Paul Zeise Live: Does Steelers’ Mike Tomlin deserve CREDIT for Aaron Rodgers signing?

Post-Gazette sports columnist Paul Zeise reacts to the day in Pittsburgh sports news live around 5 p.m. Eastern.

He gives his thoughts on Aaron Rodgers crediting Mike Tomlin for bringing him to the Steelers. Does the coach deserve more praise for helping secure the services of a four-time MVP at QB? Or should we still be suspect of Tomlin’s QB evaluation following the struggles with Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, Justin Fields and Russell Wilson the past few years? Especially considering Rodgers’ advanced age of 41?

Paul tackles those questions; Derrick Harmon’s early big to start alongside Keeanu Benton and Cam Heyward on the defensive line; the end of the Pirates’ series with the Miami Marlins; and the last day of prep for the U.S. Open and Oakmont Country Club. Who’s looking the best from among the elite golfers including Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Bryson DeChambeau?

good afternoon and uh welcome to what we call the big show the big show obviously is the show we do every single day uh when it comes to uh trying to wrap up whatever it is that is happening uh in the world of sports and in our in our world of pittsburgh sports uh i am obviously uh in a great place because uh we’ve got the us open to talk about we have aaron rogers uh who is in camp we have all kinds of other good stuff that we are going to get to tonight in fact uh i have a us open expert coming on with me uh in a little bit and we will talk a little bit about uh golf but uh first up is of course the steelers always the steelers uh mostly because well that’s what we seem to be the most interested in the steelers so i think that it’s one of those things where um you know it’s it’s a big week for the steelers just from the standpoint of um they have got their man in aaron rogers one of the questions that you ask and one of the biggest things that you want to ask is this what is it or who is it does gets the credit for um the fact that aaron rogers is here who gets the credit that’s the question and i would tell you that i think that it is um really kind of i think twofold a lot of people you know he said basically mike tomlin and of course mike tomlin was the point man right but by the same token uh it is one of those situations where um you have to really take a look into all of this stuff and give omar khan some credit too both of those guys made it happen it wasn’t just aaron rogers it wasn’t just i mean i’m sorry it wasn’t just mike tomman even though aaron rogers gave him all the credit the reality is um it it’s it’s a it’s was a team effort uh i think that’s the key um if you look at it it is one of those things where um you can’t have it happen without bottom line without it being uh a situation of where um everybody was on board with it so it is pretty much uh one of those things where we could sit here and try and give credit and assign blame or whatever but the reality of the situation is i think at least that’s just me i think that there’s a lot of people that deserve credit in the steelers organization because to me you know it doesn’t happen if unless everybody comes in and gets into place period and so i think that’s what we’re we’re we’re really looking at from a number of different ways and a number of different standpoints it is important to note that you have to give a lot of credit to the steelers at large the roies at large mike tomlin at large you got to give them all credit for making it happen and that’s why you know even though mike tomlin’s getting all of the credit or a lot of the credit it feels to me at least in many ways it feels to me like you know there’s a lot of people that can get a lot of credit for it so you know you have to just try and go from there and go with wherever you are uh looking that’s what you have to you know kind of give a credit to and uh mike tomlin obviously is a guy that closed the deal he’s obviously a guy who he says um you know that he is somebody that is going to be always who the players say they want to play for because obviously he’s a coach but it doesn’t happen if omar khan doesn’t make it happen it doesn’t happen if um you know art rooney doesn’t greenlight hey we’ll sit around and wait for this guy as long as we have to wait for him so that’s where you know that’s at least where i’m at and it’s one of those things where it’s where we have to you know really really think about um the steel wars organization and the strength of the steel wars organization um it really is in my mind something that is that is very very very strong despite the fact that they haven’t won in eight years despite the fact that they haven’t you know uh ate won a playoff game in eight years despite some of the problems that they’ve had recently all that other stuff to me i think it really is important to note that you know what that the strength of the organization is still the fact that the people that are in it and the people that are in it okay they’re the ones that really are going to pull people in and make it happen so i feel like when we talk about the steelers you know sometimes we we lose our way a little bit and don’t give enough credit where credit is due but i honestly think that it is