STEELERS QB POLL AFTER 2 PRESEASON GAME

I hate to keep saying this, but who is his fan club??
I believe most people Ive read want a backup with experience, be it Mason, or another backup with experience, just not 2 Qbs that haven't ever taken a real NFL snap. Yet feelings for some instead of fact have somehow changed that into ......they must be Mason fans.
Hell I for one , and I said this more than a few times that I was hoping they brought in Cooper Rush, and let Mason go.

 

If You had been on this board longer You would see most of this is all coming from guys that swore Mason would be out of the the NFL 4 years ago. So the longer his still in the NFL, the more wrong they look. You should have been on here to hear the excuses they made when Mason came in , and won 3 straight games, and our Offense was finally putting up points.
LoL. Its the exact same guys that are saying this stuff now.
Which is crazy because I seriously don't know anyone that loves Mason, and wants him as a starter, we just want a experience backup, that has actually won games in the NFL, be that Mason, Dobbs, Cooper Rush, or whomever, but they can't see past the .....Mason sucks so bad he will be out of the NFL 4 years ago prediction they made. LoL.
Sad.

 

Not sure if it really matters who starts at qb
OL a mess
Even when starters have been in
Wrs
Did we really upgrade the wr room?
Secondary?
Much to early to tell
Probably have a good idea after the 3 regular season game
I am still going with 11-5

 

I think his fan base is in Cleveland and Baltimore.

 

Mason sucks so bad
That
The Steelers let him go
Than
One year later brought him back
Hmmm
No one mentions
Trubisky
Fields
Wilson
They all suck
And guess what?
They are no longer with the Steelers

 

Yeah way too early to tell anything yet

 

I think he's probably an above average backup.

A guy you can press into starting if you need to for small stretches.

And probably a good guy to keep the seat warm for a high predigree draft pick you expect to start mid-way through their rookie year.

Not quite as good as Fitz-Magic. But in the same ballpark.

Interestingly, Dobbs seemed to have turned out to be a somewhat similar guy.

My guess is that we wouldn't expect either of the young guys to end up having a career as good as Mason's. But we already know Mason isn't a long term starter. And the two young guys have at least some small chance of making it.

So I would personally prefer the big swing for the fences here.

But if I were making decisions for this team, Mason would start the season at QB1 and Howard and Allar would be fighting for QB2 (I think Allar looks better in what I've seen, but he's also playing worse competition). I wouldn't have brought Rodgers back.

But that strategy is really about trying to improve draft position next season (or hit it out of the park with Allar/Howard). And it's very clear that Rooney isn't on that train.

ETA: I probably had a soft-spot for Mason because his small sample size of good QB play put a dagger in the Kenny era.

 

I agree with a lot of this, but I always try look at it with a HCs perspective. No HC want to purposely put himself in that position. They just want to win as many games as they can every year. Its their jobs, their livelihood, their legacy, and the lives of everyone else who coachs under them. They can't look at it like fans.
Fans don't get fired, and have to move if they lose too many games.

 

I agree with you.

It's why I think we'll keep Mason.

There are teams that would make the choice I'd prefer. But the Steelers are about winning now.

And the honest truth is that this choice probably doesn't matter much. Because the chances that Howard gets picked up by someone else and then becomes and average to above-average starter are very small.

Given that I think we'll keep Mason, I'd cut Howard and try to get him to the PS. My guess is that will probably happen. I think the new rules about moving guys up/down on the PS without waivers will make it easier to stash a QB4 on the PS for the year (even though it's still kind of a wasted spot on the PS too).

 

When you reference "a HC that has been fired twice", it implies that he needs to worry about getting fired for his decisions. It was definitely an assumption made based off your words, but only because they specifically implied that.

I will agree that it his legacy he needs to worry about, but his legacy won't be defined by his selection of a back-up QB. He's going to remembered for two things in Pittsburgh... whether or not he wins postseason games, and whether or not he finds/develops the QB of our future. IMO keeping Mason helps us in neither regard, so that is why I think it is still possible that Mason gets traded/cut. It all comes down to whether or not McCarthy thinks that Howard potentially has a future as a starting QB in the NFL. If he does, then you keep Howard and cut Mason. If not, then you cut Howard and try to PS him. Simple as that.

 

I don't imply, I say.
And even if I was implying, nobody would imply a person would get fired for cutting a backup. LoL
Im saying.
A HC is not a fan. A HC actually can be fired because he loses games. Fans don't, believe me or there wouldn't be many fans left on this board.
Hell most would be gone just for the Watson deal. I can't tell You how many fans on here said we should do everything to get Watson. LoL.
Most HCs don't want to go into a season without a experience backup Qb, especially with your starter a 42 year old.
Its easy for a fan to say, hey don't worry about losing games, just take a chance. LoL

 

Kook Rodgers gonna go down. Rudolph gonna throw about 19 interceptions. This team has been horribly mismanaged for more than a decade and the prospects are bleak at this point.

