Entire Rookie Class Made the 53

Hey, you can't get better if your not out there. Steelers see something in him, as do I. Play him early and often. The sooner he gets on the field the better.

 

Who knows lol I wasn't saying that our draft class is sick or anything... heck, we likely won't see many of them start this year. I was just pointing out that we didn't just keep them to keep them. We cut/traded other solid players or high capital to keep the guys we have.

It will boil down to how Day 1 and Day 2 go. Iheanachor, Bernard, Dunker, Allar, and Everette... If we can get quality starters from that bunch, then it becomes a nice draft for us. Day 3 has a lot of role players. Wetjen the return specialist, Nowakowski the FB, Heidenreich the STer and depth every down RB, Rubio the run stuffer. Honestly, Spears-Jennings looks like a guy that could develop into a player that gets onto the field in base sets. I'd imagine the rest are role players or depth pieces for most of their career, but that has value.

 

Telling what the state of our DL was when a rookie 6th rounder and UDFA make the 53. Nobody ever hear of either one before the draft.

 

Those guys beat out actual NFL players in Otomewo and Lowry. Otomewo played in 21 games in 3 years and Lowry was a 9 year vet with 132 games played and 85 starts. They played well.

In a cap league, you only have so many roster spots that you can afford to pay vets to be backups. They come at a higher premium and you have to rely on your draft classes for depth in a lot of ways. Teams that draft poorly have to sign well and worry about a tight gap. Teams that draft well get to build their roster as they see fit and have replacements for talent that leaves via FA.

 

Hell, they might need him to start. Khan dropped the ball badly on that position. He had many opportunities, including an outstanding plug-and-play free safety they could have and should have taken in the first round.

 

This

 

I’m excited for Rubio, he looked awesome this preseason.

 

What I liked about Rubio is several times I saw him hustling down field and getting in on the tackle.

 

I like Spears-Jennings, but he is more of what the team already had, and he went that late for a reason. The option was there for the taking, and they flubbed it again.

 

Plus UDFA Jobity, that's over 20%.

 

I had most of the cuts and make its right, of course I missed on Mason and Roman.. People are sleeping on Eli he has good value and can run that scat RB stuff .. We kept all of the guys who can play RB and WR ..Eli was injured in camp and still did good with his chances..MM has packages for Bernard, Wetjen and Eli as all of them cause problems for a DC..

Eli would have been poached IMO as his knock was the system he played in not his ability or Football IQ .. Plus when you have players that want to play ST'S or whatever is asked of them are great players to have on the Team..

 

Aaron Rodgers says hold my beer.

 

We still can't get the most important position stable.

 

Just keep getting retreads and guys well passed their prime. Add in missing horribly on a first rd qb and here we are. Tomlin’s mentality seemingly wouldn’t allow us to go 5-12 or something of that nature to get a much needed franchise QB. Maybe it blows up this year on the new staff. Rooney wants to contend every season unfortunately we haven’t won a playoff game in a decade and have no QB.

 

While Kahn is still GM you have to add Weidl and Tomlin's influence on those picks as well. With the Steelers it's always hard to sort who's picks they really are. I am guessing MT had the strongest voice in the room on draft day.

Case in point, fast forward to MM and look at this year's draft and the influence of the HC; 7 offensive picks, 3 defensive. That hasn't happened in over two decades.

 

- Max Iheanachor - Germie Bernard - Drew Allar - Daylen Everette - Gennings Dunker - Kaden Wetjen - Riley Nowakowski - Gabe Rubio - Robert Spears-Jennings - Eli Heidenreich.




Defense

Daylen Everette is the one most likely to see defensive snaps first among the rookies. He’s a physical 6-1 corner with starting experience at Georgia, and the Steelers like his length and competitiveness. The CB room is crowded (Ramsey, Porter Jr., Dean, Samuel Jr.), so his early work will probably come on special teams and as the sixth corner, but he has a clearer path than a typical third-rounder in this group.

Gabe Rubio was a big camp surprise. After a limited senior year at Notre Dame, he showed up as a high-motor interior guy who could shed blockers and make plays in the backfield. Keeping him over veteran DTs was a youth-over-experience decision.

Robert Spears-Jennings has the most immediate opportunity. DeShon Elliott is on IR (designated to return), so the seventh-round safety is the third safety behind Brisker and Jenkins. Reports from OTAs through the preseason consistently praised his athleticism, work ethic, and special-teams value. He could be active Week 1. Spears played very well during the pre-season. I would play him over Jenkins on running downs.

Special teams

Kaden Wetjen did exactly what he was drafted to do. The 45-yard punt-return touchdown in the preseason finale against Buffalo was the highlight that locked his roster spot. That’s his primary job right now. Field position and the occasional explosive play with some slot/receiver development on the side.

