Brandon Aiyuk

I realize pre season means very little and is more of a practice tune up. However based on our HC and how bad this offense has been for years now watching them do nothing is discouraging nonetheless.

 

This team needs some work for sure.
I’m sure most fans have the same concerns as you do.
You’re completely over the top with your rhetoric though. That’s why you get so much pushback. It’s not that people are Homers or Tomlin Fanboys as much as they’re just sick of your nonstop complaining.
If it’s so bad do us a favor and disappear until things change.

 

No but you can put me on ignore anytime if you can’t handle the truth bud.

 

I’ll give it to you guys with the optimism I honestly wish I could see it. No clue how you muster it up watching this team.

 

It definitely is. I'm certainly not doing cartwheels over how we looked... It's just perspective though. I understand that it is easy to feel the way you do based on the performance, but we are still just as likely to light up the scoreboard week 1 as we were two weeks ago.

 

Tell me, In your opinion has the Steeler roster Improved over the past 3 years.

 

Thinking about your question....my initial answer is absolutely. But I did a bit of scouting the names and now feel that it is a bit of a mixed bag.

On this website (https://www.steelers.com/team/players-roster/), you can see all of the currently rostered players. You can sort it by the headers and if you sort by the exp column, you can see the year groupings for all rostered Steelers. We are still at 90 players and will need to drop almost half of them soon. We get 53 on the roster and 16 on the practice squad.

We have some very promising rookies. But right now, they are just very promising. We have had those players before and when the season rolls around, we start throwing our tantrums due to their bad play....lol

1 year guys. No names really jump out as movers and shakers.

2 year guys. A couple of guys that need some polishing but have some big talent. Porter is the big name here with a couple of other decent players behind him.

3 year guys. I see a few movers in here. Austin, Pickens, Warren. Maybe Heyward too.

4 year guys. Freiermuth and Harris are the big names here. Fields is also a 4 year guy, but I still can't figure out if he is the future, or Trubisky 2.0

5 year plus guys. 29 guys in this lot. Highsmith at 5, Minkah at 7, Johnston at 7, TJ at 8, Boswell at 10, Wilson at 13, Heyward at 14. Our punter and kicker have another decade of play if they want it....lol. Highsmith has a while to go. Minkah should have a while to go, but has already seen some injuries that took him out. Will TJ continue past his current contract? Wilson is going to be 1 year on the team. Heyward is almost certainly in his last year.

So, just how good is our roster if you are truly being unbiased and brutally honest with your hopeful feelings left at home? Who are we building the team around?

As a group, our WR core is mediocre at best. We need more than Pickens and he is lacking maturity (last season, seems improved this year so far).

Our RB group is fantastic now, but it looks like we are letting Najee go after this year. Can Warren be a 3 down back for the season? The two bring very different RB styles to the game I would love it if we were keeping both.

Our QB room......meh at best right now. I also have very little faith in the Steelers being able to develop a QB. We have not show that as a strength in 20 years. Either a QB is loaded with talent when they get here or we are in trouble.

Our O line has been abysmal in the previous few years. We have some potential talent beefing it up on paper right now, but our 2 preseason games did not give much cause for celebration. Is it the players or the coaching?

Our Defense as a whole has been pretty solid and I think that it will continue to be so. Just need to learn to block runs up the middle......lol

So, being brutally honest, I think that we are slowly building up some strength in some weak areas, but we lack that core strategy and QB that we are building the team around. Without that, we are flailing a bit. Wilson has shown nothing special so far. If he was not Russell Wilson with lots of name power and experience, he would be the backup to Fields based on how the 2 have played so far. Wilson is mid 30s and injured himself doing a hohum training event. I expect more injuries for him going into the season leading to Fields becoming the starter. I really hope that Wilson and Fields both get substantial game time in pre season game 3 with players that matter on the offense and on the defense against them, and that the better player gets the starting job without regard to name power.

I just know that failing to capitalize on red zones can't happen again this year if we hope to have any real success. Our schedule is far too tough to depend on 3 points at a time from Boswell and 65 yard punts from Johnston to keep us in contention. Our offense must get 3 TDs+ a game for us to be in the mix.

 

You realize, you are asking that of some one who started watching football in 2019, maybe.
Throw in the fact they are still learning all the new teachers names and still trying to make the book covers out of a paper bag..............
They'll wait til dad gets home to find out an answer for you.

 

This made me laugh, but I have to say it dates you (and me). I remember using paper bags from the grocery store!

Nowadays, all kids in our local school are issued computers. There are some textbooks, but no covers required.

 

Ward this is actually a great question. Has it?

