OT: The Pittsburgher Thread: Post Draft - Still dont need no QB

[Peat]

Eh. I like draft grades. Not only are they a good way of measuring which analyst actually has a clue - not that I can actually be bothered, but I like knowing it's there - but it's also a decent way of measuring just how much a draft class was DoA and how much it was mismanaged in the development phase. Not perfect, but it gives you an idea.


I do also like the Too Early mocks. They are, well, too early, but it's nice to have a list of who to pay attention to. And, much as that jab at people just using High School grades tickles me, I do accept @WickedWrister's point there's a decent amount of carry through.

 

[JTG]

The issue with draft grades is they take a look at each team against every other team against the agreed upon board. For 3-4 teams, you never win that game. If you do...you are the Baltimore Ravens where they can land guys like Suggs, Ngata, and other weird shaped DL and turn them into HOFers.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

The issue with draft grades is they take a look at each team against every other team against the agreed upon board. For 3-4 teams, you never win that game. If you do...you are the Baltimore Ravens where they can land guys like Suggs, Ngata, and other weird shaped DL and turn them into HOFers.

And perception. The Steelers are knocked for not drafting a QB because their QB room sucks, but what if none of the QBs available to them are any good? You know they're knocked more for not taking Sanders because of the team's weakness at the position and because reports leading up to the draft linked him to the team.

The team could end up better off for not having drafted him, and drafted a (hopefully/potentially) contributing player at another position instead. But you won't know that for how many seasons?

 

[JTG]

Eh. I like draft grades. Not only are they a good way of measuring which analyst actually has a clue - not that I can actually be bothered, but I like knowing it's there - but it's also a decent way of measuring just how much a draft class was DoA and how much it was mismanaged in the development phase. Not perfect, but it gives you an idea.


I do also like the Too Early mocks. They are, well, too early, but it's nice to have a list of who to pay attention to. And, much as that jab at people just using High School grades tickles me, I do accept @WickedWrister's point there's a decent amount of carry through.

I think they are useful to get a "vibe." I also save every single thing I see after the 2024 draft for the 2025. It provides unique insight. A lot of these guys have 3 years of ball already and all have 2 - initial mock drafts take all of that into account, so because of that it's not totally useless. It's a good bookmark and reference point.

 

[WheresRamziAbid]

Filling needs is good
Getting value with each pick is better.

They did both this draft.

If you think Howard is a backup this is a good draft, if you think theres a chance hes an average starter its an excellent draft.

 

[JTG]

QB - We are not...horrible. We are not...good. - uncomfortable with the standing currently
RB - Totally comfortable
WR - Totally comfortable
TE - Totally comfortable
OT - Please Broderick. I think Fautanu is going to be great if the coaching staff doesn't f*** with him. They need depth badly, but they should have to good starters - mildly comfortable
OG/C - This is probably going to be a top 90 pick for us in 2026, and we really should sign another guy in free agency. Seumalo - Frazier - McCormick should be above the bar, but what is after that? - mildly uncomfortable
DL - Now is the time for guys like Loudermilk. They have depth and variety. - Totally comfortable
LB - Still wouldn't have ever cut Roberts. Sawyer brings a nice depth piece. I expect Wilson and Herbig to take steps forward. Mark Robinson - does he finally figure it out? - Mildly comfortable
DB - I love Elliot. Minkah needs to be who he was. Porter needs to return to rookie form. Does Beanie hold his spot down? Can Trice stay healthy? - uncomfortable, actually.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

QB - We are not...horrible. We are not...good. - uncomfortable with the standing currently
RB - Totally comfortable
WR - Totally comfortable
TE - Totally comfortable
OT - Please Broderick. I think Fautanu is going to be great if the coaching staff doesn't f*** with him. They need depth badly, but they should have to good starters - mildly comfortable
OG/C - This is probably going to be a top 90 pick for us in 2026, and we really should sign another guy in free agency. Seumalo - Frazier - McCormick should be above the bar, but what is after that? - mildly uncomfortable
DL - Now is the time for guys like Loudermilk. They have depth and variety. - Totally comfortable
LB - Still wouldn't have ever cut Roberts. Sawyer brings a nice depth piece. I expect Wilson and Herbig to take steps forward. Mark Robinson - does he finally figure it out? - Mildly comfortable
DB - I love Elliot. Minkah needs to be who he was. Porter needs to return to rookie form. Does Beanie hold his spot down? Can Trice stay healthy? - uncomfortable, actually.

Oh I like this game. Obviously we have FA still, but I'm going to take a different approach and say if we're better or worse vs last year.

QB- worse as it sits now.
RB - better
WR - better
TE - same
Oline - worse. We have no idea if Jones can play on the left side and we don't know if Faunt will be hampered by injury. This is the weak spot of the roster IMO.
Dline - better
LB - same. I think losing Roberts is a big blow. Maybe Sawyer plus Wilson's experience can replace that depth?
DB - same

So I have 2 position groups where we're worse and 3 better.
The FOLLOWING season is where I have grand expectations from a roster standpoint. Khan should be able to add to those weaker areas: QB and OT via draft and FA (with a buttload of cap).

I can see anywhere between 6 to 10 wins with this roster. Their record will go as the OT's go (or don't).

 

[pistolpete11]

Oline - worse. We have no idea if Jones can play on the left side and we don't know if Faunt will be hampered by injury. This is the weak spot of the roster IMO.

They essentially replaced Dan Moore with Fauntanu and put Jones back at his natural position. We'll see if it's 'good', but I think it is pretty comfortably 'better'.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Would this be different if you separated CB and S? Probably not a big deal but separated OT and interior linemen. What about OLB and ILB?

 

[bigdaddyk88]

Oh I like this game. Obviously we have FA still, but I'm going to take a different approach and say if we're better or worse vs last year.

QB- worse as it sits now.
RB - better
WR - better
TE - same
Oline - worse. We have no idea if Jones can play on the left side and we don't know if Faunt will be hampered by injury. This is the weak spot of the roster IMO.
Dline - better
LB - same. I think losing Roberts is a big blow. Maybe Sawyer plus Wilson's experience can replace that depth?
DB - same

So I have 2 position groups where we're worse and 3 better.
The FOLLOWING season is where I have grand expectations from a roster standpoint. Khan should be able to add to those weaker areas: QB and OT via draft and FA (with a buttload of cap).

I can see anywhere between 6 to 10 wins with this roster. Their record will go as the OT's go (or don't).

How can you say the te room and the db are the same both are improved. They have 3 guys who are younger than Roberts.
A full season of Howard and Mason especially with DK added should equal the 25 tds they got between the qbs last season

 

[xlm34]

If Fautanu can stay healthy, I think he alone will make the line massively better than it was. He looked great in the one game he played and I don’t think I’ve ever heard Tomlin praise a rookie as much as he did Fautanu. All Jones needs to do is be average. His problems definitely go beyond which side he’s on, but I think some of his issues last year stemmed from his injury in camp.

QB definitely got worse unless Rodgers signs. If he does, I’m expecting pretty much the same as last year.

RB we’ll see but I’m hoping better. Kaleb Johnson should be an awesome fit for Smith so having someone that actually does what he wants to should be good.

WR is easily better.

TE is the same.

DL is better on paper but Heyward can’t keep continuing to have all pro seasons into his late 30s can he? Hopefully Benton can take a step this year. Harmon should be better than Ogunjobi but I don’t expect much out of rookie DL.

LB is the same, but Queen hopefully will be better than he was.

DBs got better probably. Slay should be better than Jackson but I think the slot corner spot will still kill them this year.

 

[Peat]

QB - As of today, the worst QB room in the league. Not sure it's even close. If Tomlin gets 9-8 with it, it'll be very impressive (and a deeply annoying piece of self-harm). If one of these guys turns into a good QB that is more than 9-8, I will be stunned and have to re-evaluate everything I believe. If you were to run a conspiracy theory that the Steelers and Rodgers have no intention of being together next year, but the Steelers like it as it lets them pretend they weren't tanking from the get go and Rodgers likes it as it keeps his profile high while he waits for an injury on a good team, I would consider it because while it's ludicrous, it does make sense of what's happening.

RB - Hopefully better, should be fine and maybe more if the rest of the team does their job

WR - Better, kind of wish there was a star WR who wasn't known for big time pouting and rough route running in there, but it is at least a decent NFL WR room with some depth

TE - Same and good, but still don't really think it's good enough for what Smith wants to do

OL - All our prayers and hopes rest on them. They could end next season looking like the next great OL in the league. They could end next season looking like bust city and basically restarting the rebuild. Mayer is maybe the most important man in terms of what his performance means to the org next season.