important for us to note and understand that you know what um we have a a a pretty good situation for the steelers here uh and they do a good job they really do um you know another day with tj watt i don’t think anybody really should care about tj watt one way or the other he’ll be here he’ll sign in he’ll get himself together he’ll figure all that out it won’t even be that big of a deal it won’t um and so you know it’s it’s it’s amazing to me how that works but to me you know what when he signs and comes in it’ll be the same i did see a report today that they were looking at guys like uh um what’s the kid’s name jaylen ramsay and some of these other corners i mean they’ve already got enough old corners i guess jaylen ramsay is not old old but i’m not sure why you’re getting involved in those guys uh sounds a lot more like the agent is probably making you know uh sure that there’s some headway that is made uh when it comes to trying to drum up opportunities for his client and uh so anyway without further ado i think we’ve got a guest can you hear me joe sure thing how are you paul oh man i’m really under the weather man i’m sick as sick as a dog i had to leave it was you know it was it was like a it felt like it was 100 degrees out there at the at the at the us open so i had to go find another place real quick to try and do this podcast the magic of the uh uh podcasting nowadays is i have my mic i have my headphones i have everything i need borrowed a little room and i’m in good shape uh for you know at least to get this done and now i’ve got you here to help me get through it i guess um obviously we we haven’t talked yet about aaron rodgers about tj watt and about all the happenings of this week so give us uh your thoughts on it well i mean i the thing when it comes to rogers you know i just it felt like this was a done deal a long time ago um and you know there was a handshake agreement between rogers and the steelers because every offseason move they made was predicated around the fact that they knew who their starting quarterback was going to be uh this upcoming year i guess my my question in this regard would be let’s let’s look at the scenarios first with rogers and then with watt because they’re sort of similar when you really think about it so what’s the best case scenario with aaron rodgers and if it’s the best case scenario do you assume he’s going to be back next year because if if the best case scenario and i still don’t know if i still don’t think they’re good enough to win the super bowl but if they win the super bowl then then my argument is totally irrelevant but what happens if they’re good enough to get to the afc championship game is he just ride off in the sunset and say “look how good i am.” because that doesn’t address their quarterback problem moving forward so the best case scenario is actually the worst case scenario for the steelers moving forward because i still don’t know if i’m buying allin that this is a team that’s going to be good enough to win the super bowl and the reason i say that you know pick 28 to pick three is an awful awful lot of draft capital and there you ask yourself you know what’s tj watworth what assets do you then have to sell off that could make that climb if this coming draft is the is the draft that has your quarterback of the future in it because let’s be honest you know everybody wants to talk about you know the not losing record yada yada yada but in order to get a quarterback either you have to pay through the nose or you have to suck look at the penguins their sucking paid off in spades the steelers i don’t envision them doing that willingly so you know what the worst case scenario is that you know they get to the afc championship game get whacked by the chiefs rogers retires one last you know flip of the bird to everybody that said he couldn’t do it and there the steelers are picking 28 and screwed well here’s my question though if they win the super bowl that’s the best case scenario then it really doesn’t matter does it i guess that i do i guess that’s that’s the rebuttal then do you believe with aaron rogers they’re good enough to win the super bowl i’m not ready to make that leap yet well no and i think uh um i i would just say that basically if you really think about it um i don’t know if they’re good enough to get to the afc championship game but but my point is if they win a few playoff games i think people will probably live with the fact that you know it might push one more year down the road the whole idea of going out and getting another quarterback yeah sure but you know again what what is the because remember people around you know people down there say the steeler way i don’t even know what the steeler way means but i hear it referenced all the time is winning a singular playoff game now the steeler way i don’t think and if it is we’ve got we’ve got bigger issues to fry than uh you know who the steelers quarterback is right uh i think the steeler way does involve uh winning games i would hope it does i would hope it involves winning playoff games and doing what you got to do to get to where you go uh but at the end of the day i i feel like the other part of it is you have to uh understand that you know what um the steelers probably are a year or two away unless aaron