Albert Breer on Potential in Pittsburgh, New Coach in Buffalo, Tyson Injury

They feel good about where they're at right now.

All right.

Welcome in to the Report for Tuesday, August 18th.

We got a little bit of a makeshift set up here in my Jacksonville hotel.

Internet wasn't working in my room.

We're down in the conference area.

And we have a few things to get to you from the training camp trail.

I'm on the final few stops on my training camp trip.

In my stop yesterday, Um, I was with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Now, full disclosure, I wasn't able to see a Steelers practice because storms rolled into the area.

They decided because they've had bad weather the last couple of weeks, that they were gonna cancel practice, pack up camp in Latrobe and move back to Pittsburgh.

So I didn't get a chance to see them out on the practice field, but I did get a chance to go and meet with some people and talk to some people about the team and kind of where the team's at and where the team's been at over the last couple of weeks.

And really the thing that kind of keeps coming up is how this team, the locker room is tailor-made for Aaron Rodgers, it's tailor-made for Mike McCarthy and his staff, and that's because it's a very much a veteran group.

And so you look across the board, and you have on offense, DK Metcalf.

And Michael Pittman, and Pat Friarmuth, and, and running back Rico Dowdell and Jalen Warren, veterans all over the place.

That should help leverage, um, Aaron Rodgers' experience.

You have Patrick Graham coming over from the Raiders as Mike McCarthy's new defensive coordin.

the two were together for a year.

Uh, Graham was his linebackers coach in Green Bay, and Pat Graham runs a complex, uh, defense that has a lot of volume to it.

You need players who can handle that.

And he has those types of guys at every level of the defense.

Upfront, it's Cam Hayward and TJ Watt.

The second level, you've got Patrick Queen and Peyton Wilson, who's a little younger, but a very football-smart person.

Um, and then on the back end, you know, you've got veterans like Jalen Ramsey and DeShaun Elliott and, and Jamel Dean.

And so overall, there's a, there's a real veteran field of the team, which again, given the, given the makeup of the coaching staff, given who the quarterback is, should help them make the most out of what they've got there.

Now, I'd say one of the keys for the Steelers going forward, just having been around there for a day and having talked to people there is depth.

Um, older teams tend to get injured, older teams tend to have players miss stretches of games.

You know, you hope you don't lose guys for the whole year, but you will have, you know, I think stretches of games where you'll be losing players, that's inevitable.

And so, the second layer of players is gonna be really important.

You see it at receiver.

Roman Wilson's really stepped up in his 3rd year.

Jeremy Bernard looks like somebody who can contribute.

Asante Samuel was a nice, nice pickup for the secondary.

Um, you know, you know, we know about Keanu Benton on the defensive line and Cam Hayward on the defensive line.

Derek Harmon looks like he's ready to take a step.

You know , even, you know, at the, at the, the outside linebacker level, you look at what TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith who've been mainstays there forever.

They re-signed Nick Herbig, and they've got Jack Sawyer.

So, depth is gonna be a really important piece, but they feel good about where they're at right now, where everything kind of matches up, where you've got the veteran coaching staff, you've got systems with a lot of volume to them, and you've got Players who can handle it, and that's the key there, players who can handle it.

Now, again, anytime you've got an older team, you're walking a little bit of a narrow path to get to a championship because there is more risk of injury, there is more risk of attrition, there is more risk that you're gonna wear down over the course of the year.

But just if you wanna logically put the pieces together, it's very easy to see what the vision for this particular Steelers team is, and I say this particular Steelers team, because it's probably a 2026 only thing.

And next year, we'll, we'll see the Steelers going through a pretty extensive retooling.

All right, our second topic for the day, the Buffalo Bills.

I was there at the end of last week, and I think one of the underrated stories with Buffalo.

Because we know where they've been over the last few years.

We know they've been knocking on the door.

Josh Allen wins the MVP a couple of years ago.

They've been to two AFC championship games.

They haven't yet been to a Super Bowl.

is not just Joe Brady taking over for Sean McDermott, because obviously, that's gonna be a big story after Sean McDermott Dermott turned that franchise around and was very, very successful for 9 years there.

But it's how different does do things look when you're hiring somebody internally.

And I use this example with some people there, you know, when I was there, and I think it's an example that really If you look at like the totality of the, of the, of what Joe Brady's done over the last 6 or 7 months, it makes sense.

I go back to 2006 in New Orleans, Joe Brady's mentor, Sean Payton gets the Saints job.

And Sean Payton's reputation had outpaced his production, I'd say when he was a younger coach.

There was always this thought that he was a very, very football, football-intelligent person.

