Fillipponi: Best Case Scenario For Steelers At QB Is Shedeur Sanders

How are you, man? J.R., I just got a chance to catch up with one of my former producers, Ryan Hickey, one of the top producing minds and talk show minds in all of America. So you are what a tag team you guys make.

Ryan Hickey and J.R. Sportbrief here on Infinity Sports Network. Do we need do we need an official name? I don't know. I mean, it's it depends. I mean, is it a 50-50 split here? Is it 75-25? Is it 99-1? I guess it all depends on that arrangement between you two guys.

But a range tag team partners, 50-50. OK, well, he is terrific. And you do a great job too, J.R. So I'm happy to be off of you guys.

Well, thank you, Hickey. We'll figure out a name at some other point. OK, I can't wait. I can't wait.

Well, Andrew, I know you can't wait. This has been in the news all day. What the hell is going on with the Steelers? There's no way in hell, no way in hell they thought that they were going to get Lawrence, right?

That's not true, right? Well, it sounds like if this call did happen, the Jaguars said, thanks, we're flattered, but there's no way we're going to trade you. So, Trevor Lawrence, I will say I don't understand why the Steelers would make such an effort to want to shoot this down, because I do think trying makes them look good. Given their situation, I think they should be looking everywhere for a quarterback, making absurd offers.

If Luka Dodges can get traded for Anthony Davis, you never know what can happen in today's day and age. And it would be, I think, derelict to duty of a general manager without a quarterback, with only one quarterback on the roster technically right now, that would be Skyler Thompson, who started a playoff game for the Dolphins several years ago. With both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, a free agent, I don't know what's stopping them or holding them back from just making calls and throwing crazy trade offers out there.

If this call did not happen, then I'm a little bit disappointed, because it doesn't hurt to ask. And I get why you would ask, because we've seen teams, when they have a regime change, and they have a top-five pick pivot to a young quarterback. That's how Justin Fields ended up in Pittsburgh, because the Bears wanted Caleb Williams.

So I would hope that they called, but both the Steelers and Jaguars have both gone out of their way to pamp down this rumor and say it never happened. Andrew Filipponi is joining us from 93-7, the fan in Pittsburgh, knowing that the Steelers do need a starting quarterback for next year. The Fields can go, Russell Wilson can go, they've both expressed to a certain degree a desire to return. What do you think is the best case scenario and option for the Steelers? And we also know that there are going to be a few veteran quarterbacks who will be available, a la an Aaron Rodgers, a Kirk Cousins.

What are your thoughts on what they should do? Well, the best case scenario would be if, for some reason, NFL teams freaked out because of Deion Sanders and having a dad that wanted to be involved in everything, and teams sat down with Chidor Sanders and didn't like the personality or his attitude or whatever. The best case scenario is that it's a situation like we saw with Aaron Rodgers, where he just plummeted to the Steelers and they were able to take him with the 21st pick.

So that would be best case scenario. For some crazy reason, on draft night, Cam Ward or Chidor Sanders fell all the way to 21. If that doesn't happen, and I don't anticipate it will, and the problem is you have to make your free agent moves and trades usually before the draft, and you wouldn't want to expect or hope that something like that would just fall into your lap. The best case scenario that is a realistic one to me right now, among the available options, is to find out what the hell's going on with Stafford in LA, and if he really is seeing the writing on the wall there and doesn't like the Cooper Cup decision that got made and is really looking for a fresh opportunity somewhere else to close out his career, even though he's played at a dome for most of his career and then out in sunny Los Angeles, you try to convince him and have Mike Tomlin put his charm hat on and talk him into coming here and playing for a couple years to end his career.

That would be the next best option for me. Among a myriad of really dead-end options and guys that I don't think can win any more than the 9 or 10 games that the Steelers are used to winning every year with Mike Tomlin, those would be the two things, and the draft thing seems far-fetched, but could happen I guess, and the Stafford thing, given the reporting of it the last few days, I do think is something that the Steelers have to strongly consider and absolutely look into. Well, Andrew, you talk about Mike Tomlin and knowing that this is a team and it's 18 seasons, it's like every year is a winning season, last year they went 10 and 7, but certainly that wasn't good enough to be a competitive or championship caliber team. What do the Steelers need to do to get back up into that upper echelon? It seems like they're kind of treading water at this point, so even if they bring in a quarterback, it's still a little bit of a minor shot in the dark until you can get a younger guy in, no?

