of nickel in Jalen Ramsey's future this year.

I think so.

So let's get to safety.

I just for the sake of this roster prediction and probably what a lot of people will do, I still have Ramsey listed as a safety, though, like we said, he might line up more as a nickel.

Uh, Ramsey, DeShaun Elliott, Jaquan Brisker, and Darnell Savage.

I only have 4 because I decided to keep Travis Homer for his special team.

Though I can very easily see them saying , all right, we're gonna X you out of there, Homer, and we're gonna add another safety like as a Robert Spears Jennings, who I don't have making my 53 man roster as training camp begins.

Who do you have as your safeties?

You've got 5 here or 4?

I do have 5.

Yeah.

So this is where I, so I wanted more just bodies in the secondary if I could get them.

And frankly, I think if there was one, I was gonna take off this list because I have the same 4 except that I have Robert Spears Jennings in there instead of not having him.

I actually think Savage is more likely to cut if I had to guess.

Because he's just, he's just not, he's just never really had it and never really figured it out at the NFL level, and he already signed much later than he was announced to be signing, which was a weird thing with like something to do with his physical.

I don't know.

Point is, he's, he could be more on the chopping block in my opinion, because I think Spears Jennings offers the special teams value that you want.

And ideally could be a guy that could help replace it like a Miles Kilibrew type from that same room.

But also, if at this point, they're going with more of the like physical downhill safety room in general with Brisker and Elliott.

Spears Jennings is a much better like player to replace one of those two if he were, if they were to get hurt because he is awesome moving forward, can't really do anything moving backwards a lot of the time, which is a bit of a problem.

But if you need someone to fill that box safety role, he's a better fit than Savage would be.

And with Ramsey, like I think when he isn't playing in the nickel, he's probably going to be playing safety.

So you have some flexibility, you can do some stuff with that.

Maybe he plays nickel.

You know, 50, 60% of the time, then the rest of the time he's playing in more of like a free safety.

Maybe that's when Brandon Eccles comes in and kind of helps with the slot rule.

So, I do think keeping 5 safeties, if Savage does well enough in camp to prove he can be one of those guys, does make sense for the special teams value with Jennings, so.

Yeah, and I really like the idea of Spears Jennings making the team for his special teams ability.

I think he could be, uh, at least has the skill set to be a really good gunner jammer, like, you're fast and you're physical and you can tackle, and that's, those are good traits to have as a special teamer, uh, and he's young and, and, uh, fresh, and so I think, uh, there's certainly an avenue for him there, and I don't feel confident about this.

Like, I, I feel like this is maybe an area where I probably should have dug a little bit harder to see where can I pull back from.

Uh, probably not the safety position.

We probably will go with 5, if we're counting Ramsey as that 5th instead of a corner, however you want to view him.

Um, but yeah, I don't feel confident that this one's going to be correct like I do about the, the edge rusher position.

Uh, and so that brings us, Shane, if I tally correctly, we both have 50 right now, go to our specialist, and those are usually pretty easy to predict.

Chris Boswell as the kicker, uh, Cameron Johnson as the punter, Christian Koontz as the long snapper.

Do you have anything different in there?

So technically, I, I don't, but I also sort of do because I have the same thing.

I said last time, which is Chris Broswell, uh, yeah, yeah, jeez, Chris Boswell.

I'm thinking of Chris Braswell of the Bucks.

I was watching something about him earlier, um, and then not Cameron Johnston is what I'm still putting because I'd like it to not be, but I, I don't know how good I feel about that at this point, but I'm gonna stick to that as my idea of like , don't let it be Cameron Johnson, but it probably will be.

And then Christian Koontz, like you said too.

Yeah, and, and it's just hard not to considering he's the only punter on the run right now they gonna bring in competition.

Like I would think that that's an area where they would want someone there to compete with him.

Obviously he didn't win the job last time around against Corlis Waitman.

So, uh, do you feel confident in him?

And then he had the knee injury.

What was that, just last year or 2 years ago?

Had the, it was technically 2 years ago, and then he came back and was not very good last year when he hunted , which is not very much.

Yeah, so don't feel overly confident about that.

The kicker in the long snapper, I very much do, but we'll see if they throw another punter into the mix there or not.

What do you guys think about our roster predictions?