 

Yes it has. Quality depth at many positions

 

Maybe at some. Certainly not others. The Steelers have two quarterbacks on the roster that may not be come 2025. This is the weakest reciever corps I can remember since the 80s. D-line is thin with two starters who are aging and injury prone. The Steelers are thin at corner, at least until Sutton is back.

When I first read your question my first thought was yes. After thinking about it I'm not so sure.

 

Not at QB or WR. OL has on paper but yet to see it play out on the field. Benton looks like a baller which will help the DL but I think Cam is done. LB we are loaded. Secondary I would say is slightly better as well. So a few areas yes a few areas no.

 

Funny post game update, says Brandon Aiyuk is changing his mind about playing with Russell Wilson and the Steelers because of how bad they looked.

I am assuming this is just YouTube Click bait, but it made me laugh. "Suck in Preseason"

 

What do you think everyone's value of him is? Most Steelers fans I know thought of him as a solid WR2 that didn't have size, speed, and intangible mix to be a true WR1. Players are traded all the time, for different reasons. Khalil Mack, Amari Cooper, Tyreek Hill, Joe Mixon, Christian McCaffery, Minkah, etc., all represent solid (or above) players whose teams had reason/potential benefit for moving on from given the return.

For the Steelers, I think they saw Pickens as having higher upside while, like Johnson, had maturity issues. They didn't see the two co-existing well, so they moved on from Johnson and acquired another corner. Johnson was also the more expensive of the two in the short term. His extension in 2022 was actually an $18.3M AAV, which two years later still places him 22nd amongst WRs. Fair comp for a WR1/2 tweener.

 

And he strikes out again. You are the Biggest nerd on this board and that’s saying something. Go back to putting on lipstick and staring at your MT posters.

 

Go pick your toys up and clean your room.
Lay out your Garanimals for school tomorrow.

Sweet sweet Waldo

 

Someone from homeland security should check on you. Strange strange bird.

 

Absolutely

QB - We are better off than we were playing Pickett. Wilson is going to be no worse than Ben was in his final year.... Rudolph had a couple of nice games, but its just as likely it was a flash in the pan than it was the new norm for him. We have two guys that are better than the options we had last year. Allen is no slouch either.
RB - I'd say we're a push. Conner was a good runner and we thought we were getting an upgrade in Harris. We did not. Warren has a lot of explosion and has performed well, but he hasn't been given the chance to shine on a bigger stage. We definitely have 2 guys though, and we didn't in 2021.
WR - Push here too? Pickens is better (and has a higher ceiling) than the Claypool/Washington/DJ group. Now we don't have anything proven behind him, but 3 years ago that group wasn't great. Our best group was Pickens/DJ but we had to move on. If we end up with Aiyuk we are much better.
OL - push at the moment, but should be better in time. We had a bad OL in 2021. Green, Turner, Dotson, Chuks, Moore... yuck. I think we will be a better unit by year's end, but only because we haven't seen Fautanu and Frazier in real action yet.
TE - Muth and Washington is better than Muth Gentry.
DL - We're better here as well. Heyward/Larry O/Benton is better than Heyward/Alualu/Wormley. We're deeper here than we were too.
ILB - Queen/Roberts is MUCH better than Bush/Shobert. Not even close. Wilson being a big wild card here too. This one is drastic
OLB - Watt/Highsmith is the same as it was in 2021. Highsmith is a better player than he was at that time. Ingram was there for a bit and was solid but Herbig looks to be a player. We have arguably the best tandem the league has to offer here.
CB - Haden/Sutton was decent but Porter/Jackson should be better. Sutton was a solid but unspectacular player and Haden was in decline. Porter has a legit shot to be a top 5 guy in the league. Trice and Rush have more upside than Witherspoon/Maulet did.... I like the new unit better.
S - Minkah/Elliott should be good. Is it better than Minkah/Edmunds? Terrell was a solid enough player, but I think Elliott can equal or surpass him.
ST - Our punter is much better now, Boz is Boz

To me, we feel like a very deep team. This is the first year in a while where I feel like we have quality players in the wings in nearly all places. We have two starting quality QB's, RB's, Anderson/Herbig/Moore is a good OL unit, Pruitt/Washington/Heyward at TE, Adams/Lowry at DL, Wilson at ILB, Herbig at OLB, Sutton and Trice at CB, Kazee at S.... We have a very well built roster. It will all depend on the OL coming together and the Offense getting better as the year goes on. The defense should be very good if healthy. Our fate lies in the hands of the offense.

 

If our fate lies in than hands of the offense

 

We won 10 games last year averaging 18 PPG. Kenny gave us 16 a game and we ended up in the playoffs somehow. It will be HARD to out-do that level of ineptitude.

 

QB and WR play are highly questionable and if we now have OL issues/injuries IDK man