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

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Miller, Jefferson, Austin, Watkins, Mims and R. Wilson (by virtue of being a rookie) is thrift-store shopping at its finest. Or maybe more like that show where people would buy an entire storage unit in hopes that they'd find something really valuable in there.

It is a strategy for sure. I don't like it, I'd (and this isn't a unique perspective of course) prefer a clear 2 or 1b between Pickens and that group, but I don't think we're going to get it.

 

[JTG]

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

I very highly doubt Khan is done. If he can land a legit top 2 WR...his whole offseason was a success at that point.

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.



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.

The dead money mitigated risk. That's why I truly believe they are confident in landing another WR. And if they aren't...time for 3 young WR's to sink or swim.

 

[xlm34]

I’ll give Khan the benefit of the doubt and assume (hope) that he’s still got something up his sleeve on the trade market at WR.

As it stands though, I'm still so skeptical of how decent this offense can be. Being a run first team is fine and they have the pieces to be dominant there. But there is going to come a time when that run game is gonna get shut down and you have to rely on a more traditional passing offense. And the OC, QBs, and WR room have me really questioning how effective they could be there.

 

[Ryder71]

In general I love what Khan has done. Except this WR saga and not adding an established corner. This WR dilemma however is something that shouldn't still be an issue. And as much good as he's done and he's done a lot, not fortifying these two areas of weakness can derail a lot of the good the past few months. I sincerely hope there's a couple more decisive moves forthcoming. Otherwise...

Starting to really regret trading DJ.

 

[Ryder71]

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

Pretty sick actually, I was dubious of that move at the time and nothing in the interim has changed that mindset. Pretty much everything else went extremely well, but yes this move remains concerning to me.

 

[SomeDude]

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

Now they’ll have guys making 1/10th the cap hit that can also drop passes, be allergic to the end zone, and run backwards but probably not be a locker room cancer?

 

[Ryder71]

Yo Omar, my bro! Do good work, quality>quantity, Great draft, but do us a solid and fix WR and CB, THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pens1566]

I think with the different offense DJ's production will be split between Muth and Wilson, and outside of an injury issue we won't even notice he's gone.

 

[WickedWrister]

Yo Omar, my bro! Do good work, quality>quantity, Great draft, but do us a solid and fix WR and CB, THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seems like a Cam Sutton reunion is a real possibility.

 

[OnMyOwn]

A lot of these WR won’t even make the team. I’m assuming they’re basically having like 6 guys fight for 1 or 2 spots behind Pickens, Wilson and Jefferson.

It’s strange, but whatever.

 

[WickedWrister]

A lot of these WR won’t even make the team. I’m assuming they’re basically having like 6 guys fight for 1 or 2 spots behind Pickens, Wilson and Jefferson.

It’s strange, but whatever.

If there are no further additions to the WR room, I would think 2 of Austin/Jefferson/Miller/Watkins make it + Dez Fitzpatrick as a ST gunner. None of those guys have PR experience besides Calvin Austin so he probably gets the nod.

 

[Ryder71]

Seems like a Cam Sutton reunion is a real possibility.

Let's hope everything is cleared up 1st. We don't need drama there, if all good then proceed, but get a WR that everyone can get behind, not some guy we barely heard of.

A lot of these WR won’t even make the team. I’m assuming they’re basically having like 6 guys fight for 1 or 2 spots behind Pickens, Wilson and Jefferson.

It’s strange, but whatever.

I just don't want Pickens getting double teamed, as is that's likely to happen. We need a good option there besides just Wilson.

 

[Coastal Kev]

People are missing the speed factor. They are stacking elite speed at WR, the offense might have allot of WR's running in space using SF's Offense. Would i love to have a second great wr, yes. But it's absolutely not necessary to be an explosive offense.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Bryant still floating around the league:

Cowboys WR rumors: Dallas releasing former Steelers pass-catcher after hosting Zay Jones for free agent visit

Bryant is expected to receive interest on the open market

www.cbssports.com

Reminds me of Ricky Williams giving up football to smoke weed full time.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Regarding the WR depth, I'm not actually overly worried about not having a legitimate #2 WR to Pickens in terms of what setups the Steelers offense will be running. However, the terrifying thing is what happens if Pickens gets hurt?

Smith doesn't run that many 3 WR sets from what I know, so most of the sets will likely be Pickens and Wilson. I don't really have many concerns with that, assuming Wilson is as good as I think he will be, but I have a huge concern if Pickens goes down and pushes Wilson into the WR1 spot.

I actually wonder if Smith not running many 3 WR sets is why the Steelers haven't been able to add a notable WR2 yet. Smith only ran with a 3 WR set 17% of the time in 2023, which was last in the NFL. The most common scheme he ran was a 2 WR, 1 RB and 2 TE scheme, which he ran 42% of the time and was 1st in the NFL. I wonder if it's a hard sell to get a notable WR2 in the mix when we know this team is going to be running with 2 WRs on like 80% of their plays.

 

[JTG]

In general I love what Khan has done. Except this WR saga and not adding an established corner. This WR dilemma however is something that shouldn't still be an issue. And as much good as he's done and he's done a lot, not fortifying these two areas of weakness can derail a lot of the good the past few months. I sincerely hope there's a couple more decisive moves forthcoming. Otherwise...

Starting to really regret trading DJ.

DJ didn't want to be here. It was amicable.

I think with the different offense DJ's production will be split between Muth and Wilson, and outside of an injury issue we won't even notice he's gone.

Pat Freiermuth has been so under utilized it's crazy. He's going to be the WR 1/2, splitting with Pickens. As long as we have them, we are OK. Once one of them is hurt...it's toast.

 

[Ryder71]

People are missing the speed factor. They are stacking elite speed at WR, the offense might have allot of WR's running in space using SF's Offense. Would i love to have a second great wr, yes. But it's absolutely not necessary to be an explosive offense.