Yes. Well, let me just say this. I think the nuclear option would be to fire Mike Tomlin and to bring in a young coach, an offensive-minded coach, and start over, or the better idea would have been to find a team like the Bears or the Jets and trade Mike Tomlin to one of those teams and get draft picks and start over that way. Now, we are living in the real world, and I know that that's never going to happen because of the way that the Steelers kowtow to head coaches and believe that a head coach should be given as many years as he wants and the guy should never be fired, so I know that that won't happen.

They do, though, in my opinion, is that they need to find a way to delegate responsibilities throughout the organization better. Every single person who covers the Senior Bowl says the same exact thing. There is not another head coach in the NFL who scouts that week of practices in that event more than Mike Tomlin, to the point where he's on the field, he's setting up drills, he's trying to create matchups between certain players that he's interested in drafting. He's basically a de facto coach, whether or not the Steelers have their staff there or not. The man is the most, among head coaches who does not have a GM label, he's by far the most influential head coach in the entire league in terms of the drafting and free agent moves that this team makes. We saw Bill Belichick's undoing occur in New England mainly because he lost his magic touch with draft picks and they had several years where they made bad picks and the franchise went sideways once Tom Brady left. The issue here, I think, is that Mike Tomlin has too much power, and if things got assigned differently, Omar Khan, the GM, Andy Weidl, who came over from Philadelphia, who's like their director of player personnel mostly, does draft grades but doesn't ultimately pick the players, and then you have coordinators like Arthur Smith. If those guys, I think, were given more control and Mike Tomlin allowed for those guys to do their jobs, maybe things would go differently. But as things stand right now, Mike has absorbed a lot of power because he's been here for so long. He's a man of conviction, he believes in his own football philosophies and beliefs, and I don't think anyone wants to tell him no or wants to strongly disagree with him on things.

So that is the conundrum here. The guy's never had a losing season. I get it. To the outside world, he's a fabulous coach, but when you haven't won a playoff game since 2016, things need to change. You need to evolve, you need to adapt, and I just don't see the Steelers doing that, and I don't see Tomlin doing that either.

So I go right to the top on this one, JR. Things gotta change with Mike Tomlin if this team is going to turn things around, and that includes the drafting and developing of a quarterback. I think some of Tomlin's old ways need to change in order for that to happen.

Andrew Filippone is here with us from 93.7, a fan in Pittsburgh. When you take a look at an immediate point of action that they could make, trying to go younger, you talked about that 21st selection in the draft. Where do these Steelers need to go? We know that they need some offensive weapons, Najee likely gone, Pickens would need some help, the defense isn't getting any younger.

What are your thoughts there? Well, my number one wish list item would be to get a wide receiver, because that was the whole issue last year. They never found a running mate for George Pickens, and by the way, George Pickens isn't as good as advertised. George Pickens has it in his head that he is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL, and though from a talent perspective and an ability perspective, I think that that's right. But I don't see a guy who weekly, game in, game out, conducts himself and performs like one of those guys.

We get it. He's not had great quarterback play here. It's been an issue. But when the guy dogs it on routes and constantly gets into fights with fans and sometimes teammates and body language is abysmal and goes onto social media and says things like, get me out of here, that does not help the situation. So he has a gripe. He has a reason to be frustrated at times with how things are going offensively here.

He's not the focal point of the offense, even though he should be, but the way he comports himself is not good. And I think the organization, if they had more depth of the position and could move somebody up the depth chart to number one wide receiver and number two wide receiver, that they would trade him this offseason, and they still might, but they need to find better players there. And so through trade and free agency and the draft, I think they need to bring in bodies at wide receiver.