Did we hit the nail on the head, or we're gonna be off by 2 or 3 or 4 players?

We will find out, uh, in several weeks here when the Steelers have to make their roster cutdowns.

But for now, uh, that's what.

We have for you.

And if you have got uh anything to comment on that, drop it in the chat here.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on those.

All right.

If you are a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and would like to support the Still Curtain podcast, please consider subscribing to the Still Curtain podcast on YouTube.

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All right, before we sign off here, Shane, let's just talk about a couple of things.

That we want to be watching for during training camp this year.

Some of the biggest storylines, obviously, is the backup quarterback battle, uh.

This is gonna be on everybody's mind.

It's a quarterback is the most important position in football, undeniably.

And so, what are, what is the team gonna choose?

Are they gonna go with, let's say the safe route and go with the nine year veteran in Rudolph and say, OK, we're gonna, we're gonna have the 31 year old as our backup.

He started a lot of games, he's played with a couple of different organizations, primarily with the Steelers, and even though he hasn't been great.

Uh, in his, his latest samples with the Steelers and the Titans, he at least has the experience, and so, we know what we're getting.

If Rodgers goes down for a 2 or 3 game sample.

We've got a guy who can at least weather the storm, uh, get us 500 during a, a set month stretch if need be, and still have a chance to make the playoffs.

Or are they gonna go with Will Howard, who has not played.

So much as a preseason snap so far in his NFL career, but a guy that was a former national championship quarterback and one who obviously the arrow was pointed at least more towards the future with Howard, even if you don't believe in him as a long-term franchise option, which I don't.

Uh, but which direction is the team going to take here, Shane?

I think that's a, it's a big area of, of controversy and it's a fun topic to talk about.

Yeah, we do have one chat here about this, which is a little bit funny, uh, from Joseph here.

Uh, mediocre camp with the same old going on.

Rudolph sucks and he still considered it too.

What, what a joke.

I, I mean, here's the thing , I don't wanna spend too much time.

I don't want to rag on Mason Rudolph too much because I don't, I don't think that's necessarily super fair, but I agree with the sentiment of like, we don't need to, I don't think this is something we need to do anymore.

Like we can't , there is an element of like knowing what you're getting.

That is really hard in the NFL to not like factor in and to not care about because with a sport that is so much unknown to it at times, knowing what you're getting from someone does impact how people feel about those players oftentimes.

The problem is, what we know about Mason Rudolph is that he's fine.

Yeah.

Like with Will Howard, we might, he might be a good backup quarterback instead of just a fine one.

Like he might be a guy that legitimately has like spot starter upside at least.

We just don't know that yet.

And to be fair, like, the Steelers don't know that yet either because he's had like however many practices he had last year and then today is all they've seen of him at this point in his career.

But if he proves to be that type of guy that can handle the offense and can elevate it a little bit more than a typical backup would, especially one like Rudolph.

I don't think they can really, they shouldn't be focusing on like, well, technically Rudolph might be able to get us a win or two more if Rodger were to miss a bunch of games than Will Howard.

Like, that cannot be your mindset.

And if Aaron Rodgers misses 8 games.

You should just hope that you end up with like the 9th pick in the draft.

Like that's what you should actually hope for, like, realistically, not like, oh, maybe Mason Rudolph can go 3 and 3 in those like 6 games and we go 9 and 8 this year .

It's like that's not, no one cares about that, OK?

I'm sorry.

It's not, no one cares if that happens.

They would much rather us just like.

Put the young guys out there and see what happens and go from there.

Then try to trudge through six starts of Mason Rudolph.

Like I know I can say for a fact that everyone would rather do that.

So that's what it comes down to for me.

Yeah, and I agree with that.

I mean, obviously if Rodgers misses misses a big chunk of time here, you would much rather see them deploy the young guy and at least offer some hope of a future, even if the 2026 season is lost at some point.

Uh, which we hope that it's not.

Normally it comes down to the wire for this team, but it depends on how much time he misses, and I think that that could kind of determine where they go.

But I 100% agree with you, Shane, about your take on Rudolph.

I would rather have the uncertainty of Will Howard, rather than the certainty of mediocrity with Mason Rudolph.

And I think that that's what you're getting at this point.

