Gerry Dulac calls decision to play Kenny Pickett shameful....

i agree with you in that the table is set and gotta now go with Kenny throwing it deep to Pickens.

All Dulac is saying is that it’s a shame the table got set this way purposely by the Steelers - they should have focused on OL in the draft, improved running game and just go with Trub for this year. Then bring in a rookie Qb.

If winning at all costs is the objective, Trub and Rudolph are likely to have done better than Kenny is doing right now had tomlin just stuck it out with either of them

 

FootballPlagiarist? Nah. He really is that clueless.

 

At which time, Pickett will be 25 or 26 and have some experience to help him work with that line and running game.

This can't be repeated enough. If you don't have a long-term answer at quarterback on your roster and a quarterback you think can be a franchise guy is available to you in the first round of the draft, you take him. You don't screw around. You don't wait a year or two. You take him. The position is too important to handle that any differently.

 

Dulac was against the Steelers picking a quarterback all along, which is fine, except that he is allowing that bias to guide his commentary now. He seems to be too focused on doubling down on his own opinion than offering anything close to objective analysis. Disagreeing with what the team does is fine, but calling it shameful? That's a really poor job by Dulac.

He hasn't shown much integrity on this topic. Before the draft, he wrote that there was only one quarterback the Steelers would take in the first round. Then on draft day, he predicted it would be Willis. Once he was proven wrong by them taking Pickett over Willis, he suddenly changed his tune and started talking about the Steelers having first-round grades on three quarterbacks. Now maybe he made up the last story, but I think it is more likely that he was pulling the same trick the team pulled when they took Mason Rudolph. Having a first-round grade on a player isn't the same as planning to take him in the first round. Does first-round grade mean one of the guys ranked among their top 32 players in the draft? Or does it mean they think the player is good enough to be a first-round value, but they don't restrict that to 32 players? What about guys who have first-round ability, but don't really fit what the Steelers want to do?

Maybe the Steelers had 50 guys with first-round grades, but some of them didn't fit what they want to do. At best, I think that is what Dulac was talking about. At best, it was a dishonest rhetorical trick. At worst, it was a flat-out lie. I don't make those sorts of accusations against a reporter lightly, but the way he contradicted his own reporting and did so without acknowledging that he did it was very shady.

 

I can't say that I disagree with that approach. But the Steelers didn't take it. Now that they have, you have to live in that reality and comment on it.
This is what I mean, and perfectly stated....

 

Let’s face it the Steelers have made two poor first round decisions with Najee and Pickett. This team had serious issues on the OL and CB that should have been addressed way before a luxury pick of a RB or reaching on a hometown QB. The way Tomlin runs his backs into the ground Najee will be washed in another 2 years we won’t have a competitive team while he’s here. Kenny could develop time will tell on that pick although early on the returns don’t look great.

 

Hopefully it doesn't break KP's confidence. We seen way too many careers in the NFL end because of that.

 

It starts in the trenches and we got away from that with Ben' ability to extend plays. Build an elite O-Line followed by a D-Line that can put CONSISTENT pressure on the QB and then add your shiny toys for the offense. You can have the best WR's, QB and RB but if the line sucks you are going nowhere!!

 

This.
You can rebuild a line in one offseason through the draft, FA, or both. It's easier to build an O line than to find and be in position to acquire (what you believe to be) a franchise QB.

 

DJ is an elite route runner. Claypool was pretty terrible, but that definitely isn’t the case with dj

 

DJ is not AB, that's for sure. When you have an AB, you develop that trust. When you don't have that guy, you hesitate looking for an opening. DJ is not that guy, never will be. He was force fed the ball because we had nothing else. Now Pickens, that's a different story. I think he has all the tools to be a stud and earn that trust of KP

 

I don't disagree, but when are we going to start?

 

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As a perfect example: Steelers took DL over Dan Marino… that was an epically bad decision.

RB last season made no sense.

 

shut up dulac.

 

He's completely clueless, I get that.

