Joe's Wild Pitch: Yankees' Resilience, NFL International Showdowns, and Steelers' Strategy – Unraveling the Upcoming Sports Season

Ever wonder how the Yankees could possibly stay afloat with their ace on the bench or which NFL international matchup is set to thrill fans across the pond? Well, buckle up, because on Joe's Wild Pitch, we're swinging for the fences with hot takes and deep dives into the wild world of sports – all with a personal twist that's as unpredictable as a knuckleball. Feel the pressure of the AL East as I break down the Yankees' resilience, the Phillies' dual-threat strategy, and why the Orioles are the young upstarts to watch. Plus, stay tuned for my candid thoughts on Arsenal's nail-biting Premier League race and why a West Ham miracle might just be the shakeup we're all secretly hoping for.

As someone who's lived and breathed sports long enough to call out the hits and misses, I'm tossing in my two cents on the NFL's international games and draft picks. I'm not pulling any punches when I say that not all QBs are cut from the same cloth – looking at you, McCarthy and Rodgers. The Steelers, on the other hand, have caught my eye with their off-season strategy, and I'm laying out why their upcoming season might just have fans on the edge of their seats, especially after the Mason Rudolph shuffle. And hey, let's not overlook the NFL's curious choices for showcasing their brand abroad; some matchups have me scratching my head, and I'm not afraid to tell you why.

Closing out, we'll tackle what's brewing in Pittsburgh post-Rudolph and whether Russell Wilson can engineer a Steelers revival. You'll get my unfiltered perspective on contract strategies shaking up the locker room and how the pieces fall into place for a Steelers' season that's shaping up to be as gripping as a fourth-quarter comeback. From the Chargers' clash in the home opener to the high stakes of each power play, I'm mapping out the road to victory, or at least, a season worth remembering. So grab your headphones, sports aficionado, because this episode is more packed than a stadium on game day.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Good morning everybody. Thank you very much for tuning in to today's episode of Joe's Wild Pitch. This podcast is all about sports. However, we're kind of gonna put a unique twist on it and I have a lot of really crazy things that happen in my life, whether it's women or just crazy things that happen to me while I'm at work or I'm at the beach or whatever. So when those crazy things do happen, we're gonna talk about them because why not? You crazy things do happen. Um, we're gonna talk about them because why not? You'll get a kick out of it. I tell people about it all the time at work and they all tell me that I'm hysterical and they can't believe these crazy things happen to me, so you get to learn about them too.

Speaker 1: 0:34

Um, so, as you guys can probably tell, my name is joe really basic. I'm from new york originally, but I currently live in florida. The yankees steelers and they flow through my veins. I mean, those thousand percent are my teams I'll support through and through and that'll never change. Now I know we're in the heat of like the NBA and the NHL playoffs. In all honesty, I can't stand the NBA. I literally tried to watch the Knicks play the other night and I watched for 30 seconds and had to turn it off just because I just don't like it. So we probably will not be talking about basketball. But in regards to hockey, honestly I just I started getting into hockey this year, but not until like really really late. Um, the Rangers are doing phenomenal. I'm a New Yorker, so go Rangers. So we're not really going to be talking about the NHL a whole lot right now, but when next season rolls around we probably will be talking about the NHL because I'll be a little bit more informed and I'll actually somewhat know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 1:35

You know, years ago I originally had a sports blog and it was called Joe in the game and at first I really really liked doing it. I mean, I love sports. Sports is literally my life. I mean I could talk about sports 24-7 and never get bored. But the problem with my sports blog was it felt really impersonal. I didn't really like how it was. Just let me write up this article, you read it and then boom, that's it.

Speaker 1: 2:02

I feel like with a podcast at least, I'm sitting here and I'm actually like speaking to you guys. You guys can hear my voice, you can hear the emotion when I talk about certain things and, trust me, there are definitely certain topics I get really riled up about. Probably won't talk about them in this episode because it's an intro. Eventually, you guys will definitely see that side of me. So I'm really hoping that the podcast, you know, is a little bit more personal. We have some things that I'll talk about in a little bit that can really help you like interact with the show as well.

