Brendan, what's going on at quarterback for the Pitt Panthers right now?

So we saw Holden Gerner last week make his starting debut against North Carolina, and it did not go great.

Uh, Pat Narduzzi keeps pounding the table and saying, hey, his first half went well.

Um, he was chucking the ball down a lot.

Uh, he got the ball to Carson Kent a lot, which he's a tight end who transferred from Oklahoma that has become a big part of this offense, and rightfully so.

He's shown that he can kind of get those catches and do some things with it, as kind of we see with the Steelers and, and their tight ends.

But, um, he, he was also dumping it off to running backs.

Like I would be a little bit surprised, honestly, at this point if we don't see him at all.

Mm

... which, ouch.

Uh, he was limping after that game.

He's still, like, he's been at practice at maybe not full go, but he's been out there.

Um, I spent three, three and a half hours after Sunday night's win over the Colts going back and looking at Jalen Warren's career arc.

From the time he was in high school, he was this record-setting Utah running back who was overlooked even then.

He ends up going to a junior college, does really well there, goes to Utah State.

What is your assessment of his play so far?

But against the rest of the ACC, should Pitt feel confident that its defense and its running game can keep it winning even without the play of Mason Heinchel at quarterback?

We saw even last week some guys get injured on that defense, and it still performed pretty well, uh, relatively in that sort of environment.

Uh, where they were upgraded last night from doubtful to questionable in safety Josh Garrier and linebacker Alex Sanford Jr., who won an ACC Player of the Week award, I think, after his game against Syracuse.

Uh, so that defense, they, they're kind of like the offense where they have guys at positions that are second or third stringers that Narduzzi can count on to throw in and still kind of keep the ship right.

Um, but that rushing game is definitely the highlight of that offense.

Uh, that's really gonna help Holden Garner.

You have three guys, Boozie Turner, uh, he came back last week after being out for three weeks.

Uh, are you feeling those stakes on the line this week, or is this to you just Pitt, North Carolina?

Oh, you cut out there? Okay, cool.

Yeah, I'm just about always tired these days, but you kind of just got to push through it, you know.

So that's what that's been.

Takeaways from the Browns, I mean, that game and what happened in it is still bleeding into questions that were asked today on a Wednesday ahead of Sunday's game against Colts.

And really, I think this will be the last day where we get to kind of put those thoughts to bed about it with Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy Young at one another.

I said this earlier, I did a stand-up after practice if people want to go check that practice report out.

Whenever I wrote that story about that interaction, I titled it like something along the lines of brotherly arguing.

Did they miss the field goal, though? Did they? I heard there's controversy with that.

he also say it's just like playing Akron? He

didn't say that.

He didn't say that.

But I talked to Virginia Tech beat writer Andy Bitter yesterday for Behind the Enemy Line story that's coming today.

And he said that he doesn't think that Pat Narduzzi has forgotten that comment, which he thinks that these are two coaches that really want to beat each other badly.

you know, neither of them say anything bad about the other and neither of them give any bulletin board material to the other, but it's probably, it's probably some motivation just to go out there and beat that guy, even though they haven't played in like seven years.

I think that is, that obviously is the biggest storyline heading in before you even talk about any players.

What should Pitt expect Mason Heinzel to be the rest of the year? Feels like a pretty open question right now.

What do you see on the Brown side that kind of makes you say, you know, If this goes right for them, it's going to be a really tough game.

It's kind of odd that I was writing, like I write for Fansided too, and I was listening to some of what Deshaun Watson said just, I think, earlier this month, like way earlier this month, or maybe possibly late last month about the fans in Cleveland and how they were rough on him and how it was just a weird situation.

He's calling out his team's fans.

when he really hadn't done much to, like, warrant positive thoughts or positive opinions.

So with that, I also think that their run game with Quinchon Jenkins, who I got to watch a lot of with being a fan of Ohio State, was really big in terms of that national championship run, which I look back on fondly.

He might have been the better running back in that room with Travion Henderson.

So he's back healthy after getting hurt last year.

