QB2 Battle

Guess you didn't watch the video I put up. That's OK.
If You did You would know he was 5th in the league in tds thrown over 20 yards. Tops in throwing the Deep ball 2 the left hand side of the field, and tops in the league in throwing the deep ball 2 the middle of the field. Though he was almost very bottom at throwing the deep ball 2 the right hand side of the field.

 

Well since one has played every game against 1s, and 2s, and the others against 3s ,and 4s ..
It's really hard 2 tell. IMO.
I have watched 3 preseason games now, and I've seen players on every team do something against the 3s, and 4s, and We know 88% of them will be selling cars in a month.
So We have 2 see Haskins against, and with the 1s, and 2s. So We can get a better feel .
Dobbs History of not ever beating anyone out on any team , and last night.....1s,2s,3s, or 10s ...You don't throw that pass or the passes in the dirt he was throwing.

 

I see Haskins was the Steeler Digest player of the week. The Steelers scored on 4 of his 5 series and were an amazing 9 for 11 on 3rd down during his time in the game.

 

Also all the Dobbs fans need 2 just stop. LoL.

 

Let it play out. Looonnngggg way to go. For ALL of these guys. I have no dog in this hunt, so if any of them becomes "Charlie Batch" dependable as a backup, that's great for this team, which is all I care about. Whoever it turns out to be.

But there is one guy I am concerned with now. I now see why those reports about Trai Turner not looking good came out a couple of weeks ago. I sure hope he can learn from his bad plays and get better very quickly. I'd hate to see this signing turn into a waste. But right now he's struggling.

 

His play improved greatly when he stopped passing and just handed the ball off and got out of the way.

 

Haskins seems to really be improving. He got away with a few throws. He made a bad choice on one that should of easily been picked by the middle linebacker of the Eagles, but he dropped it.

But, the biggest difference between Haskins and Rudolph is putting up points. Haskins is putting the points up, and Mason Rudolph hasn't.

A lot of QB's can move the team down the field, what you going to do when you get on the other team's side of the field.

Seems to be Mason's biggest struggle, turning drives into points.

Last night hard to blame him, two really bad holdings by the Steelers, by Muth and Turner. Killed two good 1st down's by Harris. When you go 1st and 20, 2nd and 20, hard to convert 1st downs.

But, still I think Mason is #2 guy, and that won't change. But, it's in the Steelers best interest that both Rudolph and Haskins both play well.

With the pretty novice O-Line and a 39 year old Ben, it wouldn't be shocking to see him go down in action at some point for half a game or he could even miss a few games.

 

I though Rudolph and Haskins were both fine. I didn't see anything special from either of them. Either or both will be fine backups and we will go back to not thinking about them as soon as the regular season starts.

 

1. I think Haskins is outperforming Rudolph right now.

2. I based my answer of the criteria you set. I believe a good coach can evaluate a players talent regardless of who they’re playing against. I mean coaches evaluate college players for the draft and these prospects aren’t alway competing against top level players. The majority of the guys they’re playing against don’t even make it to the NFL.

Preseason games, camp, practice are all good tools to evaluate players. Playing with and against only first stringers isn’t the only way to determine if a guy is good enough.

 

There's more to a QB driving an offense than just being able to go through your progressions and making accurate throws. Haskins has more command than Rudolph. He has more of a gunslinger mentality. That will, and has, gotten him into trouble. But it also creates opportunities that wouldn't be there if he was tentative. Rudolph is tentative.

Haskins was low on too many throws against the Eagles. I wasn't thrilled about that. But I feel like that is more correctable than Mason's inconsistancy and innacuracy that has plagued him since he arrived in Pittsburgh. Maybe they do see something in Mason to keep him on the roster that we don't, but maybe they just don't see a better available replacement after what they've invested in him.

Haskins has a much higher ceiling, but a lower floor. But he's a better fit for this offense and gives some mobility that the others not named Dobbs don't have. I know he's not a running QB, and he's not fast. But he's mobile. He's more than physically capable of picking up yards with his legs if the pocket breaks down or running a keeper once in a while to keep defenses honest.

He is a better all around QB than Mason, and he's a better fit for this offense. He needs to be given the chance to prove that by starting the last preseason game, but should have started against the Eagles. Not giving him that opportunity was ridiculous.

 

At this point it really would not surprise me if it's Ben, Haskins, and Dobbs.

Only because Mason is at like $2.5 mill and Haskins is at $875,000.

That being said... the cap saving is only about $400,000 by cutting Mason.

Mason and Haskin combo cap hit about 3.2 mill

Mason and Dobbs combo cap hit about 3.2 mill

Haskins and Dobbs combo cap hit 1.8... but about 2 mill in dead cap for Mason

Tomlin has said in the past.. if a younger cheaper guy is looking like the more expensive old guy.. he will go with the younger cheaper guy.

HACK

 

I like those points.

I know Haskins hasn't had 1st stringers around him to base his performance on, and that's a valid point. But no matter who's on the field, the QB still has to command the offense and put points on the board. He did that. Now we just need him to be able to do that consistently and, more importantly, when the games matter. Because the chances of our QB2 being called on this season are high.

 

If its 1st stringer, 2nd stringers, 3rd stringers, 4th stringers

It's still the NFL, this is the best of the best.

This isn't Single A High School Football, where there is a dramatic difference between a 1st string and a team's 3rd strings.

I'd even argue the point that in NFL pre-season the 3rd and 4th stringers play a hell of a lot harder than the 1st stringers who don't want to play get hurt in the 1st place.

But, I think Tomlin is a good guy for Haskins, I think he meshes better with him than Jay Gruden or Ron Rivera did, of course Haskins is ruining his chances with his past play and antics, so maybe he's maturing a little more. He also in a spot where he doesn't have to be the guy, in Washington he was expected to be the guy.

 

Ike Taylor on Mike Tomlin

"He is a players coach, but he will take your football IQ from zero to Jesus"

HACK

 

I don't think QB is a problem for the Steelers. Roethlisberger, Rudolph and Haskins are more than adequate.... with Steelers being able to sign Dobbs off the couch if things go south injury-wise. I'm more worried about OL and CB.

Actually... it really doesn't matter who the QB is. This is a 5-7 win team in 2021.... because of the young OL and severe lack of depth at CB.

 

So Ike was saying that he showed up as a professional football player with a zero football IQ. If football IQ = hands, Ike wasn't lying.

 

i missed the link to the video you are talking about. do you still have it?

 

Dang. It still works in the original post I made . Page 2 of this board....called More on Ben.

 

it's not working.

 

Go 2 My original post. It's on page 2 of this Steelers Talk called...More On Ben

 

It's karma for you getting grumpy.

 

mine explains that deeper.

 

Did You watch the chart breakdown???
That's a newer YT(at least 2 me) channel I've been checking out lately.

 

yes but mine breaks down the overall which doesn't bode well and backs up that he was not efficient with the deep ball. too many 50-50 balls thrown that didn't hit. i'd also like to see a breakdown of which games they happened in.