Speaker 1: 2:28

So currently, right now, above the description for the episode, there's a link it's like a Buzzsprout link, I believe so you can click on that link and that's how you can really show your support. So right now we're currently accepting monthly subscribers, but it's totally optional. Do not feel like by any means you have to subscribe. You don't. It's only there. If you want to support the podcast, help us grow. But, once again, you don't even have to donate to help us grow. I mean, by all means, please just share this podcast to your family, your friends, put up on social media, help spread the word. Any and all support really does mean the world to me. But for those of you that are interested in subscribing, right now the prices are $3, $4, $8, and $10 a month. Right now. I mean, there's really no benefit to subscribing other than just directly supporting me and the show. Later on down the road there will be subscriber exclusive content, but I just need to figure that out first. I'm still really new to the whole podcasting thing and honestly, I just kind of want to build and grow with you guys first, before I really worry about subscriber exclusive content, because I just don't want to make it seem like I'm trying to push this the wrong way. So eventually that will be here, but for now it's not. You could just subscribe, donate and that's kind of that.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Also, before the description, there's going to be a fan mail link and I'm really honestly, really, really excited about that. So what that is is you guys can click on that and it'll bring you once again to a Buzzsprout website and you guys can actually write in to the show website and you guys can actually write in to the show. So if I say something on the podcast and you want to put your own two cents in about it, by all means, please do like send send me some mail. If you want to send a message of support, by all means you could send that too. Now, any and all fan mail, submissions and subscribers. I'm going to read at the beginning of each episode think of it like a like for the subscribers. It's kind of like a shout out for you guys for your support, and then for the fan mail. I mean, I feel like the fan mail is going to be awesome because you know, I mean this. This is all my opinion, right? So obviously you guys are gonna have different opinions than I do. So please, by all means, write in, express your opinion and then you know, I can reiterate from from there, rate from from there.

Speaker 1: 4:44

But enough with all the boring stuff. Let's let's get into the real reason why we're here, right, sports. So we're gonna start off with some baseball now. This year so far it's been a very, very interesting baseball season. Well, I'll give it that I really feel like this year there's no, there's really no team in the league where I'm like whoa, yeah, yeah, no, they're winning it for sure. There's a lot of really good teams out there, but other than that, I mean, you know, there's really nothing going on. So I'm a diehard Dirty Yankees fan.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Right Now I have the AL East standings pulled up Now. I'm recording this on May 16th, so it might be different when the episode goes up on monday? Well, actually it will be, because more games will be played, obviously. So right now we got the yankees in first place, 29 to 15. You got the orioles in second place 27 and 14, with a game behind. You got the red socks in third place 22 and 21. There's six and a half games back. You got the race sitting at 22 and 22 and fourth place there a half games back. You got the race sitting at 22 and 22 and fourth place. There's seven games back. And then the blue jays are 19, 23, nine games back.

Speaker 1: 5:52

What happened to the al east? And I mean, granted, right now we have all but one team, that's 500. But if you guys remember, like last year, like the al east, like our division was insane, not only was everybody above 500, but like we all had like pretty significant winning records, I guess, with the exception of the Yankees and the Red Sox last year. But I mean, even then I want to say they were like 520, 530. I mean it wasn't like awful, but it was just. The AL East last year was just so stacked.

Speaker 1: 6:21

But you know, honestly, with the Yankees this year, I mean I, I think, I think the bats, the bats really aren't the problem and, honestly, even our starting rotation without Garrett Cole, they've surprised me. They've really, for the most part, they've stepped up. Um, there's two pitchers on there, schmidt and Rodon, that I wish would fall off the face of the map. But you know, whatever, I paid a lot of money for Rodon, so he's sticking around, and Clark Schmidt never should have been brought back in the first place. But we were desperate, but that's a different talk for a different day.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Now, when it comes down to the AL East, honestly I really do think the Yankees can win it. Obviously, you know, the one team that gives the Yankees a lot of problems is the Orioles. Orioles are a good team and the Orioles are young. I mean, am I still, like, overly worried about them? I mean, no, it's nice to have competition right, because it kind of makes your players actually step up. I feel like the Yankees, for a long time there got really comfortable because they knew they were winning the AL East no matter what, whereas now it's really really strong and we got some competition going on, which is phenomenal. But you know, at the end of the day, the Yankees are the Yankees. They're the face of Major League Baseball. They have been for a really really long time, 27-time World Series champs. You can't dispute that.

Speaker 1: 7:30

I really do think that once the roster gets fully, fully healthy, that we're going to be okay. Orioles are always a thorn in our side. Even when the Orioles were bad, the Orioles were a thorn in our side. I don't know why, but they just always have been. But I'm confident, you know we'll handle business when it matters the most. But you know, can we?

