Steelers Update on Pennlive
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Not since 1957 has there been this kind of carnage in the Steelers quarterbacks’ room. That’s when Pittsburgh last made a clean sweep of their poor passers from the season before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Second-year GM Omar Khan is sending a long-overdue message that’s igniting all of Steelers Nation. With his bold, aggressive personnel moves, he’s declaring the old, stale Steelers Way of plodding, patience and sticking with highly drafted but underperforming players as officially dead and buried. The GM proceeded to blow it all up by shipping out egos, attitudes, and also-rans. He’s settling the score on past mistakes. First round picks, be damned. The Steelers under Khan are no longer standing pat. He’ll stop at nothing to improve this team, even shipping out a first-round pick at QB from just two years ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
By signing Russell Wilson for one season, it’s win now or start all over again for the Steelers. If you think the Steelers aren’t serious about taking their shot, just ask the division rival Ravens. Hot on the heels of inking Wilson, GM Omar Khan raided the Ravens nest, plucking All-Pro inside linebacker Patrick Queen. In other words, checkmate! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The team was supposed to be at the annual rite of passage for draft prospects kicking the tires on a tackle, a center, a safety and an inside linebacker or two. But somewhere amid the 40-year-dashes and cone drills, the Steelers became smitten by the flash and dash of a shiny sports car. The specs that reportedly caught their eye were the 6-foot-3, 215-pound curves and chrome of one of the 2024 drafts top receivers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When Maurkice Pouncey’s errant snap sailed over the head of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger early in the 2020 season playoff game vs. the Cleveland Browns, it signaled this signature position was in crisis. It’s remained so ever since. Kendrick Green, drafted in 2021, was supposed to be Pouncy-Lite. Instead, the overmatched snapper had an aging Ben Roethlisberger running for his life in his final season. Mason Cole, who the Steelers signed in 2022, wasn’t much better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
None other than the most famous “Monday Morning Quarterback,” Peter King, took this potshot at Pittsburgh’s plans for its 2024 passers: “The Steelers ‘are not interested in bringing in a quarterback who wants to be a starter.’ Come again? In a division with Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson, the Steelers would actually choose to enter camp with Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph (should he sign in free agency with Pittsburgh)? That sounds like a colossal misjudgment of your quarterback position.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Steelers fans can only hope the quick dispatch with which GM Omar Khan and his assistant Andy Weidl banished a trio of poor-preforming players the day after Super Bowl 58 is an indication of how speedily and shrewdly they plan to upgrade this roster. There was no real reason or benefit to make the moves on quarterback Mitch Trubisky, offensive tackle Chukwuma Okorafor and punter Pressley Harvin III so soon. But it sure signals the start of the house cleaning and roster reshuffling that’s part of every offseason. There’s much work to be done. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Super Bowl LVII awaits. The 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy is a win away from making a last to first ascension. If he completes this astonishing journey from Mr. Irrelevant to Super Bowl champion in his second year, it will be among the all-time stories in sports. For Steelers fans, there will be a special kind of bitterness and disappointment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The NFL playoffs are causing a big case of quarterback envy across Steelers Nation. The postseason matchups are proving that now more than ever, a franchise quarterback is a mandatory requirement for a deep Super Bowl run. Yet, Plan A for Pittsburgh appears to be handing the starting job back to Kenny Pickett in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the days after yet another lopsided playoff loss, this one a 17-31 snow job vs. the Bills, any Steelers suspense that Mike Tomlin was going anywhere quickly evaporated. Steelers players had his back, and the Rooney family, which has employed just three head coaches since 1969, would soon have a multi-year contract extension ready. Various NFL insiders were tipped to these developments after Tomlin abruptly walked out of a postgame press conference just as a reporter posed a question about his future. Since then, all the hot takes that it was time for Tomlin to take a break or take his leave have turned cold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Steelers have that look. It’s the appearance of a team no one wants to face in the playoffs. Pittsburgh is playing smash mouth in the ground game and hitting the splash play downfield when defenses stack the box. A huge part of the Steelers’ recent success is QB Mason Rudolph running the offense effectively – and utilizing receiver George Pickens as the team’s most dangerous