Brian Batko's Steelers chat: 05.22.26
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Tim in toledo
12:40
I'll miss you Brian and your columns and You Tube appearances. It certainly  is the PG's loss.  Best to you!!
Brian Batko
12:41
Oh yeah, Chipped Ham & Football! Doing that show just about every week was so fun too. Booking guests could be a pain but in the end, I think I could put together a pretty solid team of CHF alumni. How we looking?

QB Will Howard
RB Jerome Bettis
FB Derek Watt
WR Calvin Austin
WR Miles Boykin
TE MyCole Pruitt
TE Daniel Wilcox
LT Andrew Whitworth
LG Jason Pinkston
C Mason Cole
RG Willie Colon
RT Trai Essex

DL Breiden Fehoko
DL Daniel Ekuale
OLB Arthur Moats
OLB TJ Watt
ILB Miles Killebrew
DB Troy Polamalu
DB Ike Taylor
DB Devin McCourty
DB Bryant McFadden
DB Louis Riddick 
DB LeRoy Butler
Lambert Lunatic
12:42
Thanks for everything BB! Your infotainment will be severely missed! Okay, so if you say the opening day quarterback will not be AR, then who? Come on it’s your last day! What do you have to lose?
Brian Batko
12:44
Mason Rudolph, after another one-year sabbatical to free up a roster spot for the young bucks. Last time around, he spent his rumspringa in Nashvegas. Maybe the real Vegas this time?
Silent Bob
12:44
Hey Brian - Friday chat for you. Christopher yesterday. Keeping us guessing. I'd like to hear your comments on AR
12:45
...on ARs comments on MM. I wanted one of the younger Shanahan (or simila) diciples., Yet AR seemed to say MM brings a level of offensive dynamism as well. That really elevated MM in my mind. Your thoughts?
Brian Batko
12:45
Yeah, I noticed that AR seemed to go out of his way answering that question to make that point. You think he followed the Steelers coaching search and the dialog around it just a lil bit? I'm guessing he wasn't off the grid completely.
Gracie Lou
12:46
I see you are still with us...thought we lost you! Time to renew my subscription!  Probably should ask a question though....if I asked you about your yearly income would you tell me? Well of course not, none of my business, right? So why do we have to know how much NFL players contracts are worth? Seems mostly a great way to say we are the highest paid defense but not playing as the highest paid.    Was Kordell Stewart's paycheck any of our business?  Needed to ask you something!  There just renewed my Pittsburgh post subscription!
Brian Batko
12:48
That's a pretty great existential topic about professional sports. But it's also not completely transparent. Yes, yearly salary is and full details often get leaked/dug up, but only the basics are public information released by the NFLPA. I don't know. It's a weird thing, I guess, but coach salaries are not public.
Mark in Buffalo
12:49
Followup to Bryan's question:  any favorite athlete you covered?
Brian Batko
12:51
This might surprise people but I really think Najee Harris was fantastic to cover, at least in his early days. The expectations and perhaps some less-than-ideal interactions probably jaded him, but he was fascinating to me. Same draft class, Pat Freiermuth is one in a million when it comes to being a down-to-earth star athlete. But this is like asking me my favorite stories in my time here. Too many to list off the top of my head. There are probably walk-ons from Pitt who wouldn't ring a bell that I admired as a reporter.
Pierogi Nowakowski
12:52
Brian, I hear a lot of fans and some analysts defending Broderick jones saying he was playing well last year. To me he was still the biggest liability on our line, and the metrics only make him look good because Rodgers got the ball out so quick. If he was really improving don’t you think the Steelers would’ve gone a different direction with their first rd pick?
Brian Batko
12:53
Eh, not with certainty, because that was such a scary/potentially significant injury for him. But I hear you. It's too bad we didn't get an entire third season on which to evaluate him. Let's not write the guy off completely just yet though. You never know what could happen. Just hope he gets healthy enough to at least get an opportunity to compete, even if it's to showcase what he can do to the rest of the league if there's too much of a logjam here.
Uncle Leo
12:54
Hello brian! Jones seems like a standup guy in all the PG articles about him. Sorry it hasn’t worked out here. In retrospect (and in real time), it seems like the Steelers really botched his development and took for granted that he’d be able to flip flop sides because they didn’t want to play Dan Moore out of position. I hope they do better with their plan with this year’s pick. It sucks to use three first rounders on tackles (two of them right tackles) in such a short period of time. The neck injury is bad luck, but this blunder would be getting a lot more attention if they hadn’t messed up the qb situation so badly with Pickett. Your thoughts? Thanks -
Brian Batko
12:56
That's a good point, it is worth mentioning that he's been a good soldier. I'm not always privy to what might go on behind the scenes (don't try to jump to conclusions, aggregators) but in his public comments with us, he's only ever been humble about his situation, good or bad. He seems like someone who has the right mindset about all this and lets a lot of adversity roll off of him.
