Is Ben Roethlisberger being too harsh with his criticism of the Steelers? He took a viewpoint of Aaron Rodgers and suggested that Rodgers probably wasn’t over-the-moon with the team’s performance. He then took it a little bit deeper and pointed out the offensive line struggles in protection and the run game. Poni is happy that Ben has jumped over to the dark side and not just giving the ‘win is a win’ mindset that most players have. The guys don’t think they were this harsh on the Steelers after Sunday’s game. Ben said Sunday was a showing of ‘their worst fears realized’ and that’s after a win. The guys think the Steelers have the worst right side of the offensive line in football. We spent a couple of minutes making fun of Pro Football Focus grades from Sunday.
Poni admitted to crying when he saw the video of Mike McCarthy getting the game ball from Aaron Rodgers after the game. Where does Rodgers rank among QBs entering Week 2?
Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk joined the show. Mike said Chris isn’t crazy for thinking Geno Smith and Jacoby Brissett are better than Aaron Rodgers right now. Does the Joey Porter Jr. saga end in a trade? Mike thinks there are a couple workarounds with the contract – they could do what they did with Darren Perry in 1995 or they could argue that ‘Porter’s season hasn’t started yet’ so it wouldn’t be negotiating in-season. Mike said the ‘limited’ label in practice is so broad and all it could require is walking onto the practice field and doing nothing else. Mike believes there are people within the Steelers facility that thought Porter would play on Sunday against the Falcons. With the Steelers using a ‘back’ injury to keep Porter on the shelf, what kind of trouble could they get in if it is discovered the player is healthy? Is there any way the Steelers can salvage this situation? The guys asked Mike about the gambling aspect with player injuries since the league is in bed with so many sportsbooks.