weapon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kenny Pickett won over the Pittsburgh fanbase long before he ever won the Steelers’ starting job at quarterback. This is why the second-year player out of Pitt has suffered so badly by comparison with third-stringer-come-starter Mason Rudolph. The latter’s ability to execute the offense the way it was meant to operate has been jarring. True-blue Pickett protectors are now confessing their second thoughts over whether he’s really the long-term answer for the Steelers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With four games left in the 2023 regular season, the Steelers currently hold the No. 6 seed in the AFC. But you’ll have to forgive Steelers Nation if it doesn’t take the bait. Witnessing the Steelers making NFL history with back-to-back home losses to 2-10 Arizona and New England seemed to take everything out of this fanbase. Unlike so many Pittsburgh playoff pushes of the past, they don’t have that feeling their team is going anywhere, much less to the Super Bowl. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The uninspiring streak Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin is best known for is his 16 years and counting of ‘non-losing seasons.’ Notice, the operative term is ‘non-losing season.’ A streak of winning seasons has a much better ring to it. But this can’t be applied to Tomlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kenny Pickett’s Steelers career hung in the balance not even two years removed from being drafted at pick 20 in 2022. By the time the hated Cleveland Browns and their rookie passer celebrated their 13-10 win on the Acrisure Stadium turf on Nov. 19, Pickett had gone from looking hesitant and unsure to beaten down and nearly broken. There were no fourth-quarter heroics from Pickett this time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The big breaking news out of Cleveland is Browns QB Deshaun Watson is out, headed for season-ending surgery on a broken bone in his throwing shoulder. Enter Cleveland backup PJ Walker to face TJ Watt and the Pittsburgh pass rush. Good luck! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Don’t look now, but the Steelers’ offense, once given up for dead, just might have something going. The running game, particularly the hole-hitting pop of undrafted Jaylen Warren, is chewing up clock and yards. Much-touted No. 1 draft pick, tackle Broderick Jones, is making a strong case to be installed as the starter, albeit at right tackle, for the second half of the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In wake of a 20-10 home loss at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars – and the referees -- the listless Steelers limp into the Thursday night game vs. the Tennessee Titans at Acrisure Stadium. They are bruised, battered and embarrassed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A thrilling and nearly flawless fourth quarter by QB Kenny Pickett and the Pittsburgh offense supposedly marked a turning point for these 2023 Steelers. After finally firing on all cylinders, Pickett, coordinator Matt Canada and running backs Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris are ready to turn it on and turn it up for a full game against the Jacksonville Jaguars this Sunday at Acrisure Stadium. So goes the gushing narrative coming out of a Terrible Towel-filled SoFi Stadium in wake of the Steelers’ 24-17 come-from-behind win vs. the Rams Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Steelers Nation has become Second-Guessing Nation. This, as legions of once-loyal Steelers fans increasingly question the head-scratching coaching decisions coming from Mike Tomlin. This began with his insistence on sticking with clueless offensive coordinator Matt Canada, despite the Steelers’ pop-gun attack. It’s now extending to all manner of roster decisions, most notably Tomlin’s baffling intention to return the Steelers’ top two draft picks – left tackle Broderick Jones and cornerback Joey Porter Jr. – to the bench this Sunday vs. the Rams in LA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Steelers are 3-2 and sitting atop the AFC North heading into their bye week. But something doesn’t compute. Pittsburgh has posted a negative 31 point differential over their first five games. This fraught formula for eking out wins – as nice as last Sunday’s 17-10 victory over the rival Ravens was – just isn’t sustainable. Or is it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The tide has turned against Mike Tomlin, the Steelers’ once-unassailable coach who never posted a losing season in Pittsburgh. In wake of a 30-6 drubbing by the Texans, angry callers across the 412-area code have been flooding sports talk shows with calls for Tomlin’s head. The game has passed him by, some are saying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