Speaker 1: 7:52

Let's look at the National League for a second here. Right, even in the National League, I feel like there isn't a team where I go whoa, they're winning the World Series. There's no stopping them, you know. I mean, in the National National League you have the Phillies, you have the Braves, you have the Dodgers. I mean they all, they all look good. Are we really surprised by that? No, I mean, if you're surprised by that, I don't think that you've watched baseball ever. But I mean you know that's on you. You also have the Brewers and the Cubs. They're pretty close in the NL Central. But I mean it's the Cubs and the Brewers. I don't really think there's a need to worry there. You know, one of them might make it to the playoffs, they're going to fizzle out pretty quickly. You know the Braves the Braves are a solid team. I don't I don't really watch a whole lot of Atlanta a because I'm not a National League fan but because I'm, you know, I'm not in a market where they're on TV all the time. I do see the scores that pop up from them, though, and they seem to win pretty convincingly most of their games that they do win, and apparently they have really good pitching. I know their hitting is really good just watching them in the playoffs last year.

Speaker 1: 8:58

The Phillies you know, the Phillies, to me, are always like that team where it's like they always look absolutely not well, not always, but I mean recently they look absolutely phenomenal. The bats are hot. I think the Phillies have 30 wins right now. I'm going to pull up their record. Yeah, they're 31-13 right now, and I mean, hey, like that's not a record to shake a stick at right. I mean even the Dodgers, they're 29-16, you know, and the Yankees are 29-15, so the Yankees are right up there with them.

Speaker 1: 9:30

But you know, the Phillies, it's like they well, not even just the Phillies. I guess it's baseball in general, right, each team, it's kind of like it comes in waves where you're good and then they kind of crash a little bit and then they come back up and they're good and they crash a little bit and do we spike in time for the playoffs? Do we not have spiking time for the playoffs? But the problem with the Phillies, right, is I think the Phillies, overall throughout the season, really stay pretty consistent. You know, the Dodgers, they stay pretty consistent, and the Yankees, we have like our downward spirals right after the All-Star break, and I want to rip my hair out of my head and I want to hang myself, but you know, we somehow pull through and it's kind of. It's kind of funny though, because the Phillies are always really consistent throughout the season. And same thing with the Dodgers. Actually, in this regard, I'm going to throw them into this too. But then the playoffs hit and it's like the Dodgers. The Dodgers, when they hit the playoffs, like fizzle off the face of the maps, like they forgot to play baseball.

Speaker 1: 10:24

The Phillies, the Phillies start always, start off pretty strong, but by the time if they make it to the NLCS, the boys are tired man, because all they mean they swing for the fences. But the problem with them is they actually can swing for the fences, unlike the Yankees where they just strike out 99% of the time. And the Phillies it's literally a home run derby. But the thing about the Phillies, too is the Phillies, it's literally a home run derby. But the thing about the Phillies, too, is the Phillies are actually capable of playing small ball and I feel like a lot of teams nowadays unless I feel like the Rays really have forgotten how important small ball is. You need men on base and then you need to have those two or three guys that will crank out a home run for you.

Speaker 1: 11:05

And I feel like that's not only just a Yankees problem. That's been a Yankee problem for years. I mean, I feel like every time I've seen a game recently in the past I don't know nine years it's just been a home run derby. It's just let's just rank it as far as we can and see if we make it every single time and it results in a strikeout like 95% of the time. But you know, bryce Harper, I like Bryce Harper. But you know, bright Bryce Harper, I like Bryce Harper. You know, if you guys remember Bryce Harper supposed to be Yankee and then, for whatever reason, we, we told them? Absolutely not. We want nothing to do with you and we're regretting that still, but anyway, that was a really long tangent.

Speaker 1: 11:40

But the Phillies, I mean I would I say they're a favorite out of the National League to make it to the World Series yeah for sure, I'd say them. And the Dodgers are probably the uh, the favorites. But this is way, entirely way too early to say this. But I think the, the winner, is coming out of the American League this year. I really do. I mean, I'm always going to tell you that the Yankees are winning it, assuming Garrett Cole comes back, and we're going to talk about Garrett Cole here in a second. But, um, I just, I don't know. I maybe I'm biased because I'm a Yankees fan and we're in the American League, but I always look at these National League teams. I can only really think of like a handful of years where I thought to myself oh wow, yeah, no, they're winning it all, like that's it, it's game over. You know, but for the most part, I think the American feel like the American League is. I feel like we're just stronger. I don't know. But let's talk about Garrett Cole here for a second. All right.

Speaker 1: 12:31

As we know, garrett Cole got hurt spring training. Now reports a couple of weeks ago or even a month ago now, have been saying that he was out in the outfield, he was throwing the ball. He started pitching out in the outfield and I mean that's all like good signs, right? I mean you want to hear that from your ace starting pitcher. But then I want to say, oh man, it had to have been two weeks ago. Now the Yankees come out and said, yeah, you know what, we're not putting him to practice on the mound yet. We don't want to rush him to practice on the mound yet. We don't. We don't want to rush him, bro. What A this is Garrett Cole B. We're paying him $350 million to throw a baseball. If the man can pitch out in the outfield, he can pitch on the mound, you know.

