Biggest ?’s heading into Camp

I agree but it could change if Austin is a different player and Wilson is a good rookie...I hope it will be the case or it could be ugly at time if they are behind in the scoreboard....

 

Wilson hasn't used the MOF in years and this is exactly where Smith's offense is focused. Harris is not a good fit for Smith's scheme either. So that's two big strikes that could spell trouble for this offense. Then throw in two rookie OL and you have a recipe for sluggish and maybe downright sad offense that will once again need heroic efforts from the Defense to keep them in games.

Oh, and let me rain on things a bit more; the shortened preseason gives all this offensive 'newness' very little time to sync. We could witness some very ugly football in Month 1.

 

After the off season camps I want to know is Herbig that good, or is Troy Fautanu that bad at playing RT.

Can't wait for the pads to come on and see this 1 on 1 matchup again.

 

Very true...

 

1st month of football across the whole NFL has been quite ugly for awhile now.

 

I'm old but first thought when I saw that was I want those damn arms. Could smoke a golf ball.

 

I expect 2-3 of those guys to step up, maybe Jefferson, Austin, or Wilson.

 

Expecting 2 of those 3 guys to be solid is hopeful at best. My hope is 1 of them pans out somewhat.

 

How quickly will Troy Fautanu overtake the likes of Dan Moore Jr.?! For that matter, can Beanie Bishop Jr. or Josiah Scott be more than enough to hold down the Slot CB position until Cameron Sutton gets back?! f

The juicy bit for many is the battle for WRs 2 and 3 but I believe 2 will be Calvin Austin while three will come down to either Van Jefferson or Roman Wilson.

 

Big year for Austin III and I agree he has the leg up right now to be the #2. I do believe they will add a camp cut at some point. Hopefully we see Wilson to Wilson.

Hopefully we see Pickens become a complete wide receiver.

The Aiyuk talk needs to stop. He is not coming here. Its just gotten obnoxious at this point.

 

Yeah,Aiyuk will be a 49ers this year....So many players have asked for a trade in the last few years because of their contract only to have a new contract few week later

 

This might be a do or die situation for CA3. Im thinking he is gonna have a breakout year.

 

Have you seen Wilson's passing charts?

https://steelersdepot.com/2024/04/passing-charts-breakdown-of-russell-wilsons-2023-season/

I keep hearing/reading about Wilson doesn't throw over the middle. The charts just don't show that to be true.

 

Troy will take over before Week 1.

don't screw up like they did last year with Jones and rot him on the bench for 7 weeks.

 

Getting adequate QB play will be the biggest question.
Getting the team into the upper 20's in the points PPG and getting over 30 will make this team win a lot of football games.
Goes without saying if the key starters of defense can stay generally healthy its a good defense.
But if TJ goes out, Cam is down, Fitzpatrick gets hurt, lose Highsmith or JPJ it becomes a not so good defense really fast.
Hopefully with the ILB we don't have to start guys off the street. Defense was hit with a lot of injuries.

Unless a trade is made your pretty much dependent on Calvin Austin 3:16 to become John 3:16 at WR, or that Roman Wilson becomes Puka 2.0 in his Rookie year.

 

Austin doesn’t have the size to be anything more than a slot WR. Some of you guys really crack me up. CA will never be a #2 the best he can hope for is a fast niche slot type.

 

say you
A BROWNS FAN

 

Bit off topic but Steelers really should've foreseen some of this if they were going after Wilson; should've foreseen that KP would want out. And in that case they should've gone harder after MR whos proven to be a good backup and can win you some games. To me he would've been better insurance backing up Wilson.

 

Using Mahomes as a reference; fully 1/3 of his passes are to the MOF. OTOH, Wilson has typically been less than 25% and last season <20%.

 

By that same metric, Mahomes averaged 6.4ypa, Wilson 7.3ypa, and Fields 8.1ypa. Now, as I have posted and had to debate last season, I think ypa is a very over-rated stat in evaluations. I only bring this up to point out it is Russell Wilson we are talking about. Not Mahomes or Fields or any other QB. The statement has been made multiple times and keeps coming back up that Wilson doesn't throw to the middle of the field. Looking at his throw charts from 2023 I posted it is shown that Wilson does indeed throw over the middle. AND he throws over the middle enough for this to stop being a point of focus. Wilson does not throw to the middle of the field is incorrect.

Wilson also threw 87 passes behind the LOS. I read he doesn't throw downfield as well, yet his average ypa is 7.3. If 87 passes were behind the LOS, that means an equal number would need to go beyond 15 yards in order to reach that average. So...context of the individual pass on the individual play is very important. And is a much more accurate way of evaluating Wilson as a passer. Static numbers don't tell us anything.

 

I think if 2 of them can get 500 yards receiving with 3-5 TDs they will be alright.

 

Sure, and Pickett threw to the MOF as well. It's a relative thing.

Another problem is you are using YPA which includes YAC. Wilson was 37th in air yards/att last season (min. 200 snaps). (Oh, and Pickett was tied with him in that spot).

And I have no problem with BLOS passes.... IF they can produce YAC. No one has thrown more BLOS than Mahomes the last few seasons.

 

I was attempting to show how static stats with no context mean almost nothing. The point keeps being made that Wilson doesn't throw to the middle of the field. Just look at the pass charts and count the number of passes to the middle, compare to total passes thrown, you will see some games he threw more to the middle and some games he threw fewer to the middle. That is the context. Just a blanket percentage of such passes for the season is a pointless stat.

 

I called it the rookie OG would be the first to get in a fight.