Good Tuesday to you Steelers fans.
Yesterday morning ESPN’s Adam Schefter put out a tweet moments after Ryan Kerrigan had announced he was signing with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Teams that showed the most interest in Ryan Kerrigan were the Eagles, Steelers and Bengals. But he opted to stay in NFC East. https://t.co/hIopweFdDA
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 17, 2021
If this comes as a shock to you to see the Steelers mentioned then you haven’t been paying attention. The current depth behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith right now could only be described as “no comment.” Literally there is Cassius Marsh and rookie Quincy Roche. Therefore the fact that Pittsburgh wasn’t just looking at depth, but veteran depth, tells us exactly what we should have known. This position is desperately thin and allow me to take it a step further. While in our group chat yesterday Ian brought up the question of “Who do we have behind Watt if he gets hurt?” First of all, if that happens, all of you have my permission to send hate mail directly to Ian. In reality however the closet is bare and the drop-off from Watt to (fill in the blank) is as massive as any in pro football. Therefore, I see no way the Steelers can afford to enter Training Camp without some form of veteran presence there. In a perfect world, Roche steps up and far exceeds the expectations we have for him in year one while a veteran presence comes in to spell both Highsmith and Watt when needed. There are some guys out there right now like Melvin Ingram, Justin Houston or Olivier Vernon who could fit the bill but… we must also remember that the Steelers aren’t exactly sitting on a ton of money either. According to both overthecap.com and spotrac.com the Steelers have around $9-10 million available but they have yet to sign any of their top five draftees too. Something will definitely happen here by Camp.
Tweet of the Day… Well, this would be interesting.
Dan Campbell: I would love to have a pet lion at practice. https://t.co/QIWNvy5g43
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 18, 2021
The Schedule From the Inside
Really good article here from Michael Lombardi of The Athletic. I realize not all of you have a subscription so I’ll paraphrase a bit. Basically, coaches and general managers view the release of the schedule differently from fans. Their first takeaway is usually where is the BYE week, when do we play on Thursday Night and do we have any other primetime games (Sun/Mon)? What I found interesting was that none of those seemed to trump this; who is the guy under center each week? Coaches will zero in on that factor first and foremost while laying out the schedule for each week in terms of film, practice, etc. While the NBA is probably bigger in terms of individual player recognition by fans, no league is driven by one particular position more than the NFL. Not that we didn’t already know this right?
Third…
Get ready to hear that term a lot. Most experts, pundits, talking heads etc are predicting the Steelers will finish third in the AFC North this season behind Baltimore and Cleveland. I’m totally fine with this to be honest. I much prefer it when we are the hunter and not the hunted. The Browns are a good football team. When they can run the ball well they can be dangerous. Baltimore will always be tough too but neither team makes me think the Steelers can’t compete if things come together.
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Have a great day Steeler Nation!
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