Will Howard

That was the year of Ben's motorcycle crash and getting his appendix removed so they started 2-6 but won 6 out of their last 8 to finish 8-8.

 

you mean replace 25 out of 22 starters no?

 

In 5 6 7 8

 

Are you showing off again

 

Do I think the Steelers would have won the Super Bowl with Darnold? No. Do I think they could have at least won a playoff game and given them a chance to make a deep run with Darnold and a few other more intelligent moves? Yes.

Do I think you saying the Seahawks winning with Carroll's players doesn't hold up just because of Darnold, as you wrote? No. that does not hold up at all.

 

I'm aware of that. Teams always have excuses when the have a down year. Sometimes, they have very good reasons. Funny how some folks here want to dig up those excuses when it is one of Cowher's teams, but they want to ignore things such as Shazier's devastating injury in 2017 when evaluating Tomlin's teams.

 

So you're saying that Darnold at QB would have moved the ball better than Rodgers vs Texans defense in Wildcard game?

Also.. the 2008 Steelers and 2025 Seahawks are apples and oranges as far as I'm concerned. MacDonald had a different staff than Carroll.... while Tomlin kept LeBeau and Arians (WR coach to OC) in place from Cowher's team.

 

dodge the rush better for sure

 

Yeah... that's the first thing I think of when Darnold is brought up. How mobile he is.

 

compared to AR

 

Mr 8-9
so doomed
shouldn't you be on a slope for one last time?

 

With what we know now, I think you're correct.

Darnold was a high risk / high reward signing. And that's not how this team operates (for better - Willis - and worse - Darnold).

And Darnold would also have had to choose to come here. And I don't think he'd have been super on board for jumping onto a team which had only one WR (I assume that if they talked to him in the tampering period, he would have known that the team was aiming to - and maybe already agreed to - (i) trading Pickens and (ii) signing DK) for an OC who thinks of passing as an afterthought.

If compensation was similar (and we typically give less appealing contracts because we don't really like guarantees past the 1st year), I don't see why he picks the Steelers. He signed a 3 year $100MM contract with over half ($55MM) guaranteed. I don't think we would have been there on the guarantees.

OTOH, maybe going to the guy who had Tannehill look great would have been inciting for a guy who was probably on his last real chance to be an NFL starter.

Either way, I don't think Rooney would have OK'd a deal like this.

I think it's the same reason we weren't really interseted in Willis (thankfully). And also the same reason we almost certainly won't trade for Mac Jones (which is probably my preferred option of not-great choices for QBs this year).

Instead, it will be Rodgers or bust again. No real chance of competing for the SB. But has the lowest floor of all the options. So he maximizes the chances of (i) not playing inconsequential regular season games and (ii) making the playoffs (again...little chance of winning a WC game without something crazy happening like 2x DTDs or something*).

* Note to the Monkey Paw: When I said the same thing last year, I obviously meant that we wanted 2x DTDs FOR the Steelers (not the opposing team). So this year, I'm specifically stating that we want 2x DTDs scored by the Steelers defense this year in the WC game.

 

Nobody is drooling what the heck are you talking about

 

And the Steelers would've had the same WR crew with only Metcalf as the real threat.

 

Agree. And McDonald would have had to scramble for a 100 yards to make up for the lack of a run game, let alone the passing offense.

 

I explained this a while ago. There were a number of moves I wrote were mistakes at the time that hurt the Steelers in 2025. One of them was settling for Rodgers rather than going after Darnold. Another was keeping Pickens.

Yes, I can see how finding an excuse to label those two teams as apples and oranges would help your cause.

 

and Harris for the 2025 TRIFECTA

 

Gainwell was a far more effective RB than Harris ever was.

 

Was happy to find out it was better than the OPTION

 

Ok

Slobbering

 

Well, some of his detractors did want him to fail because they thought it would get him fired .

 

That's just dumb both MacDonald and Tomlin both won the SB in their second year .

 

How come he doesn’t send you clown pictures

 

Only a very special select few are awarded that honor.