The Steelers and tight end Darnell Washington have reached agreement on a four-year, $42M extension

Does anyone thing Darnold would have picked coming to the Steelers and our woeful offense when his other option was the Seahawks (and potentially other options too)?

How much more would we have had to pay him to come here?

 

And now they signed another TE Robert Tonyan as reported in another post

https://steelersdepot.com/2026/06/report-steelers-signing-te-robert-tonyan/

 

I hope they find a lot of creative ways to use him. He's a mountain of a man. But he looks so awkward after making a catch and then bending over. Hoping he comes up with a better technique to protect himself if he's going to catch passes. He's not all THAT much bigger than Gronk, who didn't have this tendency after the catch.

 

My guess is that this is a minimum contract so it doesn't affect the cap if he makes the team (just "displaces" another minimum level contract at the bottom of the roster).

I think this is the kind of guy we probably want at TE3. Won't plan on offense unless there's an injury (had 1 target last year apparently). Has familiarity with Rodgers.

The downside (and the reason he might not make the team IMO) is that he's 32. But he has consistently played ST. 108 snaps last year. And 203 in 2023.

 

The ST snaps jumps out at me

You have to do two jobs at his level on the depth chart

 

Your math doesn't accurately reflect the potential commitments in 2025, when they were dealing with the Watt situation. If you want to be accurate, you need to compare the commitments they made at the time, not using the hindsight of what they did in 2026.

Assuming the numbers you presented are accurate it would look like this.

Commitment made to Darnold in 2025: $55 million in guarantees in his three-year, $100.5 million contract
Commitment made to Rodgers in 2025: $14.15 million.

Making up the difference between a $55 million and $14.15 million is a bit different, isn't it? They weren't committed to anything with Rodgers for 2026.

Also, you are misrepresenting what I said they should have done differently 2025. It wasn't just Darnold instead of Rodgers. It was keeping Pickens. It was signing a competent veteran safety rather grabbing Thornhill off the scrap heap and watching him fail so badly they cut him during the season. It was signing a veteran edge rusher to supplement Highsmith and Herbig. Honestly, I don't remember it all. This was months ago.

This idea that spending all that money on Watt didn't affect and limit their other choices is truly laughable no matter how many rhetorical and mathematical pretzels you twist yourself into. That doesn't even factor in the draft picks and/or players they could have gotten in trade before that ridiculous contract and his mediocre 2025 largely killed his trade value. No wonder you have to rely on misrepresenting my argument to try to support it.

 

They could have given him more if they hadn't chosen to overpay Watt. Also, they could have kept Pickens and given him two big-play receivers.

 

These new deals won't kick in until 2027.

 

That's what Scribe is forgetting Darnold said he wanted to play for Kubiak.

 

You just like to argue, no way Khan was going to give Darnold a big contract like that after just one good year

 

He needs to learn to stiff arm better instead of going low to run over defenders.

 

Darnold said that after he got there. Give him more money and Pickens and Metcalf to throw to and you would be amazed at how quickly he could have ended up saying how much he wanted to play for Arthur Smith.

 

I like to argue when I'm right, as I am here.

I'm not saying what I think Khan would do. I'm saying what he should have done.

What y'all are forgetting is that Darnold is just one example of a way the Steelers could have spent their money better than making a declining player the highest-paid defender in the NFL. (I know he isn't that any more, but he was when the contract was signed.)

 

Dude.....You way beat me. I was just going to write this.

 

Duh

 

It isn't as if Tomlin never saw the value in acquiring a quality free safety. He showed that when they traded for Fitzpatrick.

 

Selective memory

 

No, critical thinking. Players spout this sort of nonsense all the time. What they want is the best situation for themselves, usually the one that offers the most money. Then they get there and talk about other stuff because they never want to admit they just took the most money.

 

Except you aren't right maybe deal in reality instead of this is what they should've done for crap that was never going to happen .

 

Khan wanting to play the comp game factored in them going cheap at some positions last year.

 

They are things the Steelers could have done what I'm saying they should have done, so I am dealing with reality. I'm sorry you are struggling with me saying they made mistakes.

 

Some people live in their own little bubble of their own reality

It is best not to burst the bubble

 

The biggest outside free agent contract Khan has given out is for Queen, like I said he wasn't about to sign Darnold for 100 million after just one good season . They were never going to keep both Pickens and Metcalf, some beat writers said things was even worse behind the scenes than being reported with Pickens.

 

My suggestion would have gotten them draft picks for Watt.

Just because the Steelers wanted to do something doesn't mean it was the right thing to do.