Andrew Fillipponi - September 7th, Brandon Aiyuk Will Be A Steeler
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00:00The important ones.
00:01Flush it.
00:02The important ones.
00:05Andrew Filippone, he does the same thing.
00:06We're like-minded in that situation.
00:08Very like-minded.
00:09And we've gotten to know Filippone very, very well over the last year or two.
00:14Of course, on our sister station out in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
00:17Filippone, what's happening, my man?
00:21Hey, what's up, guys?
00:22Did I hear someone say Josh Dobbs is going to play over Brock Purdy this year?
00:25Yeah, I just had a caller say that.
00:27He's going to supplant him.
00:28Crazy talk.
00:30Josh Dobbs blocked me at least five times on Twitter.
00:33He's not my biggest fan.
00:34So, hopefully, this doesn't alienate you.
00:37Is he not-
00:37I don't know if you guys remember this, but the Steelers missed the playoffs in 2018
00:42because they lost a game in Oakland where the x-ray machine didn't work
00:46and Ben couldn't get back in the game soon enough.
00:49And Dobbs had to go in, and Dobbs was terrible.
00:52And Dobbs has an antenna, at least he used to, when it comes to criticism.
00:58And so, very smart guy, but apparently very online.
01:01And that caused me to get blocked several times by him.
01:04But I think I'm unblocked now.
01:05So, I do actually wish him well.
01:06He is a great dude.
01:07How are you feeling about your prediction of that-
01:09well, not prediction, your information regarding the IU thing?
01:13Because I'm not going to lie, people are coming down with lots of nicknames
01:16if this doesn't happen.
01:17Like, I've already seen it a lot.
01:18Everyone's like, this guy's full of it.
01:20Like, I know that you put yourself out there, you get a lot of credit for that.
01:23You know what I mean?
01:24You know the game.
01:25Like, I know you know the game.
01:26But, how are you feeling this morning regarding the IU to the Steelers thing?
01:31I mean, not great.
01:32I mean, it's the first time in my entire life doing this where I had two people,
01:40one in the front office, one in ownership, tell me that a deal was done,
01:45and then a deal didn't happen.
01:47And I think the Steelers then, they thought they had a deal.
01:51And for whatever reason, I've got a couple theories on that.
01:55It hasn't come to fruition.
01:56It hasn't come to pass yet.
01:57But it's interesting.
01:59You know, I put that out there and said it was a done deal.
02:01And obviously, it has not been a done deal because IU is still in San Francisco,
02:07and the Steelers still have a massive wide receiver.
02:10But the way it started to get reported after I said that, I mean,
02:13we had ESPN and NFL Network both say they had a deal that was in place.
02:17So it's the first time I've ever seen it.
02:19And so many other national reporters have said the same thing.
02:22They've never seen a player saga go this route where a team and two teams
02:30think they have a trade, but the trade hasn't happened yet,
02:33even though the deal is in place in terms of trade compensation.
02:37And seemingly, the contract parameters of a deal
02:41for IU between him and the Steelers have been in place for a long time.
02:45Damn.
02:46What a saga.
02:46What a saga.
02:47Andrew Filippone, of course, 937.
02:49The fan in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania here.
02:51So it looks like Pittsburgh needs a wide receiver.
02:54What is your thoughts on Brendan Aiyuk, the person now?
02:57Because it feels like, from the reports we heard,
02:59he's blocked trades from happening.
03:01He didn't want to go to New England, and I can't blame him for that.
03:04Cleveland, were they really going to give away Amari Cooper?
03:07A second-round pick, a fifth-round pick, a third-round pick.
03:09Who the hell knows what the package was?
03:11But how are Steelers fans feeling about Brendan Aiyuk,
03:13the player and the person now, after this entire saga's played out
03:17through the middle of August?
03:19Yeah, they're annoyed with him.
03:21I mean, it's interesting, a guy spurns New England,
03:23who beat the Steelers in every big game for 20 years,
03:28and he spurns Cleveland, your little brother and rival in the division.
03:32He does both of those things, and yet he's almost persona non grata here
03:37because of the way this thing is dragged on.
03:39You know, all you hear is that he wants to play for Tomlin,
03:42and that the Steelers are going to financially make it worth his while,
03:45but yet a deal isn't done.
03:47And so, how much of this is gamesmanship by the 49ers
03:51to try to milk as much out of the Steelers as they possibly can,
03:55or try to eventually get Aiyuk to accept their offer?
04:00Or, on the other hand, how much of it is the politics of football
04:04and the business of football by Aiyuk to try to just get the 49ers
04:08to give them a bigger contract with more money?
04:11You know, I think Steelers fans are starting to begin to actually scratch that.
04:15They've felt this way now for longer than just a day or two.
04:18I think they now believe that they're getting used by the Aiyuk camp.
04:23I don't agree with that necessarily. I don't think that that's fair yet,
04:27but I can tell you that a lot of fans feel that way.
