The Pomp And Joe Show
Best of the Fan: Watt Injured, Rodgers take over and Pens trade Jarry
13 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What happened to T.J. Watt's injury status?
I kind of said that after the game. You can't be fooled by the stat lines for either of those two guys because just their presence out there and them being in the right spot every single time makes a big difference as far as spacing goes. It allows for the timing of plays to kind of flow in rhythm. We had a lot of good things go our way in the passing game, but no sacks.
Obviously, it has a lot to do with the offensive line, but another part of the sacks is everybody on the same page. I don't feel like we had many plays where... Ten guys, nine guys doing it right, and one or two guys are not doing it right. You've got to give credit to those guys for the way they prepared. They're pros. They've played a lot of football at a high level, so I wasn't surprised.
It definitely helps with the passing game when everybody's in the right spot every single time.
Aaron Rodgers talking about MVS and about Adam Thielen, who we had Ray Fittipaldi on. He kept calling him Thielen, which made me confused. And then I thought Ray was right, but Ray was wrong. So he was talking about Adam Thielen and MVS there. And... Kind of taking a shot at Roman Wilson. I'm going to just go out there on a limb.
When you're talking about now you've got all the guys on the same page and in the right spot, and the guy who gets benched is Roman Wilson, it doesn't take an Einstein to figure out he's probably talking about him. Doesn't mean it's only him. I think there's something to that, and one of you asked the question of Carter if you thought that we'd see Roman Wilson again this season.
I think so long as they're healthy in the wide receiver room, I don't think we're going to see him again.
Nope. No, I don't think so either. And... Part of me wonders if this influx of new blood, I include even Darnell in that, from a Jonu, Darnell, in terms of just their getting more reps in at-bats in Pittsburgh, even Friermuth getting kind of moved out. I think over the years they've had a lot of guys doing their own thing on offense.
And when Rodgers is talking about guys being in the right spot, it's not just the primary receiver, right? It's everybody. Yeah. If it's cover two and I'm running a seam route and my job is to occupy a near safety and I know that he's kind of hedging towards me, I still got to hump it so I can open up the perimeter throw. or the deep dig behind.
And I think a lot of guys, young players, that play in an offense that's not good and really ad lib to make plays, which George Pickens did, Friermuth has been big on scramble drills, they can lose details. And Aaron Rodgers, to me, the frustration you see from him between plays is all about detail.
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Chapter 2: How is Aaron Rodgers expected to impact the Steelers offense?
Last year was, oh, he wanted to control everything. Sure. I think that's a natural human instinct. And if you're going to give somebody the opportunity to, I don't know, fire the coach he doesn't get along with, and you're going to take his opinion, his gospel, he's going to do it. But I think he wants to win. And it's just like me driving on the highway, Dora.
I don't let anybody drive on the highway. We always make fun of me for it. I like to be in control. He wants to be in control. Yep. Because he thinks he gives them the best chance to win. Exactly right. And he has won. And all this stuff. Oh, the Jets. Oh, my God.
Rodgers is the problem.
No, he wasn't.
Look at them. People are allowed to grow and change and evolve, too.
I don't even think he has.
I think he has. I think he has.
I'm sure he has, I guess, but... I don't think he was ever a problem.
My opinion on him is we talked in the offseason. I thought the dude was an enigma. You've shifted a lot. I still thought he was the best option for them. And we'll stick to that. We can go back and check the tape, make sure I'm not lying. Now we burn all that. But good. But I thought I was very curious to see how it would work. And I find myself watching every presser he does. Yep.
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Chapter 3: What is the current state of the Steelers' offense?
This is about Misharov and it's about Silov and it's about getting those guys a larger portion of the net. Absolutely. We all know how volatile that tradition is. I don't think anybody knows which of the four goalies that we're talking about is going to be better for the rest of the season. Skinner, bad as he's been in the playoffs and as bad as he was at points
earlier in the year, he's put up a 937 save percentage in his last five starts. So he's playing, he's playing pretty well. And he at least gives you an option, you know, if, if, and if they stay in the race and if they want to keep doing, you know, some kind of timeshare with the other two younger guys, I think he's completely a viable guy to, to, to mix in. And then you factor in,
Donnie, like you said, you have no financial commitment to him beyond this season. It's a total, total, total no-brainer. Wait a second here. Doesn't this just clear the track for Miroshov, whose name, by the way, I've now been heard pronounced at least 17 different ways. Doesn't this just clear the track for him to play most of the games?
That's what I'm thinking, Sean, or at least what I thought.
Yeah.
It does, but, like, say he's ā I mean, he's been incredible. Like, he's leading the NHL in save percentage, and they love him, and we all know that. But if something happens and, you know, maybe he can't handle, let's say, 42 starts down the stretch or whatever, I think Skinner's totally viable as, like, a backup goalie on a half-decent team.
Like, if they need Stu Skinner, he's not that bad of an option. to play games down the stretch if they're still in the playoff picture. Okay, so how do they play it right away? Does Miroslav come up and then what happens to Artur's shootout? I think you bring up Miroslav immediately. I do agree with you. The issue with Silas is that he's not waiver eligible.
He would have to pass through waivers to go down to Wilkes-Barre. So I'm sure there's some concern about losing him in that process, because he has as bad as he's done in the shootout. I think we can all say pretty fairly that he's shown enough glimpses over the course of the last couple months. It is going to be interesting, man. I mean, who knows? Maybe they just try to wave Skinner.
