My thoughts on the Steelers off-season (so far)

183 times

 

I do Blame Pickett. The Steelers invested a High pick on him, 1st rd., to Become their Next Franchise QB. In two years he has struggled. Some may very well be due to Canada. Still, he isn’t ready to be The Man and needs more work. The Steelers were willing to be patient with him BUT not willing to put the Team on hold.

Iron Sharpens Iron!!!! The team has a New OC, a New QB Coach and Brought in a OLD Vet who has had two teams give up on him. He would’ve been a good Mentor to Pickett and the competition should’ve lit a fire in him. Instead he turned around and ran, quit, stopped his workouts with his teammates and wanted out.

Being a Locked in backup to a near MVP Franchise QB who is only 2 months older than him is NOT an ideal restart to his career. But that is something he’s happy about so good bye!!!

This teams needs players NOT Afraid of competition and Willing to Grow, Learn, and if they Earn Gameday snaps make the most of them.

Go Steelers

Cajun

 

GEEZZZZ!!!
KFP is not on the team anymore, Rudolph is not on the team anymore....so f**k them, and move on. Want to talk about something....bring up the turnovers RB masquerading as a Qb.....Justin(I leave the ball all over the) Fields. ....
LoL....
Justin (I shouldn't be the Qb on the) Fields.
LoL....I make Myself laugh, and that's enough for Me.

 

You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but you have seen evidence that the Steelers lied. You may not find it to be enough evidence, but saying one thing and taking actions that do not fit that statement is evidence of a lie.

The assumption that they only meant that they had enough faith in Pickett to keep him is dubious at best. At the bare minimum, they were trying to prop up his value if they tried to trade him and boost his confidence if they couldn't get competition or a replacement for a price they were comfortable paying. I don't have a huge problem with them lying in those circumstances. Every team does it. It would be stupid not to play the game, but it is still lying.

You can pat yourself on the back and drop mics all you want, but if you truly believe in a quarterback, as they said they did, you don't trade him. Quarterbacks are too valuable for that. Only morons would do that and Khan and Tomlin aren't morons. You are right about one thing. There wasn't much time between the acquisition of Wilson and the trade of Pickett. That tells me they didn't bother to put in the work to convince him to stay and be patient, which is what an intelligent coach and GM should do if they still have faith in a quarterback. Remember, he didn't ask for the trade publicly. Nobody knew about that until after the trade was made when the Steelers leaked it. Of course, they did. It helped them, not Pickett. The only reason they ahd to rush to trade Pickett was wanting to get his replacement before that option went away. That tells me they knew they were close to getting Fields, too.

All we know for a fact is that Rooney, Tomlin, and Khan all expressed their faith in Pickett and Tomlin said this was going to be a big year for him. They said there would be competition, then brought in someone to start ahead of him. They then traded Pickett and traded for Fields, with Pickett asking for a trade leaking after he was dealt. Those facts better fit my claim that they lied.

 

There is no evidence he was afraid of competition. Kuntz, a former teammate with the Steelers, said that was ludicrous nonsense. It would be great if you and others stopped making things up in this conversation.

 

We can talk about both. The Pickett situation will still affect the team. They blew it on a first-round pick. No matter what you believe, his exit did not reflect well on the team. Either they made yet another poor character choice or they lied to the fans and the player, then caved to another player wanting out. That isn't good because players keep wanting out and it isn't good because every time they do, they get minimal or no value. I'm referring to releasing Blount and Harrison and trading Brown. Of course, there as more evidence of all of those guys being toxic, which really doesn't exist in Pickett's case.

I agree with you regarding Fields. I don't hate him as a cheap backup and he is a dynamic runner, but he's not a good quarterback. Worst of all, he has a habit of failing with the game on the line, which had been a strength when Pickett was the quarterback. He certainly doesn't fit Tomlin's style, which calls for taking care of the ball, playing defense, and winning games in the fourth quarter.

 

You're the kinda guy who, in the middle of the night, your wife wakes you with the house being full of smoke, she says the house is on fire!!!! Your Response would be “ There’s no Evidence for that “. !!!

Also you’ve said maybe six times that Tomlin said this would be a big year for Kenny!!! Duh!!! It was, time to step up and be the QB who he was hoped to be when he was drafted in the first rd… DOES NOT MEAN He is the STARTER!!!!

Nuff Said…… go live in your fears and conspiracy theories and be Kenny’s biggest fan……. Fly eagles fly……


Go STEELERS !!!

Cajun

 

Im not sure what your narrative is that the Steelers lied to Kenny. He was essentially the only QB that had a contract after the season. He was their first round pick, which im assuming they wanted to work out. However, he hadn't played up to a quality QB after 23 games, and that was very evident once Rudolph (3rd string QB) got in and per Rooney's opinion "showed what quality QB play could do for the team". Im sure they wanted to find quality competition for him in this upcoming year, whether that be Mason Rudolph or another vet QB, or even trading for Fields if the compensation was right. Once Wilson was released, and he was going to play for 1.2mil for 1 year (he threw 26 touchdowns and 8 interceptions and was pulled the last two games last season), it was a no brainer for the Steelers to pivot and stop pursuing Mason Rudolph who was going to want more than 1.2 mil and sign Wilson. Clearly, they brought in competition, but now it was Russell Wilson with stats 3x better than Kenny's last year. This is a business, things occurred where the Steelers could make their QB room significantly better with the Wilson addition, and it was only a 1 year contract. Tomlin told Kenny that Wilson will take first team snaps and that there will still be a competition..if that butthurt Kenny and he was requesting a trade after that...then good riddance. It actually could have worked well for Kenny to learn from and compete with Wilson because the fanbase was luke warm on Kenny after watching how well Rudolph played, not to mention his own receiving core. Honestly, i think Kenny wanted out aswell once he heard (TJ Watt, Heyward, and Minka) were all recruiting Wilson so it doesn't bode well when you lose the locker room and the star players wanting to replace you, along with your receivers saying they want Rudolph back and to start next year.

