OT: The Pittsburgher Thread: 5 and 2 Justin who? Hand the Fields to Wilson

[bigdaddyk88]

Harris is a serviceable back who unfortunately due to his draft position has no business being just serviceable. There really is nothing more to say in my opinion.

With Warren getting healthier I'd suspect that the YPC goes up for Najee the rest of year.

Warren is rb 3 right now

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Warren is rb 3 right now

Is Warren still working his way back from injury? What's going on with that?

 

[End of Line]

 

[pistolpete11]

"If you don't have Najee Harris, you're looking for a Najee Harris."

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Not sure that's 100% accurate. When Najee was out yesterday, Patterson assumed that role, but Warren still played on downs when Warren would have played, i.e. Warren rotated situationally with whomever was also playing.

 

[Peat]

Any QB needy team is likely to take one in the draft. That doesn't mean JF wouldn't be a good addition to their roster.
He could also go to a team like Jax and get a bunch of games as a starter due to Trevor's inability to stay healthy.

Fields is going to be in high demand this offseason. That's my prediction. (note this is not an endorsement of him)

But going to somewhere as a 'veteran' mentor to a QB who'll take his job halfway through the season, or to a frankly ropey AF Jacksonville to gamble that Lawrence - a guy who only missed one game his first three seasons - is going to be the QB who misses the most games, is a situation in which Pittsburgh can make a competitive pitch.

In hindsight they should have paid him this off-season.

Now he is going to get paid more than he is worth. If that prediction is anywhere close to accurate, I hope that it is not the Steelers doing the paying.

I don't think they should have. I'd have been okay with them doing so but I don't think they'll commit to using Harris the way he should be used, I think they're best to sever the cord, even if 6.5m for Harris isn't awful value.

I know he just turned down the UNC job, but I could see Arthur Smith getting another HC job opportunity somewhere too. Maybe even the NFL. A top 10 offensive unit comprised mainly of castoffs from other teams is some real “oil from stone” type shit.

I definitely think he'll be offered it if he keeps things up. Be interesting to see how interested he'd be. If I was him, I'd only bite if it was a real pearl of a job.

I mean it was a blizzard and Wilson still put up strong numbers for the conditions (21 for 28 with 270 passing yards).

He had a 75% completion percentage for 270 yards and a TD good for a 116.7 QB rating in the snow. He had the fumble, but that's about it. It was ugly for the offense as a whole because they couldn't run the ball effectively, specifically on short yardage, but Russ played well all things considered and his stat line was perfectly fine.

His only really 'bad' game statistically was the Ravens. You're right that there's a pretty big "so far" qualifier on there, but it's been a while since we've had a QB that could take advantage of mediocre or even bad teams. Things would have to get real ugly for me to not think that Russ is their best option going into next year.

My point was not that he had an awful game vs the Browns - although I do think too much is made of his raw stats and not enough of his performance at critical moments to extend drives - but that the sample size means each game can throw his stats in big directions either way. Although, yes, saying after the Ravens would have made the point even clearer.

And if you're looking for some games to set up real ugly, then Browns-Eagles-Ravens-Chiefs is a solid set up - two very physical divisional match-ups against teams who've shown the ability to overwhelm the Steeler OL, two top 10 defences. I would like to stress right now that if things go awful in those matches we should be slow to judge him, but the perception could be brutal - and being slow to judge vs hard match ups should be matched with being slow to judge vs easy. And hey, who knows, maybe he does pretty good against them and all of a sudden we're optimistic. Who knows! But given the uncertainty and small sample, it's a very open question.

And while I'm not really for moving on from Wilson atm, Rudolph put up a pretty similar passer rating and offensive scoreline last year vs the Bengals. The team had a decent day out vs 2 of the 3 bottom 10 defences they faced under Fields too. This team has been pretty solid vs bad defences ever since removing Canada/Pickett with three different QBs imo. Wilson's the best out of the three, but not so much I feel he's a different breed.

 

[xlm34]

But going to somewhere as a 'veteran' mentor to a QB who'll take his job halfway through the season, or to a frankly ropey AF Jacksonville to gamble that Lawrence - a guy who only missed one game his first three seasons - is going to be the QB who misses the most games, is a situation in which Pittsburgh can make a competitive pitch.

I definitely think he'll be offered it if he keeps things up. Be interesting to see how interested he'd be. If I was him, I'd only bite if it was a real pearl of a job.

I think these two things could be linked. If Smith does get a HC job and that team has a need at QB, I think there’s a decent chance Fields follows Smith. Smith seems to love Fields and I’d imagine given his performance as the starter, Fields would see that as a really good opportunity

 

[WickedWrister]

Just an absurd amount of distribution

 

[Peat]

I think these two things could be linked. If Smith does get a HC job and that team has a need at QB, I think there’s a decent chance Fields follows Smith. Smith seems to love Fields and I’d imagine given his performance as the starter, Fields would see that as a really good opportunity

Oh we talking about Smith getting a HC job this summer? I thought @WickedWrister meant some point in the future.

In any case, yeah, possible, although it feels unlikely. I would also add imo that any HC job that has a need at QB is not the real pearl of a job I'd bite at. Although who knows what Smith thinks. He hasn't exactly been bothered by QB in his previous stops.

 

[bigdaddyk88]

Is Warren still working his way back from injury? What's going on with that?

Warren isn’t an every down rb. He is somewhere between Pollard and Chase Brown. Has 5 fumbles and 6 rushing tds. He is solid 3rd down rb

 

[bigdaddyk88]

Oh we talking about Smith getting a HC job this summer? I thought @WickedWrister meant some point in the future.

In any case, yeah, possible, although it feels unlikely. I would also add imo that any HC job that has a need at QB is not the real pearl of a job I'd bite at. Although who knows what Smith thinks. He hasn't exactly been bothered by QB in his previous stops.

I think if he leaves for a HC gig it’s because of the Qb. He got fired because of Qb play in Atlanta. He can love fields all he wants but even a fields level Qb gets him fired again. People in Chicago loved fields he is a great teammate but he is severely limited as a passer. Smith has a lifetime contract under Tomlin I don’t think he goes anywhere. I could see him deciding on the o line coach future and working with Wilson next season and developing a rookie Qb behind the scenes next 2 seasons

 

[WickedWrister]

Oh we talking about Smith getting a HC job this summer? I thought @WickedWrister meant some point in the future.

In any case, yeah, possible, although it feels unlikely. I would also add imo that any HC job that has a need at QB is not the real pearl of a job I'd bite at. Although who knows what Smith thinks. He hasn't exactly been bothered by QB in his previous stops.

If we're talking about Smith getting another NFL HC job opportunity, that process usually starts as soon as the regular season ends AKA Bloody Monday, so sometime beginning in January.

We'll see how things shake out but if we can somehow end up winning a playoff game, Smith is going to get a lot of credit for resurrecting Russell Wilson's career. Ian Rapoport is basically a mouthpiece for these guys agents and wrote as much in the "article".