Most disappointing Steelers this year

I ranked my most disappointing players this year on the Steelers. Some of this is weighted on expectation as well.

1. Minkah Fitzpatrick FS (I know they had him playing deep, but it really seemed like he was a step slow to diagnose plays and he was taking bad angles and missing tackle this year).

2. Patrick Queen ILB (Struggled to get off blocks, late to read and react and didn’t have the impact in the passing game I though he would.)

3. Broderick Jones RT (Seemed un interested, sloppy, no technique and played with little enthusiasm.)

4. Keanu Benton DT (Just disappeared during alot of games. Didn’t develop like we needed him too.)

5. Russell Wilson QB (Doesn’t use the whole field adequately. Takes too many sacks, batted passes, and lacks in the intermediate passing game.)

6. Isaac Seamalu LG (Struggled throughout the year against the bull rush. Isn’t what I though he was going to be.)

7. Highsmith OLB (Never really seemed to get started this year. Very quiet.)

8. Joey Porter JR. CB (Took step back in man coverage. I think he unfairly got penalized for alot of his penalties but he has developed a reputation now so they are going to call them on him. Improved his tackling.)

9. Donte Jackson CB (Feast or Famine. Terrible in press man coverage. Injury prone)

10. Mike Williams WR (Never really got a chance. Just didn’t seem to fit with the Steelers)

11. Pat Frieirmuth TE (Terrible blocker. For a TE he doesn’t seem to break a lot of tackles and gets tackled by smaller Cb’s. Dropped passes at inopportune times.)

12. Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren RB (Never really seemed to be able to get going. The division of labor and poor run blocking felt like it made the running game very jumbled with no continuity.)

 

You can add TJ Watt to the list in the second half of the season he was basically on a milk carton.

 

Mike Tomlin should be at the top of any list of steelers disappointments.

 

Really thought this was Connor's year.

 

That’s a very solid list. Minkah definitely number 1 he was absolute dog **** this year. Pro Bowl lol.

 

Is that on him, his injury or the way we schemed him? IN addition if he is getting double teamed you would think Highsmith and Ogunjobi and Benton would have stepped up being more than likely single blocked.

 

Sadly I think TJ is declining. However I will say I thought Cam was washed and he had a tremendous year so….

 

We ll he has won on speed, bend and technique. You don’t lose technique. I think he lacked push and ankle flexion to get the bend he usually has around the edge due to the injury. Plus teams have figured out how to scheme against him. Its on the Steelers to figure out how to utilize him to his strengths. TO me if teams schemed against him and are other players don’t make them pay then it is on the other players and our lack of creativity to adjust.

 

1. Minkah was disappointing for sure. Not a great season for a normally great player

2. I think we're missing the mark on Queen. He started a bit sluggish, but he had a really good year. He received the 9th most All Pro votes of anyone in the whole league. Not to mention he became one of the most vocal leaders that we have on that side of the ball. He was a great addition for our defense.

3. Jones was the most disappointing, simply because I expected progress and not a regression. His end of the year was a lot better than the start, but he needs a step forward next year. Hopefully the change to LT makes the difference.

4. I don't get the hate for Benton. I though he had a fine season. He might be slightly out of position (I think he'd be great in Larry O's spot), but his pass rush showed progress and he was just ok vs the run. Definitely not a disappointment, just not a huge step forward.

5. Wilson was a massive disappointment. He got us really on the hype train by balling out the first two games he played, but was largely trash for the remainder of the year. We would've been better off sticking with Fields.

6. Hard to say either way. Aging veteran player. I would actually like to see us move on from him and find a way to keep Daniels around. Daniels - Frazier - McCormick seems like a nice interior line.

7. Highsmith was minorly disappointing. He's a good player, but I was hoping for a bit more splash

8. Porter was minorly disappointing, but only because I thought he was going to have a huge year. He was fine, a bit over penalized, but didn't play poorly.

9. Donte Jackson brought exactly what I thought he would. Solid play, good amount of splash, and slightly banged up. It's who he's been his whole career. Good zone corner that makes a lot of picks, but isn't great in man and has a bit of a history of getting nicked up. He was a fine #2 corner.

10. Yeah, I agree here. Thought he should've gotten a bit more run than he did. He performed reasonably well in his limited snaps, but with the void in talent in this WR room, I thought he'd get more opportunity

11. Freiermuth is who he has been all along. Below average blocker, above average receiver. He's a fine weapon at a position that doesn't have a ton of talent in it league wide.

12a. Najee wasn't disappointing to me, since I don't think very highly of his abilities. We got every bit of good football he had in him. He's about a 16 carry for 60 yards type of guy and that is what we got out of him. He's a bad fit in modern offenses due to his skillset. We'd have a perfect back if it was the year 2000, but in 2024 he just doesn't bring to the table a lot of the things you need to be a successful back. Some team will pay him like a good back and be massively disappointed. I am glad it isn't us.