I'm going to take the over on that.

So how are you now fighting this?

Yeah.

Like you said there, there could be two very different situations.

This could be something where maybe really the strain is back and there's just incredible timing where, literally first day of training camp like not even a few days in but if if you do enable it like they did early on say in the other instance where maybe there's nothing at all which none of us can say and honestly like with back injuries i feel like that's more up to the player than it is like the medical staff how you're feeling we saw we saw him or alan saw him that's the one practice i didn't go to uh so far this season was the one where he goes out there he reaches down for a ball and he kind of leaves the trainer that's only practice I've been to this season, which is crazy.

But yeah, I would say if the Steelers kind of knew what the situation was and if Mike McCarthy is still kind of not telling the whole truth when he talks to us, then they completely lost all way to arguments, especially if like finds and stuff come into the picture, which it's been such a weird situation because like, like I said, if Mike McCarthy is not being fully truthful and Joey Porter is not being fully truthful, like, It's just something, if we as reporters say or insinuate that they're lying, then it makes us look bad in their eyes.

But it's just a very odd situation still.

It's at the point with this where whenever we get the McCarthy news, I'm sort of racking my brain to come up with a headline for the story that isn't hey, Mike McCarthy said the same thing today as he said yesterday, as he said the day before, as he said last week.

I'm not going

I think that matchup might be spicier than this one.

Yeah, I agree with that.

Slippery Rock scored 70 points last week.

I think they're leading the country at, like, 58.3 points per game so far for any of you Sliprock fans out there.

So good for them.

There's a tie-in with Connie Thompson, the transfer that came from Sliprock.

Speaking of transfers, I was looking at this last night, and I've gotten to talk to some of the coaches this week as they've come on.

Is this, is, are you seeing that the same way I'm seeing that?

Mm

... kind of just seemed like he was kind of just hanging around.

So that's another thing.

Like I don't know if you just throw Lou Nichols out there.

I, I think that the Steelers will have a plan knowing that it's Lou Nichols, and from, from what I s- talked to Lou today and what he said to me, it sounds like there might be a bit of an idea that he, he could play on Sunday.

Like he said, "It's a long time coming," uh, that something like this happens.

I, I talked to Sam Simon.

Okay, I, I know for entertainment purposes you're saying Jalen Ramsey-

the ball in training camp uh curious to hear your thoughts on you know you think that's gonna be the big reason why they can't run the

ball or you think it's more schematics i feel like it's a cliche but like the line hasn't like there were a lot of moving parts in that line and even though they had three, four months.

Like, I mean, they had the mini camp practices and they had training camp to kind of gel.

And this week we might see that line shuffle even more with Troy Fatonu being out of practice today.

So Dylan Cook moved over to the left side from the right side.

He started those four games there last year.

I think that he kind of knows what he's doing and that's not too much of a worry, but like, With how much this line is kind of shuffled and you see maybe Maxi Onshore comes in there, a right tackle and makes a start.

receiver

What's it been like trying to dive into this program and, and become an expert on it very quickly, because that's in my mind, one of the most difficult things you can ask for a journalist to do.

The first week I had a notebook where I would write down basically every storyline from each press conference or each time the player talked.

And I found out like, I've, been able to store away a lot of those like tidbits and stuff in my head to where like now I'm following storylines.

I talked to her yesterday about, the running backs, they have four running backs who he believes all can play.

And we saw all play against Miami of Ohio.

And I want to like, I wanted to know how he's going to use those guys going forward.

Cause he can't, I'm doubting your play for running backs every game, especially with the workload that they got.

What have you thought about what you've seen so far about Mason Heinshaw?

Brendan, I'll let you take that one first.

I think he answered his own question.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel like the general sentiment is it's kind of surprising how much Mike McCarthy doesn't want to give up, which, like, football coaches at their core seem to be paranoid all the time.

We see this all the time.