I don't know if the guys from Missouri or a book from Ohio State burden from Missouri, that is, would be there at twenty one. But I think they'd have to really think about that. I also would not be opposed to and I think this is probably where they're leaning. I think they're more likely to take a defensive tackle with that pick because I think they've got it in their heads. Having watched Philadelphia dominate up from the Super Bowl that they need to get better on the offensive line and the defensive line. They drafted in the offensive line the last two first round picks, and I think they're ready to try to replenish their defensive line. So even though they've spent a ton of money on defense, more than any team in the NFL, if I had to bet on what position they'd take in the draft in April, I would say it's a defensive lineman. Oh, Andrew, I mean, we haven't even hit free agency.

We haven't hit the draft, but it feels like the Steelers are staring at another season of just being OK. That's what it sounds like to me. J.R., they didn't do anything in terms of coaching changes. They didn't fire any coordinators. They let go of a linebackers coach and a secondary coach. You know, they aren't going to bring I don't think they're going to bring back Russell Wilson. They could still bring back Justin Fields.

I mean, I would not rule that out. I think that that's probably the betting odds on favorite thing to happen is that they try to ink a deal with him before free agency starts and lock him up to a deal that's more than what they signed Mitch Trubisky to in free agency, but isn't 20 or 25 million dollar a year salary. Try to get him as a low end starter and tell him, look, we're going to give you the best chance to play an entire 17 game schedule. And he might jump at that and not want to have to learn a new system, a new playbook and try to assimilate himself into a new team. But you're right. If they do that, they're going to be another team, another Steelers team among the list of many over the last few years that has a high floor and a very low ceiling. And until something crazy happens in terms of them bringing in a monster wide receiver or getting another splashy quarterback move better than last year and Russell Wilson, I see them stuck as either the sixth or seventh or eighth best team in the AFC annually, perpetually. And they don't really seem like there's a real strong impetus on their port on their part to try to change things.

J.R. for good or for bad. I mean, they don't have any interest in like doing the let's take a step backwards to take two steps forward. And that's what's frustrating, too. Yeah. You know what? Nobody wishes injury upon anybody. But those are the type of things that kind of force you into making a change. If somebody goes down and you end up with one of those top picks, not wishing on anybody.

But that's about the only thing I believe they are. The one time that happened with Ben, they traded their first round pick for Minka and tried to get themselves back into the playoffs. So they finished eight and eight. That was the draft with Joe Burrow to and Justin Herbert. And they didn't go for a quarterback then.

Well, maybe maybe they can learn the second time around. I mean, there's no Big Ben to fall back on this go round. So, you know, I miss him. Oh, see. Well, you can catch him on a football and podcast.

Hey, I'm trying to find I'm trying to find a silver lining. OK, I'm trying to get the invite invite to his basement to do the football and podcast with him. J.R. OK. Is he selling one yet after doing a show with him for years now? Get stiff by him.

I'm getting big time. Well, listen, we know he's doing football and there are more boxes to check. Does Ben Roethlisberger have a brand of beer yet or is that coming soon? He samples IPAs on every show. So I'm guessing he's got something to the work.

God knows he's got enough money that if you wanted to build a brewery in his house, he could. So maybe that will happen someday. Yeah, I may need to make a trip back up to Pittsburgh if he does that. Hey, Andrew, thank you so much for the time. Always appreciate it. Where can we follow you and everything that you do on 93 seven fan?

I appreciate that. J.R. at the Pony Express on Twitter. Pony spelled like the last four letters of my last name. P.O.

and I were two to six. Odyssey app. Ninety three seven. The band dot com. If you're in the Pittsburgh area at ninety three point seven FM two to six every weekday. That's Eastern Time. J.R. Ryan Hickey.

Thanks so much, Ryan. I don't know why you thought Penn State was going to win the national championship last year. You got it in your head, man.

You got your hopes up. And they came crashing down when Steve Angeli came off the bench. And what a drive for the ages. Just the momentum the Fighting Irish needed at halftime to get themselves over the hump in that game. A terrible decision making by James Franklin yet again in a big spot.

You have no return. Come on, man. Something. Come on. Come on.

Twenty twenty five is a year. I'll see you next year. This time next year. Penn State. James Franklin champions. Lock it up.