Offense

Max Iheanachor and Drew Allar are the long-term projects. Iheanachor has the size, length, and movement skills the Steelers wanted in a first-round tackle, but his hand placement and consistency still need work. Allar has all the physical tools (size, arm talent), and our staff has been rebuilding his footwork and mechanics from the ground up. He showed some stuff and made a few impressive throws during the pre-season.

Gennings Dunker is powerful, has good functional strength and our best among the guards as a run blocker.

It is tough to get a read on Bernard. He can play, but looks to be the 4th receiver this year. Nowakowski showed enough to make them team, and Heidenrich made the team as a 3rd back.

The new staff is better at developing players. So improvement will be a bit more noticeable under them.

10 or 10 draft picks made the team. And we unloaded and got value ( Jones and Johnson ) who didn't!

 

I don't think it's a great draft class. I think they are installing people they pick and believed in.
It is again a draft of blue collar guys, which is not a bad thing.
But they have to hit on a elite, game impacting player now and then in the draft before we start with all-time draft classes, like a couple of those Noll drafts.

I do think the trades were good.
I also think the releases were good also.. the bar has to be set higher.

I do think there are some upgrades available via released players.
Jonah Williams is still young enough but old enough to pick up on a 2-year deal, maybe even 1, if you want a player that can replace Cook and maybe even afford some learning time for Max (He needs to earn it)
There's a number of WR's out there that have proven production over Roman Wilson, whom I despise holding a roster spot.

Just an initial thought or two.

 

I think the draft class is at least solid with a chance to be great. That chance swings on how Allar turns out. If he becomes a top-16 starting quarterback in three years, we’ll be in an ideal cap situation with a QB on his cheap rookie deal. That means we can actually sign impact free agents.

The thing about this class is how much it helped our depth and special teams. We scored in that department.Usually a good draft class produces two 4+ year starters and 1-2 quality role players. But it takes about three years to properly judge a class. That’s why with rookies I look at what they can do and their ceiling. They’re all going to make their share of mistakes and need time to adjust to the speed of the NFL.

 

That's great that the whole draft class has made the 53.

That said I feel they will not all be on the 53 the whole season. They need to look at the cuts for tackle help, and another safety wouldn't hurt either with Elliot going on IR as well as tackle Driscoll.

I like that Eli made it as well as Spears-Jennings and Rubio.

 

I think I heard today that we've never cut a draft pick since Omar has been the GM. Though some were moved to IR before the season.

Didn't check myself to see if it was true though.

 

Probably also worth remembering that this first roster will almost certainly change before week 1.

I think part of the strategy here is that you wait until teams are set with their rosters before demoting some of the rookies to the PS. It's harder to poach a guy from the PS when it's right before the first game and they have to put him on the 53 to take him.

I think the rules for waivers (rookies are subject to waivers vets aren't) and how guys can get called up from the PS gives some kind of advantage to teams that keep the rookies on the roster and bounce vets up and down from the PS.

So this is probably Omar squeezing as much out of the rule book as he can.

 

What concerns me this season is what plans does Mike McCarthy have..

The Offensive Line did not perform well in the preseason. Admittingly, it was mostly experiments and getting looks at players in different positions.
Most everybody is writing Rogers off, and I also think he is limited and that his strength is mentoring.
But I don't want to waste time on Mason as he's not suddenly going to become Tom Brady.

The run game has to click and click well because if we allow defenses to just T-up on Rogers, he won't be effective and most likely will be on IR.

I think out of our draft class, Max has the most potential to be a star player.
But it would not be a bad idea to bring in like Jonah Williams who could play a year and allow Max some time while providing some improved depth.
It's up to them of course. It's just when I see a need I don't like to half-step it.

Allar is my wild card. His arm is very good, I am hoping his head is too.
We've allocated 4 QB's to the roster, a lot of teams go with 2. If Rogers goes down, obviously he's going with Mason but Mason is Mason.. that needs to be a very short chord.
I also feel like if we get into a game where the outcome is determined, Allar/Howard should get a chance to take some reps.

It goes without saying, Max and Allar are my favorites from the draft.
Bernard is 3rd on my list.

 

This should work out well in the locker room and on the field with a 42 year old QB. Aaron is of course famously patient and tolerant of players who make mistakes on the field On the plus side, I don't ever think I've seen an on-the-field fight between teammates outside of practice so that would be quite entertaining to see during an actual game.

 

To frame that into perspective, If I have a WR that is running sloppy routes (Read "Roman Wilson") I figure most any QB is going to have an issue with them. I know Mahomes will, for example... Brady was very demanding... etc....
I never seen Rogers push it to that level but my Spidey Senses tell me this just a dig at Rogers, which at this point is fair to some degree.
527 DB's are probably wishing he'd go away too.

 

Let's hope Allar can be the answer then. Still way too early to say anything definitive yet. Gonna have to wait and see.