CA3 is fast, adding more such guys is rather redundant. None of them are world beaters, I guess we'll choose which one is less sucky. There's probably at least two of those guys who will get cut. Competition to be sure, not so sure the quality of said competition. #bestsmurfwins

DJ didn't want to be here. It was amicable.


Pat Freiermuth has been so under utilized it's crazy. He's going to be the WR 1/2, splitting with Pickens. As long as we have them, we are OK. Once one of them is hurt...it's toast.

I just think we're rather ''precarious'' in the WR department. Love drafting RW, however that's expecting quite a lot right out of the shoot.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

DJ didn't want to be here. It was amicable.


Pat Freiermuth has been so under utilized it's crazy. He's going to be the WR 1/2, splitting with Pickens. As long as we have them, we are OK. Once one of them is hurt...it's toast.

Agree. I’m fine with where pass catcher depth chart is right now.

Moment you take one of Pat GP out.. things get sketchy real quick.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

DJ didn't want to be here. It was amicable.


Pat Freiermuth has been so under utilized it's crazy. He's going to be the WR 1/2, splitting with Pickens. As long as we have them, we are OK. Once one of them is hurt...it's toast.

Muth had a stretch to start the season where he had 60 yards in like 5 games… total.

This after coming off a ‘22 season where he was a top 5 TE.

Seems to defy logic.

 

[Peat]

Agree. I’m fine with where pass catcher depth chart is right now.

Moment you take one of Pat GP out.. things get sketchy real quick.

To me saying we'd crap ourselves with the wrong injury means the depth chart is not good.

Also doesn't Wilson have a rep for not using his TEs? Going to be interesting to see how that'll matches up with Smith.

 

[MrBrightside]

To me saying we'd crap ourselves with the wrong injury means the depth chart is not good.

Also doesn't Wilson have a rep for not using his TEs? Going to be interesting to see how that'll matches up with Smith.

Atlanta's 2nd and 3rd leading receivers last year were TE's. Wilson doesn't throw over the middle of the field, so yeah, it's going to be interesting. Wilson morphed into check down or throw it deep with very little in between, basically the opposite of what Smith would normally want.

 

[WickedWrister]

Regarding the WR depth, I'm not actually overly worried about not having a legitimate #2 WR to Pickens in terms of what setups the Steelers offense will be running. However, the terrifying thing is what happens if Pickens gets hurt?

Smith doesn't run that many 3 WR sets from what I know, so most of the sets will likely be Pickens and Wilson. I don't really have many concerns with that, assuming Wilson is as good as I think he will be, but I have a huge concern if Pickens goes down and pushes Wilson into the WR1 spot.

I actually wonder if Smith not running many 3 WR sets is why the Steelers haven't been able to add a notable WR2 yet. Smith only ran with a 3 WR set 17% of the time in 2023, which was last in the NFL. The most common scheme he ran was a 2 WR, 1 RB and 2 TE scheme, which he ran 42% of the time and was 1st in the NFL. I wonder if it's a hard sell to get a notable WR2 in the mix when we know this team is going to be running with 2 WRs on like 80% of their plays.

Yeah I mentioned the 17% stat a few pages ago when I saw Warren Sharp tweet about it. I think SF was 31st with like 40% of offensive snaps featuring 3 WR, so his was a major outlier among personnel groupings. They would put Allgeier in the backfield and line Bijan up on outside a bunch too which skews that number.

Not saying I want to replicate ATL's offense 1 for 1 but I think we should be aware of his tendencies.

Not too revealing but I watched a recent interview with Roman Wilson and he said Smith and Azzanni (WR Coach) have been working him out at Z and slot.

Rookie minicamp starts this weekend by the way.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Yeah I mentioned the 17% stat a few pages ago when I saw Warren Sharp tweet about it. I think SF was 31st with like 40% of offensive snaps featuring 3 WR, so his was a major outlier among personnel groupings. They would put Allgeier in the backfield and line Bijan up on outside a bunch too which skews that number.

Yeah and I figure they'll be doing that with Harris, Warren and Pattersson a bit as well. Harris was actually a pretty good pass catcher in Ben's last year, where he put up about 500 receiving yards on 75 catches.

The Steelers don't have a true "WR2" but I think we'll be seeing all of Freiermuth, Harris and Wilson sharing that "WR2" role by committee. If Washinton ends up a legit TE, that would make this setup way better IMO.

 

[Peat]

Yeah I mentioned the 17% stat a few pages ago when I saw Warren Sharp tweet about it. I think SF was 31st with like 40% of offensive snaps featuring 3 WR, so his was a major outlier among personnel groupings. They would put Allgeier in the backfield and line Bijan up on outside a bunch too which skews that number.

Not saying I want to replicate ATL's offense 1 for 1 but I think we should be aware of his tendencies.

Not too revealing but I watched a recent interview with Roman Wilson and he said Smith and Azzanni (WR Coach) have been working him out at Z and slot.

Rookie minicamp starts this weekend by the way.

Pitts effectively being a receiver at this point probably distorted it too.

But you can also go to the 2020 Titans season where the dude had 4 TEs with over 250 snaps, and only 2 WRs only 300, and do the maths.

I do have to say though that if we're going to run a bunch of 2 TE sets, they don't look fantastically well set up for that either. Maybe I believe in Washington and Heyward a lot less than others... part of me wonders if we don't see a ton of Warren/Harris out there together.

 

[Ryder71]

Shefter mentions us as a potential suitor for Dupree.

Free-agent LB Bud Dupree concluded a visit with the Los Angeles Chargers, per source. Dupree also has been talking with the Falcons and Steelers, two of the three NFL teams for which he has played.


https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1788615187219497094