Pittsburgh Steelers: Best Offseason in the NFL? | PFF

you have another most there's a there's a really obvious most improved team that we haven't talked about yet is it the Pittsburgh Steelers uh it's not who I'm thinking of but if you want to talk about that we can't the Steelers would have been the next team that I uh brought up um obviously a PFF we contractually obliged to hate the Steelers and everything they stand for but yeah this is going to put us in hot water with management but we already are as we discussed before so right because yeah yeah um I think look they decided the Kenny picket thing wasn't going to work we're going to go in a different direction and they did not have a ton of good options but the options so when you when you bear in mind that Mike Tomlin the Pittsburgh Steelers their Baseline is they don't have losing Seasons they're generally above 500 and challenging for the postseason they were doing that with Kenny picket having not developed at all they bring in Russell Wilson and are paying him effectively nothing he's it's like 1 million he's against their cap this year Denver is is eating all the pain of the Russell Wilson contract um and then they trade for for Justin fields for the the flip side The Pennies on the dollar deal that Chicago dealt him away for and he's on the books for not a lot of money as well and obviously there's the potential upside of what he could become then you look at what did they do to the rest of the team relative to that quarterback situation so number one I think either one of those guys is an upgrade Over Kenny picket from last year right whatever you think about Russell Wilson and his limitations and what he can be and where he belongs he's better than Kenny picket shown to be and Justin Fields I think is better than Kenny piff just because he's way more dangerous so you have to be cons be concerned by way more things than you do with Kenny picket so I think they upgraded the quarterback situation without spending a lot of money um and then you look at the overall roster I think they added a ton of potential impact players and rebuilt an offensive line that's been sort of churning itself in the right direction anyway the the draft in particular obviously was where they they did the heavy lifting there Troy tanu at left tackle Zack Frasier at Center both of those guys could start day one and then even Mason mccor M lower down he's more of a a long-term thing but as a developmental guy that could eventually find his way into the starting lineup yeah I view the I I don't know if the Steelers are going to be most improved from last year to this year but they they would they'd be on the list for me as far as two years worth of really like what they're doing and and as I've said before I think they're making the right move at quarterback given their circumstances I just don't know if it's actually going to make an impact will Russell Wilson actually make an impact or Justin Fields if he gets an opportunity to play will they actually make enough of an impact impact that you'll feel it but I would say the offensive line you know moves that they've made this year to kind of I I think they'll have a chance to have a really good offensive line over the next few seasons again you've got uh two rookies perhaps in the mix right away does do do you feel that right away in 2004 not sure uh 2024 I'm not sure uh um I like what they've done on the defensive side the last couple years adding a guy like keano Benton into in the draft last year had a nice rookie season you can get more from him Patrick Queen maybe you know the way he's progressed in his career might solidify the linebacker position for Pittsburgh they've been looking they've had this like revolving door of linebackers and Corners the last couple years Queen could be the guy to solidify linebacker year two of Joey Porter Jr could be one the guy to solidify one of the corner spots so I like a lot of what Pittsburgh's done I think there's some easiness uneasiness about the receiver situation right now the opposite of what they've had in the past they were rolling pretty deep on paper at least at receiver you again you didn't feel it because the offense was not great from Matt Canada Kenny picket was inconsistent but George Pickins and they're just kind of stitching it together maybe Roman Wilson is the guy to step up as a third rounder but that's a lot to ask um but overall I like what Pittsburgh's doing it it so what do you make of the coaching change as well because obviously Matt Canada is offense was much maligned and Arthur Smith coming in here yeah for for a long period of time and Arthur Smith is the guy that comes in eventually to replace him and Arthur Smith has become like a meme right because instead of instead of getting the ball to bejan Robinson and Kyle Pitts and Drake London the ball goes to like random other people like you know jnu Smith or whatever right but and you know maybe there's a maybe there's a ceiling on how good Arthur Smith's offenses can be but they're generally pretty good like they're not bad offenses they're just frustrating for people that want their fantasy player to get the bulk of the workload so yeah theoretically they should have upgraded significantly going from Matt Canada's offense that's been unable to do much of of anything to Arthur Smith but then you get the