rodgers finds some sort of fountain of youth and if he does and they go out and win a few games in the playoffs i honestly think most people be okay with it everyone here’s the thing too if you look at his incentive package if they get all the way to the 19.5 million it means they won the super bowl because that means that’s what it would take for him to get every one of those incentives now i don’t i don’t listen necessarily down in your part of the world but i’m the only person that i hear talking about this and i want to get your thoughts because i don’t know why we just pretend that it’s going to be okay um i i feel very confident in knowing what i’m getting in aaron rodgers i feel very confident knowing what i’m getting in dk metaf i feel very confident knowing what i’m going to get with arthur smith schematically i feel very confident knowing that the steelers defense is going to make big plays special teams will be what special teams are but why do we just you know sort of function under the assumption that fatano and brick jones are going to be capable nfl tackles because you know the the whole getting to the super bowl getting to the afc championship game that’s pretending that those guys are just going to go do that you know that’s sort of like arch manning just being the best quarterback in college football we’ve not seen him do it chris fano we’ve not seen him do it rodri jones has lots of room for improvement and those are arguably the third well second and maybe fifth most important positions on the football team right and left tackle with an aging aaron rodgers are people just assuming that fatano and brick jones are going to be more than capable nfl tackles i think that’s a big part of the assumption yes i think the assumption is uh is the situation where you know what you you basically have to uh you know have some faith that rodri jones going back to the left side that you know that is his uh natural side you you you have to have some faith that uh troy fontau is going to be uh you know good based on what we saw last year but you’re right if they don’t get it done it’s going to be a big problem yeah i just i mean i just listen i you i understand that but remember brick jones played like four games at georgia you know he does not have a lot of miles so obviously there’s room for his improvement and he’s switching back to the left side as you alluded to patano we’ve never really seen play but you know you can do all the things that you want to do up front and you know they they hopefully hopefully address you know stopping the run but i just i just people just sort of gloss over an unproven tackle situation which again there’s no team out there that has won the super bowl gotten to the super bowl that had subpar tackle play i i just i mean i think that’s in in this day and age in this day and age you know with with the pass with the edge rush game yacht you could you could argue that qb is one left tackle two right tackle three in terms of the most important places on your roster right um i think that the thing about it is if those two guys don’t get it done then we’ve spent a whole lot of time wasted time talking about quarterbacks and receivers haven’t we yeah yep i mean really because if those two if they don’t get it done then um you know what i i just you know i i just i mean what are we talking about obviously so there has to be a little bit of an assumption that they’re going to be able to get it done i mean i i i would assume the steelers know better than i but um we’ve not we’ve not seen it yet we haven’t i mean that’s that’s not up for debate no we haven’t so we need to now the whole reason we’re out here in uh this neck of the woods uh and uh we will be here all week uh doing my podcast up the street is uh we are here for the us open and joe this is your domain i mean golf is your thing we’ve you know had you on many times to uh be our golf expert especially when the majors come um and you know one of the things i you know i’ve only been out here now two days in a row and one of the things i will say is that i’m getting a little bit tired of hearing pros whine about how tough the course is yeah i mean we we were on property on monday um you know the ron cyra very good friend of my radio show so eloquently put it uh last week that oakmont is always a week away from being ready for the us open um it is the hardest golf course in america the combination of that that rough height the combination of how fast the greens are it is diabolical um it is i i still don’t understand why people pay all that money and call that fun because there’s nothing fun about oakmont it is get your teeth kicked in and it is a dog fight um i if i don’t know what if the weather’s changed but if if it’s firmed up and they’ve not gotten rain since monday night um that you know oakmont drains pretty well even as even as sloppy as it was walking around uh in the in the rough paul but you know as this as well as i do when you cross the fairways in in the crosswalks you didn’t see footprints so the the fairways seem to be pretty tidy uh and i know the gil hance redesign has widened them in some spots but if it firms up the cut could be plus nine just because the struggle of making it stay in the fairway uh and then obviously then the rough takes