Speaker 1: 13:15

So now it's like is is this injury worse than what they were saying? Because if it is, I feel like, as the fan, we need to know that. You know what I mean. I mean I don't know. That's scary, it's scaring me. I'm not really a fan of that. I'm really trying not to freak out too hard. I guess we're gonna have to see how his rehab and AAA goes, if that ever happens this year. I mean I really hope it does, because if we're going to win the World Series, we need him, you know, speaking of guys with big money, can we talk about Juan Soto for a second?

Speaker 1: 13:51

I mean, to be honest with you, he's been a complete surprise for me so far this year. I mean, I understand he has this reputation. He's supposed to be like the next big thing. Honestly, I feel like every single time the yankees bring in like these big name name, big money players, they really never seem to work out. But this guy, juan soto, is like the real deal. He can, he can play small ball and he can also crank out the home runs and you can tell just by watching him every time he takes a hit. Him and aaron judge have a phenomenal relationship, which is great, because judge is the captain I have my own opinions on, but we're going to save that for a different show, for when he just absolutely strikes out six times in the game. But no man, I mean I watch Juan Soto and I'm like whoa, I'm impressed, he's good and he's consistent too. But also this guy Verdugo that we got from the Red Sox I don't know why the Red Sox, let him go man. Because, sox, I don't know why the Red Sox, let him go man, because, let me tell you something, I think he's phenomenal too. So I don't know.

Speaker 1: 14:46

I mean, I think overall I really do think that the Yankees have a good team this year. I just wish we had some pitching man. Those damn Dodgers, they took our pitching from us. But you know what? Honestly, I'm kind of glad the pitchers took that, uh, took that pitcher from the Yankees, because you know what? He's really not playing that well. I granted, it's his first year in MLB, right, but let's talk about the Dodgers. The Dodgers, you know, it's every time, I feel like every year, you're right, they make all these signings and you're like whoa man, I can't believe it. They just signed this guy. Oh, they just signed that guy. I mean, obviously the standout signing for them is Otani and the Dodgers secured him. But you know, you look at the Dodgers sitting at 29-16.

Speaker 1: 15:27

Now, if you guys remember the beginning of the season, like they've struggled, they were barely playing 500 ball. It's just, I'm not scared of them, I'm really not. I already know come playoff time they're going to fall off. I'm going to say that the Phillies won the National League, but that's just my personal opinion. Now, like I said earlier, I'm recording this episode on May 16th, so the final week in the Premier League has not happened yet. But, man, my Gunners, the Arsenal, the mighty Arsenal, we need a miracle to happen this Sunday. Now I can't believe these words are actually going to come out of my mouth.

Speaker 1: 16:02

I was actually rooting for Spurs to win the other day because they were playing Manchester City and we needed Spurs to draw or win. But of course, the Spurs for Spurs to win the other day, because they're, they were playing Manchester City and we needed Spurs to draw our win. But of course the Spurs are Spurs. You know they just they laid down Hyunmin Son misses and like basically a sitter, I don't, I don't know. But you know what you can't, you can't rely on another team. Your team has to be able to come through right and win matches. So it's all going to come down to the final match day on sunday. Right now, the current tables manchester city is in first with 88 points, arsenals in second with 86 points. City play west ham and my gunners play everton. Both city and arsenal are home boys. We need a west ham master class, we do. I. I'm confident arsenal can beat everton 100, especially at home at the emirates, no problem.

Speaker 1: 16:46

It was actually kind of funny. I was. I was laying down in bed last night and I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and this guy put up a uh, a tweet, and it was like you know, it's actually really funny. In the beginning of the year, I had a dream that Arsenal and Manchester City were duking it out for the league title and it came down to the last day and West Ham pulled the upset and then Arsenal won the league at the Emirates and I'm like, wow, okay. Well, this is a sign from God that this is actually going to happen. I'm all for it, 100%, but I'm not getting my hopes up. You know, I mean West Ham let's just be real. West Ham aren't aren't a great team, you know, and have to rely on a mid-table team to perform a result not really the best thing. But sometimes, you know, these teams come out and they do pull these offsets because now they've got nothing to lose. So I don't know, you know it's our. I mean, I really can't be upset with this season, though.