 

See

That is simple enough without conspiracy theories being inserted

 

That franchise word is overused

You don’t trade away a QB you think can play unless you have the option to acquire a QB who you think has a better chance to play

Or two of them

With better attitudes

 

It is tough to have a big year from the bench. Why don't you know that?

I have never been that much of a fan of his. I just have a very low tolerance for unsubstantiated nonsense while you resorted to attacking me because you can't support your argument.

 

LOL You just had to go for the made-up part at the end.

 

The Pickette deal is over with, I was done when I found out the Steelers managed that about as poorly as I've ever seen done.
It is not up to me to write about it, that is the beat reporters' choice. Of course they spin it to what ever gets clicks. So be it.
My trust in them has gone from 100% to around 25%.. it's just the way it is.
I get the value game, it' the same as playing poker. You try to inflate your hand and bluff. They did a very poor job.
That said, there's no way you can do the right thing 100% of the time.
I do admire Omar and the front office willingness to make wholesale changes.

Moving on.
Glaring needs: OT, Center, WR, CB.
I can understand the ploy to wait out some Free Agent WR's who think their values are actually higher than they are. I certainly applaud not just going full steam ahead and damn the torpedoes. I would throw a yellow flag on the play as we really need to find a capable vet WR and not put all our eggs in a rookie(s) basket.

I feel same with Center. The two that are on our roster a probably 31 other teams camp fodder. That may be a bit of an exagerration but not far off. I do think they can pick up a center in the draft. My angle is 'we really need 2 Centers' in that the depth needs and upgrade as well. This position really needs to be solved.

OT, I could easily see getting a top-notch OT in this draft @ #20. This position doesn't really cause me much anxiety, and they could even find a solid OT in the 2nd.

CB is something they can do well in though they don't have a great history - maybe Omar shines here.

It appears we are in a holding pattern which is also part of the game. That's the part of the offseason I hate.

 

I don't disagree, I took a little higher altitude view of it.
Center - Conner Williams is still out there, though I think he is over-valuing himself. There's a couple more that should be upgrades over what we have. So I would think you could come up with upgraded dept and a rookie.

OT - I apparently have less trust in Moore. I see him as depth.

I agree with LB and DL. I just set them to a lower degree...

 

I think we have seen just how important a good C is to an OL. You can have two great OTs and if you have a bad C, you're line will be lucky to be average with defenses blowing up a lot of plays before they get started.

I am hoping they grab what looks to be a generational center in Powers-Johnson. A mauler that is also nimble. If they find his technique is solid, he's got to be first round pick (IF availalble). I'd love to see an RT and move Jones to LT and finally, mercifully relegated Dan Moore to backup until contract is up.

I know we need a WR and DB too, but for a run-heavy team, I think we could live with a project, strong run blocking WR in round 4-6, maybe a bit slow, but solid route runner and willing blocker. DB, lets hope we can sign a remaining FA to a one year deal and use those top picks on a C/RT(or LT) and if those don't fall right, then look at DB/DL or just BPA (if a diamond falls at a position we already have solid starters).

 

Two seasons is a lifetime for judging a starting, NFL level QB. Name me more than two or three above-average NFL QBs that took 3+ seasons to "develope" over the past 30 years? Good luck.

Pickett was overdrafted in a QB poor draft based on NEED and it set back our team by NOT getting BPA and taking a flyer on a different (just as mediocre) QB prospect in round 3 or 4.

It was nearly unanamous that QB class that year had NO QB worthy of a first round pick, yet we reached for a QB with very limited upside and low floor. He is exactly what he was projected to be. Not an NFL caliber starting QB. Perhaps a decent journeyman backup with the right coach, system, but hardly a QB to erase a head coaches' doubts or worries.

I do agree/believe that Canada did Pickett no favors and would have hampered any QB prospect. So I am not totally blaming Pickett or Colbert (for the dumb drafting of Pickett). With a top OC, he might be...mediocre game manager.

 

https://steelersdepot.com/2024/03/c...emains-non-committal-on-timetable-for-return/

hope all goes well for holcomb.

 

He was already a mediocre game manager. I swear, the revisionist history around here just gets more and more amusing.

 

We get it, you have a MASSIVE man crush on Pickett.

This is the NFL, we want to win games.

The Steelers do not exist to make Kenny Pickett feel warm n fuzzy and guarantee him the starting QB gig no matter how awful he is.

All the things you noted, one thing you don't really give light to, they told Kenny they'd bring in competition and Kenny was apparently offended/disappointed (lots of hearsay even in your supposed facts, so many grains of salt here). The last thing we need is someone who THINKS they should have the spot until they don't, evne though they've done NOTHING (except in useless pre-season games) to show they've earned it. This spoke DIRECTLY to his unwilligness to compete, yet you say "no evidence"? What?

Pickett never once gave me or most Steelers followers the feeling of starting QB caliber potential. He's got a few tools, but whatever is between his ears is failing him. Let some other team deal with that.