He provokes by placing Brown's name into every discussion he possibly can. That's a troll. He likely could care less about the Steelers or AB. He's just here to amuse himself and stir sh!t just like Benny Lava and SDOT. Like them he is transparent, which means he and they suck at trolling. No cleverness or creativity. None of them have any words of encouragement, provide any analysis where they see hope or optimism. Constant negativity, criticism and despair all the while trying to convince there is zero hope for the future. To me, that's the only attitude that works as a Pittsburgh Pirates fan under current ownership. I know better than to feel that way about this organization and its owners. They always find a way.

 

He might have a point if the O hadn’t looked just as bad before Pickett was inserted, or if the D was anything more than mediocre.

This is a lost season with or without Pickett. Might as well give him some reps.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone

 

I don't buy this.....You either will be good eventually, or You won't. Outside of a horrible injury. This is just things people say defending players they thought would be good , and weren't.

 

I think Dulac has dog in the fight





Draft Tidbits From Gerry Dulac's Morning Chat

Link: https://www.post-gazette.com/sports...s-steelers-chat-04-27-22/stories/202204270113

• Doesn't think they will trade up
• Their preference at QB is Willis
• Thinks they will draft two defensive linemen in the first four picks
• Willis is the only QB they like in Round 1

 

Reaching for the guy who was a first-rounder in pretty much every mock draft. You really don't know what you are talking about.

Tomlin really hasn't been running Harris into the ground this season, but the loss of Warren could be a problem there.

 

I land somewhere in the middle. I do think some quarterbacks were shaken by early struggles in their careers and that held them back. Think of Sam Darnold seeing ghosts.

I just don't think that will happen with Pickett. He already went through it at Pitt, where he struggled early on and became an elite college quarterback.

 

Some of the comments above (including Dulac's) seem a bit flailing. Not that some players couldn't use some improvement/replacement, but IMV none are so bad that they're dragging the offense down, any more than anyone is carrying it on their shoulders. Pickett and Pickens have shown flashes but are rookies, Harris has been working through some injury and sophomore-slump issues, and Johnson is adjusting to an increase in middle-of-field routes with two QBs that have been diffident in throwing a lot of balls there.

But saying Johnson doesn't run good routes, or comparing him to Brown and Pickett to Ben with their connection, just seems a bit obtuse and misses the larger point. Brown was more gifted, had a HOF-level QB during some of his prime years, a better OC, and arguably a better overall unit that what the team has now. I don't see Johnson as the problem. Or Pickett, or Harris, or Pickens. None of those guys are even more bad than they are good right now, despite individual flaws.

If I had to pin a tail on a donkey it would be Canada. The players need to gel within a system and carve out some identities for themselves as players. Whatever their individual talent levels happen to be, it's the job of the OC to mold their scheme around the strengths of the players within it. Ours continues to appear janky, sometimes abandoning approaches that are working within a game and never returning.

To be fair, the chicken-or-egg argument could also pin Tomlin, since he's in charge of placing the OC to manage things in the first place, and was mostly responsible for clinging to skill positions over foundational until the very end with Ben. This did no favors to the post-Ben era.

 

The one about there being zero chance they take a quarterback other than Willis in the first round really stands out. I do believe he was right in saying there was only one quarterback they wanted in the first round. He just had the wrong guy, then he contradicted his own reporting to try to make himself look better. I would have more respect for what he is doing if he would at least acknowledge that he had it wrong before the draft, but I don't think he has done that. That's very poor work by Dulac, the kind of dishonest crap that makes journalists look bad.

 

I'm surprised at all the Jordan Davis talk. I didn't see much of anything linking him to the Steelers leading in, so they either played it close to vest or I missed it. Really liked him, though, and think he would have been a good fit in the middle of their D.

 

Give the kid a chance. Most of us suffered through much worst QBs between Bradshaw and Ben! Hopefully this crap season doesn’t break his confidence. Coaches suck, but that’s not the kids fault.