Speaker 1: 17:37

Truthfully, I really feel like Arsenal have had a really really phenomenal year, especially in comparison to last year. Um, granted, like this year we start off a little slow, whereas last I feel like right out of the gate we were pretty much on fire. But once Christmas break hit this year and Arteta took the boys to Dubai, like they woke up and not only did they become the arsenal of last season, but we easily became the best defense in the league and I mean we were scoring goals right, left, center. I mean it was insane. Now it kind of fizzled out a little bit, but it's the end of the season, the boys are tired, but you know I really can't help but feel like our attack still really needs some work. Our forwards man, I mean they're good but we need help.

Speaker 1: 18:18

You know, sokka Bukayo, he's supposed to be our star boy, right, and you know don't get me wrong I mean I like Saka. I'm glad he's a gunner and not on any other team, but if he would just like stop flopping in the box and expecting a penalty every single time somebody like breathed on him, you know that'd be great Learned how to shoot, like in the Champions League, right, he's one-on-one with Manuel Neuer against Bayern Munich, instead of just simply dribbling around Neuer and scoring the goal and sending us through or what would have sent us through to play Real Madrid. He just runs straight in the Neuer and then flops over and expects the referee to call a penalty and, honestly, I mean I watch that replay all the time. You guys, if you want, you can actually look it up on YouTube. It just look up Bukayo Saka versus Manuel Neuer champions, like 2024. It's not a penalty man. I mean, I've seen so many people online like they're crying that it's a penalty. Definitely was not a penalty. That's not, you know.

Speaker 1: 19:15

And another thing that we're missing is we we need a striker that's gonna score us like 25, 30 goals in all competitions every year. Ebro Jesus, I mean he's good, but he's not clinical. He's also not reliable. You know his knee's made of paper mache, so it's like he plays four matches and then he's out another ten and comes back and plays another four and sits out another ten. It's crazy. It's crazy Martinelli Martinelli's good. I feel like Martinelli, though the problem with him is he likes to be a little too showboaty sometimes, you know, but the thing is, is Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus both have competition right on the left, martinelli has Chassard behind him and now Chassard's. He's been starting and Chassard's been on on fire, absolute fire.

Speaker 1: 19:57

Ever since that man joined us from from Brighton, I've been in love with him. I we, we literally do deserve him, but I'm so glad that we have him. And then, for the center forward striker position, gabriel Jesus. Now we have Kai Havertz. And let me tell you something Kai Havertz really has won me over, because when we first bought him from Chelsea this season for $65 million, I was so worried and I kind of looked at it like Arteta, what are you doing?

Speaker 1: 20:24

Why this man is literally garbage? Looked at it like arteta. What are you doing? Why this man is literally garbage? What are you doing? Because I mean his time at chelsea yeah, I mean he helped chelsea win the champions, like that one year. But I mean he's awful, well, was awful, like god awful. And even the beginning of the year. You know, it's like arteta kept playing him in the midfield. He just looked so lost he didn't know where he was like, he didn't know what he was doing, and then, all of a sudden, he scored one goal. And then, all of a sudden, he scored one goal and then, all of a sudden, he scored another goal, and then he scored another goal, and he scored another goal. Now, all of a sudden, not only is he scoring goals, but he's been assisting like crazy too, which is phenomenal, phenomenal.

Speaker 1: 20:57

But does that mean that we don't need to sign a striker? No, we definitely, definitely need to sign a striker that could score 25, 30 goals. Have kai havertz behind him. We sell gabriel jesus, just get rid of him, just just get rid of him. But we need to bring in a right winger too. We need to create some, some competition for soccer because, honestly, there's so many times in matches where I'm like I'm watching him and you can tell he's complacent because he's not going to get subbed off and he knows nobody's taking his starting position from him. That's got to change. We need a competition. Competition breeds excellence.

Speaker 1: 21:27

So far, I mean, honestly, though, this year, for me, the signing of the season definitely is Declan Rice. Now, obviously, declan Rice at West Ham. I mean, he was a phenomenal player, but when you see a man of his price tag 100 million for those of you that don't know, arsenal bought Declan Rice for 100 million off of West Ham this past offseason and and when you see that kind of a price tag. All you think to yourself is oh man, why did we do that? Is this guy even going to live up to that? Yeah, no, this guy's absolutely living up to that, plus more, plus more. So once again, we're really just hoping for a miracle and Arsenal can win the league we really do deserve it over Manchester City. Manchester City don't deserve literally anything this year. With these 115 allegations they have against them. They should be stripped of literally everything that they've won. But once again, that's a different debate for a different day.