04:29And I think a lot of players, either former players or current players,
04:33are starting to feel that way, too.
04:35So, yeah, I mean, it's interesting.
04:38He is badly needed here. When the trade happens,
04:41people here will definitely reach out to him with open arms
04:44because our wide receiver situation is so bad, so awful.
04:48But he is frustrating the heck out of Steelers fans right now
04:51because of how long this is taking.
04:52Is that a kid screaming in the background?
04:56I am actually off today, so I am on dad duty.
05:00We're going to an amusement park, but it's not open until 4 o'clock Eastern time,
05:04which I don't really get. Why is it open?
05:08It's thrown straight.
05:09We can relate to that. You know how many times I've tried to play video games,
05:13take a national call, and give off hot takes
05:16where my kid's screaming and yelling in the background for his bottle?
05:18Nap's supposed to be two hours. Today, 35 minutes.
05:22Well, that's 35 minutes more than my daughter.
05:25So my daughter, Andrew, would never take naps with me.
05:28She'd take naps with mom, grandpa, grandma, great-grandma.
05:34Dad, no, it's playtime. It's playtime.
05:36So I'm trying to play NCAA.
05:37He's just sick of hearing me talk about the IUP stuff.
05:40Yeah, probably. So who's going to start out there?
05:42No, no, no, forget it. What's the number that Pittsburgh wanted to give him?
05:45That's what I want. Because we've had a 33 and a half million.
05:48I don't even know if I'd believe that AAV.
05:50What's the number Pittsburgh is willing to give him that you've heard?
05:56I've heard four years between 28 and 29 million dollars now a year.
06:02Now there's some discussion about that that has come out.
06:07Albert Breer said that the number's below 28 million,
06:10and that's why IUP went back to the 49ers.
06:14He's literally the only person who I've heard say that,
06:17whether it's from my own reporting or from other reporters.
06:20Now, I'm not going to say Albert Breer doesn't know what he's doing
06:23because the guy is a very good reporter and has great sources,
06:26but he is honestly the only person who I've said the number's lower than 28,
06:31and that peeved off IUP.
06:33If IUP didn't think he was going to get a good number from the Steelers,
06:36I'm not sure why he would turn down New England and Cleveland so fast
06:40and bury those two teams and say, no, I'm not going there.
06:43So I have some skepticism about that.
06:46The only thing about the 28 to 29 million that I've heard people talk about
06:55is, is there some reluctance on the Steelers' part to give IUP
07:01a salary that's more than TJ Watt?
07:03Watt is $28 million and change.
07:06So is the owner of the team saying, we want IUP,
07:10but we think it's a bad look, it's bad optics,
07:12if he's the highest paid player on the team?
07:14And even if it's $100,000 less than Watt, whatever it is,
07:18we've got to get him below that number annually.
07:20I hope it's not that.
07:22I heard $28.5 million is the number that I heard two weeks ago.
07:26But that's what they were offering him four years, 28.5 per year.
07:31And that's way less than New England.
07:33But I guess that goes back to what IUP has told people all along,
07:36that he'd rather play for Tomlin than play for anybody else.
07:39Well, Andrew Filippone here on the River Islands.
07:41Got a sign on a morning roast.
07:42Joe Shasky, the butcher at Bonte Hill.
07:44All right, so maybe he watched Russell Wilson throw a football,
07:47say, yeah, I don't really want to go there.
07:49How are Steelers fans feeling about this quarterback situation?
07:51Is it team fields, or is it team Russell Wilson?
07:55Well, 59% of our listeners said fields after Saturday night's game.
07:59And I think that's just a massive overreaction to preseason football.
08:04We lived that nightmare last year before we played you guys in week one,
08:09thinking Kenny Pickett was some combination thereof of Joe Montana and
08:12Joe Burrow.
08:13He was five for five, five drives, five touchdowns in the preseason.
08:17Wait, are you saying people, hold on, Andrew.
08:20Are you saying people overreact to preseason?
08:22Are you saying people overreact to pre?
08:24We just had a caller say that, like you just mentioned,
08:27Josh Jobs will supplant Brock Purdy quarterback.
08:30Preseason?
08:31I mean, I'm blaming myself on this.
08:34I mean, you could do, it wouldn't even be an exhaustive internet search.
08:37I mean, I was saying that Pickett to Pickens
08:39was the new Montana to right field.
08:40Oh my god.
08:42Oh my god.
08:44It's true.
08:44It's out there.
08:45It's everywhere.
08:46They even made t-shirts that said it.
08:48I didn't get any money from that, actually.
08:51In retrospect, that was probably a good thing
08:53to not have my name tied to it that closely.
08:55But yeah.
08:56Why don't you start with Tommy Maddox before you work your way up to Montana?
09:00Yeah, we thought it was, we thought that the preseason
09:03was a harbinger of amazing things to come, and it was not.