 

The Steelers should've tried to acquire this WR with Wilson struggling.

 

I made this exact point, although not as eloquently. There were reasons he was still around in round 6. After that first preseason game there were multiple posters here saying we should dump Rudolph and keep Allar and Howard. Now? After a 2 interception performance against the Jets, which by the way was 2 more ints than they had all last year not so much. If he makes it through to the practice squad fine. But no one should be upset if someone grabs him. He can follow Kenny Pickett out the door

 

I took you two months to post something new and this is what you came up with.

 

I see today that McCarthy is hedging about all 4 QB's making the roster. According to Judy Bautista on the NFL Network, McCarthy is now saying that he is not sure and will have to wait and see how things go this week.

 

It just seemed like it, that's all. That's why people assumed that is what you meant.

I agree that most HC's would, but I am making the argument that McCarthy shouldn't worry about an experienced back up. Ownership explicitly told the media that a huge reason for his hiring was to develop our next starting QB of the future, whoever that may be. Hell, McCarthy might think Howard sucks and all this talk is moot... but my argument is that he is closer to achieving his purpose as Steelers HC if he keeps the young guys, so long as the young guys convince him that they have potential to maybe be a starter in the league.

I'm not saying to "lose games", or take a chance... I'm saying IF McCarthy thinks Howard can be a starting caliber player (or really even a quality back up) with a bit more development to stick with him over Mason. We're going to lose most of our games with Mason starting anyways. It makes little difference if we lose Rodgers for more than a game or two on the season... we're screwed. I won't advocate to keep Howard if McCarthy thinks he can't be a guy. Mason is a small loss in the grand scheme of things. He's a UFA in the offseason and there isn't a team in the league that would give him a multi year deal aside from us. If we want him back, we can just sign him back a year later. He will be one of the cheapest backups in the league.

People are making too much of this whole thing. Its an easy answer. If MM thinks Howard has any potential at all, then cut/trade Mason. If not, send Howard to the PS. I think the roster gymnastics needed to carry a 4th QB is just dumb.

 

The league doesn't think he's an above average back up... After he had his little run with us, he was a FA and got a one year deal in the open market worth $2.87 mil. That would make him the 49th highest paid QB (sitting at roughly 17th best back up)... so average back up by money standards. After a little bit of time, its hard to say that he is considered a better prospect to the open market when he's a UFA after the season than he would be after that UFA season. That was literally his highest value in his career and that is what he got paid... middling back up.

Fitz started for many teams as their first choice as starter. He was never the long term answer, but he was a serious starting QB. Mason isn't really in his realm. He's a lot closer to a Chase Daniel. A guy that didn't get a lot of run because he was never good enough to be a team's choice for starter, but respected enough in the league that he belongs. Mason is slightly ahead of Dobbs, though its fairly close.

Most QB's don't have as good of a career as Mason has. He's 31 years old and still employed in the NFL. Not a small feat. I agree with you that we should swing for the fences. We have to let these kids have this year to develop under McCarthy and see what we have. We HAVE to go into next season's QB class knowing that we believe in one or both of Howard/Allar moving forward. If we don't, then we have to eye the QB's again. Mason MIGHT be a slightly better option in a one game scenario, but even last year he had his one game shot and threw for 171 yards and turned it over twice. We got a defensive TD in that game and should've won. He didn't play well enough. It's not like Mason is a guaranteed (or even relatively high chance) for a win in a one game scenario. He's just not @$$. Is "not @$$" good enough? Idk.

The only way we should've been okay going with Mason is if we were okay winning 5 games. Our absolute ceiling in the wins department with him would be 6 and quite frankly, he wouldn't last the whole season as we'd be mathematically eliminated and one of the young guys would start the rest of the way. Then we'd know whether either of them were worth investing in, or if not, then taking a swing on a QB in the top 10. You're absolutely right. This was only if we were willing to have a "throw away" season and Rooney wasn't about it.

Kenny F*cking Pickett lol yuck

 

What else is he going to say? He has to keep value on Mason in case he wants to try to trade him, but also wants to keep the confidence of his young guys high. This accomplishes that. He can do whatever he wants in the end. Conventional logic is telling me to bet on the kids (so long as Howard looks halfway decent in the last PS game).

 

Eh, Boutte is meh. Wilson has been maddening, but its better to let him and Bernard push each other. There will be other WR options available if he crashes and burns.