Speaker 1: 22:17

Now we all know what happened last night, right, right? No, no, you don't. The NFL schedules came out last night, okay, so we're really going be talking about, like, the steelers schedule here. If you guys would like me to talk about a different schedule, write some fan mail, let me know. I'll go over that team schedule and, uh, give you my thoughts. So before, um, we even dive into the schedule.

Speaker 1: 22:43

So this podcast is coming out on a mond once the NFL season kicks off. I think what we're gonna do is I'll probably upload twice a week. I'll probably do Mondays and Fridays, because then that way, on Monday I talk about the games that happened over the weekend and then Friday I could talk about Monday night and Thursday night football, along along with whatever may have happened during the week in the sports world. So, first and foremost, before the schedules even came out, they leaked the international games. So let's take a look at those. First, we have the Packers and the Eagles. They're playing in Sao Paulo, brazil, september 16th, at 8.15 pm on Peacock. Now, I mean this should be a great game, right? I mean that sounds like it's going to be a good game.

Speaker 1: 23:31

Why is it on Peacock, come on man, why? Why? I'm genuinely so sick and tired of this. Why do we need to have a thousand different subscriptions to watch the NFL nowadays? Can any of you explain that to me please? Because if one of you can explain that to me, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. Because back in my day, all you needed was channel three, channel four and channel five and you got football. But you know, I mean I understand, right, you? You want, fans are all over the world, you want them to be able to watch the teams that they like. Blah, blah, blah blah. I mean that's cool, but that's why they had the season ticket, right, you know? And then look at YouTube. Youtube's gotten the short end of the stick on this deal. If I'm YouTube, I'm pissed. I'm pissed. There's two games on Christmas exclusive to Netflix. You have to watch Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. You need Peacock to watch a playoff game. You need Peacock to watch this. Peacock to watch that. I mean it's insane. All right, look, that's a conversation we're gonna have for a different day, because I'm just that I'm gonna go off anyway. Let's keep going.

Speaker 1: 24:35

On October 6th at 9 30 am, the Jets are taking on the Vikings in England. I mean, that should be like a, a decent matchup, I guess. But it really comes down to JJ McCarthy right, it comes down to him Sorry, excuse me and it comes down to if Aaron Rodgers is active or not. If Aaron Rodgers is active, I think this is going to be a bloodbath. It's not even going to be close. If Aaron Rodgers is not active, it's going to be a very close game.

Speaker 1: 24:59

But speaking of JJ McCarthy, you know, I'm just, I'm really, I'm really really not sold on him. I mean, yeah, he won a national championship with Michigan, but I don't think he's that good. Now you Michigan supporters out there in the world are probably going to slap me for saying that, because I'm sure he's like a godly figure to you, but I don't know, maybe he's going to make a case to CJ Stroud where I think that he's coming into the league he's going to fall. A case of CJ Stroud where I think that he's coming into the league, he's going to fall off and he proves me wrong. I hope he does. You know, I don't wish ill upon anybody. I don't wish this kid a poor career. I just don't see him making it very long. That's just me.

Speaker 1: 25:36

On October 13th the Jaguars are playing the Bears in London at 9.30 am. Caleb Williams versus the Jaguars. I Jaguars, I mean I guess that should be interesting. But I'll be honest with you, I'm not going out of my way to watch that one. To be honest with you, a lot of these games I'm really not going out of my way to watch. I mean the, the Packers and the Eagles. I'll watch that for sure, mainly because it's at 8, 15 at night and you know I'm doing other things at 9, 30 in the morning. But I mean, honestly, the like, the remainder of the international games just don't sound interesting to me at all. You know, I mean it'll be cool to see Caleb Williams play, I suppose.

Speaker 1: 26:13

And October it's still kind of like the beginning of the year, right. So it really isn't like awful yet he's still trying to like really warm up, but I don't know, we'll see. And then let's see here. Oh, and then guess what? Guess what? On the 20th the patriots are playing the jaguars in london, so the jaguars get back-to-back games in london, so it's basically a home game for them. And you want to talk about boring? I mean this game's got boring written all over it. A new head coach, a new quarterback. I mean maybe the Patriots make some noise. I severely doubt it. But I mean maybe they'll prove me wrong. All these games in London can be watched on the NFL Network.

Speaker 1: 26:53

And then finally, november 10th, at 9.30 am, the Giants are playing the Panthers in Munich, germany. You know, I really want to know who picked the international games this year and decided that this was going to be a good game. I mean, are, are they serious right now? Like this is literally the best we could come up with. If any of you actually go out, I mean, granted, if you're, if you're a Panthers fan, you're a Giants fan, I mean I'm sure you're going to go out of your way to watch this. But any of you that aren't a supporter of either of these teams and you actually go out of your way to watch this, I feel bad for you Because it's just kind of like the NFL said you know what, let's just take two of the worst teams from last year and throw them against each other and see if people watch it. I mean, I know I'm not. I mean I might watch it if I want to go to sleep, if I had a hard time sleeping the night before. I'm not going on my way to watch that. That's going to be an awful game. You can also watch that on the NFL Network. But don't Save your time, just don't Don't do that.

