Pittsburgh has a very special relationship with that tried and true symbol of American public transit known as the bus. We’ve had Jerome “The Bus” Bettis plow his way to a Super Bowl and the Hall of Fame and we’ve had buses involved with sinkholes and bridge collapses. Now it appears the Pittsburgh Steelers have taken a bus load of coaches, scouts, office officials and even the team President to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.
From Mike Tomlin and Matt Canada to Kevin Colbert, Brandon Hunt and Art Rooney II, the Steelers had tremendous representation yesterday and that will likely continue today. It would be easy to suggest that they are there for the quarterbacks, that’s the low-hanging fruit here, but I think there’s more to it than that.
We know this quarterback class isn’t on par with recent drafts but that doesn’t mean the Steelers don’t have their eyes on one or two guys. Just because a class isn’t that impressive doesn’t mean you as a team aren’t enamored with players who could really fit what you do. The Steelers brass, which also included QB Coach Mike Sullivan, spoke to Kenny Pickett from Pitt and Malik Willis of Liberty among others. Alan Saunders of Steelersnow.com reported that Tomlin also spoke with Willis’ parents as well.
While it may have seemed odd to have ARII there, he’s made appearances there in the past so it isn’t that much of an outlier. As for the on-field action, none of the QBs was head and shoulders above the others. Willis had some of the best throws and also some of the worst. Pickett had some good moments throwing while Desmond Ridder of Cincinnati had some solid runs but was unimpressive with his throwing. The best arm of the day was Sam Howell of North Carolina which may not have been surprising considering his baseball background.
Understand that this is really early in the process for us but is reaching the end for the Steelers. They’ve been scouting these guys for months and in some cases years. There are no guarantees any of these QBs are drafted by the Steelers but it looks like they are keeping a seat open on the bus back home that’s for sure.
Feature image courtesy yahoo.sports.com