09:06So I think people love the athleticism of fields.
09:09I think they're scared that when Sean Payton quit on a guy
09:12and basically gave him away and still paid him over $30 million
09:15that it's a sign that he's washed up.
09:17But I would start Wilson, but I would have him
09:20on a very, very short leash, and I would absolutely have a package
09:24of running plays ready for Justin Fields week one against Atlanta.
09:28From your vantage point, who has handled this entire thing worse
09:34in the public eye?
09:35The Niners or IUC?
09:42You know, I would say, that's a great question.
09:48I would say probably San Francisco from this perspective.
09:52I think they leaked the stuff out there about New England and Cleveland
09:55and made it seem like he was weighing those offers
09:59and considering those teams when we know all along he was not.
10:03So I think they did that and then I think that put New England
10:06and Cleveland in an awkward situation, especially Cleveland with Amari Cooper.
10:11So I would say San Francisco by a nose,
10:14but I think now people are rightly calling out IUC for trying to be a free agent
10:20or acting like a free agent when he's still got another year on his contract.
10:22So how does this end?
10:24How does this end?
10:25Does IUC play for the 49ers this year?
10:27Does he sit out week one?
10:29What's your gut telling you when it comes to Brenton IUC?
10:31All this posturing all offseason.
10:34I think September 7th he gets traded to the Steelers.
10:38I think the day before the season starts he ends up on the Steelers
10:42for a second and third round pick.
10:44You serious?
10:44That is my prediction.
10:45Wow.
10:46You're sticking by it, huh?
10:47Andrew, I'm going to be real with you.
10:48Turn your mic on, Shasky.
10:49Turn your mic on.
10:50I've done that so many times today.
10:51I'm going to be real with you.
10:53You need a hug, my man, because I can tell you're having a long, tough day
10:56and the fact that you had the guts to come on here and stand by it.
11:00Honestly, a lot of people would have said,
11:01I'm not going to answer those guys' call in San Francisco.
11:04I'm just going to back away from it.
11:05You're standing on it, though.
11:07Hey, listen, you're 10 toes down.
11:08September 7th he believes IUC is going to get traded.
11:11That would be devastating from the Niners standpoint.
11:13Two days before Monday Night Football, that would tick me the hell off.
11:16Your thoughts, Andrew, on the Steelers using Tomlin as a drawing board,
11:20drawing card, to bring in Brendan Ayuk to Pittsburgh?
11:24Well, I think he's got to be, you know, he's making almost $20 million a year.
11:28I believe the only head coach who makes more money than him right now
11:32is Andy Reid.
11:33He got paid the Sean Payton annual salary, not as many years,
11:38but the same amount of money per season.
11:41And yet he has not won a playoff game since 2016.
11:44It's the longest drought without a playoff win for the Steelers
11:48since Chuck Knoll took over as coach.
11:50I mean, it's an eternity for this franchise
11:53to go this long without a playoff victory.
11:55So, you know, what are you bringing right now?
11:59You're bringing stability.
12:01You're bringing a high floor where this team never has a losing season.
12:05But there's no postseason glory anymore.
12:08Largely, you're mediocre for most of the season,
12:10and you're able to rally late to get to nine wins.
12:14He's a really good defensive coach,
12:16but he was behind the draft pick of Kenny Pickett.
12:20He was behind Mitch Trubisky signing here.
12:23He allowed for Roethlisberger to play into his 17th and 18th season.
12:27He was totally behind that.
12:29So Mike Tomlin here, how is he worth the money?
12:33What does he bring to the table?
12:34Well, if he's getting guys like Patrick Queen, Russell Wilson,
12:38Justin Fields, and Brandon Aiyuk to come here and take less,
12:42well, then that does make him, in my opinion,
12:45more valuable as a head coach.
12:47So it's almost like in college where you think the guy's a great recruiter,
12:50but maybe can't get it done on game day.
12:52I know James Franklin at Penn State gets a lot of criticism for that here.
12:56Maybe there's some of that with Tomlin, but if he helps them land Aiyuk,
12:59I think even some of his harshest critics
13:01will have to give him credit for it, including me.
13:04All right. Andrew Filippone, have fun at that amusement park.
13:06How old is your kid?
13:08Yeah.
13:08Well, I got another, she's 11 months.
13:10I got another, or 13 months.
13:12I've got another three and a half hours here to burn.
13:1413 months.
13:16Oh, boy.
13:16That's going to be a long three and a half hours.
13:18Well, enjoy your day off.
13:20Enjoy the amusement park.
13:21It's always fun.
13:22Good talking to you.
13:23No problem.
13:24Andrew Filippone here on the morning roast,
13:27courtesy of the River Islands Gas Line, 93.7 in Pittsburgh.
13:31And he's standing two toes down.
13:33He believes Aiyuk will be traded two days before the regular season.
13:37What's up, Tibberton?