NY Steel
12:56
Why do the Steelers still resist a real NT?  If you can spend a 4th rounder on a punt returner, why not a 3rd or 4th rounder on a run stuffing NT who come off the field on passing downs?  They did that with Casey Hampton (who was a 1st rounder but probably would not be today) and had a defense that totally stuffed the run (and it was a pass happy league then too -- Brady, Manning, Brees, Rodgers, Ryan, Rivers, Palmer)
Brian Batko
12:58
I don't know that it's even logical to look at it that way, NY (good to see you, btw). Look at Yahya Black's frame and what he did at Iowa and tell me that's resisting a true NT? But, clearly, once they get a guy in here, they tinker with how best to use him and try to figure out the right division of labor *drink* in any position group. Gabriel Rubio fits that profile, too.
FirstTimeLongTime
12:58
BB - It would be odd to keep 4 QBs. Rodgers and Allar are locks. Is it clear that Mason is going to be shown the door and potentially brought back in PS if no one signs him?
Brian Batko
1:00
It's only May, but I know, I know, it's fun to speculate and try to look into the crystal ball predicting the future. That's kind of what we do here a lot of the time in this sports ecosystem when the games are months away. HOWEVER. Let's just keep in mind that camp and the preseason games can determine quite a bit.
62 Stack Monster
1:01
Brian,  No question today. I'm wishing you the best of luck, and you will be missed. -Eric
Brian Batko
1:01
Cheers!
MikeM65 in Florida
1:02
Hi Brian, I read where the Steelers were one of the best run defenses in games with Harmon.  Even when the defensive line and linebackers are healthy, they don't play every snap, which is an opportunity for the offense to play against second string players.  My question is back in the 70s did guys like Joe Greene come off the field when healthy?  If not, why the difference?
Brian Batko
1:04
It is kind of interesting that D-linemen and edge rushers rotate, inside linebackers can (and sometimes do) play ever snap, and starting DBs often do too. On the other side of the ball, the OL and QB (of course) remain constant most of the time while the skill positions tend to play less than 100% of the snaps. Let me call Mean Joe and ask him...
Tin Cup
1:04
Hey Brian, great to see you chatting again! What do you think will be the biggest difference with the defense?
Brian Batko
1:04
'Fraid I've got some bad news, Tin Cup...
FairBane
1:05
when did john henry johnson play ball for the steelers
Brian Batko
1:05
a while back
Scott via Louisville
1:06
Are there any new coaches on staff that will entertain us or bring the fire like Danny Smith did for the Steelers.
Brian Batko
1:07
Patrick Graham is off to a good start in that respect, in my opinion. But Danny Smith might be one of one. Next best thing might be the grizzled OL coach James Campen, with Jahri Evans as his right-hand man. Keep an eye on those two, particularly with all the development that lies ahead of Max Iheanachor.
Allegheny Backstroke
1:08
A sad day for subscribers like myself, but happy for you if this is a good step in a better direction.  Hopefully we will be able enjoy your news coverage at another news outlet.
Brian Batko
1:11
You've still got Gerry, Ray, Chris, Noah Hiles all over the place, and we have awesome young(er) talent at the P-G too. As we come down the home stretch, I wanna say thanks to all those guys, as well as some of the people along the way who were great bosses to have, like Michael Sanserino, Tyler Batiste, Ryan Winn, Lydia Craver. The coaches who put their writers in position to succeed. Ed Bouchette and Gene Collier were shining examples. Mike White and Craig Meyer were elite beat partners. I'm sure I'm forgetting people.
Anyone want some Ron Cook stories?!
Tommy in Florida
1:12
Good Morning Brian, Since players are limited as far as contact in practice, what exactly are they allowed to do [or not]? Are they allowed to practice individually on the side during practice or outside the practice time slot? For instance, if Porter and Metcalf went full speed no holds barred on their own time, would that be deemed an infraction? Love to know your thoughts. Thank you, sir.
Brian Batko
1:12
Not at all. Players can and do stay after practice to get extra work. I won't pretend to know all the exact ins and outs of the CBA and what that dictates, but hey, it can't stop Aaron Rodgers from gathering receivers informally in, say, Malibu for a throwing session and sushi.
Big Bri
1:13
After watching Drew Allar struggle in the big games last season, I went from thinking he could be a No. 1 overall pick to wondering if he’d be lucky to go in the fifth round. But then you look at his size and elite arm strength and it’s hard not to compare him to Josh Allen, who also had inconsistent moments in college before elite coaching helped turn him into a generational talent. Do you think the Steelers will do a on hands on deck to develop him?
Brian Batko
1:14
Should be a fun project for McCarthy, Brian Angelichio, Tom Arth. Oh, and throw in Rodgers, too, even if he's got more pressing bullet points in his job description. Is that the best QB development crew the Steelers have had since ... when? If nothing else, it starts more at the top with an offensive-background coach.
Stlrwaz
1:15
Hey Bats! Oline looks to have a lot of depth this year, as well as RB, LBs, CBs, and somewhat with WR and Safety. Dline concerns me. Are they deep enough to compete if we lose Harmon, Cam or Benton?
Brian Batko
1:17
Well there's no way around it'd be tough to lose any of those three. But Sebastian Joseph-Day is a piece they didn't really have last year, especially once Daniel Ekuale went down.
Cdub
1:17
If Howard was placed on the practice squad, do you think another team would poach him?
Brian Batko
1:18
I'd worry that Will Howard is in that in-between gray area of not having much of a trade market, but also likely to be claimed off waivers if he were to be the odd man out.
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