But, yeah, it's – to kind of put things – vaguely it's not what i expected like you see mike mccarthy and he's this kind of jovial big guy pittsburgh he's back in pittsburgh like that sort of thing but yeah just just kind of leave it at that he's he's not particularly what i expected so far um and back to the joey thing i wanted to mention this alan and i were standing on the sidelines at practice day during that viewing period and it kind of popped in my head like Is it awkward for Joey Porter Jr. to, like, sit there and – like, he's ramping up with a back injury.

Brendan, what are your thoughts?

What's on your mind with the preseason roster cuts? Last time we left

off, there were 90 guys on the roster.

I said earlier in my stand-up that 11 days kind of feels like 100 right now.

This is that period that there's a little bit of a lull.

You want regular season football.

It's just not coming to you just yet.

Obviously, college football starts this weekend with my coverage with Pitt.

Brandon, do you think they're going to get the contract done? Do you think they're going to get close? I mean, I don't know how to feel

Okay

... running back three spot.

Well, Travis Homer's in that mix too, who...

Like I don't know why, but Travis Homer kind of always like falls out of mind for me, just like I know that he brings a lot.

I, if I were to choose right now, like I've talked about how...

And this, this is just like the Roman conversation.

Uh, like I've talked about how athletic Caleb Johnson looks in person.

If you can get him back to the practice squad, great.

Brendan, I know you're going to miss that commute out to Latrobe, but what were your overall thoughts about training camp? And I don't know, do you come away with it with any, like, optimism, pessimism, or just kind of, hey, it is

what it is? First off, my car is literally begging for an oil change.

I need to get that done tomorrow.

There's no question about it.

I have to have that done.

From driving to Latrobe so much and driving to Pittsburgh today down the south side, Alan and I did a video after practice where it was really weird that the final training camp practice was at the south side.

It just wasn't the same vibe.

That's what I'm curious to see because he has – that's where his upside is, is his legs and between the hashes.

But what do you think it's going to have to come down to when it comes down to better Rudolph versus, in essence, might as well call him a rookie and Will Howard?

I feel like it's definitely an uphill climb.

My view of it is we know what Mason Rudolph is, and he's a serviceable backup quarterback.

And I saw Alan tweet, I think, a few days ago.

He said Will Howard could be anything.

He could even be Mason Rudolph, like Peter Griffin with the gift.

That whole meme there.

Do you think he could be traded for a

And Allard is definitely a, I know who you're looking forward to, Brendan.

So tell me what you're looking for out of Mr. Howard.

Both of those quarterbacks have been intriguing to everyone during this training camp.

You see the clips.

I've seen way more clips of Drew Aller hitting passes.

And honestly, he has made more consequential passes this training camp so far than Will Howard has.

Both of them kind of sputtered in the two-minute drill when they've had their chances.

So what are

What stood out to you on day number one?

I talked earlier in the stand-up or the camp report after about the changes and the evolution of training camp, which I've kind of been the top of the discussion over the past two days.

I got to talk to DK Metcalf's dad, Terrence, a good bit today.

Actually, he was at practice watching DK, watching the team.

We talked about how there's no more two days, obviously, and the Steelers are practicing in the morning, which makes it a little cooler out.

There were a lot of changes, I think, that honestly, like the no tackling, it makes sense.

Obviously, it makes for a less entertaining camp, but If players aren't going to get hurt, we get to cover them more during the season.

I also read something that said like 24 of the 32 franchises don't have live tackling um now with that being said one of the big things is with harped on is attention to detail what are some things you've noticed um kind of being able to see them up close that maybe stands out more in that regard than possibly the last regime

What's your thought there? How did they go over that? Well,

we've seen pretty easy examples over the past few years of both of the two years that I've been on the beat covering games.

Uh, my first ever road game was that Cleveland game in the snow.

It was magical.

And I remember after that game writing about it, it probably would have been more magical if the Steelers fans had the Steelers won.

Still, the snow was awesome.

I can't stand the Browns for going inside and building a stadium like that.

But out of these other ones, I could make a case for probably three, four guys to be listed inside the top 10 at their position before I could TJ Watt based off his 2025.

I'm gonna say Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati.

