Good Thursday to you Steelers’ fans.
Steelers’ President Art Rooney II made his first comments yesterday following the end of the 2019 season. He addressed many of the things we expected like the strange quarterback situation this year and lack of running game but he also got around to Bud Dupree. As I’ve stated in this very space before I’m not a ‘capologist’ and will never claim to be but I’m really struggling to understand where the Steelers are going to get the room to keep Dupree. To franchise him will cost the Steelers over $16 million for the 2020 season or until they can reach a long-term deal. As of this time, the Steelers aren’t even close to having that amount available. While there are a number of potential cuts coming, whether they are enough to get the team into the cap space need to sign Dupree is another thing altogether. What I and many others are wondering is if Art II knows something the rest of us do not. There are two potential things he could be hinting at… The first is that the projected salary cap for 2020 may be much higher than originally thought. The second is that a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) could be closer than many of us think. Both AR II and Mike Tomlin have now said the same thing regarding Dupree; their priority is to keep him. How this happens I have no idea.
The Podcast
We had too much fun on the Steel City Blitz Steelers Podcast last night. We discussed the newest Steelers to head into the Hall of Fame in Bill Cowher and Donnie Shell plus we talked about a few others who made it and didn’t make it as well. We also addressed the signing of Matt Canada as the new Quarterbacks’ Coach as well. You can find the podcast right here and wherever podcasts are available. The show is sponsored by 26shirts.com/Pittsburgh.
Tweet of the Day… For you film geeks this is pretty good on stopping Lamar.
How the Titans stopped the Ravens’ option attack
"We were either playing with a loaded box & m2m & make him beat us throwing the ball outside mano-a-mano or we were going to play a zone defense, a quarters defense similar to what Buff did” – L Ryan
Link: https://t.co/ZHwbeyfsl1 pic.twitter.com/yDYR7MSWLB
— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) January 15, 2020
The Graphics
You may have noticed we have some new graphics for our ‘Quick Hitters’ articles we do Monday thru Friday. Big thanks to Aaron G for putting those together. It seems every time he creates something new it’s always better than the one before which isn’t easy to do!
Haden Honored
Steelers’ cornerback Joe Haden is off to the NFL Pro Bowl. That was announced yesterday and he of course is very deserving of the honor. Congrats Joe!
More on Canada
Matt Canada is an interesting guy. He’s been coaching since the mid-1990’s but rarely stays at a place very long. Four years is the longest he’s been at any school and there has been conversation that he isn’t always the easiest guy to work with, something he has no idea from where it comes. As QB Coach, I don’t see him having a ton of influence on Randy Fichtner’s offense but I’m hopeful of the opposite. His offense at Pitt in 2016 averaged 42 points per game and he is known throughout college football for being innovative with play design and personnel groupings. Whether he has much input in the offense or not isn’t really the point though. The young quarterbacks on the roster sorely needed a QB Coach in 2019. Fichtner handling that duty as well as the Coordinator job was just too much for him.
Have a great day Steeler Nation!
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