Top 10 Players I'm Dying To See This Preseason

Time for my annual list. And I'm cutting it close! Almost didn't make it in time. The good news is I almost actually kept it to 10 names this time, instead of my usual 20 or 30. In reverse order:

Honorable Mention - Alejandro Villanueva, Anthony Chickillo

How could you not be curious about Villanueva? Could he be more unusual? Three tours of duty as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan, a college wide receiver - turned NFL tight end - turned defensive end - turned offensive tackle. Oh, and he's legally a giant at 6'9". This is crazy. Just crazy! And he's at a position where he has almost no competition with an injured (and crappy even when healthy) Mike Adams the only real threat. Can this guy play? And will he play NT on field goal attempts? Will we split him out wide for fades near the goal line? Will he play safety on hail marys?

I was not high on the Chickillo draft pick. A non-athletic non-producer in college. A good try-hard kind of guy that didn't appear to have the athletic potential to make up for his lack of production, like Bud Dupree has. I was thinking he might be the next Patrick Bailey, at best. For him to succeed he was going to need to either lose or gain an extreme amount of weight and learn a new position and overachieve at it. Seemed like a lot to ask, but the reports out of camp have been nothing but positive. Could this guy really be a player? Maybe he makes his mark on special teams at first like Bailey, but uses that time to hone his skills at another position in a way Bailey never could, like Keisel. If Chickillo works out, our OLB depth will be surprisingly good.

10. Gerod Holliman

When we drafted Holliman in the 7th this year, Tomlin and Colbert's comments seemed unusually positive. They seemed less cautious than normal, as if they openly liked this guy, as if they weren't about to cut him. It seemed like they were invested in him more than they should be for a 7th. He seemed more like a 3rd round pick, a guy they would keep for a year or two even if he stinks.

14 interceptions in his senior year, but a reputation for not working hard, and not even trying to tackle people. Well, I thought when we drafted him, his new coaches and teammates won't stand for that. They'll tell him he better get his nose dirty or he's out of the league. Again, I don't like to put too much stock in camp reports, but for Holliman they have not been favorable. They say he hasn't put forth that effort. I'm sure we'll see miserable tackling from him this preseason. Will we also see some ball-hawking? He figures to play against some scrub QBs, so if he's going to make it in this league, he needs to impress.

9. Doran Grant

Senquez Golson is the little speedy interceptor, and Doran Grant is the less flashy, well-rounded safety net. Now Golson's out, and with the likes of William Gay, Brandon Boykin, Antwon Blake, and Cortez Allen ahead of him, I figure Grant is going to be needed at some point. At least one of those guys is going to underperform. Will Grant show us something for the future? Will he be able to help at all as a rookie?

8. Shamarko Thomas

Just get on the field so we can see you already.

7. Jesse James

There will never be another Heath, but I think this guy could be the successor. I think in the long run he could be half-way between Miller and Spaeth, which would be absolutely satisfactory. In the short-term, I think he's a red zone threat. I'm predicting 3 TDs for him this year, which is nuts for a 3rd TE.

6. Dri Archer

I have had it with the disconnect between drafting and coaching plans. Haley recently said something like, "Well Gee it's hard to get him on the field with Le'Veon and AB and Wheaton and Heath." Uh, those guys were on the team when you drafted him!! If Dri isn't our punt returner and an offensive weapon this year (I'm talking 10 snaps per game, be they at RB or WR) I'm going to request a serious talking to with Colbert and Haley.

5. Daniel McCullers

This guy. He supposedly lost a bunch of weight over the offseason. First guy off the bus. He could really scare people.

4. Stephon Tuitt

I'm sold. He could be as good as Heyward, or better. He's certainly miles ahead of where Heyward was at this point in his career. DeCastro is one of our best blockers, and will probably be a Pro Bowler this year, but Tuitt has been giving him fits in camp. This year Tuitt starts, and will play most snaps in the nickel. Imagine how much better our defense will be with Tuitt there in place of Cam Thomas. I'm predicting Ziggy Hood + a pass rush.

3. Ryan Shazier

I'm sold on this guy too, everything except his ability to stay healthy. As a rookie he blew up his first preseason game, and made splash plays in the regular season, too. Everyone focused on his mistakes, but I don't think people understood just how hard it is to succeed in Shazier's situation. I think he was enormously successful. He made errors, but he wasn't terrible, and contributed at times, slashing through offensive lines and dropping backs. He's maybe the best athlete in the league, he's smart, has a good motor, good character, and he's a tackling machine. Just stay healthy.

2. Bud Dupree

The anti-Jarvis. Raw athletic potential, but unrefined and not very productive. If he can figure out the game and if he takes to coaching, he could get 15-20 sacks a year, forever.

1. Jarvis Jones

The anti-Dupree. Tons of college production with good instincts, but slow, weak, and with an unacceptable amount of flab for a Steelers linebacker. At least, that was the old Jarvis. As hard as Dupree must study, Jarvis must work to improve his body. He has supposedly gained 13 pounds of muscle in the offseason. Will it show on the field? Will he finally have a bull rush? Will he be able to set the edge against the run better? This was his first time spent with James Harrison. Will that have rubbed off? Did he pick up any technique? Will he be able to bend around the corner? Coming out of college, pass rush was supposed to be the one thing Jarvis couldn't fail at, and his question marks were elsewhere. It played out the opposite. Rushing the passer at ROLB in the AFC North is no easy task, with all three opposing LTs excelling at pass protection. Can he pin down that missing element? Oh, and he's had his own health concerns, as well. So many questions, just begging to be answered.

AAAAHHHHH!!!!!

How about y'all?