DL - They did a lot of movement but I still don't know whether it's Heyward (no drop off plz) and a bunch of JAGs or whether Benton's gonna take a step, Ekuale is gonna be an improvement, Harmon's gonna hit the ground running, and so on

OLB - Stop my penis can only get so erect. Well. Assuming no Watt drop off.

ILB - I dunno what I think tbh. I didn't like Queen but hope he can be better for the experience. That dude who replaced Roberts sounds worse than Roberts. I love Wilson's potential but who knows if it turns into consistency. I don't know what Holcomb's going to do. I don't think the unit's going to be bad but I don't know it's a strength.

CB - If Slay doesn't do a Peterson, good. If he does, not so good. Curious if Porter can develop further. NCB remains the knock-off Pandora's Box and hopefully someone steps up as the one good thing in it.

S - Fitzpatrick has to return to form or there's a big ceiling on the unit.


So... a whole lot of don't know and hoping. There's a huge tranche of young players who are ??s and can make or break this whole thing along with a few highly paid lynchpins who need to be better (Fitz and Queen), and a few highly paid lynchpins who are at the age where I don't expect drop off but won't be surprised (Watt, Heyward, Slay and Seumalo).

Honestly about the only players on the roster where I'm really confident I know what they'll do next season are Muth, Highsmith, and Elliott. Admittedly, I lean more into uncertainty than most here, but I don't think I'm being that hyperbolic given the number of kids and ageing and/or injury prone and/or recently underperforming dudes.

 

[Peat]

Actually just expanding on OL -

The talent/technique/dedication all seem to be there with Fautanu so the main worry is lingering issues from the injury and/or ongoing injury proneness. That said, even without those things, would still be a tad conservative about how much an effective rookie is going to sustain high performance through the season. Can, but maybe won't.

Jones worries me. I think the Steelers have jerked him around and made life tough, but he hasn't reacted well. He's got that dog in him when things are going well, but when they're not the resilience seems questionable. His head looked all messed up at times last season and the whole thing about the media reporting that the Steelers want him to be more professional is a red flag. Feels like this coming season, his situation should be everything he wants so it's up to him to respond. Lot of technique things to clean up too.

Seumalo is old and injury prone, and was never an amazing all round athlete for his position. Not ideal. Could bounce back big, could have another injury, could just be an average guy... feel like I'm expecting average

McCormick had a baptism of fire, but I can't say I was ever that impressed by him and, pinch of salt, but he had worse PFF grades than Jones. I'd have been happy to have a veteran in to take his place

Frazier... okay, fine, the only reason I have doubts about Frazier is sometimes I'm a deeply negative person. But you know, sophomore slumps are real.

 

[JTG]

They essentially replaced Dan Moore with Fauntanu and put Jones back at his natural position. We'll see if it's 'good', but I think it is pretty comfortably 'better'.

Agreed. I think Jones being on the left he needs to put up or shut up. He comes out as a turnstile this fanbase is going to erupt on him and that's going to be heart breaking because this staff ruined him.

Would this be different if you separated CB and S? Probably not a big deal but separated OT and interior linemen. What about OLB and ILB?

I see T and IOL as two separate positions. T can play G but G can't play T. DBs the schemes determine who is out there so things can masked. We aren't masking a bad tackle or two. We are toast. With bad tackles and a decent IOL, we should still be able to run a bit.

Elliot and an engaged Minkah should really help those CBs. Minkah has to be better though.

 

[Peat]

 

[Empoleon8771]

Yeah I was going to post that as well. Reading more in there, it seems like the whole Sanders thing was a smokescreen and they didn't even have Sanders as a round 2 talent. It seems like Dart was their highest rated QB and they had him as what seems like a mid/late 2nd round talent.

It seems like the Steelers priority in the draft was Harmon, a WR, a safety and a CB. I think it's safe to assume that Golden was that WR and my guess for the safety was Emmanwori (the "y" or "yellow" designation seems to be guys that they had for visits), but that's purely speculation.

 

[Peat]

Yeah I was going to post that as well. Reading more in there, it seems like the whole Sanders thing was a smokescreen and they didn't even have Sanders as a round 2 talent. It seems like Dart was their highest rated QB and they had him as what seems like a mid/late 2nd round talent.