And, and a guy who could put together an offensive scheme that was innovative and different and aggressive and attacking.

Um, but maybe you didn't get to see the full breadth of it because he was coaching for Jim Fossil from 2000 to 2002, had play calling stripped at the end of that.

And then he went to Dallas where Bill Parcells actually called him Dennis the Menace for all the wild ideas he had.

So then he gets to New Orleans, and now he's unencumbered, and now he's not looking over his shoulder and wondering what the head coach might want here or here or here.

He can build it the way he wants, he can run it the way he wants, and we saw the results.

That was a top 5 offense almost every year through the 1st 15 years he was there with Drew Brees as his quarterback.

They were the top offense in the league, more often than not, which is a crazy thing to think about, but statistically it's true.

Uh, and Drew Brees wound up, you know, a, a Hall of Fame quarterback after the Chargers let him go.

And so, I just wonder with this, with Joe Brady now as the head coach, are you gonna see a little bit more of an aggressive approach?

Are you gonna see a little bit more of an attacking approach?

And I just think, you know, this, and this is no affront to Sean McDermott.

What he built there was incredible.

What he was able to accomplish there was incredible after two decades really in a bad spot for that franchise.

What Joe Brady can, what, what, what Joe Brady builds now, I think it's just gonna look a little different.

I think it's gonna look a little bit more, again, aggressive, attacking.

And I think that's reflected in his hire a defensive coordinator, bringing Jim, Jim Leonard in.

Jim Leonard, of course, coached under Vance Joseph the last few years in Denver, historically one of the more aggressive defensive coaches in all of football.

And as a player, he played for Rex Ryan, who was one of the most Aggressive coaches of the last quarter-century, um, on the defensive side of the ball.

So, I'm really interested to see what the Joe Brady offense looks like.

With, uh, with, with, with Josh Allen and the head coach and the offensive staff working to build their own vision.

Um, and how different it looks, I don't know, but I think it will look a little different than it did over the last few years under Sean McDermott.

Finally, third topic, bad news out of New Orleans, no one wants to see this.

Jordan Tyson had a fantastic start to training camp.

He is out 6 to 8 weeks with a hamstring issue.

And I think this brings up a bigger, broader point, which is injury risk before the draft, when we talk about these things, that stuff is real.

And I know fans love to throw on the YouTube highlights and, and look at this receiver, that corner, this running back.

And then when you, when we warn you, hey, there's an injury risk here, hey, there's a character risk here, a lot of people like to blow it off and say, nah, you know, it , it, it's, it's, it's not gonna follow them to the pros.

There's a reason why teams invest so much time and effort into scouting these guys, drafting these guys, developing these guys, digging into the history of these guys.

And this is an example of it, where the history that Jordan Tyson brought into the NFL, the reason why some teams were leery about taking him in the top half of the first round is exactly this.

He could not stay healthy at Arizona State.

He had a slew of different injuries.

He had a collarbone, he had a knee.

And yes, he had a hamstring.

And so, you know, you hope for the best here because what we were looking at in New Orleans and like with New Orleans on offense, was pretty damn good.

Like if Tyler Shuck hits, you got two first-round receivers in Tyson and Chris Olave , you have two first-round tackles in Kelvin Banks and Talis Fuaga.

You have two high-end running backs in Travis Etien and Alvin Kamara.

You have a good interior of the offensive line , Eric McCoy, Cesar Ruiz, like this was a, this had a chance to be a really good offense.

And now you're taking a key piece out of it.

You hope you can get back.

But I can't say that I'm totally shocked that this is where we are.

And you're not hoping for anything like this to happen, of course, I hope Jordan Tyson never gets hurt again the rest of his career.

But this is the reality of it.

Uh, when we're talking about these guys before the draft, when we talk about the injury, we talk about.

Characteristic.

Stuff like that, more often than not does follow guys to the pros.

It generally isn't just erased when these guys get to the NFL.

And I know it's exciting when your team drafts a guy who looks great on a on a compilation of 15 plays or 20 plays that you watch on YouTube.

But this right here is why these decisions are so difficult at the top of the draft and why it's so hard when you got a player who's got the talent of Jordan Tyson to assess them against the risk that he might bring.

That has nothing to do with just his ability to play football.

So again, I hope we see Jordan Tyson back on the field soon.

It sounds like it's gonna be October when the Saints get him back.

We'll see how much that affects his ability to contribute as a rookie.

Um, very tough blow for New Orleans.

Appreciate you guys coming out as always.

You can leave your comments down below here on the YouTube page.

You can also get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert Aubrey on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

We got another bird report coming for you a little later in the week, probably after I get home.

We'll see you guys then.