While acknowledging the across-the-board improvements on display in Las Vegas Sunday night, Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin doubled down, saying his still-developing team is in the process of building toward something far, far better -- only to be revealed as the young season unfolds. Just don’t call it “mojo.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Steelers offense is suffering from a severe touchdown drought – and has been for quite a while. If it wasn’t for the defense, who out-touchdowned the offense 2 to 1 Monday night vs. the Browns, the Steelers would be sitting at 0-2 right now. Most of the blame is being laid at the feet of clueless coordinator Matt Canada, with the Acrisure Stadium crowd loudly calling for his head. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If the Steelers did one thing positive in losing so humiliatingly to the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, they certainly lowered expectations for themselves. But they also find themselves desperate for a win in just the second game of the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The maturation of Kenny Pickett is nearly complete. An offseason full of film study, playbook scrutiny, pumping iron, working out with his receivers and becoming a married man has been leading up to this: Sunday’s home-opener vs. the Super Bowl-sniffing San Francisco 49ers who aim to test Pickett’s progress with a fierce pass rush and big-play-stifling defense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More than a week before the Steelers host the San Francisco 49ers, some very prominent sports analysts in Pittsburgh are brimming with superlatives when it comes to QB Kenny Pickett and his sky-high potential in his sophomore season. One even used the word “unstoppable” when it comes to Pickett and this year’s offense under heretofore much-criticized coordinator Matt Canada. Unstoppable? The Steelers’ offense? We haven’t heard those words in the same sentence since the heydays of the Killer Bs: Big Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. Much of this is based on a total of just 15 passes Pickett threw in the preseason in three exhibition games against Tampa Bay, Buffalo, and Atlanta. But in the NFL, it’s all about the regular season. If a young NFL QB can make it there, he can make it anywhere, so the Sinatra song goes. Yet, some Pittsburgh pundits aren’t waiting until Pickett’s passes fly for real. They’re declaring Pickett the real deal right now. Pittsburgh sports radio personality and Post-Gazette columnist Joe Starkey is projecting Pickett will take his place among the NFL’s top 10 QBs in his second year. Despite the 2022 Steelers averaging just 18.1 points per game, Starkey says Pickett is poised to win “shootouts” in the pass-happy, QB-loaded AFC. Not all of Pickett’s praise-givers are ready to go quite this far. Yet, the Pickett hype in Pittsburgh is unlike anything we’ve seen in many years heading into a Steelers’ season seemingly packed with promise and potential. We have more on Pickett and the Steelers’ offense, plus the impact of some surprising roster moves ahead of the regular season. It’s all in this can’t-wait-for-Week-1 edition of your Steelers Update podcast. And be sure to catch my full print column first thing every Thursday on PennLive. As always, it will be packed with plenty of memes bringing the latest, greatest Steelers debates to life – and to laughs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jaylen Warren’s explosive 62-yard touchdown runs vs. the Buffalo Bills heralded another gear – and another level for the Steelers’ running game. As soon as Warren sped into the end zone, it ignited a Steelers Nation debate over who’s the best running back in the ‘Burgh. Warren is seen as the modern do-it-all back. Najee Harris is the throwback. Warren is a game-breaker. Harris is a pounding plodder that harkens back to three yards and a cloud of dust. Both backs will be integral to the 2023 Steelers’ offense. Harris will help turnover the down markers and run out the clock. But it’s Warren who’ll become the take-it-to-the-house scoring threat from anywhere on the field. That’s not the only difference, either. One was drafted in the first round. The other was signed off the street. No wonder supposedly elite running backs across the league often go begging when it comes to signing their second NFL contract. The crucial number is yards per carry. Najee is stuck at a lackluster 3.9 YPC after two years with the Steelers. Warren put up a full yard on Najee in 2022, and if he continues to explode like he did vs. Buffalo, the gap could grow to the point of embarrassment for the former first-rounder. In today’s NFL, running backs have become a means to an end. As Warren showed, the shortest distance to a touchdown is a 62-yard run. We have much more on the juggernaut Steelers, who’ve been peaking in the preseason, along with all the resulting Yinzer hype now sweeping Steelers Nation. But is this team for real? We dig for answers in this band-wagon edition of your Steelers Update Podcast. And be sure to check out my full print column first thing Thursday on PennLive. It will be packed with plenty of memes bringing the latest, greatest Steelers debate to life – and to laughs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Scoring from in close is a major emphasis at Steelers’ training camp this year. Early word coming out of those goal-line drills is the red zone should be much, much hotter for the Steelers in 2023. It had better be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Entering 2023 with sophomore quarterback Kenny Pickett, the rebuilt Steelers’ defense looks ready to step up and take more of the weight. They want to be the team who runs the ball (behind a rebuilt offensive line, I might add). They’ll let Pickett pick his spots for big plays. But a running clock will be the Steelers’ ally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