over uh to me that’s going to be the ultimate thing now if it rains over the weekend i wouldn’t be shocked if you got it to you know four or five under these are the best players in the world after all but if that rain does not come in over the weekend i i wouldn’t be surprised at all if it was you know plus eight plus nine that wins it uh just because that is already so tough i i get it you know i don’t i don’t i don’t i i don’t agree i don’t i don’t agree with the usga’s philosophy about making it as as hard as it possibly can be um to the point where you you start to question is it going to be fair you know i i saw dustin johnson on monday morning on two hit one to like six feet below the hole put too much cheese on it and ripped it 30 yards off the green uh you know that’s that’s a good enough shot that you should not be punished to that extent to a back hole location because oh by the way there was a bunker like another five paces beyond the pin but yeah i you know that’s you know hearing these guys talk about it is like you know they might as well be saying water’s wet i think everybody at this point knows that it’s going to be really hard and you know let’s be honest golf channel is just looking to to fill some air time because they got a lot of hours with live from to fill yeah i just feel like it’s one of those things where maybe you know it’s enough enough is enough you know what i mean like say that place i mean that place is hard as hell as is i mean they could cut the rough to three inches and it would still be an incredible test and right around par would probably win yeah i mean i just think that that’s the point uh you know i don’t know if you’ve ever played it before i have y um it’s you know it’s a tough course you know they’re right up uh uh what is that uh eight 18 you know which is right along the media center 18 is amazing um that hole is a real golf closing hole yeah and if you’re if you’re in the rough of that hole you have zero chance at par unless you get extremely lucky with your you know your your your third i don’t think i don’t you’re not i mean that was playing what like five five 20 or no i mean you you were when we were you know standing at the ropes and you could kind of get in there and look and you know we watched we watched justin thomas chip on 18 monday morning and he was you know from where we were sitting in the front row he was no more than 20 feet away from us and i couldn’t see his shoes and the only time we saw the ball was when it came out with the chip and you know it was again you if you there’s you’re not you’re not advancing that you’re not advancing that a buck 95 to reach to out of the rough you’re just not that’s impossible right so i mean like i said i think really if you look at it um if you are in the rough uh you i mean you have zero chance of birdie in par is actually going to be really difficult um you know i i obviously had to walk down to see the you know 300 hard par three that everybody’s complaining about i guess what is that number eight i mean um you know i i kind of actually agree with the golfers on this it’s kind of a stupid hole to have a par three that’s 300 yards 100% that’s just me now some people think it’s great challenge and all the other stuff i don’t like it at all no i mean 12 is you know nine miles that’s fine that’s a par five um a a par three is not you know when when you have to when in your regular sunday game and you’re playing with a guy that’s hitting driver on a par three you’re like ah you know he’s playing from the wrong t’s right i i just i just don’t think that you know even even the best players in the world a 289 or 292 whatever it’s going to play that that’s not a par three um you know move it up ma make the green smaller you know tuck the pan what whatever it needs to be i just i do think there should be a statue of limitations on on what a distance can be for a part three uh to me that just becomes mickey mouse when it when it’s that distance and let’s be honest it’s not like they’re playing the local mun in cranberry township i mean this is still the hardest golf course in the world well maybe not in the world hardest golf course in america and you’ve got a 290 yard par three to boot the usgaa you know um they they seem to think that it’s going to be funny that one of the days it’s going to be over 300 like 301 or 302 which is just stupid yeah i don’t you know because to me you know to me there’s you know everything has to be attainable right and you know if you want to make if you want to make oakmont oakmont reward the guy that you know has the precision you know the fairways are already more you know difficult enough but the notion you know the notion of a 300yard par three to me is just stupid because what 17 i know it’s up the hill but 17 you know stretched out only plays 312 and that’s a par4 yeah uh that’s that’s what i was going to say you know 17 and you know i guess it’s uphill versus downhill so it’s probably a little bit more of a a difference in the shot you have to make but the reality is you’ve got a really short par4 and a really long par three um you know it’s just i guess a part of the charm of the course but i gotta be honest with you i’m not a fan of it i’m just not i don’t think you should have to hit a 300 yard shot on a par three i just don’t no i’m i’m with you now like i would be cool because you know they brought the ditch back on 10 and 11 you know if there was something you know even if even even if you made that a par4 if you made eight a par4 but had you know a huge waist area that either either left you with you know hitting you know pitching wedge pitching wedge or you know letting somebody try to carry 3-wood over it you know maybe that would be but again it is not oakmont is is is is about precision position and i just i am just in total disagreement that a 300 yard you know par three is is anything but you know banging gouge golf yeah yesterday scotty shafler said the right rough on number one is the only rough you have a chance to get to the green and still make par if there’s any other poll where you’re in the rough you’re probably screwed that’s ridiculous well i would i would i would i would only bark back that i think i think anywhere on the rough on two you could probably advance it just because of the severity of the slope maybe maybe 10 maybe 10 you could get away with you know you know sort of chunking and run something down the fairway but i you know based on my experience of monday i would say that’s that’s accurate i mean it when when you got guys standing around and you can’t tell if they have shoes on or not you’re not advancing it very far no and and the other one other thing that i thought was hilarious uh they had a bunch of videos of guys on number one 150 140 150 160 yards out actually putting basically putting and the ball rolling past the hole i mean that’s just ridiculous i i again i get it you’re trying to make the competition what it is but if the course stays as dry and that rain doesn’t come in and they keep the rough as high as it is i i think you’re right it could be seven eight nine plus that wins yeah i mean for sure and you know that’s the thing if if it dries out generally it dries out with wind as well paul so if you throw wind into that dry equation you know it could be an absolute nightmare uh you know obviously i thought i mean it’s sort of cool and i don’t know if you’ve go down to the the social media rabbit holes but like watching all the videos and whatnot in the leadup with all the uh the golf influencers that got opportunities you sort of knew what they were talking about so even just walking around in a practice round you had a point of reference from what other people had told you and you kind of knew what to watch for and i i thought that was really cool because i think i think you’re going to see some gigantic numbers on 12 because that green if if you miss you’re a dead um you know and then also two two is another hole that again if if you can’t can’t put it in the right spot you’re going to be in big trouble and i’ll be real curious to see because i i think in in 16 number uh 18 was the hardest hole in the property and i noticed in my time sitting there a lot of guys were chipping to that bowl area on the right side of the green assuming that that might be where a hole location’s going to be well if that’s going to be there you are going to see some monster numbers of anybody is short or long trying to knock that pin down because if it’s short there’s a huge ridge right in front of that if it’s short that thing is going to be 30 yards back in the middle of the fairway as you’re trying to chip back up to it one more time it is i mean i think 18 is going to be unbelievable especially if it firms up they use that back right hole location you know you’re going to have a hard time getting it back there without you know being running the risk of going long uh you know there and then obviously you get above it coming out of the rough you’re in huge trouble well and i’ll tell you i’ll tell you um you know there’s there’s a number of places where you could say you’re in huge trouble uh joe nuts and bolts of it um you know tiger woods actually did a little video said uh if you’re going to win this the guy that’s going to win this is the guy that’s got to be you got to be able to hit it far and obviously be accurate so um i guess the question i have for you is you know how do you handicap it i mean you’d be a fool if you didn’t pick scotty sheffller i mean you you talk about you mentioned tiger this is the this is the most tiger-ish thing we’ve seen in a really really long time you know spe was good when in majors but spith didn’t win like scotty’s winning and scotty you know kicking people’s tails along the way he is looking as tigerish as we’ve been you you got to go there but you know to the larger point you know you mentioned jordan spaith the guy putts you know used to be one of the best putters in the world you know this to me you know obviously you got to find fairways you got to find greens but when you’ve got greens that are running 15 and a half 16 the best putter in the world you know who can nestle it in from 45 feet away you know who can limit the three putt you know the the the long hitter you know fifth moves a little bit but guys are going to make birdies they’re the best player in the world but you know to to lag putts successfully and i would i’d be willing to bet that you know if somebody wins this thing that comes out of nowhere they’re going to be top three in putts gains you know on the green and you know have the fewest number of three putts because in addition to those greens being very fast they’re freaking huge you know anybody a lag putter on regular greens from 80 feet is impossible it’s hard but you know when they’re rolling like that and you’ve got all that undulation so anybody that that putts it well because everybody’s gonna have to deal with the conditions you know t2 green but once you get on the green to me that’s going to be you know where somebody could really steal the show and kind of not be that long hitter or not be world number one uh that but that’s again it there’s so much luck you know there’s the there’s the the friday thursday split what time you go out you know there’s so many elements to major championship play that play a factor in this that a lot of people don’t put a whole lot of stock into uh the number two rated player on the tour in driving accuracy happens to be somebody i’m finishing up a story about for tomorrow colin morala um you know what if if you drive it to the right place every hole which he’s number two on the tour uh he has a shot doesn’t he you know there’s a there’s a group of them you know xander schoffley colin morawa you know can they you know justin thomas has sort of fallen back into that you know speed certainly has fallen back into that but it it does feel like we are due right you know rory it felt like destiny he was going to win the masters but you know it feels like we are due paul where somebody kind of can can can bring themselves back to life and you know colin morawa won uh what he won the open boy what year was that that seems like a long time ago now um or was it the pga but he you know he’s got he’s got a major under his belt where he just was totally tidy and that’s kind of always been his game you know that we we talk about scotty you know we talk about how good he is we talk about how good you know sheffler is we talk about how good you know tiger was the the key to being really good at golf is to you know is to learn how to make a par or bogey when you’re when you’re facing a number right you everybody talks about you know you know tiger won and 19 sure tiger won and 19 but what happened in 19 at at the masters spe made it 12 on 12 and let him in you know it just you can’t get bit you just can’t get bit by a big number you know in addition to putting i bet i’d be willing to bet you know the guy that wins this championship has the fewest double bogeies as well because there’s a double bogey lurking everywhere you know sometimes you just have to make a bogey and march on to the next te take your medicine you know usga really really rewards somebody for taking a risk but my goodness do you pay the tab if you miss the opportunity on that risk yeah uh last one real quick we’ll get you out of here who who you have a dark horse do you have somebody you look at nobody seems to be talking about but they have sort of the kind of game that might translate here i don’t know i mean i i get tired of talking about him because he’s not really done it ever he’s you know he’s been on the precipice of it how many times he’s won a pile of money he’s always in contention i mean they call the guy fairway jesus right you know tommy fleetwood is a guy that is just a good ball striker and moves it around plots itself around but i don’t i mean how many how many times can you say that he’s an underdog before he’s not even an underdog he’s just a guy that’s going to you know end up in the tail end of the top 10 again what he won $25 million or something in his career and never won an event you know he’s always hovering but you know i just a guy like him i feel like he could he could play well uh but i also think you know with with the way this golf course plays out you may see some foreigners that you’ve never heard of that grew up playing lynx style golf that this could really you know really kind of turn into a lynx type event especially if it gets that hard you know guys hitting bouncing seven irons on from you know 300 yards away just knowing how to you know control the trajectory and letting a ball that’s going to roll out because i don’t know how much stopping you’re going to do with the spin there’s a lot of undulation there so i if there’s a dark horse it could be a european that has obviously grew up on a link style golf course well uh joe as always thank you so much uh for you out there game’s always on at archie get down to archie’s on carson street archie’s home of 80ent wings monday through thursday home of the paul’s ice grilled cheese sandwich joe we’ll do it again soon uh enjoy the week enjoy the open um and if you stop by joe i’ll be there every day i think i think i i got i’ve got i’ve got my own golf for the rest of the week but uh i appreciate it as always paul be good my friend all right brother it’s joe lenowski pennsylvania sports network uh i am paul zice of course we have the big show uh hopefully tomorrow the uh situations uh are a little better so i don’t have to scramble to find a place to do it and i’ll be in a nice tight radio booth but if not we always get it done all right enjoy your night thank you for tuning in to another episode of [Music] thank you for checking out this content from 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