I do think that he is, I, I would describe him as a good QB3.

A respectable QB2, at least a competent QB2.

But to me it's like I, I would rather just shoot a little bit bigger than that.

And if you can get, I don't know, a 6-4 version of Mac Jones out of Will Howard.

Like, I don't know what you're getting , but the fact that we don't know what we're getting is more exciting than getting someone who's not exciting.

Yeah, it's just, again, like, if this is truly a backup quarterback, like if they allow this to be a battle, if Will Howard can't beat out Mason Rudolph, like actually, like if he does play better than him and he just doesn't get the job anyway cause he's not 31 or whatever Mason Rudolph is, and so be it, but if he actually plays better than him and shows he can do better than him.

They have to just give him the job.

Like, yeah, there's no, no one is gonna crucify them for like, you tell me you didn't keep Mason Rudolph on the roster.

Like no one, no one's doing that.

I'm sorry.

We're not saying that Will Howard is an irreplaceable player, but if the competition is anywhere close, please go with the younger guy who maybe see what happens upside at this point, and we'll, yeah, yeah, I , I would rather gamble on the uncertainty of that.

All right, let's talk about the Steelers O-line shuffle, and we hit on it a little bit already, so we won't, we won't pound this too hard here.

But, uh, I think that this is maybe for me, the most interesting camp storyline.

I'm super interested to see what is the starting offensive line gonna look like.

At what point is Jennings Dunker gonna see the field?

At what point is Gianniser gonna see the field.

I want to see these guys have really strong camps, and if the choice were up to me, in, in my perfect world, Shane.

I'd love to see the O-line from left to right, left to right of uh Fatano, McCormick, Frazier, Dunker, Iannier.

If those, if, if Janier and Dunker can be good enough uh to say, yeah, I actually beat out the competition, then I'm really optimistic about the future of this offensive line.

Your average age would be like 24 on your whole starting offensive line, and then you got some guys with really strong upside out there getting the reps. Like to me it's like.

You either take your lumps now or you take them later.

If these guys can get on the field early on, I would love to see that.

I think it's gonna be great for their learning curve, as long as they're not just like getting whipped early on and and they're getting their confidence shaken.

I want to see them out on the field, but how are things ultimately going to shake up?

Are we gonna see uh the veterans out there?

We're gonna see Spencer Anderson and Dylan Cook out there like we talked about.

Um, really interested to see the, the offensive line as a whole.

Yeah, I, I think the best thing for the Steelers in the future is for these rookies to win the jobs right away and just be good enough to do that, right?

Like that, that's the best thing that could possibly happen.

I think the best thing for 2026 would be that the guys ahead of them play too well for the rookies to get on the field, and that means the offensive line is going to be awesome in 2026, and that the future is still secure cause you have those guys, but maybe they just weren't good enough to quite unseat the veterans who just played too well to to be taken off the field.

So I think there's a way that you can kind of thread the needle here a little bit if they try to, and they can do it right, where, as long as Dunker and and Honier are progressing and doing well, but maybe just not well enough to beat out Cook and Anderson or Hoffman, that means again, 2026 is gonna probably be a really strong year for the offensive line, and then your future is still secure because those guys were pushing them, just maybe didn't quite get all the way there.

So, yeah, I'm, I'm curious, but I still think that At least one of them will see the field at some point as a starter this year.

I don't think it'll be both, if I had to guess, at least not full time throughout the season, but it would be again best for the future if they're just both good enough to win the job outright.

I agree.

So we'll definitely keep tabs on that.

We do have another comment in here pertaining to Will Howard.

Howard has not proven anything.

Uh, this is from Rutledge.

Uh, Howard has not proven anything except he got injured in training camp at best you keep Howard 3rd string until he, uh, processed himself, brought progress, I'm guessing.

I, I, we, I agree with your, your take on Howard.

He has not proven anything, but like I said, I would rather the uncertainty of Howard, and I'm not the biggest Howard fan.

I think he probably should have gone like in the 5th round, and the Steelers got him in the 6th round.

I wasn't one of the ones in the campus saying, oh, we should be a day 2 pick.

I never thought that about him.

But I just know who Rudolph is at this stage of his career, and it's been quite underwhelming.

