First Call: Pete Carroll on idea of Russell Wilson in Vegas; ex-Pats WR unloads on predictable Steelers' defense

Thursday’s “First Call” looks at some quotes from Pete Carroll about the notion of reuniting with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson in Las Vegas.

Also, Ben Roethlisberger has thoughts on the rookie season of Washington’s Jayden Daniels and the size of the Steelers coaching staff.

Plus, a former Steelers rival rips into the predictable nature of Pittsburgh’s defense.

Raider Russ?

Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson is about to become a free agent. Many people think he will sign a contract with the Las Vegas Raiders so he can be reunited with his former coach from Seattle, Pete Carroll.

Carroll just got hired by the Raiders on Saturday. When asked about what might happen at QB for Vegas this season and a potential reunion with Wilson on the “What the Football” show, Carroll dodged the question.

“It’s so early,” Carroll said Tuesday. “We’re just in the midst of just trying to find the puzzle pieces, not even putting them together yet. I really can’t even say. Free agency hasn’t come yet. That’s the first competitive opportunity that will occur. And then the draft is coming.

“We’ll have that opportunity to do things. I can’t tell you right now. I mean, I could. But it would just be a guess.”

However, Carroll didn’t issue any type of denial, either.

“I promise you, if you’re a real competitor, you’re not letting options get away from you,” Carroll continued. “So we’re going to consider every option as a possibility, and we’re going to go after it very aggressively with intent and hopefully with a sense and a feeling that people want to be part of this thing.”

He and Wilson won a Super Bowl together in 2013-14 and were a tandem for 10 years with the Seahawks.

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What are you trying to say, exactly?

Retired New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman tore into the Steelers defensive schemes during a segment of his “Games With Names” show.

Former New England assistant Matt Patricia was on the show earlier this week with the Super Bowl LIII MVP. Edelman began reminiscing about playing the Steelers.

“You knew exactly what they were doing,” Edelman said of facing the Steelers defense under Mike Tomlin. “And they still do what they did. They still do the same (expletive) (expletive) when I was playing Tomlin’s defense. I’m, like, ‘We still have linebackers covering the three slot?’ Every time we play the Steelers, I (would) have at least nine catches. You would think that they would change it. But, no. They do what they do.”

That’s a little bit of an exaggeration. Edelman had 34 catches in six regular games against Pittsburgh for 341 yards. Although, in the 2016-17 AFC Championship game, he did have 118 yards on eight catches and a touchdown. He also had nine catches for 60 yards in the regular season that year and seven catches for 90 yards in 2018. Not to mention 11 catches for 97 yards in Week 1 of 2015.

So he certainly had his moments against Pittsburgh. And his greater point is still accurate. The Steelers were ripped on many occasions for being too predictable on defense this year.

You always knew T.J. Watt was going to line up at left outside linebacker. He was almost never deployed with both Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig. Minkah Fitzpatrick was locked into the back third of the defense. Despite bolstering the inside linebacker position, their blitz packages with that unit were infrequent and not very creative.

And their defensive game plan against the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs was comically static.

So, you might not like hearing it from that source or how blunt he was in saying it, but Edelman has a point.

He got me

When FS1’s Colin Cowherd recently said that Washington’s Jayden Daniels had the best rookie quarterback season ever, I rolled my eyes.

After all, Ben Roethlisberger won his first 13 games as a rookie starter and got to an AFC Championship game. But Daniels did get Washington to an NFC title game this year and put up much more impressive passing numbers.

Daniels tossed 25 touchdowns to Big Ben’s 17. Daniels racked up 947 more yards through the air than Roethlisberger in ‘04. He also ran for 891 yards as opposed to 144 from Roethlisberger. Not to mention that Daniels only threw nine interceptions as opposed to Roethlisberger’s 11.

So maybe Cowherd is right. During his “Footbahlin’” video stream, Roethlisberger supported Cowherd’s argument.

“He was playing much better football than I was as a rookie,” Roethlisberger said at the 22:12 mark of his show. “I was just trying to survive. He was leading the team. I was fortunate. I had a group of guys around me that were veterans. We had a great defense, and we had Jerome (Bettis). They didn’t have to lean on me like the Commanders leaned on him.”

Furthermore, Daniels’ defense was ranked 18th. The Steelers’ defense in 2004, when Roethlisberger was a rookie, came in first in the NFL.

“What I’ve seen is that if he continues to improve, he’s going to be a game changer for a long time,” Roethlisberger said.

Now all Daniels has to do is win two Super Bowls and get to a third, and we can have a career achievement conversation as well.

Not done there

Roethlisberger also commented on the size of the Steelers coaching staff. He suggested that the argument to expand the coaching staff has some merit.

“There’s a lot of room for that,” Roethlisberger said at the 48:50 mark of his show. “Expand the strength and conditioning staff. Expand the training staff. Expand equipment staff, all that stuff. But that’s money. And we all know that the Rooneys aren’t putting a lot of extra into that stuff. That’s just — they’ve never done it that way. So we don’t expect that to change.”

During his press conference on Monday, it was pointed out to Rooney that the Steelers were only one of two teams with fewer than 20 people on the coaching staff. He insisted they have 27. The gap in those numbers appears to be in terms of who is counted on the analytic staff and the strength/conditioning staff.

Either way, the Steelers have long had a reputation for spending to the cap for players, and for the head coach, but not for the assistants or for other areas of the team.

Roethlisberger’s words certainly won’t help in that regard.