Steelers Afternoon Drive

Alan Saunders and Zachary Smith discuss all things Pittsburgh Steelers. On today's episode, we discuss the team bringing OT Dylan Cook back to the team on the practice squad. Zach Frazier returned to practice, worked with the starters and looks poised to return for the team's matchup against the Washington Commanders. There's less clarity in terms of Nick Herbig's availability, but he plans to give it a go. The team will ger Cam Sutton back in the fold following a suspension. Patrick Queen and James Pierre spoke about what challenged Jayden Daniels presents to opposing defenses. We give our thoughts on if the team will acquire a WR ahead of tomorrow's NFL Trade Deadline and finally discuss if we've adjusted our win totals from the preseason. Let's go for another Steelers Afternoon Drive and discuss!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Steelers Morning Rush, our new daily short-form podcast with Alan Saunders, giving a longer perspective on a single news topic surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers or the National Football League. Today, it's what could change about the Steelers defense with more familiar opponents in the second half of the 2024 season, and the return of cornerback Cam Sutton.

Sutton is back from his eight-week suspension, and he'll join Beanie Bishop and DeShon Elliott as the team's primary slot options going forward.

How will his return, and also more games against more familiar opponents, change the math for the Steelers defense about blitzing and playing more man-to-man vs. zone defense?

Alan breaks it down.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alan Saunders and Zachary Smith discuss all things Pittsburgh Steelers. On today's episode, we continue our discussion about expectations prior to the season compared to the contributions the team has received from each position group. Starting with wide receiver, what have we made from the contributions of George Pickens, Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin III, Scotty Miller and Brandon Johnson. How much has losing Roman Wilson impacted that? Led by Pat Freiermuth, how has the tight end room consisting of Darnell Washington, MyCole Pruitt, Connor Heyward and Rodey Williams fared? Najee Harris has had a fantastic year, but what about Jaylen Warren, Cordarrelle Patterson and others? Led by TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith, have Nick Herbig and the rest of the EDGE rushers lived up to their billing? Finally, what about Minkah Fizpatrick, Donte Jackson, DeShon Elliott, Joey Porter Jr. and Beanie Bishop? Let's go for another Steelers Afternoon Drive and discuss!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Steelers Morning Rush, our new daily short-form podcast with Alan Saunders, giving a longer perspective on a single news topic surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers or the National Football League. Today, it's what could be holding up a Steelers wide receiver trade.

Everyone wants to know why the Steelers haven't pulled the trigger on a trade for a wide receiver just yet. Alan answered two questions from the audience about what might be holding them back from have done so.

Is it other teams wanting to hold onto bottom-tier players in order to save up to add compensatory picks? Or perhaps Omar Khan doesn't want to further diminish the team's 2025 NFL Draft capital,

Alan breaks it down.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alan Saunders and Zachary Smith discuss all things Pittsburgh Steelers. On today's episode, we discuss the team waiving developmental tackle prospect Dylan Cook. What does this mean in terms of their plans for the roster spot, and do they feel good enough about their depth at the position? We also discuss if the team has played as expected amongst the offensive line and what we expect moving forward. Finally, we discuss the Jets losing WR Allen Lazard for at least 4 games, and if that could make WR Mike Williams somebody they aren't willing to trade. Let's go for another Steelers Afternoon Drive and discuss!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Steelers Morning Rush, our new daily short-form podcast with Alan Saunders, giving a longer perspective on a single news topic surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers or the National Football League. Today, it's about what one stat says about how Russell Wilson is playing.

Adjusted net yards per attempt is a passing metric that take traditional yards per attempt, subtracts yardage lost due to sacks, and adds bonus yards for touchdowns thrown and penalty yards for interceptions thrown.

In terms of evaluating the contributions of a passer, ANY/A is probably the box-score statistic that does the best job. And according to ANY/A, Russell Wilson is not just playing well with the Steelers, he's playing the best football of his entire career.

Through two games, Wilson has an ANY/A of 9.34. His best previous career single-season mark was 7.73, way back in 2015. Last year, Brock Purdy led the entire NFL at 9.01. That's how good Wilson has been through two starts.

Alan breaks it down.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alan Saunders and Zachary Smith discuss all things Pittsburgh Steelers. On today's episode, we discuss where the team is at compared to preseason expectations in terms of the QB, ILB and IDL spots. Have Russell Wilson and Justin Fields played at, above or below expectation? How do you feel like they will perform the rest of the way? The ILB room still hopes to get Cole Holcomb back in the fold to mix in with Elandon Roberts, Patrick Queen and Peyton Wilson. Has that group impressed you or been disappointing due to their lack of splash? What about the big boys up front? Cam Heyward certainly had his doubters at his age and coming off of injury. Have he, Larry Ogunjobi and Keeanu Benton performed as well as you expected? Let's go for another Steelers Afternoon Drive and discuss!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Steelers Morning Rush, our new daily short-form podcast with Alan Saunders, giving a longer perspective on a single news topic surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers or the National Football League. Today, it's the state of the quarterback position in Pittsburgh and around the NFL.

Lots of Steelers fans wanted Justin Fields to get the job with the Steelers because the they thought the younger player had a better chance of becoming the team's quarterback of the future than the 35-year-old Russell Wilson.

But the results over the last two weeks in Pittsburgh have shown how wrong that line of thinking was here, and the same kind of thing is playing out around the NFL, as players like Sam Darnold, Geno Smith, Baker Mayfield, and Kirk Cousins are among the best quarterbacks in the league.

Alan breaks it down.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alan Saunders and Zachary Smith discuss all things Pittsburgh Steelers. On today's episode, we discuss the division rival Baltimore Ravens landing former Steelers WR Diontae Johnson in a trade with the Carolina Panthers. We also discuss the rumor that the New York Giants won't be trading WR Darius Slayton. Does this intensify the Steelers need to acquire another WR or did the performances of Calvin Austin III and Van Jefferson mean they don't need to go get one? What did we make of the offensive and defensive performances against the New York Giants? Should the team consider breaking their tradition of not signing players to contract extensions in season for Russell Wilson? Let's go for another Steelers Afternoon Drive and discuss!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Steelers Morning Rush, our new daily short-form podcast with Alan Saunders, giving a longer perspective on a single news topic surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers or the National Football League. Today, it's the decision of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin to turn the offense over to Russell Wilson.

Tomlin got a lot of flack for his decision to sit down Justin Fields, who many believed had a chance to be the franchise's quarterback of the future, and instead go with veteran quarterback Russell Wilson after the team started the season 4-2 with Fields at the helm.

But the results over the last two weeks -- against pretty good defenses -- have been dramatic and clear that Tomlin was correct in going with Wilson to lead his offense. Credit to Tomlin for making the gutsy call, and for the Steelers organization giving him the leeway to make it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices