OT: The Pittsburgher Thread: New Quarter Backs for the Handball team!

[Peat]

I mean injury proofing the WR room was precisely why I wasn't onboard with trading Diontae in the first place.

I could see us using more Van Jefferson early on but yeah, were in a much better position if Roman Wilson is an instant contributor and Pickens can handle being the #1 week in and week out going against top coverage.

But just looking at how Arthur Smith wants to play football, his brand of offense is probably the best suited to hide a lack of depth at the WR position.

Agree with the bolded but to state the obvious, better to have depth at WR than have to hide it. And to echo the point that xlm made, Smith is here because his Atlanta offences didn't work and part of that is WR talent. He needs it to be better.

The drafting of Wilson made Boyd completely superfluous. He hasn't played outside in years. They dearly need another WR but Boyd wasn't it.

Yeah, they need someone who can play on the line of scrimmage.

Steelers 2024 Cash Spending Update Post-Draft Shows Room For 'Significant Playmaker' Addition

With the 2024 NFL Draft now behind us, I know most of you have been sitting on your Black and Gold pins and needles waiting for a cash spending update on the Pittsburgh Steelers. That is the case, right? Well, if it is, today is your lucky day. Included in this post is a look […]

steelersdepot.com

TLDR; Steelers still have about ~13m in cash spending to get to the authors $235m cash spending for 2024. Could go towards an extension towards Freiermuth later this summer. Cam Heyward extension probably doesn't include any new money in 2024.

Maybe I'm being crazy but at this point I won't be at all surprised if Heyward didn't get an extension. Everything Khan has done so far is a critique of leadership in the locker room and an attempt to avoid long term ties to players they mightn't want. It would be perfectly on brand to not want Heyward extended before they see how he is and to not view his leadership as so valuable as to outweigh that.

 

[WickedWrister]

Agree with the bolded but to state the obvious, better to have depth at WR than have to hide it. And to echo the point that xlm made, Smith is here because his Atlanta offences didn't work and part of that is WR talent. He needs it to be better.

Yeah I definitely don't want us to replicate his ATL offenses, but I acknowledge he has pretty clear tendencies and preferences in the kind of personnel groupings he uses. We're going to see a lot more 2RB and 3TE stuff which can mask the problem, but it's still a weakness.

Maybe I'm being crazy but at this point I won't be at all surprised if Heyward didn't get an extension. Everything Khan has done so far is a critique of leadership in the locker room and an attempt to avoid long term ties to players they mightn't want. It would be perfectly on brand to not want Heyward extended before they see how he is and to not view his leadership as so valuable as to outweigh that.

Ehh I'm not getting those vibes. While I don't think its a foregone conclusion that he gets an extension, I think it would be performance related, not leadership. His cap hit vs. his production is the problem and adding a void year or two to bring that cap number down for this year is the easiest way to make space if there are any other big moves out there.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Khan has to have some guys in mind for June. I can't see them being satisfied with who they have at WR right now. Pickens is very good but still only in his third year and the #2 right now looks to be a rookie.

 

[WickedWrister]

I'm just trying to mentally prepare myself for when MyCole Pruitt and Cordarrelle Patterson are getting red zone touches.

Can't be as bad as the Gunner O jet sweeps and Gentry slip screens, right?

 

[Jaded-Fan]

I'm not sure why everyone is upset about the so-called wide receiver situation.

There are a ton of interchangeable guys who can fill the role.

How fast do you have to be to catch the ball two yards beyond the line of scrimmage or three yards behind the line of scrimmage?

 

[Peat]

Ehh I'm not getting those vibes. While I don't think its a foregone conclusion that he gets an extension, I think it would be performance related, not leadership. His cap hit vs. his production is the problem and adding a void year or two to bring that cap number down for this year is the easiest way to make space if there are any other big moves out there.

I don't think they'd not renew him because of leadership, but I think it mightn't be as powerful a chip in his favour as it was.

And once you take out the leadership, there's basically no sensible reason to renew a 35 year old DT who just missed six games until you've seen him playing, right? You wait and see what level he's playing at. Worst case you lose a good year. It's worth delaying on unless there's some other pressing reason.

 

[The Old Master]

Khan has to have some guys in mind for June. I can't see them being satisfied with who they have at WR right now. Pickens is very good but still only in his third year and the #2 right now looks to be a rookie.

no rush, there will be lots of late cuts coming out of training camp.

 

[JTG]

The draft class still needs to sign though. He could do a bunch of restructurings if he wanted to.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

2024 NFL Draft reaction: Predicting Rookies of the Year, bounce-back teams, 2025 No. 1 overall pick and more

Seven rookies were selected to the NFL Pro Bowl last year

www.cbssports.com

1. Who had the most success during the 2024 NFL Draft?​

Steelers​

"Chicago may have had the most impactful draft with quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver Rome Odunze, but for the second consecutive year, I thought the Steelers did really well on a grander scale. They likely walked away with at least five starters, including three on the offensive line. They have two bigger running backs in Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, hired offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and signed quarterback Russell Wilson. They are built to run the ball downhill and then strategically target George Pickens on downfield attempts." -- Josh Edwards

 

[Coastal Kev]

I'm not sure why everyone is upset about the so-called wide receiver situation.

There are a ton of interchangeable guys who can fill the role.

How fast do you have to be to catch the ball two yards beyond the line of scrimmage or three yards behind the line of scrimmage?

Can we wait to see the new offense before we start bitching about the new offense?

Also, our WR is blazing fast. The right scheme could work with what we have.