joke of like okay we've got George Pickins and Roman Wilson in the draft and you know Pat F Ruth at tight end and but but who's act who's this offense actually going to go through is it going to be the Scotty Miller offense this week or you know is Denzel Mims finally going to break out within this offense get 12 targets just get off the internet take like Dr eager over there and just get off the internet like Scotty Miller was the number four re on a Crosser in the red zone and it's like Scotty Miller stealing all the red zone targets come on Arthur what are you doing let's let's be let's be fair to Art here okay let's be fair he was the guy that got Ryan tanah Hill's career on track in Tennessee he was the one with Ryan tanah Hill had career years with the Tennessee Titans under Arthur Smith and then with the Falcons he had uh one step into retirement Matt Ryan for a year and then Desmond Ritter who you know isn't going to be starting in the NFL going forward so those were his those were his quarterbacks now I'm not saying he was perfect right he did he did run power behind a into a formation where he displaced the right tackle left the hole like he was photoshopped out of the play and ran behind that hole on fourth and one on a play last year I'm just saying I that just reality it happened um so I'm not saying he's perfect but um I don't think Arthur Smith's as bad as social media would have you believe because you get it's a lot of the fantasy people like oh bejan doesn't have the touchdowns it's AER oh no it's like he is right I mean we're trying to put the ball into the end zone anyway this is Darnell Washington's time to shine I think d I I liked Darnell Washington coming out as a third rounder for the Steelers last year as a run blocking tight end that they're going to use in this offense him and Fri MTH I think there's a chance that this fit does work pretty well for the Steelers it so the the Arthur Smith Russell Wilson axis is going to be fascinating um and it might only be for a few weeks maybe it's actually Justin Fields that's going to be the guy that wins that starting job going forward long term but on the one hand you could picture Arthur Smith being a perfect coach to get Russell Wilson back to where you know whatever his potential ceiling is right now like there's some some elements of the Arthur Smith offense a lot of play action the sort of things that work for Ryan tanah Hill they you think those are perfect that's what we want for Russell Wilson right now sort of actually do what you know the Seahawks did for a while limit the ask of Russell Wilson not expect too much of him um help him out with play action on the other hand so that that that side you're like that's a great fit that's exactly what you want from Russell Wilson right now the downside is our Smith likes to Target the middle of the field a lot and Russell Wilson doesn't like doing that at all and never has um to the point where there a lot of the times you sort of look you know you tend to sort of divine that out from looking at passing maps and where the routes are run and we talked about that with Matt Canada's offense right they didn't even run routes into the area of the field you're like why are they not targeting that because there's nothing in there it's like it's not like the quarterback is looking at a thing turning it down going somewhere else there's not a route in that spot of the field um but Russell Wilson doesn't like targeting the middle of the field to the extent where there are routes into those spaces they're open and he's like ah not for me I'm going to go down here this's a guy streaking down the field I'm going to take a shot at that instead I'm going to turn down the slant and I'm going to go ham down on this post over here to George Pickins most likely right so that'll be on the one side you've got a lot of play action a lot of things that should help Russell Wilson on the other hand you've got the entire offense wants to work in the area of the field you don't like targeting so how's that going to work now for the for the fantasy pundits out there I didn't realize this connection the other day but when you mentioned Scotty Miller he is on the Steelers now yeah and uh Mike Cole is it mikle puit yep pu's the you know he's the guy getting was he getting end round no jnu Smith was getting the end rounds and uh puit was stealing touchdowns too I think he does uh Arthur Smith does have his favorite guys in there sitting at wide receiver six and tight end four on the dep chart and Cal Patterson sign C second that kick returns became a thing again it's the it but the receiver room is the one that I do have some questions about now um because they traded Deontay Johnson a lot rests on the shoulders of Roman Wilson like he actually does kind of need to come in and be good right away and then um I mean if Steve was GM and you said Steve just signed quz Watkins or Steve has quz Watkins Calvin Austin and Scotty Miller all on the team You' think yeah that's about right I got three speed one you know one trick down the field type of guys right to uh to be our deep threats so one of those guys could step up as the Deep threat there sure [Music]

Channel: Pro Football Focus

Views: 39,256

Keywords: Seattle Seahawks, NFL Draft, NFL, Football

Id: O9yBW9LZZyk

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2024