You look at Rudolph's like last 5 or 6 starts in the NFL, they've been really poor overall, and his, his best play honestly came way back when, like in 2019, and we're far removed from that.

So I just don't think Rudolph offers a whole.

A whole ton at this point anymore, so I would take the uncertainty of Howard.

Uh, let's try another topic, Shane, I think that's gonna be really interesting is, is Joey Porter Jr gonna hold in?

Like this is, like, is this a true hold in at this point?

Is this a whole, is this the beginning of a hold in, and we just, we're just framing it as something else right now.

Like, this could impact the Steelers season if he, if he holds out all the way, if he does the TJ Watt and shows up right before week one, signs, and he's really rusty and really grabby and tweaks his hamstring because he hasn't been practicing like.

I, I could see this going very wrong, and especially knowing that, I mean, we're being honest, Porter has one really good season sample.

I think his rookie year was quality.

2024 was not very good.

It was very up and down.

Lots of grabbings, lots of penalties .

Last year was good, but if he reverts back to the how who we saw in 2024, and the Steelers are paying him now 30+ million dollars a season, we could be writing a lot about Joey Porter and how There was a lot of mistakes made along this process here, and I don't wanna have to do that.

I hope that he shows up to camp here soon, he signs, hopefully we can avoid this whole holding situation.

That, that would be ideal, obviously, is to just get this done, but I, I think the problem is, it's, it's really tough with corners, and we, you just kind of brought up why, like, there's not many guys, and maybe Joey.

Has become this guy, and maybe he will be this guy, but there's not many corners in the NFL that year over year or even a top 10 player at their position, right?

Cause it's just so difficult to play.

And I think the way that Joey plays does give him an advantage in the sense that like his coverage year to year is normally going to be more based on like how many penalties he can avoid essentially and not so much whether he can stay with guys consistently.

So he has a better chance of probably staying at a consistent level than other guys who rely a little bit more on like, just like being insane zone defenders, and maybe they just have a year where they don't have as many great plays in the zone and they get beat a couple times, stuff like that.

So, I do want them to ultimately get this done, but it, you are right to say that like you don't want it to drag because if he does have a rough first year on on a contract, like that could set him up for failure moving forward from that point.

Yeah, I guess we will have to just wait and see when he ultimately hits the field, signs that contract.

Uh, and then the last thing that I have here, Shane, how much is McCarthy's camp going to differ from a Mike Tomlin camp that we're so used to seeing, uh, for two decades.

I mean, so far, I mean, already knowing there's not going to be any padded practices, that's very different.

I think someone noted that we saw uh.

Two sets of 11 on 11s going, like it's simultaneously today, that's new.

So are we gonna get the backs on backers?

Are we gonna get receivers, D-backs one on one?

Like, I, I don't know how different it's gonna look in what it's ultimately going to result in, but I'm interested to see, uh, where things go from here.

Yeah, it could, there could be a lot of things that are different, and honestly, that's probably good overall.

Um, I know that some people made a note that the pace was definitely amped up in terms of what they were doing and how fast they're doing it.

And I think that lends into what you're saying about McCarthy trying to maximize every minute he has out there, basically.

And yeah, I think going tempo, like trying to get these guys in shape as fast as possible, making them work hard, like, that's a good way to get conditioning up, it's a good way to fit in a lot more reps for stuff, like, There's ways you can kind of like cheat the system a little bit, I guess, in some way, and I think that that's one of the ways you can do that, and maybe we'll see a lot of that this this spring or this summer, so.

Yeah, Shannon, in my mind, the trade-off of ramping up the speed, but taking away the tackling is well worth it, and we'll see if it it pays off, but uh get as many reps in as you can during the time that you have allotted to you, uh, and see what you can do.

See how fast you can get everybody in, into shape and knowing the playbook and doing all the, all the things they need to do by the time that preseason hits here really soon.

So, we will be here for all of the coverage of that.

This is the Still Curtain podcast.

It goes live every Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.

You can check out Shane and Josh Orris's show uh live on Mondays at 1:30 if you missed their.

Their Monday show, they previewed.

I did a whole training camp preview, so go check that out over there, uh, on our YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcast.

Thank you for joining us on the show today.

You can follow Shane on X at Shane Kubas.

You can follow me on X at Tommy Jaggay.

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