 

[WickedWrister]

Plan the parade

 

[TimmyD]

The Big Ten if you remove Ohio State (which we do for Fields because, you know, he didn't play Ohio State) is the ACC: 1 or 2 good teams and a bunch of patsies.

Who said Pickett had no faults? I said he had issues with happy feet. He did sometimes have issues with accuracy (a lot of which I do chalk up to being uncomfortable with his OL). But other than that I didn't see any glaring problems. He doesn't have a noodle arm, he has good leadership qualities, he's mobile enough to extend plays and/or pick up extra yards, he limited his turnovers, he showed flashes of delivering when it matters, and in the very limited time we got to see him without Matt Canada running the offense, he looked a lot better.

I understand why they had to move him. It's unfortunate because I think he has the potential to be a good QB.

If you think Fields looked better you simply have no ability to accurately gauge the QB position beyond a shallow dip into stats (and you're probably mesmerized by running QBs).

Kenny Pickett has good leadership qualities? A guy running away from a QB competition to be a guaranteed backup sure screams leader to me. Then there is the entire Seattle fiasco…. But yeah, Kenny has good leadership qualities for sure.

 

[xlm34]

Plan the parade

 

[Peat]

Kenny Pickett has good leadership qualities? A guy running away from a QB competition to be a guaranteed backup sure screams leader to me. Then there is the entire Seattle fiasco…. But yeah, Kenny has good leadership qualities for sure.

The Seattle fiasco where we have no solid evidence of what happened and only a group of conflicting media reports to go on.

 

[MrBrightside]

Man I want to be optimistic about this team and they've made some good moves and had a nice draft, but (a) treating the WR position the way they are is like saying that if you sleep with five 2's you've slept with a 10 and (b) recreating a really mediocre offense like the 2023 Falcons is a poor aspiration.

 

[TimmyD]

The Seattle fiasco where we have no solid evidence of what happened and only a group of conflicting media reports to go on.

Even if it wasn’t him who decided he wasn’t going to be the emergency backup, there were still plenty of reports that he was upset they were going to continue to stick with Mason and he felt it was unfair… because he is an entitled baby. So yeah that situation still isn’t a ringing endorsement of his leadership qualities.

 

[WickedWrister]

Man I want to be optimistic about this team and they've made some good moves and had a nice draft, but (a) treating the WR position the way they are is like saying that if you sleep with five 2's you've slept with a 10 and (b) recreating a really mediocre offense like the 2023 Falcons is a poor aspiration.

 

[JTG]

2024 NFL Draft reaction: Predicting Rookies of the Year, bounce-back teams, 2025 No. 1 overall pick and more

Seven rookies were selected to the NFL Pro Bowl last year

www.cbssports.com

I agree wholeheartedly with this. And I don't agree with people who say that Pickens isn't a 1. I think Pickens is not only a 1, but maybe one of the best in the league.

It's going to be amazing watching him with a competent coordinator, a really strong running game, a QB who wasn't getting killed, and a veteran QB that can get him the ball. I expect a huge season from Pickens.

They may even be able to resurrect CA3. Pickens, CA3, and Wilson could be really dangerous. you just need to get 2 of them in some space. It should be interesting. I also think people are writing CA3 off too early. He had a tough season, but so did everyone else.

 

[WickedWrister]

For the people that wanted to replace DJ via the aggregate, how are you feeling about the moves thus far?

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Can we wait to see the new offense before we start bitching about the new offense?

Also, our WR is blazing fast. The right scheme could work with what we have.

The Steelers, and Tomlin specifically, burned their benefit of the doubt with me long ago. Two or three puppet OC's ago.

I need to see differently to believe differently.

 

[UnrealMachine]

For the people that wanted to replace DJ via the aggregate, how are you feeling about the moves thus far?

I was a bigger DJ supporter than most here, and think he’ll do well outside of Canada and/or Picket. However, there was an iron lung type value that he brought to the team - which would likely further decrease as a #2 status was cemented behind Pickens. Won’t know the real answer to your question until we see what Wilson can do and how quickly he can do it.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

While I'm trying to come up with a response to the Scotty Miller signing from a roster perspective, let's just remember that the same Omar Khan who is killing the drafts is the Omar Khan who is building the WR room.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

While I'm trying to come up with a response to the Scotty Miller signing from a roster perspective, let's just remember that the same Omar Khan who is killing the drafts is the Omar Khan who is building the WR room.

Pretty obvious that Arthur Smith was the driving force of this signing. I am sure that Khan signed off on it, but was not the primary reason Miller is here now.

 

[Peat]

For the people that wanted to replace DJ via the aggregate, how are you feeling about the moves thus far?

No bueno. This wasn't the maths I ran for being able to do it.

I'm still okay with the situation as I'm happy with them cleaning as much petulance off of the team as possible but there's definitely a downside here to this right now.

While I'm trying to come up with a response to the Scotty Miller signing from a roster perspective, let's just remember that the same Omar Khan who is killing the drafts is the Omar Khan who is building the WR room.

He's also the same Khan that set up the WR room last year that they then felt the need to absolutely flush, with a near 8m dead money bill in the process. I love his drafting but the free agency work has not been in the same tier to date.

I also think it's likely he's leaning hard on coaches to build what they want, which is often a good idea but doesn't appear so hot when you've got a guy who seems to think what got him sacked will work just as long as he has Russell Wilson or Fields at QB. Dudes need some depth to throw at.

 

[Coastal Kev]

The Steelers, and Tomlin specifically, burned their benefit of the doubt with me long ago. Two or three puppet OC's ago.

I need to see differently to believe differently.

Understood, but the last real OC we had was Haley and the Offense looked really good during that period. Let's hope for A Smith to do a great job.