 

1. Dupree 2. J. jones 3. Cortez Allen 4. Holliman 5.Villanueva 6. Archer 7. Big Dan 8. Coates 9. DHB 10. The Outlaw

 

Good stuff, Snack. Can you imagine, McCullers the first guy off the bus AND Villenueva the second guy off??!! The other team be like .

 

1.av 2.grant 3.hemmer 4.chick 5.wild 6.webb 7.james, i really like all these guys and they have been doing quite well at camp so far. 8.palmer 9.vandyke 10.goodwin, these last 3 have been flashing some good and may need some more time but should be kept around on the ps along with finney hopefully. down the road they could become pretty good depth if they work hard. plesantly suprised by some of them.

 

Landry Jones Ross Ventrone Rob Blachfloiwer

 

So it seems Blachflower is out for the season.

if youtube ever worked for me, I would watch this video of Okafor:


Id like to see Brandon Boykin play as well.

 

"Wow, that guy is huge. That's ok, the first guy off the bus is always really big so it doesn't really mean anythOH MY GOD!!!"

 

I'd like to see what Josh Harris can do. He's looked good in his limited chances. Better him than Dri Archer. That experiment has to to be close to being over.

 

Huh? Why? They've been on the team about the same amount of time. Harris has done nothing positive in a game except for one long run called back because of a holding penalty. Dri hasn't done much either in equally limited chances (he had a touchdown in the playoffs called back because of a holding penalty), but surely you can see he's got about quadruple the upside of Harris. Yes, Dri disappointed as a kick returner, partly because he was impatient, and partly because he had zero blocking. But we saw in college how dangerous he is there.

I'm just confused how after seeing nothing from both guys in the same amount of time, you see the slow UDFA with a 2.3 ypc average as promising, and the blazing 3rd round draft pick with a 4 ypc average as an experiment you hope is over. Have you attended practices or something? You can't be going based on what you've seen in games.

 

There are honestly so many question marks for me that I really can't even say who I'm wanting to see the most.

 

Then a gust of wind comes up and blows archer into the 5th row. What is he, like 150 lbs? Speed is one thing but you have to be able to break a tackle. This isn't highschool...

 

Alright then, no chances should be given I guess. Strange experiment.

 

Archer looked decent last night and all reports from camp are good I don't understand this at all.

 

True. Not much of a comparison though since Jackson is a full time #1 WR. I guess my issue with Archer is that he just isn't an NFL RB and he hasn't demonstrated ability to be even a #4 WR. Just don't get the love affair with the player.

 

Some good food for thought and well thought out. Pretty much all the guys I an anxious to see as well. You catch the piece they did during the game last night on Villanuevau? That was pretty cool and made him sound like a very intriguing guy to keep an eye on not to mention someone to root for big time.

 

The only thing with that though was that supposedly he looked he really good in camp last year. I remember there were defensive guys saying something like "let him torture another defense for a change" or something like that. I guess that sorta makes sense though since our d couldn't even stop Tampa Bay and the Jets. LOL.

 

The point is Jackson can play in the NFL at that size. No one said Dri is a #1 WR or a full time RB, but he can be a little of both positions. He's got undeniable skill that we saw Sunday.

He's also heavier than Dexter McCluster, who has had some success.

I didn't like the pick in the 3rd round either. Seems like everything would have to work out just right in order for it to be worth that price. But it's still possible. He could be a dynamic return man and a guy who sees 5 touches/50 yards per game. I'd take that. I certainly think that's more than we could get from Josh Harris.

 

Fair enough, I suppose. But when we're talking a high draft pick vs an UDFA, the expectations are, rightfully so, higher. I guess that is why I'm more critical of the guy because I don't see him making an impact as a RB or WR on this team and seems like a wasted draft pick for a return specialist. I do not want to see Archer lining up in the backfield if we get down to 3rd string at RB. Would rather see Harris at #3 and steelers are in deep doodoo if that is what they get forced to choose from. Guess I have higher expectations than you for a high round draft pick than a few punt returns a game where he grass trips him up.

 

Yep, that's exactly what I said.

Like I said, I wasn't happy with the pick when it happened, because it just seems unlikely we'll get that much out of him. He seems more like a 5th round pick to me. He'd have to go nearly full-Darren Sproles to be worth a 3rd, and that's not happening.

The role of an every-down back like Harris and an offensive weapon like Archer is different. You're trying to plug him into the same role, and that's just not him. You might as well compare him to Will Johnson. Archer isn't the guy who could take 25 carries per game like every thumping UDFA, of which there are thousands. That doesn't mean he's worse, though. He's the guy who gets 10 touches per game, but does a lot more with them. He may never be worth the 3rd round pick, but that's entirely different from being worse than Josh Harris or any other bigger, sturdier, crappier player.

 

Except for the fact that he is higher on the RB depth chart than Harris. Key point being "RB". Dude is not an NFL running back. Anyways, we are saying some of the same things about Archer. I'm not a fan of the player nor the pick. I'm more of a supporter of Harris for the simple fact that he is an UDFA and anything he might produce would be over achieving. Either way, I don't want to see either of them on the field in an every down role, be it RB or WR (in Archers case). And that is a sad commentary for a 3rd rounder.

 

Well depth chart or no, I maintain Archer's position is different from Bell/Williams/Harris/Chisolm.

Sounds like you care more about value than benefit to the team. I care about value too, but I care more about what makes the team the best. An underachieving 3rd rounder can still be much, much, much better than an overachieving UDFA. Case in point: Matt Spaeth vs. Patrick Bailey. And I doubt Josh Harris benefits the team as much as Bailey did.