12b.The only disappointing things about Warren for me were his injuries to start the year and his overall lack of usage. He is a good weapon and we relegate him to 3rd down duty and a drive or two a game. He's a better player than the guy we had in front of him, but we ran Najee into the ground. Hopefully we find a good complementary back in the draft and Warren sees a bit more run in 2025.

 

Hard to tell. Before his injury he was odds on favorite for DPOY. He was pretty bottled up post injury.

I'd wait until at leas mid-season next year before saying Watt is in decline.

 

On Wilson,as it turned out,one man's trash is another man's trash IMO.. Just not another man's 30 million dollar trash.

 

Yeah I can't say Russ was a disappointment so much as he is who we thought he was "(Doesn’t use the whole field adequately. Takes too many sacks, batted passes, and lacks in the intermediate passing game.)". Granted the oline and Smith did not help much.

The other Wilson was a bigger disappointment to me. I remember pundits suggesting north of 40 RCPT's for Roman Wilson

 

Well thought out response. I’m not as high on Queen as you are. The Pro Bowl votes don’t mean much. Minkah got voted into the Pro Bowl, its a popularity contest. Regarding Benton I don’t think he played bad, I just had huge hope for him this year. I though he was really gonna break out with five sacks and some splash plays, I didn’t really see that much from him. I like your point on Daniels. I think he is a better player than Seamalu. Seamalu is too slight. He was protected in Philadelphia because he had All Pros all around him. Regarding Donte Jackson .... I don’t see what other people see. He did have five interceptions which i will give him credit for, but he gave up alot of big plays and got beat regularly. I really felt like he was a liability to the secondary towards the second half of the season. Cam Sutton was the biggest liability but I didn’t expect much from him. I really hope at the end of the day they figure out how to develop Jones and solidify this line. Im not sure why we are still employing Meyer.

 

I can agree. Russ Wilson is who we thought he was ,the same as who Denver thought he was. Roman an injury laden no show.

 

It was more of a carousel of bad play at inopportune times in every defeat (and several wins) by pretty much everyone on the team, some more than others (including coaching staff). Boz was money as was Waitman as an emergency replacement signing. Ranking them? Nah.

 

If they were just Pro Bowl votes, I would agree. They were All Pro votes, which in my opinion, mean a whole lot more than Pro Bowl (though still not a perfect metric). I can understand the feeling with Queen, as he is the 5th highest paid ILB and probably played somewhere in the 8-10 range. I think his end of year was far superior to his beginning of the year, which was admittedly a slow start, and started playing to his contract. I like his locker room presence too, which plays into my opinion of him.

As for Jackson, I can agree with some of what you said. He was definitely giving up more big plays, but also made up for it with some big plays of his own. I got the following stats from "player profiler" he got CB2 opportunity, was a high end CB2 when it came to separation allowed per target, but a poor CB2 in YPG allowed and YPR allowed (which means he gave up some big plays). His TD/INT ratio being a net zero is good, and he has an above average CB2 coverage rating (which is no doubt hindered by his poor CB2 man coverage success rating). He allowed catches as a high end CB2, but the passer rating allowed was poor. It all means he did well for the most part, but when he got burned he got burned for a big play. Quality zone defender with a knack for turnovers, but struggles in man and prone to giving up a big play here and there. I think he was a decent CB2 (a lot better than Witherspoon/Wallace/etc.), but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if we wanted to go another route next year. I'd be fine with him returning too.


WE can agree on developing the OL. Lots of talent in that room, just have to develop them into the best players they can become. I hope we catch a better break on injuries next season. I think the move to LT will help Jones, and getting Fautanu in the mix should also help. I do like the interior of the line though, and see no reason why our unit couldn't be an above average unit in 2025. Now, lets fire Meyer and get someone in here that will elevate their game.

 

Well, there were some that bought into the hype after Russ played well the first two weeks of his tenure. Many on here thought he was a huge upgrade from Fields, but that turned out to be not the case.

The injury to Wilson was a disappointment for sure. It doesn't mean he can't be a bigger part of our offense next year, but it was definitely not the start to his career any of us wanted.

 

This is the same scheme that got Watt 22 sacks and DPOY .

 

Warren is a backup RB for a reason, and he wasn't better than Najee.

 

We can agree to disagree. Najee isn't in the future plans for a reason, and it wouldn't be the first time a roster got mismanaged.

 

Is he going to hold more

 

To be fair, Russell was pretty good through his first six games. The first game against Baltimore was a bit of a clunker, but he exceeded my expectations over that run: 66% completion, averaged 271 yards, nearly two TDs, 0.5 INTs, and 3 sacks per game; and had a QB rating of 104.3. He won the second Cleveland game, but his efficiency dropped (57% completion). That was the first game Pickens missed, but the offense never recovered, averaging 14 points/gm over the remainder of the season, with a high of 17.

 

Good for McMillan for making the most of his opportunity when Godwin was lost to a dislocated ankle. But I think we should wait until Roman actually sees the field before labelling the pick a bad one.