I think what you say there about Pittsburgh being number one, like Pittsburgh and Baltimore can be interchangeable to me basically just because, like, the Steelers have a one-two punch that the Ravens do not.

Like, of course, you have Derrick Henry, and like you mentioned, he's getting up there in age.

Uh, you gotta wonder, like, how that split goes and how many carries they give him being that he's, he's where he is now.

If Quinshon Judkins doesn't get hurt at the end of last season, I think Cleveland has a legit argument to be up there in the top two as well.

Uh, I, I liked how Alan ranked it there, uh, but I could see, like, your argument of switching Pittsburgh and Baltimore just because of that one-two punch.

Like, we saw what they could do with two backs last year and Kenneth Gainwell breaking out the way he did.

Brendan, what do you think?

As we sit here right now, What is the maybe short list? So somewhere between one to three things that you are looking forward to most at training camp, whether it's one player, whether it's a position battle, whatever it might be.

So first off, and I've said this a few times, is how Jalen Ramsey is going to look in the secondary of the season.

We know he moved around a little bit last season, ended up back at safety, which was a new position for him.

He talked very politically about how it was a new challenge for him and he liked it.

Not sure exactly how much he liked it.

I'm sure he was happy to kind of fill in back there and do his thing.

But I think it'll be really cool to see someone with the talents he has move around and play different roles and hopefully get back to the level of Jalen Ramsey that we're used to seeing or that kind of his reputation sits on.

But there's not anything like specific that I feel the need to eat or drink or do or anything like that.

But this is from Bobby, who says, which players are you looking forward to seeing in training camp this year and also which rookie will have the most to prove in training camp?

I think and we kind of talked about this last week when I was on like with Jalen and what he's going to do in the secondary.

I'm excited to kind of see where he lines up a lot of the time and get an idea of what he's able to do there.

I think we just talked about Drew, but I think it'll be really interesting because unless they're going to keep four quarterbacks, which is very debatable, very unlikely, I feel like.

The Mason-Will battle in camp for the backup job is going to be something that I feel like a lot of people are going to be watching.

That'll be pretty cool to see, especially since we only got to see only such a small sample size of Will in that setting last year.

He was there for, what, two weeks before he got hurt? There were two weeks in? Yeah, two or three weeks, yeah.

But what do you think is the deepest position group or the deepest position groups on the Steelers

Do either of you have, uh, anything to say about the way that Caleb Johnson has looked, uh, at, in this setting at the very least, as opposed to year one?

I, I was actually paying attention.

I, I have some videos that someone put up of him, uh, from practice this week, and I talked to him on Tuesday.

He said about, like-Something that I thought was interesting is he's still working on at this point what he was last year with pass blocking, he's still talking to Jalen about that, and then he's working on his patching.

And I noticed during the drill the other day, I put a few clips up of it, I think of, uh, DK and Michael Pittman catching balls during that drill, and Robert Tonyan, where they run through two bags, and it, it was harder than it looked, I guess, 'cause a lot of the guys were having trouble holding on to balls, uh, where they had to, like, peak around the bag, and this ball was being thrown fastball at them.

Uh, Caleb dropped the first one, it hit him in the chest, and then he went back not just once more to do the drill, but twice more.

He, he hopped in line twice more, caught both of them.

Evan's a traditionalist.

There's people that are much smarter than me that would be the ones piecing this together, but I don't think that there would be the desire from the NFL PA to make that happen.

Yeah, not only that, you figure the players flying over there would be annoyed of flying over there, but the team there that's stationed there would have to fly to the United States eight, nine times a year.

So I was listening to Andrew Brandt earlier.

He's the former vice president of the Packers, and he was talking about, you see how the NFL is pushing and bumping up these international games, and he thinks that The concept of a team in another country is kind of out the window now.

Roger Goodell has spoken before.

He wants to have 18 international games a season, which would be one for each team at least.

So Andrew Brandt, who he's been in the business football, he's, he's pretty aware of the gongs on there.

It's just what's the reaction if he does make it ugly this summer?