Maybe they have no interest in him. That's possible, too. Because it's just the nature of the position, man. Unless you're one of the four or five best goalies in the league, you're dealing with a pretty high level of volatility and a pretty high level of attrition there.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Penguins' trade involving Jarry?
But look at their three drafts here without Kevin since he's retired, since the picket draft. You can't tell me. Look at the last three with Kevin, and look at the first three with Omar as technically the GM draft. This is way better. I think that they have done a better job. They've definitely changed sort of the identity of what kind of a player they're going to go and get after.
And if a guy like Broderick Jones hadn't been such a struggle, and then this year when he was getting, I would say just, and I'm being generous here, a little bit of traction under him a little bit. He wasn't, after the first game of the season, like a complete void over there. You'd feel even better about this. I just think they've started to go after different kind of players.
I think that in Kevin's case... Here's what I would say about Kevin. Obviously did a very good job for very many years.
Chapter 5: How does the trade of Tristan Jarry affect the Penguins' future?
The Watt first-round pick, though, was the last one before a run of very underwhelming first-round picks and very questionable decisions. I think there's an actual good thing here with separation of church and state in this way. Andy is the ā I know Mike likes to scout everybody too, so Mike functions as a de facto scout, right?
Omar is the more analytically-minded, what's positional value have to do with everything? But there's a separation now. Andy sets the board, works with the scouts, also does the scouting himself, makes the board. Yep. Omar then, based on the board, is going to give you positional value.
Mike is going to be involved with all of it, but I've heard enough about Mike not getting his way unilaterally the way people I think would want to make it seem, like he's this total boogeyman who just stomps his feet and gets his way. If that was the truth, Joey Porter would have been the 17th pick in the year that they took Jones and then got Porter anyway.
because I know that's what Mike wanted, and they talked him out of it and convinced him they could do both. I think Mike does not step on toes as much as people think there. I think he still carries a ton of clout, but I don't think he just says, no, we're drafting this player. Damn it, that's who I want. And I think with Kevin, he would scout the players.
He would fall in love with a player regardless of position. And then you'd have something that was like a double whammy of bad. And to that, I'll say this is my example. Safety, unless you're drafting like a Kyle Hamilton type of player, is just not as valued of a position anymore as it used to be. Like, it's just not. Cornerbacks, edge rushers, defensive linemen are like the pre-mill positions.
Do you agree? Uh-huh. Kevin not only in one of his final five drafts, not only drafts a safety in 2018 in the first round, an already devalued position, he drafts a guy that he pretty obviously fell in love with in the process. who had a third-round grade on him.
I don't think something like that would happen under this regime because of the different sort of level, I would say, of input from various sources that you're now getting.
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Chapter 6: What are the Pirates looking for in the offseason?
I think Kevin and Mike worked as a hive mind, and if they had a guy pegged correctly as the right pick, and it was a T.J. Watt, That worked to their benefit. And when they zeroed in on somebody that wasn't the right pick, like an Edmonds just to use him again, there was nobody involved there to tell them, hey, guys, wait a minute. Are we sure we want to do it this way?
That's how I would evaluate that and maybe break that down. Their last five drafts. Their top picks, Kevin and Mike together, were Terrell Edmonds, Devin Bush, Chase Claypool, Najee Harris, and Pickett. None of those guys got second contracts. Devin Bush is an underāI just want to stress this about him, too, because this is another thing about positional value.
Devin Bush was always, at best, an undersized off-ball linebacker that they moved up 10 spots to select. Yeah. Roger Jones hasn't been as advertised yet, and it is fair to wonder. I'm saying this not happily, but openly saying this. Fair to wonder if he ever will materialize into the player they think he can be.
But at least it makes sense when you move up a couple of spots to pick what you think is going to be a franchise left tackle. Your process there is at least sound. But I think that draft is still deep enough and good enough where if Jones doesn't get a second contract... I still think it's a good draft. Joey Porter Jr. has come on here lately. Benton's a starter.
I think he's kind of just a guy, so I don't love that pick. Washington is really good. Although Benton started this year looking like he was going to kind of have a bounce back. Herbig is a stud. You got him in the fourth round. Trice is just a bad injury luck thing. I'm not going to say good or bad pick. And you got Spencer Anderson with the 251st pick. And you figured out a use for him.
And he has a role on your team. Yep. I mean, you've got one, two, three, four, five, six guys from that draft who contribute to your football team. Fungible players for you. Yeah. That's a good draft. Well, that's what good teams do in the draft. That's the bottom line. Even if Broderick's a bust, that's a good draft.
But I don't even think this year finally playing the position they intended until he got hurt. I think he had one truly atrocious game. Did you think he was playing like a bust left tackle? He was serviceable. Rodgers wasn't getting killed. He delivered one of the biggest hits on Rodgers of the year. Not great. When you draft the guy 14th, you don't expect serviceable. Hold on.
I'm not going to get in the weeds on this, I promise. We also know that with the way practicing changed now in the NFL where you can't hit as much, you can't get those guys out there as much. There has definitely been a similar learning curve where quarterbacks take longer sometimes to marinate, just that way with offensive linemen. Who else from Broderick's draft?
Darnell Wright's turned into a really good tackle. Well, I would say Fautano missed all of last year, and he seemed to go right in and play. He's also older than Jones. Yeah, he is. Good point. But, like, have you heard jack squat about Paris Johnson or guys like that? I haven't. I'd have to go back and look at those drafts. But I'm not going to get in the weeds.
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