Speaker 1: 27:54

Anyway, let's talk about my Steelers. Baby Shall we, first and foremost, I think we aced the draft. Everything we needed, we got it. Our offseason moves buh-bye, pick it, thank you God. I couldn't go through another season of watching him, man. I mean, he was just he was god-awful. You know, and I'm the type of fan too, where I'll defend you, I'll defend you until you give me a reason not to. And you know I go up to Pittsburgh. For the past couple of years now, I've been going up for the home opening game which we, you know, the first year, when Trubisky was starting, when they drafted Pickett, I was booing Trubisky and I was rooting for Pickett to come in because I mean, trubisky was god-awful and I didn't think it could get any worse.

Speaker 1: 28:44

Apparently, it could get worse, you know, maybe the Steelers just weren't the right fit for him. I know you know we traded him away, obviously to the Philadelphia Eagles. Thank you Eagles. Maybe he know, you know we traded him away obviously to the Philadelphia Eagles, thank you Eagles. Maybe he can revitalize his spark there. But I mean, man, he just bad. And the crazy thing is too is he still would be on the team if he just knew how to shut his mouth, you know. But we bring in Russell Wilson, who's a veteran, who's a Super Bowl winning veteran that was willing to play for the league minimum, and he throws a temper tantrum yeah, no, get out of my team, we don't need you.

Speaker 1: 29:18

Bye, I am really sad to see mason rudolph go. I mean, honestly, I wish nothing but the best for him. Every single time the steelers seem to call his name. He always seemed to perform last year, obviously, came in, led the team to the playoffs, revitalized the entire offense also on the offense, like woke up and we we knew how to play football. Again, pickett's fault, sorry, had a had a cough, but yeah, man, I don't know. You know, with rudolph though, I feel like the steelers kind of did him dirty a little bit. You know, when we drafted him he probably thought he's gonna be, he was gonna be the starter after big ben, and then we bring in trubitsky and pickett and he's still a third string quarterback. I don't know. Still, you know, didn't? He's never said anything bad about the team or the organization. You know, he's just, he's a, he's a good dude. Mason Rudolph, he's a good dude.

Speaker 1: 30:02

Russell Wilson, the big man himself, big old Russell Wilson. I'll be honest with you, I'm actually pretty excited to see him in a Steelers uniform. I don't really think he's as bad as everybody says he is. I mean, everybody kind of has like this connotation that he's like the worst quarterback in the league. Now I, I don't, I don't believe that. I mean, even honestly, last year he didn't have a bad year. He threw for what 25 touchdowns last year and his wide receivers really didn't even catch the football. If you watch a lot of the Broncos highlights from last year. There's a lot of times those wide receivers had the ball right there in their hands and they dropped it. They dropped it. Imagine if he caught them. We all would have been saying, oh wow, russell Wilson had the Comeback Player of the Year award last year, you know. So, come on, come on. If, by like week six, the guy stills kind of bad, all right, well, we'll throw Justin Fields in and we're going to talk about Justin Fields in a minute. The best part about the thing with Russell Wilson is A he's playing for the league minimum and he's only there for a year. So if it doesn't work out, all right, cool, no harm, no foul, we'll move right on. We got a young kid behind you in Justin Fields.

Speaker 1: 31:01

Now I know that the Steelers declined to activate his fifth year option. But I mean why? Why would they activate his fifth year option? Why would they do that? We don't know what this kid's capable of and we also don't even know if he's going to fit into the organization. You know, training camp, training camp is like basically just started. So why are we going to give you an extension before we can even see what you're capable of? You know that makes no sense you impress Mikey T, sure we'll give you an extension. Sure I think that Justin Fields has a bright future ahead of him. I remember when he was in the draft I wanted the Steelers to trade up and draft him. Didn't happen but happen. But I mean, you know I'm a big advocate of his. I think he's got a very pride feature ahead of him.