It seems like the Steelers priority in the draft was Harmon, a WR, a safety and a CB. I think it's safe to assume that Golden was that WR and my guess for the safety was Emmanwori (the "y" or "yellow" designation seems to be guys that they had for visits), but that's purely speculation.

If there's one golden takeaway from this, it's that Dulac was talking through his arse repeatedly.

Although, given the weird contradiction of "they got two first round grades on QB but they ain't taking a QB, trust", I'm going to guess Dulac knew perfectly well he was peddling bullshit and did it with a smile, but wasn't smart enough to follow the smokescreen all the way. Or maybe he's too stupid to remember which stories he's made up. Either way, yeah, put a pin in that story and many other from Dualc.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

If there's one golden takeaway from this, it's that Dulac was talking through his arse repeatedly.

Although, given the weird contradiction of "they got two first round grades on QB but they ain't taking a QB, trust", I'm going to guess Dulac knew perfectly well he was peddling bullshit and did it with a smile, but wasn't smart enough to follow the smokescreen all the way. Or maybe he's too stupid to remember which stories he's made up. Either way, yeah, put a pin in that story and many other from Dualc.

He just puts out what the Steelers want him to

 

[Peat]

He just puts out what the Steelers want him to

Hey now that's just not true.

Sometimes he puts out what Russell Wilson wants him to.

 

[bigdaddyk88]

He just puts out what the Steelers want him to

Sometimes it’s pure speculation like when he said that the Steelers were interested in bringing back Najee on a 3 year deal.

 

[Snooki Stackhouse]

In a follow up comment they found by looking at the picture after the Kaleb Johnson pick that the two QBs listed were Dart and Shough. So they didn't even have Sanders as a 3rd round talent. Crazy the disconnect between media hype and real front offices on that guy.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

They essentially replaced Dan Moore with Fauntanu and put Jones back at his natural position. We'll see if it's 'good', but I think it is pretty comfortably 'better'.

On paper, Jones is better than Moore and Faunt is more talented than maybe the 2 of them combined. It's his injury history that makes me concerned what is on paper won't translate in real life.
That's my biggest concern.

Dan Moore was the definition of mediocre. I loved Jones as a rookie, but the more I saw of him last year the less I liked. Jones could perform anywhere from an All Pro level to being benched at LT - he's a huge question mark.

In short, we have 2 question marks at Tackle, injury and performance weigh heavily here. So I'm not ready to proclaim it "better" just yet. I understand your perspective though.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Hopefully the changes in draft strategy will help

Doesn't have to do with draft strategy.

Something has changed since the Cowher years.

In the early to late 90's this team would draft a player and let him cut his teeth on ST's for a year or 2. Then once they've done well in that arena, they were given playing opportunities. This was an outstanding philosophy to develop role players to support the stars.

Recently, there are no Orpheus Royes, Lee Flowers, Jerry Osalvskis, Myron Bell, Fred McAfees, Hines Ward. The only person I can think of from the Tomlin years that was groomed like this was Isaac Redman who played a large supporting role.

This goes back to my general mantra that this team cannot develop players, period. It's a major f***ing problem of why they can't get over the mediocre to pretty good hump.

 

[pistolpete11]

On paper, Jones is better than Moore and Faunt is more talented than maybe the 2 of them combined. It's his injury history that makes me concerned what is on paper won't translate in real life.
That's my biggest concern.

Dan Moore was the definition of mediocre. I loved Jones as a rookie, but the more I saw of him last year the less I liked. Jones could perform anywhere from an All Pro level to being benched at LT - he's a huge question mark.

In short, we have 2 question marks at Tackle, injury and performance weigh heavily here. So I'm not ready to proclaim it "better" just yet. I understand your perspective though.

Moore sucks. He had a decent first 5 games or so in 2024 while Jones was struggling (partially due to an injury and playing out of position), so people started rewriting the narratives around them. They went in opposite directions as the year went on, though, to the point I think they were pretty similar grades by the end of the year.

Again, I don't know how 'good' Jones is, but due to age, pedigree, playing in the correct position, career performance so far, and it being a low bar to begin with, it's easily improved going into the season, if you ask me.

 

[Khelandros]

Quick question on the Aaron Rodgers situation. Has he been actually released by the Jets and is able to sign a new deal or has he been "released" and has to wait until June 1st to sign?

I see both things posted individually in different places.