Speaker 1: 31:40

Now, speaking of extensions, everybody's freaking out about Najee Harris. The Steelers declined to, you know, to activate his extension. Why are we freaking out about that? You know nothing for nothing. Not picking up his option this year gives him something to play for and to play even harder than he normally does. And now, don't get me wrong, najee Harris has been absolutely phenomenal for the Steelers, right? Phenomenal, thousand yards every season so far. The man you could tell he loves it in Pittsburgh and it's from what I could see, the fans love him too. But it's always good to have something to play for. And then also, I think his fifth year option was for what like 6.25 million I I feel like for Najee. That's low and the Steelers, from what I feel like at least, aren't really like that kind of a team if you play your heart out and you're really good for the team like, they reward you, they give you the money. Look, najee Harris isn't going anywhere. He's gonna be a stealer. Everything is gonna be okay.

Speaker 1: 32:38

Now let's take a look at the schedule. Boys, we got we got a tough schedule this year. Man, there's this schedule. It's definitely no cakewalk. So we start off the season away September 8th, 1 pm at the Falcons. The following week we're away september 15th at the broncos, and then september 22nd at 1 pm we are home. Our home opener is against the chargers. Man, I am so excited that's the game I'm gonna be going to. This year is against the chargers, and you know every, every home game I've gone to so far, they've lost, lost. I think we can beat the Chargers. I really do. Last year we got shellacked by the 49ers. The year before that we lost to the Patriots in a god-awful game that we shouldn't really have lost. Don't even get me started in that. And then the year before that we lost to the Raiders. So I'm really hoping that the fourth time is a charm here and we pull out a win. But so then after that we are away.

Speaker 1: 33:45

On September 29th at 1 pm we're away at Indianapolis. After that we're home October 6th, sunday night against the Cowboys. Then we're away October 13th at the Raiders. Then on October 20th we're home for Sunday night football versus the Jets. The following week, we're home October 28th it's Monday night football versus the Giants, and that's our bye week. Then, november 10th, we're away at the Redskins or the Commanders. But you know, look, I'm gonna tell you guys right now on this show we're calling them the Redskins because that's what I grew up with them being, that's what they'll always be. If you have a problem with that, don't listen, I don't know what to tell you.

Speaker 1: 34:23

After that, november 17th, we are home versus the Ravens, and then it's a really short week for us, because then that Thursday on November 21st, we are away at the Browns, and then we're away on December 1st at the Bengals, and then we come home December 8th for the Browns, and then we go to Philadelphia on December 15th and we take on the Eagles. Then we go to Baltimore on December 21st and we play the Ravens away, and then Christmas Day at 1 pm we're home versus Kansas City, and then our last game of the year is supposed to be home against the Bengals, but the date and the time hasn't been determined. Yet that's a little weird. I don't. I don't know how it's. How do you, how do you release the schedule? You don't know the date. All right, whatever, you know, I'm not, I'm not even gonna, I'm not gonna. All right, anyway, let's.

Speaker 1: 35:17

Let's look at this here, shall we? The Falcons I think we win that game. The Broncos I think we win that game. The Chargers I think we win that game. The Colts I think we win that game. So we're going to start off the season 4-0.

Speaker 1: 35:30

The Cow I think we lose to the Cowboys, I really do. The Raiders I think we win the Jets. You know what I'm going to say that we lose to the Jets. Steelers fans, steelers Nation, don't hate me, but I think we lose to the Aaron Rodgers If Aaron Rodgers is playing, we lose. The Giants I think we're beating the Giants 100%.

Speaker 1: 35:55

The Redskins I think we beat the Redskins. The Raven, the Redskins. I think we beat the Redskins, the Ravens at home. I think we beat the Ravens at home. The Browns away I think we lose the Bengals away. I think we lose the Browns home. I think we win that game because it's home, philadelphia away. I would love to see us win that football game. I just I don't think it's happening.

Speaker 1: 36:12

Baltimore I'm gonna say that we're gonna be Baltimore at Baltimore because we just need to have Baltimore's number. We really do. Kansas City at home I think we lose. Kansas City is just Kansas City and you know they're just mean. And then the Bengals home I think we'll beat the Bengals home. So, honestly, I see the Steelers going. They're going to have 11 wins this year. I I mean that's not a bad football season and just depending on everybody else in the division depends on if we, uh we may get to the Super Bowl or not. So but I mean, honestly, overall, that's a that's a tough, tough schedule, man. It's gonna be. It's gonna be hard to produce numbers, but I got faith. I got faith in the boys in the bird. We could do that. 100. So that wild pitch, the runner from third advances to home scores the game winning run.

Speaker 1: 36:58

Thank you guys so much for tuning in today's episode. Once again, if you guys would like to support the podcast, there will be a link in the description. Any and all support is so, so, so much appreciated. Also, please feel free to write me some fan mail. I will read and answer any and all questions and topics in the next episode. In the beginning Once again, have a good one, guys, and I'll see you next week.